Timeline, you are able to keep her airway clear as the fit passes. As some of her coloring returns, you notice a cut in her jeans about mid thigh. Beneath it is a deep wound that looks like a bite from a sharp fanged medium sized creature. Veins of sickly green poison have spread out from the infection point up and down her leg. The skin in the area has turned a dull gray.
The cocktail you already gave her should slow the infection down but damage has already been done. She probably won't be able to move her leg at all until either a remedy is found or she gets long-term treatment.
Wild Fire begins to wake up...
Well the good news is i wont have to cut off the leg quite yet but your leg will be stiff until we can find a treatment for it unless you'd rather we cut it off then i get to play with sharp pointy things your call.
Timeline packs up his stuff.
Hope you don't turn...Ive watched to many zombie horror movies to know how this ends up.
Timeline says while chuckling to himself.
Wildfire grimaces at the cut, the feeling of just going through a fit, and the lack of feeling in her leg.
Come at me with a blade and I'll melt it and you, She snarls at the not-so-good doctor.
She then notices that she's holding Risen Fate's hand and blushes intensely. She pulls away and tries to push herself off the ground. I'm ok. Just back up a bit and I'll fly the rest of the way.
High is available in town. (75% chance)
Woot both are there awesome.
As Wild Fire pushes herself to a standing position, the entire building lurches! The shaking fades to a constant low rumbling that you can feel in your bones...
holy sardines batman, i succeeded.
call me crazy, but the building seems to be speaking, and it is saying home.
Huh now where did i....right starwave brand quasar pulse wave inverters... star ship engines uh oh We got a problem people this castle is flying! We got to get to the controls of this thing if we do I can fly it!I should be able to port us to the control room.
rolling for items kingmaker picking high
I must still be a bit dazed ><
Are you sure you're alright, Wildfire? Timeline, we've gotta get you some proper medical training.
Baker tries not to let the others know his worry about the ghouls that appear to be potentially reanimating...
Ithran? You remember that movie we watched a few weeks ago, Escape From Undead Island? ...and how the zombies didn't die unless you burnt them or cut off the heads?
Baker mentally motions at the twitching ghouls.
Would you like to tell me if that's possible in the real world, like, here and now, or should I just go around popping heads just to make sure?
No these are not true zombies, more like animated puppets of mutated flesh. I would say these were once men, twisted into this form by foul magic and then reanimated as shock troops. While they won't reanimate on their own, burning them will prevent the enemy from further attempts at reanimating them. Be careful, whoever created these ghouls is a master of alchemy. Quite likely, Lord Sinh himself.
Of course true zombies exist. They just haven't reached this galaxy yet.
Hey wildfire, if you've got it in you I'd feel a lot safer if you lit up the rest of these ghouls. A good zombie never stays down, you know?
vs. DC 20
vs. Stealth
vs. Stealth
vs. Stealth
vs. Stealth
vs. Sleight of Hand
Even with Aiding Another, their total is only 24 vs. 36. Still, he failed to successfully steal the item in question.
Starship engines?! That's new. I don't recall his castle being able to fly last time I was here.
Bizzniche flies to the small window. He lets out a low whistle.
Hey, Mr. Rock, you ain't afraid of heights are you? I'd say we're a few thousand feet in the air at the moment and traveling at a pretty good clip.
...Bzzawwkk...Sir...read me? ...over Visskonia...surge...pinpointing...
The interference clears momentarily.
Sir, I have pinpointed your current location. There is a 94.7% probability that you are 4.87 kilometers above central Visskonia. Unusual M-Band interference prevents a closer match. Other possible locations include the mountains of Tibet, 3.1%; a covert ops satellite situated above Korea, 1.3%; or the event horizon of a collapsing black hole, .9%.
Shall I send the chopper?
Baker, I'm ok. Stay close just in case though. Flying will keep my body steady, but I'll need help if I can't.
She takes a look over at the downed ghouls.
Fair enough
With a snap of her fingers and the ghouls outside of the dome burst into flames one by one.
I think that aughta do it. This dome should hold up and keep the others.
Baker nods.
Ok, but before we head out I just want to think out loud for a second. Why are we here exactly? I mean, I know we have the Orb, and I know that Sinh has Archy, but honestly? This guy seems like he's kind of a hack. He threatens to capture the museum owner just so we'll go get the orb for him. Great, that seems like something any villain would do, but then when we get it and he gives us his teleport coordinates it takes us into this room, with no welcome party except the ghouls that came here after that random woman went running down the hallways and probably attracted their attention. There are no traps, no one waiting for us, and if Timeline is right, then Sinh isn't even really prepared for us to be here! I don't get it and something seems fishy.
Baker takes a breath while ticking off points on his fingers.
We need to leave, we need to find Sinh, but I don't think we need to do it on his terms. Rabbi, how many walls do you think you could smash through before getting tired? Also, I've seen this orb create at least three different portals to three different locations. I can see if I can open another of these to different locations. Either way, I don't think we should leave by the door.
And really, who doesn't keep secret passages in dungeons?
Baker picks up the charred femur of one of ghouls to help him tap walls, floor, and ceiling to find a secret passage.
There's gotta be one here somewhere. No self-respecting super villain would leave their dungeon as a "One door in, one door out" room.
Timeline paces back and fourth while talking to E.O.N.
To E.O.N. No E.O.N. I can create the chopper I do on the other hand would like to know if you can pinpoint the source of the trap that is keeping me from teleporting out it will have to be a constant anomaly to stop me without knowing when ill try again.Keep me updated Tinman Timeline out.
Timeline looks to the group more so fate.
To fate Well fate there are four traps we need to watch out for for sure each designed for each one of us one is a cryo-chamber with thick anti kinetic glass, the next is a padded room with walls that movie in made with anti kinetic gel then there's a conveyor belt with sticky goo on it that leads into a fiery death, and then the last is a giant fan im guessing to suck the air out of the room that one was fun and that one leads to a hole in this fortress which we could use to fly out of here I can make a chopper and we can fly out because there is I guess a fifth trap that only triggers when i try to teleport out of the castle but not around the castle. Also now that we got a map we should be better off. If he thinks these traps will slow us down then he thinks wrong I can pop us to him and we can take him down now! But if we don't fight him here or do something Archy might be toast.
DC 20
>.< Stupid masa frakkin nat 1.
Wild Fire hobbles from corpse to corpse, pointing a finger at each until they are nothing more than piles of ash. Hobbling around the edge of her dome she stumbles on the rough floor but Risen Fate is there to catch her.
Risen Fate searches the room and feels a strange draft coming from the bottom of one wall. He pushes and finds the stone giving ever so slightly. He has found a secret door but it appears to be locked or wedged.
Very good, sir. I shall have the pizzeria on standby for your return.
I am afraid detection of "magic" is beyond my capabilities as there has been, historically, no quantifiable data related to the occurrence of such phenomenon. There is however a concentration of energy readings at your current location suggestive of the aperture through which you and your fellow associates departed.
The strength readings of this phenomenon are frankly, Sir, "absent from the pictorial representation of linearly collated data in a two-dimensional informative presentation".
ah HA! There's the door I was looking for.
Baker points with the femur at the brick.
Rabbi, would you do the honors? Looks like it's stuck.
To add to the above conversation: I would've expected him to be waiting in whatever room we arrived in with a small army and Archy so we could do a switch. Unless he's just playing with us and that's what this feels like. He's bored and wants to watch us make our through this stupid castle... OR he's testing us. Perhaps for something bigger. Regardless, we need to take him down before he poses more of a threat.
Woah, great job with that door!
well i don't mind if i do, lets see if this will do
i walk in front of the brick wall, and perform as a move action on my next turn if still in round base, or if not in round base i use that type of action to initiate the gum-gum Gatling with power attack and all out attack. if i beat the hit the door the DC is 27(damage 12). if the attack beat the AC by 5, the DC is 29(damage 14), and lastly if i beat the AC of the door by 10, the DC is 32(damage 17).
about how long i can go, i don't sleep, i don't eat, i don't think i can tire, so to answer your question, until there is no more walls to break, or until i am buried in rubble. As long as there is faith in the area i will not energy. that said i might get bored in like 22 hours of wall punching.
try playing with that word puzzle that appeared on the portal, if we can get the right combination of letters, we should be able to control the portal. if my limited knowledge of gates is correct. this one didn't have saint Peter with a large book asking for passage right?
that said, while i won't tire from these walls, not making a lot of noise is a completely different concern. i just can't do it.
vs. DC 37
vs. DC 20
Just can't get a break I guess...
...says the Reverend as he directs a devastating salvo of powerful punches at the secret door...
...and cracks it in half!
EDIT: The passage beyond is narrow and musty. A carved stone staircsae spirals upwards. A single marred footprint is visible in the dust on the floor. (Joe's door slam marred it a bit.)
Now who could have gone this way before us?
Baker takes a closer look, trying to see if the footprint is fresh or not, what exactly has made the footprint (eg: is it a track of mud, is it a print in dust, etc), what type of shoe it is (male, female, size of individual, etc) and what direction it is heading: into or out of the passage?
Same check as Baker, but adding in if there is dust on the surround area of the stair to determine if it's well used or not. I'll also like to look further up to see if there are other foot prints.
Risen Fate is able to make some educated lucky guesses about the footprint but his lack of training in the area only nets him the following:
-Only one footprint (none on the stairs)
-It is pointed towards the room you just came from.
Wild Fire uses her training as a geographer to examine the footprint and discovers the following additional details:
-There is a fairly large quantity of dust in the area and on the stairs leading to the assumption that it is very rarely used.
-The footprint left a heavy impression indicating that whoever or whatever left it seemed to have made...a landing. And only on one foot. Obviously they either had only one foot or have an absolutely perfect balance. And could make a jump down a spiral staircase. How...strange.
-The size, shape, and depression seem to indicate a medium sized humanoid.
When both of you pull your expertise/luck together you are also able to find a single strand of some kind of fibrous material.
You would need to Analyze the strand to determine what it is.
Timeline takes the fibrous material from fate and examines it closely.
Timeline opens a small compartment in his pip boy and places the fiber inside.
Let me see that kid. Lets see what you are.
The PIPBoy doesn't appreciate you using the cigarette lighter port for a material scanner but it complies. The fibre (and the footgear it belonged to) are made of Hemp.
Hemp is used in many places of the world but nowhere quite so commonplace as feudal Japan. As Timeline remembers his earlier conversation with Sinh he realizes this can only mean one thing...
We got a problem this belongs to the samurai! This is hemp from feudal Japan and that samurai definitely looked authentic. Which means his sword may very well be authentic as well so we should proceed with caution. I still say we should attempt a controlled teleport to Sinh and take him out quickly but again its a team decision.Id rather not fight our friendly neighborhood samurai but that's just me. I remember a tale of a samurai pirate captain who was a powerful force to be reckoned with,it was rumored he sold his soul to a devil to gain untold power if you believe such tales that is.....can you imagine someone crazy enough to do that he had to be brave as hell or a moron....my bet is moron!
Only a whisper can be heard as a steel blade comes down on Joe's wrist. In an instant the Heart now rests in the outstretched hand of a veiled oriental man wielding a wicked scimitar.
...
...your mistake...
...
You are all pretty certain this Ninja was NOT there a second ago.
I don't think that belongs to you!
Timeline seeing the heart in his hands attempts to blink the heart back.
vs. DC 20
Although Timeline is quick, this guy is quicker. He throws a smoke pellet at his feet instantly filling this section of the room with a fog-like concealment, spoiling an otherwise excellent shot.
Wild Fire, thanks to her Infrared Vision can see the ninja's heat signature trail. He disappeared through the secret passageway apparently using some superhuman ability to leap them in a single jump.
The chase is on!
Timeline without thinking ports off porting right in front of the ninja's face and blinks the the ninja instead of the heart and choose not to teleport the heart.
I Said that doesn't belong to you!
Timeline teleports...and finds himself inside the secret passage stairwell but unable to see the Ninja.
An image of Lord Sinh appears inside the dungeon room.
Tsk, tsk, did my ninja manage to snatch the artifact from your clumsy grip? Well I suppose since you won't be returning the Heart yourselves I have no further need of your friend, Professor Archibald?
He waves his hand and an additional image appears of Archy strapped down on an operating table, a ceiling-mounted laser scalpel aimed at his chest. He has managed to lose his other bunny slipper.
With a wicked grin, Lord Sinh continues to gloat...
By all means heroes, chase my ninja. It will be a wonderful test of his abilities. Oh, and Mr. Nile, to prevent your further interference in this test I will be activating the Quantum Interdictor device my newfound associates have loaned me. Quite handy, this technology. I have been led to understand that at it's current setting, it reduces teleportation range to a mere fraction of it's former amount.
He thumbs a glowing orb in one hand and the field activates across the whole of the castle grounds.
Just to make things interesting, I will track each of your's progress on the screens located throughout the castle.
I suppose if you do manage to best my newest creation, I will spare the life of your friend...provided you still return the Heart to me.
Your goal is to catch up to the Ninja and retrieve the Heart before he can deliver it to Lord Sinh.
Step 1: Catching the Ninja
To catch up you will need to gain before on skill checks called Chase Rolls(they will change based on the situation). Any time you gain a degree of success on a Chase Roll they add to any existing degrees of success you've had (if any).
Skill Checks
Having a movement speed higher than the Ninja can grant you a +2 or +5 bonus to your Chase Roll. Currently Wild Fire, Risen Fate, and Timeline have a +2 to their Chase Rolls due to and abilities.
Step 2: Defeating the Ninja
Assuming one or more of you catches up to the Ninja, you will have to stop him. You need 3 degrees of successful damage to take him down, 1-2 degrees will stop him in that section. These degrees of success are much easier to reach if you guys are in the same room concentrating your attacks (Team Attack). You continue to roll Hazard Rolls but not Chase Rolls nor Bonus Rolls while fighting the ninja.
Hazard: Some poor fool has left a pile of treasure and an overturned airport luggage carrier admist the rubble of this large Deathtrap Monitoring Station. A high-powered laser-grid security system has also been activated in this room by Lord Sinh.
Hazard Roll: .
-Failure: You mistime a jump or turn and get hit by a laser. Make a .
Chase Roll: Ninja rolls an...
An image of Lord Sinh appears on the 269" widescreen monitor in this room,
How do you like my latest creation? He is the last of the ancient Dragon clan, a master of the ancient ways of ninjitsu. I changed him, removed all those human fralities like emotion, honor, and aging. Behold, Tarwin, the Wind of Death!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Example:
Bizzniche would normally stay out of messy and dangerous situations such as this. They all too often ended in disaster for his masters/mistresses.
But then there was the gold. Vast gleaming piles of it, freshly freed from Lord Izzak. He was part of the party wasn't he? Didn't he deserve some of the spoils?
Of course he did.
Deftly dodging the first wall of lazers...
Hazard Roll:
...and dives towards the loot pile...
Chase Roll:
...and manages to bury himself in the nearest pile of loot. Deftly scribing a minor rune of storing in the air he shoves several coins and gems into his personal extradimensional vault of goodies.
Bonus Roll:
okay lets try this out
hazard:
failed so i need a toughness save
dazed and bruise taken.
chase roll:
luck re-roll +10 =13
bonus roll: exactly enough to get a +2 to the chase roll to barely keep me in it. unless the dazed condition pushes this down one more in which case i'm out. not going be able to help you guys.
Ah, there you are Sinh; we were wondering when you would finally decide to show up. Your Wind of Death has the Heart of Darkness; give us Archibald. We've done what you wanted, take the honorable route and follow through with your part of the bargain.
Do I head after the ninja, go straight for Sinh to try and head him off, or do I simply ignore pretense and take out this castle to give Sinh something more pressing to worry about than that orb?
After bringing up his case to Lord Sinh, Baker lazily hops through lasers to the other side of the room.
Unable to see the ninja, Risen Fate shouts to the room at large, trying to make the ninja take pause:
Baker quickly thinks back to all of the bad kung-fu movies he's watched, and and tries a different tack, hoping to draw the attention of the ninja one way or another, either through pleas or threats.
Timeline with a snide look on his face as listening to Sinh's rant turns around and summons a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle and begins spinning the tires just before the laser grid.
Huh...well Sinh ill play your game but what best to catch a Ninja than a Ninja!
Timeline releases the brake and teleports himself and the bike through the lasers onto the other side doing a kick-ass wheelie because why not!
Timeline set the bike down on two wheels and tears off down the hall.
Timeline using his vast intelligence to determine which way the tunnels twist and turns precisely navigates the motorcycle with ease.
How do I know if im catching up if I cant see the bastard! I guess ill just try to get to Sinh before he does and take Sinh down!
First one to Sinh gets to punch his fragile little jaw!
Guys! The ninja went that way! I can still see his heat trace!
The ninja, moving with almost inhuman speed, deftly moves from shadow to shadow using the most minute of footholds on every surface available to him.
Scoreboard:
- Joe: +0/-2
- Risen Fate: +1/-0
- Timeline: +0/-1
- Wild Fire: +0/-2
Lard Tarwin is visible only in brief glimpses as if he was but an extension of the shadows.
Your pursuit leads you up the stone stairs from the lower levels into a vast, labyrinthine mansion filled with artwork, artifacts, and imperious statues. It's like a museum in here with pieces from bygone eras: Egyptian, Persian, Roman and more.
Lord Sinh's face appears on monitors throughout cackling his mad laughter. As you attempt pursuit, various historical figures (statues, mannequins, even busts) lurch forward and try to take a swing (or bite) at you.
Hazard Roll:
-Failure: The malevolent M.V.P.'s maul you.
...
...To know of the Fist of the Dragon...is to invite your own death...
...
Chase Roll: Ninja rolls an...
look up the quote from pulp fiction
all right rabbi, you got this, try to out think him, and you can out do him.
as i am running through the museum, i see a few interesting artifacts from the past, including an oddly familiar staff in the corner. as i am distracted, the great teacher of the late 90's, Mr. Fred rogers lurches from behind a viewing case and attempts to grab me and take a bite of me. yet with my Krav Maga i successfully push him out of the way.
i am truly sorry sir, but i do not want to be your neighbor today. maybe you should take your trolley to the neighborhood of make believe and bite King Friday XIII.
awesome sauce
As i hear Tarwin try to intimidate me, i am reminded of a particular bible passage often spoken by the reverend Jules Winnfield, Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you.
re-roll because lets do this right
As i remember back to the days in the apartment in Tel Aviv, with a young couple and their young children. i try to recall the program that they used to watch.
+5 for eidetic memory
That's right, Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian Minister, and kept a small bible in his pockets. quickly snatching the bible, i find the passage of Ezekiel to help in my rhetoric.
lastly i whistle,
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
i choke back a clay tear
Mr. Rogers, in a blood-stained sweater, attacks Joe with a bowie knife only to have his attack redirected at the nearby bust of Sir Isaac Newton.
Up ahead, the Ninja expertly dives past the towering 15 ft. statue of one, Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. President.
