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| Details |
| Author: | Athena |
| Summary: | The second order of business for the combined forces assault against Naxxramas after addressing the pest control (read: spiders) issue, is to take on the abominations barring the 7th's way through the necropolis. Valuable lessons are learned about which giant constructed abominations have poor peripheral vision (Patchwerk), and which ones have all too good peripheral vision and a giant puncture weapon to back it up (Grobbulus). 4k~ words. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Arc: Season 13
Cressidha distributes water to the others, as per usual.
[Cressidha]: Good afternoon, everyone.
Bennarin surveys the group.
Anareline nods at Cressidha.
[Bennarin]: Cobalts all in order?
[Colson]: Good afternoon.
Bennarin takes a head count.
Caspis turns toward Cressidha. As always in this form, he is inscrutable. Even more inscrutable.
Vond is substantially more grimy with ash than on first arrival for the arachnid quarter, but he appears focused and ready.
Cressidha waters the tree. Well, she gives Caspis a bottle of water.
Caspis bows before Cressidha.
Colson ties his water to his belt.
[Bennarin]: Brother Vond. Confessor.
Bennarin nods to the two Argents.
[Bennarin]: We are on orders to head into the Construct Quarter now while the 7th holds sh— things down.
Anareline moves over to stand by the tree.
Cressidha nods to Ben.
Colson nods to Ben. "Understood."
Caspis rustles.
Gwenivene blinks at Ben.
[Bennarin]: Everyone is ready?
Caspis bows before Bennarin.
Gwenivene is more bothered by the fact that Ben almost cursed than going into the Construct Quarter.
[Cressidha]: I am ready.
[Colson]: Yessir.
[Anareline]: We will be freeing some of their twisted creations from their grasp, then.
[Ralaea]: Less freeing, more burning I hope.
Bennarin nods at Anareline. "I mean, freein' 'em by smashing 'em, yeah."
[Anareline]: Yes. That is what I meant.
[Vond]: Hazan, good to find ya here. Yeah, we've been sent in to give your folk a little extra force again.
Bennarin smiles crookedly. He glances at Vond and nods.
Gwenivene mumbles, "And hopefully no more living agents in there."
[Bennarin]: 'Preciate it.
Caspis gently exudes healing nature magic.
Etone pulls up his scarf and offers a curt nod in Ben's direction. "On your mark."
Cressidha looks around as she climbs up the stairs.
Ralaea wrinkles her nose at all the skulls.
Caspis stands, rooted.
Cressidha traces a crackling arcane sigil in the air, sending a ripple through the air towards Gwenivene.
Bennarin brought sandwiches.
[Cressidha]: Thank you, Ben.
Bennarin nods to Cressidha.
Vond passes on eating a sandwich in the undead citadel. It smells here.
Your loss, Vond. They're good sandwiches.
Colson politely accepts a sandwich. They're good sandwiches, Brother Vond.
Anareline stares angrily at the Scourge architecture.
Cressidha puts her sandwich away for later.
Gwenivene looks over to Cressidha. "Creepy, isn't it?"
Caspis creaks softly.
Ralaea jumps at the creaking tree.
[Cressidha]: It certainly feels larger than the others…
Anareline steps back to put a hand on one branch.
Colson looks over mildly to Ralaea.
Bennarin adjusts one of his gauntlets. "Okay. We are ready to go?"
Colson nods to Ben.
Anareline looks ready to go.
Vond peers down a corridor, cautious. "There's the spider hall we hit earlier. The 7th should have it secure by now."
Bennarin nods to Vond.
[Bennarin]: We are gonna try to do this as smooth.
Vond looks back to Ben. "You've got the target."
Cressidha pulls up her ice barrier. Obviously.
[Bennarin]: Constructs.
Bennarin surveys the abominations.
[Bennarin]: Which would be these fellows.
Vond sizes up the abominations, leery.
[Ralaea]: Looks like the right place then.
[Gwenivene]: Ugh…so gross.
[Vond]: Big ones.
Anareline glares down at the green bubbling goo beneath her feet.
Etone scowls, not that you'd be able to see it under his scarf.
[Bennarin]: Heads up, we got some wanderin' too. Past the guards.
[Ralaea]: There are quite a few…
[Cressidha]: Ah.
Colson heads up.
Bennarin sizes up the Bile Retcher.
[Vond]: I take it you've seen what hooks like that can do, by now.
[Cressidha]: Yes.
[Anareline]: Be careful.
Vond checks the others for readiness.
Colson looks ready and careful.
Etone smirks and nods to Vond. IT IS SKELETON FITE TIME - kind of.
Anareline shakes the goo off her sword.
Cressidha keeps her distance from the abominations as best as she can.
[Vond]: It's bubblin' up.
[Bennarin]: Watch your feet!
Colson watches his feet.
[Vond]: The whole lot - clear 'em out!
Ralaea frowns after being puked on.
Vond took greater care to monitor Brannagen and Mordecai's readiness and movements previously. Here he acts with a more ready familiarity that speaks of many shared skirmishes.
Cressidha doesn't quite get out of the splash zone in time. She wipes her face with a handkerchief.
Padrick hides under Gwen's hat to avoid the spraying vomit.
[Bennarin]: Everyone good? We good?
Anareline is beginning to be covered with slime. She is stoic about it.
Bennarin looks up sharply at the voice.
[Ralaea]: I don't suppose we have anything to shove in their faces to stop that awful….spewing?
Colson nods. "Yessir."
Anareline glances over at Ben.
Etone snorts, "Better be, this far in."
[Bennarin]: I mean I do not think we got time to gag 'em.
[Anareline]: The killing stops it.
Bennarin nods at Ana.
[Anareline]: This place is disgusting.
[Gwenivene]: I'm gonna shower for a week after this.
[Bennarin]: I mean I wouldn't want to picnic here. *He did bring sandwiches though.*
Vond navigates the grating carefully. "Of course there's no walkway."
Anareline nods her thanks at Etone.
[Bennarin]: Thanks, Confessor.
Cressidha nods politely to Etone as he levitates them across the gap.
[Vond]: Whole teeming lot of 'em.Here we go.
[Anareline]: One behind.
[Ralaea]: Meat wagons…
[Vond]: Let's not stare at the meat wagons.
[Ralaea]: Why, does that make them move?
[Vond]: It makes my guts move is what it does.
[Ralaea]: Fair.
[Etone]: Vond, I can't tell if you're being funny or not…
Vond shrugs at Etone, he probably doesn't know either.
Vond shifts with Etone's voice and chiming prayer of mending from past his line of vision, freeing his attention for watching the others.
Sludge Belcher belches out a disgusting Bile Sludge!
[Ralaea]: Were those gnomes, or something…else?
[Bennarin]: What the fu—heck is these little fellows, yeah?
Vond swiftly extends an arm out to the side with a palm facing back, a clear sign for a halt.
Colson halts immediately.
Gwenivene peers at Ben.
[Vond]: Bloody size of that thing.
Caspis spills some water on the floor, and his roots creep toward it. Slrrrrp.
Bennarin watches Patchwerk grimly and rolls a shoulder.
Vond glances back as it wanders away without yet detecting something amiss - peripheral vision doesn't seem to be its strong suit.
Etone clicks his tongue against his teeth. Clearly unimpressed with the whole sanitary state of this quarter.
Vond eyes Anareline. "We will have to keep all of its limbs fully engaged." Sliding the look to the others, he adds, "Wait for us to have it occupied lest they come swingin' for ya."
Caspis sways gently.
Anareline nods at Vond.
Colson nods. "Understood."
[Bennarin]: We will get its attention an' pull it away from those… blobs.
Cressidha takes a deep breath, wrinkling her nose slightly. It isn't a nice place to breathe.
Vond deliberately slows his breath and nods along with it, doubling a visible count with a centering of his focus. He mumbles a prayer - mainly against hooks the size of an outhouse.
Etone picks up in a rather rousing round of prayer song.
Bennarin looks around in case anyone seems in need of another half-assed blessing.
Anareline tries to shake some of the slime from her weapons and frowns. She takes a deep breath to calm herself, then regrets it.
Caspis's leaves green slightly at the sound of the music.
[Bennarin]: Okay. Here he comes.
Vond signals his intent to act shortly before he wings a transiently manifested shield of light - it strikes with a thunk and faint sizzle.
Patchwerk yells: Patchwerk want to play!
[Gwenivene]: Pew-pew!
[Gwenivene]: Pew-pepew-pew!
Cressidha keeps her distance. She begins with frost, but quickly switches to fire.
Caspis remains at a distance. Waves of healing nature magic emanate from him, causing those he focuses on to rapidly regenerate.
Vond reconsiders the hook when it's near enough to crash against his shield with staggering force. That's possibly greater than outhouse magnitude. The Light's shielding and blessed armor are doing a good bit of the work of withstanding the crush.
Colson obeys the order of command, staying back until the shield fighters have the arms engaged. His expression remains calm throughout, as he prays for mana periodically.
Anareline moves in quickly to fight by Vond Satterly's side. The monstrous abomination keeps its main focus on Vond, but constantly lashes out at her as well.
Gwenivene recoils at the sight of the massive, stitched posterior. "Urkh…they could at least put some giant pants on him."
Bennarin casts a slightly wild-eyed look at Vond to be sure the other man keeps his feet as he charges in himself.
Caspis's leaves begin to wither halfway through the fight, but he seems to draw on some inner reserves, re-greening himself and continuing to heal Ben and Vond.
Ralaea carves away at the abomination from behind the left leg, possibly regretting her life choices.
[Bennarin]: Keep him turned! Don't let him puke!
Gwenivene tries not to look at undead butt as she conjures up four mirror images of herself and unleashes golly heck on Patchwerk.
Patchwerk is a simple creature. He goes for the people he can reach, and he hits hard. He is not smart enough to have any more strategy than that.
Etone focuses his healing efforts on Anareline as the huge grotesque slashes down on her.
Vond has his attention consumed with simply bearing the onslaught, allowing the sizzle of putrid flesh meeting consecrated ground pull the weight of enraging and distracting the abomination. It smells even less great here now.
Colson takes advantage of the creature's lack of peripheral strategy, holding ground on the right leg to blessedly hack away at it. If he regrets any life choices, it doesn't show on his face.
Caspis may be glad he does not currently have a nose.
Cressidha seems entirely indifferent to Patchwerk's posterior. No, wait - she's aiming for it.
Ralaea envies the tree.
Anareline grits her teeth under the heavy assault, but continues to fight on, despite how gross this creature is. She is bolstered by the steady influx of Light.
Etone wears a cloth mask, scarf, whatever, for a reason folks.
Bennarin blasts the construct with waves of exorcism and also curses a lot breathlessly which is probably not part of the exorcism but seems to help.
The more injured Patchwerk seems to get, the more upset it seems to be.
You would be too, in fairness.
Anareline is also pretty upset. She liked this armor.
Ralaea tries not to get tantrum stepped on.
Vond is smushed up against the wall in its final charging flails. There is a good bit of scraping and muffled objections until it finally tumbles back, leaving Vond to slide back down to his feet and pant for air.
Eventually, Patchwerk teeters on his feet. "What… happen… to Patchwerk…" He falls slowly and dramatically backwards, going limp.
Bennarin dodges to one side as the massive corpse topples.
Ralaea dives out of the way before it can land on her.
Anareline slashes her sword through the air, flinging some of the disgusting mess on it to the side.
Colson dodges out of the way, although he gets a little perilously closer to the green goo in doing so.
Etone's songs don't end until the abomination finally comes to a complete and total stop.
Bennarin looks around at the group, breathing hard. He turns to focus first on Vond and Anareline. "Everyone — good? Brother Vond?"
[Cressidha]: Goodness.
Padrick peeks out from under the hat.
Cressidha drinks some water.
Ralaea brushes herself off. "I suppose burning that won't help the smell."
Caspis hurries from person to person, checking each of them for lingering injuries.
Etone huffs up to Vond's and slaps his shoulder, "Right good show, lets get on with it then!"
Colson nods to Ben, moving back away from the pool of danger goo. He's sweating heavily, his hair sticking to his face, but seems otherwise largely unruffled.
Anareline nods. "I am well. As well as can be, in this situation."
Vond throws a staggered thumbs-up while he leans forward slightly with a look of concentration, holding down the urge to retch.
Cressidha refreshes her arcane enhancement on Gwenivene.
[Anareline]: I think we should take care not to touch the green slimes here.
Colson murmurs blessings quietly.
Caspis eyes the blobs oozing across the floor.
[Ralaea]: I thought that was obvious.
[Vond]: They don't look none appealing, no.
[Anareline]: I never assume what is obvious to others.
[Ralaea]: Why does this look like a mouth?
[Cressidha]: Because the Lich King is consistent.
Anareline stares at the Stitched Giant in consternation.
[Bennarin]: I ain't askin' a lot of questions about this architecture, Rae.
[Gwenivene]: Why is everything so biiig?
Caspis sheds a few leaves at the sight of the constructs in the next room.
Bennarin surveys the Stitched Giant grimly.
[Colson]: Ah.
[Anareline]: We should clear this area out as well.
Cressidha nods.
[Ralaea]: There were some of these at Light's Hope too.
[Bennarin]: Yeah. Let's try to handle these fellows without, uh, the fellow with the tank.
[Vond]: Oof. They're all so enormous.
[Bennarin]: Look sharp.
Colson looks sharp.
Ralaea does not try to touch Colson.
The room contains a bunch of stitched-together giants.
Bennarin steps in a giant maggot and makes a face.
[Ralaea]: I hear…civilians?
Bennarin pauses after a giant falls to try to scrape maggot off his boot.
[Anareline]: I do not want to imagine what might be happening to people in this place.
Colson steps on the same maggot and doesn't make a face, but you get the impression he might have otherwise.
Bennarin glances up at nods at Rae. "I was hearin' that too."
Caspis shudders.
[Colson]: Yes.
Cressidha casually immolates a maggot.
Having less maggot on it makes very little difference in the current state of Ben's boots.
[Vond]: It is… I believe it to be ghosts, not the living. Nothin' here that was not carried in on one of those wagons or put together from such.
[Anareline]: That is… still disturbing.
Etone mutters to himself, "Ugh… Still as foul…"
[Gwenivene]: I hope you're right. Though…poor ghosts.
[Colson]: Yes.
[Ralaea]: That thing…the weird looking thing? Reminds me of some of those guys the Legion had, the engineers?
Caspis shudders.
Bennarin nods at Rae.
[Cressidha]: Ah. Now that you mention it, Rae…
Cressidha nods.
[Vond]: It is. That they can be heard this clearly is a, mn, an indication of awful treatment.
[Bennarin]: Or some of the Forsaken shit we seen in Undercity.
Vond freezes when he catches sight of a glint on the point of Grobbulus's hypodermic… arm. It's really more hypo-everything, by the size. His breath catches a bit.
Bennarin eyes Vond with concern.
[Ralaea]: Hope nobody's afraid of needles.
[Gwenivene]: I'm not fond of them….
Caspis shrugs, unconcerned.
Vond grips his shield, his posture steeling and visibly overriding the hesitation.
Bennarin nods briefly, still watching Vond, though whether to Vond or himself is unclear.
Anareline stares at the descending construct.
Vond motions his intent to move again in a short count, then darts.
Bennarin whispers, "Brace yourselfs."
Vond is taking a good deal more care to avoid being pinned than with dealing with the pure brute force of the heavy abominations, redirecting piercing swipes of plague injector with dogged effort and hooked handguard, shifting his feet often.
Colson falls in behind the shield warriors in this fight, working on the right once more. Unfortunately for him, Grobbulus has better peripheral sense. He turns, stabs through Colson's breastplate with the needle, and injects something before he turns back to the others.
[Cressidha]: Colson!
Bennarin dodges around the shambling construct's legs, trying not to smite the tank on its back. He glances over at Cressidha's cry.
Anareline fights at Vond's side, dodging the construct's attacks.
Colson immediately dispels the disease, as standard practice — but instead of just clearing it, it does something, spraying disease out of him as he does, burning those around him.
Anareline looks up to see what's happened to Colson.
Anareline's eyes widen with alarm.
Bennarin falls back a step from Colson, coughing. He swears.
Caspis is focusing so much on channeling his nature magic that he hardly even seems to be in the room, as though his mind is wandering the Emerald Dream. He doesn't even notice Colson's disease-bomb, but he instinctively heals the damage it does.
Ralaea cries out at the sudden spray of green. She moves away a bit blindly.
[Colson]: There is something wrong! Curing the disease does something. Back away if he strikes you!
[Ralaea]: I hope you're not suggesting we stay diseased?
Etone throws shields up around the Aspenwood twins, and shouts "If it comes again, run it back before you cleanse it!"
Cressidha has her ice barrier up, and she's keeping her distance, but that doesn't seem to matter much for Grobbulus, who aims at her next and sends out some sort of projectile needle.
Colson flexes his hands. "It clears. But it will spray on cure."
[Bennarin]: Stay back from the rest, Rae! If it gets you!
Cressidha blinks towards the wall immediately.
Vond staggers back while striking the construct with short bright bursts of light from his shield, luring it from spilling foulness while holding his defenses.
Caspis does not react to any of that conversation; it's unclear if he even heard.
Colson doesn't call out to Cressidha, but his attention is momentarily diverted.
Anareline continues to slash into its side. It spews something acidic, and slime plops out on the ground in front of him. Anareline looks alarmed, and distracts the slime from fighting Vond.
Gwenivene's eyes widen. "What? AHH!" She tries to backpedal as the monstrosity suddenly whirls and stabs at her, but the massive needle pierces her shoulder. "Oh…no…." She turns away and with a quick gesture, she is suddenly another 20 yards away.
Colson is repeatedly stabbed by the injector, but he holds his position as they move. His armor has gone from Shiny to Alarming. He's fine.
Colson now looks kinda sharp in a whole new way.
Cressidha gets injected more than once, blinking to the wall each time.
Bennarin grimly does another exorswearism, and then ducks too slowly as the needle comes for him. He backpedals for a wall.
Gwenivene grimaces, feeling the horrid disease ravaging through her body before it finally comes bursting from every pore. Staggering away from the cloud of…whatever that is…she forces herself back to the fight.
Ralaea attacks in wide sweeps, striking the slimes as well as the Needle Arm.
Caspis gets a projectile needle in a limb next, and it is now clear he heard nothing of what was said before, as he remains in place, diseased, continuing to heal others.
[Cressidha]: Caspis—!
Cressidha blinks away from him.
Anareline flinches at that, taking a step away from the slime and the construct as if she might help him.
Caspis slowly seems to become aware that his name was called, but he isn't fast enough.
Etone casts a powerful shield on Caspis followed by a blessing that seems to suppress any pain.
Caspis expels foulness from every pore in his bark as the disease leaves him and tries to spread to others.
Eventually, Grobbulus falls. There's still liquid remaining in the injector.
Anareline breathes a sigh of relief, and looks over everyone to see if they're okay.
[Ralaea]: This…isn't going to do damage later, right? We're fully cured?
Bennarin throws up one hand, ready to cast a shield on… anyone if the tank shatters. It does not. He relaxes after a moment.
Gwenivene sits on the floor, looking pale. "I think I'm gonna barf."
Caspis's limbs are a bit droopy, but seem healthy… just maybe a little embarrassed.
Cressidha blinks back towards the group. There are a couple of obvious holes through her tabard and her robe, although the skin beneath has healed.
Colson steps back and away from the giant falling man. The place where his armor was pierced is a sharp hazard, but the skin beneath it is fully whole, and the paladin looks not much worse for the wear in the end, if you ignore the spray of fluids over him.
[Bennarin]: Anyone got it? Anyone sick?
[Cressidha]: I feel a little ill, though I do not know if that is… ah…
Cressidha waves a hand vaguely.
Ralaea backs away from everyone, looking for volcanoes.
Colson looks over the group, moving to Cressidha's side, to put a hand on her shoulder.
Bennarin nods at Colson and surveys Cressidha.
[Anareline]: I think all of our armor is rather the worse for wear, today.
[Gwenivene]: I feel like poopoo. What did that stuff do to us?
Commander Windstryke jogs into the room, flanked by two humans in 7th Legion plate. "You've secured the area? Excellent."
[Anareline]: But you all seem to be in one piece.
Etone hums loudly, "We're arright, yea?" He casually side eyes Vond as the others gain their breath.
Cressidha looks her brother over.
Bennarin straightens at once to nods at Windstryke. "Ma'am."
[Ralaea]: Sure, on the outside…who knows what it did.
Vond seems to have blocked out most of the unfolding mayhem while fully occupied with holding himself together and luring Grobbulus to ever receding clear ground. Brief ragged streamers of wings fade when it falls.
Colson examines his sister closely. "There is nothing remaining, no." He turns to Gwen. "I do not sense any additional disease, but I expect the after effects may linger in other ways."
Anareline looks over to Windstryke and nods.
Bennarin surveys the slimed and tattered group again.
Commander Windstryke eyes the fallen monster, her eyes sweeping over it. "What's happened here?"
Vond surveys the others with a slightly dazed look while catching his breath and his bearings - eyeing Etone for any sign of anything being direly out of sorts.
Cressidha points at the giant syringe. She points at one of the holes in Colson's armor.
[Ralaea]: Involuntary injections is what happened.
[Bennarin]: Ma'am, I would like to request this team fall back for medical review. In case.
[Anareline]: It injected something foul into our people.
Gwenivene nods to Colson. "It's like it just exploded violently out of my pores. Ugh…I feel awful."
[Bennarin]: Our healers done a hell of a job, but –
Bennarin glances at the tank on the corpse's back.
Commander Windstryke nods crisply, not seeming alarmed, just very businesslike. "All of you out then. Back to the infirmary, get checked. I have people to relieve you."
Colson nods sympathetically to Gwen. "As a field healer, I agree."
Caspis droops a bit more.
Bennarin salutes the Commander.
Ralaea mutters, "I can still fight…"
Gwenivene takes off her hat, letting Padrick climb back onto the brim. "You okay, Pad?"
[Anareline]: Everything up until this point is clear.
[Bennarin]: It is an infirmary check, Rae.
Padrick licks his eyeball.
[Bennarin]: We will get back in the fight, okay?
Commander Windstryke says: Not up for discussion, Westwind.
Gwenivene nods and puts her hat back on.
Ralaea sighs. "Fine."
Colson keeps his hand on Cressidha's shoulder.
[Bennarin]: Everyone out, let the 7th nail it down.
Colson lets the 7th nail it down.
Vond looks about to comment something, but thinks better of it.
[Colson]: Yesir.
Caspis nods.
Cressidha nods.
Gwenivene stands up with a groan.