Bright Feather grabs Hana...we are leaving now and will find the guys and rethink this endeavour ...

Armed and armored, holy sigil upon her shield raised, Karni will cover the withdrawal.

11:46 AM

Caden

Lungs burning you scramble up the steep escarpment to get up to the New Graveyard level. Didn't think you could run up such a grade safely in less than a minute — must be running on fight or flight mode. Alric's buddy is in danger, never seen a body so stiff that it tips over like a statue, well except that weird period soon after death (rigor mortis)...

Shit, man, and he was such a cool little guy. Even willing to take a punch for me. Feeling obliged to care for a new friend, but just met him yesterday. Are we ready to grieve together like that so soon?

There's the women over yonder, a good minute by jog, 400' (or 3 rounds by the way you're sprinting full speed in panic). (You can sprint full speed to them. Just take a moderate CON check now for being winded afterwards. You did a massive wind sprint, uphill a steep grade, and added a lap sprint.) Something's wrong... no, no, no! They work together better than this!

Karnath is on the ground calling out and struggling to get up quickly, swinging her arms about as if she's seeing things not there and trying to warn the others. Hanalee look, stand-offish, argumentative? Does she ever get mad? She's always been so acquiescent with you yesterday. Bright Feather looks flustered from the antics. This is unnerving...
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Alric

Looking Mal all over for a snake bite you find nothing. What the hell is going on? The frothing is minor and not a familiar visible symptom of going rabid, something you've seen before in other animals. Also the rigidity, and so quickly, completely denies that assumption.

Wait... those bones. There's that longer one nearby. Maybe he got sick from a disease? That usually doesn't happen, but Mal didn't like the taste so... Need Karnath's help, maybe she'll know. And who will help you carry Mal out of here?

Where's Caden? You need your friends, but how can you leave Mal's side? Maybe they aren't that far? Can you risk it, or just wait and have faith in your new found friends?

Karnath

"Aww, help a brother out. It's only a little roughing up of that back-stabbing son of a bitch who stole my fucking future for blood money—"

"I'll give you silver, more than you can count. I got a nice forgotten claim a ways off. Let me ride you. It'll be fun, let me ride you—"

"— he deserves to burn in hell right now, this very moment! I'll kill him! I'll kill him with my very own hands, you hear me! KILL HIM!"

"—Oh, c'mon, just for another romp downtown, sweet thing. Haven't you ever been thirsty, girlie. They say for a price you can try anything at Tunnels &—"

"—Just over those mountains is family & home. Gotta warn my brothers not to come here. Too dangerous. They'll eat him alive here. Gotta warn—"

"— you'll miss it you know, the pleasures of the flesh. Learn to take what you can, when you can, missy. Come on, let me show you what's out there!"

"My brother will die, ma'am! I gotta go back and save him! Why won't you open to me? I gotta go, I need to go, OPEN DAMN YOU!"
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Bright Feather

{She's getting hostile, that Hanalee, letting herself be manipulated. How expected. She'll just be more trouble for us later on, obviously. Should probably tell her off right now, work her into her predictable anger. Then she can go find herself on whatever that stupid, self-destructive quest she thinks she's on. Finally Karnath and I would be able to get some actual work done.}
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Hanalee

{Oh no, she did not just grab my arm and try to usher me out like some sort of stray child. Who the hell does she think she is? Little Miss Dazed and Confused, with Thrashy the Wonder Priestess here, think with a little whiz-bang magic they can make "trouble and the bad men" go away again? And what the hell was I, Hanalee, doing getting my chops busted last night? At least with that Bandit Bitch Queen last night you knew where you stood with her, stabbing you from the front!}
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(We could start rolling save checks, but we're having such fun with roleplaying, yes? I'll let you enjoy this and give an opportunity to cue such checks upon yourself as you see fit... for now.

I did use 5e MM concepts for this, too. Not direct ports of monsters, as setting wise they don't fit as well, but repurposing of existing specials and stats. I just did not expect you'd all beeline for so much danger so quickly. If you are interested in a behind the screen breakdown later, let me know in [Interest] topic.)

Hanalee plants her feet and resists Karnath's pull on her arm. "Fight it off?" she asks the cleric incredulously. "The only thing I have to fight...is you!" She tugs her arm backwards, and suddenly growls.

"Magic," she hisses bitterly, like an accusation. "You did something, didn't you? The BOTH of you!"

"You called something up that you can't control..."

She draws a dagger, but steps back from the others far enough that she won't have to use it...part of her holds her dagger back...she doesn't want to use it at all...but the other, angrier part, tells her that this is how it has to be...

{ooc: what's my save?  Karni:  1D20 =>   11}

Karni will keep her shield raised, holy image of The Great Goddess protect her, the Moon, like a spider's egg sac, which she rolls into the sky at night. Cursed Sun Father, of course this happens in his light.

Bright gives a frustrated shake...fine just stay here then!..are you coming Karni?

(OoC: D20 roll=19 if we get to save)

Quote from: Marleycat;787289Bright gives a frustrated shake...fine just stay here then!..are you coming Karni?

(OoC: D20 roll=19 if we get to save)

"Right behind you!" Karni brings up the rear.

"Damn it . . . Damn . . Damn" He keeps checking over Mal like that will change what happened. Thinking it isn't disease more likely poison only thing that would work so fast, But his body so stiff, just not right.

Gotta wait, trust your friends, They wouldn't let poor Mal get hurt, Would they?

No, Gotta have faith. . .

Hanalee grits her teeth and watches the others flee.

(OOC: I rolled a d20 to save also and got a 4)

Caden will attempt too sprint the rest of the way to the girls. (blew the roll made a 6 but lets see how it pans out)

"Hey whats going on! We've got trouble back the other way, the dog is petrified or something!" Caden screams at the top of his lungs, no time to puzzle out what's going on.

Bright Feather, Caden, Hanalee, & Karnath

still 11:46 AM

Caden

You get there to the women, but you collapse in a heap gasping. Sprinting full tilt up a 40 percent grade hill is no joke. You're panting outright and lightheaded, like about to faint. You need at least a round to start pointing, and another round atop to spit out any useful information.

Meanwhile you feel a bit helpless as you watch (this round and the next) the women tear each other apart inside the graveyard's borders.

(Just scribble up what Caden will gesture or pant out, and after those 12 seconds you can talk normally, albeit still recovering on the ground. Put it all in the same post.)
-----------

(The current option for the women was "save roll OR roleplaying it out." Nice to see a variety of choices selected, and a 5e function I'd like to try again later (we get to roleplay anything out! yay!). I can understand selecting either dice or role play, for various reasons; personally sometimes I roll because I like randomized creativity, sometimes I can't trust myself to choose suffering temptation. But the dice are not always your friend, too. So let's resolve this!)

Bright Feather

Shaking it off, you know that you just need to get away from this situation. And with Karnath's warning, you know this doubly so. Crazy is happening, time to ramp down the drama and walk off this 'weird and bad earth'.

Walking off the graveyard, you come across a crumpled bodily form. Oh, it's Caden! He's panting heavily, totally winded. Where the hell has he been all this time? ...
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Hanalee

Typical mean girl behavior. Yeah, you better back away! That's why Georgette and I are cool. She knows what it's like to be a strong girl picked on by petty, smaller girls, and being told that you can't just punch them out. Think they're so smart — but you're still a shitty friend!

I should yell something clever and dismissive like them. Like, um, what?
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Karnath

(and now we get to the unfriendly dice...)

Better not escalate, she doesn't mean it. Can't leave her to these things either. Goddess, protect me! Shameful Sun Father, be gone from me!

"... are you coming Karni?"

I sure am coming, this place is too dangerous. "Right behind you!"

Best thing I can do for Hanalee is leave her alone with no one to figh—

/a coldness seizes your heart. But it's not like really abandoning a friend!

"A ha! Open! I can almost taste the whiskey—"

"I gotta go save my brother!"

"You stupid son of— at least let me ride, too!"

Out of your own mouth, Karnath, "No! You can't come with! I won't let you! You'll only get in the way!" You hear it like a distant observer...

The sensation of running full tilt, heedlessly, down mountain. {To the East, over those high mountains, to the massive desert of grass! Home! Home! I must save my brother!} ... like a distant observer riding a crazy horse.
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Hanalee

(rolling after choosing roleplay is deliberately tempting fate, y'know? Well, it makes for interesting situations at least.)

{The hell I will get in the way! You are not the boss of me! I'll show you! Aaaaarrgggh!} Your fists and teeth clench, your eyes feel like a red film clouds your vision. {Racing is something I can do. Outrun the likes of you and knock your ass down, too!} The sensation of running full tilt, heedlessly, after Karnath, but like atop an animal mount — a Hanalee mount?

"Come back here you coward! I can do anything you can do better!" That's my Hanalee voice, but doesn't feel like my own Hanalee words... And that new voice inside my head, it wasn't there before, was it? Was it!?... Uh-oh!

OOC: To Caden & Bright Feather, you watch these rounds as Hanalee chases Karnath, who in turn chases the Eastern horizon. Winded Caden & Bright Feather are left with each other after a bewildering scene. Feel free to respond normally as before.

Hanalee & Karnath, you both can still function. But note you are reasoning with another being controlling your body. Your actions are more an effort to fight to regain control, like the Steve Martin movie All of Me. Wacky (deadly?) hijinks to likely ensue.

OOC: Any clarification needed? You all get to respond in the big graveyard before the upcoming chase goes into full swing down the mountain.

Karni does what? I don't know. Runs off.