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kuropeco rolled 1 100-sided dice:
81
Total: 81 (1-100)
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 Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 2:37 pm
He was grateful for the touch of Lysander's hand on his shoulder, however brief it was; and in fact he was grateful just for Lysander's presence altogether, because while Lawrence wasn't so bad, Lysander was a familiar, reassuring thing that Merric could rely on.
"I'm all right," he said, offering Lysander a small smile. "It's just...this place isn't all that nice."
An understatement, really. They trudged on, the wind biting at their faces, cold seeping under their clothes. Merric sincerely hoped that this terrible, abandoned...whatever it was - an altar? - was just that - a Halloween decoration - but something told him that it wasn't. His eyes went to the skull in Lawrence's hand and Merric shivered.
"Oh," he said, sounding somewhat distressed in that single syllable that the skull was real. He didn't want to know what had happened here, didn't want to know what it was that this altar was even for, if that was what it was. He wanted, really, to be back at Deus - except he would never be a good hunter if he couldn't do anything.
He didn't want to feel inadequate.
Merric took another step forward and something in front of him shivered and crawled into being right in front of him, black and rotting and enormous, fetid smell reaching Merric's nostrils a second later. He froze in place, staring up at the thing, his eyes wide, and felt his heart nearly burst out of his chest.
"What the - "Quote: 81-90 - A creature - you can't tell what type because it appears to be an amalgamation of many seems to rise up out of the ground in front of you. It stinks of death, decay, and mold. It looks like several small animal corpses have merged into one corpse the size of a fox. Borrowed bones stick out at odd angles, and while it has no much you can see you have the odd feeling it DOES want to eat you.
The Amalgamation has 10 hp and does -1hp damage to you per attack. It will dissipate when it reaches 0. Attack rolls do not count towards the three you need to finish the mission.
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Baneful rolled 2 12-sided dice:
11, 7
Total: 18 (2-24)
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 11:27 am
"Hahaha no kidding." Lysander said with a laugh, seeming to find the oppressive atmosphere a little bit fractured by the mirth in the understatement.
"Just a little bit strange." he said with a smile.
Lawrence though had been watching the ground while they went, and as it heaved and the disgusting scent met his nose, he had summoned Butch to hand. It was startling, and enough to have Lysander startle and take a step backwards from the sudden enormous claws way too close to him.
He barely had time to react though because Lawrence had plunged the huge blades straight into the creature without hesitation or so much as a glimmer of mercy and killed it instantly.
He pulled them out and kicked it with a foot irritably.
"I'd say we are getting closer." he said huffily.
DMG: 12
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kuropeco rolled 1 100-sided dice:
61
Total: 61 (1-100)
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 6:02 pm
He'd summoned his weapon instinctively, though Merric still felt frozen in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. His fingers curled around the handle of his horseman's pick, gripping it so tightly that underneath the gloves his knuckles were white.
He took an instinctive step back, knocking into Lysander - and then there was Lawrence, striding forward with an impressive set of glowing blue claws that were faster than he had thought and larger than seemed possible. In an instant, the thing was dead, the scent of rot and decay floating through the air towards them, making Merric's stomach churn.
He stared at the thing, then up at Lawrence.
"That - what was that? A Halloween creature?"
Not one he'd ever seen before, that was for sure. Merric swallowed hard and stepped forward away from Lysander, willing himself to keep moving, to keep going, to keep trying.
He wound up back at the alter again, and it was just as nervewracking as it had been the first time they'd stumbled across it.Quote: 61-70 - A large boulder looms in front of you. As you start to go around it, something catches your eye. A huge stick is shoved in the ground next to the boulder. A top the stick is a human skull - bleached white underneath the dark red paint that has been applied to it. Various other bones are arranged in front of the stick - in a pattern that has no meaning to you. Images of humans and animals have been painted on the boulder behind the strange altar.
Some of the bones are fresher than others.
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Baneful rolled 1 100-sided dice:
19
Total: 19 (1-100)
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Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 1:00 am
Lawrence shook his claws to get the dirt off like a cat which had trod in water, looking somewhat disgusted with the thing he’d just murdered. “Seems like it pardners.” He said with that strange playful accent still present. “Though maybe something closer to a minipet than an actual civilian. The more sentient ones are typically harder to kill than that, you know.” He hadn’t expected it to surrender so easily and found it more suspicious than reassuring. It implied there was something bigger out there waiting to be found from which the creature had originated. “I’m no expert though, just a regular cowboy.” Lysander put some distance between himself and the strange creature, in no mood to fight horrible things in a tundra wasteland, moving ahead of the other two a short way. It was with a cry of surprise he vanished from view and Lawrence let out a sigh, breaking into a jog to go catch up with him. “Y’all allright?” he said, as always deliberately mangling the use of the accent out of habit. He peered into the dark and Lysander looked back up. “I fell!” he said, and Lawrence found himself not for the first time wisihing he was on his own with the other man in order to lose him in a “horrible accident” “There are bones down here too. How do I get out?” Lawrence crossed his arms. “Merric will have to help you, I would but I don’t have enough hands to effectively pull you out.” Quote: 11-20 - What appears to be a gently rolling hill actually turns out to be a rolling hill a surprise cliff. You fall into a hole about 10 feet deep, and only about 4 feet wide on either side. The floor is littered with bones - human and animal alike. You'll need help to get out of the hole.
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:15 am
He didn't quite understand what had happened, other than the fact that Lawrence could apparently turn himself into an owl and back - and that now he seemed relatively unhappy about...something. And that they had just been attacked by something extraordinarily unpleasant, something that was still ringing through Merric's mind, the stench of decay still thick in his nose.
"It - was terrible, but I suppose...if there are bigger ones..."
Merric trailed off, turning away from the thing. He had taken only a few steps towards Lysander was before he disappeared, and Merric let out a cry of surprise and fear, running forward and skidding to his knees on the frozen ground, staring down into the darkness.
He could dimly make out Lysander, looking unhurt, but perhaps a little smudgy from the fall. It wasn't horrendously deep, but it was farther than Merric could reach, in spite of Lysander's excess of height. He glanced around for some sort of - anything.
"Um. I need - is there a branch somewhere?" He asked, a little desperately. "I can - Lysander, I can reach down, but I'm not sure I can reach."
Merric shifted to lay on his stomach, then stretched out a hand - not even sure that with his smaller, slighter stature he could pull out someone as strong and powerful as Lysander was.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 12:27 pm
Lysander reached back from the horrible hole he'd fallen into - a hole other things seemed to have already fallen into before him and not had the fortune of someone to help them out - and it was by sheer virtue of his height that he was able to reach out.
He took Merric's hand and held on.
However, Lawrence having the foresight to prevent a situation where he would need to do some actual serious work, moved to wrap his good arm around Merric's ribs, his strength like wiry steel.
He pulled the other man back when he was sure he was holding on firmly enough and together they hefted Lysander out of the hole with startling efficiency.
He let go again with a sigh.
"Do /try/ not to fall in any more holes if you please" he said.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:43 pm
Merric felt the strong, sure fingers of Lysander's hand wrap around his own and breathed a sigh of relief. Except now he had to haul him out, and that seemed impossible, under the circumstances - at least until an arm came around his waist and then they were being dragged back, Merric letting out a small gasp as his arm burned with the effort.
And at last they were all above ground again. Merric dragged air into his lungs, quickly giving Lysander a look to make sure that he wasn't hurt, at least from first glance.
"Thank you," he said, somewhat hoarsely, to Lawrence. "I...thank you for your help, it was much appreciated."
Merric closed his eyes momentarily, took a breath, then opened them again, looking around.
"Do you think...there's anything else out here?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:32 am
Lysander was glad to get out of the hole, it had taken everything he had not to panic, that creeping sense that someone else was down there with him making the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. He gave Merric a very grateful and very relieved smile, smoothing back his hair and wiping off his glasses on his jacket to replace them on his nose.
Lawrence shrugged, a little bit tetchy about the fact that he would really rather have left the oversized idiot down there to rot but inclined finally to get these two liabilities back to base.
"Probably." he said. "But they don't pay us to be out here till we get eaten, this was a recording the area and an exploration mission. We'll head back I think and you two can get some mission reports written up in the warm about what you saw. Feel free to hazard a guess at what kind of creature we might be dealing with out here. The next team to head out might need our data to find it. Teamwork."
He would just be glad to be able to stride back into the portal room with the same compliment of hunters as what he left with.
Lysander looked a bit relieved himself, not keen to run into whatever had done so much damage to so many things which were now nothing but bones. He wasn't scared now, honest. He was just standing close to Merric because of the cold.
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 6:15 pm
Merric was equally as relieved to have Lysander back on even footing. He glanced sideways at him when he was sure the other wasn't looking, just to make extra certain that he was all right before he turned his attention back to Lawrence.
"That sounds like a good plan," said Merric, sounding relieved, although he tried not to. A gust of cold wind made him pull his jacket more securely around himself, a shiver chasing its way up and down his spine. Lysander standing so near to him was a little distracting, but his sheer size was at least helping to block some of the bitter chill; Merric flashed him a brief, shy smile.
"I'm sure whoever will come after us will find what they're looking for," he said, trying for positivity.
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 11:30 am
Lawrence nodded, not about to pass the chance to go back up.
"All right, pendants. I'll check to make sure you both fill in reports because I'm not looking negligent as a result. They better be decent."
He waved his hand vaguely. "For what its worth, you both did decently. Now on you go, I'll follow you both when I make sure you are out."
Lysander fished out his pendant and took it in hand, laying a hand on Merric's back. "Lets go." he said. "All intact and alive." For the most part anyway.
He said the trigger words for the pendant and immediately portalled back to Deus.
Lawrence didn't mention that his staying behind had nothing to do with making sure the other two were fine and healthy and everything to do with the fact that he needed to deal with the fact he'd just eaten a mouse before he went back to Deus.
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:41 am
Merric obediently tugged out his own pendant, feeling the warm weight of Lysander's hand on his back and trying not to think too much about it, or about the inevitable light red that seemed to be seeping across his cheeks just at that simple gesture. It was stupid, he knew it, but he couldn't help it.
Lawrence's praise made the shy smile grow a little. "Thank you," said Merric, and then and Lysander were back at Deus, and it was once again warm(er) and familiar. Merric took a deep breath, inhaling the island air and feeling some of the frostiness that still clung to him start to ebb away, the feeling coming back to his fingers and toes.
"That...went better than expected, I think," he said to Lysander, turning to look up at him. "Are you sure you're all right? You fell a little hard into that hole."
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:10 pm
Lysander was glad to get out of the cold and back to the much warmer and more comfortable island, undoing his scarf once the chill faded and the ambient heat burrowed into his clothes.
"It did!" he said brightly. "Was pretty scary but no one died."
He made a face at the mention of the hole. "Probably a bruise or two but nothing lethal. Herald says that I'd have broken my leg if she wasn't there, so I'm pretty glad of that, it was a long way down and it smelled....really bad down there."
He sighed.
"Well, we are back." And he inclined a dark eyebrow slightly. "How about we go get a shower?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:34 pm
He had to smile at that, although the memory of the creature they'd - or rather, Lawrence - had fought was still at the back of Merric's mind. "No, no one died," he conceded, which was, at least, a relief. And if Lysander hadn't been seriously injured in his fall, then that was a relief as well.
"I'm glad you weren't hurt," said Merric. "And that we were able to get you out, it looked like a terrible place to be. The weapons are useful, or rather - the shields are," he corrected himself, Merric glancing around the island as he lifted a hand to loosen his own scarf.
The suggestion to take a shower was met with a light smile, Merric reaching for his coat buttons now, the thick fur of his uniform making it all a little sweltering when it wasn't below zero.
"A shower sounds wonderful," he said, thinking of the grime and dirt and general disgust of the place.
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:49 am
Lysander nodded. "Roswell would be pretty upset if I'd ended up mangled, best to get back in one piece so he doesn't get angry at me all told."
He got a smirk for his compliance with Lysander's little plan, the tall man taking hold of his arm. "Let's go then." he said, heading off.
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