[Game Thread] Chapter 1: Fractured Reality

[Pojo]

"Ooh! Ooh!" A hand shoots up from behind Sydney Rose, then begins bouncing up and down in time with the woman attached to it. "Me me me!" She runs out from behind the girl, revealing a face and a body to go with the arm - a thin, but short, elderly woman with vibrant blue eyes and shock white hair arranged in clumped strands down to her neck. These flail about as she runs excitedly towards the nearest tree, pulling from a strap at her back a decidedly large scythe and waving it in the air before hooking it to a lower branch.

There is a fluttering as this activity disturbs the bird at her shoulder, which looks at first like a dove but upon closer inspection is actually a small, pure white chicken, hopping away from the flailing shoulders to find a more stable roost in the woman's hair. It squawks nervously as the woman begins to jump, but then she stops for a moment and extracts the bird, pulling a long red lead line from her sleeve and attaching it to the chickens matching collar before looping it about the tree trunk.

"Now you just wait here, Prometheus. Mummy will just be a moment."

With surprising energy to make up for the lack of muscle, she ascends the tree, petticoats swirling as she uses the scythe as a handhold, to a branch about ten feet up. She sits on it for a moment, staring up at nothing in particular.

"Ah, yes. Very pretty."

[LordJecks]

"Well that answer that question..." says Brother Damian more than a little confused at where the strange old woman had come from and more importantly why she was so eager to climb a tree.

I suppose I shouldn't really be suprised. First the Inn i was staying at is destroyed by a portal. Then I'm attacked by scythes flying from the wall, then senting flying downwards myself... An old lady climbing a tree? Sadly thats the most normal thing I've seen all day.

Brother Damian turns his eyes on the chicken tied to the tree, "Hello Prometheus" he says politely.

Gods know its probably not a real chicken so best to be polite.

[OwenQuillion]

Originally Posted by Jinx_Greyflower

[Ophelia]

After shaking her head quickly to clear the last few tendrils of whatever effect had overtaken her, she turns around in a slow circle, trying to understand what kind of place she has landed herself into.

"This is not at all what I had planned for myself today," she comments to the gnome. "So what do you think?" she asks. "Do we continue forwards, or do we see if we can force the door and we can try another direction?"

OOC Quote for convenience.

"I-I've no idea, really," Beau says, not really any less intoxicated than before, gazing at the verdant surroundings. "I've got to say, this place is quite a bit more pleasant, don't you think? An improvement like that surely means we've picked the right road!" the gnome exclaims, partly out of belief and partly out of a desire to remain in this setting. "Best we go find where that noise came from, if you ask me."

[Jinx_Greyflower]

[Ophelia]

The elven female looks around the landscape distastefully, "You can paint iron bars a pretty shade of pink and string garlands of flowers up and down their length, but it will still cage you as effectively as any jailer's cell."

She scowls at her verdant surroundings, as if they were to blame for their current predicament. "Let's go then," she answers finally. "If we don't come for whatever is here, it will surely come for us. I'd rather get this over with and meet at a time of my choosing, not theirs."

[OwenQuillion]

Beau shrugs. "Yes, but at least it doesn't look like a cell. Though I suppose you could be right and we're just heading deeper into the trap. But I've still got a good feeling about this way!" He takes a few steps forward before remembering he might not be the best candidate for being in front and turns back to face her. "Right, uh, I'll keep us covered from the back. I'm not so bad at wizarding myself, you know," he says with a grin.

[EnixH]

Allan slowly rises from the foliage and glass covered ground as he rises up,using his staff to help himself up. He uses his left hand to shake the bits of vine and glass in his hair out. He looks around the forested area they seemed to currently reside in,before leaning against a nearby tree,breathing deeply. He mutters to himself, "I came here to find my mother, and I've already had more... 'excitement' than all of my years combined...". He watches the spry figure of the elderly woman climb up the tree,cocking his head to the side in curiousity.

[Pojo]

"Oh, how wonderfully polite! I like you." The woman hops down from the tree using the scythe as a stopgap for her fall. "But you're also very silly. Don't you know chickens can't talk?" She scurries around him, scooping it up the little bird, which has been staring blankly back at the priest for the entirety of their one-sided conversation. "Isn't that right Prometheus? Isn't that right, bubby? Say hello to the nice man. Say hello!" She pats it on the head, and it squawks defiantly. "I've been trying to teach him for ages, but he's just stubborn is all. I'm thinking about getting one of those, whatchacallits, the talking birds with the pretty colors. Then IT can teach little 'Meethy a thing or two, and I can retire and take up a less strenuous profession."

[Jinx_Greyflower]

[Ophelia]

The elf draws her dagger and deftly tosses it up in the air, letting it spin quickly through the air several times before catching it by its glistening, oil-sheened tip. She extends her hand, offering the hilt to her gnome companion.

"Bows are nice," she explains, "but in a pinch, you'll need steel to defend yourself."

[OwenQuillion]

"Uh, i-if you insist, but I'm not sure I'd do very well with it. I'm, well, not very strong," he admits sheepishly, tentatively grasping the handle. "Still, couldn't hurt, I guess, if I were in a 'pinch'." He takes the overly large (to him, at least) blade and looks at it somewhat mystified, trying to decide just how he's going to carry the damn thing without keeping it in his hand the entire time. After a moment, he gets the bright idea to take out his crossbow and stows the blade (somewhat awkwardly) in the now-evacuated holster. "Alright, then. Ready, I guess," he says as he loads a bolt and makes sure everything is in order.

OOC What's the penalty for using a weapon not sized for you? -4? Gee, that's like... d20 + 1 - 2 - 4 for 1d4-2 damage. Still, if he's lucky, someone might fall on it, or something.

[LordJecks]

Where in the gods are we? thought the priest as the woman made her way down the tree with the ease of someone a quarter her apparent age. "Thank you. I believe your referring to a parrot" he said in response to her spiel. "See anything interesting up top?" he asked eager to escape this strange place and back to a normalized reality.

[Pojo]

"Oh heavens, dear, don't try to straighten me out, you'll waste half your life and I'll never remember it anyways. Besides, parrots are too delicious to train even if I could remember to get one, so I think me and Prometheus are stuck with each other.

She places the chicken back on her shoulder, folding the lead line under her sleeve before wrapping it in a short knot.

"What was the other question? Oh yes! It was very pretty. There were trees and glass walls and some fancy bits of rubble and a chicken and a bunch of strange people I don't know... actually it looked pretty much exactly like it does from here. Is that helpful at all? I can't imagine how but it would be nice if it were."

[LordJecks]

"Not particularly. Did you see which direction the giant rock or the two exits attached to glass enclosure where in relation to our current location?" asked Brother Damian a little dryly, deciding not to point out most people ate chickens not parrots from where he came.

Each to their own i suppose...

[Pojo]

The old woman punches Brother Damian lightly on the shoulder, ruffled. "Oh, so that's how it is, is it? Send a poor old lady up a tree when you already know what she's going to see? No, I didn't rest my little peepers on any of those things, not a one, and also I'd say they're over there." She points in two random directions with both arms, then arches up on one foot so that the other foot points in a third direction before she topples over in a ruckus of squawking and a plume of loose feathers.

[LordJecks]

It didn't really matter which way they went to him so long as they started moving. Standing around here wasn't getting them anywhere. Brother Damian manages to hold in the sigh building, "I suppose its as good as any direction at this point." he says to the old woman. Turning to his two companions he adds, "Either you have any ideas or should we just be off?".

[EnixH]

Allan looks up from leaning against a nearby tree where he observed the exchange between Damian and the elderly woman with the pet chicken, as he was asked for his input. "I think I remember seeing two doors around here somewhere as we fell,and some rocks near the center...of course that was before I ended up bludgeoned by these bloody trees on the way down. I don't know which way is which. But I believe...the two options we should go for are going to the rock formation to see if we can get our bearings...or go in a random direction and hope we hit one of those doors."