Meaghan snarled, fangs exposed and sword by her side. "Out, of my head," Meaghan hissed, lunging towards the spectre and slashing her blade towards it.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
As the crowd around the square begins to dissipate after the intervention of the watch, the group begin their search, trying to pick up the trail of this red woman. While even from above there's no sign of her in the area, she proved to be memorable enough that Atair and Keti had success in getting give vague directions of where she was headed from various people.
It was Violet however, who caught a glimpse of red in the corner of her eye as they followed the trail. An elf woman in a flowing red dress, with pale skin and equally bright red hair stood talking to someone in the window of a nearby building. She seemed relaxed and was wearing a mischievous smile, although as Violet pointed her out to the group, she glanced outwards and noticed and the smile disappeared quickly. For a long moment, she almost glared with a pair of piercing golden eyes, before smirking once more and turning away from the window, disappearing from view.
A glance over the building revealed it as a public bathhouse, and it boasted luxurious floral scents and perfumes and delicate skin treatment for the duration of the festival, it was definitely aimed towards the merchant and noble classes more than the common folk from the design of the building.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
"Hey, there she is!" Violet said, and pointed over to the woman. She then turned and gave them what was unmistakably an evil grin, and Violet blinked in confusion. "Weird. So, do we follow her? I guess we do.... But that place is well above my pay grade. Anybody else got any money?" Violet continued, glancing at all of the others after giving a quick inspection of the bath house.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Keeping a bit of a distance until they reached the bath house and, presumably, cornered her, Atair paused with the others near the entrance. For the moment, he does his best to watch any other folks entering, trying to see just how many, and what sort, of coins or chits might be handed over, if anything at all.
"I've enough for my stay at the inn," he says with a slight wrinkle to his nose, "and, in truth, I really only brought enough to cover what expenses I thought I'd need for traveling. Perhaps we could pool together? I mean, I might have enough to get us in, but then I wouldn't be able to eat," he adds with a bit of a grin.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
"I... Don't really have much money to speak of. We'll probably have to find some other way to get in." Violet replied, and then glanced at the doors, trying to see if she noticed anything, like guards or obvious requirements for entry.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Keti landed next to the pair, and in response to Violet's question, upended his coinpurse into his hand. Six or seven coins popped out - all told, he had nothing of any significant monetary value. The Siren shrugged, depositing the coins back into his moneypurse while they decided their next course of action.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
There were no guards posted on the front door, and from the street part of the entrance was visible; it appeared to be a moderately sized reception area, where perhaps surprisingly, a pink haired harpy garbed in a simple white shift that covered her torso but left her brightly coloured wings unbound sat behind the counter. Presumably further in there was another door accessing the rest of the building, but from outside it was not visible.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Drago had shook his head when they asked for how much money he had, though he did take notice of the pink-feathered Harpy standing behind the counter. He wondered why a Harpy was so far from the mountains, but quickly dismissed the thought before turning to the others. "I honestly don't know what we should do here. I'm broke." he says quietly to the others.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
"Well, we could see if it does cost more than we've got. Just because it caters to the better off doesn't mean it has to cost much. Wishful thinking, I know." The nekomata grins ruefully. "We could also wait for her to come back out, which I'm not certain how wise that would be. Or we could try to bluff, or sneak, our way in. She might not mind some attention," his chin tips in Drago's direction, "which might be a good distraction, or we might be able to convince her that visitors that can appreciate a venue like this," he indicates the pair of sirens, "shouldn't be turned away simply because of a little road dust and are a few coins short. What do you think?"
Ar smirked as his Scythe deflected the incoming blow and he watched Meaghan join the fray, It was about time... His spinning weapon still carrying the momentum from the parry is brought down and around before the long curved blade whistles at his foe from above.
Ill save fancy for when were actually in trouble. Time to cut a bitch
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Drago flusters a bit when Atair chins towards him. "Absolutely not. I have a wife at home, and I'll not betray her by hitting it off with some flamingo." he states, his feathers flustering on his head as he shakes a bit. "You can try talking to her, but I'll be keeping my distance."
Soren launches the bolt from his crossbow, which strikes into the spectre in what could almost be called the shoulder. The creature hisses violently, even as energy crackles from where the bolt sticks out of it's robes, and the creatures left hand begins to move slowly and sluggishly, as if it had been disrupted.*
Charges forth as the spectre is reeling from the bolt, Meaghan swings a powerful slash at it. (You didn't mention inhuman strength so I assumed you weren't using it.) The blade cuts right through the being in a diagonal cut,a and it visibly drifts apart in two pieces. Spectral energy hisses across the gap, as does it, snarling and screaming in pain, it would appear that while the spectre is still capable of fighting, being divided* is causing it great agony, as well as slowing its speed and reaction time.
At this point the cultists rushed in, two of them moving through the hallways unopposed to charge into the main room, ready to support the spectre. The third charged at Irla, who found herself in less than ideal conditions, not having a weapon she could parry with in her hands, but her years of training kicked in, allowing her to narrowly dodge the sword swing as she danced backwards slightly, responding with a bowshot at the cultist before her. The arrow flies true at the overextended cultist still recovering from his swing, striking him hard in the neck, at this short range the arrow penetrating out the back as he falls to the ground in a heap. (Due to the massive amounts of overkill (you hit for 6 stress, he botched his defence), you may take some overflow; you can have up to a 3 shift action, such as moving up to 3 zones etc. So basically, if you wanted to move into the melee, you can as a freebie, or if you want to do something else, lemme know and we'll talk options. You cannot make another offensive action, however, it's basically purely movement related things.)
Leaping in to strike at the Spectre, Ar brought his scythe down as the wraith attempted to evade to one side. The blow digs into it's body, giving it a deep cut* across its face, which like the other wounds, hisses and crackles with dark energies. It hisses and howls in pain and rage, and as it grits its spectral teeth and concentrates, the deep cut** closes itself up, although its other wounds remain, no doubt causing it unbearable agony. Howling with near madness, it drops the blade, focusing its energy in his spectral claw before turning its gaze to Meaghan, who had caused it so much pain. The claw strikes forth with much greater speed than it was able to swing the blade, but Meaghan is already prepared for the blow, and sweeps it aside with her blade.
*Refer to rules about Consequences (conflict system, under attack), as well as aspects/fate points and "tagging" enemy aspects. If a character wishes to make an attack that takes advantage of the disrupted left hand, and it makes sense in description, they can spend a fate point to gain a +2 bonus on their strike. And yes, you can spend 2 fate points to activate them both, if you can justify it in the description.
**Yeah, sorry, that one healed. He has this power.
((So, I learned that my enemies need to be tougher... Fun fact: this was supposed to be roughly midboss difficulty ))
Room (contains - Spectre, Sorren, Meaghan, Ar, Cultist 2&3)
North Doorway (contains Irla, Cultist 1)
West Doorway
East Doorway
North Corridor
West Corridor
East Corridor
Status
Soren P O O O, M O O O Meaghan P O O O O, D O O Irla P O O O O Ar P O O, M O O O
Spectre P / O O - "Disrupted" (Mod) "Divided" (Sev) Cultist 1 P / / -down- Cultist 2 P O O Cultist 3 P O O
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
The nekokmata holds his hands up in a placating gesture. "I certainly wouldn't want to ask you to do anything to betray a union." Surprisingly, there's no sarcasm or anything of that sort in his tone. "So," he looks to the other two, "what do you think? Try and bluff our way inside?"
Soren switched his aim from the spectre, after seeing it was well under control. He reloaded, aimed at the third of the things support group and fired. He didn't want them to get behind the others. The four of them would need to be whole to deal with this thing and any aftershocks that resulted after killing it.
Oh, btw, both Chibi and CWolf haven't finished their focus items. Chibi's got a description, but you don't have what it actually does, while Wolf seems to have missed it altogether.
Both evocation and thaumaturgy grant 2 focus slots each, each one able to provide +1 to either power or control of spells of a certain element. For evocationists such as the pair of you, it's conviction for power or discipline for control. The same item can grant both of your +1 bonuses, and likewise you can have them apply to different things. (+1 power and +1 control with fire, for example)
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
"Yes, I think that would be best." Violet replied to Atair, and then turned to glance inside at the harpy sitting behind the counter. She certainly was.... Colorful, to say the least. Violet glanced at her own comparatively plain raven black wings and scowling darkly for a second. "Flamingo... I like that. An apt description if there ever was one for one with so many gaudy colors. Anyway, shall we go inside?"
Also, to the Festival gang, I'm ready to shift you into the bathhouse, but first impressions are important. How do you want to play this? Rapport to try and make a good impression and sweet talk your way through? Deceit to make a false impression? Presence to try and make one without trying to make one, trying to cruise through with an air of belonging? Or try rolling resources?
Either way, designate someone to take the lead for this first strike, and the others may be able to provide assistance, boosting their result depending on assistance rolls and what exactly is being attempted.
Not resources. Violet has Deceit at 4, so opening with that probably wouldn't hurt, but the problem is: what lie are we going to try and use to get in?
(I'll post the shift action in the first paragraph, Inky.)
Seeing the cultist go down, Irla turned towards the melee in the center room. Even with as little as she knew about the others, she knew that the spectre and his... Friends.. were an established threat to them all for now. The subashi replaced her bow and drew her sword, fearing friendly fire might send this fight in a bad direction. She charged into the room as fast as possible.
Her blade arced towards another of the cultists as the others seemed to be capable of handling the more powerful creature in the room themselves.
