"Um, well, I guess I'm headed for the castle, then, since not many of us are going in that direction. Wait up Krylo!"

And with that Mike stood up and left. It took about five steps for him to think, "Wait, what am I doing? Oh god!"

((OOC: So...is anyone headed towards the workshop? :shifty: All I see are a bunch of stables and a few castles))

Toastburner nodded. "I'll go with the castle group. I generally know my way around there.

With that, TB went with "Team Castle".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

(STABLES)

The fear that the devil dogs gave made him smile. Been ages since I had challenge, he thought to himself. Still, he didn't raise his hopes up too high. Any being with their salt could wail on a devil dog.

Before he graced the challengers with his presence, they'd have to prove themselves.

With a gesture, the pack of creatures in the back of the stable moved forward. Too increase the fiercness of the pack, he introduced a single thought into their minds.

Hunger.

Siliva dripping from their jaws, the creatures moved forward, towards the enterance of the stable.

The Wolfweres got into position, and waited for the door to open.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CASTLE)
The group worked their way up to the castle. The few yeti who survived the battle on the wall patrolled the ramparts...but not every observantly. Whether from fatigue or from fear of having to face those who killed so many of their fellows, the yeti seemed more than eager to ignore anything they saw on the outside.

Even the few yeti who were steadfast in their duty could be easily avoided. The dark of the North Pole winter made for an abundance of hiding places.

Still...the demons in charge of the defense of the castle knew from the shattered yeti horde that it was only a matter of time before the castle was assaulted. Even now, they prowled the hallways, waiting to pounce.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(WORKSHOP)
[No active members attacking the workshop at this point]

Mauve finished her Skittles and shoved her hands back into her pockets.

"I'll go to the castle. Might as well stick with what I do best: getting showered by Krylo's carnage." she said cheerfully. She jogged after the castle group.

Being a mage (and a mage who was built like a twig with glasses), Mauve obviously wasn't one for brawling. Places with limited maneuverability weren't her battlefields of choice, which was why the stables were pretty much out of the question. It was best for her to follow the indestructable Krylo and "play the stealth game" for a while. Her magic would come in handy up there, she reckoned.

She made a quick side-trip over to the corpse of the berserker she had attacked. She grabbed her dagger, cleaned it on the snow, and ran after Team Castle.

(OOC: We figured we'd hold off our attack until you gave us some info about the workshop, but if you want attacking..... :D )

Raiden looked at his shoulder and smiled at SS.

"Alright buddy. Let's kick some ass."

Raiden cracked his sparking knuckles. He placed both palms on the roof of the workshop. He gave a quick look to the guys down below.

"All right guys, Darth and I will go in first from above! We'll distract them from your entrance. We'll handle the demons! You guys secure the elves first, then help us out! And here we go!"

Pulses of electricity coursed through Raiden's limbs and poured into the roof. A large explosion of lightning and fired filled the area, leaving a nice sized hole in the roof. Raiden leapt in and landed lightly, surveying the area around him. With him smiling and Darth SS purched on his shoulder, it was a fearsome sight to behold.

"Come to Raiden, bitches."

"Jeeze, I wasn't planning on saying it until after christmas was over," RR muttered to herself before pulling back a bit and then darting forward like a silent wraith. Her feet flew across the ground as she almost glided towards the workshop. Her 'cloak' fluttered and changed as she moved. They writhed and reformed into numerous claw-like appendages that stretched out clawing at the air, and some flowed down her arms and legs to form enlarged limbs ending in wicked, scythe-like claws. Her face was covered by a semi-hard, protective wing-mask that completed her new visage.

So prepared, she winced as Raiden blew through the workshop roof. Dayemnn... He should be a little bit careful. Repairs cost money, and Santa won't be pleased.

Garud noticed that the devil dog was wimpering a little. A simple ice spell would put it out of it's misery. Garud quickly cast it, and leapt over the mound, putting his back up against the door.

He quietly pushed it open, trying as best as he could with stealth. The sorceror entered on a squat, quiet as a mouse. He walked like this until a glob of drool fell in front of him. Looking up, he saw huge fangs bearing down at him. He was surrounded by wolfweres, hairy and hungry.

"Oh crap."

He could sense them, everywhere around him. Moving silently in the night, hidden somehow within the snow around the stables, he couldn't see them...but he could definately sense them. Animal instinct, he supposed.

Where were they, though? He could feel them, but he didn't know where they were exactly.

There! Spinning around, Ecurt blocked an attack that...wasn't there, and because he didn't meet the force that he had anticipated he lost his balance, and fell. Seeing an opening, the wolfweres finally revealed themselves, suddenly exploding from the ground all around him.

His body couldn't react in time. It was just too new, too strange, too unfamiliar, and he was just too untrained with it to react. However, it didn't need too. Claws clashed with draconic scales, and the claws shattered while Ecurt was left with only small scratches.

The wolfweres jumped back, while Ecurt rose and looked at himself. He frowned, glaring at the werewolves. "You guys...ruined my Yeti-skin."

Eyes became blood red, and Ecurt cracked his muscles. Jumping forward, he swung at the wolfwere closest too him. Not surprisingly, it was able to move back in time to avoid the his wild swing, however it was shocked to find that something, or rather somethings, grabbed it. Looking side to side, it was surprised to see that what was holding him was a pair of CT sized CT plushies. What happened next was just too graphic to describe in the forum.

DSS pointed his gun down at the few enemies he could see, and yelled "Freeze! Ass kicker extrordinaire! On the ground, or we kill you like Anakin and Palpatine killed Windu!"


One thought it would be smart to try to bum-rush. DSS wasted an entire clip in him then reloaded.

"Do note the lightning god underneath me!"

OOC: Guess who's back.*

IC:Wow, it took this long to come up with a plan to attack these demons? Whatever, the immortality point had stung earlier. I'm an angel, can't they tell by these god-fuggin' wings?

Hardly mattered. Also Raiden's calculations were actually rather accurate. Too bad he couldn't argue his point when he lost his smarts. But that didn't matter. Why? Because it doesn't matter what the elves can do until we get them out alive. As far as spending 10 minutes trying to come up with a plan, these guys don't realize that we don't know enough to have an effective plan yet. For all who knows, all of the immortals could have been banished if they were the only ones to attack the castle.

As for Raiden's math, the calculations pretty much gave a 95% chance that the elves could still make such a 'machine.' Pretty good, but not 100. The main problem was a 47% chance that the non-immortal members would die from this 'machine', according to the numbers that had been used**. Well, intuition said it was more like a 15% chance that they would die... Ah well, we will have to come up with a better plan later.

Away from the failings of the group and the plan, The Wizard Who Did It decided to help Garud, _Phil, and Ecurt at the stables. 1. Because the castle was not a good idea, as enclosed spaces are not his specialty. 2. Nobody else was going there really.
---------------------------------------------------
Great more devil dogs. Is this honestly the best they could do? After a few had fell to his magic, some wolfweres jumped out at him. This could not be good.

Jumping away and running to the stables, The Wizard Who Did It sees a wolfwere... with CT plushies grabbing him... and Ecurt...

"Ecurt, that's not kosher... Ecurt stop... Ecurt..."*the wolfweres that he had previously seen jumped out of nowhere.* "Ecurt, we're surrounded."

Backing up to Ecurt, he raised his sword in preparation for the attack. It was some 5 wolfweres against him and a half-crazed dracon, that hopefully would snap back to reality soon. Alchemy really is a nice skill. The Wizard Who Did It had constructed his sword with all types of magic and runes, and was glad he gave it some silver capabilities.

"Come here boys, come on. If you play dead, I might just give you a treat."

One wolfwere lost it's temper and attacked. Nice try. The Wizard Who Did It jumps over the wolf. While twisting in the air, he shoots a fireball at it to stun it, and then drives the sword through it's skull streight into the ground.

As he sheathes his sword, the other dogs seem to be ready to attack. Come on Ecurt, help me here. Before any of the wolfs attack, the Wizard freezes one and quickly attacks another, shooting lightning everywhere he can.

"Let's this crazy party started... again."
----------------------------------------------
OOC:*yeah I know, a real shame. Sorry to ruin your fun.

** Just some things I thought of. Also, the math thing I am talking about is that certain numbers were used in the calculations, and those numbers gave a hundred percent chance for the plan succeeding. However, the percentage of death is calculated by taking into account that Raiden, because gods aren't infalliable anymore, might have used the wrong variables for the situation at hand. Might. Oh abstract mathematics, what would we do without you?

EDIT: Switched to attacking the stables. Killing wolves sounds like fun. Especially if someone comes to the party and gives me a silver sword so I could do some dual wield kickass-ness.

Pyros purred a bit in Inbred's hands, as he mentally dreamed about going to Krystals and eating a pile of Chiks, then dreamt about wearing a pilgrim outfit and chasing a Ecurt, who was yelling something about the difference between turkeys and ducks. Then he dreamt a recurring dream about Raiden that seemed to involve him holding a bishounen cat inside a box and giving it as a gift to Ninkasi (the goddess of beer) in exchange for a mountain of beer. Then he dreamt of a dark shadow, holding within it's icy cold grip the north pole. What fear? But it was nothing. There was something more interesting in the dream. An old enemy approached. Far more interesting....

In the awaking world, a strong pat on the back resulted in Pyros coughing up a firey hairball of doom.

<Ugghh...Indigestion...>

Three wolfweres were left, but looking ahead he could tell that Garud had probably encountered some more when he had opened the entrance to the stables. Thankfully, The Wizard Who Did It (henceforth, called Twiddy), was able to back him up, but that meant that for now Garud would be alone handling the enemies in the stables.

"What should I do...what should I do?" he asked himself. "Oh, I know!"

Summoning up a bunch of Pyros Plushies, he buried the enemies in Fluffy NekoKami Goodness. Motioning for Twiddy to follow him, he ran to the stables.

Phil had lagged behind Ecurt and Garud, as mage-type folks tend to do, and now, yet again, had the luxury of a few seconds to plan his attack. Ok, so we're fighting wolves again. I probably shouldn't summon Mike again; we don't need Santa's stables to be a smoldering crater. I need something that can fight in close quarters. Ah, that'll work.

"●Summon: Mountain Dew Golem!" Phil, not knowing that these were were-creatures, had summoned the equivilent of a blood golem, instead of something more specialized (he wasn't exactly an expert in the subject). With a puff of smoke, a green, ten-foot tall creature appeared. It seemed to be made of living soda, which was pretty accurate. It's limbs were plated with green, translucent armor that looked a great deal like soda bottles. The MT. Dew logo was plastered on its shoulders and torso.

Phil walked up to his awful golem. "I want ypu to enter the stable, incapacitate any resistance, and save any hostages, including reindeer. Once you have completed these tasks, return to me. Got it?" The golem silenty nodded, then started toward the battle.

OOC: Since it's possibly confusing, I'll note that I drink Dew to the point that I practically bleed the stuff. Hence, the similarity to a blood golem, and how I can summon things so often (ether potions, Dew, yeah).

Also, the golem is capable of brawling and spraying soda, though I'll probably just RP its actions until it's gone. Just thought that'd be good to know.

"You want some of this? Come get it."

Garud had been fighting off the wolfwares, but he was hard-pressed. From what he had analysed, he knew that attacking any part other than the brain or heart was pointless as they would heal right away. He had already felled 3, but there were still 8 more.

"Dammit, where is everyone?"

Another lashed out but the force of a hailstone sent it hurtling back. Another down. Sweat dripped off the forehead, and his eyes stung. He did not know how long he could last.

"It's going to take more than you to defeat Garud the demon slayer. You are still about a couple thousand short."

To tell the truth, Garud was very nervous, and had figured he was doomed. But a ray of hope was heading towards him. From one direction, Ecurt and The Wizard Who Did It had crested a hill of snow, and from another direction what looked like a golem made of mountain dew was heading toward him. Finally, back-up.

"Alright. Let's Go!"

(TEAM REINDEER)

((OOC: You guys are doing good. I'll throw the boss fight at you later on))
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(TEAM WORKSHOP)

Raiden's hole landed Team Workshop in the middle of the Ordering Center. Santa had gone high-tech. The elves, while they did still create some of their gifts by hand, now, more often than not, ordered the gifts from on-line stores, each of which have a special "Santa-Only" page, which allows the little people to get presents for cheaper than Joe A. Consumer.

Raiden's enterance took out a few of the computers, and damaged many of the others. It was a good thing that the elves were captured, otherwise the they would of gone as close to blood-lust as Christmas elves could go and assault the thunder-god.

At the very least, he slid ever closer to the naughty list.

Of course, that was the least of Team Workshop's worries at the moment.

As the ones attacking the workshop crashed through the roof, a piercing pain ripped through their brains, and their thoughts became scrambled. To supplement the mental assault, large cats, larger even than Toastburner, standing 6 feet tall at the shoulder, bounded into the room, yellow eyes blazing. Those who were familiar with lesser known monsters would of recognized them as emerin...if they could think straight under the giant cat's mental assault.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(TEAM CASTLE)

"This way," TB whispered, guiding the team around the walls of the castle.

The main halls and enterance ways guarded, and Krylo professing the need for stealth, TB lead the group to a enterance usually used by the elves. In an rear corner of the castle walls, a mound of snow hid the doorway. Toastburner brushed it away, revealing a small hole. "It's going to be a tight fit, but we can make it."

Soon, the team was inside the castle itself. The hallways were decorated for the upcoming holiday, with reems of ivy up and down the hallways and bundles of holly-berries hung at regular intervals. The hallways were well lit...not good for a team going for stealth.

"I don't know where they have Santa," TB admitted. "As far as I know, the castle doesn't have a dungeon or anything like that...never needed it. I'd say we check the living quarters. They may have Big Red locked in his room, and if not, maybe the elves we're likely to find there will know where he is."

As if on cue, a pair of elves ran across a joining hallway, screaming. In their wake, a trio of yeti gave chase. "If we can save those elves," TB hissed, "they might be able to tell us were Santa is! Someone else will have to do it, though." he said, lifting his paw. "My way is bright, loud, and bound to attract a lot of attention."

Raiden grabbed at his head in pain. Anything powerful enough to directly attack a God's mind and still manage to keep their own was a threat. He tried to talk to Darth on his shoulder, but it came out as jibberish.

He reached to his sword, and tightly gripped the blade. The pain of the steel severing the muscles in his hand coursed through his body to his brain. For a few moments, he could think clearly. By simply concentrating on the physical pain, he could block out the confusion caused by the cats. However, Raiden was a god, and as such immortal. Physical pain held little importance to him, and as such he could only concentrate on physical pain for so long. With his few moments of clarity, he reached to his shoulder and grabbed SS.

"Sorry buddy. Join the others. I'll keep 'em busy."

With a heave, Raiden tossed SS out the hole he had made in the ceiling. The guy would land safely, and he'd be out of the way of the cats. Raiden looked back at the cats as the confusion set back into his mind. They would attack soon, and in the state he was in, he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight. However, Raiden was a god. Physical pain meant little.

But it was sure going to hurt like a bitch.

Dewey (the Mountain Dew golem) grabbed the stable doors and heaved them open. Two wolfweres leaped at the new target and bit into its arms, sending up gushes of Mt. Dew. Dewey tried to shake them off, but they held on like ticks. Unable to shake them, Dewey decided to pound them to a pulp. Its right arm stretched, turned in a U-shape, then smashed into its left "bicep" where one of the wolfweres took a crushing blow to the ribs. The wolfwere let out a yelp and lost his grip, though he repaired his ribs before he hit the ground. With its left arm free, Dewey grabbed the second wolfwere's head and wrenched him off of its arm. Now, with both hands free, Dewey lifted both arms and smashed down on the second wolfwere, crushing his torso like a truck and sending a splash of gore across the stable dirt. The first wolfwere attacked again, and was joined by two more who had noticed the commotion. The first leapt at its throat and tore it out, but, as a golem, that was mostly cosmetic damage. The second attacked its left arm, but missed as Dewey changed its shape. The third, noting that Dewey's neck was significantly thinner now that it was missing its front, went for its head. His paws slashed at Dewey's "face," yet again sending sprays of Dew into the air. Then, the wolfwere's forehead connected with Dewey's, and Dewey's head fell back, so that the back of its head smacked between where its shoulder blades would be, if it had bones. Disoriented, the golem fell under the weight of the three wolfweres' next attack. The dogpile started tearing out chunks of Dewey's form, which became liquid as they were avulsed and poured out of the monsters' maws.

Outside, Phil could vaguley feel what was happening to his golem--a side effect of its main material. It would be hard to get a new one, as he'd have to find someone to do it for him again. Why he'd had one made in the first place escaped him for the moment, but, as he stood out in the cold, Phil hoped that it would be of some use.

Premonitions saw the small elves scurrying away from the towering Yeti
he reached back and pulled out a largeish silver disk with a black glass
circle in the middle, he pushed it against his chest and a faint warping sound
was heard as he dissapeared, he contemplated pulling out his sword but the
cloaking device did'nt work for anything but the user, and a glowing
purple blade floating in the air was'nt exactly stealthy. He dashed
forward at full speed,jumped in the air and spun his legs
in mid air cathcing one Yeti in the chest, knocking it against the nearest wall
as he landed, he sweeped the ground with his other leg and did a
rising upper cut on the last. As they struggled to their feet,
he pulled out his sword and eviscerated all three in three quick motions,
all the while reapearing for a split second as he attacked. when the yeti
appeared dead, he returned his blade to the portal. and spoke commandingly to the shivering elves, while still surrounded in his warped light cloaking
"Where is he? we don't have time for tears"

[TEAM CASTLE]

The elves did the one thing that every self-respecting Christmas elf would do in this situation.

They resumed running...and screaming.

"That was smart," mammothtank snarled sarcastically. I need to slow them down somehow before I'll be able to catch them... Hey, that's it! Slow! Quickly reaching into his bag, MT pulled out a Spider's Silk and threw it at the frantic elves. The magical threads wrapped around them and vanished, slowing the elves down considerably. MT then dashed toward them, grabbed one in each hand, and sprinted back to the group. "Okay, who here knows Dispel?" he asked, setting the Slowed elves down.

IC came bursting through the front door just as Raiden made his way through the roof. He had set Pyros down for this, for he wanted to use both hands for this. As he came bursting in, a screaching sound just came into his head. He started to lose all consicense thought, but he didn't stop. From all the noise in his head, he was able to figure out that the cat was doing it, so the best thing to do was to kill the cat. He could tell how many of the cats there where, since he couldn't focus long enough to count, so he just dove into battle, and in battle, everything almost came on instinct, so he hoped he would be fine here.

Swinging the Wind Edge he charged the cat he thought that was targetting him. He swung, and missed, and then rolled away from the counterattack. He threw the Wind Edge in mid-roll, with his target jumping to the side to avoid the attack, then the cat pounced. IC rolled forward under the cat, getting a few minor scratches, but missing the entire blow. He got his Wind Edge and threw it again. He scraped the cat, and caught the Wind Edge on the rebound and blocked a few incoming swipes. The cat jumped back from the IC's next attack, and IC charged.

((OOC: New chapter up soon...as soon as I can think of a snappy title))

"I know dispel" Mike said as he approched the elves.

"It's okay, you two. We don't plan to hurt you. I'm going to cast a spell to let you move again, and then I want you to tell us if you know where Santa is. We're here to save him. Now, ●Dispel"

[edit] This post still counts, right?

Yeah...just let me go chance my opening post really quick.

New Chapter is up....but Team Castle's entry will be edited shortly.