Tanis Six, 3,520 years after the Battle of Tanis.

[shiivster]

*stares wide eyed at the firey wall and can't think of anything that makes sense. her life has been lived about animals, but this she cannot understand at all. the fact the battle continues without her shows that she's reached the point of no return, as the fight or flight nature starts to wake up in her.

Yumi shakes the head and then leaps into the air and hides into the carry sack and chitters loudly in panic. that chips away at her mind. saving little sister suddenly seems the best option now and she steps back a pace

[albatross]

A familiar smell hits Aki and Yumi's nostrils. A cat girl puts her hand on Aki's shoulder and says, "You'll be alright in a moment once you catch your breath." She casts a spell designed to improve resistance to horror. Aki realizes the cat girl has the same intoxicating scent Fakir's minion had at Joy's and if she stays there Yumi will get drunk.

Fakir is tending to a human woman surrounded by dead or dying bunny girls. Talon is trying to get through a wall of Fakir's minions to attack. He is held back for now, and still under seige from Fakir's spears.

Fakir casts resurrection on the woman. She stirs.

Talon blasts through. "Finally, I can kill you both: imposter and triator!"

Fakir whirls, "She never betrayed you! You were tricked then and you're wrong now."

Talon scoffs, "You aren't even the imposter Fakir! You're an imposter of an imposter! You stopped me from killing her, that proves she is a traitor!"

Fakir: "THAT IS A LIE!! I'll... I'll prove it! I challenge you!"

"To the death then," Talon smiles.

"NO! To... Summon the Knight of the Rabbit." Fakir says hurriedly.

Talon stops mid sword swing. "What?"

Fakir continues, more calmly. "Your friend was on your scroll. His coat of arms based on the rabbit that was trampled and caused the enemy to slip. The title is hertitary. If I'm an imposter then it won't work. Summon the Knight of the Rabbit and prove your cause."

Talon frowns, "A trick..."

Fakir laughs without smiling, "Paranoid much? You control the scroll. None but royal blood can edit it. You fear the truth."

Talon stands stock still, thinking.

[thorley]

Having shown up to witness this exchange, she clears her throat loudly *Ahem* and says

"This is fascinating dialogue, not that I have any idea what your talking about, but there is little sense in sorting out who may or may not be evil here, when if you haven't noticed that demon leader seems to be carrying a banner that implies alliance with The Great Old Ones. You know the things that devour entire dimensions and want to bring about the cessation of all life.... yeah. Apparently he thought bringing an army to this location would serve their cause. No matter what evil Fakir may or may not represent it's a pale shadow compared to that. Besides, from where I'm sitting this whole conflict seems stupid. I showed up expecting to thrown down with the equivilent of Sauron, and found out that Fakir and his minions seem to be fighting non-lethally, and even acting to bring those opposing them back into the fight. YOU King Talon have the Knights Of Camelot helping you out, I only vaguely know of them by reputation, but they don't generally throw in with the bad guys, so I'm guessing your at least well attentioned.

Basically, I think you should sort this rabbit knight stuff out later since really only one faction seems to be fighting in the name of megaversal entropy, which nobody wants. Not to mention the sooner we're done here I can get a rest, I spent months trudging through a non-magical wasteland, only to immediatly wind up in this battle, and other than stopping the demons I don't even see a rational reason for any of this".

All of which is true from Bellephoebe's perspective, since she really doesn't know much about the backstory or the players.

If she winds up getting attacked magically while speaking Bellephoebe will try and use that staff she enchanted to stop the spell (she's seen Ora doing that with her Boomerangs, and her staff seemed to be more powerful when she made it. She has been wary about using it since she never got the chance to experiment with it to figure out exactly what it can do). If she gets attacked physically by either of these guys she'll drop the blinder and teleport away. Even with Chi senses she plans to blip out of their range and they won't see where she went. If all else fails she has invincible armor, two compardible layers of MDC cloth, a Naruni force field, and whatever Fakir's shield does if she recovered one. She probably shouldn't be instantly vapourized by one attack.

[albatross]

King Talon is startled out of his thoughts and glances over a the Demon commander in the distance. He seems surprised, realizing for the first time that Mikalah - probably the most powerful being he knows personally - is not exactly damaging the Demon.

Bringing his attention back to the here and now, he realizes his fighting nuns are watching him. Clearly the situation has deteriorated enough that they would consider halting their attack to face the demon army. He sneers, "I accept your challenge, so that all delusions will be laid to rest before I cut you down."

"I summon the Knight of the Rabbit." As soon as Talon says this, Fakir flickers from his current location appearing immediately to the King's left. Talon is thunderstruck. For more than a hundred years he has hunted Fakir. The elder Fakir, who had been his best friend, had not fulfilled the prophecy. Upon investigating, he had learned that the man he thought was his friend was a time traveling imposter in disguise and was dead. He had known for a hundred years that the younger Fakir was a child of the same imposter. But the scroll was an ancient artifact beyond the ability of Fakir to manipulate. What did it mean?

"Take Mikalah's right, I will take the left." Fakir says.

"It's impossibl-" Talon started.

"Horse piss," Fakir snapped. "You accepted a challenge. You are a knight. Fight now, think later."

Talon looks at Fakir as if for the first time. He nods. Turning to one of his nuns he says, "All forces are to attack the demons." The woman looks furious, but clearly she knows better than to challenge an order in a battle like this. In a twinkling, the nuns stop stabbing Fakir's minions in the back and attack the demons with righteous fervor.

Except one. "Get rid of him," Fakir hisses, indicating the Death Knight who alone is the only person still fighting Fakir's forces and not the demon army. Talon waves a hand and the Death Knight disappears.

Fakir smiles at Bellephobe, "You must be Allen's friend. Beatrix told me about him, but she didn't mention you. There are two threats, the demon army is converging here to try to kill the nuns and my healer. The second threat is the demon commander. You can either follow us against it, or lay down a perimeter here. Looks like you have done well so far..."

Without waiting for a reply, Talon and Fakir run towards the demon leader, fast like water poured out of a glass - flowing across the field of battle. Fakir's spears have disappeared except for one and he starts throwing them again one by one at the demon, keeping only the last for melee combat.

[shiivster]

Aki is still half frozen and the mind still wants to run away. but it is only Yumi's sneezing at the smell that breaks thru the mind fog she's under. she sneezes a couple of times as well and nods as she backs away.

*the smell is lessening now and her eyes look at the wall once more and starts going wider about it. she knows that she needs to keep an eye on the bird. it is too small and nobel to make a deadly sacrifice

*once she starts moving, her small body picks up speed and moves like liquid along the ground once more. she's going top speed and going wide about the wall

[albatross]

Once Aki and Yumi get around the wall, there is a nice ditch to drop into. Duke Etienne and his porters hold the entrance, waving Aki past. The little night hawk flits about a little ways ahead. The ditch widens to a canyon, providing shelter from the demons in the air. All the knights and bunny girls that make it this far are relatively safe. The wall of lictalon holds demons at bay as well. Here and there knights nurse their wounds and regroup, and almost all of Fakir's minions who made it this far afe wounded.

[thorley]

Bellephoebe says

"I hardly know Allen actually, I'm a friend of Daryl's, we traded some spells. Daryl asked me to help rescue Allen and his companions from a dimension they were stuck in, neglecting to mention it was a null magic dimension. We got out, but the months we spent there had everyone stumbling around in a daze and nobody really told me anything. Heck, after we got sent here just about everyone seemed to still be stumbling around like a bunch of zombies. I have no idea where they got off to. I'm guessing it's because most of them were supernatural creatures, as opposed to those who know magic".

Bellephoebe starts to mumble again as she cuts off the explanation Fakir didn't want to bother to listen to.

Realizing there isn't a lot she's going to do with the anti-magic cloud, given that she's used a good portion of her ordinance without much effect, she goes with the perimeter idea.

She pulls out her TW Miracle Pen (which can write on anything) activates it, and then draws the biggest circle she can manage in whatever seems the most effective choke point she can find. She then casts "Protection Circle: Superior" (page 148) using up pretty much the rest of the PPE from the battery (it has 40 left I believe). She then says.

"Ms. healer, lady nuns, anyone else around. Please step into the circle, and bring whatever ranged weapons you have".

While hardly a perfect defense, this attack will prevent the lesser demons from even looking at the circle. Major demons will probably have trouble with it (can't come within 20' of the circle, and erasing marks by a TW Miracle Pen is not easy) but will be able to attack inside with ranged weapons.

Everyone inside will get an extra 10 PPE constantly to cast minor spells (which doesn't help Belle much for the moment).

Bellephoebe will pull out her rifle and start shooting at any demons that approach the cirlce (which shouldn't negate it, any more than them shooting inside it will) hopefully there will be some mass fire here from the other people in the circle.

As demons presumably die Bellephoebe will start taking the ambient PPE from their deaths and other events at it appears and casting Disharmonize (to prevent coordinated action by large groups showing up), and Wall Of the Wierd (to slow them down).

It's very doubtful this will hold out indefinatly, but it should last a little while.

With a lot of casters in the circle they might have other plans, and Bellephoebe isn't going to hog all the PPE, however if she does manage to come up with any excess to stick into the battery, let me know, but I imagine she'll be stuck here in this circle for a while just trying to hold them off.

[albatross]

Bellephobe's circle helps. The healer uses a poweful healing touch to revive bunny girls and nuns who spring back into battle. Sometimes they are destroyed beyond help. A tan skinned girl with dog ears and tail takes a pendant from one of the dead and offers it to Bellephobe. (It has 100 PPE).

Meanwhile, Fakir and Talon attack the demon leader. Ora and the Rahu-men shift to providing cover. The demon easily fends both of them off, but the creature takes some hits from Mikalah. Still its armor holds, and it must be tough even without it.

"Do you think he is watching?" Mikalah asks calmly as she darts and hacks at the Demon. Her face shows no expression, clinical detachment, focused on the battle.

Fakir looks confused, then responds, "Of- Of course!" He gestures towards his old ship, the Silvania, "He's at the window cheering you on!" Fakir grunts as he blocks a swing from the demon and is swept aside.

Mikalah says something. Bellephobe is too far away to hear her soft word, but she instantly feels the magic. Like sensing a rift opening only more orderly, a feeling of a unique and ancient magic.

A huge gate of rock appears as if summoned out of nowhere. Fakir's minion sigh and catcall and call out for Fakir to marry them. The nuns shudder. They were Mikalah's enemies once, and they know there is no escape or return for those that enter the gate.

[thorley]

Bellephoebe thanks the girl with the PPE battery "Thanks, this will be helpful once I run low on ammo or if I need to respond to a specific assault"

As she watches Mikalah's spell with academic appreciation "Wow, that's a neat one. She might even be able to declare herself a god with that trick if she managed to master that whole 'live forever' thing to go with it." she turns to one of the Nuns and says "Who is she anyway?".

She chooses not to bother the healer for the moment since she's busy, but will toss her the PPE battery instead if there isn't an emergency and she seems ready to run out of juice.

Otherwise Bellephoebe will shoot her rifle at the demons (let me know how many attack rolls).


Conditional:

If the anti-magic cloud around the demon leader fades Bellephoebe (whose Astral Hole probably fades since it only lasted 6 rounds) will radio one of the hovercraft and say "I think I might be able to end this". The circle lasts for 24 hours (even without her) if she can get within 60' of the demon she casts "ID Alter Ego" on it and creates an exact duplicate of the Demon behind it (no saving throw). The duplicate has no PPE and only 40 MDC but also has all of the demon's attributes and knowlege. Since it will be attacking from behind with surprise unless it has a better idea to ruin the original's day Bellephoebe's advice to her creation is to grapple (or tackle) the original and take it through Mikalah's portal. It's a magical construct that opposes the original, and will only live 18 minutes tops.

Spell is page 141 of the magic book (130 PPE which Bellephoebe has enough power to cast with the batteries and her remaining natural PPE, even if she has to re-cast her invincible armor for safety purposes, of course she'll be at 10PPE after that if I did the math right).

I was going to have her use that earlier to open it up for some serious sucker punches while it got grabbed from behind, but Mikalah did the Anti-Magic cloud, so that limited Bellephoebe's options. This is a conditional attack. If the oppertunity doesn't open up, she'll just be trying to cover the people in the circle.

A lot has to happen for this to be viable, no one else having a more dire need of the PPE battery, the anti-magic cloud giving her a shot, managing to get close to it. It could happen depending on how rapidly you accelerate events, or not. It's just a plan depending on how you move things along.

Oh and as far as her god comment goes, Bellephoebe is from Dweamor. The Lords Of Magic (who are Gods/Alien Intelligences) teach that the truth of gods is they are just powerful beings who know a lot of magic and tricks (which is true in RIFTS) they have also banned religion in Dweamor if I recall. As a result Bellephoebe is kind of an irreverant atheist who respects gods for their power, but sees them as a kind of super-wizard/supernatural creature, especially seeing as she knows a lot of the same spells they use for their most impressive feats even if she doesn't generally have the PPE. Some of the nuns might pick up on that from her attitude, Bellephoebe doesn't always think her comments through when her mind wanders even if she hasn't explained this.

[shiivster]

[sorry for taking so long to post. had to think and i'm down to my last 3 days at work. friday is my last day and i need to have everything packed up on that day as well]

Aki has backed her way into the deep ditch and crouches like a trapped animal. her eyes are huge like the mongoose's eyes. her head turns and looks about as she backs up and avoids stepping on anyone.

on impulse she draws the old silver sai and flips them about to rest along the forearms. Yumi hasn't emerged, but is busy worrying a piece of dried meat. she's venting the last of her fear on somehting she can tackle and win the fight of.

' . . . ' *she's just realized that the others are so far away now. will she meet up with them in time to make the next trip or will she be forever trapped on this world in this big battle she doesn't understand. now she wonders if she's supposed to go thru the gate or not. her eyes remain large and feral looking as she bares the teeth, still spooked and unsure what she's supposed to do now

[albatross]

Ora shows up at the ledge of the ravine Aki is hiding in. The night hawk flits up to Ora and Ora notices Aki. Ora says, "Where is Duke Etienne? They said he was around here somewhere." And indeed Aki passed him to get here, Ora must have come around the other way....


**************

Meanwhile, a beautiful girl arrives at Bellephobe's circle. She surges forward, using karumi-jutsu to leap dozens of feet in each bound. When she stops she says, "Change of plan. Escort the Healer to meet King Talon before the True Gate. Send scouts to find Duchess Hananel and bring her as well, she is to meet the Duke there."

The messenger hands Bellephobe a belt of small silver chain links which contains 300 PPE. "Most of our scrolls are used up, and many of our spells are non-lethal. Please break the demon siege and bring the Healer to the Gate."

Tesla looks at Bellephobe, "I'll go look for the Duchess." Then he realizes their position is surrounded by more than half the demon army. "On second thought, maybe I'd better leave that to the scounts, " he mutters. "I'll help break through." He goes to find Romidus, Streetwise, Sapphire and Dryzh and tells them. "We're leaving. Prepare to fight in that direction." And he gestures towards the gate.

A couple of Bunny Girls leap and fly in the direction Hananel was last seen, over by where the Death Knight used to be. The rest prepare to charge through the encircling demons.

One of them picks up the Healer piggy back style and says, "Ready."

[thorley]

Bellephoebe says

"Break the siege, yeah right" and starts to mutter before sighing and saying.

"Hold back, you don't want to get stuck in the mess I'm about to cause, but it should hopefully clear the area for us to get through".

Bellephoebe will target the mass of demons with the spell "Firequake" which has a huge radius (Page 141 RIFTS Magic), with that spell active and their inability to move very effectively Bellephoebe casts the spell "Bottomless Pit" (page 139 RIFTS Magic Book), in her case this creates a 24' diameter dimensional vortex on the ground that she can move mentally. The only way to avoid a bottomless pit is to dodge it, but unfortunatly due to the Firequake ruining visibility and movement... well good luck with that, since they probably won't even see it coming. Bellephoebe's Firequake lasts 6 melees (about a minute and a half). The Bottomless Pit is going to keep any demons sucked into it on ice for 12 minutes (and when they get spit out they are going to be hugely disoriented).

Bellephoebe's plan is to have the group hold back with the healer for the 90 seconds the quake lasts, by which time a good portion of those demons should be sucked up (unfortunatly they can't run through the Quake, it would affect them as well) breaking the "siege" for the moment and allowing passage through to the portal.

This plan is under the assumption that most of these demons are lesser ones that don't dimensionally teleport at will (since they arrived using a gate). Greater ones would probably be little more than annoyed by a Bottomless pit spell.

If this doesn't seem like a workable plan (and Bellephoebe realizes it) she will doubtlessly have to concoct another one.

[albatross]

Seeing what Bellephoebe is doing, a couple of Fakir's minions cast high level electro-magnetism spells rooting many of those in the firequake to the ground and making catching them in the bottomless pit a breeze.

The nuns, seeing an opening, cast mid and high level tornado, earthquake and river of lava spells - two or three of each - laying waste to everything along Bellephobe's firequake path. Each of the spells costs costs only 50 PPE or so, but with half a dozen nuns casting the spells at once - and combined with the fact that many of the armored demons are currently immobilized by the electro-magnetism spell there is hardly a demon left standing in that direction.

The other demons, in order to prevent escape, start pouring in ranged attacks from their magic weapons - mostly energy weapons and fireballs. Everyone in Bellephobe's circle must dodge three fireballs or take damage. And each person is also hit by at least one energy blast (6D6 damage, may use magical defenses).

[shiivster]

Aki frowns briefly as she looks back at the wall, at Ora, past her and back to the wall. after the third look at Ora she points behind her 'there. i go wide past . . . but how you . . . ? did any follow you?'

*she gives a low whistle to get the hawk's attention and points to a landing spot and wonders if it will think it over. 'sit . . rest wings little . . not sure if little sister or brother . . . . . '

[albatross]

Ora grins, "Nah, between Mikalah and Bellephoebe and that city floating in the sky, most of the demons at the other end of the wall are dead. There were a few, but they made the mistake of getting in my way..."

"Over there huh? Get ready, I'll come back this way when I give him the message." Ora nods to the little bird. The night hawk follows Aki's advice to take a rest and titters that she is a girl bird, perhaps slightly miffed because male night hawks are larger and less elegant in flight.