scotland ♔ yet how the wind revives us here

[untethered]

♬ Presentiment - Manami Kiyota

WHO || Belle, Gold, Emma, Hook, Lila [closed]
WHAT || Several Knights take a secret journey to try to help Amara...
WHERE || Oakhurst, Scotland
WHEN || January 15th, 2014 [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

It's probably a very good thing that Gold sweet-talked them a car in the nearby tiny Scottish village of Oakhurst, because it is freezing cold out and snow blankets almost everything around. Walking the seven miles up the Old Road to the ruins would be a bitch and a half.

Instead, they comfortably drove past rocky downs, near stands of old-growth oak covered in snow, and past two farms that looked abandoned. No other travelers were visible on the lonely road, which finally curves, passing east of a narrow ravine. Belle signals for them to pull over here, where, at the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens and opens into something akin to more of a deep, but narrow, cavern. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most of them lean against the sloped earth. Others are broken and several have apparently fallen into the darkness-shrouded depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine.

Comments

[uncurse]

What the hell- ?! [ emma's eloquence can be y'all's heads up that there be monsters. she drops to the ground and well i guess she had to put her sword away to climb but LUCKILY IT IS A FREE ACTION TO DRAW A WEAPON. dodging the skeletons and moving north to hang against the wall, she brings out her gun (quick draw), and fires it off at one of the skeletons (atk 24, dmg 9). let's call it on skelly1. ]

[untethered]

[ emma's bullet hits the rib cage of the thing, but it appears entirely undaunted by the chip caused. belle finishes climbing down 5 feet and then drops down, moving away in the opposite direction to try to split the creature's attention as she draws her sword. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ fucking skeletons. lila knows her gun isn't going to do much so when she drops to the ground (climb 18), she moves a few feet from the vines to draw her gun (quick draw) and fire at twiggy one (atk 23, dmg 14) so the people with swords and fire can take care of the skeletons. ]

[sternshield]

[ while the bullet doesn't seem super effective against the tree, it at least buries itself in its bark, and it seems more aggrieved by this than the skeleton was.

erky finishes his climb down and moves 10 feet away as he draws his morningstar. ]

Well, this is new.

[ twiggy1 advances on lila, and claws at her with its 2 bizarre 'arms' (atk 17 and 11, dmg 2 ). poisonous sap makes its way into the wound as well delivering another whopping 1 hp of damage. yep. TERRIFYING. ]

[undealt]

[Apparently Belle side-eyeing his ability to not be a disabled man in a crisis made Gold superman, because he deftly scales down those vines (climb 18) and hits the ground, pulling his cane back out of the top of his satchel with the intent to bludgeon. He's saving his spells for the druid okay.]

You're truly adept at finding trouble, aren't you, Emma? It's a bit inspiring, actually.

[unhand]

[Goddammit why did they let the POISONED GIRL go first. Hook's pretty graceful for all his worry (climb 20) and he makes his way down to the bottom, landing by skeleton 1. He slices at it with his hook, but the blow whooshes by the bones (atk 11).]

All right there, Swan?

[herebemonsters]

[ twiggy 2 moves in on emma's territory and i honest to bahamut just rolled 2 nat 20s in a row for its claw attacks. as she failed one save vs. its poison sap, it does a total of 9 dmg.

skeleton 1 claws at hook and misses him on both occasions (atk 7 and 16) while his friend decides that gold looks pretty weak and steps towards him. (atk 16 and 6, dmg 6) ]

[uncurse]

[ emma's in really bad shape. but it literally takes less than 7 hp for her to admit it, so even though she's visibly on the struggle bus and bleeding, she's just going to declare herself - ] Fine! [ and throw a hand out to touch twiggy 2 attacking her and cast shocking grasp through her touch attack (atk 18, dmg 8) ]

[untethered]

[ the tree blackens under emma's touch and it looks barely mobile once she's done with it. emma used magic. it was super effective!

belle moves to flank the other twig beast with lila and swings her sword at it (atk 17, 2 dmg). that's enough to disable the twiggy at 0 hp, although it's still up ... for the moment. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila fires again at the same tree beastie for good measure. (atk 23, dmg 18) as worthless as her weapon seems to be against the crap in this cave of sorrows, its the only one she has and at least the bullets connect instead of ricocheting off uselessly. she moves to emma afterward, to provide back up support. ]

[sternshield]

[ as lila tries to aim her gun while the twig monster is right on top of her, it rakes its claws at her again but misses, and the gunshot rings out... striking the tree, which stops moving and curls in on itself, dead.

erky moves beside gold to smack at the skeleton with his morningstar, but his attack of 6 catches nothing but air. ]

[undealt]

[GOD, ERKY HE'S HANDLING IT.

Gold swings his cane, smashing into the skeleton (atk 16, dmg 4)]

[unhand]

[Yeah, Hook does not buy that fine business. He takes a five foot step to help Emma with her twig monster, quickly drawing (see what I did there) his sword while he's at it. He tries to slam his hook through the twig monster's... branches, but it is not all that successful (atk 10). Then he moves in with his sword, slicing neatly across the bark (atk nat 20, dmg 4).]

[herebemonsters]

[ yes hook sure gets that tree right in the... rib... cage. :P either way, THE TREE MONSTER GOES DOWN when he stabs it.

skelly one follows hook but its claw attacks both catch only air.

the second skeleton manages to catch gold with one of its claws, giving him a nasty cut across the face (11 dmg)]

[uncurse]

Watch it! [ emma moves quickly around hook as the skeleton approaches, reaching out to shove them away and producing a similar electric shock as her hands contact the brittle bone that she'd created against the twig (shocking grasp! touch attack 12, dmg 7 if it hits). ]

[untethered]

[ belle moves to flank the skeleton gold and erky are fighting, and with the +2 flanking bonus, she just manages to strike it, although her slashing weapon is not the most effective thing in the world either (4 dmg) ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's move puts her near to emma and across from hook, flanking this skeleton as well. since guns + skellies = useless, she instead tries to distract and interfere, swinging her backpack around with the skill of an angry old lady to take it's attention off them and on to her. (aid another 14 (18-4 for an improvised weapon); +2 bonus on hook's next attack) ]

[sternshield]

[ erky's playing it safe i guess so he doesn't hit belle or the old man because he sure got a 6 attack. whoops. SO EFFECTIVE ]

[undealt]

[Bless you, Erky. I don't have to rewrite this tag now.

The skeleton has officially pissed Gold off more than anyone will ever know. Growling, he lashes out with his free hand, grabbing the thing by its neck and casts corrosive touch (nat 20 touch atk, dmg 13 ._.)]

[unhand]

[Unfortunately, Lila's help isn't all that helpful since Hook is filled with fail and his sword slips under the skeleton's arm without hitting anything (atk 10). Still, he manages to get his shit together enough to smash the back of his hook into the ribs (atk 21, dmg... 2).]

[herebemonsters]

[ hook's hit strikes! and the skeleton is knocked down to 0 hp, where it uses its last half action to angrily strike back at him, but it's the most half-assed thing you'll ever see. (atk 2). and then it collapses into a pile of bones.

unfortunately, it is literally at that exact same moment that a dire rat comes shooting out of the room to the north, and a voice bellows something in goblinoid from within. apparently, they've caught someone's attention.

the rat runs right at emma, teeth gnashing, but not catching at her. (atk 5) ]

[uncurse]

[ emma is happy to take a five-foot step out of the way (to the east) and shoot at the rat without hesitation tho, now that the skeleton has crumbled into a heap of bones (atk 18, dmg 7). ] What the hell was that?! [ she's not even paying attention to the ROUS problem that has manifested, she's freaking about the loud goblin bellow and looking at hook and rumple expectantly. they are obviously the goblin experts. isn't that the same as ogres or something ??? ]

[untethered]

[ her bullet hits, but the thing keeps moving despite the wound. a second dire rat emerges and runs right at erky, also ineffectively snapping at him. belle steps in to stab at it (atk 18, dmg... 1), while informing the others with a worried look at the place the sound emerged from: ] I believe there was something in that about... a cookpot.

[bittersweeter]

[ lila fires at the same rat as emma (atk 20 total, dmg 6). ] I'm sorry, like he's gonna eat us? What kind of Hansel and Gretel fairytale shit is this?

[sternshield]

[ lila's shot takes out the rat, which whines once sharply and then rolls over onto its side. erky tries to bring his morningstar down on the head of the other rat, but it dodges at his feet.

just then, out lumbers the source of the threat - a 7 foot tall bugbear wearing a crown of antlers on his head, and full scale mail, a large morningstar held in his hand. he lets out a hearty shout and comes at hook, swinging the weapon with both hands (atk 25; dmg 8) ]