Play@YSDC

Tobias fired a near-perfect shot as well, dealing what appears to be grievous amounts of damage.

Gun Impale damage,[dice]0[/dice]

Taking some mild liberties here. Beth fumbled her attack roll, but I'm making that failure more cinematic.

Daniel fires yet again. Beth is clearly in bad shape, but some sort of unholy adrenaline seems to be fueling the Wild Woman. Her grin bloody, she looks close to ecstasy.

"I am going to mount you, little man. You will die slowly, and I will savor every minute of it."

The Tree begins to drain Sheriff Mabel, who screams and thrashes about ineffectively,the mace still preventing her from putting up much of a resistance. Seeming annoyed by being shot, it reaches out and grabs Alex, who joins the sheriff in being entangled by the tree and brought closer to it.

Beth hardly seems to notice any of this.Reaching out, she swipes at Daniel once again, her nails aiming for his juicy neck. She's so intent on this she does not noticte how she leaves herself open, and Catherine blast hits her directly in her midsection. Not much of it is left after the shot. Indeed she is nearly split in two. She survives long enough to look down at her wound, surprised, before she collapses to the ground in a heap.

Karen blinks, spares one final look at her dead "instructor" and crumbles to her knees, sobbing. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she babbles other things, but few of them are coherent thoughts. The knife she had held falls to the ground. "Uncle, I'm sorry!"

Tobias shoots the tree. It's a nice shot, and a little of its bark is destroyed, but it will clearly take many shots to fully destroy.

OOC:   Everyone can roll psychology on Karen if they like. Daniel and Karen are the only ones still in reach of the tree, but it has its branches full at the moment with its two prisoners. Daniel can easily get himself and Karen away from the Tree's reach. Are you all planning to run, or are you going to try and save the two cultists still in its grip?

With the beast dead, Daniel drops his shotgun and grabs Karen, intent on getting her as far away from this place as possible. He'll carry her if he has to. As he moves he shouts to his companions, "I'm not sure there's anything we can do for Peter or the other two!"

Catherine nods, not wanting to tangle with the tree. She follows Daniel and Karen away from it. "Now that we've found her, we need to get her out of here," she says. "We need to be well away before it gets dark."

“We still have around five hours of daylight left. Let’s make sure The Tree gets taken care of. The centre of worship had always been the tree. I think...we can make an attempt to save the two. I have something resembling a plan: Herbicide is flammable, and while it wasn’t as effective as I hoped it was...the chemicals and the fire combined should at least intimidate it enough to stop thrashing its branches about. I’ll back Daniel up with an improvised spray of herbicide and fire while he rescues the two. Daniel, you are obviously the fastest out of all of us.” Tobias said, and for a moment, he fumbled slightly to get out the Elder Sign-embedded wallet and handed it to Daniel. “This...is a ward. Take it. It should offer some modicum of protection against the tree while you’re out there.”

Then, Tobias turned his worried gaze towards Karen, “...Karen, are you okay? Do you...want to talk about it?” His voice trembled. He realised that he doesn’t know how to react in this situation. For the first time in a while, he felt helpless, he doesn’t know how to help Karen and he doesn’t know what to make of his granddaughter at the moment.

Psychology 60%,[dice]0[/dice]

"It's all right now, Karen," says Catherine soothingly. She has some understanding of what the girl is thinking. "What happened wasn't your fault."

OOC,Psychology roll (65% skill) about [b]Karen[/b]: [dice]0[/dice]

To their relief, Tobias and Catherine can see that Karen's sobbing is genuine. She seems like a very frightened girl at the moment. Beth had evidently held her in some sort of trance, and the Wild Woman's death had snapped her out of it.

"The things they did to me... They were going to make me like her. She said it wouldn't take as long as it did with her, I'm from Geverlon..." She says, continuing to sob. "I just want to go home. I wish I hadn't come here!"

“Listen, Karen. This place isn’t your home; your home is with your mother Rachel and your uncle, and the rest of your family. They aren’t any more or less family just because of the fact that you’re adopted. Are you unsatisfied with your life back home? We only want the best for you, we really do. The people here at Geverlon...not so much, to them, ‘family’ is only valuable when they’re serving their Dark Goddess. And she couldn’t care less about these worshippers of hers. Do you know what that tree was?” Tobias pointed to the tree as he gently gave Karen his jacket. ”Once upon a time, that tree was a human being. As human as you and me. The Dark Mother changed him into that tree, and then he remained trapped here in this blasted forest in a town stuck in the middle of nowhere. Tell me, if the Dark Mother really gave a damn about her followers, why had she never bothered to free this tree of its bounds? Why did this tree ruthlessly slaughter it’s own comrades and followers for no reason beyond gaining sustainance? They don’t care. Once they transcends the boundaries of humanity, everything related to human society become irrelevant to them, they become exactly like Shub-Niggurath, the dark god that they worship: alien, uncaring, and ultimately, selfish individual who cares not a fig of the religious worshippers that follows them.”

Fast Talk 65%,[dice]0[/dice] [ooc]That...um, I think that counts as a success.[/ooc]

"I think she understands that," says Catherine. "Don't worry, Karen, we'll get you back home."

OOC,Yes, that's a success.

Daniel is a little bewildered by Tobias' suggestion, but he realizes that they shouldn't leave the scene as it is. He takes the ward, "Tobais why don't you leave me with the herbicide and lighter as well. You two take Karen back to the car and I'll catch up."

“Very well. I imagine that rescuing civilians should be a duty for the men in uniforms anyways. Regardless of their past crimes...they deserves a fair trial in court, not a shameless death dying beneath that...tree. Are you sure you’ll be okay with doing this yourself?” Tobias said, agreeing with Daniel. He can do what he wants. “I doubt there’ll be anymore difficult confrontations, so it would make sense for us to escort Karen back to the car...Catherine, are you okay with leaving Daniel here?”

Daniel nods, "I'll be alright. Y'all go on."

OOC:   Have we figured out the tree's reach, and whether any of the Wild Men "statues" are within that?

"If you're sure," says Catherine. "Be careful, Daniel. All right, Karen, let's get to the car."

Tobias leaves with the two and heads for the car.

OOC:   I'll say the tree's range with its branches is decently far. Daniel's not currently in it, but if he wants to try and burn it he'll need to be. Luckily(?) for him, the branches are all occupied at the moment with its prey. The statues, there's a few of them that are within range of the tree, but most of them are spread out further away, closer to the other investigators at the other side of the glade.

Karen looks alarmed that Daniel is staying behind, but the promise of leaving this place behind seems to focus her. Nodding at Tobias' words, she goes with the others.

Daniel heads for the statues closest to the tree and starts to burn them, keeping his eyes on the tree the whole time. If he is successful he'll work his way out until all the Wild Men are burning. He'll grab the shotgun he dropped too.

OOC:   My actual plan was to get rid of the Wild Men while the tree was occupied. They will become mobile at night and who knows how far they can range in that time.

Daniel is fortunate that Tobias knew what he was doing when he was preparing for this. He's got enough makeshift fuel to finish the job.