Scene 1- The Mindbender's Hut

There is a resounding crash of trees falling and a large form comes bounding out of the trees. Its body is that of a large tawny lion, its fur gleams as it the sunlight hits it. Its golden mane full and majestic. On its shoulders sit two more heads. One is a viscious black dragon. Its thickly scaled neck cranes high and green fumes slip from its nostrilfs on the end of its snout, hunting at the poison breath it could unleash. The other head is a giant black ram. Its alien red eyes glare witeh rage and malice, the heavy horns on its head promise a crushing end to anything that opposes its will. Two large black leathery wings lay folded against the beasts back. The fur on the lion's back parts just at the home quarters and turns into green scales. Where its tail should be is a huge green and black viper...the one from your vision!

Once more the creature bellows a call for battle. The cry of the the three discordant beasts is nearly deafening.

Diginus reaches out to the Storm Lords. "Hear my call, Sons of the Tempest. It is I, Diginus, chosen of Vrexoeis. Aid me!"

The portal opens and a being of roiling wind and forked lightning appears. It salutes Diginus with its lightning bolt sword and turns towards the incoming chimera.

It occurs to Diginus that the best way for him to contribute to this battle is to distract the chimera while his elemental ally attacks it. He teleports to the chimera's left, then to its right, now in front, now off to the side again, jumping around quickly to confound the monster as the storm elemental charges in with a rush of wind and a peal of thunder.

As soon as Dignius starts distracting the chimera, Fenwick realized that his first plan, to distract the creature by attracting the first attack, seems to be unnecessary. His instinct is to find somewhere under cover from which he can assault the creature's unprotected rear and side. His little eyes spot the knocked over trees, perfect for a little creature to lurk in. He darts out of the cottage toward the Recently Fallen Trees, hoping to find a great spot to hide in the brush from which he launch his attacks.

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I'm going to use a stunt to compel an aspect, and hope for an outrageous advantage to a later sneak attack.

Diginus lets out a little squeak as two of the beats's monstrous maws lunge for him. He tries to teleport out of the way but as he reappears the monster's other two heads strike as well, and Diginus desperately drops to the ground behind a fallen tree.

Trying his best to time his attack with the enraged beasts own movements, Fenwick waits for an opening when the four (FOUR!) heads are lunging at Dignius. As the heads teeth flash in the sunlight, he quells his sudden alarm for Dignius' safety and focuses his inner fire. He concentrates and uses his force magic to fling a thick broken-ended tree limb from the tumble of fallen trees into the unprotected flank of the Chimera in a hopefully tender area.

Diginus flashes out of existence just in time to avoid the gnashing teeth of the lion and dragon heads. The goat and snake are even slower to react when Diginus appears in range. When Diginus disappears the second time he reappears among some of the fallen branches nearby. Chimera looks around confused and disoriented. As if seeing the storm elemental for the first time Chimera pulls back defensively but prepares to spring at it when suddenly a large limb strikes out at. The person responsible is unseen, the little faun knows how to hide.

((Jabes...your defenses both beat the attacks by three or more so you get a boost for the next round for succeeding with style. This is a +2 bonus per sucess, but only on your next action (a very temporary aspect)...we'll call it "Diginus in the leaves" or something like that...so your next attack gets a +4 against Chimera. Normally the boost only against the attacker that failed to hit you, so it would be a +2 against one person, but this is a special situation.))

Chimera prepares to lunge at the elemental, but the wound it received from Fenwick's attack is more severe than it first realized. The broken branch tore through the thick lions hide making up the hind quarters of the beast. The branch has snapped off leaving a large shard of wood in Chimera's hindquarter. Chimera tries to leap into the attack but the sudden jolt of pain makes it falter.

(So Chimera has 2 armor against physical damage. That reduces the stress to four...still enough to stress it out so I will assign that damage to the moderate consequence box. A good solid hit. Chimera is not happy about this))

Seeing Diginus hard pressed, the storm elemental steps in and slashes at the chimera with its lightning bolt sword. Sparks fly overhead and thunder rolls outward into the distance. High winds spiral around the yard, whipping leaves and twigs and other small debris.

The beast barely has time to react! It's attention had been in the little metal automaton, the elemental's attack catches it off guard.

((So, that is a +5 vs. -2 , a difference of 7 stress for Chimera. And because this attack is elemental energy, no armor to reduce it. I'm going to apply this to the Severe Consequence as "Electrical Burns" that will stick around for some time. If you face Chimera again you will be able to invoke that as an aspect against it. So it takes one Physical stress to its stress track))

There is a peel of thunder and smoke and the smell of seared flesh fills the air. Chimera's multiple heads roar and bleat in pain. The beast scrambles and claws itself away from the elemental. It shudders and howlls again and the snake tail tears itself away from the beast and it slithers into the underbrush. The brief glimpse you get of it tells you it is the same snake from your shared vision. That serpent is likely fleeing to tell its master what it has found. The three headed beast that was being possessed by the snake makes a final ineffectual swipe at the elemental then takes flight. The familiars find themselves standing outside the hut in an eerily quiet forest, but slowly the sounds of life return.

Fenwick waits for a few moments, then sneaks out of the brush. Alarmed at being so close to the sudden violence and the danger that represents, he watches furtively for the snake to return, but creeps his way toward Dignius. He looks him over a couple of times suspiciously, and then grins and pulls out his pipes.

The faun dances and cavorts his way back into the hut to check on the old woman.

The elemental salutes, and with a rush of wind and a final flash of lightning, departs for its home plane, leaving only the scent of petrichor. Diginus sensrs residual ward energies around the hut and wonders if he can use them to remake the defenses, but decides it might be better for all of them to leave this place. He turns and follows the music of Fenwick's pipes.