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May Event Log A: The Song of Suffering.
| 🜙 Bottom | ⤛ Navigation |
| 🜙 Mod Note | |||||||||||
| The Song of Suffering's resolution is jointly dependent on the choices all our players make (Who will take charge of the city?) and on the resolution of the Return to Einjar excursion. After you have read through this post please respond to This Poll as soon as you feel comfortable making the choices in it. Please respond even if your character is not participating in this event as the choice made effects the game world/all players. | |||||||||||
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| 🜙 First Blood April 26th | |||||||||||
| In the late afternoon a challenge is made over the courier by Captain Lykos challenging the 'King' to come and properly fight him for control of the Defenders the way the old orc custom the Defenders were built on demands. In the message, he calls Koroc a coward and a thief, unfit for his role in the Defenders and unprepared to handle the even larger role he has claimed for himself. He accuses Koroc of not even trying to manage the werewolf curse he and Lykos share and says he may be to blame for Koroc's affliction, but Koroc's reckless endangerment of the city is to blame for the rise in werewolf attacks on the city. Lykos sets the battleground as King Ardis' camp outside of the city, a neutral ground away from the citizens who could get hurt in the crossfire. An enraged, Koroc takes a large group of his Defenders' newest forces out of the city to lead an attack on the former Captain and the invading King Ardis supporting him only to find the camp deserted of anyone but Lykos. The discussion between Lykos and Koroc appears publically on the couriers within the city, and everyone with a courier is treated to the impromptu visual of their meeting and the fight that follows it. Lykos gets Koroc to admit to working with the cult and imprisoning and using werewolves to attack the city, as well as implicating both himself and Koroc as werewolves as well before the feed ends, and the abrupt ending leaves the fate of the former captain uncertain. | |||||||||||
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| 🜙 Children of the Revolution April 26th-May ?? | |||||||||||
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With clear evidence now out that Koroc and the Defenders are not only working with some form of undead in their ranks, but also that both Koroc and Lykos are werewolves, Koroc's allies, Lorna's rebels, the strange travelers, and King Ardis's soldiers are all spurred into action, bringing the fight for the City of the Free People to a final confrontation for power. The city splits, rallying behind different sides in the battle. The battle encompasses the city streets and spills out into the surrounding land to the South and West of the city. The Defenders, their numbers padded with risen soldiers, hold the city. From within the rebels and the strange travelers fight the Defenders to force them out fo the city streets. Alice, Amy, and a small force of armed civilians and former revels focus on getting people out of the battle zones, teleporting people out where possible and defending them in an escape route out of the city with larger groups, while outside the city King Ardis and his knights storm the warcamp and put pressure on the Defenders, helping to clear a path out of the city. As the fighting overtakes the city another terrible set of howls sounds from the West beyond the city, and a pair of creatures join the fray. The white one assaults the city with unbridled destructive rage while the red one seems fixated on the people, hunting like a starved beast without pausing to feast on its downed prey. The beasts are unaffected by silver, wolfsbane, and other standard werewolf weaknesses and stand at around eleven feet tall, nearly twelve when straight-backed. They are closer to the size of a small swamp troll than an ordinary werewolf, their eyes glowing blue. The protrusions coming off of them are hardened bone and sharp enough to cause damage equivalent to spearheads or daggers if used to attack. Bites/Scratches from these creatures do not inflict any curses. They do not seem to fear anything but also appear to be mindlessly enraged. At different times during the onslaught from the mutated wolves a large white wolf appears, drawing the monsters away from fleeing citizens and members of all sides of the struggle, outrunning and distracting the creatures. | |||||||||||
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| 🜙 The Song of Suffering April 28th-May ?? | |||||||||||
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Two days later an unsettling prophetic orc threat from the not so distant past begins to ring true. The river that flows from the Northern mountains down through the City of the Free People begins to sing with ringing, echoing hums and runs red with a dark, thick liquid that looks like blood and smells like copper and rust. The touch of sound or liquid begins sending citizens into fits of raw, violent, amplified emotions. The fight for the city devolves into one of almost directionless, desperate violence and begins to lose what little point or meaning it had, spurred on by a madness that latches on to everyone within earshot or touch of the river and its endless ringing song. People quickly begin to change in more than just mood. Paranoia, Fury, or Desperation overtake them, causing mental and physical changes that reflect the emotion. More than one reflection can overtake people and while the infected waters remain so do the symptoms.
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no subject
It's only then — looking up at the mess the beast is making of itself with its claws — that she offers Shura any kind of apology and, well, seeing how this is Billie, that comes in the form of a very insincere, "Sorry, you just seemed like the tastiest morsel at the time."
But she does let go of Shura at that point to crouch down to the ground for a moment, distracted for a few seconds by pulling a coil of rope and the pouches of laudanum out of her coat. While she does that, she adds, "How's your arm? If you're really hurt, you should keep running."
no subject
But hey, chance to give her arm a quick look over before she got caught up in the next round of fighting. Definitely something that needed stitches, but besides looking terrible and bleeding, nothing that would take her off of the field.
"It's worse than it looks," Shura confirms, watching Billie as she pulls out... laudanum? "Wait, are you plannin' on drugging that thing?"
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"Yeah, I am," she confirms as she figures out just how she's going to do that. In the end, she settles on attaching the sedatives to two crossbow bolts. That and rope both in hand, she's back on her feet. "Stabbing it and shooting it apparently isn't working here."
Speaking of shooting! She foists the crossbow and the improvised bolts out to Shura, since, hey, she still has one uninjured arm.
"It has trueshot. Aim for the mouth and take the shot when you see it."
Then she's gone, again, form flickering out of the space it was in a second before only to reappear on the back and shoulders of the frenzying wolf beast, immediately grabbing on to fur to keep from being thrown. It's not the best plan, even she'll admit that, but all she has to do is get the rope around its upper jaw and pull. Does that still it at all? Hell no but it does give Shura a target that isn't snapping open and shut every other second!
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It won’t take long; now isn’t the time to wait for the exact perfect moment. Not with Billie on the creature’s back and not with whatever the wolf happens to be trying. And thanks to trueshot, the blood wolf gets a mouthful of the good stuff.
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Its efforts are cut short by the painful, explosive impact of a bolt to its mouth, its roar of pain muffled into drug-soaked cloth. It gags around it reflexively, trying to spit it out, but it's solidly lodged into the roof of its mouth. Its eyes roll crazily before it manages to clutch at the bolt and rip it free with its free arm, and tries to resume its assault on its rider.
Luck's with Billie and Shura: the maneuver seems to have worked. The damn thing's movements are slowing, growing sluggish and more uncoordinated, like the confused motions of a newborn kitten. Its breath grows labored, more uneven, around the bolt lodged in its mouth, and it slowly slumps to the ground, dazed. The blue light in its eyes fades, though they remain open, now glassy and unfocused ... but unmistakably, even as they watch, the wounds inflicted on it are slowly beginning to knit together.
There's a painful-sounding crash as Daud falls off the roof and manages to pull on a teleportation spell halfway through, coming to a rolling stop in the dirt a few short distance from the others and their prey. He retches as he pushes himself up to one knee, quiet agony carving lines into purple skin, and it may take a moment or two to realize -- he's trying to talk.
no subject
That was the plan, anyway, right up until the crash brings her attention snapping back up towards the roof she'd left him on. He's falling. She doesn't even wait to see if he catches himself. She's already gone from the wolf's back, teleporting away, rope abandoned between its teeth. In retrospect, she'll know it was foolish to abandon a job half-done, especially when he manages to catch himself... mostly alright.
He's already on the ground when she reappears at his side, reaching out to steady him.
"What the hell was that?" She asks under her breath, even if her voice is already muffled by a mask. "What did you do?"
no subject
Let Billie settle out whatever it was, Shura had to at least try restraining him while he was unconscious, going for the rope Billie left behind and working on getting the wolf restrained. He was probably able to break free, but at least it'd give them a couple seconds before he could use those claws and teeth on them again.
oh right... my tag was worded poorly, it did get the bolt out, just to be clear
“It was being controlled,” he says, raising his voice to be heard by both of them, heaving for breath. “There was something in its head — I’ve heard it before. It’s been tainted with a curse that needs to be cleansed .”
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"Hang on," is the only warning Daud gets before she moves both of them right back over to where the wolf has fallen. She needs to be able to help Shura but she isn't leaving him to his own devices, either. There, she looks Shura's way as she works on tying the beast up.
"If anyone has ideas for cleansing curses, I'm listening."
Because she doesn't do that. The best cure she has would be a sword through the back of the wretched thing's neck.
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"I can try somethin', but one of you has to cover me. I can't do it and defend myself at the same time." And by one of you, Shura means Billie. Whatever Daud was doing, he's in no shape to protect himself, let alone do anything else.
no subject
"Einjar's spring was tainted with something," he grates out. "Something that wanted death. Touching it made a sound that drove those who heard it to fight. I heard the same sound inside the wolf's head." Best not ask how he managed to get in there in the first place. Given there are no visible bodies of water in the vicinity, though...
"Water magic could cleanse it before. Anything used for purification might."
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Shura and Daud can talk shop about curses because Billie's well aware of who Shura meant when she asked for cover and that's what gets her to leave the tiefling's side. She moves to stand between them and the rapidly healing wolf, drawing her sword as she does.
"Just try and figure something out before it eats me, alright?"
If it starts getting back up, well, she'll figure something out. She just has no idea how well that something is going to go yet.
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But she doesn't have that luxury, and so she's just going to have to wing it. If nothing else, there's no fear in her stance as she stabs the tip of her sword into the ground. If water was what it took, then maybe that scale's magic could do something? Sure it was ice, but water and ice were the same thing in the end. Shura clasps her hands in front of her, and she begins to murmur, lowly chanting and repeating an old sutra she learned years ago. The air temperature begins to drop. It isn't a drastic change, but it is noticeable. It's all about focus now, maintaining the spell and focusing its energy and effects on the wolf. Tiny crystals of ice are starting to form on the beast's fur, though they may quickly.
walks back in with starbux
Then the wolf's body itself begins to shift and change, fur and muscle sloughing away to reveal ... a half-orc dragonborn. Bruised, battered, and riddled with the bony protrusions that were on the wolf, but unmistakably a female half-orc halfway in a nearly complete dragonborn transformation, looking at Billie and Shura with unfocused eyes as her true form reveals itself.
But they aren't alone in observing this happen. The barest movement catches Daud's attention out of the corner of his eye, and he barks a warning sharply, trusting Billie to understand what he means.
"Archer!"
no subject
"What the h--" is what she begins with as she starts to step forward, aiming to get a better look, just as Daud shouts out his warning, cutting her off. Her reaction is immediate, being the closest.
A quick turn, a quick look to judge where the arrow is, and then rather than moving to avoid it, she moves into its path. The arrow strikes but it's Billie it hits, not the half-orc, and the impact she takes to the gut from it has her staggering back and doubling over to grab at it. No shout of pain or cursing to accompany it, though.
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The spell is exhausting, and Shura's glad it worked, but there isn't that much left in her. Her hands drop to her sides, and she tries to catch her breath, but wait! Daud's yelling something and Shura sees something in her peripheral vision--
Oh. Billie took the hit. Shura steps forward, but since Billie doesn't seem to be in pain, she assumes that there must be some damn nice armor on under that coat.
"What was that?" Well, Daud could answer that if he wanted. They needed to get out of here with the dragonborn before whatever it was decided to take another shot. Shura drops to a knee beside her. Time to see just how conscious she was!
"You, can you hear me?"
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"Someone who wants this dragonborn dead," he murmurs, putting into words the evidence they can clearly see before their eyes. "We need to move her. This is too open."
There's something half-familiar about her he's having trouble placing. It isn't until she starts trying to respond to Shura -- awful, half-human sounds accompanied by an unsettlingly unfocused stare -- that the tiefling stiffens in recognition. With surprising strength for someone in such obvious pain, she latches onto Shura with both hands, breath rattling in her lungs as she struggles to form words.
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"Silver arrowhead. Someone was prepared." The cult would be her guess but with the archer long gone, that's all it would be, a guess. Hanging onto the arrow, she looks back towards Shura and the half-orc. "Well, the usual basement is too far from here. We'd be exposed too long. I can go check out what's immediately around us?"
She ends that in a questioning note, glancing over at Daud as she does.
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"There's a place south of here," Shura answers Billie, keeping low by the woman for the moment. "Ain't as secure as the usual place, but it'll work. Throwing her in with the others isn't a good idea right now." Here, friends, now here's a possibly deranged dragonborn werewolf to hang out with you! That could only go well.
no subject
Though in truth, Daud is grimly worried if the dragonborn might even survive being transported, the way she is. Normally, he isn't particularly forthcoming with information, but given the situation he decides it's probably warranted.
"I know this woman. She's a Defender -- one of those who refused to believe Lykos left by his own choice." She'd been vocal about it, too. Now it seems they're seeing the price she paid for that loyalty. Speaking of Lykos, that's probably someone else they should be informing about this development, but one step at a time and all that.
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"Must've been rounded up with all the other rebels and civilians Koroc had taken back to his camp," she guesses idly, shooting a quick glance down at the poor woman. It's frustrating in a way. Was this the fate of every missing person that went into that camp? What if they're still there, in that cave they found?
"What if there's more? It's not as though they had a shortage of people to work with."
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"It was tryin' to to someone out there. I'm guessing she has at least one friend." More in the mines? Shura could only assume that any and all of the unlucky bastards who opposed Koroc were subject to becoming a scaly were-dragon-wolf thing.
"We'll look later. Let's get her somewhere safer." If she could make it that far. Shura doesn't have much hope for her getting through the night, let alone the week. But at least the arrow will be safe as Shura won't waste any time before sealing it down in the tummy portal. She motions with her hand, then starts off in that direction once it looks like Billie and Daud have the woman secure.