Hedge Patrol III

[Roshon]

"No one's my fucking master. Not anymore," Roshon replied to Ram, an incandescent rage awakening the legacy of the predator in her eyes.

It faded after a moment, though, and her eyes tracked back to the hob.

"I already gave my answer. Enjoy your soup."

Roshon might have been a hell of a lot smaller than the Hob, but she didn't give a shit. She was more than willing to bet her life on the fact that she was more dangerous than it was, not to mention the fact that she had an ace up her sleeve, an ace known as Colonel Worm.

Sgt. Hardass might be willing to sell her out to appease a fuckin' toad, but she was sure the Colonel was ready to get his blades dirty if it came to that.

[Ram]

Ram wished he had recognized the smell sooner but frozen shrimp toes and gumbo smelled different from a distance. However, this had been the plan. He gulped down his bowl.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-18 20:51:27	Ram rolls 3 to Clairty Break 4 (10 Again)	3, 3, 5	failure

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-18 20:52:39	Ram rolls 6 to Gluttonous Feast of Health Stone 4 Stam+Wyrd+1?Rich and hardy food? (10 Again)	8, 4, 2, 3, 10, 6, 10, 7	3 successes

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-18 20:55:26	Ram rolls 6 to Derangement (10 Again)	3, 1, 5, 9, 3, 3	1 success

Arcadian memory

Memories flooded through his mind. Taste and smell filled his senses making it easier to remember the times before. On the Battlefield in midwinter. The desperation, the hunger, and the pain. Their forces decimated, they were hurt and on the retreat. And the Stone made its offer. Eat and be made whole. Eat and they would survive the frigid night. And so, they had. Slowly at first. Toes and fingers. Dead and black to the cold. However as the chill set in and they lit the fire, soon they held the arms over to roast. Pulled the viscera and put it into a pot of snow to melt and stew till it fell off the bone. The night seemed to last forever. Maybe it did. Yet they never stopped eat. The ravenous hunger never ceased and satiating it was the only thing to hold off the ice crystals trying to grow in their bodies. And when the dawn came, they had cleared the Battlefield of corpses, both friend and foe. They were healed and whole. They won the battle that day.

And they were not sorry for the full bellies and what they’d done to fill them.

They were desperate now. So, Ram drank down the soup without hesitation. Maybe even enjoyed it a little. Whatever… whoever was in it… the patrol couldn’t help them. Ram could help where things went from here though.

“It’s good!” he said “I don’t think it’s missing anything!” Especially not his companions. Though to be fair, Ram didn’t know what turmeric was.

“I called dibs,” he reminded the frog and Liam with a guiltless smile as he held out his hands (ready to double fist if he needed to) to accept more of the long pig meal in place of his friends.

“I find it helps me enjoy a meal to know my chef though.” They’d asked it several questions that it had yet to answer. “What’s your name? Are you a native or are you traveling through these parts? How’d you chose this… succulent pig?” He made a motion with his hand that the Ogre would like the two extra bowls sooner rather than later, even while trying to find out… who exactly he was eating and how much a threat this thing was.

He heard Roshon’s reply. He got it. He could hear the anger underneath. She saw this as an order. She had problems with that. And was willing to die for those principles. She wasn’t able to see that refusing an order on principle was handing over just as much control as taking them. Took any challenge as an ‘order’.

He’d taken enough orders to get it.

Not soldiers, he reminded himself.

“If you only do the opposite of what you’re told, you’re just as easily ordered in reverse,” he advise with a soft edge. He felt like a shit fortune cookie. Would have liked to sit Roshon down for a talk about how she saw this going and how to make anger useful. However, there wasn’t time. Nor trust. Damn, he missed his regular patrol crew.

Ram’s Clarity drop’s to 6. No new derangements.
I rolled preemptively for Ram to activate Stone 4 in order to be able to continuously eat the frog’s entire prepared meal. However, the contract takes an hour to ‘activate’.

Equipment: Backpack, First Aid Kit +2, Survival Kit +3 (sleeping bag, canteen, flashlight, glowstick, one day water and food) Riot Armor, Cell phone, two pairs of extra socks, extra days food (unsalted trail mix), extra days water, climbing gear, athletic shoes, climbing cleats, nylon rope, grappling hook, war-ax.

Extra: Sports equipment, first aid kit +1, basic survival kit +1, urban survival kit +2, x2 bastard swords

Health 8/8
Willpower: 3/5

[Ram]

Bookkeeping

[Ram]

Bookeeping

[Liam Gelt]

Ram's insistence catches Liam off guard. Was there something I said? Why would Ram want to keep the Pledge to himself?

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-19 00:35:25	Liam rolls 3 to Discern Ram's Ploy (Wits + Empathy) (10 Again)	1, 5, 4	failure

Liam's smile is maintained as he shrugs. "Sure thing, boss." But his eyes are settled on the Render. Maybe he was just flaunting his experience as a Hedge Patroller; maybe he didn't want one of the crew to come to harm. Either way, Liam felt just a bit left out. Especially since the soup seemed really, really good. "Guess he really is hungry, eh?" Liam winks at Roshon, keeping a bold face but also wondering if the Chimera's snappy retort wasn't entirely out of place. After all, Ram wasn't leaving much room for discussion. We're supposed to be a team, right?

Still, the Frog Chef hadn't attacked them yet, so they couldn't count out the possibility of a new friend. So Liam sits contentedly while Ram continues to barter words wit the Hob. Ram wants to lead the discussion, let him. I'll just wait until the next good opening. Though now he's especially glad that Colonel Worm is somewhere watching.

[Colonel Worm]

Ram is digging into his meal. Gross.

Still, despite the cannibalism, Worm is getting bored up here all alone. And when he gets bored, his mind inevitably wanders to...bloodier matters.

So, while the Ogre all but kisses the cook, Worm crouches at the lip of the overhanging root, trying to position himself just so. Right above the Hob.

He steadies the sword Ram has lent him, point down and balanced on the root, centering it over the Frog's head.

Here's the plan that takes shape in his Goblin's mind: Things go wrong? Worm leaps from the edge, sword point down. He drives the blade as deep as he can, up to the hilt, into Toad-Skull. Swings off the embedded sword like a gymnast, executes a perfect 10/10 landing in time to see the Chef expire in a gush of blood. Bows to crowd, wipes the lingering human-stew off of Ram's lips with the back of his hand. The end.

He knows he shouldn't, but the Colonel really hopes it comes down to a fight. All this dinner-table conversation is a real bummer.

Equipment:
Khuri knives (+ sheaths) x 2 2L*
Brass Knuckles x2 1B (in pants pockets)
Kevlar Vest (thin)
Reinforced Clothing (Motorcycle jacket)
Advanced First Aid Kit
Water bottle (in first aid kit exterior pocket)
Bag of Beef jerky
Loner Sword
Cigarettes + Lighter

[Saber Sloth]

The Chef frowns, wormy lips twisting downward "You lot are so uncouth," the grip on his butcher's knife tightens, his warty yellow-green skin lightens across his knuckles. Obviously the hob would have made to lash out at the Wizened were it not for Ram's swift actions, and swifter praise. With the swiftness of someone flicking a lights switch, the frog chef smile, wide and toothy. His maw, filled with sharp and blunt omnivore teeth. Human teeth.

"Oh, haha, you are too kind. Too kind. Thank you for saying so." the gripped knife loosens, as one of the secondary arms raises to dish out another bowl for Ram, "I am Han Branchel, Chef Branchel, if you please. " his bulbus eyes look from Ogre to Ogre, "Are you sure you wish to deny your friend their share? If you want to eat your fill and more besides, I can...always make. More...." It isn't in any of their imaginations that the Chef's eyes stray towards Roshon.


Worm as he moves, notices the knife, the grip loose, but still present. One of the secondary arms with ladle in hand, reaching for the bent back, used as a cauldron. Full of bubbling stew. Dishing out more for Ram to....enjoy.

Ram, remember "To use this clause, the character must spend at least an hour in an orgy of gustatory excess" so to gain the benefits he'll need to spend the next hour continually eating. Which, given the Froggy chef, isn't going to be a hard ask.

Worm, Dex+Stealth to move into position without notice, Dex+Athletics to make sure you don't tumble while doing so!

[Roshon]

Roshon kept her mouth shut. Seemed to be the best course of action until this fucking patrol was finished.

In the meantime, she kept her finger beside the trigger, and her head on a swivel.

Right now, the frog seemed like the most pressing danger, but this was the Hedge. Arnold and Danny's old hide and seek buddy could be out there, all cloaked and watching, for all they knew.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-22 18:03:40	Roshon rolls 4 to head on a swivel (wits+comp) (10 Again)	9, 2, 7, 1	1 success

[Ram]

Liam gave him a questioning look. Did they really not realize what was in the soup and the emergency they were in? Or did he hold a desire for human flesh?

If it was ignorance, then Ram would have to live with not being able to explain right now. Being seen as a man eater later. If it was gluttony…? Better to not to let those under his command fall in to temptation… And be seen as a greedy man eater. Either way the Render wasn’t coming out of this clean.

He smiled at the frog “And some people think that burping is rude, rather than a compliment to the chef.” Ram squeezed and let loose a belch. “Can’t begrudge people how they grew up.” Were shaped and traumatized by Fairie.

“Chef Branchel,” got a name at least. Now just needed to keep the others from the ‘sin’. “I made a promise to eat the dinner you had made now. To demand you make more, would be to say that this isn’t filling. I am sure my friends aren’t denied anything, for the smell of the stew alone could will their bellies.”

“But like I said before, I’d enjoy it more knowing where it and you came from.” Like trying to wring clotted blood from a corpse this one.

[Liam Gelt]

Seems like Ram had this Chef Branchel mesmerized, like a snake charmer and his cobra. Kind of made him think about his conversations with Templeton, now that Sonnie had been walking him through Fang and Talons.

Ram's belch pulls Liam out of his musings, and he bursts into a chuckle. Deep down, he was still an Ogre, regardless of how polite he normally was. "Ha! Good one boss!" He'd play cheerleader if it meant Ram got more information out of the Chef.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-24 01:58:56	Liam rolls 4 to Distract Chef Branchel/Endear the Party (Manip + Socialize) (10 Again)	10, 10, 6, 6, 3, 1	2 successes

"You're telling me about the smell!" He doesn't look for Worm, he trusts Roshon to keep her eyes peeled, but he would do his part to keep Branchel's eyes forward. "Mmmmm! Just like Mama Dinah used to make. You cook for a lot of folks out here?"