I'll be travelling the rest of the week, so posting may be spotty.
Search Posts
I'll be travelling the rest of the week, so posting may be spotty.
The Mother shrugs off the silver fire, charring but still strong. "You think to burn me with Hecate's moon-flame?! I am the rainforest verdant, fire is nothing but cleansing and restoration..."
Sorry for the delay. I've been quite sick the last few days. Should make a proper post tomorrow
The vines snaking through the chamber convulse and reach for the team, wrapping around legs, arms, weapons, climbing up you like a time lapse video of plants growing.
Maggie can identify a panel of circuit breakers that would shut communications down if she wants to go a more traditional route.
Hyde rushes in to punch the Mother's trunklike base, slamming massive fists into the bark, to no avail.
Silver Fire: Affliction 10 (1st degree: Dazed, 2nd degree: Stunned, 3rd degree: Paralyzed, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 20; Incurable, Reach (melee) 8: 40 ft.)
The fire pours over the Mother's plant flesh, leaving a layer of charred plants behind. For a moment, it appears she might succumb, but her muscles ripple beneath the char, casting off the dead material, revealing equally strong plant life beneath.
Definitely fun. I'm just trying to turn that narrative power back to the players.
Maggie finds multiple redundant communications systems. Radio, LiFi (laser based communications), something like 5G. But nothing satellite based. You will need an area attack to drain power from all of the systems at once.
Impatient to impress, Jason reaches out with a more subtle application of his control of lightning than he is accustomed to. Electricity flows over the communication stations and terminals, shorting out screens, encoders, and antennas. As he does, a patrol of Terminator dogs (now on the map) approach from behind, realize that they have intruders, and release electronic howls.
The Sentinels and Terminators have the ability to operate in either an autonomous "rogue" mode or within a mesh net. In the mesh net, each unit is capable of operating based on its own programming, but also capable of networking with devices around it, making the collection more intelligent and adaptable, as well as keeping units connected to the Skull-Net command. On the Helicarrier, all of the intelligent systems are connected. It would take a truly catastrophic level of destruction to force the various robot arms, doors, and other automated systems to rely on their base programming in an autonomous mode. For this reason, their autonomous modes are not robustly programmed. Maggie and Jason could disrupt communications throughout the ship as well as cutting off communications beyond. Ted could isolate subsystems and reprogram their base programming. Interior doors, elevators, cameras/interior sensors are probably the most vulnerable. Of note, there are no installed offensive stations on the interior of the Helicarrier. There are various robotic guards, but no automated gun turrents or anything like that.
The gods speak together, "Long ago, we imprisoned this one here in hopes that she would gain perspective and learn to live in our company. But she remains incalcitrant. She is beyond reconciliation. Finish this."
On another level of being, the beautiful psychic form of Hathaway calls out. In the distance, strange energies move in psychedelic patterns. Back in the worlds we know, gust of wind with no source rushes into the ziggurat from the entrance behind you. The fronds and tendrils, the vines on the walls and ceiling, the twisting vines of the Mother's body are all blown back. But then the wind subsides. The heat and humidity settles on you like a weighted blanket. All is still. The mother laughs, a wet, scraping sound. "Hah. Your gods abandoned this place long ago. They were afraid to be so close to me. Afraid that they would realize I was the answer to a question they could barely------" And just as hope begins to falter, thunder tears the air apart. A pulse of energy shudders through the massive stones of the ziggurat. And then they come. A shaft of golden light erupts from the heavens, igniting the air around Sehkmet. The battlefield trembles as the lion-headed goddess manifests behind her avatar, immense and radiant. Her mouth opens, and a roar like a solar flare cracks stone. She places a clawed hand on Sehkmet’s shoulder. “BURN AWAY THE ROT. CLEANSE THIS PLACE.” Sehkmet glows with renewed fire. Her claws burning with solar wrath, her presence magnified tenfold. The wind reverses like an inhalation. Feathers of jet black and silver spiral into being as Isis, serene and regal, emerges behind the Mummy’s Bride. Her eyes are ancient, her wings outstretched. Her voice is a whisper in your bones. [b]"You are death, and you are renewal. Let none withhold from the world that which should be returned.” The Mummy’s Bride is surrounded by spectral light—her desiccation complimented by elegance and divine grace. Her amulet burns with magic long thought lost. The thunder resolves into a shadow that is not shadow at all...wings the size of clouds, lightning dancing along their edges. Thunderbird, avatar of storms and judgment, spreads its wings behind Hathaway. It bows its beaked head, letting crackling eyes meet the blind phantom’s gaze. “You are mind. You are balance. You are the storm’s eye. But still there is the storm. Rage like the storm.” Electricity surges through Hathaway’s mind and soul. His voice carries like thunder. Behind Hyde, two golden masks appear, floating back to back, spinning as the angry and smiling faces take charge. Janus, the god of beginnings and endings, the two faced god, shows forth. He is serene and furious. [b]"To be many is not weakness and division. It is power. Allow your two selves to show forth and you will become the edge of the future." Behind Harker, a light glows, cold, blue, and ancient. Hecate stands at the crossroads of moonlight and shadow, one hand bearing a torch, the other resting on the hilt of a ghostly blade. She reaches toward Harker, her hounds silent at her feet. “You have walked paths no man survives. You do not seek power, yet it clings to you. Go forward with my blessing." Her torch touches Harker’s back and his blood flares silver. The vampire becomes a beacon of spectral fire, a sentinel between life and death.
As she speaks, the pool spills forth tendrils, vines, flowers. The vegetation, clearly infested with disease ridden growths , wraps together to from the body of a voluptuous woman nearly 20 feet tall. She has the head, torso, and arms of a human woman, covered as though she is wearing some sort of vegetation suit. Her lower body dissolves into a tangle of roots and vines.
"You think I owe something to the King in Yellow? Has your condition so separated you from your connection to this world. The King is an invasion, an infestation. He seeks to destroy, to enmadden. I do not seek power for my own gratification. He is chaos incarnate. I am order, unity. Is this what has caused you so much pain. You say that you are connected, but you, Hathaway, are separated from your perception of the world. I could heal that. I could show you colors, and colors most have never seen. I could make you feel again. The caress of the breeze on your skin. The touch of a lover. The warmth of a latte spreading through your chest. The pinch in your noise when you need to sneeze. So much you have lost. I could give it back to you." Tendrils of the vines covering the floor and walls reach out toward Hathaway enticingly.
The cables are clearly robotic, they move on their own without anything touching them. They must have some rudimentary intelligence of their own, though they don't look too intelligent or complicated. If you unplug them from a unit, they will almost certainly have some protocol to report that to the overall intelligence running the Helicarrier. You could spark up the fight here if you want.
“You speak of music and plays like they matter, vampire. Your precious culture fed by blood and violence." “Humanity carved its name into the bones of this world. Built cities on sacred land. Paved over rivers. Burned forests to ash. The Mother has heard your stories and your songs. She knows what you truly are.” He steps closer, his fringed jaw twitching with restrained fury. “You want to convince us to stop? To negotiate with a force older than your gods?” He laughs—a bubbling, gurgling sound. “There’s no stopping it. No compromise. You can’t reason with a flood, Harker. You can only drown.”
"No more need die. There were unfortunate deaths when I was seeking a suitable host. My Gill-man, as you call him, was overzealous in trying to bring them to me. But this one, this one who was Cassandra, she is a perfect vessel. No need for anyone else to die. All can become one. Hmph, Cassandra. How ironic. There was another Cassandra, a priestess of Apollo. She foretold the future and no one believed her. I hated Apollo; he was always so opposed to my work. As they speak, the vines on the wall seem to throb and flex. Massive stones, some 50 tons, move as though the entire ziggurat is alive. The floor stones begin to pull away from the middle, revealing a crystal clear pool...
The liquid metal of the arm contorts again, thinning to an infinitely thin needle and lancing out.
The tip of the needle is so small at its tip that it can't be seen. It does no damage, but takes a nano-scopic sample.
As The Sentry reaches out for the strangely advanced Terminator, his amazing senses are momentarily overwhelmed. He sees all around him a massive spherical metal framework, spinning slowly. Beyond that, a psychedelic swirl of color across visible and invisible wavelengths. He hears a cacophony of susurrations, something like a hurricane might sound like from the center of the eye. His hand through the metal and force of the Terminator as if they aren't even present. And indeed, perhaps they are not quite Present.
Glad you are loving it Jubal. I thought I had posted Infinity's actions and its response to the grab. I'll get that now.
The Yacaruna shuffle toward you. They don't appear to be particularly mobile here, out of the water, away from the jungle. Perhaps there is a power in the ziggurat that weakens them. Suddenly, they all jerk into the same pose...and then speak with the same voice, "You mistake, I have not brought you here for a fight. From far away, I felt your pain, your isolation. Each of you bears a heavy burden and special power. I, too, have felt pain. The pain of being alone, abandoned, imprisoned in Power. You worry that the infection I bring will destroy life, but that is far from the truth. I do not wish to destroy life. I wish to bring it all together. Never again will anyone need to be lonely. The world burns with a fever, the infestation of HUMANITY. The vessel of Isis speaks of balance, but the world is far from balance. I will restore her. I will bring peace. And you can be my Heralds of Peace."
Kate replies, "We've never seen anything like that, Sentry. That suggests a level of technology well beyond anything we've seen Skull-Net operate. Engage with caution, or disengage. We've obviously drawn plenty of attention this way."
Comms array does need to be taken out in order to delay reinforcements.
DQ, of course if I can be of any assistance please reach out. Summons look good after a quick review.
"Of course I know what she wants. What does any mother want? She wants to wrap her arms around her children. She wants to wrap her arms around the whole world. The mother remembers when all of her children were one. No plants. No animals. Just a beautiful harmony, a single unity spread across the world. Can you see the beauty? You are Harker, right. You were a human, once, as I was. But you are happier now, as you are. You are stronger, faster, and have a stronger will than you did in your soft human form. You are transformed, just as I am. We are so much more than we once were. That is what the Mother wants for all. The Gill-man is perfection. An ancient bloodline, older than humanity, older than the corruption that burns the forests and pollutes the water. Who do you fight for, Harker? Are you on the side of chaos and pain? The Earth is a single organism. Do you misdiagnose the Mother and myself as the infection? No. We are the CURE."
As The Sentry is wreaking havoc far away, the corridor in front of him twists and shines with a bright blue light. Where before there were just the clattering shrapnel of shattered robots, there now stands (floats) a robotic form that appears to be composed of chromed armor plates connected by a bright blue-white glowing forcefield.
Unknown target. Access Temporal Database. Accessing. Identified. Designation: The Sentinel. Native to Earth 99999. Human Kryptonian hybrid. Genetically engineered. Powered by yellow sun. Weaknesses: Kryptonite, Gamma radiation, Genetic Manipulation, Psychological Manipulation. The robot raises its right arm. Nanites flow across its armored arm, forming a sort of gun with a glowing barrel. A technological whine starts low and moves into a higher pitch as the plasma cannon fires at The Sentry.
Ted feeds the Skull-Net systems a carefully prepared diet of manufactured action logs. He makes sure the Trojan Sentinel scans as needing no repairs. The unit is placed into a rack and connected to charging cables. The maintenance drones move on to other patients.
Team Blue Beetle, what's Next?
Sentry flies through several titanium alloy endoskeletons as plasma bolts bounce off of his skin. Bits of broken robot clatter against the walls, ceiling, and floor.
Cap puts a finger to his ear, "Jason, if you really are a god, we could use a miracle about now." "We need that communications array shut down so that we aren't swarmed with reinforcements when we hit the bridge. Show us what you've got?" The array is concave area on the bottom of the Helicarrier that is surrounded by blisters of various types of antennae.
Added some images to the slides that I hope are fun.
The Gill-man's gaze lingers on the vine-choked stone of the ziggurat interior. The pictographs glint in the torchlight—roots and gods and monsters etched into time. He speaks slowly, half remembering, half channeling something older than himself. “You’re standing in her grave. But she isn't dead anymore.” He looks up at Harker, something flickering behind his black eyes. “The gods thought they could bury her. They called down lightning and solar rays, flooded the forest with fire, raised mummified kings to drown her in her own vines. They turned men into monsters like me—guardians, they called them. Cursed blood with a purpose.” When you arrive at the central pool, where the vines now writhe gently, pulsing like veins on the stone. “They were supposed to hold the seal. Forever. But the roots… they spoke to her. They were part of her. The prison was alive. It remembered her. It loved her.” His voice softens, strangely reverent. “When Cassie and I tore into it looking for secrets, for power, we didn’t just break a cage. We woke her up.” He steps back, pointing toward the vines now spiraling along the walls, merging with the very stone. “She found Cassie. Took her in. Twisted her. Or maybe Cassie was always meant for her. A vessel. A voice.” “She’s not in the lagoon anymore. She is the lagoon. She’s the roots in the walls. The breath in your lungs. The thing whispering behind your heartbeat. You can still reach her… through the pool. Through the chamber beneath. But I don’t know if she’ll let you leave.”
The walls of the pyramid interior are covered with pictographs. Helen recognizes many of them, finding that it is a strange combination of hieroglyphics and proto-Incan writing. The writing tells the story of a battle between Viracocha, Osiris, a Northern sky god who might be Zeus or Thor, Isis, Sehkmet, a massive bird like an eagle with wings of lightning. They battle against a female titan who is wrapped in diseased vegetation. Her vines are wrapped around Pachamama, the Incan earth goddess, drowning the goddess in the befouled waters of the Amazon. The Yacaruna are twisted and diseased warriors, fighting for the Mother, as are serpents of epic size and twisted river dolphins with fang filled mouths dripping poison. The gods call upon the mummified kings of 5 continents as their army. They drive the forest back, cleanse the river, push the Mother of Monsters into the Lagoon, then wrap her in the roots of her own orchids and drown her beneath an artificial mountain of stone. Finally, they transform a group of humans into the Gill-men, leaving them to guard this place, cursing them to be separate from humanity, but also bestowing great power upon them as guardians.
Cap puts a finger to his ear, "Jason, if you really are a god, we could use a miracle about now."
Sign in to create or edit a product review. |