(Broken Cycle) Back on the Street

[Titania]

She steps right after the Dread Lord, after having spared Sonnie one last look. Hopefully they wouldn't be trading a danger for another.
Who she was kidding? The Thorns were always dangerous.

[Saber Sloth]

With a crack! the boards give way!

The air shimmers as the Dread Lord opens the way, the Lost flee through the newly formed Gate.

Sera standing, ready to defend sees the figures, five of them. Looking human. No extra claws or wings or tusks, before she too enters the Gate and slides into the Hedge.

Once within the Hedge they see the Door, and the alley beyond. It would stay open for sometime, and those....people might follow them.

But, one thing arrests all of their attention.

Standing as tall as the Tag was high upon the wall, is a Stag. Wooden shaped with vines and thorns, The Stag. Antlers reaching for the sky, wreathed in the same flowers, flowing down the stag's back, akin to a cape.

[Sonnie Wu]

Sonnie was the last one through, backing through the gateway once the Emerald Queen was Thornside. She stood there now, prepared to bar entry. Bottleneck the strangers at the door until the Glamour wore off. That made the most sense.

That was the plan... until she noticed the giant wooden stag thing.

"What the frickin' frack?" she gasped as she spun around to face the... whatever it was.

This wasn't the Huntsman, was it? Why would he just be standing there as a deer? Then again, why did True Fae do anything they did?

The Beast peered suspiciously at it. Did it move? It... it was just... "A bigass wooden statue?"

Her head swiveled back to the doorway. She had to watch for the pursuers. Hold out until the gate closed. Assuming a defensive posture, she held her staff ready.

Sonnie is physically blocking passage through the gate for now, while taking the Dodge action.

[Seraphina]

Trading one bad situation for another, she enters the gate. Keeping an eye on Sonnie, ready to throw a punch of she needed to.

But then things changed.

And there was a giant Stag.

“That can’t be good.” She mutters, looking around nervously. “I don’t think we should stay here too long. This could have been a trap.” It made sense, they followed from the front and rear, forcing them into the building or into a gate. Or she was paranoid. But when it came to a Gentry, one had to be paranoid.

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-18 11:27:06		Seraphina rolls 4 to Perception?(Wits+Comp)-1 Clarity (10 Again)		5, 10, 7, 10, 6, 10, 1		3 successes

[Rhodes]

Rhodes looks up at the giant idol, grimacing. "Well. Makes sense there would be a subtle marker on this side as well."

Turning around, he looks at the portal. "It will take a few moments to close. Titania, stay behind Sonnie, she may need that flash again. Sera, help me keep an eye on the Hedge."

The Dread Lord looks around reaching into the local Hedge for answers.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-18 14:15:02		Rhodes rolls 5 to Pathfinder: Int+Wyrd (10 Again)		9, 7, 1, 3, 2		1 success

As per the Dream contract Rhodes learns one feature about the local hedge - Are there any traps nearby?

[Titania]

"Hmm, yes", she says. But the statue is mesmerizing, it must have been the one referenced by the paretial art in the alley. There must be a meaning. The Hedge sometimes communicates in odd ways.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-18 14:35:42		Titania rolls 6 to Occult based Perception (wits + occult - clarity) (10 Again)		1, 7, 7, 9, 4, 7		1 success

[Saber Sloth]

As the Monkey stand guard, fierce against the portal. She feels a growing unease as nothing seems to press from the mortal alley they had left into the Hedge.

To Sera, she find them in a clearing, the wooden statue as Sonnie put it, a monument and an eyesore. She sees, a finely cleared path, a well trodden road, lanterns suspended along the path, unlit.

She sees a gate, metal perhaps, meters away. Blocking an obvious exit, and where this well tended path widens.

For Rhodes, this isn't a trap, insofar that traps are hidden. His mind links this setting the tended clearing, and the path downward as something like a foxhunt.

Titania, looking elsewhere for her information, sees the effigy, and it is an effigy. Where she had been the first the know that the Tag on the Mortal side, was a declaration and calling card, she knows this is where it began. Seeping from the Hedge and declaring this place, that street. Territory.

Unless Rhodes meet the Catch, you still need to pay the Glamour Cost for Dream 1: Pathfinder.

[Sonnie Wu]

Seconds ticking by, she excitedly adjusts the grip on her staff. For all the chill-inducing fear she was experiencing, Sonnie was indeed excited. She was of the Spring Court, after all. There was a thrill to all of this. Was her mouth locked into a dangerous snarl? No, she was grinning in anticipation. The adrenaline was feeding her passions. As much as the Beast wanted to just escape and go home, there was a part of her that welcomed a good fight. The heart-pounding action of combat.

At least, a fight that she could win. Because losing sucked butt... and she'd probably die if she did.

But where were the bad guys? No threats presented themselves. No bizarre strangers were trying to force their way through the gate.

Yet.

There were still some seconds left. How much longer would this faerie doorway remain open?

She didn't let her eyes stray from the gate. Not again. "Well? We got a path out of here?" she asked to those behind her. "Is the Trojan Stag gonna be a problem?"

[Seraphina]

Sapphires follow the path, then see the gate.

Hmm.

Finally, she looks to the Beast, “There is a path,” and she points it out, “which appears to lead to a gate of some kind, maybe metal?” she didn’t sound sure, cause it was far away. “And the path appears to widen past it. Looks like it could be an exit, but it looks too easy.” Was she still being paranoid? Hell yes. And the giant Stag wasn’t making it any better.

“Did we want to start heading that way? Or does someone have a better way out?” cause the quicker they were out and away from that damn Stag, the better.

[Rhodes]

"It's a run," Rhodes mutters to himself as the Wyrd highlights his sight. "The path - it's a run," he repeats more loudly. "No traps - We're meant to go that way as a part of the chase. We want to go any other way. I had hoped we could just slip to one of the Hollows from here."

He frowns. The Autumn King is no Hedge-diver - any way off the path is risky if lead by him. "Anyone good at navigating?"

Sorry about that!