peckenpaugh | THE SORTING PATH

the sorting path

you have found him A burst of hot steam stymies any immediate charge down the stairs into the Sorting Path, but with each second that ticks by, the white cloud thins and the temperature drops. Unbearable becomes nearly tolerable, and so long as you can stand it, you must press forward.

The Sorting Path is not silent. Hot, wet air moves in and out like the wheezing breaths of some wounded creature. Water evaporated when the Path's falls were boiled away by the nightmare tree's birth now drips from ceiling to floor where it pools in two inch deep puddles, making the trek somewhat more precarious than usual.

You have arrived in the belly of the beast. Keep pushing, keep fighting, no matter how hard it gets.

he is everywhere Here, the walls are overgrown with vines, purple flowers bloom mere inches from your face, ready to shake their sickening pollen with the merest brush. The chirping of birds and the buzzing of strange bugs makes talking at anything quieter than a yell almost pointless.

You've only been here once, but even so it's unrecognizable. Murals destroyed, magic gone, replaced with something deeply sinister. The last time you walked this path, it was to find your place within Peckenpaugh. This time, you walk it to make sure Peckenpaugh is still a place once you leave.

Chin up. Be brave. Let's get this sorted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's hard to see anything for all the fog, but perhaps you don't need to see at all. The buzzing sound is deafening, not just one cloud of Bugs, but a whole Swarm swirls around in the mists trying to push students back out of the Winter room. Don't let them! Get swinging!

NAME: Audrey
WHAT DO YOU DO?: Taking a tip from Maisy, the smartest king she knows, Audrey swats her very wet sweatshirt at the bugs to net them.

Evil cicadas are notoriously susceptible to woven blends (ROLLED 9) and Audrey manages to net a glob of buzzing bugs from the fog!

Evidently the bugs are flying blind, too, because (ROLLED 7) they can't seem to find her in the mists to counterattack.

NAME: Fred Adler
WHAT DO YOU DO?: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Fred is the Bug Slayer and her deedly-bob is a deadly tool of extermination... that she just flails wildly into the air above her while shrieking a lot.

SHE DON'T MISS!!! (ROLLED 10) Bugs fall all around Fred as she does her shrieking dance. It decimates their numbers, but how many are there?

NAME: Claudia
WHAT DO YOU DO?: She's got her dogeball over her head and she's trying to just beat the shit out of them while screaming. At no point does she think to actually throw it.

Claudia flails the Dogeball around (ROLLED 6+1) and with its magical help, she manages to smash several bugs. However, with that big red barking beacon, she's an easy target for bugs (ROLLED 4) and winds up pelted with buggy bodies. More bruises for her troubles.

NAME: Felicity Deverill
WHAT DO YOU DO?: Takes a framed heart-shaped goat photo in each hand and starts swatting bugs.

Nothing can stop Felicity when she's got the power of goats on her side (ROLLED 9)! Squish, squash, squelch! She's knocking them out of the air left and right. Unfortunately (ROLLED 1) that makes her a prime target for a fist-shaped cloud of them. The mists part as the swarm barrels through, catching Felicity in the gut and knocking her across the Winter room into a puddle of murky water. That'll smart. [Felicity will be dazed for her next 2 tags]

NAME: Trudy
WHAT DO YOU DO?: Swinging a huge fucking great hammer of course

The crash of Trudy's maul is deafening, a hundred teacups pelted at once and certainly louder than the bugs. (ROLLED 7+1) Though the Swarm is scattered, Trudy makes quick work of the last remaining pockets of them, squishing and squashing, bug guts everywhere.

THE SWARM WAS DEFEATED! Stay tuned for tokens.

NAME: Uriah
WHAT DO YOU DO?: He has a fishing knife and is going to try to stab a bug. It seems very unlikely to work.

It's inexact work, but Uriah (ROLLED 7) manages to catch several in his orbit as he swings and stabs that fishing knife. While some of them (ROLLED 6) get caught in his curls, scratching and messing up his hair, they smack into the wall of the cave and knock themselves into the dirt after they escape.

The buzzing is gone, the Swarm has been defeated, and the Winter Room is safe again. For now.

ALL PARTICIPANTS received 7 Tokens for participating in this encounter!

You can check your token totals in Pouch's shop here, and maybe see if there's anything worth grabbing while you're there!

THE SORTING PATH

ENCOUNTER: Noisy Fog

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Re: ENCOUNTER: Noisy Fog - COMPLETE

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ENCOUNTER: Noisy Fog - TOKENS!