fadewalk | Demon Hunt: Grey Warden Party (Anders, Sigrun & Alistair)

Neria left the dungeons and strode to the courtyard, green eyes carefully scrutinizing the battlements; there was some good time since she had to hunt down a demon. Actually, the first (and last) time she had done it was during her mission to set Kinloch Hold free from Uldred and the Sloth Demon. In that occasion, she was also in the Fade, hunting a demon, but not in flesh like now. And the consequences of losing herself to the Envy Demon seemed far more dire as well.

Fortunately, like before, she had people she trusted by her side (and, with a bit of luck, she wouldn't even have to save them from their own minds). Now, it was just a matter of time until they find the demon.

She paced, turning and spinning her staff in her hands without really noticing her gestures, waiting for them to gather. Demons weren't really the Grey Warden speciality, but with two mages, a former templar and a legionnaire of the dead, Neria was confident.

(ooc: hey guys! neria/anders/sigrun/alistair for the rp order)

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Sigrun was a blur when she she figured out what Neria was doing, darting in close to sink her blades into whatever demon parts she could get at, and then dashing away only to dart back in again. It was difficult to track her movements in the flurry of the battle, but she seemed to be able to avoid the fireballs well enough. Long practice with the likes of Velanna and Neria, after all.

She let Alistair charge the front of it and focused her attacks mainly on the sides and back of the demon. It was only because she was backstabbing the demon's legs with a twin fangs attack that she even saw Anders move to switch to lightning instead of fire. She yanked her blades out again with a spew of gore and rolled away as quickly as she could, only narrowly avoiding getting caught in the cast and electrocuted.

"Warn a girl next time, Anders!" she hollered at him, grinning ferociously.

It was smooth, easy, even though Alistair had never fought with this group before, he felt like he knew them. Perhaps because they had fought with their version of him? He wasn't sure he was ever going to get over that there was a man with his face married to the slight elf mage lobbing fire from across the room, or friends with the others.

He caught a bad slash on the edge of his shield, turning him half away, but he swung back with his blade and let loose a holy smite that caused the demon to reel for a moment. It was starting to grow larger, how was it growing larger? Now taller than him, one of its overhand swings caught the side of his head with a serrated claw, splitting his scalp and sending blood running down his neck and into his eye.

"What did I say about playing nice, kids?"

The elven mage casted a simple regenerating spell to keep Alistair in one piece, even with the demon barely being able to touch him. But she found the battle odd; the demon have had enough time to recollect itself after the first wave of surprise attacks and things seemed... too easy.

When that thought crossed her mind, the demon landed a hit on Alistair's head; she screamed as a reflex, as she had done before fighting side by side with her husband, motioning to get a better angle to heal him when the oversized demon's hand caught her by the neck, claws tearing the sensitive skin while raising her to face it laughing viciously.

So, Commander, I wonder how awfully delightful must be having Amaranthine and Ferelden at your feet. It spoke, a bizarre smile on its distorted face. Or being you, Anders, with the soft skin of Jicosa just at hands reach. Nothing like being the Inquisitor, no, but it's a start.

Neria grunted in pain.
"You'll never make it out of here!"

Careful, Commander. Don't want your friends to hit you by mistake... though I very much would like to discover how would you feel dying by the hands of a man that wears your beloved's face.

When Neria screamed, Anders reached for a healing spell by reflex, his gaze darting between the members of the group till he saw the blood running down Alistair's face. He threw the healing at Alistair sloppily and refocused almost immediately on Neria in the demon's grasp.

He planted the base of his staff on the floor before him and cast a mind blast, trying to blow the demon backwards and offset it enough to get Neria free. The demon slid back, but only a step, and that seemed to serve little purpose beyond getting the demon to refocus it's attention on Anders.

"Don't - you - talk - about - her," he snarled when that - that thing mentioned Jicosa's name, advancing and throwing a flurry of spirit bolts and fireballs at it. The demon only laughed, and seemed to take strength from his rage.

No? Should I talk about Fenris, then? All that lyrium in such lovely skin. That's what you want from him, isn't it, Anders? Or should I say Justice? The song of his lyrium. Anders growled, and the demon spun the arm still holding Neria away and advanced toward Anders.

To be you, Anders! The Anders. They hate you already, the angry abomination who started a war. Think of what I could do as you! The chaos, the bloodshed! They would rally behind you and rally against you and destroy everything in between. And it would be glorious.

Anders let out a roar of frustration and wrath and his skin split from the inside as his eyes turned blue. He seemed to grow taller, even, as Justice straightened inside his skin and radiated power from his every pore.

"SILENCE, DEMON!" the spirit boomed, striding Anders' body forward and blasting a walking bomb spell at the demon. It shrieked and clawed at itself.

Sigrun used the distraction to get in close and slice at the demon's weird leg things, not that that seemed to affect it much either. She pulled back and circled warily, looking for a better opening.

"Hey you!" she yelled, hoping to get its attention. "Why are you always trying to get inside my friend's heads, huh? The dwarf not good enough for you?!" She slipped one of her throwing knives from a forearm sheath and threw it right at the thing's stomach area when it swung Neria around wildly.

"Of course not! Nobody gives a shit about the dusters. Well, that just makes you super predictable, buddy!" Sigrun gave a brief yell and ran straight at it, albeit from an angle.

Which was probably not the best plan, she realized retrospectively as it batted her away like a toy and she went flying into a wall and some wood scaffolding. She moaned and lay still.

The healing magic that sealed the cut in Alistair's scalp made him shiver, but the demon's words were worse. As Sigrun went tumbling away and the demon flailed and shrieked under Justice's spell, he ducked forward and brought his sword down in a huge heaving arc across the wrist above the hand that held Neria.

The limb severed, he caught her before she could tumble to the floor, and then spun so that she was at his back. "See to Sigrun!" he shouted, ducking under his shield as the explodey part of Anders spell activated and a fresh spray of blood spattered toward him.

Neria slipped on the floor her way to Sigrun, using the momentum created by Alistair's movement. The healing spell was halfway casted by the time her hands touched the dwarf, white light emanating from her hands.

"Oh Sigrun, my dear Sigrun... hold on, please." then she turned to Anders "I need you to raise a shield in which one of you but me." she stood up, fury clear on her eyes "This place is about to blow."

Yes, dear Commander. I can feel it... control slipping through your fingers like sand. You always wanted power, always wanted to give in, to not just smile and beckon. Now is your chance to let your fury join me!

"Join a low creature like you? Don't make me laugh." Neria spat, the temperature in the room raised and heat mirages start to form and tremble around her "But my rage surely allows me to excel at being a Fire Mage." her voice was controlled and low, dripping of hate and threat and that was a face the Commander didn't show often; giving in to her feelings, a dangerous flirting with the most unstable side of her magic.

Her blood was igniting and she could feel the rage only one step from taking over her. She dropped her staff and concentrated fire on her hands directly, all mana entering a unnatural form of stasis before she released the blast as an raw, violent explosion of fire, engulfing the demon entirely.

Justice raised Anders' hands and gave a twirl of their staff, and barriers raised around Sigrun, Alistair and himself just before Neria blasted the demon with fire. He kept his hands lifted and kept feeding mana into the barriers as the fire raged on.

(OOC: Are we allowed to actually kill this thing this time, or are we leaving it for Cullen & co/Evelea?)

Sigrun felt the world go black, but only for a moment (she thought) before Neria's voice was in her ears and her hands on her face. She moaned as the familiar sensation of Neria's healing magic washed over her, leaving her scalp tingling where it had already been swelling and bruising.

When Neria stood, Sigrun tried to sit up, tried to reach for her daggers where they'd fallen a few feet away in the tangle of wood beams from the now-broken scaffolding. Her head spun, and she clutched it between her hands. By the time she'd gathered herself enough to focus, Neria was approaching the demon, and Sigrun didn't notice the translucent, faintly green barrier Anders had erected around her.

"Oh shit," she muttered, flinging herself back to the ground and covering her face with her hands as Neria engulfed the demon in flames.

That... that was a lot of fire. Alistair hunkered behind his shield, not entirely sure he'd ever been so very grateful for the existence of mages (the barrier was nice) at the same time that was purely terrifying (so much fire).

There was a sucking, howling twist and the flames collapsed inward in an intense, white-hot vortex, and then fizzled. The demon was gone. Gone? There was no corpse to be seen, not even a pile of ashes that could have been it. He ran a hand over his hair, making sure it hadn't been burnt off his scalp as he straightened.

"Everyone all right?" He turned slowly, sword and shield still ready, just in case it came gibbering from the rafters or something.

(OOC:No, we need to let the other teams have a crack at it. And Evelea is going to be present at least when it's killed. It seems like a decent place to let it slip away and we can continue searching?)

(ooc: works just fine for me)

Neria was the only one to be seen after the intense fire. The rotunda, the library and the rookery were all scorched and the smell of burnt wood and paper filled the air. She searched for the demon with her eyes, a hint of fury still there, but there was no sign of it, anywhere. Her hands turned into fists when she grunted, frustrated, and she moved to grab her staff again, heading to Sigrun.

"Are you alright?" Neria crouched by the dwarf's side, handing her a healing potion. Softness and care where back to her eyes when she smiled.

The Demon is right... the rage and fury are strong in my heart but I'm not going to give up them, my companions... my friends, and allow those feelings to consume me. As long as they're my everything, as long as I have them... I can use my fury to burn my enemies to the ground.

Justice stood tall and unflinching as the fire raged, and when the flames faded to reveal the demon gone, he lowered his hands slowly. The cracks of blue over his skin shifted, then shimmered and faded. Anders sighed, his shoulders bowing as he came back to himself.

"I'm all right," he answered Alistair after a moment, scrubbing a hand down his face. He moved towards Neria and Sigrun. "How's Sig? Anyone else need healing?"

He squatted at Sigrun's other side.

Sigrun gradually uncurled when the roaring sound coming from the fire-consumed demon stopped. She blinked a few times, raising a hand to the back of her head and probing at it with her fingers.

"Yeah...I think so..." she said, taking the potion Neria offered her and downing it in one gulp. She wrinkled her nose as she felt it go down, washing her whole body with heat. She did feel a lot better already, though, like maybe she could stand up without swaying.

She smiled at Anders and Neria. "Nah, I think I'm good, Anders. I'm okay." Looking past them, she made a face when she couldn't see any evidence that the demon had been there at all. "Ancestors, that thing is damn hard to put down."

Alistair moved closer to the others but not crowding in to cluster with them. He wiped the demon ichor off the blade of his sword with a cloth that he tossed away with a grimace. "Icky," he muttered under his breath, giving Anders a sidelong smirk.

"Neria, how's your neck? Do you need a potion for the bruising? I've only ever been strangled by an ogre like that, but I can't imagine it feels any better. Like your muscles are going to give up and your head's just going to pop off." He was rambling, he could hear it, but he was worried, not just that she was hurt but that his concern was unwanted, and Maker this was awkward. "It'll be worse tomorrow if you don't take something or wiggle your sparkly healer fingers at it or something."

"M-my... neck?" she tilted her head, grimacing at the gesture and immediately recalling how the demon had waved her around like a toy "Creators... I had forgotten about it, entirely. Anders, could you please...?"

And as she waited for Anders to heal her, she handed Alistair a simple and clean handkerchief. "Here, for your face. Can't be easy to fight with blood dripping on your eye."

Edited Date: 2015-08-15 07:34 pm (UTC)

(OOC: Sorry for the long delay, guys - I ended up being out of town most of the weekend)

Anders eyed Alistair, one brow lifted. His lips twitched.

Focusing on Neria, he moved his hands up and down twice without quite touching her, summoning a healing spell to bring down the swelling and bruising. Then he looked around at the group as a whole and wiggled his fingers, a last group heal settling over everyone.

"That should take care of the worst of everything," he said, rocking back on his heels and standing.

Sigrun prodded at her head once more and gave a decisive nod, as if satisfied. She squinted at Neria and Alistair and got a very small smile on her face which she attempted to hide quickly by biting her lip, and looking at Anders.

"Thanks, Anders. Did I mention we missed you?" She grinned.

Alistair accepted the handkerchief with a puzzled quirk to his eyes, but took it, using it to scrub the blood off his forehead and temple. It was a rushed job, but it would do. It still matted down his hair in a gory red smear, but that would have tow wait for a bucket of water.

He shivered as the final heal settled over them, rolled his head a little, and nodded to Anders as well. "I mean I didn't miss you. But, thanks, right." He shook his head at himself, and wandered around the rotunda, looking at the scorch marks and smoldering timbers. "Can you get any sort of scent in all this char, Neria?"

"If I know my fox nose well, and I do, I'll most likely smell char, and more char. The Envy Demon is alive, that much I can tell without shapeshifting."

She sighed frustrated, hand rubbing her neck to check for any remaining bruises and scratches.

"It will try to find another place to heal after the explosion. Another place like the rookery, far from people, dark and quiet. I can, though, try to find its scent again, after leaving this place." she turned to Anders "Do you feel anything significant to this matter, Justice?"

Anders grinned at Sigrun. "Everybody misses the healer when he's not around. It's a rule, or...something."

Then he chuckled at Alistair, raising both brows. "Yes, but I missed your asides, my not-friend, friend. He looked down at his staff and stated once more for posterity, "This is all very strange."

At Neria's question, he cocked his head abruptly, the motion off somehow, more like an aping of a human expression of thought than anything else.

"You are correct," Justice's voice said as Anders' eyes flared blue. "The demon is not dead. If it had died here, I would be able to sense a...remnant of its essence, I presume, since this place does seem to act rather like the Fade. As for where the creature has gone...it is possible I may be able to sense it and track it from here. We have wounded it gravely and it is bleeding physically and spiritually. I think it was able to shield itself from my view when it was stronger, but no longer."

Sigrun tried not to giggle at the smear of blood in Alistair's hair, which for some reason struck her as absurdly funny. Not that the sight was that unusual, all things considered, and maybe that was what was comical about it - here they were, in some wacked out Fade dream that wasn't a dream, chasing one of the most powerful demons Sigrun had ever heard of, and this Alistair wasn't even the right Alistair, but he still managed to get blood and gore all over himself. Which, everybody did, but Alistair had always seemed...worse about? It was strangely normal and therefore strangely reassuring.

She got to her feet and went over to check Neria's neck from the back when she noticed the Commander fussing over it.

"You're good, Commander," she said, squeezing Neria's shoulder when she found nothing.

Alistair's wasn't that messy... no he absolutely was. It's what came from getting hit by arterial spray and also just plain hit. He scritched at the blood in his hairline, grimacing as he noticed Sigrun trying not to laugh at him. Which was odd. Normally people pointed when they laughed.

He went very still when Justice began to speak through Anders. That was just... strange. Not normal at all. He took a deep breath. Nobody else seemed worried about the glowing spirit-abomination, so he wouldn't be either. They'd all just seen each other through this fight, and that was reason enough to trust them.

"I guess we should carry on then? If everyone is ready for another round with Mr. Icky." He couldn't help it. His lips twitched as he said it.

"Yes, let's continue our search. Justice, do you mind looking for it this time, or trying at least until I get some of my mana back?"

She rested her hand over Ander's shoulder and smiled, softly.
Maker, she was really glad to have him, Sigrun and even the not-her-husband Alistair around.

Anders laughed outright at Anders this time, the blue leaching from his eyes. He rubbed his eyes, which were still stinging from the expansion of the Fade inside his body. Maker, but that hurt, and it was getting worse with Justice continually taking over like this. This place - it was too close to the Fade, too close to home for Justice, and the spirit almost always had control over their body when they visited the Fade. He had much less sway over Justice than usual, and it was...unnerving. And physically painful, not that he talked about that side of things much.

"I think we can track him, yes," he told Neria, after taking a moment to gather himself. The weight of her hand on his shoulder was as grounding as it had ever been, back when he was just a mage on the run from the templars and not a possessed apostate wanted for murder. "Though I'm gonna try and do it myself rather than let Justice take the lead; it'll be much less painful for both of us, and I think less disconcerting for Alistair here."

He rubbed at the back of his neck, and motioned to the door leading to the Great Hall.

"That way first, I think."

Sigrun took a moment to rummage around in the beams for the daggers she'd dropped when she'd fallen, and then she whipped out a rag from a pocket to scrub some of the blood off. She glanced over to where the demon had fallen and made a face.

"Damn, I keep losing all my best throwing knives to that thing, 'cause they keep disappearing when it does. New tactic next time, hm?" She slides one blade home and twirls the others in her fingers, moving to follow Anders when she's scanned the room once more wistfully.