Storm Coming
"Everything is pain! But say, because you're coming past, how about you pick me up? I have an idea. Ever played Ark: Survival Evolved? Ah, what am I saying, you're not a human. I did back before the entities took me. Great game. Had these cute tiny little flying dinosaurs with demonically powerful jaws called Dimorphodons. The rode on the player's shoulder. Since we're currently in a video game, how about I become one of them things, you carry me over to Nick, fling me at him, and I'll eat him!"
Morph into a dimorphodon to get rid of the burned flesh. Since I'm manipulating biomass it shouldn't carry over, right? Then fly onto Saevus's shoulder and wait there.
Dimorphodons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimorphodon
((I honestly don't care. I'm a small gliding lizard bird. I should be able to survive. If I die, at least I became the biggest living dart in the world.))
Heh. Yeah! That's the spirit!
You change form and then present your teammate with your wonderful bird-as-throwing-dart idea.
((Alan is best teammate))
Finish it up! If I have a shot, take it. Otherwise, get some more ammo going- should be able to touch the unit to get good copies.
((Alan is best teammate))
Finish it up! If I have a shot, take it. Otherwise, get some more ammo going- should be able to touch the unit to get good copies.
Quick question. Take the shot even if you can tell there is the danger of damaging teammates?
Also, remove the ammo clip and hold it on your hand to summon more over the hole?
If there's no answer by... whenever I start writing the turn, I'll assume yes to both.
1) Yes. John knows that mission is priority, and he's no stranger to collateral damage.
2) Can the full clip not be duplicated in-place? If it's possible, do it in this order:
a) Technosense sense the clip
b) Speed-copy it into hand
c) Stick that copy into pocket
d) Fire
e) Use pocket-copy to duplicate more into the gun
Otherwise, I guess just do it the way you said.
Sure, that works too.
You do your copying as quickly as possible and then run to the gunner seat.
Wake up pretty please?
You're a bit closer to consciousness, but your chances are still not looking any better.
"How quickly dost thou needst to fly?"
Take the the flying lizard with me and attempt to find the thunderbird. If Rune makes the foolish decision of "GOTTA GO FAST", launch him with the blingcannon. Otherwise just toss him in Nick's direction. Commence operation "drown Nick in rebar" afterwards.
Rune tells you where he thinks the thunderbird is while you prepare to enact plan 'angry birds'.
Alright, time to give myself an upgrade. Inject myself with a plasmid, then run in Plasmid arm-gun a blazing!
You stick the syringe directly into your heart and empty its contents. Your forearm immediately swells and expands to twice its size, skin breaking to reveal the expanded muscles below, while 5 thick bony points break through the skin on your palm.
George - Storm Coming
"Oh come on! At least buy me dinner first!"
"Hey! Let me go or you'll be sorry! I'm warning you! Don't make me do something I'll regret!"
If I still have control of my head, then try biting down on one of the tendrils in a futile attempt to escape. Yes, one of those electrical-discharge tendrils. I'm sure that's not a horribly stupid idea at all.
If I can't do that, then instead begin complaining about being Nick's hostage. Try to loudly complain so much that it annoys Nick into letting me go.
You try to free your head and bite at one of the tendrils. The fact that you are slowly gaining an awareness of where they are helps somewhat, but you're just not quick enough.
<You know, it is remarkable what one can do with electrical charges... Consider the human body, for example. They are the most important component to what most humans take pride in, the way you control your body, the means through which you store and process most of your thoughts and feelings.> "Booooriiiing. My other kidnappers gave me cake and let me watch TV. They didn't force me to listen to their boring speeches. And they only probed me once. This is the worst kidnapping ever!"<You may not appreciate that, you might not even know it, but I do, because I see it. And with us so close, I can see every tiny little spark in you. And control it.>Your body goes limp, barely obeying to your commands.
<See? It's useless to resist. You're just a little puppet with electrical strings. Strings I now hold. A bit disappointing you have nothing immediately useful. But don't worry. It will take just a moment to learn all your strings.>Immediately after, it feels like your brain catches fire. You pass out.
Holding Rune by his golden arm, Saevus activates his telekinetic blast, hoping to give Rune a running start in his flight towards their opponent. The runes light up on his golden arm for a moment and then Rune disappears in a cloud of feathers and blood.
A moment later, Rune slams against Nick's side, his beak getting embedded in his surprisingly resilient plumage, having somehow managed to navigate towards him despite Saevus launching him a bit off the mark and almost every bone in his body being broken. The air around Rune is crackling with electricity, blue bolts discharged by long tendrils with blue bioluminescent nodules. The tendrils are emerging from holes on his wings and body, formed by Nick's feathers and trailing behind him, sparks jumping from them to the ground.
<Remarkable bird the Electrical Blue, innit? Lovely Plumage.>The tendrils immediately start curling towards you.
<Rune! So nice of you to->But before he can say or do much more, he is cut off by a series of explosions, a triad of black clouds of smoke and shrapnel appearing around him. Nick sqwaks and momentarily falters as blood erupts from some of his tendrils. But he regains his balance and continues to try flying away, moving a bit slower now, the sparks coming out of him a bit weaker. Rune, continuing his streak of being lucky in his bad luck, remains mostly unhurt, save for a bit of shrapnel in his wings.
<I bet that hertz. Still, John, I'm certain you have the capacitance to do better.>Ron sees the explosions, points his hand towards them and fires, hoping to hit Nick. The muscles on his oversized arm contract, sending a giant spike flying at supersonic speeds. However, even though he can't see it, his aim is off, missing his target by a wide margin. He fires a second time and again he misses, no closer to his target. The third shot hits his target but it hits at a bad angle and merely glances off. The fourth however hits its mark, a spike getting through Rune, into Nick's torso and out the other side, blowing a considerable hole through both of them in the process.
<What an alternating turn of events.>The fifth and final spike suffers from some sort of misfire, getting jammed sideways in his arm. In the split second that happens, he barely has enough time to realise what's happening, let alone stop his muscles from firing. They continue trying to launch the spike through his arm, resulting in his entire hand getting launched and blown to bits at the same time, while the muscles on his arm rip and tear from the strain. Ron doesn't even feel the pain, looking at his missing stump spraying blood everywhere with some annoyance. Stupid second-rate plasmids.
<I'm truly shocked. You'd think I would have had some resistance by now.>Nick once more falters and begins to fall. With a final effort, he manages to crash behind the building he was heading towards. And this time it's not looking like he's going to fly again.
<Come on people. He's a flier. He's crashed. We're looking for electricity based puns here. Don't fail me now. One of you has to say it. And then put your glasses on.>
Campaign
"Why not!"
Lemonade sweet lemonade, sweet lemonade yeah sweet lemonade
Don't tell Ike where it's made
You get exactly what you wished for and share it with the entire team.
You sure like pouring people your lemonade in the morning.
Campaign, Ike!
"Say, Alan, I'm feeling a bit thirsty. Could you summon up some lemonade, perhaps?" Ike asks as he finishes up with his share of the marshmallows.
"And yeah, why not chase after suspicious lights? We don't really have any good leads anyway, and considering that everything and its mother around here is magic, I'd bet that might be something of that nature as well."
Chase after the light Theri saw! Avail myself of lemonade if lemonade is inbound at non-injurious velocities.
You enjoy drinking from Alan's jugs.
"Um, okay."
I guess we check out what Theri saw?
Zech and Theri:
auto-follow party, trailing in the rear of the group.warn group of something starts coming up behind us.
Oh, sorry, just noticed I forgot to respond to you last turn. Roger's response would basically be:
<Oh. Uh, no, it's uh... Yeah. That. Maybe.>((Eh, it was just for comedic effect, more of a rule of funny sort of thing. I didn't roll for it or anything and it didn't cause any damage. It just sounded like an Alan thing to do. Really, Alan shouldn't even have had enough time to walk towards the tent.))
((Let's say Alan poked him repeatedly with the marshmallow not realizing why it wasn't working. That's a funny image.))
Take the sword. Leave the cloth.
"What now, we chase after the light Theri saw?"
Chase after the light Theri saw?
The entire team packs its belongings and sets out to check out what Theri saw with a question mark.
You can get a better view of your surroundings now that it's daytime and the sky is once again clear. Your camp was on the base of a rocky hill, the same hill the statue was carved out of. You can also see the main road some distance away from the side road you're on. The distance looks much smaller today than it felt yesterday, although it's still several minutes of walking away.
You continue following the side road, making your way up the hill as Theri did yesterday. She didn't have any landmarks to go on, just her sense of time and direction, so you simply continue following the road, hoping you'll see something interesting or familiar along the way. Which is easier said than done, since the depressions on the ground that were marking the road have been obscured by yesterday's storm, leaving only the stones placed adjacent to it to guide you.
The top of the slope is a bit different than its base would suggest. There are still the occasional rocky outcropping, especially close to ridges, but most of the hill is covered by dirt, allowing small dry shrubs to grow on it, so it's not completely rocky and barren. It's also mostly even and flat, with some small depressions and ridges here and there providing some variation and obstructing your view.
You continue walking, joined along the way by River, who continues walking close to the back of the group, some distance away. There are fresh bloodstains on his clothes, but not from his own blood. Crossing a ridge, you finally see something that could be what Theri saw last night. Ike is the first to notice it, the smell of humans in the air as well as other new smells.
Off in the distance, the road comes close to a small stone tower, three stories tall but barely large enough to hold a single room on each floor. Its gate is sculpted, made to look like two men standing side by side, holding scythes, the curved edges of the scythes forming the arch of the door. There are a couple of other stone structures built adjacent to it that seem quite different. Different architecture, different height, simpler and less sturdy construction materials and more windows, although they appear to have been boarded up.
There are also a couple of wooden buildings a bit further away from it, although they seem to have suffered some damage, possibly from the storm. The same can be said for the nearby farm plot and a hastily repaired wooden fence marking a pen. There are a few stocky leathery animals in it, a couple of them horned. They seem a bit concerned, slowly walking in circles inside their pen, led by one of the horned creatures.
There are four young trees around the buildings bearing tiny black fruit, creating small patches of shade. You think this is the first time you've ever seen a true tree in this world. Their slightly brighter green is a nice change from the shades of brown, red, grey and dark green that seem to dominate this land, even if their beauty is somewhat lost by the leaves the storm took from them.
There's two humans outside. One of them, a man you think, seems to be working on the fence while another that looks more like a young woman is preparing a small horse-drawn wagon. There's also a couple of dogs with them, lazily lounging in the shade of one of the trees. They don't appear to have noticed you yet.
((Could I join?))
Sure, why not. Just come up with a character.
Unless you want me to toss you some ideas. I was thinking about a concept of a guy using exploding dice the other day. Both literally and figuratively. The guy has some magic dice he can throw and depending on which number they land on, they can cause varying yet powerful effects, depending on the number he lands on. And rolling a 6 or a 1 would cause another dice to be rolled to determine even more effects with possibly even more power. And if he rolls 1 or 6 on those rolls he rolls again and so on. He (or she) could be upgraded with other types of dice (like d20) or being able to declare a more expanded or more narrow scope for his dice ("this is a cluster dice","this is a healing dice") or using some sort of limited luck manipulation system. His limitation would be that his stats work the same way and he is unable to get any upgrades that give him direct +1s or -1s, so unless he has someone else boosting him or uses some sort of special dice or luck manipulation to boost himself, he always has 1/6 chances of overshooting, 1/6 chances of failing horribly and 1/6 chances of nothing happening. And, of course, there's the problem of rolling dice in places that dice are hard to roll, like in space or on a slope, although I guess there could be an upgrade to help with that. On the other hand, the fact that his stats work on the same principle means he can reach some crazy power levels if he's lucky. 6 consecutive 6s in strength could be enough to level a city or more. And 4 consecutive 6s in endurance might be enough to allow him to survive that.
Essentially a character for a player that puts all his faith in the RNG. That could be the character's theme as well. Have him wear ridiculous dice-like clothing (dice-hat mandatory) and preach about the indifference of the RNG from the holy book of Typewriter Monkeys.
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1148435 times)