Thread #136413

last time:

the team agreed to learn magic and ended up in a strange land surrounded by trees. they met a little rodent-like thing called a zoog which only thomas could understand for some reason. the zoog led them through the forest until they met a group of small people and ended up fighting them

ooc thread >>136415 →

Thomas has a feeling that the party is in for a rough time.

I'm still holding on to the spear I took from the pygmy.

Thomas has no melee weapons at the moment.

The zoog rubs its hands together from inside the bag. "Nice job, everyone!" Thomas, of course, is the only one that understands. "Just keep going straight through the trees now!"

Thomas shrugs. "The little guy says go straight through the trees." he mentions as he heads // marches on

I follow Thomas on the route he takes.

The trees grow denser and denser around the team and the brush around them begins to rustle.

Up above, a cawing sounds out - likely from the white raven that seems to be following them.

(Sense Trouble #d6 (5))

Something dangerous is definitely afoot - you can feel it in your bones. Preparing to fight might be wise.

I relay my concerns to the rest of the team. I move the contents of my bag around, to ensure the handgun is within quick reach, and that the revolver is at the front of the bag's contents too.

Thomas prepares himself with a combat stance, then realizes how absurd that is and just reaches into his bag in preparation.
He also remembers he has a gun that he's fired twice?

From out of the brush, a moderate // moderately sized wolf comes out. It does not appear to be any different from a normal wolf.

Thomas looks warily at the wolf and the surroundings to ascertain the uh... true threat here?
Just in case here's a sense danger roll #d6 (4)

The ///
>>136548
It feels like there may be a greater threat but you can tell that the wolf is dangerous as well.

The wolf bears its fangs and growls at the party. It looks like it's about to pounce.

"Keep your eyes peeled for other problems while we deal with this uh, bark bark."
In fact Thomas is going to aim at this pups and try to pop a cap in it.
#d6 (4)

Thomas quickly fires off a shot straight into the wolf's skull, dropping it to the floor before it even has a chance to strike.

Thomas is now surveying the surroundings as much as hhe can now that the immediate threat is gone.
(Not really rolling for it though?)

"Well."

VV taps her chin thoughfully.
"Don't wolves usually hunt in packs?"

"Oh."

As if on cue, a second wolf bursts through the brush.
A third wolf follows, and then a fourth wolf.
Each of the wolves, however, show no hostility now. They lower their heads. The trees sound like they are creaking and breaking behind the party.
As they turn to look, they find themselves staring at another wolf - this one about four times the size of the others. It is at least, one might observe, three meters tall.

"Ohhhh..."

Thomas nervously hides his revolver behind his back.

Its eyes narrow in on Thomas as the other wolves retreat back into the brush.

Thomas sweats profusely.

"I'm still confused as to what this has to do with learning magic. I guess there's no choice but to fight? Or maybe we can run away?"

"Running sounds alright,b but this thing probably has a strong nose.
Also it's a big wolf so it's fast?"

"Probably fast, yeah. Do we go for its legs, or straight for the head?"

It snarls loudly. It looks like it is preparing to fight.

"It will probably be hard to outrun a wolf!"

"Welp." Thomas is going to take a shot one of its legs.
#d6 (4)

The shot grazes one of its legs but fails to do any substantial damage to it.

Taking aim with the handgun, I shoot at the same leg Thomas shot at.
#d6 (3)

The shot misses completely.

VV sighs.
She clutches her axe, and runs by swiming
swiping
at the leg with it
#d6+2 (5 + 2 = 7) (athletics)

and then runs really fast away from the wolf!
#d6+1 (2 + 1 = 3)

The wolf's leg is sliced with great precision, but unfortunately not very deep! (It only takes 1 damage)
Even more unfortunately, VV attempt to escape from the wolf's vicinity is not nearly as fast as she had hoped.

But luckily for VV, the wolf merely snarls at her. It seems to have its heart set on Thomas.
It lunges forward with its fangs ready to bite.
#d6+3 (1 + 3 = 4) (athlethics)

damage #d6 (5)
The wolf closes in and bites down at Thomas.

Thomas braces for impact!

The wolf's teeth tear into Thomas' arm, dealing 5 damage. It swings its head around and tosses Thomas behind it towards VV.

Thomas, having been a relatively indoors type fellow, is not having a good time right now.
As such, Thomas is going to hurl a large explosive at it.
using 2 points of athletics
#d6+2 (5 + 2 = 7)

Here comes the boom.
#d6 (5)

The wolf is caught up in the explosion and hurled into the trees which it topples with its enormous size and weight (takes 4 damage).

It is now close to Felicity

Thomas gives // doesn't give, but has a slight smile as he clutches his arm.

Clutching the spear tightly, I get up close to its backside and thrust the spear into its hide.
#d6 (6)
Digging into the flesh
#d6 (5)

Fearing the worst, it struggles considerably in an attempt to avoid as much injury as possible.
#d6+3 (6 + 3 = 9)
It manages to reduce the damage ever so slightly, taking 3 damage.

It is bleeding quite a bit as it wobbles up to its feet.

VV tries to stab it in the side!
#d6+1 (5 + 1 = 6)
and damage
#d6 (5)

The wolf desperately tries to move out of the way.
#d6 (4)
It manages to jump to the side, but the large blunt end of the axe is jabbed into its side and it falls to the ground, its life seemingly exhausted.

The zoog pops its head out of the bag. "Hey, uhh, I kinda made a mess in there. You oughta clean that up." He jumps out of the bag to the floor obviously not even remotely concerned with Thomas' chewed up arm.

Thomas glares daggers at the zoog and goes to grip him.

The zoog looks shaken. "W-what's the matter, pal?"

meanwhile VV bandages Thomas' arm

"Clean it."

"Remove your mess, please and thank you."
Thomas offers the zoog his bag and watches like a hawk.
"No throwing out my things either clearly. That doesn't count as cleaning.
Just your mess."

"S-sure, man, just hand it here and I'll clean it for you. Anything for a friend, haha!"

#d6 (1)
The zoog tries to grab the bag and run but underestimated the weight of the bag. He can't go anywhere.

"Do you guys want to try talking to the raven that swooped down earlier?"

Thomas takes his bag back too, by the way.

The body of the wolf groans.

"BUH."

It slowly rises to its feet and begins to burn, fire engulfing it.

"Maybe we should have taken a moment to deliver the coup de grace..."

It begins to walk towards Thomas slowly.

As it reaches him, it lies down before him like a submissive dog.

Thomas is going to try and sense danger here.
#d6 (3)
Either way, Thomas is going to offer his hand as you would a normal dog, for the uh, scent thing.

"Well damn."

Thomas is slightly nervous about offering an arm to the hound that literally just bit one a few moments ago but is still going for it.

It bites Thomas' hand, though he feels no pain. The wolf vanishes into a puff of smoke, only to reappear behind Thomas, still burning.
"I have waited long for you, master." says the wolf so that all can hear it.

The zoog looks very uncomfortable.

"Oh. Well um, hello then."
Thomas would have tried for something a bit cooler but he's kind of surprised.

"You have each come here seeking power. I will lead my master and you to the power you seek."
It speaks with Thomas' voice, though its speech mannerisms are clearly quite different.

"Thank you very much. We've been attempting to use this little fellow as a guide but I'm not sure how well that's been panning out. Hey little guy why are you shaking so much?"

"It's a little unnerving hearing serious words coming from that tone of voice.

"That is a zoog," says the wolf. "No doubt it wished you killed so it could take your things. They're very crafty little bastards. But they're smart, and they have quite the information network." The fire intensifies on the wolf as it faces the zoog. "Why don't you tell them where they really want to go?"
Shaking, the zoog explains of /// tells a story about a city that recently popped up overnight, complete with an entire population of people. It appears that it may be the best lead available.

Thomas looks at the zoog. "You know, I was pretty certain you were bad news after a little bit, but you were the best lead we had. Thanks for finally spilling the beans, so much so that I'll forgive this bag incident. This time."
Thomas grimaces as he checks the bag for what unspeakable evils have been had within.

Several vials appear to be missing.

Thomas looks at the zoog. "Please return my things."

"I don't know w-what you're talkin about!"

"I'm considering letting you go here, you know? Return my things, please."

"I bet that wolf stole your stuff!"

To the others, it appears to be a very strange argument where the two just blow at each other violently.

"Return my things, *please*".
Oh does that not work
eff

"I don't have them!"

"I'd really like to assess your honesty or something right now, but in all reality you've proven extremely untrustworthy. So I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work too well in your favor."

"F-fine!" It sets the vials down and begins to back away.

"Was that so hard? You saw what we did to those tiny folk and even my new friend here. You really have been misunderstanding just how generous I'm being right now. But you can go." Thomas makes a "shoo shoo" motion.

It rushes off into the trees.

"So where do we go from here?"

"Presumably that city our ... no, that rat was talking about."

The wolf's flames die down a little. "Yes, that city is your best bet. There is a tunnel that should lead to it. However, it may be a little dangerous to take the tunnel, though it would be the fastest way."

"Do you have another path you'd recommend?"

"It would require some mountain climbing, but it is feasible if you don't mind the time investment and cold weather."

Thomas looks at the party to hear their opinions, and while they're processing he turns back and asks "What kind of danger is in the tunnels?"

"There are ghouls there. They are not strong but may be numerous. We can probably avoid them, though."

"What is a ghoul?"

"Imagine if my master had been dead for several weeks and then started walking around. They look like that. They aren't dead, though. They're just another kind of humanoid."

"Why specifically me?" Thomas wonders out loud. He then looks--aaaaat the raven?

The raven caws loudly.

"Fighting a bunch of dead-looking Thomas doesn't sound very entertaining. How high are these mountains that we would be climbing?"

"The mountains would take several days to move through. They are not without danger, though. There are spider-like beasts in the mountains, but much fewer in number than the ghouls would be and easier to evade."

"Is everything here trying to kill us?" I sigh and roll my head. "How long would moving through the tunnel take us?"

"Everything here is trying to survive," the wolf quickly fires back. "It would take only a day to go through the tunnels."

"Wow, that city must be very far away."

"I think I would rather go straight for it. Dodging these...ghouls for one day seems less horrible than climbing and hiding from spiders for several."

"Both options sound equally horrible."

"Might as well get it over with then, right VV?"

And so the wolf lead the party through the woods and towards the entrance of a large cave. It appears to go on for some distance and is very dark.

"These ghouls, they wouldn't happen to be blind, would they?"

"They may be." The wolf takes several steps towards the cave but is clearly confined to an area close to Thomas. Its flames illuminate the cave.

Thomas follows his new wolf pal so he isn't stuck not moving. Plus easy torch.

Taking a gun in hand, I move along with Thomas and the wolf with caution.

The party begins its long walk through the cave, slowly descending as the cave slopes downwards. After what feels like hours of walking, the wolf stops and dims its flames. "There are ghouls ahead." It motions with its nose towards a large open area ahead. On the far side of the area, the cave continues. "I sense four or five of them. How do you want to handle it?"

"It might be wise to try and conserve our resources, so while it's not my forte stealth might be a good idea."

"Discretion is the better part of valour."

"Keeping as quiet as possible is agreeable for me."

stealth!
#d6+1 (5 + 1 = 6)

Thomas nods and is going to be as stealthy as he possibly can.
#d6 (6)

#d6+1 (6 + 1 = 7)

The group manages to reach the other side completely unnoticed by the roaming ghouls. In the darkness, the party can only make out their body shapes - none of the grisly details.

The party continues through the cave until it /// they finally reach a dead end. It might be more accurate to describe it as something is blocking the way forward. In the dim light of the fire, it's hard to tell exactly what it is, but it's pretty hairy.

"Any idea what this might be?" Thomas whispers to name-pending

"It appears to be a large animal."

"It sure does..."

"I don't suppose there's another route we could take in this case."

"Not that I am aware of, unfortunately. This is likely the only path."

VV takes a moment to look around and observe the terrain.

It's pretty much what one might expect to find in a cave. It's pretty rocky. It's kind of weird that an animal would even be here.

Thomas is gonig to try and feel for how dangerous of a fuzzball this big guy is.
#d6 (1)
Oh okay we're fine

(Sense danger #d6 (2))

Sense danger!
#d6 (3)

The large animal looks pretty safe to wake up to everyone.

"Who feels the fastest?"

VV walks up and puts her hand on the bear's butt.

It immediately startles awake and rotates around to the party. With its face in view, it's plain to see that it's not a bear but a deer.

"That's a very large deer."

"Maybe you are just a very small man!" the deer replies sounding fairly royal in its tone of voice.

"Do you mean to say there's men here that match your size?" I ask it?

"Not in this cave, clearly!"

"Well I hope we don't run into them elsewhere then. I don't suppose you would let us pass, would you?

"I'm very tired and very comfortable. Why should I move for some nobodies like you?"

The wolf watches tensely.

"It's quite fine, you can stay right where you are. We'll just walk over you."

"Well, the sooner we get through the sooner you can go back to sleep without having to worry about us being around or doing whatever VV's thinking of. That benefits everybody."

"How crude! You will not touch me with your filthy feet!"

"Also you probably shouldn't take VV too seriously we would probably stop her from doing something rash?"

"We can take our shoes off if it is a problem. I think it's a small concession for you to make."

"I won't stand for such humiliation!"

Thomas looks to his wolf companion. "Do you know this fellow? They seem kinda regal and you're looking a little uneasy."

"Deer makes me hungry," the wolf replies quietly. "Maybe try bargaining with it."

>>136921
"Perhaps you should just inch a bit to the side then."

"Why should I?!"

"Because the sooner we get through, the faster you can get back to comfortably sleeping."

"Is there perhaps a meager task we can do for you to persuade you to let us through? Plus I think the point Felicity and I have made is kind of valid?"

>>136925
"I feel that we've been quite reasonable and offered you a few options as to how let us by. Surely your sense of decency would clue you in as to why it may not be proper to block this entire passage and refuse to let anyone by just because you want to be a layabout."

"Why, I never!"

Thomas whispers to VV "You know, this fellow probably has an ego the size of a wagon."

"I would think that any noble creature would know this. But I suppose such things can't be helped, you certainly are no lion."

"Hmph!"

"A noble spirit would be willing to endure minor inconvenience to lessen the burden on one's lessers, too. I guess it's not surprising that you'd not, though, your kind is often seen as pests and nothing more."

"You're getting shown up by another sort of royalty here, you know? VV's pretty high society herself, and she deigned to fix up my arm, despite my meager vassal status."

"Hmm... Now that you mention it, she does have a regal demeanor... Not as noble as myself! Very well! Since you understand that you are my lesser, I will lend you my aid!" The deer scoots to the side slightly.

Thomas graciously bows (?) "Thank you." and proceeds.

"I suppose that will do." VV starts through the newly opened passage.

As VV passes, the deer vanishes into a puff of smoke and reappears behind her, now much smaller in size.

Upon this realization Thomas tries desperately to stifle his snickering and fails.

"Now there's clearly men your size in this cave, hm?"

"There are no large men in these caves!"

"I am of moderate size."

"You are a tiny man, vassal!"

The wolf is clearly reluctant to say anything.

Thomas shrugs.

"You heard the deer, vassal." I say, chuckling. "Come on, this cave can't go on forever."