Log:Broken Dolls: Potentially Legendary

Broken Dolls: Potentially Legendary
Participants Reggie, Billy Ray, Etsy as ST	24 December, 2017 Highly inadvisable? Probably. But that's how the Golden Standard rolls. It's the only way anyone stands a chance of becoming Legendary, after all. The conclusion of Broken Dolls.
Location Deep Hedge
Reggie tapped Billy Ray to be his co-pilot and gunner on this particular sortie into the hedge. He was very explicit in the risks, and likewise the rewards. Fame. Glory. Ending the war before it destroys anything else. That sort of thing. Plus, it provided a chance for Reggie to bring Billy Ray to the Airship Adventure. Which, given the name, makes it sound like some sort of air pirate's blimp. Which couldn't be further from the actuality. The Adventure is a flying terrarium. A habittrail in the sky, filled with water, with bulbous rooms filled up with sand to make little lagoons and gardens and the like. It's all held aloft by rotary blades and balloons. Its hangar deck is the only bit of the craft that looks like it ascribed to the fundamentals of technology. In it, perched like a resting dragonfly, is the Amazing Dangerbug. It looks like something a futurist might have designed to be a personal aircraft of the 1990's, while living in the 1940s. Reggie wastes no time in showing Billy Ray into the rear seat of the craft. Behind and above his own, rather like a biplane might be set up. He explains the mission in brief-- blow up the mechanical hobs and their infrastructure using his hand crafted explosives --all while strapping himself in to the pilot's seat and starting to fiddle with the toggles to wake the Dangerbug up. He hands over a flight hood and goggles, demonstrates how to use the in flight communication tools. Which amounts to yelling into a horn alongside Billy Ray's own seat. With that, Reggie begins poking at the controls and the wings of the craft begin to buzz and flap, lifting them from the deck to a simulation of weightlessness. "Hold on to your hat, lad!" And with that, they're off, flying into the afternoon skies, accompanied by a sound of ten thousand ornery wasps. -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 3 Successes < 2 2 2 2 4 5 5 5 5 7 9 9 10 > ==========================-> >> Wyrd + Expression + 2 No Flags << <- GAME: Reggie regain 1.3 Glamour GAME: Reggie spends 2 Glamour GAME: Billy Ray spends 1 Glamour GAME: Billy Ray spends 1 Glamour -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 4 Successes < 2 3 3 3 4 6 6 9 9 9 10 > ==================================-> >> Wyrd + Crafts No Flags << <- GAME: Billy Ray spends 3 Glamour -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 3 Successes < 1 2 6 6 8 8 8 > ====================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd No Flags << <- -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 1 Success < 1 3 4 4 6 7 8 > ====================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd No Flags << <- -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 0 Success < 1 3 4 5 5 6 6 > ====================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd No Flags << <- -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 2 Successes < 1 2 2 4 5 7 8 10 > ====================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd No Flags << <- -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 3 Successes < 3 3 4 5 5 6 7 10 10 10 > ====================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd No Flags << <- Billy Ray came ready to -rock-. He sipped a Bud and smoked a cig while he futzed around with the bombs. Talking to them, "Oh yeah, look at that, you know that wiring," and cooing almost. Some grip tape on the bombs and he pulled on a backpack with some med gear and backup beer and cigs, his rapier on one hip and a pistol on the other. Duct tape, knife, SMG strapped to the backpack with some spare mags. When he's done and spent his time communing with the weapons he pulls on the helmet and goggles, straps a kerchief around his face and pulls on a set of gloves. Jeans and hiking boots, long sleeved shirt, old jean jacket. "Let's do this bubba!" -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 2 Successes < 3 3 3 4 4 9 10 > ====================================-> >> Clarity - 1 No Flags << <- Once they're underway, and Reggie has plotted his course in with the craft, it rather flies itself. Or more to the point, it handles the business of not colliding with hedge walls or the like. Along the route, Reggie unbuckles himself and squirms out of his seat to slide into the fuselage and situate the payload on each of the grips of the insectoid crafts six retracted legs. Each weapon is then primed carefully, and Reggie squirms his way back into the cockpit with a bit of grease on his cheek and a glint in his eye to match the one from his tooth. "We'll give these little mechanical bastards a Christmas they won't soon forget, old boy! Payload's ready to drop. Now I just have to time our turn off the trod and keep us on the straight and level. Should be a proper milk run!" "Aww hell bubba, why you gotta say that, y'ain't never supposed t'say that!" says B-Ray. He adjusts the goggles and sticks a cigarette in one corner of his mouth - not lit. His fingers drum on his thighs as he adjusts the sighting scope with it's up and down and left and right reticules in metal very carefully. "Mah GramGram sent these little pecan pies - made with rum, bubba, so damn good! Little 'bit a' vanilla ice cream, mmmm!" It takes literal hours of flying before they're close to their target: the Trod in question has been reinforced several times, at the least. That's probably not reassuring, actually. Deep, deep, deep in the Hedge, so far as to be on the brink of Places Lost Shouldn't Be -- perhaps Legates, perhaps -- time and distance seem to distort, sounds come in either too quickly or too slow. Their bones ache and their teeth feel gritty and slimy all at once. Tongues too large for mouths. Everything in both of them -- not matter how attuned to the Wyrd -- is screaming you shouldn't be here. And it's then, and only then, that there's a weird, distorted, warbling sound coming in with the edge of metallic clanking. Distant voices, lapping over one another like waves breaking over collections of pebbles, if the waves crashed directly in through the eyes and washed over the brain. Reality is a Dali painting, the roots of the trees arc overhead blood-red and gold. But ahead is a clearing that smells like death and oil. Once they near the target, Reggie's devil may care attitude and general swaggering joie de vie are betrayed by the mettle that he hides under all that fur and adorableness. He leans over to the horn and calls back Billy's way, "We'll be over the target shortly. Mind the ground fire, and watch for interceptors. I'll have to take my eyes off the skies to drop the payload, and we'll be something of a sitting duck while on our run. I'll try to be fast and quiet, but if we /do/ pick up some unfriendlies, I'll need you to return fire and shout if we need to maneuver." With that, Reggie looks down at his rather hastily constructed bomb sight and corrects his course before ratcheting up the throttle, sending the little craft buzzing all the more speedily into the open dome of the clearing ahead. Off come the goggles as he plunks his head down to mark their targets. "Steady on, Dangerbug. In and out faster than the French at a fist fight." "Interceptors? YOU NEVER MENTIONED INTERCEPTORS!" says B-Ray as he wiggles in his seat. Given that he's small he's able to wiggle a hand down and withdraw his semi-auto, shoving it under his thigh within easy reach, a spare mag shoved in the other side under his seat belt. "Roger!" he shouts as he begins to scan the sky left and right, adjusting his goggles to try to get a better fit. -> >> Etsy to Here << <-============================================== Rolled 2 Successes < 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 8 10 > ===============================================-> >> 9 8-Again << <- -> >> Etsy to Here << <-============================================== Rolled 3 Successes < 2 3 3 3 4 4 5 6 7 9 9 10 > ===============================================-> >> 9 8-Again << <- It's a really ... unsettling thing, to be honest. And there's one small problem: The thing they want to bomb is suspended in the air, not on the ground. It looks rather like a large pregnant onion made of lopsided, pulsing metal, with octopus arms spreading out from -- no, those aren't octopus arms, they're sort of like... large flexible pneumatic tubes? And it appears to be leaking something along one side. Something vaguely purple. Mind, of course, there's also the smaller dolls far below them on the ground, and walking up the walls as if it's nothing. There's a far-off rustling along the 'walls', the way the framing of the clearing grows up into a roof. Just don't let them get a clear line of sight, right? -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 5 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 2 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 9 10 > ==============-> >> Wits + Drive.Aircraft + 3 8-Again and Rote << <- -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 2 Successes < 2 7 8 8 > ===============================-> >> Wits + Composure No Flags << <- GAME: Reggie spends 1 Willpower -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 12 Successes for an exceptional success. < 2 2 3 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 > =======================-> >> Dexterity + Firearms + 9 No Flags << <- "Bloody hell! Ugly as Hitler's goiter!" Reggie, who is mercifully face down over the bomb sight, isn't really fully aware of what's transpiring overhead and around them. He guides the craft around the right side of the structure they've come to destroy, ducking under one of the tube arms, then rising above the next, weaving in and out of cover to keep those gathering enemies from having that aforementioned line of sight. Once he's lines up a shot, he clicks the button in his palm and calls out, "ONE AWAY!" There's a pregnant pause as he swings them around for a second pass, banking hard and to the left. It is at that precise moment that the explosive charge strikes the side of the structure. The darkness is shattered by first blinding blue-white light, then a hot roil of burning orange flame. The concussion of the blast shudders the hedge around them and even rattles the frame of their craft, sounding more like the wail of a wounded animal than a proper blast of high explosive. As the white light fades to the angry red-orange of rising fire, the stench of burning flesh and pus fills the air. The structure begins to list towards its injured side, like a man who'd just been gut punched. Of course, this just exposes the other side all the more ably, a fact that Reggie leaps on quite promptly, zipping their craft back towards the structure for a second pass. "Keep them off us, Billy Ray! Nearly done!" GAME: Billy Ray spends 1 Glamour -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 3 Successes < 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 4 9 9 10 > ===============================-> >> Wyrd + Dexterity No Flags << <- -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 2 Successes < 1 3 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 8 8 > ====================-> >> Dexterity + 3 + Firearms + 1 9-Again << <- -> >> Etsy to Here << <-============================================== Rolled 3 Successes < 2 3 4 4 4 5 6 7 9 10 10 > ==============================================-> >> 9 No Flags << <- Billy Ray draws the pistol and braces it on his knee, taking careful aim. The wind begins to calm and swirl around him - causing errant hair to flip around and help steady his aim as Glamour bursts from him. He takes a heartbeat to place the fiber optic green front sight on the center mass of one of the cybernetic creatures crawling around below and the pistol cracks, pieces flying free but the creature is still up. -> >> Billy Ray to Here << <-========================================= Rolled 1 Success < 5 5 6 8 > ============================-> >> Resolve + Composure No Flags << <- -> >> Etsy to Here << <-============================================== Rolled 4 Successes < 1 1 3 3 4 5 7 8 8 10 10 > ==============================================-> >> 9 No Flags << <- -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 4 Successes < 2 5 5 7 8 8 8 9 > ============================-> >> Resolve + Composure No Flags << <- -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 8 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 10 10 10 10 > ==============-> >> Wits + Drive.Aircraft + 2 8-Again and Rote << <- GAME: Reggie spends 2 Glamour -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 5 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 7 9 9 10 10 10 > ================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd + 1 No Flags << <- -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 15 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 2 2 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 > ========================-> >> Dexterity + Firearms + 9 8-Again << <- -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 6 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 7 8 8 9 9 9 10 > ========================-> >> Dexterity + Firearms + 9 8-Again << <- Reggie's dive back down towards the listing structure is lightning quick, perhaps a little too quick for Billy Ray to make effective use of his pistol. Aiming a pistol and striking a target at range is hard enough, without the ground suddenly no longer being there and up suddenly becoming down and so on. The little craft executes a tight barrel roll to weave itself around one of the flailing conduits, and finds itself smack dab on the line of approach to one of the intake valves for the structure. It's a one in a million shot. Akin to lobbing a basketball from half court and finding nothing but net. But that's the shot Reggie takes, followed by a breathless call of, "TWO AWAY!" And, like many a proton torpedo before it, the sparking ball of white-blue light curls through the air like a lobbed softball, straight down the throat of the intake. The explosion that follows is far more violent than the first, and it causes the whole metal skin of the evil onion to rupture, bringing blue-light white spilling out through tears in the sheet metal. Rivets go zipping through the air, buzzing like bullets, and yet more of the conduit tubes snap away, coiling down towards the earth, or snapping through the air like unmanned firehoses. Secondary explosions follow, as the fuel within the structure catches, lifting it further into the air before a critical number of its support cables snap and the whole monstrous thing begins to collapse like a burst blimp. Full of blood, oil, and pus. Below on the ground? Sudden madness. The orderly parade of dolls from one place to another becomes ... chaos. They turn on one another, attacking seemingly at random, until the second hit sends the horrid structure careening toward the ground. It lands on the ground below on one side, bursting like an overripe pumpkin, or a blister being pushed in too hard by a finger. Pus splatters, oil spills and catches light, blood washes across the ground -- -- and the things Billy Ray was shooting at simply ... stop. And fall. Their claws come unhooked from the wall and they drop like stones to the earth far below... and the dolls fall like someone cut all their strings. The silence is profound, uncanny: there is only the hum of the dragonfly's wings. "What the," Billy says, following the target he had down and shoving the pistol back down into place and yanking his seat belt tighter around him - he did get a second or two of float time there with all the crazy aerobatic manuevers going on, "YOU GOT "EM!" he shouts in the horn the Reggie, "Get us the frick outta here, bubba, ah gotta case of that there fancy gin for ya, holy crap!" -> >> Reggie to Here << <-============================================ Rolled 1 Success < 2 3 5 6 7 7 8 > ========================================-> >> Clarity No Flags << <- Reggie's head pops back up again once Billy Ray declares that it's essentially over. He looks about himself, at the creatures literally raining from the canopy, and then lowers a wing to get a better look at the ground as a whole. The fact that nothing moves down there is at once reassuring and also very, very disturbing. He rights their attitude and kicks the throttle forward again, aiming them for the trod that they had followed in. "We got them, old bean! We did! Whatever you did to those explosives back in the hangar-- outstanding stuff. Outstanding. If you weren't already such an expert tinker, I might imagine you having a place in the Sacred Band." And when one IS a member of the Sacred Band of the Golden Standard, there's not much higher praise. "Now let's get on home in time for Christmas, shall we? I know what the new Crown is receiving from us, wot?"