<strong>The wilds of Dra Sirdu: the ends of a swift battle</strong><br/><br/>Wherever it turned, the beast found itself under attack. While it managed to bat away Eshalu's spear, for the moment, it then stumbled to the side slightly, overcome by a<em>Moment of Fatigue</em>. Pierced by both crossbow bolt and arrow, it roared once more in defiance, lunging for Aeryn just as something in the trees overhead caught her attention. Seconds later, however, it crashed to the ground, bloody wounds and open mouth steaming as its tongue lolled lifelessly. The last effort of focused savagery had consumed what remained of the monstrosity's life.<br/><br/>Seeing the body of its fellow topple to the ground, the second gorilledator hesitated, turning uncertainly to and fro a few times before the Crown Princess of the Dominion made its choice for it. It recoiled in surprise as she smashed and sliced her way straight through the wall of ice separating the party from it, but didn't move quickly enough to avoid her swift, precise blows. The sharp steel bit into its shoulder and neck, cutting loose something that had hidden in the thick fur near the base of its neck. Letting out a piercing screech somewhere between baboon and cat, the creature turned tail and run, taking its<em>Deep Cut</em>with it as the sole souvenir of the encounter. Still it wasn't the most impressively fast creature, and could probably be hunted down, if anyone attempted immediate pursuit.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Combat Results</div><div class="spoiler_body">Respective defense rolls: Starting from a Fight of 2 to defend against melee (Eshalu et al.) and an Athletics of 1 to defend against ranged attacks (Aeryn et al.).<br/><ul class="bbc_list" style="list-style-type: decimal;"><li>Versus Eshalu: breaks even for 0 stress inflicted (though the tie means that you gain the <em>Moment of Fatigue</em> boost. At 2013-03-14 20:38:47, Gorilledator (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-8 Result: 2 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=44932)</li><li>Versus Aeryn: 3 stress: minor consequence and 2nd stress box. At 2013-03-14 20:38:54, Gorilledator (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-8 Result: 0 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=44933)</li><li>Versus Reliyian: 4 stress: 4th stress box. At 2013-03-14 20:38:54, Gorilledator (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-8 Result: 0 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=44933)</li><li>Second gorilledator versus Lazerette: 4 stress At 2013-03-14 20:38:59, Gorilledator (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-8 Result: -1 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=44935)</li></ul><br/>The first beast now has all four of its stress boxes filled, plus a mild consequence and a severe consequence. As it's just a nameless beast, and has basically a zero percent chance of surviving past last round, I'm giving it this final action and then letting it die.<br/><br/>Namely: it attacks Aeryn, using both her <em>Distracted Realization</em> (meaning that it's now that she actually notices the figures in the treetops and its <em>Moment of Fatigue</em> and <em>Desperate Energy</em>. All of these boosts immediately disappear after being used, but this is a good example of how different positive and negative effects can stack up (in this instance: +2 for a negative on Aeryn, -2 for a negative on itself and then +2 again for a positive on itself). The net effect, obviously, is a +2 to its roll. At 2013-03-14 20:51:11, Gorilledator (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-8 Result: 0 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=44936) With its Fair (+2) Fighting and the sum of the boosts expended, that's a total of four shifts (Great/+4) that you need to defend against, Aeryn. Either Athletics or Fighting is appropriate, in this instance. As its companion is now fleeing off into the distance At 2013-03-14 20:51:17, Gorilledator (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-8 Result: 2 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=44937) with a net of Good/+3 (1 Athletics, 2 roll), you can probably use stress safely against this attack, should you defend unsuccessfully. Though you're free to take a consequence, if you want to! Now, as a general statement: players are free to decide the results of their defenses (both ICly in narration and OOCly in marking down filled stress boxes or naming consequences). However, we're all here to tell a good story and have some fun (of various sorts), so to maintain the former, I retain the right to veto and rename Consequences that don't make sense (not that I expect to have to do so: you're smart folks).<br/><br/>Now, more on that fleeing companion of its. It has Conceded the fight: it's taking a moderate consequence from Lazerette's vicious attack, and wants none of it! It leaves a hint behind, and leaves its fellow to die, as its Concession penalty. Obviously, though, the concession also gives it two fate points. If someone chases, it will be a little bit more dangerous than its fellow had been. Plus, who knows what else might be out there? (I'm not being discouraging, of course, just being aggressively open. If someone wants to dive headlong into everything adventure can offer, that's certainly an option.)<br/><br/>As an additional note: I specifically used the <em>Moment of Fatigue</em> against it because it's about to die and the boost would otherwise go to waste. Normally, of course, I will leave boosts to be expended by players. Please let me know when you're using boosts or aspects, of course.<br/></div></div><br/>If inspected, the fallen object revealed itself to be some sort of leather collar or harness. It was made of thick leather, a neat cut in which demonstrated that it hadn't even slowed down Lazerette's fierce sword stroke. The buckle was made of rather crudely worked iron, decorated with a small green stone of some sort. Perhaps unsurprisingly, an quick search of the fallen beasts' neck would reveal another such object, quite clearly a collar when not having been hacked off of the body. This one, on the other hand, had a red stone in it. Perhaps there was a significance to the contrasting stones?<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Searching</div><div class="spoiler_body">It's a average challenge, at best, particularly if Lazerette makes note of where the first collar was cut from. No roll is really necessary, as finding the matching collar is fairly inevitable, across the group.</div></div>