Campaign
Campaign, Ike!
Get visual ID on Theri. Does she look immediately endangered? If yes, disendanger her to the best of my ability.
If not, get Nikolai over to the rest. Keep an eye out for Irene getting up to any funny business. If she starts anything River seems to protest to, give her a hearty leg sweep from behind to dissuade her of any interference.
Well, Theri is not in danger right now (although that may change soon). And I assume you don't want to just let Nikolai fend for himself just because River and Irene are having a disagreement. Then again, this may change soon.
You keep dragging Nikolai, almost reaching the group by the door (about 5 metres away).
Continue being carried around by more competent teammates.
If I can reach Zech's shield then Tsar + repair it to strengthen it and give him much more light crystals to work with.
If Theri asks for it then lend her my sword.
If anything directly attacks me then kill it with a tsar stab with the knife.
Ike helps you hobble, at the same time dragging you with incredible speed, so much so that it causes you some pain as your broken leg bounces on the floor a couple of times. The pain is extreme but you use a few loud words to keep yourself conscious.
You've almost reached the group by the door. And then you're hit on the head by a heavy plastic bottle. Ouch! Guess we're going to have to add possible concussion to the list of injuries.
Feels like you've spent the entire mission being seriously injured. For some reason, you feel that Zechariah might sympathise with you.
Speaking of injuries, you should probably do something about your leg unless you want to bleed out.
The shield is near the portal and I assume you don't want to be there right now due to the number of nasty tentacles currently occupying that location and your inability to walk unaided.
Campaign
Zechariah whirls around, using his ears more than his eyes to sense the surrounding area. With his instincts going hand-in-hand with logic, he moves the shields around to make way for Lirian while trying desperately to protect the group and the portal at the same time. He's not doing his best at the moment, but he's also had worse performance. Much, much worse performance.
Pendant, River: <I'm on it!>
"I understand. Get ready!"
Focused power needed now. Maintain the portal's shields and keep them tight, while using the Shadows to pull the creature off of the Generators. Finally, open a hole in the shield directly in front of Irine to allow her to attack from her front.
((Fun fact: This is the second time someone has confused Theri with another of Tiruin's characters.))
Working on three things at once is too much. And the fact that those octopi are somehow making controlling and powering the shield harder isn't helping. You just can't focus enough and you're starting to feel more tired.
You try to reposition the fragments you use for protection to the portal shield, both to reduce the number of things you are doing and to make reinforcing it easi- Ouch! Who's throwing those that small plastic slightly glowing... lemonade bottles? The momentary distraction is enough to cause the shards you are moving to crash to the ground, breaking many of them.
Despite that, you are able to reinforce the wall around the portal and keep it steady, for now, closing some of the gaps that have formed on it. You also open Irene's hole.
You are left with zero concentration with which to work on River's orders. The scant shadows in this room won't respond to such feeble, fluttering thoughts.
Irine, Campaign
send the majority of my flames to form an very intense area just outside one panel of Zech's shield wall.
the remainder I use to keep the team defended as best as I can.
if the wrong panel goes down or they all go down at once or whatever, then spread my flames out and still try to catch them with my area-targeted ability whilst they're all clustered in a small area.
You push most of your fires towards Zechariah's hole.
Perhaps you do it a bit too forcefully, as some of it goes through the hole and into the portal. But the majority stays in front of the hole, blocking it.
The parasites are not as unintelligent as you might think. A few rush through the hole, a few more are pushed into it by others shoving them but after a while they stop trying to get through, instead focusing on other weak points and holes in the shield.
Campaign - Confused Alan
I guess I'll just dissuade these salesmen.
Fire bleach from one hand and lemonade from the other at any octopi or slaves that get this close.
this close
((
THIIIS close?))
You put your arms forward and focus on the two things you want summoned. Nothing happens.
You exhale audibly and raise your hands in the air in exasperation as you-
Wait, why are there so many purple flashes suddenly coming from above? Fireworks? Sky adverts?
Oh dear, delayed reaction!
You cover your head as various bottles rain down on the surrounding area.
Some of them actually hit a few octopuses! Yay!
But they also hit some teammates. Whoops.
What's worse, the two ingredients aren't mixing, because it turns out plastic bottles don't break very easily.
Damnit. Foiled by childproof containers yet again.
Although a few of them are now on fire, so they may end up mixing once the fire eats through the container.
Good thing Zechariah's shield isn't there anymore, otherwise you'd end up with flaming bottles of poisonous chemicals bouncing on it and falling on you and your teammates.
Irine, Campaign
"River! Get back here! No need for drastic measures! This is a siege, the type of fight that I'm strongest in! We need you to guide us, your knowledge of this world is critical! Just give me time!"<What do you know of war? Have you ever fought in one? Have you seen people you know disappear in a moment for no reason other than luck, knowing you will never see them again? Have you stood in battle, hoping the enemy kills someone else and not the people you care about? Have you been forced to retreat and leave people you know behind to die? To choose to save one or another? Have you ever faced a situation that made you feel completely worthless, unable to help the ones you care about? Unable to even help yourself? I am trying to spare you from this.><I am sorry. I cannot go back.>"River, when the portal changed to draining the slabs, that put a time limit on how long it will last. Once we're all safe I'm going to try to make them detonate, and that should stop our pursuers and clear the room all at once. Then we can tend our wounds and learn more about this place our prey is hiding in, help avoid any other traps it laid in its wake. Also, we need to talk about what we've seen and how that changes our mission. I don't want to keep secrets from my friends."<That... You do not know if that will work. The magic is strong. Unstable. You could kill us all.>
<I know what I have to do. This is necessary. Why can you not trust me? Help me?>"River! If you get yourself killed I'm telling them everything! I'll... I'll..."I turn to look at Theri, then back at River.
"I..."I look at Theri again, then back at River.
River pauses for a moment.
<You would... betray me? Betray my trust? After I...>He lowers his head for a second but keeps walking.
<Do so if you must. It will change nothing now. Only cause more pain and problems.>I swallow, look back at Theri, then once more at River.
"I-i-i-I'll bur-er-er H-hurrrt Theri! I'll..."<What?!>He spins around to look at Irene, mouth open, eyes wide, ears forward, completely still, like he just got punched in the gut.
<Y-You would not do that.>I take a deep breath and my eyes harden, glaring, hard, at River.
"I-I keep my promises River. And whatever y-you do to yourself, I'll do the closest I can. to the same. to her. If-If you hurt yourself, you... I'll. I'll hurt Theri."<Why? She- You...>After a moment he lowers his head and takes slow, unsteady steps towards you.
<I thought you were... I trusted you. I asked you to help. Help them.>His head, ears and tail are all low. He looks defeated.
<You betrayed me. Lied to me. Used me.>He stops walking.
<You are the same. Honourless. Spiteful. Traitor. I should had trusted my instincts.>He clenches his still working fist. The air around it distorts and darkens. He lifts his head to look at you with completely black eyes, snarling.
<I͏ ̷will͞ ̵not̷ ͞le̸t̡y͢o̕͠ų̸ ͜͏h̢҉͟u̴r̷t̡͝͞ḿ̨͘͜y҉͜͠ ̴̡̨͠͠f̶̛r̷̴̛̀̀i̶̸͝͝e̸͏͟͏͏n҉̛͞d͘s҉̷̡͟!͘͞͏> Despite the emotion in them being intense, the thoughts grow distorted, quieter, until they go completely silent.
Survival
Survival
John grunted. This was much harder than expected- would have to remember that.
"Just... a bit... longer..."
Keep it up. Don't forget to check it over when it's done.
You're done with the most important bits. Assuming you don't want things like exterior or lights, you could stop.
Oh, and you might want to have Bryan drive, given that the rest of you are suffering from a lack of arms and legs.
Survival
Time to do the some of the things legless golems are best at. Keeping watch. And waiting. And blasting fools into space, if they're in range.
I pity the fool who walks in the range of my bling-arm-gravity-gun-thing.
You do your best to be a lookout, considering you are a legless, slightly glowing suit of metal armour in a dark alley made of concrete.
Bryan, survival
To every team member nearby: <We've got a group of seven 30 meters out. I'm not sure about their intent, but with how things have been going I wouldn't trust them. I suggest taking cover.>
Find the best hiding place in the alley, start focusing for my telekinesis, and aim my gun towards the entrance the men are coming to.
Best is ambiguous. It could mean a place you'll be hard to spot, or it could mean a place you'll be hard to hit. Let's go with the second thing.
You walk up to Saevus, stand behind him, draw your pistol and lean against him.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"
"What? You're armoured and conveniently placed. Something would have to go through you to hit me. Plus, you're so big I thought-"
"Wait a sec. Are you calling me fat? Just because I'm not organic it doesn't mean I don't have feelings, you know."
"No, no, I'm just saying. I mean look at yourself. If I was inside you-"
"Wow, wow, wow, buddy. Hold your horses. I'm really flattered but I'm not the kind of armour that does those kinds of... things. Not that I have a problem with it, I'm not racist or anything. I'm friends with lots of armours that do that have those kinds of... preferences. I'm just not into that.“
"Oh, sorry. No offence, but you look to me like the kind of armour that would like being worn."
"What? No way. If I was into wearing, I would definitely be the one wearing things, not the other way around. Not that I'm into wearing things. Well, except for that one time. But that didn't count! I was young and drunk and it was a rainy night! I was afraid I was going to rust! You understand, right?"
"Uh huh."
"Don't you 'uh huh' me. And besides, I don't think someone your size would be able to wear me."
"Hey, it's not the size that matters. It's how you use it."
A bearded man holding a baseball bat comes around the corner. You look at him. He looks at you. You sense mostly fear coming out of him. You also sense 3 more coming from behind him, a bit perplexed.
Survival
Keep an eye on them, but also see if there's any place I could go to so that I could fix my arm up a bit more. Kinda annoying to not be at full potential.
The place where you go to fix a hole in your body is called a hospital (or a less-than-legal practitioner of medicine), where you stay until the doctors fix everything and you have recuperated. Unless you know someone who can magically heal your arm or if you are carrying any health potions.
You follow the men at a safe distance. They keep walking for a while until they reach a particular side street. There, they set their stuff down and begin preparing.
The one with the revolver keeps watch while the rest prepare.
One of them starts assembling something that looks like something between a rocket launcher and a rifle with pieces he takes out of his oversized briefcase. A small tube with sights and trigger, not large enough to fit a rocket but larger than a rifle and with holes on both ends.
The other procures a telephone headset, attaches it to his backpack with a wire and starts talking into it. Probably a radio.
The third looks at the contents of his shoulder bag and shifts around nervously.
After a long leave of me being lazy, I'm back. Paris, what is the situation my character is currently in?
Bad.
You are currently in the sewers, being attacked by a monstrous creature of darkness. See
here for more info.
You are a cat, quite a bit larger than a cat should be.
You are a bit behind in the time-line.
At this point you're probably better off just getting out of there and flying away to complete the mission.
Staging Area
"Ah! Well, I'm a firm believer that everything can be explained by science. And magic is a phenomenon that science is currently unable to explain. So, as a mad scientist, I would be positively delighted to find an instance of magic! I could be the first true scientist to properly study it to explain it using science, to recreate it's effects with science and technology, to use it to blow up something large to showcase that mad science is the superior school of science, The list goes on and on..."
"Yes! Exactly!" the voice comes through the speaker enthusiastically. The screen behind him displays a green checkmark on a black background.
"Humans require cause and effect, because they need to know how they can change the world. How to... blow things up?"You can tell from his voice that he is smiling as he says that last sentence.
"Even if true magic exists, something that does not follow causality, something that could not be explained, most would try to explain it anyway. Because knowledge is power, knowledge gives us control. Even false knowledge, like attributing an event to things like spirits or magic gives us a feeling of safety."
"But sometimes you say 'magic' instead of the proper term for a thing because it makes wording easier, because it makes explaining them easier, because you want to hide how it really works or maybe because you don't have an explanation yet."
"For example, even though I have no communication equipment there, no cameras, nothing, I know that someone I... know is dying. Even though he is an incredible distance away, even though he is trying to stay hidden, I know, because we are linked. Our souls are linked. Which is a much easier way of saying it than talking about entangled states, tunnelling, overmind entities, multidimensional system architecture and universal barriers and networks."
"If someone is curious, then they can always study, experiment and learn."
"Anyway, I think this interview has dragged on for long enough. Is there anything else you'd like to ask or say before I make my final decision?"
OOC"Pleasing everyone is impossible. Infuriating everyone is easier and far more amusing."
--Someone
I think this applies to Zechariah and Alan.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1126906 times)