Round 1 end
Damage counter
34
You leave the destroyed jello house to attack the dying god, and as you do so, the unstable environment shifts again.
You find yourself on top of a butte. Thunderous clouds fill the sky and heavy rain pelts you hard.
The Being takes a strong swipe at Hokey, despite it's disorientation from the unfamiliar sensation of being poisoned. It's dark, amorphous tentacle glances off her overlapped shields, as she twists her body to gracefully bound away. The strength behind the deflected blow chilled her to her core.
Hokey glances up at the Entity resolutely, a clear expression in her eye, when the wall to her left suddenly explodes with a shattering sound. Just as suddenly, Andras runs in like a whirlwind, nimbly maneuvering his switchblades, followed by the new gigantic form of Hydrand, with horrible gashes all over his body. Hokey puts away her fragrance bottle as the dying god is distracted.
"Your seconds are gone, Dying Beast, and your long history of parasitism with them." Hokey taunts up to the polymorphic being before her, as her red glove holding her amulet glows with Life energy.
"You like deals so much, how about another one, Dying Beast? I'll cure you of the poison, if you give me a greater connection to my magic!"
Stix is quick to find cover from the rain and thunder. Not a moment too soon as it becomes clear that the bolts of lightning would have quickly ended him. Hunkering down on the butte, he takes a moment to appraise his own state. Dirt and detritus that made up his form was cracked and broken from Hokey's previous assault, and the thick ichor that served as his blood still seeped from some of the wounds. A glance to the creature manipulating shakes his confidence sufficiently to make him cautious. Another strike could easily end him.
He tears a few cloths and patches some of the worst wounds. Hopefully that would be enough to prevent immediate death. Finished, he turns to watch his companions continue the fight.
How do we even destroy something like this? Can we kill it? Can it even die?
No sooner had Hydrand returned to a trained defensive stance than the world shudders once more. Heavy rain trickles through his enormous form before he feels it.
Potential energy.
The electric potential difference between him and the clouds manifested itself as a scintillating sensation across his gargantuan form. Feeling it build, he felt it tug at him in a way that made him feel like he could almost grasp it. Then it struck. Hydrand found he was already reaching for it when it arrived. Both hands held high, lightning detonated in the air above him, but the energy didn't dissipate down through him. Instead, like a live wire, he was holding it in both hands. Arcing from one fist to another, he brings them down on the poor god who summoned it in the first place.
The minor scratches and scrapes that cover Andras heal almost instantly, a combination of Hokey's magic and his own preternatural regeneration causing his hide to ripple and shift.
Rain pelts down on Andras, making his fur slick, and dripping off him. He raises his blades to the sky, and combines them into one, blades plunging towards the creature. At the moment of impact, a bolt of lightning becomes attracted to the blades, electricity dancing across them, following the path of least resistance - through the fallen god.
He uses the momentum to swing again, blades whirling in the rain, and stands, panting, as the torrential downpour continues all around him.
Round 2 Fast
Damage counter
82
Sent fast
The Entity lashes back in sheet panic, striking out with multiple pseudopods.
The Entity then disappears and reappears 20 yards over there.
The plataue disappears and in its place is a vast swamp. Huge trees grow out of the grounds. Each tree has a gigantic face in the trunk, and they start moving towards you will ill intent. They pick up large rocks and hurl them at you.
Round 3 begins! Please declare fast or slow.
Damage update with poison:
92
The creature smacks Andras with a tentacle, suckers leaving angry red welts on his skin. Even as soon as the tentacle loses contact with him, the wounds begin to close, Andras' enhanced healing capabilities repairing his body.
The world lurches and shifts again, taking Stix with it. He recovers from the upheaval just in time to leap away from a splash of foul water as a hurled boulder sinks into the mire. The creature was lashing wildly at his allies before teleporting away. Its fear and pain are evident.
Gods don't get scared, Stix. And gods don't bleed. Bertram's voice echoes to him as he draws his bow back to take aim.
Unfortunately, the poor footing still takes its toll. Stix slips to one side in the sucking mud and his shot flies harmlessly into a branch of one of the glowering trees with a soft Thwock into the wood.
Bertram fires an arrow, but it wildly misses.
The Entity prepares for you to advance.
Hokey easily dodges the rocks and tries to move, but finds her right hoof wedged in a small crack between the rocks.
Oh for hells' sake.
Hokey tries one more time to free her foot, but can't, and switches up her plans. She takes out her bow and takes careful aim, despite her fatigue.
Hydrand watches as the form-shifting of the god's appearance opens up several holes from which sprout disturbing appendages, one of which lashes out at him. The sight of it gives Hydrand a bad case of the heebie-jeebies and he feels his non-existent skin crawl.
The imagined crawling sensation resolves itself into foliage as the enormous butte is transformed into a swamp at the falling god's whim.
He sees the boulders coming, and while he had plenty of time to react, his immense size had made him much less swift. Instead, he opts to catch them to do his best to mitigate the damage. He puts his hands up to stop the first one and catches it, but the second one arrives before he can put it down all the way. He drops the first one with enough time to throw his arm out in a chopping motion at the second, slamming it to a stop at the cost of some superficial damage to his forearm.
It was at this point that Hydrand turned to continue whaling on the deity and noticed he had moved some distance away.
Well, we can't have that, now, can we?
Hydrand grips each boulder like a ski poles and throws himself forward with such force, physics begin to break down around him. His feet pound the ground causing micro-explosions, shattering wood to splinters and throwing swamp-matter up in a wake behind him. He closes to all but feet away from the deity with no intention of stopping.
Botting Andras. I'm not aware of any ranged weapons that he uses. He'll hold.
Botting Awful. Awful has a habit of staying in the cockpit and doing nothing. Will retain that action.
Entity:
As Hydrand closes in quickly, the Entity let's out a massive breath. It hurls a stream of corrosive primordial soup in an 8-yard-long cone, encompassing the giant mech.
As it hurls the primordial goop, it's entire being shrinks down to about the size of MechaHydrand. It appears to have sacrificed its own being to kill you.
The swamp disappears and it is not replaced. You find yourself in a vast open nothingness.
The shear nothing of it all plays with your mind, as it is difficult to comprehend. Make a Will Challenge Roll. On a failure, gain 1d3 insanity. On a success, heal 1d3 insanity.
The world boils away beneath his feat, leaving... nothing. Nothing but emptiness and silence. The sheer blankness bears down on Stix like a great pressure, crushing him, pouring into him. His first instinct is to panic and thrash, but Bertram's voice speaks up.
Silence. Peace. Isn't this what we've all wanted for years?
The words are simple and they ring true. He allows the vastness to permeate his mind. The boundless void pours into Stix, and for one quiet moment, all three of the minds that war inside him are content in nothingness. Alone. Separate. Silent. Finally silent. The feeling passes quickly. It could be nothing more than a momentary respite from the unceasing battle between them, but it brings Stix a glimmer of hope of peace within himself in the future. With a deep breath, Stix opens his eyes once more.
"Nowhere to hide now." He growls and knocks an arrow.
"Hold on, Hydrand! Hokey can put you back together!" He shouts to his ally as he knocks another arrow. The creature was foolish to give him such a clean shot, and he hoped to end this before the creature could threaten them with any other devastating attacks. "Hold it together for Awful's sake!"
Hydrand sees the boss priming an attack.
Hydrand doesn't care.
He leans forward into the oncoming goop, crossing his arms in a defensive gesture in front of him. The goop washes over him and he can feel it burning at his joints.
Hydrand doesn't care.
And then it burns at the one joint that matters. He can feel a series of joints grinding to a stop, ending in a turning key that would stop turning momentarily. The cockpit becomes alive with red light and claxons, and Awful quickly swivels and reaches for the key, giving it a swift few twists until he feels it start to move under its own power again.
The scene changes, and still, Hydrand pays it no mind. The lack of audiovisual noise surrounding them only serves to clear his mind, to enhance his focus on his target.
A target who just gave up his size advantage.
Having rapidly arrived at his target, Hydrand wheels back for a left-handed punch.
The punch goes sailing over the shoulder of the shrunken god, and Hydrand's hand opens up before clamping around its neck. Hydrand lashes out with his right and grabs the god's left arm, hoisting it skyward to hold the god in an awkward position that steals any leverage it has to move away.
If Hydrand had a mouth, he would give a fierce grin. One that mimicked the features of his pilot, who was soon to make his debut.
After quieting the panicked alarms, Awful shouted at the metal behemoth from inside.
"You're lucky I happened to stick around for that! So be more careful next time, you big oaf! Now be advised, I'm opening the hatch."
Flipping a couple of latches, Awful grabs onto a rail and kicks open the cockpit door.
Awful starts hyperventilating when he sees the wide expanse of nothingness before him. He hesitates for only a moment before he continues climbing the giant Mechadrand.
"Hold him still for me, I'll make this quick!"
Andras Slow turn
enemy slow turn
The entity wildly strikes out at everyone around it
Words appear in your head; thoughts and ideas converge into concepts as the being laughs. "You think you can kill me? I am a god. I do not die until your people stop believing that I am a god. So long as my agents on your planet continue to give me souls, I will reform, I will regrow, I will come back. You cannot defeat me."
damage tracker
124 (almost defeated!)
End of Round
The empty expanse fills in with mist and soft earthy ground finds itself beneath you. Suddenly, a skeletal hand shoots up from the earth and grabs at your feat! You realize you're in a graveyard!
Everything beyond short range is Obscured due to the thick mist.
Make an agility challenge roll or become grabbed by a skeletal hand reaching up from the graves.
Skeletal hands burst from the ground around Hydrand. Most reach for him but several lunge up further toward Awful. He sees the hands coming for him but with the area now hidden in a dense fog, they fade away from his thoughts. Now it was only him, his metal giant, and this... Thing.
"I told you you'd be the one paying for all this f$&&ery! With your own soul, you jackwagon!"
Leaping from the Huge Hydrand Collider, Awful flies toward the Entity with the Savage Ornament primed to strike. Thinking all the while how much easier this would have been if he only had a gun, a single tear runs down his cheek.
Awful stabs the god being - as he does so, the entity dissipates into fragments that float about you as they dissolve into smaller and smaller pieces.
The pieces float into you and some are absorbed into your body.
As the entity dissolves, so does the world around you. The mist fades away. The graveyard fades away. The vast nothingness fades away. You find yourself in that strange place up above the world. You find yourself in the glass coffin once again. You have been in this place all along. Everything you have experienced since you first woke up in the coffin has been a manipulative illusion of the god-beast.
You press up against the glass, and it slides right off. As it does so, you can hear a cacophony of voices echoing down the halls. Everyone else who has been trapped in this being is waking up at the same time. You get up out of the glass coffin, and notice that the coffin itself is starting to fade away - starting to dissolve into nothingness. As does the walls and the floor.
Soon, there is nothing about you, and you find yourself floating in space. And then falling in space. Falling towards the planet.
You speed up, going faster and faster and faster towards the ground. You can see the vast landscape, the mountains and plains and the oceans. You are flying towards the frozen tundra in the south, and then towards the western oceans to a land just between the blasted lands and the shield mountains. Just off of the kingdom of skulls.
You fall faster and faster, towards a small ocean inlet, towards a small island in the inlet. You slam back into your body and wake up, in the same form and position around the campfire in the small building from when you last fell asleep.
You can hear the gentle waters of the ocean outside, the birds calling from far off, the wind blowing and making noise as it passes by the buildings. And the sun is just off the horizon.
Part of the Entity's power has enhanced you. You now have a special connection to Hydrand. So long as you are within medium range of Hydrand, you can communicate back and forth with him and no one else can hear your conversation. You must use a minor action to activate and deactivate this talent.
Part of the Entity's power has enhanced you. You have an open "spell slot" that remains empty after your sacrifice. You may choose 1 additional spell to learn this level, in addition to whatever you may gain from your path.
Your spell guardian powers are now linked with the barrier that shield's the world from the void. When you make a casting roll to generate a barrier, you have 1 boon to the roll.
Part of the Entity's power has enhanced you. Your body now has an accelerator. This component attaches to the clockwork’s inner workings, allowing quicker movement in short bursts. Whenever a clockwork with this upgrade moves, it can use a triggered action to double its Speed during that move. The accelerator can be used safely three times between each completed rest. For each use beyond this limit, the clockwork must roll a d6 at the end of the round
in which the accelerator was used. On an odd number, the clockwork becomes an object.
You slam back into your body and wake up, in the same form and position around the campfire in the small building from when you last fell asleep.
You can hear the gentle waters of the ocean outside, the birds calling from far off, the wind blowing and making noise as it passes by the buildings. And the sun is just off the horizon.
Hydrand is near the door where he was keeping watch. Andras, Awful, Bertram, Hokey, and Jet are all laying around the fire. Bertram's cousin is not there, nor is there any trace of him ever being there like the last time you woke up from this position.
And unlike last time, you do not feel restful upon waking.
After a moment, you hear voices coming from outside the building.
Bleary with sleep, Andras wakes up and looks to the source of the noise, readying weapons and motioning for Jet to stay still.
Hokey wakes with a thirst to match her headache. Despite the disorientation, the first thing Hokey does is to check on Jet. Then she hears the voices and checks her equipment, giving Jet something to defend himself with.
"Ugh. My head is killing me. Here's a bow and some arrows, Jet. You're a seasoned adventurer, now, so you better keep some weapons on you. Try to stay in the back and out of harm's way." she says as she refills her 'seasoning' pouch, taking a swig of it herself.
Hokey moves away from the group and gathers her breath while pumping herself up. She successfully casts Stabilize Magic in order to begin healing wounds in preparation for whatever was next.
"It's much easier to cast without the influence of another being in my head. Anyone want to get in shape before we go to face the music?"
Hydrand doesn't wake up.
Hydrand doesn't sleep.
Hydrand slams back into his body, still propped up behind his shield, watching the door, and if the momentum of arriving was metaphysical, you wouldn't have known. The momentum of his transcendent arrival was punctuated by him flying to his feet, striking his usual defensive mace stance towards the door.
The transition again left him unaffected. Something about the shift had become familiar, leaving him unhindered as his awareness became alertness.
He checks behind him to see his compatriots waking up. He reaches out an enormous arm and...
...and finds that it's not enormous any more.
Ok, so I guess I wasn't so acclimated to the transitions...
This one was different, though. He could feel it.
Speaking of feeling...
As he gave himself a once-over, he felt different. Bits didn't feel quite like he remembered.
What's... He trails off as he stands perfectly still and feels inwardly.
This must be real, then, because that feels distinctly like it's half me and half... that god. Or matter from his realm? It's from there, for sure...
He touches it with his mind, metaphorically turning it over and feeling it through. As he pokes and prods with his thoughts, it winds up, and he feels a distinct, familiar sensation of being loose from time. He doesn't follow through with the activation, but understanding of his new... Is it an organ? I don't have those... but that's what it's like? Hm... Ah, mechanism. That's the word.Understanding of his new mechanism came to him quickly.
So it's like a casting of Swiftness manifest. What does that mean for my casting, though...
He quested towards the magic, his first foray into time manipulation, and found that its magnitude had become unbelievable.
With this casting, I'll accelerate my entire being-- wait...
He could feel it welling into an infinitesimal point in his chest, and he could shift the point into his hand or...
Even into another person!
He glances over to see Andras lifting himself into a crouch, eyes wary. Hydrand freezes and listens, attempting to hear what he's hearing...
Awful sits upright with a gasping jolt as all the sensations he was feeling moments ago were suddenly changed. He looked around at his companions, confused until he realized where they were. Although there were still many questions bouncing around Awful's mind, an equal number of assumptions were made. He readied himself quickly, brandishing his pearl blade. Looking down at it, a vague longing for what could have been came and went.
"You owe me a damned god gun, Hokey."
Awful muttered before moving on to find out who the voices belonged to.
You peer outside to see what those voices are. You see people. Hundreds of people. The souls within the god-being have escaped and returned to the world, just as you have, and they're all over this rocky, desolate island.
Hearing the voices for himself, Hydrand moves to just beside the door to peer out at who might be there.
Turns out, it's everyone.
Everyone from the fever-dream has arrived in reality. Before they go anywhere, Hydrand says, "Uhhh, Ho-"
He cuts off as he notes his voice is still the buried, split, deep tone it became when he made his "sacrifice".
"Hokey... I could use some help before we go."
He does his best to own the voice emanating from him; it's still a touch unfamiliar to him, but he didn't immediately hate it.
"Yeah, and you'd owe me souls per week. Don't count on it, Awful. Be grateful you got out of there without being a literal drain on society."
Hydrand requests some support and Andras silently moves up and nods at Hokey. She feels the Life spell embed itself in each of them successfully, but can't feel her connection to that spell anymore.
That's fine, we just need this to last until we get off this island.
"Hydrand, hold up. Let's get you healed up a bit more. That stupid thing did a number on you." she says in a grumpy voice.
As you step outside and start to take in the scene of an island crowded with people, you start to take in some of the details.
Most of the people are just taking in their surroundings. Some are staring up at the sky, not having witnessed it for years, decades, or perhaps centuries. Others are weeping openly, kissing the ground and not caring that the sharp rocks tear at their skin.
There's a group over there arguing with each other. Another over there yelling at the group who took the only boat on the island.
That guy down by the waters seems to have found the remnants of a boat smashed against the rocky shores and is taking it into the waters, likely as a floatation device. Others see what he is doing and follow suit, quickly taking the last of the destroyed boat from that little spot. Is there more elsewhere?
Where are we? you hear a voice ask. You turn and see an elderly woman approaching you; her dress as grey as her hair. Does anyone know?
Hokey attempts to cast a healing spell on Hydrand, only to have the spell almost blind her with the wave of pain that accompanied the feedback from the magic.
"Sorry, Hydrand. Looks like you're gonna have to go like this for awhile."
"Jet? Where are you going?? Jet! Wait!"
Hokey quickly runs after Jet, her shield ready and her saber lose in its hilt.
Andras turns to the old woman.
We’re on an island - there’s a tower called the Tower of…
Andras furrows his brow and wracks his brain.
Catelonia? Catechism? Ca… something.
There’s a tower here. Across the sea, over there, is a fishing village. Plenty of boats. If we can get across we can arrange for some to come and get you. Worst thing to do right now is panic. Worst case we will swim.
Seeing Hokey rush after Jet, he follows belatedly, calling back to the woman.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. I must go.
Hydrand steps outside right behind Hokey and Andras, but doesn't go any further.
That's... A lot of people.
He skims across the scene, seeing that some of them are less than thrilled to be in that situation.
And some of them, I definitely don't want to be near...
He stays near the house, not wanting to charge into the crowd and potentially get lost, but also unsure if he wants to stay if Awful and Bertram also take their leave.
He glances back inside to see what they're doing.
Awful was directly behind Hydrand when he turned around.
"We need to move. Quickly. These scrambling morons will start on the rest of the shore once they realize there isn't enough boat to go around. If there are more boats anywhere, we need to find them first."
Gliding across the unforgiving landscape, Awful heads to the adjacent beach away from the main bulk of people in search of anything they might use to get across the water.
The group immediately splits up. Hokey and Andras take off after Jet, while Awful heads off to looks for boats. Bertram is still in the building as Hydrand walks back in to see what he is doing.
Jet rushes away from the building, running straight into the crowd. Hokey is quick, and immediately starts after the lad. As soon as Andras notices, he also takes off.
Awful heads to the shoreline to find a boat. The shores are already starting to crowd with people. While most of the few hundred here are milling about trying to figure out what's going on, several have had the same idea as Awful.
Make a perception challenge roll with two banes.
0-: The last of the boats have already been taken. There's not even any debris left to use.
1-9: There's some debris you can use to try and float across. Drift wood, damaged planks, beams, etc.
10-19: There's a boat! But it looks like you're going to have to fight for it.
20+: Do you spy a cave over there? No one else is around, it might lead to something interesting.
Hokey hurries into the crowd, but loses sight of her tree in this forest of strangers. She quickly struggles to get out of the crowd, roughly shoving people aside with her gloved hands as they seem to squeeze in on her. Desperate to restore her personal bubble, but even more desperate to find Jet, she calls out to Andras.
"Andras! I lost him! I don't see him, but he has my bow. Find him!!" she manages to yell out, despite the creeping panic pulling at her clothes.
Hokey barely escapes out of the crowd and moves to an isolated space by a tree to catch her breath.
Where is he? What is he thinking right now?
"JET WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Not caring about what the onlookers think, Andras nods at Hokey and shifts into his hybrid form and sprints after Jet.
Wait! Where are you going?
Andras shifts form to gain a boost of speed and sure footing. People scream.
The screams fill out as the terrifying man-beast rushes at the crowd. Several run away, but several more rush Andras. More than one has a weapon.
Each round of this chase scene, 1d6+2 people will try to attack Hamdras.
Andras success/fail: 1/0
Hokey success/fail: 0/1
Chase scene round 2:
The crowd looms in on Andras, even as others shy away from the terrifying sight. The rocky terrain still makes it difficult, but fortunately both runners have hooves, which prevents the small cuts and scrapes of the sharp rocks.
Make an agility challenge roll. On a success, you juke your way through the crowd. Keeping up with Jet. Andras - special success: reduce the number of attacks by 3.
Hokey scans the crowd from her vantage point at the edge and spots the tip of a bow bobbing up and down further ahead. She suddenly hears the crowd burst into pandemonium as people tried to run everywhere. She turns over to Andras and sees him in his new boarish form.
Haha Boarish. I should remember that one to rub in his face later.
Hokey was unfazed by Andras's new, somewhat grotesque form -- she had seen worse during her adventures so far. Instead, her mind was focused on catching up with Jet, who was surely being carried away by the crowd running away from Hamdras. Seeing some people foolishly try to subdue Hamdras, she immediately decides to run ahead on her own.
"Andras, I think I saw Jet up ahead! I'll stay on the outside and try to catch up!"
Hydrand watches Jet breeze by and sees Andras and Hokey go after him.
Good, this island is no place for him.
Then he hears the screaming.
Oh, I'd better find us a boat.
No sooner had he thought the thought than Awful walked by and headed straight for where Hydrand was imagining the boats were. Hydrand follows silently.
Andras flies through the crowd, weapons bouncing off his tough hide as he chases after a human child. The screams of terror and anger continue. You hear someone shout, Monsters! They're trying to kill the child! More people turn and look to see the commotion, and more screams emerge as they lay eyes on the half pig-man.
Andras: 2/3
Hokey: 1/3
Chase, Round 3:
You keep up with Jet, trying to snatch him from the crowd. With so many people about, it's challenging to keep track of him. Make a perception challenge roll with 1 bane to keep eyes on him.
Standing on Hydrand's steadfast shoulders, Awful quickly spots enough bits of wood & boat around that he thought he might be able to put something together.
"Just on the other side of that group... It looks like there might be enough doohickeys to make a thingamajig. We need to move quickly though, there are enough people there that they might actually have a thought. We don't want to be anywhere near here if that happens..."
Seeing the peasants attack him, Andras becomes enraged. He bellows out, trying to sound authoritative, using the tone of voice that his father used with the serfs on their land when they were being uppity.
We are TRYING to help him. I’m his uncle. He can attest to that, when we catch him… now, where the hell has he gone? Jet! Jet?
Hokey continues to follow the top of the bow from the fringes of the crowd, and confirms it was indeed Jet when she makes out his face after he briefly turns around.
"Andras, I see him! I'll go stop him and talk some sense into him! Hurry and catch up!" Hokey shouts as she speeds off.
Andras: 2/3 success, 1/3 fail
Hokey: 2/3 success, 1/3 fail
Hokey manages to keep an eye on Jet, but Andras looses sight for just a moment as he yells at the crowd.
Lies! Monster! Freak! The words fly out from the crowd from different sources. More weapons strike out at Andras, but all fail to puncture his skin.
Make a Strength challenge roll to push your way through the encroaching crowds and to keep chasing Jet. Since you're both at 2 successes, a single success here will end the fight.
You find several planks and driftwood that will allow you to float across. Using one of these will grant a boon on any swimming challenge rolls you may need to make. Do you enter the water and try to swim across while you still have resources to help you?
Andras ignores the ignorant peasants, and muscles his way through the crowd, though he is careful not to injure anyone.
Out. Of. My. WAY! he bellows at them.
I'm not here to hurt anyone. Surely the fact that I can speak and am not fighting back is worth something.
Andras breaks through the crowd and finally catches up to Jet.
Help! Jet cries out! He very clearly does not want to be near you.
The crowd is also very obviously turning on you. If you linger, you may find yourself in more trouble than you can handle.
Mere moments later, Hokey catches up as well.
Andras shifts back in to human form. He looks back at the peasants, giving them a warning glance, his body language telling them to stay away.
Keeping an eye over his shoulder as he speaks, he puts one hand on Jet's shoulder and tries to console the boy.
Jet, what the hell are you thinking? We need to get out of here... and fast. We have to find the others.
"Let's take all this back to camp. I'm no carpenter but maybe I can try fashioning something together that'll at least stay above water... Mostly."
After collecting everything into a pile, the two get as much material into Hydrand's arms as possible and start making their way back. Brandishing his knife, Awful tries to look menacing in an effort to discourage anyone from getting too close to them.
The crowd erupts in a cocaphany of shouts. "Shape shifter!" "Skin Changer!" "Cursed!" "Put the beast out of his misery!" "Don't let him bite you!" "Silver! We need silver! Does anyone have silver!"
At the same time, Jet screams in rage, "You abandoned me! You left me in that horrible place all alone! You cut our connection! You were the one person I had, Uncle! THE ONE PERSON! We had a connection, and you cut me away as soon as you could! Go away! Leave me alone! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" Tears stream down his face and he turns to run again, but you can stop him if you reach out and grab him.
"I have silver," a deep voice speaks out.
Awful and Hydrand carry a load of planks and wooden boards - all water logged - back to the damaged building in which they made camp. Awful threatens his blade at anyone who steps close; paranoia readily evident on his face.
Bertram is still in the small stone hovel.
"Whatcha doin?" and innocent voice inquires from the doorway, after you drop the collection of wood on the floor.
Andras doesn’t turn around to look, but keeps his eyes and ears out for any movement behind him. He rests his hands upon his swords, preparing for a fight.
Without keeping his eyes off Jet, he calls back to the crowd.
Stay back. This is between me and the boy. I do not intend to harm him, or any one of you for that matter.
He turns to face Jet.
I’m sorry. It happened so fast. I tried to trick the sacrifice. I didn’t expect it to work, and when it did, it was all over so quickly. I was hoping to make sure it was safe, first.
He looks genuinely remorseful.
And I cut the connection for your own good. It’s too dangerous to keep you by my side, surely you must realise that. You would have been much safer back in the Tower. None of this would have come to pass. It’s not always safe to be around me, especially given my… state. But just because we don’t have a magical connection doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you - your mother was a dear, dear friend of mine, and my family.
Andras turns to Hokey.
How does it look behind us? It’s going to get a little dicey soon I think. he whispers to her.