Hedge Patrol I

[Gerrit]

Some protector I am. Before he could really react the swarm jumped Cassandra and Ram disposed of it. Gerrit let out a shaky breath, the shrieking of the Hedgebeast still ringing in his ears, his mind.

He quickly went over to Cassandra, kneeling down and checking his surroundings before focusing on the Fairest. "Cassandra, are you okay?" He checked her body for any obvious wounds, careful not to smear or drip any of his excess blood onto her. He didn't touch her - given the pretty visible panic that seemed to have taken hold of her he didn't dare - but offered his hand in case she needed the comfort.

He shot Ram an appreciative and thankful glance. Insects or no, he didn't know if he would have been able to fight this well without hesitation. The time for patting each other on their backs was still far away though - the wounded Winter was his first priority.

[Cassandra Reeding]

The swarm is gone and dealt with and all the Fairest can do is just sit on the ground. "I'm sorry. I'm okay, I think," She says quietly, tears streaming down her face. She wipes the blood away from her arms, jumping a little bit at the stinging sensation of the cuts. "I'm completely useless here," she meant it in battle, but right now, she was also just feeling generally useless.

She shakes a bit as she stands back up, her legs still like jelly, "Thank you both." She says, wiping the tears from her eyes. I don't think I can talk about this right now. "We should-We shouldn't stay here for too long. They might come in reinforcements." Her voice is still shaky. I feel like a small child right now.

Will do for the future. I'll go ahead and make the test now that combat is over and whatever the result is can impact then?

Resolve + Wyrd: 2 sux

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-11-22 13:03:09	Cassandra Reeding rolls 4 to Resolve 2 + Wyrd 2 (10 Again)	1, 3, 9, 10, 4	2 successes

[Saber Sloth]

If you want you can give me 5 more Resolve+Wyrd rolls, and you'll be covered for the duration of effect, if any roll comes up with no suxx, stop there, and I'll narrate what happens.

[Cassandra Reeding]

Failed roll number 3

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-11-22 16:05:03	Cassandra Reeding rolls 4 to Resolve 2 + Wyrd 2 (10 Again)	7, 2, 10, 6, 9	2 successes

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-11-22 16:05:27	Cassandra Reeding rolls 4 to Resolve 2 + Wyrd 2 (10 Again)	8, 4, 9, 8	3 successes

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-11-22 16:05:38	Cassandra Reeding rolls 4 to Resolve 2 + Wyrd 2 (10 Again)	1, 4, 2, 2	failure

[Saber Sloth]

It might have taken forty minutes more, but the effect of the bites become more and more noticeable.

Cassandra feels it, the tiny-tiny bites ache, more in the way that old bruises do as opposed to fresh wounds. The minutes tick by, her heart pumps, tha-dum-tha-dum, a slow fog coils around her mind. She stumbles over the well trodden path, the moment between one blink and the next grows longer and longer until -

The Polychromatic drops, dead asleep.

Cassandra can mark the Lethal to a Bashing

One of the Ogres can roll Dex+Brawl to try and catch Cassandra before she hits the ground!

[Gerrit]

After the initial attack Cassandra seemed to be doing fine - shaken, yes and a bit wounded but Gerrit didn't notice anything alarming.
Which is probably why he reacted too slowly to the Artist collapsing.

He was still taking the rear, just trying to look out for repeated attacks from behind when he heard a thud. He turned around, eyes wide and arms uselessly reaching for the already fallen Lost. "Cassandra!"
There he was again, on his knees next to her and this time he didn't care for personal space. He gently touched her, waited for a reaction. He then checked for a pulse, breath or anything indicating what was wrong with her, all the while saying her name. You used to be so much more in control in situations like these. A stray thought, but true. Being tortured senseless seemed to do this to you. He tried to pull himself together - he failed to protect her, it was partly his fault she was in this situation and now he didn't even catch her when she fell. He couldn't let her down further.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-11-26 23:48:36	Gerrit rolls 3 to catch Cassandra (Dex 2 + Brawl 1) (10 Again)	6, 1, 3	failure

6 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-11-26 23:58:11	Gerrit rolls 9 to check for vitals and injury (Int 3 + Medicine 3 + WP) (10 Again, WillPower)	10, 1, 9, 2, 8, 3, 7, 4, 10, 9, 8	6 successes

[Saber Sloth]

The Fairest falls before the Ogres could catch her, but the Winter is already present and checking for vitals. He knows that the fall might have bruised something, but that was the least of his concerns.

Pulse, steady. Breathing slowly, deeply. As he checks her over, everything leads to the conclusions that Cassandra's asleep. She's not reacting to touch, her name, or the fall, however.

1B for the fall Cassandra!

[Gerrit]

Okay, this was going downhill fast. Adrenaline made Gerrit's vision almost tunnel - he didn't know whom he could rely on right now, but he knew Cassandra relied on him. Alive, but asleep. Not reacting to stimuli. He was pretty sure she was as stable as it got for now, but she needs to be brought to a safer place - which meant outside the Hedge. He looked around him once more, to see if there was more danger lurking in the thorns. How long have we been here? God, I'm exhausted. Has it always been just the two of us? This was not the time. He had to make sure they got out of the Hedge, and fast.

He called for the iron and stone running through his beaten body, moaning and grunting in a raspy tone has he allowed himself to unleash that part of him that wanted to dish out as well as he could take. Here in the Hedge he could feel it more clearly - all the pain he suffered, all the pent up retribution making his muscles vibrate in anticipation.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-12-02 04:14:27	Gerrit rolls 5 to invoke Might of the Terrible Brute (Str 3 + Wyrd 2) (10 Again)	8, 10, 6, 6, 7, 2	2 successes

He wanted see someone else's blood flow for a change, wanted to break bones and skin with his own hands rather than the other way around - oh the disappointment when he forced those urges to the back of his mind and used his Contract to pick his fellow Winter up rather than break her in half.

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-12-02 04:17:24	Gerrit rolls 8 to pick Cassandra up (Str 3 + Stam 3 + Contract 2) (10 Again)	4, 10, 1, 9, 4, 1, 9, 2, 2	3 successes

So fragile, so light. Diligence and blood kept the exhaustion and panic from overwhelming Gerrit as he knelt down, picked the Fairest up and adjusted his grip on her before standing up. He could probably carry her like this for some time. Now he only had to find a way back.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-12-02 04:25:20	Gerrit rolls 4 to look for a way home? (Int 3 + Surv 1) (10 Again)	3, 9, 10, 7, 2	2 successes

Did he keep track of where he came from well enough? Is there a promising way towards safety? Gerrit knew he would push on - and woe to whatever deciding to stand in his way.

[Cassandra Reeding]

Meanwhile, in Cassandra's sleep: She awakes inside a dressing room and is in an incredible black gown. She gazes into the mirror behind her and she just looks so radiant and happy. Everything is exactly how she wanted it to go.

She hears a knock at the door and in comes an oddly tentative shoulder-length, black-haired Draconic with beautiful, glistening red scales and black pools of abyss for eyes. He is dressed how he always is: formal, in a black suit. In his hand is a bouquet of roses. He approaches her with a small smile, his eyes taking in her radiance before offering her the roses. “For my lovely g-” he chuckles a little, “wife.”

“We didn’t exactly do the whole fiance stage much, did we?” Cassandra just smiles, taking the roses, “They’re beautiful. Thank you.” Tonight, she just glows. There is a rush of every kind of feeling within her, dominated by the pure joy of having just married the absolute love of her life. Tonight was special, however. Tonight, she’d reveal that fact to the Freehold. Of course, the downside would be that her deep cover double agent work would be over, but… that was a bright side too. Having your hand in every pot imaginable while not knowing even a quarter of the details was frustrating. But tonight, regardless of what happens, will be magical.

“No, we didn’t. I’m not particularly sorry about that,” He gives a toothy grin, revealing razor sharp, pointed teeth.

Cassandra just smiles back, still holding the roses in front of her with both hands, “Well, clearly I’m so offended that I decided to marry you anyway,” she teases, but then grows maybe a hint nervous. She sets the roses down on the counter behind her, “Things are going to be very different after tonight.”

He walks closer, placing a hand upon her cheek, careful of his talons, “Things are going to be exactly as they should be after tonight.”

She leans in and kisses him gently, taking a deep breath through her nose as she does so, as if using this as a way to ground herself. “We have each other and that is all that has ever mattered.”

“You have no need to be nervous, my love.” He says as he pulls back, gazing down at her affectionately.

Cassandra lets out a soft sigh, her emerald eyes giving him this look like ‘easy for you to say’, “This is my first time performing solo since…” She lets out another nervous sigh.

He nods slowly, gently thumbing her cheekbone, “You’ll be incredible. You always are.”

Another breath and she closes her eyes, letting his touch calm her, “I love you.” she feels him lean in and kiss her forehead, whispering back the same. After a contented sigh leaves her lips, she gazes up at him and says, “Okay, now get out of here so I can tune.”

“Yes, my love,” He says with a laugh, giving her one last kiss before starting to leave.

It is such a wonderful dream that she doesn't want to leave. She'd be content to just live in these memories forever - the good ones. So many bad memories, always jumping at her. For once, there were no nightmares. Just sleep and sweet dreams. But wait... this isn't how that memory went. Everyone in the Freehold was at the wedding. They'd known for a long time that Cassandra had been Phillip's 'assistant' and not the Onyx Thane's. But, the memories were so nice. I never want to leave this.

There is something odd about the light around Phillip as he leaves. It is opalescent, like her Keeper's. In fact, everything seems to be opalescent, sparkling, shining like her skin does. She can hear a whisper in the back of her mind, "Look at how near perfection you are now." A shiver runs down her spine as she feels the dream beginning to change around her.

[Saber Sloth]

It's as easy as retracing his steps. Or maybe not, but it feels that way. He has the Path and a Purpose.

Calling upon the Stone, invoking the Wyrd, there is a groan and a grumble and ancient might, traveling at the speed of magic and inescapable as the very earth, Gerrit feels the strength of the Stone wrap around him, through him, inside him.

Easily he picks up the sleeping Fairest, feeling smaller and frailer surrounded by Stone strengthened muscles, and upon a heel he turns away from where they were headed, instead seeks where they had come from.

They had the Path, it hadn't changed, all that was left was to put one step in front of the other until they were home.

Can I get a Strength + Stam, and another INT + Survival