Count Numbers

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Curiouser and curiouser. There's no doubt that what he feared is what would have happened - they needed height.

"Honey, venom and a bow." He repeats. Maybe some tools to make a simple hunter's blind with, at least rope for lashing a platform. Ask whoever they take the bow from. "We go together. You lead, and I will follow. If we are swift, we should have what we need within the hour." He's firm on that one. Whatever safety he felt in splitting up disappeared when the badger stayed out of the forest, even while burrowing.

Still...

"It helps that I can think of none swifter."

Caution is not the same as doubt.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

What would I write to reflect Tristan going back for this shopping list: His polearm, some badger-appropriate bait, some poison or venom, and... what, a crossbow for Nin? I'm keeping one eye on the badger's harm output, here. Bumping into Constance I think I have an easier time navigating.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

I'm legitimately happy to not attack it right away. As much as I want to advance action, I do see our position here as being way too disadvantageous right now - I keep glancing between the badger's stats and ours and grimacing. I'd be happy to go and do more prep work in that case, especially if Nin's willing to stay behind.

Also, yeah, that information does help.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan is momentarily flustered by the lack of trees - he's been too focused again. He could have sworn... but no. He had only seen it in his mind's eye. "This is a tunneling creature, and large enough that I suspect it can dig as fast as I can run. I fear it would go under you, not over. Then there would be nothing to stop it from coming beneath me while you hide. And I cannot shoot it while it is underground. It holds all the advantage here." His voice catches in his throat. "I made mistakes in haste."

He's not hiding his frustration - had he learned nothing from his communion, so obvious in hindsight? No, he had learned something. "We should ask Constance about rain, to sodden the soil and draw it out. Find a suitable venom in the meantime, and maybe a barrel of honey to use as bait."

Tristan is about to suggest seeing if he can't fell it in one shot, but the thing is huge. Normal badgers have hides thick enough to soak bee stings. He doesn't like his chances with arrowheads against that hide. "I do not like to leave it, but it is fed for today. This is not a failed hunt, but a successful scouting."

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Chalk it up to Tristan getting lost in his own head. Honestly, it's a very in-character mistake.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

"It would slash a net, and most likely tunnel under a pit trap, or stakes." He thinks about what he would do if the roles were reversed, how he'd press his advantages. "It would come up to attack me. If I start shooting it from a tree branch, it would be vulnerable while it is trying to climb for me, or trying to pull the tree down. That would be our opportunity. As long as it sees me, it will attack. And as long as it comes from below, to avoid my arrows, it will be blind to a trap on the surface."

Fellowship: The Heart

[11: I get away Quickly without Harm, and Quietly without drawing attention]

This isn't the first time this has happened to Lucien. Well, not specifically this. But if you shimmy up enough pipes, eventually one's going to detach from the fifth floor while you're along for the ride. The trick, he repeats now, is to let yourself fall and catch yourself.

Simple physics. You're climbing up, you hold the chain above you and you grip it below you between shin and calf. You flip - your hands are reaching over you. If you hold the chain loosely with your hands and let go with your legs, then your bottom half falls faster than your top half. You flip, and catch the chain with your legs again.

Well. Not exactly the same way. This time he loops it so it coils over his right thigh, catching it with his ankle so he slides down like a zipper. Last time he did this was a long red silk curtain, which had much less of a problem with friction, but that would be more of an issue if he needed to apply more brakes. Right now he's trying to outpace a falling elevator and only slow himself just enough not to break both his legs when he lands.

Now, was the burlesque kick with the other leg strictly necessary? For practical purposes it means he's converted some of his downward motion into horizontal, so he can swing for a landing. The other part of it is muscle memory. Where, exactly, do you think one learns to do flips on long poles and twirl down curtains?

Lucien gets to comparative safety, and he does it fabulously.

When the elevator hits the bottom-top, Lucien bows for the crash of the cymbals.

What fresh hell awaits him now, then? His heart's pounding, and damned if he can't stop smiling.

What a day!

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

"I fear if I shoot it, it might flee where we can not follow." Tristan lets the string back slowly, still watching the badger as the peripheral world swims back into attention. "This is not what I would like it to be. I had hoped we could lead it home, and it would do no further harm. But I think it is offended by our presence here. If we wound it and it flees, it will be in great pain, and it will most likely exact a greater pain in retribution after some time. If we are to be about this ugly business, let it be decisive."

"We need the wind of surprise at our back to carry us. In that I see two options: I attack it with such fury it faces us. Or we trap it, and execute it. The second seems more sensible but... there is less virtue in it." Read: Killing something in a trap would make Tristan sad. "We may be at the limit of what can be gained from stalking. I see no further advantage we could gain, can think of no more favourable terrain to face it in."

The arrow is still nocked and steady, the owner is under more tension than the bow. Tristan will be indecisive until it is time to act. He does not want to be the one to call the hour.

What weighs on his mind is that he does not want Nin to get hurt in a fight, but he does not want to insult Nin by voicing this. He holds Nin in great respect, and would cut out his tongue than risk implying otherwise. It is only fair they get to decide the level of acceptable risk.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan is pretty relieved that he didn't bring his polearm, after all. A long day would have been made longer for it. Now he can take his bow in both hands. He nocks an arrow and takes aim at the badger.

He has no killing intent, and the arrow will not fly. But he has been taught to calm his mind while firing and so stillness comes most naturally to him while he is aiming. The two are as practiced as each other now, and doing one leads most naturally to doing the other. When he draws, everything disappears but for him and the target. The field is gone - he is close enough to reach out and touch it.

[2d6+1=9 - I ask one:
I think the most useful question to ask here is:
What would this thing make the world into, if it only could?]

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan agrees with Nin's case and defers to their expertise and judgement. However we find the thing, now, will be done without dissent.

I'll also leave it up to Nin's judgement whether Tristan takes his polearm or not: It's big, cumbersome, and it shouldn't be needed for an exploratory mission. He'll have his much lighter knife and bow either way. It's Nin's decision on whether they are planning for a fight, or planning to avoid it.