tomboys and troublemakers part 2: road to couronne

[MrAbdiel]

As Gimgroth and Glod tear into the monster, Bertelis keeps low with his shield up. He can barely see the action - but he knows the sound of dwarves having grim fun now; and he dares to hope the battle is turning in their favor. But when Gimgroth delivers his mortal series of blows upon the beast, Bertelis is loathe to not contribute, and swings in with his mace as well - only for the Rat ogre's smasming fist to slam into his opened guard.

The sound of ribs cracking is like a heelstomp on dry tinder. He stumbles back to the wall nearest him, vomiting an involuntary gout of blood, the stitches on his front ripped open again. Then he just leans there; exhausted, near to helpless, wheezing thin breathes in and out through compacted lungs.

Inside his head, it is all he can do to restrain the monstrous terror that is clawing its way up his throat. He wants to scream and run. He does not want to die here, like this.

But he stands, and he bleeds quietly; and later he will reflect in his quiet moments that it might have been the bravest he has ever been.

Spoiler: Oof!

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Bertelis is clonked for 10 wounds, taking him to 2/15. But he passed his fear check for Fear of Death! So that's good! He's going to take a breather, and not run off after the slavedriver though.

[bramblefoot]

jasmine: the ratstrosity pounds after you as you run up the tunnel. can i get a toughness test to not gain a level of fatigue?

you come out into the early morning dawn to see a small contingent of brettonian soldiers. they dont look like the best or brghtest, and they shrink at the ratstrosity coming up the corridor after you

the party in the rat-tunnels: the rat ogre sways, but manages to stay upright for a final blow, swatting bertelis into the wall, and then falling down towards the two dwarves. gimme flat agility tests to not be buried under it

berty: through swimming vision, you see a shadow moving towards you, holding a dagger

wdyd?

bruno: are you gonna ride out to the site of the ambush and see what you can glean?

wighard: as you rise, you can see light through the bandages. it looks like your vision is returning

[MrAbdiel]

Bertelis can barely breath as the shadow closes, dagger in hand. But all the piss and vinegar has been knocked out of him, at this point. With a monumental effort, he brings up his shield, and braces to defend himself once again.

Spoiler: OOC:

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That's a full defence. -20%WS to attacks against me this turn!

[LarsWester]

Gimgroth distracted by the deadly blow the rat ogre lands on Bertelis before it realizes it is dead fails to move fast enough to avoid being pinned by the ugly thing's corpse.
Gimgroth struggles underneath the dead weight.

[MrAbdiel]

Glod launches himself into an instinctive shoulder-roll away from the collapsing beast, skidding back to his feet. He winces to see Gimgroth, after such a mighty performance, pinned by the verminous bulk of his prey (something the poor mercenary had suffered twice before already), but he cannot stop to help him escape while another 'Raki lurks, waiting for his inattention!

"Oi! Get out here, wazzok!"

Glod charges down the corridor where the whip cracked, for about ten yards; but if the slave driver doesn't seem to have stuck around, he cannot much pursue. His leg bleeds still from the trap; and on the best of days, dwarves are not pursuit predators.

Spoiler: OOC

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Glod's going to move towards where the rat ogre came from, and where he expects the slave driver to be; but he won't follow much, because he's at move rating 2 right now!

Back around to.. either Gimgroth, or alternatively the knife-shadow.

[wilphe]

Wighard doesn't stir until about noon, he is back to being able to sort of see but his vision is still blurry and where he can he retains the bandage to avoid over-stressing his recovering eyes.

Deanna and Siobhan are both up before him, though Siobhan is mostly sitting quietly with her left arm in a sling

He will seek out Bruno and check on the pilgrims as he goes

[dojango]

Jasmine spots the soldiers and waves and shouts, "Shoot it! Shoot it! With guns! Until it stops moving!" It's been a long day and night and she's almost ready to throw up, with a stitch in her side, but she pushes onward as best she can.

Spoiler

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(1d100)[81] v. 32

[bramblefoot]

berty: the shadow will go for a stab downward, holding nothing back

all out attack on berty: miss

(1d100)[64]

(1d10+4)[13]

jasmine, the brettonian soldiers carry pikes, not arquebuses. nevertheless, they form square and prepare to kill the ratstrosity or die trying. the ratstrosity decides discretion is the better part of valor and goes back into the tunnel

gimgroth: after about thirty seconds of cursing and groaning, you push out from under the rat-ogre. your arms and head are free, but you see a ratfolk bringing a dagger down on bertelis

glod: the whipmaster is long gone. by your darkvision, there should be another hidden switch around these parts. gonna look for it?

[dojango]

Jasmine is almost to the soldiers by the time she realizes the beast hasn't followed to throw itself on the pikes, so she slows to a stop and starts gasping for breath. "Whoosh. Glad ya guys got here. Didja leave the musketeers behind? Pike and shot, pike and shot. Like leavin' home with a floppy hat but no pantaloons. Ah, it's great to see you guys anyways. Grab yer daggers, we got some tunnel-work ahead of us. C'mon, let's go. Hey, anyone got a sword I can borrow? Dropped mine somewhere back there..."

Spoiler

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Hopefully they speak Reikspiel, otherwise I will have to talk louder and slower.

[farothel]

At dawn, Bruno will go and have a look at the site of the ambush together with the mercenaries. He will take a horse (and the mercs as well) and be very careful and move slowly (if they stay in the inn that day, they have the time). Carefully he will try to find out what happened last night.

Spoiler: OOC rolls

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perception: (1d100)[7] vs 69

[bramblefoot]

bruno: when you come to the battle site, you find nothing for a pouch containing a ceramic pair of horse figurines, one pure white and the other dark as night. there are a few greasy stains on the path, but other than that, it looks swept bare

wighard: a woman with uncovered hair enters the inn and walks over to you. "i am damsel elisia" she says, sitting down and looking you over. "we detected a burst of magic, and i was sent to investigate." she locks eyes with you "care to explain?"

bertelis: the shadows dagger scrapes off the shield, and it lets out a screech in queekish.

jasmine: the leader, a man with a slightly more impressive hat nods. "where is the rest of the party?" he asks in accented reikspiel. he barks a command in breton, and the men sling pikes and pull daggers. the man, who introduces himself as sergeant gavarron, passes you a short blade from his boot "we'll lead, just stay with us, and we'll get home safe"

gimgroth: try as you might you cannot get the crossbow free. thankfully the rat's dagger scrapes off the shield

[MrAbdiel]

Bertelis, groggy with pain and injury, pushes back with his shield but braces it again!

Spoiler: OOC Actions!

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Bertelis is taking the Defensive Stance again - -20% to Lurky McStabStab's WS to put the knife in!

Glod, unable to see the whip-rat, considers there is likely to be another secret door here - but the Queekish chittering behind makes him pivot and, puffing, charge back the other way, at this last remaining, revealed foe!

Spoiler: OOC Actions!

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Well, Glod spend last turn loping off woundedly a few yards down the corridor. Now, with a rat attacking his two compromised comrades, he can hardly stand by - he charges Lurky!

[ROLL=vs71]1d100[ROLL] for (1d10+5)[6]or (1d10+5)[9]! If he wastes the Rat, he'll help Gimgroth free himself after, since that'll be the end of the brawl in the tunnel for the mo'.

[wilphe]

Wighard is checking over one of the pilgrims as she approaches, even if he had the blindfold on and his ears plugged he would know she was approaching from the aura of awe and fear she inspires.

He deliberately finishes with his examination because he is a good doctor but doesn't prolong it so as to be deliberately impolite. I will be with you shortly milady

He then stands, and addresses one of the passing inn staff, Whatever her ladyship wants before washing his hands and drying them thoroughly.

she locks eyes with you "care to explain?"

Not interested in a staring match he clicks heels and bows, kissing her hand if he can get at it. He will prefer to talk in Classical if they can, Magick if not, Bretonnian if he must - mostly to keep their business opaque to prying ears, partially because he has never met a Grail Damsel before and wants to test out what she knows and also because he is conscious that his Bretonnian is not that fluent or properly accented and they have a reputation for being snooty about that sort of thing

Salve domina, sum Wighard Rauschenberg.

Medicus et chirurgus of his Imperial Majesty's army

Our pilgrimage was surrounded by skevbestias, my only option was to scare them off with powerful magic.

That magic turned out to be rather more powerful than I intended, he taps his bandage, still wrapped around his forehead And I am still recovering, however we are all alive

He looks at her

You have many such bestias in the pass?

[farothel]

Bruno picked up the pouch to have a look at it later (and have Wighard check it for magic). With a last look around, he and the mercenaries headed back to the inn. With the help of his valet he got out of his plate armour and he would only wear his leathers and mail shirt while inside the inn. He would wander around, checking things out until Wighard would come down. He would let Wighard and the damsel talk, keeping an eye out but not interfering with their conversation. Most likely he wouldn't understand much of it anyway.

[dojango]

Jasmine takes the blade and sticks it in her belt and gestures down towards the hole she had just emerged from. "Down there, keep headin' down. Wish I'd thought to mark the passage as I was runnin' from the beast, but I reckon we can follow its trail pretty quick-like. Just watch out for the traps, filthy rat-bastards seem to love droppin' them all over without regard to worker safety. But let's head on down." She keeps breathing heavily. "Anyone brought some food along? I'm gettin' kind of hungry, just have a little snack as we walk."

[bramblefoot]

wighard: the damsel accepts your story. she engages in small talk for a while, then shifts the topic to sir bertelis. "have you seen him lately? i heard you and he traveled together"

bertelis and glod: the rat goes down with the axe in his back. its deathly quiet, almost too quiet

gimgroth: you get out from under the rat-ogre. nothing moves in the tunnel. What's the plan?

bruno: gimme perception at -10 pls

jasmine: sergeant gavarron passes you some rations and water while the guard walk into the tunnels. The ratstrosities tracks are easy to follow, but the tracks lead down and down and down, and the air gets warmer and warmer.

wdyd?

[LarsWester]

Crawling out from underneath the rat ogre Gimgroth looks around him. Seeing no immediate threats he rejoins Glod and Bertelis. Do we push further we have uncovered no signs of Jasmine? Gimgroth's hammer stops glowing as the temporary rune of might runs its course. Might not have been the right time to use that rune but that thing was big and ugly. Gimgroth looks at Glod almost apologetically.

[wilphe]

"have you seen him lately? I heard you and he travelled together"

You might have done yes replies Wighard wryly

How has such a humble Knight Errant come your attention?

In any case the Company of the Burning Slug is temporarily split up, we were attacked by Skaven soon after entering the pass and they were able to carry off some of the pilgrims.

Sir Bertelis and our demi-human companions split off to attempt rescue, the Baronet Richter and myself remained to guard the pilgrims

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d100)[89] Sixth Sense 77

If Bruno is rolling perception, might be worthwhile checking how the hairs on the back of Wighard's neck feel

[MrAbdiel]

Bertelis comes into lit view as he strikes a match, and lights his second and final candle. The front of his mail, with the smart tabard featuring the logo of the company, is drenched in spat-up blood. Pitiably, he awaits Gimgroth's amateur but appreciated medical attention. "We cannot go back. The pilgrims are down here, still; and you have so handily dispatched their best guardian, noble dwarves. There will be no opportunity besides this, to save them. Jasmine must be among them, now. But there is so much ground to cover..."

"Per'aps. Per'aps not. They use these tunnels to confuse; but they use secrets to hide the way to their hidden places..." Glod begins checking for the secret door he knows must be there, to proceed further; through which the rat with the whip must have fled!

Spoiler: OOC:

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Bertelis lights his last candle. Still has a few matches. Retreives dagger; begs Gimgroth for a fortuitous heal roll, supplying the poultice required to do so while he's heavilly wounded. 1 good quality poultice remaining.

Glod is gonna find that secret door! He found the last one, so perhaps he'll have some kind of bonus. But untrained in search, he's looking for a lowly 25, so it might take a bit. (1d100)[8] for turn 1 looking, and here's another couple of turns of sustained effort: (1d100)[39] , (1d100)[15] , (1d100)[52] .

Hot damn, Glod coming in clutch.

[dojango]

Jasmine stops the search party for a moment and thinks. "Those bastards know we're down here so there ain't any point to keepin' quiet. OY! BERTELIS! GLOD! GIMGROTH! IF YER ALIVE OUT THERE COME FIND US" she shouts out as loud as she can, hoping that the echoing tunnels will carry the sound to where they are lurking, if they are in fact still out there.

[bramblefoot]

glod: you find a hidden passage leading down into the depths of the warren. lambent green bulbs of warpstone are studded in the ceiling, providing enough illumination to see by for those without darkvision

berty: you hear jasmine call out from somewhere down the tunnel

wighard: the damsel smiles. "the lady of the lake let me know about a pact made between the green knight and your knight errant." at the mention of skaven, the damsel seems to frown. "how big of a party of skaven are we talking here?" she murmurs.

bruno: the damsel is the real deal to your eyes, and a powerful one at that. however you do see a small puff of smoke come from the rafters in the top left corner of the inn. probably some sort of magical scout

[wilphe]

"the lady of the lake let me know about a pact made between the green knight and your knight errant."

Such pacts are common?

And how goes the Vermillion Flue? I am here to assist in anyway I can.

"how big of a party of skaven are we talking here?"

In the first fight we seemed to face a half-dozen disciplined and equipped enemy and several score sword-fodder slaves and lowly clanrats who could only hope to swarm us

In the second, we only got a look at the leader when I made him glow and explode, and faced at least a pair of gunners. Didn't get a look at the rest of them before they scarpered, to see quality but they were enough to have us well surrounded. So maybe several dozen?

[farothel]

Bruno looked at the smoking thing and then moved to Wilghard and the damsel.
"Sorry to interupt," he asked, "but do any of you did that? And if not, do any of you what it is?"
He pointed at the smoke he was seeing.

[wilphe]

Not mine

Yours milady?

[LarsWester]

Gimgroth lets out a sigh of concern when the lit candle revealed the full extents of Bertelis wounds. Sir it looks like you've become the Hedgehog Knight again. The dwarf leaned in to inspect the knights wounds and apply the poultice he provided. I'm not anywhere near the physician as Wighard but I'll bind that up.

Spoiler: OOC

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Heal - (1d100)[50]
Perception - (1d100)[26] shame those weren't reversed. But Gimgroth should have heard Jasmine as well.

[MrAbdiel]

After a few moments sitting quietly and gratefully as Gimgroth tends his wounds, Bertelis shakes his head a little. “We must be closer now than we were before, surely. They cannot have a nation under this pass; the pilgrims and perhaps our poor Jasmine are-“

And then, and the echo of the halfling’s familiar bawl, he brightens a shade. She was alive! And somewhere within the tunnels, no doubt. He tries to make a response but coughs; and Glod fills in for him.

“Hang on, lass! We’re coming for ye, and the others!”

Before flagging Gimgroth and Bertelis toward the now uncovered tunnel - no doubt secret to hide something precious, like captured slaves!

[LarsWester]

Glod hold up. It may be best to explore that option with Jasmine in our company.
Let's reunite with the brave halfling. She was calling us out and up to the surface. Perhaps she has somehow escaped or perhaps it's a trap. I say we follow her voice until we meet again either in this life or the next.
The dwarf indicates his willingness to charge headlong into the most likely Skaven trap for the chance to reunite with Jasmine.

[MrAbdiel]

Bertelis halts at Gimgroth's suggestion; pivoting on the spot with the candle in hand, shield arm held close to his body, cradling his injured self. So beaten, he is more follower than leader; his breath hitching and visible convulsions of his muscles shaking his body from time to time; despite being so typically unwilling to withdraw. He will follow Gimgroth's instinct - a dwarf's tunnel-instinct must surely be better than his.

[bramblefoot]

rat tunnel dwarves and berty: the tunnel slopes down at a steep angle. the warpstone nodules get bigger, and the area gets warmer by the minute. soon enough you're all sweating profusely. can i get toughness tests at -20 or take a level of fatigue?

jasmine: the passage seems to get darker, and the smell of wet rat fur gets stronger. can i get a wp test at -10 or take an IP?

bruno: the smoke begins to come down from the rafters in a large coherent cloud. it appears to be headed for you with speed. it starts diving into your lungs. can i get a toughness test or begin to choke?

(1d100)[82]


wighard: you detect a concentration of dhar inside the cloud. so does the damsel

[wilphe]

Wighard isn't sure how to fight this, or even if it is fightable, but a magic missile is at least an opener

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d100)[85] Channeling 77 +3 to casting if succeed
(2d10)[10][2](12) -2 TN6