poland ♔ you keep a lot of secrets and i keep none

[reallywicked]

WHO || Faye, Taradiddle, Aedan, Cora, Kenzi [closed]
WHAT || the knights hope to assist a village with a witch problem
WHERE || Aurasburg, Poland
WHEN || Feb 4th, 2015 [backdated]
HOW || actionspam

The Knights arrive in Aursaburg to help the villagers with a problem they've been having with a local witch. The little village seems fairly quiet, but the team would be able to hear some rather heated words spoken a bit down the road from them. It escalates to shouting in a hurry, with the most noticeable word of the bunch being 'witch.' Faye glances at the others, realizing that oh shit- I'm in charge. Squaring her shoulders, she gestures for the group to follow her down the road.

"Sounds like our cue." Whatever is going on in this town seems to be happening thatta way.

Comments

[impetere]

[Cora will follow with her kitty friend, her fingers stroking gently under the cat's chin to keep Malphaset calm and collected as they walk, since they're clearly going to be doing it a while.]

[morethanasidekick]

[And Kenzi too, and everyone should be pleased to know that all objects actually remain inside the house. A+ not stealing shit for Kenzi. (WS 21).]

[reallywicked]

[As they walk, Faye glances at her teammates.]

So do you guys buy it? I mean this Autumn has magic, but her mom thinks it isn't her?

[Faye isn't sure if they can rule out this chick being the big bad witch.]

[impetere]

She believes it.

[But that only carries so much weight. The woman is Autumn's mother, that means she's naturally inclined to give her daughter the benefit of the doubt.]

But we're probably not going to know one way or another until we talk to Autumn herself. If she's lived here her whole life, it does beg the question of why she'd start attacking the villagers in the first place.

[Basically, does Autumn have a motive or not?]

[godblessyou]

It's a small town. I'd probably snap and start attacking people if I had to live here my whole life. [Helpful comments with Taradiddle time.] Buuuut those guys seemed pretty trigger happy. There could be more to the story.

[reallywicked]

[Faye seems at least glad to hear that her team isn't looking to burn first and ask questions later. This whole witch thing is a bit of a sensitive subject for her. Go figure. They continue to walk along the south road for a time. It's fairly uneventful, though it is edging towards nightfall.

The forest opens up before the group to reveal a small clearing around the old timber frame entrance of a mineshaft dug into the base of a very steep hill. Dangling from the nearby trees like so many macabre garlands are the slick, disjointed limbs and entrails of a man. His blinded head is bound by a blood-streaked ponytail to a naked branch. They would all easily recognize the face as that of the mob member that threatened Cora earlier that day. A smiling, charcoal portrait of the lad and a headless wicker doll are both nailed to the tree beneath it.]

[impetere]

[Well.





That was an extreme reaction.

Cora glances up at the man and wrinkles her nose for a moment, her hand stroking against the back of the cat idly as she studies the scene.]

Self-defense or a warning?

[godblessyou]

....might be changing my vote to the "she's evil' camp. This? Doesn't look very not evil.

[ex_noble101]

[Aedan is all about mage rights ok. Plus he's used to traveling with Morrigan. It'd take a lot for him to change his stance.

Like the blinded head and disjointed limbs/entrails of the man they crossed paths with earlier whoops.

But then Taradiddle speaks up and Aedan finds himself confused by her use of double negatives. It takes him a second but—]

So you think she's not evil then?

[godblessyou]

[She just slow blinks at him.] Do you think that much disemboweling counts as not evil?

[impetere]

[Cora makes a slight face because, well. She would disembowel someone if she was trying to defend herself but she is a) a werewolf and b) would not leave that kind of display up as a warning.

She has nothing useful to add at this juncture, so she'll just turn and try and see if she can spot or hear any sign of the witch (listen 27, spot 22).]

[ex_noble101]

I suppose that depends. I've done my share of dispatching enemies, and I'd like to consider myself decidedly not evil.

This might seem extreme, but with an entire village looking to hunt her down, I'm not sure we can pass judgment just yet.

[reallywicked]

[Cora would pick up on some guttural noises from the woods surrounding the entrance for the mine. From out of the woods to either side, a pair of hirsute ogres quietly emerge. Their coats, caps, and breeches consist of a patchwork of smaller folks’ leathers, and their arms and legs are bound in leather belts and buckles.

“What have we ’ere then Muc?” says one.
“I don’ts know, brother Flogg. Maybe we tastes ’em and finds out,” replies the other.
“Whot a pleasant idear, kinsman o’ mine.”]

Oh you have got to be kidding me. [Faye chimes in with a roll of her eyes.

One of the two ogre brothers with a long scar along his right cheek steps forward, twirling a small axe. He points it in Aedan's direction, clearly seeing him as the biggest threat because he's a sexist ogres, I guess. Clearly these ladies will be easy to pick off once the big strong man is down. Rearing back, he throws the axe with all his might (attack 23, damage 13)]

[impetere]

[Rude sexist ogres.

Cora watches the axe catch Aedan and is already done with considering playing nice. She lets Malphaset drop to the ground quietly and is shifting, coming at the nearest ogre to her with a snarl using her claws to tear at whatever part of him she can reach (attack 34, damage 12).]

[reallywicked]

[The claws sink into the ogre that did not attack yet. He lets out a guttural howl of pain.

"You'll pay for that." He snarls. But it's not his turn yet so...just hold that thought.

Faye glances to Aedan, eyes flashing at the sight of the axe striking him. He's too pretty to die tbh. Raising her hands up, she casts Fireball at the ogre who threw the axe. As the burning ball of death comes for him, he tries to move out of the way but fails his reflex save so he eats all 24 points of glorious burning damage. He's still standing, but has a nice char now.]

[ex_noble101]

[Reasons to always wear armor, kids. Unfortunately, Aedan currently isn't because he thought it would be too conspicuous. Having an axe embedded in your chest certainly isn't any fun, but apparently it missed anything super vital because he's still able to draw his sword and dagger even after ripping it out and tossing it aside like it ain't no thang so that he can charge the orc responsible following Faye's Fiery Explosion (tm) and attempt to slash a bitch up (attack 22, damage 7+3 cold; attack 24 damage 5+3 cold). Y'all picked the wrong ones.]

[reallywicked]

[Charred flesh is sliced open as both of Aedan's attacks strike true, the ogre's studded leather armor soon stained with fresh blood. But it's the other one that lets out a cry of rage.

"Brother!" Flogg cries out, bringing his great axe down, attacking Cora to try to get through her and get to his brother as quickly as possible. (attack 21, damage 20 and attack 19, damage 17).]

[morethanasidekick]

[Kenzi looks on in horror because despite being besties with a Succubus... yea it's not every day you see somebody with an axe in their chest.

She's also with Faye - he's too hot to die so with that in mind, she pulls out her gun and... doesn't completely suck as she fires on the Ogre that tried to take out their eye candy. (Atk 16 Dmg 23 penetration if it hits.)

[godblessyou]

[Taradiddle rushes after Aedan.] Wait! You've got a hole in you! [She slaps her hand on his back and casts cure moderate wounds to give him 12 hp back.]

[reallywicked]

[The gunshot seems to be the last straw for the ogre to bother with any of this. Muc takes a full retreat to just get the fuck out.

"Hurry, brother!" Flogg is also going to just peace out because fuck that. Hot damn this team is way better than they expected. They make a break for it through the woods nearest the mine.

/init]

[godblessyou]

[Taradiddle walks over to Cora but she looks a lot more fine than expected, so she just shrugs. She'll save her big spell.] Wimps. You can't just give up because your food fights back. How do they expect to eat anyone Like that?

[A beat, she considers.] Of course, they couldn't eat anyone if they were dead, either....

[impetere]

[As soon as they bail Cora is shifting back to human girl again, making a face at the damage the axe did to her clothes more than anything else. After that, she's glancing around to try and see where Malphaset ran off to - she didn't want to lose her new kitty friend (spot 21). #priorities

It totally has nothing to do with the fact that there was sudden fire on the field and while she passed her will save (will save 17) to keep herself together, she's still not fond of it and might be putting a little more distance between her and Faye as a result.

Sorry Faye.]

We still should probably find the witch, but it's possible she's getting blamed for those two idiots.

[a beat.]

Unless she's controlling them instead.

[It could happen.]

[ex_noble101]

[Aedan waits to make sure that they don't decide to change their minds, or veer off to wrap around and try and catch the group off guard. Once he's sure they've gone, he turns to the others, though he addresses Taradiddle in particular.]

Thank you.

[For the heals, since her spell seemed to close up most of his wound and stop the majority of the bleeding.]

Should we allow them to live?

[Hey, he's usually not one for genocide unless darkspawn are involved but those two were obviously a threat to anyone in the area. And considering they happened to cross paths with them right after they found the dismembered villager, it may not have been simple coincidence.]

[reallywicked]

For all we know, they were running off to get backup. [Faye isn't interested in fighting a pack of those guys, even if they sort of kicked their asses.

Meanwhile, Cora spots her little cat friend making a beeline for the entrance to the mine.]

[impetere]

[And Cora's naturally going to follow her, only half-listening to the conversation. She gets about halfway before she realizes she's doing that running off thing again before she glances back in direction of the rest of the team, pointing to Malphaset's kitty butt retreating into the mine.]

Hey!