A Change of Seasons IC

[Ridai]

With the sudden entrance of the children of the Gods, the titanspawns' lackeys are slow to react to their onslaught. Too slow.

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I rolled Join Battle for everyone but Lauren to speed things up. Arsen got three successes, Ali five and Ellie eight. The foes botched.

Initiative order:
Tick 0: Ellie
Tick 3: Lauren, Ali
Tick 5: Arsen
Tick 6: 4 thralls

You guys do not need to post in the initiative order. Everyone acting before the next enemy's turn can post, I'll resolve the actions together with the enemies' turns and update the order. Please state the Speed of your actions.

Unless Snark posts before everyone else has (well, Lesingnon and Zousha), I'm assuming she aims (as previously discussed in the OOC) in favor of Lauren, then Arsen, for this period of time. I'll add the dice to the attack results, Lesingnon, so just roll normal attacks (or whatever you have planned).

Go get them and stunt like you mean it!

[Lesingnon]

Lauren's gaze sweeps over the room as she comes flying in, stopping on the two big men reaching for that nasty-looking axe and machine gun. Nasty-looking weapons that she really didn't want to see them use. So she darted between and launched into a tight spin, hand/arm darting out to scoop up both the axe and machine gun before she pops straight up like a cork from a bottle of champagne.

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Using a combined action to grab both the weapons, and then moving straight up out of their reach. I'm assuming she has enough ticks worth of movement to pull that off before they can act, let me know if I'm wrong. Also, she'll be looking for some high out of the way place to toss them. The action is speed 5.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Ali

Ali enters after Lauren and strikes a dramatic pose, raising both his fists in the air.

"STAND STRONG, CHILDREN OF THE GODS! TODAY WE STAND AGAINST THE THRALLS OF EVIL THAT WOULD BAR OUR WAY! IN THERE THE INNOCENT LIE IN WAIT OF A CHAMPION! WE ARE THAT CHAMPION! IF DOUBT OR FEAR SHOULD WEAKEN YOUR HEART, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE SCIONS! TITANSPAWN FLEE WHEN THEY HEAR OUR CRIES! THEY BREAK AGAINST OUR SHIELDS, FALL AGAINST OUR SWORDS, FLEE IN TERROR FROM OUR MIGHT! SO I SAY TO YOU, ALL OF YOU, TODAY, WE SAVE THE PEOPLE TRAPPED HERE! TODAY WE AVENGE THEIR CRUEL TREATMENT AT THE HANDS OF THESE MINIONS! BUT MOST OF ALL, TODAY WE SHOW OUR DIVINE PARENTS THAT WE REMEMBER AND HONOR THEIR SACRIFICES IN THE NAME OF MORTALS! FOR BOSTON! FOR THE GOOOOOOODS!!!"

Dust seems to blow away from the Banner revealing an ancient Persian symbol of heroism upon it. As Ali's speech becomes louder and more energetic, the symbol begins to glow. Soon it's as bright as a strong lightbulb, and the other Scions feel their own bravery growing with its light. They feel like they could take on the Titans themselves!

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Ali uses the Blessing of Bravery boon.

Charisma + Command:(7d10)[7][6][5][7][2][5][1](33)

Everyone in the band (as well as anyone else in the fight who's on Ali's side for some reason), get a point of Willpower and two temporary bonus dots of Valor that last until the end of the fight.

[Ridai]

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1 stunt die for Lauren, adding no and one success to her disarm attempts, respectively.
+3 dice because of Ellie's aiming action, adding five (!) successes to her first disarm attempt.

2 stunt dice for Ali

The scene explodes into a chaotic frenzy, Scions clashing with the titanspawn's thralls, Lauren and Arsen guided by Ali's booming words empowered with the impetus and fury of the gods and Ellie's immaculate insights defying the boundaries of mundane logic and perception, with thunderous, deep shouts being everything the huge mortals can meet the Scions' first onslaught with.

Lauren's swift, light steps carry her over to the three thralls near the office in few heartbeats, her divine grace ripping the axe out of the hands of one thrall and sending it flying on top of the office, where it embeds itself audibly in the ceiling with a loud, deep noise. The machine gun is likewise lifted from the hands of it's owner, but Lauren's aim is a little off as it sails through the air only to end up hitting the ground a few feet behind her.

Slightly baffled by Lauren just passes him by, the thrall standing in front of the door barely is able to register Arsen coming at him in his frenzied haze. The son of Ares moves with deadly speed, carried forward by powerful muscles and booming steps towards his prey, bringing doom to his enemy. The thrall can't even manage to raise his sledgehammer in time as, seemingly in an blink of an eye, Agapi rends right through his thick clothes, the armor below and his skin, crushing bones and organs in his torso and almost taking his arm off, a large amount of blood spraying from the grievous wounds onto Arsen's blade and the room around him. As the disfigured man spins and reels from the strike, his now gurgling, blood-spitting shouts becoming more that of pain than fury, Arsen is already beside him, Misos delivering a strike straight through his abdomen so brutal it cleaves the thrall in half, propelling his weapon, bodily halves, copious amounts of blood and entrails backwards in a wide arc, creating a gruesome display (and smear) for all to see and tremble in despair before.

The remaining thralls' insane frenzy grows only deeper as they see their ally getting shredded apart. "YOU'LL ******* PAY, ************! WE'LL ENJOY FEEDING ON YOUR ******* GUTS!" one of them shouts in Arsen's direction, spit flying from his mouth. They turn to Lauren, moving to surround her. "GET THE *****, THEN HIM!" The three huge men throw themselves at Lugh's daughter with all they have like rabid animals. Yet they fail, Lauren eluding all of them with ease, even in spite of the large opening in her defense (by her standards).

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Initiative order:
Tick 0: Ellie
Tick 3: Lauren, Ali
Tick 5: Arsen, Ellie
Tick 6: 4 thralls
Tick 7: Lauren
Tick 8: Ali
Tick 9: Arsen
Tick 11: 3 thralls

I rolled two simultaneous disarm attempts for Lauren after crossing the distance at the end of tick 4 (allowing her to attack in that tick), achieving a total of 13 and 9 successes, even despite the -4 penalty for simultaneous actions.

Arsen scored 10 and 7 successes on his attacks, dealing a total of 10 health levels worth of lethal damage after soak, killing the thrall instantly.

[Lesingnon]

Having three people lunge at you could be tricky. They could do a pretty good job of surrounding you and closing in, making it hard to doge from side to side or anything. Of course...it was less of an issue if you could fly. So she just went straight up, out of their reach. Her back arches as she tumbles almost lazily into a backflip, inverting herself in midair as her sword whistled through the air. The spin halting and sword tip darting as she lined it up...eyes narrowing a she sought to drive it through the mouth of the one that had called her a *****.

It would work better than washing it out with soap, right?

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(13d10)[9][3][3][3][9][2][10][1][4][9][2][3][3](61)
+2 autosuccesses, applicable stunt dice, and maybe an altitude bonus? Scion Hero states that being higher than your opponent may grant a 1-3 dice bonus to attack as well as a bonus of 1-3 to DV

[Ridai]

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2 stunt dice, netting 1 extra success.
2 aiming dice from Ellie, netting 2 extra successes.
Superior mobility for Lauren, so she has a +2 DV vs. the thralls and the thralls take a -2 penalty to DV.

Lauren's blade finds it's target, biting deep into the thralls flesh, but the huge man still manages to avoid getting his head impaled, twisting out of the way. accompanied by the thrall's howl, Ghathanna na Maidine slashes right through his tongue, cheek and the bone above it, sending blood and teeth flying and leaving the thrall's face a gruesome, oozing mess, but the former axe-wielder is still standing. Barely.

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Lauren dealt six levels of lethal damage to the formerly axe-wielding thrall.

Initiative order:
Tick 0: Ellie
Tick 3: Lauren, Ali
Tick 5: Arsen, Ellie
Tick 6: 4 thralls
Tick 7: Lauren, Ellie
Tick 8: Ali
Tick 9: Arsen
Tick 10: Lauren
Tick 11: 3 thralls

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Ali

Ali strides up to the former axe-wielder, gun ready. He points the gun at the man and speaks.

"You poor, delusional drugged-out fool. Did some hulking man force feed you blood to turn you into this? Were you persuaded into trying a designer drug by some tall and oddly chilly-looking woman? Victim, or villain, it matters not now. You were made into a monster, and the only way to save you is to end your life. Had you the will to fight it, you would have known not to stand against us. For we are Scions. We are the harbingers of inevitable justice to the Titans and their spawn. And so you must fall. For we are the righteous, before whom no force can stand."

His words seem to transfix the thrall, for he stares blankly instead of attacking Ali. Then Ali pulls the trigger, shooting the battered creature in the face, point blank range.

"Righteous..."

[Lesingnon]

A flick of Lauren's face cleared her blade from the man's face as blood flew, a drifting twirl ensuring that none of that so much as spattered her clothing. And with Ali moving towards half-face she turned her deadly attentions towards the next man in line...and simply continued her spin. Tightening it, speeding it as she whirled about. She adjusted the angle of her sword as she slipped downward a bit, letting it whirl around her like the edge of a screw. The gleaming edge sliding along the thug's flesh in one long, twisting slice.

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Using the last stunt to replenish a point of WP
(13d10)[4][5][5][9][2][6][5][4][5][4][3][9][2](63) + 2 autosuccesses

[Ridai]

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Ali receives 2 stunt die, granting 1 extra success
Lauren receives 1 stunt die, granting 0 extra successes
Arsen received 2 aim dice from Ellie, granting 0 extra successes

Ali's hand is guided by the very divine righteousness as his voice becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of things to come. The moment the trigger is pulled carries the omen of his target's doom, the sound fo the shot echoing through the hall before the thrall's suffering is ended, sending him falling to the floor with a bullet piercing his corrupted heart.

Arsen makes his way to Lauren with few, powerful steps, bringing swift vengeance to the unarmed thrall who tried to lay his dirty hands on his sister-in-arms, divine fury and steel shattering the puny mortal's body, brutally tearing it into pieces with one resounding strike accompanied by the sounds of flesh and bones giving way to the blade. Twisting around Lauren's nimble form, Arsen catches the remaining thrall off-guard, viciously slashing him from neck to waist, blood splattering to the ground, but not felling him.

The bleeding thrall reaches out to Lauren, who can recognize a golden ring around the appropiate finger, as if to grip her and try to tear her apart, shouting incoherently. However, there soon is utter silence, a single fluid motion as swift as lightning carrying Lugh's daughter past the titanspawn's slave. No new blood dared to cling to her blade. A moment passes before a thin red line appears across the thralls torso. His eyes become glassy, but in that final moment, the unending depravity and rage are gone, ending his inescapable torment and allowing him to end his life with a final moment of clarity. "Vivian..." As life leaves his body, he falls backwards onto the ground. Lauren can be sure that, in this very moment, she did her father proud with her masterful display.

After what seemed like only a few moments of violence, there is an eery quietness in the hall, only disrupted by distant droning sound from somewhere further up... and faint breathing from inside the office room.

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Ali deals 2L damage levels, killing the wounded thrall.
Arsen deals 8L to the former machine-gun wielder, killing him, and 6L to the machete-wielder, severely wounding him.
Lauren deals a whooping 11L to the machete-wielder, killing him.

Combat is officially over. Well done, everyone.

Since Limos isn't around anymore and things slowed down during the fight, I'm considering to reduce the planned frequency of fights and making it more like narrative scenes in some cases.

I'd very much appreciate your feedback on this short introductory fight. I want this part of the game to be as enjoyable as possible.

[Lesingnon]

Lauren's eyes soften in the brief instant before the man's death, as the man's humanity shines through the titans' corruption. Then she rotates slowly, righting herself in midair before touching lightly down amidst the blood spatter. And she spends a few seconds looking down at the fallen man, the ring on his finger, regret lurking in her emerald eyes.

Then she snaps out of it, eyes bright and alert once more. Though they don't quite hide the troubled thoughts starting to swirl in her mind as she motions towards the office door with her blade. "Do you hear that?"

[The_Snark]

The scent of blood, so sickly sweet: like rotted fruit, black and swollen with poisonous promise as it hangs from the arms of the tree of life. A knife in an alleyway; an old oak staircase lurking in the dark, solid and humdrum and hard as iron to the unlucky head that plunges to meet it; screeching tires and twisted metal and broken bodies crushed between them; a lunging serpent, its eyes glittering like sharpened diamond; little dull hurts that sting so long and so slow that only the rope brings blessed surcease; a giant of a man, his fist like a hammer against the skull of a child; broken glass stained scarlet; a white table with a masked man standing before you like God, cold scalpel poised above your heart; needles and rust on a cold concrete sidewalk; screams, fumbling hands on the trigger, a gunshot, blood mixing with tears on the carpet; a bright sword flashing cleanly through the chest—

("That one," she says in her mind's eye, and reaches out to make it so.)

—these are the things that kill.

There are three truths to this place. The first is the truth of rust, of once-vibrant things now decayed, great things brought low, and young things grown crabbed and bitter in their old age. It is the truth of decay, of ugliness. There is no beauty here, except when the light shines just right and reminds you of what it was like before it was ruined. The second truth is the truth of iron, of hardness and cruelty. It is a truth like an unsheathed blade, razor-sharp and without mercy. Grief and remorse are strangers to this place. The third truth is the truth of blood, without which a place cannot really matter. It doesn't matter how beautiful or majestic or sickening it is; without blood, without life and the possibility that it might end, it's just a game.

These are the truths of this place.

Ellie kneels on the floor by the dead man with the golden ring, her eyes dilated wide the way they get when she's really tripping out, or in the throes of prophecy, or (as is more and more common these days) both. She trails a finger in the blood pooling beside him, tracing patterns on the crimson-stained linoleum.

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Ellie is using the Mystery purview, spending a point of Legend to add 3 successes.

(4d10)[9][9][9][5](32) plus any stunt dice plus 3 autosuccesses. Questions will be asked via PM!

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Ali reloads his gun.

"Once we get through this, remind me to talk to you about hand-to-hand combat lessons, Lauren."

[Lesingnon]

"Umm...I don't know much hand to hand." Her blade twirled gracefully through the air, flicking any lingering drops of blood off of it. "I could teach you fencing and stuff?"

She lifts off the ground as she finishes speaking, all the better to remain quieter in case anyone was listening as she (literally) drifted over to the door to the office. And her hand turned the knob ever so slightly to see if it was locked or anything. Better to find any surprises that might be in there now, right?

[Ridai]

Lauren finds the door and as she floats through the opening, she is greeted by a foul, thick smell. What little cold, filtered sunlight streams through the door and windows is barely enough to illuminate the room, revealing the decaying, trashed office with its rusting and rotting furniture strewn across the room. Luckily, no surprises await Lugh's daughter, at least not of the dangerous kind.

The quiet breathing comes from somewhere in the back, around a corner. It sounds shallow, if a bit strained. There are several filthy mattresses towards the back, all of them empty, except the one not visible from the door. Rounding the corner, Lauren sees what seems to a middle-aged, athletic woman, lying half on the side, half on her stomach. The relative darkness conceals most of her form, but the Scion can still see the bruises and the exhaustion as the mortal woman barely moves to look up to Lauren. However, one detail is very noticable to her: the gleam of a familiar golden ring.

[Lesingnon]

"Oh..."

It occurred to her that seeing someone barge in with a sword probably wouldn't be all that comforting to the woman. So it shrinks back down to a ring on her finger as she rushes forward, the thought that something dangerous might be lurking in this room apparently not occurring to her. She kneels down, gently rolling the woman over onto her back.

And trying not to look too much at the ring on her finger as she did.

"Oh, are you okay?" She turns to call back over her shoulder, "Ellie! We need you in here!"

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Just as a remember, Piercing Gaze mean Lauren's not at all hindered by dim light, just complete darkness.

[Ridai]

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Gah! I'll correct this right away. Sorry.

The shadows futilely try to hide no more servants of the Titans before Lauren's eyes, only more signs of decay in the room. Sadly, she is also keenly aware of all the large bruises from ongoing abuse covering her entire body, with some dried blood here or there. A quiet whimper of pain escapes the woman's lips as Lauren rolls her over, probably a sign of bone fractures. At first, she looks up at the Scion in fear, her lips moving soundlessly, wincing as she is touched, but soon some relief washes over here features when she realizes Lauren won't harm here.

"I-I...I'm..." the woman begins with a shaky voice, not knowing how to answer the question.