Ch.6: "Bob Oracle's Inferno" / The Underworld

[tbgg]

Kell suggests to Sigrlinn, "Maybe sneak up on those men and check them out? Let's see what they're up to before we introduce ourselves."


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[Ireth]

Sigrlinn nods, though she looks nervous. "What if they give us trouble? My bow is back in Sardis with Artemis' nymphs, and I need at least that to cast Heaven's Arrow. My knife is just for skinning carcasses; it's not really a weapon."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

It sounds like the men are barking commands or calling out to each other. They're too distant to be heard distinctly. One reply comes out as "blah blah check it out."

Your surroundings are rather muddy at this point. Mist rises from the muck. The sun isn't up yet, but the teal sky in the east indicates a light source that has yet to peek over the eastern seaboard, confirming Zeus' ranting that the sun will come up.

Indistinct shapes can be seen through the fog. They are east of you, moving south to north and north to south. They appear rather bulky, but the voices are too human to be anything else.

(Sounding human wouldn't rule out the possibility of being satyrs or centaurs, but the way they move suggests they're men. They might be wearing something bulky.)

 

[tbgg]

Kell tells Sigrlinn, "Well, I could always try to charm them if it came down to it. It gives me no joy to say this, but if they're like most men, I'm likely to be successful." Her tone is slightly sorrowful.


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[Legendary Sidekick]

You begin to move closer to the men…

((I'm assuming stealthily. Since, as I said, we'll try not rolling for non-combat, the risks end up being different.

1. Stealth can fail, just not randomly. It'll be more of a situational thing. It'll usually work unless the monster has abilities that would render stealth near-impossible.

2. Stealth is slow. If you're on a rescue mission, it's difficult to know whether fast is better than sneaky.))

…as you draw near, you see a body in the muck. The corpse is wearing a full suit of armor. Around the corpse are three large pieces of bark and some sticks with large tusk-like thorns. They don't appear to function as hand-held weapons, since there's no way one could feasibly hold and swing them, but one stick is covered in blood.

The dead man's armor is punctured in several places. He probably had a weapon, but you don't see it. Likely, it's somewhere under the muck.

More men call out to each other. "All but three, sir," says one.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn sneaks ahead of Kell, wanting to investigate the corpse and the large sticks and bark surrounding it. There are three pieces of bark, and one of the men mentioned three of something; could these be what he's referring to? Or is there something else to find?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The three pieces of bark are quite thick, and they range from double the size of a man's head to the size of a man's torso. One commonality shared by all three: there is a single knothole roughly at the center. The knothole of the largest piece is big enough to put your fist through. The three sticks with thorns are about the same thickness of one of the knotholes.

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn tilts her head as she examines the sticks and bark. Are they pieces of a trap? Maybe she can make one out of them. The sticks look like they'll fit through the knotholes, but what else could she do with them?

((Not sure if I need to roll for trap-making, or what I'd roll for it anyway. I'm thinking the "shoot" dice might apply to other Huntress-y things, but I could be wrong...))

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

((@Irteh, Let's go with no roll needed for now. I was on the fence, but tbgg's feedback was helpful. I think the trap itself should not require a roll. You can set one, so you can figure out how these materials might function--or whether they would.))


Sigrlinn can see that each stick can be paired. They were obviously part of the same tree: bark from the trunk and a branch. What's not obvious about s their function.

Sticky footfalls approach. You're not taken by surprise. But Sigrlinn finds it difficult to move quickly. That said, the approaching knight isn't moving very quickly either. He is brandishing a mace, which looks quite heavy.

"Ladies?"

He seems startled, but his voice is whispered through the T-shaped slit in his bucket-like full helm. The man is completely concealed in metal. He is standing several yards away, looking at you--but also watching one side, then the other.

"Arm yourselves."


((I realize you are lacking equipment. The skinner knife will function in battle. You just won't be able to roll magic attacks with it. Blades of Ice can create a sword. Watching my brother play the new Zelda inspired me a bit, so I'm thinking there's a difference between coating a sword in Ice vs. creating one.

If she wants a sword, Kell needs to roll a 2 with magic to successfully cast her Lv.2 spell. Roll Fight dice to swing it in another round.))

 

[Ireth]

Sigrlinn looks up, slowly letting go of the sticks and bark. She speaks calmly to the knight. "Good morning, sir. My friend and I are just passing through. We don't want a fight."

 

[tbgg]

Kell looks at the man and says, "We mean you no harm, sir, so long as you mean no harm to us. We are currently serving as messengers, and although we can and often have fought when pushed to it, fighting is rarely our first choice. Would you be willing to speak a few words about what you're up to here?" She glances at the corpse and the sticks and bark. "Is there some danger afoot in this area that we should be aware of?" She does her best to project a calm and reassuring aura.


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[Legendary Sidekick]

"I don't want a fight either, but I'm afraid we have little choice."

He lowers his weapon slightly in attempt to appear less threatening.

"It's not me you need to arm yourself against."

Another two armored men start out. One mutters, "Huntresses..."

"Swords would cut through them like paper," says the other. He turns to you. "You belong in a plush forest, carving meat and skins to feed and clothe your village."

The one who spoke to you first says, "They just want peace."

The one who's not shy about defining a woman's place says, "They're in the wrong place."

The man who said next to nothing has his back to you. His two-handed sword faces whatever direction he faces. North. South. East. It's never pointed toward you. Same is true for the mouthy shield-fighter and the relatively chivalrous one with the mace.

 

[Ireth]

As the men speak, Sigrlinn looks around, her hand straying to the handle of her skinning knife. "What do we need to be wary of, then?" She looks at the bark pieces and pointed sticks again. "Maybe we don't have to fight it at all, if we can lure it into a trap. I'm sure I could make something of this."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Another dozen men slowly tromp through the misty muck toward you. The mist has a faint red glow from something that flows through the swampy water.

The man with the mace says, "I'm not sure what it is that's out here, but so far five of our men are missing, and three were found dead." Eyeing the corpse, he adds, "Four and four now. Rest In Peace, Sir Gregor."

The man with the shield says, "And I meant no offense ladies. It's just that the others we found were crushed in their armor."

As he speaks, the man with the big sword looks nervously around him.

The shield-fighter goes on, "Without protection--"

His words are cut off by a scream turning to a gurgle as one knight is pulled under the swamp. Two men grab his arms, but find themselves each with an arm in his hands. Blood pours from the severed chain mail sleeve.

A red streak collides with a distant knight, followed by mud. You're not sure what's attacking who until mud shoots a piece of bark straight up at the man with the large sword. The big guy must weigh three hundred pounds in that armor, but the geyser launches him at least ten feet--fifteen?--into the air!

A knight rushes to aid him, but a wave of mud covers him completely. You're pretty sure you just saw his skull, bones and uncoiled intestines pass through this ...creature?

The tree bark is a mask of some kind of red-eyed mud man.

"Bark-bites!" shouts the shield-fighter before a wave washes over him.

The man with the mace turns to aid his men, maybe protect you? But a bark-bite uses its own face to bash his helmet. Both the man and the bark-bite are hurt by this collision.

As for you two, the bark-bites have yet to reach you, but as you find yourself ankle deep in rapidly spreading mud, you get the feeling that running away is not an option...

Fight for your life! Roll an attack or create a weapon if you don't have one!

 

[tbgg]

Kell addresses the one who spoke of a woman's place. "Good sir, we have business with Hera, the goddess of marriage, on a matter that concerns both her domain and her own marriage intimately. Would you deny that marriage is the rightful concern of a woman?"


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[Ireth]

"Kell!" Sigrlinn cries in exasperation. "Now is not the time!" She unsheathes her skinning knife and attacks the nearest foe...

 

[tbgg]

Seeing the bark-bites, Kell quickly changes gears, beginning a cast for Entangle.




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[Legendary Sidekick]

A creature leaps at Sigrlinn! The Huntress is ready, but the bark is thick. Her knife merely searches the surface.

By the time a bark-bite attacks Kell, she has time to complete her spell. However, the plants are a sickly brown. Bark-bites penetrate the practically dead plants as if they are nothing.
((Bark-bites are immune to Earth magic!))



The one who attacked Sigrlinn tries to take a bite out of her!
((Sigrlinn, Defend vs. FIGHT!))

Another spits mud at Kell! The projectile hisses and sizzles at it soars toward the Nymph!
((Kell, Defend vs. SHOOT!))

 

[Ireth]

"Try ice instead!" Sigrlinn shouts to Kell, as she braces herself against the bark-bite's attack.

 

[tbgg]

Kell also braces herself against the bark-bite's attack.



Her attunement to nature magic makes this easy, fortunately.




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