MATCH REPORTS and other stuff

[J-Reedy]

Sweet Sweet Decay 1 - Cougar Kittens 0. KOs 5-3. Injuries 3-0. Deaths 1-0. I simply got beaten down with armor breaks + injuries on first half and on second half Golden played nice defence and the injury beatdown continued. I'm not so bothered about loss as I made no clear mistakes and I got an inspiration for a match report that I must confess I really like. Bit different this time, it goes like this:

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Boom-Boom-Bam-Bam-Boom-Boom. Drums... There had been drums there. The day that her bow broke... Back when she was Ktesippe... Ktesippe Strong Bow. But then her bow had broken... She walked forward following her sisters who strolled along the dark corridor with confidence and their heads held up high. Like true Amazon warriors. But they were just players. Not like the warriors in the sisterhood she had hunted with –Akantha, Bright Moon, Arethea, Teleplyia... so many. Now she was with players of a meaningless game. Her shoulders sagged. Blood Bowl... What did they know about blood. There had been so much of it... The corridor was getting brighter and the drums sounded louder, BOOM-BOOM-BAM-BAM-BOOM-BOOM. Like the drums of the lizards that day... More than hundred of them, mostly skinks, standing on the other side of the shallow of the creek, the small lizards with their bows and daggers led by the big Kroxigor with six saurus guards. They turned a corner and suddenly she saw sun further ahead – shining from the end of the corridor. Sun had shone also on that day, the day that her bow broke. She and her sisterhood, all 20 of them against the whole tribe of the lizardmen. Now she was alone... NO! Not alone, these sisters might not be true amazon warriors but they were her sisterhood now. She looked around her and saw Christina nodding at her and smiling encouragingly. She was their leader. She had been told that there were only two sisters who had taken the field more times than Christina.... The beautiful Lana, the catcher, and Jennifer. Christina had told her that they had played... Played. There had been no play on that day... Sun shining high above their heads, skinks beating on the drums, shouts getting louder and louder and then finally the Kroxigor yelled a war-cry and the jungle had erupted into...

SHOUTS! YELLING! WHISTLES! They were so loud... She felt the warm sun on her face and for a moment she had trouble seeing where she was. Then she saw them, people sitting on the benches, people standing and hopping around high above them on creaking wooden perches, people yelling, people shouting. More people that she had ever seen... She saw humans, big trolls, elf and there were dwarfs, small but still bigger than skinks... Some of the skinks started running towards them while others were sending volleys of arrows at them. Akantha had shouted to hold up their shields and then she had turned towards her and said...

"You all right Vanessa? It may be bit dizzying at first but you'll get used to it fast. Just wait here in the dugout and take your time getting your bearings, we'll be playing defense first, the rotters won the toss and chose to receive." Christina turned away and ran to the field. It was green, not as deep green as the jungle but it still reminded her of home. Vanessa –she wasn't yet used to that name. When the strange man – Coach – had laid his eyes on her for the first time, he had said: "Dark hair, dark brown eyes, petite... You look like Vanessa, so you're Vanessa. Forget your old name. Forget your past life. Forget what you did or didn't do to end up here. You're now Vanessa and you're a linewoman in the finest Amazon Blood Bowl team this side of the river." The river... It had turned bloody the moment she let go of her first shaft. She didn't hear the sound of the hit from all the yelling and splashing but she saw the skink drop its bow and then slowly fall...

"SHE'S KNOCKED OUT! Get her out from there!" She almost jumped as Coach yelled right by her ear. She turned to the field and saw some caretaker-goblins carrying Mila out from the field. She looked lifeless when the goblins tossed her to the dugout but then she could hear her groa..."WHAT THE HELL! CAN'T BE SERIOUS! HOUSE, TAKE A LOOK AT HER!" Her ears started ringing. The goblins were carrying another of her Sisters out, looked like Natalie. She was conscious but she was grimacing and there was blood oozing from between her lips. They looked red and bloody... She had never seen so much blood for they had never hunted a pack so big before. First of the skinks were getting close to their front line...

"Line is down and they got the ball... What's the stat on Natalie, House!"

"Here ribs are broken, she won't be able to play in the next game if I don't fix them right now. Should I do it, Coach?"

"No!" – NOOO! Akantha had shouted in despair when she saw her twin-sister fall. Sister of both blood and sisterhood, the pain must've been too much for Akantha to bear for she left the rank and leaped at the saurus who had felled Ereyatha. She was hitting the saurus furiously and with abandon to her own safety. The saurus was clawing at Akantha as its club was still stuck in Ereyatha's smashed head. Akantha's sword broke as she hit it deep between the scales of the saurus and she started pounding on the beast with her fists, driving the broken sword deeper while the claws of beast dug through her flesh. Both of them were roaring in rage and then suddenly they both stopped and for a moment just stood there frozen before collapsing...

"DOWN! She got him down and the ball's loose!" She snapped her head up and saw that her sisters had brought down the chaosman that had been carrying the ball. The horned beast that they had warned her about, the one that was rumored to be a fine tackler, had apparently knocked himself out while trying to block Greta and her sisters had taken hold of the opportunity. They were now all around the ball but the chaosmen were rushing at them and then one of them hit down Jennifer – and Alyssa. She saw Scavo go down and the goblins were yet again carrying knocked out Jennifer towards her. She stood up, her blood shouting for her to take the field but Coach grabbed her and screamed at her...

"DON'T! SHE'S TO RIGG! HOLD THE LINE!" Moonshine had taken command and was yelling orders while holding the skinks at bay. She turned away from Akantha's lifeless body and saw...

...Christina lying lifeless on the makeshift operating table while the sisterhood's healer Hugh House was feverishly pushing on her chest. She looked at the field, there were only six of her sisters against the eleven of the chaos and one of the chaosmen had broken away and was running towards the end of the field and then everything erupted into shouts...

"WHAAAA!"
"GOT IT! She's alive, Christina's OK!"
"TOUCHDOWN! GIVE A BIG HAND OF APPLAUSE TO LUKE THE ALIENATOR!"
"GET READY FOR BEATDOWN PLAY GIRLS!"
"SAUSAGES! BEER! BLOODWEISER BEER!"
"HURRAAA!!". "HRAAAAHHWAAAHHH!!" The Kroxigor was yelling in fury as her shafts kept slaying skinks all around the great beast. But then she had ran out of arrows. Moonshine saw this and ordered her: "Check Aedon's body! Get her arrows and then..."

"GET ONTO THE LINE VANESSA! We're getting slaughtered here, we need everybody out there! We've got a half to get the tying score and I'll be damned if we don't do it! Be it blizzard or not!" It had started snowing. She had never seen snow before, it never snowed in the jungle. The blood-speckled field had received a beautiful white cloak but then the blood beneath the snow started seeping through and red speckles were appearing all around where her sisters had been beaten down. She took the line as they had taught her in practice. Just before the whistle blew she glanced at Christina who nodded at her and smiled. Then the whistle blew and she burst into action. She slammed onto the rotter standing before her and send it flying through the air with Greta helping her. From the corner of her eye she saw that Hayden had caught the ball that had landed right at her. Hayden started running to the right and Vanessa was following her just as she had been taught. A rotter got onto her way and she had to stop but then Hodge was there and while Hodge was keeping the rotter in place she slammed her fist right between its eyes and the creature dropped down and she saw the goblins running there to take the rotting sack of flesh away. She felt so alive and realized that first time in months she was smiling. Their route to the endzone was blocked but they had no trouble holding the chaosmen away from Hayden. She turned around to look at Christina and saw...

...the Kroxigor tear into their front line with the few remaining skinks...

...how the horned chaosbeast slammed into Christina's back. It seemed like time had stopped as she saw the horn come through Christina's chest and there was so much blood... Spraying everywhere as the lone Kroxigor slashed right and left with the handful of her sisters dodging and blocking as best as they could... Christina's dead body fell to the ground and time snapped back on. The chaosmen were hitting with reckless abandon and she saw Alyssa get knocked out. Then Coach yelled "ROUNDABOUT!" and she and the sisterhood burst into action instinctively, changing sides in mid-run and leaving the chaosmen to the other flank. She took down another rotter in mid-run and followed close to Hayden who was running at the midfield. At the edge of the field Hayden turned sharp and started running towards the goal but then she saw the tackling beast coming towards Hayden. She tried to shout a warning but the beast was just too fast and slammed right into Hayden. Hayden fell down and ball skipped loose. Coach was yelling something... "GET IT! GET IT VANESSA!"

"GET IT!" Moonshine yelled and she saw that two of them and the Kroxigor were the only ones left standing at the battle-field...

"GET THE BALL VANESSA"! The ball was just ahead of her, on the ground, rocking gently. She saw her sister Androdameia take down the horned beast guarding the ball so she sprinted forward, grabbed onto it. The ball was more slippery than he had anticipated and she felt it slip... "NO YOU DON'T YOU STUPID AMAZON WENCH! HOLD IT!" came the order from Coach and she took a firm hold of the ball. She turned around and saw that some of her sisters were forming a line to protect her so she ran behind them. Then she felt something hit her from behind and she was falling down...

Moonshine had fallen down and the Kroxigor – riddled with her shafts and oozing blood from numerous wounds her sisters had put on it – was standing over and was about to raise the club to smite her. She saw that one of the scales on Kroxigor's temple had broken and all she had to do was put a shaft there to bring the beast down. An easy shot for someone who had trained with a bow for all her alive, for a true amazon warrior, for someone like her. Quickly she raised her bow, pulled back the string and then...

...she got up and saw that the ball she had lost had bounced to Greta. She sighed with relief, they were still in control. But the chaosmen had seized the opportunity to run closer and their way to the endzone was blocked. All movement seemed to stop and everybody just kept on blocking, dodging, wrestling and keeping their own stance as best they could. Her sisters were taking the chaosmen down but they kept on getting up time after time while the chaosmen seemed to stun them at will. But they were keeping their line and Greta was safe. But time was running out for them so when Coach finally gave them the order – "HAVE TO DO IT NOW! HAIL MARY RUN! GO FOR IT!" – Greta burst into action and tried to squeeze through the gap that she and rest of the sisters had made for her. She almost got through but then came the tentacles of the chaosbeast and snapped her down. And then a chaoswarrior hit Greta down and the ball scattered loose. She realized that they had as well as lost the game, although Lana still had a chance to go for it with a miraculous play if she, Vanessa, the player of the sisterhood, would just keep the rotter standing before her out of Lana's way. She steadied herself knowing that she would surely take a punishing hit for making this play. True enough, from the corner of her she saw the hit coming just as Lana was starting to move and then...

...her bow broke. Her bow made from the heart of the toughest and most giving of old-wood, bound to her soul by the priestess of Rigg, broke. Splintered just above her fist the bow twitched once and then seized to be a bow and became just broken pieces wood. She could do nothing but stare in horror at her bow and the sight of the Kroxigor bringing down its club and Moonshine was no more. All of her sisters but her were now dead and it seemed like she was looking down at herself when she started to run towards the Kroxigor, screaming senselessly and without any weapons but her fists and fury. Then everything went black.

She woke among her sisters. Their heads were down and their shoulders sagging. They had lost. Lana had fallen down and the chaosmen had left the field as victors. But she didn't care for that. For their loss was greater. They had lost one of their sisters and they didn't even have her body. The disease of the chaos had spread to Christina and her soulless body was now one with the decay. She didn't cry, for children of Rigg leave the crying for the weak. She looked around her and saw that nobody cried. Of course they wouldn't, they were warriors. They were the sisterhood of warriors. They were Cougar Kittens.

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Scouting party of another sisterhood had found her lying under the Kroxigor, all torn up, gazing wounds from claws and teeth all over her body, unconscious but with the heart of the Kroxigor tightly in her fist.

When she had healed, the priestess came to her and told her that there was a man who had heard of her tale and had come looking for her and that he was now offering her a place in a different kind of sisterhood. The priestess told her that she could choose the sisterhood she would join freely but Rigg's guidance pointed that this man's offer was genuine and she should find true sisters if she went with him. She didn't care. She didn't believe. She had no will. She knew that she would have no other sisters than the ones that were now with Rigg, hunting among the stars. But the priestess had said that the man was from far-away lands. So that is why she chose the unknown and went with the man believing that distance would make it easier to heal the wounds of her soul.

[Barmution]

A great read, J-R!

Too bad things didn't go the Kitten's way on the pitch, tho... Commiserations to you and congrats to Golden's SSD who probably will have the time of their "life" tearing into Kvasi's Woodies.

[The Golden Arrow]

Awesome report :) thanks for the game, it was really fun.

[hakos]

Great Report !