As they look they can't see where the shot came from, but as they move for cover another shot whizzes past Cashara!
Martha's face is pale as the Vixen scoops her off the ground and moves behind a tree, Madam Zulu close behind.
VV looks at Martha, hoping the pale skin is from fear, and not…
She’s with child, you monsters!
As Cashara moves beyond a bush she sees their assailant about 70 ft away!
Standing above the stone border is the mangled corpse of Sir Henry, hunting rifle poised and ready. Even from here Cashara can see his lifeless white eyes and his limp, pale skin.
Standing beside Henry is Shivers, now wearing a more outdoorsy uniform and toting a large pack with several other firearms attached to it. His face is fearful and his legs are shaking.
VV whispers to Cashara, “F+#& running. Let’s take him.”
She looks for a position of cover she can tumble or crawl to.
The land on each side of the border is mostly clear, but their are thick trees and plants on each side.
[dice=Init]d20+4
Shivers hesitantly holds out a cartridge to "Splorer" who stiffly takes it and slowly loads the gun, his jaw falling open and Amp's voice echoing out,
"Now I know I saw someone over their! Just come out and spare me the trouble!
The Vixen may lack magic, but her Mockingbird* talent is not magic. It’s unaffected by the dampeners.
The sounds of footsteps on leaves, ever-so-quietly pitter-patter. A branch is heard snapping, and a woman’s voice, “Oh, shi—”
The sounds lead to somewhere between Zombie Henry and VV, and off to the side. Should he close in, he’ll be in charging range and facing perpendicular to VV’s position. Should he ‘sound-shoot’ from where he stands, he’ll be aiming at least 60 degrees counterclockwise to VV’s position.
"Henry" fires at in the noises direction! A perfect shot!
... if anything had actually been their.
Shivers flinches at sound but holds out another cartridge which is quickly taken a loaded.
"Hah! Which one do you think that was? Highcastle or Lane?"
"I couldn't say Sir... a-ah! I mean Miss? Doctor? Ma'am. Y-yes, I couldn't say Ma'am.
The Vixen continues to lay her trap, throwing her voice to where the shot was meant to hit.
She throws pained labored breaths in her own voice. After a gasp, there’s a snapping twig, followed by a pitiful whimper. “Ye f$%%ing coward,” she finally says. “If I found that dampener… f+$&.” She makes another pained breath, a gasp, a rustle of leaves. It sounds as if a wounded woman moved, but only about two feet........ three feet......... four.............
"Ah, Lane. Well, I'm afraid you've lost." Amp's voice says smugly as "Henry" approaches the noise slowly and stiffly, pulling out a familiar looking pistol and loading it.
Shivers stays where he is, his knees practically knocking together and and his face even more pale.
He’s reloading! No quips—just move!
The Vixen swiftly gets into Dragon Stance, and charges through the wilderness, sliding her boot under Zombie Henry’s!
VV makes no snide remark. She just watches her foe, ready to kick him some more should he attempt to rise or shoot or attack from the ground.
The Vixen pounces out from the bushes, easily knocking down "Henry"'s body, and then viciously kicking and stomping on his lifeless form!
"Gahhha! shouts Amp, in surprise and anger!
"Henry" goes to move only to be met with more blows!
"MOve! Mov3! Wh@t iS haPpeNinG?!!? screams a garbled voice out of "Henry"'s mouth! DAnm 1T!!!
Henry's corpse thrashes and twitches wildly, jerking in unnatural ways!
Eep!
Shivers falls backward his eyes wide!
VV turns to Shivers.
“Ye can’t escape me. So ye’ve only two choices. A death duel against me, or ye make yerself extremely useful and earn yer right to live.”
She stomps on Corpse-Henry’s head to emphasize how a duel might turn out (in the hope she won’t have to hurt Shivers).
You hear your dead uncles skull crack under your boot (might need therapy for that) as Shivers begins to shake all over!
"Please d-don't hurt me! I'm on your side! P-please, I had nothing t-to do with it! W-well that's a lie... b-but I was forced!"
His face is deathly pale and he's clenching the ground to hard his knuckles turn white!
There is almost certainly a night in the future that involves a lot of crying while cuddling a fox. But for now, there is a woman and her unborn child to defend, and Zombie Henry isn’t the greatest threat, the Vixen now realizes.
She gives one more stomp—to embed Henry’s face in the ground, in case the eyes still send visuals to Amp. The ears might send audio too.
VV approaches Shivers, a finger over her lips.
Shivers understands her meaning: don’t make a sound!
Once she’s near him, she uses her Mockingbird talent to make pained ‘oofs’ in Shivers’ voice as she punches her palm and stomps a twig. She then says to Cashara, “Take all o’ Henry’s guns and ammo.”
She then extends a hand to Shivers, along with a nod. “Looks like Shivers is dead too. We ready to move?”
VV intends to lead everyone forward, Shivers included, without another word until she’s sure she’s out of earshot. She’ll gladly talk to Shivers once she’s fairly certain Amp won’t hear (through Henry’s corpse, at least).
Looking like he's about to faint, Shivers hesitantly takes the Vixen's hand.
Once far enough (~100 paces?) from Henry’s corpse, VV says to Shivers, “Fine, ye’re on our side. Prove it then.
“I need me fairy friend, I need me own clothes, and I need the magic dampener disabled. That’s in order of importance, but really, if ye know how to disable the dampener, I can find me fairy friend from a mile away.”
Martha and Madam Zulu look surprised as they watch you lead Shivers back, but they don't say anything.
Shivers continues to reach for something that isn't there as he nervously replies,
"I'm a-afraid I c-can't do any of that... Ms. Amp t-took your fairy for study and t-the dampener and your equipment are back at t-the house... B-but w-w-we have n-no time for that! N-now that Master Henry's gone she will surly release B-Buckley and the d-dogs! And now that she knows you have equipment she'll n-never let us leave!"
He said that last part as he took of his pack and let it spill open, showing an armory of guns, ammo, swords, rations, and other equipment!
VV looks furious. “Study?!
“I need to get back there—but not by a direct route. Are ye sure there’s no other means o’ shutting down the dampener. Amp seems to think it’s perfectly fine to enslave people—she thinks me fairy friend’s a slave.
“Any chance the slaves she spoke of’re here, and we can go to them?”
"M-Ms. Amp got away with a lot b-but Master Henry w-wouldn't allow her to bring her own h-help... I w-was the one who h-had to set up the rooms, cabins, challenges and s-such... So I'm q-quite sure that t-the dampenner can only be t-turned off at t-the house..."
A-and, yes, study... The island Ms. Amp hales f-from doesn't h-have any other races b-but human... So your f-fairy is quite t-the specimen..."
“Oh, like those f!#!ing poison darts, ye mean. Well, that’s excellent—I got a walking answer key. Only… there ain’t a point to passing the challenges now, is there?
“But about the dampener? Ye gotta shut it down from within the house, but is there a power source we can get to from outside? Like, y’know… if it ran on water, ye’d dam the river. There something like that we can do?”
As for the supplies, she says, “Zulu, can ye look into the equipment and see if there’s anything we can do to throw the dogs from our trail?—or at least stall ’em? Like food… or poison food. I don’t care if we kill the damn dogs.”
Zulu sneers when dogs are brought up and mutters,
"yes, lets just make the old woman do everything..."
,as she begins to sift though the bag.
“Oh, like those f@%*ing poison darts, ye mean. Well, that’s excellent—I got a walking answer key. Only… there ain’t a point to passing the challenges now, is there?
“But about the dampener? Ye gotta shut it down from within the house, but is there a power source we can get to from outside? Like, y’know… if it ran on water, ye’d dam the river. There something like that we can do?”
As for the supplies, she says, “Zulu, can ye look into the equipment and see if there’s anything we can do to throw the dogs from our trail?—or at least stall ’em? Like food… or poison food. I don’t care if we kill the damn dogs.”
"I suppose not... but the other don't know that... b-but I tampered with the puzzles to make them easier... like the projector video and s-such."
"Oh, w-well the island is powered b-by a water wheel in the cave b-below the house! B-but the cave is only accessible from t-the sea or the house..." he says, clearly surprised that your familiar with electricity!
The Vixen is not familiar with this sort of thing at all. The river was merely an example, though her thought was that a fairy is a source of her magic—so why wouldn’t the magic dampener have a source. And water’s DAMP! O’ course!
“The water wheel! Just as I suspected,” VV says with such vigor she obviously knows her stuff. “So we could just… break it. If it don’t turn no more, no more dampener!
“What’re the odds we can get to it by sea? I mean… like in a way we ain’t spotted? If we can easily be seen, might as well walk.”
"W-well I think it w-would be quite easy if you had access to a b-b-boat..." he says after thinking for a moment.
Zulu stands up, her arms full of what seems to be jerky.
"This may work." she says in a slightly annoyed tone.
VV says says to Zulu, “Okay, I know that the jerky thing’s me own idea, but o’ course me idea’s got a gaping flaw. Any meat we lead the dogs to’s on our trail. So how to throw ’em…?
“We head to the nearest challenge room,” she blurts.
“Assuming it’s another cabin, the meat smell can lead the dogs to the trap—ideally another flying dart room or the like. I’ll be the one to carry the meat and the one to lay the trap, so it’ll be me scent that misleads and the scent’ll be strongest where I leave the meat.
“But o’ course I retrace me steps and we all get out a back exit or a window.”
To Shivers, “What’s the nearest challenge room? If both’re as close, which challenge has a trap dogs’re likely to trigger?”
Shivers bites his lower lip in though before stating,
"T-the dogs will only be able t-to trigger the d-dart trap... but I can't imagine that it would hurt many of them."
Martha steps forward,
"But what do you want us to do while your gone?" she says in a quiet voice.
VV assures Martha, “We stick together until there’s a trap room—like at the cabin, when I went downstairs and ye stayed upstairs. We’ll be no further apart than that, and not for long, assuming I don’t trigger the trap this time.
“Though maybe there’s li’l point to that if the dogs can’t trigger the existing traps. Maybe Zulu can rig one?” VV is not skilled in such things, so she simply says, “We best settle in a direction and move.
“Maybe head to the next challenge room and see what’s there?”
She simply nods solemnly.
"W-well the next cabin's trap was m-more of a quiz than a t-trap... but I rigged it so y-you could skip the first part... t-the third one has a trap t-the dogs could trigger, b-but it's awfully far from here." he says as he grinds his teeth.
Zulu bends down, picks up a mace and says,
"Well I say we should find the others and storm the place. Or just storm the place. Grandpa Rainsford always said, 'The straight approach is the best approach.'"
“Then we follow Grandpa Rainsford’s advice.” VV asks, “Madame Zulu, do ye propose we go to the other two cabins in hope o’ finding the others, then we all move to the mansion?
“I just want to make sure I understand yer meaning perfectly clear.”
"Well, yes, that's what I mean." she says as she looks at you disapprovingly.
VV doesn’t mind the look. “Let’s move.”
She asks Shivers to lead the way to the Quiz Challenge.
And if the jerky’s safe to eat, she says, “F@!# the dogs—this is for us,” and divvies rations to all.
Shivers scoops up the supplys and re-dons the pack before walking ahead. As he moves the others follow and he says,
"So the other t-two cabins are in the savanna and m-mountain biomes. The savanna one is closer and its just on t-the other side of the jungle..."
He suddenly stops and turns, his face beet red.
"And s-sorry about the clothes... I t-tried to be m-modest about it all..." he says quickly before turning around and quickening his pace.
The Jungle
Not only home to many dangerous plants and beasts, The Jungle is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes! Every hour you spend in The Jungle you must roll a FORT save of 10 + how many hours you have been there! Failing the save will result in 1 damage. Also all the pesky mosquitoes give you disadvantage on Perception checks!
After an hour or so, Addy’s donated a bit of blood to the local vermin.