Episode 1

Bear
TR4

Securing a strong grip on Qiu, the bear man closes in and crushes the Alijanian close to him.

In the clutches of the bear hug, Qiu still hangs onto his grip to the un-masked goat man. In the heat of the grappling, Qiu notices a strange and disgusting wound on the top of the man's back. Right at the crest of the spine, before the transition to the neck, a spiny barb sticks out from the man's flesh, a protrusion like a sharp rugged bone.

Just then Qiu feels a thrust of force. He sees the landscape fly by at great speed and feels his feet leave the ground. It is not like a jump, more like a launching slide, backwards. It is so fast he feels his stomach sink and his head leans forward. Qiu tries to maintain his hold on the ex-goat as he is thrust away backwards in the grip of the bear. Goat seems to be trying to pull away just at the same time.

Requirement to oppose STR Athletics or be ripped from hold on Goat.

Result: 12. PC must win in opposing check to maintain Grapple on ex-goat opponent.

The sudden movement stops just as soon as it began. Qiu feels a splash of water. He has crashed to a new position in shin deep water. He soon sees that he has been forcibly moved north west, into the water near the house. The deck of the hut is now further away and he is closer to the part that overlooks the water. The bear man still holds tight to him.

Bear jerks Qiu around violently, thrusting him outward towards the deeper water of the lake. The water splashes up in the air as Qiu's legs spin through.

Qiu looks forward and sees 3 alligators swimming towards him.

Bear
TR4 (cont'd)

Qiu maintains the hold on Goat. The Goat man is pulled along on the unreal positional shift with Bear and Qiu.

Now Bear holds Qiu, and Qiu holds Goat, in the shallows of the lake, alligators approaching fast.

Wrapping Up Top of Round 4

Phantom
TR4 (cont'd)

The phantom avoids Ivor's quick upward stab with the trident and glides up to the top of the house.
[note="jabes.plays.rpg"]Ivor notices the phantom slip just a little when he lands on the roof, faltering slightly and his hand moving to guard his hip. Ivor can tell he is injured.

Attention back to the closest threat: Beak-face.

[note="Ezeriah,Oxbox"]Talius and Kray see (Kray more out of periphery vision than direct focus in all likelihood, but Talius must have seen it pretty clearly I think) Bear, Qiu, and Goat all launch backwards. The movement is unnatural, like they are being pulled. There is a huge splash of water as the big tangle of bodies blasts into the edge of the lake. Now they are all about 40' away.

Shocking, but cannot focus on that for long. Raging bull is standing over Kray with his heavy axe raised overhead.

[note="Xorthan"]After picking up his axe, Thorn hears a noise. Someone or something moving through the bush. The sound is to the south, in the lower ground of a thick draw near the tapering point of the water inlet.

Thorn freezes and peers through the thick growth of vegetation as best as he can.

A glimpse of movement? He thinks so but, cannot be sure from here.

[note="DMJ"]Thorn listens for a moment, breathing slowly and quietly, straining to hear whether the creature is moving toward or away from the water, it's current speed, and how large it is based on the noise it's creating.

Ivor
BR4

Bird opposing Shove, STR Athletics Comparison.

Result: Opponent surpasses 15. Opponent is not Shoved.

BR4
Qiu sinks his weight down and then abruptly jumps up and into the Bear, straining hard to break the Bear's hold.

[note="Xorthan"]
Sound is coming from the trees, not the water. A quiet sound, of something soft stepping, not something lumbering through the woods shaking the bushes all over the place. There is movement, then it stops. (that is all I think you can get as far as trying to size it)

Something is in that low draw. There is a big dead grey hardwood tree with broad branches in the middle of the overgrown area.
It reaches high above the brush and scrub trees, but the base of it mostly covered by them.

About 50 feet away now.

Qiu
BR4

The unmasked goat man with the strangely chattering teeth tries to steady himself and shift to his knees, but struggles to do so. He is still held by Qiu and his face is bobbing in and out of the water as he tries to stabilize himself and get a better position.

Bear hugs in with great strength as Qiu pushes towards him and upward to break his grasp.

Result: 18. Qiu breaks free from Grappled condition.

Qiu's force upward gives him just enough room to twist his body, wedge his arm against the bear's, and slip out. As Qiu escapes, he slides around behind the bear, for the moment still holding goat with one hand and his shield in another.

Kray
BR4

Kray's falcata slices deep into the bull man's right leg, just above the knee. The blade slides through the muscle and then continues past.

The Yatagan slides under the bull's left arm, diving into his upper torso likely a foot, well into the central cavity, before stopping abruptly as it catches against the interior spine or a rib. Blood gushes from the wound, but Kray is sure now that the blood is not quite the color and texture of a man's. It is more . . . diluted. Thinner, and a paler color.

The bull man's left arm pulls down instantly towards the wound. The right, still holding the axe, wobbles and arcs outward to the side. He pulls his body instinctively to the right, jerking away and forcing the blade to exit as Kray keeps his grip on the hilt.

The bull stumbles backward and to his right a few more steps, and then leans forward, as if resetting his stance towards his opponent. He squares off against Kray, lowering his head and gripping the axe strongly in his right hand still poised shoulder high and ready for a strike.

Instead of charging, the bull wobbles again. He takes one step forward, and then the next step is a falter. He crashes down on his right knee, bleeding and soaking his pants leg now at the injury with the same strange watery pale blood. The bull leans forward and catches himself with his right hand, still holding the axe but it is pressed into the ground as he slows to a resting kneel, trying to steady himself.

In the slowing movements, Kray sees the heavy up and down falls of the man's chest as he heaves long breaths in and out in fatigue.