FATHOM #Zero - The Boring Boar of Hyperborea

On a moonlit night in the Sardis Forest...




Addison Lane

...your guide—a red-haired Huntress named Addison Lane—leads you through the shadows, moving ever so silently. When she moves, you hear nothing. She signals you to move stealthily to her side.

"It's easy," Addison says. "Take it one step at a time. First, log onto rolz.org. Scroll down a bit to where it says 'Join a Dice Room.' Your nickname is whatever ye want me to call ye."

She turns to the Oceanid.

"Enter 'Suny' as your Nickname. Please. I'm not sure how to pronounce Peebothuhlu. Pee both...? That can't be right. Never mind. I don't wanna know. I also don't wanna know your password. Never trust a guide who asks for your password. That's Hunting Tip Number Thir... no, wait... are we on Fourteen now?"

She shrugs and addresses everyone.

"Most importantly, we all need to be in the same Dice Room, or we ain't a team. 'Cause there's no 'I' in 'team,' but there is a 'tea.' And we can't have tea together unless we're in the same room.

"The Room Name is 'Fathom.'"

She pauses for at least one heroine to get in.

"Let me know when one o' ye's in."

 

Addison Lane

Addy replies, "Yeah, there's a hamster rolling around these parts. Seems he's testing himself, and a li'l critter like that might feed a gaggle o' carnivorous fairies. Hardly a snack for us, and I only do big game. We'll let him live."

Suny can't help but notice Addison speaks rather boldly...


((I'm mixing customs: like Paizo, bold = talking, and since MS is a writers' site, quotation marks are used as well.

Also, I think you have a good idea about posting the POV character's name first thing in the post. I will do that as well when speaking as an NPC.

Narrating is 3rd person singular and text in double parentheses is for speaking out/of-character/out-of-game.

By the way, nice job using in-game talk to prove you were in the room! HAM'ster or The Sidekick will be for GM rolls.))


...Suny also notices Addison looks at her the way sailors do. But Addy is a professional Huntress and Guide, so she sticks to business.

"Heh... ye nymphs, or 'island elves' if ye prefer..." She pauses to catch her train of thought. "Ye stand out in a crowd, to put it mildly. Your much quieter than me amazon friend, but ye got a way o' turning heads. Toward ye.

"No worries. That's what teammates're for. But let's see ye try a Stealth Roll anyway."

Addy tucks in her knees as she sneaks up on a fat hamster...

...and the creature doesn't even notice as Addy silently plants a foot mere inches behind the unsuspecting rodent!

She signals Suny to do the same.


((Suny, roll SHOOT dice for Stealth or any Hunting skill. An Oceanid has 2 SHOOT dice so you roll...

#2d6x3

...then you can try inserting the image to your next post. Give it a shot!))

 

Addison Lane

Addy replies, "If we keep talking..."

The hamster hears her and skedaddles!

"...well, aside from breaking silence, ye'll be able to do things experienced huntresses can do in no time."

Addy ponders for a moment, seemingly mesmerized by the oceanid's sad expression.

"I really hate to see ye like this." She mumbles, "The pouty face is kind of adorable, really, but still..." She resumes her confident, professional tone as she goes on, "I'd be a crappy guide if I left you in the dark. So what's eatin' ye?"

((Is it trouble posting images on Mythic Scribes, or trouble with Rolz? You didn't roll in the Fathom room, though you were definitely in there earlier since you saw HAM'ster.

Oh, and good on you color-coding OOC talk too. I'll use Paizo's Lt. Blue as well, in addition to the MS tradition of double parentheses.))

 

Addy shrugs as the hamster scampers away. She notices more of her trainees approaching and says to Suny, "Looks like our rag-tag pack's damn near assembled. From what I've been told, we got a couple o' bestial women showing up. One's part spider and the other..."

She squints at her list.

"...ehh. Me amazon friend's strong hands are build for swordsmanship, but not penmanship." She struggles to read her friend's handwriting a bit more as clanking footsteps approach, then tells the nymph, "Once everyone's here, we'll get on with our hunt."


((Once your heroine's ready, just jump in the thread. Stealth roll attempt or not, I'll move things forward either Friday, or when the Monstresses are posted in the Intro thread--whichever comes first.

It wouldn't hurt to post a pointless stealth roll and post the roll, just to make sure you know how.))

 

Einin's approach is stealthy. Not a single creature in the forest notices her as she silently glides above the canopy of trees.

On the way to the meeting place—the thousand year old tree, known as Lady Sardis—Einin sees all sorts of animals that could satiate her appetite. But why snack on a rodent when you can feast on boar prepared by an Amazon princess?

Besides, it seems much of the wildlife has been taken, judging by the heaps of bones strewn about some hole in the ground that the humans didn't see fit to map.

Einin can spot the red hair from hundreds of yards. Surprisingly, it takes only seconds for her to see a pair of green eyes lock onto her own.

The Huntress smiles at the bird-woman.



Addison Lane
Addy says to Suny, "Owl-woman. That's what me friend jotted in her notes. I thought she wrote oil-woman." Almost defensively, she goes on, "Y'know, like a masseuse. Like that kitsune who walked across me back, couple moons ago, the two of us clad in coconut oil..."

She looks up at Einin's deadly talons.

"I don't wanna hurt anyone's feelings, so in case bird-girl offers a massage, we'll just say we already had one."

((As for die-rolling, try to follow the screenshots in the Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'... thread. Watch especially for the parts I boxed in red or blue. You need to Sign In, not Join a Room, in order to use the shortcut buttons I set up.

If you go in the right way, you'll be able to roll and post an image as Ireth did. By the text, I can tell she used the shortcut button!))

 

Addison Lane
When Suny wraps herself around Addison, the Huntress says, "Business before pleasure's kind of a policy. A lame one. Not mine, but... oh."

It occurs to her that she didn't warn the nymph of the owl-woman. Now that that's clear, the Huntress decides to watch the two greet each other before interjecting.

"Well, seeing the two o' ye on a good start gives me the warm and fuzzies. It's Rule Number One o' being in a hunting pack. Ye best get along, 'cause ye need each other for survival."

((Seriously... let's not even go down the road of party in-fighting. I've been there way too many times as a player. It starts off as RP to create tension, seems harmless because you're not rolling attacks vs. each other, then by the time it's obviously killing the fun you're so deep in it, it's hard to stop.

Let me play the jerks. You never have to share a tent or foxhole with an NPC jerk.))

Addy gently takes the wing for a handshake. "These are soft, and..." Picking a feather from the ground, she says, "...I could make a cute hairpiece o' yer feathers. That ain't weird, is it?—I mean just the feathers that come off on their own accord."

Before Einin can respond, there's a tremor. It becomes so violent that Addy not only drops her feathers, but...

...she would probably drop onto her butt, if not for those thick thighs of hers!

((Suny, roll FIGHT DEF (endurance save) to avoid falling on your Oceanid butt!

Einin, same as Suny—or, roll SHOOT DEF (reflex save) to just fly up so you don't need to deal with the tremor!

Any new player jumping in now, roll (endurance save). Wynry gets the (reflex save) option because she can fly.))

 

Addison Lane
Addy looks up at Einen, and is about to respond when Suny tumbles over.

"Oh, shi..."

The Oceanids is completely unharmed, and probably doesn't need assistance. Yet Addison offers a hand anyway.

"Y'alright, girl?"



While the Huntress' full attention is focused on the nymph, she fails to notice a tree falling. It's a few hundred feet away, but Einin is just high enough from the ground to not only see the tree fall. There's something unnatural about how it falls. The tree fall straight down, as opposed to tipping over as most trees do. Einin is not high enough off the ground to witness the landing, but even with the tree obscured from view, she expects to hear some kind of thud. Instead she hears repeated crunches, as if the tree has not only collapsed, but fallen down a giant-sized stairwell until out of earshot.

Suny sees the tree as well. Even as Addy offers her hand, a tree that must be at least sixty feet tall drops straight down as if driven by an invisible hammer. The tree is obscured by the time it falls thirty feet lower. The falling sound continues as if the tree has fallen over a hundred feet.