Summary:A disturbance. Some creatures of yore. And Asgardians. Fun! Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
   |
There's a sense of upheaval in the air - smatterings of that wash over New York hitting anyone with the senses to feel it. Magical in nature, the problem - for it has to be a problem - is coming from Westchester, Storm King Park to be exact.
A huge wolf with a curly, ruffled coat, is standing its ground against a half man, half scorpion - snapping and snarling and trying to avoid the snap of its tail. Both creatures are huge and the wolf, at least, might be familiar to some who arrive.
There's crashing and shaking of the huge redwoods a little further in as the battle cry of a Valkyrie echoes through them and a demonic looking creature with a pot belly hits one of the trees. Astryd stalks forward with her sword and shield drawn.
It's not every day when you run into myths, especially those from nearly forgotten civilizations save for those who collect such history to study. But monsters…monsters tend to draw attention. And for someone who has contacts that point out such monsters when they appear to suitable hunters, such as Brunnhilde, it doesn't take long for her to arrive, her motorcycle roaring into view as she skids to a halt a bit away from the fight to slide off. Not wearing a helmet either, but the, she's not exactly dressed for the cold weather either, wearing just a pair of ripped black jeans, a concert shirt for Within Temptation and a biker-style jacket in black sans any identifying patches at teh moment.
Having arrived, she takes a moment to just take in the scene, before the familiar battle cry draws her attention, reaching behind her back to draw Dragonfang as the blade gleams in the available light. "Ho, Astryd! You seem to have found a fight!" She grins toothly.
Well…it depends on the day, really. For Loki? He /is/ a myth! However, the weird emanations in the park do ping on his mystical senses, and so he dons his armor, belts on his flaming sword (then hides it) and world walks to the park.
"Well well well." He murmurs to himself, eyes of green narrowing as he studies two creatures from another mythos, things he's not encountered before but has read a tiny bit of in his many years of exile upon the earth.
"Ho there, greetings to the mighty Valkyrior." He greets Astryd whom he knows, and Brunnhilde whom he does not. "Loki Laufeyson offers his aid, should it be wanted or needed." A smirking grin. "Or even if not."
Mighthy Levitaenin is drawn, the mystic steel igniting as he wills it to.
"More like it found me, Sister." Astryds grey eyes shine as she slashes at the demon. "We need to push these back to where they came from - banish them. We won't kill them, not as Midgardians think of it anyway."
Cuan, the giant wolf, seems to roll his eyes. "She is always finding fights these days." That has been a concern of the wolf and the God Wolf.
The Aqrabuamelu, scorpion man, turns his attention to Brunnhilde. "Ah, another one to add to our collection. Come here girl." The barbed tail spikes out trying to hit her as he pounces. At the same time, the Huwawa lets out a cry and barrels towards Loki.
"Loki. Someone called these - find the source of their summoning." He can certainly see something a little further into the forest - not far past Astryd - that glows with a magical bent.
Brunnhilde chuckles at Astryd, then glances over to Loki as he arrives, frowning as her expression turns decidedly suspicious…enough that the tail taking advantage of her distraction comes closer than she'd prefer as she throws herself to the side, the point shattering the ground where she's standing. "I am no one's collected toy…." the dusky ex-Valkyrie notes, rolling to a crouch then lunging as she brings her sword up and over as she swings at the tail as it withdraws. "RRRAAAAAH!"
A bright laugh, joyous really, as Loki grows in height to match that of the Huwawa as he charges. "Come foolish one, face the God of Fire!" Of course, he's not actually there of course, the real Loki is leaning against a tree, cloaked, as the chimeric man-goat hybrid charges the illusory Loki.
He draws a pair of daggers, and sees how long he can fool the brute into thinking he's fighting the real thing.
Eyes gleam as he prepares to throw one of the daggers, hard, at its tail.
Loki can throw hard and this particular dagger is cold iron, the other he holds is silver, he'll try that next if need be.
"Don't be so sure of that." The scorpion man growls at Brunnhilde. The sword connects with the tail - it doesn't severe it but ichor sprays everywhere anyway. It's acidic - the ground where the liquid hits sizzles. 'Hilde will need to watch out for that.
"Is that the best you have, little toy?" He taunts her, coming round to charge and sting her again. He's covered in chitinous scales - but that can't be everywhere. 'Hilde just has to find where to hit him.
"Loki! Find the summoning and disable it." Astryd calls as she charges. Loki's steel dagger literally bounces off the hide of the Huwawa. The silver might have more of an effect.
Just beyond Astryd, a little further into the forest, Loki can see Loki a small cairn within a marked circle around it. He'll have to work out how to break the enchantment without blowing the forest up.
The tall ex-valkyr lets otu a growl of pain as some of the acid splatters, eating holes through her t-shirt and jeans as she brings her blade up this time at an angle to deflect the incoming blow as she backs up, her eyes flicking past the tail to the body beyond. Joints…underbelly?
At least Loki is being useful, she notes, as the giant version of him goes charging past…that's distract. She backs up again, but this time when the tail slams down she charges past it, trying to dodge UNDer the massive creature where she can slash at the joint of a front leg where it meets the main body. "People are summoning such beasts into MIdgard again?"
A faint frown at the cold iron having no effect, and then Loki shrugs, and hurls the silver before loping off towards the cairn that Astryd pointed out. "Of course, Lady Astryd, I am pleased to be of service." Of course the massive Lokillusion continues to spar with joyous abandon with the Huwawa. He fights with very good form, too! Loki is actually one of the finest swordsmen in the Nine Realms.
He moves closer to the Cairn, senses peeled, magical senses extended to study the thing, he circles so he can keep concentrating on the illusion and hopefully keep the other brute engaged for the moment.
"Someone is, yes." Astryd growls as she and Loki-illusion split the Huwawa's attention.
Cuan times a run as 'Hilde charges, his gigantic shoulder hitting the scorpion chest, lifting the creature just enough for 'Hildes sword to slice into the softer flesh there. The sword cuts deep but is caught as the Scorpion man flails. He's strong, and tall, she might be flung around like a rag doll.
The cairn, seems to be a pile of stones but when Loki looks closer he can see they are all inscribed with various runes - Akkadian and Sumerian mostly. The circle is marked at the cardinal points with larger runes - inscribed in the earth quite deeply. The lord of mischief can feel the power that circle contains - breaking it might be an option but … a bad one.
Brunhilde grunts as one of the flailing legs smacks into her, sending her flying to land with a grunt onto her back, skidding across the grass, before she kips up, bringing Dragonfang up again as she throws herself straight back into the fray with wild abandon, her teeth bared now as she continues the attack on the scorpion man…as he seems more interested in trying to kill and/or collect her. This time, she tries to get in close as he's off balance and ram the tip of her sword into his underbelly before yanking it free as she charges past him onm the other side, trying to avoid his retaliation. "Do something /USEFUL/!!!" she shouts to Loki.
"Well, I /could/ just detonate the magical circle I'm next to, Valkyr…but I'm not sure you want ME to be a Chooser, because I lake the skills and I'm pretty sure that the choice would be 'all of us'." Why yes, there's a bit of snark to the normal sized Loki's words. Studying the runes, he actually crouches down and examines the cardinal points…"Must be tapping into a ley line, or perhaps a burial site deep underground." A shrug. "So…I need to see if I cannot siphon the power out safely, and break the bindings allowing these creatures to be here in the first place, and remain here in the second."
Another dagger is produced, how many does the guy carry?! Not willing to sacrifice anyone else present, he instead cuts his own hand, and then uses it start inscribing a circle around the cairn, the intent to setup a suppressive warding, this is painstaking work, it must be done exactly right, and he's drawing it in his own blood…so…it won't be quick.
Cuan is clearly used to working with a Warrior, he charges the scorpion-man and bites at his flank, keeping the creatures attention split between 'Hilde and himself. When Hilde starts her run, Cuan backs up growling a lot.
Dragonfang digs deep, this time puncturing and not biting. Hilde gets clear just as Cuan barges again. The Scorpion man, dripping ichor, rears as he turns to attack wolf. Exposing his belly to the Valkyrie again.
"Hurry up, Loki." Astryd grunts as she's tossed by the Huwawa. The akkadian demon starting to stalk her again. She rolls to her feet, does she look a little more pale than usual?, and bashes out with her shield, as another of Loki's daggers embed in the things skull - it looks shocked but it's not slowed down much.
"Sister, luring mine to yours. Lets see how they collide." They might be able to knock these two creatures down enough as Loki gets that circle working.
As Loki's wards go down he can feel them activate. A little more and the result will contain the summoning circle.
"EX-Valkyr!" Brunhilde snaps! Yes, it's sort of picky of her, but if /anyone/ should be aware of her exile status, or telling the Allfather to "stuff it" (in the polite PG version of what an angry Valkyr can say when riled), it should be one of his sons, and if they're NOT, that…just really pisses her off even more, honestly. "I'm not convinced blowing yourself up is not an improvement, either!"
Yes, she's a bit snappish.
She glances over to Astryd quickly. "Aye, bring your party here that we may celebrate as one!" she notes, lunging forward as she raises her sword in a powerful overhand stroke, leaping forward to try and sheer through the vulnerable underbelly….which likely coats her in more than a little gore, but she's used to that.
It's why she's constantly buying new band shirts. Or going to concerts. Totally why she goes frequently.
Loki has to admit, ONE Valkyr - is impressive, TWO? That's an absurd amount of awesome on display at the moment, okay, focus - job at hand, ogle the pretty girls later, especially since one is bound to one of your sons.
He does have to take a brief admiring look at the proud warrior maids practicing their art of choice.
The snark? Spice!
"Working as fast as I can, Ladies. Lest you wish me to rush and make a mistake that kills us all." A smirk as he continues painting the ground with his blood. "Really, you're doing fine, you've got this." He encourages in a pious tone.
Only once the wards are fully formed does he pause, a bit winded. "By Fafnir's left nut, this is not NOT easy." He murmurs in Jotun, not Allspeak, but the /actual/ Jotun tongue as he calls on the power arcane to infuse his suppression ward with magic — magic designed to seal the cairn and runestones off from their own power.
If all goes well - no splody, and no monsters.
Astryd gives Hilde a feral smile. "Still a Valkyr, Sister. Just not one of the all-jerks." They both still have the powers of Chooser among other things. "Cuan …"
Cuan lets out a long suffering sigh "Yes Astryd. Don't make me have to tell Fenris you were wounded by being foolish…"
"I won't!" Of course she won't.
With a battle call, the stern pale blonde takes a running jump - causing the Huwawa to follow her - leaping onto the Scorpion's back as Hilde draws her sword down its stomach. Cuan grabs the tail and pulls downward, not letting the spike snap over to hit. Astryd pulls the mans head backward, making him arch over - which trips the Huwawa and sends sprawling towards to Brunnhilde. "Now this is what I call a party."
Loki can feel as his ward takes - the power its containing is immense. It's not easy and for a moment it feels like the ward will disintegrate but then it holds …. and the creatures … once Hilde has finished pounding on the Huwawa, howl and fade.
Leaving two pissed off Valkyries, a God of Mischief and a flying wolf, standing in the forest of redwoods with Cairn now surrounded by a ward.
"You should get rid of that, Prince Loki …" Astryd certainly is pale and covered in ichor. Not as much as Hilde is, so there's that.
Brunnhilde takes a breath as Astryd leads the charge into the collision of mythical madness, with Cuan leaping at at the tail, and is in motion, like a dance only the pair can hear as she shifts to match Astryd's movements, lunging in on Huwawa as her gleaming blade sings out in a wide arc, cleaving through the achilles tendons on the back of the beast's legs to send it crashing to the ground, before she runs up its side, then lunges out as the beast snaps at her, meeting it with the point of her blade in its nose to cause a defeaning yelp and snarl of pain.
And then…it fades away, dropping Hilde into a crouch as she uses her sword to brace, the tip crunching into the ground, before she rises, breathing in and out a bit mor equickly as she looks to Astryd to make sure she's alright. Blood dripping from her hair and pattering lightly on the grass as she flicks her sword to clean it, before lifting it behind her back where it vanishes again. "Hmmph. I suppose you should." she echoes, looking vaguely disgruntled by not being able to finish off her opponent. "Just enough to get my breath to catch, not enough to bring a conclusion…typical." she grumbles.
Loki actually looks as winded, or more than the two women, he's literally slick with sweat and panting as he leans his horned helmed brow against the shimmering crimson wards he crafted. "Oh, I intend to." A rather evil grin then to Astryd. "I could send it to the all-dick's favorite hunting lodge? No? Very well, I'll just depower it." Now that it is contained, it SHOULD be relatively safe to take it apart, he'll carefully spend a good hour or so removing the runes with obsessive care, meticulous precision, and his full focus.
"Fightus interrupts?" He queries off handedly over a shoulder as he works. Only once the thing is depowered, assuming he even /can/ depower it, does Loki collapse his own wards.
Astryd drops to the ground as the Scorpion Man disappears. She rolls to her feet as Cuan tumbles as well. "That was exhilarating, if a bit annoying." She looks to Hilde with a smirk. "You need better partners…"
"What I'd really like to know is why it is here. I felt it, when it activated. Why call creatures like this, out here? It makes no sense." Loki might be able to collect the rune stones and do some divining to find out who or what did this.
It's possible that someone just found an old book and decided to try and dabble. Or it's possible it was something us.
"I feel like a mead, would you join me?" That's to do the two of them. "I think we still have steaks from when Fenris and I went hunting." Not on Midgard.
Brunnhilde's lips twitch. Just a bit. At the comment on the all-dick. "Something like that." she says in response to Loki, frowning as she glances over at Astryd, considering her words. "If it was terror, a highly populated area would be best, yes. Middle of a park, perhaps they wanted them to 'collect' without being caught?" she wonders, echoing the scorpion man's comment earlier. She rummages in a pocket carefully, pulling out a heavy cellphone case (that may or may not be enchanted as quickly as she goes throught hem otherwise) and pops it open, sending a brief text. "Perhaps I can summon someone who might know more though, if this has happened elsewhere of late."