<@Dreol> [Somewhere in Southern Ireland, January 2nd 1262, 7:00 PM] <@Dreol> [Warren the Watcher has just taken you to the hill overlooking the village that you saw in Belit-Sheri's vision. Your trip there seemed to occur in a dream-like state but now Warren and the woods that you came from seem to be gone and you are left with walking down into the valley below where the village is. From here the village looks like little more than overgrown ruins and rubble with one solitary stone building that seems less-worn than the rest.] <@Dreol> [Between you and the village are a few scattered farms and cottages, but no one is outside as it is after dark.] <@Dreol> [You may begin.] 06* Moriel heads for the village, giving the farms a wide margin. Wouldn't want the farmers to come outside wondering what was upsetting their livestock. 06* Anstace follows quietly behind Moriel. 06* Rolf tromps along with Moriel slightly less quietly, staying low, eyes glowing. He certainly seems intent on the solitary stone building. 06* Eliana walks on after, because walking is how you get places. No fire, though; time to do this by moonlight. <@Dreol> [As you pass one of the cottages closer to the village, you notice that candles are lit inside. A face appears behind one of the shutters and then quickly the door is opened and an elderly woman emerges from the house. Her hair is white and hangs loosely over her shoulders and she is dressed in a raw cotton nightgown and carrying a lantern. She holds up a hand in protest. "Wait... strangers... do not go into that place... A terrible demon haunts that village." She is doing her best to catch up to you to stop you.] 06* Eliana blinks, looking at the woman. "A demon," she says, doubt clearly in her voice. 06* Anstace stops and turns her head to regard the woman. 06* Moriel pauses, looking back at her, then turns around to go talk to her. "Thank you for the warning, ma'am. Can you tell us anything else?" 06* Moriel is as calm and reassuring as a random stranger in the middle of the night can be. <@Dreol> [To be clear, she is a good distance away from you, still.] 06* Moriel walks a ways back to talk to her, then! Can't have little old ladies running around in dangerous neighborhoods at night. <@Dreol> [But she does catch up to you. "No. Just that you musn't go in there. No one comes back out. I... I've seen the demon before. It attacked our farm once. Killed half of our sheep. It's got skin the color of rust and twisted sharp claws and it's face.... it looked like the face of Satan himself, razor sharp fangs, cold, empty voids where it should have eyes and a.. a kind of..." She points to her forehead "Ridge... like on its forehead. If you go into that village it will attack you."] 06* Eliana frowns as she thinks, then scowls as she comes to a conclusion. Fortunately, it's night and she's hooded, so the old woman probably can't see any of that. 06* Moriel considers this. He doesn't have a hood, but since he merely looks thoughtful it's not really a problem. He bows to the old woman. "Thank you again. We'll be careful." 06* Rolf looms slightly and growls out an almost respectful, "We know how to deal with monsters, ma'am." 06* Anstace just looks at the woman. <@Dreol> [The woman shakes her head. "You musn't go in there. You musn't..." She walks back towards her house. "Please do be careful..."] 06* Moriel frowns now and looks up at Eliana as the woman re-enters her cottage. "It seems we are in the right place." 06* Rolf grumbles, "Did ya doubt it?" 06* Moriel shakes his head. "No, but...I did hope he was still incapacitated." 06* Rolf frowns. "Were we expectin' a demon?"" 01 No. A Baali who made a deal with one. 01 Commonly for immunity to fire, but it could be for any number of things. 06* Anstace shakes her head. "if he was going to attack the farm, why would he stop at sheep?" 06* Moriel smiles thinly. "Plenty call our kind demons even when we haven't bargained with them. And he might well have made more than one. Even allowing for exaggerration on her part." 06* Moriel tilts his head. "I wondered that, myself. Perhaps he is still partly weakened." 06* Rolf shakes his head. "Or it ain't him, just another one." 06* Moriel shrugs. "Also possible. Though the same question would apply to most of our kind, after all." 06* Anstace looks at Rolf and nods. 02* Alasse (darkness@ip72-213-56-196.om.om.cox.net) Quit (Ping timeout ) 06* Moriel looks up at Rolf. "I can try to scout ahead, if you like. I am not so good at it as Master Castelletti, of course, but I can hide myself." 06* Rolf shakes his head. "We ain't gonna learn anything by scouting except that there's more than one of 'em." 06* Moriel shrugs. "Where they are, how many...but as you wish. Shall we go on, then?" 06* Rolf nods and pushes forward. Well, walks forward. 06* Eliana also walks! Forward. 06* Moriel walks/pushes forward after Rolf! 06* Anstace follows the others! <@Dreol> [After a while you enter the ruins of the village. There are collapsed buildings all overgrown with plantlife. No one seems to have dared to come and clear away the rubble or rebuild the village. The large stone building was clearly once a religious building of some sort, though it is unclear now what religion it was a place of worship for. Upon closer inspection it looks like a tower with a domed ceiling. There are openings in the dome facing each cardinal direction with the largest of them facing East, which is also the direction of the door, which is currently closed.] 06* Moriel turns to look inquiringly at Rolf, since he is in charge. 06* Eliana eyes the domed building. "Hm." And then looks around a bit while awaiting Rolf's call. 06* Rolf sniffs the air, looking around. "Victoria, fly up and look in. Signal if it looks good and we'll go." <@Dreol> [Victoria nods, and bats and flies up towards the ceiling. ] 06* Anstace looks at the building, a bit fascinated by how time has treated it. <@Dreol> [She flies around a few times, pauses for a moment and then tries to fly away as a ball of black fire erupts from the window colliding with her in mid-air. She falls helplessly to the ground, transforming back into her normal form and roaring with pain as she does so and then impacts the ground hard and lies there panicking as the fire continues to burn her clothing. She rolls around furiously, rips off her flaming tunic and tosses it at the building. "A demon... yeah... that's what it looked like to me." She covers her chest with her arms, trying to look badass and not embarrassed.] well, it knows we're here ...yes. 06* Rolf takes a step towards her, on fire, growling, then says, "Right," as he turns back towards the door. "Well, we can knock with fire too. Eliana?" 06* Moriel frowns. He reaches into his satchel, pulls out a plain black tunic, and hands it to Victoria. It'll probably be too small for her, but it's better than nothing. "Here." And then he draws his sword and turns to face the door. 06* Eliana smirks. "I'll knock," she says, removing the glove from her left hand and raising it to the closest set of doors. She concentrates for a moment, and their center erupts in bright flames. 06* Anstace readies her spear and shield. sure, it has been 1,407 years since she's last used them, but hey, it's almost like it was just yesterday! <@Dreol> [Victoria takes the tunic and pulls it on over her, it's incredibly tight, she grits her teeth and forces it down on her form, the tunic rips slightly, but manages to at least cover most of her torso so she shrugs. "Good enough. Thanks."] 06* Moriel nods at her, not taking his eyes off the building. "You're welcome." you are constricted. movement will be difficult. <@Dreol> [The door is soon engulfed in flame and then, as it burns and falls away, you can see inside the building. It's a massive tower, and on the inside the walls are... bare. It seems like at one point there were probably paintings or religious objects in the tower, but it is completely barren stone now. There is one set of stairs that leads up the tower and spirals around the wall, but you can <@Dreol> see the ceiling from here. and the platform at the top, on which stands what appears to be a very demonic figure. He is as the old woman described, a rusty red colored skin, that even looks a bit leathery, his forehead is ridged around two small protruding horns, his fingers come to sharp, black points. He does not have fingernails per se, just black, pointed tips to his entire figure, and his eyes are completely black, as if they were filled with darkness. Once the door collapses into a pile of fire and wood he leaps from his perch and lands on the burning rubble, a slight smile on his face. He speaks in Latin and has an incredibly deep voice, as if he were a monster twice his size. "" He looks at Victoria. ""] <@Dreol> [The demon(?) raises his hand and a black bolt of flame fires out at Rolf, who seems not to care and knocks the flame away with his fist all Dragonball Z style... or maybe just doesn't catch on fire at all.] 06* Rolf growls and brings his claws up to smash the ball of fire with a roar of his own. Then he snarls, panting, as he advances with a grin. "That more severe?" Maybe you shouldn't spend all yer time alone tryin' to set rocks on fire. 06* Eliana murmurs, "Well, that holds up my theory." She concentrates, focusing her blood, then reaches out to the Baali with her left hand, fingers curled inward like claws... and scowls, as nothing happens. 06* Rolf continues his advancement, the fire flickering against his own red eyes and claws and then he roars like a bear as he brings his claw down and across the demonic vampire in front of him, the hit scoring all the way across his body and cutting deep. He snarls, after the swing, "You're weak!" 06* Moriel started to sidestep in front of Victoria at the Baali's threat, but even after the bolt of black fire heads for Rolf, he moves closer to her. He reaches out to just barely touch her burned arm - and as he does, the pain from her injuries vanishes. <@Dreol> [Victoria nods to Moriel and runs forward to try to attack the demon(?) and then, apparently got a little overzealous and lunged into the fire, this time, though when she lands on the other side of the burning rubble, the stone floor manages to put out the bit of her tunic that was on fire.] <@Dreol> [The demonthing tries to summon some fire again, but he just cannot manage to conjure it in his current state. He just growls at Rolf.] 06* Rolf looms over him, grinning ferally. "And you're all out? Not used to fighting anything tougher than a villager?" 06* Eliana continues to concentrate, and something must click because her eyes gleam before she twists her clawed hand clockwise and pulls. Blood gushes out of the demonpyr and slams into Eliana, who absorbs it harmlessly. 06* Rolf doesn't pay much attention to the blood gushing out of him, or the fire he's on, because he's too busy bringing his claw up, in a powerful swipe that cuts upwards from the demon's belly through his neck, spilling even more blood upon the ground. 06* Rolf roars in the process of delivering his feral uppercut. <@Dreol> [The creature falls to the ground dead in the fire.] <@Dreol> [End.]