Day 2 | Morning | Something Wicked This Way Comes

[Kannon]

[Player Pool: 3/1; GM Pool; 3/1]

It looked like the woman, despite her grave wound, would run away. There was this last ever so slim chance that she still might be stopped the violent way. But across the many layers of thicket it was an impossible shot for even the best of hunters, now was it?

[If Lydia would eventually take the shot, the difficulty at Extreme is staring from Daunting, all Challenge, with two Setback. One upgrade from the contrafictory statement means Formidable with four Red and one Purple. 1 more Setback from Threat Pool. If the shot hits I am adding a Despair from the Pool to force an identity crisis the reason of which will be clear enough once the body is found as either the ruthless or the compassionate side of Lydia should give. Lydia may use Pool advantage and spend both Manoeuvres on Aim.]

Instead, Lydia darted, quickly showing that the jungle was her environment as much as the other woman's.

[Lydia moves at 1.5 (Outdoorsman) is at 3 to the target]

The woman did not heed the warning, fleeing from her tormentors! [Move 2 Bands] But leaving a trail of blood behind...

[Lydia is at 5, the rest is at 5.5. If those exceeding range don't catch up this round, they are out of the chase.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Trying to ignore the pain in his legs, Ambrose rose to take chase again, but immediately fell back down. He was losing sight of even the traces of the fleeing spy.

The wind having left his sails, he gave up on the prospect of catching up to them and shouted out, "Keep running and bleed out, or stop, we'll stop shooting, and I'll even patch you up... On my honor as an Atreides soldier! It's better than what your cartel friends will offer."

-----
Statements: "Excess brings success", "Salvation through duty", and "Keep calm and trust your training" (Contradicting)
D2, Morning, Something Wicked, Chase #3, Resilience: 2eP+1eA+2eC+1eS 0 successes

[Bernard Martikova]

Getting back up, he quickly moved back to pace and rushed to get back to where he was before. Dodging branches, logs, and other various obstacles.

"Don't kill the target, Lydia; she may be a Muadh!"
~~
Day 2 | Morning | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Athletics | Invoking Brawn Statement

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: -3
I'll just eat the threats as strain, maybe going thru some briar or something similar. Gonna bank that triumph.

[Kannon]

[Ambrose is out of the race, Bernard is at 4.5]
[Player Pool: 3/2, GM Pool: 3/1]

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler had little chance of catching up.

- - -
Day 2 | Morning | Something Wicked This Way Comes, Round 3, Average Survival (Cunning), Explorer's Knife: 3eA+1eB+1eD+1eC+1eS 0 successes

[Kannon]

[Cuyler's out too. Lydia!]

"Atreides my ass! You are violent goons!" A shout of pain by a definitely female voice replied.

[Lydia Storm]

Lydia heard the cry from one of the others to catch and with a small angry shout took off. She may not know this jungle, but she knew how to outmanuever anyone, and using a shortcut only an expert would know she had caught the girl. Jumping out through the bushes out of nowhere having moved through a gap in the trees to cut off her path.

"Last chance to stand down and I damn well mean it!"

(ooc: Day 2 | Morning | Something Wicked chase survival. Crafty not evil statement. Average with 1 upgrade, setbacks countered by abilities. Boost from knife: 3eP+1eB+1eD+1eC 1 success, 1 threat, 1 Triumph


using both triumph and 3 adv, plus the triumph above, plus outdoorsman, plus success to move 5 bands

[Kannon]

[Success: 1.5 Band, 3 Triumphs 1 Band each = 4.5 Band, within 0.5 Band from target. Chase over.]

It certainly helped Lydia's words that she emerged from the top of the outcropping overlooking a small clearing the woman they had been chasing had just entered. The argument of force spoke louder than the force of the argument.

The woman would look like this if she was smiling and not bleeding profusely from her arm.

image1_0.jpg (148.68 KiB) Viewed 1572 times

Instead, she looked up at Lydia with pure hatred, clenching a simple knife in her off-hand shakily. There was defiance and desperation in her demeanour when she seethed back.

"Come on, shoot me, you murderer. You'd better. I am now memorising your face and if I ever get back to Kaitain I'll make sure you'll pay for this." Her Galach was as Imperial as one can get.

[Lydia Storm]

"If I wanted to kill you I would have killed you already. Now sit down, I won't harm you again unless you try to run or try to attack."

Lydia made sure to position herself so that the other girl couldn't escape.

"I assume one of the others can deal with your wounds, but as they can't jump over a log nor even walk through a bush I don't have high hopes."

[Kannon]

She fell back against the nearby tree, already pale from the blood loss, her left hand shaking but not releasing the knife.

"I won't let you brutes take me."

[Also, everyone gets 5 XP for the Chase.]

[Bernard Martikova]

"We're not brutes, we're Atreides, ma'am." He looked around and wiped off some of the mud on him. "We're not foolish enough to kill a Imperial in cold blood. We are, however, overly cautious in a dangerous situation so as to not risk ourselves being overrun by Cartel agents." He was tempted to also chime in about the fact that she should have announced her presence when she saw who they were, but correcting the actions of a Imperial hardly ever went well. He looked around and nodded to the others. "Will it make you feel better if we lower our weapons so we can get close and get your wound treated?"

[Kannon]

"So you say." She shuddered when more people entered the clearing, obviously fear and resolve fighting within. "And I have this wound as a powerful reason to disbelieve your every word. You can well be some mercs in criminal employ, just dressed up. Start behaving like Imperial citizens if you are who you claim you are!" Her knife was pointing at Lydia.

[Charm Roll or Social equivalent at Daunting with a Challenge, Setback from the Pool.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

The attempt to keep pace with Lydia had been a practice in futility. After shooting her shot, she'd taken off through the trees like an apex predator. Eventually though, now that the chase had been brought to an abrupt end, he caught up.

Seeing that their target was losing blood at an alarming rate, he pulled out his medpac out of his kit while musing, "Just because she says she's Imperial doesn't make it so."

He turned to address the woman waving a knife at a gun, "Are you going to let me bandage that up or bleed out on the jungle floor and we'll settle who you really are later? Or we could just toss your body down to the manta birds like all the others you and yours friends have discarded. It's the very least you cartel scum deserve."

-----
Assist Bernard to convince her of our validity.

[Lydia Storm]

"I would suggest letting them tend to your wounds if you want to argue your case about who is or isn't a citizen harder" Lydia offered with a shrug.

[Kannon]

"Goading me with ridiculous accusations doesn't help your case. It's some cruel joke that a band armed with rifles and shields accuses me of anything. I had every reason to avoid you. This woman has shot me to kill, and I have a bullet in my arm. Without a surgery my chances are slim, bandage or not, and if you're a true medic you know it. Go on, do your triage. But if you try something funny like drugging me I guess I'll have enough time to put this knife into your neck."

[She's 11/13]

[Bernard Martikova]

"Storm, stop helping." Bern says with a rather stern voice. "Ma'am, I'm Sgt Martikova, we're with House Atredies, although I'm not in a formal uniform to put you at ease or have the means to verify this information with you on me at this moment due to the circumstances of my deployment out here. You're more than welcome to do just that information you can once you are able to, and I accept full responsibility for Storm attacking you. Despite the circumstance, even with sound logic behind it, nobody likes getting shot. If you wish to pursue this later, I'm not high enough on the ladder to stop you and I'll accept what's coming to me. Storm was in my unit; it's the burden of command and something I have to accept."

He'll look back to them and sigh deeply. Already this was going so well for his family... "So, I won't ask you to trust me at this moment; I want you to trust yourself. You're wounded and in this jungle this is not the place to be like that. You're alone, you're surrounded by unknowns, and we're offering to help you despite being the ones who put you like this. So, whatever assurances you need to let you understand we don't want you to die I'm willing to accommodate. Not just because you're a Imperial and this would be bad for the House if word gets out, but because you're a innocent in all this and I don't want to let that hang on my conscious that I couldn't stop you from running out into those woods and into your death. So, please let us help you, ma'am. You can decide where you go afterwards, but you can't leave like that."

He looked at her firmly and with a nod. "Just tell me what you need from us so we can get to that gunshot wound."

~~
Day 2 | Morning | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Leadership | Invoking Presence Statement | Boost from Assist

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: -1

[Kannon]

There was a moment of heavy silence, then the woman let out a painful sigh of resignation and dropped the hand holding the knife. She wouldn't have strength to hold it up high for longer anyway. She wouldn't protest if the medic tried to treat her.

"I have no choice but to pretend I believe you, do I? There hasn't been an Atreides patrol in the area ever since we started our work here so the sight of someone else with a weapon than a thug is not exactly something I've got used to. What has changed?"

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Working on the wound calmed him, going through the motions he'd trained time and time again brought a sense of familiarity that let the adrenaline bleed off.

"Just because you believe us doesn't mean we believe you. We've seen the cartel do worse than get a pretty face to fool the locals. And who's ""we""?"

-----
Statement: "Keep calm and trust your training"
D2, Morning, Something Wicked, Medicine, Surgeon x2: 3eP+2eD 2 successes, 2 advantage


D2, Morning, Something Wicked, Boost from Bernard for Medicine: 1eB 1 success

5 wounds healed
I'll heal 2 of my strain with adv
Edited to add boost from Bernard

[Bernard Martikova]

He looked over at Ambrose and sighed. "What Pantazis meant to say was we're not at liberty to discuss our orders at the moment. Any important mission details would require that you speak to the mission's leader, Captain Lanville. We can arrange a introduction from this when we are finished, if you would like."

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler arrived quietly, watching the others interrogate the woman.