Campaign
A coconut? Really, powers? That's just bananas!
Alan grins vacantly as he imagines sound effects to cap off this terrible joke.
But transportation must be attained! Alan assumes his powerup stance.
Attempt to summon a car! Preferably a big one. If that doesn't work, go back to basics and call into being a wheeled mattress to ride upon.
By that I mean a mattress with a bed frame underneath it, not an actual mattress with wheels attached.
car
common household objects
No. Be glad I'm not interpreting this as a roll with a ridiculous penalty.
The other thing, let's see... You get a
race-car bed. Surely there will be no problem with using that.
Campaign, Ike!
"Ah, wonderful. Making good progress already, we are. So, let's take the dang portal to where we're supposed to be. Maybe murder some things on the way, eh?"
There's doors that respond to touch and behave like funny glass bubbles. Behind the one to the left is what can best be described as a dark spider singularity. It seems to mean us harm, which is further evidence of its spidery nature. It has already given Jesus a fire and shockwave-based makeover. Also, the shadows vibrate and absorb sound at the same time.
Jesus smells okay, in other news.
River increasingly reminds me of Ted.
Yellow land octopuses are apparently present and possibly quite dangerous!
Update: yellow land octopuses aren't so bad when you stab them in the center of mass repeatedly and firmly!
The room on the right has a set of four large eggs, surrounded by eight sizable benches and eight not-so-large eggs.
Clearly whoever built this place has a strange fascination with the number four, or multiples of four. This either completely rules out or utterly confirms the involvement of the Nipponese.
I am starting to get slight flashbacks to the start of the previous mission!
Yellow land octopuses can become invisible! Or maybe there's a breed or species of invisible land octopus! May require some breeding to get a clearer picture of their relation. Still yellow on the inside, though! In addition, they appear capable of making mortal mindslaves without any trouble at all.
In addition, people live here. Or humanoids, at least. They seem to have been subjugated by the yellow land octopuses, or octopodes. One's a nice red and purple lady, and the other one's dead as a doorknob.
Also:Well, the creatures' anatomy is the same. Just a small central part filled with organs with a large number of very thin and long but surprisingly strong tentacles sprouting out of it.
Slicing a tentacle in half, I discover that they lack muscles, which kinda begs the question of how they managed to move them in the first place. Instead, they are composed of four tubes (two large and two small) arrayed around a central part that feels and looks like very flexible cartilage. Around those tubes are very small, almost invisible clusters of black things, (some sort of organ, probably) that correspond with very small dimples on the outside. Maybe they emit something from there? Or maybe it's some sort of sensory organ? Or maybe it's used for camouflage? Or communication? Who knows. The area between the tubes and the skin of the creature feels very mushy and soft, breaking apart easily.
With careful observation, you notice that when the tendril twists, a large number of very small spikes are pushed out of its skin on the inside of the curve. You can't discern whether this is meant to inject something like microneedles or if it is just a means to grapple things and achieve better friction.
A quick inspection of the place the creature wrapped its tendrils around my arm reveals very tiny yellow needle-like things stuck in my skin, although none of them have managed to penetrate it.
An inspection of Nikolai reveals something similar. The fact that his skin has become more red around that area and has started to bruise prevented me from noticing it with casual observation, but he appears to have very tiny holes around the places the creature wrapped its tentacles around him, some of them bleeding slightly. Hopefully he won't start turning into any sort of octoman.
After that, I move to the central part of the creature. A thing of note is that it lacks any sort of visible mouth, eyes, nose, means of excretion or any of the other things I'd expect the central part of a creature to possess.
A large section of the central part of the creature is composed of two sacks, one larger, containing that yellow goo (or white with a whitish tint in the case of the later ones) and the other containing a black substance. Each of them is connected to the tubes that compose the greater part of the creature's tendrils, the black with the smaller ones and the brighter one with the larger one. The rest of their insides are filled with organs, although I can't tell exactly what they do. They have some connections between them, but they don't reveal much. Curiously, while I can identify many organs connected to the bright tubes, none of them are (visibly) connected to the dark ones.
Their insides don't smell so good, especially the ones of the creatures I encountered earlier. Smell like rotten and oil. Now that I think about it, the earlier creatures looked far worse than the later ones. The later ones were more of a whitish yellow than pure yellow, they were slightly larger and their internal organs were in much better shape.
Gee whiz!
In addition, I think Darkstar just sucked out a woman's life force with a straw? Or maybe cracked her like a giant egg from the sound of it.
Expedite any urgent tasks by helping out however is needed. Seriously, let's get moving, you guys.
If there are no tasks I can expedite, cheer for Alan and encourage him to be the best Alan he can be.
"Just be yourself Alan! Trust the power within you! It will lead you to greatness! Be it great performance, great hilarity or great injury, one thing is certain: it will be as great as an overshoot!"
"I think I'll stay like this then. I've been mostly shifting between extremes lately, it's nice to just be me for a while."
Continuing to collect flames, same as the last several turns.
EDIT: adding movement pattern for when we go towards the portal
When we move to leave, I collect my flames into five evenly distributed spheres, one of these remains over my head or otherwise near me as I move, the other four spread out, slowly spiraling and circling around the entire group as a whole, and arcing down to strike any threats. the one near me I further subdivide into five parts as needed, and have them move to strike at any parasites that get in the middle of the group.
If we come to a small dark area I will light it with a perimiter orb or two as we move through/near it. If we come to a large dark area I will take a small section of the interior sphere and scatter it into a large array of tiny motes and sparks of flame, making the entire area around us glow.
At all times I'm attempting to continue to collect additional flames, increasing the firepower I have available and using it to form additional perimeter orbs of fire, using the bodies of parasites or other threats as fuel.
Well, the corpse really doesn't have much left to burn, so you just gather what few scraps of flame remain and add them to your collection.
"Thanks. Alright, lets use the portal.
Show the repaired amulet to River and ask if he can sense any magic.
"Can you sense any magic in this amulet?"
You show the giant piece of gold lying on the floor to River. He looks unsure for a moment, looking at you and then at the amulet and then back at you. He emits something between a sigh and a growl, kneels down besides it, puts a hand on it and takes a deep breath as his eyes turn black. After a few moments of staring at it, you can see a faint smile briefly appearing on his mouth. Well, at least you think it does. You're not an expert on wolf-people facial expressions. Then again, maybe the emotions you're getting out of his body language aren't entirely natural. A few seconds later he lets his breath out, gets up and turns to face you again.
"I can sense magic. Most of it is yours. It has filled some gaps but... Nothing clear. It has form but no use. No function. Maybe it is meant to be part of something else. Or to tell something to something else. Like a... a thing that things attach themselves on to function. Anchor? Antigen? Frame? Key? Maybe it will be clearer once we go through the portal. Or maybe your magic is misleading."((I'm assuming you untsared it and are either carrying it or handed it over to Irene.))
"Wait... these parasites are actually killing more people?" Zechariah tightened his grip on his staff. "But.. we can't just.. let them.." He gritted his teeth, uncertain of what he should say. It went against his very nature to just let people die like that, but he had already gone through similar experiences with the Shadow. He knew that, in order to save them in the end, he had to keep himself focused on the goal at hand. Then, maybe he'll be able to do something about it.
He didn't want to compromise their mission thus far, though. His feelings could come later. He didn't want to turn into Artemis again.
Never again.
"Whichever way is going to be safest for us to get to.. your destination," Zechariah said in a flat tone. He was being a bit snide, but he couldn't help it. It was his only consolation, for now.
Follow River.
I give Zech a predatory smile.
"Zech, I'm in favor of the portal. Do you remember how I fight?"
I pause for a moment, giving him time to think through my question.
"I make most decisions for more than one reason."
I give Zech a predatory smile.
"Zech, I'm in favor of the portal. Do you remember how I fight?"
I pause for a moment, giving him time to think through my question.
"I make most decisions for more than one reason."
Campaign
Zechariah raised his eyebrows in a show of surprise. Out of all the people to suggest this, she was the one.
Maybe he would be able to take out his anger on the predators of the living after all. He had fought the Shadows before. This shouldn't be too alien of an experience for him, should it?
He nods and gives a very slight but determined smile. "That was what I was hoping for." He turns to River and decides his answer. "Let's take the portal. Maybe we can save a few souls along the way, if we're lucky. Either way, I think we can keep them off of us if we are attacked. Let's do this."
To the portal and beyond, then. Time to take my frustration out on some mind-enslaving octopuses.
River looks at you for a few seconds but says nothing.
EveryoneWith everyone assembled and ready to move, you make your way outside, to the dark world made of rough dead dark rock, filled with the sound of howling winds that transfer with them the smell of things that make your nose burn and your eyes water (with the exception of Ike's). A dim dark green glow is coming from the sky that allows you to see once your eyes adjust. Brief bright illumination is provided by the passage of green lightning bolts, allowing you to see a great distance around you while simultaneously ruining your night-vision. The appear intermittently, usually about a minute or two apart, crossing the part of the sky the high walls of the canyon allow you to see.
Irene has some trouble keeping her fire from being blown away and scattering into the wind when the door closes behind them, leaving them to face the full force of the winds of the canyon. But with some effort and concentration, she manages to retain it and not loose any significant amount.
"The surrounding area should be clear. But clear is not safe. This world itself is a danger. Especially as we move away from the Relay and its influence."The canyon floor has a great downward slope, getting much deeper and darker the further away you move from the structure behind you.
Alan wastes no time with walking, instead choosing to roll down with his race-car bed, wearing his wooden shutter shades, like something out of rapper video parody. He doesn't care too much about River shouting at him to stop or running after him. After all, he is an expert driver. Even though this thing has plastic wheels and no steering wheel, suspension (other than the springs of the mattress), way to know where he is going or way to stop. Yep, those vibrations and that hellish noise of plastic banging against rock and plastic is surely an indication that he is doing something right.
Amazingly, Alan manages to roll down a great distance without injuring himself before the wheels get so worn and broken the "vehicle" slows down and then comes to a stop.
He seems to have arrived at a more flat section of the canyon. One that is also very, very dark, so much so that he can barely see. On the bright side (no pun intended), there's less wind down here and thus more silence and less irritation. He can see the rest of the group of the group quickly making their way towards him, following the trail of broken plastic he has left behind him. The balls of fire near them are very easy to spot.
When River finally catches up to him, he gives him an angry look (or at least tries the best he can as he stands there panting, trying to catch his breath).
"Do you want to get yourself killed? Alert every parasite and predator in the vicinity?"He continues a bit calmer.
"Be more careful. For our sake and yours."The rest of the group reach them soon after and together they continue making their way towards their destination. The light from Irene's fire reveals that the area you are going through is much wider. The floor of the canyon is littered with a large number of small rocks that make walking a bit uncomfortable, with huge rocks closer to the canyon walls. The canyon walls themselves are highly irregular, like someone broke great pieces off of them with a giant hammer. When the occasional lightning strike illuminates the area further from you, you can see that the canyon gets even wider further ahead, to the point where it is no longer a canyon. At that point, large rock has broken off from the side of the canyon, creating a small barrier in your path that you'll have to walk around.
((Final chance to do things before you reach the portal.))
OOC((You could have confetti rain down for an inexplicable reason.))
Inexplicable Confetti Rain. Sounds like a Forgotten Art spell.
I read prosperous as preposterous. Lol.
Bake yourself a cake Paris.
Mmm... Good idea. Haven't made a cake for at least a year. Don't think I have the ingredients for it though... Eh, I got a slightly stale chocolate muffin I can stick in the microwave and make it filled with delicious molten chocolate bits. That will work.
And I think all RTDs are by nature preposterous. Varying levels of preposterous, but still preposterous.
((I can't even determine what entities there are in the first place, but that sounds like a good idea.))
It's all there in the first post. Well, the entities that are participating in the games, anyway.
Want me to do anything else maybe?
Entity shipping grid.
((!!This!!))
((I wholeheartedly approve of this.))
My first thought when I read shipping grid was "But what kind of package would one send an entity?"
I have no idea what that is, but a quick search reveals it is either
a way to keep track of known and possible relationships and/or love triangles/rectangles/non-eucledian shapes or some kind of
weird grid used in some kind of extended poker where date, star-sign of players and various other hidden rules and factors determine the suit of a card. More search reveals
this which helps explain things better.
Unfortunately, I'm not doing that. First of all, too much effort. Not too much free time right now. I'd have to read and think hard of how to best categorize a relationship using strict terms. Plus it wouldn't be complete, since there are entities and people that are not part of the games. And fourth, I like people to discover things on their own IC. (Partly because I like having people ask and learn about things overtime instead of having walls of infodumps and exposition, partly because such things might be plot related or pertaining to alternate choices possible within a mission (which means that by giving you OOC information I am giving you the temptation to metagame in certain situations and giving you an advantage you haven't worked for), partly a remnant of the original concept of the game (a game where people participate in missions trying to complete objectives, with caring about the reasons behind them being optional (not that I do not like making up little (and big) stories about things in missions (in fact, I often make small stories about the origin of objects, locations and NPCs you find (partly because some powers could potentially care about those details, partly because it can lead to a related mission, partly because it can lead to things you can use I haven't thought of), some chit chat between NPCs about local and world events (people tend to not be stealthy enough for that to come up) and other things like that so that I have some sort of world building to provide (that picture NAV got being a small example of that). But a good GM should try not to shove his world building and stories into people throats (I try to be more of a Darths & Droids GM than a DM of the Rings GM (That means leaving more freedom to the players to act and influence the world and less railroading in pursuit of the GMs fantasies of perfect stories (one of the reasons I think River is a good choice for a guide for a mission, because he gives choices and possible objectives, thus solving the "people don't like too much freedom" problem but also allows you to mostly do whatever you want (within reason) and doesn't bore you with too many details, unless you ask for them. (Then again, maybe it would be better if I just had NPCs ramble about world details and provide exposition since people don't tend to ask too many questions. And having stories with no way to share them is kind of like having an itch you cannot scratch. But I digress. (In fact, I used to be a professional digressor, but I don't want to get off track, so I'll tell you about the time I was a professional digressor
.)))))))))[/longjokeusedtoexcuseself]
But I guess if you really want to, I could give you a suggestion for a question to ask or a line of questioning to pursue that could provide some information on the subject. Or you could just be blunt and ask about it directly.
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1150557 times)