2017-08-22: Tug of War
- Log: 08-22-2017 - Tug of War
- Cast: Asteroid the Kid, Virginia Maxwell, Matilda Whitehead, Kaguya, Maya Schrodinger
- Where: Aveh-Kislev Front
- Date: August 22, 2017
- Summary: Two dorks, a compounder, a falling star, and a Veruni walk OUT of a temple...
===================<* CHALLENGE - Artillery Bombardment *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The vicinity of the Guardian Temple has turned into a full-blown war zone. A rush of Kislevi forces and a counter-action by Aveh forces have resulted in an enormous fight between infantry, Gears, and support vehicles. In the distance, you can make out where the enormous Kislevi-controlled Golem is sending huge gouts of energy into the ranks of Aveh's forces. This is truly worrisome, but a more immediate concern presents itself. One side has chosen this moment to begin an artillery bombardment. Shells rain down near your position, huge fireballs and blasts of shrapnel hurtling at you, posing a severe threat as you try to make your way westward. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
With the war going on outside and with our assortment of.... with our gathering of.... with our motley crew needing some rest and healing before stepping out into that mess, some time is spent just gathering one's wits and catching their breaths and maybe even eating snacks. Nevertheless, with the battle outside clearly not abating, eventually it becomes clear--The team must bust through the battleground and escape with their skin intact before one army or another secures the area and has many questions for you. Or you know, shoots you to death.
Asteroid the Kid walks out to the exit of the Guardian Temple and holds out a hat on a stick. There's a whole lot of gunfire and when she pulls back the stick, the hat is full of holes and partially on fire.
"I guess it will be better if we just run." She says. "If you wish to be in cart, get in now!"
she waits a moment for folks to get situated before rushing out, drawing her pistols in both hands even as she uses them to push the cart.
That's about when Aveh starts bombing the place. Shrapnel and sand start flying everywhere and Asteroid says, "Shit--!" She fires off two portals, swapping hands to keep the cart moving. One portal goes in front of them, the other shot is near some cover. She is clearly aiming to just run into the portal and pop out the other end to gain some ground on the explosions.
DG: Asteroid the Kid has used her Tool Portal Pistols toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia had a strange experience in the temple.
It was subtle and easy to miss -- but the light of Lucadia had washed over her, and considerably weakened her Malevolence. It wasn't enough to diminish her out of the onset, but there was something that rattled her inside -- something that she hadn't quite noticed before. Perhaps it's the laughter that still mocks her at the back of her head. Perhaps it's...
...
She doesn't quite know, and she doesn't get a chance to know. She steps out with a mouth still full of granola bar as she foolishly and daringly litters the Guardian Temple with a fortunately biodegradable snack wrapper, before she shouts:
"Lff gff offfhr hrr!"
A pause. Chew chew chew.
"Let's get out of here!"
She hops onto the cart as she pulls out a Green-shaded crest, turns around, and then fires an enormous gout of wind that threatens to just send them hurtling off a ramp and into a sick jump.
DG: Virginia Maxwell has used her Tool Galecrest toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda, for her part, has been tending to her feet; she has a lot of tools and concoctions with which to treat her injuries, so by the time the group is out of the Guardian Temple and ready to go, she actually is ready to go. ... She doesn't have new boots, but that's life. She spent a lot of her early childhood barefoot -- it'll be nostalgic!
It's not nostalgic. It just sucks.
Accordingly, she stays in the cart rather than trying to run, at least for now; she keeps her head low. As Astie starts to push, she peeks her head up briefly to lay down some suppressing fire on foot soldiers. At one point she tries to be extra cool and shoot a bomb out of th esky ahead of them.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Eventually, Kaguya stopped crying quite so loudly, curled up in Asteroid's cloak for a little while. She hasn't entirely stopped, though; there's still the odd little sniff of her breathing and sound of utter misery from the smallest Veruni.
But they do get moving, and she tries to be quiet, looking around at everyone certainly not to see if they're safe... Totally to see if they're safe. There is the cart. There is running. Kaguya swallows. "...War sucks..."
She clambers into the cart and curls up to make herself as small a target as possible. "Stupid humans killing each other," she mutters, "Killing everybody else around them. Stupid..." She mutters more.
She looks at Virginia with ood, and at Matilda without shoes. "...Sorry my shoes aren't big enough for you," she says a little more loudly. "Are you okay...?"
Kaguya's barely walking at the moment; she was resting heavily on her cane a second ago. But she pauses, looks at Virginia, "...Is that vegetarian...?"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
There are questions aplenty in the wake of the incursion into the Guardian Temple, but there's only been so much room to breathe, and the chaos of the battle raging outside shows no sign of abating anytime soon. Whatever freedom might look like, on the other side of the no man's land the Kislevi and Aveh forces are turning into pulverized dust, it'll be the first chance Maya gets to sort out the dizzying vision she suffered that I haven't written a cutscene post for yet.
With everyone still picking themselves up, perhaps still rationalising their own difficulties encountered in the Guardian Temple, Maya remains firmly in the thick of the pack as their sprint into the battlefield begins. Her pulse races uncomfortably.
- This is no cowboy-hat and lasso adventure
- This is War.
Maya still wears the persona of the Sorceress, for good reason: the magicks and powers afforded her in such a form, it's arguable, are much more useful than the guns and explosives of her more well-known, pistol-slinging self. She also puts foot to ground impressively quickly, electing not to ride in the cart because she's relatively uninjured and full of energy.
"I'm fine, but I might use it for cover! I've never seen so many guns in my whole life!" she squawks in what at least sounds like good cheer, for one so riddled with anxiety and also a healthy fear for one's safety. A gloved hand raises into the air briefly, "Diem Wing!" the young sorceress cries aloud, very hastily, and tries to--perhaps a little inexpertly--cast the serial-numbers-filed-off version of Haste on the party.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia is in the middle of trying to shove a second snack bar when Kaguya perks up, and then even while they're running for their lives in the midst of war, she eventually acquiesces and hands it to Kaguya:
"It's better than vegetarian, it's vegan!"
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Oh you're the best," Kaguya says, taking the snack bar with both hands--her cane clatters to her legs--and starts to scarf it down. "Ohm tha--" She keeps chewing, "I'mph sho hungy!"
She is... not complaining for a moment. She eats her vegan granola bar and likes it.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Artillery Bombardment *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The vicinity of the Guardian Temple has turned into a full-blown war zone. A rush of Kislevi forces and a counter-action by Aveh forces have resulted in an enormous fight between infantry, Gears, and support vehicles. In the distance, you can make out where the enormous Kislevi-controlled Golem is sending huge gouts of energy into the ranks of Aveh's forces. This is truly worrisome, but a more immediate concern presents itself. One side has chosen this moment to begin an artillery bombardment. Shells rain down near your position, huge fireballs and blasts of shrapnel hurtling at you, posing a severe threat as you try to make your way westward. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 1 *>======================= =====================< Results - Artillery Bombardment >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asteroid the Kid 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Portal Pistols 1 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(14)--> 14 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virginia Maxwell 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Galecrest 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Asteroid the Kid 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Slow(2)|Suffer Effects: Quicken(1)|Stalwart(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid 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> Kaguya has posed.
"YOU KNOW WHAT VEGETARIAN MEANS!?" Kaguya half-yells as soon as she's finished cramming the bar into her mouth. "Oh finally..."
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Just like the temple, this isn't off to a great start. Matilda shoots a bomb out of the air which is pretty cool but it just ends up sending more shrapnel crashing down upon them. Asteroid flinches, thus missing the portal she had made and it's not like in this situation she can go back and get it. Luckily, Virginia's WINDCREST helps her move everybody along more quickly so not too much time is lost.
"What's a vegan?" Asteroid asks. "Is that when you only eat vegetables that were once monsters?"
Unfortunately Maya casts haste right at this point which means it comes out a little differently.
"Isthatwhenyouonlyeatvegetablesthatwereoncemonsters???" Is how it comes out.
A pause.
"cansomeonehelppushthecart?" She is pushing Kaguya AND Virginia here and this is a warzone after all. "I think we can move a bit faster that way! Ha ha ha! This is crazy! What are they even fighting over?!"
DG: Virginia Maxwell has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade Breaking *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- A barricade erected by infantry blocks your path ahead. Built between two outcroppings of rock, it would be hard to go around -- and even though it was placed in quickly, it is quite sturdy. Huge beams of steel and spikes make it hard to move. It could be dangerous, too; the chance of cutting yourself on those spikes is a real threat. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Bad Luck===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia's Galecrest keeps rattling as both Maya's SlOOOrs spell and her own winds help to rocket the cart further, but Asteroid is still on her feet and it's kind of really hard to move and they maybe don't do as well as they'd really hoooope--
"BLOCKADE!"
Virginia pauses, and then points ahead again.
"BLOCKADE!!"
There is, indeed, a giant blockade up ahead where the Aveh military's decided that the best way to create a chokepoint is to just set some explosives and then throw a whole pile of junk so that no one can pass.
She readies the Tindercrest as she takes a deep breath and exclaims: "It's when you think animals are cute and eating their eggs would be super mean!!"
There's a low thrum that kind of sounds like a beam cannon charging up, and then the ever-familiar indefatigable gout of fire exhales outwards and cascades to swallow the barricade through.
DG: Virginia Maxwell has used her Tool Tindercrest toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
They're going ahead quickly and talking quickly and Kaguya is pretty sure she knows this languages but Asteroid is talking really fast and she squints because she thinks that's going to let her hear better, somehow. Kaguya has been crying a lot, her eyes are bloodshot and she just ate something for the first time in quite a while, she's going to make slips like that.
...But it slows down, "Oh youw ere asking--" Moving faster. Fighting over... Kaguya shrugs. "Whatever, who knows? They do that, fighting over stuff like this."
Nevermind that Kaguya came here with the Metal Demons and they want to kill her in general for that reason. She sees no reason to mention that part.
But suddenly blokae an Kaguya blinks, suddenly scrambling across the card to sit on the front of it, pulling her ARM. "Veganism...!"
"Is when you eat no animals!" She opens the breach with a ca-CLACK. "No animal byproducts!" Aims her shotgun, "Nothing that comes from the exploitation of animals whatsoever!"
She fires with a roaring BANG as her shotgun lets loose a sonic blastic of white ringed concussive energy after Virginia's fire.
"...But I'm not a vegan. I'm just vegetarian." She slumps back into the cart with all that exertion and tries to catch her breath.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Concussion Rounds toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
O-ho, but Asteroid's motormouth is still (mostly) legible to Maya, whose senses are also operating at an increased speed! She acquieses to the Celestial wisdom of Virginia's most loyal minion and hurries on up to the cart's rear, putting her shoulder into it with a "Hrrrrngh~!" of effort and bracing herself against it, fancy black pauldrons getting covered in sand and dirt--but also deflecting falling shrapnel and cinders. Worth it, probably.
"They've gotta be fighting over something in the temple, right?" Maya grimaces as she hunkers down at the sound of a distant trio of rifle-cracks, only to not hear the subsequent sonic-whip of bullets flying overhead. They're not the target, thankfully. "In the... the city, Adlehyde, there was an army that flew in to steal one of those Golems. What if there's something even stronger in there, and they're all trying to get to it first?" but before any more deliberation on this can be done, an obstacle ahead comes into view.
"No way around this, is there?" the blonde adventurer asks breathlessly, whipping her gaze to and fro. The barricade before them certainly doesn't seem to have any gaps in it, and going 'round the mountain (as it were) would probably just expose a fairly vulnerable group to more bloodthirsty and not-particularly-discerning riflemen. "Gah, doesn't look like it. I'll blow it up, might be a bit noisy, but we really don't wanna hang around here." and with that, the sorceress holds one finger up as if she were about to give a smug lecture. Rather than a lecture, though, a brilliant whorl of sparks gathers at her fingertip and starts to pulsate dangerously, which is about when Maya whips her hand forward and the nascent fireball zips away towards the barricade. Given the group composition, it is also soon joined by Tindercrest blasts, explosive aerosols, and God knows what else.
Before the explosion, of course, Maya pokes her head into the cart. "Oh, Ginny's always trying to eat animal-free, yeah. It's really hard to cater for sometimes, but I try."
- *BOOM*
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Schrodinger Special toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"Hedgehogs..." Matilda reflects, as she pops her head up again. "I suppose there's no time to stop for it, either -- we'll have to clear this quickly!" She reaches into her coat and slams something into Freischütz's magazine slot-slash-reservoir. They're at least not being actively fired on at the moment, so she can take her time and get a nice, clear shot...
She aims for the center of some of the crossed beams, disgorging a nasty, hissing lotion from her ARM's barrel. It threatens to eat away at the steel in short order, leaving what once was a nasty set of anti-vehicle devices in a complete and total state of disarray.
About halfway through her shot, she looks back toward Kaguya, and asks, "... Please tell me you're getting beans and lentils regularly." She's not about to let Kaguya get away with missing complete proteins!
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
"I thought that's what vegetarian was!" Asteroid says. "Are eggs vegetarian?? I'm just not sure what the difference between vegetarian and vegan is!"
Asteroid is kind of thinking maybe they need more protein to survive the long and dangerous ruins but she figures, well, if they survive this everybody gets to eat what they want, it's only fair.5r
"Thanks!" Ateroid says as Maya helps with pushing the cart. "Give me one second!"
She summons another portal but this time an asteroid falls out of it. "It's time for my ELITE TRAINING to pay off!" She cries as she chucks the ball into the air with her hand and leaps up after it.
"METEEEEOR!! CRAAAAAASH!" She yells out as she spins upside down and sends a flying meteor crashing for the barricades, launching two portals to catch up to the cart and get back to helping pushing it with nearly no time lost.
"Haha! YES! YESSS!!! BURN!! BREAK!!" She's getting into this.
DG: Asteroid the Kid has used her Tool Asteroid Ball toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade Breaking *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- A barricade erected by infantry blocks your path ahead. Built between two outcroppings of rock, it would be hard to go around -- and even though it was placed in quickly, it is quite sturdy. Huge beams of steel and spikes make it hard to move. It could be dangerous, too; the chance of cutting yourself on those spikes is a real threat. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Bad Luck===========================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 2 *>======================= =======================< Results - Barricade Breaking >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asteroid the Kid 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Asteroid Ball 2 Brute Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 14 --(4)--> 18 Pass Schrodinger Special 3 Brute Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 12 --(5)--> 17 Fail Concussion Rounds 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virginia Maxwell 12 --(7)--> 19 Fail Tindercrest 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 12 --(4)--> 16 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Asteroid the Kid 10 --(15)--> 25 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Slow(1)|Suffer|Tire(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 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> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Does the barricade have any opinions about veganism and vegetarianism?
Another barricade, in another life, might be able to lean in and go: "I'm actually rich in iron, you know."
But alas, it isn't this one, which doesn't really know what happened to it before the long-howl of the Tindercrest's blast joins in with Kaguya's concussive rounds and Maya's fireball and a burning meteor and... actually, wow, Matilda isn't using fire.
Virginia sighs with a huff as the barricade breaks, and then she points out: "Animal byproducts, like Kaguya said. When you eat an egg you kill a chick! That's mean!" A pause. "Also, yes, please make sure you have enough protein, Kaguya! I personally get mine from a whooole lotta quinoa!" Of course she would. Hipster.
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Battalion Crossing *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Some of the forces arrayed on this battlefield are far beyond what an individual Drifter can handle -- or even a dedicated team of them. As you approach, you hear some shouting ahead of you, and the steady clomp of boots on the ground. You may want to find a way to be very inconspicuous -- because rounding the bend of the large hill ahead is a cluster of some hundred soldiers, armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Wound==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I know it can be conusing," Kaguya says to Asteroid, "Eggs are fine for a vegetarian, because you're only stopping a potential animal, but a living one. Eating eggs isn't any worse than practicing good bir--" Pause. "Nevermind. yes it's kinda mean but--"
Matilda, "I do, obviously! At least what I can get out in this awful place. I get tons of protein. Like, All of it?" A pause. "Quinoa sounds promising. I should eat some of that."
But they're through the barricade, and Kaguya breathes a sigh of relief. They go on for a little ways like that... and then there's a whole lot of soldiers up ahead. Kaguya blinks, and stares.
"...Okay quick. Asteroid, get in the cart and try to look like a rock. Somebody strong, handle the cart. Everybody else... Look as nice as you can."
A soldier starts forward from the group and points his gun straight at Kaguya. "Halt!" she says, "Identify yourselves!"
Kaguya puts up both of her hands... and starts coughing. Really just, hamming it up coughing, it doesn't even sound like she's faking.
"I-I'm sorry... You shouldn't come closer... I-I'm very sick, travelling to get treatment and... And it's..."
Another hacking cough that doubles her over, "...very contagious..."
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
"It's still a potential-- I mean come on! It's still mean however I think about it! I also don't like uprooting plants too, but there's less I can do about that," Virginia grumps. Man, eating selectively is hard when Filgaia's involved. She sighs in relief as she sets the Tindercrest down, waving her hand and wincing just a little at how hot it's gotten.
When they pull up... Virginia clambers to Kaguya's side as she-- doesn't act nice as instructed.
Instead, she kind of collapses next to Kaguya as she starts to act a choking cough herself to say, "Y-you really shouldn't... I mean, I'm-- I-- oh god, it's-- it's going to come out--"
She rolls over and appears to be dead, eyes rolled over. Eye. Her other eye appears to just have turned full Hellion, with black sclera and a menacing cat-eye, and some of her skin has just outright turned mottle and purple as her Hellion nature half-takes over. "Ghaa.... brains... I need... brains..."
DG: Virginia Maxwell has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
When Matilda sees Kaguya start in on the act, she's immediately on point with the followups. "Sir," she says, calmly, "My name is Doctor Matilda Whitehead, of the Academy of Linga -- we were forced into this area by the recent tectonic shifts. I'm their primary care physician -- I'm immune to her condition, as it shares a vector with a common dormitory illness. Her strain is much more virulent, however, and I can't treat it."
She takes a moment to straighten out her coat before continuing, "We're headed on to Krosse, and then to Marze. My Symbologist colleague," a gesture to Maya, "thinks the local elder's library may suggest a cure for them."
As Virginia goes full zombie, Matilda says, "Please let us pass."
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya freezes for a split-second as the plan is formulated. That said, it's a plan, and that beats trying to scramble past the contingent of soldiers at top speed and hoping they don't notice. "If we get outta this in one piece," she mumbles sidelong to Virginia, "I'll buy you all the quinoa you can eat. Unless you'd rather I paid it off in ice-creams." and then pipes up quickly in response to Kaguya's quick thinking, which is something she can appreciate. "I'm still in good shape, I'll haul the cart."
By the time they reorganize into their new, weird group arrangement, this puts the black-cloaked magician hauling the cart with both hands behind her and generally looking pretty puffed about the whole thing. She's pulled her shirt up over her mouth, too, as if scared to catch Kaguya's sick cooties.
"You really don't wanna catch what she's got," she interjects, nodding her head back into the cart. "Some kind of... Metal Demon engineered disease..." and then blanches, deadpan, because Virginia Maxwell is now pretending to be some kind of horrendous corpse--wait, how much of that is pretending? She's worried.
Maya looks despondently at the lead soldier, analysing whether he looks like he's buying this or if she's going to have to burn a 8th level spell slot on a Hastened Silent Concussive Bolt.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid the Kid thinks that this isn't innately a bad idea but.... see, there's a problem. If the disease looks too awful, they're just going to get shot to death! Asteroid gets into the cart as directed because she doesn't really have any other choice but she has a human body under that rock, but hopefully her cloak will make it seem effective.
Oh god, she thinks, they're going to be killed to prevent an 'outbreak'.
She doesn't say anything. Because she's a rock.
DG: Asteroid the Kid has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Battalion Crossing *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Some of the forces arrayed on this battlefield are far beyond what an individual Drifter can handle -- or even a dedicated team of them. As you approach, you hear some shouting ahead of you, and the steady clomp of boots on the ground. You may want to find a way to be very inconspicuous -- because rounding the bend of the large hill ahead is a cluster of some hundred soldiers, armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Wound==========================================
========================<* The Battle Front - Round 3 *>======================== ========================< Results - Battalion Crossing >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asteroid the Kid 18 --(15)--> 33 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 18 --(17)--> 35 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 17 --(16)--> 33 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Virginia Maxwell 19 --(18)--> 37 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 16 --(16)--> 32 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Asteroid the Kid 25 --(5)--> 30 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Suffer|Tire(1)|Wound(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid has failed this challenge! The party gained 5 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: Matilda Whitehead has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - A Malevolent Soldier *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you approach, you find a place where the fighting has stopped. A dozen soldiers lay dead. One, however, still stands. She staggers, as though she may be wounded... and then she turns her head to look at you. If you can see spiritual power, you see the purple, cloying light of Malevolence roiling off her. Then, she shrieks, and her form distends into that of a lizardman's. She lopes at you, rushing on all fours across the battle -- and leaps, swinging a fist so hard it defies logic. The battle is joined! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Overwhelm=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
The group moves into action quickly. The soldier lifts an eyebrow at Kaguya's acting(?), not lowering her weapon as Virginia comes up and suddenly starts to cough, starting to turn, and she looks like she might be sick. "Sweet Guardians--"
Matilda starts in on her scientific explanations, and the soldier looks alarmed, jumpy, starting to tread backwards with her weapon shaking. "N-No I don't want to catch any of that..." But she doesn't say anything to Aseroid other than to wonder, internally, why they're carrying a weird rock.
The soldier shakes her head, "Just--Just STAY THERE!" she shouts, and panics a little before, "I-I'm getting out of here. She can eat you, not me!" So the soldier... totally fires her gun, spraying bullets at Kaguya, Maya, and Matida and none at the zombie that she turns and runs from at full speed.
On the bright side, she's going to tell her unit there's wreckage in the way and to keep going. On the downside...
Bullets.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
The group moves into action quickly. The soldier lifts an eyebrow at Kaguya's acting(?), not lowering her weapon as Virginia comes up and suddenly starts to cough, starting to turn, and she looks like she might be sick. "Sweet Guardians--"
Matilda starts in on her scientific explanations, and the soldier looks alarmed, jumpy, starting to tread backwards with her weapon shaking. "N-No I don't want to catch any of that..." But she doesn't say anything to Aseroid other than to wonder, internally, why they're carrying a weird rock.
The soldier shakes her head, "Just--Just STAY THERE!" she shouts, and panics a little before, "I-I'm getting out of here. She can eat you, not me!" So the soldier... totally fires her gun, spraying bullets at Kaguya, Maya, and Matida and none at the zombie that she turns and runs from at full speed.
On the bright side, she's going to tell her unit there's wreckage in the way and to keep going. On the downside...
Bullets. They'd better move quickly before that soldier manages to get out just what happened here. Really, really quickly.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
There's a bit of an awkward pause for a moment in the group's retreat from their catastrophic, uncoordinated bad acting. For a moment, the soldiers pursuing them stop behind them instead of moving on, and there's some low talk amongst them. There seems to be a conflict between some of them on whether, and to what extent, to pursue. The soldier who brought the message back has no inclination to do so, but her commanding officer spots the lies about the wreckage for what they are, thanks to the earlier spray of bullets.
The discussion grows into an argument -- quiet first, and then steadily pitched in intensity... and those looking back toward the troops can see the commanding officer get stabbed by a third soldier, who then insists on pursuit.
For Matilda, this looks like simple infighting, and she panics, throws a bottle behind the cart to cover their retreat, and shouts, "Go -- go! Before they put together a new chain of command!"
Everyone but Matilda, meanwhile, sees one of their pursuers as a massive lizardman who eventually leaps forward and slams a fist into the cart. Matilda screams, because to her, this just looks like some extreme bullshit just happened -- which it did, just not in the sense she's seeing.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Succubus Bottle toward her party's challenge, A Malevolent Soldier.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Some stray bullets hit Asteroid in the head. She endures this stoically since it's the best place for her to get shot. That doesn't mean she's happy about it.
In fact, at this point, she decides to stay down when she hears more screaming. She's feeling kind of sour. Her teeth gnash against one another.
That is until her cart gets punched and sends it sprawling over. Asteroid hits the ground head first and gets stuck. She waggles her feet around and shoots portals everywhere.
"MPHHGHHKK!!"
This is not a happy day to be Asteroid the Kid.
DG: Asteroid the Kid has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Malevolent Soldier.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia, to be fair, actually has no idea about some of the things that she does sometime.
But the incoming lizardman leaping towards their cart does prompt her to wave her hand with an, "Ooh, fancy seeing someone like you here-- horf" before she gets summarily smacked upside the head and toppled over without being able to much contribute to the incoming lizard baller tinged with Malevolence. Yeah, she's probably not getting up for a while after that one.
DG: Virginia Maxwell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Malevolent Soldier.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Well, there's a quickened, silent spell from Maya, whose talismans and amulets flash with arcane power, but it isn't a fireball or concussive shot aimed at the panicking soldier. It's a shield of patterned, hexagonal light that springs to life around the cart with a noise not unlike AT_FIELD_CLASH.ogg as she splays her fingers wide and grimaces with the exertion as bullets ping and ricochet off of them. "Yes, go, now!" she yells in tandem with Matilda, as madness overtakes the enemy soldiers in a visible wash to her well-attuned eyes.
The young finger-waggler leaps backwards into the cart for cover, briefly, as a well-known (to some) purple force overtakes one of the survivors, warping them and sending them charging into the cart. Which spills over again. Poor Asteroid is having a very poor day down below, observes Maya, who has since super-jumped into the air by way of her many +1/+2-magical items. "No, /not/ here--" the blonde gnashes her teeth and squints, looking Goku-serious about the presence of the Big M on the battlefield. "--we don't have time or the tools to deal with this!"
"Dill Brand!" is the nonsense incantation Maya unleashes, but much less nonsense is the phenomenal concussive detonation that goes off underneath the Lizardman's feet. It's localized, okay, so it won't throw everyone into the distance.
Maybe.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Tankbuster Cartridge toward her party's challenge, A Malevolent Soldier.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya's been shot, and that's not great. She's bleeding from her shoulder and from a little farther down than her shoulder, not to mention from a graze at her side. She was lucky not to get plugged in the chest, and even then it hurts. So she can be forgiven for not identifying the horrible feeling of wrongness that exuded from a certain Hellion.
Ah, nevermind, it wasn't luck, it was flailing and making herself a small target, and Matilda's incredible magic that prevented her being plugged in the chest.
The infighting doesn't even get to Kaguya; she's huffing for breath, "Ugh, that always works!" She may be whining. "Sorry... I guess I'm not tht good with humans..."
but suddenly what Matilda sees happens, and what Kaguya sees is horrible purple force and strange warping and it looks like "We're going to die!" she wails, and pulls her pouch from her inside pocket and jams it against her nose and mouth before--
"Mmm, that's so much better..." The lizardman charging them gets Kaguya glancing at Asteroid and then picking hersel up from the tumbled-over cart. "That's not great at all..."
She lunges forward and picks up her cane, swinging it straight at the lizardman with... really, really surprising force. She swings hard, way harder than she has a right to. "Die already! Do you think I want to deal with any more freaky glowy shit!? Just die!"
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Strange Potpourri toward her party's challenge, A Malevolent Soldier.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - A Malevolent Soldier *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you approach, you find a place where the fighting has stopped. A dozen soldiers lay dead. One, however, still stands. She staggers, as though she may be wounded... and then she turns her head to look at you. If you can see spiritual power, you see the purple, cloying light of Malevolence roiling off her. Then, she shrieks, and her form distends into that of a lizardman's. She lopes at you, rushing on all fours across the battle -- and leaps, swinging a fist so hard it defies logic. The battle is joined! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Overwhelm=========================================
========================<* The Battle Front - Round 4 *>======================== =======================< Results - A Malevolent Soldier >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asteroid the Kid 33 --(33)--> 66 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 35 --(33)--> 68 Fail Tankbuster Cartridge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 33 --(29)--> 62 Pass Strange Potpourri 1 Combat Effects: Rally and Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Virginia Maxwell 37 --(33)--> 70 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 32 --(28)--> 60 Pass Succubus Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Embolden, Fanfare, an -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Asteroid the Kid 30 --(5)--> 35 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Overwhelm|Suffer|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid has failed this challenge! The party gained 5 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> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
On the one hand: no one gets *hurt*, owing mostly to Maya's magic. In terms of the actual physical set of strikes made against the party, few land. "What do you mean we don't -- they're just soldiers!" Matilda insists, because she is so God damn far out of her depth -- as a fist slams into the cart again and she goes flying to one side of it, cracking her head on the side. That's going to hurt tomorrow.
It also hurts now.
Speaking of which, the ride gets rockier; the lizardman manages to break some of the wheels of the cart, and while they technically still operate, it's not a very safe ride anymore -- the cracks in two of the wheels render each rotation a little bumpier, and while it might hold up long enough to get out, it's a miserable ride and frankly agonizing for everyone involved.
The Hellion is eventually outpaced, but the threat of pursuit is now extremely high and constant, rather than mild. Matilda elects to groan and scream, mostly, in about equal measure.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Controlled Demolitions *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you run across the battlefield, you enter a section of hastily made trenches that had been abandoned. You feel the ground start to give -- and shift -- beneath your feet. You soon discover why. Explosives have been laced throughout the ground here. When you advance, they begin to explode -- and sections of the battlefield erupt into titanic explosions all around you! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
The poor cart is definitely struggling to complete the journey, in the wake of the frenzied attacks it has weathered. The gang may leave the Hellionized soldier behind them, but the journey is far from over.
Maya lands back alongside the cart after a few moments, having hovered in the air for a while and then decided not to linger around where she's an obvious and easy target for nervy sharpshooters. "Down there," she points, wearily, "I saw some abandoned trenches people were fighting out of. Probably safer down there than it is up here."
Unfortunately, everyone is either probably foolish or desperate enough to listen to Maya's advice, based on her view from the sky, or maybe there's just nowhere else to really go. The trenches are big enough to accommodate the cart, but there's a lingering 'beep...beep...beepbeepbeep' that picks up in pace as a landmine is rolled across.
Maya quirks her nose. "Anyone else hear something--"
Now it isn't that Maya's been ignoring anyone else in the party, but there's very little time to ask questions before the first explosions throws Heaven and Earth into disarray. However, those who strain their ears can probably hear the sorceress yelling panickedly and aimlessly above the din, trying to either fly or shield or generally do--something--before everyone's blown to smithereens.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia looks rather dazed as she rubs at her head and groans to exclaim, "I-- I hear that too--" and her eyes widen as she stares towards the incoming landmines that threaten to blow up their cart. She grimaces as she pulls out the Galecrest again and just--
--um--
--well, she literally does the raising the roof motion, actually.
This has the effect of flinging some of the closer landmines well up and past the ground and into the air, where they detonate with a spectacular 'ka-boom!' "My ears are ringing!"
DG: Virginia Maxwell has used her Tool Galecrest toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid the Kid says, "Come on girl, you can make it..." after she manages to get unstuck from the sand, thanks to Kaguya's aid. "Ughhh I'm going to lose everything..." She feels pretty stupid about it but she actually starts making a strange noise in the back of her throat as sees the state of her wheels. She keeps pushing onward, though, struggling through her agony.
She manages to fire a few portal shots here and there to hopefully avoid the worst of the minefield. But at least this is a patience that requires some patience. Maybe they'll actually pull through this one in one piece.
"Hnnk." She, for lack of a better term, noises. "Hnnk."
Come on, she tries to rally herself, you're not alone at least. You're not alone here. You have friends. She isn't particularly chatty right now, though, she's not in a good place. She's known this cart for longer than any of you.
DG: Asteroid the Kid has used her Tool Portal Pistols toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda, who is both concussed and terrified at this point, does not actually do that much to handle the situation. As explosives go off and mines start detonating, the compounder... realizes she has nothing she can actually do about this except hope the cart holds together.
She huddles into a corner and starts to cry; after a moment, she makes sure she's shifted such that the thickest part of her torso armor is pointed down. Maybe it'll save her if something goes off directly beneath her!
... maybe.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Drugged Kaguya works to help Asteroid out, and then eventually looks to Matilda in her difficulties, and runs with the rest of them once they're ready, regardless of the blood running down her. "It's fine Asteroid," she says. "We'll make it work." She is if nothing else more resilient than a dying girl should be. It's... a little inhuman, really.
When Matilda screams, Kaguya blinks, shakes her head, and moves over to her. "What..." She decies not to ask, her eyes clearing again. "I guess we're moving. Ugh, I hurt all over, like I was running..."
She's already been crying; she can't bring out any more tears for now, but she tries to comfort Matilda at least a little bit as--Explosions.
Kaguya shrieks, and it only gets worse. There are so many of them. She coughs again at the dust, can't keep her eyes open--
But her hand raises, and suddenly there is a warm wind at Matilda's feet. "Atida, please hang on!" she screams at her, over the noise, and orange, long petals swirl up around her to make her faster.
Kaguya rushes towards her to try to pull her forward, away from danger.
Kaguya is so tired. So, so tired. Too tired to die here. So she shifts to picking Matilda up and starts running, pain shooting through her legs with each step. "Everybody move!"
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Controlled Demolitions *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you run across the battlefield, you enter a section of hastily made trenches that had been abandoned. You feel the ground start to give -- and shift -- beneath your feet. You soon discover why. Explosives have been laced throughout the ground here. When you advance, they begin to explode -- and sections of the battlefield erupt into titanic explosions all around you! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 5 *>======================= =====================< Results - Controlled Demolitions >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asteroid the Kid 66 --(6)--> 72 Fail Portal Pistols 1 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 68 --(6)--> 74 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 62 --(6)--> 68 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virginia Maxwell 70 --(3)--> 73 Pass Galecrest 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 60 --(3)--> 63 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Asteroid the Kid 35 --(15)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(2)|Overwhelm|Wound(1) Effects: Quicken(1)|Stalwart(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 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: Asteroid the Kid has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Garlyle Commando *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Aveh's ally in the war has not left it out. As you make your way across the battlefield, a series of fireballs comes raining dwon from above. You find yourself caught in a pincer attack by a team of Garlyle commandos. Their black uniforms are crisp -- and their aim is sharp, as gunfire peppers down around you. Several leap in after, short swords drawn, and ready to strike you down! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Despite the widespread panic from the group, understandably, at being found in the middle of a minefield, a combination of fast thinking and incredible abilities prevents a disaster from taking place. It's not any one factor of things, but when Virginia hurls a bunch of the explosives away, there's less to actually detonate underfoot. Kaguya's fleet feet chart a safe path for the others to follow, to say nothing of the fact that Asteroid can actually just portal people to (some kind of) safety.
So yes, it's a terrible and noisy war-scene to be caught in the middle of, but gumption and quick thinking do see them through the trenches.
Maya, for her part, is straining so hard to help the nearly-dilapidated cart along that she's totally covered in sweat and not looking very magical girl at all. "We got through the temple..." she pants, trying to be the voice of--hell, I don't know, indefeatable courage?--"We just need to get out of this, and then, it'll all be fine..."
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
It'll all be fine...
AND THEN GARLYLE!
A man in Garlyle uniform sees them!
"Hey! Those people! They came out of the temple! We have orders to secure the temple!" The captain shouts. It looks exactly the same as when Leon and Lily came through here, the guy even has the same uniform on, and the same rank insignia, and the same face! That's pretty strange.
And suddenly, from seemingly out of nowhere in the haze (there's suddenly a haze), three Garlyle commandos drop down on Xantia and Fei--I mean, Maya and Virginia, while two approach from the other side, charging with their blades! "Get them! Don't let them escape in the confusion!"
"Gnahh..." Asteroid the Kid cowers and raises up their arms. A soldier misses with his swipe and slams his sword into the mailbox.
Inside the mailbox, a skull and all of the letters Asteroid had ever received rattle.
He pulls on the sword but it's stuck. Asteroid's eyes flash and she leaps at him, trying to bite at him repeatedly.
"GNAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Yeah this is not going well. That ESCAPE timer is ticking down ever more quickly! How many battles like this can you afford to slow you down?
DG: Asteroid the Kid has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
When she's picked up by Kaguya, Matilda manages -- somehow -- to stop crying. Once they're underway a little bit, she forces herself to get out of Kaguya's arms and start running on her own, murmuring, "... thanks," softly.
And wouldn't you know it, it's out of the frying pan and into the fire. Matilda's seen Garlyle teams before -- and she knows much about their approach to the world thanks to a certain Gear repair book that Riesenlied gave her. She pulls Freischütz forth again, and says, a little flatly, "Just kill them. Take -- take care of the supporter first -- we can outmaneuver the close-quarters fighters."
She starts to backpedal and put her plan into action. ... notably, she hasn't unloaded the last thing from the weapon's reservoir, so someone might be about to melt. That'll be exciting!
... though perhaps not as exciting as Asteroid biting. "I -- well, erm." Matilda has nothing she can say to that one.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia is starting to look so worn down and fatigued and completely fed up with all this that--
--this time, unmistakably, a wellspring of Malevolence starts to ooze out of her shoulders and limbs as she snarls with a dangerous gaze upon her face.
But then there's a flat pause as she gasps and seems to realise something, drawing back as she grimaces and dodges the sword-strike as she pulls her ARMs out. "Ghh--!" She fires kind of haphazardly. She's been trained, but she's clearly not experienced.
DG: Virginia Maxwell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
The escape timer ticking down is a damn apt comparison - the more time the gang spends being dragged down by combat, the less time they have to make good their escape, in terms of resources, stamina... you name it, it's dwindling.
To that end, Maya's visage shimmers briefly as she considers changing into a less stamina-consuming form, but there's not really time to make good on that, thanks to a repeat of stock footage as three of those Garlyle commandos drop out of the sky near her and Virginia!
"Gotcha," the black-clad sorceress responds to Matilda hastily, even if she's able to feel her reserves running on low. Her talismans flare with ruby light once more, hands drawn back in preparation for unleashing some kind of truly hellacious spell. She sidesteps pretty quickly, making sure that Asteroid the Biter isn't in her firing line, and unleashes another barrage of element-less bolts of arcane at their assailants. That there's no spell incantation is a sign that she's almost out of juice.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Tankbuster Cartridge toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya does not tend to think of herself as fleet, but she is by most standards. Even dying, even exhausted, there's more she can do. She waits for the others at the end though, looking over to Maya as she offers hope. Hope...
"It won't all be fine," she points out flatly, and then softens. "...A little will be fine." She appreciates Matilda's thanks, but she's surprised by them as well. Suddenly though--
"Ghhhh--" They came out of the temple. "You... incredible..." Kaguya lifts her pouch to her face again and takes an even deeper breath, doing away completely with the pain all through her body. Her eyes become pinpricks.
"Kill them all," she agrees with Matilda. She doesn't even notice the Malevolence this time, ignoring it, ignoring her ARM, in favor of lunging at the nearest soldier, tapping her boots together and suddenly being five inches taller. After that, she reaches out to take hold of this soldier's throat and crush with superhuman strength, seeking to break her neck and hurl her body straight to the next soldier with both hands.
"I'll kill all of you! Run while you can! FEAR WHILE YOU CAN!"
She's probably going to get shot a whole lot and not even notice.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Strange Potpourri toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Garlyle Commando *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Aveh's ally in the war has not left it out. As you make your way across the battlefield, a series of fireballs comes raining dwon from above. You find yourself caught in a pincer attack by a team of Garlyle commandos. Their black uniforms are crisp -- and their aim is sharp, as gunfire peppers down around you. Several leap in after, short swords drawn, and ready to strike you down! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 6 *>======================= ========================< Results - Garlyle Commando >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asteroid the Kid 72 --(16)--> 88 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 74 --(16)--> 90 Pass Tankbuster Cartridge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 68 --(13)--> 81 Pass Strange Potpourri 1 Combat Effects: Rally and Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virginia Maxwell 73 --(16)--> 89 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 63 --(19)--> 82 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Asteroid the Kid 50 --(5)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(2)|Overwhelm|Wound(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid has failed this challenge! The party gained 5 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> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid's teeth end up clamping down on the man's sword. THe man swings her around as he tries to waggle her off--and succeeds, sending her flying into the cart, sending the mailbox twisting to the side painfully.
"Gah!" Asteroid cries out. Sadly, there's only stock footage available for victory so the animators have to work pretty hard on what happens next.
Kaguya DOES manage to crush a soldier's throat with superhuman strength. She DOES get shot several times in the process. Similarly, bullets slam into the cart, causing significant damage to it as well through all the bullet holes. Virginia fires back but misses. Maybe she just doesn't have the heart to shoot a man in the face, or maybe it's the stress of the moment. Luckily, Maya is! She blasts a pair of soldiers, which opens up enough space to hold the L and R button for the party to flee as Matilda provides some cover fire!
"Hnnk," Asteroid repeats. "Hnnnnnk."
DG: Maya Schrodinger has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Obscured Path *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your path is taking you the long way around a huge, sheer cliff face. However, you might notice that a winding switchback cuts through it. You might be able to take a shortcut -- or, perhaps, that will lead only to a dead-end and a bottleneck in this dangerous firefight. A decision, whether to take it or not, must be made quickly. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Well, it's not the first time Maya has had to kill, and it probably won't be the last. This is one of those things that she and Virginia probably didn't see eye-to-eye on at the start of their friendlationship, but maybe the braided drifter has come to see things from her idol's point of view, here in the warzone. "Okay!" shouts the Schrodinger scion, which is kind of a heartless thing to exclaim after riddling someone with arcane bullets and not bothering to check if they're still alive afterwards. "There's a spot--there, they're not patrolling!" her fingers are still trailing wisps of pink smoke, and her hair is matted with sweat, but she's alive. And maybe she killed so even as a Hellion, Virginia Maxwell doesn't have to.
'Hnnk,' Asteroid grumbles in what does not sound like the best cheer. Maya pulls her cloak off, unhitching it from her shoulderpads, and rapidly ties it around the cart's mailbox before it can fall off. "Sorry, hopefully it'll hold. Just--don't give up..." she offers, not having much more to give than that. But hopefully it's the thought that counts.
Well, at least this path the (supposedly) veteran adventurer, sorceress, gunslinger and whatever the hell else she touts herself as seems quieter than the last couple of battlefields the gang slogged through. Even if it is going off the beaten track.
"Try to... take a breather." is the last peice of advice that Maya has to offer in this quiet moment, spoken to Kaguya, as she pulls her gloves off and tucks them into her belt. Her pretty little hands look really badly sunburned from channeling all that magic, and she shakes them with a wince. "We might need that wild strength again before we're safe, so, for now..."
This is getting pretty War Movie grim.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Obscured Path.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Though Matilda is slashed several times, her armor takes the worst of it -- she looks haggard and worn by the time the fight is over and the team is retreating, but not actually that badly wounded. Her cuts and scrapes can be treated soon -- and the pits in her armor, well... an ARMsmeister can take care of that.
Matilda looks ahead, instead, toward the path; she takes a second to try to consider the lay of the land. She's actually traveled this way before, more or less -- remember, she's from the next major nation to the west of this very spot!
"... There's guaranteed to be at least one checkpoint at the end of the switchback," she says, suddenly, without any solicitation; she holds a hand up with two fingers up -- the semi-universal sign for 'be ready, but don't go.' "We can rest if we just round the corner and stay, but we'll want to take the long way around unless we're feeling up to a fight. Unless..."
She looks back toward Asteroid, asking, "Are you going to be okay?" before turning to Maya and Virginia. "If one of you can create a magical distraction about... 200 meters to our north, it'll give us a chance to get through the switchback without having to fight. Depending on whether Krosse is on a readiness footing, the checkpoint might be theirs, instead -- don't pick a fight unnecessarily once we move through."
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Obscured Path.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
That probably is it, really -- as much showmanship as she wants to put into the whole Hellion schtick, some part of Virginia is still... well. She hasn't ever killed anyone before, and she probably never will -- her heart's just not there.
There's always a discrepancy between one's heart and one's actions, when you're a Hellion.
There's a stumbling groan as she whimpers, "Y-yeah, okay... I'll--" She concentrates and hurls the Tindercrest out -- and a massive explosion rocks the skies at about where Matilda is pointing, gasping as she leans back down with a groggy sigh.
DG: Virginia Maxwell has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Obscured Path.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid is sure to save in a seperate file just in case, you know, we get a game over.
Asteroid hasn't had the best day. Sure, she did get to see the Guardians and all which before today she would have killed for, possibly literally, but then it turned out they weren't really as great as she thought they were, and she saw a friend at what FELT like her lowest point if not in actuality, and now her cart is falling apart. She is not an emotionally stable individual though much like Virginia, despite acting as if she'd tear out someone's throat--would she, really? Or is she just playing the role of minion with the accompanying snarls and biteiness.
She pushes the cart for the shortcut. She is asked if she's okay and she is told to not give up. She isn't yet. She isn't. The only thing keeping her going is her promise to Kaguya and the chance that maybe, just maybe, her friends will make it through, cart intact. she keeps pushing.
"Gonna be okay," She murmurs to Matilda. "I won't be taken again, not today, I won't be taken, not again, not today..."
DG: Asteroid the Kid has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Obscured Path.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya, as predicted, doesn't even notice the bullets in her back as she brutally murders a Garlyle soldier. She still throws the body, starting to round on others... But she gets little time. Instead, the blasting sets the group to running, and she snarls at them like some kind of beast, the soldiers, before she runs with the others.
"Ow--Ow--Owww," she complains breathlessly, getting her senses again pain-first. She pulls her cane from where it's clipped and starts using it, leaning heavily on the implement with one hand and leaning on the cliff wall with the other. She slows, and...
And Maya talks to her, and Kaguya looks up her way. It's always up, talking to other people standing. "My... You need me?" she asks, uncertain. "I'll... I'll do what I can..." She leans on the wall then, gulping down air. Matilda takes charge, and talks to Asteroid, and...
Kaguya, for her part, watches Matilda with an expression she couldn't really explain, a longing for something. She shakes her head. Maybe she could explain it, if she saw it. But it wasn't only...
"We'll all..." Can she say they'll be fine? She can't. She decides not to harm things by speaking up with pessimism. Instead she lifts her pale green eyes to the sky.
Softly, disconsolately, she says, just audibly, "I want to go home." She's crying again, and trying to blink through it.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Obscured Path.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Obscured Path *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your path is taking you the long way around a huge, sheer cliff face. However, you might notice that a winding switchback cuts through it. You might be able to take a shortcut -- or, perhaps, that will lead only to a dead-end and a bottleneck in this dangerous firefight. A decision, whether to take it or not, must be made quickly. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 7 *>======================= =========================< Results - Obscured Path >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Asteroid the Kid 88 --(12)--> 100 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 90 --(11)--> 101 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 81 --(12)--> 93 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virginia Maxwell 89 --(13)--> 102 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 82 --(16)--> 98 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Asteroid the Kid 55 --(10)--> 65 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Overwhelm|Save Point(1)|Wound(1) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Asteroid the Kid is too exhausted to continue! DG: Maya Schrodinger is too exhausted to continue! DG: Virginia Maxwell is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Asteroid the Kid 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: Matilda Whitehead has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Artillery Flare *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you make your way westward, you find an Aveh soldier who has been shot dead. He has a pair of large tubes, which have the word "ARTILLERY" printed on the side. These tubes hold flares, used to signal artillery emplacements and indicate where they should open fire. Careful use of these could cause Aveh's artillery to hit a point you desire -- to clear the way, perhaps. Of course, doing so improperly could draw fire... or attention from Aveh's soldiers. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure, Injure, Stupify================================
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
The road ahead seems to grow ever-longer, and the distant, fading crackle of automatic fire has become a stuccato thump rather than the sharp, pitched reports that it's been thus far. The path may be free of Kislev and Aveh forces, but the desert winds blow harshly and the skies darken with sand, painting everything a rather heady colour through which a waning sun shines.
How many twists and turns does the group take? Do they long for the simple binary of fight or flee they were so recently running from?
By the time a humanoid shape in the distance shimmers before them, Maya's knees give out and she slumps to the ground briefly, her boots pooled with sweat. She takes her headband off and wipes her face with it, hoping nobody can see the tears of exhaustion. "I'm--fine." she pants, having long since given away whatever water and perishables she carried. "I just need a moment... breath..."
Well, this lot weren't born yesterday. They can probably tell that the city-slicker girl is completely out of steam, and won't be able to lift a finger to cast so much as a puff of smoke against the next fight.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"Kaguya --" Matilda starts, as they head into the switchback. "... Please, don't tell me that we're fine." Her own face is still streaked with tears too, even though the moment of absolute terror earlier has given way to a little more steel.
Matilda looks back toward Maya as they move through the switchback, as the girl slumps over. "... we should be almost out -- there's only so much ground we can cover, and I haven't seen any places we've doubled through... I think..." Matilda breathes, haggardly. She turns her attention ahead, and --
-- that humanoid figure falls to a sniper's bullet. "... Stay here. Kaguya -- on me." It helps that Kaguya is probably the only one who... can 'on Matilda,' at the moment. She stalks forward, taking a moment to assess the area -- and then firing three quick shots off into the distance along the angle they didn't come from. It'll buy them at least a few seconds while the Kislevi soldier repositions.
"Flares... Kaguya -- use the launcher and put one where I just shot. I'll -- trust your judgment on the others."
She looks back toward the rest of the group, calling, "Get to a position you can't see me from without peeking out!"
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Flare.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Atida..." Matilda answers her, and Kaguya looks to her, uncertain, and then as if she's trying to reach out to see those tears, something softer. "...I won't. I'm sorry."
It's quieter here. That much is nice. ...But the sand isn't. The sand that gets down here around them through the desert winds, shielding them from the sun but not from those winds themselves. Their grit digs at Kaguya's skin, the twists and turns dig at her stamina, but above all the elements themselves reject her, every breath painful as she keeps moving, heavy on her cane.
They go. She doesn't know what she misses. She thinks only of each next step, bloody from multiple gunshots that she should not survive, let alone be able to walk through. But eventually there is a figure...
"Mada," Kaguya says to Maya, but Matilda takes charge instead. There's a fall, and Kaguya narrows her eyes, stowing her cane and pulling her ARM at the direction. "Yes, ma'am." It's a natural authority, and she steps forward, remembering what little military training she was given as she moves in time. But... She puts it away as she rushes--painfully--to the soldier. She glares down at him before she takes the flares and first fires one right where Matilda indicated, with precision.
The next, "That looks like our best path out, Atida; smooth enough for the cart." She raises the next flare, and fires it there, to open the path.
The rest... "Looks like weapons..." She's merciless; she moves for what looks like where soldiers will be, as well as what's useful to them.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Flare.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid the Kid keeps on dragging the cart but it's falling apart at the seams from all the damage and rough terrain and adventures it's been having. Eventually, Asteroid stops. "Ginny... I think we have to get off, it's not going to hold at this rate..." One of the wheels chooses this moment to give out and it rolls away. Asteroid catches it in time and dumps it into the cart but it's clearly not working anymore.
She slows to a walk as she murmurs to herself.
"I built it with my own two hands. I salvaged the materials, molded the metal, welded them together..." She murmurs. "Gathered rubber tree sap, stirred it, formed it..." She makes that Hnnnk noise again. "I was so proud when I could make it shine..."
She pushes her hands against a screw that had been coming lose, holding it in.
"...come on... come on...."
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Artillery Flare *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you make your way westward, you find an Aveh soldier who has been shot dead. He has a pair of large tubes, which have the word "ARTILLERY" printed on the side. These tubes hold flares, used to signal artillery emplacements and indicate where they should open fire. Careful use of these could cause Aveh's artillery to hit a point you desire -- to clear the way, perhaps. Of course, doing so improperly could draw fire... or attention from Aveh's soldiers. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure, Injure, Stupify================================
========================<* The Battle Front - Round 8 *>========================
=========================< Results - Artillery Flare >==========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asteroid the Kid --()-->
Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maya Schrodinger --()-->
Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya 93 --(27)--> 120 Fail
Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virginia Maxwell --()-->
Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matilda Whitehead 98 --(15)--> 113 Pass
Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Asteroid the Kid --()-->
Conditions: Injure(2)|Overwhelm|Stupify(2)|Treasure(1)
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Asteroid the Kid is too exhausted to continue! DG: Maya Schrodinger is too exhausted to continue! DG: Kaguya is too exhausted to continue! DG: Virginia Maxwell is too exhausted to continue! DG: Matilda Whitehead 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 Asteroid the Kid has been fully Exhausted by The Battle Front! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - Cornered and Trapped *>==================== |Type: Escape |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Try as you might, eventually everything goes wrong. The presence of a Golem has given Kislev the upper hand in this battle. As you struggle, you find yourself surrounded by soldiers in dark green uniforms. Kislev infantry run in, surrounding you -- and more than twenty have soon cornered you, ARMs pointed at you. A sharp command comes your way: "Stand down!" OOC: You have been captured by Kislev! You are free to pose your escape -- the soldiers would certainly leave you injured and hurt, but you could get away. Alternately, you could be captured and taken to Kislev, to require rescue. If you want to go that route, please send in a +request! =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Unfortunately, things go poorly. The first flare works fine; unfortunately, the earlier gunshot -- coupled with the terrible position in the first place -- makes it plainly clear to literally everyone what's going on. The second flare, meanwhile, is a dud; Matilda and Kaguya ram a third one in, but something goes wrong with that, too. As the flare goes up, the Kislevi sniper from earlier -- the same one who killed our poor defeated Aveh boy on the ground there -- fires on it, shooting it out of the air and forcingthe flare to land...
... back in the cart. Matilda's eyes widen and her heart sinks. "GET OUT OF THE CART! SCATTER! FIND A CAVE OR A CREVICE!" she shouts, before --
-- every sense is replaced with a stark white and a profound ringing of the ears as artillery fire rains on the cart.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid the Kid is shaking. She is moving pretty damn slowly so she doesn't see the flare heading for the cart. She stalls just long enough that the flare lands right inside of it. She looks back, "No, no I can't leave it!" She cries out. She is going to die with that thing unless someone does something.
Kaguya no?
Kaguya Yes!
She rushes over just in time and tackles Asteroid out of the way with her bony BUT SUPREME and superior Veruni strength. They roll around in the sand for several moments and then the blasts hit.
The cart is incinerated in a swarm of fire, fury, and explosions. Nothing survives, except for the mailbox, which is launched so high up into the air and so far, it actually leaves the battlefield entirely.
MOMENTS LATER, MILES AWAY
The mailbox slams into the ground, post first. It punches through the dirt and grass so far that it digs in up to its head. A passing headless skeleton is startled, but then--the hatch of the mailbox falls off, and a skull tumbles out of it.
The skull looks at the skeletal body. The body looks back. They rush ttowards each other and the skeleton puts its head back on. It smiles a toothy grin.
This is a good omen, the skeleton decides and skips off merrily.
HERE
As the noise and fire dissipitates, a squad of Kislevi soldiers rush in on you, bearing rifles.
"Holy shit..." One says, startling at Kaguya. "She's gotta be dead..."
"No, she's alive somehow..." Another soldier says, whistling low, but then he sees Asteroid. "FUCK!" Language, soldier. "What the hell is this freak!? You think we should put it out of its misery?"
There's some radio exchanges. "No---command wants them alive." Strange, but maybe there's a reason for it.
And you might think maybe you could ambush them, but then more are coming in from all directions, though certainly more hesitantly with regards to the freakier members of the party than the rest, but there is no escaping this.
Maybe the Guardians have turned their gaze away.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia is kind of...
...well, where is she, first of all?
She was in the cart right around when it explodes, consumed in the fire and fury of the blast when it all goes up in flame. One might think that that would be the end of the rookie Drifter. The one who left Boot Hill with a fresh face and an exciteable demeanor, wishing to follow in the footsteps of her father and discover what really happened to him and her mother...
...
The butterfly laughs gently, as it trails across darkened skies, around flame and smoke as it consumes the cart.
A hand erupts from out of the flame, suddenly.
No, it can't rightly be called a hand.
It's a pallid, shrivelled claw that emerges from within -- and the vaguely womanlike form that rises cannot rightly be called human either.
A Hellion rises out from the wreckage. Half of her face is noticably Virginia's, yet pale, while the other is broken into blackness, with naught but a golden shimmer where there was once an eye. Her hair is frayed and splayed over her face, and her garments have wreathed around herself -- they cannot be rightly be called cloth, for it is more of an inky extension of herself, decorated in sickly mockeries of roses and silk.
"This is... all a nightmare..."
Her voice is raspy, and cannot be rightfully called voice. It echoes with a reverb that touches the borders of the waking and the sleeping.
"... but I will make it all all right."
Her claw is raised.
A Domain begins to erupt in the form of familiar checkered floors underneath a portion of the soldiers.
"... there's no need to be afraid anymore..."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
The flare is shot right out of Kaguya's hand. Her eyes widen. "What--" Matilda starts shouting, and, her hand only now starting to her, Kaguya turns to look and sees Asteroid, shouting that she can't leave it. Before she can even think, she runs.
She runs toward Asteroid, and her grip is like iron as she tackles and rolls with her. Shielding her eyes by looking away, Kaguya is tense, her heart beat-beat-beating so fast, the right side of her chest painful with it against Asteroid. "Don't," she whispers, "Don't throw your life away." It hurts. Oh, it hurts. But she gets up as there's still fire, looks around to see any of the others...
That's when the soldiers come. Kaguya has an ARM hanging at her side, a cane hanging there too, and indeed, she looks like she should be dead. The woman who says she looks it gets a narrow of the Veruni's eyes, as she tries to see how many there are but--
But there are so many. And she's so tired. These humans--
"I'm not DEAD!" Kaguya shrieks at once, and takes a step back, hesitating. "No, don't--" But command wants them alive.
Kaguya shakes, staring. She doesn't know where Ginny is. She doesn't know where Maya is. She doesn't even know where Matilda is. ...But one of those appears, as the butterfly laughs, as a hand comes out. Kaguya startles to see it, startles to see and feel this creature that resembles her friend, finds her throat choked off. She can't breathe. What is this feeling? What is this horrible, roiling feeling?
"N-nightmare..? All..." She trails off into a squeak, taking a step back. This doesn't look all right. It gets into her head. "I-I can't--"
Kaguya can feel herself swaying. "Asteroid..." A breath, "Atida...!" And... There. There she is, close, and Kaguya stumbles towards her in the confusion, putting a hand on her arm. "Atida," she says, eyes wide with fear, still nauseous. "Get out... While it's scary..."
She shakes her head, and just shakes, and says just to her, "Tell Riesenlied!"
Her instructions given Kaguya looks like she's in pain, reaching down to her side, brushing the stock of her ARM. A soldier notices in panic. "Freeze!" she says, and Kaguya doesn't because she's trying to hold herself up.
The soldier shoots, and blood patters up from the left side of Kaguya's chest. The little Veruni, sways a little more and then falls heavily, her golden hair fanning out long until she hits the ground, unmoving. Her chest barely rises and falls breathing.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
The shrill wail of an incoming shell is the last thing Maya Schrodinger can remember, before the world became a-tumble and a deafening burst of overpressure throws her from the cart and peppers her (admittedly magically reinforced) garments with the remnants of a white-hot fragmentation sleeve. She sails in a twisting arc, trailing smoke, pauldrons shattered, landing blessedly far away from the cart for any followup strikes.
Now, the curious little human has the power to turn imagination into reality, as you may or may not know. So she lingers on the border of fantasy and consciousness, concussed beyond the ability for rational or even conscious thought, and that is probably what preserves the flickering flame of her life: a literal inability to comprehend the incalculable damage to her own physical form.
Kinda neat, I guess.
The throbbing wrongness of the domain that stretches out beneath the soldier's feet triggers some kind of involuntary response from the sorc^!#@sling|||>error's body, her hand lifting from the baked sand and closing gently around the twisted, blurred visage of what used to be Virginia Maxwell.
It is not that Maya Schrodinger does not care for her other companions, who she cannot see, nor comprehend, nor remember, but that her mind is incapable of processing their fates.
In short, she needs to reboot.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
'Command wants them alive' -- a good omen, for sure. Matilda hears that, and begins to make plans for her escape. Before the smoke clears, Matilda begins to fumble in her coat for reagents. She can find the ones she wants just by touch -- they'll be a little adulterated, no doubt, but she only needs --
-- as the world grows strange, Kaguya finds Matilda and puts a hand on her arm. "... all right," she says, softly. She knows Kaguya has made her peace with the possibility of death -- it makes it... easier, somehow, to listen to her, to accept the idea that instead of staying and fighting, she should run.
"... You're asking the improbable," she whispers softly. "... but that's... good. It's good to ask for improbable things... even..." Her gaze sweeps around her once. "... even in a nightmare."
Matilda's free hand fumbles around underneath her; to a casual observer, it'd look like she's trying to get up. What she's actually doing, though... is getting a different second reagent. She shoves two herbs hastily into Freischütz's reservoir, and points the weapon...
... at herself. "I'm sorry," she says, looking the Kislevi soldiers that surround her and Kaguya, in particular, in the eye. "I won't give you the satisfaction." She pulls the trigger, firing into her stomach. Two of the Kislevi soldiers -- the youngest, both obviously rookies -- flinch as they, for an instant, think they've seen another of the countless horrors war has on offer. Two more grab Kaguya from either side, having intuited that these two are close, given their exchange. Kaguya's blood slips through Kislevi fingertips as they start, slightly, to pull away from both Virginia's dark energy and Matilda's apparent death.
Artemis Leaf - A strong, reliable curative for both physical and spiritual ailments.
Wolfsbane - a deadly poison.
The mixture, however, is something a little different. Every vein in Matilda's body seems to shift slightly, and her arms quake just the littlest bit --
-- and then she reaches out without hesitation, slender hands gripping the throat of one of her attackers and then raking with her nails. One of the rookies swings her gun up toward Matilda -- and the compounder swats it aside and then delivers a kick to the gut. The trigger gets pulled anyway; Matilda snarls, reaches out for Kaguya's ARM, and fires it before she's even got a good sense of what she's aiming at. Kaguya's ARM is tossed at the head of one of Kaguya's own detainers a moment later, rather than kept; it knocks him unconscious, while the other one grabs the ARM in one arm, Kaguya in the other, and elects to bolt.
Matilda stomps on her fallen foe once, then again, the second causing a sickening crack; some of the Kislevi soldiers who had already started their retreat from Virginia turn and fire, briefly, on Matilda -- who dances out of the path effortlessly.
Hands curled like claws, Matilda starts to bolt away now that the most immediate threats to her person are dealt with. The bullet in her hip from just a moment ago is ignored completely, her gait perfect..
... even despite the artillery shrapnel riddling her other side, previously not terribly visible to anyone but the Kislevi solders thanks to Matilda's combat stance. And like that --
-- she's gone.
The Kislevi soldier hauling Kaguya off takes this as a sign that it would be a good time to also not be here, gesturing for the ones detaining Asteroid to follow suit.
<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.
Asteroid the Kid, by contrast, stands herself up, weapons aimed at her. One soldier yells at her to 'Make that thing stop'.
"She's so beautiful..." Asteroid murmurs. "I know it's supposed to be a nightmare, but it's such a kind nightmare, a lucid one you can turn into a sweet dream, heeh heeh... Well, Make it to the moon for me, Kaguya."
She looks towards where her cart used to be, however briefly. She fires a blast close towards Ginny, her face too difficult to read thanks to what had been done to it, but perhaps it is resigned. This startles the soldiers and then jerk back and away from her. Others flee at the sight of Virginia.
Asteroid then fires a shot right in front of her. She dumps the pistols in. They bloop and then fly back up towards Ginny.
Asteroid then turns and grabs for Kaguya, fully intent on sending her threw after them--but then she looks over and sees she is being pulled away from her and Matilda.
She screams and rushes them, teeth bared--
--but an enterprising soldier clobbers her in the gut with his rifle and she goes down like a sack of bricks.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia seizes her claws up, to which bullets sink into her flesh -- they do not rend and pierce so much as gel up and sink softly into it, however. "M-monster... monster!!" one of the soldiers shouts, turning and running tail.
"Astie..."
She stares towards the soldier that's just clobbered her over her head. She's about to move--
--and then the two pistols so precious to Asteroid appear at her side.
The shot pans to Maya, where she's fallen to a heap between fantasy and reality. Ah, to so entrance oneself between two states...
... she sweeps her off her feet, with two oversized claws that have engorged themselves to a size large enough to simply cradle Maya in clammy, clay-like flesh. Lovingly, gently, like she would a baby dove.
There's an enigmatic stare as she whispers, "... you won't have to be afraid. Because..."
The shot pans to the Domain behind her, where the soldiers that haven't fled are now hanging -- hanging off off black spear-like implements, bodies moving in the rattling wind and flame like ragdolls.
That's not why.
"... because ..."
Just say it.
"... I'll come for you, Astie."
She suddenly stops levitating, and just -- sinks. Sinks into the ground as easilly as one would splashing into water, her Domain unravelling as she absconds from the battlefield.