The Ancient Depths: Scene 3

Simona lowers the club a little while still waving it a little as if she could use it at any time. She is sure she needs to listen to this creature. Without further information she is certainly lost. She nods to the creature as an invitation to start speaking. He opens his mouth to speak but then his eyes open widely in shock, looking at something past Simona’s shoulders. She knows better than to suddenly turn her head but takes a small step back and turns carefully in the direction of what surprised the creature.¹

Through the doorway behind he walks in another creature. This creature is identical in every way to the other, down to the club hanging off its belt and crossbow in hand. The crossbow is loaded but pointed to the ground. The new creature is smiling a terrifying smile, exposing its lower teeth.² The smile turns into a snarl as the new creature turns its gaze on the creature of the floor. It raises the crossbow and moves to fire.³

Simona sees the look in the eye of the new creature and raises her club. She takes a small step to the left, waving the weapon to interrupt (or at least distract) the shot that is surely about to come. And come it does, the bolt passing close by Simona on the way to the creature still prone on the ground. Not taking her eyes off her current foe, Simona hears a grunt of pain from the creature.

With the new creature holding a now-empty crossbow, Simona takes firm but small steps towards it. She raises her club and moves herself completely between the two.⁴ Before she can make any threat or serious move, the creature gives another strange toothy smile and turns and runs back into the darkness. She resists a very strong urge to give chase, and turns back to the prone creature. His face is caught in a grimace, and she can see that his right arm is wounded where the crossbow bolt scraped across it.

In this moment, Simona decides she truly needs an ally and has little to no choice as to who that is. The creature clearly needs help from someone, so he has likely been mostly honest in what he has said and done so far. So she asks him, “Can you help me find shelter?”⁵

The creature nods, so she cuts him loose, hands him his club and asks, “which way?”

Scene was going to start with “Simona rolls a rock over near the creature so she can sit down while it talks; explaining what it needs from her.” Scene check: 4 vs CF 4. Does not start as expected, interrupt scene.
Event Focus: 42 (NPC -ve, assume the Bladesage-speaking creature as all other NPCs are topside)
Event Meaning: 51/43 imitate gladly ↩
Does it speak to Simona (Very likely)? Extreme no. This event is aready an NPC negative… ↩
Simona has a chance to interrup the shot. Via Risus: her Enforcer (3) vs Creature (2). 10 vs 10. Tie, it hits the creature. Ask Mythic, does it kill him (50/50)?: No. ↩
What is the intention of this doppelganger?, CQ: 46/62 Happy obscurity. ↩
Nearly certain. Yes. ↩