[LOG] The Fourth Tanus Node Repair
Celeste seems to be in the jungle somewhere and looks...far more haggard than is reasonable given it was just aday or two since Baldric last saw her, "Baldric. I could use a hand with something concerning repair of a shadow path." She beams winningly, "I'll owe ya one if you come lend a hand."
Celeste lifts an eyebrow, "Hrrm, I thought you were beyond assuming you knew all my secrets..." she winks and then admits, "Lady Erika Chantris, Liam, Steadfast-er, that's Malachi to you, and that piece of work Serminian, Pitello.
The group has returned to Jamuniatanr, the forgotten land split once by an inexplicable earthquake to allow the River to continue on from Amber to Tanus. The monkeys have left little odd pyramids of mangos on the beach as little offerings for the returning group but the mango-throwing monkeys are no where to be seen. The sky is dark like it is threatening to have one of those miserable jungle storms that drizzle for hours without ever deciding if it wants to rain or clear up and go away. In the jungle is the node where the river is split by the giant boulder.
Celeste says, "I have /no/ idea, because he's filled with blood and has come in handy when we needed to spill some but none of our own?"
Petrus has dispensed with his armor, this time, and his crew of mercenaries are off somewhere else. Today, he wears a head-cloth, possibly to prevent mango getting in his hair...
Petrus himself, if he is within earshot of Celeste, seems to be wholly distracted.
Erika eyes the mangos warily, and scans the trees for them. "Think they're hiding, waiting to ambush us? Maybe with bananas this time?"
Malachi has acquired a rough lot of men from somewhere in Shadow. Beer bellies and hard hats abound among them. At the moment, they're mostly standing about in small groups near the river, with one man of each group leaning on a shovel, presumably brought along for exactly that purpose.
Celeste rubs her face, "I don't know what his role is, I just call him that, Nevermind, if you're busy I will just try not to get into trouble."
There are no sign of the monkeys. The trees are bizarrely monkey-free. They were thick as flies before. Now they're gone. Perhaps they are off playing monkey games.
Liam is standing on the beach and now he has a new hat. It looks much like the old hat except it is less destroyed by disemboweled spider goo. He asks Malachi: "Is it going to be a problem getting the equipment through the jungle?"
Petrus takes a few moments before shrugging toward Erika. "Don't know, but if they come back, I thoroughly advocate exterminating every last one of them."
Erika glances at Petrus. "Perhaps, but why don't you let me see if I can scare them off before we jump to that? We won't be in this area again after today, right? If we succeed?"
Petrus shrugs at Erika. "It'll be 'on the way', I think - best ask Lord Liam."
Malachi considers the jungle. And the men leaning on shovels. "Might be," he tells Liam. "Not ideal for tech."
Liam frowns a little bit and says, "Well, we will figure it out when we get there. Let's get to the node and try to get the boulder moved so the river can flow." And with that he motions for everyone to start heading into the jungle with their earthmoving equipment, fears, terrors, and possibly mangos.
Erika nods and offers to help carry some of the equipment, but once she starts walking, she does keep an eye on the trees for the mango monkeys.
Petrus is lugging a light crossbow, today, evidently out for monkey-blood.
So far, no monkeys.
Baldric appears suddenly, grasping Celeste's hand.
Malachi's construction men are not keen on hiking. It offers much fewer leaning opportunities than standing about. Nonetheless, on them move, hauling along enormous sacks of things not entirely unlike cement.
Most of the group, plus Malachi's men, head into a jungle that is eerily and creepily quiet. Sure there are the sounds of bugs and a macaw makes macaw noises off in the over-there-somewhere and the wind ruffles enormous green leaves that hang over the shallow river. But there are no animals and no fruit in the trees. Perhaps the fruit was used for the strange fruit pyramids left on the beach. Or perhaps not.
RPG: Baldric declares that he has the Intuit Power (PAT-IP) gift. Use '+gift PAT-IP' to view the gift description.
RPG: Baldric used the following +declare targets: Liam
Erika frowns a little as she follows along on the little parade of people. "I think I preferred the monkeys," she says softly.
Petrus moves along. The absence of fruit is not lost on him. He looks apprehensive. And sweaty.
Celeste tucks the card away and offers to Baldric "I'll even give you a ride, how's that?" she steps several paces away, looking around the jungle. Any excuse to go scaled. Then again, given it's a jungle, might not be a bad idea. She doesn't wait for the answer, there's a blast of heat as she transformed into big, winged, and scaled.
Baldric smirks at at Celeste. "You do so love doing that don't you?" He looks around. "My my, this place is simply saturated with magic."
Liam is trailing behind Malachi's men, Erika and Petrus but ahead of Celeste in picking through the jungle. He calls out idly: "Watch out for snakes! You never know, snakes. They're sneaky."
Erika suddenly looks wary. "Snakes? I don't want to run into any snakes," she whispers to Petrus.
Petrus shrugs at Erika. "Counterpoint: snakes are delicious."
Baldric hmphs as he looks around. "If someone gets randomly bitten by a snake, then no one is working to prevent it. Really Liam, you're forgetting your basics here."
Celeste offers a toothy grin, "Tell me you wouldn't if you could, Aside-this way my clothed don't get dirty. Being dragon means never having to ruin another pair of boots." she lowers her head and rumbles, "see? I wouldn't bring you anywhere dull." She looks to Petrus and then begins to issue a low bassy vibration while her tongue flickers out to sample the air.
Malachi trudges. With men carrying sacks of cement.
Baldric hops onto Celeste for the offered ride and whispers something to her.
Erika glances at Petrus again. "Never had snake before," she muses, but she also quickens her pace a little. Surely there will be fewer snakes by the rock, right?
The jungle continues to be very much how the team left it when they were here least week. And still there are no monkeys. After some hot, sweaty and monkeyless walking the group comes upon the site of the fight with the spiders. The spider carcasses are still there. So are the ripped webs. Exactly as they left it. No one has been by here since the group last left.
Petrus makes a face when they reach the spider graveyard.
Liam steps very gingerly around the spider carcasses and finds his lost hat. It is not a hat he wants to reclaim. "Ew."
Celeste's head tilts back as she listens and she issues a soft rumble, starbursts eyes scanning the jungle warily. She huhs, "Something shoulda tried to eat these, right? Scavangers, surely?"
Malachi indicates to Liam with a broad gesture that this is what Builds Character in clothing.
Erika grimaces as well and picks her way around the spiders. "Maybe they're poisonous or something. I know /I/ wouldn't want to eat them."
Petrus does not Joke about Eating Spiders.
"These carcasses should have been eaten or something," Liam says and he looks very much disgusted. "OKAY moving on through the nice jungle to the nice node locus..." Liam presses onward, trying not to think about his hat.
Baldric whispers something to Celeste and then calls out in Liam's direction. "Have you been up to the node locus before?"
Liam turns around a bit and says to Baldric, "Yeah! We were there last week. There's a big boulder blocking up the river. That's why we have Malachi's men with the cement and the gear. It was pretty calm when we were there. Just broken."
"So do you think fixing the flow of the river will repair the node?" Erika calls to Liam.
Petrus looks toward Baldric, a faint smile. "Watch your step, when we get near. Last time a number of us mis-stepped."
"Yes," Liam says and he turns to head deeper into the jungle. "I know that fixing the flow of the river will repair the node because this is on the path to Tanus. The entire path is about a single great river that flows from Amber to Tanus itself. As long as the water flows, the node lives. Of course, anyone who heads down the shadowpath to Tanus has to follow this river once it is open and it has mango-tossing monkeys..."
Baldric looks at his feet which sit a good distance above the ground while on Celeste's back. "I'll take it under advisement, thanks."
Erika goes a little pink at mention of the misstepping, and falls silent, just nodding at Liam.
Celeste says, "Don't remind me about the damned monkeys." she looks to Baldric and doggedly reports, "I was one of those who misstepped. I got stuck, last time. So, I'll be careful." She looks to Petrus, "You. Cut it out. You only need one arm for this trip."
Petrus shrugs at Celeste. "You malign me, Dear Dragon. Cannot a Serminian deliver a helpful warning in good faith?" he wonders, a touch of lament in his voice.
RPG: Baldric declares that he has the Block Shadow (PAT-BS) gift. Use '+gift PAT-BS' to view the gift description.
RPG: Baldric used the following +declare targets: Liam
Malachi directs his men off to start leaning on shovels near the giant boulder. For his part, he's eyeing those pyramids.
Erika frowns a little at Celeste, but then she's distracted by the boulder and, more importantly, the mangos. Since she's not the muscle on this trip she heads over to one of the pyramids and crouches down, studying it, then she reaches out and carefully takes one of the ones from on top, trying not to collapse the whole thing.
Celeste notes the frown to Erika, "You and I are going to have a chat as well. Soon." but aparently not now, it seems, her tongue flickering, "How is it I wind up in such spooky company?" She looks to Baldric, "You got any answers on that one?"
Petrus scans the treeline now and again. Sneaky, monkeys...
Baldric smirks at Celeste. "You're a glutton for punishment?"
"My apologies, Lady Celeste, but I don't believe we have anything to chat about," Erika says while she examines the mango she picked up, then glances around.
Liam walks over to Malachi and scratches the back of his neck and swats a fly. "Maybe your guys can get ropes over the trees and use a rope-and-pully system to start moving the boulder? Or we can just push it really, really, really hard. There's a bunch of us here descended from Oberon. Between the shovels and Celeste and us pushing it, it should move. I think."
There is a chittering. In the trees.
Malachi directs workers to ignore the ominous chittering and get those ropes and pulleys in place.
Petrus loads his crosssbow. "Clever little simian bastards," he murmurs to nobody in particular. "Waiting for us to start picking our way across the tricky terrain..."
RPG: Erika challenges a difficulty of 8, using her Wits. Erika almost succeeds.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Wits. Petrus succeeds.
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 8, using her Wits and SKL-CE. Celeste succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Wits. Liam fails.
RPG: Malachi challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Wits. Malachi completely fails.
RPG: Baldric challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Wits. Baldric almost succeeds.
Celeste says, "Why didn't I learn to belch fire? Damnked monkeys. Well, if they get bad I'm taking to air..." she stops and then issues a sharp series of cussing, "Is the river supposed to be boiling, boys? I..don't think we're what's upsetting the monkeys. Baldric, hold on tight and NOT touch my crest. Touching the crest gets riding privileges revoked."
Petrus, much more spectacularly, seems to be eyeing a wisp of steam. His aim lowers, a bit.
Malachi appears to be examining the local insect life for signs of imminent danger.
Liam tries to move the boulder by himself by putting his back in it. And as he does so, out of nowhere at all, a mango flies out of the jungle and hits him in the head. He does two things. One: he goes "Ow." Two: he promptly loses his hat.
Baldric can see something's amiss but doesn't seem to be clued in by any other fashion than his companion's reactions. "Boiling? That's not good. Is there a volcano around here?"
Erika blinks. "What? Boiling? It's not hot enough for anything to boy without a fire." Then she's looking back to the jungle and frowning, then she calls out towards the trees, "Go away!"
Petrus's remark to the others: "What the giant flying lizard said." The mango gets his attention though - and a crossbow bolt shoots into the trees, toward the origin of the mango! "Take that!" he calls toward at the trees. "Furry little gremlins."
Celeste says, "No, the water churning like there's a massive disturbance. Something's in the water or diverting the flow, Guys...I'd get away from there...soething is up. Uh. Baldric, maybe you ought to slide off." She sighs, "I'm going to have a look."
Petrus and Celeste see it first. There was a story, of when Oberon first passed through here, that he waited for an earthquake to sunder the land and then create the river he needed. But he also traversed the river to this spot and dove in and wrestled Bhaumana, the River God of Jamuniatanr. The water boils and then it begins to slowly form into the shape of an enormous man.
Erika goes wide-eyed, then whispers, almost hisses in Liam's direction, "Is that a bad guy or that river god you talked about?" she asks, staring, the mango slipping from her fingers.
Baldric slips off Celeste's back moving gracefully over the unneven terrain towards the river.
Celeste's crest rises and her wings unhinge, her teeth bare and she issues a warning, steeling hiss. Her tail lashes and she minces where she stands, restless as the man of water continues to grow. She hastily moves after Baldric, "Baldric..." she hisses in warning, protective likely needlessly so.
Petrus drops his crossbow, out of shock. "Shit," he says, furry foes forgoten, and looks toward the slowly forming probable-river-god.
Bhaumana, the River God of Jamuniatanr forms out of the waters of the river as an enormous man twenty feet tall with four enormous arms and eyes made of the flint rock of the riverbed and teeth of the white churned rocks of the beach. He curls and uncurls his hands and then folds his arms over his chest. "Oberon, you have returned," he says in a voice full of gravel. "I have taken the river back. You cannot have it."
Erika begins inching more towards Petrus and Liam, but her awed and shocked gaze doesn't leave the god.
Baldric slows up at the sight of the huge elemental-like creature comes out of the river. "And why would you not wish the river to flow?" He calls out.
Celeste lifts her head, "You know. History has shown we damned well get what we come for. So. If you want to dig waggle and be subdued. AGAIN. We are happy to oblige you. Personally I've a rather jam packed agenda this week so would be most obliged if we skipped to the preliminaries and you just made the choice to do this the easy way as opposed to the history lesson." She rises up on her hind legs and rolls her shoulders.
Petrus summarizes loudly, and boldly toward Bhaumana, in Thari: "Honor your prior agreement, state a fair price for a rental, or be beaten like the minor tributary Oberon proved you are, so long ago."
Bhaumana laughs at the show of power of those arrayed before him here at Oberon's Rest. It is a deeply inhuman, bubbly noise that rises from a chest with no lungs and no throat. "Oberonlings! Small fragments of Oberon! You are not him but only small fragmentary memories of him! I have blocked the river. I have taken it back to be mine for I am God of this place. I, Bhaumana, who remembers when this universe was grown from the naval of Vishnu who sleeps in the cosmic ocean and dreams eternally."
And as Bhaumana speaks, the monkeys come out of the jungle. They have mangos.
Erika doesn't notice the monkeys immediately this time, but dares to speak up herself. "Why would you not want the river to flow, though? It is good for your people and your land to have it flowing as it was," she says, hesitating somewhere between Liam and Petrus, apparently unable to decide who to hide behind.
Baldric simply rolls his eyes at all the displays of bravado. "When you all are done brawling and want to accomplish something, let me know."
Celeste looks down to Baldric, "The man who forged these paths was not subtle." She settles down beside Baldric, "But, I am intrigued, champ." She tucks her tail around her and settles on her haunches, watching the god warily but seeming to be making a show of 'very well, I'll be a good little dragon."
Bhaumana says, "This river is mine. I am the god. You are small fleshy people. And you will leave or you will die." The water begins to form weapons in his large hands.
Malachi motions to his construction crew to go lean on shovels at a safe distance, and draws a storm pistol in a thoughtful sort of manner.
That does it, Erika is moving closer to Petrus in a way that is more quick and less subtle, and hiding behind him, just barely peeking around towards Bhaumana.
Petrus watches Bhaumana, unmoving. "Minor tributary versus several young Oberons. You don't gamble much, do you, Streamlet?"
Celeste launches into the air and her wings churn and pump double time, working to clear some distance between her and the ground as the weapons form in his grasp, "Hey! Who you calling /squishy/?!"
Bhaumana says, "The chance has come for me to reclaim what is mine and I have taken what is mine back from the universe. I will keep it. This is my place. It is my shrine."
Malachi notes, "Isn't wise to work the nodes away from the shape they're built to."
Petrus looks like he's ready for a fight, as ill-advised as it may be. He spares glances toward Liam and Malachi and Celeste, but only very short glances, because Bhaumana is rather terrifying, armed.
Liam wipes the mango from his neck and says, "No matter what, the river has to flow in the direction Oberon intended and it is not, not fully."
Erika just continues to hide, silently, staring and waiting to see what happens!
Baldric simply shoots Malachi a scathing look in response.
Celeste circles high in a spiral and issues a tremendous roar of challenge as she suddenly dives from the height she's worked up to.
Bhaumana, seeing an actual adversary instead of squabbling little Oberonlings on the ground raises one of his many arms to Celeste's dragon form and roars an unholy bubbling noise in response to the challenge!
Malachi ignores Baldric, and decides it's time to start shooting a godling in the face while it's dragonstracted.
RPG: Malachi challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Resolve and SKL-AR. Malachi almost succeeds.
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 12, using her Wits and the gifts PHY-ST SKL-TD DRG-BS. Celeste succeeds.
While others start to fight the god, Erika tries a different plan! Getting rid of the monkeys that might possibly distract the party of adventures at the wrong moment! So she starts flinging rocks and mangos into the trees. If nothing else, it might make /her/ a target rather than the fighters!
Liam decides, while everyone is distracted with fighting the God, to use the cover to start yelling at Malachi's men to get the ropes and pullies around the boulder. And even though the enormous boulder diverting the river is several tons he puts his back to it and heaves. It's like trying to move a car.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 12, using his Wits and JIN-SS. Petrus almost succeeds.
Baldric didn't want to fight, clearly, but since a fight is happening right around him he draws his sword and moves in towards the river god with a speed and grace is reminiscient of his parentage.
RPG: Baldric challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Grace and the gifts STY-SW BLD-OB. Baldric succeeds.
Celeste's wings snap in close but her legs and tail snap out as she spins herself into corkscrew all several hundred pounds of dragon strait through the watergod like a drill. Emerging the other side she has to again flap double-time, cost tremendous effort to fly as water is flung off scales.
Petrus prances lightly across the uneven ground and looks very silly making his way toward Bhaumana. He's also singing in a weird dialect of Alhambran - someone who knows the language might catch him sing that his name is Petrus Al'Sahal Al'Kelam Pitello and that tiny rivers should obey their betters. Oddly, it looks like this song of his isn't improvised. Somewhere along the way, a large shadowy club seems to form off to one side of the monster, and slams toward its torso when it is most distracted, the attack originating from the opposite side Petrus is on. Unfortunately, the great River God manages to deflect the club with his water-sword, whether by skill or chance? Who knows. He has at least, succeeded in pissing it off further.
RPG: Petrus declares that he has the Second Binding of Sahal (JIN-SS) gift. Use '+gift JIN-SS' to view the gift description.
RPG: Petrus used the following +declare targets: Jamuniatanr the Fourth Node
Malachi tries out the effects of lightning on water, and discovers that it's better at frying the happy little fish swimming around inside the river god than the made-of-water godling itself. This being noted, he returns the storm pistol to its holster, and draws a heavy bone-handled saber in its place.
Bhaumana is hurt, yes, he is definitely harmed. He is harmed most by the Dragon that attempts to take him apart. For a moment a hole appears in his midsection and he looks confused. The hole closes but he is thinner than before. Then parts of him are cut apart by Baldric and bits of water and riverbed fly. Bhaumana roars and returns his assault, as he is not interested in losing to something as small and fleshy as these.
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 12, using her Wits and the gifts PHY-ST SKL-TD DRG-BS. Celeste fails.
RPG: Baldric challenges a difficulty of 10, using his Grace and the gifts STY-SW BLD-OB. Baldric fails.
RPG: Malachi challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Resolve and BLD-OB. Malachi succeeds.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Wits and SKL-WM. Petrus succeeds.
Liam continues to heave and heave and heave the boulder. While the men are hurridly throwing ropes, Liam grits his teeth to see if he can move the boulder even the slightest bit...
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 11, using his Resolve and BLD-OB. Liam fails.
... and Liam strains and strains and strains and strains and strains and gets nothing more than pelted by the monkeys with mangos for his efforts. The boulder doesn't bother to move.
Baldric gets a little cute with his maneuvers, and pays for it. The river god catches him a good one in the side and he goes flying with an audible crack.
Erika continues to throw things, poorly, at the monkeys, but then, she doesn't seem to be worried much about aim, just distraction.
Celeste is batted out of the air while she's trying to regain altitude for another attack. There's a trumpeting yeowl as she's struck by the water god and sent summersaulting with force through the air and tearing through the canopy of the jungle with a tremendous crash.
Malachi advances to start slicing pieces of godling off with his sword. It's a slow, laborious process, but with all the distractions about, not a terribly hazardous one.
Petrus opts for less dramatic tactics, now that he's closer. He darts around, looking for opportunities to nick at the water god's massive body and disrupt its watery musculature. The blows aren't severe, or deep (Petrus's sword is not terribly long), but every now and then, he manages a glancing blow that looks somewhere important. His attacks do not come without price, however - being buffetted around has him limping and sputtering up water he must have somehow inhaled.
Bhaumana gets in a few magnificent hits. The main one is the one where he brings a huge watery fist around and smashes Celeste out of the air and to the ground. Then another arm reaches out to swat away Baldric like a fly. But he is being swarmed by heroes. Malachi takes off methodical parts of the God and Petrus flicks off more water and more riverbed. Bhaumana seems to be thinning and shrinking but he is still fighting back to defend his territory.
RPG: Malachi challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Resolve and SKL-AR. Malachi succeeds.
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 10, using her Wits and the gifts PHY-ST SKL-TD DRG-BS. Celeste succeeds.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 12, using his Wits and SKL-WM. Petrus almost succeeds.
Baldric gets up from where he was slapped to and heads back into the fight, obviously a lot tougher than his usual demeanor suggests. He is, however, clearly favoring his left side as he moves to attack again.
RPG: Baldric challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Grace and the gifts STY-SW BLD-OB. Baldric succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 11, using his Resolve and BLD-OB. Liam completely fails.
In Tanus Node, you do not move boulder. Boulder moves you. As Liam learns.
Malachi might be moving somewhat faster if he were not keeping an eye on his extremely squishy cousin near the large boulder of squishing. Nonetheless, he combines the Saber and Godling aspects of the nearby landscape to create a panorama of Saber, Godling, and Watery Godling Chunk Falling Away.
Petrus, believing he has established himself as a minor threat, spies an opportunity - mostly-fluid knee! He pretends to go for another wrist-cut, but quickly twirls and stabs right at the back of Bhaumana's knee - but Bhaumana merely dips a bit, and Petrus's tiny toothpick severs merely molecules.
There's snarling and crashing, "Dragons are top of the food chain you skin pruning puddle jackass!" Celeste bellows in fierce rage, nothing so fancy as last time just the dive-boarding from a limb barely large enough to support her before launching herself at the god.
Erika is flinging mangos in a way to make the monkeys proud! She does, however, send several glances back at her friends every few throws.
Baldric it seems was motivated by getting clipped. He's all business now as he moves and slices. It's not clear how long he can keep this up however, as he's still favoring his side and his breating is extremely labored.
Bhaumana is visibly weakening now. He is having difficulty holding together his form. But he is dedicated to making one last push because he is a God and his opponents are not and he will destroy them at all costs!
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 10, using her Wits and the gifts PHY-ST SKL-TD DRG-BS. Celeste succeeds.
RPG: Malachi challenges a difficulty of 8, using his Resolve and BLD-OB. Malachi succeeds.
RPG: Baldric challenges a difficulty of 9, using his Grace and the gifts STY-SW BLD-OB. Baldric succeeds.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 10, using his Wits and SKL-WM. Petrus almost succeeds.
Liam is just sitting there, defeated by the boulder and mangos and monkeys.
Celeste lands on the ground with a heavy *whump* and turns, bounding off the drump of a tree and launching herself up with a mighty leap towards the god, clawing, biting and lashing her tail to display as much of the water god's bosy as possible.
Malachi is just going stab. stab. stab. stab. GOUGE. stab. stab. with all the spark and creativity of a jackhammer. It seems to be working very well for him.
Erika looks like she's starting to get tired from the repeated flinging of fruit and stone, but she keeps doing it!
Baldric continues on as he has, all business. It's a good thing the river god is wearing down because he certainly can't keep up this pace for much longer.
Petrus darts in, a vicious glint in his eye, and leaps forward, making to stab downward toward Bhaumana's foot! A would-be low blow!
Bhaumana is defeated with Baldric's final blow. With a sudden sigh he sinks back into the river and he becomes nothing more than gurgles of water, leaves, dirt, and stones. Although the laughter of monkeys hangs in the air, the menace of the river god has passed for now. Petrus's attack goes through nothing more than water.
Malachi surveys the river for a long moment, in case there's more god to come, then turns to where the boulder is failing to move.
Celeste wades out of the water, one wing not folding back as it should. She looks around and spies Baldric, "Injured?" her voice still raw and gruff.
The boulder continues to fail to move. It is still boulder-like.
Baldric slowly makes his way to a place where he can sit down, clearly wincing and his breath coming in labored gasps. "Had... to pick... a bloody fight. Never...occured... to /talk/ to it."
Erika checks on the progress of the others, and stops throwing when she sees no more god. She looks wary though, and asks, "Is it gone?"
Liam peers up at the boulder which has defeated him utterly. "I dunno. It's a God. Can you stab a God to death? Maybe it's just resting and pissed off."
Malachi notes to Baldric in passing, "Metaphysically thematic." But he's on his way to helping Liam push a boulder around.
Petrus coughs up water for a while.
Celeste wonders to Baldric, "Should I take care of that for you, or you prefer to be fawned over by busty nurses when we get back?" she watches Petrus looking somewhat less concerned.
Erika nods to Liam, then looks at Petrus with some concern. "Are you alright?" A beat, then to Liam, "Perhaps we should get this done then before he comes back?"
Baldric seems to find his breath again as Malachi's comment clearly angers him. "The fool thing is just going to reform eventually. You can't permenantly kill those things with a sword. Then we're going to have to do all this /again/, or someone is. Would have been far better to cut a deal with it or manipulate it."
"Maybe," Liam says but he is still dripping with mango. "No one had come to follow the river and perform the ritual in a long time. It must have moved the boulder when the node got weak enough."
Petrus gives a modest wave of "I'm fine," past a wave of sputtery coughs. "Guh. Inhaled God." He takes a small vial from his pouch and couchs into it, before stoppering it.
Malachi gives the boulder a thoughtful shove. "Nature of the ritual," he says. "Needs maintenance. Lack of it's what frayed the paths before."
Celeste says, "Malachi's been doing this for the last few years, reckon he knows his business, champ. You want me to see to your hurt or...?"
Erika eyes Petrus as if not quite believing him, but finally nods slowly and rises, moving over towards Liam. "So...We all need to just push this boulder back into the right place, right?"
"I think between Malachi's men and the rest of us, if we push..." Liam says. "It's really heavy. It's a really big boulder."
Baldric winces again. "Broken ribs. And I wasn't talking about the shadowpath. I was talking about the bloody river god."
Celeste moves to help with the bolder.
Malachi steps back for some more directions about pulleys and actually hauling on ropes rather than standing around doing shovel-leaning.
Petrus manages to Baldric: "I'm with you on that. But he wouldn't stick by his prior terms of surrender, and didn't look interested in renting his waters. He got what was coming to him."
Erika nods and finds someplace where she can help move the boulder without getting in the way of stronger folks.
Baldric nods at Petrus. "Kind of hard to attain the right attitude to negotiate when people are clearly being hostile to you. In general I've found these things, while certainly tough, are easily subjectible to a minimum of flattery and a decent amount of trickery."
Petrus shrugs at Baldric, and clamors down to help.
RPG: Malachi challenges a difficulty of 6, using his Resolve and BLD-OB. Malachi overwhelmingly succeeds.
RPG: Erika challenges a difficulty of 6, using her Resolve. Erika almost succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 6, using his Resolve and BLD-OB. Liam succeeds.
RPG: Celeste challenges a difficulty of 6, using her Resolve. Celeste completely fails.
RPG: Petrus challenges a difficulty of 6, using his Force. Petrus almost succeeds.
Celeste slips on mashed mango and monkey poo and goes down so hard there's a CRACK as that long ungainly neck puts her just in the perfect place to knock herself out while she's flailing trying to regain her balance. She goes down like a ton of bricks, out cold. And of course this'd have to happen where she weighs more than a horse.
Largely through the sheer will of Commodore Malachi and his men, and with some help from other people who aren't quite as good at pushing rocks where they dam up rivers, the boulder begins to shift. It wobbles and shifts and makes this ugly noise and it leaves a huge gash in the ground and then the river, diverted into a culvert a moment ago, starts spraying river everywhere and over everyone. Malachi's men can pull the boulder with ropes and pullies and then GUSH the river starts flowing out from behind the boulder and into the proper riverbed.
Malachi takes a deep breath once the rock is in place, then has people go start sending down the ropes to drag out the dragon.
Erika beams when the water is diverted. "We did it! Look! The water!" she says happily, looking up and down the river, then looking to Liam. "Is it good now? Was it really that...well, I don't want to say simple, but..."
Liam calls out, when Celeste goes down, "CELESTE! Something's wrong with Celeste!"
Baldric slowly makes his way over to Celeste. "I think she knocked herself out. She banged her head when she fell."
Celeste issues a pained rumble and looking punch-drunk tries to stagger unsteadily to her feet.
As the boulder moves and the river is no longer diverted into a culvert, something feels... better about the jungle. Warmer. Healthier. The colors are more vibrant. The yelling of the monkeys less harsh. The sky no longer threatening a constant drizzle. It's like a cosmic... shift. As if the place is now subtly different than what is was before. It is a better place now. WOM.
Erika goes still at the sound, then turns in a full circle with wide-eyes. "Well that was interesting...and guess that's a yes," she murmurs.
Petrus nods, slowly... "Sounds like it," he murmurs.
Baldric fishes around in a belt at his pouch for a silver case and breathes a sigh of relief when he finds it. "Well, I have broken ribs and I'm not going to lay out here until I heal. I'm headed back to Amber. Does anyone want a lift?"