"Hmm. If none of you object, I will go and scout the fort. Where shall we meet when I'm finished?"
Talk with the team, then hide myself and go looking for that abandoned fort.
So here's a thought: can I propel my gloves forward with my telekinesis, fists clenched for grippling, fast enought to drag behind them, effectively flying in superman-esque pose?
Stil inclined to hike west.
get going, walk in around to the north of where the smoke is coming from a bit before heading back to the group
I'll go up ahead and preform a bit of scouting, I'll be back hopefully...if i am not presume me dead.
"Alright, I'll check out the forest."
Move east.
"Statement: This one will go north to meet the goblins, then. This one will stay there until the rest of you are finished scouting and come to meet him.
Query: Unless any would like for a different arrangement?"
Head north to go meet with the goblins.
PERHAPS SOMEONE SHOULD ACCOMPANY THE METAL MAN. YOU KNOW, TO ENSURE THAT HE DOES NOT MURDER ANYONE THIS TIME.
Follow Clunkers North.
Join the northwards party, goblins are probably less likely to attack me on sight.
"Annoyed statement: This is getting us nowhere.You run some robocalc, charting out a little mind map of your journey so far, and conclude that following a game trail that parallels the ridge should be sufficient to find a reasonable path upward. You locate one and head a little west of north.
Pondering statement: If we are having trouble finding the goblins, perhaps the mercs will have the same problems. Similarely, these cliffs could play to our advantage
System report: Initiating global positioning computing, target: goblin camp. Stand by."
Use robutt computing to figure out how to succesfully head north to the goblins. Then do so. If we run into similar problems as before, compute again.
Arileth: head forwards towards the smoke sticking to the trees
Cho-Ja"A burrowing snagret could get through this ridge easy enough. Wait, that stone issolid. nope. Guess not." Eh, you follow your shiny companion. You think about team buffing. You suppose you could hivemind up some insect buffs on your teammates, provided you feel unified enough in purpose to consider them a part of your hive. ((Imagine trying to move your car by sitting in the driver's seat and pushing on the steering wheel. that's what you are asking with telekinesis here. there are other ways to fly with magic, just this particular magic is not suited for it.))
attempt to locate a way around our current obstacle, use meta-knowlegde to ponder whether i can combine sorcery and innate magic to buff other people with bug-like qualities or abilities.
((what if he tied a rope around himself to make a harness, left a trailing line, and attached a blanket or something to the other end of it.
basically, is telekinetic paragliding a thing?))
MordredYou come out above a very small village - six or seven buildings along a small dirt road, which splits and fades into two track trails as it heads deeper in to the valley toward the other homesteads you can see in the distance. You recognize a little smithy, a mill next to the river, and a small but sturdy church. You don't recognize what religion is practiced there from teh structure of hte church however.
((I'm good with walking, just trying to get a better understanding of what my character is capable of.))
Keep on going west, see if the smokes are still there. Hopefully I'll get somewhere before it's dark.
Solam KobemtosedTrouble eh? How vague and promising. is it my birthday already? Hmmmmmmm. Yo and the turtle, having stopped for a moment to look about, hear some noises in the near distance. you settle in amongst the brush and wait. So, an orc, recognizable by its size, greyish green skin, and tusks jutting up from it's lower lip, steps into the light of the little clearing you are watching, and blinks. a moment later an elf and a lizardman step into the glade next to the orc. the orc drops a sack from it's shoulders and stretches a little. It is armored and carries a large mace and a wicket looking machete. The elf carries a bow and a slender sword, and the lizardman leans on a staff, a small headress decorated with feathers and a necklace decorated with bones are it's only adornment, besides a leather belt holding a couple small leather pouches. A small, green, head with long ears pointed directly away from the sides of it rolls out of the sack when the orc drops it.
Head southeast now.
I'm just looking for trouble. Preferably a chance to cause it.
Hom the Dome with Stumpy Legs:You see what he sees up there, though obscured by the leaves of all these forest bushes and tree trunks and the like, and the delerium visions in your head of cacti and scorpions.
Hom retroactively wanders along behind Solam, not yet bothering to speak, but stopping to study a cactus or other desert plant occasionally.
((thanks :D))
Try to discern a route via farseeing.You pull out your little glass eye, and stare into it at the world around you. You see the trail that Clunkers is following and note a spot far ahead where the trail continues on, but, just through the undergrowth to the side, another small trail picks up and winds up between a couple outcroppings of rock onto the mountain ridge. you're vision zooms along the ridge a while until you see some unusual, dark brown, hairless boarlike creatures grazing idly in the tall grasses. nearby are some small, thin, pointy eared goblins with pronged staffs, and a little farther along is a set of large tents made of skins and brightly dyed. From the beaten down appearance of the grasses nearby, and the dusty patches and trails leading about the tents, it looks like they have been in that location a while. Perhaps since early spring.
Jack the Totally Trustworthy:you follow the trail for a while, but pick up no new clues as to the location of your destination.
Keep heading for the fort.
Mordred"Well well, what have we here? A poor lost sol, looking for home, no doubt. We'll help you find home, for a price." Well, that 'try not to be seen' action couldn't have gone worse, as two bandits step out into the road in front of you. One has his hand on the hilt of his long sword, and the other is holding a pair of daggers. A glance to the side shows you a third with a short bow, arrow nocked but undrawn, near a tree, shielded a bit by some bushes.
Go around the houses and back on the road, walk towards other homesteads - attempt to remain unseen by locals.
Look out for drinking joints, some administrative-looking buildings and churches.
JackYou drift up to an old farmer working his scythe in the fields. He seems visibly shaken by your appearance. "Ah, salt of the earth right there. hard work, sunshine, all those good things. Greetings old man. Your family is doing well, I trust?" He nods a bit. "Listen, I was on my way to meet some friends for a little field trip. I understand there was an old fort nearby, and we were going to go picnicking. Looks for old arrowheads or sword hilts or teeth. Bit of a collector, you know." You give him a broad smile, which doesn't exactly seem to reassure him. "Anyway, seen anything like that around. He shakes his head. "no forts or military encampments at all?" "Well, there's one, bout three hours walk yonder ... but it's occupied ..." "Good enough. Carry on. dig those grav --- I mean bean pods. those are bean pods, right?" "Corn." "Of course."
There are cottages around here, yes? Take the form of an unthreatening traveler and look for a friendly villager. Tell them that I'm interested in visiting old forts, and ask for directions.
ArilethCreepity creep creep. Into the valley they say you are going. You arrive in the middle of the valley, hidden in some undergrowth. Now what?
Creep down towards the valley
the troll sneezes. No one seems to be bothered by random bugs or anything. they move on through the clearing, picking up the trail they were following on the other side.Quick reality check: sensation auras don't affect unlife, right? If so:project a weak aura of itchiness, like annoying bugs on skin or something. If it's working, make it steadily stronger. If it also seems to bother Solam, weaken it and maybe find a middle-ground where it'll still make them distracted but leave him alone.Otherwise, just placidly nom a leaf.
Wait for an opportunity to make one of those mercs disappear. If one presents itself, take it.How very vague. Yo stand idly with your turtlefriend and watch them wander off down the trail. I suppose, ifyou wait a little longer, they will all three disappear. what a success.
Proceed down the trail, turning onto the hidden path when appropriate.
Cho-Ja.
Follow the game trail with my companions until we reach the goblin camp, try not to be seen straight away.
Follow companions and my own computing paths to succesfully get to the goblinsYou three follow the path to the hidden spot, turn off and push through the brush, find hte trail and make your way up. after some time, you hear the nasally cough whine of the goblins' flock of boarsheep and approach slowly, leaving Cho in the brush to wait while the other two establish contact without hte alarm his appearance would inevitably induce. the goblins notice you, and one rus to the largest tent, calling out to those inside. A moment later, a large goblin - not large to Cho or Clunkers, mind you -thrusts back the tent flap and steps out, holding the flap aside for a wizened, greygreen goblin to step out as well. they move forward through the camp side by side, accumulating a small crowd of onlookers as they approach. You see a couple female goblins peek out of their tents. You spot one small mother carrying an infant, pulling the hand of an older child, and hurrying toward the back of the camp. she appears to be trying to sneak unnoticed, but fails, due to the children not being in the hide and seek mood.
"Well well, what have we here? A poor lost soul, looking for home, no doubt. We'll help you find home, for a price."
wander around listening for noise and looking for peopleYou see some children playing in the dirt, throwing rocks into a circle and arguing. A couple farmers are out in the field, doing farm stuff. A barn nearby is open and a woman is in tere, busy milking a cow.
Mordred, ambushed by 3 bandits((vader choking would require an opposed will check and could have backlash, as it is direct harm, but it is doable. You can control the gauntlet, though how precisely depends on the roll. If you are thinking of using the gauntlet as a distance choking device, that is doable, but a little tricky. overall, it would be a better attempt than direct force choke, I think. But it also depends on your other actions. If you are distracted, the best you could do is throw the gauntlet in someone's face.))"Well well, what have we here? A poor lost soul, looking for home, no doubt. We'll help you find home, for a price."
- I'm not going anywhere with you, I got stuff to do and people to answer to. But do try to make me.
A little warm feeling grows inside Mordred. He is weary from walking, but the promise of a fight - a fight he will win, he doesn't doubt that - gives him second wind. Three humans who are clearly not aware of who they ambushed. A chance to show off what he's capable of, once again to taste some blood of his own and then to feel the superiority in his powers; the challenge; this is so exiting.
You could swear his eyes are glowing with gold and red, just a little bit.
Talk. Fire up my fighting spirit. Reach out for my bastard sword and pull it out slowly, visibly enjoying the sound it makes when it leaves the sheath, even if threatened. Look like a child whose birthday presents are about to be handed to him.
((Questions: would you allow Vader-choking with telekinesis? Articulate control over gauntlet with telekinesis?))
Clunkers takes a step forward and snaps off a crisp military salute, speaking in his best liberty prime voice.they look at you, and at each other. Then the big one grunts something in goblin, and the other one responds to him. Both look at you, and the big one talks slow and loud at you, in goblin.
"Statement: Omega legionnaire, at your service.
Designation: Clunkers
Objective: To keep the goblin clan safe and to repel the mercanary invaders.
Query: Who might we be adressing?"
He then stops saluting, standing at attention like only a robot can.
Solam KobemtosedLet's see. dex -2, speed -1. (3) You step into the woods and attempt to follow the adventurers discretely but are immediately noticed. they turn and look for you, eying the brush suspiciously. the archer aims his bow in your direction. "Come out of there, whoever you are."
"So, what can you do in a fight?"
Follow those mercs. Try not to bring attention to myself while doing this.
Cho-JaYou can currently see the tops of the tents of the goblins through the tall grass. You can't even see the two Clunkers is talking too - as his giant metal ass is in the way. Yay! ER reference made.
Do some spying to entertain myself, how many goblins can I see?
Read the greegree minute goblin's emotions while Clunkers greets him.thanks for that not edit. very confusing. You fail to get a read on the goblin's emotions. RNG is having lots of fun today.
((EDIT: That's supposed to say "grey-green goblin", but I'm not changing it.))
JackYou drift forward and peek out at what amounts to a large dirt mound, overgrown with weeds and small bushes. You circle the camp, and discover that the fort is essentially a square of piled up dirt surrounding a square of flat land on which a couple of small wooden buildings are built alongside several tents. Some beings are busy clearing brush fro mteh embankment, and others are doing other camp related things - cooking, visiting the latrine, bullshitting, cleaning boots, bullshitting, gathering wood, putting hte finishing touches on the wooden structures, bullshitting. there appear to be about twelve beings around at the moment, from your initial survey. Mostly large humanoids doing the heavy lifting, a slimy balck creature in a ... not really a robe, but sort of a bulbous sak doing the cooking, and a couple of humanoids who look like spellcasters of some sort at various tasks.
Become invisible[1] (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=154806.msg6866124#msg6866124) and keep my shadow hidden in the undergrowth. Carefully observe whatever's ahead.
Hom, Tortoise.You nibble a tasty leaf and take one step before Solam stops moving, and the merc calls out for him to come forward.
"Ohoho. Fight? I prefer when people take it easy. Easy and slow. If not, well... *shrug*"
Nibble a tasty leaf. Follow Solam.
<My, you're a fine specimen, aren't you? A bit foolhardy, but I can work with that--you'll make a vastly better host than that simpering fool. They're going to kill you, you know, but I can save you. All you need to do is Let Me In>
<Of course. I promise you the entirety of my power if you let me in, Mordred. But I expect your power to be shared in return>
Approach the woman slowly, hands up, dagger away and ask:A burnt, armed and armored elf walks into a barn where a woman, alone, is tending her business, with men off in the distance, and tries to look nonthreatening. At least your charisma is 0. Well, she looks up at the sound of your voice, screams, and kicks over her milk bucket jumping up and running around the cow to pick up a pitchfork. "Stay back! Stay back!"
'Scuse me but I'm looking for a band of mercenaries? I have much need to talk to them, perhaps even on terms of employment.
"Statement: This one was locked up in a magisters library for years. Compiling language catalogs."nice use of backstory there. You manage to piece together a few snippets - just the basics at this point. You caught the words "metal man" and "slaughterers" in there. You remember a few goblin greetings, and decide to try one out, and they respond in kind. This seems to reduce the tension a touch, at any rate. "What want with us?" The big one says.
Check my language catalogs with robot computing. Cross reference with the words the goblin just said to me. If no data is found, compile goblin language program from the snippets I've heard so far. MAGITEK SCIENCE HO!
Again, with feeling!there is definitely a strong sense of controlled fear coming from him at this point. it lessens a touch when Clunkers speaks goblin at them, but he is still quite wary. THe fear is not new - it is someting this goblin has lived with for a while at least, only heightened in your presence.
That is, try reading ol' grisgris' emotions again.
Keep watch on the camp for a few hours, watch who comes and goes, and what they're up to.you see two troll thugs, two human fighter types, three ranger types, an elf with a slim sword, and one human officer. There is at least one other you don't see, and maybe more. the camp looks laid out for about three times as many, with at least enough activity for five more being present normally. You see a horsedrawn cart come up the trail to deliver food and some supplies, and a mechanical wagon walks over to it to be loaded, the n walks the load into the fort and delivers supplies to various stations. the horesdrawn is occupied by two men, who leave with the cart.
Cho JaYou get close enough to hear the next interchanges between Clunkers, Terrance, and the goblins, though you didn't hear the previous one. No one calls out or runs away in surprise, so, far as you know, you were successful.
Try to sneak within earshot without being detected.
Hom:they react in mild surprise and amusement - the orc letting out a chuffing cough of a laugh, the elf smirking wryly, and the kobold rolls it's eyes and mutters, shaking it's staff a little.
Make a turtle noise (a toothless, soft huh or something) and waddle forward, poking my head out of the brush to look at them.
Solam KobemtosedAnd then, a zombie appears, and the amusement drains right out of their faces. Weapons come up, and you are ordered to drop yours. The kobold begins chanting.
Shamble out, following Hom. Act as if I were mindless. Notably by shambling randomly and muttering "Brains".
You let the entity in, and it does the following<Of course. I promise you the entirety of my power if you let me in, Mordred. But I expect your power to be shared in return>
Yes. I will share all I have, you have my word. Let's do this.
Scratch the previous action (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=156908.msg6882399#msg6882399). Let the mysterious entity in.
Nice KnifeBlastel lets you do your thing, and you drop Mordred's body to the ground dramatically, then stand and begin speaking. Blastel looks at you, nodding, but the other two are very suspicious. "What is this fool babbling about? Control? We have control here. Wait, how do you know Blastel? What kind of double cross is this?"
I'm going to assume I have a good rapport with my current wielder (Who I've named Blastel). If I don't, just buff Mordred's magic a bit without doing anything else, but try not to make it apparent to my wielder. If I do have a decent rapport, tell him the below:
<Blastel, leave it alive. The presence of such a confident and well armed individual implies there's something important to learn. Just let me work on him. But be ready if he rebels>
If Blastel obeys, speak the below into Mordred's mind:
<My, you're a fine specimen, aren't you? A bit foolhardy, but I can work with that--you'll make a vastly better host than that simpering fool. They're going to kill you, you know, but I can save you. All you need to do is Let Me In>
If Mordred doesn't let me in, buff his magic. If he does let me in, do the stuff in the below spoiler:Spoiler (click to show/hide)
<PATIENCE, DEMONTOUCHED. The conduit is too weak to channel my full power--I require time to transfer it into you. Allow me to delay these insects while I do so. We can crush them once I am realized.>
((To be honest, you're better at being a sneaky bastard demon than I am. I just wanted wild magic and high Charisma, and a Demon seemed a good choice for those.))
Blink at the woman before walking towards her, lowering the pitcher fork and handing her her milk bucket and say You dropped this miss...and being mean to an old burn victim trying to make a living, shame on you.As soon as you get within stabbing range, she stabs at you with the pitchfork. You dodge pretty easily, and grab the shaft of the fork just behind the metal heads, and hold the bucket out to her. She stares at it for a moment, then sits down heavily and sobs. "I don't know nothing about no m-mercen-naries. Ain't seen noting like that round here. Please, don't hurt me. I won't stop you. Just do what you're gonna do and go."
<I can't see what is your game with these men in front of us, but they are no friends of mine. Others who I came with, I will show you the way to as soon as I find some directions. But these maggos here drew my blood, so I want to slaughter them. I will tell you everything I know and lead you where you want afterwards.
Oh, and what do I call you?>Let the entity empower tekinsesis for now. Pull archer from his position. Then smash the archer into the swordsman. I expect them to drop their weapons in the moshing session. Lift them both in the air then and lightning them. Archer - deep fry carge, swordsman - excruciating pain charge.
Let the entity do its thing.okay.
<PATIENCE, DEMONTOUCHED. The conduit is too weak to channel my full power--I require time to transfer it into you. Allow me to delay these insects while I do so. We can crush them once I am realized.>You begin to make your spiel, but something about the way you speak, or something about the way Blastel looks at Mordred, or some other cue, or just impatience, sets teh other two off, and an arrow flies in at Mordred. It tears a gash in the armor at the waist, and hangs up in it, entangled, but does no further damage to Mordred. Blastel attempts to jerk away from the other one's sword, and in doing so causes the other to react instinctively, drawing the sword back along Blastel's throat, dragging a line of blood with it. Blastel falls to the ground, hands clutching his throat, gurgling. Now, Mordred doesn't have an action at this point, since his previous is struck through, so no response from him this round.
Mordred already let me in control, so roll to keep it. Assuming he doesn't win the fight, start on my below spiel:
Mordred's eyes go wide, and he stares at the blade "Y-yes, [name], I'm a reflection of Blastel! I--he split his soul into two halves and forced one into this idiot!" [If Blastel isn't actually a mage:]"I, I mean, we, we used the magic knife to do it."[/notmage] "I've conquered this guy's mind and rendered him incapable of harming anyone! Please don't kill me, it'll kill both of us--that Blastel and this Blastel!" Mordred looks at Blastel "Confirm it for him so we don't die!"
If Blastel starts to flub the confirmation, immediately hand control back to Mordred while telling him to kill the swordsman while he's distracted, and pump all my magic towards enhancing whatever action Mordred takes.
If Blastel doesn't flub it, continue:
Mordred heaves a sigh of relief. "Now then, like I said, I looked into this idiot's mind, and found out that he brought his family along. His wife's got a pretty valuable jeweled ring--I don't know how they got it, yet--and both the wife and daughter are very attractive." A lecherous grin spreads across Mordred's face.
Lastly, still charging his telekinesis. If his other wound is bad enough to weaken him, work on clotting it, but don't rush it.
((So, Comrade, here's the big problem with this char. It is a separate character from yours, but only one of us can control the body at a time--if we disagree on a course of action, we have to actually fight over it. If we manage to agree, you essentially get a bunch of strong buffs in addition to your regular abilities, plus the ability to temporarily lose control and gain +2 cha and +1 will, but these advantages come at the cost of potentially losing control when you don't want to. Generally, I'd rather avoid forcing control, but if I think something is a really bad idea, the knife'll force things.
If that's too much of a cost, I can probably just take over Blastel (or one of the other bandits), assuming they're left alive, but you lose the buffs in that case. The knife can only cast on people who have contact with it.))
Solam KobemtosedYou drop the sword and reach for the heads, but the orc jerks the bag away from you, a glassy smile on its ugly face. "bounty" he claims, chuckling.
Drop the sword, grab that bag of goblin heads.
Hom:Everyone seems to calm down and get comfortable. Weapons are lowered and no one seems particularly in a hurry to get answers about the zombie accompanying a giant tortoise in a place neither should really be.
((damn I wish I had had a good IC reason to suggest Solam hold still :/))
Project an aura of peace and friendliness. Waddle a little farther out, nibble on another leaf. Look at Solam, turn back to tasty leaves. Maybe waddle over to the mercs and affectionately bump their hips with my nose, making stupid turtle noises. If they start violence (even if they do so in reaction to Solam starting violence), bellow in fear, gallop awkwardly away a bit, and visit magical fury of the second-highest order on the mercenaries.
JackThe cart trundles down the lane and stops at a far mfor the night. this is clearly not the final destination, but a place to sleep along the way.
Tail the cart for a bit, try to work out where they're getting supplies from.
Continue compiling as we speak, say the following meanwhile: "Translating: Shaman Del' Or ask Queen to help tribe. Queen send us to help."At the mention of Del 'Or, the older goblin nods slowly and thoughtfully. He starts talking again, and you pick up more words, about a vile group, much slaughter, and fear for the families.
Subtly numb the goblin's senses, so as to calm him somewhat.You dull his senses a bit, but it doesn't seem to affect his mood at all. At least his mood changed a bit when Clunkers mentioned that shaman, so there's that.
JackWell, you never inspected the load. Could be anything in there. the two are offered lodging in the house, but one opts to sleep in the hayloft, so yo ucan go check him out. There's an outhouse too, and one visits that before bedtime as well.
Did the cart definitely only deliver food and supplies, or could it have also been a shipment of money? Hidden in some crate, or perhaps in an unassuming bag?
Watch where the cart drivers rest. If I can get one of them alone, then quietly drift into it's room/tent.
ArilethYou are talking with the woman, and the two men who were in the field show up behind you, sounding unhappy at your proximity to the woman. You turn. One of them is holding a scythe, the other has both a sickle and a threshing flail. the woman moves behind you, pulling her pitchfork up again and scurrying away toward the other end of the barn.
Offer to help her around the farm for free. Start by feed chickens and milking cow
<Yes, go ahead and destroy them. I expected too much from that little fool.>You attempt to buff Mordred's telekinesis, but the sudden shifts are tricky, and you can't quite get a firm grip on his power in order to fully support it. You manage to get some man a into him, but are unclear if it is helping or not.
Relinquish control, then buff Mordred's telekinesis as much as I can, in addition to what I've done so far. I'm unsure if the knife has a mana pool or something, but shove all available mana into Mordred.
Mordredthis is fewer actions than your previous stuck through actions, so has a better chance of succeeding. You pull the sword to yourself and it smacks int your hand like a professional baseball player's pitch. it stings and makes your fingers go numb. At the same time, you hurl the archer into the swordman, knocking both of them off the path into the bushes to the side. Unfortunately, you hurl yourself off the path to the other side at the same time, opening the wound in your gut a bit further and causing the bleeding to pick up a bit. You clutch your belly with your free hand and groan a bit. this combat is going exactly as planned, you are sure of it.
((I get the impression we fell out of dice's good graces. Although we are surviviтg being Boromir'd, so that's good.))
<It's time to act. They won't listen to us any longer.>
Okay, now we do it with force.
Take several steps backing away from the swordsman, simultaneously lifting my sword back to my hand with telekinesis and hurling the archer into the swordsman (also with telekinesis).
If that goes well, lift them in the air and start choking them remotely. I expect that to be entirely possible because of the newfound assistanse I have.
Cho Jammm. Boiled cabbage and goatsnake bits. The eyeballs look especially juicy.
continue hiding whilst diplomacy happens.
sneak over to their food supply if enough of them are distracted.
Keep compiling, we're going to get fluent before long. Make sure to leave time for him to answer between each of the questions belowYou reach mutual understanding and can speak reasonably normally. "Attacks started recently. they catch single families when they are away form the group, or grab piglizardkeepers while watching the flock. Only a few attacks so far, but a dozen or more have died. We cannot hide - they find our dens. besides we have our animals to tend, or th elong winter will kill us as shurely as the warriors do. We've gathered here and pooled our magic to defend ourselves, but we doubt our defenses will hold for long."
"Many attacks, frequent? Attackers, can describe? Families, you have safe hiding place?"
Solam KobemtosedYou do this. these guys seem like such fine fellows, don't they? You are sure you will be friends in no time, chasing goblins and eating brains. just like the old days when you had a master.
Shamble back to my sword, and sheath it.
Hom:You feel that this is within your skillset. Currently, Solam has wandered away and gathered up his weapon, and everyone is getting along so well. You feel no real urge to hurt these, your new friends.
((Hmm, we're kinda stuck now, if we leave they'll stop being affected by the whole calming magic and it'll be trouble))
Do I feel capable of magic-blasting them all while their backs are turned, at least enough to make the subsequent fight good odds for us? If so, follow them a bit, a few steps behind, and when Solam gets close enough to be ready for the fight, drop the calm aura, and blast them, Kobold highest priority, then woman, then orc.
Arileth sighs "shame really, all I wanted to do was help out about here. Do my good deed of the day, now it seems that things are going to grow quite violent. Just know, you two, that I'm willing to help you and am in no rush to fight, but if you do try something I can easily take both you down. So, are we going to get bloody, ore will we sit and talk peacefully? ""Get away from my wife, out of this barn, and off my farm." They make shoo-ing motions with their farm implements.
Attack them and stab them in a nonlethal area if they try to harm me, if they don't talk to them and try and get a general ideal of the surrounding area and the location of any mercanary bands.
Nice KnifeThe enhancement is starting to drain you. you feel unsteady.
<Careful, Demontouched. The power will only grow stronger--do not lose control over it.>
Enhance his magic more!
Edit:If the fight is finished, start on the healing. Slow and steady, assuming Mordred isn't at risk of dying immediately.
Mordredyou need to see the arrows to grab them, and you don't see them. Bloodloss is starting to affect your concentration.
Pull all the arrows, broken and not, from the quiver of the archer, and shove them deliberately with immense force (point-blanc) into the bodies of my offenders, y'know, St. Sebastian them. I assume there will be no active resistance after that.
If so, then treat my wounds to the extent of my ability. Search the bodies for money and other valuables. Smear the Omega symbol with blood on each corpse (use corpse's blood, not mine). Cut the word "THUG" on their foreheads. After that, pick the sword swordsman ought to drop at some point and pin him high on a tree some place by the road. Chop the hand from the previous host of entity - Blastel, was he - grill it with my lightning and chow down, gotta feed the body of mine. Walk down the road I was going before the attack, cooperating with my new ally to heal or at least stop bleeding and such.
Seek medical attention if need be, which I feel might be the case.
"Query: Please tell this one exactly what defences, magic and warriors you have.Your compilation program gets stuck in a loop on the word 'Grnkngngishkrrik'.
Statement: More of our people are currently scouting the Mercenary's positions, so we can come up with a concrete plan to your problem.
Query: If you have anything you wish to say or ask to this one, please do not hesitate."
Keep compiling, we're close to being fluent I think. Also translate for teammembers if they wish to ask anything.
Drift into the hayloft where one is sleeping. Shift into the form of an Orc, complete with a big sword. Try to look similar to a merc (not one in particular, wear their uniform or whatever.)You shift into the form of a rather average man with a spoon in one hand and a small dinner plate in the other. Someone must be dreaming of lunch.
If I can't take the form of a non-human, just do a buff Human.
Hom:they seem enthusiastic for the new adventure, crowding around you and slapping your shell, yelling "turtlefriend!" a lot. you get disoriented and are not sure what direction you are going anymore.
((I like what you've done with my action, the friendliness is a lot more fun))
Try to lead my new friends off into the underbrush to meet my other friends. Do so by waddling a bit into the bushes, turning my head back at them, and making some turtle noises. If they refuse to follow, give up and just follow them at a few paces distance for a little. Maybe exude a bit of an aura of curiousness if that doesn't seem to tax me too much atop the friendliness.
Solam Kobemtosed"Turtlefriend! Turtlebrains! Brain friend! brainbrainsssssss! braaaaaaiiiiinnnnns!"
Follow my new friends.
you need to see the arrows to grab them, and you don't see them. Bloodloss is starting to affect your concentration.
((This was in case you were trying to do this while staying still, and you know, holding those wounds shut. I didn't want to assume you wanted me to automatically stand you up, walk you back onto the path, find them on the other side of the path, and, completely ignoring the trouble you are already in, blast them with that recently expanded wound. Because that could also go bad. Plus, it means they have time to get in actions as well. The bloodloss thing was a subtle reminder rather than an added effect.you need to see the arrows to grab them, and you don't see them. Bloodloss is starting to affect your concentration.
Please see the commentary
((Well I assumed that should I need to get closer to do that, I would - wasn't such a wild assumption to make in my mind. And this way, you just stagnate me for a turn with a bloodloss and magic drain to deal with. Can you please enact my attack while The Nice Knife still empowers me instead of putting me off?
Now this might sound too aggressive, and I would like apologise for my tone, but I really don't want to lose that character just because of some misreadings when the situation is turning critical. Mordred has a message to send out with all that I would do after he's done fighting, and he wouldn't hesitate, especially given his condition.))
okay, mind telling me of the location of some mercs or goblins? And anything you guys need help with around here before I set off on my way?Mercs? Goblins? none of that here, fella. And we aint got work for ya either. Sorry, you'll have to try your luck further west. Maybe the Fardon ranch.
be polite as can be while asking if they need help and inquiring about near by goblins and mercanary bands
<Your control of my power is growing unsteady. I am cutting it back before it consumes you, but I will close your wounds first. Do not fail me, Demontouched>same way a knife can emote, converse, buff, and heal. You felt an unsteadiness in your power, and in your thinking processes. You shift to medical mode and begin clotting the wounds. the blood slows noticably, though Mordred moving about as he is is making it tricky.
How can a knife feel "unsteady", anyway? It's an inanimate object. Start clotting Mordred's wounds, and if his bloodloss is bad enough he could potentially die within a couple turns, do it quick (med roll). My +1 med is better than his +0 end.
MordredYou climb to your feet, clutch your belly around the knife again, and stagger onto the road as the two others untangle themselves and stand. You yank a bunch of arrows out of the quiver and begin swinging them at the archer, who dances to dodge them, attempting to snatch them out of the air. a few of them get through his guard and he takes a couple punctures. The swordsman cuts a few of them apart in the air as they fly at him. He grabs the other one's arm and drags him off at a run, hacking at the arrows as they go.
Pull all the arrows, broken and not, from the quiver of the archer, and shove them deliberately with immense force (point-blanc) into the bodies of my offenders, y'know, St. Sebastian them. I assume there will be no active resistance after that.
If so, then treat my wounds to the extent of my ability. Search the bodies for money and other valuables. Smear the Omega symbol with blood on each corpse (use corpse's blood, not mine). Cut the word "THUG" on their foreheads. After that, pick the sword swordsman ought to drop at some point and pin him high on a tree some place by the road. Chop the hand from the previous host of entity - Blastel, was he - grill it with my lightning and chow down, gotta feed the body of mine. Walk down the road I was going before the attack, cooperating with my new ally to heal or at least stop bleeding and such.
Seek medical attention if need be, which I feel might be the case.
"Error: Please help in translating the word 'Grnkngngishkrrik'."We will request audience with them. They will not be available before sundown. After dinner, they may talk with you. that word is ... the sound of two bodies falling together into a narrow pit."
Query: Could we speak to your shamans? Their magic and insights may play a vital role in the coming conflict."
Hom:You are certain that this was the correct way, and begin heding this way. Your magic feels normal, but you are detecting a note of disillusionment from the band, as they begin looking at you with less affectin and more eggression. Hands tighten on weapons again, and voices turn to angry shouting.
Hope I am going the right way. Continue onwards a bit farther. How is my magic? How is my aura holding up?
Solam KobemtosedIn the confusion, you manage to get hold of hte sack of heads and sit down in the path for a light snack. Well, I don't know if I lost my bet regarding who would murder the objective first. technically ,eating their brains doesn't harm them - they are already dead after all. but man, if hte living one's found out ...
Continue following my new buddies. Maybe get my hands on one of those goblin heads, if it wouldn't ruin anything important.
((Fools! Now they know Omega is about, and will tighten security!))
Onward to the next farm in the west! To harrassIt's getting dark as you leave the farm. You follow the trail toward thesunset for a while, but you must have fallen asleep while walking or something, because when you wake up, you are standing in the woods, not a farm or a trail n sight. it's fully dark too.
Discard the plate and make the spoon into.a crude knife. Touch his head and fill his mind with fear. Hold the illusion-of-a-knife to his neck, and whisper in his ear:His eyes snap open instantly, and he takes one long, sharp breathe, which he seems to hold for an abnormally long time before expelling it in short, staccato bursts. You smell urine.
Wake up.
Your life is in danger, remain silent.
<Do not chase them. You are too weak. Grant me time to fix you.sure, go ahead.
During the fight, you requested my name. I have none, but I do have something close. I doubt it is possible for your mind to comprehend it, but names are a form of power, so I shall share it if you wish, Demontouched>
Just keep on healing, slowly if it's safe, and quick if it's necessary. Don't take control from Mordred even if he does something stupid.
Can I cause a vague sensation of a headache without needing to roll for it? I don't mean a headache strong enough to affect any rolls or anything, it's just an RP thing.
<I will give you my trust by not demanding any leverage. I suppose you will always know that I address you anyway.>you grab Blastel's coin purse. It jingles a bit. The different road is back the way you came, unless I specifically said that you were at a crossroads. It's starting to get dark. time to find a good place to hole up for the night maybe. Or whatever. You feel that if you continue taking it easy, the wounds will heal.
See of Blastel had something valuable on him. Let them flee and walk away by the different road, slowly, trying to not disturb the wounds too much. Let them heal.
Solam KobemtosedYou get your sword, just in time to defend yourself against the orc's machete. "My brains!" he shrieks. as his machete clangs loudly against your sword, sending painful vibrations up your arm.
Grab my sword and be ready to slash at the mercs if they become violent towards us. Go for the elf first, if I can.
Hom:The elf steps back into the shade of the woods and begins firing arrows at you, but they clang harmlessly off your shell. Hte kobold begins to dance and chant, shrieking and shaking his stick. But he seems to be unable to put much power into it. You Fire a magic blast at him and something strange happens. Your energy reaches out and grabs hold deep inside the kobold, pulling something out of it. You feel some strange power, some connection with the spirits of the world that you didn't have before, and the kobold drops where it stands, falling limply on it's face.
Hey, what's the rush? ..Guys? We are no longer friends, however the 3 mercs are feeling rather sluggish suddenly (slow them, drop the aura). Calm Down We Are ALL F R Ì̙̱̻̪̮ E͂ͩ N̼̈́̈ D̛̺̦͖͓̞͉̆̒ͭ͞ S̵͍͚̦̥̮̰̀̽ͪͫ̄̇̅̕͜ H̴̢̨͕͚͇͙̱̠͙̜̮̙̦͉̊͋ͬ̍̋͐̽̈́̋̇̍͆̄̉͡͝ Ȩ̵̟̜̘̭̫̰͔̂ͤ̔̄̋͊ͣ͜͝ R͉̼͈̫̤̗̺̲̠̗̗̺͉̟̪͆͒̆̋͗̿ͥ̌͋ͣͨ̄̔ͯ̚͟͜ͅ Ę͚̼͖̼̞̭̦ͮ̔ͣ̀̐́͐ͨ̍ͩ̎͊̅͌͋ͩͪ͘! Magic-blast the kobold, then the elf, then the orc.
Cho JaYou eat an entire pot of the stuff, gorging yourself to the point of immobility. You crawl into the upturned pot and curl up. It rolls a few feet before coming to rest against something unseen.
Diplomancy is taking too long, sneak up to the campfire and eat all their eyeball soup.
"Statement: this one shall wait until the shamans are ready to speak with this one.The Goblins bring yourself and Terrance each a bowl of soup while you wait. The sun goes down, and the sounds of the goblin camp change, quieting a bit and turning inward. After a time, you find yourself surrounded by short figures, dressed in wool, with the traditional animal skull caps shamans seem to prefer for some reason, though one wears what looks like a hollowed out tree stump on it's head instead. "Being of weapons and cities, we have come at your request. We do not know how yo uhope we can aid you in aiding us, but for the sake of our people, we are here."
Urgent statement: Please make sure they do so at the earliest possible moment, for time may very well be of the utmost importance in this matter."
Wait to see the shamans.
Jack smiles, and his eyes widen unnaturally.He's pretty inert, wallowing in his own feces by now. He jerks his head forward, once, eyes wide and darting.
"Hehe. Just like that?
First things first, I will ask you a few questions. Number one: will you answer my questions? You can just nod."
Cultivate a feeling of helplessness in this individual.
Pick a direction perpendicular to the moon and in a direction opposite of the side of a tree covered in moss, as such using basic patterns in nature this should lead to the north due to how moss grows and how the moon rises and sets.Moss doesn't work that way, and there are three moons, but they orbit the same direction, following "the great arc", as the vast, glowing curved line stretching from horizon to horizon is sometimes known, so there's that. Anyway, north you go. In the dark. With no destination in mind. far far away from all teammates and mission objectives. ... probably the safest course, really.
Cho-JaYou poke your insectoid head out of the pot, gnawing contentedly on the rim of your new shell and burbbling quietly to yourself. You have been seen, but no outcry is made. Mostly, everybeing stays as far from you as possible. Not many are gonna get much sleep tonight, it seems.
Peek out of the pot, but dont actually leave it unless someone makes a move to harm or trap me.
Politely greet the shamans, but let Clunkers do the talking. Try the eyeball soup.ah, the fabled -2 charisma roll. Time for some shenani-(5) fuck. Well, You muter a graceful little "hi" and then stick the bowl of soup right up under your body and start slurping noisily. mmm, these guys sure know their eyeballs. You reach out for Clunkers' bowl, but he idly bats your tentacle away.
Clunkers, still holding his bowl of soup, adresses the shamans.the shamans sit silently through your discourse and for a minute or two after. then one leans forward and raps you on the chest with a stick, making a loud clong. "Made ... unnatural. stone melted, shaped by settled men. Hard like hammer. Death clings to you. Recent death, Being of cities and weapons.
"Query: 'Being of weapons and cities'. Interesting turn of phrase. Would you care to elaborate on its meaning?
Statement: On the subject of your assistence, we need all the information you can give us. We already have a few people scouting out the mercenary positions, though I believe chances are high that they have already run into trouble. Enemy numbers, equipment, tactics, magic they use, anything is useful. Other than this, I would like to know your own capabilities, as to this shield. And, if worse comes to worst, how fast you can mobilize your people into making a tactical retreat.
Assurance: The retreat would be temporary, of course. But it may come to pass that you will all need to run away in order for us to defeat the mercenaries. Either because they advance too quickly, or because our chosen tactic would result in too much collateral damage."
Solam KobemtosedYou swing your sword overhand, and he blocks with his machete. You hold him still, but are unable to do other things like eat brains while holding him thus.
"Your brains are being confiscated by the Omega Legion!"
Hold down his weapon with mine, work on consuming his brains.
Hom:You tuck yourself into your shell, and feel quite safe from the arrows for the moment. You send a few puffs of magic, and it seems at least to delay the archer, who seems to have stopped shooting at you. While doing this, you sense something unpleasant and peek out of your shell a little. The kobold you killed is getting to it's feet, an ominous blankness to it's features. That can't be good.
Turn to face somewhat towards the elf. Settle onto the ground, retracting within my shell, and focus on slowing her and her arrows down. Fling some small lumps of magic at her. If I manage to disable her for a few seconds fling some magic at the orc too.
*grumble* You're not very nice at all.. *harrumph*
MordredYou head back and to the mill. No lights are on. You knock on the door, and it swings slowly open. You peek inside. There is no one about, so you find a quiet corner and make yourself at home. Why not? The mill isn't attached to a house, so no one ought to disturb you until the morning, anyway.
<I will rest for a few hours, until the wounds are closed, and then we'll set out. I was sent here along with some others to make the merc band go away. They are negotiating with those we have to protect, I figured I'll go for the money mercs were offered by the locals - gonna find it, and do something about it.>
Then back to the village it is. Knock on the door of the mill, ask for shelter, offer the little money I got now if the owner doesn't let me in right away.
<Once I have closed your current wounds, you should remove the conduit--the jeweled dagger in your stomach--so that I can close that wound as well. Do not lose the conduit, as it must remain on your person to maintain our connection.The door is open and no one bothers him. As long as he rests through the night, you'll be able to bind up his wounds. He should at least dress the wounds though, and they won't be fully healed overnight, but he will be able to act normally as long as he doesn't do any serious combat or acrobatics or manual labor tomorrow.
You shouldn't give gold away freely, Demontouched. Money is power--our power--and there is no reason to throw it away so lightly. If you must have a roof over you, allow me to talk with the owner>
Just keep healing. Slow 'n steady.
Oh, and if Mordred offers coin in trade for shelter, I'm tempted to take control and cha roll them into granting shelter, to avoid throwing away money. Maybe flip a coin to decide whether I stay passive, or take control?
((Sleeping it is. Just let us know when can we jump back into it.))
Clunkers hands his bowl to Terrance, still speaking to the shamans."Our scouts will show you the routes up to this place, and from where the enemy comes. They can get you close, teach you to move under tree and through bush. But they cannot work miracles, large noisy one." a sly grin appears at this comment. "We shamans can bestow a shaman's blessing on you also."
"Impressed statement: Observant of you, I did kill someone fairly recently.
Worried statement: You not being able to do a full scale retreat is unfortunate, but at least you can hide and move camps, which is someting. The fact that you can use your skills to make yourself harder to find is will help us a lot, I believe.
Statement: Though I had hoped it different, I think it will be best if you and your people focus and evading the mercenaries and staying alive, and we will take it upon us to make them dissapear, one way or another.
Query: Their numbers worry me a bit, for they outnumber us by quite a few. Still, I have some new magics that may very well aid us in eradicating those vermin. I will do calculations as to how best use my magic, but if you have suggestions due to your experience, I am all ears. So to speak."
Converse with shamans, accept their wisdow if they have any. Then do calculations as to hwo to best use the metronome to make explosions, and if it's possible to lob these explosions in an arc far away. Magic artillery, if you will.
((I don't think there's much else I can ask them. Unless anyone else has some ideas?))
Terrance wraps his arms around the bowl, inhaling the broth. He pauses briefly after hearing about the goblins' shield, and looks up.the goblins seem quite interested in your aid, when this is translated to them. They invite you to join their morning casting ritual and study the casting as they study your perception magic. You have eight legs and a head, so you sit on one bowl and place the other on your head. the goblins frown, but say nothing at this point. A stray sense of strong disapproval catches you right in the empathy sense though.
I JUST SO HAPPEN TO HAVE PRIOR EXPERIENCE IN THE ART OF PERCEPTION MAGIC.I MAY BE ABLE TO HELP DIVERT HUNTERS, IF YOU LIKE.
Offer my services to the shamans. Regardless of their reply, finish off Clunkers' soup and quietly stash both bowls somewhere on my person.
"Very good. I will ask three more questions, and then I will leave you alone."s-s-s-sup-p-p-pp-pll-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-lies."
Firstly, are you a member of that mercenary band or were you simply delivering supplies to them?
Go on, speak up."
Talk.
go southeast so that it places me next to where we started and brings me through the center of thingsYou wander around the woods for half the night before giving up and sleeping where you are. At least the grass is soft. As is the moss, which, in certain conditions, would grow predominantly on the north of trees, but generally grows wherever it is shady and moist, and since you've been hiking through some rather hilly terrain you have seen lots of moss in shade facing other directions. ... Except for that orange moss. that stuff ... yo don't even know the logic behind where that stuff grows. Why, you swear you saw some growing on a cow's ear.
((Moss doesn't work that way, wikipedia and my boyscouts instructor lied!))
Hom:your attempt to use the kobold's energy fails completely. you get the feeling that you aren't doing the ritual right or something. You instead focus on slowing the kobold while backing away, but it seems to shrug off your time distortion - or perhaps that effort fizzled too. the kobold reaches you and bangs fruitlessly on your shell. this is unfortunate for it, as it steps in front of the elf's arrow at just the right time, taking the arrow in the arm. this doesn't stop it from banging and clawing at you.
Draw energy from the ineffable magic-stuff I drew out of the kobold. Use this energy to hurl magic, say, a bolt of deconstruction, or a dart of erasure, at the kobold. While it is thus distracted, get up and position myself so I'm not going to be surrounded by the mercs, then focus my own energies on bringing the passage of the kobold through time to a stop.
((feel free to interpret the destructive magic loosely -- I like seeing what you come up with))
Solam KobemtosedIt's a clumsy strike, but you manage to catch him in the ribs. He wheezes a bit, and blood trickles down his side, but he seems ready to go again.
Try a side slash now.
the knife's senses are directly dependent on the host's so you could conceivably hear through his ears perhaps. You cause nightmares, causing him to tos and turn all night. this does not help the wound healing process, but the wound doesn't open again either.((Sleeping it is. Just let us know when can we jump back into it.))
Knife is also fine with sleep, but I'd like to ask if it can perceive the world at all beyond what it gets from hitchhiking on Mordred's mind. Is the knife blind while Mordred sleeps?
Oh, and subtly alter Mordred's dreams. Steer them towards people stealing from him.
grab and stash some orange moss before continuing to wander....furiously rub the end of my dagger in it.You loot the woods, stuffing moss down your pants and thrusting your weapon into the mist mass repeatedly. Elves are weird. You pull out your knife and examine it. Yep, it's stained orange now. Won't that cow's ear be envious?
Do I need to be holding the object I want to make go boom, or is simply having line of sight enough? After that, see if my toy soldier has detachable limbs. Then calculate if I can use it to influence a humanoid, a la voodoo doll. If this isn't how it's used, calculate how I could use it.Line of sight will work, though direct contact is better. The soldier does have detachable limbs, but it is carefully constructed to be durable, which means the mechanisms to take apart the limbs require some time to manipulate without damaging it. It does indeed seem that you could manipulate a humanoid using your clockwork and focusing through this. You could do other things with it as well. For example, if you wanted to lift something particularly heavy, lining up the tow in your sight so that it looks like the toy is holding the object, then channeling power through the toy and into the object while raising the toy's arms, would help. other actions could help with other effects too. You could rockem sockem robot punch a moose, if you are into that sort of thing.
Accept shaman's blessing, and let the goblin scouts teach me and show me the enemies attack route.
"Statement: Advice disguised as stories. Neat.
Query: You mean to tell methat attacking them head on is futile, and getting them to fight among themselves is the way to go, yes?
Statement: Depending on how my allies' scouting goes, that might be possible. For now, I operate under the assumption that we will need to elimate them in small groups. "
VERY WELL, WE WILL CONVENE IN THE MORNING.they offer you a place in one of the bigger tents. When they did their chant around you and Clunkers, you could sense a subtle change in the air around you. It feels like the blessing is primarily sensory in nature, but there is something else as well. hard to say though. You can stay here tonight regardless of whether Clunkers is out with the scouts.
SAY... IT IS GETTING PRETTY DARK. YOU WOULDN'T HAPPEN TO HAVE A SPARE TENT FOR MY ASSOCIATE AND I, WOULD YOU?
Request shelter for the night.
"Spineless bastard."th-th-they are g-g-g-gett-tt-ing them fr-from V-Vanta. That's t-t-to the west. B-b-big c-c-ity pleasedontkillemihaveafamily.
Hey, I told you to speak up, and stop stuttering.
Now, tell me where the Mercenaries are getting supplies from, and speak up."
Talk.
Solam KobemtosedYou strike his leg as he swings at your arm. blood pours out of his stump, and he drops, howling and clutching his leg. You look down at him, then at your arm, and the machete stuck halfway into it. Meh. You've had worse.
Strike his leg now.
Hom:You blast the kobold to shreds. Parts fly off in a lot of arcs. It is beautiful, in a gruesome kind of way. The other blast doesn't go quite so well. As if anything could. You get struck twice by arrows in sensitive spots. One makes its way into your shell and digs into your neck, and another gets one of your forelegs.
Fire some regular destructomagic at the kobold, then the elf. Grumble about silly people not staying dead.
thrust about sporadicaly a bit before going east a bitYou poke your dagger into a tree and get it lodged there. You have to put a foot up on the tree in order to pry it out, and go tumbling over backward when you do. Yo uhed east, and end up in a bramble patch. You are now covered in burrs.
"Hmm. Last question, but you probably don't know the answer. I'll give you... five minutes, and if you can't give me a good answer in that time, I'll kill you. Who is paying these mercenaries?""I don't know! I'm just a wagoneer!" the man shouts, covering his face with his hands.
Right to the point, point the point at him.
Solam Kobemtosedyou casually lop off his other leg, ignoring the machete in your arm. Satisfied at the grotesque amount of blood oozing out of him, you turn to look for the elf, but he is nowhere to be seen.
Chop at his other leg, move to the elf. Slash at his leg if I make it this turn.
Hom:Your magic seems a tad wobbly, but it doesn't matter, the elf is gone.
Ouchie.When unreliable magic fails once, immediately use again!Check my magic reserves. If they're feeling ok, blast the elf with some magic -- doesn't have to be strongly damaging magic, pushing the elf off-balance and pelting it with weak but distracting lumps of magic is fine; but I'll accept more destructive stuff too. If I feel my magic reserves running low, do the same, but with a bit more desperation.
Retire to my tent. Take note of any potential "souvenirs".You waddle off to the small scrap of blanket offered to you in the communal tent, clopping along holding one bowl under you with two arms while balancing the other on your head. You tuck them both carefully into the hay under your blanket scrap and look around. sadly, nothing of interest is within filching distance, unless you want to snag the loinclothe off a couple adolescent goblins.
listen for any noises around me. head in said noises' directions, going towards them based on which one is the loudestYou hear the faint sounds of laughter, and see little glowy lights moving in among the branches ahead. you move that way, but can never quite seem to find the light source, nor the source of the laughter, which occasionally comes from the side, or behind, but always rather close. after a couple hours of this, as the sun begins to rise, you realize that you are no longer in a state of ordinary lostness. You have somehow managed to stumble into advanced lostness.
Solam KobemtosedHe refuses your surrender, but definitely looks like he's going to die soon. You try to zombify him anyway, but it doesn't take. Oh well, at least he's fresh.
Solam stares into the woods, considering the repercussions of this event.
"... This can not end well."
Move to the orc again, offer his surrender. If it seem like he'll die soon and he does surrender, try to zombify him. If he's already dead, just chow down.
"Too bad."Okiedokie. the guy just sobs into his blanket for a while.
Jack pokes the man in the throat with his decidedly not-real knife, to little effect.
"Hmph. Stop putting so much stock in your nightmares, it's not healthy. And be careful around those mercenary types.
Later!"
Become invisible and leave the room.
Hom:Well, there's the blood flowing out of the arrow in your neck, and the wound on your foreleg. Those count as damage. As for getting back to the omegas, you think west might be a good direction, if you can find it.
What do you mean? She's gone, if she decides to bother us more we can bother her right back. It's all good.
Nibble some leaves, examine myself for damage, and look around at surroundings. Try to figure out how to return to other Omegas.
I'd like a status update on him--still bleeding? Is the knife still in his gut?[/b]
Mordred wakes up in cold sweat - he had bad dreamsokay, you head that way. the wound is still painful and tender, but by the time you get there it should be more or less healed.
Time to look alive. Head back to our starting site where we agreed to regroup. That should have me occupied for quite a while.
Nice KnifeLike he said, he pulled it out. but it was still leaking overnight, though not life threateningly. yuo shold have him in fighting shape by the time he reaches the rendevous. Or at least by the time the rest of the group gathers and you can get into more trouble.
Continue slowly healing Mordred. I'd like a status update on him--still bleeding? Is the knife still in his gut?
((ack, you updates much sooner in the day than I expected. Sorry.))((sorry. I try to update when I get off work early in the morning, but sometimes I update in the eveneing. if I do update in the evening I try to remain on that schedule so I give everyone 24 hours to post. Sometimes I forget or get ahead of myself))
Let the scouts lead me to the routes. Take in the surroundings.
climb up a tree and get a basic ideal of my surroundings then work on foraging for foodYou shrug off the laughter and climb a tall tree. The ridgeline is east of you. the valley you were tooling about in .. you don't know. You seem way off course. You are in a bit of a depression between two ridges north and south, so yo ucan't really see where that valley is. As for food ... well, you find some edible plants and nuts and berries. Enough for a decent meal.
Head north, back to the place where we arrived, where we said we would regroup.You head up toward the open slope you started from.
Hom:hoooookay. Time to start rolling constitution rolls. Should be okay for a little, anyway. It hurts like fuck to walk, but you bear it for now.
Eh, it'll heal, leave the arrow alone and avoid moving my neck too much. Head west, that's away from the sunrise. Maybe one of my more intelligent-seeming comrades could help with the arrow.
Solam Kobemtosedthe orc has a heavy ring mail shirt. It is very cumbersome. You are pretty loaded down carrying it. you hack at the orc's head with your sword for a while, trying to get at the juicy bits inside. eventually you give up and cut it's head off and stuff it in the bag with the other heads "for later." Westward you go.
Make sure I've got that bag of goblin brains, check orc for expensive armor, eat orc brains if I have not done so already. Follow the turtle.
"We met a few mercs. One of them got away."- Were these the guys we're after? How much of them did you kill? What's your impression, are they good or are they just punks?
- Were these the guys we're after? How much of them did you kill? What's your impression, are they good or are they just punks?"They were. There were three of them; an orc, a kobold, and an elf. The elf is the one who escaped. The kobold was killed by the turtle immediately, and I killed the orc in three strikes."
((would clunkers be so kind as to repair this tortoise? Thanks :D))((I'll adjust my previous post to include that. In a sec.))
Let's say I met up with the others, after bidding the shamans farewell."bye." ... "[goblin noises]"
Solam KobemtosedClang. thump.
Drop armor and bag of food.
"We met a few mercs. One of them got away."
Hom:so, you are going to let a large, metal construct, known for murder, a short temper, and racism dig around in your sensitive spots. Okay then. at least he has a +1 t omedical rolls. heck, he even has a specialization in some for m of medicine or another, apparently.
Lie there, gurgle if I wake up. If I have the strength to be escorted to the goblins for medical help, go there for medical help.
Hhhurghghhh...
((would clunkers be so kind as to repair this tortoise? Thanks :D))
indeed, thank the goblin scouts and head for the rendezvous point. We've got planning to do, and not a lot of timeYou dig the arrow out of his neck and bind the wound without actually choking the turtle. Once the poultice is aplied there, you treat the foreleg in a similar fashion. He'll live, but he's gonna need to take it easy for a while. Get him a nice glass enclosure for warmth, and throw in some rocks to relax on, add some water for drinking, and a couple koi for food. Maybe a little palm tree and a sunken treasure chest with a real skull nearby.
Give first aid to the turtle, patch him up
Recall what I learned on my little scouting trip in a nice summery, because I'm too lazy to come up with one myself."I found a guy. he pooped himself and diddles horses. That's all I know." ((I got lucky on that roll))
Wait....laughter, EITHER I"M GOING MAD OR I FOUND SOME ONE TO BE MAD AT! Search for said Laughter!This does not surprise me at all. Somehow this random encounter is going to end up more significant than the entire rest of this mission. You hear the laughter, maybe. It is nearby, just up that ridge a little.
sneakily climb up the ridge!(1) ... it's rolls like these that got you in this situation to begin with ...
<They seem like a ramshackle bunch. Few of them look like they could hold their own in a fight, unlike you. It almost seems like you were meant to fail.The knife can see what Mordred sees of Jack. Mordred knows Jack is insubstantial (I don't know if Jack informed him of his heritage), and can convey this to the knife. Or the knife can learn of it when Jack's image wavers or whatever. there's no special sensory feel to Jack, but how he acts, let's say it resonates with the knife. Perhaps you feel that intense hatred that only a particularly evil being can feel for something of like kind. Or perhaps his similarities evoke another mood in you. Now, if you were to be plunged into jack, or otehrwise attempt to physically encounter him ... we would see what might happen.
Do not let them know of me. They may become envious of the power I can provide, and worse, I may lose my grip on the conduit if someone less attuned gains possession of it>
Can the Knife tell that Jack is a demon, either from outward appearance, or from Mordred's memory? Since Jack sorta-kinda doesn't exist, is there anything notable about the knife's perception of it?
I'm going to leave this til morning to see if anyone else wants to chime in, or decide a course of action.Ding ding ding din
"uhhhh. Let's just walk in and kill them all?""Statement: They have superior numbers. Probably, let's not kid ourselves, superior equipment, training, and skill as well. Even the goblin shamans, underdeveloped organics though they might be, say that us taking them on directly would be a bad idea."
turn and sprint to my left screaming like a mad man:Oh god help me I'm so lost I have no where to go, mah house burned down, my face burned off, my wife is dead and I had to eat mah dog to survive!Arileth's sanity meter is dropping quite rapidly, and that giggling ... there are more of them now. You see wings and flitting in the woods as yo uchase ... whatever madness is currently boiling in your brain. On the bright side, you manage to completely leap over a surprise pitfall, skirt the edge of a sudden rockslide, and run right through a patch of puff poppers without a single one exploding in your face. You are beginning to consider that this might be a more dangerous game than you expected.
If they don't believe me then explain that my home was a tavern, I was a bouncer and a hunter and my wife isn't my wife and was in fact a friend and my dog was a cat
Occupy myself by easing the turtle's pain, using my innate sensory specialization.This action ... works. You dull the turtle's pain and feel a sharpness in your limb, a piercing itch that you can't quite scratch.
((This action will most likely be edited.))
"Query: so, how should we proceed?"That zombie with a sword in it's arm could probably use some help. He looks like he's about to yank that sucker right out, and that might be unpleasant for him. The burned elf is nowhere to be found, Cho Ja hasn't said a thing in a while, and Mordred has a look in his eye that you don't exactly like. And a new knife he seems rather protective of. As for if anyone else is different - well, you overload a little. You should probably not try to use calculations for a while. That one hurt.
Use calculations to scan if anyone else is different/hurt/needs medical help.
SolamYou yank the machete out, but your arm is unresponsive and inoperable. You can flex your fingers and wiggle your hand, and you can shrug your shoulder and move it up and down, butfrom mid bicep to wrist, you have no control. it doesn't hurt, because you are dead, but what else is new?
Remove the machete from my arm, drop it with other loot
"Concerned Query: Mordred, are your systems nominal? Where did you get that weapon? This one does not recall you having it before."
((It's tucked into the belt behind his back, under the coat. Shouldn't be visible to you. He talks to Nice Knife inside his head, on the outside it looks like he spaces out a little. Also shouldn't look that bad.))((In the update Ozarck said clunkers noticed it though, thorugh robutt magiques))
((In the update Ozarck said clunkers noticed it though, thorugh robutt magiques))
- I don't know what are you talking about. I had this sword here since we departed, and that's about it. Got a few cuts on me after that fight I had, but I'll walk it off. Thank you for your concern, I guess.Clunkers stares at Mordred, gears audibly whirring inside of him
"Statement: This one merely requires you to keep your head with the mission. Chances are good we will have a harsh fight ahead.
Query: would you like this one to take a look at those injuries. This one does have medical programming, after all."
- I'm good, thanks. I take a little pride in my self-awareness of my body's capabilities, and I'm confident I will be in combat shape very soon. I could use some tactical advise on the upcoming battle, because my top idea is to go in and start shooting lightning and swinging swords."Dissapointed statement: That may very well be what we are going for. The small organics are only capable of conceiling their location for a time. Their spiritual leaders have told me that they lack the fighting capacity to stand up to the mercs. Moreover, their scouts have shown me that there are 5 possible routes the mercs can take, so making an effective ambush is tricky to say the least. Unless any of you have a plan to either assasinate their high command, or somehow cut off the source that is funding them, this one is temporarely out of ideas.
"Query: Explain, Solam. Why do you wish to capture some?""I might be able to turn them against the others, and cause some more mayhem while reducing risk to ourselves."
Mordred then turns towards the zombie, and raises an eyebrow "Why would they need to be alive? Is your bite infectious? Capturing one is risky, because every man we allow to escape is more information for our foe, but it would be worth it if we would gain an ally.""Yes, it is. The effect doesn't always occur, and it takes a day for the change to complete."
Think Arileth, think! We're lost, being surrounded by giggling things. I thinks wez north easts of our friendssssss. Wez have to go souths and westssss Try to find which direction is south and west and wander that way , stopping after 3 hours to make a fire and shelter.You get your bearings, remembering that you moved northwest from the start, and so head southeast. You find yourself on a ridge overlooking the valley. The giggling fades, but you still catch glimpses of the lights in the near distance, and are occasionally tripped up by an unexpected root, or caught on a thorn you thought you had avoided, or slipping on a seemingly solid rock. You make enough progress to get out of the woods to the ridge, but it's an exhausting three hours. Nonetheless, you gather a few sticks and some dry brush for a small fire. Just as you bend to start striking flint to stone, you freeze, the points of several spears very visible in front of your face. You slowly look up to the small, masked, green skinned creatures pointing their weapons at you.
Roll to notice the arrogant bastard in the knife.you successfully notice the enchantment on the dagger, and the intellect inhabiting it. It feels ... useful to you. Some fun could be had with this one.
"Statement: Solam, let me help you with that arm. this one is the closest thing to a doctor here."You stare at the lifeless flesh for a time, occasionally poking and prodding, asking "does it hurt when I do this? how about when I do this?" The answer is always 'no', even when you poke where the damage isn't. Figures. Zombies. Stumped, you eventually settle for crudely stitching the flesh together so it doesn't fall off his shoulder.
Clunkers whirrs and buzzes for a moment
"Concerned Query: Mordred, are your systems nominal? Where did you get that weapon? This one does not recall you having it before."
"Angered Query: And where are our other teammembers?
Angry statement: This one recalls us starting out with more operatives than this. This one feels that other Omega's just fucking off to wherever they please will become a serious threat to this mission."
Try to get solam's damaged arm back in working order, unless he doesn't want me to. after that, relax my farseeing circuits so I can hopefully use calculations again soon. If mordred/others move out, make sure to go with.
Mordred meets Clunkers gaze unflinchingly, but his smirk changes into a softer smile "I meant no insult. On the contrary, I actually do believe you are probably the most valuable Omega on this mission. You are combat capable, farseeing capable, powerful, tough, and the only person capable of communicating with the goblins." Mordred gestures towards Terrence, and chuckles a bit "Compare to Terrence, who's mostly only useful for farseeing, which is just one of your many functions. He's valuable, but not integral to anything. Or better, Arileth, who may have been useful, but has deserted us. You can occupy any role effectively, and have put more effort towards planning than anyone else."I have no idea what's going on. Why did the knife lose mana? Also, yes, the knife can cast buffs through it's weilder via direct contact and both knife and wielder concentrating. the buff will be influenced by the wielder as well as by the knife.
Mordred's face hardens somewhat "No, I don't mean to disrespect you. You asked for suggestions on how to proceed, and I provided them. You pointed out flaws in my plan, and I answered them. I'm sorry if that was taken as an insult, but I stand by my belief that my plan is the best option we have available."
"And no, I have not been touched by enemy magic. I just got annoyed with our group's indecision. We need a plan, and as you said, if we don't have one we will die. I don't want to die, so I decided to take the lead. I normally work alone, but I have to rely on all of you for this mission, so that isn't an option."
Still watching Clunkers, Mordred carefully steps away from the golem, and towards Jack "You're right about their motivation being the most valuable information, and we will have to wait for our farseers to replenish their mana, anyway--I agree that we should embark immediately. Hopefully their motivation will be something we have enough time to exploit--if they're paid by a noble in some faraway city, we likely won't be able to do much about that."Clunkers just got aggressive, and stepped up into Mordred's face. He then started talking (see above post) for a bit, and the knife responded with the above spiel. As soon as Clunkers stepped up, the knife would have started to buff Mordred's telekinesis, and if Clunkers does anything aggressive, the knife would force Mordred to use the enhanced telekinesis to launch Clunkers away.Irrelevant now, as Clunkers was placated. I guess the knife might've lost some mana.
Also, a Question: Can the Nice Knife cast "through" Mordred? I.E, having Mordred place his hands on someone else, with the knife sheathed at his side, and then the knife casting buffs/whatever on the person Mordred is touching? I've been assuming the knife can only affect people who have direct contact, but this would be really useful, so I'm asking.
Terrance glowers at Mordred.Mordred seems ... out to lunch. Weird. you create a sensaton, but it seems to have little effect.
YOU ARE RIGHT, ONE OF MY ABILITIES HAPPENS TO BE FARSEEING.
Create a localized itching in Mordred's left leg. Slowly elevate it to a disturbing crawling sensation. After a moment or so, replace that with a quick, staggering burst of pain concentrated behind his left knee.
Hom:You feel a tad more calm, but your aura seems to be being rebuffed by the auras of the people around you. Guess the tension will remain. Ah well, not your problem, eh? It's not like you have an arrow stuck in your neck, after all. Those days are long behind you. it was practically almost yesterday when that happened.
Everyone should just chill out a bit, we're on the same side here.
OHHHH Haaiiiiii there! I beleive you were that goblin tribe I was sent to protect...So, uh seen a big clockwork man and some other stuff?The goblins look at you through their masks and tilt their heads. one turns his mask toward another makes some goblin noises, gestures at your Omega mark, and turns his mask back toward you. A short conversation follows, while the goblins each pull their spears away from you and aim them a respectable direction, while keeping them ready to deploy at a moment's notice. One draws what you recognize to be a crude map of the ridge in the dirt, and points at a couple locations and gestures in a direction for each location. He then makes a mark below the ridge and draws a line from where you are, to that spot. He then gestures south and west.
Creep back slowly and raise my hands
"Are you ready to go, 'Mordred'?"
Jack does not actually make airquotes with his fingers, that would be dreadfully unsubtle.
Me and Mordred (and his intriguing knoife) will be departing on a short jaunt to the mercenary camp for some delightful skullduggery.
Some both intriguing and delightful skullduggery may happen while we're alone in the woods, as well. :D
Mordred nods at Jack, stating that he is ready, then he boldly walks out of the clearing, leading Jack. He sets a strong pace, only occasionally looking behind him, but after ten minutes he suddenly whirls around to face Jack. Mordred's normally stern face shifts to a wide-eyed, almost manic grin, and he falls to one knee, right fist clenched over his heart--and left fist clenched over his new dagger.Okay ,so the two/three of you are heading merc-ward. it'll take a couple hours to get there,
'Mordred' speaks, his voice giddy and overjoyed "Such luck! To find a suitable host, and then to find a Master so soon after! I expected to have to search for months, years, before I could find a Master! I pledge myself to you, to your grand machinations."
The being in control of Mordred's body bows his head, and draws the jeweled knife from his hip. He raises it above his head, offering it to Jack, though he maintains a strong grip on the knife. What jewels are visible on the handle glitter far too brightly. "I am housed within this artifact, an ancient demonic tool made to disrupt this world. But I am only a tool, and have great difficulty effecting chaos alone. Please, Master, accept me into your plans!"
'Mordred's head raises to look at Jack again, his eyes pleading. He waits for a response.
Oh, uh, head to the base with Jack. And do some RP stuff along the way.
Head to that direction.You wander the ridge for a while, eventually stublming upon a down path, and follow a game trail below for a while before hearing familiar voices. hey, look at that, you found the other Omegas.
Uhhhh thanks.
((It's derived directly from the French phrase "rendez-vous." The French like their silent z's.))
Glare at Mordred as he departs. Help Clunkers discern the mercs' route via Farseeing.
((Looks like it was farseeing then))Okay, so the two of you are doing the farseeing to determine which direction the mercenaries are coming. What you find is that two patrols are sent out, one each with five mercs, and they seem particularly wary. News must have gotten back regarding the zombie and turtle. No telling if tey know it is Omega or not, or if that even matters to them.
Robutt computing ho! Calculate which path the mercs are going to take. Do it together with Terrance, if such a synergy is possible.
Solam KobemtosedYep. At least the flesh is stitched together though.
Test my damaged arm. Is it still unusable?
Hom:Which mischief? I mean, you're fine where you are, on the side of a hill, but the only mischief you have access to here is that between Omegas. You want more mischief, you're gonna have to hike a bit. As for relaxing - you relax yourself right to sleep. Well, I guess yo ucan invent mischief in your dreams.
Whistle cheerfully, relax. Is there a nice vantage point where I could watch the mischief without getting my wounded body in too much danger?
In every life, we have some trouble - when you worry, you make it double, don't worry. Be happy.
Crawl out from whatever rock ive been hiding under.You blink and look around at the Omegas in the clearing. there's Clunkers, Terrance, Hom, Solam, and here comes Arileth from up north for some reason. The other two, Mordred and Jack, have headed toward the mercenary base camp to make trouble, and the rest of you are attempting to make a plan. Or to just not hurt yourselves. it's even money as to whether either of those things happen or not. ((A face for the names: bronze construct, Land Octopus, Giant Turtle, Zombie, and burned elf are your current companions - demon and former demon possessed are the ones heading out.))
try to be less uninformed as to whats going on.
Whatever it is, do the thing, with the gems.I haven't been paying attention to what jack has told you about the gems. You hold them, fondle them gently, breath on them, whisper 'Rosebud' to them, and think perverted thoughts at them.
Stay hidden while Jack scouts."Pretty close. you know-"
- How close do you need to be in order to mind-snipe them?
Search for flint and a willow tree, strip some bark off the willow tree and use it to make cordage by charing it slightly and splitting it to get the cordage material , knap flint. Make spearAfter an hour of searching you find a suitable willow tree and take a few branches. The flint is a tad harder to find, as you are not in a limestone region, nor are you in northeastern Michigan.
((process I'm poorly describing to make cordage material:))Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Turn invisible and scout out the camp to try to find somebody who looks like they know what they're doing. What time is it? If it's reasonably dark out, then enter the camp to look around. Otherwise, stay near the treeline.If i remember correctly, it was early in the day when everyone met, and it was a several hour walk to get where you are, so around midday, so you stay in the treeline, and don't get a good look at the people, nor see anyone who looks 'in charge'.
"I need to be in physical contact with one of those gems to use them. We need to find a way to get them close enough to the target for me to use them. Stay hidden, I'm going to scout."
Stay hidden while Jack scouts.You find yourself a nice little spot behind a fallen tree and settle in for the wait. Note that Cho Ja has followed you and Jack here.
- How close do you need to be in order to mind-snipe them?
SolamCrunch and Munch. Yum. "Boy, these mercs sure had the right idea. Goblin heads are delicious."
Idly consume brains from ye zombie lunch bag.
Cho jaEh, you woke up early enough to follow them, so consider yourself there with them.
Attempt to track jack and the other guy down.
Hom:awoken.
Wake up.
Huh? Oh. Yes. Sure.
Just sharpen the branches then after stripping them of their bark. Head on withSeveral sharpened branches alter ...Blintzcrankclunkers
Hom:teamward ho!
Follow Clunkers.
"Hum de doe de dee de doo de hmm hm *mumble hum mumble*"
Solam Kobemtosedthe armor is heavy, but manageable. it's gonna make movement a tad awkward though.
"Hold on a moment, let me get ready."
Swap to the orc's armor, hang bag of brains on something, follow Pancaek.
"Statement: COme on, are we going to stand here chipping away at a stick and munching brains, or are we going to attack those mercs and complete the mission? This one does not wish to go attack them on its own, but this one thinks we really need to get a move one"I'm sure there's always room in a mercenary band for one more reliable sociopath.
If both of these jokers don't want toget a move on, just go to their projected route of attack myself. Maybe they'll be fairly friendly?
LET'S GO.Alright one you go.
Go with Clunkers. Find somewhere near the ambush site that I can nestle in, and pick off people with my blowpipe. Continue to use my bowls as armor.
Cho Jayou count at least twelve in attendance. The area is overgrown, and some ofthe mercsare in the process of clearing the slopes ofhe fort so as to have line of sight all around, but clearly they didn't except any invasions here.
Hide somewhere nearby, count how many mercs I can see and attempt to identify, but not use, a path I can take to get closer without being detected.
Move around the ridge going south staying out of sight of the mercsYou head over the ridge and take up a position overlooking the southern slope. You don't have a full view of the slope, so you could miss the mercs if they take a different route, but you probably wouldn't be seen.
I'll move to a hidden position down the road
"Statement: This one will go and warn the goblins, hopefully they can move away from our ambush point.Yu approach the goblins on the north side of the valley, but they shy away from you, keeping you out of a stone's throw distance. At best, you shout at them that they are in danger, and call out the shaman's name to them. It is hard to tell if they got your message. You make haste to the south side, crossing the stream and getting to the top of the ridge. You find a spot where you can see the ridgeline and Arileth, but you can not see the slope the mercs might come up. You can at least tell when they are within the circle of your teammates though, or if they bypassed your position completely.
Query: This one could try to stand in the open as if it was scanning minerals from the river, perhaps to create a diversion so that we can either send them the wrong way, or allow the rest of you to flank more easily. Should this one attempt such a thing, or do you think we should all just attack from hiding at once?"
Go warn the goblins that mercs are coming from the south and they should move the other way, drop the name of that shaman of theirs if they don't immediatly believe me. Then join up with the rest of the team.
Hom:you move along further east from Clunkers' position, and find a spot at teh end of a line of brambles overlooking a clear wooded path. the mercs will likely pass below you and to the west toward Clunkers' position, but they could go elsewhere.
Look for some good places to hide, in anticipation of having to soon fire on approaching mercenaries. Maybe some rough terrain to the side of their expected path to the goblins?
Solamyou follow Hom up to the lower end of the ridge, and then make your way down below him to a patch of rocky ground where you crouch down near a game trail. You'll probably be the first in line against the mercs at this point.
Try to fill in a hiding spot Hom points out.
THAT WOULD BE USEFUL. THE REST OF US SHALL FIND ADEQUATE HIDING SPOTS, SO THAT WE CAN ATTACK AT THE OPTIMAL TIME.You find a perfect position, overlooking both the ridge, Clunkers' and the various approaches. You climb a tree and blend naturally into the branches, unseen even by Clunkers below you.
I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT YOU, UNDEAD ONE- WHAT WAS YOUR NAME AGAIN? YOU CHARGE THE MERCS, WHILE THE ARMORED LAD AND I FIRE FROM SAFETY.
Find a good place to find, probably on the south ridge. I should be positioned such that I can fire at Clunkers' position without risking immediate melee combat. If the fight begins down next turn: As soon as the fight commences, flood the pain receptors of the enemy nearest to Clunkers (or, if they're mounted, their steed).
N \_____
W+E A \___
S T \
C\___
*> \
H\
^ S \___
* \ sit and wait for mercs to pass me before stepping out behind them and stabbing at themFirst, I am going to assume you aim for one of the normal sized ones. Second: stealth roll, third: attack.
SolamViolence is happening, but not within your range. You do hear the startled cry or someone, and assume battle has commenced. You lurch toward the sound. You come out into the field and the closest beings you see are a grey skinned fellow, quite short, and a troll. Both turn toward you as you crash out form the brush. the Troll's eyes widen to show whites all around, and it lets out a keening wail. Kinda a weird sound for a Troll to make. It's knuckles go white on it's club's handle. Suddenly, a sonic blast from behind you hits so loud that it knocks you off your feet.
Wait for the mercs to speak to Clunkers. If violence happens, charge at the closest merc.
Wait until violence commences, and then pick a merc close to Clunkers to subject to sensory torture. If that's effective, do the same on others nearby once he's down. If it isn't, switch to using my blowdarts.You target the human that is fighting with Arileth. Your sensory attack hits, but the human does something weird, and the sensory distortion bounces around to the other mercs, linking them all together weirdly, but otherwise showing no visible harm. Only you can sense this weird linking - none of the other Omegas are aware of it.
Question: Could you maybe make the map legible? The text is displayed monospaced but you must've composed it otherwise since the spacing is all wonky. Or maybe it's intentional and the ridge is kinda discontinuous?((nope, yu guys had like six turns to do this stuff. And I rolled the timeframe. Sometimes battle happens. Sorry))
Hom:
Sit tight, prepare for magicking. If dudes come from an approach near me, stay hidden and hope they get lured by teammates further along. If they approach from closer to the northwestern team members, I'll poke my head above the bushes and bellow for attention, to lure them past my teammates.
((didn't realize we wouldn't have more prep time, so could I maybe assume I could retroactively suggest this idea to the others? Not necessarily that we've conferred and agreed on a plan, just that I proposed it. Thankee))
Staying as a shadow, get a little closer to the fort. Who's still awake? are there any lookouts, and if so, are any alone?there are several lookouts patrolling the fort. A couple other late nighters are chatting inside - you glimpse the telltale flicker of a campfire and sense the smoke. None of the sentries go out of range of the other beings which are awake at the moment.
"We might want to read the mind of a sentry first, no need to find a higher-up if the rank and file know what we want to know."
Cho JaThere's a building inside the earthworks that looks like a good candidate for food and water storage. Right next to the headquarters looking building.
sneak within twenty or thirty yards of the earthwoks or lumberjacking going on.
try to identify the mercenaries water and food storage.
Staby stab stab for the eyes!((almost missed you))
((Son of a bitch, I didn't have time to write a post yesterday because of my internship. Fuck. ))((If you warn me ahead of time, I will do my best to work around sudden tight schedules. Sorry you missed that round, but Clunkers wouldn't have immediately saw the enemy anyway))
Clockwork magic: hold the humanoid figurine in front of me so that it is next to the troll in my vision. from afar they'll probably look about the same height as well. Then, when I've linked their similar builds in my mind, twist the head 360 degrees. We voodoo now.
If anyone attacks me while I'm trying to do this, dodge and give them a brass fist of justice right in their ugly gob.
Solam KobemtosedYou roll to the side, and lurch upright with a groan, right in the face of the troll. it scrams, you scrteam, it grabs you by the shoulders, you grab it by the elbow. You both hold this tableau, screaming and holding each other, completely flabbergasted. Suddenly you feel a strange itching on your skin, all over your torso. It's pretty uncomfortable and will make you lose initiative.
Roll to a side, stand up.
((don't mind at all, this is plenty fun))You can't see the mercs, so you are going to approximate tyheir location from sounds and all, which will be a roll. You feel that you get a good grip on their location and will some goop at them. Again, you can't tell what happens, but you get a feeling that the magic hit them, but not in a way you intended. ((You are doing fine with your directives. it IS wild magic, which makes it unreliable and chaotic, so, while there is a chance you will get what you are after, there is a chance you will summon bees instead.))
Hom:
"Ooho! I wonder, what will this do?"
Spill some puddles of magic at the feet of the mercs. Whistle cheerfully.
((so with all this wild magic, how can I direct it? Should I decide whether to rain magic, or hork gobs of magic, or pull magic out of the ground, or shine rays of magic, etc, and you (or rngesus) decide what the exact effects of the magic are? Or do you think I should give more direction as to the effects, too? Or less?))
SEEMS LIKE NONE OF MY MAGIC IS WORKING TODAY....You ... Did you just prick yourself with that poison dart? You drop the blowgun in horror.
Fuck this. Bury a poisoned dart in the humie's chest.
((That reminds me... You never specified what types of poisons I had m, beyond "a variety of effects". Could you elaborate on that, or are we just going to leave them in a convenient quantum state?))
Determine whether or not I just poisoned myself. Don't prick myself again in the process.you are in the middle of combat, you really should post at least something offensive as well, probably. Anyway you shake off the fear that you have pricked yourself -it was a silly fear anyway, you knew you hadn't. Gonna go ahead and use last turn's action now - firing at the humie, since it was an action interrupted. You see his hand jerk up to his neck. Nice shot. He drops to one knee, then falls over on his face. The troll wails in pain, and there is a disturbance of some kind near the vinerockbeast.
Throw my spear at the sorcerer before cutting at the vines around meWell, since you are on your back and entangled, the first action automatically fails. You do, however, manage to free yourself from the vines with some quick dagger action. A novel use of a punch dagger, but it worked. Just as you cut the last big obstacle away, a shadow falls over you. instinctively, you roll to the left, hearing a whistle and a loud thud right where you were moments ago. You rise on your hands and knees and look up at the vinerockbeast, rising from his attempt to mash you into fertilizer.
Hom:You You attempt to undo whatever is afecting your fellows and yourself, but encounter some resistance. You manage to free yourself, at least, and recognize that this was not your own spell. Now, being pretty slow, even for a Tortoise, you figure it will take youa little while to get into position to see - oh, whell that was quick. You mosey your way to a break in the tree line and look down at the clearing. You see the vinerockbeast, a glistening zombie, bound by glistening vines and being held by a screaming troll, a greyskinned fellow, and a stream of smoke You don't see Arileth, Clunkers, or Terrance from this vantage point.
"Shit."
Undo! Then move to a position where I can ACTUALLY SEE WHAT IS GOING ON
"Annoyed statement: F-fools. Whas is this? Feeble magics of f-f-f-eeble orga-a-a-nics. You are no match for my superior engineering. I s-s-s-hall not be rendered inert by this!"you get warning lights all over the place, but can't tell what is what, at all. Fortunately, your redundant systems seem to kick in and you soldier on. You see the humie go down, so you shift your attention to one of the other targets. that troll looks dangerous. you line the figurine up with the troll and cast to link them, but those darn error messages bleat at you and the link fizzles.
Do a system check to see what parts are having problems and use my redundant systems to pick up the slack where necessary!
If this works and I still have actions left this turn, attempt the twisty head voodoo clockwork magic again!
Solam Kobemtosed((nope.)) Before you can act, you get flash frozen solid. Ice covers you, the vines holding you, and the troll's arms. The troll jerks free moments later and steps back, bellowing. The cold is unpleasant, but the immobility is worse. You can't scratch that itch at all, and it is really bugging you.
Try to wrestle the troll to the ground. Keep him as close to me as I can.
((So, did the sudden calmness undo the strange torso itching?))
Cho JaYou cover yourself in dirt and creep slowly up the dirt embankment until you can peer inside and see all that is going on. You are mere feet from the path of the guards who patrol the top of the embankment. At an opportune time, it looks like you could get inside and into the shadows of some tents if you act carefully.
Roll around in the dirt a bit to make myself dirty and hard to spot.
wait for an opportunity to sneak even closer.
Shoot the grey guy.And hit's his target, who doesn't seem to react to the hit. perhaps the needle got lodged in teh clothing or something.
Sprint over at the wizard guy moving to the left and stab at him if I can't see him charge torwards the smoke tossing my spear into itSince I don't know which wizard guy you are talking about, and the human sorcerer is dead, Arileth rushes over toward the smoke cloud with an angry vine creature on his heels, but he finds nothing there to stab.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Solam KobemtosedSolam struggles fruitlessly with his imprisonment, ignoring the ethereal thingies floating around tugging at him.
Struggle with the ice.
((not a lot of time to make nice post today, sorry))Clunkers finally manages a link with the troll, albeit a tenuous one, and gets the troll rooted in place, or at least slowed down, for a moment. But the troll resists the link, and Clunkers' doll moves along with the troll, who smashes both fists into the ice sculpture before him. This shatters the ice, and crushes the zombie's chest, crumpling him to the ground.
attempt doll clockwork voodoo bead twist on troll again. If it fails, attempt clockwork doll voodoo to simply keep him rooted in place.
Hom:Finally, Hom begins attempting to bring a little peace to the field, and further slows both the plant thingy and the troll, but not by much. It might be the edge needed for Arileth to survive his little duel though.
The mercs seem to be in a bit of a rush. Slow down the troll and tree-plant-thing.
Cho JaYou don't find an opportunity this round, but remain hidden. At one point you shift your position along hte ridge to better line up with the tents for a better run. Good question about the others. Maybe they got eaten by the Badgermonkeys.
wait for the opportune moment to make a break for the tents.
wonder what happened to the guys I followed.
Make grey guy hallucinate that his entire body, his clothes, and his hair are crawling with angry spiders. Shoot him with another dart, this time aiming for something other than his clothes.You cast your spell, and are satisfied to see the grey squirming and swiping at himself in panic. taking aim, you fire again, and the dart penetrates flesh. the grey slows his movements, and staggers. He turns toward you, finally spotting you in the trees, but slumps forward before he can do anything about it.
sprint torwards the forest, or if there is no forest towards a low point at the ridge and then up the ridge and to the left. Throw spear at vine beast leg. Do I have more then one spear on me?A sudden loud music blares in Arileth's ears, causing him to place his hands over his ears and scream. It doesn't help. Arileth dashes for the trees, screaming, but makes it about four steps before he is entangled again.
Uuuuuuuuuuck!
((could we have a map pls?))
Hom:You coat the troll with pain. You also coat it with blue. the blue spreads out from teh troll's body, covering Solam, the corpse of the grey, and the ground. it spreads about ten feet this round. the troll bellows and writhes, lashing out all around itself.
Spread some hurt onto the troll, generously, like nutella on a slice of bread.
Let's try for something less british but more precise. Use robot computing in conjunction with clockwork magic and the most applicable focus object to stop the mechanisms of the troll's heart(s?).Well, hearts beat in rhythm, and metronomes provide rhythm. So, you grab the metronome, stashing the little mannequin "for later." you set teh metronome to ticking, feeling for the beat of the troll's heart. s yo uconcenrate, yo ufelthe rhythm of the metronome change on it's own accord, increasing in speed as the troll is covered in blue and screams. With a finger, you stop the metronome at it's peak, and the troll stops nearly instantly, grasping it's chest. it stares stupidly for a moment, then falls face first into the blue grass.
Cho JaAgain, you manage to stay hidden, but fail to get across the ridge to the slope down to the tents. Somehow, either a patrol is in sight, or someone in camp is nearby every time you are about to try.
Keep trying to safely reach the tents, preferably close to the storehouse.
((Why would my presence stop you from acting on your own syv?))
((@UPNo response from Egan, so this action is on hold until he wakes up
The knife hasn't revealed its intelligence to anyone aside from Mordred and Jack. It can't act openly with Cho'ja present, because it doesn't want Cho'Ja to know of it. Also, your presence is bad for the simple fact that you cannot help, and you double our chances of being discovered, which would ruin the plan.
That said, the plan's somewhat unnecessary, as farseeing seems to be effective for detecting and predicting patrols. If we could actually coordinate while at full force, the patrols would go down easily.
@CP
Pretty much directly after we left camp, Clunkers used farseeing to find the patrols. Except, rather than waiting, he led everyone else who was left behind to confront one of the patrols, which was heading for a group of goblin herders. Their ambush went... poorly, and now they're at significant risk. I'd have to reread the fight to give you a play-by-play, if such is necessary.
Admittedly, this is kinda my fault, as I forgot that it's mean to make a plan that relies on a bunch of players waiting around doing nothing while a couple of others do something important. Pancaek was completely justified in going and doing something interesting, and he couldn't have known how badly the ambush would go. I should have put more thought into our plan, and actually examined our options before just jumping on one. >.<
Oh, and you didn't drag me out of the action. I could've possessed Mordred and had the knife impersonate him. It's just that the only useful action the knife can take is enhancing Jack, and that's not a capability Mordred has. It'd be fine if only Jack were around, but too risky around Cho'Ja. He shifted his position though, so I guess I can do something...))
Mordred looks at Jack with a slightly worried expression. "Master? Is your presence in this world still strong? You almost seemed to be fading, there." He shakes his head "I believe it is late enough to begin, Master. I can strengthen your will against the mortals, if you take my hand." Mordred then extends his arm towards Jack, and raises his other hand to show the magical gems that empower Jack.
If Jack takes Mordred's hand, the knife will attempt to strengthen Jack's will through that connection. You said it could do that sort of thing. Then, if Jack specifies to use any of the empowerment gems, make Mordred use them. I'd specify which ones to activate, but I honestly don't even remember what they all do.
Wait a moment, just to make sure that the grey guy is out of order. If he moves, apply pain liberally until he stops. If he doesn't, shoot the vine monster, and see if that does anything.The grey guy does not move again. You fire a dart at the vine thingy, but can't even tell if it hit.
MAKE THE MUSIC STOP!You thrust your dagger at the vine guy, but are restricted by the entangling vegetation and are stopped short of your target. The vine beast reaches to strangle yo, but you cut it's limb a little, and it jerks back, then swings a rockfist at you, which , being immobilized, you struggle to avoid, and it strikes you a glancing blow to the side. Your vision darkens for a moment before clearing. The music fades on it's own during this time.
Stab at vine beast if I see it, otherwise cut my self out and try and discern source of music and stab it in the eye
Hom:All the blue stuff congeals around Solam, and Solam's body stands erect, thrashing about randomly. it doesn't approach the vine beast or anyone else at the moment.
Spread some of that blue pain to the vine monster! Or maybe shoot something else at it, that's fun too.
"Hee hee hee. Ufufu. Ohoho. How nice."
((edited for more randomness))
keep the metronome still for a while more before severing the link. Then look around for other hostiles, and if they're humanoid, do the heart stopping trick again.Well, the vinebeast is not humanoid, but the blue thingy thrashing about there in the field is .. but you can't find a heartbeat in it's body to stop.
Give vine guy the spider treatment. Except with fire instead of spiders.You make the vine guy feel as thoguh he is burning all over. It screams and looks at itself qucikly, but seeing no flame, it turns back to Arileth. You can tell it still feels as though it is burning though.
Attack The vine beast if it tries to strike me... See if I can will my spear to burn otherwise cut self out and stab at the Vine beastOh, it's trying to strike you alright. you try to swipe at it, but the entanglements hold you back. Fortunately for you, the thing screams and looks distracted for a moment before reaching for you, and the entanglement loosens enough for you to edge your way out of reach as it swings it's big ol fist at you. It misses, and the stalemate goes on, rather remarkably.
((Don't Know if I'll be able to potst for this in the next couple days, been quite sick. So feel free to let someone else act for me incase I don't post))
try to use robutt computing to see what's making vinebeast tick. Then try to use clockwork magic to throw a proverbial spanner in the works.Robutt computing says ... must be magic. Okay, so let's use the metronome to try and stop it's magic. You link the metronome with the vinethingy, yu think, but some sort of feedback happens. the metronome hovers, rotating slowly, with the needle or whatever that part is called pointing straight up.
Cho JaYou hunker down to start looking for the best spot to start digging when you see your chance: one of the patrols steps dow nthe outside of the hill for a moment, out of ight, and you are alone. You dash across the embankment and slide down the other side, tucking at the last minute and rolling right into a tent. You peek out from under your own tail to discover that the tent is unoccupied except for your glorious self. Infiltration is a success! You hold the thought of tunneling throughout the camp for now, sure it will come in useful later.
keep trying to reach the tents.
if I cant make it going above ground, start digging a tunnel. bugs are good at that.
((Comrade, I PM'd Egan asking him to rejoin this game, or at least let me control his character for the duration of this little venture to the mercs' camp. I'm mildly certain that's not shenanigans, and is just his way of giving me control.
Actions will come later, as I'm currently posting in the middle of class like an idiot.))
"We can send a couple of gems, say, three, with certain properties. they will have to be carried by one of your teammates, and be activated by them for you, since you are incorporeal and all. What, specifically, do you want each gem to be attuned toward?"
cut self out sprint away from danger deeper into the woods if I'm free...attempt to parry away any blows that come at me in the mean time.The dice really like you this encounter. I thought Arileth would be dead like four turns ago. You cut free of the entanglement and run, straight up toward Clunkers and Terrance, Vinerockbeast in hot pursuit.
oh dear. Try to gently sever the connection between the metronome and the vinebeast.You sever the link pretty easily, simply by reaching out and grabbing the metronome and dislodging it from it's hover. The vinebeast does not have a humanoid shape - it is a tangle of vines and rocks, which move into a shape that is suitable for whatever purpose it has. But it does have enough moving parts that you can use the various limbs, head and torso for analogues. You pull the doll out, set it in your hand, place the metronome in your other hand, and begin to will a link between them both and the vinethingy. It won't complete this turn, but you can act next turn with the double link. The vinebeast is heading your way, so it will be close, and could conceivably attack you before you make the action, but probably won't since it is focused on Arileth, though when it notices you it might instantly assume (correctly) that you are hostile.
If severing succesful, try again.
If severing unsuccesful, attempt to establish a link with the humanoid doll to root vinebeast in place. Since it has a humanoid form at least, if I recall correctly. If it doesn't, don't use the doll.
In order:Yeah, okay, my mistake on the gems. As for Arileth, the vine monster itself wasn't holding him, it was the vegetation around him is all. And as for making actions for people -I was aware of why, and was not upset. Especially with spazyak's character, as he was ill and made a point to let us know and give permission. Egan and Comrade, on the other hand, both seemed to me to have left you in "autopilot" mode, so you are in effect running four characters. The three of you have in effect willingly created a Cthunkan creature of bone, blade and ... uh ... evil.
Actually, you have said Jack needs someone else to activate the gems:"We can send a couple of gems, say, three, with certain properties. they will have to be carried by one of your teammates, and be activated by them for you, since you are incorporeal and all. What, specifically, do you want each gem to be attuned toward?"
As to Jack's capability... well, it's kinda too late to back out, IMO. It's taking a risk, but I kinda feel that if Egan were averse to risk he wouldn't have suggested the plan, and probably wouldn't have said Jack could MC people. So unless Comrade vetoes the plan, let's just go through with it.
As for Arileth, I guess I misinterpreted the situation. You said he was out of reach of the vinemonster, which I assumed meant he was out of reach of the vines. Also, his action had said to cut himself free, so I figured he was out of reach because that worked. Regardless, I don't think my action was bad; I was having Arileth retreat from danger, but not completely disengage, so if Spazy wanted to fight when he came back, he had the option. Seems like I was right. *shrug*
As to controlling five characters, two of them had control given to me by the players because they couldn't submit actions. It had nothing to do with the knife, despite Egan's method of stating that control was handed over. The third was Mordred, which I do kinda feel bad about, but I figured giving him a "hide" action would be better than suggesting it and then risking Mordred being seen if Comrade didn't post--it wasn't meant to be an action of the knife possessing Mordred. If you dislike me doing that, say so and I'll stop.
As for an actual action, let's just use the plan in the below spoiler. Obviously, if either Comrade or Egan vetoes it, don't do any of it.Spoiler: Half-baked Plan (click to show/hide)
Edit:
Spaz, why are you trying to stab an elemental partially made of rock, anyway? I significantly doubt you can really hurt it, while it can probably one-shot you if you fail a dodge.
Cho JaAll the thefts go off without a hitch. You have two serviceable daggers - plain, sturdy, and militarily functional. You turn your attention to the food supply, crouch down and concentrate. After a time, you can feel things change within some of the barrels - your venom mixes with cheese and meat, ruining it and making it unfit for normal consumption. Of course, some of the mercs might not be normal, but hey, we'll deal with them while the others are puking and rolling on the ground covered in their own diarrhea, as the gods intend.
Steal the following:
Flint and steel, or another firestarting tool.
a bottle, then filled with oil.
a coil of rope.
some daggers.
once the stealing has been accomplished, use my newfound sorcery magics to poison the food supply.
afterwards try to spy on the leaders tent.
does it sound occupied? could I possibly sneak into it undetected?
Try to add a visual component to the spell.
Keep running in a zig zagged patter torwards higher ground while praying to assorted deities of this setting.You manage to stay just ahead of the vine thingy, until an unruly bush reaches out and snags you. Fortunately for you, this action required some effort for the vine, so no clobbering this turn, you catch a glimpse of Clunkers' shiny metal frame as you are inverted and hoisted into the air.
Killitkillitkillitkillitkillit! Oh please just kill it!
Do this:the vienrockbeast whips several vines around it's body, brushing at leaves and bark, but remains concentrated on hoisting Arileth.Try to add a visual component to the spell.
Put all system power into finishing this spell before it gets me.You link up with the vinebeast, and it shifts it's bulk toward you, leafs bristling.
Cho jaYou look around the camp a little, attempting to chart a path toward the command building. The guard at the door seems competent.
Spy on the command tent, can I reach it safely?
Continue with Ze Plan. Jack puts more effort into the suggestion.The guard steps down from the ridge of the hill, moving slowly and cautiously, hand gripping his sword hilt tightly.
Try intensifying the fire sensation. Not much else I can do here, unfortunately.Ah, there you go - now the vine thing is acting quite oddly, whipping it's vines around itself rapidly. The stone parts are becoming more prominent, too.
Cut self outYour persistence is admirable. You fail to get free this time, but the thing is writhing and thrashing much as yo uare, as if itself caught in a vegetative trap. Weirdest orgy ever.
run in a wide circle around it
throw spear at it.
Meet any vine attacks with a stab/dagger slice
Now that we have a solid link, either attempt to diffuse the magic that allows it to keep its body, but only if I can for sure pinpoint it.All the writhing and thrashing stops suddenly. Some of the rocks roll out of the vines and form a pile at the base of it. Others are too large to fall out, but they rest in the vine nets and so forth. Looks like yo got it this time.
If I can't, just freeze it (not literally) in place so my teammates can hack it to bits.
Is the ridge taller than the guard? Or tall enough that if he were taken down, it wouldn't be obvious?the ridge is taller than the guard. he is still in the clear, though, and not obscured from view of the top of the ridge, should another patrol come by. The knife cannot buff itself.
Jack continues his suggestion, the knife buffs Mordred's... dex, I guess. Or can the knife buff itself? If it can, it buffs its own will.
Try again! If they're dead start looting, try and fine something to go with my gloves and armor, preferably some leggings or bootsthe vergetation still clings to you, but in a minute of shalshindg yo umanage to get free, and stomp off to kick the sorcerer in the stomach. "This one's dead!" You shout, and yank off his boots. they are too large for you, and don't match anything you are wearing.
THAT WAS EASY.You check the grey and the troll, then gather darts from your victims. You come up short two darts. "These are dead."
Begin examining bodies. Check each one to make sure they're truly dead, and recover as many darts as I can.
Solam KobemtosedYou are covered in blue pain that you don't feel, and your body is thrashing about on its's own. your chest is caved in and you have no control over your limbs. "I'M NOT DEAD YET!" You shout. "I THINK I'M GETTING BETTER!" ... "I FEEL HAPPY!" "Shut up you! You're not fooling anyone, you know!" shout's Terrance, looting the troll next to you. Anyway, you will suffer for tempdeadness, but are still undead, and could possibly be put into working order again for the rest of the mission, maybe.
The battle seems to be over now. Be as alive as a zombie can be.
Check the corpses (excluding our living-impaired comrade) to see if they're dead. If they aren't, make them so by breaking necks and other such violent acts. Check to see if any have any of the following:Yep. the vine thingy is not dead. it is immobilized. as for loot. Hmm, I should think these things out sometimes.
-clues to our mission: journals, reports, orders, maps, etc
-anything magical
-anything mechanical
-anything valueable
Double check the vine beast. Also, be wary of enemy reinforcements.
Moment of truth. Jack uses immobilization on the sentry, and Mordred tackles him. Mordred should try to stab him with the knife (or at least press it against the guy), and clamp a hand over his mouth. Those are more important than avoiding the sword, as a single sword wound can be healed, but we'd probably lose a fight against the entire camp. Oh, and if Comrade appears, his action takes precedence over mine.Jack attempts to immobilize the sentry, but the attempt fails and the sentry becomes immediately alert to your presence. But, Mordred acts quicker than the sentry does and manages to tackle him to the ground, stabbing the knife into his side. Takeover action not implemented this turn - too many things had to happen all at once. But at least he didn't shout out.
If the knife successfully contacts the sentry, it doesn't even use its affinity skill. It just starts screaming louder than the sentry, in an effort to completely take control of them.
((Hopefully, the knife can use the sentry as its new host, so that I can stop puppeting Mordred. I dislike how this has degraded to the point that I've essentially stolen a character.))
Take the sorcerer's stuff all of it, and maybe strip a bit of vine off the vine beast and tie it around my anklelooks like no one objects, so they are yours
Try to see if I can lift the troll club easily, just for curiositys sake.The club is a bit cumbersome, but you could wield it.
Then walk over to the vine beast, but keep some distance. Try to search my data banks from my time with my former master for data of similar creatures to it, and attempt to establish some kind of communication, like I did with the goblins.
"Statement: greetings creature. It would be in your best interest to attempt to communicate with this one, lest you be frozen in this state forever. What are you, and who is your master?"
Try to discern the purpose of the oils via Farseeing. Use my 2 rearmost tentacles to heft the trunk onto my back.the vials and some of the other stuff reveals itself to be ingredients. You get a sense that it is for hostile enchantments generally. Thereseem no objections, so the case is yours.
Jack casts immobilization again, and if he still has time, invisibly checks what's happening on the ridge.After a bit of thrashing and noise, the knife manages to shut the guy down, and Mordred drags him under cover. Jack floats up to the ridge and follows another sentry, who continues on his route without alarm.
Mordred leaves the knife embedded in the merc, and clamping a hand over his mouth, and the other over his sword hand.
Knife dominates the man.
"Statement: it seems this one would have to loosen the immobilisation magic a bit for the vine monster to communicate.BUrN IT...Just make sure you keep the fire away from me.
Query: All in favor of just destroying the bastard without taking chances?"
put on wizard's clothing over armor. Pocket the rest of his stuff. Stab at the vineguy a bit and try and see what the wizard guy had on him. Then go move down the path those guys (the mercs) came fromArileth is alive and relatively unharmed, and carrying orwearing
(can we have an update on our inventories and status?))
So, try one more time to get it to communicate, without altering the spell in any way. If it doesn't, try to see if it's at least trying to.it's trying. You can tell it's trying. the little mouth on the action figure is wagging up and down and it is gesturing awkwardly to it's face.
If it isn't even trying, Look if the spell will hold indefinately. If it does, just leave it there to rot. If it doesn't, rip and tear it to pieces, so long as I can do that without breaking the spell.
Jack is no longer necessary, so I'll stop submitting actions for him. He can go do whatever demons do. :\
Mordred completely disarms the sentry of any weapons, gags him, and if something ropelike is convenient, ties his hands up. After all that, he'll start dragging the sentry home. The knife continues dominating the sentry, and tries to get control of his legs, so that Mordred doesn't need to drag him.
go help the undead man with his issue, after that is done go find a nice slim but sturdy branch to make more jabbing sticks out ofThis is very vague. I am going to roll general knowledge here for you. You have a 0 in that. You look at eh blue Man, note how his chest is caved in, and how everything seems to act independently, while the head lets out a little "help me" while staring at you, eyes dead.
Numb Zormod's blue pain as much as possible, and see if that affects his condition..
Try to counteract Zormod's Paine th a spell.Double post! Red alert! and the second one is illegible! I get to roll a special die now!
"Statement: Ah, progress. This one will loosen the spell, just a little. Do not try anything foolish.The little action figure speaks for the vinethngy when you loosen the control. "IamamercenerywithDormand'sRangersIleftmyhimeduringagreatconflagrationandwanderedtheearthforsometimebeforejoiningabandofpersonsfightingforsomeunknownreasonthyetookm
Query: Who are you, who do you work for, what is your mission. Any other information you wish to share is just fine and dandy as well. "
Loosen the binding spell just enough for him to communicate, but no more. Be really careful about this.
Solam Kobemtosed"thanks a lot, jerks."
Receive help, thank the helpful comrades.
Cho JaYou get a line of oil from the barrels out of the building before someone comes and notices something is wrong.
well it looks like its time to cause that distraction.
pour a thin line of oil on the ground leading from the oil barrels to where im standing.
make my way back to the tents, keep pouring the oil. if I have enough oil left splash some on the tents.
if im still undetected, light it and sneakily run back out of camp.
if im detected, light it and leg it like a kobold with a dragons gold.
Well enough fun? Take what ever the ex Blue man group member has, not like he's going to need it anymore, and head off in the direction the mercs came from..stick to the woods, try to focus on becoming harder to see.
Solam Kobemtosed
Do by best to screw Arileth over if he reaches for my gear. Maybe try to spread the pain to him?
HMMMM.... PERHAPS I COULD TRY SOME OF THESE CHEMICALS ON THE- HEY! GET BACK HERE!Oh ho. teamlooting and internecine warfare, at last!
Stop Arileth quite literally in his tracks, with a quick bolt of pain to his legs. Ponder our options for healing Solam.
"Statement: The ones you came here with are dead now. This one cannot allow you to return to your mercenary friends yet, for we were send to stop them from slaughtering the goblins.The vinecreature seems to withdraw morosely into itself, answering none of these things. the little action figure stares at you with a hard frown on it's tiny little face.
Request: Please speak slightly slower, it is hard to parse your sentence structure.
Query: Who told you they were parisites? The goblins are mostly peaceful and want nothing more than to be left alone with their herds. They do not even attack caravans, insofar as this one knows.
Additional query: Do you think the mercenary leader could be convinced to give up this campaign and leave in peace?
Suggestion: If you seek a place of employment, adventure and/or companionship, the Omega legion is always looking for capable people. I am certain my employers could find a place where you can operate to your fullest abilities and go on exciting missions."
...Huh, thought I posted. Well, the knife tries to regain control over the sentry while Mordred holds him down, with his force magic. If the sentry is very well bound and stands little chance of escaping, Mordred will instead continue dragging him away from the merc camp.you get the sentry back under control, and tied down. it's not perfect, but he is transportable now. He is also more malleable, but still pretty hostile.
cho jayou run for a gap in the enclosing ring, aiming to reach the edge of the camp before your puruers have time to understand what happened. As you near the edge, you sense several of your pursuers targeting you and you channel your inner bombadier beetle, spraying noxious chemicals in every direction. the nearest opponents drop in their tracks and something whizzes by your ear. something else explodes overhead, but you scamper up the dirt mound and over. You aren't out of danger yet - a lot of attention is aimed your way.
run faster, if mercs get too close use innate magic to create a short burst of noxious and/or toxic gas to distract and immobilise them.
"Query: What is the matter, creature of vines?The thing is silent for a moment, then the litle mannequin speaks again. "those around me are dead by your hands. Is it not natural, oh unnatural one, to resist one's assailants?"
Statement: This one offers you new purpose and a new home, if only you would answer this one's questions."
Oh gaghhhh! GET IT OFF! PLEase.. Sorry okay, sorry,You run around, screaming, and wiping the blue stuff on the grass, which wilts. it eases the pain a bit, and you fall into a patch of thick grass and begin rolling, rubbing your arm and other spots where blue flecks have gotten, moaning. The pain slowly settles to less of a pure agony and more of a piercing, throbbing pain. On a scale of "being assaulted by a dozen purring kittens" to "currently being kicked in the orbs of sensitivity" the pain now falls to about :having been kicked there about fifteen minutes ago.
Get it off!
Solam KobemtosedMan, what's a fella gotta do to get a little help around here? You thrash less randomly, contemplating raising the dead to act as your hands and feet, in order to kick your companions in whatever they use as asses.
Try to thrash around slightly less randomly.
Knife continues trying to control the sentry while Mordred drags him back toward camp. To support itself, the knife debuffs the sentry's will. I forgot that it could do that.You get the guy under control and move him along. The knife gets a very jerky, unsteady control of the guy's limbs, but it must concentrate every step of the way, as this guy has a pretty strong will and doesn't want to go. Mordred keeps him pointed in the right direction though.
Also, since I presumably won't be controlling Mordred once we're back, the knife would have informed him of its current plan: It'll say that it is Jack, and has possessed the human. Of course, doing so sacrificed Jack's other powers, and mostly anchored him to the sentry.
...At some point the knife will have to be hidden under the sentry's clothes, but that can be done once he's more under control.
Cho JaSomething slams into you from behind sending you rolling. They are definitely gaining. You catch a glimpse of your erstwhile companion ahead, along with one of the sentries looking stiff and glassy eyed. looking pretty grim.
Keep running, if it appears the mercs are catching up use sorcery to buff my speed and endurance.
"Statement: Surely you jest. First of all, only the big one is dead by my hands. This one stopped his heart, quite a soft death in the world we live in. Secondly, do not forget it was you and them who attacked the goblins. We merely protected them. We are not the agressors here. But all that is bygones.((I have to reward good RP.))
Query: Are you truly going to pass up this chance of a better tomorrow because of what happened in the past, recent though it may be?"
Clunkers briefly turns around to shout at the zombie
"Statement: This one will help you regain control over your body as soon as this one is done with our friend over here"
He turns back to the vine beast
"Statement: This one truly wishes for you to join our cause and aid in doing good. This one does not know why the mercenaries are slaughtering the goblins. Perhaps they are evil, perhaps they are just in it for the money, perhaps they are simply misguided. This one only knows it will not allow them to do so unnoposed. This one wants nothing more than for everyone to simply go home, but this one will not let the goblins be slaughtered like vermin."
Get up and go wander off down the road from hence the mercs came, hope the pain turns to numbness soontruly the most dedicated team member. But, there is no road - they came up the hill from teh south, and you know they came from the fort, which is to the west. So, yo uwander south along their back route/ the pain does not go away, but it does not spread either.
Retrieve Zormod's stuff. If Spaz still has it, stop him and take it back.Arileth dropped it when he began twitching in agony, and you return it to the twitching zombie. Perhaps you could aid him in regaining control over his body?
Solam KobemtosedControl to cast? you have necromancy, right? specifically zombie necromancy, which requires more of a direct transference of essence (through bite, scratch, being eaten, that kind of thing, rather than gestures and words. you have control over your head, though the blue stuff causes even that to twitch. What you need is for someone to either remove the stuff entirely - which will leave your body helpless, or to shape and bind the stuff to your will, which will allow you to bypass the damage and move your dead limbs. if you want to make the other corpses into zombies under your thrall, you are gonna need some assistance. Clunkers did say he would try when he was free. hom seems ot be napping, and Terance is being helpful, but not exactly addressing the central issue. Arileth is sufering hius usual bout of wanderlust.
Try to control my spasms now. Can I actually gain enough control to cast?
Cho Ja(1)ah dear. You roll into the bushes at your companion's feet. You hear: "There's another one!" You buff your endurance and speed and go into bullet time, leaping to your feet and dashing off again. Something heavy hits you from behind, bouncing off your shoulder and knocking you off balance, but you do a full midair flip and land running, barely noticing the disturbance.
roll to my feet and "naturally" alter course away from my companion. keep running.
Buff my speed and endurance and weave between trees and bushes to prevent the mercs from hitting me from range.
Continue debuffing the sentry's will. Start moving perpendicular to our current path, and the path of the mysterious commotion.Mordred and the sentry have been spotted. The two run, the sentry resisting, but, for the round, remaining under control. you hear the sound of pursuit.
Does the knife have sufficient control over the sentry to remove itself from the wound, and hide it under his clothes? If so, do so. Also, would casting yet another will debuff on the sentry be helpful, or entirely wasteful? If the former, do so.the sentry does as required and puts the knife under his shirt. No, additional debuffs don't help. The will debuff is a long term thing that the knife invests energy into continually. Like a wrestling match, rather than firing arrows at a target.
As for Mordred... well, I'm tempted to have him do a heroic last stand to delay the horde, since Comrade P seems to have abandoned this game, but I don't want to kill even an abandoned PC. He'll throw arcs of electricity back at the pursuers--not quite aiming to harm them, but suppress. People are less willing to pursue if they risk getting shot.
And both of them just run directly away, of course.
continue on path, hiding if I hear/see/smell anything.Anything? I mean, there's trees, the sky, dirt, grass, your angry teammates wondering where the bloody hell yo uare going - that kind of thing.
"Statement: This one is glad that you can see its logic. I shall release you from your magical bonds. This one will not ask you to attack your former comrades, do not worry."The vine guy rises up and stands quietly in place, making no move toward you or escape. you then link with Solam and the weird blue stuff and reverse the flow. it isn't pretty, and won't do for fine movements, and he's pretty twitchy, but he can move now.
Release the vine beast of his magical prison. If it tries to attack, freeze it again.
If it's true to its word and comes peacefully, go and help Solam get his body back in order by doing what the other guy described a few turns ago: "reversing the sensory nature of the magic and making it a motor function instead, changing hte direction of control to flow from you to it, rahter than from it to you."
Solam KobemtosedYou twitch with the patience of the undead. Eventually Clunkers comes over and does some fiddling around with some toy or another, muttering to itself and poking you here and there. finally, you feel a weird sensation, then a shapr pain, then nothing. You raise a hand experimentally. it smacks you in the face, but you get it under control. You clench a fist, head jerking sideways, and take an experimental step forward. you won't be stealthy by any means, but you can move under your own power again - even your damaged arm.
Spasm patiently.
Hmm. Would buffing the sentry's speed make it harder for the knife to maintain control, due to having more things to concentrate on? If not, do so.It would make it harder yes. Telekenesis doesn't work that way. Comrade and I discussed that a while back - things like flying and other self targeted skills are ineffective. See below for the resolution of this turn. As it is, the knife struggles this round to maintain control. It may be only a matter of time before he loses it, considering the current situation.
Mordred uses telekinesis to speed himself up.
Cho JaYou swing back around and cross paths with the others, but can't focus well enough while everyone is running and dodging to cast that buff. In general, you three are gaining ground on the enemy, but the unfamiliar fellow is losing ground on Mordred and yourself. You've counted four chasers overall. You might just get away with this after all.
swing back around and buff Mordreds speed, then high tail it back to base in bullet time.
Return back to the group, stick to the side of the path. If I see anything that isn't myhmm. int:0. gen know: 0 roll: 6. You decidedly do not stab, the trees, the grass, the path, yourself, or the root creature. you even refrain from stabbing the corpses of the enemy, in a remarkable display of common sense. You are struck by such an inspiration of comon sense that you even apologize to Solam for attempting to loot him, and promise not to wandr off on your own anymore. That's really goning to cramp your style, man.Loot bagsTeam mates Stabby stab stab
Ummm Guys...we didn't get all of them. There's still one more small guy.
If I can react to Spaz on this turn, try to find the little guy with farseeing. Keeping my pipe at the ready, of course.You sit down, pull out your Farglass, and begin to search. You locate a few possible telltales, but can only confirm that teh litle guy, whatever it was, is not in the immediate vicinity.
Otherwise, keep an eye on Vineguy.
Solam KobemtosedArileth seems quite ... sane ... at the moment. it's really creeping you out - and your a zombie, master of creepiness!
Let's see if I can talk to the grey. Make sure Arileth doesn't try to stab our new friend.
"Query: Creature of vines, do you know of one more small mercenary that came with your group, as my fellow Omega here says?please put a white bolded word or two at the beginining of your posts, so I know that all this purple is action and not just RP. The purple is a tad ahrd to read on darkling, though easy enough to highlight. the white will just make it a little easier for me to spot, when various other goings on are ... you know ... going on.
Statement: If one such person is still around, I would like to avoid further bloodshed on either side of this conflict."
Keep running. If Mordred has a clear line of fire to the pursuers, he tosses a few more arcs of lightning at them. If he doesn't, and the knife's sentry continues to fall dangerously far behind, he'll use telekinesis to give them a little bit of a boost. Assuming that that's the sort of thing which doesn't have an excessively high chance of failure.Mordred turns, plants his feet, and lets loose with all his rage, screaming about nonrestricted energy and laughing maniacally. it's thie kind of thing Comrade would enjoy, having made his character to do exactly this. the lightning arcs everywhere in front of him, hitting several of the pursuers and the sentry, and the knife, which glows white hot for a moment. the knife's consciousness is disrupted for a moment, but ((checking .. Con of 0. Good enough)) it regains itself. the sentry's consciousness is gone however. Mordred telekinetically pulls the knife to himself and turns again, running for the woods.
Cho JaMordred arrives, rather singed and slightly smoking, hand somewhat burnt from holding a hot knife, and the two of you leave. You seem to have shaken pursuit. It was pretty close for a while. I thought several times that I would have the joy of renaming the thread. You lucky bastards.
Keep running, find a space up ahead to calm down then buff mordreds speed when he arrives.
follow him after that.
"SO IT JUST FORGOT ABOUT ITS SMALLER COMPANION? SOMEHOW, I DOUBT THAT THAT IS THE CASE. BUT... I SUPPOSE THAT IS AN ARGUMENT FOR A LATER TIME.
IN ANY CASE, I SAY WE HANDLE THIS LAST ONE AS WE DID THE OTHERS. I WILL ATTEMPT TO STUN IT WITH PAIN, WHILE YOU ESTABLISH CONTROL OVER IT WITH THAT DOLL OF YOURS."
Assist Clunkers in his search with my own farseeing ability.
"Firm Statement: You will not torture our temporary prisoner of war and very soon to be comrade-in-arms. This one does not believe the creature of vines would lie about this.You do not know of an Omega contact. You'll have to take the vineguy with you.
Query: However, that does mean we have an additional hostile to contend with. How are we going to deal with it? I could attempt to freeze it in place once we find it, perhaps creature of vines can make it see reason once we have captured it."
try using robutt computing to find out who this mystery enemy is and where he's at
also, do i know of an omega legion contact point i could send vine guy to so he can get recruited?
..."I'm not sure why I even bothered to give you this chance."Mmm. Satisfying. Want to try the troll next? Or the sorcerer?
Yeah, he isn't going to help. It's time to dine.
Patrol the surrounding area. Kill the vine guy first. ThoughYou walk right up to the vineguy and ram your blade straight into it's thickest vines. It doesn't even have time to dodge. But it does shift immediately after, and roar. You dodge out of the way as one large limb of entangled vegetation comes flying toward you. Hostilities reengaged. I cannot believe you survived that. Again. These were the rolls. 5.1.5.1.
Waitwaitwhat? Did we just leave the sentry behind? Or did Mordred's lightning outright kill him, rendering him useless? The entire point was to kidnap a merc...Yep. Sentry is dead, far as the knife can tell, anyway. It was an impressive display of electrical destruction. The kidnapping attempt was a valiant effort though. Besides the mark being dead, you are reasonably sure someone has been spotted, too. So there's that. the knife and Mordred scream at each other for a whle. Mordred eventually runs out of voice, but the knife can go a long time like this. Of course, there are limits to an unstable electromancer's patience, too. And he's got a pretty good throwing arm on him.
If the sentry is still alive, go back for him. Mordred should be able to carry him, especially if the knife buffs his strength. If the sentry is dead... well, I guess the knife would be mentally screaming at Mordred during the walk back, for fucking things up. Not that that means much, seeing as Comrade's gone.
Time to roll some dodging.Stab at him if he does not answer the following question correctly
Back away and start apologizing and offering to help fix his wound. If he doesn't stop trying to kill me scream and run as far away as I can and don'tsrop running for anything
Tell us the truth! Where is the little guy!
"Very well. I'm sure that it ran off, though."
Time to look for that small creature. If I do manage to find it, try to grab it and alert the others.
"Statement: Perhaps it will have left behind valueable intel. At least it can't hurt to look for it.A bit of searching reveals nothing of interest. Whatever it is, it left very little trace of itself.
Exasperated statement: Once you two have finished your little fight, the survivor should come and find me. Creature of vines so that I can take you to the Omega legion, pending an immediate promotion for ridding us of subversive elements. Or you, cretin, so that your entire presence here would not have been a complete disaster."
Leave the two to their fight. Go with zombie to look for the mysterious straggler, starting at the spot where I saw smoke earlier.
Terrence looks at Arileth, then at Clunkers, and then back at Arileth.I flipped a quater that was older than me. It came up heads, so searching you will go. You do a little farseeing, and get a glimpse of a very small being, heading away from your party quickly. Looks like it is returning to base. I'd say that the element of surprise has been lost here today. Fortunately, it shouldn't return before dark, so the other team still has a chance to do whatever it was they were doing before the little guy alerts the mercs.
Flip a coin. Heads says I join the search party. Tails says I retreat to a safe distance and hit Arileth with the most powerful pain spell I can muster.
It shrugs all eight of its shoulders, before addressing syv and crew. "WELL, IN ANY CASE, HOW WENT YOUR EXCURSION? DID YOU FIND THE MERCENARY CAMP?"
We resolved our differences peacefully after we settled our anger...also not good at rock climbing. And all i did was try to borrow the stuff pf a man who i presumed was going to die because I put the value of the mission over him. Vine guy I was mad at cause he injured me and ALMOST KILLED ME! I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE MAD AT HIM
"Yes, we found the encampment. Along with the assistance of Jack, I nearly captured a sentry, but Jack went back in to try and read the commander's mind. I'm not sure what happened, but there was a loud explosion, and I ran with the sentry before I was found." Mordred's mouth twitches into a sneer at this "The insect then appeared, fleeing from a group of mercenaries. I couldn't run fast enough to escape while encumbered, so I fried the sentry and some of the pursuers."
Mordred heaves a deep sigh before continuing "The expedition was worthless, but at least it seems like your raid went well. It appears we gained an ally to replace our losses, judging by that... thing of vines and rock. It certainly looks more valuable than Jack."
((I survived.... wow..ummm hmmmm what to do...I kinda expected to die and just ummm start over... hmmm)))You are leaving the group, heading for the merc camp, alone and weaponless? Okay, if you want. The vineguy refuses your hug, but otherwise ignores you. You break off some sticks and idly rub them with some stones you find on the way. pointy, but neither durable nor accurate as throwing weapons.
Head to Merc camp and try and make a break for it at some point to get ahead of the group. Give vineguy a hug and appolagize Make more wooden jabbing sticks.
Retrieve and open bag of swag. Eat a goblin brain.Yo ufight the beetles and worms for the remains of the brains, while the breathing party members avoid yo. The machine and vine both ignore you. Brains are pretty ripe right now. could last another day at this rate. ((I'm no forensicist))
Approach the Merc camp and hold up hands in an I surrender please don't kill me position.(et tu, elf?)
request to speak to their leader
((I have a plan, I haven't betrayed you....wish I had my dagger, may make this a whole lot easier))Approach the Merc camp and hold up hands in an I surrender please don't kill me position.(et tu, elf?)
request to speak to their leader
"Weary statement: So, any suggestions on how to move forward?"
Pancaek has control of the knife/Mordred for the next couple days, if I don't post.thanks for the heads up.
Approach the Merc camp and hold up hands in an I surrender please don't kill me position.I'm gonna put this action on hold for a while, while the rest of the team works out their plan. That, or we can work it out in PM. Unless they decide pretty soon whatthey want to do, you should get to the camp well ahead of anything else they have planned.
request to speak to their leader
Make that two votes for((nope, they are killers like the rest of us.))cowardiceeyeball soupconsulting the goblins on strategy.
((I wonder if we could enlist some of the nomads... They aren't pacifists, are they?))
Head out down the road to where I last saw the rest of omega legion. Try to find tracks or something.You head out before dawn, fed and ready to go. Halfway there you get the distinct felling that you are being watched. Followed.
Mordred flinches when Cho'ja speaks, but quickly returns to an expression of passive annoyance.
"Robot, just ask them to provide a place for us to sleep. Sitting here is doing me no good, and the sooner I sleep, the sooner I can get back to killing the damn mercs."
Rest the night, or however long it takes for us organics to recharge our abilities. If we can run the next day too, ask Clunkers and Terrance to work their farseeing magic and find another raiding party to hunt.
Clunkers nods, and adresses the elders againLodgings are had by all. Mordred and the others are recharged by midnight or so. Clunkers sits and carefully calibrates his farseeing to find more hunting parties. It takes all night. As dawn approaches he locates one. Twelve beings - thirteen. And they are heading straight from
"Request: the organic members of my team request a place to sleep, to recuperate their energy for another attack in the morning. Menawhile, this one will attemt to locate the next mercenary warband for us to attack."
Request sleeping place for the organics, as said above. While they sleep, do my calculations to find another warband. Do these calculations more slowly, so as not to burn out like last time.
Twelve beings - thirteen. And they are heading straight from Omega Base toward your normal meeting place.((I'm sorry? Are these omegas coming, or mercs? Also, what is our normal meeting place again?))
oops. i'll edit it. it's straight from the merc base toward that place on the hillside you guys appeared in and have rendezvoused in a couple times.Twelve beings - thirteen. And they are heading straight from Omega Base toward your normal meeting place.((I'm sorry? Are these omegas coming, or mercs? Also, what is our normal meeting place again?))
oops. i'll edit it. it's straight from the merc base toward that place on the hillside you guys appeared in and have rendezvoused in a couple times.((Oh yeah, a dozen mercs heading straight for us. Yeah, that's going to go just fine. oh boy))
Head south, avoiding where I found the Goblins at, stick off paths. Try to wind along past the town I was spoken off before going south towards it.You make your turn, and make your announcement. the latter kinda defeats the purpose of the former, doesn't it? Ah wel. several step out of hiding nearby and you leap at the nearest, getting hold of his cloak before being brought down by the group. You are pinned and find yourself staring at a pair of sturdy brown boots. "Well, well, well. useless after all. Tie him up. he might not be much as a hostage, but perhaps we can use him as a horrible example."
Say the following as I go
If I see anyone pounce them and bite their throats
If you're going to follow me, at least have the decensy to talk. I was going to be honest and let you guys talk with my friends and try and negotiate with them
((syvarris reading comprehension: 0))
try and use my fangs to chew through the gags. Wrigle and thrash about, try to get stuck on something and be a general painYou wriggle out of the gag, and while one of the mercs is putting it back in place, you bite him on the arm. He clobbers you hard as a result, and you lose consciousness. When you awaken, lying on your side in the dirt, you see another body lying nearby and twitching. One of the mercs is trying soem kind of healing magic, from the looks of it, but it doesn't seem to be helping.
Okay. Thank you for alerting me.((syvarris reading comprehension: 0))
"Eh? Didn't you say they were heading here, to this camp? ...I probably should have slept longer. My point stands, though; we should make a small hit-and-run attack on their main camp. It is not well defended, especially with so many mercs exploring, and they won't be expecting an attack."
Formal action post saying we should head to the merc camp. Knife/Mordred won't go alone, though.
"WE COULD BURN THEIR CAMP, TO SEND A MESSAGE. I HAVE LITTLE EXPERIENCE HANDLING FIRE MYSELF, BUT I UNDERSTAND THAT IT CAN BE QUITE DESTRUCTIVE.-poke poke- "You still here with us, giant green and grey buddy?" "I am" the mannequin in Clunkers' possession proclaims. "No one asked you, little guy! You want a piece of me!"
OH, AND WHILE I AM NOT CONVINCED THAT WE NEED TO KILL IT, I DO THINK THAT OUR... "GOLEM" MUST BE CONTAINED FOR THE TIME BEING."
Make sure that vineguy hasn't run off on us. That would be bad. I'm cautiously supporting attacking the (hopefully vacant) merc camp, unless anyone has a better idea.
"Annoyed statement: Screw heroics, this one doesn't even like these creatures all that much. This one is just saying, if we go and attack their camp, those thirteen might stumble upon this village and destroy our only mission objective. Whatever good destroying their base camp will do will have zero effect if the goblins die and the mission will fail. There is also that imbicile who left for their camp. Who knows what he's told them, the fool.You shoo Terrance away from your focus, and direct the vine guy to hide, which it says it will do - at the top of the path that you came up to get to the village. Several goblin scouts escort it away. The Goblin elders request Terrance's aid in hiding their camp, as he aided them previously to good effect, using his farseeing and sensory magic.
Annoyed statement: But fine, let us go and demolish their base camp. If they find this place and commit a tiny genocide, this one will not be held accountable."
Another vote for heading to the merc camp.
Tell Vinebeast to go hide somewhere away from the village. Remember where so I can pick him up later.
Tell the goblin elders to hide their village and perhaps even relocate their people (though they probably won't do that.)
Let's go raid a base.you're still a bit twitchy in your bluebody. Wanna try to remedy that a little bit first?
Arileth smiles a cruel twisted smileYou laugh, mock, curse and threaten. Some turn away from you, some ignore the scene entirely. A couple remain concentrated on the twitching person. two of them turn to you however, and one looks at the other. they draw their weapons and run you through several times. yo don't know how many times, you lose count at dead. if you're going to go out, go out in style. And Arileth certainly did that. Well played, if unfortunate.
Trust me, you aren't bringing him back. My venom's already gotten into him. I'd recommend backing away from him before it takes its final effect lest he harms you.
Arileth lets out an insane laugh
Oh, about killing me...you can't kill that which will always come back. I've died already and yet here I stand looking none the better.
He pauses for a moment
Oh? Did I ever mention just how tasty human flesh is? No?! Well then let me sort that out, it tastes like fine veal, best I've ever had there
Taunt them, intimidate them. Show them insanity. Roll away if they are too busy to deal with me
"ALRIGHT, LET'S MAKE THIS QUICK. IF YOU ALL COULD JOG WHILE YOU PASS AROUND THAT FRUIT THING OF YOURS, THAT WOULD BE GREAT."You do the thing with the shamans, and both your magics are reinforced by the others, as before, but more naturally this time.
Assist the shamans in obscuring their village, like the helpful guy I'm not. Once that's done, I'm ready to head out.
((By the way, you said that the shamans and Terrance "studied" each others' magics. Does that mean I can take advantage of some of their techniques on my own now?))
Oh, yeah. Try to keep my damaged arm covered in it, if it won't spread. After that's done, follow the strike team.Your damaged arm is covered in it, as is the rest of you. you are functional, but rather clumsy and prone to bouts of uncontrolled activity.
Try to sense nearby patrols, if any exist.assist in this
Try to sense nearby patrols, if any exist.assist in this
Try to sense nearby patrols, if any exist.the camp appears, to your farseeing eyes, to be completely deserted.
Retroactively lead group to the side of the encampment that's nearest to their equipment storage or food storage--whichever is closer to the edge. Even if we have to go all the way around with a wide berth first.okay, you are at that side of the camp.
Also, knife casts a buff on Mordred's magic skill. Nothing else for now.
Silently wipe the blue stuff from my legs and good arm onto nearby plants.You sure you want to? the blue stuff is what makes you mobile, after all.
WE MIGHT AS WELL.As soon as you cros some invisible threshhold, You freeze in place and the world goes bright white for a moment, then still.
Do a quick sweep for lootables.
Mordred shrugs "You said the camp was abandoned. I don't see why we should alter our plans--they probably set up the alarm to alert them if they were attacked while asleep, before they formed the warband. There might still be more traps though, so could you check please?"Mordred requires self control to do this, and you yield it up to him. He then stands erect, proud, and reaches out with his hand and mind and grasps the Octopode with his magic. A swift tug, and Terrance comes free. The color on his skin returns to normal within seconds, though the alarm continues to wail. A moment later, that is silenced as well.
Wait for a farseer to check for more traps, then continue with the looting plan. Big sword, armor, couple shields, then commander's tent.
Edit: Have Mordred use telekinesis to pull Terrance out of the trap, but preferably not pulling so hard bits come off.
"Statement: sure.You link in with Terrance and the two of you use your sight to chase down the magical alarm. As you do this, you feel a sharp tug on Terrance, breaking the link with the alarm. Quickly, you sever the threads holding the alarm together and feel it unravel, creating a hole in the perimeter. You find no other traps in the camp, though you do find a construct - some kind of mobility device. Other than that, the camp remains silent.
Query: what about the spineless one?"
Robutt compute to find other traps. Find a safe way into the camp or a way to shut down the traps as well.
After doing that, see if I can't reverse the traps effects on our tentacled friend with clockwork magic.
Check the area for signs of invisible life."hellooooooooo! Anyone there? Heeellllooooooooo?" Nothing comes to your call. "Hey guys, I think it's clear! I don't see anything invisible!"
If I'm capable of doing so, try to find the source of the trap via farseeing. Not that I can really do much about it at this point.You provide a conduit for Clunkers, and between you you manage to break the alarm, at least in a twenty foot area. remember which way you came in.
Unless somebody else wants them, nab the sling and the pouches of rock. Then head back a bit the way we came, and find someplace I can hide and guard the exit from while people wrap up the looting and the burninating.You grab those items and scuttle over to a nearby bush and make like a leaf.
Wear the chainmail suit, take the kukri and longbow. The latter comes with arrows, yes? Take the silk rope and lock, too.The chain mail fits well enough, though it could use some adjustment. Also, err... lightning and metal armor ... gonna have to be careful with that stuff. get it enchanted or something. the bow does not come with arrows, sadly.
Finally, look over the more mundane supplies that are around--is there a lot of food? Personal items? Or is the fort basically abandoned with only a bit of junk left behind? If the former, find a good spot where a fire could grow well. Have Mordred start a fire with lightning if a good spot is found.
Help with preparing the fire.
I'll grab the booklet. Check it's contents against my databanks to see what the numbers and notes might be aboutYou guys gather the tents and other burnables and put them inside the command center, which its the only whole structure left in the fort. Mordred sets the pile on fire and you step back to examine your handiwork. You've been at it for half an hour and are itching to leave before thirteen angry beins descend on you in full combat mode.
If he's searching for a spot, help mordred with setting the fire
Mordred raises an eyebrow after Clunker's mannequin speaks. "Farseeing, fighting, translating, counterspelling, and now contacting command. Why're we even needed here--is there anything you can't do?" Mordred chuckles, then continues "Do you think it's possible our enemies subverted the mannequin? It seems unlikely they would know what to say, but it also seems suspicious that they would just die, though perhaps they simply gave up. It's probably worth checking on the goblins regardless.""Probably. I bet i could use metal objects like that." ((A brief internet search yields inconclusive answers. We'll say the chain mail won't increase the risk, only redirect it. getting hit by lightning will tend to cause the metal on a person to heat pretty badly, for instance, causing burns, and faraday cages require no gaps, such as those necessary for a chain shirt to be worn [neck, wrists, waist].))
Grab the leather armor and handaxe too, 'cause why not. Not gonna swap out of the chain though.
Ask Mordred if he could use a metal object, like the kukri, as a focus for his lightning, so that it doesn't arc back to him. Say, telekinetically spear someone, then zap the new lightning rod in their torso.
((Also, wouldn't metal armor be good? It'd form a faraday cage, preventing any lightning mishaps from doing significant damage, though perhaps said mishaps would be more frequent.
I'm not sure how physics should play into it, since lightning powers are already very unrealistic.))
Scan for approaching enemies with farseeing. Continue guarding.Your current scan yields nothing .Some nearby mole creatures interfere with your sight somehow. Perhaps they have some magical underground sensing which is creating a bit of feedback. using your normal senses, you jump at every noise the forest made, uncertain whether it is an approaching enemy, or a rabbit.
((Are we gonna go back for Vineguy? I'd feel bad abandoning him.))
Carry the studded leather armor.okay.
"Statement: This one proposes that we leave this camp once we set the fires, the mercs will probably return.Once everyone is out, you fiddle with the freezing alarm trap. You get it up and working again, but attempting to set it for the mercs causes it to target all entities instead. Everything that moves will be frozen by it, and you suspect taht anything that gets caught will set off the alarm part as well. better get far away before some bird flies through. Which you guys do, hurrying along to pick up your new recruit before heading to rendezvous. the mannequin didn't exactly give a time frame or anything.
Proposal: This one would first check if the transmission was indeed Omega, but this one has good reason to believe that it is. This one will attempt to reset the freezing spell, but turn it against the mercs. As payback.
Statement: this one agrees that checking up on the goblins would be a good idea. This one also wishes to go pick up the vine creature before we leave."
Leave the merc camp once the fires are set. once everyone from our group is out, reset the freezing trap but turn it to target the mercs as a farewell gift.
Then go hide away from the camp, if possible go and pick up the vine beast.
Ask Mordred what he wants. Assuming he isn't particularly interested in continuing to fight the mercs, say the below. If he is, say the opposite, I guess.Mordred thirsts for power, but he is disappointed in the possibility of accumulating power form the mercs, so go he will.
Mordred visibly relaxes, returning his jeweled dagger to its hiding place "I, for one, am ready to be done with this mission. We've already taken remarkable losses, considering the relative lack of direct engagement, and I don't feel like risking myself against more mercs--at least, not for a bunch of idiotic greenskins."
"Query: A much better response than what?"A much better response than walking blindly into a possible trap."
Suggestion: You really might want to start off with revealing that brand in the future, to avoid misunderstandings.
Statement: This one believes we are ready to leave. If the legion wishes us to defeat all of the mercs and protect the surrounding communities, they should have issued a mission stating thus.
statement: This one has brought this creature of vines here. It wishes to find its place in the world, and this one has offered it recruitement in the Omega Legion. This one hopes that it will make a fine legionnaire."
Say above to the shadowy figure, but otherwise I'm ready to go.
"I left some equipment at our dropoff point, and would like to retrieve it before we go. I am fine with leaving it, if we are in a hurry."Let's just assume you brought it after picking up the vine guy, mkay?
Say above, be mostly ready to leave.
If we level skill mastery, can we add more skill specializations? And if so, what restrictions are there on the specializations we choose?skill mastery works like this: at -2you get no skills. at -1 you get 2, at 0 you get 3, at +1 you get 4, at +2 you get 5 and on it goes to the max of +4.
+5 speed;+5 Skill Mastery/specialization,(biting) if possible.this works. Speed and skills set to 0, and biting is added to your specializations.
+5 Constitutionthat brings con to 0 and ranged to 1
+5 Ranged Weapons
Can I delay the Knife's levelup until I resume playing it, if I ever do so?sure. remind me when you do. or if.
For the level-up, I'll take 5 points in charisma and 5 points in general knowledge.that gets you to +1 charisma nd +1 general knowledge.