Utuk has never actually been inside the school before; he splits his attention between gaping up at the height of the ceilings and trying not to fall too far behind Oswald.
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"Mr. Mason, sir, pardon if this is a stupid question... no stonework where I'm from, I'm afraid... but would there be some way to barricade the entrance such that we could open it from this side, but anything trying to get out couldn't open it from inside? A one-way door, like? Presumably with hand holds only on the one side, or gears that ratchet, or... um. Counterweights? There are often counterweights involved, aren't there?" Utuk shrugs helplessly. "My thinking is that we don't want any more of those dead things getting out when we're not looking, but we only have so many usable things on this island and might need to get at whatever's in there eventually."
Yep! She and Blyss are still together. They and Kate are the players for the campaign, although I'm excited that Laurel has expressed interest in learning how to DM, so I might get to switch roles later. Blyss has no tabletop experience but loves Skyrim, Red Dead, Diablo, New Vegas, etc., so I think it'll work out. Great to hear! Tell her I said hi if it comes up, would you?
Utuk blinks as Oswald and Naomi rush past him. "Uh, guys. That wasn't... um..." He stands there for a beat, shrugs helplessly at Dominic, and then follows.
Fully committed now, Utuk leans into the momentum of his follow-through to spin around and deliver two more spiney haymakers to the skeleton. and Utuk pivots on his front foot to stand back to back with Oswald and prevent him from getting flanked. Utuk takes a few quick steps to take up position behind the skeleton Oswald is engaged with.
Wonderful to hear you're still seeing Laurel! I really liked her, but haven't spoken in probably a decade. Is her partner the same one I knew way back when?
Ah, not really. Surveying the whole island just to take stock and stuff, but I feel like pretty much everybody would be doing that for the first few days or weeks.
Utuk heroically pretends to walk away, only to charge around the corner and sucker-punch the leftmost skeleton in the side of the head. and .
I'm figuring we're here, we may as well go in. Utuk, we're you leaning towards doing something else? Utuk was leaning more towards the medieval equivalent of parking a truck against the door and leaving it for later, but he wouldn't be difficult to persuade.
So maybe we just clear these last two and seal it up, is what Utuk's suggesting with a shrug.
Utuk glances around with feigned comprehension, nodding at the Bard's reasoning and the ratfolk's cards. If there's some way to solve the skeleton problem with cards, he's all for it, but he has a sneaking suspicion it's going to come down to swift application of concussive force. Again. "I mean..." Utuk waves his hand noncommitally. "Just the two still outside, right? Then we could just, uh. Close the door. Pile something heavy on it. Classic tomb, not a bother." He looks from his companions to the pair of skeletons.
Depending on how long they have, Utuk's going to take advantage of the lack of immediate danger to get a lay of the land. Where are the edges of this strange new island? How much of the surrounding country made it, etc?
Finally catching up with the group, Utuk barely slows his stride and leaps through the air at the skeleton going for Jorgina, pitting his own-claws against its bone-claws.
There's a horrid hollow clacking sound as he drives his spiney fists into the back of its bare skull twice in rapid succession. Definitely an illegal move in most civilized boxing circuits, but he's not nearly as worried about the skeleton's long term health as he is about Jorgina's.
The sight of the half-orc proceeding toward, rather than away from, the obvious danger shakes Utuk out of his stupor and off of his crate-stack. Stepping lightly, he begins to walk, then jog, then all-out charge toward the brawl (whether in front of or behind Oswald depends on Oswald's pace). As he runs, thin black spines like a sea urchin's begin to speckle along his arms and neck, concentrating into long, dangerous looking points the size of carpentry nails on his knuckles and ulna, though whether anybody notices in the chaos he couldn't say.
So, Utuk realizes, backing into the wall was actually a better strategy than he'd thought. Will these skeletons simply head to the necromancy department in a straight line and then post up inside, to be ignored or walled in at the town's pleasure? Or do they seem to be taking a more pro-active approach to preventing the townsfolk from bothering their cadaver-in-chief? Utuk scrambles atop a short stack of crates for a better view and tries to predict the skeletons' path: can they be dealt with by simply getting everyone out of their way, or are they hunting?
Utuk is watching the crowd with some concern. Dominic he's met, and seems to be remaining calm and speaking with some others in the crowd, many of whom he's seen around on his bi-annual fish-selling trips, but by and large he doesn't know how most of these people will react in a stressful situation, or to anyone they might perceive as a relative outsider at that. He tries, without much success given the press of bodies, to shrink back against a wall of the octagon, though whether it's to stay until the crowd calms and offer his help or to flee if the crowd turns mob, he doesn't know yet.
Utuk simply gawps at the crowd around him. He was only supposed to be here for a few days at the end of a long fishing season. He knew a few of these people as fellow merchants or occasional customers, but his home, his family, was far to the north. Inconceivable that this little island was all that was left; inconceivable that these few people were the world. He raises his hand before he quite knows what he will say. "Ma'am. Miss. Hello. I, uh. The Diviner said that life itself might fade from this planet if this island should fail. Surely this is not the only place left? Are there not other islands and other people that your magics could reach out to?" He has more, but the words elude him. He falls silent to hear her reply.
That's about the long and short of it. The only tricky bit is going to be keeping track of how many of those he can do at a time, and how many times a day, but still way simpler than a proper druid. (Like, if I'm reading it right, he can take the gills of a shark man and breathe underwater or the fins of a shark man and gain a fast swimming speed, but not both at once, at least until he levels some. But he can have claws that whole time because one's a shifter ability and one's a skinwalker ability, etc.) Should be interesting, at least.
I'm going to start mashing keys on the catastrophe so we can get this party started. A little more narration--then the game begins. character prepared for your approval or rejection |