☀️☀️☀️☀️
Nissa starts firing away!
“Eat my hot goodness!”
The Olympian runs behind Charles and slashes with the Angel Sword.
The Olympian runs behind Charles and slashes with the Angel Sword.
[dice=Angel Sword]1d20 + 11
Despite taking hits from both Nissa and Theo, the demon takes a moment to lick Charles' blood from his claws with his very long tongue.
Kai didn't have much hope of actually harming the demon, definitely not to the extent that Charles and Theo seemed to be doing, but hopes to provide at least some distraction.
Greer fires off the rifle again, delighted by it. "I've gotta get me one of these!" he says, despite never having seen films from the 90s and beyond that popularized this expression.
The demon babbles, "Cursed is he that resists the Void for Void will encompass all. The time is at hand; piss and s~%# be unto you who deny his coming. Piss and s~$! from the Tower onto all below. Void will claim this world as all others and then all will be Void."
Theo manages to slash the demon with the Angel Sword but Kai's attack misses.
Greer fires off the rifle again, delighted by it. "I've gotta get me one of these!" he says, despite never having seen films from the 90s and beyond that popularized this expression.
The demon babbles, "Cursed is he that resists the Void for Void will encompass all. The time is at hand; piss and s$+@ be unto you who deny his coming. Piss and s!&@ from the Tower onto all below. Void will claim this world as all others and then all will be Void."
Charles keeps up his attack, a low growl subconciously building in his chest.
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Nissa presses forward. Within 30 feet of the enemy is close enough. From there, her subatomic form dashes ahead another 40 feet. Nissa rams her fist through an atom!
As the blast envelops the demon (almost singing Charles’ claw!), Nissa zips back to where she came from, her body expanding to refill the outfit that remained in place during her attack!
Zellgato works his bolt and tries to fire another one into the creature-then pauses and thinks better. Turning his rifle to Charles' back and firing. Charles' skin crawls for a moment and his hairs stand on end.
2/5 biohacks left
The demon misses Charles with both of his attacks, perhaps because of Zellgato's boost. Charles hits the demon with one of his attacks. Nissa follows up by blasting the demon with holy fire.
The very sexy demon is no more. His insides begin to turn to goo almost as soon as he falls. The Tower seems to drink the goo right up. The cold damp black floor absorbs the demon.
"Well, that was a blast!" jokes Alt-Greer, smiling at Nissa.
"Hm, Sonic seems to work rather well there. Charles-Are you alright? you took the brunt of it." Zellgato comments and questions as he looks towards the entry they came from in case of flying gargoyles.
Nissa is pretty proud of herself. “Listen to you, Eighties-Greer! Making cracks while I melt a handsome demon’s face off. Arnold Schwarzenegger would be proud.
“You should tell him about this. If it’s too hard to talk to a Hollywood star, wait’ll he becomes governor.”
"Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? Is that the one with Danny Devito?" Alt-Greer asks before being interrupted by a hollow moan from the just beyond the short wide corridor. With the demon out of the way, you can see the large circular room has a ring of red surrounding a black center. The floor in the hallway is damp and feels more like a hard jelly than stone.
Zellgato uses his tools to check the area. Wary of a foriegn enviroment.
+15 if science. +10 engineer or +0 mystisism.
Zellgato finds all sorts of fibres running through the floor and walls that show up on his scanners almost the way veins and nerves would. They also conduct fluids or electrical impulses and absorb the ooze the demons turn into. Although it doesn't really look like it, the Tower is a living thing; it's as alive as, or, perhaps, more alive than, the demons.
Charles waves off Zellgato's concern. "The armor took most of it. Remind me to say thanks when we get back home," he says.
"So... do we put it in the center of this thing and then get out?" he asks, pointing to the middle of the circular room.
Noting the scuff marks on Charles, and being reminded again at how durable a specimen Charles is. Zellgato focuses on his readings.Hmm... I think this thing. This whole tower might be a definition of alive. I wonder if the demons are something like immunios fighting invaders? Either way. Careful. Doesn't change much we have to do except maybe we can find a heart like structure."
"Then we should probably keep moving! Come on!!" Theo takes what he thinks is the way to the center of the tower.
As Theo moves into the large circular room, he finds the floor is red in some parts and black in others. Both parts are made of the same hard jelly substance. The area that is black contracts and then widens a little, crowding out the red area. There's no ceiling that Theo can see; the room just continues up into the darkness above.
Opposite the entrance, a white globe about the size of a baseball emerges from the jelly.
☀️
Nissa presses forward, guns ready.
“Any idea what that thing is, Greer?”
The Olympian ready his Angel Sword against the emerging white orb.
The orb doubles its size and become more egg-shaped. It is now just smaller than a watermelon. Grey veins ripple under the milky white outer layer.
"Never seen one of these before," says Greer.
Once again relying on his gadgets, Zellgato attempts to can it. "This isn't really my realm but lets see is it alive too?.... Keep an eye out around us."
Charles doesn't want to wait to see what it turns into. Switching his weapons between hands so he's holding his Energy Converter with his gauntleted hand.
"I think this is our sign to hurry up and do what we came here to do," he says as he lines up a shot and fires.
Theo laughs maniacally as Charles said what the godling was thinking. "Fu<k yeah, Charlie!!"
The white watermelon-shaped thing grows to the size of a pumpkin while Zellgato scans it. Zellgato is just beginning to get readings on it when Charles blasts it with holy energy, splitting its open. It drips goop. A creature, about the size of a human baby but looking like a tiny demon, tries to crawl out of the goop, but Theo slashes him with the Angel sword. The goop starts to seep back into the Tower.
Three white orbs about the size of baseballs emerge from the floor of the tower and begin to grow.
☀️☀️
Nissa says to Kai, “I’ll help ya with covering fire!”
Both guns ablaze, America’s littlest superhero targets whichever blobby thing Theo and Charles aren’t already attacking!
You can use Engineering to arm an explosive using a detonator (see page 218). This takes 1 minute to connect the detonator and set the explosive. The DC of this check is typically 10. If you fail the check, you can attempt to arm the explosive again. If you fail the check by 5 or more, you trigger the explosive prematurely.
You can also attempt to build an explosive more difficult to disarm. To do so, choose a target disarm DC (the DC should be in an increment of 5, with a minimum DC of 15). This DC becomes your target DC to arm the explosive as well as the DC to disarm the explosive (see Disable Device below).
That means, to fail but not prematurely blow it up, Kai would need to a check of 15-20; to prematurely blow it up killing you all, Kai would need a check under 15, which isn't really possible. That means, the main question is whether or not Kai gets this done in one minute. Considering all hell is about to break loose, how fast Kai gets this done is kind of important.
Kai had been trailing behind; although life sciences were more Zellgato's field, the place was still fascinating and there are about a hundred hypotheses running through Kai's mind, all of them probably wrong.
"Hm? Ah, of course, the imp-... yes." Not knowing how much the demons could hear - or understand, Kai doesn't finish that sentence. No reason to forewarn their enemies of what was about to go down. Still, Kai pauses again. I've been spending too much time around these martial types, I'm starting to think in military terms.
With Legion shining a focused light on the delicate work, Kia begins to connect the detonator to the device the team had put together earlier.
Charles charges in with his blade, again switching hands so it's in his gauntleted hand before he slashes at another of the 'eggs'.
Nissa destroys one of the eggs and Charles destroys another. Six more emerge from the floor to replace them. There are now seven. One of them is growing on the wall instead of the floor.
When you get in close enough to attack the eggs, and with enough light, you can see through the milky white exterior and watch the demons growing in the goo inside. They grow fast enough for you to observe their growth. They start smaller than a quarter, but double their size in seconds and keep doubling their size. These ones might be growing even faster than the last ones.
Nissa destroys one of the eggs and Charles destroys another. Six more emerge from the floor to replace them. There are now seven. One of them is growing on the wall instead of the floor.
When you get in close enough to attack the eggs, and with enough light, you can see through the milky white exterior and watch the demons growing within the goo bath inside. They grow fast enough for you to observe their growth with the naked eye. They start smaller than a quarter, but double their size in seconds and keep doubling their size. These ones might be growing even faster than the last ones. Zellgato doesn't need to get close to see this. It shows up on his scans.
☀️☀️☀️
Nissa is a simultaneously fascinated and horrified by the demons super-fast growth. On the one hand, it’s like watching her own powers (reverting from microscopic to human-ish). On the other hand, it’s like killing babies—except these demons are NOT babies. They’re weapons.
Nissa open fires, but warns Theo and Charles, “Stay on one side of the enemy. As long as those eggs are clustered, I can blow ‘em all up!”
"that's quite a number..." comments Zellgato as he takes up a stationary position covering Kai's work.
Loading taking a moment to aim with his weapon, he tries to puncture several eggs to try and drain the fluid and slow the proccess.
If it hits. the eggs/whatever is in them get -1 to hit penalty and 1/2 move speed (all types).
Pierce and holy.
Pierce and holy.
Nissa open fires, but warns Theo and Charles, “Stay on one side of the enemy. As long as those eggs are clustered, I can blow ‘em all up!”
Theo back flips over near Charles, so Nissa can have firing room. The godling tries to slash a nearby orb.
Charles slashes at one 'egg' while clawing at another in his haste to reduce the number of enemies.
With every egg you blow up, three more emerge almost immediately. The eggs you don't blow up, double in size.
The black and red patterns on the floor shift quickly. If you were 30 feet in the air looking down, you might say it looks like an eye looking back and forth, panicky.
Greer pumps his boomstick and destroys another egg with a sonic blast. Three eggs form from the white goo that splatters across the room.
"Damn I should've taken a grenade! Zellgato calls out as he continues to fire. Focusing on any wounded or leftover from Charles and Theo's assaults, primarily focusing on following them up so they can direct their attention more.
if hit
if hit
Charles doesn't like this situation. The math is definitely not in their favor--he's not sure if it's better to deal with a few enemies sooner, or hope they can delay the eggs hatching until they leave. Given their lack of area attacks, he suspects the first.
"Not sure we can deal with this pattern!" he shouts. "Might be better to not keep tripling our troubles!"
Theo laughs knowingly. "Ha ha! The gods-dammed 'hydra' conundrum. Don't get much more classic than that."
"Set the bomb, and I'll provide cover as we escape!"
☀️☀️☀️☀️
Nissa is disappointed she can’t blow up those big eggs. She’d take out five but then fifteen would replace them.
However, when Theo speaks, there’s a glimmer of hope!
“Hydras keep growing heads. But they only get one heart!”
She doesn’t explain her hunch, which could be wrong anyway. She simply focuses on the black within the red. She points her gauntlet at its center, and her subatomic form passes through the fingertip…
…through the red goo…
…into the black!
Her body, now an impossibly small, possibly-fairy-shaped particle of sunlight, lands on an atom, and—
After her attack, Nissa’s body snaps back into her clothing! To her friends, is as if she never transformed at all. She simply pointed into the goo, and an explosion happened.
Nissa's plan works. Blasting the Tower itself gets a reaction. The black portion of the floor contracts and darts back and forth. Several of the smaller cyst-like eggs disappear, seeping back into the floor. The largest of the eggs seems to absorb their mass, increasing in size in turn. The tower isn't put all of its energy into one egg though; a few of the others grow as well.
Charles charges the largest of the eggs and stabs it with his blade.
"Good shot, it can't spawn these infinite I'd bet. Its only had a few Vrocks at a time. I bet it eats resources it uses to punch holes."
Following up on the options. Zellgato fires at the smaller egglets. Trying to forcely divert its attention from the singular egg. Starting from the smallest. Hoping perhaps his inhibitors would slow the growths, or use up resources shruging it off.