<strong>The Wilds of Dra Sirdu: a full retreat</strong><br/><br/>The sound of people (if of the reptilian sort) being crushed by a giant, frozen, falling tree trunk was, oddly, less unpleasant than one might assume. It was certainly<em>loud</em>, but the ground-shaking crash had a pleasant, slightly hollow ringing sound to it, and easily drowned out the high-pitched shrieks of the two unfortunates crushed and shredded by the splintering mass. The third of the trio, now covered in a light frosting of ice and the unpleasantly warm remains of its friends, took the hint and dashed off into the darkness, glad to take advantage of the unexpected barrier separating it from the three strange humanoids that had invaded its island. It hoped, no doubt, that its former comrades wouldn't get the hint quite as quickly as it had. It'd need every moment it could to get away from the powerful mage and her companions.<br/><br/>Unfortunately for it, the other passel of reptilian interlopers, their flank ruined and their main lines being easily fended off (and even gotten the better of) by just Eshalu, began to hesitate. With the maddened sound (a fierce battle cry of some sort, no doubt) from the round-eared member of the group, they simply turned tail and fled in a<em>Confused Mass</em>. Any action taken against them would need to happen quickly, as their terror lent them speed in their flight into the gloom beyond the grove.<br/><br/>Once things had settled down a little bit, it became eminently clear that the long-fled leader had been of an entirely different sort than the gang he had abandoned. The four recognizable bodies were even smaller than he, perhaps four-odd feet to his five-and-some. They were dressed similarly, where sword strokes or piercing ice hadn't parted their cloth coverings. A closer inspection, even with the presence of a a bit of light, became much more difficult. Their somewhat scrawny bodies blended in extremely well with their surroundings in both hue and pattern: a sort of naturally adaptive camouflage that even death couldn't quell.<br/><br/>The sole exception to this was around their split cloth wrappings. There, instead, were long, brightly colored, pennaceous feathers which the wraps had apparently contained and held close to the skin. A fair number were split or damaged from the violence with which they had been freed from their prisons, but further unwrapping (if, of course, it occurred) would reveal that much of the cloth-wrapped portion was covered in these feathers. An even braver explorer might look beneath their small, utilitarian loincloths, but such investigations were largely doomed to disappointment. Aside from the expected (and predictably inhuman) equipment, the area was entirely unornamented.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">And They're Off!</div><div class="spoiler_body">I have now started to incorporate all features of a roll into the 4d3-[quantity], as it allows for a little simplier and quicker production of everything. A creature's skill (plus teamwork modifiers and whatnot) is equal to the [quantity]+8 (so in the first bullet point below, 1 skill, plus two gang modifier, as you gals already know).<br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li>3-Pack 1 defending against Reliyian: At 2013-03-29 23:26:14, 3-Pack 1 (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-5 Result: 4 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=45387) Takes 4 stress. Two members down.</li><li>3-Pack 3 defending against Eshalu: At 2013-03-29 23:24:58, 3-Pack 3 (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-5 Result: 4 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=45386) Takes 1 stress.</li><li>Group defending against Aeryn's scare tactics: At 2013-03-29 23:26:45, L. Group (uid: 13420) rolls: 4d3a-6 Result: 5 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=45388) Breaks even. Aeryn gains boost of <em>Confused Mass</em></li></ul>This all adds up to one thing: the lizardfolk are done and they know it. The survivors are going to scatter into the darkness, Conceding the bodies of their fellows. Pursuing them will be possible, but quite difficult in the darkness (at least one, if not two invokes against you in the contested roll, though a quick athletics/whatever roll to catch one before it escapes from vision might not be as difficult). Likewise, given the gloom, tracking the individual who made off with Lazerette will likely be perilous and unrewarding. Don't let this stop you, though! Self-Compelling one of your own aspects to motivate and following it up with the invokes is a good way to earn Fate Points, if you want them. But failed rolls do come with their own consequences.<br/><br/>As implied above, inspecting/searching the bodies and waiting until morning is also totally a valid option, though tracking won't get all that much easier, given the ridiculously quick growth of the island. A third option might be checking if any of them survived and interrogating the survivor: the tree-and-lizard-paste-sandwiches are probably very done, but sword-strokes aren't always immediately fatal. And you do have a fairly decent medic with you. Or maybe there's another angle I'm missing. Surprise me!<br/></div></div>