EP 9 - "A Viper's Bite"

[00:00:01] Having made their way across the great ocean from the land of Ron Nauros to Veridian in pursuit of the Vipers of Ironwood.

[00:00:10] Their best lead being a Thalward Roan, one of the Vipers that departed Veridian not long before they did.

[00:00:17] However, as they came into the bay beneath the company's key, the Reach.

[00:00:24] A board of the ship, the tidebreaker, just as Captain Oryus was giving a small speech.

[00:00:32] Detailing the plans for what was to come, bread was struck with a strange feeling and his attention was drawn to the second ship that accompanied you on this journey.

[00:00:42] The Windhelm, and a moment later after being filled with just palpable dread the Windhelm explodes.

[00:00:50] This explosion rocks the water, sending a wave, carining toward the tidebreaker as it smashes into the side of its hole and floors nearly everyone on the deck.

[00:01:02] Everyone make daunting that's four difficulty coordination checks.

[00:01:06] Breads go down for sure.

[00:01:09] And everyone will have a setback except for bread who saw it coming.

[00:01:13] I rolled two threats.

[00:01:14] I got two failures and one advantage.

[00:01:16] Our Nauros has one success and four threat.

[00:01:19] I got one failure, one advantage.

[00:01:22] Ciroled one success and two threats.

[00:01:27] Bread rolled two success, three threat.

[00:01:29] If you succeeded, it will not take any wounds.

[00:01:33] For every two threat, you will take one strain.

[00:01:35] So that means Cal, Bread, R, Naur and Kai will suffer strain.

[00:01:40] Ceraco will suffer two wounds.

[00:01:43] Finn will suffer one and Cal will suffer one.

[00:01:46] With my advantage, I would like to say that Ceraco does not spill a drop of the goblet of wine

[00:01:52] that he was stepping on when this happened.

[00:01:57] There's a piece of like, shrapnel wood lodged in your side but you're just holding this goblet a lot.

[00:02:04] The rest of the crew seems to be just as put off by this sudden occurrence as the lot of you.

[00:02:10] And as Captain Arreyes struggles to his feet and starts barking orders,

[00:02:14] the ship is suddenly lit up with little pins and zips and you see just little tiny explosions

[00:02:20] as projectiles impact the deck and the hole and crew members start going down.

[00:02:26] Arreyes will yell over the dinn, pandemonium that's erupted and say,

[00:02:31] abandon ship get to the shore!

[00:02:33] He'll leap off the ship.

[00:02:34] Cal is going to follow she's going to take a running start put one foot on the railing

[00:02:38] and go straight overboard right into the water.

[00:02:40] This would be something Finn had acquired knowledge-wise on the venture of this journey.

[00:02:48] Is there any void power devices on this ship or is it strictly wind powered?

[00:02:53] The ships didn't have a motor or any kind of mechanization that was strictly a sail ship.

[00:02:59] Okay, and nothing else aside from that.

[00:03:02] No, however you do not know the contents of all the cargo nor were you aware of the wind-poss.

[00:03:08] Such a reaction.

[00:03:09] Yeah, he would care about that.

[00:03:11] The only second thing that goes through Finn's mind is

[00:03:14] our horses run this ship right?

[00:03:17] Correct.

[00:03:17] He is going to hit the deck and try to get down into the cargo hold to see if he can let down the

[00:03:25] assuming there's some sort of side cargo passage door that they brought the horses

[00:03:31] and other larger items into. So he wants to basically try to get the horses out the ship.

[00:03:36] As you start working your way below deck, you actually bump into Iris who is with her belongings

[00:03:42] in hand coming above deck and she goes Finn, where are the males?

[00:03:46] Hells are you going?

[00:03:47] Go to get the horses. We're not going to just go on foot. Good thinking.

[00:03:51] Meet you down and then she'll run up and anyone that sees her notices that she makes for the

[00:03:59] sales and does her best to unfurl them in their entirety.

[00:04:03] We were preparing to disembark so we have all of our belongings, right?

[00:04:07] Yes, mostly. You not really all your belongings per se but the captain had called everyone up.

[00:04:14] You were still a good few minutes before you really bored within the bay itself.

[00:04:19] So no, you don't have everything but maybe the majority.

[00:04:23] Okay.

[00:04:25] Honoring my super active obligation today.

[00:04:29] The instant somebody goes down bread for instant is like at first it's doctor mode. Like oh I can help you and then it's

[00:04:37] your dead mode and he attempt like he knows that he can't access it because it's been cut off from him

[00:04:44] and he already like talked to the rat that was hung but he tries. It's just like this desperation of

[00:04:50] that is a much better access point to me. Like a human death is more useful to him than a rat.

[00:04:56] And so he is like almost feral kind of like going from body to body, attempting to make this

[00:05:04] connection and failing at every turn. Our nor was going to go check on Euras. He saw her come above

[00:05:09] deck and start going to attending to the mass and he's going to take after early and start unfurling

[00:05:18] the sales. All right. The scene Euras and I'll our nor working at the sales and unfairly

[00:05:26] all of them. She's actually could come to the helm and is going to jive port side and is going to

[00:05:32] go towards Lend Ho towards the shore. Exactly what Euras is thinking. Great mind, sink a like.

[00:05:39] And you actually hear her call up at Kai. He per steady runner ground. Kai knows exactly what she's

[00:05:47] doing and will do as such. And hopefully we'll catch the wind as she jives.

[00:05:53] Sorako having saved his glass of wine quickly takes stock in the situation will down the rest of

[00:06:00] the wine toss the cup overboard and then he is going to run down to where the horses are because

[00:06:07] he would like to save his own horse and maybe some of the others but his takes precedents.

[00:06:12] All right. As Finn and Sorako head below deck in the water beside the ship, Captain

[00:06:19] Ares surfaces and right beside him is Cal and then this gust of canyon wind, a fjord wind rushes

[00:06:29] through this valley here and propels the ship full sail and as the ship banks and just

[00:06:35] carines pass the two of you and all these other crewmen that have jumped into the sea it runs

[00:06:41] around with this massive creaking and shattering and then it just comes to a halt. A good ways

[00:06:48] up on shore and just tilts ever so slightly before coming to a rest and Ares will motion that way

[00:06:55] and yell another order as shots still ring out in the distance from these high cliffs impacting

[00:07:02] the water and the ship and he starts swimming for what is now a pretty effective base of cover.

[00:07:08] Cal's gonna follow kind of confused as to why she's the only one in the water but it's

[00:07:12] gonna be like okay well that works too and just keep going because we'd be honest I thought

[00:07:18] we were all just gonna get the water I thought that was just a given and then I was the only

[00:07:21] one in the water so I'm just keep going. The low deck it's absolute pandemonium as Finn and Sorako

[00:07:29] try to cural your mounts and you know other animals that have been shepherd here on this ship

[00:07:36] outside through one of these passages, these gangplanks that lower from the whole. The

[00:07:42] zined for kind of a dry dock situation but you know the beach will have to do.

[00:07:50] Kind of leading the majority of what animals he can get out towards this opening

[00:07:57] Finn's gonna kind of poke his head out take a look and just see is it feasible to get off the ship

[00:08:04] this point if so does it seem like there is safety on this side or is there impending line of fire

[00:08:10] if you were to exit. The port side exits is safe that is free from this

[00:08:19] garage Sorako if he's an earshot Finn's just gonna yell out to him we need to get out on this side

[00:08:28] he says pointing towards the port exit get as many horses as you can. I know that

[00:08:38] Finn will not and then he's gonna just get out and bring his mount first and he's probably got one

[00:08:45] in each hand and so whichever one was nearest to him and get them out and try to just calm them in a

[00:08:52] relative area of safety and wait for anyone else who will come to join in there.

[00:08:56] Kai is hyper focused right now and as soon as she steers a ship and it hits shore she's going to run

[00:09:03] from the helm all the way up to the bow and is going to get her crossbow out and is going to take

[00:09:10] stock at the situation where is the fire coming from what's happening did she get any indication of

[00:09:15] what's beyond what everybody else is experiencing. Roll a formidable perception check. Tell me what

[00:09:22] for mid-a-blue with me. It's five. But okay cool. I also would like to use a light side point or a

[00:09:33] point from the players pool to change my green dice to a yellow dice is that possible? Yes you can

[00:09:40] upgrade an ability to a proficiency. I rolled a failure but then I rolled a threat and one try of.

[00:09:49] So with that try of you are able to take quick stock of the situation. pinpoint where a shot

[00:09:57] might come from given just this quick hyper intense visual calculus that you're playing through looking

[00:10:03] at where these shots have come from what the impacts are on the deck and then you trace it back

[00:10:08] and then you see the tiniest burst of light and then it hits you. What direction was that? You

[00:10:19] was coming from do-east toward the fort that you're supposed to be going toward. To it the fort.

[00:10:25] Okay so time for to see if you get shot. So knowing that this is coming, having identified where

[00:10:34] it is you do have like this split second to mitigate its effect on you. However it still hits you

[00:10:42] like a truck you will take 15 damage. That's beyond my wound threshold. Well you have soak so.

[00:10:50] My soak value is 3 so you said 15 so be 12. Yeah still accumulates with the two wounds I already have

[00:10:58] it'll be beyond it. Okay okay. Good thing bread is scrambling around on the ground looking for dead bodies.

[00:11:09] You are knocked unconscious from this and will immediately suffer a critical injury. A stinger.

[00:11:18] Your next check is increased the difficulty by one and bread looks up just in time to watch you get

[00:11:24] shot back pedal and then fall overboard. Seeing Kai go overboard, bread thinks that she like

[00:11:33] immediate thought is she's dead I know her she's valuable to me as a connection and will grab a

[00:11:39] rope and just jump over the side of the ship after her. Awesome roll a hard coordination.

[00:11:47] What bread roll is ankle? Is that too purple? That's 3 and I'll give you a boost because of this

[00:11:55] weird fervor. One success one advantage not bad. Right you see Kai go off and then you are just

[00:12:03] immediately like swan dive rope grab fireman down after her. Excellent. Cirque desolation. Yes.

[00:12:13] I envision that fins down there with the horses he just sees Kai's body just like

[00:12:19] and then how come bread just trapezing down the side of the boat?

[00:12:26] And there's a match cut to kel coming out of the water and just like splat right from her she's like

[00:12:32] okay. As Kai falls onto the sand and rocks on this beach you just whack. The force of your whole body

[00:12:44] is impacting the ground and you're going to take another wound which I already did for you

[00:12:49] and then you will because of that suffer a second critical injury you are blinded you can no longer see.

[00:12:57] Oh boy. Two sticks straight in the socket. No she got sand in her cornea. This would happen.

[00:13:06] Out my eye pocket sand. More so just like the the worst concussion you could imagine

[00:13:14] possible brain damage anyway. I assume bread can tell immediately upon reaching her that she is not dead.

[00:13:21] She is not dead. She's incapacitated. In this like manic episode of like I need any this seeing Kai

[00:13:28] seeing that she is in fact alive snaps him out of it and he returns to like oh this is something

[00:13:34] that I can have the skill to deal with and he will grab her body and like drag her further behind

[00:13:39] the ship so that there is no chance that we will continue to get shot up. From the angle the ship

[00:13:44] where it is even where she landed you're in safe territory. Okay cool. I'll try to stay

[00:13:50] well I swear he's not going to try to like treat any of these critical injuries or anything. All right

[00:13:55] that will be three difficulty medicine check. What do? I will give you a set back though just because

[00:14:01] of the chaotic nature as you fear bursts of fire and shots ping off the ship in the sand

[00:14:07] and crew members in the capital and the other wolves are coming upon the beach yelling and whatnot.

[00:14:14] Pandemonium. I'm going to go ahead and flip over a point here from the pool. One failure 3 advantage

[00:14:20] well he'll strain. Great just what I wanted. So with that you are unable to treat Kai as is

[00:14:31] and she'll remain unconscious for the time being. I'm going to say at this point Sarako has noticed

[00:14:38] what has happened over here and he will write up on his own horse with Reds Horse Intoh

[00:14:45] and as soon as he arrives he will definitely dismount and look at Red and say we should go

[00:14:51] right now help me get her on the horse and he's going to start picking Kai up to slump her over his

[00:15:00] horse. She's not safe or we shouldn't move her. Okay and then you wait for people to come and

[00:15:06] shoot us to finish the job we must go now bred and Sarako is going to just like completely ignore

[00:15:15] everything that Red said. You said that there were other animals on this ship as well in addition

[00:15:21] to our mounts. Yeah like some livestock. So wow the whole Kai falling off thing and bred

[00:15:30] and Sarako conversation is going off. Finn had returned back inside, got in the other two horses

[00:15:35] that he and Sarako have not gotten yet tried to get the rest of the mounts out of the ship

[00:15:40] and also just funneled as many of the extra livestock out as he could and he's been tying

[00:15:48] just bottles of alcohol to the extra livestock and he says now I agree with Sarako. I can

[00:15:58] create distraction long enough for us to hopefully draw some fighter towards them but we do need

[00:16:03] to go when the event happens and he's like he's creating small holes in the corks of them just

[00:16:12] to start creating a little trail and he's like lighting the edges on fire and he's just like sending

[00:16:18] the livestock away from the ship with these trails of fire behind them. Pret what the fuck!

[00:16:26] Yeah so it's like beyond and say, die of alcohol. But yes we do need to hurry.

[00:16:39] Is Sarako man handling bread? Is bread trying to interfere at all? I don't think that

[00:16:45] bread is in a state mentally to like adequately interfere. I think he would kind of get in the way

[00:16:50] but not effectively at all. Okay if bread is in the way Sarako will waste no time in just putting his

[00:16:58] hand on bread's chest and shoving him out of the way. Awesome! And then he will man handle

[00:17:05] Kai and just like, whoop, slumper over the front of the saddle. Roll coordination. What difficulty?

[00:17:14] Three hard. I will give you a boost though as Ennis emerges having swung down on a rope from

[00:17:21] the deck and will immediately come to your aid. After Sarako I do want to hear about Arnor and

[00:17:27] then as Kel comes ashore with the captain in such. I will go ahead and upgrade one of my dice using

[00:17:32] a story point. And I got one success and two advantage. As definitely and gingerly, but

[00:17:40] heridly you can put Kai up on your horse and secure her in place to where your confident you

[00:17:47] can ride with her behind you or in front of you and these wounds would not be exacerbated. Then

[00:17:54] Sarako will whisper a few words to Nassad his horse and then mount and get ready to go as soon as

[00:18:01] the distraction is ready. As soon as the ship was beached, Arnor went to the side and found

[00:18:09] a rope to let him get down to the beach and then he proceeds to attempt to help any of the people

[00:18:17] that are coming from the water to try to help protect them in any way possible also looking for

[00:18:23] Kel who saw jump off with the captain. With your great shield in hand you're able to

[00:18:29] ride some cover for these wounded and swimming crawling crew members as they come ashore and then

[00:18:35] you grab Kel's hand and poised her from the water onto the stamp sand. I was afraid we lost you there.

[00:18:42] I'm still here but what is happening? Not the time to show but my guess is if the world never

[00:18:48] left. No where are the others? Oh yeah I think something happened to Kai.

[00:18:54] What is Kai on the back of a horse? You see that all of the mounts, the horses and the

[00:18:59] carcs have been brought out. Kai has just been hoisted onto Nassir by Iris and Sarako,

[00:19:08] meanwhile, Brad kind of just seems in a few looking around after being pushed aside

[00:19:12] and then you see Finn ushering a small procession of pigs and sheep out from the front of the ship

[00:19:23] just trailing this line of alcohol that is wedding the sand and the earth. I think Kel is going to

[00:19:30] look at Arnor and just kind of slowly shake her head and say oh he's so weird, he's so weird

[00:19:39] and she's going to go for her carac and try and get mount up. Easily done. Is the carac big enough

[00:19:46] for two people to ride or is it only big enough for one? Oh it's big enough for like three.

[00:19:50] Okay I'm going to try and grab Brad on my way over there and see if I can drag him up onto the

[00:19:56] back because we need to get out of here. Instinctively Brad like whips around to sort of push

[00:20:02] Kel away words spilling out of his mouth says we shouldn't be here we shouldn't be here

[00:20:07] and then recognizing her kind of comes back to himself again and will sort of retreat into

[00:20:16] himself to allow her to grab him and like sort of help her in that action if he can so

[00:20:21] she's not just pulling dead weight onto the crack. As the group has become a little more cohesive

[00:20:28] now and Captain Arayas has come over to where Finn is kind of peeking around from the front of the

[00:20:33] ship he just says I don't know what your plan is hold on but whatever it is get going we need to

[00:20:45] back seize the majority of the parties on their mounts just gives a final call everybody get ready

[00:20:53] to go ride or run and with his horse at hand he'll take out just a final match light it at this

[00:21:02] large concentrated pool at the base of his feet drop it in there and he's going to get on his horse

[00:21:08] and just wait three two one as the flame chases along these paths on the sand finally getting

[00:21:18] back to the animals upon which they are their strat boom there's just pockets of explosions

[00:21:27] going off across the island and Finn gives a very strong nod and he's just going to take off.

[00:21:38] These are these are alcohol fires right yeah yeah so it's just like big bursts of flame and

[00:21:44] then they kind of big bursts of flame and now you just have flaming animals running everywhere those things

[00:21:49] are dead. There is a fire running around. You're going to stop jumping roll. It is like man

[00:21:55] it's a good distraction I'll give in that after Arnor helps Kel he went along to and everything was

[00:22:04] going to happen quickly he did manage to grab a couple of extra supplies and throw him onto Kai's

[00:22:09] crack before taking the lead and getting on his own horse and trying to run away.

[00:22:14] Is Serako leading bread source because he grabbed her seeing that bread is on Kel's

[00:22:19] Kutak. Sarako will grab the reins in his freehand to bread's horse and lead her along with them.

[00:22:27] I'm going to require another big old groove roll here as everyone is making their way

[00:22:33] off the beach you may choose between resilience or riding either way it will be a daunting check so that's

[00:22:43] for difficulty. Hope the same for me 100% riding. Oh and you don't have to roll Chris.

[00:22:50] I'm getting capacity this time.

[00:22:57] I'm getting it.

[00:22:59] I can't get it. Case in point. Real method out. I think Chris and Kai are incapacitated.

[00:23:10] Can we all get a boost die for for Finn's diversion?

[00:23:15] Yeah you should you should. No. All right. Do you want me to take like a setback die or

[00:23:21] something because I have no secretaries sweet. No the distraction is negating the setbacks.

[00:23:29] So it did help.

[00:23:42] All right. What's everyone's results? Bottom up.

[00:23:47] Bread rolled five failure and one threat. Striving in the jungle today. No the fewer today.

[00:23:54] Fueled by the brilliance of his distraction Finn rolled two success in two threat.

[00:24:01] Cal rolled three failures.

[00:24:05] Our Norr rolled two success for threat. That I go rolled four success. All right so your total

[00:24:13] successes as a group equal your total failures. However you don't have any advantages and one, two, three,

[00:24:21] four, five, six, seven threats. So everyone, everyone will take seven strain. Okay.

[00:24:31] Does our soak take that or no? Nope. Everyone will take seven strain. However,

[00:24:37] underfire, shots of pain and death all around you from these crew members that are dropping

[00:24:41] this big like burst of smoke and fire from the other side of the ship from Finn's distraction.

[00:24:47] You are able to make it into the woods and come up almost immediately 20 30 feet into these

[00:24:55] woods upon a sheer cliffside. There is nowhere to go here. Cliff going up. Yes, you have full

[00:25:03] cover from the trees but this forest that is in this little bay here kind of just goes around the

[00:25:12] rimmeter, the bases of these cliffs and then ends at the beach and the terminal end of the bay.

[00:25:18] As you are all gathered here in this forest with a moment to catch your breath.

[00:25:25] The screams of the dying a little distant, a little muffled. You hear Arreyes

[00:25:34] panting. Work is way past one of you and kind of to the head of this little procession. Look back and say

[00:25:42] Hi. Someone hit me up. Bloody head count now. Is it just us and him? No, it's you, him,

[00:25:50] it is and then about 12 or 13 crew members. I see. Well, I'm not giving him a head count.

[00:26:01] Well, don't worry. You don't have to. His first mate second will fulfill that request

[00:26:06] giving him a lay of the casualties in the land here and then he looks at the lot of you.

[00:26:11] The wolves just with this fire in his eyes and it's like, well, aren't you going to do something?

[00:26:18] You lot. We caught you here in one piece. Why don't you get us the rest of the damn way?

[00:26:24] Just looking around him. Finn will kind of take a look at the

[00:26:31] straggling members of the crew and then his own group, muck back at second.

[00:26:36] Yes, you did your job getting us to the island. We will make our way to the strong

[00:26:42] keep up with us if you can. But for us we are on our own now. The shots and all of the

[00:26:50] bad guys were in the stronghold or they were attacking the stronghold. You can't see the stronghold

[00:26:55] from the bay. Okay, so they said they were not in. Well, it's a couple miles inland, remember?

[00:27:00] It was in the direction of yes, it's just coming from the direction. God, yeah, it was coming

[00:27:06] from the direction of the stronghold. Correct. So it would seem that the stronghold might be over

[00:27:11] shaken. Again, it's a few miles inland. Sure. Sure. Okay. Now, if we would like to form

[00:27:18] some sort of breech party to storm the cliffside walls, numbers are obviously too

[00:27:26] are advantage. However, we could send our group ahead, smaller, more easily concealed in the woods.

[00:27:37] I cannot guarantee, however, in that case that your party would be able to follow.

[00:27:42] Finn, Finn. And you feel a hand on your arm, in turning, you see, Eris, just like

[00:27:51] haggard looking, gazing out of this assembled party. We are in no position to make a assault on anything.

[00:28:02] Then we go alone. We need to move down the beach and find shelter and make our way inland elsewhere.

[00:28:11] That's my suggestion. Eris has a point, there's no way that we would be able to invade

[00:28:18] the stronghold just as six of us. Well, the five of us, Kai is no shape up for anything.

[00:28:27] This is honestly like the first time really that Finn has noticed Kai's state.

[00:28:35] And it's like as soon as the chaos broke out, he was kind of in his own little mental haze,

[00:28:44] just trying to get out of it. And so it is Arnor, and now looking at Kai, his expression softens

[00:28:51] fairly drastically, and he takes in the other crew members again. Right, of course,

[00:29:01] was foolish to suggest we need shelter to recover.

[00:29:08] Then we should work our way around opposite direction of where the fire was coming from,

[00:29:16] until we can find some outcropping, place of safety refuge.

[00:29:23] Let's waste no time. Captain, are you meant going to be able to follow?

[00:29:28] Well, make to you. All right, let's head out.

[00:29:32] Is everyone in a grie against this, this plan?

[00:29:35] All right, yes, is anyone speaking up in opposition? No. No.

[00:29:40] No, bread is going to wordlessly like slide off of Kelz Karak and go get on his horse,

[00:29:47] just like fully dead silent pale, not speaking a word. Right? And then this sorry and damaged

[00:29:56] procession begins its way westward toward the coast, making sure to stick close to these cliffs

[00:30:03] under the cover of these trees as you move out of the bay and try to find safety on Viridium.