2. If you happen to be multitasking, make sure you can keep up with the deadlines. Otherwise, I'll ask you to stop your other scene.
3. No posting order, but please post ONCE for every post I make unless I say otherwise.
4. Keep track of your own health and tempers.
5. Questions in the chat. Don't IM me. If I don't see the question, repeat it until I do. If I don't respond for minutes on end -- I'm probably posting. You should wait, unless it's absolutely urgent, upon which you should PM me once.
6. PM me your applicable flaws. This includes stuff like nightmares and phobias and hatreds and compulsions!
7. If there are any off-limits themes, imagery or events you do NOT want to see in a scene, PM 'em to me now.
8. I'll start us off!
[-horned-] Hunt! was the call across the totemlink, and hunting! is what they're here to do.
They arrive by car. They're here because last week there were giant holes dug under the fence of Bellamonte Park, holes that Kate's gardeners complained long and bitterly about. Or they did, until they found a severed human arm in one of those holes, savaged and gnawed.
So: the hunt begins at the park tonight. And they sweep out on foot, describing an ever-widening spiral out from the park itself. This is their third circle, and they're three blocks away from Bellamonte Park when
a fourlegged, vague canid shape appears on the street ahead.
Bronzeville is a shitty part of town. It's hard to make details out. The streetlights flicker and buzz. The one the shape stands under is out.
[if you would've activated stuff on the way here, go ahead and roll it. it is also a good idea to activate any last-minute stuff you might slap on in this post!]
[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine's park does seem to be something of a beacon for the unclean things. The Wyrm tainted things. The human eating things. it frustrates the Silver Fang to no end, every time she is forced to drag Theron, or Caleb out here again to cleanse the area and check that everything is as it should be.
It's also an expense.
Those gardeners don't come cheap, for all the bitching they do.
On their third sweep, they finally see something. Honor's Compass' mood has deteriorated steadily; when she sees (vaguely) the shape of what's ahead there's a snarl as she sinks into her Hispo form; her claws scraping the pavement. Her fur beginning to glow with the activation of Luna's gift.
[So! Kate would have already activated Resist Pain, so this will be the roll for Luna's Armor.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yay tank! Luna's Armor]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 7) [WP] Re-rolls: 1
[Sinclair] If it hadn't been for the liquor and the surprisingly tasty little finger-foods provided at the benefit, Sinclair would have been whining like a seven year-old to leave much, much sooner than she did. Most of that whining took place over their totemic link. Lucky Asha, Lukas, and Theron, getting to listen to Sinclair telling Kate that her feet hurt. Telling Kate that she was kinda drunk. Telling Kate that she wanted to go it was boring now are you going to buy that why not I like it what's wrong with it
and so on.
She's more excited about going out on this hunt tonight than she was for the free booze and canapes anyway. She changed back into her regular clothes -- and these are dedicated, every last stitch -- that are more comfortable and easier to move in and ones she's free to get a little messy if need be. Her cargo shorts are khaki. Her yellow tank-top has a slice of a juicy-looking orange emblazed across the front. She is still wearing the evening's makeup and her hair is still artfully windblown.
She was the one who went and grabbed Christian from his room at the Brotherhood and all but dragged him out by the collar, gleefully chattering to him that they're going on a hunt and Lukas and Kate said I could bring you aren't you lucky lucky you're so lucky
and then she was singing a Franz Ferdinand song and it was quite some time before she calmed the fuck down and started acting like a grown-up Fostern Galliard. And hunter.
And predator.
Sinclair is no Ragabash, no scout, but she trusts her instincts. She trusts her nose. She trusts the faint traces of blood on the air, and the lure of darkness right... over... there. Her eyes narrow, and her head cocks.
On the way to the Park she'd told Christian in no uncertain terms that she was going to attempt a Vulcan mind-meld with him, and with her fingertips and the pads of her thumbs carefully -- geekily -- placed, she stared into his eyes and called on the gift the Chimerling taught her after she chased it and chased it and chased it and pinned it down and told it to stop being a dick. So far the telepathic connection has been mostly quiet, but in this way she can relay to him whatever Kate or Lukas may say over the totemlink. It isn't the same as being bound to a pack, able to feel them and hear them and know them like that.
But it's enough.
[On the way: -1WP, Resist Pain
-1WP, Mindspeak with Christian
Tripoli: riding on her shoulder with his Coca Cola can shield and a wee sword made out of a tine of a meat fork. no helmet yet. haven't found a plume small enough.]
[-horned-] [BULLSHIT! another gnosis!]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7) [WP] Re-rolls: 1
[Katherine Bellamonte] [I don't even care. I will spend Gnosis. And WP.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 5 at target 7) [WP]
[Christian] You'd think with the moon waning away to nothing that Christian would have an easier time controlling himself. He'd drained his Rage several nights ago fighting angels in a graveyard but it's back to where it started now. After letting the Wyrm take him over he's fallen in renown. He's no longer considered Cliath even...but it hasn't had an overt effect on his attitude. He's just as easily angered as ever but tonight he's got something to channel it into. They're going hunting. He'd thought it would just be Sinclair, but his tribal and auspice elder are here. He is taking his cues from them. Sinclair talks his ear off on the way here and then does that "Vulcan mild meld" thing with him. He tenses when she stares at him but submits to it. With Katherine going Hispo, he takes on his war form. Once there he drags his claws across the asphalt. He empties some of his Rage into honing his claws to knives. He'd learned his lesson last time. He doesn't snarl no matter how much he might want to.
(( -1 Rage, Razor Claws ))
[-horned-] [-1Gn BB; -1WP Resist Pain; -1Gn soak talen]
Lucky might not quite be the term for it, but it is true that this is an unusual thing. Look around, and Christian sees nothing but wolves of Perun. A pack deal ... and him.
Maybe that means something.
At any rate, Lukas seems more relaxed; perhaps a little less formal than he would be if he were leading his septmates to war. These two with him, both Fosterns: they're the heart of his pack. His closest packmates. His closest friends. His sisters, simply put, and his trust and ease with them is utter and implicit.
The creature stopped down the way catches all their attentions as one. "Uh oh," Lukas murmurs under his breath, and there's just a touch of a laugh there. "I think we may have found something."
A moment later he joins Katherine and Christian. One black hispo. One white hispo. One white crinos.
And this, too: Wyrmbreaker nudging Christian with his shoulder, passing him something between his front teeth. It looks like a small, bloody rag wrapped around a smaller chip of clay.
"Bloody Bandage," he whuffs. "And a talen to strengthen your hide. Remind me to teach you how to make."
Down the way, the dog suddenly throws back his head and bays. The sound echoes off the low, squat brownstones lining this block.
Presently, a second dog slinks out of the shadows and comes to the side of the first. It holds its head lower. It sniffs at the ground, then at the paws of the first. Two shadowy canines under the broken lamp.
Then a third. And a fourth. The first dog bays again, and this time, the rest of the pack join him.
[Sinclair] [BZZT! Delete all that shit about Mindspeak. It's a stupid gift anyway.]
[Sinclair] Warcry is the last of the Garou present to shift -- and crack, and stretch, and snarl -- into a new shape. Like Lukas and Kate she chooses hispo, but they knew a long time ago that her gifts in battle had more to do with wicked speed and viciously placed strikes more than brute strength. She is somewhere between the Fang and the Lord in terms of coloring: her fur is just as thick, just as glossy -- surprising, for a wolf without a drop of purity to her blood -- but it is colored like iron and steel, shot through with bits of black and small tufts of white here and there. Her eyes, like theirs, are blue.
Lukas's are glacial and hard, crystalline. Katherine's deep and piercing. Sinclair's, ethereal and opaque. But all blue, even in varying shades.
The numen riding her holds onto her fur for dear life when she shifts, eeeeing as she drops to all fours. He seems calmer, though, when silvery steel starts to wind up every strand of her fur, covering her, coating her in the same chrome armor that the Walkers say may very well be protecting Gaia for the future. The numen is almost invisible in it; he taught her the gift, after all.
Her lips curl back as the dog down the way bays for his brothers. She lets go a low, rumbling snarl right back at the pack of filthy mongrels, slaver dripping from her own fangs.
[-1WP, Steelfur
Stamina + Science]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 3, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Failure at target 76)
[Sinclair] [I kan enter diffs. I ttly kan. 4 suxx, w00t.]
[Christian] He does feel a bit out of place. For one thing, they're all Fosterns. They're all packmates. They've all got deed names. He's pretty sure none of them are his age. Now isn't the time to think about what they're doing with him. One then another then another canine shows up, and they prepare for battle. His mentor, as he is, "hands" him a pair of talens. Christian looks down at them as if he has to remember what to do with them. After a second or two he calls on what little Gnosis he has to release the spirits in the clay and gauze.
(( Rolling for soak talen first, then -1 Gnosis for Bloody Bandage. ))
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 4, 5 (Failure at target 7)
[Christian] (( Reroll! ))
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 6 (Failure at target 8)
[Katherine Bellamonte] Honor's Compass is a gently glowing mass of muscle and fur amidst them. Her brother and sister, her tribesman. Family and family further; she is without fear, the Half Moon. Fear has long since fled from her heart at the onset of battle -- it has been replaced with the surety that she stands poised with those who would willingly die for her as she would for them in return.
That surety keeps her still.
It keeps her steady.
She waits for the moment to strike.
They are a well oiled machine, the three Fosterns.
They are, after all, Unbroken.
[-horned-] A chorus of baying rises up from the hounds. It's not a mournful sound. It's not even a sound of challenge, or threat. It's eager. Excited. Like hounds darting around the master, waiting for the hunt. Like they -- the Garou -- were prey.
Two more dogs have joined the pack. Six of them now, and the noise they make is tremendous. No one pokes their heads out of the buildings to yell at them to shut their fucking dogs up. No one even comes to the window to look. This is Bronzeville. The denizens know better, and those who didn't --
well. See Bellamonte Park. See severed limb in a hole.
Then the pitch and timbre of the dogs' baying abruptly shifts. Almost frantic now with excitement, with anticipation, with cowering, bootheel-licking adoration. The language they speak is not quite the language of wolves; is not even properly the language of dogs, but even so, the Garou can intuit the basics:
Master is coming. Master is almost here. Master! Master is coming!
Behind the bristling, wheeling line of hounds, the Gauntlet begins to thin. As though stepping through a wall of water, as though emerging from some invisible surface, a fist emerges, gripping a horn. Before the rest of the being has even properly emerged, the horn is raised to still-unseen lips and blown with tremendous might.
As one, the dogs burst forward, yelping and baying. When they hit the pool of light cast from the next streetlamp, the Garou can see
that they're not dogs at all, but sleek, furless things, hides as slick as oil, heads eyeless, holes for ears, jaws so packed with muscle they look swollen. Snapping at the air, slavering, yipping in glee, the hounds charge at their prey.
[inits!]
[Sinclair] [+10!]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 7
[-horned-] [Gonna roll this in two parts instead of six -- Clasher, Smasher and Masher! +7]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1 (Botch x 1 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [+9]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4
[Christian] (( +7 ))
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 3
[-horned-] [Grinder, Blinder and ... uh... Winder! +7]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1
[-horned-] [+20 lukas!]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1
[-horned-] Init Order:
21 Lukas
17 Sinclair
13 Kate
Christian 10
8 Clasher Smasher Masher
8 Grinder Blinder Winder
[-horned-] [kahseeno, don't love me on this roll!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 4, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 7)
[-horned-] [WP!]
[-horned-] Clasher
1. Grapple Christian!
R1. Bite Christian!
Smasher
1. Bite Christian!
R1. Bite Kate!
Masher
1. Bite Kate!
R1. Bite Sinclair!
Grinder
1. Bite Sinclair!
R1. Grapple Lukas!
Blinder
1. Bite Sinclair!
R1. Bite Lukas!
Winder
1. Bite Lukas!
R1. Bite Lukas!
[Christian] (( 1a/1b: Claw Clasher.
2 Rage: Claw Clasher. Switch to Smasher if he dies! ))
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Kate is:
1a. Flanking Masher
1b. Biting
1c. Biting
R1. Biting
R2. Biting]
[Sinclair] [Reflexive: "Christian! This one!" (indicating via awesome Galliardy body language and barks that no no no, bite Masher with me and Kate, it'll be awesome, then like, we should all go after the asshole trying to grapple Lukas)
1a. Flank Masher
1b. Bite
1c. Bite
R1. Bite
R2. LOOKIT ME MAH I GOT MORES ACTIONS!! Biting. Switching to Grinder if Masher goes down.]
[-horned-] Wyrmbreaker is Christian's mentor. He's taken the younger Ahroun under his wing. He's going to teach him about control, about tempering one's rage, about leashing it and harnessing it and bending it to one's will.
And at the first sight of what those dogs really are, the Shadow Lord loses his shit.
Rage explodes out from him, furious and black. There are no orders. There are no directions. There's simply fury, utter and inexplicable, peeling lips back from teeth, sending a snarl vibrating through him with such terrible force that the air around him seems to shake. For an instant, Wyrmbreaker wants very much to give in to that red ruin and charge in blind and unaware; to lay waste to anything he can put his teeth in.
He doesn't. He bows his head, and focuses, and roots himself to the spot, and trembles with the sheer exertion of taming his own rage.
[Reflexive: RESIST FRENZY!]
[Sinclair] [1a. Zip!
1b. dex + brawl + perun -4 (split) / diff +1 (steelfur) -1 (flanking)]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Sinclair] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yelp!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 1, 9 (Failure at target 6)
[Sinclair] [1c. -5 (split) / diff +1/-1]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Sinclair] [+3]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yip!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [1a. Flaaaankin' youse dogz
1b. Nip! Dex + Brawl + Perun (-4 Split) (-1 Diff Flanking)]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 6, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 4)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [bark!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 4, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] [masher incap!]
[Sinclair] [Reflexive: "Now him!" (Grinder)]
[Katherine Bellamonte] [1c. A little harder now, dearest. On Grinder! (-5, -1)]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5 (Success x 5 at target 4)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 4]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [arf!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 5, 7, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Christian] (( 1a: Dex + Brawl. Dex +1, Crinos. -2 pool, 1st split. Difficulty +1, switching target to Grinder! ))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7)
[Christian] (( Strength + 4 Crinos + 1 claw + 1 RC + 1 staging ))
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [whine!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Christian] (( 1b: -3 pool, 2nd split. Difficulty +1. ))
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 6, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 7) [WP]
[Christian] (( + 3 ))
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[-horned-] [aii!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] [grinder incap!]
[-horned-] The hounds don't hold back. They don't play fair. A swarming, ravening pack, they leap blindly and joyfully to the attack. There's baying all about. Teeth snap every which way. Out of cunning or fell intelligence or sheer instinct, some of them try to grip the Garou for the sakes of their compatriots. Others just go for the throat.
And they're not strong. Each of them, alone, could easily be torn asunder by any one of the Garou here.
They are, however, many. And they are fervently, fearlessly loyal.
And their master is coming.
[Clasher: 1. grapple christian!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Christian] (( Strength + Brawl. Strength + 4, Crinos. ))
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] The Garou are fast, though. So, so fast. Two hounds have fallen already, torn asunder, flung out of the boiling circle of fur and slick flesh. Their blood is hot and dark and bitter.
A third leaps at Christian. It sinks its teeth into the Cliath's ruff -- an awkward grip, imperfect but painful, catching a fold of skin, an ear -- and begins to drag him down to the ground for its packmate to savage.
The Cliath twists free with a snarl. The packmate shifts directions in midair; snaps for his forelimb.
[Smasher: bite!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 9 (Failure at target 5)
[-horned-] [Masher: bite Kate!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5)
[-horned-] [dam +2!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 4, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] -- and misses utterly, teeth clapping shut on a mouthful of air.
The next dog is luckier. It lunges at Kate and tears into her; but the Fang proves hardier than she looks.
That's true in more ways than one.
[-horned-] [Grinder! Bite Sinclair!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7 (Success x 1 at target 5)
[-horned-] [puny damage!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 5, 7, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [Oh fuck you, asshole]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Blinder, same!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 5)
[-horned-] [dam +1!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [what, seriously?]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Grinder ATTACKS FROM INCAP!
...no, grinder and masher are -_-]
[-horned-] [Winder, bite Lukas! -2 diff because HE AIN'T MOVIN]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 8 (Success x 4 at target 3)
[-horned-] [dam +3!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 8 (Failure at target 6)
[-horned-] [midround reminder. these are the remaining hounds and their actions:
Clasher
R1. Bite Christian!
Smasher
R1. Bite Kate!
Blinder
R1. Bite Lukas!
Winder
R1. Bite Lukas!]
[Sinclair] [Switching to Winder. THAT WAS A MISTAKE.
dex + brawl + perun / diff +1 (steelfur), +1 (switching)]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 7) Re-rolls: 2
[Sinclair] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 10 at target 6)
[-horned-] [whimper!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 3, 9 (Failure at target 6)
[-horned-] The Garou aren't even touched so far. The dogs circle and bark, yelp when they're torn into and flung aside. Two of them are moving weakly, sprawled on their sides. The other four and circling, and real dogs, real animals, would be warier now. Would reconsider their prey.
These do not. These are driven with devotion, with sheer love for the master ripping his way into this world. These circle and nip and snap and bark, and --
one of them tries for Sinclair. It's the last thing it ever tries. A second later, the mangled lifeless remains hit the asphalt in two pieces.
[Sinclair] [Annnd Blinder. I PERTEKTIVE.]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 7) Re-rolls: 2
[Sinclair] [+4]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yowl!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Rage Tiem! Clasher, don't you be bitin' on Christian you big turd.]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 7 at target 5)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 6]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[-horned-] [howl!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 5, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Same again!]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Ack, shit. That was 11, not 12 dice. Suxx 6!]
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 5]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[Sinclair] The moment it became clear that Lukas was fighting something off, was fighting it so hard he couldn't give orders much less join in the fray, Sinclair looked to see what her sister was doing, followed, and -- yet again -- dragged the Cliath Ahroun after her. Later on she may make mention to him of the fact that he obeyed without hesitation, without question. For all she knows, he'll be shocked that this isn't apparently normal in Chicago. She sort of hopes he's shocked.
In any case, the stand-in warleader of this pack becomes obvious the moment Lukas is indisposed. And almost merrily, the two Fangs -- leaders of the Garou, lords of the Nation, etcetera etcetera -- fall in line with the metal-furred Glass Walker. Child of Cockroach.
A bat of an eyelash goes by and they destroy the hounds. Sinclair doesn't linger on them after they flop to the ground, whether they're alive or not. If their necks hang at odd angles, if their legs are broken, if their guts are literally spilling out of their bellies, she seems satisfied enough to turn her blood-soaked maw on another. And another.
Lukas is trembling with his own restraint and the hounds go after him. Sinclair ROARS, grabbing one by the throat and -- quite simply, quite literally, but angrily -- ripping its fucking head off. Her eyes are flashing with rage that, this time, she controls. She goes after the other that looks like it has eyes for her Alpha, and shreds its shoulder with her fangs.
These pretty blonde women are, it seems, protective: a moment later Kate is tearing apart the beast that would go after the Cliath she as adopted into her House since he does not have his own. There is no communication now, not even from Sinclair: they are making shockingly, brutally quick work of these things.
[-horned-] [arouungh?]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] [clasher x_x
oh and winder x_x too. very very x_x]
[Christian] (( R2: Claw Smasher ))
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 4, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Christian] (( +4 ))
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[-horned-] [aroo!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] In seconds, the pack is all but demolished. Four hounds lay dead or close enough not to matter. One has one foot in the grave; the other is heading there.
The shuddering eye of this storm, Wyrmbreaker has mastered himself. He lifts his head, sides heaving. He chuffs to his packmates. It's hard to say if the sound is gratitude or apology or simply:
I'm here. I'm back.
The horn that called these hounds to the hunt is black, the surface lustrous but irregular, like obsidian. It is banded in dull, tarnished bronze. Like some sort of bizarre vanguard, it leads the huntsman through the Gauntlet, pulling after it a fist; a forearm; a shoulder armored in bleached bone.
Then -- horns. Not the sort you blow, but the sort that bulls and rams have: huge and curving, as lustrous black as the instrument gripped in that great hand. The Gauntlet seems to shriek where those horns pierce. Seems to crackle and tear as they pierce through, widening, thickening, curving.
They slice leftward. Slash rightward. Briefly, the Gauntlet is torn wide open, blurring the world, revealing the otherside. Another arm plunges through. Then one leg, then the other, and suddenly the Huntsman is here, vivid, burning with rage, huge.
Large as a Crinos. Larger. Humanoid. His face is masked in some dread beast's skull. The eyes burning through are yellow as a wolf's. Body clad in furs, armored in bone. At least some of those pelts look like they've come from Garou. Some Gaian. Others Dancer. Indiscriminate, this one. Equal-opportunity slaughterer.
There are two hounds at his heels. They're easily twice the size of the ones the Garou have savaged. They slink with their heads and tails low, snarling.
The Huntsman surveys the slaughter. His eyes fix on the prize. He raises the horn to his lips, and he blows the avaunt.
[Sinclair] A moment, only. A moment where Sinclair, steely as she is, comes near to Lukas and makes a low noise. A moment is all they have before the huntsman appears, and a moment is all she takes. She whips around, letting out the heavy, savage barks that the hounds they just fought wish they could release. Blood-tinted spittle flies from her mouth.
Tripoli, clinging to her fur and banging around between her shoulderblades with every leap, every surge of motion from the Galliard, lifts a slinkied arm and waves at Lukas. Eeee, he says, in welcome.
[Katherine Bellamonte] The Half Moon's teeth are stained red, there's gore all over her muzzle. It dips, razor sharp teeth are bared as the Master of the hounds reveals himself. She snarls, blood dripping from her fur. Starts forward a step, dances back in a play that is not play at all but the taunt of a victorious wolf.
You're next!
It says, her eyes say, the bristling, glowing fur on her back says.
[Christian] Surprisingly, perhaps, he does listen. Whether or not he wants to. Even though he's not even really a Cliath anymore there's a large part of him that doesn't want to be a disgrace to his tribe. He hardly knows any of these people and yet he doesn't want to let them down. Or maybe he's trying to prove something. Plenty of Cliath Ahrouns are. At any rate he swings his claws like scythes, helping to cut down the band of slavering skinless dogs. When Lukas gets himself under control he looks over at him but says nothing. There's no time and he doesn't know what he'd say anyway. When the Gauntlet rips open his eyes snap forward. He swallows back a snarl when he sees a man bigger than he is pass through the curtain between worlds, bringing two more beasts with him. He flicks his right paw. Blood splatters on the street. He doesn't move forward until the others do. He's shaking with the effort.
[-horned-] [can you guys see this?]
[Sinclair] [yes! unfortunately:
(3:45:29 AM) travesty: Ack. I've got to go eat dinner. I'll be back as fast as I can!]
[-horned-] [okay! i think i've fought my way back on, but this connection is SUPER unstable *LOL*]
[Sinclair] [jacqui and i giving it girl-on-girl action probably helped]
[-horned-] [*dies* if i vanish, just be patient. i should crawl back on eventually. *LOL*
now! inits! we may as well reinit and then declare up until christian's. Mangler! +10]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4 (Failure at target 6)
[-horned-] [Strangler! +10]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [+10!]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Herne the Hunter! +15]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2 (Failure at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [+9]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 7
[Sinclair] Christian [+7]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] +20 Lukas!
[Sinclair] *helps*
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 3 (Failure at target 6)
[-horned-] Lukas 23
Strangler 20
Sinclair 18
Herne 17
Kate 16
Mangler 14
Christian 13
[-horned-] [...will take 1 action + 3 rage actions. He will hold actions until Herne gives the call! (+1 diff to all)]
[-horned-] [*cough* and so will Blinder and Smasher, poor mangled pups that they are.]
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Kate:
1a. Flank Herne, ya'll
1b. Fur Gnarl
1c. Bite Gnarled Spot (if it works)
R1. Bite
R2. Bite]
[-horned-] Wyrmbreaker barely has time to take grasp of the situation. The Shadow Lord's pale eyes flick over the carnage much as the Huntsman's had. His orders are short and guttural, as much as snarl of challenge as anything:
"On him!"
In response, the Huntsman blows a series of notes on his horn. It's a strange sound -- sharp, off-key, scraping and harsh. When he lowers the horn, his dogs instantly converge.
The Huntsman himself lowers his head, squares his shoulders, and charges.
[Herne, reflexive: sics dogs!
1. CHARGE! -- on Lukas
R1. Grab! -- on Lukas
R2. Backbreaker! -- on Lukas
R3. Backhand! -- on Sinclair
Mangler
1. Bite Lukas!
R1. Bite Sinclair!
R2. Bite Kate!
R3. Bite Kate!
Smasher
1. i almost ded but i halp! flank Lukas!
R1. Bite!
Blinder
1. me too! flank Lukas!
R2. Bite!
[Sinclair] [1a. Get behind Herne
1b. Hamstring -- You no charge Lukas!
1c. Jawlock -- Git 'im, Katie! I'll hold 'im down and hold 'im sthill!
R1. Bite
R2. Bite!]
[Christian] (( 1a: Flank Herne
1b: Claw
2 Rage: Both claws! ))
[-horned-] [Lukas:
reserving right to take hits for people if necessary!
1a. Bite Blinder!
b. Bite Smasher!
c. One more for whichever one isn't dead!
R1. Bite Herne!
R2. Bite Herne!
Strangler:
R1. Bite Lukas!
R2. Bite Christian!
R3. Bite Christian!]
[-horned-] [1a chomp!]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 9 at target 5) Re-rolls: 2
[-horned-] [dam +8]
Dice Rolled:[ 17 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 13 at target 6)
[-horned-] [i just wanna see how much overkill that was]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 5, 5, 9, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [b. chomp!]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5) Re-rolls: 2
[-horned-] [+4]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yelp!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [smasher -_-
blinder x_X]
[-horned-] c. on to Herne!
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5) Re-rolls: 2
[-horned-] [THANK YOU FOR THAT AWESOME ROLL EARLIER KAHSEENO! +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Herne: haha, puny wolf-thing!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] The thing about Wyrmbreaker is: he is controlled. He is thoughtful, and intelligent, and cunning. Not a blunt weapon. Not a mindless savage but a careful creature, a planner, a strategist, a tactician.
Just -- not as much as he thinks he is. Not as much as he perhaps wants to be. Because when push comes to shove, and when shit hits the fan, and when all hell breaks loose:
he is what he is. An Ahroun. A savage. A monster.
The Frenzy was bitten back not because he didn't want to succumb, not because he didn't want to ride that red wave for all it was worth, but because he knew he had to push it back. Because he had an example to set, a pack to lead, a protege to teach. And protect.
It doesn't mean that brutality goes away. It doesn't mean he doesn't raise his head and fall on the first dog, the one that Sinclair had savaged half to death already -- and fall on it with such force, such fury, such snapping, snarling hatred, that it dies instantly. A splash of blood. A crunch of bones. An awful rii-i-i-iip as the Shadow Lord snaps his head on his powerful neck, whips the carcass about and literally tears it in half.
He's calmer after that. A little more in hand. He puts the next dog down almost carelessly, and goes for the Huntsman
who lowers his horn, and lowers his horns, and charges.
[1. WHAM!]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 3, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[-horned-] [2. Dam +5 (special) +5 (suxx)
Dice Rolled:[ 18 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[-horned-] [soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] [ehehhe. no wham yet. STRANGLER goes next.
1. CHOMP SINCLAIR!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] Dam +3!
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [ehhhhhh whatevs, strangler, whatevs]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [1a. Zoom!
1b. hamstring! dex + brawl + perun -4 (split) / diff: base 8 -2 (rear attack), +1 (steelfur)]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7) Re-rolls: 1
[Sinclair] [+2]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [HEY!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 5, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [1c. jawlock! dex + brawl + perun -5 (split) / diff: base 6, +1 (steelfur), -2 (mah legs no werk! onoz! she gon eat meh!)]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 8 at target 5) Re-rolls: 4
[-horned-] [herne is crippled. henceforth, all attacks are at -2 diff -- stacks w/ position, but capped at 3]
[Sinclair] [strength + athletics +7]
Dice Rolled:[ 18 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 10 at target 6)
[-horned-] [str + brawl resist!]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[-horned-] ...or tries to charge. Starts to charge.
And they know -- every one of them instinctively knows -- that those horns would be terrifying. That they could pierce a grown man through and through; perhaps even drop a grown Ahroun to his knees. Or kill him.
So Sinclair doesn't let him get that far. The Galliard sprints around the giant. Wheels, her claws scraping hard over asphalt. One of the hounds snaps at her, crushingly, and she doesn't even feel it. Her teeth fix in the Huntsman's leg and she rips.
He goes to one knee. The bellow he makes his deafening, echoing strangely in the confines of that skull-mask. He paws for the Glass Walker,
who promptly fixes her teeth in the back of his neck and forces him to the ground.
[crippled + pinned -- cumulative -3 diff to attack Herne (since crippled and pinned both affect mobility, they don't stack perfectly!). Herne's attacks on others are raised by +2 diff, and he has to redeclare for position:
1. Punch Lukas!
R1. Grapple Lukas for dogs!
R2. Punch again!
R3. Blow horn!]
[-horned-] [1. Punch! with BONE-MAILED FISTS! +2 diff (pinned), +1 diff (change)]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6 (Botch x 1 at target 9)
[-horned-] [ow my hand!]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [soak vs self!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [1a. La dee da, skippin' off to flank you!
1b. Fur Gnarl! Dex + Brawl vs Diff 7 (-1 Flanking, -3 Jawlocked, Crippled, etc.) so Diff 3. (-4 split)]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 3)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage!]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [-3 soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [1c. Targeting Gnarled Spot! +2 for targeting, -5 Split]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 5)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 4, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [ow!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] In seconds the Garou have proven that they're no mere prey. They've laid the Huntsman out flat, held him down, torn that bleached bone armor off his back and sunk their teeth into his flesh.
Which is tough with the scar-tissue of a hundred, a thousand hunts. Which is hot with blood, coppery and bitter, that splashes over their tongues as they tear into him.
He howls again. It's not a sound of fear, but of rage.
[Mangler:
1. Bite Lukas! +1 for held action earlier]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 (Botch x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] [facepaw.]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[-horned-] [if i incap myself...]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Christian] (( 1a: Flanking!
1b: Claw! -3 pool, 2nd split. Difficulty -3. ))
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 4, 6, 7 (Success x 4 at target 3)
[Christian] (( +3 ))
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Lukas!
R1. They've got him! Switching to Strangler -- let's Spur Claw it! +1 diff for changing actions; -1R for Gift]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7) Re-rolls: 3
[-horned-] [dam +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yelp!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Strangler: HAHA. R1. Bite you back!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 6, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5)
[-horned-] [dam +4!]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 8 at target 6)
[-horned-] [OW motherfucker!]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [R1. NOM]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 6 at target 3)
[-horned-] Seeing the Huntsman pinned and all but neutralized, the Shadow Lord turns on the remaining hounds. They're far larger than the six that came before them; far more vicious. Wyrmbreaker lashes out with his claws, which detach as they scrape along the hides of the hounds --
-- only to fail to catch. The eyeless hound's long tongue lolls out in an unmistakable leer. Its counterattack tears a chunk of flesh from the Lord, which heals again almost as soon as the damage is struck.
[Sinclair] [+5!]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] When he stepped into this world, terrifying and majestic, the Huntsman wanted blood.
Now, pinned, bitten again and again by a pack of enormous wolf-monsters, he stops trying to rend, kill, destroy, brutalize. His fingers reach for his horn, knocked from his grasp when he was dragged bodily to the ground. They brush the bronze bands once, twice, and then seize the chain. The Huntsman drags the horn back to his himself, back to his lips.
The breath he draws is tattered, whistling where one unlucky bite had pierced his lung. Yet when he blows, the sound is loud and long, echoing down the darkened street.
[R1. Changed: blow horn now! Special effects on this.]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [WP -2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Christian] (( WP -1 ))
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Current WP Roll]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 4, 6, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] [i THINK my current wp is 5!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] [Sinclair takes 3A and loses 5 points of Gnosis. If/when she runs out of Gnosis, she begins losing WP, and then Rage.
Christian takes 2A and loses 4 points of Gn-->WP-->Rage.
Kate takes 3A and loses 5 points of Gn-->WP-->Rage.
Lukas takes 2A and loses 4 points of Gn-->WP-->Rage!]
[-horned-] The sound is maddening. The sound is madness itself. It grates across their souls like fingernails down a blackboard. Stabs through their ears and scrambles their brains; darkens their vision; makes blood spring spontaneously to their eyes and their mouths and their ears, like stigmata.
It hollows them out from the inside. Strips them not merely of flesh, but of spirit as well; of will; rage.
Worse still. When the sound dies, the Huntsman begins to fade at the extremities. They have seconds to bring him down before he's gone.
[Katherine Bellamonte] The sound is maddening. It tears away the Half Moon's precious willpower, strips her of the mystical Gnosis at her core. It does, in fact, tear everything from Honor's Compass but the caged Rage of the beast within her. There is nothing now, but the wolf --
and that wolf was all that remained. To the sound of her totem, crackling through her -- she attacks.
Blindly, furiously.
[Rage 1: biting! -1 flanking]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 8 at target 4)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 7]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[-horned-] [agh!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 9 (Failure at target 6)
[-horned-] x_X
[-horned-] ONOZ! MASTER! Mangler Rage check!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-] ZOMG! MASTER! Strangler Rage check!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 9 (Failure at target 6)
[-horned-] Mangler: bite Sinclair! +1 for held action
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [dam +4]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sinclair] It felt good, putting the huntsman to the ground. Hearing his knee crack against the asphalt, feeling the stretch and tear of tendons in her teeth. It felt good holding him down while Katherine, Lukas, and Christian beat him from all other sides, digging her teeth in harder every time he jerked to the side to absorb a blow, every time he twitched.
She lets go only to rip another chunk of him out -- or try to. She crushes bone armor in her teeth, nothing more. And he releases a sound that makes her keen and wail, makes her howl, makes her tear her head from side to side, thrashing.
All her sister and Christian have left is their Rage to spur them on.
The burn of Rage is like a dim aura around Sinclair, dissipating like the huntsman's limbs into thin air. There's trickles of blood from each of her ears, rivulets of it winding around threads of metallic fur, a few drops falling to the ground from the points. Tripoli notices. Sinclair does not. She feels no pain. Her awareness of what that horn did to her is a dull, distant thing.
But oh, she will hurt him, and a part of her will enjoy it, but for the first time in a very, very long time
she feels nothing but her own control. Her own sense of herself, separate from the pressure of the spirit world against her soul, separate from the burn of rage. With a startling, almost frightening clarity, Sinclair watches as Kate starts thrashing at the thing, her presence over their totemic link just short of frenzy. Quickly she lunges backward out of the way of her sister's mad attack, snarling as one of the hounds lunges at her. She snarls in his face, defiant.
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Christian] If the huntsman had drained his Rage, too, the young Ahroun would have just dropped to the ground and given up. Let the Fosterns handle this. He doesn't, though. He's seeing red - literally - and all he can think of is tearing into something. Destroying something. Killing something. The huntsman goes down in a spray with Katherine's attack, so he turns his anger on one of the remaining hounds.
(( R1: Claw Mangler! Difficulty +1, switching target. ))
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 7)
[Christian] (( +0 ))
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[-horned-]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[-horned-] [whoops! 7 soak.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] The horn affects them all differently. Kate, quite simply, loses all semblance of that control and calm and courtesy she's renowned for and becomes the beast she is. She lunges in. Her eyes are flame. Her paw plants on his head, pushes his face into the asphalt, and her teeth close so hard on his vertebrae she feels them crunch between her jaws.
But for Sinclair, there's sudden calm. The clamor and fury of rage suddenly hushed, the mystery and awe of the spirit world cut away. Nothing but herself. Nothing but her own will, the clarity of being
well
almost human again.
The dogs lunge. They want her dead. They want them all dead. One snaps at her, and the truth is it might have killed it. It had that chance. Its teeth scrape off her fur, though. She isn't even touched.
An instant later Wyrmbreaker is by her side. He snarls -- unbalanced, his spirit gone, his will sapped, his rage out of control -- and then plunges toward the hound that had attacked Sinclair
even as the youngest of them all, and the only one not bound to them by anything except blood-ties to their Philodox draws on the only thing he has left
and presses on.
[-horned-] Lukas, R2 - bite Mangler!
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 5)
[-horned-] [dam +3]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yelp!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 8, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[-horned-] [-_-]
[-horned-] [Strangler - Bite!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5)
[-horned-] [dam +4]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[-horned-] [oh come on.]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sinclair] [R2. Bite Strangler! NOM!]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1
[Sinclair] [+2]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 5, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [The last GASP of Rage.]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5)
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Damage + 4]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 4, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[-horned-] [yip!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 3, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[-horned-] [-_-]
[-horned-] In those last chaotic seconds, everything ... just ... works.
In such quick tandem that it's almost impossible to tell who strikes the last blow, Christian and Wyrmbreaker tear into the one that had tried to bring Sinclair down. They drop that hound to the ground, and its brother -- the last of them, the very last -- lunges toward the younger Ahroun
only for Wyrmbreaker to interpose himself, taking the hit effortlessly on his thick shoulder. Snarling, the Shadow Lord checks him back; slams him into Sinclair's path
in time for her teeth to snap shut on its forelimb.
On three legs the hound limps back. And Honor's Compass, with the very last burn of her fading rage, ends it like a Silver Fang.
Then it's quiet.
Katherine is completely stripped. She has nothing left. No will, no spirit, no rage. Christian has only the low, low burn of his rage lighting him from within. Sinclair feels human. Lukas feels like a beast; a ravening, primitive thing that runs on raw instinct, without a shred of higher intellect.
Their harsh panting and the low, pitiful whining from the hounds still bleeding their lives out on the street -- that's all there is. For a moment Wyrmbreaker's furious eyes glitter at them one by one. They fall on Christian last. And he doesn't think about it. He doesn't pause to weigh, to consider, to rationalize.
He just says it:
"Join us." It's a low, rough sound, little more than a growl. "Join this pack."
[-horned-] [Final Tally!
Grinder Incap - 7A
Masher Incap - 7A
Clasher x_x - 7A + something like 1 overkill
Winder x_x - 7A + something like 3-4 overkill
Smasher Incap - 7A
Blinder x_x - 7A + 7 overkill
Strangler Incap - 7A
Mangler Incap - 7A
Herne x_x - 15A + 4 overkill]
[-horned-] [Sinclair 3A
Kate 3A
Christian OK (BB gone)
Lukas +2 left of BB!]
[Sinclair] Nothing left but clarity. And she would feel human, but she's starting to think -- especially like this -- that human was never what she was. That all the strangeness of her childhood and adolescence, all the feelings she's had since the dawn of her memories, were telling her the same thing: she's not human.
And that's alright.
It isn't a human girl just a few years his senior who goes over to Christian's enormous, white-furred and blood-splattered crinos form, but a steel-covered wolf with a small elemental riding. And it isn't a human she turns into, takes the shape of, in order to join Lukas at Christian's side. It's a direwolf, massive and heavy with muscle, sleek with agility, covered in the blood of a hunter and his hounds from across the gauntlet. She loses the steel. It evaporates, leaving matted blood here, and there, and
that's alright, too.
Tripoli is more visible when she's like this, nestled in amongst her dark, dark fur. He holds on while she pads over to the Silver Fang that Lukas just growled his invitation to and, simply but with her meaning abundantly, wordlessly clear, sits beside him, to his right as though to protect him
or to form a wall.
[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine gives her last snuff of Rage to destroy the enemy and destroy it she does; neatly, precisely. Her jaws lock around and penetrate, pierce and shatter. She is done, she is done. With trembling forepaws the great Hispo wolf lowers herself to her belly on the blood-spattered ground.
She has not even the sense to transform; couldn't, at present, even if she wished to.
She lets out a huff that is more a sigh and lays her head on her ground, lets her eyes close. There may be pleasure, later on. Satisfaction. But now there is only a sort of empty weariness. She is a hollowed out shell, and she breathes out slowly, carefully. Tender with her own breaths.
[Christian] The youngest of them is still standing when it's over. Barely. All he has keep him moving is a drop of Rage. There is nothing else left. His weak connection to the spirit world was the first to go. His ability to control himself went after that. All he wants to do right now is crawl into bed and sleep for a hundred hours straight. He drops. Literally. One massive arm straightens, and he catches himself before he can become a bloody heap on the ground. Thanks to Lukas he escaped injury. Compared to the rest of them he was slow and weak. Clumsy. He's pretty sure they're going to congratulate themselves and get him back in the car and drop him off not at the Loft but at the Brotherhood, leave him on his own.
That's not what happens. The Lord and the Walker stand before him. Their Alpha tells him to join them. He looks up, crazed blue eyes staring. Looks between them. Looks to his tribeswoman for guidance. Her eyes are closed. He's on his own.
The kid - exhausted and angry - nods his head once. Again. He should say something. Should tell them he'd be honored to, or that he has a lot to learn from them, or that he won't disappoint them. Lukas could tell him to go lie down in the road and receive the same response.
"Okay."
[-horned-] They're Shadow Lords. And Silver Fangs. And Glass Walkers.
Each of these tribes knows something about leadership. Something about power, and dominance, and wealth, and ceremony. The Shadow Lords welcome their cubs into the Tribe amongst thunder and rain. The Silver Fangs hold court still, as though the last thousand years of history never happened.
The Glass Walkers, modern as they are -- they understand ritual, too. The first 48 hours of a Glass Walker's life is nothing if not ritual.
There should be more than this, then. More than an invitation issued gruff and terse. Look at how Lukas recruited Sinclair, all those months ago. Or Asha. Or even Theron. Paragraphs were spoken. Logic and reason were laid forth precisely, persuasively, sealing every doubt, covering every possibility.
Not this time. This time, Lukas is down to grunts and snarls, down to the most simply of questions:
Pack. Yes?
-- and given the simplest of answers. And that's okay, too. He's not a general, after all. He's not a strategist or a tactician. He knows strategy. He understand tactics. But what he is, is a beast.
"Okay," the Shadow Lord responds. And that's all that's necessary. That, and this: the black wolf bending to the white, his muzzle firm and heavy against the other's ruff for a moment. It's a gesture of acceptance, and something of claim: as though to say without words,
You belong with us now.
A moment later he turns away to put the last hounds out of their misery. The street is quiet. The sky rolls with thunder. Very softly, a warm summer rain begins to fall.
[Sinclair] She remembers her rituals.
She remembers how those 48 hours stretched into days. And then weeks.
She remembers why.
They are a pack bound to a god of storms and oak, a sky god so ancient most have forgotten him like they forget and turn away from all sky gods in the end. Perun blesses them during storms, and one is rolling across the horizon now, as though to say in a voice not unlike Lukas's own growl: well done.
And it was well done, every slash of claw and snap of fangs. There is not a one of them who did not burn themselves out almost completely. There is not a one of them who did not step up in every way they are capable of to destroy these things. They didn't hold back. They didn't flounder. When Lukas frenzied at the mere sight of the hounds -- and Sinclair will be asking him about that later, don't doubt -- Sinclair directed the attack til he had his senses about him again, and did so without a moment's hesitation. She annihilated the things that tried to attack her packmate when he was out of commission.
As she would do for Katherine. As she would do for Asha. As she would do for Theron. As she would do, it seems now, for Christian. Her packmates. Her family, such as it is.
They are exhausted. Lukas has enough rage left in him to go snap the necks and tear out the hearts of the still-gasping dogs. The rain starts to wash the blood. None of them know the Rite of Cleansing, but Sinclair has already decided how to handle that. She will call Theron in a bit and tell him the address, tell him to come right fucking fast and she'll be back later to help with cleanup, and then sooner or later she'll decide to learn the rite herself.
Right now, though, Katherine is bellyflopped. Lukas is seething with rage. Christian is so drained he doesn't even know how to respond, how to feel, about this pack whose heart is composed of Fosterns taking him swiftly and surely under their wings and saying come along now.
Or saying, simply, as Sinclair does:
"Brother."
which isn't even a word so much as a bloody nuzzling of her muzzle against his, rubbing the top of her head into his neck as though to mark him with her scent after Lukas's. One of them now. Belonging. Brother.
She rises and she shifts and she goes to Katherine next, laying her hand in the other female's thick white fur, some spot where it isn't blood-matted. She knows Kate is too exhausted even to twitch away, snap at her, anything a raging wolf might do. She murmurs: "Come on," and starts to help the monster up, though she looks frightful herself, her chin and throat stuck with tacky, drying blood. "Come on, Kate, we're gonna go to the Loft. Tomorrow night we'll call Perun to see Christian. But you need a bath first."
So Katherine gets up and shifts, because crinos wolves don't fit in BMWs. And Sinclair goes to Lukas finally, slowly, approaching where he can see her. When she gets to him she puts her hand on his arm, or the heavy shoulder of some other form, and says: "I'm getting Theron. He and I'll clean this up. It's not safe for you to be out here right now."
Where a human might come by. Where no will is left in him to pretend, or restrain himself if he has to. So: Come on, man. Let's go back to the Loft.
Christian, too. Who she sent into a Thrall with a few yips and barks. Who she offered to hunt with, just so he'd know someone was there who was stronger than him, someone whose strength he could trust. And then there's Lukas, who is mentoring him, who is teaching him control, teaching him how to be an Ahroun. And there's Kate, who has determined he cannot be Houseless, he simply cannot, she'll fix that, thank you.
Now Christian has their strength. Soon he will feel it through the bond to Perun so strongly it will an ever-present reminder of what he is a part of at the back of his mind, in the depths of his spirit, falling around him every time it rains. Every time he hears a roll of thunder. Every time he passes by an oak tree, reaching out to graze his fingers over the trunk without quite knowing where the impetus for the motion began.
Sinclair, human formed, has some freckles on her nose and cheeks. She has hair like wheat. She has eyes like a summer sky. She is drenched from her mouth to the pretty tank top with its juicy orange in thick, hot red blood. It is still drying in tracks down from her ears. Sinclair isn't human. But right now she's the closest to sane of all four of them, and she knows it. She finds his eyes and smiles a little. "I'm glad," she says, though right now he might not be able to process that very well.
They rise. Bodies are stashed out of sight, at very least, to be cleansed and disposed of properly as soon as she can get back here with Theron. They go to the BMW and she holds her hands out for Lukas's keys. She's a good driver. He knows it. She finds some napkins and a water bottle and washes the blood off her face as best she can, though mostly she just smears it around. At least it's no longer a black river flowing down her face and neck.
They get to the Loft safely and Sinclair's just here to see them inside and get Lucille up because if you can make them eat something, that'll be good, but if they just want to sleep, don't push. especially Lukas. She's just here to make sure that Katherine gets somewhere where she can wash up because if Katherine comes out of this funk and she's covered in blood but she hasn't rested enough to deal with her fears then Sinclair --
well. Sinclair doesn't want her to be scared.
She's just here to wash the blood off and yank on some extra clothes she keeps there before rushing back out again, taking the El Camino this time. She's telling them in waves of emotion more than words over their link that she's fine, she'll be back soon. Rest. Rest and meditate.
It doesn't take much effort to convince them. She's pack. They trust her. It is one of the rare occasions Sinclair gets a chance to take care of them, and some part of her aches for it even as it blossoms inside her. She drives to meet their Theurge at the site of the battle and at every red light she's thinking that she is their sister and that she loves them and she will protect them
and that she is a monster, and a predator, and a hunter, and a savage.
But so are they.
So it's alright.
