A Clone Encounter (Part 2)

[Calabask]

The drow quirked a brow at Onix, shaking his head a bit. [i:2sceq18w]You realize that fire and sonic magic will likely cause cave ins, yes? Which would mean that we'd have to worry about such each battle, aside from the bugs. While fire and sonic type attacks might do better, they also pose a great risk to ourselves.[/i:2sceq18w]

[Luexena Deana]

[i:2hci5fvh]Perhaps acid?[/i:2hci5fvh] She reached down to take a piece of wax, rolling it between her fingers to make it softer, then approached the wall, flinching a little at the high-pitched sound.

Lynx focused then, quickly drawing a glyph upon the metal wall with swift precise strokes of the wax. Then the wizardess took out a pinch of the powdered quartz and murmured the arcane words of [i:2hci5fvh]Detect Magic[/i:2hci5fvh]. Then she blew the dust toward the glyph - and barely noticeable at first symbol suddenly gained light blue translucent colour, charged. [i:2hci5fvh]There, one done.[/i:2hci5fvh]

[Calabask]

[i:20k3dyrw]Unfortunately I only know of Mestil's Acid Breath as a spell which can target more than one foe. Mestil's Acid Arrow can be useful in confrontations against only one, however. In addition, I could follow up a Stone Skin spell with an Elemental Shield, Death Armor, and Mestil's Acid Sheathe spell. If they hit me, it would cause them quite a bit of harm, in theory.[/i:20k3dyrw] He nodded to Lynx as he noted the Glyphs completion and packed away more components. [i:20k3dyrw]Excellent. I'll work on one of my Glyphs after you do yours at the next pass.[/i:20k3dyrw]

[veraka]

The clone suppressed a laugh when he heard the high-pitched beep of a keypad being pressed, followed by the slight sound of one light in mass jumping off of the floor.

[quote:3ddbdmlx]"Is there only one nest? How fast do these things breed? And immune to magic ... they must be powerful, indeed."[/quote:3ddbdmlx]

"From what we've seen, they only lay one nest at a time, but it can span for kilometers sometimes, depending upon the location of the nest, energy radiation, and nearness to a food source. Also, it depends on how well fed the queen was when it laid the eggs; the more the queen fed, the more eggs will be lain. As to how fast the Leechers breed, well that again, depends on terrain, depth underground, plus food sources. The Leecher queen that my squad, and our allies killed most likely had only laid one nest, but that's being optimistic. As to their immunity to magic, well, not entirely, or at least here on Toril and in its system. In our realm that's the case, but here, the bugs seem to be slightly affected by certain spells, so perhaps there is a little glimer of hope among our very real black cloud of reality."

Onix listened to Maryne explain her position to him; "so you're a cleric or a healer?" the clone asked, trying to get her position into his mental dictionary.
"Is there any particular field of magic you specialize in?" he asked Maryne, wanting to know for future reference.

Turning his head to Ryltar, the clone nodded his head in agreement, "while I agree it possesses the greatest risk to ourselves it's also the most effective method that we've discovered on how to beat and kill the bugs, as far as acid goes, I've never tried it on a full-grown bug, their armor's to thick for that; however if the bugs are recently hatched, that might be different."


Two Marines were patrolling along the same corridor as Zarae was in. They continued onward, rounding the corner to find the drowess trying to gain access to one of the main turret's gunnery station.
"HEY!!" one of them shouted at her.

[Drakashin]

The fight at the tavern was well in hand. Drakin picked up an unattended bottle of some unknown drink. Looked at it for a little.

"Cheers," he said, then took a swing of the bottle. Whatever it was, was sweet and not half bad for someone whom generally preferred the elven concoctions.

==========

Grisnaw continued looking around at the various weapons arrayed before him. "Which do you recommend for me?" he asked, honestly curious. "Oh, and I still want that helmet you guys promised."

[Arya Baenre]

After seeing Lynx make the glyph, Maryne tilted her head, "If you require assistance, I may be able to help you with that, Lynx, Ryltar. Though I don't have any useful components with me." At this, she shot a glare at her cat, who padded slowly behind her, returning her look, unabashed.

She turned back to Onix after he answered her, "These bugs ... what do they do? What have they done?"

Maryne nodded, "Cleric ... and yes. Divination. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and now I find I rarely use it. I don't suppose that will be all that useful to you, but if it's not necromancy, I still might be able to do the spell. So magic won't work unless it's some form of a blast ... which will only stun them? But we have to pierce them under their armour without getting caught for them to die." She snorted, "What exactly were these things created for in the first place? They seem too untrustworthy to rely on for battle. Unless this is one of those human things where they, as usual, didn't have a back-up plan for betrayals. They never learn."

[Luexena Deana]

She turned and looked Maryne in the eye. [i:c17tu3pp]They devour people and breed. They ...drain people, suck them out alive until it is only a shell that's left. And why?[/i:c17tu3pp] The sun elf gave her an odd look. [i:c17tu3pp]They are a perfect weapon, can't you see? Send a few to a world of those who oppose you and watch them getting eaten alive by these beasts.[/i:c17tu3pp]

Lynx breathed out slowly then and glanced to Onix. [i:c17tu3pp]It is just an assumption from my side. Perhaps such... being'd developed by natural means which elude me. The thought of a weapon like that is horrifying. At the same time I saw your 'orbital bombardment'. You all would not have built those guns if there was no need in such, correct? But you have. Means you face dangerous opponents and those bugs are only one of them.[/i:c17tu3pp] The young woman lifted her chin a notch, watching the clone now, her assumptions were rather unsettling - yet she was intelligent enough to come up with them.

Another beeping sound came from the panel and she twitched again before smiling wryly. [i:c17tu3pp]You need to ask your people to not destroy the wards. As for assistance, miss Maryne... If you can make Detect Magic wards, feel free to aid. I'll show you where to set them - that's temporarily until Ryltar and I manage to cloak the vessel with Disrupt teleport and Nondetection. I'll share the reagents with you, if you need them.[/i:c17tu3pp]

[Scar]

Scar now sober from his Chi burning all the liquor out of his system turns around to grab the bottle he left while in the fight. When he turns he sees Drakin taking a swig of it.

"I knew you would someday steal my Juju that helps me ward of the bees!" Scar yells at Drakin while giving him an evil glare.

[Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar]

[quote:3969mern]"HEY!!" one of them shouted at her.[/quote:3969mern]
playing the innocent girl she turned to face the two, cleverly hiding the lock pick in her hand as they went behind the small of her back to stand in a 'at ease' position. she tiltled her head down to let some of the strands fall in her face. Shade stood still in the ceiling but poised to launch if they attacked.
"Vendui," she replied, "I guess this is a dead end?"

[Aylstra Illianniis]

With the fight nearly over, the bard stops singing and looks around, and spots another bottle, this one more familiar. He picks it up, stepping over a few fallen marines to get to it, and pours himself a glass from one sitting nearby. "Not the worst bar brawl I've ever been in, but certainly one of the most entertaining," he says absently to one one in particular.

He looks around again, and groans inwardly as he watches the monk named "Scar" take another swill from his bottle. <Yup, it figures- he's a Drunken Master, alright. This could certainly complicate things once we go after those leechers...> he thinks, shaking his head.

He strides over to where the big dark elf who started the fight lies, and nudges him with a foot. "Still think you're so superior to us 'runts'? I DID tell you to watch your tongue, t'zarreth!" He snickers.

[Drakashin]

Drakin only smiled at Scar as he took another drink of the liquor. "You're going to have to get me some of this stuff." he said, "Nice change from the elven wine I'm used to drinking."

He tossed the bottle end-over-end to Scar. Drakin knew he could still drink more and not be drunk, but didn't want his edge to be dulled in a place where they had already been attacked.

"At least the tavern's still intact," Drakin laughed to himself, "Probably a good thing Veraka wasn't here."

[veraka]

Pyro looked to the bard and laughed; "and here's the funny part; that's not the first time I've been whacked upside the head like that."

Pyro then made his way over next to Lothir and sighed, "ya see, they never learn, that's their problem," he chuckles to the bard.

The clone then walked up to Stalker, and the two grabbed each others hand in a vice-grip, pulled back hard, released and then balled a fist and hammered it against the others fist.

"Thanks, brother," Pyro says to the sniper.

"We watch our own," Stalker retorted.

Stalker then turned to Scar, and said "oh and by the way, what in the fucking hellfire drove you into that frenzy. I've only seen that happen once, and it wasn't pretty at all. Was that just you drunk and such?"

Pyro glanced over to Drakin as the assassin made his comment; "so, who's this Veraka and why is it such a good thing he's not here?"

"Oh and barkeep, rounds for everyone, on me," the demolitionist says to the now returned bartender.
"Are you kidding, they're on the house this time round for keeping the place from caving in," the bartender replies with a grin, as he tosses Pyro a bottle of Lunar Spirits((Think of it like a suped up version of Kahlua with Moonshine mixed in))

"My favorite," Pyro responds just as the tavern erupts in cheer at Pyro's gain of free shots.



Onix looked to Maryne, and was about to respond when Lynx did the explaining for him. He nodded to Maryne at Lynx's explanation; "she has the straight of it, Maryne; these bugs are created for one purpose to drain the lifeforce out of any living sentient being they come into contact with."
Onix just decided to show the priestess; tapping in commands into his wrist gauntlet, the clone activated his armors recording unit and projector. The Leecher queen was there, in hologram form, draining the two warriors that it had first gotten its claws upon. The dried up husks of bone, flesh and skin spoke for itself as the bug released the first victim and set to work on its second.

Onix could tell by the expressions on his companions that they didn't like revisisting the imagery, but he found imagery was often a good teacher on how to fight something and what it did.
The bug in the hologram finished draining the second screaming elf, and dropped the corpse onto the ground. Onix ended the recording.

"THAT, Maryne, is what me and my brothers fight, and THAT is what has created a nest of more like it somewhere on your world."



The two marines looked to Zarae with expressions of confusion; this area was off-limits to all, except those with granted access.
"What are you doing here, miss?" one of the guards asked the drowess, as both walked up to her, looking for anything suspicious.
However, her posture to them spoke volumes.
"Miss, what is that you have behind your back?" one of the marines inquired pointedly.

"What's all then?" asked a stern, masculine, but even voice from behind the two marines.
The troopers spun around to see a athletically built, middle-aged man, of about their height, with a trimmed mustache and full-officers attire come strolling up from behind them.

Their faces paled as the marines recognized the man to be the captain of the Nighthammer[/b], Captain Witmor.
"Captain, SIR!" they both shouted, while bringing up their hands in a crisp salute.

The captain returned the salute and then said "At ease, Marines,, now tell me what's going on here?"

"Sir, we spotted this young dark elf by the gunnery station and were about to ask her what she was up to."

"Ahh," the captain replies, smiling a bit; "and what, young miss, were you doing?" he asks Zarae directly.

[Drakashin]

Drakin thought for a moment, "Veraka is a paladin of Bahamut with a nasty temper, and with whom we've been on the wrong end of each other swords one too many times. After about oh, the tenth time I'd say, we decided that we maybe able to combine our skills in a more. . . useful way."

Drakin paused for a few seconds to remember the next event, "Though the time I'm remembering right now was partly my fault. I spiked one of his drinks at a tavern and some idiot decided to challenge him to a fight. Ended up, literally, destroying the entire tavern. Though I still don't know how the fat man got married, granted to a woman that has almost as much, umm, destructiveness as he has."

Turning to Scar, "Did I forget anything? I swear I'm missing something important. . ."

[Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar]

the lock pick slid easily back into its spot as her hands were behind her. she brung them out before them fingers spread turning her hands so they could see both sides. a mental word went to Zarae as another was approaching. the reaction of the two soldiers told her he was likely the 'boss'.
when he addressed her, she crossed her arms in the Underdark greeting of peace, "vendui," she said politely, "i was only walking around admiring this, great ship, and I seam to have come to a dead end."
of course she didnt want to fight and prayed it didnt come to it, but if tried to imprison her, she had her hands near a blade, tho she would have to remember to not make a lethal strike.

((she has a thing about being locked up...))

[Zanathie Avuna]

Zana listened intently to what was being said about the leechers. "Do you think that any weapon could kill or paralyze one of those things from a distance?" she asked Onix. "Or do we have to use magic, cause I'm not necessarily the best with it. And going off my first question, if we don't use magic, will it be close quarters combat? Because from what you've said, if one of those arms touches us, we're gone."

[i:3hjoeo7a]I bet those creatures would be best killed with magic. Just look at them, I think magic from a distance is our best bet[/i:3hjoeo7a], Vlad said.