Author Topic: Action thread: Group 9  (Read 14785 times)

Offline MetroMagic

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Action thread: Group 9
« on: April 07, 2012, 12:52:30 AM »
Action thread: Group 9

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« Last Edit: April 10, 2012, 01:50:03 AM by MetroMagic »

Offline ieatfood7

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2012, 09:52:00 AM »
Vir9 and Sheerak9 look around, staying invisible.

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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2012, 01:20:47 AM »
Group 9

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There is a lot of pain on the Link, which hits just after Star’s warning comes on the Link about two seconds before the dismay on the Link from groups 3, 4, and 5, followed by group 7, and then the grim determination that group 8 puts on the Link to tough it out and do their reconnaissance mission.

Group 9 also hears on the Link, just in Time, {Star} Forbiddance! That’s what blocked our Gates at 3, 4, and 5! Groups 7-8-9-10, we’re flying into it!

The PlanTM has been for the groups 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 to enter in very quick succession, since their primary mission is to provide a distraction from group 10 whose mission is to get to the slave pens and rescue the slaves, if they are there... and they had already lost ‘surprise’ time compared to groups 1, 2, and 6 because they came via Earthglide instead of via Gate. Since groups 1, 2, and 6 didn’t run into anything worse than Alarm, groups 3, 4, and 5 bolted into their locations as soon as they could, and spilled out of the ceiling right through Glyphs and into a Forbiddance. Now the earlier three Earthgliding groups are putting a flow of information on the Link which matches well what Magic the later two groups, 7 and 8, are reporting, not at all like groups 1, 2, and 6.

Group 9, like group 8, knows what may be coming, but they too have to soldier through it… they are a key distractor, the only ones in area CC, and are also the only source of intelligence in area CC, so they have to go in as fast as possible to see what the enemy is doing, giving the enemy as little chance as possible to scatter or hide. And they have a key demolitions objective, the bridge from the barracks island to the mainland. They even expect to see into the back end of the slave pens and may report to Group 10 about an area that is out of Group 10’s initial view. And group 9 is one of the tougher groups, with more Life Energy.

However, with the few extra seconds of warning beyond what group 7 had, Vir9 does have the opportunity to keep the parrot cloud in the Bag where he put them on the way here, but they will be locked in; the parrots may not fare too well against the Forbiddance damage, and Vir9 can always Earthglide into the rock and out of the Forbiddance if he wants to let them out a little later.
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Steeling themselves for the pain, the whole group Earthglides down out of the ceiling into the location marked with a 9 on the map, and emerges in battle ready positions in the air, flying as planned.

The location looks about as expected from the map. You are in a big open area at the foot of a bridge to the north, on an island in the river. A large triangular building is to the southwest, not quite directly below, another more or less rectangular building is to the south, and others that are what you expected from the map. Some of the largest buildings look like barracks. The floor is blocks of polished stone. The walls have carved designs. The ceiling is carved as well, very ornately, about fifty feet high.

Ror9’s demolitions target is a few feet along the bridge to the north according to the combat map; you’re almost exactly at the point to place the explosive charge.

There are swirls of damp breezes coming off the river, and the sound of the rushing river echoes from every direction.

Vir9 senses Magic all around in the 30ft of open area visible. Ror9 senses the same, for 60ft since that much open area is visible. Their senses do not penetrate the ceiling, walls, or floor. Both sense that a Spell just triggered. The Detect info on the Link allows Ror9 and Halt9 to recognize an Alarm Spell, via Spellcraft.

They too also see two different Glyphs painted Magically on the floor, ceiling, and walls, including all over the big expanse of area CC, that are not otherwise visible: Ghoul Glyph, and Glyph of Warding with Shivering Touch. Explosive Runes are loaded onto the Glyph of Warding so that someone who tries to Read the Glyph will set them off. However, like the groups before them they have not Read the Glyph; they simply recognized it, via Spellcraft, and did not have to Read it to bypass it – the normal procedure – because absolutely everyone, including parrots, has Nondetection from the ScryBubblegum, which foils both Glyphs – they realize this through their Spellcraft. Neither one triggers, so Reading them is not necessary. Also Ror9 senses the proper way to pass the Glyph with Find The Path; it’s not necessary to Read it. There isn’t a password, but he senses that his Alignment shifts to LE. Tanatou9 also senses this shift in Ror9.

There is also a lot of pain, as they were warned.

Via Spellcraft they too confirm a Forbiddance in place, and Ror9 knows for sure via Find The Path that it has no password, instead his Alignment presents LE to the Forbiddance as well, as the correct way to pass the Forbiddance.

Ror9 takes no damage. Everyone else takes damage as follows; no one has enough SR to matter. WILL Save DC 22 for half (and remember you roll twice, take the better +2, plus whatever other bonuses – but not the parrots… if they need to save because they’re out of the Bag; they’re not on the Link with Star – but the parrots do get +2 Luck bonus from Janis).

Vir9, Sheerak9, Halt9: 44
Tanatou9, Halfaz9: 23
« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 05:37:27 PM by MetroMagic »

Offline Scout89

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2012, 08:55:08 AM »
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Sneaky_Sable: "Keep the Omega Whatever, I'll take that Dagger. Nice to meet you *sneak attack* I hope everything's alright *sneak attack* how's your liver been *sneak attack*..."

Offline ieatfood7

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2012, 09:16:35 AM »
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Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2012, 07:18:05 PM »
On the Link: Great idea, Ror4.  Ror9 discharges some of the rituals he has stored: Lesser Ritual of Deflection, Spell Ritual: Invisibility Purge, Spell Ritual: Ectoplasmic Feedback, Spell Ritual: Wraithstrike.  He takes a quick look around to see if the Invisibility Purge revealed anything besides the party, and then immediately dismisses it, so that the group becomes invisible again.  Then he charges a quickened Lesser Ritual of Healing, which takes 1 round.  Upon completing the Lesser Ritual of Healing, he discharges it, coupled with a Lesser Circle of Good Hope.  Everyone, make sure you're within 30' of me.  I'm giving all of us healing.  Everyone within 30' of Ror9 gains Fast Healing 5 for the next 33 rounds.

Once the Ritual of Healing is Discharged, Ror9 begins placing the explosives.  Once you're all healed up, while I'm placing the demolitions, I suggest we scout a bit.  Halt9 and Vir9, why don't you head across the bridge and a bit into the living quarters - not too far, but just enough to give us a little warning if someone comes our way.  Halt9, I suggest you Earthglide in the floor under Vir9.  Vir9, if you have any trouble, Earthglide.  Sheerak9, Halfaz9, and Tanatou9, you stay here with me.  We're out in the open, unlike the other groups.  Everyone make sure to put everything on the link.

Offline Debatra

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2012, 01:34:17 AM »
I believe Halt9 has the "Natural 1 is not Autofail" thing, so he automatically makes his save.
 
If I'm wrong:
 
Rolled 2d20 : 2, 3, total 5
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.

Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2012, 02:40:57 AM »
{Ror9 - On the Link} Will Do. Everyone who has blindsense/blindsight/tremorsense, make sure to put that on the link.

Ror9 does NOT dismiss the Invisibility Purge, but does continue with the Ritual of Healing and then placing demolitions.

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2012, 06:14:56 PM »
While the description of location9 went onto the Link accurately from several pairs of eyes, that didn’t include Ror9… he has been seeing dense fog and nothing else. On the other hand (eye), Ror9’s multiple Detects have been giving him a lot of information, and others’ group9 visuals on the Link, not impeded by fog, are sufficient to keep him on track. By Spellcraft, Ror9 confirms that the fog here is from Guards and Wards, which is the discussion on the Link.

Group9 stays close together as they fly straight down to the demolitions point at the foot of the bridge below, and take charge of their tasks and get Healing from Ror9.
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Halfaz9, Vir9 and Tanatou9 take guarding positions facing outward in the air while without any difficulty, Ror9 gets his tasks done exactly as planned. Before making the fog visible and blocking the Link’s visuals, Ror identifies the key to the main bridge supports: the massive loadbearing wedge in the base of the support arches on this side of the bridge.

Also in the Link’s visuals, to Ror9 and everyone else: Froth begins to coat the river, a foam of bubbles that starts as pinkish, and quickly turns red, with streaks of green as well, as if the river has turned to blood. Mostly submerged chunks of flesh bob heavily on their way downstream.

After discharging the Rituals, the river’s colors vanish in the fog. Ror9 feels along the supports to the target spots that he saw on the group9 visuals before the fog became visible, and he sets a double charge, one on each corner, with gum in them, and in him, ready to blow out the structural support wedge at his thought, which will drop this end of the bridge into the river.

Flying in a close vertical column directly above Ror9, Sheerak9 is actively Listening, as Halt9 keeps watch for any surprises. The swirls of damp breezes coming off the river have taken on a faint metallic charnel smell, and the sound of the rushing river, though still echoing, has been muted by the red foam.

The Healing from Ror9 takes about 30 seconds to make everyone whole again. During those 30 seconds, Ror9 finishes getting the explosive charge ready and in place, so all in the party are finished at once and ready for whatever they are doing next.

Group9 is now surrounded by a visible fog cloud at least 80 feet across that keeps shifting in size and height, and blocks all vision, and the group is running on non-visual senses on the Link for all to share.
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Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #9 on: April 13, 2012, 08:28:19 PM »
Go Sharks! Go!

Offline ieatfood7

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2012, 12:34:21 PM »
Sheerak 9, spares a second glance a the river.

I know we said that copies can be flickered in and out if they are dead or about to die, but remember everyone, doing that makes you lose your pixie dust.  Call for Vir if that happens to get your shark protection.

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2012, 11:24:48 PM »
Everyone is together at location9, or within a few feet of it. Everyone is healed, Ror9 has placed the demolition charges at the corners of the bridge’s loadbearing support wedge to blast it tumbling into the river, and he and Halfaz9, Vir9 and Tanatou9 are in a tight cluster next to it with him on the ground and them hovering in a protective circle slowly turning around him, while Halt9 and Sheerak9 are very close by, just overhead and circling while actively Listening in all directions. It’s challenging to hear much more than the sound of the rushing river, even though muted by the red foam.

Group9 is surrounded by a visible fog cloud at least 90 feet across that keeps shifting in size and blocks all vision, and the group is running on non-visual senses on the Link for all to share. According to the map, the fog cloud runs from location9 well into area CC to the south and BB to the north, and the globe even presses up against the ceiling overhead. Everyone with Tremorsense now settles onto the rock floor, to use it, while everyone without Tremorsense is still hovering just off the floor.
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Suddenly, deep guttural screaming begins in the long building to the south and slightly west, the barracks, the cacophony of dozens of very large creatures in panic. The clatter of a stampede of heavy feet and the splintering of a very solid door bursting outward, with bellows of desperation at the doorway, as a dozen pairs of feet rush out onto the street and are suddenly cut off, scythed in a wave like toppling wheat. Heavy thuds as massive bodies hit the stone floor, barely sensed at this distance at the edge of Tremorsense range. Then silence from that direction; the muffled sound of the red river plunging along its banks washes away the echoes of their deaths too.

Cheering for the Parrot Clouds of Death breaks out on the Link.

In the next moment, a flying creature swoops through the fog into range of Blindsense in a brief surprise, and is gone, but during that time, there are six quick pops and six quick splats against the rocky floor at Ror’s feet, a set of sounds that PtolemaeusO easily identifies on the Link as Force Bullets fired from an air-powered rifle. All the shots were aimed at the space around Vir9, but missed him cleanly. Also during that time, brief in retrospect but feeling very much longer, the air around Vir9 cracks and splits, opening into a yawning area of roiling Blue-Green Energy resembling a great mouth that seems like it is trying to swallow him whole. Everyone feels intense pain as the Energies lace through the area.

The whole scene rushes forward during that brief moment, taking on a surreal quality like events moving out of control; appearances shift slightly, clothes suddenly shifting in color and hair in style, a bizarre experience… even the fog fades momentarily and the six of you see with normal vision a figure hanging in the nondescript haze that is washing out most color. She appears human, 1.75 meters tall, about 50 kg, looks to be a little over 30 years old, with black hair, perhaps a tint of blue to her eyes despite the fog, and fair skin, and she snaps her mouth shut from a yawn, hiding the only intense colors to be seen in the surround, the Blue-Green Chaos rolling on her tongue. Then she sails out of sight and is gone, and the impenetrable fog closes in again.



Star’s voice comes urgent on the Link just moments before the woman appears: {Star} Dream! You’re being attacked through Dream… She is... How interesting. She must be carrying the Dreamheart within her and manifesting it in a wash across you, because she could not transfer you into it and back out again in the midst of a Forbiddance… If she attacks again, bringing you into her Dream… You must fight back, don’t let her control the Dream unchallenged or she will kill you with it.

I recognize what she Cast; the yawn in Blue and Green was a clear Spelltag. It is a Maw Of Chaos, a Level 9 Effect, and it persists for a few minutes at least. Perhaps she was the Caster of the Guards and Wards! The Blue-Green Spell Effect… if I were there I could Ward you with Chromomancy, but…

Ha! If it pleases you to choose a creature who is immune to Chaos, you could Polymorph yourself into a Lillend, a beautiful creature of natural Chaos. They are peaceful but they do fight for cause, with swords and bows, so the weapons most of you have will be comfortable with that creature form. I know them well from my trips to Arvandor, the Chaotic Good Outer Plane; I have friends among them… they love the arts and music, and enjoy the Realms of the Elven Deities as well as Olympus. Here, this is the creature that is immune. If you choose to do this, you will feel Chaotic… unnerving for some of you. But the feeling will wear off quickly when you return to yourself.

The attack is joined, on four fronts!


Her audial on the Link excited, Star puts this visual on the Link, for those in group9 who want to try becoming a creature of natural Chaos as a defense, in case the same Effect is used again in the next combat exchange, if there is one:



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Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2012, 06:01:58 AM »
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Is an attack from Dream, a mind-affecting effect?  If so, then we should all be immune.  If not:

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Ror9 will polymorph into a Lillend.  What happens with HP when polymorphing?

Ror9 current HP: 169 - 86 = 83.

To all: don't forget that Ror9 has a Circle of Good Hope paired with Ritual of Healing, giving everyone Fast Healing 5

As a free action, Ror9 discharges Circle of Good Hope / Spell Ritual: Greater Mirror Image.

{Ror9 on the link} Quick!  Let's get airborne and away from the bridge so that I can blow it up.

Offline Debatra

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #13 on: April 18, 2012, 10:02:10 AM »
Initiative:
Rolled 1d20+7 : 8 + 7, total 15

 
Will Save (passes except on natural 1, so not bothering with modifiers) -
Rolled 1d20 : 20, total 20

 
+26 Concentration modifier auto-succeeds the checks.
Kaedanis Pyran, tai faernae.

Offline Scout89

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #14 on: April 18, 2012, 01:27:52 PM »
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Halfaz9 gets ready to move away from the bridge as soon as the others do it.
Sneaky_Sable: "Keep the Omega Whatever, I'll take that Dagger. Nice to meet you *sneak attack* I hope everything's alright *sneak attack* how's your liver been *sneak attack*..."

Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #15 on: April 18, 2012, 09:28:53 PM »
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #16 on: April 18, 2012, 09:57:05 PM »
Information and impressions from the other groups now underway spill onto the Link.

Also on the Link, Star answers Ror9’s question: {Star} If you dream yourself into Dream during sleep, which many creatures do nightly, it has similarities to Mind Effects. Those circumstances of entry into Dream do not match what happened here; she brought you into Dream physically… or rather, brought Dream around you physically; she could not move you out to Dream and back into a Forbiddance, so perhaps the Forbiddance saved you, in a way, from the worst of possibilities, depending on her control of Dream. The damage you suffered was also a factor in my Spell Analytics, the Spelltag analysis. It wasn’t a mental Effect, else you wouldn’t have suffered the damage.

Chromomancy and the Law of Similarity for this Planar effect… one of the fundamental principles… suggest you may be pleasantly surprised in your Blue-Green Chaos forms… it will be an interesting experiment!

The Polymorph may take care of the Chaos Effect, but it may please you to receive Protection from Dream itself, an entirely separate problem; if not, please speak up and I will remove the Protection I am sending Now.

Dreamheart is a very dangerous place in its own right, with remnants of many violent Dreams full of catastrophe that Dreamers invested with great intensity and then scared themselves awake, leaving behind the dangers they created. One of the Effects I may send at any distance on the Link is Planar Protection; I am Warding the six of you with Protection from the Effects of the Plane of Dream itself, though it will not Ward you from the Effects she Casts at you using Dream, nor from the intentional shifts she may make happen in the Dreamscape to try to kill you.
A flow of Warding Magic from Star settles onto the six in group9: a sense of stability, the opposite of the unsettling, bizarre shifts in clothing color and hairstyle.

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Offline Scout89

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #17 on: April 19, 2012, 08:03:35 AM »
OOC: Halfaz9's current HP 139/225

Halfaz9 mimics Ror9 and turns into a Lillend.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2012, 04:25:20 PM by Scout89 »
Sneaky_Sable: "Keep the Omega Whatever, I'll take that Dagger. Nice to meet you *sneak attack* I hope everything's alright *sneak attack* how's your liver been *sneak attack*..."

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #18 on: April 19, 2012, 09:18:16 AM »
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Offline ieatfood7

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Re: Action thread: Group 9
« Reply #19 on: April 19, 2012, 10:04:37 AM »
If the enemy was within 30 feet of Sheerak when visible (yes, unfortunately, as the only tremorsense, she would have landed on the gorund), then Sheerak can take Attacks of opportunity against it, even in the surprise round and without having triggered AoO normally....


Vir 9 hopes his natural SR 27 will save him.  He becomes a Quasit, not sure if he can make a Lillend that is small enough for his fighting style, as well as, perhaps, avoiding the next wave of forbidance by half.  If possible, he shrinks down to a Fine sized quasit.
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No SLA for the copies, so no consentration check.

Sheerak takes the STRONG hit silently, and choses to instead become a Marilith, to take on the adittional arms, as well as, perhaps, avoiding the next wave of forbidance by half. 
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