(1875-05-23) Ghosts and Dragons
Ghosts and Dragons
Summary: Jarret, Philipa and Chessa come across some strange things that are slightly more mundane than otherwise thought.
Date: May 23rd 2019
Related: Related Logs (If there aren't any, use None. If there is a log, use full URLs, like http://eternalcrusade.wikidot.com/logtitle)
NPCs: Knight-Steward Kaedin, Selana of the Blade. (GM'd by Mercy.)
Players:
Chessa  Jarret  Philippa  

The Crownlands
Room description
IC date of RP

Strange things are happening in the Crownlands of Galethia. First, There are tales of nightly raids by the angered spirits of the west war, white aparistions that swoop into poor villiages and cause a ruckus… ironically, items of import has also been missing along with buildings on fire and guardsmen being stabbed.

Another thing is that some farmers have lost half their fields to what they can only call a 'Dragon' breathing fire and moving away. So the call was made. The Knight-steward of Mathis, and also a Hero of the same battle, Kaedin Zephyr, formally of House Arkanin before he and his father renouced the family in favour of fighting for the rose, Has put out a summons for anyone bold, or curious enough, to come and figure out what in the crows hell is going on.

While not a knight herself, Philippa has come to investigate what's going on, if nothing else. She was near by on business, sooo… here she is! She has a couple of her father's knights with her as guards - he doesn't like his daughter to go riding off by herself, after all.

Something brought Jarret to this area and so he's here. It's not where he'd want to be, but he's here. Frowning a bit as he looks around. "I should stop travelling anywhere at all," he mutters to himself, shaking his head.

"That is the norm for Dukes, Your Grace, But I wager you arent a man to sit around on your arse and dictate." Sir Kaedin says as he comes up, a few of his own knights flanking him, or well, the queen's knights, since he is also one of her Majesty's knights. "And Milady Philippa, a pleasure. Anyway, I'm sure you both have heard the rumors, Fookin ghosts and dragons and who knows what else. I wouldent beleive it meself, but, I was at Mathis, anyway, there is a town about three hours ride west of here, that's the last place thease white aparistions have hit." He says with a smile, and gives them each a writ, bearing his seal as an officer for them to do what they need too. "Just a formality, I doubt anyone would stop you."

Handed the writ, Philippa tucks it into a pouch on her belt. "I was in the area and figured I'd come see what was going on." She heard a few of the rumors, and likely found them rather.. intriguing. Enough to cause her to make a sidetrip! "And no reason other to explain these things?" She questions the other knight. To Jarret, she dips her head to him, "Your Grace."

Taking that writ, Jarret sighs a bit. "I wish I was one to just sit around on my arse. More comfortable in the long run, especially if there's the right pillows in place," Jarret replies. He offers a nod and a smile to Philippa. "My lady. I hope you are well."

Kaedin nods and smiles. "Well, off ye both go, be mindfull of whatever the fook is out there, and don't get killed. I don;t like bringing her Majesty bad news." He says before he turns to walk back to wherever he came from.

The villiage in question is a rather cozy affair, maybe five buildings, though the people are locked inside, and one of those buildings is a burt out husk, a very old balding man comes out of what has to be the inn/tavern/townhall and looks up at the nobles who have arrived. "Milord, Milady, I'd offer ye a drink but… the ghosts took it all."

Philippa quirks a brow upwards, but in the end, will head out with Jarret towards the town. The two knights with her likely want to say something about the intelligence of going there, but they don't say a thing when she glances back at them and gives them that look of hers. "Ghosts?" She questions the man once he speaks of the drinks stolen. "Tell us what happened?"

Small village, burnt out building, an inn. That makes Jarret tense a bit. "Ghosts drink now?" he asks, words coming a bit quietly. He looks around carefully, although his expression seems a bit distant.

The man gives a shrug. "Perhaps it's to punish us, they say they are the soldiers and people slain during the west war, come back for retribution for those who lived." He says, though he does point to the burnt out building. "They burnt down the miller's house, I don't know why, but maybe you might find somthing over there." he says, figuring the queen sent thease nobles to help firgure out this whole mess, though he does offer the travelers water, at least he does that much.

Nodding to the man, Philippa heads over to the burnt out building, frowning to herself. As she walks about it, she crouches, drawing out her dagger from her belt to poke at something on the ground, "What do you make of this, Your Grace?" It's some white powder there, sort of like makeup. A small bit is gathered on her knife to sniff lightly at to see if there's any smell associated with it.

"I have a very bad feeling about this…" Jarret mutters, mostly to himself. He pauses as he moves over to pick up a scrap of linen he find on the ground, shaking his head a little. "Looks like…" Like what, exactly? "I don't know… Maybe these ghosts aren't ghosts at all?" There's still something about all of this that rattles him a bit, though.

Both of Philippa's knights fall over, a small dart comming out of their necks as three white faced white clothes figures come out rattling chains and holding maces. "We shal drag you to hell." They says, though, a powder does fall from them as they charge at the two nobles.

"I do not like it eit…" And then her knights go down. Philippa draws her bow, attempting to get off a shot when the 'ghosts' appear, but her shot goes a little off. She's backing up, trying to keep a proper distance so she can continue to use her bow. She doesn't have a sword, merely her belt dagger.

A good tip for any attackers. Don't try to go up against the traumatized guy with a large poleaxe. As those figures appears, and speaks of dragging them to hell, Jarret lets out a brief laugh, rather coldly. "You fail to realize, I'm already there," he replies, before he stabs the first of the figures through the stomach with the spike at the top of the weapon, then chops at the neck of the second with the actual axe head. The third gets a taste of the hammer side of the end, but that strike isn't good enough to kill. There are a few more swings after those have gone down, before he realizes the threat is no longer a threat, and he leans heavily against his weapon, with some deep breaths. To say he's looked far better would be an understatement.

Two of those men die outright, one with his insides on the ground, the other wit hhis head about five feet away from his body. The thirdone is on the ground, probably all his ribs broken, he looks up at Jarret, and says in a raspy voice. "The crow bitten blood axe…" he mutters as blood comes from his mouth.

Ghosts don't bleed, and they also done leave white powder where they lay, with the hints the nobles found earlyer, perhaps some questions need to be asked.

It's over as quickly as it seems to have started. Philippa has an arrow notched, but lowers it when the third man hits the ground after being hit on the head by Jarret. "Your Grace." That was quick! Slinging her bow around to her back, the arrow put away, she moves forwards, "Looks like the ghosts are as real as you and I, though I have to now wonder just how they made a dragon." Crouching besides the man as he speaks, she frowns, glancing to Jarret, then back to the man, "Who are you working with?" She'll start the questioning, though if Jarret wishes to do it himself, she'll scoot back!

Jarret seems to be content to let Philippa do the questioning for now, as he starts moving over towards that body that so tragically lost his head, or rather, over to the head. Waiting to hear the answer to the question, casually nudging the head over in the direction of the wounded one, as if it was a ball to kick.

"Like I'm going to tell you, besides, she'll just feed you to the dragon, and then we can finish our punishment of thease fool." He says as he lays his head back, he is probably a few moments from death.

Just then, a farmbpoy runs into the villiage and stops to catch his breath, he looks like he ran all the way from wherever he came from. 'D.. Dragon *gasp gasp* in the fields.. *gasp gasp* setting fire to the grain…" Then he collapses on his back and tries to catch more of his breath, getting a start when he sees a head attached to nod body roll towards him. "BY THE MANY!" He exclaims, which he probably shouldent have, but when you see a head rolling towards you…

"Who is this she you talk about?" Philippa questions, reaching down to poke the man in the shoulder. "You're not going to punish anyone.. ghost." She snorts then, about to ask something else, until the young boy comes running up talking of a dragon in the field. She starts to stand then, trying to peer in the direction of the field, then looking to her knights still laid out nearby from the darts. "You Grace?"

As the man refuses to say anything else, Jarret's eyes narrows, and he moves to grab the hair of the head he was nudging along. Stepping over to the man, he casually drops that head onto the other man's chest, before he turns the spike of the weapon towards the man. "Not going to cooperate, huh?" Letting the spike trail along the body of the fallen man until he gets to the shoulder, he pokes likghtly at it. "Who is this woman you're talking about? Tell us now, or face more pain!"

"Your mother." The man says, he is pretty much dead already. There is also, the thing about a dragon in the fields, though the boy who said as much pretty much ran into the inn/tavern/townhall because heads are rolling about and jarret looks like he is the punishment of wrath.

"I don't think he's going to say much more.." Philippa mutters before glancing to the field, "Should we go see what this dragon is all about?" The ghosts ended up being men in sheets and makeup. Maybe they will get lucky? She will check on her knights, making sure that they aren't dead, but only sleeping.

That answer makes Jarret narrow his eyes a bit more. "Wrong answer…" he mutters to the man, pushing the spike through his shoulder. Not meant as an attempt to kill or something, just to make it far more painful. Pulling the weapon free again, he points at one of the locals. "Make sure he doesn't leave…" he says, before nodding at Philippa. "Let's…."

One of the towns people looks at Jarret. "Oi, so you said to make sure 'e leaves, got it." And the village elderman smacks the poor sod in the back of the head. "He's a duke, none of you stupid shenanagains, Your Grace, we will keep him here."

The knights are asleep, the darts have the smell of a very potent alcohal on them, meaning they will wake up with the meanest hangovers in the history of hangovers.

Now, as for the Dragon in the field, more farms come pouring into the small town, yelling about a dragon, and fire, and a woman who is riding said dragon.

Philippa pulls her bow from her back, preparing an arrow as other farmers come from the fields, "Sounds like we might need to go check that out, Your grace." After checking on her knights and making sure they are just asleep, she turns, ready to head for the field, and the drgaon that supposedly is there.

Jarret frowns as he hears that, nodding as he moves over in the indicated direction. "Let's get this finished…" It's said a bit coldly, as he frowns.

As the duo ride out to the field, the direction becomming apparent by the plume of blacksmoke flowing into the air and the smell of burnt wheat and barley, eventualy the road opens to a wide field. A HUGE beast that roars is moving across the field,s draped in a black cloth that covers it's body, and the head with huge horn blowing fire across the field. Atop it is a woman in black armor with a glave in her hand, black hair and red eyes, if one were to get close enough. A distinctive scar along the left side of her face can be seen, and her glaive's blade looks to be crackling with lighting.

Probably unseen to those coming from inside the wall, obscured from their view by blowing smoke and dust of running feet, two figures on horseback are emerging towards the field behind the woman riding on her dragon. Both are clothed mostly in a dark blue, although the smaller figure has more shades of blue running through the cloak and around the hems of sleeves and split riding gown. Both are also masked with blue, the smaller with a lighter blue mask. They pull the speed of their mounts back a bit as they spot the beast, but do not halt their forward progress completely.

The smaller figure in blue wrinkles her nose, and pulls the scarf around her neck up to cover it, waving her hand as the wind blows a waft of fumes towards her. "That dragon smells like you after a night at the tavern," she tells the larger figure on his hulking war horse. He grunts, slewing a sideways look in her direction. "You know, knights only drape their mounts when they're on parade. Most inconvenient to drape anything over armor in battle." He turns to look fully towards her and their eyes meet, then they nod together as if having the same thought.

Philippa leans in, squinting as she peers at the odd dragon, "I am fairly certain that is no dragon. How the heck is it flying without wings, hmm??" When the woman on it's back is spied, she takes her bow from her back, "Shall we attempt to take care of the dragon's rider first?"

Jarret frowns as he watches the dragon and rider. "Alchemical effect on the weapon, it seems," he replies, before he nods at Philippa's words. "Sounds like a good idea," he remarks, before he looks around. Noticing the figures in blue, he raises an eyebrow, but doesn't do much yet so far. Keeping the poleaxe ready in case, but focusing only on the rider and the dragon for now.

The woman looks out over the field, and takes note of Jarret and Philippa. Stepping off the 'dragon' and sliding down the cloth, she lands on the ground and twirls her glaive as she walks twoards the two. "Jarret Sokar… I was hoping the mother of your bastard would be the one to come.. I owe her for what she did to me during the west war." Her accent is clearly Kentaire, though, one would be hard pressed to think she is acting with the permission of their prince. "But, your death will do." She says as she twirls her Glaive once more and looks right at him. "Have at you!"

The Dragon continues to float along and burns patches of wheat, slowly turning as it heads towards chessa and her knight companion thingy.

As the strange woman gets off the dragon, Philippa will aim for the woman carefully, letting the arrow fly, though it seems to go off, missing her. For the looove… She growls, already reaching for another arrow to notch as the woman speaks with Jarret, and prepares to go against him.

The man pulls ahead of the woman, and they both bring their horses to a halt. Drawing his sword, he stands guard as the woman goes still, staring at the 'dragon'. She holds the reins with one hand, and her other clenches in her lap. Then it opens, and an unseen current rises. The dragon's flame starts to form at it's snout, but is instantly snuffed out. The liquid that fueled the flame, however, still arcs out of the mouth, and past the guardian to drench the woman. "Ach!" she sputters as her horse dances. She slides unceremoniously from her mount, and the man, despite the seriousness of the situation, cannot help a guffaw. "Now who smells like a night at the tavern, eh?" The masked eyes slit even narrower towards him, and she mutters to herself as she gives herself some space from her mount, letting the guard catch it.

"Oh? Who should I tell her wanted revenge so hard that it made her get herself killed?" Jarret replies to the glaive-wielding woman, shrugging a little to himself. Not raising his weapon to attack yet, just staying where he is. "Probably as dead as that so-called ghosts, right?"

Catching Pippa's arrow the black armored woman smiles. "Cute, Tell that Many Worshipping Vitch that Selana of the Blade comes for her.. or well… your spirit can… from the afterlife!" She says as she moves in to swing her elemental ridden weapon at Jarret. The Dragon for it's part, rears his snount once more and starts to blow another bout of flame at Chessa and her companion.

Philippa doesn't waste time in waiting, even after the woman seems to be able to pick her arrow out of the air like that. Nope, she lets go another, aiming for any place not covered by armor from the waist up on the woman, giving Jarret a chance to take on eht woman slightly handicapped by an arrow.

"Selana. First of all, I doubt there's an afterlife," Jarret replies as he shakes his head. "Second, you'll be the one that gets to find out first." Moving forward, he works on tetting the spike at the end of his weapon into this enemy.

The man in blue handily catches the horse, looping it's reins to the pommel of his own horse to the left side, leaving his right free so he can swing if necessary. He sucks in his breath as the dragon comes nearer, lifting his shield and repressing the urge to throw himself in between the dragon and the woman, keeping his eyes on the ground for any threats there to make sure she isn't distracted.

This time, Terrapine, for the blue robed figure is now obviously the wind sorcerer that's aided Galenthia before, stands tall, and when the invisible energy releases, her hands twist around each other in the air. Instead of a gust, the wind is more controlled, and the flames are not snuffed. Instead, they are guided back towards their source, towards the bladder of alcohol in the 'belly of the beast'. The fumes of the empty part of the bladder explode, and as the pieces of the dragon shred outwards, the alcohol splashes on the flammable cloth and other bits, which catch fire from the fireball that burst everything apart. The left over wind from the spell keeps most of the debris from the blue clothed ones, but one twining bit of burning black cloth catches on a current and falls onto one of Terrapine's arms, causing a quick cry of pain as she shakes it off and stamps on it before it can light her clothing.

The dragon explodes due to Terrapine's spell, and not only does the cloth fly about, but wood and bits of metal, no, it wasnt a real dragon, and that is evident by the now charred corpse of a man who flies into her guard, both the dead body, and now the bashed man on the ground.

First and arrow, then a Hailberd spike, Selana is not happy, and she frowns as she readys her glaive and comes at Jarret once more. "Once I kill you, I'm going to ransom your whore noblewoman to a kentarish lord… I don't envy her treatment." she says as she attacks once more.

Philippa will time her next shot, attempting to shoot the woman again when Jarret /isn't/ standing in her way. Of course, it would seem the woman has a knack for plucking arrows out of the air, as she does it once again. Only to use it to stab Jarret? What the ever living… bleep?

"Less talk, more… AAARGH!" Jarret frowns as he's getting stabbed, but moves in for another attack.

Even though she knew the dragon was fake, the man plummeting on top of them causes Terrapine to turn her head quickly to keep from vomiting. Her man shrugs off the body, and has his hands full bringing the two horses under control. As she turns her head, Terrapine sees the woman catch the arrow and stab it into the Duke. She swallows her bile quickly, and runs to the horses as hers finally seems to calm, and pulls the bow from the saddle, and an arrow that she puts in her teeth. Stringing the bow, she walks forward a little towards a little bit of burning debris, keeping her distance as she prepares to nock her arrow.

Selana smiles as she catches another arrow, and blocks Jarret's attack with her own, and ramming the arrow into his shoulder. "Not so tough when you can;t kill a person in one hit are you boy?" She says as she pushes him back towards Pippa and then moves forward, twirling her glave… Aware of the two in front, and of course, the sorceress behind her who killed her dragon.. well.. the small airship she stole, those things are expensive and took the last of her monies to refit.

Jaret scewers her in the gut with his Poleaxe and she looks up. "You should have gone for the he…" And stops talking as one of her eyes comes out of her head on the point of another arrow, shot by Chessa, splattering blood and brain on jarret. Her elemental covered glaive falls from her hand, landing point first on a rocky part of the ground, and the weapon explodes, and the rock explodes.

Terrapine carefully lowers the tip of her arrow to the flame in front of her, careful to not get it close to her vodka soaked clothing. "Leave my cousin alone, bitch," she mutters under her breath, not loud enough to carry on any wind, before she lets loose, not caring about any sort of honor when it comes to attacking someone in the back.

Philippa is going to hold her shot this time, but keeps an arrow notched, just in case. But as Jarret takes the woman out, and an arrow appears as well, she turns her weapon upon those dressed in blue on the other side of the field, ready to shoot one of them if they prove to be any sort of foe.

Jarret growls at that stab to his shoulder. "Die, you…" he gets out, doing that skewering, before he blinks, at that eye that comes out of the head, and getting splattered by both blood and brain. He sinks to the ground, avoiding getting hit by the exploding rock. Quite a big part of what he's eaten lately comes up, though.

Noting the duke in distress, Terrapine sways as if she's going to step forward, but a quick word from the man brings her back, her head jerking as if she's suddenly remember something. She backs off, then unstrings the bow to stow back on her horse. Although she doesn't notice the arrow trained on them from across the field, the guard does, and keeps his eyes on Pippa as the sorcerer remounts. He backs his horse away, still watching the archer as his charge rides back down the road they had come.

Philippa continues to watch over the two across the field, but as Jarret goes down, her attention wavers only briefly, "Your Grace, you okay?" Only once the pair in blue begin to ride off, will she drop her bow and move towards Jarret, getting the Duke up and taken care of, while glancing down at the woman he killed. "Who was she?" The question will be asked, but seeing that Jarret is taken care of is priority.

"Selana of the blade, during the west war, she decided to skirmish against the battleborn. They are, as of yet, undefeated in battle. Her force was routed, and helena gave her that scar across her face." Kaedin says as he rides up to survey the damage. "So, just using fear to scare the populice, figured that dragons never exsisted." The Knight steward says. "I'll let her majesty know the heroic deeds that you did today." he says as he rides on to have a look at just how much wheat was lost.

Philippa gets her answer, and she shakes her head, nudging the woman's body with the toe of her boot before glancing to Kaedin as he arrives right on time to check on things, "I'd say burn her body and make sure she can't return.." That said, she will make plans on getting Jarret back home, and recover her two passed out knights before heading home herself.

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