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]

[ emma will, in turn, take a five-step back in order to shoot at sir braford (atk nat 20 bc she and lila are apparently on the same level, dmg 10). he's the immediate threat, but she will shout out - ]

Keep their leader alive! [ 'they're going to need information out of him' goes without saying. also, you know, murder. ]

[undealt]

[Gold can't believe this is happening. This is worse than Bermuda. Why does this always happen.

He takes his anger out on the frog by firing off ALL THREE of his magic missiles at it (dmg 16). THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU, HOOK. IT WAS JUST THERE. And will die more violently than the trees, okay.

He's Illyria. He wishes to do more violence.]

[untethered]

[ lila shoots sharwyn right through the center of the forehead, which splinters, and then she drops like dead wood. emma's shot also cracks through the rough skin of sir braford, but he keeps coming on, still standing. and gold... disables the frog, but it's still barely conscious x(

belle watches this all unfold in seconds in horror, and i guess she freezes up because her attempt to distract the druid was a critical failure. instead she's just going to gape at HOW WRONG THIS HAS ALL GONE. ]

[unhand]

[Hook takes a shot at Sir Braford (atk 14, dmg 5 if it hits), then takes a five foot step so he can sink his hook into him. Unfortunately he.... crit fails. So that's a thing.]

[sternshield]

[ yeah hook, you stabbed... emma. GOOD JOB. roll damage.

one of the twig blights claws twice at hook, missing both times, as the other moves forward to attack lila (atk 18, 1 dmg, fort save DC 16 or 1 more damage).

the druid draws a long thin wand from his belt and waves it, and suddenly grasses, weeds, bushes, and those thorny briars begin to move around them, reaching out towards all the PCs, to try to twine around them. a reflex of 14 can avoid such a fate, or you can be like erky, who fails miserably and has vines snake around his legs and arms. on your turn if you are entangled you can make a strength check (DC 20) to break free or an escape artist check (DC 20) to slip out.

the plants continue to move and writhe, which means that everyone is now moving at half speed.

braford brings his longsword around to bear at hook, but the pirate manages to lean back away from its blade (atk 16]. erky spends his turn wrenching the vines off him (str 21!) and freeing himself. the injured frog begins slowly making its way back to the druid's side... ] Damn him! This whole place is his weapon!

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's reflex save of 17 keeps her free from the devil's snare without much fuss, but her fort save of 4 is not much help against the whomping willow. she moves back and fires at the twig that attacked her. (atk 20 total, dmg 7) ] For joy, we're in Narnia. Where the trees fight back.

[uncurse]

Son of a - [ emma's genius reflex save of 13 keeps her down - probably because she's distracted being stabbed by her boyfriend wow thank you such grace very pirate wow. she struggles free with a nat 20 escape artist check, slipping out of a loose loop in the vines. ]

[undealt]

[yeah did anyone really think Gold was gonna make that reflex save. he has to keep an iron grip on his cane or it's gonna be Ke$ha up in here. HIS STRENGTH CHECK IS SHIT TOO, SO

THAT HAPPENED.]

[untethered]

No! [ belle finally snaps out of it enough to try grasping onto the plants winding their way around gold, but every time she breaks some off, more grow in their place (str... 16). ] We have to move out of their path! [ indeed, now that she points it out, it's just a large area of the ground that seems to be alive - everything beyond it looks totally okay ]

[unhand]

Swan! [With his reflex save of 18, Hook avoids the plants easily enough, but he's more worried about the fact that he STABBED EMMA (dmg 4). He raises his gun and levels it at the druid (atk 17, dmg 6). Then he moves either out of the plants or as far as he can get within a single half speed move action.]

[sternshield]

[ the remaining tree follows to slash at hook again, and this time it manages to rake him across the face hard enough to leave a trail of blood (nat 20, 20 dmg, fort save DC 16 or 2 more damage). the druid lowers the wand again to once again heal himself for 5 of that damage.

unfortunately, the plants keep up their crawl, and hook can only make it fifteen feet out of their forty foot spread. everyone who is not currently still entangled must make a new reflex save (also DC 14) or be entangled on this round. this means that the vines erky managed to escape twine back up his legs again and this time he can't manage to break out on his turn... and as belle struggles to free gold, some of the plants turn on her and wind up entangling her also. braford turns to attack emma again, but he's struggling in the wake of the plants as well (atk 11).

hop hop hop goes the frog as the druid speaks up, unbearably calm.

"I meant to give you a choice, but you have forced my hand. If you will not allow those of your number to volunteer to be supplicants, I'll take those of you I can alive - to bestow this gift upon you." ]

[bittersweeter]

[ again, lila manages to keep herself from being snared by the leafy tendrils (reflex save 17) and while she wants to help belle and erky get out, she also wants to shoot this guy in the dick so... she tries to. there aren't enough of them free to not take action when she can. (double tap atk 23 & 21, dmg 10 & 15) ] Yeah, funnily enough I'm not all that enticed anymore.

[uncurse]

Yeah, I don't think so.

[ emma dodges the vines as they try to ensnare her once more (ref 16), then makes a move for the patch of grass that isn't moving. while she moves, she manages to fire off a shot at the druid himself. so much for her plan to keep him alive. grudgematch initiated (atk 28 - critted on 19, 18 dmg). fuck yo concentration check.

she has this theory going that if he stops, the vines stop, and possibly even his tree/frog/half-people minions. she's a glass half full type rn. ]

[undealt]

[WELL, GOLD'S FUCKED STILL, despite his righteous fury at Belle getting caught too. (str 8) It's enough to make him say fuck the police and try to cast a spell from where he is, but he fails his concentration check and wastes a spell. Things are not going well here.]

[untethered]

[ belle tries to slip her own vines off (escape artist 14), but to no avail, again... but she hears the crack of three gunshots in a row and looks up to see lila and emma riddle the druid enough times that he collapses to the ground, dropping his sickle to the ground beside him as he crumples. he appears to be still moving slightly, but blood rapidly stains the front of his clothes as he groans on the ground. ]

[unhand]

[WOW OW THAT HURT. Hook lets out a shout of pain... thought he manages to keep his footing as he does so (reflex 23). He growls and slashes forward with his hook (atk 23 dmg 3) before stepping back five feet and raising his gun (atk 14, dmg 4 if it hits).]

[sternshield]

[ hook downs the final tree blight as the druid continues to bleed out over there. braford follows in emma's wake, finally connecting with a critical blow across her back (atk 25, 10 dmg), while erky continues to struggle free. the tree frog starts to try to drag itself away, because fuck this shit. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila moves forward toward the druid, because she wants to have words with him -- words -- firing at braford as she moves. (atk 23, dmg 18) sorry, erky, she'll get back to help you in a second, stg. ]

[uncurse]

[ having 7 hp is a bad time. emma looks ready to drop, but thankfully bradford does first because lila is a champ. she dodges the vines again and continues toward the druid while firing off a shot at the retreating poison frog (atk 26, penetration dmg 14). ]

[undealt]

[Meanwhile, Gold's still struggling with these vines. SO CLOSE. (str 17)]

[untethered]

[ the frog and sir braford go down as well, as belle continues to struggle bus it with gold over here (escape artist 17). ]

[unhand]

[Hook evades getting tangled again (reflex 26) as he heads over to help Belle. Of the people currently tangled, she has the most healing potions. Also she's the smartest. If anyone can figure out a good next step that involves them not dying from all the wounds, it'll be her. He grabs the vines with his hook to try and rip through them. (atk 23, dmg 5 if that's what I do to attack... vines...)]

[sternshield]

[ the druid keeps bleeding out, pale enough that he's clearly close to the edge of death, as hook manages to rip some of belle's vines loose - enough that there's access to her pack, but the plants keep regrowing so it won't be long until it's covered again. this time, however, belle MAKES HER ESCAPE ARTIST CHECK (just barely) as the vines do their thing again. new reflex saves, escapees. erky continues to struggle in vain over there, leaves twining into his big beard. ]

[uncurse]

Toss me a potion!

[ emma continues to struggle towards the dying druid. who knows if she finally reaches him; she can't cure him either way at this point. but she will explain why she's trying. ]

We lose him, we'll never get that apple!

[bittersweeter]

[ meanwhile, lila's excessively good reflex scores keep her barreling toward the druid, but she doesn't much care if he dies tbh. she just wants to keep the wand out of his grasp so, maybe, his magic will be disrupted if he makes a mad scramble for life. ] There's got to be a druid at the castle, can't we just trade him for a while? He's not going to give us the apple now.