(1808) A Duel

[Knot]

As Knot's foot comes down, it rings with the chime of a silver bell, his foot and soon the rest of him armored in a quite literal suit of emerald-green mail, decorated in the themes of thistles and thorns and fantastic animals of a distinctively fey design. The tangle of string around his left hand twitches and writhes like a living thing, before unraveling itself into intangibility. Within moments there are naught but the faintest glimmers and flickers of light that catch on nearly invisible threads finer than anything made by man that tremble and twitch in response to the movements of Knot's hands.

He bows to his opponent.

Sword Fate 3
Shield Life 2
Willpower
Health

  Initiative 12

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-23 15:27:41		Knot rolls 1 die for initiative		4

[Epitaph]

Epitaph did not step into the circle with the same grace and energy as her opponent, but instead strode with the grim determination of the walking dead. As her opponent's Will was made manifest, Epitaph reached up with her left hand, grasping the black folds of her right sleeve in her cruel talons, and tore it free, leaving it to flutter outside the circle.

With her arm bared, Epitaph held her hand out, palm towards the sky, and then began to strain against an invisible force. The muscle she had began to flex, as though struggle to lift an enormous weight, and as she strained the skin around her hand began to turn black and necrotic, the flesh peeling away to reveal rotted meat and bone. Small streams of pus and blood flowed down her arm, spreading corruption in its wake, the flesh rotting away before their very eyes, maggots writhing within the meat of her arm, wretched tendons sliding over glimpses of bone. Then, her arm fully rotted, her hand began to rise, and as it rose, the ground beneath her feet began to crack and buckle, the ancient stone breaking as the limbs of the wretched dead stretched towards the sky...

Her Sword summoned, Epitaph held her left arm out, talons pointed towards the ground, and suddenly, rivers of silver and gold, copper and brass, began to spill from the tips of her fingers, solidifying into abstract patterns and shapes as the metal miraculously hardened before their eyes...

"I can barely even see your Sword, Corax," Epitaph taunted, her dark yes intent upon the young Enchanter.

Sword Death 3
Shield Matter 2
Willpower 5
Health 8 Knot goes first!

  Init 10

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 01:27:25		Epitaph rolls 1 die for initiative		5

  failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 01:28:37		Epitaph rolls 1 to The Wisest Trash Talk (manip2+subter3-knot4) (10 Again)		2		failure

[Knot]

Knot nods his head as if to concede the truth of Epitaph's statement.

As he does so, he makes a fluid little flourish with his hand...

There is a flash of light as a string is pulled taught three feet from him...

And Epitaph slips on one of her errant feathers, twisting her ankle before she can regain her balance.

It's a crow's feather.

"Watch your step."

  1 success = 1 wp damage

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 01:48:21		Knot rolls 4 to Pow! (3+3-2) (10 Again)		4, 9, 6, 2		1 success

Sword Fate 3
Shield Life 2
Willpower
Health

[Epitaph]

A sharp cry of surprise burst from Epitaph's lips as the crow feather slid beneath her foot and she went toppling unceremoniously to the side, landing awkwardly amidst a pool of liquid metal, the dead slaved to her command writhing in despair as their Mistress flailed amidst the folds of her robes.

With a vicious snarl, her perfectly white teeth bared, Epitaph righted herself, her rotted arm thrust out, one of her taloned nails peeling off and falling to the ground as she commanded the dead to surge forth. The tile beneath them cracked as the mass of dead flesh surged forth, a flurry of blows bouncing off of Knot's mail, only for a corpse with an ancient war bow to rise and send a pure black arrow straight into his chest, corruption spreading from the wound...

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 02:07:31		Epitaph rolls 7 to Taste Death (gnos3+death3+WP-2) (10 Again, WillPower)		5, 1, 3, 10, 2, 10, 1, 2, 9		3 successes

Sword Death 3
Shield Matter 2
Willpower 3/5
Health 8
Knot takes 3 WP damage!

[Knot]

Knot staggers back, the foul arrow protruding from both his front and his back, and he pulls at the strings of Fate.

In an instant, strings binding the unquiet dead to Epitaph's will are made obvious, as are the strings that Knot has attached to them.

Knot brings down something like a knife, something like a pair of shears, golden and radiant and sharp.

The strings shatter and recoil, lashing at Epitaph.

The unquiet dead crumble and decay, with a moan of what might be gratitude.

  1 success = 1 wp damage!

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 02:20:21		Knot rolls 4 to Zap! (3+3-2) (10 Again)		4, 2, 8, 2		1 success

Sword Fate 3
Shield Life 2
Willpower 3/6
Health

[Epitaph]

"Corax!" Epitaph roared, spittle flying from her stained lips as her rotted arm reached out and pulled more corpses out of the ground, their withered bodies and rotting limbs clad in rusting armor. More nails fell from her hand as the dead surged forth, swords and axes swinging, claws of bone and moldling teeth snapping against the armor.

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 02:37:49		Epitaph rolls 7 to Eat Death! (gnos3+death3+WP-2knot) (10 Again, WillPower)		7, 10, 6, 1, 5, 10, 9, 7, 5		3 successes

Sword Death 3
Shield Matter 2
Willpower 1/5
Health 8
Knot takes 3 WP damage!

[Knot]

"Zombies?" Knot asks with distain. "Again?" Was that the limits of Epitaph's creativity and vision? Death as a blunt tool suitable only for smashing?

Knot weathered the assault, his armor streaked with pus and rotted flesh, and is acutely aware of just how tired he is. Struggling against the horde, Knot kicks one of the dead out of his way and whips his hand towards his opponent, pulling strands of Fate together into a glowing whip that shatters one of the metallic patterns shielding Epitaph. Shards of silver shrapnel that scythe down more of the unquiet dead shoot across the dueling circle with the force of bullets, and while the horde of undead provides Knot with plenty of cover, Epitaph is not spared.

  2 successes = 1 willpower and 1 Bashing

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 11:12:17		Knot rolls 4 to Blang! (3+3-2) (10 Again)		2, 1, 9, 8		2 successes

Sword Fate 3
Shield Life 2
Willpower 0/6
Health

[Epitaph]

A bruise began to form beneath the pale make-up covering the Necromancer's face, the sting of the shattered metal barely felt beneath the exhaustion that had begun to eat at her. Her connection to the realm of Death had eaten at her, eroding her Will, sapping her strength nearly as much as the lash of Knot's cruel whip of Destiny.

Panting, her shoulders hunching beneath the weight of her robe, Epitaph thrust forth her hand once more, her fingernails having peeled off, her army of the dead falling into useless piles of dead flesh near Knot's feet.

Yet she was not defeated yet. When she had stepped from her door this morning, bags of feathers beneath her arm, she had known that this would mark the beginning, or the end, and nothing in between. Either she would triumph, or she would fall, but she would not give up. She could not give up...

Spittle flying from her lips with each gust of breathe, Epitaph closed her had into a fist, and with it, sunk her rotted flesh into the meat...of Knot's Soul.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-24 22:41:26		Epitaph rolls 4 to Death's Caress (gnos3+death3-2knot) (10 Again)		6, 8, 4, 6		1 success

Sword Death 3
Shield Matter 2
Willpower = 0!!!
​[/stats]
Knot takes 1 Bashing!

OOC

Not literally his Soul, it is imagery within the Duel Arcane.

[Knot]

A gasp escapes Knot as Epitaph rends at his Soul, and he quickly shrivels and withers into a desiccated husk under the assault.

There is a moment of triumph before Epitaph realized that she's attacking a withered tree that only looks like Knot. Then one emerald-scaled arm snakes around Epitaph's throat as Knot stabs Epitaph in the back with a pair of golden razor-sharp shears.

"Yield, Epitaph."

  2 successes = 2 Bashing!

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-25 16:23:16		Knot rolls 4 to Stab! (3+3-2) (10 Again)		9, 5, 9, 5		2 successes

Sword Fate 3
Shield Life 2
Willpower 0/6
Health

[Epitaph]

"Never!" Epitaph grunted, her back arching as the golden shears push deeper within her. Twisting her head around, the vertebrae grinding, the Necromancer opened her mouth and began to vomit a stream of maggots, pus, and squirming pieces of reanimated organs onto the Enchanter, the foul spew spreading corruption where it landed...

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-25 17:24:14		Epitaph rolls 4 to Die, already! (gnos3+death3-2knot) (10 Again)		8, 4, 2, 5		1 success

Sword Death 3
Shield Matter 2
Willpower = 0!!!
[/stats]
Knot takes 1 Bashing!