The Imprisoned City

Pippin scowled and backed away, doing his best to slink into the small crowd as their attention was turned more towards Quincy and less towards himself. His fear of being pick off for supposedly causing the uproar still a genuine one, he remained light on his toes, ready to flee if needed. "I'll see myself out... if this is going to be a regular this."

Florence, while still on her leadership high, walked off towards the Aurous Meadow Monolith and climbed atop its base. From there, she cupped her one hand around her mouth. "ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP!!!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, gathering the attention of all the people left in the park. "ANYONE WHO'S A PART OF MY GROUP OUGHTA LISTEN TO THIS!!!"

Her heart was pounding inside her chest as she looked around at all the new faces she was supposed to command. She clenched her fist tightly, closed her eyes and took a deep breath like her father had instructed her ages ago. She looked back out towards the crowd, determination painted across her features. "Avengrad is in a dire state. Half the residence have been turned to horrible beasts while the other half are either dead or on the brink of it! And the worst part is, nobody knows why! It just suddenly happened, out of the blue, just some insane coincidence. Or so you'd think."

She raised an eyebrow at the group now. "Lord Galia, our gracious king, is behind all this. I hate to break it to you all, but he's....he's a reptilian." She waited for the crowd to gasp in astonishment, but upon getting none of that she continued. "I know, I was surprised too! But, everything adds up!! The way he never ages can be chalked up to him shedding his skin!! His charisma with the people? All reptilians control the government in some way, shape or form! And the most damning piece of evidence."

Florence pointed her gun towards the sky. "This!! The sun! See how it hasn't moved in days? Well, lucky for you all I've studied lizards and their kind since I was a little girl! And the position the sun is in right now, perfect position for lizards and other reptiles to bask in!! Now that I've pretty much provided all the undeniable evidence, its time to tell you something....much graver..." Florence took a deep gulp.

"Reptile King, Galia, is making communion with one of the Gods as we speak. I don't know which, but if I had to guess it would be the Scaled God, Pter'Gryss. He's trying to become the new reptile God, and has used his magic to seal the city so that he can feast on our bodies once he achieves this goal! Now, I've gone to each district over the past week in an attempt to pinpoint the locations where these magic beams are coming from, and it appears that they're connected to each district's Manor, where Galia's elected representatives reside."

She hopped down from the monolith and grabbed her bag. "My theory is that if we can knock out all three of those magic beams, the gates to the Ruler's District will open and we can stop Galia once and for all!!" Florence pointed her gun towards the upper district of Foorothe. "ONWARD TEA-" The low groans and growls of beasts began to approach, likely drawn over by the noise accompanied by the stench of living creatures. "CHANGE OF PLANS! I thought we could kinda just waltz on up to the manor but looks like we're fighting our way there! TEAM!! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF!!"


The Beasts: ((If you'd like to introduce your own beast, feel free to PM Me))

Beastmen: Avengrad's people, transformed into hideous creatures and the most common enemy
Attacks: 
- Razor sharp claws and teeth
- Inhuman Strength
- Heightened Senses
- Slightly lacking in motor skills
- Varying in Size and Weight

Hounds: The canines of the city seem to have taken on transformations as well, and tend to travel in packs.
Attacks:
- Can unhinge their jaws
- Razor sharp claws and teeth
- Extremely Fast
- Tend to be more fragile than the beastmen

Ravens: Several of the cities bird species have been mutated into horrifically large creatures
Attacks:
- Enormous Talons
- Can fly
- Enough strength to lift a large man off the ground
- Supersonic Screeching
- Extremely fragile

Basilisks: These snake like creatures emerged from the city's sewer system once the plague hit
Attacks:
- Acid spitting
- Can fire thorns out of the holes on their backs
- Very slow
- Can roll into a ball of thorns
- Tongues can extend a distance of 10 feet to drag its prey to its mouth

The Beastmen vary in heights of average humans, so like 5-6 feet

The Crows usually stand at around 4 feet

The dogs (on all fours) stand at 3 feet

The Basilisks stand at 8 feet

Welp. Our leader is quite the mad woman. Jintama tempted to keep her jaw from jump for how utterly ridiculous Florence's theory was. She needs help. Despite this though, Jintama feels she has to tag along. She's worried that the leader might got even more batshit insane that she already is.

However, seems plans how been shifting gears when these beasts appear. Well shit.

However, Jintama is not too scared (mostly). She summons electricity and it turns into an electric sword. She looks at The Ravens. Jintama yells.

"BRING IT OOOOOOONNNN!!!!"

And with that, she ran towards the flying beasts and began attacking. Slicing them up as possible. She tries her damn hardest to ignore that infernal screeching. However, one of them grabbed her when she was focused.

"LET GO OF ME YOU FLYING FUCK!!"

However, she was still able to slice them up and landed back on the ground.

"Stupid Ravens...."

Thus, she continues to fight them as she is trying to get through the path.

Pippin hung his mouth open as Florence prattled on about reptilians and god kings, unsure whether he should begin laughing or turn tail in fear of the mad woman. She seemed fairly... normal earlier, though just a bit on the quirky side. Though Pippin would be the first to admit he was quirky himself.

But this was much too far gone for any sort of reasoning.

He had just started to slowly inch away from the crowd and back towards his tree when the groan of approached changed beasts not only stopped the goblin in his tracks, but also elicited an audible shriek from him. Pippin frantically whipped his head around as his new ragtag group of teammates positioned themselves for combat. So this was it? They were fighting? One hundred percent definitely fighting-as-in-not-running-fighting?

Why the idea went against everything he stood for.

But so did leaving a group of people that could protect him.




The girl with the violin- whoever she was- by far seemed the most capable by what little Pippin had so far seen. The goblin scampered over to her on all fours and then stood with his back to her own. He pulled his coat of-

Bang.

-The sound of the gun being shot made him wince as he did so. Pippin quickly looked to it's source, identifying it to be the rather unstable girl from earlier before. She couldn't protect him, so there was no point in saving her. Just thinking that made Pippin slap himself mentally for how selfish he was.

Two more gun shots rang through the field. Pippin furrowed his brow as he looked away, doing his best to focus on the task at hand. He tied his coat around his waist and then dug into one of it's pockets, pulling out a a rather wilted herb with a large bulb at the end of it. Pulling his knife out of one of his satchels, Pippin slit out the bulb, spilling the white liquid inside it on his hand before furiously rubbing it all over his exposed skin. The liquid stung and prickled his skin as it dried, though Pippin payed it no mind. Tossing The used herb to the side, Pippin then began to search his bag, pulling out a dagger and then several vials which he would hold up to the sun and consider before replacing, his inexperience fighting leaving him in the dark on which was the best to use at this moment.

Isla nearly shouted an insult to whoever had just nudged her. It could have muddled her form, but luckily her legs were far enough apart it did not knock her off balance. She was then startled to hear a gunshot not far off, followed by two others. A glance showed her it was Quincy defending herself. It was not a sight she'd expected to see, but as no shot seemed to hit the giant worm-like creature before her, Isla was reminded of the girl she used to know. Pathetic. She turned ever-so-slightly to see who was behind her in her peripheral vision to see a small green kid rustling around in their pockets. Preparing something useful, she hoped.

"Small one! Introduction, please. I am Isla Emendeuth. What can I expect from you?" Isla's stern voice rang a bit louder as it was now a battlefield with many sounds around to mask her proclamation. She knew nothing of this being and hoped to learn they were useful in battle, along with some sort of name to call them by. It would be odd to shout 'green one' if she needed to call for them during battle for any reason. As she waited the small one's response, she began to play a spell to slow a particular hound that began to run a little too close for comfort ahead of them. She heard another shot in the same direction as Quincy, and she glanced over to see what unfolded. It was their leader, showing a good display of power in annihilating the Basilisk. Isla was relieved. Not that Quincy was safe, but that their leader was not full of manure.

Vervain rubbed his temples at the mention of Galia being some kind of... reptile king. He had doubts that Florence's uniqueness would ever fail to amuse him. Other than the obvious drivel she was spouting, what she had said of the pillars of energy was right. They were, in some way, connected to this whole odd phenomenon. Therefore, Vervain deemed his participation in destroying the beams to be necessary. Besides. he didn't have better things to do nowadays anyway.



Vervain turned quickly to face the oncoming horde of beasts. They must've been drawn to them by their scent and the amount of noise they were making. That was probably the main reason why there were only pockets of survivors left in the city. Large groups were quickly discovered and consumed. As the beasts drew ever closer, Vervain suddenly felt a sudden boost of morale. He turned towards Isla, as she was the source of the sound that strengthened his will. "A beautiful song, Miss Emendeuth!"

A pack of hounds quickly made their way to Vervain, completely surrounding him and progressively tightening the makeshift cordon, ensuring that their target had no escape route. They likely sought him out because of his old age and the frail body that accompanied it. "Oh, my." Vervain said, reaching for the cane that he had affixed to his back. One of the mutts lunged forward, hoping to latch onto his leg, but Vervain batted it away with his cane. The resulting growl that came from the beasts was deep and resonant. "It it never wise to underestimate your enemies."

The beasts all jumped at him in unison. Vervain, holding the cane in his right hand, slammed the end of it down into the ground. "Instrument of nature, spring forth from the ashes: Organon!" The orb of light in Vervain's cane shone brightly for a brief second before settling back into its soft luminescence. The hounds were getting closer when suddenly the ground surrounding Vervain began bulging. Four large and thick vines burst through the ground, heavily smacking the beasts out of the airspace around their summoner. "These plants are called Bramblethorns. They can grow up to be 12 feet long in length and almost just as thick. They have very sharp thorns on them, so I do hope you'll be careful." The orb glowed once more before the bramblethorns lashed out at the beasts, impaling them swiftly and effectively. A raven beast circled above, swooping down as it saw the vines occupied with the other beasts. Vervain was alerted to its presence by its vexatious cawing. He adjusted his grip on his cane, opting to hold it at its handle, and pointed upwards toward the raven. The end of his cane grew rapidly, piercing the bird through its skull as the momentum of its descent carried it to its demise.

"We have to hurry." Vervain said to the group, retracting the growth of his cane back to its original state. The hounds surrounding him had been taken out by the vines, which had just returned to the earth now that its time limit was up. "The longer we spend fighting these enemies, the more likely a boss level beast will show up to hinder us in our advance." He began making his way to the manor.