Haggered Appearances
Log Info
- Title: Haggered Appearances, part 1
- Emitter: Whirlpool
- Characters: Cryosanthia, MAC-B1G, Braelnoir, Darius, Baz da Ork
- Place: Near the Felwood and the Felwood
- Time: Thursday, October 15, 2020, 9:30 PM
- Summary: A young woman has gone missing from a town near the Felwood. Adventurers are requesed to seek her, as hags are believed to be involved. Cryo and Braelnoir have their own reasons to seek witches in the Felwood, and Darius, Baz and MAC-B1G respond to the villager's call. The hags are found, and one explains they are not the cause of the woman's disappearance. It is due to the False One, whose house ripped the sky when he defeated the Witch-Queen. These oblique references to Altima and Augustus aren't recognized by the adventurers, who are all foreign. They continue following the tracks, and come upon a mysterious, ruined and haunted house. They announce themselves, and make ready to go inside.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cryosanthia 6'9" 291 Lb Sith-Makar Female A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman. MAC-B1G 6'6" 303 Lb War Golem Neuter Drab gray primarily metal humanoid with cyan-lit optical receptors. Braelnoir 5'11" 146 Lb Human Female A tall, pale Acanian woman, branded in silver. Darius 6'4" 240 Lb Human Male A tall, stocky and muscular human warrior. Baz da Ork 7'0" 320 Lb Orc Male 7' 320 pounds of metal, muscle and stupid. WAAAGH! -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Whirlpool Otyugh I am stinky! -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
The Felwood is a dangerous location. There can be no doubt of this. Legendarily infested with demons and monsters, it is the sort of place people keep a distance from. The elves of the very nearby Mythwood keep a watch over it with their Wardens but none of that stops adventurers from finding reasons to go to the cursed wood.
In this case, a young woman from one of the villages that leans closer to these lands has gone missing. It is believed by the villagers that she was taken by a coven of hags that lives on the periphery of the Felwood themselves. There is little to support this supposition beyond the fears of the townsfolk in question.
That's why you're in a glade, none too far from the village of Unmer she has gone missing from, in the hopes of finding some indication of what happened to this young woman. According to the anxious townsfolk who hired you, this is where she was last seen, collecting mushrooms.
Cryosanthia looks around the glade, snout titled upwards as she examines the rays of light filtering through the leaves, and the surroundings. She is wearing her mithril and leather armour, and all her other magic gear, including a corset, a short cape and short skirt. She and her clothing are a brilliant white, with pale blue highlights. A whitescale haversack is across her shoulders, under the cape. Her buckler is on, and she's even holding a slate grey icicle dagger, mostly to point at things and have something to do.
The white sith looks over at Braelnoir, smiling hopefully, "I'm going to fill them in." Her head turns to address everyone else, "We're here to help find the missing girl, of course, but some witches have been sending things after my sister. So we thought, it might be the same witches. How many covens of witches can there be in the Felwood. Just one right?"
The sith laughs hopefully, "So, can anyone track?"
MAC-B1G continues to gather data on biological entities, thus much of their behavior yet appears illogical. As it makes slow strides upon heavy motive appendages, it vocalizes, "Datum: Locale and indigenous flora and fauna known to be altered.
Datum: Resources obtained from flora and fauna similarly corrupted.
"Query: Why do biological units habitate the vicinity and seek resources from corrupted locale?"
Braelnoir is of a mind to thin out the hag population for... personal reasons. Well, these probably less so. The possibility they may hold some connection to her enemy is tenuous, but it'll do. She's shrouded herself in dark woodsy colors, though the scythe is classic Brae. She gives the collected a casual, "Hey!", then as Cryo elaborates on things, "More or less."
With the inquiry from the MAC, a topic of some suriosity she really should hit up off the job one of these days, she answers, "Sometimes th'resources hold a hidden boon. Sometimes they're just holding ground agaisnt th'Encroachin' Felwood."
Darius says to Cryo, "I can track... finished my ranger training just recently... the longer it's been, the less there's there to track so if we want to actually find her, we need to get going as soon as posisble."
For his part Baz is in a general slouch. The kind of resting pose he adopts between bouts of violence or eating, or violent eating. His form is covered in a thick layer of black plate mail which in turn is populated by pyramid like spikes. Upon Baz's head is a horned helmet cast in the style of an Orkish skull. He slowly checks over his gear, making sure his blades, shield and mystical quiver are ready. Then there is a shrug from the big Ork at Cryosanthia's question.
"Oy, I might be able ta track her. Depends on how little her feet are. Stuff goes away quick in de wood. Then the skull helm turns towards Darius and there's a snort. "Neveah mind den, we gots a ranger. I'll stick ta kill'n then." A great rumbling laugh bubbles up from the Ork's chest. After a few moments he adds an additional response to Mac's question. "Why in de wood? 'Cause it keeps people away, and it's dangerous and there is lots of things tae eat in her." As if to accent that comment Baz's right arm snaps out suddenly and snatches up some kind lizard-rat like animal. There's a sharp 'crack' and the Ork shakes the creature a few times then shoves the now corpse away into a pouch. "Heh, snack for later."
The white sith nods, "I've never had that kind of training, so this one will stay out of your way and try to assist." She moves with a wide sweep of her blade, indicating the blade. "I guess we start here."
A moment passes, "And sorry things didn't work out with Kira."
Cryo blinks as Baz snatches a snack out of no-where. So much for her being keen-eyed. "What they said, Mac Bee One Gee, gambling. High risk, high reward."
MAC-B1G's faceplate rotates around to the various responses; additionaly data recorded. "Proposed corrective action: Mass incinerate corrupted flora and fauna to remove threats and allow unrestricted access to locale for decontamination."
It's receptors pan to Darius. "Directive: Locate missing biological unit, inform task force of location."
Darius closes his eyes but says nothing to Cryo, the pain is still too raw, even after all these months. He then says, "Alright, here we go..." He carefully gets low to the ground and looks for telltale signs that can put them at least on the path.
"Lets get go'in." Baz rumbles, and straitens up. He stomps his new boots on the ground a few times and shapes up for the march ahead. Tapping the odd quiver on his hip once and muttering a strange phrase. A huge compound bow glows into existance in his right hand with an arrow under his thumb. The massive compound bow appears to be just this side of a siege weapon as it is geared for the Ork's massive strength. There is a loud chuckle from the Ork at MAC's suggestion. "Burn it all? Hah, easier said than done. Places like this have a habit of fighting back."
GAME: Baz da Ork rolls survival: (13)+11: 24 GAME: Darius rolls survival: (14)+8: 22 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls survival: (4)+4: 8 GAME: Braelnoir rolls survival: (2)+6: 8
"Are you goblin artifice, Mac Bee One Gee?" Cryo looks curiously at the unit. She also searches around for tracks. Her years of indoor experience make themselves felt. She finds nothing. She spends all her time looking away from Darius also.
Braelnoir rolls a shoulder, arching an eyebrow at Darius with Cryo's remark. She considers the area, some, looking for birds. Black ones, specifically, as she starts pacing some, awaiting the hunt to begin.
"Negative, Unit Designate Cryosanthia," the construct vocalizes. "This unit was manufactured in the Conquera Soulforge, 936." It now scans the fore, rather than taskforce units.
... she's all over the glade, for one. Checking under rocks, under branches and more. Her tracks then move towards the edge of the glade, wander around it for a bit, like someone pacing back and forthm, before heading straight into the woods at a cautious gate.
She definitely went into them under her own power, or at least, on her own two feet.
Darius makes a frown and says to the group, "Well... she's alone at least... went looking all over the place before heading straight into the woods under her own power cautiously, so there's that." He gets up and dusts his hands and knees off and points where she went in, "She went in there... shall we go in too then?"
Cryo follows along behind Darius and Baz, who are on top of their tracking game. She nods when the obvious is pointed out to her. "So, normal searching for mushrooms, then something caught her attention or called her deeper into the woods? It wasn't rushed, so she wasn't afraid or eager."
The sith inhales, in case there are scents on the wind, and stares into the woods. "So, proceed with caution after her?"
Braelnoir makes a note of Conquera 936 as it's named, something for her to look up, later. Practice that library thing. In the meantime, as Darius picks up the trail, Brae swings her scythe around to her back and alters some of the traps of her armor to incorporate a baldric of sorts for the weapon. That done, she unhooks the crossbow from her belt and readies if for work before trotting on after, "Coulda been someone callin' out to'r. Maybe turned into a golden butterfly'r somethin'. Enticement."
The big Ork stomps along following Darius. He casts his eyes this way and that his nocked bow at the ready. "Caution. Hah." Baz intones from deep in his chest. "We go into da demon wood look'n for some stupid girl who wandered in on her own? We go in for a fight, and looking for the big pile of her that's what is left over after she went through some demon's guts."
Deeper into the woods, you travel. You're still in the border regions, obviously, rather than the Felwood proper. Thatq's good news, after all. Even for seasoned slayers and adventuerrs, the Felwood is a legendarilky dangerous place, full of demons and cursed mists and witches and...
... the list goes on.
Still, the woman's movement are clearly steady and without any real erraticness from the tracks, at least from what you can see.
Of course, that's right up until the moment the woods go quiet.
Darius freezes once the forest goes quiet and hisses, "Weapons out, there's something here... the forest just went unnaturally quiet!" He draws his greatsword and moves into a defensive stance as he lets his senses try to perceive any threats
"Ready," Cryo hisses quietly, ready with her blade and looking around, up, and into the undergrowth. She's crouched, her tail lashing carefully.
There's a chuckle in the Ork's helm, he starts to bend back on the bow. The massive wood and metal creation groaning and creaking as inexorable force is applied to it. "Let me be into the blood wit Kor, let me be into the death wit Kor. Let dis be a fight and not just more weird shit. I am gett'n tired of the weird shit." The big Ork rumbles, digging his feet into the earth as he waits, ready to start firing arrows.
"Scanning for threats..." the constructs cyan receptors shade magenta as its faceplate begins a slow three hundred-sixty degree rotation.
Braelnoir shoulders her crossbow at the sound of alert and starts scanning the trees down the sights. She glances to the MAC, then Baz as he invokes. "Oughta tellya 'bout th'Pumpkinhead I run into over a keg, an' a side o'beef, sometime."
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls perception: (18)+5: 23 GAME: MAC-B1G rolls perception: (11)+13: 24 GAME: Braelnoir rolls perception: (15)+8: 23 GAME: Darius rolls perception: (19)+10: 29 GAME: Baz da Ork rolls Perception: (20)+11: 31
"A pumpkinhead?" Cryo hisses. She doesn't break her stance but she's clearly curious. She's low, ready to leap, tail and legs coiled for power. She's establishing the immediate area as hers, things will move in it at their risk. A quiet reply without turning her head, "Cut me in on the beef too."
Darius slowly slides back to Cryo and whispers into her ear, "We're being watched... for quite some time, can't tell if they're hostile or not, but I don't think we should be naive enough to think that they aren't."
"Pumpkin head? Hah, I bet I got better then you..." Baz pauses, he tilts his head back and sniffs the air. The long thick black tongue runs along his lower lip between his big tusks. "Yeah, we not alone." He says simply, he lowers his bow and lets off the on the tension of the draw. "YOU GONNA COME ON OUT?" He finally exclaims, squaring his stance. "We wants ta parlay." Then there is a wicked grin on his features. "Or is that use parsley."
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls knowledge/local: (14)+2: 16 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls knowledge/nature: (10)+2: 12
MAC-B1G does not immediately mark any targets, though the cylindrical weapon on its chassis articulates up over the scapular plate and telescopes to full length, supported by manipulators. Its faceplate reverses its pan to complete a more rapid full circle.With no unique threats yet identified, it attempts to clarify via other means.
"Possible unknown entities present: State designation, purpose, and location."
If it cannot be certain whether threats are present, the simplest course is to ask?
Braelnoir is the sort of tense that comes from an ingrained love of battle, mixed with concern for those around her. It's a curious feeling. She glances sidelong at Baz as he invokes the P word and her eyebrow arches, half surprised he knew it, honestly. She's usually far from the diplomatic end of things, so she's only head it in passing, herself.
"We are seeking a lost soul, to retrieve and leave," Cryo sings softly in a strange a fluid language that blends well with the trees. She nods at Darius, and Baz, heeding their warnings and keeping her blade ready. Her words are lost, perhaps, under everyone else's, and nothing she can examine suggests what is observing them. The sith woman remains ready to spring at something. <sylvan>
GAME: Baz da Ork rolls diplomacy: (2)+1: 3
"...you are striding towards your doom."
The voice comes from hte trees, distant and raspy and echoing all around.
"... but you taste of nightmares and death. Why do you come this way? What compels you?"
Swaddled in rags, a creture simply ... emerges from the trees, as if she had been hiding within it.
"My sisters and I see you. What do the villagers send you for?"
"Nightmares and death, it's me favorite sauce. I put it on all me meat, gives it a good kick." Baz states with a chortle as he turns towards the raspy rag swaddled new commer. "We here for.." There is a pause as Baz.exe suffers a critical failure. "Wot were we for again?" He asks, turning towards the others. "Last time I was in the woods wit witches some pervet Gnome took my boots before I had to deal with the giant chicken house. Then the ground ate me. But I got bettah."
MAC-B1G's focus, faceplate, and firearm pan to the emerging creature. "Taskforce seeks biological unit, recently missing, last reported in this locality."
Braelnoir turns her attention to the emerging native, easy on the trigger, but she's still ready to go, "We're lookin' fer a girl went missin' round here." She gives that a second to percolate, then adds "I'm lookin' fer a big crow likes ta use magic." Just in case, "One'n particular."
"This one... knows those things." Cryosanthia says, somewhat startled. She doesn't want to defend her resume'. The sith stares at the ragged creature. She gestures around at her companions, "We were sent to find a young woman of Unmer, and a crow. I seek the crow to assist my sister and the girl because... ah, it seemed like it might be related and a good opportunity to come here. Two birds, one stone... sort of thing."
"...so you are. We do not know your crow."
"...and I do not know the girl. But."
The hag's lips split into a terribly snarl-toothed smile.
"...they told you we took her, didn't they."
She starts to bark laughter. "Ah, such DREAMS they have! We did not take your girl, but I will point you in the right direction so as to ensure we're left alone."
GAME: Baz da Ork rolls sense motive: (10)+10: 20 GAME: Braelnoir rolls sense motive: (15)+2: 17 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls sense motive: (19)+0: 19
The black eyes of the big Ork stare at the rag covered hag for a long moment then he finally snorts. "Awright, dat seems good." Baz says simply. "Which way did the girl go?" He asks simply enough, still keeping his bow down and not drawn.
MAC-B1G resumes a more normal upright posture and its weapon retracts to stowage. "Thank you for your cooperation." It's followup query is made by the oruch, so it simply awaits the response.
"Oh, you're in their dreams? That might be why they thought of you first." Cryo says, without thinking very far or deeply. Her head bobs, there's a glance at Baz, then Mac, a longer one at Braelnoir before she stares at the hag again. She's never been very good at reading people. "Sure, the right direction sounds good."
Braelnoir moves the tip of her finger up to the side of the crossbow, lowering the sights some as she considers the Hag. Hrm. Possible Adventurers are best mollified by compliance than picking the fight many of them yearn for. She glances to her cohorts, to Cryo, then back to the Hag.
"Their dreams and nightmares are plain on their faces as your's are," she shrugs.
She produces a pair of bone dice from her pocket, carved with carved runes on them. Her eyes never leaving you, she throws them to the ground. They roll, roll towards you feet and then come up with a pair of crossed scythes.
The hag's eyes fall to the dice.
"...ah."
"I know dis game." Baz says delightedly, he digs in one of his own pouches and then tosses a pair of his own dice to bounce on the ground and bump into the witches. They show three black circles and four, for a total of seven. Of course then the horror of the Ork's dice are a bit more obvious. They're molars torn out of some being's mouth. Given the size they're probably not human, and they're not sharp enough to be Sith, most likely there's a bugbear, another Ork or a giant kin having had Baz-dentistry. "I rolled a three and a four, dats six. No." There's a pause. "Dats seven." Baz says with a grin. "Seven against scythes, right?"
"Oh, good job Baz." The white sith says, clearly confused, and staring at the unusual dice. She's used to seeing knuckle-bones, if at all. Dice haven't been a part of her kit in a long time. They're estranged. "I'm glad you know what's going on. I thought things were getting weird."
MAC-B1G pans to one set of polyhedral skeletal remains to another and back. Its faceplate subsequently moves to the biological units in turn. "Clarification requested."
"Don't bet against scythes." Brae comments wrly with a shrug of her shoulder. She glances to Cryo on her remark with a snerk, "S'what was it before?" She glances down at the dice, then again at her comrades, then the Hag, "So... that mean the house wins, luvvie?"
"...ah... no. That's... The home. She has been taken to the home. That's what the dice mean, this time." The hag bends down and scoots them up, giving Baz a strange look. Then a nod. She squints at Cryo a long moment and offerws a 'hm'.
"The House. The one that tore open the sky." She gestures over her shoulder towards the Felwood.
"A place that once belonged to the False one."
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls knowledge/local: (8)+2: 10 GAME: MAC-B1G rolls knowledge/local: (5)+3: 8
Baz gathers up his own dice. He looks them over carefully and then pockets them into the pouch they came out of. "Right, house in the sky." He says simply. "Wot is a false one? Why would dis girl head dere through the wood?" The big Ork shifts on his feet slowly. "At least the girlie left a good trail ta follow. We go to dis sky house, get the girl or wots left of here and head back. Dis seems strait forward enough."
Cryo stares back at the hag. As a sith'makar, her expressions are minimal and her eyes often unreadable, like cold hard gems. That name, it should mean something to her. Her Tower? Is it somehow shard related? She closes her eyes, it must mean something. Think! Think Hard.
As she does, some of her highlight scales illume with a soft-white light. The two stripes up her back shine through her clothes. She seems older, somehow, her movements strange. She rests a hand on MAC-B1G, her voice is gutteral, "Try again, you have ancient knowledge. Think."
Her hand withdraws, her eyes open, she exhales as if nothing happened.
The construct attempts to cross-reference keywords from the statement with collated and indexed data. The idiomatic terms are counterproductive, however. 'tore open the sky' is likely metaphoric and could encompass a number of events or phenomenon, and 'false one' is exceedingly vague as a decriptor.
"Insufficient data. Historical reference not located."
Braelnoir hmmm's softly, shrugging with a litle browarch and cant of her head, "Tha's not coming ta me. H'bout you guys?" she wonders. She's secure enough in what she does know that she doesn't get too broken up over stuff outside her field of study. Usualy. She considers the hag again for a moment, then looks to Cryo, then MAC.
"...mmn."
"The dreams and nightmares of the False One freed the city of Alexandria from the tyranny of its conqueror. The Witch-Queen. His home, in the Felwood, rests hidden... a nightmare itself. Your quarry went there. I do not know why. Perhaps it sang to her?" A shrug. Her bones rattle. She closes her hand around the dice as they somehow returned to her hand.
"If you wish her, there you must travel to free her from it. I will not go there. There are some dreams not worth trifling with."
"O... kay." The white lizard says. There are advantages to being local, and she isn't. Advantages to being a scholar, and she isn't one also. She occasionally knows things, this is not one of them. She smiles widely, attempting to be pleasant, showing off lots of pointed teeth. "Sounds like it would make a great play! I'll look into it when I get back."
"Baz, Darius, since it's hidden perhaps we can track her to it." Cryo glances at the hag, "This isn't some 'drink tea that takes you to near death and almost cross over', hidden place, right? It's a regular hidden place?"
GAME: Cryosanthia casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 8 DC: 14
Cryo twirls her left hand through a few graceful motions. Her scales sparkle, a cascade of light down her arm, and then her eye-scales begin to glow. She carefully peers around. "She is, and the dice. There is some sort of ambient disruption that way..." She points in the direction of the Felwood, "... that's normal, isn't it? Do her tracks lead that way?"
Braelnoir keeps to herself on this one, leaving it to the pros, as there isn't a direct 'kill it!' or real Military history aspect she can bring to this particular table. She dips her head politely at the hag, and turns to regard the trackers as Cryo makes with the scanning eyes.
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls survival: (10)+4: 14 GAME: Braelnoir rolls survival: (1)+6: 7 (EPIC FAIL)
The hag stares at you for a long moment as you prepare to depart, then nods.
She points a single gnarled, clawed finger off into the woods. A direction for you to go.
Now you're heading deeper into the woods, and by implication, into the Felwood proper. Her tracks continue through this path, actually, here and there. It doesn't look like anything disturbed her. Rather, you've got a whole lot of nohing ont he way...
... right until you step into a stand of collapsed trees, and there, directly ahead of you, sits a large manor house.
It looks ... old. Dilipidated. If one had to pick a description of 'spooky haunted estate', you couldn't do a better job than what you're starwing at right now. It's incongruously *here*.
Braelnoir follows the trackers along through the gnarly wood, eyes darting about for appropriate targets, but finding none. As the group emerges from the treeline to see the devalued real estate, she purses her lips a moment and clicks her tongue before she intones a flat, "Bet this one's a spooky Gods damned Mouser."
"Oh thank Daeus and the Dreaming Dragon's Wandering Eye!" Cryo says with great relief. "The house of the False One, that ripped the sky, and is full of nightmares." She pauses, "I presume. How many Squalid dwellings can there be in the Felwood?"
Perhaps she should not ask so many rhetorical questions.
Stepping forward, the white sith cals out, "Hello the House! We're coming to visit."
She looks around, "Are we staying the night? If she's lost in dreams this might be an overnight thing."
