Mid-Autumn Dreaming - Act II (ic)

[Glandmine]

Trusting your eyes in the Hedge is kind of a dumb**** move if you ask me. Especially when there's an evil heat seeping out of a dead abomination, choking and changing the area. The chimera's flesh falls off in stinking clumps, making a sound like offal hitting a slab. It all comes away like a curtain, revealing a disgusting little man -- a crooked, grinning idiot -- apparently trapped in the chimera's ribcage. He's gripping the ribs and shaking the bars as screams a storm of hob expletives out into the hedge. Each profanity hurts the ears and seems to break some primal covenant between the hedge and its guests, causing the place to wither and shake.

The words do something else: a wall of briar slowly morphs into a golem of thorns. It's hard to process how this is happening as bramble lashes together into a thick-built giant. It steps forward, and with a jerking swipe, Khan is snatched up. He quickly bleeds out in the creature's grip before being dropped like a doll. The rest of the rampage is hard to make out in the swelling fog. You just hear the screams of its victims and feel the shock of impact. The golem is silent. The little man trapped in bones less so, his madcap laughter carrying over wet tearing sounds.

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Roll Int+Occult at -2

An eye clears in the mist as the Golem rests, energy spent, if only temporarily. One of the Lost Boys is paste now, and what's left of him hangs twisting on the thorns in the wind of the rib man's booming laughter -- shredded flesh and twitching muscle hanging. Another whimpers and breaks out into a run, lost in the mists.

The immediate hedge pulsates around a huge man-lion Changeling. He's tall and fat like a sumo wrestler. His hair's a mane, stiff with product and busy with trophies and tokens. His only expression in his repetoire seems to be a self-assured smirk and even his breath sounds like a douchebag softly calling you 'little buddy' again and again.

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Roll Int+Occult

He rolls up a trod, if you can believe that. A winding path leading all the way home just curls up behind him into an oversized hammer, impossibly dense and glowing with Fae magic. Well bully for him, but that's your way out of here that he's overcompensating with.

Hassun and Belch feel themselves fall into the area where they had been walking a narrow path that was recently torn away. Through the hole left in its absence, they tumble into this strange scene, landing at the feet of some lion *******. The fog is blasted out of the way into a ring around it all the Lion swinging the hammer around in a wind-up arc. The man in the ribs is laughing like a lunatic.

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Roll Dex+Athletics to avoid harm in the described fracas. Failure gets you 2 lethal.

[PeglegJim]

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Dirty Belch rolled 2 dice to "Occult -2" 1,5 (0 successes)

Dirty Belch rolled 4 dice to "Occult" 5,3,7,3 (0 successes)

Dirty Belch rolled 4 dice to "Dex + Athletics" 4,4,1,1 (0 successes)

"What in the lawd's name is going on?" yelled Dirty Belch as he failed to recall anything that would bring any of this to light. He clumsily stumbled through all the commotion.

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used dalines for the rolls

[Darknlight]

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Occult -2: 3,1,4 (0 successes)

Occult: 7,4,5,9,8 (2 successes)

Dodge: 3,10,9,6,4,9,7 (3 successes)

Hassun looks at the lion man than at Dirty Belch before saying "No idea." He than tries to recall anything about the beings that seem bent on killing them.

[The Kings Raven]

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Int (2) + Occult (1) - 2
(1d10)[3](3) tens (1d10)[9](9)

Int (2) + Occult (1)
(3d10)[10][3][8](21) tens (3d10)[3][4][10](17)

Dex (3) + Athletics (3)
(6d10)[4][4][3][9][5][9](34) tens (6d10)[7][3][4][7][8][3](32)

Peter effortlessly ducks beneath the swinging hammer, being one of the shortest people present it wasn't particularly hard for him. He draws his sword preparing to retaliate.

[ocel]

IC:
Catching on to Simon's request, Thomas fetched his comrade's sword & helped him up on his feet. Barely able to stand, Simon, positioned his blade over his arm while placing the other hand upon its hilt, using the sword as a makeshift crutch. As the pain wore off, so did the delirium from which it originated from, & with that so did his senses return, one of which was his eye sight, which helped him survey their former battlefield. Noticing the carcass in the distance was not by their hand, he rushed towards it, in spite of his most recent injuries.

After learning of this development, he walked over to one of their fallen assailants, taking a moment to observe the state of their bodies as they decay within such alien elements, he pondered whether these corpses were immune to the ware & tear of time's hand, perhaps they are, through probably not as soon or long as back home one earth. But at least Simon could be assured their souls' shells would suffer time's scars all the same, be it a mere winkle or disintegrated into dust. Still, Simon had no intention to let them, nor whoever were their masters, insolence be forgiven so quickly, applying enough downward pressure upon his court's blade on one of the decapitated goblin skulls, skewering through bone & brain matter cleanly, & sliding it through the steel until it was firmly stuck to the blade like a shish kebab. Thomas mortified by Simon's actions was assured afterward he had no intention of keeping it as a trophy but as proof of their ambush, & would have a mortician identify him & whomever employed him for their attempted assassination.

That being said, he knew he wouldn't be able to make it far in the state he was in, so he requested his friend to carry him to where their prey was. Their arrival to the scene, was momentary delayed by the hindrances, they had to overcome on their way here. As the mass of thorns emerged from seemingly no where, Simon, shouted to Thomas, whom was carrying the former on his back, to retreat far enough from this entity, lest it finish what they couldn't.

Occ:

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Here are the rolls, sorry it took me so long to respond but I've been trying to contact the other players, got theKingsRaven to join us.
(4d10)[9][5][3][3](20)
(6d10)[4][7][5][1][1][4](22)
(5d10)[9][2][4][5][9](29)

[ocel]

Occ: Made some more modifications to my ic post, hope to hear from the gm soon.

[Glandmine]

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Occult 1 roll. So the chimera isn't the true threat here, it's the cancer man inside. He's probably a conduit for some really poorly thought out contract between the Fair Folk and reality. Its true name would make it powerless, you know that much. Roll Int+Occult to figure a ritual to get that name.

Occult 2 roll: The not-so-cowardly lion here belongs to one of those high and mighty orders: the Parliament of Victors. These jerks are straight up gloryhound D&D rejects. Think Zapp Brannigan having a kid with the DM's pet npc and sending it to a stage school. And that hammer he's swinging? He just made that thing out of the Trod -- your most obvious way out of the hedge. You'd better hope he puts it back.

The Lion man swings his twisting hammer, caving in the chest of the Golem of thorns. The thing staggers back, clutching the nasty dent. Twigs, lint and coins haemorrhage out like piñata guts.

The man in the ribs starts to gnaw at the bars of his cage and inhales deeply, puffing up the emaciated pigeon chest, all prepped to breathe more life into the thorny servitor.

OOC: If you're engaging anybody here, roll Init. Reminder that dex can only be used with weaponry rolls if you have the finesse (relevant weapon) merit.

[PeglegJim]

Dirty Belch goes off in the midst of the chaos to find some goblin fruit for his injuries. He takes longer than he would have liked, but manages to find some.

Dirty Belch rolled 4 dice to "Find Goblin Fruit" 1,5,7,1 (0 successes)

Dirty Belch rolled 4 dice to "Find Goblin Fruit" 9,9,7,1 (2 successes)

He curses himself for not thinking of it before. It was vital to have these on the mission. In the end, he manages to get two plump, ripe goblin fruits.

[The Kings Raven]

Peter calmly walks up the lion. A Nobel Champion, that's awesome. A Nobel Champion attacking him, that's even better because it means that Peter will personally get to one up a Nobel Champion.

Walking up to the enormous lion the tiny changeling did what might be the stupidest move of the evening. "I challenge you to single combat!"

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OOC:

It's probably going to come up so, Initiative 7 (1d10+7)[1](8)

Don't worry, I do have some kind of plan before going up against an obviously superior foe with no Willpower or Glamour. First turn is a Dodge because Peter is being quite stupid and will take a turn to realise it. After that I dive into the hedge and use Peter's superior Survival abilities to lure him into a pit, or a huge tangle of thorns of some sort. There's bound to be one around. It's the Hedge.

[Glandmine]

The Lion just laughs a laugh broken up between zen-concentration hammerblows and flicks of his mane, struggling manfully with the golem in the vainest way imaginable, pounding away at its chest.

"Screw off, kid. I'm working here."

The Lion seems kind of preoccupied with winning the hunt and finally manages to fell the golem, stamping on it in a spastic dance, swinging at its prostrate form with intermittent swings of his hammer.

[Pres+Expression contested to provoke the Lion into attacking you. -3 Modifier 'cus it's like he said -- he's working here.]

[The Kings Raven]

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presence (2) + Expression (2) - penalty (3) (1d10)[5](5)

Well getting that Trod back isn't going to work.

This calls for a plan B. How big are the gaps in those bones?

"You're just too chicken to fight someone who's not scared of your fancy moves aren't you! Peter begins making some very realistic chicken noises.

[ocel]

Preferring to be fashionably late for once, the duo kept their distance from the inevitable melee that would engulf them; surveying the carnage, especially the golem, intently.


OCC:

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Occult+Int+Specialization= (7d10)[7][8][10][7][7][1][8](48)
Addendum: Rolled 10 offline, will make a separate roll for 10s next time, result: 10, again, 8

[PeglegJim]

Dirty Belch comes back at a slow jog--at least what counts as a slow jog for a man of his considerable girth. His folds bouncing up and down while beads of sweat develop on his plump, red face, dampening his grubby clothes. He has two ripe Goblin Fruits in his arms. He gets within shouting distance and bellows

"HASSUN WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE"

[Darknlight]

Hassun looks at Dirty Belch before turning to look at the scene unfolding before him. He than moves closer to Belch so he would not have to yell making sure to keep himself ready should anything attack him. Once close enough he says
"The large lion man is from the Parliament of Victors. It seems our young friend wants the Large man to attack him."

[ocel]

When Simon concluded his estimation of the likelihood to exorcise the aberration from this plane of existence was relatively more favorable than the alternatives he usually thought of. While he proposed his remedy for their current predicament, he haphazardly scribbled something too illegible to be read by frail mortal sight, upon the skull, with the medicine he received earlier as its ink. With that part done, he proceeded to the next stage by swinging his bloody blade in the air too loosen its hold on the skull as it gained momentum. As it fell to the grass below, he urged Tomas to play his part by Kicking the decapitated skull like a soccer-ball towards the cavalier Lion's head. When it flew through the air to its inevitable impact & subsequent concussion, Simon screamed at the top of his lungs, "Gooooal!" as he infused every ounce of his glamour to this absurd ritual.

[Glandmine]

OOC: So I'm thinking this is snailing along and PbP isn't the best format here. Anybody interested in taking this to google docs realtime sessions? Weekends are good for me for the next month (after which I'll have a whole lot more flex), mostly mid to late evening GMT. (So like around mid-day to late afternoon PST) Thoughts?

[ocel]

I'm probably good every 7-11 pm, but I could see if I can arrive earlier than that, if possible, like Weekends & Holidays. I'm willing to join if the majority is as well.

[The Kings Raven]

I couldn't do next weekend, but apart from that I should be free most evenings GMT.

[ocel]

Mine is North American Eastern Time Zone.

[Darknlight]

OOC: I am good most Tuesday or Thursday nights.

[ocel]

So every Tuesday & Thursday night then?

[ocel]

Any more details to add before we determine our real time chat schedule? The rest of the time in-between can be reserved for pbp.

[ocel]

Occ: Our gm got caught in a car accident, fortunately his injuries weren't fatal, but he sprained his neck, which means our game will be temporarily delayed until the 8th of March. The incident occurred two nights ago.
We can have one of us substitute for him until he returns, play a side campaign, or wait for him.

[ocel]

Occ: Gm needs a day or too more to recover, but he said he would return, shall we resume our game through collaboration until then?

[ocel]

Got word that gm can't make it, we'll have to get a replacement.