Thanks! I've enjoyed and appreciated your DMing, and I respect knowing when your capacity will be changing.
Good playing with yall, and take care!
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Tassa nods, uncertainly. "The cultists guarded this place–or this thing–"(she glances down at their latest foe)"–but why? Is this Zandalus? Or what's left of him? Or is he elsewhere?" Shrugging, she adds, "Either way, I don't have anything better to suggest than heading back to the chapel, though perhaps we stop to chat with our doctor friend first: see if there's anything more he can tell us."
Tassa manages to dodge back from the creature's blows and–with the help of Ephra'im's keen observations–manages to connect with a solid blow...though once again she can't find purchase to grab their foe.
Tassa shifts to her right, and nods for Baldrek to shift left. Then she lashes out with all of her strength, trying to tear this horror asunder.
Tassa keeps huddling close to her companions, again ready to swipe out.
Tassa yelps in pain. She strains her ears, trying to figure out where the nightmare-man disappeared to, and readies herself to strike out if he returns.
Grimacing at the suggestion of troubled dreams, Tassa says, "Well then let's not stop to sleep yet, eh? I have the feeling maybe we're close to this Zantus." On a high from having recently 'fed' on this bizarre man, Tassa looks about the room for anything of interest.
With Ephra'im's timely insight, Tassa lashes out with her tentacles, attempting to suck the life from this ban...if he indeed has any life in his body at all.
A shiver runs down Tassa's spine as this horror seems to recognize them...and claim to have already killed them?!? Stealing herself, she advances and allows the horror within her to spit a glob of goo over him, hoping to keep him in place.
Ephra'im sits up suddenly from where he has been studying his formula charts, and says: "What? What did you say? What sacrifice?" He looks at the others. "Did you see her? She was right there!" Tassa's head and tentacles all whip to focus on their newest companion. "What do you mean? No one said anything, I've been keeping watch while you work. What did you hear? And see...?"
Tassa nods. "OK then, let's hunker down over there. We'll at least hear someone coming in time to be ready for them, hopefully. And we'll be a bit further from that frigging mist."
After Mya shakes her away from the papers, Tassa looks to her little grey companion and says, "Thank you so much." When Ephra'im points out that it might be hard to get back to where they are, Tassa nods. "I won't lie. My ribs definitely still hurt, but otherwise I'm sure I can plow on. And I suspect you're right, who knows what new guards they'll post to keep us out if we leave now. At present, if we're lucky, we'll catch them at least somewhat unprepared."
Mya-wan Kenobi, you're our only hope! ;-) Fortunately, assuming this is just normal fascination, it's pretty easy to break out of: "Any potential threat, such as a hostile creature approaching, allows the fascinated creature a new saving throw against the fascinating effect. Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a ranged weapon at the fascinated creature, automatically breaks the effect. A fascinated creature’s ally may shake it free of the spell as a standard action." ...not to suggest anything is normal in this horrific world we've awakened into!
"OoooOOoooOOooh. Check out this yeeelllllooooow!"
Tassa looks down at her bruises. "I'm in much better shape than I would be, without Ephra'im's medicines."
"Why don't we try to stroll past those three in the mist as though we're supposed to be here...but I'm sure we should be ready for a fight if they don't believe us."
Tassa gasps as she finally gets free. She stands up and lashes out, the many mouths on her tentacles attempting to lash into her flesh.
I hope it's a lovely trip! We'll be here when you return (unless we all asphyxiate in the yellow mists)
Tassa gets slammed to the face again and goes black...but moments later she blinks back to consciousness, thanks to Ephraim's care. Not wanting to risk standing up in the middle of a melee, she lashes our from the ground, but can't get any purchase.
Hey BD, I've been in plenty games where in my situation, Tassa doesn't get an action this round (because she was unconscious when her init came up) and plenty where she does (because she was conscious for part of the group init, after being healed). I'm fine with whichever, but wanted to ask how you play it. Thanks!
Tassa collapses in the woman's iron grip. Her tentacles seem to waiver in the air for just a moment longer than after she groans into unconsciousness...but then they fall too.
Tassa is taken completely by surprise: the old woman throws her to the floor and then slams an elbow into her right temple. Together with the blood loss from the crowbar gash, she's inches away from unconsciousness, but continues to lash out. As she does, she calls on a force within her to sicken her attacker in the hopes that she can get away.
Tassa doesn't get out of the way in time and takes a crowbar to the arm leaving a nasty gash. In reaction, that tentacles emerging from within her lash out, attempting to tear into the cultist.
As the mist gradually fades, Tassa's tentacles drain much of the strange creature's blood. At Ephra'im's suggestion, Tassa says, "Hmmm. It's a more hopeful theory than any other we've had so far. I'll take it! "But now that the fog has faded, let's take a look around here."
Tassa starts poking about, but finds herself distracted by how disturbingly good it felt to let her tentacles drain the oneirogen, and her search is half-hearted at best.
Tassa feels a rush of energy as she drains their foe, and continues to lash out with her sharp-toothed tentacles.
I'm glad you're on the mend now!
Take care! And thanks for the heads up.
Seeing Ephra'im signal with his spear, Tassa hustles over to the oneirogen and whips out with her tentacles.
I think it's totally fine to rule it how you want here, I just wanted to point out the author's intent. For what it's worth, I've used the Scout sphere on multiple INT-based characters and personally not on a WIS-based character. Saving that Swift for something else is very sweet, esp in Spheres (which has many ways to use it)...but I think Ephra'im is right that the ability to be great at identifying weaknesses of every type of creature as a low-int character is also quite strong, and even many moderately high INT classes struggle to keep all the important knowledge checks maxxed. (So I basically read it as a sphere ability that lets WIS-folk do something they couldn't normally, and with many fewer skill points...but still lets INT-folk do identification the best.)
Could I carry her? ---EDIT--- BTW, I forgot to reply about the Scout thread. Your ruling seems perfectly balanced, but I wanted to mention that the official word from the developers at DDS is that one can use a no-action Knowledge check to scout. See this post from Ssalarn, the original author of Scout. 100% Your call on how you want to play in your campaign, and there are a bunch of weird interactions that could use better definition, but I figured it's worth sharing.
Tassa effortlessly climbs along beside Baldrek, her tentacles making easy work of it.
Tassa nods at her allies. "Nice work. Is everyone OK? Ephra'im, you look a bit scratched up." As she talks, the tentacles that burst from her abdomen poke the ghoul tentatively. When they find that it doesn't have any blood, they mostly retract into Tassa's body, though a few keep moving lazily, as if drifting on an unseen current.
Tassa bounds across the floor, trying to keep the ghoul's attention divided between him and Ephra'im. As she approaches, black rubbery tentacles covered in sharp-toothed maws slap and grab at the ghoul.
OK, I'm on the road for work but grabbed some time to level up...and it's a nice level for her. New
+1 BAB, Will, Resistance to all saves
Sweet! I'll think about my next talent this weekend. In the meantime, I _think_ we still don't have Backgrounds, right? (Perhaps coming if/when we remember more of our prior lives...assuming we're not all just elaborate constructs.)
Tassa is still breathing heavily at the terrifying newt's cry rings in her ears. Even so, the hunger within her flares at this living foe. She steps to trap it between her and Baldrek and then lets her tentacles bite into it and attempt to hold it down while she slakes her hunger.
Tassa feels her heart pounding and her head spinning. Whaaa-- Where am I? She blinks and tries to remember what hasn't been a dream, in these last nightmare days, and to recollect her bearings.
Tassa stops in her tracks, frozen in a cold sweat.
Tassa shudders, and an image of some of the corpses her tentacles have consumed flashes red in her minds eye, but she shakes it off. She looks over at the cultists, curious if they were affected, and how they react.
Tassa shivers at the mention of being killed in her dreams. Trying (and failing) to sound casual, she asks, "Have you seen or heard of people who have awakened without their memories?"
Tassa mutters, "Yes...the orpiment?" while following close between her allies and trying to keep her tentacles pulled inward, as inconspicuously as possible.
The relief is visible on Tassa's face when Ephra'im says he expects she'll get her voice back soon. She rolls up the rest of the webbing that is mucking up the entrance and then motions for the group to grab hands and walk in. She carefully walks forward until she reaches the opposite wall, and then follows it to her left, feeling for a door or other opening.
Tassa sighs with annoyance at mention of losing her voice. It IS just temporary...right? Taking her mind off the unpleasant question, she stands just outside the edge of the darkness and listens for any other sounds in the dark room.
When it stops thrashing, Tassa drags it out of the darkness for her allies to see. Once again, she tries–and fails–to speak. Now that the adrenaline of the fight is past she starts to worry, and points urgently at her throat and then at Ephra'im, hoping the scholar might be able to make sense of whatever the undead thing did to her.
Thinking she's likely trapped it, Tassa steps back in and lashes out at it with sharp-toothed tentacles, doing her best to bite it in two. Crunch:
Tassa cringes silently when the thing brushes up against her arm, but she resists fleeing (or tapping her foot for help). Instead, she pinpoints the spot on her web where the thing attacked from and attempts to wrap it up completely with the remainder of her webbing. Then she steps back out of the darkness, tries one more time to explain what happened, and then settles for pointing to the mute throat, and then pantomiming trapping the creature.
When Baldrek reaches is for her, Tassa tries to say, Give me a sec, I think I can catch this thing now, but no sound comes out. Instead she pushes back gently, trying to indicate that she's alright.
I think it's the same six second round when I entered the room. DM's just giving you a chance to act before I start my second round. That said, I think there's a reasonable chance I can tie the thing up next round. So far I've lost my voice for an hour but nothing worse than that.
Aaaaaugh! Feeling a small cold hand touch her out of the dark, Tassa starts to scream reflexively, only to realize that no sound is coming out of her throat. Instead, Tassa tries to gesture emphatically toward where the hand came from...though she realizes belatedly she's not sure if her companions can see that either.
Tassa shudders. "Not that I should be surprised...but that sounds horrid. "I do have a thought though. I wonder if I can bait it into getting stuck in this goo that I seem to be able to create. I'm going to step in and give it a try. If it touches my web I should be able to tell you where it is, even if I can't see it." Tassa takes a deep breath and then transforms again. Once again tentacles emerge out of her abdomen, covered with sharp-toothed mouths.
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