The Darkest Corners: A Modern Fantasy RP (Interest Thread - Closed)

[hiei82]

Imperious threw a number of magical attacks at her, to which she responded with dismissals. She allowed the first of the two new blasts to graze her; if only to make a point. "You know Imperious; I cannot "feel" your attacks, nor do they harm me. All you're doing is hurting the doppelganger who, I might add, is begging for you to stop." she said, taking a bored expression. "I'd hoped you'd become more civilized since our last encounter, but I see you still like to resort to your silly old magic tricks before we can even begin to have a real conversation." she finished, shaking her head. "What's worse, I don't think you've learned any new spells since I last saw you; your still doing only those dusty old Latin ones. It's a new millennium darling, you should catch up on the times."

Having grown bored of the throne of metal wires, she stood up and began to float on her own power; much like Imperious. She muttered a spattering of modern Welsh and from the aether a small metal box came into existence. To Imperious, the device was alien, but to most born in this century, it was an obvious musical device. It began to play a simple melody; a light classical piece that Imperious couldn't recognize.


"Much better" she said as the music began. She swayed to the music for a moment, enjoying the simple sensory pleasure. Eventually, she adjusted the song so that it would play quietly in the background, not disturbing her message. "I'm here for one thing Lucius; stay out of Europe. You keep hiding in your little hole in America and I frankly don't care what you do; you're not my concern. You set foot in the old world though, and I'll see to it mother nature finally catches up to you." she said, the warning in her voice perfectly obvious. She smiled as she made the deal available; firm in her own sense of superiority.

 

[drmigit2]

Zaheer

Zaheer watched with interest as the Lich girl had taken presence in the doppelganger's body. No answer yet as to why the vampire was targeted, though Zaheer figured that it was probably just money issues. That, or an attempt to lure Lucius in one of the most convoluted ways possible. All the Arch-Magus knew was that he had seen enough. This creature was going to be removed.

There was a very old ritual Zaheer had discovered on his way to America. It came from Japan of all places and while he had never gotten a chance to use it, he figured it would be fun to test out on a Lich. The requirement was normally a human sacrifice, but that was always just a way to circumvent the power necessary commit a summoning on this level for those who lacked magical talent. Needless to say, Zaheer hardly required blood to make this work, he could simply will the little guys out of their holes.


Zaheer began rapidly chanting his spell, eyes and arms cast towards where he wanted them to come. Five portals surrounded the Doppleganger's body, even as he moved the portals simply followed. They began glowing brightly, the heat radiating off their maw spoke of what was soon to come.

"Intekantera."

Ritual finished, the maws ripped open and dozens of little flame imps came rushing out at the Doppleganger, they were humanoid in shape, no more than three feet tall and burning a dark maroon color. Zaheer wasn't sure what they would do, but he figured it would at the very least be amusing.

Fromanzio

The thrill of riding a dragon at supersonic speeds was marvelous. If his clothes were actually made of cloth, they would probably be swinging in the wind but they are not. Instead, Fromanzio was simply hollered and hooted cries of joy, oblivious to the Lich rapidly approaching. Eventually Lucia came to a rapid halt, sending Fromanzio flying out in the air, though rapidly stopping himself.

"Hey watch it! Fromanzio could have been sent really far if he wasn't so great in the air!"

Zaheer hadn't told him to do anything yet, and taking Lucia to the Lich was already stepping over most boundaries so Fromanzio figured he would sit this one out, let others have the fun. Though, he did not think that the kind of fun his master had involved so many others. He instantly knew the incantation from miles away and got giddy from it. He began floating around and chanting "Master's gonna get ya! Master's gonna get ya! Fromanzio wonders what barbecue doppleganger tastes like. He supposes he can find out soon! Ehehhehehehehehe"

 

[Lunar Templar]

Lucia got johns message, but hesitated, in all honesty this wasn't her fight, and even from the plane any one watching her would have seen her sigh before breaking off to rejoin the fight in progress.

her short trip back was greeted by classical music, which she traced to the box, which she assumed the female Litch was using to prove a point. She was also greeted by portals opening up around the female Litch, small Imps emerging. In what can only be called an act of purest arrogance, if only to make her own point, Lucia obliterated the box in a hail of Spell Rays, some of which struck the Imps coming out of the portals, she replaced the box with a sphere, which she used encased her iPod in to play something more befitting her entrance.


Lucia dove in behind the female Litch, viewing her as a higher priority target then Lucius "Your taste in music needs adjusting, course, give your OTHER, poor life choice I find it understandable" Lucia taunted with a smirk, wasting no time attempting to imprison the female Litch in a magic sphere, she would ether claim the female Litch, or the Doppelganger, one was as good as the other to her. "Besides, your stupid quarrel is RUINING MY VACATION!" she snapped, dropping her previously 'playful' tone for a more openly hostile one, after all this wasn't her fight.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

John was shocked as about a dozen more demons were summoned to the battle. John thought they might be summons from the Lich, except all their portals were facing directly away from the plane, suggesting something on the plane summoned them.

Richard looked like he already teleported away, which left the possibility to Zaheer. "Is he insane?" John thought. Controlling large number of demons required an increasingly large amount of power per demon to make sure they don't simply go Rouge. Control John didn't think the mage had.

Knowing his options were limited for dealing with those creatures from the plane (even shooting Zaheer, which should be easy given how distracted he currently is wouldn't send those demons back and just allow to ravage the plane), so John continued to look through his spells that could help deal with the Lich without damaging the plane. John found one.

The one general medical spell John can cast is "healing light." While normally a good percentage of the power would go into creating the light itself, and the light would be to weak to do much good after a few feet. However, focusing magic through his gun's target laser increases the power and range substantially. The undead do not like being hit with healing magic.

At this range and through the airplane window, John didn't expect to do much make the enemy Lich have a really bad itch, but it would be very distracting in battle. John pointed his laser at the lower Lich.

 

[Kasten]

Richard ran to the back of the plane.

Blinking, is a very minor scale version of instant translocation-teleportation.

Usually, inertia is not maintained from start and stop of the blink, and it's very short range. However, if Richard decided to skip the part that canceled inertia or momentum in the spell, the range would be heightened considerably, and by the time he got to the other end of the blink, he'd be going ludicrously fast already. It was a handy trick for those who wanted to accelerate quickly.

'I've seen you fly love, and you were magnificent, now it's time to return the favor.

Activating the spell he newly calculated in his head, he phased out and appeared roughly a mile behind the plane, instantly breaking the sound barrier as he flew behind it towards the battle. Clouds twisted behind him as he created a vacuum tunnel behind him. A large column of fire emerged from the compressed air in front of him exploded from the pressure, creating a meteor of fire and twisted clouds going towards the two liches. Richard again closed his eyes to scry where precisely the liches were, and begun to mutter incantations for a gravity-based Evocation that would knock them out of the sky with a sudden fit of... 'turbulence' in the gravitational fields around them. Not very lethal, but very painful. He made sure to fly to the optimal angle to hit the liches that didn't involve blasting the allied dragon before stopping suddenly, and letting loose a ray of what would look like space was being bent over a table and butchered for a second, before a large thunder clap rang out of the air within the ray newly going back to normal laws of physics, and colliding with the air that wasn't yet sucked in.

He may or may not have also hit Fromanzio.

He really didn't check.

 

[c_westerman13]

...and I'll see to it mother nature finally catches up to you."

Lucius hadn't really been listening to most of what the fake Lich had said, distracted by the combination of a Jester and the Dragon's return. However, at the end of her little speech, he snapped back, hearing the rising threat. Yeah, like she would ever find his Phylactery.

"Arzhela, sweetie, you know I left a lot of my stuff at your place", Lucius cocked his head sarcastically, "Did you think i'd never be back for it?" Lucius smirked at the vague innuendo, and muttered "Proliopilia Caldus", causing spheres of super-heated water to rush at her - not that he expected much to happen. At about this point, a volley of rays appeared and shut off the fucking racket from the music box. Finally. Unfortunately It was soon replaced by something even more annoying. oh well.

"Besides, your stupid quarrel is RUINING MY VACATION!"

Ah. The dragon was back, thankfully she seemed to be helping, as she tried encasing the fake Lich in a prism. A prism which was rapidly surrounded by... fuck. Portals. portals which were rapidly spewing out what he assumed to be Zaheer's summons, flying at his adversary. This could get interesting. Lucius decided he'd help Arzhela dispose of the imps, as he figured he could be their next target. "Diablo Dominari", he muttered, gaining 10 seconds in control of one of the imps. He sent the imp flying into one of its friends, before dominating another one, slowly causing a many-imp pile-up over the atlantic. Ah, the fun of new things.

As if this wasn't bad enough, there was now a large fireball approaching from the plane. what?

 

[hiei82]

Arzhela looked on at the magical assault, her eyebrow elevated slightly. She had to admit, she'd never been attacked by a combination of Lich, Dragon and two ascended before. She found herself trapped in an energy sphere, that was filling with demons, bathing in hot water with a ball of magical flames en route. Raising her hand, she quickly muttered a small number of magic words before the Imps overtook her. A moment later, the ball of magic energy slammed into the area, crushing the dragons shield and vaporizing the Imps.

When the smoke cleared, nothing remained of the Imps or the Lich or the Doppelganger to bee seen, save a small magical circle floating in the air; it looked much like the circle the Lich had branded on the doppelganger, though any with magical knowledge could see their were anything but the same spell.

From the circle came a voice, the voice of the Lich woman saying "I can see you won't be heeding my warning then Lucius. It's a shame; I had hoped we could settle our little dispute in a civilized manner. Very well Lucius; if it's a fight you want, then I await your arrival." it said, before displaying a small map, with Cardiff marked upon it. "I look forward to your visit." it finished; its tone mocking.

"Well, assuming you make it of course." it added as an addendum as the circle exploded in a burst of magical energy in all directions, strong enough to vaporize more then a few monsters.

Spoiler: OOC

The plane is in range of the Lich's explosion.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

John saw the ever growing sphere of explosive energy radiating out from the female Lich.

"@#$^!" John yelled, "BRACE YOURSELVES!" He saw the other passengers going into a brace position.

John had a shielding spell that would of saved him from it, but he wasn't powerful enough to cover the entire plane with it.

"The only place I am going to get enough power is..." John said to himself, "...the plane."

Completely desperate, John punched his hand into a light, grabbed the side of the plane with his other hand. John felt the electricity flowing into him, John converting it into raw magical power.

"MAGICAE SCUTUM!" John blurted at the top of his lungs, forcing as much magic and willpower into the spell as possible, incasing the entire plane into a bubble.

The magical blast shook the plane, the lights flickered and died, and more people screamed, but for the moment, they survived.

For the moment. However, John had blown out most of the circuitry on the plane, and all power was lost. The plane dipped forward, with it's destination changed to the Alanatic.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Lucia darted out of the blast radius, and just frowned at the bright light below her "What a waste of time this turned out to be ..." she grumbled to her self before looking for the plane, intent on returning to her seat, only to find it going down, all be it in one piece still "OH FOR FUCK SAKE!!" she shouted, and dove after the plane.

After catching the plane she wrapped her legs around, digging her claws, front and back into the belly of the liner and using her own propulsion to slow the liners decent, down to the water, given that it was way to heavy for her to keep a loft on her own.

"HEY, LITTLE HELP HERE?! THIS THING IS HEAVY!!" she shouted to one of the several ascended mages they seemed to have on hand

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

John was grabbing his arm in agony. Burnt from all the electricty that ran through it, plus several pieces of hard plastic jammed into his arm, bleeding immensely, John was surprised still could feel it. He didn't doubt he would be able to be healed, but that was a secondary concern as the plane kept tipping downwards.

John tried to move forward down the middle lane to see if he could help the pilot keep her air born (although John wasn't sure how) when another hit made John lurch forward onto his face. Through the window he saw Lucia's scaly leg, trying to save the plane from crashing into the ocean. John saw another problem, her holding of the plane was bending in the sides, and John wasn't sure if the plane would rip itself apart in her hands.

John was physically and magically exhausted from the shielding spell, but he cast a few stuctural integrity spells on the walls to keep the plane in one piece, although John was sure it was far from enough.

"CAN THIS MISSION GET ANY @#%&ING WORSE?" John said, before immediately regretting it, "WHY DIDN'T I JUST BECOME A DENTIST!?!"

 

[Kasten]

Richard shielded himself from the explosion a split second before it hit him, knocking him back at high speeds.

Luckily, this meant he was arcing straight for the crashing plane.

Suddenly, his mind processed that. Crashing. Terra. Crashing.

Those near the plane suddenly saw a glowing figure breaking the sound barrier to get to them, quickly reaching a high speed, he repeated his modified blink from earlier and managed to skid the air enough to slow back. Matching the plane's speed, he closed his eyes and started looking at the circuitry of the plane. Whilst alone, it would be difficult to power the plane the full trip, Richard could PROBABLY power the plane temporarily and lift it a bit, just enough to give those inside more time, or at least, get to some sort of landmass if the dragon caught on and helped him out.

Love. I'd just like you to know. I'm about to do something really stupid. Please don't yell at me until we're safer, if this goes wrong it will be rather painful, and most likely unhealthy.

Richard started incanting modified phrases from his gravity evocation earlier. After about a minute, the airplane 'fell' into Richard's hands, after which Richard lowered the power of the impromptu flight charm to give it a roughly even lift. After that, he prepared for the next step.

It's not just the power that would be the difficult part of this, it'll be focusing through the pain of channeling that much power in such a weird way, which considering Richard's being was largely power now, constituted bending himself in reality, then not actually letting it happen.

Then transferring the power output into electrical power and feeding the extra back into himself to AGAIN transform THAT into magical energy for a tertiary effort of using a low level Animate Object spell to give Richard control of the wings, allowing him to adjust for the new gravitational patterns and such.

Normally, Richard would be able to save an airplane without such difficulty. But normally, he wouldn't have to consider another Ascended romping around on foot inside, with little to no idea what he's doing. Or a lich that doesn't seem to understand anything but the two letter word 'me' to consider interference from. Or that the plane's electrical circuits were blasted, which meant he had to defeat engineering designed to save the plane from lightning strikes, just to save the damn thing.

Blocking the area of his mind relevant to pain from Terra, he took a deep breath, and started his plan. Managing to get the plain level, perhaps even slowly going up, Richard let out sounds of pain in six different subspace universes.

 

[c_westerman13]

"...Well, assuming you make it of course."

Well fuck. Lucius shook himself down - being at the epicentre of a magical explosion was never pleasant, but at least his state of undeath meant he could survive it - though it did leave him feeling like he had the world's worst hangover. Looking around, Lucius noticed, with concern, the failing plane, now well out of reach, being supported by the Dragon. How to get back...? he wondered.

Letting out a sigh, he muttered "Alia Spatium", half transferring his being to another subspace - Little more than a speed boost in effect, though the effort would likely have killed a few mortals sustaining it for long. He moved about 3 times his normal flight speed towards the plane (he guessed about... 300mph), feeling his being starting to peel away in the other universe. Ow. Ow. As he neared the plane, he muttered "Inrita", cancelling his previous spell, surveying the damage the burst had caused. The other universe had started to flay his left arm, though thankfully this meant little to a Lich.

"Loconovum", Lucius muttered, re-appearing within the Plane, before collapsing, and pondering Arzhela's words.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

John was thrown around the plane again. He had no idea what, but the plane currently had a more level flight than it had before.

Before John could figure out what was keeping the plane up, the Lich teleported onto and collapsed. Seeing an oppertunity that would not come again, John hoisted the undead corpse (being careful to grab Lucius by it's clothing), and place it back into it's seat. John grabbed some cold iron nails from his jacket (it was all he had), took off his shoe, and nailed the Lich's hands to the arm rest. The nails and the cheap plastic alone would not hold down a Lich, so John then took some thin rope and stared to tie the creature to the chair (which was difficult with only one operating hand).

On the ceiling, John wrote several anti-teleportation wards to keep the Lich from escaping that way, although just didn't have enough power left to cast any anti-magic wards.

John looked around, weakly, to the other passengers, bad hand still dripping blood onto the carpet (although nobody would complain that it was a bad thing).

"Can anyone else help me restrain the subject?" John said.

 

[c_westerman13]

"Can anyone else help me restrain the subject?"

Lucius came around for a short while, just long enough to hear the Agent's words. Subject? Was that what he was now? Lucius noticed the wards, and realised he wasn't going to be able to teleport. Too bad. What was holding him down?

Nails - Cold Iron by the look of it. Well at least that explained the searing pain in his hands. Not too much of a problem, though. Lucius ripped his right hand from the nails on the armrest, and pointed at the Agent. "Manumagus", he muttered, causing a spectral hand to tap his captor on the shoulder.

"Look frumentarius, I really don't have time for this right now", Lucius ripped his left hand free as well, "You gonna free me, or is this going to cause problems?"

 

[hiei82]

Love. I'd just like you to know. I'm about to do something really stupid. Please don't yell at me until we're safer, if this goes wrong it will be rather painful, and most likely unhealthy. Terra heard through the mental bond from Richard. She had a moment to think "What are you..." before she realized what he was doing; trying to animate and fly the plane. There was one thing they could definitely agree on; it was stupid. Silently to herself, she thought "For being an all powerful knowledgeable mage, he sure does stupid things all the time."

Realizing what he was up to, and more importantly how painful it would be, she noted the distant lack of pain coming through the link. It wasn't hard to figure out what the idiot was doing; he was blocking that part of the link. Now that wouldn't do. Surreptitiously reaching out with her own mind, she reopened the link in a way he wouldn't notice - at least no immediately - to channel some of the pain toward her own mind. While she couldn't help lift the plane; lacking the magic for superhuman strength and size, she could at least make it easier for those doing the work.

She sat back in her chair and tried to will her way through as much of the pain as she could. Despite the pain, and feeling somewhat amused by Richard's distinct lack of brain power, she muttered to herself "boys" under her breath; breath that took the form of a sigh.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

Seras was sleeping peacefully, wrapped up in-between Theon and the blanket that covered them, unaware of what was going on around her; some would say she is a heavy sleeper, and some of the time she would have to agree with you. Suddenly, a loud explosion could be felt, that caused Seras to be dislodged from her seats, and fell spread out onto the floor, rendering her temporarily unconscious.

When she came too, Seras could feel something building up deep within her, for some reason it felt familiar, she recalled such a sensation back on the day of her seal removal, when the voices told her that "She had awakened." Maybe it was this "She." that was Seras was feeling. Whilst it was familiar, it also felt different. Whereas before, it felt peaceful, instead it was angry; and Seras could probably guess at what.

Today was supposed to be a relatively stress free day, with it being the start of the around the world journey that she was going on with Theon and their friends. The argument between Edward Crim and her father Dominic could be forgiven for the most part; but after that things went downhill. Eventually, the feeling turned into a voice that spoke to her, it sounded feminine, with a mixture of both the gentile and anger.

Seras, listen to me my dear. You and I both know that we are angry at what was going on. I can help you bind that Lich more effectively than those nails that the pathetic agent is using; for you see, I have spells which can be rather effective against the undead. All I ask is that I briefly take control in order to use them. Do not worry, I have no intention of taking over your life, even I can see the bond that you and the Shapeshifter called Theon share, reminds me of when I was in love.

Seras thought this over for a few moments, then got up and went over to Theon who had also fallen out of his seat.

'Forgive me my love, I'm just about to do something, that may be seen as a bit stupid.' Seras whispered in Theon's ear, before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Alright, do it. Seras could suddenly feel a pulse of energy flow through her, and could see that she had taken on a red glow. On the outside, one would see that her red eyes had taken on a slightly darker shade, and her hair had a white parting down one side. Seras then raised her hands towards the Lich.


"Servitute Lux" Seras spoke quietly, as ethereal chains of light began to encircle themselves around the Lucius, which would make movement difficult, if not slightly painful. The chains stayed as Seras put her hands down.

"There, that should hold him John."

 

[Lunar Templar]

Lucia felt the plane 'lighten' under her "About time" she thought as she leveled the plane off, and immediately started looking for a place to put the plane down that wasn't water, barring that she'd make a place if need be.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

John felt the tap on his shoulder.

"Look frumentarius, I really don't have time for this right now. You gonna free me, or is this going to cause problems?"

Before John could react, a blinding light came around the Lich and binded it to it's seat.

"There, that should hold him John."

John didn't even bother to keep his cover identity up anymore, nor noticing the physical changes Sera had gone through, only saying, "Thank you."

John turned to vile Lich, frustrated, angry, tired, in pain, ready to release all the emotions he been storing up since the second he stepped through the terminal door. John leaned in close and spoke quietly.

"Listen, immortui futuo," John said, his voice sounding much more menacing and having a much more pronounced Texan Accent, "You. Do. Not. Want. To. @#!^. With. Me. The people who I work for will break you if they view you as to great a threat for humanity."

"Does the name Publius Cornelius Lepidus Livianus mean anything to you? It should, since he also is a Lich that came from the "glory days" of the corrupt state you called a "Republic." You know why you have heard from him or about him in 78 years? No, we didn't destroy his phylactery. We never were able to find the @#&( thing, he hid it well."

"No, we nailed him to the ground, using ones much like this one," John said as he indicated to the cold Iron nails still in the armrest, "Surrounded him with every ward, every rune, every incantation, every piece of technology we could to make sure he would stay, and poured concrete on top of him. You know what concrete is, right? You Romans invented it. And Publius has been down there, for decade after decade, alone, in the blackness, now knowing the curse of his immortality."

"All the laws you have broken, all the people you endangered today, nobody would miss you. Because of you, the murderer is now dead. Because of you, we don't even have a corpse to examine. Because of you, this plane is being held up by a dragon, barely holding together. Because of you," John said, holding up his mutilated hand, "this happened. Because of you, we still may very well still die."

"All it would take is for me," John said as he pulled out his phone (displaying the message, 'Take out the Lich'), "To press this one button, and my people will hunt you to the ends of the Earth and beyond in a single quest to make you suffer for what you have done."

"The one thing that stopping me," John said, tone softening, "Is if that other Lich is who I think it is, she is a much, much bigger problem than you ever will be. If you help us take her down, your an asset, and ally, this whole incident will be forgotten. You can go on your merry way and do what you please. However, if you try to take her down on your own, if we see you as liability, a menace, an obstacle, we will make your existence nothing but a pit of darkness, for all time, where not a single person can hear you scream."

John stepped back from the Lich. "Your choice," John said, hand still lingering over the send message button.

 

[Kasten]

Richard thought his plan was going surprisingly well. Barring the murderous, horrible pain he was feeling. Wait. Why could he still hear himself think? Dammit, love, I'm trying to be stupidly heroic.

One benefit of being Ascended was the fact that he could 'see' past fog and such, via a very odd sense that was much like simply being able to 'see' things that exist, even if they weren't in view. London was getting closer. He raised his voice to a level where he hoped the Dragon below would hear him "LONDON AHOY! You might want to get inside, friend. And please warn them that it's going to get kinda topsy turvy."

Richard, knowing that the pain oncoming from his next stunt was going to me much worse deigned to prepare for entirely blocking his mind off for the duration I love you. So. If I convince my Belgian associates to hand make you chocolate, will it bail me out of what I'm about to do?

"DRAGON, GET IN THE PLANE, OR FLY TO LONDON! I'm TAKING HER IN!"

What Richard did next would require considerable explanation to those inside the plane. Suddenly, gravity started getting stronger, and they felt like they were being pulled to the front of the plane. Those looking out the right side windows would notice there was suddenly the ocean and oncoming landmass in the distance.

About now, he separated the entire physically existent part of his mind from Terra as the pain increased, Richard managed to get the plane steered to the point where it was going straight towards the oncoming runway.

He felt the magic he'd been using to hold himself together through the escapade stressing. It hurt. More.

"THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

 

[c_westerman13]

The agent quickly launched into a longwinded threat against Lucius, who was trying increasingly hard not to laugh in the Agents face. He remembered, though, the powers that frumentarii had access too, and really didn't want to invoke that, if he could help it! The mention of another Lich from the Glorious Empire intruiged him - he had thought he was the last one left!

"I have a counterproposal, Frumen- er... John, was it?", Lucius paused for a second, making sure he wanted to help this insolent young mortal, "I'll help you take down Arzhela - the other Lich - for three conditions. Firstly, you and your agency never attempt to find or oppose me. Secondly, I want full access to her base and archives. Your agency is welcome to it all once i've read it. Thirdly, I want to be able to meet Publius - he was a friend, almost 1500 years ago - just to talk. I assure you I will make no attempt to liberate him, Friend or not, he's still a rival."

Lucius looked directly at the agent, waiting for a reply, making no attempt to move - he'd realised what the chains were.