Cliff hanger ending

[bravesirrobin]

Lightning cracks through a black sky. Thunderclouds overhead dark and ominous deliver on the threat of heavy rain. The landscape below is hilly and craggy, covered in forests, trees larger than sky scrapers form successive layers of canopies, the ground itself is visible nowhere, other than the highest peaks that poke through the dense forest. The landscape shifts and swirls, a closer look revealing colours, shapes and textures that seem somehow out of place. The trees themself seem to shift, each waving in it's own individual wind. Slow ripples of mutation reveal the true naure of the forest, the landscape is deep in the Wyld.

A bubbling, viscous green river cuts rapidly through a ravine before slowing and snaking north. Bare rocky walls, glistening in the constant rain, too smooth to climb plungs downwards. But across the ravine a distance of nearly two miles run half a dozen large thick vines. Dwarfed by the sheer scale of the landscape around and below them four figures stand ready on the vines, facing a wave of predatory metallic birds, which are wheeling around to dive through again. Scything at the figures with their razor sharp wings.

As the flock passes one of the four companions thrusts a sword into a wing, hanging from the bird, it takes a further two attempts to do the same with his second sword, and during the interim the bird has already begun to spiral downwards. The second wound also kills the bird, and whilst the swordsman now has the ability to steer the bird, he begins falling rapidly towards the river below.

The remainder of the flock continues it's attack, but is quickly dispatched by the rest of the group. The last of the birds is grabbed by the legs, and despatched with a swift Sai strike, as a second member of the four decides the most efficient way to follow his friend is the same method, of grabbing hold of a bird and dropping. His abrupt exit leaves a pair of figures standing on the vines, staring downwards. One companion a mere second above the roiling waters, another a few seconds behind him and gathering speed.

[Learned Hand]

Another flash of lightning immuminates a further figure. What appears to be a silhouette of a man rimmed with gold, is pointing a daiklave at the point in the river where the ravine ends, and the jungle meets the bank. The whole thing is 16 feet tall.

The figure has disappeared almost before the lightning does. It takes some degree of concentration to maintain an anima in a fixed position and Kairos has other things, like his apparently inevitable death, on his mind. Hopefully that second was enough for the others to know where to meet him.

Then, invisible to everyone else, a smile. A plan. Grunting inaudibly with concentration and effort, Kairos kicks his legs, spinning over so that the still-warm pterodactyl corpse is beneath him. Kairos barely has time to set his feet, bracing his knees and tightening his hold on the swords before a silent voice in his head whispers now

Instantly, Kairos activates Heavenly Guardian Defence, directing his essence upwards as he does so. Whilst Kairos remains stationary his anima whips its sword around and down, slapping the water with the flat of it's blade, creating a flat wet sound louder than the roar of the storm.

The ensuing wave hits the pterodactyl, halting its downwards fall and carrying it downstream. It's still one hell of a blow, and the wings, which Kairos had bent backwards to absorb most of the force, almost entirely disintergrate, leaving two small stubs. However, this allows the body of the corpse to remain intact. The next flash of lightning illuminates Kairos, knees bent, surfing on the body of the pterodactyl, which rides on top of the wave created by his Heavenly Guardin Defence. As we zoom in on Kairos' face we see he is laughing maniacally and silently into the storm as he speeds towards the rendezvous point.

[which is a long way of saying, I use HGD and the try to surf using the body of the big bird. What rolls do I have to make, and how difficult are they?]

[bravesirrobin]

[HGD is a perfect effect. It's gonna be dex+athletics, high diff to surf on the pterodactyl's body. But you get a 3 dice stunt. Failure will simply mean you have to swim instead, and who knows what might happen then.]

[Raiden to act next.]

[cardinalsin]

As the strange metal bird begins to plummet towards the valley bottom, Raiden hooks his feet around the tail of the creature. At the same time, he grips the base of its wings, one in each hand, at the front of the wing where the bony (er... steely?) part of the wing lies. Then with care, he loosens his grip slightly, just enough to allow his hands to slip down the ridge of its wingspan, from the base down to the tips, where he holds on tight once more.

As he tightens his grip on the wing-tips, the wind rushes upward, filling the wingspan of the beast, and causing its wings to balloon outwards, forming a kind of artificial glider and slowing his descent markedly. Meanwhile, by slight adjustments of his feet he is able to steer his avian parachute. But he is still falling fast, soaring towards the river-bed at an alarming pace.

Whooping with exhilaration, Raiden banks the bird towards the tree-line, where the jungle meets the riverbank, seeking out the biggest tree with the broadest leaves.

When the bird is mere yards above the tree, he releases his grip on the bird and tucks himself into a spinning ball, perfectly timed to allow him to kick off against one of the leaves in the highest reaches of the tree, like an aerial trampoline, before somersaulting onto the next leaf, a little lower down. He repeats this feat over and over, each time slowing his fall a little, before finally leaping off the lowest leaf to run the last few yards down the length of the trunk, coming to earth on his feet.

He makes his way towards Kairos' location, picking twigs and other random plant-matter from his hair as he goes.

[Will use Seven Shadow Evasion, if that's appropriate. Would ideally like to combo this with wall climbing technique to carry off the last bit perfectly, but as per usual I haven't got a handy combo ready...]

[bravesirrobin]

Kairos' massive blow sprays the green water across the cliffs creating a huge surge, and with a final desperate tug he converts his downwards momentum into forwards motion, almost completely ripping his makeshift steed to pieces as he does so. He surfs the crest of the large wave. His balance is flawless as he slaloms slightly to stay on the crest, riding the curve of the ravine down to the point where the cliff slopes as he causally steps off onto the shore, leaving his now disintegrating surfboard to sink to the bottom of the river. He waits by the river for his companions to join him.

Raiden's quick reflexes allow him to grab the wing tips and bend the bird into a hang glider. His descent is slowed significantly but perhaps not quite enough, the lack of thermals sends him steadily downwards, and as he tries to cut directly over to the meeting point he is dismayed to realise that he may not make it over the edge of the cliff. He bends the wings inwards to pick up speed and flings himself over the edge of the cliff arching like a high jumper, his essence flickers as he seems to glide over the rough edges and starts to twist as he begins to tumble into the rather too sparse canopy. He continues to flash with essence as he bounces back and forth from leaf to bough and back, making irregular, and seemingly painful progress. Finally he arrives at, perhaps the bottom, perhaps simply a thicker canopy layer tangled and distressed, and he stumbles through the forest a brief way to meet up with Kairos.

[Kairos successful 3 dice stunt. Raiden 6 uses of Seven Shadow Evasion (would have been less if you had some more soak), and a successful 2 dice stunt.]

[bravesirrobin]

[To bear in mind for future reference. Both HGD and SSE do state in charm text that they are only valid against attacks. You both stunted this time to allow use against "environmental" effects. This may not work in similar situations in future.

Assume Kairos will take XP for the stunt?]

[cardinalsin]

[Actually I wasn't especially aiming for the meeting point, just anywhere I can get to some decent tree cover to help break my fall... after all I can always walk/climb to the meeting point. Let me know if that affects the result in any way.]

[bravesirrobin]

[Due to cliff heights in various places, heading in that direction was your best bet anyway.]

[Learned Hand]

Feb 5, 2009 11:16:29 GMT bravesirrobin said:

Assume Kairos will take XP for the stunt?]

Hell yeah

[cardinalsin]

Whose action?

[bravesirrobin]

Grey Wolf, doubt anything will happen. we should organise another session.

[greywolf]

Watching as his friends hit the river and emerge unscathed. He turns to Xaph - "Now that minor distraction is over, let us go".

Daiklave in hand Grey Wolf leaps swiftly across the vines to Xaph. "Get on my back, we are going the down the quick way".

With an anima powered slice of his blade, Grey Wolf slices through the vine causing a flash of flame. Suddenly the vine is swing with increasing speed taking Grey Wolf, with Xaph on his back, attached to it while it flies towards the cliff face. Kairos and Raiden look up as Grey Wolf howls with fury moments before the vine hits the wall with a deafening thud, sending waves of dust leaves billowing around the valley.

[Sometimes I like to surprise - In practical terms I activate my Unstoppable Warrior of the Sun combo using it to do enough damage to cut through the vine, and the defensive elements of it to absorb the damage of the vine hitting the cliff wall and making sure Xaph doesn't take any. After this, how far am I from the river?]