Kysstaa wraps the child creature up, using his bedroll as a death shroud while reciting a quick final rites.
He turns to face the group, "I am hesitant to enter a town where they don't know me carrying a dead child. Our employer's man, Raeve, was not the first and not the last who distrusts me because I am not like you. Our investigation into what caused this will have to be cautious.
"We can prepare a grave for her and once we know who her parents were can make further arrangements with them. I, for one, would like to track down who it was that did this and make sure it does not happen again.
"Was there anyone hurt during the battle? Moonpate, did you see which direction the creature came from?"
All:
Spoiler:
Sorry that took longer than I anticipated. My post got swallowed twice before I finally got it up. Hope I didn't slow things down for everyone.
Hey all, Kysstaa's player here. Just wanted to drop in and let you know that I haven't completely fallen off the face of the earth. In between moving from New York back to central Illinois and then up to Chicago, all the while trying to get a job and apartment with my laptop crashing and Internet deciding to not work once I uncrashed the 'puter, I had a wee bit of trouble keeping up. Everything's sorted out now and I should be back to posting regularly.
As the Darting Sparrow slowly makes it's way back to the spaceport of Bedsdale. The hull continues to groan and Adolphus calls in an emergency landing vector that puts the wounded vessel directly into dry dock.
Adolphus and the other Imperials gather their fugitives and escort them off the ship. Elkar, Jeho, and Reesla all meet them at the bottom of the ramp and Elkar is just beginning to wish Adolphus the best of luck when a new silence comes over the group.
The city's emergency siren had begun to wail. As Elkar began reciting curses in his native tongue, Adolphus's commlink beeped and a gravely voice came through, "Commander, this is Parascaptor. Bedsdale Port Authority has just rescinded our landing clearance and issued a city-wide quarantine. Unfortunately, our communications relay suffered a brief glitch and we never got that message so we should be planet-side in 15 minutes.
"Until we receive orders from you, the ship will remained sealed and we shouldn't have to worry about the quarantine. I've contacted Governer Garris and he's en route to your location to further brief you on the situation.
"Our sensors registered a large explosion in the industrial complex near the edge of Bedsdale. It was the facility you inspected before heading back for the ship. Not entirely sure why an explosion there would call for a city-wide quarantine, Commander."
The human prisoner that Adolphus had been transporting speaks up as the comm goes quiet, "I told you something was happening there, Tarkin. Even if you're not willing to listen to me, maybe your new friends here are."
Holt grabs his repeating blaster off the ground and slings it over his shoulder. The two troopers quickly bind the pirates' hands with some zipties and escort them along with their original prisoners back down the corridor towards their makeshift holding cells.
Jeho moves over to check on Lidian. She stands slowly and with assistance from her crewmate. She smiles weakly, "If you gentlemen will excuse me, I think the doctor has ordered some bed rest for me." Jeho starts to loop her arm over his shoulders, but she just loops her arm through his and leans heavily on him. The two of them leave the lounge and head for Lidian's quarters.
Kraas steps off to the side as he starts relaying information back to the Parascaptor. The Sparrow's hull groans loudly as the ship begins the journey towards the spaceport. She's not flying fast, but you hope that the ship's still got enough pieces to make it back.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
You believe the armored man to be sincere with his story, but you also strongly feel like he gave you the bare minimum of information as to why he was out there. While he could be being honest, he certainly wasn't open.
Also, you notice that the lounge is now occupied only by yourself, Doc, Kraas, Elkar, and Reesla. The "shadow alien" seems to have disappeared.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
The goods in your cargo hold are going to this planet.
Yeah, I'd have to say just to disregard Elkar's last sentence there since it was a result of the typo. And yes, there is a member of the crew named Ser.
Adolphus's comm crackles as a voice comes over, "Affirmative, Commander. Sensors show you should have clear skies back into town. We will await further orders."
Holt circles around the armor-clad individual not taking his eyes off of him or relaxing his stance. He stands next to and slightly in between the stranger and Adolphus. Not enough that Adolphus will need to look over Holt's large shoulders to do any talking, but plainly stating that Adolphus is under his protection.
Adolphus takes a quick check of Lidian and is relieved to find a strong, healthy pulse. Doc's stitches were done quickly, but with a precision that was only one of the reasons why Adolphus kept the physician around. He groans slightly as he leans down to help Doc get back up on his feet.
"A-a-apologies, sir. I seem to have taken a rather n-n-n-nasty injury to my headp-p-plate. Preliminary diagnostics have not returned any damage other than minor v-v-vocabulator trauma." The droid's normally droll monotone voice seems slightly off and you almost have to suppress a laugh at the way his eyes flicker make it look like he's blinking during the stutter.
Kraas picks himself up and brushes his uniform off. He seems rather flustered by the intense combat and not completely sure what to do with himself now that it's over. Kugal similarly prods the two prisoners that Adolphus originally brought onto the ship to move over into the corner that Jeho has herded the two pirate prisoners into.
Boochacca ejects the cartridge from his bowcaster and looks around the room and the way the pirates cut through the door. He turns to Elkar and says something you're guessing wasn't, "A job well done, I'm going to go eat cake," and he storms off back towards the back of the ship.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
"I'm gonna go figure out how long we'll need to stay in dry dock to get her vacuum proofed. It's gonna cost a good chunk of credits I'd venture we don't have right now.
When you post a spoiler, be sure to write who it's for first. Anyone who's wondering, that spoiler up above is for me and I really hope none of you read it.
Remy:
Spoiler:
Check your email for the full rundown of what you saw go down here
For anyone interested, I've posted a picture that Jeremy supplied me of his character over on the Crafty Works group under the Characters page. I realize that the climactic battle only involved one round of combat, but I hope that it was worth the wait. Small bout of roleplaying while we deal with the aftermath and then we'll move the story along to the next chapter.
A moment of silence hangs over the room for a moment longer as all eyes are turned to the mysterious newcomer. A couple of heartbeats pass before complete chaos erupts in The Darting Sparrow's lounge. Elkar and Boo had managed to sneak up behind the pirates and they now found themselves in a deadly crossfire.
Elkar's blaster spit crimson bolts that manages to down one of the pirates and one well-placed shot from the Wookiee's bowcaster puts another down on his knees. Even through the cacophony of blaster bolts, the Wookiee's roar is enough to chill everyone's blood and Adolphus quietly hopes that the Wookiee is indeed on his side.
On the other end of the crossfire, Adolphus and Kraas open up with their own weapons. Adolphus had the pirate leader dead in his sights and pulled the trigger back, swearing as his second shot wide and the leader takes cover behind one of his other men. Kraas fires into the melee, but his shot goes wide as he himself ducks under some returning fire.
The pirate that confiscated Holt's repeating blaster brings it up to his shoulder and lets loose with a barrage of bolts that he sprays across the lounge. Adolphus and Kraas both duck under the barrage and manage to avoid getting tagged with the large weapon. While the two of them were able to move out of the way, the medical droid reaches across his patient to shield her from the onslaught, only to take a bolt directly to his head and sprawls out on the deck.
As the pirate continues to bring the blaster across, Holt grabs the wrist of the pirate holding him and twists. The pirate cries out in pain and his blaster drops to the deck. Continuing the motion, Holt pulls the man around in between himself and the repeating blaster. The pirate shield goes limp in Holt's arms as two bolts land squarely in his back.
Jeho slams the back of his head into the pirate's nose that's holding him. As soon as the pirate loses his grip, Jeho drops to the ground and snatches the blaster that Holt liberated from his captor. Rolling onto his back, he squeezes off a single shot that silences another pirate as he falls to the ground.
Moving quickly and fluidly through the deadly web of blaster bolts, the stranger advances to the pirate leader and one of his blades disappears into the leader's chest. A little blood collects at the corner of the leader's mouth and his eyes glass over. As the leader drops to the floor, he clutches the stranger's robe and pulls it to the ground. With blood dripping from his blade, the stranger stands back to his full height, dressed in a full suit of body armor.
After seeing the massacre of their leader and most of the other pirates, the two that are left lower their weapons and take a step back, one of them wounded from Boochacca's shot. Jeho and Holt go back to back, Jeho keeping his blaster on the pirates with Holt picking up a pistol and leveling it square on the stranger's back. The lounge stinks of ozone and the walls are covered in small fires and scorch marks from the firefight as silence once again takes hold over the room.
Also part of the reason for the slight delay. Trying to get Jeremy in with my computer currently down and I have 3 tests (one a final) and 2 meetings with chefs for my next block and trying to lock down extern site this week (and it's a short week!), so bear with me for just a bit longer guys.
Captain Holt taps his foot quietly against the floor of the cabin twice and flicks his eyes towards Jeho. Both men are haggard and bruised, but Holt has gotten the message and Jeho gives you a quick thumbs up before rolling his head around to get a better look at the room.
"Me? No. Of course, with how many people's lives I'm sure you've been responsible for, I doubt you would know me even if you were supposed to. Of course, I never was one for small talk..."
The pirate leader begins to raise his blaster when his gaze suddenly goes behind you and he frowns, "What the hell is...?"
There is a small explosion behind you and you can hear the plasteel pieces from the viewport come raining down into the cabin. Air rushes past you as it is sucked out the new hole for a few seconds before the atmospheric regulators on the ship can compensate. In those few seconds, a figure in a red robe drops down through the hole.
While your brain is still trying to figure out where exactly this newcomer is from, he stands up and squares off. You cannot see under the hood, but you can tell this person is here for blood. Your suspicions are confirmed as a sword pops out of either sleeve of the robe.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
You come up to the lounge with the Imperial, the two prisoners, and Boo all in tow. You can hear Adolphus and the pirate having some sort of dialogue but cannot quite make it out.
Boo taps you on the shoulder and points into the lounge. You can see Lidian laying on a table and there seems to be a good amount of blood on the medical droid standing between her and the pirates and on the table itself.
Anger wells up inside of you. Granted, you were not exactly performing a completely LEGAL cargo run, but you certainly were not hurting anyone and you sure as hell did not deserve to get crashed into, hijacked, and now Lid's has had who knows what done to her.
Boo growls very quietly and brings his bowcaster up and points to himself, then the right and holds up one finger. Then he points to you, the right, and then two fingers. He looks at the Imperial he continues his counting procedure. The Imperial looks like he's about to object to taking orders from Boo, but changes his mind after looking from one to the other.
As you all draw a bead on your targets, there is an explosion inside the lounge. You almost scream at this point, "Oh come on!" but manage to bite your tongue at the last minute. The rush of air towards the new hole knocks everyone in the lounge a little off kilter before Acid is able to compensate for one more hole in a ship that is starting to resemble some stinkier cheeses you have never really enjoyed that much.
That's when the figure in the red robe drops through the hole. Acid comes through your comm, "Elkar, the speeder on the intercept course just killed power and is falling to the ground." That's when you realize the person in the lounge must have leapt from their speeder, through the hole, and onto your speeder. Five hundred or more meters in the air.
While still trying to decide how you feel about having what is obviously another complete psychopath on your ship, a sword pops out of either sleeve of his robe. You don't think he's here to talk everyone out of the violence.
Everyone at this point is close enough to being back together we can go back to posting without spoiler tags unless you have something specific you want to talk to me about.
You hear Acid's warble come through the console and the door to the bridge hisses open. You see what looks like a liquid shadow on the wall and assume that it must be Ser's blood on the wall near the turbolift. Ser is nowhere to be seen and you wonder if he's been taken hostage by the pirates as well.
As the door to the turbolift closes, you hear Boo on your comm, "I'm coming to meet you from Engineering. I just ran into the Imp that was guarding those two prisoners. Looks like we're gonna go for a little sandwich action."
You flex your hands and check the charge on your blaster. If the pirates are headed towards the front lounge where Adolphus and Lidian are at, this situation could lead to a potentially fatal crossfire. With your soldier already down, you hope the crossfire won't be fatal to you or yours.
Boo is waiting for you when the turbolift door opens with the Imperial and the two prisoners. The man and Twi'lek are no longer bound, but they are not armed either. Boo is wearing a perplexed look and says, "Acid just told me that we have a speeder bike on an intercept...no, a collision vector with us."
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
"Nice try, Commander," the smoke begins to clear a little bit and the figure that comes through the smoke is one of the pirates, but he is using Captain Holt as a shield. You mentally sigh a quick relief that neither you or Kraas decided to open fire.
As the smoke clears, more pirates step into the room. You and Kraas remain behind cover with your blasters drawn while Doc steps in front of Lidian. Aside from Captian Holt, two of the Duro's crewmembers are being held hostage and used as human shields as well. One of them is the human that Elkar introduced to you, the other is the creature that Kraas had described earlier as a 'shadow alien'. As interesting as the being is, you certainly do not have time to ponder on its physiology.
There are now 6 pirates in the lounge with you and the leader finally makes himself known, putting a face to the voice that's been taunting you over the intercom for that last few minutes. He is a tall, stocky human with his hair kept short, but stubble that hasn't been shaved in a day or two. His eyes take in the lounge and your position.
"You can clearly see that you are outnumbered and outgunned Commander. I have already commandeered the ship and only ask that you come quietly without causing any further problems. I will not hesitate to kill people, but this has already gone much further than it was supposed to and I'd really like to get back soon."
As you keep your blaster trained on the pirates that enter, you notice that Holt is conscious and once you made eye contact, he blinks twice quickly to let you know that he is not only awake, but cognizant.
Since the pirate didn't really raise an alarm or make any aggressive action toward you, I didn't activate your readied action. The readied action expires after that round so you can either take another readied action, or pick some other kind of fun for this powder keg of fun you've found yourself in.
Also, you don't have to worry about getting booted, even if it takes a while to get a response from someone, the game's no fun with less people. I'm a patient person and I only sent the email as a nudge. It figured that I'd get sick right after that and not be able to respond for a while myself, right? Either way, I'm hoping the climax of this scene is as good as I've been hoping it will be.
"A wise move captain. I'm glad we could resolve this without any further violence. Any spot nearby that you can put down will do us fine." The pirate's smug voice turns off and the ship is silent. Everyone feels the ascent taper off as the Sparrow begins it descent back to the ground.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Boo comes through on your comm, "I'm sorry, Elkar. I don't know how to stop them...but I could always," his signal ends abruptly which doesn't add any comfort to the sinking feeling in your stomach.
As the signal to the Parascaptor begins to fade, you beam them your coordinates and hope that they are able to provide some kind of assistance. You pat the console as you try to conjure up another plan for once you're on the ground.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
The torch comes full circle on the door. As the door falls to the ground, a grenade comes into the lounge and starts spitting out smoke that obscures your view as to what's coming through from the corridor.
As Kraas brings his blaster up and lines his sights on the door, you realize that the pirates are testing you and want you to fire first to give away your position inside the lounge. You hold your hand out to halt Kraas from firing and then put a finger to your lips indicating for him to be silent as well.
After a few seconds of maddening quiet, the first pirate comes stumbling through the smoke.
If Boo's lockdown procedure works the way you think it might work (his 'security protocol' diagrams usually look like a cross between an alien language and a toddler's doodles) the pirates should be stuck in whatever stretch of corridor they were in when the bulkheads closed. If the pirates haven't split up, then they should all be right outside the lounge door trying to cut through with Captain Holt and Jeho.
The increasing familiar voice comes over the intercom.
"Interesting play, Captain. I think you might enjoy my countermove. 30 seconds, by the way. Did you know the Imperial's name by chance? Not that it bothers me, I'm just wondering how easily you write off a life."
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
Kugal comes over your comm, "We will make our way towards you, Commander. The prisoners are unarmed and unbound."
Doc's arm twirls as he cycles through his different medical tools. Lidian whimpers slightly as your droid continues his work, but remains calm.
"The patient seems calm enough, I can proceed without your assistance Commander, I advise you direct your attention elsewhere."
Lt. Kraas speaks up, his voice getting increasingly tense, "Commander, what the hell is that crazy alien thinking? It's going to take longer than 30 seconds for us to break atmosphere."
You look out the forward viewing port and see the sky darkening but the Lieutenant has got a point. You curse your tightening chest as you overturn the dejarik table to try to provide Doc with some cover. You try to focus past your pain as you bring your carbine (MP5 blaster) and rest the stock against your shoulder.
The pirates will be coming through the door soon.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
You glance over your sensors and do the math. Your repulsorlifts will take you up high enough to possibly give the pirates a nosebleed, but you cannot break atmosphere with them. It'll take about a minute for you to hit your ceiling.
You send out a distress beacon on the frequency that Adolphus provided you with. The Sparrow is beaten and battered and what power you aren't already pumping into the engines is going to your comm array.
Frustration reaches it's boiling point and you scream in frustration and kick the console. The screen still displays static but you hear, "...chant vessel. You are tran......ured channel. Please sta...mergency."
Lidian seems to relax slightly, but you see Lt. Kraas wince a little as her knuckles whiten on his arm. Doc tells her in a quiet voice that she should only experience a slight pressure. The droid's arm extends and a number of medical tools rotate and as it approaches her head you look away.
"They don't claim to know the pirate, sir. I have a spare sidearm that I could equip them with. Please advise." Trooper Kugal's voice is calm over the commlink, but you suspect he plans on some revenge for the threat on Holt's life.
The door to the lounge starts to throw sparks as someone on the other side starts to cut through.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Acid's display comes alive, "Helm is yours, Elkar. Boo and I will do what we can to help from here."
You grab a hold of the ship's yoke and lean on the rudder while dialing up the inertial dampner trying to make the turn as smooth as possible. You're not really sure what Adolphus is doing up there, but you are guessing that jarring the ship around as little as possible is probably the best for everyone right now.
The intercom clicks back on, "Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. 45 seconds, Captain."
The intercom comes alive, but this time you do not recognize the voice on the other end, "Captain, I applaud your engineer's enthusiasm and ingenuity but I think you are not giving my crew enough merit. While you have home field advantage, we have numbers, weapons, and most importantly hostages. I have no interest in killing you or your crew, but I will if I have to to salvage your ship."
"Especially now that we've lost the skiff I really need something to recoup my losses from this particular venture. Now, you have one minute to stand down or I execute the Imperial soldier. I don't expect this to upset you too much, but it will prove that I will do what I threaten to do. If you still have not stood down a minute after that, your man is next."
"The lockdown has slowed us down, but we are still moving forward with taking this ship. I hope for your man's sake you make your decision quickly," the intercom shuts off and the ship is eerily quiet after the last 10 minutes of crashing, explosions, and close quarters combat.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
Lt. Kraas assists you in getting you over to the table that Lid is on. You take her feet and try to hold her, but she's starting to squirm. Her eyes are hazy and she's mumbling, "What's going on? Where's Elkar? Who are you?"
Make an Impress/Persuasion check to try to calm her down and get her to trust you.
Your commlink buzzes, "Commander, Trooper Kugal here. The prisoners are getting restless and claim that they can help. Normally, I wouldn't bother you, but if the pirates really do have Cpt. Holt, can we trust that alien to help us right now?"
Elkar:
Spoiler:
The pirates seem to be making no effort to get into the bridge. Boochacca comes over your commlink, "What're you going to do here, Elkar? I can only hold them off for so long and what're they going to do to Lid if something happens to their soldier?"
I'll call that the end of the combat as well. You can go back to posting as freely as you want between the two of you without worrying about timing and Initiative and what not. Because of the deadline imposed by the pirates, I'll try to add a countdown as a response to either of your posts so Steve-o knows how much time he has to do reply to the pirate.
The forward guns of the Darting Sparrow come alive and rake along the side of the pirate's skiff as they try to get away. The salvo cracks the casing along the engines and the skiff is swallowed in a fireball that reverberates back through the ship's hull.
Elkar slams his fist into the console and screams in unadulterated excitement as the glow from the skiff fades. As the adrenalin ebbs slightly, he realizes that he's now locked in the bridge and can only guess the number of pirates on the other side. He chews his lip for a moment as he tries to recall the skiff's deck before the explosion. It all happened so quick he's not sure if he saw a laser cannon mounted, or if it could have been the missile launcher that started this whole mess. His hand slams down on the intercom, "Boo, we've got incoming pirates. I want you to lock it down. Now."
The Wookiee's voice comes back over the intercom along with the warblings of the R2 unit behind him. For the first time, Adolphus hears a Wookie (and the astromech?) laugh in what he guesses is excitement. The sound is extremely disconcerting.
The Sparrow drops onto its landing struts and the lights dim momentarily. A split second later, the bulkheads start slamming down and sealing. "At least Doc will get to work in peace," Adolphus thinks as he tries to make out which blur is Doc and which is the Lieutenant.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
"Lieutenant," Doc's gravelly voice droned, "her condition is dire and I cannot anesthetize the patient for this procedure. I am going to need you to hold her still while I relieve the pressure in her skull."
"Anisthethicam if you can" Lidian's voice was weak he grip on what was occurring around her was obviously slipping by the moment.
"Uh...okay, D-d-doc. Um, Commander, how are you feeling? I really don't know about," Kraas seems a little shaken up by what's going on right now.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
"Welcome to my funhouse" is all Boo says before you hear the bulkheads through the ship sealing. "Initiating plan, "Repulse the monkey" he then laughs before cutting off the intercom. You rub your temples for a moment trying to remember if what just happened is a reason that you keep Boo around or why he scares the hell out of you.
The door keeping the pirates from you is not that thick. Ser bought you some time, but you're not sure what to do from here. Then you remember Adolphus saying something about Lid's condition.
"We're on, cap'n, but so are they! We've got multiple breaches in the hull where this mouthbreathers are coming in at! I'm not sure how many we're infested with." Jeho's voice comes through terse and yelling over the thundering of his handguns as he downs two pirates in the main corridor.
As Elkar departs for the bridge, Lt. Kraas swears out loud in what Adolphus can only guess is fright. A voice he does not recognize trails off as it heads in the same direction that Elkar went, "Sir, we have at least a half dozen..."
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
"Commander! They have some sort of shadow alien on board! Who are these people?" his voice calms down a little bit as he puts your arm around his shoulder.
You've heard of a race of beings that actually absorb light instead of reflecting it like most do as some sort of defense mechanism or something. For a 'common' ship captain to have someone like that on his crew would be unlikely at best. You start to wonder what exactly this crew does.
"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to...it was just...unnerving. How bad is it? Your medical droid is just in the other room, I'll take you to him."
You test your footing as you allow Lt. Kraas to escort you into the next room. You will be a little bruised from the fall, and you think that things are starting to become bright blurs instead of just nothing, so you're relieved the blindness is temporary.
You become a little concerned when the sound of fighting on the main deck subsides, but Cpt. Holt does not check in. Doc's voice breaks through your concerns, "Sir, I'm sorry to hear you've been injured but I would appreciate the Lieutenant's aid as the young women is starting to seizure and I think I may need to take some extreme action in order to stabilize."
Kraas sets you down in one of the chairs in the lounge. You take a moment's reprieve while you've got it.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Ser follows along with you on the way to the bridge, "Sir, we have at least a half dozen pirates on the main deck. I understand the necessity to get to the bridge, but that's a one-way..."
As you come down the main corridor, you see Jeho and Cpt. Holt go back to back as the pirates come up on either side of them. The pirates close the distance quick and while another goes down from a well-placed burst from Cpt. Holt, you see the pirates address the situation with some well placed stun batons and it does not take long for their numbers to overwhelm the soldiers.
When the squad of pirates turn and see you and Ser, he shoves you into the bridge, "We will hold." He slams his knife into the panel outside the door and it slams shut in front of you before you can protest.
Looking out the main viewport, all you see is the skiff with a few of the pirates still on board. Acid has kindly swiveled the ship around centering your view directly on them. Which also means they'll be right in the center of your target reticle. The panel that translates Acid's binary speech simply reads, "Roast them".
I think it's hilarious that you mentioned Ser right before I was going to bring him in. I love playing the ghost game with Defels...
Round 3 wrote:
Initiative Count
Lt. Kraas - 26
Pirates - 15
Elkar - 13
Adolphus - 3
Adolphus is now in the lounge with Lt. Kraas, Doc, and Lid. Elkar's down in the bridge, with Boo and Acid still in Engineering.
Adolphus quickly turns his head back around to the turret as he notices a high pitched whine that is growing in intensity. As more and more red lights turn on, he slaps the release on his chair's harness and tosses himself down the access hatch. The quickly vacated seat is enveloped in searing bright light and Adolphus lets out a groan as his shoulder connects with the ship's deck.
From the ship's cockpit, Lt. Kraas feels and hears the loud thump of the turbolaser going critical and dashes down the corridor, "Commander!"
Elkar swears and ticks one more thing on the list of things that have gone horrendously wrong with his day. Both he and Lt. Kraas arrive to find Adolphus laying on the ship's deck with a very dazed expression.
Right about then your commlinks crackle and Jeho's and Cpt. Holt's overlapping voices yelling, "Grenades!" Quickly followed by some more muffled explosions and the ship groans in complaint of the abuse it is sustaining.
Boo's voice comes over the intercom and the hull of the ship reverberates slightly. Everyone experiences a slight sensation of vertigo combined with sea legs as the repulsorlifts come online and actually level the Sparrow out so that it is no longer off kilter from the improvised landing.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
Damage wrote:
You only take 3 damage from the turbolaser's critical error, however you are also temporarily blinded. I can tell you the number of rounds that this condition will affect you, but I was hoping to just play it out. Thought you'd like it better that way, too. Additionally, the 4 action dice used to activate the critical causes your Initiative Count to drop by 8.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Boo's voice comes through strong and closer to a good mood than you've heard in a while, "Got the repulsors running. Also locked the Imps out of navigational controls from the bridge, it's being run directly by Acid from down here. Don't want them mucking the ship up any worse than they already have."
Also, you posted twice for last round, so we'll assume your move action to get to Tarkin took 1 half action and you have 1 half action still remaining for Round 2.
Round 2 wrote:
Initiative Count
Jeho - 27
Lt. Kraas - 26
Cpt. Holt - 22
Pirates - 15
Elkar - 13
Adolphus - 3
As of right now, only Jeho and Holt have eyes on hostiles and are still outside the ship. Even though Boo has the repulsors engaged and the ship is hovering, it's only hovering a foot or so off the ground and Jeho and Holt still have access. So do the pirates. Adolphus, Elkar, and Kraas are on the top deck huddled around Adolphus who is positioned directly below the now-burned-out turret. Doc and Lid are in the lounge directly fore of that position. The prisoners and Trooper Kugal are down the aft corridor. Boo and Acid are further down the aft corridor in Engineering. Think that's everyone accounted for.
The pirate's skiff banks hard to the right as the Sparrow lights up and spits bolts of crimson out at it. The turret scorches the side of the skiff in multiple places as the crew on the deck ducks down out of sight. Lt. Kraas lets loose with a salvo from the forward guns, but isn't able to add to the carnage.
"Get those repulsors up! I can't get any sort of shot from here!" he yells into the intercom, his frustration almost palpable through the speakers.
The response from the speaker sounds almost like Boo is actually wrestling with the engine in order to come back online. Repeated metal banging on metal with the astromech droid coaching from the ropes.
Captain Holt lets loose with a blast from his light repeating blaster trying to pick off the pirates still visible on the deck with Jeho's pistols spitting slugs. Between the two of them, you can see a few of the pirates that did not hit the deck fast enough get tagged from the soldiers' combined fire.
Elkar's blaster homes in on the skiff's engine as they come nearer and he manages to score a well-placed hit on the pirate's engines. The pirates continue their arc and drop low, using the Sparrow as cover from the fire coming from inside the ship. Unfortunately for most of your crew, only Adolphus has a line of sight on the pirates at this point.
Jeho and Captain Holt bolt out of the airlock as the skiff goes overhead and start to head around the side of the Sparrow, using it for cover. A small black dog also bolts out of the ship, running alongside Jeho as he approaches the nose of the ship.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
You see lines coming off the skiff and maybe a dozen or so pirates come down them quick. You can tell that these guys are organized and trained by their movements and coordination. You also see someone set up a large gun on the deck of the skiff and point it towards you in the turret.Also, you hit the skiff and did some damage, in case you were wondering
Doc comes over your commlink, "Sir, the female is going into shock. Without an extra set of hands down here, there's nothing I can do for her. Please advise.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Boo almost has the repulsors on and running, which will give the ship a very limited degree of mobility. As long as the pirates don't get wise to the fact that Sparrow isn't completely out of commission, you should be fine.
Round 1 wrote:
Initiative Count
27 - Jeho
27 - Cpt. Holt
15 - Pirates
11 - Adolphus
6 - Elkar
I went ahead and rolled Initiative for the NPCs also involved in the fight instead of having them rely off of your guys Initiative since I realized that they are the more combat-oriented members of the group and you'd be missing out on the benefit of their Initiative bonuses by doing so. Still, think of the NPCs in games like Baldur's Gate where they have things that their AI will have them doing (that's me!) unless you mention something directly in your post you'd like them to do otherwise.
Sorry it took so long to get this up, and no offense or anything, but Tina took priority over the game for the last couple of days. Now I'm back and rearing to get this back up and running full swing. We had some good momentum going so I'm gonna do everything I can to reestablish that. Let's get back to some fightin'!
Edit: HA! Typed it in Notepad first and then just copy/pasted it so Paizo wouldn't eat this one! IN YOUR FACE PAIZO!
Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that Tina's visiting me here at school this weekend and it's been finals week for Skills I for me so the update might be a little bit. I hope to have it up some time this weekend, but if I don't, it'll be up right after that.
Lt. Kraas snaps a salute to Adolphus with his good hand, "Yessir! We'll make those pirates regret firing on us. He brushes against Elkar without making eye contact on his way up to the bridge.
The ship's intercom comes to life and the Wookiee on the other end echoes through the ship. He's not on for very long and the intercom immediately clicks off as soon as he's done talking.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
"I'm sure I don't have to remind you that Imps sell my people like they're property. Keep them out of my engine room. Also, Acid's punched through the jamming. Nothing long range, but our personal comms are back online."
[ooc]You grit your teeth as the message comes through the intercom. You ease Lidian down on one of the couches on the lounge as the medical droid starts to examine her. You don't particularly like taking orders from anyone on your own ship and Boo couldn't have found a better time to start pushing your buttons.
Also, I think I forgot to mention it but you got an action die for your response to Acid's raise.
Elkar heads over to the nearest intercom and clicks it on, "Good news, people. My engineers have gotten through some of that jamming and our personal comms are back. Open them up to a public channel and Acid will sync us up and load us with an encryption package." The Duro's voice is the closest to sounding relieved since he first saw the Imperial shuttle.
"This is Commander Tarkin. Everyone sound off and prepare to open fire as soon as we have visual confirmation of hostiles."
"Lt. Kraas. I've got the main weapons online and am making out one approaching skiff. The pirates are jamming the ship's sensors so the exact size is hard to make out. We could be looking at anywhere up to around 20 hostiles, sir."
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
Your comm clicks on a private channel and Doc's voice warbles through, "I have some grave news, Commander. The female's injuries are worse than we first assumed. If I am not able to operate within the next ten minutes, she will suffer permanent brain damage and possibly die. How do I proceed?"
"Jeho here. I'm at the main hatch in position and one of your troopers just joined me. We're going to have a clear shot on them when they come through, but we won't be able to hold this position long if they really want it."
"Captain Holt reporting. Trooper Kugal has secured prisoners on the top deck. I also agree with Jeho's assessment of our position. While it's good for a first drop, holding it against numbers will be difficult."
"Well, just hit the damn thing with the turret there, Commander, and we shouldn't have to worry about how many are coming, right?" Elkar's voice was starting to lose its earlier optimism as he slides his blaster out of the holster. He pressed his back up against a bulkhead and took a peek out into the jungle through one of the hull breaches.
Lt. Kraas's voice crackles across the comm, "Incoming hostiles. We have visual confirmation in 5...4...3..."
"Weapons free," Adolphus calls out on his intercom as he rests his hands on the controls of the turret and exhales deeply.
"2...1..."
Paizo once again ate my post so I'll keep this part brief. Tactics/Ambush was successful. Everyone's at +2 Initiative and has 1d6 sneak attack and gains 1 half action for the surprise round. For now, your respective crew members will go on the same Initiative Count as you until at least I'm a little more comfortable with running combat on the forum.
I'm going to kind of play with some formats to see how the best way to make combat work, but I think this one should work fine.
Surprise Round wrote:
Initiative Count
15 - Pirates
11 - Elkar
11 - Adolphus
Pirates wrote:
The bad guys are on a large skiff and you can make out around a dozen or so people on it. The skiff is 150 ft. away during the surprise round.
They failed on their Notice/Awareness checks and expect Elkar's ship to be out of commission and lifeless. They do nothing in the surprise round.
We'll say you've got 4 laser cannons pointed forwards, one quad turbolaser on a top mounted turret, and the proton torpedo launcher would be very, very illegal so I'm going to go ahead and yank that since it's still a VERY well equipped ship with the lasers.
I'm going to be brushing up hardcore on vehicle rules tonight while I crunch the numbers on the Sparrow and Parascaptor for you and Pat. I'll let you when I hit my final decision and put the numbers up on the Crafty Works page.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
Elkar seems to be playing along for now, but you don't believe for one second that the crash caused his cargo bay to become inaccessible. He was very clearly flying in on an unauthorized vector.
The sound of the repulsorcraft is rapidly increasing and you estimate that they will be within visual range in less than a minute. Captain Holt leaves Trooper Kugal inside the ship and reports back that the quarters on the top deck should be sufficient as temporary holding cells for the prisoners, but they will need to be kept on constant watch.
The Duro believes that his ship is inoperable. Whether or not you want to press the issue as to how inoperable is up to you.
There is something you notice out of the ordinary, though. Given your medical history and all of the knowledge that you've absorbed through that, you're pretty sure that Lidian's head wound is far graver than Elkar's crew seems to be taking it. Her lack of focus and blown pupils have gotten you nervous that she is in danger of some sort of hemorrhage or swelling.
You are also pretty certain that you can hear a heavy repulsorlift vehicle approaching from the southwest. Glancing over to the sky in that direction, you can make out the faintest remains of the smoke trail from the missile. Whoever fired that missile is on their way to visit.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
You smile on the inside thinking about introducing this "Commander" to your 'chief mechanic' and letting Boo explain to him the current condition of the Sparrow. While silently hoping that Tarkin doesn't understand Shyriwook, you become distracted by a slight noise.
You are also pretty certain that you can hear a heavy repulsorlift vehicle approaching from the southwest. Glancing over to the sky in that direction, you can make out the faintest remains of the smoke trail from the missile. Whoever fired that missile is on their way to visit.
The jungle is once again rocked as the Imperial shuttle is ripped apart in an explosion. The only sound throughout the jungle canopy is the crackling of what remains of the shuttle as the flames consume it.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
Besh-4-1 is Holt. That was a case of me knowing what I was talking about before explaining it to you. The unit of troopers in your command is unit Besh-4. Troopers are then known as their spot in the pecking order, Holt being lead makes him Besh-4-1. I'm gonna change the nomenclature up a little bit to Besh-4/1 just to make it a little easier to discern what's going on with that.
Captain Holt steadies the light repeater against his shoulder and motions to Kugal. The two of them take lead and head towards the downed freighter. You notice Kugal fidgeting with a piece of his gear before he finally gives it a good smack and secures it back on his belt.
Garir grunts as he tries to keep his footing while his hands are bound. "This is the beginning of some serious trouble, Commander. I'd hardly call our predicament an accident. How much do you trust who survived because looked to me like your security's been compromised."
"That's enough out of you!" Lt. Kraas brings his pistol down hard on Garir's temple. The young man goes down to one knee and you see the Twi'lek make a quick move towards Kraas.
"Hold. Both of you," you keep your weapon trained on Tott, but you give the Lieutenant a stern look. He takes a step back from the prisoners and tells them in a much more subdued voice to keep quiet and moving.
When you approach the freighter, you can see that it has sustained some heavy damage. One of the engine pylons was ripped completely free during the crash and is nowhere in sight. You can still hear the bellows of a Wookiee coming from somewhere inside the ship.
The hatch in the side of the ship opens and a Duro flanked on either side by a male and a female human steps out from the wreckage of the ship.
The Duro stands tall and holds himself with a confidant air. You make him out to be the captain of the vessel. The male looks to be in his late twenties and wears holsters on each hip. You can't make out from here exactly what it is, but there's something strange about the guns in the holsters. The female is younger and has a nasty gash on her forehead. She idly wipes blood away and you notice that her attention doesn't seem to focus on anything, that she is just kind of lazily looking around.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Jeho, Lid, and yourself work furiously to work the cargo bay door closed and jam the controls, making your sabotage to look like a result of the accident. Throughout the process, Boo makes sure that everyone is aware of his feelings on the situation. You can make out some of Acid's tweets and whistles, but after hearing Boo's responses you feel a sense of relief that you can only understand half the conversation.
"Door's done, cap'n. Time to see if any of the Imps survived their landing." Jeho reached down and released the safety on his guns and made sure they were secured firmly in their holsters.
"If they did, let's try to be friendly for now, okay?" you try to remain optimistic, but check the charge on your blaster before heading for the front hatch.
"Can we get this taken care of soon, boss. The landing left me pretty rattled and I'd like to head back to my bunk whenever it's good." Lidian looks up at you and you have to admit, she has seen better days.
"I need you for this, Lid. We need numbers for now. I doubt the Imps are going to come in guns blazing, but the bigger of a mess they have to make, the more they won't want to make it." You key in the code on the main hatch and mutter as the iris lets the sunlight into the airlock, "I hope."
You step out into the jungle and see that you don't have to go far to find the Imperials. There are two troopers that have weapons drawn and trained on you. One of them has a light repeating blaster that could probably put you, Lid, and Jeho down in a heartbeat. Behind them are two haggard beings, one human and one Twi'lek, with their hands bound behind their backs.
Trailing behind them are two officers. You aren't able to read insignia to determine rank, but one of them clearly has a larger insignia so you peg him as the leader. He's a bit on the older side and while he doesn't look that beat up from the crash, his frame is slender and his face gaunt with a skin tone that's just a little too pale. The other officer has his gun trained on the prisoners, but his hold on the gun is clumsy and you guess that the arm in a sling is his dominant hand.
You see a flash of metal behind all of them as Ser signals you to let you know he's in position.
Yeah, it's the big meeting, and a bit of a standoff. Adolphus and Elkar no longer need to post general things in spoilers. Of course, anything you want to mention specifically to me you will still want to spoiler it up.
Sorry it took me a bit to reply, trying to finish Remy's character, design a star map for the sector, and possibly recruiting some fresh meat to add to the game.
Doc seems slightly put off by your dismissal, but goes over to your pilot, Lieutenant Jord Kraas. He very calmly states that Jord should feel slight pressure as he sets the bone. Jord cries out in pain and you hear a very audible pop that makes your stomach do a little turn.
You are relieved to see one of the troopers that survived the crash was your unit's Captain, Arhul Holt. Glancing at the other trooper's insignia, you mark him as the unit's number 6 man, you recall from the duty roster that his name is Tabric Kugal. You realize you never asked their names and start to wonder what the names of your other troopers might have been.
You get snapped back to reality as a high pitched tone starts up. "Charges are set, sir." Besh-4-1 slings a light repeater over his shoulder and secures his pistol in the holster.
"We have 5 minutes to evacuate the blast zone. Your droid has the medical supplies and Trooper Kugal has secured the prisoners. We should have enough provisions for 6 days, more depending on how you prioritize rations for the prisoners. We move at your command."
You glance through the newly made clearing at the downed freighter and can make out what sounds like a very unhappy Wookiee yelling at someone.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Lidian lifts her head from the control panel and has a nasty gash along her forehead, "I think we'll be fine boss, just make sure we can't fall down again." You pat her on the shoulder and start to head aft to assess the damage.
Jeho meets you on the way, first thing you notice is that he seems to be favoring his right leg a little bit. "I'm fine, cap'n, but we need to keep our heads down. That Imp bird came down nearby and they're gonna be here next, you know that, right?"
A shadow sidles up next to you, startling you...again. "Dammit, Ser! What have I told you about that?" you take a deep breath and allow your temper to settle. You remind yourself that you are more angry about the condition of the ship than having your nerves rattled.
"Just checking in, sir. I'll head over to the downed shuttle and make sure our backs are covered." Before you can get a word out, Ser disappears through one of the newly created 'egress hatches' from the landing.
You round a corner and run directly into Boo. "Give me some good news, Boo," you say in your most optimistic voice.
"I've got great news for you," you look up at Boo and start to smile a little.
"That's great, Boo, after that I need..."
He quickly cuts you off, "As soon as we find exactly where our engines our, I'll be able to reattach them with about 30 kilometers of duct tape. So, if you wanna head on out there and find me my engines and the duct tape, I'll get started on putting the ship back together." By the end of his little tirade, Boo is screaming at you at the top of his sizable lungs.
You take another deep breath and rub your eyes. You are really hoping for someone to give you some good news. However, your optimism does not hold up when you hear Acid add some of her beeps and twitters to the conversation.
Boo looks down at you and crosses his arms, "And Acid wants a raise."
Remy:
Spoiler:
For now we'll just assume your character is on his way to the crash site. As soon as you get your skills spent, we'll figure out your Sneak check and who notices your approach
Adolphus surveyed his two prisoners as they were strapped into their seats on his shuttle. The mission to apprehend the human and Twi'lek dissidents had been routine and Adolphus was a little suspicious of how quickly the pair of criminals had given up fight was he and his troopers had shown up. As the repulsorlifts engaged and the ship left port, he had a small coughing fit, but waved off his 2-1B droid. Spaceflight always aggravated his system a little bit. He was sure the apprehension nagging him would be shaken off once he was back on his command ship, the Parascaptor, that was waiting in orbit around Moshaw.
Meanwhile, Elkar, a Duro captain of his own band of miscreants and pariahs, was trying to calm his engineer's nerves, "Look, the shuttle's heading out. If they were here for us, they'd still be waiting in port lettin' us ride in on their vapors."
The Wookiee's snuffed a response that even someone with no fluency in his language could probably take a guess at what it was. Elkar sighed and turned back to the controls. In the seat next to him, Lidian Bala, a young human turned her head towards the controls, "Boo's not happy, boss."
"Boo is hardly ever happy, Lid. That's alright though, like I said though, the Imps aren't here for us. We've got clear sailing right into port..." his voice trailed off as a light on his console flickered.
"What is that, boss?"
The alarm klaxons on Adolphus's shuttle started blaring. Adolphus turned on his heel and yelled to his pilot, "Report!"
"Sir, someone has a firing solution on us and the shields are not responding! Taking evasive action!"
Adolphus was thrown into the side of the shuttle as the pilot smashed the rudder into the ground in order to shake the lock. He pulled himself up onto his feet and made it into the cockpit, falling into the seat.
"Where are the shields? Why aren't they..." Adolphus was cut off by his pilot.
"Incoming, Commander. Brace for impact."
"Boss?" Lidian's voice was drowned out as the freighter's engines groaned in complaint to the maneuver Elkar was demanding from them. The shuttle had quickly veered from its exit vector and was followed even quicker by a missile from the surface.
The explosion was close enough to shake the frame of Elkar's freighter. Elkar slapped the intercom button, "Grab something! This is going to hurt!" The missile had thrown the shuttle into a dead spin and Elkar couldn't see any way out of the shuttle's path. The shuttle collided with his ship, metal screaming and tearing as gravity wrested both the ships out of their brief embrace.
Off in the distance, a swoop's engine engages as the two ships crash into Moshaw's jungles.
Adolphus:
Spoiler:
After the crash, you are left with your two prisoners, two troopers, and your pilot has a broken arm. Doc has suffered some light damage and is moving at half speed (15 ft.). Your comms are being jammed and you are unable to raise your XO on the Parascaptor. Your ship can enter atmosphere, but it will take time to get to your location and whoever launched that missile might be looking to make sure the job gets finished.
You can also see through the trees that at some point during the chaos, you've managed to bring another ship down with you. A crashed freighter is off in the distance. If their ship is damaged less than yours, you might be able to hitch a ride.
Elkar:
Spoiler:
Boo is pissed. The ship isn't going anywhere any time soon, and needs to be towed out of here before some massive repairs get made. Your crew is all a little banged up, but everyone has sounded off and is okay. You can see the Imperial shuttle that collided with yours through your cracked cockpit and can see it's in far worse shape than your shuttle. Your attempt to raise the port authority is returned with static, someone's jamming the signal.
More importantly, if anyone on that Imperial shuttle survived, they might take a keen interest in your cargo hold full of medical supplies and foodstuffs that don't bear a single Imperial customs stamp...
Refresher on your crew:
Boochacca and R2-AS1D: You know these two. Acid is still just a slightly eccentric R2 unit at this point, and yes, Boo has the wrench.
Jeho Shuah: Modeled after Josh's usual character's archetype, he is your muscle and bodyguard. Prefers archaic slugthrowers (M1911A1 .45) to blasters, and has a pet dog.
Ser'Amor'No: Defel that you keep around for his skills at information gathering and getting his hands on gear you need quickly.
Lidian Bala: Slicer you keep around just in case port authority does not want to give you clearance to leave or enter port. Takes the role of the crew's collective little sister.
Remy's character (name pending):
Spoiler:
You grimace as the civilian freighter goes down in the explosion, but a little collateral damage is the least of your worries right now. You disengage your armor's electrobinoculars and kick on the swoop's engines. Time to make sure that Shayla Paige-Tarkin has paid the price for attacking your home and killing your master and the people that you loved.
Well, I think Remy and I have gotten his character concept hammered out. As soon as he gets his skill points, feats, and attributes figured out (I'll be emailing him those later tonight), I think we'll see this thing get off the ground.
Well, I for one, have enjoyed the game thoroughly and look forward to possibly picking it back up once you get time. The nice thing is everything we've done is documented right here and I'd like to think we will come back to it. I like the little group we've cobbled together here and want to see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into.
Pretty simple here guys. This is where we sound off and figure out who we've got for the campaign. Hopefully I'll hear from everyone that I talked to about this and we can get the ball rolling quickly on this.
This is the same Spycraft campaign that we started back at Armored Gopher, since some time has passed and you've had some time to sit back now is the time to revisit your characters. We never got that much XP so if you'd like to make some tweaks to your character let me know and I'll see what we can work out.
On that note, if you're not sure how much XP you should have, let me know and I'll check my notes and figure that out too.
Alright guys, this is where it's all going to begin. Once you create an account here, you can see there's a handy little place in your profile to create aliases for your characters.
For right now, I'd like everyone to sound off out-of-character in this thread. At the beginning of the story, the characters do not know each other and I'd prefer to keep the character discovery in game as much as possible.
Anyone who needs help creating a character should let me know now so we can get the ball rolling on this, I know that I've got at least 2 characters in the bag already and am hoping to see the other 3 or 4 I've got in the pipes show up here.
"While I can understand why the mention of money with complete strangers didn't come up right away, especially considering the 'arrangements' brought about to get some of them here, I think we should listen to the mage first, then decide what to do. I'm also in complete agreement with our stout companion here that we should take anything said at our meeting with a mage with a grain of salt."
Turning to Bardolph, "no offense meant, but mages do have a tendency to be cryptic and mildly self-centered."
While on the way to their destination, Taranis makes sure to position himself somewhere either near the front. After seeing the demeanor of some of the other members of the group, he makes sure to try to be somewhere in between the halfling and Rolem and Burik.
Looking to Rolem "I think it's pretty safe to assume that none of us owe any of the others anything at this point. I also agree that I would like to know more of this mage and having some idea of what he is going to be asking of us would be nice as well. Maybe if you," He turns to the halfling, "could give us something more than a name, we could feel more at ease at going to meet this man."
"Yes, well, I am named Taranis, a paladin of Lathander. I think it should be interesting to see what exactly this mage needs with this particular band of...interesting folks."
He is a tall man with a strong build. He carries himself well and his eyes have a tendency to wander. It's hard to tell if it's out of distraction or jitters. His clothes are simple robes from the local temple of Lathander and he doesn't seem to be carrying anything other than his holy symbol
Taranis will look over the other members of the group warily. While not overtly paranoid, he's not sure how far he's going to be able to trust them.
For the DM:
Spoiler:
I am going to want to find out where this guy heard that I'm a paladin. Not sure which skill to get started on that, but I'm on the lookout for people that I recognize or who would be able to identify me.
With Glenndo there going with a fighter, you can switch me around to a Face/Combatant. A minor change, yes, but still a change. Also, when we gonna get more info on starting equipment? I'm interested in what exactly you meant earlier by "had an idea"...
I've got my profile all set up as well. There are still a few minor holes in the details on his background, but I'll be able to fill those in once I've got the details on the area.
I'm here and planning on making a Combatant/Face paladin type character. Which deity exactly and some of the other finer details I'm still working out, but that's what I'm going for.
It doesn't look too shabby there, Darkmeer. However, the one thing I might try to nitpick you on is your prereqs for the class. I would agree with the Disguise idea if this was building more off the Druid's a thousand faces ability. However, since it is more or less a way of superpowering the wild shape ability, you might want to consider Spellcraft or Knowledge (something or other).
Just what I was thinking, I'd probably play it either way. As a 5 level class, it'd be fun to be able to dabble with a druid character to get an interesting new bag of tricks for their wild shape
I know that they...the Maulagrym...aren't technically OGL. However, this is one of the most active places I know that discuss 3.x rules and how they work. So, I decided to put the new rules up in order to see what people thought.
I know that this isn't Pathfinder in the fluff sense by any means. I also know that this site is frequented by 3.x people very much. On the other hand, I wanted peoples to respond to the crunch-iness of what I pulled out of my bathing suit area.
So please do, I love Paizo and Pathfinder and what they do. I just came up with what I thought was a good idea and knew that peoples that thought along the same lines congregated here, so I stopped in and dropped a line.
Please, give me feedback so I can refine and hopefully turn these wonderful concept of a monster into something your players will look back on and really regret ever going up against.
In response to the eyes thing, these rules I've presented are all additions. Everything previously mentioned applies, and these new goodies.
My DM told me a story about an interesting creature named Maulagrym. He then told me a story about how he felt that the crunch didn't really represent the fluff in a way that tickled him. He knows how much I like to tweak and play with the rules, so he challenged me to make them somewhat...meatier.
These new abilities would just be added to what they already have in Monsters of Faerun, and these are seriously early draft of what I've got going on, but I thought I'd throw out what I've got so far and see what peoples think of my ideas. So........what d'ya think?
Partial Transformation (Su): You have such a mastery of your forms that you can change parts of your body to gain an advantage in combat. A number of times per day equal to 1/2 your Hit Dice (rounded up), you may perform any of the following action:
As a move action, you may ignore the blinded, dazzled, deafened, grappled, held, or mute conditions for 1 round as you grow new organs to compensate for the ones not currently working. If the condition is from a magical effect, it allows you to reroll any saving throws made when the spell is cast.
As a move action, you may take an additional standard action this round.
As a move action, you gain the improved uncanny dodge ability (see PHB, page 26) for 1 round.
As a free action, you gain 1 extraordinary ability. If used to gain an ability that is based off Size, you may spend an additional use of this ability to be considered 1 Size larger.[note: hoping to emulate the holding them for 1 round and then using swallow whole next round]
As a free immediate action, you may take an additional attack of opportunity this round. [note: I don't know if a "free immediate action" is actually kosher using 3.x rules, but it's the cleanest way I've found to represent something you can do at any time and for an ability that stacks on itself]
As a free immediate action, you gain 10% miss chance for every use of this ability that you spend.
You may attempt to push your body past its limits using this ability. In order to do so, you must make a Fort save (DC 15 + 2 per attempt more than 1/2 HD). Failure leaves you stunned for 1 round as your attempted transformation does not manifest.
Slipped Transformation (Su): While on the Plane of Shadow, your body is so mercurial that you have a tendency to slip between forms, giving away your true nature. Any time someone successfully uses a Charisma-based skill check, you fail a skill check, or if you take damage and fail a Concentration (DC 10 + damage dealt), you slip from your current form into something else. Anyone with the appropriate Knowledge skill will instantly recognize your true nature.
My DM told me a fun story about a monster called Maulagrym. He then expressed his disappointment in how they were represented in Monsters of Faerun. While Spycraft is my d20 of choice, I do love tweaking the rules and seeing just how badly I can abuse them. So, he wanted to see what exactly I could pull out of my bathing suit area to try to give the Maulagrym something a little more...meaty.
This is what I came up with:
Partial Transformation (Su): You have such a mastery of your forms that you can change parts of your body to gain an advantage in combat. A number of times per day equal to 1/2 your Hit Dice (rounded up), you may perform any of the following action:
As a move action, you may ignore the blinded, dazzled, deafened, grappled, held, or mute conditions for 1 round as you grow new organs to compensate for the ones not currently working. If the condition is from a magical effect, it allows you to reroll any saving throws made when the spell is cast.
As a move action, you may take an additional standard action this round.
As a move action, you gain the improved uncanny dodge ability (see PHB, page 26) for 1 round.
As a free action, you gain 1 extraordinary ability. If used to gain an ability that is based off Size, you may spend an additional use of this ability to be considered 1 Size larger.[note: hoping to emulate the holding them for 1 round and then using swallow whole next round]
As a free immediate action, you may take an additional attack of opportunity this round. [note: I don't know if a "free immediate action" is actually kosher using 3.x rules, but it's the cleanest way I've found to represent something you can do at any time and for an ability that stacks on itself]
As a free immediate action, you gain 10% miss chance for every use of this ability that you spend.
You may attempt to push your body past its limits using this ability. In order to do so, you must make a Fort save (DC 15 + 2 per attempt more than 1/2 HD). Failure leaves you stunned for 1 round as your attempted transformation does not manifest.
Slipped Transformation (Su): While on the Plane of Shadow, your body is so mercurial that you have a tendency to slip between forms, giving away your true nature. Any time someone successfully uses a Charisma-based skill check, you fail a skill check, or if you take damage and fail a Concentration (DC 10 + damage dealt), you slip from your current form into something else. Anyone with the appropriate Knowledge skill will instantly recognize your true nature.
Now, this is pretty much my first draft and I fully intend to tighten up the text quite a bit (especially when it comes to the extraordinary abilities part), but I just thought I'd throw this out there and see what some peoples think. So.........what d'ya think?
...at about 5 hit points after dropping below 0 due to the great axe trap and the assist by the goliath (heh)...
I did not 'assist' anything! He fell! It wasn't my fault!
Actually, I snuck up behind him with the dead hydra so when he turned around to tell us about the stairs, he was looking into one of the hydra's mouths. A failed Reflex save later and the gnome's a little smearier than he used to be and the paladin's giving me 'the look' again...
I was looking around the forums the other day and noticed some people talking about Attacks of Opportunity. Now, these have always kind of rubbed me the wrong way because I don't like being punished for wanting to do something other than "I attack." I would also like to point out that I'm not hating on AoO's or anything, they just don't fit the way I like to play.
So, I took an idea from a d20 game that stripped out AoO's and whenever you perform your trip/sunder/disarm/whatever and fail, you become flat-footed. I'm going to try to convince my DM to try out the notion that it's not the attempt of a combat maneuver that triggers the AoO, but the failed attempt of a combat maneuver. All the Improved Whatever feats would still prevent AoOs even on a failed attempt.
Ah, the Martyred Champion of Ilmater is full of rich ideas for me to use. I'll probably get rid of that pesky 'being dead once or twice' requirement so it'll be easier to take. I think this will turn out just nicely...yes...
Thanks KnightErrantJR for giving me the idea for Nystar's prestige class. And don't worry, even though I might dump the dead prereq, I'll make sure he gets his fair share of suffering and whining the way he likes it.
So I was looking through Faiths & Pantheons the other day because one of the members of my group is a cleric of Ilmater. I noticed this book had a lot of prestige classes that were based on a deity, but was lacking one for Ilmater.
Now if I'm blind and/or illiterate and someone can give a page number, lovely. Otherwise I was wondering if someone who's a little more versed in FR cosmology had already taken a crack at this puppy.
Either way, I wouldn't mind some help putting the class together. I like to think myself plenty savvy on the mechanics, I just might need some inspiration and fluffy bits.
