Log:Foxfire in Amber (Part 2)
Foxfire in Amber (Part 2) | |
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Nails and Lightsippers | |
Participants | June 14th, 2016 Through the Hedge to get to the bottom of the mine, as part of the Plot:Foxfire in Amber. What could go wrong? |
Location | |
-> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 2 Successes < 2 2 2 3 4 5 9 10 > =============================-> >> Intelligence + Wyrd 0-Again << <--> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 4 Successes < 1 3 4 5 6 8 8 9 10 > ====================================-> >> Clarity + 3 No Flags << <--> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 4 Successes < 1 1 2 4 4 4 8 9 9 10 > ====================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd No Flags << <-GAME: Ben spends 1 Willpower
-> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 1 2 4 6 8 > ==============================-> >> Wyrd + Persuasion No Flags << <--> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 6 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 7 9 9 10 10 10 10 > ==========-> >> Intelligence + Survival.Hedge + 2 + 3 No Flags << <-GAME: Seven spends 2 Glamour
-> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 3 Successes < 1 4 4 6 6 9 10 10 > ==============================-> >> Wyrd + Persuasion No Flags << <--> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 7 7 10 > ===============================-> >> Dexterity + Wyrd No Flags << <-After entering the Hedge, Ben's uneering guidance leads the pair toward the Everdark with ease. Still, it's the Hedge and things have a way of not being perfect. It takes about five hours to get through the hedge from the gate you chose - its good time, that's for certain, just the hedge is the hedge and it does what it wants. Just outside the Everdark you find yourselves in the Troubled Topiary. Dense growth claws its way up toward the sky with stubborn, vegetative patience, it's broken, yet well-measured lines hinting at something which used to be tamed, but has long since grown feral and strange. Needle-like spines protrude at times from otherwise innocent greenery to catch and pluck at the unwary. Moss underfoot cushions footsteps to near-silence, the very thickness of the hedges' walls muffling sound so exquisitely well that hunters could be just a bend away. Paths twist and twine in all directions, and while parting the thorns will take its tithe in blood, leaving the maze is ever an option. Ahead is the entrance to the Everdark: A low dip in the land drops abruptly down into a yawning cavern in the earth, light refusing to pass farther than a few feet within. It's very dark ahead.
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 3 4 4 5 5 7 9 > ================================-> >> Wits + Wyrd + 1 No Flags << <-The wolf beast lopes through the Hedge like a proper beast - stealthily and guardedly, and without leaving a single trace. He deftly avoids most of the vegetation, although he's not immune; sometimes he makes a growl as a thorn catches his clothes. He sullenly glares down towards the cave. "If's bloody dark, isn't it," he mutters. Like the name Everdark didn't give him a clue. "Guess we gotta rely on other senses."
They eat it. Tiny creatures cling to the ceilings, silken threads suspended down, down, down below them in the air, but even the brightest light has trouble reaching them; no source can ever quite reach farther than arm's length away, bright gleams reduced to tremulous shivering glows before fading to darkness once again. The lucky or the wise will learn to follow these silent lightsippers, their densest populations always on the tunnelings which choose to be the trod -this- time. The path is not easy, however, nor is it short, caverns reluctant to give up their prize. The little worms are identical, from what little you can make out of them, of the big giant things Seven saw at the entrance. These however are tiny. Not really dangerous looking other than the fact there are -thousands- of them. They suck up the light for anything more than an arms length ahead. All light - Ultraviolet, Infrared, standard vision - it's all being sucked away into these little things, these Lightsippers. And something more. You can already feel a small bit of weakness in your joints, a tell tale sign that something else is also being fed upon...
"So, there's the worms - just small ones. But the same ones I saw in the mine," Seven explains, studying the ceiling and the worms warily, as much as he can see. "You feel that? Something draining your strength right out of your bones, feels like. Bit like what happened when the big worm exploded. I wonder if staying in here for long is gonna be really bad."
-> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 2 Successes < 2 2 2 3 4 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 10 > =============================-> >> Wits + Survival + 5 9-Again << <-"I do. But it's different from what I normally experience when out of a Trod. Meaning we're still on it." Ben says as he looks upwards to the tiny lightsippers."Those are the beasts I heard about, then. The lightsippers. I always avoided this place for obvious reasons. But here we are. I hope they give us time enough so we can get out of here alive and intact." The Witchtooth comments looking slightly worried as the pair keep moving on. Or moving down. Or both.
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 7 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 2 2 3 3 5 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 10 > ==================-> >> Wits + Survival.Hedge + 2 + 3 No Flags << <-The path is easy enough to follow for both of you, though Ben seems to be doing better at keeping to it than Seven. However, the slow pace may proove detrimental. After about five minutes you feel noticably weaker than when you came in. Bruises are starting to form across your skin, leaving dark purply (or whatever appropraite color for your kiths) marks in random places.
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 4 Successes < 1 2 3 4 7 7 8 9 9 10 > ==============-> >> Wits + Survival.Hedge + 2 + 3 - 3 No Flags << <--> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 4 Successes < 1 1 2 3 5 5 7 7 7 8 9 9 10 > =============================-> >> Wits + Survival + 3 9-Again << <-"Cunts," Seven mutters as he starts feeling that pain, from inside. He's not erratic, per se - but he moves so fast around the tunnels, he's doubling back on Ben and shifting like a blurr sometimes. "Let's hurry," he suggests and the speed is considerable, even if sticks semi-close to Ben and follows his directions. He's got his own senses to rely on though - the two probably won't get lost terribly.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 4 Successes < 1 2 2 5 7 7 8 9 10 10 > ===============================-> >> Wyrd + Dexterity No Flags << <-Ben sees the protective movement of Seven and, even being running, grins, but doesn't look upwards following the other man's gaze up to the lightsippers. Instead, he tries his best to keep his eyes on the Trod."I assume that, if they can sip light, they can do the same with fire and any other source of power. Like eletricity and other things like that." He says.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 3 4 4 4 6 6 7 10 > =================================-> >> Wits + Survival 9-Again << <-Who's that lurking in the cavern? It's Uschi -- she's moving pretty fast for someone who's only got one arm and is lurking in the dark, and hot-stepping down the cave's trod. Key word being hot stepping -- there is a pale blue fire around her, glowing hot and low and protecting her ... vaguely. From cuts and scrapes, but not so much the draw of the Lightsippers. That's what the goblin fruit in her packback's for. Still, the Ogress is snuffling around, loping lowish to the ground, investigating with those nocturnal eyes of hers. If she hears the other two? She's not immediately barking out a greeting -- although she is, undoubtedly, listening in the dark.
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 7 Successes for an exceptional success. < 2 5 5 6 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 10 > ==============-> >> Wits + Survival.Hedge + 2 + 3 - 3 No Flags << <-Game: Seven takes 1 Bashing damage.
-> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 2 2 3 4 4 8 > =================================-> >> Wits + Survival 9-Again << <--> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 2 Successes < 1 1 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 8 > =======================-> >> Wits + Survival.Hedge + 1 9-Again << <-The gate. Finally. It felt like forever, even if it was only maybe fifteen or so minutes. Seven stops, sniffing the air and eyes that gate balefully. He's eager to get right in there, in one way and not in another. "ASsuming those big cunt worms are in there, we're not necessraily better off. But the sooner we go in, the sooner we can go out." He moves closer, studying the gate itself. "Think they go in here somehow? Or is there another gate they slip through?"
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 6 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 3 4 5 5 6 6 7 8 9 9 9 10 10 > ==================-> >> Wits + Survival.Hedge + 2 + 3 No Flags << <-Ben stops at the Gate. His breath is heavy but not in a way that denots he's not capable of running more. When Seven asks about other Gates, though, the Autumnal lifts a hand to ask the other man a moment. He stops and concentrates for a moment. Scrying the Hedge scape around the Everdark trying to sense another Gate. When he's done, he opens his eyes from behind his mask and shakes his head just once. "No. This is the only one. I think we should do it." He then says as he lifts a hand to pay what the Gate demands to open itself back to the world of the Mortals."Get ready to die. Or to run." He murmurs and grins in a menacily way.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 2 Successes < 5 5 6 6 7 8 9 > ====================================-> >> Clarity + 2 No Flags << <-GAME: Uschi spends 1 Willpower with reason: Snooping Around
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 5 Successes for an exceptional success. < 4 5 5 7 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 > =======================-> >> Wits + Investigation + 3 No Flags << <-There is a scuttling in the background. Is this some horrible beast? Sort of. It's Uschi - loping around by the floor, scuttling like some kind of terrible Ogress who spend an unknowable length of time scuttling through caverns not to dissimilar to this. Must feel great. The heat from the blue-flame cloak o' elemental armour and shadow of her mantle gives her a hazy, weirdly lit quality; she's all smoked out. And following in the dark -- getting close enough, so she can trail after Ben and Seven once they open the Hedge Gate. Hey! Who even invited Uschi?! She's an unknown Moon - they don't usually get invitations to parties, even adventuring ones.
Carved by nature, not man, the cavern here is a roughly oval shape half as long as the average football field, emphasis on rough, with an entrance to the mine at the far western end. Very little has been touched by the miners, many of its natural formations left to grow in the dark silence of their underground birthplace, and grow they have, slow millimeter by millimeter, stalactites and stalagmites hanging overhead and sheeting slick paths underfoot. At its highest point some three man-heights away, a more persistent drip has worn a low pool down into the stone, though swimmers would find it both very cold and very shallow, not to mention full of occasionally sharp stone growths. You came out of the southeast tunnel, past what looks like old boards with - and you can feel it as you get close - iron nails. They have been scattered to the side, looks like naturally. Water got onto the boards, loosened them, and that made some of them fall to the side. Then something else was able to get through and make a big enough hole for other things. And those other things... Well what they were is clear now. Hobs. Little grey skinned goblins with giant eyes and even larger ears. They have mining helmets made out of hedge stuff and pickaxes and shovels are scattered on the ground around them. A large sled of supplies is off to one side, some rotting goblin fruit in it and various mining tools Oh. Also? They are all dead. A dozen or so, maybe a dozen and a half lay in twisted poses, not an ounce of blood spilled or a single mark on skin, but for certain every one of them is dead as dead can be.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 5 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 2 2 2 4 5 7 7 7 9 9 10 10 10 > =======================-> >> Wits + Survival.Hedge + 1 9-Again << <-Did someone just call Uschi late? Seven must not know that a Moon Ogress arrives precisely when she means to. She makes no effort to tell the Beast that, though -- she just flickers onwards, calloused feet padding over rock and hot-stepping it around iron nails, as she lurks towards the dead gobbos over yonder. Uschi does grunt, when Ben speaks. Is it in agreement? Damnit, this half-feral Ogress is a terrible conversationalist. Her dead arm swings by her side, as she starts investigating the nearest assortment of corpses. Surely she's not just here to look, right? Well, she is slowly moving in the direction of where the cavern is - but she seems in no real rush. It's like Uschi is surveying the bodies -and- the surroundings for... Something. There is a wet sopping noise, as she digs a heel into one of their rib cages. Yup. That feels like jellied innards. Suddenly? She's laughing. Sounds like a minor avalanche.
The cavern is small, a bit shorter than Uschi is tall and cramped enough that only one person could fit inside. Inside is a black case, made of what looks to be glass. Something burns inside, something bright. Something... not quite real. It contains a fire inside it but there is something about it... something that makes the viewer -know- somehow that this object is not of reality, not of true existence. As Ben gets closer, it glows slightly, pulsing. It calls suddenly. A ringing bell, just like the one that sounded the night this all started, calls out in the chamber. But this one doesn't escape out into the world, the sound -flees- through the still open Hedge gate, exploding out into the hedge and -calling- for someone... or some-thing-.
Padding after Uschi, Seven snickers with her as she stomps the goblin and makes a squishy liquid corpse-bath out of it. He gives her an admiring look, even. And then he's moving to that little cave too, stopping outside of it and staring at that case and the magical fire. He startles as the bell rings. "Well bollocks," he says, hackles rising - literally. "I don't know what to do with bells ringing and magical fires. Do I hit it? What?" He looks at the other two. "What's it calling for?"
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 2 4 4 4 4 4 7 7 7 10 > ===============================-> >> Wyrd + Occult + 1 9-Again << <--> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 2 Successes < 1 8 8 > ===============================================-> >> 3 9-Again << <-GAME: Uschi spends 1 Willpower with reason: Casing The Joint!
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 4 Successes < 1 1 2 2 4 8 8 8 9 > =======================-> >> Wits + Investigation + 3 No Flags << <--> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 6 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 9 9 9 10 > ========================-> >> Wits + Composure + 3 + 2 8-Again << <-Ben lifts his black hand and puts it a few inches away from the case and concentrates. The effect his presence caused on the thing, its calling deep in the Hedge, ignored. For now. A moment later, he downs his hand and grins."It's what I had though it was. It's from Arcadia, I assume." He says loud enough so the other two Lost can hear clearly as he stares at the thing, probably pondering if he should touch it. Or not.
Man. Uschi is quiet - except for that raggedy breath.
Jesus. She is either very, very stupid or very, very confident. "Where you gonna bring that chimer? To the Wayhouse?" Iridescent eyes flicker as Uschi looks towards the gate which will not close - then down, towards the dead bodies of the goblin miners. No effort is given to exercise her democratic right to vote. Instead, she moves to give the Gobbos another glance over. So fucking relaxed.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 3 6 6 7 7 8 > ===============================-> >> Wyrd + Occult - 2 9-Again << <-GAME: Uschi spends 2 Glamour with reason: Warlock's Gaze, innit.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 7 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 2 2 2 3 4 8 8 9 9 10 10 10 > ==================================-> >> Wyrd + Stealth 9-Again << <-That feeling... In the dark, Uschi doesn't frown -- although her good hand reaches out, gathering /something/ from a squishy bit of dead Goblin Miner. What was that? It was something pocketed real quick, that's what. There's a soft grunting noise as Ben speaks, and the Ogress looks over her shoulder. A scrap of cloth is torn from the goblin's clothes, and it's lifted and dropped -- falling onto the elemental armour, it bursts into flames, leaving a puff of smoke to drift after the scrap has been consumed. From the floor of the cavern, tendrils of fog begin to rise -- everywhere around them, save the pocket which keeps Seven, Ben and Uschi in sight of one another. Oh boy. Witchy shit. "What'cha doin' with the shinies you found, boys?" Uschi croaks, so helpfully. Why isn't she scared?!
-> >> Ben to Here << <-===============================================Rolled 7 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 3 3 4 4 4 4 6 7 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 > ====================-> >> Wits + Occult.Gentry + 1 + 1 9-Again << <-"Try covering up the case with something?" Seven suggests - he looks around then, startled by the smoke. But he can't complain about more cover - he nods to Uschi. He tears off his shirt and throws it towards Ben. "Put that over it. No idea if it'll do anything," he rasps quietly, "but worth a try. I don't know how to close the gate, but we can't leave it open. Anything can get through and that's a shitstorm this Freehold doesn't need, is it?"
-> >> Seven to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 2 Successes < 1 2 2 3 3 4 7 8 9 > ========================-> >> Dexterity + Survival + 1 9-Again << <--> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 1 Success < 1 2 3 3 5 6 7 8 > ===============================-> >> Wyrd + Dexterity No Flags << <-Uschi grunts, looking from Ben to Seven as the boys start, uh... Taking of their shirt and sharing it between one another? The Ogress' expression remains totally deadpan, like it means very little to her -- same goes for the worry about the gate, and Ben's talk about ideas. Wait. No. Uschi stands up a little taller when it sounds like Ben has a plan. The Ogress grunts, and lopes on over; picking up some strange bit of, uh, Goblin tool as she does so. "You. You. Get the nails - and that wood over there. Spit out the idea. If we place it here, s'might get you if you come back for them box. We're gonna put this over there, by the 'Gate." What are they gonna put over there? Oh... Probably something horrible. Her good arm starts pointing that-way-and-this in the fog, which parts as if to show Seven and Ben where to start looking, or putting together supplies, fashioning them together. Ah. So she wants to build a trap.
So, Uschi, with a plan and a trap? It gets him energised. He proves to be an excellent trap-building-partner. Like he's done this before too. So there's hammering and tying of string/cloth and the use of rocks and shoe strings and his belt. He's only wearing pants now.
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 6 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 7 8 8 8 8 9 10 > ==-> >> Dexterity + Survival.Traps + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 9-Again << <-What are Ogress' good for? Hard labour. For a good while, Uschi goes about directing Seven on what to do through the power of grunts and gestures. While Ben makes a cage of iron and cloth, Uschi and Seven are constructing... Jesus. What the fuck is that thing? It does not look pretty -- it looks like a well concealed series of iron nails across a board which will slam up, rather unforgivingly, to anyone who walks through the open Gate. ... Isn't this Gate used often, by a whole range of fae? No matter. Uschi doesn't seem to care - or know - or be focused on anything other than making what is surely a most superior yet rudimentary trap with Seven. It's gonna do some damage, that's for sure. When they are finished? There is no thanks. Uschi merely makes a grunt, ensures the trap is relatively well hidden, and stalks away silently. Fog follows. Oh. Does she think it's time for her to go? Not even gonna stick around for a party?
Amusingly, there also seems to be light shining down from the mouth of the mines. As if there are no Lightsippers up there anymore. Could they be gone? What happened to them? Well the way out seems clear now...
-> >> Uschi to Here << <-=============================================Rolled 5 Successes for an exceptional success. < 1 1 3 4 4 4 5 6 6 7 8 10 10 10 10 > ==================-> >> Wyrd + Survival.Wilderness + 1 9-Again << <-Is Uschi going off to tell people there's a death trap at the Moongate? ... It is possible. Unlikely, but possible. Uschi says nothing to Seven - she says nothing to Ben - she says nothing to anyone. Wait. Does she really think it's now her time to just roll on? Yes she does. Like none of this is her problem. Might aloof, for someone who smells like wet dog and rotting Goblin Miners! But there is she is, walking over the bare rock in her bare feet... Then she is gone. Just like that, Uschi steps through the rock and out of the immediate area. She doesn't even say goodbye. Ugh! So rude! |