Glamorveil - The Path of Many [IC] [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Anarion

2017-01-16, 06:25 PM

"It's okay," she said to herself as she brushed off some wicked thorns. "Not far now," she nodded to herself and shifted some of her burden a little to set it at a better balance. "Come on, Jara, up and on we go." She picked herself up and hustled on. It was not unusual for her to talk to herself, in fact, she'd done so on and off for most of their journey.

As Jara was staring at those two, a skitter skatter sound of chitin on branches filled her ears, and she found herself lifted up by Maerla (with an effort and some leverage from the butt end of her halberd) to rest on Sophie's back. "Watch your step up here, wouldn't want to have to go digging you out of the forest down there." Spoken with a smile and a twinkle. Maerla got Sophie going again, her natural agility in the trees easily balancing the two of them.

To pass the time, Maerla started talking. "So Jara, you know who used to live here? No? Didn't think so. Long ago, this castle was the seat of an old fellow that my people call the 'Greatfather.' They say he was as wide as an oak and as tall as a redwood, with skin the color of chocolate and green hair like the willow tree. He moved into the castle ages and ages ago and filled it up with vines and moss so he'd have someplace comfy to sleep. It was the only place around with a roof tall enough for his head, y'see. Sometimes the wood folk would come visit him there because the Greatfather, he loved all the people of the forests below and he'd help them solve problems."

Maerla puts on her best deep baritone to imitate the Greatfather. "Ohoho, the squirrels are thieving from your stores, are they? Well, let's get them up here and sort it out. We'll have them move up just a little, and build up some new branches for your storage, shall we?" Then she returns to her normal higher pitch. "And then he'd come down from his castle and visit the tree and with one touch, it would sprout like a decade of growth and the squirrels would have someplace new to move and the house up there would be able to expand a little. He'd do things like that all the time, the Greatfather, so they say. Sometimes he had to be a little more stern too, like when people came to cut down the trees or hunt all the animals. He didn't mind a little hunting, but a lot was a problem, and down he'd come from his mossy throne in his great castle to deal with the trouble."

Maerla gives a little storyteller's frown. "I've never seen him though. None of the Wood Folk in my lifetime have bothered going up to the castle, and it's pretty much been abandoned along with this whole section of forest. Most animals don't like living in the shade all the time , I guess. If the Griffon is leading us here, and if he's moved in, I don't know if he'd want any neighbors, though I can't imagine anyone who'd find the Greatfather intolerable." She gives Jara a little wink. "Whadya think, think we'll find the old titan here? Maybe he'll know what to do about the sun!"

Thanqol

2017-01-16, 06:46 PM

We were somewhere past Bartleshelm on the edge of the forest when the pain really started to set in. Pain is very talkative - it's like Snowdrop and Jara drinking coffee and dual-commentating on a pitball game. You maybe shouldn't move that, take it easy on that leg, what are you laughing at can I join in, you know I had an idea about what you could have done differently to not end in this situation - that one's a bit of a gimme though. It turns out that when a savage Amaranth throws something at you the answer is always dodge, don't catch. No matter how cool catching a spear out of the air looks.

Can't say we weren't given notice - it's hard to miss the signs of a feral Amaranth camp. Place for miles around looks a bit like an overgrown battlefield with crude weapons lying around like dud ordinance. Here and there are small craters surrounded by the bones of exploded deer. Also dotting the place like smallpox are the altars - crude and stone and bloody, some still topped with piles of wrecked meat. When the locals lost their minds they came to the logical conclusion that, as they had feathers and scales, and the gryphon had feathers and scales, it was probably their mum - or maybe their god. So in that adorably rustic countryside way they started to go about trying to kidnap trespassers and chain them to aforementioned altars while chanting and pounding drums and wearing not many clothes.

Farmers, right?

Wings of Fire was keeping surprisingly good pace for someone who had burns all down their right side. Red and orange feathers were scorched black, her typically tattered khaki clothing was in particularly not fantastic shape - she'd ripped off the sleeves a while ago, her pants had been reduced to shorts, and she'd made an ugly broad-brimmed hat out of an animal skin and some old shovels. The hat had the bonus feature of being surrounded by a swarm of glowing violet wasp ghosts which were aggressively stinging to death any insects that came within a foot of the Amaranth and ranging out further for threats or danger.

Raz_Fox

2017-01-16, 11:36 PM

BEING THE EXPLANATION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, REGARDING THE SUBJECT OF TRANSPORTATION

Why have I not offered a seat on Surety's back to my fellow travelers? Namely, to poor Jara, my pupil in the Four Noble Arts?

Firstly, that she is slight. I am familiar with her size, her gait, and how to shift my weight to move with her; other riders have a distressing tendency to find Surety's size difficult. Secondly, that she is willful. I am her rider, and she my steed; a bond not easily dismissed. In short, I have little desire to see Jara slide off Surety's burnished sides, particularly at this height.

This being said, I am grateful that Maerla stopped to give Jara a lift: a generous act, as ever she displays.

How do my boon companions, Arcifex and Adelinde, travel?

By foot, on either side. We did not have horses long on our journey through nowhen and learned to travel light, travel quick, travel without complaint. Were I to lose Surety by misfortune or necessity, I would accept my place alongside them without complaint.

They voice no complaint, either. Arcifex places a brave face upon his aching legs, and carries little at all, for his slender bones are not made for the task. Adelinde bears most of us three, and ties her pack down with yarrow-linen strings, and her gait is long and easy. Her strength is a deep well, not easily emptied. Indeed, were it necessary, I have little doubt that she would pick up Arcifex and carry him until day's end.

How does Surety take the pathways?

As if each step is the only right one, bronze hooves treading but lightly on the lush footholds. I ride sidesaddle, watching the castle, hoping to catch a glimpse of our quarry.

Thanqol

2017-01-17, 12:11 AM

If there's one theme that's currently unifying the nowhenese it's uncomplaining stoicism. If there's one trait keeping the Amaranth together it's bitching.

"Argh! I just stepped in scorched deer brain!" said Feathers of Administration. "Again!"
"Oh no." stated Claws of Disaster. "Will you be. Okay?"
"Don't make fun of him, Claws," said Wings of Fire. "That's gross as hell."
"Not funny." Claws of Disaster protested. "Concerned."
"Concerned!" said Feathers of Administration, wheeling on Claws of Disaster. "You lumpen fool, don't waste your sympathy on me when Wings of Fire is clearly in agony!" Claws was evidently confused by this sudden change of priorities.
"I'm fine, really," said Wings of Fire.
"No you're not! Tell her, Claws!"
"Your name is like. What you are."
"Atta boy!" said Admin, standing on tiptoes to pat Claws on the head like a dog. "Fire, you are clearly suffering for no good reason while the entirely healthy relic of a debunked political system prances about in a militarily inappropriate riding pose!"
"What?" said Claws.
"Aw, I'm not gonna go begging," said Fire. "Besides, she probably needs it more than I do."
"That horse. Is ugly." said Claws.
"I understand," said Administration, holding up one hand. "However, we are Amaranth. We are Linowan! And if there is one thing we know how to do it is engineer solutions. I have a plan..."

*

Claws of Disaster abruptly stepped out (perhaps a better phrase is loomed out) next to Rahnya - and before anyone could react tossed a heavy, improvised harness over Surety's shoulders. The ropes lead back to the front of a newly constructed two-wheeled cart that Wings of Fire was sitting in. Claws of Disaster gave a thumbs up to no one in particular and shuffled off.

Wings of Fire waved to Rahnya from her new seat. "Hi there, best buddy!" she said, trying to keep the grin off her face. "Mind if I tag along?"

Deadly

2017-01-17, 03:01 AM

Thanqol

2017-01-17, 03:20 AM

So, Wings and Maerla, to see if I understand you all correctly, the forest below is home to Wood Folk but up here has become the roost of feral Amaranth who fancy themselves gryphons and worship your quarry. The castle was once home to the Greatfather, a titan perhaps, but he hasn't stirred himself in a long time, if he is even still here. Tell me, do you think the Greatfather built this maze of living veins himself?

When the Amaranth were wiser we shaped life as easily as we now shape weapons. It was our greatest art, and the first one we lost when we started to fall. When we lost it our plants ran amok; our farms became forests and our gardens became nightmares. The souls closest to nature were the first to lose their minds.

Many of the other Amaranth nations were highly involved in this art, holding it synonymous with the Helix Path - and the totality of their collapses is often tied up in being unwilling to give up the living arts. Linowan fortunately never had that problem, but likewise had no way to try and preserve it. So it's gone now.

Maybe these paths are old plant-engines still blindly bumbling along their programming, maybe the tribals remember some rudimentary lifeshaping, maybe it's a function built into the titan - I am not clever enough to guess between those answers.

Anarion

2017-01-17, 03:30 AM

So, Wings and Maerla, to see if I understand you all correctly, the forest below is home to Wood Folk but up here has become the roost of feral Amaranth who fancy themselves gryphons and worship your quarry. The castle was once home to the Greatfather, a titan perhaps, but he hasn't stirred himself in a long time, if he is even still here. Tell me, do you think the Greatfather built this maze of living veins himself?

Used to be home to Wood Folk back when the Greatfather was up and about, but not anymore. Once he stopped being active, and that was a few generations back, mind you, probably about my gran's time, but once that happened, most of the animals started wandering off. The Wood Folk didn't feel like living in a shadowed and empty forest, so they moved too, about 50 miles west, where they set up shop around a gorgeous little grove of maple trees and a couple of nice solid hills. They knew about it when the Griffon and the Amaranth moved in I'd imagine, word of that sort of thing travels pretty far through the forest. But the Wood Folk are far enough away that no wandering chickens would find the village unless they didn't plan to return to the coop before nightfall, and they'd give plenty of warning first if they were ranging that far out.

I'm not an authority on the Greatfather himself. Any Wood Folk would tell you that he could build a maze of vines. Every story about him shares the same talent to make plants grow and sprout as though decades were passing in mere moments. But who knows? Maybe he came here because the castle was abandoned by someone else and already to his liking? Maybe somebody else built it just for him and made it so he'd like it? Or maybe it was the Greatfather and he figured that high enough ceilings were all he needed to start his own bit of gardening?

Raz_Fox

2017-01-17, 10:23 AM

Elanorin

2017-01-17, 12:00 PM

There is a gleeful shriek coming from Jara as she clambered on to the huge spider and held on for dear life when it set off. Riding an eight legged creature was unlike any kind of ride she'd ever experienced before and as scary as it was it was also a thrill.

She listened intently to the history and people of this place as told by Maerla.

"Oh I hope so!" Jara smiled brightly, "he sounds really nice. And fair. I bet he'll know what to do- hey! Maybe he'll come with us! Y'know, if we ask really nicely," Jara said, clearly excited by the thought. "If he's that big and all he might be able to fix the sun just by reaching really high on his tiptoes."

Her face fell thoughtful, and she asked, "Didn't he get lonely?"

Anarion

2017-01-17, 02:37 PM

"Lonely?" Said Maerla, gently nudging Sophie to stay on the center of the branch. Spiders often times liked to skitter at a sideways angle and while Maerla was confident she wasn't going anywhere, she didn't want Jara to slide off.

"Oh, gosh no. The Greatfather was friends with every creature in the forest. He'd come down from his castle all the time, and he wasn't averse to visitors at all. Why one time my aunt Juniper said that her tea recipe came from the Greatfather himself!" She leaned close to whisper in Jara's ear, "although just between us, I think she was just trying to pretend it wasn't her fault that it was so bitter."

Thanqol

2017-01-17, 04:30 PM

BEING THE GENEROSITY OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS REGARDS HER WOUNDED ALLY

It takes me a moment to understand the plan that the Amaranth have come up with to help poor Wings of Fire - a moment in which Surety strongly considers goring Claws of Disaster. The fact of the matter is that she can hardly be expected to both bear me on her back and pull this chariot that they have created; she is slender, meant for me alone, not a broad-shouldered elephant.

This being the case, I slip off Surety's back; I clap my hands together and smile. About me, the sutra faintly blossoms: one who bears the burden of responsibility cultivates a cause of joy to be praised.

(It does so in three characters. The holy tongue is such that each stroke of the pen is imbued with meaning.)

"Wonderful Amaranthi craftsmanship! Blessed is the artisan who needs no tools. Please, rest as long as you need."

This being said, I take Surety's reins and continue on foot, hoping to soothe my hind's wounded pride by example.

The Princess is half prayer, I understand that. I awkwardly understand that. But the other half is human, right? The kind of human that has emotional reactions to things? Because her, um, horn horse had more of a reaction to that than she did.

Thinking hard wasn't a pleasant experience for Wings of Fire - to be honest it was more distracting than the burns. Every thought emerged slowly and tremblingly, like a newborn butterfly, needing so very much strength to stand on its own.

The words, the complicated symbols slowly unpacked through blurred memories of the Helix, She's taking responsibility for me. So she doesn't mind walking because she thinks I'm like a servant she has to look after!

Wings of Fire filled with a deep glow of pride at having figured it out; the simple emotion endlessly relieving after the intellectual strain. And, even better, she was back to a place where she could operate on instinct.

"Oh, thank you, Princess," said Wings of Fire. "But please, I have inconvenienced you so - how can I repay you?"

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-17, 04:52 PM

Being the only one of the group to be without wings or mount, Jara was struggling to keep up with the others, despite her very bestest efforts. She rushed through the undergrowth someway behind the others, a little unable to keep her eyes off the elegant sight that was Rahnya and her horse up ahead, not to mention Wings of Fire who she still marvelled at and caught herself staring at with wide eyes, to the cost of occasionally failing to dodge branches and thorns.

"It's okay," she said to herself as she brushed off some wicked thorns. "Not far now," she nodded to herself and shifted some of her burden a little to set it at a better balance. "Come on, Jara, up and on we go." She picked herself up and hustled on. It was not unusual for her to talk to herself, in fact, she'd done so on and off for most of their journey.

As Jara was staring at those two, a skitter skatter sound of chitin on branches filled her ears, and she found herself lifted up by Maerla (with an effort and some leverage from the butt end of her halberd) to rest on Sophie's back. "Watch your step up here, wouldn't want to have to go digging you out of the forest down there." Spoken with a smile and a twinkle. Maerla got Sophie going again, her natural agility in the trees easily balancing the two of them.

As the two travelers hurried to make up for lost ground, they passed beneath a tree branch coated in new frost, glittering in the sun. A dotted line of gleaming branches stretched into the forest ahead of them, marking the trail of their companions. If they were to look back, they would see the ice hang on tenaciously, before melting away in their wake.

But why would they look back? They'd miss the show.

Snowdrop skated along the branches like dancing with an old lover. Gliding, swaying, twirling from bough to vine, every motion full of intent and singing of a joy beyond words. Frost blossomed where her feet touched bark, a spray of ice cheering her onward. A flash of white through the green, and she landed safely on Owlbert's back for a moment's rest before leaping out for another song. And though it was much too small to spot, any creature with eyes would know she wore the brightest of smiles.

This was Snowdrop's second performance of the day. Her first had been to the griffon. He was so taken that he had offered her an ancient tapestry in tribute. But as she reached to receive it, he suddenly took to the skies with a jealous squawk and fled with the wind. All she'd managed to hold onto was a single, red string. She'd woven it into her hair, and now it darted behind her as she danced. A little red tail on a misty blue comet.

As for her other companion, The Big I.C. was nowhere to be seen, but he was no doubt nearby. Skulking was a favorite pastime of his.

Deadly

2017-01-18, 02:36 PM

Raz_Fox

2017-01-18, 02:47 PM

Anarion

2017-01-18, 03:32 PM

Maerla and Jara, while you've fallen behind, it seems the path has mysteriously changed. The branches have silently moved, redirected themselves, and the path the others took is now gone. Unless you can fly, the only available path is a smaller side-branch which appears to lead into the shadowy canopies ... or back, if you wish to see if you can find another path entirely.

How gone is gone? Sophie is a very cunning giant spider you know. If it is but a wall, a matter of a few feet, then it is not actually gone. Or is this more in the nature of a glamour, that the straight road does not now lead where it went and all reality appears to have shifted so that not even the direction to the rest of the group can be found?

Deadly

2017-01-18, 03:49 PM

How gone is gone? Sophie is a very cunning giant spider you know. If it is but a wall, a matter of a few feet, then it is not actually gone. Or is this more in the nature of a glamour, that the straight road does not now lead where it went and all reality appears to have shifted so that not even the direction to the rest of the group can be found?

Closer to the latter than the former. Direction is the same, and you may be able to spot the others in the distance, but there's no longer a clear path to reach them unless you can fly. The path that used to be there is gone, as if it were just a glamor before.

Thanqol

2017-01-18, 04:53 PM

BEING THE TEACHING OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS REGARDS THIS HUMAN EMOTION CALLED FRIENDSHIP; ALSO, A SUDDEN THREAT OBSERVED

"It is nothing," I say by instinct. This is courtesy among my people: to not act as if one is deserving of thanks for virtuous action. We are all fallen, we Exiles of the City Unnameable, and righteous action is worthy of pursuit in its own right.

But as Arcifex has pointed out, at times, this response causes others to assume I mean to demean them, and so I continue: "Let there be no loans between friends; rather, open-handed gifts. Once, a man of great wealth and fortune came to the court of the Universal Monarch to ask the philosophers and mystics how to sift true friends from false, and the answer he was given was such: that he was to set aside all wealth, go as a mendicant to the houses of his friends, and ask for shelter without offer of reward. Those who shut their doors, they are false; those who open their doors without reservation, they are true. And by such example may we be enlightened."

"In the same way, you are in need and you have come to me for relief. Shall I take out a pocket-book and tally up, wear on my shoes, so, and weariness of a day's work, so, and salary of a serving-girl, so?" I pantomime the role of a miser, using Surety's reins as my pocket-book. "Let no heir of the City Unnameable be found doing such in the face of a friend's necessity!"

Expected. Wings of Fire grins. "No, you're totally right. We should exchange gifts. Here's mine: I'm gonna let you win. At any sort of contest we have together. I promise that I won't do better than you any more."

Strategy. She remembers strategy. Maps and mirrors. Moves as mysterious as the rain. Her nature is to be competitive so her gift is a non sequitur. And yet it feeds into a larger plan.

"Lady of Fire, your wild kin are coming. Speak; I listen." My hand is on Needle's hilt, as loath as I am to use it. Adelinde's eyes are narrow, and there is violence pressed against her teeth, should their weapons seek my heart.

Wings, Princess, and Snowdrop, you spot a flock of savage amaranthi coming straight towards you. That is, unless you're too busy to look up, of course. They aren't attacking - yet - but they are clearly whipped into a frenzy and don't seem like they can be reasoned with.

Your welcoming comittee, as it were.

You have a brief moment before they reach you. You can wait and see what they want, or maybe you have some other idea yourselves? Mind you, they aren't always like this. Not this bad, I mean. Sometimes they can be reasoned with ... maybe, I mean, theoretically, right? Even animals can sometimes be reasoned with, if you give them a steak or something. Unless you attack them, then you definitely won't be welcomed again.

Angry Mob: Sometimes things get out of hand. A mob doesn’t listen to reason, and is very difficult to handle.
Out Of Their Minds: They aren’t normally like this. Damaging the Mob will lose your Fellowship with this location forever, and you’ll never be welcome here again.
Rage Against The Machine: The mob will destroy whatever their rage is turned against. Talking Sense doesn’t work, but anyone loud and passionate enough can redirect their anger. A player trying to control the mob rolls +Blood. On a 10+, their anger is now pointed wherever you want it to be. On a 7-9, they change the target of their anger, but the Overlord will tell you what they’re mad at now. On a 6-, you’re the new target of their wrath. Charismatic threats can use a Cut to change the target of a mob’s wrath, but it takes time.

To the Amaranth, anger is a mirror.

The smile leaves Fire's face. The play with the human is over. She is being challenged. Her feathers flare and talons twitch. She wants to find their alpha. Beat her into the dirt and bite her neck until she yields. Break their spears and send them mewling back in shame. Shatter. Then rule.

She reflects that anger. But she also burns with her own. Hers is deeper. Hers is brighter.

Negotiation is physical. That's just how it goes. She tears her cart into two pieces as she stands, and each half bursts into flames as she casts them aside. She steps closer to the mob, trying to intimidate them into compliance through sheer force of will.

[Rolling +Blood: 2, 1,+2 = 5]

Anarion

2017-01-18, 05:13 PM

Closer to the latter than the former. Direction is the same, and you may be able to spot the others in the distance, but there's no longer a clear path to reach them unless you can fly. The path that used to be there is gone, as if it were just a glamor before.

My apologies for being picky about this, but remember that Sophie has Wall Crawler as a stat and this seems to be saying that it's beyond that stat's power to do anything. So, somehow, through some shift of reality, there is now a massive gap, the branches simply end and there is nothing but empty air that only someone who could fly would be able to cross to reach the rest of the party and the wild Amaranth.

Deadly

2017-01-19, 01:52 PM

My apologies for being picky about this, but remember that Sophie has Wall Crawler as a stat and this seems to be saying that it's beyond that stat's power to do anything. So, somehow, through some shift of reality, there is now a massive gap, the branches simply end and there is nothing but empty air that only someone who could fly would be able to cross to reach the rest of the party and the wild Amaranth.

That is correct. And also, I assume, weird and unexpected. But don't let me tell you what is and isn't weird. Your people know of this place, is this something you've heard of, perhaps? Do you have some theory of what could be doing this? Also, do you wish to Look Closely?

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-19, 01:58 PM

Wings, Princess, and Snowdrop, you spot a flock of savage amaranthi coming straight towards you. That is, unless you're too busy to look up, of course. They aren't attacking - yet - but they are clearly whipped into a frenzy and don't seem like they can be reasoned with.

Your welcoming comittee, as it were.

You have a brief moment before they reach you. You can wait and see what they want, or maybe you have some other idea yourselves? Mind you, they aren't always like this. Not this bad, I mean. Sometimes they can be reasoned with ... maybe, I mean, theoretically, right? Even animals can sometimes be reasoned with, if you give them a steak or something. Unless you attack them, then you definitely won't be welcomed again.

Angry Mob: Sometimes things get out of hand. A mob doesn’t listen to reason, and is very difficult to handle.
Out Of Their Minds: They aren’t normally like this. Damaging the Mob will lose your Fellowship with this location forever, and you’ll never be welcome here again.
Rage Against The Machine: The mob will destroy whatever their rage is turned against. Talking Sense doesn’t work, but anyone loud and passionate enough can redirect their anger. A player trying to control the mob rolls +Blood. On a 10+, their anger is now pointed wherever you want it to be. On a 7-9, they change the target of their anger, but the Overlord will tell you what they’re mad at now. On a 6-, you’re the new target of their wrath. Charismatic threats can use a Cut to change the target of a mob’s wrath, but it takes time.

Oh, that's no good at all, is it? The Amaranthi all stirred up and shouting so loud not a one of them could hear the beat. Half of them wanted to lead, half of them wanted to follow, and all of them couldn't decide which half they'd like to stay in. How could they expect to hear their cues, carrying on like this?

Somebody needed to teach them a lesson.

To the Amaranth, anger is a mirror.

The smile leaves Fire's face. The play with the human is over. She is being challenged. Her feathers flare and talons twitch. She wants to find their alpha. Beat her into the dirt and bite her neck until she yields. Break their spears and send them mewling back in shame. Shatter. Then rule.

She reflects that anger. But she also burns with her own. Hers is deeper. Hers is brighter.

Negotiation is physical. That's just how it goes. She tears her cart into two pieces as she stands, and each half bursts into flames as she casts them aside. She steps closer to the mob, trying to intimidate them into compliance through sheer force of will.

[Rolling +Blood: 2, 1,+2 = 5]

That'll do!

Snowdrop never stopped moving. She soared past Owlbert and streaked down to the forest floor, picking up speed as she dove. A bundle of exotic petals found their way into her arms, courtesy of the entirely legitimate efforts of her dear manager. And still she went ever faster. Across the moss, around the fire, between Wings' feet, around the other fire, and back again in a tight figure eight. The flames curled higher with every pass and every petal she threw into the flames. They licked the skies with tongues of green and violet, staining Wings of Fire with their unearthly light as if to say, "Here is an Amarath, bold and strong in the blood! Who would dare claim to be her better?!"

[Adding some Hope to Wings' roll: 5, new total is 9]

Anarion

2017-01-19, 03:12 PM

That is correct. And also, I assume, weird and unexpected. But don't let me tell you what is and isn't weird. Your people know of this place, is this something you've heard of, perhaps? Do you have some theory of what could be doing this? Also, do you wish to Look Closely?

The Greatfather himself could pull away vines in such a manner. There are other things though. Certain types of forest monsters, rare, but not unheard of, masquerade as a series of vines leading to a central body that draws in anything it captures. Vine-traps or Trellis-traps are what they're usually called. So, if this is one such thing, the sudden explosion of fire ahead could have caused it to rapidly withdraw, leaving a gap in the air.

Then there's the possibility of some more intentional magic. Traditional sorcery is certainly capable of illusions and deception, so if the Amaranth or someone else has a skilled enough sorcerer, it's not impossible for there to have been a spell here. It's even possible that the path has not changed at all and the spell is upon Jara and myself causing us to view it as gone.

I'll take a look at what's happening. And I hope Jara might help out too. She's got eagle eyes, that little Jara, could spot a pin in a haystack from twenty paces.

[Look closely: 4 and 1, total of 6. Help me, Jara!]

Elanorin

2017-01-19, 03:51 PM

The Greatfather himself could pull away vines in such a manner. There are other things though. Certain types of forest monsters, rare, but not unheard of, masquerade as a series of vines leading to a central body that draws in anything it captures. Vine-traps or Trellis-traps are what they're usually called. So, if this is one such thing, the sudden explosion of fire ahead could have caused it to rapidly withdraw, leaving a gap in the air.

Then there's the possibility of some more intentional magic. Traditional sorcery is certainly capable of illusions and deception, so if the Amaranth or someone else has a skilled enough sorcerer, it's not impossible for there to have been a spell here. It's even possible that the path has not changed at all and the spell is upon Jara and myself causing us to view it as gone.

I'll take a look at what's happening. And I hope Jara might help out too. She's got eagle eyes, that little Jara, could spot a pin in a haystack from twenty paces.

[Look closely: 4 and 1, total of 6. Help me, Jara!]

Jara has amazing eyes, yes she does. They can spot the first twitch of an oncoming sneeze on the face of a vole. She has an uncanny sense for recognising the strange and mysterious too. That is, when she's looking.

Jara let out a giggle at the mention of the bitter tea. "I'm not much for tea, especially not bitter tea, but I wouldn't mind trying it if we get a chance. It can't be that bad, right? It's not every day you get to have tea with massive gardening giants with big heads! I could make him my sandwiches. I make great sandwiches. The best, actually," she nodded with a smile.

While doing her very best to help, or rather, not be a burden while being allowed a ride on the great spider, she looked where Maerla looked, leaned the way Maerla leaned, but she was about as aware of her surrounding as any passenger who trusts their driver utterly and completely.

[Rolling to add Hope: 1, nope, Jara is Hopeless]

"Though, to him I guess they'd be little more than tasty crumbs," she went on, a little more thoughtfully. "It must be hard to be a giant. All food is human sized. Or do you think he has great huge pie dishes the size of a small lake?"

Anarion

2017-01-19, 04:47 PM

Well, that's only one question. So, tell me, is there something hidden or out of place here and, if so, what looks suspicious?

Deadly

2017-01-22, 05:04 AM

To the Amaranth, anger is a mirror.

The smile leaves Fire's face. The play with the human is over. She is being challenged. Her feathers flare and talons twitch. She wants to find their alpha. Beat her into the dirt and bite her neck until she yields. Break their spears and send them mewling back in shame. Shatter. Then rule.

She reflects that anger. But she also burns with her own. Hers is deeper. Hers is brighter.

Negotiation is physical. That's just how it goes. She tears her cart into two pieces as she stands, and each half bursts into flames as she casts them aside. She steps closer to the mob, trying to intimidate them into compliance through sheer force of will.

[Rolling +Blood: 2, 1,+2 = 5]

Snowdrop never stopped moving. She soared past Owlbert and streaked down to the forest floor, picking up speed as she dove. A bundle of exotic petals found their way into her arms, courtesy of the entirely legitimate efforts of her dear manager. And still she went ever faster. Across the moss, around the fire, between Wings' feet, around the other fire, and back again in a tight figure eight. The flames curled higher with every pass and every petal she threw into the flames. They licked the skies with tongues of green and violet, staining Wings of Fire with their unearthly light as if to say, "Here is an Amarath, bold and strong in the blood! Who would dare claim to be her better?!"

[Adding some Hope to Wings' roll: 5, new total is 9]

So you certainly manage to gain their attention with your passionate display, but perhaps not in the way you imagined. They seem, in fact, suddenly to have lost all interest in you. Instead, something in the fire and flames of your display has them screeching and tearing their feathers out in rage and blood-thirst.

They descend ... upon the very air around you, throwing weapons at seemingly nothing with complete and utter disregard for you and your safety. Their fire joins yours in a brutal assault on thin air, consuming it swiftly in flames and smoke.

Most curious.

The Greatfather himself could pull away vines in such a manner. There are other things though. Certain types of forest monsters, rare, but not unheard of, masquerade as a series of vines leading to a central body that draws in anything it captures. Vine-traps or Trellis-traps are what they're usually called. So, if this is one such thing, the sudden explosion of fire ahead could have caused it to rapidly withdraw, leaving a gap in the air.

Then there's the possibility of some more intentional magic. Traditional sorcery is certainly capable of illusions and deception, so if the Amaranth or someone else has a skilled enough sorcerer, it's not impossible for there to have been a spell here. It's even possible that the path has not changed at all and the spell is upon Jara and myself causing us to view it as gone.

I'll take a look at what's happening. And I hope Jara might help out too. She's got eagle eyes, that little Jara, could spot a pin in a haystack from twenty paces.

[Look closely: 4 and 1, total of 6. Help me, Jara!]

Well, that's only one question. So, tell me, is there something hidden or out of place here and, if so, what looks suspicious?

There is, in fact, something hidden here. It is only thanks to a few faint flickers of light off something in the air that you notice. Like leaves of thin, translucent glass or floating strands of spider's silk only visible for a fraction of a second when the light reflects off them just right.

There are invisible creatures here. Not just one, you think, but several. Some kind of vine creature, apparently, and the invisibility would explain why you didn't notice when a huge branch suddenly disappeared. Normally, that kind of movement would have been obvious, but if the creature became invisible before moving ...

Whether they are naturally invisible or someone put glamors on them ... that is more answer than I can give you for now. I can tell you this: they are not immediately hostile, but they are clearly watching you and trying to lead you down a path of their choosing.

Thanqol

2017-01-22, 04:43 PM

So you certainly manage to gain their attention with your passionate display, but perhaps not in the way you imagined. They seem, in fact, suddenly to have lost all interest in you. Instead, something in the fire and flames of your display has them screeching and tearing their feathers out in rage and blood-thirst.

They descend ... upon the very air around you, throwing weapons at seemingly nothing with complete and utter disregard for you and your safety. Their fire joins yours in a brutal assault on thin air, consuming it swiftly in flames and smoke.

Most curious.

Wings of Fire wished her sport of choice hadn't been tennis. When her blood was up like this her instincts were all boiling close to the surface, and her oldest and most practiced instinct was small fast moving thing - you should run over and hit it. It was a great trick when fighting any sort of creatures except the ones who could infuse their projectiles with molten lava.

What snapped her out of it was the feathers. People who weren't Amaranth didn't understand how much losing a feather hurt. Like, Spiral, this was like watching people tear out huge clumps of hair with all that came with that. Empathy beat out anger which beat out fear. Sentience crawled back like an embarrassed dog. This was wrong.

"Human," said Wings of Fire to Rahnya, as intense as you've ever seen her. "Please. Distract them."

Raz_Fox

2017-01-22, 06:52 PM

BEING THE DISPLAY OF THE ARETE OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, BEFORE THE EYES OF THE AMARANTH

And of the eightfold tones of the universe, which all refined art must align themselves by, the purpose thereof to provide their audience with a road through which they may be transcendent within the tone, we speak now, that the enlightened may by such discourse understand the nature not only of the universe, but so too of the soul, and so too of our exile, in which the tones ring out more clearly, unrestrained by the moderating bonds of sunlight...

The first weapon hurled is a three-legged hammerhead with a net of fire woven within its hollow heart; having seen the effects of such artifice before, I am already slipping the harness from Surety's back when the weapon strikes the burning cart. (Behind me, Arcifex sighs and murmurs a sardonic remark on the ephemeral nature of the handiwork of the Lady of Fire, even as he steps back to evade the coming blast. He carries no weapon, and wields none, neither, by choice and by vow.) The strike pulls the air from my lips, sets Surety running from the harness, fans up the flames into near-transcendent fury.

Were I home, the flames would whisper to me their mantra: all is burning. Here, they snap and crack like the stroke of a whip. My eyes run.

Ah, if my fencing-masters could see me! An errant Amaranth-arrow spirals towards the emptiness where I am now not; no evil intent may strike me unless by my acquiescence I allow it. Behind me, it spreads wings that eat the sky with their sudden roaring. And still Wings of Fire stands in defiance before them, her bright energy aspect clear to those with eyes to see. She opens her mouth; she speaks.

...incandescent burns RAUDRAM which is the tone of fury, whether born from being witness to foolish action and thought or kindled in the eye of a monarch whose subjects are afflicted by injustice; it is the tone of the god who unmakes and the god who chastises. It is said that the Universal Monarch sprang from his throne and danced for three days without ceasing in the transcendence of RAUDRAM upon being witness to the destruction wrought by his first wife, who knew the secret of the word that Unmakes what Is...

My hair runs behind me in the hue of the deepest sea. My footfall would hardly disrupt the stillness of water at dawn. There is stillness inside me despite the fire that opens itself all around me. I would prefer to be able to distract them through conversation, but these Amaranth are wild, lost to the curse of their people. Lost, but perhaps not doomed to always be so.

I have hope yet.

Breathe in, breathe out. I jump, and my foot lands in Adelinde's cupped hands; she is already where she needs to be. From her, I vault upwards, Needle flashing, and cut an arc through the volleys of the Amaranth. Explosions rock the air around me, but I am already through by the time that the weapons fall apart from Needle's expert tip. Let them throw all they like; I shall not let their weapons reach their mark until the Lady of Fire is ready to act.

[[roll0]
+1 Courage, acting to Keep Them Busy]

Anarion

2017-01-23, 12:04 AM

There is, in fact, something hidden here. It is only thanks to a few faint flickers of light off something in the air that you notice. Like leaves of thin, translucent glass or floating strands of spider's silk only visible for a fraction of a second when the light reflects off them just right.

There are invisible creatures here. Not just one, you think, but several. Some kind of vine creature, apparently, and the invisibility would explain why you didn't notice when a huge branch suddenly disappeared. Normally, that kind of movement would have been obvious, but if the creature became invisible before moving ...

Whether they are naturally invisible or someone put glamors on them ... that is more answer than I can give you for now. I can tell you this: they are not immediately hostile, but they are clearly watching you and trying to lead you down a path of their choosing.

The others are gone, and it's up to her to keep Jara safe. So, invisible vine creates. Just the barest hint of them. She'd never quite heard of anything like that unless it was a combination of things, like an enchanter taking advantage of existing vine traps.

She had to...*FWOOSH* in the distance, fire was erupting into the air. Something was happening. She had to get them over to it. Since Sophie couldn't fly (more's the pity) that meant moving. She urged Sophie forward, following the new path, keeping her eyes open for a way to loop around to rejoin her allies. She kept the pace sedate. There wasn't any immediate hostility, nothing actually attacking them, and she could see what this was, at least in little glimpses, so she didn't want it to seem like she was charging for an attack. Just a nice sedate halfing and a young girl on a giant spider. The sort of thing you could see anywhere, and hardly a threat to anyone. She kept her halberd resting easy at her side too with Sophie's saddlebags, not raised. No threat, no reason to fight if somebody else didn't want to start it.

Maerla straightens herself on Sophie's back, one arm protectively on Jara as she's speculating. "Oh, Jara, I'm sure he'd love your sandwiches. Why, if you made one for him and showed him the recipe, I bet he'd take a little taste and make his own giant-sized version. I hear the Greatfather has not only lake-size pie dishes, but an entire kitchen filled with giant tools. Pots and pans the size of a king's private garden, and loaves of bread he grew and baked himself that you could build a house into, if you had the mind to." She lowers her voice as they move further into the forest and it grows darker around them, the mossy branches obscuring the sun. "Keep your eyes open, Jara. We'll meet the Greatfather soon, I bet, but right now we're going on a bit of an adventure and we need to look really closely where we're going." She took a little lesson from what had just happened as well. "Now, I'm gonna guide Sophie, and I want you to look left and right, and up and down, okay Jara? Give me a little tap if you see anything moving that's more than branches swaying in the wind, or if something scares you, okay?"

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-23, 01:35 PM

Wings of Fire wished her sport of choice hadn't been tennis. When her blood was up like this her instincts were all boiling close to the surface, and her oldest and most practiced instinct was small fast moving thing - you should run over and hit it. It was a great trick when fighting any sort of creatures except the ones who could infuse their projectiles with molten lava.

What snapped her out of it was the feathers. People who weren't Amaranth didn't understand how much losing a feather hurt. Like, Spiral, this was like watching people tear out huge clumps of hair with all that came with that. Empathy beat out anger which beat out fear. Sentience crawled back like an embarrassed dog. This was wrong.

"Human," said Wings of Fire to Rahnya, as intense as you've ever seen her. "Please. Distract them."

Snowdrop settled to a hover over Wings of Fire's shoulder. A soothing chill surrounded her, sinking gently into the Amaranth's burns. Pain lost its bite, itches wandered off, and aches grew too lazy to be a bother. "Wings?" Her tiny bell-voice chimed through the din around them. "Do all the Amaranthi sing the songs you sung in Linowan?" She tilted her head curiously.

Faeries were not known for explaining their minds. Meeting some, one may wonder if they even could. But to call faeries simple or foolish would be a grave error of judgement. At worst, they were remarkably clever fools. What may seem a trifle could mean all the world to them, and the most sacred of pursuits a passing whimsy. But no matter the thread a fairy chose to work with, they could weave it into a masterpiece beyond imagining.

Even if said masterpiece took several centuries to make, and involved a hundred and one mistakes along the way.

Thanqol

2017-01-23, 06:09 PM

Damn it. Rahnya! I said distract them! Not distract me!

Okay, Fire. Breathe. Let the thoughts rise and fall. You are the watcher on the river. Firstly, wow. I wonder if I could beat her? I mean, I've always just assumed I could but now I realize that I might have to take that a bit more seriously. Secondly, unclench your fists and stop turning your head to follow every spear. The light show is impressive but you've seen better. She is a known quantity. They are a known quantity. What is unknown is the motives at work here. Relax and think it through.

Snowdrop settled to a hover over Wings of Fire's shoulder. A soothing chill surrounded her, sinking gently into the Amaranth's burns. Pain lost its bite, itches wandered off, and aches grew too lazy to be a bother. "Wings?" Her tiny bell-voice chimed through the din around them. "Do all the Amaranthi sing the songs you sung in Linowan?" She tilted her head curiously.

Faeries were not known for explaining their minds. Meeting some, one may wonder if they even could. But to call faeries simple or foolish would be a grave error of judgement. At worst, they were remarkably clever fools. What may seem a trifle could mean all the world to them, and the most sacred of pursuits a passing whimsy. But no matter the thread a fairy chose to work with, they could weave it into a masterpiece beyond imagining.

Even if said masterpiece took several centuries to make, and involved a hundred and one mistakes along the way.

"Not even slightly," said Wings of Fire with remarkable intellectual poise. Again, she was coherent and focused. "What kind of ass-backwards culture listens to the same music for more than a few years? We invent new songs all the time. Oh, and by the way, quit wasting time and tell me what is going on."

I need to stay here and... think a little bit longer.

Deadly

2017-01-24, 05:15 AM

The others are gone, and it's up to her to keep Jara safe. So, invisible vine creates. Just the barest hint of them. She'd never quite heard of anything like that unless it was a combination of things, like an enchanter taking advantage of existing vine traps.

She had to...*FWOOSH* in the distance, fire was erupting into the air. Something was happening. She had to get them over to it. Since Sophie couldn't fly (more's the pity) that meant moving. She urged Sophie forward, following the new path, keeping her eyes open for a way to loop around to rejoin her allies. She kept the pace sedate. There wasn't any immediate hostility, nothing actually attacking them, and she could see what this was, at least in little glimpses, so she didn't want it to seem like she was charging for an attack. Just a nice sedate halfing and a young girl on a giant spider. The sort of thing you could see anywhere, and hardly a threat to anyone. She kept her halberd resting easy at her side too with Sophie's saddlebags, not raised. No threat, no reason to fight if somebody else didn't want to start it.

Maerla straightens herself on Sophie's back, one arm protectively on Jara as she's speculating. "Oh, Jara, I'm sure he'd love your sandwiches. Why, if you made one for him and showed him the recipe, I bet he'd take a little taste and make his own giant-sized version. I hear the Greatfather has not only lake-size pie dishes, but an entire kitchen filled with giant tools. Pots and pans the size of a king's private garden, and loaves of bread he grew and baked himself that you could build a house into, if you had the mind to." She lowers her voice as they move further into the forest and it grows darker around them, the mossy branches obscuring the sun. "Keep your eyes open, Jara. We'll meet the Greatfather soon, I bet, but right now we're going on a bit of an adventure and we need to look really closely where we're going." She took a little lesson from what had just happened as well. "Now, I'm gonna guide Sophie, and I want you to look left and right, and up and down, okay Jara? Give me a little tap if you see anything moving that's more than branches swaying in the wind, or if something scares you, okay?"

You descend into the dense, dark canopy, where the paths are twisted and narrow. But Sophie has little difficulty skittering through these spaces, where other mounts might not have been able to make it as easily. You haven't gone far before the sounds from above grow fainter, and other sounds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCXQmZ7_II0) can be heard from somewhere within the inscrutable foliage: the sounds of something chewing flesh and small bones.

The sounds halt, and after a moment all you hear are the regular sounds of the forest. Whatever it was, it may have hidden itself or fled.

Before you can go nosing around too far, a jolly tune reaches your ear and a fellow wood folk rounds the corner, a skip in his steps as he navigates the narrow branches on foot. Tell me, what does he look like, and how do you greet him?

Anarion

2017-01-24, 01:09 PM

You descend into the dense, dark canopy, where the paths are twisted and narrow. But Sophie has little difficulty skittering through these spaces, where other mounts might not have been able to make it as easily. You haven't gone far before the sounds from above grow fainter, and other sounds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCXQmZ7_II0) can be heard from somewhere within the inscrutable foliage: the sounds of something chewing flesh and small bones.

The sounds halt, and after a moment all you hear are the regular sounds of the forest. Whatever it was, it may have hidden itself or fled.

Before you can go nosing around too far, a jolly tune reaches your ear and a fellow wood folk rounds the corner, a skip in his steps as he navigates the narrow branches on foot. Tell me, what does he look like, and how do you greet him?

Maerla's a bit on edge, so it's a good thing the Wood Folk is singing and making merry, else she might have been quite startled by his sudden appearance. There shouldn't be any Wood Folk here. It's not safe to be wandering this far. It's the kind of thing Maerla would have been doing back home, but she's the exception, not the rule. Nothing to be done about that though. Maybe he was a master illusionist, or maybe he was just out for a lark. Either way, the vines that might have eaten them are passed and it was time to figure out the next thing.

"Hi stranger!" Maerla waves at the little fellow. He's at a smaller size than what most would consider "normal", barely a foot high right now and squeezing his way out from a thick tangle of moss. He's got on a woolen knit travelers cap, for keeping warm, dyed in a forest green that blends with the background. A pale blue shirt with a brown vest on over it, and a pair of sturdy leather pants. This one is going barefoot, which isn't too surprising for Wood Folk that like to wander far afield, especially for climbing, and he's got a number of pouches and bags all along his belt that suggest he's the sort that likes gathering odds and ends. "Maerla Pearleaper, of the Mistwood Pearleapers, at your service, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Maerla makes a little nudge for Jara to say hello too.

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-24, 01:44 PM

"Not even slightly," said Wings of Fire with remarkable intellectual poise. Again, she was coherent and focused. "What kind of ass-backwards culture listens to the same music for more than a few years? We invent new songs all the time. Oh, and by the way, quit wasting time and tell me what is going on."

I need to stay here and... think a little bit longer.

Perfect! Well, not perfect. Not what she hoped for, but equally as useful, and thus, perfect! Ha-ha!

"I don't know what's got them all in a flurry." She continued. "But we are going to teach them a new song. I can show them the steps, and I can teach you the words, but you'll have to lead them yourself." She peeked into the Amaranth's peripheral vision - slowly now, she didn't want a repeat of the Green Dress incident - and smiled reassuringly. "Do you have anything big and clang-y you can drum a beat with?"

Elanorin

2017-01-24, 04:23 PM

Maerla straightens herself on Sophie's back, one arm protectively on Jara as she's speculating. "Oh, Jara, I'm sure he'd love your sandwiches. Why, if you made one for him and showed him the recipe, I bet he'd take a little taste and make his own giant-sized version. I hear the Greatfather has not only lake-size pie dishes, but an entire kitchen filled with giant tools. Pots and pans the size of a king's private garden, and loaves of bread he grew and baked himself that you could build a house into, if you had the mind to."

"Thank you, oh, I don't know, a bread house sounds great but I think it's get a bit soggy when it rained..." Jara frowned thoughtfully, then muttered to herself, "...maybe if there was waterproof icing on it..."

She lowers her voice as they move further into the forest and it grows darker around them, the mossy branches obscuring the sun. "Keep your eyes open, Jara. We'll meet the Greatfather soon, I bet, but right now we're going on a bit of an adventure and we need to look really closely where we're going." She took a little lesson from what had just happened as well. "Now, I'm gonna guide Sophie, and I want you to look left and right, and up and down, okay Jara? Give me a little tap if you see anything moving that's more than branches swaying in the wind, or if something scares you, okay?"

"Oh, alright!" Jara agreed, abruptly ending the Greatfather conversation and focused on scanning the forest with care and diligence in complete silence.

Maerla's a bit on edge, so it's a good thing the Wood Folk is singing and making merry, else she might have been quite startled by his sudden appearance. There shouldn't be any Wood Folk here. It's not safe to be wandering this far. It's the kind of thing Maerla would have been doing back home, but she's the exception, not the rule. Nothing to be done about that though. Maybe he was a master illusionist, or maybe he was just out for a lark. Either way, the vines that might have eaten them are passed and it was time to figure out the next thing.

"Hi stranger!" Maerla waves at the little fellow. He's at a smaller size than what most would consider "normal", barely a foot high right now and squeezing his way out from a thick tangle of moss. He's got on a woolen knit travelers cap, for keeping warm, dyed in a forest green that blends with the background. A pale blue shirt with a brown vest on over it, and a pair of sturdy leather pants. This one is going barefoot, which isn't too surprising for Wood Folk that like to wander far afield, especially for climbing, and he's got a number of pouches and bags all along his belt that suggest he's the sort that likes gathering odds and ends. "Maerla Pearleaper, of the Mistwood Pearleapers, at your service, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Jara shines up with a big smile and watches the Wood Folk and listens intently to his tune, absorbing the rare spectacle and enjoying the moment.

Maerla makes a little nudge for Jara to say hello too.

"Hi. I'm Jara... of the... friends of the... Mistywood Pearleapers-" She ventures to let go of the spider with one of her hands to wave at the Wood Folk.

Thanqol

2017-01-24, 05:16 PM

Perfect! Well, not perfect. Not what she hoped for, but equally as useful, and thus, perfect! Ha-ha!

"I don't know what's got them all in a flurry." She continued. "But we are going to teach them a new song. I can show them the steps, and I can teach you the words, but you'll have to lead them yourself." She peeked into the Amaranth's peripheral vision - slowly now, she didn't want a repeat of the Green Dress incident - and smiled reassuringly. "Do you have anything big and clang-y you can drum a beat with?"

Wings of Fire didn't bother trying to figure out the plan or how it was meant to work. She had a fairly low estimation of her own intelligence so was happy to blindly trust if it meant not having to think about it. Just answer the question, Fire. "Uh, I can put one together quickly but I'm not a great drummer. If that matters."

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-24, 07:35 PM

Wings of Fire didn't bother trying to figure out the plan or how it was meant to work. She had a fairly low estimation of her own intelligence so was happy to blindly trust if it meant not having to think about it. Just answer the question, Fire. "Uh, I can put one together quickly but I'm not a great drummer. If that matters."

Snowdrop shook her head. A cloud of sparkling dust escaped from her hair and coat. "If you can march your feet, you can keep this beat. Steady and loud will make me proud."

Thanqol

2017-01-24, 09:34 PM

Snowdrop shook her head. A cloud of sparkling dust escaped from her hair and coat. "If you can march your feet, you can keep this beat. Steady and loud will make me proud."

I can never tell if fairies are being unnecessarily whimsical or if that's just how their magic works.

Let's see what I can do...

Wings of Fire would have preferred to work with metal or stone. Metal and stone were brute and stupid already. Wood was... delicate. And rough. And sticky. She felt bad when she ripped apart a tree and saw the sap spill out like blood. She actually flinched when a branch came off unevenly, clinging on to its former limb with fibrous white-yellow strands. Metal and stone were too dumb to remember their thoughts and if you broke them then they held their new shapes as stubbornly as they used to hold their old ones. Wood didn't like change and would fight and suffer if you forced it. She felt guilty for it.

But one went to war with the terrain your parents gave you.

She ripped a branch from the root of the great tree. A flash of golden fire burned the leaves and twigs from its surface, leaving a long white spear, barbed and spiked. She snapped the wood across her knee and folded it like impossible origami and the splintered wood twisted into a four-legged stand. Then Wings of Fire tore off the top flap of her leather backpack, smoothed it out, and stretched it over the top. Around her rough, clumsy hands and movements yellow-orange light flashed and sparked like the organic electricity that burns in the hump of a whale. Things fused. Things stuck. She had a drum.

She swallowed and cringed when she looked at it. It was an ugly thing that she'd started to hate from the first break in the wood. Now there it was, squat and crude, barely functional, the peak of her craft. She had made the thing in about four seconds but... she couldn't imagine how she could possibly take a second longer. Some people said artists could work for years on some projects, adding more detail and more elaboration, until it was perfect. But for her all she could think when looking at this was it's done. That's a drum. It does drumming. What else could she possibly add that it doesn't have already? She could barely imagine what a better drum might look like.

Trying to brush off the humiliation of making the thing and already planning to wreck it the second they started moving, Wings of Fire flattened out a shortsword into a drumstick and started pounding the beat Snowdrop had requested, trusting that the fairy knew what she was doing.

Deadly

2017-01-25, 04:29 PM

Maerla's a bit on edge, so it's a good thing the Wood Folk is singing and making merry, else she might have been quite startled by his sudden appearance. There shouldn't be any Wood Folk here. It's not safe to be wandering this far. It's the kind of thing Maerla would have been doing back home, but she's the exception, not the rule. Nothing to be done about that though. Maybe he was a master illusionist, or maybe he was just out for a lark. Either way, the vines that might have eaten them are passed and it was time to figure out the next thing.

"Hi stranger!" Maerla waves at the little fellow. He's at a smaller size than what most would consider "normal", barely a foot high right now and squeezing his way out from a thick tangle of moss. He's got on a woolen knit travelers cap, for keeping warm, dyed in a forest green that blends with the background. A pale blue shirt with a brown vest on over it, and a pair of sturdy leather pants. This one is going barefoot, which isn't too surprising for Wood Folk that like to wander far afield, especially for climbing, and he's got a number of pouches and bags all along his belt that suggest he's the sort that likes gathering odds and ends. "Maerla Pearleaper, of the Mistwood Pearleapers, at your service, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Maerla makes a little nudge for Jara to say hello too.

Jara shines up with a big smile and watches the Wood Folk and listens intently to his tune, absorbing the rare spectacle and enjoying the moment.

"Hi. I'm Jara... of the... friends of the... Mistywood Pearleapers-" She ventures to let go of the spider with one of her hands to wave at the Wood Folk.

The little man stops and bows with a flourish of his hat, nearly falling over. "Why, the pleasure is undoubtedly mine, Maerla Pearleaper and Miss Jara. Oudal Featherfleck at your service. Or ..." He puts his hat back on his head and looks up at you as he leans back on his heels. "Perhaps I find myself in luck. Would you happen to have seen a beast known as the Gryphon about here? Perhaps he was carrying an old tapestry?"

Anarion

2017-01-25, 04:57 PM

The little man stops and bows with a flourish of his hat, nearly falling over. "Why, the pleasure is undoubtedly mine, Maerla Pearleaper and Miss Jara. Oudal Featherfleck at your service. Or ..." He puts his hat back on his head and looks up at you as he leans back on his heels. "Perhaps I find myself in luck. Would you happen to have seen a beast known as the Gryphon about here? Perhaps he was carrying an old tapestry?"

Internal thought process: What?! How could he possibly be out here and have no idea that he's next to the Greatfather's castle where the Gryphon has taken up residence? For that matter, how could he possibly be here and have missed the Gryphon when we were just in hot pursuit of it before the party got split up, yet know that it might have had a tapestry?

Maerla raises an eyebrow, slightly, and continues with the introductions. "Oudal, a pleasure to meet you! I don't think I've seen our folk out this far in ages, the nearest town's a day and half's hard march away, and that at triple your size. But you are in luck. The Gryphon was just here and flying to the nearby castle. Why, I'm sure he had at least twenty tapestries to boot!" Maerla lowers her voice slightly so Jara would have to strain to hear. "everyone knows the Gryphon has a bit of a thing for tapestries." Then back to normal volume, "why, I've heard he's practically wallpapered the whole castle, and makes a point of documenting the history of each and every bit of cloth he steals in some sort of massive Gryphon journal that he writes using one of his giant feathers in his talons."

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-25, 05:13 PM

I can never tell if fairies are being unnecessarily whimsical or if that's just how their magic works.

Let's see what I can do...

Wings of Fire would have preferred to work with metal or stone. Metal and stone were brute and stupid already. Wood was... delicate. And rough. And sticky. She felt bad when she ripped apart a tree and saw the sap spill out like blood. She actually flinched when a branch came off unevenly, clinging on to its former limb with fibrous white-yellow strands. Metal and stone were too dumb to remember their thoughts and if you broke them then they held their new shapes as stubbornly as they used to hold their old ones. Wood didn't like change and would fight and suffer if you forced it. She felt guilty for it.

But one went to war with the terrain your parents gave you.

She ripped a branch from the root of the great tree. A flash of golden fire burned the leaves and twigs from its surface, leaving a long white spear, barbed and spiked. She snapped the wood across her knee and folded it like impossible origami and the splintered wood twisted into a four-legged stand. Then Wings of Fire tore off the top flap of her leather backpack, smoothed it out, and stretched it over the top. Around her rough, clumsy hands and movements yellow-orange light flashed and sparked like the organic electricity that burns in the hump of a whale. Things fused. Things stuck. She had a drum.

She swallowed and cringed when she looked at it. It was an ugly thing that she'd started to hate from the first break in the wood. Now there it was, squat and crude, barely functional, the peak of her craft. She had made the thing in about four seconds but... she couldn't imagine how she could possibly take a second longer. Some people said artists could work for years on some projects, adding more detail and more elaboration, until it was perfect. But for her all she could think when looking at this was it's done. That's a drum. It does drumming. What else could she possibly add that it doesn't have already? She could barely imagine what a better drum might look like.

Trying to brush off the humiliation of making the thing and already planning to wreck it the second they started moving, Wings of Fire flattened out a shortsword into a drumstick and started pounding the beat Snowdrop had requested, trusting that the fairy knew what she was doing.

This was usually the part of the show where Snowdrop first connected to her audience. She'd look out at their faces, find a few to make eye contact with, search for the souls most out of balance, and begin to reach for their hearts. But usually she performed for people, for animals, for trees. Not people behaving like animals. To them, she was invisible. Her words meant nothing. Her dance, less than nothing.

A few times, long ago, she had performed for peoples on the brink of hibernation. With each performance, she struggled to break through to their hearts, but never to stand before them and try. On the contrary, she welcomed them to Winter with open arms. All Winter Faeries did. Winter was their home, and they the caretakers of all who visited it. She did not weep for a people in Autumn any more than she celebrated a people in Spring. This was the way of things, and she delighted to play her part in the natural order.

This? This was not natural. This was not Autumn. This was Rot.

As she fluttered to the edge of the drum, a little voice in her heart repeated the truths of Winter. This too shall pass. None of us stop growing. Life endures. And leaning hard on that voice, she leaped into the howling Amaranthi, and began to sing.

The song was a simple Amaranthi tune, once sung some centuries ago. A call-and-response, she had given Wings of Fire the second parts to lead the mob with. She wove through the crowd, skating off weapons and branches alike, all to the rhythm of Wings' beating drum. She surrounded them with music; the song came from all sides. And while they fought to defeat Rahnya, Snowdrop reached out through the Rot and seized hold of their hearts.

She would teach them a new song. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhIoidHbWQs&feature=youtu.be&t=6)

[Rolling to Finish Them with Grace. Wings can play the drum and grant Hope: 5 + 1 6 + 2 = 13 They are destroyed; the angry mob is now a dancing mob. The dance provides an outlet for their wrath, and they'll feel much more clear-headed afterwards.]

Deadly

2017-01-26, 02:24 PM

Internal thought process: What?! How could he possibly be out here and have no idea that he's next to the Greatfather's castle where the Gryphon has taken up residence? For that matter, how could he possibly be here and have missed the Gryphon when we were just in hot pursuit of it before the party got split up, yet know that it might have had a tapestry?

Maerla raises an eyebrow, slightly, and continues with the introductions. "Oudal, a pleasure to meet you! I don't think I've seen our folk out this far in ages, the nearest town's a day and half's hard march away, and that at triple your size. But you are in luck. The Gryphon was just here and flying to the nearby castle. Why, I'm sure he had at least twenty tapestries to boot!" Maerla lowers her voice slightly so Jara would have to strain to hear. "everyone knows the Gryphon has a bit of a thing for tapestries." Then back to normal volume, "why, I've heard he's practically wallpapered the whole castle, and makes a point of documenting the history of each and every bit of cloth he steals in some sort of massive Gryphon journal that he writes using one of his giant feathers in his talons."

"Indeed? Then perhaps there is some truth to what I have heard. I have been told tales of this Gryphon and his tapestries, though as I have heard tell, they are in fact a very large and very complicated map. I had one piece of it not long ago, which led me here in search of the rest, but it was taken from me. I admit I am not so familiar here as yourselves, but I am very good at finding my way," he explained while rocking back and forth on his feet. "I have seen this castle you mention. Unfortunately, finding my way there is not the problem, but perhaps we can help each other?"

Elanorin

2017-01-26, 03:32 PM

"Indeed? Then perhaps there is some truth to what I have heard. I have been told tales of this Gryphon and his tapestries, though as I have heard tell, they are in fact a very large and very complicated map. I had one piece of it not long ago, which led me here in search of the rest, but it was taken from me. I admit I am not so familiar here as yourselves, but I am very good at finding my way," he explained while rocking back and forth on his feet. "I have seen this castle you mention. Unfortunately, finding my way there is not the problem, but perhaps we can help each other?"

"Of course we can!" Jara agreed enthusiastically. "That's a great idea- isn't that a great idea Maerla?" Jara nudges her friend and clambers down from Sophie and walks up to the little Wood Folk and attempts to shake his little hand in whatever way their size difference allowes. "What do you need help with? You want your map back? I'm sure we can help one way or another," she smiled.

Anarion

2017-01-26, 04:31 PM

"Of course we can!" Jara agreed enthusiastically. "That's a great idea- isn't that a great idea Maerla?" Jara nudges her friend and clambers down from Sophie and walks up to the little Wood Folk and attempts to shake his little hand in whatever way their size difference allowes. "What do you need help with? You want your map back? I'm sure we can help one way or another," she smiled.

Maerla nods and steps down from Sophie as well to give a more reserved, but still warm handshake to Oudal after Jara has done her bit. "Yes, Oudal, I'm sure we could help find your map. Right now we need to find a way to get over to the castle. There are some vine traps around here somewhere, so we need to be careful where we're climbing. I don't suppose you know your way around here?"

Deadly

2017-01-27, 03:29 PM

This was usually the part of the show where Snowdrop first connected to her audience. She'd look out at their faces, find a few to make eye contact with, search for the souls most out of balance, and begin to reach for their hearts. But usually she performed for people, for animals, for trees. Not people behaving like animals. To them, she was invisible. Her words meant nothing. Her dance, less than nothing.

A few times, long ago, she had performed for peoples on the brink of hibernation. With each performance, she struggled to break through to their hearts, but never to stand before them and try. On the contrary, she welcomed them to Winter with open arms. All Winter Faeries did. Winter was their home, and they the caretakers of all who visited it. She did not weep for a people in Autumn any more than she celebrated a people in Spring. This was the way of things, and she delighted to play her part in the natural order.

This? This was not natural. This was not Autumn. This was Rot.

As she fluttered to the edge of the drum, a little voice in her heart repeated the truths of Winter. This too shall pass. None of us stop growing. Life endures. And leaning hard on that voice, she leaped into the howling Amaranthi, and began to sing.

The song was a simple Amaranthi tune, once sung some centuries ago. A call-and-response, she had given Wings of Fire the second parts to lead the mob with. She wove through the crowd, skating off weapons and branches alike, all to the rhythm of Wings' beating drum. She surrounded them with music; the song came from all sides. And while they fought to defeat Rahnya, Snowdrop reached out through the Rot and seized hold of their hearts.

She would teach them a new song. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhIoidHbWQs&feature=youtu.be&t=6)

[Rolling to Finish Them with Grace. Wings can play the drum and grant Hope: 5 + 1 6 + 2 = 13 They are destroyed; the angry mob is now a dancing mob. The dance provides an outlet for their wrath, and they'll feel much more clear-headed afterwards.]

The amaranthi were at first confused, caught between blind rage and dancing, none of them quite sure which act they were in the middle of at any given moment. Not that the difference between feral amaranthi fighting and dancing was entirely obvious to most. War cries turned to screeching cries of victory, and explosions ... well, what is a dance without fireworks? The avian gang danced and hollered offensively, as if taunting an invisible enemy fleeing with its tail between its legs.

Several of them began swarming around you, insistently. Despite a lack of complex language, it was plain they wanted to invite you all back to their nest to celebrate and maybe meet their chief.

Do you go? And Wings, what do you think you can expect to find if you do?

"Of course we can!" Jara agreed enthusiastically. "That's a great idea- isn't that a great idea Maerla?" Jara nudges her friend and clambers down from Sophie and walks up to the little Wood Folk and attempts to shake his little hand in whatever way their size difference allowes. "What do you need help with? You want your map back? I'm sure we can help one way or another," she smiled.

Maerla nods and steps down from Sophie as well to give a more reserved, but still warm handshake to Oudal after Jara has done her bit. "Yes, Oudal, I'm sure we could help find your map. Right now we need to find a way to get over to the castle. There are some vine traps around here somewhere, so we need to be careful where we're climbing. I don't suppose you know your way around here?"

"Splendid," Oudal said, shaking your hands. "I do believe I can find the place, but I expect the Gryphon and his amaranthi zealots guard it jealously." He turned on his heels and after a brief moment to consider which way, he strode confidently down a narrow path. "With your help, maybe we can sneak in under their beaks, however."

Maerla, you've got reservations? Do you suspect something here?

Also, do you follow?

Anarion

2017-01-27, 03:38 PM

Thanqol

2017-01-28, 04:56 AM

The amaranthi were at first confused, caught between blind rage and dancing, none of them quite sure which act they were in the middle of at any given moment. Not that the difference between feral amaranthi fighting and dancing was entirely obvious to most. War cries turned to screeching cries of victory, and explosions ... well, what is a dance without fireworks? The avian gang danced and hollered offensively, as if taunting an invisible enemy fleeing with its tail between its legs.

Several of them began swarming around you, insistently. Despite a lack of complex language, it was plain they wanted to invite you all back to their nest to celebrate and maybe meet their chief.

Do you go? And Wings, what do you think you can expect to find if you do?

"Snowdrop. Human - Rahnya," said Wings of Fire. "Get out of here. Find the others. Find the gryphon. This is too dangerous for you."

There was not anything in the world that worried me quite as much as an Amaranthi warlord. All that intelligence converted into brutal, ruthless instincts. Predatory urges melding with ruthless competitiveness and a will to power. Shockingly cunning brutality; a mind that can turn a band of barbarians into a deadly threat to civilization. The majority of Linowan's armies are lead by warriors like this barely held in check by attached commissars and advisors.

It hasn't escaped my own notice that Administration seems to have that role with regards to me.

Warlords can be erudite. They retain their memories and complex skills from their former lives. But what sets them all apart is that they have lost the ability to tell right from wrong - now they only think in terms of glory and power and rivalry. And she will not be concerned with our mission to chase a myth, she will only care about how we can be made to serve her.

Elanorin

2017-01-29, 02:47 PM

"Splendid," Oudal said, shaking your hands. "I do believe I can find the place, but I expect the Gryphon and his amaranthi zealots guard it jealously." He turned on his heels and after a brief moment to consider which way, he strode confidently down a narrow path. "With your help, maybe we can sneak in under their beaks, however."

Maerla, you've got reservations? Do you suspect something here?

Also, do you follow?

No, of course not! Who could possibly have reservations about a single single, lone Wood Folk appearing where he shouldn't possibly be right after some sort of major magical working went off? What possible deception could come from a likely illusionist who knows all about the Gryphon and his guards? I doubt there could be any danger from someone who wants to sneak into the castle right under a tribe of savage Amaranth.

Jara looked at Maerla for a brief moment, her face relaxed, her eyes blinking, once, in silence, as a beat passed before her face once more shone with a smile, "Teamwork." Jara beamed at Oudal. "We were so lucky to find you, and don't you worry about that guard, you help us get there and I tell you we are more than able to sneak past or even spook off some piffly guards, uh-huh. Just wait 'til you meet Wings of Fire, amaranth too, and the most amazing fighter you ever did see by daylight. She can bop anyone and anything on the nose. I'm sure she is some kind of famous hero back where she's from, with songs and books and poems and plays about her and people with portraits of- Do you know any songs about an Amaranth named Wings of Fire? I'm sorry, manners, Jara, are you tired? Do- do you want to sit on my shoulders, Mister Featherfleck? Or there's Sophie, you can have my spot if she struggles with us all."

With Jara this eager, Maerla lets out a very, very tiny sigh and follows.

Raz_Fox

2017-01-30, 11:22 AM

BEING THE APPREHENSION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AT THE PROSPECT OF ABANDONING AN ALLY TO THE UNCERTAIN MERCIES OF THE FERAL AMARANTH

I land but lightly on the vine, Needle still drawn. Around me, the sharp retort of weapons made firecrackers, as if to scare off parasite-thoughts. Behind me, Adelinde, her breath even and deep.

I don't particularly care for the prospect of leaving Wings of Fire alone with this tribe. Their moods are mercurial, shifting like light under wave. But neither am I going to contradict her assessment of the situation; shall the farrier lecture the potter on the turning of a wheel?

Rather, I call Surety over and retrieve from her saddlebag my gift to the Lady of Fire: a purse, detailed with gossamer-labyrinths, in which are pearls (each intricately carved to resemble the face of the moon) and bright-burning diamonds. So too, I take a feather-bandage, folded in upon itself in a knot.

These I press into her hands. "Barter and medicine. One to win the heart and the other to staunch it. Be safe and come to us when you may."

This done, I mount upon Surety. Jara and Mearla not being among us, we must assume that they have fallen behind, or been otherwise detained, by ill luck or by malicious will.

Thanqol

2017-01-30, 09:21 PM

Aw crap, she's taking me at my word. Aw crap. Aw crap I really don't want to have to do this by myself. Damn it, human, if you grew up in a civilized society you'd know to damn the vague warnings and back me up. Well congrats, Fire, your attempt to look like a heroic badass has just backfired and now you really do have to save the day by yourself. No pressure. You've just got to somehow outwit and defeat a deadly warlord in the center of her army, by yourself, in a way that leaves people thinking of you better afterwards.

All right, brain, it's you and me then. Plus sides. I won't have to pretend to be a functional person for a while. Jara's going to be protected. I have presents. If I have to do something really violent then I won't have to explain it later.

Forgetting to wait for a response from Snowdrop, Wings of Fire abruptly turns and heads after the barbarians.

TheAmishPirate

2017-01-30, 09:45 PM

Well, before we hear what Snowdrop does, a question for Wings of Fire; how protective are you of your friends?

Thanqol

2017-01-30, 09:59 PM

Well, before we hear what Snowdrop does, a question for Wings of Fire; how protective are you of your friends?

To a fault. Fire tries her best to hold to higher ideals but when it comes down to it she'll prioritize her friends.

TheAmishPirate

2017-02-01, 02:26 PM

To a fault. Fire tries her best to hold to higher ideals but when it comes down to it she'll prioritize her friends.

Duly noted. In that case...

Aw crap, she's taking me at my word. Aw crap. Aw crap I really don't want to have to do this by myself. Damn it, human, if you grew up in a civilized society you'd know to damn the vague warnings and back me up. Well congrats, Fire, your attempt to look like a heroic badass has just backfired and now you really do have to save the day by yourself. No pressure. You've just got to somehow outwit and defeat a deadly warlord in the center of her army, by yourself, in a way that leaves people thinking of you better afterwards.

All right, brain, it's you and me then. Plus sides. I won't have to pretend to be a functional person for a while. Jara's going to be protected. I have presents. If I have to do something really violent then I won't have to explain it later.

Forgetting to wait for a response from Snowdrop, Wings of Fire abruptly turns and heads after the barbarians.

As Wings of Fire walks away, a cool breeze wipes the sweat from her brow, and something presses into her arm that feels suspiciously like the hug of a tiny Winter Fairy. "Don't start any fights you wouldn't be proud of!" Snowdrop beamed up at her longtime friend, patted her arm once more, then flitted back to Rahnya. On the way, she accepted a flower-cup full of sweet nectar from The Big I.C. - "You drink all that, take care of your angel voice, see?" - and instructed him to shadow the Amaranthi. He was not to interfere, but should anything happen he would race back to her as quick as he could. He nodded, muttering something about knowing a back way, and disappeared from sight.

And with that, she followed after Rahnya in search of their other friends.

Deadly

2017-02-01, 04:50 PM

No, of course not! Who could possibly have reservations about a single single, lone Wood Folk appearing where he shouldn't possibly be right after some sort of major magical working went off? What possible deception could come from a likely illusionist who knows all about the Gryphon and his guards? I doubt there could be any danger from someone who wants to sneak into the castle right under a tribe of savage Amaranth.

"All" about the Gryphon might be a stretch, to be fair.

But point taken.

With Jara this eager, Maerla lets out a very, very tiny sigh and follows.

Jara looked at Maerla for a brief moment, her face relaxed, her eyes blinking, once, in silence, as a beat passed before her face once more shone with a smile, "Teamwork." Jara beamed at Oudal. "We were so lucky to find you, and don't you worry about that guard, you help us get there and I tell you we are more than able to sneak past or even spook off some piffly guards, uh-huh. Just wait 'til you meet Wings of Fire, amaranth too, and the most amazing fighter you ever did see by daylight. She can bop anyone and anything on the nose. I'm sure she is some kind of famous hero back where she's from, with songs and books and poems and plays about her and people with portraits of- Do you know any songs about an Amaranth named Wings of Fire? I'm sorry, manners, Jara, are you tired? Do- do you want to sit on my shoulders, Mister Featherfleck? Or there's Sophie, you can have my spot if she struggles with us all."

"I am fine, but thank you for the offer, Miss Jara," Oudal said as he led you through the forest, navigating if not like a local then at least like someone who knew how to navigate a maze. It was doubtful that this was the quickest route, but the tower did get steadily closer.

Wings of Fire, what do you say, are you as famous as Jara seems to believe? Do you think a random but traveled wood folk like Oudal here (assuming that is what he is) might have heard of your exploits?

http://orig13.deviantart.net/4c01/f/2016/033/a/b/bandit_camp_callout_by_fmacmanus-d9qc0zu.jpg (http://fmacmanus.deviantart.com/art/Bandit-Camp-Callout-588426762)

Back to you Maerla and Jara. Oudal signals to stay low as you reach the edge of a clearing. Beyond, the trees ring a wide swamp of foulness. In this bog stands a chaotic structure of slap-dash wood, rising above the surrounding trees as a look-out tower and work camp. Amaranthi are circling the creaking thing, some coming, others going, still others constantly working.

The tower of the Greatfather looms on the peak behind the camp. You could reach it, if you could only get past this bog tower. What's the plan?

Burning Building Toxic bog tower: Everything is on fire toxic and it's all falling apart.

Poison Everywhere: Nowhere is safe in here. Everyone who makes a Move inside the bog tower must Pay A Price, or else they roll in Despair. Anyone immune to toxic gas is immune to this threat.

Falling Apart: Whenever anyone does anything reckless or fails a Move while inside the bog tower, a route becomes closed off by the building falling apart or amaranthi scurrying about to fix it. A hole opens up in the floor, or a wall collapses in front of you, that kind of thing.

"Snowdrop. Human - Rahnya," said Wings of Fire. "Get out of here. Find the others. Find the gryphon. This is too dangerous for you."

There was not anything in the world that worried me quite as much as an Amaranthi warlord. All that intelligence converted into brutal, ruthless instincts. Predatory urges melding with ruthless competitiveness and a will to power. Shockingly cunning brutality; a mind that can turn a band of barbarians into a deadly threat to civilization. The majority of Linowan's armies are lead by warriors like this barely held in check by attached commissars and advisors.

It hasn't escaped my own notice that Administration seems to have that role with regards to me.

Warlords can be erudite. They retain their memories and complex skills from their former lives. But what sets them all apart is that they have lost the ability to tell right from wrong - now they only think in terms of glory and power and rivalry. And she will not be concerned with our mission to chase a myth, she will only care about how we can be made to serve her.

BEING THE APPREHENSION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AT THE PROSPECT OF ABANDONING AN ALLY TO THE UNCERTAIN MERCIES OF THE FERAL AMARANTH

I land but lightly on the vine, Needle still drawn. Around me, the sharp retort of weapons made firecrackers, as if to scare off parasite-thoughts. Behind me, Adelinde, her breath even and deep.

I don't particularly care for the prospect of leaving Wings of Fire alone with this tribe. Their moods are mercurial, shifting like light under wave. But neither am I going to contradict her assessment of the situation; shall the farrier lecture the potter on the turning of a wheel?

Rather, I call Surety over and retrieve from her saddlebag my gift to the Lady of Fire: a purse, detailed with gossamer-labyrinths, in which are pearls (each intricately carved to resemble the face of the moon) and bright-burning diamonds. So too, I take a feather-bandage, folded in upon itself in a knot.

These I press into her hands. "Barter and medicine. One to win the heart and the other to staunch it. Be safe and come to us when you may."

This done, I mount upon Surety. Jara and Mearla not being among us, we must assume that they have fallen behind, or been otherwise detained, by ill luck or by malicious will.

Aw crap, she's taking me at my word. Aw crap. Aw crap I really don't want to have to do this by myself. Damn it, human, if you grew up in a civilized society you'd know to damn the vague warnings and back me up. Well congrats, Fire, your attempt to look like a heroic badass has just backfired and now you really do have to save the day by yourself. No pressure. You've just got to somehow outwit and defeat a deadly warlord in the center of her army, by yourself, in a way that leaves people thinking of you better afterwards.

All right, brain, it's you and me then. Plus sides. I won't have to pretend to be a functional person for a while. Jara's going to be protected. I have presents. If I have to do something really violent then I won't have to explain it later.

Forgetting to wait for a response from Snowdrop, Wings of Fire abruptly turns and heads after the barbarians.

As Wings of Fire walks away, a cool breeze wipes the sweat from her brow, and something presses into her arm that feels suspiciously like the hug of a tiny Winter Fairy. "Don't start any fights you wouldn't be proud of!" Snowdrop beamed up at her longtime friend, patted her arm once more, then flitted back to Rahnya. On the way, she accepted a flower-cup full of sweet nectar from The Big I.C. - "You drink all that, take care of your angel voice, see?" - and instructed him to shadow the Amaranthi. He was not to interfere, but should anything happen he would race back to her as quick as he could. He nodded, muttering something about knowing a back way, and disappeared from sight.

And with that, she followed after Rahnya in search of their other friends.

Well, you're going the same way initially, but it shouldn't be hard for Rahnya and Snowdrop to slip off somewhere along the way. The amaranthi stop paying much attention to you after a short while.

Now the situation: you're not sure where Maerla and Jara disappeared off to, but the Gryphon is surely going to be in the tower of the Greatfather or on his way there as we speak. Rahnya and Snowdrop, do you head straight for the tower, or do you look for Maerla and Jara first?

Wings, you follow the amaranthi to their main encampment, which is only slightly more pleasant than the one Maerla and Jara find themselves in. There's no toxic bog here, but the place is just as slap-dash and chaotic if not more so. It's apparent there's been some upheaval lately, perhaps a new warlord has asserted power.

Speaking of, as if your situation wasn't precarious enough, this just took a turn for worse: turns out you know this particular warlord. Tell me about her: who is the last person you hoped to see leading these savages? The warlord of your nightmares.

Thanqol

2017-02-01, 07:29 PM

Wings of Fire, what do you say, are you as famous as Jara seems to believe? Do you think a random but traveled wood folk like Oudal here (assuming that is what he is) might have heard of your exploits?

Oh, um. No. I, uh - no.

Pretty much my only claim to fame is being the last of our kind.

Wings, you follow the amaranthi to their main encampment, which is only slightly more pleasant than the one Maerla and Jara find themselves in. There's no toxic bog here, but the place is just as slap-dash and chaotic if not more so. It's apparent there's been some upheaval lately, perhaps a new warlord has asserted power.

Speaking of, as if your situation wasn't precarious enough, this just took a turn for worse: turns out you know this particular warlord. Tell me about her: who is the last person you hoped to see leading these savages? The warlord of your nightmares.

Oh Spiral, there are so many names. Dance of Circles, the feral swordswoman who remembers the secrets of the Spiral Path, is the deadliest opponent in a fight. Beak of Red, the mad empress who still rules over the remnants of the nation of Iai, is the most terrible threat to any nation that defies her. Skull of Memories, the lost Archivist who used the collapse of civilization as an opportunity to engage in the darkest of sorcery, is the worst to be captured by. These are the names the Imperial Democracy works to extinguish before the Amaranth flame finally darkens.

But the one that haunts my nightmares? Winter of Romance. One of the vanishingly few intelligent Amaranth around my age and my rival in everything. And in everything she kicked my ass. When I look back on my childhood it's just an endless sequence of memories of losing games, competitions, tournaments or relationships to her. Anything I wanted she'd get there first. It's not that she's the most terrifying monster in the world, it's just that I have a conditioned, pavlovian instinct that going up against her means I am going to lose. She knows it, and she enjoys it.

Seeing her war banners doesn't even make me think that at least I held my mind together longer than she did. It just makes me think that I'm way further gone than I think I am - or that she has a head start on what's really important.

Raz_Fox

2017-02-02, 12:00 AM

Rahnya and Snowdrop, do you head straight for the tower, or do you look for Maerla and Jara first?

BEING A CLARIFICATION OF THE INTENTIONS OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS SHE SEEKS OUT HER LOST COMRADES

I believe that the best course of action, and the one I intend to pursue, is to retrace our steps and see if Maerla and Jara have become ensnared in some mischief, or likewise detained. The twisting paths of the vine-roads are not easily walked, to be sure, but Maerla is a fine guide, and Jara is not the sort of lickwitted sprite who would hare off heedlessly after some mirage. No, I am concerned for them, and for their safety; in the same way, I am concerned for Wings of Fire, who walks bravely into the teeth of danger.

Do you agree, Snowdrop?

Anarion

2017-02-02, 12:35 AM

"All" about the Gryphon might be a stretch, to be fair.

More than he ought to. :smallwink:

"I am fine, but thank you for the offer, Miss Jara," Oudal said as he led you through the forest, navigating if not like a local then at least like someone who knew how to navigate a maze. It was doubtful that this was the quickest route, but the tower did get steadily closer.

http://orig13.deviantart.net/4c01/f/2016/033/a/b/bandit_camp_callout_by_fmacmanus-d9qc0zu.jpg (http://fmacmanus.deviantart.com/art/Bandit-Camp-Callout-588426762)

Back to you Maerla and Jara. Oudal signals to stay low as you reach the edge of a clearing. Beyond, the trees ring a wide swamp of foulness. In this bog stands a chaotic structure of slap-dash wood, rising above the surrounding trees as a look-out tower and work camp. Amaranthi are circling the creaking thing, some coming, others going, still others constantly working.

The tower of the Greatfather looms on the peak behind the camp. You could reach it, if you could only get past this bog tower. What's the plan?

Burning Building Toxic bog tower: Everything is on fire toxic and it's all falling apart.

Poison Everywhere: Nowhere is safe in here. Everyone who makes a Move inside the bog tower must Pay A Price, or else they roll in Despair. Anyone immune to toxic gas is immune to this threat.

Falling Apart: Whenever anyone does anything reckless or fails a Move while inside the bog tower, a route becomes closed off by the building falling apart or amaranthi scurrying about to fix it. A hole opens up in the floor, or a wall collapses in front of you, that kind of thing.

Let me tell you something. Maerla should be dismayed here. It's a giant poison tower filled with horribleness fit to bursting, and it's going to be a rough way through. Plus, it's her job to watch our for Jara, and goodness knows this Oudal fellow is probably going to stab them all in the back for sinister purposes the first chance he gets.

BUT...if you look at Maerla just now, she's got an ear to ear grin across her face. Because this. Oh man, this is gonna be fun! "Jara, stay here for a moment with Oudal and Sophie. Sophie, watch over them. Oudal, you also stay, I expect all of you to be here when I get back!"

With that she shrinks down to tiny size and starts sprinting around the edge of the trees unseen, sizing up the rickety tower, watching how the Amaranth move and trying to get a count of them. She looks to see if there's a reason they have to go through the tower instead of circling around it without being spotted too.

[look closely. 4+1. +1 stat for a 6. Just can't catch a break on this move. Ah well, what is going on here? what do my senses tell me?]

TheAmishPirate

2017-02-02, 01:37 PM

BEING A CLARIFICATION OF THE INTENTIONS OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS SHE SEEKS OUT HER LOST COMRADES

I believe that the best course of action, and the one I intend to pursue, is to retrace our steps and see if Maerla and Jara have become ensnared in some mischief, or likewise detained. The twisting paths of the vine-roads are not easily walked, to be sure, but Maerla is a fine guide, and Jara is not the sort of lickwitted sprite who would hare off heedlessly after some mirage. No, I am concerned for them, and for their safety; in the same way, I am concerned for Wings of Fire, who walks bravely into the teeth of danger.

Do you agree, Snowdrop?

Snowdrop absolutely agreed. She was no longer dancing, but sprinting through the forest; skating and flying at such a speed that the two were indistinguishable. Her tiny form leaned near-vertical as she strove to keep pace with Surety and Rahnya.

After a time, Snowdrop flew closer to the Princess' ear. "It's...weird, losing somebody?" She struggled with her words. Some of the thought came as comment, some of it as question. "To not have them be where they ought to be?"

Raz_Fox

2017-02-02, 02:39 PM

Snowdrop absolutely agreed. She was no longer dancing, but sprinting through the forest; skating and flying at such a speed that the two were indistinguishable. Her tiny form leaned near-vertical as she strove to keep pace with Surety and Rahnya.

After a time, Snowdrop flew closer to the Princess' ear. "It's...weird, losing somebody?" She struggled with her words. Some of the thought came as comment, some of it as question. "To not have them be where they ought to be?"

BEING A TEACHING UPON THE NATURE OF THE WORLD BY RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, TO HER FAIRY ALLY

"Where I come from," I say, thoughtfully, "it is difficult not to lose your way, from time to time; to understand that what one considered truthful about the world around them has ceased to be so. The self is the only true lodestone, and what one believes to be a road, broad enough to walk two abreast, may then be a wall, and then a hedge, and then a wilderness, and the traveler alone with only their love, their regard for their fellow traveler, serving as a ribbon-path to follow, and at times not even that may be trusted. All is impermanent. Today, I am; I breathe, I consider, I desire. Tomorrow it may be that I am not. All is burning. All I may do is act as I should, and trust that I shall continue to be the sort of person who will do such things tomorrow, that each repetition of virtuous action will be as the turning of a wheel upon the soft, dark soil of the jungle-road.

"In the same way, it may be that our companions are now not. May it not be so! But all we may control is our own selves. It may be that we shall be a guide, bringing them from what they do not know to what we do; it may be that we shall be help hoped-for in adversity, a sudden change, like a turning of the wind. Their circumstances now are without our control; indeed, we cannot dictate whether or not we shall find them. For us, there is only the trying. The rest- that is not of our making."

Surety turns aside from the path. I allow myself to be taken where the hind takes me. Wherever she goes, it is where I was meant to be.

"As the poet says, we may not safeguard the beloved. You may hide them away in a chest with seven times seven locks, and bury the chest in the earth, and in the next moment dig it up, unlock each one with its key, and throw open the lid- they are gone! Rather, say to the beloved: where you have gone, let me follow. No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still we may say: where you have gone, let me follow. And the saying and the doing are ours, and not even the Night may take them from us."

Elanorin

2017-02-02, 02:43 PM

Jara fell quiet when the vision of the amaranth bog tower revealed itself and she dutifully hunched down behind some tangled undergrowth to conceal herself as she peered out over the scene in front of them.

"Why don't we just go around?" she hissed, worried to be heard even at this distance. As her friend disappeared in the long grass Jara breathed a worried sigh, shrunk a little further behind her chosen tangly thorny cover and stared out over the bog tower with a frown and while biting her lip.

[Rolling to Look Closely: 2+2+2=6; Tell me about the amaranthi, what are they doing? What will they do next?]

TheAmishPirate

2017-02-03, 01:13 PM

BEING A TEACHING UPON THE NATURE OF THE WORLD BY RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, TO HER FAIRY ALLY

"Where I come from," I say, thoughtfully, "it is difficult not to lose your way, from time to time; to understand that what one considered truthful about the world around them has ceased to be so. The self is the only true lodestone, and what one believes to be a road, broad enough to walk two abreast, may then be a wall, and then a hedge, and then a wilderness, and the traveler alone with only their love, their regard for their fellow traveler, serving as a ribbon-path to follow, and at times not even that may be trusted. All is impermanent. Today, I am; I breathe, I consider, I desire. Tomorrow it may be that I am not. All is burning. All I may do is act as I should, and trust that I shall continue to be the sort of person who will do such things tomorrow, that each repetition of virtuous action will be as the turning of a wheel upon the soft, dark soil of the jungle-road.

"In the same way, it may be that our companions are now not. May it not be so! But all we may control is our own selves. It may be that we shall be a guide, bringing them from what they do not know to what we do; it may be that we shall be help hoped-for in adversity, a sudden change, like a turning of the wind. Their circumstances now are without our control; indeed, we cannot dictate whether or not we shall find them. For us, there is only the trying. The rest- that is not of our making."

Surety turns aside from the path. I allow myself to be taken where the hind takes me. Wherever she goes, it is where I was meant to be.

"As the poet says, we may not safeguard the beloved. You may hide them away in a chest with seven times seven locks, and bury the chest in the earth, and in the next moment dig it up, unlock each one with its key, and throw open the lid- they are gone! Rather, say to the beloved: where you have gone, let me follow. No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still we may say: where you have gone, let me follow. And the saying and the doing are ours, and not even the Night may take them from us."

"...how are we supposed to tell them that if we don't know where they are?" Snowdrop pulled ahead. "I can't shout that loud. We have to follow them." Snowdrop fell back. "But they're not here, they're not there, they're not anywhere we know about. They've already been magic'd away!" Snowdrop's path started to corkscrew. "They're not here, and we didn't tell them we'd follow! They could never hear the saying, no matter our doing! Owlbert!"

Snowdrop suddenly landed on Surety's head, taking refuge in her fur. Moments later, Owlbert flew alongside them.

"Owlbert! Fly as high as you can, and find Jara and Maerla. There's so much we need to tell them!" She cried, before huddling back into her bed of fur.

The owl fixed Rahnya with a cold stare. And though no words were spoken, he made quite clear his intentions regarding her eyes, heart, liver, and other squishy bits should he return to find Snowdrop in any amount of distress. Without so much as a sound he rose out of sight, leaving the Princess alone with a shivering fairy.

Deadly

2017-02-05, 08:36 AM

Oh Spiral, there are so many names. Dance of Circles, the feral swordswoman who remembers the secrets of the Spiral Path, is the deadliest opponent in a fight. Beak of Red, the mad empress who still rules over the remnants of the nation of Iai, is the most terrible threat to any nation that defies her. Skull of Memories, the lost Archivist who used the collapse of civilization as an opportunity to engage in the darkest of sorcery, is the worst to be captured by. These are the names the Imperial Democracy works to extinguish before the Amaranth flame finally darkens.

But the one that haunts my nightmares? Winter of Romance. One of the vanishingly few intelligent Amaranth around my age and my rival in everything. And in everything she kicked my ass. When I look back on my childhood it's just an endless sequence of memories of losing games, competitions, tournaments or relationships to her. Anything I wanted she'd get there first. It's not that she's the most terrifying monster in the world, it's just that I have a conditioned, pavlovian instinct that going up against her means I am going to lose. She knows it, and she enjoys it.

Seeing her war banners doesn't even make me think that at least I held my mind together longer than she did. It just makes me think that I'm way further gone than I think I am - or that she has a head start on what's really important.

Winter of Romance.

The banners blew in the wind and smoke under a constant chant from every corner of the camp. It was a strange and disquieting chant (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTmi9cgpKQ) to be hearing here, so unlike any amaranthi thing you knew. More like something Princess Rahnya and her people might chant, to your ears at least. Who knows what Rahnya herself would have made of this, if she could hear it.

It never ceased. The chant. Whenever you moved out of range of one voice, another seemed to take its place somewhere else. It seemed a constant of the camp, as constant as the banners waving in the wind.

It grew as you neared the throne, the center of the chaos.

The throne was a bird's nest of a thousand broken bones, twisted wood, and shattered steel (http://marcsimonetti.deviantart.com/art/Iron-throne-587381091) bent and forced into a monument to chaos and dissolution.

Winter perched upon it, not like a king sitting upon a seat but like a bird scrambling about its nest. Her head was turned almost 180 degrees in order to face you, her eyes watching you from on high as piercing as ever.

There was another person, besides Winter and her guards. You almost didn't see them huddled up at the foot of the throne, a small, misshapen figure wrapped in clothes, face lowered so you couldn't see their eyes. But you could hear them humming the chant under their breath.

Winter regarded you with a sort of predatory amusement. "Where are your delightful friends?" No greeting, no preamble. It was almost like she wasn't even interested in you. "The fairy and the Princess."

Jara fell quiet when the vision of the amaranth bog tower revealed itself and she dutifully hunched down behind some tangled undergrowth to conceal herself as she peered out over the scene in front of them.

"Why don't we just go around?" she hissed, worried to be heard even at this distance. As her friend disappeared in the long grass Jara breathed a worried sigh, shrunk a little further behind her chosen tangly thorny cover and stared out over the bog tower with a frown and while biting her lip.

[Rolling to Look Closely: 2+2+2=6; Tell me about the amaranthi, what are they doing? What will they do next?]

"The only way around, if I'm not mistaken," whispered Oudal by your side and pointed, "goes right through the main camp of the bird people." Right enough, it seemed any other path to the tower went right through the main camp of the amaranthi. The bog, by virtue of its unpleasantness, was the least populated spot. It might be dangerous and full of poison, but you were much less likely to be caught sneaking through here than anywhere else.

The amaranthi aren't here for pleasure. Even though their minds are nearly gone they aren't normally any more fond of toxic bogs than you are. They are mining the swamp and spreading its poison. In fact, they appear to be eating the poison. Not enough to immediately kill them, though it might be killing them slowly. More likely it is for whatever high it gives them.

Even when not high on bog poison, feral amaranthi are not the most cerebral or talkative people, but you do manage to get some sense of their purpose by observing them for a while. Aside from mining the bog, that is. They are clearly riled up about someone they think is trying to steal the Gryphon's tapestries, and it seems they're upset about the string Snowdrop managed to snatch from one of the tapestries. They want it back.

There's some "discussion" among them about taking the tapestries somewhere safer, but it seems the amaranthi refuse to actually go near the Gryphon's tower ... for now. He is their god, after all, and it takes a great deal of convincing to get someone to stomp into the private domain of their own god. But you get the impression someone is trying to convince them to do just that, and they might eventually bend to it. But is it to save the tapestries ... or to steal them? What better way to steal something than getting the guards to hand it over to you for safekeeping.

Alas, it seems you stuck your nose too far out trying to glean a little more from them, and something saw you. You feel sharp claws close around your arms, and before anyone can react, you're hoisted high up into the sky above the trees and carried towards the main camp.

What do you do?

Let me tell you something. Maerla should be dismayed here. It's a giant poison tower filled with horribleness fit to bursting, and it's going to be a rough way through. Plus, it's her job to watch our for Jara, and goodness knows this Oudal fellow is probably going to stab them all in the back for sinister purposes the first chance he gets.

BUT...if you look at Maerla just now, she's got an ear to ear grin across her face. Because this. Oh man, this is gonna be fun! "Jara, stay here for a moment with Oudal and Sophie. Sophie, watch over them. Oudal, you also stay, I expect all of you to be here when I get back!"

With that she shrinks down to tiny size and starts sprinting around the edge of the trees unseen, sizing up the rickety tower, watching how the Amaranth move and trying to get a count of them. She looks to see if there's a reason they have to go through the tower instead of circling around it without being spotted too.

[look closely. 4+1. +1 stat for a 6. Just can't catch a break on this move. Ah well, what is going on here? what do my senses tell me?]

As far as you can tell, the only other way to the tower goes through the main camp of the amaranthi. The bog may be toxic, but it is much less likely for you to be seen sneaking through here than anywhere else.

But maybe it was good you came here for another reason, because something is clearly going on. The amaranthi are no more fond of toxic bogs than you are, and if they wanted to defend this path against sneaky intruders, they didn't actually have to build their look-out tower right in the middle of the bog. They could have built it on the edge, which would have been safer. You can't tell what they're doing, but whatever it is, they must think it's worth the cost of lives.

That, or their minds are more gone than feared.

Looking closer, you realize this place isn't just toxic. It's corrupted and sick, and the sickness is spreading. Not just to the forest either, but to the amaranthi themselves, the poison filling whatever is left of their minds. The servants of Darkness are here already. Caligo already has her claws sunk deep into this place, and the amaranthi are doing her bidding, unknowingly but with fervor. It won't be long before it's too late, and she takes what she came here for.

Oh also, Jara just got snatched up and is dangling in a pair of claws high above the trees. They're taking her towards the main camp.

What do you do?

BEING A CLARIFICATION OF THE INTENTIONS OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS SHE SEEKS OUT HER LOST COMRADES

I believe that the best course of action, and the one I intend to pursue, is to retrace our steps and see if Maerla and Jara have become ensnared in some mischief, or likewise detained. The twisting paths of the vine-roads are not easily walked, to be sure, but Maerla is a fine guide, and Jara is not the sort of lickwitted sprite who would hare off heedlessly after some mirage. No, I am concerned for them, and for their safety; in the same way, I am concerned for Wings of Fire, who walks bravely into the teeth of danger.

Do you agree, Snowdrop?

Snowdrop absolutely agreed. She was no longer dancing, but sprinting through the forest; skating and flying at such a speed that the two were indistinguishable. Her tiny form leaned near-vertical as she strove to keep pace with Surety and Rahnya.

After a time, Snowdrop flew closer to the Princess' ear. "It's...weird, losing somebody?" She struggled with her words. Some of the thought came as comment, some of it as question. "To not have them be where they ought to be?"

"...how are we supposed to tell them that if we don't know where they are?" Snowdrop pulled ahead. "I can't shout that loud. We have to follow them." Snowdrop fell back. "But they're not here, they're not there, they're not anywhere we know about. They've already been magic'd away!" Snowdrop's path started to corkscrew. "They're not here, and we didn't tell them we'd follow! They could never hear the saying, no matter our doing! Owlbert!"

Snowdrop suddenly landed on Surety's head, taking refuge in her fur. Moments later, Owlbert flew alongside them.

"Owlbert! Fly as high as you can, and find Jara and Maerla. There's so much we need to tell them!" She cried, before huddling back into her bed of fur.

The owl fixed Rahnya with a cold stare. And though no words were spoken, he made quite clear his intentions regarding her eyes, heart, liver, and other squishy bits should he return to find Snowdrop in any amount of distress. Without so much as a sound he rose out of sight, leaving the Princess alone with a shivering fairy.

Good news: Owlbert easily spots Jara.

Bad news: Owlbert easily spots Jara ... because she's currently dangling high above the forest as she's being carried towards the main camp.

What do you do?

Raz_Fox

2017-02-05, 11:53 AM

"...how are we supposed to tell them that if we don't know where they are?" Snowdrop pulled ahead. "I can't shout that loud. We have to follow them." Snowdrop fell back. "But they're not here, they're not there, they're not anywhere we know about. They've already been magic'd away!" Snowdrop's path started to corkscrew. "They're not here, and we didn't tell them we'd follow! They could never hear the saying, no matter our doing! Owlbert!"

Snowdrop suddenly landed on Surety's head, taking refuge in her fur. Moments later, Owlbert flew alongside them.

"Owlbert! Fly as high as you can, and find Jara and Maerla. There's so much we need to tell them!" She cried, before huddling back into her bed of fur.

The owl fixed Rahnya with a cold stare. And though no words were spoken, he made quite clear his intentions regarding her eyes, heart, liver, and other squishy bits should he return to find Snowdrop in any amount of distress. Without so much as a sound he rose out of sight, leaving the Princess alone with a shivering fairy.

BEING THE REMORSE OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AT CAUSING DISTRESS IN THE HEART OF A FAIRY

I retrace my steps in the discourse, feeling through them as a monk might when the strength of their eyes has failed, and all that remains is the well-worn groove that their daily devotion has impressed upon their memory. Snowdrop asked me if it was strange to miss someone- surely a rare occurrence for her and her people, who travel together in great bands from winter to winter, if all she has told me is true. And in response, I delivered a teaching upon the impermanence of all things that are not the self.

I may have made an error here, I realize, looking upon Snowdrop shivering between Surety's gilt antlers, her coat draped along the gleaming neck of my steed. She sought from me reassurance, as a child might in the dead of night when the hoopoe sings without his window, and my words were without reassurance for her. The color of pale roses rises in my cheeks, blossoms upon my throat.

Would that I had thrown myself from this high place, rather than bring fear to a heart where it is a foreign traveler, ill-intentioned and ill-aspected! Better still had my insight been directed towards the consolation her heart called out for, rather than outwards, seeking out traces of our friends- but what if I had missed our friends in contemplation of Snowdrop? I am caught between cliffside and hunter, and the words come slowly to my lips.

Around me blossoms: what use the teaching of the sage to the mourning? Rather sit with them through the night.

"...by following," I say, hesitantly, "we say it to them. By being ready to help them if they are in trouble. Just like Owlbert says that he loves you without ever needing to say it. Please, I- I did not mean to bring you further distress. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. I promise. No matter how much trouble we seem to be in, all shall be well by the end."

Arcifex steps forward, lays one fine-nailed hand on Surety's flank. "By and by, Miss Winter," he says in his most winning fashion, "I must thank you for teaching those Amaranth a better dance than the one they were showing us. You saved us from a burnt pride and worse scorching, you did." He looks at me, and smiles: he redirects, he brings the fairy's attention away from worry to the praise of her virtues. Very much like him; I am fortunate to be his companion.

Anarion

2017-02-05, 02:11 PM

Oh also, Jara just got snatched up and is dangling in a pair of claws high above the trees. They're taking her towards the main camp.

What do you do?

Out of curiosity, can I see what's attached to the claws? Not that it affects what I'm about to do in the slightest, but I'd still really like to know.

So, there's Jara up in the air. Can't leave that girl alone for even a moment, can I? And what's Oudal doing, just standing there, I suppose? Well, no time for secrecy now is there. I grow up. Large, and large, and larger, as big as I can get. Nearly to human size as I sprint back towards where Jara was as fast as my not so little legs can carry me. As I'm running, I'm rifling through my bags and pulling out...come on, where is it? ...Ah yes, there it is, a spidersilk rope and grapple from my burglar's gear. I launch it at the trees near where Jara is before I'm even there, and as soon as it catches, I pull it taunt and use the force to launch myself forward and upward, scrabbling up the tree as I wrap the rope around my waist. Then I jump, rope like a bungee cord, not even finishing the knot until I'm already airborne, as I grab for the claws of whatever it is holding onto Jara and hope that the sudden impact and additional weight will weigh it down and buy some time.

[Keep 'em busy. 6+5+2=13. I buy as much time as I need and whatever's got claws here has their attention all on me. I also get two sting like a bee questions. Those are 1. Whatever's behind the claws, I get them talking with all this chaos and I want to know what they want and how we could help them get it. 2. I'd like to steal something small and unnoticed from whatever's behind the claws in all this kerfluffle.

Also, I'm burning a charge from my burglar's gear to set that up.]

Elanorin

2017-02-05, 03:37 PM

"The only way around, if I'm not mistaken," whispered Oudal by your side and pointed, "goes right through the main camp of the bird people." Right enough, it seemed any other path to the tower went right through the main camp of the amaranthi. The bog, by virtue of its unpleasantness, was the least populated spot. It might be dangerous and full of poison, but you were much less likely to be caught sneaking through here than anywhere else.

The amaranthi aren't here for pleasure. Even though their minds are nearly gone they aren't normally any more fond of toxic bogs than you are. They are mining the swamp and spreading its poison. In fact, they appear to be eating the poison. Not enough to immediately kill them, though it might be killing them slowly. More likely it is for whatever high it gives them.

Even when not high on bog poison, feral amaranthi are not the most cerebral or talkative people, but you do manage to get some sense of their purpose by observing them for a while. Aside from mining the bog, that is. They are clearly riled up about someone they think is trying to steal the Gryphon's tapestries, and it seems they're upset about the string Snowdrop managed to snatch from one of the tapestries. They want it back.

There's some "discussion" among them about taking the tapestries somewhere safer, but it seems the amaranthi refuse to actually go near the Gryphon's tower ... for now. He is their god, after all, and it takes a great deal of convincing to get someone to stomp into the private domain of their own god. But you get the impression someone is trying to convince them to do just that, and they might eventually bend to it. But is it to save the tapestries ... or to steal them? What better way to steal something than getting the guards to hand it over to you for safekeeping.

Alas, it seems you stuck your nose too far out trying to glean a little more from them, and something saw you. You feel sharp claws close around your arms, and before anyone can react, you're hoisted high up into the sky above the trees and carried towards the main camp.

What do you do?

Jara was caught completely off guard when she was suddenly grabbed and yanked up high in to the air. To her mind she had been in complete and perfect cover, like a ninja, and the complete shock of being hurtled up in to the air caused her to let out a mighty yelp. Two heartbeats later and criminy that ground was disappearing fast!

"Uh, excuse me! I'm really not that great with heights!" Jara squeaked. "This isn't by any chance a really funny misunderstanding?" She wriggled a little against the grip, testing its hold, and looked up to get an idea of what it was that held her, secretly hoping it was a dragon because-

"Maerla!"

Thanqol

2017-02-05, 11:31 PM

The throne was a bird's nest of a thousand broken bones, twisted wood, and shattered steel (http://marcsimonetti.deviantart.com/art/Iron-throne-587381091) bent and forced into a monument to chaos and dissolution.

Winter perched upon it, not like a king sitting upon a seat but like a bird scrambling about its nest. Her head was turned almost 180 degrees in order to face you, her eyes watching you from on high as piercing as ever.

There was another person, besides Winter and her guards. You almost didn't see them huddled up at the foot of the throne, a small, misshapen figure wrapped in clothes, face lowered so you couldn't see their eyes. But you could hear them humming the chant under their breath.

Winter regarded you with a sort of predatory amusement. "Where are your delightful friends?" No greeting, no preamble. It was almost like she wasn't even interested in you. "The fairy and the Princess."

Okay Fire. You've spent the past three years rehearsing this conversation in your head. You have a literal archive of one liners ready for this situation. This is it. This is showtime. Time to say what you never could.

"Where are your friends?" said Wings of Fire.

I - did you - *long, drawn out sigh*

"I, I mean -" shut up brain you're distracting me. "Didn't you hang out with that summer fairy? And Eyes of Water? Did they ditch you?"

... not bad, if a bit high school-y. Maybe you're -

"So what, now you want to steal my friends again?"

*longer, more drawn out sigh*

TheAmishPirate

2017-02-07, 01:31 PM

BEING THE REMORSE OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AT CAUSING DISTRESS IN THE HEART OF A FAIRY

I retrace my steps in the discourse, feeling through them as a monk might when the strength of their eyes has failed, and all that remains is the well-worn groove that their daily devotion has impressed upon their memory. Snowdrop asked me if it was strange to miss someone- surely a rare occurrence for her and her people, who travel together in great bands from winter to winter, if all she has told me is true. And in response, I delivered a teaching upon the impermanence of all things that are not the self.

I may have made an error here, I realize, looking upon Snowdrop shivering between Surety's gilt antlers, her coat draped along the gleaming neck of my steed. She sought from me reassurance, as a child might in the dead of night when the hoopoe sings without his window, and my words were without reassurance for her. The color of pale roses rises in my cheeks, blossoms upon my throat.

Would that I had thrown myself from this high place, rather than bring fear to a heart where it is a foreign traveler, ill-intentioned and ill-aspected! Better still had my insight been directed towards the consolation her heart called out for, rather than outwards, seeking out traces of our friends- but what if I had missed our friends in contemplation of Snowdrop? I am caught between cliffside and hunter, and the words come slowly to my lips.

Around me blossoms: what use the teaching of the sage to the mourning? Rather sit with them through the night.

"...by following," I say, hesitantly, "we say it to them. By being ready to help them if they are in trouble. Just like Owlbert says that he loves you without ever needing to say it. Please, I- I did not mean to bring you further distress. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. I promise. No matter how much trouble we seem to be in, all shall be well by the end."

Snowdrop pulled her long coat snug around her, until all one could see was a light ball of fluff perched between Surety's horns. Snowflakes dropped from her face to mingle with the hind's brilliant fur. The wind ruffled her hair, but no other bit of her moved. "What might happen," she mused quietly, so quiet. Only Rahnya caught the words. "What might happen if they never see to hear it...?"

Arcifex steps forward, lays one fine-nailed hand on Surety's flank. "By and by, Miss Winter," he says in his most winning fashion, "I must thank you for teaching those Amaranth a better dance than the one they were showing us. You saved us from a burnt pride and worse scorching, you did." He looks at me, and smiles: he redirects, he brings the fairy's attention away from worry to the praise of her virtues. Very much like him; I am fortunate to be his companion.

Her head whipped about, as if noticing the fellow for the first time, and immediately all was bright sunshine and light hearts. "Oh, didn't you know? There's room for a dance in everyone's heart." She weaved easily around Surety's horns, beaming. "They just need someone to help them remember the steps. And were my ears being naughty, or did I hear you singing along?" She giggled, hiding her mouth behind a dainty hand.

Sad? Who here was sad? Why, these faces seemed quite glad! Who could possibly be worried with smiles like these?

Good news: Owlbert easily spots Jara.

Bad news: Owlbert easily spots Jara ... because she's currently dangling high above the forest as she's being carried towards the main camp.

What do you do?

At Owlbert's report, the time for chitter-chatter was over. Their friends had been found, and they needed their help. Snowdrop took to Owlbert's back, flying alongside the Princess with bow of frost at the ready.

Raz_Fox

2017-02-07, 11:28 PM

Her head whipped about, as if noticing the fellow for the first time, and immediately all was bright sunshine and light hearts. "Oh, didn't you know? There's room for a dance in everyone's heart." She weaved easily around Surety's horns, beaming. "They just need someone to help them remember the steps. And were my ears being naughty, or did I hear you singing along?" She giggled, hiding her mouth behind a dainty hand.

Sad? Who here was sad? Why, these faces seemed quite glad! Who could possibly be worried with smiles like these?

BEING THE RUMINATIONS OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, ON THE MERCURIAL NATURE OF THE FEY, AS A PRELUDE TO A DARING RESCUE OF AN ALLY FROM THE GRASP OF A WILD BEAST

That is the way of fairies, isn't it? Quick to turn their attention aside. Arcifex was quick to notice, and adept in his action, as may all possessors of silvered tongues be! He acted like a fellow conspirator on the subject, laughing with an airy wave of the hand. "Perhaps it was so, although I am sure that your ears aren't half so naughty as my high notes."

Was she happy, though? Or was she merely masking that concern for our friends beneath her laughter? No, that is hardly within her character- but perhaps she is fooling herself, and falling for her own mask. Would that I had the words to best ease her heart and let her understand- but with understanding comes the responsibility to bear that understanding, and is not her innocence worth protecting? Consider: that heedless of danger she flew among the Amaranth, and laughing in joy she sang for them. To the danger she was heedless, and out of violence she made peace: may she never lose that skill.

Still. Perhaps it is best that I keep an eye on our Snowdrop. May it be that my words are balm for her, and not harsh-edged swords laid upon her path.

At Owlbert's report, the time for chitter-chatter was over. Their friends had been found, and they needed their help. Snowdrop took to Owlbert's back, flying alongside the Princess with bow of frost at the ready.

Surety, when called to decisive action, is swifter by far than either Adelinde or Arcifex. Even as they sprint after us, Surety edges forward, takes the lead, and bounds easily from foothold to foothold. There- above us, I see Jara's struggling form, and Maerla, trailing a line. What good fortune! But still, as I bade Snowdrop, all we may do is follow wherever they go.

I follow, hoping to come to a place where I may catch Jara- or, even better, come level on a high vine with this avian menace.

Deadly

2017-02-09, 07:29 AM

Out of curiosity, can I see what's attached to the claws? Not that it affects what I'm about to do in the slightest, but I'd still really like to know.

Jara was caught completely off guard when she was suddenly grabbed and yanked up high in to the air. To her mind she had been in complete and perfect cover, like a ninja, and the complete shock of being hurtled up in to the air caused her to let out a mighty yelp. Two heartbeats later and criminy that ground was disappearing fast!

"Uh, excuse me! I'm really not that great with heights!" Jara squeaked. "This isn't by any chance a really funny misunderstanding?" She wriggled a little against the grip, testing its hold, and looked up to get an idea of what it was that held her, secretly hoping it was a dragon because-

"Maerla!"

Actually, Jara, why don't you tell us what it is? Is it in fact a dragon?

Thanks to Maerla distracting it, you have an advantage here.

So, there's Jara up in the air. Can't leave that girl alone for even a moment, can I? And what's Oudal doing, just standing there, I suppose? Well, no time for secrecy now is there. I grow up. Large, and large, and larger, as big as I can get. Nearly to human size as I sprint back towards where Jara was as fast as my not so little legs can carry me. As I'm running, I'm rifling through my bags and pulling out...come on, where is it? ...Ah yes, there it is, a spidersilk rope and grapple from my burglar's gear. I launch it at the trees near where Jara is before I'm even there, and as soon as it catches, I pull it taunt and use the force to launch myself forward and upward, scrabbling up the tree as I wrap the rope around my waist. Then I jump, rope like a bungee cord, not even finishing the knot until I'm already airborne, as I grab for the claws of whatever it is holding onto Jara and hope that the sudden impact and additional weight will weigh it down and buy some time.

[Keep 'em busy. 6+5+2=13. I buy as much time as I need and whatever's got claws here has their attention all on me. I also get two sting like a bee questions. Those are 1. Whatever's behind the claws, I get them talking with all this chaos and I want to know what they want and how we could help them get it. 2. I'd like to steal something small and unnoticed from whatever's behind the claws in all this kerfluffle.

Also, I'm burning a charge from my burglar's gear to set that up.]

You keep it busy, hanging there in the air with Jara but not going anywhere as you keep it distracted. I shall wait to hear what Jara has to say before I answer your questions.

Oudal is taking the distraction as a chance to slip through the tower to the other side of the bog. Opportunist, that one.

Surety, when called to decisive action, is swifter by far than either Adelinde or Arcifex. Even as they sprint after us, Surety edges forward, takes the lead, and bounds easily from foothold to foothold. There- above us, I see Jara's struggling form, and Maerla, trailing a line. What good fortune! But still, as I bade Snowdrop, all we may do is follow wherever they go.

I follow, hoping to come to a place where I may catch Jara- or, even better, come level on a high vine with this avian menace.

You get high up above most of the trees and rocks. Surety is swift and sure of foot, and you should be able to catch Jara safely if she falls, Maerla too. Maerla is dragging it down closer to the ground; you could take a leap and grab on to it as well, but shooting at it is risky while they're still hanging on to it.

Okay Fire. You've spent the past three years rehearsing this conversation in your head. You have a literal archive of one liners ready for this situation. This is it. This is showtime. Time to say what you never could.

"Where are your friends?" said Wings of Fire.

I - did you - *long, drawn out sigh*

"I, I mean -" shut up brain you're distracting me. "Didn't you hang out with that summer fairy? And Eyes of Water? Did they ditch you?"

... not bad, if a bit high school-y. Maybe you're -

"So what, now you want to steal my friends again?"

*longer, more drawn out sigh*

"I did. They didn't," Winter said and leaned closer to peer at you.

"I know where my friends are, but yours seem to have left you all alone here. Did they try to stop you, insist on coming with you? Or did they see a chance to get rid of you? How can I steal them from you if they already left?"

Thanqol

2017-02-09, 04:47 PM

"I did. They didn't," Winter said and leaned closer to peer at you.

"I know where my friends are, but yours seem to have left you all alone here. Did they try to stop you, insist on coming with you? Or did they see a chance to get rid of you? How can I steal them from you if they already left?"

Oh Spiral, here we go. Fire, she's trying to manipulate you.

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" said Wings of Fire to the lady on the throne, scales flushing a deeper red.

And succeeding. Okay, this is getting toxic fast. Fire, listen to me: We're getting crushed here and there's no way around that. You're not going to win on her terms. She's stronger, faster and more cunning than you - but there's one thing she can't do. She can't show weakness. To her showing weakness is the same as being weak. So give her what she wants, Fire, because otherwise she's going to take it - and this way it can be on your terms.

Wings of Fire slumped. She lost her threatening posture and let her hands unclench from fists. "Yeah. They're gone," she said, voice dropping. "They just waved me off. I don't even know what I'm meant to be doing here. It's not like I could take you even if you were by yourself, and I couldn't try to mess up your plans because don't even understand what's happening here. I just can't... figure out what to do next."

Monologue, bitch. Rub it in. Give some orders. I know you want to.

[Speak Softly: 12
- What should I be wary of when dealing with them?
- What were they doing and what are they going to do next?
- What do they want and how could we help them get it?]

Elanorin

2017-02-12, 05:04 PM

Actually, Jara, why don't you tell us what it is? Is it in fact a dragon?

Thanks to Maerla distracting it, you have an advantage here.

Why, yes, it is a dragon! A big gleaming red dragon with fierce talons and even fiercer fangs. Its eyes are fiery orange and it has horns twisted backwards with serrated edges. Its roar can be heard already deep in its belly before it breathes it out loud in to the air.

"Mister Dragon?" Jara said, dangling in Dragon claws, not entirely sure if she was terrified or incredibly excited. "If-if I- o-or we- have done something to upset you, then I'm sorry. We're sorry. Really. Really, really sorry. We lost our friends and we were just trying to find them and this man with really big bread. Do you think you could please set us down? I-I'm really not good with heights and- If you do, I promise to try to help you and- and to try my best! You should always try your best. D-do you think you could perhaps try your best... to... put us down?"

[Rolling to Finish the Dragon Off with Wisdom: 3+1+2=6]

Deadly

2017-02-13, 02:58 PM

Why, yes, it is a dragon! A big gleaming red dragon with fierce talons and even fiercer fangs. Its eyes are fiery orange and it has horns twisted backwards with serrated edges. Its roar can be heard already deep in its belly before it breathes it out loud in to the air.

Out of curiosity, can I see what's attached to the claws? Not that it affects what I'm about to do in the slightest, but I'd still really like to know.

[...]

[Keep 'em busy. 6+5+2=13. I buy as much time as I need and whatever's got claws here has their attention all on me. I also get two sting like a bee questions. Those are 1. Whatever's behind the claws, I get them talking with all this chaos and I want to know what they want and how we could help them get it. 2. I'd like to steal something small and unnoticed from whatever's behind the claws in all this kerfluffle.

Also, I'm burning a charge from my burglar's gear to set that up.]

A dragon it is!

Deadly Beast: The dragon is a weapon with Melee, Area, Piercing, and Armor (3 Uses). Killing it is no easy task, and it is violent and deadly.

Dragonfire: Anyone hit by the dragon’s deadly fire is immediately Taken Out if they are not immune to fire. If they are immune to fire, they take 2 damage instead. The dragon always inhales sharply before shooting fire, giving everyone in the way a chance to Get Away from or Overcome the attack.

Flight: The dragon cannot be hit by Melee attacks except from people climbing it. It will regularly dive bomb at the players if they keep its attention, dealing damage to everyone it passes by or lands on, but also giving them a chance to jump on.

"What is this?" the wyrm roars and hovers in the air so it can turn its long neck around to look at you dangling. "Meatlings throw themselves at the great and all-consuming Vriexza?" It grunts and huffs a puff of smoke before diving. "Though you are terribly small. I would have to eat a thousand of your kind and more to grow a single scale. Tell me, meatling, where I can find bigger meat, that I may eat and grow until I am big enough to take back my land from the Shadow Wing. Tell me, and I may spare your minuscule life."

It's talking about Caligo, of course, but it clearly thinks she's just a bigger dragon who's stolen its hunting grounds from it. The solution then is simple, if you think like a dragon: it must eat and grow until it is even bigger than the challenger. It's unlikely to be the only displaced dragon. You should expect to see more coming south as they are displaced by this "Shadow Wing".

While it's distracted, you manage to pilfer what looks like a jewel-encrusted scroll case tied to its leg.

Oh Spiral, here we go. Fire, she's trying to manipulate you.

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" said Wings of Fire to the lady on the throne, scales flushing a deeper red.

And succeeding. Okay, this is getting toxic fast. Fire, listen to me: We're getting crushed here and there's no way around that. You're not going to win on her terms. She's stronger, faster and more cunning than you - but there's one thing she can't do. She can't show weakness. To her showing weakness is the same as being weak. So give her what she wants, Fire, because otherwise she's going to take it - and this way it can be on your terms.

Wings of Fire slumped. She lost her threatening posture and let her hands unclench from fists. "Yeah. They're gone," she said, voice dropping. "They just waved me off. I don't even know what I'm meant to be doing here. It's not like I could take you even if you were by yourself, and I couldn't try to mess up your plans because don't even understand what's happening here. I just can't... figure out what to do next."

Monologue, bitch. Rub it in. Give some orders. I know you want to.

[Speak Softly: 12
- What should I be wary of when dealing with them?
- What were they doing and what are they going to do next?
- What do they want and how could we help them get it?]

Winter bristled at being handed such an easy victory, her disappointment plain as day. If you weren't going to put up a fight and make a show of being crushed, then she would have to make something of it herself.

"Pathetic. That anyone would look at you and see our people's savior, and they have the gall to say that *I* have lost my mind. It cannot be lost if you know where it is." She jumped off the throne to gloat down at you on the ground. "You heard me right. I know where our minds go, and I know how to find them. What have you been doing, besides grovel in the dirt? Oh yes, I've heard. They say you're chasing fables and fairy tales now. Meanwhile I'm here, looking to restore our people!

"I have seen the path before us! Hidden from us, fearful fables spun to keep of from looking! But the song has opened our eyes. We are no longer blind." She must be talking about the incessant chant. It's as if the sound has gotten into their heads and filled the emptiness with ... something, an obsession. But even so, could it be right?

The huddled figure behind her seems to have some leading role in this strange chant. If there's anything to be wary of here, aside from the gang of savage and violent bird people themselves, it's that one.

"The Gryphon shall provide us the map we need, and we shall destroy all who guard the gates and march into the Night after what has been stolen from us." She spun back at you like a hawk on a mouse. "But thieves would steal it from us! They would take the holy gift of our God, the map to our salvation!"

There were some shouts and Winter turned and glanced up. In the sky, at the far end of the camp, the shape of a dragon was outlined against the sky, two smaller figures dangling in its claws. Winter clenched her fists. "Thieves and dragons. All would take from us what we deserve! We must crush all who would hold us back."

So here's what it looks like. The Gryphon is creating or perhaps restoring the pieces of a great map. Winter and her gang of ferals believe that it is a map to recovering the lost minds of your people from the great night beyond, but there's little doubt Caligo has an interest in the map as well and her servants are likely close by. If that's the case, the map - whatever else it is - probably shows where one or more titans are hidden. Caligo wants the map ... or for these savages to use it to find and corrupt the titans for her, in their quest to march into nowhen after their lost minds. Caligo is well known for tricking her enemies into doing things for her without realizing who they're really benefiting.

Anarion

2017-02-13, 04:35 PM

Thanqol

2017-02-14, 02:52 AM

Winter bristled at being handed such an easy victory, her disappointment plain as day. If you weren't going to put up a fight and make a show of being crushed, then she would have to make something of it herself.

"Pathetic. That anyone would look at you and see our people's savior, and they have the gall to say that *I* have lost my mind. It cannot be lost if you know where it is." She jumped off the throne to gloat down at you on the ground. "You heard me right. I know where our minds go, and I know how to find them. What have you been doing, besides grovel in the dirt? Oh yes, I've heard. They say you're chasing fables and fairy tales now. Meanwhile I'm here, looking to restore our people!

"I have seen the path before us! Hidden from us, fearful fables spun to keep of from looking! But the song has opened our eyes. We are no longer blind." She must be talking about the incessant chant. It's as if the sound has gotten into their heads and filled the emptiness with ... something, an obsession. But even so, could it be right?

The huddled figure behind her seems to have some leading role in this strange chant. If there's anything to be wary of here, aside from the gang of savage and violent bird people themselves, it's that one.

"The Gryphon shall provide us the map we need, and we shall destroy all who guard the gates and march into the Night after what has been stolen from us." She spun back at you like a hawk on a mouse. "But thieves would steal it from us! They would take the holy gift of our God, the map to our salvation!"

There were some shouts and Winter turned and glanced up. In the sky, at the far end of the camp, the shape of a dragon was outlined against the sky, two smaller figures dangling in its claws. Winter clenched her fists. "Thieves and dragons. All would take from us what we deserve! We must crush all who would hold us back."

So here's what it looks like. The Gryphon is creating or perhaps restoring the pieces of a great map. Winter and her gang of ferals believe that it is a map to recovering the lost minds of your people from the great night beyond, but there's little doubt Caligo has an interest in the map as well and her servants are likely close by. If that's the case, the map - whatever else it is - probably shows where one or more titans are hidden. Caligo wants the map ... or for these savages to use it to find and corrupt the titans for her, in their quest to march into nowhen after their lost minds. Caligo is well known for tricking her enemies into doing things for her without realizing who they're really benefiting.

See what a little patience gets you?

Don't rub it in, I'm already being gloated at. Wings of Fire found this process physically uncomfortable, almost painful. Once, a long time in the past, the Amaranth didn't feel the need to prove themselves to anyone - their minds controlled their bodies so perfectly that they could overcome even their most basic of instincts. There were legendary aesthetics who had such mastery they could stop and start their own hearts, standing in perfect suspension between beats. Wings of Fire tried to concentrate on that thought to distract her from the fact she could barely manage to not put her fist in Winter's face. And then she'd take over here and go get everyone's brains back!

No - no urghhhh. You were doing so well.

"Explain," muttered Wings of Fire out loud.

She doesn't really know where our peoples' minds are. She is obviously being tricked by that musician.

"Oooh," she said softly.

Wait, hold up, is that a f*cking dragon? Why is there a - nevermind. Focus, Fire!

"I am focused," said Wings of Fire, who was already in motion. "Stop the musician. Save the day."

Everyone was distracted and Winter didn't see her as a threat. And she wasn't a threat - to her. But to this musician she was an existential threat. She was an Amaranth artificer and she could tear down anything.

She had produced a small dangerous-looking puzzle box, glowing red and shaking wildly with barely contained energy - just a trivial weapon she'd made out of some spare wood and solar energy. If she released it right now she'd seriously injure everyone in this room and she wouldn't do that. But she could adjust it. Face it inwards. Transform that wood into glass. Make all that energy sharper.

Deafen everyone.

[Dangerous weapons cause problems 'when they are used without careful preparation' so I'm looking to put in that careful preparation so that I can release a massive burst of sound that'll stop anyone from being able to hear the creepy song. If there's any sort of roll involved in that let me know - Overcome is the most likely]

Elanorin

2017-02-16, 07:23 PM

Even dragons have hearts, somewhere deep inside their scaly chests. Even big red fire breathing ones like this. It seems, somehow, we have managed to speak to Vriexza's. Not only is it suddenly compelling her to set us gently down on the ground (treating Jara and Maerla to a joyride on her back on the way down rather than letting them dangle from her claws any longer), but even offer a polite apology for causing the scene, before settling down to discuss with us how we can all help each other. She'd know our genuine offers of help for what they are and even become a little taken with us little fellow Shadow Wing hunters.

Deadly

2017-02-17, 03:37 PM

Maerla quietly tucks the case into her satchels, and starts speaking along with Jara. She shrinks herself too, to look even less worthwhile to eat. "Yes, yes, just like Jara says, oh great and magnificient Vriexza. Truth be told, this 'Shadow Wing' you're talking about, we're looking to stop it too. And, why, wouldn't'cha know it, there's a whole castle here, and if we can manage to free it and find the Greatfather, I'd bet he could make all the food in the world for you until you got large enough to take on the Shadow Wing and get your land back. Yep, I'm certain that we're all on the same side here, and we would be eternally grateful if you'd just be kind enough to put us down," the now mouse-sized Maerla squeaks.

[Rolling to add hope: 6. Jara's new result is an 11!]

Even dragons have hearts, somewhere deep inside their scaly chests. Even big red fire breathing ones like this. It seems, somehow, we have managed to speak to Vriexza's. Not only is it suddenly compelling her to set us gently down on the ground (treating Jara and Maerla to a joyride on her back on the way down rather than letting them dangle from her claws any longer), but even offer a polite apology for causing the scene, before settling down to discuss with us how we can all help each other. She'd know our genuine offers of help for what they are and even become a little taken with us little fellow Shadow Wing hunters.

The dragon's eyes grow bigger as it watches Maerla shrink, and suddenly it's forgotten everything else both of you just said (well, mostly) because this ... this. is. awesome! "You can shrink yourself? Then ... You can grow bigger too, yes? You must teach me how!" It says, suddenly excited. It carefully sets you both up on its back and descends towards the ground. "Please. I am very sorry for nearly eating both of you. But can you imagine the surprise on Shadow Wing's face when I suddenly grow twice as big? No, ten times as big! I bet she won't see that coming, hah! She'll be all gloating about how little I am, and then, bam! Right in her face!"

See what a little patience gets you?

Don't rub it in, I'm already being gloated at. Wings of Fire found this process physically uncomfortable, almost painful. Once, a long time in the past, the Amaranth didn't feel the need to prove themselves to anyone - their minds controlled their bodies so perfectly that they could overcome even their most basic of instincts. There were legendary aesthetics who had such mastery they could stop and start their own hearts, standing in perfect suspension between beats. Wings of Fire tried to concentrate on that thought to distract her from the fact she could barely manage to not put her fist in Winter's face. And then she'd take over here and go get everyone's brains back!

No - no urghhhh. You were doing so well.

"Explain," muttered Wings of Fire out loud.

She doesn't really know where our peoples' minds are. She is obviously being tricked by that musician.

"Oooh," she said softly.

Wait, hold up, is that a f*cking dragon? Why is there a - nevermind. Focus, Fire!

"I am focused," said Wings of Fire, who was already in motion. "Stop the musician. Save the day."

Everyone was distracted and Winter didn't see her as a threat. And she wasn't a threat - to her. But to this musician she was an existential threat. She was an Amaranth artificer and she could tear down anything.

She had produced a small dangerous-looking puzzle box, glowing red and shaking wildly with barely contained energy - just a trivial weapon she'd made out of some spare wood and solar energy. If she released it right now she'd seriously injure everyone in this room and she wouldn't do that. But she could adjust it. Face it inwards. Transform that wood into glass. Make all that energy sharper.

Deafen everyone.

[Dangerous weapons cause problems 'when they are used without careful preparation' so I'm looking to put in that careful preparation so that I can release a massive burst of sound that'll stop anyone from being able to hear the creepy song. If there's any sort of roll involved in that let me know - Overcome is the most likely]

Sounds like you're keeping them busy to buy some time for that careful preparation you need, actually. If you succeed in buying yourself enough time, you can then finish them off by overpowering them with deafening sound.

Anarion

2017-02-17, 04:59 PM

The dragon's eyes grow bigger as it watches Maerla shrink, and suddenly it's forgotten everything else both of you just said (well, mostly) because this ... this. is. awesome! "You can shrink yourself? Then ... You can grow bigger too, yes? You must teach me how!" It says, suddenly excited. It carefully sets you both up on its back and descends towards the ground. "Please. I am very sorry for nearly eating both of you. But can you imagine the surprise on Shadow Wing's face when I suddenly grow twice as big? No, ten times as big! I bet she won't see that coming, hah! She'll be all gloating about how little I am, and then, bam! Right in her face!"

Maerla smiles as the dragon sets them on its back and they get a gorgeous ride back to the ground. "Well, huh, you know, great Vriexza, you're the first one to ever ask. It's something that all my people can do to some extent, so it's got to be some kind of racial magic. It's not the same for everyone though. I can get about as big as a short human, or as small as a toadstool, but no more or less. I might be able to train to improve it with practice though. We'll just have to figure it out together!"

Elanorin

2017-02-19, 02:48 PM

Maerla smiles as the dragon sets them on its back and they get a gorgeous ride back to the ground. "Well, huh, you know, great Vriexza, you're the first one to ever ask. It's something that all my people can do to some extent, so it's got to be some kind of racial magic. It's not the same for everyone though. I can get about as big as a short human, or as small as a toadstool, but no more or less. I might be able to train to improve it with practice though. We'll just have to figure it out together!"

The wind in Jara's face as they ride the flying dragon causes her eyes to water and as they return to the ground her cheeks are wet, her hair windswept and her knees a mite wobbly, but Jara is beaming.

"This is great! All we need is a someone really good at magic and they can copy Maerla's ability to you and bop! You can grow big and huge and scary or shrink to itty bitty dragon at will." Jara said, mimicking the effects as best she could. "So, do you think you can help us find our friends and the really big man?" she smiled hopefully.

Raz_Fox

2017-02-19, 09:57 PM

BEING THE GRAND RETURN OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, TO THE SIDE OF HER COMPANIONS

Click.

The hooves of Surety, shining in the low light, strike the ground with preternatural grace. I am on my feet by her side, by the side of my companions, in a moment; Needle gleams in my hand, and I take in the scene before me: the dragon, grounded, my friends- speaking to her as an equal, not with fear or trembling in their faces. No foe this! Needle slides back into its scabbard, and I bow.

"Well met, most honorable dragon, and well found, Jara, and quite a nimble roping, Maerla! You gave us quite a frightful worry: are you quite all right? What happened that caused us to become separated?"

TheAmishPirate

2017-02-20, 01:24 PM

And as Surety came to a stop, a bright blue comet came racing from the hind and attached itself to Maerla in as big an embrace as little Snowdrop could manage. "Maerla, where you have gone, let me follow." She cried aloud. "No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still I say: Where you have gone, let me follow."

She smiled at her, bright as icicles on a clear Winter's morning, then fluttered over to perch on Jara's finger.

"Jara, where you have gone, let me follow. No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still I say: Where you have gone, let me follow."

And then again, petting dear Sophie's fuzzy head.

"Sophie, where you have gone, let me follow. No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still I say: Where you have gone, let me follow."

Once she had exhausted her supply of words, she breathed a happy sigh. The Princess had been right; all was well by the end. And the end had brought them to a rather interesting fellow indeed. Snowdrop gave the dragon a most elegant twirl-and-curtsy. "I don't believe we've been introduced; my name is Snowdrop, of the Winter Fairies. It's so wonderful to meet you!"

Anarion

2017-02-20, 03:26 PM

"Well met, most honorable dragon, and well found, Jara, and quite a nimble roping, Maerla! You gave us quite a frightful worry: are you quite all right? What happened that caused us to become separated?"

Maerla, still the size of a mouse, politely bows to Vriexza and then slides off her back like she's skiing down a mountain, landing like an expert. She smiles in greeting to Rhanya and begins to answer when-

And as Surety came to a stop, a bright blue comet came racing from the hind and attached itself to Maerla in as big an embrace as little Snowdrop could manage. "Maerla, where you have gone, let me follow." She cried aloud. "No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still I say: Where you have gone, let me follow."

She smiled at her, bright as icicles on a clear Winter's morning, then fluttered over to perch on Jara's finger.

A faerie quite as large as she is bowls right into her like a shot. The two go rolling in a tumble as Snowdrop recites some lines and Maerla stops giggling uncontrollably for the span of 30 seconds, by which time Snowdrop has already moved on to Jara to do the same. Wiping a tear and growing back to her normal size of a small child, Maerla tries to answer.

"I'm glad to see you too, Snowdrop, and Rhanya. Allow me to formally introduce you to the magnificent Vriexza. Vriexza, though very mighty indeed, is engaged in a great battle against the Night Hunter, the same fiend that we pursue by another name. That fiend's influence is also here." Maerla makes an expansive gesture towards the bog edifice, which one assumes is in the busy process of cowering from a dragon at just this moment.

Maerla edges closer to Rhanya and speaks in quiet words for only her ears. "We were separated by illusion, but I don't know the source. Watch for another of my folk named Oudal who should not have been here. We'll discuss this more later.

Deadly

2017-02-22, 01:30 PM

Everyone was distracted and Winter didn't see her as a threat. And she wasn't a threat - to her. But to this musician she was an existential threat. She was an Amaranth artificer and she could tear down anything.

She had produced a small dangerous-looking puzzle box, glowing red and shaking wildly with barely contained energy - just a trivial weapon she'd made out of some spare wood and solar energy. If she released it right now she'd seriously injure everyone in this room and she wouldn't do that. But she could adjust it. Face it inwards. Transform that wood into glass. Make all that energy sharper.

Deafen everyone.

[Dangerous weapons cause problems 'when they are used without careful preparation' so I'm looking to put in that careful preparation so that I can release a massive burst of sound that'll stop anyone from being able to hear the creepy song. If there's any sort of roll involved in that let me know - Overcome is the most likely]

This one!

Which means if I'm rolling to Keep Them Busy, I roll with courage at -1 which means my roll is a 6 and a failure. Your move! :smallsmile:

You try your very best to not distract Winter and her gang from their distraction by the dragon so that you can sneakily make your deafening device. You try so very hard that you even distract yourself, when maybe you should have been paying a little attention to your two traveling companions, Claws of Disaster and Feathers of Administration.

One of them at least is doing something incredibly inadvisable - my bet is on Disaster, but you tell me - and the other is only making it worse with the very best of intentions. Tell me what's going on exactly.

Now, you can try to stop them, but that means abandoning your work stabilizing and containing the explosive device. Or you can ignore them and finish your job, hope for the best. What do you do?

Maerla smiles as the dragon sets them on its back and they get a gorgeous ride back to the ground. "Well, huh, you know, great Vriexza, you're the first one to ever ask. It's something that all my people can do to some extent, so it's got to be some kind of racial magic. It's not the same for everyone though. I can get about as big as a short human, or as small as a toadstool, but no more or less. I might be able to train to improve it with practice though. We'll just have to figure it out together!"

"What's your normal size?" Vriexza said, letting one calculating eye take in your tiny form from top to toe.

The wind in Jara's face as they ride the flying dragon causes her eyes to water and as they return to the ground her cheeks are wet, her hair windswept and her knees a mite wobbly, but Jara is beaming.

"This is great! All we need is a someone really good at magic and they can copy Maerla's ability to you and bop! You can grow big and huge and scary or shrink to itty bitty dragon at will." Jara said, mimicking the effects as best she could. "So, do you think you can help us find our friends and the really big man?" she smiled hopefully.

"If this man is so big, how can he be so hard to find?" the dragon mused. "Big things can be seen from miles away, especially from the air. Since I do not recall seeing any big man in my flight, he is either not that big or he's not here."

BEING THE GRAND RETURN OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, TO THE SIDE OF HER COMPANIONS

Click.

The hooves of Surety, shining in the low light, strike the ground with preternatural grace. I am on my feet by her side, by the side of my companions, in a moment; Needle gleams in my hand, and I take in the scene before me: the dragon, grounded, my friends- speaking to her as an equal, not with fear or trembling in their faces. No foe this! Needle slides back into its scabbard, and I bow.

"Well met, most honorable dragon, and well found, Jara, and quite a nimble roping, Maerla! You gave us quite a frightful worry: are you quite all right? What happened that caused us to become separated?"

Once she had exhausted her supply of words, she breathed a happy sigh. The Princess had been right; all was well by the end. And the end had brought them to a rather interesting fellow indeed. Snowdrop gave the dragon a most elegant twirl-and-curtsy. "I don't believe we've been introduced; my name is Snowdrop, of the Winter Fairies. It's so wonderful to meet you!"

"I'm glad to see you too, Snowdrop, and Rhanya. Allow me to formally introduce you to the magnificent Vriexza. Vriexza, though very mighty indeed, is engaged in a great battle against the Night Hunter, the same fiend that we pursue by another name. That fiend's influence is also here." Maerla makes an expansive gesture towards the bog edifice, which one assumes is in the busy process of cowering from a dragon at just this moment.

The dragon bows its huge head slightly to Rahnya and extends the very tip of one very sharp claw for the fairy to shake. "A curious gathering," it said as it studied each of you. "Most improbable. If I am not mistaken, you are all of different kinds."

Alas, the bog may no longer be such a concern, but a flying dragon - like a very big man - can be seen, and has been seen, from miles away. From the sounds and flashes of light coming from the direction of the amaranthi main camp, it seems they're gearing up for a great dragon hunt. Could be trouble soon.

Raz_Fox

2017-02-22, 03:58 PM

BEING THE WISDOM OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS REGARDS THE COMING COURSE OF ACTION

Around me blooms: as the good smith intermingles metals, so too the righteous monarch intermingles his court.

"The threat we seek to disarm, lest her reach encompass the world while from the horizon to the deeps, is universal in nature, and as such, all are welcome to aid in the endeavor." I mean what I say. Should this dragon wish to accompany us, I would respect her as an equal and a boon companion. "Please, forgive me for failing to introduce myself upon our first meeting; my concern for our fellow travelers and sisters-in-arms is such that I was quite overcome. I am Rahnya, Princess of the City Unnameable."

"Walker of the Way of Candles," Arcifex chimes in with incense on his breath.

"Defiant against the Ban of the Stars," Adeline continues, hands folded before her, eyeing the dragon, considering its strength and likelihood of being a threat to my person.

"I have come to cleanse the hearts of mortalkind of the darkness that shrouds them, as the stormcloud of the night blots out the watchful face of the moon."

"And our immediate course, your highness?"

"Thank you, Seneschal, for your timely reminder. Our current course makes for the castle that stands above the plain, there to seek out our quarry, the Gryphon. Once we have run him to ground, we would speak with him concerning the maps which are his tapestries. With this in mind, our traveling company now being reunited, save for the Amaranth, who have gone into the throat of the beast in order to pacify the essential natures of their kindred who guard the castle, which overflow with a passion that divests them of their senses, we should make haste to the castle, that we might not spend the opportunity we have been given carelessly and unwisely- barring, of course, signal from our companions that they are in need of our aid."

"Which they well might," Adelinde concludes. "Dangerous folk, and almost lost."

Thanqol

2017-02-22, 06:24 PM

You try your very best to not distract Winter and her gang from their distraction by the dragon so that you can sneakily make your deafening device. You try so very hard that you even distract yourself, when maybe you should have been paying a little attention to your two traveling companions, Claws of Disaster and Feathers of Administration.

One of them at least is doing something incredibly inadvisable - my bet is on Disaster, but you tell me - and the other is only making it worse with the very best of intentions. Tell me what's going on exactly.

Now, you can try to stop them, but that means abandoning your work stabilizing and containing the explosive device. Or you can ignore them and finish your job, hope for the best. What do you do?

"The gryphon is a false prophet!" declared Feathers of Administration loudly from the top of his soapbox. "It is a creature of meat and bone, no different from any of us! Have you forgotten your heritage? Once we had Gods so powerful and dangerous that we could not even speak their names to the uninitiated!"

"Yeah! Gods like dragons!" said Claws of Disaster enthusiastically.

"What? No!" said Administration, "dragons are just overgrown reptiles, I'm talking about -"

"Dragons!" said Claws, like most of the Amaranth following the trail of the beast as it flew. "It's even bigger than a gryphon and, therefore, more better."

"Worship of temporal power is limiting the soul's infinite potential by imposing finite mastery on it -" Administration was saying but now nobody was listening to him. They were all listening to Claws of Disaster's supreme wisdom.

"And," said Claws as though this was a great revelation he had just come to, "I am bigger than all of you, so therefore I am more better."

There was a certain amount of muttering at this but nobody could really think of a way around Disaster's ironclad logic. He was, in fact, the biggest. Maybe the biggest ever! So maybe it wasn't the dragon that needed to be smashed, maybe it was the gryphon!

*

So just keep focusing on that, Fire. Don't pay attention to anything else. You're doing great work.

Thanks, brain!

You're welcome. Don't worry about anything else. Things are fine out here. Fine and A-OK!

Okay, brain, I got it. You're pushing this line really hard, is there something wrong?

Um.

Brain. Tell me.

Claws of Disaster may be starting a dragon-based religious schism and be setting up for an accompanying alpha strike on the gryphon tower.

Which is bad because...

The gryphon tower has a lot of flammable tapestries that are apparently important interdimensional maps or something.

Okay. That is bad.

I kind of think you should focus on the fact that you're holding a live explosive right now though.

That is also bad.

But if you detonate the device then you won't be able to talk these people out of anything because they'll all be deafened... this is a quandary! Disrupting one power structure will allow the other to expand to fill the void. Perhaps we should -

Wings of Fire ignored her brain, covered her ears and set off the device. Step one in the plan was to punch the little singer guy and put him in a sack for later interrogation. Step two of the plan was to stop Disaster from causing a disaster. Step three of the plan was hope really hard that Winter didn't come after her at any point. Perhaps it was less of a plan and more of a wishlist, really, but plans were overrated.

Anarion

2017-02-23, 12:07 PM

"What's your normal size?" Vriexza said, letting one calculating eye take in your tiny form from top to toe.

Maerla answers this question by turning back to the dragon, growing up to her normal size of a few feet tall, similar to a small child, and giving a theatrical bow.

"If this man is so big, how can he be so hard to find?" the dragon mused. "Big things can be seen from miles away, especially from the air. Since I do not recall seeing any big man in my flight, he is either not that big or he's not here."

Since she's still facing Vriexza next, she says: "we're not sure. He might be inside the castle, could be asleep, or asleep elsewhere and blending into the forest, or gosh, maybe he's absent for some reason. It has been long years since my people made regular homes of this place.

BEING THE WISDOM OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS REGARDS THE COMING COURSE OF ACTION

Around me blooms: as the good smith intermingles metals, so too the righteous monarch intermingles his court.

"The threat we seek to disarm, lest her reach encompass the world while from the horizon to the deeps, is universal in nature, and as such, all are welcome to aid in the endeavor." I mean what I say. Should this dragon wish to accompany us, I would respect her as an equal and a boon companion. "Please, forgive me for failing to introduce myself upon our first meeting; my concern for our fellow travelers and sisters-in-arms is such that I was quite overcome. I am Rahnya, Princess of the City Unnameable."

"Walker of the Way of Candles," Arcifex chimes in with incense on his breath.

"Defiant against the Ban of the Stars," Adeline continues, hands folded before her, eyeing the dragon, considering its strength and likelihood of being a threat to my person.

"I have come to cleanse the hearts of mortalkind of the darkness that shrouds them, as the stormcloud of the night blots out the watchful face of the moon."

"And our immediate course, your highness?"

"Thank you, Seneschal, for your timely reminder. Our current course makes for the castle that stands above the plain, there to seek out our quarry, the Gryphon. Once we have run him to ground, we would speak with him concerning the maps which are his tapestries. With this in mind, our traveling company now being reunited, save for the Amaranth, who have gone into the throat of the beast in order to pacify the essential natures of their kindred who guard the castle, which overflow with a passion that divests them of their senses, we should make haste to the castle, that we might not spend the opportunity we have been given carelessly and unwisely- barring, of course, signal from our companions that they are in need of our aid."

"Which they well might," Adelinde concludes. "Dangerous folk, and almost lost."

"We were stopped here because of the poison bog." Maerla's eyes gleam with excitement. "Though, I'd bet that flight would skip right over that problem on our way to the castle."

Alas, the bog may no longer be such a concern, but a flying dragon - like a very big man - can be seen, and has been seen, from miles away. From the sounds and flashes of light coming from the direction of the amaranthi main camp, it seems they're gearing up for a great dragon hunt. Could be trouble soon.

Well, soon isn't now and we're not planning on staying just at this moment anyway. The real question is how many trips it will take to ferry all our party and equipment over the bog at this point. Or whether it might not simply be faster to go around now that secrecy is not our primary concern.

Elanorin

2017-02-24, 02:04 PM

She smiled at her, bright as icicles on a clear Winter's morning, then fluttered over to perch on Jara's finger.

"Jara, where you have gone, let me follow. No path you walk will be harsh to my feet. No matter how the world changes, no matter if you are taken up by the hand of a sorcerer and spirited away to the far side of the mountain Adversity, no matter if there is nothing in this world we may safeguard in the face of its ending, still I say: Where you have gone, let me follow."

And then again, petting dear Sophie's fuzzy head.

"Of course!" Jara replies happily as the little faerie flitters off to Sophie.

"If this man is so big, how can he be so hard to find?" the dragon mused. "Big things can be seen from miles away, especially from the air. Since I do not recall seeing any big man in my flight, he is either not that big or he's not here."

Jara turned to look at the dragon as it spoke and her face turned serious and thoughtful.

"Oh." She frowned and wrinkled her nose. "Oh, that's true... I didn't think of that..." she bit her lip as she considered the dragons rock solid logic and Jara was a little saddened to realise that the Greatfather and his bread was not here. Naturally he was just as big as Maerla had said. That was not in question here. Because... y'know... Maerla said so. But he could have left before they got here.

"Oh." Jara said again and sat down on the spot she was standing. After another moment she looked up and opened her mouth to ask something when her eyes suddenly darted from one to another. "Is Wings Of Fire okay?" she asked instead.

TheAmishPirate

2017-02-24, 07:52 PM

The dragon bows its huge head slightly to Rahnya and extends the very tip of one very sharp claw for the fairy to shake. "A curious gathering," it said as it studied each of you. "Most improbable. If I am not mistaken, you are all of different kinds."

Such a gentleman! Snowdrop shook the offered claw. "Of course! There's not another Snowdrop, or Rahnya, or Maerla, or Jara, or Wings of Fire here. I don't think there's another of them anywhere, though I haven't looked for very long."

BEING THE WISDOM OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS REGARDS THE COMING COURSE OF ACTION

Around me blooms: as the good smith intermingles metals, so too the righteous monarch intermingles his court.

"The threat we seek to disarm, lest her reach encompass the world while from the horizon to the deeps, is universal in nature, and as such, all are welcome to aid in the endeavor." I mean what I say. Should this dragon wish to accompany us, I would respect her as an equal and a boon companion. "Please, forgive me for failing to introduce myself upon our first meeting; my concern for our fellow travelers and sisters-in-arms is such that I was quite overcome. I am Rahnya, Princess of the City Unnameable."

"Walker of the Way of Candles," Arcifex chimes in with incense on his breath.

"Defiant against the Ban of the Stars," Adeline continues, hands folded before her, eyeing the dragon, considering its strength and likelihood of being a threat to my person.

"I have come to cleanse the hearts of mortalkind of the darkness that shrouds them, as the stormcloud of the night blots out the watchful face of the moon."

"And our immediate course, your highness?"

"Thank you, Seneschal, for your timely reminder. Our current course makes for the castle that stands above the plain, there to seek out our quarry, the Gryphon. Once we have run him to ground, we would speak with him concerning the maps which are his tapestries. With this in mind, our traveling company now being reunited, save for the Amaranth, who have gone into the throat of the beast in order to pacify the essential natures of their kindred who guard the castle, which overflow with a passion that divests them of their senses, we should make haste to the castle, that we might not spend the opportunity we have been given carelessly and unwisely- barring, of course, signal from our companions that they are in need of our aid."

"Which they well might," Adelinde concludes. "Dangerous folk, and almost lost."

"Of course!" Jara replies happily as the little faerie flitters off to Sophie.

"Oh." She frowned and wrinkled her nose. "Oh, that's true... I didn't think of that..." she bit her lip as she considered the dragons rock solid logic and Jara was a little saddened to realise that the Greatfather and his bread was not here. Naturally he was just as big as Maerla had said. That was not in question here. Because... y'know... Maerla said so. But he could have left before they got here.

"Oh." Jara said again and sat down on the spot she was standing. After another moment she looked up and opened her mouth to ask something when her eyes suddenly darted from one to another. "Is Wings Of Fire okay?" she asked instead.

Snowdrop found her way to a soft, fur-lined pouch on Jara's magnificent hat, and perched there. "She was okay when we saw her, and I bet she's great right now." She answered confidently. "If she needs us, I'm sure Icy will come back and say so-"

Right on cue, her manager - Icy, as she called him - strolled out from behind Jara's hat. "Yeah. See. About that." He grimaced. "All those Amaranthi are headed this way. They got it in their heads to hunt a dragon. Your friend? Firewing? She's doing what she can to slow them down. Don't know how well that worked out. Left before she finished."

"See?" Snowdrop beamed. "Some of us can meet her there, and the rest of us can track down that rude Griffon."

Thanqol

2017-02-24, 10:35 PM

"Oh." Jara said again and sat down on the spot she was standing. After another moment she looked up and opened her mouth to ask something when her eyes suddenly darted from one to another. "Is Wings Of Fire okay?" she asked instead.

On cue, there is an explosion from the direction of the Amaranth camp.

Deadly

2017-02-28, 02:11 PM

Wings of Fire ignored her brain, covered her ears and set off the device. Step one in the plan was to punch the little singer guy and put him in a sack for later interrogation. Step two of the plan was to stop Disaster from causing a disaster. Step three of the plan was hope really hard that Winter didn't come after her at any point. Perhaps it was less of a plan and more of a wishlist, really, but plans were overrated.

Even prepared for it and with your ears covered, the explosion is terribly loud. No one else is fortunate enough to have seen it coming. Whatever organized assault - on griffon or dragon - was planned is immediately abandoned by all as the camp descends into complete and utter chaos, all the Amaranthi quite literally deaf to any reason but their own individual minds ... which, for most of these poor savages, is barely above that of frightened animals.

In that chaos, you manage to rush to throne and more or less blindly grab the singer and stuff him in a bag. So far so good, but by then, the chaos has had all the time it could need.

You've lost track of Admin and Disaster. Step two of your plan may have been a lost cause from the beginning anyway. As for Winter, she's frankly got more important things on her mind than you, such as reining in her gang and beating any rebels into submission.

She might still come after you, but for now you're forgotten in all the chaos.

What's your next move?

"We were stopped here because of the poison bog." Maerla's eyes gleam with excitement. "Though, I'd bet that flight would skip right over that problem on our way to the castle."

Well, soon isn't now and we're not planning on staying just at this moment anyway. The real question is how many trips it will take to ferry all our party and equipment over the bog at this point. Or whether it might not simply be faster to go around now that secrecy is not our primary concern.

Snowdrop found her way to a soft, fur-lined pouch on Jara's magnificent hat, and perched there. "She was okay when we saw her, and I bet she's great right now." She answered confidently. "If she needs us, I'm sure Icy will come back and say so-"

Right on cue, her manager - Icy, as she called him - strolled out from behind Jara's hat. "Yeah. See. About that." He grimaced. "All those Amaranthi are headed this way. They got it in their heads to hunt a dragon. Your friend? Firewing? She's doing what she can to slow them down. Don't know how well that worked out. Left before she finished."

"See?" Snowdrop beamed. "Some of us can meet her there, and the rest of us can track down that rude Griffon."

On cue, there is an explosion from the direction of the Amaranth camp.

"Right, anyone for the tower, get on my back," the dragon said and lowered itself to the ground, spreading its wings out like ramps for you to climb on.

The rest of you can make your way around the swamp to get to the Amaranthi camp. So who'll be going where?

Anarion

2017-02-28, 07:05 PM

"Right, anyone for the tower, get on my back," the dragon said and lowered itself to the ground, spreading its wings out like ramps for you to climb on.

The rest of you can make your way around the swamp to get to the Amaranthi camp. So who'll be going where?

Sign me up for the tower!

Raz_Fox

2017-03-01, 10:32 AM

BEING THE ASSERTION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, ON THE DESTINATION OF HER TRAVEL

Explosions are the trade-goods of the Amaranth at war, and at times, at peace, and in argument, and in architecture. Likely, Wings of Fire is in the middle of strenuous negotiations.

Surety will kneel in the hollow of the dragon's back, and I shall ride its powerful wind-road to the tower.

Thanqol

2017-03-01, 04:02 PM

Even prepared for it and with your ears covered, the explosion is terribly loud. No one else is fortunate enough to have seen it coming. Whatever organized assault - on griffon or dragon - was planned is immediately abandoned by all as the camp descends into complete and utter chaos, all the Amaranthi quite literally deaf to any reason but their own individual minds ... which, for most of these poor savages, is barely above that of frightened animals.

In that chaos, you manage to rush to throne and more or less blindly grab the singer and stuff him in a bag. So far so good, but by then, the chaos has had all the time it could need.

You've lost track of Admin and Disaster. Step two of your plan may have been a lost cause from the beginning anyway. As for Winter, she's frankly got more important things on her mind than you, such as reining in her gang and beating any rebels into submission.

She might still come after you, but for now you're forgotten in all the chaos.

What's your next move?

Wings of Fire was surprised at how... according to plan that all went. She extended a grudging measure of respect to her brain. Next time I think about headbutting something I'll kick it instead.

She needed to shake down this singer guy above all else. She knew she'd interrupted Caligo's plan but didn't know what she would do to get her plan back on the rails.

Now, while Wings of Fire often thinks of herself as a pretty reasonable and ordinary Amaranth - a little thick but ultimately good hearted - she is unaware of her capacity to inflict terror. People become profoundly uncomfortable if she just frowns, and when she's visibly upset even elder Amaranth take a few steps back. It's something about her eyes - something about them says that despite the layers of intellect and personality the lowest common denominator here was fire.

"Where are the others," she said in what she thought was a reasonable tone of voice but came across as a bloodthirsty snarl.

TheAmishPirate

2017-03-01, 04:52 PM

Elanorin

2017-03-02, 02:19 PM

After some lip-biting and changing her mind a few times, Jara sets off after Snowdrop for the camp.

Deadly

2017-03-06, 02:55 AM

Sign me up for the tower!

BEING THE ASSERTION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, ON THE DESTINATION OF HER TRAVEL

Explosions are the trade-goods of the Amaranth at war, and at times, at peace, and in argument, and in architecture. Likely, Wings of Fire is in the middle of strenuous negotiations.

Surety will kneel in the hollow of the dragon's back, and I shall ride its powerful wind-road to the tower.

The dragon rises into the air with long, booming wing beats, lifting you high above the forest and turns towards the tower. Far below, you can see the Amaranth camp in turmoil. Scattered bands of battle-whipped bird people break off from the camp to pursue you with blood-curdling shrieks and bone-rattling banging of weapons.

The dragon easily outpaces them, and you reach the tower first. You have very little time before they catch up, however.

And you're not the first to get there. From atop the dragon, as you descend towards the tower, you spot a swift little figure scale the ancient wall of the tower and slip in through a window. Maerla, you're quite sure it was Oudal, and he's got about half a minute on you.

What's the plan?

Snowdrop has some words to say to Wings of Fire, so she'll be heading for the Amaranthi camp.

After some lip-biting and changing her mind a few times, Jara sets off after Snowdrop for the camp.

You make your way around the swamp and can't miss the camp, which you find in a state of complete chaos. There's fighting everywhere, and I can tell you right now that none of them are going to listen to a word you say, because they couldn't hear you even if they weren't making such a lot of noise and probably would bite first and listen later anyway.

You could try to keep your heads low and sneak in, or perhaps you have a different plan in mind?

Wings of Fire was surprised at how... according to plan that all went. She extended a grudging measure of respect to her brain. Next time I think about headbutting something I'll kick it instead.

She needed to shake down this singer guy above all else. She knew she'd interrupted Caligo's plan but didn't know what she would do to get her plan back on the rails.

Now, while Wings of Fire often thinks of herself as a pretty reasonable and ordinary Amaranth - a little thick but ultimately good hearted - she is unaware of her capacity to inflict terror. People become profoundly uncomfortable if she just frowns, and when she's visibly upset even elder Amaranth take a few steps back. It's something about her eyes - something about them says that despite the layers of intellect and personality the lowest common denominator here was fire.

"Where are the others," she said in what she thought was a reasonable tone of voice but came across as a bloodthirsty snarl.

It is only when you think it's going well, when you dare to think you've succeeded, that the tables turn. You should know this.

Have you ever seen the snake charmer's music sway a snake? How it dances to the tunes flowing from the flute? As long as the music plays, it raises its head and sways like a reed in the wind, moving to the will of the charmer and stays quite docile. But when the music stops, it is once again a snake with a snake's own will.

You've been misled. Fooled. Tricked. Bamboozled. You don't know how, but the singer was a lie. That wasn't a crooked old singer draped in clothes at the foot of the throne. It was a bag of snakes, swaying to the droning tune ... but the tune is no more, and now you're holding a bag of angry snakes, squirming and hissing and ready to bite.

Tell me, is your frown effective on snakes?

Raz_Fox

2017-03-06, 12:19 PM

Thanqol

2017-03-06, 08:54 PM

It is only when you think it's going well, when you dare to think you've succeeded, that the tables turn. You should know this.

Have you ever seen the snake charmer's music sway a snake? How it dances to the tunes flowing from the flute? As long as the music plays, it raises its head and sways like a reed in the wind, moving to the will of the charmer and stays quite docile. But when the music stops, it is once again a snake with a snake's own will.

You've been misled. Fooled. Tricked. Bamboozled. You don't know how, but the singer was a lie. That wasn't a crooked old singer draped in clothes at the foot of the throne. It was a bag of snakes, swaying to the droning tune ... but the tune is no more, and now you're holding a bag of angry snakes, squirming and hissing and ready to bite.

Tell me, is your frown effective on snakes?

Snakes are sacred to the Amaranth. They're cold-blooded, intelligent and represent both healing and death. Snakes in Amaranth cities are treated like honoured guests in a manner similar to sacred cows in other cultures - a snake that has chosen an inconvenient location for a sunbath can back up traffic for miles and no one can do anything about it. Anywhere they go snakes are treated as honoured guests and religious figures, which makes this trap especially cruel. Amaranthi bitten by snakes frequently do not seek out medical treatment at all, considering the poison a just punishment and divine challenge to struggle through, and a great many die as a result.

But despite all these honours and privileges, it is only a very old or a very stupid snake that makes itself known publicly in an Amaranth city these days. There has been a slowly spreading rumour that eating snakeflesh can bring an Amaranth renewed intelligence - and a great many snakes have gone missing as a result.

So Wings of Fire flinches when she sees the snakes, but her eyes transition rapidly from fear to contemplation and her movements begin subtly mirroring that of the snakes and both sides of this standoff get the undeniable sense that the other is considering eating them.

[Scary As Hell: 1 use (1 use remaining), allows me to Talk Sense into things I couldn't normally Talk Sense into and roll with +Blood. 7. What I want is for it to spill the beans on the plan]

Anarion

2017-03-07, 10:24 AM

TheAmishPirate

2017-03-07, 08:19 PM

You make your way around the swamp and can't miss the camp, which you find in a state of complete chaos. There's fighting everywhere, and I can tell you right now that none of them are going to listen to a word you say, because they couldn't hear you even if they weren't making such a lot of noise and probably would bite first and listen later anyway.

You could try to keep your heads low and sneak in, or perhaps you have a different plan in mind?

You're right. Snowdrop has seen these Amaranthi up close, she knows how short their wicks burn. She figures that Wings of Fire has slipped off somewhere in the confusion, so that's where she's going; anyplace where a clever Amaranthi might hide away.

Elanorin

2017-03-08, 07:20 PM

Jara wouldn't need more than a quick 'shhh', or a slight nod of a head in a set direction to follow Snowdrop's plan. These raging Amaranthi were more than a little scary, while she'd been incined to head straight for the side of the explosion she got the impression Snowdrow Knew Where She Was Going, and so she followed without question.

Deadly

2017-03-09, 05:00 PM

BEING THE ADVANCE OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, INTO THE TOWER

A bold opening gambit is favored in games of strategy. The monarch favored by heaven must know both the moment favorable for contemplation and the moment for decisive action. Motion without introspection, all things proceeding from the center.

I enter the tower, accompanied by my entourage and- I assume- the brave Wood Folk who is my companion.

The brave wood folk (with her trusty spider) is already scampering into the tower ahead of you, of course. When Oudal was visible, she pointed him out, and took his lead as a sign that it was time to race along in pursuit.

Maerla calls her thanks to the dragon and as soon as she's inside, she looks around to get a sense of the building layout and the fastest way to catch up with Oudal or reach the Gryphon.

You enter the tower, and a grand room in which ten men could stand on top of each other and not reach the ceiling. There do not appear to be any doors or stairs, except the one you came in through, though you're quite sure the tower is larger outside than even this room.

All the walls are covered in tapestries, forming a map of no lands you immediately recognize.

You are, however, immediately aware of three things, in more or less the following order:

First, there's a powerful spell of protection upon this tower, a ban against removing anything from the tower. Should anyone break this taboo, the consequences will no doubt be dire. There's usually some kind of focus for these sorts of things which if broken would break the spell.

Second, the Gryphon. You practically collide head on with him as you burst into the room and he was just bursting out of it. He looks furious ... enough to march right out there and take on both dragon and amaranthi and anyone else dumb enough to stand in his way.

"WHERE IS IT?!" He screams as he grabs Rahnya by the shoulders and stares her in the face.

This may be a good time to remind everyone what wizards are known for, namely supreme power and zero responsibility.

No Sense of Right and Wrong: The Gryphon is Dangerous and their actions always cause collateral damage of some kind, no matter what they do. When the Wizard harms a member of the fellowship, that player will tell you what else happened as a result of the spell.
Kaboom!: The Gryphon can deal damage as a Hard Cut to anyone they like.
Mage Armor: The Gryphon can only be harmed by magic.

Third, Oudal is taking advantage of the fact that the Gryphon has his entire attention on you and the dragon and approaching amaranthi outside. So the little wood folk is busily doing his best to break the ban by stuffing tapestries into a seemingly bottomless bag.

You can let him, which would break the ban and alert the Gryphon to the theft, but Oudal might actually get away in the chaos if he's quick, depending on what the punishment for breaking the ban is. Or you can try to stop him, which might prevent the ban from being broken, but would alert the already enraged Gryphon to the attempted theft, and you don't think he needs any more reason to explode than he's already got.

You're right. Snowdrop has seen these Amaranthi up close, she knows how short their wicks burn. She figures that Wings of Fire has slipped off somewhere in the confusion, so that's where she's going; anyplace where a clever Amaranthi might hide away.

Jara wouldn't need more than a quick 'shhh', or a slight nod of a head in a set direction to follow Snowdrop's plan. These raging Amaranthi were more than a little scary, while she'd been incined to head straight for the side of the explosion she got the impression Snowdrow Knew Where She Was Going, and so she followed without question.

Alas, maybe Wings isn't very clever, because you can't seem to find her out here, where a clever Amaranth would hide away.

Instead you find Feathers of Administration, who alone among all the Amaranthi appears to have had the brains to seek a tactical retreat.

Snakes are sacred to the Amaranth. They're cold-blooded, intelligent and represent both healing and death. Snakes in Amaranth cities are treated like honoured guests in a manner similar to sacred cows in other cultures - a snake that has chosen an inconvenient location for a sunbath can back up traffic for miles and no one can do anything about it. Anywhere they go snakes are treated as honoured guests and religious figures, which makes this trap especially cruel. Amaranthi bitten by snakes frequently do not seek out medical treatment at all, considering the poison a just punishment and divine challenge to struggle through, and a great many die as a result.

But despite all these honours and privileges, it is only a very old or a very stupid snake that makes itself known publicly in an Amaranth city these days. There has been a slowly spreading rumour that eating snakeflesh can bring an Amaranth renewed intelligence - and a great many snakes have gone missing as a result.

So Wings of Fire flinches when she sees the snakes, but her eyes transition rapidly from fear to contemplation and her movements begin subtly mirroring that of the snakes and both sides of this standoff get the undeniable sense that the other is considering eating them.

[Scary As Hell: 1 use (1 use remaining), allows me to Talk Sense into things I couldn't normally Talk Sense into and roll with +Blood. 7. What I want is for it to spill the beans on the plan]

These are only snakes. Still, snakes are sly, and these snakes have been pretty close to what's been going on. An advantageous position from which much can be gleaned.

So they spill the beans on what they've heard to you. The Singer has been whispering words in the ears of the amaranthi, trying to turn them against their God, the Gryphon. Trying to get them to take the tapestries from the tower for "safekeeping". Your two fellows just provided the last push they needed, as roughly half the Amaranthi are charging off towards the tower as we speak.

I think I've told you this before, or was it the others? I forget.

It isn't the only plan, however. This Singer seems to have had at least one or two other plans, in case one didn't work out. The snakes whisper to you a name, Oudal, a thief the Singer paid to steal the tapestries from the tower. He's out there somewhere.

It's clear that the Singer has no intention of facing the Gryphon, or you, directly himself.

This they tell you freely, but if you wish to ask them more, you'll have to give them something for it.

Thanqol

2017-03-09, 06:09 PM

Alas, maybe Wings isn't very clever, because you can't seem to find her out here, where a clever Amaranth would hide away.

Instead you find Feathers of Administration, who alone among all the Amaranthi appears to have had the brains to seek a tactical retreat.

"It was terrible! Terrible!" swooned Feathers. "Oh, it was just hideous! All my arguments - all my perfect jewels of inevitable logic! All those brilliant lines of coruscating philosophy o'erwhelmed by the arguments of simpletons! Oh, the horror! The horror!"

These are only snakes. Still, snakes are sly, and these snakes have been pretty close to what's been going on. An advantageous position from which much can be gleaned.

So they spill the beans on what they've heard to you. The Singer has been whispering words in the ears of the amaranthi, trying to turn them against their God, the Gryphon. Trying to get them to take the tapestries from the tower for "safekeeping". Your two fellows just provided the last push they needed, as roughly half the Amaranthi are charging off towards the tower as we speak.

I think I've told you this before, or was it the others? I forget.

It isn't the only plan, however. This Singer seems to have had at least one or two other plans, in case one didn't work out. The snakes whisper to you a name, Oudal, a thief the Singer paid to steal the tapestries from the tower. He's out there somewhere.

It's clear that the Singer has no intention of facing the Gryphon, or you, directly himself.

This they tell you freely, but if you wish to ask them more, you'll have to give them something for it.

"Who is this Singer? Where are they? What do they look like?" said Wings of Fire. This was her big priority right now; it was frustrating enough to be fighting a myth but damned if she was going to shadow-box with her generals as well.

[Offering one of my stocks of food in exchange for info about the Singer.]

Anarion

2017-03-09, 10:35 PM

You enter the tower, and a grand room in which ten men could stand on top of each other and not reach the ceiling. There do not appear to be any doors or stairs, except the one you came in through, though you're quite sure the tower is larger outside than even this room.

All the walls are covered in tapestries, forming a map of no lands you immediately recognize.

You are, however, immediately aware of three things, in more or less the following order:

First, there's a powerful spell of protection upon this tower, a ban against removing anything from the tower. Should anyone break this taboo, the consequences will no doubt be dire. There's usually some kind of focus for these sorts of things which if broken would break the spell.

Second, the Gryphon. You practically collide head on with him as you burst into the room and he was just bursting out of it. He looks furious ... enough to march right out there and take on both dragon and amaranthi and anyone else dumb enough to stand in his way.

"WHERE IS IT?!" He screams as he grabs Rahnya by the shoulders and stares her in the face.

This may be a good time to remind everyone what wizards are known for, namely supreme power and zero responsibility.

No Sense of Right and Wrong: The Gryphon is Dangerous and their actions always cause collateral damage of some kind, no matter what they do. When the Wizard harms a member of the fellowship, that player will tell you what else happened as a result of the spell.
Kaboom!: The Gryphon can deal damage as a Hard Cut to anyone they like.
Mage Armor: The Gryphon can only be harmed by magic.

Third, Oudal is taking advantage of the fact that the Gryphon has his entire attention on you and the dragon and approaching amaranthi outside. So the little wood folk is busily doing his best to break the ban by stuffing tapestries into a seemingly bottomless bag.

You can let him, which would break the ban and alert the Gryphon to the theft, but Oudal might actually get away in the chaos if he's quick, depending on what the punishment for breaking the ban is. Or you can try to stop him, which might prevent the ban from being broken, but would alert the already enraged Gryphon to the attempted theft, and you don't think he needs any more reason to explode than he's already got.

Wait. Wait wait wait. The ban on stealing things can be bypassed if the thief is quick and steals enough things?! Worst. Ban. Ever.

"Oh my gods! If you turn around, there is an entire army of wood folk, 20 giant elephants, and a titan over there stealing all your tapestries! You should really put aside dealing with us and fix that problem!"

[Maerla is going to talk sense to get the Gryphon to turn around notice Oudal stuffing tapestries into his bags. She's going to lie absurdly to do it though, but that's really one of life's greatest joys, isn't it? 3+9+2=11]

She also quickly whispers to Rhanya "We might want to duck."

Raz_Fox

2017-03-10, 10:58 PM

First, there's a powerful spell of protection upon this tower, a ban against removing anything from the tower. Should anyone break this taboo, the consequences will no doubt be dire. There's usually some kind of focus for these sorts of things which if broken would break the spell.

Second, the Gryphon. You practically collide head on with him as you burst into the room and he was just bursting out of it. He looks furious ... enough to march right out there and take on both dragon and amaranthi and anyone else dumb enough to stand in his way.

"WHERE IS IT?!" He screams as he grabs Rahnya by the shoulders and stares her in the face.

This may be a good time to remind everyone what wizards are known for, namely supreme power and zero responsibility.

No Sense of Right and Wrong: The Gryphon is Dangerous and their actions always cause collateral damage of some kind, no matter what they do. When the Wizard harms a member of the fellowship, that player will tell you what else happened as a result of the spell.
Kaboom!: The Gryphon can deal damage as a Hard Cut to anyone they like.
Mage Armor: The Gryphon can only be harmed by magic.

BEING THE SEIZING OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, BY THE GRYPHON

Any opportunity that I may have possessed to begin treating amicably with the Gryphon, as a peer and a questing princess, is interrupted by him seizing me in his paws. I can feel his claws sliding in and out, agitated, and his eyes- those eyes- as cold and brilliant as emeralds growing in the deepest parts of the fens of the jungles of the moon! My breath catches in my throat, and for a moment I risk losing myself in those eyes, becoming nothing more than a phantasm roving his halls forever, a memory, until I am forgotten, and then nothing more will be of me, and- ah, but Maerla is speaking, even as Adelinde sets herself into the stance of the Furious Hydra, every strike begetting two more.

"Thief!" It is not a squeak, and neither is it a groan, and neither is it a gasp: it is all three at once, pulled from my lips by my will alone. Is that its serpent's tail lashing, wicked and furious, behind it? No, Rahnya- assemble yourself! There is no room for fear in the tones of the universe - merely an appreciation of that which is mortally horrific, and that which is astonishing and wonderful. Fear, aversion, avoidance: the universe knows not these things, for they are a negation, a turning-away of the soul from the full experience of the cosmos. Away with such ignoble thought!

I compose myself, finding the still center of my soul, in the space of a breath between the beginning and the end of Adelinde's strike, and I hold up one hand between her outstretched fingers, hardened by ten thousand strikes against the sand, and the feathered neck of the Gryphon; with the utmost discipline, she arrests her momentum, brings it back into her own wary center.

"Master Gryphon, we have come to negotiate with you- but harken swiftly to your own treasures! As my companion herself says, they are in danger!"

Elanorin

2017-03-11, 03:08 PM

Thanqol

2017-03-11, 07:10 PM

"Feathers!" Jara exclaims and pounces the familiar Amaranth. "Where's Wings of Fire? Is she safe? Is she alright? Is she hurt? Is she killing things?"

"Wha - Jara," said Feathers of Administration in shock at the body contact. "I don't think you realize what's important here! One life may come and go, but logic - logic is the button that holds the waistcoat of civilisation together! A threat to logic is a threat to -" he paused "- no, I shouldn't endanger my arguments further by exposing them in an uncontrolled environment," he muttered, "she's over there with the snakes."

Deadly

2017-03-12, 06:32 AM

"Who is this Singer? Where are they? What do they look like?" said Wings of Fire. This was her big priority right now; it was frustrating enough to be fighting a myth but damned if she was going to shadow-box with her generals as well.

[Offering one of my stocks of food in exchange for info about the Singer.]

"He wasss among the crowd a moment ago," one of the snakes whispered. "Won't have gone far."

"We never sssaw him, only heard the sssong," another chimed in.

"I sssaw him, but he changesss more than his ssskin," one said. "In the woodsss, there's a sssecret place he goesss. Hidden, but I can ssshow you."

Wait. Wait wait wait. The ban on stealing things can be bypassed if the thief is quick and steals enough things?! Worst. Ban. Ever.

"Oh my gods! If you turn around, there is an entire army of wood folk, 20 giant elephants, and a titan over there stealing all your tapestries! You should really put aside dealing with us and fix that problem!"

[Maerla is going to talk sense to get the Gryphon to turn around notice Oudal stuffing tapestries into his bags. She's going to lie absurdly to do it though, but that's really one of life's greatest joys, isn't it? 3+9+2=11]

She also quickly whispers to Rhanya "We might want to duck."

BEING THE SEIZING OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, BY THE GRYPHON

Any opportunity that I may have possessed to begin treating amicably with the Gryphon, as a peer and a questing princess, is interrupted by him seizing me in his paws. I can feel his claws sliding in and out, agitated, and his eyes- those eyes- as cold and brilliant as emeralds growing in the deepest parts of the fens of the jungles of the moon! My breath catches in my throat, and for a moment I risk losing myself in those eyes, becoming nothing more than a phantasm roving his halls forever, a memory, until I am forgotten, and then nothing more will be of me, and- ah, but Maerla is speaking, even as Adelinde sets herself into the stance of the Furious Hydra, every strike begetting two more.

"Thief!" It is not a squeak, and neither is it a groan, and neither is it a gasp: it is all three at once, pulled from my lips by my will alone. Is that its serpent's tail lashing, wicked and furious, behind it? No, Rahnya- assemble yourself! There is no room for fear in the tones of the universe - merely an appreciation of that which is mortally horrific, and that which is astonishing and wonderful. Fear, aversion, avoidance: the universe knows not these things, for they are a negation, a turning-away of the soul from the full experience of the cosmos. Away with such ignoble thought!

I compose myself, finding the still center of my soul, in the space of a breath between the beginning and the end of Adelinde's strike, and I hold up one hand between her outstretched fingers, hardened by ten thousand strikes against the sand, and the feathered neck of the Gryphon; with the utmost discipline, she arrests her momentum, brings it back into her own wary center.

"Master Gryphon, we have come to negotiate with you- but harken swiftly to your own treasures! As my companion herself says, they are in danger!"

"WHAT?!?" The Gryphon squawks and turns around.

Oudal, caught in the baleful sight of the Gryphon, freezes in the act. "Uh ..."

"Thief! Nobody moves!" the Gryphon commanded, his eyes flashing with unrestrained power as he grabbed a cup off a table and launched it like a rocket out the door. You all feel your limbs start to freeze in place as the ban is broken. It appears he meant that literally.

"Oh come on!" Oudal cried, trying to wrench his legs free of the ground. "You couldn't have worked with me here? All you had to do was distract the chicken!"

Thanqol

2017-03-12, 08:12 AM

"He wasss among the crowd a moment ago," one of the snakes whispered. "Won't have gone far."

"We never sssaw him, only heard the sssong," another chimed in.

"I sssaw him, but he changesss more than his ssskin," one said. "In the woodsss, there's a sssecret place he goesss. Hidden, but I can ssshow you."

"Sure!" said Wings of Fire, relaxing out of her predatory posture. "I'm Wings of Fire; I'm a Linowan agent on the trail of Ca - whatever's making the titans go crazy. You want a ride?" she said, offering her arm to the snakes.

GAH DO NOT DO THAT

It'll be fine - worst case is they bite me and I get a religious experience!

I'M NOT THAT RELIGIOUS

Well not with that attitude, silly!

Elanorin

2017-03-12, 08:14 PM

"Wha - Jara," said Feathers of Administration in shock at the body contact. "I don't think you realize what's important here! One life may come and go, but logic - logic is the button that holds the waistcoat of civilisation together! A threat to logic is a threat to -" he paused "- no, I shouldn't endanger my arguments further by exposing them in an uncontrolled environment," he muttered, "she's over there with the snakes."

Jara shot off the second she understood the direction, scampering through the chaos with the complete single minded focus of a dog setting after a thrown ball. It was highly likely Feathers was left to finish the word 'snakes' in a dumped heap.

Anarion

2017-03-13, 01:03 AM

"WHAT?!?" The Gryphon squawks and turns around.

Oudal, caught in the baleful sight of the Gryphon, freezes in the act. "Uh ..."

"Thief! Nobody moves!" the Gryphon commanded, his eyes flashing with unrestrained power as he grabbed a cup off a table and launched it like a rocket out the door. You all feel your limbs start to freeze in place as the ban is broken. It appears he meant that literally.

"Oh come on!" Oudal cried, trying to wrench his legs free of the ground. "You couldn't have worked with me here? All you had to do was distract the chicken!"

Maerla gives Oudal a you've got to be kidding look. "Lord Gryphon, please don't hold us accountable for this idiot thief, he is not a representative of my people, who have great respect for the Greatfather's castle, and your august person. When I met him earlier, he claimed to be the owner of a single tapestry present here in the castle, and for my part, I wish only to gaze upon the great works that you have collected here. Isn't that so, Rahnya?"

TheAmishPirate

2017-03-13, 02:05 PM

Raz_Fox

2017-03-14, 11:03 PM

BEING THE ENTREATY OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, TOWARDS THE GRYPHON

"Indeed, Master of the Skies," I say, frozen in a neutral and non-threatening pose (by sheer fortune, I assure you). "Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Rahnya, Princess of the City Unnameable, and my companion and I are on a quest to avert an unfathomable darkness from falling upon this world. Also, we have no connection to this suspicious Wood Folk, and would have no objections to his being turned out of doors before we continue discussion of your maps."

Anarion

2017-03-14, 11:43 PM

Raz_Fox

2017-03-16, 10:17 PM

BEING THE CORRECTION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, OF HER PREVIOUS STATEMENT TOWARDS THE GRYPHON

"Ah, my apologies," I say. "I wish to amend my previous statement: another traveling companion may have intentions towards incorporating this Wood Folk into our gathering, but should he be revealed to be of nefarious intent, such as desiring to purloin your treasures without just reason, then even she would doubtless cast him out of our collective good graces. The four of us- oh, I do apologize, Maerla, five of us, I should count Sophie- no, six of us, if Sophie counts then Surety must as well- the six of us, gathered here, have no connection to aforementioned Wood Folk."

Deadly

2017-03-17, 03:33 PM

"Sure!" said Wings of Fire, relaxing out of her predatory posture. "I'm Wings of Fire; I'm a Linowan agent on the trail of Ca - whatever's making the titans go crazy. You want a ride?" she said, offering her arm to the snakes.

GAH DO NOT DO THAT

It'll be fine - worst case is they bite me and I get a religious experience!

I'M NOT THAT RELIGIOUS

Well not with that attitude, silly!

The snakes all slithered up your arm and settled comfortably around your shoulders. "That way," the first one said and pointed its head and tongue towards the south.

At the same time, you see Jara and Snowdrop trying to reach you. Unfortunately, right around this time is also when Winter of Romance has managed to resume control, of the part that Disaster isn't leading straight for the castle already, at least, and she's also spotted the two and are pointing out the fairy to her gang.

You know your people, and Winter, best. What do you think her intentions or plans are in this situation?

Jara shot off the second she understood the direction, scampering through the chaos with the complete single minded focus of a dog setting after a thrown ball. It was highly likely Feathers was left to finish the word 'snakes' in a dumped heap.

Before Snowdrop followed, she had something to say to Feathers of Administration. Something important.

She fluttered a breath away from his face, looked deep into his eyes, and told him,

"Mmm. You're alright."

She then patted his nose, and flitted off after Jara.

One of the Amaranthi, which you assume to be the leader, is gesticulating tensely at Snowdrop. They all appear to be deaf, but pointing gets their attention just fine, and they're all turning to look at you.

Maerla gives Oudal a you've got to be kidding look. "Lord Gryphon, please don't hold us accountable for this idiot thief, he is not a representative of my people, who have great respect for the Greatfather's castle, and your august person. When I met him earlier, he claimed to be the owner of a single tapestry present here in the castle, and for my part, I wish only to gaze upon the great works that you have collected here. Isn't that so, Rahnya?"

BEING THE ENTREATY OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, TOWARDS THE GRYPHON

"Indeed, Master of the Skies," I say, frozen in a neutral and non-threatening pose (by sheer fortune, I assure you). "Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Rahnya, Princess of the City Unnameable, and my companion and I are on a quest to avert an unfathomable darkness from falling upon this world. Also, we have no connection to this suspicious Wood Folk, and would have no objections to his being turned out of doors before we continue discussion of your maps."

BEING THE CORRECTION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, OF HER PREVIOUS STATEMENT TOWARDS THE GRYPHON

"Ah, my apologies," I say. "I wish to amend my previous statement: another traveling companion may have intentions towards incorporating this Wood Folk into our gathering, but should he be revealed to be of nefarious intent, such as desiring to purloin your treasures without just reason, then even she would doubtless cast him out of our collective good graces. The four of us- oh, I do apologize, Maerla, five of us, I should count Sophie- no, six of us, if Sophie counts then Surety must as well- the six of us, gathered here, have no connection to aforementioned Wood Folk."

The Gryphon left Oudal fuming where he was, frozen in a pose of surprise, and addressed you instead. "My most recent acquisition is missing a thread," he said accusingly. "A red thread, a single thread, a vital thread, exactly as vital as the life's blood it resembles. Snatched it was, by a fairy thief, before I could secure it here within my tower. Do you know the fairy of which I speak and where she is?"

Anarion

2017-03-17, 05:28 PM

The Gryphon left Oudal fuming where he was, frozen in a pose of surprise, and addressed you instead. "My most recent acquisition is missing a thread," he said accusingly. "A red thread, a single thread, a vital thread, exactly as vital as the life's blood it resembles. Snatched it was, by a fairy thief, before I could secure it here within my tower. Do you know the fairy of which I speak and where she is?"

Maerla glances at Rahnya and gives a shrug. "The answers are 'yes,' and 'kind of.' I'd give you good odds that the fairy you're looking for is within a few miles of here. But then, that's apparently true of every type of fauna in the larger region including an entire Amaranthi tribe; wood folk; a dragon; and an evil spirit intent on corrupting the castle, stealing all your stuff, and taking over the world. We can help with that last one, by the way."

Thanqol

2017-03-18, 02:29 AM

The snakes all slithered up your arm and settled comfortably around your shoulders. "That way," the first one said and pointed its head and tongue towards the south.

At the same time, you see Jara and Snowdrop trying to reach you. Unfortunately, right around this time is also when Winter of Romance has managed to resume control, of the part that Disaster isn't leading straight for the castle already, at least, and she's also spotted the two and are pointing out the fairy to her gang.

You know your people, and Winter, best. What do you think her intentions or plans are in this situation?

Amaranthi don't like feeling out of control. There's not that much space in a cursed head for a complex, adaptable approach to problems - either things are Orderly and Rigid and Good or it is Panic Time. The further gone Amaranth can be snapped out of Panic Time by having someone strong and charismatic tell them what to do, so they'll be fine - Winter, though, has a harder job. She can't just subsume all of her worries into a leader because she is the leader; she can only trust in the Plans and the Laws she has set up in advance and go all in on those. Spook an Amaranth warlord and they'll probably start executing whatever plan they've been scheming immediately because then at least they know what they're meant to be doing.

There is a famous play about a Haltian Amaranth Emperor who returned unexpectedly from a hunting trip. Immediately his entire court fell individually into paranoia that he was returning early because he was wise to their schemes so they needed to execute their plans immediately. The final scene was the emperor walking into the throne room right as multiple coups, assassinations, and kidnappings all fired simultaneously like an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine.

Wings of Fire did a double take when she saw Jara. Not safe! "One minute," she said to the snakes, remembering politeness, and bounded over to Jara and Snowdrop to find out what and why and no Jara it is dangerous

Deadly

2017-03-22, 03:28 PM

Maerla glances at Rahnya and gives a shrug. "The answers are 'yes,' and 'kind of.' I'd give you good odds that the fairy you're looking for is within a few miles of here. But then, that's apparently true of every type of fauna in the larger region including an entire Amaranthi tribe; wood folk; a dragon; and an evil spirit intent on corrupting the castle, stealing all your stuff, and taking over the world. We can help with that last one, by the way."

"I don't care about whatever nonsense you're spouting, or about the savages out there," the Gryphon said and pointed out the tower. "Except they've finally lost whatever threadbare reason kept them in line and are about to storm the tower. If you intend to be useful, help beat some sense back into their skulls before they raze the place to the ground."

Amaranthi don't like feeling out of control. There's not that much space in a cursed head for a complex, adaptable approach to problems - either things are Orderly and Rigid and Good or it is Panic Time. The further gone Amaranth can be snapped out of Panic Time by having someone strong and charismatic tell them what to do, so they'll be fine - Winter, though, has a harder job. She can't just subsume all of her worries into a leader because she is the leader; she can only trust in the Plans and the Laws she has set up in advance and go all in on those. Spook an Amaranth warlord and they'll probably start executing whatever plan they've been scheming immediately because then at least they know what they're meant to be doing.

There is a famous play about a Haltian Amaranth Emperor who returned unexpectedly from a hunting trip. Immediately his entire court fell individually into paranoia that he was returning early because he was wise to their schemes so they needed to execute their plans immediately. The final scene was the emperor walking into the throne room right as multiple coups, assassinations, and kidnappings all fired simultaneously like an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine.

"Seize the fairy! Seize them all! Bring them to the tower!" Winter commanded in words and gestures both, and although deaf, the amaranthi all understood the intention and advanced on you. Winter herself turned and rushed towards the tower without waiting around.

Anarion

2017-03-22, 04:00 PM

"I don't care about whatever nonsense you're spouting, or about the savages out there," the Gryphon said and pointed out the tower. "Except they've finally lost whatever threadbare reason kept them in line and are about to storm the tower. If you intend to be useful, help beat some sense back into their skulls before they raze the place to the ground."

Maerla couldn't help but chuckle when the Gryphon said "threadbare" but proceeded her best resolute look and nod given that she was mostly immobilized at the moment. "Happy to assist. If you'd be so kind as to release me and my dear companion, Rhanya (you can keep Oudal there stuck if you want), we'll take care of those Amaranthi lickety-split!"

Elanorin

2017-03-23, 04:50 AM

Wings of Fire did a double take when she saw Jara. Not safe! "One minute," she said to the snakes, remembering politeness, and bounded over to Jara and Snowdrop to find out what and why and no Jara it is dangerous

"You're not blown up!" Jara exclaims, beaming with happy relief as she dashes towards Wings.

"Seize the fairy! Seize them all! Bring them to the tower!" Winter commanded in words and gestures both, and although deaf, the amaranthi all understood the intention and advanced on you. Winter herself turned and rushed towards the tower without waiting around.

Jara stopped, threw a glare to see who was ordering harm on Snowdrop, spots Winter and then runs straight after her to try to catch up and pounce-tackle the amaranth to the ground.

TheAmishPirate

2017-03-24, 01:59 PM

"Seize the fairy! Seize them all! Bring them to the tower!" Winter commanded in words and gestures both, and although deaf, the amaranthi all understood the intention and advanced on you. Winter herself turned and rushed towards the tower without waiting around.

"Excuse me?" Snowdrop planted her hands on her hips and glowered at the advancing mob. "What kind of way is that to greet somebody? No 'good afternoon?' 'Nice to meet you?' 'It's a pleasure to see you, could we offer you some freshly-picked Honeywort before we kidnap you?' Hrmph!" She pouted.

When it became clear that her biting indictment was lost on the deaf crowd, she realized she'd have to take another approach; teaching through example. With a glimmer and a sparkle she skated teasing loops in front of the scrambling Amaranthi, before darting off to one of their huts. To them, it must have appeared their lucky day; the fairy was trapped! All they had to do was go inside and seize her. Unfortunately, when it's a thought shared between you and fifty of your closest mob-friends, and nobody's got the presence of mind or presence of ear to coordinate, things can get jammed.

And, while a few dozen Amaranthi competed to see who could fit through a one-Amaranth-sized door first, Snowdrop would simply fly out a small gap in the roof.

[This sounds like I'm trying to Keep Them Busy? I'm also curious what would happen if I dropped Camouflage to ensure Snowdrop got away.]

Thanqol

2017-03-25, 12:16 AM

Wings of Fire braced herself to be pounced by a Jara - but Jara supernaturally turned on a dime and lunged after Winter of Romance. Wings could barely follow it - despite bumbling through with one hand holding her hat and the other hand the hem of her totally impractical dress and marching directly into a literal army of angry dragonbirds she was somehow getting through. Wings could have sworn she heard at least one Amaranth say 'excuse me' as he stepped aside for her.

There were a bunch going for Snowdrop as well, but - well, Wings of Fire trusted Snowdrop to handle a small army. She didn't trust Jara to be safe despite... whatever the hell that was.

She put her shoulder down and set herself to charge and -

Stop! You are covered with snakes!

So what?

If you shoulder charge an Amaranth while covered in snakes, people are going to get bit by snakes! Maybe you, maybe others!

But Jara!

Snakes are terrifying!

hmm you make a good point

Wings of Fire takes a step, and then two backwards as she braced to make a slightly different impulsive decision. Quickly, when the snakes said 'South' do they mean through the crowd in the direction Winter is going, or the other way?

Deadly

2017-03-25, 01:59 PM

Maerla couldn't help but chuckle when the Gryphon said "threadbare" but proceeded her best resolute look and nod given that she was mostly immobilized at the moment. "Happy to assist. If you'd be so kind as to release me and my dear companion, Rhanya (you can keep Oudal there stuck if you want), we'll take care of those Amaranthi lickety-split!"

The Gryphon leaned in close until his hook-like nose beak nearly pressed against your face. After a long and uncomfortable gaze, he snapped his claws. "Fine. Go raise hell for them," he said as your bodies resumed the feeling of flesh rather than stone.

"You're not blown up!" Jara exclaims, beaming with happy relief as she dashes towards Wings.

Jara stopped, threw a glare to see who was ordering harm on Snowdrop, spots Winter and then runs straight after her to try to catch up and pounce-tackle the amaranth to the ground.

So, you catch up - how, no one will ever know - and latch onto Winter's back much to her surprise and annoyance. Now what? She doesn't seem inclined to stop her charge, and she's kinda big and strong for a lady

"Excuse me?" Snowdrop planted her hands on her hips and glowered at the advancing mob. "What kind of way is that to greet somebody? No 'good afternoon?' 'Nice to meet you?' 'It's a pleasure to see you, could we offer you some freshly-picked Honeywort before we kidnap you?' Hrmph!" She pouted.

When it became clear that her biting indictment was lost on the deaf crowd, she realized she'd have to take another approach; teaching through example. With a glimmer and a sparkle she skated teasing loops in front of the scrambling Amaranthi, before darting off to one of their huts. To them, it must have appeared their lucky day; the fairy was trapped! All they had to do was go inside and seize her. Unfortunately, when it's a thought shared between you and fifty of your closest mob-friends, and nobody's got the presence of mind or presence of ear to coordinate, things can get jammed.

And, while a few dozen Amaranthi competed to see who could fit through a one-Amaranth-sized door first, Snowdrop would simply fly out a small gap in the roof.

[This sounds like I'm trying to Keep Them Busy? I'm also curious what would happen if I dropped Camouflage to ensure Snowdrop got away.]

Sounds like you're trying to Get Away. Roll the dice and let's see how well you manage to throw them off

Wings of Fire takes a step, and then two backwards as she braced to make a slightly different impulsive decision. Quickly, when the snakes said 'South' do they mean through the crowd in the direction Winter is going, or the other way?

Tower is west, snakes are pointing south. So, not the same way as Winter

Anarion

2017-03-25, 02:15 PM

The Gryphon leaned in close until his hook-like nose beak nearly pressed against your face. After a long and uncomfortable gaze, he snapped his claws. "Fine. Go raise hell for them," he said as your bodies resumed the feeling of flesh rather than stone.

Maerla wiggles her feet, one leg, then the other, then jumps over to Rhanya and lifts up both of her legs to make sure they can move properly. In the midst of that silliness, she whispers to Rhanya. I'm going to go jump into a mob of Amaranthi. Be ready to do something cool. Don't leave Oudal alone without a watcher, I think he knows illusion magic.

And with that, Maerla mounts up on Sophie and leaps out the window, crawling downwards. Tell me about what I'm running head first into?

Elanorin

2017-03-25, 03:07 PM

So, you catch up - how, no one will ever know - and latch onto Winter's back much to her surprise and annoyance. Now what? She doesn't seem inclined to stop her charge, and she's kinda big and strong for a lady

Jara clambers on to Winter's back by whatever ungangly and ungraceful means at all possible. The one thing she does not do is let go. There may be the odd tugging of hair/ears as she secures herself in to place like a doggedly determined toddler. Now what? Now the Jara-backpack has a quiet word with Ms Winter, as the girl bounces along on the amaranth's back, charge or no charge.

"I'm Jara," says Jara, clutching on to Winter's shoulders, breathing close in to her ear, "those are my friends that you ordered to get hurt back there. They did not deserve that. They are Nice People. Do you not know Wings of Fire The Greatest Champion of All Amaranthis Ever?"

[Rolling to Speak Softly to Ms Winter: 5+5+2=12 What can Winter tell me about Wings of Fire?, What does Winter want and how can we help her get it? What should I be wary of when dealing with Winter?
Forging a Bond with Winter of Romance: Winter owes my friends an apology.]

Thanqol

2017-03-25, 09:02 PM

Tower is west, snakes are pointing south. So, not the same way as Winter

In the end, it's a poorly thought through decision influenced hugely by the fact that she is currently covered in snakes. Fire heads south.

[If it's a roll it's probably Get Away, which is 8 and get away quickly without suffering harm]

Raz_Fox

2017-03-26, 11:37 PM

BEING THE ELEGANT DELEGATION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, IN THE FACE OF AN INVADING AMARATHI ARMY

I flex my fingers gingerly. The thought of not being in control of my own flesh, my own bone- it is sickening, worrisome. Had the Gryphon so wished, we could have become statues there, standing sentinel forever over his hoard of woven artistry, til sun failed and moon was dead.

"Arcifex," I say, gesturing to the Wood Folk. The one frozen, just as we had been, in the Gryphon's magic, not the wonderful one jumping out of the window. "Keep an eye on her. Adelinde, with me. We are about to do something amazing, I believe."

TheAmishPirate

2017-03-27, 02:12 PM

Sounds like you're trying to Get Away. Roll the dice and let's see how well you manage to throw them off

Sure am!

Rolling to Get Away: [roll0] Choosing to Get Away quickly, and quietly.

Deadly

2017-03-29, 05:14 AM

Maerla wiggles her feet, one leg, then the other, then jumps over to Rhanya and lifts up both of her legs to make sure they can move properly. In the midst of that silliness, she whispers to Rhanya. I'm going to go jump into a mob of Amaranthi. Be ready to do something cool. Don't leave Oudal alone without a watcher, I think he knows illusion magic.

And with that, Maerla mounts up on Sophie and leaps out the window, crawling downwards. Tell me about what I'm running head first into?

BEING THE ELEGANT DELEGATION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, IN THE FACE OF AN INVADING AMARATHI ARMY

I flex my fingers gingerly. The thought of not being in control of my own flesh, my own bone- it is sickening, worrisome. Had the Gryphon so wished, we could have become statues there, standing sentinel forever over his hoard of woven artistry, til sun failed and moon was dead.

"Arcifex," I say, gesturing to the Wood Folk. The one frozen, just as we had been, in the Gryphon's magic, not the wonderful one jumping out of the window. "Keep an eye on her. Adelinde, with me. We are about to do something amazing, I believe."

http://orig08.deviantart.net/5b2f/f/2012/017/8/4/841c370f55fb94615fb8631bdaed743b-d4mp0qq.jpg (http://framedbynature.deviantart.com/art/Wall-of-Geese-279983618)

An army of amaranthi is swarming towards the tower with one thing only on their minds: death and destruction. This is like the mob, but a hundred times worse. Most of them are deaf, or nearly so, even if reasoning with them was possible in the first place.

Half of them seem to be following - if that's the word - Claws of Disaster. They are holding it together about as well as their leader, which is to say ... not at all.

The other half are still following Winter of Romance, though keeping them in any semblance of a line does not appear to be foremost on her mind. It might be possible to reason with Winter - if anyone is still holding it together, it is her - but how much she can do to stop the rest is doubtful. Especially while Claws of Disaster leads half of them.

If Claws were taken out of the fight or shown to be weak, both sides would likely flock around Winter, though it's still not certain that she would keep them from fighting.

You do have a dragon and a wizard on your side. As formiddable a pair of allies as anyone could wish for. Even so: if you fight this out, it will be at a grave loss to both sides.

Or you could take the tapestries and run. Hide them somewhere and let the amaranthi raze the empty tower, then pray they don't find you.

MAD!: You can damage all stats immediately to end the threat, but at a terrible cost on both sides.

Flames of the Arcane: If you don't keep your two allies on a short leash, or if you take too long in your decisions, they are going to take charge ... and it will be MAD!

Deaf to all Reason: Most of the amaranthi are literally deaf, or close to it. You have to get very close and one-on-one to have any hope of them hearing you. If you can't touch them, you are too far away for them to hear a single word you say.

Disastrous Divisions: The armies will destroy each other in their madness. Talking Sense is of no use as long as they are divided between two leaders.

*

Meanwhile, back inside the tower, Oudal is watching Arcifex. His eyes, that is, are looking at Arcifex, but the more Arcifex looks the less those eyes appear to be seeing anything. Maybe it's just the binding spell, but the wood folk appears remarkably still.

Jara clambers on to Winter's back by whatever ungangly and ungraceful means at all possible. The one thing she does not do is let go. There may be the odd tugging of hair/ears as she secures herself in to place like a doggedly determined toddler. Now what? Now the Jara-backpack has a quiet word with Ms Winter, as the girl bounces along on the amaranth's back, charge or no charge.

"I'm Jara," says Jara, clutching on to Winter's shoulders, breathing close in to her ear, "those are my friends that you ordered to get hurt back there. They did not deserve that. They are Nice People. Do you not know Wings of Fire The Greatest Champion of All Amaranthis Ever?"

[Rolling to Speak Softly to Ms Winter: 5+5+2=12 What can Winter tell me about Wings of Fire?, What does Winter want and how can we help her get it? What should I be wary of when dealing with Winter?
Forging a Bond with Winter of Romance: Winter owes my friends an apology.]

"What?" Winter is clearly straining to hear. Not only is she still rather hard of hearing, there's also an army of bird people all making an unholy racket around you. "I didn't ... What are you talking about? Look, I can't hear a word you say, so just listen.

"Do you see this chaos? There's someone trying to steal the tapestries in that tower, and I can't tell who is a thief and who is not in all this madness. I need everyone in one place, and I need them to stop long enough to make some sense of everything.

"But you can't make a bunch of ... of them," she gestures around at all the mad bird people, "You can't make them stay calm, not without the music. The music kept them in line. It ... helped, anyway. But your friend, Wings of Fire, she caused all this! Her and the two amaranthis with her, they broke the music and incited all this madness.

"I need the tapestries to end this! It is the only way, but if someone doesn't use this chaos to steal them from right under our noses, chances are my own people will tear them apart in their madness. Either way, we're well and truly lost.

"If I am to stop this, I need to get into that tower first and keep everyone else out. If you are not a thief, then help me do that."

Be wary of who you trust with the tapestries, Winter included. This madness serves only one: Caligo and her servants. It makes it nearly impossible to trust anyone. Winter may have good intentions, but it's not clear that her plan hasn't been planted in her head by one of Caligo's servants. This music she speaks of may have indeed helped keep the savages in line, but who knows what whispers it filled their and Winter's heads with.

And even if her plan is her own, you suspect she isn't so much carrying out a carefully laid plan at precisely the right time as rushing to carry out whatever rash half-plan she can before it's too late.

As for what she can tell you about Wings of Fire, beyond the fact that she and her two companions started this chaos, probably a lot, but I'll let Wings herself tell you what else Winter might tell you on that topic.

In the end, it's a poorly thought through decision influenced hugely by the fact that she is currently covered in snakes. Fire heads south.

[If it's a roll it's probably Get Away, which is 8 and get away quickly without suffering harm]

The amaranthi are too busy with Snowdrop or charging off to the tower to take note of you, and soon you are well away from the now empty camp. The snakes slither around your arms and shoulders and point their pointy heads where to go, leading you around the twisty maze of branches.

The forest gets thicker and darker, and the paths ever more narrow and twisty. Even the snakes seem increasingly uncertain with each twist and turn, sometimes arguing among themselves about which way to point.

There are sounds, like gnawing and pecking, and sometimes faint voices or cries like no animals you know of. Sometimes you see strange lights among the leaves and branches, flickers inviting you to investigate.

Do you try to follow the sounds, or maybe the lights? Or do you trust the snakes to figure it out?

Finding Your Way: You may opt to damage your Courage, Sense, or Wisdom to find the way.

Sure am!

Rolling to Get Away: [roll0] Choosing to Get Away quickly, and quietly.

You're out and none of the amaranthi have a clue where you've gone. They all scramble over each other to find you, but none of them are looking in the right place. You have some time in which to do something, if you like, at least until they give up and chase after someone else. Or you can just leave them and go somewhere else.

Elanorin

2017-03-29, 01:41 PM

"What?" Winter is clearly straining to hear. Not only is she still rather hard of hearing, there's also an army of bird people all making an unholy racket around you. "I didn't ... What are you talking about? Look, I can't hear a word you say, so just listen.

"Do you see this chaos? There's someone trying to steal the tapestries in that tower, and I can't tell who is a thief and who is not in all this madness. I need everyone in one place, and I need them to stop long enough to make some sense of everything.

"But you can't make a bunch of ... of them," she gestures around at all the mad bird people, "You can't make them stay calm, not without the music. The music kept them in line. It ... helped, anyway. But your friend, Wings of Fire, she caused all this! Her and the two amaranthis with her, they broke the music and incited all this madness.

"I need the tapestries to end this! It is the only way, but if someone doesn't use this chaos to steal them from right under our noses, chances are my own people will tear them apart in their madness. Either way, we're well and truly lost.

"If I am to stop this, I need to get into that tower first and keep everyone else out. If you are not a thief, then help me do that."

Be wary of who you trust with the tapestries, Winter included. This madness serves only one: Caligo and her servants. It makes it nearly impossible to trust anyone. Winter may have good intentions, but it's not clear that her plan hasn't been planted in her head by one of Caligo's servants. This music she speaks of may have indeed helped keep the savages in line, but who knows what whispers it filled their and Winter's heads with.

And even if her plan is her own, you suspect she isn't so much carrying out a carefully laid plan at precisely the right time as rushing to carry out whatever rash half-plan she can before it's too late.

As for what she can tell you about Wings of Fire, beyond the fact that she and her two companions started this chaos, probably a lot, but I'll let Wings herself tell you what else Winter might tell you on that topic.

"I'm not a thief," Jara assured Winter seriously, still clinging on. "And if you're not one either then I will help you. As long as you don't harm the tapestries," she promised. "Or the Greatfather," she added quickly. "We can stand guard together. Four eyes see better than two, you know. And, we have a dragon." There was no small amount of smug in her voice at that.

Anarion

2017-03-29, 04:30 PM

http://orig08.deviantart.net/5b2f/f/2012/017/8/4/841c370f55fb94615fb8631bdaed743b-d4mp0qq.jpg (http://framedbynature.deviantart.com/art/Wall-of-Geese-279983618)

An army of amaranthi is swarming towards the tower with one thing only on their minds: death and destruction. This is like the mob, but a hundred times worse. Most of them are deaf, or nearly so, even if reasoning with them was possible in the first place.

Half of them seem to be following - if that's the word - Claws of Disaster. They are holding it together about as well as their leader, which is to say ... not at all.

The other half are still following Winter of Romance, though keeping them in any semblance of a line does not appear to be foremost on her mind. It might be possible to reason with Winter - if anyone is still holding it together, it is her - but how much she can do to stop the rest is doubtful. Especially while Claws of Disaster leads half of them.

If Claws were taken out of the fight or shown to be weak, both sides would likely flock around Winter, though it's still not certain that she would keep them from fighting.

You do have a dragon and a wizard on your side. As formiddable a pair of allies as anyone could wish for. Even so: if you fight this out, it will be at a grave loss to both sides.

Or you could take the tapestries and run. Hide them somewhere and let the amaranthi raze the empty tower, then pray they don't find you.

MAD!: You can damage all stats immediately to end the threat, but at a terrible cost on both sides.

Flames of the Arcane: If you don't keep your two allies on a short leash, or if you take too long in your decisions, they are going to take charge ... and it will be MAD!

Deaf to all Reason: Most of the amaranthi are literally deaf, or close to it. You have to get very close and one-on-one to have any hope of them hearing you. If you can't touch them, you are too far away for them to hear a single word you say.

Disastrous Divisions: The armies will destroy each other in their madness. Talking Sense is of no use as long as they are divided between two leaders.

"Sophie, remember that time Gran had a tri-village pie-baking contest?"
"Whirr, click, clack, click?"
"This might be worse, I'm not sure yet."

"Hey, Vriexza! Hey!" Maerla's shouting carried through the air to one of the few not deaf creatures floating around. "Hey, can you fly up and breath fire to make a wall around the castle? Make it really big and obvious that you're doing it, I want them to stop running at us, not get burned to death!"

Okay, that would hopefully buy a little time. It wouldn't make the army sane, but they say the self-preservation instinct is the last thing to go, right? Surely they wouldn't run straight into a wall of burning death. Well, let's hope they at least wouldn't run into the wall for, say, a minute? How's that sound?

With that done, Maerla skittered Sophie down the sides of the castle at nearly a pure vertical. She could handle it, and they needed to, quite literally, get the drop on Claws of Disaster. She and wings were going to have a very long talk after this was done about letting party members try to take over leadership of insane armies, especially when Maerla wasn't the one getting to do it!

"Heeeeeeeeey, Claaaaaaaaws!" came the shouting voice as Sophie launched both of them through the air and Maerla clotheslined him with the butt of her spear. She had no imagination that she'd take him out in one hit, that wasn't really the halfing way anyway, not when he's this crazed. But she was confident that spear haft to beak would get his attention, and she was immediately up in his face thrusting her spear, separating him out from the army he was supposed to be leading, and taking all of his attention.

With Maerla's constant prodding, Claws of Disaster breaks off from his own army, suddenly running in parallel, abandoning the Amaranthi who are following him as Maerla breaks away from the massive force with Claws in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile, back inside the tower, Oudal is watching Arcifex. His eyes, that is, are looking at Arcifex, but the more Arcifex looks the less those eyes appear to be [i]seeing anything. Maybe it's just the binding spell, but the wood folk appears remarkably still.

This sounds like something that is not my problem right now. I sure hope Rhanya has competent retainers though.

Thanqol

2017-03-29, 04:45 PM

The amaranthi are too busy with Snowdrop or charging off to the tower to take note of you, and soon you are well away from the now empty camp. The snakes slither around your arms and shoulders and point their pointy heads where to go, leading you around the twisty maze of branches.

The forest gets thicker and darker, and the paths ever more narrow and twisty. Even the snakes seem increasingly uncertain with each twist and turn, sometimes arguing among themselves about which way to point.

There are sounds, like gnawing and pecking, and sometimes faint voices or cries like no animals you know of. Sometimes you see strange lights among the leaves and branches, flickers inviting you to investigate.

Do you try to follow the sounds, or maybe the lights? Or do you trust the snakes to figure it out?

Finding Your Way: You may opt to damage your Courage, Sense, or Wisdom to find the way..

Wings of Fire is pretty sure she had a nightmare like this once.

She's a city dragonbird, born and raised. The twisting streets of Linowan, the spectacular three dimensional drops and open, soaring architecture, clambering upside-down across the vast chains that hold the great city together - those things are normal to her. Open spaces and profound works of stone and genius. That's normal, that is how all the world should be.

And now she's here, covered in snakes, in a terrifying mystery forest, pursued by savage Amaranth and unable to shake the sense that at any second Winter of Romance might step out from behind a tree and tell her that she has to give an oral presentation to the class on a topic she's never heard of and also that she's not wearing pants.

These are all things that are not conductive to Wings of Fire's psychological state.

Damaging Courage.

Raz_Fox

2017-03-29, 08:54 PM

BEING THE DECLARATION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, UNTO THE GRYPHON, MASTER OF THE EASTERN SKIES

"Do something cool."

Maerla trusts me to be able to impress an entire Amarathi army. Or, perhaps, to be quick-thinking and adroit enough to divine a solution when given the proper opening. However, her faith in me, I fear, may be misplaced, or else too vast- no, not her faith, her desperation. Needs must when the devil-tiger bites, as my people are known to say. What else might she do but trust that I might be able to do something incredible, achieve some miracle?

I turn, and assume my most regal aspect. My name flowers about my head, and my eyes are deep pools untouched by time or disturbance, like the waters of a cave nine furlongs beneath the earth, where there is no light and neither breath nor tremor moves across them. "Gryphon," I state, one foot planted firmly upon the ground before me, "I greet you as an equal: royal in aspect, character, and performer of impossible deeds. I have walked paths that would drive you mad, your eyes a whirlpool of eternal horrors, your feet unable to find their way. I have slain Tigers and danced the Ninefold Way of the Universal Monarch; I am of his blood and his lineage, and the world is my birthright, though robbed by the jealous stars who overcome my people in a game."

"I have come to this tower by many trials, and a company of heroes I have formed around my august person. Now, I shall return to you this red thread, by my name and my hand and my enlightened will, and we shall speak of the location of the Titan we seek, that we might save this world, and in the doing, my kingdom in the jungles of the moon beyond the mountains of lost time."

"Now do as I say, without hesitation or untoward pride uprising its wicked head: make it so that all gathered here may witness my art!"

This last echoes throughout the room, and the dust rises in a sudden sweep up the walls, blasted away from my radiant aura. Letters of fire sear themselves in the air about me, and I meet the Gryphon's mad gaze with steel in my bones. I will stop these Amarath just as the ones before were stopped by my friends; my art, learned from Snowdrop, writ large enough to be beheld by an army.

[Rolling to Talk Sense to the Gryphon, dazzling him with +Grace. [roll0]]

TheAmishPirate

2017-03-30, 02:45 PM

You're out and none of the amaranthi have a clue where you've gone. They all scramble over each other to find you, but none of them are looking in the right place. You have some time in which to do something, if you like, at least until they give up and chase after someone else. Or you can just leave them and go somewhere else.

Go somewhere else? That's no good. If Snowdrop goes somewhere else, then the Amaranthi will go somewhere else, and then there'll be a bunch of Amaranthi somewhere else! No, somebody else been putting ideas in their heads long enough. It's Snowdrop's turn to put ideas in their heads.

With the time she has, Snowdrop will find a portion of the forest with a great number of interconnected branches to use as a stage. She'll then bring flurries of glittering snow falling down on the Amaranthi's heads, which should catch their attention. Once all of them have noticed her, and are staring attentively, she will begin to skate. Dancing from branch to branch, performing elaborate acrobatic twirls, pirouettes, and poses. Even as riled up as the Amaranthi are, none of them would dare to disturb her show. They...could always grab her later, right?

For a grand finale, she'll carve an crystal-ice pattern between the boughs, forming the symbol of this particular Amaranthi tribe. And bow graciously to her new fans.

[Rolling for Enchanting Performance: 5 + 4 + 2 = 11. They like me! They really like me! Forging a Bond with the whole crowd: I have reminded them of the beauty left in this world, when all they knew was destruction.]

Deadly

2017-04-06, 01:52 PM

"I'm not a thief," Jara assured Winter seriously, still clinging on. "And if you're not one either then I will help you. As long as you don't harm the tapestries," she promised. "Or the Greatfather," she added quickly. "We can stand guard together. Four eyes see better than two, you know. And, we have a dragon." There was no small amount of smug in her voice at that.

"Yes, I see that," Winter said. The dragon was hard to miss. It was also making it really hard to get close, setting the very air around the tower on fire to make anyone think twice about trying to get through.

There were holes here and there, but the way the dragon was throwing fire left and right, trying to slip through was a risky proposition.

"We need to get past that fire!" Winter said as she wove in and out of charging amaranthi and stray blasts of fire. "Can you help with that? Anything?"

"Sophie, remember that time Gran had a tri-village pie-baking contest?"
"Whirr, click, clack, click?"
"This might be worse, I'm not sure yet."

"Hey, Vriexza! Hey!" Maerla's shouting carried through the air to one of the few not deaf creatures floating around. "Hey, can you fly up and breath fire to make a wall around the castle? Make it really big and obvious that you're doing it, I want them to stop running at us, not get burned to death!"

Okay, that would hopefully buy a little time. It wouldn't make the army sane, but they say the self-preservation instinct is the last thing to go, right? Surely they wouldn't run straight into a wall of burning death. Well, let's hope they at least wouldn't run into the wall for, say, a minute? How's that sound?

With that done, Maerla skittered Sophie down the sides of the castle at nearly a pure vertical. She could handle it, and they needed to, quite literally, get the drop on Claws of Disaster. She and wings were going to have a very long talk after this was done about letting party members try to take over leadership of insane armies, especially when Maerla wasn't the one getting to do it!

"Heeeeeeeeey, Claaaaaaaaws!" came the shouting voice as Sophie launched both of them through the air and Maerla clotheslined him with the butt of her spear. She had no imagination that she'd take him out in one hit, that wasn't really the halfing way anyway, not when he's this crazed. But she was confident that spear haft to beak would get his attention, and she was immediately up in his face thrusting her spear, separating him out from the army he was supposed to be leading, and taking all of his attention.

With Maerla's constant prodding, Claws of Disaster breaks off from his own army, suddenly running in parallel, abandoning the Amaranthi who are following him as Maerla breaks away from the massive force with Claws in hot pursuit.

Vriexza is in the air and happy to create a furnace around the tower. Even from a distance, you can feel the heat waving off the wall of burning death.

The spear to the beak gets Claws' attention, alright. The thing about leading an army of near-mindless bird people, however, is that you don't so much tell them what to do as you just charge, and they follow. The wall of fire further encourages them to change course.

In short, half the amaranthi - all the ones following Claws - change course and charge off after their leader ... and you. You keep them busy as long as you like, but you can't just stop keeping them busy or you'll get dog-piled. If you want to stop, you need to roll to Get Away.

Or you can just lead them on a wild chase.

Winter isn't paying any attention to the armies, besides dodging anything that gets in her way. She and Jara are making straight for the tower. Clearly she doesn't see any point trying to deal with her out-of-control people when they're this bad, instead she's going to take advantage of the chaos to get inside the tower and get her claws on the tapestries before anyone else does.

Wings of Fire is pretty sure she had a nightmare like this once.

She's a city dragonbird, born and raised. The twisting streets of Linowan, the spectacular three dimensional drops and open, soaring architecture, clambering upside-down across the vast chains that hold the great city together - those things are normal to her. Open spaces and profound works of stone and genius. That's normal, that is how all the world should be.

And now she's here, covered in snakes, in a terrifying mystery forest, pursued by savage Amaranth and unable to shake the sense that at any second Winter of Romance might step out from behind a tree and tell her that she has to give an oral presentation to the class on a topic she's never heard of and also that she's not wearing pants.

These are all things that are not conductive to Wings of Fire's psychological state.

Damaging Courage.

You charge through the forest almost blind with fear and blind to anything but the path. Distractions and illusions, they can't trick someone who doesn't even look. Somehow, your terrified stumbling leads you true.

You almost fall into a giant nest, a cave of branches and vines tangling together like walls. In the back of the nest there's a massive trunk of a tree, only a small part of it exposed.

Some great, lumbering beast is tearing at the branches and bark around the tree, trying to expose more of it and break through its outer defenses to infect its wooden heart with its corruption-soaked claws. It has no mind for anything else right now, but it clearly cannot be allowed to continue its corrupted destruction.

Corrosive Touch: Anything trying to touch a Blighted must pay a price.

Claws and Death: When an owl bear causes damage, it deals a second point of damage. This extra damage can be dealt to either the same target or a different enemy near them.

BEING THE DECLARATION OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, UNTO THE GRYPHON, MASTER OF THE EASTERN SKIES

"Do something cool."

Maerla trusts me to be able to impress an entire Amarathi army. Or, perhaps, to be quick-thinking and adroit enough to divine a solution when given the proper opening. However, her faith in me, I fear, may be misplaced, or else too vast- no, not her faith, her desperation. Needs must when the devil-tiger bites, as my people are known to say. What else might she do but trust that I might be able to do something incredible, achieve some miracle?

I turn, and assume my most regal aspect. My name flowers about my head, and my eyes are deep pools untouched by time or disturbance, like the waters of a cave nine furlongs beneath the earth, where there is no light and neither breath nor tremor moves across them. "Gryphon," I state, one foot planted firmly upon the ground before me, "I greet you as an equal: royal in aspect, character, and performer of impossible deeds. I have walked paths that would drive you mad, your eyes a whirlpool of eternal horrors, your feet unable to find their way. I have slain Tigers and danced the Ninefold Way of the Universal Monarch; I am of his blood and his lineage, and the world is my birthright, though robbed by the jealous stars who overcome my people in a game."

"I have come to this tower by many trials, and a company of heroes I have formed around my august person. Now, I shall return to you this red thread, by my name and my hand and my enlightened will, and we shall speak of the location of the Titan we seek, that we might save this world, and in the doing, my kingdom in the jungles of the moon beyond the mountains of lost time."

"Now do as I say, without hesitation or untoward pride uprising its wicked head: [I]make it so that all gathered here may witness my art!"

This last echoes throughout the room, and the dust rises in a sudden sweep up the walls, blasted away from my radiant aura. Letters of fire sear themselves in the air about me, and I meet the Gryphon's mad gaze with steel in my bones. I will stop these Amarath just as the ones before were stopped by my friends; my art, learned from Snowdrop, writ large enough to be beheld by an army.

[Rolling to Talk Sense to the Gryphon, dazzling him with +Grace. [roll0]]

"The sky itself shall be a canvas for your art," the Gryphon said and bowed with a flourish befitting both a lion and an eagle. And as he began to work his magics, the sky indeed filled with the fire of your letters.

Between you and Maerla, Flames of the Arcane is damaged. You've got your allies safely engaged.

You also have an advantage trying to deal with Winter's gang, now that Claws has run off and the two sides aren't tearing each other apart ... quite as much.

Go somewhere else? That's no good. If Snowdrop goes somewhere else, then the Amaranthi will go somewhere else, and then there'll be a bunch of Amaranthi somewhere else! No, somebody else been putting ideas in their heads long enough. It's Snowdrop's turn to put ideas in their heads.

With the time she has, Snowdrop will find a portion of the forest with a great number of interconnected branches to use as a stage. She'll then bring flurries of glittering snow falling down on the Amaranthi's heads, which should catch their attention. Once all of them have noticed her, and are staring attentively, she will begin to skate. Dancing from branch to branch, performing elaborate acrobatic twirls, pirouettes, and poses. Even as riled up as the Amaranthi are, none of them would dare to disturb her show. They...could always grab her later, right?

For a grand finale, she'll carve an crystal-ice pattern between the boughs, forming the symbol of this particular Amaranthi tribe. And bow graciously to her new fans.

[Rolling for Enchanting Performance: 5 + 4 + 2 = 11. They like me! They really like me! Forging a Bond with the whole crowd: I have reminded them of the beauty left in this world, when all they knew was destruction.]

They all cheer and shower you in praise. They are eager to follow you, so where do you take them? What do you do?

Thanqol

2017-04-06, 05:56 PM

You charge through the forest almost blind with fear and blind to anything but the path. Distractions and illusions, they can't trick someone who doesn't even look. Somehow, your terrified stumbling leads you true.

You almost fall into a giant nest, a cave of branches and vines tangling together like walls. In the back of the nest there's a massive trunk of a tree, only a small part of it exposed.

Some great, lumbering beast is tearing at the branches and bark around the tree, trying to expose more of it and break through its outer defenses to infect its wooden heart with its corruption-soaked claws. It has no mind for anything else right now, but it clearly cannot be allowed to continue its corrupted destruction.

Corrosive Touch: Anything trying to touch a Blighted must pay a price.

Claws and Death: When an owl bear causes damage, it deals a second point of damage. This extra damage can be dealt to either the same target or a different enemy near them.

The rotting owlbear is a terrifying apex predator; a creation of necromancy and sorcery and rage. Twenty men might fight one and lose. It's deceptively fast and quick for its size and has an incredible sense of sight making it almost impossible to surprise. A creature to be taken seriously. King Albericht of Pertia once tracked one for three weeks, littering it's back with thirty arrows, and losing three brothers in the hunt - and he was considered a great hunter for such a feat.

Against Wings of Fire it doesn't last three seconds.

A shocking series of detonations rock the clearing. The owlbear itself perhaps catches a glimpse of crimson feathers and lightning speed - perhaps it is truly deadly enough to realize what is happening to it. When the smoke clears the monster's severed head is impaled against the trunk of the tree with a long iron spike. Scorched meat splatters the entire clearing. Wings of Fire is coughing through the smoke and trying to catch her breath and calm down. Her heart pounds like a drum but by the Spiral it felt good to destroy something. Slightly dazed she tries to take her bearings.

[Dishonour Before Death: Break a weapon to pay a price, break a weapon to create an Advantage to Finish Them in glorious combat. Sons of War means I can create new weapons instantly so this basically cost me nothing.
Finish Them: 10

Wings of Fire p. good at fighting.]

Deadly

2017-04-07, 02:29 AM

The rotting owlbear is a terrifying apex predator; a creation of necromancy and sorcery and rage. Twenty men might fight one and lose. It's deceptively fast and quick for its size and has an incredible sense of sight making it almost impossible to surprise. A creature to be taken seriously. King Albericht of Pertia once tracked one for three weeks, littering it's back with thirty arrows, and losing three brothers in the hunt - and he was considered a great hunter for such a feat.

Against Wings of Fire it doesn't last three seconds.

A shocking series of detonations rock the clearing. The owlbear itself perhaps catches a glimpse of crimson feathers and lightning speed - perhaps it is truly deadly enough to realize what is happening to it. When the smoke clears the monster's severed head is impaled against the trunk of the tree with a long iron spike. Scorched meat splatters the entire clearing. Wings of Fire is coughing through the smoke and trying to catch her breath and calm down. Her heart pounds like a drum but by the Spiral it felt good to destroy something. Slightly dazed she tries to take her bearings.

[Dishonour Before Death: Break a weapon to pay a price, break a weapon to create an Advantage to Finish Them in glorious combat. Sons of War means I can create new weapons instantly so this basically cost me nothing.
Finish Them: 10

Wings of Fire p. good at fighting.]

Explosions rock the clearing and tear both beast and branches to pieces all around you. The forest shivers before your destruction. The beast falls apart, like a doll or a puppet made of flesh held together with wood and vines. The clearing is littered with broken branches, torn pieces of wood, and bits of blighted flesh.

You hear a clapping and a cheering from within the dense cover of branches above the exposed tree trunk. You can just barely make out a darker shaper within the darkness, you think. "Marvelous! Magnificent!"

Around the base of the tree, pieces of wood and meat draws itself together into the distorted shape of beasts. These are crude, shambling things, but they are hungry for flesh.

"Do it again!"

"Be wary," one of the snakes whispers in your ear.

Painless: Zombies do not stop attacking until they are destroyed. If they take damage while all of their stats are already damaged, they are destroyed.

Simpleton Hivemind: A group of zombies acts as a single unit, moving as one towards the nearest source of living meat. They are easily duped and confused - when this stat is damaged, the group breaks up and cannot focus on anything that isn't within arm's reach.

Thanqol

2017-04-07, 03:22 AM

Explosions rock the clearing and tear both beast and branches to pieces all around you. The forest shivers before your destruction. The beast falls apart, like a doll or a puppet made of flesh held together with wood and vines. The clearing is littered with broken branches, torn pieces of wood, and bits of blighted flesh.

You hear a clapping and a cheering from within the dense cover of branches above the exposed tree trunk. You can just barely make out a darker shaper within the darkness, you think. "Marvelous! Magnificent!"

Around the base of the tree, pieces of wood and meat draws itself together into the distorted shape of beasts. These are crude, shambling things, but they are hungry for flesh.

"Do it again!"

"Be wary," one of the snakes whispers in your ear.

Painless: Zombies do not stop attacking until they are destroyed. If they take damage while all of their stats are already damaged, they are destroyed.

Simpleton Hivemind: A group of zombies acts as a single unit, moving as one towards the nearest source of living meat. They are easily duped and confused - when this stat is damaged, the group breaks up and cannot focus on anything that isn't within arm's reach.

"Who's there!?" said Wings of Fire. She snatched up a pine cone and instantly it ran through with elaborate gold-scarlet tracery, intricately detailed like a magical circuit board, and the core of it began to glow with an unstable red-violet light like a star having an anger-induced stroke. She stuffed this down the barrel of her rifle and the entire weapon took on an unnatural hue. "Show yourself!"

Wings of Fire was not handling this particularly well. Her heartbeat was pounding and she was backing up to try and find a defensible position.

[Look Closely: 5. What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?]

Anarion

2017-04-07, 08:08 AM

Vriexza is in the air and happy to create a furnace around the tower. Even from a distance, you can feel the heat waving off the wall of burning death.

The spear to the beak gets Claws' attention, alright. The thing about leading an army of near-mindless bird people, however, is that you don't so much tell them what to do as you just charge, and they follow. The wall of fire further encourages them to change course.

In short, half the amaranthi - all the ones following Claws - change course and charge off after their leader ... and you. You keep them busy as long as you like, but you can't just stop keeping them busy or you'll get dog-piled. If you want to stop, you need to roll to Get Away.

Or you can just lead them on a wild chase.

Winter isn't paying any attention to the armies, besides dodging anything that gets in her way. She and Jara are making straight for the tower. Clearly she doesn't see any point trying to deal with her out-of-control people when they're this bad, instead she's going to take advantage of the chaos to get inside the tower and get her claws on the tapestries before anyone else does.

A shocking series of detonations rock the clearing.

"Sophie, was that a series of large explosions?" Maerla asks her spider rhetorically. Sophie clicks her mandibles in agreement, and the two scamper ahead of half the Amaranthi army led by Claws. Maerla considered trying to reason with them, but it turned out they were all still deaf, and she might have made the sign language for "I'm going to hit you in the face with the butt of my spear" several times in a row by accident. On purpose. And then hit them with the spear. The point was, reason was not yet solving this problem.

"Claws, hey, hey Claws of disaster, can you hear me yet? You gotta stop this army. Wings of Fire will be really mad at you for this!" Maerla shouts anyway.

More importantly than just passing the time though, she turns Sophie towards the sound of explosions. It was a good bet that was where she'd find Wings of Fire, and if hopefully between the two of them, they'd be able to stop half an army of berserker Amaranthi (or at least get them tired enough to stop on their own).

Elanorin

2017-04-08, 02:19 PM

"Yes, I see that," Winter said. The dragon was hard to miss. It was also making it really hard to get close, setting the very air around the tower on fire to make anyone think twice about trying to get through.

There were holes here and there, but the way the dragon was throwing fire left and right, trying to slip through was a risky proposition.

"We need to get past that fire!" Winter said as she wove in and out of charging amaranthi and stray blasts of fire. "Can you help with that? Anything?"

Vriexza is in the air and happy to create a furnace around the tower. Even from a distance, you can feel the heat waving off the wall of burning death.

"Yeah, but... just fly over it!" Jara said with the unmistakable 'duh' tone of someone having to teach an amaranth to fly over a wall of fire suck eggs.

TheAmishPirate

2017-04-09, 01:44 PM

They all cheer and shower you in praise. They are eager to follow you, so where do you take them? What do you do?

Snowdrop is going to take her merry band of Amaranthi and follow after Wings of Fire.

Deadly

2017-04-10, 02:00 PM

"Who's there!?" said Wings of Fire. She snatched up a pine cone and instantly it ran through with elaborate gold-scarlet tracery, intricately detailed like a magical circuit board, and the core of it began to glow with an unstable red-violet light like a star having an anger-induced stroke. She stuffed this down the barrel of her rifle and the entire weapon took on an unnatural hue. "Show yourself!"

Wings of Fire was not handling this particularly well. Her heartbeat was pounding and she was backing up to try and find a defensible position.

[Look Closely: 5. What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?]

Winter of Romance. Who else?

You only spot her after a while because she wants you to, or so you assume. She's standing on one of the main branches growing from the tree, one boot planted on the fresh corpse of Krat, Caligo's lieutenant. Do you actually know Krat, or what Krat looks like? You have no doubt who it is just from a look, so you must ... right?

As impressive as you slaughtering an owlbear was, of course she had to beat you to the one that actually mattered. And you were so close, too.

She's not admiring your work, of course. She's mocking it.

"Sophie, was that a series of large explosions?" Maerla asks her spider rhetorically. Sophie clicks her mandibles in agreement, and the two scamper ahead of half the Amaranthi army led by Claws. Maerla considered trying to reason with them, but it turned out they were all still deaf, and she might have made the sign language for "I'm going to hit you in the face with the butt of my spear" several times in a row by accident. On purpose. And then hit them with the spear. The point was, reason was not yet solving this problem.

"Claws, hey, hey Claws of disaster, can you hear me yet? You gotta stop this army. Wings of Fire will be really mad at you for this!" Maerla shouts anyway.

More importantly than just passing the time though, she turns Sophie towards the sound of explosions. It was a good bet that was where she'd find Wings of Fire, and if hopefully between the two of them, they'd be able to stop half an army of berserker Amaranthi (or at least get them tired enough to stop on their own).

Snowdrop is going to take her merry band of Amaranthi and follow after Wings of Fire.

You both stumble through the forest, trying to follow Wings. Like Wings, you find the paths trying to lead you astray, and strange noises and lights luring or confusing you.

Like Wings, you may sacrifice your Courage, Sense, or Wisdom to find the way. Or you can try to follow the lights, or maybe the sounds.

"Yeah, but... just fly over it!" Jara said with the unmistakable 'duh' tone of someone having to teach an amaranth to fly over a wall of fire suck eggs.

"And you don't think the dragon would notice and turn its fire on us?" Winter seemed to consider for just a moment. "You did say the dragon was with you. If that's true, then just tell it to ignore us. Should make this much easier."

Anarion

2017-04-10, 03:23 PM

Maerla will damage her wisdom. She's being pretty heedless anyway, and leading a whole half army of Amaranthi by the nose blindly into an enchanted forest does not shout "I'm carefully considering my actions" to me.

Elanorin

2017-04-11, 01:45 PM

"And you don't think the dragon would notice and turn its fire on us?" Winter seemed to consider for just a moment. "You did say the dragon was with you. If that's true, then just tell it to ignore us. Should make this much easier."

"...point," Jara conceded.

"Hey! The Great And All-Consuming Vriexza! Let us through! We'll help defend from behind the fire!" Jara called up to the dragon in the sky above.

Thanqol

2017-04-11, 08:59 PM

Winter of Romance. Who else?

You only spot her after a while because she wants you to, or so you assume. She's standing on one of the main branches growing from the tree, one boot planted on the fresh corpse of Krat, Caligo's lieutenant. Do you actually know Krat, or what Krat looks like? You have no doubt who it is just from a look, so you must ... right?

As impressive as you slaughtering an owlbear was, of course she had to beat you to the one that actually mattered. And you were so close, too.

She's not admiring your work, of course. She's mocking it.

Aw dang.

For a long moment Wings of Fire forgets that she's surrounded by shambling zombies and just feels bad about herself. It's a familiar kind of suck, just a long sideways sidle into mediocrity rather than a special kind of failure. She halfheartedly readies her weapon as the dead close in on her and figures she'll just get this all over with and go home and stop pretending -

If he's dead then why are the zombies still coming for you?

It's a very clever thought in a very simple brain. It causes the right response for all the wrong reasons. Wings of Fire snaps up, mind focusing, eyes, blazing, yells, "IT'S FAKING!" and lunges forwards with a spear tipped with a tiny black hole.

(What she means is that Krat is only playing dead and that Winter of Romance is in terrible danger. What it looks like is that Wings of Fire is flipping out and running at Winter with a spear.)

TheAmishPirate

2017-04-12, 12:54 PM

You both stumble through the forest, trying to follow Wings. Like Wings, you find the paths trying to lead you astray, and strange noises and lights luring or confusing you.

Like Wings, you may sacrifice your Courage, Sense, or Wisdom to find the way. Or you can try to follow the lights, or maybe the sounds.

Snowdrop will damage her Sense. Much of her long life has been spent in the embrace of Winter, and the excitement of the situation has made her forget where she is. She knows that she is heading for Wings, and she has every confidence that she will get there in good time, but nothing beyond this ever crosses her mind.

Deadly

2017-04-13, 02:29 PM

"...point," Jara conceded.

"Hey! The Great And All-Consuming Vriexza! Let us through! We'll help defend from behind the fire!" Jara called up to the dragon in the sky above.

Vriexza wasn't about to spend any time over-thinking it. He had half an army of Amaranthi to hold back.

There were two ways of looking at this ...

One, you were riding on the back of an Amaranth. The leader of half the army, no less. Clearly a dragon couldn't be expected to make exceptions and judgment calls in the middle of a war. Its job was to keep everyone on one side from getting to the other side, whoever they were or whatever they said.

Two, you were with the princess and the wood folk. Obviously it was not the dragon's job to question allies. This was someone else's responsibility.

... if you were over-thinking. But this was dragon thinking, and a dragon can't be expected to keep every little flying bug away. Surely it was good enough that it kept most of them away. Half an army was quite enough to contend yourself with, even for a mighty dragon. Let others worry about the stragglers.

In short, Vriexza barely gave you a grunt of acknowledgement, and Winter darted through, over, and around the dancing tongues of fire with grace and seeming ease. To be honest, you didn't think it would have made that much difference if the dragon had been breathing fire at you.

You see the tower, and the single entrance, in front of which are Rahnya and the Gryphon. "Tell them we need to get inside the tower," Winter says.

Aw dang.

For a long moment Wings of Fire forgets that she's surrounded by shambling zombies and just feels bad about herself. It's a familiar kind of suck, just a long sideways sidle into mediocrity rather than a special kind of failure. She halfheartedly readies her weapon as the dead close in on her and figures she'll just get this all over with and go home and stop pretending -

If he's dead then why are the zombies still coming for you?

It's a very clever thought in a very simple brain. It causes the right response for all the wrong reasons. Wings of Fire snaps up, mind focusing, eyes, blazing, yells, "IT'S FAKING!" and lunges forwards with a spear tipped with a tiny black hole.

(What she means is that Krat is only playing dead and that Winter of Romance is in terrible danger. What it looks like is that Wings of Fire is flipping out and running at Winter with a spear.)

Winter, apparently losing all her grace and poise in that moment, stumbles back and falls from the branch like a plump apple. An apple with wings, mind you. With a somewhat undignified flapping and fluttering, she manages to regain herself while you're burying your spear deep in the limp body of Krat. It sputters blood and corruption, but offers little reaction otherwise.

Behind you, in this moment, Maerla and Snowdrop come bursting out of the forest from two different directions, half an army of war-crazed and/or inspired Amaranthi tearing through the thickets right on their heels.

Maerla will damage her wisdom. She's being pretty heedless anyway, and leading a whole half army of Amaranthi by the nose blindly into an enchanted forest does not shout "I'm carefully considering my actions" to me.

Snowdrop will damage her Sense. Much of her long life has been spent in the embrace of Winter, and the excitement of the situation has made her forget where she is. She knows that she is heading for Wings, and she has every confidence that she will get there in good time, but nothing beyond this ever crosses her mind.

You both arrive just in time to see Wings bury a spear in the oosing body of Krat, and Winter regaining her poise and taking stock of you and this new situation.

Elanorin

2017-04-13, 03:13 PM

Vriexza wasn't about to spend any time over-thinking it. He had half an army of Amaranthi to hold back.

There were two ways of looking at this ...

One, you were riding on the back of an Amaranth. The leader of half the army, no less. Clearly a dragon couldn't be expected to make exceptions and judgment calls in the middle of a war. Its job was to keep everyone on one side from getting to the other side, whoever they were or whatever they said.

Two, you were with the princess and the wood folk. Obviously it was not the dragon's job to question allies. This was someone else's responsibility.

... if you were over-thinking. But this was dragon thinking, and a dragon can't be expected to keep every little flying bug away. Surely it was good enough that it kept most of them away. Half an army was quite enough to contend yourself with, even for a mighty dragon. Let others worry about the stragglers.

In short, Vriexza barely gave you a grunt of acknowledgement, and Winter darted through, over, and around the dancing tongues of fire with grace and seeming ease. To be honest, you didn't think it would have made that much difference if the dragon had been breathing fire at you.

You see the tower, and the single entrance, in front of which are Rahnya and the Gryphon. "Tell them we need to get inside the tower," Winter says.

"I don't know why you don't just fly," Jara muttered, as she watched the impressive dragon above, half wishing she was up there riding its back in heroic fiery battle instead of bouncing along piggyback on a rude amaranth with fear of heights.

She shines up at the sight of Rahnya however and waves excitedly to catch the Princess' attention. Jara was not about to just dash past her royal companion and mentor.

"Your Highness! Hello! Look! I found someone else to help us! Her name is- uh- wait, what's your name?"

Anarion

2017-04-13, 07:58 PM

You both arrive just in time to see Wings bury a spear in the oosing body of Krat, and Winter regaining her poise and taking stock of you and this new situation.

"What the? Wings?! What's going on here?! And can you tell your bodyguard to STOP TRYING TO STAB ME!?" Maerla does not stop Sophie while she's saying that, but maneuvers her out of the way as Claws lunges out of the undergrowth, Sophie skittering up a nearby tree branch and using that as leverage to propel them away from the rest of the army that's now bursting into the clearing. She notices Snowdrop with her contingent at about the same time and sighs. "This is definitely worse than the pie bakeoff" she says out loud to nobody in particular, swinging her spear to create space around her as she continues her run.

Raz_Fox

2017-04-13, 11:48 PM

BEING THE INTERRUPTION OF THE ART OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS SHE CARVES THE SACRED SYMBOLS OF THE GOLDEN AGE INTO THE SKY IN TONGUES OF FIRE

There are symbols which are universal, or were, once. Symbols which were known among every people that the Universal Monarch possessed sovereignty over, carved into the world by his Amaranthi architects, some of which must still remain: even should these feral warriors no longer retain the capacity to recognize symbols such as the Crown and the Gate, there is a symbol that all must still recognize.

The Fire-capped Pyramid, which marks forbidden and dangerous places, which says to the reader: come not, for within lies only death and possibly very uncomfortable magical curses. And such was the wisdom of the Universal Monarch that he chose a symbol that was uneasy to look upon and terrible in aspect.

I take a stylus and trace in the air the elegant lines of the Fire-capped Pyramid, and in the sky above, fire echoes my stylus's tip. I draw back and prepare to make the last stroke, the fire that bursts from the pyramid's capstone, the danger that all must be aware of, the danger that might just convince these half-mindless soldiers to pull away and regroup for another assault, buying us all time.

Then Jara and an Amaranth I don't believe I recognize soar before me, and I hesitate, perhaps for a fatal moment. Surprise flashes across my face and around my dark hair, and for a moment I am mute- but a moment only, before I make that last stroke and allow myself to breathe once more. Let us only hope that I was in time.

"Come," I say, taking a step back and gesturing for the Amaranth to land before me. "I welcome you to the Tower of the Greatfather, abode of the illustrious Gryphon. Jara, do you know where Snowdrop is?"

Thanqol

2017-04-14, 12:33 AM

Winter, apparently losing all her grace and poise in that moment, stumbles back and falls from the branch like a plump apple. An apple with wings, mind you. With a somewhat undignified flapping and fluttering, she manages to regain herself while you're burying your spear deep in the limp body of Krat. It sputters blood and corruption, but offers little reaction otherwise.

Behind you, in this moment, Maerla and Snowdrop come bursting out of the forest from two different directions, half an army of war-crazed and/or inspired Amaranthi tearing through the thickets right on their heels.

"What the? Wings?! What's going on here?! And can you tell your bodyguard to STOP TRYING TO STAB ME!?" Maerla does not stop Sophie while she's saying that, but maneuvers her out of the way as Claws lunges out of the undergrowth, Sophie skittering up a nearby tree branch and using that as leverage to propel them away from the rest of the army that's now bursting into the clearing. She notices Snowdrop with her contingent at about the same time and sighs. "This is definitely worse than the pie bakeoff" she says out loud to nobody in particular, swinging her spear to create space around her as she continues her run.

Check - zombies still animate. This body is a fake. Opposition still active

The spear wielded by Fire is a mobile implosion vortex. It howls and thrums as it glides through the air, leaving long warped aftertrails of light and shadow. The spearpoint is deepest black and surrounded by coruscating white energy like the halo of the sun. Twisted wood runs with thick currents of energy, elaborate circuit-tracery barely keeping the energy in check. As with everything Fire creates it is the bare minimum required to be functional - but that is more than sufficient for the work required.

Winter of Romance is never that uncoordinated. She is a dancer, warrior, fencer, grew up on the high towers of Linowan.

"Winter has been poisoned, help her!" said Wings of Fire to Marela, already in motion. She leaps over the halfling and the spider, claps her wings out, and lands in a dead run. She angles herself for Claws of Disaster and, depending how much sense she sees in his eyes she will either open with an angry glare or a punch to the jaw.

Anarion

2017-04-15, 06:43 PM

Winter isn't paying any attention to the armies, besides dodging anything that gets in her way. She and Jara are making straight for the tower. Clearly she doesn't see any point trying to deal with her out-of-control people when they're this bad, instead she's going to take advantage of the chaos to get inside the tower and get her claws on the tapestries before anyone else does.

"Winter has been poisoned, help her!" said Wings of Fire to Marela, already in motion. She leaps over the halfling and the spider, claps her wings out, and lands in a dead run. She angles herself for Claws of Disaster and, depending how much sense she sees in his eyes she will either open with an angry glare or a punch to the jaw.

Now see, everyone, this is why, even during the thick of battle, you pay attention to things like what's happening with the commander of the enemy army, or sometimes where your extremely stress-inducing yet absolutely cute and endearing friend has gone. In this case, those two even aligned. Which means that whoever this is here, and whatever this thing happening is, Maerla doesn't believe that what's before her eyes is true.

Wings of Fire was very kindly getting in between Maerla and the entire oncoming army (which was really nice of her, Maerla made a mental note to tell Wings later what a good friend she was). Which allowed Maerla to pull Sophie up close to the body of Krat and Winter of Romance, or whatever it was that was actually happening here and actually look around. This whole thing wasn't right and if she could just figure out what it was that was throwing everything off then she'd know what to do.

[Look closely 6+4+1=11.]

1. What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?
2. Is something hidden or out of place? If so, what looks suspicious?
3. What will happen if I help what appears to be Winter of Romance here?

TheAmishPirate

2017-04-16, 04:28 PM

You both arrive just in time to see Wings bury a spear in the oosing body of Krat, and Winter regaining her poise and taking stock of you and this new situation.

It was a long day for Snowdrop.

She came all this way to give her good friend Wings a brand new army of Amaranthi to help her through these trying times, only to find that Maerla had the same idea, and had gotten there first, and now it'd be just tacky to give Wings the exact same gift. Not only that, but now she didn't have time to think of a new gift, because somebody had filled the grove with disgusting perversions of life that used the whole of their short existence to make the world a darker place zombies, and she needed to do something about that.

Snowdrop kicked at the ground, sending a flurry of snowflakes into the air. She let them float along the breeze, before snatching them back up in her arms and holding them to her ear, to listen to what they'd heard from the winds.

[Using the Elder Art Keen Senses: Who is responsible for the zombies?]

Elanorin

2017-04-18, 03:00 PM

Then Jara and an Amaranth I don't believe I recognize soar before me, and I hesitate, perhaps for a fatal moment. Surprise flashes across my face and around my dark hair, and for a moment I am mute- but a moment only, before I make that last stroke and allow myself to breathe once more. Let us only hope that I was in time.

"Come," I say, taking a step back and gesturing for the Amaranth to land before me. "I welcome you to the Tower of the Greatfather, abode of the illustrious Gryphon. Jara, do you know where Snowdrop is?"

Jara doesn't let go of the Amaranth even as they stop by Rayhna. She stubbornly holds on to her piggyback, as uncomfortable as it was for the both of them.

"Uh, Snowdrop, she, uh..." Jara looked back over her shoulder the way they had come and thought, it had all happened so fast. They had found the not-dead Wings of Fire and then there was this Amaranth who was ordering all kinds of Bad Things at her friends and so she went after her and grabbed her and-

"We found Wings of Fire. She didn't explode!" Jara declared, pointing in the direction they'd come. "Snowdrop was with me and... she must be with Wings of Fire still. This one was yelling hurtful stuff at my friends and needs to apologise." Jara scowled at Winter and grabbed a fistful of hair/feathers on her head and yanked to make her point.

Deadly

2017-04-21, 08:22 AM

"I don't know why you don't just fly," Jara muttered, as she watched the impressive dragon above, half wishing she was up there riding its back in heroic fiery battle instead of bouncing along piggyback on a rude amaranth with fear of heights.

And so we learn of Winter's embarrassing fear. Is it really possible that someone who

grew up on the high towers of Linowan

could be afraid of heights? Well, apparently. Don't tell anyone, especially not Wings of Fire.

Winter fumed but didn't dignify that comment with a response.

She shines up at the sight of Rahnya however and waves excitedly to catch the Princess' attention. Jara was not about to just dash past her royal companion and mentor.

"Your Highness! Hello! Look! I found someone else to help us! Her name is- uh- wait, what's your name?"

"Winter of Romance," said Winter curtly.

BEING THE INTERRUPTION OF THE ART OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, AS SHE CARVES THE SACRED SYMBOLS OF THE GOLDEN AGE INTO THE SKY IN TONGUES OF FIRE

There are symbols which are universal, or were, once. Symbols which were known among every people that the Universal Monarch possessed sovereignty over, carved into the world by his Amaranthi architects, some of which must still remain: even should these feral warriors no longer retain the capacity to recognize symbols such as the Crown and the Gate, there is a symbol that all must still recognize.

The Fire-capped Pyramid, which marks forbidden and dangerous places, which says to the reader: come not, for within lies only death and possibly very uncomfortable magical curses. And such was the wisdom of the Universal Monarch that he chose a symbol that was uneasy to look upon and terrible in aspect.

I take a stylus and trace in the air the elegant lines of the Fire-capped Pyramid, and in the sky above, fire echoes my stylus's tip. I draw back and prepare to make the last stroke, the fire that bursts from the pyramid's capstone, the danger that all must be aware of, the danger that might just convince these half-mindless soldiers to pull away and regroup for another assault, buying us all time.

Then Jara and an Amaranth I don't believe I recognize soar before me, and I hesitate, perhaps for a fatal moment. Surprise flashes across my face and around my dark hair, and for a moment I am mute- but a moment only, before I make that last stroke and allow myself to breathe once more. Let us only hope that I was in time.

Between the dragon, the fact that the opposing army just went off to who-knows-where (rude!), your foreboding symbol in the sky, and the lack of any new orders from their leader, the amaranthi seem to reconsider their heedless charge straight for the tower and instead fall back a short ways to reassess this most confusing and unorthodox situation. If only they had brains ...

"Come," I say, taking a step back and gesturing for the Amaranth to land before me. "I welcome you to the Tower of the Greatfather, abode of the illustrious Gryphon. Jara, do you know where Snowdrop is?"

Jara doesn't let go of the Amaranth even as they stop by Rayhna. She stubbornly holds on to her piggyback, as uncomfortable as it was for the both of them.

"Uh, Snowdrop, she, uh..." Jara looked back over her shoulder the way they had come and thought, it had all happened so fast. They had found the not-dead Wings of Fire and then there was this Amaranth who was ordering all kinds of Bad Things at her friends and so she went after her and grabbed her and-

"We found Wings of Fire. She didn't explode!" Jara declared, pointing in the direction they'd come. "Snowdrop was with me and... she must be with Wings of Fire still. This one was yelling hurtful stuff at my friends and needs to apologise." Jara scowled at Winter and grabbed a fistful of hair/feathers on her head and yanked to make her point.

"No pulling," Winter said and scowled back. "There's no time for small-talk. We have to secure the tapestries. Will you tell your dragon to let my people through so we can defend the tower?"

Check - zombies still animate. This body is a fake. Opposition still active

The spear wielded by Fire is a mobile implosion vortex. It howls and thrums as it glides through the air, leaving long warped aftertrails of light and shadow. The spearpoint is deepest black and surrounded by coruscating white energy like the halo of the sun. Twisted wood runs with thick currents of energy, elaborate circuit-tracery barely keeping the energy in check. As with everything Fire creates it is the bare minimum required to be functional - but that is more than sufficient for the work required.

Winter of Romance is never that uncoordinated. She is a dancer, warrior, fencer, grew up on the high towers of Linowan.

"Winter has been poisoned, help her!" said Wings of Fire to Marela, already in motion. She leaps over the halfling and the spider, claps her wings out, and lands in a dead run. She angles herself for Claws of Disaster and, depending how much sense she sees in his eyes she will either open with an angry glare or a punch to the jaw.

Might wanna go straight for a punch to the jaw.

It seems to me that you're calling upon Claws for help with the army of angry amaranthi - calling on him to snap out of it. You may damage one of his stats to put some sense back in his head/take him down a notch and gain an advantage over the army he's leading.

"What the? Wings?! What's going on here?! And can you tell your bodyguard to STOP TRYING TO STAB ME!?" Maerla does not stop Sophie while she's saying that, but maneuvers her out of the way as Claws lunges out of the undergrowth, Sophie skittering up a nearby tree branch and using that as leverage to propel them away from the rest of the army that's now bursting into the clearing. She notices Snowdrop with her contingent at about the same time and sighs. "This is definitely worse than the pie bakeoff" she says out loud to nobody in particular, swinging her spear to create space around her as she continues her run.

Now see, everyone, this is why, even during the thick of battle, you pay attention to things like what's happening with the commander of the enemy army, or sometimes where your extremely stress-inducing yet absolutely cute and endearing friend has gone. In this case, those two even aligned. Which means that whoever this is here, and whatever this thing happening is, Maerla doesn't believe that what's before her eyes is true.

Wings of Fire was very kindly getting in between Maerla and the entire oncoming army (which was really nice of her, Maerla made a mental note to tell Wings later what a good friend she was). Which allowed Maerla to pull Sophie up close to the body of Krat and Winter of Romance, or whatever it was that was actually happening here and actually look around. This whole thing wasn't right and if she could just figure out what it was that was throwing everything off then she'd know what to do.

[Look closely 6+4+1=11.]

1. What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?
2. Is something hidden or out of place? If so, what looks suspicious?
3. What will happen if I help what appears to be Winter of Romance here?

You're quite sure you're standing in the shadow of the Greatfather. The great tree in front of you ... it's much bigger than what can be seen, most of it hidden behind a nearly impenetrable thicket. The now dead owlbear and the zombies have been tearing away at the branches and bushes to try and expose more of it - of him - seeking his heart with their corrupted claws.

They've been working at it for a while. Good thing you got here when you did.

Winter - or what appears to be Winter - isn't poisoned, but Wings is right that she looks a bit less graceful than last you saw her. You know this because she's making a hasty retreat, and her gait is most un-amaranthine now. In fact it seems much more owl-like.

Despite her lack of grace, she clearly knows this place and its tangled, labyrinthine pathways like the back of her claw. You and Sophie could brave the thicket where most others couldn't, but not-Winter with her illusions could disappear forever in there if she got half the chance.

If you help her/let her run, she'll get away and try to recover her losses. She may have failed to corrupt the Greatfather - this time - but maybe she could still pull off stealing the tapestries if she's quick and daring.

It was a long day for Snowdrop.

She came all this way to give her good friend Wings a brand new army of Amaranthi to help her through these trying times, only to find that Maerla had the same idea, and had gotten there first, and now it'd be just tacky to give Wings the exact same gift. Not only that, but now she didn't have time to think of a new gift, because somebody had filled the grove with disgusting perversions of life that used the whole of their short existence to make the world a darker place zombies, and she needed to do something about that.

Snowdrop kicked at the ground, sending a flurry of snowflakes into the air. She let them float along the breeze, before snatching them back up in her arms and holding them to her ear, to listen to what they'd heard from the winds.

[Using the Elder Art Keen Senses: Who is responsible for the zombies?]

Winter, or what appears to be Winter, who is retreating into the thicket at top speed as we speak. The snowflakes whisper of the lies and corruption the fake amaranthi has been spreading.

Anarion

2017-04-21, 11:25 AM

Oh, oh oh oh, they'd found the illusionist. And it turned out that Krat was a coward. That wouldn't do at all! "Wait, Winter!" Maerla shouts, more for Wings of Fire's benefit than anything else. "I'm supposed to be helping you!"

More quietly, she gives Sophie a nudge and says "as fast as you can girl, don't let her out of sight, get me on top of her" and grips the reins tightly, balancing with her legs as Sophie makes a spider's leap and skitters alongside the Greatfather himself, moving from there to a treebranch and turning Maerla completly upside down as they loop around "Winter." Maerla's purple hair hangs down and her tunic is loose as Sophie, with a tremendous effort, leaps the two of them forward and lands directly atop the false Winter of Romance, bringing the whole lot down in a tangle of owlish Amaranth, spider, and quickly growing halfing who makes every effort to further entangle herself and bring down the fleeing illusionist.

[Rolling to keep them busy. Alas, 1+2+2=5. If someone could work together with Maerla on this, we might be able to turn it around though.]

Thanqol

2017-04-21, 11:55 PM

Might wanna go straight for a punch to the jaw.

It seems to me that you're calling upon Claws for help with the army of angry amaranthi - calling on him to snap out of it. You may damage one of his stats to put some sense back in his head/take him down a notch and gain an advantage over the army he's leading.

Again, we come to that reason why Wings of Fire, of all Amaranth, was chosen as Linowan's champion. There are faster, there are better, there are brighter, but no one else can make violence look so scary - and no one else can make a fight look so one sided.

The fight is closer than it looks, but it looks like a dismantling. Wings ducks through Claws' legs, kicks out his knee, and then swings around with a two-handed blow from the butt of her gun. She barely swerves away from a long leg sweep and comes crashing down on Claws' back with an elbow. She grabs the back of his head and slams it into the dirt and roars "SAY MY NAME! SAY MY NAME!"

She knows Claws of Disaster is tough and that he's not really hurt by any of this; if he wanted he could draw this fight out. She knows, though, that the key to victory lies in making the enemy think that they've already lost.

Damaging 'Bigger Than You'.

Raz_Fox

2017-04-23, 11:13 PM

"No pulling," Winter said and scowled back. "There's no time for small-talk. We have to secure the tapestries. Will you tell your dragon to let my people through so we can defend the tower?"

BEING THE REFUSAL OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, IN RESPONSE TO THE REQUEST MADE OF HER BY WINTER OF ROMANCE

"Firstly," I say, "The Dragon isn't specifically our dragon, but rather her own being, who has chosen to bar your army access to the tower. Secondly, we have the security of the tapestries assured ourselves, unless there is an imminent threat that we are unaware of, in which case I would recommend that your people fortify the outer ring of the defenses, rather than preparing themselves about the inner tower. Thank you, however, for your offer of aid, noble Amaranth. Rather, I would recommend that we bring both Wings of Fire and Snowdrop back to the tower, so that we can make right what has gone wrong here. May I trust in your support in finding our wayward comrades, Winter of Romance?"

[Rolling to Talk Sense with Sense: [roll0]]

TheAmishPirate

2017-04-24, 12:23 PM

Anarion

2017-04-24, 12:50 PM

Maerla smiled as she saw the fairy skate ahead of her and set up the perfect field to prevent "Winter's" escape. She used the confusion to get in close and snatch something. "Not so tricky now, huh? Don't think you can just run away in disguise" she said, trying to egg Krat on as well.

[Sting like a bee options. 1. Steal something and they don't notice until they need it or I taunt them with it. 2. Get them talking: my question: What were they doing and what are they going to do next?"]

Elanorin

2017-04-25, 04:00 AM

Deadly

2017-05-01, 02:42 PM

Again, we come to that reason why Wings of Fire, of all Amaranth, was chosen as Linowan's champion. There are faster, there are better, there are brighter, but no one else can make violence look so scary - and no one else can make a fight look so one sided.

The fight is closer than it looks, but it looks like a dismantling. Wings ducks through Claws' legs, kicks out his knee, and then swings around with a two-handed blow from the butt of her gun. She barely swerves away from a long leg sweep and comes crashing down on Claws' back with an elbow. She grabs the back of his head and slams it into the dirt and roars "SAY MY NAME! SAY MY NAME!"

She knows Claws of Disaster is tough and that he's not really hurt by any of this; if he wanted he could draw this fight out. She knows, though, that the key to victory lies in making the enemy think that they've already lost.

Damaging 'Bigger Than You'.

"WINGSOFIRE! AWRIGHT!" Claws sputtered out words and dirt. "WINGSOFIRE!"

The horde of rampaging amaranthi halted, confused, lost without direction. If not given direction, they may well start fighting each other and anything else within reach and/or sight.

So what's the plan?

You can't chase off after Maerla and Snowdrop - you're far too big - unless you intend to burn, chop, and explode your way through the thicket. Just, you know, for your information.

Oh, oh oh oh, they'd found the illusionist. And it turned out that Krat was a coward. That wouldn't do at all! "Wait, Winter!" Maerla shouts, more for Wings of Fire's benefit than anything else. "I'm supposed to be helping you!"

More quietly, she gives Sophie a nudge and says "as fast as you can girl, don't let her out of sight, get me on top of her" and grips the reins tightly, balancing with her legs as Sophie makes a spider's leap and skitters alongside the Greatfather himself, moving from there to a treebranch and turning Maerla completly upside down as they loop around "Winter." Maerla's purple hair hangs down and her tunic is loose as Sophie, with a tremendous effort, leaps the two of them forward and lands directly atop the false Winter of Romance, bringing the whole lot down in a tangle of owlish Amaranth, spider, and quickly growing halfing who makes every effort to further entangle herself and bring down the fleeing illusionist.

[Rolling to keep them busy. Alas, 1+2+2=5. If someone could work together with Maerla on this, we might be able to turn it around though.]

Snowdrop directed her Amaranthi followers to provide a diversion, a word which here means, "an embarrassingly light jog just outside the zombies' reach."

Meanwhile, as Maerla and not-Winter fell into a tangle, Snowdrop skated out in front of them, leaving a trail of ice ideal for falling and scraping one's knees upon.

[Aiding Maerla, so she gets Hope. New roll is: [roll0]]

Maerla smiled as she saw the fairy skate ahead of her and set up the perfect field to prevent "Winter's" escape. She used the confusion to get in close and snatch something. "Not so tricky now, huh? Don't think you can just run away in disguise" she said, trying to egg Krat on as well.

[Sting like a bee options. 1. Steal something and they don't notice until they need it or I taunt them with it. 2. Get them talking: my question: What were they doing and what are they going to do next?"]

The amaranthi can't really follow you, unless you desire destruction and mayhem as a distraction, but they can keep a few zombies busy sure enough.

So Maerla, in the tumult, you manage to snatch a small book from not-Winter. No time for a closer look as you quickly entangle yourself with the not-Amaranth.

"Drat, you caught me," the now-an-owl hooted. "Woe is me, for I am defeated and all my plans lie ruined! Curse you, Maerla Owl-killer! Curse you and all your kin!"

Despite having caught him, you got the disquieting sense that maybe you'd been misled, that something in this scene wasn't what you'd thought.

"Unless," the owl hooted, "I wanted you to come here. Unless I wanted you to chase after me. Unless I wanted you to catch me! What, did you really think I wouldn't want to look my brother's murderer in the eyes when you realize you've fallen right into my trap?

"Look around you, hero."

If you do, you'll notice that you're not surrounded by the verdant branches of the Greatfather, as you had thought, but the cold, crypt-like stone of the tower. Some deep, hidden part of the tower.

Not What It Seems: When Krat appears in a scene, immediately reveal an unwelcome truth. You may damage this stat to immediately reveal an unwelcome truth. These truths are Hard Cuts.

Lies and Make Believe: When Krat is present or nearby, whenever the players Speak Softly or Look Closely, one of their questions will be answered with a lie. Do not tell them that any of the answers are lies.

Coward: Krat will never fight or deal damage if they can help it. If Krat takes damage, they immediately disappear from the scene and won’t be back until they recover.

BEING THE REFUSAL OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMEABLE, IN RESPONSE TO THE REQUEST MADE OF HER BY WINTER OF ROMANCE

"Firstly," I say, "The Dragon isn't specifically our dragon, but rather her own being, who has chosen to bar your army access to the tower. Secondly, we have the security of the tapestries assured ourselves, unless there is an imminent threat that we are unaware of, in which case I would recommend that your people fortify the outer ring of the defenses, rather than preparing themselves about the inner tower. Thank you, however, for your offer of aid, noble Amaranth. Rather, I would recommend that we bring both Wings of Fire and Snowdrop back to the tower, so that we can make right what has gone wrong here. May I trust in your support in finding our wayward comrades, Winter of Romance?"

[Rolling to Talk Sense with Sense: [roll0]]

"See? They are safe! Isn't that good news?" Jara said with a beaming smile to Winter. "Oh and this is Princess Rahnya, be nice. And polite." Jara warns the amaranth with a stern look from her place on her back.

"What, am I not speaking words today?" Winter complained, loudly, possibly because she was still half deaf. Mostly because she was angry at being treated like a mule. "Fine, fine, we can work together, but you owe me. What you owe me, Princess, is a promise that I get to study the tapestries as much as I like once they're secure."

Inside the tower, the wood folk would-be thief is still suspiciously silent. Tell me, what is Archifex doing?

Anarion

2017-05-01, 04:06 PM

The amaranthi can't really follow you, unless you desire destruction and mayhem as a distraction, but they can keep a few zombies busy sure enough.

So Maerla, in the tumult, you manage to snatch a small book from not-Winter. No time for a closer look as you quickly entangle yourself with the not-Amaranth.

"Drat, you caught me," the now-an-owl hooted. "Woe is me, for I am defeated and all my plans lie ruined! Curse you, Maerla Owl-killer! Curse you and all your kin!"

Despite having caught him, you got the disquieting sense that maybe you'd been misled, that something in this scene wasn't what you'd thought.

"Unless," the owl hooted, "I wanted you to come here. Unless I wanted you to chase after me. Unless I wanted you to catch me! What, did you really think I wouldn't want to look my brother's murderer in the eyes when you realize you've fallen right into my trap?

"Look around you, hero."

If you do, you'll notice that you're not surrounded by the verdant branches of the Greatfather, as you had thought, but the cold, crypt-like stone of the tower. Some deep, hidden part of the tower.

Not What It Seems: When Krat appears in a scene, immediately reveal an unwelcome truth. You may damage this stat to immediately reveal an unwelcome truth. These truths are Hard Cuts.

Lies and Make Believe: When Krat is present or nearby, whenever the players Speak Softly or Look Closely, one of their questions will be answered with a lie. Do not tell them that any of the answers are lies.

Coward: Krat will never fight or deal damage if they can help it. If Krat takes damage, they immediately disappear from the scene and won’t be back until they recover.

Maerla really wished that Wings of Fire were here right now. But she and Snowdrop would have to make do by themselves. She motioned for the fairy to stay back, and hoped she got the hint to line up a clear shot.

"By every toadstool in the forest, at least your brother had the courtesy to make a good fight out of it!" Maerla scowls and dismounts from Sophie, giving the spider a pat to crawl off and then drawing her quarterstaff poised with one hand as the other reaches into her pockets. "You, on the other hand, are a coward, Krat. And I have just the thing for cowards." She pulls out a small pouch, which jingles merrily. "This, right here, is full of coins enchanted by the halfling forest witches. If I speak the magic words, they'll fly up and surround you, and if you try to flee or cast any magic, they'll zoom in, fast as you can imagine, and pierce your heart. So, how about you stay here and fight, hmm?"

[I'd like to talk sense here, to get Krat to stay with outlandish lies, on account of my complete lack of actual homing death coins. Is he willing to listen?]

Thanqol

2017-05-01, 05:55 PM

"WINGSOFIRE! AWRIGHT!" Claws sputtered out words and dirt. "WINGSOFIRE!"

The horde of rampaging amaranthi halted, confused, lost without direction. If not given direction, they may well start fighting each other and anything else within reach and/or sight.

So what's the plan?

You can't chase off after Maerla and Snowdrop - you're far too big - unless you intend to burn, chop, and explode your way through the thicket. Just, you know, for your information.

It's like stealing a tiger - even if you pull it off now you've suddenly got a tiger to deal with.

Wings of Fire stalks towards the amaranthi, low and threatening, just taking the moment to let her new authority sink in. Their passion will ebb a little before it starts to rise again and cooler blood is preferable here. She's lost track of the little people, her perspective is narrow, and she doesn't know if setting a rampaging flock of Amaranth upon this forest would help or hinder her. She lets her instincts merge with the undercurrent of her intellect in the moment when the fire burns low and hot and before anyone else decides to test their size and strength in battle against her.

[Look Closely: 10
What will happen if I explode my way through the thicket?
Tell me about the amaranth flock? How could it hurt me? How could it help me?
Is there something hidden or out of place? If so, what looks suspicious?]

Raz_Fox

2017-05-01, 10:18 PM

BEING THE OATH OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMABLE, REGARDING THE TAPESTRIES OF THE GRYPHON

"I cannot make that promise," I say, "for the tapestries are not mine to give as I please. But I will do whatever I may to persuade their keeper to suffer us both and study their secrets, this I swear upon my title and my name. Now, let us make haste! I would not be estranged from my comrades by the tumultuous currents of fate any further, and the more we remain apart, the more tenuous our hope of not only survival but success in our quest." Surety bounds to my side, and in one elegant motion I am mounted on the hind's back, ready to go forth and seek our friends.

Arcifex has found himself a seat that he may perch upon, and struck a light for his pipe, the smoke from which he is coaxing into long sinuous tails and ribbons that lie heavy all about him, wreathing him in the color of mist at morning. His eyes are fixed on the wood folk, and there is a deep cunning within them- but his wit is not inexhaustible.

Deadly

2017-05-04, 08:35 AM

Maerla really wished that Wings of Fire were here right now. But she and Snowdrop would have to make do by themselves. She motioned for the fairy to stay back, and hoped she got the hint to line up a clear shot.

"By every toadstool in the forest, at least your brother had the courtesy to make a good fight out of it!" Maerla scowls and dismounts from Sophie, giving the spider a pat to crawl off and then drawing her quarterstaff poised with one hand as the other reaches into her pockets. "You, on the other hand, are a coward, Krat. And I have just the thing for cowards." She pulls out a small pouch, which jingles merrily. "This, right here, is full of coins enchanted by the halfling forest witches. If I speak the magic words, they'll fly up and surround you, and if you try to flee or cast any magic, they'll zoom in, fast as you can imagine, and pierce your heart. So, how about you stay here and fight, hmm?"

[I'd like to talk sense here, to get Krat to stay with outlandish lies, on account of my complete lack of actual homing death coins. Is he willing to listen?]

Sure, flip the coins and let's see how it turns out.

It's like stealing a tiger - even if you pull it off now you've suddenly got a tiger to deal with.

Wings of Fire stalks towards the amaranthi, low and threatening, just taking the moment to let her new authority sink in. Their passion will ebb a little before it starts to rise again and cooler blood is preferable here. She's lost track of the little people, her perspective is narrow, and she doesn't know if setting a rampaging flock of Amaranth upon this forest would help or hinder her. She lets her instincts merge with the undercurrent of her intellect in the moment when the fire burns low and hot and before anyone else decides to test their size and strength in battle against her.

[Look Closely: 10
What will happen if I explode my way through the thicket?
Tell me about the amaranth flock? How could it hurt me? How could it help me?
Is there something hidden or out of place? If so, what looks suspicious?]

You can see clearer now. Before, the clearing was full of trickery and illusion, but now it's returning to normal.

There's no sign of Maerla and Snowdrop, only you and the two groups of amaranthi (the ones who came with Claws and the smaller bunch who came with Snowdrop). The giant tree that the owlbear was tearing at is ... not where it was. It wasn't just an illusion, you're sure, it's out there somewhere in the dense thicket.

If you explode your way through, beyond the extensive damage you'd certainly cause to the forest, you might harm the tree, and it clearly has some connection with the Greatfather.

The amaranthi aren't good for much except brute force and raw labor, but they are experts at that. But despite their mindless savagery, they are still your people, looking for meaning. They are most dangerous when they believe in something, when they have hope. Any big bloke like Claws can whip them into a frenzy and send them charging off to fight for glory, but they were different when Winter still had control, and you see something different in the ones who followed Snowdrop too. Something in their primitive minds still dream, still aspire to former greatness, a greatness that isn't won through battle and destruction but through creation. That's potentially useful, but also carries danger, especially when that hope is almost certain to be crushed.

Because you can dream of something doesn't mean it's going to happen.

BEING THE OATH OF RAHNYA, PRINCESS OF THE CITY UNNAMABLE, REGARDING THE TAPESTRIES OF THE GRYPHON

"I cannot make that promise," I say, "for the tapestries are not mine to give as I please. But I will do whatever I may to persuade their keeper to suffer us both and study their secrets, this I swear upon my title and my name. Now, let us make haste! I would not be estranged from my comrades by the tumultuous currents of fate any further, and the more we remain apart, the more tenuous our hope of not only survival but success in our quest." Surety bounds to my side, and in one elegant motion I am mounted on the hind's back, ready to go forth and seek our friends.

"Very well," Winter said. "Though I do not know where we will find your friends." She paused long enough to think. "But half my flock went off after them, and tracking a flock of amaranthi should be simple. Just follow the random destruction."

Arcifex has found himself a seat that he may perch upon, and struck a light for his pipe, the smoke from which he is coaxing into long sinuous tails and ribbons that lie heavy all about him, wreathing him in the color of mist at morning. His eyes are fixed on the wood folk, and there is a deep cunning within them- but his wit is not inexhaustible.

"Say, you're a wise fox, are you not, sir? Perhaps ... may I ask your counsel?"