[Game Thread] IV. The Ruins of Archeebald Mountain

[HenryLockwood]

Karla slogs over through the snow, moving as fast as she can towards Rip. Perhaps, within reach of her blades, his archery will be less deadly...

As Karla closes in on the constable, swords dripping red onto the snow, something shifts and she returns to her normal size. Still snarling ferociously, blood up and angry, she barely notices the change - though, just for a moment, she stumbles as her body adjusts. The delay costs her the time she needs to swing at Rip, but at least she's closing in.

OOC Double move, since I believe a run action is prohibited. With Karla's base speed of 40, that easily allows her to reach Rip; I've taken narrative licence with why exactly she can't charge

[Krimchee]

Silas looked up to see the Sycamore winding up for another blow. "Blood and ashes," he whispered, wondering for a moment what hit him and how he ended up on his arse in the snow. The Sycamore continued to move, and at last his dazed brain made the connection. "Son of a...", Silas quickly tried dragging himself up off the ground and forcing himself to move. As he did a wave of nausea rolled over him and the world tilted for a moment. He reached up and touched his head and winced. His fingers came away slick with blood. The sound of creaking timber roared above him, the moving mottled bark urgently reminding him of his situation. Desperately, Silas tried to dodge and get out of the way. Move! He didn't think he'd survive another blow like that.

Get the H... out the way! Dexterity Check (dodging the sycamore) Dice Roll: 1d20+3 (5)+3 Total = 8

Status AC 15 HP 5/27

[mountainbound]

The two mammoth creatures roll and snarl in the snow, their incredible bulk crashing into trees and casting plumes of red and white through the forest battlefield. Standing not far from the warring beasts, Fahd's eyes glaze over, opening to the spirit realm. To an outsider, it lasts only a second or two, but the shaman sees much in just a heartbeat.

He looks past the bear and sloth to a place beyond the trees, not far from Silas, alerted to the presence of another combatant. Then suddenly he startles, as though struck.

In a flash of white the newcomer appears from the woods on the other side of the scene.

Silas lays bleary-eyed and momentarily delirious in the snow -- having just been clocked in the forehead by a sycamore branch. In typical fashion, Karla strides with cold determination straight for the source of the problem: Rip, and leaves her fallen companion at the mercy of the thrashing tree. Or perhaps she figured Dan would come to Silas's aid.

But the young wizard is paralyzed -- the sight of Tasha all covered with blood and quickly bleeding to death is too much. "I… I killed him, I didn't mean to kill him," Dan says. It was true, the final blow belonged to Dan, though truth be told it was Karla who performed the bulk of the damage. With a gasp, Tasha breathes his last as Dan stares down in horror.

SMASH! Another tree limb crashes down into the snow next to Silas, waking the ranger from his fog. But with his head concussed from the last blow, and several broken ribs from sloth's trampling, Silas can barely move (let alone figure out how to disentangle his snowshoes and stand upright before another branch swings down at him).

It's then the ranger feels something utterly peculiar and unsettling: hot breath on his neck. In an instant Silas is being dragged backward through the snow, his winterwalkers making a long track behind him. A white wolf, lean and mangy, has its teeth clamped firmly on the young ranger's collar and manages to pull him out from under the furious sycamore. For a moment the wolf and Silas consider each other, their eyes only inches apart, their breath forming one cloud. Something unknown is communicated in that moment. Then, the white wolf turns and bolts back into the woods, just as Silas is able to get his bearings and rise to his feet.

Rip finally wrenches his eyes off the bizarre rescue when he spots Karla bearing down on him. He lowers his bow -- "I'm not your enemy -- it wasn't my intention to hurt you, and I haven't. Listen, you need to get away from here while you still have a chance. We all do. You think Olaf is going to forgive you for killing Tasha? I know these woods well, and what's more, I know Olaf's mind." He backs up another step, as Karla's blood-soaked swords come ever closer. "Olaf will be in that form for a few hours more. That's time for us to put distance between us. But we need to move. In this form, he'll kill us all!"

Combat Notes Enemy Status Bull Sloth: AC 17, Wounded for 25hp. Fighting with an oversized grizzly. Olaf: AC 16, Wounded for 36 hp. In grizzly form. Rip: AC 18, Wounded for 14. Tasha: AC 14, Dead in the snow. Party Status Silas takes no damage. Dan takes no damage. Karla takes no damage. Fahd takes no damage. -2 DEX until you find the other snowshoe. Lynx is gone. Wolf is gone. Please list your current and max HP, AC and any other pertinent information in your post.

[LupusRegalis]

Every thing, all connected Fahd considers, a small smile crossing his face as the most evident proof of that fades from his vision. Even now, in the midst of a battle for more than just their lives, he smiles because that truth can be seen in the physical world as well. He has but to see Wolf come to Silas as Lynx came to him to see the bonds that bind them all to one another. Yet more proof that Olaf's actions were wrong, a betrayal and a perversion of the shaman's gift.

The Spirit-within-the-Cloak's words ring through his mind, you walk in darkness. A warning there, or a statement of events? Fahd wasn't sure. But his resolve hardened and he spoke out loud "If I walk in Darkness, than I will be a Light within it, Spirit." He makes a quick decision. Calling upon his gift he uses whats at hand to set a basic rhythm, thumping the snow with his Aklys and chanting. He calls out to any spirit within the area who might bear witness to these events. Speaking to them through his gift, he asks for Aid for the Bull Sloth against Olaf, and hopes it is enough for the moment.

Still seated in the snow, though it was starting to become a discomfort, Fahd changes the focus of his attention to those who had come here with him and Olaf. He sees Dan standing shocked off to the side, not far from Tasha's body. He sees Silas being drug by the scruff of his neck away from danger by Wolf. And he sees Karla advancing on Rip as the man tried to speak at her. Fahd concentrates his attention on Rip, Olaf's sole remaining ally. He catches the tale end of his words "...form, he'll kill us all" and wonders how many times he's seen it happen.

Fahd wastes no more time wondering though, and calls upon the power of the Ichvaali cloak. Focusing his sight on Rip's bow, and further on the the bowstring, Fahd concentrates. Guiding the power of the cloak to its target he sets it loose. Slowly, so slowly, Fahd heats the bowstring from within.

 

Actions Move Action: Dice Perform: Ritual check: 1d20+10 (1)+10 Total = 11 Communicate with Spirits, asking them to Aid the Bull Sloth Standard Action: Use 'Matter Agitation' power of the Ichvaali cloak on Rip's bowstring. I will continue to maintain this until it snaps.

Combat Stats Fahd: HP 12/20 Spirit Healing 6/6, Cloak 4/5, +10 Fire Resist AC17 (12FF, 16 Tc) Fort +6/Ref +5/Will +5 Lynx: HP 6/16 AC 21 (13FF, 18 Tc, 25 vs OA), Fort +4/Ref +9/Will +2

[HenryLockwood]

"If he'll hunt us anyway, we should kill him now!"

Karla glares at Rip, not attacking - yet - but ready to strike should he make a hostile move. Her swords remain high, and she shifts slowly around the archer.

OOC Readying an attack if Rip does anything hostile. Running away, since he's an archer, will be counted as hostile. Obviously if Fahd's plan works and the bowstring breaks, running away will no longer be hostile... Dice One Attack: 1d20+10 (12)+10 Total = 22 1d6+4 (3)+4 Total = 7

[Krimchee]

For a moment, Silas was too stunned to even curse. Even though the wolf was gone, Silas could still see its eyes. It was like they were burned into his retinas, or his mind, kind of like the after-image of the sun after you look at it too directly. Silas blinked. In the darkness behind his eyes, the wolf's eyes blazed brighter, but not with any kind of menace or malice, but rather just the memory of them. He opened his eyes and they were still there, super imposed over his vision. He blinked again, and they faded. But he would never forget.

Shaking his head to clear his vision, he groaned with sudden pain. Bad idea, he thought. He tried to stand. Pain lanced through his side as his torso flexed from the motion of standing. The pain made him suck in air and a sharper spear of pain speared through him. "Feck! he hissed through gritted teeth.

"I say we get the eff out of here". He looked around at the madness still brewing around them. It'd been too close. If it hadn't been for the wolf...." "I've spent enough time rammed up the arse-crack of a flaming sloth for one day," he complained. Limping, he moved further into the trees.

status Status AC 15 HP 5/27 Broken ribs

[mountainbound]

"Listen to your friend!" Rip shouts to Karla, emphasizing Silas's suggestion to get the F out of Dodge. Before the he can say more, a huge chunk of green sycamore -- smashed apart by 14 tons of combined bulk from the oversized bear and sloth -- flies at his head. Quickly the elder ranger ducks as the wood flies past. "What would you do, swordswoman, ask the beasts to fight you instead? Fool of a girl. Let them fight their battle. This our chance to flee. If we're lucky, the sloth will prevail."

Rip, his bow still in hand, looks to Silas and then to Dan. "Anyway, there is something more important than Olaf back at the sledge. You know what I speak of. Now is our chance to take it!"

Another tree crashes to pieces, causing everyone to duck. Closer to the hulking combatants, Fahd concentrates on Rip's bow, causing a wisp of smoke to curl in the frosty air. Then another wisp catches the spiritchaser's eye, still somewhat attuned to the otherworld. Fahd turns his head toward Dan, who still stands over Tasha. Suddenly a puff of something explodes from the mortally wounded northerner. The plume of gray coalesces into the shape of a man hovering over Tasha's form. It takes a pitiful swing at the young wizard with smoky arms, but Dan only pulls his cloak tighter, perhaps feeling some cold wind shiver his bones. Then the spirit takes notice of Fahd, it's eyes white embers. The ghastly Tasha-thing begins to float toward the shaman but soon dissipates into the air like a nightmare from which one suddenly awakens.

The very real battle intensifies as the sloth renews its attack, stabbing the shaman-bear with its tusks. The woods echo with the cries of the creatures as they thrash and tumble through the snow. "Now," Rip calls, "now is our chance!" He groans slightly, pierced as he is by Silas's arrows. Gingerly Rip lays a hand on his chest, and with a gesture that you might never understand, the ranger brushes the arrow from his skin. Though it defies the laws of physics -- an arrow piercing deeply into someone's internal organs can't simply be swept away -- still that was the gesture, and in a moment the flow of blood from Rips chest stops.

Combat Notes Enemy Status Bull Sloth: AC 17, Wounded for 29hp (Aided). Fighting Olaf. Olaf: AC 16, Wounded for 51 hp. In grizzly form. Rip: AC 18, Wounded for 6. (CLW for 8hp.) Bowstring starting to ignite. Tasha: Dead.

[LupusRegalis]

"Help us, Rip!" Fahd calls out, entreating the man. He struggles to his feet, balanced between one foot in the snow and the other atop it. "Help us Finish this, here and now. If you run, and he lives, what do you think he's going to do?! Reward You? How much worse if you Steal from him? Make a choice, Rip. Help him, or help us. Any other choice and it ends badly for you." he reasons, convinced Olaf would never forgive a betrayel. He just wasn't that kind of man, and Rip must know that. Fahd wasn't willing to bet his friends lives on Rip though, not yet. So he continued to focus on the mans bowstring, lessening the flow of power just enough to give Rip the chance to answer.

 

Actions Move: Stand Up Standard: Maintain focus on Rip's bowstring, unless he agree's to aid us against Olaf

Combat Stats Fahd: HP 12/20 Spirit Healing 6/6, Cloak 5/5, +10 Fire Resist AC17 (12FF, 16 Tc) Fort +6/Ref +5/Will +5 Lynx: HP 6/16 AC 21 (13FF, 18 Tc, 25 vs OA), Fort +4/Ref +9/Will +2

[mountainbound]

Rip, his leathers worked with turquoise and silver, frowns at Fahd's words. The man's eyes glance at the shaman just before the two mammoth creatures roll between the party again, splattering blood and tossing snow in all directions. It was truly either beast's battle, but certainly not one any sane person would enter into. Still...

"Fine," Rip says, backing up another step from the menace of Karla's swords. Over the snarls and crash of the fray, there was no way Fahd would ever hear, but the elder ranger continues speaking in a calm tone, "I'll help. But you don't know what you've gotten yourselves into." Slowly he reaches back and pulls an arrow from his quiver, setting it to his bow to take aim. Once again he looks at the barbarian woman. "I won't fire at you, it's time to trust a man at his word, if you still can."

Combat Notes Enemy Status Bull Sloth: AC 17, Wounded for 29hp (Aided). Fighting Olaf. Olaf: AC 16, Wounded for 51 hp. In grizzly form.

[HenryLockwood]

Karla's blood is still up. She steps lightly on the snow, warily watching Rip, but trusting him for now.

"Fire, then, and aim well."

She almost spits the words at Rip, swords still ready, but not attacking.

OOC Once Rip fires at Olaf, Karla will run over to attack the shaman.

[LupusRegalis]

Fahd barely makes out the word Fine spoken by Rip before the two beasts crash between them as they fought. He was unsure whether the man was agreeing, or if he meant something else entirely. Doesn't matter now, anyways he thinks, his line of sight broken and the link to the power he'd been maintaining broken. He lets it go with the wind, and instead looks for the other half of his set of snow-shoes. It was time to be more proactive.

 

Actions Move: To snow shoe once located Standard: Put it back on

Combat Stats Fahd: HP 12/20 Spirit Healing 6/6, Cloak 5/5, +10 Fire Resist AC17 (12FF, 16 Tc) Fort +6/Ref +5/Will +5 Lynx: HP 6/16 AC 21 (13FF, 18 Tc, 25 vs OA), Fort +4/Ref +9/Will +2

[Krimchee]

"You guys are fecking mad!" Silas winced as pain from his broken ribs jabbed at him. Every time he breathed too deeply, or too fecking quickly, pain shot through his side. The pain made him draw in a hissing breath. His bow dangled loosely from his left hand. His right hand gingerly held his wounded side. He hunched a bit, huddling away from the pain. He wasn't one to run from a fight, but...... The way his head, his ribs, and his body in general throbbed and pulsed with pain, he marveled that he was even on his feet. I should be laid up in a soft, warm, flaming-fecking bed sipping fecking broth, he thought miserably as he watched his breath mist before him.

He took another step into the cover of the trees. "Look at me, I can barely stand, let alone roll around with those..." he gestured vaguely towards the battle with his bow, "things." A trickle of blood crept down his temple. Silas absently wiped it off with his sleeve, not realizing. You're in no shape to run either, he realized reluctantly.

"Our only chance to run is while those two are....occupied. What the eff are we going to do if those sloths do win, and decide to turn their attention on us?" He sighed, and said more quietly, " I'll be a sitting duck if it comes to an all-out flight from those bastages."

[mountainbound]

"Aim well," Karla spits at Rip, and an instant later an arrow whistles past her, just a foot from her head, embedding itself in the furry hide of the sloth. His eyes flick to her, nervously or mockingly it isn't clear, as he draws another arrow. In a flash, he fires again, and this time the shaft plunks into bear flesh.

On the other side of the colossal fight, Fahd struggles with numb fingers to tie the twine to bind his errant winterwalker back to his foot. Nearby both animals wrangle with each other, and in a moment thrash about, breaking trees and rolling directly toward the shaman sitting in the snow.

Back on the edge of the trees Silas grabs his chest -- broken ribs inciting pain close to excruciating. Seeing his friend in pain, Dan finally breaks away from staring down at Tasha and flops through the snow. "I'm with you!" the wizard says. "But holy sh!t, those things are big." He lowers himself down into the snow next to his old friend. The wizard removes the knitted wool cap (green with a hideous yellow snow flake design on it) that he picked up in Archeebald and scratches his sweaty head. "I got nothin', decking nothing! I can open a locked door, seriously I can! But sh!t, I can't take one of those bastards down…"

Combat Notes Enemy Status Bull Sloth: AC 17, Wounded for 31hp (Aided). Fighting Olaf. Olaf: AC 16, Wounded for 58 hp. In grizzly form. Party Status Fahd: Reflex save DC 13 Failure means you are rolled upon by the fighting beasts, suffering 10 hp damage. Please list your current AC and HP in your post.

[LupusRegalis]

He hears them coming, how can he not, their bellows rend the air. He feels the earth shake with their thrashing as they come nearer. So he struggles to tie the winterwalker's laces even faster than before, with limited success. It costs him though, in a way he had never really considered before, not until he lived through it. He finishes tying the laces, and glances up at that moment. His eyes widen in shock and fear at what he sees bearing down on him. The irony is if he'd looked for the winterwalker sooner, he might have avoided this. But he hadn't, and now he paid the consequences. The two massive animals, paying him not a bit of attention, rolled on through the snow and over Fahd's body. He had just enough time to try and scramble away, thinking Feck Me!, before he was crushed beneath their great weights.

The beasts rolled over Fahd and passed on, continuing their fight. Left behind them was Fahd, barely conscious and flattened into the snow-cover. Perhaps that's the only thing that saved his life, is that there was some give to the ground beneath him and not the hard, cold earth. He was however severely bruised and battered, bloodied and in pain. He'd not been unsympathetic to Silas before, but he'd been too focused on Olaf and his own concerns. He realized that now, as he lay in the cold snow, just thankful the terrible weight was gone. He'd forgotten that there was more than just defeating Olaf that mattered. Some Light I am he thinks, shaking his head at his own arrogance.

Humbling as the thought is, it also gives him some strength to move. He slowly pushes up to hands and knees, then sits back on his haunches. Whatever damage he has sustained, it's not crippling at least. Slowly he forces himself to one knee and then up onto his feet, groaning in pain and effort. He puts a hand to his forehead and steadies himself as a wave of dizziness washes over him, waiting for it to pass. Once it does, he looks around to get his bearings back. Seeing Dan and Silas across the clearing he begins limping in their direction. From time to time he looks towards the fighting beasts nervously, always with a little spurt in movement after. As he nears the two men he calls out in self-mockery. "A fine pair we make, aye Silas?" He spits out some blood from a cut on his mouth, and shrugs at them before leaning into a tree nearby. He turns to look back, back at the beasts and at Rip and Karla. Thinking, hard and fast, about how to help. Help himself, help Silas, and help the only two still hale. Even now, he is loathe to leave Olaf without knowing for sure it was over. He hung his head and panted away the pain, and continued thinking.

 

Actions Reflex Save 9 Move: Stand Up Standard: Move towards Silas and Dan

Combat Stats Fahd: HP 2/20 Spirit Healing 6/6, Cloak 4/5, +10 Fire Resist AC17 (12FF, 16 Tc) Fort +6/Ref +5/Will +5 Lynx: HP 6/16 AC 21 (13FF, 18 Tc, 25 vs OA), Fort +4/Ref +9/Will +2

[HenryLockwood]

Karla steps to stand near Rip, not quite adjacent - not quite - and sheathes her swords. She does so with a measure of misgiving, and - despite the pain of the wound in her side - she keeps fighting. "He's not going to give up," she says, with some degree of loathing. For all their history - their "complicated" history - Karla sees Olaf's flaws and his darkness, and feels cornered by them. Like a wildcat, Karla's response to being cornered is to lash out.

At least she has an option on how to lash out. She stands in the snow, watching Rip with one eye, as she slings her bow off her back and takes careful aim.

OOC I know Karla's badly wounded, but I can't see her backing down here and now. She's struggling just to stop herself tearing into Rip. Actions: sheathe swords, draw bow. Maybe I should take Quick Draw soon...