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Log: Crouching Cynis Hidden Pumpking

Page history last edited by Ark 15 years, 6 months ago

Players: Cynis Hrath, Askani. Cynis Chu arrives as reinforcements.

 

Runner: Bows of Hate with help from Ribbons of Discord.

 

Briefing: A small village has been attacked by strange creatures. Our heroes face them.

 

 

 

 

 

In a smaller village between Albiron and the Fiefdom of Roses, something is obviously out of the ordinary. Not a single person can be seen in the village and a cold wind blows out from the place. Unnaturally cold. A puddle of water from a rain a few days before is completely frozen over and one could easily see their breath. This would be average tempature if it were winter, but is unheard of in the warm Season of Wood. There must be something still in the town, for every so often, a chittering, shuffling noise is heard for a moment, but then ceases.

Cynis Hrath rides his large black horse slowly into town, he grips his reigns tightly in anticipation of... something. His horse shakes its head, as if to say "stay back" but Hrath slowly continues, squinting his eyes, trying to see any form of movement, ready to draw his bow at any movement.

         A gust of cold air blows through the town, shuffling the doors and windows. It almost sounds like the laughter of dark, twisted children, but it is only the wind. Right? The shuffling is heard from a house, but when one looks, it looks like it was just the door blowing in the wind. As Hrath moves through, he catches sight of one of the former residents. Once a strong, well built farmer, he is now frozen solid, a large hole in the man's chest like something exploded out of him...

Cynis Hrath slowly aproaches the frozen corpse, looking around for any signs of movement he slowly dismounts. He rubs the nervous horses head and mutters "have faith..." as he slowly aproaches the body to ispect it for the cause of hole...

         After careful inspection, the hole seems to have happened after the victim froze. Judging by the look of the corpse, it appears as if something was eating the victim from inside. Even closer inspection shows that the victim froze from the inside. So, most likely, whatever was inside the victim first froze him to death and then consumed him from the inside. No sort of known creature is known for producing the cold, but otherwise, it seems some type of parasite did this.

         A young woman in a royal purple cloak has come out as well. She looks suspiciously towards the monk and the dead victim as she gasps, her eyes widening. "Murderer!" she screams out, surrounded by a retinue of her royal guards. Enter..Askani.

.

Cynis Hrath turns and pulls his hood down and says with a laught: "Me murder this man? No, I didnt, I would have shot him in the head. And even if I did I would have had good reason" he looks at Askani closely judging her and gives and doesnt seem impressed.

         "My name is Askani, one of the princesses of Albiron. You are here on our territory with this man. While you claim you did not kill him, we must investigate.." Askani says matter of factly as she motions for the guards to go towards him. Hopefully he doesnt try to resist. That would just be yeah..complicated.

Cynis Hrath steps back to let the guards inspect and says: "well it seems where here on similar buisness, im here to investigate for my order. You may assist me if you will, but when we are done we will have to talk about your faith" he lets the guards inspect him, showing them his bow and arrows.

         The wind blows again and that strange shuffling and chittering noise is just barely audible over it. Suddenly, it gusts harder and all the doors shut like dominoes as it pushes through the town. Then, the wind all together stops and the noise can be heard again. A chittering sound and something buzzing. It comes from one of the houses between Askani and Hrath, and sends chills down the spines of all near.

         The guards inspec Hrath thoroughly and look back over to the princess. Without Gabriel around always taking care of her, it seems Askani has grown up a bit, becoming a more mature young woman. She gives them a dismissive wave as she quirks a brow. Feeling the chill, she reaches into satchel, pulling out a few potions..oh dear.

Cynis Hrath laughs and says: "It seems Mela feels need to warn us." he slowly draws an arrow and knocks it on his bow, slowly looking any signs of a threat. His piercing gaze travels from door to door and window to window as his horses trembles with fear, and even in this cold you can see sweat steam from its mane.

A grating sound, like a bag of grain were being pulled across the dirt road, comes in long intervals. A low moaning mixes with the buzzing. "h-hel.." the sound is weak, not barley above a whisper. "elp ... me ... daaaa!" it seems to squel in pain. From a dark space beteen two buildings, being too small to call an ally, an arm pulls a stump of a torso along with it. What might have been a female face once is now barly human. Lips sown shut leaving only enough room to prevent the muffling of the screams. No legs, only one arm, entrails draging behind it "H... elp..."

         Her eyes widen as she looks towards the female face. She shrieks a little not use to seeing such things before she starts heading over, somewhat hesitant. Seeds of immaculate blood are pulled out and she tries to use them on the woman. "Guards! We need to bring her to the palace!"

Cynis Hrath rushes forward towards the women and catches her in his arms, he lays his hand on her eyes and mutters a prayer to Sextus Jiles. "we can use my horse to carry her, but be warry there may be more"

         The seeds seem to help, as the woman's pain is reduced. Still, she is hardly 'alright' as he has only one arm and no legs now. How she survived this would require much more inspection, which the pair doesn't have... One of the doors shudders and explodes outwards. Tumbling out is what looks like a pair of human torso's stitched together. The bottom halves were cut off, making it walk on four arms. Icy liquid drips from the stitches and it seems to moan in despair. The lower jaws were removed and its tongues are multiple tongues stitched together into long whips that have a blade at the end of each. Apparently, they had an extra torso, cause the woman would have been next. It begins to lash forward.

Cynis Hrath spins in one smooth action and draws his bow and a single wooden arrow, he sets it to the string drawing with all his might, he grits his teeth and mutter: "die abomination". He lets his arrow fly and his bow sing, after which he prepares to draw a second before even looking if the first hit its mark.

         The undead creature lashes out at Hrath as it is struck, the tongue whipping out at him with uncanny speed and accuracy.

          Pulling away from the broken fragment of the woman to engage the horrid stitch creature, a bit of material snags on Hrath's arm. A bloody ribbon unties itself as the coner is stuck to your arm. A tear runs down her throat. "Th.. ank you" its body expands to a disgusting size. Exploding in a pussy wave of blood, guts, and firedust. The woman is no more, only a chard bloody stain, she was given her sweet relief.

Cynis Hrath pulls back again determined to take the thing down, no trap, no abomination is going to stop his rightious furry,he grits his teeth and lets his bow sing again.

         The creature slaps the arrow from the air with his bladed tongue and the second head twists its frost covered tongue towards the monk, trying to taste the man's blood.

Cynis Hrath ducks and rolls wout of the tongues path, with an amazing amount of grace despite his heavy armor, he rolls back onto his drawing a 3rd arrow and letting it fly.

         The creature is stuck with another arrow, and it curls up and launches itself at Hrath now. Moving at a phenomenal speed, it then explodes as it gets close, detonating.

Cynis Hrath looks down at his armor, and whats left of the abomination splattered all over him. He grimaces as picks a piece of intestine carfully off his shoulder and lets it drop to the floor. He then grabs a rib sticking out a gap in the armor at his side. He cleches his teeth hard as he pulls out the sharp bone that logged itself in his side, giving a small yelp of pain and agony. Hrath looks at the sharp point covered with his blood, closes his eyes and mutters: "pain purifies the body..." remembering the lessons of his master. He then returns to his steed which is frozen in fear, mounts it and says:"be ready, there may be more".

Cynis Chu walks towards the frozen town, his face a composed mask of anger. His bow is loose in his hands, and his wide, swaying steps speak remind one of a willow's movements in a storm. His skin is flushed, bright green. "Hello!" he calls out.

         The explosion of the creature sends a loud horrifying noise of ruptured flesh and bursting organs... And something returns the call. More shuffling is heard now, from other houses. Soft pattering and chittering is heard as things start rustling through the house, disgusting slirpping noises being heard now as well. It won't be long before whatever things are around will start bursting from the houses.

         Askani has been protected by her guards as she had fainted. Her player was hypoglycemic so this actually was close to being a reality. She eases on up and peers curiously towards the organs and screams once more in terror. However, she starts moving fluidly, gracefully and soon, water condenses from the very air itself before pointing it towards the creature, sending sharp icicles towards it..yeah baby.

Cynis Hrath uses his horse to gain some distance between himself and the houses, knocking another arrow and pulling back on his bow, aiming over his horses arse ready for another target. All the while he calls out loudly at the sound of Chu's voice: "Brother Chu over here, we have enemies". You can hear a mixture of both fear and excitement in his voice, as he prepares for more enemies.

Cynis Chu mms, walking swiftly towards Hrath. "So it seems, Brother," he replies. "Sower of grass and seed, what happened here? It looks like a northern wasteland." He scans the village, left to right, looking for signs of enemies.

         The icicles hit their mark, but Askani is still too terrified to really know what's going on. Her cheeks flush a bright tinge of red when one of her guards tells her it was already dead. "Well yes..let us bring that woman back to the palace.." and she starts heading off..

         The creaking and shuffling in more houses gets louder then- it all stops. Simultaneously, the village goes completely silent save for the noise the newcomers make. The wind blows softly again, and a fog starts rolling out of one of the houses. The fog touches the guard that goes to grab the poor woman and jumps back in pain. The part of his boot that touched the fog instantly froze over and nearly stuck to the ground. Water in the air starts to freeze instantly, ice literally forming in thin air and shattering on the ground.

Cynis Hrath turns his horse around near Chu releaving some of the tention on his bow. He appears a little pale as he sees the air freeze, but quickly catches himself, grits his teeth and mutters "anathema... let them come", pulling back on his bow with renewed strength.

Cynis Chu glances towards the fog, and backs away, cautiously. "Indeed," he replies softly. "Let them show themselves..." And his eyes go solid green, his pupils vanishing entirely. "In this world, or another- no creature can escape Pasiap's Humble Sight..."

         And with that, Askani leaves with her men. The monks have it in control..

         The fog seems to actually quiver as it pulls back for just a moment before a gust of wind explodes from the door. Out of the door walks an enormous monstrosity. It looks like a dozen bodies all stitched up into one large, humanoid form. The legs are two sets of eight legs all stitched for extra thickness and length. The arms are two sets of eight arms stitched in a similar fashion. That hands have heads for each joint in the fingers. The head is just a large pumpkin that drips icy cold ooze from its eyes. If it makes anyone feel better, the pumpkin is smiling. A host of cat sized insects spew forth with it, the fog seeming to be created by the bugs. The bugs fly up and towards the monks and the pumpkin thing charges.

Cynis Hrath releases an arrow at the pumpkin head while moving his steed out of the path of the insects. His face shows no signs of fear or despare, but of grim hard determination. His bow sings with the sounds of wind through dry leaves, as he draws a second arrow for the Anathema.

Cynis Chu's eyes flash bright emerald, leaving trails in the air, as he also starts to unload arrows into the demon... pumpkin... thing. Then, as the insects approach, he drops into a squat, takes a deep breath, and releases it- and in a great WOOSH, he is surrounded by a nimbus of glowing, verdent life. Life so thick, as to be deadly to those near it.

         The pumpking ignores Chu, having easily knocked the arrows away. Instead, it speeds towards Chu, covering the short distance like it is nothing. Still, even with its speed, it wasted all its efforts just reaching them. The bugs, however, begins attacking the pair.

Cynis Hrath uses his horse to increase the distance between him and the abomination to launch another shot at the pumkin, at the same time he follows Chu's lead and explodes in a yellow mist of pollen with the faint smell of many drugs and narcotics.

"Hrath!" Chu calls out, jerking his head to the side and leaving a trail of green behind it. "Try and edge to the side- and let billow the rage of the Dragons! Let Sextes Jyles scouring this filth from the lands!"

Bold words, considering he's the one that missed before.

His anima continues blazing forth, withering the bugs around him, as he edges away from Hrath to take his own advise, firing arrows as he goes.

         Most the bugs wither and die from the combined anima flux of the Cynis monks. The few remaining flutter away, only to drop dead from the narcotics they just took in. The pumpking is looks at Chu, seeing him as the slower of the targets. It tries to throw its extremely large knee cap into the monk's face, hoping to break his nose.

Cynis Hrath seeing Chu fall stifles a yelp of fear as he turns his horse around to draw off the creature letting his bow sing with another deadly arrow. He calls loudly: "Face me anathema, face me and die!"

Chu starts to pull away, but the creature's unnatural speed proves too great. It's knee catches him full on the face, with considerable force. He sails several yards back, slaming into the ground, bleeding heavily. A dim green light starts to stream from the wounds, even as his anima recedes away, falling to just a bare limning of his body. Around him, where his blood drips veridian on the ground, small flowers start to bloom.

         The pumpking spits a glob of goo at Chu, which freezes him to the ground for eating later. It does this without really thinking. After all, it isn't intelligent and expects the bugs to eat Chu. The fact that the bugs are dead or that Chu is healing doesn't register to the undead. It then charges at Hrath, again reaching him but unable to attack yet.

Cynis Hrath gives a sharp kick to the flanks of his steed, as it steems with sweat and weariness, to move farter away. As he turns to fire he sees the glow around Chu, and he smiles slightly. "Come get me beats!" he yells as he fires and draws the beast off.

         Again the pumpking slaps the arrow from the air, the skull-hands destroying the arrow before it can reach the more meatie areas. It brings a fist sailing towards Hrath, hoping to knock him out as well.

Cynis Hrath guides the horse around the crushing fist as it lands inches from him on his right, once again Hrath turns to fire as he yells lodly: "DIE YOU ABOMINATION!"

Cynis Chu's eyes open, and suddenly focus. He struggles weakly for a moment, then shouts, "Hrath, run! If that thing kills us both, then there will be no warning before it strikes again!"

         The pumpking continues thrashing at Hrath, the arrow sinking into its thick, armored hide. Its fist comes sailing at the horse this time instead, hoping to wound the beast and thus stop the monk from running so much. That, or it is just attacking the most movement. Hard to tell at this point.

"Hrath, get the hell out of here!" Chu shouts again. "Master Deled must be told! Rouse the Hunt! Don't waste your life!"

Cynis Hrath gets flung from his horse as a large swipe removes the horse from under him, Hrath goes tumbeling through the air. But he manages to land on his feet right in front of a small house turns and shoots another arrow at the pumpkin, as he backs through the shattered door.

         The pumpking actually slows, if only slightly. It shatters the doorway to the house as it attackes Hrath again, large fist aimed at the man's chest. Frost trickles off of it, leaving a trail of frozen water molecules in it's wake.

Cynis Hrath tries to dodge the attack, but the hit manages to make contact, if only barley. Hrath jumps and rolls underneath its legs as he turns too shoot again.

Cynis Chu growls quietly to himself. His nose has entirely stopped bleeding by now, the green light from the Wood Dragon Form mostly repairing internal damage now, showing under his skin like a bright, green flashlight. He falls quiet, and starts to flex against his gooey prison.

         The pumpking is hit by another arrow, but seems to not be stopped or hindered too badly by it. It shrugs off the anima flux and throws another large punch at the poor Hrath, hoping to do more damage this time.

Cynis Hrath yealls "DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR" as he lets his bow sing once more, his face grim and determined despite his wounds.

Cynis Chu's eyes close tightly. He systematically flexes, as far as he can. Deep breaths.

         Knocking this arrow aside, the large pumpking necrotech coils an arm back and slams it forward with unholy, frost fueled force. A light cackle is heard from it. Even so, the flux seems to have hindered it at the last moment, slowing it some more.

 

"HRATH!" Chu suddenly shouts. "Come to me! I can help you, but only if you touch me!"

Cynis Hrath is sent realing by a powerfull blow, as he gathers himself, he wipes a small stream of blood away from his mouth, he then hears Chu's yell, turns and sees him and fires an arrow at the goo on Chu.

Hrath's arrow strikes at the center of the crystla prison- and Chu is out in a flash. He stumbles briefly, on standing, then runs towards Hrath, with all his speed. "Here," he says, smiling broadly- and green energy flows form Chu, into Hrath, rejuvinating him. And causing Chu to double over in pain again.

         The creature looks at Hrath and Chu, its programming not registering that Chu healed and did this. Only that two enemies are before it again. It charges Hrath, knowing that he injured him before and hoping to take him down as soon as it can. A fist is sent that monk's way.

Cynis Chu staggers away, already having healed the worst of the damage, and turns to deliver a series of attacks directly to it's back. Carefully considering each shot, knowing how little good he's done thus far. He exhales, and the green billows forth again.

Cynis Hrath gets knocked down to his knees by a viscous blow, as he looks down at the ground he feels hope leave and doubt gnaws at him,"maybe I cant do this?" he closes his eyes tighly as a tear falls into the pool of blood on the ground.

 Then suddenly he feels a resurgance of energy, a new power. His eyes glow green with the power of Sextus Jiles as his brothers energy courses through his veins. He stands and looks back at Chu, and with a small smile on his face he mutters "for Cynis...". He turns, and gives out a mighty yell as he pulls back on his bow and lets it sing.

         The pumpking twinges from the damage of the flux, throwing a fist at Hrath again as arrows are flung at it. Now, cold ooze is dripping from it like blood, evaporating in the air and making small bits of fog for moments. It is seriously damaged now.

Cynis Chu closes his eyes for a moment, thinking, as he seems to be largely ignored. Then, he stalks to the creature's more badly injured side. "Hrath, listen. It's slowed down- keep it's attention, and we'll hit it at the same time on my mark."

Cynis Hrath moves ever so slightly to the side as the massive fist misses, he then looks up at the monster, his face showing no emotion neither fear, despair or joy. He then looks at Chu nods and pulls back...

         As the Immaculates prepare to strike, it turns and throws a sinister punch at Hrath again, hoping to land a hit before they tear it apart...

         The pumpking flails at Hrath once more, but the arrows stick into it deep. Cold, icy blood drips from the wounds and it falls over in a heap, shattering like glass. The blue liquid continues to ooze from it, evaporating into the air. The pumpking is now the broken and the poor bastards that formed it can rest in Lethe easier with that knowledge.

Cynis Chu lets out a slow breath, before glancing across the field, and walking towards Hrath. A smile broad on his face, as he bring a hand to his brother's shoulder. "Well. Exciting enough for you?" he asks, tired. He winces again, as green light flashes- absorbing the majority of Hrath's remaining injuries. He groans, eyes closing in pain, before he focuses, and assumes his stance, for several long seconds.

Life flows. It gathers, and changes. It warms and rejuvinates. After a few long seconds, Chu is back to full health, his Anima banner burning brightly, like windswept fields of tall grass around him. He looks towards the body, then back to Hrath.

"We have to burn it."

Cynis Hrath looks at Chu, "That was exciting wasnt it? umm.. my horse could you..?" as he looks over at his horse with anquish on his face.

Cynis Chu smiles at Hrath's request, and walks to the horse. He closes his eyes, finding some last reserve of strength, and the horse's eyes flicker open. It lives.

 

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