On the Road

Alley's aimed fire does some more harm to the hydra, pissing it off even more. It might be your imagination, but you think you guys are making some real progress on this thing. It is bleeding from multiple wounds, and its cries of anger are getting weaker.

Grond leaps back to his feet with his sword in hand, and delivers a powerful swing that misses the large but still nimble monster by mere inches, drawing a slew of cuss words in his native Spanish.

Esbilon needs to declare a defense, and is up next

Initiative order
Nasoth [3] <====
Ozug [3]
O-Ren [4]
Liza [3]
Atlanta [3]
Hydra [5] Speed Reduced
Alley [3]
Grond [4]

Nasoth uses the leverage offered by the Hydra biting down on her to really tear the offending head to shreds.

OOC: No dodging, but giving it anopther Strike at +10 for 9d6+2 MD.

The hydra bites down hard, causing a total of 36 points of damage, but in return, Nasoth claws the face of the head that bit her, maiming it badly. This causes the hydra to drop you from its mouth, and it begins to stumble backwards.

Vaneheart is up

Initiative order
Nasoth [4]
Ozug [3] <====
O-Ren [4]
Liza [3]
Atlanta [3]
Hydra [5] Speed Reduced
Alley [3]
Grond [4]

Ozug

Having seen the bold move by Nasoth, and the subsequent stumbling of the beast, Ozug is emboldened. The juicer chemicals rushed through his veins, and he let loose a mighty war cry as he swung with both of his blades in unison, attempting to strike the hydra's flank.

(Out of Character: Ozug will use W.P. Paired Weapons with both of the blades, striking simultaneously. I think PSI: Intuitive Combat, should still be up.)

The hydra lets out another roar as Ozug's twin blades stab deep into it. It is starting to falter, but has enough fight left in it to make it dangerous still.

Psychie is up

Initiative order
Nasoth [4]
Ozug [4]
O-Ren [4] <====
Liza [3]
Atlanta [3]
Hydra [5] Speed Reduced
Alley [3]
Grond [4]

"Keep up the pressure! We're doing it!" O-Ren follows her own advice and fires her blaster into the hydra.

The triple pulse slams into the beast, doing more damage and bringing the fight that much closer to an end.

Silanon is up with Liza

Initiative order
Nasoth [4]
Ozug [4]
O-Ren [5]
Liza [3] <====
Atlanta [3]
Hydra [5] Speed Reduced
Alley [3]
Grond [4]

Liza Kreuzer

"You've spread enough chaos within this world, and yet prove to be too stubborn to die. Each path, at some point, leads to an end, and these are the final moments of yours." Once again, the mystic takes aim, her mirror images doing the very same thing. Another shot, trying to prove her words - it is about time that the hydra falls, with all the wounds caused by the other Misfits...

Atlanta keeps pouring on the pain with her rifle, with multiple blasts hitting the hydra.

In response, the hydra begins to backpedal, and in very broken Dragonese says, "You no kill Alroc! Alroc kill you!" It then sends a spray of flames washing out towards Nasoth. The attack will hit unless you dodge.

Epiphany is up with Alley

Initiative order
Nasoth [4]
Ozug [4]
O-Ren [5]
Liza [4]
Atlanta [4]
Hydra [6] Speed Reduced
Alley [3] <====
Grond [4]

Being impervious to fire as she is, Nasoth merely snickers, "who's Alroc? Your mom?"

Alley Orzech

It's been a handful of seconds since this fight started, yet to the ex-scientist's temporally elongated perception, it feels like hours. She depresses the trigger again, sending another burst of shots at the hydra, silently despairing that the team has enough firepower between them to kill the monster.

It is hard to tell, but it appears that the hydra is looking concerned. Your group has done a lot of damage to it, and it is barely reciprocating. Alley's blast hits one of the heads, causing that particular one to flop down, useless until it can heal up.

Grond continues to use his sword with deadly intent, doing even more damage. At this point, the hydra is in the critical damage range, and it is getting worried.

Esbilon is up with Nasoth

Initiative order
Nasoth [4] <====
Ozug [4]
O-Ren [5]
Liza [4]
Atlanta [4]
Hydra [6] Speed Reduced
Alley [4]
Grond [5]

Esbilon said:

I'm just gonna make another strike, but I'm not up for writing anything interesting. +10, 9d6+2 md.

Click to expand...

Nasoth claws the hydra again, weakening the powerful monster even more. You can see in its faces that it is genuinely scared, probably for the first time in its life, realizing that it might not live through this fight.

Vaneheart is up

Initiative order
Nasoth [5]
Ozug [4] <====
O-Ren [5]
Liza [4]
Atlanta [4]
Hydra [6] Speed Reduced
Alley [4]
Grond [5

Ozug

The ogre continued to strike at the hydra. He shouted "Surrender now, beast, and you might yet live." He wasn't sure if it even spoke American.

(Out of Character: My apologies, the day got away from me. Ozug will strike the creature with his swords again, then demand its surrender.)

Ozug's twin blades actually manage to slice off one of the many heads of the hydra! [Critical Strike was rolled with near max damage. Ouch!] The hydra doesn't answer you, but you have the feeling that it is about to try to run.

Psychie is up next

Initiative order
Nasoth [5]
Ozug [5]
O-Ren [5] <====
Liza [4]
Atlanta [4]
Hydra [6] Speed Reduced
Alley [4]
Grond [5

If the hydra escapes us today, it will heal up and be on the rampage in a matter of a few days. We must end this. Taking aim with her rifle, she fires another burst at the beast.

The hydra lets out a whimpering cry as O-Ren's shots hit it. It is in bad shape, and is close to being incapacitated.

Also, keep a close watch on the number of actions you have left.

Silanon is up next

Initiative order
Nasoth [5]
Ozug [5]
O-Ren [6]
Liza [4] <====
Atlanta [4]
Hydra [6] Speed Reduced
Alley [4]
Grond [5]

Liza Kreuzer

The mystic notices how the hydra gets weakened, slowly worn down by the many attacks. But it's not only the beast that suffers - Liza herself can feel the exhaustion from shielding her allies, and changing the world with both her weapon and mind. For once, she pauses, taking a deep breath, as others hopefully bring this fight to an end.

Liza's attack hits the hydra, causing it to weaken even more.

Atlanta also fires her weapon, withering it down.

At this point, the hydra turns and runs back up the hill towards the cave it was lounging in front of. Actually, it more hobbles along, since it is so badly hurt. It cannot last long.

Epiphany is up

Initiative order
Nasoth [5]
Ozug [5]
O-Ren [6]
Liza [5]
Atlanta [5]
Hydra [7] Speed Reduced
Alley [4] <====
Grond [5]

Grond powers forward with his greatsword in hand and levels a massive blow, along with a energy blast from his robotic blaster. At last, the hydra collapses in a heap, critically wounded. If it is left, there is a chance it could heal up enough to recover. Or you can make sure it is no longer a threat and finish it off. Up to you guys.

Moving out of combat time. Xp will be awarded in the Character's tab.

Grond wipes the blood from his sword and slips it back into the sheath he has on his back, then goes to collect his rifle. "Well, that was an experience. Good job, everyone, especially you, Atlanta. Those bombs you used were just the ticket to make this fight go by a lot faster."

"Thank you. I was just trying to help as much as I can."

"Fair enough. Lets go see if the beastie had any goodies scavenged up in its cave. The old stories of dragons and their hoards came from someplace, am I right?"

Tromping up the slope of the mountain, you do find a cave that the hydra was using as its layer. Inside, the smell is pretty bad; a mix of rotting food and hydra poop, but at least it is not bad enough to require you to make a PE roll to resist getting sick. Looking about, there is a large pile of bones of various farm animals that the hydra had been snacking on, some with meat still attached to the bone. Kinda gross. But you do find at the back of the cave six large crates, two of which are open and filled with pieces of gold and jewels, easily several million in tradeable goods. The other four boxes are locked up.

"It's not a dragon!" Nasoth yells, still high on magically induced adrenaline. Immediately afterwards, her gaze becomes unfocused and she barely manages to spread her wings to slow her decent as fatigue overtakes her, and she curls up on the ground next to the hydra, hiding her head under her wing.

O-Ren lets out a 'woosh' of air as she begins to wind down from the fight. "Dragon or not, that took a lot of hurt to bring down. I'm glad that this guy wasn't full grown or we would be at this all day!" She shoulders her rifle to head up the slope to the cave.

Inside, she quickly examines the area, looking for other threats. Upon seeing none, she heads over to investigate the six crates. "Gold and jewels. Fairly typical fair of a non-dragon hoard, eh? I wonder what's in the other boxes? Lets find out!" She summons up her Psi-Sword and uses it to cut the locks off the boxes to examine them and their contents.

The first box contains a variety of what appears at first glance to be energy rifles, but they have all been heavily modified, and after a moment of inspection you can see that they are all TW Rifles of some kind.

1. A pair of Sonic Rifles
2. A TW Disrupter
3. A TW Force Cannon

The fourth box has a single sword, very ornate, with gemstones in the hilt, and the handguard is a stylized dragon with wings spread wide. The blade itself has a faint blue-white glow to it. O-Ren can recognize it as a very powerful rune blade.

The fifth box contains a single staff that has a small dragon carved into the wood. Very beautiful work. Liza recognizes this as a very rare TW weapon called a Firestaff.

The last box holds 40 PPE Clips

O-Ren's eyes grow wide as she looks over the weapons, especially the sword and staff. "Wow. This . . . is amazing! I have only seen a few rune blades before, one in the hands of Sir Talbert. But never have I ever dreamed of coming across one that had not been claimed by some other powerful warrior!" With trembling hands, she reaches into the case and pulls out the weapon still in its sheath.

OOC How much is there in credit value is there in gold and jewels, and just what kind of rune blade is the sword?

Liza Kreuzer

Finally, the beast goes down, a mighty swing with the greatsword ending its resistance - at least for now. Soon enough it'll regenerate, if the Misfits let that happen. A question to be answered shortly, but not without proper thought beforehand. Atlanta herself is an example how a dangerous being can be an ally, if you give someone a second chance. Of course, the non-dragon is different, with presumably less intellect to rely upon - but maybe there is another way of handling things...

She follows the example of some of the others, walking over to the cave in thought. The bones, the flesh - an immediate reminder of what they're dealing with exactly. A beast, a predator, hard to overcome, even harder to control. A danger, as long as the various heads breath. Besides the remains of various prey, a number of crates, some filled with gold and jewelry. Unlikely to find much more than that - the cyberknight opens the next one at hand, revealing a couple of unfamiliar weapons - more toys of destruction for the others to work with, nothing that really would stick out to the mystic. The next one - a special sword of sorts, finding O'Ren's interest. Ancient-looking, sharp and ornated with gemstones, a rune blade like only few ever get to see. Not the mystic's kind of weapon, though certainly an unlikely find in this world.

The last object of interest - perhaps even rarer. An elegant weapon, masterfully crafted, a staff like she has never seen one. As Liza gets closer, taking a look, she can almost feel its hidden power - a fire, as hot as a dragon's breath, caught underneath its wooden surface, waiting to be unleashed at its wielder's foes. Very much the opposite of her magic - aggressive in nature, much less protective. Needless to say, she hesitates. But when a fire stops to burn, its ashes fertilize the soil. All it takes is someone to carefully watch that nothing that should stay unharmed is burnt. And in this world full of hatred and trouble, there are only few who would use it properly - and at the same time, no gift should be wasted. Thus, she finally grabs the wooden staff, mustering the dragon on its top before turning to the others. "If noone finds a better use, I would like to take this one myself. Its fire waits to change this world - I'd like to make sure it will turn things for the better."

She then makes a few steps backwards, as if to show that she claims nothing else, knowing how much the staff might be worth. "Besides that, the hydra is still alive - and its breath could burn both friends and foes. We probably all agree that it cannot stay here, or we wouldn't have come here in the first place. But there's a lot of wilderness around, where noone cares if a hydra hunts prey, or burns a couple of vampires in their shelters. I'd try to convince Alroc to go somewhere else, far away from civilisation - perhaps implant a tracking device of some sort, so that we're prepared if the beast ever returns. Not much would change for the hydra itself, Haven would not be under threat any longer - and an astonishing creature would continue to live."