The man frowns as they are told no real names and gives the woman a contemptuous side glance, while the older woman frowns a bit.
"This was an asylum, so confused people aren't out of the ordinary, Ramner." She adds, but not with much conviction. "We weren't prisoners... we just can't leave."
With that, a door to the south opens and the woman returns following a man with dark hair and short beard. He wears a leather armor and carries an already loaded crossbow. He eyes you all for a moment. "Don't recognize the lot of you, so I can't ask you questions to prove you aren't shapeshifters. I'm not gonna let you pass."
Lock and Legion slowly enter the long hall, seeing it barricaded to the south with two large broken doors as well as broken crates, furniture, and rubble. Behind the barricade there is a man and two women, all wide-eyed and two pointing loaded crossbows at you, wearing some improvised padded armor.
One woman is thin and old, with her white hair arranged in a bun, while the man is blond and around his early twenties, with a face covered in acne marks. Behind both, there is a young woman with short brown hair, blue eyes and carrying a spear.
"They are monsters, Mrs. Foulkes. Shapeshifters! We should shoot them..." The man says, scared. The older woman frowns, perhaps considering doing so.
Mrs. Foulkes then moves her crossbow indicating for you to move back. "Easy Ramner... Move back, slowly, to the edge of the lamp." She then turns to the young woman and adds. "Mura, go get the captain."
The young woman nods, saying nothing, and then backs away and enters a side door. Beyond the fact all of them are on edge, Lock can't read more in their features.
The hall is long, with some doors alongside it and also broken lamps hanging from the walls. To the south, it ends in a wall and a passage, while to the north it fades into darkness. The walls are painted white, which is peeling and covered in cracks.
The barricade is about 4-feet high. The ceiling is 10-feet high.
Lock finds the door isn't locked, even if a bit swollen on its frame. No matter how careful he is, he can't keep it from creaking a bit as he pulls it open.
The door reveals a long and dark corridor, as well as another door nearby. The light of a lamp to the south gives a bit of light, but before you can notice more, someone calls.
"Something is coming inside!" A male voice calls.
"Come in slowly if you are not a monster, or for the Goddess, we'll shoot you dead!" A female voice adds. Both sound worried and urgent.
Lock finds the courtyard enclosed within the crumbling walls. He finds no more doors and the only walls with windows are on the east wall. All the windows are in a gothic style and have metal grates to protect them.
Suddenly there is a bright red flash and a deafening peal of thunder! Your ears hurt, leaving your ears ringing for half a minute, with the strange sensation of hearing distant laughs as you recover.
Out of the shed, warm rain falls on the man. Too warm, in truth, enough to feel wrong, yet not enough to burn.
The man's boot sinks a bit into the mud, drawing his attention to another set of recent tracks going in the same direction. Looking back at it, he notices then leaving the shed as he did, heading towards the door for a couple feet, then stopping and finally turning and heading towards the fog in the north.
With care, Lock sneaks, the fog giving a clear sense of false security for Lock is smart enough to know that him not being able to pierce through it was no guarantee that someone or, worse, something, could not was well.
The muddy path takes lock to yet another wall of rubble, pilled between two walls. The trail stops there, suggesting the doctor had climbed the rubble. Muddied boots could have left a noticeable trail on the rubble if not for the rain. Tough luck.
Lock climbs the corpses until he is just beneath the opening of the chute, then jumps to grab its edge. He holds himself, feet dangling in the air, grime or worse under his fingers. With some effort, he pulls himself up and crawls on his elbows. The chute is steep and goes for 15 feet before it ends in a metal grate, which works perfectly as a place to tie the rope and, after three tugs the others climb behind him.
The grate is hinged and, despite heavy, is easily opened. You find yourselves in a small room with gardening tools and sacks of soil and manure. While there is no light source, an opened door to the south lets in a bit of natural light. Aside from the stink from the sacks, you can also smell wet earth and hear both rainfall and the occasional peal of thunder.
Peering outside, you see an open courtyard with grass and a few small trees, as well as wooden benches beneath the trees and flower beds with dead flowers. At various points, the grass is soppy and gives place to paths of mud. Such paths seem to run along the walls around the courtyard, but you can't see in the distance because of the falling rain and an ever-present fog. An yellowish fog.
The walls around the courtyard are over 10 feet tall, give or take, and are toppled with rubble from what once was a second floor. There is an opened door nearby, linked by a path of mud, then pile of rubble that was once a shack toppled with more stone, and to the east tall windows protected by dark iron bars created in a gothic style. Up in the sky, you see storm clouds, but those are in tones of yellow and brown.
The only clear way out of the muddy courtyard is the nearby door, but there might be other paths currently obscured by the fog.
Sargent and Summoner join Lock in the eastern room and experience for the first time the full horror of the deaths. The smell of rotting flesh is nauseating and the buzz of flies maddening.
Despite the effort, neither Lock nor Sargent can find any secret doors, while Summoner realizes that the northern tunnel leading from the room with the corpses show the same information as the previous collapsed tunnel: the structural damage was recent.
While the wooden stairs are too fragile and blocked, you realise there is a more grimly set of stairs, with dead limbs for steps. The corpses appear to have been deposited in the room by falling through the chute and they've piled on.
Inspecting the chute, Lock sees a few fissures that could, in theory, hold the tip of the grapple, but he'd likely have to hammer it in place. To think one could achieve the it by merely throwing the grapple is more than unlikely.
Just to clarify, as per my last post the stairs are blocked. You can try to escape via the chute, or as Lock proposes, via the furnace, even if it is just a conjecture as he still hasn't inspected the furnace to know if it is viable or not.
Another point is the itens. The minor items found could have been yours, but the weapons/armor are not as it would make no sense.
Inspecting the rubble, Summoner notices the collapse of the tunnel is very recent. It would take at least three to four man/hours to clear the rubble, assuming strong men were working towards it. With some luck, once the work is underway someone could see if the passage isn't completely blocked, but it would be a gamble for sure.
As a reminder, you still do not have a mobile source of light. The lantern dangling from the ceiling can be taken, or else you'll need to think of another way. As it stands, only Lock and Veil can see the side portions/rooms of this basement.
One portion of the rusted chain does come in Lock's hand as he pulls, but it does so because the spikes driven into the wall went loose.
Peering up the rickety stairs and testing a step, the man clearly notices they are unstable. A couple more steps up and it becomes clear that, even if they were sound, there would change nothing, because the passage up is blocked by more rubble. It does raise a question of where did the doctor go. Did she climbed the corpses to jump towards the chute?... or is she still around?
Back on the room with the cells and away from the decay, Lock inspects the cupboard, finding nothing but common tools. The obstructed passage, combined with the other in the room with the corpses, paint this basement as once part of an underground complex. Passages could still exist beyond the rubble, but there is no way to tell how long it would take to clear the path, or even if this was a safe option. (Engineering knowledge would be needed)
Around the corner there is a cold iron furnace, its four-foot-square door half open, like a hungry beast. Nearby sprawls a heap of gory clothes and other dubiously flammable trash. Among the trash, there are an assortment of weapons, armors, and other equipment probably pilfered from the dead. Aside from that, there is also a beautiful viol, but without its bow.
Here you find all "your" gear, excluding coins. This includes the itens listed on Mael's and Vrek's sheets, as well as Vaelith's spellbook (this is actually his) and component pouch, and a scimitar, scale mail for Narsina.
With the doctor currently missing and your condition has improved now that you are free and armed, you are now only Spooked.
Lock (or Four) takes a look at the side room, coming into a cellar and in front of a dozen mutilated bodies heaped beneath a broad chute that extends diagonally through one of the walls. The smell of rot and decay in the room is nearly overwhelming, and the buzz of flies hangs in the air.
To one side there is a crumbled tunnel, completely blocked, and besides it an alcove with rusted chains. To the other side, a flight of rickety wooden steps climb toward the high ceiling. Here and there, there are fissures on the walls, which are never a good sign.
Lock (or Four) clearly see all corpses are indeed dead and some have been so for days. Some of the bodies are wearing white uniforms very similar to the one the doctor was using, while others are wearing light yellow clothes. If the woman was indeed a doctor, those in white should also have been and it would not be a stretch to thing the remaining were patients. A quick glance on rings and ears show they've been picked of their jewelry and valuables, but if something remained will take some time to ascertain.
Leaving the confined cell, Veil notices that the room they are are bigger than she had expected. Towards the door the doctor fled, she sees a pile of corpses against a wall, and, on the opposite direction, a collapsed tunnel, but also come barrels and a small cupboard.
The stench of rotting bodies now is very evident.
As a reminder, depending on how she points this out, those without darkvision might notice how the woman's eyes can see deeper in the dark than they can.
Another bird appears and attacks the doctor, who turns around to kill it. Covered in blood from her outburst and wounds, she looks around, crazed. "WHO IS DOING THAT? W... WHO... W..." She then flees towards a side passage and you hear a door opening. The smell of carrion increases significantly.
The man with the keys, despite his shaking hands, manages to open the door of his cell. The tortured man lies still as his blood pools amid the doctor's improvised tools.
The bars of the cell keeps the angry woman from grabbing the doctor, but then, out of nowhere, a swirling portal appears and, from within a midnight black eagle appears, its feathers glinting with oil. It claws the doctor's arm as she protects her face, now her own blood staining her bloodstained clothes.
The doctor's face shifts. Her skin goes paler, with blueish veins beneath it. Her lips and nose are gone, her eyes enlarging and becoming milky white. Seething with anger, she thrusts the bloody shear blade into the eagle's chest, causing it to burst into feathers and vanish before hitting the dust-covered floor.
"WHO DID THAT!?" She says, looking frantically between the two cells, before turning back to the man in the table. She stabs her leg in frustration, then gets kicked in the face end sent against the side-table. Her "instruments" scatter and her ring of keys land close to the cell with the two men. She recovers fast, though, and abandons all pretense of medical examination as the repeatedly stabs the tortured man.
Mealstrom: I like you are being creative. I do like that, but in this case I ruled that the contents of the refuse bucket were not enough to elicit a Reflex save from the doctor. It did cause her to before flat-footed for a turn, but that did not make a difference.
"Shut up, shut up, SHUT..." The doctor begins, thoroughly annoyed, and when she turns again at the woman, she is shoved towards her cell as, by a miracle, the man being tortured was able to free one of his legs and kick her in the small of her back!
"QUIET!" The doctor turns at the woman's threat and yells.
Narsina and Vaelith:
For a moment, the doctor's face shifts. Her skin goes paler, with blueish veins beneath it. Her lips and nose are gone, her eyes enlarging and becoming milky white. Before she turns away, though, she goes back to normal.
Please make a DC 13 Will save to avoid becoming Scared while in the doctor's presence.
Scared: You are noticeably afraid, jumping at shadows and easily panicked by odd sights and unexplained noises. You take all of the penalties of the shaken condition, except the penalty on saves against fear effects becomes –4. In addition, if being subject to a lesser fear effect would increase your fear level, you are staggered for 1 round instead.
Back to the man being tortured, she absentmindedly picks the fork and throws it at the talkative man. It hits the bars and bounce inside the cell. "Eat some s*%@ with it, for all I care." She mumbles.
The fork could be used as an improvised pick, but the DC to open the lock is 25, so... good luck!
I hate to see a 20 going to "waste", but unfortunately this roll can't work. When using Diplomacy to persuade someone to do something for you, the target needs to be at least Indifferent towards you and that is not the case with the "doctor".
What we can do, this time (like as an exception), is to turn this into an attempt to change her attitude towards you, but that will require continuous interaction between you and her for at least one minute. If you do manage to improved her attitude, then a second Diplomacy roll could be attempted.
@Vaelith: Yes, you have all your points of arcane reservoir and can also use them to cast a summoning.
The doctor turns towards the men, taking the bloody shear to her lips as if it was her finger in order to shush them. "Pipe down. You'll have your turn soon enough. And I'll start with you." She adds, pointing at the one who addressed her first (Mael).
She then returns to her business, eliciting more screams of agony from the man, who seems to be in the brink of collapsing.
The woman inside the cage looks for weaknesses in the bars or lock, but luck is not in her favor. Despite old, everything looks remarkably sturdy.
The strike misses as the thing sidesteps effortlessly, touching your arm with its nails and letting your own momentum to cut gashes in your arm. You feel the razor on your legs before you can react properly.
The atrium is now gone, only yellow fog around you. Bleeding and weakened, you know it is only a matter of time before the thing kills you, yet it plays with you as if savoring the moment. The metal bar is gone after losing the count of the cuts you've endured, you fall on your knees, with it appearing in front of you to push you back with a kick.
It steps on your arm and chest, before kneeling by your side to open your belly. It is a blessing that by the time the thing was should you your own intestine, everything was already blurred.
---
Everyone
"WAKE UP, YOU DAMNED FOOLS! HELP ME!" A male voice pleads in a yell. You wake up in a small room, humid and partially illuminated by a single lantern hanging from the ceiling. It reeks of mold, dust, feces, and a faint smell of carrion.
In the middle of the room lies a man strapped to a wooden table with old chains and manacles. He wears only his pants and his chest and arms are crisscrossed with cuts, blood flowing from them.
Around the table and the man paces a woman with brown hair in a doctor's coat covered in blood. In her hands, half the blade of a pruning shear glints with the lamp above them. She watches the man, as if in deep thoughts before she slashes his ribs, apparently intending to expose them. The man cries and screams, desperate.
Between you and the tortured man lie iron bars and sliding doors secured with heavy locks. Each cell has two piles of straw and blankets that serve as beds, as well as two buckets, one with a ladle inside and the other with excrement. Besides the table with the man there is a side-table with various sharp instruments: a gardening trowel, forks, several long pieces of broken glass or metal, and the other blade of the tormentor's shears.
While the lamp only illuminates the center of the room, you can see a door to one side and a passage to the other, as well as sacks by the door. More importantly, however, is a ring with keys hanging by the torturer's belt.
Mael and Vrek are in one cell, while Narsina and Vaelith in the other.
Neither of you recognize the man or the woman, or even each other. You don't remember your names, and the last thing you remember is the horrible dream you've shared. You are all currently shaken.
Shaken: Fear has taken hold of you and you are no longer thinking or acting clearly. You take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.
You have no items with you. If you are a prepared caster, you have no spells prepared.
You slip through the dark door into an old and lavish house, surprisingly being able to see in black and white a couple feet ahead of you. Moth eaten tapestries cover some walls while moldy and peeling paint cover the others. Many doors lead away from the main hall, but testing them show them are either locked or swollen into their frames.
You find a side alcove have spiral stairs leading up and down, even if the stairs down are filled with impossibly thick webs. A side broken plaque has an arrow and says "up", with the remaining of the message lost.
Up you go, ending up in an open atrium surrounded with dead plant vases. In the middle of it, there is a broken statue with no head or arms and, chained to its torso, a dead woman with limbs twisted in unnatural angles, one eye missing and the other being eaten by a crow. Around her neck, there is another plaque: "Death to the weak", with the last work being previously being miss-written as "wake".
After the initial shock, you look back to see the stairs bursting with the yellow fog, the same fog which now invades the atrium from above. From the alcove steps free a bald man with white skin, almost an albino, and covered in bruises, burnt marks and dried blood. Filled teeth show through a lipless mouth grinning at you, and his eyes are hidden beneath a filthy rag. A serrated razor in hand, shackles and broken chains around his ankles and wrists, old and dirty clothes and, finally a cloak made of yellow tatters combine to present a heinous appearance. Pointing at you, with a raspy voice, he condemns you. "Only... you... left."
You turn around and run, the only sensible thing to do. Back at the junction, the skeletons have moved closer towards the right alley, making it somewhat easy to sneak through the left passage. The door remains opened and dark, but closer to the skeletons.
The man scrambles to climb the rubble while the woman and the elf get ready to face the fog. And slowly it comes, shifting and billowing. Shuffling steps, the sound of metal against stone.
When the fog is close enough for the two to see the silhouette inside it, their hands begin to shake, the pounding of their hearts obscuring other sounds. They get ready for it.
The figure stops as the fog envelops the two, obscuring them from the climbing man's sight. The wisps of fog tug at their clothes, wrapping around their legs. Then the woman is gone, pulled by the fog and dragged along the cobblestones, her scream cut short as something lands on her back, pushing all the air out of her lungs. The elf wills his legs to step forward, but they step back instead. The woman struggles, at least until she feels a blinding pain in her nape, then her arms and legs simply stop working. After a couple moments as it appears something is being removed from inside her, darkness.
The elf runs, panicked, throwing himself into the side passage.
The man climbing the rubble miss his step and falls. The rubble shifts, she sound of bricks and stones muffling the sickening sound of the elf's bones breaking under its weight. The side passage is no more, the elf is no more. Bruised and beaten, he lands back on the cobblestones. Close to his face there is a lump of flesh. A heart. His shock doesn't last as something sharp pierces hand hooks his jaw, lifting him, until he is eye to eye with the thing, a man wrapped in yellow tatters with white flaked skin beneath. It smiles a smile with pointed teeth and no lips before piercing his eyes with a bloody and spiked razor. A gurgling scream is the last sound the man makes.
Maelcolm
You leave the skeletons behind and soon is running back. You hear a scream and notice dried blood in a nearby wall. It seams the word "me" is written in it.
As you make a turn and see the rubble wall, it appears to have shifted and then there is another scream, albeit more muffled. From countless cracks in the rubble, the fog already seeps through, wisps already threatening to breach over it.
Looking at where the side passage was, you see the broken body of the elf, crushed. From the blood oozing from his body, for an instant you can swear it formed the world "help".
The elf approaches and the man through the passage in the rubble is gone. No warning, no scream, no message of success coming from within the passage or from the other side of the rubble. Did he even escape? He could be dead, or just hiding in there.
In the distance, wisps of fog can already be seen. Through the rubble, over it or... into the fog? There is too little time to decide.
Mael
You continue to run, looking back now and them. Nothing is coming after you, neither the thing, nor the others who you escaped with. Have they died yet?
Movement ahead. You stop, unwilling to let the sound of your steps carry along the alley. Two figures shamble, walking strangely. You sneak ahead, seeing the alley splits in a narrow "T" junction and, right in the middle, the two figures look inside an opened door of an old house. Armed with rusted mails and swords but devoid of any flesh, the skeletons watch and look, distracted for now.
The man (Maelcolm) looks around and quickly finds a piece of metal thick as his finger and as long as his arm. It is bent here and there, but should the need arise to use it as a weapon, it will be better than his fists. If it will be useful at all against the thing in the fog, that is still a deadly mystery. He then enters the opening and slowly begins to squeeze through it, slowly being the key.
Maelcolm
Maelcolm - Dexterity:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16
As you slowly squeeze through the opening, the sharp rubble scratch your head and ribs at some point, but you only notice it when you emerge on the other side. Your shirt is torn, but you are free. For now, at least, as the twisting alley invites you to continue.
Narsina and Vrek
You dived your attention between the man squeezing through the opening and the other end of the alley. Suddenly, the white-haired elf appears running as you did.
Does this mean the fog is still advancing? Likely, your poundings heart answers, adding another question: Will there be enough time for the four of you to squeeze through that gap in the rubble? No, your guts adds.
Vaelith
The alley starts to become narrower as you leave the fog behind, but a glimpse tells you it is inexorably approaching. Ahead of you, but still in the distance, you see one of the men and the woman standing in front of a large wall of rubble. Perhaps the other man took the path to the right. Perhaps he was the only one to choose... right?
You flee out of instinct. Sometimes fear is good, pushing you forward. Sometimes it is bad, freezing you in place. A last glimpse before turning left shows the sickening yellow fog getting closer to the stupefied. Sometimes fear is the last thing you feel. Many times.
You run as you feel the walls of the alleys encroaching upon you and then, a dead end. What was likely a tall building or temple had collapsed, bricks, wood and even twisted metal now forming a wall of rubble. A wooden plaque with three interlocked cogs and foreign letters beneath them lie discarded on the ground, broken and charred.
Looking back, you can't see the fog anymore, but should you go back, will it have reached the split yet?
Back to the rubble, you notice a small passage to a side. Narrow for sure, like the maw of a beast and, just like it, will it close upon you if you try to enter? Perhaps such beast can be climbed, grabbing on its spiked spine, unless of course it shakes at your touch before stomping over you.
Vaelith
The citrine fog approaches, tugging at your clothes, welcoming you. Mocking, lying. The shuffling steps continue, the metal gratings following the same pace.
The shadows within coalesce in a single shape, that of a gaunt and tall figure, still obscured by the fog. It keeps itself at the brink of the fog, showing you just enough so you know it is there. The fog bulges and then retracts around the man. Man? Thing. It contains it, apparently, keeping it from breaking free and rushing at you.
Something washes over you. A feeling: unrestrained murderous intent.
Looking back, there is no sign of the others, nor an indication of which path they took.
If you do decide to run (up to you), please do roll a d2 (1: Left, 2: Right) to choose your path. You can also try to look for clues about the path the others took, of course, but you'll lose some time doing so.
You find yourselves in a shadowy alley. The walls are cracked and crumbling, revealing grey bricks beneath the old plaster. Few doors and windows dot the walls here and there, all shut and most boarded as well. The black suns should dip bellow the horizon at any minute now. Black. Suns. Pale clouds slowly float behind them. Where are you? Nothing comes to your mind, but wherever you are, you are not safe.
The air is damp, musty and heavy. And dreadful. You can feel your hearts pounding, as if trying to make its way up in your chest and out through your mouth. Someone is out there. Something. Who you are? Prey.
Citrine fog dances amid the muddy cobblestones, brushing against your feet. Ensnaring. You feel its cold touch and its wispy tentacles pulling your clothes. Pulling? Metal grates against stone, slowly. The sound drags your eyes towards an end of the alley, now completely obscured by a wall of sick fog that sneaks upon you, hungry. Shuffling steps, shadows within.
The other end of the alley is free, for now, and splits, curving to the left and right...
All of you are present. You remember nothing about yourselves, not even your names. You have no itens aside from normal clothes. You are all Spooked.
Spooked: You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against fear effects and on Perception checks, as your mind conjures potential horrors in every shadow. However, you are ready to face danger, and gain a +1 circumstance bonus on initiative checks.
It still takes about half an hour for the water to drop low enough for people to safely walk the streets without getting their shoes drenched. It then becomes an annoying puzzle of trying to find a good route away from the flooded area.
The interview postponed, Amanda seems a bit more relaxed and chatty, talking mostly about funny and embarrassing situations Rai had been through when he was younger. Among those, are stories of previous girlfriends where she points out how bad they were in comparison to Mara.
The process is tiresome, specially because of the rain and water. By the time the rain finally stops and the flood begins to lower, you feel like your limbs are weighting a ton.
"You did good." Cage says, landing on top of a bench in the park. The Titan nods in agreement. From nearby windows and doors, many people start to clap, whistle and cheer to you.
"Perhaps you could apply to join the Guard." She offers, before grabbing one of the Titan's arms and flying him away.
In the next minutes, the police and ambulances arrive, starting to help the civilians. Many are desolate about the damage to their properties, mostly their cars.
The Guard is a national program for superheroes to join the military. Every major city has a group overseeing it. In case of São Paulo, the members are Cage, Titan and Verdict.
What do you do?
=====
Mara
"Go outside! Jeez, why would you think that? You think I've a deathwish or something?" Amanda asks, then reaches for her phone and reads a message. "Oh, yeah, the interview is cancelled, but should happen in up to three days." She sighs.
"Oh, crap, I did not bring clothes enough for so many days, but going back home tomorrow and then returning a day or two later will also be a pain..." She trails off, obviously trying to bait you to invite her to stay with you for this period.
"Minutes." The Cage says. "It is a battle of attrition. Left alone, it'll run rampage on the streets until the rain stops and the flood dissipates. We know nothing about it, as it doesn't talk. So far, what we've been doing and the same as you did, fighting it over and over again."
The Titan nods, but then corrects, just as Pailing appears on the rooftop "Sec'konts."
As Phylax shoves the vehicle, the whirlpool indeed disrupts and disperses, but then a minute later it once more reforms.
"Zyra'kar k'joins." The Titan proclaims with little emotion and he jumps from the rooftop in the middle of the whirlpool, disrupting it again. "And I'll help you find it." Cage says, as she flies and looks where the whirlpool is reforming.
When you push beyond your limits to disrupt Tietê's ire, roll + Savior. On a hit, you gain 1 Attrition. On a 10+, you also choose 1. On a 7-9, mark a condition of your choice. On a miss, you lose 1 Attrition. Tietê will reform by the end of the panel if you have 0 or less Attrition.
- You rally your allies. Add 1 Team to the pool.
- You impress the Guard. Gain Influence over the Titan or the Cage.
- You fight the good fight. Clear a condition.
=====
Arèspina
By the time you return to the cat café, you see the water has flooded in, not enough to endanger anyone, but enough to cause some damage and to have people balancing on top of chairs, tables and the counter. Amanda is wild eyed. "Oh, thanks God! Where have you been?"
You don't have much information about Tietê aside from what you've witnessed. There are many elements involved: The rain, the river, the flood, the pollution, the scream. They could all be connected some way, or some might be just a coincidence. The rain is diminishing, but you can't do anything to speed the process, so if Tietê's power is connected to it, you are more on a timer than anything else. What you do know is that it seemed both angrier and weaker each time you dispersed it and caused it to reform, and that is something you can act on. All this to say that either disrupting the whirlpool or bashing against it again when it reforms might be the best way to end this quickly.
You have not interacted with the figure on the rooftop, but you can see at least that Vitória and Ozcoyo are not fighting it. Tietê is still likely the greatest danger.
=====
Arèspina
The flood is fast moving and in a couple minutes of struggle to keep yourself from drowning or hitting against something, you find yourself a couple streets down from the cat café.
You are drenched and bruised, and it will not be easy to get back to the café until the waters get shallower. Nearby, on an elevated flowerbed, you see a poor teen sleeping and smiling. Aside from him, no one is really paying attention to you.
The Titan is a being like no other in São Paulo. Over three meters high, four arms ending in four fingers each, skinny frame but somehow giving the impression of great strength, dermal plates covering parts of his limbs. His head is pointy and elongated, with few prominent features as he has no ears or nose, but small slits or holes instead.
"No'kt sto'kp figh'kt." He answers Vitória, turning to her for a moment before looking back at the flood. His voice is just above a whisper, with a distinct sucking and popping sound with every word. He seems to struggle with the local language still. "It'k re'kturn. Imor'ktal." He shakes his head. "Wea'kt poin'kt no'kt found'k."
Ozcoyo's understanding of animal's instinct flare close to the alien as he gives the impression of a predator ready to pounce, even if his posture is relaxed.
The Titan's words implies Tietê might yet to return and if it does so, it will be the greatest danger. The Titan is dangerous, but doesn't appear threatening you. The city and its inhabitants are still those in greatest danger.
"You were doing quite well. Congratulations." A feminine voice says as a woman with angelic wings reaches the rooftop. The woman is almost entirely covered in magical-looking tattoos and is around her thirties. Victória recognizes the Cage instantly. "I could not find the masked girl, sorry."
=====
Phylax and Paling
The rain is finally loosing strength. You notice the rushing waters slowing and then changing directions, until if starts to form another whirlpool and gaining speed again.
Arèspina flies with Tietê's swing and swiftly disappears into the flooded streets. With some luck she'll wash up in a safe place and won't drown.
While Paling is frozen by the violence against the luchadora, Phylax and Ozcoyo team together to tackle the river entity. Flanking it, the massive caiman circles Tietê while Phylax disperses its form into nothing! The swing was impressive, but it seemed it dispersed more than before. Perhaps electricity actually did work, despite it not having a physical body.
Paling:
As the entity dispersed, you hear a desperate and painful scream inside your head, a scream born of anger, fear and hopelessness. Mark either Angry, Afraid or Hopeless
Silence. The rain keeps falling and the waters are still everywhere. The seconds stretch as tension builds up as you can't be sure if it will reform. As seconds become minutes, Phylax and Ozcoyo notice a figure atop a nearby building: a skinny humanoid over 3 meters tall.
Rhys: Tietê can't be affect by the spores as it has no physical body. The spores would get mixed with the water and lost. It is more akin to a spirit.
Phylax throws a car at Tietê with such force that the elemental disperses for a moment, merging back with the flood, debris and trash scattering. With a new wave, it begins to reform, creating a whirlpool in the middle of the patio. The current mashes cars together and even uproots a large tree as it breaks the environment.
The dislodged tree exposes a rather large rock. The Pailing gets a hold at it and tries to throw it at Tietê, but it is just too heavy for her. Instead, she blinks out of existence and reappears above the thing, dropping it on its core. It does almost nothing, as the stone vanishes amid the water, but it does draw its attention and further enrages it! Tietê retaliates at the Pailing, but the Sword Saint is there to protect her.
Since this is a low powered game and Beatriz doesn't have any form of enhanced strength in her power suit, she is limited to the strength of a normal young woman.
Arèspina talks to Tietê and draws her attention and, against all odds it works and it goes after her with mighty rage! It waves forward, grabbing the uprooted tree as if it was a massive club! The Pailing's opportunity allowed the Provoke to work even if it isn't susceptible to Aréspina's words. It stumbles and Arèspina can take +1 forward against it, but it is coming after her!
The luchadora jumps from car to car as she drags the entity away from the street, leading it towards a large park nearby, but as she crosses the iron fences around the park, Tietê rushes forward to slam her with its makeshift club! Arèspina must resist a powerful blow
Arèspina watches the situation and concludes that, for now, Vitória and Ozcoyo are the ones in greatest danger. Left unchecked, Tietê will cause a lot of property damage and could still turn its attention to one of the buildings or wander into a more problematic area, but for now, the heroes are keeping it occupied.
In the middle of São Paulo, there are very few places that could be considered away not populated and none are close. The best alternative would be to keep Tietê on the larger streets.
Tietê rushes after Vitória, breaking a gate and entering an elevated parking lot. The river follows it, entering a hotel! From inside, you hear surprised and fearful screams, even if the level is probably not high enough to threaten the lives of those inside.
Beatriz has no doubt that Tietê is the biggest threat, by far. The rushing waters might do a lot of damage, but unless someone is dragged into the flooded streets, people will probably be safe. The quickest way to end this would be to face Tietê with all the might you have, hoping to driving it away. The safest way would be to kite it, for much like a storm, it will eventually lose strength and probably fade away.
The masterfungus telepathic spores are strongest when interacting with itself and immediately Rhys realizes this entity has nothing to do with it. A little more focus would let him sense some thoughts, but even those are absent, almost no sentience... in the very end he senses something almost animal-like, or instinctive, but it is so dim that it could be a mistake. It seems the thing is nothing but a brute force of angry nature.
@Rhys and @Beatriz: Because of this being a more low-powered game and because one of the big issues of São Paulo is the congealed traffic and many times difficult mobility (which I really want to showcase in this game), to make things consistent your characters would take some panels to reach the scene. However, I've been playing loosely with time and I really want you guys together for this first in-game fight, so let's break the cohesion a little bit, ok?
1 Team
When you enter battle against a dangerous foe as a team, add two to
the Team pool.
• If the leader has Influence over every teammate, add another Team.
• If everyone has the same purpose in the fight, add another Team.
• If any team member mistrusts the leader or the team, remove a Team.
• If your team is ill-prepared or off-balance, remove a Team.
The leader of the team can mark a condition to avoid removing a Team from the pool.
MARA
As you address those inside the Café, being them patrons, employees, cats or people who just entered it to escape the rain, they initially stop to listen. Amanda seems taken aback by your calm and control of the situation. But then the cats go crazy. Puffy tails, hisses, ears on airplane mode... and the chase begins, cats running everywhere: between legs, on top of the tables and counters, even climbing on people. Some people try to calm them down, others try keep their distance. Amanda rushes for the bathroom, which gives you the perfect opportunity to join your recent teammates!
You've got Influence over Amanda.
=====
VITÓRIA
You sense something primal when you open yourself to the entity. Rage. Unbridled and uncontrolled rage at everything, as if the simple existence of everything that is not natural was an affront or a grave sin. Nothing will stop it from exacting its revenge, nothing, not until every single piece of concrete and plastic and rubber is turned to dust and then nothing.
The rage is so intense that before you noticed or could react, you were sharing a portion of its hatred towards humanity!
Mark Angry
=====
OUTSIDE
Spectators watch in pure awe as the a huge sloth comes into existence and then crashes against the water entity... but then it warps and wraps around Ozcoyo until it is behind him and inside him. Has he gasps for air, drowning, the entity dislodges a huge truck tire and forms it into a fist, hammering on Ozcoyo's back so his head is shoved under the brackish water!
The water is about half meter deep, so there is no real danger for drowning, but the polluted water makes Ozcoyo momentarily sickened. He can't use Directly Engage on the next panel!
Forming into a massive wave, Tietê rushes along the street, knocking out cars and damaging property, not paying much attention to the heroes, as if they were of little consequence. Vitória, who was on top of one of these cars, is thrown unceremoniously! Vitória must Resist a Powerful Blow!
What do you do?
Battleground: This might be important or not, but the current battleground is basically the middle of a river. There are many cars on the street that can be used as "land" as well as elevated grounds on the nearby buildings, trees and lightning posts.
You touch the emotions of the students and realize their cheering is a mixture of fear and relief, but not malice. Their emotions do not tell much more.
It is still odd. One stream overflowing doesn't mean another one will not as well, so how can it be a relief for them?
=====
[/ooc]
Amanda frowns. "Ok, since you are asking... do you know how Raimundo was when he was a kid? Basically how he is today. Carefree and funny, sure, but also stupidly lazy. His grades were always the bare minimum for him to pass, not because he was dumb, because he isn't fore sure, but because he would never stop doing something he liked, like playing video games or soccer, to study." She says it in a way that suggests she feels this outrageous.
"Nothing Mom or Dad told him changed anything, so they've given up and accepted he'd never become an engineer or doctor, or any other profession that would require any amount of boring time poured over books. So what they did? 'Well, Amanda, you are our last hope'."
More people enter the cafe as the water keeps going up.
"Dad fixes electronics and Mom is a teacher, but they've put me in a private school, payed for a year of prep, and helped me through university, so I could get on a good job and hopefully help them when they are too old." She slumps a bit, eyes tearful. "But this is already my HOLY MOTHER WHAT IS THAT!?" She jumps and screams, pointing at the streets. Soon others turn as well and the place erupts in mayhem.
Amid the rising waters are a good a mount of trash, not only domestic, but also a truck tire, a piece of a chair, a lose plastic pipe. There was a wave and with it surges a figure made of brownish and polluted water. Towering over 5 meters, humanoid in shape but made of nothing but water and trash. "TIETÊ!" Is repeated by the other people around.
[ooc]Living in São Paulo for a while, you know that Tietê is the name of the main river crossing the city, always very polluted. You remember hearing/reading some times about a watery monster that have reportedly appeared whenever a river floods.
What do you do?
=====
VITÓRIA AND OZKOYO
Ozkoyo is already flying and he can get to the place faster than Vitória with her shadow jumps, but the timing isn't that crucial. Because of that I'll assume you two arrive about the sameish time.
Ozkoyo's sense guides him to a street flanked by trees, which makes it quiet difficult to see much, aside from the fact that the streets are flooded, already at half a meter deep. You cross the treetops and now a there is not doubt something is amiss: in the middle of the street there is a 5 meter tall entity made of brownish and polluted water.
It slides towards a parked car and tosses it against a fence, effortlessly. Few people are on the streets as the rising waters have already corralled them towards shops or other buildings. One of them is called "Gateria Cat Café", with quite a few costumers panicking inside.
What do you do?
=====
RHYS
"Yes, the stream between Vila Mariana and Ipiranga. You planning another escape through the waters?" He asks, but leaves without waiting for an answer.
Your sanctuary is located in a relatively nearby reservoir, but is not connected to this stream. São Paulo has many streams/rivers, but basically none are navigable. Since your sanctuary has the difficult to access drawback, I've leaned towards putting it in a place that makes sense, but with limited ways to getting there (one train line, isolated, and a track around a favela).
Time is a bit nebulous right now, so with your super speed you could easily keep pace with the police if you want to or you could even get there earlier, just a bit later than the others.
"A little?" Ms. Pill asks, raising her eyebrows and frowning at the same time, which is actually remarkable. "Whatever. You are on section 3 to 5 this morning."
With that, she turns around and waves at a coworker of yours, Ivo, and as she gets closer to him, you overhear Ms. Pill making jokes and mocking your work, complaining about how the documents might be ruined and on top of that not mentioning that the only reason you had to print it at home was because Ivo had killed the printer last week.
Work is dull and calm as always for the next couple hours. You overhear a couple students talking about floods, something unfortunately common in São Paulo, but what draws your attention was them kind off cheering that the Ipiranga Stream was about to overflow. Being worried that the Pinheiros River could overflow was something, since it was really close to the campus, but cheering?
What do you do?
=====
MARA
"I..." Amanda starts, sighing and resting her fork. She has barely eaten. "Everyone is sooo sure I can do this or that. You say it trying to cheer me up, but all I hear is how this is written in stone."
"You just don't know how it is."
The door opens and a couple people rush in, causing many cats to jump and the owner to frown. The small café is now a bit overcrowded and to make things worse, they are all looking outside to a large amount of water building up on the street.
What do you do?
=====
RHYS
You see yourself running along a trail in the jungle, constantly looking back. Ahead of you there is another person, an older and gaunt man. You stop and try to hear, looking back again. The man grabs your arm to pull you and force you back into running. There is an armband on your arm, made of beads.
You run for a couple more minutes until you arrive in small clearing. The man stops and thanks to some sunlight navigating through the trees you recognize him as Nicolas, one of the three doctors heading the expedition.
The foliage shifts and a black man wearing security uniform steps inside the clearing. No words are exchanged, but somehow you feel the Doctor communicating danger inside your mind.
"You should not have run." The man says, stepping forward. In the blink of an eye, the gaunt professor punches the man's stomach, his arm stretching about 8 feet and his fingers turning into claws. The strike pierces through the black man, who is very surprised, and clutches to the arm skewering him... then draws a gun and unloads it on the doctor. Each shot echoes through you. Chest, chest, head, chest, chest, leg. The last one much more painful.
The doctor's limp body falls, his freakish arm recoiling and not a single drop of blood from the black man is present. Looking at the black man, now with a hole in his stomach, he is calmly grabbing another magazine. You try to run, but your leg gives away and you fall. Grabbing it, there is blood in your hand. Looking at the man, the last thing you remember is a golden lion embroidered in his suit.
Back at the Sheriff's office, apparently no time has passed, or if it did they did not notice you were lost for a moment.
"Delegado, the Ipiranga is about to overflow." One of the corporals pop his head in the room.
"Any sign of it yet?" He asks, worried and looking at his watch. "Caralho, it is almost lunch."
"Not yet sir, but it likely will. Do you want me to send help."
The sheriff sighs. "Sure, the mayor will f!~% me in the ass if it shows up and we aren't close. Communicate the Guard, just in case they are not aware of it." Turning to you, he adds. "It seems we'll have to continue this meeting another day."
What do you do?
=====
VITÓRIA
"Ha!" She laughs on the other side. "They are called the Fruit Club, don't laugh!" She laughs. "Their hideout is on Heliópolis, in Forest Street or nearby."
A quick search on the internet shows the Heliópolis Favela, which has many streets with fruit names. "But be careful, girl. They are connected to the PCC (Stands for Primeiro Comando da Capital, First Capital Command, one of the largest criminal gangs in the whole country) and there are rumors that something is off about the place."
While you are talking, Dona Tereza shows you her phone, with a message in all CAPS from your grandfather that simply reads: IPIRANGA STREAM FLOODING.
Every time the city floods, something awakes in São Paulo. The river animates to take its revenge on the city choking it to death.
What do you do?
=====
OZCOYO
The clouds build up into a storm and while it doesn't bother you too much, it does make flying considerably difficult. In the distance you see it concentrating on the south and east of the city and, very strangely, you feel something is wrong. Something primal and wild and foul.
The sheriff remains focused on your answers, while an assistant takes some notes when you talk about the hallucinogenic mushrooms, which are an illegal drug.
"There were fifteen members in the expedition, Rhys. Only you returned alive." He tells you, letting it sink, pulling a paper with a list of everyone in the expedition. "We've recovered the bodies of José Carlos da Rocha and Doutora Olinda Peres Camargo. Both were found floating on the river, their bodies broken, presumably from hitting the rocks on a waterfall upriver." With that, he pushes pictures of them for shock. Both are somewhat bloated, but to your trained eyes you can see some signs of fungal development. "It seems you were still lucky. Very lucky." You do not need to be specially sensitive to know he doesn't really believe your story.
"The other twelve members remain missing." Again, for shock, he spreads photos of them on the table.
"What you found, exactly, Rhys?" As he says this, he crosses his arms, causing his sleeve to shift and reveal a feminine bead armband, which seems very similar to another armband that a friend and colleague of yours, Julia, is wearing on one of the photos on the sheriff's table.
What do you do?
=====
MARA
"Hum, I think the small lunch is better. Also my interview shirt is white and I'm for sure drop shoyo on it if we have some Japanese."
While you dress yourself, Amanda takes her travel bag to the small guest room and then spends some time to also change clothes and get ready. She opts for a more formal attire. She also gets an umbrella, since it is already raining.
Amanda calls an Uber to take you to the Vila Mariana Station and then take the green line until Ana Rosa Station. Inside the subway, two guys are moving from wagon to wagon loudly announcing chocolate bars out from a box. It is pretty obvious that it is stolen property, but the prices are really tempting. Many people buy one or two bars.
As you reach street level, the rain has gained strength, forcing you to call for another Uber instead of walking, otherwise you'd be soaking wet in minutes. You enter the café, order your food and wait, with Amanda looking more and more nervous by the minutes.
What do you do?
=====
BEATRIZ
The vendor looks at you, up and down. "Girl, you are wearing white... letting you get wet would be quite a sigh for everyone." He says, than laughs, handing you the coat. "Kidding, R$15 will do."
The cheap coat does its job in protecting your clothes, bag and the documents, but your feet aren't so lucky. In a matter of minutes your socks are wet-squeaking inside your shows.
"Oh, poor thing... did you not realize it would be raining today?" Ms. Pill asks, using an annoying condescending tone as you enter the library. "And did you bring the documents?" Ms Pill, or Sophia as everyone calls her, is a bookish woman, neither attractive nor unattractive, but exactly in between the two.
What do you do?
=====
VITÓRIA
You might have missed Ozcoyo's text perhaps?
"Then that makes him even worse!" She adds about Zezé before handling you the phone.
"Good morning, sweetheart." The woman speaks on the phone, an old voice you quickly recognize as belonging to the Godmother. "Have you slept with your ass pointed to the moon? You've got lucky! I've discovered the name of the gang you were chasing the other day and I even have the address of their hole."
The sheriff shakes his head at your request to review your previous statement. "How about you focus on retelling what happened and I'll be focusing on drawing the conclusions. Let's focus on what you've found and what you know to have happened to the other members of the expedition. I'm not particularly interested in your studies, Mr. Rhys."
You believe the sheriff is intent on finding someone to blame. He gets to ask a question as well: How can he get you to be completely honest?
=====
MARA
Qestion to remove:1d3 ⇒ 3 Amanda seems intent on just go to the interview and spend some time with you. Apparently, she isn't intending on talking about your music career.
"I can imagine... I guess," Amanda answers, a bit evasive. "Not that dad would let me move in with a boyfriend anyway. If I had one." She shrugs, sitting on the couch and grabbing her phone.
"The interview is at 1PM in a hotel in Vila Mariana. Aren't you busy? I know dad wanted Raimundo to drive me there, but I think I can use the subway."
Vila Mariana isn't that far from where you live in Vila Madalena, likely 20 minutes if the traffic isn't bad. The problem is that relying on a good traffic is always a losing strategy, specially around lunch. There isn't much choice, aside from having lunch close to where the interview is, which isn't difficult since there are many restaurants there.
=====
VITÓRIA AND OZKOYO
Dona Tereza raises and shakes her hands as Vitória mentions Zezé. "That boy, Miss, is no good. I'll tell, you, he just wants to get into your pants, that he does." She says this as if it was the first time she'd brought this up. It was closer to the hundredth.
VITÓRIA
As Oskoyo turns into a harpy, Dona Tereza makes the sign of the cross. "And that boy is no good as well, Miss. Do you know who else turns into other shapes? Yes, the Devil himself!"
The old woman turns around and enters the kitchen and about five minutes later the phone rings and a little later she returns. "It is for you, Miss. A woman called Dolores."
OZKOYO
You take flight and soon gain height to fly above the tall buildings of Liberdade. On every direction you look, you see the dense city, almost choking. Here and there, there are some parks and plazas, but even they seem choked and on the brink of being swallowed by the concrete mass.
You spiral down a couple times and are overwhelmed with too many scents, chief among them the smoke of the countless automobiles, and it quickly downs you how optimistic you've been about finding your lost pack just by scent... you might very well be looking for a twig in the forest, as your people say.
You soar above once more and soon notices heavy clouds in the horizon. A storm is coming.
The Civil Police headquarters is pretty busy as you find Delegado (sheriff) Machado sending orders all around the place. Apparently the police as responding to some emergency somewhere. He glares at you for a moment before yelling across the room. "Cabo (corporal) Carlos! Call back Cabo Pereira and the investigator. Our friend is finally here." He then points to you and adds. "You were this close to be considered a fugitive. Come, follow me to my office."
The sheriff's office isn't big. There is a wide window overseeing the front of the station, which the sheriff closes just the first drops of rain strike against it with quite some strength.
You had already given your testimony about what have transpired during the expedition and judging by how silent the police had been, you were apparently considered innocent about whatever happened there. What was strange is that your case was then transferred to Delagado Machado later in the process and now it seemed they were back at square one. The sheriff sits and squints his eyes a bit to read the paper in front of him. "Rhys Howard. Get yourself comfortable and tell me everything that happened, as if I was hearing it for the first time. Spare no details, understood?"
=====
BEATRIZ
As you were about to reach the subway entrance, you notice how the sky was getting darker, but now it was already too late for you to go back and get an umbrella. On Brookling Station, you take the lilac subway line and then transits to the emerald train line, but then it is already raining quite heavily and it doesn't stop as you reach Cidade Universitária Station. You believe you'll get thoroughly soaked before reaching the library, but all hope is not lost as a savvy street vendor is nearby selling umbrellas and raincoats of clearly abysmal quality but for premium prices, of course.
"R$20?" A man asks, unbelieving. "An hour ago you've said R$10!"
"T'wasn't raining an hour ago, bro." The vendor answers, completely unashamed.
You wake up with the sound of something hitting the metal floor. Your cellphone, now with the screen broken, is still vibrating. It is 9:17, which means the alarm has been going on for seventeen minutes. If you had slept in your small apartment in Lapa, you'd already be late, but you are still at the barge.
Scrambling go get your backpack and phone, you bolt, the absurdly heavy and rusted metal door not really a hindrance for you new strength. Next, the long track around the Morro da Mandioca Favela (Cassava Hill Favela) and you are finally at the Autódromo Station (Circuit Station, as it is close to the famous Formula One Interlagos Circuit)... and you just missed the train. Some days just start wrong. In contrast to your frustration, you see nearby a young homeless man, sleeping and smiling so deeply as if he was having just the best dream of his life. Considering his state, it is not hard to imagine that his dreams are probably way better than his real life.
9:44. If all the stars align, it would take you almost an hour and a half for you to get to your apartment.
You had a meeting scheduled for today at 10:00 and you were supposed to bring something with you that is in your apartment. Who were you meeting? What was you supposed to bring? If you go for your apartment, you'll be too late.
What do you do?
=====
BEATRIZ
You awake startled. Was it a broken glass? Was someone breaking in? "S@~&!" No it was just Mariana and by the slurred way she cursed, she was probably high. It is past 4:00am, but since you only need to wake up in about two hours, there is still plenty of time for you to doze off again and you are almost there when you hear her platform shoe hit the floor, quickly followed by a whine from the apartment bellow yours. You are suddenly filled with dread and you hold your breath as if it would help anyway. Then the second shoe and the baby cries loudly. "You freaking c+$#!" you hear the baby's mother cursing from bellow, something remarkable between the cries.
When the baby finally stops crying, your alarm goes off. There is a very sunny message from your boss, remembering you to bring the documents, as if she had not already "remembered" you half a dozen times yesterday. Meanwhile, Mariana is snoring, apparently sleeping through the whole baby meltdown with no trouble at all. Reaching the kitchen, you see the vase you bought just yesterday broken on the floor, the water from within it soaking one of the pages of the document you were supposed to bring to work. One day, you feel you'll kill Mariana.
Where do you work and why do you hate your boss?
What do you do?
=====
MARA
You leave the shower to the smell of fresh bread from the bakery, which is odd but awesome as Raimundo was supposed to be on his way to his job. Is he having a day off? You go to the kitchen to check but instead of him you find a younger woman covering her eyes not to see you naked. "Virgin Mary!"
Apparently, Raimundo was supposed to tell you that his younger sister would be crashing with you for a couple days as she has a job interview for a big company and on top of that you are supposed to drive her to the interview. Amanda has just recently graduated from chemical engineering and accordingly to Raimundo is the his parent's favorite child because she hasn't wasted her time studying music. Still, Amanda is nice. Mostly. She is always very polite, fun to talk to, and even passed by the grocery store to help since she'd be staying for some days... but something is off about her.
Instead of helping Amanda, you were supposed to work on some assignment for college today that you've been postponing. Why? What do you feel is off about Amanda?
What do you do?
=====
VITÓRIA
You wake up on your queen size bad with the soft silk sheets against your skin. The air keeps the warmth from the summer outside, but even so you wake up soaked with sweat. That strange dream again and worst of wall, the feeling of being constantly watched by... something, like a shadow in the corner of your eye that keeps shifting as you look around, never there but always there.
OZKOYO
After a couple weeks living in São Paulo, the sound of the city is becoming bearable. Not that Osharia was silent, far from it, but where there you'd be mad about some particularly talkative maritacas (a type of parrot famous in Brazil for being extra noisy and bothersome), here you have the constant horns of cars and motoboys (motorcycle couriers/deliverers of absolutely anything), even if Vitória's penthouse is considerably quieter compared to the street level. It is a mystery how people on the lower floors can even sleep past 6:00am.
VITÓRIA AND OZKOYO
Despite not being clearly defined, the Silence Law states that loud noises should be limited between 7:00am and 22:00pm. So 7:00am, on the clock, Dona Tereza turns the vacuum cleaner on. As you leave your rooms, she is eyeing you two as if you were demons incarnated. She is clearly mad and she has been like this since Ozkoyo moved in and the reason was obvious: you two are living under the same roof and are not married.
The table for the breakfast is already set, impeccable as ever, and with extra fruits for Ozcoyo. Dona Tereza is very meticulous and professional, as always, even when she was mad. She turns the cleaner off when you sit to eat and brings Vitória the mail and a large package. "Mr. Gustavo called. He asked to tell you that the object Mister Ozcoyo lost is still missing. Dr. Jorge called to remind you to confirm your presence for his birthday party."
Ozcoyo lost something very important when the team got together for the first time. What is it and why it is so important? Vitória misses mostly of what Dona Tereza said because of something in the package. What did she find that is so awesome or terrible?
Thanks for the answers guys! I'll explain a bit more of my little project so all future answers are more in line with what I need.
This is still in the theory craft space. I have the players but since it will take a while for me to figure out all the variables, there are no characters so far so even I don't know the party composition and tactics. I know it is impossible to reach the "challenging but not TPK" with so vague assumptions, so lets imagine the following scenario:
Party will be certainly level 20 by the time they reach the Whispering Tyrant with certainly a ton of itens since they will be looting his mooks since they entered the dungeon. Lets assume 4 players with reasonable experience and a balanced party, since they won't be able to reach the Tyrant without a good team.
Now lets define the Whispering Tyrant
Despite being incredibly intelligent, my personal take on his is that he is also enormously arrogant and even if he ended up imprisoned by this very same flaw, he hasn't changed. His prison will yes be filled with traps, but these are old ones, from the time when he was free and considered the possibility someone would enter his lair. Nowadays, locked for almost 1000 years, he doesn't think those outside would be foolish enough to send someone in and even so, he would not even consider that such fools would be able to defeat him. His minions outside his dungeon are working on freeing him and the appearance of these fools to destroy him is 'certainly and act of desperation'.
No matter how sneaky the PCs are, however, it will be impossible for them to completely surprise the Tyrant to the point of them jumping him without him even realizing they entered in the first place. He will be for sure aware of the PCs presence in his dungeon. That being said, he will also await for them to come to him, for even if he longs to escape, he knows they are coming for him and since he is a necromancer, he will eventually discover all they have to tell him, so he will let his mooks to try to stop them. IF they manage to reach him, he will be 'slightly impressed'.
With practically unlimited resources and minions inside his dungeon, if he was truly worried the PCs could defeat him, he would be able to mount such an offensive that they would not have a chance. Because of that, during the final confrontation, he will have a couple mooks with him for sure, but will probably pull his punches for a while, once more because of being such an arrogant creature.
This all I have figured out.
What I really need to know are the following:
-In terms of CR, how high would a normal party of level 20 be able to beat? This will tell me how strong the mooks can be.
-How high can the Tyrant's spell DCs go? I generally dislike "death spells" but since he is a necromancer, I won't be able to avoid them... however I don't want to instantly kill all PCs with a DC so high none of them will be able to resist.
-Are there any type of spells I should avoid? What common problematic spells the PCs are probably to use against a high level 20 necro?
I'm thinking about running a game that the players will have to invade the Whispering Tyrant tomb in order to kill him before the seal imprisoning him is destroyed. I know there is a stat block for him but it uses the mythic rules and I despise them with all my heart!
Because of that, I'm building the Whispering Tyrant as a level 20 necromancer with the dread lich template. He will be built with a 25 point buy and will have itens as if he was a PC so I think his CR should be around 24.
My problem is I'm not a "wizard player", so I'm in need of help to design the final encounter in a way that it will be challenging but not a TPK.
Not sure if you noticed, but there is an inconsistency regarding the Tatternam stat block and the background presented...
According to his stat block, the Tatterman can use his nightmare spell-like ability 3 times per day, and his Nightmare Transformation takes 1 hour to kick after a creature is slain.
This causes a couple problems. First of all, with only three uses per day, the Tatterman would only be able to target three patients/orderlies per night and pray for them to fail every single save (Will to resist the effect, and many Con not to stabilize). This already seems unlikely, but even if all of them fail, he would still end up with only three monsters for the upraising.
Also, taking in consideration the number of monsters and the time schedule, there would be not enough time for the Tatterman to create so many monsters from the upraising until the beginning of the adventure (once more assuming all his victims are reeeaaaly unlucky). The ghoul's ability to create more of them is also out of the table, since it would take many days (and many failed saves) to turn someone bitten (who is lucky enough to not be devoured) to turn into a ghoul.
The other problem is the time it takes to turn someone into a monster. Area D5. Communal Ward states that Jeprin Mears dies from the nightmare and soon after turns into a ghoul. I believe this encounter was placed to tell the players what is really going on, but according to the Tatterman stats, it should not be this quick, but instead take an hour! Time enough for the PCs to wander off and, if they find the Jeprin-ghoul thereafter, not link it to the nightmares.
As a GM, I always like to play by the rules, so I'm trying to figure out someway to "fix" the Tatterman to reflect the background. The Nightmare Transformation part is easy, since we can simply change it to kick a minute after the death of the target instead of 1 hour later, however the nightmare is trickier...
Thinking about the background, I could increase the number of times per day that it can use its ability... but this would also mean that he would have more uses NOW, creating the question of "why hasn't he turned everyone in the northern halls into monsters?"
Perhaps changing his X/day uses to some charge based ability? What are your thoughts?
Guys, I'm really sorry to say this but I believe I'll need to take a prolonged vacation from PBP. I'm currently passing through something that I've not yet been able to figure out, but I'm feeling incredibly anxious and a bit panicked. I feel like my live is slipping through my fingers, and I desperately need to grasp it once more, or else I might go entirely crazy and perhaps make some decisions that I'll for sure regret in the future.
I'm not still sure if PBP hampering me or not, but I've been feeling that in many occasions, I'm posting more because of my commitment to all of you, and less because of my own enjoyment. I still believe this is an amazing hobby and I hope to find the root of my problem and come back to you. You are all awesome and it really pains me to leave you in the dark for now. I hope you understand.
I believe I need not to say that, once I started playing with you, I had all the intentions to continue to the end... however, many times stuff don't happen as we wish. I honestly don't know how much time I'll be gone, so I comprehend if you want to look for another GM. Actually I hope you do so, because if I'm not able to return, it would be a shame for all the effort and enjoyment we have together (at least I had).
The worst thing of this decision, is the feeling that I'm letting you down, something that I can't stand. I hope you understand.
Once more, thank you for all the amazing time you've proportioned me.
