Turn Fifty SixCreate a curse (curse molotov?) using the lit torch, the bolt in my head, the mage blood, a bandage and five gold yuros.
Fling curse at the squad of four. Then, ride like hell in the general direction Foxglove went.
Medha comes to wondering what's poking her in the arse. It's her spider. She gets back in the... where the saddle would be, if her mount wasn't a ten foot bonespider, and searches about in her inventory for her unlit torch. She has a throbbing headache, and she's not terribly happy about it.
"Hah! Think you're that good?" She hurriedly scrapes together a handy flint and lights the torch.
"Well, playtime's over."It bursts into life with a dramatic whoosh and, trying to gather up some of the blood inexplicably drenching her face, Medha realises why her head throbs. She reckons she may as well chuck that into her curse too, and grimaces as she pulls the crossbow bolt from her brain.
"I'll show you why exactly you don't... ohgodsshitethathurts..."She has a certain vision in her head, but she's not quite sure whether or not the headache – or the crossbow bolt – might have slightly scrambled her mental imagery. She focuses her anger, her craft, and her throbbing, and throws a bunch of unwanted crap over her shoulder in the same way she once saw the curse crafter she learnt from use salt to ward off evil spirits.
It's kind of just the first thing that comes to her mind. Or, you know, second, if you count the crossbow bolt.
"...MESS WITH MEDHA CORREO!"Nothing happens.
"...NNNNNNNNGHHG!"Medha collapses face down on her spider, feeling much more like someone who's just pulled a sharp object out of their brain than an enormous buffoon, and just about manages to flee towards where Lady Foxglove used to be and, indeed, still is. Medha hopes Foxglove would like some blood, because it kind of comes free with Medha at the moment. Free and obligatory for anyone in whose direction she looks.
...A short distance behind her, her attackers rather suddenly stay exactly where they are.
Curse Created: Feet of Gold: This curse temporarily turns your target's feet into solid gold! This may or may not have severe effects on their mobility!Action: Continue my squidjacking efforts to buck the impudent male or at least keep him from charging my friends. Lady Foxglove uses One liner hurricane!
"I believe it's time for you...to let go of your inhibitions!"Lady Foxglove though is much too busy being locked in a passionate embrace to care very much for Medha's blood.
"I know you're going to fall for me."The warquid begins to circle aimlessly as first Lady Foxglove pushes one way and then Captain Hangrilinan pushes another.
"No free ride! Wait, no, uh...pull over, I'm driving!"...Neither of them wants to get off, so they continue pointlessly to and fro. It, you know, passes the time.
Continue shooting at the cavalry, effectually this time, while continuing to meander towards Bletchly.
Still travelling on the shoulders of his follower towards Bletchley, Whiz is in fact looking in the opposite direction.
He is puzzled.
Most of the enemy seem to have suddenly stopped mid-charge. Are they that terrified by the apparition of Whiz's fellow mage Tackov? The one surrounded by smouldering and punctured bodies?
He doesn't know, and would like to pretend he doesn't care, although if Tackov has suddenly become that terrifying he perhaps, somewhere deep down, feels a little jealous.
...He shoots one of the squidriders in the lungs and feels a little better.
He's pretty terrifying himself, he reflects.
The only real difference is Tackov doesn't have his face tattooed on the naked chests of dozens of corpses.
Get up and run toward squid riders, shoot the one who shot me. In the brain. This messenger delivers, after all.
Gervedder Vietzo, on the other hand, is not possibly so much terrifying as generally quite serious and practical. But he
looks terrifying as he recovers from his brain injury and zigzags towards the stationary eejit who inflicted it on him.
...Blood pours across his eyes as he pulls a handy crossbow bolt from his skull, slots it into his bow, draws it back, and shoots the ground.
"Bother."Char- oh wait. Fire!
The squid cavalrymen are happily charging along when suddenly three of them become extremely heavy: their mounts sink slowly to the ground, immobilised under the immense weight.
The stuck three try to swing off and continue on foot, but their feet are too heavy to move.
They're stuck on their grounded flying squid and so, obviously, draw their crossbows and aim at the mage in front of them. It must be him who has the arcane power to halt them in their tracks.
The mobile squidman continues on, and the three behind are about to fire at Tackov when one of them starts gasping and choking for air, looks down, and finds a crossbow bolt sticking out of his lung. He keels over to the ground, dead.
Increasingly horrified at the carnage the brown mage is somehow and silently wreaking on them, the two fire,
...sticking the stinking wizard right in the guts.
Tackov, unaware of the terror he is causing, is beginning to feel distinctly squishy as the remaining mobile squidman charges forward, whooshes past him, and
...breaks his lance on Bukkar Crangrom's Fist of Rage.
"Oh! Idiot. I'm much squishier than him. Um. Ouch."Wound Acquired: Tackov Cedtry:
Pierced Guts!Get this woman off my squid!
...A short distance away, a similar thought is passing through the mind of Lady Foxglove as her latest admirer tries to elbow her in the face, loses his balances, and relinquishes control of his warsquid with a heavy thud.
"Haha, sucker! Wait, that's more appropriate for octopusjacking isn't it, darling. Oh well, never mind. Giddy up, er, squid! How do you make this thing stop turning in circles..."Initiate Bro Attack: Rocket Rage Mage! Wind Blast Bukkar to them, who Rage Lazors one on the way and Lightning Fists the one he hits.
Then hide because I am squishy.
Totally agree with everything Tackov says if he promises it will lead to extreme violence!
Contemplating his situation; seeing Bukkar's Fist of Rage shatter a lance; suppressing the pain of a crossbow bolt sticking out of his guts: all these combine to inspire Tackov Cedtry into what he considers may yet be his greatest work.
Or to mentally destabilise him – art is subjective.
Why simply blast the enemy to smithereens when one can blast the enemy to smithereens with a friend?
Next to him, Bukkar mumbles something, or holds back a retch, or coughs – it's hard to tell when you're bleeding to death – and Tackov realises this is the mind-reading Mage of Rage giving his fully informed consent.
There's probably only about a one third chance of it going horribly fatally wrong (rather than horribly fatally right), he figures, and the probability, no, the
certainty is that Bukkar won't remember anything either way.
Tackov nods to himself in agreement.
...Completely ignoring the squid-mounted eejit that just tried to tickle his fist, Bukkar suddenly flies forward into the air at an impressive speed for a perma-retching drunkard.
...He smashes into the left hand squidrider, totally oblivious to the impact of hitting a grown man, and knocks him off the squid onto the ground.
...The right hand squidrider tries to roll about frantically on the ground to extinguish the flames that suddenly envelope his head, but it's almost like his feet have been transformed into solid gold, and he can't even get off his squid.
He just sits there and screams instead as his squid looses a great cry of grief and frustration.
The left hand squidrider, now an ex-squidrider, lies there in shock.
It's almost like he, too, has had his feet transformed into solid gold, and apart from having the ability to fall off a squid and wiggle around a bit, he's almost totally lost the ability to move.
...He just lies there helplessly as Bukkar breaks his legs with his bare hands.
And lightning.
And rage.
As the assorted mercenaries groan and wail, Tackov runs like buggery and jumps into the first ditch he finds.
Fire Inflicted Cavalryman 4:
Face fire!Wound Inflicted Cavalryman 5:
Broken Legs!Positioning-wise, a lone squidrider is at the apex of the bend in the road. Perhaps forty feet away to his left is Lady Foxglove, enjoying a ride with the cavalry captain's warsquid. She is currently circling the captain, who is chasing after her forlornly.
Whiz is somewhere to the east, Tackov is in a nearby ditch, and Bukkar and two immobile mercenaries are about 20-30 feet north/in front of the lone squidrider. Gervedder is nearby, but can't quite tell, because his eyes are covered in brain-blood.
Enemies:
Name: Sir Joseph Hangrilinan
Class: Level 3 Human Squid Rider Mercenary Captain
Status:Health: [HP: 110/110]Abilities: Thug’s Parry,
HardenedInventory: Masterwork Shield,
Medium Health Potion x1, Sword and Crossbow,
Name: Mercenary 4
Class: Level 1 Human Squid Rider Mercenary
Status: Immobile, 6 turns left (-1 to defence). Burning.
Health: [HP: 60/75] |
Face fire!Inventory: Lance, Sword and Crossbow, Flying Squid.
Name: Mercenary 5
Class: Level 1 Human Squid Rider Mercenary
Status: Immobile, 6 turns left (-1 to defence). -1 to defence.
Health: [HP: 55/75] |
Broken Legs!Inventory: Lance, Sword and Crossbow.
Name: Mercenary 6
Class: Level 1 Human Squid Rider Mercenary
Status:Health: [HP: 75/75]Inventory: Sword and Crossbow, Flying Squid.
Current Players:Name: Tackov Cedtry
Class: Level 2 Wind Mage
Status: –1 to social interaction. -1 to melee.
Health: [HP: 35/55] |
The Vomiting! |
Leprified Face! |
Severed Right Arm! |
Pierced Guts!Abilities: Magical Typhoon I,
Wind Blast I,
Wind Step I,
Squishy,
Sissy Slap FightInventory: Minor Mana Potion x1,
Scroll of Beginner’s Fireball x1, one memorised use of:
Gee, Mr. Whiz, You Sure Are Fast! Mouldy Wizard Hat, severed arm, severed face, You Bastard the Mangy Donkey.
Name: Whiz
Class: Level 2 Whiz Wiz(ard)
Status: -1 to lower leg damage. -1 to social interaction. +1 to balancing.
Health: [HP: 80/80] |
Giant Rat’s Tail!Abilities: Shield I,
Gee, Mr. Whiz, You Sure Are Fast! Gee, Mr. Whiz, You Sure Are Fast II,
Obviously a Powerful Wizard,
It’ll Make You Blind!Inventory: Crossbow, Unlimited Quiver,
Raider’s Dress of Shin Protection, 37 Yuros, Fancy Clothes,
Scroll of Beginner’s Fireball x1,
Middling Mana Potion x1, Cutlass, Three daggers,
Minor Health Potion x3, +1 Bolt of Accuracy x4, +1 Bolt of Burning x4, +1 Bolt of Paralysis x2,
Middling Health Potion x1, Carrying Serf.
Name: Medha Correo
Class: Level 2 Curse Crafter
Status: -1 to gut damage. +1 to chest damage.
Health: [HP: 60/80] |
Severed Rib! |
Severed Rib! |
Pierced BrainSkull Spider Health: [HP: 25/25]Abilities: Opportunistic Attack,
Bad Luck Curse,
Curse of the Fool,
Wandering Asshole,
Curse of the Curse CrafterInventory: Dagger, Half a dress, 74 bandages,
Neckless of the Ribless, Dagger, Lock picking kit,
Iron Cuirass, 91 Yuros (real gold), Crossbow,
Brittle Jagged Groinbone Dagger of Good. Name: Gervedder Vietzo
Class: Level 2 Opportunistic Messenger
Status: -1 to gut/chest damage.
Health: [HP: 55/80] |
Pierced BrainAbilities: Nimble Feet,
This Messenger Delivers,
Make Way for the Messenger! Important,
Stop For DirectionsInventory: Crossbow, Unlimited Quiver, 8 bandages, 2 Yuros,
Iron Cuirass, Crossbow, Gerald the Mule, Two weeks rations and a bedroll.
Name: Lady Foxglove Vainglorious the III
Class: Level 2 Ravenhaired Crusader
Status: Super-presentable! -1 to head damage.
Health: [HP: 80/80]Abilities: Silent as a Raven’s Wing,
Opportunistic,
Honeyed Tongue,
Vain,
Self-RelianceInventory: Minor Health Potion x1, Crossbow, Unlimited Quiver,
Masterwork Helm,
Fine horse, Travel supplies for several days,
Flying Warsquid..
Name: Bukkar Crangrom
Class: Level 2 Ragin' Mage
Status:Health: [HP: 80/80] |
The Vomiting!Abilities: Rage Lazors I,
Ass of the Flaming Foot I,
Lightning Fist I,
Always Looking For a Fight,
Always HungoverInventory: Sword of Severing! Crossbow, 400 Green Farthings, large barrel and rope.