With one last nod the party begins to barrel ahead full-tilt, Wei leading the group as quickly through the tangled hallways and webs as possible. Within only a few steps the first several strands are broken and the sounds of dishpans, cutlery, pots, serving spoons, and a litany of amassed bric-a-brac begin to clang into each other and the floor. Several steps later, the building is literally alive with the sound of rattling and banging metal.
The webs grow from nuisance to impediment as your party moves deeper in and closer to the office.
Outside the Halls of Civic Duty
One of you trailing near the end of the party see it, briefly before you turn the corner down the hall to the officiant's office: a horde of ravenous former-people, growling and smashing their way in through every orifice this building offers. They had your scent, and now the growing noise has drawn them to you! Their noises grow ever louder behind you!
At the Heart of the Building
You've crashed ahead with the grace of a bull in a china shop, but are suddenly stopped at the entrance to the office. Its doorway is open but the frame is heavily stitched shut with thick strands of web. Wei, you can see the narrow stairwell down beneath the office is still open, seemingly nothing within the room disturbed since you last trespassed.
Before you can act a heavy thump reverberates from down the hall, and immediately following is an ear-piercing shriek from a large beast. The lord of this makeshift fiefdom has finally shown itself! Mandibles dripping, with four clawed arms it launches itself down the hall toward your group.
Worse still, the horde of slavering inhumans has rounded the corner behind you! They seem undeterred by the presence of the beast, and are rushing toward you from the opposite direction!
“Aha! Was there ever a finer call to arms gentlemen?”, cries the pneumatic paladin.
Fernando takes a fighting stance facing the big beast. It takes all his discipline not to act, but he has dedicated himself to guard Wei, so he merely readies his lance.
“No further foul fiend! Nor those behind me.”, he tries to say ‘Not one of you is match for me!‘ but he can tell no lies, such is the binding of the oath with his god, so realising this he finishes with “Um. Err... Some of you are no match for me!”
Where Wei goes Fernando is by his side, ready to take a hit for him and dish out retribution in turn.
Wei shifts into a bear, once again, and uses his claws to swipe the webs out of the way. "Into the office!" He growls. Hopefully the two forces would attack eachother, and maybe they could barricade the doors.
Fernando doesn’t skip a beat as his ward roars into a massive grizzly form, nature incarnate, and tear into the webbing. The paladin spins on his heels and stands back to back with the druidic beast, holding the line should something dare to interrupt his work.
“Need a hand friend? Just give me ursine if you do!”, the robot says with way too much satisfaction at his terrible pun.
While he acts guard Fernando takes a moment to assess the situation.
Geth roll 2d6-1 Discern Realities
1. What is about to happen?
2. What here is useful or valuable to me?
3. What should I be on the lookout for?
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Wei
The thickened webs are giving way to your claws, but more slowly than you were hoping. Both the Horde and the Monster have closed half the distance, and you've not quite opened enough of an opening for anyone to skirt through.
Fernando
What is about to happen?
Great Bear Wei is clawing his way through the impediment, but you gauge he'll be too late; your adversaries will be right on top of you once he's cleared the way!
What here is useful or valuable to me?
It takes you a moment, but then you see it: down the path you came from, the one where the horde pursues you, a nearby fragile weave in the hall-length web. If you or someone were to cut at it just so, it would collapse on the entire incoming horde.
What should I be on the lookout for? Fire. You have a deeply rooted memory that a spider's webs, once set, are incredibly flammable (Why do you know this?). This whole place is notably dry, and a significant enough spark could send not only the weaves of web into a conflagration but the entire hallway with it. The damage to your pursuers would be substantial.
Granted, you're in the hallway, and so that entire line of thought presents its own problems.
Hawthorne's backed up against Fernando. He raises the pewter icon of his deity overhead; it's a crude figurine in the shape of an alley krake. It dangles from the cord that normally holds it around his neck as he prays to Sister Moon for protection. "Sister, this looks like a tight spot, but our friend the bear can bust us out if we watch his back...."
Otto hacks away at the webbing in the doorway for all he's worth!
[OOC: I'm assuming this will be a Defy Danger, and I'm trying to use precise strikes to avoid getting in Wei's way]
Geth, roll 2d6+2 Defy Danger (Dex)
Defy Danger (Dex):
2d6+28 [2d6=5, 1]
|_
Oo\ Ironsizide
+2
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Hawthorne "It's good you remember the stories." The voice is a low, raspy purr in the back of your mind. "The souls that leave us, that find Her in the heavens, but through vice or vengeance leave their vessels behind. She abhors it, you know, as much as she loves those who find their way to her. But a part of the story you hadn't heard: the reckless acts of Man can unwittingly separate those souls from those vessels. Remember this story, and spread it far."
A corona of blue-white energy washes over your field of vision, beginning at the edges and quickly filling the direction you watch.
"Your solicitation granted, Her will be done."
The Horde ahead slows, and then stops, mere feet away from you and the party. Your prayer turns into a spoken tale, and so long as you speak this story gifted to you the Horde will no longer approach.
Otto
You begin to time your swings, and deftly cut several webs clear as Wei cleaves the larger trunks of strand down. With one last swing you're through, but the Beast is now upon you all!
Exilis @Elvenshae
The Beast is bearing down on you, Fernando, and Hawthorne, who holds the Horde at bay with his words. Its slavering mandibles spread wide with an ear-piercing screech, and it rears back to swing two great claws into your midst. What do you do?
Two heroes amongst desperate hands. Their hunger, their pleading eyes. A towering bearded veteran and his rumpled young squire. The villagers. The setting sun swallowed by the hanging fog below the known sky. The night, that final night.
The shrieking of beasts! Nameless spawn, a bastardisation of spider and man. Some small, but all growing after consuming their dark mother. So many.
Metal on metal. The automatons awaken, unprepared, their simple minds losing focus on friend and foe. The screams of villagers mingling with the alien cry of the spider creatures.
“Go!”, a gruff voice bellows.
A shining force raises a lance to the heavens. The veteran. Flares as bright as the sun illuminate the veil of night. The flames race along the taut webbing. The smoke. The smell of burning flesh. Metal welded to metal. An emblem of the sun.
The squire running. A sense of tightening. Of web. Their hunger, their pleading eyes. The many hands—
...
“A memory?”, whispers Fernando.
Fernando opens his hinged mouth. From within a terrible blue light shines out through it and through his eyes. His arms release pressurised steam. Something where his heart should be revs like an engine. Standing back to back with his allies Fernando whips his halberd into the huge beast on a downward swing, aiming to shatter its head into its chest.
Geth roll 2d6+1 Maximum Effort Attack
Geth roll 1d10+1 Total Damage
[OOC: I’d like to add 1d6 to the damage as I’m opening up to even more harm if that’s possible. If so I’ve dealt 7 damage, otherwise just 2 damage. I’m still hoping I can defend Wei too, so I’ll spend my hold to take any damage they would take in this battle.]
As if waking up from a great slumber, Exilis moves to help his allies! The gigantic Beast is bearing down, but the scout has a trick or two up his sleeve, even when it comes to terrestrial opponents! Exilis grabs a shiny, thick bar of corrugated metal off his pack - it easily separates, the snaps holding it in place designed for exactly this contingency. He weighs it in his hands, and as the Beast approaches, tosses it at its feet.
It expands rapidly, forming a chest-high wall of thin metal, covering most of the corridor ... But did he throw it at the right time?
The view zooms and shifts, time slowed to the pace of ticks between heartbeats. The vision, the sight, rushes through the front doors of the Civic Hall and rapidly flies down the corridors toward the officiant's office. At first the dark of the interior overtakes the view, but as it pans the last corner to the hallway where our adventurers have been halted the blue glow from an automatic soldier and the green-white coruscating glow of the vision itself lights the way.
The unseen source of vision flies slowly over the stopped ghoul horde, its litany of dripping jaws and wrenched claws held motionless even as the scene ahead continues to slowly, ever so slowly, move forward.
Tick, tock.
The view now sees the first of the adventurers, a staff in one hand and a minuscule figurine in the other. His mouth is open in mid-sentence preaching a gospel to a choir that is enrapt and incensed beyond measure, but one who cannot, will not, sing in response.
Tick.
At the doorway, a bear...no, a gargantuan ursine, its ripping claws finding purchase in and freedom through the tattered remains of a silk stopgap. The bear's jaws are pulled back in a snarl, and were time moving at pace the observer would hear the growl is too weak to draw notice over the din of the clash.
Tock.
By the beast's side a lithe warrior likewise is mid-strike with a fine blade, finding freedom for the adventurers trapped in this hall. The vision regards the individual strands of a larger knot, as they plink apart one, by one, by one, by one, as the sword suffers them no resistance. Plink. Plink. Plink, like the sound of a lacerated guitar string.
Tick.
The view spins now, focusing on the demi-arachnoid beast; it is mid-strike, its right-handed pair of claws swinging in a vicious arc toward any it can reach. And in response an automatic soldier is cleaving down from above, its strike intended to behead its foe. The blue glow of the hallway is brightest here, illuminating gouts of acrid saliva pouring from the beast's widened jaws.
Both would strike true, but for the intervention of another.
Tock.
The vision pans slightly right and down, and catches it in sight before all but one of the collected party realizes it's there: a metal contraption, moving at speed despite the vision observing at a time scale much reduced. The man behind the contraption, one arm outstretched, catches the vision's interest. Aquilaean. Curious. The contraption explodes outward and upward and downward from the adventurer's hand, rapidly expanding into a sort of metal barricade.
Tick.
But the barricade is misplaced, and instead of a stout barrier it becomes a rushing riposte of its own. It strikes the hilt of the automaton's halberd, knocking it off its line toward a killing strike. It likewise buffets the beast, its balance thrown off and its measured strike now thrown into a wild sweep.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
*CRASH*
+3
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited February 2020
OOC: Let's clean this up a little, shall we? Wei is Target 1 (for whiffing on an Aid roll), Fernando is Target 2 (for Partial Success on Hack & Slash), and Exilis is Target 3 (for whiffing on the Defy Dex roll)
Geth, roll 1d3 for Target A
Geth, roll 1d3 for Target B
Target A:
1d33 [1d3=3]
Target B:
1d31 [1d3=1]
Nips on
+1
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited February 2020
(BTW, does anyone have a link to a guide for the syntax on Geth's dice roller? I'd reeeaaaly love it right about now.
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Wei
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Wei
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Exilis
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Exilis
Fernando, your strike lands awkwardly due to Exilis's Fan Fence being deployed hastily. Your strike causes the 2 damage; you're as exposed as you can be, and your position is not advantageous, so no opening up yourself up for additional damage. (If I'm missing something here that's above and beyond a Partial Success on Hack & Slash, let me know and I'll course-correct.) The beast bleeds, your blow crushing through its carapace, but you know the strike was minimally effective!
The Beast trips forward over the Fan Fence, its clawed strikes swinging wildly through the air! As it nearly doubles over, it lashes out and awkwardly strikes Wei for 6 damage and Exilis for 6 damage (armor applies as normal).
Fernando, you may spend your Defend hold as desired to intervene on the strike on Wei! If you do as previously noted, take Wei's 6 damage in his stead.
Fernando shoves back against the beast, its claws barely missing its mark, and in rage it rips into the paladin instead.
[OOC: Used up my hold to defend a bear. Fernando now has 18/25 HP.
I’ll post my next move after everyone else has done something; guess I’m just being grappled for now!]
Endless_Serpents on
+2
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
(OOC: There's no grapple here, Fernando! The Beast's swing was half-interrupted, so you claw'd but not grab'd.)
(Also, baller picture! I'm a little creeped out by how well that matches the picture in my head. Maybe replace the lower arms with clawed hands, and the legs with something more ape-like, and it's spot-on.)
In the Thick Of It
The Beast reels to catch its balance in the face of a still-expanding half-wall made of steel, and the route into the office is clear! Wei and Otto are at the doorway, with Fernando, Exilis, and Hawthorne close behind.
Steps beyond them, in either direction, lay hostiles with ill intent.
"Get in!" Wei growls, shifting back to human and slamming the doors closed once everyones inside. He's going to try to keep the doors shut and look for anything that could be used to block them.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is not what it appears to be?
Fernando is thrown in over Wei. He clutches his waist, and finds his hand grabbing a shut-off valve. Part of his metal outer shell has been torn off, but his innards are unharmed, still pumping whatever fluids, still turning cogs and the like.
Fernando doesn’t say anything. His frown is audible, a creaking of brass face parts.
“My god... has slowed my bleeding to a stop... Dawn be praised...”, he says. His tone is not as convincing as he’d like.
He suddenly flips back onto his feet, all bluster and righteousness. He holds his halberd ready.
+3
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
(OOC: I'll get to Wei's questions once the rest of the party's made their moves and/or everyone's inside the office.)
(It's worth noting that for Wei and Otto, moving into the office is a safe (free of danger) move. For the other three, not as much!)
(Leaping into the room without dealing with the Beast sounds dangerous to me! Defy Danger (DEX) would be appropriate! Otto or Wei (but not both) may assist!)
(It looks like Hawthorne's going to be the last one in! How do you deal getting through the door with the Beast at your back, and the Choir Decrepit held sway by your story?)
Exilis staggers to his knees with a grunt as the Beast's claw hits his shoulder. Luckily, the leather armor there takes the lion's share of the blow and directs it away, where it smashes to the floor - but the Beast still catches enough of the scout to momentarily numb Exilis's arm. Not wanting to be left alone in the hallway, Exilis uses the momentum of the hit to roll over the claw - and is helped to his feet on the other side when Otto grabs his harness and lifts.
Now safely in the room, Exilis back away from the doorway and prepares his spear, ready to help hold back anything attempting to push its way through.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
The Beast thrashes, its legs and a lower arm tangled up in the Fan Fence. Only Hawthorne remains in the hall, where he continues to hold court over the still undead.
(@Cheeseliker may Aid @Mahnmut to enter the room if deemed necessary, then pending results of an Amazing Hawthorne Escape we'll cut to the interior of the room and carry on!)
Yeah, so Hawthorne's sweating; he's fixedly relaying the story word-for-word to his unfortunate audience, holding that pewter icon high, and straining his ears to keep track of what's behind him. The only way he's getting out of this stand-off is if he moves at just the right time....
[I think I'm going to sorta tap-dance back when the Beast lunges for Exilis; maybe Wei can cue me?]
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2020
On The Threshhold
Hawthorne, with a practiced lean, throws himself into a backwards lunge toward the outstretched arm of Great Bear Wei. The last words of the story leave his lips as he heaves himself with a grunt. As soon as the last syllable ends its ringing tone in the hall, the legion of ghouls likewise leaps forward! As if water from a bursting dam they come pouring into the intersection, all claws, teeth, and thrown bodies.
Wei grasps Hawthorne's hand, but the first of the ghouls has a grip on the cleric's leg! Held aloft like a long branch caught in a raging river, the tide of ghouls bodily pours into the Beast with an unchecked momentum. The Beast trucks no interruption however and begins clawing its own way into the horde toward you.
Wei and Hawthorne are stuck just in the threshold, grabbed by the clawing grasps of foul monstrosities, preventing the heavy wooden doors to the office from being slammed shut!
[OOC: If I can’t be the one to help this moment doesn’t happen, but I’m going for it!]
Seeing the foul creature grab his ally’s leg, Fernando deftly swings his halberd down and draws it back in with all the speed of a well-oiled machine.
[OOC: My one goal is to cut off the ghoul’s arm, releasing Hawthorne, who’s sudden momentum should launch Wei back into the room too. So is that a Hack and Slash? I’m thinking Defy Danger by Strength?]
Geth roll 2d6+1 for Limb Removal
Limb Removal:
2d6+17 [2d6=3, 3]
+3
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2020
The Mechanical Paladin takes a swing with its reaching pole arm, like a fisherman wielding a blade. And much as with baited fishing line, it draws in its prey! You swing and pull, dragging the grasping ghoul headlong into the doorway with the momentum of Wei and Hawthorne joining it. And right behind it, a pair follow along as if drawn in on the line.
Fortunately, the force of combined drag pulls the heavy wooden doors shut, barring further interlopers!
Unfortunately, a man-pile of adventurers, adventurer-bears, and ghouls now wrestles just behind those doors!
(BearWei, Hawthorne, Fernando, and three Ghouls are now all piled on top of each other just inside the closed doorway. It's a goddan mess of limbs and flailing, with no one yet gaining an upper hand. Otto and Exilis are just beyond them, but on their feet. Fernando, roll damage on the first Ghoul! [Treated this as Hack&Slash, mixed success with a Ghoul-pile consequence])
Fernando blinks in shock, and is brought back to his senses as a ghoul tears itself from his halberd. Its arm hangs by a bloody thread, and swings frantically as it stumbles towards him.
Instinctively Fernando kicks the broken arm as hard as he can, sending a left jab into its own face, giving the paladin time to twist to his feet.
A second ghoul lunges for him! But his training kicks in too, and he rolls sideways over it and flicks his halberd out before he lands. A flash of crimson assures he’s cut the lower jaw off the first ghoul.
Focus, Fernando, his late master calls, and one day you will become more than my squire.
Otto weighs his options as he surveys the melee. No clear shot in that mess in front of the door. Ole Fernando seems to be butchering one of the mobile ones nicely, but looks like he could use a bit of hand with the other. "No fair ganging up on two ghouls like that, Fernando! Gotta save some for the rest of us!"
Otto thrusts his ready blade at the ghoul with the intact jaw attacking Fernando. As he lunges the blade begins to glow.
Otto strikes well enough, but not well enough to evade any response from his foe. As he connects, arcane electrical charge hugs the blade and discharges into the ghoul, numbing one of its arms!
Geth, roll 1d8 for Damage (1p, Galvanic technique)
Damage (1p, Galvanic technique):
1d85 [1d8=5]
|_
Oo\ Ironsizide
+3
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2020
The Fracas In The Boardroom
Fernando continues to joust with the now-jawless ghoul in front of him, while Otto lashes out with a lightning strike! The ghoul's left arm slumps useless, but undeterred it throws itself at the duelist!
The ghoul's remaining good claw catches a seam in Otto's armor, pierces, and withdraws spraying blood in a wild arc.
[Ghouls: 3 is Jawless, 2 has now lunged at Otto, and 1 is just part of the pile of it plus Wei and Hawthorne]
Posts
With one last nod the party begins to barrel ahead full-tilt, Wei leading the group as quickly through the tangled hallways and webs as possible. Within only a few steps the first several strands are broken and the sounds of dishpans, cutlery, pots, serving spoons, and a litany of amassed bric-a-brac begin to clang into each other and the floor. Several steps later, the building is literally alive with the sound of rattling and banging metal.
The webs grow from nuisance to impediment as your party moves deeper in and closer to the office.
Outside the Halls of Civic Duty
One of you trailing near the end of the party see it, briefly before you turn the corner down the hall to the officiant's office: a horde of ravenous former-people, growling and smashing their way in through every orifice this building offers. They had your scent, and now the growing noise has drawn them to you! Their noises grow ever louder behind you!
At the Heart of the Building
You've crashed ahead with the grace of a bull in a china shop, but are suddenly stopped at the entrance to the office. Its doorway is open but the frame is heavily stitched shut with thick strands of web. Wei, you can see the narrow stairwell down beneath the office is still open, seemingly nothing within the room disturbed since you last trespassed.
Before you can act a heavy thump reverberates from down the hall, and immediately following is an ear-piercing shriek from a large beast. The lord of this makeshift fiefdom has finally shown itself! Mandibles dripping, with four clawed arms it launches itself down the hall toward your group.
Worse still, the horde of slavering inhumans has rounded the corner behind you! They seem undeterred by the presence of the beast, and are rushing toward you from the opposite direction!
What do you do?
Fernando takes a fighting stance facing the big beast. It takes all his discipline not to act, but he has dedicated himself to guard Wei, so he merely readies his lance.
“No further foul fiend! Nor those behind me.”, he tries to say ‘Not one of you is match for me!‘ but he can tell no lies, such is the binding of the oath with his god, so realising this he finishes with “Um. Err... Some of you are no match for me!”
Where Wei goes Fernando is by his side, ready to take a hit for him and dish out retribution in turn.
geth roll 2d6+2 shapeshift bear
Roll Defy Danger (STR) to tear through the webs with all haste! You may spend one hold from your Bear form to add +1 to this roll.
geth roll 2d6+2 using 1 hold
“Need a hand friend? Just give me ursine if you do!”, the robot says with way too much satisfaction at his terrible pun.
While he acts guard Fernando takes a moment to assess the situation.
Geth roll 2d6-1 Discern Realities
1. What is about to happen?
2. What here is useful or valuable to me?
3. What should I be on the lookout for?
The thickened webs are giving way to your claws, but more slowly than you were hoping. Both the Horde and the Monster have closed half the distance, and you've not quite opened enough of an opening for anyone to skirt through.
Fernando
What is about to happen?
Great Bear Wei is clawing his way through the impediment, but you gauge he'll be too late; your adversaries will be right on top of you once he's cleared the way!
What here is useful or valuable to me?
It takes you a moment, but then you see it: down the path you came from, the one where the horde pursues you, a nearby fragile weave in the hall-length web. If you or someone were to cut at it just so, it would collapse on the entire incoming horde.
What should I be on the lookout for?
Fire. You have a deeply rooted memory that a spider's webs, once set, are incredibly flammable (Why do you know this?). This whole place is notably dry, and a significant enough spark could send not only the weaves of web into a conflagration but the entire hallway with it. The damage to your pursuers would be substantial.
Granted, you're in the hallway, and so that entire line of thought presents its own problems.
The Rest of the Party
@ironsizide @Mahnmut @Elvenshae
Your friends are working on your egress, but time is running short! What do you do?
Geth, roll 2d6+2 Turn Undead (WIS)
[OOC: I'm assuming this will be a Defy Danger, and I'm trying to use precise strikes to avoid getting in Wei's way]
Geth, roll 2d6+2 Defy Danger (Dex)
Oo\ Ironsizide
"It's good you remember the stories." The voice is a low, raspy purr in the back of your mind. "The souls that leave us, that find Her in the heavens, but through vice or vengeance leave their vessels behind. She abhors it, you know, as much as she loves those who find their way to her. But a part of the story you hadn't heard: the reckless acts of Man can unwittingly separate those souls from those vessels. Remember this story, and spread it far."
A corona of blue-white energy washes over your field of vision, beginning at the edges and quickly filling the direction you watch.
"Your solicitation granted, Her will be done."
The Horde ahead slows, and then stops, mere feet away from you and the party. Your prayer turns into a spoken tale, and so long as you speak this story gifted to you the Horde will no longer approach.
Otto
You begin to time your swings, and deftly cut several webs clear as Wei cleaves the larger trunks of strand down. With one last swing you're through, but the Beast is now upon you all!
Exilis
@Elvenshae
The Beast is bearing down on you, Fernando, and Hawthorne, who holds the Horde at bay with his words. Its slavering mandibles spread wide with an ear-piercing screech, and it rears back to swing two great claws into your midst.
What do you do?
Why do you know this?
Two heroes amongst desperate hands. Their hunger, their pleading eyes. A towering bearded veteran and his rumpled young squire. The villagers. The setting sun swallowed by the hanging fog below the known sky. The night, that final night.
The shrieking of beasts! Nameless spawn, a bastardisation of spider and man. Some small, but all growing after consuming their dark mother. So many.
Metal on metal. The automatons awaken, unprepared, their simple minds losing focus on friend and foe. The screams of villagers mingling with the alien cry of the spider creatures.
“Go!”, a gruff voice bellows.
A shining force raises a lance to the heavens. The veteran. Flares as bright as the sun illuminate the veil of night. The flames race along the taut webbing. The smoke. The smell of burning flesh. Metal welded to metal. An emblem of the sun.
The squire running. A sense of tightening. Of web. Their hunger, their pleading eyes. The many hands—
...
“A memory?”, whispers Fernando.
Fernando opens his hinged mouth. From within a terrible blue light shines out through it and through his eyes. His arms release pressurised steam. Something where his heart should be revs like an engine. Standing back to back with his allies Fernando whips his halberd into the huge beast on a downward swing, aiming to shatter its head into its chest.
Geth roll 2d6+1 Maximum Effort Attack
Geth roll 1d10+1 Total Damage
[OOC: I’d like to add 1d6 to the damage as I’m opening up to even more harm if that’s possible. If so I’ve dealt 7 damage, otherwise just 2 damage. I’m still hoping I can defend Wei too, so I’ll spend my hold to take any damage they would take in this battle.]
Geth roll 1d6 More Damage Please
It expands rapidly, forming a chest-high wall of thin metal, covering most of the corridor ... But did he throw it at the right time?
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Defying Danger
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
geth roll 2d6 help exilis, no links
The Observer At Great Distance
The view zooms and shifts, time slowed to the pace of ticks between heartbeats. The vision, the sight, rushes through the front doors of the Civic Hall and rapidly flies down the corridors toward the officiant's office. At first the dark of the interior overtakes the view, but as it pans the last corner to the hallway where our adventurers have been halted the blue glow from an automatic soldier and the green-white coruscating glow of the vision itself lights the way.
The unseen source of vision flies slowly over the stopped ghoul horde, its litany of dripping jaws and wrenched claws held motionless even as the scene ahead continues to slowly, ever so slowly, move forward.
Tick, tock.
The view now sees the first of the adventurers, a staff in one hand and a minuscule figurine in the other. His mouth is open in mid-sentence preaching a gospel to a choir that is enrapt and incensed beyond measure, but one who cannot, will not, sing in response.
Tick.
At the doorway, a bear...no, a gargantuan ursine, its ripping claws finding purchase in and freedom through the tattered remains of a silk stopgap. The bear's jaws are pulled back in a snarl, and were time moving at pace the observer would hear the growl is too weak to draw notice over the din of the clash.
Tock.
By the beast's side a lithe warrior likewise is mid-strike with a fine blade, finding freedom for the adventurers trapped in this hall. The vision regards the individual strands of a larger knot, as they plink apart one, by one, by one, by one, as the sword suffers them no resistance. Plink. Plink. Plink, like the sound of a lacerated guitar string.
Tick.
The view spins now, focusing on the demi-arachnoid beast; it is mid-strike, its right-handed pair of claws swinging in a vicious arc toward any it can reach. And in response an automatic soldier is cleaving down from above, its strike intended to behead its foe. The blue glow of the hallway is brightest here, illuminating gouts of acrid saliva pouring from the beast's widened jaws.
Both would strike true, but for the intervention of another.
Tock.
The vision pans slightly right and down, and catches it in sight before all but one of the collected party realizes it's there: a metal contraption, moving at speed despite the vision observing at a time scale much reduced. The man behind the contraption, one arm outstretched, catches the vision's interest. Aquilaean. Curious. The contraption explodes outward and upward and downward from the adventurer's hand, rapidly expanding into a sort of metal barricade.
Tick.
But the barricade is misplaced, and instead of a stout barrier it becomes a rushing riposte of its own. It strikes the hilt of the automaton's halberd, knocking it off its line toward a killing strike. It likewise buffets the beast, its balance thrown off and its measured strike now thrown into a wild sweep.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
*CRASH*
Geth, roll 1d3 for Target A
Geth, roll 1d3 for Target B
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Wei
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Wei
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Exilis
Geth, roll 1d8 for Target: Exilis
Fernando, your strike lands awkwardly due to Exilis's Fan Fence being deployed hastily. Your strike causes the 2 damage; you're as exposed as you can be, and your position is not advantageous, so no opening up yourself up for additional damage. (If I'm missing something here that's above and beyond a Partial Success on Hack & Slash, let me know and I'll course-correct.) The beast bleeds, your blow crushing through its carapace, but you know the strike was minimally effective!
The Beast trips forward over the Fan Fence, its clawed strikes swinging wildly through the air! As it nearly doubles over, it lashes out and awkwardly strikes Wei for 6 damage and Exilis for 6 damage (armor applies as normal).
Fernando, you may spend your Defend hold as desired to intervene on the strike on Wei! If you do as previously noted, take Wei's 6 damage in his stead.
Fernando shoves back against the beast, its claws barely missing its mark, and in rage it rips into the paladin instead.
[OOC: Used up my hold to defend a bear. Fernando now has 18/25 HP.
I’ll post my next move after everyone else has done something; guess I’m just being grappled for now!]
(Also, baller picture! I'm a little creeped out by how well that matches the picture in my head. Maybe replace the lower arms with clawed hands, and the legs with something more ape-like, and it's spot-on.)
In the Thick Of It
The Beast reels to catch its balance in the face of a still-expanding half-wall made of steel, and the route into the office is clear! Wei and Otto are at the doorway, with Fernando, Exilis, and Hawthorne close behind.
Steps beyond them, in either direction, lay hostiles with ill intent.
What do you do now?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is not what it appears to be?
geth roll 2d6+2 discern realities?
Fernando doesn’t say anything. His frown is audible, a creaking of brass face parts.
“My god... has slowed my bleeding to a stop... Dawn be praised...”, he says. His tone is not as convincing as he’d like.
He suddenly flips back onto his feet, all bluster and righteousness. He holds his halberd ready.
(It's worth noting that for Wei and Otto, moving into the office is a safe (free of danger) move. For the other three, not as much!)
Oo\ Ironsizide
(OOC: Defy danger to get back into the room? Dex-based if I'm doing it all dodgy-like? Also, should I be level 2? I probably missed that, if so ...)
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
(Leaping into the room without dealing with the Beast sounds dangerous to me! Defy Danger (DEX) would be appropriate! Otto or Wei (but not both) may assist!)
@Mahnmut
(It looks like Hawthorne's going to be the last one in! How do you deal getting through the door with the Beast at your back, and the Choir Decrepit held sway by your story?)
Geth, roll 2d6 for Aid
Oo\ Ironsizide
Geth, roll 2d6+3 for Jumping out of harm's way
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Now safely in the room, Exilis back away from the doorway and prepares his spear, ready to help hold back anything attempting to push its way through.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
(@Cheeseliker may Aid @Mahnmut to enter the room if deemed necessary, then pending results of an Amazing Hawthorne Escape we'll cut to the interior of the room and carry on!)
[I think I'm going to sorta tap-dance back when the Beast lunges for Exilis; maybe Wei can cue me?]
geth roll 2d6+0 links/aid
Geth, roll 2d6+1 for Defy Danger (Dex)
Hawthorne, with a practiced lean, throws himself into a backwards lunge toward the outstretched arm of Great Bear Wei. The last words of the story leave his lips as he heaves himself with a grunt. As soon as the last syllable ends its ringing tone in the hall, the legion of ghouls likewise leaps forward! As if water from a bursting dam they come pouring into the intersection, all claws, teeth, and thrown bodies.
Wei grasps Hawthorne's hand, but the first of the ghouls has a grip on the cleric's leg! Held aloft like a long branch caught in a raging river, the tide of ghouls bodily pours into the Beast with an unchecked momentum. The Beast trucks no interruption however and begins clawing its own way into the horde toward you.
Wei and Hawthorne are stuck just in the threshold, grabbed by the clawing grasps of foul monstrosities, preventing the heavy wooden doors to the office from being slammed shut!
Now's your chance!
Seeing the foul creature grab his ally’s leg, Fernando deftly swings his halberd down and draws it back in with all the speed of a well-oiled machine.
[OOC: My one goal is to cut off the ghoul’s arm, releasing Hawthorne, who’s sudden momentum should launch Wei back into the room too. So is that a Hack and Slash? I’m thinking Defy Danger by Strength?]
Geth roll 2d6+1 for Limb Removal
Fortunately, the force of combined drag pulls the heavy wooden doors shut, barring further interlopers!
Unfortunately, a man-pile of adventurers, adventurer-bears, and ghouls now wrestles just behind those doors!
(BearWei, Hawthorne, Fernando, and three Ghouls are now all piled on top of each other just inside the closed doorway. It's a goddan mess of limbs and flailing, with no one yet gaining an upper hand. Otto and Exilis are just beyond them, but on their feet. Fernando, roll damage on the first Ghoul! [Treated this as Hack&Slash, mixed success with a Ghoul-pile consequence])
Fernando blinks in shock, and is brought back to his senses as a ghoul tears itself from his halberd. Its arm hangs by a bloody thread, and swings frantically as it stumbles towards him.
Instinctively Fernando kicks the broken arm as hard as he can, sending a left jab into its own face, giving the paladin time to twist to his feet.
A second ghoul lunges for him! But his training kicks in too, and he rolls sideways over it and flicks his halberd out before he lands. A flash of crimson assures he’s cut the lower jaw off the first ghoul.
Focus, Fernando, his late master calls, and one day you will become more than my squire.
Geth roll 1d10+1 for Damage
Otto thrusts his ready blade at the ghoul with the intact jaw attacking Fernando. As he lunges the blade begins to glow.
Geth, roll 2d6+2 for Flawless Bladework
[OOC That's one of my favorite Daft Punk tunes!]
Oo\ Ironsizide
Geth, roll 1d8 for Damage (1p, Galvanic technique)
Oo\ Ironsizide
Fernando continues to joust with the now-jawless ghoul in front of him, while Otto lashes out with a lightning strike! The ghoul's left arm slumps useless, but undeterred it throws itself at the duelist!
The ghoul's remaining good claw catches a seam in Otto's armor, pierces, and withdraws spraying blood in a wild arc.
[Ghouls: 3 is Jawless, 2 has now lunged at Otto, and 1 is just part of the pile of it plus Wei and Hawthorne]
Geth, roll 1d8 for (Talons, 1 Piercing)