2017-04-01: Everyone Is Clucked
- Log: Everyone is Clucked
- Cast: Sorey, Catenna, Seraph Edna, Alisha Diphda, Cecilia Adlehyde, Emma Hetfield, Rudy Roughnight
- Where: Adelhyde - Fairgrounds
- Date: 4/1/2017
- Summary: THE CUCCOS ARE COMING! THE CUCCOS ARE COMING!
================<* CHALLENGE - One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest *>================ |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A screech tears through the air, first. You can't see the offender, but you can see what is coming. The skies are filled with fat-bodied, fluffy white feathered harbingers of doom. Cuccos come in a great swarm -- and as the panic begins, they come sweeping down from the heavens, dive bombing the truly unfortunate! =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
For once it was actually a rather nice day in Adelhyde. The sun was shining. The birds were chirping. No one was attempting to destroy the world or anything similar. Sorey was even considering just sitting back and enjoying a good book for a while.
This was the sort of day where nothing could go wrong.
And then it does.
In the most horrible manner imaginable.
It comes walking down the street, a single plucky white shape with a red tuft of feathers upon its head. It seems calm. Normal. No one is going to take note of the creature as the cause of the coming horror. And it walks right into the middle of the street... where the Cucco is promptly kicked by a horse.
Which then sends it flying into a nearby saloon. Someone shouts in annoyance at the presence of some 'crazy white feather thing', and there is a loud SQUWAK as a Drifter kicks the Cucco. It hits the wall, and bounces. Another kick, and it goes sailing out the door.
The bird tumbles to a stop, and pulls itself upright. Fluffs its feathers.
It's wings are thrown wide.
"CUUUCCCOOOOOOOOO!"
And the end comes. From on high they descend, the terrible white masses descending like a dark cloud of white feathers. They tumble over rooftops, erupt from under buildings, pour from out houses. The clucking is horrifying. People begin to scream, running as they are chased down the streets by marauding cuccos!
Sorey just stares for a moment. Blinks. "...that's..."
And then a cucco lands in front of him. And he yelps, scrambling backwards as the bird starts chasing him. "This... Alisha! Edna Mikleo! Run! RUUUNNNN!"
"Save yourself, Sorey!" Mikleo shouts as he's cut off from the party by a line of the horrible white birds! "Save yourself!"
"Mikleeeooooo!" Sorey calls out as the water seraph runs off in the opposite direction. "...I hope he's going to be alright...!"
There is a horrible clucking sound, and Mikleo shouting as he bashes at the birds with his staff. This isn't helping matters at all.
DG: Sorey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna has had... experiences... with birds. Not all of them have been wondrous and pure. Out goes the cluck of death, and she slowly looks up from the food stand she's at, where she's gathered a basket full of spices and a few cloves of ginger.
She lifts her eyes with a slow, horrible realization.
"They cannot have been so foolish," she utters, her tone low and grave, as she reaches one hand into her cloak and clutches her medium as hard as she can. The normally warm brown of her complexion has dulled as a chill grips her.
She of all people knows that all of them are absolutely doomed.
As Sorey hoofs it for safety, Catenna spots him, widening her eyes with a wave. "Quickly!" she calls out, fishing out a length of rope and a grappling hook.
It seems almost ridiculous. What's she going to swing from?
It becomes clear soon enough. Wheeling the rope over her head, she sends it sailing towards Sorey - and she attempts to hook him with it.
Her free hand tightens around her medium. A subtle vibration thrums around Sorey - and he may feel his body's weight going down bit by bit as Catenna reduces the effect of gravity on him just enough that she can try and pull him out of the advancing wave of feathery white doom.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
"...... ......."
Edna has an expression most grim upon her visage as she beholds the sight coming for them.
The sight that takes Mikleo.
The sight that seeks to end their existence once and for all.
% To bury them in the innumerable fluff of feathers and poultry.
This... This...
Icy blue eyes blink slowly as the white tide comes forth and claims poor, sad meebo. Sorey yells for them all to run. Calmly. So very calmly, she closes up her umbrella. And then...
She turns tail and books it.
"Terrible time for Lailah to be missing. Could've just had her torch them all. We'd be eating cucco for weeks."
Edna no.
DG: Seraph Edna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha stops in her tracks when she hears the terrible cry of the cucco. She blinks at it, once, before she starts forward. "Um--" She hesitates, her hand reaching out, and she doesn't notice the way the horizon fills with beating wigs at first. "Oh, I am so sorry!" the princess says. "Please, do not be alarmed. I hope that..."
And then she sees the flood of chickens. She stares, hands lowering by her side, and looks up with her widened, leaf green eyes. "...but... but why?" the princess of Hyland asks herself.
And then she hears the Shepherd screaming to run. She ducks, quickly, as a cucco tries to dive bomb her from above, and bolts into a run down the street. "Lord--Lord Mikleo!" she yells. Then, she cries out: "Why is any of this happening!?"
She can only sort of glance in Edna's direction, but she frowns -- even as she reaches for Catenna's line, with a nod of thanks. "Lady Edna!" she says. "That--that may anger them further...!"
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey makes a grab for the line, trying to make a desperate bid for... something. Saftey from the marauding chickens, perhaps? "I'm not sure they CAN be angered any further, Alisha!" he calls out.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna just starts casting again. Alisha probably feels herself getting lighter, too!
She keeps on reeling in Lunarian refugees as if she'd been trawling for little lost moon people. "Please hold on tight," she calls out and she pulls in hand over hand as best she can, dragging Sorey and Alisha out of the wave. Hopefully.
She resists the urge to recommend the Atkins diet.
"Please hold on tight," she calls to them instead.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna pauses as she realizes she asked the same thing twice.
"Welcome to Corneria," says a shopkeeper nearby.
"I like swords," says a customer.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
For once says who, mister metatext. GO ON. EXPLAIN.
Cecilia had, through chance, happened to come down to keep an eye on the golems, ensure Emma Hetfield wasn't building tax shelters in the sewers, generally do low-key 'i'm not trying to stand out but also nobody's allowed to tell me no' stuff with her day, when...
The sky darkens. The End is coming. The true enemy....the agent of all finality. "What is this...evil feeling...." Cecilia rasps out, as the shouting starts.
And then she gets boffed across the face by a bird, sending her tumbling backwards. "Whaaa!!" She's fortunately slightly more nimble than you'd think, and recovers enough to stand on her feet and duck a little as she starts racing for...what is either the exit or a chokepoint that will kill them all. Definitely one of them. "What the devil is this!?" Then, checking on the people in the area she knows about in approximate order of personal investment: "Rudy! Professor!?"
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
THE METATEXT MUST EXPLAIN NOTHING TO YOU, EARTH PRINCESS. AND YOU CANNOT FORCE THE METATEXT TO BEND TO YOUR WHIMS.
...
Except with snacks. The metatext accepts snacks.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma Hetfield emerges from a shelter overlooking a steep stairwell into what is totally a basement-excavated tax shelter when she hears about fuss and fury coming out and about. "Hm, hm," she says, adjusting her glasses and watching dispassionately as cuccos swarm the innocent. "Is this the chicken wings I ordered...? I had thought that Schrodinger woman would have eaten them."
She's being indicated. Emma steps towards Cecilia, drawing out her Punchy Gun as she walks. This thing looks, well, like a gunsmoke pistol with a chubby boxing glove on it. As she fires it over to bust a huge splash in a horse trough and derail some cuccos on a suicide run for her, she tells Cecilia, "This is a calamity of an unpredicted sort. Fortunately, poultry are less difficult to deal with than -"
She swerves suddenly as one bomb-runs at her head. "My! This is getting out of hand."
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Punchy Gun toward her party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
For the time being, Rudy has been spending most of his time outside of the town. Cecilia has been stating that she would be 'needing him' soon, so while he's taken the occasional job, Roughnight has always made sure that sooner than later, he would be returning to the town with the really nice castle.
The town is quiet and peaceful. While the blue haired boy is leery of staying in one place for too long for a variety of issues, if there is a place he has to be stuck, here seems like a decent enough place. Most of the people seem rather friendly to him, the jobs are plentiful, and there doesn't seem to be any real downside to being here. He is even able to get a kid his red balloon. That is until Rudy hears cries of some sort of attack. The ARM is slung heroically over his back and he's ready to fight whatever is besieging the city. Demons, bandits, monsters from an irradiated den of darkness?
Birds that seem like chickens.
A slow frown appears on Rudy's face, not exactly sure how to take this. He sighs audibly, understanding that no matter what the threat, if there are people in danger, he should be there.
As people appear to be trying to make their escape, Rudy tries to figure out how he can aid. Calm despite the chaos, Roughnight kneels down. A small device is pulled out and as he presses a button, a green sphere of light comes out with a grid outline. Places of safety, things that can be used are show on the radar and Rudy points them out. "Everyone get to cover! There is a root celler there, that barrel is pretty tough," he calls out to the townspeople before he notices there are familiar faces. The advice for path management Rudy is offering might be helpful to the heroes involved with this odd threat as well.
When he's close enough to the princess, Rudy calls out "Cecilia!" as he moves to grab her hand and Emma's too if she doesn't move her hand away. Why? He plans on pulling them with him if he's able as he tries to move toward where Sorey and his people are. After all, safety in numbers.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward its party's challenge, One Flew Over the Cucco's Nest. DG: The party led by Sorey has passed this challenge! The party gained 17 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
The knot of Lunarians just runs right by Ceclia, Rudy, and Emma, all of them clinging to a rope while they are being chased by a giant mass of white, fluffy, overly plump, and ANGRY birds. Sorey looks over for a moment, his green eyes wide in disbelief and horror, and shouts, "RUN! RUN FOR IT! They cannot be reasoned with! They cannot be stopped! Run!"
Further back up the road, a Cucco stands atop the downed Mikleo and crows its triumph. THE OPPRESSOR HAS BEEN DEFEATED! And now he will be dragged back to Fort Cucco and be forced to make frozen treats for all time!
Sorey tries to hold onto the rope and fumbles it, tripping over a particularly ambitious cucco. He goes down, tumbling on the ground as he is PECKED FEROCIOUSLY by the mass of terrible chickens! However, his sacrifice seems to have allowed the others to gain distance on the rest of the mass of feathered fiends.
That doesn't mean that there are not more coming, however. And Sorey breaks free from the pack, running REALLY FAST as he tries to catch up to everyone else. "Keep going!" he shouts. "I don't think they're going to stop anytime soon!"
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* CHALLENGE - ...Through a Goose *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- There is an unfortunate side effect of a flock of tens of thousands of enraged fowl taking to the skies. Not only do they scratch and peck, not only do they dive bomb the unexpecting, and not only do they possess a cunning far beyond any normal chicken, they have to do what every bird every does. When you gotta go, you gotta go. A rain of stinky white... stuff... comes pelting down from above, in the sort of carpet-bombing campaign that has not been seen since the ancient era. While less explosive, it is far, far stinkier. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Hurry," Catenna calls out - and then her eyes go wide as she realizes one of the people she's calling to is the daughter of the King of Adlehyde. Not that she knows much about royalty, but her princess detector is fairly finely honed today, I guess?!
If nothing else she manages to get Alisha, hopefully. As Sorey goes down, she widens her eyes and gasps. "Oh no," she calls out.
She clenches her teeth. Anguish plays out on her face. But she makes the call.
"Leave him," she shouts as she turns to sprint down the street, rope swinging from her right hand. She runs as fast as she can.
The enormous, clucking white wave whirls around them. Cuccos flit and flap above, around, toppling food stands, swarming over buildings. A wave of them sails overhead...
And, from above, another white wave begins to descend.
- splat*
Something white and putrid splatters against the street near Cecilia and Rudy. Catenna widens her eyes. "Oh no," she repeats, more stunned this time.
Again she whips her rope out. "UNDER COVER," she shouts as she swings the hook towards a nearby fruit stand. The grappling hook digs into it.
She pulls as hard as she can - and one of the limbs supporting the stand snaps off. The huge striped tarp covering the stand billows through the air as Catenna reels it in - and she grabs the big wooden post, holding it above her head.
"Grab a corner!" she shouts at Alisha - and Edna, curiously enough. "Grab it and use it as an umbrella!"
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, ...Through a Goose.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha floats off the ground, thanks to Catenna. It helps... for five seconds.
Then a chicken beans her in the face and she falls back over. She slams into the ground, skidding some, before she comes back up -- and sees Rudy, Cecilia, and Emma rushing over. She recognizes two of them and waves. "Mister Roughnight! Princess Cecilia! Please, we should all stick together! This--this is very dangerous...!"
She turns, and she starts to run, and then looks ahead -- and sees it begin. A rain of splattering, goopy, white--
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
She shrieks, hands over her face, and she almost sobs as she bolts towards the nearest covered porch. "I DON'T WANT TO, I DON'T WANT TO, I DON'T WANT TO!"
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, ...Through a Goose.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna just lowers her eyelids and holds up one corner of her 'umbrella' as Alisha runs for the nearest bomb shelter.
"Whoever kicked the first Cucco should be thrown screaming from a bridge," she mutters acidly.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Sorey goes down.
Edna stops and looks back. "Sorey..." ...She hesitates for just a moment. But then she turns and resumes booking it. "You still need to keep your promise. Don't let a bunch of chickens be the end of you." She says rather coolly, before... Before IT happens.
The very thing that has even Edna's eyes widening. "No... they wouldn't."
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT
"...They would." If there was ever a time that Edna was thankful for her particular affinity for umbrellas, now certainly would be the time. She opens her's up and raises it as she runs to gain better shelter. She just hopes it's not too late!
Glitter, she can deal with. Chicken crap? NO THANKS. So focused is the earth seraph that she doesn't even really take note that Catena is looking right at her and talking to her.
DG: Seraph Edna has used her Tool Umbrella toward her party's challenge, ...Through a Goose.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey is really falling behind at this point, and he has little choice but to pull out his grappling hook and send it sailing towards the nearby porch. He aims for something important - a large sign that is hanging loose there, knocked askew by the passing birds. A good swift tugs sends safety flying towards the Shepherd, but the fact that its literally RAINING Cucco droppings is just... horrifying.
"Wearing white does NOT make this OK!" Sorey shouts as he tries to cover himself and anyone else nearby with the sign. It's not easy. It's literally splashing everywhere. "Oh this is not right, this is not good, why is this HAPPENING..."
Cecilia, Emma, and Rudy can also try and use the sign for cover but... well, it's not *that* big a sign...
DG: Sorey has used his Tool Grappling Hook toward his party's challenge, ...Through a Goose.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia's party assembles itself in short order, Emma stepping up to one side and Rudy taking (magnificent, assertive) lead. Alisha calls out to them as well, and Cecilia sets eyes on her. "Yes! We have to get..."
Her eyes cast back. "The people...!" Cecilia rasps out, looking back at the scattering townsfolk, even as she's dragged away. "They'll be...!"
... ....scared by chickens? Her brain skips a gear trying to think of what could happen. And then she is informed.
Plop. Plop plop. "Oh no."
PLOP. "No! No!" Cecilia yelps, in rapidly accelerating horror. SHE LIKES THIS DRESS. NO. JUST BECAUSE SHE GETS TO BATHE SOMETIMES DOESN'T MAKE THIS OKAY. She starts fumbling for her Tinder Staff because she has a plan that is very bad and should be stopped immediately.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, ...Through a Goose.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma's free hand is taken by Rudy. She clunks along after him on her high heels, tottering just a little.
"It smells as if the chicken manure's struck a rotary oscillator," Emma observes, before telling Rudy as she's tugged along, "How do you do? I'm Emma Hetfield. It's a pleasure to meet you." And then --
Plop. Right on her blazer. Emma looks at it, momentarily if subtly aghast. The punchy gun comes out again, this time going POW towards a nearby scrap iron stove, the punchy glove seeming to get a firm hold of the stove door, which comes loose on the rebound. Emma crouches as she throws it over her head, looking at Cecilia and saying, "Be careful!"
She makes no move to share her shelter with Cecilia. There is probably room if she ducks underneath, though. (Get it? DUCKS?)
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Punchy Gun toward her party's challenge, ...Through a Goose.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The new threat comes, this time a far more cruel assault. For Rudy, it isn't as much as the actual form of the attack that bothers him as he has been stinky and smelly many times in his life and been fine with it. However, the hazard of slipping and falling while sprinting, or being attacked on terrain that is far from sure can result in a hurt ankle or leave one open from further attack from this creatures.
"Just Rudy is fine!" the boy shouts back toward Alisha. Really? This is the time he decides to let the Knight-Princess know he's not one for titles.
Then Roughnight blinks hears the second part. He's already mid way through being a gentleman, having taken off his vest to give it toward Emma so she can shield herself from the horrid attack. "Wait, you're a princess?" he says in shock while trying to bob and weave the threat to find cover.
While Zepet taught Rudy many things; it appears waiting to have an important conversation wasn't one of them.
"Good to meet you, Emma. I guess I should call you Professor Hetfield, I'm Rudy Roughnight!"
Someone should really have that talk with him sometime about that.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward its party's challenge, ...Through a Goose. DG: The party led by Sorey has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Somebody was foolish enough to taunt one!" Catenna shouts back as Sorey comes scampering towards the group. "If you cannot handle them all, do not taunt one, because they are all coming!"
And then the Cucco wave sails overhead.
- SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLORT SPLOOT PLOP SPLICK SPLOT SPLOCK SPLOOP SQUOP SQUISH SPLICK*
As the Cucco bombers pass, the street is left practically painted white with little black clods scattered everywhere. The smell is absolutely appalling. Just trying to step out into it is for one's shoes to stick disgustingly in it.
Worse are those who couldn't get behind cover.
There are a lot of screams - and a lot of gallons of vomit - emanating from many many villagers dripping with white chicken poop right now.
Catenna covers her mouth with her free hand and tries not to toss her cookies, entirely cognizant of how much bird shit is weighing her makeshift umbrella down right now.
Fortunately, there are some convenient gaps in the poop dispersal pattern. Some of them are around Alisha's doorframe. For the most part, our heroes and heroines emerge undookied - but the smell is utterly repulsive.
DG: Seraph Edna has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Flew the Coop *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- When you duck inside of a building, you think you might have a moment's rest. The cuccos are busy flying and striking at everything outside. But when you enter, you find yourself in a restaurant kitchen. The stone-top counters are well-polished and the kitchen is bustling. And the chef steps out of the pantry, looking pleased with himself, when he announces: "Today is a wonderful day for sesame seed salad!" In his arms are two great bags of grain. Then, you hear the door to the restaurant knock inward. BANG. BANG. And then: "B-buckaw!" They want the seed. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Finally, finally they escape. But...
"Ugh... these worthless birdbrains..." Edna grumbles, pinching her nose as she glares out at the open street. It was horrid. And even worse, those damn, featherclad sacks of meat were still rampaging! In order to save her nose, Edna retreats into a nearby building.
Which just so happens to be a restaurant. "Oh." The blonde girl murmurs in a mildly unimpressed manner. "Well, whatever. If it keeps those squawking buffons outside, then anywhere is fine." So she says, but then... but then the chef steps out, two bags of seed in his arms. Edna pales just slightly when she sees them. Not that the chef can see HER, but even so-
"B-BUCKAW!"
She whirls around and see one great, menacing emissary of the black void landing in the window frame. "... ... You have got to be kidding m-" There isn't even any time to finish that sentence, because those foul fowl come flooding into the place!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
As they burst into what should be safety, Sorey takes a moment to lean against the wall and take several deep breaths. He's sounding a little ragged because DID ANYONE NOTICE THAT THEY WERE BEING CHASED BY KILLER CHICKENS? Yes? Good, he's be... worried if anyone had actually missed that.
But the sound of chickens banging on the front door is enough to send a chill down the Shepherd's spine. "...I don't think the door is going to hold them off for long!" he shouts. They're trapped, and the Cuccos WANT IN. And they want in now.
There is only one thing to do in this situation. Sorey consults the wisdom of the ages and pulls out his copy of the Celestial Record.
He flips through the book, and finally finds the part he is looking for.
CUCCO ATTACK
It was during my journey through this strange land that I came upon the sight of a young boy striking a strange, plump chicken. The creature was angered, and in its anger called upon many of its fellow avians using a strange, bone chilling cry. The boy was attacked most fiercely, and I dove into the fray to help him. We hid inside of the grain shed, but it appeared that when our feathered foes realized that there was seed that they desired within, they immediately began to break the door down behind us.
Realizng that discretion was the better part of valor, I gathered the boy in my arms, threw a bag of grain at them, and jumped of the shed window.
CUCCO ATTACK
"Everyone! According to the Celestial Record-" Repository of much lore and wisdom, written by a great adventurer and traveler, blah blah and so on. "-we should give them what they want and make a run for it!"
DG: Sorey has used his Tool Sorey's Celestial Record toward his party's challenge, Flew the Coop.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha is hyperventilating. She still has some on her, and despite the fact that the girl escaped without true disaster, she is beyond frazzled. Her eyes are wide and there are tears brimming in them, and she is panting with frustration. "That... that was--that was horrible!"
It is almost a whine. Being Alisha is suffering.
She ducks into the restaurant, too, and she slams her palms down on a table. She breathes hard, staring down at it with wide eyes. "I am a princess of Hyland," she tells herself. "I am a princess of Hyland and I am not afraid of avians. I am a calm, collected, intelligent young woman and my entire life is not a meaningless struggle against people who, if they did not want me dead, would not bother to deign I exist and--"
'BUCKAW!!!'
Maybe it's for the best that is interrupted. Alisha lets out a berserker screech, pupils shrinking to pinpoints, and runs for the window. It shatters open and she yells: "ACCORDING TO THE CELESTIAL RECORD--" The heavy tome is in her hands. She swings it, and in slow motion, feathers explode outward as a chicken is hurled back. "--GET CLUCKED! THROW THE SEED! THROW THE SEED!"
DG: Alisha Diphda has used her Tool Celestial Record toward her party's challenge, Flew the Coop.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna follows Edna into the building. It doesn't even occur to her that the girl should be half-invisible. She's a magic priestess who communes with spirits, she just kind of gets these things.
The sound of chickens pounding on the door leaves her squeezing her eyes closed and clencing her teeth. "This is going very badly," she murmurs. "Very, very badly."
Sorey makes his point. Catenna nods briskly. "He is right," she calls out, reaching for the restauranteur - and she grabs a big plate of the salad. Bracing herself, she rushes to a window.
Gingerly, she cracks it open.
A chicken beak juts through, squawking and clucking. "No you don't!" Catenna shouts, batting it with the edge of the bowl, then shoving the salad out the window for the chickens to feast on.
The whining Alisha gets a sympathetic look from her. "I am sorry, Princess," she says gravely, "but Cuccos are a democratic bunch."
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Flew the Coop.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey looks at his copy of the Celestial Record.
He looks at poor Alisha.
He looks at the book again.
"...but this is my favorite copy!" he whines. Just a little bit. Arg. Right, he'll step over and hit chickens with it, IF THAT IS WHAT IS SAYS...!
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Roughnight?" Emma says, blinking once behind her glasses.
But the problem is looming before them. "Cecilia," says Emma, "I think they're after that man's full sack. Yes - it's definitely the case. They can detect the seed he's carrying, and they'll stop at nothing to get it." And from beneath that slightly poop-stained blazer, she produces...
THE EMULATOR! Which looks like a glowing green panel as she looks down at it, scrolling through something. Well, other people wouldn't know what that looks like, almost certainly, so perhaps it looks like actual work. "They're right," she says. "He's going to need to distribute that seed far and wide. I hope his wrist's up to it..."
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, Flew the Coop.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
Edna meanwhile...
...Just sort of casually starts edging her way out of a window. Let the Celestial Records, princeses, and drifters deal with this foolishness. She's just gonna get the heck out of there. Because she knows this ain't gonna work. BUH BYE!
Hopefully if the others have any brains at all, they'll soon be following. But she does make the effort to throw some of the seed out to distract those vile fiends in bird form before she makes her daring escape.
DG: Seraph Edna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Flew the Coop.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia all but forces her way under Emma's shelter because EVEN HER KIND AND BENEVOLENT HEART HAS LIMITS, OKAY.
"There! Inside!" Cecilia yelps, and gallops slightly ahead to dive into the open door. While everyone takes a moment to try and catch their breaths, she huddles in a corner with her Medium tablet, clutching it white-knuckled and staring at the object of sacred splendor with a heart full of sin. It's...it's OK, right? To ask the Guardian of Water, great Schturdark, who governs the rains and lakes, for help in this time of trial. It's, it's fine. Shower spells are rad. She can take one. It's cool. It's fine.
She looks up at Rudy with the face of a person who is actively considering open sacrilege. "No," she says, in a shaky voice. "What kind of princess would let this happen?? Ha...hahah....ha ha...." the laugh is slightly unhinged and amelodic. She goes back to her small tablet. "Is this Drifting...? How terrible........hahaha...."
BUCKAW!!
Cecilia bolts upright and swings around. Emma is giving her fantastic advice. Really just stellar. Cecilia is not even kind of listening. She produces the Tinder Rod from where she keeps it in her dress and points the thing at the door. "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE" she shrieks and then just, bathes the entire doorway in fire.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Tinder Staff toward her party's challenge, Flew the Coop.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
Rudy does get some stuff on him. Unlike others who view this as the end of the world, the boy in blue takes the situation in stride. Just one boot in front of the other. Of course, that becomes a problem as one boot slides out. Sadly, this is the leg where his knee was violently stabbed by a falling piece of a Gear, showing that it hasn't fully healed. He doesn't say anything on the matter as the pain surges through him, merely pushing forward to get into the restaurant with the rest.
"Is your invisible friend here and okay?" Rudy asks Sorey, unable to do a full head count when he can't see Edna. He's trying to keep an eye on everyone, even as the man with the seed comes in. Slowly, his head shakes as he seems to know what will happen, almost sensing it in his bones.
As the battle against bird begins anew, Rudy calmly kneels down as people attempt to deal with the Cuccos. Instead of dealing with the seed situation, Rudy pulls out a small device for a second time. The green grid emanates from device and Roughnight gets a read of the area. "Exits," he points out helpfully as Cecilia has set one of the ways out on fire, ensuring that where the party goes from here, it will hopefully get them to their goal more swiftly.
That done, Rudy looks toward Emma and nods, not sure why his last name is suddenly important. Maybe she doesn't like to get names wrong and in the chaos she's making sure she gets it right. That thought in mind, Rudy repeats himself. "Roughnight."
Then he just looks at Cecilia in the wake of her use of the Tinder Staff. "Umm...." He looks toward Emma and others, not sure exactly what to do in this situation.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has used its Tool Portable Radar toward its party's challenge, Flew the Coop. DG: The party led by Sorey has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
The gambit...
...Works.
"AHHHH! WHERE IN THE WORLD DID ALL OF THESE CHICKENS COME FR-AHHHHHHGH!" The Swarm takes the chef, flooding him in a tide of white as they overtake the building just as the others make their escape.
Out the window or whatever other opening they can find, and it's back off to the escape. But how much more can this go on?
...Only the god of poultry knows the true answer to that question. But will he smile upon these poor, beleaguered souls this day?
That remains to be seen.
DG: Emma Hetfield has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Hatches a Trap *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Cuccos may have black, seemingly vacant eyes... but the knowing farmer from Aquvy has seen what lay behind those eyes: sheer cunning. Dozens of cuccos have descended upon one of the grain silos at the edge of town -- and knocked it over. Now, with perfectly timed movements of their talons, they run as one -- and create a terrifying grain silo roller, which is rampaging down the street! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"We should have a conversation later, after this crisis has reached its climax," Emma tells Rudy. Then the chef is encouraged more, even as Cecilia toasts seeds, and then - and then -
He's taken.
Only the dedication to science in Emma's heart keeps her from panicking in the face of this. She looks round frantically, and holds her Punchy Gun at the ready, Emulator in another hand. "For every one of these we subject to attack, a dozen more rise to vex us!" she declaims, before in the distance something goes
THOOMP! That's the sound of a large hollow object hitting a semi-developed road.
Then it rumbles.
"Cecilia! We need you!" Emma calls to her, before looking at the others present. "How do you do, how do you do," she says to Alisha, to Catenna, even smiling to Sorey a little. "It's a shame about the circumstances," Emma says, even as the rumbling, slightly-bouncing empty silo approaches them. At which point she starts running.
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hatches a Trap.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
The incoming wave of Cuccos inside the building is rather terrifying, and as far as Sorey is concerned they need to be making a break for it as soon as the birds go for the grain.
And Alisha is... freaking out. And thus Sorey takes a page from the Celestial Record and runs towards the window, wrapping both of his arms around Alisha's waist. "Enda! Alisha! We need to go, they're all coming in here after the grain...!" he shouts. And Edna is taking off already, leaving them behind... well, he's glad she's taking care of herself but this feels a little too familiar...
And then just leaps bodily through the window, using his shoulder to break the glass as the wave of angry white birds comes crashing into the restaurant and carries the chef off to whatever feathery doom awaits him.
Sorey crashes to the ground along with Alisha, the two of them sliding across the dirt road. "Safe...!" the Shepherd declares.
And then a rumbling transmits itself through the ground... and Sorey just looks up as a huge grain silo comes rolling around the corner, being piloted by chickens.
"...you've GOT to be kidding me..." he groans. "...there's no END to this..."
...maybe if they were seemingly crushed the birds might ignore them...?
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"That--you... you may have a point," Alisha says, deflating a little. She hurries, glancing sideways at the doctor-slash-engineer. "Y-Yes, it's... it is a true shame that we are meeting in such terrible circumstances!" She is starting to calm down -- but then a chicken flies over her shoulder, just missing her. The princess yelps.
She gets smashed through the window just in time, sent flying through the window. She rolls away from Sorey, and comes up in time to see the silo rolling at them -- and a line of cuccos riverdancing to make the silo roll at them. She gawks, stares, and then grabs Sorey by the shoulder and starts to drag him bodily, before she throws him. "Sorey! Lady Lailah said... you must survive!"
And then she starts running, as fast as she can, to get away from the rolling silo. "Whyyyyy is this happening!" she cries out. "Mister Roughnight, Princess Cecilia, are such happenings common upon Filgaia!?"
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hatches a Trap.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
"..... ......"
After brushing herself off and standing back up to her feet, Edna glances off down the street as she soon joined by the others. And then... well. "What in the world is wrong with the chickens down on this place?" She mutters grumpily as she watches that grain silo perilously roll down the street in their direction, aiming to crush.
There's only one thing to do. Edna raises a foot. Then she stomps. In response, a stone pillar bursts upwards at high speed, launching the earth seraph into the air. Following that, she just opens up her umbrella and starts floating along...
Hopefully she can clear that rolling obstacle with enough air time. She's never really been on good terms with the wind however...
DG: Seraph Edna has used her Tool Umbrella toward her party's challenge, Hatches a Trap. DG: Sorey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hatches a Trap.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna gets bitten for her trouble. She cringes a little and jerks her hand back inside, nursing it close to her chest. Nevertheless she follows the rest of her group outside, giving her hand a shake, but nodding politely to Emma as the woman greets her. "Hello," she answers, polite but a bit distracted.
Until the silo comes rolling in. Catenna stares for a moment.
"This is beginning to grow frustrating," she mutters, before turning to sprint along with Alisha. She's rather faster than the poofy pink princess.
Slowing nevertheless, she gives Alisha a considering look. Then she fishes out her tablet. "Please forgive me," she says gravely, before uttering a word.
Something thrums around Alisha - and the princess will find her body suddenly almost weightless. It's hard to get traction! But she doesn't need it.
Because Catenna suddenly reaches out and grabs Alisha. She hoists her over her head.
DA-NA-NA-NAAAAAA
"I am sorry!" she shouts, blushing as she sprints down the street as fast as she can with Alisha hoisted over her head like she'd just found the Compass.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hatches a Trap.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia continues burning things slightly longer than is really justifiable, and for a second watches the man get buried by birds with glassy, lost eyes. She giggles, laughs bubbling out of her throat in a staccato, unhealthy way.
Then a chicken slams her in the face, throwing her back into a wall, which breaks the spell somewhat. Emma calling for her causes her to take enough breaths to break through the window after her companions, at least, landing awkwardly on both feet, stumbling a little, slowly raising her eyeS UP TO TOTAL CATASTROPHE
"WHY!" she wails, completely unable to find better response. All she can do is turn and run, half-flailing. "No!!" she yells back at Alisha, with heat of probably obvious source. "Filgaia is a nice place where BIRDS DON'T KNOW HOW TO ROLL GRAIN SILOS AT YOU WHY WHY WHY"
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hatches a Trap.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey is being hauled along by Alisha. Alisha is being hauled along by Catenna.
If Laharl shows up and hauls Cattena around, the Meta Text will not be surprised at this point.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The group continues to flee outside and Rudy finds himself struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. While a rather tough kid and used to a fight, he's more used to confronting his problems rather than running from them. But the group continues on whether or not he does, so he won't be left behind. Not when people need him.
As the loud thuds signal the silo being used against them, Roughnight merely nods toward Emma. "Of course" is all he says in response, not really able to do much else for the time being. After all, he is fleeing for his life. At the tail end of the those retreating, Rudy merely pulls over barrels, wagons, anything he can toss in the way of the crushing threat in the hopes of slowing it down long enough that he can and the rest can get away in time.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Hatches a Trap. DG: The party led by Sorey has failed this challenge! The party gained 17 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"None of this is as the Goddess Althena intended it to be!" Alisha wails.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma adjusts her glasses as Alisha pleads to her comrades of the moment, even as princesses are hoist. "They're developing new tactics, unless it's just an emergent behavior!" she shouts to Cecilia over the approaching thunderous roll of the silo.
She then informs Rudy and Cecilia, "There! In that filthy pothole!" She herself leaps for the filthy pothole in question...
... and the silo rolls forwards, probably over everyone. One way or another. At least there will be a few moments of relatively low-poultrygeist horror in the aftermath.
But it's not over.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
"Orooooo..." a dazed Sorey states as he trails along behind the carried Alisha like some sort of crazy white Shepherd banner.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna can only hold Alisha for so long before the spell wears off.
"The Goddess who," she asks, before the spell breaks and she collapses in a pile under Alisha and Sorey.
"Ow," she says.
DG: Alisha Diphda has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - This Is Not a Cucco *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Most people with common sense are fleeing, but a few are standing and gawking at the feathered frenzy. The gentleman standing here is one of those. His black, beady eyes stare up dully at the heavens. His belly trembles, as if he is three birds standing atop one another, and his suit shifts like that. His sleeves flap, emptily, in the wind. His beak-like nose works, with jerk-like motions that are somehow bird-like in their suddenness. When he sees you, he inquires in that distinctive and slightly foreign accent: "Buc-buckaw?" Maybe you should see if he needs help? He certainy isn't three cuccos wearing a suit, top hat, and monocle, ready to claw your face off. Certainly not. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
CRUNCH.
The only good news is that the silo's wood isn't so sturdy. When it crushes over them, it gives way, and they punch holes into it. The cuccos keep rolling it onward, though -- but one falls through a Rudy-shaped hole. In the end, the street is left clear for the moment. Alisha rises, shakily -- she has to brush Catenna off her -- and stares.
"That... that was... not good," she says, softly. "I fear for everyone here. This... this may be worse than any malevolence. This--oh, look, someone else!"
And he approaches. The sun, hanging low in the sky, silhouettes him as his body sways unnaturally. Empty sleeves flop in the wind, and a monocle rests over... er... a nose? The man stops and looks down at them. "B-buc... buckaw?"
Alisha tilts her head, still dazed -- and then pulls out her Celestial Record. She flips it open and skims a few lines. Then, she nods once, and steps forward. "Nothing in the Record about this," she says. "Sir, please pardon us, but do you need help?"
"Buc... buc...!"
DG: Alisha Diphda has used her Tool Celestial Record toward her party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna hits the ground with a flop. She lies there for a couple of minutes. "Thanks," she answers Alisha, her tone small.
Then the silo runs over her.
It takes her a minute to get up. There's a people-shaped imprint in the ground that she has to pull herself out of.
Just in time to spot Alisha addressing a man who is quite clearly not a man.
"HE'S A GIANT CUCCO," she screams at Alisha's back. "A CUCCO, I SAY!!"
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey pulls himself off the ground, and coughs. He'd been... run over by a silo. This was a thing. This was a thing he had seriously not been expecting, and he could probably live without experiencing it again for a good long while.
"Aaarrrg," he groans, and pushes himself to his feet. "Is everyone okay?" he asks, and... oh Alisha is talking to someone. A stray civilian? Out here? He was probably in danger!
And so Sorey approaches, and listens to the man speak.
"Actually I think that he's speaking one of the middle dialects." He pulls out his own book, and references. "See, right he-" the book is kind of smudged up on that page. "Let me try. Ahem. Caw. Buc-buc caw. Caw?"
And then Catenna is shouting, and Sorey turns around. "...that's ridiculous, look at him. Do Cuccos wear such snappy clothing?"
DG: Sorey has used his Tool Sorey's Celestial Record toward his party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
".... ....."
Edna has no words, after she's landed.
Her palm just slowly, surely meets her face.
"Are you people for real right now?"
Well, if *they* want to be idiots, sure. But her? She just walks right up and reaches with her umbrella, attempting to poke that top hat off. Because really guys. Come on!
DG: Seraph Edna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna just buries her face in her hands.
"<I'm surrounded by idiots,>" she groans in Zortroa-speak.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The blue haired boy gives a light cry of surprise and pain before he run over by the silo, though thankfully the ground is supple enough that he sinks in, not being crushed nearly as much as he would fear.
Rudy just wants to stay there. It's easy and who knows, in time the Cuccos might just drift over to another town, be someone else's problem. But Zepet's voice rings in his mind, somehow darker and more ominous than usual.
"Why do we fall, Rudy?" the elderly voice inquires in the back of Rudy's skull.
A hand struggles to push off the ground, a couple of droplets of blood from a busted brow marking this spot of sacrifice. Despite the pain, the dark gunslinger rises, cuccos still flying about in their frenzied path, like a flock of bats.
"So we can learn to pick ourselves up," Rudy replies.
After his moment of self-determination, he realizes that everyone else is talking to some man in a suit. "Come on," he inquires, pulling out the radar to show the way again. "We just need to keep moving. We don't have time..." he asks as he limps along. Who knows, his desire to move everyone ahead might just help them avoid being clucked to death by birds of a scholarly nature.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has used its Tool Portable Radar toward its party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Attempting to deny the reality of a situation before you is a sure way to be crushed horribly by the grinding, heartless wheels of history," Emma chides Edna, even as she consults the Emulator again, picking a feather out of her hair.
"I don't believe this is a giant cucco. But..."
Emma looks up, accusingly. The light gleams off her glasses.
"It might be several birds... one standing atop another!" Her free hand comes up in a dynamic flourish, as if of its own accord.
If Rudy or Cecilia peek they can see a picture of several small children one on top of another on the strange green screen of her ARM. There's also a picture of some manner of poultry or other.
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia is directed toward a pothole, and with no better plan, dashes toward it!! And then!!
Trips and falls flat on her dumb face!! And then gets run over by a grain silo. By the grace of the Guardians she gets flattened into the dirt but does not actually die.
She slowly forces herself up, whining at Emma, "I don't care why they're doing it, I just want them to stop, forever." She briefly makes sure Emma didn't die in the pothole, then takes a long, slow breatha nd tries not to think about what those smells are. Slowly...release the tension...the Guardians will surely guide you...She looks to Rudy, trying to find some semblance of stability. And...she finds it, in a sense; the boy is bleeding. However lightly. He gives of himself even now, in this dark moment, to--
Cecilia is pulled out of the moment because they are confronted by a mysterious man. Cecilia just stares in blank, uncomprehending silence for several long seconds as the others bicker. Emma makes a proposal. Cecili briefly examines her document, then up at the man, then back down. "I can test that," Cecilia declares, flat-eyed.
Then she pulls out the Tinder Staff and SETS 'HIM' ON FIRE.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Tinder Staff toward her party's challenge, This Is Not a Cucco. DG: The party led by Sorey has failed this challenge! The party gained 4 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqDGPrfECBY
"We cannot just ignore someone in need, Edna, we--" Alisha sputters, as the Seraph -- she thinks, at least -- walks past. She starts to open her mouth, to protest more, when Rudy walks past too. But, then Catenna suggests one thing.
And Emma suggests another.
And, then, Cecilia puts this to the test. Flame shoots out and catches the suit in the shirt. Three voices cry out as one, then: "Buc-buc-BUCKAAAAAAWW!" The clothes burn away under the Tinder Staff's far from tender ministrations, and then the cuccos rip through from the ashes. They are, in the moment, lined up in the sun.
The silhouette of the first hides the silhouette of the other two. The first one slams into Alisha, throwing her back on her ass, and then the other two leap over, and do drilling spin kicks down into their midst, kicking and flailing. It is a whirlwind of chicken martial arts, which leaves them all flattened.
Even Rudy and Edna, as the third leaps to ping pong off them. Then, they leap into the windows of buildings nearby, leaving only suffering in their wake.
Alisha just whimpers. "But... but why!"
DG: Sorey has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Motherclucker *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One cucco is behind this: the Mother Cucco, a bird with bright red plumage and fury in her black eyes. She drops down towards you as you make your escape. She lets out a bellowing cry -- and her children come. Then, her wings beat, and she takes off towards the skies -- but gives a final look at you. You don't have the sufficient level to fight her yet, but know this: she will be back. The horde comes at her call, though. Dozens of cuccos swarm, dive bombing, scratching, pecking, and unleashing their terrifying martial arts upon you! Feathers fly -- and so will you, if you're unlucky! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
The Cuccos seem to respond to... excitement. Other Cuccos having things done to them. This results in a reaction in which Cuccos respond to the danger of their fellow, and come swarming to their defense.
But what happens when a critical number of Cuccos have gathered in an area? And then when someone unleashes HORRIFYING AMOUNTS OF EXCITEMENT (fire) upon some of their fellows?
The result is the appearance of the Grand Cucco. The Master Cucco. THE CUCCO MOTHER.
She is not impressed by this particular gathering of heroes. The GREAT CLUCKER raises its wings, and lets out an earth shaking "SQWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!"
And all across the road, Cuccos appear. They appear in the windows. They appear in the doorways. They appear on the rooflines. They appear from the alleyways.
All of them have little black head bandannas on for some reason.
Sorey helps Alisha back to her feet, and looks around for a moment. And then, quite deliberately, he pulls out his sword. "I don't think they come in peace..."
With a dismissive cluck, the Mother Cucco rises into the air, a ponderous form flying out towards the west, returning to whatever Dark Place these foul feathered fiends come from.
The Cuccos look at the group for a long moment. Hovering. Silent. Ominous. And then one of them clucks.
And then they all give a howling battlecry, and come screaming down towards the party. Dozens and dozens of Cuccos, all lashing out with claws! Beaks! ...nunchucks? One of them even has a flamethrower that it has found on some unfortunate Black Tie elsewhere in town, and it goes rushing towards the UNHOLY BURNER OF CHICKENS and her Tinder Rod. ...and everyone else in the area, for that matter.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Groaning into her hands, Catenna slumps to her knees. "Why are the cuccos wearing a dapper suit," she laments. "Why is everything so stupid."
The cuccos make their attack. Catenna just groans into her hands and curls forward until her forehead touches the ground. "Blessed Celesdue, please deliver me from this tornado of nonsense," she mutters from behind her hands.
Slowly, she raises her head as the sound of clucking grows deeper. She watches the Mother Cucco flutter off, and more and more of the little mothercluckers gather. Her lips part ever so slightly as she tries not to fear what is sure to come.
Her right hand comes forward, medium held in it.
The fluffy white birds dive. Catenna inhales - then utters a word. "Chapan."
The air around her vibrates menacingly for a moment. Nothing seems to happen.
Until dozens of Cuccos around her begin to drop out of the sky like rocks. Many of them slam into the ground and struggle to try and get up. It's as if the effect of gravity on the bad birds has multiplied exponentially to the point that they're too heavy to lift themselves off the ground.
With her free hand, Catenna pulls her shotgun out, spraying a couple of shots into the air - more to startle the cuccos than anything else. The shrapnel spraying from those bullets also gets dragged to the ground, forming little trenches that pockmark the street.
She holds the spell as long as she can. "Please bear with me," she beseeches Celesdue in a whisper. "Please."
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Shrapnel Shell toward her party's challenge, Motherclucker.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha stares in a mixture of awe and dismay at the Mother Cucco. Something she did not expect to ever see. She stares up at her, and then she sees the birds come screeching down for them. She looks sideways at Sorey and nods, before she cries out: "Get ready!"
She flips her spear off her back, and into her hands. The bladed end, however, is kept behind her. She doesn't want to cut the cuccos down (they're still kind of cute), but she has to protect herself. She spins, swinging the blunt end of her spear into one cucco, then whirls, and strikes out with a thrust for another. Then, she leaps.
She comes down, swinging her spear out for a cucco -- who looks up, and spins its own spear in its wings, and they come crashing down in a great clash, which--
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Motherclucker.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna pauses in mid-spell.
"...Where did that Cucco get a spear," she asks.
"How did it get so good with it?"
"Why."
"What."
"WHY."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Edna has posed.
This day just keeps getting worse and worse.
"As if the droppings and the silo weren't enough, now they know mortial arts." Edna rolls her eyes grumpily, looking off in the direction of the departed Mother, then back down just in time for one of those cucco's to come right at her, spinning it's body like a top with a foot out! It clucks unintelligably, but somehow, it sounds like Tatsu....tatsu-something!
"Tch-"
That move has i-frames on startup! But it's okay! Edna blocks, and then spends some meter on an Alpha Counter, followed by a dash, and then rushdown in the form of spinning to thwap a bunch of feathery bastards around her with her umbrella again and again!
High level fighting, clearly.
DG: Seraph Edna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Motherclucker.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
As Rudy's advice is ignored, the cucco agro is started anew and Roughnight finds that there is a beast striking the back of his head. It scratches and flails and by the time the creature is fended off, Rudy is bleeding pretty badly now from a litany of smaller cuts and gnashes. Rudy hopes that this is all over now. But the monster bird unleashes its horrid spawn upon them and the fight begins. The true fight.
As everyone prepares themselves for battle with spear, spells, and sword, the ARM wielder considers the words of Miss Whitlock: 'Make sure to pick who you show this too'. He knew that wisdom before she told it to him, but they seem to ring out even more considering the last time he pulled out the treasured weapon.
Rudy looks toward Cecilia, the girl he promised to protect, to Emma, the woman who Cecilia said was important to both of them. His attention goes over toward Sorey and Alisha, who are likely fighting with the help of that invisible girl. There is Catenna, a person he barely knows but she deserves to live, just as much as everyone else.
If using his ability makes him an outcast but saves a life? It will all be worth it.
The Hand Cannon is removed from its leather wrap and Rudy's left forearm gives a soft blue glow as he twirls the weapon with his right. When he stops to fire, the shell is launched out, blasting against a Cucco with a violent fury. The process repeats itself again. And again. The weapon he holds has far more power than a mere gunsmoke weapon, but he doesn't seem surprised by it or displaying any of the meekness he has shown in the past. Instead, there is only a fiery determination in Rudy's eyes. I won't lose, he tells himself, not to a chicken.
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
Sorey isn't quite as unwilling to strike the Cuccos, although given that he is also using an resin-infused wooden sword, he certainly isn't trying to cause any lasting harm. But as he knocks the birds away, one of them steps up and just leaps upward and smashes him in the chin with one wing. There was even a little bit of fire coming off of its feathers from that attack.
"Woah! Watch it, that's not!"
And another bird hits him from behind, and Sorey staggers, swinging his sword to knock the birds back.
"Is this ever going to end!?!" he asks.
The answer may well be no. Not until the Cuccos have really ruffled their feathers.
DG: Sorey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Motherclucker.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Birds fly towards her! Emma can't chide people for not feeling the science because she is coated in mud and bird crap and now feathers. This is not her most dignified day. "Gah!" she declares, hunching forwards.
Her head raises up -- and there's a gleam of shocking light in her eyes--
As she raises up her Emulator while gazing directly at the Mother Cucco. "Come to my town and interfere with my operations, will you," she says in a low voice, before her free hand stabs a finger down with decisive force.
Emma's punch gun is spent. She has no other ARM with her. She does not know what dread force motivates this chicken attack.
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As this executes, her eyes cut to the side at the sight of Rudy's ARM. Her eyebrows lift. But it isn't the time for her to say more.
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Motherclucker. DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Motherclucker.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"These are Demonic things," Cecilia hisses, with palpable anger, as the birds fly into the air. She puts her Tinder Staff away and reaches for her staff - but is unable to produce it before she gets drilled in the chest by a bird, sending her stumbling. Then she gets kicked across the chin and just straight up punched, somehow. She ends up flat on her ass, staring numbly.
...which is when IT appears, looming titanic. "So...at last the master appears...!" she stammers out, starting to lever herself upright. She doesn't reach for the tinder staff this time; she produces the REAL one, but she doesn't release it so it may cast its mystic spells.
She drops into a low, fighter's stance, and lashes out at the first cucco to come at her with a quick, hard strike, then kicks the staff with one foot, sending it whipping up into another's beak. "I will not...be beaten...by POULTRY!" Cecilia cries out.
Thunder rips the air, and Cecilia's eyes whip over to the source. She's never seen Rudy actually use that ARM before, and its power seems to defy what she'd expected of it. But before she can think much of it she's forced back into the fight; she snaps her staff up and smacks a cucco out of the air.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Motherclucker. DG: Catenna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Alisha Diphda is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Edna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Sorey is too exhausted to continue! DG: Emma Hetfield is too exhausted to continue! DG: Rudy Roughnight is too exhausted to continue! DG: Cecilia Adlehyde is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. Your party can no longer continue and is forced to retreat! DG: The party led by Sorey has been fully Exhausted by Cucco Invasion!
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.
There is something to be said for bravery. There is something to be said for courage. There is something to be said for standing up against impossible odds.
Whatever is said, it does not actually apply to fighting a MASSIVE ARMY OF FLUFFY WHITE CHICKENS.
For a moment the group manages to carve out a space among the fluttering white crowd. The Cuccos all stand about for a moment, their tiny, evil black eyes staring at the humans who stand before them. STARING AT THEM WITH MURDER IN THEIR EYES.
Sorey looks back, trying to keep up a brave front. There are so MANY of them. And they are angry, angry poultry.
"...we can't stay here! We need to run!" Sorey states after a moment. "These things are just going to keep coming unless we can get away from them somehow!" He doesn't even want to think about what other groups are out there being chased around by these birds. But their best bet is to create a distraction and scatter.
And he can only thing of one quick way to do that. "HEPHSIN YULIND!" he calls out, asking Edna for her power for a brief moment. The Earth Seraph on her own can do some impressive landscaping - and together... they can accomplish a bit more. And Sorey uses the Armatus for a moment, his clothing transforming into a brilliant white outfit, and a pair of massive stone fists appearing hovering just above his own.
He slams that fist down, and an explosion of dust and stone erupts around the entire group. From the middle of the dust screen, a pillar of rock shoots upwards, pushing the group away from danger!
It lasts for about a second until a Cucco on a nearby rooftop whips out an ARM and shoots a missile into it.
The rock pillar shatters into pieces, sending people flying onto nearby rooftops, hay bales, and all manner of safe landing places. Unfortunately it will also leave people scattered - and probably forced to deal with more Cuccos in the hours to come!