To have a grudge held against a pair of adventuring nobles makes it difficult to track them down. By some mysterious magic, the pain in the ass child and her bizarre guardian wolf knight manage to appear at all corners of Charon with barely a moment’s notice. It makes it difficult for someone who might have a personal quest to destroy one or both of them to keep up or at least find an opportunity to catch them off guard.

Luckily, Ceena’s time outside of the Pits was spent being a bounty hunter and information gatherer, and if there’s one commonality, it’s that the annoying kid and her friend have been seen around Dragon’s Cradle together the most. Even still, they’re quite mobile within the region, and while Ceena could try to track them down on what seems to be their home turf, she needs to find a place where they won’t make an easy escape. The opportunity seems to present itself while she’s in Thorock, a place she heard the two of them made less than ideal impressions.

Astrid dislikes Thorock, mostly because it’s run by Baan, who she and Blue have their own personal beef with, mostly because he’s a big jerk. But Thadda decided that sending the two of them here to “make amends” was the right play, so here they are trudging through the city toward the keep where they will deliver a completely disingenuous apology. If they make it there, that is.

---

Quest details:

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Head on a plate
Participants: Two or more
Location: Anywhere
Post Requirements: 9 post per person, 250 words per post
Reward: +50 security to your home region
Description: Your renown and accolades across Charon has earned you quite the reputation, your name now in the mouths of some very important people. This has opened many opportunities for you, but it has also caused the attention of some very dangerous people to land on you. Regardless of why, someone wants you dead and has hired a very skilled assassin to take you out. Your task is simple, don't die, but that's easier said than done as someone has paid a lot of money to dispose of you and has hired a very dangerous assassin. The skill set of the assassin is up to you.

Blue didn't know what an amend was, but apparently they were going to go make some of them with Baan. Blue didn't like Baan. He was a huge jerk last time they met, trying to throw some innocent person in jail and making Blue and Astrid fight a couple of his guards. They just hoped an amend was some kind of food so they could at least eat something. It was a shame they couldn't just eat Baan. Even though he was a big jerk, he was important or whatever.

The city was bustling as they made their way down the street, past shops and street vendors. Blue stopped for more than one food stall, easily enticed by looks and smells of grilled skewers of different meats and vegetables, shredded meat and cheese contained in a folded piece of flatbread, and a paper cone of snow with some sugary syrup drizzled overtop. They were all delicious, but then again, just about anything was delicious to the ooze. Astrid seemed to agree though as she also tried each dish that Blue dragged her toward. Delaying their meeting with Baan wasn't exactly something she'd complain about while letting the ooze snack.

When they turned down a much quieter, deserted alleyway, Blue was carrying a fistful of skewers in each hand. Ceena waited up above, seeing the two finally enter the alleyway where she'd been waiting for them, annoyed at the delay brought on by the wolf knight's seemingly bottomless stomach. A stomach she was far too familiar with. She felt a phantom pain in her new leg, her old one lost within the knight's abdomen the last time she'd fought with them.

She'd get her revenge for that, right after she finished with the brat.

Considering some of Blue’s snacking habits, Astrid figures it’s best to step out of the main street so they can eat anything and everything without having to worry too much about how it looks to other people. With a quick glance down either direction of the alley, Astrid gives Blue the thumbs up.

“Good ta eat yer heart out,” she says with a grin, taking a bite of her own skewer as if nothing is amiss.

Except something is amiss with Ceena directly above them, having diligently followed them from the rooftops once she caught up with them. Luckily, keeping up with them is easy as the two have moved at a snail’s pace the whole way through Thorock, and even better, they conveniently stepped into an alley! It’s a perfect time to try out a new, potent poison, she figures. Pulling a small bottle filled with neon green gas, Ceena drops it down to the alley below. The glass shatters, and a nauseous green cloud of gas fills the alley.

Astrid didn’t expect green gas, and she gasps in surprise only to breathe in the awful gas. It instantly burns at her throat and her eyes. It’s so acidic, that sores start to form in her skin, and an overwhelming rage overcomes her. She feels her muscles flex, and her breathing quickens. In the gas, all she sees is a dangerous armored figure. Manifesting her war hammer, Astrid leaps at Blue Raspberry and attempts to strike him with careless might and a senseless warcry.

---

Plague’s Pandemic [post 1/2] - friends and allies attempt to kill each other for 2 posts, 3rd post = no spellcasting
Ceena - just go nuts with everything in marksman, alchemy, etc. 

The hammer clanged against the metal gauntlets as Blue caught the hammer between their hands. Their fierce glare was hidden inside their helmet as they looked at who, moments ago had been their friend, with nothing but a cold desire to consume.

Blue hadn't been prepared at all when the vial suddenly fell and shattered, releasing its cloud of gas around them. The gas had quickly spread out and enveloped them, seeping through their armor and getting on the slimy membrane of the ooze, seeping in and infecting them with its mind-warping effects. The poison needed to enter though the mouth, eyes, or nose, but those three things were basically what the ooze's entire body consisted of.

With Astrid's hammer held between their hands, a thin layer of sticky goo even gluing the weapon in place to make sure she couldn't pull it back out of their grip, the plates on the sides of their torso opened up to let a second pair of arms grow out, the hands morphed into a pair of sharp claws laced with sizzling acid.

They swiped at Astrid, their attack even faster and stronger than usual as the gas sent their body into overdrive, the slime practically vibrating with energy and their armor feeling a bit tight as they unconsciously bulked up within it. The second pair of arms from their side were noticeably thicker than normal. Their armor creaked as the plates began to separate slightly to make space for the slowly growing form of the rabid slime within.

---

Steel Catch
Extra Arms
Eldritch Claws

Blue’s grip on her hammer is strong, and even if the hammer can’t forcibly be removed from her hand, it’s still quite an effort to try to wrench it free as Blue and Astrid’s strength are both incredibly well matched. When the ooze knight creates an extra pair of arms that slash at her, Astrid releases her hold on the hammer, letting gravity drop the monstrous weapon’s weight to the ground as she leaps back in a blur.

Sliding to a stop a few feet away, Astrid holds her hand aloft, and her hammer disappears from Blue’s grip and manifests in her hand. Lightning crackles along her icy weapon, and she lets out another angry battle cry. Somehow, she becomes even angrier, entering a Berserker’s Rage and rushing forward in an attempt to deliver a powerful blow that could destroy the very armor that Astrid worked so hard to make only a few months ago.

From above, Ceena watches with a smirk on her face, hidden behind her mask. The smoky sky around Thorock does little to obscure her, and the lightning sparking below catches her shroud. Not that she cares. Both of them are focused on destroying each other, at least for a little longer. But just in case, she starts to load her triple shot crossbow with special ammunition. It's better to be safe than sorry with these two.

---

Spellblade - Always there
War hammer - heavy, pale ice
Bullet Dash/Diplopia Armor
Stalwart - Rage before the Storm (1/topic, lasts 3 posts, post 1/3)
Attempts to use Sundering Strike against Blue
Plague’s Pandemic [post 2/2]

Blue looked at their suddenly empty hands, confused only for a moment before looking at Astrid and seeing that she had summoned the hammer into her hands. Of course, they knew she could do that. They know Astrid really well, after fighting alongside her so many times. But if they fought together, why were they fighting each other now?

The thoughts were pushed from Blue's mind by the gas that was still lingering in the alley and affecting both them and Astrid, but it was visibly starting to fade. The thick cloud of green mist was growing thinner as they fought and its hold on them was fading. It would wear off soon, and Ceena was well aware of that. She aimed her crossbow, ready for the moment either of the two looked like they had overcome its effects. Hopefully one of them might seriously injure the other before that happened, but if not, it at least served as a good distraction that might let her get in a shot.

Blue took on a wide stance as if they were preparing to just catch the hammer in their hands again, but before Astrid's hammer struck them, they suddenly vanished from the spot entirely. As she was stuck swinging her hammer, Blue suddenly appeared behind her using the magic of the faulds made from the fur of one of the displacer beasts they'd fought together.

With their upper pair of arms, they aimed to grab her, and with their lower set, they attempted again to slice her with the sharp claws.

---

Blink Faulds- Blink.

Being in an uncontrollable rage, Astrid’s thoughts stay cloudy, and she loses her grasp on logic even as the potion’s effects start to fade. Suddenly, her foe isn’t in front of her, and she assumes that the force of hitting them with her hammer sent them flying. Instead, she’s snagged from behind and wrestles with the sudden grip on her arms. Both sets of claws make contact, pressing through both layers of her armor.

She screams in frustration, sparks of lightning overtaking her form until Astrid becomes completely enveloped in the elemental magic. Any part of Blue that’s gripping her suddenly grips only powerful blue energy that strikes out at them viciously in an attempt to zap them. "LET ME GO!!" she screams, whipping around now that she's intangible and reaching out to try and strike Blue with the inherent lightning magic sparking off her form.

That’s a new trick, Ceena thinks to herself. While she expected the two to have learned a few new things, she hadn’t expected either of them to become literally untouchable. Still, she’s sure the effects of the potion should have worn off by now, so if the girl’s gone into a rage, then she must be acting on instinct to protect herself. Maybe that will work out in Ceena’s favor for now. Regardless, she’ll be ready for anything. She dumps a powerful poison on her ammunition loaded into the crossbow and takes aim.

---

Stalwart - Rage before the Storm (1/topic, lasts 3 posts, post 2/3)
Full elemental manifestation (phase through solids)
-2 hit preventions [Cuirass, padding]

Ceena - frostfire extract on triple shot crossbow

Blue let out a roar that was exactly the same as the one they'd made when they had lost control so long ago, turned into a monster by the strange concoction given to them by one of Veliky's Blixtbots down in the armory of some lost civilization. Blue had no control, returned once again to a raging ooze driven only by one instinct, the one that was always present in every ooze. To consume. They didn't recognize Astrid or anyone else as anything but food as the poison unleashed by Ceena messed with their mind.

Astrid suddenly slipped through the ooze's grasp as she became an intangible being made of pure electricity, but this only made the electric ooze hungrier. Blue made no attempt to get away as Astrid reached out to strike them. They welcomed it. As she made contact, she could feel the electricity making up her form being siphoned away and absorbed by Blue, the lightning settling inside them and making them glow from inside with a flickering blue light.

The ooze grew even larger as they absorbed the electricity, the plates of their armor separating further to accommodate the expanding form. They struck out a clawed hand toward Astrid to speed up the absorption, their movements even faster now, empowered by the electricity within them.

Before they struck Astrid, the claw hesitated and stopped as the effects of Ceena's poison began to dissipate. Ceena noticed immediately, and took that moment to fire her crossbow directly into one of the gaps in the ooze's armor.

Blue let out another gurgling bellow, this time one of pain, and then looked up at where the bolt had come from, their mind once again succumbing to the last remnants of the mind-altering poison within them. They returned to a mindless rage, but this time with a new target.

---

Blue Raspberry's Energy Drinker

Astrid’s hand makes contact with Blue with surprising ease, but she’s in too much of a mindless state to notice it. All she knows is that the energy of her very being is being sucked away from her, and no matter how hard she tries to fight to free herself, Blue’s grip is stronger. When the claw hesitates, she glances at it then at the armored helm of the infuriated ooze knight.

Something isn’t right. She made that armor. That’s Blue. That’s… Blue, right??

Ceena’s triple shot makes contact with Blue between the plates of armor, and one of bolts strikes Astrid’s gauntlet. Her eyes follow Blue’s helm and she spots the culprit up above. Is that… The champion of the Pits?! Fear mixes with the rage her mind succumbed to, but the rage overwhelms it. How dare she? How dare she?!

Wrenching her arms free of Blue, phasing right through their form, lightning returns to consume Astrid. Lightning gathers around her feet, and a trail of electricity from her head starts crackling toward the sky when suddenly a massive bolt fires down and strikes her. Ceena stumbles away from the edge of the building only to find that the bolt was actually Astrid rocketing into the sky and she’s coming down right for her!

Astrid lands on the roof in an explosion of lightning. Arcs of electricity snap at Ceena, and the force of the landing blows her off her feet. Try as she might to get up, the bounty hunter with a vengeance is temporarily paralyzed. Astrid stands and looms over her with her 4’7” height, the rage releasing its grip from her mind, but anger still plastered on her face.

---

Stalwart - Rage before the Storm (1/topic, lasts 3 posts, post 3/3)
Full elemental manifestation (phase through solids)
Gauntlets -1 hit prevention
Astrid’s Valkyrie Strike
Electrical surge charges: 3

Ceena had no time to reload her repeating crossbow with Astrid already standing over her, hammer ready to swing down onto her like an anvil, though she was definitely not as strong as the solid metal that would make up a real anvil. Her dagger wasn't going to do much to block such a strike and she couldn't roll out of the way with lightning coursing through her, paralyzing her as her muscles spasmed uncontrollably. There was only one thing she could do right now.

With the sound of tearing fabric, her right leg suddenly burst free of her pants as it unfurled itself into a mass of writhing tentacles that resembled serpent's tails that shot out and wrapped around Astrid's limbs, holding her in place and leaving the remaining leg, nothing but metallic bones, exposed.

With the leg restraining her assailant, Ceena took a moment to shakily pull a bottle from her bag and down its contents. In almost an instant, she felt the electricity fade away and the paralysis stop, thanks to the lightning resistance potion. She smirked as she started to reload her crossbow, her target helpless right in front of her, but she was interrupted as a giant blue hand suddenly gripped the top of the ledge behind Ceena.

With another gurgled roar, Blue Raspberry climbed up over the side of the building and onto the roof, their slimy hands sticking to the walls. They'd practically abandoned any attempt to still appear human, their mind as much of a goopy mess as their body was right now. Resembling more of a giant salamander than a human being, walking on six limbs, a thick tail swaying dangerously behind them, two tentacles of ooze protruding from their shoulders, and several crates and barrels that had been in the alley below slowly sinking into the large gaps between the metal plates sticking to their form, they charged at Ceena as they ignored the pain from the two poisoned bolts sticking out of one of their arms that was slowly solidifying from the cold caused by the frostfire extract.

Blue moved much faster than might have been expected for their size, lightning sparking from within them. Ceena had hardly any time at all before the ooze was upon both her.

Shit! I knew that thing was some kind of monster! Ceena thought to herself as she made a desperate bid for freedom. She oaded, instead of one of her usual bolts, a special metal dart into her crossbow. Without even trying to take a moment to aim, she fire the dart, completely missing Astrid. But that seemed to be exactly her goal. Just before a giant slimy hand could come down on top of her, she suddenly vanished, taking the serpentine tendrils around Astrid with her.

---

Ceena:
Perennial Prosthetic
Lightning resistance potion
Teleporting Dart

Blue:
Slimy Hands
Extra Arms
Prehensile Tail
Red Rogue's Coat
Energy Drinker

As strong as Astrid’s stance is, Ceena’s attempt to pull her from her feet fails, and the snakes writhe as the electricity making up the half-dwarf lashes out. Still, they hold fast, snatching back at the girl’s greaves and keeping a grasp on her. The uncontrollable rage starts to fade from Astrid’s mind, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t still incredibly angry seeing Ceena here with the nerve to attack her and Blue.

Astrid tries to take a step forward toward Ceena when Blue’s monstrous form comes clambering over the edge. She’s so distracted by Blue’s speed and appearance that she doesn’t have time to dodge Ceena firing the crossbow, but– she wasn’t the target?! As the massive blue hand of goop slams down on the spot Ceena and Astrid were occupying, the two of them find themselves suddenly in a new spot nearly two hundred feet away.

Astrid and Ceena appear where the dart landed, on the side of a taller building and falling to the ground. There’s no time to think, and Astrid opens her wings to catch herself. The weight of Ceena pulling on her leg drags her down, and Astrid shakes her leg to try to get her off but can’t. The strange prosthetic Ceena has doesn’t let the lightning making up Astrid’s form creep across to her body!

Shaken, not stirred, Ceena takes the chance to start loading her crossbow with proper ammunition again. There’s no time to process the whole situation with the monster that the knight became. She needs to take this kid and her guardian out sooner than later.

“What the heck do ya want?!” Astrid demands, whipping her leg toward the building and slamming the bounty hunter into the side. “Why can’t ya leave us alone?!”

Ceena coughs, losing the air in her lungs when she collides with the side of the building. She nearly loses her grip on her crossbow. Even still, her eyes smirk up at Astrid. “You’ve made enemies of the wrong people, kid.”

Anger blinds Astrid again. Something deep in her chest wells up, something she’s never felt before. It’s a deep-seeded rage, but one full of clarity. She looks across the rooftops to the giant goopy monster looking for its prey. Through her teeth, she growls, “I’m gonna feed ya ta Blue.” Then she rockets back toward Blue Lizardberry with Ceena dragging behind her.

---

Immovable Bastion
Full elemental manifestation
Electrical surge charges: 3
Bat Wings [post 1/3]
Bullet Dash

Blue Raspberry looked around, their head darting around in different directions trying to find just where their prey had disappeared to. They spun around, looking in every direction, until they finally saw Astrid rocketing toward them, dragging Ceena behind her by the leg.

Ceena gritted her teeth as she saw where Astrid was taking her, or more accurately, who she was about to be delivered right into the open mouth of.

"Not happening!" She shouted as the serpentine tendrils of her leg released Astrid, letting her fall down into the alleyway as Astrid kept flying toward Blue. With a quick twist of her body as her leg reformed itself beneath her, she landed on her feet and tucked into a roll to diffuse the shock from her fall. With a quick turn, she reloaded her repeating crossbow and aimed three shots at the child in the sky, but her shot was suddenly blocked as it seemed like the whole alleyway was being flooded with a deluge of blue goo.

As Blue saw Ceena fall down, the ooze crawled over to the edge and started to flow over the side, turning more liquid than solid.

Ceena forgot about trying to shoot and just turned and ran, not wanting to be engulfed in the slimy flood headed her way. She wished she hadn't had to use her teleporting dart earlier, but regretting what she'd already done wouldn't help her get away now. She took a vial of some liquid out of her bag, popped the cork, and downed it as fast as she could. Suddenly, she felt as if her heartbeat was twice as fast and her speed doubled as she ran down alleyways, turning a corner and sprinting with the flood of electrically charged ooze not far behind her.

Everything in the alleyways was swallowed up by the flood and when it passed, the ground and walls were spotless wherever the ooze had touched. If nothing else, the people of Thorock could thank Ceena for inadvertently cleaning all the trash and clutter out of the back alleyways as she ran for her life.

---

Blue:
Liquidate
Energy Drinker
Red Rogue's Coat

Ceena:
Quick Speed Potion

The sudden release of weight from Astrid’s leg sends her careening off balance midair. When she recovers, flapping her wings hard, she looks down and sees Blue Oozeberry running down the side of a building after their quarry. Residue left behind by the ooze starts eating into the brick and wood, releasing hot steam as it disintegrates the structure slowly. That’s not good. Shoot! If only Astrid had some way to reverse it!

For now she can do something, so she rushes over and whips up a spell that stops time on the building and the acid that eats into it. Purple magic bursts forth from her hands and strikes the building. The residue stops seeping and everything pauses. That will at least stop it for now.

Looking around, she sees the monstrous ooze sweeping through the streets after Ceena, who is nowhere to be seen. No! If Blue isn’t careful, people are going to think they’re a monster! (And in this situation, who could blame them?) Astrid swoops down above Blue before they break out into the main streets.

“Blue! Blue! Ya gotta stop!” she cries, waving her arms. “Please come back to yer senses!”

With the speed potion, Ceena was able to put some distance between herself and the two terrors, which is enough time to get herself back together. If she recalls correctly, the… whatever the hell that definitely-not-a-knight is didn’t take too kindly to cold, so she douses her weapon in a special icy hot extract and takes aim at Astrid and Blue. Three bolts whiz through the air. One would strike Astrid perfectly in the back were it not for a bolt of lightning that strikes down out of nowhere and knocks the poisoned ammunition aside.

Ceena hopes the other two will strike the monster, but she’s not waiting around to see. From her bag, she produces a sticky paste and sticks it onto a small flask made of thin wood, then she throws it directly at the creature of lightning that is Astrid. Astrid feels the thud against her back, and when she doesn’t see anything fall or immediately happen, she reaches back to grab it, but it’s stuck fast. The lightning making up her form snaps at the flask, breaking through its substance.

It explodes. Astrid is sent careening forward towards the giant goop monster.

---

Suspend Item
Full elemental manifestation
Electrical surge charges: 3
Bat Wings [post 2/3]
Dancing Chain (lightning flavored)

Ceena:
Frostfire extract
sticky paste (hunter) + explosive cask (alchemy)

Whether her words actually reached the rampaging ooze or not was unclear, but thankfully, Blue did stop before flooding into the main streets. The ooze recollected themself, quite literally, back into a four-armed, tailed, 8-feet-tall, semi-humanoid shape just before two bolts flew at them. Having already gotten one dose more than they were happy about of Ceena's poison today, two pseudopods shot out of the ooze and smacked the two bolts to either side, causing them to harmlessly glance off the alley walls behind Blue.

Blue glared at Ceena and started moving forward toward her, but was suddenly sent falling onto their back as something impacted them right in the chest. A glorp and a wet thud echoed down the alleyway. Blue was confused, not knowing what just hit them, but they felt even more energized as an influx of lightning sparked beneath the surface of the ooze.

Meanwhile, inside the unwitting ooze, Astrid was slowly being drained again as Blue siphoned away the electricity making up her form and used it to empower themself. On the bright side, the acidic insides of the ooze didn't start dissolving her as she was made entirely of energy, but she could still feel herself being consumed, albeit much more slowly than anything or anyone she'd seen Blue eat before.

Blue shot forward much faster than Ceena was ready for, one arm stretching into a tentacle of ooze and grabbing onto her waist before she could react. With an overhead swing, Blue pulled her into the air before turning around to slam her down onto the ground in the alleyway and place themself between her and the main street where she'd been trying to escape to.

---

Dancing Chain x2
Energy Drinker
Rubber Whip
Extra Arms
Prehensile Tail

There’s palpable relief on Astrid’s face when Blue’s monstrous form changes back into something more humanoid, though not quite the human persona they put on. It’s a step in the right direction. Maybe they’re coming to their senses! She knows that sometimes liquids and magic affect Blue differently, so that must have been why they were going so ballistic!

Suddenly, she’s thrown forward by the explosion. Seeing the approaching acidic torso of Blue sends a wave of panic through Astrid, knowing fully well how dangerous it is for organic material to make contact with them. This is it, isn’t it? SCHLORP! Astrid gets sucked inside of Blue’s form, and she prepares herself for a searing, painful death.

Instead, she feels the electrical energy making up her form being sapped away. There isn’t any acidic pain yet, but with every passing second, the lightning in her form starts to fade, and acid starts to seep through to her armor and self. It burns incredibly badly. If she could breathe, she’d be hyperventilating. There’s no way to teleport out because she can’t see out, but–

Fear consumes Astrid, and she disappears from her place inside of Blue’s oozey insides, leaving her in a pitch black void and shuddering from the pain of chemical burns along her skin.

Ceena is no worse for wear, having been caught off guard by the creature before her changing forms, eating its friend, then attacking her in a blur. With the impact against the ground, she loses her breath and manages only a cough. Through the lenses in her goggles, she glares up at Blue, but a victorious smirk crosses her face behind her mask. Her body rattles with a chuckle that turns into a muffled chortle. The rattling shifts her hood from her head, revealing a mop of short dusty brown hair and two twisting horns following the curve of her skull.

“How does it feel knowing you ate your friend, monster?” she goads with a raspy voice, eyes wild with victory. Even if she perishes here, she’s at least won a victory.

---

-1 hit prevention (explosion)
-the rest of her hit preventions from Blue’s acid
Wounds taken: probably several
Peel From Reality