Trial by Fire - IC Thread

[Psychie]

Spider grins now that she has a target that she can sink her blades into. With an acrobatic leap, she bounds towards a different tentacle, swiping at the thing and trying to keep it from being able to get a grip on the Seagull.

Spoiler

Performing a Withering attack. Spending 5m on my Dexterity Excellency, and 5m on my Strength Excellency. 5 Successes. Probably a miss.

Graceful Crane Stance and Sense Sharpening Change active

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 3 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
I

Willpower: 7

Essence: 1
Personal: 16 / 0
Peripheral: 38 / 37
Committed: 0

Join Battle: 10 +3 successes

Parry: 6
Evasion: 4
Resolve: 4
Guile: 1

Natural Soak: +5
Armored Soak: +5
Total Soak: +10L

Weapon Damage
Paired Short Swords
Accuracy +4, Damage +7L, Overwhelming 1

 

[Sherwood]

Kuaidao manages to connect with the ropy tentacle, but your strike bounces off the thick, rubbery hide.

Spider's attack misses completely as the tentacle is now moving fairly rapidly.

Dromond swings his flaming daiklave, and as it hits, the air is filled with the oh so lovely smell of burnt calamari.

Random Word is up

Current Initiative Order
12 - Spider
12 - Bard
10 - Kuaidao
9 - River Kraken
8 - Dromond
7 - Maja <====
5 - Rivers
4 - Thallus

Round Two
13 - Bard
12 - Spider
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao
7 - River Kraken

 

[Random Word]

As the immense tentacles loom overhead Maja's heart begins to race and lighting courses through her veins. She gasps and it's like breathing for the first time. The rush is intoxicating, like she's been half-asleep all day and suddenly knows what it feels like to be alive. As Kuaidao's blade fails to penetrate the Kraken's hide and Spider's grace fails to find its mark fear grips Maja's heart, but it is quickly subsumed by an all-consuming rage and a voracious hunger.

She's surprised to realize she's sprinting towards the Kraken without any clear idea of what she'll do when she gets to it, but with every step she feels her fury manifest in her form. She feels a distant pain as the skin of her fingers tear and her jaw dislocates to accommodate elongated fangs and claws, now razor sharp. Thick cords of muscle erupt and writhe under her skin. Her flesh burns as bones thicken and increase in density, and new bones tear free of her flesh to form nine great tails, growing nerve, muscle, and fur instantly. A coruscating nimbus of silver-white light envelops her as the crescent moon burns on her brow. Her irises become vertical black slits over gold sclera, hungry with anticipation. She roars and hurls herself at the prey, a deep and terrible sound from slavering jaws.

Spoiler: OOC

Activating Hybrid Body Transformation + Deadly Beastman Transformation (Simple) for 5m 1wp peripheral, and moving if necessary towards the Kraken.
29/38 Peripheral
7/8 WP
Anima Glowing

Parry now 3
Soak now 10

 

[HumanPlus]

Rivers takes note of Dromond setting his blade aflame. Could he be an Heir of Dragons? Or maybe it's the sword.

Then the tendrils rises from the water and she breaks into a wide uncharacteristic grin. "Oh now, that is adorable."
She throws off her outermost layer of clothing and lets herself drop off the rail into the dark depths below. As she falls she mutters to herself "Time to show off a little"

There's a splash as her body hits the water, and then a silvery glow from beneath the ship.

The ship lurches and water roils from something massive moving beneath it whereafter a colossal monster rises from the waves. A finned serpentine body crowned with a crocodillian reptile head, luminescent scales and fins making it impossible to ignore. She opens her toothy maw and graces everyone present with a mighty roar.

Spoiler: OOC

I shapeshift into my True Form using Towering Beast Form

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ]
- 2 [ ][ ][ ]
- 4 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- Incap

Willpower: 5/7

Essence: 1
Personal: 1/16
Peripheral: 38/38
Committed: 0

Join Battle: 4

Parry: 3
Evasion: 3
Resolve: 3
Guile: 3

Natural Soak: +5
Armored Soak: 0
Hardness: 0

Weapon
Unarmed
Acc+1, Dmg+7, Def+0, O:1
Acc: 6, Dmg: 10, Def: 3, O:1
Tags: Bashing, Brawl, Grappling, Natural

Armor
None

 

[Sherwood]

Both Maja and Rivers have shifted into more fearsome battle forms, and suddenly the Kraken realizes that it is not dealing with a simple merchant ship, but one that has several Exalted guardians on board.

Syvvaris is up

Current Initiative Order
12 - Spider
12 - Bard
10 - Kuaidao
9 - River Kraken
8 - Dromond
7 - Maja
5 - Rivers
4 - Thallus <====

Round Two
13 - Bard
12 - Spider
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao
8 - Maja
7 - River Kraken
6 - Rivers

 

[Syvvaris]

Everything and everyone moved quickly to face the threat of four large tentacles. the Captain summoned fire from his sword and two of the women on board changed into beastly forms. One of them turning into a large water beast.

"What a bunch of weirdos." He muttered to himself and held the excitement of the potential heroes he accompanied. Just like the stories from the books he read, but now wasn't a time to reminiscence about stories. It was time to fight. He drew back his self bow and took careful aim at the farthest tentacle from him. The waters made the boat rock to much for a quick shot, he waited till the motion of the boat lined up with the tentacle and released the arrow at it.

Dex 5 + Archery 4 + Self bow at Short Range +4 = 13

6 Successes sooo I think I only roll 1 damage die for Overwhelming 1

 

[Sherwood]

The arrow connects, but it bounces off its thick hide.

Everyone recovers 5 motes.

D. Rex is up again.

Round Two
13 - Bard <====
12 - Spider
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao
8 - Maja
7 - River Kraken
6 - Rivers
6 - Thallus

 

[D. Rex]

A kraken! Such a monstrosity. Rivaled only by the ladies in this enterouge. With keen eyes, Bard watched the Kraken flinch at the mighty Two Rivers Serpent.

The beast felt fear. It knew danger. Then may it know more!

Raising his lute vertical and stroking his fingers violently across all its strings. A warping sound, like that of long steel being struck in water. The air shimmered around the lute, lashes of barely visible force striking out from the instrument like blades of wind that cut through the fog like a knife to strike into the nearest tentacle.


But he was not done! For his hand arced around to the top of the lute, digging his nails into the strings, Bard watched his back and drew his hand down!

The resulting sound was a horrifying piercing screech. Like that of an unnatural monster about to strike. A screech that would seep into ship and water. A kraken may not understand words, but even it would be wise to be hesitant if not outright afraid. The sound was but a warning of the death to come.

Spoiler: Terrifying Battle Shriek

Terrifying Battle Shriek
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Voice of the Night Bird
The Nightingale’s voice rings out in a deafening overture
or in mocking lyrics, promising a horrible death to her foes. The martial artist rolls (Charisma + Performance) to intimidate a single enemy. A successful influence roll strikes fear into the enemy’s heart, forcing to take a move action on his turn to move away from the martial artist or hide from her if possible. Very weak or cowardly opponents may surrender or retreat entirely.

Unlike other Simple Charms, Terrifying Battle Shriek may be placed in a flurry, and benefits from being used against enemies who have been hit with a kiai attack on the same turn. The target of this Charm is treated as having a Minor Tie of fear towards the martial artist if he has been hit with a kiai on the same turn, or a Major Tie if the kiai attack was decisive.

Mastery: An enemy who yields to the Nightingale’s influence and retreats or cowers from her loses Initiative equal to her (Charisma/2). She does not gain this Initiative.

Kiai Attack (withering)
9 successes


Terrifying battle Shriek
Charisma + performance + stunt
9 successes

 

[Sherwood]

D. Rex

Your Withering attack hits with 3 successes. Its soak is 15, so go ahead and roll your damage.

 

[D. Rex]

D. Rex

Your Withering attack hits with 3 successes. Its soak is 15, so go ahead and roll your damage.

Rolling Overwhelming 1.

2 successes.


Being hit with a kiai attack, the kraken is treated as having a minor tie of fear for terrifying battle shriek.

 

[Sherwood]

The wrecked ship in front of you shudders as the Kraken's tender ears are assaulted by the powerful Kiai.

Psychie is up next with Spider

Round Two
13 - Bard
12 - Spider <====
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao
8 - Maja
7 - River Kraken
6 - Rivers
6 - Thallus

Round Three
17 - Bard
5 - River Kraken

 

[Psychie]

Spider looks up at the towering form of the river serpent that Rivers has taken and smiles. Impressive! Some time I will need to learn how to do that! She grips her swords in hand, and makes a running leap and comes down with both blades on the writhing tentacle, trying to dissuade the great beast from turning their ship into its latest snack.

Spoiler

Spending 5m on Dex Excellency, and 2m 1wp on Wasp Sting Blur, giving me a total of 25 dice to roll.

11 Successes to hit, doing 3i damage.

Graceful Crane Stance and Sense Sharpening Change active

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 3 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
I

Willpower: 7 / 6

Essence: 1
Personal: 16 / 0
Peripheral: 38 / 35
Committed: 0

Join Battle: 10 +3 successes

Parry: 6
Evasion: 4
Resolve: 4
Guile: 1

Natural Soak: +5
Armored Soak: +5
Total Soak: +10L

Weapon Damage
Paired Short Swords
Accuracy +4, Damage +7L, Overwhelming 1

 

[Sherwood]

Spider's blades score a hit, causing the tentacle to recoil in pain.

Dromond jumps forward and swings his flaming sword, causing another one of the writhing arms to pull back a bit to avoid getting burned.

jaydude is up

Round Two
13 - Bard
12 - Spider
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao <====
8 - Maja
7 - River Kraken
6 - Rivers
6 - Thallus

Round Three
17 - Bard
17 - Spider
12 - Dromond
1 - River Kraken

 

[jaydude]

Kuaidao had let out a panicked irk when he saw Maja shift into the form of an anthropomorphic nine-tailed fox. It wasn't just because of the transformation - he'd heard enough information about Lunars to know the basics of their abilities - but also the fact that she'd revealed her true nature to Dromond. The sight of Rivers leaping into the water and then emerging as a Sea Serpent on the other hand made him gape, having not expected a Lunar to be capable of such impressive shapeshifting.

Feeling Essence start to flow back into his body, the Dawn Caste gave a shrug, and as one of the tentacles approached him, he took hold of his sword's handle with both hands. With an almighty yell, he slashed at the side of the tentacle, this time intending to make up for his last attack's meager effect.

[Withering attack. Putting regained Essence into Personal, and spending 10m Personal Essence on Melee Excellency and 3m Peripheral Essence on Excellent Strike. 23 Attack Dice + assuming two more from stunt. 11 successes + 1 auto success = 12 total.]

Spoiler: Kuaidao Stats

Health Levels: -0, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -3, Incapacitated
Essence: 0/13 Personal and 26/33 Peripheral Essence
Willpower: 5

Sensory Acuity Prana active, giving double 9's on Awareness rolls.

 

[Sherwood]

You hit hard, with 6 successes over its DV. Soak is 15. Roll your damage, please.

 

[jaydude]

You hit hard, with 6 successes over its DV. Soak is 15. Roll your damage, please.

Damage roll.

 

[Random Word]

This must be what hunting mammoth feels like to wolves, she thinks to herself as she listens to the howl of Bard's instrument and watches blades deflected from the Kraken's thick hide. I need to make an opening for the others. She vaults over the rail, braces her feet against the side of the ship, identifies a particularly rotted section of the shell of her prey, and pushes off with such force the ship pitches away from the Kraken. She smashes into the accumulated detritus of so many previous victims, reducing rotted hulks to splinters and laying bare a portion of the Kraken's seemingly impregnable hide. She spots bubbles just below the surface, and as Bard's discordant note reaches its crescendo Maja offers a furious roar as terrifying counterpoint, driving her claws into the Kraken's gills and, thews bulging and tendons rippling, prying the skin apart with all her might to expose the tender flesh beneath.

Spoiler: Mechanics

I can roll a feat of demolition if necessary. Withering attack with penalty-free flurried Threaten (Instill Fear).
Going all out on this one to see if I can't get to 25 damage.
10m Str+Per Excellency on attack roll
1 wp on attack roll
5m Str+Per Excellency (Cap is (Str + Per) / 2 round down) on damage

Str 5 + Brawl 3 + Accuracy 4 + Str Ex 10 +? Stunt 2 = 22 or 24 dice
Base damage is:
Str 5 + Weapon 7 + Str 5 again (Deadly Beastman) + Str Ex 5 = 22, so I'll need at least 3 net hits

Wow, lucky I spent that WP. 8 hits + 1 from WP = 9, so exactly 3 net hits.
25 damage, -15 soak, is 10 post-soak damage dice.

5 hits on the damage roll, which should crash it.

Intimidate is App 5 + Presence 3 + (App 5 - Resolve 3) 2 = 10
Only 1 hit on the intimidate roll, so failure there.

6/8 WP
Personal 1/16
Peripheral 34/38

 

[Sherwood]

The Kraken is shaken, but it is not quite ready to retreat. It swings its tentacles at Maja in a Withering attack, and rolls a total of 9 successes to hit. Random Word What is your DV and do you have any Charms you wish to use to defend?

HumanPlus and Syvvaris are now up

Round Two
13 - Bard
12 - Spider
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao
8 - Maja
7 - River Kraken
6 - Rivers
6 - Thallus

Round Three
19 - Maja
17 - Bard
17 - Spider
15 - Kuaidao
12 - Dromond
Crashed - River Kraken

 

[HumanPlus]

With great undulating movements that splashes large amounts of river water everywhere, Rivers dives under the water. Snapping after the still submerged tentacles, she harries the beast in the element where it believes it is king.
For the ones on board the ship who might glance down into the roiling water, the glow of her bioluminescent scales lights up the area outlining the submerged parts of the creature for all to see.

Spoiler: OOC

Towering Beast Form negates my natural mote regen.

I make a withering attack with my big pointy teeth, spending a WP for an autosuccess to help with my low dice pool. 9 dice + 1 auto

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ]
- 2 [ ][ ][ ]
- 4 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- Incap

Willpower: 5/7

Essence: 1
Personal: 1/16
Peripheral: 38/38
Committed: 0

Join Battle: 4

Parry: 3
Evasion: 3
Resolve: 3
Guile: 3

Natural Soak: +5
Armored Soak: 0
Hardness: 0

Weapon
Unarmed
Acc+1, Dmg+7, Def+0, O:1
Acc: 6, Dmg: 10, Def: 3, O:1
Tags: Bashing, Brawl, Grappling, Natural

Armor
None

Spoiler: Sea Serpent stats

Sea Serpent (River Dragon eel chimera)

Essence: 1; Willpower: 5
Join Battle: 5 dice
Health Levels: -0x4/-1x6/-2x6/-4x5/Incap. River dragons
will flee if dealt 10+ levels of damage, but refuse to release
their hold on any prey they have grappled, dragging it
back into the water with them to drown it if necessary.

Actions
Feats of Strength: 10 dice (may attempt Strength 5 feats);
Intimidate: 5 dice;
Resist Poison/Disease: 8 dice;
Senses: 5 dice (see Keen Nose and Night Vision);
Stealth: 5 dice (see Undertow Menace);
Tracking: 6 dice (see Keen Nose)
Resolve 3,
Guile 1

Combat
Attack (Bite): 9 dice (Damage 19, minimum 5, Piercing)
Attack (Grapple): 9 dice (11 dice to control). The river
dragon makes unopposed control rolls against smaller
opponents, unless its victims use magic that allows
them to clinch larger enemies, such as Dragon Coil
Technique.
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 0, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 16/10

Special Attacks
Clamp Down: A river dragon that deals 3+ levels of damage
to a victim with a decisive bite attack may pay a point of
Willpower to begin grappling them, making the opposed
roll to establish control over the clinch. A successful clinch
adds +1 to the base Initiative it resets to for every round
of control it gains. Once per fight.

Death Roll: A river dragon that has grappled an enemy
and built up to Initiative 11+ may use the terrifying death
roll, a decisive savaging attack that benefits from double
7s as the dragon twists to forcibly rip off chunks of flesh.
The death roll inflicts a crippling injury (p. 201) on its
victim, but with the river dragon’s player choosing how
severe an injury to inflict and forgoing the appropriate
amount of damage. Once per fight.

Lunge From the Depths: While the river dragon is underwater,
it may rush enemies on land from out to medium
range, moving one range band towards its victim on each
of that character’s turns in addition to its normal movement.
If it is concealed from its victim, it adds two successes
on the rush roll.

Merits
Bioluminescent: The mutant radiates light, equivalent to a
glowing anima banner. She can suppress this for a scene
with a miscellaneous action.

Fins (1): The mutant has fins, webbed hands, or a fishlike
lower body. She adds dice equal to this Merit’s value on
movement rolls while swimming, and ignores difficult
terrain from poor swimming conditions.
Drawback: The mutant suffers a penalty of half this Merit’s
value, rounded up, on land-based movement. With three
or more dots, she treats all land as difficult terrain.

Serpentine: Instead of legs, the mutant has a serpentine
lower body or similar anatomy. She ignores penalties for
being prone.
Drawback: The mutant suffers −2 penalty on jumping-based
movement actions.

Deadly Weaponry: This mutation depicts especially
dangerous natural weapons: long claws, piercing tusks,
stinging tails, etc. One of the mutant’s natural attacks gains
one of the Balanced, Chopping, Disarming, Flexible,
Piercing, or Smashing tags.(Bite attack gets piercing)

Bottomless Lungs: A river dragon can hold its breath
underwater for fifteen minutes before it needs to surface.
In a scene of combat or intense physical exertion, it may
hold its breath for the entire scene, but must then surface
at the end of the scene.

Keen Nose: River dragons apply the double 9s rule on
Perception-based rolls made using scent.

Legendary Size: The river dragon’s size makes it extraordinarily
difficult for human-scale enemies to engage it in
combat. It does not take onslaught penalties from any
attack made by a smaller opponent, although magicallyinflicted
onslaught penalties still apply against it. Withering
attacks made by smaller enemies cannot drop it
below 1 Initiative unless they have a post-soak damage of
10 dice (although attackers can still gain the full amount
of Initiative damage dealt). Decisive attacks made by
smaller enemies cannot deal more than (3 + attacker’s
Strength) levels of damage to the river dragon with a single
attack, not counting any levels of damage added by Charms
or other magic.

Night Vision: River dragons can see in dim conditions as
though they were in broad daylight, and reduce the difficulty
of Perception-based checks made in deeper darkness
by one.

Undertow Menace: The river dragon gains double 8s
whenever it attempts to establish Stealth while underwater.

 

[Random Word]

Maja hears the tentacles smashing through the rotten wood behind her and without turning her tails whip into action to intercept them. Beneath all that fur they're surprisingly well muscled, and they strain valiantly to hold back the onslaught, but several tons of Kraken is more than she can deflect, and she braces herself for impact.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Agile Beast Defense, 1m personal, +1 Parry
Parry is 4 -1 (DBT) +1 (ABD) +1 (Stunt) = 5
It hits with 4 net hits.
Using Sta+Str Excellency to boost soak by 4 for 4 peripheral motes.
Soak is 14

 

[Sherwood]

Maja gets smacked by the Kraken, knocking you around a bit, but what little extra footing it gets is immediately taken away by Rivers as she clobbers the massive thing. It is Crashed again.

Syvvaris is up next with Thallus

Round Two
13 - Bard
12 - Spider
11 - Dromond
11 - Kuaidao
8 - Maja
7 - River Kraken
6 - Rivers
6 - Thallus <====

Round Three
16 - Maja
17 - Bard
17 - Spider
15 - Kuaidao
13 - Rivers
12 - Dromond
Crashed - River Kraken

 

[Syvvaris]

The rocking ship made it difficult for Thallus to move to a sturdy place on the ship to put his back against that wasn't near the railings. With heavy breathing he watched the others fight valiantly, weaving song, turning into beasts to fight this river monster. What good would a bow do to this beast? Even his one offensive spell seemed useless at this point. He still notches a bow, waiting for a better strike.


[OOC: I'll hold my action if I can. If not I don't do anything. I'm not going to let an Int. Crash go to waste with my puny damage/initiative]

 

[Sherwood]

Thallus delays his action as the Seagull tosses and turns.

Everyone regains 5m of Essence.

D. Rex and Psychie are up

Round Three
17 - Bard <====
17 - Spider <====
16 - Maja
15 - Kuaidao
13 - Rivers
12 - Dromond
5 - Thallus
Crashed - River Kraken

 

[Psychie]

Spider snarls at this this stupid river kraken. Time to hurt this thing. She plays a hunch that the thing is using the wreckage of the other ship as cover, so she takes a running leap, running along the back of one of the large tentacles until she is close enough to the wreckage to make another leap, this time though, she dives with her blades pointed down to blast her way through the ruined deck to drive her twin swords deep into the flesh of the body.

Spoiler

Performing a Decisive attack, adding 5m to my Dex Excellency to hit, and 2m on Divine Predator Strike

14 to hit, doing 8L

Graceful Crane Stance and Sense Sharpening Change active

Health Levels
- 0 [ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
- 3 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
I

Willpower: 7 / 6

Essence: 1
Personal: 16 / 0
Peripheral: 38 / 33
Committed: 0

Join Battle: 10 +3 successes

Parry: 6
Evasion: 4
Resolve: 4
Guile: 1

Natural Soak: +5
Armored Soak: +5
Total Soak: +10L

Weapon Damage
Paired Short Swords
Accuracy +4, Damage +7L, Overwhelming 1

 

[Sherwood]

Spider runs with lighting speed, dancing across the water on the exposed tentacle until she makes another leap into the air to come plunging down through the rotting hull of the wreck and then you plunge them deep into the body of the kraken as it flails ineffectually at the group. Dark red blood flows out as the thing shudders from the impact, and you can clearly see that it is badly hurt.

D. Rex is up

Round Three
17 - Bard <====
17 - Spider
16 - Maja
15 - Kuaidao
13 - Rivers
12 - Dromond
5 - Thallus
Crashed - River Kraken

Round Four
3 - Spider