Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

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Pulpatoon
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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#361 Post by Pulpatoon »

mb. wrote:A little shocked at the statue's speed, and wincing from the hit, Deet jabs his bayonet up at the thing. [1d6] = 2

Not one to lie about while his master is under duress, Schroff growls loudly and sinks his teeth into the statue's calf. [1d6] = 6
Deet and Schroff's attacks do little against the statue's thick stone hide. The monster raises its arms to batter down on Deet again, when it is distracted by the voice of the newly awakened Princess.
Starbeard wrote:Princess Dormillion turns to the statue with a raised eyebrow—the telltale indication of surprise for those of royal temperament. "Good gracious, what an ugly beast. Stand down and behave yourself, or I shall have these soldiers treat you rather poorly."

She turns to Basil Day, who greeted her with such eloquence, and smiles. "My good man, make a show of strength to this hooligan, so that he knows his place. You shall be rewarded an extra share from my father's treasury when we return home."
Pride's features are so distorted that it is impossible to read if its expression signifies admiration or contempt for the Princess' imperious tone.
Rowenn552 wrote:Basil Day stamped the butt of his spear down on the ground and addressed the statue of Pride with his own, "You are not worthy enough to feel the cold pierce of my superior spearmanship you gold plated lout. And by that logic if even you, Pride, are not worthy to be slain by a mere ant of your own reckoning then this mere ant has risen above even you. Stand down sir, there shall be no pissing this day!"
The statue gives Basil Day time to deliver his oratory, before laughing derisively. "Trumped up little gob-spittle, flecked on borrowed airs!" He begins to step menacingly towards the painted actor, when again he distracted by the sound of the Princess' voice. He turns his direction towards her, still reposing in her crystal coffin.
Starbeard wrote:"Yes, adequately spoken. Adequately spoken indeed," the Princess applauds."If you survive, do let me know whether you prefer silver or spices, and I shall add an extra ten pounds of it to your treasury upon our return."
ChubbyPixie wrote:Wikerus: If the creature approaches any closer, he'll strike at it with his axe in order to "save" the princess. Futile Axe Chop: [1d6] = 6
Wikerus intercepts the statue, and delivers a powerful blow. The shock of striking the stone rattles his teeth and nearly lifts him off his feet. He sees no discernible effect.

Attack of the NPCs
Shaggy, Mouse, and the still-addled Vanis rally around Wikerus and attack.
Shaggy's Pistol: [1d6] = 6
Mouse's Rapier: [1d6] = 5
Vanis' Musket: [1d8] = 3
Pride's Critical Damage: [1d20] = 16
Pride attacks (1. Wikerus; 2. Shaggy; 3. Mouse; 4. Vanis) [1d4] = 4 Vanis.
Attack: [1d6] = 4
Vanis' Critical Damage: [1d20] = 1
The statue brings a club-like fist down upon Vanis the Sweet-maker's already dented head, even as it is buffeted by blows. Suddenly, with a great crack, the statue's torso breaks. The lower half of the statue topples over, spasms, and is still. The upper half falls heavily to the flagstone floor, and begins to drag itself towards the Princess.

Vanis is bleeding freely from the head, but remains on his feet.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#362 Post by Pulpatoon »

Oh, also:
Urson wrote:Jake gives Splinter a rough punch in the shoulder. My uncle Hell Tanner once told me- 'There's old heroes and bold heroes- but damn few old,bold heroes.' You coulda died just now,you know.
When Jake's hand comes in contact with the strange material of Splinter's borrowed costume, he finds in bitterly cold—cold enough to sting his hand. In fact, he now sees curls of condensed air rising off the Wooden Boy, as if he were a great block of ice at an emperor's banquet.

Splinters, for his part, feels fine. But then, living his life in a single great library, he's never really experienced changes in temperature, and doesn't know if his wooden body would even feel them.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#363 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

Flintlock rushes over and starts to push the statue's legs toward the black abyss, cackling madly.
Last edited by Rusty Tincanne on Fri May 05, 2017 3:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#364 Post by coil23 »

Horton is still trying to understand the statue's fascination/relationship with the princess. Why is the statue so focused on you, princess? What is your relationship to these things? Are they servants of the wizard? And do you have any idea what Pride will do once it crawls over to you?

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#365 Post by Urson »

Jake shakes his fingers, surprised at the bitter cold. Seeing the foo faraw with Pride, he decides to add his 2 copper's worth. He strkes the statue's right arm with his maul, intending to help immobilize it.

maul[1d8] = 6
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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#366 Post by Rowenn552 »

Basil Day

Not one to see such a VIP in distress as the Princess he races between the statue and the girl to poke at the crawling behemoth.

Sticking it to Pride!: [1d8] = 6

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#367 Post by Starbeard »

The Princess Dormillon looks upon the living statue with curiosity. "Such peculiar behaviour, and rather forward for a statue. Do I know you?"

She rises to her feet and glides over to the smashed thing. "No need to harm it yet, my brave hero," she says to Basil.

She gingerly touches her wand to its head. "This royal sceptre makes visible things invisible only; but if you are cursed by that evil Drosselmeyer to wear this form, then perhaps it will allow us temporarily to see through your mask to what lies beneath."

If the thing proves in fact to be out to get her, she will of course attempt to move out of the way and let the others smash its face in.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#368 Post by Pulpatoon »

At the touch of the Princess' wand, the cloven statue becomes transparent and unclouded, like fine crystal. There are no imperfections or kernels of other beings within—it is Pride, through and through.

As the Princess withdraws her wand, the rest of the party applies their weapons to the snarling statue. Its last words are, "I am not so easily defeate—" before being reduced to rubble.

Flintlock gleefully tosses the statue's lower half into the darkness. It disappears.

Six statues remain.

Schroff detects the bellows of Wooden Soldiers, suddenly closer.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#369 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

Flintlock tries to recall how he worked the puzzle. If that's Pride, imagine the damage Wrath or Gluttony could do! He circles those two statues looking to see if he thinks he can dislodge and toss them into the abyss. If he thinks it possible, he will start with Gluttony. Don't want to get eaten by one of these things.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#370 Post by coil23 »

We must get out of here before the soldiers arrive. Mustn't we? Hatch or space boat?

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#371 Post by Rowenn552 »

Basil Day
coil23 wrote:We must get out of here before the soldiers arrive. Mustn't we? Hatch or space boat?
Basil points over to Splinters and the cold mist rising from the wooden boy.

"I think maybe the wooden folks, the large man of metal, and even myself could survive such cold but I am not so sure about you of the fleshy sort. Obviously if you were willing to risk a hand to test the other space one could find out quite quickly. My vote is for the hatch."

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#372 Post by Starbeard »

"I am sure we could reason with the wizard's soldiers once they understand the threat of being quashed by my father's armies," says Princess Dormillon.

"But if we must flee, I would prefer the hatch. It would put less wear on my mink sole, and do not wish to ruin it. It is quite priceless and could be used to bargain our freedom at some point."

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#373 Post by coil23 »

Horton is now a "wooden soldier" as well so he can't help test the hypothesis.

Hatch is ok by me though hopefully someone who wrangled better with the riddle will choose which one. If we decide to parley with the soldiers, it may be helpful if the princess insists we are operating on her instructions and cannot be delayed as we have an ongoing mission for her. They certainly weren't inclined to take our word on anything back in camp. I doubt that has changed...except possibly gotten worse considering how we left two gate guards.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#374 Post by Urson »

Jake

You know, if milady the Princess is the same 'Princess' that the wooden soldiers are so worked up about, we could be heroes. I mean, she's "rescued," right?

I think the reed boat is a quick way to a cold, miserable death- especially since IIRC, there was only one "space suit" in it. I read the solution you guys had come up with to the riddle, and I honestly still don't understand it. But I think the hatches are the only viable solution.
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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#375 Post by kensanata »

Splinters finally manages to open his helmet and looks around. What? Whoot? He climbs out of the space suit and says, Don't bother with the cold beyond. It's full of stars. When he's finally done, he's ready to jump after anybody down any hatch, his wooden brain unable to figure out how the riddle ought to be solved.
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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#376 Post by mb. »

Deet calls out, "ehm, our thinking was wrong, yup? We need to start again, and quick yupyupyup!" He walks back and forth from hatch to hatch, rereading the inscriptions. Schroff follows, looking back and forth in sync with his master, and it's adorable.

Deet nods at Wikerus and points at the hatches, "from what you said, and what they say, we get:

Lust: Who can deny the wanton truths of Lust or Gluttony?
Gluttony: Better to eat Envy’s lying tongue.
Greed: Pride raises a golden head above all others.
Sloth: Sloth, Wrath, or Envy are meet and sufficient.
Wrath: If Lust is not to be trusted, turn to Greed or Pride.
Envy: Possess Greed or Gluttony and none other.
Pride: Greed hordes truth, and shares only lies.


He rubs at his beard, and shrugs, "I guess murder-statue means false? So Pride lied, which means Greed's honest. And if we can trust Greed, then Wrath's honest and Lust lies." He squints, breaks out in a sweat, and wipes his forehead with a dubious looking hanky, "If Envy's suggesting that Greed or Gluttony is true, that's also true since Greed's honest, so Envy is honest, which means Gluttony lies. Three and three, which means Sloth is honest."

He looks uncertainly around at everyone, quietly murmuring "yup? yup? yup?" to himself, and waves his stained hanky at the hatches for Greed, Wrath, Envy and Sloth. Louder and more certainly he says, "yup!" He looks around, obviously waiting for approval.

Here's the original post, for those who have the time and inclination to check Deet's likely flawed thinking.

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#377 Post by ChubbyPixie »

"Given this, Greed is the obvious choice," says Wikerus. "If Greed is good, we might gain the most from popping down that one. Or have I misjudged the character of our group? I, personally, am a big fan of gold and miscellaneous riches."

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#378 Post by kensanata »

Splinter sounds dubious, Sloth sounds less dangerous, though?
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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#379 Post by Pulpatoon »

While the party debates their next move, there is sudden loud banging and scrabbling from below.

The hatch before the statue of Lust flies open, and wooden soldiers boil up from below, their expressionless hinged mouths emitting cries of panic and exhaustion. Rays of golden light streak up among the tussling bodies.

Among them is one of the officers, his paint badly raked by giant rat-claws, and his tall hat a smoking ruin. "Avert your damned eyes!" he cries to those behind him. "Don't look in the damned light, soldiers! That's a direct order!"

After a dozen battered soldiers climb through the hatch, they slam it shut behind them and throw their bodies on top of it.

The moment they do this, the tower spins again, sending everyone reeling.

The officer, gathering himself from this unexpected revolution, notices the party. "YOU!" he shouts. "What have you done?!"

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Re: Chapter 2: The Sinews of War

#380 Post by Starbeard »

The Princess Dormillon studies the hatches for a moment. "We would be hesitant to enter Sloth. It reminds us of Ulysses on the island of Ogygia, which no doubt was a pleasant affair, but ultimately detrimental to his goals. Envy and Wrath both sound unpleasant, and at any rate point to Greed. Let us make for that exit."

In response to the intrusion of wooden soldiers, the Princess glares at the officer. "You shall address us as 'Your Highness,' after which you may use the more colloquial 'Ma'am,' or 'M'lady.'

With that explained, she softens her expression and gets to business. "Now, what seems to be the trouble? Are you guards of the magician Drosselmeyer or have you come to rescue me?"

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