Turn's here! I tried to make everything sound as plausible as possible in the circumstances. Oh, and it's turn 40, and you're still in the first world.
And no tank, Boksi. Just that.
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Turn 40 ------------
i use most of my power (i keep enough to get some light) to send lightnings toward elves.
| Unfortunately, your radiant light does not quite get the magnitude of truck headlights, so you can't see your enemies and decide not to waste such large amounts of energy on what could be empty space.
"Grr... Valuables. We need valuables. And really valuable valuables at that. Something that really impresses. Something that'd make a, heh, killing. Like the Ashcraver, only even more valuable. Something that'd convince the dwarves it was the best thing since sliced bread. Some sort of weapon that could surpass anything here.
...
OSMUSTXAL!
(I'm trying to enter a strange mood here)."
| Suddenly you feel hot. Very hot. You're practically burning alive, but your skin withstands the heat. You feel a great energy pouring into you, so great it cannot be contained! Your eyes emit brilliant red light! You let loose a roaring laughter, fell and terrible! The energy overtakes your body and mind, engulfs you in searing flame, and consumes your very soul! You fall into a dream... no, not a dream.. a nightmare. Faintly you see images of great destruction about you, barely you hear voices screaming in terror and despair. Your mind is filled with images of terrible demons, great dark armies with massive weapons of sparkling metal marching to their doom, bloody battles in which whole nations are conquered and destroyed, and fire and ashes is all that is left in your sight. On the borders of your subconscious, you feel yourself rending stone, and hammering metal with your bare fists, you feel awe, fear, hatred, and sorrow as your hands shape and form the object of your desire... with a sudden sharp sting, and great weariness and pain in all your body, you come to your senses. With great effort you turn your head to look around. You are sitting in a structure that faintly resembles a workshop. The floor, the walls, everything you see but the sky above you is covered with dark blood. Ashes are slowly falling down, settling into the red pools, covering everything with a grey blanket. Fire and smoke can be seen in several places. Screams and sounds of battle are coming from below.
| Pain and weariness overcome you, and you fall back, unconscious.
I climb the keep and glare angrily at the siege operator. Then I glare at him some more. After that I go stand next to Gantolandon.
| Just as you approach the keep and try to climb, the roof and the upper floor of the keep are engulfed in a blazing inferno! You hear rending and crashing as the stone walls of the keep crumble, and you hear screams as several dwarves are consumed by the flames. The flames suddenly disappear, but at the next moment a blinding flash
tears through the building, destroying floors, and blasts straight through the soil and rock, down to unknown depths. A second later, it returns, producing a massive outburst of rock and dust, then flies back again. And returns again. And back. Finally it zooms off, from the third floor of the keep, now the highest floor, off westwards. After several seconds, the echo of a great explosion reaches your ears, and you see light, as if another sun chose to rise in the west. The brilliant flash returns, bearing darkness and flame, and after a minute of terrible screams, only the bright reddish light and the thunderous booms coming from the ruins of the third floor remain to say that something still happens there. After several minutes, during which everyone, including the elves, stands in awe and fear, gazing with wide eyes at the sight, the light dims, darkens, and disappears. The keep is now in miserable shape. Its roof and fourth floor are no more. The third floor is reduced to crumbled walls and burning workshops. In the center of each floor below that is now a very large broken hole. In the center of the first floor is a mighty fine pit with jagged edges, with some odd reddish glow emanating from somewhere down below. A great smoke is now rising in the west, blotting out the final rays of the sunset and the stars that already appeared.
I grab the most useless looking dwarf and teach him TK Healing. If he's not willing, he'd better take a look at my armor and think again. I believe that such a skill is definitely more worth than a mere item.
| You grab a passing hauler dwarf and look him straight in the eyes. Concentrating your will, you infuse his mind with your knowledge of telekinesis, as well as you know it yourself. The dwarf looks at you, then at himself, trying to comprehend your action, and you just turn to walk to the leader dwarf and work out the deal when...
FWWOOOOSSHHH!!! Every cubic inch of space around you explodes into searing flames! The force of the explosion throws you off the keep!
| The full armor of bone withstood the flames well, but your landing left much to be desired. Barely having time to collect yourself, you hit the ground hard! You feel your left upper leg give off a loud
SNAP!, and you are jolted with pain, and the realisation that it's broken now. The dwarf you were just teaching flew a little further, and died after colliding with solid rock.
I try to reenforce my longsword with whatever I find laying about to make it stronger.
| Having no materials at hand, you decide to try a more direct approach. Combining your knowledge of healing and attacking with TK, you lear to augment your sword with tearing jags of chaotic TK, forming a "chainsaw aura" around it. This feat requires great concentration, however, and will tax your strength if used often. (You learn to do a "TK Ripper Slash", forming a disruptive aura of TK around your sword. Using it augments your sword, giving a +1 to slashing and tearing (gore) damage (not a +2, it will just work against something resistant to just one of these). It will be affected by concentration, and will give a -1 to constitution and strength if used on more than 1 target per turn.)
I heal Rooster and LASD's internal injuries.
| LASD wasn't in need of help at that moment, and you turned your attention to Rooster, flying over to him and mending his broken bones and torn flesh.
In any case, I'm going to head to the materials stockpile and scrounge up some valuable stuff.
| Mere seconds after you ascend the stairs, you hear a deafening blast above you, and see dust fall from the ceiling. Thinking that it does not bode well, you huddle into a corner, and several seconds after that a brilliant flash of light bursts through the ceiling, and down through the floor, filling the room with dust. It does so several times. After the unbearable noise from above has stopped, you look around and notice several large golden nuggets, and one very large sapphire on the ground. Not stopping to wonder, you quickly grab them.
Considering that I'm probably going to be really badly hurt when my action comes, I'll try reach the god of healing through the astral plane and persuade her (somehow I doubt this god would be a he) to heal me.
| The gods don't like your presence in this world. At least this was how you interpreted the lightning that stroke your body in response to your prayer. The lightning was spot-on though, restoring your neural functions and ripping you out of your dream without dreams. And just in time, too. Seconds later you heard Boksi let loose the demonic laughter, and then the entire roof was engulfed in fire. Thinking quickly, you lunged towards the Keepers of Nogzulban, as they, with their leader, huddled around the metal pillar. The stones of the roof gave way, then suddenly disappeared, and then a massive explosion tore into you, throwing the six of you, pillar and all, to land into the rubble on the third floor. You were momentarily knocked out, but when you came to, you were largely unharmed, if bruised a little in a few places. The Keepers and their leader carefully positioned their relic upright on the floor. They were unharmed as well.
I devour an elf (or elves) to heal myself
| OM NOM NOM!! You jump at the nearest elf, and dig into his right arm with your teeth! Suddenly finding an abundance of strength within you, you thrash the elf about by the arm! It is torn off and remains in your grip! Just as you are about to enjoy a decent meal, the keep behind you explodes! A mighty fireball blasts through the walls of the fourth floor, and a tsunami of fire and flaming liquids spews itself onto you!
| You try to roll out of the way, but the wave of fire is too wide, you're caught in it!
| The arm you're holding is well-cooked, and your clothes are starting to burn! Your own hands are burned too, whatever facial hair you had burns off as well!
| You manage to roll out of the fiery inferno before you sustain heavier damage, but your clothes are coated with flames! Stop, drop and roll!
| In a single (maybe practiced) motion, you take off the burning upper clothing, and thrash it about to put out the flames! You succeed. Your armor's a little torn now though. You cringe at it, but put it back on. (Meanwhile, out in the field) The burning wave covers a large amount of elves!
| Most manage to run or roll away unharmed, some got singed hair and clothing, and several burned to death in the river of flame.
I try to find a weapon that I did not use to block up the doors.
| You search the first floor fruitlessly for a while, when suddenly an explosion rocks the whole building! The civilians cry out in dismay, and scatter to the walls. Then, in a split second, something bursts through the ceiling and down through the floor filling the room with thick dust. You can barely see anything in there. Blindly walking towards where you know the doors are, you suddenly step on something metallic. Picking it up, you realise it's an iron battleaxe, with a bloody severed hand clutching it. You take the hand off, and claim the axe for yourself. Not like its previous owner cares anymore, right?
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NPC Actions:
Elica is a swordself. Recently hired by Frelock. He's armed with a wooden longsword, and dressed in (somewhat pierced) green-grey close-fitting clothing with scarce leaf-shaped decoration. Is badly burned, but otherwise alright, standing in the completely destroyed tavern.
While it would be nice to have Sat-Cam's and see everything, you don't know what Elica is doing.
This is the ballista operator dwarf who was resurrected by Frelock. He practically LOVES Frelock. Has brown hair and wears clothes of indiscernable blackish leather.
Amidst all the turmoil, everyone lost sight of him.
A sizeable threat to anything wearing leather or sleeping in wooden beds, this force of several thousand elves now surrounds the keep, and pretty much occupies the entire town. The elves flee from the keep in terror!
| What remained of the elves threw down their weapons and ran away as fast as their legs would carry them.
The guards survived the massacre on the roof, being on the second floor, and now try to survey the damage done to the keep, and help who they may.
| There's really not much to be done now though. Those who did survive are hardly injured, and those who didn't are beyond help.
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Status after turn:
Boksi: Down on the floor, in a workshop, possibly on the third floor of the keep.
Wearing a rather singed reddish-black jacket of Karl Moebius leather, underwear, and slightly torn jean shorts.
Minor scars and numerous cuts all over the body. Unconscious. All body is in pain from recent hyperactivity. (further -1 to any physical action)
Abilities:
Basic TK Manipulation.
Basic TK Healing.
Big Bully. Special status:
Carbon Flesh Interweave.
Can only speak goblin.
Activated Visual Omnisensor.
andrea: Standing upright in the field behind the army of elves.
Wearing underwear and
fairly comfortable greyish trousers. Also wearing a
armor set: -Iron splint-mail-, a shirt of leather, Bronze plated greaves,
<<Iron high boots>>. Wields a +Steel maul+.
Head bruised.
Abilities:
Shrapnel Self.
Basic TK Healing.
Empowered by Lightning (currently Lightly Drained, -1 spd, 1 turn to next level).
korora: Standing upright on the second floor of the keep.
Wearing underwear, and makeshift bra-scarf clothing. Also wearing the
armor set:
<<+Iron breastplate+>>, a soft leather shirt, an Iron helmet, some hard leather greaves and -Aluminum high boots-. Owns an Iron handaxe and a -Black bronze warhammer-, both (probably) on the third floor of the keep for now. Wields
The Ashcraver. Holding two large nuggets of gold (2kg), and one particularly large sapphire (0.5kg).
Unharmed.
Abilities:
Mighty.
Extremely Agile.
Extended TK Healing.
"A massive, massive, MASSIVE sword. It is three meters long, 1'3'' (~40cm) wide, and dazzingly bright. Its fine steel has been polished to reflect light like a mirror. Its one edge is curved, jagged at the hilt, the other is straight and so sharp it could probably slice adamantine blocks like salami. Down the center of the sword, which is at least 2'' thick, runs a hollow slit 3'' wide, in which yeat another, smaller and straighter sword is concealed. The entire surface of both swords, except of course the sharp cutting edges, is finely engraved with uncountable images, among which the launching of the Challenger, world war II, a nuclear explosion, a trainwreck, and a rotary excavator. The hilt itself (being at the same time the hilt of the smaller sword) is decorated with gold and emeralds you can only assume you've taken from someone, arranged in beautiful patterns, and the handle is woven with three lines - one is a scaly snake with two small rubies in the eyes, and two seem awfully like DNA strands. You get a feeling you could decipher the human genome if you looked closely enough. The guard of the hilt is exquisitely detailed as well, but right down the senter of it, spanning the breadth of the sword, is a solid rectangular golden plate, with the single word: ""ASHCRAVER"" deeply embossed onto it. The entire thing is so immeasurably brilliant, you almost don't want to touch it fearing it'll stick to your hand and corrupt you like some magic ring. Overcoming this fear, you pick it up. Despite its size, it is relatively lightweight, relatively, of course, to anything else so large and made of steel.
The second form is a smaller (comparatively) blade, that together with the folding hilt guard looks like an overgrown sai. It's also exquisitely detailed, but lighter. (+1 to damage, -1 to agility).
The Ashcraver seems to accumulate the energy released by the deaths it causes. The process is admittedly rather slow, but has good uses."
chaoticag: Standing upright out in the field behind the elven assault.
Wearing the
armor set: +Steel Chestplate+, -Copper chainmail-, Aluminum cap, hard leather leggings and
<<Copper plated boots>>. Wielding a wooden broadsword with sharp edges of a shimmering material.
Lower body badly gashedBleeding. Nauseous.
Abilities:
Basic TK Healing.
Extended TK Bolt.
TK Ripper Slash.
Gantolandon: Kneeling on the ground near the keep.
Wearing underwear, a thin silky sweater, and
a set of armor: A <<*Bone full plate armor*>>, +Bone gauntlets+, +Bone high boots+, and +Bone full helm+. Holding a paperclip and a nice pair of white socks. Wielding a +Bone Axe+.
Much of the skin is burned and causes pain. Right hand seriously burned. Hands pierced by numerous splinters. Nasty scratch along the head.
Left upper leg broken. (-1 movement)
Abilities:
Basic TK Healing(!). Special status:
Activated Selective Translator.
Frelock: ~50m above the field near the keep, in a force bubble.
Wearing underwear, a
somewhat dirty and badly slashed up <<*Giant cave spider silk robe*>>, and +hippo leather sandals+. Wielding a Steel Quarterstaff and a -Small Iron throwing knife- as a backup weapon.
Some nasty cuts on the body. Minor bleeding.
Abilities:
Slightly improved strength.
Meagerly improved agility.
Can be cautious while calm.
Improved TK Healing III.
Stone Frank's Revivification.
Basic TK Field. Special status:
Activated Selective Translator.
Kashyyk: Standing upright on the first floor of the keep.
Naked. Wielding an Iron Battleaxe.
Flesh turned into iron, three arrows sticking out of abdomen, right leg, and left shoulder, numerous small dints and cuts.
Abilities:
Enrage Other. Enrage Self.
Basic TK Healing(!). Special status:
Activated Selective Translator (2).
Steel scales. Extra:
Rollerblades in the forearms. Rooster: Standing upright out on the field not too far from the keep.
Wearing underwear (probably), a
set of armor consisting of (somewhat torn and burned) hard black studded leather armor and greaves, iron plated high boots, and (also burned) fur-quilted iron shoulderpads with horns. Wields a +Steel Guitar-Battleaxe+.
Both hands burned. Well-shaved with fire, face singed slightly. Minor to light burns all over the body.
Can perform heavy metal.
LASD: Standing amidst some rubble on the third floor of the keep.
Wearing underwear, and a
white/pink/yellow suit and top hat made of underwear. Also wearing the
armor set:
<<+Iron chain Cuirass+>>, -Iron chain gloves-, Iron chain greaves, and Iron low boots. Wielding a
*Evil Aluminum tower shield* Several scars along the torso. Lightly bruised.
Abilities:
Power of Peace.
Power of Persuasion (suit bonus does not apply).Special status:
Peacekeeper.
Jay Kayell: Standing upright near the keep.
Wearing purple stretchy shorts. Useless shreds of underwear on right arm. Wielding a +Iron flanged mace+. The armor is armed with a collection of axes and swords (including one shimmering elven blade and one wooden with shimmering edges), and its steel clawed fists as well. The armor has 5 unspent arrows.
Unharmed.
Abilities:
Novice Wrestler.
Basic TK Healing.
Blood of the Blood God.
Blood Rage. Special status: Wearing
Composite Reinforced Corpse-steel power armor.
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Environment:
Tavern: Was a two-floor building. Now it's a mangled ruin, thoroughly blasted apart. The building used to contain your enter/exit point, but how to use it is completely up to you now.
Human/Dwarven Capital: Large city on the outskirts of hell knows where. Holds a modest amount of homes, from hovels to two-floor apartment buildings, a set of shops, a temple, and a keep. Currently being surrounded by a verily horde of elves. The dwarves are mounting a large defence using siege engines atop the keep.
Food store: Square one-floor building with long tables laden with salted and fried meats of all kinds. There's a single wide table at the far end, with a chest on top of it. There's a mighty fine hole broken through the ceiling.
Cloth store: Rolls of cloth and various cloth, silk, and leather articles of clothing are on the many shelves inside this building. There's a single wide table at the far end, with a chest on top of it. The entire building is barely standing, most of its roof is collapsed. There's a pile of elf-paste near the building, and some elven corpses.
Armor store: Everywhere in the shop various pieces of armor are thrown about, shields of different sizes litter the floor, and arrayed under the now-broken shelves and tables are enough various boots to outfit a battalion. At the far end of the building, there is a single wide table. The heavy chest is on the floor, broken, a large supplement of coins from it now covers the floor.
The Keep: Large
fourthree-floor building. The first floor is almost devoid of furniture. The doors are jammed in the doorframe. A lot of civilians are huddled together in groups all over the floor. At least a dozen and a half guards are also there. The second floor is a massive stockpile of wood, metal, and stone. The third floor is a massive workplace, with many workshops, now burning and filled with rubble. The fourth floor was just recently destroyed along with the roof and all of the siege engines.
The Temple: Tall and proud, beautiful building of white marble, a solid first floor surrounded by columns is supporting several ring-shaped floors held up by beautiful marble supports. A deep pool of shiny, clear water can be seen inside the building. Well, it probably was like that. The entire thing has recently tried to rise up in mighty wrath as a gigantic statue of a carp, but failed miserably and broke to pieces. Afterwards, the overpowered Rooster single-handedly sent the whole place into oblivion along with the elves, who now cannot be seen, heard, or even smelled by anyone other than themselves.
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Background: [3] The elves are running away so fast you can almost suspect they're not just running because they're defeated. The gloomy light at the bottom of the pit in the floor of the keep gets brighter, you can almost hear slight vibrations of the ground.