Badass Dragoons of the Highlands - Turn 7 results

[messana]

The rush of The Gathering sweeps the remaining Immortals along in its tempest. The conflicts result in calls to local police precincts, who arrive in time only to find headless bodies. The broadsheets quickly pick up on the gory news and misinterpret the cause in any number of histrionic ways.

Those that remain clearly know that the final battle has been joined. Centuries of perseverance have brought them this far and they know all too well that failure is not an option.

Quick Links: Table of Contents

[Opponents that faced each other have received their results via PM. Those players are encouraged to reveal the story behind those clashes to the rest of us.]

Other Pendragon (@teknocholer) faced Myfanwy (@Myf467) in single combat
Ennis (@gwwar) faced Jane (@MalevolentPixy) in single combat
Mr. Collins (@David_Falkayn) faced Zero Demos (@daneel) in single combat

[Donald_Petersen]

Zee-Ro! Zee-Ro! Zee-Ro! Zee-Ro! Zee-Ro!

Accept the fact that you’re second rate life is easy for you
It’s all served up on a gold plated plate
And we don’t even have to talk to you
Your face is normal that’s the way you’re bred
And that’s the way you’re going to stay
Your head is firmly nailed to your TV channel
But someone else’s finger’s on the control panel

What you gonna be brother - Zero the hero
Don’t you want to be brother - Zero the hero
When you gonna be brother - Zero the hero
Impossibility impissibolity mother really a hero

You sit there watch it all burn down
It’s easy and breezy for you
You play your life to a different sound
No edge no edge you got no knife have you
Your life is a six lane highway to nowhere
You’re going so fast you’re never ever gonna get down there
Where the heroes sit by the river
With a magic in their music as they eat raw liver
You stand there captain we all look
You really are mediocre
You are the champion in the Acme form book
But I think you’re just a joker
Your freedom life ain’t so much of a pity
But the luv-a-duckin’ way you’re walkin’ around
The city with your balls and your head full of nothing
It’s easy for you sucker but you really need stuffing

[David_Falkayn]

Honest conversation IS the answer…

[daneel]

Finally, after centuries, I’d tracked him down.

Mr Collins.

My Damascene steel had waited millennia for his head. And then he started singing at me.

The battle was joined. It immediately became clear to me that this was to be no ordinary battle. For someone who gives the impression of being rather bookish, the man fights like a dervish. Over and over again I would be grateful for the skills and reflexes granted me by previous quickenings.

I had the measure of the man, I picked the correct stances, and yet time and time again, the fates failed me and he’d sidestep what should have been a killing blow, or I’d just mistime my swing, and then, when he’d return the favour, his…scroll(?) sliced deep again and again. I never knew how much paper cuts could hurt.

I was almost dead, while he was still hale and hearty, and there was much of our battle to go, when the battle turned again. His aim went awry, while my focus returned - and I should have had him at the end - but he was unstoppable. He should have had me - at the last his final blow gave me the closest of close shaves, but I kept my head.

With both of us near to collapse, unable to hold our weapons, our battle came to an end. Round two will be interesting.

 rolls tgt          tgt rolls
 miss( 33) 70 Rck v. Agg 30 ( 54) Hit!     [Mr. Collins is Unphased]
 Hit!( 57) 50 Cau v. Cau 50 ( 25) miss     [Zero Demos is Unphased]
 CRIT (00+) 70 Cau v. Rck 30 ( 74) Hit!    [Zero Demos is Unyielding]
 Hit! ( 93) 40 Agg v. Cau 60 ( 35) miss
 Hit! ( 85) 70 Def v. Cau 30 ( 88) Hit!
 Hit! ( 91) 70 Nor v. Def 30 ( 50) Hit!
 miss ( 20) 70 Agg v. Nor 30 (  7) miss
 Hit! ( 93) 70 Nor v. Def 30 ( 13) miss
 CRIT (00+) 40 Nor v. Rck 60 ( 96) Hit!    [Zero Demos is Unstoppable]
 miss ( 48) 60 Cau v. Agg 40 (00+) CRIT    [Mr. Collins is Unyielding]
 miss ( 39) 40 Agg v. Cau 60 ( 98) Hit!    [Mr. Collins is Unstoppable]

Mr. Collins (1/6) v. (1/6) Zero Demos

The battle is fought to a standstill!

[teknocholer]

'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter,
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?

[David_Falkayn]

Zero, as always, understates himself.

Yes, he brought his sword – a beautiful exemplar of wootz steel it is — but more importantly he brought his keen mind and almost three millennia of knowledge.

Knowledge of me
Knowledge of the world that created us
Knowledge of himself.

True, he waved his sword about, such that a casual 21-st centuries passer-by might mistake us for duelists – duelsist of an exceptionally wordy nature with one duelist lacking a sword.

It was the thrust of ideas, the parry of argument, the sincerity of statement that mattered.

Don’t believe Mr. Demos had any difficulty finding me. He never has.

He even sought me out at the LIbrary of Alexandria to ensure his account of the destruction of Thera would be preserved. Modern scholars may yet learn the truth of that, and if they do, it will because of Mr Demos’ integrity.

Zero found me in my usual place amusing myself with a learned discussion of 14th century wine serving .

I began our discussion Recklessly with an ancient Heraclitus quote

http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-it-is-difficult-to-fight-against-anger-for-a-man-will-buy-revenge-with-his-soul-heraclitus-58-81-61.jpg

Zero had encountered this idea a thousand times before; he countered easily. Indeed, modern science has shown what Heraclitus knew three millennia ago.

I turned cautious, recounting folk aphorisms in the old Theran dialect. Seeing success, I countinued. I suspect nostalgia distracted Zero, for even though his keen knowledge meant he regularly chose perfect rhetorical stances, I was effective in carrying the argument.

But using the ancient languages put me in ancient modes of thinking. Maybe Sapir and Whorf are right.

I lost my fixedness on the Inner Light. I became Aggressive, and here the debate turned.

I tried to center myself with Normal language, but little Pacifism is expressed in Latin. Perhaps that is how it occured to me to make a Critical point about stoicism.

Realizing that Zero was exhausted and down to his final arguments, I continued the discussion but did not press my points too hard; that would have been unkind, and Zero deserved the opportunity to express his own Inner Light.

Zero rose to the moment. Brilliantly. Whether Aggressive or Cautious, that old fisherman is a master of the turn of the phrase.

I look forward to our next discussion.

–Yours in Truth.

Mr. Collins.

[Pogo]

duelsist of an exceptionally wordy nature with one duelist lacking a sword.

Truly? Deny, deny, deny, but the trail of blood you have left shows wit is not the only razor you hide in all that talking.

Perhaps your inner light will shine brighter once you allow yourself to face what you really are.

[gwwar]

After another bag of popcorn, two shawarmas, and a soft cone twist, Ennis spotted her fated opponent Jane approach her in the park. The Kurgan was near. The immortals had taken too long to draw their blades, had conspired to go against their very nature, but it seemed at last they would fight and prove themselves!

The echoes inside of her seemed to approve. A bark, and a curse, and some pretty chatter. The gods demanded blood, of course. Just as the wolf tried its luck or starved. Nature could be cruel. It could be beautiful.

It was time. Who wants to live forever?

Ennis could sense a sort of kindred spirt in Jane, though the gods she worshiped were different. She seemed perhaps a bit like a crow to Ennis. Cunning and cawing, and very clever with tools.

People in the park are wary of immortals. It did not take long for them to move to someplace else. We walk differently and carry very big blades, and that Jane did have so many of them.

Jane nodded back, no words needed.

Ennis prepared herself. Drew a breath, and her fang, counted the beats. And it began.

Ennis’ strikes were true. A grunt, a breath, a strike. It should have met Jane’s heart, but it turned into a glancing blow. Jane was unphased. Her retorts were vicious, though Ennis managed to dodge a brutal swing toward her face.

Each of Ennis’ blows met flesh, but the tide was not turning in her favor.

Jane was god blessed. That revelation came too late. Ennis was too committed, and could not stop even if she wanted. This was the way of things. This was how it was going to be. She would always return to that den of the great wolf by the ash-white river, even if she knew the story’s ending.

Finally, Ennis heard a crunch, and more in shock than pain, laughed.

Before the blade descended in one last arc, Ennis whispered: “Do not run.”

------------------------------------------
     rolls tgt          tgt rolls
Hit! ( 62) 60 Def v. Rck 40 ( 85) Hit!    [Jane is Unphased]
Hit! ( 78) 50 Rck v. Rck 50 ( 49) miss
Hit! ( 83) 40 Def v. Agg 60 (00+) CRIT
CRIT (00+) 30 Rck v. Cau 70 ( 39) miss    [Jane is Unyielding]
Hit! ( 91) 40 Nor v. Rck 60 ( 67) Hit!
Hit! ( 73) 60 Cau v. Agg 40 ( 44) Hit!    [Jane is Unstoppable]
---- ( --) 40 Nor v. Rck 60 ( --) ----
---- ( --) 50 Cau v. Cau 50 ( --) ----
---- ( --) 50 Rck v. Rck 50 ( --) ----
---- ( --) 50 Agg v. Agg 50 ( --) ----
---- ( --) 40 Def v. Agg 60 ( --) ----  
------------------------------------------