Yeah, that's probably fair. I'll see you around.
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"Not to be rude," Arma says carefully, "But I dunno if it's a great idea for him to come back with us to town. Not meanin' no offense, but I think some people might be...intimidated, by your personage."
With the adrenaline fading--even if her mind is still a little foggy from the use of the mutagen--Arma starts really taking a look around. "Huh...well, hold on." She takes out the notes given to them by Carver on the locations he hoped to find on the island. Ancient Observatory: Somewhere in the mountains of Ancorato, Durvin Gest became lost during his expedition and stumbled upon an ancient tower that contained a trove of Azlanti writing, star charts etched into the walls, and a still-functional orrery used to chart the movement of the planets. Durvin was driven from the observatory by packs of creatures Carver believes were aberrations called chokers. Unfortunately, Carver does not know exactly where this observatory is—or even if it still stands after so many centuries. "I think we've found our old observatory, guys. Hm...wonder if the hag took care of the chokers. Or if we have to watch for those buggers on top of everything else." Arma frowns at the thought. "Anyways--I think this might be worth heading back to town and reporting in. But first, we gotta figure out what we're gonna do about that cyclops, yeah?"
Arma shouts wordlessly, latches onto Helekhterie and bites down with razor-sharp teeth.
The strange effect makes the hairs on the back of Arma's neck stand up and for a moment, she stiffens--and then, she pushes past it with a burst of adrenaline.
Arma clambers up the stairs and side-steps Abigail's strike. "Screw you, you wrinkled old freak!" She launches into a flurry of attacks with tooth and claw, her muscles stretched taut by the combination of her mutagen and her extract, and goes for weak points.
"Well aren't you a humble one!" Arma snarls as she rushes in, forgoing her daggers in favor of claws.
Arma stares at the cyclops with wide eyes. Quietly, she says, "Look, I get the instinct to help, but blind or not, it's still a cyclops, innit? If they ever were seers or whatever, they've come a long damn way from that. They're still a kind of giant, after all."
"I hear it, too, that can't be good." Arma throws Tessa a look of surprise. "Wait, since when can you understand what Azil's saying?" She goes to the far end of the room to check out the passage to the next chamber, making a face at the dried blood in the basin as she passes.
Arma steps in and attacks, her flurry of swipes augmented by Tessa's magic.
Arma staggers from the hits, even after the touch of healing, steps back, and drinks her extract of Shield.
"Looks like a coupla angry booger-fish," Arma remarks as she slides in past her teammates and takes a swipe at one with her dagger.
Arma looks through the stash a little, frowning at the statue and frowning further at the engraved shield. "I could be wrong, but, that spiral--it's Pharasmin, right? And the star, it's Desnan? This feels...sacriligious." She lights up briefly at the Scroll of Restoration, only for her face to fall as she realizes just how complex of a spell it is. "Would need to do a lot more research to make use of this..."
The sahuagin are servants of a powerful sea hag named Helekhterie, who has lived on this island for more than a century. The hag has led kidnappings of aquatic peoples for generations. You know I keep on forgetting that I really need to take better damn notes for the games I'm in, but this and Kingmaker especially. I was just trying to check Vriskirsa's name...
Arma's eyes go wide at the stock of alchemical reagents. "Somebody's been busy. Hmph. Seems like everything on this island just moved in after the original residents...well. The colony, Vriskirsa on the reef, the hag in this tower..."
"I'm a little nervous about letting her have too much time to prepare," Arma says. "Quick but cautious, maybe. We can explore later, when we aren't gonna get ambushed."
"Well that looks like a giant booger," Arma remarks, classy as always. "Hell is that thing?"
Arma curses loudly in surprise and quickly moves forward to help Tessa clear the rocks away. "Criminy! Are you okay?"
Arma hurries over to Abigail while pulling out basic medical supplies. "Man alive, where are you even bleeding from--oh, screw it, here."
Arma is methodical, and stops the bleeding.
Arma wings the alchemist fire at one of the mists as hard as she can, and the vial cracks open and ignites with a fwoom! as oxygen mixes with the volatile fuel.
Arma first considers the amorphous nature of the creature, then grabs an alchemist fire from the party's gear but waits to throw it.
Arma makes a rude gesture at the creatures, and then descends as quickly as she can back to her teammates. "Hag--blood ghosts--saw me!"
"I, uh, I mean, I could fly up and take a look, if that's what--if ya think--" Arma bounces in place trying not to let on her eagerness, and failing totally at doing so.
Arma uses the crab's blindness to be able to aim for weak points.
"The hell!" Arma curses. She flicks two daggers out of her belt and quickly throws them at the crab, and in the next instant has two more daggers in hand.
I'd be more upset about that but I've rolled max on every level up until now. Feat: Quick Draw
Skills (9+2): Disable Device, Intimidate, Know Arcana, Know Engineering, Know Nature, Perception, Stealth, Swim, Use Magic Device, Linguistics (Aquan), Craft (Alchemy)
Arma takes a couple of quick swipes at the last monster.
"Abigail back up, but we can get the freaks damn it!" Arma snaps, and she draws her daggers as she steps up to slash at one of the monsters.
"Plants?" Arma says, as a thought comes to her, and she grabs a vial of milky fluid from her pack, a single flask of Defoliant that she has had for months and forgotten where it came from.
She hurls it at one of the plant-zombies that has not been touched.
The description of the plant creature makes Arma wrinkle her nose. "Ah yeah that's horrifying. Maybe carve signs into the trees around here warning people off."
The semester from hell is finally over. So anyways, the cloak of the manta ray may actually be precisely what Abigail needs, you can still use manufactured weapons. Which incidentally the mental image of a manta ray but with human arms is hilarious. Obviously not great that it uses the shoulders slot, but for the moment it's pretty good.
Arma spends a little time looking over Carver's notes and the stone tablet. "I kinda want to keep explorin', too. We could try followin' this inland route, or we could look into the Ulfen settlement--Joskadalr. Could use the dolphin to send a message back to the colony, too."
Arma quickly judges the situation and goes after the crossbowman, cutting right through the water and snapping at it.
"You move like a beached whale!" Arma snaps at the sahuagin, and attacks with her claws.
Arma curses at the sahuagin that comes up behind her and furiously attacks, her swings erratic and wild.
Arma takes the hit, but instead of faltering, she has a rush of adrenaline. She releases her knives and tears into the sahuagin with teeth and claws.
Arma skirts the edge of the webs and takes a bite out of the sahuagin Abigail is facing off with. "Hold on, Relia!"
Arma goes after one of the unrestrained Sahuagin with a series of attacks.
Arma nervously looks over her shoulder at the sahuagin coming up behind them. "Careful," she says quietly.
Before going into the fight, Arma takes her extract of Touch of the Sea, and when it starts she effortlessly cuts through the water, and attacks from inside the reach of the ranseur.
So I was mostly just joking around with Abigail being incomprehensible. I think we may actually be able to speak and be understood at least if we have water breathing seeing as Tessa and Relia can still provide verbal components for spells.
Arma heads in, mainly watching out for traps.
Arma can catch one in maybe every three words Abigail is saying underwater by reading her lips and interpreting the burbles. She gives Abigail a thumbs-up and starts off toward the wreck.
Arma goes into another sequence of attacks against the sahuagin.
So this is kinda unexpected. Because claws are bludgeoning and slashing damage, and sneak attack deals the same kind of damage as the original attack, if I'm using my feral mutagen underwater, I'll deal better average damage with bite/claw/claw but only if I'm not doing sneak attacks; if I am doing sneak attacks, I'll do more damage with dagger/dagger/bite, even though the bite is treated as a secondary attack.
Arma's yell comes out as a stream of bubbles, and her blood streams into the water. She swings once, misses, swings again and finds purchase, and with that leverage lurches forward and bites the sahuagin that attacked her.
Arma draws her daggers as she kicks forward through the water.
Arma takes her mutagen as the derelict ship comes into view, but she holds off on taking her extract until combat seems imminent. Her muscles tighten, her teeth sharpen, and her fingernails grow into claws. While she would have mentioned that she had worked on intensifying the properties of her mutagen, it's a little more extreme than she suggested.
Arma takes a moment to look at the silver holy symbol curiously. She tries to commit the shape to memory, then goes on to what Tessa is looking at. "A messenger? Ooh, that could be good for communicating with the colony," Arma says. "A dolphin would be able to go around the island at least as fast as we could cross it on foot, if not a helluva lot faster. And, uh..." She considers the Naga. "Your taste is...impeccable, your...venomousness?" Only after saying it does she realize the possible folly in mentioning a giant snake-woman's 'taste.'
Hey so. Looking at the map now, is Ancorato a volcanic island? |