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I'm sorry everyone. I wish I could be better. I can't do this anymore. Not for awhile at least. You are all excellent players and I was privileged to DM for you for awhile.
I'm sorry everyone. I wish I could be better. I can't do this anymore. Not for awhile at least. You are all excellent players and I was privileged to DM for you for awhile.
I'm sorry everyone. I wish I could be better. I can't do this anymore. Not for awhile at least. You are all excellent players and I was privileged to DM for you for awhile.
Good idea, Dhice. I'll bring some questions for you all in my next post. :)
Hey guys, sorry I've been so quiet this past week. I can't explain why, but it's been really difficult to force myself to sit down and update the campaigns I'm in, both as a player and as a DM. I regret leaving you all hanging for this long and I don't intend to abandon ship, if you'll all still have me; I just need to get back into my creative mindstate and this flu I had for a few days recently really took it out of me. As soon as I'm able to, I'll resume my regular schedule. I'll be trying every day...I'm just finding it very difficult to focus and just think. My mind is very...unsettled. Anxious. I don't know what kind of mental fugue I'm in but I want to get through it and be done. I don't like struggling this much just to write a few simple paragraphs of text. Sorry about this, guys. I feel like I fall off my regular posting schedule all too often, every month practically, and all I have to say is that I'm thankful to be able to come back and rejoin my online gaming crew. Just wanted to give you all an update so you don't think I died or something. :)
Hey guys, sorry I've been so quiet this past week. I can't explain why, but it's been really difficult to force myself to sit down and update the campaigns I'm in, both as a player and as a DM. I regret leaving you all hanging for this long and I don't intend to abandon ship, if you'll all still have me; I just need to get back into my creative mindstate and this flu I had for a few days recently really took it out of me. As soon as I'm able to, I'll resume my regular schedule. I'll be trying every day...I'm just finding it very difficult to focus and just think. My mind is very...unsettled. Anxious. I don't know what kind of mental fugue I'm in but I want to get through it and be done. I don't like struggling this much just to write a few simple paragraphs of text. Sorry about this, guys. I feel like I fall off my regular posting schedule all too often, every month practically, and all I have to say is that I'm thankful to be able to come back and rejoin my online gaming crew. Just wanted to give you all an update so you don't think I died or something. :)
Hey guys, sorry I've been so quiet this past week. I can't explain why, but it's been really difficult to force myself to sit down and update the campaigns I'm in, both as a player and as a DM. I regret leaving you all hanging for this long and I don't intend to abandon ship, if you'll all still have me; I just need to get back into my creative mindstate and this flu I had for a few days recently really took it out of me. As soon as I'm able to, I'll resume my regular schedule. I'll be trying every day...I'm just finding it very difficult to focus and just think. My mind is very...unsettled. Anxious. I don't know what kind of mental fugue I'm in but I want to get through it and be done. I don't like struggling this much just to write a few simple paragraphs of text. Sorry about this, guys. I feel like I fall off my regular posting schedule all too often, every month practically, and all I have to say is that I'm thankful to be able to come back and rejoin my online gaming crew. Just wanted to give you all an update so you don't think I died or something. :)
I admit, guys, that I'm terrible with maps, along with most other visual mediums - so in games that I run, I tend to use familiar continental maps and superimpose my own worlds upon them. For simplicity, I intend to use the North American continent for a general map reference; that way, I can stay consistent as you guys travel (though I haven't been consistent with my rations calculations. Oh well). Places you've been and their real-world analogue locations (will be added to campaign info tab): Shatterspine Mountain Range: Appalachian Mountains The Sea of Trees: West of the Appalachian Mountains, up and down the Kentucky/Tennessee area of America Valetto: Georgia roughly represents the size and area of President Coghammer's domain St. Agnes = Atlanta The Devil's Cauldron: Evansville, IN Tollerhelm: Tuscaloosa, AL
Alright, I think moving the C4 aside will be a Cool roll. Seth, your aid gives her a +1, so the two of you working together have a pretty strong likelihood of moving the explosives out of the way safely. Scarlet, if you would? Pallor moves back out of the room, toward the elevator bays, and listens for an explosion that he hopes doesn't occur. While he's waiting, one of the elevator's lights dings on quietly...no one else is close enough to hear it but you, brainer.
At the airship field, Smoog yanks hard on the controls just as the workmen are reaching him. With a terrific groaning sound, the airship tears itself free of its mooring, taking flight immediately! The ship is barely airworthy - workers that were conducting repairs belowdecks fall out of the ship by the dozen, and those that were rushing you are hurled directly over your head by the sudden thrusting force. Ordo is holding on tightly to a handhold on the ship as the airship's sudden thrusting force, goosed by Smoog's gear, goes nearly vertical. However, Soup-Spoon nearly falls off the ship! He's grabbed...by a repair worker who has his other arm around the ship! Despite being rescued from falling to his death, Soup-Spoon isn't out of the woods yet. If you keep accelerating upward, the last of the enemies will have fallen off, but your kitchen kobold ally will be gone with them. What do you do? Greas, with Ariza's help you're able to snap the nozzle of a trap off its housing and pocket it. You can mimic and improve upon the design later - possibly Smoog can help you improve it in some way. It appears that you can load the poison onto a needle, which is then injected into a chamber that is treated with a sublimating agent, turning the poison instantly into an aerosol mist. Poisons used this way that needed to be ingested can now simply be inhaled, and contact poisons will function in much the same way, over a wider area. You're inside the tower at the top of HQ, alone. You're standing in a stone stairwell that curves around the wall of the tower in a circular fashion. There is a painting on the wall - a still life, fruit in a bowl. How pedestrian. The stairwell is lit by small chandeliers hung from the surprisingly high ceiling, held aloft by ropes that are tied at ground level. You can hear sounds, muffled and difficult to identify, but coming from your right, where the stairs are leading upward. Suddenly you hear a new sound - the sound of high-heeled shoes, clicking on the stone stairs, coming toward you. Against the echoing stone and with the storm raging outside, it's impossible to tell if it's coming from below or above. What do you do?
Oadir discovers that any reluctance to follow his orders among his squad is completely banished by his recent display of channeling power. The injured kobold already has a friend hanging anxiously nearby while Oadir addresses her, and the tiefling puts her in his care. Then he bellows his commands, and his squad immediately gathers 'round him for orders. No injuries are reported - your death-teleportation whizzed around and killed all the enemies before any real fighting could take place. The one member of your squad that doesn't immediately gather round is the half-giant. Being tallest, he's able to look out of a window that's too high for most. He's peering through it now, and he sees something that concerns him. he rumbles to you, his voice like boulders crashing against each other. He offers to pick you up so you can look through the window and see for yourself. Thunk "surfs" down the Church of Abadar's front steps on the body of its high priest, causing screams of alarm from onlookers all around who hadn't witnessed the kill itself. However, the man's frock catches on the masonry as he slides, causing the barbarian to do a rolling tumble down the rest of the way! He loses all sense of which way is up for a second, then miraculously lands on his feet on the final step. Nailed it! Orcs and bugbears are both renowned for their ferocity. Your Orcs outnumbered the Bugbear bodyguards, but the bodyguards are much, much better armed, and it's showing. Two of the bugbears are slain, but the remaining two are pressing the advantage on your orcs! 2 of them already look like they're past death's door, but are fighting on and displaying characteristic orcish ferocity. Your attack MIGHT not have required a roll if you had approached them silently, but your sliding down the steps drew a lot of attention. The guard whirls just in time to catch your club in his fist, barely deflecting it from crushing his face at the cost of mangling his fingers. The big bugbear retaliates with a swing of his flail that impacts on your gut! Take 1d8+3 damage. You try to speak, and some sound comes out, better than when the curse first struck, but your voice is still tremendously weakened, and your troops can't hear you over the tolling of the bell. At the Wasted Afternoon, Retzack holds up a single fist, and his freed-slave squad falls in line behind him in a disciplined manner. With a gesture and a few words, the goblin sends the reanimated crocolich in, first. And wisely done, as well - only the zombie's animalistic former brain prevents it from being completely dazzled by the strange fog emanating from the old man's fingertips. It does slow your creation down, however, and it lumbers toward the wizard. As you peer in through the tavern windows, you see the zombie knocking aside tables and stools in its effort to reach the wizard, who is still sucking down the last of his ale from his mug. The mug is emptied shortly after and the old man throws it aside. The crocoilisk is upon him, its multiple limbs grasping at him. "GET BACK!" the wizard shouts, and flames erupts from both the old drunk's palms, engulfing the croc's face in fire. The zombie staggers back from the force of the spell, its face still burning but its undead determination unchanged. Undead, scaly flesh begins to slough off its face from the heat, leaving a croc's skull only behind. Your zombie is rapidly being blasted into a skeleton. Roll for Intelligence to command and coordinate its attacks.
The priest that Thunk divebombs from out of the smoke raises a shield of magic by holding up both hands, but the raw force with which the barbarian swings his club shatters the barrier easily. There's a sound like a heavenly angel choir all gasping in dismay at once as Thunk's otherwise silent weapon completely pulps the Abadar priest's head. Unfortunately, your orcs saw none of your awesomeness and you hear them being overwhelmed on the other side of the smoke! Smoog leads his band up to the main deck of the airship, and encounters a big group of workmen who had been working on various tasks on the rigging! With shouts of "Hey, escaped slaves! We can force 'em to do the rest of the work!" and "Get 'em all bound and tagged, boys! It's our lucky day!" they grab their work tools and begin advancing. Your Strix take to the sky slightly - not enough for true flight, but enough to get them up into the rigging with surprising dexterity. However, that leaves the workmen with an uninterrupted path to you as your machines take hold of the ship's helm! 6 workmen are charging toward you even as your Strix allies drop on them from above, what do you do? Greas, you don't learn anything new about the runes - with the driving rain, it's difficult to make out the crucial details of their construction without a Defy Danger roll. If you wish you can Defy Danger and learn a single trap rune - otherwise, without rolling, I can give your character the ability to mist-ify his poisons, making an aerosol poison trap. After your decision is made, you head toward the tower and check the door for traps. You find none, but the door IS locked from the inside, and there's no way to access the lock from this side. What do you do? Not far from Greas' position, Sees-Death is even at that moment issuing her orders to her subordinate. Nodding, her facial scales slightly paler, Tallest-Silver moves to obey, parting the curtains of the window cautiously and peering out into the rain. Sees-Death, aside from his field knife he was using on T-S, which has the precise and intimidating tags and 1 weight, you also find that he had in his possession a partially collapsible harpoon gun (2 weight) and 3 harpoons (1 weight for the bundle of 3). Even through this downpour, this weapon would find its mark and do some serious hurting. No written orders, but you do find something just as good or arguably better - an agenda. According to what it says on it, this thunderstorm is due to last for 1-2 more hours, "until the Time Temple is completely flushed of vermin." After that will be the rounding up of slaves left in the temple for public execution. In case any of the rabble-rousers were to approach HQ, they were to be killed with hidden ballista and other yeomen with harpoon guns. It appears that Hemmerschmidt brought the heavy artillery to bear on HQ's defense.
The Queen turns in midair, slowly re-entering the massive tree stump that serves as the Courthouse. From behind her, Hirohim emerges to address the crowd. He begins going into details that are specific to the Elven people about how to address the Skaven threat - home security, increased patrols, and recruitment to the Town Guard to replace those who were Skaven loyalists. None of it is directly pertinent to any of you. What do you do now?
Seth, you marvel at the fantastic condition this robot is in, apart from the fact that it's been blasted by a shotgun at close range. As you tap the keyboard, the monitor comes to life...but you barely even glance at it. Instead, you get sensations, impressions of feelings, from the circuitry itself. Every detail of the robot's inner workings serves to tell you a story. This was originally a protocol robot, more of a curiosity piece than anything. It was used toward the end-times of civilization as a conversation piece and tour guide, and as a statement for the owner to make about his wealth. However, in the grim apocalyptic world you're in now, the greeting/tour bot has been retrofitted with C4 and missiles. If you had spoken with it and gone on its "tour," it would have eventually shot you full of explosive missiles and then exploded. You do, however, know of a switch that will restore the bot to factory settings. In factory default setting, it will simply follow you, hold items that you give it, and respond verbally to questions. To do so is as simple as flipping a switch, but you need to move C4 out of the way first, and it's delicate... You're also able to pull some of the missiles loaded inside the robot. You gain 6 missiles - they can be thrown, and their guiding rockets will activate in midair to speed it to your target, with the messy, area of effect and forceful tags. 1 weight for the 6 of them. Those of you besides Seth see a long hallway behind where the robot was coming from. There's an open door on the left, and windows on the right - each window with a monitor. The hallway goes on for about 60 feet before you hit a T-intersection.
In the interest of being honest and transparent, I didn't write the song myself. It was originally penned by J. R. R. Tolkien himself. :)
Oadir, you saved the young kobold's life with your quick-acting magical skill. Your squadmate is breathless, but alive, on the floor, still stunned. On the airship, Smoog reacts quickly as well. At this range, it's possible for his eyebeam to miss, but his mind remains calm despite the horrible screams of pain coming from the Strix under his command. Immediately after your laser beam opens a weakness in the construction worker's guard, the remaining Strix leap on him in a fury, and nearly kill him. By the time you get your squad to calm down, his throat is bleeding, his eye is slashed shut, and the hand that held the murder weapon is no longer attached to the human's body. Still, he's alive. The entire Phoenix Hawk squad - those that remain - hold him down and keep him gagged so his screams don't carry throughout the airship. Silence falls, punctuated only by the sounds of the construction worker's desperate struggling. The Strix, restrained of their bloodlust, look to the blue kobold for leadership. Inside Estr, at the nearest Tavern establishment to the Time Temple, called The Wasted Afternoon, the scene was not so quiet. Retzack is first into the tavern, and has to be yanked immediately back out again by his crocolich creation, whose feral instincts warned it of danger even in undeath. Good thing it did, too - a fireball impacts on the wall right behind where you were standing. "Geee-heeeeetttt outta my BAR!" you hear a wizened old man's voice, thick with alcohol, slurring at you. Of the trio of goblins that entered this tavern to loot it, none remain but three ash piles on the ground. "DAMN GER... GREENIES!" the aged wizard slurs, waving his hands about vaguely. A wave of multicolored haze fades into existence in front of the wizard's hands and begins to sweep across the bar's floor to you, Retzack! Your troops are right behind you, awaiting orders. What do you do? Sees-Death's furious attack leaves no room for reaction from the human. Right as she closes to melee distance, Tallest-Silver gets a lucky kick in at the jaw, knocking him off balance and setting up the bard for a perfect redirect riposte. The weapons master of Moontower Mountain never trained Sees-Death directly - a poopsmith didn't warrant official weapons training from the master. Still, if he could see her attack, he would have applauded her skill. On her shoulder, Tanard smiles contentedly. Before the bard starts talking and demanding where the rain's coming from, she hears Tallest-Silver screaming a battlecry and charging her prisoner. Not realizing that Sees-Death has it well in hand and plans to interrogate him, Tallest stabs the human in the neck, making him gurgle on his blood. Not far from that struggle, Thunk's glowing green club is doing all the talking that the red barbarian is suddenly unable to himself. His daring flip over the guards inspires his warband, who raise their weapons and shout in joy as they rush the would-be oppressors on the stairwell leading up to the church. As the blitz goes on behind him, Thunk swings his glowing green club at the Priest of Abadar that hexed him. The holy symbol doesn't break - the priest's ribcage instead gets the symbol embedded in it. The priest is knocked to the ground with a cry of pain, touching his dire injury with his hand and healing it with a quick prayer to Abadar. With a throwing gesture, the Priest targets you with a missile of holy light from his palms! Greas. On the roof of HQ, the stronghold of the enemy, you creep quietly across the threshold in the pouring rain. Your team falls in equally silently behind you. Even despite your own careful creeping, you're about to step on a rune scratched in the roof's surface 10 feet away from the shed. A hand on your shoulder stops you, and you look back at Ariza to see that she's pointing down at it. Carefully, you put your foot down outside the rune's boundary, keeping to yourself how impressed you are that she noticed that even in this rain. The tiefling appears to have an eye for rune traps. The shed is basically a big pile of traps all on top of each other. Anyone who approaches or tries to touch anything will have to defy danger multiple times. You can't imagine that anything awaits in there for you besides a cage...
The server towers - and everything else - sink into the floor. The wall on the far right side of the room lifts up into the ceiling. Runner, displaying uncharacteristic tenderness, lifts the dead child out of the way of the receding computer systems, tearing it loose from the cables that violate it. Scarlet ratchets her shotgun loudly as she steps forward to face the new bowtie-wearing arrival. She's got a clean shot, but her battle instincts make her hesitate and glance back over her shoulder - right at Pallor, who had approached her with his typical soft-shoe silent step. The brainer had reached out into the room beyond and felt for the intentions of the oncoming robot. The psychic maelstrom doesn't interface perfectly well with machines for the brainer, like it does for Seth...still, he gets an impression that he thinks Volcano might be able to use this information he gleaned. Wordlessly, the brainer reaches out and pushes down with two fingers on the barrel of Scarlet's shotgun. This doesn't point her aim down at the ground - merely adjusts where the barrel's pointing to a more ideal weakspot. Then, he nods at her - giving her a "go-ahead". The robot had been standing still and evaluating all of you, scanning you with its red light going back and forth. The bowtie makes it seem friendlier, but Scarlet knows that this robot will cause trouble down the line - even if it appears nice now. With Pallor's suggestion, she adjusts her aim at the robot's midsection, between the two major sections of its abdomen. BLAM! she fires, staggering the robot just as it's starting to speak. You don't hear more than the first syllable before Scarlet follows up with a few more rounds plugged into it. The robot started to right itself after the first blast, then wobbled and collapsed backward after the 2nd and 3rd impacted its chassis. Walking over to its fallen body, Scarlet kicks the chestplate on the thing, exposing a computer monitor and keyboard inside. It's undamaged, thanks to Pallor's suggestion on her aim. Scarlet glances back at Volcano as if to say, "want to look at this?"
Wordlessly, the Queen nods. The vow that Emma takes makes the demons within her soul rage and fester, and the antipaladin feels an icy heart clutching at her chest with a squeezing, irresistible malice. With effort, she remains still, betraying none of her inner torment. The effect of Emma's vow takes the form of a vortex of whirling air around her and the Queen that washes over the surrounding crowd. This also has the effect of dispelling the demonic image hanging over everyone. The Queen rises up in the air again, addressing the crowd with a voice that carries to every ear present. "Hear me! While under Faldren's spell, I gained some insight into what these Skaven are planning. They are in communication with the Netherworld via a Conclave of Prophets. These Prophets, for whom "evil" is not a strong enough description, have sold their souls to the Underworld's lords in exchange for the power to speak across realities. Even now they spread their coils into societies across this land. Yes!" she confirms, as the crowd recoils in horror at her words. "Ours was not the only people that have been infested with rat saboteurs! Even the dwarven President, Coghammer, has been compromised! But with the help of these heroes, these...mercenaries...we can overcome them, and send them straight to Hell to suffer there personally!" "So steel yourselves, my brothers, sisters, daughters, sons. The time of troubles is not yet done. Work remains. Under the banner of these liberators shall we, the Elven race, eliminate the Fel-touched Skaven once and for all!" A great cheer rises up out of the crowd at the Queen's exclamation.
Aw, thank you :)
Greas cleverly manipulates the beetle/security camera so that they're able to access the roof undetected. When you land on the roof, you hear the sounds of weeping, followed by a vicious smacking sound, coming from within the shed. The green light continues to pulse coming from within. The tower, in the center of HQ's main building, has one door that leads to the roof - presumably for whomever built the shack originally. There appears to be three windows at ever escalating locations within the tower as well. The stormclouds overhead are whirling around the tip of the tower as a nexus point, and the rain is coming down so fiercely here that visibility is inconsistent. Smoog: you recognize the burn marks as dragonfire, unmistakably - but the scorch marks are too small and random to come from a single large dragon. Either this airship was attacking a nest of youngling dragons - a disturbing thought - or it was attacking a colony that had defenders that used dragonfire in their magic. That would imply a kobold colony, and an advanced one at that. Whatever it means, it isn't good. However, you were too distracted in your musing to notice that you have been caught! Your warning comes in the form of a Strix shrieking, and you whirl around to see the one that had been skeptical of you getting brutally stabbed in the stomach by a repair worker. He has one arm around the bird-man's neck and is pounding his fist, clutching a knife, into the Strix's ribcage again and again and again! What do you do?
JULIAN's image flashes in response to Seth's shouted command. "Unrecognized order," he replies pleasantly, as the heavy footfalls continue to approach. Onscreen, a dialogue box pops up when Runner tries to click the Cancel button. It reads: Admin level approval required. Password? but you can barely read what it's saying because the rumbling has gotten worse. By now all the server towers have followed the lead of the original sinking wall, receding into the ground, retreating beneath floor panels that open and shut automatically. With your view now unobstructed by the towers, you can see what's causing the footfalls. An enormous, metallic figure in the shape of a barrel-chested man is approaching you. Its visor shines with a red light that travels back and forth within it. Its mouth is a speaker vent. At the end of its arms are colossal metallic hands with three fingers each. It has a bowtie on. It stomps toward all of you and looms less than 5 feet away, where the wall once was. When it grinds to a halt, steam emerges from several different vent points on its body.
Lyntel, the elf, stands on Emma's right, singing her song. Her voice lifts above the murmurs of disbelief, of terror, of fear, that come from within the crowd of frightened elves. "Hedoun, his silver lances long and keen;
The bard's voice falters and trails off as a painful flash within her mind, born of the behelit, is triggered from the sight of the Fel monster glowering down at them from the sky. Emma hesitates, glancing back at her, and for a fearful moment it seems as if the magic of the moment would be lost. Then, a second voice, untrained but filled with a determination and passion... "his lance was keen.
Together, with Lyntel leading and Grigor following, the human and the elf raise their voices in song over the crowd, sending a message that hope will triumph over fear...their voices, together, are triumphant. Transcendent. Tears openly flow from the eyes of the elves assembled. Archepex glances to his left to see that even the Twins are affected.
The song's final note, an achingly beautiful, harmonizing tone, is held, held, held...and fades away into the air. As the song had been elevating into its final crescendo, Emma had been striding forth through the crowd. Elves of every walk of life bow their heads and part ways respectfully as she passes, until she stands at the very front of the assembly, beneath the Elfchild Queen's balcony. She draws her sword with a whirling flourish, and lays it humbly at the Queen's feet. The Queen, on the balcony above, climbs up to the railing and steps off. Slowly, she descends, her magical aura pressurizing the air so that she sinks to ground level as easily as someone else might descend a staircase. When her naked feet touch the grass before you, Emma, the air around you seems to brighten. You breathe easily, slowly, calmly. At her touch, you look up at her, and feel the blessing you have been seeking, with perfect clarity. The crowd is hushed and in awe.
As "luck" would have it, Thunk the preacher/commander is passing right by a large cathedral on the main thoroughfare when his noisy preaching catches the attention of a High Pastor of Abadar, the Human God of Civilizations. Enraged, the man-of-the-cloth raises both hands in supplication to his deity while standing on top of the steps leading up to the cathedral's entrance. "ABADAR! CLEANSE THE AIR OF THE WORDS OF THIS KOBOLD UNBELIEVER!" he shouts, invoking a holy spell. Thunk, the sneak-attack catches you off-guard! Take 1d8 damage that ignores armor, and you're completely silenced, unable to utter a word! The High Pastor employs slave bodyguards, four bugbears wearing church tabards over their armor and carrying heavy flails. They begin advancing down the steps toward your warband, cautiously getting into a defensive arrangement around their charge. "Page! Summon the town guard! The insurrectionists are here!" the High Pastor orders, and a fresh-faced young boy runs into the church. Moments later, a heavy bell begins to toll, rising above the sound of the rain to summon the town guard. In moments they will respond and reinforce the High Pastor! The bells can be heard by Retzack's squad as he disperses them to loot an ever-increasing area. Unknowingly they are following Thunk's squad, since like Thunk, they found the biggest street they could follow and followed it deeper into Estr. Within moments, the sounds of struggles and conflict can be found. You hear the sounds of resistance coming from three places that your Squad has broken into on this street - a tavern, a cobbler's, and a tailor's. What do you do, Retzack? Not far from there, in the storage warehouse that Oadir's squad has appropriated to the north, Oadir is finally hitting his groove. For the first time since being rescued from Armin the Kind, he feels completely in tune with his powers, and he uses them to devastating effect on the bugs. Shadow energy dims the light wildly as he casts it about himself in a nexus of dark energy that teleports from one spot to another seemingly instantly. After a few moments of carnage, even the Squad itself stops to stare at Oadir's bloody work. The whole battle takes less than two minutes start to finish once Oadir begins to unleash his magic. The scarabs are taken apart, one by one, until the shadows recede back into Oadir's flesh, leaving him steaming slightly with latent and recently consumed energy.
Once again, the kobold bard lives up to her name. The death of this yeoman is foreseen by her eldritch magics, a memory of the visions of the sort Gorlaug the Corruptor once had. Sees, your blast affects both of the fighters struggling with each other - the sniper, and your ward. However, the yeoman is better able to withstand the damage than is the kobold, and he recovers faster. By the time you get your bucket off your head, you see that he has tackled Tallest-Silver and is now wrestling to get his knife to her throat. For her part, with her weapon knocked away, there's not much she can do except to struggle and try to hold off the arm holding the sniper's weapon. What do you do?
Runner, when the logo screen goes away, you see numerous program windows open up, all on top of each other. Looking down at the toolbar you can see that at least two dozen programs are all active and running on top of each other in a jumbled mess. On top of the stack of program windows is a progress bar, unlabeled, with 75% of the bar filled. There's a Cancel button on the bottom of the progress bar. The human child's body has not rotted away; it's likely less than a week dead, at a glance. Nearby, JULIAN's eyes flash from greenish to white-blue. "Thank you, NEW USER, for registering with Crane Industries. Your adventure begins now." Without further warning, the entire room begins to shake and rumble. On the far side of the server farm, near to Runner's console, the wall begins to sink into the ground. Heavy footfalls, shaking the ground you stand on, begin to slowly and rhythmically approach you out of the darkness beyond.
Emma, the crowds have ceased their chanting and cheering when the demonic face manifested before them. The intrusion of this storybook villain into their real lives have shocked them into temporary silence. If there was ever a time to make a grand gesture in front of the whole city of assembled elves, this is it.
Greas, you poke your head out of the balcony and peer around cautiously. Outwardly, nothing appears to be amiss - the rain continues falling down on the balcony's stone railing, and thunder booms overhead as lightning crackles from cloud to cloud. The green, flashing light can be seen quite easily from this angle - coming from a small shack on the roof of HQ. You almost step outside before you notice something suspicious. There's a small beetle sitting on the outside of the archway leading to the balcony, with a view of the roof and the balcony itself. This wouldn't ordinarily be anything weird, but the beetle is remaining stationary despite being heavily rained on - definitely not normal beetle behavior. Cautiously, you move one upraised finger back and forth in front of the insect, and the creature pivots in its position to watch it, in a way that normal bugs wouldn't do. It seems like a magician's answer to a security camera to you - activated by movement within its FOV. Smoog, the workers who are employed here at the sky-docks don't get the day off just because it's raining. You and your warband of Strix have to shrink back against some barrels to conceal yourselves, as an enslaved half-ogre brute carrying some 2x4s walks past your entrance point immediately after, followed by his handler who issues him orders. You hear the sounds of hammers hammering nails and saws digging into wood all around you. The noises are fairly loud - you'd have to make a loud sound in order to be heard by anyone, but it's much easier to get noticed visually in this tighter space. Oadir, need your damage roll too to see how badly your successful frost-blast damaged the scarabs. Regardless, your icicles penetrate their bug carapaces relatively easily, slowing two of them down. They're both focusing on you now, one of them continuing to charge you directly while the other huge beetle flanks you on your right. The other four that evaded your blast scurry past and around you to try and scatter to dark places in the warehouse. Dhorim bellows, "Look SHARP! Don't let them hide! They'll ruin the defenses!" and locks one of the horrible bugs in a grapple, wrestling for control with it. Your half-ogre steps on one of the scarabs and crushes it immediately, leaving two other dog-sized bugs racing at your team. One of the kobolds was carrying some loot when the attack happened, and the bugs leap on him, tearing into his scales - his screams of pain fill the warehouse as the beetles get their claws into him. What do you do?
Crap, I completely overlooked that! Sorry, you pick the lock without any difficulty and disable the trap that would've activated the flamethrower and cooked anyone walking through. You're in the room now, it's an opulent apartment penthouse unit with its own jacuzzi tub and finery apparent everywhere. The doors are open to the balcony outside. What do you do?
The holographic monkey seems to smile broadly at Seth. "Oooh ooh ooh aah aah aah aah!" he says, imitating monkey sounds in acknowledgement. "Choose a password, new user, and prepare to be brought along on a magical journey to the heart of Crane Cryogenics' hopes and dreams!" Nearby, Runner's instincts lead him to shake the mouse and tap on the keyboard's keys a little. The monitor immediately responds, lighting up with a logo that reads "SPELLJAMMER INC." and in smaller text, "a subsidiary of Crane Innovations, Ltd." But there's something horrifying happening to the lizards when you activate the monitor. Tell me what it is, and if I like how messed up it is, mark an XP. (I'm dabbling with a new way to handle 7-9 rolls, which I will go into greater detail about in the discussion thread).
The Queen allows the chanting to continue on for some time before she raises both hands and gestures with a pushing motion outward. A wave of magical force emanates from her hand and washes quickly over the crowd - not enough to harm anyone, but it definitely puts a damper on the wild chanting and roaring. A few moments of silence pass by as the childlike Elfqueen stands before her people, her arms upraised, like a monument. Finally she speaks, and her words are filled with sorrow. "We will have war," she assents, her subdued tones nonetheless reaching every gathered ear. She points upward, at the sky over the crowd. Out of nowhere, a demon's face appears - a simulacra created by the Queen's magic. It is a horrible face- crisscrossed with scars like looking at a road map from above, and wreathed in blue fire with black eyes like pits staring down at the assembly. The Queen speaks again. "But we will not war on the Skaven alone! This must be understood by EVERY ELF! I learned much of the Skaven while in their captivity under Faldren, whom I thought my friend. Faldren, and his Skaven allies that subdued me, were operating under the orders of the FEL!" Screams of terror and shouts of alarm ripple through the crowd as this revelation strikes them. Demons were a fantasy to most, existing only in old tales and legends of heroism. Now that they are active players in the war, the enthusiasm of the crowd for revenge is moderated by raw fear.
Thunk shakes his head in reply to Eats-Bugs' message, moving on ahead toward HQ with his gang of rowdy orcs. Thanks to the force of personality that the red-scale barbarian exhibits, Eats-Bugs is caught up in the charismatic call to action, and falls in with the other, larger kobold. Thunk, you and your orcs (+1 kobold) are presented with a choice. Straight through Estr to HQ via main roads: +speed, +risk of combat, -looting, -stealth Back alleyways: -speed, -risk of combat, +looting, +stealth Oadir speaks to one of the kobolds under his command, a young female by the name of Wight-Iris. She nods in understanding and hastens off toward Retzack's group, which is more stationary and easier to find than Thunk's. After all, by the time she sets off from the warehouse, Thunk's orcs are already pressing on into more populated areas of the town. After watching her go, Oadir turns his attention to the warehouse, and soon it begins to resemble Mr. Freeze's frozen lair. Oadir, you're freezing over a section of burst pipe in one area of the warehouse when large scarab beetles the size of Dobermans emerge from a hole in the wall behind it! The pestilent beetles must have been bunkered down in this warehouse! Wight-Iris finds Retzack and tugs on his sleeve. "The tiefling Commander Oadir requests a report on your squad's movements and activities, as well as the whereabouts of Commander Thunk," she asks, seeming to take her role as messenger quite seriously. Greas, I like that. Mark an XP, and by the time you reach the top floor of the apartment building you start to hear screaming coming from the floors below. It didn't take long for Ariza's deed to be discovered - she didn't bother stashing away the body very well. The activity levels in the apartment are rising dramatically and your chances of being discovered are going up with it. You find the room that - according to your mental calculations - must be the room that has the balcony attached. The door is part of a hallway containing 3 other residential "penthouse" doors. It's locked when you try the door. What do you do?
Hunting moose is BRUTAL
The datastreams making up JULIAN's holographic body pulse red as Seth's weird mind makes contact with the machinery. Sparks fly from a nearby server tower, igniting a small flame in one of the cables and causing all the lights on that particular partition to flicker out. JULIAN himself flickers, before returning to the steady blue color he was initially. "Warning. This is a secure facility. Any further attempts to circumvent the authentication process will result in civil/criminal prosecutions," the monkey informs you, in a calm voice that keeps rotating between familiar voices as it speaks. Runner, you don't find a viewscreen - at least, not one like you expect. You follow the sounds of crickets chirping as they lead you through the winding rows of server towers, until you reach a different corner of the room. There is...something you've never seen in any server farm you've ever heard of, if you had even heard of any. It's some kind of huge terrarium, 4 feet wide, 5 high, and 3 deep. Inside the terrarium is the source of the chirping sounds - a couple dozen grasshoppers are inside the glass cage, serving as live food to three large iguanas. There are black, twisting cables leading down from the top of the terrarium to the iguanas themselves. Bizarrely, the lizards' bodies appear to be connected to the cables...which leads to a computer monitor, a darkened one - either off, or in sleep mode. There's a keyboard and mouse beneath the monitor.
You arrive along with a huge crowd of elves. All ages and professions are represented here; whereas yesterday, most of the celebrations were conducted by the military caste, now that it's been proven safe and free of Skaven, the rest of the elven city is braving the outside again. You find yourselves in a huge crowd of elves, all anxiously awaiting their Queen outside of the towering tree stump that serves as the Courthouse. A window and balcony have been carved from the wood near the top of the stump, with violet drapes drawn over them. You don't have to wait long. Without an announcement, the Queen emerges from behind the purple drapes, with a flourish. The crowd cheers wildly and enthusiastically at her healthy appearance. Gone is the weakness of yesterday; she seems more like herself again, more like some of you may remember of happier years in the past. She laughs as she raises both arms high overhead, exulting in the crowd's adulating cries. You note that the railing of the balcony is shorter and further down than it would be in an analogous human building; built to the Queen's smaller specifications. The Queen begins speaking after letting the crowd get the vast majority of their cheers out. Her words, like a magic spell in themselves, float over the heads of those present and fill them with a sense of determination, or joy, or both. You all are acknowledged for the daring rescue you performed on the Queen, and her voice becomes somber when she informs the city of the fate of Faldren, the Majordomo, who had been a major public figure. There's no risk of the city missing him too much though; when his name is mentioned by the Queen, she immediately has to raise and lower her hands to quiet the crowd's boos and jeers. At the end of the Queen's speech, which had been motivational and inspiring, the Queen's tone turns darker; she brings up the Skaven that are still out there, plotting against them, and the wrath of the crowd is a sight to see. Her attempts to quiet the crowd don't initially work - so infuriated by the Skaven's actions are the elves present that they don't allow their voices to be calmed. "WAR! WAR! WAR! WAR!" comes a chant from somewhere in the crowd. It's quickly taken up by more voices, and then more, and more, until it seems that almost the entire city is chanting the word, stomping their feet for emphasis until the trees around them tremble.
After the rogue blackscale tosses his enchanted fruit into the pile, he quickly motions to his two kobold and one tiefling allies to hasten toward the apartment, not looking at the explosion. It's a terrific boom, having far exceeded the normal parameters of the rune's magic - I seem to have a knack for runic magic, comes the thought, unbidden, to Greas' subconscious mind. Take a +1 to your next attempt to use magic due to your confidence. You make your way with your three ninja allies behind you, stealthily into the apartment. When you open the door, you have to immediately jump off to the side to avoid being bowled over - the inhabitants of the apartment building are rushing to see what's causing all the ruckus. You aren't marked too closely when you enter - everyone assumes you're on slave business. On this floor is a communal dining area, a sitting room with couches, a kitchen, and stairs leading up and down. Not far from that spot, close enough to have heard the runic fruit explode, Sees-Death is trying to cause a distraction for Tallest to get into the sniper's room. Unfortunately, Sees, in your haste to get across to the coffer, you neglect to notice that you've sprung a trap by entering the room. A bucket filled with ice water is dumped on your head - you're immediately shivering, your head hurts (take 3 damage) and you can't see! You can still hear, however, and you hear Tallest-Silver snarl in defiance as she engages the yeoman sniper in the room! The sounds of struggle are mere feet away from your location. Across town, in the outer perimeter of the Time Temple, Retzack is earning a growing rapport with his squad of goblins and kobolds as he treats them like he's their Little League coach. He's had to stop Eats-Bugs from acting deliberately recklessly a few times - the damn goblin is so enthusiastic about becoming undead that he's risking his own life needlessly. The squad disperses at the black goblin's command, shoring up fortifications and clearing out spaces for defenders to move, as well as creating cunning booby traps out of innocent items. Within hours, it's like every Home Alone movie was filmed in that one fortress, there are so many household items traps.
Smoog, you should be on the lookout for repair crews. The burly workers - humans, mostly, some dwarves - are hefting lumber planks into place over small holes dotted along the hulls of some of the ships. There are jagged holes torn in small rows at different places on the airships and throughout the riggings. Also, some of the hulls are blackened as if they were struck by fire. Thunk, if you're up on a rooftop and staring at HQ you might see it, but do you have a reason to go up on the roof and stare at HQ? The orcs under your command wouldn't notice it, they're busy creating fortifications. Sorry for not including those in the previous post, I was trying to finish what I was writing for the campaign before I had to leave for the day.
Dhice jogs Lyntel's memory, and within moments, the two of them are sharing a story that they had told each other on the roads leading into the Sea of Trees. A dark elf was said to have invented a potion that had all the qualities of this one - the color, the viscous consistency, the residue left behind on the inside of the bottle - it all fits. This is a potion of Oozekin. The imbiber of such a potion can become a formless blob at will, for 24 hours. This ooze can be squeezed into a minimum volume of 10 ounces, the size of a potion bottle, and can mold itself to fit any shape. Use this ooze form to get past impassible barriers or vigilant guards. Anything you envelop completely while in ooze form takes your class damage every 6 seconds. You can take HP damage while in ooze form, but it's very difficult - hard to harm a puddle of ooze. Emma, you convert your 400 gold pieces to 40 platinum pieces at the Elven bank - one of the only institutions that was left unsullied by the Skaven occupation. The rats must have assumed that bankers were already corrupted and on their side, so they didn't interfere with their operations much. The elves in the bank scowl at you unpleasantly but serve your needs professionally. Just as you're finishing, a mighty blowing of horns rises up into the morning air. The Queen is calling all elves in the city to her Court. The public Court is out back behind the Courthouse, in a larger area where more elves can be gathered in one place. You see elves all over the city stopping what they're doing and closing up shop to go attend. Some of your fans are gathering around you to escort you all there.
Sees-Death, Tallest-Silver doesn't know quite how to react to your words. In kobold culture, the kobold with the superior rank almost NEVER admits weakness or fears to the lesser ranked kobolds beneath them. Still, Tallest offers you a small smile at your mention of cooperation, and nods. At first you think she's not going to say anything, but she finally musters up the will, and says "Thank you, Sees-Death," in a small voice. Her dagger is clutched in one hand, belying her relaxed attitude, but the smile seems genuine. What should I be on the lookout for? You are the last to leave the Time Temple, and the rain inside is only intensifying with time. It appears that whomever this rainmaker is, he's intent on completely flooding out the Time Temple. You should beware when returning back to your safe haven, as it may turn out to be less safe when you return. What here is useful or valuable to me? Since you, Tanard and Tallest don't have a squad of angry freedmen with you, and you aren't as stealthy as a group of Strix, you must take extra care when moving through the city streets. Luckily, you and Tallest are able to conceal yourselves with some rags you take off of a washed-up beggar's corpse that you find in an alleyway. They are damp and smell musty, but they completely conceal your identities and allow you to pass through Estr unremarked - as long as you don't try to interact with anyone. What here is not what it appears to be? As you get closer to the Headquarters building, Tanard points out something strange to you. Now that you're closer, you can faintly see that the stormclouds' origin point is NOT actually at the green flashing light, but rather at the very top of HQ's central tower in the center of the facility. You get a very ominous feeling - the green light, which formerly was an indicator of your enemy's position, now feels more like the bait to a trap. Like an angler fish attracting its prey. Not far from their position, Smoog and the others in his squad are hunkering down beneath a wagon. Smoog's quick thinking and telekinesis are enough to keep the guards distracted and within moments, between the woman falling over and knocking over other people nearby and the cart-horse being startled into bolting, the scene is chaos. If you were careful and quick, you think you could get past the gates now, as long as you're willing to take the risk... Your teammates shake their heads in the negative at your question for more intel, Greas. You'll have to figure this out yourself. What here is useful or valuable to me? Greas, you find the entryway to the apartment building that has the balcony on the top floor. The door is unlocked, but you would need to leave the shadows and cross the street to get to it. Luckily, there are baskets nearby, filled with fruit, that are small enough for your crew - even the gangly Strix - to fit into, if needed. What is about to happen? You notice a third possibility for entry. About a block away from your current position, headed toward HQ, is a food truck pushed by two human servants. The food truck reads "McCarthy's FINE CATERING" on the side, and the truck is large and overladen enough that the servants pushing it can barely see where they're going. They're about to head up to the main HQ gate and enter inside, presumably for lunch. What here is not what it appears to be? You get the same bad feeling about the green light that I described to Sees-Death. Retzack, by the time your crew of goblins and kobolds is through, they've cleared out 5 buildings' worth of loot. The former inhabitants took much of what they could carry when they evacuated, but heavier goods - treasure chests, armoires, looms - were left behind for the taking. With the orc squad under Thunk's command assisting you, you now have taken control of a city block's worth of buildings, alongside the Warehouse that Oadir uncovered.
The monkey leaps down to the floor, landing without any sound of impact - for its body is made of light and shadows, a three-dimensional hologram. If you look very closely, you can see tiny holo-emitters seated in the walls at strategic places, emitting light to give the creature the semblance of life and movement. The monkey-construct regards you, scratching its head in an imitation of the simian creature it's designed from. "I am JULIAN, and I have been created to assist users in administrative functions for this facility. For further assistance, please state your name and pass-phrase, or state NEW USER." the monkey's head cocks to the side, awaiting your response. Its fleshy mask making up its face is disconcertingly expressive. The rain is steadily impacting against the windows and rolling down toward the street level below. Visibility of the rest of Minneapolis is poor; you can't see beyond the block your building is on due to the rain. Thunder shakes the skies every few minutes. Vonya, you find a bunch of things in your bags - inhalers, syringes and vials, bottles of liquid, suppositories, and good ol' plastic pill jars. They're all labeled with med-speak that's difficult for an uneducated layman to understand, but you can make out the drugs' names if you look at them closely. Is there something in your bag that you're specifically looking to examine?
On a 7+ you avoid the thing that initially made you roll defy danger. However, there's a NEW complication that YOU, the person who rolled, make up, and I grant you XP for it. On a 6- no change, you gain XP but you don't avoid the thing that initially made you roll the roll.
Yes, the more schadenfreude the better
You find a corner of the building that is made of floor to ceiling windows, in which you can see the glowing lights of the servers and machines behind you when you look out through it. The storm is upon you - acid rain is washing over the windows as you look out, and lightning is crackling amid the clouds overhead on a nearly constant basis. The effect makes the night sky look like the inside of a cathedral's roof. Francis moves past Vonya and into the room, looking around. "This looks like a server farm - companies used these for their internal access to the internet, so they could control what their employees used their resources for. But these are more complex than any I'm familiar with." the commando studies the cords that are threaded and plugged every which way.
As the two discuss, the city continues opening to the morning like a flower. Every elf remaining in the city is still "riding the high" of their Queen being restored to safety and their hidden Skaven oppressors being driven out, and business owners are emerging into the streets, proving that it wasn't just the bartenders whose business had suffered under occupation. Now, shutters on homes are flung open, carts are repaired and put back into use, and activity can be heard and seen everywhere. For those needing breakfast, a pittance will buy you nearly any Elven food you can imagine to fill your bellies. Eat well while you can, for the Queen's Court will be called to order this morning soon.
Smoog's squad climbs up the ladder after their blue-scaled leader and they all emerge from the manhole cover in the street together. It appears that a wagon has been parked overhead, providing you with the cover you need to emerge undetected. A good thing too - here in this district there is still lots of activity from townsfolk that are far enough away from the action to feel safe. You hear the crowd's talking to one another in every direction, and you have to move cautiously to avoid being detected. There's a small gate built into the city wall that leads to the docks - and you can see through the open doors to the shipyard beyond. But you immediately spot a problem - the gate is guarded by two humans wearing fullplate and carrying halberds. They appear to be relaxed and members of the community, chatting with passersby and leaning casually on their weapons, but it would be impossible to get past the gate undetected while they are there. Your team is assembled, crouched low, beneath the parked wagon. One of the Strix lowers the manhole cover back on, but to get his fingers free in time he has to let it go at the last second, causing a loud clang and everyone else in the squad to wince immediately... Back on the other side of town, near the Time Temple, Thunk's squad of Orcs begin to tear the actual buildings apart. Where there are wooden overhangs, they rip them out of the ground. Where there are buildings ready to fall over, the Orcs heft heavy weapons - the heaviest they could scavenge - and swing them repeatedly to knock them down. When there is wreckage aplenty to work with, the orcs begin to spread it out, erecting crude barriers made of debris across what roads lead to the Time Temple... Oadir, since neither Int nor Wisdom would modify your roll, I'll just call it a partial success. You find a large building that can be used to put your newly-looted possessions inside safely - but there's something very wrong or unsafe about the building. What is it? At Retzack's urging, Squad Warhammer spreads out and begins looting more methodically than the wild looting of the other two squads. They focus more on arms and armament, however there's not much to be found inside a schoolhouse. That is, until one of the freed Kobolds in Retzack's crew shouts that they found something. The schoolhouse had a small, primitive gym, with school football uniforms still inside! The old shoulder armor is too large for any of the goblins or kobolds in your squad to actually equip, but there are some smaller football helmets designed for practice with young ones that make excellent head protection for your squad. In no time, Squad Warhammer's appearance resembles that of a college football team from a Kobold mountainside high school infested with goblin foreign exchange students.
MCKhaos introduced this variation on Defy Danger in one of the campaigns I'm playing in, and I like it quite a lot. What do you all think? Should we implement the change here too? NEW DEFY DANGER TEXT:
by powering through, +Str
✴On a 7+, you do what you set out to and the specific threat you initially rolled to avoid doesn’t come to bear. ✴On a 7–9, describe how the situation worsens for your character, the party, or the world. If the GM is impressed by your creative masochism, mark XP. |
