As the shapeshifter dives into the mountain and The Duke takes off after xem, Grigori strokes his beard, wondering what ruckus must be happening in the depths of that mountain.

JJ miscalculates a bit-- JJ's spikes are so spiky, they damage JJ a bit when the electric shock makes the octopoid shake violently. (JJ is now Somewhat Wounded.)

They work a treat toward discouraging getting eaten, though. The octopoid shakes JJ off, and flees.

The Duke appears, and sees JJ the spiky snake...

Reunited!

The Lady turned to Grigori and Aesop, "We should bury these poor fools".

Walking around Aesop so that she could pat closer to his head, she asked gently, "Do you think that you could dig a hole for their bodies to be placed in, my furry friend?"

Then to Grigori, "Perhaps your walker can help, or be used to move the bodies?"

JJ shifted back up to zir combat form since stealth wasn't working, and waved hello to The Duke. "No sign of the one that we are looking for yet" ze said, shrugging. "Perhaps further in?"

The duke seeing his friend in that weird shape nods at it.

"Aye deeper inside the hole is as liquid as your skin. Bubbly and foul the ooze slithers and seeks till its skin is devoured by all wrong paths."

He then carries the light ahead to find any bad calamari and the one looking for his what was it now? He looks and gives it a state to make sure its still there.

"Yes, that's a kind thing to do. Very generous of you, Lady." Grigori starts to grab octopoids by the tentacles and drag them into a pile near the pit that Aesop will (hopefully) dig.

OOC: I think the arm was an optional add-on I didn't take for the walker. If I'm wrong, then I'd like to retcon this post to use the walker.

(Yeah, sorry, you took the quadwalker, which has no arms.

The Lady does get 1 new Attention, though, which I think brings her total to 2 right now.

JJ, if you've changed form again, roll for it.

If you roll 7 to 9, say what small disadvantage you have.

If you roll 6 or less, say what major disadvantage you have.)

Aesop stretches and tilts his head at all the good scritches he’s getting. Then the Lady asks something of him, which usually is a deal breaker, but those scritches are so good though! And so he starts digging a pit, which takes no work at all.

“What a strange way of things, burying people.”, he says, “It’s like a waste of food for all surrounding creatures.”

(Aesop does as The Lady asks, so she's maxed out on Attention now.)

08:38, Today: JJ rolled 9 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,4.  Shapeshift.

JJ twitched irritation as ze noticed that zis shapeshift had left the wound mark still on ze, but didn't care enough to shift again.

JJ would have to be careful... wouldn't want to get that dirty.

But, oh well, ze could get it cleaned up when ze got back to the walker. For now, it was best to just press forward...

---

In the meantime, one member of the expedition party noticed someone watching them... a small, shy octopoid, half the size of the ones they'd already seen... He, she, or it was watching them from the nearest hole, close to the ground, just barely sticking enough of its head out so as to observe them with one eye...

Seeing the little, shy critter, The Lady decides to approach it while Aesop and Grigori were burying the octopersons.

When she got close, she gently crouched down nearby ...
        - rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,1.  Charm it.
and, scooping up a handful of dirt and stone, threw the handful right at the cute little fella’s eye.
Maybe this octopod would finally accept her graceful greeting, rather than trying to kill her instead.



apparently the Dice Roller hates this character!

(You may spend all your Attention, and give yourself a 7...? Or you can just take the xp point, and go from there...?)

well, now, how boring would that be?
But I do think a ‘-1 ongoing’ when using Charm/Insight with regard to Octopeople would be appropriate

(Works for me. The Lady gets a -1 ongoing on Charm/Insight rolls related to the octopoids of the Chrome Mountains, but she also gets 1 new xp.)

The small octopoid zips out of sight, back into the hole.

JJ nodded to the Duke, reached inside zis mouth to retrieve zis plasgun, and moved on.

Should I roll something? No clue here.

(Normally, I would think that turning into something with no arms nor other holding limbs would mean you'd leave your gear behind and come back for it later, but you did it in a cute way, so I'm not gonna quibble this time.

Now, The Duke has scared everyone away for the moment, so if you want to keep searching for the person/being you're looking for, yeah, roll Insightful.)

Aesop heard something-- well, a barely-audible sound, but also a smell. He ran off to investigate it...

He was soon completely out of sight of the others.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:18, Wed 26 Feb 2020.

Please don't forget that I have, earlier,  blessed JJ's search with a +2 ... turning his '8' into a '10'

(I haven't forgotten... he found the octopoid he was looking for... but since he looked like food, the being in question tried to make a snack of him, and then he scared 'im off.

To try to find that person again will require a new roll...

...And The Lady can't bless what she isn't aware of...)

Being a God, wouldn't she be able to sense when someone 'prays to {her} or calls out to {her}'?
Its kinda part of worship, really ... gods tend to get 'attention' that is thrown at them from any source anywhere ... and tend to be able to affect worshippers, not just those within line of sight/hearing.

(My stance is that there was a time, long ago, when that was true, but The Lady is much weakened from those days.

I will rule that she feels SOMETHING that may involve her... she may use the FATE power I gave her (via PM to you) to try to discern what it is...)

UPDATE-- WHERE THINGS STAND RIGHT NOW:

--The Duke and JJ are in the tunnels, looking for the one they seek.

--Grigori and The Lady are outside the tunnels... The Lady has just inadvertently chased away a small octopoid (although the hole it vanished back into is easily big enough for Grigori and/or The Lady to follow, if they wished).

--Aesop has run off, perhaps sensing his own kind nearby, or perhaps his favorite food.

With the dead buried, The Lady performed one last rite upon their grave.
Just as she'd greeted them, she sent their dead off to octoheaven by throwing some dirt on their grave, and blessing it with Luck.
Luck that they would arrive safely in their afterlife; and return reinvigorated, if that is what their people believed.

Then she turned to Grigori, "I wonder where Kitty went?
Should we follow The Duke and JJ into the belly of this place, or return to the Walker and scout the area?"

Grigori rubs his cuts and bruises, "I truly fear no fate more than delving into those tunnels. It is likely they could use assistance, though." He hesitates, "Perhaps I should wait a bit longer in case our quarry shows."

"Indeed", The Lady said, smiling warming at her companion.

After a moment, she said, "Come, let me know you a prayer that once was prevalent in my honour.
My worshippers were far and many", she casually explained, as she found a comfortable bit of grass to sit upon,
"Although, many worshipped me with realising it ... or without deliberation".
She shrugged, "It mattered not.  They called upon me, regardless, in their own ways".

So long as Grigori sat before her, she showed him how to hold his hand in the traditional way ... elbow at his side, but forearm out in front of him.  His hand, palm up but fingers closed as though holding something.

Then, she began gently swinging her forearm and hand back and forth ... almost as though she were simulating stabbing herself in the stomach with the invisible knife she held.
And she waited for Grigori to follow suit.  After all, she was teaching him this prayer.

When he was following her actions, she smiled, feeling the old attachment to the ritual/prayer,
"Now, as you perform the action, One recites this easy cant:

C'mon baby, Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.
C'mon baby, Daddy needs a new pair of shoes".

With the squid people turning out to be enemies threathening his friends one just momentarily trying to eat his buddy JJ The Duke moves deeper into the tunnels activating his powered fists to show these things he was serious bellowing through the corridors.

"Your choice!! You be friendly and help my friends or i will treat you like the enemies you are and nuetralize you all!!!"