Head Crab Invasion Part 1

"I just need a second more to recuperate. Still a bit winded from the freakin crab that was on my head."
He kneels down on the deck, head down and eyes closed.
"One second, then I'll be ready"

Takor's head is beginning to hurt. Birds turning into old men, and voices from nowhere predicting the future... all this magic makes him uncomfortable.

The craft alights upon the adobe ramparts, high above the infested street below. Takor disembarks with a leap, and his serrablade becomes a quarterstaff. To the ship's right is a bunker-like structure protuding from the roof; there is a doorway leading into it, steps disappearing into the darkness of the fortress' belly.

Takor activates the night vision function of his visor. He can see twin lamps just inside the dark passage, and each has a rope connecting it to another lamp further in. On a whim he pulls out a disruption pistol and shoots one of the torches. It ignites and so do the ropes. The fire spreads down to other lamps, soon illuminating the entire passage with a blazing inferno.

"Shall we descend, my friends?"

"My child, you are wounded! Let me help."
Father Drakkus walks up to Aleran, puts one hand on his bowed head, and closes his eyes.
"There. May the Goddess of Healing ease your pain, and the Goddess of Protection keep you from further harm"

Removing his hand from Aleran's head, Father Drakkus Steps over the edge of the craft and floats gently to the ground. It is the goddesses' will that he fight to save the lives of the people seeking protection in this citadel. And he always does the goddesses tell him to do.

Yes, that feels better
He just happens to look down at this moment and sees his missing dagger lying on the deck. So that's where that got to. He picks it up and puts it back in it's sheath.

"Well, I'm good to go then." He jumps over the railing, crouching as he hits the roof of the building to cushion his fall. "I just hope Ninja will be ok..."

"Me too....Should we keep him here?" Ray asked to the remaining Alice.

OOC: Someone call Fluffy and tell him to post something.....

"Well, that will be up to you guys. But in case I get another premonition, a BAD premonition, then we'll have to change plans."

NINJAGEEK's skull has started to reform from the shadow now. The healing process seems to be faster now and the skull quickly closes and the skin and hair is suddenly covering it. Only the sudden healing seems to have not entirely sat well with NINJAGEEK. He suddenly sits up eyes wide open and screams before falling back to the ground now only sleeping. The shadows were no longer circling his head and were nowhere to be seen but NINJAGEEK's skin seemed to be very dark now as compared to before.

"So.. Is he okay now? Or is he not okay?"

"I fear he may never be "ok". He has a darkness. It may be possible that he has always had this darkness."
Scowling in the direction of the Ninja, Drakkus slowly shakes his head. Turning back to the entrance to the building, he starts walking towards it. Stopping at the door, he turns back. In a sarcastic tone, he says, "Must I save the town by myself? Or is someone coming with me?"

NINJAGEEK slowly sat up on the hover craft. What happened to me he thought. Looking around he saw the others looking at him and two strange faces.

What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Who are the new people? Where are we?

His voice came out very quiet and had no personality to it. It could be described as a robots voice only it was very quiet. NINJAGEEK lifted his arm up to his head.

The last thing I remember was jumping at head crabs and hitting my head. Have I been laying there since, knocked out?

"Not exactly. You managed to get half your head eaten off. Takor Alx tried to help you, the Father here tried to help you," he indicated Father Drakkus, "In the end some shadow thing took over your body, you had a violent seizure, and here we are now!"

"Anyway, we're here. We're going to go fight now. You want to come?"

"Can I come?" :3

"O' Course! We'll need all the help we can get." Ray jumped down from the carrier and landed next to Talor Alx.

"Who wants to lead the way?"

"I will."

Takor descends into the burning depths, his weapon once again becoming twin daggers for close quarter combat. He comes to a closed wooden door and tests it; it is unlocked. It swings outward into a darkened corridor running east to west. On the opposite wall hangs a massive tapestry. Takor inspects it with his helmet-light.

"Come quickly, adventurers... You need to see this."

The tapestry tells a story in its threads. Hundreds of tiny scenes are woven together, and each one is strangely familiar.

"It is us! The tapestry tells the story of our battle with the crabs. And this last scene shows us descending these very stairs! The fabric is dark after that, but it appears to be a liquid darkness, ready to take the form of our next action. More magic..." growls the lizard-man.

NINJAGEEK jumps off the hovercraft and hurries to catch up with the others. Half my head was eaten off? he thinks. Plus there was something about a shadow. He looked around him at the shadows. They seemed almost to be moving and to NINJAGEEK they almost felt alive. He considered the side effects of half his brain being eaten. There was the most likely outcome, death, but he had lived and it would seem had been healed by a shadow. Could he still use his ninjitsu? He stepped away from the group and attempted some. It didn't work. He tried again. Still, It didn't work. Then he thought, well if shadows healed me then maybe now my powers lie with them. He cleared his mind and thought about the shadows. They seemed to stir a little bit but not much. He came to the conclusion that he could now control shadows and no longer could use ninjitsu. Then a thought came to him, Why aren't I freaking out, I just learned that half my brain was eaten and I am contemplating what type of magic I use now and how I do it. I think that I've changed in my head since the head crab ate my brain.

NINJAGEEK muttered, That is interesting.

"Woah, Takor, that's strange......I've never seen magic like this before!"
He pauses to examine the tapestry.
"I've really let myself go!"

A scream echoes from down the stairway! Spinning away from the tapestry, Aleran sprints down the stairs towards the source of the scream.

NINJAGEEK hears the scream and runs after Aleran.

Fool, we don't want anything bad to happen to us so we should stay in a group. he half mutters to himself.

He almost runs into Aleran who is stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Looking around he sees chaos. They are in a large hallway, almost large enough for to carts side by side to fit in. The door at one side of the hallway was smashed open and head crabs and zombies were pouring in, to join the many that had already gotten in and were slaughtering the survivors that had been trying to fight back.

That's interesting.

It was a large group of survivors, maybe 30 or more still standing all heavily armed. Aleran recognized some of the Yyru guard, including his captain.

Sprinting foreward, Aleran shouts to the fighters, "Back! Back! Get back! Run away!" Not many head his yelling. A few turn around, but quickly turn back to defend themselves.
"Get back! Now!!!"

Aleran is now among the people and almost to the zombies. The zombies are slowly pushing the defenders back, getting further and further into the hall. Aleran grabs the nearest soldier by the shoulders and throws him back. His captain appears in front of him. "Captain Zelos! Retreat now! I will push them back."
He looks shocked to see Aleran. "But Sir, there's so many!"
"That's an order!"

Saluting, Zelos order the retreat. He and the men from Yyru start running down the hall away from the zombies. The rest of the defenders see the other soldiers retreating and follow suit.

Aleran is now alone among the zombies. "Fire time!"
A blazing inferno pops up around Aleran, and he directs it outwards towards the zombies.

Drakkus too had paused to look at the tapestry. When the scream was heard, he pressed himself up against the wall to allow the others to run past him. He followed behind at a slightly slower pace, not changing out of his old man body.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he made a beeline for the men Aleran had ordered out of the fighting. He quickly moved through them, healing and saying prayers. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Aleran go up in flames. "Foolish, foolish halfling." Positioning himself between the men and the blaze, Father Drakkus prepared to deflect any flames that got out of hand and came towards the survivors.

He stray poison headcrab had gotten past Aleran and jumped for Drakkus. He caught it in midair using telekinesis and suspended it in front of him. Rather than kill it himself, he shot it towards Aleran and allowed the flames to consume it.

"I hope he knows what he is doing...Goddess help us!"

"Father, can you put a shield up around all of us if we group together? Bale and I have a surprise for the creatures."

Takor has returned from a side passage with fifteen more survivors and ten lizard-commandos, each sporting a black jumpsuit like his and wielding dual pistols. His survivors join the ones behind Drakkus, and Alx's troop form a perimeter, their suits absorbing the elf-flames. Any crab that escapes the inferno is picked off by their disruption charges.

Aleran is showing signs of fatigue, and a new group of crabs and zombie rounds a distant corner.

"Aleran, get behind the line! You've done enough!"

More in the citadel? I thought we'd have more time than this to barricade ourselves in...
He hadn't done as clean a job as he had hoped, with the walls on either side of him scorched just as much as the entryway in front of him. But the zombies front lines were now outside the doorway; now if there was only a way to block this entrance. No one likes fighting on two fronts when it can be avoided.

Aleran lowers the intensity of the flames to just enough to keep the zombies at bay.
"Can we block this off somehow?" he asks the group behind him, hoping one of them will have a better idea than to just stand there with the heat on.

Ray shook his head, clearing it from the hypnotic magic from the tapestry. "Dang it, i must've been distracted for a half hour about...." Turning around he went down the stairs four at a time, and jumped onto the battlefield below. He realized the entire area was completely burnt to a crisp. Knowing what happened from the magical Tapestry he immediatly went to the opening where headcrabs were pouring in, as he heard Aleran's request.

"I can't use any magic yet.....i'm still a little weak from that blizzard blast i did earlier. =/ Anyone got a mana herb? or somethin'?"

"GET BEHIND THE LINE!" Takor bellows at Ray and Aleran. "I'm going to set off a bomb. It will block this tunnel and destroy the enemies near at hand long enough to escape. You need to get closer so Drakkus can shield you!"

There is no doubt of the growl in the lizard's voice now.

"O_o Yes sir!!!" Without objection Ray got close to Drakkus, so he could be shielded.