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Wow. Attacking Xbox Live and PSN have no real effect on the money these companies make--I'll use my PS Wallet to buy stuff in a few days, when these cybertards get bored or get caught. So, why attack the networks and ruin xmas gaming fun for so many of the very same people who would normally cheer (silently or otherwise) the hacker community? Why alienate your fan base? Absolutely ridiculous.
the Evil Within official website. Chapter One/Tutorial walkthrough. Actual full gameplay is best seen beginning with Chapter Two Survival Horror; Mikami-directed. I just picked up this game over the weekend on a Black Friday sale at the PS Store. It's been out for a little while now, but I initially avoided it due to the third person camera-style (which I tend to dislike). Anyone playing? Technical note/TTP: I eventually set the screen grain down to 0. It defaults at 100, which I think is weird. At 0 the blacks are very black and graphics actually look worthy of being corralled in the Next Gen category. On Full Default grain, there's a lot of white shading in the blacks, distant objects are blurred and sometimes completely obscured.
The above link takes you to Apple Trailers, so this is the real one. For the extreme brevity of it; holy smoke, but it looks great! As I watched it, well..hairs standing on end, goosebumps, eyes gradually widened, ridiculous, enormous face-splitting grin, spontaneous clapping: yes, I'm excited.
Has anyone tried this demo/marketing/advert mini-game? I found it has some very nice, genuine scares, but the insane, repetitive looping (while a nice metaphor) eventually (one full hour later) became grating and...yes, boring. Apparently, there are clues throughout your walk down the two halls, but they don't seem logical and they're definitely not intuitive. If Silent Hills follows this model, I don't see myself playing--I don't have the patience and certainly not the time. Anyone else? Anyone actually finish the demo? Spoiler: Apparently, the demo can't be completed without a set of headphones and mic plugged in (the headphones trigger script in the game; the mic uses your breathing, which is expected to increase at certain intense moments, to trigger script, as well--I don't have these for my PS4 and I'm not going to buy a set just to see the end of the demo.
I just finished Outlast on PS4: in a word, spectacular! This is the first horror game I've ever played where I have actually been scared. Very immersive, very effective, and it doesn't even have very good graphics. An interesting aspect of the game is your complete inability to fight back--all you can do is sneak, run, and hide. At first this can be frustrating, especially when you have so many opportunities to appropriate any number and types of weapons, from your own fists and dropped knives, to clubs and even dropped firearms; hell, even power tools. Eventually, though (and once you understand this--I did not and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to fight before I cheated, looked online, and discovered you simply can't), the inability to forcefully defend yourself becomes the greatest challenge of the game. Anyone else playing? I just started the DLC. Quick question (and I've looked online and no one else seems to be having this problem): Spoiler: DLC cannibal cook section; he tosses me in the crematory and says, "Stay in there and cook!" I head to the back of the oven and begin striking the wall; the bricks begin to give way. At the fifth strike, I am suddenly unable to hit the wall. I can still move around, but striking the wall is no longer an option. I’ve tried all three controller layouts, but I experience the same issue every time. I’ve looked online and no one else seems to be having any trouble. I’ve watched several walkthroughs of this section of the game, and everyone else tumbles through the broken wall after five strikes. Any suggestions?
So, it seems The Stand has a director, Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), and it's gone from three movies to three hours and the promise of an all-star A-list cast. Then again...Spielberg has been making The Talisman for 12 years now, so who knows what will actually happen in the next couple years. At any rate, I usually re-read the novel every three years or so (it's one of my absolute all-time favorites), but I only recently re-watched the 1994 miniseries. It's probably been 15 or more years since I last watched it, and I was surprised, after viewing it on Netflix this weekend, how many scenes I was absolutely sure were in the movie that weren't--so much so that I spent no small amount of time looking around on the web to be sure I wasn't watching some truncated and poorly-edited version. Something else I noticed was that the movie was actually quite a lot of fun, and very accessible--if you've read the novel. If you haven't, then despite its six-hour length, it feels like hours of scenes are simply missing: watching the movie with my brother-in-law this weekend, who's never read the novel and hadn't before seen the film, found him constantly peppering me with questions about why this was happening, and when that had happened, and what caused this character to do that and that character to do this...it was difficult, in a word. So, I wonder how such a long and complex cross-country novel, with so many characters and subplots, could possibly be digested, effectively, into a single theatrical release. What do you think?
I sincerely lament for the 'good old days' of just five years ago when the most lively, energetic, and often no-holds-barred non-gaming-related discussions were held right here at Paizo. The OTD section of the Boards was the go-to place for philosophical, well-thought and well-written, intellectually- and socially-engaged, well, off-topic discussions--things that didn't necessarily define the gamer stereotype, things about which--and not surprising to actual gamers--we were intensely passionate! These days, before any fur flies or digital faces are smacked, the Heavy Hand of Thread-Lock descends because the thread become 'hostile'!? Are we really such intellectual cowards that the engines of discourse perforce must drive debate that is only flawlessly, precisely, undoubtedly inoffensive to anyone in any way? What's happened to us? 
WTF!? I literally can't find any OTD topics to read because there're something like a hundred spam threads! Gary! WE need you!
Csn't believe there's no thread here at Paizo. Tyson is doing a great job. The most recent episode, all about light, is my favorite so far. Anyone else watching?
Noah with an all-star cast. I'm an atheist, so the story is fantasy/mythology to me. Nonetheless, this trailer is awesome. 
This thread is dedicated to the reductio ad absurdum of the internet. Let me start it off with this top tier school's commercial. Yes, yes it's true: you can be such an under achiever your entire youth that actually getting into a real university was impossible, yet still be in the less than 0.0000000001% of all humanity who make it through the NASA astronaut program!
If you could only watch one TV show per year, what would it be? You can only select shows (at the time of your posting; and I emphasize not to yell, but because someone is bound to name Buffy, or Farscape, or Firefly, or any number of very awesome but canceled shows), which includes cable programs that run counter to standard US network seasons.
The Eclipse might just be the best ghost story I've ever seen. A haunting, heart-breaking, but ultimately very beautiful film. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.
I went to see this with the kids today and was surprised to find us just three of about a dozen attendees. It's a silly film, not to be taken too seriously, and it potentially plays up some poor stereotypes of Native Americans, but we found it generally unoffensive and really quite funny. My kids were laughing out loud throughout the movie, and there were plenty of in-jokes that seemed specially written for adults my age and with my interests. George Takei as the time travel egg-ship STEVE was super ("Oh, my..."), and Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson played off one another perfectly. I didn't look up any reviews until I got home, and I guess this movie has all but tanked; everybody (pretty much) hates it. Anyone here seen it? Am I too easily amused? Is this actually an awful movie?
The Conjuring. A kind-of Amityville-esq Horror tale. Really, really good, and worth the price of admission. Based on a 'true story'. There's a great mythology here; the movie is extremely well-crafted. Great ending, which most of these types of tales suffer severe difficulty achieving. A sequel's in the works, which I assume is another Warren story.
I felt like, through the whole movie, I was in one of those ridiculous graduate courses in English-Lit. In those days, I routinely made the same kind of absolutely incredible (by which I mean not credible) contentions. Seriously, you could give almost any movie the same treatment. Nonetheless, very fun and entertaining.
This programme airs on Destination America. I'm a sucker for these cryptid shows, even the bad ones. This one, three episodes in, seems pretty good. It's entertaining for 45 minutes if nothing else. I haven't seen anything yet suggesting the whole show is staged, but if it's not, this is the best semi-pro team out there: I think they've found more 'evidence' in three episodes (especially tracks and noises) than all the other similar series combined. A fun diversion.
First shalt thou disallow any and all future petitions by he who is known locally on the interwebz as 'yellowdingo', then shalt thou count to one, no more, no less. One shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be one, and this is the number less itself of petitions that he who is known locally on the interwebz as 'yellowdingo' may be allowed to submit. Two shalt thou not count. Neither count zero, excepting that thou then proceed to one. Three is right out.
Just picked this up from the clearance bin for $6. It includes the original Doom games from the 90s. I played through 'The Earth Base', which is level one of Doom 2... Kills: 99%
Time: ...par for time is 30 seconds. Me?... Time: SUCKS It took me over an hour of running in circles looking for doors. I finally cheated and watched a play through on YouTube. Meanwhile, I'm kicking serious ass in Doom 3. How can an ancient legacy game be so much more dificult. Still, loads of fun.
A bit of googling and I was surprised to find little on the subject. Anyone ever experience (especially regularly) a raw, tearful, emotional response to learning something new and particularly awesome? I'm interested in the neurological reasons for this. Mathematical or scientific epiphanies can often bring me to tearful excited laughter (and I mean actual happy tears). I don't mean to say that this happens when I devise or derive something new myself, only that it happens when I gain an understanding of a thing that had particularly eluded me. Weird, I know.
Lego Jabba's Palace Offends Muslim Community; Lego Ceases Production Buy your set today, because it'll cost a small fortune a year from now. This thread is devoted to collecting and discussing apparently offensive items. Is the complaint about the Lego set legit, or hypersensitive political correctness at its best? I'm a Western rational secularist, so I don't see it at all. Personally, I think it's more a matter of hypersensitive activists insecure in their own standing, likely looking, deliberately, for offense in and from everything around them. What do you think?
I propose a Bill that makes it illegal to fail a student for arguing that the Refrigerator Fairy turns that light on and off. As long as students are still required to answer correctly on tests, I really don't care what they privately believe. And if a student wants to submit a paper or research project that argues H. sapiens and T. rex cohabited, then awesome--as long as they follow the scientific method (...whereby they will prove themselves wrong). I can argue all day that 2+2=5 for extremely large values of 2, but I still better answer '2' on the test.
I'm a bit over an hour into this game; just started exploring NYC, and found new meaning to the term 'concrete jungle'. Gameplay is more streamlined and controls are more responsive vice Crysis 2. The story is developing nicely, and Psycho is a fun NPC who doesn't get in the way (or really help in fights at all), or hog the best weapon for 99.5% of the game. The graphics are phenomenal--honestly the best graphics I've ever seen in a video game. Anyone else playing?
V/H/S is a found-footage style film. Personally, I'm a big fan of these, but I understand how many might be put off by yet another one. The cool thing about this movie is that it's a series of stories in the vein of Tales from the Dark Side. I went into this one having no idea what it was about, just that it was a horror film, and found myself very pleasantly surprised by just how good it is. Overall, surprisingly well made for a low-budget flick, and the acting--with the exception of one tale, which suffers from dialogue issues, and another one, which seems to suffers from a huge dose of reductio ad absurdum that's eventually resolved, both of which are nonetheless saved by the coolness of the ideas (you'll know it when you see it)-- actually comes off as realistic and genuine. At any rate, if you hate found-footage films, you'll probably hate this one too. If you like them, or are still neutral, give it a shot.
We're so close to done I can almost TASTE it! Come on, finish; momma needs those eidolon rules!Hi El Ronza - it looks like I had it backwards on the summoner. When I was compiling the turnovers, it actually is the mythic class features for the unchained summoner itself. You can do mythic stuff with your eidolon with those class features and path abilities, but it's not a set of mythic abilities unique to eidolons. I apologize for my mistake there. I am only very slightly disappointed, but still very keen! My GM allowed me to play this, so I'm hungry for goodies for my summoner and his
I'm thrilled to be a part of this. I too wish there was support for akashic/path of war, but yeah, the niche must be pretty small. Oh well. This will be fantastic anyway, so I'm thrilled to see where it goes! And with a new Wrath of the Righteous game starting soon, I have a GM to bribe, hahaha.
Oh hey, I got my book! I can answer questions! :D Bestiary:
Chronogeist: CR 14 medium undead (incorporeal)
NPC gallery at a glance:
Runelord Belimarius: Female human (pure-blooded Azlanti) abjurer 18
Planar dragons in detail:
Apocalypse dragon: Native to Abaddon. Stats are given for young, adult, and ancient. Cone-shaped breath weapon that deals cold damage, has a Virulence effect (save or contract slimy doom). Doesn't get wing attacks but can constrict. Gains buffs when creatures they grapple die. Casts spells as an oracle. Purple dragon with a cool-looking frill/crest behind its head and icy blue claws. Bliss dragon: Native to Nirvana. Stats given for young, adult, and ancient. Line-shaped breath weapon that deals electricity damage, makes damaged creatures sparkle and take further damage when attacking. Can use lay on hands as a paladin, casts spells as an oracle. Can also turn into animals. White and ivory dragon with a gold mane and beard, green stripes down its back, and feathery wings. Kyton demagogues article: Follows the same format as the Gods of Osirion and Elder Mythos articles from Mummy's Mask and Strange Aeons. All nine demagogues get a half-page column each, Barravoclair, Kaikyton, Raetorgash, and Vevelor getting a piece of art.
After trying to stay silent and trust the others for what feels like hours, Shadlah finally snorts derisively and shakes her head. "Would one of you care to explain what in the name of the earth is happening here?" she asks, folding her arms across her broad chest with a scowl. "This is neither the time nor the place for such antics!"
"... For as he learned that fateful day,
And then, spinning a starknife across his knuckles, he opens another poem. "Fear not the beast on cloven hoof
"Sometimes, it is better to trust the stone than one's eyes." Shadlah's voice is clear and deep in the darkness, and she spreads her feet, lowering her stance. A heel digs into the ground, then another, and through the darkness, she can feel the placement of the creatures, their clawed feet betraying them. Focusing on the one dripping blood and slime from its wounds, as felt by the constant pattern of the droplets on the floor, she blasts it.
"A what?!" Shadlah asks in surprise and confusion, before shaking it off and tugging at the wall behind the creature, pulling stone into its body and bursting it like an overripe red grape.
The small ball of rock shifts, its head and tail exchanging places as the food is offered, and it unfurls and waddles closer. It lunges clumsily for the food and snuffles at it, nudging it around Joanna's hand with a small, pointed nose. Shadlah watches the small ball, her posture stiff and her face unmoving. Eventually, she relaxes her shoulders slightly, and says, "It has been a long time. After so much loss - a father I never knew, a mother I lost young, and the last party I cared about - the fear of loss never goes away. It is better in some ways to not become attached." She runs her hand over her bald head. "But perhaps some changes are not to be feared. "For now," she says, a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips, "I can tell you that, as a child, I dreamed of finding a perfect sphere of black marble, and my favourite food is mushrooms fried enough to still be chewy."
"I do not know." Shadlah spreads her bedroll and sits on it like a mat, spreading her assortment of half-finished carvings before her. She plucks one from the mix, a coiled serpent, and continues her work as she talks. "Yet I do not mind. Surrounded by cold stone, I feel safe. When we leave this place, the world will have changed. But should we return to these depths, they will be as we left them. It is a constant among chaos."
Flex-time: Tera: "Do I?" Zache muses, playing with the tassel of a woven scarf as he thinks, barely noticing Tera shifting closer. "I suppose I might, if only in the same way I like the reflection of the stars on the sea, or the scent of spring in the trees - an aesthetic attraction, but certainly not romantic. I suppose that's what you're asking?" He shrugs, shifting his back straighter against the wall. "Life's short, and there's a lot to fit into it. It's why I flirted back with her. It's why I drank the Hagfish water. It's why I tried to make my way past Nualia, knowing full well that she could cut me down with the slightest misstep. If a risk turns out to be ill-fated, I'll have taken it knowing of the possibility. But I may not get a second chance for anything I've done, and in my final sleep, I'll go knowing I lived every moment as Desna would have wished." He grins briefly before his face grows sorrowful again. "The whole thing is probably moot, though, after the mess Roakkad and I made of the place."
A lot of my feedback (good and bad) has been mentioned elsewhere here, but I haven't seen this one come up. On the old forums, if you'd opened a thread and it had no new posts, it would appear greyed-out. Now, there's no indication of which threads one has and has not opened.
As Tera and Sal head off together, Zache mutters to himself, attempting to put some of the things they've been told to rhyme. "A bugbear in the tower high,
With a short sigh and a harsh chuckle, he shakes his head, adding, "A day, a task, a battle dark,
Shadlah places a hand on the pillar next to her, feeling its strength and stability. "I am sorry for this," she says in a low voice, before stepping out from behind her cover, reaching into every reserve of power she holds, and throwing her arms wide. From the pillars of the room, the stone gathers to her, just enough to add to her power without compromising the stability, a series of pebbles compressing and hardening like coal into diamond as, almost in slow-motion, she gathers it into a single, powerful blast. Her skin hardens further, her fingers stiffening, but she still hurls it the length of the room, wanting this beast grounded or dead.
I think you’re immune to mind-affecting effects while unconscious, right? Not only is that not mentioned *anywhere* in the Core Rulebook, it would mean spells like dream, which are mind-affecting and can only target unconscious creatures, flat-out don't work.
Bardess, thank you for including inquisitions! :D
I spent NYE working my way through a full bottle of Jack Daniel's with the man, and brought in the new year by drunkenly singing Africa by Toto at the top of our lungs. The dogs weren't impressed; we didn't care.
Zache lets his breath out in a quick sigh, cleaning the dead creature's blood from his blades. "Let's hope there are no more of those," he mutters. "Goblins are bad enough, but that was... horrifying."
Always happy to help. Cross-posted the review to DTRPG, as well.
"I thought it might appreciate something always available," the Shoanti says with a small, uncharacteristically warm smile, reaching up to stroke the flat stones of the spirit's belly. "I suspect it will vanish when I sleep, but the stones will remain, always ready." After a short pause, she says, "It has been some time since I had a friend. It was the least I could do for it."
Review posted. I'm very sorry it took so long; life just kept throwing other things at me. I enjoyed the product greatly! Tomorrow I'll start banging out Bard/X feats.
"It doesn't feel right," Zache sighs, about halfway into his shift with Tera. He paces around the tower a few times, then sits, hugging his knees. "Going to sleep so early, and doing my work beneath the sacred stars... it goes against everything I've trained myself for." Heaving a sigh, he takes out his journal and spreads the paper across his knee, licking the stub of a pencil but not yet writing. After a short silence, he says, "I've spent so long telling the tales of others, but not my own. Is it even right to sing of your own adventures?"
Shadlah places a firm hand on Helanda's shoulder and squeezes, her eyes firm, her mouth twisted into a cold smile. "Then we will find her, and we will make her understand." She crosses over to Jo, squatting to face her, and stares at her face for several tense seconds. Then, her shoulders sagging, she speaks, her voice gentler than usual, a sorrowful tone underlying her harsh accent. "Stone does not tire," she says, looking up and staring into the distance. "Stone does not yield. Stone is uncaring. "I never told you what happened to me before I met you. I was an adventurer before, in the company of an Ulfen man named Ragnar. He found me for the same reason you did - I had a mastery over earth and stone, and he thought I would be useful. I was, and in his group, I found acceptance. I was healthy and happy, and let my hair grow long. "I also grew arrogant. I could spot traps, and fiends pretending to be statues, and I didn't spot the one on the way out of our last dungeon. I was at the front of the group, and I triggered it in my ignorance." Her head hangs, her chin resting against her chest. "The entrance's ceiling came down - not rubble, but mighty blocks of stone. Alessa died in front of me, and the others were trapped behind a wall I could not move. "I tried for three days. I didn't eat or sleep - how could I, with Alessa's corpse staring at me accusingly? 'You killed me', she seemed to be saying, even in death. I wore my fingers to the bone clawing at the masonry, and I broke an ankle trying to wrest them out of the way. Even after the calls for help had stopped, I tried. I was near death and half-mad by the time I left, and Alessa's eyes had been taken by crows. The dungeon still stands, though it is now a tomb for my old friends and my old life. "Stone does not tire. Stone does not yield." She closes her eyes, clenches her fists, and allows the veined marble texture to flood back over her skin like pigments in water. "Do not be like stone." She stands once more, her face impassive and unreadable. "We should keep going."
Ah, RNG... we meet again :P Please count me in, taig, and thank you for your generosity!
Shadlah stoops to pick up the fallen blade, turning it over in her hands. Blood drips from the glancing wounds on her arms and shoulders, striking the ground as small pebbles; as she closes her eyes, her skin takes on its normal sun-weathered hue and fleshy texture, the blood now falling as soft patters, the rubble which had been levitating about her ankles falling with a soft groan. "No," she says in her low voice, fixing Helanda with stony eyes. "You remain. The question of what you will do with that fact, however, does as well."
As the door creaks open and Kaelaah steps through, Zache, back to the wall, begins a chant, his voice low and raspy, a chilling mockery of the songs from the goblin raid. "Pumpkin king with eyes that burn,
Staring down the holy symbol, Zache makes the sign of the evil eye and shudders. "I'll take it," he mutters, snatching it hastily from Kaede's hand and wrapping it in a scarf, which he tucks into his shirt, unwilling to let it touch his skin. "As Desna fights against nightmares, so too shall I." Letting a deep breath out in a rush, he smoothes his clothes again. "I can probably keep going," he affirms, eyes set hard with determination.
"... I do not know," Sadlah admits, her stony face impassive, but with sadness showing in her dark eyes. With a flick of her fingers, she sends the gravel skimming across the water at blinding speed, bursting into a small cloud of dust as it strikes the far cavern wall. "And yet I remain. We all remain, and we continue on our path, as the river wears down the earth, not knowing what lies ahead." She stands, offering a rough, broad hand to Joanna. "We will persevere." As the group continues, she follows, in her own way - in stoic silence, hand trailing through the stony wall as she goes, watching as Joanna approaches the unmoving bodies.
"We may not," Shadlah answers Jo, having stepped out away from the magical and emotional conversations. "Adventures change people in many ways. Some for better, some for worse." She squats next to the young warrior, scooping a handful of gravelly sand and letting it roll across her fingers in slow, lazy, gravity-defying trails. "I was once more like you. I was young and excited, eager to see what lay beyond the city walls. Now, I find my home in tunnels and dungeons."
Cyanne is the best Disney princess.
"Hoy!" Zache commands, turning his attention to the self-professed 'Pumpkin King'. "How about you pick on someone bigger and stronger than you?" As he charges across the fray, dodging and ducking around his teammates and the goblins, the underbrush seems to flatten beneath his well-worn boots for the briefest of instants, just enough to allow him passage, before springing up again. As he leaps over a thick tangle of thorns and lands gracefully on the other side, he swings the starknife in a long, sweeping arc, blade flashing in the flame.
"This is bad," Shadlah mutters, grinding her teeth with a sound like gravel. Stepping away from the water's edge, she takes aim at the nearest enemy and lets them eat stalactite.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Zache chuckles, spinning on one well-worn boot heel. "But if it will hide our approach, I suppose I can deal with being dulled down. Though I'll ask you to leave my kapenia out of the treatment," he adds more sternly, running his fingers along the silk patchwork scarf around his neck. "My heritage is as colourful as the birds in the trees and the shells on the sand, and to remove that would bring misfortune."
Sheepishly coming out from her position around the corner, Ophelia looks over the room, seeing the unconscious woman surrounded by her allies. "Well, I'm glad that's taken care off," she mutters, her voice small. "Is everyone alright?" As the group gathers themselves, she looks around at the various pieces of information in the room, and stops at the busts. While interesting, she notices nothing unusual about them, and indeed recognizes few of the names.
"So how are we going to get her out of here?" she asks, kneeling and checking the Spider's vitals.
Kazimir blinks in confusion at Valeriya's doubt, before carefully removing one gauntlet, then the other, setting the heavy armoured gloves aside. With clumsy fingers, he removes his gorget, lifts his chin, and indicates the thick, ugly scar across his throat, nearly stretching from one ear to the other. "As I live and breathe, I've been there," he says in a low tone, keeping his chin high for a few seconds longer before dropping it again, massaging his throat. "After I was cut down in defense of Oleg's Outpost, I tended the fields on the slopes of Heaven, slept near the fires of the hall, and drank wheat-beer with the petitioners. I heard and saw much from the herald, and understand little of it. I have faith that all will be revealed in time."
Not sure if it helps you, Hayato, but F. Wesley Schneider wrote this post on his personal blog. It concerns a male dryad in an issue of the Pathfinder comics, as well as his thoughts on the issue.
As far as I know, though, it hasn't been officially confirmed anywhere in print.
Zache grins as he looks around the campsite, running his fingers over the trunk of a tree. His long fingers pick away at moss, revealing a crudely-carved butterfly symbol in the bark. "My grandfather placed this found-mark," he said proudly. "We didn't have much trouble with goblins, though there was a rather noisome owl that kept my mother awake." He chuckles at the memory. "I don't know how she managed to throw her shoe that high, but I did not enjoy climbing up to fetch it!" Sitting cross-legged on the ground and setting his knives to one side, he sighs and stretches out his back. "I can take a middle watch, but..." His voice trails off, his expression suddenly sheepish. "Grandfather always told me it was important to get uninterrupted rest. Dreams are Desna's blessing, and the deepest point of sleep is a sacred time."
"I will be fine," Shadlah mutters as Briana lays a hand on her shoulder. "My connection to the earth sustains and taxes me. Come the morning, this weariness will pass, but as I open my body to the stone again, it will begin to sap my strength." She rubs Hali's belly, scratching at a spot below the wolf's ribs. "In order to protect myself, I must drain myself. I have never yet overexerted my abilities." She says this last with mingled pride and concern, as if unwilling to find that point. Her piece said, she sits atop her bedroll in her sparse clothes and wrappings, her skin a warm brown in the light of the small fire, working on her stone-carving. The figure of a small, blind cave-fish slowly emerges from the rock, and after some time, she curls up tightly for sleep, snoring loudly and waking only for her watch. When the group wakes, she yawns, stretches, and dons her chainmail, before casually destroying the barriers she'd placed the night before, letting them collapse into rubble with a wave of her hand. Her skin appears smooth and soft, but as she rests her heels against the stone, it seems to take on the gritty texture for a moment before smoothing out to a hard sheen, the connection open once more.
Cyanne will be joining us on and off for the next little bit. Oh, this is interesting! :D
Sorry for my silence, people. I'm running my first PFS special tomorrow - #8-00: The Cosmic Captive - and I've spent an entire week getting ready for and stressing over it. After tomorrow it'll be over, and I can get back to posting.
That art of Tawil at'Umr looks like a heavy metal album cover. I am so cool with this.
Wanting to get to the Stag Lord, but not wanting to leave Nah on her own - especially considering Akiros' unsteady loyalties - Kazimir unstraps his shield and drops it before switching both hands to his axe and taking a vicious swing at one of the bandits.
"I am fine," Shadlah says in stiff response to Briana's query, inspecting two long, but shallow, scratches on one marble-skinned arm. "We can double back and check the other tunnels later. We should move." As the group travels forward, her hands work almost unconsciously with a chunk of stone and a small rock-hammer, forming the likeness of one of the strange, blind fish that meander through the cave pools. As she coaxes the shapes and scales out of the stone, she whistles, an old, jaunty tune that echoes off the cavern walls and comes to a halting finish when the party reaches the open cavern. The rock hammer falls from her hand, clanking to the ground, and her jaw hangs open as she stares at the marble walls. "It... it is beautiful," she sighs, staring at the walls and statues in open-mouthed wonder. She brushes a hand against the wall, allowing her fingers to melt into the marble. "I have not before seen stone so lovely."
As the opening volleys of arrows and bombs are exchanged, Kazimir swings his lance into place under his arm before kicking into Surefoot's sides. The old horse rears up on his back legs before hitting the ground at a run, clods flying as he charges through the hidden bear traps and bears his rider down on the frontmost bandit.
"Care not from whence these sinful creatures came -
I'm interested, and very appreciative of such generosity!
Kazimir nods slowly at Nah's explanation, unconsciously fiddling with the straps of his cuisses. "Well, how do you know there aren't any pink dragons out there?" he asks. "From what I've heard, dragons come in many colours, so perhaps you're just different from the other Sootscales, but just as much a kobold as the rest of them." Before he has time to say anything else, the camp's turned into a commotion of movement and voices, including that of a heavily-armoured young man making demands and orders of the camp. Pulling himself to his feet, he nods to Kesten, before cupping his hands around his mouth and calling out to the kobolds. he calls, gesturing for the kobolds to follow him to the hills in question. Before leaving, he turns to Luthor, adding in a quieter tone, "You look like you could use the walk. Care to help me pair them off?"
Kazimir returns Cyanne's hug, wrapping his arms around her narrower frame and squeezing tightly. "You'll take care of yourself, right? And him?" he asks, swallowing hard as soon as the words are out. One hand clenches stiffly and awkwardly in his gauntlet, as if to keep himself stable. "Don't give up on each other, and don't forget us." Despite everything, Daen's parting words draw a grin from him, and he wipes his eyes on his sleeve as the pair depart. After watching the pair ride into the distance, he heaves a deep sigh, nods a few times, and lays a heavy hand on Luthor's shoulder. "They'll be fine," he says absent-mindedly, not even certain who he's trying to convince. As he sits heavily to struggle with his greaves and sabatons, realizing only too late that he would have been best off putting his gauntlets on last (but too proud to ask for help), he finds himself near eye-level with Nah and the strange contraption on her shoulder. He has several questions for the kobold, but the first one that comes out is, "Are kobolds not usually pink?"
Kazmir sighs at Kesten's words. "Do you really think I'm the right person to-" he begins, before a memory of a large white cervine face and wise brown eyes flashes into his mind. Times will soon change, and strong yet gentle leadership will be needed. Erastil does not question your ability, only your will. Will you lead, if the burden is thrust upon you? "Oy!" he calls, turning away from Kesten and looking out over the kobolds. He motions for Daen to continue translating before pacing back and forth, speaking as he goes. "You're too scattered - everyone wants to speak at once. That needs to change. You can't have a civil discussion when you're all speaking over each other. Mikmek-" he punctuates his statement by pointing at the kobold in question - the one he thinks is Mikmek, anyway. "You're in charge of the others. Nakpik, you're..." He pauses for a moment, trying to remember the term. "Second in command. And Mikmek answers to me." It feels strange placing himself in charge of the scaly humanoids, but he keeps his chin up and his voice strong. "We need to get over or under this wall. If you can collapse it, make a breach, even better. So figure out a way to do it - no yelling, no squealing, and especially no tail-pulling. If you can't follow those rules..." His mind races, trying to recall the disciplines of his childhood. "I'll start knocking heads together," he finishes lamely, making vague hand gestures to illustrate the point.
Looking around the silent group, Kazimir sighs. "Well, we need to either get in there, or draw them out. I doubt anything will get them [i]all[/i[ out of there, though." Looking down at Mikmek, he raises his eyebrows and asks, "Mikmek, your people are miners, right? Do you think you could get under the wall?"
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