What a Crybaby, Round 8
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
The bowl is filled with the smell of blood and death and chaos. Pensive feels it rush up around him, raising the fine hair on the back of his neck. The thistle tatoo burns keenly, and the stonesash in his hands trembles like a plucked string. All the battles ever fought, all the works of sand and shadow, seem to lay themselves out in this bowl for him to see and consider.
Someone is begging for mercy.
Rennick stands over one of the swordmen, his halberd raised. It is the swordman who is pleading.
Rennick's teeth are bared in a snarl. "Ask mercy of your dark god, for you will receive none from me."
The halberd thrusts down.
Pensive hears the bones in the swordman's chest and spine snap. He hears the wet whisper of air from the swordman's lungs follow the halberd as Rennick draws it out. He hears the rasp of gravel and dust beneath Rennick's boots as he turns away from the dead man.
He expected brutality in war, expected the dark, bitter necessities. But to see it so baldly, displayed as if it were normal, as if it were lawful, as if it were not graceless and despicable. . .
Pensive feels his youth as never before. Beyond him, men toil and fight and bleed and die. Comrades-at-arms, enemies, all alike-- in misery and sand and shadow. And he stands here weeping, useless, the stonesash limp in his hands because what he expected had come upon him and was too great for him to understand.
The wind blows a bit of sand into Pensive's eye; is that a voice whispering softly, darkly on its breath? Sand creeps into everything, everything casts a shadow, even the best men, even the most noble-- dust and shadow in them all. Beware, little elf-boy, the voice seems to chuckle. Sand and shadow in them all. Even you. You can't walk it out of you, you can't wash it out of you, sand in your skin, shadow in your blood, and one day, you'll be nothing but dust to be blown about into the eyes of children.
"I will close this man's eyes," Pensive says aloud, to no one.
And weeping, that is what he does. And there is Stone in that small, senseless mercy. Perhaps not enough to balance out Rennick's gracelessness-- but enough for Pensive to take heart. And hope.
When he rises, he calls out, "Where is the alchemist?"
From: Scott
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
Alas-- the wolf may prove more useful than the monk for the nonce.
:-)
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
OOC:Craybaby. I think I like Mission better. :) Damn weepy eyed elf.
Mark
From: Scott
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
I didn't realize until I re-read that this is the third or fourth time that Pensive's bawled.
Waah.
He is kind of a crybaby.
But we can't all be armored half-pint terrors, now can we?
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
Who get chopped in to little halfling bits by big 1/2 orcs. ;)
Mark
From: Jake
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
Osred stands. Munch and Pickle will need more healing, but for now there may be others more in need of his aid.
"Who else needs immediate aid?" he shouts. If anyone reports to him that someone (like, oh, say, Vincy) is at death's door, he will head toward the stricken ally. If no response is forthcoming, Osred will turn to Garyth. "Captain, you are wounded, and we will need your strength against the witch, when she comes. Will you accept Hironeous's grace? [if Garyth answers yes, and if there is time remaining in this round, Osred will sacrifice Magic Circle Against Evil, and cast Cure Serious Wounds on Garyth]
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
Ummm... ok.
I am going to wait on Mike's reply here before I write next round.
From: Mike
Subject: Re: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 7
"Who else needs immediate aid?"
Garyth pauses, but doesn't lower his bow or take his eyes off the quickly retreating swordsman. "Vincy is down!" he shouts to Osred. And the one who did it is getting away. Even as he thinks these words, though, he knows that the real responsibility rests completely on his own shoulders. He takes two quick breaths followed by a long inhale, which he holds as he takes carful aim.
From: Ty
Subject: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 8
[Initiative Pensive, Melani, Tichenor, Garyth, swordsman3, Osred, Rennik, Robert]
Pensive watches Rennik rush off after the fleeing swordsman, and then walks over to the dead man. He falls to his knees, and looks at the man's face. He wants to do something for him. Close his eyes; give him some small measure of humanity at his passing. But the face is a ruin, torn to pieces by the ferocious wolf. There is nothing Pensive can do for this man. He became the instrument of a dark power, and that dark power abandoned him here on the battlefield to die. One small elf can not alter such forces of fate. He can't even grant a small kindness. There are no eyelids left to close, and the eyes are a ruin. He calls out, "Where is the alchemist?"
Melani curses when her dagger fails to stop the running swordsman. She slips a short leather sling out of her sleeve, and with one quick motion drops a lead bullet into the cup. She watches the man run, trying to gauge his speed and distance as she releases the shot. [Range -4; Attack 22, hit; Damage 2; unconscious] Like all her forest kin, her aim with the sling is uncanny, and her stone strikes the fleeing man on the back of the head, instantly felling him.
Tichenor had taken off at full speed at his master's command, and runs past Melani like a gray wind. If no one stops him, he will kill the fallen man next round.
Garyth looks frantically around the ground for his fallen bow. He can't find it. There are too many bodies. But a whoop of success from Melani stops his search, and he watches the swordsman collapse. Osred is asking about something. Injured men. Who's missing? By Melani's feet, Corporal Vincy has fallen. Garyth says, "Vincy is down!" The priest begins moving toward him immediately.
Osred runs toward the fallen Falcon, a prayer coming instantly to mind. [Can heal next round]
Rennik begins to chase the running swordsman, but sees him fall under Melani's well placed shot. Tichenor keeps running. Rennik knows the wolf will tear the fallen man's throat out, just to be sure. He lives by simpler rules, and a fallen foe is given no quarter, nor opportunity to be a threat in the future. From behind, he hears Pensive's question. "I killed him in the wagon," is his only reply.
Robert makes his way carefully down the slope to join his comrades.
[the game is now open for planning, healing, and RP. No need to go turn based from here on out. Jake, let me know who you want to heal and with which prayers, and we can roll it up all at once. I imagine there is a fair amount of RP to be done in the next little bit, so don't let me down :) . Garyth estimates that the group has at least twenty minutes before the witch returns if she has flown all the way to the undead army and back, based on the maps he saw.]
From: Ty
Subject: oh, and by the way
That was a very tough fight, and with two new players on the team too.
Congrats on a well played battle. Melani is going up a level, and Rennik and Garyth just moved quite a bit closer to seventh.
From: Mark
Subject: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 8
Melani concentrates on the fleeing man, taking into account his wounds, and hers. She takes a deep breath, remembering what her brother taught her, and releases the lead bullet. If flies true and she watches it strike the back of the man's head and he tumbles like the first rabbit she brought down with this same sling. The man flopped once. Melani feels the wolf dash by her, a blur of fur. She knows that the big wolf is going to make sure the man never wakes up, and turns back to the scene of the battle. She hears Garyth's cries to Osred about Vincy and rushes back to the human's side. She tries to make the guardsman comfortable as she waits for the cleric to make his way over.(Tries to use Heal skill, no ranks or skills).
After a few minutes, used to find her bow and the several daggers that she had thrown, she tracks down Garyth. "Friend Garyth, we have been blooded together in combat. In my tribe, this is an important thing. Those blooded in battle share a bond which can never be broken. We are now blood siblings. If you need my help, in any venture, and I can give it, it is yours." She holds out her two hands to Garyth, plainly expecting him to match her handclasp.
When she is done talking to Garyth, she will perform the same ritual with Pickle, Munch, Osred and Vincy. She will then ruffle Tichenor's fur, it he will allow it.
When she has done all of this, she says "Good fight. Now we have to get ready for the bitch."
Mark
From: Jake
Subject: The Battle for Overlook; Battle for hill 19 round 8
Yeah, I admit it, that turn kind of sucked. If I were doing it over, I'd do it differently. In my defense, though, I was dealing with multiple server issues today.