Author Topic: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)  (Read 26929 times)

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #60 on: May 08, 2012, 12:36:24 PM »
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Offline DonQuixote

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #61 on: May 08, 2012, 04:06:00 PM »
After a moment of thought, it hits me.  That...makes a lot of sense, really.

"Wait, that's our fog, isn't it?  The reason that it doesn't look like it's moving is because it isn't.  They're just moving areas of see invisibility."
“Hast thou not felt in forest gloom, as gloaming falls on dark-some dells, when comes a whisper, hum and hiss; savage growling sounds a-near, dazzling flashes around thee flicker, whirring waxes and fills thine ears: has thou not felt then grisly horrors that grip thee and hold thee?”

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #62 on: May 08, 2012, 04:56:49 PM »
The troll looks surprised for a minute, then says "Hmm... an interesting observation. I think you could be right."

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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #63 on: May 08, 2012, 05:01:56 PM »
((Evocation))
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #64 on: May 09, 2012, 12:37:47 AM »
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After studying the cloud for a moment, the troll says "Yes, I'm sure you're right, Skellum. How amusing."
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Offline Tshern

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #65 on: May 09, 2012, 10:46:33 AM »
Standing beside Gleron and Skellum, the Dark Lord observed the battlefield like a general pondering where to deploy his troops. This fight was filled to the brim with magical powers unknown to him, enemies of the kind he had never encountered and allies he could not choose, but his confidence was not shaking, it never was. The first wave had fallen with deceptive ease, but their offensive capabilities were not in doubt, the defenders almost lost an able fighter before Bane's lightsaber put an end to the struggle of the few survivors.

Fighting the Galactic Republic had been straightforward, their grunts were but cannonfodder to the Force-empowered instincts of the former sergeant who had not even started learning the ways of the dark side. Less than a year later Bane had stormed away from the Sith training facilities after learning the complacence, corruption and lethargy of his masters. He denounced his teachers and swore to destroy them along with the Jedi. Cajoling the Sith to kill themselves in an desperate attempt to eliminate the Jedi Army of Light had been the greatest test of his talents so far. At the same time, he wiped out those who did not understand the real nature of the dark side and duped the Jedi into beliving that the Sith were all but gone. The dozens of death Jedi earlier and the decimation of one hundred more as the Sith finished their ritual was just the icing on the cake. Even defeating the five Jedi who learned of his existence was nothing compared to that. Now, watching his enemies and analysing their strategies, he realised that not even the so called Sith before him had displayed strategies of the nature he was facing now. "Whoever these creatures are, whatever they seek to accomplish, they have never faced a true Dark Lord of the Sith before. I must capitalise on that, move swiftly and with relentless force to crush the opposition before they adapt..." he thought.

He halted his reflections, but the grim determination that adorned his face did not change. Without moving a muscle, still staring intently towards the battlefield he sent a message to the group "We need a course of action. Because we are the true threat they face, it is merely a matter of time before they come to us and they have the numbers on their side. Quite possibly they did not expect to meet such fierce resistance, so we should keep up the pressure and continue hammering them. If we act fast enough, they might not be able to adapt. As of yet, we have the homefield advantage and we do not want to lose that. Any ideas?"
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #66 on: May 09, 2012, 11:30:49 AM »
The troll replies mentally <Divide and conquer. I will try to keep the bulk of their forces from bringing their full force of arms to bear on us. You destroy those that escape my nets. Then we'll all mop up what's left.

As of right now, they are blinded by the fogs Arkesh has laid, while we are not, but they will likely catch onto this trick sooner or later. We should take advantage of their disadvantage while we can. So let's press the attack!>


As he says this, he begins incanting words of arcane power, and the being made of glowing energy appears and moves up to his side.

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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #67 on: May 09, 2012, 11:34:50 AM »
Immediately after the spell is cast, the fog cloud pauses, and its lumpiness moves around a bit; perhaps some kind of adjustments are being made. Then it continues to advance the same as before, with no sign that the energy of those within has been dimmed.

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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #68 on: May 09, 2012, 12:21:11 PM »
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #69 on: May 09, 2012, 12:23:44 PM »
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #70 on: May 11, 2012, 03:34:04 PM »
((reposting map with Alarm triggers marked.  These points also match up with the groups that Gabriel senses.))

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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #71 on: May 20, 2012, 12:07:23 AM »
Initiative
Rolled 1d20+8 : 12 + 8, total 20
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Offline Tshern

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #72 on: May 20, 2012, 11:50:53 AM »
"Should we proceed? Personally I would prefer to deal with the group in the south first and then move on to the rest of the enemies."

Initiative: 1d20+18=30.
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Offline Harald

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #73 on: May 20, 2012, 01:31:15 PM »
I agree.
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final result : 6 slaughts vessels, 4 imperial frigates, 2 imperial cruisers destroyed. Haarlock sent into the warp. 0 losses. Flawless Victory.

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #74 on: May 20, 2012, 03:08:37 PM »
The fog bank to the north continues to advance, and elongates toward the island, crossing the bridge. It has swung away from the northwest wall of the auction area into a more north-south alignment.

The other fog cloud continues to advance steadily, hugging  the south wall.  Judging by its progress, the fog will soon overrun the no-forbiddance area at location 7, opening up extradimensional travel for the invaders.  It also seems that Gleron and Skellum have it right, that the invaders are trying to use the fog to their advantage by making it visible to everyone, not just them -- ploy and counter-ploy. They seem to be moving within it effectively enough.

Suddenly, Gleron senses a burst of Negative Energy emanating almost directly west, through the southwest wall of the auction area, just as big as the one he felt on the island near the conference room.  It's as if the same massively undead monster has manifested near here, just on the edge of his sensory range.  Moments afterward there is a very loud rumble, and a concussive shockwave slaps everyone in mid-flight, radiating off that wall. Scree tumbles down onto the platform at 7, widening the base of rubble against the south wall.

Arkesh comes on the link.  <I saw it! I wouldn't believe this report from someone else unless I saw it myself. It's a cloud of very tiny, undead parrots! There must be several dozen of them. Captain Vir let them out of a bag, then got away from them. The whole party of invaders Polymorphed into very tiny creatures, some of them also changing to creature types which would avoid damage from the Forbiddance -- the fire creature changed to an efreet, and Captain Vir changed to an imp. Then they fled down the corridor to the south, deeper into the warrens, and are in one of Thrash's new tunnels right now. As soon as they were away, the parrot cloud started radiating Negative Energy and all of the Umber Hulks were dead instantly, including the leaders, who are near as hard to kill as we are. If you see a parrot cloud coming toward you, keep away from it and hit it at a distance, or we'll lose you too.

There was another explosion from that same point, right after. You must have felt it yourselves. They're continuing to block off walking access, so we'll just keep using our evacuation runes. They couldn't have figured out yet that we can teleport despite the Forbiddance, so they may have Earthglide, but we have our own, better edge.

I told Thrash that we can't have a mass of undead parrots flying around the warrens. He's putting an end to them right now, and that whole group of invaders while we're at it. I can't afford to just observe them any more to see what they can do. They're too dangerous to play with... so it's time for the Marauders.

I'm beginning to get the feeling they're watching us, just like we're watching them; it seems like they're using that Polymorph to try to adapt to whatever we show them, because one group of them acts like they know what another knows. They must have their own link, or some means to share information, and an encyclopedic knowledge of creatures... we know who that must be. Curse her, I guess uncountable years do give some kind of advantage.  Too bad the Empire wants her dead, I'd love to know what she knows -- what a resource. The group in the warrens didn't see the Forbiddance themselves but still chose Polymorphs that would help with it. Even the parrots could all Polymorph. Just like the sharks.

So you'd better expect them to keep changing shape to try to counter whatever you do to them. The groups could get harder and harder to beat. No wonder they have nine of them, at the least. Multiple copies to test a situation without overcommitting.  I'll give credit where it's due; as Gleron and Skellum already know, that's the best strategy to stay alive.

Get these three groups fast so they don't learn too much, and then we'll see what the other invaders are doing to counter it. I'll send umber hulks to scout them - I still have a few dozen.>


Arkesh promised an unpredictable, weird fight, and now you're in the thick of it.

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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #75 on: May 20, 2012, 03:41:37 PM »
Gabriel replies <An undead parrot swarm? This keeps getting weirder and weirder...

As far as gaining access to our enemies' knowledge goes, if you can somehow capture her soul, I can use it to learn everything she knows... I have a small piece of thinaun, but it is not in the form of a weapon, and so is likely not useful for this purpose.>

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Offline Tshern

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #76 on: May 20, 2012, 04:46:04 PM »
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #77 on: May 20, 2012, 06:00:12 PM »
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Offline Tshern

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #78 on: May 20, 2012, 06:18:14 PM »
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Part II: Rock, Hard Place, and You (a love triangle)
« Reply #79 on: May 21, 2012, 07:01:25 AM »
Hearing Bane and the Margravine planning an attack, Stooth turns to "Gleron" and gestures towards the other fog clouds.

<Seems like those two are shaking up the teams a bit, which is okay by me.  What's our plan of attack against those?  I'm happy to help out with whatever you've got up your sleeve... or would have, if you had sleeves.>
I am the assassin of productivity

(member in good standing of the troll-feeders guild)

It's begun — my things have overgrown the previous sig.