"I'd say you should give them a go. You're magic is way more powerful but I know there's only so much mystical energy so when you think it's better to save that for later the guns have a hell of a kick compared to sling. I'll go over the basic with you in a bit, it's a bit more ornery than a crossbow I'll admit."
All of the horses die. Two of the riders perish as well.
Fin, Maka, and Sakitu get a full round of actions before the headless cossacks move.
Maka took a deep breath before stomping her foot and sending an eruption of blue flame from underneath the riders she had previously targeted.
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Sakitu peeks through a gap in the wall. It seems that four of the headless creatures are still alive. She picks out the one closest to her and concentrates. Then, with a sudden motion, she reaches her hand out and makes a fist. The creature jerks and stiffens. Sakitu swings her hand to the side and the man finds himself flinging through the air to slam into his companion.
Maka's explosion takes out the two southern riders, while Fin's arrows destroy the other two. For now, you're left without further enemies in view, though the searchlights from the towers around the perimeter are now mostly roaming around the building you're in.
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Quasit hunkers down.
"That was great work people. Hopefully it happened so fast that the guards in the towers won't quite know what happened. It's good that they never set those sirens off. Let's give it about 5 minutes to cool off. Then we may as well circle south of the burned temple and head straight for the minicamp to the southeast -- we seem to have dealt with the main patrol, so things should be relatively clear."
"Although once things cool off, I suppose we should check the bodies of those horsemen and see if they have any parts of hunchbacks on them. Might save us a trip. But that would probably be too much to hope for."
She reloads her rifle.
Maka ducked down to hide. "If they spot us should I start taking the lights out?" She asked Quasit.
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Quasit shakes her head. "We don't want those alarm sirens going off again, which will certainly happen once we begin any regular assault on the towers. That moment is pretty certain to come later, because it seems like the towers are somehow associated with the purple lightning machine, but I want to put that moment off as long as we can."
"And I really don't want to have to run away again. We need to resolve this tonight."
Kalchine does his best to get Chest Thumper to hunker down and hide behind what walls remain, while trying to find a spot for himself.
"If you go out there, watch out for the spikes. Maybe Maka can fly around and search or someone can levitate. But anyone walking has a chance of getting hurt," he warns.
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He nibbles lightly on her ear while they wait, whispering lightly, ”This isn’t so bad…”
Sakitu suppresses an urge to giggle and she squirms to pull her ear away. "Stop it," she protests but with a grin. "This is hardly the time." Despite her words, Fin can tell that she's not trying too hard to get away from him.
Maka peered outside, the mass of writhing tentacles and field of spikes clear to her draconic eyes. "Oh wow, it's a mess out there! We might want to circle the other way around."
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suppresses an urge to giggle and she squirms to pull her ear away. "Stop it," she protests but with a grin. "This is hardly the time." Despite her words, Fin can tell that she's not trying too hard to get away from him.
Fin grins, starts kissing her neck…but stops when he hears the others talk about moving out. He sighs, lightly kisses Sakitu’s lips, murmuring, ”Looks like we’ll have to continue this later, Hlao-roo…”
Turning to Quasit, he says, ”If you don’t want to wait for the spells to dissipate, Q, the roundabout way, around the buildings, north and then circling back south to collect the other body part, does provide a lot of cover…”
"Best if we watch where we step, nice bloody foot prints will stand out from the norm in the snow." Bulvi hunched down out of sight checking the rifle in case they were spotted sooner than planned.
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Fin shrugs. ”Alright, Q…but the corpses are a little bit out in the open, best if I search the bodies…”
He observes the searchlight patterns, and then moves at the time he’ll have the most time to search, moving quietly among the shadows…searching the bodies of the undead horsemen for anything of significance or value…he will also check the saddlebags of the dead mounts if there are any. If a searchlight comes ‘round, he’ll hide/blend in amongst the corpses or the horses’ bodies…
Fin darts from shadow to shadow, easily avoiding the searchlights as he searches the corpses. Each of the headless riders had a +1 keen scimitar, a masterwork lance, a masterwork revolver, and 28 metal cartridges. They have no other possessions with them, nor do their mounts have any saddlebags.
"Say when Fin!" Maka giggled as she got ready to move.
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Fin smiles at Maka, murmuring, ”When,” as he draws his bow and moves quietly east, eyes warily looking around, getting the timing down of the searchlights…
…when he reaches the cover at the southern part of the temple, he awaits till the area is clear of the searchlights before waving his friends forward to join him…
He’ll cover his friends while they cross the ground…when they arrive, he looks over at the area they’re headed to next, what appears to be a fenced in camp, looking for any more patrols, dangers, and places to conceal themselves…
Fin can see another half-dozen headless riders in the camp. They sit on their steeds perfectly still, the heads hanging from their belts unblinking. The searchlights continue covering the area around the ruined building, but nothing else is moving in the camp at present.
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Seeing the searchlights are still focused on the ruined building, in addition to six more headless horsemen, Fin doesn’t like the chance of his friends making it over to him undiscovered; while Quasit, and perhaps Maka, could make it, the rest are not quite so sneaky…
He times the lights and moves stealthily back to the building and his friends…
…once back, he eyes Quasit. ”Don’t think we should go that way, Q; the searchlights are still focused here…and there are six more headless dudes in the camp. If we can’t travel there magically, think we should leave north of this building, go east around the temple, and cut back south to the camp. Less light that way and more cover. Whadda ya think?”
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Quasit frowns and musses her hair.
"Well poop."
She sighs a little. "Yeah, we don't want to go that way if it's being watched, but we need to move." She glances outside, chewing on her lip.
"OK, how about a slight detour? Let's make for that building just north of us and take cover there for a bit. I bet that other patrol will make its own rounds before too long, and maybe we can ambush them too. At least we can buy a little more time to let those buggers get tired of looking for us with their spotlights."
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Fin nods in agreement. ”Good idea, Q, that would be ideal; that building’s north branch extends east a bit and would seem to be blind spot from the searchlights as well as blocking LOS from the troops in the trenches, if we plan to await in ambush outside. Or do you think we should explore the building and, if clear, watch for the next patrol from inside it?”
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Quasit nods. "Yeah, I don't think we can assume any of these buildings are safe and empty. The last thing we want is some undead monster jumping us while we're busy with something else. And maybe we'll find another clue about our Hunchback's machine."
"I kinda wonder how programmed these undead horse patrols are. Will that second group wait for the first group to return, or do they just ride out on their own circuit every half hour, no matter what? Will they notice that the first patrol isn't returning? It can go either way with undead, I think.
"Ideally, they won't be aware of what happened to their pals and will just ride on out, leaving their camp undefended, letting us sneak in and explore, find what we need, and then get out."
Quasit turns to the witch. "Selena, can Silver watch that second patrol from a hidden position and let us know when they move?"
"Yes, Winter and I can keep a watch out from various places." she says before dissolving into some snow and creepily flowing around a corner while the two foxes go darting away.
"You're probably thinking of Tez's fox."Maka remarked, settling near Quasit as the group awaited an opportune moment to move. The fire monk felt like she had been anticipating a big fight to start forever, and was starting to get restless.
"I hate waiting, it makes me feel like I need to do something with my hands. I never know what but its never what I'm doing with them. I kinda wish the shooting would start, I'd definitely know what to do then." Maka felt a little bad about wanting her friends to be in danger, but she really didn't like not knowing to do with her hands.
Kalchine edges toward the exit. He wishes that he had more effective spells for sneaking around, but he can at least look out for trouble.
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"You're probably thinking of Tez's fox."Maka remarked
”Yeah, maybe. Tez had a fox, Selena has a fox, Saki IS a fox. We’re quite the foxy group.”
"I hate waiting, it makes me feel like I need to do something with my hands. I never know what but it’s never what I'm doing with them. I kinda wish the shooting would start, I'd definitely know what to do then." Maka felt a little bad about wanting her friends to be in danger, but she really didn't like not knowing to do with her hands.
”Yeah, you know the old saying, idle hands gather no moss. Or is it that A devil’s plaything is a joy forever?…Ah never mind.”
”Let’s move. Fin go first and wave us along when it’s safe, like before.”
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Apprehensive about entering the building, Fin just nods, murmuring, ”Aye, Q,” as he draws his bow and moves stealthily to the entrance of the building to the north once the searchlights are clear…
…once there, he’ll check out the door/entrance…
…and if he deems it trap free, he’ll quietly open it/peer inside, looking to make sure things are clear before waving his friends over…
”Yeah, you know the old saying, idle hands gather no moss. Or is it that A devil’s plaything is a joy forever?…Ah never mind.”
"I heard it's 'if you touch it too much your face will freeze like that,'" Kalchine says.
”Yeah, maybe. Tez had a fox, Selena has a fox, Saki IS a fox. We’re quite the foxy group.”
"And you and I are just foxes!" Maka gave Quasit a wink and flashed her toothy grin.
"I heard it's 'if you touch it too much your face will freeze like that,'" Kalchine says.
"If that was true my face would have frozen a long time ago!" Maka could help but laugh, a little humor going a long way to settle her mood.
Fin easily makes his way to the structure unobserved. Opening the door, he sees a study or library of some sort, the walls nearly completely hidden by bookshelves filled with hardbound volumes. Dim light from the occasional searchlight filters around the curtains drawn over the windows, but a warm, steady light comes from around the corner at the end of the room. All is silent at present.
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"And you and I are just foxes!" Maka gave Quasit a wink and flashed her toothy grin.
"Maybe we could rename our group Fox Force Five
"I heard it's 'if you touch it too much your face will freeze like that,'" Kalchine says.
Quasit raises an eyebrow and smirks. "Triaxian wisdom there." she pronounces.
As Kalchine chugs through the snow, feeling the weight of his breastplate drag him down like a block of ice around his chest, he envies the way Chest Thumper bounds easily across the intervening space. With the ape being bigger, stronger, faster, it's hard to argue that Kalchine is the better one in their relationship.
Chest Thumper doesn't seem interested in making that argument either. It is hard not to think that the expression on the Frost Ape's face is a superior smirk as Kalchine skids into the building behind him, panting for breath.
Maka quickly followed the others.
You all make it over to the house without issue. Chest Thumper is just starting to squeeze through the doorway when a familiar voice speaks from around the corner.
"Ah, so now you invade my study? You are certainly very rude guests," he says as he comes into view.
In the cover of the building, Maka didn't hesitate to unleash her wrath. In a burst of blue flame she charged across the room, twisting into the momentum and sending a roundhouse kick right at Rasputin's head.
While her aim might have been true, her opponent's form was anything but. Her leg passed straight through him, throwing her off balance and sending her tumbling to the ground. Another burst of flame brought Maka to her feet, her fangs bared and fists aflame.
"Stupid witch tricks!" She snarled.
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"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!" Quasit groans in utter exasperation. Her hands go to her hips and she enters scold mode.
"Look fella, if you try and mess with us again, my friend here with the fire summoning powers might just have to burn up every single one of your books in here. So buzz off!"
Chest Thumper
Quasit*
Bulvi Tholsson
Sakitu
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