We'll say that each attack hit a different giant; all of them look quite badly damaged by the sudden attacks.
The strange monstrosity looks like it's wearing biker leathers, and from a pocket in that vest, pulls out a Desert Eagle and squeezes of a shot at Dustin.
+ 1 Auto= 5 successes.
It is, however, not successful, and the bullet goes screaming off into the distance.
Nick and Ulf, then Dustin, have turns; then the rest of you will be going simultaneously with the Giants.
Ulf draws his own gun, something comparable to the biker's desert eagle but greater, and takes aim for a second. When he pulls the trigger, the rainbow bullet lances out from his gun, erupting from the barrel in an iridescent cloud of light. Dustin, mid twist as he's landing from his strike, sees the bullet pass between his body and deflect off of the reflective flat of Dáinsleif's edge with a plink like a ray of light before cracking into the motorcycle-man's head with a BANG
"Drop the dwarf," Nick say as he resets his feet into the plflug stance with Gram's pommel now held next to his hip, the tip pointing at the center of the giant's chest. His command feels almost compulsory, as though if he pushes a little harder he could make the giant obey. He notes this for later.
As a medical examiner Dr. Thornton is thoroughly familiar with anatomy. A common misconception is that a heart is on the left of one's chest but in fact it is dead center, a heart is merely asymmetrical and has slightly more mass left of center. He decides to compel his foe another way; by plunging Gram into its heart.
Ulf, your shot could not have been more expertly placed. It careens off of Dainsleif, a flash of light erupting from where the shard of the Bifrost impacts the magic sword. The bullet goes exactly where you have trained most of your adult life to shoot; center mass. The weird biker staggers back, beginning to bleed profusely. It has been greatly damaged by your attack.
With that stunt, you manage to hit; the giant had moved it's aluminum bat to block, but you cunningly twist Gram around and drive the point home. It does not slay the Giant, but it is very badly wounded.
Dustin should have been scared, probably. Three Giants and a weird motorcycle-man? Hell, he'd just gotten shot at...twice, technically, and once by his new ally Ulf! There had been a moment, where he had been off the ground, suspended, and time seemed to slow; he actually saw that iridescent shell coming towards him.
But there was no fear. There was trust. And boy had it been rewarded!
So instead of any nervousness or fear, as he set himself to attack again, Dustin couldn't keep a grin off of his face.
This is rad as hell!
Dustin did a quick leap backwards, partially somersaulting as he jumped. He was horizontal with the ground, facing down, when his feet found the closed door of the Escalade. He seemed to pause there for just a moment, defying gravity, then jumped forward once more towards the Giants in front of them. Since they had yet to move, his plan was the same; Two Jotuns, One Cut.
Dainsleif flashed, terrible and sure.
+ 4 Auto= 10 Successes.
+ 4 Auto= 8 Aggravated, Speed 4.
You hit, and threshold successes and stunts don't matter; your damage is sufficient. Two Jotun heads fly away, separated from their necks.
- Initiative
- Tick 6- Chloe/Erika/Chase/Giant
- Tick 7
- Tick 8- Nick/Horseman
- Tick 9- Dustin/Ulf
The one remaining Giant roars in defiance, attempting to clobber Nick.
It has, however, lost a lot of blood and is woozy. It misses Nick.
Chloe and Erika and Chase have actions go off simultaneously with the Giant. All of your foes look pretty banged up right now!
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The battle's almost over by the time that Chase is even able to react; two giant heads roll across the road and the remaining giant and the motorcycle man are both greviously wounded. It would be easy to finish one of them off, or both of them if he got lucky.
But--they had missed the opportunity to interrogate anybody back at Bodie, and while the information that Ulf had gotten was a start, to be sure--it couldn't be a coincidence that they had fought a giant and here were three more of them, plus a half man half motorcycle creature. This was an opportunity. And Chase felt something whispering at the back of his mind--these creatures had come here to steal away these dwarves and transform them into monsters against there will. The death that Dustin and the others were offering them was far too generous. They deserved something slower--and they would spill every secret in their mouths before they ever felt Hel's embrace.
He walks to the front door and as he steps over the threshold it is like the floodwater long held back by a dam bursting forth and drowning the land beneath its waves. His hair darkens as he steps forward, as if it had just been dipped in water but it does not hang damp on his neck--instead it unfurls itself like Medusa's coils, floating in the air of its own accord. The veins beneath his skin all burst at once, serpents tracing blue blood up and down his neck and arms and face as if he is being eaten alive by some deep ocean worm that has nested itself in his flesh. His lips and throat are drowning black and blue as he opens his mouth to speak to the monsters assembled before him.
"Knock yourself over," he says, staring at the motorcycle monster. His words have a weight to them, like cement chained around the neck of a man thrown into a reservoir--they are inescapable and the monster will have no choice but to obey his command.
"Listen up," he continues--his words seem distorted and far off, as if he was speaking from under the water--a little bit of bile drips out of his mouth as he speaks, second drowning seeping out from his lips. "You can strike at us but you might as well aim your weapons against the clouds or the sea for we will turn them back as easily as the ocean does eat away at the shore. Full fathoms five I will feed your bones to the sea and not even Hel herself will take you as company. We are so close to Ran's home--throw down your weapon and grovel at our feet and we won't take you to meet her eternal embrace."
He waits, staring out at the monsters from distant eyes, gone gray like a corpse pulled out from the ocean, waiting to be pulled out from the ocean or else find its grave in Ran's golden hall.
Your words seem to weigh heavy in the air, and the monstrosity is struck as if from a blow. It recoils from your horrible visage, and tumbles to the ground, nearly senseless.
Perhaps inspired by the men's exploits, Chloé rushes to try to put the giant to its end, as it rocks back on its heels. Her skills are not nearly at their level - no horizontal spinning leaps, timely ricochets, or pirouettes. Instead she scrambles onto the hood of the Escalade to get enough height to launch herself at the giant, her (sadly mundane) sword gripped in both hands and coming down hard.
Normally, that strike may not have done much, but the Jotun, already weakened from Nick's precise attacks, is unable to dodge effectively. Mundane as Chloe's weapon is, the large gashes already in the Jotun make effective targets, and Chloe exploits them, effectively incapacitating the Giant.
Time seems to be moving in slow motion as the sounds of the invasion are heard outside. Unfortunately, so does Erika; she tries to leap to her feet, getting tangled in the cushions she was sitting on, bumping into the dwarves who were all trying to rush outside. By the time she makes it into the street, it's almost over. Two Giants lie decapitated, the... what in all hells is that! ...the motorcycle-taur is crashed on its side, and Chloe seems to have disabled a third Giant. Chloe! Erika rushes at the other woman's side, past the strangely transformed Chase, pulling out her gun as she does so and aiming it into the Giant's open mouth, just in case. If it even twitches menacingly, she pulls the trigger.
The Jotun is not yet dead; it is incapacitated. Erika, however, swiftly changes that and she blows off the bottom of it's jaw.
Nick and the Horseman now have actions. The Horseman, seeing what has happened, is going to get up. It wants to get up and go away, but it is an awkward creature once on the ground, so I'm going to say it takes it's full turn to rise.
Nick?
As Erika's gunshot blows off the giant's lower head, Chloé starts visibly. Blood and gore spatters her legs.
Nick sees the Horseman trying to get to its feet, metaphorically. He rushes over and places a foot on its chest, Gram held to the side in easy striking distance. He forces it back down and says, "Why don't you just stay there for a while?"
The Horseman is within a move of you; you need bot dash.
Make a skill roll to intimidate it. Let’s say Manipulation+Presence.
The monster seems fairly convinced; a band of strong, armed Scions seems more than it can handle, especially as wounded as it is.
At this point, you may all take yourselves out of our Initiative Order.
Several Jotun lay, completely slain, all around you. This strange titanspawn is at your mercy. Some of the dwarves are unconscious, but their friends are gathering them to be tended to.
What do you do?
Chase starts to walk towards the monster; his steps are slow and deliberate to the point of uncanniness--it is as if he is walking on the ocean floor.
"Hey, mate," he says when he reaches the titanspawn--the way he says "mate" is that funny sort of way Australians say "mate" where they mean something entirely different. He leans down and looks at the creature's face,smirking a little as he does. "You and your friends kind of gave us all a fright, you know? Riding in to town and grabbing people and all that. Maybe you can tell us what you were up to and who you were working with and we'll all be fair dinkum, right?"
A voice that sounds more like a car's engine than a human being is heard once the motorcycle-man speaks.
"It was those stupid Jotun's idea. They thought, hey, the boss got himself from Troll minions. Why not grab some for themselves? Obviously they had no idea you all were here."
"How'd you get involved with these fellas anyway?" says Chase, arching an eyebrow. "I mean, you don't really look like a giant, far as I can tell."
Latching onto something the biker said Nick asks, "Who's your boss and where is he?"
After a momentary pause, Chloé runs to Erika's car and looks for the first aid kit so that she can tend to the unconscious dwarves.
"Bosses name is Robrek Forson. He was holed up in a mine in the middle of nowhere, looking for something beneath the earth. The Jotun found me; said they'd help me if I helped them. Trying to make...more like me. It hasn't worked so far, but I figured why not try their way?"
Erika inches closer, studying the motocentaur. "And? Did your boss find what he was looking for? As for help, what is it that you want? What could you desire that you would consort with kidnappers and thugs?"
Her tone and voice are deceptively gentle; they whisper 'trust me, I can help you'. After all the explosive violence of a few moments ago, Erika thinks a soft touch might help.
He doesn’t seem to respond much, Erika.
”I’m not exactly built for mining; I don’t know what they found. I already told you, I wanted to make more of my kind.”
Erika's expression becomes suddenly thoughtful as she remembers something. She looks the motocentaur straight in the eye. "Ixion?"
The creature starts a bit, then fixes you with his stare.
"No. But for all intents and purposes he is my father, little Scions."
Dustin made his way over to the enemy.
"Any more questions for him, group?"
The menace in his voice could not be missed.
"Of course there are more questions." Ulf says, finally coming forward. He walks up to the centaur from behind, looking over the machine-man's body with some curiosity and interest. he taps his gun on the metal tire shroud to see if it evokes a reaction from him. Smiling to himself, he reaches with his empty hand and touches the (presumably) leather seat.
A mark appeared burned into the surface of the seat. Ulf had never seen the strange Norse-looking rune, but it looked like the Hagal rune set as the pupil of an eye with a curved bridge as the upper lid. Here's my attempt at drawing it.
He spins the artifact pistol once before holstering it and drawing a pack of cigarettes with the same motion.
Lighting one up, he steps right in front of the motorcycle-man. "How did he find you?" he starts, exhaling the smoke into the man's face. "Where's your 'local' base of operations?"
After getting those answers, he continues. "What work have they had you do so they would make good on their promise? And tell me about Fornjot Power Associates..."
At the end of everyone's questions he turns to Dustin and mouths "Let him go."
"You said Forson was at a mine. Is he still at this mine? If so, where is it? If not where'd he go?"
"He was told where to find me. By who, I've got no idea. We don't really have a base; we're sort of always, uh, mobile. Each of us has our own territory, all along the California highways. Occasionally we get together for rides and raids.
I was a scout. If those Jotun had been smart, they would have kept to themselves, but no, they just had to make some Troll slaves. They knew there was a community nearby, but it seemed to be protected from magical or technological detection, so I just rode around Long Beach until I found the stupid place. I reported the location back to the boss, and he snatched some Dwarves.
As far as Fornjot Power Associates, I have no idea what that is."
As Ola and Cybil come out of the house, the Titanspawn grunts.
"Seeing what you did to the Giants, and with the fact that those two are here, I would assume that Robrek Forson is rotting in the bottom of that stupid mine. But I know he answered to his brother, Gunnar. Never met that guy. Don't think he lives close by."
Dustin will glower at the titanspawn, happily playing the role of bad cop. Any of his companions, however, might catch on to the fact that he is not playing; his knuckles are white on the hilt of Dainsleif, and the veins of his arms stand out sharply from the tense muscles. There is real anger and hatred in his eyes, but he controls himself.
"Gunnar...Forson..." says Chase, typing the name into a search engine on his phone before slipping it back into his pocket.
As the monster finishes talking, Chase leans towards someone near him (but out of earshot of the creature) before whispering "So...what do we do with 'em now? He might go roll over to this Gunnar fellow and tell him everything."
"He surrendered...but we can't just let him leave, you know?" he continues, scratching the back of his head. "He's part motorcycle--I bet that I could get the tires off of him real quick and then he wouldn't be able to go anywhere. But I don't know if the dwarves are going to want to hold him prisoner or anything like that."
"We let him go." Ulf replies.
With the various dwarves treated for shock, Chloé rejoins the team and buttons up her first aid kit.
"You know," she muses, "his situation is strangely not too unlike that of the dwarves who live here. Looking for others like himself, trying to build a community of people with whom he can relate. But without the divine powers of Ixion or... I don't know, some craft-magic, this kind of fusion is not really something that can easily be replicated."
She regards the motorcycle-taur with a slightly furrowed brow and her eyebrows delicately swept up in the middle of her forehead, in a display of some concern. "It must be a very lonely life, to be unique like this but not have a family or even associates the way that all of us do."
Chase, your cursory search turns up a bit of info. Gunnar Forson is, apparently, the CEO and majority shareholder of Fornjot Power Associates. It seems as though they have stakes in a wide variety of businesses and are a very profitable company.
Chloe, at your words, your captive looks at you oddly. He's sort of glaring at everybody, but he looks a bit put off by what you said. Clearly, this being was not expecting anything resembling mercy or sympathy.
Erika peeks over Chase's shoulder as he does the search. "Can you check if these Fornjot Power people are connected to Krieger Munitions?" It was, perhaps, a long shot, but who knew? While battling mythological creatures and chasing powerful artifacts was all well and good, she hadn't forgotten about her case. Some of her companions may be able to shrug off a bullet wound or three, or ignore a body's biological needs, but the same could not be said of those who did not have the fortune (or misfortune) of having a deity as their parent. Las Vegas had been a massacre. And if her intuition was right, it was somehow connected to this.
-> 3 successes + 2 auto-successes
Chloe, it seems as though your words do get through to the Horseman.
"It...yes, it is. We cannot make more of us. We have tried, but...it does not end well. We haven't the knowledge or the power of the Mad One."
Erika and Chase, through your phone, you're only going to get cursory results. You don't turn up any link between Krieger Munitions and Fornjot Power Associates with smartphone Google-fu. If you can get to a laptop or desktop computer , you may be able to dig up some more information.
"Hold on, I have my laptop in my car. Faster to type on that." says Erika. A look at the mototaur assures her that he's not going anywhere for now. What a sweet person Chloe was, so empathetic! She cannot say that she has sympathy for the creature, not when he resorted to kidnapping and associated himself with known miscreants. Understanding criminal motivations is one thing, forgiving people based on that... no, she doesn't have it in her.
You begin the process of looking up more information, but it will take a bit of time. You can continue working on this for a while, though.
The dwarves that the Giants had knocked out seem to be recovering with the help of their friends. Ola looks over at your group, frowning at the Horseman.
"Decide what to do with him, then come back in. I think we all need to have another talk."
"Sure." Ulf replies. He will go lean against the wall next to the door to the house, and smoke a cigarette while the rest of this interaction continues until they decide to heed his advice or not.
Dustin will continue to glower at the Horseman, but fade back with Ulf.
"Think my bad cop routine went over okay?"
Ulf looks up at the man and nods, chuckling. "I know it did. Cause, well, you would kill him, if we didn't stop you." Ulf says. It wasn't said in a condemning way; real world, morality is a bit more pliable than in the movies. "Good job."
Ulf lowers his head to look at the ground as he takes a draw on his smoke, letting his hand muffle his voice. "Besides, I need him to survive long enough to make it to his boss." Whom I'm certain will finish him for us. he thinks as an unspoken end to his last sentence.
Chloé, undaunted, continues her conversation with the "mototaur," as Erika put it. She says, "What's your name, anyway? Where did the 'boss' find you? I think it's pretty clear at this point that their claims of being able to make more like you were lies; they obviously didn't know how to do it. I understand where you're coming from... but you wound up on a bad side on this conflict, and you got a bad deal out of it."
Chase continues his phone-searching, but he doesn't really have any idea what to do but search the names on google. He can't go much deeper than that but he makes note of any contact details that he runs across--phone numbers, emails, social media, that sort of thing--for future reference.
No one has put forward a case for doing anything specific with the mototaur, though Chloe seems to be in the process of establishing a rapport with the creature, which might have the best results out of all possible outcomes if she is successful. In the meantime, Chase leans against one of the buildings and plays with his phone while the older scions talk.
The Horseman grunts.
"You're not wrong. We were made by dark powers.
My name...I haven't had a real name since I was a mortal. That seems like so long ago now. I think...maybe they called me Schmitty? Anyway, myself and those like me sort of haunt the California highways. We're not hard to find if you know what you're looking for."