1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

A game of (in no particular order) politics, intrigue, and swashbuckling adventure - set to a backdrop of an industrialized Amber.
The Stage is obsolete, leftover from a previous revision of reality. RP runs in Discord these days.

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Joshua
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by Joshua »

(OOC: For hurting Shadow, Theodore wasn't aiming at him/them. IF he wants to give Theodore a fate point and be hit by the attack, I won't object, but it's not needed.)
(OOC: In response to watch what you're aiming at:)
"Sorry, I failed that class," Theodore laughs manically. He will say to Shadow, "They're puppets, this thing colors it's own ley lines*, there's too much to safely absorb and re-channel, I'll choke the source."

He will casually** open a small gate... The clockwork fragments flying to the side and etching a three-dimensional summons into the air itself. "Dark Spawn of the Servant of the Yellow King- Come! Be my steed!" And channel some of the corruption he's absorbed into a Byakhee, which here is a mole-hornet-bat-'human corpse' thing that can seek through shadow and has a decent movement speed. The gate will collapse (with a visible pop and shower of eldritch sparks) once Theodore will start to mount the thing.

"Handle things here.***"
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*: Your guess is as good as mine as to what he means. He'd crazy. It does, however, accurately portray his perception of what Wyvern said he saw.
**: Utilizing the nearby shadow-tear and the energy he already has. The summoning might be more difficult if he wasn't distilling effects he already has up into physical form.
***: While it sounds like an order, it is a question. He's about to plunge into the tunnel, but there's pleanty of time to stop him or remind him there are innocents in the train. (He's forgotten both that, and his luggage.)
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ShadowOfPreservation
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by ShadowOfPreservation »

Concerned that the latest distraction will hamper the investigation of the person on the train, the wolf that has been watching the figure bounds/flows between the cars and onto the roof. It breathes in the person’s scent to gather more information and ensure the person can be tracked if necessary and then speaks in a deep, disembodied voice. “Who are you and what are you doing?”

It’s hard to say if the lashing tendrils somehow avoided the shadow wolves or if Shadow’s pack simply leapt and dodged their way clear with agility bordering on prescience. Regardless, they ignore the prey-turned-rotted wood and bound back to circle the train and its passengers in a defensive ring.

At the front of the train, nausea passes over Shadow at the extreme “wrongness” of the creature that was just called by the man Theodore. He seems to be helping however and so Shadow nods his assent. “I’ll keep them safe, but I can help hunt the puppetmaster as well.” It may be a trick of the light but the shadows seem to have darkened around him as he steps towards Theodore.
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by Wyvern »

Juno looks at Theodore through narrowed eyes. "Go, then," and she adds a nod to Shadow, "Both of you. Be careful out there."

And as Theodore makes his departure down the tunnel, orders her rangers to protect the engineers - "The train can handle himself" - before turning to sprint back down the train's length. If, by some chance, one of Shadow's wolves should happen to be pacing her as she does, she'll add, "For the record - no, I don't trust him in the slightest. But I figure we're all safer if he's well away from the train before he pulls another stunt like that first one."

Meanwhile, from his new vantage point atop the train, Shadow can see that the would-be ninja has just finished drawing something that looks suspiciously similar to the summoning circles Theodore uses - except that it's around herself; the chalk glows with a gangrenous yellow/octarine light, and the woman sinks through the still seemingly-solid roof of the train, leaving only a glowing circle behind.
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Joshua
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by Joshua »

Theodore will ride his noble steed* into the gaping hole, leaving the wolves to deal with the intruder. He is going fas,t to try to cut off the source while it will still do some good.
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*: Lovecraft is odd. These things can do 3.6 times lightspeed. Cause... that makes sense... This one isn't that fast, I figured it was a bit of shadow travel instead.
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by ShadowOfPreservation »

The man nods at Juno's command and quickly runs after Theodore, the outline of his form beginning to dissolve into shadow as he disappears into the hole. A pair of the nearby shadow wolves rush after him.

The remainder of the pack remain behind to guard but the Train and its occupants against further assaults. The train may be able to defend itself but there are passengers and crew that could be caught up in the struggle.

The lone remaining wolf atop the train does its best impression of a fox hunting small game in the snow and leaps high into the air in a pounce at the space where the glowing circle remains.
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by Wyvern »

Diving through that glowing circle takes only a second - but the wolf that comes out the other end feels more like it's been swimming through the worst bits of a sewer for hours. A highly unpleasant experience that leaves that wolf quite nauseated (though not incapacitatingly so.)*

Inside the car is a cramped corridor with rows upon rows of little locked boxes set into the walls; the woman in black is in the process of writing more runes on one of these, a pattern that would match the one on the roof.

_____
* Temporary aspect: "Existentially Queasy". Annoyingly, the woman doesn't seem to have been bothered by the transit at all. Apparently there are occasional advantages to being a nose-deaf** human.
** Though, to be fair, the "scent" in this case is more metaphorical than literal.
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by ShadowOfPreservation »

The wolf in the cabin quickly flows into the nearest shadow, narrowing its eyes to minimize their red glow giving it away. With the queasy feeling, rushing into battle might not be the best course and so a growly voice addresses the figure in black from the depths of the shadows, trying to make the words loud and unexpected so as to distract the woman.
"So all of this was just an elaborate train robbery?"
Even as the wolf says the words, it prepares to dart to a different shadow or strike should an attack come.
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by Wyvern »

The woman doesn't miss a beat, focused on the runes she's drawing - but she does respond.

"Robbery? No. We are merely retrieving what is rightfully ours."
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by ShadowOfPreservation »

Shadow catches her use of "we" and decides that assuming that we is the shadow wolves and/or whatever that things below ground is. Accordingly, stopping her from reacquiring whatever it is she's after seems prudent.

Shadow will dart (Quick) at her with an attack. While it is a legitimate attempt to bite at the arm she is inscribing with, it is also a feint. He commands the shadows in the confined car to flow over the surface of the wall with the boxes to obscure and/or deface the markings she has been making and seal it from further attempts (This is his Shadow Magic. I'm thinking perhaps the Shadow Warding (barrier) to prevent her wards from being able to be placed on the boxes with a visual effect of the shadows pouring down the wall to form a solid black plane where the boxes were.
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Re: 1397-04-21-B: Sinkholes by Starlight

Post by Wyvern »

For the record, despite Shadow's multiple forms, he does not get multiple actions; in this case, the whole combination (while very nicely narrated - I do approve of that!) resolves to a single create-an-advantage action to block the woman from what she was doing via an aspect like "There's a wolf gnawing on your arm" or "shadow-sealed boxes" or the like. Given events elsewhere, I'm going to go with the former.

The woman - focused on her task - is slow to dodge, and Shadow's jaws drag her down by her arm - though, surprisingly, the form-fitting black ninja suit apparently includes some non-trivial amount of armor, as the bite manages little more than a few scratches. She struggles to break his grip... and fails. Overcome action to remove the aspect Shadow applied - but she doesn't have high enough approaches to succeed against Shadow's Power of +4.

The markings she'd been working on - as well as those around the passage in from the roof - flare, then vanish; based on the timing, this is likely a result of Theodore's unsummoning.

And, outside the train, the attacking puppets all dissolve into decaying bits of wood, and the surrounding shadowy forest ripples... and then vanishes, leaving the train alone on the barren landscape of Tyrell, underneath a clear and starry sky.
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