THE STORY THUS FAR, CONTINUED:
The battle in block M had left many rendered unconscious or simply with the crap beaten out of them. Aki had managed to lay some sort of killer combo down upon Griff before splitting, and Laggy and Hakaril were both out of it as well. Deeum however, managed to get people to at least walking condition with her healing magics while Kerov freed his wife from the cell. Left with escaping Midvast, Hakaril gave voice to a piece of gil as a distraction...which worked better than expected as the hyperactive Laggy chased after the talking coin, diverting the guard's attention. The others managed to break their way through a window and began to scale/fly down the cliffs below to the outskirts of the ryuuzoku capital (which I forget the name of at the moment).
The rampant Laggy sped through Midvast, dodging guard and guardian alike until he ran into Elder Lagnus, who lapras-seeded him to the ground. In the spirit of wanting to get the hell out of there, Laggy opened another "void", which not only sucked himself in, but Elder Lagnus as well, removing them to appear several feet in the air above the other escaping Gaerans.
Lagnus managed to steady himself with a levitation spell before falling onto Hakaril's head, and promptly declared upon the group that they were under arrest. At this point, Griff and Hakaril seized the aging ryuuzoku from the air and pinned him to the ground, while the rest of the group, a shocked Ara excluded, beat the Elder into submission. Laggy, however, mysteriously vanished...
With a captive elder as a bargaining chip and a shield, the group fearlessly strode into the ryuuzoku city, garnering scared stares from the populace. That is, until they met Lance, an old friend of Aya and Ara and a leader of an "underground eternal dragon support group" that is, ryuuzoku that weren't out to deseat the twin dragons from their position as weaponholders. The group was taken to their base of operations, where they discovered much to their surprise, Artemis, the former "eternal dragon warrior". The group was offered the hospitality of the hideout while Artemis agreed to retrieve the weapons the ryuuzoku had taken from them upon their imprisonment. The plan thus far: trade Lagnus for Aya.
Meanwhile, Miang and Taiar had made their distance from the ryuuzoku city, but it didn't take long before they came accross some unusual company. Aiko, Taiar's mother, Serana, a friend of both Taiar and Aya and a close relative to Deep Sea, and Josh, the general-priest of Deep sea were all introduced. Not soon after, a contingent of ryuuzoku attacked the group, however only Miang and Taiar engaged in battle at the urging of Josh, who wished to see the power of the infernal mazoku in action. The two, of course, managed to beat back the ryuuzoku menace and plans went underway; incur a distraction in the ryuuzoku city to free Aya and the others. Part of this distraction involved poor Miang being disguised as a ryuuzoku herself.
The following day, all hell broke lose as the mazoku team mounted their attack on the ryuuzoku city. Artemis (who was on his way back from retrieving the weapons), mistaking Miang for a beautiful ryuuzoku maiden in distress, quickly "rescued her from Aiko's evil clutches" and brought her to rejoin the rest of the group in the "ryuuzoku underground". Needless to say, poor Artemis's heart was broken once again.
Admist the mazoku-incurred chaos, Miathan stepped up to the plate and made the inevitable announcement: Aya in exchange for the safe return of Elder Lagnus. Several attempts were made to pick off the group using snipers on their way to the grand temple, but all failed. Fortunately, the ryuuzoku made good on their word and returned Aya, though in foul condition, to the group of Gaerans. Everyone, including Team Mazoku, then got the hell out of the city, retreating to Ara's forest.
The Gaerans happily made their home in Ara's forest, despite her rather delapidated and looted cottage. Thanks to Hakaril, the protection enchantment about the area was reactivated, assuring that those that try to commit acts of violence within the forest would be struck with "divine wrath" or turned into a little girl. Soon after, Lance and the whole ryuuzoku underground showed up at Ara's doorstep, opting to make camp in the woods since the city was no longer a safe location for them, since there had been suspect of someone working for Aya on the inside. Taiar's mother and the other mazoku were also happy to make their home in the ryuuzoku forest.
Blatantly disregarding a warning from both Ara and Aya, Kamos ate a green, star-shaped fruit Aya had termed as "funky fruit", a powerful stimulant and aphrodesiac. As a result, Deeum tied Kamos to a tree. Upon his awakening, Kamos discovered odd stuff happening: the forest was laced with chaos energy, Deeum was missing, Artemis was pissed, Zeke and Janda were randomly popping out of nowhere, and Miang was suddenly a disco goddess. After a disheartening reminder of the past from Arnast, Kamos awoke to Deeum shaking him out of the funky fruit funk, for real. Really.
After discussing their options, the group opted to get Hakaril to try and open a dimensional portal back to Gaera, that is, if they could find the ingredients they needed. After determining that they'd need both levistone, a strange sort of levitating rock found only on Ayenee, and catnip to complete the spell, the group split up. Kerov, Kamos, Hakaril, Deeum, and Ara headed for Tristan, a country known for it's unique levistone mines. Miang, Taiar, and Aiko departed for the nearest town, Charun, in search of catnip and discounts.
While on their way, Ara's group made a stop at an island that was mistaken to be Mipross, an island renouned for a hotsprings. A near-fatal encounter with Xellass proved this to be quite wrong, they had landed upon Wolfpack island, home of the Beastmaster Xellass, a mazoku Dark Lord. After hauling ass from the place, they finally made it to the capital of Tristan (Who's name I also forget). Hakaril was treated to the foul familiar face of Saar, a psionic fiend responsible for the disappearance of Aya's sword ages ago when she had first come to Gaera (The events of the never-finished RP of Queen of Swords). Fortunately, he didn't seem very interested in fighting and happily took everyone to see King Richter, also an old friend of Aya and Ara. Richter, of course, was glad to offer his help and even invited everyone for dinner at the palace. This, is the story thus far for this group.
Meanwhile, Miang's draconic appearance startled the citizens of Charun, a town Aya had smashed in her dragon form some years in the past. Despite this, Miang and Aiko shared some "mother-daughter" bonding time and scared the piss out of poor random townspeople.l
Taiar made himself far more productive, scoping out a nearby pet shop to find a small jar of ground catnip. The story, thus far, ends with Taiar leaving the poor clerk in the...tentacles of some strange new pet left upon the store's steps that morning.
More to come as it develops! Feel free to sit in on my chats and watch if you wish.
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One hat to rule them all.</p>