Winter Strawberries
Log Info
- Title: Winter Strawberries
- GM: Aftershock
- Place: Alexandros
Nasir Vali had explained the situation easily enough. His lord had ordered a small but unusual request from a mage-friend's garden in these winter months. Some strawberries to grace his tables. The four packages are veritably worth their weight in gold this time of the year and what's gone and happened? Bandits. A small but determined band of bandits have made off into the woods with the strawberries and now the fruits of his lordships labor (literally) are sure to go rotten if not for some noble adventurers to retrieve them.
It might seem foolish to send a bunch of adventurers into forest looking for strawberries in the middle of the winter, but here you are, volunteered into the work. Nasir had at least informed you that he at least considers the strawberries well worth retrieving and if nothing else, the bandits themselves ought to be dealt with before they become some kind of serious nuisance in the area.
GAME: Gramarye rolls Perception: (18)+10: 28 GAME: Khepri rolls survival+3: (3)+10+3: 16 GAME: Carver rolls survival+4: (17)+14+4: 35
Gramarye doesn't know anything about strawberries in the way that the fleshy, scaly, or feathered peoples do. She has no mouth with which to taste them and no taste buds with which to analyze their flavor, as she's aware that organic lifeforms have these things to do just that. Nonetheless, she is outfitted in chain shirt, her greatsword out as she contemplates the environs.
_Blink. Blink. Blink._ As Gramarye is following Khepri and Carver into the woods, she seems to spot something, her obsidian eyes 'blinking' with light as her head pivots in one direction. "Cat," she says, pointing in the direction of a black cat in the path of the human passage. "Or, entity perceived to be cat. Please identify yourself at your earliest convenience, cat." It is good to be cautious... Or polite. It's anyone's guess which one Gramarye intends.
The strawberries might keep with the temperatures steadily grinding downwards. At least for a day or two longer, especially if kept in their packages. Still... the theft is unusual. Livestock rustling is one thing, but fruit?
That being said, banditry and brigandage should be discouraged -- forcefully if necessary. And after the infuriating necessity of having to point out its commitment to the Harpist, Khepri actually finds itself looking forward to something a little more straightforward. The Executor stalks through the brush, pausing to move a branch aside to reveal a bootprint. The beaked faceplate turns to look at its companions. "And others," the golem points to the print. Carefully, it unsheathes its khopesh, the blade glimmering softly.
Carver uses the point of the arrow to inspect the track pointed out by the golem, inspecting it for a minute until one of them calls out for the cat to identify themselves. She looks back with both brows raised before shaking her head and rising to her feet. She gives a short birdcall and a large, red horse slowly amples over. Treats?
Nope, no apple. Instead the ranger gives a little smooch to the nose before reaching for the saddlebags for her equipment. "What's this abou' a cat now?"
The cat looks at you all and stands up and gives an amazingly loud, "MEOW." Then stretches and wanders off into the woods without further explanation. The bandits however definitely heard that cat-noise and are making a fuss.
"Was that a cat?"
"In the woods? Who would bring a cat into the woods it's the fuzz! They're here! Get it set up!"
There's some scuffling from the campsite as they get 'it' set up. Whatever 'it' is.
GAME: Gramarye casts Haste. Caster Level: 6 DC: 19 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7-1: (16)+17+-1: 32 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7-1: (20)+17+-1: 36 (THREAT) GAME: Carver rolls weapon7-1: (11)+17+-1: 27 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7-6: (5)+17+-6: 16 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7-1: (16)+17+-1: 32 GAME: Carver rolls 1d8+2: (8)+2: 10 GAME: Carver rolls 2d8+4: (7)+4: 11 GAME: Carver rolls 1d8+2: (3)+2: 5
Carver and Deathless, Cease and Desist. The approach is no longer quiet so they don't try to make it so. They arrive with intent to seriously stop strawberry smuggling. The leaves flutter just as she burst into camp, a flurry of arrows aimed at the very first bandit she lays eyes on.
A second behind her, a very large red horse stomps into view, tossing her mane wildly with bulging eyes.
GAME: Khepri casts Divine Favor. Caster Level: 6 DC: 14 GAME: Khepri rolls intimidate: (5)+12: 17
Khepri is not inclined to let the bandits set up whatever... 'it' is. And so the golem declares, "Forward." With Gramarye's spell quickening his stride, the gangling inquisitor stalks in after Carver, calling softly upon the Harpist to strengthen its armor and guide its blows. Shimmers of energy race over the golem's hull, crackling with deific fervor, and Khepri intones, "Surrender, or face the judgement of the Harpist! Choose wisely!"
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+10: (8)+10: 18 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)
The first of the two bandits lobs a couple of arrows at Carver, missing her entirely, but the third mutters a spell that sinks the whole horse and woman into the mud. SLURP! It's a mess! Worse it's not looking as though it's going to dry up and allow the horse any sort of freedom any time soon!
GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9-1+1: (2)+9+-1+1: 11 GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9-1+1: (7)+9+-1+1: 16
Gramarye let loose a spell of quickening as the group intended to advance, but as she watches her allies go ahead of her, she understands the situation is now quite worse for the wear. Greatsword unleashed, Gramarye darts forward, her eyes red with the gleam of combat. "Initiating combat module," she announces, her voice dropping an octave in an eerie tone. "Objective: rout the enemy or secure surrender."
She closes in with one of the sword-bearing bandits. "Sword," she merely announces, before bringing the giant sword that's about as large as she is down. It's a stiff movement that the bandit is able to dodge readily, the blade finding nothing but air.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+12: (5)+12: 17 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (8)+7: 15
The second bandit sees Carver stuck in mud and thinks it's a perfect opportunity to get a little revenge, but he can't seem to reach the woman with his sword. Unfortunately for him he's too busy trying to stay out of the mud to be able to reach her very well. "You'll sink to the bottom anyway!" He laughs at her!"
GAME: Carver rolls ride: (12)+15: 27 GAME: Carver rolls 1d20+9: (14)+9: 23 GAME: Carver rolls 1d4+5: (3)+5: 8
Carver flinches away from the blow, the second sword stroke kicking up mud that splatters across the bridge of her nose. Just more warpaint, sloppily applied. She snarls at the jest, eyes wide with panic but for once, not lost to it. As the bandit is turning away, she just pushes everything she has to throw herself atop of Deathless.
It is not the smoothest mount, nor is the way she digs her heels into her friend's side kind, but the intent is understood. Bear your teeth and push! The powerful creature's legs churn, all muscles pushing together, and the pair's scream is in tandem as they rise like the dead from the earth.
Their mingled war cry is a neigh that rattles the trees, and a shrieked order. "APPLE!" The attack that follows nearly wrenches the bandit's sword arm out of socket. Guess Apple is the command to bite really hard.
GAME: Khepri rolls perception: (15)+12: 27 GAME: Khepri rolls weapon9+2+2-2: (11)+8+2+2+-2: 21 GAME: Khepri rolls damage9+2+2+4+2d6: aliased to 1d8+1+2+2+4+2d6: (8)+1+2+2+4+(4): 21
Khepri's yellow eyes flash as Carver and her mount are mired in mud. "Unlikely," the golem intones, striding almost disdainfully past the bow-wielding bandit being assaulted by Gramarye. Khepri's target is clear: the wizard.
"Surrender, or the only one being buried here is you." Then the khopesh comes up, flaring with brilliant light, and then lashes out to deal a deep slash to the wizard. The blade rattles in Khepri's grasp as if loudly agreeing with the inquisitor.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+12: (10)+12: 22 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+6: (1)+6: 7
The bandit fighting Gramarye manages to finally hit her, doing a small amount of damage and snorts at her attempt to hit him. "Where'd you learn to fight swinging like that?" He taunts her.
The danger doesn't come from that front though, never has. All along the danger has been the mage of this little bandit band. Slinging his spells and he drops another one now that freezes the very air. It nearly freezes Gramarye in place. It only hits half of Khepri but even that is enough to be felt. "Maybe you should turn back." The mage says dangerously.
GAME: Khepri rolls Reflex: (16)+4: 20 GAME: Gramarye rolls Reflex: (10)+4: 14 GAME: Gramarye rolls Reflex: (6)+4: 10 GAME: Aftershock rolls 8d6: (32): 32 GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9-1+1: (13)+9+-1+1: 22 GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9-1+1: (1)+9+-1+1: 10 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9-1+1: (3)+9+-1+1: 12 GAME: Gramarye rolls damage9+3: aliased to 2d6+5+3: (7)+5+3: 15 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+12: (16)+12: 28 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (17)+7: 24
Seeing that Carver is out of the mud the bandit fighting her panics a little. He remembers her weapon's accuracy rather well and doesn't want to face it again, so he thoughtfully attacks her saddle, swinging his weapon. Thwack! Thwack! Against it in an effort to unseat her and send her tumbling back into the mud. Not very effectively but... He might succeed eventually...
Gramarye has sustained extensive damage to her mainframe from the mage's spellcasting of noxious cold. Yet despite this, despite the stiffness that the cold induces in her joints, Gramarye's red eyes still remain entirely on the prize. Which is the enemy in front of her.
"Destroy." The word is paired with a hard swing down that bites into the flesh, and Gramarye tries to repeat the trick a second time with another swing, but this one is narrowly avoided by her wincing, wounded enemy. "Khepri. Kill the mage."
GAME: Carver rolls 1d20+15: (3)+15: 18 GAME: Carver rolls 1d20+15: (17)+15: 32 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7: (19)+17: 36 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7: (2)+17: 19 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7: (6)+17: 23 GAME: Carver rolls weapon7-5: (18)+17+-5: 30 GAME: Carver rolls 2d8+4: (15)+4: 19 GAME: Carver rolls 1d8+2: (7)+2: 9 GAME: Carver rolls 1d8+2: (8)+2: 10 GAME: Carver rolls 1d8+2: (5)+2: 7
Carver whistles. Deathless's ears fold back. Bob the Bandit is knocked flat on his ass. The much larger crimson-headed steed just barrels through the man as he goes to take another chop at her saddle. A non-verbal 'cut it out jerk'.
As she is riding past, flicker-shots. The arrows end where she sent them, directly into the mage's chest. "Stop icing them!"
GAME: Khepri rolls knowledge/the planes+3: (6)+9+3: 18 GAME: Khepri rolls knowledge/the planes+3: (4)+9+3: 16 GAME: Khepri rolls weapon9+2+1-2: (3)+8+2+1+-2: 12 GAME: Khepri rolls weapon9+2+1-2: (2)+8+2+1+-2: 11 GAME: Khepri rolls weapon9+2+1-2: (14)+8+2+1+-2: 23 GAME: Khepri rolls damage9+2+4+3: aliased to 1d8+1+2+4+3: (1)+1+2+4+3: 11
The frost washes over Khepri's hull, but not enough to cripple the wargolem. Stoically, the inquisitor stalks forward -- cataloging the four arrows Carver just put into the mage. "You are not human," the Executor intones. "No matter. You will be brought low."
The aura around Khepri flickers, now full of sharp edges that coalesce around the blade of its sword. The khopesh lashes out again, stabbing, drawing a lesser wound as those fractal edges bite into the magician.
GAME: Gramarye uses an AoO! 0 remaining. GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9+1: (20)+9+1: 30 (THREAT) GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9+1: (18)+9+1: 28 GAME: Gramarye rolls damage9+damage9: aliased to 2d6+5+2d6+5: (4)+5+(9)+5: 23
The bandit that Gramarye has been fighting tries to flee. Something in this motion activates something within Gramarye. For just a moment, her red eyes glow a little brighter. A lightning-quick slash of the blade skewers the man through the back, and Gramarye intones, "No escape. No escape. No escape. No escape."
The blade is pulled out of the bandit's lifeless body, dyed firmly in blood, and Gramarye locks eyes with the mage. Those red eyes gleam brightly. She is a machine. She is a machine that kills. "No EsCaPe." Her voice warbles as though there's something wrong with the mechanisms that produce her voice.
The mage stands up slowly, his hat falling from his head and revealing long tapered ears. He snarls, looking less human now for some reason though he'd looked human enough just a second ago. "I'm human enough! Human enough that it matters!" He steps back further, edging away further from the blows that haunt him. "I've had enough of you. Enough!" He throws up his hands and disappears. Vanishes. Is gone.
There's no trace of him at all. Not even footprints in the grass.
GAME: Gramarye rolls Perception: (12)+10: 22 GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9+1-2: (4)+9+1+-2: 12 GAME: Gramarye rolls weapon9+1-2: (15)+9+1+-2: 23 GAME: Gramarye rolls damage9+6: aliased to 2d6+5+6: (5)+5+6: 16
Gramarye's eyes 'blink' briefly, the red eyes' light pulsing as she tries to track the mage. A fraction of a second later, Gramarye's head pivots in the direction of the other bandit.
"No EsCAPEEEE!" She advances forward with the horrifying cry that seems to be trying to mimic emotion, trying to mimic some kind of horrible, warbling warcry. Her greatsword cuts down the remaining bandit, spilling him to the ground as his body is cleaved. Her blade is now decorated in two men's blood.
Then her head pivots up, and then it starts spinning around. "No escape." Gramarye is apparently determined to find the mage.
GAME: Carver rolls perception+4: (12)+14+4: 30
Carver takes a deep, stilling breath. The exhale curls out between her lips, and she exists in the world. One with nature. A bird's distant fluttering call as it sings for its mate. A bubbling stream nearby. NO ESCAPE. The tree's creak as the root expand beneath the earth. NO ESCAPE. Even the heartbeat of Deathless, steady and calm. NO. ESCAPE.
Carver's eyes crack open. Sigh. "I hate mages."
The mage vanishing... is not surprising. With their minions dead, that's usually how it works. "All hostiles neutralized or fled..." Khepri turns to see Gramarye slay the other bandit before looking for another target. "Stand down, Gramarye. There is no one left to fight." The Executor is smart enough to not try and grab her -- after all, she still has the greatsword -- but its emotionless tone is firm enough to hopefully push through the battle-rage. The blade in Khepri's hand quivers as well.
Wait. Carver looks down to Deathless whose left ear flicks. Her gaze follows, staring off to the treeline. There.
She suddenly snaps her bow up and fires again, a single shot. One that does not pay off. Unless she meant to splinter a nearby tree. A low, Dranish curse muttered suggests that was not her desired goal. Berry Bandits Bravely Banished?
As Khepri addresses Gramarye, she peers back at him with those red eyes, bright and gleaming. Seconds pass. It seems like she might not stand down. It might not work. She might go running into the woods. Worse... She could do something she'd surely regret to Khepri, who is one of her oldest friends in Alexandria since she became an adventurer.
"Deactivating combat module." The red light disappears from Gramarye's eyes, and her body language changes from the warrior to the demure woman she usually is. "I apologize for the inconvenience. Research is still ongoing for my unexplained fits of programming when engaged in combat with a blade. You were never in any danger. The enemy, however, was."
Then her head pivots in the direction of Carver and Carver's noble steed. "Inquiry: are yourself and your steed all right?" she asks. "We should take the quarry and return to our employer if there are no injuries to tend to."
"Dirty," Carver admits, leaning over until she is nearly flat against Deathless. Not the most comfortable pose with her saddle, but if the scrappy ranger had a spirit animal, it'd probably be that ugly alley cat you find dozing in impossible postures; contorting hideously in cramped places. Her descript is apt. Both she and the red horse are just covered in mud but beyond that and some saddle chipping? She seems fine.
Her gaze is on Gramarye, half-lidded, but briefly taking in Khepri as well. "Are you, Tin-Lass? Got a lil' wild there. Eyes look like the gates of some sorta hell."
Once the danger has passed, Khepri's sword rattles and twitches in its grip. The inquisitor pauses to peer at its sword, before shaking its head, taking out a cloth to clean the blade before sheathing it again. "Curious. Are there spells which require a large quantity of berries? Unusual material components do crop up in some magical effects."
That done, the golem turns to regard Carver as well. "My damage is not sufficient to require immediate repair. I would recommend checking the crates first though. It would not do to return to our employer with empty boxes."
The boxes of strawberries are entirely intact and in good order. They are in fact quite lovely and tasty-looking too. It's a good thing that a goodly number of you are war-golems or it might be more tempting to pilfer a few for yourselves for a job well done... not that any adventuring party has ever done anything of the sort of course!
Nasir assures you that the strawberries (at least on his end) are entirely meant to cheer up his lord and put a smile on his lordships face. They'll be made into a wonderful snack in these dreary times dipped in chocolate and eaten whole. Isn't that what everyone does with strawberries?