your hands protect the flames

[modforged]

Who: The Dragonsworn
What: The first arrival of the Dragonsworn goes a bit...awry.
Where: Scattered around the perimeter of Suramar.
When: Dawn on March 21st
Warnings: Please PM the mods if any warnings are needed

It is almost as if you've woken from a daydream when the ground meets your feet. The stench of fire is overpowering, and though dawn is just approaching in the canopies of Kalimdor, bright flashes of green can be seen between the branches of impossibly tall trees. If that doesn't snap you out of your surprise, then the sound of nearby spitting in demonic tongue may persuade you to get a grip and notice your surroundings -- you are not alone. There are others like you, huddled just a bit too close, with a somewhat familiar face keeping you from advancing further. Looking down at your hands may briefly reveal a momentary flash of color, but nothing lasting more than a few seconds.

The mages of each flight take the helm of their charges, and they are quick to notice any movement from their groups despite channeling some sort of spell to keep you protected. Stray fire will bounce off an invisible shield that ripples when anything make contact with it. There seems to be nothing in sight but your new comrades, and your guardian -- at least not on the ground. The sky has flying demons swarming a pack of dragons -- and the dragons are very clearly losing. Look just a bit farther, and you might find more dragons, though these clearly have different colored scales than the ones above your head.

While distracted, you may hear your guardian speak to you. "There may yet be wounded nearby -- if you care to, bring them here, and we will tend to them from the Sanctum." Briefly, they gesture skyward, toward the dragons flying overhead. "Do not bring to us any that are not our own, lest you invite their demise!"

But the mage is focused on casting -- they are in no position to halt your advance, and they know it. They speak with concern -- concern for you, concern for the dire situation at hand. The demonic cackling is drawing near. The forests are rapidly becoming overrun, and there are already a few dragons slain on the forest floor.

"Take care, Dragonsworn -- I am bringing us to safety, but it will take time. To wander far is to invite your ruin, and we cannot afford the loss of your life."

[OOC: You are free to mingle on this post as you choose, despite the flight groups being scattered through the forests around Suramar -- after this log, you will be separated into your sanctums, and your interactions will be watched much more closely. Attempting to enter the city itself will result in a vicious attack from demons that will kill. The Dragon Mages will be tagging sporadically to heroes of their matching flight, and the conclusion of this log will lead Dragonsworn through portals to their Sanctums.]

Comments

ota | red flight best flight

[stonefaith]

Isn't he supposed to be back in Hearthglen, with Martin? It was so close! He could have practically touched it, even through the vastness of time and space. It had been so close, and now, damn... hooded figures, taking him away from the right Azeroth! He's already helped save his Azeroth from another universe! Why again?

Because you do the job that's given you, Bariyan supposes. And hope, eventually, that it will let you go home.

He rolls his shoulders, tries to wipe his mind clear of confusion and frustration and disappointment, and strides out of the safety of the shield to go climb a tree.

He makes surprisingly rapid progress, despite the weight of his armor (though he'd at least left his axe down on the ground). There's a grim determination in him as he swings upwards through the branches, occasionally using his hunting knife to hack a hand- or foot-hold where he needs one. Finding the wounded? Yes, he's hoping he'll have an easier time spotting and marking them out from here -- but he also wants to get a look at this pack of demons responsible for bringing him here.

Of course they're the ones truly responsible, at the heart of all this. They're damn demons.

[deadelfwalking]

Koltira almost misses Bariyan, hidden as he is by an ancient tree's long, leaf-thick branches. Koltira's distracted, too, by the matter at hand: demons flood the forests, and the noise of spellcasting and clanging steel fills his ears. He's driving back the Burning Legion where he can, doing his best not to think too much about this situation just yet, and keeping an eye out for the wounded, besides. In other words, he's a little busy.

The forest is his home terrain, though. He grew up in Eversong Woods, and while this place is no Eversong, Koltira knows how to fight among trees. Lesson one: mind all points of ambush, especially from above. That's how he notices Bariyan, at first as a non-descript figure, and then as someone much more familiar.

"Crusader," he calls. "I didn't mark you as one to hide from a fight!"

[stonefaith]

Bariyan doesn't look straight down because he knows, he just knows that the moment he takes the sky out of his peripheral, a demon is going to fly at him and bite his head off. Thus far none of them have actually taken notice of him. The struggling dragons seem to be the Legion's more pressing concern, and the branches provide good coverage.

He perches on a branch to sight the nearest cluster of demons and sticks an arm out, thumb outstretched, judging the distance to be... too far for him to throw a hammer at. Damn. Well, not his job, anyway. He's supposed to be finding the wounded.

He spots a flash of blue on the ground, some distance away -- three hundred feet, maybe -- and, deciding that the nearest demons are too busy to pay attention to another shout, replies to the man below.

"Hiding? All the demons are up here! Now--" Bariyan pauses. Don't bring any not our own, the dragon had said. The dragons are divided. Right. "--which flight did you come from?"

He hasn't recognized Koltira yet. Death knight, he's got that much, no mistaking that reverb. But the reason Bariyan doesn't even suspect that it might be Koltira is because he's managed to convince himself that Koltira and Martin must have made it back to their Azeroth. Must have.

[deadelfwalking]

Koltira's flabbergasted. He draws Byfrost and, without hesitation, strikes the tree with the flat of the blade. It's not an aggressive motion; more a light thwack, something he did because Bariyan isn't on the ground to take a pinch to his neck.

"What does it matter, Bariyan? Who the bloody hell do you think you're talking to right now?"

[stonefaith]

Who the damn hell is that down there, calling him by name like they know him or something? And hitting his tree? Bariyan spares a moment to look around, spotting a few more bits of color strewing the otherwise drab-slash-fel-green forest floor. He commits their relative positions to memory. North blue, northwest red, east red and further east bronze. And maybe, maybe black off to the west, but he's not sure... and he's not sure he wants to confront that.

Then Bariyan starts dropping back down through the branches to kick his tree-smacker in the head.

When he finally sees the man's face, he is overtaken by -- not surprise, because the moment he'd heard himself addressed by name some part of his mind had woken up and immediately put two-and-two together -- joy. That's it. Fierce, anger- and confusion-flavored joy, which is why Bariyan leaps out of the tree from several feet above the ground to land square on his feet in front of Koltira. He blazes with Light.

"You!"

[deadelfwalking]

Koltira drives Byfrost into the ground and leans on the hilt, wincing. He covers his eyes with one hand, because the Light is overwhelming; if he looks at Bariyan directly, he's sure his skin will start to burn.

"Yes, me! Bloody nice to see you, too."

[stonefaith]

Bariyan does three things at once: he tones the Light down, he grabs Koltira in a brief no-arguments hug, and he reaches out with his right foot to hook around his axe and drag it back within reach.

Then he growls into Koltira's shoulder.

"What was that about 'two days to get to Hearthglen', then?"

[deadelfwalking]

"Oof." Koltira returns the embrace, tightens it, keeps Bariyan held against him as he grumbles a response. "What was that about waiting for me in Hearthglen? I'm in the same predicament as you!"

He exhales irritably against Bariyan's hair. "The transporter must have malfunctioned somehow."

[stonefaith]

Bariyan lets himself enjoy the embrace for a few seconds, then struggles to free himself. They're on a battlefield, after all. Thogu he supposes that dying in Koltira's arms would be the ideal way to go.

"What about Martin?" Bariyan asks, urgently. "If we're both here-- he shouldn't be in Azeroth all alone!"

[chronoillogical]

Honestly, Caliborn only wandered over because he saw the axe laying around. While he prefers his gun, he can't see any reason not mess around with someone else's clearly abandoned weapon. That this is a battlefield where they are hopelessly outmatched and in grave danger does not, in fact, occur to him as a reason.

Before he can even lean down to grab the thing up with his free hand, he hears someone moving around in the trees. Reflexively, he abandons the axe in favor of bringing his gaudy gold assault rifle to bear, pointing it upward.

His shoulders slump in what would be relief in most. In this weird little green guy, it's disappointment.

"Oh. It's a normal dude." His expression turns into a grin soon enough, though, and he shouts up. "HEY! TREE-GUY! Are you trying to get their attention?!"

[stonefaith]

The shout comes as Bariyan's halfway through reaching for a new branch, and he starts, losing balance for a moment -- regaining it quickly after. He's not too far up yet, and he can't see or hear any demons nearby; they're still above, still preoccupied with gouts of dragon flame.

He looks down at the strange person below. He grimaces and shakes his head, furiously.

"No!" Immediately after that, Bariyan looks up to see if any demons have taken notice of his shout. "Are you?"

[chronoillogical]

"Nah."

He tilts his head to the side, listening better to some fresh and nearby inhuman shriek of rage and pain. The grin on his face pulls wider. "But I could. Really easily. I just need to scream and maybe shoot at them?"

Caliborn doesn't truly intend on doing something so blatantly suicidal. All the same, threatening to means messing with this guy who decided that hauling ass into the living equivalent of a broadcast tower was a good idea.

[stonefaith]

What? Bariyan pauses in his ascent. He stares upwards, blankly, watching demons and dragons flash by as thoughts turn in his mind. His thoughts start to solidify. He focuses his sight on a fiend that has attached itself to drake, flaring with unholy energy.

Come to think of it, the person below Bariyan doesn't look human, or like any other race that he knows of... who's to say he's not Legion?

Bariyan drops back down through the branches and is on the ground in record time (too fast; he jars his ankles when he lands), sweeping his axe up and following the motion through to swing it towards Caliborn -- though he only intends to hold the blade to Caliborn's head. As warning.

He doesn't demand that Caliborn explain where his loyalties lie. The act of brandishing a weapon at someone is usually enough to tease out that bit of information, anyway.

[chronoillogical]

It wasn't at all what he expected the guy to do. Instinctively, he tries to stop time, but the flow does not obey as it had so often recently; instead, Caliborn is left with his huge eyes widened to stare at the blade by his head.

He's tensed up, but he doesn't grow particularly afraid. Surprise washes away into something like the amusement of before. Without moving, his eyes flicker toward the human. He flashes a lop-sided smirk.

"Whoaaaaa there, drop bear. I don't care who you are. Or why you're climbing trees. But do you really want to bring an axe to a semi-automatic rifle fight."

[stonefaith]

"Oh, yes," Bariyan says, and grins cheerfully at Caliborn. Then his grin freezes as he tries to work out the situation.

He'd come down with the sudden sneaking suspicion that Caliborn might be a demon, but now that he's down here, Caliborn doesn't sound like any demon that Bariyan's encountered. None of them have been on the sassy side; they'd never wasted time talking when they could be trying to take your head off.

Bariyan cocks his head to the side.

"I care who you are," he says. "You're not human. Are you with the Legion?"

He indicates the sky above them with a jerk of his head, and adds: "By the way, there's only one correct answer."

[chronoillogical]

Caliborn squints upward for a second, just to make sure there's nothing he's missing about the situation. He determines there is not.

"You racist pig." Caliborn again tries to make time bend to his will, and it does not.

"Oink your way back up that tree. Because I don't look anything like those ugly bastards. Either of them. One minute I was drawing a brilliant comic, then next there was fire. And some prick with a feathery do was spouting shit about flights and champions and blah blah blah, who even cares? There's blood and stuff is on fire. I don't want a pretty boy blathering about that when I can be listening to screams and roaring."

[stonefaith]

Flights and champions? Bariyan relaxes; he draws the axe back. All right, sure, it might be some sort of cunning demon ruse -- but he highly doubts it. They're already razing the damn forest and killing dragons left and right. He doubts that trickery would come into their agenda right now.

At the same time, Caliborn does not seem like a pleasant individual.

"I think there's rather more to be done than just listening," Bariyan says, swinging his axe over his shoulder and moving off, ignoring Caliborn's suggestion about going back up the tree. "Is that really all you plan to do?"

[lexiconning]

Climbing a tree to get some barrings? Sounds like a novel idea! One that Syllona herself has taken to not far from Bariyan's tree, red veil pulled and tied tight over her head. Upper arm strength she may not have in spades, but she's light enough to make halfway and get a pretty decent view.

That is... that is quite a lot of battle going on up there. Maybe climbing up here wasn't doing the best for her nerves, but at least the odds are low of something else seeing her... She looks out around the trees nearby, half expecting to find demons hauling up to send a shot of fire her way. Her head cranes up, squinting at a spot of gold. Armor.

Oh, no. Staying hidden is the safer thing to do, but she has to figure out what's over there, too. What do these things even look like when they're staying still? She crawls a little further on one of the thicker branches, staring up, and grips tight when the creak and rustle in produces comes louder than expected.

[stonefaith]

The creak causes Bariyan to freeze and snap his head towards Syllona. He spots her immediately, even through the thickly weave of branches, and stares intently at her. He doesn't re cognize her, not right away.

For a moment he's not sure of what to do. He hadn't expected to see someone else up here. This is, to say the least, slightly awkward.

For the moment, he holds holds a finger to his lips, points upwards towards the demons, and continues moving. Across, towards Syllona's tree, moving a couple branches down to get closer to her -- and then comes to a spot where the next lowest branch is more than twice his length below him.

So he waves at Syllona from where he is.

"Oy--" Bariyan pauses. Then brightens up. "Syllona of not wolves!"

[lexiconning]

"Uh." She says, staring at him like he'd grown a second head instead of simply moving down to see her. In all honesty, she almost dropped herself down a second after he moved.

Well... well at least it really isn't a demon!

The branch under her protests enough for her to shift to a stand, hugging one arm around the branch above that one for support.

"Its you?" Syllona starts, looking him up and down. Yeah, that's definitely the snow dog man. "How-- What are you doing up here?"

[stonefaith]

Bariyan would have been very pleased to know that his identity has been reduced to 'snow dog man'. He's thinking about those dogs now, and he lets go of a small, wistful sigh. He misses those dogs. Those were some damn good dogs.

He returns to the matter at hand by gesturing wildly above them. The battle above has the decency to flash green fire too, for dramatic effect.

"Looking at that," he says. "And searching out the wounded. I thought I'd get a better look up here, but... the trees are too thick together. What about you?" A thought occurs to him and he leans out further. "Are you hurt?"

[lexiconning]

The light show above draws a flinch and duck of her head. Even seeing it with all the foliage in the way its still frustrating she can't get a clear picture, morbid as that curiosity feels.

"Me? No, n-no. I came up here to hide." she says. Her head cocks, and she decides to take a risk, sidling closer to the thick branch jutting out from Bariyan's tree. "I'm gonna... I'm gonna come over there, okay? Don't say we're--" The branch creaks, again, and she misplaces a foot and gasps a small yip of a sound. A beat passes, with better grip on her support. Breathe. Okay, keep moving. "--We're back on the island?"

[stonefaith]

Upon hearing the gasp, Bariyan scoots out along the branch towards Syllona and leans out towards her -- stretching dangerously far from his own branch, though that doesn't seem to bother him -- extending a hand.

"No," Bariyan says, firmly. "We are most definitely not on the island. This is... a different version of the world I came from."

[lexiconning]

"Where's that?" She murmurs, eying the offered hand for three solid seconds.

She doesn't take it. Her eyes drop to watch her feet more closely, and she grabs the tip of branch she intended, pausing when the realization strikes that jumping is probably her only choice from this angle...

[stonefaith]

Bariyan comes to this same realization, so he remains hanging from his branch, hand still outstretched. He wiggles his fingers encouragingly.

"Azeroth," Bariyan says. "But this is not the Azeroth I came from. More demons, it seems. Less-- er-- lack of demons."

He's not sure how else to end that statement. He hasn't seen any of this Azeroth so far, except for dragons and demons and other people just as confused as him.