BIG DAMN HERO QUEST #1

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You are Isaac Shaw, second attendant of Knight Lawrence of the Magus Corp of His Radiances Holy Paladins.
THE Knight Lawrence. The second adherant of the 2nd temple of Voltaius, commander of the armed forces stationed at the Fortress city of Emos, Son of the High Exarch Samael who is head of the Magus Corp Of His Radiances Holy Paladins, and of course beloved War Hero leading the inquisition against the cultists infesting the Easterlands.
All of these are of course very flattering and long winded names and titles for a dead man, a dead man that you watched not but a moment ago get cleft in half through his Radiant Steel armor and all by flaming goliath of magma, fire, and demonic hatred. The same Demonic hell spawn that stepped on Cynthia your fellow attendant and turned her into a greasy burnt smear a few moments before killing your master.
You are without a doubt scared beyond all your wildest dreams of fear, drowning in the kind of abysmal terror that has steadfastly frozen you in place the last few moments, taking in where your life went wrong. You of course are dead eyed staring into the back of the demon, who is now a few yards away wrestling with an equally horrific and nauseating enemy. It appears that the cultists that your army was supposed to be exterminating via inquistion were making flesh beasts. And that said flesh beasts must have been very close by as one is on fire and wrestling the demon that slew your lord in front of you.
You are standing in the slowly burning and crumbling remains of the armory to your lords keep, near the heart of the city staring out the same hole the demon tore when he stepped on Cynthia, bless her heart. You would remember that near you on its rack is your lords weapon where it was when he died reaching for it, shining like gold in its radiant glory. You also would note that there are a great deal of bells tolling outside and many many screams. From the lack of dividing wall in the yard beyond the horrors fighting outside you can surmise that the great rumbling earthquake that you experienced as you and your lord rushed to the armory must have taken that down too. You suppose the archers dont have a place to fire from now. Not that it would matter, the steeples, the walls, the murder holes, no matter where they shot from no arrow would kill something like this.

>>1784532
You are currently in a fatigue of mind-numbing terror, but gradually adrenalin is tearing you free.
Stamina 14/20 (You spent a great deal of time attending to your lord today, which means waking up without proper sleep, and carrying a great deal of materials he was unfit to be burdened with until the chaos started)
Possessions:
Tabard of your lords service (equipped)
Your Fatigues (equipped)
Leather Chest Peice (equipped)
What will you do with the time you have remaining?
>Run for help, anywhere but here
>Return inside the Keep and look for other knights or paladins
>Continue to shake in fear (Regain 3 stamina)
>Recollect your prowess!
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
>Write in

(Please forgive any spelling errors. This will be fixed in future posts. I can already see a few places I may have missed an A or other things.)

>>1784534

>Recollect your prowess!

>>1784534
msaterbate furiously whilst massively drunk as fuck ya jnigger

>>1784575
this

Rolled 67, 51, 8 = 126 (3d100)

>>1784575
>>1784674
As the strength takes its time returning to your legs and arms, you try to take stock of your situation, knowing that a moment wasted on a poor decision could end you now.

You remember hours in the longyard with the other members of your stewardship.
You were always a able study, and your ability to transcribe and remember minute details in documents was without peer.
-Discovered Strong Affinity for Memory! (+10 to rolls to remember details!)
-Discovered Strong Affinity for Writing! (+10 to rolls to write!)
You remember the days spent retrieving and letting lose arrows with the others. Cynthia was a better shot than you were, and she was only at her best a serviceable shot. You spent a great deal of time retrieving lost arrows
-Discovered Poor Affinity for Archery! (-5 to shooting rolls!)
Your arm was never the strongest among your peers, but to the benefit of your name, you were always fleet footed in sparing, and you scored a fair share of hits against your partners
-Discovered Minor Affinity for Running! (+5 to dodge rolls and running rolls!)
-Discovered Minor Affinity for Swordplay! (+5 To fighting rolls with a sword)

You are shaken from you stupor by a sound beyond the armory door to your left and a roar out in the yard. Lets discover what has happened while you Recollected!

>>1785113
The fight in the yard is slowly spinning farther into the favor of the Demon, which has taken a blackened arm off the flesh beast which is fighting desperately. Its remaining three arms are clutching various pieces of long mangled iron and it is pounding relentlessly on the demon, even as it claws masses of seething flesh from it. It doesn't look good for you no matter the winner.

Beyond the door you hear a shout and then the distant sounds of sword fighting, but it is brief, before you hear a guttural noise and something like running water.

Time has moved forward, the sounds of bells outside has now been completely drowned by the sounds of screams and the air outside is blowing embers. Emos must have caught fire. It seems very likely now that there are more demons.

>Run for help, anywhere but here
>Return inside the Keep and look for other knights or paladins
>Continue to shake in fear (Regain 3 stamina)
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
>Write in

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>1785139
>>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
Go climb the demon and stab it in the eye

Rolled 35 (1d100)

>>1785139
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)

Think about the sacrifice of your fellow paladins and knights. Think about Cynthia and others you know who the beast has slain. Don't let their sacrifice be in vain. Think about the lives you still may save and the innocent who you swore to protect. Scream with terrifying rage and run towards the demon. Cut the fucked in half.

>>1785400
The demon is on fire, and emitting a massive amount of heat, to do something like that would be akin to pointless suicide unless there were extenuating circumstances involved, however
>>1785400
Is mostly the same but more reasonable.

So Isaac will do some Big Damn Hero stuff!

Stam cost is 4, taking you to 9/20
Roll 1d100, best of 3 shooting high.

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>1785457

>>1785463
Need 2 more rolls, and from the look of things they need to be good ones. Ill just go ahead and roll for something on my end.

Rolled 92, 95 = 187 (2d100)

>>1785400

>>1785480
still need 2 more rolls!

Rolled 63 (1d100)

Rollan

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>1785973

>>1786559
The bitter taste in your mouth signals the end of your stupor. Your heart is loud in your ears, and your breathing ragged, you are sure why. But with start you are broken from your place, hopping over your lords corpse and grabbing his sword you dash towards the fighting monsters. What greets you very nearly roots you in place a second time, it appears that in the scarce moment that you spent to arm yourself the battle between the Flesh beast and the Demon Goliath turned into a murderous frenzy of blows and injury. The flesh beast has impaled the Goliath through one of its eyes with one of its lengths of iron, and from the slowly reforming of one of its arms and the steaming mass of smoldering rock and flesh nearby that it managed to rip one of them off. The Goliath meanwhile is finally tearing down the last of the Flesh beasts defenses, reduced to a single charred arm which the demon strikes again and again with terrifying force.

This is your moment a chance for glory that shall not be wasted! Blessed Radiant Steel sword in hand you run forth into the yard, choking back tears at the stench of burning flesh and sulfur, and with a mighty heave you lash out at the back leg of the busied demon, cleaving a great torrent of steaming ash and cinder, its limb succumbing greatly to the lords hatred for such abominations. The effect is immediate, and the demon stumbles, losing its footing and falling into the flesh beast, which outstretches its last arm and impales the demon on its iron rod. The Goliaths last arm wriggles wildly for a few moments before wrapping around the creatures arm and tearing it off, collapsing to the ground.

For a moment you inspect your handiwork and wonder if you may have killed the creature, the wound you inflicted upon its leg turning black and dull, the heat dying to your blade, the stone nearly snapping the leg off under the strain of the demon. But it begins to stir, and so does the now arm-less flesh beast, who now spares several grotesque eyes to look at you.

Your strength however does not fail you, and you too are caught in a frenzy of blood lust. Standing aside the back of the slowly rising Demon, you swing down with all your strength, and cleft its lower back, the red hot flesh dying swiftly, but you do not relent, you reel back, and swing again, more flesh dies in its heat, and now you have room to work, burning your hands, you scale the demons lower back, standing upon its cooling and dying flesh, and hack repeatedly and violently , severing chunk after chunk, wearing deeper and deeper into the creature until at least it ceases to stir.

You have brutalized a Demon Goliath! But the nearly destroyed flesh beast is still alive and seems to be slowly standing with great difficulty. You feel greatly expended from all your hacking at demonic flesh. 9/20 stam remains

>Kill the Flesh Beast (2 stamina and a roll)
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
>Write in

Rolled 36 (1d100)

>>1786657
>Kill the Flesh Beast!

Rolled 1 (1d100)

>>1786657
>>Kill the Flesh Beast (2 stamina and a roll)

>>1786721
>>1786710
Give me 3 d100's
best of 3 shooting high.

>>1786783
Woops dropped the trip

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>1786721
>>1786710
Since these two have been abysmal and my patience has ended. Ill roll the final die and commence the writing.
Normally I would only accept rolls after my post but its hard to be a breakout quest , so Ill bend my own rules

>>1786710
> 36 high, with a crit fail modifier.
Your breathing has yet to level out, and you are starting to wet yourself with sweat in this damnable intense heat. Fighting so closely with so infernal a foe is quite unexpectedly taxing and you nearly faint for a moment as cottonmouth creeps up on you and you gain an intense thirst, but you soldier on.

(Lose 3 stam, new total 4/20)

The Flesh beast groans as it stumbles and fails to stand, the charred and still smoking nubs of its 4 arms wriggle uselessly against its body and the greater part of it can do little more than roll to face you, pushing on one grossly deformed leg, more like a tree trunk covered in viscera and ash than a proper leg. It stares at you unblinking with its remaining eyes as you run it through, the flesh around the wound catching fire and swiftly turning to ash, much as the wounds of the demons did. You with-draw your sword and run it through again, and again, until at last its eyes cloud and you feel the creature must be dead. You are nearly at your breaking, exhaustion breaking down the gates of your concentration. You would collapse if a sudden updraft had not blown smoke into the courtyard over the rubble of the dividing wall. The smell is so ghastly you cough uncontrollably, the suffering of it making your eyes water again, and you are forced to awareness by another small dose of Adrenalin, survival instincts pushing you to the limit. You see from your place in the yard that the well that was drawn near the stables has exploded, and the stables themselves are burning. You can hear the horses screaming, and several guardsman, likely those who should have been squashing the fire, burst through the crumbling doors on horseback, fleeing out the opened gate.

Turning your gaze skyward you can scarcely see above you but drifting embers and smoke, but you hear the distinct thwips of arrows soaring overhead. It appears that some manner of defense has been mustered at last and there are archers in the high places of the keep. Across the remains of the lawn, down the steps two knights cautiously march, their attendants in tow, a single paladin behind them. The paladin looks your way but you cannot tell his or her expression through their face plate, or the suffering smoke.

For a moment you feel proud. Like maybe you have done something worthwhile, having slain two mighty foes, however weakened they may have been. But then you remember that your lord is dead, your oaths have all turned to dust. That and that instead of coming to help you to your feet, the men at the keep step have drawn their swords.

That is about the moment when you notice it. The steady shaking, much like that which gripped you when you and Lawrence were heading to the armory.

You force yourself to stand leaning hard on the holy blade, and turning, face the quickly melting debris of the wall, and atop it two more Goliaths step, followed by many more horrible creatures that your mind fails to understand.

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>>1787154
Among their height and beneath their legs crawl terrible things, with limbs like black spiders and eyes full of hate. Some have as few limbs as four, and come in almost pretty shades of red and obsidian, and the larger, more cruel looking stare you down with heads full of wicked intelligent eyes and arms covered in claws like longswords.

>Run to the stables, there may still be horses alive in there.
>Run, just run.
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
>Write in

Rolled 54 (1d100)

>>1787165
>Run to the stables, there may still be horses alive in there.

Rolled 62 (1d100)

>>1788440
Seconding. Ain't gonna die yet.

>>1788706
>>1788440
The time it takes you to start moving from the time you noticed the horde behind you passes without notice. What does not pass notice to you is that your legs are already moving without your thinking and you are sprinting recklessly away from the now hurried thumps, scrapes, hissing, and ethereal screeching coming from behind you. You utterly ignore the paladin and the knights. They are less than a roadblock for the horde behind you, they are a speed bump, radiant lord above you pray it is enough for you to make safe escape.

You reach the stable in short order, the fire that was only creeping when the guards left their posts is now climbing the walls quite swiftly.
Making your way inside, there are still several closed pens, but the smoke makes it hard to tell which are occupied. What makes it easier is the terrified whinnies and screams coming from the horses towards the back of the stable. Walking farther in you unlatch all the doors you pass, a few horses bolting, the men in the yard wont be needing them you think.

You get to the last stall, the fire glowing behind you. You open the stall to a particularly spooked stallion who nearly tramples you to leave.

Roll some d100s to climb the horse as it flees

Rolled 65 (1d100)

>>1789644
Rolling

Rolled 39 (1d100)

Got this shit.

Rolled 93, 84, 30 = 207 (3d100)

And ill fill in one more and a couple rolls for otherstuff

>>1790979
Well then. Good and bad. okay. writing

>>1790979
Grabbing hold of a lock of mane with one hand and back with the other you manage to swing yourself onto your stolen mount with surprising ease. For a moment you even feel you may have looked stylish.

Galloping out past the broken doors to the stable you ride out into the courtyard and turn swiftly towards the open gates, trying hard to put the punished screams of the men you are leaving out of your mind. What little you saw was not hopeful, and near at your back for nearly a dozen paces you hear the hissing and scraping of the more spiderlike demons giving chase. But you ride hard and fast, and the sounds die quickly behind you. As you ride onto the street you see the madness that has unfolded since the calamity began. Much of the streets is blocked with debris and the bodies of the fallen, some trampled, and many others, in half complete uniforms the charred bodies of what you must assume to be the many troops garrisoned around the keep. Many of the small four limbed demons crawl here, though they do not make any moves to attack as you ride past. The foul things congregate among the dead and crawl upon them sucking a ethereal mist from the air which glows softly and disappears within them. The though of what they might be doing frightens you, but the streets here are tight and hard to ride and you do not wish to risk a fight in these conditions.
Riding a ways further into the inferno of smoke and fire it doesn't take you long to realize you are riding without a plan and stop to decide at a intersection blocked with burning corpses and more of the strange creatures feasting, unphased by the flames and stench around them. (+1 stamina for resting on horseback 5/20)

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>>1791176
You still carry Lawrence's sword with you, and slowly it seems to be dawning on you how unwieldy it is. You feel a sheath would have helped you here, but time and sensibility was not with you at the time.

Here nearing the heart of the burning city, surrounded by death, you can hear the distant cries of people who must be trapped in a stretch of buildings back the way you came and closer to the demon horde who stormed and are probably just finishing dismantling the keep.

You are also only a few turns away from a through road that can lead you farther out of the city towards the boroughs. If there are still soldiers mustering to defense you would surely run into them running that road which is a lifeline to the keep you had fled from.

The inferno consuming the city has finally reached a zenith, the smoke and whirlwinds of ash have nearly rendered the road untraversable. Its likely wherever you go you will have to stay until the wind moves in and clears enough air to move freely again.

The cultists are still no where to be seen, however you have seen many smaller abominable creatures burning alongside the other myriad creatures, though none as big as the one which fought the goliath.

What shall you do?

>Head towards the trapped shouts
>Head towards the through road
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
>Write in

Low on Stam, it's hard to fight, demons everywhere. Go to the through road, recover a bit. Maybe we can find some better armor on one of these corpses everywhere too.

>>1791698
I second that.

>>1791698
Supporting this

>>1791698
Your strength has yet to recover, and your horse is looking quite rough as well. That coupled with the ominous thumping and scraping you hear down the street into the smoke gives you all the information you need. Anyone still that far into the blaze is dead already, and you don't want to be a dead man.

(Cowardice has damaged your point total!)

You turn your steed to follow the narrow streets leading away and towards the road, neatly making your way through several nearly empty alleys fighting back coughing fits in the haze of slowly clearing smoke. It takes a few minutes but as you approach the main road you slowly start to hear the cries of people again, though far fewer than you were expecting, breaking onto the open through road you are greeted by many small groups carrying the half dead and the nearly dead between them from farther up the road. Here where the wind can fight better, you can see much farther, and down the road away from the keep several small barricades have been assembled of tables and scrap wood as well as other supplies, ahead of them, there are several piles where piles of the smaller demons have been heaped dead, it seems at least those are no great threat. Turning the other way you see that down the road towards the keep the fire is rising still, and the wall of heat blowing off the wind is intense to be sure. A great pillar of flame is risen up and it fire great plumes of ash and dust into the sky. You arent sure how you missed it before but that column is coming from just about where the keep must be, or at least used to be. The ominous rumbling continues.

Among the men manning the barricades you see quite a few men of the inquisition, as well as a number of locals who are taking arms with them. As you are noticing this you see an unnatural shape moving between the furthest of the defenders and you grip your sword tighter.

>Investigate the rumbling
>Investigate the unnatural shape
>assist the wounded civilians
>Do some Big Damn Hero stuff! (Write in)
>Write in

Rolled 68 (1d100)

>>1793600
>assist the wounded civilians

Rolled 86 (1d100)

Fuck that, we have a mob of armed men, and a spoopy Shadow coming to fuck them up. We need back them up. We should advance with our friends and back up our brothers in arms. Rally them, and lead them to victory, or at least a daring last stand

>>1793600
>Investigate the unnatural shape

>>1793814
>>1794042
Investigate the shape? Rally the troops? Can I get a final word on this from someone?

>>1794815
Fuck it, rally the troops