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Chapter 11: Tight Spot

 
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ethereal_fauna
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:12 am    Post subject: Chapter 11: Tight Spot Reply with quote

Chapter 11

Thinking through his scant information on Charras, Jakeen sifted through his magical repertoire for inspiration. Reports indicated that his opponent possessed talent with elemental magic, especially electricity. Perhaps Jakeen could overload him. Could he generate more current than the mage could handle? He decided to attempt it.

Playing carefully, Jakeen erected a shield against the elemental magic, and decided to FADE as well. He channeled his electrical cage towards his opponent, and moved away from his original location. Charras steadily advanced, hardly deterred by the excess energies. Indeed, he absorbed the electricity without a moment’s hesitation, and made the energy his own.

The combined electricity of the mages charged the arena, and the air crackled with power. Jakeen’s rain cloud hovered over Charras, continuing to empty its contents on the man’s intimidating form. He treaded carefully, avoiding any more falls in the slippery mud, and the soaked leather of his boots connected him with the current. Although a poor conductor of electricity, the water above and below the mage did complete the circuit, but Charras only used that to his advantage.

Utilizing his own electricity and that so thoughtfully supplied by Jakeen, Charras gestured a series of fluid hand motions as he walked, then thrust his arms in the air to release his spell. A heathen war cry erupted from his opened mouth, only to drown away in the subsequent peals of thunder. Multiple and powerful chains of lightning flickered around the arena, assaulting every surface within the protective shield.

Jakeen’s shield against the magic scarcely weathered the beating, draining Jakeen and dissipating his dimness. A final jolt knocked him to the ground, writhing in agony and fighting for consciousness. His belated surmise was that he should have maintained the cage around him to absorb the mage’s attacks and drain him of manna, rather than fueling his opponent’s attack. Too late to take it all back. The squelch of mud sounded beside his head, and a brusque hand grasped his hair and rudely hauled him to his feet.

Head reeling, Jakeen staggered back with a cry as Charras focused thoughts into outstretched fingers and hit him with Bui Gee, effectively protruding the eye from the socket. The orb bounced tackily against his wet cheek as his own ill storm continued to release rain and a whipping wind. His addled mind wondered when that particular spell would fade. Grasping his lyre to him with his right hand, he swung out with his left hoping to connect with a jaw line.

Charras circumvented the feeble attack with Pak Sao Da, batting away Jakeen’s fist and following with a mean slap to the side of the head. Staggering back, Jakeen found his feet quickly swept from underneath him. An explosion of stars filled Jakeen’s mind as the ground came up to smack his face subsequent to O’ou Tek.

He pushed up onto his knees in the deepening mud, and felt an iron grip crush his forearm. Jerked once more to his feet, Jakeen sensed rather than saw the fist heading his way as Charras executed Lop Sao Da. His balance corrupted, his timing froze, Jakeen could do little other than bring his arms up to block his face. He heard the sickening sound of splintering wood as a heavy punch connected with his lyre.

Inexplicably Charras released his grip, and a throaty, vile laughter poured out of his mouth. After relieving his cruel mirth, his face screwed into a grisly mask of evil and he spat out a threat in his native tongue.

“Crue et sok cuhl.”

Jakeen only guessed that the words meant for him to prepare for death, but he wasn’t ready to give up just yet.


**Based on the last decision point, Jakeen opted to lure Charras to a conductor of some sort and try to overload him. The arena is bereft of handy lightning rods, but the weak conductivity of the water served to course current through Charras, yet this did not have the desired effect. Now Jakeen is in a heap of trouble, and unless he comes up with something swift and effective he’s out! Discuss and decide, and choose wisely.


Last edited by ethereal_fauna on Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, that was messy Shocked

So, we have one eye plucked, a whole welter of bruising, very little mana left and a broken lyre? That's if I'm reading it right...

Okay. Damage control. If the lyre isn't completely destroyed - even if there's one string left unpunched, he can still cast his magic. If the lyre's mangled beyond all recognition, he can try singing the notes. Again, perfect pitch will help with that. The music is the magic, not the lyre, presumably. So singing might well be effective. It's better than bitch-slapping Charras, anyway Confused

Anyway, he's going to have to try for something simple and/or immediate. We can't afford to go for long, drawn-out battle tactics here, we have no assets only liabilities.

Initial thoughts. The rain is still splattering down on Charras. How difficult would it be to turn that into acid? It isn't an effect we've had great experience with, but we already have the spell in force, it might not take much mana to alter it, give Charras a distraction for a while.

Or... since we specialise in emotional effects, how about trying for a blast of magic. A projection of all of Jakeen's current agony onto his enemy? Two advantages to this one: First, he gets to think clearly without his pain for a while. Second, he leaves Charras in exactly the position that Charras has left him, albeit only psychosomatic pain (it can still hurt just as bad!).

Take those few seconds to deal him a knockout blow. Punch him, kick him, hit him over the head with your lyre if that's what it takes... but down him we must, before he gets over the pain effects.

Disadvantage of both of these ideas, of course, is that they're new and untried, and Jakeen can barely focus at the moment. We'll just have to hope that he really isn't ready to give in just yet!
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My thought is that Charras should not have broken Jakeen's Lyre,

Jakeem has not had time to fully realise just how badly damaged it is and when he does, Rage, Ange, Hatered will all come into play.

When you mix those emotions with magic, you get a very volitile and explosive stiuation. I'd rather play with 40 year old sticks of dynamite.

I see his singing, the notes themselves; being the weapons of choice.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What happened to the fire idea? I thought it was tied with the electricity in the poll. Can we use it now? Set Charras's clothes on fire suddenly or something? As Starwalker says, his rage can fuel the flames and make the spell more deadly than usual, even though it's singing instead of the lyre.

Or maybe singing is more potent in itself, involving his very body as the instrument of the spell.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm, I like that idea, his body is like the sword where as the song/notes are like the edges of a sword.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mother Goose wrote:
What happened to the fire idea? I thought it was tied with the electricity in the poll. Can we use it now? Set Charras's clothes on fire suddenly or something?


Starwalker's vote resolved the tie:

    Poll: What should Jakeen do next?

    Create quicksand or a mud puddle to sink Charras 2
    Force Charras into the mud and cement him in place 2
    Run fire along the shield as Charras advances 2
    Try to create a conductor and lure Charras to it 3


But we can certainly try a fire spell, whether by playing or singing the notes whilst getting pummeled. Great discussion so far. Smile

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm with the sing thing but whatever you do try to not be on range for a physical attack. Charras got better chances on that. Maybe Jakeen should sing to use his magic, after he check (or at least see) his lyre. Hoping that the looking at his lyre will give him more strengh to the sing thing. Also we need o know how the lyre is because if the sing thing don't work we need to know if we still can use the lyre.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd like to see the singing option combined with the projecting pain at Charras option. Here's why:

1) Singing will come more naturally to Jakeen at the moment, than trying to get his head around fingering chords. When in a state of pain (or joy or sorrow or any other emotional extreme), it comes naturally to shout/scream/communicate that feeling. It's something he could do almost subconsciously.

2) Projecting pain away from himself and into his enemy. Again, it's natural. It's something that Jakeen will want to do. His instincts will lead him in that direction. He may not even know that he's doing it until it's all over, it being a survival mechanism of his magic, maybe?

3) He's low on mana. Creating fire or other such effects is something from nothing. It's bound to eat up his remaining power and leave him helpless. Creating pain... well, he already has the pain to draw on - he doesn't need to create it, just to move it elsewhere temporarily.

4) Logically, I don't think we should try to contest Charras on an elemental footing. He's an elemental mage - are fire and wind and water really going to put him at such an extreme disadvantage now? They could be secondary skills of his, for all we know. In other words, we should stop playing the game on his turf and move it to our own.

Anyway, that's my My 2 Cents - again Wink
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shady Stoat wrote:
stop playing the game on his turf and move it to our own.


I whole heartedly agree, move the battlefield away from his strengths to ours. Stop playing his game and make him play ours.

The closer Jakeen is to Charras the more confined his vocal attack on his opponent, he wants to be able to bathe all of his opponent’s body with his notes, not just one localised area.

We have seen how much pain Jakeen is in just from the localised blows from Charras. Take those blows and have them felt by the whole body. You’d feel less pain if you were run over by a MACK Truck compared to what you’ll be feeling in this instance.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

is there any way of moving him away from us and slamming him into a wall or something?

maybe solidifeing the air or something?
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 4:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How about a sudden attack of uncontrollable rage, leading to a deadly stroke? Rage should be easy to summon.
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rage, pain, fear- easy enough to summon but for Jakeen flirting with disaster. Those are emotional effects, although certainly not pleasure magics, and the power of his music is often felt by him as well as his target. Considering that he already feels these things, perhaps that could be advantageous. Amplify and project these emotions- but then what? Will he be able to overcome them enough to subdue Charras?

Strictly elemental, such as a fire attack or *gasp* another lightning attack, might be beyond his capacity to muster- at least to any impressive degree. And even at that, Charras specializes in all elementals, focusing mainly on electricity. A 'wall' of wind could certainly push Charras away from him, but most of his magical reserves were used up supplying Charras with electricity and then trying to maintain his shield against that same electricity. A wall of wind would likely turn out a stiff breeze and nothing more.

Good discussion. Keep it going and a poll will appear soon.

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Charras has him in his hands, if anything, he would expect a physical attack from Jakeen considering the state he is in.

An emotionally empowered attack with song would be most unexpected at this time and would be an instinctive survival reflex on Jakeen's part.
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A fire attack would be pretty pointless as it's pouring down with rain in the arena I would have thought. As for the emotions, I'd count that out too as Charras being an marshal artist would be quite inmune to such distractions. I'd have to go with singing to cast but lest just hope Charras doesn't wonder how easy it is to sing with no teeth for our hero Shocked

To fight Charras first we need to get that shield back up, then use range attacks. Theres not way in hell we can beat him at any melee. We HAVE to keep him off balance and unfocused. I suggest changing the weather, the rain is not helping now. Perhaps a blizzard. It's hard to throw a lighting bolt when your hands have gone black from frost bit and your eyes are blinded from the wind. It time J realized he's fighting for his life for real this time. No holding back. He needs to draw blood. Time to go to the darkside and hurt this guy. Try to cripple him.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! Surprised
That hurt.
How about a swift kick in the crotch? That may slow Charras long enough to start singing.

I still like the wind idea if we can pull it off with voice rather than lyre. Thats if the lyre is to damaged to use.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

if he can't blow him away, he could sort of cage him with air, enhance the rain, and let the rain drown his enemy.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay team, the poll is up. Several options to choose from, but only two might possibly net us a win. Discuss, choose wisely, and let's try to pull this one off with a victory. Smile
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How do we get out of this one alive and victorious?
Turn the rain into acid
16%
 16%  [ 1 ]
Project our agony/emotions onto Charras
50%
 50%  [ 3 ]
Try lighting him up with fire now
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Use wind to push him forcefully into something solid
16%
 16%  [ 1 ]
Turn the rain storm into a blizzard
16%
 16%  [ 1 ]
Try to drown Charras
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Total Votes : 6
Who Voted: DeadManWalking, jnmrcs, Shady Stoat

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