Well this is my first attempt at writing out a narrative battle report. So any comments, critiques, support or just plain joking is welcome.

Emotional Trauma on the Bayou

Crews: Pandora vs Lady J
Strategy: Claim Jump
Location: Hag`s Territory
Special: Foggy


Pandora's Crew

Schemes: Grudge: Witchling
Kidnap: Guild Guard, Death Marshal, Drill Sgt (she didn’t know totems weren’t minions, no big deal)

Crew: Pandora
Poltergeist
Cady
Kade
Stitched Together
Insidious Madness
Sorrow

Lady J's Crew

Schemes: Grudge: Kade
Kill Protégée: Cady


Crew: Lady Justice
Drill Sgt
Santiago
2 Death Marshals
Witchling
Guild Guard



Intro:

On one of her long range patrols into the bayou, Lady Justice entered a small dry clearing and happened upon a struggle. With her heightened hearing she perceived shouts and yells everywhere; but it was the report of peacebringers that caught her attention. Could this be the illegal trade market set up in the Bayou by the filthy ressers she was looking for?
Lucius’s spies had uncovered rumours of the smuggling ring and had been investigating when the Judge had discovered the same during a routine interrogation. How Lucius had known of what the Judge had heard before he even was able to bring it to Justice’s ear was unsettling. Lucius arrived while Judge was being debriefed by Justice and had requested that the Judge be dispatched with his marshals as well as one of his own representatives to the Bayou. Justice as well as others have recently been suspicious of Lucius’s motives and decided to restructure the crew. She spoke with Samael and requisitioned a witchling for support and added in a promising new deputy (Death Marshal in training) who once was a Drill Sergeant in the Guard. She reassigned the Judge, much to his protestations and led the group out into the Wilds. It wasn’t glory she was after but the street whispers of Seamus attending this month that brought her out of Malifaux.
Another shriek and echo of a peacebringer brought her out of her musings; she was disturbed by the ease of her distraction. Was someone was trying to cloud her thoughts? Her marshals were already into the fray dispatching the few remaining Neverborn entities which seemed to have killed the last gunslingers there.
Justice heard a moan and cussing under two large stuffed sacks of entrails; out from between emerged wounded and very enraged Santiago Ortega. “Oh it’s not done yet you filthy puta, not by a long shot!” He quickly glanced around and settled his gaze on Justice, with a barely perceivable nod from her he ordered the Marshalls to the other side of the clearing and into a wooded area.

Turn One:

Pandora heard the fighting from the clearing die down. A spirit of sorts emanating sorrow came up to her and spoke in eerie whispers. “Those cursèd Ortegas received support from more of those ugly human animals.” Pandora swore under her breath; “This won’t do, I’m so close I can feel it calling out to me.” Suddenly an angry echo of “Puta!” rebounded throughout the bayou trees. An evil smile formed on Pandora’s lips. “Well at least that plaything is still there for my amusement.” She ordered her Woes deeper into the swamp; progress was slow to all but not to the constantly gibber madness as it floated above the fetid waters. “I’m getting tired of all this walking in water, its ruining my dress,” said the pouting little girl beside Pandora. “Hush Candy we’re almost there and it will be time to play soon. Besides if you’re tired of walking in water you can always walk on water…” With a tilt of her head Candy stated to sing “going to Grandma’s house” and slowly rose to the surface of the mud and skipped along ahead of the group dragging her sorrow behind her.
“Justice, there is something in that grove of trees that Pandora desperately wants. We’ve been tracking her for days now and she always preferred to evade then fight but today she left a large part of her forces to ward this clearing and stop us. We must push on!” growled Santiago as they ran. “Lead the way, we’ll be right behind,” Justice replied as they all crossed a shallow stream into the trees.

Turn Two:

“Kade!” yelled Pandora. “Quit playing in the mud and go help your sisters and brothers.” The toddler she was addressing drew himself up to his full height of eighteen inches glared a menacing stare at her well beyond his apparent years. He clumsily ran to catch up; his very worn and mended teddy clutched in his chubby arms. Further on the opposite side of Pandora was another shambling sack of rough cloth ambling over the soggy ground exuding clouds of unnatural fog. Its stitched face and bailing hooks for hands gave this animated sack a very wicked appearance.
Santiago his temper now slightly cooled by exertion after the long hard run through the saturated ground came to a halt. His vision was hampered by all the vegetation. “Blast it! I can’t see very far with all these blankets of moss and vines hanging from trees,” he said in a cautious low tone. The others had caught up to him by now. The witchling, having little trouble where others often stumbled, had actually surpassed them and moved to ward a flank. “This infernal heat and humidity is not helping,” grumbled the guardsman. Just then, Santiago noticed that while her ever silent marshals were with them that Justice was nowhere to be seen. Something had pulled Lady Justice to the outskirts of the foliage. She knew that while the bayou’s hanging foliage and great moss covered trees would hamper her comrades vision it did nothing to her hearing or second sight. She even thought she heard a little girl singing and giggling somewhere in the distance.
Pandora urged her unsettled spirit companion on and moved with some difficulty towards her prize. She thought she seen the rune carved stone marker in the distance just ahead of Candy. She swore than girl had two speeds; doddle or run. Candy was too far off and Pandora didn’t risk a shout due to the change in the tone of the gibbering mass of mouths which usually indicated humans were near.

Turn Three:

Justice perceived this strange little girl merrily skipping closer to her. Not being new to this side of the Breach, she never took things at face value. How would a lone girl survive all the gremlins and other dangers in the bayou? Candy’s foot caught on an exposed root and she stumbled, dropping her basket of sweets, cakes and the sharpest pair of scissors anyone had ever seen. “She was a Neverborn trick,” Justice thought to herself; “another blasphemy in human flesh!” She unsheathed her great sword and charged towards the girl who casually side stepped the blow. However, the return swing caught her completely by surprise; “how could a blade that large be wielded with such finesse and grace?” she thought to herself as her mangled body dropped to the ground. Her spirit left the body to find shelter of another; Nekima and Lilith came to mind and she realised…such were the women of Malifaux.
Pandora seen that retched redhead run at her poor, defenceless girl and destroy her body. “You will know despair beyond anything!” she shouted and walked up power filling her body. She opened her puzzle box and let loose her feelings of hatred and frustration. Lady Justice succumbed to the intense self-hatred and abnormal compulsion to cut herself with the base edge of her sword. With that pain released, she was hit by horrible visions and pain previously unknown drove her to run blindly away, tripping over roots and scrambling on hands in knees.
“God defend us, what is that thing?!” yelled the horrified guard pointing to a nearby tree. The gibbering many mouthed creature of tentacles materialised from the trunk of a swollen tree in the midst of the guardsman, witchling and deputy. The tentacle mass started to pulse and change colours. Reality warped in its presence: up was right, down was pink everything had lost perspective. The witching’s ingrained training saved him as he tried to purge the area but was unable to do so; he advanced to the nearby beast. The runeblade glowed hotly in his hands and he struck the creature down in an explosion of colour and sound. But the horrible visions had left their mark; the guardsman, witchling and deputy felt drained and in pain even though no wounds showed.
Santiago noticed a toddler waddle up to him; the babe barely balancing as it held its teddy in one arm and suckled its thumb in the other. “What manner of vile evil would capture a child and let him loose here! Were you planning to sacrifice this young one Pandora? Well, you shall not have him!”

Turn Four:

Santiago noticed a sorrowful spectre advance on him as he used his body to place himself between the abhorrent Neverborn and the child. Only the death marshals stalking in the distant flank seen the baby pull a carving knife from the teddy and burry it deep in Santiago’s back. Blinding pain and fury filled his head and a scream ripped from his throat. He turned around to seek his assailant but only found the child with terror-filled eyes, clutching to his leg. Movement caught Santiago’s eye as the sorrow tried to move to his flank. Just as he turned, Kade seen another chance; the babe jumped for the knife, grabbed the handle and used his full weight to drag the blade free. On his way down, he returned the knife to Santiago’s lower back. Santiago’s vision faded to black… The witchling and guardsman had seen the baby’s final blow and tried to attack him but what at first seemed a bumbling babe now moved with the grace of one of the Star Theatre’s dancers and avoided every blow.
Pandora muddled the minds and emotions of those nearby, causing havoc with their response times. She enjoyed that so much.
Hearing the screams of her comrades Justice cleared her thoughts and oriented herself to return.

Turn Five:

Pandora continued to play with the emotions of her prey, allowing her to slip past them. The marshals creeping in from the sides were more of a problem; they resisted her traumas. Kade attacked the witchling with no pretense of innocence, slashing wildly with his knife. The witchling defended itself and retaliated but with all the mental anguish he suffered succumbed to the numerous cuts. The guardsman stabbed the daemon baby right in his chest but to his horror as he withdrew the blade, he saw only the teddy was harmed. “I know I got you, you little runt. What dark joke is this?!” he yelled in fear.
The marshals ran in. “This small spawn must be dealt with!” one yelled to the other and shot the little one. Wounded, his reflexes now slowed. The other marshal closed and engaged Kade, slashing his peacebringer blade into the babe thus ending his killing spree.
The rotten sack of cloth saw its chance. With the marshal’s back turned, it took a gamble and hurled its lantern. Through pure luck, the lantern impacted with such force that it killed the marshal without the need of the fire it contained. The marshal shot as he fell to the ground and missed the sack. The back of his head smashed like a rotten pumpkin.
Justice charged Pandora, sword ready at the hip, but somehow missed as she slashed the young woman known to all as Pandora.

Turn Six:

Pandora continued to assault the battered minds of the deputy and guardsman. With their heads so full of horrible thoughts and visions, they fell flaccidly to the ground. She then focused her emotions onto Lady Justice again; filling her with a sense of self-loathing. The continued onslaught of negative emotions was too much and Justice fell limp to the moss covered ground. The remaining death marshal took careful aim and shot the sack of cloth twice. With only a few remaining stiches holding it together, it ruptured; spilling out rotten human remains that it had obviously been stuffed with. The lone marshal never did see the poltergeist floating up behind him. His last conscious thought was “failure” as his breath was ripped from his lungs by the specter.

Conclusion:

An unscathed Pandora retreated bearing her prize: a rune etched waystone. If legend held true, when sprinkled with Soulstone powder, the stone issued a faint beam of light to point the way to a vault of arcane lore. She heard more motion coming from the distance. “More filthy pink skins,” she thought.
Justice awoke in a small room with a few beds. Her head hurt something awful and her arms were heavily bandaged. She felt a few more presences in the room but with such blinding pain in her mind she couldn’t differentiate who they were. “Calm young one, you’re safe now in the Latigo Compound,” said a soothing voice. She heard Perdita’s voice, now in the background, speaking her own comforting words to someone else. “It’s ok Santiago. No need to rush to work. We’ll have plenty left for you to shoot when you heal up,” Perdita said while leaning over his bed. His back was a mass of poultices and bandage. Their resident sage woman had mended the few that were able to be saved. A lost Ortega hired gun, separated before Justice found them in battle, had crept up once Pandora had left. He packed the few survivors up on horses that they had left and brought them back. Justice was informed that Santiago only barely survived. She herself had kept talking fevered speech while being jostled over horseback to safety. One of the marshals had survived but lost an arm to infection while the guardsman died of his wounds during the return trip to the Latigo. Justice believed Lucius would surely see it as a deliberate action to silence his source of information.

---------- Post added at 02:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM ----------

In the end it was a 3:3 tie.

Pandora having parital Claim Jump (2) and partial Kidnap (1)
Lady J having anounced Grudge (2) and secret Kill Protégée (1)