Chapter 11
Our heroes are deep at the bottom of the ocean, with about 40 minutes of their magically imbued gils left, down below them on the sea-bed the shimmering dome of water glowing faintly from inside. The large hatch half a mile away from it in the sea-bed that is open and the four underwater creatures zipping toward them rapidly... sleek, shark like... automatons!
Her Gunblade out and ready, Silmeria gestures frantically to the hatch, once more cursing her lack of speech in this environment. Rolling backward, she uses the momentum afforded by the roll to launch herself forward, streaking dolphinlike through the water toward the mechanized sharks, primed to do some damage. Silmeria pages, "Screw all of you, I *will* fight underwater battles Tidus-style!" to Viktor, you and Kioshi.
"I know your no summoner, but I don't suppose you've made any friends in Leviathan's court.. Silmeria? Thaylorn?" The words lost in the water as Raziel stares at the oncoming creations. He spares a brief glance at the others, a faint smirk given Vazkor and then the man starts to move forward, likewise motioning towards the hatch though rather than attempting to fight the creatures it seems he's intent on making a run for it and only pausing to swipe witht he kukri that he's drawn when there's no other choice but to do that.
Vazkor has both his swords out, and it makes it a little hard to swim, but he manages well enough after a few aborted attempts, pushing off the sea bed to get some decent momentum going and starting to kick his legs. He follows after the other two then, keeping an eye on the torpedo-like automatons, wanting to get to the hatch as well but ready for a fight if ir comes to it.
Thaylorn shakes his head quickly in response to Raziel's words, having not really even tried to contact water spirits of any sort yet before he begins to move after the others, his gaze shifting back towards the automatons. "We're not going to be able to outswim these, I can slow them down though maybe." The Imp offers as he waits a few more moments, just to see if they're really going to attack the group or don't slow down.
It is impossioble to get past them to reach the opening for opening, no one beyond Vazkor is skilful enough to swim past with ease. Thaylorn, Silmeria and Raziel are both slammed into by shark like creatures, buffeting them and knocking them toward the sea bed. Vazkor spins easily out of the way of the one attacking him and his swords a slam thorugh the water, crash into the odd sleek silver and bronze device and then Vazkor and it are surrounded by an expanding field of blue lightning that leaves Vazkor tumbling through the water to slam into the muck of the sea-bed as his electrically charged swords say hello to the bottom of the ocean, sinking into the mud. He's not stunned at least and the shark automaton attacking him has been. Silmeria has her gun-blade jarred but manages to keep hold of it where as Raziel is ablew to knock the thing away from him but Thaylorn is caught in the jaws of the one attacking him.
Silmeria shakes her head, drifting for a moment after slamming into the sea-bed floor. Her brows draw together as she stares up at the sharkbots, the corners of her mouth pulling down in a deeply upset grimace. Gathering her legs under her, she pushes off the ocean floor, ready to *beat* the automaton into releasing Thaylorn if she must!
Raziel lets out a curse that Thaylorn, since he's the only one able to understand them like this, could decipher if he weren't busy being... well eaten. The man looks down at Vazkor for a moment and then points with his blades to the places where Vazkor's swords fell before he tucks on of his kukri between his teeth, slams the other home and then starts to swim after the one thats got Thaylorn while trying to avoid the others.
Vazkor grunts as he slams with his back into the muck, loosing his grip on both his swords, and promptly surrounded by a rising cloud of silt. Not hurt or stunned too much though, he quickly pushes himself up again, back towards where the water is clear, and starts to franticly look around for where his swords may have fallen. Briefly glancing up with a frown at what's happening to the others, and seeing Raziel point. At which he swims back down to try and retrieve his weapons
Thaylorn finally seems to take note of the sharks hostile attitude as they start attacking the group, but it's too late for him as one of the shark speeds at him and grasps him in it's jaws before he has time to react. "Aaagh LETMEGO!!" He yells at the mechanical fiend despite knowing it probably won't heed his request. There's not much he can do in his position, as struggling would probably set him straight into the beasts sharp metallic teeth, so instead he closes his eyes and begins concentrating on magic instead, something that doesn't take too much movement!
Silmeria's Gunblade connects and sprangs off the water and makes a soft scruft noise as the bullet discharging from the round doesn't have any effect thanks to the pressure of the ocean... if anything it looks like the chamber is now out of alignment with the rest of the barrel/blade. Raziel's blade scrapes along the metallic surface of the shark doing nothing as well. Vazkor meanwhile has lost his magical blades inside the silted cloud of dust of ther seabed and Thaylorn... levers the sharks's jaws open, causing them to snap and the automaton to shjudder and fall limp and crackle as it drifts away, jaws twitching.....
The two remaining sharks are turning back... zooming in toward Raziel and Silmeria..... their mouths open, jagged sharp teeth aimed at them!
Silmeria blinks, staring down at her weapon in mute, indignant shock. Grinding her back teeth together, she starts to fiddle with the thing, attempting to shimmy the chamber back into alignment, looking up as she does so -- yep, whirring fanged death streaking in upon her -- And once she gets close enough, jams the heavy blade forward into its mouth, allowing five feet of tempered steel to scout the way down the machine's gullet.
Raziel's blade scrapes along the side of the automaton, but wellit seems that Thaylorn has things well in hand. As he hears the combustion caused by Silmeria's gone he looks up at her and catches that look before he turns and notices a pair of sharks coming at he and Silm. Well.. she seems to know what she's doing, he on the other hand begins casting a ice spell, since diving to the side really wouldn't work in such a situation.
Vazkor is scrambling around on the sea floor, half obscured by those clouds of silt, still trying to find his lost blades and occassionally looking up with an unhappy expression to see all the trouble the others are getting themselves into. Not much he can do without his weapons though, and he atleast knows everyone in the party can handle themselves, so he just keeps on looking for now.
Thaylorn, now free of one of the shark's grasp leaps back into action as he notices the other two heading off towards Raziel and Silmeria. The one moving towards Raziel is his target in particular, and under the water as he is, he has plenty of tools at his disposal to assist him. Eyes closing for a brief moment, the Imp prepares a spell that might be able to slow the beast down. Eyes opening once again and with a word of fel magic, the water around the mechanical beast would start pulling inward with a good deal of force, potentially crushing it's shell or holding it in place for Raziel's spell.
The gun-barrel is totally skewed and floating underwater Silmeria just doesn't have the time to fix it... so.. as it lunges at her she thrusts out! Sure there is no boom but she RAMS her arm into the open shark mouth, pierces the back of his throat and shatters some important mechanisms and the thing shudders and falls stil. Thaylorn's spell clenches the water in a sphere around the second shark and crushes it inward, stopping it in its track and shattering the outside shell so Raziel's ice bolt can slam thorugh its delicate internal components causing the thing to then implode. Vazkor finally finds his swords, pulling them out of the mud as the silt settles, Vazkor is finally armed again! And great.... they've killed them all....
Silmeria braces with both feet on the open mouth of the roboshark, gradually pulling her battered and damaged weapon free of its innards, leaving the hulk to drift toward the oceanbed. Shaking her head, she frantically waves an arm to get everyone's attention, then points at the hatch. Apparently, the Esper wishes to hurry. Raziel pulls the blade out of his mouth finally and he rams it back into it's sheath before nodding to Thaylorn in silent thanks and then to Silmeria. A quick scan is cast around for Vazkor and then down before he waves for him to come along as well while turning to swim quickly towards the underwater city.
Vazkor's hands finally find both his swords, and curl tightly around the grips, yanking them out of the muck triumphantly while he crouches on the bottom, and then pushes himself up with force to join the fight, swords brandished out! It's only then that he notices everyone else swimming off, and the slowly sinking husks of defeated robosharks... And he looks confused and disappointed for a second, before his arms slump down again and he starts to follow after the others.
Giving the sharks another glance Thaylorn merely shakes his head, with a welcoming party like that he's sure there's probably more trouble to be found the further they go. Shaking his head a bit he begins swimming after the others once more, counting the time to make sure there's no need for more potions before they get there. Fromn what Thay can work out the fight took less then five minutes, the way is now clear... the dome is closed all the way up to the base of the shore but as they apprioach that open hatch they can see a tunnel moving down and beneath the sea-bed toward the dome... clearly some sort of entrance they can take to get inside.
Silmeria swims hard for the tunnel, pausing at the entrance to wave the others through first. While her Gunblade may not be up for another fight, the Esper is still determined to watch the party's back as they navigate the tunnel, just in case. Raziel casts a quick glance over his shoulder and then he snorts just a little bit. As they get closer and spot the open hatch he swims down to it and after a brief glance at Silmeria nods. The man doesn't enter right away but waves for Thaylorn to hold back and let Vazkor go first, only then moving to follow him.
Vazkor pauses at the hatch, and glances at Raziel... Shrugging a bit sheepishly, before he actually decides to slide his swords back into their sheaths, perhaps having learned his lesson from the effect their magical lightning effects had earlier. Instead, he slides out a long dagger from a back sheath, and then slips down into the hatch, wondering what will be at the end of that tunnel.
Thaylorn doesn't mind taking the party's rear, seeing as they're the ones that needs to get to air somewhat quickly as it were! The Imp does follow behind, swimming gracefully through the water with the white mage-light floating along not too far behind him. He's also a bit glad that Vazkor didn't get to use those swords much underwater, the danger of electricity spreading easily through the water and all, might have caused more harm overall. ) [Spoofed By: Thaylorn]
Down the tunnel... the walls are some strange smooth stone, the floor covered in a smattering of silt, it is lit by odd fitfully glowing panels of glass. It is dark and gloomy and after five minutes the surface appears.. .they are below it in a square pool with the strange odd faint, fitfully stuttering lights above the surface. There is a crumpled metal device lying forlorn on the bottom of the pool but above them is an intact metal boat of some kind. Thaylorn does what he has to do with his magic to release the spell letting them breathe and they are able to surface into a large, cool room, the air is musty and stale and odd metal towers rise from the sides of the pool, ancient looking cranes made of mechana and the strange metal boat tied to the side neatly as if waiting for its sailors and captain to return. From the water they can see a large set of doors and an odd glowing panel next to them that must lead further into this place as above them the curving panel of glass holds back the ocean depths.....
Silmeria draws in a long, deep breath, coughing just as hard as her first taste of air in hours is *very* disagreeable. Kicking herself to the edge of the pool, she hauls herself up over the edge, rolling far enough away to allow the others room to get out. For a moment, she simply lies there, reacquainting herself with the taste of air, before finally getting to her feet. With a long sigh, she looks down at her sodden clothes, sitting back down and tugging at one of her boots.
Raziel waits for the spell to be released and then quickly surfaces and begins to cough... He grabs the edge intent to pull himself free as well but ends up coughing a bit longer before finally pulling himself out on hands and knees as he sputters, "never... never want to do it... again."
Vazkor quickly surfaces, and takes a deeeeeep breath. And even though he doesn't really start coughing, he still makes a bit of a face at the stale air. Swimming to the edge then, he pulls himself up, crawling forward on his stomach until he can push himself to his feet. And he starts looking around then... Taking in their strange surroundings. Not really having to worry about his own gear as it's mostly oiled leather, "Glad to be out of there... Hate water." He mutters.
Surfacing and quickly pulling himself free of the water, Thaylorn would look around the area quickly, making sure there's no flying sharks of death up here, or anything like them before nodding. The Imp doesn't seem to have much trouble switching from water to air and speaks up "Well, we'll have to do it again to get back up...But what is this place? I've never seen or imagined anything like /this/ being under the water." He remarks as he moves to inspect the strange metallic boat that's in the pool. He does glance over to Vazkor "The return trip should be easier, long as there's no metal monsters chasing us."
As they look around and recover their breath the party would be struck by the alien nature of this place, everything is silent, quiet, the sea is blocked off completly by the dome overhead and the wall with the large double doors in it arches up, another wall of glass seperating this "Dock" from the strange buildings that can be seen beyond the glass. The iron boat is connected to a large device of incomprehensible reason and size by large pipes and around the othr side of the pool a small doorway has collapsed into rubble. Sheds and mouldering crates and boxes line the docks, old warehouses long since gone to ruin and the large metal doors and the glowing panel next to it.
Silmeria pours water out of one boot, then the other, nose wrinkling as she puts them back on; the feel of squishing footwear beneath one's toes, never a pleasant thing. Getting back to her feet, hand raking her sodden blond hair back, she takes a moment to stare about the room, alternately in awe and puzzlement. "...We should probably find a better place to rest than this, I think," she says finally, looking between the rotting crates and the collapsed doorway.
Raziel finally gets a few deep breaths without breaking out in coughing as he gets the last of the water from his lungs. Pushing himself up the mage squeezes what excess water he can out of his clothes and then he mutters while looking around. "I know Thaylorn.. still doesn't mean I'm relishing the idea.." He heads over to the door and then pauses to nod in agreement with Silmeria before inspecting the door and then the panel, even reaching out to lighlty stroke a finger over the glowing surface.
Vazkor puts his dagger away again, and then starts following after Raziel as the Aegyl wanders to the door, the man's hands resting near his two swords again as he figures it'll be safe in the open air. He also glances at Thaylorn however, and gives a little shrug, responding, "Maybe we'll be lucky and get to commandeer a vessel of somekind." Before he focuses on the panel next on the door, watching Raziel touch it.
"I concur, but...This place looks decrepit, like no one's been here I think." Thaylorn remarks as he heads away from the enigma that is the iron boat to follow behind Raziel towards the door and the odd glowing pannel "Maybe, but I doubt any of us would know what we're doing with it." He shrugs in turn and watches curiously. The Surface of the glowing panel changes as Raziel touches it... a diagram flickering into view, for a moment the view is unimpeded then strange red symbols overlay it... flashing and blinking and something in the ceiling above the door goes "CLUNK" A circular panel slides open and a rounded device lowers down.. uncurls and points a very large gun blade directly at Raziel and Vazkor.... another similar one is u nfolding above the other end of the door.. turning to track Thaylorn and Silmeria....
"...Oh my," Silmeria murmurs, as the Gunblades unfurl, tracking the party. "...I don't think this place is very happy to see us..." Clearing her throat, she shuffles forward, far enough away from Thaylorn to ensure that any attack would only manage to cover one or the other. Setting her damaged weapon on the ground at her feet, she holds up her hands, fingers spread to show herself unarmed. "....Hello?"
The clunk and of course the red symbols cause Raziel to realize that this really wasn't the best of ideas... The mage looks up at the gun his eyes widening for a moment before he quickly scans around for cover while he extends his arms outwards... see not holding weapons. And he waits as Silmeria tries to communicate with the controler of the weaponry while prepared to dive out of the way at the first shot. Vazkor's head snaps up as the ceiling mounting gun unfurls itself, and his first instinct is to draw his weapon and slash it to pieces... But that only really translates in a brief twitch of his shoulders, as he notices Silmeria and Raziel's reaction... And with a quiet scowl, he follows suit, slowly raising his hands, staying away from his swords.
"Are we..." Thaylorn begins as he takes note of the diagram on the screen, but with the 'clunk' his attention jerks upwards spotting the weapon descending from the ceiling "Ohhhh my...I should have thought as much with metal fish out there.." He remarks, raising his hands in turn, unarmed as he is he surely isn't a threat of any sort!
The barrels of the guns continue to track the party, covering you all, it might only be able to shoot at one of them at a time but from the size of those barrels one hit is all they need to turn someone into a cloud of sticky red vapour. The screen is still flashing its light, the diagram obscured by the text over the surface waiting for something....
Getting no answer back, Silmeria claers her throat again, louder this time. "...We... come in peace?" Glancing at Raziel, then Thaylorn, then Vazkor, she seems almost astonished, briefly, to see the party following her lead to the letter. "What are you waiting for?" she mutters out of the corner of her mouth. "*Do something.*"
Raziel looks at the gun then the screen then the gun and then back one final time. The mage frowns to himself for a few moments before he chews on his lip, "it's asking for a name.. and has a countdown going. We've got one minute.." He hesitates for a moment and then he starts to punch in a few letters in the language that looks vaguely familiar. Typing out the word 'stelazzio' to see if it will accept that, if it doesn't have any affect he starts with the names of the coins themselves.
Vazkor glances back at Silmeria, and gives her a look like, 'What do you want me to do?!' Before he looks at Raziel and the screen... And starts flexing his fingers a bit and taking deep breaths, preparing himself for some quickdraw sword action when everything goes to hell if Raziel doesn't manage to somehow appease these damn machines.
"Just make up some fake name or something...I mean...If what you're doing now doesn't work." Thaylorn remarks softly as he just watches for the time, eyes glancing to the guns and back to the screen, one of his blades isn't going to be able to do much to those things. "Just...Don't command them to shoot us.."
The guns are big and sleek and beautifully silvery and chrome and in well working order considering the state of the dock area... The names do not work until Raziel tries Leo... it flashes brightly at him and then returns to the diagram. A small green square in the bottom corner appearing beneath the map and with softm, gentle hisses the guns fold themselves back into the roof.
Silmeria closes her eyes, letting out a long, slightly shaky breath. "...Very well done, Master Raziel," she says, regaining her composure in the space between breaths. "I'm.... rather glad that it wasn't necessary to get it right the first time, but it's a useful thing to know... What did you tell it, anyway?"
Raziel lets out a breath and slumps a little before he hits the green button that would tell the doors to open. The man remains silent though as he looks over the map of the places and motions everyone in so he can point out what each room is and offer the translation. Looking at Silmeria then he shakes his head, "the only thing that we have tying us to this place are the coins.. so I tried naming them as a whole then individually.. Leo was the key."
Vazkor slooowly lowers his arms as he watches those guns retreat... And then looks around at everyone else before finally focusing on Raziel. Stepping forward a moment to study the map as it's pointed out to him, and trying to memorize it, he soon mutters, "... I'm not sure I like this place. Machines are hard to fight."
Thaylorn inches over towards Raziel so he might peek at the diagram once the arms have raised back into the ceiling, sighing lightly "I assume there's going to be a lot more things like that in here, asking for names and numbers and invasive stuff." Smirking he simply shakes his head before nodding a bit.
The language is beyond Thaylorn's understanding, he has no idea what it might be! It is just a very pretty picture of this odd underwater city. As the door opens in response to whatever Raziel did flashing amber lights start to blink up near the ceiling and the metal door RUMBLES forwards with a scraping nose... it then splits into six... irising open, the parts of the door easing apart from one another.. revealing beyond a room that is lit by large strips of light up near the ceiling. It is a long room, the ceiling is tall and there are some crumbled areas were stairs and ceiling has colapsed. It was once obviously paved and well cared for, now the plants and trees that must have made this place a haven of the surface is wild and over-grown, a tropical rainforest beneath the sea....
"Oh," Silmeria breathes, as the door irises open before them, "*my.*" Frowning slightly to herself, she looks down at her weapon, eyebrows drawing together. "...Give me a moment, if you could?" she mutters. "...Somehow I think we'll want to be prepared before we go much further..." With that, she starts to fiddle with the chamber assembly, trying to get it back into alignment.
Raziel looks at Silmeria before he nods and glances towards Vazkor, "you might be better suited to this given your weapons are elementally charged." The mage peers beyond the door and considers for a few moments before he looks back towards Silmeria once again and tilts his head a little bit, "Do you think you'll be able to fix it quickly, Silmeria?"
Vazkor peers through the doorway as it opens before them, looking surprised at the sight of an indoor jungle, his brows going up. And even as Raziel speaks to him, he's already drawing his Cutlass, nodding at the Aegyl once he's got it brandished, "I agree. I'll be able to cut a path for us if need be." He then looks back, glancing at Thaylorn and Silmeria, waiting while the latter fiddles with her gunblade.
Thaylorn smiles lightly and nods to Silmeria "Take your time." He states rather simply before turning his attention to the tunnel before the group "Raziel, do you have any idea of where we need to go in here? Or are we going to have to go through the whole place to see? It might be find to see what else might be down here, but that'd probably take a bit of time."
The large under-water jungle waits for them, they are alone, cut off from the world above, alone below the ocean, the way however is open and they are about to plunge inside in search of the Leo....
Go back to Stelazzio Quest Chapter 10
Go on to Stelazzio Quest Chapter 12
Or return to Sin of the People/Stelazzio Quest Directory
