Session Start: Sat Mar 21 18:25:52 2009
Session Ident: #castlevania
* Logging for #castlevania started
<Holmes> [As we rejoin the party, all hell is breaking loose.  His
Emminent Remains has destroyed the Boccobite Contact and with the
shield around them failing, the resulting explosion threatens
everyone in the audience chamber.  The Damacine Golem has been forced
into retreat by Roland, Nyyx, Skip and Charlotte and has backed off
with Skip still slashing at its eyes.]
<Holmes> [Roland and numerous other defenders have fallen over the
course of the battle.  The losses on both sides have been extreme.]
<Holmes> [Olivia, Theo and Biff are still thirty seconds from
returning to the city.]
<Holmes> [The area behind the force barrier has disappeared in white
light.  It sounds like the ceiling is starting to fracture.]
<Holmes> Lydia: "Everyone, retreat to the roof of the southwest
barracks!  Nyyx, get over hear now!"
* Nyyx looks around in alarm, then runs over to Lydia.
<Nyyx> It's the Contact, isn't it?
<Holmes> Lydia: "Yes.  Anyone else who doesn't want to burn to death
had best get over here!"
<Holmes> [The Damacine Golem stumbles backward, smashing through part
of the ceiling and nearing the edge of the tower.]
* Nyyx looks around for her companions. "Charlotte! Skip!"
* Charlotte runs for the doorway.
* Charlotte jumps when she gets the chance!
<Holmes> [Lydia reaches out to Nyyx and several acolytes and the
group vanishes in a burst of blue light and rush of vacuum and the
audience chamber goes white.  Charlotte has a sense of dislocation as
she leaps toward the doorway.  She is temporarily lost between the
burning of her skin, the whiteness and the deafening sound.]
<Holmes> [Skip can smell his skin burning and the Golem lossing its
footing as the blast and its own momentum carry it out of the
audience chamber and off of the side of the tower.]
<Holmes> [When vision returns to Charlotte, she finds herself in
midair at the edge of a spreading cloud of debris about one thousand
feet above the city street below.  Around her, stonework and spiders
are raining down to earth.  About fifty feet below her and off to her
right, the Damacine Golem is falling with Skip clinging to its face.]
<Holmes> [A fifth of a mile away, Nyyx, Lydia and several clerics
materialize on the rooftop of a narrow tower about one third the
height of the central tower.]
* Charlotte drinks a potion and prepares to tumble with the fall
* Charlotte fires off another set of arrows, even as she falls. One
manages to lodge itself in the golem at an unusual and nasty angle
<Holmes> [The group on the roof turns and looks at the central tower.
The explosion has blown much of the top of the structure away in a
bloom of dust and debris.  A shot of red light fires out of the cloud
on an ascending arc streaking somewhere to the northwest.  In the
next moment, debris will start striking the nearby buildings.  The
destruction will be catastrophic.  Hopefully, the tower the group is
on is far enough away...]
<Holmes> [The group can see the Golem pass through the cloud and
continue down toward the street.]
* Skip winces at the pain of the hot burning skin condition before
regaining his senses. As he sails through the air on an airship made
of Golem, Skip readies his nerves and muscles for a death-defying
leap.
<Holmes> [Skip runs along the Golem's head and leaps into the air.
As his jump becomes more of a fall, he vanishes in a burst of shadow
and appears just above a nearby roof, crashing onto the surface.]
<Holmes> [On the way down, the Golem frantically casts spells and
even botches one up due to Charlotte's well placed arrow.]
<Holmes> [After ten seconds that feel like an hour, Golem and scout
crash to earth with crushing force.
<Holmes> [Debris continues to rain down and crash into nearby
buildings.]
* Charlotte somehow survives, and is pretty stunned.
<Holmes> [Biff, Olivia and Theodore return to Lifebreak by
reappearing in the sewer under the central tower of Lifebreak.  Light
can be seen flooding into the passage to the north.]
<Biff> Okay, let's MOVE!
* Biff heads for the light.
<Holmes> [Charlotte comes to on the city street.  Stone is raining
down all around her and there is a massive pit with dust rising out
of it about one hundred feet to the south.]
<Holmes> [Biff and company break towards the light and come to a
large cave-in in the street level of the tower.  The pit stretches
two hundred feet and has collapsed the foundations of some nearby
buildings and part of the central tower.  The Damacine Golem is lying
in the center of the pit, trying to right itself.]
<Biff> ...well that's convenient.
* Nyyx watches the golem for a couple seconds from the rooftop a
fifth of a mile away. She turns to look at Lydia. "Thank
you...Mother."
<Biff> So, uh, what do we do now, toots?
* Olivia flicks her eyes across her holding of the stone, and then
begins to lope forward out into the Golem's pit. Her eyes don't look
hazel anymore... they look a very pale blue, and her skin has become
incredibly pale, her hair greying away from her natural black.
<Holmes> Lydia: "You are welcome."
* Olivia breathes out hoarsely, "Wasn't this... supposed to shut him
down?"
<Nyyx> I have to get back to the Golem and help destroy it.
* Olivia is also bleeding out her nose, right! Can't forget that. It
looks striking now that her skin is paling.
<Charlotte> Oh man, I'm glad to see you...
<Holmes> [Skip comes to on the top of a seven hundred foot tower
right above the crash site of the Golem.]
* Olivia gets a little tap of flight, and then tilts forward into a
fall which turns into flight, towards the golem.
* Nyyx asks Lydia, "Can you take me there?"
<Holmes> Lydia: "Of course."
<Nyyx> Thank you.
<Holmes> [Lydia places her hand on Nyyx's shoulder.  With a burst of
light, the pair vanishes and reappears at the rim of the crater.]
<Holmes> [Charlotte approaches the rim of the crater from another
angle.]
* Nyyx takes a look around for any signs of her companions and the
Golem.
<Holmes> [The Golem looks at Olivia as she approaches and rises to a
crouching position.]
<Holmes> Golem: "So, had enough?"
* Olivia is visible to Nyyx, although she doesn't look completely
like herself. The outfit's the same, but the hair and skin has paled
drastically, and she's holding the Red Stone. A small grin comes
across her face as she breathes out, "Depends. We won?"
<Holmes> Golem: "This city is already mortally wounded.  I don't
consider that winning.  Give up now and you can live."
<Biff> Agree to become my devoted servant and we'll spare your life.
<Holmes> Golem: "A slave?  No, not anymore."
<Holmes> [The Golem begins casting a spell.]
* Nyyx prepares to dive attack the Golem if necessary.
* Olivia grins more as she dives towards the golem, stone
outstretched in her hands. She breathes out, "Give up? I came all
this way and risked my self to bring this. D'hate not to use it!" And
with that, she slams it into the golem and releases it, and the
control she was inflicting upon it.
<Holmes> [The stone immediately begins to sink into the Golem's metal
shin.  As it does, the antimagic effect of the stone is projected
throughout the creature's form.  The spell fails.  Being so close to
the Golem, Olivia's flight effect fails and she falls onto the
rubble.  With a snap, the stone under the Golem's feet gives way and
the crater collapses again, burying the creature up to just below its
knees.]
<Holmes> Golem: "What is this?"
* Nyyx watches all of this and calls down, "Olivia? Are you all right
down there?"
* Olivia falls down onto the ground! Ouch! She slowly picks herself
up off the ground, groaning. "Well, they always said I was a risk
taker." She looks up and gives Nyyx a smile, not noticing or being
concerned about her incredible paleness and the blood smeared across
her upper lip.
<Biff> I sure hope this finishes it.
* Nyyx takes the 50' coil of rope from her bag and throws down one
end of it, holding on securely to the other end. "Need help up?"
* Olivia looks over at the golem, and then decides that not being in
the pit is probably for the best, grabs onto the rope, and starts to
haul her way out.
<Holmes> [The Golem looks dismayed, but does not react.]
<Biff> Good job, toots.
* Nyyx helps by pulling up the rope at the same time.
<Biff> Uh... maybe we oughta see about killing it, though? 
* Nyyx nods as she hauls. "I'll be right on it."
<Holmes> Golem: "Indeed..."
* Olivia looks over her shoulder as she gets pulled up, saying,
"Yeah, I just want to be a bit farther away when it gets turned to
dust, myself!" She then blinks and wipes her lip before getting to
the top.
* Nyyx offers Olivia a hand when she reaches the rim.
<Biff> It's showing a distinct lack of turning to dust.
<Biff> Where are the others?
* Olivia looks up and grabs it, still grinning. "Was quite a
feeling." She gets to her feet.
<Biff> I bet.  You did fine, though.  As expected of one of my
ladies.
* Olivia rolls her now-pale eyes and dusts herself off, muttering,
"Watch it, tomcat."
<Nyyx> I'll be back.
* Biff laughs.
* Nyyx raises her sword, swoops toward the Golem, and, in mid-air,
leaps into a swan dive. Her blade whistles as it cuts through air,
then clean through the Golem itself, splitting its armor all the way
down.
<Biff> I give it a nine point six. 
<Holmes> [The rent in the Golem's form runs from shoulder to knee.
With a howl, the beast collapses and is inert.]
* Nyyx lands in a graceful crouch, sheathing her sword.
<Charlotte> Wow...
* Olivia watches Nyyx land it and grins, "She knows how to work with
a sword." She runs a hand back over her face a moment, before
suddenly catching her paleness and staring at her hand for a moment
or three.
* Skip comes crawling down the tower in his usual spider-like
fashion. Still 200 feet up, he yells, "Is everyone all right?"
* Nyyx calls up from the crater. "I'm fine."
<Biff> I think so.  Where's Roland?  He's the only one who hasn't
showed up yet!
* Nyyx makes the climb up the crater wall.
* Skip is smiles and, exhausted, continues to climb down the huge
tower.
* Olivia offers Nyyx a rope in return. Although she probably doesn't
need it. "Yeah, I think I see everyone but him."
<Olivia> Which isn't really a good sign, but a lot can happen when
you're playing at being a primal artifact.
* Nyyx smiles and makes use of the rope.
* Nyyx reaches the top. "Thanks, Olivia." She looks at Olivia for a
moment. "Are you sure you're all right? You don't look so well."
<Charlotte> Is it all over?
* Olivia wrist-clasps Nyyx when she gets at the top to bring her
over. She looks embarassed and says, "Yeah, uh... I'm fine. Just a
bit pale. I had to wrestle with the stone, and it didn't play nice."
* Nyyx nods. "I can't imagine. Thank you for that."
<Nyyx> We should see if a healer can help you, though.
* Olivia smiles at her with her now-pale lips, then looks away from
Nyyx slightly down at the golem. "Yeah." A moment, then, "Where's
Roland? That's his thing more than mine."
* Nyyx sighs. "Roland. The Golem got him."
* Skip finally reaches the bottom and limps over to the group. "Is it
over?" He takes out a potion and painfully drinks it down.
<Charlotte> I think it is...
* Olivia looks a bit surprised, then looks back to the golem and
presses her lips together. "Damn." A small beat, then, "That'll make
talking to him harder."
* Nyyx nods quietly.
<Holmes> [Lydia stands at the edge of the crater quietly.  Every once
in a while, she blasts a bit of debris on its way into the crater
into powder.]
<Holmes> [Above, the dust cloud widens and extinguishes what little
light remained from the now distant sunset.]
<Charlotte> So... what now?
<Skip> I'm going to see if I can find Roland or any sign of the other
casters. If some medics come this way, please point them in my
direction.
* Skip heads toward the now ruined tower.
* Olivia looks back to Nyyx a moment, then grabs her shoulder and
says, "Think... we need to get this quarantined. But after that.."
* Nyyx nods. "Any ideas -how- we can quarantine it?"
<Holmes> [While the structure is no longer perfectly safe, the bottom
nine hundred feet up from the street level are intact.  All is quiet.
If anyone beyond the party is alive, they are in hiding.] 
<Biff> ( should be "other-than-dead" =P )
* Olivia looks at it a moment, then, "S'a project. Gather him up,
melt him down, seal him up, bury him deep."
* Nyyx nods. "We'll need help with that, though. If anyone is left to
help us."
<Olivia> Yep.
<Charlotte> Toss his parts into different planes?
<Holmes> H.E.R.(Within Skip's mind): "Do you have something to
protect?  Something that you would do anything to save?"
* Skip turns around, looking for H.E.R. within the rubble and all
around him. "Where are you?"
<Holmes> H.E.R.(Within Skip's mind): "Answer."
<Skip> I....I did. I used to protect my village from enemies without,
but it ended up rotting from within. Now....
* Skip looks back at his companions, "I would anything to save them,
and they are all that I have."
<Holmes> H.E.R.(Within Skip's mind): "Then I am one mile north of the
tower in a shattered house."
<Skip> Maybe I'll see you there....maybe I won't.
* Skip resumes his search for Roland's remains.
<Holmes> [At the top of the tower, Skip finds a strange scene.  Past
the layer of dust drifting downward, Skip reaches the broken top of
the tower and see a collection of glowing figures in a ring floating
another twenty feet higher.  One of them is clearly Roland.]
* Charlotte isn't there after all, but is instead... somewhere else
* Skip stares for a while.
* Skip mutters to himself, "What in the hells is going on?"
* Skip moves at his new, slower speed back down the rubble to find
his friends and tell them of all that has happened.
<Charlotte> This osunds very confusing
<Holmes> [After some minutes of silent conclave, the figures float
into the same space and in a burst of light, merge as a single
glowing robed figure.  It proceeds to float down the side of the
tower.]
* Skip sees this new scene unfold and picks up the pace, dashing down
the rubble in an attempt to reach his friends first.
<Holmes> [Skip beats the apparition to the street.]
<Holmes> [The glowing form descends to the street slowly and walks to
the edge of the crater.]
* Charlotte watches. o.o
* Olivia looks over to the form from whatever she's doing and squints
a little, to try and figure it out. She murmurs, "Hostile?"
<Holmes> Form: "THE GOLEM SLEEPS?"
* Olivia licks her lips and says, "It's somewhat like sleep."
* Skip rushes up to the group and whispers to Olivia, "Roland
is....in there. In that thing."
<Holmes> Form: "GOOD."
* Nyyx eyes the apparition. "What are you?"
* Olivia blinks and murmurs back, "Oh."
<Charlotte> How?
<Holmes> Form: "I AM THE ORDER OF BOCCOB.  MY PREDECESSOR WAS PROOF
AGAINST EVEN HIS OWN FAILINGS OF CHARACTER."  [With this, the form
holds up its hand palm forward and displays the burning eye of
Boccob.]
<Nyyx> Are you the new Contact?
* Olivia looks back at it, and then bows her head slightly for a
moment. Nobody told her the contact had bit it either!
<Holmes> Form: "THEIR WILL BE NO NEW CONTACT.  THEIR TIME IS UP.
WITH THE END OF THE MACHINE AND THE MERCYKILLER, THE TEMPLE COMPACT
IS BROKEN."
<Charlotte> I don't understand.
<Biff> ...that sounds bad.
* Nyyx blinks in surprise. "What does it mean?"
<Holmes> Form: "I WILL TAKE THE CONTACT'S PLACE AMONG THE BOCCOBITES,
BUT THE SEVEN TEMPLES ARE FINISHED.  WITH THE MURDER OF ONE TEMPLE
LEADER BY ANOTHER AND THE DEATH OF THE LAST SIGNERS OF THE COMPACT,
OUR DEAL IS ENDED."
<Skip> What if the Mercykiller were still alive?
<Holmes> Form: "THE MERCYKILLER IS DEAD."
<Nyyx> So you mean to resurrect the nameless god?
<Skip> He isn't dead. He escaped the blast.
<Holmes> Form: "NO.  WE MEAN TO LEAD OUR PEOPLE THROUGH THE END OF
OUR WORLD.  WHAT SHALL COME SHALL COME."
* Skip mutters to himself, "Now I know what he meant..." He starts
moving north, "I'll be back; don't do anything until I'm back! I'll
show you he's still alive!" Skip dashes off to the north, and, in a
puff of shadow, is gone from sight.
<Nyyx> What?
* Nyyx sighs. "What can we do to help restore equilibrium?"
<Holmes> Form: "STOP GREGOR."
<Nyyx> How? We killed him, but he somehow still exists.
<Holmes> Form: "YOU DESTROYED A BODY.  FIND HIS SOUL AND END IT."
* Nyyx thinks. "How do you destroy a soul?"
<Holmes> Form: "FIND HIM.  WALK THE PATH OF HIS LIFE TO THE END AND
ERASE IT."
<Holmes> Form: "FIND HIM.  GO TO WHERE HE BECAME GREGOR THE RED AND
FIND A WAY THROUGH TO WHERE HE IS."
<Nyyx> The desert where Palanquin Hassad originated?
<Holmes> Form: "HASSAD DID NOT START THERE BUT HIS UNIQUENESS DID.
HE FOUND SOMETHING THERE AND PASSED IT TO GREGOR.  KNOWLEDGE HE COULD
NOT HAVE FOUND ON HIS OWN."
* Olivia scratches her cheek as she watches the conversastion and
ponders.
* Nyyx nods slowly. "Did the journal we gave you have any clues where
to start?"
<Biff> Weren't we headed out to the desert already, toots?
* Nyyx nods to Biff. "That was our next stop."
<Holmes> Form: "YOU GAVE THE CONTACT THE JOURNAL, NOT US."
<Olivia> Before all that pesky 'saving the world from an immenent
problem' stuff, anyway.
* Olivia chuckles to herself. "Funny how that gets in the way."
<Nyyx> Ah, yes, I meant the Contact, but I had thought maybe you had
his knowledge.
<Holmes> Form: "THANKFULLY, NEITHER ITS KNOWLEDGE OR ITS MENTALITY."
* Nyyx nods thoughtfully. "We were planning on tracking down Gregor
anyway, but it wouldn't hurt to put things in order." She smiles
weakly.
<Holmes> Form: "AGREED.  ONCE THINGS ARE SETTLED HERE, I WILL PREPARE
THE BOCCOBITES FOR WHATEVER NEW CHAOS GREGOR HAS PLANNED."
<Nyyx> We can count on you for continued support, then?
* Nyyx quickly glances over at Olivia, too.
<Holmes> Form: "YES.  YOU HAVE BEEN MOST HELPFUL."
* Olivia catches Nyyx's look and gives her a slight smile in reply.
No words, though.
* Nyyx bows her head. "As have you. We will miss Roland. Tonight,
we'll rest up and prepare to travel." She pauses. "I hope Skip hasn't
gotten himself into any trouble."
<Holmes> Lydia: "You will have whatever aid we can offer as well.  If
this thing is telling the truth, this is your city now, Natalia."
* Nyyx looks tired and somewhat bewildered. She doesn't seem to know
what to say, but she nods wordlessly.
* Olivia walks over to Nyyx and puts her hand on her shoulder again.
"C'mon. If it's your city, you can get someone else to do the work."
<Charlotte> I... need some rest. I can't figure stuff out like this.
<Biff> I think we all need rest, toots.
* Biff hops up on Nyyx's shoulder. "C'mon, I need a nice warm chest
to sleep on, and you been elected."
* Nyyx manages a faint smile. "I'd like to get this Golem quarantined
and get some sleep."
<Holmes> [END OF SESSION.]
<Holmes> [END OF CHAPTER II: ABOMINATION QUARTET.]
Session Close: Sat Mar 21 23:40:41 2009