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Post by Krakenbox on Mar 15, 2021 14:51:44 GMT -8
The saturated marsh split before Kai as she dived into the alcove of her animalistic fright, fed immediately by Rowan, Linden, Firebringer and Finn. The mud exploded into a wave as the Ogre thundered into the pattern of the Thorns, lapsing into a wave of half-remembered instincts that were baked into his very mien.
Rats wiggled and burrowed as the environment shifted to swimming mammals rather than fish, crawling over the Changelings in a frenzied panic from the distant thundering. Lancelot shouted something as brown and black ice bloomed from the palm of his hand, trying to prevent the trench from immediately burying them from the incoming landslide.
Then the volley started.
The group kept low as hell rained down upon them, a shower of red mist mixing with the water filling their pit.
The moment only lasted for a few seconds, but it was like being struck by lightning. The Lost blinked away the blinding flashes, the smell of smoke and molten shrapnel hissing in the destroyed landscape. The sky turned dark and red, plunging the group into twilight, before the negative image passed over like a sweeping spotlight.
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Post by Rowan on Mar 15, 2021 15:07:28 GMT -8
"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap." Glamour left his form, returning Rowan to the familiar chill as mud and ice and noise rained down on him. He curled up and let the world around him.
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Finn
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Played by Swift
Posts: 139
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Post by Finn on Mar 15, 2021 19:23:49 GMT -8
Finn hits the ground and rolls on sheer reflex. Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit. NOT AGAIN! He wasn't really sure where that last thought came from, but it was as jarring as all Hells. He ends up crouching with his arms wrapped around his head, ears pressed tightly into his biceps to block out all incoming and damaging noise. He feels a pang of guilt as part of him wonders if he could have protected someone else when he bailed on instinct, at least attempting to shelter someone in his arms, but raw instinct had kicked in and he had moved thinking only of himself. This is NOT the time!Swift - Finn — Today at 9:11 PM Finn attempts to avoid being deafened (Wits + Comp) @dicecord-CoD roll 4 Dicecord-CoD BOT — Today at 9:11 PM Swift - Finn rolled 4 dice and got 4 successes. 10(10)(8) 8 6 5 Swift - Finn — Today at 9:11 PM Sweet Googly Moogly! Swift - Finn — Today at 9:20 PM Finn's Clarity is under attack!!! @dicecord-CoD roll 4 Dicecord-CoD BOT — Today at 9:20 PM Swift - Finn rolled 4 dice and got 1 success. 10(3) 2 7 4 Swift - Finn — Today at 9:20 PM ruhro Dicecord-CoD BOT — Today at 10:51 PM Swift - Finn chance rolled 9 Swift - Finn failed! Swift - Finn rolls like a dairy farmer. Swift - Finn — Today at 10:51 PM jokes on you Dicecord. That was damage for my Clarity :stuck_out_tongue:
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Linden
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Presence (3) Steady
Posts: 325
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Post by Linden on Mar 15, 2021 20:06:54 GMT -8
Linden threw themself into the trench, ending up almost on top of Rowan and covered their ears. There was mud in their teeth but there wasn't time to spit, not with a wave of rats boiling over them and then the marsh exploding like nothing they'd ever heard before. But crouched in the cold water, nose filling with the scent of hot metal and smoke, there was a sense of full-body deja vu, like they'd held this exact pose before; gauntleted arms held up to brace for impact, whether it was debris or more, half curved over another body. Their heart paused, then kicked like a horse and the moment was gone, full attention back on not being killed by whatever was happening.
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Mar 16, 2021 20:29:58 GMT -8
Things are exploding. Things are loud. Things are smoke, like fire, things destroyed in a flash. Safe? Safe. No. Not safe. Burn. Terror. Screams. Fire hides in the mud behind the trench, terror encapsulating her body. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Fine. Not fine. Fine. She doesn't know that she's ever been this terrified. Not since... Not since... feelings. Just feelings, no memories. Just terror. Only terror.
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Post by Kai Rose on Mar 17, 2021 10:34:17 GMT -8
Down. Down. Stay down. That was all Kai Rose could do, putting her ear to her shoulder and plugging the other one with her offhand as she stared at the murky wall of ice and tried not to die. A scientific mind sought scientific information, anything they could use to assess the barrage and figure out what to do next.
The problem with that? Nobody's got a scientific mind when they're clutching their weapon in a pit being barraged by artillery.
Once there was a break, she asked the key question.
"She-Wolf? Rowan? Is magic going to light us up like a beacon for their gunners in here?"
Magic had a way of affecting the Hedge. Painting it with a bunch of Glamour seemed like painting a targeting laser on them.
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Post by Rowan on Mar 17, 2021 10:42:39 GMT -8
When the artificial thunder quieted down, the Darkling tried to put his thoughts in order to the not much quieter beat of his heart. This was it. This was the reason they had brought him. Not his fighting skills, or his sneaking. They needed him to make sense of the Weird Stuff.
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Post by Krakenbox on Mar 19, 2021 23:07:51 GMT -8
For the children of war, reality melded with the ebb and flow of a shattered memory.
Finn felt fire and an unquenchable rage twist and sicken his heart, watching his flesh crawl with slithering cables of chain and bone that screamed for him to wrap his hands around the other's fragile skull, filling the pit with the thunder of death. Linden exhaled smoke as the air turned thick around their person, vision swimming as their eyes melted to reveal the grinning mask of death, the burning ice of Lancelot's Mantle twisting to connecting razored scales that armoured their hand. Firebringer started screaming, her form peeling to ash on the wind until only a radiating skeleton remained to kneel in the eroding mud.
The other Lost watch with brief confusion and sympathetic horror, not used to witnessing another's assault on their perspective manifest on the outside. Sanity corrected itself, the severed identity of Then and Now snapping back to what they were meant to be.
Except for Danica.
She looked sick, the core of her glowing from the inside to show her organs twitching as she tried to remember a body. Her skin stung; she wasn't at home in the radiation. She wasn't comfortable being a fire. Breathing kept feeling like it was going to stop if she didn't concentrate, everything burning. She cried and clawed, coughing with the air she both needed and ravaged.
No, she wasn't Fire; she was Danica Allred. She wasn't suffocating or burning, she was having a panic attack. But in that moment she couldn't tell the difference, and neither could the Hedge.
Ben was counting methodically, covering his ears as he focused on the sky while Lancelot fed more Glamour to the thorns to keep the armoured Lost from drowning. Buck looked ready to spring, slick with sweat and adrenaline until his eyes were black and shimmering with the red light, but he held. She-Wolf towered over the vibrating Elemental, calculating. She erred to spare her power, until the girl was worse for wear. The space was too small to shift to her primal form, but she craved the speed it would grant.
Rowan explained that their use of magic would leave a clear path of their movements, the Hedgespinning being the most obvious. However, they weren't dead yet, and the vibration deep in the earth felt distant still. The She-Wolf looked to Ben expectantly, who shook his head. He had not received any useful visions. The Knight of Lores nodded, sniffing the air in a feral manner, tracing a hand to triangulate an invisible map in the runs the rats left behind. She points South-East, back towards Vegas but off the main Trod.
"We seek the Coven; their mark on this land will cover our tracks. The bog will burn around us if we move too fast. One of these statements is a lie."
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Finn
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Played by Swift
Posts: 139
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Post by Finn on Mar 19, 2021 23:50:25 GMT -8
A furnace-roar of rage begins deep in Finn's chest and it's not clear if the sound is the rushing of a forge stoked by industrial bellows or a human voice. It begins deep, almost subsonic, and muffled. But he reaches outward with his hand, arm writing with the chains that cut burning gouts in his flesh. As he does so his jaws slowly, inevitably open, a deep, burning red glow leaking out with wisps of smoke and tongue of flame and the sound grows to a roar. His eyes briefly glow with the fire burning inside of him and his arm spasms, fighting the memory and reality of the Fae. Fingers bend and flex, his hand taking on a claw-like gesture. And then, almost jarringly suddenly, it's over. He's back to what passes for normal in this place, bent over, hands on his knees, and heaving giant breaths trying to re-assert his own reality over his self-image. "That," he says between panting breaths, "was rather unpleasant."He glances over at Linden and Fire, keenly aware of the connection that they all shared, and oddly feeling less alone than he did minutes before. "You ok?" he asks before really registering that Fire, at least, certainly is not. He moves over to where she is, staggering for the first couple of steps but gaining strength and confidence with each one. He stands right in front of her and speaks quickly, and sharply, but with as much compassion and empathy as he can. "Hey! Hey, listen to me," he says clapping once in front of her face to grab her attention. "You're going to be ok, but you need to listen. Look at me." He pauses just long enough to see if he can get her attention. "One. Eighteen. 234. Six. Seventy-five. Twelve. Repeat that back to me."It quickly becomes clear that this isn't going to be enough. He spares a moment of attention to what Rowan is saying, and barks a quick question. "I can help her, but it's going to take magic. Can we risk it? This is a question of sanity versus the possibility of drawing more danger down on us."Swift - Finn — Today at 1:48 AM Finn attempts to help Fire get control of her panic. (Presence + Empathy for a quick grounding?) @dicecord-CoD roll 4 Dicecord-CoD BOT — Today at 1:48 AM Swift - Finn rolled 4 dice and got 0 successes. 7 3 5 7 That was just a practice roll, right Swift - Finn?
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Mar 20, 2021 1:56:02 GMT -8
Burning. I'm burning. Smoke. Can't- can't breathe. I can't- it burns. It all burns.
Screams. Who's screaming?
It is like living in that moment right as you die over and over again - the brink of death, but it is a death that will never come. Because you serve a purpose. Your screams, tears, burning flesh, spirit full of passion and despair - it all serves a purpose. I can't. I can't. I can't do it. Please make it stop. Please make it stop.
More screams. Who's screaming?
Her body is under full panic, muscles spasming, breaths coming too quick, feeling stuck, never satisfying the need for air, heart thumping so fast. She wraps her arms around herself, sobbing, trying to smooth her burning flesh. Make it stop. The air is like ash in her throat and she hears someone then. Someone is talking at her. Stop. Make it stop. Stop screaming.
There are more words. Stop talking at me. I can't. Make it- Make it stop. She can feel a presence looming over her. A scary presence, and yet, why does she feel comforted, protected by it? Breathe. Breathe. No, it hurts. Poison. It's- no. In your head. It's all in your head- what? no. That's a lie! It's real. Run. Hide. Help- Screams!
WHO IS SCREAMING?
...I'm screaming.
Her breath catches and she feels like she is going to vomit, but all she can do is sob. And then she hears a voice in her mind. Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul. ...Triss. Poem. Words. She remembers those. They ground her. Slowly, they ground her.
And her sobs become quiet, fading slowly as she shivers and glowing of her twitching internal organs begins to relax. She feels lethargic then, ready for sleep to claim her, but she knows if she succumbs, she'll likely die. Gotta breathe. Gotta get up. Got people to get home to. Her eyes open and they are red, only accentuating the glowing orange of her iris' more.
She's in the Hedge. She's in a trench. Something just happened that almost killed them. This is reality. This is real. Everything was wobbly and out of focus, but it was real. Real. She realizes then that it was Finn talking at her and she turns her gaze up at him, "...d-did you s-s-say something?" her voice is a hoarse whisper, but she's trying to come back. She has to.
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Post by Kai Rose on Mar 20, 2021 16:36:17 GMT -8
Kai stares at the icy wall for a long moment, putting two and two together. Making themselves obvious targets by using speed superpowers made sense. The Coven was something about a group of Hobs that might be a fixture, maybe, but she didn't know enough about them to decide. That was a question for later, once they weren't immediately being shelled. "Okay. First things first, we need to get out of the immediate fire zone. If we've got enough coverage, magical stealth is probably our best bet when it's safe to make a break for it. Diversion and move when we know the artillery is firing elsewhere. Who can cover themselves or others?"
A second later, she had an idea for how they might be able to cover themselves a bit, cause some confusion for the gunners. Firebringer wasn't doing so hot, but they had to focus. They didn't have the benefit of time. One shell landing in their trench and they were all dead.
"Dani? We need you, buddy. You able to pop flames off in the distance when we go to make our break, to draw their shots?"
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Post by Rowan on Mar 20, 2021 17:54:40 GMT -8
Rowan had no idea what the Knight was saying. His head was still pulsing from whatever he heard. He pushed it down, to look at it later, when it wasn't raining fire. Only one thought pierced the fog in his brain. 'She-Wolf. Is so. COOL!'
"I still got you, Finn and Dani covered in the Cloak," he answered Kai. "It's still holding." Mist still clung to him, and his voice came through muffled by the ski masks and the cold he had encased their movements in. He nudged the Elemental in the shoulder to get her attention, then bumped his fist into it.
"Snap out, Dani."
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Finn
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Played by Swift
Posts: 139
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Post by Finn on Mar 20, 2021 23:44:16 GMT -8
Finn gives Fire a genuine and huge smile as she comes back on her own resolve. Well done, little spark, well done in deed!
"Just a bunch of nonsense. You went away for a bit and I was trying to help you back. Turns out you didn't need my help at all." He glances back at the group, catching Kai's remarks and giving her a nod. "We need to move. Check." He glances over at Linden for a moment before turning back to Firebringer. "You, me, and Linden here all have something to talk about later, I think. But we need to survive to later to have that chat. You up for moving and magic on the fly?"
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Linden
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Presence (3) Steady
Posts: 325
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Post by Linden on Mar 21, 2021 10:26:26 GMT -8
A rough cough shook Linden's chest, trying to dispel the smoke choking their lungs even as it faded. The taste was still in their mouth, deep in their nose; dry and sharp, hot metal and houses burning. They coughed again, trying to muffle the sound, and twisted away from the group to catch their breath. They breathed deeply as the others moved to check on Firebringer, taking a moment to center themself before looking at Finn. The mention that the three of them had something to talk about was met with a simple nod, though the Ogre had mixed feelings on the matter.
"Best I can do is make myself harder to hit," they volunteered, "But I have a feeling, not hard enough. If we get really cornered I can jump a good distance, make some noise; like that to be last resort, though." Linden's attention turned to She-Wolf, a glint of annoyance in their eye that she was speaking riddles along with everything else. "How do we find the Coven?"
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Post by Krakenbox on Mar 21, 2021 19:23:09 GMT -8
"Sixty-nine...seventy....seventy-one..."
Ben droned on meticulously in the background of the strategic conversations. People's breathe started to mist and disintegrate as the air temperature dropped and became aridly dry, Lancelot's Winter influence radiating with more attention than it was meant to. His arm shook a bit, Glamour surging to prevent the delicate cage he had hastily thrown, a sea of swamp water cracking the spell under its sheer weight. Buck watched sharply, with an intense concern the others had never seen on his face before. Enough to pierce his overwhelming Mantle in the moment, anyway.
It became readily apparent that between most of the group being armoured and the depth of the trench and mud sucking up to their knees; at least half of them would likely not find the surface from the rushing landslide. Finn alone would likely be just over or around three hundred pounds to pull from the depths.
The She-Wolf nodded to Linden's question, "I can spin the Hedge around the desired target. We all can, actually," she said, much more plainly than the omens Autumn twisted from her maw. The bubbly affect was gone, the whites of her eyes showing as she scanned the mist.
"I think I would point out that if it's shelling, I doubt there is a specific target. The hyrda was destroyed," Buck said in a serious tone. "I don't think invisibility will shelter us from a full satur-"
The Sunset Prince's input was drowned out as the second wave blasted overhead. Lancelot slammed a shimmering hand against the latticework of cracks from the force, quicksilver blood leaking from his elven ears as he was forced to throw a second layer rather than protect his hearing.
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