Staging Area
John grinned and nodded. "Ready for anything. Like how you handle a 6-player bracket."
He looked at the bartender. "Which one is your person?"
"Big Ears. Batman. Fu Manchu. Ike. Cool guy. He's out having fun, exploring another planet right now.""Unless he's dead. You have no way of knowing.""Nah, I'm sure he's fine. Guy as fun as him can't die like that.""Tournament, huh? Interesting.
Also, I would love to hear the backstory about the... birdriver?"
Listen for anymore delectable hints as to the others' powers
<Birdriver!> the voice in your head exclaims.
<Birdriver!>Everything around you starts melting. The tables, the floor, the other people.
<Birdriver!>You sink into what was the floor, now a much brighter colour, being carried away by it as it flows.
<Birdriver!>The whiteish substance starts transforming into sharp white wood branches arranged like a fan, flapping up and down as they flow past you, poking you and leaving trails of leaves behind them.
<Birdriver!>They continue to flow, forming beaks and bodies, constantly squeaking and squawking with a sound resembling the cries of a crow and the creaking of wood mixed together.
<Birdriver!>The creatures continue to melt, recombine and reform into new shapes. The flow pushes you upwards, pushing until you reach the surface of the
<Birdriver!>.
There seems to be something wrong though with your movement through the migratory
<Birdriver!>. While one would expect you to go with the flow of all the wood poking you and brushing against you, you seem to be moving against the flow of the
<Birdriver!>. And you can tell that is so because you are approaching the
<Birdriver!>'s source. A gigantic mouth, sporting some gigantic teeth and gigantic lips to go with it. Right above it, there is a gigantic fu manchu-style moustache, followed by a gigantic nose that has two
<Birdriver!>s flowing out of it, migrating in irregular spiral patterns in opposing directions. A moment later, your brain regrets using the word gigantic to describe the mouth, for you notice there are even more gigantic things close to it. Gigantic ears, ears that look like satellite dishes compared to everything else, ears larger than the
<Birdriver!> you are currently moving through.
The entity laughs as you move towards the mouth, a sound like the laugh of a hyena mixed with the roars of a lion. You continue approaching the gigantic head spewing out that
<Birdriver!>, that torrent of impossible creatures.
"Please." the shadowman says with a tone that implies he meant to say something far less polite.
You are back at the inn.
"Do not disturb my employee."<There's no need to act so tough,
he'll be dead soon enough!> the other responds and continues to laugh.
*Still tries to decipher the secrets of cooking*
The guy with the notepads seems to be currently surrounded by a bunch of moving colours. A moment later he starts flailing about as if he is being punched by ghosts. You shrug and use the distraction to enter the kitchen.
Now, what should you start with... Oh, those round brown things look good. Let's taste them.
Gah, it broke apart! What is that yellow stuff coming out of it? It's all over you now! And it tastes really crucnchy and oily. Swallowing makes your throat feel funny. Is this how food is supposed to taste? No wonder humans cook it to change it.
You throw the broken brown thing away and grab a new one. Let's try putting it over a fire to see if that changes anything.
You leave the thing on the fire. It starts becoming blacker. Should you remove it or should-
Gah, that thing is leaking. Yeah, there is a crack and now all that stuff is bubbling out and sizzling as it comes out of the crack and touches the fire.
You quickly remove it from the fire and blow the ash away. That done, you take a bite.
Well, still crunchy and it tastes like ash, but at least it's a lot less oily now and more solid.
Yay, you're learning things!
Campaign
Campaign, Ike!
"Hope I didn't break it. And also hope I don't break it some more!"
Now, listen carefully to any and all movements around me.
Touch the horsey-head symbol for a moment.
Try to pull down the rightmost lever, leave the others up. Turn the rightmost triangle handle thing clockwise.
Then touch the horsey-head again. Giggle softly.
Try the opposite configuration of levers and triangles if nothing happens, then touch the horsey-head a final time.
You stand perfectly still. There's nothing, not even the wind. You hear River shift a bit a moment later but that's not what you'd call interesting. For a second you think you hear a sound coming from inside the wall but you are not sure.
You touch the horsey head. The cold stone feels smooth and rounded yet perfectly even. Whoever carved this did a good job and probably put some of their best craftsmanship in it. Unless they used magic to mass produce it. Maybe you'll find a "Made in wizard China" sticker if you look inside the thing.
You try to pull the rightmost lever. It moves for maybe a millimetre before it stops. It won't budge. You let go and it returns to its original position, one millimetre upwards. You wait. You can hear River's claws clicking against the stone as he walks around a bit. Nothing happens.
You try to turn the rightmost handle clockwise. It continues to behave as before, refusing to turn.
Touching the horsehead also produces no different effect.
You shrug and start pulling the leftmost lever instead. This one can actually move. You can hear something moving behind the wall as you do so, but you can't really make out the sound. Metal and wood you think? You move it down halfway. The moment you let it go, it returns to its original position, bouncing a bit as it bangs against the top. Judging from the newly created scratch on the lever, you are probably not supposed to do that. Well, the owner is probably dead, so he (or she or it) probably won't mind.
That done, you pull it all the way down. There is a sound like metal hitting rock, several clicks, the sound of something metal shifting and then the entire mechanism starts reverting to its original configuration, the slider slowly returning to the centre and the lever moving upwards, accompanied by the sound of mechanisms shifting.
You wait, ready to dodge. Nothing happens.
Touching the horse's head (D would probably make an silly/inappropriate joke about that if he could speak) and messing with the handles does nothing different.
((Reading comprehension fail, went back and realized that River asked me to take Zech to the volcano where I was revived, not the shelter.
oops, would have been going where he asked if I'd realized my error sooner. been rather busy lately))
((depending on how things go, this may be my last post for a couple weeks, though I'll post if I can. auto me as necessary please.))
<Well, this is where we've been hiding. Seems that River took everything of value out of here and left.>
<I think I might have misunderstood what he wanted. I thought we were supposed to meet him here, but the way he phrased it, he might have actually asked for us to go to the volcano, which makes sense now that I think on it. The way I see it we have a couple options. priority number one is to make sure we're ok, need to get you some more food and probably some water. I'm not sure about the food, but there is some kind of well or cistern hidden in a basement nearby I can show you too if you feel up for it, though we aren't the only ones that know about it. We could also wait here, or I could follow River and Ike's scent if you want and track them. or we could go directly to the meeting point at the volcano. what do you want to do?>
follow Zech's lead
if in the following turns we encounter humans again, I'm going to want to talk to them peacefully again, but with periodic implied threats that remind that I could kill them if I want to, I just have no reason to want that.
if "cousin" is who we meet, especially if he's alone, then i'm going to want to change to full-human form and change into the clothes Zech is carrying for me, if we're going to be having an extended conversation.
if we encounter another ashwraith, I'm going to avoid telepathy and attempt to repeatedly enclose it in flame again
if we encounter a discoball, I'm going to try to seize it and slam it into the ground using my abilities.
if we encounter a large predator, I'm going to defend Zech and myself but not attack it unless it acts like it thinks we're prey or Zech attacks.
I will not split up from Zech except to hunt, and even then stay close, even if he asks me to leave him.
If Zech becomes immobilized then I'll go hybrid form and perform medical aid. if he is beyond my help then I'll attempt to contact River. If River is unable to be contacted then I'll go to the human village in full-human form for assistance.
I figure you've been GMing Irine and me for well over a year now, you can auto her pretty well by now.
((Yeah, River was being vague in case somebody was listening. I would had probably informed you if your paths did not end up intersecting, but then Ike got a random event again.
And don't worry, it will probably take him some time for him to complete it, depending on how bad things go. Unless he gives up, of course, or River drags him away. I was hoping I could get NAV back in this week, but it looks like luck has other plans.
And yes, I think I can auto your reaction to certain problems and simple things fairly well (especially when you leave nice instructions like that), but I don't think I'm that good at doing other things. If your(plural) characters did not think and do things that surprised me, this would be a boring game for me to run.
Anyway, waiting on DAF.))
OOCOld poll:
Game mode for next mission?
8 (61.5%): Tournament
5 (38.5%): Boss Fight
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1151169 times)