(1875-06-15) Rumble In The Jungle
Rumble In The Jungle
Summary: Ivo and Alia just want to have an adventure. The Matinga have other ideas.
Date: 2019-06-15
Related: None
NPCs: Four Matinga. Curse them.
Players:
Alia  Ivo  

Ruins, Ryalta
Three floors, probably a basement, but our intrepid adventurers never got that far. (Lethality: Yes)
1875-06-15

mapDCS.png

Alia had not expected to have company. Alia had not expected to have witnesses, much less a witness who could both knew and could identify her, as she was not one of those sorcerers who ponced about with a mask on, much much less report her to her husband. Because that could end poorly. But, Alia had grown a pair of a certain set of anatomical accessories since she had joined the empire, and so when she approached the familiar sailor she simply waved a hand to have him proceed her inside, as if they were not standing in the middle of a searingly hot jungle by a building which looked as though every single one of its three stories only needed to have an errant puff of wind blown in their direction to crumble back to the earth, "Fancy meeting you here, Ivo. Be a gentleman and walk a girl inside?"

-

Having heard of a certain tome on sorcerous lore while still in Ryalta, Ivo had decided to go and have a look, just to see if the success of his previous little trip into the jungle could be repeated. With his crew setting up a small base camp outside incase of a the need to retreat for healing he's got to the point of eyeing up the entrance and preparing to enter when the Imperial arrives and his plans change in an instant. Smiling back to Alia he bows his head briefly in greeting, "indeed, I had thought you were fighting the Quatunax? How is that going by the way? I've fought them before, and can't say I enjoyed the experience." He'd offer his arm, but knows that what to come might be dangerous, so draws his sword and a pistol instead. "Of course, ladies first."

-

Alia, if she had been a lesser woman, might have stuck her tongue out at Ivo, but she was not, and so Alia settled her own weapons into her hands. "As well as one could expect. We kill a hundred, a thousand more seem to grow out of the ground to replace them." A sword in her off hand, a phial of some reddish liquid in the other, as she stepped into the first floor of the crumbling building, eyes scanning the slightly less bright floor, moving along what looked to be a relatively stable corridor towards the first room. There was not a shred of sound within the edifice, not even the sound of rats or other vermin scuttling along the floor.

A deep breath lifted Alia's chest, as she reached the first door, which was slightly ajar, as if whomever had been there had left without having the courtesy to close it behind them. Or, perhaps, it was the ones inside who had wanted a shred of breeze, as the door creaked open to reveal four towering, dark-skinned figures waiting in the center of the door, all armed all focused on the small, darkly clothed woman now standing in the doorway.

"Company!" Alia had never seen such men before, and so anything more specific would have been impossible. But at least she tried to clear the door, as she cast he phial in her good hand towards the largest of the warriors who was charging in her direction, his spear impacting her armor just at the edge of her ribs as her phial broke, covering him in a sheet of fire, as she tried to twist free of both the flames and the spear that seemed determined to turn her into a roast fit only for spitting. if there was any saving grace, it was that the way her body crumpled as she sought to escape spared her from the second attacker who charged in with his cutlass draw.

-

In contrast, Ivo has seen these barbarians before, and suddenly that tome is looking much less worthwhile. Muttering a string of curses under his breath that would curdle milk in some provinces he joins the fray. "If you see one dancing and chanting," he calls to Alia, "kill it with extreme prejudice." Flinching back from the fire she sets he has time to line his sword up with the ribs of the second attacker, although it's only a glancing blow as the last pair decide they want nothing to do with the woman who can throw fire and instead aim for him. What follows is a frenzied display of parrying for all that he is worth, and it's only partially successful, but it's only scratches for now.

As for the Matinga, the one on fire drops back, screaming in agony as the flames take hold, but the others press on, attacking again with their brutal looking blades.

-

Alia was not so single-minded, when it came to attacking her enemies. She followed the Firebrand School of Combat Theory. You know the one, where Darius usually farewelled her with his familiar refrain, 'Burn all those vitches down'. And so, rather than focusing on the Matinga who was already on the ground attempting to put himself out, or the one that Ivo had stopped from attacking her by dint of his stepping between herself an the enemy, she instead turned to the fourth, and furthest away, of their attackers who was attempting to engage Ivo from his offside, casting another phial at him, the glass shattering and spreading flames over him as well, as she fought her way back to her feet, her blade still in hand, though it was not at all clear if she had any idea how to use it. One supposed they would find out.

-

It's going to take Ivo a while to get used to those firey phials, those and the screams of men on fire combined with the smell of burning flesh. Wishing fervently that he had something to cover his nose with to keep the smell at bay he pushes on, there's two coming at him from the side, he knows that, but he's got one wounded and he'd rather finish it off than leave it wounded and angry. Still trying to give Alia cover to get back to her feet he upends one of the refectory tables to try and slow down the other two, then runs his sword through the abdomen of the one still attacking the imperial. It's not a pretty move, but it works, and the Matinga goes down, not before one of the flanks gets a blow in on him though, and the d'Armaz finds himself bleeding from his sword arm.

The first Matinga to be set alight has successfully managed to stop, drop, and roll, and while charred is now aiming straight for the alchemist with murder in his eyes. The latest victim of Alia's magic fire screams and tries to put himself out, while the other simply conitnues in her efforts to run Ivo through.

-

Alia was not a woman accustomed to close quarters combat, but she was smart and could take instruction, even if it was by example, rather than by Ivo screaming at her. Which, he was well within his rights to do. She did not have the strength to overturn even the rotted tables around her, but she could dart back and try to put another table between herself and her enemy, now that she was back on her feet. And lobbing another phial at her foe. She knew too well that she did not have many left, so it would have to count, and thank the One, it did, shattering at his feet and splashing up on him again, as she tried to run for Ivo, so that they might fight, hopefully, better together than apart.

-

Yanking his sword out of the gut of a dead matinga, Ivo turns to focus on the two attacking him, only to find that now it's only one, with the other backing off and screaming in agony as it drops to the floor. "One's sweaty ballsack," he mutters under his breath as he sees the flaming tower of a man go down, but he can't dwell on the fear of them setting the room alight as well as the woman in front of him attacks again. It's a balanced fight though, and neither of them can seem to get the upper hand as they almost dance around the room. It's not a courtly dance though, there is no grace to this fight, only thrust parry thrust parry thrust, infact, the only unifying feature is that each and every time Ivo moves to ensure that his opponent is not between him and the exit.

-

Alia was simply not fast enough to avoid the man she had so kindly set on fire, who was now rushing at her like a bull. That he was covered in burns and blackened skin was not enough to stop him, as he raged forward, fighting through the pain and using the same table she had attempted to use to separate her from himself like a battering ram, the force of the wood, even rotted as it was enough to slam her back into the wall so close to the door and to their escape, that the sound of the cracking of her ribs was audible, as was the sound of the back of her head hitting the stone wall. Her opponent even managed another stab at her. Lucky him, unlucky her. The sheer riot of pain left Alia breathless as she tried to push back the table to get clear of it.

-

Ivo can only see Alia's fight out of the periphery of his vision as he needs to keep mobile himself. Vaulting over one table he's relieved as it doesn't crumble to dust beneath him, but the move doesn't give him the advantage he was aiming for over his opponent and they end up fighting back and forth once more. Hearing the crack as Alia goes down though he starts to try and work back towards her position, that did not sound good.

-

Alia just managed to get herself from behind the table, though the woman was barely keeping her feet. She needed the help of the gladius which was still, miraculously, in her hand as she shoved with all of her might to make a space for herself. They had killed two, and she did not feel bad about that, but she was nearly spent. And angry. Alia, who was one of the calmest people in the One's own creation, was beyond angry. And it showed in her voice, as she spoke, the tone flat as still water, "Get behind me, Ivo." This time, there was no phial of flame. This time, it was a torrent of it, a blast of sorcerous not alchemical magic that poured from somewhere near the ceiling, aimed like a bolt at the two remaining matinga. They were going to burn. They were all going to burn, even the two who had gone beyond life, beyond care.

-

Ivo might not be trained in battle sorcery like the Imperials, but even he knows that when a pissed off fire sorcerer yells at you to get behind them, then you get behind them. Quickly. Disengaging from his fight he using a bench to launch himself over the table between him and Alia, landing into a roll that brings him if not behind her, then at least below the immediate cone of fire and he can slide the rest of the way with his momentum. As the room dissolves into a fireball he doesn't even bother to look at the fate of the matinga, but pauses just long enough to stow his pistol and sword before scooping Alia up and over his shoulder as he turns and bolts for the door.

-

Alia screamed, as Ivo picked her up, as much in pain, as his shoulder impacted her cracked ribs and sent too much blood rushing to her throbbing head, as in outrage that he was literally keeping her from her enemies. She could not even see far enough around him to take another crack at the two enemies now once again ablaze. Likely for the best, as the structure, well, who knows how much of the fire damage it could handle.

Luckily, enough that Ivo with his unwilling passenger in tow managed to make it back out of the jungle and off towards where the sailors had set up their temporary camp. Once there, and perhaps slightly less angry, if only because the blood rush to her head and the concussion had made her woozy, Alia would find herself at the mercy of Ivo's ship's doctor, with his questions and inquiries long enough for them both to be patched up before they were sent off by air ship back to Four Corners.

Quite likely Ivo could have taken the scenic route by ship, but that was too much of a risk. 'Sorry about your wife, Darius', was not a sentence the man ever wanted to have come out of his mouth.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License