Draw my knife if I haven't yet. Acquaint myself with the smells in here, and also listen for any suspicious noises. Take a tally of octopuses present and their varieties. Be wary of yellow land octopus ssp. invisible!
There are none of the yellow kind around. Only whitish yellow. Which means that only the strong ones are here. And there's a lot of them here.
You can hear sounds of battle coming from somewhere further away. The city, you'd guess, based on the terrified noises the civilians are making. Unless there are people flying outside or on the roof of this structure.
The portal is doing its little buzzing noise but on a bit of a different tune now, more bass. Three beats, over and over again.
There don't appear to be any of the creatures hiding around here, unless you count the ones in the alcoves near the ceiling. But you probably wouldn't count that as hiding.
In the smell front, you've got the smells you brought through the portal with you and any that are still escaping through it. But the smell of sulphur is stronger here, so maybe this was actually its origin on the other side of the portal. Beyond the obvious smells of human, octopus and burnt flesh, there's also the smell of a living thing you cannot identify. It's not very faint, but it's probably at least an hour old.
Just out of curiosity, when you smell, do you sniff around like a human, like a dog or like a mouse? I've been imagining it mouse-like, just lifting your nose as high as you can and taking short sniffs.
Campaign, Ike!
"Say, River, dude, mind shutting that portal? I don't think anything good's coming out of leaving it open. Figured I'd ask, you know?"
"I cannot. The field generators..." He seems to reconsider for a moment.
"Watch." he says and starts transmitting parts of a memory through your pendants to everyone on the team. You can tell it's a memory by the fact that some details appear clearer than others.
It's a picture of the red claw-like thing in front of you, covered with those creatures.
Then it changes, like changing the focus on a camera, and things that you couldn't see before become unblurred, visible.
You can see the inside of the thing, a blindingly bright orange tangle of wavy lines, simple geometrical shapes made out of right angles and fractal patterns, all blending together without clashing. It looks like the insides of an old wristwatch, all of its springs and gear ready to burst out of them under the tension. Much of it is blurry or incomplete.
<Three elemental types. Incompatible. Unstable. Filled with power.> The image shifts.
There are thick wavy red lines going from one claw-like thing to the next.
A pulse of light slowly travels through the line until it reaches the claw you are observing. It reacts, the whole thing shining brighter for a moment. It releases another pulse that starts travelling down the lines to the next one.
<Cycle. One pulse drives the next. One is enough to restart it. All pulses must stop at once.>The image shifts again.
There are white lines running from the slabs in the alcoves to the claw thing, connecting to their back, making it look like many little strings have been tied between them.
<Reserves. More power. In case of loss. Interference. Disruption.>The image changes yet again.
It's the claw like thing again. But this time only the structure inside it is visible to River's mind's eye, the rest of the image being nothing. Darkness spreads over the structure, obscuring it, matching the spots where details of its structure are missing.
<Shadow. Void. Survival adaptation, modified by this world's magic. It prevents others of their kind from seeing their host. Prevents them from using the same source. But it can also block magic. Probably why they could not close it easily.>The memory fades.
<It needs to be given the right change, the right sequence, to gain control over this power. So that I can use my element. To break the cycle. I cannot do that with the parasites there. The portal can channel energy through the shadow and stay active, but it is using its reserves, becoming even more unstable. I lack the same ability. I am spent.>Campaign
After vomiting profusely on the floor, Alan looks a round and sighs in disapproval at all the octopi.
Someone let this pet infestation get way out of control. So! Where are we going, black spirit fox guy?
<Away from here. As fast as we can. I am loosing blood. More parasites will come. And the humans here will not keep them distracted forever.>Nikolai: Campaign
"Does anyone want a sword?"
Give whoever wants a sword a sword.
Those magical torch things, do they look lootable?
Search the boxes for anything useful.
Tsar-slash anything that attacks.
I imagine you breaking those boxes, expecting a spinning coin to appear out of one of them like one of those RPG/adventure games.
And by torch, do you mean the slabs of rock or the giant claw things? Because trying to move either of those would require a very good strength roll in the first case and random.org to break and start giving results above 6 for the second case.
Second sword transferred to
packmule Ike. You feel lighter already.
Aaaawwww
Pout.
"Why won't you give that deadly weapon to your unstable teammate who is incapable of using it? What's wrong with you?"
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1151820 times)