Shawn felt Bradford's pain, and normally that might have been enough to make him back off. But he heard Tiffany's cries and knew Bobby would be confused and disoriented, and that hardened his resolve. "They're not going to be able to get whatever it is by themselves. They're going to die. For real. You can't just sacrifice them."

"Sacrifice?" Bobby asked, like he'd never heard of the word.

In the distance, that black sun pulsed like a lung, expanding and flexing. The sky was a a red smear, crimson clouds in a backdrop amid the rubble of the house.

Penelope had remained completely quiet since they had approached Bradford's house. She remained quiet as they went into the kitchen. She remained quiet during the meditation session and even when Tiffany started to cry and everyone had woken up.

Now she finally spoke, her mouth hanging open, eyebrows raised in shock.

"What...the...hell is going on?"

"This...place...is...RADICAL!" she announced with a rush of adrenaline

"No! No!" Bradford argued back. "No one will be sacrificed, no one will be betrayed!!" He shouted, giving Shawn a knowing look like he might go further with that comment. Like he might dig into it.



"We're going to protect people. Kids aren't strong enough to face the Circus. They need protecting. And protection and that kind of thing." Bradford was calming down now. He moved his head from side to side, straightened his posture. "And if they aren't strong enough then someone needs to step in. We need to step in. And make sure that they're strong. Because they might not want to be strong. And if you don't want to be strong that someone has to make you strong. So that way you aren't weak when bad things like the Circus and the Clowns come." 

Shawn got the message loud and clear, with Bradford threatening to expose him. He backed off a little, trying to sound more reasonable. "Why don't we just leave some of us here, then. To guard our exit, right? That's gotta be strong?"

Bradford's face suddenly changed to one of concern. He held up one finger as if to quiet Shawn down.

"What was that?" he asked, ignoring Shawn's questions. "Did you guys hear that?"


"..."

"What?"

"That noise." Bradford said again. "Someone said something about a....cabin..." Bradford looked around, as if uncertain.

"I didn't here anything." Penelope said. "Did you?" She asked Delilah.

"I...heard...heard it." Ralph agreed. "S..s...sounded like a whiny voice." Ralph said, looking this way and that as if he was checking before crossing a road.

Shawn squinted and looked around, as if that'd somehow let him hear things better. "I didn't hear anything?"

"I don't hear anything."

Delilah passed a shifty glare over Shawn. Somehow, some way, the voice Bradford heard was his fault, too.

A moment had passed, the kids looking at each other amid the ruin of the house searching and doubting about what they had heard. The red sky was angry with color. The black sun no longer a sun, but a an object clearly coming down from the sky, growing larger with every second. There was a 'whushing' sound, as something on either side of that black orb unfolded as it came closer.

Wings.

Leathery wings. Like a bat.

They began to flap loudly and then spread wide. The object was still some distance away, perhaps a minute or so, as it began to glide towards the group of kids in Bradford's once-intact kitchen.

Tiffany had stopped crying, she looked upwards at the impossibly large bat-sun, catching the movement of the long neck and head unfolded.

It was a lizard's head. Full with a beak that was hooked, eyes that were like slivers of yellow like cat eyes that marked the impossibly large creature.

"Oh brother!" Bobby yelled with unmistakable optimism that seemed ill-suited for the blanket of fear that covered most of the kids. He extended his finger out at the incoming creature, pointing out something that no one had missed.

"Feet don't fail me now!" Penelope announced, hopping over the broken shards of glass that had been sprayed over the kitchen floor and pushing her way through the open door way of the kitchen to the outside.

She was the first to run.

She took off in the opposite direction of the gliding lizard, feet moving quickly through the grass, head occasionally looking back. Not at the kids, but at the incoming bat-sun.

"A dragon!" Delilah scarcely breathed. Then she shoved Bradford's shoulder. "We gotta go! Move! Let's go!"

Delilah ran after Penelope. She hoped it was the right way.

Shawn grabbed Ralph and Bobby by the hands and started to run as well, taking a moment to look at Bradford to see what he was doing.

Delilah and Shawn couldn't help but look up as a long shadow came over them.

The creature was the color of the night, not a coincidence, but merely a function of his armored skin. In red sky it was a similar pattern to black sun. Out here in what wasn't the neighborhood, but the hills near the Circus--it the skin was a metallic grey. The creature---a dragon perhaps--must have had eyes that were able to zoom in from hundreds of yards away and its leathery bat wings cut through the air sending gusts of wind down onto the kids.


"RUUUUUUN!!!" Bradford yelled. It was an obvious thing to say, as the kids were already running hard.

Delilah's legs felt like rubber as the kids ran through the hills. Shawn could feel Ralph squeezing his hand, little feet shuffling beside him.


OOC: Shawn and Delilah Roll Stamina + Athletics +1 with the following results

0 Successes: Storyteller will roll Stamina + Athletics +1 for each NPC. Failing PC rolls and NPC rolls will be grouped together. Storyteller will make a random roll to determine which PC or NPC is captured.

1+ Success: Your character will not be included in the random roll above. If both Shawn and Delilah get at least 1 success, assume they were able to spur the rest of the group to safety.

OOC: 20:47, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 5 successes using 9d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 10(+10,4),2,10(+4),5,4,8,6,2,8. Stamina + Athletics +1 + WP.

20:31, Today: Delilah Gray rolled 2 successes using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((7,1,3,8,9,7,2)).

08:10, Today: Bradford Stork failed (no successes) using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((2,5,4,5)).
This message was last edited by the player at 12:13, Sat 21 Apr 2018.

08:11, Today: Penelope rolled 1 success using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((4,4,1,3,9)).

08:13, Today: Evil Circus - Ralph rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((1,8)).

08:14, Today: Bobby rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((10(+7))).
This message was last edited by the player at 12:15, Sat 21 Apr 2018.

OOC: Everyone achieved at least 1 success except Bradford, so there is no random roll necessary. Bradford is captured by the creature.

Large talons unfurled as the bat-winged dragon swooped down from the red sky. It looked like for a moment it was going to catch two or even three kids. Ralph tripped over something and fell, his stubby, fat legs unable to keep the weight under him. The dragon creature fly by his head and snatch up Bradford with his claws.

"AhH!!" Bradford squealed, arms extended outward to grasp for help that wasn't there. There was a look of horror on his face as the great beast flew upward into the sky from where it came. It glided for a moment and then flapped its wings moving off into the horizon where a great mountain was in the distance.

And just like that, Bradford was gone.