(Rope Bridge) Crossing

[Saber Sloth]

The Summers have clear eyes, more used to spot things tactically than the others - even with Mina and Kray knowing that there had been a rope ladder before, to them it's lost within the tangle of the vines.


Jack, sees the contrast between the brown bark, the green vines and the tawny yellow-brown of the rope ladder. It's pinned to the tree on a metal hook.

Circe noticed the rope ladder, as well as a secondary ladder carved into the tree itself - hidden by long trailing vines. She also notices, as she gazes up, that the vines live in clusters. Some in two and threes, others more. Subtly, the vines move - it could be mistaken for the wind - but Circe catches that they always move within the clusters.

[Circe]

Well, that makes her have some expletives in her internal monologue. Some in astronomical terms. "Uh, folks? The vines are actively unionized," she points to the clusters here and there. "They're in little bunches and moving. Also, two ladders," she points to wehre the rope ladder is, "Yours and a carved one," then the other. Both quite covered in vines.


"Buuuut they're thoroughly overgrown. The security gap has been plugged. Very irked with myself right now." Either the vines were smarter than the seemed or someone controlling them really didn't like visitors. If there was a gardener, "Hafta agree Kray," she has a more positive reason for that. "This'd make an excellent barrier against things that bump in the Thorns. Lower an area's patrol rates by a lot. I'd bribe the shit out of the gardener."


And save her legs the walking. But what triggered them? "Hmmm, test?" She cracks one of the glow sticks. Then starts looking at the vines, judging where to throw it. "Shame drones don't work in here. Could've sent a few up to see if there is a gardener. Wonder if they'll react to the glow stick? Eh, science!"


If nobody stops her, Circe will try throwing the lit glow stick near one of the clusters on, oh say to the right of the ladders. If anyone wants to climb the bolt rope, they can do it on the left.

Circe's Kit

Trench coat. Fanny pack, tactical harness and various attached pouches for carrying her kit. Sling with shotgun [7+1] ammo case with shells: 12 regular, 3 flare, 8 AP. rondel bayonet and light mount. colt [9]+9r +7a +7a +7h +7r. 30 spare colt bullets in ammo box. advanced skin suit 1/2bp +1 stealth in darkness but -1 in well lit areas. gob fruit flasks x3, fa kit +1, active glowstick, glowstick x6, HS multitool. LED headband, small LED shoulder mounted, 2 small LED flashlight, water bottle, small water bottle, 8 protein bars, small boot knife 0L.

Duffle bag

52 lbs of weight, 4.5 is bag. Three 40' coils of rope at 10 lbs each, a crossbow, 3 bodkin bolts with rope loops, 3 regular bodkin bolts, 12 rope pitons, a hammer. 2 gas masks and 2 bug bomb cannisters.

[Jack Violet]

Jack notices the ladder and immediately nods in agreement with his Queen, but then turns his head when she mentions a second one. "Well I didn't even see that one. Good eyes my queen." Jack starts to look around where the vines are covering the ladder. Thinking of ways of how to get rid of them, at least temporarily so they could ascend the ladder.

"There may be a way around them as well." Jack also gives a nod to Circe not objecting to her idea.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-01-31 18:34:12	Jack Violet rolls 7 to FInd way around vines(Wits3 + Survival2 + Beast Keen Senses2) (10 Again)	3, 7, 7, 9, 2, 3, 9	2 successes

STATS

Health:

Glamour:

Willpower:

BLESSINGS AND CURSES

Beast

Blessing
The wildness that infuses a Beast gives her a supernatural affinity with animals. A Beast gains the benefit of the 8 again rule when using the Animal Ken Skill, and receives a free Specialty for the one animal that most reflects the Beast’s seeming. That same wild nature gives a Beast a powerful personal magnetism. A Beast’s player can spend points of Glamour to add to dice pools involving Presence and Composure. Each point of Glamour spent adds one die to one dice pool.
Curse
Although the Beasts regained their consciousness when they came through the Hedge, their time as beings of thoughtless instinct has taken its toll on each of them, and most find it very hard to make use of academic or trained skills. A Beast’s player suffers a –4 dice untrained penalty when trying to use a Mental skill in which the character has no dots. Further, although Beasts can be very clever indeed, they’re out of practice making those leaps of ingenuity that so characterize human genius. A Beast’s player doesn’t re-roll 10s when using a dice pool involving Intelligence.

Runnerswift

<b>Runs Like the Wind:</b> the changeling adds two points to Speed (cumulative with the Fleet of Foot Merit, if the changeling possesses it).

Woodblood

<b>Fade into the Foliage:</b> in any outdoors area where there are plants growing from the earth (in a garden, for example, but not in a concrete yard with a couple of shrubs in pots), the character gains the benefit of the 9 again rule on dice pools involving Stealth and Survival. The player can also spend a point of Glamour to hide in a place where he couldn’t normally hide, making a Stealth roll as usual. There has to be a reasonable amount of foliage there. The character couldn’t hide using a small patch of moss or a single dandelion, but could use a flowerbed, a lawn or a sapling<br />

GEAR

Body:

Hedgespun Whip - Damage 2L Size 2J Durability 1
Rapier - Damage: 2L Size: 2L Durability: 3
Bowie Knife - Damage: 2L Size: 1/J Durability: 4

Backpack:

Canteen with Water
5 MRE's (Meals Ready-to-Eat)
5 Road Flares
5 Glowsticks
Climbing Gear
Advance First Aid Kit
Night Vision Goggles

CONTRACTS

Contracts:

Fang and Talon
Beast’s Keen Senses: +2 dice bonus to all Wits rolls relating to perception for the next full scene.
In addition, he gains the chosen animal’s most notable sensory ability. (Fox: Extremely Acute Hearing Ability)

[Mina]

Looking to where Circe pointed, “Good eyes! And yes, the carved one is what we used to get up, and the other is one we found once we made it up. Kray had me drop it down when the vines were getting a bit, uh, spicy.” Then a sigh, “Not sure how safe they now are though.” Frowning. “But we need to get up there.” And seemed the vines didn’t want them to get there.

Glancing to Circe, “Think someone is controlling them?” it was a good theory, and she didn’t have any others. She figured they were just Hedge vines that didn’t like Lings.

The Elemental wasn’t going to stop her; it would be a good way to see how reactive the vines were going to be.

Stats/Equipment

6/6 glamour
3/3 WP
Defense 2
Silver icicle lariat necklace (+1 DEF)
Messenger Bag: 4 water bottles, 4 bags of trail mix, band-aides, gauze, small hunting knife, lighter

[Kray]

It had taken Mona to spot the ladder last time, who or whatever had made it seemed to want it hidden. And once again it needs to be pointed out to the giant. "Ah. Dam thing escaped my noticed. As for the vines covering well. We need to start pruning at some point." Is his take on the matter but no swinging of the machete till they had a roughly agreed plan. "Ah. And I'd rather not be climbing with them still covering the ladder." Recipe for disaster there.

Mention of the unionised vines makes an already furrowed brow grow darker. "Bah. I remember having to tear through, what was it Mina three? I think it was three of them last time around." Had those been one cluster or three separate groups he could not clearly recall it had blended into a series of bloody destruction.

As for the cause, the potential who. "Ah. carved ladders, a rope bridge and growing vines if I was gambling man I would guess someone had hand in this." At sometime he was pretty convinced of that. "Bah. Wonder if they are still about. It might be simple but we never tried yelling a greeting." Because loud noise attracted attention.

Although Jack pipes up with what sounds like an idea. "Hm. You got a plan there Jack? or just speculating." If the beast had spotted or figured some work around the ogre does seem ready to hear him out.

stats and equipment

Defence:2
Armour: 1/0
Speed: 12

wp: 0/4
Glamour: 11/11








Bullet Proof Clothing 1/2 Denium overalls and Leather trench coat


Bowie Knife 2L
Trench Knife (WWI) 1(L/B) (doubles as brass knuckles)
Sledgehammer 2B (9-Again)
Advanced Fire Axe 3L/2L (AP 1)
Machete 2L
Dragon knuckles 0L
Strangle Wire 2L (Requires Grapple, then apply wire (Strength+Weaponry-3, no Defense))

x3 murmur fruit

Hedgespun Fedora (0 dot)

[Circe]

Circe smiles proudly at the praise. Though the numbers alert her to something her red and black eyes see, "The clusters seem to be double or triple vine packets Kray." Which means 3 before it backs off about right.


They hadn't tried yelling? And blades were not noisy. "Well," she yeets the glowstick towards a cluster, seeing how it reacts. "If they aren't hostile, that could work. I MUST remember to always bring boxed Boar's Head bacon whenever I enter the Hedge."


It should make a excellent bribe. Or bait. Or snack. Or condiment maybe for local meat. It had a lot of options. For now, glow stick science! How will the vine tendril clusters respond to stimuli?

Circe's Kit

Trench coat. Fanny pack, tactical harness and various attached pouches for carrying her kit. Sling with shotgun [7+1] ammo case with shells: 12 regular, 3 flare, 8 AP. rondel bayonet and light mount. colt [9]+9r +7a +7a +7h +7r. 30 spare colt bullets in ammo box. advanced skin suit 1/2bp +1 stealth in darkness but -1 in well lit areas. gob fruit flasks x3, fa kit +1, glowstick x6, HS multitool. LED headband, small LED shoulder mounted, 2 small LED flashlight, water bottle, small water bottle, 8 protein bars, small boot knife 0L.

Duffle bag

52 lbs of weight, 4.5 is bag. Three 40' coils of rope at 10 lbs each, a crossbow, 3 bodkin bolts with rope loops, 3 regular bodkin bolts, 12 rope pitons, a hammer. 2 gas masks and 2 bug bomb cannisters.

[Saber Sloth]

Circe tosses the cracked glowstick, and the vines, whip quick snatch it up and bring it to their layered depths.

Test positive, very reactive.

Jack, with his keen senses and his knowledge of how plants - even killer plants, or maybe especially killer plants - work, show that timed with the next sweeping of the wind, the vines move with it, and try to hide themselves, within other clusters to make it look like the carved ladder was now vine free.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-02-01 18:31:50	vines rolls 7 to nothing to see here (10 Again)	1, 5, 8, 7, 4, 4, 4	1 success

[Jack Violet]

"Well, I thought I might have a plan until the vines just went and hid themselves to seem like the ladder is free to climb up." Jack did not like the look of this, he was aware of such killer plant life, hell he was at some point in a similar position. "I think the vines may be more sentient than initial observations may have led us to believe. That or whoever is controlling them is very cunning. I really do not like the look of this."

STATS

Health:

Glamour:

Willpower:

BLESSINGS AND CURSES

Beast

Blessing
The wildness that infuses a Beast gives her a supernatural affinity with animals. A Beast gains the benefit of the 8 again rule when using the Animal Ken Skill, and receives a free Specialty for the one animal that most reflects the Beast’s seeming. That same wild nature gives a Beast a powerful personal magnetism. A Beast’s player can spend points of Glamour to add to dice pools involving Presence and Composure. Each point of Glamour spent adds one die to one dice pool.
Curse
Although the Beasts regained their consciousness when they came through the Hedge, their time as beings of thoughtless instinct has taken its toll on each of them, and most find it very hard to make use of academic or trained skills. A Beast’s player suffers a –4 dice untrained penalty when trying to use a Mental skill in which the character has no dots. Further, although Beasts can be very clever indeed, they’re out of practice making those leaps of ingenuity that so characterize human genius. A Beast’s player doesn’t re-roll 10s when using a dice pool involving Intelligence.

Runnerswift

<b>Runs Like the Wind:</b> the changeling adds two points to Speed (cumulative with the Fleet of Foot Merit, if the changeling possesses it).

Woodblood

<b>Fade into the Foliage:</b> in any outdoors area where there are plants growing from the earth (in a garden, for example, but not in a concrete yard with a couple of shrubs in pots), the character gains the benefit of the 9 again rule on dice pools involving Stealth and Survival. The player can also spend a point of Glamour to hide in a place where he couldn’t normally hide, making a Stealth roll as usual. There has to be a reasonable amount of foliage there. The character couldn’t hide using a small patch of moss or a single dandelion, but could use a flowerbed, a lawn or a sapling<br />

GEAR

Body:

Hedgespun Whip - Damage 2L Size 2J Durability 1
Rapier - Damage: 2L Size: 2L Durability: 3
Bowie Knife - Damage: 2L Size: 1/J Durability: 4

Backpack:

Canteen with Water
5 MRE's (Meals Ready-to-Eat)
5 Road Flares
5 Glowsticks
Climbing Gear
Advance First Aid Kit
Night Vision Goggles

CONTRACTS

Contracts:

Fang and Talon
Beast’s Keen Senses: +2 dice bonus to all Wits rolls relating to perception for the next full scene.
In addition, he gains the chosen animal’s most notable sensory ability. (Fox: Extremely Acute Hearing Ability)

[Mina]

Nodding to Kray, “Seems a bit dangerous to climb it.” Looking at the vines with a frown. She wasn’t about to try and climb it, no way. "Not even sure you would want to jump to it anymore either." not with that many vines around.

“Three sounds about right, it was nowhere near this number.” Icy hands on her hips as she studies them. “Fire would take them out, that is for sure.” Clearly thinking out loud, “But would give us more problems with the hedge as a whole. And the cold doesn’t seem to be bothering them too much, which puts a damper on a few things.” Not all, but a few.

Now Jacks news about the vines trying to hide themselves wasn’t good. Frowning, “Well, that’s not good, if they are sentient, then we be in for more of a problem then we originally thought.”
Thoughtfully looking at the vines and the ladder, “Kind of makes my idea seem like it wouldn’t work. I was thinking of trying to use the water I brought and shape it into some form of protection to get us up. But if the vines are able to think on their own, I don’t know if that will work at all then.” Then looking to Jack, who seemed to know more about vines then anyone else, “What about going after the vines at their source? Most vines or plants need to get nutrients from the ground, right? Maybe these are the same, could we find a ground source for them?”

Stats/Equipment

6/6 glamour
3/3 WP
Defense 2
Silver icicle lariat necklace (+1 DEF)
Messenger Bag: 4 water bottles, 4 bags of trail mix, band-aides, gauze, small hunting knife, lighter

[Kray]

The not being hostile bit relied on some rather important unknown information. "Uh. Well they might not be here and beyond that, with all this going on. They could have be got by their own creation." Messing around with stuff in the hedge, that was not an impossibility.

Jack's mention the vines are hiding was to his credit very helpful. It stops the ogre going for a climb attempt anyway. "Ah. Good spot. Tricky sods these things." Pausing. "Uh Or are they? Do you think they hid because they know we are here or because of the glowstick? Responding to movement more then by intention?" One of those they could manipulate more easily then the other. They could move sure, but was it active intellect or something more basic and reactionary? "Hm. I'm thinking we toss a few more things, maybe hit the ladder a ways up and see what they do?" Get an idea for any kind of pattern maybe.

Slowly shaking his head as Mian brings to min a prior solution. "Ah. No I'm not going to jump there if I can avoid, not at the moment." But these vines did need to be overcome. "Uh. Yes fire would, but lets hold off on that don't want to burn the hedge down." Besides he didn't being a fire suit.

stats and equipment

Defence:2
Armour: 1/2
Speed: 12

wp: 0/4
Glamour: 6/11








Bullet Proof Clothing 1/2 Denium overalls and Leather trench coat


Sledgehammer 2B (9-Again)
Machete 2L
Advanced fire axe 3L/2L 1AP
Shovel 1B


Leather baseball hat modified by Circe