Run!, Stormy Waters IC Sub Thread Options

[irn0rchid]

Startled at Addie's vehemance, the girls pause in their flight and Lindsey looks over at her, "It *is* protecting the group! I told Dana to run!" The other girls seem to support her, but as Addie continues, it's obvious that her logic is winning out. "Fine! I'll ask it to help her out, but it's staying between us and them..." Sending a quick mental request for the spirit to go assist Dana however possible but prevent any of the animals from following them, she then points in the direction they were going and yells for them to get moving again, "Standing here isn't going to do any good; let's go!"

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Camp Site at the Diner

Stray electrical discharges fill the air with ozone that wars with the smell of burnt flesh... a large hound appears on the edge of the trees and glares at Dana with a malignant and unusually intelligent intensity... the low growl that fills its throat is full of menace. The beast itself looks unnatural, diseased perhaps, fangs haphazardly splayed from its brutish head... which it throws back and howls, an almost mournful keen...

[Mercy]

Back at the larger camp, Maya watches the hunters and Raferty go off with Summer, praying that they can find Lindsey and the girls in time to help them. After a minute or two, she shakes her head and turns back to the others still in the camp. Clearing her throat, she calls out to those near her. "Alright. We cannot just stand around. There may be injured coming in and we need to be ready for that eventuality. Pierre, you are in charge of getting us packed and ready. Please continue packing things away, but we need to leave the tents up in case we need to use one or more for a treatment center. You three, please gather the medkit and a supply of bandages and take them to that tent there. Klarise, can you have the rest of your hunters post watch around the camp? You know your business better than I do, so you are in charge of setting pairs of people out as sentries. Let me know if you need any of the others to work with your reduced numbers. No one goes out solo. I would prefer groups of three if you can manage that. Sim, a nice big fire would help calm nerves and act as a beacon for the search group as well as Lindsey. Alright; any questions or helpful ideas?"

[Gilga]

Dana retracts slowly directly looking at the large hound, she is not afraid she lives to fight but she sees no need to kill again, she fights to preserve life. She delivered her message and if that beast really was intelligent he should have gotten it. "teenage girls makes bad food." Her hands were still glowing blue from electricity, and should remaind any predator what Dana is capable of. The dogs killed a teenage girl and then Dana killed a whole bunch of them, along with anything within a large radius of the girl. They paid with interest for the life they took, there was easier prey out there. In case the beast does not show any signs of aggression, Dana casts a levitate spell and slowly glides toward the camp, making sure that these beasts do not follow her.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Bloodbath at the Diner

The hound slinks backwards away from Dana, hackles raised and growls continue issuing from its throat…it is only Dana’s innate magic sense that stops the next hound from completely surprising her…it is absolutely silent, coming in low from her rear…as she whips round she realises that it is a spirit! Did that fragging dog just summon a spirit??

There’s no time for scientific study as the thing belches out a noxious, and probably radioactive gas that sprays across Dana…


Day 5, Late Afternoon, Heading out from Maya’s Camp

The terrain is ok and the hunters are making good time under Summer’s sure direction…but thunderheads look like they are building from the south…at least that should serve to confuse scents and hopefully allow an escape from these hunting dogs!

[Mercy]

Maya notices the clouds forming to the south and grimaces. She turns to Nym and Cailin and says, "Hey, do either of you think that you can take these skins Nym has and use them to repair the hole in the third tent? It looks like we many need it tonight. Afterwards, she walks around the camp, giving encouragement and pitching in where she can help.

[Beta]

Pierre, day 5, depleted main camp

Pierre was staggering back to camp with another load of branches, when he noticed that things seemed quiet. Dot soon filled him in that the hunters had run off to try and save the group of girls from some dogs, or something like that.

He grumbled "Tabernac! They say we have to stay in groups, killing our efficiency -- then go and break things up again. No choice but to do it, to protect the girls, but we really needed to get more done today too and nobody agreed to smaller teams for THAT."

Complaining didn't stop him from working, however. He was already at work adding the latest haul to the new, larger, lean-to that they'd been working on. With so little in the way of tents, and the group not leaving for at least another day, it had seemed worth the effort to build. With the small folding saw they'd managed to take down a few small trees for the main poles, and now they were just trying to to get at least a bit of branch cover on it. At least the rain had stopped so it shouldn't be a wet night -- or so he thought until Widget pointed out the building storm clouds.

He was savoring the feel of a long string of curses about the general state of the world, when he saw the enchanting witch approaching the small enclave that was the remains of the old 'big camp.' She had one of the human boys lugging some animal skins, but it was hard to pay attention to him when SHE was near. Pierre sighed one more curse at the cruelty of a universe that put people like her in the world, but made him a dwarf engineer instead of some charming elf or athletic warrior hero.

He tried to keep working on the lean-to, he really did, but he eventually realized that he'd stopped weaving the branch in his hand, and was just standing there, watching her out of the corner of his eye. He stayed there, entranced, until she and her helper approached the patch on the tent. They weren't messing with his handiwork without talking to him first!

He scurried over, feeling slow, awkward and loutish, but sufficiently indignant to find his tongue. "Hold on there, before you mess with anything ... we used part of a skin suit for a patch. Like any other cloth it isn't water proof, but if you stretch it tight enough the surface tension of the water keeps it from going through the cloth so long as there are no contact points to break the linearity of the surface -- that is how tents work in the first place. We managed to stretch it somewhat tight, but not as tight as would keep it from dripping a bit. And we couldn't seal it to the tent to keep water from rolling underneath. Tried with some pitch, but we didn't have a chance to heat it, so it didn't spread or stick as well as I wanted. If you have any way of sealing it to the tent or something that would be grand. If those hides are available for shelter, perhaps we could stretch them over parts of the lean-tos, to seal the roof more? What we have right now will keep in only half the heat and keep out not even half the water. Enough more loads of branches and we could make it a lot better, but we are running out of time for today, and have stripped the nearby trees of useful branches anyway."

Then he realizes what a lecture he'd just given to Caillin, and turns bright red and finds it hard to breath.

[Gilga]

Dana had the instinct to hold her breath and despite any attempts by her the creatures breath hit her and enveloped the girl with an obnoxious smell that may take some time to get rid of. She begun feeling sick, at least she kind of knew that she would once she allow some more air in, but Dana was alone, and wounded and she faught like any cornered animal would - with furiosity charging the spirit beast with her fists punching and kicking to undo that abomination.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Bloodbath at the Diner

Almost as if being coordinated by a tactician, whilst Dana’s focus is on the spirit two of the radhounds rush her from the flank biting and worrying at her legs…only her combat training prevents her from being immediately overwhelmed by the onslaught…

[Gilga]

Dana comes out OK from the onslaught and manages to hold her own against the charging dogs, channeling them to a position where their jaws are far away from her leg, she feels a strong bite but quickly recover by kicking the critter in its nose. She would have ignored that bite but after the drain from the spell she is approaching the limit of how much torment she can take.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Bloodbath at the Diner

As Dana channels mana in to her aura and electricity flares around her once more the spirit gives a warning growl and the other two hounds back away, yet seeming to grow in size. More yips and calls indicate that what is left of the pack is closing in...

[Gilga]

"Hold on just a few more seconds... Be strong" Dana thought, or was it the beast within her. She circled kick and punched the hound. Making it a roasted crisp quickly so that she could focus on the second one, Dana knew that she would collapse very soon, but she needed to get these things killed before she did - only then there was a slim hope of surviving.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Bloodbath at the Diner

Dana loses a little bit of her support as the ghost hound turns on Lindsey's spirit and viciously savages it, almost to the point of disruption. The other radhound, sensing its mate's demise, lunges forward, now that it is standing almost head to head with Dana the jaws attempt to close on the back of her neck...

[Gilga]

Dana acts quickly and snap the beast's jaws left and right, in an angle that should not be possible for canines, sending shocks of electricity into the beast and likely sending it to the endless hunting grounds of Valhalla or their radioactive counterparts.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Running Fast from the Bloodbath at the Diner

With fear of the beast spirit filling her mind and clouding it to all else Dana is off like a hare, dashing through the woodland at incredible speed, urged on by Lindsey's spirit... the two radhounds pursuing her grab at her but are repulsed by her electrical aura before exhaustion causes Dana to drop it...

Unfortunately the dogs are faster still, impossibly fast with the aid of their own metaphysical kin, and it isn't long before they are snapping at Dana's heels in an attempt to bring their quarry down...

[Gilga]

Everything seemed to be going well and Dana dished electrical shocks to anything that wanted a piece of her without any damage to herself. Then something happen, primal fear captured her and before she knew it she was running, from apex predator to prey. Being fast was one thing, but can they track her in the woods? Dana attempted anything she could to lose her pursuers, including sudden changes in direction, impossible turns and avoiding the wind to not give them any hints of her location. Fear got her thinking and she remembered some of the things Maya has taught her about nature and predators.

[ Spoiler ]

I am still kind of awed that a spirit can accelerate so many critters at once, at any case Dana will attempt to use her outdoors skills to fool and confuse them.
survival: 4d6t5 2

[Beta]

The massive flash of light had shone through the forest, stopping the running girls in their tracks for a moment, then a babble of voices broke out “What was that” “Must have been Dana!” “Did she explode all the dogs?”

Then baying and growling and crashing sounds crushed that idea, and Gem started leading the group toward the creek. Addie hesitated for a few long seconds, wanting to run back and see what was happening, maybe shout warnings to Dana – but she’d probably just make it worse. She felt tears welling up as she followed the others, tears of frustration and helplessness. She couldn’t fight anything that had survived a blast like that, and she didn’t have magic to help, she’d already gotten Lindsey to send her spirit, and the others with spirits were far away.

Then it hit her. She screamed down her link “NORA! NORA! NORA! HELP--EMERGENCY!!! GET SIM AND CAITLIN TO SEND SPIRITS TO HELP DANA RIGHT NOW! DANA DID A BIG SPELL IF THAT HELPS THEM FIND HER! DON’T RUN TO THEM, SCREAM IT AT THEM, THIS IS TO SAVE MANY LIVES!!!!”

Stifling a sob, she scans the bush for anything following the pack of girls and desperately hopes that this will help save their protector and her lover.

[irn0rchid]

Shadows leap in front of the fleeing girls as the ball of light swells behind them. The group stops as one despite Addie's instructions and turns to see what happened. As the light fades, the girls look around at each other with no idea what's happened. Lindsey stiffens as her spirit virtually screams in her head that it's being attacked by one of those corrupted animals she used to be forced to fight back home and isn't going to be able to fulfill its mission. Snarling, suffused with hatred of the beast spirits that have hunted her for as long as she can remember, she calls on Simon and James to help her. The other girls take a startled step back as the air starts to shimmer on both sides of Lindsey, her face in a rictus of anger. Too far from the fray to affect it directly, she orders her two long-time friends to help her other spirit in preventing the critters to reach Dana. Muttering under her breath, "Don't know where we are, or what's going on, but *these* things I know." Half expecting more of the spirits to leap out of the trees, she watches all around while waiting to hear back from her friends.

[Gilga]

Mind hazed with overwhelming terror Dana reverted to her inner beast, survive when she had a chance to strike she did, and then she quickly run again. She remembered killing a hound, but that did not make her feel any safer or more confident. The hounds were lunching themselves on her with the precision of top warriors and Dana felt that she was lucky to still be breathing. Then one of the hounds caught her leg and took a nasty bite and Dana could feel her adrenaline surging - the fear dissipated as she felt the beast creeps in. THAT HOUND MUST DIE! I WILL KILL ALL OF THEM... AND THEN KILL THEM AGAIN! she thoughts, exchanging one insanity for another - the beast she knew lied within and with her experience Dana would soon be able to contain it - if she will still be alive.

[Mercy]

Maya walks about the camp, trying to give help and encouragement to the others still in the area. Pierre is doing a great job and she makes sure that he knows it, as well as Nym, Cailin, and Klarise. She makes sure that someone is preparing food, using the food brought in to supplement and stretch the rations. She tries to stay busy herself, jumping in where she can. Her mind is partially on Lindsey and the girls she has led away from the camp and on the people she had sent out to try to help them. It strikes her for perhaps the hundredth time today that the kids need to leave here as soon as possible.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Running Fast from the Bloodbath at the Diner

In the maelstrom of her fear, flashing fangs and baying hounds Dana is only vaguely aware of the sudden arrival of the metaphysical cavalry, and even that dim awareness is wiped out when a hound clamps its jaws around her calf and bites down hard, worrying at the flesh, tearing the seemingly flimsy body glove to shreds...Shark's rage fills her blood...!

[Gilga]

Then another bite and another flow of blood, there is anger more anger. "So this is what the end feels like... " She understands and channel all her remaining energy to her elemental body. Dana knows that the drain might knock her out, she knows it - but she sees only blood and anger. There is no way out, the combat is over, and to her disadvantage two more spirits have joined. So many of them, Dana is just barely aware of her surrounding and she sees red, the pain the adrenaline - she just wants to take as many of them down before she collapses. That second bite was the moment where Dana stopped trying to get out of that combat, and just compromised on trying to kill at least one of the two hounds before she collapses.

There were no fear and no regrets - just conviction - Dana lived like a warrior and was going to die like a warrior. She did not let pain stop her, and used her remarkable accelerated speed to run angrily toward that hound that beat her legs, Dana hoped that her muscles will allow her just one more sprint, one more electrical strike to watch the life drains out of that pesky huge hound.

[Mercy]

Maya takes a few steps out of the camp, not far enough to be away, but enough to be alone for a minute or two. The camp has been fed and it seems that the decision on selecting a new leader has been postponed due to the emergency that Lindsey and the other girls are facing and because a fairly large group of the hunters have gone to see if they can give any aid. She worries about all of the people away from camp...........well, almost. There are some she does not waste her time on, but that number can be counted on one hand. For the others, she feels terribly responsible and terribly alone. How can anyone bring this mismatched group of people together and get them motivated in a single direction? So far the task seems to be very daunting and Maya is having doubts that she can really do it. Things would be so much easier if someone else wanted the job, but so far not one other person had stepped forward to put a name into the ring.

A bit of noise brings her out of her reverie and she hears her name called. She raises her hand to let them know she has heard and puts a smile on her face as she heads off to try to fix another problem before it grows to monumental size.

[Mercy]

Tarok is the strongest Ork left in the tribe. He would have been able to challenge Rick for the leadership position, but he knows he has no real leadership skills and he has seen enough of what has happened here to not want the position. Even the leadership of the tribe within the camp has fallen to Klarise, and he is happy for that as it means he can just be who he is.............a skilled hunter. He has brought in twice the game any of the others have and Klarise has complimented him twice so far. At this point, he would stand up against anyone who wanted to try to take the position of tribal leader from her, but knows that is not how things are done. Klarise leads because she is the best for the job.....for now. There will come a day when someone else might be able to say that and there will be a fight of prowess to determine the challenger's worthiness.

For now, Tarok finds himself leading two hunting bands through this cursed wilderness in what he suspects will be a vain attempt to find the silly girls that had run off with that troublemaker, Lindsey. It had seemed to be good riddance to them all in his mind, but now they have called to the camp and asked for help in fighting off some large dogs that have already killed at least one of them. The torches carried by members of the team were for the benefit of the few non-Orks in the group as well as to give the girls something to home in on if they can get to a point where they can see them. Tarok grins savagely as he runs. A large wild dog might prove a challenge to his own skill as a hunter, but it might also provide the camp with some meat.

Tarok is not evil and he does care whether or not they find the girls before they are eaten, but he is glad that he is an Ork.

[Aria]

Day 5, Late Afternoon, Bloodbath at the Diner

With the arrival of Lindsey’s spirits the tide has turned and the hounds can clearly tell… one runs like a whipped cur, crashing through the trees, heedless to the branches whipping at it. One of the others turns with a growl to face the newcomers while the remaining ordinary looking beast makes another attempt to bring down their quarry…