Session21

**Amara and the City at War part 3 - The Angel of Destruction**
 * 6-15-13**

We quickly board the //Destiny// when it arrives over the city, and begin flying toward the advancing winged avatar. Reunions speckle the deck... Ursus and Mali, Shri and Erevin, even Gregori comes up to the deck to greet Yuki. After depleting all of her healing power to help the wounded of Valparia and being cut off from her goddess, an exhausted Yuki has a brilliant idea. Twirling out her scarlet ribbon around her, she cries, "Heart! Power! Makeup! Fully restored and ready to heal Priestess of Sune!" And, miraculously, it works! Her ability to channel the healing power of Sune returns...but at what cost?

Kale and Wren share a long embrace as Vhoori looks on with a raised eyebrow. Kale looks at her a little accusing as he takes in her full scent, "You smell like cat..." Wren flashes him a wide grin, "Mmm and probably blood, war, and demons... and yet it's the cat smell that concerns you..." She winks at him and they both glance over at Vhoori. Kale pulls her close, "Are you alright, my love?" She nods, smiling, "Yes... thanks to everyone working so well together, and to Vhoori... who saved my life from a demon and defended me in the city..." She extends a hand out toward Vhoori, inviting him close, "Vhoori, come and meet Kale..." The two share a rather aggressive handshake, and Kale nods to him, "Thank you for looking after MY Wren."

Posy, still covered in blood, leaps up to Uther's shoulders and kisses him passionately. He grins at her, "You've been having fun without me I see..." She smiles and points toward the large winged figure flying toward them, "Just warming up..."

Peering out at the avatar, we see a little figure on it's shoulder. The angle of destruction throws back it's hood, exposing four hideous faces. They all breathe in together and the first face blows out a giant red ray. Whitestrake pilots //Destiny// masterfully out of its way as the ray scatters fiery meteors and wipes out several Xianese below.

Barely recovering from the maneuvers, the angel's head swivels, and the second face opens it's mouth wide and spews out multiple creatures... black feathered winged women with large black bows, wicked demons with large glaives, and black skeletal warriors with stinger-tipped scorpion tales. They advance toward our ship quickly.

Archers launch arrows from the boat into the advancing creatures. "Stay behind me!" both Kale and Vhoori say to Wren at the same time as they move in front of her to protect her. Flaming arrows come sailing in from the winged women. Kale deflects one of them away with his shield, but one manages to pierce into Wren, a strange black mark spreads out on her skin from the arrow.

Shri and Gareth call out as they are hit by the flaming arrows as well, and the maiden archers in the back of the boat are both shot. The large demons with glaives breech the deck, and Ursus summons in a dire bear next to Mali as she boosts Posy's strength up. Lillarthi charges quickly forward toward Yuki. Gregori stands beside her. The competition between Lillarthi and Erevin heats up, and Erevin grumbles something about his lacking. Yuki defends Lillarthi, "His men would lay down their lives for him!" Erevin glances over to her, "But would he do the same for them?" "He's on the boat, isn't he?!" Erevin conceded to the argument as he moved to stand back to back with Shri as the demons came in closer.

Gregori heroically defends Yuki, as she throws up a wall of wind to defend them from the advancing demons. Lillarthi takes position on her other side to protect her. Yarrik freezes one of the winged women, and she falls to the ground, trapped in a cube of ice.

Thorn throws his dagger into the chest of a demon and uses it to port closer, as Posy and Uther rage side by side. She whirlwinds with her axe, and bites into a demon as his claws spray bloody mist off of another.

Erevin feels Shri's blood splash onto his back as a demon strikes into her with it's glaive. Erevin turns around to see two demons on the dark skinned priestess. He sends Mari, his wolf, to defend her from one side as he strikes masterfully with both blades taking down the second demon, as Shri lays her hands on him, healing him.

Lillarthi strikes down one of the skeletal figures with his green fiery sword. Erevin glances over, "He so wants to be me..." Lillarthi looks over at him, "You'll be me when you grow up..." Erevin grins, "You mean when I grow old..." Yuki chided him quickly, "Erevin! He's not old!" While the others are engaged with their back and forth verbal challenges, Gregori is slashed deep by one of the demons, blood pouring from his wounds. The chaos of battle litters the deck, blood spattering.

Yarrik launches several fireballs that fly out over everyone's heads out toward the avatar... Fairly near him, Wren can feel the sheer power of the spell in her blood. Old and powerful, like her mother's. She glances back over her shoulder at him, a little surprised. They explode into the avatar, still a thousand feet away.

Mali shapeshifts into a large cat, and Ursus covers her in a strong stone-skin as she charges into a demon with her sharp cat claws. She nudges the dire bear over, irritated with it being in her way. Ursus exclaims, "Can I do nothing right for you, woman?!" Thorn and Gareth fight close together, Thorn stabs his dagger deeply into a demon's back as Gareth finishes it off with his large golden axe. Thorn takes note that it's a rather nice, probably very expensive axe... "I don't like the way your looking at my axe, lad."

So many wounded spread all across the deck, and Yuki turns to see Erevin very badly injured as he continues to battle more demons off of Shri. Shri is struggling to keep herself and Mari alive. Yuki sends out empowered healing over Erevin, preventing his collapse but her lovely face looks tired as it appears she's using her own life force to wield her healing magic. Erevin sends out a barrage of arrows, taking down another demon as Mari knocks a skeleton down to the deck.

Posy lands another fatal strike with her axe, as she and Uther battle together, both covered in spatters of demon blood mixed with their own. Lillarthi spins around to protect Yuki from an advancing skeletal attack as Gregori sends out a wave of cold on another demon, defending her other side.

The little figure on the angel's shoulder weaves a spell and a large cloud of spinning black scimitars settles over the middle of the ship slicing brutally into a large group of people, blood smears over the deck. Yuki is left barely standing. Everyone scrambles to move out of the cloud quickly as Yuki attempts to dispel it, but it proves to be much too powerful. Posy bull rushes her to shove her out of the spell.

Wren, Vhoori, and Kale move quickly to get out of the way of the cloud of scimitars heading their way only to be struck hard by a pillar of fire. Wren's ring protects her enough to leave her barely clinging to life. Yarrik calls out for Thorn, who throws his dagger into the rear of the ship and ports to join him. Yuki channels out her warm aura of healing energy, keeping everyone else alive, but using her own life to do it. The cost of using the ribbon becomes cruelly clear... While it has allowed her to use her higher level healing for others, these replenished spells can do nothing for her own wounds.

Posy charges in to help Mari, taking down the last of the demons, as Erevin launches a barrage of arrows to drop one of the winged women hovering off of the ship shooting their flaming arrows. He sends Shri to go and heal Yuki, and she leaves his side only a little reluctantly, as she moves toward the other priestess.

Yarrik nods to Thorn, "The avatar is protected by a magic field... it's up to you." He places a small sphere into Thorn's hands and ports him out to appear on the angel's shoulder opposite of the figure. Thorn is left with little choice... and begins moving very carefully along the back of the avatar's shoulders toward the high priest figure.

Whitestrake turns the ship to lose the hovering cloud of scimitars. Erevin drops to a knee as yet another of the flaming arrows impales him. Blood drips from his many wounds. The head of the angel swivels again, and this time it pries it's mouth open wide with a giant hand, practically dislocating the lower jaw as a HUGE shadowy demon comes out to drop onto the front of the ship, rocking it from it's great weight. It wields a sword bigger than any 2 of us together. Erevin's clothes begin to deteriorate by just being near it.

Yarrik calls out that he has a spell to get rid of the avatar, but he's going to need us to buy him some time to cast. Thorn stands on the back of the angel's shoulder, watching the high priest cast his spells, and as he approaches nearer he notices a trapped Rune of Death dangling in the air close to him...

Yuki manages a light heal on herself as Posy drinks down a potion. Erevin, barely standing, pulls out both of his blades and slashes into the giant shadow demon next to him. Wren flies out and around the demon to get close to Erevin to heal him, but the demon bashes her with a shield on her way back, leaving her barely recovering but on her feet behind him. "You shouldn't have come, " Erevin shakes his head as he looks back at her, "Now we'll die together." Wren shakes her head and stands determined, "You will not die here today." Erevin turns back around, facing the demon with both blades still drawn, "It will be for a worthy cause... We'll set free a world." "It will be free without your death. You will still not die here today." She assures him, as she finishes catching her breath.

As Shri arrives by Yuki's side, the younger priestess, not realizing that Erevin had sent the dark elven priestess to aid her, turns on Shri with a furious panic, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! 'HE'S'....DYING!!! AND YOU ABANDONED HIM?! HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE IN YOUR CARE! I LEFT HIM TO YOU AND....YOU'RE GOING TO LET HIM DIE!" Shri glares at her, "Hush woman!" and lays her hands on Yuki to heal her. With the magic flowing into her, Yuki can feel that there is a difference in their powers, and Shri is not as strong of a healer as the young priestess of Sune. She is doing what she can, but she is simply having a hard time keeping up with the wounds. It does little to mollify the priestess of love though. There are few things she finds as unforgivable as abandoning your beloved to harm...when your place is and always should be at his side.

Everyone else charges the front of this huge shadow demon, striking into it with all they have, and it rears back and cleaves through rows of people. Blood spatters out over the deck and white sails.

Thorn takes his time to carefully disarm the rune of death, tossing in his magic dust and focusing on the task. He breathes easier as it winks out of existence.

Yuki moves closer to the side to catch as many as she can in her channeled energy heal, keeping everyone up and alive, but the demon slashes her with the rough scales of it's arm as she goes by causing her to cry out in pain.

Posy, covered in blood, hacks in deep to the demon's hind leg with her axe and a black ichor sprays over her. Shri tumbles under the demon to reach Erevin, laying her hands on him to heal him again. With the combination of healing from both priestesses, Erevin finally gets a normal color back to his face, so Wren moves to put her hands on Posy's back, sending in a witchy hex of healing.

Mali steps back and calls down lightning, striking the demon and finding it's weakness. The front line continues to battle it out with the demon, and Kale manages to land two heavy hits. The demon brings up it's vast sword in two hands and brings it down to smite the elven warrior, but Vhoori leaps in front of him, "Take care of her... she loves you..." The mighty sword of the demon cutting him in half. Wren screams from behind the demon, "NOOO! Vhooooriii!!"

Yuki sends out another powerful wave of healing, taking a horrible toll on herself, but it does nothing to save the lifeless Vhoori. She begins to look pale and shaken. In a fit of rage, Wren whips out her rod of empowering and sends a booming bolt of lightning through the demon's body. The demon, angrily turns itself around to face Wren, and backhands her. She is still glaring with her rage, and holding her ground.

With the rune gone, Thorn puts the sphere into play and manages to capture the high priest figure within the sphere, bringing down the winged giant's magical protection.

With the demon's back to the main force, they hack into it brutally. Lillarthi climbs up the demon's back and buries his sword deeply through the scales, looking invitingly to Erevin to join him. Posy smashes into the demon with her axe and bites into it, black ichor dripping from her lips. Erevin runs nimbly up the demon's blade arm and leaps over Lillarthi, putting two fatal arrows into the back of it's head. It falls sliding across the deck as Erevin and Lillarthi slide down safely off of each of it's arms.

Thorn uses his dagger to strike the priest in the sphere through his throat, but a blinking moment after the damage is done, the wound closes. Yarrik sends out his massive spell, and ports in next to Thorn who tells him about the priest's restoration. "Xian will not allow his high priest to be harmed so easily...You have done well, my friend... but your job is done." Before Thorn can get in another word, Yarrik ports him back to safety on the ship. A giant crack appears in the sky from Yarrik's spell, the avatar falling through it with Yarrik still on him. Amara shrieks from the boat, "Noooooooo!" The high priest falls to the ground, trapped within the metal sphere, with arrows launching into his body.

The Xianese flee to their boats as their avatar is defeated and their high priest falls to the ground. Cheers erupt from below in the city.

Yuki sends out another massive wave of healing over everyone, draining herself. She falls to the floor with her magic ribbon barely covering her. Lillarthi goes to her side and picks her up, gently...princess-style. Wren hugs Kale, relieved that he is well, and then falls to her knees beside Vhoori's lifeless body sobbing. //Destiny// moves down to the palace, setting down the bridge. Lillarthi calls for healers and carries Yuki's unconscious body down to meet them. The maiden archers come to cover Vhoori's body and get aid to help carry him down. They assure Wren that he will be buried as a hero.

The generals call for a great ball celebration to honor the heroes, and the irillian general surrenders to Lillarthi and William to end their war... they rename the city, The Three Kingdoms. After a couple of days in the care of the elven healers, Yuki still does not wake up... we return her to her room on the ship. //Destiny// is called and tells us that Yuki has drained herself beyond her own safety, and it will take a few more days for her to recover.

We stay for the celebration, the honoring of Yarrik, and Vhoori's funeral. The maidens tell Wren that the Kith-Kin will be coming to bury his body in their way, but he will always be remembered as a hero. Azarius spends time comforting Amara who continues to burst suddenly into tears over the loss of her beloved.

Yuki awakens in her room with a soft elven magic tingling on her lips. A small box sits on her bed with a ribbon tied scroll. A beautiful note is penned on the scroll and it's signed Lillarthi. Inside the box, Yuki finds a single diamond earring, a rose, and a strawberry topped slice of cake, her favourite! The rose smells beautiful, and she quickly puts on the earring and eats the delicious cake. The next morning, she finds another slice of cake in the box in a different flavor and everyday afterwards...to remember him by. She rues fate for not allowing him to be her FIRST KISS!

We travel the astral sea. Our second day through, a bewildered Vhoori spirit arrives. Wren hugs him warmly and welcomes him to the ship of heroes. //Destiny// names him the new scout. Yuki comforts Amara for hours at a time, sitting with her and patiently listening to her talk of Yarrik and her love for him. Little by little, she soothes her grieving heart.

Four days of travel, and we return to Lyrabar... all seems as we left it. It's hot, the start of summer. Regrettably we decide we'll have to send the ship away for awhile again for it's own protection.

We are welcomed back. Mali rides her moose into town with a little Mellorahn nestled comfortably in it's antlers.Mali growls at the guards and spits cherry pits at them. We head off to our places around the city. The elves to the elven embassy, Yuki to the temple, Mali and Posy to the Unexpected Monkey Inn, Thorn to his hidey hole, and Azarius, Amara, and Trieste to the Vastel estate.

The elves are welcomed back warmly by Anna, happy that she can now call Erevin her brother. She tells us that there is to be a wedding in a week... Renata Winterrowd and Bishop Medici. Anna is to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. though she seems very tense about the whole situation. She insists that Erevin come too, though he is welcome to bring a date. He protests, "The last wedding I went to for you people ended in disaster!" She smiles encouragingly, "This one isn't on the boat..." Sighing he agrees to go for her. Anna smiles at Wren, "You and Kale are invited too." "Oh! Thank you... I don't really think we need to go..." Erevin turns to Wren, "Humans and their customs..." She nods agreeing with him, "I know! You tell someone you love them and they expect you to start planning a wedding! They do everything so fast!" Kale looks disappointed. Wren frowns, "Oh... umm I guess we're going to go to the wedding. Thank you for the invitation." She nods to Anna. Erevin elbows Wren and whispers to her, "I don't think that's why he's disappointed..." Wren looks a little confused at him, so he explains further, "I think it was more the comment about getting married..." and it dawns on her with surprise, "Oh! ... oh..." She turns blushing at Kale, looking a little subdued "I'm sorry... I love you... we can get married..." (Somewhere in the temple of Sune, Yuki, priestess of Sune and magical matchmaker of love, is suddenly and inexplicably happy!!)

Yuki goes to the temple and reports the entire adventure to her High Priest, Alain, and his subordinates (her seniors) Helena and Axton. Axton is happy to hear that things went well. He then smiles and hands her a scrub brush and bucket and sends her out to polish the statue of Sune. After working on the statue for what felt like forever, lamenting her state in life, she suddenly notices Harbinger approaching the front gate, dressed in black silk robes. "Oh Goddess!!" She scrambles, hiding the scrub brush and bucket behind the statute, "I FORGOT AAAAALL about my DATE!" Using her ribbon to transform into beautiful, Yuki date clothes, she goes out excitedly to greet him.

Thorn arrives at his hidey hole to find a note "We know where you live" pinned to his door with a dagger... His stuff looks like it's been tossed and searched, but nothing seems to be missing. He packs his things into boxes and as he's walking down the street, he is met by a cheerful, young Salem. She greets him and offers to carry a box to help. Thorn accepts her offer, but watches her like a hawk. The talk about the people in town who are still hunting for him. "They seem really pissed that you're never around... I'd try to get closer to find out more, but my mentor told me to stay away from them." Thorn nods to her, "Who is your mentor?" She grins, "It's a secret!" He nods, "Well I thought I'd ask anyway... but that could be an in to gather some help against these guys." She agrees and tells him that they've made things really hard for the independent thieves in the city. He nods, "It's pretty much join them or die..." She returns his box as he reaches the Vastel estate to go in and speak with Azarius. He looks in the box and then looks at Salem... "Oh fine... but you would have done the same thing!" She returns an item to the box reluctantly. He laughs, "Yes... but the difference is, I wouldn't have returned it." He winks at her. "There's your lesson for today."

Mali and Ursus leave town together in search of the unicorn's son. Posy and Uther go to hang out with Uthgart and the clan. The clan of barbarians cheer when they arrive, and they slam down drinks, calling out "Posy!" There's several exchanges of coins. Uther leans over and tells her they seem to be betting on whether she'd survive and with how many of her limbs... Posy walks over and slaps the one who lost the most coin in the back of the head, "You should've known better than that!" "But... but... couldn't you have at least lost a finger?!" Uther and Posy spend the week relaxing, drinking, and choosing random intimate excursions to go to.