Aug 19 107 PA - Until the cows come home
From Chronicles
The call has been answered and at first it seemed to be all a bluff as the group waited at the location. Not so, out of the wilderness A man in armor of bone emerges atop a beetle carcass looking mostly intack in terms of exoskeleton. At his flank 3 cattle skeletons come out as well. They all face the group pausing momentarily.
Erica leans forward on the handle of the handlebars of her hovercycle while she waits for whoever called them out. She has her laser rifle in her lap while she waits. Looking up at the man in armor she raises her rifle up to her shoulder while gaining a little altitude on her cycle. "so I take it you are responsible for all this?" She asks in slightly sarcastic manner. "And now you want to slay us?" She says as she takes aim at the man.
Gabriel, clad in armor moves with swift efficiency to do two things at the same moment: bring the L-20 into a ready-position, but not actually pointed the.. man? and his animals, and to shelter behind a nearby tree. Weapon clear of obstructions, eyes around the side - but after being slammed by a swamp monster and shot in the chest by a dwarf, he seems to be taking a conservative approach to the potential battle. Beyond motion, he is silent.
Daeni considered the threat already resolved, although her knowledge of their prior adversaries is limited, at best. The arrival of others is not an unwelcome surprise, however. Despite the now-repaired damage to her armor, the tunnel dwellers posed little challenge. Perhaps these shall prove more formidable. Her attention focuses upon them and lips twitch upwards in a smirk at Erica's words. They did not begin the best of relations at their first encounter, but Daeni's opinion continues to change. "Maybe come, say is sorry, beg to forgive?" She offers a loud, wry aside towards the mercenary.
With their being called to a particular spot, Sage followed along as well as she could with her horse. The advantage of having Summer with her is that she can bring her contingency equipment. She keeps towards the back of the group for the time being as she tries to keep herself settled enough to prevent Summer from dancing idly in the time they have to wait. She makes a low growling noise as she sees the seemingly dead things walking again. "Abominations." She mutters to herself, as she begins to check what she has that might be able to combat this particular threat.
The adversary brings his possy forward to within range to speak so he may answer their questions. "No I have not come to parlay. You must be the courageous individuals who slew my friends. Brave indeed. Lets see how brave you are in my world." He says holding up a darkly swirling crystal ball. He then drops it to the ground where it shatters and all hel breaks loose..
All around the world is suddenly a very different place, anything that was seems to mutate and distort in a deadly fashion. Even ones companions and mounts. The death mage and his minions become even more gruesome to resemble true minions of death. It is the world Bizarre..
The death mage's mount immediately charges Daeni, recognizing the blades and the woulnds that killed his friends. Two of the cows charge Sage, and her undoubtedly freaked horse.
With a sense of martial skill that he at least hopes that he has, the L-20 is pulled up to his shoulder, pointed toward the.. uh, dead guy, and with a rather late 20th century cliche, offers up, "speerdalay tsvel" in a quiet voice before the trigger is pulled, which belches out three laser bursts. At the...dead thing.
Daeni retains her wits as the world deforms, but it is enough distraction that she cannot avoid the charging creature. As she recovers from the blow, she harnesses some of that momentum transfer to rotate. Those recognized blades are whirled, as well, aiming low on the beast. Daeni will see how well the creature can charge in the future with fewer legs...
The third Cow charges at Gabriel, ducking around his tree defence.
Erica's aim is disrupted at the weird effects that take over. She shakes her head trying to clear what is happening as she start breathing heavily, freaking out. After a moment she gets enough of a grasp of reality to use her hovercycle to move up as fast as she can, desperatly trying to escape the area of intense fear.
A momentary panic comes as Sage can't find what she's looking for... its just like when she first came to Kingsdale... the helplessness! The horse picks up on the empathic impulses and screams in distress and tries to buck Sage off in panic as the horses come. Sage seems to be an accomplished enough rider that she can keep the horse under control. "Summer!" She screams as the horse is attacked and hurt. She can do little but drive her horse away from the attacking cows for now.
The necromancer cackles as the wolrd reformed causes half the group to flee. "So much for bravery hmm?" He taunts, bringing the beetle about for another charge at Daeni. As he maneuvers he levels a gauntlet at Gabriels tree and a blast of helfire erupts towards both.
Gabriel seems to take in the extremely unusual sight of a skeletal, and pissed-off cow charging him apparently intelligently around the tree that he'd been using as cover. Momentarily divided between cow, dead guy, and freakishly strange world, plus the fact that his new comrades are being bounced about he does quickly come to a decision. The dead fellow may be the sergeant of the operation. You take out the NCOs, the unit falls apart. Knowing that is the hallmark of a good soldier. So, with that in mind, he does his best to ignore the cow, and fires once more that the man in the skeletal armor.
There will be a re-evaluation of the wrappings on sword hilts in the near future. After impact and spin force her blades to the ground, Daeni vents a string of explicatives. Some are in frustration, others in anger, and she lashes out with her claws at the beast. Only after lashing out in retaliation will she retrieve her blades.
Erica hovers up high as she feels the need to flee fade from her. She shakes her head once more to rid herself of the final feelings and she raises her rifle up to her shoulder. Looking down from her cycle she takes aim at the necromancer and fires off two quick shots to try to quiet his taunts. "Oh yah what are you going to do now throw your undeadstock at me?" She calls out loudly to return his taunts.
Mutteringly darkly to herself, Sage grabs the saddle bag as she slips off the horse once clear of the attacking cows. "I'll make things all better, Summer." She closes her eyes before reaching out to touch the horse to close up any open wounds. "No get!" She calls afterward, slapping the the horse on the rear to get it to flee further. "I'll find you ... or you me!" Urging the horse empathically to find somewhere safe before she turns back to the battle and reaches into the saddle bag to find one thing she wasn't expecting to need here.
The death mage's beetle is ready to make another charge at Daeni as he revels in the chaos about. Another shot is sent at Gabriel.
The two cows having driving off the others focus on Daeni, intent on battering her to keep her off guard.
"SHIT!" an expletive not common to come from the man as he watches the fireball come at him. Or whatever the thing was that came at him. Once more trying to dance around the oncoming cow, he aims the unwieldy rifle downrange, and not being sufficiently sure of himself with the new weapon, just aims for the largest area of the bony bastard that he can see. Immediately before he pulls the trigger, he calls out some offered advice, "Kill that bony bastard, a cow can wait!" Surprisingly, it carries quiet an air of command -- whether or not anyone cares is up in the air.
Daeni is not having a pleasant day, as of late. If it is not her grip loosening, it is her fast-twitch muscle twitching in the wrong direction, such as directly into the path she inteded to avoid. Invigorated by the mishaps, she lashes out at the beast with her blades. Once it is halted, she will deal with its rider.
The last cow charges a Gabriel again, trying to disarm him with the blow.
Erica frowns inside her helmet as she watches both of her previous shots go wide. She squeezes off two more shots, hoping that they will be at least a little closer. She watches with concern as the beetle seems to be battering Daeni. She smirks slightly at Gabriel's advice since that was what she was already doing, but she makes no remarks in retort.
Sage's hand comes out of the saddle bag with a grenade that Cali had made especially for the invasion of undead. It doesn't occur to her that she's sent her laser rifle off with the horse, but she does have the pistol strapped to her hip. She also produces a ceramic water gun. She keeps the grenade in her throwing hand for now with the pistol ready for swapping hands when she's ready for it. Once armed, she goes to see about wading back into the fight. Assuming it doesn't end up being finished before she gets in range.
The obviously somewhat disgruntled man, the one who still seems to be attempting to shelter behind a tree once more aims at the necro-somethinger-guy. The one who seems to be giving orders. At least, if you can given an apparently dead cow orders. Cut off the head, and the body will die, or at least that's the theory. There's soft, "C'mon, asshole, you've been doing this since thirty-eight," and the trigger is squeezed, once more sending three beams of coherent light through the odd area of forest.
Daeni continues her assault upon the beetle. Rather that cut legs off the body, she now seems intent to hack the body apart to leave the legs attached to nothing. The end effect is generally the same, and she is too angered to debate its efficiency.
The third cow charges at Gabriel again, still intent on kncking his L20 away.
The Necormancer growls a bit as the damage seems to be adding up on himself and his beetle. A short chant is made and he becomes even more horrrid as his armor becomes thot of rotting flesh as well. Between that and the stench he is nearly unbearble.
Once she starts to go back within the zone of influence, Sage stumbles back before falling on her bottom just outside of the influence. She moves her hands to hug herself against the fear that comes once again onto her. She had thought it might not effect her after it had already. She was wrong, apparently. The new horror doesn't seem to add anything to her fear, however. Once she's able to think straight enough, she'll sooth away her fears with her ability to suppress it. She heaves a sigh, "Well, that was stupid..." She admonishes herself ruefully.
Erica is buffeted by a gust of wind which makes it so she needs to regain control of her hovercycle before she can level her rifle to take another shot at the necromancer. She is quite unimpressed with her shooting so far and growls at herself under her breath. As she regains control of her cycle she looks down at the necromancer and gasps loudly at what he is doing to himself. Her shock stops her from being able to do anything.
"Die thing!" Daeni does not add the "Again," even if it is appropriate. For a large, armored, and possibly re-animated creature, it is nearly as nimble as resilient. The oozing slashes or chunks of freed chitin do not slow her assault. It tried to kill her, so she is returning the favor.
The third cow is nothing if not relentless in its task. Again to will try to knock the gun from Gabriel, and this time Gabriel is to shocked to do much about it..
The Necromancer turns his focus on Daeni, who seems as reslient and pestilent as he. He levels his gauntlet at her and a fiery blast shoots the the skull eyes.
With the fear in her suppressed, Sage pops back onto her feet. At this point, its just will and pride that drives her on. She may have been useless to this point, but she has a mind to see about changing that. Gritting her teeth from letting out a foolish war cry as she's been useless to this point, she raises towards the main threat. She gets the grenade limbered to go once she gets within range to throw.
The sudden and quite loud exclamation, "COORVAH!" is belted out, and Gabriel dives away from the cattle in the direction of the rifle that has somehow been removed from his arms by an apparently intelligent cow. Intelligent cow. Huh. At any rate, his companions are momentarily forgotten. Not because he's forgotten about their welfare, but because there just isn't a damn thing that he can do about it at the moment. Where'd that rifle go? OH, THERE! But... cow. Hmm, maybe curling into a ball is a better option at this point.
Erica manages to regain some control of herself. Dissatsfied with her performance so far she takes careful aim at the necromancer as she switches her rifle to pulse mode. After aimming her shot she squeezes the trigger hoping to be able to do more damage this time. She watches the battle from above taking note of what her various compatriets are capable of. She frowns as she notices that Deani's armor is gone and hopes that her shot will at least distract the Necromancer from the elf.
If Erica's shot distracts the necromage from the elf, the reverse is not true. Daeni's assault on the beast was only partially rational, but the blast that destroys the hides' protection refocuses her anger. She leaps at rider, now, despite the loss of armor, leading with her swords.
The third cow also leaves Gabriel to his own devices to rejoin its master in battling Daeni. The necromancer cackles at the else as her armor disentegrates. "Problem? Let me help." He says before chanting and gesturing at her. To everone else Daeni's flesh seems to rot and decay before their eyes. Daeni doesnt feel such, but she does see it.
The Cow with the pulse rifle romps about happily, just trying to keep away from everyone else. The Last cow picks out on of the blades Daeni misplaced..
"Choke on this." Sage mutters to herself as she plants her feet after getting close enough to toss the grenade. She tosses this towards the all the action around the necromancer. Fortunately, the worst outcome for Daeni would be becoming an unintentional member of a wet t-shirt contest if hit. After its thrown, she switches the water pistol to her dominant hand and prepares to push the vibro-claws on her left hand out when she gets the chance.
Erica nods to herself as her pulse shot seemed to at least do something. She again takes careful aim as she works to bring the necromancer down before Daeni is overwelmed. "Sage I hope you can help soon." She calls out over her radio.
The water has no apparent effect..
A gauntleted hand reaches back toward the ancient, yet well-cared-for rifle on the man's back, but it only momentary. After glancing at the offending cows, the necromancer, an elf tearing things apart, a flying thing that he isn't well acquainted with... instead his hand pulls a vibro-knife from the scabbard at his left hip. Clearly he isn't going to be much use without that laser rifle. How cool is that, a genuine laser rifle? There is no bobbing or weaving, just a straight sprint toward the cow currently armed with his heavy weapon, blade raised.
Vengeful glee turns to unpleasant surprise as water splashes around uselessly gives Sage a frown. Her dominant hand opens up to let the water pistol drop from her hand. With one of her companions seemingly in danger of being killed, she finally gives that war cry as she rushes towards the necromancer and his beetle. As she runs, she lets the claws on her left extend... Gabriel skids to a halt, his feet jammed into the ground as he somehow manages to fly past the cow with his weapon. Muttered into the air, which may or may not be loud enough to be heard, is the phrase, "I can kill a Nip fucker, but a cow eludes me." Not so much a complaint as just a simple observation. Apparently. Once more he rises to his feet, adjusts his grip so that he's holding the hilt so that the blade actually points off to his right, and runs toward the cow again.
The cow who grabbed Daeni's sword happily trots away with its prize.
Armor and weapons do not want to cooperate? Fine. The death mage wishes to make Daeni appear rotting and festulent? Fine. In light of that, the drenching water from the grenade is barely noticed amidst existing injury and insult. Daeni leaps at the spellcaster, this time using her body as a weapon in attempt to knock him from the mount. If he wishes to oggle her drenched and torn clothes, he is welcome to do so... while she pummels him into ooze.
Erica continues with what seems effective as she takes aim again. She watches the battlefield get rather messy as Sage closes in for hand to hand combat, but all she can do is snipe at the necromancer from above. She hopes that her attack doesn't hit Daeni since the elf closed to attack the necromancer.
The Necromancer tried to evade Daeni's tackle with not luck and finds himself removed from his position of advantage. In retalition the beetle charges at Daeni..
As things shift and her war cry is ignored, Sage tempers her approach. Figuring the necro is the root problem, she knows she likely can't take him out in one shot. Instead, she reaches out to muddle the necromancer's mind in an attempt to sow confusion for his minions as well. She also chooses to bring her laser pistol out in case this doesn't work.
Gabriel dives toward the cow, that damn cow running off with his rifle. If things don't get better soon, things are going to *really* suck. After try to leap toward the cow's horns, which my or may not be such a good idea, he momentarily contemplates his history, considering if he is a modern day Orpheus, covering up cows tracks to confuse his enemies. The thought passes, and he reaches for his stolen weapon.
An impressive dive by Gabriel is upped by and even more impressibve evasing of the cow, leaving the soldier rolling in the mud,
Daeni is slammed from behind by the the damnable brute of a beetle, reminding her of its continued presence. Aside from her fists, there is only one ready weapon available to her, and she grabs at the mage she knocked to the ground. Should she get a hold, she may be able to handle two annoyances at once, but getting him and the undead monstrosity he rode in on.
Erica continues her assualt on the necromancer. Taking careful aim, so that she doesn't hit Daeni, she fires off another pulse hopeing to take the spell caster down before she runs out of shots in her long e-clip. "You are really making it hard to hit him." She calls out to Daeni.
"Hah, you think this is the end for me? I'll be back and you meddlers will be sorry. But first one last parting gift." The necromancer says defiantly and his skull gauntlits burn with power directed at Daeni. That and the charging Beetle should make for a messy finish.
The Fiery retort blasts Daeni right in the face, But she survives some how with somewhat moderate scarring. In reatilation she swings his body hard into the charging beetle and he is shredded by the action. The beetle and cow corpse crumple to thwe ground immediately after. Done and done.
Ready to strike down the necromancer, Sage slows to a stop as it all seems to come to an end quickly. She looks around as everything seems to be brought to an end abruptly. "Are you okay?" She asks Daeni, as she eyes the woman's state.
Daeni was prepared to swat at the beetle with the deathmage, and, in the end, she does so. It is little more than dismembered limb against unanimated corpse, but there remains some consolation in the act. The blast leaves scorched and blackened skin across her face along with a severe and uneven chop to her hair. Daeni breathes heavily from massive amounts of adrenaline, and possiby exertion as she turns toward Sage and drops the limb. "Been better." It is not intended as a jest, but her broken American does not dissuade that. Her rotation continues as eyes seek the cows and her purloined blades.
Gabriel stands and watches the cow walk off, his only heavy weapon hanging in two pieces off of its stubby horns. A hand slaps angrily against his thigh, and he mutters, "I need to go back to killing people." With that, he hurries back to the scene of where all of the interesting things had been taking place, knowing that he really couldn't have contributed a thing to the fight without that weapon, but also feeling as if he completely let everyone down. When in range, he calls out, "I guess I was the shit-brick on this little trip, huh?" With that, he simply continues to close.
Erica breathes a sigh of relief with the death of the necromancer and settles her hovercycle down to the earth. "Wow that was a bit tougher then I thought. Who needs a ride back?" She asks as she checks her rifle and e-clip charge level before doing what she can to fix armor.
The shortish man pops his helmet off with a slight sucking sound and affixes it to a loop at his hip, happily gulping in the fresh air and shaking his short salt-and-pepper hair out. The rifle is slung over his shoulder, snug to the old-style weapon, and secured to his combat webbing with a quick and silent clasp of a rubberized carbineer. "I'd offer to help, but back home I was more in the hurting people business. When someone with hurt to be healed, I had a guy for that." He nods once convincingly and adds, "I'm ready to go home. Or at least, the closest analog to home that I have here." He extends a hand to Daeni.
Taking a moment to consider the wounds, Sage simply nods after a moment. "I'd probably be a red puddle if I was in your place. Let's get back to town, I guess. Anyone for drinks and forgetting this happened?" She comments simply before going about collecting her items and seeing about finding her horses.
Soaking wet, notably burned, and with a few remnants of her hide armor clinging to her here and there, Daeni begins to move towards the nearest bovine corpse to recover her weapons. Her steps show some sign of weariness or, at the least, much more lack of haste as her body refocuses resources from avoidance to mending itself. Once both are retrieved, she returns to the beetle corpse in order to cut free the most intact pieces of chitin that remain. By the time that is completed, and she is ready to move, much of the marring on her face has shrunk. The rest will likely disappear before she completes the walk to the town.
Erica shakes her head slightly at the impressive regenetive properties of Daeni but makes no comment. "Want me to help you with any of that chitin? Or you want a ride?" She asks as she slings her rifle behind her back and starts heading back to Laramy.
Once again, the man clearly out of his civilized element attempts to tip a hat that is not on his head, looking rather foolish and definitely sheepish as he fails to find a brim. To his credit, he recovers quickly and with a small tilt of his head, states, "I've seen the WASP train men to fight Germans and Japs, I've seen Flight Nurses make combat drops into a rear area... but I've never seen women tear apart something that looked like that." He shrugs and points to something unseen beneath his right gauntlet, and adds, "Well, my wife was pretty good at the occupation of warfare." A glance to Erica and a smile. "Sure could use a lift, miss." That odd twang, probably the relaxed twang, is back in his voice.
"Hope there's enough left of that guy for proof." She muses as she wanders off in search for her horse after the re-usable grenade and water pistol are reclaimed. "Summer!" She calls out, whistling in a way that the horse has been trained to respond to. She also feels out with her empathic bond to see if she can get a sense of where the horse has gotten off to..
One human corpse, and the beetle and cows will certainly be proof enough. The Militia is waiting at laramy's gates should they fail, or succeeed. and look quite pleased to see it is the latter. As the details are exchanged cred sticks are borught out to dispense the reward. To Daeni one member holds up a set of Furry beetle plate armor to trade for the gather chitin.
"No. Arms, legs still move." There is no disdain in Daeni's decline of Erica's offer, simply soft fact of preferences. She will not win any race with the flying machine, especially not with her burden, but Daeni will return to Laramy briskly enough. To Gabriel, she explains, "Told am hunter. Learn fight." Her sodden and clinging tunic might also explain more, to some, as the scaled choker about her throat is revealed to hold some bulk, along with apparently matching bicep bands and bracelets. When the villager offers her the trade, she accepts after inspecting the armor, as she may not have the time to fashion her own.
Erica motions for Gabriel to get on to her bike. As soon as he is on she flies back to Larmay with little fanfair. She arrives in town after a bit and parks her bike in front of the saloon. "Well I could use a beer." She says as she dismounts and takes off her helmet.
For having been whisked away on a flying combination of bicycle and witch's broom, and faster than anything that size should ever go, Gabriel takes it very well, only shaking his shoulders a little to loosen up, or at least it appears that way. As he dismounts, pieces of armor come of, primarily the gauntlets, which are also hooked at his waste. He gives Erica a pleasant smile and responds with, "Yes, miss, I coudl go for a beer. Maybe a nice Michelobe would do just fine. Though I miss the man in town who whipped up the White Lightning." Spreading his fingers, he tacks on, "Sure wish I didn't have to wear this damn stuff," before heading over toward the back rider and the bar.
"You guys go on ahead, I'll be there in a bit." Sage comments, "Need to fuss over my horse a bit... and likely promise her some new accessories in the near future." She comments, before taking the horse off to what passes for stables and healing the horse up as needed.
Erica pulls off pieces of her armor in a practiced manner. She looks over the armor with an expert eye before storing it in her hovercycle. "Well I don't care the brand as long as it is cold and tastes good." She stores her rifle and holsters a pistol before walking into the saloon.
Daeni nods to Erica and Gabriel in agreement of their plan. "Drink, and food." There are few situations that spark an appetite quite as well as the dismemberment of foes. She follows the others into the saloon.
