2017-09-02: A Warm Welscome
- Log: A Warm Welscome
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Talise Gianfair, Animal, Sephilia Lampbright, Arleph Ardan, Layna Manydays, Dean Stark
- Where: Kislev-Aveh Front - Abandoned Frontier Town
- Date: 9-02-2017
- Summary: A bunch of Drifters wander into an abandoned town and nothing terrible happens. Absolutely nothing terrible happens. Everything is fine...?
===========================<* Kislev-Aveh Front *>============================ The frontlines of the Kislev-Aveh War have shifted many times in the last few hundred years, but they have left their scars on the land. One can, of course, find fighting between their infantry and Gears here. Such places are dangerous, and most Drifters know to steer away from them. However, sometimes there is no choice; even the rail lines thought to be away from the front can get caught unawares by a patrol, and skirmishes have resulted in delays and death for those trying to get to the Badlands. The areas not currently being fought in are also dangerous. Deserters and monsters alike can wander them, and the dry, dusty land leaves little succor for those in need. To make matters worse, abandoned fortifications and trenches make an excellent hiding place for the bandits seeking to profit here. Drifters are sometimes drawn here, though, to either fight for one side or to excavate abandoned ARMs and Gears left behind in a battle. This sort of salvage work is risky, but the rewards can be great. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxynM-xwLUs
DG: A party led by Ida Everstead-Rey is now entering Abandoned Frontier Town. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Howls in the Distance *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The town itself is abandoned - there is no apparent life anywhere to be seen, not even pets, livestock, or small animals. And then a sound in the distance. The inhuman cries of some sort of monster, which echoes from over the horizon. There are distant shapes on the horizon, closing in at a rapid pace. Best find some place to hide - the number of creatures might well be overwhelming. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- The frontier is dotted with tiny towns, many of which are still desperately trying to scratch out a living in the sands. Each year, more of them dry up and blow away like tumbleweeds, leaving only husks. Ida came across such town on her way back from Krosse--clearly abandoned, about fifty miles outside of Bledavik. Ida left her Gear some distance outside of town, and approached on foot to investigate. Something about it didn't feel right.
- No one's here. She walks down what was once the town's main street, notes that Unlike the others, though, this one looks like it was abandoned... fairly recently. The buildings don't show near as much wear, and some of the shops look freshly-painted. Lots of the windows are still intact, and there's still a gaslamp burning outside the town hall. It's still hooked up to the gas feed.
- "How unusual," Ida says, trying to curtail the sudden feeling of dread that creeps up her spine. "It could've been abandoned yesterday.
- A discordant chorus of howls echoes in the distance, carried on the wind. They do not sound like anything a living creature should make--the sound turns Ida's dread into terror. She shoots bolt upright. That noise. She finds herself remembering something she read months ago--her mother writing about howls like that in her journal. There's no time to cross-reference, though she does run fingers across it for comfort. "We must get upwind," she says. She licks a finger, holds it up, gauges the local air currents. "If--if whatever-it-is cannot smell us, we might be able to escape." This way. Ida ducks in an alley next to the abandoned saloon, the wind blowing against her face.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise has been pulling money together over the last little while to buy more food. It helped that she stopped to hunt on the way in. She's offered to share some of the roast chicken; she even let Animal have some.
Casting the bone of her chicken leg aside, a still hungry Talise paces along after Ida, Rastaban already drawn and held in her dominant hand. "Yeah. It looks like they got out of here pretty quick, too," she murmurs as she glances sidelong at Ida. She's tense, shoulders tightening up visibly and voice quieting as though to try and escape the notice of...
...Of something. She's not sure what. But it can't be good. "What could've made them all just get up and leave a relatively nice town," she murmurs.
That's about when something off in the distance roars in a way that creatures should absolutely not roar.
"Althena's oversized hat," she curses as she darts after Ida, juking down that alley and whirling to try and catch sight of the creature before she's behind the building. She can't quite. Instead she just keeps pace with her much smarter friend. "Your mom has notes about something like this?" she asks in an urgent hiss. "Did she say what kind of creature it is?"
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- Though he'll never reveal it, the abandoned frontier town is near Animal's hut, and he has regularly come within spitting distance of the place. Not that he spits, because water is a precious commodity in the Badlands. But when he comes across Talise and she offers him an apparently limited portion of the roast chicken, he is hooked, and has to follow along with the others.
- When he sees anyone discard a chicken bone, he pauses to collect them and puts them into a vest pocket. Patting them a few times to make sure that they're secure.
- "I think the well dried up. I remember checking the well here when I was little, and I crawled all the way down into it, and it was dry," he explains to Talise when she queries about the evacuation of the residents. But clearly he isn't an expert on such things, and speaks entirely from random anecdotal evidence.
- Hearing the roaring in the distance, he follows the others and nods a bit to himself. Rubbing a bit at his headband as he does so.
- "At least it isn't sandworms. They keep following me around, because I keep smushing them," he goes on.
DG: Animal has used his Tool Lucky Headband toward his party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia shudders. "My home village wasn't even this big and it had more activity even when it was quiet," she says, voice pitched low so as not to carry. She's got the Foxington Flintlock strapped across her back, but Chauncey is ready in her arms. It's a strange sight to any who've not come to know the girl--she's holding stuffed animal protectively in front of her while the more obvious weapon hangs from her back--but at the same time, those who do know her don't seem to think it's that strange at all.
Sephy's a weird girl.
At Talise's mention of notes, though, Sephy frees one hand to rummage in her satchel and produce her Dad's journal, leafing through it rapidly with Chauncey crooked in an elbow. "I don't know about Ida's Mom, but my Dad says when you're in an abandoned village it's always a good idea not to rush into a building--alleyways might be better for getting out of if you need to, and you never know when you're going to be boxed into an unfamiliar room with only one exit otherwise!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- The last week have been something of an annoyance for Arleph Ardan.
- Recovering at some of the small towns after the escaped from the Guardian Temple, as well as the battle that awaited outside. Things are different now, a good time of rest, as well as looking around... and investigating the Medium he recoverd. So far, it remained silent.
- He's certain that will change soon enough, with enough investigation. however, the road do call evantually again which brings him to a place like this, an visibly abandoned village on the edge of everything. He approached, peering from afar at the group gathering up by it's edge. Some familiar people are there.
- "Well, well, well." Arleph lets out, stepping up. "I didn't think I would be finding anybody else alive here. Ms. Everstead, Sephilia." The Symbologist nods. "May I join you? I've been observing this place for some time now and it... well, puzzling, to say the least."
DG: Arleph Ardan has used his Tool Optics toward his party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida's eyes widen at the sight of Arleph, just kind of ambling into view. The howls continue--if anything, they're getting louder. "Doctor Ardan," Ida hisses, gesturing towards the alley. "This way!"
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna, as it happened, had run into her familiar friends by chance - she's been going back and forth from Krosse for reasons when she noticed Ida's Gear off in the distance. With no Ida in sight, this warranted investigation - which was what currently lead her to be here in this strange, abandoned town.
The howl reaches her, and Layna frowns.
"I dunno if I'd trust the wind right now, lass. There's a fell aura on the breeze... Somethin's here that shouldn't be. I say go with your gut." She says with a glance toward Ida. Those who knew the pirate captain best knew that she wasn't often this serious. If she was feeling like this, it was probably best to trust her.
She then glances toward Sephilia, and offers her a slight smile.
"Aye, that's good advice. Though if it comes down to it, we could always make an exit, aye?" She says.
She gives the approaching Arleph a glance but doesn't say anything, instead glancing toward Ida for confirmation.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- Huh... Maybe Dean took a wrong turn at Adlehyde, because on a run into town to get supplies while Rebecca and Avril keep an eye on their busted-up Gears still in the desert, he's found himself instead in an abandoned frontier town. He thought for sure this was the right way! He must've just seen the houses and assumed it was the town it was looking for... He's run into a few people on the way in, and joined them because why not, but... it looks like they're just as confused as he is. He walks down the thoroughfares, looking around at the empty houses with growing unease.
- "A dry well, huh... That'd sure clear out a town," he remarks to Animal. Before he can say anything else, though, a howl reverberates, and Something approaches... As the group runs into Arleph, then rushes away and bids him come with, Dean half-turns after they pass a gate into their way in an alleyway. Twin Fenrir flashes into his hand, and with a couple of shots, he gets the gate to shut and the lock to flip closed--hopefully, anyway. That's his aim. "Hopefully that'll stop those things from following us in here!" he says aloud, helpfully. If nothing else, if there's a locked gate in between them, it should hopefully make it easier to hide from... whatever those things are.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Twin Fenrir - Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, Howls in the Distance.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Well with Chauncey around yeah, we could make an exit, but still better to be tactical-ish in our thinking." Sephy knows what the difference is between strategy and tactics. They're not book words.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- "What? What?" Arleph lets out, ushered into the alleyway. Then he hears the noise. His optics didn't have much... on that. "Oh."
========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Howls in the Distance *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The town itself is abandoned - there is no apparent life anywhere to be seen, not even pets, livestock, or small animals. And then a sound in the distance. The inhuman cries of some sort of monster, which echoes from over the horizon. There are distant shapes on the horizon, closing in at a rapid pace. Best find some place to hide - the number of creatures might well be overwhelming. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Howls in the Distance *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The town itself is abandoned - there is no apparent life anywhere to be seen, not even pets, livestock, or small animals. And then a sound in the distance. The inhuman cries of some sort of monster, which echoes from over the horizon. There are distant shapes on the horizon, closing in at a rapid pace. Best find some place to hide - the number of creatures might well be overwhelming. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
====================<* Abandoned Frontier Town - Round 1 *>===================== ======================< Results - Howls in the Distance >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Flora's Notebook 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten and Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 0 --(6)--> 6 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 0 --(4)--> 4 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Twin Fenrir - Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arleph Ardan 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Optics 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 0 --(6)--> 6 Pass Dad's Journal 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animal 0 --(4)--> 4 Fail Lucky Headband 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 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> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- "Trust me, Captain," Ida says. Her eyes are wide as she looks at Layna. "If these are what I suspect they may be, we're in mortal danger." Months of running around have given her the cardiovascular endurance she needs to keep talking while running down the alleyway. Talise follows close behind, keeping an eye out for the creature--and then, movement! It's over there by that--
- No, that's definitely a tumbleweed, blowing along the alley. If nothing else, it's confirmation that they're moving downwind, away from the creatures. "Regardless of what it is," she says, once everyone is huddled behind the gate, and Dean has locked it. "It may be able to smell us."
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Good Thing They're Slow *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Reapers are not known for being lightning quick most of the time, and it seems this group is no exception. What they are is tenacious, and they continue to pursue the party with a dogged relentlessness that will lead to trouble sooner or later. Most likely later. The group needs to find a way to shake them off before they can continue their investigation. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Your dad's a wise man," Talise answers Sephilia, reaching out to pat the girl on the shoulder.
As Arleph just comes sauntering up, Talise peers at him; it takes her a couple of minutes to actually remember who he is. "Oh. It's you," she finally says, noncommittally.
She grimaces as she shelters with Ida, watching that tumbleweed blow by. Sword in hand, she looks out through the other side of the alleyway and eases herself towards the edge of the wall. "You're right. We need to be careful," she says as she glances left, then glances right.
Standing just to the right of an alley is a humanoid figure. Or at least a twisted, hideous one, arms gangling as it slouches forward. It's about six inches from Talise and opening its mouth as it leans towards her.
"SHIT!" Talise shrieks without thinking as she swings Rastaban as hard as she can. The blade rips through the monstrous being at about the midsection. The Reaper slides apart just below the ribs. Both halves of it hit the ground at the same time. Talise's eyes are wide and the colour has drained from her cheeks.
From down the street, more of those shambling, twisted abominations come into view. They're slow, lumbering towards the alley - but there's a certain primal savagery to it, the hideous things pawing the ground like zombies and groaning as they doggely rush towards the group.
"May I suggest we run," Talise breathes, before breaking into a dead sprint. The other way.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow.
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- "If it's what I think they are, we should fight them!" Animal says enthusiastically, but follows the others with a calm patience, like he has stumbled on some folks in his backyard and he needs to help get them to safety. He continues to rub at his forehead, and then nods wisely at Dean, "Yep, dry well. That and I think some of them died here too, but people die everywhere," he shares and continues to run his hands along the walls as he walks.
- Sniffing the air as they go, he looks back over their shoulders occasionally, looking past others and then continuing forward.
- "If we get out of here, you guys can come to my place, I have really nice stuff though, so you have to promise not to take any of it," he tells them. Pointing in one random direction, he expands, "It's that way."
- It's about then that the reaper makes its appearance, and he turns to throw a rock at it, and then takes off running at Talise's suggestion. Not wanting to be the only one to stick around and fight the things that'd been following them.
- "I shouldn't have thrown that rock. I should have thrown a bigger rock."
DG: Animal has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy doesn't like not knowing what's going on. "What do you guys THINK they are if you think they're something?"
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"They're like horrible zombie things, run!" Talise shouts back at Sephilia as she runs away ahead of a horde of said horrible zombie things that may or may not want to eat the party for dinner.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"But..." Sephy runs, not that she's good at that--"why not fight them? Chauncey an' I..."
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- This rude awakening on Arleph was something of a stutter for him. Fleeing along with the newly formed group, the symbologist sped on, keeping a tab on his glasses for a moment. Did he misread something? His readings said that this place was quiet, had nothing happening and yet...
- The Reaper shows up. Arleph don't stop, eyes going well. The girl makes a good point, why not fight it?
- "Because, if we do that," Arleph says, "We'll make a LOT more noise, be stuck in one spot for a while while others comes to our back!"
DG: Arleph Ardan has used his Tool Optics toward his party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow. DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida hears the sound of something wet and soft slapping against the ground. She looks up and sees the thing as it sees Talise. Her mouth opens. Her eyes go wide, and the color drains from her face. It takes every ounce of self-control to not scream in terror. Training takes over. Her revolver clears leather before she knows she's drawing it, and she puts two bullets into the center-mass of another Wel as it lurches out from behind an overturned wagon.
- "Reapers," Ida says, forcing herself to keep her voice down, lest she attract more of them. The gunshots were risky enough. "Run. There's never just one. There's never just a dozen. There--there's more, there's many more." Mother's notes and training were very clear. Even if they weren't, Ida's formative encounter with monsters such as these drove home the knowledge that it is so very easy to be overrun.
- "Keep moving upwind!" Ida says. She breaks into a sprint alongside Talise, but as she does, she grabs for something off her belt. It's not the spark striker, or a flare, or a gun--it's the Medium of Moor Gault. Ida touches it to the overturned wagon, and a spark leaps from it. Smoke and fire, Ida remembers. Mother said it can either distract them or lure them in.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- "Mortal danger?! It's that bad?" Dean asks Idea in a harsh whisper, grimacing in alarm. "A good thing we got away in time...!" Though he doesn't have any more idea of what these things are than Sephy does. His grimace widens at Animal's response. "Well, yeah, but..." Even if people die everywhere, it's still sad.
- That said, 'getting away' might be an exaggeration. Although the locked gate has slowed the creatures down, it's clear they aren't so easily stopped or discouraged when one appears in front of Talise and Talise tears it in half with a scream. Dean jolts back, his ARMs appearing in his hands again in preparation to fight--but then Talise says to run, and not knowing enough to argue, he follows. "Thanks, Animal," he says at his offer, "but I was actually looking for a town to buy groceries from, so directions once we get outta here would be great!"
- Arleph and Ida make excellent explanations as to why fighting is a bad idea. If they need to get away from the Reapers, then they need to slow them down, right? Spotting a bunch of half-rotten crates, Dean slows his speed to let the others get ahead of him, then drops into a slide right into said crates, shattering them all into a heap that blocks up the alleyway behind them. They'll also make for good kindling for the fire Ida's starting. He's quick to get back up on his feet and follow the others, though. Being young and fit is a blessing.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
So, Ida had an idea of what they were dealing with? That would be useful later...but suddenly, one of them comes into view, lunging toward Talise. Layna whirls on it, but fortunately Talise has it covered...unfortunately, the one she bisected is far from the last one. There are more, further back into the shadows...and their intentions are clear.
Layna backs away while reciting an incantation. A well of harsh, violent winds rises between them. It cuts away at the creatures, slicing into rotted flesh...
But at this point, they were far beyond experiencing that pain. The winds would hopefully slow them down, however, which was far more desirable.
"Aye." She says in agreement, nodding toward Arleph as Ida fills in the other reason for not sticking around and fighting them.
If Layna of all people didn't want to fight something, then that was a bad sign.
She keeps up with the rest of the party as they run, but she doesn't want to get too far ahead of them.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Good Thing They're Slow.
==========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Good Thing They're Slow *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Reapers are not known for being lightning quick most of the time, and it seems this group is no exception. What they are is tenacious, and they continue to pursue the party with a dogged relentlessness that will lead to trouble sooner or later. Most likely later. The group needs to find a way to shake them off before they can continue their investigation. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
=====================<* Abandoned Frontier Town - Round 2 *>===================== ======================< Results - Good Thing They're Slow >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 3 --(7)--> 10 Pass Flora's Notebook 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten and Fanfare --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 6 --(6)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 4 --(8)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 3 --(9)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arleph Ardan 3 --(9)--> 12 Pass Optics 2 Wits Effects: Resilient --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 6 --(6)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animal 4 --(11)--> 15 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Reckless(1)|Tire(2) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 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> Talise Gianfair has posed.
She may not know anything about Reapers, but boy oh boy does Talise have a pretty good idea that it would probably be wise to not hang around. She tosses a few empty bottles out of her pack to try and give the Reapers something to trip over. It doesn't achieve all that much, to be totally honest with you.
The upper half of the one Talise bisected lives long enough to start pulling its way across the ground for several metres before it's trampled down by the other Reapers, shambling sluggishly after the party. It's hard to tell if it would have died on its own, or if any of these things are alive and not actually walking dead.
Talise isn't sticking around to find out - if they scare Ida, there's got to be a pretty good reason. "Not gonna let them mob us," she huffs as she dashes upwind as fast as she can. The rest of the party follows along - and the Reapers soon divert towards the flaming wagon. The monstrous mutants shuffle towards the flame like hideous, slavering moths, seeming to lose interest in the group.
"Althena's codpiece," Talise swears as she rushes the group around another corner, only then stopping to press a hand to her heart. "Those were -- you said Reapers? They're-- they're horrifying!"
DG: Arleph Ardan has drawn a new Challenge.
===================================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>==================================== ================================<* CHALLENGE - Attack From Above *>================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | -------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------------- There is a scream from nearby, and several Reapers leap off the top of a nearby building or awning, using their greater height to propel their attack against the group. Their cries also have the unfortunate side effect of drawing the attention of other creatures from nearby. Avoiding the creatures diving down and making a break for safety is the only way to avoid the groups which are surely closing in! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- Maybe, somewhere, one might wonder if the Reapers are, in fact quite intelligent. The Party push on as they run, stopping for a moment in the alley as they successfully evaded the Reaper. The screeches behind fades as they take a brief respite in the area.
- Arleph leans against the wall of the alley, gripping at his leg as he slowly shakes his head, a hand fanning his hat at his neck. "I have no bloody idea... But that was strange. It could've caught up, pretty easily. It knows the way of it's town, I'd wager, almost as if it was herding us--"
- Further screams pierce the air, as a trio of Repears leaps off from the top of the building which, in turn, rise up several other screams in the echo, as the swarm of whatever lives hre is begining to stirr up.
- "DAMNIT!" the Symbologist lets out, a circle appearing below him, forming into a slide of water to push him onward. "Go! Go! Go!"
DG: Arleph Ardan has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Attack From Above.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy's never been the fastest. Her small size is a curse when it comes to quick movement--short legs don't cover as much ground. But she's running, oh is she ever.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Attack From Above.
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- Running along with the others, Animal moves out of the way of the creatures as they descend upon the group, and seems to be enjoying himself. He nimbly jumps through the window of one of the ramshackle village's buildings, and emerges from another without losing a step in the process. "Did you guys take something from these guys? They really seem to want to get you," he says to the others. "Like their food or a special mushroom or something?"
- Watching as Arleph goes along now on a mysterious water-slide he stares and wonders if he should follow. "Where is that water coming from? That's not right at all," he says, remembering the town's dry well very clearly from when he'd found it years ago.
- Catching one of the reapers out of the air, he rips it apart with his bare hands, yanking off a couples of limbs, and then running along again. He fights without finesse or skill whatsoever, just relying on being really strong to survive.
- "I think this one thinks I stole something too!"
DG: Animal has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Attack From Above.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Not only are they horrifying, they seem to be everpresent.
Reapers begin to hurtle off the building they're standing near. Talise whirls and widens her eyes, a gasp blurting out of her before one of them lands near her. She reacts wholly on instinct, wheeling and gripping Rastaban's hilt as she attempts to swat it violently back with the flat of her sword, a move aimed to knock it off its feet. "Shit, shit, shit, they're everywhere," she pants as she turns away, unwilling to stay and fight any more of them.
Talise breaks into a dead run. She takes off after Sephilia and Arleph, but hangs back a little to bring up the rear of the party. Another Reaper lurches at her and she slams her sword into it to try and sweep it aside.
Not much scares Talise, but this does. There's a hungry savagery to these creatures that convinces her they won't be satisfied until they get a mouthful of her succulent flesh.
"I think their food is us!" she shouts at Animal as she waves her sword to urge him to keep on running. "And they look like they're in the mood for a feast!!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Attack From Above.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- "Reapers?" Dean echoes, still keeping his voice down. He doesn't sound any more enlightened than before. But Ida said that there's never just one, never just a dozen, that they swarm. He looks back in the direction of the burning wagon and the monsters that have started to crowd around it. Dean is a brave kid, but seeing those misshapen *things*... He has to shiver as goosebumps prickle his flesh. He's at once really glad and really sorry that Rebecca and Avril didn't come with him. "I've never heard of 'em before... One of 'em doesn't seem too tough--" after all, Talise cut one in half!! "--but I wouldn't wanna fight waves and waves of them, either."
- Others wonder what they want, and what they're doing. Dean's eyes are still on what's behind them, so when a scream resounds from above, he jerks his head up to see several of those Reapers leaping down from above. "Look out!!" he yells without thinking, then breaks into a run. Sephy in particular seems like she's having trouble, so if she'll take it, Dean holds out a hand to her to help her speed away from these *things*.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Attack From Above.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- The fire buys the group precious time. Ida keeps running downwind, trying to stay one step ahead mentally as well as physically. Wels tend to scent their prey, and the smoke from the fire should help with that--but given how many there are, it's a delaying tactic at best. "They're more intelligent than they look," Ida says, stopping to breathe. "They have a predatory cunning to them, Mother said, the'll do--" Howls from above. Ida doesn't look; she knows what's coming. She just turns and runs, moving alongside Dean to try and grab Sephilia as she does so. She couldn't live with herself if she left her behind.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Attack From Above.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna continues running. By this point, she'd slipped her gauntlets onto her hands. She might very well need them, at this point. She's also not in a very talkative mood, though the attentive would notice subtle lip movements indicating an incantation...just in case.
This proves quite useful in a moment as she feels the wind shifting above her. She rushes up to meet the Reaper in a powerful rising uppercut sending it flying away from her.
With that done another gust of wind pushes her forward, to join back up with the others.
There was no time to deliberate. Everyone was seeing to everyone else, at least, so for now she didn't have to worry about them.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Attack From Above.
===================================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>==================================== ================================<* CHALLENGE - Attack From Above *>================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | -------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------------- There is a scream from nearby, and several Reapers leap off the top of a nearby building or awning, using their greater height to propel their attack against the group. Their cries also have the unfortunate side effect of drawing the attention of other creatures from nearby. Avoiding the creatures diving down and making a break for safety is the only way to avoid the groups which are surely closing in! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
==============================<* Abandoned Frontier Town - Round 3 *>=============================== ==================================< Results - Attack From Above >=================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 10 --(8)--> 18 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 12 --(10)--> 22 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 12 --(10)--> 22 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 12 --(7)--> 19 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arleph Ardan 12 --(11)--> 23 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 12 --(7)--> 19 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animal 15 --(7)--> 22 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------< Party >---------------------------------------------- Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 40 --(10)--> 50 Fail Conditions: Slow(2)|Tire(1) Effects: =========================================< Dream Chasers >====================�@
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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. DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Bigger Than Three Horses *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Sometimes Reapers can grow to unusual size, either by consuming victims or by merging together in an unusual manner that has yet to actually be explained. This one is pretty dang big, a massive creature with multiple claws and legs that appears to be larger than three horses side by side. It lets out an unearthly howl, before leaping towards the group with murder in its eyes. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- It turns out that the ol' switcherroo of coming from above is working for this particular batch of zombies.
- The party is caught by the Reapers on the edge of their claws, scythes, mouth-shaped claws and scythe-shaped mouths, or rib-cage razorblades. It's very gruesome to witness altought a biologist in a controlled environment would have a field day studying something like this. Unfortunately, for everyone that's not a Reaper currently, they land several blows on the runners, scratching at clothing, superficial wounds but they are far too involved into the offensive to really pursue.
- Beyond, you know, the general screeching and lurching, they speed along against the group.
- Arleph is, remarkably, quite silent during this. He ain't got no quipe. What sort of quipe can you even give to this sort of event?
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- It's no good--the group tries to run, but there's so many Reapers, and although they might not be super fast, there's more than enough and the quarters are narrow enough to keep the group from getting away. And then something even worse happens--while the group's crowded in, the Reapers start to smush together like claymation monsters, combining until they're a single, devastatingly horrifying, multi-limbed monstrosity... It's *huge*, bigger than three horses combined, and it opens up its many mouths and screams the howl of the damned.
- "There's no getting away from this one!" Dean shouts. Whether Sephy took his hand or not earlier is a moot point now, because now is no longer the time for running. His twin ARMs flash into his hands. "We've gotta fight our way out, or it'll take us all out! Everyone, let's work together and take this thing down as fast as we can!!" And, just as he said, Dean leaps towards the mega-Reaper to assault it with the combat rods on his ARMs, aiming to strike the creature's face as hard as he can!
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia nearly slams Chauncey into his giant size, slinging the Foxington Flintlock around off her shoulder with surprisingly well-practiced motion, given its size compared to hers - and as Chauncey lurches around with her in his backpack, smashing at the Reapers, Sephilia takes pot-shots at them, as fast as she can reload!
Which is not very, because it's a flintlock rifle and she's still learning how to use it.
Seriously a flintlock might get off three shots a minute by an expert marksman.
I looked it up.
Anyway, Chauncey makes up the difference.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It's a good thing Talise brought her sword. A few of them slice through and cut through her chainmail in places but she steels herself and snarls, slashing and hacking away and swallowing her fear. Her friends are in danger and it's her job to protect them.
Slamming her elbow into one Reaper, she pivots and cleaves through it with a broad sweep of her sword. "Hurry, run," she calls to the others, kicking one more Reaper out of the way.
But the Reapers soon begin to pile up. They coalesce into a single, merged Reaper, looming ponderously over the group, its many mouths yowling and longing for human flesh. Talise widens her eyes and sucks in a harsh breath through her teeth. "Sweet Dyne's beard," she hisses. "It's a monster."
The half-Beastwoman rolls her shoulders. Then she reaches for one of the knives at her belt, flipping it into her off hand. "Lady Chloe wouldn't back off from this thing," she growls as she steps close towards Sephilia, moving to shield the girl from harm as best she can.
Talise sidearms her knife towards the centre of mass of the undulating super-Reaper. In mid-flight, the knife goes off; the spell in the hilt blazes forth, exploding in a halo of lightning bolts that tear violently through the monstrous being. Then Talise is moving forward, lunging, hitting the ground, and kicking off with a violent leap that leaves her soaring towards the Reaperbeast. Her blade sweeps upwards.
"TIDAL BLOOOOW," she roars as she descends, aiming to cleave into the monstrosity and peel off Reapers from its mass with a single, massive blow.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Bomb Knife toward her party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida gets hooked by a Wel with some sort of horrific, fleshy flail instead of a right arm. The rough edge of the limb hooks around the same shoulder that other Shamblers gnawed on a year or so ago, and yanks the gunslinger off her feet. Several things happen in quick succession.
- Ida draws with her free arm, whips around while the Wel still has her in its grip, and is pulling her towards a fanged maw that takes up most of its torso.
- Ida pulls the trigger three times, putting three rounds in the Reaper's center-mass. It pitches backwards.
- Ida's hand tightens around the tentacle, and pulls. There's a horrible sound as its mutant flesh shreds, and the tendril rips free. Once she's free, Ida draws her other gun, sinks into a crouch, and draws the other gun. What happens next is a more or less perfect execution of a Five Precepts Chained Devil kata, meant for close combat against overwhelming odds with allies in the area. Gunshots ring out in between graceful pirouettes. Wels fall, dead or wounded. (Mostly wounded, admittedly.) But she's not killing them fast enough--and the wounded ones....
- A horrible, sickly squishing noise echoes out. Ida feels her gorge rising as she looks up at the colossal thing forming in the alley. She swallows it down, rushes out of the alley, and whirls around again. "EYES CLOSED, EARS COVERED!" she roars, as she whips her Medium off her belt. Her other hand comes up with a small canister, and she touches its fuse to the Medium--a tiny spark ignites the cotton. Ida hurls the flash grenade at the Wel; it hits the ground, rolls, and erupts with a thunderclap and a brilliant flash of light.
- Ida doesn't know if it will work, but she reloads anyway. She moves on autopilot, and once both weapons are good to go, she empties them into the monster.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- Regenerating the superficial wounds he took from the Reapers, Animal watches as the reaper starts to glue together, and lets out a long, "Whoa. I've never seen that before," not that he has seen a lot of things, for some reason, this is the thing that actually gets a reaction out of him. It just doesn't make any sense, even to Animal.
- With a challenging scream, he leaps forward and starts to pummel on it with angry fists and no finesse, while his teeth look for a throat to bite or something he can rip out with his fingernails.
- "This thing is so gross!" he declares loudly as he rips one of the thing's throats out, and it just sprouts another throat from somewhere in its mass. Tossing the piece of awful meat aside, he wipes at his face and leaps away from the thing to spit a few times before jumping at it again, intent on bringing it low with awful strength.
- In the following melee, he takes several hits but most of them seem to either heal or glance off of his dark turtle green vest. And only he only pauses a few times to wipe it off.
- "Tastes awful."
DG: Animal has used his Tool Vest of the Turtle toward his party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Boys are GROSS!"
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- And then they fall for the old trick: getting smushed together into a sectiobn while the horrific monster of the damned is fusing together. The Symbologist lets out a deep ragged breath -- running never been his forte -- as he snaps his fingers, lowering his hands down. "I'm afraid that I agree with that assessment!" Arleph snarls out, circles appearing at his feet as he cast a spell, forming a large ball of energy before himself with a rotating palm and outstretched fings. The conjured energy flares outward at the horrific fusion of flesh and teeth, shouting out to explode.
- "This IS definetively gross!" Arleph agrees on, obeying the commands by looking away, lowering his hat to cover his face from the flashbang. He's no military, but he know what that is, at least.
DG: Arleph Ardan has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Bah. He's a big blaggard, ain't he?" Layna growls, looking up at the giant abomination in front of them. She winces slightly at that howl, but there's no time to be concerned. She rushes toward the creature and leaps over it onto its back, winds and a green aura surrounding her. She lands on its back and buries the bladed gauntlets into it, attempting to rip and tear away at any limbs she can reach. This thing didn't respond to pain - the best option was just to reduce it's ability to actually function.
There's a violent gleam in her eyes as she does this. She's mostly distracted by the gruesome task at hand, though she is paying enough attention to shield herself from the flashbang,
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bigger Than Three Horses.
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Bigger Than Three Horses *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Sometimes Reapers can grow to unusual size, either by consuming victims or by merging together in an unusual manner that has yet to actually be explained. This one is pretty dang big, a massive creature with multiple claws and legs that appears to be larger than three horses side by side. It lets out an unearthly howl, before leaping towards the group with murder in its eyes. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
====================<* Abandoned Frontier Town - Round 4 *>===================== =====================< Results - Bigger Than Three Horses >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 18 --(2)--> 20 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 22 --(3)--> 25 Pass Bomb Knife 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 22 --(3)--> 25 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 19 --(2)--> 21 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arleph Ardan 23 --(3)--> 26 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 19 --(9)--> 28 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animal 22 --(3)--> 25 Pass Vest of the Turtle 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(1) Effects: Embolden(1)|Stalwart(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 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> Dean Stark has posed.
- Dean goes for the mega-Reaper's face, or main face anyway, striking hard enough to temporarily blind it, leaving its limbs to lash out in fury. Animal goes for its throat(s) and rips at it with superhuman strength, Layna joins him with a nimble backflip and slices at the creatures from behind. While the two of them weaken the monstrosity, Talise leaps into the air and shears off a large chunk of its mushed-together body with her literally explosive knifework, which Arleph then destroys the remains with his energy blasts. Sephy covers the others with her flintlock blast (blasts, plural, would be something of an exaggeration considering how quickly this all takes place) and Chauncy whallops the main body, which Ida ultimately obliterates with a flare grenade at its feet (Dean shields his eyes thanks to her warning). Lightning tears through the creature's two halves, and in short order, the mega-Reaper is mega-dead.
- "Whew! That takes care of that!" Dean says, Twin Fenrir vanishing from view. He grins to the others. "Great work, everybody! That wasn't so hard after all!" Howls echo on the air, inhuman and hungry for flesh. "...uhhh, but we better keep moving anyway!!"
DG: Layna Manydays has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Reaper Onslaught *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Reapers, or Wels as they are also known, tend to be aggressive beyond the norm for other humanoid races on Filgaia. With no two appearing the exact same, they all share a bloodlust that goes beyond rational explanation - and that bloodlust is being focused on the party! Several Reapers smash out of a nearby saloon, racing forward in a wall of flesh and claws as they pile in with the intent of tearing the group apart. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Before it died, the large Reaper had managed to let out a loud howl. The ramifications of that, as well as the scent of blood in the air, were being felt now. There's the sound of movement all around them, before, suddenly...
Everything
- goes
- quiet.
They're left alone, with nothing but the sounds of their haggard breaths, and the feeling that they're surrounded...
When suddenly a nearby storefront explodes outward, Reapers howling madly and claws scything out with the intent to cleave through flesh.
Layna jumps back with a loud curse and recites an incantation, sending a lance of wind into the mass of monstrosities.
"We gotta clear us a path out, and fast!" She warns, looking over to the others.
At this point, there was no point in being quiet.
They had already been found.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
At this point, Sephilia seems to realize that the Foxington Flintlock isn't helping much, and sets to directing Chauncey with all of her attention, barrelling the big doll into the group of Wels. "Why are there creatures like this?!" she calls out to no one in particular. "They're just...WRONG! Chauncey, let's make way for everyone else, Foxington Style!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught.
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- Still going after the Reaper's throats, Animal is glad to finish the big one and stands over it triumphantly. "I got you!" he tells it as he gives it one last kick that sends it sailing. Looking to the others, he tilts his head back when he hears the howl's echoes and immediately knows what that means. He bounds for the nearest of the Reapers and is much more reserved about fighting with his teeth now. He instead grabs two of the reapers and uses them like make-shift hammers, slamming them into their companions, and then throwing their bodies away with tremendous force.
- "This is fun!" he declares with a big smile on his face, and then seems to get a bit more reaper blood in his mouth, because he's a magnet for such things and he ends up spitting it out again, rather violently.
- "Well, except for the gross stuff. I must taste delicious if they're trying so hard to eat me," he decides and gnaws on his arm a little in a testing manner before resuming the awkward fighting melee. He really doesn't know what he's doing.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
All this fighting horrifying zombies is wearing Talise down. She retrieves her knife and shoves it into the top of her boot, looking back over her shoulder towards Dean. "I don't think we're through yet!" she calls as the sound of howls on the wind grows ever louder.
Until it dies altogether. Talise pauses, glancing from one side to the other in the eerie silence. She dares not say anything.
She doesn't need to.
Howling Reapers shatter the silence, erupting towards the group. "Damn you," she growls, wiping sweat from her forehead and surging forward. She snaps a look towards Layna.
"Get everyone out of here!" she shouts to her pirate friend.
Then she plunges headlong into the Reaper crowd.
With her knife seemingly out of the question due to proximity, Talise relies entirely on her swordsplay to try and hold the Reapers at bay. She wheels and delivers a flowing blow through one of them, splitting it from crown to waist in a gory mess, then spins and slices the arm off another, then delivers a backswing to slash across the chest of another, then swings back to try and bash one more with the pommel of her sword. What she's doing is pretty clear.
She's going to try and sacrifice herself by taking on the Reapers herself, so that Sephilia and the others can escape.
DG: Animal has used his Tool Vest of the Turtle toward his party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught. DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida reloads, the action equal parts mechanical and mediative. She doesn't shush Dean for his exuberance--if gunshots and screaming didn't attract every Wel within earshot already, then he certainly won't. And as Ida guessed...
- Wels tumble through a storefront in a shower of glass. Ida holsters her guns, picks up the Medium and another flare. "Your assistance, please, Firebird," Ida hisses, focusing her will on the stone once again. A spark leaps from it onto the fuse--and she flings the flashbang at the Wels, turning away to cover her ears. She hasn't been able to use the Medium for more than a lighter, but... progress.
- Talise charges in. Animal does, too, but Animal still doesn't seem to comprehend the danger. She has no idea who he is, aside from a probably-feral urchin. Gunshots ring out, and Wels fall dead. Some are near Talise, but others are advancing from another angle. Ida's trying to clear an opening.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- Arleph recenters, pooling his hands together as he concentrates. If they are going to make a stand like this, he might as well throw everything he have into his onslaught, especially if the swarm of zombies, reapers or whatever they are called are coming in in hordes at them. The Wels are being held back by the more physical members of this impromptu team, Arleph pooling in deep into himself.
- He snaps a finger, aiming over at one entrance of the wall. Air condenses, crackle then a large wall of ice snaps upward, creating a choke point that will needed to be break through and will at least give some guidance for the fighters before them. They can do this, angling himself to not fall down.
DG: Arleph Ardan has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught.
========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Reaper Onslaught *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Reapers, or Wels as they are also known, tend to be aggressive beyond the norm for other humanoid races on Filgaia. With no two appearing the exact same, they all share a bloodlust that goes beyond rational explanation - and that bloodlust is being focused on the party! Several Reapers smash out of a nearby saloon, racing forward in a wall of flesh and claws as they pile in with the intent of tearing the group apart. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- The mega-Reaper lets out a massive howl, and Talise warns Dean that it's not over yet. Dean, for his part, tenses and calls his ARMs back into his hands. In the wake of the silence that follows, he looks around carefully--and then a nearby storefront bursts open with a crowd of Reapers, wild with bloodlust, claws ripping in every direction. It's just as well that Ida doesn't shush Dean, since he's just... a naturally loud person, and at this point, being quiet really doesn't matter anymore.
- "Right behind you!" he calls to Layna when she tells the others to clear a path. He sprints forward, searching out a leyline of elemental fire--it's really amazing, how many leylines there are literally everywhere--and once his feet make contact, he calls upon the power of his copy Sword Medium to bring down a concussive blast of flame down upon the creatures to explode and, together with Ida and her flashbang, create a gap in the murder of Welses for the group to run through--including Talise, if she gives herself the chance to go for it.
- "Animal, don't eat yourself!!" Dean adds, forgetting for the moment that he could probably just regenerate whatever portion of himself he ate anyway.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Reaper Onslaught.
========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Reaper Onslaught *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Reapers, or Wels as they are also known, tend to be aggressive beyond the norm for other humanoid races on Filgaia. With no two appearing the exact same, they all share a bloodlust that goes beyond rational explanation - and that bloodlust is being focused on the party! Several Reapers smash out of a nearby saloon, racing forward in a wall of flesh and claws as they pile in with the intent of tearing the group apart. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
===================<* Abandoned Frontier Town - Round 5 *>==================== ========================< Results - Reaper Onslaught >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 20 --(9)--> 29 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talise Gianfair 25 --(9)--> 34 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 25 --(18)--> 43 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 21 --(15)--> 36 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Arleph Ardan 26 --(13)--> 39 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sephilia Lampbright 28 --(18)--> 46 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Animal 25 --(15)--> 40 Fail Vest of the Turtle 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 70 --(10)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1)|Stalwart(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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> Layna Manydays has posed.
The party fights back valiantly against the Reaper onslaught, but there are far more of them than they could hope to deal with. As the fight drags on, it becomes clear that these creatures are feared for a reason.
Even as Animal slams Reapers into each other, and Chauncey smashes through waves of them, they keep coming. Arleph creates a wall of ice, which is successful for a time...but as the Reapers tears into it with their claws, they form a ladder out of their own bodies that their 'allies' clamber out to jump at the party. And there's only so much Layna's lances of wind can do.
With a growl, Layna glances toward Talise as next spell is interrupted by a Reaper getting right in her face.
"Outta the question, lass! I don't approve of that self-sacrifing nonsense!" Layna shouts, burying a fist into the Reaper's skull.
Talise is doing a pretty good job of cleaving through Reapers with Rastaban, at least. The long blade gives her an advantage over the short-ranged abominations.
At the side, Dean's blast of flame doesn't do much on its own...but Ida's flashbang goes off at the same time, and the two react strongly together, downing just enough Reapers to form them a path.
"Alright, me hearties, let's move! And that means you too, lass!" She shouts, breaking into a run.
DG: Animal has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - The Crater *>========================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The source of the infestation of Reapers appears as the party struggles through the town. There is a large crater in the center of the town, about thirty feet across and ten feet deep. At the bottom lies some sort of strange device which has been buried in the ground. It hisses and whirls, and occasionally a Reaper will appear from inside of it via some unknown mechanism. There's no way to examine it, not with the great number of Reapers packed into the crater - it must be destroyed, and quickly. Else the entire region might be threatened by these creatures. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- As the group flees from their last melee they find themselves at the edge of a large crater at the center of town, and within that crater spins and whirs a vast and nonsensical piece of machinery. And even as they watch, a reaper belches forth from the depths of the machine and starts to scramble towards them, and with its guttural roar, others are summoned. In the distance, their claws can be heard scratching over a thousand surfaces as they come like a boiling wave from all directions. Searching for tasty tasty people to devour and feed to their machine. Blood for the blood god.
- Animal, seeing the machine and the infestation, leaps immediately towards the machine and starts to punch it. Somehow intuiting that this is the source of all their ill luck. Intent on destroying it, he leans back against the great machine, and grabs hold of a spinning wheel, and starts trying to lever it off, his whole body quaking with the effort as he tries to simply rip the machine apart.
- "I can break it!" he declares, and comes away with a small sprog.
- He'll need more time to do it, if left alone to the task of breaking down the machine.
DG: Animal has used his Tool Vest of the Turtle toward his party's challenge, The Crater.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Honestly, Talise isn't doing as bad as you might expect at holding them off. It's just holding them off everyone else that's the problem.
"Look, someone's got to keep 'em here," Talise shouts, but Layna's not giving her much room for argument - and the Reapers are piling up. Talise growls as she swings again, reaving through another one of them with her weapon's longer blade. A mess of gore and severed Wels parts is accumulating around her boots.
Eventually she can't hold them all. Wheeling after Layna, she breaks into a run and barrels after the others, breathing heavily.
The machine comes into sight. "What the hell is that thing," she breathes as she reaches for the strap over her shoulder from which her shotgun hangs. She pumps the weapon, then unloads a blast of buckshot into the thick of the Reapers. Pumping again, she disgorges another blast.
Then she holds the trigger down and just keeps on pumping. The gun Ida's family sold her lacks a trigger disconnector; she simply slams out the last four shots in the clip one after the other almost like a semi-automatic weapon, handling the Reapers as though she were a trench-sweeper.
It gives her an opening. Flashing a knife from her boot, she kisses the hilt of it. "Uncle Piet, if I don't get this back, it was for a good cause," she whispers.
Then she throws the knife towards the machine as hard as she ca, aiming to slam it into the device - and the knife erupts in a bomb blast of lightning bolts. She's hoping it's enough to detonate the machine.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Bomb Knife toward her party's challenge, The Crater.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- Maybe it wasn't so bad when there was just one BIG Reaper to fight and take down, but... numbers really are the Reapers's greatest strength! Dean grits his teeth as their numbers just keep on coming. Fortunately, fire does the trick to open a path, and Dean runs after Layna through the clearing, though not without making sure that no one's been left behind. That means you, Talise!!
- Once they're all out of the area, though, they soon find themselves at the source of the Reapers: some kind of... weird... machine?? Dean has no idea what he's looking at, and he boggles to see it. "I don't know," he says to Talise, as though her question were anything but rhetorical. However, considering it occasionally lets out a new Wels, it's clear that they're coming from this thing. Animal, who has the right idea, immediately leaps at it and starts punching, and Dean steels his resolve and opens fire on the machine too--though he's not shy about sharing the bullets with all the Reapers in the area, too. He'll have to reload eventually, but for now--
- "Everyone! Let's pour everything we've got into breaking this thing! We'll take 'em all out at once!" he calls. ...He'll give it all he's got.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Crater.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy's battered and Chauncey's getting torn up. But the fighting isn't done. "Is that thing...Is that thing MAKING these?!" She doesn't need an answer--she joins the others in the assault, Chauncey's plush arms battering heavily against the machine, leaving dented metal wherever the fists fall.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Crater.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- This is not a good day for anybody here. Unless you're a zombie. Then it's a fantastic day for you today! Boy, is it a great day for you!
- Arleph, panting and his face red, stops as he looks over as the new reaper comes bleching forth at them, from the horrific machine that they encounter. Things are going from worse to worse, and he damn well wished that he knew how to teleport right about now. Or fly. Fly would've been fine, actually.
- "STAND YOUR GROUND!" Arleph shouts, squeezing air with his free hand as he thrusts a palm outward. Water gathers up, pulling and condensing into a large stream that shoots out with heavy pressure against the machine. Even a Phaser would've been nice right about now.
DG: Arleph Ardan has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Crater.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida would say to Talise that the most merciful fate that awaits her, should she stay, is to be quickly eaten. Other fates are too unpleasant to contemplate. They're almost at the edge of town, though, and--
- "God and Granas," Ida whispers, as the sounds of the seething hellpit of Wels reach her ears. "What--is that?" Nothing good. It's definitely an ARM of some sort, and it's disgorging Wels. It looks like the thing that caused this mess. She sets her jaw, and wishes she still had Devil's Due. Then again, she's made it this far without it...
- Ida reloads. Animal and Sephy rush right in, and it's all Ida can do to keep the horde off their backs. She fires for maximum effect; bullets punch through several Wels at once, breaking bone, tearing through flesh, shattering skulls. "Reloading," she says. She pulls the speed-loader off her belt, slides bullets home, and kills six Wels near Dean with six shots. Her other hand whips a grenade off her belt, touches it to the Medium, and flings it into the horde. "FLASH OUT!" Ida cries. This is no place for decorum--only killing.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, The Crater.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna skids to a stop at the sight of the machine.
"I dunno...but we've got to deal with it." Layna replies to Talise, then looks toward the machine.
"Damn...kinda wish I just rode my Gear in here...I'm not going to be much help breaking this thing, so I'll just try to keep them off of the rest of you, aye?" Layna says.
Rather than try to actively fight them, Layna invokes powerful gusts in an attempt to hurl the Reapers away from the rest of the party so they can continue focusing their efforts on the machine.
Someone had to deal with them, right?
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Crater.
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - The Crater *>========================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The source of the infestation of Reapers appears as the party struggles through the town. There is a large crater in the center of the town, about thirty feet across and ten feet deep. At the bottom lies some sort of strange device which has been buried in the ground. It hisses and whirls, and occasionally a Reaper will appear from inside of it via some unknown mechanism. There's no way to examine it, not with the great number of Reapers packed into the crater - it must be destroyed, and quickly. Else the entire region might be threatened by these creatures. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
====================<* Abandoned Frontier Town - Round 6 *>===================== ============================< Results - The Crater >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 29 --(100)--> 129 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 34 --(100)--> 134 Pass Bomb Knife 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 43 --(100)--> 143 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 36 --(100)--> 136 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arleph Ardan 39 --(100)--> 139 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 46 --(100)--> 146 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Animal 40 --(100)--> 140 Pass Vest of the Turtle 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 80 --(10)--> 90 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Embolden(1)|Stalwart(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey is too exhausted to continue! DG: Talise Gianfair is too exhausted to continue! DG: Layna Manydays is too exhausted to continue! DG: Dean Stark is too exhausted to continue! DG: Arleph Ardan is too exhausted to continue! DG: Sephilia Lampbright is too exhausted to continue! DG: Animal is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has been fully Exhausted by Abandoned Frontier Town! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
=========================<* Abandoned Frontier Town *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Where Did They Come From? *>=================== |Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Reapers have been cleared from the town, but the party can't be certain that they have decisively cut off the source. Reapers are mysterious creatures, and they have been known to appear out of nowhere from time to time. No matter what the solution the party believes that it has found, there is always a chance they could be coming from elsewhere. Only time - and further vigilance in patrolling for the Reaper threat - will tell... =Dungeon Conditions: =========================================================
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- Though the party fails to kill all of the reapers, and thus, make their way to some treasure that was certainly there, they manage through their combined efforts to destroy the machine. Though even as they flee from the endless waves of reapers, they might notice that the machine has already begun to ever so imperceptibly, almost impossibly slowly, to repair itself. A single piece of the broken off machine crawling an inch across the bottom of the crater.
- Running out of the crater, and mounting the crest, they find themselves running yet again. A rag-tag group growing weary with the passage of space and time, and the perpetual assaults from the reapers that chase them from the abandoned town. No doubt now as to why the townsfolk had left to begin with.
- As they get out of town, suddenly, all pursuit seems to cease and the reapers melt into the buildings. Waiting for their army and their time to come.
- Standing apart from the others, Animal suggests, "My hut is over that way!" and even standing there, the small cuts he has taken from the reapers begin to heal, and he jauntily begins hopping across the badlands, headed towards his hut. In case anyone wants to see it.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise truly hopes she hasn't just thrown away her knife for nothing.
Clenching her teeth, Talise takes off after the group, hopeful that the machine is at least out of commission for a little while. Soon enough, they're out of town, and she comes to a halt, doubling forward and exhaling in an explosive rush. "Althena's hat!" she curses. "Those damn things--"
She sinks to one knee. Her cheeks are pale as she wipes the gore from Rastaban's blade, taking her time doing so. This is about as frightened as Talise has been in a long time.
Last time Talise was this rattled by something, she was with Ida, facing down Agatha Pyrelight in the middle of a city street and realizing she was helpless against the Pyre Witch. This is a different kind of horror but it's affected her just as deeply.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida makes tracks. She reloads as she moves, because even now, there's no guarantee of safety--not with that thing visibly repairing itself. "Some of those must have been the townsfolk," Ida says. She is openly expressing disgust and horror, which for her is an indicator of how terrible things are. "What could have made something like that? It's--it's clearly a weapon, but... but who would just unleash the Reapers on innocent people?" Either way, they're going to have to come back, and by then, there will be more of them. "We have to tell the Ethos."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia is hugging a damaged Chauncey, sniffling. She's very unhappy, and scared, and what Ida just said is terrifying her. "Th-th-th-the TOWNSFOLK?! But...but..."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Climbing back to her feet, Talise steps over and wraps her arms around Sephilia. She wordlessly pulls the girl into her and wraps her up in a tight, hard hug. For a moment she doesn't say anything.
"We'll have to go back at some point," she finally says, her tone grave as she lifts her eyes towards Ida. "We'll tell Rosaline... but we're going to have to figure out who put that thing there. Whoever it was, we have to stop them from doing it again, especially if they're doing it to innocent people.
"Like those villagers."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- The team gives the strange machine everything they've got--Dean manages to shout a "Thanks!" over at Ida when she kills a bunch of Wells that were ganging up on him--but there's too many Welses for them to take them all out. At least the machine gets good and busted up!! A pity that Dean isn't observant enough to notice it starting to repair itself as the group flees from the remaining Reapers...
- But that might not be his fault. After all, his breath comes ragged. He's taken a dozen wounds from the battles against the monstrosities that he barely noticed at the time, and while he's a tough kid, right now, he's really feeling them. Worse than the wounds, though, is Ida's horrific news.
- "The *townspeople*?!" he utters, echoing Sephy, as he gawks at Ida. "How could that be?! Are you saying that machine turns people into... into those *things*?" That's awful...! "I'm glad we destroyed it, but... there's still a ton of those Reapers left..."
- Animal points the group towards his hut. Dean nods to him firmly, expression grim. "Okay. That seems like a good place to rest." He nods, too, to Talise. "Yeah! We can't let anyone else get hurt by those things!"
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
It's rare that Layna's ever visibly...exhausted. She makes a point of putting on a strong front, to keep the morale of those in her care high. But right now, she's definitely flagging a bit, and her usual confident grin is just a grim frown. She hadn't even bothered to pull out a drink during that entire sequence.
"...I dunno, but I think they owe us some answers. And I think we owe them a beating." She says, flexing her fingers.
She goes quiet after that, just following along behind them and keeping an eye out for any Reapers that might be giving chase.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- Arleph keeps on the move as they are force to retreat, slumping over after they are in some relative place of security. This is rather new, he figures. Adjusting his hat, taking it off to wipe his brow then nervously adjust it again, looking over himself. "Mutations?" Arleph answers outloud, wiping off his brow as he push to a knee. "Some sort of mutagen? I have no earthly clues on what could cause this. I know it was not symbological. At all."
- Arleph looks over his clothing. Well, damn, ripped again. It'll take a while for it to repair itself again. Bloody annoying. "If it is truly the towns people... the notion of a mutagen is even more likely."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- "They turn people into more of their kind--somehow. Sometimes. It's unpredictable, and--" Ida bites her lip as Talise takes Sephy into her arms. "I'm--I'm so sorry you had to see that." As a child, her grandmother used to threaten her with the idea of the Reapers coming to take her whenever she was being bad--at least, until her mother put a swift stop to that. Even for those who grew up knowing they existed, encountering them is something else... to say nothing of people who haven't even heard of them.
- "I'm so sorry. The--the only thing we can do for them now is to kill them swiftly, and put an end to that device, and whomever made it."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida looks at Arleph, then. "...Mutagen?" she says. He sounds like he knows something about this that she doesn't.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy holds on to Talise as she sobs about the fate of the villagers, the sobbing growing stronger as Ida confirms it. Sometimes, Sephy feels like it's okay to be a kid.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise can't imagine going to a place like this as a child. She lifts her eyes to Ida, watching the way her friend reacts. "It's over now," she says in a quieter voice. "At least, for us. If anything of that device survived, though, more people could be turned into monsters like that. We need to fix it."
Then she quiets, sliding her gauntlets off so that she can rest one hand on the back of Sephilia's head, giving her a little pat as she holds her good and close.
She can't find words that wouldn't seem hollow. All she does is hug Sephilia tight, rocking her just a little. Her expression is controlled and stolid but there's a haunted look in her eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- Arleph shakes his head, pushing himself back up. "It's... hard to explain, something that might disturb their bodies and twist them. It seemed... ah, cancerous. Like massive outgrowth." He adjusts his glasses, looking at her. "Genetics aren't quite my field of study, however, nor is medical science. It did look like ... hm."
- He taps his chin, slightly bloodied by a fall he had earlier, looking down at his gloves. "It's like part of their bodies were told 'grow!' without any heeding."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- They turn people more into their kind... Dean stares into the middle distance, a chill seeping into him right down to his core. "That's so horrible," he says quietly. He doesn't start sobbing like Sephy, but he can hardly blame her for doing so. In fact, he looks over at her with open concern. At least Talise is right there to comfort her; otherwise, he would've immediately tried to do so himself.
- But then Ida mentions something else, and he looks quickly back at her. "Put an end to... You mean we didn't destroy it?!" He'd completely thought they had! That just makes it all worse! ...Even so, it's not like he'll back down here. He looks between Ida and Arleph, expression twisted in confusion at his attempt an explanation.
- "Why don't we head over to Animal's hut and talk about this more there?" he suggests, which is all he can do at this point. "Or at least heal up and stuff. I think we all need to sit down." Especially Sephy. He doesn't say this aloud, but he may as well with the worried look he gives the crying girl. When he has the chance to, he'll thank Animal for the offer as well.
- "My name's Dean, by the way," he adds, possibly while en route to shelter. "Dean Stark. Who are you guys? Animal I've met before," he nods towards him, "but aside from him..."
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna glances over toward Dean as he asks who they are.
"...Sorry, not like me to forget my manners, aye?" She says with a small chuckle.
"Layna Manydays. Captain of the Ruby Empress." She replies. "Sadly, she's stranded all the way on the other side of the border, or I'd offer to show you around. She's a beauty, she is."
Talking about something familiar put a small smile on her face. It was a nice distraction from everything that had happened.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- Ida looks at Arleph, and nods. It's difficult to tell, but behind the shell-shocked face, gears are turning. They're turning slowly thanks to everything that just happened, but they're turning. "I see," she says. "We'll have to speak about this in detail, Doctor Ardan." And then, to Dean. "I--I saw it pulling itself back together as we left. I don't know how you could make an ARM do that, but..." Animal? She glances over at the feral boy, and things click into place. "We need to return to civilization. If that hut is nearby, then they could easily track us there. My Gear is parked, I can carry one or two of you inside if you need transport."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise does have onee-sama duties, y'know. At least, she does where Sephilia is concerned. She lets the girl cry as much as she wishes to cry.
Finally looking up, she nods across the top of Sephilia's head, eyes on Dean. "Talise Gianfair, singer and swordswoman. I wish we'd met under better circumstances. Thank you for your help back there."
She presses her lips tightly together, turning her eyes towards Ida. "...My Gear's with Ida's," she says in a more muted tone. "I can take Sephy and maybe one more, if you don't mind it being a squeeze."
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
- Arleph is falling on thinking about this, in order to not panic too much or fall into some horror. Finding the reason behind things. Logic. Twisted logic, certainly, he's sure of it, but still logic. "Right. I will be happy to find a mean against this atrocity." The Symbologist replies, rubbing his hands slowly, looking over at Dean. He nods. "In the heat of things, I've forgotten about that. I am Doctor Arleph Ardan. It's good that we got out of this." His eyes falls on the feral boy, tilting his head. A hut would work.
- "I would be glad to take part admist your... Gear, Ms. Everstead. The truck I had broke down a long time ago."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- A little belatedly, Ida responds to Dean. "Ida," she says, simply. No surname, no house, no city of birth--it's simple, efficient, and informal. It also says volumes about how she sees herself now. "A pleasure to meet you, Dean." She offers the young man a hand.
<Pose Tracker> Animal has posed.
- While the others have been talking, and sort of regardless of whether they've been following him or not. Animal seems to have decided that he should head back to his hut, and suddenly takes off in the direction of the hut. Moving rather fast, as he always does, but this time, since he isn't being chased, and nobody else needs him on hand to help them, he can just run full speed. He stops at the top of the nearest hill and hunches over onto his haunches.
- Sitting there atop the hill, he waves in their direction and searches around in his pockets for some meat and bread to eat. He doesn't find any bread, but he finds meat, and cheese, which he sort of smushes together before he begins to eat while he waits to see what people are doing.
- "City people are so slow," he grumbles to himself and then puffs out his bottom lip and chews on it a little while he waits for the people to move off to get what they need to get. Their gears and such. "Maybe when I find a flying castle, it'll have a way to grab people, so I can just grab 'em off the ground," he fantasizes aloud while he watches people, not understanding their talking.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia finally cries herself out. "S-Sephilia Lampbright," she says, sniffling. "And this is Lord Chauncey of Foxington..." She'd normally explain that he's her bodyguard, but...that's obvious. "My dad's...a famous explorer back home...but there's nothing...nothing like THIS..."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
- "Don't worry about it! I didn't introduce myself until just now either," Dean reassures Layna, smiling as he rubs a finger under his nose. He brightens at her name and title. "Is that a ship? Cool! I wish I could see it!" It's not the unbridled enthusiasm he'd have if it were a golem, granted, but it's a sight more cheer than he had a moment ago. Dean's emotional resilience is one of this good points, after all.
- Especially since Ida verifies that she saw the machine repairing itself just before they left. Dean's expression turns stricken, but he nods, accepting her word as truth without protest. She's also got a point about the hut. "Yeah, we wouldn't want to bring those things over to Animal's home," he says, casting the feral boy a worried glance. Animal, for his part, seems quite glad to run back to his place and leave the rest of them be. Well... knowing Animal, Dean's sure he could easily shake the Reapers off, but the rest of them could well lead those things right to his door. He'd better take Ida up on her offer.
- A nod, too, to Talise and Arleph. "Same here," he says, of meeting under better circumstances. "It's nice meeting you all too." He smiles at Ida, and accepts and shakes her hand. "If it's just the six of us, then we should all fit between two Gears, right? Animal's tough," being someone with super-strength and super-healing, "so I think he'll be okay. He said he's from around these parts, too, the last time I met him, so I bet he knows how to evade those things better than any of us."
- He gives Sephy another sympathetic look. "There's nothing like this back in my hometown either. I know how you feel."
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Three, actually. I brought mine over, as well. 'Course, they wouldn't know that." Layna corrects with a smirk. True, though - the last thing she wanted was to bring more danger to Animal...not that he probably couldn't handle it.
"I'll be glad to be done with this place...though a part o' me feels this is something I can't leave alone, so I might be coming around again sometime. But, ah...only after I've gotten a lot more preparation."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"We were pretty preoccupied," Talise says with a rueful smile and a shake of her head, giving Sephilia another squeeze.
"I'd offer to carry a couple of people on the outside but I'm not that great of a pilot yet," she admits, her cheeks colouring just a little. "But I can walk it from place to place without tripping over it's own feet. That ought to be enough to get us home."
Her eyelids dip just a shade, and she glances sidelong towards Ida, watching how the woman introduces herself. Then she's looking back to Dean again and nodding simply. "I don't want them to follow Animal home. Besides... I want to consult an Etone we know, and she's back at November City, not out here in the wilderness. If Ida says she can help us, then I'm going to pursue it."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
- "There's an Ethos branch in Dazil, as well," Ida says. "They're a bit closer, and it may be easier for them to do reconaissance. We can stop there as well; it's on the way." She rests a hand on Sephilia's shoulder, comfortingly. "I know," she says to the young woman. "I know. We can do nothing more, now, aside from getting back to civilization." A last glance at the tracks Animal left in his wake. If Dean says he can take care of himself, well, she believes him. If he's lived as a feral child for this long, he must have some awareness of the dangers in the region.
- "It will be a little snug with three people," Ida admits, "and you'd best strap down with some cords. Aveh Gears are built to jet, not to walk through sand."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia nods again, sniffling. "Oh. Uh, does anyone need a bit of um, patching up? Because I can help there. I'm training to be an assistant nurse!" The thought of helping her friends seems to restore some of the girl's fire, and she starts bustling about making sure everyone's injuries are treated.