Survival
((Ugh, I meant to respond yesterday))
Survival
update on my radar please, then head to the house that I got the least info on.
You sense someone in a nearby house. You can feel his fear, his wish to escape.
There's also someone else in another house. Feels female. Not as concerned as the others, more annoyed actually.
There's a third person whose emotions are too dull right now to get any clear reading.
Other than that, the area that you can sense feels empty.
You try the door of one of the empty houses that don't look abandoned. Locked. Well, you could always break in. Or you could try one of the obviously abandoned houses if you want, one of them is bound to be either unlocked or have a broken window.
Survival
No rolling! Keep stabbing and pull people towards me/into my spear if needed. Maybe even try to grab a guy by his face and fire a point-blank blast.
Survival
"Watch where you point that thing! Damn!"
Try again! Make molotov, throw molotov.
Survival
Well, I'm behind a burning car, with no gun, and a bunch of angry thugs want me dead. I am going to push my car onto one of them. Crush a thug with it
Ron has a brilliant idea. There is a car in front of him. There are guys that want to kill him behind it. Therefore, pushing the car should crush them. He gets up, puts his foot against the door of the car and pushes. The car screeches forward a bit on its tireless wheels before it topples over and starts tumbling towards the other car. But when it reaches it, instead of the sound of a single impact, there is the sound of two.
Puzzling.
A few moment later, a voice comes from behind the wreckage.
"I can't... I can't feel my legs!"Aaaahhh! So that explains that.
"That's probably because your legs are way over there." Ron helpfully points out. Even though Saevus probably can't see where he is pointing at.
"Could he ever feel his legs? Isn't he something like a magical robot?" John ponders as a bunch of small glass canisters attached to a hollow metal tube with a stone inside it appear and assemble in his hand.
Their pondering is interrupted by the sound of the second car accelerating towards them. It's still a few dozen metres away but it's getting closer.
((This mission... This mission... Everything that can go wrong... At this point I think it has turned into "Who will be the last man standing". Maybe I should had made it easier.))
Campaign
((As far as I know, any sort of metal dust in the air is very bad news if you have an open flame around. For example, examine this link over here - says that copper powder may form an explosive mixture with the air and that the autoignition temperature for a cloud of copper dust is 700 degrees Celsius, which makes sense when you consider that the flammability of anything goes up several degrees when it's in airborne dust form (like how cocaine clouds violently combust when ignited, apparently). If it's really copper dust in the air, shouldn't the lightning strikes cause the entirety of the surrounding area to violently explode? A quick search tells me that a lightning strike can heat up the air it passes through up to 50 000 degrees Fahrenheit, which seems like it should technically be enough to make it ignite and go boom over a certain area. Of course, I'm not a chemist, either, so there might be some nuance to the whole thing, even if it seems a little counterintuitive to me that there'd be enough copper dust in the air to produce green flames (which would indicate there's enough of it to ignite and even predominate in the flame in the first place), yet not enough to violently explode all of the things at breathable oxygen levels when exposed to an open flame. It probably depends on the wonkiness of the local physics.
EDIT: Though I guess the flammability problem is offset if you make it copper (II) oxide or something similar instead. Cu2+ actually would produce green flames rather than blue-green ones like elemental copper would (though I still don't think it'd color all the flames green, just the ones without another fuel source - could be wrong). Not sure it coloring lightning is entirely plausible, either. But probably best not to dwell on that overmuch.))
Campaign, Ike!
"You guys might want to consider pushing forward or at least trying to pass through the portal - I have this feeling there's way more yellow land octopuses around here than any of us may have dared to suspect!"
There's doors that respond to touch and behave like funny glass bubbles. Behind the one to the left is what can best be described as a dark spider singularity. It seems to mean us harm, which is further evidence of its spidery nature. It has already given Jesus a fire and shockwave-based makeover. Also, the shadows vibrate and absorb sound at the same time.
Jesus smells okay, in other news.
River increasingly reminds me of Ted.
Yellow land octopuses are apparently present and possibly quite dangerous!
Update: yellow land octopuses aren't so bad when you stab them in the center of mass repeatedly and firmly!
The room on the right has a set of four large eggs, surrounded by eight sizable benches and eight not-so-large eggs.
Clearly whoever built this place has a strange fascination with the number four, or multiples of four. This either completely rules out or utterly confirms the involvement of the Nipponese.
I am starting to get slight flashbacks to the start of the previous mission!
Yellow land octopuses can become invisible! Or maybe there's a breed or species of invisible land octopus! May require some breeding to get a clearer picture of their relation. Still yellow on the inside, though! In addition, they appear capable of making mortal mindslaves without any trouble at all.
In addition, people live here. Or humanoids, at least. They seem to have been subjugated by the yellow land octopuses, or octopodes. One's a nice red and purple lady, and the other one's dead as a doorknob.
Also:Well, the creatures' anatomy is the same. Just a small central part filled with organs with a large number of very thin and long but surprisingly strong tentacles sprouting out of it.
Slicing a tentacle in half, I discover that they lack muscles, which kinda begs the question of how they managed to move them in the first place. Instead, they are composed of four tubes (two large and two small) arrayed around a central part that feels and looks like very flexible cartilage. Around those tubes are very small, almost invisible clusters of black things, (some sort of organ, probably) that correspond with very small dimples on the outside. Maybe they emit something from there? Or maybe it's some sort of sensory organ? Or maybe it's used for camouflage? Or communication? Who knows. The area between the tubes and the skin of the creature feels very mushy and soft, breaking apart easily.
With careful observation, you notice that when the tendril twists, a large number of very small spikes are pushed out of its skin on the inside of the curve. You can't discern whether this is meant to inject something like microneedles or if it is just a means to grapple things and achieve better friction.
A quick inspection of the place the creature wrapped its tendrils around my arm reveals very tiny yellow needle-like things stuck in my skin, although none of them have managed to penetrate it.
An inspection of Nikolai reveals something similar. The fact that his skin has become more red around that area and has started to bruise prevented me from noticing it with casual observation, but he appears to have very tiny holes around the places the creature wrapped its tentacles around him, some of them bleeding slightly. Hopefully he won't start turning into any sort of octoman.
After that, I move to the central part of the creature. A thing of note is that it lacks any sort of visible mouth, eyes, nose, means of excretion or any of the other things I'd expect the central part of a creature to possess.
A large section of the central part of the creature is composed of two sacks, one larger, containing that yellow goo (or white with a whitish tint in the case of the later ones) and the other containing a black substance. Each of them is connected to the tubes that compose the greater part of the creature's tendrils, the black with the smaller ones and the brighter one with the larger one. The rest of their insides are filled with organs, although I can't tell exactly what they do. They have some connections between them, but they don't reveal much. Curiously, while I can identify many organs connected to the bright tubes, none of them are (visibly) connected to the dark ones.
Their insides don't smell so good, especially the ones of the creatures I encountered earlier. Smell like rotten and oil. Now that I think about it, the earlier creatures looked far worse than the later ones. The later ones were more of a whitish yellow than pure yellow, they were slightly larger and their internal organs were in much better shape.
Gee whiz!
In addition, I think Darkstar just sucked out a woman's life force with a straw? Or maybe cracked her like a giant egg from the sound of it.
Smells registered in the wastes outside that wacky teleporter building - copper most prominently, as well as hints of ashes, dust, ozone, basalt, sulphur and the inimitable musk of the yellow land octopus. Lily-livered fellow travelers seem very affected by it.
First question - is anything coming after me right now? Me specifically as I am stepping off in another direction, that is?
If not, circle around the charging mass of yellow land octopuses and move in the direction of the portal. Brandish knife in any case.
If yes, stand next to our blasting experts and ward off any attackers who get into tentacle range.
((I was going with a)this place has existed for quite some time, so most of the copper should had already been oxidised and b) the copper particles would tend to accumulate in lower altitudes due to gravity, so in the higher altitudes where the lightning strikes happens the concentration should be smaller.
But you're right. I certainly don't know much about the subject. So let's just say it's weird physics bending and be done with it.))
You'd say that no, none of them are coming specifically for you. They are moving closer to you but none of them are facing you or changing their orientation to track you. So you just take off towards the right, trying to circle around to a point where the octopus concentration is small enough to easily pass through them.
As you get closer to them however, you notice that a couple of them change heading and start moving towards you. Then again, they aren't moving that quickly. You could pass through them if you moved quickly enough. Assuming that they aren't super-fast and that this isn't just some kind of ruse to trick you into approaching them.
Campaign
Summon a large (as in 2 litre jug of soda large) ca of Silly String. Maintain chillness for now, but if I'm discovered by an octopus or the possessed knight guy, apply excessive amounts of silly string to the facial area in an attempt to distract them while I go hellbent for the portal. If I'm not discovered, just keep calm and move towards the portal when I'm not gonna bump into the knight guy or the octopi.
A giant can of Silly String that looks more like a large fire extinguisher appears from your hand. And almost immediately, every one of those creatures around you starts stabbing at your box with their tentacles, wrapping them around your arms and legs. You jump out of the box like a scared cat and manage to break free of their grip for now.
You do a pirouette while shooting your sticky goo everywhere around you. The mound of aerosol-propelled goop you bury them under is enough to buy you some temporary breathing space, but they are already freeing themselves from it and moving towards you. More of them are turning to face you, making their way towards you.
You try to get away, but you aren't the best of runners. What's worse, in the darkness, you fail to spot a small crack. One of your legs falls into it and gets momentarily stuck. You fall and drop your can in the process, thankfully without spraining your leg. If thankfully is a word that can be used when you are surrounded by creatures that want to do nasty things to you with their swords and tentacles.
This idea just went from "could had been planned better" to "very bad". Let's see how long it takes to reach "horrible" and "deadly".
Campaign: Nikolai
"Let's hurry. You don't want to be caught by those."
Stay with the group, move to the portal, use the stick for support.
Unsheathe my sword with my other hand, and tsar-slash anything that gets too close. Or regular slash if I'm boosting Zech.
Keep an eye on Zechariah's light shields. If they begin to falter, then repair and strengthen and enlarge them with my power.
Irine, Campaign
As I run with River, I pull my flames back towards us, reshaping them into thin circular bands of flame, rotating around the group on different axes. when the bands would impact the ground I instead have the sections about to impact reverse rotational direction, with a result that looks similar to as if the fire bounced off the ground. the orb that I've been keeping with me remains with me, again, to be used on anything that gets through.
Campaign
Zechariah was hoping that his abilities would not falter now. He could seriously lower their risk of coming under attack if he just coordinated his light shields correctly. If he couldn't manage them, the octopuses would be invited to attack the group head-on.
"Right, let's move!" he said with determination, readying his staff and concentrating his mind.
Manipulate and/or create light shields to defend the sides and top of anyone who is accompanying me. Focus my mind on this task, I need as much energy as I can to maintain the shields and calculate them accordingly to be efficient with the hardlight distribution. Still, watch where I'm going. Wouldn't want to walk into the enemy, would I?
Your group makes your way through the path of least resistance, the path Nikolai's boulder and Irene's fires cleared. Irene easily manages to boost her barrier whenever and wherever an enemy approaches it, dissuading them from attempting to get any closer. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Zechariah, who somehow manages to completely loose his concentration, causing all his hardlight crystals to vanish. Perhaps he is distracted by the fact that two of his teammates are missing.
Your approach is made even easier by the fact that half of the enemies in your way seem to have been distracted by something. Closer observation reveals that the thing that has them distracted is Alan, who is currently lying on the ground next to a giant can and some of those creatures, which have been covered in a colourful sticky substance. Not trapped for long though. They are already in the process of escaping.
<Keep moving. I will catch up.>As he says so, two of the swordsman-slaves make it through the fire barrier and stand in a ready stance, preparing to swing their swords once you get closer.
River charges at one with a growl, hitting the swordsman before he can react, his punch-grab destroying the heart of one of the creatures wrapped around him and causing him to catch on fire. The swordsman is propelled backwards by the force of the impact, going right back through the flame barrier. River follows after him, making his way towards Alan.
Nikolai engages the second one. He first tries to tsar-slash the slave from a distance, but he seems to be suffering from the same magical impotency Zechariah is. So he is forced to engage it in melee along with Theri. His strike is easily parried by the swordsman, so he tries to engage it in a contest of brute strength, pushing against it with his sword until he manages to shove it down. At that moment Theri attacks and is easily able to use her strength and skills in unarmed combat to destroy the heart of the creatures controlling the swordsman's body. And just in time too, since one of those creatures was in the process of releasing its host and getting ready to grab Nikolai.
"Killstealer!" Nikolai jokes as he rubs his recently repaired leg. That hurt, straining himself like that. Looks like River was right. It's not fully mended yet.
Staging Area
"Ah, yes, of course. Wouldn't want to be late for a meeting, especially with someone I don't know. I don't know anyone worth having a meeting with they all just tend to yell at me about 'Your experiments keep destroying sections of the city!" Feh. No appreciation for mad science. so obviously this time it will be someone with appreciation of science."
Get up and walk through the double doors. Scribble cryptic comments on my clipboard while walking through the doors.
You get up, open the door and step through it to the other side.
The room on the other side is in the shape of a semicircle. The part of the circle directly opposite to you is dominated by a giant screen displaying the same logo you saw earlier. The rest of the semicircle is composed of glass windows showing a few skyscrapers, their scant lights blending with the stars in the night sky and faintly illuminating the clouds that they rise out of. The wall behind you is made out of the same dark plastic there was in the previous room. You notice there are cameras in the ceiling, tracking you as you move forward. You make your way towards the only pieces of furniture in the room. Three armchairs arranged in a semicircle in front of a tall desk with a squawk-box on it.
"Welcome." comes a voice from the box, slightly distorted.
"Welcome Mr..." There's a slight delay and the sound of papers being moved.
"Ah, here we are. Mr. Welroki. Nice name. Catchy."
"Please, have a seat."
OOC((Slightly relevant, I was surprised to see that Wikipedia says silly string is used at weddings. Those must be some very fun weddings.))
((Now I wish I had stashed some in my tux somewhere. Would have made mine more hilarious.
Then again, after dropping a chocolate-covered strawberry on her wedding dress, I was already on thin ice...))
Ouch. Hopefully that was after the wedding ceremony and could be passed off as "cute/funny accident".
A few months ago I attended a wedding where the first song the newly-weds danced to was the groom's favourite football team's anthem. So I guess it all depends on how much one is capable of pushing it without causing trouble. Or how seriously the ones involved are treating it. Or how obsessed one is with their football team.
((Do guns count as common household objects? They do in 'Murrica!))
Well, I suppose he could try to summon them, but they would probably get a penalty. Guns aren't THAT common. Even if they were, he would probably still get that penalty, if only to make it less overpowered. And he can shoot them out of his hand, he can't actually shoot them when summoned, so he'd have to summon them and then pick them up and use them. He couldn't fire a stream of guns that fire bullets as they fly. Or
a robot with guns for arms shooting a plane made out of guns that fires guns.
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1094460 times)