A Herbal Remedy [Closed] [Finshed]

Lightning watched as a couple Radhogs were shot dead and one wounded pretty badly. The herd wasn't as intimidating now that it was a little smaller but still, the pegasus felt that it was best to try and pull back and run. Hearing Cross yell not to shoot, he quickly thought the order over in his head before saying, "Pull back and don't get hit! Shoot only if necessary!" No need to waste ammo, right?

With two already down, Lightning decided to finish off the slightly injured Radhog, wanting to eliminate that threat. He reloaded his SMG quickly and aimed at the Radhog. Pulling the trigger, he let out a three round burst.

(Shooting Radhog 5. Gun 65. Luck 4. Roll: 63 + 15 = 78)

Scrap was backpedaling as he watched his shots tear through the radhog he had targeted. Satisfied that it was dead he sighted his lightning pistol on the next radhog he saw, the one that Blazen had nicked with one of his shots. Still backpedaling he squeezed off two shots, sending bolts of deadly electric energy lancing toward the radhog.

(Rolling to shoot radhog 5, Energy Weapons 50, Luck 6, Roll 82+13=95, Roll 2 4+13=17)

Sky and lightning hit the same one radhog, That one died next one to go. Sky looked around while hovering, She saw one had tried to attack winter and missed the attack. Sky took this opportunity to attack the radhog, She aimed for the creature and attacked.

(Rolling to attack Radhog 1. GUNS 79.luck 5. 82+17=99)

Cross glared as the radhogs piled up in front of his shield like a herd of cows running off a cliff...it was glorious, he let out a laugh, it was just so funny how much damage that single spell prevented on the group. But something happen, two radhogs had gotten past the shield, one hitting Atriark and the other ran straight for Winter nearly catching her. Cross's amusement died at the moment. Immediatly he dropped the shield and marched to the where Winter and Atriark were and stomped his hoof into the dirt, raised his horn and called out.

"....When pigs fly...." Then the hogs were wrapped in magic....

( Magic 100, Luck 9, Telekinetically launching Hogs 1 & 7 skyward at an angle, 1st roll: 95+25=120, 21+25=46)

Winters eyes widened as the Radhog closed the gap, nearly ripping at her with it's grotesque tusks before she managed to glide away from the attacks. She jumped back, moving away from the Radhog as she charged her Anaesthetic Spell, normally used for Medicine. Her horn shone an aura of blue hich brightened as she got ready to use it, however she suddenly stopped as the Radhog was taken in another magical aura which she knew could only belong to Cross. After feeling relieved now she had some more breathing space she took the opportunity to aim her spell at another as she targeted the next one she could see. She saw the Radhog and decided to use her gun after using her spell on it, so she would possibly have a better chance to kill it.




(Rolling for Radhog 6 to incapacitate then shoot. Magic: 47. Guns: 16. Luck 5. Roll 1: 38+5 = 43. Roll 2: 9+3 = 12)

Atriark lined up his shot, taking careful aim he let off a shot. The bullet hit the boar but it didn't drop it, if anything it seemed to make the swine angry. It was drawing dangerously close now, Atriark fired off a shot and tried to dance out of the way of the radhog's swing, but he was too slow. One of the swine's large tusks caught his leg, cutting it, and knocking him off balance. Atriak stumbled and fell to his haunches.

Atriark knew that he was in trouble. Panic started to rise in Atriark's chest, if he didn't kill the hog, this was gonna hurt.

Atriark tried to get a bead on the hog when he heard Cross's voice, "....When pigs fly...." and then the swine that was preparing to attack Atrairk again was enveloped in a swath of magenta. Without missing a beat, Atriark took aim at the boar and fired off a shot.

(Guns 45. Luck 6. Roll 86 + 12 = 98)

Radhog actions.

With a couple of their brethren dead the radhogs have kind of lost their advantage but they push on regardless! Protect the meal!

Radhog 1: will again attack. Winter.
Radhog 4: will bash against the shield, or failing that it’s tormentor, Cross
Radhog 5: will bash against the shield, or failing that it’s tormentor, Cross
Radhog 6: gets a bit smarter and tries to go around the shield to attack Blazen
Radhog 7: Continues to try and gore Atriark.


Turn order:

Cross
Blazen
Scrap
Ark
Lightning
Radhog 4
Sky
Radhog 5
Radhog 7
Radhog1
Radhog 6
Winter

---------------

Cross decides to send pigs to space

Success!

Radhog number one is suddenly engulfed in a reddish hue and before it can do more than snort in surprise is flung high into the air and only the high pitched squeal can be heard as it disappears over the horizon.

I’ll apply the rule of cool given that it was a crit, the radhog is dead.

He is unable to grasp radhog 7 the beast to entangled with Atriark for a good opening to present itself.



Blazen fires at radhog 4(X 2 attacks)

Roll 1:

1d100+14
82+14 = 96

Hit!

Roll 2:

1d100+14
92+14 = 106

Crit!

Blazen deals 40 damage to Hog 4

Taking a moment to steal himself as the radhogs ran in his general direction on their way towards Cross. He fired the pistol. Two sharp cracks! The Radhog’s charge was slowed somewhat a stream of blood running down the beasts back.


Scrap fires at radhog 5

Hit!

Miss!


Scrap deals 61 damage to radhog 5. Along with the damage sustained previously it is reduced to a laboured crawl and starts turning to run away, limping in agony.


Ark fires at radhog 7 (X 2 attacks, using the same roll twice))

Hit!

Ark deals 18 twice for 36 damage to radhog 7. Radhog 7 snorts and swings its head in another vicious gore before collapsing halfway through, dead apparently 4 10mm shots apparently enough to end the creature's existence.


Lightning fires at radhog 5 (SMG fires twice per round, and we're using double speed attacks so 4 attacks)

Hit!

Lightning deals 40 damage to Radhog 5. Radhog 5 dies in a smoking heap.


Radhog 4 attacks Cross.

Miss!

Crit!

Radhog deals 6 damage to Cross. Bam! Right in the hubris!


Sky’s intended target is dead, so she refocuses on the next living hog on the list radhog 4. (X 2 attacks, using the same roll twice))

Hit!

Sky deals 42 damage to radhog 4. Radhog 4 dies under a fusillade of bullets.


Winter tries to use her magic to hold the radhog 6, then fire at it

Miss!

Miss!

Winter is unable to grasp the writhing hog in her magic and as a result she doesn’t have the focus to accurately hit the creature when she fires.


Radhog 6 senses its impending doom and attempts to run away.

---

The Intrepid Entourage:

Name:	HP:	DT	Cond:
Atriark	216	18
Blazen	285	18
Cross	204	24
Flash	240	11
Scrap	205	25
Sky	230	16
Winter	215	6

Baddies: Angry Radhogs

Name:	Health:	Cond:
Radhog 1	Dead
Radhog 2	Dead
Radhog 3	Dead
Radhog 4	Dead
Radhog 5	Dead
Radhog 6	Healthy
Radhog 7	Dead

---

The party dispatches the remaining radhog before its attempt to flee gets far, and then take a moment to review the carnage and check weapons and injuries.

All around them are the dead bodies of radhogs, and on further inspection, they seemed pretty healthy, there is plenty of meat if the group wishes to collect some for either consumption or selling to merchants (remember, radhog makes good bacon!).

From above, Lightning and Sky spot a large saddlebag on the far side of the brahmin. It appeared to be mostly untouched by the radhogs, so the contents were probably still okay. The strongest stomached party members braved the stench of decomposition and dragged the bag closer to the group. Presumably this brahman belonged to a trader, although there is no sign of him now. Nor any evidence of how the brahmin ended up way out here in the wasteland almost a day’s walk from civilisation.

Opening the bag carefully, the majority of stuff was wasteland trash. Scrap metal, scrap electronics, a flat fission battery, a couple of bottles of dirty water and some trail rations. However, there were two items of particular interest.

• A Caravan shotgun with a box of shells
  
• A set of spiked shoes

((So I didn’t think it was worth having another round of combat for one radhog.))

(Good point)


Blazen, now finished with the battle, looked around and seen that basically everyone was fine except their attackers; the radhogs. He walked over to the bodies, and took out his knife and put his pistol in the holster. He started cutting through the meat using the knife, grabbing what was good in this one radhog(aside from the shrapnel) and looking at the others. He didn't have time to do a thorough look-through, but somehow he knew that atleast this piece of meat was fine. He sat on the ground and covered it with clean cloth, and set it back in his saddlebag. "I can do this a few times for the road, but we dont seem to have much time." He said, and went to another radhog. He cut open the skin, and tried to find the meat that was still good and not touched by shrapnel. He found a single piece, which he covered with another cloth and so on. He got back up, his mouth covered with a small amount of blood and one of his saddlebags slightly having blood on the bottom. He wiped blood on his arm, removing his mouth of the blood but leaving it on his arm.

Lightning smiled as he saw all but one Radhog get taken down and that last Radhog decided to turn tail and run. Thanks to his ability to fly, he had avoided injury but he knew at least one pony had gotten hit. Not sure how badly though.

Before coming to a landing, the pegasus would ascend in altitude and perform a recon scan around the area for more hostiles. Thankfully, it was clear. But one interesting thing caught his eye. A lone saddle bag. Yelling to the ponies below, he said, "Hey! There's a bag over there by the brahmin! It looks like it could have some stuff!"

Scrap heard Lightning yelling about there being a bag over by the dead brahmin. Steeling his stomach and his nose against the smell he went over and levitated the bag over to the rest of the group.

After opening it up Scrap snagged the scrap metal and scrap electronic and left the rest of the bag for the rest of the group to sort through.

The hogs were dead and everypony, except Atriark, was fine. Atriark himself was okay, he just had a cut on the inside of his right thigh. It didn't hurt a lot and it wasn't bleeding a whole lot.

This wasn't the first time Atriark had gotten himself injured and it wouldn't be the last. Quickly rifling through his saddle bags, he found a gauze pad and a strip of cloth. Pouring some water on the wound, Atriark went about dressing to wound. It didn't take him long, he had dressed many wounds with his mother in 113.

As soon as he was finished and made sure the wrappings were tight and wouldn't fall, he trotted over to Cross. "I would like to thank you, you probably saved me from serious injury."

Sky had seen the last of the radhog leave the fighting, She landed with the rest of the group. And a saddle bag was spotted by the group, with Scrap getting...scrap. the rest of the group didn't seem to mind the inside the bags so, Sky took a look inside. Out came the caravan shotgun, and some shells for it.

"Don't mind if i do." Sky said, as she took the shotgun and ammo.

Winter Bell was relieved that the Radhogs were dealt with. She may have missed her shots but it seemed the group was well enough equipped to handle them anyway. She had her gun levitated in front of her until the fleeing Radhog was out of sight before returning it to her saddlebag. She let out a sigh before looking around to see if any pony as hurt, which thankfully no one was. She saw Atriark had taken a hit but nothing too serious or anything he couldn't handle. She trotted with he rest of the group as they approached the Brahmin, trying to push the vile smell away as she focussed on something else. It seemed every pony was taking what could be taken from the Brahmin, all of which ere things she had no need for.

Cross looked over to Ark who had come to thank him.

"It's no problem Ark, I'm here to look out for you guys, someday we might be counting on each other." Cross looked down and noticed his uniform was ripped in a small section with a scratch in his leg....it would heal, but the uniform needed to be repaired. Cross steped back to the front of the group and turned towards them

"Scrap when you get the chance, can you please fix this rip? As for everypony, lets continue onward!"

Sky saw that nopony was going for the spiked shoes, Another chance to get some more goods. Sky quietly got the rest of the of stuff that was in the pack, and dumped them in her saddlebags.

"Hold on a sec Cross before we move on, I'll fix that tear here so it doesn't get any worse. I'll just tear a bit off of the saddlebags from the brahmin and patch the hole with that until I can find something that better matches."Scrap said while telekineticly tearing a strip of the fabric off of the bags, and levitating a needle and thread out of his saddlebags.

(Repair 70, Luck 6, Roll 88+17=105)

Successfully closing the hole in Cross's barding with his makeshift patch Scrap told Cross "all done, we can move on now, it shouldn't pop open or get caught on things now."

Lightning watched the interaction between each pony with a small smile. It was good to see the group starting to work together now. And each pony helped themselves to the contents of the bag without any issues this time. 'Good...maybe now this journey can be that much easier now,' he thought to himself.

Lowering his altitude to where he was hovering over Cross, he gave him a nod of his head. The pegasus was beginning to have a newfound respect for the pony. He may have assisted in attacking the town but Cross was skilled, there was no doubt in that. Looking at everypony, Lightning would stay in the air, keeping his eyes out for any more threats.

The group patched wounds, collected meat, acquired scrap and whatever else of value they could find from the pack and then set off again, heading towards the nearing swamps and the elusive herb. The fight with the radhogs and regrouping afterwards had drawn most of the remaining light of the day from the sky and evening was rapidly approaching. The group would have to make camp soon.

Just as the group began contemplating camping in the open, and began looking for an area that would provide a bit of cover from possible weather and environment issues, they were beginning to get desperate when two things happened; the bulk of the group spied a shallow gully with a few healthy wooded trees to provide some cover from weather and Lightning, who was aloft in the air, spied in the distance a rickety and somewhat foreboding shack atop a ridge, part of a fence still vainly surrounding the property.

As the group neared both things, the pipbucks in the group beeped and the building was tagged as 'Thunderlane's Misery'.

Atriark paused. Thunderlane's Misery flashed across his vision. The did not bode well. With a simple click, Atriark had his EFS up, the pipbuck picking up life and showing them in blue little tick marks. So far, all that were showing were the ones in his party that were in front of the zebra. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thunderlane's Misery...." Atriark began. "Few questions, if we are going in, do we all have to go? And, are we going in?"

As they had walked Winter had began singing to pass the time. Not loudly or open enough that every pony could and would hear, but loud enough that it was more personal to herself then anything else. She liked to sing sometimes, despite not being all that good at it. It was one of the few things the wasteland couldn't take from you. The song was something her mother would sing allot when she was just a filly back in Friendship City. Whenever she heard it she would know her mother was home and would gallop downstairs to see her. Such times were so much easier, back when she knew nothing of the dangers of the outside world. Her farther would tell her there was nasty monsters out there but he wouldn't tell her anything specific. Looking back on it now it as plain that he was just trying to scare her so she wouldn't wonder out of the city. She sighed to herself before looking up as Atriark said something about a place up ahead, "Well that doesn't sound very reassuring" she commented as they were looking for a place to make camp.

Blaze's pipbuck registered the place in front of the group as Thunderlanes Misery. Hopefully this wouldn't include a weird flower. He was close to Winter, not too close but just in the back of the group where he didn't want to disturb anypony. He found her singing (or humming) quite nice, and a welcome addition to the depressing wasteland. He was already in the withdrawal, feeling depressed and worthless. For all he knew, he probably was. He fell in love once, with a courier. But she disappeared, but he knew in his heart that she was alive, somewhere in the wasteland. He smiled, but those chances are slim. The wasteland kills off any to doubt its power, and often leaves no survivors. He had some hope that she was alive. He looked in his pipbuck, scrolling down the miscellaneous section, seeing all the notes he downloaded off the terminals, and found what he was looking for; a single photo showing the two smiling, hugging each other. Such a sad memory, yet such a good one. He continued to look at the photo. No one would be the same like her, no one could. She was special. He put his hoof on the ground and followed the group, walked up a little more by Winter. "You have a very beautiful voice." He said, smiling. But the image on his pipbuck was evident and he glanced back at it. When the friendly Zebra said that if they all had to go in, and if they would, he wondered the same thing.

Lightning kept his EFS on as he continued to provide the aerial surveillance from the sky. It was nice also to not have to walk and gave him a chance to stretch his wings. The sky was like his second home and he savored every opportunity to just take off and fly. As the group continued on their journey, the sun began to set and it was time to set up a campsite. Before he landed through, the pegasus noticed an interesting looking building in the distance.

Flying down to where the others could hear him, Lightning would say, "Well, as what you all could tell from your Pipbucks right now, there is a building off in the distance. It looks clear for now but it may contain some interesting things if we go in." He paused for a second before looking at Cross and saying, "I can provide a fast recon flight of the building if you and perhaps one other pony or zebra, wants to go check it out. The rest of us can set up camp. What do you think?"

Winter jolted a little as the brown buck names Blazen commented on her singing voice. She went a little bit red and gave a sheepish smile before replying, "I.. umm.. thanks" she said as she scratched at the floor with one of her fore hooves.

Cross had make sure to watch the horizon around the road to make sure the group was safe....Winter had a lovely voice, as she sang, the world just seemed, so much clearer, it was as if the voice kept danger away... Cross couldn't help but turn his head slightly over to Winter as he kept his eyes on the road.

"I never knew you had such a beautiful voice Winter, ....its-" but before Cross could finish, they've arrived to something called "Thunderlane's Sorrow", at least thats what he read on his pipbuck. Cross gazed at the shack on the ridge, it didn't seem important enough to send the whole team, perhaps would be a good time to give the junkie a chance to prove his worth, but the other half just wanted him out of his presence since he hardly believed Blazen could get anything done right.

"Flash take Blazen, and scout that Ridge, we'll await any gunshots or signals" Cross then took a glance to the rest of the group, and whispered in Flash's ear

"Make sure he doesn't screw up, watch his every move, this is a test..."

Lightning was a little surprised that Cross was trusting him to lead one of the ponies to the building by himself. But he was confident that he could do it. On Cross' orders to watch Blazen closely, he would just give him a simple nod of understanding. The brown earth pony better listen to him closely if they wanted to sneak up there.

Landing in the ground, the pegasus watched as he spoke with the doctor. He appeared to be complimenting her for something but for what, he couldn't tell. Yelling out to Blazen, he said, "Hey! Blazen! Come over here. You're coming with me to go scout out that building. We got to move now before the sun goes too far down!" Lightning would look back at Cross and say, "This shouldn't take long. If we're gone for too long, don't hesitate to send a pony to come find us." Motioning with his head to Blazen, he would begin to head to the ridge, hoping to get close enough to see what's inside before night falls.