This is an in-character game thread from Changeling: In Love and War. (This page is not Creative Commons licenced.)
Storyteller
The Intercontinental Ballistic Marrow reached the apex of its
trajectory, high in the sky above Fairyland. Down below, the
cloud-speckled landscape stretched without end from horizon to horizon,
as if the world stretched on forever. From this high, there were
no castles, no towns and villages; even the greatest of the cities was
but a speck. Mountains and forests, lakes and seas, an infinity
of the wild.
Slowly but surely, the marrow tilted further and further down, picking
up speed alarmingly with every passing second. It dropped like a
stone through minute after minute of roaring sky, toward a tiny area of
what looked like grassy land, close to the very centre of Fairyland.
With an audible "whumph", the marrow hit the cloudbank and all was white for seconds that seemed like hours.
When the marrow finally made it out of the other side of the clouds,
the area it was aiming for loomed large and immediate. For the
brief moment of normality, the pilots of the ICBM could see, away in
the distance, two towers jutting from the ground like needles - one
tall and spindly, marble and glass, the very image of a fairytale; the
other jagged and crystalline, as if the sky had cried an obsidian tear.
Then the normality ended. The ground flashed red, the sky flashed
red, and the ICBM flew backwards as if it were a shuttlecock in a game
of the widely-renouned Invisible Giant Badminton.
In flames, its vitamin-rich pilots no longer conscious, the marrow
crashed into a forest many miles from the land that the towers occupied.
--
The sun was lower in the sky by the time the occupants of the now
char-grilled craft came to. It shone on them, just barely, though
the gap in the forest canopy through which they had made their
entry. No signs of life were visible, or audible, around the
crater...
Gustafssen
... Quickly and quietly the V Team organised themselves removing
their vital equipment from the Drop Chip’s storage holds. They
had everything they needed for a lengthy stay in the wylds of Fairy,
Camping equipment, Babybio plant food, survival kits, maps, anything a
secret and stealthy Vegetable could dream of needing. With their
equipment packed readied for travel they quickly set off into the
surrounding forests, they needed someplace to set up base camp but more
importantly they needed to leave the vasinity of the landing site and
be far away from it when and if anything came to investigate it.
As the V Team stealthily moved into the night a gentle hissing and
squelching noise wafted into the night along with the smell of rotten
vegetables as the decomposition bomb embedded in the craft detonated
leaving no evidence of what had caused the crater.
Storyteller
A fluttering and a rustling of leaves high above the V-Team stopped
them in their tracks. From high above, a set of beady black eyes
gazed down, scanning the forest floor in case anything tasty lay
below...
Gustafssen
…As soon as the V-Team perceived the fluttering aeons of ingrained instinct took over and evasive action was taken…
…as the beady eye scanned the forest floor its gazed passed over
rotting leaves, strands of grass, an abandoned sardines tin and a small
pile of vegetable matter growing in the deep fertile loam. Then
some movement caught its eye, a small worm was squirming about close by
the sardine tin and what appeared to be a strange white stalky plant.
Storyteller
The bird landed swiftly, and with two brisk hops it was on the worm and devouring it.
All the while it was eating, its eyes scanned the forest around it, but
saw nothing. Except... Except something that it had never
seen before. Cautiously, the bird hopped over to the white stalk
and tilted its head back and forth. When that examination failed
to shed any light on the matter, it pecked it a few times, took a step
back and then a step forward, then grabbed the top and pulled...
Gustafssen
…As the bird pulled a spindly white arm appeared from nowhere and
punched it square between the eyes. With a loud indignant squawk
the bird jumped backwards. Then having appeared to have decided
to find less offensive pastimes it took off into the trees…
Whilst the bird flew off into the canopy the V-team started to emerge
from their loamy hiding places and brush themselves down. Once
they were all present and accounted for, the Aubergine had to be
forcibly dug out of its hiding place, the lead potatoes signalled for
them to continue and they headed out deeper into the forest. As
they moved out the Cauliflower floret reached into its sardine tin of
goodies and pulled out what appeared to be a small remote
control. Then wearing a smug expression it pressed one of the
buttons…
… High above in the canopy there was loud popping sound and a mysterious shower of black feathers began to fall.
Storyteller
Up above, the forest became thick with the squawking alarms of birds of
all shapes and sizes, fleeing in ever expanding circles from the
detonation site.
Down below, the vegetables were finding their progress remarkably less impeded by the wildlife as the sun sank on into evening.
Gustafssen
Eventually it was deemed that the V-Team had reached a safe enough
distance from the landing site for them to set up camp for the
night. Deciding they had to find somewhere safe to bunk down for
the night a perfect site was located by the simple means of letting go
of the aubergine and pretending to look the other way; before following
the fleeing vegetable directly too the hardest to find hiding place in
the vicinity. A small hollow underneath the roots of an ancient
oak tree. Once found they started to make the place more homely
by laying out their grow bags whilst the Sprouts set up a secured
perimeter.
Whist the hustle and bustle of the encampment got under way the two
lead potatoes started to scrape away a small patch of dirt and to
carefully insert a black and red brown speckled bean; before covering
it over and spraying it with an oddly glowing liquid. This done
they set looked over the watch rota organised by the Sprouts, amended
it slightly before the V-Team turned in for the night.
[Private to GM:
It's a runner bean. In the morning they will have freshly grown
mounts and pack beans to spur them on their journey :)
Oh and the Secured perimiter consists of various devices devised for
the purpose, and one that was initually designed to wall paper houses,
but turned out a spot too deadly. ]
Storyteller
The morning dawned clear but mercifully frost-free, and the final
sprouty watch rose the other vegetables from their patches. True
to Gustafssen's design, their beans had sprouted into a veritable
platoon of mounts for the veg and their equipment.
Before long, they were on their way and speeding toward the border.
--
When at last they reached it, the sun was high in the sky.
Whatever kingdom they had been in, none of them quite knew, but as they
crossed some unmarked line things changed.
The sun seemed weaker here; smaller and paler. Though the air and
the forest did not seem immediately different, barely five minutes
beany gallop later they were starting to alter too. The wind
developed a chill, and the once lush deciduous trees were thinning and
being superseded by hardier conifers.
Gustafssen
As they rode deeper in to the strange country the lead potatoes took
meticulous notes and the aubergine even offered up some help to the
analysis, once the sprouts had held it upside down and shaken it a
little. Periodically copies of their notes were attached to small
fluffs of dandelion seeds and let off into the breeze to carry their
cargo back to their creator.
As the country became increasingly of the V-Team seemed to
unconsciously ride closer together, and several of the Sprouts drew
their weapons and rode with them resting on their saddles.
Storyteller
By the time the vegetables were in sight of the first of the towers,
several of the higher water content members of the group were starting
to suffer severely from the cold. Yet still they pressed on,
nearing what they understood to be the lesser of their two targets, the
other still being some way in the distance.
The tower leapt up out of the surrounding snow like some god had
gripped the fabric of the land and pulled it upward. The spire of
marble and ice would tower over any faerie, and its height to the
vegetables was even more impressive. Close up even the doors
loomed large, each one a single slab of ice twenty feet tall.
They were closed, and there was no knocker.
The place was silent, devoid of life. The only sounds were the
whistling of the wind and the scratching of pencils on paper as the
tubers made meticulous notes. Nothing seemed to object to the
vegetables' presence this close to the tower of the missing Queen, for
there was no other life there even to notice them.
Gustafssen
As the cold deepened the Starchy adventurers broke open a tightly
wrapped bundle from behind the saddles of their riding beans, and
handed out the Goosberry skin cloaks to their compatriots; who eagerly
snuggled into the warm hairy garments. With the parties comforts
seen to they set about investigating the great doors in front of them
attempting to assertain whether or not they could gain access to the
great tower.
Storyteller
The doors were shut tight, welded together by new snowfall. A
brief scout of the area revealed them to be the only entrance and in
fact the only opening within twenty feet of the ground. Above
that height, however, a set of slits in the icy stonework ran all the
way around the perimeter. They were clearly designed for arrows
to be fired out of, but with a little support and some fibrous energy,
it looked almost as if several sprouts could be propelled in...
Gustafssen
Quickly and quietly the V-Team once more went into action like a well
oiled machine. Without uttering a single word they split
themselves up into work parties…
…Two of the sprouts and the Aubergine ‘Wizzard’ headed off around the
side of the tower and started to dig into the huge snowdrift at the
side of the castle and start to build themselves a seat of operations.
Making the initial incision into the snow by simple method of throwing
the Aubergine head first into the snow…
… The remaining Vegetables turned their minds towards gaining
entry to the tower. The potatoes once more reach into their packs
and begin to screw together a pintle mounted crossbow. Meanwhile
the two sprouts, with the aid of the cauliflower, started suiting up in
rock grey ninja clothes and climbing harnesses. Then taking
careful aim the potatoes loose a bolt towards an arrow slit. The
bolt flies straight and true arching through throw the slit trailing a
light celery fibre rope. With precisions timing the grapnel head
clicked open and wedged itself into the stonework of the slit anchoring
the rope. Approaching the rope the Ninja sprouts tugged on the
rope and hung off it for a moment to test the strength of the
anchor. Satisfied with the anchorage they sprouts quickly clipped
on their climbing ratchets and quickly scaled the rope up to the arrow
slit. Once they reached the slit they quickly pulled up the
sturdier rope attached to the first one and quickly secured it.
Down below the two potatoes quickly packed four backpacks with various
bits and pieces of equipment that the two sprouts, cauliflower and
potato might need on their sojourn into the tower; then after clipping
on their miniature blue toothed cucumbers and a quick comms check and a
change into grey ninja clothes all was ready. First the Potato
wall walked his way up the tower, closely followed by the cauliflower
who had paused only to root out a few choice articles from his sardine
tin of delights. Once the whole team was up the packs were tied
to the rope and hauled up. Then after distributing the packs
between themselves and the rope was curled up on the floor of the
slit. Then they turned and prepared to enter the tower…
…Down below the remaining potato started the clean up operation.
Quickly he gathered up the remaining equipment placed into the packs on
the riding beans and lead them round to where the sprouts and aubergine
were digging away. In the short period of time they had been at
it they had already dug out an outer cavern with enough space to fit
the beans and the gear into and they were now studiously working on
expanding the complex. Given enough time the complex would
encircle the tower with a network of defence tunnels and
instillations. After depositing the beans in the initial cavern
the potato headed back and started the painstaking process of erasing
the signs of their presence in the area around the tower.
Storyteller
Inside the castle, the vegetables encountered a scene of sterile
desolation. The room was clearly long abandoned, with each
surface covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs draping every
corner. But it wasn't untidy; not left in a rush.
Everything was neatly put away, the bedsheets folded and drawers closed.
The door to the room they had arrived in was closed, but
unlocked. Outside it, a long corridor branched off to many rooms
much like the first. The corridor curved off in the distance,
seeming to encircle the tower. There were steps up and steps
down, all appearing to be in a perfect state of repair bar their thick
layer of dust.
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