Sagas of Wayward Suns - Arc 1

@Sarky

As the world hurdles by in your titanic leap, you can see the deck of the ship. A shouting woman holds the controls of the gun. The ship itself seems to pivot with you in the air as that blast coils into incandescent fire launching sure and true right at you. And yet it sails just under you, this warping of reality.

It almost pulls your legs out from under you. A moment slower or faster and it’d have been a dead shot. You feel the air rip and pull toward the vortex of the shot behind you.

Something roars back there when you slid across the bowsprit right into the gunner’s face.

The Gunner is spending 5 motes for 5 dice(Archery Excellency up to Archery 4 and Specialty First Age Gunnery) to bring their attack pool up to 13. -5 due to close range.

7 successes
 
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@Chaka

The sky over some distant square or groomed park deeper in the city, just outside the Governor’s Block erupts in an ear-piercing wail. The golden streamer that is Ferat’s form disappears in the shockwave as the airship’s forward gun discharges point blank...only to arc upward and onto the ship itself.

@FuzzMonster

Down on the street, you hear something like the world ending as some massive weapon lets loose on the city.

@Ragoza

Amidst your newly recruited troops and the now nervous and distraught looking clutch of Dynasts the sky above you rips open as the airship’s bow gun tries to smear Ferat across the airspace of Zala.

It looked a near thing, but beyond the screaming vortex, he’s there! Landing like the fist of an angry god upon the ship.

The screams of the levies drown out in the whirring horror of the vortex. It expands, the whirlwind, to the size of a house, swallows a shallow piece of the plaza you’re in, gulping up handfuls of the levies with distressing, grotesque ease. Some of them implode in greasy horror as they near the glittering epicenter. Others uncoil like long fleshy ropes in the implosion bow’s blast.

All burn up to ash and steam and warped bone when the core winks out just seconds later. Maybe two or three scales worth of the levies were caught up in it.

@Hair @Excession

The entire building shakes with some concussive shriek from somewhere in the city.
 
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Ferat:

With the thunderous sound of the implosion bow, Ferat had to settle for imagining the satisfying crack of his fist against the gunner's jaw as she was thrown clear of her position to land on her backside. He advanced on her, his face dark, the golden bear of his anima growling menacingly.

"How many lives did you just end? How many innocents you were sworn to protect? How dare you slaughter so casually? HOW DARE YOU?!"



[Resolving the withering attack damage, Str3, Dam 10, 6 threshold, -3 soak from target:

13 successes! Due to Ox-Stunning blow, instead of gaining initiative Ferat rolls those 13 dice; every 2 successes inflicts a -1 penalty to the target's defenses and dice rolls:

Holy crap, this gunner is at -9 on all rolls until her onslaught penalty wears off.
Ferat gains 3 initiative after damage for winning the clash.
New Initiative 10]
 
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@Sarky

She scrambled back in a panic, hands softly smoking from the cannon controls. She spits at you, then in halting Skytongue, “Sworn to whom!? Anathema who come and take and take.” Her legs tremble in terror, unable at all to get up. She looks wildly around, crying out in her mother’s island tongue. Calls aft.
 
Iskandr

His nerves catch light, and Iskandr flips to his feet, the aches of his long body dismissed.

They have fired some kind of weapon on the city. It must be from the airship. People are dying here, because of a battle between demigods.

His usually gentle, amiable features contort into a snarl.

No.

He looks around the square and amidst the carnage, the dead janissaries, the huge corpses of those demon apes, the fallen pikes and shattered shields, he sees the tools he needs. Huge iron stanchions meant to anchor entire wagons and traces of horses. Coils of light rope, and coils of heavier stuff, wrist thick cables fit for raising and lowering a portcullis. Radiant Shine’s huge yeddim friend, the bull Ba Sao.

Looking up, Iskandr sees action, violence, hope.
Ferat, you beautiful mad bastard. I’m sending you a present.

This is why the end of the turn sees Iskandr having lashed the end of a length of thin rope to the end of a greater length of heavy duty rope, having coiled that heavy duty rope around a couple of stanchions and tied it off to Ba Sao’s harness, and placed himself standing on Ba Sao’s howda with the other end of the thin rope tied off to the arrow in his hand, carefully taking aim. Iskandr is about to do The Dumb.

[Regain 5m, and I also need to roll Limit for Iskandr’s primary Limit trigger.]

embed


3 WP, 13 Peripheral Motes, still no anima banner.
 
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Resonant Hammer's Descent

As Hammer pushes through the immoblising effects of the Bell his arm resumes swinging as though it had never stopped. He can feel the difference, though, his vision is diluted, the essence fading away as he was held from his craft. He glances around the now empty tavern, the whirling mandala of spectral artifacts surrounding him providing stark contrast to the terror graven clear into his face. The sounds of battle outside claw their way into his ears, the grunting of the Erymanthi, the screams of the dying, Red's rallying cry. As they crescendo with the crack of the collapsing Implosion Bow shot Hammer sobs his fear to the empty common room. Though the rhythm of his arm never wavers the spirit behind the swings is galvanized, terror and determination alloying his will.

[Rolling shape Sorcery, 3 point stunt, spending wp]

[18 smotes/20]
 
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@Sarky

Her shouts are answered by thudding steps you can feel in your shins. Ooh, that’s a big one. Tall as Hammer, skin the color of slate, deep red eyes, and a face that no mother could ever love. Wears a buff jacket probably stitched out of whaling ship canvas sails and far bulkier. He pops his obol-sized knuckles and nods to you.
 
Ferat:

Ferat sighed. "This is so pointless. The Devil Star your Tepet forces fled from threatens the whole North and you respond by attacking the people who pushed it out of Zala."

He nodded in kind to the grey giant, whether or not he killed Ferat he had at least shown a politeness the gunner had not. He held his right hand out, open, an offer of peace in most regions. " If we fight, the only winner is Mul Hyades who faces one less adversary when it returns. The monk Tepet Ishin knew this, and died a hero even as his fellows left him to his fate. I beg you; be better than them."


[Trying to reason with the big guy by arguing that there's a far bigger threat and only one Immaculate monk so far had the guts to stand up to it. Charisma + Presence = 6, spending my last 1m peripheral and 5m personal to add 6 dice to the roll.

Oh my. 9 successes!]
 
Red Snow

First they hide behind these poor bastards, now they unleash some unholy weapon on MY city? This ends now!

For the moment the levies' nerve is holding, but Red knows that will only last as long as their bloodlust. No time to mourn, rally the troops and lead from the front. She charges, Wolf's Hunger pointing straight to the throat of the smiling bastard, her troops swelling around her. In moments of rage, fear and confusion like this a simple order is the most effective. The order Red Snow's Herald screams to her soldiers is as simple as it gets.

"FUCKING KILL!"

Rolling Charisma+War+Specialty to issue an order to the levies.
https://rolz.org/embed?X36422302
4 successes. The levies gain 4 dice to their dice pools on their next turn, with orders to attack the three dynasts in front of us.
 
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@Sarky

The gray, waxy face doesn't so much soften as it seems a switch was thrown and he seems a less hostile giant than the murderous one of moments before. Only by dint of those titanic fists stop mid-swing. The gunner is crabbing backward on palms and feet, trying to get behind the mercenary. You hear more crew tramping across the smooth, marble-looking deck. You see four marines carrying strange spears forming up behind the mercenary and others coming forward.

Speaking of, the merc lowers his hands. Doesn't reach out for the shake (he's actually staring at your hand like its some kind of bomb), but does slowly push his hands out as if looking to put a pause to things for a moment.
 
@Ragoza

A mad moment, then scrambling violence.

The Dynasts are breakwaters against the ocean. Two of them are armored as walking fortresses, one armed with a tetsubo much like a Dorian column and the other a hammer with a sledge-head the size of a Southern djala. A single swipe kills a fang of armored tradesmen. They're wading in against the troops while the Immaculate seems to shift and center right before you, calmly going into stance. A bow appears in their hands as smoothly as a desert mirage, drawn with a single arrow.

7 for the monk.

River - 21
Ferat - 10
Red - 9
Earth Immaculate - 8
Monk - 7
Levies - 5
Hammer - 4
Iskandr - 3
Ferat Merc - 3
River Merc - CRASH
 
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Gentle River

For a moment, River's mind refuses to process what he's seeing. He sags visibly as part of the city he had come to think of as his home was wiped away in an instant. He looks away from the massacre, back to the mercenary. He smiles sadly at him.

"I really wish you hadn't done that."

Bursting into motion, River comes for him. No pretense or bullshit fakery. His wolf's cloak billows and then flies free as he releases the ties at his throat; he catches it and whips it in front of him, throwing it up between him and the mercenary. The Dragon-Blood takes a step back, swinging a rocky fist into the billowing fabric wildly as River slides underneath, jacknifing up from a prone position. He deftly runs up the Exalt, one foot on a bent knee, another wedged into the solar plexus, finally stepping onto a beefy collarbone and kicking off backwards, twisting in mid-air to deliver a devastating thrust with both feet directly into the mercenary's nose. He rolls forward as he lands, rising to his feet in a smooth motion. There's no humour in his face anymore.

spending 5m peripheral on Martial Arts Excellency for 5 extra dice and 1wp for an success on a Withering attack with a 2 stunt.



forgot to roll stunt dice


with the autosuccesses that's 12, and the point of willpower is recovered.

Damage!


River's initiative is now at 21, he's at full willpower+1, and his essence pools are unchanged thanks to the round regeneration
.
 
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To those few of you who can reliably see the large square in which the levies assail the Dragon Blooded alongside Red, it looks like red waves breaking against impossibly white rocks. The younger of the two Immaculates faces the levies, a statue of calm. The elder stays back, watching both the bowman and the hammer-wielding Immaculate. Standing like a pillar, the younger draws into a smooth, sweeping kata, drawing on the righteous methods passed down over generations. A graceful, impossibly precise arc of the hammer hangs in the air before crashing into the front ranks of turncoat levies.

The front three ranks of men fly up into the air with powdered flagstone and dirt in a great tangle of screaming bodies. A tumbling shockwave ripples out and smacks prone a good half of the troops. Notched swords and battered shields clatter to the ground. The Immaculate smiles beatifically, utterly at ease with the world.



@Ragoza

Men topple to the ground between you and the stone-eyed woman, groaning and twisting in pain. A shower of rock and dirt obscures the battle all around you like the great plumes brought up by toppled towers. You see only the glint of the arrowhead and her the glint of your scythe. The dust clears after a moment, and there she remains, a grim totem. Her eyes narrow fractionally and she looses. As if drawn by a string, the broadhead hunts for your heart...


To be resolved when PC wakes up!
 
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Red Snow

There's a lot of of rumour and misinformation about the berserkers of the Icewalker tribes. Red Snow's Herald has never bitten through her own shield before, though there's a first time for everything, and she has yet to charge into battle wearing only a bearskin. The most critical misconception, however, is that a berserker is blinded by rage in the heat of battle. Couldn't be further from the truth. As the dust briefly clears and the arrow takes flight Red's burning fury brings nothing but sharp, gleaming clarity. Rage, focus and purpose weave together and time slows down, the arrow gently gliding like a leaf on the wind. With a smooth, purposeful motion she strides into the arrow's path (better it hit her than the poor bastard behind her if this doesn't work) and raises Wolf's Hunger into the arrow's path. Red Snow's eyes never leave the dynast as the broadhead arrow shears itself in two on the hungry blade, the pieces arcing into the ground behind Red as she moves forward, the perfect clarity of rage carrying her to her prey.
 
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The levies rally best they can among the rifts cracked in the earth around them. The Immaculate's maul rises up as a number of them charge forward, hacking and slicing with their poor arming swords. Effortlessly, the Dragon sweeps his hammer back and forth in blinding arcs shot through with glittering rock and white-hot sparks. The cacophony is almost melodious in the ringing. Their heart shows entirely, but to little avail. A few wing the Terrestrial across his cheek or maybe score a hit on a lightly armor bit of the thigh or arm, serving little but to show a little blood and anger the Immaculate.

They couldn't tink him to death if they tried. Can't outdo his soak and the minimum damage roll was 1 Lethal. He did take onslaught until next round, so his base Parry is 5.
 
Resonant Hammer's Descent

Hammer brings his arm down once again, his will flowing through the motion. As the spectral hammer strikes the nascent spell he feels the fabric of Creation fold, the fuzz of Essence in his hand shimmers, then snaps, a gleaming breastplate appearing in his grasp.



He places it against his chest as he moves to the door, pulling the blacksmith's hammer from his belt. The metal flows outwards from the single plate, covering Hammer in a cool shell of metal, stylised armour etching itself into the surface. He steps out into the chaos of the battle, a bronze colossus.
 
Iskandr

In his time, Iskandr has loosed arrows at many different targets. Rabbit, hare. Wolf. Moose. Many are the dangerous and delicious things which he has gazed at down the length of an arrow. The largest thing which he has ever fired at was one of the great mammoths of the North.

Until today.
I don't know how one guts and field dresses a ship, but I am like to find out. Fly true and see these murderers punished.

Standing atop Ba Sao's howda, he stares down the arrow at his target. The masts, the rails, the crew, the gap into which the rope will go, right before Ferat. May he use it well.

Iskandr exhales. The arrow flies, straight and true, dragging behind it the airship's doom.

[This is Dex 5, Archery 5, +1 Specialty. That's 11, but wound penalty knocks it to 9. Long range +0, target is moving -3. Total 6 dice. Difficulty 5.
Spending 1 WP for an autosuccess. Spending 10 Peripheral motes for dice, and 2 motes to keep it hidden. That gets 16 dice and an autosuccess.]

https://rolz.org/embed?X37196541

That's a total of 8 successes, with 3 threshold successes.

Iskandr is down to 1 Peripheral mote, and at the end of the round regains 5 more. 2 WP.
Initiative 3.
 
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@Hair

But down the road you see the remains of a massacre only moments old. Red and two of those demons collided head-on with what look like former pieces of Realm Janissary troops. Survivors seem to have fled by the nearby gate.

Further on, opposite the gate, you can see pitched battle in a distant square. Somehow or for some reason, the Realm's own local levies are throwing down against two present and clear Earth Immaculates. It is not going well for the levies. The entire square they occupy has been smashed to power, entire swaths of land upturned and broken and moaning bodies liter the ground. Red is facing down another Immaculate. And in the sky you see an airship. Most likely the source of that awful noise earlier.

They are here and here with great power.

@FuzzMonster

Like threading a needle, really. Though far easier than putting catgut through a poorly carved loop. Like a perfect cinch, it does something around the railing that holds it fast against the rail. Got her.

@Chaka

Cracking its thick neck, the Mercenary's skin stretches taught over those strange features. The shiny brass fasteners and buckles on its chest seem to pop open and fall away on their own. A great pale, sexless body is unveiled when shrugged away. The roof buckles inward with the thumping weight of the coat. Waxen skin prickles, turns black when sunlight touches it and instantly thickens into some tough scaled hide like armored plate.

Something rips in a guttural, horrid sound and it raises up new bloodied fingers--talons of bone wreathed in nail and flesh. Uneven lips pull back in a fierce grin...and lunges.



@Sarky

The Mercenary chuckles, looking back at the others. He jerks his head at you, over the side as an arrow loops over the rail a few yards away.
 
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Gentle River

"Oh fu-"

River takes a step back as the monstrous, definitely-not-a-Dragon-Blood charges, bony claws dripping ichor. Taking a moment to steel himself, River goes low, twisting around to go under the raking claw. As he goes down he punches hard into the thing's wrist, unable to stop its momentum but diverting it enough to narrowly miss him.

Base parry is 5, +2 from a stunt, +1 from popping 5m for Torn Lotus Defense. 8 total.

That's a successful Parry - the attacker takes 4 unsoakable Initiative damage, which Crashes him. River gains 9 Initiative, and is now on 30 and he has 0/2 motes left. He also gets an Instill counterattack+3 for Harnonious Presence Method being up to increase the intensity of the positive intimacy the attacker has.

 
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Red Snow's Herald

Another myth commonly repeated about the Icewalker berserkers is that when the battle rage is upon them they can no longer tell friend from foe. Nothing but Realm propaganda. Red Snow is acutely aware of her newfound allies dying around her, and the grief and fury of their deaths drives her to her foes. The cold logic of her rage stops her turning, knowing that while the conscripts break themselves against the hammer-wielding cunt she has breathing room to destroy this bow-wielding coward. Never breaking eye-contact with the archer she raises Wolf's Hunger to chest level and charges, the blade howling along with her wordless cry.

Rolling Melee +Dex+Specialty+Weapon Accuracy+5 excellency dice and 3 stunt dice, for a grand total of 15. Spending 5 motes on excellency and 3 on Excellent Strike, for a guaranteed success and rerolling ones until no ones appear.
6 Successes on the attack, three on the stunt dice. Rerolling ones nets a delicious 10, for 2 more successes, on top of the automatic success from excellent strikes. 12 successes in total.
24 raw damage, Immaculate's soak is 7, so 17 damage dice. 7 successes.
Red's initiative jumps to 17, the immaculate loses 7 initiative. I'm led to believe this Crashes her, giving Red five more initiative. 5 peripheral motes gained, spent immediately. Personal essence is now at 10, Initiative is 22.
Essence wreathes the moonsilver blade as Red barrels forward. Had the Immaculate stood her ground the howling blade would have buried itself in her heart and feasted on her blood. As is the coward attempts to sidestep and Red is forced to adjust her strategy on the fly, a lethal strike to the heart reduced to a brutal slap with the haft of the glaive as Red throws her weight against the bitch. Lets see her try and take a shot now.
 
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