o fuck Ripples into the thought network as Ariadne sense the spirit minds as they start to pour out of the house.
8 init
o fuck Ripples into the thought network as Ariadne sense the spirit minds as they start to pour out of the house.
8 init
INITIATIVE : Animus 22 | RATS! 19 | Leo 15 | Ermon 11 | Asp 8 | Ariadne 8 | Avis 7
roadnottaken Animus is up!
Rats. Writhing, squirming. But he didn't feel a thing. What were they, really?
For a moment, the wolf hangs back, studying his prey. Were his suspicions borne out?
3 suxx scrut
RATS! are up Casitive
Squirming and squeaking, the rats rush over everyone's legs and feet. The feel of their whiskers is horrifyingly ticklish. So many, they create a cacophony of pestilence marching to protect their 'home' from these intruders.
Animus sees it while he gains his bearings. Each one of the rats form a single, unified whole: a Guardian Spirit.
Attracted by the blood seeping from Avis wound, the hoard of rats rush around her. Two of them bite through her armor a needle like pain shooting through her leg. Then she feels it, the poison that lingers in their tiny teeth traveling through her blood like an invading force. It burns her as it burns her mana, unseen senses surges through each other mage as the rats tug upon the tellurian.
XanderAttack + 3E to boost Power! 2 Successes, Spirit Venom 2E spent – 4Bashing to Avis and Minus 1 Mana from her pool
Seeing the swarm file out of their holes Leo immediately drew his machete and moved to Avis's side to start hacking at the thing. The machete came done on it, but the shear number stopped him from having any visible effect.
Of coarse normally he'd step up to heal Avis as the tiny bites penetrated her flesh, but the rats seemed drawn to the blood. Closing the wounds might mean them going for a different target and, well, Leo kinda thought rats were way gross.
No damage to the swarm
Ermon is up!
Guessing what the rats are
Yeah, no way he's getting close to that thing. Or, actually, doing anything to it. Ermon's Pattern is giving him a headache from overwork and it doesn't look like throwing a knife at the rats will do much good. What they need is a fucking flamefrower. But what he can do is put two and two together. Really, they come outta nowhere and can do something like spellcasting. Those can't be real rats, can they? A series of images of incorporeal things coming into the physical plane is sent into the network along with words:
Spirits. Use Spirit Arcanum!
Ermon spends his action ruminating about the Spirits and telling people what he's come up with. Cross is up
Asp moved, the trip-wires having been taken out by Avis. In the ticklish, horrifying swarm, her Cabal-mate was injured, and the Obrimos knew what needed to be done. It was going to hurt, her Mana boiling away from her - but there was someone in need. Someone she cared about.
The Imago formed. Her Mana was drawn. It was done. With a choked cry of pain and a flashing of agony through the link as her Pattern screamed out against the horrid burning and taste of Abyss-tainted Mana, she healed some of the injuries that the rats had wrought upon her cabal-mate.
-2M, -1WP. Asp heals 2B from Avis and takes the -1 penalty to further actions.
Kelreth
Jesus FUCK! The Rats! They were everywhere! Fucking Rats! Fucking Scelesti! Fucking World!
GO! FIND THE CHILD! Avis screamed into her companion's Mind's. If the rats were slowly killing her, a child would have absolutely no chance. A clock with a very short timer was starting to tick, and if she could give her comrades more time by being bait, so be it!
The arm holding her improvised skewer was like an erratic windmill, coming up and down in scything strokes that sent rats flying, battering them off her leg with enough strength to snap the metal she wielded.
2 successes to skewer rats
She now has no weapon, per FS: Improvised Weaponry 3
Ermon's call confirms what Animus sees in his vision: that they aren't rats at all. Not like the rats people make light of in New York City that scamper here and there beneath everyone's feet. This swarm is a denizen of the Shadow Realm attacking these interlopers to protect its home.
Leo's attack hits nothing. There's too many constituent parts to keep track of to try to get a good swing in. The machete hits the floor, splinters of wood flying up into his face while the rats move out of the way like a strange water splash.
Asp selflessly goes to her cabalmate's, ordermate's, and friend's aid knitting the wound Avis took on herself while sharing the burden of pain.
Ariadne attempts to use the power of the mind to rend the Spirit, but Spirits run on different rules. Sensing their strange, alien consciousness just isn't the same as being able to rend it. Too alien and only just incompatible.
At the same time, Avis kills a paltry sum of rats. The unlucky few twitching as they are replaced by the rest of the swarm.
Asp regains WP on Virtuous Act and is on a -1 penalty to all actions. Avis has lost her weapon. Ariadne is also on a -1 penalty to all actions. roadnottaken / Animus is up.