My pleasure. Very fun.

Thanks for the game. 🙂

Good game, y'all. Grab anything from here you want to keep. I'll archive this when I get back from my travels.

About an hour later, the sheriff arrived at the hole, some of the less confused "singers" were with him. He found Maria sitting by the rim of the well, head in her hands, her face and arms covered in cuts. "Pecks and scratches" was all she would say about them. Her injuries were described in the final police report as "likely self-inflicted." There was no sign of Malcolm or Coupard or any of the townsfolk who went into the hole when the seal crumbled. One local man were found on the ground between the hole and the tree line. He was shot dead, but the gun used to shoot him was never found. Maria was arrested and charged with his murder. She later confessed. Dr. Livingston used all her influence to get Maria moved to a hospital for treatment, but Maria was hanged four months later. Agnes Livingston left the state and never returned. The creatures, too, were gone. All of them. Black feathers were found everywhere, but none of the carcasses of the creatures remained. The sheriff's report, under "Notes," read "Mass hysteria?" "Cult?" "Murder-suicide?" But all had been scratched out. Dealing with the fall-out from what happened at the farm took the sheriff weeks. Other reports piled up on his desk that he never looked at. One of those reports was of a young girl named Stephanie Ramirez at the South Carolina Hospital for the Insane. She died of a self-inflicted wound to her skull and brain with a mattress spring. The doctor called it "the most tenacious and pernicious attempt at self-harm" he ever seen. The attending nurse reported that late in the night Stephanie became agitated and kept calling out, "Es la hora. Ellos se van. Yo también debo ir." Her body was not found until the nurse brought her breakfast in the morning.   The End

... and slips, and falls, arms flailing helplessly, fingers ripping themselves bloody on the side of the chasm without being able to grab hold of anything. For an instant, his terror-crazed mind makes him think that he has become one of the bird-things, that his quest for true magic has given him wings and that he's flying through the endless vastness of space. And then he hits the ground, and the illusionist's last, feeble illusion is crushed right out of him along with everything else.

As soon as we get a swan song post from @Sir Lazeabout, I'll make a wrap-up post to end our game. I'm headed south for an international work trip early Monday morning, so I'll make my final post by Sunday evening regardless.

Well, that's terrible, but not un-fitting. 😄 I'll give you the same options as I gave matt_s. Malcolm is done, but you can go out on your own terms. Fall to your death, fight the birds and be devoured, something else. Up to you.

Dexterity it is... ETA: It's practically a comfort to see that my luck has stayed consistent right up to the end. 😉

Breath in his throat, Malcolm tries to make the crossing...

@Sir Lazeabout, your turn. But since you are still possession of all your faculties, you only need a simple success to get across alive.

The birds didn't following Malcolm en masse. Rather, they continued their chaotic migration toward the hole behind the distraught man. Any of the creatures that Malcolm collided with paused long enough for a scratch or a peck, but the fact that he was not getting in their way seemed sufficient for the moment. Malcolm reached the makeshift bridge not long after Coupard did. The open area above the hole was already swarming with the black greasy creatures.

Sorry for the slowness. Update coming tomorrow.

Malcolm breaks and runs, whimpering like an animal in pain as he tries to race in the direction he dimly remembers the exit was.

You could attempt an escape. Escape is possible if you make it alive over the bridge. Up to you if you want to try.

Eh... is there really anything I reasonably could do at this point, or would it be easier if we just declared that I was horribly pecked to death? 😉 

One of the awful creatures took a chunk out of Malcolm's neck before he was able to swat it away. It's feathers felt greasy against his skin.

Bird damage   @Sir Lazeabout, that's 1 HP of damage. You can now take an action. What do you do?

Coupard in his blind panic slipped on the crude bridge, and he fell headlong over the side. His body crashed into the floor of the pit, and Coupard was gone. All that he had ever known or felt, a first love in secondary school, late nights drinking and cavorting with friends out on a dig site, the joy of discovery late into the night in his laboratory, a raucous celebration of tenure, the simple pleasure of a walk in the fresh night time air, the entirety of Tristan Coupard was splattered in a grotesque display far from any light or eyes.

Good game indeed I'll post up something tonight hopefully.

I guess it's Dodge - Malcolm doesn't have much fight in him at the moment...

@matt_s, well, since it looks like Malcolm is about to meet his maker, you can decide how. Does he fall into darkness, never to be seen again. Does he stumble across the bridge and get devoured by bird creatures. Does he fall and break his neck. I'll let you decide and post. Good game. 😄 @Sir Lazeabout, are you rolling Dodge or Fighting?

Malcolm flails around, trying to rid himself of the loathsome attackers. He keeps running, though he can no longer tell which direction he's heading in - all that matters is getting away.

DEX should be higher than untrained either of those. 43 DEX, need 21 for hard success. ... and looks like Coupard is BOUND FOR THE HOLE 🥳 (even if he burned literally every point of luck)

The creatures began to detach themselves from the tunnel ceilings and flying for the exit. In seconds the tunnels were filled with a blinding wall of feathers, beaks, and talons. Three of the closest creatures to Malcolm alighted on him and began pecking at his face and neck. Coupard, in his blind terror, put his first foot upon the makeshift bridge and his hand upon the rope with little thought to his own safety. A wall of angry alien creatures was amassing behind him.

Three of the creatures alight upon Malcolm and begin pecking him. I used the command line and screwed the rolls up. Trying again. @Sir Lazeabout, that's a regular success for one of the critters. You can try to dodge the attack, or you can try to fight back. Roll either Fighting or Dodge. If you roll Fighting, you will need a "Hard Success" (1/2 your skill) to avoid damage and to deal damage of your own. If you roll Dodge, any success will be a miss for the critter. @matt_s as you hit the makeshift bridge, you need to roll to get successfully across. I'll take Climb, Jump, or Dexterity, but since you are panicked and insane, you need to a hard success (1/2 your skill).