Break the Assault!!!

• Title: Break the Assault!!!
• Emitter: Raethon
• Characters: Fazahd Art3/Inq2, Alik Art5, Ahmos Wth5
• Place: Rune
• Time: Sept. 19, 2016
• Summary: Defending Rune from the siege attack, one of the gates shatters and it's up to our heroes to stem the Iron Tide before they get to the Civilians. Can they do it?
• APL: 5

It is chaos in Rune. Not only has the protective Dome broken, but the gates are now completely under siege. Pockets of fighting happen rather randomly, but the ground forces are stillt rying to break the doors open, despite the physical and magical barriers on them. Climbing the walls don't help since the Dome isn't completely broken, but there are still Rocs dropping stones into the city as the ground forces batter the batter the gates.

Did we mention the ground forces are battering the gates?

In the street, despite the pockets of Dran infiltrators that Raethon stands coordinating defenses and evacuation of civilians to the shelters. No, not all of the civilians have made it to the shelters, and some have to be convinced to leave their homes. And Rae is the contact for this particular contract.

Alik makes no particular attempt at stealth as he trots down the path to the agreed-upon contact point, but he does keep his eyes on the skies (and the rooftops!) as well as the streets to avoid getting squished.

"You must be Alik." Rae is very perceptive. "Fazahd is running a little late. We'll make due." he says as a trio of large rocks bounce off of a smaller dome barrier centered on himself. However the attack DOES catch his attention....and he looks to the skies, to find three rocs flying by with riders. "animals..." he says pointing his staff at them.....and a red little ball arcs from his staff....straight towards the middle one and explodes....taking out all three.

"There's going to be more I fear. Not all of the civilians have evacuated and gone to the shelters. So this really is a worst case scenario here, Alik. Wizard so confident in their defenses that they just relaxed. They never thought Dran would get through. Now do they see?"

That's when an explosion happens to Rae's left....straight down a road......and staring right at one of the gate. "DAMN! They got through one!" Rae steps towards it, but then looks to alik. "You're going to have to cover me while I mend the gate, Alik. Nothing gets through. If they do, people will die." he starts to run towards the gate.

Alik finds a reasonable position to fire from, preferably behind some cover. _Preferably_ high off the ground somewhere. :-)

As Rae begins to repair the gate, a couple of other apprentices begin to assist him as well.

unfortunately for Rae, some of the dran begin to trickle through the opening. Of course, these dudes are big and have to duck under the gate. One tries to swat it down, but he ends up hurting his hand, so he ducks too.....

"Eh? Eh! Try that again!" The tiny, aged sith-makar waddles through the battlefield. He whacks! the ground near one of Rune's heroes with his knurled cane, before scurrying out of the way. His bright white scales with their pearlescent sheen ask how on the Earthdragon's belly this creature could have lived so long. His behavior asks the same thing.

Alik is laid out on the most defensible surface he could find on short notice that has a commanding view of the opening. As the Dranei assemble he launches a toxic cloud in the opening's general direction to slow and weaken them

Not only does the gas catch the first dranei full in the chest, but the entire thing is centered on him. So he really has no chance but to inhale the fetid cloud....and the ones behind him and similarly hampered by the cloud. One even pukes, causing another to slip on the vomit and land on the ground.

In his state though, the one who was 'gassed', happens to fall forward, out of the gateway....

• BOOM*

To be flattened by a titan golem's fist hitting the dranei as he stumbles out of the gate.

well....flattened isn't entirely accurate.

That particular dranei is now a permanent resident upon the cobblestones of Rune....

As a bloody stain.

"Ah-ah! Try it again! One more time!" the smallish sith-makar spins his staff, and strikes the ground again. A different spot. The air above it flares to life with luck and magic, as he calls on the Luckdragon's humor. Ahmo laughs, dancing backwards, though his scales shout: does not blend!

Alik switches weapons and steadies his rifle, squeezing off a shot at the dimly seen Dranei through the unexpectedly extended Stink cloud. To his surprise, the cloud itself ignites! A dranei soldier is propelled by the explosion into a nearby golem, whereupon his head drops to the floor while his body continues its trajectory.

Despite the explosion, 4 more draenei rush through the doorway to try and meet the enemy that.....they can't see. They look a little disappointed that they can't see any enemies....yet. Except for a few robed wizards repairing a gate.

Less than a day ago, Fazahd was helping a group of irregulars fight through a group of Dran soldiers in order to help a group of civilians escape to safety. For this, he got a whole side of crushed ribs and a helmet full of expelled blood. Today, his artifice-powered armor still has an earthshaker-sized dent in its side, but he is back to fighting shape.

And now a gate has blown, not far from where he bivouacked; the Inquisitor is up and running, bristling with artifice and combat arms, where he reaches the gate not far from where you all are stationed. Nothing to do as he arrives but the obvious; he unslings the Thunderbelcher from his armor's pack, even as it begins to hum in activation, and sighting down its gilded barrel, aims already to pick off one of the stragglers.

And, because Reos is with him, the man's head goes up like an overripe melon, helmet spinning away with the majority of the top of his skull. Well, there's a banner for you.

Ahmo skitters backwards and behind the taller figures. His tail whips side to side as the knurled staff is thrust to the ground. The Luckdragon's humor sparks and sparkles, swirling about his scales and lending him protection. "Ah, ah! Let them get through that, if they can!"

Alik smiles privately as the Dranei bunch up at the entrance, throwing another toxic cloud at the group. "Together, keep standing," he mutters. "Easier target."

Another couple of Dran make it through the gate, but they also get hit by the stink cloud at the gate....which they pitch over and throw up their lunch.

Suddenly a lightning bolt is fired from one of the defense towers and causes the cloud to explode with the same force as before. it also catapaults one of the dran comedically out of one of the dome cracks.

Unfortunately, NOW there is a VERY large dran coming through the door. And when I mean very large, he's twice as tall as the rest of them. "The hell? These are WIZARDS, you runts! Aren't they supposed to be easy pickings? bah. I'll show you lot how it's done!"

Ah, yes, another of those guys. Fazahd knows all about /his/ type. He steps out from cover, magical rods already engaging from his shoulders to sketch a disc of amber force into the air before him, and tosses his gun side in order to unshoulder an entirely different sort of firearm - specifically, something very /artificial/ in nature. Pistol-gripped with a stabilizing handle, barrel-shaped cannon is made into the form of a limbless xorn, and its wide jaws bristle with a poisonous green glow.

"I AM FAZAHD MASTERBUILDER," he roars, "ENGINEBREAKER OF REOS. I HAVE KILLED MORE DRAN THAT YOU HAVE KNOWN, AND YOU ARE ONE MORE COMMANDER WHOSE HEAD I HAVE CLAIMED. RUST AND SHATTER BEFORE THE FORGE, AND KNOW DESTRUCTION."

Ahmo ducks and scrambles amid the defenses, a tap here, a tap there. As he nears the edge of the soldiers' line, he slows. His pearlescent whiskers quiver and writhe as live things, sparking at their ends as live wires. "Aha-ha! Mighty oink-oink, monkey-man! Fall down you will again!" he croaks. Energy flows off his scales, crackling and sheeding like a lizard beneath the sun. It sparks, striking the Dranei and soaking up his luck!

The mammoth man growls at Fazahd and charges at him, just in time to get hit with a curse and a stink cloud. he quickly pukes in mid-charge, slips on his puke and falls on his face. Ill omen indeed.

Even worse, a roc flies overhead and drops a stone....on him.

As the Dranei roars, the witchling tches. He stares hard at the man, through eyes that should-not-see. "Ah-ha, hahaha!" he says. Ahmo skitters backwards, his hand half-cupped at his chest. Mana, broken-and-mended swirls there. Arcane-burns-divine and cracks and sparks. He hurls the mana-ball towards a fallen soldier. Her wounds begin to mend, sparking as the skin moves.

All that and a stone from above, and he isn't dead yet - well, Fazahd is used to this. Striking a control on his gauntlet, Fazahd engages injectors elsewhere in his armor, and as needles pierce his flesh, pumping strange chemicals energized by the mana of his own aura, armor and flesh alike begin to expand as Fazahd puts away his rifle in favor of the hammer on his belt.

After all, containment is necessary. The big Dran bastard can't paste wizards if he's busy with him.

Ordinarily Alik reserves his toxic ammunition for disabling groups of opponents. That said, this hulking Dran warrior seems to count as a group all on his own... and is well worth disabling if possible. And luckily, he has not yet closed to melee with Fazahd. So he fires a second toxic cloud in the man's general direction, chuckling as he slips and falls on his vomit. Then he follows up with an electrical discharge that sears a black charred hole in the commander's chest, filling the air with the smell of burnt flesh.

The Dran giant manages to have a mace, which fits his personality....dull. He's still getting up as Fazahd makes himself larger.

unfortunately, a roc was swatted out of the air and lands directly upon the larger dranei, knocking him down again.

And a stone golem's fist comes down upon the roc...and the dranei sitting there.

Even WITH roc firmly pasted upon his back, the larger dran tries to get up from his predicament. "You.....shall not.....defeat.....me!

Now ten feet tall - and towering over the golembirdman tavesty that is the Dran's curse-addled fate - Fazahd steps forward, holding a gleaming, ornate warhammer in one mailed fist. "I dare not take all the credit," he says, hissing the words, "But at least, you will serve as a proper example. Good /night/!"

And with that, Fazahd swings...and knocks the man's head from his shoulders. Clean from his shoulders, in fact, so that it sails, turning end over end, in a perfect, precious spiral through the posts of the returning gate in to any groups of Dran that might be on the other side. He's a holy man, Fazahd. He likes to give back to the community.

He hasn't lost /all/ his priestly instincts, after all.

As Fazahd relieves the man's head from his shoulders, Raethon and the apprentices have managed to get the gate back onto the doorway, and other wizards have placed new defenses upon the gates, as per Raethon's orders. "Thank you." he says before looking behind him. "Looks like the evacuation has finished in this area. Go rest. You deserve it. I don't think this is the end of this though."