Dogs of War

[Emily Makerith]

Emily moves over to Bleeds Well, shifting up to the stronger Dalu form as she does so. "Use your speaking words, dude," she says with a cheery grin, laying a clawed hand on the shape to take it from his mouth.

Nate's question answered, Eyes glance between Matt and Bleeds Well to see what is going on.

[Bleeds Well]

Emily takes the overgrown rust mote from him, and he shifts up to Dalu to match her.

"Hey Emily, I was just talking with Matt. If we've got some big battles ahead of us, then we should make sure we're all on the same page. So we can fight like a pack, instead of a bunch of individuals. I was showing Matt that even his size and strength can be negated by someone whose faster. Wolves hunt together, they bring down their prey and then kill it mercifully and quickly. We should be ready to do the same. Grab, pin, kill, working in groups of three or four or as a whole pack we can bring down the mightiest of foes. I thought, well, we don't have a war master, but. a war is coming. We should all be on the same page, ya know."

He shrugs and take a small step back. Slightly embarrassed to catch himself thinking he could teach the older beta something.

[Nathaniel Dormur]

Nathaniel followed along well enough. The plan was a solid one- the last time he'd been heavily involved in a fight, it'd become a trainwreck of fleeing Pure in Kuruth and Emily requiring talked down.

Emily seemed to take charge easily. "Except with us it's Grab, Pin, and Disable in some cases?" A smile there. If Brigit was proof of anything, it was that some Pure could be redeemed.

Then the way he talked about it- as a war. As something big approaching. Was it? "That's... Strong language. More than the what we already face, you think?" The crescent was curious. Nathaniel had yet to experience some of the carnage tales old and new had noted. And he didn't think the pack was ready for it- or perhaps he felt only he wasn't?

Nonetheless, Nathaniel shifted into Dalu in preparation.

  Dalu Shift

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-14 19:26:28		Nathaniel rolls 5 to Shapeshift (Stamina + Survival + Primal Urge) (10 Again)		6, 7, 7, 5, 9		1 success
2020-04-14 19:26:13		Nathaniel rolls 5 to Shapeshift (Stamina + Survival + Primal Urge) (10 Again)		1, 4, 1, 2, 6		failure

[Matt Joule]

Matt grins at Bleeds Well's description of the results of their little practice session, but nods at the talk of fighting as a Pack and preparing for War.

He shifts to Dalu himself.

Towering over the others, again, Matt laughs and says, "Yeah. We haven't had a real fight yet, Nathaniel. Just some little warning stuff. We have to get ready for some serious shit, when the enemy doesn't just run away the first time we bite 'em."

[Emily Makerith]

Emily nods. "Makes sense. It's been a long time since I've done things like actual pack tactics - I'm running pretty heavy on instinct where we do."

She looks at Nathaniel warily. "Disabling us doesn't really happen, buddy. Before long we're fighting fit for anything that's not silver or like it. B is an exception, a fucking rare one at that. Don't get your hopes up anyone will surrender."

She waves at Matt. "Yeah. The scuffles with the Pure have been literally that. One group scared away and another left a spirit to do their work. We've fought spirits, but the Pure are different. Killing a Person is different. And if it's Murder or not kinda depends on just who you are." The People Do Not Murder the People. But in human law Murder wasn't the same in war. It was all semantics. But the fact was the People did kill each other, no matter what the Oath said.

"So. Anyone wanna show us little Crescents some tricks?" Go ahead. Underestimate me, boys.

[Bleeds Well]

BW nods, understanding where Emily is coming from.

"That's the impression I've gotten. Nothing wrong with it, it's worked, but I know how much deadlier that fighting as a unit can be."

"Fighting as a pack is about efficiency, working together rather than for personal glory. That sounds strange coming out of a Rahu's mouth I'm sure. Speed and violence. Most battles hinges on these two things, who can get the most violent the fastest.

When we go into battle, the first wolf to engage the enemy, just grabs them. So does the second, and the third, and the fourth. They can't go anywhere if four Uratha are holding onto limbs. Then the first wolf holds them still. The second and third wolf tear into them, most things won't survive to the fourth wolf's attack. If they do, the fourth wolf attacks them, if they don't, the fourth wolf can run down the next victim. We're a large pack, if we we gang up on two opponents at a time, we can decimate any enemy in just seconds."

As he speaks he mimes out the motions on an invisible enemy, pretending to grab someone and then dropping onto all fours and pretending to bite a lower extremity.

"There are other tactics that wolf packs use, but this is the basics we all should know first."

mechanics

unarmed combat wolf pack

[Nathaniel Dormur]

The way everyone talked... Something big was coming then? There were things Nathaniel had to do. Training, fortunately, was one of them.

"Alright. So training as a group." B was an exception yeah, but. The crescent wasn't keen on killing anyone when other options exist. He was optimistic in that regard.

The tactic seemed simple enough. Focus their energies on one target at a time, strike it down until it isn't an issue. But the way he described it? Brutally efficient, with death as the end goal... "If our goal is to kill them. It works." It would be easy enough with four of them, like Bleeds Well said. The hard part would be dealing with the consequences afterwards- and who would bear them?...

"If there's only a couple left, we could probably cripple them or knock them unconscious." Not just to avoid killing- that was a grim inevitability, he knew. One he would prefer to delay, but... "It would help to learn more about the Pure in this area." If things were really going to get as dire as everyone else stated, then they needed all the information they could get.

[Matt Joule]

Matt grins, baring his teeth as they all talk about the tactic to practice. "So, we need to practice grabbing hold as a team. Enough talking, come at me!" Matt shouts, inviting Nathaniel to lead in trying to grapple Matt! "You don't have to try to hurt me, just try to hold me and believe the rest of the Pack will help!"

Getting a grip shouldn't be that hard, actually, Matt has Defense 2.

Maybe we can learn Pack Tactics!

[Emily Makerith]

The Crescent nods. All made sense to her.

Nate, on the other hand.... man, he really had lived a sheltered life. Taking a Pure alive was way easier said than done.

But now Matt was offering the chance.

And she did like proving her worth....

The Crescent jumps towards Matt, going for his chest.

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-15 11:53:08		Emily rolls 6 to Go for the grapple! Str+Brawl+1 (Urshal) - 2 def (10 Again)		3, 9, 2, 4, 8, 4		2 successes

Emily starts the Grapple!

[Bleeds Well]

Emily moves to grab Matt and Bleeds Well follows suit.

He shifts as he moves, giant wolf head snatching at Matt's pant leg. He snarls and shakes, spittle flying as he's totally focused on getting a good grip

  4 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-15 12:10:37		Bleeds Well rolls 9 to Grapple (Str + Brawl + 2 +AoA -1 Matt's Defense) (10 Again)		3, 1, 5, 10, 10, 1, 2, 8, 6, 9, 3		4 successes

Mechanics

. Matt's defense was 2, -1 for Emily's attack, Nate can now grab ahold with a straight Str+Brawl +form bonuses roll, Matt's defense is reduced to zero.