Side One, Ep.2 "Double Dog Dare"

[SeverinR]

Agility check

Shan Mai dances away from the flames. Quickly checks to see if his clothing is on fire, pats out any embers that might be on them.
"I am a cook, but I will not be cooked today. I am pretty sure I would need to marinate several days to be anything better then a tough tasteless piece of meat." He smiles to no one in specific.

If there is no more attackers, Shan Mai will clean his blades and sheathe them.

 

[Noma Galway]

I smile at Vincent and nod. "That is a very good idea." I've never done the Song of Sacrifice before.

((how does this one work? I see it is a note and a heart, but are there lyrics to put in the post?))

 

[Ireth]

Diana

I sign to Emma, I'm a herbalist. If Jillian or any of the other women fears getting pregnant, have her come to me and I'll make a mixture to prevent it.

Vincent

I smile and nod in gratitude to Mariya, then raise my voice in song.

"I would rip my heart out for you
Dripping blood to the beat of the drums of war
I would sacrifice all for you
And the worthy cause that you're fighting for

Rise, fallen brothers
Against all the others
Who stand for what smothers
What makes us free

Fight, my brave sisters
May your might slay the misters
Who don crooked crowns
Intent to take the world down

And leave me here to lie here and bleed
It's my sacrifice, my pleasure, your need"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Rooftop
Emma replies, "A shield maiden offers this? I am grateful, though the ladies do take certain measures beforehand. Jillian is one who does not. She sees motherhood as a way out... though 'vacation' is closer to the truth." She says to Addison, "If what you say is true, that a demon found the weakness in those men, the child should not have a third eye."

Beatrice says, "The yellow-eyed men were easy targets for Holst, but his hunting grounds are strange. This is Tsul's domain. I wonder if the demon is hunting me, or is he looking for places where sin prevails?"

Emma blinks. Pointing to Beatrice with her thumb, she asks, "Who is this kid? How come she knows so much about holsts and... tussools?"


Ground Level
As Vincent and Mariya sing the Song of Sacrifice, there is a third voice joining in in perfect harmony. When the song ends, from the darkness is an odd mechanical sound...

 

[Ireth]

Diana

Emma must have missed Hanako's mention of the child-goddess. I sign to refresh her memory. This is the Maiden, known as Beatrice to us here. I've taken her on as my protege, and for all intents and purposes, my niece.

Vincent

I smile as a third voice blends with mine and Mariya's, and look around in confusion as an odd mechanical sound emerges from the alley nearby. What could be after us now?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

To Vincent's surprise, he is no longer wounded at the end of the song. He wonders what the odd rhythmic clanging sound is, but not for very long…

Muziko calls out, "Hey, Mariya! I'm here to help! I'm sorry I was unable to come sooner, but look! Pidge taught me something only a fellow pixie can learn—she taught me how to pilot a golem! It doesn't break my vow to do no harm if I'm not pixying the cannon, right?"

Pidge says, "Let's go back to calling it 'manning' the cannon. 'Pixying' isn't a word, no matter how much I want it to be." She pats the helm. "It's no princess, but I made it myself. You muses might not be crazy about bathing in plum wine, but it's my power source. I just stomp on squishy purple fruits in the baby-tub through a pipe run down the mast—that powers the legs. The friction heats the wine into a gas, which exits the mouthpiece of the grand swirlyhorn. The damn thing still wouldn't move, though. But seeing how I used a boy's pirate ship bed as the belly of the beast, I figured the sheet can function as a sail, right?"

Muziko raises her hand, and sees the sugarplum nod. "Oh! Oh! And then I saw the rocking horse. One of the Dans gave us the bellows, and with the legs pumping wine-gas and wind in the sail, we can make this thing move!"

Pidge adds, "The rocking horse steers, too. The helm is for operating the cannon. It launches bottles of firewine."

 

[Ireth]

Vincent

My grimace of irritation at still being in pain turns to a grin as the pixies explain how the golem works. "Very clever! That will come in handy, I'm sure!"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Rooftop

The fighting nuns lead the way across the rooftop. They don't get far before they encounter some one-eyed apes that look just as surprised as the ladies.

Emma says, "Oh my… have we interrupted something?"

((You can approach them or position yourself as you see fit, you can talk all you want, but you won't be able to attack on this turn.))

 

[Ireth]

Diana

I stare in confusion at the one-eyed apes. Are they Holst's creatures too? This night keeps getting stranger and stranger! Instinctively I move to the front of the group of companions, and unsheathe my sword.

 

[JRFLynn]

Jeisera

I squint, confounded by these demon-eyed beasts. First it's drunkards and louts, now apes? Holst is one sick bozo! Nudging Riff, I snap my head toward the roof's high perch. Slowly, I creep up the tile to a nice spot, readying a jay and waiting to see what these ugly gorillas will do...

 

[Ireth]

Vincent

The thoughts I pick up from the roof baffle me. One-eyed apes? What the forte is Holst up to? Should we climb up there and help, or keep watch for danger down here?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

On and In Ye Olde Cock Tavern

On the roof, Jeisera and Addison back away from the enemy to shoot from afar. Diana and Hanako move to the front to protect the group, while Emma tries to watch the 'children.' Hanako dodges the cyclape's clumsy attack, Diana butts a swinging fist with her shield. Emma manages to keep one cyclape away from the girls, but as she fends off one attacker, the other grabs Riff.

He leaps into the air, spinning as he rams Riff's head through the roof…



JJ heads into the bar. At one table, three-eyed men boast of their conquests. "Jillian was her name," said one. Like the others, he didn't admit to falling asleep within three minutes. A fourth man with nothing to boast of, it would seem, drinks alone.

As the group enters Ye Olde Cock Tavern, the barkeep has all three of his eyes on the pixies' contraption.

"I don't wan't any…*hic*…trouble," he says.

Vincent senses trouble from above, but before he can speak, an ape comes crashing through the ceiling with Riff gripped tightly in his massive arms. The ape lands hard, and seems badly hurt from the fall. Riff is underneath him, though once her legs flop down, she is completely obscured by the ape. Her condition is impossible to determine.

 

[Ireth]

Diana

I deflect an attacking ape's fist with my shield, then lash out with my sword.

My counter-attack is weak. I need to keep on guard.

Vincent

My eyes narrow as one of the yellow-eyed men speaks of his conquests. The name Jillian sparks a flame of rage in me, echoing from the thoughts I gleaned from the others, especially Emma and Diana.

An ape crashes through the ceiling, with Riff held tight in its arms. I can't tell if she's alright or not when they hit the floor. I'm not sure what to do -- try to rescue Riff from the ape, or focus on the men?

I recognize the bottles on the bar: firewine, like the other winos tried to kill us with in the alley. If push comes to shove, I could make use of them, even without the pixies' golem. I doubt my magic can reach them from this distance, though.

 

[JRFLynn]

Jeisera

My mouth falls open in horror as one of those big, hairy gorillas flings himself at Riff and smashes through the roof! Not wishing to give away our position, my teeth grit so hard pain shot through my jaw. Falling into visceral instincts, zipping back an arrow, I let fly a jay.

It punctures the gorilla's rear just as he falls out of sight...

Riff

My pixy eyes bulge as a monstrous wall of muscle and stink flew straight for me out of nowhere. "EEEEEEEK!" Powerful arms crushed my wings and forced the air from my fragile body, going faint as a great force then crashed through me. My flickering thoughts dwell on Jei and how familiar this scenario was.Why me? This is the second time...

Falling through layers of tile and wood, in a tempest of shards the ape dragged me through to the room below. "OOF!"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Jeisera's arrow follows the falling ape, planting itself in his ass. The three-eyed barkeep takes a swig from his bottle and says, "Sucks to be him."

(At a second look, Vincent sees some bottles are empty, likely emptied into the barkeep's big belly.)

Emma sees that Jeisera is the only one of her allies to hit her target. She sings, and suddenly her voice is accompanied by the toll of a glass bell crashing down from the heavens. It lands on the ape near Diana, but all three cyclapes are stunned.



Downstairs, the one cyclape is making an effort to get up. The arrow in his butt causes some difficulty…


((Every character, including those who took a turn upstairs, can act. I'll try to stick to a M-W-F schedule next week.))

 

[Ireth]

Diana

The ape in front of me is stunned by Emma's attack. I seize the chance to strike again -- hopefully with better luck!

Better! Much better!

Vincent

I keep my guard up as I look around the room. The delay in actual fighting gives me more time to assess what will be useful. Firewine bottles, both full and empty, some broken; barrels in one corner, probably full of beer. Those will come in handy if I can reach them, preferably without piquing suspicion.

But what do I do? Try to help Riff? I'm not strong enough to pull an ape off of her, and using a spell might injure her as much as the beast, if it thrashes around in pain. I've never been one to attack without a direct threat in my way, and even though I know these men shouldn't be left alive, one still claims not to want trouble. Another's thoughts betray his unwillingness to act until he's finished with his beer. I try to get a sense of the other men's thoughts, hoping it will gain us an advantage.

 

[JRFLynn]

Riff

"PHEW!" Blows a squeaky voice, wriggling from beneath a mountain of fur. My aching head! Wings jitter in puffs of lambent dust, lifting me off into a wobbly, sporadic burst of flight. "Pheeeew.So mean! That really hurt, you know!"

I zip around, my tiny body quaking with pixy rage. Flying over the mean gorilla's head, I summon my earth magic and thump my rock-hard buns over his ugly mug.

Jeisera

I will rip through these ape-aberrations if it means reaching Sis! Snarling, I send a mysterious sparrow through the vast, aimed for the beastie nearest Bee.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Riff flies out from behind the ape. Whatever damage the attack and fall may have inflicted seems to have simply forced her to revert to her old pixie self. She takes the form of a pixie-sized rock and drops onto the cyclape's head.

The beast remains still for a moment. As Riff hovers over her defeats foe, everyone in the room hears a sound similar to a tuba. Only Riff experiences the stench. If not for the force of the wind, Riff may have passed out from the smell. Instead, she is forced away.

​

Spoiler: what your characters don't know

The cyclape has a "gas attack" when he falls. There's a 25% chance this actually does something. Vulgar Stench only has an RP effect.

Weak = Corpse Stench: no effect; just a fart from a dead ape
Norm = Vulgar Stench: anyone who gets farted on will swear a lot
Str. = Sleeping Gas: stuns the player
Max. = Second Wind: harmless, but the ape revives next turn

 

[JRFLynn]

Riff

"Pheeew Gardner?!"

An explosive wind sends me flying, knocking me into the bar and its bottles...missing the one marked "fire water", I smack into the fellow behind the counter and catch myself on his scruffy beard. The lazy bartender's scary demon eye swivels about with surprise, honing in on my red-faced, nervous expression.

"H-Hi there..."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Rooftop

Hanako and Emma team up against a single cyclape. The two of them are not enough to defeat it, even though it is wounded by Jei's arrow. The cyclape flails helplessly as the nuns attack. Addison fires her arrow into it, intent on putting the beast out of its misery…

Bar Room
The barkeep says to Riff, "Uh… hello, little lady. Are you…*hic*…y'alright?"

Muziko sings, forming a bubble around he golem. She says to Mariya, "I love making bubbles! Do you ever use this spell?"