Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

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Flynnarrel
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Flynnarrel »

Lloyd Millhaus
AT: 6 || Wounds: 7/7 || Casting: 6D6

Two things were true in this scenario - if Heartwood was withdrawn, the binding magicks would cease and, the Symbiosis magic from Heartwood bound Lloyd to his weapon. That would be magicks he'd have to release to escape this situation... he thought of these as he continued to dance among the lava field he found himself in...
agi w/adv: 5d6=6, 4, 5, 6, 3] 24
...successfully avoiding the worst spots though acutely aware the cloak was almost dry.

He turned his attention to the hole that Helmontra made, the same one that he saw a ticking tectus fly in to. He didn't know how far in the spear was but if it was a threat to Helmontra (and Ericka was too smart that it wouldn't be) then it might shatter the crumbly wooden walls creating shrapnel. But he was uniquely suited for this.

Focusing on the magic of shielding - fortification and protection, the strength to endure, combining that with the essence of Fertile magic - growth of plants, new life, Lloyd drew upon the wellspring of Heartwood - once the core of a mighty tree - the king of it's forest, and poured shoring magicks into the wooden walls of this side of the house. They would not crumble. They would not fly apart threatening himself and his companions. They would weather the eventual blast... and more. He once asked how a gun worked. The explosion, not being able to tear through the barrel, is funneled along the length and expels with greater force. He hoped the walls would act thusly.

I'll roll Cunning, you determine the DC and what happens, GM, like if a plant monster Abomination is summoned... :-/
Spoiler
cunning: 6d6=2, 1, 2, 6, 5, 5 21
Oh, as a minor action he enchants his Hunter's Grasp to fly true.
Seek Target trick: cunning 2 trick: 6d6=1, 1, 3, 3, 1, 4 13
which *does* summon a Haunt (which might just burn up in the lava)
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Through the observant Lloyd's efforts, he manages to shore up the old, wooden walls of the building and has them hold...mostly....against Ericka's self-destructing spear! The result has the blast gush out through the available means of escape, namely the hole in the roof and the door Helmontra stepped through, resulting in brief gouts of explosive force. Lloyd's magical efforts do spawn a few haunts, but they do immediately burn up in the lava he is currently dancing in.

Helmontra seems greatly harmed by the explosive blast at that, the fight seems nearly done, but Helmontra is still standing, smoking and charred, cracked in even more places after that massive blast, glowing from the extra heat!
A big hit! I think Ericka forgot her SD Spears do automatic damage, not rolled. ;)

As for Lloyd's efforts, I enhanced the damage a wee bit (since the inside of the house does take up most of the explosive area, it doesn't provide a lot to focus the blast, but I did like the idea.

I think it's just Moira and Sashura left!
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Vivid
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Vivid »

Lady Moira Sterling
Moira AT: 7 Health: 6
Raptage AT: 2>0 Health: 3
DEAD: Bearrage AT: 5 Health: 11>9>6>0

Raptage shrieks off towards the next of Dog's Haunts bare talons flashing to discorporate it.
yalons
Spoiler
Focus : focus: 1D6 = [1] = 1
does not get an AT back
Moira meanwhile zeroes in on Helmontra. "You hurt my bear." she says softly.
She fires once, twice, thrice with armor-piercing bullets further superheated to penetrate dense akuma flesh.
LMG attack with Bipod, Spotting glass, and scope, using full auto 3, 14P, armor pierce 2
Spoiler
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Spotting Moira as she stands to take her shots, the akuma attempts to pull free of Lloyd's weapon frantically, and tries to weave away from the glowing stars that fire from Moira's modern weapon. But it's no use. The first shot pierces Helmontra in the center of her forehead, the entry so smooth it doesn't even snap her head back and the bullet carries through, hitting the ground behind the akuma in a smoking hole in the ground from the superheated ammo.

The second and third shots hit their mark, but do little more than to double- and triple-tap the akuma in rapid succession before Helmontra even starts to drop to the ground, making two more small smoking holes in the ground behind her.

Helmontra stands a moment longer, perhaps causing wonder if that even did the trick despite a precision strike to the center of her forehead, the wounds smoking from within, whether from being flash cooked by the superheated ammo, or from Helmontra's own inner flames, but after that tense moment, her inner flames dim and the akuma falls motionless to the ground.
Congrats everyone! Roll a d6! A 6 will result in horns and you may roll a second d6 to determine which ones. And other result on the first d6 is a power which can be used as normal, new ruin power, or an upgrade for any power you already have.

The lava is still there mind you! It remains until the following day before it cools.
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Ericka Akcire

Horns = No (Lame.)

The woman could sense the rush of magic overflow the area, yet it seemed she just wasn't attuned enough to take any of it in. Something about that felt disappointing inspite of their absolute victory here.
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
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"What a week, huh?" "Doc, it's only Wednesday."
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Arkrite
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - First journey

Post by Arkrite »

Grigor "Dog" Geddings
AT: 6 Wounds: 5/5

Dog shivers as the power rolls over him.

"It dead this time, or is there another another one of them?" He askes, reloading his flintlock again, looking less than reassured.
OOC: Since he's not in a guild Dog rolls twice. Vilis Coronam roll: 2d6: 2 and 3.
No horns for Dog.
Prof Weird
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Prof Weird »

Sashura Vlasova

She watched Helmontra for a moment, preparing to brace (or run, if she opened up another lava pool. )

"I was wondering what super-heated, armor-piercing bullets could do.

DANG !"


She felt the rush of energy released when a powerful creature of magic expires.
Check for horns: 1d6 3
Nope.
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Vivid
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Vivid »

Lady Moira Sterling
Moira AT: 4 Health: 6
Raptage AT: 0 Health: 3
DEAD: Bearrage AT: 5 Health: 11>9>6>0

Moira couldn't stop herself once she started firing, even as she watched the foe fell. She clutched her head and cried out as the pain started. In the blinding agony she fell off the roof of the building she was sniping from but with the Levitation trick still active she only drifted slowly, writhing and screaming the entire way down.
Flynnarrel
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Flynnarrel »

Lloyd Millhaus
AT: 6 || Wounds: 4/7 || Casting: 6D6

Lloyd let his magics drop as the akuma's form tumbled backwards, freeing Heartwood. He barely had time to turn to flee the lava field before his own pain hit. Knowing what was coming he barely had time to get his helm off before fiery horns erupted.
after akuma roll: 1d6 6
unexpected
horn selection: 1d6 3
The stammer prompts a misstep and lava splashes on his leg just adding to his pain as he stumbles out of the lava field.
Agility w/adv: 5d6=1, 1, 5, 1, 4] 12
3 wounds unsoakable fire dmg
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Helmontra shows no signs of rising again for any kind of final scare. Old Petram is quite save for the gentle bubbling of molten stone in a few places.
At this point, the adventure is pretty well done. All that's left really is walking off into the sunset (well, and reporting back to Sandra I suppose :P)

Would you guys like to RP it out, or have a little epilogue style ending? Maybe like those ones where it glosses over what becomes of each of our heroes as they separate and go their own ways?
Flynnarrel
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Flynnarrel »

I could go for a GM summary of town reactions and Sandra's reactions.

Then player-written epilogues, either for the character's career or their next steps if we go our own ways, that is.
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Yeah, let's go that route!
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
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"What a week, huh?" "Doc, it's only Wednesday."
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Epilogue

With Helmontra slain, the party does a quick round-up of haunts that were released in the battle, moving carefully to avoid or disable any further trap sigils, though it appears they vanished the akuma's demise. During this search, they stumble across a charred corpse that is not one of the two they were responsible for. A quick investigation of the items that were not burned beyond recognition, they find that this man was once a wielder that had probably come to attempt to slay the 'Pyre Witch' with his bonded crossbow, and a pocket watch on him has the initials "A.F." engraved on the cover.

After a brief look around the village and finding little else worth recovering, the group heads back to the portal where Willow is waiting. She seems excited about your return looking little worse for wear, aside from a few new burns. There is a deceiver laying slain not far from the portal, and Willow is sporting a wound along her side, but it doesn't look life-threatening. The deceiver's feet, on a brief inspection, match the charred tracks you came across on your way to New Petram, and Willow figures it was sent to the portal to rampage through the town, not expecting they would leave a wielder behind. It was a tough fight and several villagers that stepped up to help got hurt, a few killed, but they did manage to stop it before it got through the portal where the damage would have been much greater.

Back in New Petram, the reception is, well, not jubilant. It's more of a wariness, uncertain whether the threat has truly been dealt with, particularly with two of your group returning with vilic coronam. Most mundane folk don't know what it is exactly, they just see the horns and associate them with the akuma, so they are uneasy about the appearance of these horns on two of the hunters that went to slay the pyre witch. However, they don't shun the group for this, and the mayor of all people speaks out to try and smooth things over, at least enough for the group to make it back to the Flechers' home to rest and recover. It seems to be a difficult thing for the mundane folk to simply accept that the nightmare they'd been living, sacrificing friends and loved ones is finally over, and old habits die hard, but as you make your way through town, you do see small sparks of hope in the faces of some of the townsfolk, the ones that will lead New Petram out of its old ways, now free from the ghosts of its past.

Back at the Flechers', Miriam frets and does her best to help with first aid for Willow and the group, though she is quick to notice the crossbow you've returned with, recognition in her eyes. It seems the crossbow and pocket watch belonged to her husband, Arthur. She did not know he was a wielder, he must have kept it a secret for his whole life in Petram, but after so many years of sacrifices, his guilt finally got to him and he set out secretly on his own to slay the 'pyre witch', never to return. Miriam only asks for the pocket watch as a memento of her husband, but in exchange gives the party a silver bar.

The mood in the town is still somewhat dour over the next day or two as Willow insists the group stay 'just in case', Lloyd and Moira in particular being treated a little extra warily, though more in a sense of not knowing how to deal with a wielder with horns. it's really not that much different than dealing with people who recognize you as wielders, knowing you are dangerous as one would respect a dangerous woods creature like a bear. However, the mayor is decommissioning the ritual pyres. While the stakes themselves will remain as a sort of memorial and remembrance of the town's past, the platforms are being taken down over the next few days. The mayor even asks Lloyd if he would cover them with greenery using his magic, having heard of the 'vandalism' from the guards before. Sure, none of these things would prevent the pyres from behind used again, but it is showing effort, and fully removing the stakes wouldn't prevent new ones from being erected either, so leaving the stakes as a monument seemed like more of a middle ground.

Once it's time to return to Sepulcher, the party is furnished with a wagon, horses and provisions to make the trip back easier and they do not encounter anything along the way back, giving them plenty of time to reflect on everything that has happened during the past few weeks in regards to Helmontra, giving them lots of time to prepare their report for Sandra.

The guildmaster is happy to see you all back in one piece, a small nod to Moira and Lloyd, significant from the elderly, horned guildmaster. She listens to your reports, asking a few questions regarding some details, writing down notes for herself as well for the official report. Once the reports are done, she calls in Bookkeeper Arin to bring your rewards, three silver bars each and two accolade pins. Willow says she'll be making regular trips to Petram, to which Sandra supports and says she will send runners to check on the town in times when Willow is busy with missions abroad, to make sure the town is truly turning itself around now that it's dark secrets have come to light.

As for the rest, if Dog accompanies the group to meet with Sandra, he is offered membership to the guild. Should he decline, Sandra offers him a token he can use to gain guild support, should he need it in the future, even if it's just to pick up a job. The rest are reminded on that, that the job board is never completely empty, but they are welcome to take some time off for themselves, reminded by the elderly guildmaster that even though as wielders they have a certain responsibility to use their abilities against the ever-present threats against humanity, it's just as important to remember that they are people as well and to take time for themselves.

And with that, the future is opened to the group and whatever they choose to do moving forward.
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Vivid
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Vivid »

The Sterlings were always welcoming to Hunters. They had an open invite for a meal at the manor. Moira had met a few with the poorly named 'Vile Crown' before. She knew them, not as a stigma or cause for shunning, but a mark of sacrifice and accomplishment. Her family's backgroup in manufacturing and her own apprenticeship at the premier attachment development facility meant she knew how to address this. She modified her own hat to account for the horns so they'd be less obvious and offered such modification to Lloyd's helm (and recommended a hood for times he did not wear the metal head armor).
After their Guild report Moira announces she's returning home to the Sterling estates to share news of what happened with her family. She invites any who want to come along on the week-long journey.
She starts the trip excited but as she [and any others] approach her family home she grows more concerned the her father might have accepting of the crown on others, but his only daughter.... ? Might it remind him of the son he lost to an akuma? Might he have planned to marry her to a lucrative business partner? That was more common in her father's youth.
It turns out those questions would be delayed. Her father had taken ill and her brother, Percival Horatio Sterling was running things. Her eldest brother had grown distant she learned from her studious brother, Barnibus Albertus Sterling. He'd locked himself in their father's study either in the manor or in the Sterling gun factory. Barnibus seemed... off to Moira, more obsessed with his schematics and less aware of what fully was going on.
Talking with the house staff (including the loyal head butler, Otto) she learned that things started to go downhill after the house received an odd artifact from a visitor.
With help of her friends (if they're there) or her brother Atticus, recently returned from the field, she finds out that the artifact was a conduit for an Akuma of Madness. It was a trial to get the artifact (which had been secured by the fully entranced eldest brother). Destroying it summoned a harbringer of the Akuma. The battle was fierce. The cleansing ritual was difficult. After all that the spell was broken and her father recovered from the dream state he was in.
With her family in a much better state than when she found it Moira chose to center her 'Guildwork' more on the family investments. She led a team, Sponsored by the Sterlings (extending invites to the others she first journeyed with), to clear Sterling-owned ore mines, protect Sterling transport trains from deceivers and bandits, or safe guard the field tests of subsidiaries like the one formed by her brother and that one armor-piercing-bullet smith Moira had crossed paths with. She also visited home more often.
She eventually had a family of her own but that is a whole other volume of the book of her life.

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Flynnarrel
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Flynnarrel »

Lloyd Millhaus
AT: 0 || Wounds: 7/7 || Casting: 6D6

Lloyd would accept the modifications to accommodate his new horns. Truth be told, his first thought after the pain of their emergence subsided was that he'd never need flint and tinder to start a fire to cook food again which lead to thoughts of putting a day's catch directly ON his horns to cook. He dismissed the silly thought.
While he had no problem helping the industrial heiress reclaim her family's integrity under the assault/influence of an Akuma, his ultimate path would lead him back to the woods of his homeland. He had to take more care not to inadvertently set forest fires.
Lloyd, being the guild hunter that he is, could not avoid hunting deceivers and akuma spawn, even joining akuma hunts as well. This would inevitably lead to a second set of horns.
Lloyd would become a hermit at that point, a figure of elusive legend with just enough sightings or whispered rumors from travelers or homesteaders who were saved by his double-horned intervention. He was a last-ditch option when situations were dire, a cure approaching the danger level of the threat in some cases. At some point he will not be able to be found yet deep in the Uhyer woods, in a clearing giving the rest of the woods a wide berth, is an ever-flaming tree; a mighty oak whose fire cannot be quenched by the weather. Maybe, some day, a young traveler will stumble upon it and it will finally be consumed down to the Heartwood of the oak once again.
"Something pithy this way comes."
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