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Yeah, I was feeling it was probably time to call it too. It's unfortunate but the energy required to keep us moving is pretty clearly not here-- nobody's fault, just the way of it. Mott, I really enjoyed playing with Aurelian's character and yes, hopefully we'll be in another game sometime!
"Very well. Armin, there's a potion of waterbreathing in my pack, which miss Tatienne is carrying. Drink that, and stay with us, alright? But in the back." Zay swims forward, keeping a wary eye on the remaining two humans to try and judge what their reactions to everything so far is.
Zay listens to Armin's worries, with a slow nod of a dinosaur head. "It seems our enemies have the capacity to corrupt good people, somehow. Madness, magic, I don't know. Listen, we have a potion with us that would allow you to breathe water, but only for a few hours. The difficulty is I don't know where you might go. We can tell you how to get to the exit, behind us, but that just lets you emerge in a treacherous island, on your own. I suppose you could stick with us until the potion might start to run low, and then we can escort you out to the mouth, at least..... I don't think we dare leave this place half-explored. Especially not with the those two having seen us." Zay cocks their head at the other two prisoners... if that's truly an accurate word for them. Quietly, the dinosaur murmurs to the others, "If they're like the corrupted colonists we've met so far.... perhaps it's mercy to.... well... deal with them. But to do so on nothing more than Armin's words does seem like a cruel execution. Do you have any thoughts?"
DinoZey cocks their head at the poor prisoners, then taps one claw against its ear... okay, earhole... trying to indicate they can't hear the prisoner's speech. "If we can lower their barriers, Miss Tatienne is right that they might drown. I don't have spells to help with that today. One potion of waterbreathing, but that's not enough for them all. I think we're much too far into the complex for them to hold their breaths to the surface, aren't we? But maybe we can at least let them know we'll try to help, when we can. Hmm..." Zay tries to scratch a legible message into the floor nearest the imprisoned prisoners, but dinoclaws may have a difficult time with stone. WALL DOWN - YOU DROWN. WE RETURN.
"Hello, there," Zay says with a cock of their dinosaur head at the prisoners (?). "Are you trapped?"
A bit delayed myself, am on the road, but I'll be home tomorrow and will post then.
"Miss Dulciare! Hello. It's good to see friendly faces. We ran into some sort of horrible.... Miss Talbot calls it an-- abolett? It poisoned us, somehow. I don't think Mister Arbalest will be able to use his shield arm for much until we can find a way to fix him. I got hit with some of it as well, and Miss Talbot, but less debilitating for us both, thankfully. We have much more of this complex to explore.... and possibly many illusions in store for us. Another sword arm wouldn't go amiss," says a tired-looking dinosaur.
I'm fine with resting too if that's what we want.
"Your poor arm," Zay observes to Invandi. Dinosaur face isn't made for frowning but Zay conveys the concern with their tone, at least. "Maybe you should pull back to the safer terrain and see if Sarine could come take your place, your shield will be hard to use with that damage... "I agree, Master Fache. I think even the things here that initially seem sweet, like the voice that was speaking to us, clearly only mean us harm. If we were on land I'd say 'burn it all down.' Underwater that is harder. Miss Talbot, how long do you think you'd need to study all these machines?"
Yay Sarine! Sucks abut the arch. luck but probably good to keep going.
Knowing that the cog-creatures are much too hard for dinojaws, Zay continues to chomp and claw at the other node.
Shaking off the strange spray effortlessly, Zay carries on attempting to dinobite the nodes. Munching is hard, and possibly damaging Zay's teeth, but it's all they can see would be useful.
"Careful, Tatienne," Zay mumrmurs, then tries to munch nodes. Dinosaur teeth flash underwater as the critter tries to claw and bite the node into submission.
Discovering that dino teeth seem unable to make much progresss against the metal, Zay notices Houhghton and Invandi attacking something else... Zay also notices Tatienne's poor eyes. "Oh-- that looks terrible, Ms. Talbot-- I'm afraid I don't have any magics that can help it, I'm sorry! I'm going to try and help Houghton and Invandi, it looks like they found something!"
Zay feels a strange pulse from the liquid that somehow tries to... change them, in body and form. As Zay is known to do that in their own right, they pause only long enough to ascertain it hasn't seemed to have much effect, then they try and figure out where or what precisely the liquid is coming from, or if it can be stopped...
Hi Carson, welcome!
Alrighty!
I was hoping that we would be able to finish things organically, but it really seems that we're down to Aurelian and myself for posting. I think at this point it's up to you, GM-- I know that it's very unrewarding to keep trying to put together expositional GM posts for minimal response at best. If you just want to call it, I certainly understand; if not, I'll try and keep posting (and try to do so more promptly), but I think it really is down to just me and Aurelian at this point.
Zay's dinosaur head tilts to the side. If they are speaking through the translator of Tatienne, Zay will listen and relay answers accordingly. "Very far. Across a great ocean to the east. But who are you? Why were you expecting us? Are you aware of what passes through these halls?"
Zay takes no joy in administering the quick deaths of mercy, but doesn't seem terribly broken up by it either. They do look with some concern over at Aurelian. "If these.... were your friends.... at least they're, um, no longer suffering?" Zay offers uncertainly. It might be more comforting if it wasn't coming from the mouth of a dinosaur. Tail twitching a bit, Zay takes themselves over near Tatienne to hear the translation of the ancient script. (This also has the benefit of removing them from near the mutated corpses. Dinosaur instincts and metabolism are something one has to be wary against.) "I.... don't have any idea how to operate this. Why do you suppose it's changing so much? You say that it's stating... "unstable" and it keeps listing new symbols. Do they represent units? Like the metal men we've fought? Or... locations? I wonder what the composition indicates. I'm not sure we know enough to make any use of this..."
"Can we breach these force walls? I don't think I have much that might help with force barriers-- but if they don't penetrate through the stone, I could take the form of an earth elemental and glide through the stone. However, if I run into trouble behind the barriers, my only choices would be to engage with it alone, or retreat." Zay twitches their tail back and forth in the water. "There's also that vault-like door further on."
"Unfortunate...." Zay murmurs after they dispatch the once-humans. They sigh. "I dislike that our enemies can warp people like this. No mercy when we meet them, I think. I am happy to follow your lead, Master Fache. Let me cast a few spells on us before we proceed."
Zay takes up a spot swimming above Aurelian as they tackle the doors the swordsman has indicated.
Noting the swordsman is drinking the potions to attend to his wounds, Zay follows suit. Though the lack of thumbs is a trouble. "Er... Master Fache? Or Master Abalast? Could you open some of these bottles for me?"
The last of the cuts and wounds on the dinosaur's skin fade away. "Better. Let's go see if we can find your friends, Master Fache. Is everyone ready?" With a twitch of their tail, Dinozay takes up a spot by Aurelian's side as they swim forward.
The blows hit hard; Zay takes a moment to heal themselves before moving to engage the newest enemies.
"If that big one has any sense, it'll just keep swimming well away from here," Zay points out.
Zay quickly becomes educated that the skum warrior is just as happy to use other methods than crossbow. The education is painful, but the dinosaur snarls, green eyes gleaming with new hostility. Zay turns on the skum that just left Zay with such wounds and tries to return the favor.
I have no objections to you bringing Sarine in, but it sounds like it might be time to take a general check regarding our own interest levels. I still like the chance to play Zay, they're one of my favorite builds honestly, but a slow slow dungeon crawl is mind-numbing in PBP. That's not a criticism of you, GM-- you've done a good job with the material-- it's just a statement of "I always find it impossible to track what's going on in dungeon slogs in this format" and we're also not the fastest group (and I take my share of blame for that). So for me it's sort of a constant "....okay look back through four pages to try and remember my buffs... read back through two pages to try and remember what's going on... is it a new day.... do I have spells back... ugh...." which definitely makes the game have some tedious aspects, unfortunately. Again, this is not anyones' fault, just a mixture of 'dungeon crawling', 'pbp', and 'loss of momentum.' So, if we're going to check our interest levels, it'd be good to do it now before we invest time in trying (potentially) to recruit someone else, or before our GM goes to more work finishing out the book while also having to run their own PC as well, which I know from experience IS more work. My current course load doesn't leave me as much time/energy as I'd like for crafting good posts, and that's definitely not ideal for PBP. Mott has more or less said he's kinda over it for Aurelian and 1e but that continuing the game is low effort, at least. What's everyone else's energy level for the game? Invandi, I know you're slammed with the new job. Any other thoughts? And Houghton?
On seeing that their allies have already dropped the nearer skum, Zay swims into danger.
Bummer. Take care out there, Tatienne, I really enjoyed gaming with you for what bit we got!
Zay swims upwards a little, ignoring the light bleed from their dino hide in order to get into a good position-- in the water above Invandi's head.
Then, claws and teeth come into play against the green-hued skum, in a flurry of teeth and swipes and snaps.
"That electricity looks painful...." The dinosaur twists in the water, tail lashing. "I can shield us from electricity but I'll need all to get a bit closer for the spell to be most effective. If you have your own ways of dealing with lightning then don't mind me. For now--" Ever see a dinosaur try to somersault underwater?
....well, you still haven't. Clumsy in the water, the Zayraptor earns a few strikes from the skum with their spears.
Weathering some attacks, Zay closes and takes a bite at the green-scaled scum.
"I don't like the looks of that bow... not sure I can do much about it right this second, though," Zay-the-dino says, and their tail lashes them forward through the water, words of a spell tripping forth as they go.
"Anyone hurt?" asks the swimmming dinosaur, whipping its tail forward back and forth to propel itself in the water. The summoned shark looks at a minor loss, badly hurt by the barrage of water but still sensing a lot of blood in the water. "How about you go chase our runner? Good boy! Good boy, Sharkster!"
A shark appears! It's a crowded aquatic terrain. The shark looks only momentarily to Zay before deciding it's in the midst of a buffet and is just gonna start monchin'.
In the water, Zay's body twists into something more dinossaurish... ever see a deinonychus dog paddle? Or should that be dinopaddle? Well, anyway... Dinozay swims forward with more natural fluidity than any dino has a right to have in the water, taking up a spot about Houghton.
From the back lines, Zay begins to gesture and chant, water swirling around them.
"Let's start this off with some light--"
"Miss Talbot-- mind gracing me with that wand again?" Zay asks Tatienne before they slip into the water.
"Thank you." ***
"Those coral spines are--" Zay pauses, as they and Tatienne speak at the same time. Zay blinks several times, then offers Tatienne a crooked smile. "....yes, that's what I was going to say. Where did you learn so much about sea life, Miss Talbot? It's rare I meet someone who knows so much else about sea life. But yes, she's right, everyone-- give those corals a wide berth. "I wouldn't know anything about the architecture parts. But I'm sure Miss Talbot is correct. Beautiful work, though." Zay swims gracefully around one of the statues to appreciate it, though steers clear of the coral spines. Mostly, Zay is just appreciating being back in the water, luxuriating in the sensation of water on their skin again. But Aurelian Fache is eager to keep going-- still seeking his vanished lovers-- and while Zay privately thinks that that's a lost cause, they have the sense not to try and convince the swordsman of that. "Let's go see what's ahead."
"Let's try the other stairs," Zay suggests. "If anything's heard us clomping around up here, they might be watching that first approach."
Joining the imposition upon Houghton, Zay asks a few questions as well: "Hello. My goodness, you really have been here a long time! Were you bored? Aionse is a pretty name, though. "Can I ask what this place was under your old masters, the priests? A temple, or more than just that? What was your role here? "And should we meet other clockworks, is there a word we can use to get them to, um, stand down? They may attack us as intruders, you see, and I'd hate to harm creatures just doing their job."
Ready to keep exploring. Sorry to be so quiet, but I'm just at a loss what we could ask her-- her info is going to be 10,000 years out of date, so we can't really get current intel on what's going on in the complex. I guess maybe asking for information on back in the day? Or maybe she knows clockwork command passwords, so we can get them to stand down rather than fighting like the beach squad? I will post to that effect, but other than that, yes, willing to keep going. My focus has not been great lately but I'll try and be more engaged.
Sorry for my silence, yall. My laptop died and it's been quite a week even aside from that. But realistically Zay doesn't have much to offer when it comes to clockworks, so *Shrugs*
Zay resumes their humanoid form, and looks with interest, but not comprehension, at the clockwork figure. They rely on Tatienne for translation, idly stretching their back by turning in place as they listen. "It's a worthwhile goal...... but I'm no good with machines. Are any of you? Perhaps, as Tatienne says, she has many things that she could tell us." Zay rummages in their pack while they happen to have hands, digging out some jerky to gnaw on. Sharking makes one hungry.
Technical issues. Will post when I can.
I endorse that order.
We pitched resting after the clockwork fight, here, and I have definitely been assuming we rested, because I was basically out of spells after the clockwork fight, so if we didn't rest I've been casting a bunch of spells illegally. ;) Was it the library that we felt we needed a dispel magic to take care of? I remember a room with a prismatic ooze hazard, and us being like 'yeah that seems like a thing to come back to with D.M. prepped'. Other than that, I'm fine returning to any of those rooms. Or if it was a different room with the ooze, then any room but that one, I guess.
I was under the impression we had and was gonna doublecheck that before repping. I'll go look right now.
The shark would arch its brows if it had brows at the failed attempts. "I don't have currently have thumbs," Zay points out. "Not that strength is my strong suit. Maybe we can swim back later to try and collect this, um, pointy booty? How about we swim further north?"
"It IS difficult to create traps without thumbs," Zay answers Aurelian, wagging a fin a bit for emphasis. "Maybe the designers of the complex? The same entities who created all the metallic guards we've met? Good construction to withstand the corrosion of salt water, I'll say that much." Neither the sword nor the ring seem to terribly interest Zay, either. Zay's a shark. Glub, glub.
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