The Cult of Hunger - RPLOG

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Participants

Date

6/2/479

Log



Rain patters gently through the trees, but it has not dampened the spirits of the beings gathering in the little clearing deep in the forest. A plethora of beings of all shapes and sizes are mingling with one another in the light of warm, crystal lamps that fill the clearing with light. It is easy to spot members of the actual inviting group, since they all wear similar loose robes and cloth masks over the lower half of their faces. Something about remembering the silence of their forbears or something like that.

Lucas found himself cautious, but curious about the flier he found. The thought of returning to nature piquing his curiousity, though the location seemed perilious. He invited his brother to join just in case, along with some equipment he had picked up as a precaution for his impending job with Pontius good. A cape draped around his shoulders, armor tucked in underneath his clothes, a cane in hand with a concealed weapon. He was ready, but optimistic, hoping something good would come of this visit. As he arrived at the clearing he stopped, raising an eyebrow at the beings in their robes and masks.

A being in a magnificent suit of armor that covers their whole body is making their way to the strange meeting, intended on observing it for now. Not an inch of skin or fur is visible under the richly decorated metal of the full plate they are wearing. The white armor even has what must be decorative wings on its back. They walk slowly to the gathering and look around as they reach it, assuming a firm stance and crossing their arms before their chest as they wait for whatever is supposed to happen to happen.

Shliek scampers into the clearing. He is clearly wearing some insulated clothing, the reptile clearly not too happy about the cold temperature. He's got a hood covering his eyes, though his snout sticks out, and a scarf around his neck. All of his clothing is drab and colored brown, grey or black. Though not actively hiding he also does not make an effort to be seen, stayng just outside of the light aura of the lanterns.

Tezky sticks next to his brother, not minding the rain whatsoever as an otter. He wasn't totally big on cults in the woods at night, but he couldn't let his brother go alone and, if truth be told, he was interested in what exactly returning to nature meant. He did enjoy camping sometimes, but civilization had all the good food. The otter wears a clay orange shirt and a bandana with the Heavy emblem. A thick tool belt is around his rather large waist, bearing a smithing hammer and wallet, etc.

Siyu is driven, by a cart, it has been a long time since he returned to the lands of the Sweetwater, and to the city of Promise, a long time indeed. He has a cart, full of goods, rich spice and interesting things. He has been away traveling, he needed to get away. The hustle the bustle, the loss, he just wanted to leave and express what he was originally, and still was at heart, a merchant. So it is that merchant, from the distant deserts, who finds himself upon a rainy gathering, with a covered wagon. He blinks very lightly and stands. He is short, only 3 foot 10, dressed in leathers for riding, an oil cloak, and a wide brimmed hat. He has long flowing black hair, he's let it grown longer and longer as he traveled, down to his knees now. His frame exotic, with wide hips, a pretty face, strong muscled legs, an interesting creature, "Hello the camp?" he calls out in a smooth voice. Perhaps unaware he stumbled upon a meeting of one thing, or another.

Mazurek has not been seen in quite some time. The Dragon has been living in the ocean for quite a number of months, his draconic abilities allowing him to survive with ease. Living on fish and kelp and whatever else provided sustenance down there, he had chosen to go for a flight for the first time in a while, though he did need to rest from time to time to recharge his power reserves. The gathering down in the forest attracts his attention after a couple of hours and his curiosity gets the better of him, flying down toward the clearing. He was growing tired by then, his magics starting to fail him completely. He lands just inside the firelight, dark body completely uncovered except for a loincloth.

A snow leopard is already casually intermingling with the crowd, having arrived at the gathering much beforehand the others. They're dressed casually, perhaps wearing folded over pants this time in the day due to the combination of wind and water from the sky. Nothing extravagant. At the arrival of a few, familiar beings, she manages to work her way out of the primary throng of people to where the entry road is, leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing is. "Hey, hey."

Jera is at home in the trees, in the rain. The kit fox keeping his hood over his eyes as he enters, watching silently from the side. A bow remains sttapped behind his back. He waits to figure out what is going on.

"Welcome! Welcome!" calls a large being, his face covered and his voice rough, "Brothers and sisters! We have the pleasure of entertaining so many guests tonight! We are fortunate indeed!" And it is true. There are quite a few people not in the uniform of the group here. The robed figures make up about 1/3 of the crowd.

"We are gathered to celebrate the natural world and the natural order!" the speaker continues from behind his mask. The worshippers start to gather closer to the speaker where he stands on one side of the clearing. "We remember our ancestors!" the speaker calls out, "The noble, silent beasts from whom we spring!"

There is a murmur of agreement and assent from the other masked figures. Yep. Bunch of oddballs.

Lucas crooks up an eyebrow at the large hooded man. They seemed harmless enough, even if they did seem a tad off, but he held the handle of his cane tight as he walked closer, urging his brother forward. He smiled at Cirrus and walked up to her. "Hey there Cirrus, fancy meeting you hear. You know anything about these guys? I saw their flier at the inn and got curious but..." He looks at the large man. "I'm starting to think they might be off the deepend here."

The armored being tilts their head slightly and rolls their eyes inside their helmet. They are leaning on a tree, a bit on the side but close enough to listen to these whackos going on about their thing. Sure they seem harmless, but you can never be to careful with what is clearly some form of cult.

Shliek takes this moment as the leader begins to speak to try and climb a nearby tree so he can get a better vantage to watch and listen as all of the taller folks start to crowd in.

Tezky sticks close to the smaller otter, whether that's if he felt the need to provide protection or that he felt the smaller otter would provide such as unknown. He watches as various beings arrive, surprised that one was actually taller than him. "Hey Cirrus. Guess you were curious too?" He watches as the large being starts talking, wondering when they would elaborate a bit more.

Siyu ehs very lightly, "Oh...it's a religious meeting..." he says with a faint little tisk, and he adjusts his hat, letting the rain fall off of it, he's already moved on in his mind, not really interested in whatever they were peddling.

Mazurek steps further into the light, further revealing that he is as tired as he felt. Wings are drooping and his pace staggering. Right now it is all he can do to not simply fall over from being so exhausted. He is the largest creature present, but even then it is a battle for him to get to as close to the fire as he is allowed, outright flopping to the ground and deciding to sprawl out and get as much of the fire's warmth to wash over his tough, fleshy frame. He is definitely enjoying the rain, letting it just slide off of his body and add to the relaxing atmosphere.

"I can't pick up anything in particular. Noisy in there, y'know. From what I hear of the 'Natural World', I'm just figuring they worship the trees. Or a weird spirit or something." Cirrus notes, gesturing a hand to the robed figures at the edge of the clearing, shifting up against the tree just a little. "Either way, nice to see you, Lucas, Tez. Also, I ended up sharpening up one of my swords before we came. You know. Little extra help."

Jera stays quiet for now, but notices many of his friends as well. He keeps his position near the back of the group, almost at the periphery. Deciding to watch from afar, still! "Almost like the windrunner tribe, huh."

The speaker continues. "We are here to celebrate that great thing that drove our ancestors!" he roars out loudly, as beings gather closer. "HUNGER!"

The lights suddenly blink out, the fire sputters and dies and the clearing is silent except for the patter of rain before the night air is rent by a scream!

Lucas scratches at his chin as he looks at the group. "Well, hopefully there's nothing too-" His words cut off as the lights wink out, his grip on his cane pulling it up, one hand on the shaft of the cane as he holds the handle. "What in the world was that? Tezky, Cirrus, you two still there? Stay close, yeah? This is... kind of weird," he said, eyes narrowing to focus in the dark light, his long tail searching around blindly in the dark for his brother or the snow leopard.

Kazel straightens herself up from her leaning position and draws her spear and readies her shield. She squints into the darkness and goes through some math in her head to have some extra protection just in case. Despite all this, she remains in place, observing, albeit readied.

Shliek's eyes and pupils widen as the entire campsite is suddenly engulfed in darkness. He quickly goes completely motionless, trying to blend in with the tree as he attempts to ascertain what was going on and who was screaming. The hand not keeping hold of the branch slips to the hilt of his dagger...

Tezky sticks immediately by his brother, hand going to the hammer at his side. "Luc, I'm right here. Cirrus, you there?" At first he had agreed with the speaker, but when the lights went out and a scream pierced the night, he became less sure about what exactly they meant... He debates whether lighting up would be a good or bad move... Stealth or visibility...

Jera calls his wisp...and curses as he realizes that he was dabbling in something else. Well, he fans his hands hopefully, hoping that the fires of a phoenix stir even with his lack of fire proficiency...fighting blind was never a good thing.

Siyu gives a faint little tisk as he uncoils a whip out of his cloak, and it sparks to life. The firewhip crackles and casts some illumination, "Right then, I wonder who thought it would be smart to try a water mage in the rain. Hm?" he asks as he lifts the hat back and holds the whip up to see what's going on.

Awwww! The fire went out! The large dragon was starting to get comfortable here! Grunting, the dragon started to call something out but it is interrupted by the scream. Confusion sets in when that seems to be the only sound for the moment, at least near the fire. Before long, activity on the outskirts of the clearing catches his attention briefly, but he decides to not do a thing. Well, except for rising to a crouch to better be able to react, unable to see immediately around him but wanting to listen.

"Hunger? Well, this isn't the tree-hugging gathering I thought it'd be..." Cirrus draws her sword and her shield quickly, the metal rattling against the scabbard as the weapon comes to a ready, dropping herself down to a crouch. "Over here, Lucas! Tez, come over here, too. Follow my voice." The leopard's voice is a shouting whisper, finding it difficult to see three feet in front of her. She glances up. No moon in the sky. That explains it.

The dim glow provided by the plethora of illuminating items reveals a grim scene. The robed cultists have discarded their robes and masks to reveal that they are all predators of one kind or another with feral eyes that reflect the light and great tusks glinting with wet, red blood, standing hunched over the corpses of a swath of the guests to the camp meeting! An enormous gator lunges from the darkness toward Mazurek and a pair of wiry felines are throwing themselves at the pair of otters!

Lucas's tail curls out towards Tezky's voice as he moves back towards Cirrus's voice. "Shit, this was not what I expected. I hate having to fight like this. It's a good thing I took your advice and started training for my new job." As the items illuminate the scene he bears his teeth, drawing his dagger out and holding the caned sheath like a baton. He draws the cane up in an effort to block a lunging attack as he slashes out towards one of the felines.

Kazel Glows with anger, quite literally even as she call upon Heiour to give her strength and her tattoos start to blaze their light through her armor and helmet for a moment. The armored rodent sprints into the way of the gator and raises her shield at it, blocking the way to Mazurek and the tip of her speer next to it.

Shliek pulls out his dagger and runs along the brance of the tree he was perched in. He times his jump and leaps, aiming to try and land on the gator's back!

Tezky moves to go back to back with his brother, a technique they had employed in their youth to avoid the occasionally bullying in days past. When a canibalistic cat lunges towards him he falls back on the little training he'd had as a Heavy, swinging a powerful arm to interrupt the lunge with a hammer armed swing.

Siyu grunts, very lightly as he steps forward, lifting his hand up he focuses his power. The rain in the air begins to burst into steam, every raindrop in front of him turning into vapor. He shoves the cone of power in front of him, smashing the group of predators with steam that surrounds them, soaks their fur and clothing, and continues to fail. Parboiling them where they stand.

"Get behind me, dammit! Get my crossbow! Faster!" Cirrus raises her voice towards the otters, her shield raised high and sword at a ready, moving to block off the path between the other felines and them, using her shield to intercept any blows that may come from this.. The lighting is not helping, but it's something to work with. "Stay close, stay behind my shield. We're going to have to get the hell out of here. Too many of them."

Jera grins as he seems to have been one step ahead of the ruse. He finds a bush to try to disguise the illumination from his form as he draws his bowstring, taking aim. He hesitates between helping the otters and taking more targets....eventually deciding to just rain arrows instead. With all the practiced haste of a windrunner, he rains arrows in the black night sky!

The otters are saved by a combination of their own efforts and the work of the others. Lucas manages to slash one of the attacking felines and between Tezky and Cirrus the other is warded off. Kazel's shield work keeps the gator at bay.

Siyu's blast of steam fizzes through the darkness, eliciting hisses and yowls of pain from the savage cultists as flaming arrows rain among them. Some drop among the arrows, but most of them scatter into the darkness, leaving only the enraged gator roaring and frothing in the clearing.

Lucas sighs and shakes off his dagger, wiping the blood off on his cape. "I /hate/ having to use violence." He looks around, trying to focus his eyes in the darkness. "Tezky, Cirrus, you two okay? I think we held them off but..." His eyes widen and a surprised yelp escapes from his mouth. "Um, we still have one left." He lifts his head, looking at the others. "I don't think my dagger can handle that guy!" He calls out to the others, keeping his stance ready just in case.

Kazel lets out a mighty roar as she throws herself at the gator with her magically boosted strength. The rodent decides to forego the spear and just use her brute force to bash the scaled being's head in with her shield.

Shliek clings to the gator's back and flips his dagger around in his hand so it is pointed down. He stabs downward, attempting to plunge it into the base of the gators neck, to both wound and give him a hand-hold to stay attached as people start to gang up on the fellow reptile.

Tezky regroups himself, shaken by the narrow line that his life almost crossed. He looks back to the roaring reptile with fear in his eyes, doing his best to conjure light to his paws for more capable people to see by. He stays next to his brother, for the first time in his life having to decide whether he wants to be in front of or behind him. Before he had always been sue that his place in life was to defend his little brother, but I'm the past five seconds he'd almost been killed while his brother had single handedly driven off his own equal attacker. For now he just did what he could to make light with his natural bioluminescent ability.

Siyu snaps his fingers as the steams blasts away, and he grunts hard and moves down now. He is, if nothing else, a good Trauma Mage. He begins to go over the remaining innocents, trying to find anyone with a breath of life and see if he can actually return them to a semblance of breathing and regular function. The water stops falling on him, as he charges his whole body with soothing and healing energy. Letting the others actually fight the last remaining brute. After all, seconds matter.

Sloppy work. She's out of practice. As interesting as it would be to learn about the cult, it'd be a lot safer to get the heck out of dodge. "Right. Tezky, Lucas, to the middle. We're going to have to prepare ourselves for a second wave, if they're going to come back around. Lucas! Can you fire a crossbow? If so, take mine, we're going to have to give these beings a fight." Cirrus begins to shift to the offensive as she starts to close in from the trees. That is, any attacks to her will be met with her blade, rather than her shield.

Jera is distracted counting his major hits before he loads in another arrow. Stil hidden in his vantage point, he waits for any reinforcements to fire a warning shot at the group caught in the melee. His bow is drawn, just waiting...

Things are bad in the clearing. The fallen cultists are easy to distinguish from visitors. They are thin, scrawny things with distorted, hungry faces, and most that are still there are dead, though there is one emaciated canine who still lives. Among the visitors, there seem to be two who stll live.

The gator roars in rage, scrabbling at the reptile on his back. Right until he takes the hit from Kazel. There is a sickening crack and his jaw twists unaturally. That does not stop him from trying to tackle Kazel!

Lucas sighs and shakes his head, gripping his dagger tighter. "Only thing I could hit with a crossbow is the ground. I'd end up hurting myself more than anyone else. If you got something bigger than a dagger though I could use that. I'm know my way around a sword pretty well." He looks at his dagger's blade and shakes his head. "I should have brought one of my swords." His eyes focus on the canine, then looks up at the reptile, currently occupied by Kazel. "We have to protect that canine! Anyone here know first aid?" He quickly rushes up to the canine his eyes alert, putting himself between the canine and the gator.

Tezky watches the forest nervously, moving in with the others. "Shouldn't we try to get out of here, go get the town guards or something?" He works the illumination up his arms, a white glow that represents the only thing he seems capable of doing in this situation. "Why do you want to save him?! He's one of the freaking canibals, man... I mean..." He follows with his brother to see what he can do for the dog, even if it was just helping someone else that knew what they were doing. He stays next to the other otter, hoping he could use his hammer to at least block blows.

Kazel grits her teeth as she blocks off the attack of the gator and gets ready for her counter. The rat raises her shield once more and fastens her grip on her spear, before making it seek its aim in the opposing fighter's heart.

Shliek leans back and forth to dodge the gator's reaching hands while holding onto his dagger for dear life. When Kazel bashes him in the face, he takes the moment to pull another small blade from within his cloak, which he uses in an attempt to draw a red smile across the gator's throat.

Siyu is up to his elbows in gore and viscera, great. He grunts hard and continues his work, his magic happens, soothing, binding, searing, refilling fluids, and putting things ack where they are, stabalizing the two civilians first, as best he can, poor saps who showed p, and finally the one cultist. Need one to interrogate after all.

The gator's roar turns into a horrible gurgle as he spears himself on Kazel's. . . well. . . spear. Now all that can be heard in the clearing is the patter of rain and the pained groans of the three beings that Siyu has drawn back from the brink. It looks like all the other cultists have fled. Not the best camp meeting ever.

"Because he's hurt. It doesn't matter why he's here, it's wrong to let him suffer and die," Lucas growled through bore teeth. He turns his head back to his shoulder, looking at his brother out of the corner of his eye, before looking back towards the gator. "Besides, I don't think the other cultists are going to be very talkative when they're dead, and big toothy over there-" He blinks as the gator falls on the spear, wincing at the sound of the weapon sinking into his body. "probably won't be much help much either."

Kazel frees her weapon from the body of the gator and looks around. Once she is convinced there is nobody left, she lifts the ventail of her helmet and slowly makes her way over to those who are tending the remaining cultist to assess how bad his condition and those of the other survivors are.

Shliek leaps down off the dying gator and wipes both of his blades clean with a scrap from the larger reptile's robe. He sheathes his weapons, saying nothing, and starts to walk away.

Tezky looks pained when his brother snaps at him, chewing his bottom lip. "I - I'm sorry. I know we need to help him... I'm just... scared. Everything happened really fast." Lucas would know that in any other situation the otter would be at anyone's side faster than this. It brings to mind an incident from their youth where he'd attempted to save a dead squirrel that had been gone for several days and a short week where he'd attempted to be a vegetarian. He does his best to remove arrows, using a knife to make bandages from the hem of his shirt for the bleeding dog.

Siyu blows out a breath as he finishes bandaging with the rags of the cultists, giving a grunt as he stands, and lifts his hands up to catch the rain to wash his arms. The rain is drawn to him...but now full of water magic, it doesn't touch him unless he wants it two. The fresh clean water washes his hands and arms and he removes his hat, "Three will live. Though one will wish he hadn't. The Lightbringers are no more, but I am sure the Royal Inquisitors are no more gentle then before..." he looks at the cultist he caught, "A long few weeks before the hangman I am sure..." he looks back to the others. "Are any of you wounded? You all are still standing at least." the short, pretty faced rodent asks, standing in the middle of a field of bodies, with three still breathing.

Cirrus sheathes her weapon and slides her shield back over onto her back, glancing over at the carnage with a bit of a sigh. "Personally. This cultist's life was forfeit as soon as they partook in this... slaughter." The last word rolls off the feline's tongue with a bitter tone to it, glancing over at both otters, then to the survivors, the rat, and the... other rat, before returning to the survivors. "Live or die, I could care less. I have no doubt we'll see them hanging in the gallows before the week is out." The leopard kneels down next to one of the dead attendees, rolling them over to get a better look at their face, whilst also staining her own fur a little with splattered gore. "Maybe all of them. Depending if a hunting party is sent or not."

Jera relaxes his bowstring, but keeps an arrow nocked in case any more cultists were late to the meeting. "Need any help carrying him?" He offers, wanting to not leave the task to the otters at least. Both of them were quite small...