Huh, didn't know there was regen.Mollases the beast one more time.
Crawl! Crawl! Crawl!!!
Jimmy crawls on, and arrives to see Sand at the centre of the ritual you were sent to stop, huge waves of power cascading down her and into the material world, while something else, though he couldn't say what, flows back. The white circlet of light spins crazily and creeps towards the altar. He estimates that it will get there in about five minutes.
He also notices Micky's semi-conscious form and drags the two of them to relative safety behind a tree trunk.
Goethe meanwhile remains to deal with the injured beast.
1With an exceedingly fancy wand-flick, he ends up firing into the treetops directly behind him, nearly hitting an innocent squirrel.
The creature stops thrashing about, and begins to pace slightly, not towards Goethe but not randomly either. It seems to have either regained a little sight or learnt to navigate by smell.
Alright, we've maimed a man and acquired extreme eldritch power without being reduced to flaming meat. Everything went better than expected.
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Now, our next action is two-fold.
1. Maintain control of myself, absorb this energy, make it part of me. Or at the very least, channel and direct it for the moment without exploding.
2. Use my power to fucking murder that which needs to be murdered. Fire superpowered snakes into whatever looks most dangerous to me right now. Attempt not to murder teammates unless they try to murder me.
By the way, what does sticking more clots into a summon do?
Yeaaah, not getting involved in that incendiary bullshit. Tactically advance in a direction directly opposed to miss pyre.
Sensibly, the aged veteran backs away from the fight. Then starts running as the ground next to him explodes into a river of blood and transparent snake demon.
Running through the woods, he reaches the side of the park opposite to the one he started on, tripping over a loaded gym bag. Aside from hipster clothing and spare athames (Wiccan knives) a black jewellery box tumbles out, glowing slightly at the edges. The lid falls open to reveal a dark crystal the size of a bullet, a white glowing ring floating in the centre. When Ben touches it, the glow of the ritual in the park centre seems somehow dimmed, and he feels slightly more aware and less threatened by the eldritch forces floating through the air. Perhaps this could be one of those magic gems mentioned in the Weapons of Witchcraft leaflet Vince gave you.
5+2, 5+2 vs 4+3
1+2, 2+2 vs 5
Sand invokes the venemous presence of her demonic servant, and two huge crystalline snakes hundreds of feet long howl down out of the sky, coiling at incredible speeds around the sphere of dark points surrounding Sand, the portal, and the altar. The beast is instantly tossed between them and smeared into the treetops repeatedly, leaving nothing but the outline of a half-man creature in blood-covered and newly-grown twigs. The witch is just as unfortunate, leaping out of the path of the flailing snakes to fall into a moat of heaving flesh and frothing blood forming around the ritual. The snakes perforate the ground again and again, throwing themselves along the sides of the ball of dark energy, twisting everything they touch into randomly sized and arranged limbs, eyes, organs, skin bone hair flesh and other visceral materials.
Ritual power and puissance flows back into Sand, faster even than before, while the grip of the hand through the portal gets warmer and firmer. The white circle through which Sand is reaching spins faster still, and is now descending towards the remains-strewn altar at a perceptible pace.
The two will meet in roughly five minutes at this rate.
The time is 11:51.
Lucian Faust
DEAD
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic Sight - 1
Agility - 2
Melee - 1
Inventory: £35
[Ugly Brass Lamp Body Staff][Rubix Cube Pendant]
Runes: Detachment: written all over you by this point, a disenchanting childhood has got you used to misfortunes. Increased function while severely wounded.
Righteousness: a rune that signed subtly with the fingers helps convince people that you're working for the forces of good. Does not work on evil or amoral entities.
Puissant clots: 0
Puissance:4/6
Name: Sand
CHANNELING DARK RITUAL ENERGIES
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 3 +1
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 3
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £20, pepsi can full of road guts
[Glass Skull Chalice]
Puissant clots: 2
Puissance:10/10
Goe T. Thelle
Now slightly bestial in appearance
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic sight - 1 -1 due to beasthood
Banal combat - 0 +1 due to beasthood
Aim - 1 -1 due to beasthood
Melee - 0 +1 due to beasthood
Agility - 1 +1 due to beasthood
Practicality - 1 -1 due to beasthood
Inventory: £30, empty jar, clockface minus one hand.
[Dog Collar Pendant] (unuseable for 1 hour) [Molasses Clockhand Wand]
Runes:
Isolation: you never had many friends or allies, so are used to poor odds. +1 to rolls when outnumbered and alone.
Stoicism: a rune that calms those dealing with shock, tragedy or injury.
Puissant clots: 0
Puissance: 6/6
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 0 -2 (Multiple fractures to leg bones)
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £35, very rusty saw, length of pipe stuck to block of concrete,
[Lightbulb Antenna Wand]
Runes:
Detonation: volatile stuff explodes or catches fire more when you're around it. You can't help it, it must be genetic. Written rune used to detonate volatile substances.
Dead Man Running: you escaped the wrath of a mafia boss. Higher chance of surviving things that should really be deadly.
Mafioso: a mafia hitman, you preferred not to let your targets know they were hunted until after they were spread over an area of three hundred metres. Bonus to carefully planned unexpected attacks.
Alchemical (definitely idiot) savant: you saw an alchemist's shop when wandering around London, and deluded yourself that you understood something of how it worked. Because of the nature of magic, this belief is now partially true. Use this rune to make substances a bit more useful or volatile when used in alchemy.
Trader: a rune that when signed signifies to people that you'd be a good guy to buy from and sell things to.
Reticence: a rune whispered to you by birds perched on phone lines, you can get information without giving away much about yourself.
Bethel: a rune that enhances and aids summoning performed where it is written.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:2/5
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 3
Aim - 1
Melee - 1
Agility - 1
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £25, knife, taser, handcuffs, police baton, stab vest, torch, incapacitant spray, and a first aid kit.
[Possession Gem]
Puissant clots: 3
Puissance:5/5
Micky Roberts
Horribly burnt, chest and arm bones shattered.
Puissant fettle -
Ritual potency -
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 2
Aim -
Melee - 2 -3 from injury
Agility - 1
Practicality -
Inventory: £40
[Boxing Glove Pendant][Sports Drink and Centaur Urine Chalice]
Runes:
Evasive blocker: you sometimes won fights without your opponent scoring a single point, moving your fists in a complex pattern not entirely conforming to Euclidean gemoetry. Makes it harder for opponents to hit you in melee.
Substantial: a rune that lends weight and mass to the thing it is written on.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:5/5
Sir Lootington
DEAD
Puissant Fettle- 1
Ritual Potency- 1
Runic Sight- 1
Melee- 1
Agility- 1
Practicality- 1
Inventory: £50
[Ivory Cane Staff] ("The Staff of Power")
Runes:
What-ho Jeeves: a walking trope, you recieve a bonus to doing anything stereotypically british.
Crater: when written, this rune causes a small, briefly delayed explosion.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:6/6