Badass Dragoons of the Highlands - Turn 7 - New York City (c.1986)

[messana]

Even with the inexorable pull of The Gathering, New York proves to be a large city with many places to hide. Ambushes are set, opponents pursued, all for naught as Jane, Other Pendragon, and Mr. Collins resist the siren call in a Herculean effort to change their own fate - with the consequence that the Kurgan have acquired their scent and are preparing their dark rituals once again. Should they harvest enough souls, the very world itself would be imperiled.

Meanwhile, Ennis stays perceptive enough to keep one step ahead of Zero as he attempts to pursue her through the city, although such tactics cannot succeed forever…

Quick Links: Table of Contents

Turn 7 Deadlines:
Orders must be submitted by Fri Nov 10 by 2300 EDT.

Badass Dragoons of the Highlands - Turn 6 - New York City (c.1986)

Turn format has changed: You are now hunting for each other on the streets of New York. Instead of a set of Travel options for each round, please PM me directly with a list of remaining immortals in the order that you would prefer to face one of them in combat. The first on the list should be the Immortal you’d prefer most to face and the last on the list should be the one you wish to avoid fighting at all costs.

Opponents will be matched based on a combination of PER score (as usual), orderings across all lists, and a pinch of entropy. Once opponents have been determined, I will update this topic with the parings for this turn, and both of you will know who you will be facing. At that point, please submit your stances to me directly. Turn deadline remains the same due to available GM cycles.

As with Turn 6 - please submit a list of opponents by preference ASAP.

[messana]

@daneel

  +-Character--------------+-HP-+-STR-+-REF-+-PER-+-END-+
  | Zero Demos             |  6 |  2  |  8  |  3  |  7  |
  +------------------------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
  | Age: 3568
  | Origin: Minoan
  | Weapon: Damascus Longsword
  |
  | Abilities:
  |    Sturdy (+1 HP)
  |    Reflexes II (Improves combat results in first two rounds)
  |
  | Quickenings:  
  |   + Inspired Tactics (-5 from all opponents rolls)
  |   + Swift Reflexes (Improves combat results in first two rounds)
  |   + Unphased (Ignores first non-critical hit)
  |   + Unyielding (Converts first critical hit to a normal hit)
  |   + Unstoppable (Ignores first lethal result)
  |

@MalevolentPixy

  +-Character--------------+-HP-+-STR-+-REF-+-PER-+-END-+
  | Jane                   |  5 |  5  |  6  |  5  |  4  |
  +------------------------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
  | Age: Unknown
  | Origin: Unknown
  | Weapon: Machete
  |
  | Abilities:
  |    Reflexes I (Improved results in first rounds)
  |
  | Quickenings:  
  |   + Unphased (Ignores first non-critical hit)
  |   + Unyielding (Converts first critical hit to a normal hit)
  |   + Unstoppable (Ignores first lethal result)
  |
  | The Kurgan have caught your scent and are on your trail.
  | 

@gwwar

  +-Character--------------+-HP-+-STR-+-REF-+-PER-+-END-+
  | Ennis                  |  5 |  5  |  6  |  5  |  4  |
  +------------------------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
  | Age: Unknown
  | Origin: Unknown
  | Weapon: Longsword
  | 
  | Abilities:
  |    Reflexes I (Improves combat results in first round)
  |
  | Quickenings:
  |   + Cruel (5% of any normal hit becoming a critical hit)
  |   + Swift Reflexes (Improves combat results in first two rounds)
  |   + Inspired Tactics (-5 to all opponent's rolls)
  |

@teknocholer

  +-Character--------------+-HP-+-STR-+-REF-+-PER-+-END-+
  | Other Pendragon        |  5 |  5  |  5  |  6  |  4  |
  +------------------------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
  | Age: 1519
  | Origin: Welsh
  | Weapon: Saxon Langseax
  | 
  | Abilities:
  |    Reflexes I (Improves combat results in first round)
  |
  | Quickenings:
  |   + Prescient Tactics (-15 to all opponent's rolls)
  |   + Unphased (Ignores first non-critical hit)
  |
  | The Kurgan have caught your scent and are on your trail.
  | 

@David_Falkayn

  +-Character---------------+-HP-+-STR-+-REF-+-PER-+-END-+
  | Mr. Collins             |  6 |  5  |  2  |  7  |  6  |
  +-------------------------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
  | Age: 2286
  | Origin: Egyptian
  | Weapon: Papyrus Scroll
  |
  | Abilities:
  |    Sturdy (+1 HP)
  |
  | Quickenings:
  |  + Cruel (5% of any normal hit becoming a critical hit)
  |  + Unphased (Ignores first non-critical hit)
  |  + Unyielding (Converts first critical hit to a normal hit)
  |  + Unstoppable (Ignores first lethal result)
  |
  | The Kurgan have caught your scent and are on your trail.
  |

[gwwar]

Ennis had read the confused correspondence, delivered by messenger pigeon, talking about some sort of plan to foil the Kurgan and not kill each other. But what then, would they all just live forever until it comes time for the end of all life on Earth?

Ennis believes that the gods made them to fight. To go against that is unnatural. Wrong. Does the wolf stop killing because it is sorry for the rabbits?

And so, Ennis is quite disappointed her chosen opponent does not appear, and placates her sorrows by buying a soft-serve cone. She likes the swirl very much.

As she finishes the last bite of cone, she glimpses Zero brandishing a chainsaw, running bloody and naked through the top floors of a highrise building.

Her first notion is to draw her sword, but that chainsaw makes her pause. That immortal is not quite right.

She needs to be in a proper state of mind to fight that sort of rabid dog.

[ghoti]

Grrrrarf! Ruffruffruff bark!

[David_Falkayn]

– Mr. Collins, former colleague of George Fox

[Donald_Petersen]

Broke another promise
And I broke another heart
But I ain’t too young to realize
That I ain’t too old to try
Try to get back to the start
And it’s another redlight nightmare
Another redlight street
And I ain’t too old to hurry
Cause I ain’t too old to die
But I sure am hard to beat

https://vimeo.com/171244261

Gonna change my evil ways…

…one of these days…

[David_Falkayn]

Of course everyone here knows what the “F” in the FCNL.org stands for “Friends,” RIght?

As in, “The Society of Friends”?

Some of you don’t?

Oh, then you are in need of instruction. Allow me to start with a quote from the man who started the Friends:

I told them I knew from whence all wars arose, even [i.e., namely] from the lusts, according to James’s doctrine; and that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars

Yours in Truth,

–Mr. Collins.

[messana]

It appears a hidden Immortal has revealed herself:

 +-Character---------------+-HP-+-STR-+-REF-+-PER-+-END-+
  | Myfanwy                |  5 |  2  |  4  |  1  |  2  |
  +------------------------+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
  | Age: 1519
  | Origin: Welsh
  | Weapon: Oiled Chainsaw
  |
  | The Kurgan have caught your scent and are on your trail.
  |

[The_Kurgan]

It appears a hidden Immortal has revealed herself:

“Hello, my pretty.”

[Donald_Petersen]

I told them I knew from whence all wars arose, even [i.e., namely] from the lusts

[Hadley]

Okay pass the popcorn.
I’ll bet on mr. Collins cause he’s got all those books and stuff and he seems to be organizing this union thing which I don’t understand at all.
Where is the salt? Don’t you put butter and salt on your popcorn?

Wait this was supposed to be posted at the necktie lounge. How did it get over here and how do I get back over there? Being headless causes such confusion.

[David_Falkayn]

Just before London caught afire, an awkward young Dissenter sent a very important letter to Charles II. While little noted by many here, it would profoundly alter the future world.

For this modern TL;DR world, the key sentence was

“We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world.”

I still treasure my copy.

The key idea is simple: that which is God is within all of us. Certainly for us immortals. Why would you want to kill God, however you choose to conceive of God? How are you not killing yourself?

By choosing Goodess and LIfe, one makes one’s own world better.

The example one sets help others make their own world better. And so ithrough William WIlberforce, Mahatma Gandhi, and countless others the will to resist the siren call of pointless violence grew outward and the world improved.

We each get a choice. How we use that choice defines both who we are and the world we get to live in.

Does the Kurgan really have a better life because he’s murdered so many?

I choose a better world.

Yours in Truth,

Mr Collins.

[teknocholer]

[excerpt from The Diaries of Other Pendragon © 2017 by TrilloCom LLC]

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. I’faith, I know I am no coward. But what does honour demand? I had vowed to face the Kurgan beside my fellow rebels, but the alliance has fallen apart under the fell machinations of the tyrant Messana. Alone, I stand no chance, for the Kurgan never stabs but in the back. Now who will stand on either hand, and keep the faith with me? To refuse combat is self-murder.

Or is it more honourable to fight to prevent the unspeakable Zero Demos from achieving the Prize? The code of chivalry commands that I take arms to protect the weak from such a vile predator.

And now Myf has been captured by the evil curse of this unnatural place, and ordered to fight. I know her. She will not meekly await her fate, but charge into battle shouting defiance. Can Sir Other Pendragon of the Pendragons do less? No.

Our Manifesto bound me not to fight in the latest combat, but the notwithstanding clause allows me to fight in self-defense in subsequent turns. I will invoke it.

I will fight.

[Donald_Petersen]

Does the Kurgan really have a better life because he’s murdered so many?

Maybe a longer one.

[daneel]

I will fight.

[teknocholer]

For the eyes of Darth Messana, all glory to him:

Transcript of a telephone conversation between surveillance subjects Other Pendragon (O) and Myfanwy Owens (M)

O: Hello?

M: I’ve screwed up.

O: Myf, what’s going on? You’ll get yourself killed.

M: I’m sorry, Other, I didn’t have a choice. When I revealed myself, Darth Messana unleashed a targeted virus that eroded the Cloak. I’m discovered. His enchantment won’t let me leave this damn place, and he’s ordered me to fight for his amusement, or he will throw me to the Kurgan. You wouldn’t believe the chain mail he wants me to wear, the old perv.

O: Rogue! Poxy knave! A murrain upon him! I will fling down the gauntlet and quench my blade in the poltroon’s liver!

M: Other, we’ve been working on modernizing your English. You’re reverting to the middle ages again.

O: Sorry, Myf. Christ, what an asshole! What else?

M: Lots, but not over the phone. I’ll write you.

O: So, what now? You’re not a fighter. You haven’t been trained.

M: Maybe not, but I’m quick. And Ms.Toothy is a great equalizer.

O: You can’t do it, Myf. I won’t let you. I forbid it!

M: My gallant knight. I’m so horny right now.

O: Tease.

M: [laughter]

O: What are you wearing?

M: Chain mail? [giggle]

[Remainder of conversation not considered relevant. Taken home for further analysis.]

Transcribed by: Special Agent J. L. Whinger.
Submitted by: Special Agent J. L. Whinger.

All Praise to Darth Messana the Benign

[Justa_Little_Whinger]

[Donald_Petersen]

What a weird game this turned into.

[Nightflyer]

Oh yeah.

[Pogo]