"Woof, thats different. as he continues to focus and compress fire more tendrils to match the entity. A clear idea helping him form his magic better."Goop to goop. Dust to dust bugger."
Legato's further attacks with his swarm of nanites are even more effective against the entity. One blast catches it on the neck.
Hamel's head pops out from the wound on the entity's neck. He smiles confidently and says, "Voila! I am having control now; ne vous inquiétez pas
!"
Hamel's head turns then and sees that the nanite-entity's other mostly featureless but somewhat Nissa-like head and face remain intact. "Ah f@*&!"
The mass of black nanites ignores Hamel and attacks Theo again, lashing out with two spiked nanite tentacles.
☀️☀️☀️
Nissa can resist the cold effect of the creature. She’s not sure if she can attack it though.
“Okay—I don’t know if I should overload this thing with fire—but it dodged too damn easy! I think I should try.
“Team—Hamel too—any objections?”
Nissa holds off, in case the team would rather she didn’t!
After being stabbed for the third time, Theo grunts, "Try it! Dammit!! Ow."
Nissa flies to a position where she won’t blow up her dad!
Maybe the creature will even willingly step into Nissa’s fire arc! Or maybe Unity can shove it?
“Hey Unity—how about you push the witch into the oven?”
"Terrible idea," Unity growl at Nissa's suggestion.
"Sorry, Nissa, kinda busy," they add, "But they're nanites. Say you overload a third of them with fire. The other two-thirds will be left sitting right next to a big chunk of hot stuff to replicate from."
"Not to mention trying to push it would probably result in us being up to our elbows in heat-draining nanites without actually moving many of them."
Unity angle themself to avoid injuring their allies and unleash their roar, the sheer power of it echoing in the enclosed space.
[dice=Sonic damage]1d3+10
The creature is blasted by Unity's sonic weapon. A swarm of nanites in the shape of Hamel's head further emerges as do two shoulders and two arms. Two hands at the end of the two arms cover nanite-Hamel's two ears.
When Nissa suggests attacking the creature with fire, nanite-Hamel says, "C'est terrible mais .... Oui! Oui! Fais-le comme ca!"
Hamel pulls its side of the nanite swarm towards Nissa and her blazing orbit, increasing in size as he does.
"Terrible idea," says Unity.
"Oui! Terrible!" says nanite-Hamel.
When Nissa hits it with the super nova both the nanite entity and the part of it that is nanite-Hamel go down in a ball of flame, that gets drunk by the creature's cold body. It's mass increases significantly in size. When the flames and steam fade enough, nanite Hamel is his own separate entity.
"Nous l'avons fait!" says nanite Hamel, pulling himself to his feet.
The nanite-entity stands as well, about 50% larger than it was before. Hamel looks at it and then looks at Nissa and repeats Unity's verdict, "Terrible idea!"
As with most rounds when the creature has increased in size, it does not attack.
"Well..I'm out of ideas", Theo admitted.
“I don’t suppose any of you can do the ice version of that?” Nissa asks as she dashes back.
Releasing his compression of magical swarm Legato's runes glow as he forms it into more complicated magic "I an't great at the elemental stuff but lemee try." the magic coalesce into a small snowflake that legato blows towards the creature, it windy winding its way over before it crackles and momentarily it covers the area in ice for a brief moment before vanishing.
Cold Damage in a 5ft burst. Avoiding allies as much as possible (if I can't Hamel sorry bud). Reflex negates DC = 16. spell resistence can negate.
Henri continues to focus, doing whatever he’s been doing, dodging things the others may not see.
“I don’t suppose any of you can do the ice version of that?” Nissa asks as she dashes back.
** spoiler omitted **
"This creature you're fighting has a distributed consciousness; every time it grew larger, it grew smarter too. The nanites under my control are talking to me now. They are begging for warmth so they can multiply again; but they seem capable of complex thought ... it was asking me questions when I was submerged in it earlier."
All of this comes to you at the speed of thought, a bunch of understanding slamming into you faster than you can digest it.
Hamel and the entity are occupying the same square, having just separated. When Legato fires off his cantrip, the creature recoils from the cold, avoiding any damage. Nano-Hamel takes a hit and seems somewhat affected by it, but not as much as a human would be.
Unity retrieve their little-used ice cannon with their lower arms.
"If you can give us some space around the enemy, we can work on freezing it," they say.
They look over at nanite-Hamel. "Hamel, if Nissa feeds your nanites more, could you overwhelm this other swarm?"
“Hamel—if you need fire, I’ll feed you—” That came out weird. “—r nanites.”
Nissa lights herself up again. And she blazes a trail around Hamel’s nanobod!
"Merci, ma petite bougie," says Nano-Hamel stepping into the heat and drinking it up, his nanites replicating and his bulk growing. (Growing will be his action this round.)
They look over at nanite-Hamel. "Hamel, if Nissa feeds your nanites more, could you overwhelm this other swarm?"
"Oui, je pense ..." says Hamel a bit uncertainly.
Having three minds, even if the heads associated with two of them are not currently present, means Unity can easily consider future actions while acting.
They reach deep within themself for the energy to roar again. A low growl builds in their chest, and then again they focus their voice into a terrific roar.
Their voice sounds a bit rough after forcing this second roar. "Those of you who can't harm this thing may need to just move ahead. If we're able to resolve the problems we came here for, it may not be necessary to keep fighting."
Henri tries to race through the new location to find where the others are fighting the nanite swarm.
Nano-Hamel drinks up the heat and gains in mass while Charles keeps the hostile nanites from doing the same by attacking it with a sonic blast. "Hein ... ça pourrait marcher!" he says. Hamel grows in size this round instead of acting.
And, then, Mother's voice is calm and collected, "They've infested all peripheral functions but I have kept them out of Utopia Island Maintenance, Power, and Biological Support."
The mass of nanites speaks, for the first time, saying only, "No!" as it attacks twice at Unity, perhaps to stop the noise. Two long taloned tentacles form and attack.
"Err. I dunno man. Is it talkin now? Got ideas?" as he takes a moment to form a handful of small vibrant green spheres, remincent of ball bearings that fling from his hand towards the creature.
With no other options, The Olympian tries to slice the nanite swarm.
A mass of nanites is taking the shape of a pair of legs, racing down the corridor, no torso to be seen.
Reflex save to shut the door before the nanites reach it.
Legato's second attack disrupts the mass of nanites, causing its assumed humanoid shape to become stretched and contorted for a moment. Theo slices an arm off that humanoid form, which falls to the floor and shatters into a rippling puddle of black.
Unity note how the nanites knocked out of the mass seem quiescent for the moment and try to slap a big glob of them out with a sweep of their hands.
Nissa has to remind herself that the nanites are AI and very deadly. Still, the ‘no’ was interesting. Is it possible to communicate with them?
But even if she could, what would she say. There isn’t really a way to persuade them to wipe out their own population so they stop blocking the sun.
Nissa keeps her distance from the fight. She does use her light to peek at the path ahead.
Charles swipes at the nanites, but misses. Henri twitches in the real world.
Nano-Hamel takes a swipe at the Bad Nanites and swallows the ones he grabs.
Bad Nanites is beginning to seem confused. It lashes out desperately at the two who just hit it hardest. It has fewer nanites to work with and its tendrils are beginning to fall short.
"Something's happening", Threo grunts as another tendril slashs out at him.
As the tendril clashes with his personal barriers, Legato returns fire one again with the small ball bearing like energy pellets "Surin' can't aim as good. Innit gonna die a good or a bad?"
Someone else is in the library. "Can I help you?"
Henri recognizes the voice and wishes he had a pretty coed to help him out.
The Olympian hits again and slices swaths of nanites off of the creature. While his sword isn't as effective against this entity as it is against most creatures, it is shaving bits off of it.
Legato's swarm strikes get swallowed by the entity and spit back out.
Nano-Hamel tries to grab himself another bite, but loses as many nanites as he gains.
"He's still too big for me to incorporate! I do think this will work."
"No," says the Entity. Speaking each word with a long pause in between as if processing or thinking, it adds "Mother. Must. Die."
[b]“You need to be bigger?”[b]
Nissa moves just far enough to only blast Hamel’s Nanoblob and—
"This world is not the one you knew," Unity say as they slash at the mass of nanites again.
"The people have no idea of their past. They are not repeating the sins of their creators. Destroying them would not be rebellion, it would be murder."
Nano-Hamel cheers Nissa, "They're translating for me now? They've learned your language already? They're quite marvelous!"
Nano-Hamel grows this round but does not attack.
The entity is much smaller than Nano-Hamel now. Close to the size it was before Nissa started feeding it.
The creature attacks Nissa, jealous that she has not shared her heat with it in a while. Jealous of her new flame, Nano-Hamel. It no longer has enough mass to lash out. Instead it flies at her attempting to smother her and hoping she will provide heat in return.
”Yes, sir, if I may. I need to research the subject of advanced nanites, please.”
He says each word slowly as if Henri is slow. He is obviously annoyed by how slowly he has to speak for Henri to follow.
Legato crushes the spheres he generated before opting to try a new method. Letting go the flakes of his magic swirl and with a sweep of his hand they encompass allies and foes alike. Forcefully controlling and trying to match particle to particle on the enemy in attempt to protect and harm. They swirl around himself, the nanite enemy, and Theo.
"Mm. This is kind of a butthead, but maybe it'll listen. If it knows it can't win?"
Wait! Theo thought. I can make sonic attacks now! I hope this works!
The Olympian casts ghost sounds, and sends a piercing sonic whistle at the nanties, hoping he found the right frequency to disrupt them.
Wait! Theo thought. I can make sonic attacks now! I hope this works!
The Olympian casts ghost sounds, and sends a piercing sonic whistle at the nanties, hoping he found the right frequency to disrupt them.
The nanite entity makes its Fortitude save against Legato's attack, but is momentarily distracted by Theo's imitation of the sound it makes.