fellsing

A Most Dangerous Game (2014 5e D&D)

Annie tilted her head at Eleanor's response. 'Kind'? Huh. That was the first time anyone had described her as that... and why was she apologizing? "I mean, this situation isn't all that bad," she said brightly. "Everyone's polite... enough." She added the last bit when she remembered that blood-drinking man's atrocious manners, grimacing a little before moving on. "We all got a nice meal, slept in proper beds, nobody's thrown us into a lake with anchor tied to us, or locked us in a metal chest, or threatened to feed us to a kraken..." She counted each of these reasons off her fingers, each with same casual, cheery tone.

A Most Dangerous Game (2014 5e D&D)

The rest of evening went quite well. In fact, Annie would even go so far as to say it was one of the better evenings of her life. She ate more than she had ever eaten in one sitting - to the point she felt uncomfortably full by the end of it - and the company she was with, while unfamiliar, was pleasant. Granted, none of them really engaged with her, but they didn't threaten her, or make nasty remarks, or whack her upside the head for no particular reason, so they were already miles ahead of her two aunts.

That being said, as dinner came to an end, and everyone went their separate ways, Annie felt herself feeling a little... odd. She couldn't quite describe it, but as she returned to her room, she felt a peculiar feeling within herself as she took in her surroundings. The room was still the nicest room she'd ever stayed in, but the more she looked at it, the more she found herself thinking about her old, muddy mattress back at home. That made her think of her aunts, and while she was still very upset with them for their deceit, she couldn't help but wonder...

... did they miss her?

Better question, did she miss them? She was certainly feeling their absence right now. Surely they must be feeling the same way about her, in their own way. Because without her, who would they shout at? Who would they laugh at, or threaten, or make scathing remarks to? Well, she supposed they could do that to each other, but it wasn't the same. Surely, they were angry she'd ran off on her own and were making plans to locate her... but what if they weren't?

What if they decided they were better off with just each other? Maybe they'd find another hag to complete coven, or worse, find another girl to raise and take her place among them. That latter thought made her her stomach hurt...

Ow. Yeah, her stomach was actually really hurting right now. In fact, she felt kind of sick. Was this that thing she'd heard of? 'Homesickness'?

... no, wait. It was actually just regular sickness.

Annie quickly put her hands over her mouth and rushed out of her room in search of the nearest bathroom.

---

After an uncomfortably long time in the bathroom, Annie found herself able to sleep the night away quite easily. She technically didn't need to sleep, but sometimes she liked to. It felt comforting, reminding of her when she was younger, before her aunts' magic had fully taken hold of her and made her what she was now. Not that didn't like how she was now. Being able to breath underwater had made things a lot easier for her, and her looking the way she did made her stick out less in the Feywild. She supposed she would stick out a lot more once she got the Material Plane.

She found herself thinking a lot about the Material Plane when she got ready in the morning. She probably should locate one of Mortimer's cohorts, ask them if she could be sent to the Material Plane if she won the game. She probably should have done that last night but she'd been, uh, a little preoccupied, to say the least. Her stomach still felt off. It wasn't hurting anymore but it was... squishy. She'd have to restrain herself when having breakfast.

After preparing, she heads to the thicket that Mortimer had told them to arrive at, and she finds she's not the first to arrive. That wild-looking human woman who had returned her smile was there first, though she hadn't tried to engage Mortimer in conversation yet. Realising she should probably introduce herself, she approached her.

"Good morning!" Annie said as cheerfully as she could manage. She put out a webbed hand to the woman. "We didn't really get a chance to talk last night. I'm Anenome! But, err, I know that can be hard to say, but you can just call me Annie!"

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Well I guess we kind of have an owlbear friend. I was not expecting her to fetch Jub though.

@Lurking Krog

Nor was I! I expect Jub's life flashed before his eyes for a second there.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Also: have cozy moment of Jub re-summoning his familiar. Imagine this is all happening in the background while you guys are doing... whatever this is.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Jub the Peculiar

It seemed Jub's attempts at heckling went unnoticed. He crossed his arms and began to sulk... until he remembered something. For once, they didn't seem to be hurrying anywhere in particular, so Jub took out the components for Find Familiar that Aaliyah girl had given him earlier.

While he normally would summon Eighteyes in her preferred spider form, he realised it probably would be far more helpful to have a creature that could fly. After all, they'd seemed to have lost that fairy from earlier and his charm had limited uses.

He settled down as he watched charcoal, incense and herbs burn away in the brazier before finally, from the resulting smoke, something began to form. It at first resembled a falling dead leaf in the breeze but started to spread out, forming into a purplish-brown bat. It hovered in the air for a moment, blinking at Jub incredulously. In this form, she had only two eyes, though there were six spots around her face where her extra eyes might have been. Jub opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the thing fluttered forward and landed on his face, its wings gripping onto his nose. He was entirely sure if this was an attack or a hug, but he didn't seem to mind regardless. Eventually, he was able to pry her off and settling him to his hands.

"Did you miss me?" he asked.

The bat stared up at him. To anyone else, its expression would be unreadable, but Jub could understand the intent.

"Yeeeeeeah, sorry it took so long," he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He glanced behind him at the rest of the party, still squabbling over the owlbear. "We ran into some... complications."

Eighteyes followed his stare, gave a little squeak before pushing off his palm and back in there. She fluttered in front of him before roosting upside down on her customary perch: the goblin's right ear.

"Oof okay," Jub said, wincing slightly. "That's not as comfortable as when you're a spider, but I'll deal."

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

I love how completely one-sided this rivalry is. Voth gives zero fucks and I'm here for it.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Actually, something's just occurred to me...

@Guardian Angel Haruki May Jub use this time while all this is going on to summon his Familiar? He misses Eighteyes.

Plus I've been planning on bringing her back as a bat so she can be used for aerial surveillance. Might be useful now we're in a new area.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

There is unfortunately no 'Hinder' action in DnD, but rest assured, if there was, Jub would be using it against Voth right now. Instead, he will settle for insulting him.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Jub the Peculiar

Jub felt his exhaustion lifted slightly and replaced with amusement as he watched this little 'competition' between Aurora and Brutrumukk for the owlbear's attention. Under normal circumstances, he might have come to Brutrumukk's aid as he tried to get the owlbear to move... but it seemed his new 'guide' was already doing that for him, and thus Jub did not feel inclined.

In fact, he almost felt like doing exactly the opposite.

"It's not a dog, you twit," Jub said as Voth tried get the owlbear to fetch after a stick he had thrown.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Jub wishes he had popcorn to watch this battle of wills with. Alas.