Session 119: Ruin Is Come
Previously, Across the Horizon…
Alterna holds a great many dangers for the unwary and wary alike. For every hidden treasure and fragment clinging to the past, there is a misshapen mass of metal intent on absorbing nearby heat sources and sentient armor gripped by a lingering will.
Such is fate that both of these events have befallen one particular group within hours of returning to the Empire’s seat of power.
We join our brave adventurers as the battle rages…
**
The winged knight brings her blade to crash upon the ground, and four blades mirroring its appearance slash up from the ground, one for each of the adventurers battling for their lives.
Isa braces herself, letting her heavy plates take the brunt of the blow. The light between her and Yves, normally below the level of visibility, flares and she grunts. As the knight's blades return to the earth, she is in motion again, her borrowed spear thrusting forward in a series of rapid spiral jabs, disorienting and unrelenting.
"...okay, so, uh," Yves says, his hands flickering around rapidly in the air as he snaps and swipes the currents of magical energy into the shape he wants, "let's try that again, since I guess negotiation doesn't seem to be happening, but just let us know at any time if you change your mind! Assuming you have one! Language use suggests yes, but it's hard to say, and--oh, never mind." This time, the fireball that explodes dramatically is not merely near the winged knight-armor.
Linnet attempts to follow up Yves' fireball with The Ruin, only succeeding in ruining her own aim. "Dammit! I need more practice."
Bast smacks something on his sleeve and looks almost comically aggrieved when nothing happens. After a moment's pause, he ducks down to the turret he dropped earlier and adjusts its direction to better keep the heat on the knight.
The winged knight stalks forward, the knife-edges of its legs hovering just above the ground.
Its attention falls on Yves, and the sword strikes, phasing ethereal in the instant before impact.
The blade misses the mage, and then the rest of the winged knight shifts into the ethereal as well.
The wings begin to glow, as divine energy gathers in the sword.
From the ground, the two other suits of armor rise, assembling into the winged knight's squires, ready to defend.
Isa's helmet tracks the fading knight, then turns to look at the new additions to the party. She crouches and jumps, not her normal sky-high leap but a remarkably agile flip given her armor. She twists and turns in the air, turning all that angular momentum into a wide sweep of the Frost-Fair Blade across the pair of them. The knights fly backwards, but before the second knight can fly too far, the Frost-Fair Blade twists in Isa's grip, sweeping up and catching it from below. It cuts clean through the greaves, revealing bright animating light inside. Isa looks down at the spear, and her voice is harsh. "Now you'll help?"
"Why doesn't anyone ever summon in chatty minions?" Yves demands, while conjuring up another roaring explosion of fire; it splits into three, to strike the two risen armors and pass harmlessly through their ethereal leader. "...Isa, please be nice to your spear, that's a valuable member of the team."
"You're chatty enough for all of us, darling," Linnet calls over her shoulder to Yves, while posing a couple of graceful arm movements not unlike a Thavnarian dance. One hand lifts a fog from Orrey, the other from Bast.
The armor of the forgotten knight skids to a stop by one of the columns still supporting the museum.
With a nod to Linnet, Bast shoots the remaining squire armor, bolt tearing through the breastplate with a metallic squeal and embedding in a piece of fallen masonry behind it.
"Those who dwell aloft have spoken. Let their words echo in your empty soul. Ruination is come!" The sound heralds the return of the winged knight to the corporeal realm, and with her comes the Holy explosion of Divine Ruination.
Orrey shakes his head as the Knights fall again and the world explodes. There's only one way to keep them down, and that's the inevitability of Gravity. He launches a tiny sphere of darkness at the Winged Knight, one that implodes into a furious person-sized black hole.
The Winged Knight moves with a speed not seen since Orrey first engaged it in battle, and the ethereal blade tears through Linnet, leaving no marks yet rocking the red mage all the same.
Linnet is tossed head over heels and skids to a stop several feet back, hand on the ground, panting from exertion.
A bolt of golden lightning crackles through the air, narrowly missing Orrey but coursing through Isa on its way into the ground.
Small sparks are still crackling off the pointier bits of Isa's armor as she launches herself at the knight, spear coming down in an overhead, two-handed strike. Isa brings the blade down hard, crashing into the armor. As she rises, the spear lashes out again, sweeping across. It's out of sync with her normal fighting style, and when she draws back she looks like she's struggling to control it.
Yves darts a glance sideways at Isa, and suggests tentatively, "Let's all work together, right? Right." Demonstratively, he lobs another fireball toward the winged armor. See? Coordination! And... stuff!
All of a sudden, the sky goes pitch-dark. Linnet takes a deep breath.
The stars she had scattered about the ground at the beginning of battle wink into view, then rise up to encircle the badly ruffled mage. She pirouettes, slowly at first, then faster and faster - and higher and higher, as her spin levitates. In a handful of seconds, all you can see of your companion is a tornado lit by a scatter of stars in her braid.
Then the light explodes. Showering over all of you, over the winged armor, over all of Alterna, it would seem. (Not really. You're just a little dazzled.)
Yves, fingers still trailing tiny bits of smoke from that last fireball, takes the time to applaud.
When the sky clears, all of you feel a bit shinier, and the winged armor looks somewhat worse for wear. (You're also glittering. You might want to do something about that after the battle.)
Linnet descends to earth, bows, and then collapses to one knee. "Whew."
The winged knight staggers back under the falling stars... and coalesces into one single point before tumbling to the ground.
A mask.
It takes Linnet several seconds to realize there's nothing to fight right now. "Um...Yves? Want to see what that's about?"
Yves steps forward promptly to reach for the mask, because of course he does. "I need to get lessons in talking to very aggressive strange entities, because I'm clearly not doing well enough at it yet."
The mask takes the form of a knight's helmet, ceramic woven into threads, shifting matter as it extends down, tied in a loose braid of silver shards. It smells of faint perfume and metal polish.
Isa has the Frost-Fair Blade point down, almost scraping the flagstones. Her shoulders are hunched and she's working to catch her breath. "It had plenty to say," she finally says.
Bast takes a little longer to decide that the battle is done, but he finally puts up his crossbow - then flexes the arm that took most of the damage from the knight's attack, checking that everything's back in place, and covertly rubs at a glittery spot on his clothes with no apparent success.
"Does it still belong in a museum?" Linnet hauls herself up and brushes courtyard dust off her knees.
"So I must not have been saying the right things," Yves concludes. "If I have to learn, I don't know, epic kennings or poetry or something, I'm going to need to add another journal subscription to the ship library. I did not finish my gen ed credits in undergrad."
"You've got plenty of humanities majors around for support." Linnet slings an arm over Yves' shoulders. "Let's avoid poking anything else on our way in, okay? Maybe there's a nice rotunda where we can sit and catch our breath or something."
"We can hope the rotunda doesn't also have an opinion on our presence," Yves says wryly, and tucks the mask carefully into his satchel.
Orrey puts his watch away and frowns. "I wonder why we were attacked."
"First it was a building trying to eat me, then a suit of armor trying to kill us all...I'm beginning to think Alterna undid itself with an overactive defense system." Linnet shudders.
"Maybe they disapprove of anyone without an assigned Job, which means... everyone, now," Yves suggests.
"Didn't have anyone like that back then, though, did they?" points out Bast.
"Weren't running free, back then." Isa points out. "They were...harnessed."
"Another thing I'm wondering: with all of these masks showing up down here, have more stars gone missing above us?" Orrey asks.
"Well... The, uh, information system on the ship did say some were here already, before we got here," Yves says. He takes another peek into his satchel. "I'm not sure exactly who this is. I'd ask, but now doesn't seem the best time. Maybe once we're not right next to her support team and... all this."
"Not the best time, no. Keep it secure until we're back on board Starfall and away from here," Isa says with a tone somewhat stronger than a polite suggestion, but not quite an order.
"Hm, interesting theory; let's ponder while we walk. C'mon, everyone, even if the museum cafe's not open, let's hole up inside and have a snack." Linnet pats her trusty satchel. "I brought cinnamon rolls."
"Less likely to kill us than anything in the gift shop!" Yves says, as if this is a perfectly sincere compliment toward the baked goods.
"Ooh, gift shop?" Aaaaand you've lost Linnet.
Bast follows Linnet's rapidly retreating back with a look that is almost clear of alarm. "So. Bets on the gift shop trying to eat us?" He shoulders the crossbow and heads off after her.
Isa straightens up with a last deep breath and rests the haft of the Frost-Fair Blade on her shoulder. "Not unless you're offering odds," she says, and follows.
Meanwhile...
Aboard the Starfall.
Inside the resealed smaller sphere.
The scanning apparatus blinks itself to life.
Text enters itself into the field.
Agrias, Eternal Guardian, Divine Ruination. Gift: Hollow Knight.
Alterna holds a great many dangers for the unwary and wary alike. For every hidden treasure and fragment clinging to the past, there is a misshapen mass of metal intent on absorbing nearby heat sources and sentient armor gripped by a lingering will.
Such is fate that both of these events have befallen one particular group within hours of returning to the Empire’s seat of power.
We join our brave adventurers as the battle rages…
**
The winged knight brings her blade to crash upon the ground, and four blades mirroring its appearance slash up from the ground, one for each of the adventurers battling for their lives.
Isa braces herself, letting her heavy plates take the brunt of the blow. The light between her and Yves, normally below the level of visibility, flares and she grunts. As the knight's blades return to the earth, she is in motion again, her borrowed spear thrusting forward in a series of rapid spiral jabs, disorienting and unrelenting.
"...okay, so, uh," Yves says, his hands flickering around rapidly in the air as he snaps and swipes the currents of magical energy into the shape he wants, "let's try that again, since I guess negotiation doesn't seem to be happening, but just let us know at any time if you change your mind! Assuming you have one! Language use suggests yes, but it's hard to say, and--oh, never mind." This time, the fireball that explodes dramatically is not merely near the winged knight-armor.
Linnet attempts to follow up Yves' fireball with The Ruin, only succeeding in ruining her own aim. "Dammit! I need more practice."
Bast smacks something on his sleeve and looks almost comically aggrieved when nothing happens. After a moment's pause, he ducks down to the turret he dropped earlier and adjusts its direction to better keep the heat on the knight.
The winged knight stalks forward, the knife-edges of its legs hovering just above the ground.
Its attention falls on Yves, and the sword strikes, phasing ethereal in the instant before impact.
The blade misses the mage, and then the rest of the winged knight shifts into the ethereal as well.
The wings begin to glow, as divine energy gathers in the sword.
From the ground, the two other suits of armor rise, assembling into the winged knight's squires, ready to defend.
Isa's helmet tracks the fading knight, then turns to look at the new additions to the party. She crouches and jumps, not her normal sky-high leap but a remarkably agile flip given her armor. She twists and turns in the air, turning all that angular momentum into a wide sweep of the Frost-Fair Blade across the pair of them. The knights fly backwards, but before the second knight can fly too far, the Frost-Fair Blade twists in Isa's grip, sweeping up and catching it from below. It cuts clean through the greaves, revealing bright animating light inside. Isa looks down at the spear, and her voice is harsh. "Now you'll help?"
"Why doesn't anyone ever summon in chatty minions?" Yves demands, while conjuring up another roaring explosion of fire; it splits into three, to strike the two risen armors and pass harmlessly through their ethereal leader. "...Isa, please be nice to your spear, that's a valuable member of the team."
"You're chatty enough for all of us, darling," Linnet calls over her shoulder to Yves, while posing a couple of graceful arm movements not unlike a Thavnarian dance. One hand lifts a fog from Orrey, the other from Bast.
The armor of the forgotten knight skids to a stop by one of the columns still supporting the museum.
With a nod to Linnet, Bast shoots the remaining squire armor, bolt tearing through the breastplate with a metallic squeal and embedding in a piece of fallen masonry behind it.
"Those who dwell aloft have spoken. Let their words echo in your empty soul. Ruination is come!" The sound heralds the return of the winged knight to the corporeal realm, and with her comes the Holy explosion of Divine Ruination.
Orrey shakes his head as the Knights fall again and the world explodes. There's only one way to keep them down, and that's the inevitability of Gravity. He launches a tiny sphere of darkness at the Winged Knight, one that implodes into a furious person-sized black hole.
The Winged Knight moves with a speed not seen since Orrey first engaged it in battle, and the ethereal blade tears through Linnet, leaving no marks yet rocking the red mage all the same.
Linnet is tossed head over heels and skids to a stop several feet back, hand on the ground, panting from exertion.
A bolt of golden lightning crackles through the air, narrowly missing Orrey but coursing through Isa on its way into the ground.
Small sparks are still crackling off the pointier bits of Isa's armor as she launches herself at the knight, spear coming down in an overhead, two-handed strike. Isa brings the blade down hard, crashing into the armor. As she rises, the spear lashes out again, sweeping across. It's out of sync with her normal fighting style, and when she draws back she looks like she's struggling to control it.
Yves darts a glance sideways at Isa, and suggests tentatively, "Let's all work together, right? Right." Demonstratively, he lobs another fireball toward the winged armor. See? Coordination! And... stuff!
All of a sudden, the sky goes pitch-dark. Linnet takes a deep breath.
The stars she had scattered about the ground at the beginning of battle wink into view, then rise up to encircle the badly ruffled mage. She pirouettes, slowly at first, then faster and faster - and higher and higher, as her spin levitates. In a handful of seconds, all you can see of your companion is a tornado lit by a scatter of stars in her braid.
Then the light explodes. Showering over all of you, over the winged armor, over all of Alterna, it would seem. (Not really. You're just a little dazzled.)
Yves, fingers still trailing tiny bits of smoke from that last fireball, takes the time to applaud.
When the sky clears, all of you feel a bit shinier, and the winged armor looks somewhat worse for wear. (You're also glittering. You might want to do something about that after the battle.)
Linnet descends to earth, bows, and then collapses to one knee. "Whew."
The winged knight staggers back under the falling stars... and coalesces into one single point before tumbling to the ground.
A mask.
It takes Linnet several seconds to realize there's nothing to fight right now. "Um...Yves? Want to see what that's about?"
Yves steps forward promptly to reach for the mask, because of course he does. "I need to get lessons in talking to very aggressive strange entities, because I'm clearly not doing well enough at it yet."
The mask takes the form of a knight's helmet, ceramic woven into threads, shifting matter as it extends down, tied in a loose braid of silver shards. It smells of faint perfume and metal polish.
Isa has the Frost-Fair Blade point down, almost scraping the flagstones. Her shoulders are hunched and she's working to catch her breath. "It had plenty to say," she finally says.
Bast takes a little longer to decide that the battle is done, but he finally puts up his crossbow - then flexes the arm that took most of the damage from the knight's attack, checking that everything's back in place, and covertly rubs at a glittery spot on his clothes with no apparent success.
"Does it still belong in a museum?" Linnet hauls herself up and brushes courtyard dust off her knees.
"So I must not have been saying the right things," Yves concludes. "If I have to learn, I don't know, epic kennings or poetry or something, I'm going to need to add another journal subscription to the ship library. I did not finish my gen ed credits in undergrad."
"You've got plenty of humanities majors around for support." Linnet slings an arm over Yves' shoulders. "Let's avoid poking anything else on our way in, okay? Maybe there's a nice rotunda where we can sit and catch our breath or something."
"We can hope the rotunda doesn't also have an opinion on our presence," Yves says wryly, and tucks the mask carefully into his satchel.
Orrey puts his watch away and frowns. "I wonder why we were attacked."
"First it was a building trying to eat me, then a suit of armor trying to kill us all...I'm beginning to think Alterna undid itself with an overactive defense system." Linnet shudders.
"Maybe they disapprove of anyone without an assigned Job, which means... everyone, now," Yves suggests.
"Didn't have anyone like that back then, though, did they?" points out Bast.
"Weren't running free, back then." Isa points out. "They were...harnessed."
"Another thing I'm wondering: with all of these masks showing up down here, have more stars gone missing above us?" Orrey asks.
"Well... The, uh, information system on the ship did say some were here already, before we got here," Yves says. He takes another peek into his satchel. "I'm not sure exactly who this is. I'd ask, but now doesn't seem the best time. Maybe once we're not right next to her support team and... all this."
"Not the best time, no. Keep it secure until we're back on board Starfall and away from here," Isa says with a tone somewhat stronger than a polite suggestion, but not quite an order.
"Hm, interesting theory; let's ponder while we walk. C'mon, everyone, even if the museum cafe's not open, let's hole up inside and have a snack." Linnet pats her trusty satchel. "I brought cinnamon rolls."
"Less likely to kill us than anything in the gift shop!" Yves says, as if this is a perfectly sincere compliment toward the baked goods.
"Ooh, gift shop?" Aaaaand you've lost Linnet.
Bast follows Linnet's rapidly retreating back with a look that is almost clear of alarm. "So. Bets on the gift shop trying to eat us?" He shoulders the crossbow and heads off after her.
Isa straightens up with a last deep breath and rests the haft of the Frost-Fair Blade on her shoulder. "Not unless you're offering odds," she says, and follows.
Meanwhile...
Aboard the Starfall.
Inside the resealed smaller sphere.
The scanning apparatus blinks itself to life.
Text enters itself into the field.
Agrias, Eternal Guardian, Divine Ruination. Gift: Hollow Knight.
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