O-Lord's Game (Jakelad)

[official clown business]

Holy fuckin' Ouro'ras, there's the dragon. And we're in a terrible position.

This would definitely be the worst time to panic, so I decided to instead think about our options. We needed to stall for a little more time, or perhaps create a diversion...

Right away, I tell the Dreamweaver to "Put up as many Hallucinations in the most distracting spot you can think of so we can get Harsvold out of here!" The most distracting spot would hopefully be something that would be quite likely to get the dragon's attention.

I quickly turn to Reyael and go "Quick, where's the nearest, safest route out of here? We'll be right behind you!"

(Aah, Hallucination EX. It's generally intended as a combat skill, however it seems very useful for this situation. When casting it you only get 1 hallucination, but if people decide to not move or perform actions they can boost the hallucinations by 2 per action. Assuming we're all running and Sir Cauthrien attempts to carry Harsvold, we'd probably get 3 if Reyael runs and does nothing else. If Harsvold is currently strong enough to either move or perform an action, he can add to the spell effect as well.

This spell creates a hallucination of any target on the battlefield... which is whoever the Dreamweaver can see right now. It's up to him.)

[Tikobe]

(The dragon isn't there right now. He's in the distance, but basically blocking the path you need to go)

[official clown business]

Ok well I think it would be best if Sir Cauthrien went to carry Harsvold and Reyael led us the fuck out of the castle, because we're in the courtyard (right?) and that's still the castle to me. Sorry, looks like the dreamweaver won't be doing much after all.

That's what I suggested instead. Get Harsvold, follow Reyael outside. The sooner we get out of here, the more time we'll have to assess our options.

[Tikobe]

(Actually, it's an outer yard outside the castle. But eh, oh well.)

"Actually, Reyael, you carry Harsvold," Sir Cauthrien says.

"What?"

"You carry Harsvold."

"Sir Cauthrien, I hardly think this is the time to be lazy."

"I'm not. You take Harsvold and Zynna and head for the East gate. Find a backwards route or something, somewhere with closed spaces that'll make it hard for the dragon to see you."

"And you?"

"I'm gonna fight it."

"Nice joke. You'll die."

"So? The Baron's also dead. It's an honor as one of his knights to die avenging him. I know I can't win, but I can at least distract him, make sure he can't find you all."

[official clown business]

(If it ever happens, Zynna would probably not be the kind of person who would ever face a dragon, head on or indirectly. Sir Cauthrien's a braver man than all of us combined, and when this epic music gets released in three years it will surely be fitting for his last march to battle.)

"You're out of your mind," I respond. "Very brave, but you're also planning to throw your life away for the safety of everyone else here. Think of all the years that could've been ahead of you..." He probably has. Unfortunately, he probably also had enough time to think about the all years everyone else would live as well. I doubt there's any way we can stop him at this point.

"Well, Reyael," I begin, turning towards the mage, "it's time for us to get the hell out of here and save the one other person we have a chance of keeping alive. Help me carry Harsvold so we can start making our way towards the East gate."

[Tikobe]

"Aye," Reyael says, a slight tone of dismay in her voice.

"Alright. Well, this is it. It's been glad knowing you, even if it was so short," Sir Cauthrien says, as he begins to walk toward the part of the city where the dragon lied.

"Cauthrien!" Reyael shouts. "Just uh... may the Light bless you, or whatever you knights say."

"Not even close!" Sir Cauthrien says laughing as he takes his leave of your group.

"Yes," the Dreamweaver says, meaning something on the lines of "What a man." Reyael, not even knowing what he said, shoots him a glare.

"Oh light, you're heavy!" Reyael exclaims as she tries lift Harsvold.

"D- Don't even worry," Harsvold finally says, "I can walk, just keep me balanced, or whatever."

[official clown business]

"Alright, Harsvold, I'll keep you on your feet," I decide, realizing that it may be better to have me do this instead of Reyael, because

"I'll take care of the blacksmith. Reyael, I think you may need to be the one leading the way without having to do this, since you know the area much better than I do. We'll be right behind you as always."

[Tikobe]

"Alright then. Make sure to stay close to me. I'm not gonna let that idiot's sacrifice go to waste," Reyael says as she leads the group.

---

You three run through streets that are rather quite empty or grueling to pass. Most of the people have probably either already run away, or they were killed by the dragon, their bodies making up most of what's so grueling about it. Following Sir Cauthrien's advice, Reyael has led you through paths that are enclose, mostly alley ways, in an attempt to hide from the dragon. Of course, you also can't see the dragon yourself, so you have no clue if Sir Cauthrien has started his fight with the dragon.

"That idiot," Reyael mumbled. She's been talking to herself for a very long time now, referring to Sir Cauthrien as only "that idiot." From the tears she's dropped, she's quite visibly upset at the knight's decision.

[official clown business]

Were they secret lovers or what? I regret letting the knight go off on his own, but by the time I get some people to act out this story Sir Cauthrien will be the most important character in it.

"He was a brave fellow," I said. "I doubt there would be anyone else as willing to sacrifice themselves as Sir Cauthrien was, back there. But I don't think we should give ourselves time to grieve over our latest losses until we've saved Harsvold for sure."

(I'm going to say Zynna hasn't dealt with that much tragedy in her life, at least not real tragedy. Like, accidents happened on the stage all the time, the ringmaster was giving his eulogy or we were laying the people we could to rest pretty often, but it's the kind of occurrence that's more like 'man, a coworker died, that's a damn shame' instead of being like 'HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO THEM!?!?' so I guess I would consider Sir Cauthrien to be the closest to a real tragedy I've had in, say, a decade.)

[Tikobe]

"I know!" Reyael snaps back, mumbling about "that idiot" again.

"All of this, just to get me out alive, " Harsvold says. "Kinda makes me feel like the king. Too bad he's dead."

[official clown business]

"Well, you see Harsvold," I begin, "you were one of the first people around these parts I ever really met and got to know. I think everyone else here would agree that you're quite a pleasant fellow."

I'm looking back to past events, too. "I was admittedly quite surprised by your actions back at the quarry. It's not something most of us would've expected would end the situation so quickly."

"Whenever you regain the strength to start doing stuff, perhaps I'll be able to teach you part of what I've got in my bag of tricks. You've seen basically everything I can do, so feel free to decide which trick you'd like to learn before we get to that point."

[Tikobe]

"Aye, if I make it out of here. As low a chance as that is."

Reyael stops all of a sudden. You all of a sudden hear loud stepping sounds. You missed them before with the other sounds of the city being destroyed, but they became much more clearly heard throughout all the noise.

And they're only getting louder.

[official clown business]

I'm going to look for the nearest building that looks intact and just silently make a frantic motion in that direction, while also making a move for it.

And while I'm doing that, I'm going to whisper a harsh "Yes!" to the dreamweaver, which basically means to put up as many Hallucinations as possible, as far away as possible. (Which should be 5 if everyone else just moves and that's it, and the hallucinations can be whoever the guy wants them to be.) It'll make for a decent distraction.

[Tikobe]

The dreamweaver summons the five illusions, but this was met by a shriek from the dragon, like he had found something. Suddenly, the steps were coming even faster.

[official clown business]

That's okay, because we should be in the nearest intact building by now, looking for a pretty decent hiding spot. We aren't getting found.

This isn't the time to do anything else right now. I didn't expect Sir Cauthrien to meet his fate so quickly, but I guess this is going to have to happen sooner rather than later.

[Tikobe]

You all hide in the building, but the shadow of the dragon looms overhead. You hear it's roar, and the ground below begins to glitch.

"Not this time!" Reyael yells as she throws what looks like seeds into the air and then a green light pulsates out of her staff. In mid air the seeds sprouts into massive, thick vines the pierce the walls of the building and entangle you, Reyael and Harsvold. The ground below disappears, only revealing another pit of lava. The building didn't fall on your surprisingly, but that might be because the vines, which you could assume to have buried theirselves into safe ground like a net, was strong enough to support the weight of the building. That might also be why the lower part of the walls stayed when the roof was smacked off by the dragon's giant claw. The dragon looks down on you four, a look that lacking of amusement in his eyes.

[official clown business]

Should I panic? Should I fight? Or should I just attempt to tune out what could potentially be the very last seconds of my life? I guess I'll figure it out as these next few moments pass.

I gazed at the dragon. I smiled weakly. Perhaps I laughed or giggled a little. Who knows? Stress was a hell of a thing at this point in time.

My hands, which displayed a rapidly fading arcane glow, went to cover my ears in what felt like slow motion, as if to drown out the inevitable roar of action the next few seconds would have. It would also serve to dull the applause that was slowly increasing in volume. Wait, applause?

I'm casting Round of Applause. It will not do any charming whatsoever, especially on the intended target... but I mean, it's applause directed at the dragon. Maybe it'll cause something to happen, maybe?

[Tikobe]

The dragon looks around, panicked for a bit. Eventually he roars, and the sound of applause is replaced by static that slowly turns into a loud, high-pitched scream. The scream is so loud that it causes pain and Harsvold and Reyael scream out in fright because of it. The dragon's roar literally changed the effect of your spell. Why the heck would O-Lord make something like this?

The dragon, clearly confident he now has everything under control, stomps on the ground surrounding the pit, causing it to fall into the lava. The vines, which were rooted in that very part of the earth, began to swing toward the steep side of the pit. As they make contact, the lower walls break loose and begin to fall. You see a sizable chunk of brick coming for your head right now.

[official clown business]

Well, here's something I can manage this time.

I don't know what the dragon's going to do next, but what I do know is that I'm going to turn into a flock of 5 ravens in an attempt to avoid the attack and then scatter in all directions. That's my one and only intent right now, is to go as far as I can at a low altitude.

I wonder if it's too much to hope that the dragon assumes I definitely fell in the pit and doesn't think too much of a few birds.

[Tikobe]

Except you forget that he's kinda watching. But regardless, rather than go for you, he reaches over the pit, digs his claws into the earth on the other side, and pull out the ground that the remaining vines were rooted on, causing the whole vine net to fall into the lava pit. Harsvold and Reyael, who are still entangled in it, scream as they being to fall down.

[official clown business]

Not only am I not made of miracles, I've also already exhausted four of my ideal options back at the castle. I will always think I would've been able to do something after this, but for now...

I'm not even thinking that much anymore, the only mindset I need to be in is the one that, for a few minutes, believes that saving Harsvold and Reyael would be virtually impossible at this point, and that I need to just go as far as I can from this godforsaken place before things get even worse than they already are.

With that in mind, the ravens will keep flying, and flying, as fast as they physically can. Whatever it takes, I intend to escape from the clutches of hell itself.

[Tikobe]

You fly for what seems like a dreadfully long time, although in actuality it was no more than a quarter of an hour. It's not like the dragon ignored your ravens, for after your escape he flapped his wings, getting three of them in the gale that ensued, and then he found a fourth and killed that. However, your fifth had already cleared the danger well before the dragon could find it, and has now gone about a couple hundred feet out of the wall. If you were to turn back to normal and head into the forest where you were planning to take Harsvold, you would be safe from the dragon. Besides, your wings are getting tired, so you'd need to stop soon.

[official clown business]

Alright, so how about I keep going until I get pretty tired, and then transform back into myself and keep sprinting into the forest until I get pretty tired.

However it goes, I am definitely not going to stop until I run into something that really compels me to stop or finally reach the forest. Then I'll probably head over to one of the nearest trees, take a knee for a few minutes, and think deeply about life. As long as I make it to the forest, of course.

[Tikobe]

You do as desired, running far until at last you reach safety. As you sit to rest, your amulet glows again. Out of it comes laughter mocking you.

"HAHAHAHA! That was pathetic! Trying so hard, putting your faith in strangers, and what do you do when it matters? You run away and just let everyone die. Oh me, I've seen some pretty miserable humans, and while you don't take the cake, you're still pretty much there."

O-Lord continues to laugh, leaving the amulet glowing so you could reply to him.

[official clown business]

"Just goes to confirm what I had suspected this whole time," I quietly say to myself. "I had no real purpose in being here."

Well, from a certain other person's perspective, that purpose may have been to present an impossible situation, to watch as I attempted and failed to save and I could, and to witness the inevitable guilt that would follow as I would become the only one that escaped the ruins of the castle, just barely and without the time or the ability to ensure the safety of anyone else.

It reminded me of my sudden departure from the travelling circus. I did not simply leave, like many of my coworkers and fellow kobolds believed. As a matter of fact, the ringmaster's exact words were "You have no purpose in being here anymore, Zynna." Even coming from a dwarf, those words cut quite deeply - even more so now that I would come to recall the events at this very moment. Hell, it's probably changing my outlook on life right now.

For a few seconds, I turned to stare at my Arcane Great Bow, as if intending to do something with it. Eventually, my eyes settled back to the ground in front of me. Maybe I could at least doze off for an hour or two, so I could regain the emotional and physical strength needed to keep going at this point.