Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 19, 2015 19:57:57 GMT -5
Oriax shattered the vial, drawing on the power stored within. He concentrated on the shadows of the nearby trees, branches empty of leaves after the chill blizzard, willing the jagged shadows they cast into physical tendrils with which to attack Snow, like a kraken's black tentacles rising from the depths.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 19, 2015 20:09:59 GMT -5
Harrys grins at the shadows approaching. As they move to attack him, the snow around the wizards bubbles and boils, and Oriax feels his concentration crumbling under the steam refreezing between the tender skin under his mask, freezerburning it to the gold of his mask.
Oriax: 117 Harrys: 116
Both wizards' concentration breaks under the massively uncomfortable stabbing of the shadows and the freezing of the face to the mask, leaving both ready for another round. A mercenary whines like a baby as his boots boil with the snow.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 19, 2015 22:46:18 GMT -5
Oriax turned his concentration from the surroundings to the man himself, everything else just a distraction. He focused on the blood, bone, and sinew of his foe; attempting to enfeeble him. At the end of the day the ambition of a sorcerer was the simple desire to be more than human. It was time to remind this pretender how mortal he truly was and that the decomposition and erosion that began at death could be suffered by the living. The key to the necrosis was blood; lack of it to muscles causing rapid myopathy and lack of it to the bones causing rapid osteonecrosis.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 20, 2015 10:36:18 GMT -5
As he casts, Harrys smirks and focuses on his opponent too, but the key to any sorcerer's power is in his mind, in the synapses that focus the crucial energies into making reality distort into whatever the sorcerer wishes. He flings his second vial at Lord Oriax and speaks as his muscles contract. The vial's cap pops off, releasing some sort of red liquid that turns into some disgusting sort of worm that crawls up Oriax's leg, seeking an earhole opening by which to get to his brain.
Oriax: 154 Harrys: 139
Harrys's left arm becomes virtually useless as he fights the necrosis. The worm slowly crawls onto Oriax's torso, cold and relentless.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 20, 2015 11:42:15 GMT -5
As Oriax chants in rapid-fire Asshaii, he changes he chooses utility over flair. Simplicity was the surest path to victory. He focuses on hardening the blood In Harrys' veins, attempting form a sizable clot. It would be hard to concentrate, to say the least, in the midst of a massive stroke.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 21, 2015 17:36:57 GMT -5
As Oriax and Harrys cast again, both their spells fade into greenish energy and fly towards another tree. A low growl is heard as the Daesh emerges. It has taken the shape of a weirdly misshapen shadowy Oriax, but its voice is low and inhuman. Harrys swears and turns to his corpse knights. The bodies attack the beast but it effortlessly brushes them aside.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 21, 2015 17:47:49 GMT -5
"Kill that thing!" Oriax sharply commanded Nyles, Malix, Stew, and company.
Knowing his spells would be of no use and fearing any cast would just be absorbed, he drew his dagger and darted forward towardsSnow. The sorcerer had not survived the horrors of Stygai with magic alone.
(Small Blades 85, Unarmed 85)
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 21, 2015 20:47:41 GMT -5
Arrows race out to the beast, and it looks at them curiously. It pulls one out and regards it like a sadistic child might stare at an insect, then eats the bodkin head hungrily. Harrys runs back as his magic has become useless, calling for his guards. A crossbow bolt whizzes past Oriax's head, and he sees two more men with bows step out from behind trees. Diving behind the stone slab is the only way to dodge.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 21, 2015 20:56:59 GMT -5
Oriax takes cover from the crossbow bolts, noting the disconcerting growth in size and power of the daesh. When the men were forced to reload, he vaulted from cover, hurling his dagger at one charging the other. He hoped the men he was paying were worth the coin.
"STEW!!!" he yelled.
(Small Blades 85, Unarmed 85)
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 22, 2015 13:17:30 GMT -5
The mercenaries die behind him as Oriax charges. Harrys's men flee the beast, and as Harrys goes to escape he slips on a patch of ice and falls down a hole in the ice. Oriax hears a sickening crunch of bones snapping. Harrys groans in pain as the beast battles the remaining sellswords and the golem.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 22, 2015 14:14:27 GMT -5
Oriax picked up his dagger and made his way over to Harrys to inspect the extent of his injuries, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he did so in a patronizing manner.
"Has the king fallen?" he inquired.
As the carnage unfolded behind him, he hoped that the Asshaii councillor had been correct in her assertion that swords could vanquish the demon. He was growing more skeptical of that by the moment. He would actually be impressed by what he had unleashed if it were not hunting him.
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 22, 2015 14:19:57 GMT -5
Harrys is clearly dying, and he chuckles as blood spits out his mouth. "The demon will finish you off, or perhaps...Bryce will." He coughs again. "And my bastard nephew will be the end of us. All of us who cast spells, bend...reality. All dead. All gone." He grins to Oriax. "But my life is given to another power, sorcerer. A greater power than even Vhagus." He smiles beatifically.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 22, 2015 14:51:25 GMT -5
"Bold words from a man mortally wounded by his own clumsiness." Oriax remarked coldly, though he knew it was his curse that was to blame.
He peeled back the man's fingernails with his dagger and pocketed them. When that grisly work was done, he made a small incision in the man's belly, pulled out a handful of his entrails, wrapped a chord of them around Snow's neck, and began strangling the wounded man with his own intestines.
"Normally I would rely on some magic to make your last moments tortuous, but it seems with that demon about I must conform to the barbaric customs of the land." he explained, watching the blood vessels in Snow's eyes rupture as the life was choked out of him, ensuring that his black eyes and weirwood mask were the last things he saw in this life. "Know that you have all died only because you were not worthy vessels of the power you wield."
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Post by The Forgotten God on Mar 22, 2015 15:11:30 GMT -5
He is interrupted halfway through his speech by the sight of one of his sellswords flying over his head and splitting himself on a tree. The Daesh growls and advances towards Oriax. It has a half dozen arrows sticking out of it, but looks little affected. Only Nyles is still alive that Oriax can see, and Stew. The golem is one armed now, and is futilely trying to put its severed arm back on.
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Kurts
Prince
Posts: 3,760
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Post by Kurts on Mar 22, 2015 15:17:18 GMT -5
With a deep sigh, Oriax buried his dagger in Snow's throat and chose the only course that seems wise at the moment: he ran. He headed towards Winterfell, hoping the castle's garrison and town's populace would slow the creature long enough to escape.
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