All around December Catch-all [open]

[towards_okeanos]

Who: For quest: Iskandar and Judar, everything else OTA.
When: Deceuer, start to finish.
Where: Harbour, Coven, Wilde. He's a busy man.
What: Event prompts, quest and everything else.
Warnings: Will add as needed.


Snow way out [6th - 10th]
For the first two days, Iskandar is rather excited by all the snow but it gets less funny with disruptions and blackouts. He is bigger than most and taller than most. From the height of Bucephalus, he can spot those snowed under, free others trapped in their buildings, dig the entrances for those that can't get in.

Wildcard
[ooc: Throw me a bone. Maybe not literally. Prompts, ideas, plotting? PM or bitweaver always works.

More prompts may appear later.]


The Woman [closed to Judar]
A tale he heard about the ghost. Some say it's a vengeful spirit of a murdered woman. She and her child brutally slain years ago and now they come back every winter to torment the living. Iskandar is not one to dismiss such stories. They ring true to him. He heard many similar at home. Unburied and unavenged dead can be especially vicious. Barred the entrance to the Underworld they roam the earth seeking justice.

The Wilders have a different version. That she's no ghost seeking retribution but a particularly persistent Shade. Unlucky soul lost to the plague long ago.

Iskandar has prepared for both outcomes. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't possible to obtain a silver obol in Aefenglom so he had to make one, actually two, and carve the image of a bee on each side himself.
For the second option, he recruited reinforcements. A young Mirrorbound faun with extensive knowledge of magic... of his own world. No magical powers here. Iskandar is getting used to that kind of story. He really believes whoever or whatever drags them here from their respective worlds is simply cruel and likes to see people suffer.

"You're sure you've got everything you need?"

He's not trying to doubt Judar's skills. If Orpheus was able to charm the Hades himself and almost get his wife out of the Underworld, why something similar shouldn't work here? On a lesser ghost. He's just checking. It's worse to go unprepared than not go at all.

Comments

hover for translation ;)

[towards_okeanos]

He may not look like it, being loud and full of himself all the time, but Iskandar is a perceptive man. He notices when the music falters. Notes that have flown light and effortless but a moment ago suddenly dive down, tense and weighted.

"Not really fond of flames are we, eh?"

He saw Judar avert his gaze from the fiery sword. Whatever reason is behind, it will be a hindrance. Something he didn't take into account. Iskandar knows it is his fault for not asking. Not making sure he knows everything that is possible to know before the battle. It could turn out to be a costly mistake.

The woman sees the fire too and lets out a shriek so pained one could assume the flames already got to her. Yet it is all a ruse. A misdirection calculated to disorient them as she is circling, trying to get behind Iskandar, who she already marked as a threat before, even more now that he wields fire. That makes Judar her primary target.

"Change of plans! Stay where you are!"

Iskandar drops the second silver coin at the young faun's feet making it a focus of the spell he casts.

Έξαναδυομένῳ Αίγις!

With a sound as from a myriad roaring dragons a wall of shimmering silver rises from the ground shielding Judar from every direction, last bits of silver dissolving in the air as it closes over his head. It might look like a soap bubble, its walls thin and translucent but it is in no danger of breaking.
All traces of humanity are long gone from the creature that was once the woman but the frustrated cry she makes sounds almost human.

There is another branch of the Abjuration school of magic that Iskandar was studying closely for the last months. One having a lot to do with shields. That first one, hastily thrown, that the Shade was able to tear through as if it was a flimsy paper screen? It was but a basic one. It was weak because he had to act fast and by doing so forgone the usual preparation and even verbalising the spell.

The silver wall is one he's most content with. It is also the most draining. Iskandar has to deal with her before he drops down out of sheer exhaustion. All hope now in the sword and the fire. And the song he's trying to sychronise his moves to.

[kuroi_taiyo]

"Fauns aren't," he made clear to clarify after that bit of perception. Judar, personally, had no trouble with flames. He found it simple and effective, and a favorite for people that preferred to be straightforward. Lately, however, there was a violent gut reaction in seeing flames that he's had to work at holding back. Nothing so strong that he wasn't in control of himself, but it was enough to cause moments of hesitation and distraction.

He can pull himself back into a proper state, but even those few moments were few too many when in a dangerous situation.

At least he was able to keep focus and a clear head with the sudden bubble of silver- energy being used, similar to how his own borg worked- surrounded his entire being. This was familiar, and if the big guy had been practicing and was confident and practiced enough, it'll hold enough. So he could fully go into the music once more, even as the frustrated shade uselessly dragged those black-dipped claws along the shield.

As the music picked up, stronger than before, the woman was smart enough to recognize this as protected bait, to know to expect attacks from the large Witch. She'd also proven intelligent enough to attempt to deceive those around, to understand the context of what kinds of people would be more vulnerable. Enough to wear down the danger and get the more vulnerable prey all the same? She had enough speed to dodge attacks and move around the silver bubble, slashing at it, as if to increase the strain to support the spell. Perhaps trying to wear down the danger enough so that she'd have two succulent targets to prey upon?

[towards_okeanos]

"I shall remember it then."

There is not much else he can say. It's obviously his miscalculation that made this battle already longer than it should have been. All now rests on wit and endurance. On outsmarting the monster to get just close enough to deliver the killing blow. Iskandar has noticed that he would not need more than one.

The woman, cunning as she is for a mindless beast, long has relied on tricking her victims. That the prey won't have time to fight back. Much less adapt to her tactics. As sly as she is, she is far from unpredictable. He only needs a few moments more to have her movements completely deciphered. Then he can switch from simply stalling to attack.

[kuroi_taiyo]

There were plenty of miscalculations, and unfortunate for Iskander, things were already predetermined to have someone else get the final blow on this cwyld-infested hag. They may provide a dent that would lead to a future victory, but the pair as they currently were would be doomed to fall a little short. Not that they would be aware of that.

In some ways, this woman was a lot like some animals that Judar's seen. Sure, they could be sly and use that with some amazing speed, but those things alone didn't make whatever victories the animals would have on their hunts. It reminded him, but as the rest of that equation escaped his mind, the faun continued to play at the fast pace that reflected what was going on. Stamping and moving his foot into the ground, his eyes moved away as the woman continued to try and evade while whittling down the barrier's integrity.

Something about the story... It's when his inexperience with being out in the Wildes mix with that, that there's a question that comes about. "Hey, big guy- How's these barriers do against the Cwyld itself?"

If she came about through exposure and time, which spread the stuff's influence, that'd mean it was more present than it seemed, didn't it? Do they interact in any particular way?

Did it turn out that they were in something of a spider den?