Insanity Quest Chapter 7: Traitors Betrayed
 

As Aeryn and Viska plan, another force marshals its might. It prepares itself and then strikes. Still wearied from their duel, Aeryn and Viska barely have time to react as they sense a dimensional anchor spell being cast. But this is no ordinary dimensional anchor - it works both ways, preventing things being summoned as well as stopping extradimensional travel. Nigh simultaneously a second spell cuts off any way to converse with magic outside this area.

And this is just the beginning. Twin dispels come out of nowhere, one targeting Aeryn and the other targeting Viska. Though it would not stop Viska and Aeryn from casting spells, it would disrupt most of any protective magics currently cast upon them and temporarily make their magical items useless.

Their attackers appear. Mercury and Myrra slowly walk towards the half-drow mage and the disguised marilith. Protective spells flow around them, their wards merged together for greater strength. Dragon and sorceress side by side, they appear calm, their movements delibrate. While they do not say a single word, their actions are clearly well coordinated. They speak but the words that come from their lips are in the language of magic. Spells of weakening, of subduing and of binding. The chance of victory looks slim for Aeryn and Viska - they are faced by prepared magic users whose resources have not been depleted by dueling and who are quite ready for anything that might be thrown at them.

"Ver..." Viska almost replies, turning around, slightly suprised by being discovered. Mercury and Myrra had showed up because Aeryn had spent too much time screwing around.

"Well, well, well." Viska manages to say, before being hit by the dispel, forcing her back into her Marilith form. "Quite clever, I'll give you that." She comments, "You, dragon, are ssso fickle. We're not plotting to kill you, and you know that." she hisses, rolling her eyes.

Mercury replies to her, his voice not filled with rage but an old sorrow, "I know that and I also know too much of your master. I have known him of old and faced one of his greatest servants. There I lost what was most precious to me and I only survived because he thought me beneath his notice. Your master is unspeakable and unnameable, compared to him I am but a candle beside a star. But I do not need to defeat him, I only need to stop his plans. I have sensed the coming darkness and I know of the doom that looms over this world. I can not do anything other than oppose him." Then Mercury, silver-blue scales glowing with a pale sheen, hurls his spell at Viska. Many thin strands of blue energy streak out at her, attempting to entwine and entangle the mairilith in their clinging grasp.

"Not again..." Viska sighs, as she is once again bound by a planar bind spell. "You have no idea how easy it would be to break this, but I will ssstill hear what you have to ssay." the Marilith continues, "Certainly you cannot expect to thwart my master'ss plans ssimply by killing me. Oh, you want me to join you and asssisst you in thwarting his plans. Well, I ssimply cannot allow that." she offhandly mentions.

"Now... I sshall escape your little cage. You are rather cautiousss around me, hmm?" Viska inquires, grinning. She closes her eyes, concentrating. The spell was rather well enforced by Myrra and Mercury, but no simple bind spell ever held a greater deamon for very long. Viska probed it with her mind, hitting it simultaneously with her full resistance toward spells, seeking to find a weak point. Once found, she opened her eyes, grinned, and uttered a word no mere mortal could ever speak. The blue coils instantly shattered. "Effortlesss." the Marilith hisses, grinning.

((The spell grants three different saves. I'm bound to make one.))

Aeryn grins, picking up a Rod and casting a Disjunction, "Mercury...you have once more made an imbecile of yourself. First, you gained my emnity and made me into one of the most powerful creatures to walk the planet...now, you seek to kill me and slay my ally. You utter fool. We had no intention of injuring you, yet you persist in this..." Mercury's wards vanished, like the skins peeled one by one from an onion. The mage raised his hand, the ring glittering on it. Few of Mercury's spells could bypass his spell resistance ((equal ECL does not an equal Caster Level make!)), but Myrra might stand a chance, and he still was unsure about her true orgin.

"You haven't been casting spells, true, but do you know how many I now possess?" he felt the Dimensional Anchor break beneath his Disjunction, "She is nearly as cautious as I, and despite however in the Nine Hells you learned of our plans, we are both well-prepared to defeat you."

In Viska's mind, and her mind ONLY ((unless Mercury is some kind of epic-level Telepath as well)), Aeryn's voice rang out, Summon whatever you can, I have a plan.

((You do realize he broke all our toys, don't you? I assume that includes the ones on the table. Fortunately, I brought a beforementioned nonmagical item that will achieve similar results.))

"Aeryn. You may wissh to note that that item is temporarially disabled." Viska rolls her eyes. "Very well Mercury, You've got me. I sssupposse you desserve this." she casually reaches for a small paper-wrapped bag, tied with a string, and gently tosses it to Mercury. As the dragon tries to catch it, or bat it away, the paper bag rips open, string tearing off, spraying blue dust across the entire room. Wards spark and sizzle, magic items all over go haywire. The dimensional anchor breaks, as the Powdered Chorzite fans out across the room.

"Good ssuprisse. I'm glad I didn't usse that for Aeryn. Now that we are both at each other's mercy, let uss begin."

((*Pointing down* You can't even invoke a breeze! The place is throughly locked down by an anti-magic field!))

((OOC: Nah...he's being stupid. Dimensional Anchor, which he would have trouble casting, would have no such effect...as you'll see when I shove a Wand of Wonder up his dragonic nose.))

"Not anymore..." he smirked as his Disjunction crushed Mercury's remaining spells like an egg, "Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?" he whispered a word, and a gust of magical breeze blew the chorzite dust onto the invaders...leaving Viska, Aeryn, and their items untouched.

OOC: Well, I’m bored, so I might as well attempt to not screw this rp up anymore.
BIC:
But it was not over. The chorzite never touched Myrra’s or Mercury’s side.
Myrra raised her left hand, its scar revealed and seeming to pulse with dark energy. Her index trailed a rune lazily into the air, and before they could react, a large, egg-like shield slammed down, deflecting the chorzite dust with ease. Myrra and the blue dragon stood within the elongated sphere of her rune shield, protected by anything BUT other rune spells.
Then, with another expert slash of her hand, she brought another larger shield into existence, extending around, above and, yes, below the ground and around Viska and Aeryn and the extending chorzite dust, halting its progress.
But, before that happened, there was a flash of feathers and slime. Tiral leapt into the middle of Viska and Aeryn’s trap, leering happily.
When Myrra finally spoke the common tongue, and not one of magic, there was also a heavy tone that seeped from her relaxed demeanour.
“The Forbidden God’s minions are many, and deviously secret. It is no wonder that you two have joined the Damned One as his slave, as his offer for ultimate power is enticing for one as ambitious as you, Aeryn. But even the empty void that had housed my heart is filled with sadness at your downfall,” Myrra’s golden eyes pulsed silver, before crackling with lightning. “But Mercury and I have the same purpose. We have served under the Forsaken God and have found it a bitter struggle. Even if it means bringing the wrath of My F—our god down upon us, I will refuse you the joy of triumph in this present world, and will face you knowing I can win.”
Even with that slight slip-up in her words, she knew that she had given too much away. There will be much explaining afterwards, when she and Mercury have finally subdued the two. But, for now, she gave the signal that Tiral was waiting for. The winged eyeball gave a gleeful yip, before activating his self-destruct system that will have him implode into a spray of mild-poisonous gas and disgusting, corrosive slime that would eat through anything but Myrra’s shields.

OOC: there's godmodding for you :) Feel free to bludgeon me to death for screwing this up, and I'll edit.

OOC: All I'm gonna ignore is "can't be affected by anything other than Myrra's spells/Rune magic", to a certain degree. It would be possible to penetrate them, but it would take a bit longer than usual to study the unfamiliar magic. Also, it's possible to teleport from one side of such a shield to the other. Walking through or casting spells directly through it (like shooting lightning at Myrra) wouldn't work...or at least, I'm not going to try it.

IC: Aeryn grinned, and cast Fleshshiver. Tiral stopped, his eyeball bulging with the pain, as Aeryn reached out and lightly touched him on the wing, whispering a word of arcane power.

Tiral reappeared directly behind Myrra, and exploded in a shower of gore...not lethal, since his self-destruct hadn't taken effect...just very, very messy.

"Your shields hurt you more than you hurt me..." he said teasingly, even as a shimmering Prismatic Sphere, colors shifting constantly across its surface, appeared around the shield he and Viska were enclosed in. From the outside, it was opaque...neither Mercury nor Myrra would be able to see him, and the respawned Tiral wouldn't be able to teleport into an area he couldn't see into.

If he tried, Aeryn was ready for him.

"Downfall, Myrra? How so?" he called out, wondering if she planned to respond...and ready in case she tried eliminating his barrier to get at him.

((Two can play that game. I've got an Ens... Intelligent sword. Right.))

Viska sighed, "I AM a damned one, you idiot." she hissed, casually unslinging her bag of holding and dumping out 7 swords. grabbing her old six and slinging the sheathes back onto her reptilian body, she talks to the 7th sword, an ornate longsword, laying on the ground, still in it's sheathe.

"Ssspellbane!" She adressed the weapon.
"Mfummfh!" The sword replied.
"*Curses*" *Picks sword up and draws it* "Ssspellbane!" Viska repeats, adressing the sword again.
"Dammit Viska, stop jamming me in that thing! And I heard you the first time!" the sword replies, it's eyeball in the pommel pivoting and taking in the area. "Oh... don't tell me that's another rune-mage." Spellbane finally says, shooting a harmless red eye ray at Myrra.
"Yesss. I want you to kill it." Viska says dryly, leering at the sword.
"Allright, allright. I'll kill one of my few remaining art's members. *sigh* Not like I have a choice in the matter." The sword sarcastically continues, rolling it's eye.
"Good. I want you to casst a fireball at her."
"Fine, fine. Swing me." The sword grimly replies. "NO! not like that. you have to draw the rune. Here, let me show you." Spellbane corrects, projecting a mental vision of the rune into Viska's mind.

Viska swung the intellegent weapon, drawing the rune in the air, the soul-entrapped rune mage in the weapon being forced to obey and cast the fireball rune straight through Myrra's shield.