Olivius is near the back just in front of Temellen. When the elf mentions that he used to "fly over", Olivius looks back and frowns. Do you turn into animals too?
Olivius crouches slightly. One hand is ready to produce a knife, the other poised on his rapier. This couldn't be easy, could it. he mutters.
Temellen replies, "Er, no, I'm a pegasus rider. I used to do scouting missions over these waters."
Olivius stores that one away. There are pegasi in this time. I guess not all myths are myths...
"Do they talk? I'd very much like to meet a pegasus."
Sinathel had been tense, furious, since she had heard that the bug-tribe was hurting The People. 'Time to feast on some bugs.'
With that, Sinathel focused on becoming something both dangerous and a consumer of insects, a chimpanzee. Her arms lengthened and the shapes of her feet changed as her legs shortened. Fur covered her body, though her face, hands and feet remained bare. Her ears shortened and became shaped like a human's but larger. At the end of her shifting she stood about 5' tall if she fully stood.
Her form now fully shifted, she climbed into the trees and took off towards the fighting.
"It should be just up he..." Regos begins, assuring the group that they were close to the spot where he and Pahua had been earlier. Things are looking grim with the new red marks on the trees. Marking something hardly denotes ownership, but the brazen attitude it conveys is nevertheless unsettling. The man is interrupted by the sounds of conflict up ahead.
His comment is cut short and he raises a hand to motion the others to stop, then taps his right earlobe twice accompanied by an inquisitive look on his face. He has no idea who might be in conflict up ahead... perhaps another patrol, maybe local fauna. But he figures it's likely that the bug-men are involved at least on one end. And if he can catch them mid struggle, then that gives him an advantage as far as he's concerned.
With a flick of the wrist, the runic scars that cover his arms light up for a moment, and the green leaf he pulls from a nearby fern ignites.
When you conjure a weapon of pure flame, roll+CON. On a 10+ choose two of the following tags, on a 7-9 choose one. You may treat your INT as your STR or DEX in regards to making attacks with this weapon. The weapon always begins with the fiery, touch, dangerous, and 3 uses tags. Each attack with the weapon consumes one use.
•hand
•thrown, near
•+1 damage
•remove the dangerous tag
The flames form into what look like small ignited papayas. He quickly motions toward the others and begins to push through the foliage toward the battle, not wanting to miss a potential window. He also tries to keep the papayas from touching anything. No sense starting the festivities early.
Olivius draws both his poisoned throwing knife and his rapier, just to be safe, and proceeds with the jungle man.
The greenery is lush and wet enough to not be in immediate danger from your flames.
As you all make your way over the roots and through the greenery you see that the earthquake that struck the island not long ago also had its effects felt here.
Cutting across the forest floor is a river of magma. Flames erupt here and there, and even standing on the "shore," you can feel the heat emanating off it. The drizzling, occasional raindrop sizzles into steam upon contact.
There are thick vines that dangle from trees that extend over the river, or you can attempt to go around. The sounds of combat are coming from the other side. This close, you can hear the voice of a confused-sounding warrior male, shouting in defiance and bashing his weapons together, but you still can't see the battle through the undergrowth yet.
Two options lie before you - take the faster path, swinging over the magma river, or try to find a way around. What do you do?
Olivius doesn't even break stride. He sheathes his weapons, leaps, latches onto a vine and swings across. When he lands his weapons come out again, but he can't help but notice that his companions aren't landing beside him. He looks back and waves the rest forward as if I say "What are you waiting for?"
Sinathel, already up in the trees swinging from branches and vines, moves to cross the river via the vines.
GAH GET OFF ME YOU DAMNED DIRTY BUGS! You hear the shout before you see three spear wielding bug men facing down a strange man. The man is wearing a shiny smooth helmet and holding what seems to be a black rectangular shield in one hand and wielding a long baton in the other that crackles with a strange energy.
You want to get zapped huh? Well then COME AND GET IT The man swings hard at the closest bug man.
Seeming to disregard the danger to himself the man's extra hard wallop leaves him off balance
Regos looks at the lava with a smile, as if the heat and carnage were a welcome thing. He quickly shakes it off however, as he's unsure whether he can bend lava the way he can bend fire. And now probably isn't the time for experimentation.
Likewise, he can't exactly go swinging across vines with the flaming fruits in his hands. Toss them to the other side? Nope. Pocket them? Not a chance. With a huff he races "downstream" of the lava, trying to charge through the brush. It'll take longer, but hopefully there's another option for getting across that's hands-free.
As Sinathel started to fall as the vine she grabbed happened to break, she managed to grasp a tree branch and halt her fall before continuing over. She plays it off as if she meant to do that the entire time.
Olivius, you and Sinathel are across now to the other side - you can see Bolus battling the bug-men through a small break in the trees. You see the strangely-garbed man swing his baton in a quick sideways arc that obliterates the head off the man nearest to him - the body quickly dissolves into a pile of beetles that begin crawling in all directions. Two bug-men remain in human form, grimly holding spears, and they take advantage of Bolus over-extending himself and lunge forward, sticking spears into his armor where there are articulated joints!
The bug-men are wearing far more ornate and higher-quality armor than they were before. In fact, one of them appears to have appropriated the same strange armor that the lone warrior is wearing. Bolus, he's wearing your shoulderguard - it must've gotten dislodged in your travel through time.
Regos, when you stride downstream you are quickly rewarded, but with a cost. You duck behind some bushes immediately as you round a bend in the lava "river" and see two bug-men working at pushing a tree over. There appears to be a warthog pet standing watch at their feet. The tree trunk is obviously big enough to reach the other side, and the bug-men are straining against the weakened roots. You can hear the tree cracking a bit from their efforts, they will have their bridge constructed soon - after which, no doubt, they intend to join the fray just as you do.
Kano crouches behind you in the bushes, with Si-Yi, while Teal and Temellen successfully cross the lava river by flying and swinging respectively. Temellen almost falls, but chimp-Sinathel has very long arms and grasps his wrist easily to pull him the rest of the way. With a gasp, he lands on his knees on the bank.
"Wait." Regos quietly requests of Kano, with a finger raised as he crouches low and out of view. He tugs lightly at the fern branches in front of him to create a small window where he can continue to observe them and the boar. "Let them finish, then we act quickly." He wants to let the bug-men do the hard work. It's a gamble, but once that bridge is down he has a plan to at the very least scare them off.
Olivius looses his poisoned dagger at one of the bug men. A sleeping foe is much better than a fighting one.
Your aim flies true, Olivius. The bug-man, the one not wearing Bolus' armor, takes your dagger to the neck and falls backward, gurgling. When his body hits the ground, it breaks apart into a beetle swarm, but even the insects move about more sluggishly than the first swarm that Bolus triggered.
THAT swarm is currently moving toward you along the ground. What do you do?
"Wait." Regos quietly requests of Kano, with a finger raised as he crouches low and out of view. He tugs lightly at the fern branches in front of him to create a small window where he can continue to observe them and the boar. "Let them finish, then we act quickly." He wants to let the bug-men do the hard work. It's a gamble, but once that bridge is down he has a plan to at the very least scare them off.
The next few attacks go by in the combat across the river as the bug-men strain at the tree. Fortunately, the earthquake dislodged the roots, making the task easier. Eventually, they raise their hands above their heads in exultation as the tree falls across the river! But it's not secured to anything, and you're on a gentle slope - so one of the bug-men kneels to stabilize it. The other bug-man begins to climb up onto the trunk.
You see some fires burning from plantstuff and other matter that the lava is igniting. Whether it's enough for your purposes remains to be seen...
Chimp Sinathel leaps from the trees! Her target, the only still standing bug-man. They would learn to respect nature.
The druid marches forward aggressively, her arms waving over her head for momentum! Bolus, you see the chimp leap forward and deliver a devastating two-handed slap to the bug-man. But the stabilization magic in the shoulderpads, though faded and weak, is enough for the bug-man to stay standing! In fact, he embraces the chimp and begins squeezing her to death in his powerful arms! Your vision begins to blur slightly as you feel your ribs cracking, Sinathel! No actual damage, but you're definitely in a spot because you're risking passing out! What do you do?
Meanwhile, all of you hear an enraged trumpeting and stomping coming from the jungles on your side of the magma river.
Olivius looks to his rapier with a sigh. he hated to waste good poison like this, but those beetles were alomost certainly bad news. He takes a step back and trusts his rapier into the lava. After only a few seconds it comes out red hot and glowing. He steps forward and sweepa his dangerously hot rapier along the ground in an attempt to light the low lying plants on fire as a deterrent for the bugs and kill every beetle the firebrand itself touches.
Your gambit pays off, with a cost. Your rapier drags molten rock out of the magma river with it when you yank it out, and you spray a wide arc of hot rock in front of you, causing smoky fires to begin forming and driving away the vast majority of the beetles. Your rapier is now slightly molten, and more awkward to use - take -1 ongoing to perform a move with it.
The young man waits in the bushes for the second bug-man to draw close to the edge of the lava stream, near where the first was bracing the makeshift bridge. "We'll need to brace that bridge, and quickly." he mutters under his breath, as he reaches out to manipulate the fire at the edges of the stream.
He pulls at the flame, trying to mold it as the beak of a giant bird. Ideally, if he can lash out with it and ignite the men that would be perfect. But even short of that, he hopes it would be enough to deter them from crossing and give Kano and Regos a window to exploit.
'Elephants...' Sinathel turned her rage on to her attacker, biting him viciously and uncaring of what she gets between her teeth, so long as it's him.
Your plan goes off too well, Regos. As has sometimes happened before, the power of the flames wells up in you too quickly for you to adequately control. Before you even realize what you've done, you see that you've given the flames "too much gas", so to speak. Instead of a beak, an entire phoenix-shaped fireball erupts from the lava!
The bug-man on the bridge is instantly burnt to a crisp, and very few beetles escape. The one bracing it glares hatred at you, for it is now obvious where you are, and races across the bridge. You see now that the flames have caught onto the trunk of the tree and ignited it. There is still space to run across, but not for much longer, and it's far more dangerous now.
When the bug man gets to the other side, he shouts a word in a language you don't recognize, and the warthog squeals in rage in answer and launches itself at you!
You have only moments before the bridge either rolls away or burns up, and an angry warthog is attempting to gore you with its tusks. You can tell as it charges you that this pig has also been corrupted with whatever strange magic the bug-men use, and the pig, too, is made up of a colony of beetles. What do you do?
"Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Da..." he mutters as he rushes out of the brush. "Can you stop the bridge?!" He yells to the warboss, interrupting himself, as he launches one of the papayas at the charging warthog--even as he himself continues a collision course with the tusked beast. He figures it's better to crash through an obstacle than try to dodge it.
That elven one may be really upset that I did this, he ponders, but it really isn't a pig anymore.
Your dangerous tag makes this failure even more devastating. You Mario the warthog successfully, and the fire-fruit tags it right in the face - and the beetles spontaneously mutate, sprouting fire-red stripes along their shells. The effect on the warthog this has is to increase its body temperature by threefold, and flames scatter off it like water off a duck's back. The surrounding foliage catches aflame as it barrels into you. Take damage as the boar knocks the wind out of you and runs past you, circling around you like a knight at a jousting tournament.
The big hog scrapes the dirt with its hoof and snorts again. The beetles that make up its body flare their carapaces, giving the warthog's body a terrifying appearance, and it squeals in rage, charging you again!
'Elephants...' Sinathel turned her rage on to her attacker, biting him viciously and uncaring of what she gets between her teeth, so long as it's him.
The chimp being squeezed by the bug-man screams and bites, struggling to hurt the bug-man in any way possible. You hear, faintly, from behind you, watch out! from Teal, just in time to catch a devastating smash in the back of the head! In the midst of your wild attack on the first bug-man, the bug-man that Bolus decapitated is slowly re-forming! Blood flows from under the fur of your scalp, take damage.
You're indeed right, there's no rounds here - it's very chaotic, but combat is like that! I try to make sure everyone gets a chance to act. You can go as often as you like as long as it makes sense within the context of the story as it stands.
As for Bolus noticing Regos - you can't see the magma river from where you're doing battle with the bug-men, but the phoenix-shaped fireball is kind of hard to miss. You noticed that, before it flared out. Now there's smoke coming from the other side of the trees where these strange, helpful newcomers came from.
One bug man falls from a sudden dart and another is assaulted by an angry chimp. What the hell is going on? Bolus mutters as a huge fire bird shaped explosion goes off and the bug man whose head he had knocked off starts to come back together. There's nothing else for Bous to really do other than try to end the bug man that is gripping the helpful chimp.
Now you've done it! Regos thinks to himself, sweat running down his forehead as he tries to catch his breath. He clutches the ground with his free hand, grabbing soil and moss while trying to do anything he can to launch himself quickly from this position.
Springing to the air, he charges the opposite direction: toward the flaming log.
This is so foolish, he assures himself with a grin. You'll never outrun that thing. But maybe you're better at crossing logs than it is.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he looks around frantically for Warboss Kano. He refuses to escape to the other side without him. But that doesn't mean he's slowing down the flight while he checks.
The chimp's surprisingly strong arm and jaw muscles are viciously scattering the bug-man's beetleskin apart when Bolus moves in. Sinathel falls to the ground as the bug-man's arms discorporate, and she looks up to see a headless body brandishing a club stained with her blood and standing over her. Bolus is scattering the bug-swarm that is forming and smashing them underfoot, then shouts when he sees the bug-man he dispatched trying to finish Sinathel off.
an elephant crashes through the undergrowth, roaring and trumpeting! It doesn't slow down as it breaks into the clearing, lashing its trunk about in rage and threatening to trample all the combatants except Olivius! What do you do?
Regos, you turn to the log to see Kano already holding the burning tree trunk still. The massive cleric has suffered burns from keeping the thing from rolling, but he's remaining resolute. he shouts at you. Roll defy danger dexterity to outrun the hog and make it across the burning bridge.
Regos meets Kona's resolute gaze with a manic sort of apology and ferocity. It's a strange combination, for sure. Moss and smoke lift from the ground as the immolator launches himself at the log bridge.
Seriously. WHAT THE HELL! Bolus holds up his shield and tries to use it to protect himself and bounce off the rampaging elephant's side rather then get trampled.
The flames below you on the log react to your presence! Like a litter of puppies greeting their master upon his arrival at home, the flames leap up to meet you! Kano is forced back by the huge flareup, and the flaming log begins to roll downhill down the riverbanks, with you on it!
Roll defy danger dex to avoid being dumped into the lava!
Sinathel, decides that while she likes her Chimp form, it is not conductive to stopping an Elephant if this one is tainted as well. Instead, her form changes, growing in size. Her hair grows sparser and her skin grey and leathery. Her nose elongates, her ears flatten and grow large. Two, large white tusks extend from her face. Soon, there is not just one Elephant there, but two.
'Calm yourself. There are those of us here, that do not threaten you or your land.'
Bolus, you whirl around to face the elephant barely in time. You succeed in deflecting its charge as it WHAMS into your riot shield, preventing it from trampling anyone, but the elephant's tusk catches on your shield and lifts you off the ground! You're being carried off by the elephant as you redirect its charge back into the jungle, what do you do?
He and Lucos used to do this is kids, though obviously not over lava. That wouldn't be wise. He never pulled it off well as a child.
Regos, your feet move quickly, but you feel them slipping as the rolling, fiery tree trunk bounces and bumps down the river. Suddenly you feel magic settling over you, guiding your steps as if someone was aiding you from afar. A quick glance over your shoulder shows Warboss Kano holding aloft the snarling face of Ku, the idol of worship for the tribe, and closing his eyes in prayer.
You leap off the rolling log as it crashes into the lava and immediately begins to burn and sink, landing on the far side. Kano is hustling on the far bank, calling to you, "Go! go! I will catch up!"
Sinathel the elephant trumpets as diplomatically as she can, but honeyed words don't translate to elephant speech well, and this one is particularly enraged. The elephant comes to a stop with Bolus dangling by his shield from one tusk. With a shudder, the elephant screams, and bugs begin to swarm around its body. The beetles cover the gray skin of the elephant like a living suit of armor, and its tormented eyes are maddened with rage at the magic afflicting it. It turns to face the group once more, stomping at the ground and huffing deep breaths that cause its body to flex.
You know that large, peaceful animals like elephants can enter dangerous blood furies if their lives are threatened and they feel backed into a corner. Talking this elephant down would be difficult if not impossible.