Warpland Fantasy

[Lazy Kitsune]

"Most of what I could find around here during my sweep seemed past the point of use." Vale chimed in. "I gathered some medical supplies that could still be of use, but there might not be much in the way of food for us here. Though I've hardly turned the whole place over, so there could very well be some food storage I missed."

With the options presented to her, she takes a moment to consider. The town feels safe - risk of potentially turning into an animal notwithstanding. If spending the night here had no obvious effects on any of them, then staying a little long to do a my thorough search should be fine as well. Certainly safer than going to the cave. Which means the cave would be the riskier exploration, and would be safer if done in a larger group. But did she really want to risk her own life by being that additional person to pad out that team? It had been made pretty obvious since the beginning that her skills were all but useless out here. Sometimes it seemed even just being around other people had made the situation worse. But she had to make herself useful. Otherwise she might wound up being left behind.

"If we're splitting up, I'll go with the cave group. Better to have an extra pair of eyes if we're going somewhere potentially dangerous."

[Taria]

The cat meow's happily at Kayin and swishes her tail across the table as she sits and stares at her. Bean chuckles in amusement at the scene and says, "It seems we are making new friends at least." Then she turns towards Nova and comments, "Do you think we will find any food on the way? Maybe we should create a campfire once we reach the cave entrance and cook up a snack."

Kayin

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The woman smiles at you and says, "My name is Nima." Then she looks briefly puzzled. "Actually it's strange that I don't know you. I did not think new people showed up here anymore. This is Torbin Town, we've created a paradise thanks to the miracle from Torbin. How did you even get here?"

[Kuragari]

"A pleasure to meet you Nima." Kayin says, then rubs the back of her head and hums as she considers how best to answer it. After a moment, she decides to try and be honest but tread carefully. "Me and my friends here were exploring. We've all gotten a bit of taint, or been accused of such, and we found your Town. It's still intact but..." she sighs. "I've got a... Gift that is letting me see you as you were when your paradise was created. But ah... as far as my companions are concerned, I appear to be talking to an ordinary cat. A nice and friendly one, but a cat nonetheless. As for the rest of the town... All we'd have seen without my gift is common animals."

She decided to see how the woman would take that.

[jondude]

"Well... seems more like an economy of effort issue to me right now. We certainly have our suspicions, and while I agree with you that I don't really want to become more animal like then I already am... good shelter is good shelter. Let's just hope for now that by leaving the animals and maybe the throne with the skeleton alone we won't trigger any weird warp taint shenanigans. Besides we are in the warplands in general. Everywhere could be presumably just as dangerous. Who knows though? maybe me and Bean can find a secret lab with a working fridge and air conditioning in the cave eh? That would be nice. Very unlikely... but nice!", Nova replies to Scarlet. "This place does give me the heeby jeebies though. Let's hope we can find something a little more mundane and agreeable. I reckon their might be ruins all over this area."

Seeing Vale volunteer to come with then Nova nods, happy to have another along. "Excellent. You're more then welcome. Hopefully this will be quick, but if the cave turns out to run deeper then we expect then I suggest we don't commit ourselves to exploring it. It'll be a better use of our time to simply check the place out quick then head to river and try to get some fish. Our first priority is definitely to get some food now. Even if Mitch and Crake still happen to be around, they are likely running low on food themselves and probably won't be giving out anymore hand outs. Once we can get a consistent source of food, then we can maybe do a little more far ranged exploring.", Nova says to Vale.

Turning to Bean next Nova gives her a smile. " I certainly hope so. Do you happen to know much about plants? I don't know very much myself sadly, but maybe we can find some fruit trees or something? I'm pretty sure I could recognize an apple or a banana at least... though I certainly wouldn't say no to a deer.", Nova starts. Given Beans apparent bio-engineered soldier origins, maybe survival behind enemy lines might have been something she was taught? "I did find some tools yesterday though, including a bit of flint and steel. I'll bring that with me and we can start a fire if we can find something edible. In fact who knows, if we're really lucky maybe Scarlet can find an intact book or something what sort of forage might be safe to eat around here. That would sure be handy!"

If there was nothing else, Nova would go grab the aforementioned flint and steel from her box of salvaged tools and then head out toward the cave with Bean and Vale.

[Soru]

"Honestly... good point; just being out here in general is kind of dangerous." She said back to Nova before looking at the three that were heading out. "Well if you guys are also going to the cave bring some weapons but if you see anything dangerous then leave right away. Without firearms we're barely a match against a lot of what's out here. Maybe bring something to carry any food you can find. I'll be here keeping an eye on Kayin and trying to see what I can find. I don't think we checked every building yet and there's more papers I want to try reading which I couldn't because it was dark."

If there was nothing else to talk about Scarlet would go back to exploring, this time also checking for any possible hidden stashes of supplies. As a thief she was very good and finding things people like to hide. (Bid 1 Mental)

[Taria]

The cat looks around the room curiously and then hops down from the table to begin wandering outside while Bean, Vale, and Nova start preparing or a trip out of the town. Bean takes her spear and ties it loosely around a pack to carry over her shoulders so that she can grab it quickly if need be and then starts to shift side to side anxiously, apparently eager to get out and start doing things. Nima continues her unheard conversation with Kayin as she casually strolls outside. "Your companions? Did they come here with you? I haven't seen anyone else new here in years I'm sure."

Scarlet rolls 1 (diff 4)

Scarlet wanders off to search through the nooks and crannies around town to see if she can squeeze into any secret places. She eventually stumbles upon a hidden trapdoor located beneath an open storage area. As she goes to peek in excitedly, she fails to take notice of her surroundings and a loose barrel topples over to pin her upper body down inside the hatch, leaving Scarlet in a compromising position.

[Kuragari]

Deciding for the moment to focus on the conversation, she says to the others, "Well, I'm going to try and learn as much as I can with this gift the weird bat thing gave me. I should be around the village, I doubt my current feline friend here is going anywhere."

Trailing after Nima, she hums and says, "I have a gift for Telepathy, thanks to some taint exposure recently. It's how I'm talking to you now. And seeing everything you see and experience, even as my friends and I see something else." She hums a bit, and asks, "Might you be able to show me the throne? I'm curious to see what it is like here through your and the other inhabitants eyes."

[Soru]

"Alright, you girls stay safe. Kayin, I'm going to look around some more. I doubt we found everything yet." She said before walking off to search the buildings. 'There's got to be some locked doors or safes or something around here...' She thinks to herself as she explores. After a bit she finds herself in a storage area where she checks around, planning to just search for supplies but she notices something a bit suspicious, a rug. "Not exactly something that would be in an open storage area like this." She pushes it aside and sees a trapdoor. "Bingo~" She opens it up and sticks her head in, trying to peek inside before suddenly the hatch closes on top of her, something heavy keeping it pinning her down.

"Wh-What the hell?!" She squirms, her upper body down inside the secret room while her backside squirms outside of the room. "H-Hello? K-Kayin? Can someone help me?" She asks as she squirms, unintentionally wiggling her rear, the bunny girl outfit barely doing anything to cover her rear but luckily it was just Kayin here and the animals she thinks.

[Taria]

Into the woods
Vale, Bean, and Nova have set out from the town towards the direction of the cave. While Bean isn't much use in navigating, her strength and stamina are unquestionable as she continues to plow forward through any foliage obstacle just as vigorously as yesterday, only stopping occasionally to check in with the others and get directions. With plenty of daylight, the trio having left first thing in the morning, there isn't a terrible need to hurry; however not too long after putting the town out of their sights there are more and more audible grunts and rumbling tailing their trail.

Torbin town

Scarlet squirms and shouts out for assistance, then she hears a soft bark as what sounds like a dog investigates the noise. Heavy sniffing approaches from behind her as the animal investigates what's going on, and she can feel their warm breath from behind as the dog curiously nips at at her puffball of a tail.

Meanwhile Kayin is being lead around town by Nima as she greets all of her happy villager neighbor going about their day. The whole time experiencing further this dreamlike state Nima seems to be in as colors blur together and an the passage of time shifts hazily. Kayin remembers requesting to see the throne at some point, but then somehow ends up in a completely different part of time without remember exactly what they did and how they got there; then suddenly she realizes Nima is spending time with the blacksmith discussing something about construction and how he will need to take inventory of the shed in the back. Eventually however, Kayin's suggestion does seem to get to Nima as she smiles at Kayin and holds her hand, bringing her back towards the center of town where the throne gleams magnificently shrouded by a golden glow that just barely leaves the impression of a human form. "Hello Torbin!" Nima greets with no response or acknowledgement at all. She giggles happily to herself as if this were simple cheerful routine of hers.

[Kuragari]

Kayin is in some ways entranced, and yet at others trying simply to digest everything she sees and parse it what she knows of the reality. She can't help but wonder how this all works out, and how long it could in theory keep going like this. The passage of time being strange and a bit fuzzy leaves her wondering if she has spent the same amount of time in this world she is able to see as she is the real one, and almost wishes she had one of the others next to her and talking to give her some more grounding. As Nima finally begins to lead her to the throne, Kayin takes a bow to the throne and then tries to give greeting to the ruler who gifted them this 'paradise'.

"Hello, King Torbin of Torbin Town. I am Kayin, a warp-tainted outcast from the city of Eleria. I am curious of this town you have, for what I and my companions saw, and what I now see as I link my mind to this kind lady here are at odds with each other. I have no desire to disturb this paradise, only understand so I can advise my companions on whether it would be wise to remain or not."

Though she wouldn't mind at least giving Nima the chance to see what the town and its residents have become through her eyes, if given the chance. Its one thing if they know and are fine, another if they are unaware.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Spear in hand, Vale gives Nova a nod as she prepares to make her leave. "Agreed. Lets not overextend ourselves. Once we're in a position where we might actually be able to survive out here, then we can start moving onto other matters. However... bizarre those matters might end up being." It was going to take a lot of adjusting to get used to this new situation, and some of the new company. She was glad to be travelling with Nova, who seemed like more than a capable fighter, however she still wasn't sure what to think about Bean. While she hadn't become hostile again since her encounter, she had certainly shown plenty of signs of not being the most predictable when it came to her behaviour. The others didn't seem to mind her company, however, and they had more experience of this other side to Bean than Vale had, so she left it to their judgement for now.

Bean continued to stand out, her strength and vitality making itself readily apparent once their journey was underway. Vale, used to city streets, found herself pushing to try and keep up. She didn't lack for physical fitness, but her operations tended to be of the more subtle kind. Lugging through the wilderness with a spear in hand was more suited for a tribal warrior. Which may very well be the kind of life she'll have to learn to live out here if they don't find any sign of civilization that isn't entirely inhabited by small animals.

There trek doesn't seem to go entirely unnoticed, and Vale finds herself tensing up as she hears noises starting to follow from behind them. Her grip tightens around her spear and she slows her movements. "We're being followed." she whispered to Nova, though she already expected her travelling companion to have picked up on it as well. "Should we try to lose it or set an ambush?"

[jondude]

With everyone's path decided, Nova, Vale, and Bean head toward the cave. Bean leads the way, the girl clearly having an abundance of energy as she eagerly slashes away at the greenery in their path to make a clear trail. She seems so into in fact that Nova ends up lending Bean her sword, and low key regrets not grabbing a second for all of them to use since that armory seemed to have quite a few simple weapons like that to use. In the end they seem to make good time, and after about an hour and a tree climbing break for directions it seems to Nova they were about halfway to the cave.

As they keep pushing though Nova clues into the sounds behind them, and quickly so to Bean and Vale. "Something is coming up behind us. Not sure if it's following us or just happens to be heading this way, but let's try to set up an ambush just in case. If it's dangerous, maybe it'll just walk right by. If we're lucky, maybe it's something we can hunt for food.", Nova whispers to the others. With that said she looks at the surrounding terrain and tries to select a good ambush position. (Bid 1: mental)

[Soru]

Scarlet continues to squirm as she tries to get herself free, her hands trying to find something to push against so she can push her upper body against the trapdoor. As she struggles she hears the sound of a bark nearby. A dog maybe? "H-Hello? Can... you understand me?" She called out before she felt a hot breath against her barely covered rear before she squeaks when she felt a nip at her bunny tail. "H-Hey, don't bite that!" She shouts as she tries to shirt her rear away from the dog's muzzle.

[Taria]

Torbin Town

Nima giggles childishly as Kayin start to converse with glowing figure. "Torbin doesn't talk, silly." Then Kayin's ears start to ring as the golden light fills her vision and suffuses her with a radiant warmth. Her whole world become peaceful golden bliss briefly as she is subjected to the dizzying spell before slowly she comes back to regular reality. The soft black cat looks up at her with a curious "Mew?" and Kayin realizes she can no longer heard or see Nima now that the connection has worn off.

Meanwhile, over by the open air storage shed, Scarlet's squirming does little to dissuade her nosy guest. Instead, it only seem to encourage further assault as the dog starts nipping on her flank and clawing against her. It hard to tell whether the commotion behind her is more likely to swing her balance backwards and closer to escape of if she's about to get shoved forward and dumped down inside of whatever's in this mystery cellar.

Through the woods
Nova rolls 4 (diff 5)

Nova looks around for a good setup to try and catch the beasts unaware for her and the others and directs Vale. Looking around for Bean, she suddenly appears to be nowhere to be found, but before anyone can linger on that worry for long a an oversized muscular green boar charges through the underbrush right towards their position. It looks like they don't have the element of surprise here. Despit being almost twice as big as an average human, most of the other boar's features are rather mundane. It has sharp bristly spines all along its back and two dangerous looking protruding tusks. Behind it are two, much smaller in comparison, unmutated mundane brown boars backing the hulking beast up. The strangest feature of this beast, other than the green coloration, is the fact that in addition to it's legs, it sports an extra pair of humanoid ripped arms sprouting from the sides of its face.

Before the thing can get within grappling distance of the girls; however, Bean suddenly leaps from the foliage and rams her spear right into its belly and then tosses her sword back over to Nova. The monstrous beast looks more annoyed than mortally wounded unfortunately, and now the three boars square off menacingly with the trio of women.

[Kuragari]

"Well he can't from my perspective, given he's a skeleton." Kayin manages to reply before the ringing occurs and she sways on the spot for a moment. She shakes her head vigorously and stumbles about briefly as she comes back to normal reality. When she hears the curious mew, she frowns a bit and wishes she still had the connection. Still, she reaches down and pets the cat from head to tail as she says, "I'm not sure if you can understand me when the connection is broken like this, but now all I see is a town in a slow state of decay with a bunch of animals roaming about and pretending to be people. And you, look like a very cute, snuggly, and cuddly kitty cat."

She couldn't help but wonder if Nima was now confused with her sudden disappearance. Or maybe perhaps thanks to her previous bits of contact, maybe Nima would still be able to hear and notice her, after a fashion. Still, after a moment, she decided it'd be a good idea to look about for Scarlet. See if she needed any help with anything or not. Striding on forth, she sets about looking for her, calling out for her, even as a small part of her feels a compulsion to also try and check herself over...

She had been subjected to that peaceful golden bliss for a moment, after all.

[Soru]

"Ow! Hey! Watch those claws and teeth!" She shouts at the unknown canine behind her as she felt it's claws on the bare parts of her rear. She probably had red scratch marks on her ass now. Seeing that squirming randomly wasn't helping Scarlet stops and takes a deep breath to calm herself before trying to better observe her situation. Trying to shift the part of her that as stuck she tries to see if it's easier to move backwards or forwards and just how heavy the trapdoor was on her to see if she could possibly push it off her. Scarlet does this while trying to ignore the dog which was still taking an interest with her backside.

[jondude]

Nova curses. unable to find a good position before a trio of boars rush into their clearing, the main one massive and curiously green beast that appeared to have literal human arms on the side of his head just behind it's tusks and under it's ears. Luckily before it can even think of attacking anyone though Bean comes out of nowhere and manages to sneak a hit in! She smaller woman tosses Nova's sword back to her, Nova catching it with practiced ease and taking a fighting stance as Bean quickly backs away before the Boar can do anything about it, leaving the three of them squaring away with the three boars. \

"We can try to use their weight against them, but I'm not sure how well that might work with the green one with the arms on his head...", Nova says. "That can be dangerous though since you have to stand your ground... but it you must, try to use the base of a tree to plant your spear. Maybe we can make them impale themselves. For now though I'll try to distract the big one and give you sometime to get the little ones. If we can surround him then we should be wear him down."

Her plan proposed Nova takes a cautious step forward, spear in one hand and sword in the other, trying to get the large mutant boar's attention while Bean and Vale spread out. Once they've moved enough she'd then hurl her spear at it, hoping to goad it to go after her and wound it further at the same time. Something she could afford to do since she had two weapons. If it charged she'd do her best to sidestep out of the way and slash at one of it's legs. If she was lucky it might slam itself into a tree or something! (Bid: 2 physical)

[Lazy Kitsune]

"What the fuck? Are you kidding me?" Vale yells out as the thing stalking them makes itself swiftly known to them. A giant green boar bizarrely spouting two muscular human arms from its face. There must really be no ended to the oddities they'll find out here. With two more smaller creatures following in the things wake, the three of them couldn't even rely on strength of numbers. Bean's fast action helps give them a buffer to think, but not much of one at all.

Vale would like to follow Nova's suggestions to the letter, but much as the more seasoned fighter points out, the two smaller ones make it difficult to coordinate properly. Though with Nova taking it upon herself to stall the larger beast, that left the smaller ones for Vale and Bean to deal with. She hadn't really fought wild animals before, and training with a firearm didn't exactly carry over into training with a spear. But she knew the importance of decisive action and didn't want to put Nova's efforts to waste. She put all of her effort into trying to skewer one of the smaller creatures upon her spear tip, hoping Bean would act in kind and help make sure they can all focus on the real threat.

(Bid 2 Physical)

[Taria]

Torbin Town

The commotion being created by Scarlet and friend is not hard to miss. As Scarlet calms down and focuses on the best way to dislodge herself, she feels a pair of foreleg wrap over her waist. With the back and forth motion going on and the position between Scarlet and the beast, one would easily mistake this as Scarlet being mounted and humped, and arguably that is exactly what's happening. However, after a few seconds of the sudden surprise activity, they extra tug does finally manage to dislodge Scarlet and send the barrel pinning her tumbling off in another direction, freeing her at last.

Boar Battlers

Nova rolls: 1, 6 (diff 5)

Nova finds that the big mutated boar is easily goaded as it very quickly shifts its full intensity towards her. With not only tusks, but also a pair of humanoid arms to contend with, it first looks like Nova is in a dangerous position on the back foot. After several attempts of trying to swat away her weapons and cuts and nicks for its efforts, the boar becomes enraged and charges her. Just as Nova planned, this gives her the opportunity to go for a crippling strike. She slashes through both legs on the right side of the monstrous boar with her sword and it limps around a tree to turn back around to face swinging its tusks wildly.

Vale rolls: 5, 4 (diff 4)

Vale charges forward to skewer the smaller boar and it appears that her decisiveness has paid of. Whether to ignorance of bravado, it seems that the smaller boar companion did not think to dodge the oncoming spear, and instead charges forward towards Vale. The resulting outcome is a perfect example of spears doing what they do best as the beast fully impales itself onto the weapon and fails to reach Vale to impart any meaningful damage as it squirms and thrashes until slumping over and dying.

Bean meanwhile seems to be toying with her food as she has manage to somehow climb atop her target boar and is clinging onto its tusk cackling gleefully while it runs around and thrashes. She is repeatedly stabbing the boar with the head of her spear, but without good leverage there appears to be very little penetration. But, the many wounds the boar is collecting do not bode well for the beat this battle of attrition. "Food time, food time~" Bean sings out sadistically as this is going on, contrasting greatly with her previous quiet and reserved demeanor.

[Kuragari]

Torbin Town

The commotion being created by Scarlet and friend is not hard to miss. As Scarlet calms down and focuses on the best way to dislodge herself, she feels a pair of foreleg wrap over her waist. With the back and forth motion going on and the position between Scarlet and the beast, one would easily mistake this as Scarlet being mounted and humped, and arguably that is exactly what's happening. However, after a few seconds of the sudden surprise activity, they extra tug does finally manage to dislodge Scarlet and send the barrel pinning her tumbling off in another direction, freeing her at last.

Hearing the commotion, Kayin hurries over and blinks briefly at the sight of what looks like Scarlet being mounted and humped by a dog. Her cheeks briefly flush, but then she shakes her head and moves over as she says to the dog, "Hey now, there's no need for that buddy. She's just stuck." Assuming the dog doesn't resist her efforts to pull him away, she'd then move to help out Scarlet as she asks, "Ya find anything interesting, besides an eager dog pal?" She looks about curiously, then notes the trapdoor and moves to help lift it up the rest of the way.

"Wish I had a flashlight..." She mutters to herself. "Or the ability to conjure light."