@Boozer, couple of things. (I'm addressing you rather than your character because these are mechanical concerns.)
First, the corrupted servitor is unencumbered by a large processing tube or the concern for caution. It is moving too fast to really aim at. Now, we do play the roll as it lies, so the damage can stand and your 2d6 roll of 7 before modifiers will also stand, whatever you choose.
Second, that's not exactly how I meant "top" and "bottom" with the cards - they were just in a "pile" of 2, with one on the top and one on the bottom. But that was a thoughtful response and who am I to disagree? I'll sort out the cards so the bottom one is always lower and leave the pairs as they lie.
Your first card's free. Others are bought through struggle.
---
Xeno, you could add "area" to your Cosmic Blade, which would almost certainly hurt some other servitors, If you choose that option we'll find out how many and you would roll normal damage for each of them as well.
Or you could treat your roll as a Discern Realities to find something useful or valuable to you - that is, seeing the patterns of the corrupted servitor as it flails around to aim in at least a reasonable facsimile of its direction. This would mean you rolled Cosmic Blade again with +1 for taking advantage of a Discern Realities roll.
Make your choice.
---
Koba, servitor #10 reveals his bottom card! It was the 10 of Diamonds. Not an Aspirant. This is probably going to be happening a lot, so I'll only make you say it once: tell me what it looks like when your counter-logogram frees somebody's soul.
Also, what are you doing now?
Incidentally, Xeno, here's another hot question with a surprisingly relevant answer - how would you recognize someone from Redhaven after they've been stripped of their earthly possessions? Because, uh, when you look at the body the servitor dumped out to see if it was one of the important ones, you do.
---
Geth, roll 2d10l1+1 for the sake of example.
That's how you'd do your damage in this situation, Ajax.
Incidentally, Ajax, subtract your armor from that and that's the damage you take in this situation, between the skeleton macer and grappler and the Unblemished Sword being kind of a terrible thing to have free in the middle of a grapple. You're probably going to want to try to grab definite hold of that blade, or maybe try to kick it free so someone could pick it up and come shank these grabbyguts?
This is going to be great. Glory saw this in a story-vid once.
He takes quick aim and throws his rapier like a spear, barely missing one of the skeletons, but pinning its sash to the wall with a reverberating thwang.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, he yanks on the wire that he-
Oh, wait. Cue the flashback, where he first tied the wire to the sword-
Oh, wait.
Glory makes a mental note that flashbacks don't actually work in real life, and pats himself hurriedly, trying to remember just where that hidden dagger was hidden.
--
Glory may start tying the wire to the rapier pommel in the future. It just makes so much sense.
You've definitely got two skeletons' worth of attention pointing at you, though it seems like they've forgone any real attempt at coordination, figuring you're at a marked disadvantage and they should capitalize when they can. And if you were just trying for a regular scrap, you'd have to be at least a little worried about their reach advantage.
But the thing about blades is that in order to hurt you they have to get through Hand range first. G'wan and roll a Parry when you feel like it, and consider your answers to apply to both skeletons at once.
Also since you really nailed that line, have a bonus: since the first rule of fooling the enemy is to fool yourself, if you were being totally straight-up sincere they'll be super unguarded and you can roll with advantage. But if you were being totally straight-up sincere, and you wind up with doubles (if, say, you roll 5, 3, 5 and are left with two 5's) you actually don't manage to lay hands on the dagger in time and you're going to have to burn off a heritage move to use your hand as a dagger.
Xeno’s hourglass eyes went wide with shock when he saw the dark grey body of the young woman dropped without ceremony to the ground. She was from his parish, there was no doubt, and one of his favorite Ciphers sprang unbidden from lips.
“How reluctantly
the bee emerges from deep
within the peony”
--
@Glazius, apologies for the multiple misunderstandings.
I’ll treat my 7 as a Discern Realities, with my +1 WIS for an 8 total. So I’ll reroll my Cosmic Blade attack with the same tags with an additional +1. I prefer risking the reroll than to damaging multiple servitors.
As for recognizing a Redhaven native. We all have skin/hair/scales/feathers/protoplasm/etc of only one color. Anywhere from the stark white skin and hair of Xeno to jet black, with every color and shade in between. But always only that one color.
Geth roll 2d6+3 for Cosmic Blade
Adding Tags for range, Elemental(time) to keep the corruption from spreading, and Piercing 2 to the last berserk servitor in the center.
If I get a 7-9 I'll choose: 'You feel drained, take -1 ongoing to INT until you have a few minutes to clear your head.’
Glory keeps running through his inventory more and more frantically as the skeletons approach, long enough to motivate several dramatic jump cuts, before revealing, ha-ha!, that it was in his hand the whole time!
Or is it not that the dagger's in his hand, but that the dagger is his hand? The camera angle seems to be obscuring that. Stay tuned...
--
I'm pretty sure I have one hold left on Heritage, hopefully I won't need it here.
Geth roll 3d6k2+2 for Parry
Post-roll: yep. Talk to the hand. I choose to keep their full attention.
Parry:
3d6k2+28 [3d6k2=[3, 3], 1]
wildwood on
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GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
A soul being freed isn't a pretty sight- it's a transition, so it's painful. Fortunately most of that pain isn't in the visible spectrum, but what does bleed through from the liminal is a stuttery light-lensing effect which, if you squint just right, refracts colours one can't normally perceive. You do not want to perceive them.
In an effort to not perceive them, Koba turns her attention to the rest of the room.
--
I'm a little confused as to what is happening with the servitors- is there just one corrupted one left that Xeno is taking shots at?
That'd be my main priority but if it's taken care of I'd head over to help out with the skellingtons. Am I able to reach them and engage, or would that take time?
Ajax's attack fumbled and he took a hit. He would never really know if it was from a skeleton or if he had somehow nicked himself. Either way, his immediate concern had to shift. He needed a solid grip on his sword. He couldn't risk leaving it unaccounted for in case any other skeleton was coming up on them, and he couldn't hope someone else was coming to save him.
Koba, you see Xeno watch something zipping around on the work floor, then suddenly a bolt of energy lashes out and strikes in its general direction, freezing it in mid-air, half-cracking apart.
There are two other frozen bodies like that on the work surface - very, very slowly beginning to fragment. They themselves pose no threat of spreading the contagion, as the various servitors route around them. But, you know, there's all this time stuff happening, and combat is chaos. You'd have to move them all off of it somehow to be totally safe.
Glory has bought you some time and grabbed the skeleton's attention with, in a sense, the ultimate hidden blade that no one expected. But that hasn't really resolved anything.
Maybe it's that pause, or maybe it's Ajax's scuffle getting a bit less raucous, that lets you hear a noise from that 4 o'clock tunnel that sounds like... advancing armored troops? It's still very faint and hard to make out and that's all I'm telling you without a move.
Also, your delaying tactics have bought the release of several other bodies. How many?
Geth, roll 2d3l1+1 for that's how many.
Servitor # 9 plays his bottom card! It was the Jack of Diamonds! An Aspirant's soul is released!
Servitor # 6 plays his bottom card! It was the Queen of Hearts! An Aspirant's soul is released!
---
Ajax, let's get so old-school the school hasn't even opened yet. You and the skeletons will likely be exchanging 2d10l1 + 1 damage (before armor) but choose 2:
You deal normal (1d10) damage
You take no damage
You take definite control of the Unblemished Sword
The Unblemished Sword is completely undamaged by the fighting
(Also know that as a fan of the players, just straight-up breaking a Weaponmaster's weapon is a little beyond the pale. So if you don't pick # 4, I'm not going to smash the Unblemished Sword to bits or anything.)
“Impeccable timing, as always Glory. You have my thanks." Xeno said, repaying the favor by sending an Entropic Ray toward each of the sword wielding skeletons.
--
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Cosmic Blade
Geth roll 1d8+1d4-1 for Cosmic Blade damage
Adding Tags for range, Messy (+1d4 dmg), and two targets (-1 dmg) to try and kill the two swordians Glory is parrying.
If I get a 7-9 I'll choose: 'The GM removes a nonrange tag of their choice, and you deal -1 damage.
I'll choose:
Take definitive control of the sword
And
Sword is completely undamaged
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GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
edited September 2016
Arms replaced inside their armour, Koba advances toward the south-eastern tunnel, brow furrowed. Without her helm's magnifiers and auditoscopes it's actually much easier to make out the more subtle noises past the fighting.
--
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Investigate
Going to ask (with regards to the 4 o'clock tunnel):
-What is about to happen?
-What should I be on the lookout for?
-Who's really in control here?
Ajax, you pull the Unblemished Sword clear after an extended scuffle. You've probably taken out the grappler barring a horrid damage roll, so let me just say that without it there quarters are a bit less close, and the macer is trying to break free of you and join up with that ruckus at 4 o'clock. What are you doing?
Speaking of horrid damage rolls...
Geth, roll 2d10l1-2 for concomitant bonetrousle.
---
Glory, you shift around to give Xeno a clean shot, and then you realize what he's shooting and frantically backpedal.
But it's a bit too late. As the swordians collapse and their armor fragments and falls apart, you get a snootful of bone dust, rotting hide, rust, and metal fragments.
It has no mechanical effect whatsoever, but smells like barbarian body spray all the same.
Koba is going to fill you in on the answers below, at which point I'll pile on with: what are you doing?
---
What is about to happen? Well, it sounds like another force of skeletons is on the move. Probably no more than a dozen, none more heavily kitted out than the ones Xeno just dropped. That number includes a slightly different marching cadence that you think might be some variant on the servitors you'd already seen?
What should you be on the lookout for? You're getting readings consistent with logographic augmentation. This was the main array, but it was freely repurposeable. It's quite possible to have a purpose-built array in a much smaller space. The traces indicate some kind of barrier effect that can be intensified if multiple copies are oriented in certain ways relative to one another.
Who's really in control here? There'd need to be a skilled logographer monitoring field usage of these things.
Ajax's hand held tightly onto his sword. There were too many things he had lost over time, too many things that he had that he no longer did, but throughout all that, he wasn't going to lose his sword. He had downed the grappler, which left him just with the larger skeleton once again.
For the first time, The Weaponmaster was able to get a quick glance over to see what his cohorts were doing, and whatever it was, it looked complicated and like it shouldn't be interrupted. There was little that would change Ajax's actions anyways. This opponent, however worthy, was quickly becoming irratating, and the Weaponmaster just wanted to get back to the other three and regroup, however briefly.
His sword gripped tightly in his hand, Ajax swung as hard as he could, aiming for the larger skeleton's legs in an attempt to cut him down where he stood before he had an opportunity to advance on the other group.
--
Making an assumption that 3 was enough, otherwise, I'll rewrite all this....
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Hack 'n Slash
Geth, roll 1d10+1 for Damage (if it hits)
“Sorry.” Xeno grimaced, apologizing to Glory before joining Koba at the southeastern tunnel.
--
If Ajax didn’t take out the last two skeletons, I’ll use Cosmic Blade again. Assuming he did take them out, I’ll head to the 4 o’clock tunnel before any reinforcements arrive, in the hope of slowing them down with a elemental(time)+area attack. Using cosmic channel is probably too likely to cause a backlash and move the clock forward.
Ajax, a backfist puts paid to the skeleton grappler, and you find yourself with enough free room to take a good, full swing for the first time in what feels like days.
So you haul off and lash out at the macer. You strike true!
...but, crucially, you don't strike through, and you realize a bit too late that the macer was suckering you into lending approximately one full swing of momentum towards that escape toward the 4 o'clock tunnel. You're not going to catch up with it now.
---
Xeno, Koba? Keep in mind that Ajax could likely be a backstop for anything you launch at this one if it doesn't happen to connect.
“Leaving so soon?” Xeno asks the fleeing skeleton, before sending a green bolt of entropic energy streaking toward its skull.
--
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Cosmic Blade
Geth roll 1d8+1d4 for Cosmic Blade damage
Adding Tags for range, Messy (+1d4 dmg), and piercing 2 to try and kill the last skeleton.
If I get a 7-9 I'll choose: 'The GM removes a nonrange tag of their choice, and you deal -1 damage.
Glory pulls his rapier from the wall and gives it a few test flourishes. He decides to leave some of the skeleton's sash attached for now, for extra flair.
"What now, Koba?" he asks, eyeing the dark archway. "Do we stand and fight?"
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
"Of course" Koba answers in that clipped, listen-up-this-is-the-plan way "A dozen more headed our way, Ajax and I will hold them at the mouth here-" She points to Glory and Xeno "-while you two hold the centre and counter any that get past us."
The ecoplasmic manifester shrieks a glowing hammer into her armoured fists. "Any questions?"
--
Sorry about the hold up, ready to rock now.
To elaborate on the plan, Ajax and I can do the heavy lifting in terms of melee and hopefully hold them in the tunnel. Glory can counter anyone who gets past us/manouevre to any opportunities and Xeno can drop some area effects while they're bunched.
Right, Xeno. You've actually got a pretty decent shot lined up but as you're about to let fly... the nearest analogy you could give to the situation would be that a number of discrete planes of force iris closed after the fleeing macer, and your blade dissipates harmlessly.
The barrier seems largely invisible to everybody else, but it's still got your time-flux zipping all over it so you can still kind of tell where it is. It slowly begins advancing, inching forward one section at a time.
Behind the barrier are a number of lightly-armored skeletons with swords and crossbows. Unlike most crossbow lines they're actually the front line, or perhaps, counting the barrier, the second line? Anyway, they're the first thing anybody sees. They quickly look around, assessing the situation, and there's a lot of situation here to assess but the macer informs them of relevant developments as it limps deeper into the tunnel, to wit a) you b) shenanigans.
Second are several flesh-creatures similar in tone and build to the ones currently unloading the bodies on the work surface - oh, by the way.
Geth, roll 2d3l1+1 for it's that time again.
---
Geez, don't let 'em all go at once, now.
Servitor #4 plays his bottom card! It was the Jack of Clubs! A non-Aspirant soul is released! Koba, tell me about the parish where you learned to keep the Conqueror in good repair without all the comforts of home, and how you'd recognize someone born there, bereft of their worldly possessions.
Servitor #3 plays his bottom card! It was the King of Spades! A non-Aspirant soul is released! Glory, tell me about the first story you ever heard on the road, and how you'd recognize someone from the parish where it came from, bereft of all their etc. etc.
---
Anyhow, the tunnel servitors also have a metal plate on their shoulders but there isn't a lot of tracery on it - it seems to be directed down a metal vambrace grafted into an extended left or right arm. Xeno, as their muscles twitch and the vambraces shift slightly, you notice the force-plane-iris also shift around in response.
Presumably somewhere in the back is where the macer has fled to - no doubt the supervisor had or brought some sort of emergency treatment kit. But you can't see them now, and waiting is probably not a good idea, because the quarrelers are taking aim and the servitors are extending their arms, making the force-barrier iris open.
You know what else is not a good idea? Trying to use one of those dead-blackened servitors on the work surface as kind of a corruption grenade by draining the timelessness out of it and lobbing it through the force iris with perfect aim and timing in order to burst open and drive all the shielding servitors crazy. Certainly as servitors they're also susceptible to that blackness but there are so, so many ways that could backfire horribly. Just put it out of your mind.
So, everybody everybody, what are you doing? Ajax, I should state that you're completely out of sight now as they haven't cleared the mouth of the tunnel and it's pointed more down 6 o-clock way.
The first story Glory ever heard on the road was from an old shapeshifter, a traditional tale from his people called "The Man With Just One Face". It told the exploits of a man who always held the same shape, no matter the situation, and of how he used that ability to trick the simple shifter folk he encountered. It also described how his misuse of his ability led to his inevitable downfall.
When shifters from Nonesuch Vale die, their souls shift through several strongly colored geometries, representing their truest forms, until they shift out of any form that a mortal can sense.
@Glazius would chucking a corrupted fragment of servitor after draining it’s timelessness just be a Volley roll, or would I need additional rolls? If I need a Cosmic Channel roll to drain the timelessness, would I need to get a 12+ to avoid advancing the Aspirant doom clock?
Xeno, again speaking purely theoretically because this is a terrible course of action with so many points of failure, your role in this entire thing would be to "pull the pin". It would not have the potential for backlash because a corrupting servitor is not a conceptual part of the whole roof-array-collapsing affair - still a thing, by the way.
But you'd need sufficient concentration to actually deliberately undo your own arbitrary chronal overload effects, which wouldn't leave you any to spare for the grunt work of hefting an inconsistently-coherent mass and hucking it at an opening in space. That'd need a second person to join you in what I will again stress is an ill-omened undertaking.
To speak nothing of some hypothetical third and fourth person who might, I dunno, hold the force-iris open with their own bodies or act as some kind of spotter to give the thrower an optimal launch window.
If all of these people wanted for some reason to involve themselves in this desperate scheme, I would of course lay out the decisions that would need to be made and the necessary roles and rolls, but you're probably better off...
Well, not charging directly into the teeth of this assault like madmen, I'll grant that, but surely there's some other clever plan in the works here.
---
When you set GMIrony=0 in the .ini file and relaunch, okay I'ma say straight up, "use a dead servitor to corruption grenade this army" is only one plan. It would resolve a number of problems in one shot but there are also great risks involved. You all are free to make your own plans to deal with this and I will toss you the moves to make and clarify any reasonable questions you might have about the circumstances.
For instance, Xeno, pretty much everything you do involving the tunnel is also conceptually isolated from the array and will not risk backlash.
Yeah, I agree about preferring not to go with the corrupted grenade route. I've been rolling well but that’s bound to change. Any one aspect of that plan going wrong will mess us up a lot. In a way taking it slow is safer and gives the reprogrammed servitors time to free more souls.
Clock mages cannot use cosmic channel to move things directly. Right now we’re in a bad spot because they can coordinate opening the barrier to shoot out of it, then closing it before I can return fire or you guys can close distance to get into melee. I assume I could shoot in while it’s open but I don’t think I could kill/slow enough barrier servitors to nullify that advantage. Also, the fact that they are opening the barrier to shoot crossbow bolts out of makes me think it would block everything/everyone from entering not just magic/energy.
So I think what I’d like to try is to use cosmic channel to put the barrier servitors into stasis, keeping the barrier open so you guys could go in and start wrecking shop, and next round I could start shooting. Or eroding the barrier vambraces into dust to drop the barrier completely. Stasis takes the servitors out of the fight as well temporarily, whereas dusting the vambraces takes out the barrier permanently but allows the servitors to fight in other ways. I think I prefer statsis to reduce the numbers of the opposing force.
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
--
Corruption grenade definitely a no-no. Been thinking this over and was considering trying to lure them out, but given that they know our numbers I doubt it would work. @Boozer Stasis sounds like a better idea. @Wildwood maybe Glory can daring devil himself and Ajax into their back ranks to stop them repairing.
I'd like to give @wildwood a chance to chime in or agree with that plan.
In the meantime, I'll ask @Glazius : Is my proposal to use Cosmic Channel to put the barrier servitors in stasis to keep the iris open a reasonable use of the ability? If not, could I use it to destroy the vambraces or put the iris in stasis itself? I figured I would ask before I start rolling.
Are we talking about Glory moving himself and Ajax in behind the skeleton crew when they're all through the 4:00 arch? That sounds like a Daring Plan. Would this plan have a specific goal, or ways to know when it's been achieved? Holding the skeletons until all the souls are freed? Until the skeletons are wiped out? Until we can make our escape?
This seems like a good opportunity for True Love and High Adventure. Of course Glory's in.
I could see everyone going into the tunnel. But I intially assumed Xeno wouldn't be going in.
I thought the idea was to move Glory and Ajax behind the skeleton and barrier servitor crew, after Xeno keeps the barrier open, so Glory and Ajax could take out the skeleton supervisor before he heals the macer or others or does any more logogramic ordering around.
I think the goal is to take em all out and free the Aspirants souls.
@Boozer - You can certainly slow down the servitors with Cosmic Channel. This will give you more time when the barrier is open, but also more time when it's shut. So disrupting one or two of them should be fairly high on the agenda of any likely Daring Devil.
That's fair. So I think maybe something like this:
Xeno uses cosmic channel to slow servitors
Glory and Ajax use daring devil to get past skeleton line to take out some barrier servitors.
Koba uses a forceful weapon to break through skeleton line. She attacks servitors next round.
At that point everyone but Xeno is at servitor line, allowing Xeno to use area+time tags on skeleton line without affecting you guys.
You guys take out servitors and/or supervisor.
Xeno slows / damages skeleton line.
Reprogrammed servitors save souls.
--
Of course, that assumes the skeleton line doesn't just rush Xeno in the first or second round. So it may make more sense for Koba to stay on this side, or at least come back after I tag the skeleton line with elemental(time).
Yeah, it's probably better to have two on each side, actually. Not sure if they'd turn on us if we got past them, but if they instead decided to just all take you down, there'd be little we could do to stop that, so probably better to have Koba stay back and try to be between you and the skeletons and have Glory and I go to down on the servitors.
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GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
edited September 2016
--
Wait! I forgot I have drill hands!
New plan: I drill around the barrier with Xeno, who slows the barrier while I use Forceful to bat them out through the barrier into the waiting arms of Ajax and Glory. Glory stands ready to Daring Devil him and Ajax into the backlines if they try to retreat.
Koba, there wouldn't necessarily be a roll for drilling.
There'd be a roll for drilling if you actually wanted it to be a surprise (probably +int, with an option to give up the charge to get surprise on a 7-9), which I suspect is what you meant.
Xeno’s perceptions shifted as he tried to take all the variables in at once. So many futures that ended in their demise. The barrier was the key, it must fall, or they all would.
“Their servitors are controlling an invisible barrier, I will hold it open as long as I can.” Xeno said to them, before following Koba into her new tunnel.
When they emerged from the tunnel, the Wonderworker grabbed the threads of the vambrace wearing servitors with both hands. He could feel the hum of unlife vibrating in them. Xeno pitched his voice to match their unnatural frequency, before slowing it down almost to the point of stopping. It was all he could do to keep them from moving, to keep the Iris frozen open.
--
@Grog I assume you’re not going to go for the element of surprise by that edit.
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Cosmic Channel to put the barrier servitors in stasis to keep the barrier Iris open for as long as possible.
For 10+ I’ll choose: You feel drained. You take -1 ongoing to INT until you have a few minutes to clear your head.
If I get a 7-9 I’ll add: Your work has unforeseen side effects, and might draw unwanted attention.
Cosmic Channel to put the barrier servitors in stasis to keep the barrier Iris for as long as possible:
Posts
First, the corrupted servitor is unencumbered by a large processing tube or the concern for caution. It is moving too fast to really aim at. Now, we do play the roll as it lies, so the damage can stand and your 2d6 roll of 7 before modifiers will also stand, whatever you choose.
Second, that's not exactly how I meant "top" and "bottom" with the cards - they were just in a "pile" of 2, with one on the top and one on the bottom. But that was a thoughtful response and who am I to disagree? I'll sort out the cards so the bottom one is always lower and leave the pairs as they lie.
Your first card's free. Others are bought through struggle.
---
Xeno, you could add "area" to your Cosmic Blade, which would almost certainly hurt some other servitors, If you choose that option we'll find out how many and you would roll normal damage for each of them as well.
Or you could treat your roll as a Discern Realities to find something useful or valuable to you - that is, seeing the patterns of the corrupted servitor as it flails around to aim in at least a reasonable facsimile of its direction. This would mean you rolled Cosmic Blade again with +1 for taking advantage of a Discern Realities roll.
Make your choice.
---
Koba, servitor #10 reveals his bottom card! It was the 10 of Diamonds. Not an Aspirant. This is probably going to be happening a lot, so I'll only make you say it once: tell me what it looks like when your counter-logogram frees somebody's soul.
Also, what are you doing now?
Incidentally, Xeno, here's another hot question with a surprisingly relevant answer - how would you recognize someone from Redhaven after they've been stripped of their earthly possessions? Because, uh, when you look at the body the servitor dumped out to see if it was one of the important ones, you do.
---
Geth, roll 2d10l1+1 for the sake of example.
That's how you'd do your damage in this situation, Ajax.
Incidentally, Ajax, subtract your armor from that and that's the damage you take in this situation, between the skeleton macer and grappler and the Unblemished Sword being kind of a terrible thing to have free in the middle of a grapple. You're probably going to want to try to grab definite hold of that blade, or maybe try to kick it free so someone could pick it up and come shank these grabbyguts?
---
tags: @Grog @AustinP0027
He takes quick aim and throws his rapier like a spear, barely missing one of the skeletons, but pinning its sash to the wall with a reverberating thwang.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, he yanks on the wire that he-
Oh, wait. Cue the flashback, where he first tied the wire to the sword-
Oh, wait.
Glory makes a mental note that flashbacks don't actually work in real life, and pats himself hurriedly, trying to remember just where that hidden dagger was hidden.
--
Glory may start tying the wire to the rapier pommel in the future. It just makes so much sense.
You've definitely got two skeletons' worth of attention pointing at you, though it seems like they've forgone any real attempt at coordination, figuring you're at a marked disadvantage and they should capitalize when they can. And if you were just trying for a regular scrap, you'd have to be at least a little worried about their reach advantage.
But the thing about blades is that in order to hurt you they have to get through Hand range first. G'wan and roll a Parry when you feel like it, and consider your answers to apply to both skeletons at once.
Also since you really nailed that line, have a bonus: since the first rule of fooling the enemy is to fool yourself, if you were being totally straight-up sincere they'll be super unguarded and you can roll with advantage. But if you were being totally straight-up sincere, and you wind up with doubles (if, say, you roll 5, 3, 5 and are left with two 5's) you actually don't manage to lay hands on the dagger in time and you're going to have to burn off a heritage move to use your hand as a dagger.
---
tags: @wildwood
Xeno’s hourglass eyes went wide with shock when he saw the dark grey body of the young woman dropped without ceremony to the ground. She was from his parish, there was no doubt, and one of his favorite Ciphers sprang unbidden from lips.
“How reluctantly
the bee emerges from deep
within the peony”
--
@Glazius, apologies for the multiple misunderstandings.
I’ll treat my 7 as a Discern Realities, with my +1 WIS for an 8 total. So I’ll reroll my Cosmic Blade attack with the same tags with an additional +1. I prefer risking the reroll than to damaging multiple servitors.
As for recognizing a Redhaven native. We all have skin/hair/scales/feathers/protoplasm/etc of only one color. Anywhere from the stark white skin and hair of Xeno to jet black, with every color and shade in between. But always only that one color.
Geth roll 2d6+3 for Cosmic Blade
Adding Tags for range, Elemental(time) to keep the corruption from spreading, and Piercing 2 to the last berserk servitor in the center.
If I get a 7-9 I'll choose: 'You feel drained, take -1 ongoing to INT until you have a few minutes to clear your head.’
PSN: Boozer_777
Or is it not that the dagger's in his hand, but that the dagger is his hand? The camera angle seems to be obscuring that. Stay tuned...
--
I'm pretty sure I have one hold left on Heritage, hopefully I won't need it here.
Geth roll 3d6k2+2 for Parry
Post-roll: yep. Talk to the hand. I choose to keep their full attention.
In an effort to not perceive them, Koba turns her attention to the rest of the room.
--
I'm a little confused as to what is happening with the servitors- is there just one corrupted one left that Xeno is taking shots at?
That'd be my main priority but if it's taken care of I'd head over to help out with the skellingtons. Am I able to reach them and engage, or would that take time?
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Defy Danger (get the sword)
There are two other frozen bodies like that on the work surface - very, very slowly beginning to fragment. They themselves pose no threat of spreading the contagion, as the various servitors route around them. But, you know, there's all this time stuff happening, and combat is chaos. You'd have to move them all off of it somehow to be totally safe.
Glory has bought you some time and grabbed the skeleton's attention with, in a sense, the ultimate hidden blade that no one expected. But that hasn't really resolved anything.
Maybe it's that pause, or maybe it's Ajax's scuffle getting a bit less raucous, that lets you hear a noise from that 4 o'clock tunnel that sounds like... advancing armored troops? It's still very faint and hard to make out and that's all I'm telling you without a move.
Also, your delaying tactics have bought the release of several other bodies. How many?
Geth, roll 2d3l1+1 for that's how many.
Servitor # 9 plays his bottom card! It was the Jack of Diamonds! An Aspirant's soul is released!
Servitor # 6 plays his bottom card! It was the Queen of Hearts! An Aspirant's soul is released!
---
Ajax, let's get so old-school the school hasn't even opened yet. You and the skeletons will likely be exchanging 2d10l1 + 1 damage (before armor) but choose 2:
(Also know that as a fan of the players, just straight-up breaking a Weaponmaster's weapon is a little beyond the pale. So if you don't pick # 4, I'm not going to smash the Unblemished Sword to bits or anything.)
---
tags: @Grog @Boozer @wildwood @AustinP0027
--
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Cosmic Blade
Geth roll 1d8+1d4-1 for Cosmic Blade damage
Adding Tags for range, Messy (+1d4 dmg), and two targets (-1 dmg) to try and kill the two swordians Glory is parrying.
If I get a 7-9 I'll choose: 'The GM removes a nonrange tag of their choice, and you deal -1 damage.
PSN: Boozer_777
A Weaponmaster's sword is life!
I'll choose:
Take definitive control of the sword
And
Sword is completely undamaged
--
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Investigate
Going to ask (with regards to the 4 o'clock tunnel):
-What is about to happen?
-What should I be on the lookout for?
-Who's really in control here?
Speaking of horrid damage rolls...
Geth, roll 2d10l1-2 for concomitant bonetrousle.
---
Glory, you shift around to give Xeno a clean shot, and then you realize what he's shooting and frantically backpedal.
But it's a bit too late. As the swordians collapse and their armor fragments and falls apart, you get a snootful of bone dust, rotting hide, rust, and metal fragments.
It has no mechanical effect whatsoever, but smells like barbarian body spray all the same.
Koba is going to fill you in on the answers below, at which point I'll pile on with: what are you doing?
---
What is about to happen? Well, it sounds like another force of skeletons is on the move. Probably no more than a dozen, none more heavily kitted out than the ones Xeno just dropped. That number includes a slightly different marching cadence that you think might be some variant on the servitors you'd already seen?
What should you be on the lookout for? You're getting readings consistent with logographic augmentation. This was the main array, but it was freely repurposeable. It's quite possible to have a purpose-built array in a much smaller space. The traces indicate some kind of barrier effect that can be intensified if multiple copies are oriented in certain ways relative to one another.
Who's really in control here? There'd need to be a skilled logographer monitoring field usage of these things.
---
tags: @AustinP0027 @wildwood @Boozer @Grog
Let's get the damage roll out of the way first.
Geth, roll 2d10l1+1 for Damage (to the skeleton grappler)
For the first time, The Weaponmaster was able to get a quick glance over to see what his cohorts were doing, and whatever it was, it looked complicated and like it shouldn't be interrupted. There was little that would change Ajax's actions anyways. This opponent, however worthy, was quickly becoming irratating, and the Weaponmaster just wanted to get back to the other three and regroup, however briefly.
His sword gripped tightly in his hand, Ajax swung as hard as he could, aiming for the larger skeleton's legs in an attempt to cut him down where he stood before he had an opportunity to advance on the other group.
--
Making an assumption that 3 was enough, otherwise, I'll rewrite all this....
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Hack 'n Slash
Geth, roll 1d10+1 for Damage (if it hits)
“Sorry.” Xeno grimaced, apologizing to Glory before joining Koba at the southeastern tunnel.
--
If Ajax didn’t take out the last two skeletons, I’ll use Cosmic Blade again. Assuming he did take them out, I’ll head to the 4 o’clock tunnel before any reinforcements arrive, in the hope of slowing them down with a elemental(time)+area attack. Using cosmic channel is probably too likely to cause a backlash and move the clock forward.
PSN: Boozer_777
So you haul off and lash out at the macer. You strike true!
...but, crucially, you don't strike through, and you realize a bit too late that the macer was suckering you into lending approximately one full swing of momentum towards that escape toward the 4 o'clock tunnel. You're not going to catch up with it now.
---
Xeno, Koba? Keep in mind that Ajax could likely be a backstop for anything you launch at this one if it doesn't happen to connect.
---
Glory, you can get your rapier back just fine.
---
tags: @AustinP0027 @Boozer @Grog @wildwood
--
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Cosmic Blade
Geth roll 1d8+1d4 for Cosmic Blade damage
Adding Tags for range, Messy (+1d4 dmg), and piercing 2 to try and kill the last skeleton.
If I get a 7-9 I'll choose: 'The GM removes a nonrange tag of their choice, and you deal -1 damage.
Edit - apparently the anwer is yes.
PSN: Boozer_777
"What now, Koba?" he asks, eyeing the dark archway. "Do we stand and fight?"
--
@Grog
The ecoplasmic manifester shrieks a glowing hammer into her armoured fists. "Any questions?"
--
Sorry about the hold up, ready to rock now.
To elaborate on the plan, Ajax and I can do the heavy lifting in terms of melee and hopefully hold them in the tunnel. Glory can counter anyone who gets past us/manouevre to any opportunities and Xeno can drop some area effects while they're bunched.
The barrier seems largely invisible to everybody else, but it's still got your time-flux zipping all over it so you can still kind of tell where it is. It slowly begins advancing, inching forward one section at a time.
Behind the barrier are a number of lightly-armored skeletons with swords and crossbows. Unlike most crossbow lines they're actually the front line, or perhaps, counting the barrier, the second line? Anyway, they're the first thing anybody sees. They quickly look around, assessing the situation, and there's a lot of situation here to assess but the macer informs them of relevant developments as it limps deeper into the tunnel, to wit a) you b) shenanigans.
Second are several flesh-creatures similar in tone and build to the ones currently unloading the bodies on the work surface - oh, by the way.
Geth, roll 2d3l1+1 for it's that time again.
---
Geez, don't let 'em all go at once, now.
Servitor #4 plays his bottom card! It was the Jack of Clubs! A non-Aspirant soul is released! Koba, tell me about the parish where you learned to keep the Conqueror in good repair without all the comforts of home, and how you'd recognize someone born there, bereft of their worldly possessions.
Servitor #3 plays his bottom card! It was the King of Spades! A non-Aspirant soul is released! Glory, tell me about the first story you ever heard on the road, and how you'd recognize someone from the parish where it came from, bereft of all their etc. etc.
---
Anyhow, the tunnel servitors also have a metal plate on their shoulders but there isn't a lot of tracery on it - it seems to be directed down a metal vambrace grafted into an extended left or right arm. Xeno, as their muscles twitch and the vambraces shift slightly, you notice the force-plane-iris also shift around in response.
Presumably somewhere in the back is where the macer has fled to - no doubt the supervisor had or brought some sort of emergency treatment kit. But you can't see them now, and waiting is probably not a good idea, because the quarrelers are taking aim and the servitors are extending their arms, making the force-barrier iris open.
You know what else is not a good idea? Trying to use one of those dead-blackened servitors on the work surface as kind of a corruption grenade by draining the timelessness out of it and lobbing it through the force iris with perfect aim and timing in order to burst open and drive all the shielding servitors crazy. Certainly as servitors they're also susceptible to that blackness but there are so, so many ways that could backfire horribly. Just put it out of your mind.
So, everybody everybody, what are you doing? Ajax, I should state that you're completely out of sight now as they haven't cleared the mouth of the tunnel and it's pointed more down 6 o-clock way.
---
tags: @Boozer @AustinP0027 @Grog @wildwood
When shifters from Nonesuch Vale die, their souls shift through several strongly colored geometries, representing their truest forms, until they shift out of any form that a mortal can sense.
@Glazius would chucking a corrupted fragment of servitor after draining it’s timelessness just be a Volley roll, or would I need additional rolls? If I need a Cosmic Channel roll to drain the timelessness, would I need to get a 12+ to avoid advancing the Aspirant doom clock?
PSN: Boozer_777
But you'd need sufficient concentration to actually deliberately undo your own arbitrary chronal overload effects, which wouldn't leave you any to spare for the grunt work of hefting an inconsistently-coherent mass and hucking it at an opening in space. That'd need a second person to join you in what I will again stress is an ill-omened undertaking.
To speak nothing of some hypothetical third and fourth person who might, I dunno, hold the force-iris open with their own bodies or act as some kind of spotter to give the thrower an optimal launch window.
If all of these people wanted for some reason to involve themselves in this desperate scheme, I would of course lay out the decisions that would need to be made and the necessary roles and rolls, but you're probably better off...
Well, not charging directly into the teeth of this assault like madmen, I'll grant that, but surely there's some other clever plan in the works here.
---
When you set GMIrony=0 in the .ini file and relaunch, okay I'ma say straight up, "use a dead servitor to corruption grenade this army" is only one plan. It would resolve a number of problems in one shot but there are also great risks involved. You all are free to make your own plans to deal with this and I will toss you the moves to make and clarify any reasonable questions you might have about the circumstances.
For instance, Xeno, pretty much everything you do involving the tunnel is also conceptually isolated from the array and will not risk backlash.
---
tags: @Boozer @Grog @wildwood @AustinP0027
Talk this one out a bit? I can throw things at other things but given my rolls lately, I think Geth has it out for me.
Maybe try to collapse/attack the tunnel and I can try to sneak in closer to the things building the shield?
Yeah, I agree about preferring not to go with the corrupted grenade route. I've been rolling well but that’s bound to change. Any one aspect of that plan going wrong will mess us up a lot. In a way taking it slow is safer and gives the reprogrammed servitors time to free more souls.
Clock mages cannot use cosmic channel to move things directly. Right now we’re in a bad spot because they can coordinate opening the barrier to shoot out of it, then closing it before I can return fire or you guys can close distance to get into melee. I assume I could shoot in while it’s open but I don’t think I could kill/slow enough barrier servitors to nullify that advantage. Also, the fact that they are opening the barrier to shoot crossbow bolts out of makes me think it would block everything/everyone from entering not just magic/energy.
So I think what I’d like to try is to use cosmic channel to put the barrier servitors into stasis, keeping the barrier open so you guys could go in and start wrecking shop, and next round I could start shooting. Or eroding the barrier vambraces into dust to drop the barrier completely. Stasis takes the servitors out of the fight as well temporarily, whereas dusting the vambraces takes out the barrier permanently but allows the servitors to fight in other ways. I think I prefer statsis to reduce the numbers of the opposing force.
PSN: Boozer_777
Corruption grenade definitely a no-no. Been thinking this over and was considering trying to lure them out, but given that they know our numbers I doubt it would work.
@Boozer Stasis sounds like a better idea. @Wildwood maybe Glory can daring devil himself and Ajax into their back ranks to stop them repairing.
I'd like to give @wildwood a chance to chime in or agree with that plan.
In the meantime, I'll ask @Glazius : Is my proposal to use Cosmic Channel to put the barrier servitors in stasis to keep the iris open a reasonable use of the ability? If not, could I use it to destroy the vambraces or put the iris in stasis itself? I figured I would ask before I start rolling.
PSN: Boozer_777
Are we talking about Glory moving himself and Ajax in behind the skeleton crew when they're all through the 4:00 arch? That sounds like a Daring Plan. Would this plan have a specific goal, or ways to know when it's been achieved? Holding the skeletons until all the souls are freed? Until the skeletons are wiped out? Until we can make our escape?
This seems like a good opportunity for True Love and High Adventure. Of course Glory's in.
I could see everyone going into the tunnel. But I intially assumed Xeno wouldn't be going in.
I thought the idea was to move Glory and Ajax behind the skeleton and barrier servitor crew, after Xeno keeps the barrier open, so Glory and Ajax could take out the skeleton supervisor before he heals the macer or others or does any more logogramic ordering around.
I think the goal is to take em all out and free the Aspirants souls.
PSN: Boozer_777
That's fair. So I think maybe something like this:
Xeno uses cosmic channel to slow servitors
Glory and Ajax use daring devil to get past skeleton line to take out some barrier servitors.
Koba uses a forceful weapon to break through skeleton line. She attacks servitors next round.
At that point everyone but Xeno is at servitor line, allowing Xeno to use area+time tags on skeleton line without affecting you guys.
You guys take out servitors and/or supervisor.
Xeno slows / damages skeleton line.
Reprogrammed servitors save souls.
???
Profit
PSN: Boozer_777
I think it works.
Of course, that assumes the skeleton line doesn't just rush Xeno in the first or second round. So it may make more sense for Koba to stay on this side, or at least come back after I tag the skeleton line with elemental(time).
PSN: Boozer_777
Yeah, it's probably better to have two on each side, actually. Not sure if they'd turn on us if we got past them, but if they instead decided to just all take you down, there'd be little we could do to stop that, so probably better to have Koba stay back and try to be between you and the skeletons and have Glory and I go to down on the servitors.
Wait! I forgot I have drill hands!
New plan: I drill around the barrier with Xeno, who slows the barrier while I use Forceful to bat them out through the barrier into the waiting arms of Ajax and Glory. Glory stands ready to Daring Devil him and Ajax into the backlines if they try to retreat.
Would there be a roll for the drilling?
There'd be a roll for drilling if you actually wanted it to be a surprise (probably +int, with an option to give up the charge to get surprise on a 7-9), which I suspect is what you meant.
---
tags: @Grog
"Xeno, with me; you two, get ready for a delivery." And with that dirt begins to fly as the suit does it's work.
--
Nothing like the element of surprise.
edit: and that was nothing like the element of surprise.
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for OH YEAH
“Their servitors are controlling an invisible barrier, I will hold it open as long as I can.” Xeno said to them, before following Koba into her new tunnel.
When they emerged from the tunnel, the Wonderworker grabbed the threads of the vambrace wearing servitors with both hands. He could feel the hum of unlife vibrating in them. Xeno pitched his voice to match their unnatural frequency, before slowing it down almost to the point of stopping. It was all he could do to keep them from moving, to keep the Iris frozen open.
--
@Grog I assume you’re not going to go for the element of surprise by that edit.
Geth roll 2d6+2 for Cosmic Channel to put the barrier servitors in stasis to keep the barrier Iris open for as long as possible.
For 10+ I’ll choose: You feel drained. You take -1 ongoing to INT until you have a few minutes to clear your head.
If I get a 7-9 I’ll add: Your work has unforeseen side effects, and might draw unwanted attention.
PSN: Boozer_777