Chocobo Tales: Jade Regent

[Cowpies77]

___The chocobo wipes its beak a little after it eats the greens, and snaps at the monk when he flashes more in an attempt to get them. Allowing the monk to climb on to its feathery blue back, the chocobo stands up and lets out a "Kweh~!" and gives a few flaps of its wings before it starts walking towards the ruined castle.

___Kim, Chad-for-Short and Davros follow after the bird, and arrive to the Gatehouse at around mid-day. A large, rusted iron gate bars passage through. Looking through the gate, there appears to be two hideous looking creatures, humanoid in shape with large, powerful-looking muscles, but they have raven-like heads, covered with black feathers.

___Davros looks at them, then at the short, round and covered entirely in black feathered birdman next to them (Being Chad-for-Short), and asks the Tengu "Is this more of your family or some s**t?"

___Chad-for-Short just replies "Go ******** yourself. Just because I took a s**t this morning that looks like your face, doesn't mean the two of you are related."

___Davros grabs Chad-for-Short by the beak and holds him up to his face (which is several feet off the ground for the tengu), saying "I saw a statue of a small-ish back in town. I don't know if it will fit, but I am willing to shove it up your a** and find out."
Putting him down, Davros says "Sooo... Now what?"

___A few moments pass, and the two creatures don't really move much. Kim, Ryoga and the others surmise that they're probably taking a nap, since there really isn't much foot traffic nowadays. The floor is packed dirt, and there's another gate on the other end of the gatehouse. Kim and Ryoga see the levers that they would assume unlock and open the gates... inside of the gatehouse. There are also two ladders on the far end of the gatehouse, on either side of the gate.

___Chad-for-Short, after examining the gate, informs the others that while it's highly unlikely that the gate can be opened from the outside. It's in very bad condition after suffering from years of exposure and neglect in upkeep. He crows that it's probably rusted enough that Davros could probably pound through it with brute force if given a couple of whacks or a good, solid hit with a shoulder plant might cause the heavily rusted hinges to burst, causing the gate to simple fall over. Very noisy, but probably the easiest way in.

___Davros puffs out his chest and says "I like any plan that makes me look awesome. When I hire bards to retell my glories, I'll make sure to have them include how you all marvel in my awesome majesty. Let's go gate-ramming."

___Chad-for-Short raises up a hand to stay Davros, offering up an alternative: "We could also try to call to them and ask them to open up the gate, if we explained our situation to them to see if they'd mind helping. Or we could also try to scale the walls here and see if it'd be possible to sneak if, if you think that these guys could be dangerous or hostile. After all, no one really knows what happened here. Ameiko and I have spent a lot of time traveling and collecting stories, but what happened to this place is still shrouded in mystery and rumor. These guys could potentially be related to whatever calamity happened here way back when. If nothing else, it'd be nice when we get some free time wandering around to examine the place, and see if we could solve the mystery..."

"I thought you hated mysteries."

"I do. But I got bills to pay, and I figure this story is one that might be worth selling. kek kek kek..." Turning to Ryoga and Kim, Chad-for-Short says "So, I can think of three ways in.

• We try to go in quietly by climbing the walls and coming in from the roof
  
• We try to go in loud, assume those guys are hostile and wipe the floor with them.
  
• We assume that they're peaceful squatters and ask them for help. See if they might know what's causing Ameiko to be in a coma, and maybe let us search the place a bit.
  

I'd prefer going in quietly, but I don't know what we'd do with our blue friend here. I don't think it could scale a 20' wall. Will it wait here if we try to sneak in?"

The Chocobo turns its head to look at Ryoga and lets out a concerned "Kweh?"

Davros begins backing up, saying "Just tell me when you're ready, and I'mma try to ram down the gates, if there be no objectin'."  

[MT the Clown]

Lowering her voice, "I-I don't know. Too much of a coincidence. Too much. A few squatter that happen to be sleeping in a guardhouse when the castle is just over there. Over there. I say we sneak in and take-take them out with non-lethal force. If they are squatters, we didn't do a bad thing. Bad thing." Looking at the others for some external validation that what she said was at least somewhat reasonable, Kim lowers her head and begins picking at her fingers again.  

[Kombinant]

"Taking them out quietly sounds good. Here watch my choco-friend, Kim." Ryoga dismounts the chocobo in a smooth motion and leads it over to Kim. Taking her arm, he places some greens in her hand and guides the chocobo to her. "As long as he thinks you've got some greens, he should stick around you. He'll even let you ride him, no problem. Chocobos are social creatures and usually pretty docile." Ryoga says as he pats the bird.

Turning to the others, Ryouga says, "I'll climb the wall and take them out quietly, or unlock the gates as quietly as possible then you guys can come in and help. Or I could tie them up? I'm not exactly talented with knots, though."  

[MT the Clown]

Staring at the bird and the vegetation in her hands, Kim has absolutely no idea what she's doing. All the same, "I have saps in my bag. That should help in your endeavor."  

[Cowpies77]

Ryoga is taking 10 on Stealth (Result, 17) and Climb (result: 21)
Tapping on Chad-for-Short to serve as his backup, Ryoga leaves Davros to support Kim in case of trouble. Davros huffs a bit in irritation, and announces "Fine, but if you run into any problems, I'mma start huffing, and puffing, and this gate down and go on a rampage on some fools."
With a sigh of resignation, Ryoga scales up the wall like a monkey

Climbing over the edge and helping Chad-for-Short up over, the two dust themselves off a little, take a quick look around as they make for the trapdoors on the roof they're standing on.

Sneaking over there and opening it up, Ryoga hears something and glances up, and sees another one of the bird-like man-monsters about 15' away, who seems to have stopped mid-stride, beak open and head turned to the side as he looks at the unusual scene in front of him.  

[Kombinant]

Initiative + 3  

[Cowpies77]

Initiative:
Chad-for-Short: 18
Biiiiiiiiird-Maaaaaaaan: 14
Ryoga: 9

Dropping into a cold sweat, Ryoga hisses to Chad-for-Short to take the Bird-man down.

Drawing out his b*****d Sword as he leaps forward and does a frontward tumble, and uses the momentum to sink in his blade about halfway into the birdman. (7 damage)

Stumbling backwards as the blade's pulled out, the birdman looks down, then back up at the party. And that's when Ryoga sees the look in his eyes. The birdman isn't scared or hesitant. His eyes remind the Tengu and the Monk more like the same sort of eyes that the Half-orc back on the ground floor has.

His expression is the a mixture of boner-inducing rage and maniacal joy.

He lets out a bloodied war cry and begins swinging at the Cleric. Chad-for-Short ducks the first swing, and deflects the second just enough that it doesn't claw out his eye and instead scratches his face, knocking away a few feathers and drawing some blood.

___________________________________________
Down Below
___________________________________________
Kim pets the Chocobo as Davros is pacing about 20' away from the gate, muttering to himself as he begins thumping his chest, psyching himself up.
All of a sudden, all three stop and look up at the sound of some sort of furious screech can be heard from the roof, off a bit to the right from where Ryoga and Chad-for-Short went up.
Quickly glancing down, the two Bird-men both snap awake and begin looking around, confusion and panic both washing away their sleep.

Kim needs initiative roll now. (Actions begin next turn, after Ryoga's actions)

Davros: 15
1st floor birdmen: 11  

[Kombinant]

Ryoga charges the bird-man, using the momentum to deliver a hard right to the Bird-head.

Charging Attack +5  

[Kombinant]

damage +3  

[MT the Clown]

Initiative +3  

[MT the Clown]

Despite her combat instincts kicking in and knocking out her tremors, she realize that she has no clear shot and instead focuses her energy on reacting in the right time.

((Delaying action. Her move will kick in after Davros's turn. Hopefully he knocks down the gate or I'll be waiting for a while.))

((If he does))

Kim smirks as the gate collapses, snags a flask, and lets it fly.

((Ranged Touch Attack +5, Point Blank Shot [if in range] +1))  

[MT the Clown]

((Bomb damage. Fire type. +4 int mod))  

[Cowpies77]

Chad-for-Short: 18
Davros: 15
- Kim* 15
Biiiiiiiiird-Maaaaaaaan: 14
1st floor birdmen: 11
Ryoga: 9

Chad-for-Short
Chad-for-Short, brushing off the wound to his face, says "I am beginning to think I should've whipped out my shield. This is going sour fast." With a large swinging arc of his blade, he leaves a large gash on the midsection of the bird-zerker. (8 damage). The birdman pukes out a little blood, but wipes it off his beak and continues his attack on the tengu.

Davros
With a large grin, Davros shouts "Oh, Tell me that's go time. TELL ME I GET TO CRUSH SOMEONE'S DREAMS! Oh, it's ON! I'm coming for you!"
Rushing at the gate, the half-orc slams into it. There's a loud, sharp metal *Twang* as he puts a giant dent in the gate. Unsatisfied, he grips at the metal grate and continues to rip at it.
The gate is pretty much wrapped around his large frame after a few seconds, but it IS now open. Punching his arms through the rusted bars, he says "When I send you to Hell, let them know I'm taking on all challengers, Yeah?"

*Kim's turn

Top-floor Birdman
Continuing to swing at Chad-for-Short, the Tengu ducks past the first claw, and the second one hits the cleric's chain shirt, and kinda gives Ryoga a case of the heebie-jeebies as he hears the bird-man's hand shatter and sees his talons twist out at an unnatural angle. The bird-man screeches a bit in pain and grabs on to his hand, trying to reset his fingers.'
(FUMBLE~ Chad-for-Short's armor takes 2 damage, and the Bird-man takes 5 damage)
The birdman stumbles around a bit weakly, before it's legs finally give out and it collapses into a heap in it's own blood-puke. With one last gasping wheeze, the bird-man lies motionless on the ground, the fire in its eyes now beginning to glaze over.

Gatehouse Birdmen
Shaking off the effect of the bomb, the Gatehouse birdman (#1, for naming conventions) rushes at Kim, ignoring Davros, who reacts by punching the birdman in the face with a strong left hook hard enough that Kim can hear the crack of bone from where she is, several feet away. (10 damage)
The Birdman spins around a bit and, taking a staggering step, looks like it forgot for a second where the hell it is. Shaking it's head, it lurches towards Kim and tries to claw at her apron.
The strike is true and the birdman tears through Kim's apron strap along her neck, leaving a shallow slash in it's wake through her armor and ripping a few studs off in the process.
(4 damage)

The other birdman (#2) leaps at Davros as his back turns to face Birdman #1. He pounces on the man, attempting to claw at him, but gets shrugged off and bounces off somewhat like how a bear doesn't really seem to care about bees attacking it when it's going after honey.

Ryoga's turn  

[Kombinant]

Ryoga turns to Chad-for-Short, "Chad-for-Short, Davros broke down the gate and now they're fighting the two birds down there. I'm going down to help them!" Ryoga takes a running leap off the edge of the wall, attempting it as part of a charge at the wounded Bird-man.

Acrobatics +7  

[Kombinant]

Charge Attack +5