Jerkchicken

Good Night Plushies

Cool! I'll work making a character.

The Five Senses

Jen did not take to the being's intrusion too well. The sudden sensation of the touch on his shoulder literally came out of nowhere and with it, his attention shifted. "And I suppose you're going to give me some better ideas?" He said through gritted teeth. It was a definitely not a subject he wanted to think about in any capacity especially with how recent that deal with the sightless was. Perhaps there was a better way, but he couldn't figure it out and he was doubtful he'd get anything straightforward from this entity.

Much to Jen's total lack of surprise, he was only left to stew with his guilt under the less-than-ideal conditions for this bargain. Time resumed and then Jen felt a sudden pain, on the same shoulder no less! He felt a moisture, but it burned like lemon or chiles on a cut. It was disorienting too as Jen felt a lingering sensation of that touch on his shoulder than then transitioned into pain. As if this was an early punishment for his future transgression.

He found himself having to fight to keep his breathing smooth from the sudden spike of pain. Of course, what was really discomforting was moving the afflicted arm around on that point of movement. Shit what was he going to do? Of course, then was there also the ton of tentacles aiming to skewer the already hobbled Chres. He didn't know how much he could contribute in this state, or if moving the arm around would exacerbate the injury, but in this moment it didn't matter. He needed to keep this guy alive, and besides it was the final stretch of the battle. Either they die in the fight or get some rest time afterwards.

Chres was out shouting at Karina to make the attack. Given the Seed/Sightless' tunnel visioned focus Chress, it made sense to strike. Karina would manifest an icy spear and charge the final heart. Fortunately for everyone except the seed, it would strike true. That was the final heart for the seed, right? Jen grimaced; he was hoping such damage would affect the Sightless. He could see that browning on its body, but it seemed it had enough energy for another massive attack. He failed to react in time and like everyone else was ensnared. He could feel the coils tighten around him as they started to crush him and everyone else.

This was not good, what the hell was there to do. He needed to find some way to break free, but how? That familiar sensation came again as time would distort and freeze around the scene of the sightless crushing them. The being appeared, and began lecturing the sightless? He could see the brown discoloration spreading over the body over a short span of time with each stop and start of time. The tendrils' grip would loosen, and Jen didn't hesitate to break free. The sightless would collapse on his side as his spine cracked like a tree that had collapsed on itself. All there was left was a sliver of flesh connecting the halves, it wouldn't take too much effort to sever it into a stump. "CUT AND SALT THAT SUCKER BEFORE IT REGENERATES!" He'd wheeze out hoarsely. He was coughing while stumbling to gain his breath.

Ferris would come and save the day as he jumped into the ruined cellar and cut and salted the now stump. Jen smiled in relief as he plopped down onto his ass. "Good job..." He would watch everyone else interact with the being as looked the dark metal that glimmered that constituted the corpse of the sightless. Try as he might to pay attention to the metaphysics being explained about the metal and the sightless needing to root themselves in reality, it felt like it was going from one ear and out the other. Furthermore, it seemed this entity that insisted he was not a god, seemed to be irritating everyone else. Of course, such aggressive smarm wasn't the most welcome thing to face after going through this exhausting battle.

"Right, so you're saying you're some rando trapped on our world. That just happens to have a bunch of nifty abilities we don't have, and you seem to inhabit some other reality we can't perceive. And I guess there's more of whatever the hell you are beyond this world. You say you're not a god, but it seems some sort of faith sustains you. Since it could be argued that without some sort of faith in the offer, none of us would have done so right? I guess we could call you an unwilling demi-god or demi-bud rather. I know you don't want it, but would some offerings and prayers might improve your condition or is it going to take a lot more to recover from this shattering business." Jen said while lying on the floor.

Good Night Bears ~ The Interest Check

I'm still interested in this, I just been sick and I forgot to check up on this. TBH I don't really care that much about being in a discord server, so I'm fine with the OOC.

Good Night Bears ~ The Interest Check

Got my interest

The Five Senses

Jen kept fighting off whatever tentacles came to the group. But as for the way the forward, that was beyond him momentarily. It was true that they couldn't hold off forever, at least not without that has yet to reveal itself. One needn't be too impatient as an opportunity could reveal itself, but it was definitely hard with all the damn flailing from The Seed. Octavio would announce his plan and Jen could really do is watch and see what's next. The tentacles' flailing seemingly ignored them until it didn't. It seemed the illusions weren't so immaterial after all and soon The Seed's focus changed with a scream. The constructs would be targeted which eased some of the pressure.

However, it was Chres' throwing of the salt which would allow them the real opportunity to strike back. Týfurkh and Chres would rush the Lord's skull and force it open revealing yet another heart. Both would be telling everyone else to come attack the weakspot. "Alright then." Jen would say as he eyed the monstrosity. He took a deep breath as he focused on applying salt himself yet again on the end of the staff. He was aware that time was of the essence, but he was acting on a hunch that perhaps another blow with salt to the seed might keep it weakened for a little bit longer.

Jen would hold the staff like a spear. The spit and salt crusted end would be its ignoble spearhead. Jen rushed forward to the skull and would deftly stab at the seed. The force behind the stab was sufficient that any resistance the heart's flesh had against the blunt end was fleeting. Jen felt the staff piercing through the heart and when it was sufficiently skewered, he'd rip the heart out. Which would produce the most disgusting anticucho.

The Five Senses

It seems that even with the sightless having merged himself with the seed, did not have that have as much control as he expected. Jen's strike succeeded in pinning that tendril down. Oh, sure it writhed, albeit wanly, but to Jen's perspective it wasn't a whole lot of resistance coming from it. Then again Seed/Sightless focus were on Chres and Týfurkh. The monster's scream echoed through the cellar as tofurky's shot skewered one of its hearts. Jen leapt away reactively as in its fury, all the tendrils focused on retaliating against Chres and Týfurkh He saw how the larger, thicker one grasped at the ceiling and pulled, collapsing part of the floor above. His nose itched a little as the splinters and the dust filled the cellar.

Of course, there was no time to gawk. He felt the urgency to act once he saw them getting smacked by the tentacles. "Are you guys alright?" He'd say as the positioned himself in front of them. His staff would twirl around as he focused on swatting the tendrils from them. "Hey Karry help me out here! Let's give these two some breathing room." He'd shout to Karina. It then occurred to him that not only did they need to get hearts taken care of, but also the salt! That entity told them that part of killing the seed was not only removing the hearts, but also salting the area that contained them. This was easier said than done, and he had no clue on their strategy with how to proceed. Do they salt the wound next or should they focus on getting another heart destroyed?

The Five Senses

And with that, it was over. The group had managed to overcome the sightless and overwhelm him. Sightless Talne was felled and with it they had done the incredible. They had fought and won against one of the hardest foes they would encounter in this cult. Truthfully just eliminating of them felt like a grand victory of sorts, but they were not finished yet. This was but a detour from their true objective, which was to destroy the seed, and with that its hold on the people they had controlled with their insight.

The descent downwards into the cellar greeted them with a foul odor of rotting flesh. It was a charnal house with rotting half eaten corpses strewn around this monstrosity. In the center was what appeared to Jen, a morbid, and grotesque imitation of a seedling sprouting in the basement. Nieffar would appear and reveal the truth of what this thing was. It was Lord O'Kal who had been given enough insight to become this freaky tree-monster. It made Jen's hair raise as he understood the type of fate that would befall Anís should he fail to get her in time, and also what he'd have to do with Chres when the time came.

Nieffar would then merge with the seed, which somehow didn't surprise him. Which was probably because he was expecting some sort of complication to their task of killing the seed. The fleshy tendrils would fly at everyone, and Jen responded with a lean so low the tendrils passed over him. Týfurkh would come up with a plan of attack using fire which Jen would along with. As soon he yelled "Cover!" Fiery splinters would light up the cellar as Jen to whatever would act as cover. The seed would roar in pain as the wood skewered its foul tendrils spilling its foul blood everywhere.

Chres would yell that they had an opening, and that Týfurkh needed to get a move on. One of the tendrils seemed rather low-lying and ready to be attacked. Jen would swiftly go to it, his staff would swing down on it. His swing would be endowed with sufficient strength to keep it pinned hopefully. Should it be pinned, it would mean the others could destroy one of the hearts.

The Five Senses

It was a couple of nerve-wracking minutes watching Týfurkh being escorted into the repurposed inn. The ruse being discovered prematurely worried him as not only would an ally be killed, but then they would have lost their element of surprise and be forced to fight a horde of cultists. Not only that, but there was at least one Sightless that they had spotted, and likely a handful more. He could feel his nervous energy running through him like electricity as they stood there. Jen would try and steel himself as he took breaths to calm down and stood there quietly waiting. Nothing else could be done, they had selected their plan and now they needed to see if it would work. All he could is wait and take advantage of this pause to rest some more.

Eventually the fake mob rallied a real one, and the soldier with the signal appeared. It was time to strike! "Agreed. Now do we beeline it to the basement or should one of us try and help find Týfurkh's gear? I can't imagine it's going to be conveniently placed for him to retrieve it." He said as he took to their rear, letting Chres and Karina act as the vanguard.

I've discovered Deadlands

I forgot for clarification it just savage worlds itself. The deadlands products at the time would have been noir I think and reloaded. The new version is years later from when I last played. But like reloaded is just savage worlds with deadlands specific edges and hindrances.

As for bennies I'd say it probably was just GM not nearly being as loose with bennies earning especially when it came to fights with wildcard enemies. Despite savage worlds being fast in combat, it definitely drags when you're not able to land a decent blow and are either whiffing or doing chip damage because you're out of bennies to empower your action or you're holding onto the last one in case you do take too much damage on a good hit.

Maybe there's some changes to the combat in the newer edition tightens up the combat in that regard. I don't know I haven't read up on the changes from like the Explorer's edition deluxe to adventurer.

I've discovered Deadlands

I'd say maybe lean into savage worlds, if only because OG deadlands is a product of its time, being influenced by white wolf games whichs means there's most likely gonna be some wonky math and it's going to be overly precious over its metaplot and NPCS tied to it. Plus, game design trends have like evolved over the years so there's gonna be stuff that's just kinda outmoded.

Not to say savage world is perfect, as it has its flaws and quirks. I don't if they resolved in like whatever edition they're currently using, but it involves combat, damage, and benny flow. Savage worlds has a pronounced death spiral, every time you get wounded you acquire more and more penalties to rolls and depending on how bad the hit is you can gain multiple in one go.

On one hand high level antagonists in a fight can be annoying to fight as they will either evade your hit or tank damage. So you can have rounds that are like whiff-fests or just chipping away at the enemy and slowly stacking those penalties until the fights easier and or via bennies or natural luck a player gets that one good hit that turns the table.

And when you do that it's pretty gratifying to finally crack that tough shell and lay into them. And it makes sense in terms of being a way to model exhaustion and getting too tired/hurt to keep fighting well. Which works for settings where the characters aren't like superheroes or it's like an action movie where the protags should be mowing through dudes until they meet the antagonist or one of the heavies.

But on the receiving end it can be painful and frustrating if you're the guy who's blessed by poor luck. Especially when fighting like a boss or mid-boss type as their numbers will be high enough that if you take even a moderately bad hit in the beginning not only are you that much closer to getting ko'd, it's only going to be more difficult to participate as you'll get worse on defense and offense. And also each penalty makes it that much easier to get a crit since it's based on reaching a certain difference between the two rolls.

Bennies besides letting you influence the story with them as a player have a bunch of combat utility to them. The pertinent ones being rerolls, negating wounds, and breaking the shaken status. They keep combat manageable, but the issue is GMs being stingy and running out. Cuz while you have like certain guidelines of what would earn a benny, ultimately it falls to the GM. And going without them for a bit can feel bad, as it just turns into a slog. Also the GM gets their own bennies, and it's fun to do Yu-gi-oh reverse trap card stuff with being spent to counter each other. So keep them flowing and you should be fine.

I haven't played OG Deadlands and it's been while since I read the rules so like I don't remember how durable characters feel there. Also, my experience was with explorer's edition and I got no clue what's the current version being used for the game line. So maybe the characters are a little less brittle when benniless in combat.