If the thing ignores Edwin and goes after Xindyra,
She'll spend 1 panache for a parry & reposte.
Previous round
In one swift motion Xindrya grabbed a vial from her pocket, uncorked it and downed the contents, grimacing at the cloying taste. A warm feeling spread from her belly and she felt her muscles loosening up as the world took on a golden tint. The idea of fighting this mutated horror suddenly seemed like a great idea!
Unfortunately the thing's maw batted past her defences including her attempt to parry it and bit down upon her.
This round
Dr Munroe dropped his crossbow as he remarked, "That's not going to cut it here, time to mix things up!" He pushed past Xindrya and ducked and rolled past the mutant with considerable grace, but one of it's snapping tentacles rapped him on the head as he rolled past.
<--- FAIL
<--- HIT
<--- FAIL
<--- Babble
Seeing nothing but stars, Dr Munroe sank into a defensive stance with his hands formed into fists. He babbled, "Woah! Tough guy eh? We'll see, oh flowers - beautiful flowers. I wonder what kind?"
Marek tracked the mutant's movements and as its attention was focused on Dr Munroe he loosed! The arrow grazed it's hide leaving a long mark that oozed blood.
<--- MISS
Enraged Xindrya lunged with her rapier, its point scraped along the beast's hide before piercing a fold of skin. The hide was too tough for it to sink in deeply although a trickle of blood leaked out of the wound.
Edwin's black blade sunk deeper although he too found the mutant's hide disconcertingly tough, still he left a nasty wound on it's left leg!
Zendara's arrow was well judged, jamming into a fold of skin between the legs and the mutant's abdomen.
Hoping for better luck, Yukarii repeated her spell but once again to her dismay the glowing missile fizzed scant inches from it's hide.
Bloodied now, the mutant lashed out with tail, tooth and tentacle! It tried to bite Edwin but he was far too slippery for it and stepped aside at the last moment.
<--- Miss
It's tail lashed out at Dr Munroe who still woozy from the tentacle strike to his head was slammed into the wall. Worse the prehensile tail snaked its way around his body and started to squeeze!
<--- HIT
<--- HIT
The snapping tentacles darted towards Xindrya who easily dodged one and parried the other. She stepped in closely and rammed the point of her rapier into it's exposed belly!
<--- MISS
<--- MISS
Environment: Normal brigntness near party
Buffs and Debuffs:
Mutated horror Grappled
Dr Munroe & Marek
Xindyra Mutagen
Edwin
Zendara
Yukarii
Mutated horror Grappled
Dr Munroe & Marek
Xindyra Mutagen
Edwin
Zendara
Yukarii
Damage Log:Round: 1
Xindyra was hit by Horror for 12 (total damage taken 12)Round: 2
Xindyra was hit by Horror for 13 (total damage taken 25)
Horror was hit by Xindyra for 5 (total damage taken 5)
Horror was hit by Marek for 3 (total damage taken 8)
Horror was hit by Edwin for 17 (total damage taken 25)
Horror was hit by Zendara for 7 (total damage taken 32)
Horror was hit by Xindyra for 9 (total damage taken 41)
Dr Munroe was hit by Horror for 4 (total damage taken 4)
Dr Munroe was hit by Horror for 8 (total damage taken 12)Totals:
Xindyra: 25 damage
Horror: 41 damage
Dr Munroe: 12 damage
COMBAT ORDER:
Mutated horror
Dr Munroe & Marek <----- WE ARE HERE
Xindyra
Edwin
Zendara
Yukarii
Xindyra, Edwin, Zendara and Yukarii are up.
Still singing, Zendara takes the time to carefully aim and shoot again.
(point-blank, inspire, bullseye shot)
(point-blank, inspire, focused shot)
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Edwin cried, "This thing is just wrong; such a creature shouldn't exist!" He kept slashing, trying to take advantage of the flank provided by Dr Monroe.
If the shield buffing alternative previously was not in effect, Xindyra does that planning, 5ft back and drink shield extract.
If it was allowed, followed up by a CLW.
5ft step back, move pull shield from belt, standard drink.
Yukarii cursed at her inability to pierce the things magical protections. Fortunately she had another idea of how to help. Yukari focused her mind on soothing thoughts and the pleasure of feeling whole calling golden energy to her hand. With that she moved forward and reached out to touch Xindyra's wound.
"Bally thing!" cursed Dr Munroe through gritted teeth as he was thrashed around by the mutant's tail. He hammered it with his fist leaving a welt the size of a dinner plate.
<--- HIT
<--- MISS
Marek couldn't get a clear shot, he tried guessing the direction the thing would move and guessed wrong.
<--- MISS
Smarting from several telling blows, Xindrya steps back and downs an extract and a translucent wedge of force appears in front of her, moving every witch-way to interpose itself between her and harm.
With a cry, Edwin lunges at the abomination and plunges his blade in deeply!
Tracking the things movements, Zendara loosed the moment it flinched from Edwin's attack. There was no opportunity for it to dodge but her arrow only barely pierced its thick hide.
Understandably not trusting in her ability to damage the aberration with spells, Yukarii instead chose to heal some of Xindra's wounds. With a word her hand gained a soft blue radiance and her lightest touch caused one of Xindrya's ribs to knit with an audible crack!
The thing's tail tightened around the poor Dr, slowly squeezing the life out of him.
With surprising reach the horror's jaws snapped shut scant inches from Xindray's neck. She managed to bat it away with her sword at the last moment before stabbing it retaliation. She hurt it but it but her rapier bent alarmingly as tore through the things inch thick hide.
<--- Miss
The snapping tentacles darted towards Edwin but the thing had misjudged the distance and they stopped well short of the agile little ratfolk.
<--- MISS
<--- MISS
Environment: Normal brigntness near party
Buffs and Debuffs:
Mutated horror Grappled
Dr Munroe & Marek
Xindyra Mutagen
Edwin
Zendara
Yukarii
Mutated horror Grappled
Dr Munroe & Marek
Xindyra Mutagen
Edwin
Zendara
Yukarii
Damage Log:Round: 1
Xindyra was hit by Horror for 12 (total damage taken 12)Round: 2
Xindyra was hit by Horror for 13 (total damage taken 25)
Horror was hit by Xindyra for 5 (total damage taken 5)
Horror was hit by Marek for 3 (total damage taken 8)
Horror was hit by Edwin for 17 (total damage taken 25)
Horror was hit by Zendara for 7 (total damage taken 32)
Horror was hit by Xindyra for 9 (total damage taken 41)
Dr Munroe was hit by Horror for 4 (total damage taken 4)
Dr Munroe was hit by Horror for 8 (total damage taken 12)Round: 3
Horror was hit by Dr Munroe for 10 (total damage taken 51)
Horror was hit by Edwin for 20 (total damage taken 71)
Horror was hit by Zendara for 5 (total damage taken 76)
Xindrya was healed by Yukarii for 12 (total damage taken 13)
Horror was hit by Xindrya for 9 (total damage taken 85)Totals:
Xindyra: 25 damage
Horror: 85 damage
Dr Munroe: 12 damage
Xindrya: 13 damage
COMBAT ORDER:
Mutated horror
Dr Munroe & Marek <----- WE ARE HERE
Xindyra
Edwin
Zendara
Yukarii
Xindyra, Edwin, Zendara and Yukarii are up.
Zendara shoots again, still singing to inspire everyone's courage.
(point-blank, inspire, bullseye shot)
(point-blank, inspire, focused shot)
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Edwin knew he had to get Dr Munroe out of the creature's clutches. He furiously slashed with his scimitar to free the professor.
Anyway,
Xindyra quickly reassesses the creature's form.
Dr Munroe continued to pound on the mutant's thick tail but he didn't seem to be doing much beyond adding new bruises.
<--- MISS
<--- HIT
Marek still couldn't get a clear shot, once again he guessed the direction the thing would move and guessed wrong.
<--- MISS
Xindrya however had been studying the things movements and guessed right, the point of her rapier sliding in a few inches despite bending alarmingly as before.
Edwin's form was a little sloppy as he swung his blade with terrible force but it counted none the less, leaving a deep cut in the mutant's thick hide.
Nobody had been able to to land any particularly telling blows, but the many small ones had added up and it collapsed in a thrashing heap on the floor, flinging poor Dr Munroe a good ten feet or so.
COMBAT OVER
Rather stiffly, Dr Munroe picked himself up, leaving bloodied handprints behind. He reached into an inner pocked and yanked out a hip flask, which he nimbly uncorked and downed. With that done he pulled out another strange looking vial and downed the contents of that too, this time a blueish glow flitted around him and his wounds vanished.
A little woozily he surveyed the monster, "I agree Edwin, something like that shouldn't exist. I mean what kind of a thing is that?! I uh hope this is not a sign of things to come!"
Zendara responded to the professor
Well, I don't think we should expect it to get better. That guy warned us. Do you want to continue?
Zendara offered to take point, hoping she could help the group avoid something like that again, or at least warn them... but she wasn't sure it would work. That thing had been so fast.
Nevertheless, she moved ahead of the group as silently as possible
scouting, and then reporting back, trying to keep everyone safe.
Edwin remained silent at Dr Munroe's statement. He suspected that more strange things were in store for them.
He suggested, "Let's heal up before we continue. We don't want to be hurt when we run into something else."
Once everyone had recovered he followed Zendara at a distance, since she was better at sneaking than he was.
Yukarii was relieved to see the professor survived the fight when the abomination finally ceased moving. At the mention of healing up she nodded and said, "I can do some healing if anyone needs it but I am limited in how much."
"Eh? We've come this far, let's not let some beastie - one we killed - frighten us off." replied Dr Munroe as he started walking deeper. It took another ten minutes of walking before something interesting was found, by which time the distant light from the entrance was no longer visible. By all rights the air should have been stagnant but there was a steady breeze coming from within, or as it turned out from below...
Edwin spotted it first, his eyes supremely adopted for subterranean environments. He noticed a circular room ahead and in the middle a great shaft running down. Either side of the entrance was the twisted remains of strange machinery. There was a pair of heavy tripods of sorts with a once square sheet of metal half an inch thick, which had melted and warped. There was a strange tube like thing sticking out of it which was also partially melted. Attached to the back of this was a sort of boxy metal contraption which had also partially melted.
Shyly to Yukarii, Marek noted, "Look at the field of view those two things have. If you had a pair of ballistas here you could hold off Ann army..."
Running his hand along the walls he added, "Something has knocked a bunch of chunks out of the walls and look on the ceiling and floor too. The rest of the tunnel has been so smooth, it's weird seeing this."
Possibly not the weirdest thing, the shaft going down seems to descend a loong way. There's a tiny pin prick of purplish light way below. The sides of the circular shaft are sheer, and very smooth. It's kind of alarming to walk close to, considering the depth.
Zendara sees a little box about a foot down, so she lays on her stomach to overcome the weird vertigo of being close to the really really deep hole, and reaches her arm down to open the lid.
Seeing the single glyph, she wonders if it is a warning like "danger" or a label, like "on" or "power" ... but, not wanting to debate it she warns
Back off just in case; I'm pushing a button.
then waits just a bit to make sure that people have time to follow her advice, and then she pushes it.
Edwin looked at the strange machinery, or what was left of it.
He would have liked to have a chance to examine the box in the shaft, but Zendara seemed determined to activate it; he quickly backed off 20 ft and got ready to duck.
I can do some healing if anyone needs it but I am limited in how much.
"You keep your reserves for now, i still have some things on me.", ad she uncorks a small flask.
, after which the last of her wounds close."That hit the spot."
Yukarii nodded in acceptance about keeping her healing in reserve, she had far more effective uses for the spells anyway if she could avoid having to heal people with them. She stood close to Marek and looked at the big boxes he mentioned and then looked carefully into the pit. Yukarii saw the glow too and backed away as Zendara said she would be pushing it. Yukarii realized that might not be a good idea and said, "Wait Zendara-san, do not push it yet. Come back here away from these strange markings and I will call out Yukaari to go push it for us."
Zendara thinks about the offer for half a second... some risk-prone part of her wanted to do it herself... but Yukarii's offer made more sense. She sat up and nodded, and then moved back with the others, waiting for Yukaari to push the button instead.
So Zendara backed off to what she assumed was a safe distance and allowed Yukarii's spirit half to press the button. Yukaari did as she was asked and glided over to the small box and with mild curiosity pressed the button.
Immediately a strange horn sounded followed by strobing orange-yellow lights which popped up out of the floor and then a very loud disembodied voice announced something in a language none of you have ever heard before.
With a rumbling that was felt in your boots, sections of the floor adjacent to the shaft sunk down causing several of you to jump back in surprise. A spiral staircase was revealed leading down, as you craned your necks over you noticed sections sliding smoothly out of the walls to complete the turnings below the top one. Disembodied lights lit the way below, revealing at least turns of the spiral staircase.
After perhaps thirty seconds of mechanical action the mechanism smoothly stopped and fell silent.
"Err. Wow!" gaped Dr Munroe, "I've never seen anything like that before..."
The stair case seems very firm, the lack of handrail is alarming but the metallic surface is a yard wide and textured. In theory falling shouldn't be a problem.
The distant purple-ish light at the bottom is still there.
The warm breeze from below is still blowing, it's faster if anything.
Kn: Engineering DC 20: This is amaaazing, beyond almost anything you've seen before - except perhaps for The Nautilus, that was a marvel as well, but it never did anything like this. You really really want to know how everything works!
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You see the tiefling's eyes grow wide with excitement.
"Whoa! What is this thing? I've just got to sketch this down.
Ohmygoshthisstuffisawesometosee!!!", she indeed goes about sketching in her journal from different angles.
Zendara grins. She agreed with Xindyra. This was amazing. As soon as the stairs aren't moving anymore, she starts down.
"Incredible work of engineering!", Edwin declared. "I've never seen anything like it!"
After carefully inspecting the staircase, he started downstairs.
Yukaari did a superb job, as she always did, but grumbled when she calmed down from the fright the ruckus caused, "I never get to push the good button."
For her part Yukarii felt some sympathy for her other self and when Yukaari came close reached out to put her arms around the ectoplasmic form. It was always stragne touching her other self like this but Yukarii did not let it show. Instead she pulled Yukaari closer and kissed her on the lips passionately in thanks.
While she made out with...herself, Yukarii and Yukaari looked at Marek teasingly for a moment. It was not long before Yukarii pulled Yukaari back into their mind once more. She linked an arm through Marek's and pulled him towards the revealed path down ready to follow the rest down if needed.
The group cautiously head down. At first this was exciting, especially considering the sheer drop, but after a while it became a boring slog.
"My legs are not looking forward to the return journey..." laughed Marek as he stopped to stare up the now distant entrance.
"Ha! You're not wrong there kiddo, but something tells me what's below will make it all worthwhile!" enthused Dr Munroe.
Huh. This place seems to be reacting to our presence. See the glowing script that is sort of following us? I wonder what it says. I hope not "intruder alert" or something.
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"Let's hope not."
The group descends further down the spiral staircase and now the strange script is more common, forming lines that snake down the walls. As you draw closer it lights up and grows fainter as you leave. None of you can read it but some of the characters are superficially similar to Hosaka island's script, albeit more complicated.
Jogging down now at a fair pace, Dr Munroe had sweat beading on his forehead as he laughed, "Not far now friends, history awaits! I think another couple of minutes will do it!"
It seemed a bit strange in the back of Zendara's mind to be rushing into anything archaeological, where patience persistence and careful attention to preserving history was paramount... but seeing Doctor Xavier so excited, she just dismissed that tickle at the back of her mind, grinned, and raced past him, intent on being first to the new find. This was going to be great! :)
Edwin was very excited at the prospect of the discoveries that they were on the verge of making. He could already imagine the prestige and fame that would surely come his way from this once-in-a-lifetime find! Her hurried as fast as he could down the stairs.
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"Race you to see it first!"
Yukarii followed her companions down the spiraling stairway and began to feel some unease as they went. The place felt wrong, unnatural, a feeling she knew far too well from her time as prisoner of that vampiress so long ago, that of a mausoleum. She was sure they did not belong here.
When her companions began to act oddly, like they were suffering a rush of anticipation and wanted to move ahead faster to reach their valuable goal Yukarii knew something was wrong. Yukaari had been pulled back inside her mind after pushing the button and her other self whispered in her mind that something seemed wrong here.
Yukarii cast a silent spell focusing on seeing the threads of magic and examined her friends under the spell as they began to rush forward. With her spell up she examined them as she said urgently, "Please, slow down, something is wrong!"
But no one was listening... Giggling, Dr Munroe sprinted down the last few turns with his arms out wide as if he was flying. Suddenly at the bottom everyone came to a halt, there was a wall on the far side with another monstrous steel door that had been ripped off it's hinges. Like the one at the entrance this thing was massive, a good yard of steel and it was bent.
Through the wrecked door poured neon purple light and good deal of fog which made it impossible to see what was beyond. A certain caution won out with everyone nervously sliding around before Dr Munroe shrugged and said, "Well come on then! We've come all this way, lets see what's beyond..."
You felt the temperature rise ten degrees or more as you walked through the portal and the on rush of air was startling but harmless. Inside everything was different. You got the sense of a large cavern that had suffered multiple serious rockfalls under which was the remains of the strangest city you've ever seen, or part of one.
Every surface was covered in glowing lights and glyphs. There were large surfaces with strange looking people's faces, and they where moving!
The floor was most peculiar, it was a wide black strip some sort of aggregate with lots of small black stones but it was as if they were suspended in something ever so slightly sticky that smelt strange a little line naphtha or a tar spring. It looked like it had been raining and this strange surface had a sort of oily sheen and the reflections of the lights and glyphs was actually quite pretty. Another weird thing, down the very centre of the wide strip was a dashed line seemingly made out of thick white paint.
The buildings where of all shapes and sizes, many seemingly defying gravity. Only small pocket was left due to the rockfalls but this place must have been indescribable before whatever calamity occurred.
Dr Munroe whistled, "Wow! Is this where the ancients lived?!"
Laughing and racing Xindyra, Zendara finally skids to a stop in front of the mangled steel door.
(pass)
Wow. I wonder who or what tore that door off... that is quite the feat...
(pass)
Those glowing lights and glyphs are programmed illusions it seems...
Wow. I wonder who or what tore that door off... that is quite the feat...
"Hmm...both unsettling and impressive at the same time."
"Indeed, the forces to bend the steel like that would be tremendous!"
"This place must have been amazing before the calamity. I can only surmise that the ancients possessed knowledge that has since been lost."
Dr Munroe gaped as he turned around on the spot looking at everything. Sounding elated and slightly daunted, Dr Munroe asked "Where to start first? Shall we try to find the ice room that Mr Lyrnz mentioned?"
Good idea, but... shouldn't we study where we are first? I mean... what's that green glowy thing?
Zendara wanders over to the green glowy thing to look at it.
"Yeah she's right what is that?" asked Marek pointing to a translucent green rectangle that was attached to a curious metal cylinder about six inches in diameter which rose twelve feet off the ground before an abrupt right angle where there was a short section leading to a strange looking light. The green rectangle seemed to be showing a repeating loop where a strangely dressed woman offered a box with weird characters on it. A bunch of other characters pop up before shuffling off to the side and after a bit the thing repeats.
"Look!" said Marek, "I can pass my hand through it, it lights my skin up but otherwise it's as if it's not there!"
You wander aimlessly for a bit around the strange and eerily quiet town, mesmerised by the bright lights. The area that you can get to isn't big, perhaps the size of a city block but there's tons of high-rise buildings. Most of the doors are shut, without visible locks or handles but there are a few that have button blocks that bare some resemblance to the ones Xindrya was good at decoding on The Nautilous.
The city is full of strange writing, this frustrated Dr Munroe no end who was keen to read it. Still he started methodically sketching the glyphs in the hopes that one day scholars would be able to decipher it. He was studying a sign attached to a pole in the street, like the one Marek pointed out when it seemed to have some sort of malfunction. "Woha look at that!" he cried pointing at the sparks and the thick black smoke that followed as the display fizzled, wavered and vanished.
As you discuss this unexpected happening a strange thing occured, a small flap opened up out of the side of a near by building (or perhaps shop) out of which came a quadrupedal mechanical device the size of a large house cat. It ignored you as it moved towards the malfunctioning pole, which it climbed up with remarkable agility.
"Fascinating!"[b] exclaimed Dr Munroe, [b]"Lets see what it does..."
Half way up the pole, it manipulated a hatch you'd not seen before and suck for want of a better word a mechanical paw in. There was a bright series of sparks and a sound of fizzling, and after a bit it closed the hatch and did the same to one furtherer up and to everyone's surprise the sign suddenly re-appeared.
"What do you know, it fixed it!" mused the entranced Professor.
The mechanical quadruped then circled you twice before heading in a direction that lead further into the city.