Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
Isama sighs. Death never got easier even if it was a part of the circle of nature.
Don't think I can do anything for her. Sometimes it's just time ya know. My question is, how the hell do we stop this and how the hell do we get back at that bastard for sending us into a trap.
And it seems to work! A barely perceivable hum and flicker in the air indicates that the ward is working. Now to see if it actually helped! "This should not work against illusions." Ophelia muses. "But illusions seldom have tactile or lethal components!"
"The healing magic appears have helped temporarily. Let us see if it can have a more permanent effect within the ward before surrendering this one to oblivion. And this seems to either be a local phenomenon or results of hostile action; both which could be remedied by switch up our location and lines of sight. I suggest we evacuate the area." Ophelia continued to spew words, eventually getting to the point and gently attempting to lift the downed woman. Turning to the non-screaming non-dying addict she adds. "I would suggest you take a similar course of action."
Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
The woman stays down - but her condition stabilises.
The man falls to his knees beside her. "Nomi! It's me, Reynaldo! Wake up! Wake up!" He looks to Isama "Keep going!"
perception dc 15:
The area around is... muted. Colours are there, but not quite right. Something glimpsed from the corner of the eye is different when stared at. A nearby poster has words - but can't be read.
The effect is subtle, revealed only because it cuts off so abruptly at the shimmering edge of the magic circle.
Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
"Very interesting!" Ophelia notes as she makes sure to keep inside the circle. She scans the rooftops trying to find Diene to see if she too seems to have been effected by something - or perhaps she could try to gauge the extent of the "dull zone" from her lofty vantage?
"Interesting, certainly, but also somewhat unsettling", Daria added, also making sure to stay inside the circle.
"The circle lasts a while. I suggest we don't act hastily. Ophelia, you seemed to be affected for a while there...do you remember anything at all that could be relevant?"
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
"Hmm." Ophelia hummed. "There seemed to be webs - and lots of spiders. Curiously, the spiders only seemed to swarm over those affected by the hallucination. So it could be a partial planar manifestation, similar to an Astral Projection, and the spiders are predators of this intersected existence? Or perhaps they are merely a visual manifestation of an potent poison or curse, probably shivver related. But then the appearance of a shared vision seems unlikely."
"Unless you've been using shiver to grease your joints, it also seems weird that you would partake in their vision. Wether it's some existance or manifestation, it would seem clear that it's evil. And I'm not only talking about the fact it is killing people, but about the fact that this circle seems to work against it."
Daria ponders a bit more, then suddenly pipes up again:"Say, Ophelia, do you dream?" about electric sheep?
"To my knowledge, I have not been using it for that. Though I suppose that would explain things ... Hmh." Ophelia tilts her head a bit to think. "The Circle would also hold some non-evil entities, but that seems like an reasonable conclusion."
"Oh?" Ophelia looks up again, having tried to gleam whatever she could from the boundary just at the edge of the ward. "I am not sure. I have not slept, that would be a prerequisite to my knowledge?"
"What status are you in if your winding-up runs out? You are an existance beyond mere clockwork to the best of my knowledge. One of the reasons I wanted to work with Victor, to find out more about this technique. Thirus was right in that you are fascinating, from a mechanical viewpoint. Alas, the way you seemed to share this hallucination with them makes things even weirder.", Daria sits down, pondering, looking around.
Asking for a piece of chalk(I'm certain someone has some), she then throws it out of the circle, towards a wall, watching intently if it decides to move. (probably not, but hey, worth a try)
Not really an idea besides trying to get the woman up and running and see if the phenomen disappears before the magic circle does...the fact my detect magic kinda malfunctioned does not really add to options, unless the information we have right now opens up a new knowledge check(planes? religion? arcana?)
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
"I am, as far as I am aware, unaware of my existence while unwound. Hmm." Ophelia tilted her head to the side again. "Which, I realize, might not prove so much."
"But the fact that I participated in this event - and the strangeness earlier - is certainly odd. If, as you theorized, they are connected we must simply seek to find that link. Something must have triggered both; if we can identify what we might have a lead to go on ..."
I'd say lets barf out some Knowledge checks and then Harakani can decide if he wants to do anything with them :P
Also - anything Ophelia can recall that would connect this scene to something she has seen/experience previously? Thinking about the spider dream in particular!
My base knowledge is 20. Thats covered by Take 10. Anything else, I can use a single roll to cover due to identical modifiers :) - still rolling twice in case it's multi-topic-relevant Knowledge(any and all):1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28 Knowledge(any and all):1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 Bookwormyness FTW!
...After a little discussion the hypothesis of a partial planar manifestation seemed reasonable: but the fact that it only affected certain bystanders was problematic. Common knowledge was that a manifestation of elemental fire, for instance, didn't just ignore certain people.
The question of whether Ophelia could dream was far from settled. While Ophelia didn't remember dreaming, nor even of sleeping, the event earlier certainly matched descriptions of a 'nightmare'.
Of course, Shiver would not have been used as an oil - the venom is far too expensive to have used for such a prosaic purpose. On the other hand no few wizards had by this point turned their researchers to trying to understand how Ophelia's mind worked. By all rights a construct such as herself should be little more than a well-programmed machine, yet she seemed to display creativity, sentience, will, flexibility, intelligence and charisma[1].
In the end the group - despite how close they were to an answer - started stumbling into circles of reasoning. It was agreed this was a planar type manifestation, though its exact mechanics eluded them.
[1]Of course some researchers spent a great deal of time arguing that in fact Ophelia did not display true sentience, but was instead simply so superbly programmed that she gave the illusion of doing so.
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
I'm thinking getting back home/somewhere safe and then trying to see what our two new friends know about all this?
They might be able to add something to the puzzle - a timeframe at least or maybe they know if something special happened in the shiver circuit when all started to go south!
"Whatever took place here...it seems the shiver users didn't simply leave. They died. I've read nothing about this in any reports...and it's a bad business practise to kill off your clientel. So whatever is happening here...it's not just about junkies overdosing on their favorite passtime, AND someone must have been covering up. This one's already beyond any help. I agree we should bring the other 2 someplace safe and find out if they know anything...but I would very much like to know who takes care of this body...and where they take it.", Daria muses, little else to do within the cover of the circle, while staring at the blurry surroundings..."I propose we watch the entrance, from a safe distance. They'll need time to sober up and overcome the first wave of withdrawal symptoms anyway before we can get anything meaningful out of them."
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
"Hmm. That does make me wonder; given that the vision of spiders have an tangible effect, would that effect persist after the subject expiring?" Ophelia quizzed no-one in particular. "Ordinary spiders typically liquidate their most of their prey and then dispose of the husks, which would explain the lack of littered bodies. Or someone does indeed bother with moving them away; I wonder if the street sweepers would notice or care about an increased amount of dead addicts? The labourers may be of such a low level of complexity that they do not care."
"But yes. Observing seems to be our best course of action for now. Adding another corpse later would be immoral!" the clockwork stops her train of thoughts for now, looking around for a good vantage point. "Do you think Diene would like company?"
Just lost a long post. Trying again from memory. Posting in bits.
Under Isama's expert ministrations the addict Nomi wakes. Frantically she climbs to her feet, only to be held by Reynaldo.
"Stop Nomi! This lot, they've done something. See the circle?" he points to the shimmering line "It's keeping your nightmare at bay!"
By the time that Reynaldo points out the effect, it is already fading. The strange, almost dream-like effects withdraw, shrinking back towards the corpse of the last addict.
Isama, Mia and Ophelia start dragging Nomi and Reynaldo to safety.
Diene:
Diene's perch affords her an excellent view of they alley, albeit one lit only by the dim light of the oven. The flickering firelight at first occludes the effect, but by the time her companions have reached the end of the alleyway, she is sure.
The corpse is withering. Skin shrinking onto bones. Dessicating - as if left out in the Wastes for a week.
Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
What do we need.. a cleric to clear out this alley? Isama grunts as they get the addicts to safety.
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
"Perhaps that would work." Ophelia nodded as she struggled to prop up Nomi. Just providing lift under the arm was so horribly inefficient, dragging their feet, but people resented being thrown over the shoulder from what she had learned - though sometimes she wondered if it hadn't been for the best of all to just adopt an Diene approach to things. Later maybe."We are in a bit of a bind. Proper course of action would be to cordon off the area and turn it over to the proper authorities; but that risks revealing our meddling. An anonymous note maybe?"
perception check below is at -1 per 10ft from the corpse
At first it is just a few wisps of white from the mouth of the body. Then a little more. Then a torrent, as if the man had swallowed a smokestick instead of Shiver.
perception DC 15 AND Diene:
Nightmarish shapes seem to coil in the miasma.
perception DC 20 AND Diene:
The fog seems to jerk the body up, and forward... as if some vaporous creature were trying to pull free of the body, but somehow tethered to it.
everyone else:
Where are you taking the addicts. Are all three of you going?
Now, I can only speak for Mia, but I don't think we would leave the place without at least consulting our acting Sergeant who remained behind, playing Batman on some roof, ready to jump down on evil-doers.
As such, I believe we mainly made sure to get out of THIS alley, what with the weird stuff going on. And then get someplace nearby affording a good look at the entrance(expecting someone to pick up the body).
If WE know where Diene is, Mia will give the junkies with Ophelia and Isama a momentary headstart, and also cast a Message-Spell from a position where Diene is visible, to include all of us in the loop.
I THINK that would work out best. If possible:
Everyone(else?):
After it's been settled that the witnesses(and guards) needed to be moved to safety, Daria attempted to glimpse Diene up at whatever vantage point she had choosen for herself, then pointing at what she thought was Diene, and including her in a message-spell, together with Isama and Ophelia:"Ma'am, can you hear me? We are evacuating the civilians. Any further orders? I suggest we maintain surveillance to find out who takes care of the body, considering no increase in deaths was reported from this ward-", while hurrying after the others.
Female I have nothing witty to write. :/ Half Elf The other half's AWESOME! Barbarian (Urban Barbarian) 2/Monk (Kata Master) 4
Status:
HP 34/45 | AC 14 | T 14 | F 13 | CMD 24 | F +9 | R +5 | W +7 | Init +0 | Per +13 | Panache 2/2 | Rage 3/7 | Ki 4/4
Perception:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28
"Hell if I know what that is." Diene backed up a little. And then ran forward, leaping off the building to punch it.
Acrobatics, long Jump:1d20 + 1d6 + 11 ⇒ (12) + (5) + 11 = 28 Acrobatics, no fall damage:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17Though I do have slow fall 20 ft if he's adjacent to a wall. Spending a ki point for dering do on the long jump. Charging Jump Attack:1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24 I don't think I can actually damage this:1d8 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
Ophelia looks up as Diene sails over their heads. Something faint, maybe confusion or amazement, briefly passes over her visage. "Hmm. I think we are to reexamine the scene!"
With an open mouth, forgetting that Message is still active, Daria stammers: "It...would seem so...", breaking into a sprint back towards the ally to evacuate their acting sergeant:"...damn you, Castor...now the suicide squad has a leader even finding herself expendable..."
DC 9 Will save at the start of your turn. Mind affecting fear effect. If it fail, Diene is shaken by the the half-glimpsed shapes of phantoms floating within the fog for 1 round. DC 9 Will save (a second one) or take a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws while in the area, and must make a successful Will save or take 1d2 ⇒ 2 points of Charisma damage The punch is a magical attack, right? This whole area is full of the sorts of things used for Wire-Fu, with slow fall you can take no damage.
Diene soars from the building, bouncing lightly from rope to rope, and rigging to rigging. The mist seems to twitch as she approaches, gathering itself for some sort of attack - but a second later she lands a solid smack into the fog. The vaporous gasses recoil as if injured.
Initiatives please anyone who wants in. Anyone apart from Diene is 90ft away. LOS once you're in the alley at 60ft. init: it:1d20 - 1 ⇒ (14) - 1 = 13
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
Init:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
Hmm. Ophelia's spear isn't magical and someone should probably watch over our new friends. I'm thinking of simply handing out an extract (of Shield, unless something else is desired) or handing over the ward of magic circle and staying behind.
Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
Int:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21 Isama has a +1 scimitar.
Ah Stone and Root! Isama taps herself with the wand of LongStrider and runs back towards Diene.
Female Construct (Clockwork) | Investigator 6 | Hp 26/33 | AC 18, Touch 13, FF 16 | CMD 20 | Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +6 | Per +15 | Init +6 | Active: See Invisible, Mutagen; 60m. Ablative Barrier 6h/30damage. Magic Circle against Evil 50min
"Hmh." Ophelia makes no move to follow Isama. Instead she quickly rummages trough her belongings until she produces the wand earlier used to create the magic circle. She holds it out to Daria. "Take this. Given my earlier exposure, going back might be unwise for me."
Isama casts quickly, then proceeds back Move to draw wand, standard to use?
Ophelia hands a wand to Mia, who sprints back Run can do 120ft, IIRC. How far do you want to go?
The mists rear up and over Diene, then seem to almost come to a point - a point which spears towards the dashing sergeant.
touch attack:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18negative energy:6d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 5, 6, 4, 1) = 20
The fog almost seems to penetrate into Diene, as if trying to burrow into her soul. The cool night feels suddenly frigid.
Diene grits her teeth... She couldn't let herself get hit like that again...Forgot I had Parry and Riposte..
"HAHA! I CAN PUNCH GHOST MIST SPEARS OUT OF MY WAY! THIS! IS! AWESOME!" Diene continues a torrential outpouring of attacks, "flaming" red ki visibly shooting out of her body as she extravagantly spends life energy to crash straight through the ghost's spears. She shattering them into simple mist once more with one straightforward punch, before unleashing a crashing wave of powerful dragon style attacks. Regardless, Diene seemed to be having a LOT of fun.
Whichever attack hits first gets +4 to damage from dragon style.
Fighting defensively and Raging Dex grants +5 AC, putting me at 19. Also, if it's been less than an hour since I punched the grandson of somebody important, I've still got Mage Armor up for another +4, putting me at 23.Or I could use the entire main thrust of my build and opportune parry and riposte. Strength mode.
I seem to have neglected my Use Magic Device....maybe just zap me with a Circle? Since it's an emanation, I could move to cover whoever is important to get covered...plus save me an action regarding activation.
Daria moves closer, to about 60 feet away...she had no particularily strong desire to enter the alley again, and this was just fine enough to try and shoot at the misty something that Diene seemed to wrestle with.
Crossbow, into melee, lucky:1d20 + 11 - 4 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 11 - 4 + 3 = 22Damage:1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 //If hit, Target is designated, giving +2 morale bonus on attack/damage to others attacking it until my next turn.
Move action to mouth of alley, swift action for archeologits luck, standard to fire, free to reload.
On point! Although I even forgot 3 damage from lucky, so I overkilled it with double as much as needed. Yay! First the wisps, now the mists... I'm the slayer of fleeing eerie entities :)
"Ma'am, is everythi.....are you flexing, Diene?"
Somewhat confident with the magic circle in effect, Daria will enter the alley and take another look at the addict.
Heal:1d20 - 1 ⇒ (20) - 1 = 19 "Just what happened in the minute while we were gone? He looks...emptier than before-"
Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
Well it got punched good that's fer sure Isama scratches her head as she looks around. What the hell was it?
"You started...punching...the gho...."
Somewhat preoccupied with the body(the fall did not help), Daria reminds herself that Diene is acting Sergeant:"Excellent tactical decision, Ma'am!" She also had to take the mandatory test, right? Once we're reinstated, I'll have to try and get clearance to look at the results...
Female I have nothing witty to write. :/ Half Elf The other half's AWESOME! Barbarian (Urban Barbarian) 2/Monk (Kata Master) 4
Status:
HP 34/45 | AC 14 | T 14 | F 13 | CMD 24 | F +9 | R +5 | W +7 | Init +0 | Per +13 | Panache 2/2 | Rage 3/7 | Ki 4/4
"Yeah, worked out pretty well. Now we just need to do like Isama said and figure out what the hell was it." Diene seems to completely miss Daria's hesitance.
From somewhere Ophelia recalls reading of a creature that matched this one.
Quote:
Dreamspawn creatures are created when the lucid bodies of dreamers are killed in certain correupted areas of the Dimension of Dreams, their nightmarish final moments resulting in true death in the waking world. On some rare occasions, the creature or creatures responsible for the death of the dreamer are intrinsically bound to that dreamer’s death throes, their etheric forms dragged along with the victim’s fleeing soul and stranded somewhere between the sleeping and waking worlds. These creatures soon emerge on the Material Plane, bursting forth from their victim’s corpse as nightmarish spectres of the dream-thing they once were.
The book was vague as to whether the creatures were simply created by death, or were the twisted soul of they dying dreamer.
Though impossible to kill without magic, they also possess incredible resistance to acid, sonic and electricity - and to a lesser extent cold. Wind, Fire, Silver and Good are their only real weaknesses.
Daria feels the rush provided by Adrenaline wear off, slowly, and yawns.
"Been a long day. We should probably sleep a bit. I had considered staying with Kestrel and her gang, get aquainted a bit more...but after what just happened, I think I feel saver with you guys nearby. Anybody got an idea on where to crash?"
as per discussion, preferably not somewhere where former colleagues would expect to find us...getting detained/imprisoned would be quite a hindrance to our plans-
Human Urban Druid/6 | HP 34/39 | AC 23 T 13 FF 21 | F 6 R 5 W 12 (14) | Per +12 (14) | Init +6 | Special: Owl's wisdom 2 minutes, Barkskin 60 minutes, Long Strider 60 minutes, Spider climb 15 minutes
They wouldn't expect us to bed here that's fer sure Isama says looking around. Other than that... nothing other than my apartment and after what happened at the club we could get picked up there.
