Darth Xitan
The Sith Eternal
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Affiliation: The Cult of the Eternal
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Post by Darth Xitan on May 4, 2024 19:22:50 GMT -8
The loud boom caught the attention of Xitan who seemed relatively unfocused for a time. He was still healing from his own delirium... the echo of what was done prior caused an ache to remain within his muscles and a cloud to be present over his thoughts. The Sith could only hope for the relief of a bacta bath and then some quality bouts in the Pits to restore the natural order of his person. Seeing something being handed to him, Xitan's eyebrow went up when Dragus mentioned spiders.
Stars above, Dark Apothecary... you have a hellish eco-system down here.
Xitan grabs the scope and puts it over his eye, scanning the direction where Dragus had been looking. The Acolyte looked at the Saurian then back at what he was seeing. THOSE were spiders to him? Just what kind of alchemical mess called this place home. A hundred percent casualty rate now popped into the Sith's mind as he recalled his thoughts about this being an intriguing crucible for worthy Sith to try their hand at. Slamming the scope shut, he hands the item back to Dragus.
Elarinya, Sirona, use the Force to propel us off of hard obstacles to our flanks and rear. Give us a bit of push and give us more distance.
Xitan just didn't want to stick around much longer in these cursed depths.
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Darth Sirona
The Sith Eternal
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Post by Darth Sirona on May 5, 2024 21:31:06 GMT -8
Sirona had been hyper alert, passing through the swamp. Between making sure not to breath the toxic fumes, and keeping an eye out for a swamp rancor, the historian was plenty preoccupied even before their little dingy came under fire. The grip she held on the boat and Ela tightened in anxious anticipation to seeing if they would be hit. Luckily not this time. These "spiders" (whatever that meant to Dragus) were bad shots. Her gaze snapped over to Xitan as he said her name. And somehow, before he had said it, and without trying to peer beyond the veil of the present, Sirona knew Xitan's instructions before they left his mouth. Immediately, she summed her strength and with a signal to her red-skinned companion, she used her powers of telekinesis to shove their boat forward. Their best hope being to past the minimum range of the guns. She just hoped someone came up with an escape plan soon, because she was not having any luck thinking one up...
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Post by Elarinya on May 7, 2024 19:30:45 GMT -8
When the first cannon shot fired off, Ela had shifted off her seat slightly to put herself between Sirona and the Fortress. But the watery impact told her such an action had been unnecessary. But when all of the cannons fired, she knew that even her attempt to try shield the Librarian would not be enough. Instead, she followed the woman's lead in moving toward the back of the boat and leaning over the edge to see around those in the prow to spot obstacles poking up from the swamp. She focused the annoyance she'd felt from Xitan trying to order her around to direct the flow and currents of the Force into her hand and into a wave of energy. It flowed up and pushed against some debris, turning the boat to the right. Ela shifted her weight then, leaning over the opposite side to correct their course to avoid further wreckage. She kept one hand gripped upon Sirona's wrist, using it as a fulcrum as she moved about, with squeezes here and there acting as a means of non-verbal communication to co-ordinate their speed and direction
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on May 9, 2024 18:29:01 GMT -8
Despite the Draconian's melodic playing, Valefor kept a lookout around and ahead of them as they traversed the swamp on the dinghy. With the luck they'd had so far in Dragus' presence, he fully expected the Swamp Rancor to come out of the mists to try and eat them. He had the briefest moment of relief as the fortifications came into view and it seemed like their luck might hold out. However, such hopes were dashed as a single shot flew out from one of the cannons and landed in the water just ahead of them with Dragus uttering something about spiders. The walls soon erupted with fire as net-connected cannon balls started to fill the air
Not quite the rat-kin crowded warrens you promised Dragus...
As the boat jolted along at speed thanks to Elarinya and Sirona, The Stone of Had Abaddon glowed a bright green within the Eternus Caestus as Valefor raised his hand to manipulate the air currents. This sent some nets crashing into one another and others he gave more lift to so they would fly further out behind them. Like the Librarian, he was also hoping they would soon be too close for the cannons to get a shot on them. He turned toward Dragus and Xitan
Keep the nets off of our heads! I have a plan...
Plan was a strong word, but he shifted his focus from manipulating the currents of air and reached down into the ground with the force. They were speeding headlong into the foot of the fortress wall and even if they got there and managed to stop in time, there would undoubtedly be defences for such a situation. It would be a lot simpler if there was a door or opening in the wall, no?
He gripped a large chunk of rock and pulled it upwards through the ground, splitting everything above it apart as it hurtled up toward the base of the outer wall. It should smash through the foundations and become a projectile as it was fired up through the wall and eventually lodge itself in the cavern roof above
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Dragus
The Sith Eternal
In front of the Empire, to all you Vader haters out there. We'll blow your planet up.
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Post by Dragus on May 14, 2024 7:36:36 GMT -8
A thunderous crack briefly blotted out the roar of archaic cannon fire as the stone Valefor had sent flying with his telekinetic abilities collided with the outer battlements of Fort Bloodthorn, causing the thick exterior wall to implode at the point of contact, spraying the interior courtyard with smaller rocky debris. The impact loosened a layer of mould spore clinging to the slick damp walls, wafting upwards in an obscuring veil that made shadows of the monstrous inter-dimensional spider aliens inside the fort walls. The pace of fuming hellcannon muzzles increased as the dinghy began to close the distance between their previous position and the base of the walls, which themselves were at least a hundred feet high from top to bottom. In the gaps between smoke and Sith steel spewing wheeled emplacements, hideous arachnid figures covered in course dark hair came into view, hurling a hailstorm of long spears made of chitin and sharpened bone at the besieged scow our intrepid villains rode into battle, thrown with such strength they might as well have been loosed by ballista. One such projectile came dangerously close to the deranged drake lord riding at the back, puncturing the bench seat he was on and showering his side in rotten wooden splinters. For his part the Dark Apothecary focused his attention more on propelling them forwards with all due haste, the overlong serpentine appendage protruding from his backside now working overtime as it spun rapidly like a propeller prop, while their bestial escort had abandoned them the moment the water began to churn with cannon ball impacts."Thiz shouldn't be posssible." Exclaimed the sour saurian seated at the back. His fanged filled jaws hung open between spoken words, his forked tongue hanging out the right side and flapping in the swamp breeze created by their forward momentum, exhaling sulphurous breaths as his reptilian body vented heat from his overworked tail the only way that it could in the absence of sweat glands. He swallowed a mouthful of blood pooling at the bottom of his mouth from his weeping gums before continuing. "If the Charon have taken the fort..." He hissed hoarsely, using the invading alien arachnids actual name. "...then it meanz the Infinity Gate at the heart of Dragusssblight haz fallen. Thiz iz no longer a misssion of mere sssurvival and essscape, my preciouz petz, but sssomething far more seriouz. If we don't deny the spiderz here, there iz nothing in the Sssith Eternal arsssenal that can ssstop them from gaining a foothold in our galaxy short of blowing up Roon, and I jussst made a down payment on an ocean ssside essstate in Nime." The dinghy jumped out of the water as a cannon strike struck the swamp ahead of them and kicked up a wave that they rolled over like a ramp, causing them to all become briefly airborne before the bow splashed back down and they skated forwards again atop the murky water. Just ahead, the gap created in the outer wall by the Red Sage was coming into view.Eight limbed shadows emerged from the veil of mould spores and dust around the wound in the wall, revealing nightmare inducing figures that were worse to look upon than even their reflections suggested, each as large and as strong as a Phase III Darktrooper if somewhat lacking in modern technology. Their primitive nature appeared hardly a disadvantage, as they towered over even the largest of the Sith's number, standing atop four chitin armoured and segmented legs that seemed to end in insectile pincers. Atop the wall and down in the gap several of the intergalactic invaders could be seen offering their backs to the Sith essentially besieging Fort Bloodthorn, appearing to offer them insult by sticking out their bulbous abdomens in the teams direction. It soon became clear they had something else in mind than offending their foe when thick streams of silken thread spewed from their backsides, firing like whipcord launchers at the beleaguered boat that was falling apart beneath them. That webbing, for lack of a better word, stuck like fast setting ferrocrete to anything it touched. It crisscrossed their path ahead, forming a high tensile strength net to slow their progress and snare them in place. Rather than throttle down as there seemed little means of veering around it, Dragus pointed at the obstacle with one long crooked talon."Would one of you be a dear and do sssomething about that, pleassse?" He asked, before continuing to shed more light on their current predicament. "Az I waz sssaying, thessse spiderz have been desssperate to encroach on our galaxy ever sssince I firssst encountered their kind during my lassst excursssion into their home dimensssion of Otherssspace. An inhossspitable realm of drearinesss and death, absssent colour and on the verge of being ssswallowed by the very gravitational anomaliez that would ordinarily keep thessse Charon contained within itz borderz. Very bleak. You'd probably like it, Xitan. Unfortunately the ancient speciez of our galaxy were sssomewhat absssent minded where they left their tranz-dimensssional gatewayz. The spiderz gained accesss to a temporal bridge between their universsse and our own usssing an Infinity Gate excavated on their home-world, allowing them to enter our galaxy through any active gatewayz on the old Kwa network, sssuch az the gate Clan Russstrot dissscovered at the heart of Dragusssblight." He purposefully failed to mention that it was also he who had unearthed the gate on the Charon homeworld as he sought a means of escaping Otherspace after become trapped there following the death of the Corpse-Titan his darling daughter Wart had summoned in Salis D'aar, leading to Dragus and his fuzzy flockmates getting sucked into a rift in time and space, thus ending up on the shores of that disappointingly dreary dimension. "The high vermin council of Dragusssblight asssured me they had the sssituation contained, but I sssuspect they might not have been entirely honessst." The dinghy rocked as another cannon splash erupted in a geyser of swamp water off to their right.
Elsewhere in the Poison Marshes, the echoing booms and thunderous rumbles of Fort Bloodthorn's cannons stirred a slumber creature from its cold hibernation near the vine thick centre of the swamp, causing two leathery lids to lift as the beast's black eyes snapped open. Half submerged in a bed of mud, rat bones, and rotten vines was a hulking repto-mammalian with a thick scaly hide as tough as armour and two sharp ribbed horns that jutted out of its bone plated brow. As it rose out of the muck the monster revealed itself as bipedal, with two tree-trunk thick arms that ended in four claws as long as greatswords and as sharp as a toydarian merchants wit, sparking together as it squeezed the mud from palms that could swallow a full grown gamorrean in its grip.RRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! It roared for a second time in twenty minutes, this time fully awake as it seemed the swamp song refused to allow it to slumber in peace. The gargantuan monstrosity blinked bog water from its predatory gaze and began to lumber in the direction of the terrible pounding, its usually noticeable approach somewhat concealed by the sounds of combat it was now headed towards. Its stomach growled loudly like a Zalorian rock-lion with every mud squelching step.The Lady of the Bog had risen, and she was HANGRY. Lady of the Bog (aka, Villa's Mum)
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Darth Xitan
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 236
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Post by Darth Xitan on May 21, 2024 22:13:53 GMT -8
Xitan didn't know much about Infinity Gates, but Darth Melabor had mentioned something about these being the creations of some ancient race. Sith historical information was hardly his forte as the Acolyte sought to hone his skill as a warrior more so than having a brain for knowledge. He didn't really have time to listen to Dragus' story, so the moment the Sith Lord indicated the obstacle ahead, the Favored drew his lightsaber and propelled himself off the boat. With a good swing, Xitan cut straight through it before landing on a pair of rocks. He then propelled himself back, cutting into more of this webbing that threatened their escape. And so, he found himself landing on another rock behind the boat.
For a moment, Xitan's vision blurred. He holds his head for just a second before thrusting himself through the air, cutting the last bit of this strange webbing from their path. He lands firmly on a larger rock, just as a great roar was heard. The Acolyte turned, sensing a primordial presence now awakening within the bog. He made a mental note to never consider returning to Roon, even if Dragus offered a benefit for doing so. The planet was thoroughly rotten with what lurked beneath its surface now. Refocusing, Xitan waited to rejoin their company as the boat advanced once more.
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Darth Sirona
The Sith Eternal
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Post by Darth Sirona on May 23, 2024 11:41:16 GMT -8
Sirona held tight to the boat and Elarinya as they were all rocked about by near misses and then Xitan leaping out of it. He seemed to have the webs in control, Valefor was breaching the walls, and Ela could keep the boat moving, so Sirona took it upon herself to silence the guns. She raised up her hands, letting go of the boat and her companion, and channeled the Force through her. She scowled in concentration, as to her it seemed like green smokey wispy hands trailed out from the tips of her fingers and wrapped around the barrels of the cannons. She waited for just the right moment: right as the triggers were about to be pulled to launch a new salvo. When that moment came, Sirona closed her own hands into fists. The wispy hands around the barrels of the guns did the same to devastating effect. The metal tubes were suddenly misshapen and not at all the correct size or shape for their payloads to escape from. The blasts from the ramparts was extraordinary as cannon after cannon backfired and exploded, sending extradimensional invaders flying from the parapet. But that was not the only noise to echo through the cavernous darkness. She heard it like Xitan, a roar unlike any she had heard before. This must be the rancor the old lizard had warned them about. She couldn't help but feel a pang of curiosity, such a beast would be mighty indeed, and if it were like other Rancors, could possibly be reasoned with in a fashion, even if this one was more vicious...
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Post by Elarinya on May 23, 2024 18:26:48 GMT -8
There was a certain bond forged in the heat of a life-or-death situation which tended to supersede the need for verbal communication. No more true was that fact then in this moment as each person took to dealing with and focusing on different aspects of their attackers. As Sirona moved to deal with the cannons, Ela silently shifted her position and took over assisting their propulsion forward with Force Pushes directed toward nearby debris. Only occasionally did she have to divert her efforts towards throwing up a kinetic shield of energy to divert an incoming spear from ploughing through her chest. Still, she listened to the drake's explanation, growing more frustrated by the moment. Throwing him a dirty look
Oh? You only suspect they may have been lying?
Her focus was then pulled toward the Fort where a chain of explosions went off across the wall as Sirona's magic caused the cannons to backfire upon their new masters. As the roar echoed out across the underground cavern, Ela gave one last final massive push of energy to propel the rickety dinghy to the final salvation that was the beach at the base of the fort. She'd spent a decent amount of time on Dathomir when she was with the Resurgent Sith Conclave and thus had spent a some time amongst Rancor's. The tamed variety had been leashed to the will of a Nightsister but yet remained dangerous threats on the battlefield. The untamed variety had been a deadly threat and fiercely protective. The last thing she wanted was to have to confront the Swamp Rancor on water
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on May 27, 2024 19:28:47 GMT -8
As Valefor took a moment to recover from the effort of cracking the outer fort walls, he listened as Dragus leant some meaning to the situation they had found themselves. A great many names were things the Demon Lord recognized either from research or first hand experience. The Charon had been spoken of by a number of Jedi and Sith in the past, with one tome mentioning how Cronal had ventured to Otherspace and returned through the use of the Anti-Force. It was a dark and dangerous realm and the Charon had best been described as a death cult.
When some of his strength had returned, he returned to swatting away the nets as Dragus continued recounting his tale of a trip there. It had the hallmarks of many tales Dragus recounted, usually with his involvement in any events that were damning to him very much omitted
And I'm certain you had absolutely nothing to do with unearthing that gate, am I right Dragus?
He flinched a little as the Librarian rose up and extended her magic out to cause the cannons to implode, causing more of the fortress wall to disappear and cause chunks of stone to go flying. He hunkered down a little as Ela launched the dinghy forward when the roar of the Swamp Rancor echoed out across the bog
I'm afraid you may have to consider your financial investment lost. I would sooner see Roon blown up, than allow the Charon to establish a foothold in our galaxy if all else fails!
Gripping the Hastae, Valefor pushed himself up and into the air. His wings opened outward and glided him over to the shore upon which the Dinghy crashed into a few moments later. Without much time to rest and wait, he pushed on through the gap in the wall to begin engaging their other dimensional foes. Stabbing and cutting down spider after spider, drawing their life essence into the Stone of Dromund Kaas. They needed to get through the walls and see what the inside of the Fort and the area around the Infinity Gate looked like. The Rancor was a much lower priority issue and one he trusted his companions could contend with
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Dragus
The Sith Eternal
In front of the Empire, to all you Vader haters out there. We'll blow your planet up.
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Post by Dragus on May 28, 2024 11:10:23 GMT -8
Oh? You only suspect they may have been lying? KA-BOOM! KA-BOOM! KA-BOOM! A symphony of explosions returned his attention forwards as the hell-cannons at the tops of the walls simultaneously exploded, spilling spiders and stone shrapnel down over the sides of Fort Bloodthorn's battlements. Dragus turned his head, following the fading spectral fingers slipping back into the aether from whence they came, summoned by his learned niece of all Sith. A wicked smile split the lecherous lizard's snout from ear hole to ear hole, stretching impossibly beyond the borders of his face, that despite his lips saying nothing still made it clear the blood thirsty barabel was impressed. Shy and sensitive this librarian might be, the vitae running through her veins was host to some serious sorcerous might, enough perhaps to power the device he'd long been working on in the depths of a Nullus Beacon. A fleeting vision formed before his eyes.In his minds eye, Dragus saw the grand project he'd long been working on in the Nullus Beacon's lowest levels, a terrible device capable of rewriting the natural laws of the universe by harnessing raw Force energy and using it power a temporal trans-dimensional gateway linking Roon to the very same Infinity Way that had allowed the Charon to invade subterranean Dragusblight. He called it the Draginomicon. Essentially it was comprised of a seat of solid kyberite with nihil smokestone connection sockets that plugged directly into the nervous system of whoever occupied the throne, using them like a living battery to hold open the gateway, allowing the Dark Apothecary's minions to shore up and expand the Sith Eternal's portion of the Infinity Way. The device was somewhat parasitic, leeching the very life force of whoever graced the throne, thus the occupier must have a large reservoir of Force potential lest the throne would consume them too quickly and the gate would close. A serious hindrance to his progress to say the least. So far he hadn't found anyone capable of sitting on the device for a prolonged period of time. He surmised his brother Mortale might have been capable of sustaining the device indefinitely; however, the mission to locate the long lost lord of the Death had not yet been completed by Dragus' devoted family robot, Commodore Starkiller, and Havok's apprentice Tyna. Yet when he closed his sole remaining right eye... He envisioned Sirona strapped into the throne, Sith iron restraints holding her in place, her body and soul screaming simultaneously as the Draginomicon feasted on her very essence. Her pale eyes clamped open, unable to blink, unable to look away from the horror of her existence entombed and tortured until death.A disturbing word from the Fabricator General brought the Dark Apothecary's day dreaming mind back to their current unpleasant reality. I'm afraid you may have to consider your financial investment lost. I would sooner see Roon blown up, than allow the Charon to establish a foothold in our galaxy if all else fails! ! The scaled brow over his right eye went wide in alarm over Valefor's words. Destroy Roon? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. How could such a thing even be countenanced? The planet's stellar cartography made it perfectly positioned to serve as the lodestone for a great and terrible spell the Famine Lord had been devising for some time now. Rishi, Kamino, Pzob, and Ryloth had already been prepared, with Geonosis and Tatooine soon to follow, but Roon itself was the lynchpin. Too much time and effort had been spent preparing it already. No, the charon would just have to find some other world to serve as their launch point for a galactic invasion, this one was already taken. There was no time to argue, however, as the dinghy was sent briefly airborne before crashing hard into shore. Dragus' teeth rattled in his jaws as they painfully landed, cracking to pieces what little remained of the rotten bottom of the boat. He scrambled over wooden splinters and broken planks, grateful to feel the muddy beach between his toes as he set foot on somewhat dried land, amidst the chaos of their assault. Looking up, he saw Valefor's winged form already engaging the monstrous charon holding the gap in the wall above.Like his other companions (Valefor excluded for obvious reasons), the Dread Wyrm lacked the appropriate appendages to fly up to the opening in the wall, though it looked as though they could reach it with a bit of a leap. Not an awful idea either, he surmised, as he turned his snout to the side and spotted the Swamp Rancor they had heard slowly trotting around the far right side of the Fort. Its elongated horns preceded its horrific repto-mammalian head, which itself was full of nightmarish fangs as long as sword blades and likely equally as sharp. Its leathery brown hide was currently being pelted with debris and pinioned with throwing spears, though the creature seemed largely ignorant of its attackers, weathering whatever minuet wounds they could inflict upon it as it followed its large flaring nostrils towards the scent of something familiar. Dripping with mud and bog water, the twenty foot tall behemoth turned the corner, facing the four Sith still on the ground from its position roughly fifty meters away."Hope iz not yet lossst." Hissed the Hungering One, speaking bravely despite the audible gulp that caught in his throat or the demure tone that didn't quite match his bold choice of words. "I am not ssso foolish az to risssk an interdimensssional incursssion without putting into place a failsssafe. A seriez of ssseismic chargez were sssunk into the cavern ceiling above that run alongside a presssurized magma chamber, that when detonated, should bury all of Dragusssblight beneath a few million tonz of molten rock. I commisssioned the chargez conssstruction myssself usssing an experimental variant of collapsssium I devisssed one night after inssspiration ssstruck following the imbibing of ssseveral gobletz of bloodwine. Twice az powerful az ssstandard collapsssium, it should bring down the cave roof above, with only a sssmall chance of it igniting the atmosssphere. No more than 10% at mossst." Better odds than one would get at a casino on Canto Bight. "Mind you, to activate it we'll need the trigger-device. I isssued one to each Verminlord of Dragusssblight in the event the worssst happened. Chief Ssskaltera Brassclaw'z was built into an electro-cane he carriez, Shogan Chang Fang'z iz attached to hiz katana hilt, and Warlord Ssskeer Grimspine'z device waz...waz..." His fear faded and was replaced with clear confusion. "You know, come to think of it, I can't recall what Verminlord Grimspine'z failsssafe trigger lookz like, but sssurely one of thessse spiderz mussst be carrying it. I sssuggest we..."RRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! Dragus' words were cut off by another ear bleeding roar that sent shivers up his spine and sent water dribbling down his legs, and for good reason; the Swamp Rancor had begun to charge towards them. Eyes as red as a Sith's lightsaber blade narrowed as it spotted what it had scented. Not the strange molting lizard or the oddly masked primate, but the two females whose scent spoke to the beast's baseline DNA. It smelled Dathomir, its ancestral home, on the two darkside dames. "Every Sssith for himssself!" Snarled the Dark Apothecary, who bounded up into the air in an impressive and rarely performed acrobatic leap that sent the black scaled barabel skyward a few dozen feet, where his claws and talons found purchase in the slick stone of the fortress walls. Of course, the spiders didn't make it any easier, as they continued to hurl whatever they could get their filthy chitin covered mandibles on at the beleaguered Sith. Liquid streams of quickly solidifying web filled the air, several of which were aimed at Valefor's demonically inspired wings, as the charon tried to capture the largest Sith party member like a fly caught in...well, a web. |
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Darth Xitan
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 236
Affiliation: The Cult of the Eternal
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Post by Darth Xitan on Jun 12, 2024 14:39:55 GMT -8
All Xitan could do was curse under his breath as the Rancor not only found them, but charged too. As charons continued to spit their webs, the Acolyte did his best to redirect their attacks, at the boat, flinging it towards the Rancor in an attempt to slow it down. Then he felt the boat lurch as Dragus fled himself. The one damn person, on this boat, that could likely deal with his creation and he decides to call it quits and jump for the ceiling. Stars above, he better see sky after this and never go under Roon's surface unless it was to burn whatever was down here and clean it up.
The Sith looks around at where the Charons were, firing their webs to be a nuisance. He reached up, with a gloved hand, crushing the skull of one. Xitan then flings the fresh corpse at the Rancor, maybe it would like a prey that was closer and not too far away. Not much else the Acolyte could do besides fling things at the Rancor to keep it bay. As he did this, he looks at Sirona and Elrinya.
Fracking Roon... alright, you two, jump now!
Xitan would have to jump once the others did and, hopefully, the Rancor dove for the boat and destroyed that instead.
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Darth Sirona
The Sith Eternal
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Post by Darth Sirona on Jun 18, 2024 18:16:09 GMT -8
Sirona felt winded after her display in silencing the guns. But there was no time for that, not as things continued to escalate, as she managed to transfer off the boat, onto some slightly sturdier debris, and especially as the great beast rounded the corner. It's roar seemed to shake the roots of the planet, but it awakened something with in her. Some long buried ancestral memory somehow infused into her bloodline. She had been born and raised on Eshan before the Jedi found her, but she had never felt kinship with those people. Her stay on Dathomir had felt more like home than anything else. Time seemed to slow for her, everyone seemed to rush for the safety of the other side of the walls, but Sirona stood and looked at the mighty predator. She saw into it, and it saw into her. Two children born and raised away from where they should have been. The sorceress knew what needed to be done. Raising both her hands, she held them palms out, fingers splayed and bent. She took a deep breath and focused, hearing Xitan's call, but it was far away, despite their connection. From her fingers lept tiny bolts of blue lightning. They arched over toward the mighty Lady of the Bog and enveloped her as she rushed forward. Sirona was careful though, it was a show of dominance and not an attack. The historian held eye contact with the beast, displaying more confidence and certainty than she had ever managed to muster before. Something in the Force was telling her that the two were fated to meet and Sirona would return the creature to their rightful home. To the beast it was a display of power and compassion. Sirona could easily allow the cage of lightning to start stinging the beast, and while it would likely take more than that to bring a creature like the Bog Queen down, it would not have been pleasant. And as Sith and Spider alike fled, Sirona moved closer to the beast, one step at a time, eyes never parting from the might horned creature whom she felt growing connection with. The rancor likewise, continued its approach. And when the two were close enough, Sirona let the flow of power relent, and placed both lightning free hands on the great monsters face. And with that, the connection was complete. The Bog Queen and Sirona recognized each other for who and what they were. And the great monster reached out and gripping Sirona firmly, placed the newly self-discovered witch upon her back and let out another roar. And from the back of the great monster, Sirona let out a thought, rippling through the Force, mostly directed to her new mount, but also as a warning to her companions to stand clear: The Charon are not welcome here. Feast upon their flesh, my sister. And feast she would...
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Post by Elarinya on Jun 19, 2024 19:19:47 GMT -8
Her father's leap and rush forward had been something she had expected, though whether she figured it was cowardice or courage was not quite clear. But as the dinghy crashed onto the shore and she managed to get clear of it with Sirona, it was Dragus' actions that surprised her. She had not seen the Craven Crocodilian try to escape the cavern of the Dianoga. But now, she could see it in full view as Dragus muttered something about failsafes and explosives embedded in the cavern roof before scurrying away with all haste. With the beast charging toward them and the Charon still attacking from above, Ela knew there was not enough time to run. She ignited her sabers and defended Sirona as the Librarian seemed to have some plan to carry out for the Rancor.
It seemed like only moments passed before she spared a glance back to find the Swamp Rancor had come to a stop and Sirona was now mounted atop the beast. For the first time this trip, the safest place Ela found herself to be was not being close to Sirona. She jumped and rolled to the side as the Bog Queen charged forward into the fortress wall. Once the Sirona and her new mount were through, Ela ran after them, doing her best to protect the beasts rear from any Charon attack
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on Jun 24, 2024 15:17:59 GMT -8
Valefor had already bounded away and through the opening in the wall and thus did not hear Dragus discussing what ever fail safe plan had previously been prepared and how to activate it. He was much more focused on avoiding the webbing that the Charon were trying to shoot at him whilst he cut down some of their number. Sirona's magic with the cannons had already damaged their numbers in this part of the wall, making his progress all that much easier as he climbed the stairs and appeared out at the top of the wall and set his sight on what awaited them inside Dragusblight
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Dragus
The Sith Eternal
In front of the Empire, to all you Vader haters out there. We'll blow your planet up.
Posts: 1,413
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Dragus on Jun 25, 2024 7:06:08 GMT -8
"Well I'll be a Witch'z uncle." Remarked the reprehensible reptilian as he cast an inquisitive look over his shoulder, spying Sirona atop the Bog Queen she impressively managed to bring to heel. If Sirona's adoptive father hadn't failed to introduce her to the Eye, she likely would have been promoted under the Warmaster, who had maintained a stable of rancor imported to the Pzob from Dathomir as a wedding gift to Dark Lady Trace. His niece clearly had a talent for bending the wills of beasts. Looking back up the wall, the Dark Apothecary just barely managed to avoid the thrust of a spear aimed at his crocodilian visage by one of the monstrous Charon atop the wall. Unhooking his right claw from the fortress bricks it was sunk in to, he grabbed hold of the spear shaft and used it for leverage, quickly pulling himself up and over the edge of the battlements as the intergalactic spider attempted to withdraw its weapon. He-Who-Hungers sojourn into Otherspace had educated the black scaled barabel on the folly of attempting to engage the physically dominant Charon in melee combat. However, where combat failed, science excelled. Through a number of intense dissections, the Master of the Alchemical Arts had determined several vulnerabilities in the spiders physiology. As such, his left claw swept across the spear wielding charon's stomach just above where its abdomen and thorax connected, his razor sharp talons slicing through the protective chitin and opening his foe's belly. The charon was in shock, craning its head back to let out a fang filled death shriek as it expired on the spot.Cocking back an arm, Dragus plunged his claw into the severed opening and searched around the charon's insides, rearranging its guts while he sought out a particular organ. Once his scaled palm connected with a fleshy rope, the Dark Apothecary pulled back his arm, extracting a length of spider intestines from the intergalactic warrior's belly. Just in time too. A pair of towering eight foot tall charon, wide enough to take up the entire width of the walkway, came charging towards the Dread Wyrm on four hairy legs. The saurian Sith's scaled jaw dropped in panic and he began to back up, looking from side to side for an avenue of escape, only to have one of his clawed feet catch on a loop of extracted digestive tract torn from the spider he'd killed. When the loop pulled taught, Dragus was caught unaware and tripped, stumbling continuously backwards until he bumped the inner battlement lip and plunged over the wall towards Fort Bloodthorn's inner courtyard. "Palpatine'z black bonez!" Cursed the crooked crocodile as he fell, bracing his claws over his snout and closing his remaining eye tightly as he prepared to go splat. Then just before he struck the flagstones of the inner courtyard, the intestinal rope snapped tight, having reached its eventual end. As the gooey rope tightened, the Arch-Alchemist was swung through the air upside down, soaring over the inner yard as the Bog Queen exploded through the outer walls and veiled the courtyard in a cloak of dust."GAH!" Cried the villainous velociraptor as he swung by out of control, spilling the contents of his alchemy satchel down into the yard below. Glass spheres and tinctures of all manner shattered on the slick flagstones, erupting in colourful clouds of acidic vapour, hallucinogenic fear fumes, both growing and shrinking powders, powered rancor testical, Dragmentation grenades, and his secret mutagenic elixir of course, the Urcinis-Helix. Enemy arachnids caught out in the open were blinded and coughed up black viscus blood as their insides boiled, others curled into foetal balls as they suffered nightmarish waking visions of feral ewoks, and some went through various stages of physical change as the volatile mix of alchemy ingredients began to alter their immediate environment in ways most weird. From his elevated, if somewhat uncontrolled, position he was able to spy Elarinya and Xitan racing through the opening created by the Bog Queen. Looking up, or down given his current bodily orientation, the Dark Apothecary next spotted Valefor's winged form atop the wall. That's everyone accounted for then. Just in time too, as the inner portcullis leading into the castle began to rise. Beyond its thick Sith iron banded gates, the interior was shrouded in a murky gloom that made the Poisoned Marshes look like a beach on Tatooine, concealing the finer features of a figure lurking just beyond clear sight.From out of the darkness emerged the charon's leader, General Tarantulas, a hulking twelve foot tall charon encased in thick plate armour over hanging chainmail. The suit was comprised of a foreign element found only in Otherspace, a colourless alloy resistant to both energy and most ballistic attacks. Even its long segmented legs were sheathed in the alien steel, with only the charon's frightful fanged face exposed, glaring across the courtyard at Elarinya and Xitan with two eyes as red as blood. It raised a towering polearm that was taller than itself, thirteen feet long, that ended in a what looked to be a snarling mechanical vibro-saw with glittering diamond teeth. Anti-Force runes engraved into the casing covering the spinning saw blades glowed brightly with an intense sapphire light that seemed to stem the natural flow of the malevolent fey, acting as an opposing energy field that nullified or diminished the Force's currents. Polished ranat skulls hung from a sinew rope around the arachnid General's neck, along with an unusual jewel encrusted talisman shaped like an ewok, whose belly was studded with a polished stone that almost appeared as if it could be depressed when squeezed. << Death! >> Its thoughts, not so much words, were projected into the aether. There would be no negotiating. Unmistakably, this creature wanted to kill them, and it had its sights on two warriors in particular.Without waiting for introduction, General Tarantulas took to the field, charging towards Elarinya and Xitan. The armoured charon's weapon and reach were so long, it practically stood a dozen paces from them when it swung its growling chain-glaive from right to left, trying first to bisect the Demon's Daughter at the waist and then carry through towards Xitan's torso next.Elsewhere, the Bog Queen laid down a beastly and brutal beating on the intergalactic invaders in the courtyard, drawn most intensely by powerful genetic instincts to the charon coated in powdered rancor testical. It was perhaps due to this that the Bog Queen first missed the spider rising in her midst, emerging from the dust veiled courtyard floor as it began to grow larger in size. This particular charon happened to have been the recipient of one of the Dark Apothecary's spilled potions. In this case, a bag of ewok growing powder. Bug chitin bulged as the spider invader's already large body expanded upwards and outwards, stretching to reach the equivalent height of the swamp rancor terrorizing the courtyard. It let out a terrible ear blistering shriek that rattled the brains of a still swinging saurian Sith soaring through the air above.SSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! THUD! THUD! THUD! The courtyard flagstones vibrated underfoot as the enlarged charon charged towards the mounted Bog Queen, attempting to grapple the swamp rancor, completely inattentive to any of its fellow spiders squished underfoot in the process.
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Darth Xitan
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 236
Affiliation: The Cult of the Eternal
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Post by Darth Xitan on Jul 1, 2024 21:00:54 GMT -8
Xitan, with his lightsaber still ignited, moved quickly to parry the attack of the larger Charon. His red blade slashed across the air, parrying right into the chain-glaive. Sparks flew from the metallic chains that grinded against the plasma of his blade. The Acolyte braced himself, but still slid back against the force of the foe that sought to cleave both Elarinya and himself. Xitan grits his teeth, visibly showing that he was using his strength, all he could muster after yesterday's events, prevent the general from breaking through and finishing him off. The Sith felt the heat of his plasma near his body as he held his ground finally.
Well, aren't you just fracking ugly huh?
Xitan chuckles as he proceeds to parry the glaive to the side. However, he didn't know this foe. So, instead, the Acolyte kept his distance, trading blows with the general. He jumped over the blade a few times, testing how this Charon fought. The reach of the weapon was quite extensive and this big bastard certainly had an expertise. A few times, there were moments when he slipped, but kept his composure and the movement going. Frack, this foe had quite the skill...
Where the hell are you weak...
Xitan mutters to himself as he ducks under his lightsaber, parrying another blow that was aimed for his head.
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Darth Sirona
The Sith Eternal
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Post by Darth Sirona on Jul 8, 2024 6:53:34 GMT -8
The Lady of the Bog let out a mighty roar again and spit out the half chewed Charon as she was excited by the arrival, seemingly from thin air, of a real challenge. The massive spider creature and the Lady were soon grappling at each other in vicious combat. It seemed like a scene straight out of "Zillobeast Vs. MechaZillobest" or another such holovid spawned from the Zillobeast attack on the old Republic's capital all those years ago. But the witch was not able to admire the spectacle for long from astride her new mount. One wide haymaker from the mighty spider being barely missed connecting and sent Sirona tumbling from the back of the rancor and landing hard on her back with a whimper. But she didn't have time to assess her injury, for she needed to roll away as giant feet were soon pounding into the stone where she had fallen.
Sirona next had to quickly spread her legs apart as the downward swing from a regular sized Charon blade nearly missed slicing into them. Drawing upon her power in the Force, she sent a wave of energy at the assailant, sending him flying back into the midst of the giant feet, leaving his blade embedded in the rocky ground. Gritting through her pained back, Sirona quickly got onto her feet and drew out her saber again. Quickly she scanned the battlefield. She found that Ela and Xitan were fighting what she could only assume was the leader of this invasion, but there were still many other spiders that needed killing. So that's what she would focus on. She lacked the energy at the moment for another big display of power. Between silencing the artillery and taming the Lady of the Bog, Sirona was feeling more and more tired. So it was down to saber work for her... Force help them.
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Post by Elarinya on Jul 9, 2024 21:01:40 GMT -8
Ela had leapt backwards out of instinct as the massive chain-glaive came swinging through the air toward her, knowing she lacked the bulk to stop it or deflect it. Xitan, on the other hand, had tanked the strike. If it had been her, she'd have been launched halfway across the courtyard from the force and momentum. But stoic as he was, Xitan seemed to act like the hit had been nothing and called the 12-foot tall Charon ugly
My thoughts exactly...
Was she agreeing with Xitan the Spider was ugly, or perhaps implying she thought he was ugly? Who could really say, it was the heat of battle after all. With Tarantulas primarily engaged with Xitan, Ela circled around the gargantuan Charon to get into his blind spots. Her pair of crossguard sabers sliced through a number of Charon Guards that had accompanied their leader onto the battlefield. But unlike the General, they had not been outfitted with his same fancy armour leaving them way more vulnerable to being cut in half. Once behind the towering hulk of metal and alien carapace, Ela launched herself at Tarantulas' back with spinning blades slicing through the air. But the moment that they hit the metal, they deflected away without a scratch upon the armour. The butt end of the Chain-Glaive came ramming backwards through the air and into her stomach, launching her back several feet before crashing to the ground.
Thankfully the Masked Sith Warrior was doing his job of distracting the Spider Giant so that she could push herself up off the ground and catch her breath. She was definitely going to be feeling that hit for a while after. She tightened her grip on her sabers, she was getting real tired of these Forced-Damned Spiders in this Force-Damned Fortress. She dug deep into her rage, letting it pull the Force down into her core and out through every nerve ending in her body. She became a red blur as she let out a roar of anger, dashing across the corpse strewn field and jumped up into the air. She swung both arms around and underneath the Charon's, using her blades to help bind them up so they could not attack
The Face! STAB IT!
Ela clung tightly to the Charon, hopefully creating the opening that Xitan would need to finish the bug off
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on Jul 11, 2024 23:34:05 GMT -8
From his vantage point atop the outer wall of the fortress, Valefor had a clear view of the battlefield within the courtyard below. The Charon forces were almost innumerable as they poured out of the inner walls, but despite this the battle appeared to have come down to two important fights. One was between The Despot and his Daughter against an armoured Charon that stood well above its companions. The other was the Witch and the Lady of the Bog against a Charon that seemed to mutate into a larger size out of nowhere. No doubt some project of the Dark Apothecary was responsible. Of the Villainous Crocodilian, Valefor could see nothing but he could sense the saurian's presence within the Force still which meant he was still alive. A fact he was not necessarily happy nor sad about.
All this meant that the Demon Lord of Hypori was left to his own devices as he shifted his focus from the outer courtyard to the inner one. Rising above the walls was the massive alien architecture of the Infinity Gate that was buried down here upon Roon. There was definitely a conversation to be had about the Dastardly Draconian's penchant for keeping discoveries such as this secret. If he was being honest with himself though, it would be a wasted conversation as Dragus would doubtless ignore what ever was said.
The gem-encrusted floral pendant in his pocket glowed red before the green skirt and top clad Lady Alysane appeared atop the wall next to him. Despite being an ethereal ghost, she still seemed to have some habits from when she was alive such as brushing her hair side and shading her eyes to see betterAn Infinity Gate... I never saw one in person, much less active. You certainly take me to all of the nice places Lord Valefor.I certainly try... So I assume you've not got some mystical wisdom for dealing with it?The Sorceress shook her head before looking down and examining the corpses of the CharonOnly that I wouldn't try using their corpses for any of your magic. As creatures of Otherspace, Anti-Force infects their bodies.That's probably smart... Guess I'll just try smash it apart. Stay hidden for now.Alysane gave a nod before disappearing into the aether as Valefor searched around along the wall. The Ranats of Dragusblight might have been defeated and overrun by the Charon, but it appeared that the spider-like invaders had not had a chance to clean up all of the bodies yet. Or perhaps they had been gathering them in piles to be devoured. What ever the case, Valefor pulled a carcass from one such pile and back to where he had been standing. A swift slash of his claws opened the corpses torso and allowed the Demon Lord to drip the butt end of the Legionis Hastae into the vitae. With his writing material sorted out he began to draw out the spell circles and runes necessary for the Dwomutsiqsa Ritual.
He'd become quite proficient with the spell over the years since summoning his first demon. Now the biggest challenge he had was summoning something big enough at the right distance away to take out the Gate Structure. A task that was easier said than done.
But Valefor was not so easily intimidated as he finished up the spell work and stood tall at the centre of the circle. He raised his left hand, the Avaritia Stone glowed a purple as the Demon Lord drew in as much energy as he could. Solari glowed red as the life force of the Dianoga was surrendered up and absorbed by the Eternus Stone. Valefor clenched his fist and started his chantWoyunoks hadzuska koshûjontû.
Dranas nairi diâ nuniji wos ki zûtaikima,
qutzi sosûti anas ani kayti arsia
ki na j'us kiha shanwi
kaj is ki driyiworiHe repeated the incantation five times in total, the sigil below his feet lighting up with a crimson glow, with Valefor slamming the open palm of his gloved hand upon the spell work. A burst of energy was kinetically imparted downward and then outward across the courtyard and into the inner sanctum where it struck the ground just behind the Gate. Valefor lifted his gaze and stared at the triangular structure. He was holding his breath, waiting... waiting.... and then suddenly a beast of smoke and flames burst forth from the ground, letting out a primal, demonic roar. It did not wait overly long as it pushed forward, gripping the frame of the gate and attempting to tear it apart
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Dragus
The Sith Eternal
In front of the Empire, to all you Vader haters out there. We'll blow your planet up.
Posts: 1,413
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Dragus on Jul 12, 2024 7:06:16 GMT -8
The inner portcullis of Fort Bloodthorn was comprised of banded beams of solid Sith iron, forged by the vermin-smiths of Clan Ashspore that made their burrows near the base of Mt. Tawntoom, tapping into the geothermic flow of molten fire that bubbled up to the surface from beneath the planet's crust. It was said that those gates could withstand the impact of a thousand Jedi battering rams or a hundred ewok battle wagons. Champions of the Light would find their path barred by fortifications imbued with power anathema to their own, but, these weren't heroes banging on the doors with shimmering pearlescent blades, charging the gates on the backs of noble steeds.These were Sith. Comprised at their core by the same dark sorcery that had spawned the Crimson Lord's smoke demon, the bars of the gate began to glow and mimic the fiery orange of the flames engulfing them, super-heating in moments as the summoned spirit of chaos granted temporary escape from its spiritual prison by Valefor's arcane ritual vented its primal fury upon them. Inch thick Sith iron warped and twisted in the demon's grip, boiling where it made contact with the flaming apparitions corporeal hands, blistering everywhere else. In moments the portcullis crumpled in on itself as the materials it was comprised of melted into a molten stream and evaporated into black smoke, further fueling the darkside manifested creature's hell-spawned form. Such a sight of terrible power would have been enough to break most battle lines. The Eye only knew the storm-vermin of Clan Skrittlespike that previous infested the fort would have scattered from the flaming creature's path. But the interstellar invaders were zealous followers of the Death Cult, ironically worshipping the Famine Lord's brother much to the charon's own ignorance, and formed a shield wall in the path of the smoke demon. They linked tower shields nearly as tall as they were, resting the hafts of scavenged ranat halberds with rusted edges atop their makeshift barrier, bravely holding the line in the face of inevitable fiery immolation. Every second they held the smoke beast back, was another opportunity for more of their arachnid kin to come through the open Infinity Gate active inside the fortress. Shoulder to shoulder, they marched in two matching columns as they emerged from the trans-dimensional portal, stepping foot into the throne-room where the ancient Kwa device was located. Foot thick swinging doors of iron hard Pzobian oak imported from the Eye's Cradle were all that stood between the inner chamber and the flaming spectre in the hall, spilling red embers and black smoke beneath its frame, causing the charon emerging from the Infinity Gate to cough and hack up dark sputum. When finally that last barrier burst inwards with a splintering crack, it was because the arachnid warriors out in the hall had now been reduced to ash, leaving behind scorched suits of eight legged armour as Valefor's summoned creature entered the throne room in the form of a raging inferno. Newly arrived spider warriors were swept away and incinerated in seconds, their insectile chitin flaking away in the fire storm, and absorbed into the growing conflagration. As the smoke demon charged the triangular Infinity Gate and gripped the unknown material that comprised its ancient frame, it met with more resistance than the Sith iron gates of the fort. Whatever material the Kwa built their interstellar transportation devices with, it was meant to last the ages, weathering even the worst of darkside sorcery. While the portal might continue to resist, those traveling the temporal path from Otherspace to this current reality found themselves routed by a pyroclastic cloud pouring through the open portal. The smoke demon's exertions were causing its incorporeal form to spill through the portal, setting flame to the Infinity Way connecting the two points in space-time.Behind the fire assailed Infinity Gate was the filth covered throne of Clan Skrittlespike, sitting vacant since the Fort's fall to the charon, and behind that was the entrance to a curling spiral staircase built into a large stone pillar supporting a portion of the weight of the cavern roof above the Fort and the Poison Marshes. It was known as Squeaker's Steppe, an ascending stairway that connected to the black cells that served as the lowest levels of the Fortress of Tawntoom, below even the fleshpits of the Dread Wyrm's apothecarium. It was said that the deranged draconian found the sound of blood curdling screams uttered by the tortured throats of the black cells occupants to be quite soothing, often listening to their desperate pleas as a one might the tweeting or birds or chirping of crickets, white noise to help him concentrate. From top to bottom the spiral staircase was comprised of thirteen thousand steps, a sacred number among the ranat clans of Dragusblight. Far from an easy climb, that obstacle served as a final test of endurance for any of them lucky enough to make it out of this adventure, which was still far from certain.
Somewhere below Fort Bloodthorn's battlements and above the blood slick flagstones of its inner courtyard, the Dark Apothecary continued to swing overhead, with an intestinal rope remaining firmly looped around his right ankle. The other end was still attached to its owner, whose gutted body was pressed up against a murder hole atop the wall, effectively anchoring the taut length of digestive tract. Hanging upside down, the Hungering One was able to spy flashes of Xitan and Elarinya's ongoing duel against General Tarantulas, before finding himself flung back the other way like some sort of lizard pendulum. Truth be told, all this swinging upside down was making him feel a bit nauseous, hardly sitting right with the healthy portion of rat blood stew he'd imbibed during their earlier rest period. Dragus' belly groaned and he felt his gorge rise up as bile built in his throat, contained only by the drake lord quickly clamping his jaws shut. It was at this point that he spied the out-of-place amulet hanging from the arachnid warlord's gorget, depicting a jewel encrusted ewok with a polished stone belly begging to be squeezed. A lightbulb lit above the villainous velociraptors head, or rather below, given that he was still hanging upside down. As Elarinya had mounted the General's back and yelled at Xitan to stab it in the face, the Dark Apothecary added his own two cents as he swung by overhead."The talisssman!" He hissed, then disappeared behind rising pillars of alchemical fog as he swung across the courtyard. Seconds later... "Ewok around itz neck!" He snarled again, only to vanish back into the veil of potion fumes. "It'z the trigger!"It was all coming back to him now. After running the math and coming to the conclusion that Dragusblight would eventually fall to the intergalactic threat if he wasn't able to locate the other gates and stem the spider tide by attacking the problem from numerous fronts, he had come up with a failsafe device to ensure mutual destruction should the worst come to happen. Several devices in fact, though Skaltera Brassclaw's had likely been destroyed after the former Verminlord of Clan Rustrot was killed following the Doom-Balloon attack on the Geonosian Royal Colosseum. Fortunately now that all the blood was rushing to the black scaled barabel's head, he was able to recall the trigger he had given to Skeer Grimspine of Clan Skrittlespike, had indeed been an ewok shaped talisman. Its belly, when squeezed, would begin the chained detonation of modified seismic charges embedded in the cavern ceiling. Each one of those charges contained enough alchemically enhanced collapsium to bring down the millions of tons of rock overhead, rerouting earthen arteries of molten magma connected to Mt. Tawntoom, flooding the Under Empire in lava. Of course, the General had no intention of making it easy for them to get at the device.Like a rampaging reek at the yearly Geonosian Stampede, the gleaming armoured form of General Tarantulas tried to buck the red skinned Sith woman from his backside, locking her arms and twin sabers in place so that the arachnid's exposed hideous spider face was open to Xitan's next attack. With its chain-glaive trapped above its head, the massive armoured spider had one last play, focusing its glowing red eyes on Xitan in a potent glamour. Hardly a mewling Sith pup, the Acolyte's training would have included fortifying his mind against mental suggestion, but this was something else entirely. A product of Otherspace, the charon's very presence was antithetical to this reality, polluting everything it touched. Though its words were utterly alien and unknowable, its intention was made clear, broadcast in a telepathic assault on Xitan's very mind. Surrender! Submit! It sought to erode the willpower of its foe. It shared those same resolution weakening thought projections with the crimson gnat upon its backside as well. Give up! Give in!
After his warning had been given, the Wizard Lizard found himself once again swinging back the other way, though by this point he had reached his fill of acrobatics and was seeking an escape. Manipulating his overlong tail, He-Who-Hungers brought the serrated edge of the spike blade capping the appendages end up to the intestinal rope he was attached to, then proceeding to drag the blade across the stretched length of digestive tract. Dragus dropped like a stone, spinning in the air so that as he landed, his foot talons touched down first on the stone steps of the courtyard. Extremely dizzy, he stumbled around the battlefield, somehow avoided being trampled by the charon-turned-kaiju wrestling with the swamp rancor before he eventually doubled over at the waist and threw up the contents of his stomach on the ground. A putrid pile of half digested rats blood and poisonous mushrooms created an oil slick of vomit that remarkably ended up beneath one of the four heels of the enlarged arachnid, causing the limb to slide out from beneath it, granting the Lady of the Bog an opening to climb atop its opponent and begin clubbing its fists into the giant charon's chest. Each time the rancor brought its powerful hammer fists down, a warm mist of spider ichor and blood sprayed out from the monster's sides, spilling from cracks in its chitin shell that grew larger with each impact. Close as he was, the saurian Sith found himself coated in the revolting dark substance, to the point where it practically dripped from his scales.Wiping spider blood from his remaining eye with one claw, he extended his other, summoning the Gorgon's Eye from where it had fallen during his tumble over the fortress battlements with a telekinetic tug. In seconds the unnecessarily ornate saber-cane slapped into the Dark Apothecary's palm, who quickly unscrewed the single handed lightsaber from the top. Sliding his thumb over the activation stud, he brought the screaming red blade housed in its emitter to life. SNAP/HISS! The energy blade shrieked in his grip, louder than any lightsaber had right to be, resonating with waves of sound that distorted the air around it. Housed inside the silvered hilt was an unstable dragite crystal mined from the mountains of M'haeli during the dark years of the NOE's occupation of the planet. Of course, activating such a weapon was like turning on a light in a room full of moths. It earned him the instant attention of the arachnid warriors around him. A swarm of spear wielding charon were on the Famine Lord in seconds, eager to have their vengeance on the one responsible for an entire generation of suffering back on their homeworld.You could imagine their surprise when the weapons they wielded exploded in their grip upon contact with the Dread Wyrm's caterwauling lightsaber blade, as at close proximity the plasma sword emitted sound waves capable of tearing through matter at a molecular level. Chitin, steel, and meat was disintegrated rather than sliced or seared apart, transforming even the smallest slash into a gaping wound. Dragus murdered his way towards Sirona, each single handed swing splitting open a spider and scattering its remains across the courtyard. "All thiz delightful spiderz blood." Rasped the reprehensible reptile, spilling scalding ropes of saliva from his jaws as he bared the forest of triangular fangs occupying his terrible maw. "And me, without a cup to catch it in. Siss, Siss, Siss!" The crocodilian cackled, coming up behind his niece as she opened a charon's throat with the edge of her lightsaber blade, splitting its chitin enough to allow a spray of boiling spider blood to wash over the approaching barabel's scaled visage. He opened his jaws wide, allowing the filthy vitae to pool in the lower half of his mouth before swallowing a steaming gulp. "Very nutritiouz, spiderz blood. Full of electrolytez." That probably wasn't true...
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