Lord hathaway has had it with this thing.
"There are older and deeper gods that you need permission from before you seek to end humanity.
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Does, that not ring any bells.
"
"You think I owe something to the King in Yellow? Has your condition so separated you from your connection to this world. The King is an invasion, an infestation. He seeks to destroy, to enmadden. I do not seek power for my own gratification. He is chaos incarnate. I am order, unity. Is this what has caused you so much pain. You say that you are connected, but you, Hathaway, are separated from your perception of the world. I could heal that. I could show you colors, and colors most have never seen. I could make you feel again. The caress of the breeze on your skin. The touch of a lover. The warmth of a latte spreading through your chest. The pinch in your noise when you need to sneeze. So much you have lost. I could give it back to you."
Tendrils of the vines covering the floor and walls reach out toward Hathaway enticingly.
As she speaks, the pool spills forth tendrils, vines, flowers. The vegetation, clearly infested with disease ridden growths , wraps together to from the body of a voluptuous woman nearly 20 feet tall. She has the head, torso, and arms of a human woman, covered as though she is wearing some sort of vegetation suit. Her lower body dissolves into a tangle of roots and vines.
Hathaways force rubble pushes him back.
”Now we get to it, chaos and law in extremes are indistinguishable from each other. The king seeks all to be the same in change and you seek all to be the same in similarity!! You have not through it though have you. Not realised just what you are! YOU ARE THE END, THE END OF EVOLUTION!!! The very nautical balance of law and chaos, stability and change ENDs with YOU!! Your not freedom you’re sterility, just as he is. Both of you two sides to the same coin. Nature!! Needs to alter us, it’s needs stability to grown and change to grow again!! There is NO true change with you, just a single form for ever, no True growth with YOU! It that ENDs with YOU! natural, evolution cant be mimicked any single mind, it is to vast to encompassing, life must be free all stay or change. And you are not that you are an end to nature !”
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Now Hathaway is angry his mind pushing her physically away.
”For you to be part of nature, you, yourself would have to end to make room for nature to carry on, The old ends so nature’s new can take its place, And you are not that, you are an end to tjat, So I name you! I name you! “
Now he points and his voice and mind both project
”ANTI-NATURE!!”
Psionic power readiates form Hathaway, his real power, he is blind, his body dose not feel, but his mind has taken the place of his senses. He touches each of you with his mind. Then his mind reaches out beyond in to the great planes
"I call on the greater gods for aid, those who would defend nature and the great balance. I, Hathway grey lord of balance seek your aid now!"
On another level of being, the beautiful psychic form of Hathaway calls out. In the distance, strange energies move in psychedelic patterns.
Back in the worlds we know, gust of wind with no source rushes into the ziggurat from the entrance behind you. The fronds and tendrils, the vines on the walls and ceiling, the twisting vines of the Mother's body are all blown back. But then the wind subsides.
The heat and humidity settles on you like a weighted blanket. All is still.
The mother laughs, a wet, scraping sound. "Hah. Your gods abandoned this place long ago. They were afraid to be so close to me. Afraid that they would realize I was the answer to a question they could barely------"
And just as hope begins to falter, thunder tears the air apart. A pulse of energy shudders through the massive stones of the ziggurat. And then they come.
A shaft of golden light erupts from the heavens, igniting the air around Sehkmet. The battlefield trembles as the lion-headed goddess manifests behind her avatar, immense and radiant. Her mouth opens, and a roar like a solar flare cracks stone.
She places a clawed hand on Sehkmet’s shoulder.
“BURN AWAY THE ROT. CLEANSE THIS PLACE.”
Sehkmet glows with renewed fire. Her claws burning with solar wrath, her presence magnified tenfold.
The wind reverses like an inhalation. Feathers of jet black and silver spiral into being as Isis, serene and regal, emerges behind the Mummy’s Bride. Her eyes are ancient, her wings outstretched. Her voice is a whisper in your bones. [b]"You are death, and you are renewal. Let none withhold from the world that which should be returned.”
The Mummy’s Bride is surrounded by spectral light—her desiccation complimented by elegance and divine grace. Her amulet burns with magic long thought lost.
The thunder resolves into a shadow that is not shadow at all...wings the size of clouds, lightning dancing along their edges. Thunderbird, avatar of storms and judgment, spreads its wings behind Hathaway.
It bows its beaked head, letting crackling eyes meet the blind phantom’s gaze.
“You are mind. You are balance. You are the storm’s eye. But still there is the storm. Rage like the storm.”
Electricity surges through Hathaway’s mind and soul. His voice carries like thunder.
Behind Hyde, two golden masks appear, floating back to back, spinning as the angry and smiling faces take charge. Janus, the god of beginnings and endings, the two faced god, shows forth. He is serene and furious. [b]"To be many is not weakness and division. It is power. Allow your two selves to show forth and you will become the edge of the future."
Behind Harker, a light glows, cold, blue, and ancient. Hecate stands at the crossroads of moonlight and shadow, one hand bearing a torch, the other resting on the hilt of a ghostly blade.
She reaches toward Harker, her hounds silent at her feet.
“You have walked paths no man survives. You do not seek power, yet it clings to you. Go forward with my blessing."
Her torch touches Harker’s back and his blood flares silver. The vampire becomes a beacon of spectral fire, a sentinel between life and death.
The gods speak together, "Long ago, we imprisoned this one here in hopes that she would gain perspective and learn to live in our company. But she remains incalcitrant. She is beyond reconciliation. Finish this."
Hathway now in the Storm phantom’s form hovers on wings of electrical power.
”ANTI-NATURE!! prepare to meet your end!."
He Says as his lightning strakes out seeking to burn away the vines she had sent to intiace him.
Aches to lighting crash down on the stones and vines, As Hathaway is reeved in lightning where his blind eyes now glowed with white light. His mind empowered by the Thunderbird he takes its from. Looking to his clawed hands then left and right seeing his fellow aviators and the forms they take.
IMAGE: Hathaway Avator of the Thunderbird -Inazuma
Jonathan always feels quite insignificant and cursed with undeath when he compares himself to the members of the Regiment who are avatars of gods. Until today. With his classical education, he of course knows the Greek god Hecate and is pleasantly surprised to known by Her. Let alone to be blessed by Her.
His blood flares silver with possibilities. He imagines burning the vegetable body of the elder being with necrotic flames. The vampire swings a ghostly blade that is wreathed in silver flames which blast toward the Mother of Monsters.
The Mummy Priestess speaks in two voices at once. "You ask for obeisance. To leave the cycle. To become your own cycle. You insist upon destroying loneliness. But in the fever you mistake for unity, all you do is create the ultimate loneliness. We are part of the community of the world. You have nothing of value to offer. Join the cycle... Or be returned to it."
She incants a spell, adding her healing energies to Harker's attack. It is a spell to drive away disease, in other words to bolster the weakening effect on the virus.
"Now this I can understand," Hyde comments as she swings at the woman.
(DC 25)
Silver Fire: Affliction 10 (1st degree: Dazed, 2nd degree: Stunned, 3rd degree: Paralyzed, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 20; Incurable, Reach (melee) 8: 40 ft.)
Silver Sword: Weaken 10 (divine, fire, magical, Affects: Fortitude, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 20; Incurable, Linked: Silver Fire: Affliction 10, Reach (melee) 8: 40 ft.) This is a fire that burns/dries the vegetation body of the Mother, drying and charring it so that she cannot move or act.
The fire pours over the Mother's plant flesh, leaving a layer of charred plants behind. For a moment, it appears she might succumb, but her muscles ripple beneath the char, casting off the dead material, revealing equally strong plant life beneath.
Hyde rushes in to punch the Mother's trunklike base, slamming massive fists into the bark, to no avail.
The vines snaking through the chamber convulse and reach for the team, wrapping around legs, arms, weapons, climbing up you like a time lapse video of plants growing.
The force around hathway protectes him but untill he burns the vines away there is little he can do to stop them
Jonathan casually steps through the vines. "Let's try that divine fire again." And sends another gout of silver flames toward the Mother.
Sorry for the delay. I've been quite sick the last few days. Should make a proper post tomorrow
[dice=Dodge]1d20+2
Sorry for the delay. I've been quite sick the last few days. Should make a proper post tomorrow
The Mother shrugs off the silver fire, charring but still strong.
"You think to burn me with Hecate's moon-flame?! I am the rainforest verdant, fire is nothing but cleansing and restoration..."
The Mummy's Bride, now Priestess resplendent, collapses into sand. The cloud of sand pulls away from the viny restraints, and flows toward the Mother of Monsters.
Woo hoo!!
Sehkmet embraces the power of her true form (the actual Sehkmet) and decides that this situation calls, not for subtlty, but for raw violence
She decides to hit with a flurry of blows (Extra Effort for additional standard action, Hero point to remove fatigue).
And she knows it is going to be hard to hurt her. She'll take a -3 to hit for a +3 to damage
"You claim to be a God. Time to face a REAL God"
She will attempt a Feint as a move action using Acrobatics (Agile Feint) and Skill Mastery
Feint = 20+10-5 = 25 vs Perception (I think). If successful, target is vulnerable
Toughness Save DC 30
Touchness Save DC 30
If either grab succeeds, opponent takes -5 to escape (Improved Hold)
Both attacks come with a free grab if they actually hit
The Mummy's Bride, now Priestess resplendent, collapses into sand. The cloud of sand pulls away from the viny restraints, and flows toward the Mother of Monsters.
Hathaway stands there sparking electricity around him, the vines had around him hitting the orb of his force field. Hathaway will burn away the vines around his orb of his force field so he can't act this round DC25 to counter his Electrical burn effects.
Sehkmet's claws sink into the viny flesh of the Mother, holding on like a jaguar climbing a tree.
New Round
Struggling in the clawed grasp of Sehkmet, the Mother convulses and long thorns break through her skin, spreading outward from her through the outstretched vines.
Hyde struggles against the vines holding her, but it is in vain.
Enjoying the blessing of a goddess (as opposed to the curse that he has felt that god has inflicted upon him all these years), Jonathan continues to channel the sacred flames attempting to feel the heat and closer to the divine. "Burn baby! Burn!" And sends another gout of silver fire toward the Mother.
As Sehkmet holds her, Harker's flame pours over the Mother's body. She burns and blackens, a crust of char forming on her skin. He previously pliable form is now frozen in carbon.
Jonathan smiles when the Mother finally crusts over into her makeshift tomb. He finally felt warmth. He had not felt warm since the vampire had killed and transformed him. The feeling was an old memory from when he lived. And, he had forgotten how good it felt.
Jonathan nods his head and whispers a benediction to the divine goddess who selected him, "bless you, Hecate."
The vampire turns to his Monster Regiment and asks for consensus, "Where is the vault that we need to put her in? That is generally how this works."
So, -1 on future toughness saves.
"Perhaps we can just kill her once and for all? If we all hit her at once and combine our powers, especially our divine influences, perhaps that would be enough"
"We need to separate her from Cassandra," Helen observes. "I suggest we deal with that first, before dealing with the spirit of the Mother. Lady Sekhmet, if we join your healing power with that of Isis's, perhaps we can drive her apart from the Mother, much as I was able to do before... but on a more divine scale."
"That certainly seems like a good idea"
Whatever she once was, this Mother of Monsters now primarily acts through a novel retrovirus, a tiny bit of DNA altering the function of cells in a wide variety or organisms.
The healing fire of Isis and Sehkmet cares not about the molecular structure of the disease. At a macro and micro level, the light washes over and through the grown body of the Mother of Monsters. Vines are pulled apart and shriveled. Protein strands are pulled apart in just the same way.
Where strange hybrid cells existed, the pinkish flood of color reveals animal cells rebuilt.
As the crust of burned bark and vine cracks and falls away. An attractive woman lies within , her blonde hair glowing in the healing light.
It occurs to you that Wells was looking for unique DNA in the rainforest, unique biologics that could cure diseases and heal the world.
The Mother wasn't a disease. The Mother just wanted a form that she could use to exist in the world. She gave Wells what she was looking for, and Wells gave her a form that made sense in the modern world.
Hathaways body cleans itself of infection, her near imortailty ability doing so but the form he is stays, as the Avator form of the Thunder-Bird dissipates, it was not holy gone, he could feel it now deep down in his being, it had changed him, you channel a form like that and it changes you. IT had him, but for now the fight was over. And it had restricted,he would explore who he had become later, right now, he becomes once more the blind and horribly disfigured lord.
He walks over to the prone womans and taking off his jacket he lays it over her nude form. Then checks to see if she still lives.
Seeing Hathaway checking on the unconscious lady, Jonathan sheathes his glowing sword and starts to look around for anything to ensure that the Mother can be sealed away or to confirm Her destruction.
He offers, "Well done, Helen and Sekhmet. The irony that they declared the Mother the cure is overwhelming."
"Well, from their point of view they weren't wrong. When I see what mankind has done with this world, a part of me agrees with them. Fortunately, only a very small part but still . I think they are more to be pitied than hated. Just as one can pity a serpent but still is forced to kill it or capture it"
"Hmmm," Hyde remarks, clearly disappointed that there had not been more punching.
Hathaway finds that Dr. Wells is still. She is restored to her natural form, but the transformation has taken a toll on her. She does not appear to be breathing.
Harker sees and smells that the disease is still present. It would appear that this form of the Mother is resilient, at least for now. In the ancient past, she must have taken the form of a Titan or similar proto-goddess, but in these times she has taken on a different form of horror.
Jonathan offers to his companions, "I still see and smell the disease, so the Mother appears to be in a new form within the corpse of Dr. Wells."
"Hathaway? Can you contact HQ? We need an infectious disease team to secure Her... unless the goddesses of healing can resurrect Dr. Wells and eradicate the disease?"
The vampire walks toward the Gill-man and calls to him, "Where is my friend? Your predecessor?"
