EVENT#08 VINDESS LIBERATION MISSION LOG

[vivalamods]

EVENT#08 VINDESS LIBERATION MISSION LOG

Content warnings: Blood, Gore, and Cannibalism

The Corsairs strike quickly. As soon as Gaurus the Bleeder steps off the Imperial airship, Corsair airships emerge from hiding around the settlement and take to the air, peppering the Imperials with a salvo of cannonfire. Corsairs leap from the deck and emerge from hiding within the settlement, weapons drawn and battle-ready.

For his part, Gaurus the Bleeder meets the charging Corsairs without surprise. The man’s immense bulk is imposing enough on his own, but he carries an unmistakable stench of blood, death and decay about him. His enormous body is toned with heavy muscle, and his hands seem to permanently drip blood as he unleashes a feral belly laugh.

“Take them! Capture them! Flay them alive!” he bellows, his voice ringing out across the city. “Their corpses shall decorate my table, their heads my wall! Come lads, let us punish these rebels and teach them the pain and despair of standing against the Empire!”

The stench of blood seems to spread, thick and metallic as the eyes of the Imperial soldiers seem to dim, blood beginning to trickle from every pore like sweat and seep from their mouths in the place of drool. They surge forward, a beastial hunger consuming them as terror quickly spreads among the civilians who turn to flee. For good or for ill, the battle is joined. With Gaurus at its head, the axe of the Empire descends, and the Corsairs will need to bring their all to bear, lest they be ground underfoot.

All logs have full sign-ups, but characters are still welcome to join any open logs. Additional participants will boost the potential for the log’s success and potential bonuses. Outside of Closed logs, all logs can be as many open threads as the participants desire, involving as many of the total participants as they wish.

Consequences
There is the possibility of consequence, depending on the logs characters take part in and the amount of participants.
Serious Injury: A character is seriously injured and will require bed rest and intensive healing. If they choose to participate in an active and intensive log the following month, their injuries will impede them to the point that it may disrupt the log (but not necessarily make the log fail).
Minor Injury: A character is injured, but not badly. They will require some healing to recuperate but will otherwise be fine for logs in the following month.

MISSIONS

Vindess Raid: The Corsairs face off against Gaurus’s Bloodfrenzied Legion.
Status: Open
Description: Gaurus’s mastery of life ether allows him to manipulate blood within willing and unwilling targets. The Bloodfrenzied Legion are soldiers whose blood and hunger have been set aflame. They fight with more ferocity, move faster, and hit harder. They consume their own blood to fight harder, and thus are overwhelmed with a hunger for more blood, driving them to consume their fallen foes, ripping them apart and drinking their blood.

Bloodfrenzied soldiers are extremely dangerous, while a powerful Corsair may be able to take 3 in a straight fight, more is exceptionally dangerous. Corsairs will need to rely on high pressure and exceptional tactics if they wish to succeed. The Corsairs are buoyed by the local militia, Corsair support allowing some people to fight to the last for their families to ensure they escape.
Current Participants: Donnie, Raph, Rezo, Kanna
Log Leader: None
Anticipated Result: The Bloodfrenzied Legion is held at bay, and the Corsairs emerge relatively unscathed.

Escape Vindess: The Corsairs must cover the escape of the airships as they evacuate the civilians and keep themselves alive against the Bloodfrenzied Armors.
Status: Open
Description: The Bloodfrenzied Armors are armors piloted by soldiers under Gaurus’s Bloodfrenzied Legion. In this case, he uses his magic upon the armors as well as the pilots, so the armors enhance themselves by feeding off the blood of their pilot, compelling the pilots to fight aggressively and target large crowds of fighters on foot or civilians to bathe in their blood and enhance their combat prowess.

Additional details will be sent to the Log Leader.
Current Participants: Shu, Terra, Kanna, Harlock
Log Leader: Shu
Anticipated Result: With the placed traps, the Corsairs will emerge unscathed, their civilian charges maintained safely.

Evacuate Citizens: The Corsairs within the town will evacuate civilians, helping them flee the Bloodfrenzied Legion.
Status: Open
Description: The Bloodfrenzied Legion fights ferociously aggressively, specifically targeting civilians with an aim to tear them open, drink their blood and feast on their organs. They are the core of why Gaurus inspires such fear and obedience within the populace, and it will be difficult to maintain calm.

Corsairs will need to calm their charges and efficiently move them through the town, employing the maze of homes, pulling down break lines, and doing whatever they can to keep the soldiers away from the civilians.
Current Participants: Emery, Matt, Shu
Anticipated Result: The Corsairs will successfully evacuate the civilians, keeping them mostly safe from harm.

Tend Citizens: The Corsairs will need to tend to the wounds of the evacuated civilians, preventing as much death as they can.
Status: Open
Description: It’s rare for a civilian to survive a run-in with even one Bloodfrenzied soldier, but any who do will be brutally maimed. Additionally, in an escape wreathed in fire and devastation, injuries in the flight are common. Corsairs will have a range of injuries, from people torn open by soldiers to people crushed by falling, flaming debris.
Current Participants: Tsuyukusa, Matt, Thomas
Anticipated Result: The Corsairs will successfully heal and save a majority of those who can be saved, although casualties will still happen. Their success frees up the local militia to fight harder, aiding the Corsairs in their fight.

Entrap the Imperials: Before the arrival of Gaurus the Bleeder, the Corsairs set up traps around the town, ensuring they had many ways to entrap both the man himself, and his ships and armors.
Status: Open
Description: Corsairs will spend this quiet pre-battle time laying out traps meant to take down Gaurus the Bleeder and hamper the armors and airships upon landing. Corsairs have access to heavy explosives and enough poison to kill several large monsters, which may even be enough to slow down the man who can manipulate his very bloodstream with his ether.
Current Participants: Ilphyl, Aira, Natalia, Atom
Anticipated Result: The Corsairs will lay so many traps that they can target both the Assassinate Gaurus the Bleeder log and the Escape Vindess log.

Assassinate Gaurus the Bleeder: The Corsairs will face off against the head interrogator and Bloodfrenzied Legion commander Gaurus the Bloody.
Status: Closed, this log will be a single thread between all four participants
Description:Gaurus the Bleeder is an enormously powerful fighter who can manipulate blood on a wide scale. Those who face him in combat can hold their blood to a point, but if Gaurus manages to come in physical contact with a person he can begin to turn their very blood against them. Gaurus is exceptionally dangerous to approach, and must be handled with utmost care.

Gaurus is a huge, barrel-shaped giant who stands at 10’9” and wields cruel cleavers, hooks, knives, and spikes. He wears a bloodied apron over thick, high-quality leather armor, and his body is heavy and muscular. His combat power and ether control are further enhanced by the Empire’s drugs, making his capacity truly beyond belief.

Additional details will be sent to the Log Leader.
Current Participants: Link, Natalia, Atom, Ilphyl
Log Leader: Ilphyl
Anticipated Result: Voting will occur in a sub-thread at the start of the log. Either Gaurus will be captured and the team will be seriously injured or Gaurus will be killed and the team will escape with minor injuries.

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Comments

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl is taking a risk by focusing on staying in their own shape, fighting off the curse's effects as long as they can, so they ahev a healer and someone for crowd control. They talk another risk, by sliding silently to Atom's side, holding a spell on their quarter staff to have it spark with lightning. Let Natalia and Link cover the ranged options, Ilphyl will help keep Gaurus off them, and provide some moral support to Atom, because they know Atom isn't used to a fight where they might have to kill their opponent.

[spacetogrow]

The shots hit, and leave blood (and singed hair from the lightning), but Gaurus has clearly been magically enhancing himself so that what should be a kill shot from Natalia doesn't penetrate. Link and Atom's followup are enough to stun him for a moment, but he still isn't coming across as worried. Instead he laughs.

"You have a bit of a sting to you, and you took out some of my soldiers. This won't be boring. Do you want to play a game, child?"

Before Atom's answer, Gaurus sends out a wave of blood magic, targeting the legs of the other three present. The magic itself is meant to cause pain and difficulty moving (if not total paralysis), but nothing permanent (yet). He can't help it if the snipers lose their balance, of course.

"You might be able to run with one of your friends. I'll even let you leave with one, so I can keep the other two to repay those stings. Or you can fight me while I tear your friends apart."

[OOC: Feel free to set how bad the attack is -- I'm keeping a mental count of when Gaurus starts getting actually worried the group will kill him and ups his game. In the mean time, he's messing with Atom, since it seems more fun than trying to stab him.]

[theriflespiral]

Ah, yes. This familiar feeling, of being in trouble.

Behind her, something hits the roof of the shotgun shack where she'd put her first blind. She rolls, winces in pain. Terrifying how he's able to keep concentration on the Bloodstained Legion and fight. But she gets the shot off, watching as the one fellow who had actually climbed up the ladder falls among his thirsting brethren.

She controls her breath. Gaurus is not the only one with impressive control over his own body in this fight. Still, she can't help but feel like she's going through the Tribulations now. "when will I learn..." she grumbles to herself.

Just fucking start with the Inner Lotus unfurled. Either they can sense you, or they can't, and you are in the middle of a fight.

Slowly, she gets to her feet, and manages, barely, to maneuver.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link's leg's spasm - and while his position on the roof should have been stable, he does stumble, slipping off of the edge of the roof with a faintly strangled noise of surprise.

From someone else, the stumble could have been very costly - but heights aren't something that worry Link. He's fallen from higher. He pulls out his paraglider by reflex, almost immediately, and begins to glide.

Well. Now he's rather exposed - and closer to Gaurus than Link would prefer. But on the plus side, now that Link is in mid-air, when he can draw his bow - and suddenly, Link is able to shoot impossibly fast.

In less than a second, he fires off seven shots - each Fused to a high damage monster horn, and each one aimed directly at Gaurus.

But those seven shots take up most of his stamina. Link still needs to settle down somewhere safely, and he angles his paraglider just off to one side. If he can just reach that next roof safely...

[upupatomway]

The way Natalia's bullet falls away from Gaurus as if he isn't flesh nearly makes Atom's recognition system question the species of the giant. Robot? The question is overridden immediately by his consciousness, but he does start to wonder how much this battle will resemble a fight with another robot.

"Nobody is running away. You won't be killing anyone else!" Atom starts to charge a more advanced spell, a ball of lightning starting to form a few feet above his head, making his hair stand with static.

He can hear Natalia and Link moving, possibly stumbling, but no cries of pain. He keeps his eyes focused on the opponent.

[spacetogrow]

Ilhypl drops, but rolls. They manage not to cry out with pain, either, but their spell gutters, leaving their dropped quarterstaff near them. They start chanting a second spell, pointing with a hand to target Gaurus: 'elemental bane' might as well make all the lightning flying around hit Gaurus harder.

They don't want Atom to strike the lethal blow, but between the curse and the pain, they are going to need to get out of range and wild shape to be more useful.

[spacetogrow]

Sorry, Link, but while one arrow or bullet is something Gaurus can shrug off, the continued assault is making a difference and the arrows all hit, overwhelming his ability to regenerate. With a wordless yell, he reaches out to crush one of Link's legs, breaking it.

"Move or die, whelp!" Gaurus is planning on charging to make sure Link is downed, but he doesn't particularly mind swinging his giant hook to remove Atom (or Ilphyl) before he gets to the offending party. Atom is going to get run down and hit if he does not move (or no one acts).

[theriflespiral]

Natalia struggles forward. No. Not again.

She raises her free hand, and, Lotus unfurled, focuses her emotion in that moment, the fear and the courage. The air rings with icy bells, the rhythm of Gaurus's heart counting out a beat. Waltz time, one, two, three--

It may wreck the plants, but at the very least the icy ground will keep Gaurus and the Legion considering their steps more carefully to get to Link.

It's all she can do from here, though...

[newmemorywhodis]

"Agck!"

In mid air, Link jerks wildly - briefly losing control of the paraglider and dropping. He manages to right himself and get the paraglider gliding again, but by that time he's dropped down farther than he wants to.

He can't get to the building he was aiming for. Not anymore; he's too far down. He's got to go for another one instead, and he does get there - barely. He has to cling to the very edge of it, breathing heavily, before pulling himself up.

It's a smaller building. Only one story. One that Gaurus could likely scale - and fwill, from the way he's charging.

Biting back a scream, Link ignores the pain and gets to his feet. Draws the glowing Sword that Seals the Darkness. And puts up his shield.

Broken leg be damned; he'll face the enemy and keep fighting.

[upupatomway]

Ilphyl doesn't seem to be doing that great. Atom turns just for a second when he hears Link yell out in pain. Is this what Gaurus's magic can do? Is this how he tortured people? A distinct feeling of bitter disgust grows further in his mind.

"Mr. Link!" Atom frets when he barely makes it to the other roof. Atom comes close to rushing in that direction to fly and catch him, but hesitates to leave Ilphyl's side and risk losing control over the ball of electricity he was gathering.

Atom turns back just in time to catch Gaurus starting to charge. Atom raises his arms to move the lightning ball higher and instinctually flies upward with the bright sphere to avoid getting run over, but he doesn't have the spare arm to grab Ilphyl too. "Ilphyl?!" He searches for signs of them.

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl had ducked behind what cover they could find, and a massive white tiger is springing out of cover. Atom might recognize one forepaw has the same markings as a tattoo on Ilphyl's armm -- Ilphyl can choose to conceal that, but the magic gives them a bit tougher hide without having to focus on a spell. It also marks them out as allies, in addition to the 'unexpected tiger' and 'Ilphyl's wild shapes tend to have black and/or white coloration when possible, as if they have no desire to conceal their dark elf status even in animal form'.

They do glance up at Atom and nod, before circling after Gaurus, avoiding the ice and frozen ground that Natalia had called.

[spacetogrow]

Gaurus is in a full on charge and leap to Link's location, but Natalia's ice does cause him to lose his footing, going down on all fours but not falling. This at least buys some time for the Corsairs to act before Link's position is overrun.

The Legion is in disarray. Gaurus has been drawing on their strength to fuel his own healing, and it is becoming obvious they look rather... anemic. A few are converging on Natalia's position at some silent command from Gaurus, but the ice seems to be giving them even more trouble than their commander.

[theriflespiral]

Right now, Natalia has only one goal-- reach Link to extract him. She runs on the ice around her, a skill born of practice in Siberia and elsewhere, skids on the ice, fires once, twice, three times, hitting the Bloodstained Legion in her way. Then, she strikes the ice's surface, sailing into the air above the road.

One hand out to balance, the other holding her rifle, turning quickly, and then slowly, Natalia times one more shot to go for Gaurus's head. It's pure opportunity, and she's expecting to deal no damage. Her real goal is pulling Link up and away before it's too late.

Cycle the chamber. land. She reaches her hand out for Link.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link doesn't hesitate; he puts away his shield and takes her hand, allowing Natalia to pull him away. Ice skating's not something he's at all practiced in - but he's done enough shield surfing to at least maintain his balance as he's pulled along on the ice, even while only standing on one foot.

...But as they skate away, he does still take the opportunity to take a swing at Gaurus with the Sword as they swing by. It's just the one strike - but with the blade glowing with the bright blue light that heralds the presence of evil, it's a strike that's twice as damaging as it would normally be.

[upupatomway]

With Natalia and Link distracting Gaurus and the legion, Atom has time to continue charging his spell a little more before hurling the large lightning ball at Gaurus's back with a determined shout.

It might effectively fry him. But Atom had braced himself before the battle for what had to be done here.