Leaver GM gonna leave. :O
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I like the art style on your art, Kaussek, where do I recognize that rune from?
If it makes you feel any better, he also wants you to cut him free while he squirms away from you. :P
"I do not normally stay engaged for so long." Aisha says to no one in particular, "But I have already ruined my pattern." As she forms a starknife in her hand once more, she lashes out at the troll, a nearly perfect strike! She jams the blade upwards, deep into his torso, before pulling the blade back out with a squelching noise. "We are presently in the process of saving you. We will untie you after the things trying to eat you are dead. My name is Aisha, what is yours? Are you injured? Marcus passes for a doctor if you are injured."
When the first troll goes down, Aisha turns her attention to the other trolls, head tilting as she notes that the troll combating Marcus has wounds that are slowly healing over. She darts rapidly to the southwest towards Lyon to get a clear shot at the troll, slowing as she sees Kaussek appear across from her. She watches for a bare moment as she forms a new starknife, still out of reach of the bipedal monster, roiling light and dark coalescing into the familiar form. Wasting no time, she hurls it end-over-end at the exposed flank of the creature.
My turn is pretty much determined by what Kaussek does, so I'm holding out for that before I post, sorry for the delays.
Aisha watches Lyon's gun kersplode with flames and deadly bullets that hit vulnerable points on the enemy, paying more attention to her than the foes for a moment, before lowering the gun and conjuring up another starknife as she darts towards the fleeing troll. As she begins to slow in preparation of her next action, brilliant silver energy shoots down the centerpoints of her starknife illuminating the weapon as she hurtles it end-over-end towards the fleeing troll.
Alright then. Lyon: Will you carry the cyclops book and the urn in the bag? :P
Marcus: Will you carry the cyclops book and the urn in the bag?
"I do not know whether or not I am edible." Aisha responds as she darts away, moving into a crouched stance, 'Rock under left hand, grass under right, duck shaped cloud overhead.' before darting back forward, to frustratingly out of reach with the enemies. As she does, she draws the new revolver she had pilfered from the hobgoblin. There's an audible click, and a fzzt as she covers the ground... a starknife of roiling light builds in her hand, but she raises the revolver and with a resounding crack like thunder, fires her first shot. It is terribly unimpressive. "Mine doesn't work like yours." Aisha remarks to Lyon.
"It's not right here... but we killed a giant spider yesterday or the day before. If you follow the path he probably came down, there should be enough food for a few days." Aisha offers. "Too much for us to carry to you. We're going up the mountain, so you know we'll have to come back down this way if we're lying. Unless there is an alternate way down. Is there an alternate way down?"
As Lyon begins to move past her, Aisha gives a small shrug and begins to move along with her, slipping off the trail to have some measure of cover against whatever was happening above. There wasn't enough time for talking, anyway, given that there was a man in need of rescuing, probably!
"There is someone asking for something bad to stop, and I think there are maybe more ogres?" Aisha whispers to Lyon, "Or maybe just something with a really deep voice. We should aid them quickly."
"Yes, that does seem wise." Aisha agrees. "Do we wish to be sneaky, or move quickly?"
Aisha reports on what she sees from up above, taking a bit of extra time to sweep the trees near the clearing, looking for more wasp nests, before climbing down. "It is a shame that they have moved away. I could have fired on them from cover with the bow. The likelihood of landing a shot would be low, but the likelihood of being seen would also be low, forcing them to fall back, or move forward to attack." Aisha says to the others, as she looks around the treeline, stowing the spyglass she'd remade.
Aisha puts a finger to her lips, mutters something, and points to Lyon, before scrambling up the nearest tree, growing her claws once more to reach the top. She draws out her spyglass from her belt pouch and peers into the distance, towards the spot they'd previously fought, before raising the spyglass to her eye. She'd keep Lyon abreast of what she saw from the top of the treeline, at least for now.
"It isn't criticism, it is advice. Many adventurers move together from a young age... some do not join others until later in life. Learning to work together is not always easy for them." Aisha responds, turning her head so he's within view of her hood, "Do they itch?"
Aisha just stares at him silently for a moment longer... before saying perfectly matter-of-fact, without a trace of annoyance. "Multiple people can work together in order to try to figure out an aura. Like Melira attempted to do with us earlier. Any magical item we find that goes unidentified is potentially a dead companion, for lack of a horseshoe nail. Please, in the future, assist others in identifying items." And with that, she spider-crawls over the balcony edge and straight down the column, leaving the armor, and letting Lyon take the bag and masterwork weapons, but taking the revolver downstairs with her, along with one of the bullets. "Is this weapon of interest to you, or should we find someone else to utilize it... possibly me?"
Aisha looks over her shoulder, the look on her face literally inscrutable as it was fully hidden by her garb. She stares at Kaussek for a long moment... unless her eyes are wandering, "You are able to identify magical items?"
Aisha picks up the gun and dumps the bullets out almost immediately, puzzling out exactly how the thing works, and is completely lost to Kaussek casting his spell as she twirls the thing around, and spins the cylinder. She kneels down, scooping one of the bullets up curiously, her keratin nails elongating once more as she attempts to pull the bullet apart to get at its inner workings, sitting with her legs up to her knees, somehow looking perfectly comfortable in that position without supporting herself at all. After a few moments, she gives up on pulling the bullet completely apart, finding it to be mostly sealed, with no good places to find prize with her built-for-climbing nails, and returns to her focus on the gun. "I'll have to figure out how this works before I can reliably create ammunition for it, I think. But if no one else wants it, I could use it, I believe. I should also empty my backpack tonight before we sleep. There are a great deal of heavy things that we shouldn't pack back up the mountain in case we find other things of use."
"We should have your dwarf acquaintance come here." Aisha says as she slips into place beside Lyon with the note, having done a circuit of the building. "There is another body that needs buried, but it is locked within a cell. I do not speak whatever language is written there." she says, calmly, "But it doesn't seem very long so maybe with a bit of time and effort we could piece it together, regardless." she offers... flinching at the sound of crunching bone as Kaussek finishes off the last of the family - assuming Marcus didn't intervene.
"They're down." Aisha whispers through her message to Marcus, as she turns away from the pair, quickly moving through the upper story, searching the cells for anything of interest and any particular dangers. She ignored the gear of the fallen for now, being much more interested in simple investigation rather than 'looting' as it were. Her legs elongate once more as her suit rearranges itself for quickened movements.
Aisha darts around the upper floor, moving swiftly past the hobgoblin who was now on the floor... and wall... and ceiling. Curious! Unfortunate, perhaps, as well. Not so much because these could have been saved, or that they had anything worth taking, but moreso because it was the ending of a story... at least somewhat. Why was this family even here? Were they a family?
Moving just nearly into a flanking position, Aisha slows just long enough to allow the stark-white energy from her suit to flow into the starknife she'd formed in her hand, dragging the blade horizontally through the air as the blades sweep towards the shamaness.
I'm here and cool to continue the scene.
Aisha darts towards the nearest column, her features shifting to give her back her elongated claws as she digs her reinforced nails into the columns holding up the second story balcony, she skitters up as quickly as she can manage before reaching the top and building a starknife of roiling energy. Just as she drag it through the air towards him, frost darts down the center of each blade tip like sleet, chilling blood as it bites - if it bites.
Aisha peers down over the top of the back door, "Perhaps you could use your traps again, rather than simply holding the door?" Aisha suggests via whisper, before refreshing her spell, and clambering back to the front door and down, shifting back into walk-mode. "Blinding or disarming. Either will be effective against a gunman. If we can remove his weapon, he will be at a significant disadvantage. All the better if we can do so in a more permanent fashion. What sort of magics did the 'shaman ogre' utilize previously?"
I worry that if we split up to flank, we'll wind up isolating half of the party with our foe while the other half is on its way. If that half has Marcus, Marcus is probably dead before any of us can even arrive. I also worry that jails are generally designed to have a lot of enclosed spaces, so we'll have difficulty bringing ourselves to bear at all. Complications! Edit: Lyon gets a star!
Aisha does her quick loop, turning her question into a rhetorical one, before pointing to Marcus and casting her message spell. "There is a back door that we should wedge shut. I will look atop for any other ways in or out." she says, causing her body to articulate once more. Her legs straighten, and the keratin spikes elongate down her fingertips, having shifted into her climbing form, she clambers easily up the side of the building, moving quietly around up top.
"I do not have any use for the jail, but no. Do not burn it down. The city will have need of it and burning down a building to kill one or two foes is... unwise." Aisha says, looking over the building. "Do you wish for me to do a quick loop around and over to look for alternate exits? Not all of us should go in at the same time."
"That is the way that abjuration is advertised by wizards, yes. But in my experience it has only been 'don't let them do the thing they want to do' if they are a spellcaster. For example, Mage Armor, a spell that is generally utilized to protect a creature's body from damage by creating armor of pure force, is a conjuration spell. The rules of the universe are sometimes... silly." Aisha says with a snerking noise as she moves to follow out after the others. Once Marcus begins looking for new tracks, she does so as well, looking around steadily and slowly. "We should not follow the trail directly. If there are traps laid out, they will be in the path."
"Most any." Aisha responds. "The Venture-captain where I am from is perhaps the most powerful illusionist wizard in the entire world, and the Crusades relied upon such things heavily in order to survive. In doing so, it highlighted that illusion magic is perhaps the strongest of all magics when it comes to defensive use. The school also offers unparalleled versatility. Nearly any spell that you may learn from within the school may serve multiple purposes." Aisha explains. "Primarily, I was curious if you had access to the vanish spell, or similar. You are... not as swift as I am, or as armored as Kaussek or Marcus. As a result, you must rely upon your magic to stay safe, even when that does not seem viable. And because you do neither of those things, outright protective magic is very weak for you. However, even cantrips can be utilized for exceptional tricks." Aisha pauses for a moment. "We should develop codes and signs. A ghost sound of a specific sound may be used to cry for help. Different colors of dancing lights can mean different things. Firing them directly into the air of the green persuasion could mean 'Safety', while red means 'Danger'. You could even experiment with height or pattern to create different messages. Looking at your weakest spells and discovering nuance within them can mean the difference in life and death, especially if you talk about that nuance with others." Aisha says simply. "We can create rules that the group adheres to that helps with understanding the overall workings." She turns her attention to Marcus as he arrives, her head tilting. He looked like pain.
"This is why this never happens in the stories." Aisha says, calmly. "Do you know any illusion magic, Ishana?" Aisha asks as she moves past her to interpose with some ease, focusing not on her and her injuries - she could do nothing for those - and instead on what could continue to occur. A starknife of roiling light and darkness forms in her hand as she moves to the gate with Kaussek. "It is strange that they are still within the town. I would have thought it likely that they would flee more permanently. Why would they stay when they had fought and mostly all died? A monster should flee a more dangerous creature unless it has no other choice but to fight." Aisha says as she peers into the darkness, conjuring dancing lights and sending them flying outwards, four tiny sprites swirling forward together.
Two kids, a dog, and a stew place:
Aisha says, quietly, looking down to Hobble. She pauses, looking up to the children. Aisha says as she scritches Hobble's ears one last time as she stands and lets him keep his spider leg. Aisha returns to the main camp with an empty soup bowl in hand, head tilting as she arrives where Lyon and Kaussek are, she looks around for a bit wondering where Lu is, Marcus was whatever passed for a doctor in these parts and would be in his tent. "Why is the party mage traveling in the dark alone?" Aisha asks, clearly not a leading question. "This is something that never happens in the stories."
Some Hallit Kids and a Dog: Aisha stops fighting over the bone and begins idly scritching Hobble's ears. She tilts her head curiously. she says, matter of fact.
DM+Aisha: Aisha attempts to take the spider leg from Hobble, and when he inevitably doesn't hand it over, she cants her head in the other direction. She takes a few moments, before letting it go, and when he inevitably tries to offer it to her once again, she attempts to take it once more, causing another 'fight'.
Aisha looks to the children, then back to Hobble. Then back to the children. Hobble was broken, and so were the children. Perhaps there was enjoyment to be gained in fighting over the spider leg? She could go get another spider leg for the children if they wanted one... "Nid robot ydw i. Rwy'n android!" Aisha responds to the children, brightly. "Ac nid cawl yw hwn, mae'n stiw." She tugs at the spider leg once more, testing Hobble's grip, and focusing on him rather than the children. ""Fy enw i yw Aisha, ac nid oes gennyf ddefnydd ar gyfer batris." She then takes another bite of the stew, before turning her attention back to them. "Ydych chi'n gwybod ble mae fy nghymdeithion wedi mynd?"
So. I'm really enjoying all the 'teenage adventurer angst and drama'... like, I really dig that the party isn't cohesive pretty much at all, because they're all strong personalities with very strong opinions on right v. wrong and very certain that they are right. BUUUUT, on the flip side of that, I wanted to check in and make sure that all of the drama is isolated to the characters, and not the players. Because we actually have a pretty good crew of players, and I wanted to check that no one was taking things personally that 'the patrol died because of you' v. 'people died because you were gone' sentiments were simply in character ones.
Aisha, meanwhile, speeds down the road, back towards the tower, simply allowing her darkvision to light the way. Faster than a speeding mountain goat, she covers the distance between the two settlements as quickly as a horse could. She didn't have much time to waste, after all. In short order she retrieves the spyglass, but she also checks on the aftermath of the dead they'd left just sitting... wondering if the ogrekin had done anything with them. She isn't sneaky. She figures she'll get shot at once she comes into view of something, trusting in her speed to get her into an enemy's sight range and beyond in short order. The only time she's sneaky as a result is when she reaches the tower. She takes a few moments to piece the trinkets back together, allowing her nanites to engulf the spyglass's bits and reforge the rough edges... if she could find all of the pieces, she could make it whole once more! Afterwards, she returns just as hastily to town - whether the spyglass was broken or not, the pieces likely still had value in future adjustments... and so, Aisha was pleased with the small moment she'd taken for herself to fix a broken thing. Now... to return to town and eat, talk with the others, and rest. * * * Once Aisha returns she collects some of the cold stew - if no one was around to warm it, she didn't seem to act as though she minded overly much. It was never going to be stellar stew given the ingredients that they had available. She quietly watches the others mill about in the area as she does so, just the smallest part of her suit moving away for her to nourish herself, as she walks with the bowl and spoon, looking for Hobble and his Spiderleg, wondering if he liked the toy she had brought him.
"Barbarbarbarbar." Aisha mumbles as the group argues, clearly unsatisfied with the thoughtlessness that was going into it. As it becomes clear that Marcus was still stuck on the fact that one nameless person had died, and that it was Aisha's fault because Aisha had wanted to go into the woods and explore the spider's nest for more victims - and only wound up with shinies - as well as keeping a headstart, she starts to tune the bickering out. Both sides were being stupid. Marcus should not blame everyone for the limitations imposed upon them by the world. That was no one's fault. All of these people had come to this part of the world knowing that they could die. Willing to take that risk. That they had saved two people who had gone off to a place they knew might kill them was good. That they had lost one, as less good. That they had saved the remainder of the patrol group was good. That they had saved the majority of the centaurs was good. That all that they cared about was the bad was beyond Aisha. Why would you focus on the empty rabbit snare when you had 9 perfectly good rabbit snares with rabbits attached? The party had been immensely successful - despite a few hiccups - and even those hiccups had afforded them valuable information and new data to formulate previously unseen possibilities with. The only truly bad thing was that the person who had died was faceless and nameless. That, despite the heroism inherent in going to a new land, and stepping forward to protect the people, no one had bothered to get his name. And that was terribly sad, she thought. Even her android brain could understand such a simple concept that everyone else seemed to be overlooking. As the others seethe, Aisha speeds her footsteps. Maybe with a little time the others would come around. Aisha was not good at these things. She had already stated the facts. Aisha hated arguments. She understood that they were important to the development of the characters, the story, that you couldn't just say a person 'thought this' and that people would just accept that. You needed exposition and actions that backed up their moral beliefs. But arguing outside of the books always made Aisha tired. There were only so many times you could tell people they were being stupid before they would stop listening to you about anything, even when you were always right. And that was with the good ones. That was with the people who came back. That made everything click. These people weren't adventurers. They were fledgeling adventurers. All of their important assignments had surely been solo assignments. That meant that they were vapid, narcissistic, self-reliant, and self-centered! They were like all of the worst parts of children mixed with all the best parts of adults! If this were a story, it was a story about teenagers learning how to get along in a civilized manner! BARBARBAR, indeed! Aisha would just have to gather them all and tell them how stupid they were being one good time, and if they would not listen and would continue to be dumb, then that was their choice. But until they could learn to act as a team, and come to understand that every member of the team had their own priorities and would act upon them when it did not expressly harm the rest of the team, they would continue to all be individuals, and be petty and spiteful about it. Suddenly, the story was interesting again! And so, after the farmers begin to file out, Aisha heads back to the watchtower, as quickly as her feet will take her... there was the matter of the spyglass she had overlooked before, and no tool should be left behind. Especially if it would let her or Lyon work better against the people on the mountaintop.
Need Centaur Longhouses to research our +intelligence mount upgrade.
In what ways does this change impact the 'Legendary Buildings' option listed in Character Codex? Otherwise... Iunno. I haven't really looked into kingdom building that much. I vaguely know that I need to be good at stat+skill to be good at something. :)
"What do you mean, Marcus?" Aisha asks brightly, head tilting enough for her hood to flop slightly. * * *
Aisha walks calmly into the midst of both groups, head tilting. "What will we do to remove all of the possible threats and set up a way to prevent anyone from being harmed while farming?" She asks, inquisitively, "I cannot imagine that there is anything we are able to do for such a thing!" she adds after just a moment. "Why would you move into a mountainous area full of monsters if you were not willing to accept the risks of doing so? We can endeavor to protect one another, form a compact of some sort, send messages up and down the roads reliably so that everyone stays in contact, but ultimately such a system will fall through if something goes wrong. We do not have the people to ensure safety. But not farming is absolutely a risk that will cause long-term problems. What solutions do you have to offer?"
"I am happy to do either. If we hit them after their spells wear off they will be significantly weaker. The shared pain spell will last for hours, while the fury of Erastil spell has already worn off. Likewise, they have spent many resources, while we have spent few besides our ability to heal, I believe?" Aisha asks, looking amongst the others. "If we press forward, we risk our capabilities against theirs with the knowledge that both of our groups will be limited, but that likely they have used many of their more potent spells already, while we have only used our healing capabilities." "Regardless, I will go watch the hill." Aisha says as she begins to clamber up the nearest tree with practiced ease, trying to reach to top of the treeline to look out and see if the three figures were still there. If they were then that meant either they had not been followed... or magical trickery!
Does Aisha have to rest in order to recover her Nanite Healing?
"Likely scent on the Thorn, yes. And he will likely move faster than any of you under normal conditions." Aisha acknowledges, "So, while tracking us will be easy with the mess we made coming this way, it will also be swift... if they choose to come for us." Aisha says, stopping her bounces. "We could also utilize the fog clouds to isolate the Varn with the limning effect. Since we will be able to freely locate him, but he will not be able to locate us. Depriving them of sight is as valid a tactic as turning our own invisible."
Aisha shakes her head enthusiastically enough to make her hood turn, "They do not need any magical protections. Your spell does not harm non-good creatures. It harms evil ones. And there is a substantial difference between being good and being evil. So much so that there are metaphysical lines drawn within the cosmos between the two that result in actual divisions for those that are neither. When a paladin looks at me, I am not evil, but when an inquisitor looks at me, I am also not good. Nor am I lawful or chaotic. I am simply Aisha. If I craft no changes within my story, when I die, I will go to the Boneyard, and I will relive all of the most important moments in my lifetime to come to a more considerable understanding! Like watching a play!" Aisha says brightly. "We can also be certain that the Thorn is likely not evil and not chaotic. It is unlikely, unless he is a charlatan, that he is capable of conjuring the divine justice of his god without closely adhering to the traditions of said god. It is possible when he calls out to Erastil that Gorrum knows this as a linguistic trick, however, so even that knowledge is unreliable." Aisha says, looking around even as she speaks. "Finally, if Lyon is able to fire upon the Salazar, then her trick for hiding will not have any effect. Each foe that has been struck by Lyon has been limned in every encounter thus far. Unless something changes, we can easily prevent that particular tactic. Thorn, further, fights like Lu. The longer he is able to prepare, the more deadly he becomes. Interrupting the Salazar's fireball, and then killing the Thorn is quite necessary. If the Salazar is capable of more than one fireball, we must dedicate additional resources. If I were more reliable with the Thorn's bow, I would be able to keep her pinned down at range... but I am not strong enough to do so alone." Aisha says, beginning to bounce once more.
"Yes! Next time when we fight, we can knock them out, tie them up, and then tell them we don't want to fight. It is easier to explain our intentions over food than over swords. Aicora was wise... Varn is a jerk who will attack despite calling truces." Aisha says, shaking her head, voice laden with disappointment. "On our next attempt, I will simply fire on the Salazar from the treeline, far away, until they are forced to act against me. They are not well equipped to deal with sniping." Aisha adds, calmly. "They will not be nearly as dangerous when we are not attempting to befriend them." "If they are willing to leave their post, then we also have to worry about them following us as Deadeye is a hunter god. Would you like or me to go keep tabs on them?" Aisha offers, looking from person to person.
As Varn moves up next to Aisha, she simply stares at him for a moment. After all that work to hide he just immediately spots her! This forest was the worst forest she had ever attempted to hide in! She simply opts to slip away, seeking to keep trees between her and her foes, playing cat and mouse as she moved away - in a different direction from her allies. Focusing both of her remaining maneuvers into one attack, Aisha drives forward, silver and cold, a weapon made of pure energy, before throwing it end over end at the swashbuckler.
Quick, Surge! |