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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's no such spell as Sphere of OSHA Non-Compliance. Sphere of Defenestration, sure there is.
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Jan 2, 2021 04:44
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Have you tried Summon OSHA Auditor?
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Jan 2, 2021 06:06
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Preechr posted:Have you tried Summon OSHA Auditor?
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Jan 2, 2021 06:18
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Yawgmoth posted:Material components: clipboard, coffee mug Immaculate hard hat and pleated slacks
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Jan 2, 2021 08:35
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check in OSHA's Cauldron of Everything
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Jan 2, 2021 10:12
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's no such spell as Sphere of OSHA Non-Compliance. Of course there isn't, that's a Sith force power.
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Jan 2, 2021 14:56
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When the GM gets bored. A word of cauction, this was a very busy episode and I still haven't perfected the art of summarizing it well enough so be warned this is a long one. So last time around the party was up poo poo creek without a paddle. Their attempt at a slave revolt has met with sudden complications when the arrangers of The night of a hundred thousand deaths decide to up the ante and reveal the grand finale early. The eveals a Rancor, the think sickly and carrying dozens upon dozens of scars. It's obvious that its owners has done a few modifications to it as it has large massive harness where a machine is pumping a green liquid into it. The second beast is strangely reminiscent of the Hydragians the party is fighting alongside. Its body is covered with slabs of metal on its head, shoulders and back. But they look naturally grown rather than surgically attached to it. The head ends in a large point that acts like a horn. Something is clearly off with it as it looks around confused until a jolt of electricity coming from a harness drives it forward into the slaves. Its presence seems to goad the Hydragians into action, the aliens clearly knowing what kind of beast it is and how to deal with it. The third beast however, is by far the most terrifying one. A huge mass of tentacles, teeth and eyes emerges from the southern gate. A Rathar. A beast the party would only have heard in passing about. Unlike the others it doesn't need any encouragement to bring death upon everyone. GM posted:The arena presenter, an oversized twilek flanked by dozens of slaves appears on the holoprojectors. It's the Hydragians that spring into motion first, three of the warriors moving towards the second beast. One manages to get up on its back while the others act as distraction, one of the female warriors trying to remove the harness but to no avail. The real carnage begins as the Rathar manages to break its bonds and begins tearing into the hapless slaves, dragging screaming people into its mouth. A pair of tentacles managing to grab hold of Fisto. Some of the Gladiators are still in chains while others move towards some of the monsters. Up in the crowds Ross decides to help in his own way, by creating chaos in the rowdy crowds. Blindingly firing into the air with his blaster and acting like your average Trandoshan seems to have some effect and some of the audience tries to get away. Only to meet the unrelenting guards and the riot is a fact as weapons are drawn. Another consequence is that weapons start dropping into the arena from dead or dying pirates and guards. With determination, and scatter blaster in hand, Kyrae moves towards the Rathar and manages to blast apart the tentacles holding onto the droid gladiator. Meanwhile Tieron manages to undo the shackles of The Hook, one of the last trapped gladiators, who goes after the Rathar. Klox 'The Hook' posted:Klox "The Hook" turns to look at the Rathar, with a bellow it throws it's hook into the creature's mouth, dragging itself to the creature with a herculean leap. Back up in the crowds, Sirra tries to make her way to the other side of the arena to reach the other two turbolaser turrets by grabbing onto one of the flying barges and droids to cut down on travel time. However, her attempt is less than successful and the Nautolan finds herself hanging onto the underside of a barge hovering twenty or so meters right above the Rathar. To get anywhere she has to jump, and her presence has been noted by the pirates onboard the barge as well. Down in the ring itself some of the surviving slaves begin to arm themselves with dropped weapons. Meanwhile the Steelhead beast manages to throw its riders off and then proceeds to maul the rest. In its maddened state it rushes straight for Tieron and the others. The Cathar manages to neatly dodge it thankfully. Suddenly Krexus manages to break himself free of his chains, throwing Nymeria to the side he leaps upwards in a display of athletics that are too powerful to be remotely considered natural. The gladiator lands behinds and, using the beasts forward momentum, manages to flip it over its back. Meanwhile the Ghost and The Pounder work together to try to take out the Rancor, but despite the damage they manage to incur on the beast it does not slow down. Pounder gets flung to the ground by a swipe of its claws, leaving him massively injured, and is quickly followed by Ghost who gets flung of its back as well. Meanwhile, Fisto and Hook continue to tear the Rathar apart alongside Kyrae who unloads shot after shot into it. Ross tries to convince the two party members in the arena to climb up into the benches but his pleas fall on deaf ears. The Cathar encouraging him to call Ynedra instead to get them out. Arena posted:The holoprojects shift and turn as they show the different brawls ongoing. The turned over Steelhead, the gladiators going toe to toe with a Rancor and the death whirpool of the Rathtar in action. Above the Arena floor Sirra manages to kick one of the pirates trying to get her off into the maws of the Rathar before leaping to safety as before she is shot to death. One errant bolt strikes her in the shoulder, but at the same time the ones that miss manages to cause another riot to spark up on the opposite side of the arena. The Night of a Thousand Deaths has now completely devolved into chaos. Back on the Arena floor Tieron sees the collar around the flipped over Steelhead creature and gets an idea. With the help from Nymera and another slave he's able to rip it out and then he helps her turn the thing over at her behest. Hoping that she knows what she's doing. Disaster strikes however as one of the Rathar's tentacles manages to grab hold of Kyrae. GM posted:A tentacle lashes out at the Sith, dragging her back and up above the creature as two more tentacles wrap around her legs and arms, immobilizing them as it tries dragging her into its maw. The Pounder posted:The dowutin drives his fist into the rancor's face just as the creature opens it's maw. The result is as expected and the alien finds himself screaming as his now missing arm slams into the creatures' mouth and rips out the side of it's jaw. Shortly thereafter the Pounder is put out of action by one of the Rancor's massive fists. Meanwhile, in their attempts to rescue the Sith from a grizzly demise Fisto and the Hook manages to rip out enough bits of the Rathar to kill it. The Sith landing in the arms of the Hook. The death of the Rathar posted:Klox "The Hook":"Klox catch friend ! Friend ok ?" It's about now Sirra decides to throw caution to the wind and use the turbolaser tower she just overrode to shoot the Rancor. The results are... quite spectacular. Applying a turbolaser on a Rancor posted:The turbolaser cycles with a deafening KA-CHUNG. The blast is equally as deafening, a single blast fired out at the rancor. The resulting turbolaser blasts cores out a massive hole out of the arena floor, causing the area to shift as the blast pierces through into the ground. The rancor, or what's left of him is no longer going to pose a problem. Then poo poo really hits the fan as they can see a clearly pissed off Innis Glaro ordering his men to put down and put down the revolt. Above them a large ship barge begins descending, cargo bays opening as metal payloads are dropped into the arena itself. Czerka strikes posted:The fat twilek on the holoprojector is shot as a butonned-up uniformed Czerka female officer takes the stage. Suddenly the Arena floor is crawling with Czerka battle droids. JEX-2 extermination droids turning their weapons against the crowds while another half turns towards the fighters on the arena. Kyrae turns her blaster towards the new arrivals whilst Tieron, still unarmed and unable to get armed, decides to whip the suddenly hesitant slaves into action with some old fashioned shouting. Blaster bolts fly wildly in all directions as slaves and droids trade fire. Kyrae's scatter blaster managing to slag almost half a platoon with one shot. Up on the bleachers Ross tries to rally the pirates against the new threat, but finds himself out of luck. Almost. Because now the Scything Eye kick their own plans into overdrive and began what can only be described as a purge of any Black Sun elements amongst them. Firefights between pirates breaking out everywhere. The Trandoshan seeing his old 'buddies' Ron and Taz leading some pirates out to safety. But things are starting to look grim as the unrelenting barrage of blaster fire from the battle droids manage to take its toll on survivors and slaves. Up in the air airspeeders and pirate fighters attack the Czerka barge while another hoverbarge, flanked by two open-topped speeders, angle down towards the arena. Their rescue has arrived at last with Black Maw members opening fire into the droid ranks and doing as much damage as they can. Ignoring the grievous casualties they're sustaining in the process. The place is a carnage, most of the slaves are dead with the exception of a few Qylubs and some humans all huddling behind the now very dead Steelhead. Meanwhile the Gladiators are taking their leave on one of the transports. Down on the arena floor Tieron and Kyrae help the survivors onboard one of the transports before they get onboard as well. Up on the bleachers Ross manages to convince the two pirates to come with him on one of the Black Maw speeders that has come to pick him up, while Sirra gets on another. But their departure has not gone unnoticed, one of the escort speeders gets blown to smithereens by one of the extermination droids. The sheer volume of gunfire thrown at them manages to kill the pilot on the transport barge Tieron and Kyrea is, forcing the Sith to take the controls whilst the Cathar tries to repair any damage. A similar fate befalls the pilot of Sirra's speeder. Whilst the Sith manages to get the barge under control, the Nautolan is far unluckier and is forced to jump off before the speeder explodes. She's bruised and battered from the hard landing but she's alive. The Ring is an absolute warzone. As the barge makes it way towards the hangar decks they see fighting breaking out all around them. One thing they notice is that Ynedra's ship palace is gone, the ship having slipped its moorings and left the station. The Queen Captain has ordered a full retreat and the hangar bays are a frenzy of activity of pirates loading up whatever they can onboard their ships while holding off waves of combat drones. Ross tries to convince the pilot of his speeder to return but to no avail, the speeder too damage and the whole thing too dangerous for them as well. A search party can be sent out however. Luckily the errant Nautolan manages to hook up with a bunch of smugglers and hitches a ride with them to safety. She ends up in the Crimson Flayers hangar before long, the situation there as dire as with the Black Maws. Kyrae spots Nymera alone and scared in the midst of pirates busy with defending or loading up their ships and goes to help her. With time of the essence, combat droids pouring into the hangars en masse, they all board their own ship alongside the surviving Qylubs. With their pilot currently missing Kyrae gets behind into the pilots seat. The results are... something. The Sith, far too used to speeders and swoops treats the large starship like an oversized bike. She manages to wrest the ship out of their docking pad, but with such force that the rest are flung around like ragdolls onboard. Tieron manages to keep himself, and his lunch, intact. Ross isn't as fortunate and is launched back into the back of the ship whilst his stomach is emptied. Even then the Sith manages to drift the ship into the nearby hangar, managing to roast dozens of combat droids with the engine exhaust, as well as what remained of the mercs that stood their ground. Sirra thankfully manages to dodge it and quickly boards the ship again. With Sirra behind the wheels once more the Starfire blasts away from the Ring. The ship heading towards the next best thing they can find, the large Black Maw fleet. In the distance they can see other ships taking off into hyperspace. It's then they realize that things have become dark. Far too dark even. It's then they see it. That's no moon posted:Looking out the side of the panels you see a section of space blotted out in pure darkness as something cuts off light from the multitude of stars. Slowly a small beam of light cross over what looks like a massive C shape that casts the ring in utter blackness. Small flickering lights can be seen as the darkness recedes slowly, the large bold letters CZERKA written on the side of what looks like a spaceship the size of a planet. A C-shaped vessel of pure gold slowly unveils from the darkness, thousands upon thousands of small vessels visible in its wake. Dozens of Czerka cruisers lazily orbit The Ring as the flagship, Headquarters and planet-ship of the Czerka corporation begins creating it's own gravity well, the space station slowly dragged into it like a moon. As your ships make their escape you begin to see several more moon-like planetoids caught in the ship's wake. They get a call from Ynedra and she's understandably pissed off about the whole situation. But from her they also learn that if they need a safe place they can head for Signos, but also Malekk has a hideout on Orinos Prime. They party never did have a chance to talk to him about finding a cure for Tieron's radiation poisoning. That spectre still hanging over their heads. As things wind down there is an odd calm onboard the Starfire. Their qylub passengers quickly make themselves at home onboard the ship by rigging up their own heated bathtubs to rest in. That only leaves their other passenger. Kyrae finds Nymera in their living quarters, haphazardly dressed in her underwear while staring intently at the words written on one of Tieron's massively oversized shirts. As she wanders around the ship to explore the comes across the still somewhat trashed remains of B4-A4, the two mechanics not having had enough free time on their hands to try to fix the droid. Nymera immediately sits down and starts to poke at it. Talking to the Hydragian is an interesting experience for the party, Nymera still barely knows Basic but it's obvious she's learning just from watching them speak but its still very stilted and comes off as odd. What they do manage to learn however is that her people have been helped somehow by the Gree. But the rest of what she says is a bit too strange to really grasp. Dun dun duuuun posted:Nymera begins playing around with some of the power cables on B4-A4's arm, melding some of them and creating others out of the main chassis. The more her work continues the more Ross gets a nagging feeling at the wires look more like veins than power-cables. Next time: The Texan Bartender Spider and the Marshall.
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Jan 2, 2021 17:05
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Lol do you have any screenshots of that insane brawl/riot to share? That sounds like a blast, but it must have been exhausting to play out!
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Jan 2, 2021 17:21
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Podima posted:Lol do you have any screenshots of that insane brawl/riot to share? That sounds like a blast, but it must have been exhausting to play out! Forgot to take a picture of when the droids showed up, a bit caught up in the moment sadly. A lot of it was narrative as well. It probably was a lot to deal with for the GM since he had to do most of the rolling for the gladiators, the monsters, the slaves and later on the droids. Funny enough my character didn't a single combat action throughout the whole thing and just ran around and did a bunch of mechanics checks to free Gladiators and such.
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Jan 2, 2021 18:22
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The Setup: The group was not warned about this at all. They were just coming off of an arc where things really hadn't gone their way, and two sessions back they'd even had a total party wipe - from which they'd bounced back only by the luck of the healer rolling a Nat 20 on a death save. Although this had been planned out two months in advance, I was really hesitant given what they'd just gone through, but when the DM said it was time I slid into their chat without a sound - like a grenade rolled across a carpet. The Party: Aghar - Goliath - Devotion Paladin A pacifist paladin, bit of an odd duck. He only really cuts loose on undead and more or less functions as party support outside of that. He does have some anger management issues, though. Unsure about his true powers but going into it he was the one I was worried most about facing. Syuveil - Human - Way of Mercy Monk Sometimes mercy means a swift end to those incapable of redemption. He's essentially a hitman, and due to powers bestowed upon him he's virtually immune to elemental rider damage. Vill the Valiant - Eladrin - Hunter Ranger/Circle of the Shepard Druid He shoots things and he sometimes heals things. I didn't get a good handle on his personality but his power is based around totems which greatly enhance his healing powers, turning even a single cure wounds into an AoE that also adds his Ranger level - it's pretty wild. Thankfully he neglected to do this for most of the fight. Salty - Tiefling - Hexblade/Samurai The crux of the matter. An unwanted orphan with tainted blood, he was taken in by a pirate captain named Erzo and raised as a son until a mutiny drove them apart. Thinking his adopted father dead, he set out on his own quest of discovery to find out where he came from and become the master of his own destiny. His gifted power (from his daddo, Graz'zt) is that his Thirsting Blade and Extra Attack stack, basically, and he has a grafted demon arm that can cast a couple extra spells on its own. Eeevil spells. The Maiden's Razor - Sentient Weapon - Former Pirate Captain Salty discovered his old captain wasn't dead but merely enslaved by a lich, and upon liberating him Erzo took his own life with an enchanted katana out of guilt for the things he'd done while mind-controlled. His sacrifice transferred his soul into the weapon. Not a player character, but still an important figure. The Nemesis: Talisker, the Wolf of Korinn - Moon Elf - Bladesinger A member of Erzo's crew, fled the mutiny and like Salty was convinced the captain died. Unable to get over it, she eventually became a pirate hunter to track down the mutineers, many of whom had joined other vessels. Along the way her hatred left her vulnerable to the chaotic evil sea goddess Umberlee's influence and so she became a corrupted ravager, a Bad Thing That Happens To Sailors. +A handful of low-level Umberlee cultists, and a Simulacrum - a body-double made from snow with most of the same abilities and spellcasting as Talisker, but with half the health. The Setting: The Wandering Maiden, Erzo's old galleon, recovered and converted into an airship at great expense The Session: The party exits a cavern, weary from a long campaign against a great evil that they weren't able to stop - only flee. They take the skiff parked outside, helmed by first mate Kulil, to return to their airship, only to find it missing and in its place, the crew. Their friends, people they'd bonded with and passengers who were onboard for the bigger journey - bodies beaten, throats cut. The paladin demands they stop and check the corpses for anyone who might still be alive. Buried beneath a trio of half-orcs they find the lone survivor of the massacre, a half-conscious dwarven lass with red hair. Carved into her skin is a message: "Come and get it, cabin boy." The paladin heals the girl (I think he was sweet on her), drags her into the skiff and they give chase. Now the skiff is meant for shorter distances but it's much faster than the airship. They're still able to catch a long rest before they catch up, though. Talisker spots them coming and orders full stop, wheeling the ship around broadside and ordering her bugbear slaves to run up her bloody red:  The party comes in hot, cracking off shots on approach. The ranger announces a hatred of bugbears and snipes one through the head - though it is at this point that the gang realizes these are their bugbears, the belowdecks manual labor pressganged into working for the ship's thief. Salty picks his target a bit more wisely, blasting a cultist standing beside 'Talisker' and spraying her with blood. She offers them a shark-like grin - challenge accepted. There's a bit of a curveball where I'd planned for them to land midship for some reason, and Talisker Actual was there with most of the cultists, but they actually park to the aft and engaged the simulacrum. Most of them had used up their actions taking potshots on the approach and so while SimTalisker is unbuffed she isn't subjected to very many attacks, which is good because even then she takes a not-insignificant amount of structural damage. Icewater poured from her wounds in lieu of blood and she laughed rather than shy away. She'd been meant to provide magical support and didn't have any decent gear, but on her turn she began her Bladesong and conjured mirror images to confound further attacks. They never land another one. A second Bladesong answers the first from the main deck below, and Talisker Actual comes in hot. Syuveil is at the top of the steps, blocking her off from her real target - Salty. She tells him, "Get out of my way," and he says "No can do." Fair enough. She throws a fireball into the center of the quarterdeck, narrowly missing her own simulacrum but nailing the entire party - and the skiff, which explodes and sends Kulil and the dwarven lass to their doom. I don't have time to feel bad about turning two of the party's love interests into collateral damage, though. They've caught Talisker out and the cultists are cut off from the action by visibility. She ends her turn with an item interaction, thumbing open and peering into a locket clutched in her left hand. This triggers both a Haste contingency, and a Glyph of Warding loaded with Tenser's Transformation. Her bladesong increases in pitch as her movements speed up, and the windshear is palpable even several feet away as her predatory features sharpen. Aghar is more concerned with the bugbears than the fight, and excuses himself to try and free them from their chains. The cultists finally have a target, and hit him with a Command to grovel. One of them moves into sight of Salty and does the same. They both waste their next turns kissing the deck, while Vill takes a few failed shots at the simulacrum - who throws up a Shield to deflect the one bullet that comes close to hitting. On her turn she blink-teleports to each party member, giving each of them a vicious slice with her unenchanted shortsword before finally appearing next to Aghar and finishing the attack sequence. Combined with the earlier Fireball, this Steel Wind Strike has most of the gang bloodied. Talisker presses her advantage to try and finish off the monk, though he's all but immune to the Force damage added to her swings by Tenser's so he escapes by a thread. Responding with a flurry of punches from phantom limbs, most of his attacks hit nothing but air but he does land a critical hit. Her Song of Defense reduces it to a mere 1; she no-sells it completely, even passing the ensuing save vs Stun without issue. He then slips away, bounding up a mast to escape her reach while bleeding heavily. Vill realizes his party is dying around him, then remembers he's the best healer in the game and throws off an AoE cure that lifts their spirits but doesn't exactly remove them from the danger zone. Salty unwisely conjures a horned demon to engage the cultists, considering them the greater threat. SimTalisker: "Can you fly, Paladin?" Aghar is flung overboard by a telekinesis spell, though he manages to grab onto some rigging. Meanwhile Talisker, now with a clear path to Salty, closes the gap and sits him down with two quick slashes. As he lays dying before her she uses her Haste action to snag his katana, planning to finish him off with his own sword next turn. What she isn't expecting is Erzo, in her head. Erzo: "What happened to ye, lass?" Talisker: "C-captain?" Erzo: "Is yer mind truly gone, me love? Please, just spare the boy." Talisker: "But... he's a traitor. The last one." Erzo: "No, he's not." Her longsword clatters to the ground, and she cradles the katana to her chest. Syuveil drops back down and throws some hands. "I don't know what game you're playing, but that sword doesn't belong to you!" She shrugs off another stunning fist, and another Song of Defense protects her from Vill's flanking assault. "This sword belonged to me before it was ever forged. Heal the boy." She hops over the railing to the main deck and, still moving like a crimson whirlwind, she decapitates the remaining cultists with the Maiden's Razor. The monk pursues, while Salty is healed from death's door and grabs the longsword resting beside him. Aghar and Vill turn their attentions toward the fire spreading across the aft of the ship while the simulacrum defenestrates the demon and sets about unchaining the bugbears. Syuveil: "What are you doing?" Talisker: "Cleaning up. The ship's yours." Syuveil: "You don't get to just walk away after killing all our friends!" Talisker: "I'm not surrendering because I don't think I'd win, I'm surrendering because my Captain asked me to spare the boy." He comes at her with everything left in him and she parries with contemptuous ease, brandishing the sword in warning afterward. The warlock watches them from above, conjuring the Razor back to his own hand and thus disarming the bladesinger. Erzo immediately gives him visions of who the mysterious shipjacker used to be, the mousy, socially-awkward navigator from the original crew. His paramour. It's been twenty years and while she really hasn't aged at all she looks completely different now, just a wretched and loathsome thing. Her golden eyes are locked on the former cabin boy as he descends the stairs to join the two, and she reaches for her backup weapon - a whip. Talisker: "You have something I want. You may think you have some idea what you are in possession of, but you do not. Soon, he will be back with me. He means more to me than you will ever know." Syuveil: "We can't let her get away with this." Salty: "We might have to." He bites back his rage, then hands her the longsword she'd dropped earlier, and she relaxes slightly from her aggressive posture as she slips it back into its sheath. After a brief pause, he also gives her the Maiden's Razor. Salty: "Here, talk to him." Talisker: "Captain, what do I do now?" Erzo: "Yer mind, it ain't yer own. Ye've been twisted by the Bitch Queen herself, an' that ain't no way to live. Ya gotta find a way to live free again, love." Talisker: "Come with me." Erzo: "I can't leave the boy jus' yet... but you elves live a lot longer than Tieflings, don't ye?" Salty heads to the rear of the ship to check on the firefighting efforts and Talisker tags along to return the katana, conjuring a raincloud overhead to drench the blazing quarterdeck. Syuveil stays hot on her heels and demands her attention right after, insisting that if she sticks around she's gonna do it in chains. "Ay, that's not gonna happen." There's a bit of back and forth where he insists she'll repay for her crimes somehow, and she winds up handing him an artifact ring - which he pitches over the side of the ship before she can explain anything about it. Aghar, servant to a good-aligned water goddess, senses its connection to the element and dives off the ship after it. This disrupts the argument, as everyone sort of tries to digest the sequence of events that had just transpired. And right about then we realize the ship is losing altitude fast. The remaining bugbears, the remaining crew and even Talisker leap into action. Salty sings a shanty from the good old days to coordinate as he stands at the wheel; his former crewmate joins in harmony as she swings through the rigging to untangle the mast. While they avoid crashing into the side of a mountain, Vill snaps the damaged rudder off and the Wandering Maiden misses the soft ground, having a rather rougher landing on hard rock. Vill and Talisker teleport safely to the ground at the last second, while Syuveil pulls off some impressive acrobatics that land him next to them. One of the remaining bugbears dies in the impact, the rest are knocked senseless, and somehow Salty keeps his grip on the wheel, sustaining only minor injuries. The gang climb back onto the ship, and Salty turns to Talisker. "Stay by my side and you can hold onto this." He hands her the Razor, and they assess the damage. She props the katana against her shoulder. "This old girl's not goin' anywhere soon. But fer whatever it's worth, you can have mine, along with the crew... Captain." Reclaimer fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Jan 5, 2021 |
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Jan 5, 2021 04:34
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For the tactical game I'm running on Sundays, the party are a bunch of 18-20 year old conscripts doing their boring mandatory military service in a sci-fantasy world when a great war breaks out with powerful sorcerers yet again like it did 1000 years ago. One of them is a wizard, whose master insisted he not defer his service to try to get the poor, anxious guy out and about and socialize him some. Wizards are a big deal! They're vaguely superhuman (ish), and as a Light Mage he's regarded as vaguely holy, despite barely having his magic under control and having no idea what he's doing. Another of the players is an extremely upbeat and energetic overachiever medic who looks up to the wizard and thinks he should be more like a Jedi. Her player decided that while they were busy digging trenches and carrying ammo ahead of an assault, she was going to try to inspire him to greatness. The player wrote their own setting-specific version of I'll Make A Man Out of You to try to get the poor wizard over his anxiety. It did not work, but everyone was very happy it happened.
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Jan 5, 2021 06:47
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That is amazing and I am very happy it happened, too.
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Jan 5, 2021 07:11
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Howdy Pardner Life onboard the Starfire is for once very nice and calm for a while. With the qylubs returned back home and some well earned rest on Coral the party blasts off into space once more. Course set for Orinos Prime, the planet where the Nautolan Pirate Malekk supposedly has his hideout. Nymera has undergone some drastic changes during their trip to Coral, becoming more talkative and able to express herself more clearly as she gets more and more exposed to Basic Aurabesh. If there's one thing that they learn about her it's that she has barely any concept of personal belongings, the girl having a penchant of taking clothes from their packs and constructing all sorts of strange garments. All worn with a very childish smile. She's very quiet about what happened before they met, content of spending her time of tinkering with the various droids onboard the ship. Even then it's obvious that she misses her homeworld as they all catch her staring longingly out into space out a viewport from time to time. The party spends their time in various ways. With the ship now working in absolute tip top shape he dives headlong into tinkering and fixing everything else on board. From the pair of broken down speeder bikes to the various droids they've managed to gather up. Meanwhile Ross spends most of his time busy with studying the young Hydragian, tending to Tieron's slowly declining health and reading the treatises about the Gree that the found on Coral. Outside of worrying about Nymera's attachment to the droids. The Trandoshan also finds some time to start really reading the combat manuals his mother gave him before he left to learn a few new tricks. Kyrae has formed a very protective bond with Nymera, spending most of their time travelling watching over her. The sith strongly dissuading any attempts to crowd or interfere with the girl whenever she's feeling introspective. Otherwise the Sith spends her time tinkering with her own gear and modifying and improving that. Whenever she isn't busy 'helping' Tieron by suggesting various aggressive-looking modifications to the speeder bikes. Something with the Cathar takes in good nature, even if he's not exactly committing on any of them. Especially the spikes. The jump into hyperspace to Orinos happens without any complications, the trip only taking about a day at most. The party gravitate towards the cargo bay area where Nymera has been sitting in deep concentration for some time now. In her lap lies the head of B4, the frontal plate removed and the neurocortex exposed. That particular droid has been an odd mystery for got the ships gearheads, despite their combined knowledge its inner workings are arcane and esoteric at best for them. Something which appears not to be the case for Nymera as she works with the droid head, the others seeing things move and merge at her beck and call. Surrounding her is numerous empty ration packs, each one capable of sustaining a grown man for a day. It's obvious that whatever abilities she has, they are very taxing on her and requires constant replenishment to work. Ross expresses his dubious feelings about what she's doing, a note of suspicion at her actions creeping into his voice. The sentiment not echoed by any of the others. Even if they can admit that what she's doing is rather strange. The thing reminding Kyrae of the Sith Alchemy that she knew from her mother. Spooky stuff" posted:The interior of the neurocortex however are far more strange to you; Where some circuits were hard and geometric they are now smooth and bulbous. Wires are split into veins and overall the interior of the droid's head begins to look far more like an organic brain than a mechanical device. Sparks of electricity course through it however, giving it still a distinct artificial quality. The sight does not fill Ross with much confidence, the doctor muttering something about it being a mockery of life. His complaints are however forgotten as the sudden pang of static appears to announce that Nymera's work is finished. Triumphantly she shows the others her work, the optics of the droid slowly cycling as it comes back to life again. Before the others have time to do anything the girl is already working on attaching the droids head back onto its body. Much to Ross' consternation. Even the others are a bit dubious about this sudden turn of events. Nymera, Droid whisperer posted:Kyrae Sisk:"He wants to speak to us? How do you know?" Despite everything that has happened to the droid Nymera mentions that there's two of them inside it's head. Showing that Tieron's slight snafu with the transfer process didn't seem to have any massive consequences to the droids personalities and that they're still there. With the head slotted into place the droid comes back to life once more. Rebirth posted:B4-A4 stiffens as it's new modifications seize and flex for the first time. Most of its abdominal chassis was altered by Nymera, the new flexible range of motion not in-tune with it's lack of arms. The reawakening of the droid is an interesting experience. For it reveals that has both the stored personalities of the Enforcer droid, as well was M4-TI3. Who is also known as Oron Kilos. Which makes what he told Kyrae before was true. The droid even going as far as to correct Ross when the doctor assumes that it's a facsimile. Even then the thought of a Cyborg turning himself into a droid is weird to everyone onboard. Feeling that the sanctity of life is being mocked at this point Ross leaves in frustration and retreats back to his room, letting the others deal with the new droid. No points for getting the joke posted:"Very well, this unit has chosen the designation KURZ-3. This unit will now hibernate to actualize self-determination needs." Nymera explains that she made up the third personality that they were talking to, as the other two were at odds with each other. KURZ-3 acting as the arbiter between the two. After a semi-awkward discussion with the girl about the need to wear clothes and public indecency, Nymera retreats back to the bunks for some sleep. The whole ordeal with fixing the droid clearly taken the wind out of her. The rest of the trip through hyperspace is uneventful and the party is roused into flock to the cockpit as the navcomputer announces that they're about to arrive. Sirra bringing the ship out of hyperspace and their destination, Orinos Prime, comes into view. SPESS posted:Three near-percolating stars blast the system in searing heat as the world of Orinos Prime comes into view, the sun-scorched rocky planet slowly spinning far into the gravity well of the triple suns. A duo of moons rotate lazily in the distance as you disengage the hyperdrive completely and the sublight drive takes over. The sight of the three-sun system does not fill anyone with much confidence that the place will be a comfortable place to visit. Starfire's sensors pick up only two ships around the planet, one being a large tug that is currently heading away from the planet. But the other one is far more interesting, it's the wreck a Harrower class Sith dreadnought. The larger ship is clearly dead, a trail of debris in its wake as it orbits the planet. To their slight surprise the place is inhabited, the sensors picking up several settlements. One big enough to have a spaceport. As Sirra takes the Starfire closer the rest discuss where the Sith ship might have come from. Theories about it being deserters or some errant ship are being thrown around until they get much closer to it and see the large crimson red streaks upon its flanks. Then it dawns upon Kyrae what kind of ship it was. Pirates. Remnants of the Sith military fleet that chose not to follow the others when they Republic attacked Korriban instead went rogue and decides to kill and plunder as much as they could out in the edges of the Republic out of sheer spite. The sheer idea of some of the crew onboard the ship having made its way down onto the planet fills Kyrae with a sense of dread. But either way, Malekk is down there and they need to see him so they head for the spaceport. Planet intro cutscene posted:The ship breaks atmosphere, the burning sheet clearing as you make it low and the settlements coming into view in the distance. The craggy rocky ground of Orinos is marred with holes and half-covered cenotes filled with water. Tall canyon walls and pillars of rust-coloured limestone hide small village-sized settlements and large industrial-grade tubes and wires that snake out in massive chunks toward the main settlements. Massive dark-blue arrays of thermo-solar power junctions darken the flat parts of the world, skiffs and barges zipping between them. The main spaceport, a small spaced out town in the shadow of a large arch can be seen from your approach, the majority of the city built into crags or canyon while large boats and tugs litter the harbor of the seemingly underground sea. Their arrival on the spaceport is first met by a group of technicians, the mechanics rather peeved at the fact that the ship wasn't need of repairs whilst the fuel technicians get to work on the other hand. Then a second welcoming committee appears, this in the shape of a Sullustan flanked by two Republican security droids that look heavily armored enough to soak a turbolaser. That trio stops in front of the ship's ramp. After explaining to Boss Stig that the party aren't pirates, nor do the they belong to the Black Maw despite flying their colours, they get a much friendlier welcome. Boss Stig even offering to help them on their way. Boss Stig posted:"Ain't nothing on this world but sun, fish and cannibals." Turns out there are indeed survivors from the Sith ship on the planet, but so far they've contented themselves with staying out in the Badlands and raid the outlying settlements. Even if the Marshall has been doing a good job at keeping them in check. Amazingly enough dropping Malekk's name does not create a torrent of profanity and guns drawn. The sullustan mentioning he knows him but he doesn't really hang around El-Kelbed and prefer staying in his fort out in the Badlands. Boss Stig kindly directs them to Yojimbo, a local cantina, if they're in need of lodging and further information. He does recommend seeing Malekk during the day and that they shouldn't be around when it gets dark. They mostly come at night, mostly posted:Ross'ti Lan:"How do you even tell night, with three ssunss?" The party quickly makes their way to Yojimbo's, the settlement surprisingly calm with most of its inhabitants lounging in the shade. As they get closer they can hear music and voices coming from the building. Still no points for getting the reference posted:The doors open once as a man dressed in nothing but a tight-fitting underwear and wearing multiple wires and tubes strapped to his body steps out laughing. Wearing a helmet and what seems like a large layer of some sort of ungent, the worker waves goodbye to someone inside before walking off in the direction of the harbor. Stepping into the cantina is like stepping into a low powered freezer, smoke wafting from the doors before they seal shut behind them. The semi-submerged cantina kept cool by a large stack of air conditioners powered by solar panels. Otherwise it looks like any other Cantina. The only occupants are some workers playing cards. Behind the counter a large Harch is playing a long necked, multi-stringed instrument whilst a blue-skinned twi'lek sitting in front taps along to the tune as she listens. Ross asks about the odd suits they've been seeing and learns that they're Yojimbo posted:"Mighty mighty' hot in em' starship wrecks. Mornin' folks. Take it The Boss sent'cha here. What can I do you for ?" Yojimbo turns out to be a nice and jovial person, even if he's a bit put off by the fact that Kyrea insists on wearing her helmet. The Sith obviously not wanting to show her face right now. Fun at the expense of others posted:Sirra Iscandar:"Oh her? No don't worry about it. She's just been in a horrible accident a few years back. Tore most of her face off in a disaster involving a decompressing airlock and an angry nexu. It's not pretty" From the Harch they learn that nighttime is when the Sith cannibals show up, hence why its a bad idea to be out on the move. The Marshall and his Deputy has been doing all they can to help people but even then a few people get killed every month. At the party's behest Yiz, the twi'lek waitress at the cantina, takes most of them out on a tour of El-Kelbed. The settlement isn't that much to write home about, the two biggest attractions being the harbour where ships come in from the underground sea with spoils. Those being titanic aquatic creatures the size of their ship on average. The other attraction is the Dissector yard, a complex network of walkways and ledges over a massive molten cauldron where pieces of starships are being processed. The suns are slowly settling as their little tour of the place is completed and they all reconvene at the Marshal's office. Ross having spent his time going shopping for equipment he hopes is going to be useful later on. When they arrive the Marshal is out on other business so they linger around his office in the meantime. Kyrae gets a weird shock when she sees the almost half a dozen lightsabers on display in what can obviously be a trophy room. Her reaction not completely unnoticed by the others. Kyrae posted:'Course. Why wouldn't I be?" Kyrae's voice is more abrupt than usual, tinged with bitterness. "If whoever owned those didn't want them set out like a row of stuffed Gundark heads, they'd have fought harder to keep a hold of them in the first place. I mean, that was the rule, right? The strong get to do what they want to the weak. The sound of thrusters interrupts any further discussion as a woman wearing combat armor lands on the balcony. As if staged the elevator doors behind them open and grizzled old man steps inside. The party quickly surmises that he must be the marshal and the other one is his deputy. The Marshal posted:Good evening. Heard you were looking for me. As the deputy takes a seat on a chair behind a desk she takes off her helmet and to everyone's great surprise it turns out she's a Sith Pureblood. None more surprised than Kyrae who looks between the two briefly. A friendly wager posted:The Deputy:"What he owe you money ?" Talking to the two lawmakers they learn that Malekk hasn't been seen for a while now. Which the Marshal things is odd because the two of them have a deal where they keep tabs on each other. But he knows the location of his hideout, but at the same time can't promise anything. The problem is that the place is six days out into the Badlands. And that's if they use speeders. As the party discusses between each other how to deal with this the two lawmakers share a look between each other. Something that obviously implies that they have more than a working relationship going between each other. The Marshal offers to help them set up a meeting. If they help him and the Deputy with something in turn. And it's related to their cannibal problem. According to the Marshal the cannibals have a base somewhere out in the badlands. Problem is that they have no real idea where, not to mention they're a bit short-staffed too to deal with it. Both of them reckon if they find it, and take care of any water supply the place might have access to, then they might disperse and hopefully die off. If the party helps them with this then the Marshal will arrange a meeting with Malekk afterwards. Creatures of the Night posted:Ross'ti Lan:"And other than the cannibalss, which Forcse-willing we'll be avoiding rear end long rear end possible, are there any other dangerss to be worried about in the Badlandss?" Creatures of the night posted:Blackyrms are long serpentine creatures that move on bladed legs, they appear to have poisonous fangs. Kyrae realizes that the word Hykus means Greedy in the sith language. Turns out they're not native creatures either, but made from sacrifices by Sith Sorcery. Making everyone realize just how awful these Sith Cannibals actually are. The party agrees almost in unison with the Marshal's deal. Ross shows some reluctance, albeit his resistance brief when he realizes that they others are going with or without him. Next time: Warboys.
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Jan 10, 2021 17:15
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According to my DM, ghouls are not the frat boys of the undead.
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Jan 10, 2021 20:39
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, ghouls are not the frat boys of the undead. Well no, that's wights
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Jan 10, 2021 20:51
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Ichabod Sexbeast posted:Well no, that's wights And ghouls join sororities.
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Jan 10, 2021 22:01
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Preechr posted:Have you tried Summon OSHA Auditor? The true purpose of the March of the Modrons. NOTE: The MM entries for "Flumph" and "Fireskull" are right next to each other. When showing your players a picture of what just popped in (thanks to wild magic), ensure that you display the first picture, NOT the second, or there will be much confusion.
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Jan 11, 2021 01:39
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Yond Cassius posted:And ghouls join sororities. Not banshees? Cobalt-60 posted:The true purpose of the March of the Modrons. Both of these are amazing, and a fire-breathing Flumph would be the biggest twist since the mimic outhouse.
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Jan 11, 2021 13:40
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You say mimic outhouse, all I think of is Finally caught up with the thread and have some cat piss of my own to share (I may have mentioned this in another thread years ago). No, I do not gently caress the dragon (or how I learned about furries) This would be mid 90s, so people involved are around 13-15 years old. Matt, whom I knew from school, offered to run a one on one pregen adventure for me. Sure, I think, this will be fun. Spoilers, it was not fun. I arrive and am told that I am playing a mid level ranger with a faerie dragon DMPC companion. We set out in a tundra region heading towards...something?...and not much happens for a while. We are attacked by a Remorhaz which the faerie dragon one shots with some sort of breath weapon. We make camp and my ranger is woken in the middle of the night by the faerie dragon performing oral sex on him. I call time out and tell Matt that's hosed up and I'm not going to go any further. He says that my character and the faerie dragon are lovers and my character would be into this totally so why do I have a problem with it? He refused to drop it so I walked out. I later found out that Matt was a burgeoning furry (or scalie in this case, I guess?) which...doesn't really do much to explain things. I only spoke with Matt a few more times and this was never brought up again.
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Jan 11, 2021 23:36
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This has been a while, so the details are a little muddy, but since this is the one RPG session that's really stuck with me long term I feel like it makes good thread material even if I'm not very good at the storytelling side. Back in 2014, Supers Revised Edition launched. For those out of the loop, Supers RED is roughly equivalent to Mutants and Masterminds, but on the d6 engine derived from WEG Star Wars; it's a low budget game in design and presentation, but it works overall. I was still playing with a group of 5 (I only talk to one of the five any more, and it's the other person involved here), and we decided we'd be early adopters for the system - this puts this around 2015. Everyone took advantage of the freeform character creation; I don't remember one of the four PCs at all, but who I do remember is:
Concept was pretty simple. Hammer and Anvil knocking over a bank, Merrick and Leonard at least responded and one of the others may have too, availability meant I don't think we ever got all four at once. So, pretty even match, but one side doesn't care about collateral damage and one side really cares about it... which turns into the tension point. Merrick pushes Leonard to push his powers, potentially into dangerous territory for himself, because we "needed them" to win the day. He gets pushed, things get really hairy, but we come out on top as a whole. Hammer and Anvil escape alive but without what they came for, little to no collateral, and eveyone on Team Good Guy is alive. Through sheer luck that Leonard didn't burn out his brain or someone else's. The session immediately tripped over into an extended in-character dialogue on powers, responsibility, and risk. Merrick's "I signed up for this, I'll give everything I have to to put what I unleashed back in its box" attitude colliding with Leonard's "I didn't sign up for this, but I'm going to do the right thing where I can" got messy, and we ended up with a solid 30 minutes or so of in character dialogue, primarily the two of us but also the GM & whichever other players were present. Granted, this is text so that's less than it sounds like, but I was and am a fast typer & so are they, so there was a lot of material regardless. Working through the expectations of self-sacrifice, the fundamental differences in our powers and abilities (it's easy to say "I, the rich guy with super tech, plenty of resources, and personal protection will give all I can seeking justice", because there's little real, personal danger; pushing those psychic powers too far for him was brain aneurysm risking territory, and without that he was just some poor late-twenties dude in a cheap apartment scraping by, very little to actually sacrifice before you get left with "my health and/or my life"), settling party dynamics and all that, and seriously getting poo poo straightened away purely in-character. A lot of serious talk. I call it "the bleed session" because this is the only time I've ever gotten significant bleed in a role-playing game; Merrick unconsciously embodied some of my worst traits at the time, and even through the lens of a fictional character sharing those traits, it was essentially forcing me to self-reflect and justify the lovely things I said or did to people. And, of course, realize that I couldn't and that I had to change something. This dumb supers RPG with revenant Lee Harvey Oswald did more for my mental health than any therapist has, by complete accident. I've never managed to get into a character's head since then. I can barely even muster enough to actually roleplay a lot of the time nowadays; I don't know what's happened to cause that and couldn't really tell you, though I'm trying to figure it out and make changes to get that back. But for that one brief session I finally really got into the head and role for some excellent social play. Other players & the GM were very, very happy with the way it went, and the one person I still talk to occasionally will mention it or related events, which is a pretty good sign for meaningful impact to still remember it. Game ended up collapsing a couple weeks later due to player drama unfortunately, so nobody ever got closure or a followup. Still a hell of a highlight for me.
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Jan 11, 2021 23:36
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Yond Cassius posted:And ghouls join sororities. Horrorities
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Jan 12, 2021 02:51
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Marcade posted:You say mimic outhouse, all I think of is "oral sex" should never come up in a TTRPG unless it's set in ancient Britain and the party just discovered a heretofore unknown Saxon territory. That was a very pretentious joke that some might not get, and I apologise for nothing.
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Jan 12, 2021 02:53
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What about when assaulting a castle a topped by a grail shaped lantern?
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Jan 12, 2021 04:01
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Cartoon posted:What about when assaulting a castle a topped by a grail shaped lantern? The encounter level for that is far too high, it'd be a TPK
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Jan 12, 2021 17:47
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the_steve posted:The encounter level for that is far too high, it'd be a TPK yeah, they'd get spanked
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Jan 12, 2021 18:14
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What a silly place. Anyway, thinking about mimics reminds me of Door the barbarian. Which wasn't his actual name, but when people yelled "Door!" he'd open it, the barbarian way, especially with a running start. So the one time a door was a mimic, he didn't even realize it until after he'd bullrushed said mimic through the room into the next wall and wondered why it was stuck to him. His player's story was interesting; he'd started out playing wizards/rogues/ranged characters, all with the "MUST NOT TAKE DAMAGE" IRL Flaw. So the DM convinced him to try something different, gave him the beefiest BarBearian ever rolled in 5e, and, once he started shrugging off 20-30 points of damage per fight, he lost his fear of (character) death, and acquired the true
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Jan 12, 2021 19:10
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This is a great question to ask Cobiwann's DM
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Jan 12, 2021 19:17
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Cobalt-60 posted:And later gave utterance to the classic question: "If my grandfather was a paladin, can I use his tombstone as a holy weapon against this wight?" In my last D&D campaign 3-5 years ago I ruled that everything a Paladin was holding counted as holy, so you could theoretically beat a demon to death with a dildo. Not that it ever came to that...
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Jan 12, 2021 19:33
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Kavak posted:In my last D&D campaign 3-5 years ago I ruled that everything a Paladin was holding counted as holy, so you could theoretically beat a demon to death with a dildo. The Goddess of Love's weapon is a whip. And in the case I was referring to, it was a barbarian defending his hometown against undead; when his axe broke, he used his +adv on Str checks to grab a tombstone and go WWE on them.
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Jan 12, 2021 21:44
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Cobalt-60 posted:The Goddess of Love's weapon is a whip. This is right and proper
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Jan 12, 2021 23:35
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Cobalt-60 posted:And in the case I was referring to, it was a barbarian defending his hometown against undead; when his axe broke, he used his +adv on Str checks to grab a tombstone and go WWE on them. Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily allow it outside of that sort of scenario (I don't think Gramps would be happy with his tombstone being lugged around outside of town), but that makes for an awesome story. If I were the DM, I'd probably rule that after the fight, a chunk of the gravestone breaks off and is miraculously shaped as a weapon for the barbarian to use (intervention by gramps and his god to bestow a holy weapon upon his grandson).
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Jan 13, 2021 08:54
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Cobalt-60 posted:And later gave utterance to the classic question: "If my grandfather was a paladin, can I use his tombstone as a holy weapon against this wight?" Space Kablooey posted:This is a great question to ask Cobiwann's DM "Only if the tombstone was consecrated and used as a weapon by the grandfather at some point." So now we're talking tombstones handed down throughout generations.
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Jan 13, 2021 15:59
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Dirk the Average posted:Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily allow it outside of that sort of scenario (I don't think Gramps would be happy with his tombstone being lugged around outside of town), but that makes for an awesome story. If I were the DM, I'd probably rule that after the fight, a chunk of the gravestone breaks off and is miraculously shaped as a weapon for the barbarian to use (intervention by gramps and his god to bestow a holy weapon upon his grandson). I'd go with the full holy tombstone option and handwave it as devine intervention but the tombstone would immediately revert to normal after the fight, or as soon as it was removed from the gravesite.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:33
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Agrikk posted:I'd go with the full holy tombstone option and handwave it as devine intervention but the tombstone would immediately revert to normal after the fight, or as soon as it was removed from the gravesite.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:48
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Cartoon posted:What about when assaulting a castle a topped by a grail shaped lantern? That would be an appropriate apology.
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Jan 13, 2021 22:06
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Tunnel snakes drool. Night has fallen when the party's meeting with the Marshal is adjourned. The streets of El-Kelbed empty with the exception of the repurposed security droids patrolling the streets. All of them carrying plenty of scars to show just how dangerous the Orinios' badlands can be at night. To their surprise the party finds food waiting for them when they return to Yojimbo's. An obvious token of gratitude from the Harch for accepting the Marshal's offer. At night they can hear the sounds of heavy blasters as the Marshal and his Deputy deals with whatever threats lurking in the dark outside the settlement from their tower. Even then the heat has taken its toll on them and sleep comes quickly. For most of them at least, Kyrae still feeling conflicted about the Deputy being a pureblood and the fact she may just fight her own kind later. When they wake up they find both the Harch and the twi'lek gone. In their place a grumpy old human wearing a turban and smoking an oversized hookah tells them that Boss Stig asked for them about something urgent. That thing turns out to be Nymera. They find the Hydragian on the shoulders of a large aqualish, currently busy explaining something to the mechanic as he's elbow deep in the guts of a mining droid. Meanwhile Boss Stig is accosted by a pair of obviously agitated Jawas. As it turns out she was bored and decided to sneak out in the middle of the night. Thankfully she was found by one of the mechanics as she was busy fixing a droid. Had it been anyone else things might have been less fortuitous with the curfew at night in place. Turns out Nymera has no idea about the concept of salvage and inadvertently stopped a bunch of jawas from cutting up an old droid. She also needed some more parts to fix up Kurze. So to keep the girl busy while they head out into the badlands they buy her some extra parts from Boss Stig. Much to her delight. Before they leave Tieron gets an idea and teaches Nymera how to use a commlink, to prevent her from feeling bored or lonely. Which is an interesting experience for the Cathar as it also involves explaining the concept of telecommunications for her. One way to lose a commlink posted:Before Tieron can leave however he sees that the girl presses the commlink on her palm, the device seamlessly melting into her skin before it disappears inside her flesh. They find the Marshal and his Deputy waiting for them in their towers. He tells them they're heading the last known location the deserters were seen, an old power station out in the badlands. Their main goal is twofold. One is to deal with the deserters there and cut off their supply of power, the second is to capture their leader. A sith apprentice only known as the Prophet. If they nab him they might be able to convince him to divulge any information about where their main hideout is. They tried grabbing him before but missed their chance and now he's bulked up his forces. All in all they're told to expect a dozen or so deserters. The party sets off on a pair of speeder bikes and a skiff towards their destination. Their journey across the barren landscape takes them to a large open valley, the party jumping between patches of shadows to stave off the worst of the heat. The suns are at their zenith when they arrive at the foot of a large rock shelf, massive sheer cliff sides rising up from the ground almost vertically. The sandstone walls covered in various opening, the interiors a maze of corridors. It's Tieron who first spots the markings on the walls, what first appeared to be random scratches turn out to be some sort of flag or icon. Even then it looks indecipherable, numbers and arrows together like some kind of unknown code. His background as the son of a veteran pays off as as well he suddenly recognizes the markings for what they are, Imperial unit markings. This one in particular belonging to a unit called "Hounds of Lucius". But they confirm that there is indeed an outpost located within. They approach carefully, eyes and ears searching for any ambushers waiting for them in the myriad of crags and openings that surround them. Their entrance into the sandstone maze is even more tense, the sudden darkness and the blowing wind throwing their senses for a loop. The interior dark and oppressive, with shadows and pits that could hide pretty much anything out to get them. The crew is in particular jumpy, any sudden noises making them draw their blasters. One point they all pull weapons at a tumbleweed blowing past them. Ross does realize that they are being watched, their progress trailed by someone. Or something. But nothing happens and they reach a service entrance surrounded by a concrete guardhouse without being attacked. It's obvious they've reached the power station they were looking for. THe way down blocked by a rusty grate. The Marshal suggests that they should split up, with him and the Deputy going upstairs to flush out any deserts and hopefully finding the prophet, while the others check the basement in order to disable the power core if it's up running. The deputy suggesting that's where they might also find any prisoners they might have taken. Tieron, with the help of Kyrae's newly purchased Exoglove, manages to rip the grate off its hinges and they descend into the basement tunnels. The place has obviously seen better days, everything is bathed in a dim red light and random gouts of steam blow out of old, rusty pipes. From deep underneath them they can hear the chugging sound of a power core. Further down their progress is blocked by three large fireproof doors. One leads down to the main control terminal whilst the others lead to different engineering quarters. All the doors are obviously locked based on the dim red light coming from the panels next to them. The keypads less dusty than the area around it. The locks are however outdated enough that Tieron can without issue get them open and the door slides open with a loud groan. Warboys posted:The engineering quarters, or what's left of them are a mess of turned over beds and chairs, looted cabinets and dirty oily bulkheads. First contact with the deserters goes as well as you might expect. AAAAAAAAA posted:One scream follows the next as the near-naked bandits howl, their maddened gaze falling on you as their bodies and blade follow. The fight that follows is frantic and chaotic as the party fights off the deserters. For while their weapons are shoddy and unable to pierce their armor they make up for that in sheer weight of numbers. In the midst of the fighting they can hear the sound of blasters from above, an obvious sign that they're not the only ones in trouble right now. In the chaos Tieron manages to accidentally shoot Ross in the shoulder. (Remember, shooting into melee is a very dumb idea.) But one by one they start thinning the horde down. To make matters worse they can see how the rearmost door slowly beginning to open, it's decrepit state saving them for a while as it suddenly jams. But behind the small gap they can see white arms clutching weapons, more of them obviously wanting to get through as they try to force the door open. But their current fight slowly starts to tip in their favour as Kyrae and Ross' manage to down cultist after cultist. Despite taking some glancing blows in the process Tieron manages to get to the door and re-engage the door's motors and make it start closing. But the throng of cannibals is simply too big and as dozens of hands grab and clutch the door they slowly force it back open. The engines giving up with a tortured shriek. Kyrae is suddenly bull rushed by the four surviving cannibals and thrown to the ground, knocking her scatter blaster out of her hand in the process. It's only through Tieron's and Ross' intervention that she's saved from getting a knife in her stomach. But the pureblood barely has time to get back on her knees before the doors suddenly give in and a horde of cannibals pour in through the corridor. The mob sweeping up Tieron first before getting to Kyrae and Ross. Behind that mob strides two bare chested warriors wearing imperial shock-trooper helmets. The interlopers having distracted them from strapping a sacrifice onto a crude table. Both heft heavy blaster rifles with crude blades affix to them and they seem to take their time to cycle their weapons. (Their names were Moregore and Goremore.) The battle turns even more frantic and chaotic as punches and kicks fly in all directions. The people are the frontlines taking numerous blows. Tieron almost getting a sense of deja vu as one of the gunners opens up on him with their heavy blaster rifle. But thankfully he's spared of such a fate. But slowly but surely the hordes of cannibals are beaten back, even under the fire of the two gunners. One of their stray shots hitting Kyrae in the shoulder and making her drop to the ground, but thanks to Ross' quick treatment she gets back on her feet quickly. In the end only one of the gunners remain standing. But he does not plan to go down quietly. Going out with a bang posted:The last gunner laughs maniacally. Fetching into his baggy fatigues, the man produces a thermal detonator, holding it above his head as he leaps toward you, laughing all the way. An eerie silence falls upon them. They're battered and bruised but they're all still standing. They find the captives mostly unharmed, the one about to be sacrificed freed by some others during the chaos of the fighting. The control room is trashed, but there's still enough life in some of them to allow Tieron to disable the reactor after he's managed to collect himself. The remaining room turns out to be a storage room filled with the raider's spoils. Crates of supplies, ammunition, a few derelict droids can be seen. Including a holo terminal plugged into a power generator. Suddenly the sounds of fighting coming from above stops, the party not realizing that the other two had been fighting until it had ended. Suddenly they can hear the Marshal's voice in their commlinks. The Marshal posted:The old man sounds weary and tired, panting heavily. From the other side of the link you can hear muffled moans and the man swearing under his breath. Whatever happened up there is bad as the Deputy is down and according to the Marshal, she's losing a lot of blood. Rip and tear posted:Rushing up the stairs Ross wades through a literal charnel ground. Ten or so cultists lay dead, their armour and weapons much more well worn as some lay riddled with heavy blaster bolt. The marshall stands in the middle of a hall with his foot and blaster on the back of a man in crimson robes. At his side lays the Deputy, her battle armour cored with blows. The woman's helmet is slashed and broken, most of it melted onto her face, her entire right shoulder and arm is gone along with her leg at the thigh, three stab wounds leak blood from her battered chestplate. A large polesaber still lays broken at the side of a wall. The whole thing was an ambush, but somehow they managed to preserve. But things are not looking good for the Deputy. But somehow Ross manages to stabilise her. Even if it's clear she's going to need treatment at a medical facility to make it through. What's worse is that they can't stay there for much longer, or else they're going to be easy pickings for the cannibals as they show up in even greater numbers. So they obviously need to get out of there fast. Tieron gets an idea and pulls out his commlink to call Nymera back at the ship. The call goes through and after some back and forth it turns out that Kurz3 can fly the ship over to them. But that doesn't mean that they're out of the fire yet as the place they're at is inaccessible to something as big as the Starfire. That still means they have to get out of there. Canyon run posted:As you pile the last of the looted supplies and captive onto the skiff you begin to hear distant howls deeper in the maze, the darkness and winding corridors amplifying the impending threat. You're quick enough to mount your speeders and head off toward the exit, only a few hundred meters or so from the outpost. Somehow they manage to make it back to the wasteland unharmed, their pursuants content with hanging back at the edge of the maze. The Starfire is thankfully big enough to accomodate the skiff and the bikes and before long they're blast off into the sky. Everyone busying themselves with offloading wounded off the skiff as Sirra heads for the cockpit to take over from the droid. Spooky posted:Now in the cockpit [Sirra is] greeted with a full view of the horde waiting on the edge of the maze. Several dozen half-naked fanatic crowd the crags as shapes in covered rags and gowns hold long rifles from the corniche and edge of the cliffs. None of their weapons are capable of punching the ship's armour and none of them try, instead watching you ominously as the Starfire breaks out back toward El-Kelbed. Meanwhile... Cutscene posted:As the ship slides through the azure sky the camera pans into the darkness of a nearby rock. The camera returns to the entrance of the base where two robed shapes push through the assembled mass of cannibals and fanatics dragging the bodies of their dead out from the ship. Next time: Finally meeting Malekk.
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Jan 15, 2021 19:20
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My new character is an awakened squirrel who was a wizard's familiar/grafting experiment and is now a wizard/binder. He has a few ranks in Heal. His name is Dr. Drey.
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Jan 16, 2021 22:14
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Yawgmoth posted:My new character is an awakened squirrel who was a wizard's familiar/grafting experiment and is now a wizard/binder. He has a few ranks in Heal. If it doesn't work, you could have the same wizard produce a second iteration of the experiment, starting from a farm horse. That would be Dr. Dray.
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Jan 16, 2021 22:22
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there are Dray in Dark Sun that are secret underground lizard/dragon-people e: I can't remember my sister's birthmonth
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Jan 17, 2021 06:01
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| # ? May 21, 2024 13:29 |
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quote:Before they leave Tieron gets an idea and teaches Nymera how to use a commlink, to prevent her from feeling bored or lonely. Which is an interesting experience for the Cathar as it also involves explaining the concept of telecommunications for her. This got glazed overbuy could you imagine that? How mind blowing it must be to get this order of magnitude leap forward in technology? Like having someone show up in today’s world like Dr McCoy with a bottle of pills that cures kidney failure, cancer, hair loss and hypertension all at once.
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Jan 17, 2021 07:10
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