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

[unhand]

[Hook takes some of the food since oops he didn't think of that. Then he settles against a wall to keep a good view of both doors. Then he holds up the flask of rum, offering it to Lila.

Ok, Emma might be right about him being bad news for teenage girls. But in fairness, this is about helping her with horrible blowback nightmares, not trying to sleep with her.]

[untethered]

I've many more potions. You should all take as much as you need. [ she lays out several of them and takes one over to gold, extending it with a sympathetic smile. ]

[undealt]

Thank you, Belle. [YEAH, JUST GONNA TAKE THAT AND CHUG IT. Good times. He lingers for a second, like he might want to say something else, but he ends up just giving her a polite nod and a "goodnight" before finding somewhere he can sleep. AND NO HE DIDN'T BRING A SLEEPING BAG. He'll just sleep with his bag as a pillow like a peasant.]

[uncurse]

[ blah blah potions blah healing blah blah. it's great and belle is wonderful but emma is exhausted from the effects of the poison and all the stabbing she's been through. so she'll just ... settle for sleep for now and reassess the potion situation when she wakes up. it takes her a while to get to sleep, but her exhaustion sets in once she's there and keeps her in a deep state of rest. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ that's gross, emma. she shakes her head at the rum, she's already exhausted. but before settling down for anything, lila retrieves a handful of potions from belle with a somewhat tired sounding "thanks". one goes in her pocket for herself, one she hands off to hook, and the last two she sets next to emma in case she wakes up and needs more healing power.

she hovers next to emma for a minute before awkwardly patting her on the shoulder. wow much affection. then she goes to sit cross legged next to hook and eat a gross amount of apples and peanut butter. om nom nom dinner.

she swallows to talk, but she stays quiet, whispering to the pirate. ] It's going to be bad, just keep me quiet so I don't wake everyone up.

[unhand]

[Hook takes the potion and raises it to her before downing it (11 hp). He immediately starts feeling better. He frowns at her request... but he glances at Emma. She needs her sleep. They all do, really. Including Lila. And if that means finding a way to keep her quiet, well, seems the least he can do. The time for pushing Lila towards honesty can come later.]

Would gagging you help?

[untethered]

[ belle hesitates for a moment, considering whether to offer her bedroll over to anyone else, but you're all incredibly stupidly proud people and she's picked up on that, so she'll just quietly unfurl it against a wall and lay down, keeping her sword within arm's reach and her bag as a pillow. ]

[sternshield]

[ before he sleeps, erky looks over the body of the bugbear, systematically removing his items and laying them out:

his morningstar, which he swaps out for the one he took from the goblins since it's enchanted and better, 6 javelins, a waterskin, another bedroll which erky is happy to use, a sack containing a lot of silver and a little gold, and a potion. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ belle is a genius, tbh, while they're all just dumbasses for not even thinking about bedrolls in the first place. for the hoard, bb.

her nose wrinkles a little, because the idea of being gagged makes her want to gag, but... ] No, I'd probably flip out when I woke up and accidentally work you. [ speaking of, she's going to dig through her bag for her spare pair of gloves so she doesn't do just that. ] Just, when I start fidgeting, wake me up? Maybe. [ a sigh. ] I don't know, I don't have enough energy to keep myself awake or even work myself to sleep for enough time to make sure everyone else gets a decent amount of sleep.

[ there is no winning with blowback, pretty much. ]

[unhand]

[Hook nods. He's not sure what to do here. It'd be better if he could find a way to let her sleep the whole night and not wake anyone else up, but this will do, he supposes.]

All right, lass. I'll watch over you.

[bittersweeter]

[ she nods, shifting her stuff so she can lay down. really close to hook. after a second she mutters: ] Thanks. [ and then she drifts off to her couple hours of sleep. ]

[untethered]

[ sometime during hook's watch, he hears the distinct sound of something approaching from one of the open corridors... and it sounds like several somethings, that make scratch-scratchy noises against the walls as they approach... ]

[unhand]

[Dammit. He stands up, moving towards the corridor. He doesn't want to wake anyone if he can help it. They all need the rest. He draws his gun and tries to get a good look down the hall so he can gauge the threat level and maybe get a good line of fire. Because clearly shooting at things won't wake anyone up....]

[untethered]

[ there are 4, count em, 4 of those walking trees coming down the hall to the south, about 25 feet away from the door by now. annnnd they definitely see him. ]

[unhand]

[Awwww hell. Hook's confident enough when it comes to battle but he's not completely suicidal. He glances back at the others.]

Wake up, you lot! We've got company!

[And in case the shouting's not enough, he shoots at the first tree (atk 25, dmg 5).]

[untethered]

[ tree number one is officially disabled, so it's going to start retreating slowly back down the hall, while the second tree moves towards hook, critically striking him with a slash of its claw (2 dmg wow) and whiffing with the other. make a fort save dc 16 or take 1 more point of damage from the poison sap, hook ]

[untethered]

[ the other trees lumber towards him, outstretching their wooden claws, (atk 14, 15, 9, and 6) but none of them can touch hook. erky rolls awake instantly, reaching over for his morningstar and getting to his feet. "Eh? What now?"

belle also wakes instantly from the shout, and pulls out her sword, uncertain of what's intruding, and prepared with something other than bullets, in case it's a skeleton. she also gets to her feet. ]

What is it?

[uncurse]

[ well emma wakes up and grabs her gun and runs to where she can view the trees approaching in the hallway, but in her groggy hurry, when she fires off a shot, it just chips off a piece of stone in the ceiling (atk 12). that's also her way of announcing that she has hook's back apparently. ]

[unhand]

[Hook slashes ineffectually at the closest tree (atk 7) before stepping back five feet and leveling his gun at the same tree (atk 16, dmg 8).]

[untethered]

[ he shoots, he scores! tree has all of 1 hit point left, and steps closer to him, but continues to fail it up (atk 8, 18) ]

[untethered]

[ well since hook has backed out of the doorway, trees are gonna come in and one will rake at emma, while the other attacks hook. aw yis natural weapons not provoking attacks of opp. B) tree4 whiffs once and then strikes emma (atk 17, 1 dmg! fort save dc 16 or another point of damage for a whopping two). the other tree can't even touch hook, he's just too dashing or something.

erky comes CHARGING past emma and slams his morningstar into the tree's sort of face type thing with a mighty clang (nat 20!!) and the twig blight is knocked to the ground, down for the count. aw yis.

belle moves to try to stab one of the trees on hook, but it moves aside and her blade strikes air ]

[uncurse]

[ with a fort save of 17, emma takes no poison damage! her body was like fuck this we have enough of this shit right now we don't want your gift with purchase. but she's apparently caught off guard by being attacked by a fucking tree, because when she takes a 5-foot step back and fires off her weapon again, it goes wide (atk 13). ]

[unhand]

[Hook slashes his hook at that asshole tree that hurt Emma and apparently the rage at having his one true love stabbed makes his attack pretty effective (atk 21, dmg.... 2). Unless that's the tree Erky downed. Then I guess he's just taking out his anger on a different tree. Then he steps back five feet and shoots at the same tree, but the bullet goes too high (atk 9).]

[untethered]

[ tree blight 2 keeps on keeping on at hook, but he slips past both its claws like a greasy eel. ]

[untethered]

[ tree blight 3 says FUCK THIS SHIT and critically rakes hook across the face for being racist and unable to tell trees apart. for... 1 dmg, and make the fort save. erky's morningstar whizzes past the tree, and belle makes another ineffectual stab, go team. ]