whoa!

There are nights when everything is fine, you have a good time with what you are doing, maybe a few rough spots but that's all right, you can deal with that. But when the evening falls into place with an audible 'click' and no matter what you seem to do works like it was pre-ordained, THAT is when the little mind-bugs come out and screw with you, because it is going so perfectly, and usually that is when it all goes to hell. Last night was one of those nights where you hear the 'click'. It was so real I could taste the tension, and the dust thrown up by the conflict.

The background to this conflict was set months ago, when Masonry wa joined with a legendary status peacebringer by the name of Lodestar, who had been on earth since the rise and unitifcation of Eqypt. Masonry had been given the choice of being killed or a chance to redeem himself by being bonded. He chose the latter. Lodestar was a passive rider, only occasionally stepping into the light when Masonry started to lose himself in his rage. But what Lodestar found, and Nathan did eventually, was that Lodestar could not truly control Masonry. As Masonry learned this his violent tendencies started to come back to the fore. He would go to the rogue isles, draw disaffected youth to him and go on a spree of destruction, and occasionally, murder.

Months prior to this, when Lodestar realized that Masonry could mentally lock him away, he made StarWyng, an aerian "Protector", promise to kill Masonry, and by default Lodestar, if he returned to his murderous ways. She reluctantly promised to do so. Masonry's forays to the isles increased in frequency until he came back one evening and was confronted by StarWyng, who smelled the blood on him and bluffed that she could smell the Rogue isles on him. Masonry believed her, and started to try and say why, and StarWyng attacked. The players took the conflict to the arena at this point, and played the fight out.

StarWyng and Masonry were in a literal fight-to-the-death-last-one-standing. Star was a level 41 peacebringer, Masonry a level 50 peacebringer. It could have been a wipeout, but Star had an ace up her sleeve, two actually that equalized the conflict. The first was her Flash/disorientation attack. That could make Mase drop toggles (I think) and leave him vulnerable for a few moments. he second was invisibility, which gave Star the advantage of when and how the fight would start.

The setup was a first to five wins with no time limit, which worked ultimately in Star's favor. The fight was very evenly matched, with the two characters going 4 to 4. The player running Maonry, however was magnificient. The range of emotions and patterns of dialog throughout the fight was Role-Play at it's finest and I feel very lucky to have been part of it. The vision of Masonry screaming "no more, don't kill me" as he was pounding the heck out of StarWyng was wonderful. It was like the player had channeled Clint Walker's character from the movie - "the Dirty Dozen" (I don't like to be PUSHED!) I got chills. Another player signed on and the two of us wanted the drama to continue, so we took it back to the SG base where the third character Hope's Fury, found the two fighting hard.

Hope's Fury took command of the situation, and listened to an accounting of what transpired. We all at this point thought that debris ( rubble and dirt pieces ) would make a good look to the base to show the damage. (It looked wonderful to me and I'll try to get pictures up) Both charcters were beaten, bruised and bloody from the fight. Hope's Fury heard the main story from Masonry while Star hovered in the hopes of finishing the fight permanently. Star got called away as things were quieting down and after Hope's Fury extracted a promise that Star would wait on pursuing the fight until after Masonry had been heard out by the others in the super-group.

Star was called back after the others came to the base and was informed that there would be NO repeat of the fight for ANY reason. (( I have to apologize here to the base architect, we put a lot of stuff in the base, and although we did not move anything or delete/change any placements, it was still screwing with the base without permission or prior statement of intent. Sorry about that Kit )) Star and Msonry were placed in charge of cleanup, and that is where it all rests, for now.

The RP of the others discovering the damage was a lot of fun to hear about. I didn't get a chance to see it except at the end where StarWyng made her appearance, but the little I got to participate in was a lot of fun! Notion, Kit, Soldier Futura, newcomer Margatti, and Keen Frost all helped to make it very memorable and fun! Thanks guys! I hope you all had fun with things like I did