"To be specific, we are keepin our eyes peeled for a place where One's Nature is Judged." Fringe stated as he hopped over a rock, his wings beating slightly as he did so.
"The actual name of the place is Dueack dri Vreock," he spoke the last word in Infernal with a noted accent that seemed out-dated. "Which translates in Common to 'The Rose of Trials'."
"So you don't know exactly what your looking for? Would it be overstepping my bounds as a hired goon to ask why you are looking for something like that?" Jack asked in a level tone intended to be non aggressive in nature.
Jennifer contined to peer around looking for some sort of raiding party, demon or god knew what else.
Fringe's mouth widened into a smile. "Good, yer askin fer the dark of it. Good to have bashers with some curiosity about!" the tiefling chuckled.
"Anyways I know what I'm lookin fer. It's a tower-like building built with black and green steel, about maybe nine hundred feet tall, perhaps ninety foot or so wide, thorn like protusions going from thirteen feet to three feet each, and one maelephant guarding the place."
The tiefling acted as if he was unfazed with the prospect of possibly fighting a maelephant. Fringe swerved his head towards Jennifer with a wolfish gleam in his eye. "So tell me, ya know any of the chant on why a maelephant ever guards a place?"
'They're guards,' Riliarc says. 'Like Jack and myself. I've had to... deal with a few who seemed to be too interested in protecting something the Guild wanted.'
OoC: I'm working off of memory here on the maelephants. If I'm totally off-base here, let me know. I won't totally rewrite my post, but I've got a plan for tweaking it a little so Riliarc isn't just wrong.
"Yep, guards with high price demands. Some guard somethin fer just a century, others longer," Fringe noted. "Hopefully we won't have to attempt to write this one into the deadbook. But if we do, best get ready for a long brawl."
The group marched on while Jennifer got lost in her thoughts taking in everything that had happened to her in the last 48 hours. Glancing down at her feet she noticed her boots were a little worn she had been meaning to replace them but never got around to it and then looking back up at the landscape her jaw dropped in awe. There was a massive tower looming off in the distant she had heard Fringe describe it but seeing a 900 foot steel tower and hearing about it are entirly different. It was twisted in the form of a snake beatifully crafted and it had a dull luster look that seemed to make the tower even more sinsister.
"Wow I can't believe the size of the tower" She then trailed off. Jack looked up and didn't see anything "You must have supernatural eyesight or something because my old eyes and their still good last time I checked aren't seeing a darn thing". Jennifer pointed and Jack squinted harder to try and make out the tower but all he could see is something that might be a vauge shape where she was pointing. "Any of you bloods see this large chunk of metal?" Jack asked.
(OOC: Jennifer with he Tiefling hertiage which she doesn't yet know about has extremlly good eyesight. Jack's eyesight is pretty good as well but not supernatural good like Jennifer. So unless your charactes have similarly good eyesight they likely won't see the tower till they get
a tad closer.)
Fringe looked quizzically at Jennifer before he sniffed the air a bit. The breeze carrying a mix of slight scents with it let him confirm what Jennifer saw.
"She's right. Green Baatorian steel has a slight scent of brimstone with it. It's still pretty far off though," Fringe answered. "Good eyes fer a Prime. Hopefully we'll get there before night falls and the Yeth hounds come out."
'I see nothing,' Riliarc says, sounding slightly upset over the matter. His pupils rotate quickly, then change colour, as he peers into the distance. Even with magical sight, he saw nothing. 'You have good eyesight,' he says, and allows his eyes to return to normal.
After walking for about an hour Jack smiled "Ah there she is finally a big blasted tower for certain, so do we want to come up with some kind of plan or do we just walk up and knock on the frong door" He said looking to Fringe.
The tiefling put up a mock mask of serious contemplation. "Hmmmm... Knock, or attempt to sneak in.... choices.... W-" Fringe got interrupted as a certain scent akin to iron passed his nose. His nostrils went up and down a bit as he attempted to reassure what he's smelling.
"Blood... lots of it." The berk pulled out his rapier and longsword with a quick high-pitched ring of metal. "And here I was hoping for no interruptions."
Inside the tower, a ripped up maelephant was splayed below a looming metal statue of a statue that resembled a grim-reaper with a cloak of woven metallic fibers covering green steel skeleton frame that leaned upon a black gargantuan scythe.
Moving about were five githyanki warriors who were currently cleaning up their blades of the ichor that was upon their prized tools of death-dealing.
'Apparently we are not alone in this endeavour. Jennifer, did you see much combat on your prime?' Riliarc knew how well Jack handled a fight, and they were supposed to be guarding Fringe, so his combat skill was irrelevant. Jennifer, though, was a wild card.
"More than enough I was one of the top combat agents for my emperor and I had to prove myself more often than most being both a women and a magi rather than a simple swordsmen. Obviously its a bit of a wild card being in a new place but I would hazard to guess combat is terribly different overall" Jennifer stated matter of factly.
Jack smiled he certainly liked the girl's confidence but at the time time he hoped her skill with a blade and whatever magic she had was up to the task. He didn't need to be dragging bodies back to Sigil then again getting paid in favors for dragging bodies often is worth it.
Jack looked to Fringe to see what he wanted them to do next.
"Good to hear," Fringe commented. "Let's have some barmy fun with whatever berks are in there shall we?" One could swear the tiefling said that with a bit of an anticipitory growling.
Fringe twirled his swords a bit to flex his fingers as his blood started heating up in anticipating a fight. Soon enough to githyanki warriors made themselves present by stepping out of the tower.
They didn't look like the type to talk either.
----in the tower----
"Here, we will begin," a githyanki male with a particularly hideous series of sucker like scars along his face stated. His fingers pointing at the freestanding razor-vine like iron arch before him. A somewhat smaller githyanki quickly came over and laid out a series of glass beads, searched for a particularly small green one and flicked it through the arch.
The portal opened wide for them.
Jack loosened his sabre and looked to Jennifer as she unbuckled her long sword and reviewed her spells quietly in her mind. Jack started to creep through the various shrubs and trees getting closer to the tower trying to maintain something of an element of surprise. Cursing himself mentally he should have thought to bring his long bow but if they got forced into attacking them from a distance his throwing axes would have to do today.
Jennifer crept along taking a line about 20 feet away from Jack ready to strike quickly. It was always best to win the battle if possible before your enemy knew they were being attacked.
Riliarc suddenly disappears. Invisibly, he creeps forward, tailing Fringe. He would wait, and make strikes once the confusion of battle had set in.
Suddenly one of the githyanki pointed accross the landscape, Jack wasn't sure if they saw him but he had seen more than one githyanki use hand signals playing possum only to sneak attack those approaching them. Jack pulled back and launched a throwing ax imbedding in the skull of the one pointing.
Jennifer quickly followed casting a lightning bolt which tore another of the githyanki warriors apart. She watched as Jack charged towards the warriors dodging behind cover as he went his sabre in one hand and throwing ax in the other.
Fringe had been using the bushes and the trees as cover of his maneuvering. His wings folded tightly against his back, his ears swept back a bit. When Jack's ax hit, the blue haired tiefling launched into the air.
In moments he was above the last tree, and coming into the clearing that marked a good thirty feet or so from the base of the tower to the surrounding area.
Fringe landed onto a warrior in a snarl. The two rolling in the shale ground a bit before they got back up and immediately went into a clang of metal.
One of the other githyanki, who just saw his comrade get charred via lightning, started running for Jennifer while another pulled out a vicious silver sword and sought to skewer Jack with it.
Jennifer quickly drew her long sword and a dagger ready to meet the charging foe. "Being patient young lass are ya now" Jack yelled "I think I'll just kill me another one now!". Jack threw another ax but missed the warrior running at him "crap, thing must be wieghted wrong or something" he said as he laughed and got ready for melee combat.
Now seems like a good time, Riliarc thinks. Suddenly he appears, off to the right of the battle, as the light around him dims considerably. It abruptly becomes startlingly brighter around him when a long beam of energy arcs out from his oustretched hand. The beam strikes the gith running at Jack, knocking him off his feet and carrying him back, away from Riliarc, for a couple feet before he hits the ground.
'Not sure if I killed that one,' Riliarc says, 'so watch out for him to get up again.'
Jack shot Riliarc a smile and buried his sword in the skull of the warrior struck down by the beam. Turning to help Jennifer he noticed that she had already finished her second "Well done Jennifer you got two and I only got one and a half" and he shot a sarcastic smile back to Riliarc as he claimed half of his kill. He always loved to try and get a reaction from his traveling compansions especially other Planewalker guild members.
"That's the last of the basher's, which is really odd considering that these 'yanki weren't exactly too difficult." Fringe theorized as he came out of the tower with something in hand. "I didn't see anybody else in the tower so looks like we can go ahead and check out the inside of this place and set up camp. Good thing too, I'm starving!"
At this, the blue-haired tiefling took a good bite out of a githyanki's disembered arm. Not minding the blood running down his chin.
Riliarc spent some time looking at the other three, expecting one of them to go in first. Oh, by the General's dead furnace... he thinks, before continuing out loud. 'I take it none of you are scouts.' Prepared, as usual, for something bad to happen, Riliarc heads into the tower.
'Yes... lovely.' Riliarc didn't seem particularly pleased with gazing upon the beauty that was the good side of the Outlands. It wasn't anything like the excellence of the Lower Planes. He shrugs, sending an extra cloud of shadowy motes into the air, and turns to follow the others.
'Is it something in the Land we're looking for, or just heading to the next portal?'
Pants of the North!