Sol Invictus | Book02 / When Yeddim Attack

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Summary: Cerin and Markuran respond to pleas from villagers to hunt down some nasty Yeddim.

XP:C1, M1

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Cerin looks up into the great trees surrounding him, the signs of the giant beast that has been terrorising the villages around here. The surviors reported it as a 6 legged beast, with claws as long as a mans forearm and fangs to match and a hide so tough no spears would penetrate. It would be an interesting fight, once they tracked the beast down...

<Markuran ?> "Damn the wyld ones, sending this beast. They have no honor. They try to buy our lands for some lost love and then try to force us out when we refuse."

<Cerin ?> "I know nothing of this deal they attempted, but they are persistant..."

<Markuran ?> "Some lord said his lost love was coming back and he had to meet her on our land. We told him he could have it if he swam in the Well of the Void."

There is a rustle in the distant trees.

<Cerin ?> "Ah. That is curious. But...Ah perhaps we draw near to our prey"

Markuran turns his head sharply at the rustle ahead, flicking the Armsbreaker forward into a guard position. The bronze-gold of his anima roils with his eagerness for battle.
Cerin gestures and the golden bow he fights with appears before him, his outline blurring as it does

With a sudden crash, the beast -- even taller and more grotesque than indicated by the description -- bursts forth from a nearby copse. Startling even the well-prepared Solars, the beast rounds on Markuran -- the biggest target -- and brings down its vicious, twisted claws across his chest.

Markuran lunges forward, snarling at the beast as it claws him. Ducking under the claws the big man catches the big paw with one hand and slams the creature's roaring maw shut with a swift kick. Muscles that have carried the 300 pound man into treetops with a single leap bunch and an arm-sized fang flies as the kick lands with a WHACK.

Markuran's kick leaves him ever so slightly open for one more strike -- the beast manages to rake a claw ever so gently across his chest.

Cerin reacts with suprise, leaping back and up onto a tree, his hands thrumming on the golden string of the bow, brilliant motes of fire raining down on the monstrosity as he lands on bough

Cerin's arrows plunge into the beast's supposedly "impenetrable" hide, and it howls in anger.

Cerin is engulfed in a bonifre of essence as the shots land home, the leaves around him blooming brighter

As Cerin's arrows and Mark's blows strike home against the horrific beast, its blood flows freely, and after a moment, it stops moving. For a second, it seems that the Solars have accomplished their goal -- until three more such beasts begin to charge at them, from the opposite direction.

Markuran laughs, getting a mouthful of blood, as his kick shatters the beast's skull, sending its lower jaw through the top of its head. Fangs emerge, dripping brain, like a grizly crown adorning the beast's head.
Markuran turns, his laugh booming across the forest as he swallows the blood. "Good! That was far too easy."
Cerin turns, smilig, though privately he is concerned. How did such beasts evade his tracking skills...

The beasts rampage across the trunks of fallen trees, howling and screaming in horrific, unearthly voices. Two bear down on the thing which slew their brother, while the third moves to strike Cerin from his treetop perch....

Markuran runs forward to meet the attacks, his double-bladed Armsbreaker flashing eight times in quick succession, slicing deep gouges in the claws of the beasts as they seek his life. Laughing once again, Mark leaps onto the first one's head and slams both feet into its right eye. Scooping up some of the resulting gore, he flings it at the second creature, a broad, bloody smile on his face.

The third creature comes to the foot of the tree, and sniffs it for a moment. Then, it crouches down upon its six legs, and makes a prodigious leap up to Cerin's branch, where its monstrous teeth snap at him fiercely

Cerin leaps backwards, the bow leaving his hands as he leaves the branch, grabbing it with his hands and flipping around behind the beast. as he flys up and past the thing he grabs the golden bow and rains down fire

Cerin's leap is almost precisely what is needed to escape the beast's jaws -- almost. The Solar miscalculates by an inch and a single fang rips deeply into his gut, spraying blood everywhere.

Cerin is trailing blood from the silken robes as he blurs about, gritting his teeth as he releases the arrows down

Under the onslaught of Markuran's blows one of the beasts drops to its knees, nearly defeated.

The beasts, maddened by the scent of blood, press on harder after the beleaguered Solars.

Markuran flips himself up into the tree, nodding once to Cerin before dropping once more into the fray. Leaving the wounded beast to Cerin's arrows, Mark selects the beast splattered with gore from the first and falls into its mouth neatly. As it tries to swallow him, gagging on the huge man's un-masticated bulk, Mark rams both feet through the roof of its mouth and into its brain.

The beast is so surprised at Markuran's strange action that it nearly forgets to bite down, managing only to slice the surface of the barbarian's thick skin.

Cerin is still airborne from the first attack, and he twists and spins as the claws rake through him, occasionally dissolving to clouds of dusk and shadow to avoid the worst of the blows. He lands on a a lower branch and then he blurs, the 6 shots that he releases slicing past defences to bite deep into their targets

The beast rapidly shakes its head and shifts its tongue around in its mouth, attempting to force Markuran off balance; at last, though, the Solar braces himself against its teeth and gives one mighty kick, driving his legs through the top of its head and shattering its skull utterly.

Another beast falls dead under the hail of Cerin's arrows.

The last of the horrific monstrosities turns to Markuran, still dripping with its companion's blood, and charges furiously.

Markuran is still half hidden in the shattered ruins of the corpse's maw. Shielded by the beast's companion, Mark flicks the Armsbreaker lazily as he plans his attack

Furious with anger, the beast runs right through its fellow creature's remains and slams into Markuran viciously.

Markuran bellows in pain as the beast's fangs rip into his belly, spilling his blood across the corpse where it mixes with the beast's. As the great bronze bear of his anima flares once again into being, Markuran pulls the creature's head close to him and sends the entire creature flying through the air as he slams its face into its stomach with both feet.

The beast crumples under the wounded Marku's forceful blows.

Markuran lays, panting painfully, on the blood-soaked tongue of the dead beast. "Cerin, can you walk?"
Cerin walks over to marku, "Yes, Suns it hurts though, can you?"

<Markuran ?> "I can walk unless my legs are ripped off and then I'd crawl on my hands." spitting out a wad of blood, the big man groans. "But I think..it might be nice to wait for Zahara to catch up with us...we left her that note."

<Markuran ?> "She'll want to look over the monsters."

<Markuran ?> "We can wait here. For her."

<Cerin ?> "They're yeddim ...if you can believe it"

<Markuran ?> "Nothing is a yeddim after this long in the wyld. But I recognized what they used to be."

<Cerin ?> "The shaping was deliberate though..." he takes a breath "Which makes it much more worrying"

<Markuran ?> "The wyld ones are always worrying."

<Markuran ?> "You fought well."

<Cerin ?> "I was careless. If you hadnt been here it would have cost me my life"

<Markuran ?> "..no one else needs to know that a mere Yeddim brought me low, Cerin..."

Markuran lowers his voice slightly, humiliation evident.
Cerin grins softly "Likewise...though Zee will know..."
Markuran raises his hands from the bloody hole that used to be his stomach. "This will at least be a fine scar. I will have to invent a suitably heroic enemy of course..."

<Markuran ?> "We can tell her they had riders."

<Markuran ?> "Big riders. With swords of diamond and fire."

Cerin laughs then stops as it hurts his stomach "And where did the riders go?"

<Markuran ?> "They burst into flames when we killed them..."

Cerin nods slowly "I see.."

<Markuran ?> "The wyld ones must be made to pay for these beasts, Cerin."

<Markuran ?> "I'm not the only Sunlander that's been down this beast's gullet."

Cerin nods "They will have be hunted until they are no more"
Zahara arrives as expected, about a half hour after the furor dies down, riding the manticore.

<Zahara ?> "What happened here?" she asks, surveying the carnage with interest.

Cerin is sitting on a tree branch, his armour ripped open across his stomach "Those ..things attacked us"

<Zahara ?> "You're hurt.. where's Markuran?"

<Markuran ?> "I'm in here." one blood-caked arm waves from inside a crushed corpse

Zahara sends the sesselje out to fix Cerin's poor tummy. "Why are you inside a corpse?" she walks over to peer inside the cavernous mouth.

<Markuran ?> "I jumped down its throat and kicked its brain out. Then another one attacked before I climbed out. I killed it too, so I'm just laying here."

Zahara looks around the teeth and tongue and splattered bits of brain. "So... are you okay? I can't tell, you're just.. completely red. and gooey."

<Markuran ?> "They grazed me a few times. I could use one of those bugs of yours."

<Markuran ?> "Just for a moment or two."

Cerin shifts alittle as the sesselje burrow into his flesh, gasping a little as they start to knit his flesh

<Zahara ?> "The ones that you think are disgusting?"

<Markuran ?> "They are disguisting. But useful.."

<Zahara ?> "hmmm you MUST be ill." she sends two of the bugs over to Marku, as they've pretty much finished with Cerin.

Zahara wrinkles her nose. "And you stink."

<Markuran ?> "

<Markuran ?> "Of course I stink. I'm covered in blood, sweat, spit and brains."

Markuran watches the little bugs burrow into his stomach and begin repairing the shredded muscle and skin

<Markuran ?> "They will leave me a decent scar, won't they?"

<Zahara ?> "How glorious."

Zahara shrugs, and looks closer, then wrinkles her nose further, "Probably. I think I can see your spine from here."
Markuran gives a little snort. "You're imagining things."

<Zahara ?> "No, really." she points.

<Markuran ?> "It was the riders, not the beasts, that were the problem."

Markuran ignores the pointing at his visible spine.

<Zahara ?> "Riders? What riders?" she stops her fascinated staring at his spine, and looks around for smaller corpses. "There's just these huge beasts."

Cerin will let Marku answer this one.

<Zahara ?> ::Tantamount tries the yeddim-things out for flavor, and finds them quite tasty.

<Zahara ?> "Wyld-twisted, looks like."

Zahara walks over to Cerin, and checks to see that he's okay, "Feeling better? It looks like you've lost a lot of blood."

<Markuran ?> "The riders burst into flames when we killed them. wyld ones."

Cerin nods "I'm fine...or will be after some sleep...your Sesselje havent left a mark..thank you"
Markuran heaves himself out of the shattered corpse, poking at his stomach where a small bulge is skittering across the flat muscle. "You can take these things out, now."
Markuran examines the twisted Yeddim for any valuble bodyparts, ivory or intact fangs with an interesting appearance..
Zahara eyes Mark dubiously, or at least the place she knows Mark to be inside of. "I've never seen something that didn't at least leave ash. Or scorch marks, for that matter."

<Markuran ?> "Sunfire doesn't leave ash when it burns bodies."

<Zahara ?> "does so."

<Markuran ?> "Not real ash. That's dust, it blows away, carrying the soul up."

<Zahara ?> "Did they leave any weapons behind? I wouldn't mind adding to my collection."

Markuran shakes his head. "Just the beasts."

<Markuran ?> "Their swords were of flames."

<Zahara ?> "Hmm you don't LOOK burned. Did you get bitten?"

<Markuran ?> "On my way in."

Markuran stretches, flexing his stomach muscles to make sure they're all better. "This will be an excellent scar. Thank you, Zahara. The bugs?"
Markuran prods the scar tissue across his newly-mended skin, nodding in satisfaction. Then another bug crawls across the muscles under the skin.
Zahara calls the bugs back to her, chuckling.

<Zahara ?> "I think they like you."

Markuran snorts. "Think what you wish."

<Cerin ?> "Zee, could I have one of the Sesselje...as pleasant though your face is to see, I'd prefer if I didnt have to wait to see it to have my injuries healed"

Zahara thinks that over for a bit then nods, "Of course, Cerin, but don't go running off and get yourself killed just because it's there. It can only heal so much."

<Cerin ?> "I would prefer to.." he pauses to let the bug dive in "never use its powers but..."

Markuran starts ripping the tusks from the yeddim, stacking the faintly luminescent ivory by a tree.

<Zahara ?> "Well, it will get upset if it doesn't get to heal anything for a long time, so be sure to let it play every once in a while."

Cerin nods

<Markuran ?> "Or it might start poking holes in your guts to amuse itself by healing them"

<Zahara ?> "You can always feed Marku to some giant beasts, to give it something to do."

Cerin cant help but laugh "I shall bear that in mind.."

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From Sol Invictus

Book02: When Yeddim Attack