Bronwyn continued to untie the horses as the carriage caught fire in earnest. Every so often she added another spark to the carriage to make sure the fire continued to grow.
Squeak has no idea where either target is, right? Checking to see if he knows the square, but does not have LOS, or is really truly lost.
Still some distance away from the camp site, Palisade could hear the sound of fleeing horses, but not the sounds of heavy wheels turning. It would appear the carriage had been separated from the horses, but had its companions been successful in driving the mounts away or had the subject and his allies escaped riding bare-backed?
Unless there's so special means of finding out where they are, the prey seems to be lost.
Bronwyn: you set the carriage on fire? I did not pick up on that but I'll fix it next turn.
Questions?
Game on!
Thoroughly disgusted by how things had turned out, Vi knew the fight was coming to them. Moving to the burning cart, she called out to her companions, "Everybody towards the sound of my voice. The howlers are coming, and we need to be ready. Lucan will probably attack while we're distracted. Let's stick together, keep the burning cart at our back. Don't let them flank us."
As she spoke, she cut another of the horses free, and the creature immediately bolted. The howling came closer, and a shiver ran up her spine. So much for doing this the easy way.
Bronwyn's ears picked up the sounds of someone speaking arcane words and she strained her ears to see if she could tell what it was.
As Vi called them all together, the wizard cautioned, "Close but not too close together. Some spells take advantage of everyone being too close together."
Her hearing heightened, Lucina focused in on the howling noise and finally recognized the familiar sound. "Wolves. Probably a half dozen of them." She frowned and added, "They sound aggressive..."
Hearing the flickering of flames, she turned surprised. "Wait! Slow down! They left in such a hurry...There could be useful information inside there..." Instinctively, she chants a quick spell, causing water to rain down on the carriage. "Lets looks through it...Then burn it to ash..."
Bronwyn was more than a little perturbed that her fire was extinguished. She snorted and crossed her arms, "He's not much of a master spy if he leaves all of his secrets in one easily searchable place...but whatever, obviously you know better."
Lucina just shrugged with her usual blank tone. "You may be right...but there is no harm in checking first."
Vi stared in exasperation. "Can we please not be bickering right now?! We're about to be attacked by a wolf pack. What can we do in these precious few seconds, to ensure we don't die?"
Squeak howled to the sky, a tone as artificial as it was terrifying.
Bronwyn raise her chin defiantly. "Who's arguing? I followed what we agreed to originally and someone else decided differently.".
She shrugged, "As for the wolves, what can we possibly do to prepare? They show up and we fight."
"I can offer defensive magic." Lucina replied directly to Vi, ignoring Bronwyn's comment with the obvious experience of someone who was far too used to people being agitated by her behavior. Her eyes moved back and forth between Vi and Bronwyn, clearly sizing them up. "So...which one of you tends to get hurt more in a fight?" she asked bluntly.
Bronwyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes, not that it would have mattered much in the dark. "Obviously that would be me. And, Vi is invisible so she'll be harder to hit."
Vi ignored Lucina's offer, knowing Bronwyn would take her up on it, and she wasn't wrong. Instead, she loaded a bolt into her crossbow, waiting for the wolves to show up.
Squeak injected yet another chemical into his system. A tiny dribble of heat exchanger ran down from the port, and Squeak's new heat-exchanger ports sprung into action. Saws buzzing and plates extended, Squeak looked like a vision of hell formed from spare parts and broken weapons.
On bounding steps he made his way back to the burning carriage.
"Lady d'Deneith, please stand back," Palisade said, settling in place between Bronwyn and the closing sounds of bests. The 'forged shifted its stance, satisfied the footing was stable, free of any roots and loose rocks that might cause it to stumble, then settled into a low defensive stance. It bowed its head briefly, then began quoting a prayer from its holy book. "...chapter fourteen, paragraph four... employee resposible for... building morale among the workforce... daily lunch breaks no shorther than..." A greyish-purple aura momentarily flickered over their bodies in response to Palisade's prayer, bolstering their morale in face of adversity.
The wagon has been put out for now. I used the word smoldering to mean that it was still 'smoking' but not on fire.
Game on!
"If you insist." Lucina said with another shrug, conveniently forgetting to mention that the spell's physical manifestation. Muttering yet another incantation, she places a hand rather roughly on Bronwyn head, causing the wizard's skin to grown hard and rough like wood. Drawing out her sling, Lucina then turned back to the forest to wait for the arrival of the beasts.
AU 527.
Vi called to Palisade, "Come closer, don't let yourself get flanked. We might be outnumbered in a second."
She continued to scan with her crossbow in hand, ready to fire as soon as a wolf got close enough.
Vi was ready with her crossbow, and shot the one approaching from the NW.
The bolt flew true and landed square in the wolf's shoulder. The beast howled again and continued to run at them. Vi dropped her crossbow and drew her daggers. Ice in her right hand, her backup dagger in her left. Dropping to a fighting crouch, she was ready.
Bronwyn rubbed her hands together in anticipation as the wolves came into view. Now was her chance to try out a new spell she had been working on. Taking a step to her left, she made the necessary movements and spoke the words to make flames shoot outwards in an arc.
With another echoing tonic howl, Squeak threw himself at one of the wolves. Counter rotating saws bit deep into flesh. Blood, bone and fur flew as Squeak's head pressed down, his entire weight concentrated on his faux-jaws.
The hunter - now prey - howled in anger and pain, an unsettling counterpoint to the warforged's continuing inhuman cacophony.
Palisade shifted its position slightly as the wolves approached, keeping itself as fully between the beasts and Lady d'Deneith as circumstances allowed, its greatsword held ready to strike at the first enemy that came within its reach.
Wanting to test the strength of the creatures before expending more magic, Lucina swung her loaded sling and fired at the nearest wolf.
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, pass, 7 hp
, fail, 11 hp
, miss
, hit
, miss
, hit
, miss
, hit
, miss
, miss
, miss
Vi exhaled to calm herself before attacking with both daggers. A curl of breath drifted into the night air, almost as if it were much colder outside. Vi looked the wolf in the eye and attacked.
However, she didn't account for the wolf's thick fur, which snarled her blades and prevented them from finding flesh. Snarling in frustration, she caught her balance and prepared herself for the counter attack.
Bronwyn instinctively raised her hands as the wolf closed in and let another fiery onslaught loose at the furry creature and its companion. The flames licked at Palisade but the wizard's control over fire allowed her to direct it at the wolves and away from the 'forged.
.
Lucina moved around the battlefield to flank the wolf that Palisade had heavily injured. As the creature snarled at her, she growled right back. Her fist grew heavy and once more sprouted sharp thorns. She lifted her fist up and then slammed it down hard on the creature's skull.
Ignoring the wolf trying to gnaw its way past its thick armor, Palisade shifted its grip and attacked with great sweeping strikes, the air humming as it dragged its blunt blade through furred bodies in a spray of blood and shredded meat.
Squeak's saws screamed and shrieked as they tore into soft flesh. Still unused to his new attachments, Squeak's enthusiasm brought only a modicum of pain to his targets.
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, miss
, fail
, fail
, miss
, miss
, miss
, miss
PS: my big bad wolves suck. :)
The remaining wolf on Palisade needed to be dealt with so that they could go and help Squeak. She couldn't leave safely until this wolf was dead. Pointing her finger at it, she released a jet of fire at it.
.
Vi bared her teeth in anger, and lashed out again. This time, Ice found a way through the tangle of fur and bit deep into the wolf's back. Blood pooled thick and black in the moonlight, and Vi laughed in joy. Unfortunately, her second attack missed again, but at least the wolf was looking wobblier. Surely Ice would finish it off next time.
Lucina loaded another stone into her sling and took a brief moment to appraise the battlefield. Choosing a heavily injured wolf, she hurled the stone towards the creature.
Palisade swung its blood-soaked blade with a certain finality and connected with the top of the snarling wolf's head, driving the beat to the ground and crushing its skull with an audible dull thud. Its single eye scanned the verdant shadows to the south, failing to spot more enemies heading their way. The 'forged found itself torn. There were more of the beasts still alive, threatening its allies, but so too were was the subject and his allies will around, or might be, hiding in the woods, awaiting a chance to strike back to reclaim their property.
Suggestion. Lady d'Deneith, this one would that you retreated towards companion Vi Olaro. There might be more threats in the southern woods and this one would not leave your side."
Squeak continued to methodically try to saw his way through his enemy, his chassis covered in blood and fur.
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, hit
, yes
The struggle continued - nature versus machine. Each side heedless of pain. Squeak struck the wolf, but his mouth-saws lurched, choked with gristle, bone, and fur. His hand-saws cut and struck, they carved the wolf like a bloody tree.
Lucina stared at the wolf with fascination. It continues to fight, though it has no chance...and they came to attack us specifically. I wonder what magical manipulation Lucan has over these creatures, she wondered to herself quietly. Certain that the others were more than capable of fighting the wolf that remained, Lucina instead turned her attention to the cart, first examining the object from the outside, before climbing inside to rummage around.
Unbeknownst to Bronwyn, Squeak was in trouble. What she did know was that she could hear wolves on the other side of the cart. "We need to help Squeak," she announced to the others before running around the side of the carriage.
Seeing the 'forged on his knees she yelled, "Squeak!" before releasing flames at the remaining wolf.
Vi felt so relieved to have injured the wolf that she didn't even mind that Palisade finished it off. As Squeak tore the last wolf to shreds, Vi stood and stretched, reaching to the moonlit sky. Hands on hips, she twisted side to side until her back cracked loudly. Grinning, she wiped the dagger off on the dead wolf, flipped it in the air, caught it behind her back, and sheathed it.
"Well, that went VERY well," she said loudly enough for her words to carry to their hidden foe. "Anything else you want to throw our way? Or would you rather just come out now? We really would rather not fight you. Nobody even wants to hurt you. Just to collect the sword that you stole. So why don't you come out, stop running, and we can just end this?"
"Anything else you want to throw our way? Or would you rather just come out now? We really would rather not fight you. Nobody even wants to hurt you. Just to collect the sword that you stole. So why don't you come out, stop running, and we can just end this?"
"Addendum. We seek you on behalf of the Brelish court. This one doubts we are the only forces sent to find and detain you. This one further doubts that continuing to evade capture is a valid long-term strategy. Suggestion. Come quietly and face the charges."
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, miss
Vi sighed loudly. "Ugh. Why do they have to be so difficult?" It was clear that the siblings weren't about to launch an attack. "They're probably running away. So, what know? Can anybody track them in this light? Lucina?" It seemed likely that the nature girl would be able to do something like that.
To the others, she said, "We should definitely get the horses. Maybe Bronwyn and I can go fetch them, as you boys will just slow us down. Help Lucina catch their trail, and then we can figure out what to do next."