War of the Dragon (RP)

[nekoryuuha]

Maerlyn thought for a moment after Brink's Healing Kiss as she touched a talon to her lips. He had a dark taste to him, like she was getting the Mastiff 's aftertaste of something. "Spectral Dragons..." The thought was intriguing to say the least of things, the Phoenix Pinion that Aurora flew over to her from the throne even more so in the the bright daylight. A poking at her thigh called her attention down to the Slime-girl that they'd found. "Hmm...?"

"Um.... who's that...?" she asked rather timidly as she pointed to the Cleric.

Maerlyn stiffened as she watched Sylvia help Zorlo into his armor. "That means I'm getting way too distracted if I let someone like that sneak past me...?" the Harpy replied in a murmur as she and Aurora simultaneously facepalmed. When the Smile-girl looked confused, Maerlyn waved it off. "Don't worry about it," she replied as Sylvia introduced herself to the group formally this time. It was good to see that she wasn't out for blood for being 'mislead'. "I see... The Name's Maerlyn and this is my friend and Familiar, Aurora. Good to meet you," she said to the Aasimar as Aurora nodded. "The Quiet one over there is Rain, and the Smile is... Huh..." She turned fully to look at the Slime-girl. "Say, you don't have a name, do you?"

"Name...?" The Slime thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No... I don't think I do..."

Aurora squawked, making Maerlyn look to her Familiar. "...I'm sorry?" Aurora repeated herself with extra, making Maerlyn shrug. "That's fine with me. Aurora proposes the name, 'Ceraph' for her. Any objections?" Maerlyn asked the group.

[GamerKale]

"You had the sword you should have been fine. I was the one watching Drelliel kill my family." His eyes darted to the cursed yellow ring. "And I still managed to get that message out. I'm sorry if you misunderstood "ring" as kill the banshee under the ring's protection and control. Next time I'm being held in thrall by something I'll be more ex-exp-el-ela-elo... wordy." His gaze fell back to the ring near the throne, sulking about his inability to find the words he wanted almost as much as his newfound power. Sylvia's arrival drew his attention from both his thoughts and the ring.

"Ceraph? I don't think I know anybody else by that name. Just" Jenkins wrapped a hand around the blue ring, "if you get to pick your own name, make sure it's one you like. Once you get a name it's hard to lose it." He hopped from his perch saying, "And speaking of losing things."

"Can't risk letting anybody put you on. You destroyed an entire island, if not for Marco how much more would you have taken?" Jenkins crossed the room and crouched next to the entrancing yellow ring. His eyes switched to their mood ring setting as he decided to call it, but the slits were yellow rather than their standard green, as he picked it up and pulled it off the corpse's finger. He turned and took a couple of steps towards the group, his eyes started to glow with the yellow light. He pulled off a glove and held the ring up with thumb and forefinger, rolled it between them, and started to slip it onto his finger.

[Zorolo]

The sound of metal clang, albeit lighter than the steel clang of the Paladin running before, rushed forwards as a loud, metallic, hollow sound filled the air as Zorlo tackled Jenkins to the ground and knocked the ring from his hand. "Dammit, you fool! Frodo! Don't wear the ring!" Zorlo said as he began to shake Jenkins, attempting to shake sense back into the man. The ring clicked against the ground as it began to roll slightly as the Paladin rose and drew his sword. "Let me see if this works," the green-haired man drew the Sun Blade and swung down the blade. He doubted this sword could destroy that ring, but he HAD to try.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMU-6FMqNcc )

[GamerKale]

Jenkins covered his eyes when Zorlo knocked the ring aside. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he knew that it had something to do with the ring and the weird mood vision he was suddenly developing. The tip of the sword broke off as it struck the ring. It reformed a moment later, but the ring was unharmed. Jenkins could feel the ring calling to him, still see it, he screwed his eyes shut and pawed at his throat for the necklace. The ring had helped before, maybe it would do the same again. He pulled his own ring back on and found that while he could still see the yellow light radiating from it. It wasn't painful or controlling anymore. He admired the ring on his finger and his eyes shone with a blue light, "Ok, I'm not taking you off ever again."

Jenkins tossed the chain to Zorlo, he didn't want to risk getting too close and falling prey to the ring again, and retreated over near Maerlyn. "Here, put it on that. Paladins are supposed to be immune to fear right? You should be able to stay in close proximity to it and maybe even suppress it's power." His eyes slowly dimmed and shrank back to their normal green circles.

[Zorolo]

Zorlo nodded and took the ring. He smiled at the man as he placed the ring on the chain and more it around his neck. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable carrying this twisted, evil creation, but until we can destroy it, I'm not sure what else I can do," the Paladin said as he sighed. "Perhaps a volcano would do the trick," he mused to himself, still not quite having recovered from the massive blood loss he had suffered while using his Stigmata. "Anyway, shall we be off?" he asked Jenkins, smiling. "I'm sure we've others that could use our help! Onward!" he said, pointing his sword in the air as he started running back towards the ship.

Sylvia simply face-palmed and sighed. "I"m sorry. I'm not sure what's gotten into him. I hope you can forgive him," she asked, bowing as she followed after the Paladin.

[nekoryuuha]

"Right...." Maerlyn replied as she gave Zorlo and the ring a wide berth of room to exit. She turned her attention back to Sylvia. "You... should probably accompany Zorlo. I can smell so much blood on him I'm amazed he still has color," the Harpy said to the woman as her stomach growled cavernously. All the blood in the area and exertion was making her hungry. Her eyes immediately shifted to the dead Shadow Mastiff and she licked her lips before catching herself. "I'm gonna look around for useful things since his Grace, Marco, gave us leave to take anything we could use. Then I'm gonna ravage that fresh corpse over then. I'll meet you all back on the ship unless you need me for some or want to wait here," Maerlyn said as she clawed off a chuck of flesh and left with it.

The Slime-girl watched the Harpy and Sylvia leave before sliding toward Jenkins, feeling lonely without Maerlyn. "Can I... stay with you for now...? I don't want to be alone anymore..." she asked, remembering how he'd carried her earlier. He seemed nice enough as far as she was concerned.

[GamerKale]

Jenkins smiled warmly and placed a hand in what was meant to be a comforting gesture on what he thought to be her shoulder. "Of course you can. I'd be quite the hi-high- it's an h word. Whatever, I'm traveling with a harpy already. Plus, you helped my friends when I couldn't and even saved my life. I'm still not sure how I survived that first wail," emotions, sounds, and blurry images flashed before his eyes as he spoke, "but I know I wouldn't have survived that second one. So thank you for that. And more importantly than all of that, it would be bad manners to leave a lady out here by herself."

He swept the room with a glance one last time and resecured his bag. Despite the amount of gnome magic he had used it astounded him by still weighing the same. "Come on, Maerlyn will probably beat us back to the ship, even if we leave now, but we might as well get started." He walked at a leisurely pace, stopping periodically to examine a painting or what was left of one in the wake of the grenades. I wonder how the captain and the crew will take this. First they discover Maerlyn is a harpy, they think I'm some sort of blood sucker, and the second girl I bring on board is a Ceraph. I'm sure it's going to be fine." I hope the captain is understanding.

[Zorolo]

Sylvia narrowed her eyes at Maerlyn. "Fine, I'll help him out, but if you eat him or try ANYTHING else on him, I'll make you suffer. I think you'd make a nice feather duster for me," the Aasimar said as she narrowed her eyes and supported Zorlo as the two started towards the ship. She sighed heavily as she heard Zorlo deludedly ranting about something, but most of it was nonsense about some guy who was made of rubber, a green-haired guy with thee swords, and a wench with red hair. Oh what an odd thing to talk about. Still, it was funny, she admitted, and the loss of blood could easily explain it.

And when Zorlo finally passed out, Sylvia carried him onto the ship.

[nekoryuuha]

Maerlyn merely smiled, paying the woman's threats no mind as she parted ways to explore the place.

Ceraph smiled back at him, not really fully understanding all of it, but happy for the praise and the reassuring touch he gave her before stating they should go. She agreed with a happy nod and slid out after him. Maybe it was because of her magic or because she had better control of her amorphous body, but Jenkins found Ceraph capable of keeping pace with him without too much trouble. It was obvious that he'd leave her in his dust if it came time to need to sprint of run, but it didn't look like she'd need need any help walking or climbing minor obstacles. Especially after he'd seen her ooze through a space barely bigger then a gold piece. "Um..." she began. "...Why were all of you here? It's been a long time since fleshy things have come."

[GamerKale]

At the ship, 'most everyone was busy making repairs. Buy where when they left everybody was working fervently out of fear they were now just working with a purpose. At this rate the ships would be able to leave with the morning tide. Shanks took Zorlo out of Sylvia's hands and handed him off to the doctor. He then picked the blue haired woman up for a second. "You're a little on the light side, aren't you? Take it from an elf, love, when one of us thinks you don't weigh enough you should add something to your diet. Now, where were we? Oh yes, you had just told me about how you intend to marry my nephew. Just what do you see in him anyways?"

When Jenkins and Ceraph finally got there, Captain Newgate stood with mouth agape. "Farmer, I expected you to find long lost treasures. Not another member for this strange harem you seem to be gathering." "Hare-what?" "Country simpletons. Don't worry about it. Who and what is your friend? And is it useful?" "O-k... Uh, this is Ceraph. She's a sorceress." "Another magic user, can't have too many of those. Any loot?" "Well we kind of resurrected the old owner a phoenix called Marco. He said we could take anything we need, but asides from what Z's wearing we didn't get much of value-" a chest probably worth as much as Asp by itself appeared in a burst of flames. "-Except for whatever's in here, apparently." Newgate put a red bandanna in Jenkins's hands and shouted, "Mr. Black, help Mr. Red move this to my cabin, and take Ms. Ocean with you. I'll give out shares when we get back to Seat."

"Guess I'm Mr. Red now." Jenkins put the bandanna on, apparently he had just been promoted. "And as Maerlyn is Ms. Green I'm guessing you're Ms. Ocean." He said to Ceraph with an uncertain smile before picking up the chest. As soon as they were done moving the chest Mr. Black returned to supervising and people started coming up to Jenkins, apparently Mr. Red's job was both lookout and master-at-arms. A task he soon found no love for as somebody was found trying to sneak into the captain's cabin and Jenkins was ordered to give the man several lashings, which he grudgingly performed. After lunch Jenkins was allowed to disappear for a little while, he went inland a short ways, sat with his back to a blooming tree, and cleaned the musket slowly as if cleaning that might help him cleanse himself of what he had just done. He had whipped animals before, and killed plenty of people, but that was in combat. He was having difficulty coming to terms with what he had just done to a defenseless person. But as the saying goes, justice must be swift and certain, not that it made him feel any better, it was actually somehow worse than when he had a stomach full of blood.

[Zorolo]

Sylvia scratched her cheek for a moment and thought. "DOn't know, honestly. I was ordered to marry him by the temple I'm a cleric in, to better the relationships between our temples. I guess it's what you call a "political" marriage, but we've both sworn oaths to the temples, so we can't exactly back out. The well being of the divine and their servants is more important than the measly lives of two mortals, you know," she responded, crossing her arms and nodding sagely. Her statements were true to her, but they were a bit... crass. "Anyway, who're you that wants to know, huh? Well, Mr. Elf?"

[GamerKale]

Shanks cocked his head at her question, "I'm Zorolo's uncle. The sailors have taken to calling me Bloody Shanks, but my name is Aratarilfran Stanfield. As you say the measly lives of two mortals are nothing to the well being of the divine. The only ones concerned about you two getting married should be the two of you, not your "superiors" at the temples." Aratarilfran pulled out an ornate winding golden dragon and revealed a matching one in his left ear, apparently it was an earring, but how one would put that in an ear was a mystery. "Very old and seldom practiced elven custom. Elves have sensitive ears, to show their commitment to one another a couple would have intricate matching earrings forged during their wedding. I have lived through countless terrible experiences, including being taken prisoner by a particularly inventive Balor Lord, and that is still the most physically painful experience of my life. So I'm going to ask you to kindly not tread on the sacred bond of marriage because a couple of children can't learn to play nicely." Aratarilfran returned the earring to his pocket and adjusted his hair to cover his ear again. "Feel free to warn your higher ups that I won't ask them kindly to reconsider if they decide to press the issue. And I might not be as kind to them as I was to your friends over there." Aratarilfran gestured towards the unconscious and bound inquisitors she had brought with her.

[nekoryuuha]

"Ms...Ocean...?" Ceraph murmured to herself before Jenkins explained it to her. "Um...okay..." She didn't really understand it, not knowing what this 'ocean' thing was or why she apparently looked like it or whatever, but since Jenkins accepted 'Mr. Red', she chose to accept 'Ms. Ocean' for now. Maybe she'd understand it after a while. With that, the Slime-girl followed Jenkins and Mr. Black down to the aforementioned captain's cabin where she ended out staying for a while as she began looking around at things.


Maerlyn flew along at a slow, lazy pace, her and Aurora's bellies full and heavy from their Mastiff feast and a few of her bags of holding were fuller now. While It wasn't an earth-shattering amount, it was definitely a useful amount for anything they'd probably need. For now, however, her only thought was to return and get some sleep.

[GamerKale]

"Ahoy, mind if I join you?" Jenkins nodded assent to Mr. Black's question. "Maverick didn't enjoy doling out the punishments either. Name's Auroch, Mav and I came from the same little town. I think the captain chose you because he knew you wouldn't take pleasure in other's pain." "Why not just have you do it?" "I've spent too much time making friends with the crew. If I had done it they would have seen it as a betrayal." "Why not do it himself then?" "He has before, but you needed the respect granted an officer, they don't like you. The crew wants to blame someone for what happened to their friends yesterday. You came on board and as luck would have it we got assaulted by three pirate vessels at once, you have some strange per, and you brought a couple of monstrous individuals on board, that puts them on edge." "What about Rain and Zorlo?" "Rain has powerful magic, so they're afraid of him already. And the paladin well, even we're religious. But you you were just a kid with good eyes until today. Come on, let's get back to it."

"Ms. Green, glad to have you back." Greeted Captain Newgate. When Maerlyn got to sleep she found herself standing in what seemed to be a giant bird's nest with an anthropomorphic Aurora standing next to her. "Somebody wants a word with you. Head up the stairs." A stairway appeared in the middle of the nest leading into the clouds. For some reason her wings wouldn't generate any lift here and after climbing for what seemed like hours the a figure came into view, just sitting on the stairs. It was an male harpy with blazing feathers, she recognized him immediately as the phoenix from before, Marco waved when she got close. "Yo, your patron is pleased that you and yours helped me out, so you get duh duh duh dun a reward. Both let you do something that as of now only one other mortal on the continent can do, bring someone back to life. On the one hand you can get access to the historically accurate but prohibitively expensive spell Raise Dead, or you can do what I can do and bring yourself back should you die. Although, admittedly my way is better because it comes with a cooler outfit." A mirror appeared in the air next to Maerlyn, but the reflected image had fiery orange and red feathers and eyes, not green.

[nekoryuuha]

She was speechless in the face of this, she and Aurora wholly unprepared for the reward placed before her so suddenly. She'd figured that the loot from the castle, knowledge, and other things were the only reward she get here. Once more, she looked back at her reflection, at the blazing, Phoenix-like plumage and eyes and the knowledge that she could self-resurrect in the manner of a true Phoenix. It was a huge honor, and though she'd always been vain of her beautiful, emerald plumage, she had to admit that she looked damned good in red & orange. The random thought bringing a smile to her face.
On the other hand was the Raise Dead spell. She'd only read about it before, a spell she'd never seen anyone she'd come across before. A truly rare and somewhat difficult to find spell without apparently giving large donations to temples for someone to cast it for you. Another great honor, and truly tempting. She wasn't sure which to pick before she felt it. The 'nudge' on her mind from Aurora. It was practically saying, "Why so indecisive? That's not like you." That really got laugh from her as she looked back to the smiling Aurora. "When did you get so blunt..?" she asked jokingly. Aurora pretended a hurt look before chuckling with Maerlyn. But Aurora was right, and she thanked her companion & Familiar before turning back to Marco. "Thank you for this. I'd honored to receive the self-resurrection and that beautiful plumage that comes with it," she finally replied to Marco with a short bow from the two.

[GamerKale]

"That's great! I won the wager! Guess I'll be keeping the diamonds. Oh, and don't panic." The mirror burst into flames and swirled around Maerlyn. In the real world she was consumed by flames as well, although they didn't burn her or anything else. It caused a huge explosion, blowing out the windows.

Jenkins and Mr. Black were a good fifty yards from the ship when he saw the explosion. "MAERLYN!" His eyes glew yellow, the ring snapped off the chain around Zorlo's neck, and flew onto Jenkins's hand. A half dozen spidery topaz legs sprouted from his waist and sent him jumping onto the ship. He ripped the door off it's hinges with golden claws as the flames died down and stopped breathing when he saw the harpy's new look. "Maerlyn?" The yellow faded from his eyes, replaced by violet. Purple sparks came off the ring apparently having it's fear inducing effects overriden by another emotion.

[nekoryuuha]

"Wait, What?" But it was too late, the flames already engulfing her as the 'dream' ended. Ceraph had moment to look back at Maerlyn before the flames exploded through the cabin and blew out the window. Though it didn't hurt the Slime-girl or Aurora, that didn't make it any less startling as she 'fell' back in surprise of Maerlyn's sudden and over-the-top transformation. By the time Jenkins had leapt over and torn his way inside, He found Maerlyn sitting up in the bed, gazing at her new plumage. She looked rather calmly at him, her eyes blazing a moment. "Yo, Jenkins. What's up, other then a change of appearance for the both of us?" she asked as she looked over his golden claws, Violet eyes, and spidery legs.

[GamerKale]

Jenkins just stared at her stupidly for a second before her words struck him. "Change?" The violet glow faded as his eyes shrank back into green circles. He looked down at his hands, his eyes grew and became yellow again. The claws and legs shattered into light and he pulled the ring off, tossing it onto Newgate's bed, which was understandably much larger than the one Maerlyn had been using. Jenkins's eyes reverted to normal and he stared at the ring. "That was around Zorlo's neck. And I was-" He looked over the side of the ship Mr. Black hadn't moved, "over there. How did I?" His eyes fell on Maerlyn again. "You scared me, I thought you had exploded. What happened to your emerald? Not that you don't look good in fire, in fact you look uh-" He was at a loss for words and while they didn't start glowing his eyes expanded and turned violet again. He shook his head, his eyes remained unchanged but he was able to get onto a new word. "Why did you explo-" Jenkins found himself being picked up from behind by Captain Newgate. "de?" He finished as he stared at the captain. "Mr. Red, repair my door." Jenkins just nodded and was let go to start work.

With some help he managed to get the door back up to the cabin. Jenkins took off most of the swooshy and excessively fanciful clothing, leaving him with boots, pants, and the blue ring, the rest of the stuff would just get in the way while he worked on the repairs. He found Maerlyn's presence highly distracting, as he kept catching himself glancing over at her with his elongated amethyst eyes, but he wasn't about to complain. "So, uh, what happened? You look kind of like that phoenix, color wise I mean. I-I..." I'm going to shut up now, before I say something else stupid.

[nekoryuuha]

That changing color... His moods maybe...? The fiery Harpy thought to her as she watched and listened to Jenkins with a bit of amusement only looking away to see where the ring landed. Neither her, nor Aurora had any intention of going near the thing until it was destroyed. "Thank you, Jenkins," she finally replied when he'd stopped talking amidst his door repairing. "It's kinda nice to know that someone around here cares for my well being, other then my dear Aurora. That... makes me happy..." she finished with a smile as she swing her legs over the edge of the bed and crossed her legs. She felt good, revitalized even. "As for the change, it's a gift from my Lady of Winter & his Grace, Marco, though its a bit more influenced from him then Mi'lady. The explosion..." she shrugged. "A side effect, maybe? I wasn't quite awake yet when it happened. Maybe Ceraph knows?"

"Huh...?" At her name, the Smile-girl looked back, her head turning almost 180 degrees in a fluid manner that only an Ooze, Owl, or the Possessed could achieve before shaking her head. "I just turned around before 'BOOM'!" she replied as the rest of her twisted around to match up with her head's direction. "Did... something else happen...?" she asked shyly, unable to tell since visually, it was mostly a coloration change.

Maerlyn chuckled. "No, it's nothing you need to worry yourself over, dear," she replied, Ceraph nodding back. She took a moment to look over her changed plumage again back looking back at Jenkins. "So, what about you, Jenkins? You've been changing a lot too, lately. You feeling alright?"

[Zorolo]

Zorlo sat up and mumbled slightly when the ring left before he laid back down and went to sleep. So much blood had been lost he wasn't apt to do anything for another few hours.

Sylvia looked at the man who she better knew as Shanks and huffed. "I don't accept that! He and I have pledged ourselves to the pursuit of higher spiritual beings! Who are we to say who we do and do not marry! My goddess and his goddess clearly want us to be married, lestwise the temples wouldn't have ordered it as such," she shouted angrily as she kicked one of her inquisitor lackies in the shin. "One guy... one guy beat up all six of you. What in the world does the temple pay you for?" she asked angrily.

One man managed to remove his gag and looked at her. "We don't get paid."

Sylvia stuttered for a second before responding. "Allow you to live for."

The two went silent, and that was the last words spoken of that exchange.