"All right, we'll see what we can bring as evidence.I only hope we don't find any bane of us there and someone goes crazy."
Chaney: You can see magical emanations in the form of drifting colors like smoke in the night coming from the crow's nest, the rearmost cabin, and the entrance to the cargo hold in the center of the main deck.
I circle the lighthouse to see who is down there.
Mazatl will shrug calmly and attempt to manifest her armor.
Life magic emanates from her forehead, trickling down to her feet. Despite being on top of a stone lighthouse, ivy begins to grow up, climbing across her body, and traveling along her arms and legs to form a thin layer of protection. As she steps back and away from the space she'd occupied, there's a thicket of still-growing vines.
Creating a means to cross the water through magic would be more likely to fall under the Ritual move of the Wizard...though I could definitely see a Life elemental made from your "environmental hazard" technique as being capable of carrying passengers across water. Rule of Cool, I'll allow it. It certainly won't keep you dry on your trip, but it can get you and your friends there.
Guisarme cocks his head to the side. As he quickly runs to the other end of the lantern room, he adopts his werebird form, his face growing sharp and hooked and feathers erupting from his skin. As a werebird, he glances over the side of the lighthouse at the ground below.
Tremblay frowns, his forehead furrowing. "It seems we may be out of time..." he mutters, and draws a small flask from his coat.
You hear quiet words being spoken from the ground below the lighthouse. What do you do?
"Hmmm, don't know about silver but someone has toys. Magic in the crow's nest, the captain's cabin and the main hold. The crows nest worries me an augmented look-out we do not need."
Feustus: you take off from the railing of the balcony and take to the skies. Against the night sky your black vulture feathers are almost invisible, and you soar silently above the lighthouse like an omen of death.
You count ten figures outside the lighthouse below. They bear lanterns that are hooded to conceal the majority of the light, but you can see them clearly. They're armed and to a man they are in werewolf form. You see no insignias to clue you in as to who they are. You can't tell anything more without flying lower.
Mazatl watches Feustus circle. "Flight would be... lovely."
"I... may be able to create a way down... but it could also backfire. Do you want to take that chance?" She looks over the others. "And this isn't the sort of hurt that's only going to affect me. We're not in a friendly place to grow things, so the elemental may well not be happy with us using it."
"Surprise and stealth are our allies now."
With that, Kazuya shifts to his weasel form and begins to scale the outer wall of the lighthouse.
"Ah, company. Well I must off. Shall we prepare and meet at the gilded hook in say one hour's time?"
"Well why don't we just jump into the water?" Svog ask to the remaining ones.
"That... is a lot smarter than hoping my elemental is better at climbing than I am. They... might follow us in, though, and I might need help to swim... but that seems doable. A lot better than climbing." She looked over the edge to see how far the jump was... and how far down.
"I'd rather take my chances jumping or climbing than risk your crazy magic," Aifric says to Mazatl. "But let me take a look at that boat first. I might not be able to follow all this politics, but I've got eyes like anybody else."
Aifric peers through the telescope.
"Yep, looks like a boat," says Aifric after taking a peek.
He secures his spears and slings his shield behind his back, while transforming into his were form. "I was made for climbing," he says as he starts over the side.
As soon as Aifric starts over the side of the lighthouse, he feels the shifting stone. He grasps for another holding place with all three other limbs, but it's too late. His momentum is too great. He knows he will tumble head over heels to the ground if he doesn't do something now! So he pushes off the wall with his feet as hard as he can. He's still tumbling, but maybe, just maybe he'll hit the water rather than the ground. As the chemistry of fear floods his mind, so too it floods his body. Against his will, he changes into his full animal form, the bonobo. In this form, Aifric can barely swim, even if he hits the water rather than the ground.
to see whether he pushes off well enough.
"Uhmmm so what are we going to do?" He whispers at the others.
Mazatl would quickly move to try to help Aifric, but it would be far too late... and what little help she could give would have been mostly wasted. She backed away from the edge enough to get a running start.
"Well, there goes the option of playing innocent. Guess we flee!" Mazatl rushes for the side of the lighthouse, leaping off into a dive, hoping to simply absorb as much of the damage as she can as she aims for the water, with reckless abandon.
Tremblay shouts, "After him! Go!" and Guisarme nods, climbing to the railing of the balcony in were form. The manservant launches himself off with a firm push of his legs, his wings guiding his descent as he plummets toward the falling bonobo.
The bonobo flails instinctively about as he falls toward the water, grasping the outstretched hand of the werebird as he reaches him. Falling together, using the very limited gliding capacity available to him to reach the shallow sea below. With a splash, the two of you land in the ocean, and Guisarme shifts back to human form to help you stay on the surface. After a few moments, your fear begins to ebb - the water was deep enough to prevent the fall from killing you, but not all that far from shore.
Meanwhile, up at the lighthouse, the serious-faced monk transforms into weasel form, easily scaling the walls The monk sees the majority of the goons, he counts seven, break down the front door of the lighthouse and rush inside. Three of them mill about outside, watching for escapees. You have the drop on them, Kazuya, what do you do?
Data on the room please. Strong or weak door to the rest of the tower. Climbable (with the usual defy danger) or non climbable walls? Exposed ledges? What is the roof like? Glass? Open and climbable stonework?
1. The door to the outside on the bottom floor has been broken down, you can hear that much now. Your climb to the top of the lighthouse took about 6-7 minutes at an easy pace; rushing as these thugs are, you have far less. You're confident they'll be in fighting shape even after the stairs, being werewolves.
2. As Kazuya demonstrated, those with animal forms suitable for climbing should be able to scale the rough stone walls with little difficulty. It's inadvisable for those without climbing apparatus, though.3. No exposed ledges, though the walls are of rough-hewn stone. The lighthouse had no lodging for a keeper, and was for the lantern in the lantern room only.
4. The roof of the lantern room is a focusing crystal, marvelous by Earth standards but more common in Tarn, that allowed the lighthouse to be seen for miles. Still, even this fine roof is an overlooked gem atop a grubby tower. The crystalline dome begins about 10 feet off the ground atop a round circle of stone that forms the tower's crown. (Hope I described that adequately).
Mazatl makes a graceful dive off the tower, her antlers leading the way down as she makes a direct point facing downward. When she hits the water, her aerodynamic shape causes her to make barely a splash in the turbulent waves, but they also focus the force of her dive to take her unexpectedly deep. You attract the attention of a fish that you recognize - and don't like at all.
It's long, narrow body makes it look like a torpedo, and its mouth is filled with razor sharp teeth with a jaw that hangs slightly open in a perpetual expression of hunger. It swims closer, investigating you - what do you do?
"Be seeing you" Chaney quips as his form flickers and vanishes.
. Ouch taking the -1 ongoing to cast.
Unseen the wizard scrambles outside and onto the clear crystal roof.
. And the dice hate me.
"Well, this will be fun" Svog runs and jump from the window to the ocean, taking a deep breath and transforming into a shark.
The baying of the wolves coming up the stairs almost causes your spell to go awry, Chaney - only your experience and intellect () allow you to recover from the unsettling sound and force the magic to work. You vanish from sight, but you have a faint ringing in your ears whenever you try to concentrate on magic.
You tap your temple invisibly and shake your head before leaping up to the crystal dome, but the buzzing isn't done causing you a headache. You almost slip as you struggle to climb upward, but you eventually make it. (no more serious a penalty than that for the 7-9, since it's a pretty simple task you were attempting)
You look down over the balcony and see Guisarme bobbing with the were-ape down below. Suddenly, a new sight appears that is quite...startling. A shark flies out of the balcony at a running leap, diving down toward the rocky seas below with its mouth wide open. The absurdity of it makes you blink a few times involuntarily.
Svog Kos, you make the dive look easy. Your transformation is abrupt, terrifying and graceful, and you enter your element in shark form with ease. You see, a few meters below you, Mazatl staring down an inquisitive barracuda that is considering eating her - what do you do?
Mazatl recognizes that she's entirely outgunned in the water. She's not going to channel, as she really needs her armor in case it starts trying to eat her... so she swims away from the thing, hopefully not enticing it too much. She might not be a match for a fish in its element for swimming, but deer are graceful swimmers, able to swim at ten miles an hour when in danger... and so she shifts into deer-form, as she breaks for the surface.
As you turn around to swim toward the surface in the dark water, the enormous shape of Svog Kos in shark form breaks the sea surface before you. You almost gasp involuntarily and choke, but you restrain yourself just in time and bolt for fresh air as fast as possible.
You break the surface of the water and gulp air into your lungs, treading water a moment. From below, a sudden pain in your ankle when the barracuda rams your leg with its teeth exposed! As quickly as the strike happens, the barracuda disappears into the water again; you can't see it in the water below you as you begin to bleed. Take 1d6 damage.
Svog is usually a quiet fella, he likes music and stories, drinking chocolate infront of the fire place and make the children laugh. Except when he is a hundred razor sharp teeth big mouthed shark.
Svog enter the water and rejoices at the salty flavour the water has, he sees the barracuda looking at Mazatl, he swimws towards his prey ready for a bite.
The shark thrashes in the water trying to chase down the barracuda, but the blood leaking into the water from Mazatl's ankle wound is distracting, and the barracuda escapes. To your sharp underwater shark senses, the barracuda swims away unscathed, not wanting to tangle with a big shark for long.
Meanwhile back at the lighthouse....
Making himself comfortable on the smooth glass Chaney observes the room below with interest. What will Tremblay do now that his ride has gone?
Will the foe balk at only finding one bureaucrat where they sought a conspiracy?
Mazatl pops up at the surface, and tries to get a bead on where the danger is. There was a shark under her... but she was fairly certain Svog wouldn't try to eat her. There was the Barracuda still... she swam towards shore, while watching for where the werewolves had gone. She'd try to combine 'towards the shore' and 'away from the werewolves' if she could manage it. Towards the shore took precedence, though, as she didn't want to grow exhausted.
Kazuya sticks to the shadows in weasel form, trying to sneak behind the werecreatures. Then, he transforms and tries to clear the grounds for his fleeing allies.
Mmmm girl, you smell nice... Svog smells the blood of Mazatl in the water and swims behind her watching her back, trying to fight the hunger...
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming he starts singing in his head.
chuckles Talking isn't possible in full animal form, sorry. Are you in hybrid form now?
You sense movement in the water behind you - just as you and Mazatl are scrambling out of it, barracudas start to leap at your feet, trying to take fleshy chunks out of your legs!
Mazatl scowls in the direction of the barracudas, thinking some rather nasty thoughts of her own. She quickly looks towards the lighthouse to see how the others are fairing.
"If not for the fish, I'd say we should help the hawk and his chimp."
"Stand back a bit, I'm going to summon an elemental to assist us with this..." Once he was away, the emerald energy would begin to coalesce once more...
and then something bad happens..?
Kazuya stands up from tripping over. With a bit of quick acting...
"Shorry 'bout that, fellash! Whaddaya shay we get a bit of a drink, eh?"
The werewolves start in surprise at the sudden appearance of the weasel. Then, "He matches the description. Get him!" and the battle is joined. Your acting skills notwithstanding, they don't appear to be fooled.
Take 1d6+3 (-1d6) damage as the werewolves draw their weapons - wickedly spiked maces made of black metal - and collapse on you, bludgeoning you about. Your mastery of your inner self allows you to flow with the blows, reducing the force of the impacts. You manage to knock them back with a spinning kick, and they circle you.
You watch them carefully as the wolves employ their pack tactics. Two of them attack you from the side to grab your arms while the third rushes you head-on, what do you do?
Mazatl, your connection to the Plane of Life is changed according to the state of the natural world around you. As you gather energy to yourself, first and foremost is the strength and ancient majesty of the seas. A dark shape rises out of the water before you, connected by a greenish-blue emanation cord to the space between your antlers.
Water continually flows off it, until you eventually realize that water will permanently flow off it - it is made of constantly shifting water. This...creature represents the terrible power of the sea, and it doesn't appear to respect your authority over it. Immediately after it finishes forming, it begins to lash back and forth like a powerful fish on the end of a fishing line. With a painful yank, the connection to your elemental is severed, and the elemental sinks back down among the waves. In the watery voice and language of the water elementals (you understand the languages of the four primary elements) - you hear vague threats rising from the sea's surface.
Water elementals are notorious for their pride. You would do well to watch your back in the water from now on - you've made a bit of a target of yourself.
"You fools should know not to cage a dragon." With that, Kazuya tries to pull one of the ruffians into the path of the one that is rushing him.
But fails!
Svog will turn into his hybrid form,
"Keep swimming to ground" Svog tries to talk in the water (?)
He takes a nice bite at a barracuda, yummi!
"Right. Well... that was not at all what I expected to happen." She frowned at the vague threats.
"Sorry!" she calls after it. "I'd been expecting kelp."
Mazatl tries to take stock of what's happened with everyone.
GDI, Dice! Sorry, Weasel-friend. Mazatl has no idea you're still in the tower, probably...
I return to the tower.
From his transparent vantage point Chaney observes the attacking wolfmen through the glass..
What is Tremblay doing?
Aifric gains control of his form about the same time he reaches shore. "Many thanks," he sputters to his rescuer. "I guess I owe you my life." Under his breath, he says to himself, "So that was embarrassing. Can't climb. Can't control my form. Have to get rescued. And Mazatl is definitely going to call me a monkey again."
He looks around to get his bearings. He sees some watery shape emerge out of the sea as if controlled by Mazatl, and then it's gone. He sighs as he moves toward her, knowing he's going to get ribbed mercilessly whenever they're all out of danger.
Feustus swoops back to the lighthouse to witness Kazuya's struggle, landing on the roof of the lighthouse and peering down. Chaney, you see his black shape against the moon, flying back toward you, but the vulture shows no sign of being aware of you because you're still invisible. Chaney, you know that the Caparands and the Trafalgars both have the largest numbers of werewolves in Magna Gracia, but no more than that. The Governor is also a known werewolf.
Below you in the lantern room, the seven werewolves burst inside, looking around. "Look, they jumped! They must have fliers..." one of them immediately points out, running to the balcony and examining the broken stone that Aifric left behind in his fall. The werewolves mill about a moment, making sure nobody is hiding from them. When they stand below where you are hidden, Chaney, you notice that one of the werewolves has begun sniffing the air slowly, drawing in scents through his powerful nose.
Down at the beach, Svog Kos effortlessly swoops a barracuda out of the shallow surf and swallows it whole. The barracudas seem reluctant to chase you any closer to shore than you are now, and quickly vanish beneath the dark waves once more.
Mazatl, Discern Realities is not exactly the same thing as Perception. In Dungeon World, Perception is not really a thing to be rolled unless you are Defying Danger to avoid being ambushed from stealth or something. Otherwise, if you're able to see or understand something in the context of the fiction, you're able to see or understand it. You see Guisarme speaking quietly with Aifric on the shore nearby, and you see Feustus' dark wings making their way back to the lighthouse. You're not able to see Kazuya or (obviously) Chaney from here.
Further down the beach, Guisarme helps Aifric to his feet. "We are all weak at different times, and strong in others," is all he will say. He stares at you for a moment, his dark eyes serious and enigmatic as a bird's eyes. His head cocks slightly to the side as he studies you. Without another word, he shifts to full bird form and takes off into the night.
Kazuya struggles valiantly but the werewolves grasp him by either arm. The third werewolf strides up and grasps him by the back of the head, then slams the monk's face into his knee. Take 1d8+3 damage, ignores armor. "Some dragon..." the werewolf chuckles, leaning in closer to sneer. What do you do?