[Changeling] A Gathering of Mists IC

[Anarion]

[I decided that I'm going to have the gnomes reply in song. I lack time for that now. So this will just be for Stephanie.]

Camera by the door. Easily avoided.

Camera over the counter, no reason to even step into its line of sight.

Camera watching the security panel. Hmm, that one might be trouble. Can't just walk right up to the panel, it will record the whole time you're punching in the code.

The entrance way itself is moderately sized: the door opens to a shop floor that includes some shelves of packaging materials, a counter with a register to the right of the entrance with shipping envelopes stacked behind it. The room goes back maybe 20 feet and there's a door to the back on the back left wall. The security panel is on the back right wall and the back center bulges back a little bit with some extra boxes and shelving, making the room look sort of like a square with an extra hump on its back.

[Thanqol]

One-two-jump!

Stephanie hopped up onto the roof and clung to it, shadowy tendrils seeping into it. She scrambled across it to the security camera - the camera was angled downwards to see anyone going for the box, by sticking to the roof she'd be out of it's field of view.

She crawled rapidly across the roof to the camera, then leaned down and put a bag over it. Then she flipped down from the roof, opened the box, and got to work.

[Spider-Foot style, 1 success, 3G unless the roof is stone, 7/10 remaining]

[Anarion]

One-two-jump!

Stephanie hopped up onto the roof and clung to it, shadowy tendrils seeping into it. She scrambled across it to the security camera - the camera was angled downwards to see anyone going for the box, by sticking to the roof she'd be out of it's field of view.

She crawled rapidly across the roof to the camera, then leaned down and put a bag over it. Then she flipped down from the roof, opened the box, and got to work.

[Spider-Foot style, 1 success, 3G unless the roof is stone, 7/10 remaining]

The roof is plaster, not stone, but Stephanie crawls upon it with no trouble, though she considers that she'll have to make sure to get stone roofs with a glass skylight when she gets her own place.

The security system is a pretty standard numerical panel. Stephanie isn't familiar with the exact type of code that SecureNet uses, but at least it doesn't require any special tools to toy with it.

[extended action. You have 30 seconds and you need 8 successes. -1 penalty for unfamiliarity.]

[Thanqol]

The roof is plaster, not stone, but Stephanie crawls upon it with no trouble, though she considers that she'll have to make sure to get stone roofs with a glass skylight when she gets her own place.

The security system is a pretty standard numerical panel. Stephanie isn't familiar with the exact type of code that SecureNet uses, but at least it doesn't require any special tools to toy with it.

[extended action. You have 30 seconds and you need 8 successes. -1 penalty for unfamiliarity.]

"The red wire's connected to the... primary fuse circulator," Stephanie murmured under her breath. "The blue wire's connected to the external feed... There's a thingy with that lights up when you do something... Um."

Slow and unsteady movements, momentarily lost. Normally a box like this had more scorpions in it.

[ 3 - 2 - 8 - 4 - 7 - 7 (Avg: 5.16666666667) - 1/8S]

Well, she supposed she could improvise. She closed her eyes and did her best to imagine the scorpions; crawling on and around her hands, snakes wrapping around her legs. The floor was lava and the lava was rising and the rising lava was filled with dragodiles.

That was better.

[1 - 5 - 4 - 10 - 8 - 8 (Avg: 6.0) ; 10 again is 10 and 8. 6/8S]

James McClaw's goons had opened fire on her position, but their aim was thrown off by the fire keese that were dive-bombing their positions. She could see the lava below her filled with a solid layer of dragodiles, opening their mouth to give the lava a thousand teeth. The roof above her cracked and started to cave in. The bomb in her pocket counted down it's final few seconds.

C'mon... c'mon...

[5 - 9 - 5 - 10 - 5 - 10 (Avg: 7.33333333333); nothing on the 10's, 9/8S]

Ding.

She was in a cold, dark, empty warehouse front.

Man, reality sucked.

She disabled the cameras then dropped down to go wave Rose in.

[Anarion]

In the Hedge, the gnomes answer Marchande by bursting into song, jumping and kicking up their legs as they spin around the blaze

Out of the flames and into the fire
Dancing leaping, sweet desire

Does she come to feed the blaze?
Does she come through nightshade haze?

Spin and dance, sing and revel
Join us or you'll join the devil

Hee, hee, ho ho,
once around and here we go!

They clap and jump around the fire, their words spinning and swirling in the crackling blaze as though Marchande and Charlotte arne't even there.

Join and dance through blaze and gale
Mustn't let the great flames fail

Dance we say, come dance round yon
or soon you will see that your souls be gone!

Too late to flee, too late to fly
You're here, you're trapped, now jump on high!

Hee hee, ho ho
Again around and here we go!


As their song rises, Marchande and Charlotte feel a powerful tugging compulsion from the blaze and the hedge around the grove seems to grow thick and dense, the entrance from which they came vanishing in an instant.

[Here's what I was listening to when I wrote that.]

[Raz_Fox]

It takes about a second for Marchande to understand the situation. Classic Faerie. If you don't dance, then they've got you, hook, line, and sinker, by whatever mad laws they call rule. Yeah, just come into my office and we'll have a chat. It takes her a few long breaths longer to come to a decision, the Dionysian arguing against the Apollonian, and how funny that they argue for their opposites.

Apollo wins. "For the record, Charlotte, I hate you," Marchande says, honey dripping from her voice, before she lets go of Charlotte's hand and hums something she remembered her grandmother once singing, shoe tapping as she steps towards the fire.

"Now rest ye merry, crap, um, firemen of the blaze,
Pray ignore my listless shoe and my head all in a daze-
The path's wild and long, now I'll give you a song,
Before we, uh, all part up and on in our separate ways."

Once bought, some things can't be easily slipped out of. The tie's still tight about her neck, and her back's stiff, but her clapping's running harmony to the beat, and she's tracing oddments in the grass with the toe of her coal-black shoe. Like the bass playing low under the frantic guitarist, or the dull thump of the drums providing place and point for the hunting-song. Her tail wags with each clap.

"My sister and I- oh, don't mind her pale auld stitches,
She got that way, you see, because of some tawny witches-
We come on a quest, by another's behest,
For a weapon piping hot to take down blackguard bitches."

She colors as she says the word, but what else was she supposed to say that rhymed with -itches? And 'itches' by itself wouldn't work, anyway. Still, the embarrassment is almost palpable, nearly wrecking what she's trying to do. She forces herself to press on, thumping her foot down with every step now, trying to get the timing just right.

"Now, merry gents, we've time for a dance,
For fate has driven us here on the blade of a chance,
But ours is the path, don't provoke my wrath,
We must yet have our sword or our lance."

The back of her neck is matted with sweat. The fire is hot, and the fear pumps in her chest. She is going to die here, she is going to be bound to dance around a fire forever because she came back inside, she is going to be twisted into harsher and more terrible forms and screw all that noise, she's going to live if she has to punch every single gnome in the face. That fear twists in her gut and makes her all the angrier, and that anger is life, and the fear makes every word come out the better.

"Now don't dare twist my words or drive them all awry,
We must succeed our errand bold, or fair child-er-en shall die-
Fire brave, fire bright, drive my words alight,
For a dance and this changeling's song, keep oath and permit no lie."

She's been around the fire once. Maybe twice. She permits herself a twirl, and a stamp at the end of it, and a ya-hoy!

"Now rest ye merry firemen, keepers of the blaze,
Pray ignore my listless shoe and my head all in a daze-
The hedge is wild and long, so now I've given a song,
Before we part so merrily and go our separate ways!"

[I am totally rolling Presence+Expression to be an awesome enough dancing-singing-hound to impress the gnomes, and I am also totally busting out Favored Fate, which smiles upon this brave soul. Modifiers?]

[Anarion]

[I am totally rolling Presence+Expression to be an awesome enough dancing-singing-hound to impress the gnomes, and I am also totally busting out Favored Fate, which smiles upon this brave soul. Modifiers?]

[You totally are. Using my finely calibrated dice bonus calculator™ you get
+1 for rhyming witches and bitches and then getting embarrassed about it
+1 for actually telling them what you want.]

[PhoeKun]

She disabled the cameras then dropped down to go wave Rose in.

There's the signal. Fast. Probably. If she's honest with herself, Rose has no idea what she was expecting. But the job's done, and that's the part that matters. She steps forward toward the building, holding one hand up to cover her face as instructed.

"I'm used to 'security' involving more..." she trails off. It doesn't matter,and she'd rather not say, come to think of it. "Let's get this over with. They'll have Rodriguez's personal information on file here for certain. Less sure if they'd log the truck's movements, given what he's using it for. Still worth investigating."

[Anarion]

[Waiting on Charlotte to do something before saying what happens around the fire, saw SiuiS post, take your time.]

Kalina, lacking Stephanie's insane night vision, can't see a thing. In fact, unless Stephanie is specifically marking her route, roll straight dexterity please, no modifier.

[SiuiS]

Gnomes. Redcaps? Not sure. Probably not important.

There is singing and dancing and a merry red fire, swirling and turning to their joyous cries, boisterous and uplifting and almost enough to make one's heels take flight...

... Until they call out. And Marchande – the restrained, Marchande of strictness and and and— and restraint jumps in and dances and sings and the few notes on Charlotte's lips die, a wilted autumn brown in the golden summery heat, an she freezes.



Is this what sage fright feels like?

No, no that can't be it. Mustn't. Even the most studio shadow puppeteer and stage hand and background dancer must someday come to the fore. Mustn't let the show stall now, not on her account. And the best forefront yet background spot is the pivot, the clock's center. Between the dancing spinning gnomes* to the very heart of the matter. To the flames themselves, she walks, and holds out her hand at first as if to warm it, her fingers just outside the point of singeing, smoking. Strangely closer than she had expected.

Her hand turns, palm up to receive. "May I have this dance?"

*: SCHMEBULOCK!

[Thanqol]

There's the signal. Fast. Probably. If she's honest with herself, Rose has no idea what she was expecting. But the job's done, and that's the part that matters. She steps forward toward the building, holding one hand up to cover her face as instructed.

"I'm used to 'security' involving more..." she trails off. It doesn't matter,and she'd rather not say, come to think of it. "Let's get this over with. They'll have Rodriguez's personal information on file here for certain. Less sure if they'd log the truck's movements, given what he's using it for. Still worth investigating."

"Yeah, I was disappointed too," said Stephanie, heading back inside and starting to rummage around. The plan was to sweep the entire building, look for any glowingly obvious clues or locked doors, then start focusing in on less immediately apparent clues.

[PhoeKun]

"Yeah, I was disappointed too," said Stephanie, heading back inside and starting to rummage around. The plan was to sweep the entire building, look for any glowingly obvious clues or locked doors, then start focusing in on less immediately apparent clues.

"Ahem." Kalina stares blankly into... nothing, really. The door to the office yawned into a sort of blackness that bring a lot of unpleasant memories uncomfortably close to the foreground of her mind.

"Most people see better with the lights turned on."

[Thanqol]

"Most people -" Stephanie took a second to figure it out, "- oh! You're most people!"

She rather apologetically hit the light switch.

[Anarion]

Marchande's revelry fuels the flames brighter. They seem to draw in upon her and as she dances, the night grows darker and the fire warmer. The gnomes smile and clap along with her song, helping to provide some background to fill in the stumbles, and even the bonfire itself seems to roar its approval. She herself begins to see the setup as a beautiful rally, the gnomes as close friends and warm companions, and the blaze itself as a shield against the night.

[In game rules, the bonfire takes a point of glamour from Marchande as part of the revelry, but in so doing it and she become friendly with it each other.]


Charlotte, for her part, is offered something more: the fire takes her outstretched hand and it burns. Pain flares through her, yet it will not let go. Once offered, the sinuous form at the center of the blaze takes shape and demands a full dance. It moves to wrap itself around Charlotte and as it does so and Marchande's song finishes, the gnomes begin to hum a slow minuet.

[Charlotte is being burned so long as the flame holds her, it is a small fire, not the full bonfire, but it is hotter than a torch. It is holding her hard and not releasing without a fight. Breaking free would take a roll of strength+brawl-3 as the flame being is quite strong.]

*****************

The lights inside the office go no with little trouble. This is the front room, there's not much to be found beyond packing materials and the register. Kalina has no idea what to do with the computer in the front and Stephanie doesn't know the password, though she could attempt a hack if she really wanted.

The place is a bit messy, with several loose packing peanuts and open boxes near the back area. The door leading further back is locked, but not especially sturdy.

[PhoeKun]

The lights inside the office go no with little trouble. This is the front room, there's not much to be found beyond packing materials and the register. Kalina has no idea what to do with the computer in the front and Stephanie doesn't know the password, though she could attempt a hack if she really wanted.

The place is a bit messy, with several loose packing peanuts and open boxes near the back area. The door leading further back is locked, but not especially sturdy.

Kalina's search of the front room turns up little beyond packing peanuts and the computer. Which she stares at. And stares at. And stares at. And. Stares. At. Her slumps down, smashing her head onto the desk.

"Doesn't anybody use paper anymore?"

She pounds her head against the furniture, stands, and walks toward the back, by the locked door. She peers into the open boxes for good measure. Door sealed, but flimsy. Easy to kick it in, especially with no fear of alarms. She plants her weight to kick it in, but stops herself just before springing at it.

"...You want to open this, by chance?"

[SiuiS]

The fire catches and spreads. It's up her arm now, a single sleeve, a pet boa.

She struggles a little in its grasp, reflexive.

"You needn't consume to continue the dance. Wouldn't you rather we prolonged this?" she says. It's to her shoulders now, a feathered boa of flickering flames.

"Let us be friends, s'il vous plaît, and dance through life together." the fire begins to burn, ethereally. It's sinking into her flesh, radiant, overwhelming. "Please?"

And then the magic seeps in and the slip of mundane reality composing Charlotte's world asserts itself, the flames like a flickering mantle over her shoulders, and the flesh of her fingers so gilded an brigt begins to tarnish and char. She struggles, harder now.

"You're hurting me..."

Spoiler

Show

yeah! Chance die time!

Charlotte used struggle!
*rolls a 9*
Charlotte missed!

[Anarion]

The flames are so sweet. The blood rushes to Charlotte's face. The elemental holding to her sways and shifts, crackles and roars. They spin, the world is spinning, or maybe just Charlotte's world. It's only a few seconds, a few steps, a passionate embrace.

"You're hurting me..."

Then the flames lean down and give Charlotte a quick kiss on the lips, just for an instant. And Charlotte's world fades away.


Marchande, you see the dance, it's not even 10 seconds, though to Charlotte it seems an eternity. Then the flames are gone, back into the fire and everyone stops dancing as Charlotte collapses to the ground. Her hands and her face are badly burned and her breathing is shallow.

[Charlotte has taken 6 lethal damage and 2 bashing damage from a combination of burns and lack of oxygen. She has fainted from the bashing damage, but the flame being is gone.]

[Raz_Fox]

It is a horrible thing to admit, but when Marchande sees the drama unfold, when she slows her dance around the fire, when Charlotte collapses, smouldering, she does not gasp in shock or hiss in sudden anger. She grits her teeth and thinks, "You idiot."

And as she kneels down and gingerly cradles Charlotte - whose little chest is fluttering, whose face and hands are blackened and charred - that frustration and anger builds, and is met by her shame for thinking such things, which fans the fire higher.

She had to rush in and mess things up. Marchande was taming the fire, taming the gnomes, getting them to eat from her hand, and then Charlotte couldn't resist the temptation to royally screw everything up again. She wasn't a partner, she wasn't a companion, she was a liability waiting to happen, as indeed it had. Her face is small and helpless and horribly burnt, which makes Marchande hate herself more.

"Right," she growls at the gnomes, "Plan 'Actually Get A Weapon' has gone straight to hell, so this I'll tell, or something like that. I would like you to point us to the nearest exit, so I can get this stupid little girl some medical care, instead of doing something actually productive. I gave a dance, I gave a song, so show us the damn door already." Her voice is sharp, vicious, brimming over with fire.

She stops to give a bow to the fire, mutters an apology under her breath, and then looks to the gnomes. "Well?"

[SiuiS]

Charlotte stirs only a little, a strangled, choking sound coming from her after a single, deep breath in. The noise comes with te smell of burning cedar and mimosa. Her head falls back when lifted, and thankfully her facial stitching – now so much ash and blackened whisker – is superficial, her cheeks keeping her from macabre pacman parody.

Charlotte was always a fast healer, though, and here, on the path so close to home she is almost regenerative. The wounds seem almost superficial, no seeping, no morbid flesh-smells. Only her unconsciousness and an innate human understanding of oh God, fire! showing the seriousness of the wounds.

[Thanqol]

The lights inside the office go no with little trouble. This is the front room, there's not much to be found beyond packing materials and the register. Kalina has no idea what to do with the computer in the front and Stephanie doesn't know the password, though she could attempt a hack if she really wanted.

The place is a bit messy, with several loose packing peanuts and open boxes near the back area. The door leading further back is locked, but not especially sturdy.

Stephanie typed in 'swordfish'.

She hesitated when that failed, then typed in 'swordfish!'

Kalina's search of the front room turns up little beyond packing peanuts and the computer. Which she stares at. And stares at. And stares at. And. Stares. At. Her slumps down, smashing her head onto the desk.

"Doesn't anybody use paper anymore?"

"The government does," said Stephanie, idly calling on some of that weird knowledge that was drifting around in her head. "I guess we can steal the computer? Take it to someone who knows this stuff?"

She pounds her head against the furniture, stands, and walks toward the back, by the locked door. She peers into the open boxes for good measure. Door sealed, but flimsy. Easy to kick it in, especially with no fear of alarms. She plants her weight to kick it in, but stops herself just before springing at it.

"...You want to open this, by chance?"

"Sure," said Stephanie, hurrying over with her lockpicks.

[7 - 9 - 7 - 1 - 1 - 5 - 1 (Avg: 4.42857142857)

1 success. If you want to make this extended for whatever reason the next roll in that set was 9 - 10 - 10 - 10 - 9 - 6 - 7 (Avg: 8.71428571429)]

[Anarion]

She stops to give a bow to the fire, mutters an apology under her breath, and then looks to the gnomes. "Well?"

The fire seems to die down a bit. It's still 20 feet tall, but it looks diminished somehow. Almost sheepish. One of the gnomes comes forward, taking off its hat and bending and scraping before Marchande.

"Don't understand exit, miss. There's no place to go but here. But if you go out that way, there's a grove of night lilies that might bear fruit for your friend." He points, and a small section of deep green bushes pulls apart, revealing less of a path and more of a way to walk through the overgrown bushes without bleeding out on sharp leaves. Marchande has no sense of direction for this opening relative to where she came in due to her wild dance. At least, not without another use of her Contracts.

Stephanie typed in 'swordfish'.

She hesitated when that failed, then typed in 'swordfish!'



"The government does," said Stephanie, idly calling on some of that weird knowledge that was drifting around in her head. "I guess we can steal the computer? Take it to someone who knows this stuff?"

The computer pops up a little dialogue box with a red X that says "password incorrect. 8/10 attempts remaining before system security lock."

"Sure," said Stephanie, hurrying over with her lockpicks.

[7 - 9 - 7 - 1 - 1 - 5 - 1 (Avg: 4.42857142857)

1 success. If you want to make this extended for whatever reason the next roll in that set was 9 - 10 - 10 - 10 - 9 - 6 - 7 (Avg: 8.71428571429)]

The door unlocks easily. Stephanie supposes they don't lock the inner doors as well as they do the outer ones.

Alas, that makes it significantly less likely that this door leads to an interstellar time portal.

[Raz_Fox]

Spoiler

Show

The fire seems to die down a bit. It's still 20 feet tall, but it looks diminished somehow. Almost sheepish. One of the gnomes comes forward, taking off its hat and bending and scraping before Marchande.

"Don't understand exit, miss. There's no place to go but here. But if you go out that way, there's a grove of night lilies that might bear fruit for your friend." He points, and a small section of deep green bushes pulls apart, revealing less of a path and more of a way to walk through the overgrown bushes without bleeding out on sharp leaves. Marchande has no sense of direction for this opening relative to where she came in due to her wild dance. At least, not without another use of her Contracts.

"Thank you," Marchande replies. Even if you weren't ever supposed to thank a fairy - that was what they said, right? - she'd heard enough about stories from Russia or farther places where politeness got the hero far. It might just work for her, someone who was just fumbling and bumbling about. Besides, she had the feeling that these gnomes were all right for things that lived on this side. And then, to the fire- "Well, at least you're sorry. My apologies for the bother."

She walks away, her shadow still dancing in the flickering firelight, holding Charlotte close to her chest. Stupid little thing. Fruit might be the key to healing those burns, if squeezed or fed to her - she could vaguely remember great orchards full of blossoming, delectable fruits in all their impossible purples and greens, pears and apples and grapes and things that didn't quite have names, magnificent gardens all the worse for being owned by monsters.

Her heart's tense, her stiffness returns, her breath catches in her throat. The grass under her shoes is wild and tangled, even if the bushes are pulling back for her. The fire grows smaller and smaller behind her, as she continues into the dark, which rears its wings on either side of her.

"You're lucky," she mutters to the unconscious Charlotte. "If you'd come in alone, you idiot, you'd have been all burnt up, or caught by something here, and that'd be the end of you in a flash. Why don't you ever think? Were you this stupid before they dragged you here?"

Her undershirt gleams like starlight, and her coat flows around the thorns that would catch at her. Her nails are long and her teeth are sharp to eat you up, little child. If she introduced herself to Jason at this moment, he might take her for something of the thorns, a hob or odd-bodkin. But her eyes don't have faerie-gleam in them, and her touch is too tender around Charlotte for her to really be something that wasn't once human.

Is still human.

"This isn't going to happen again," she promises. "Once I get you back out of here, you're going back to Timothy's house. Some people just can't handle this." And where did that leave her, then? She wasn't Stephanie, she wasn't Rose, but she was... not a hero, at any rate. A hero would have been happy to save Charlotte and would have known exactly what to do. "Bringing you back here was stupid of me. Like most everything else I do."

[Thanqol]

The door unlocks easily. Stephanie supposes they don't lock the inner doors as well as they do the outer ones.

Alas, that makes it significantly less likely that this door leads to an interstellar time portal.

Stephanie had seen worse guarded by less. Either way, no knowing until she opened it up.

[Anarion]

"This isn't going to happen again," she promises. "Once I get you back out of here, you're going back to Timothy's house. Some people just can't handle this." And where did that leave her, then? She wasn't Stephanie, she wasn't Rose, but she was... not a hero, at any rate. A hero would have been happy to save Charlotte and would have known exactly what to do. "Bringing you back here was stupid of me. Like most everything else I do."

Carrying Charlotte is hard work. It's incredible how heavy someone can be when they're dead weight, especially for such a little wizened. Not that Marchande would ever call Charlotte fat, of course.

After a few moments of trudging through the thorny patch, the plants of the hedge start to shift. Now it is rough pines, scratching needles, and gnarled, heavy roots blocking the way. The gnome said night lilies grew around here somewhere, but Marchande can't imagine where, at least not with her normal sense, though the pines are broad enough that she can see dense forest for several hundred feet in every direction. Including...behind her. Well, that's going to be annoying to get back.

Stephanie had seen worse guarded by less. Either way, no knowing until she opened it up.

Okay, it probably wasn't a time portal, but it was glowing.

The back room is dark and doesn't appear to have a working light switch. However, in the center of it is a wooden cup, built like a wide chalice and resting on top of a small round table with a linen cloth. The wood itself is deep black, almost like it is covered with ash, though the surface is smooth. And inside of it is a liquid that is giving off a faint yellowish glow.

The glow only extends a few feet, and this back room is a large one, taking up most of the building. It's about 50 feet deep and 15 wide. Stephanie can see that the other end actually has a metal screen that probably opens out onto where trucks would pick up and drop off deliveries. Near that back screen are two large containers, both facing towards the back, their contents not visible from Stephanie and Rose's viewpoint.

The rest of the room, like the front room, is a bit of a mess. Metal chains and hemp rope are scattered about, opened cardboard boxes are scattered on the floor, and bits of wood chips used for heavy packing and even some broken glass cover litter the left section of the room.

As Stephanie scans the area, she hears a sound. A soft swishing, like fabric brushing against cardboard. They are not alone here.

[Thanqol]

"Contact," hissed Stephanie to Rose, then vanished - jumping up onto the wall above and crawling up to the roof to give herself a bird's eye view of the situation. She'd then begin slowly stalking, trying to move around to get eyes on her target.

[I have a stealth roll if you want one?]

[Anarion]

"Contact," hissed Stephanie to Rose, then vanished - jumping up onto the wall above and crawling up to the roof to give herself a bird's eye view of the situation. She'd then begin slowly stalking, trying to move around to get eyes on her target.

[I have a stealth roll if you want one?]

[Sure, go ahead.]

[Raz_Fox]

Spoiler

Show

Carrying Charlotte is hard work. It's incredible how heavy someone can be when they're dead weight, especially for such a little wizened. Not that Marchande would ever call Charlotte fat, of course.

After a few moments of trudging through the thorny patch, the plants of the hedge start to shift. Now it is rough pines, scratching needles, and gnarled, heavy roots blocking the way. The gnome said night lilies grew around here somewhere, but Marchande can't imagine where, at least not with her normal sense, though the pines are broad enough that she can see dense forest for several hundred feet in every direction. Including...behind her. Well, that's going to be annoying to get back.

Wheels spin, and Marchande stops for a moment, retreating into her head to put things together. The holly, the pricking, the blood- a web of connections that wove together elegantly. Maybe because she'd cut herself on her way out, maybe because she'd overheard some hob wisdom while fitting her suit; the why didn't matter as much as the how. And maybe it'd have consequences, but she'd get to them later. Charlotte is laid down carefully, head upon a soft clump of clover, burnt arms splayed over twisted roots. She looks down and mutters about insufferable madwomen.

There is something thrilling about plucking the needle free, carefully working it out, one knee pressed into the wet grass growing between the trees. And when she finally has it - because you have to do this, to get it right, because this was the way Taliesin did it (a name half-remembered from drinking-songs by his whispering fireplace) - she presses the needle against the scab on her finger until it gives, until the blood runs along the needle again and she hisses because it was bloody sharp, ha.

First things first: she takes the blood-sheened needle and slips it into her breast pocket. She knows, call it women's intuition, that the needle will not be in that pocket the next time she opens it. And it's different than when Charlotte does it, because she knows it's because it's of the otherworld, and that there's a divide, there's things from there and things from reality, and just because her coat's special doesn't mean doors can argue about opening. Besides, she can explain it clearly and succinctly.

Then she takes a deep breath, setting her feet steady, fixing her mind on her purpose, on why she's here and what she searches for. And then, only then, does she lap at her finger with her rough tongue, letting her mind open to the Hedge - but she'll wrestle it down and make it beg, because she's human, and this kind of thing is what humans do in a pinch.

[Rolling Int+Wyrd-1: 7, 10, 7, 9. No 10-Again due to Curse.]

[Thanqol]

[Sure, go ahead.]

[Activating Night's Subtle Distractions, 1G, doubles any environmental penalties they suffer.

7 - 5 - 2 - 6 - 2 - 4 - 6 - 3 - 3 (Avg: 4.22222222222)

Ohmergewd. Failure.]

[Anarion]

Then she takes a deep breath, setting her feet steady, fixing her mind on her purpose, on why she's here and what she searches for. And then, only then, does she lap at her finger with her rough tongue, letting her mind open to the Hedge - but she'll wrestle it down and make it beg, because she's human, and this kind of thing is what humans do in a pinch.

[As a note, you don't even have to roll when you meet the catch and can use the contract repeatedly. You would have succeeded within the next 10-15 seconds no matter what.]

This forest was thick with life and with meaning. Marchande could sense the goblin fruits she was seeking. The path that was in front of her and a bit to the right lead to another shift in terrain, this one to a small forest cave that would likely hold the flowers, and anything else that might commonly be found in caves.

There was the bonfire glen as well, behind her and also a bit to the right.

And there to the left and some ways away was a broad open road. It was an empty road for the moment, but of the size and scale that it could be used by a carriage of the Gentry. Or by one of their hunts.

[Activating Night's Subtle Distractions, 1G, doubles any environmental penalties they suffer.

7 - 5 - 2 - 6 - 2 - 4 - 6 - 3 - 3 (Avg: 4.22222222222)

Ohmergewd. Failure.]

[Ah, in that case, you and Rose should roll initiative.]

[Anarion]

As Stephanie jumped to the ceiling, she saw a small woman step out from behind a small pile of stacked boxes. The woman had pointy ears at the top of her head, so her silhouette looked sort of like batgirl. That was appropriate because her face, at least that part that was visible above her black jumpsuit and mask, had a light brown fuzz and an ugly pug nose that were also reminiscent of a bat.

She was wearing a pair of loose dark pants and a zip sweatshirt, all in black.

She caught sight of Stephanie in the silhouette of the doorway, just an instant before Stephanie got to the ceiling and the woman's eyes tracked her. Stephanie was sure she was seen because the woman drew a pair of short knives as Stephanie jumped.

[You have time to act, and Rose needs to tie a 13 to act first as well.]