Intermission

With a wave of her stepmother’s wand, and a flick of her hand, a flash of magic consumed her sister within the magic circle, sending them careening towards the Ethereal plane. And yet, as Wendy watched Quel’rose from a nearby chair, she did so not with a sense of curiosity, but tedium; her face an expression of board annoyance, as the adventures vanished into the nether.



And who could blame her? The two of them had spent the better part of last week getting all the necessary reagents and symbols in place for that Magical Circle; reliably measuring out precise grams of silver, and carving protective spells to ward away demonic incursion. And, while at first it had certainly been interesting...telling a 12 year old to spend ANY amount of time focusing on a single task has yet to not produce boardom to this day.

Though to be fair to her mother, however, she HAD asked her(Wendy) if she wanted to help. And Wendy had agreed. Though more out of a sense of familial obligation, then any real desire to help. It had been a task to focus on...and something to prevent her mind from wandering.

A wandering mind; now THAT was her true curse. Not her pale white skin, and not her years spent in physical torture. Skin conditions chould be treated..torture endured. But an unquiet mind cannot be shut off, at least with anything Wendy had access to. But now that the task was done, and her sister off to find....whatever artifact that Quel’rose had entrusted her with, Wendy suddenly found herself with little to do mentally. And so she, entirely unintentionally, began to think to herself.

To the layperson, the idea of literally thinking yourself to death was absurd. But to someone with as much intelligence as Wendy..it was a near constant threat. Not of literal physical death in and of itself, no. The word she had learned from her mothers books was “ego death.” Wendy’s brain almost gave her a third eye; she could see and understand things far and above the common man...and it was exciting! Yet...with the exception of her mother ...nobody seemed to be able to understand exactly what she experienced, or worse, didn’t care as much as her.

This was partially the reason that Wendy had yet to develop any friends, or at least any her own age. The children of Argos didn’t much care for the latest advancements in Quantum Divination Theory, and she found spending a few hours a day kicking a ball around a field void of any real meaning.

Wendy’s mind drifted further. Void. Their was also that. That black cloud at the back of her mind. A cloud she had willingly let enter her body, from an innocent book labeled simply “Philosophy”. At first, Wendy had absolutely adored the book....it gave her mind an almost infinite supply of, well, Quel’rose had described it as “mental chewing gum.” Unanswerable questions about magical theory and the greater universe filled her mind. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Quel’Rose finished up her spell, she took a moment to smell the air around the circle of powdered silver on the floor. It smelled of a mix of brimstone and death. And while such an unorthodox combination of scents might consent or overwhelm a novice mage, to Quel’rose, it meant that her step daughter was on her way to the Ethereal plane. Or the Nine Hells. But probably the Ethereal plane. And thus, a job well done on her part. Quel’rose smiled to herself. She’d been trying to be optimistic as best she could. At least, ever since she died. Going to the other side and back again had a wonderfully eye-opening effect, especially to those already of a magical bend. And as a result, Quel’Rose did her best to cast the donut from her mind, and focus on cleaning up the powdered silver on the ground.....currently not the most glammerious part of wizardry, but necessary nonetheless.

As she cleaned, her eyes turned towards her adopted daughter: Wendy, currently sitting by the fireplace, eyes lost in thought. From Quel’s perspective, Trixie’s “training” had certainly taken a number on the poor girl. She was an amazing mage, and should recite entire textbooks of magical theory perfectly, but was absolutely hopeless at being able to prepare even the simplest food or social interaction. Of course she had attempted to teach the poor girl life skills..but for some reason, despite her vast intelligence, none of it ever seemed to stick, with Wendy seamingly both eager to learn, and board with the world at the same time. Perhaps her brain was like a balloon, Quel had theoried, and Trixie had simply packed Wendy’s far over capacity for her age?

The train of thought of both mages was, perhaps thankfully, suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door. “One moment!” called out Quel, as she scooped up the remains of the silver dust, and put it aside in a burlap bag, next to her kitchen counter. Wendy simply looked up at the noice, a lifetime of paranoia causing her to unconsciously draw out a dagger. Quel, however, was much less paranoid. After all, they had just let in a half dozen friends of Wendy’s sister guests with little incident..., what harm could be caused by one more friendly face?

And yet, opening the door was as far from a friendly face as one might imagine, as Quel Rose's suddenly found herself staring down a sharpened blade.

The assailant was humanoid, with charred black skin. A pair of silver, metal horns flanked his pure white eyes, and the veins that seemed to pop from his skin. He wore leather armor, adored with holy symbols of Sarenrae, ending in a pair of think black boots. His eyes held a determined expression like that of a solder, but yet, as he aimed his weapon at Quel, Wendy could hear confusion in his voice. “Your a woman!” the armed man correctly identified, seamingly confusing himself even further, though it took him but a second to correct his composure, before muttering “No matter..” to himself, as his blade plugged itself into the chest of the elf, causing Quelrose to fall down onto the ground with an audible thud.

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The loud thud emanating from the main doorway was enough to snap Wendy out of her trance, and the sight of Quel’rose collapsing to the ground enough to trigger her emotions. “Quel’rose! she cried.

Without thinking, Wendy drew her blade, and, gripping her short sword with both of her hands, charged towards the attacker, her eyes full of violence as she surged forward. The attacker, upon seeing her however, simply needed to raise his booted foot, unleashing a mighty kick in her direction, and knocking the wind out of the young warrior. “And who in the Nine are you?” spoke the warrior, withdrawing his bloody blade from the elf, unceremoniously knocking her to the ground with a kick from his boot. “Your not a halfling!?”

Without giving him an answer, Wendy launched forward again, this time with her teeth, aiming at the one leg that the assassin was currently balancing on after that kick. She latched on, her fingernails digging into his flesh, and her teeth chowing down upon the man's leg like some sort of hyena.

“Motherfucker!” came the mans yelp, and he furiously attempted to shake his right leg. His shakes were enough for Wendy to lose a hold on her sword, but her fingers acted like metal nails into his flesh, her teeth biting down to the bone, before withdrawing them, and climbing, slowly, up the leg of the man who DARED attack her new mother. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the strange, seamingly demonic child climbed up his leg, Zilagraz wondered where it went all wrong. Perhaps it had been getting addicted to Pesh all those years ago. Perhaps it had been accepting a contract from those darn Eclipse creeps in the first place. Or maybe it had been thinking that killing a fuckin centar was going to be an easy hit. Regardless, he certainly, not in a thousand years, had ever expected a strange, demonic child to latch onto him, climb up his leg bone, and promptly use it’s vampiric fangs to rip off his testicalses, and blungion him to death with them in a berserker rage. Nope. Definitely not.

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As Riel sat in the basement, finishing up the final touches on his self portrait, the sounds of spellcasters going on above him left him little reason to be amiss. After all, he had married a Wizard. Weird arcane gestures were par for the course for their marriage. Doubly so ever since they had taken in the daughter of one of his wife's colleges, Tara, after the old archmage had proven a bit to frail on her own. So random spellcraft was something he expected. A loud thud by the front door? Probably nothing. Wendy probably knocked something over. A strange man yelling? Weird....but Quel’rose should probably handle it. He was nearly done, after all!

Riel raised his paintbrush to the top of the canvas, his paintbrush a deep , lush brown. He had just touched the brush to the canvas when the sounds of violence and battle suddenly broke his concentration, causing his brush to slide ALL over his canvas, and painting a perfectly terrible line of brown directly across his otherwise lifelike painted face. When Riel regained his composure, he was furious. He lifted his head to the wooden clearing of the basement and was just about to yell at the two of them to keep it down up their with their sparing, however the sounds of violent conflict seemed to intensify. By the time Riel heard swearing, he decided that the cause of the noise was worth investigating. The old cleric walked over to the stone stairs, and began to make his way upstairs.

By the time he made his way upstairs however, the sight of his wife lying motionless on the ground opened the old clerics eyes to what had happened. “Quel’Rose! He cried, running over to her side, his hands motioning a Cure Serious Wounds spell over her body as he hugged his wife. “Quel’Rose....”

Thankfully, the Songbird still answered his prayers, and the magic he called for flowed from his hands and into the body of his wife, causing her to stir. “Wha?” she spoke. “What happened? Who was that?”

“I have no idea.” spoke Riel. “Are you ok?”

Quel’rose stumbled to her feet, and..limping over to their kitchen and alchemical station, pulled out a healing potion from the wall, and downed it. “I’m...I’m fine.” she said, drinking the potion;whilst also attaching a few to her belt for good measure. “The better question is...who the heck was that?”

Wendy’s bloodrage seemed to fade as both Quel and Riel entered the scene. She finally withdrew her not-quite-vampire fangs from the corpse, before starting at the dead attacker..like a dog might to a home intruder.

Riel made his way over to the body, and began rifling through it. “Day old muffin...switchblade, knuckle dusters...about two gold....” Riel said. “Ah ha! A contact!”

“Contract?” Echoed Quel.

Riel simply handed the piece of paper over to his wife, who begin reading the paper out loud:

“Your target is the elf, halfling, and the centaur currently staying at 157 Acadamae St. They have been serious pains in our organization's hierarchy, and as a result, we have been forced to hire outside help. I hope your crooks are as good as you claim they are, Mr. Bain. The money you requested will be delivered to the location you specified once the heads of these three are delivered to the Cat & Dragon, up on 24 Westway....”

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As the three of them approached the Cat & Dragon mentioned in the note....things seemed off. The exterior walls of the inn had been damaged, seamingly by magic..and various scents...both pleasurable, and disgusting emitted from the building all around it. Wendy clamped her nose shut. “What is that?” she asked out loud. Riel smelled the air. It “Smells like a mixture of.... Fancy perfume, and body odour.” he answered, with a confused look on his face. “We won’t find out unless we head inside.” Quel nodded silently along, as the three of them walked over, and Riel kicked open the door of the inn.

Inside, however, came the answer for all their questions. For the interior of the Cat and Dragon appeared to have been converted into something much more disaster. No longer did chairs and barstools sit around, waiting to be served. Rather, the entire interior of the inn had been decorated like a massive alter, with bright, golden icons of human forms upon emblazoned upon the walls and floors. A massive bonfire sat where the inns kitchen once sat, fueled by what looked to be a collection of chopped up furniture, as well as corpses. Hostages, both young and old sat tied up by the fireplace, held under guard by a contingent of guardsmen, who looked very peculiar indeed.

The only people not tied up within the ruined in were a collection of three male humans, each of them stark nude. Each of them was in perfect physical form, with bulging muscles, perfect abs, and shining with enough sweat that the entire screen looked to be straight out of a gym commercial. Quel’rose covered Wendy's eyes at the scene.

“Welcome to Argos’s newest temple!” cried one of the nude warriors, his body almost too toned to be natural. “The Eclipse has been revealed, and we intent to shower this town with his new form!!” As if to accent his point, the warrior waved his genitals in the direction of the three intruders, a gesture that caught Riel off guard.

Quel, however, ignored the perfectly toned men’s sexual advances, instead attempting to make sence of this madness. “So your Eclipse?” questioned Quel, towards the cultists. “Solis told me about your type....though I suppose that answers the question about why you wanted us killed....through truth be told, I expected an organisation as famed as the Eclipse to be a bit more...armored.”

The warrior simply laughed. “The Eclipse has been revealed to all of us!” cried the cutest. “No longer need we wait, and hide in shadow....the Master has made contact with the Eclipse that shall block out the Sun! We have no need to hide, for our Glorious Overlord protects us with his Sheath of magic! As if to accentuate his point, the cultest produced...seemingly from nowhere, a bottle of what looked to be body-cream, and began slowly rubbing it over his massive chest. “No blade nore weapon can harm us!” This time..the cultists seaming audacity made Quel hesitate...her left hand tightening now over her wand.

“What's going on? Asked Wendy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Roll initiative)

Without warning, the closest cutlets sprang into action, withdrawing a shortsword, seamingly from nowhere, and lunged towards Quel, his eyes full of frenzied violence. In response to this, Quel had to quickly take a five foot step back, withdrawing her hand from Wendy in the process, and pointing her wand squarely at the cultist, as she spoke her magic words “Snowball!” she cried, as a blast of cold, magical snow manifested at the tip of her wand, before blasting of, and crashing into the cutest.

Yet, while her magical assault certainly seemed to wound the charging attacker, stagger him, it did not, causing Quelrose to be stabbed through the chest for the second time today.

With her mother's hand withdraw from hey eyes, Wendy was finally able to make a tactical assessment of the battlefield. She saw burning ruins, destroyed bar stools, and for some reason...large naked men assaulting them!? One of which had made contact with Quel’rose. To deal with this, Wendy curled her open palm into a fist, and wound up for a punch. Not a physical punch, no, but rather, after a few incantations, a decidedly magical attack. As she wound up her first, Wendy felt the magical energy surge around her first like that of a giant bird, ready to strike as soon as she released her blow.

“Force.....PUNCH!” Wendy’s fist surged forward into the cultist, her hand not even making a direct connection with the mans oiled abs as her bird made of force energy slammed into the man, and kept going, pushing the man away from the both of them...away from the battle itself even, before slamming into the far wall of the burning inn, , and falling prone from the impact.

It was now Riel’s turn to act, and he currently don't waste it. Riel drew out his magical mace, as well as his old shield...both of them glowing a light green. Riel stepped in front of the two mages, and banged his shield with his mace. “If you two want a fight.” he called out. “Get over here!”

With his beck and call, the two remaining cultists drew weapons as well, the first one producing a long polearm, the second extending a pair of curved blades from his wristbands. Both of them descended upon Riel like a tidal wave upon a dam, the old cleric holding up his shield to protect his wife and child standing in the doorway behind him.

Quel hunched down at the sound of battle, both in fear after her second serious wound of the day, as well as more practical reasons, as she withdrew a healing potion from her belt. Wendy, in response pulled out her spellbook...she couldn't see the attackers from this side of her father, but that didn’t mean she couldn't made a difference. After a moment, Wendy’s finger landed on the spell she was looking for, and she lay a hand on her father’s leg, and spoke the magic words; one of the first spells a wizard learns, oddly enough, for this exact situation: “Enlarge Person!” —————————————————————

At the back of the inn, the cultist who had been knocked back by Wendy’s force punch slowly stood back up, only to see the armored man in front of the two wizards begin to rapidly grow to over ten feet tall, his mace and shield enlargement with him. With his newfound size, the giant warrior was easily able to wipe the floor with the remaining cutlets, knocking them aside like rats. Seeing that he was outmatched, the remaining cultest decided that trying to deal with these adventurers was not worth his life. Quickly and quietly, he snuck out the backside of the inn, on to parts unknown.

Quel saw the final cultest escape, but rather then go after him, decided that rescuing the remaining bar patrons from within this burning building was a more valuable use of their time. With Riel’s help, they began evacuating the civilians from the burning, makeshift temple. As they did, however, Wendy approached the dead cultists.And, after....admiring their figure, spied a piece of paper tucked into the wrist blades of one of the men who had attacked Riel. She quickly snapped this note up, and, after a quick glance, realized that Quel needed to read this as well.

Wendy dashed over to her parents, who had just finished evacuating the remaining civilizations from the building, and Riel had begun using his magic to extinguish the fire. While the building was sturdy, and thus in no position to collapse, the property damage caused by the cultist was enough to make the former owner weep out of both his eyes, and pockets, as the town guard were called. Quel was just in the middle of talking to one of those guards when she felt a pull on her robe. Looking down, she saw Wendy, holding a piece of paper. “Excuse me officer...” she spoke towards the guard, and picked up the note. Quel read it once, and then read it again..not entirely convinced she believed the words on the page. ‘Wendy.....” she spoke looking down at her daughter. “Head back the house. And activate the summoning circle to get your sister and the rest of her friends back here. Regardless of their progress on that artifact. This is much more important. Understand?” Wendy simply nodded, and ran off back towards their house, unsure of how Solis and the rest would react.