Ch.1: "By the Fire" / Village of Ogygia

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell winces at the burning man's screams, but shakes it off, beginning the chant for Charm Animals. She didn't really want this to turn into a battle, but it seems her choice has been made.

She's glad to see that the Amazon at least seems to have come out of this mostly unscathed. Well, so far, anyway.

 

[Reaver]

AKANTHA

The mere sight of the levitating judge forces Akantha to rethink her strategy. She races over to the dead executioner and throws the corpse at the only crossbowman with a loaded weapon.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Kell begins her chant. This time the crossbowmen are wise to her. Nine of the remaining ten are reloading, but the one with a loaded crossbow has a clear shot—

—but as he pulls the trigger, a faceless corpse hurled by the mighty Akantha beans him on the side of the head. His bolt narrowly misses Kell! As for the crossbowman, he tumbles over from the impact, taking another crossbowman with him. The men are fine, or would be, if not for the worming tendrils coiling around their throats.

Leto fires at the judge, but her shot is a little wide. But even then, he arrow doesn't graze the judge. It flops away from him as if tossed by a small cyclone. Perhaps an arrow aimed dead center won't blow away so easily—surely, he can't be impossible to hit!

The judge turns toward the Huntress and shouts, "I SUMMON FORTH A STORM OF GAVELS!" Dozens of wooden hammers rain from the heavens. Fortunately, most of the gavels hit trees and dissipate. Only one gavel manages to hit Leto. ((Not OK))

Thanks to Akantha's effort, Kelleia's spell is uninterrupted as well, and the Nymph remains unscathed. Now the question is, what animals will rush to her aid. ((Roll #2d6 to find out!))

The eight remaining crossbowmen have reloaded their weapons, and are quickly aiming at the three women from where they stand. They can barely keep their footing, but seeing how merciless the plants are to those who topple, those who stand make sure they are standing.

As for the burning man, his screams gargle into nothing. As he slumps over, our three heroines all see someone they hadn't noticed before. A child in rags is in the pit. Perhaps she was sleeping on a bench earlier, but now she is limping toward the flames. The half-starved waif extends her hands toward the warmth of the flames. Despite the noon sun on a hot day, it seems there are some so unfortunate that the relative warmth of a fire still makes the difference between cold and comfort. What life does this child live that she is already desensitized to the plight of a dying man that she can warm herself by a burning corpse? You don't have the luxury to ponder that now. Eight loaded crossbows, flying judicial wizard—stay focused!

---

Players Akantha KO=======- Kelleia KO======OK Leto KO======

Enemies Judge X XX====== (Levitating!) Oil Can Harry (R.I.P.) XX The X-Bow Men XX==== (Entangled!)

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto stares as the judge deflects her arrow with some sort of wind magic, then sends a storm of wooden mallets after her and the other women. One hits her, but doesn't do a lot of damage.

She takes aim at the judge again, hoping this shaft will fly true.

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Giving a nod of thanks to the Amazon, Kell continues to focus on her magic, but does step out of the pit, looking for a place to take cover.
Kelleia:2D6 → 8(5 +3)#Perception check - can Kell take cover anywhere?

Kelleia:2D6 → 4(1 +3)#What animals come to Kell's aid?


((@LS: How do I instruct the animals on what to do if I don't know which animals came? Or is this just a 3-round spell?))

 

[Reaver]

AKANTHA

Akantha whoops with cheer at her amazing corpse toss and makes a bee-line for one of her swords lying on the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, the Amazon sees a tiny, piteous-looking child walking toward the still roasting carcass of the oil bearer, woefully unaware of the danger she was in.

Without hesitation, Akantha dashes toward the child, the crossbows be damned!

She breathes a silent prayer to Athena, hoping that she'll be able to snatch the child from Hades' fiery grasp.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

((@Reaver, roll Perception))

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Dozens of larks swarm over the pit, casting a shadow. As Judge Xarris attempts to mumble a spell, a few droppings rain on his robe. Crossbowmen panic as the birds start pecking at them. While the birds themselves are harmless, on crossbowman crouches too low, and is swallowed in the entanglement of serpentine tendrils. The judge swats a few birds away from himself, and seemingly frustration, he removes the wig from his bald head and whips it toward the burning stake…

Leto's arrow misses the judge, and a few bolts fly close enough to be whipped by his protective wind as crossbowmen aim at birds instead of shooting at Kell and Akantha. One man has a clear shot at Leto, and he takes it. Time seems to slow for the Huntress as the bolt heads to the sweet spot between her eyes. She can't dodge it, of course, but she can see it drawing ever closer by the nanosecond…

Akantha sees a child, and witnesses around the pit gasp in unison as she reveals a soft side the crowd had not expected. The child's eyes grow wide. "You?" she says to Akantha. Before the amazon can reach the girl, a bolt whizzes between them, only inches—or maybe just an inch—from the child's eyes. Her wide eyes follow the projectile with a look of concern for the doomed Huntress. But it seems she and the Huntress were mistaken about the lethality of the bolt. It merely grazes Leto's shoulder. ((-1 HP))

Akantha's instincts take over, and once again she finds herself making a wild prediction. ((PM)) A strange sensation on the top of her head snaps her out of it. She can't see exactly what is wrapping itself around her head, but everyone else can. It's the judge's wig! The judge shouts, "I CONDEMN YOU TO THE CURSE OF LAWFUL STUPIDITY!" ((-1 to all rolls / +RP effect, included in PM))

Kell is in a position of cover behind a bench now, but the crossbowmen are busy reloading their weapons, and the judge is too distracted to cast magic. She can cast a spell without fear of interruption, or attack with her staff.

Leto can't help but notice that the birds aren't being swept up in whatever cyclone was deflecting her arrows.

Some of the plants rise toward Judge Xavier, forming an incline that leads from Akantha to the judge. It would be quite a leap, and the amazon is no acrobat, but her strong legs are up to the task…

---

Players Akantha KO=======- (Cursed!) Kelleia KO======OK Leto KO=====-

Enemies Judge X XX====== (Levitating!) Oil Can Harry (R.I.P.) XX The X-Bow Men XX===- (Entangled!)

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto hisses in pain as the arrow grazes her shoulder, then frowns as the judge throws his wig. It lands on the Amazon, and the judge shouts a curse.

Leto aims yet another arrow at the judge. One of them is bound to hit him sooner or later!

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell frowns thoughtfully at the child, wondering how she knows the Amazon, then feels a pang as the crossbow bolt speeds toward their unknown helper. She finally catches a glimpse of her - of course, it's another woman - who else would stand up to the injustices around here? Kell is glad the archer is only grazed. She calls back to the woman, "I think the judge's spell is come kind of ward against ranged weapons. I'm not sure you'll be able to hit him while he has it up."

Feeling uncertain what to do to best help and hoping her ramp of plants is sufficient for the Amazon to do whatever she wants to do, Kell finally begins the chant for Plant Armor, knowing it will incorporate her clothing and belongings into it. Here goes nothing! she thinks to herself.

Kelleia:2D6 → 4(2 +2)#Kell casts Magic for Plant Armor

 

[Reaver]

AKANTHA


As Akantha nears the child, images flash through her mind and sensations of pain through her body. This unnerves her, but only for a brief moment. When she finally reaches the little girl, the Amazonian warrior scoops her up, pressing the tiny soul tightly against her chest and sprints toward a copse of trees.

Satisfied that the waif is out of harm's way, Akantha puts the girl down. "Stay right here, Hess!"

Running back toward the hovering judge, a confused look spreads across the Amazon's face as she wonders why she called the little girl Hess. Swiftly approaching the floating judge, Akantha waits until the opportune moment and leaps up into the air at him, her muscular arms poised to grab and pull him to the ground.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The child giggles at Akantha's words. "You can call me Hess. I love this name!" Akantha doesn't stick around to respond. She rushes back into the battle, the plants beneath her feet making a wave that speeds her progress.

By the time she gets to the judge, he's struggling to remove Leto's arrow from his profusely bleeding gut. Akantha tackles him, and the wind is knocked from him as he lands. Tendrils rise from the ground and wrap around his throat, but Akantha's fists render Xarris' face unrecognizable before he has time to suffocate.

Kell is armored and ready for battle, but it seems the birds have forced the men to duck into the plants. Perhaps the plants sensed the nymph is conflicted about taking lives? If she is, the plants have lifted the burden from her. She is armored, and will remain so (if she wishes) for the next four hours. ((2-12 hour duration based on die roll.))

Leto can save her arrows at this point, but the little girl beckons her over. She is whispering, but Leto hears her clearly.

"Come meet your new friends. At least I hope your gonna make friends with these ladies. You'll all need them because I think you're gonna get in trouble. But you stopped a really bad man!"



((Post actions, words, etc. But you need to remain in the pit. More coming later, once Leto and Hess are in the pit.))

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto decides to save her arrows once the judge is down, and looks curiously at the little girl who beckons to her. She smiles at the girl and steps forward into the pit, but the words about trouble clang like alarm bells in her heart. She looks around, hoping trouble isn't going to come swooping down on them... at least not right away.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Our heroines are in the pit, encircled by the plants that continue to grow, attaching themselves to the wall. The plants are growing rapidly, and within seconds, they form a ten-foot-high fence around the pit.

The child says to Leto, "Oh... we are trapped in the pit. Trapped!" The words 'pit' and 'trap' echo after the girl speaks.

Those outside the pit can no longer be seen, but they can be heard.

"They killed fifteen men!"

"But you saw her grab the child!"

"Maternal instincts. Like I always say, if amazons stopped trying to act like men..."

"Hades' Angels, we'll call them. Behind their swaying bottoms is a trail of corpses."

"Describe them," says a man with a thick accent. ((PM to Ireth)) "Perhaps some details other than their bottoms and how they sway."

The wig is no longer on Akantha, so she is no longer affected by the curse... which didn't seem effective to begin with. The amazon gathers her swords, purse, and sake. The birds that came to Kell's aid fly up out of the pit and head back to their homes. The nymph remains armored by the ivy on her clothing.

There is a moment of peace. Then there are flames. From the stake, to the now-walled-off steps the nymph descended earlier, and all the way around the pit's perimeter, impossibly hot flames shoot twenty feet up with a roar.

The child tugs on Leto's arm. "You can get us out of this mess, right? I didn't bring you here to die! Please don't die!"

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto smiles and wraps an arm around the girl when she cries out about being trapped. Then Leto hears a familiar voice -- her employer, Buck L'Orange. As the people above start describing her and her new allies, Leto frowns. Those descriptions are nothing like her and the other two. And what are angels? Are they something like the valkyries she was told of in the north? Leto shrugs and pushes her auburn braids back behind her shoulders. As long as it keeps the law from coming after them directly... But then, there might be other women who fit those descriptions.

As twenty-foot flames leap up around the pit, Leto looks for a way out. There's a crack in the ground, and a faint light below. Maybe an underground cavern?

Hess tugs on Leto's arm, and Leto hugs her again. "We're not going to die."

She looks at the Nymph, and keeps her voice low to not be overheard by those beyond the fire. "Can you call up your plants to widen this crack?" She points to it. "Maybe we can jump down and escape the fire."

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell looks at her companions...Hades' Angels did the crowd say? She looks at the child, too.

"I'm Kelleia," she says with a smile, "but my friends usually call me Kell."

She looks at Leto. "It can't hurt to try. I didn't even see that crack there." Waving her staff at the crack, Kell concentrates, willing the plants from her earlier spell to begin expanding and widening the crack.

Kelleia:2D6 → 8(6 +2)#roll to command plants to widen crack

 

[Reaver]

AKANTHA

Akantha draws one of her twin swords, Calamity, and yells at the disembodied voices: "I'll show you Hades' Angels when I shove my blades up your pampered asses, you knock-kneed gaggle of harpy hens!"

She turns her attention to the woman and nymph who helped save her life. "Thank you, little sisters, for rendering aid. I am Akantha, daughter of Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons and King Manimus of the Manazons."

The Amazon runs the gleaming blade through her slightly closed left hand and then tightens her fist, rivulets of crimson pour in heavy drops onto the ground. "I owe you a life debt my sisters and I swear my allegiance to you until death takes me or my mother unbinds me."

Akantha feels the fear in the little girls voice. She sheathes Calamity in the scabbard on her back and kneels in front of the waif. "Don't be afraid Hess," she smiles, stroking the child's wet cheek, "We're not dying this day... I swear it!"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Hess replies to Akantha, "Okay… I believe you." When she sees a tree sprouting from the crack in the ground, she shouts, "Pretty!"

The tree grows rapidly from sprout to sapling to a full grown cherry tree with pink blossoms, but it doesn't stop there. As the petals rain down, the tree continues to grow until it is two hundred feet tall with a trunk ten feet wide.

"Oh, how fun!" says Hess. She tells Kell, "I didn't think your magic stick was that strong." To Leto, she goes on, "I thought you'd use one of those hunting devices—a pit trap, 'cause we're trapped in a pit, get it? Oh, but you're smart! You came up with a way to save the stuff you might need later."

She grabs onto a branch and starts scaling the tree with ease. "Well… are you coming?" About twenty feet up, there is a hole in the tree. Even Akantha should be able to squeeze in without much trouble.

Hess' head pokes out of the hole. "You gotta see this! The tree goes way, WAY down—like, lower than the ground. There's a cave down here. By the time the fire goes out, we'll be gone." She says to Kell, "I'll bet your magic stick can make some ivy to cover the hole—or maybe it'll just make the tree not hollow anymore… uh… right?"



((You can all climb down through the hollow tree. It'll be dark below, so you can talk amongst yourselves while your eyes adjust, if you want to keep posting without the need for a GM call. Kell can do as Hess suggests to ensure no one can follow the party underground.))

 

[tbgg]

Kelleia

Kell tells Hess, "Actually, neither did I. I'm not 100% positive the immortals didn't intervene here. But I for one am NOT complaining if they did." And she gives a wide grin.

Kell climbs up the tree to the hole, but struggles a bit. Climbing isn't really her thing. Once all the others have gone inside the hole, including Hess, she again waves her staff and focuses on having ivy cover over the opening.

Kell suggests to Akantha, "Why don't you tell us about the judge's son. Since your interaction with him is apparently the reason for all of this."

And she asks Hess, "How do you know the judge is a bad man? What do you know about him?"

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto smiles and bows slightly to Akantha. "I'm just glad I was able to help. I'm known as Leto around these parts."

As the tree reaches its full height and Hess urges them to follow her, Leto clambers up into the hole. She listens to the Nymph's questions to Akantha, but doesn't interrupt.