Chapter II - Friends & Enemies

"We can kill them easily, provided that we do not get hit. Their claws and bite have a paralytic venom that can immobilize you long enough form them to finish you off. Don't get too close to them, master. Otherwise, we should be fine against them. They're easy to rip apart.", Innsmouth replied. He turned back to the partially devoured ghoul. Without any arms, it was easy for him to force it back onto the bed and pull at the neck of the undead monster. A sharp weapon would be quicker, but Innsmouth wanted to pull the head off himself. As he was slowly pulling the two apart, he noticed something. The head pulled apart from the neck, and Innsmouth threw the head aside. He then reached underneath the ghoul's shirt, near the neck, and pulled out a golden chain with a small key.

Looking at his master, he spoke with the chain hanging from his hand. "This key might go to the door that leads downstairs."

Meanwhile, as Dunwich opened the door, he quickly swung at the first thing at the door - the child ghoul that had swaggered over. The doppel's club swung at the menacing youth, and hit it dead-on, squishing it to the floor. It feel to the ground when the club was withdrawn, and you can see that her head was bashed in by the club. It doesn't move from the savage blow.


Beast swung at the oncoming bug, but missed as he misjudged the speed and size of the 'Kreen. As the hammer slammed into the doppel, his large stature gives him an edge over his attacker, and he stood firm against the bull rush. Curiously enough, there was a sharp *ting* as the hammer met his skin. The sound was obvious to Beast - it was the sound of metal striking metal. And true enough, at the base of your stomach where the massive hammer hit, you can see your skin darken to a dark grey and almost black color right around where the weapon hit you.

"You're an odd one, aren't you?" he said gruffly, grimacing at your sheer strength and how easily you stopped him.

As Beast all-out attacked, all three of his attempts were dodged by the Thir-kreen. He hissed at the attempt. "Looks like you can't hit me either!" he exclaimed. As you attacked, he dodged them while in a peculiar battle stance. It looked like it helped him avoid your attacks...

The Thri-kreen backs away five feet from the doppel, and holds his hammer to his side with two arms. His legs are firmly placed in a elusive stance like the one he had before when beast attacked. "What else do ya got?", the insect hissed.

The Githzerai seemingly teleported through the shadows in the floor. He doesn't reappear within the church as you can tell.

Defense of the Gods (updated) :

+8 armor bonus to AC DR 5 magic or adamantine While in this form, all your weapons have the adamantine weapon quality.

Adamantine Armor
Your armor showed itself when the hammer hit your skin, but just the part where it hit it. So, here's the run down. This power is activated as a swift action, and it gives you the benefits of Full Plate (+8 AC) but no penalties to your skills and no arcane spell failure. As you morph into your armor, it is pretty much a second skin, as your entire outside changes to a tough and strong living shield, but it also kinda turns you into a living weapon, even more so.

This is what you look like. But, this is your character, and I strongly advise that you choose what you look like, as it will stay permanent, so change what you want to change. You can have a far more menacing face, or even runes along your body. Whatever you want your "Armor/Weapon" form to have.

Some specifics. You already benefit from a +8 armor bonus to AC, but there are other things. Your body, if you didn't know, is made of adamantine. As such, you have DR 5 that is only bypassable by adamantine or magic. It's bypassable by both because, while very cool looking, it still isn't as strong as it could be. It has potential, plus you are still quite young. Given time and experience, your Armor will improve and grow to defend you as best it can, and so will your DR.

As your entire body is made of adamantine, your natural attacks are all adamantine. Thus, you bypass hardness less than 20, and all your attacks have a +1 enhancement to attack rolls as they are masterwork. You can refer to your body and all its parts as a manufactured weapon and as a natural weapon whenever it is beneficial to you.

Just a note, but in your Armor form, you are completely hairless. Your claws feel incredibly strong, as if you have an iron grip. Everything is seemingly covered by the armor except your eyes (which change color, darker, you choose the colors) and the inside of your mouth (which turns dark grey, but is still fleshy on the inside).

Remember that you have all skills? You might have no ranks, but you can still make skill checks untrained. Well, you can see that the Thr-kreen is in a stance (ToB) that is helping him dodge your attacks, and you might know it... if you remember what it is. Roll a Martial Lore check, which is Ranks + Int + d20. You have no ranks, and I don't think you have an Int past 10, so just roll a d20 and hope for a 13. It just might help you win against him.

"Well done," Dunwich commends with his new Common tongue, meeting his counterpart with a nod as he melts back into existence, the illusion shattered like the ghoul's skull. Gathering the key from Innsmouth, the doppleganger wraps the chain around his clubbing hand, while his other grabs the smaller creature's limp form as he passes. He only tentatively eyes the ghoul gnawing through the crib.

Figuring that it might be the more safe of places, Dunwich approaches the locked door with a sure stride, sampling the ghoul in his clutches before utilizing the key. He had his suspicions, but it simply wouldn't do if Dunwich hadn't tried everything once.

OOC

As Dunwich, with key in hand, grabs up the child... he notices something different. Not with the child, but outside. The overbearing uproar from the tavern is completely gone. It is utterly silent in the town.

You spot something moving outside, but you can't tell what from where you stand.

Stay quiet, Innsmouth, Dunwich urged in his mind. We may have far more ghouls to deal with than we have seen... it's best we stay out of sight.

Letting his burden down softly, the doppleganger vanishes as his senses strain. Closing the door to the infant ghoul's room, Dunwich pauses for a moment, taking in the subtle aromas around him.

Knowledge - Nature (Track)

Dice Roll: 1d20+6z
d20 Results: 9 (Total = 15)

As Dunwich takes in the odors of the area, he smells the ghoul's rancid stank in the girl, he can smell the dismembered and beheaded man, and even the child still trying to get through the crib... but that's all he smells.

"Master, is everything alright?" Innsmouth asks, wondering what he was doing.

Suddenly, there is a voice that is singing aloud, somewhere. It's a lovely tune, but it seems tragic and full of despair. It's in a language you cannot understand, but the lyrics seem to weigh down on you. The voice is coming from outside, through the window you came through.

For a moment, all you hear is the song all throughout the town. Then, you hear the sound of shuffling feet and the faint sound of growls and moans, all coming from outside, some scattered, but others closer than where the voice is coming from.

ooc

Cringing at Innsmouth, Dunwich yanks the simulacrum toward the center of the room, crossing only to slam the door shut. Look for anything that might aid us in the coming fight, he thinks to Innsmouth, his mind reeling.

Rushing back to the bed, Dunwich puts his shoulder to the frame and shoves it at the doorway. Hauling whatever other heavy furniture he can to block the entrance, the doppleganger keeps his eyes on the window, wondering what else was out there to cause his very hands to tremble.

We're in for a wild night, you and I, Dunwich continues to channel, wrapping the key's chain around his neck. I suspect this is only the first of many trials we shall face from our undead foe, and I don't believe we'll be relying on Beast for the bulk of it. Keep wary of the door and window; I'll see you in the coming dawn.

And for Greel's sake, use your inner voice!

When you ran into the room, the infant ghoul began to moan like those outside. Something had changed. It took its teeth to the bars once more, and this time, the bar was smashed into pieces. It then turned to the other bar, and began once again, crushing the second one...

After going inside and reinforcing the door, Dunwich sees a dangerous sight through the window as he pulls up the small curtain to see. Outside, there is a line of ghouls coming from the tavern, pooling into an area right in the middle of the street.

As they stand there, another figure walks out from the tavern, with what seems to be a child following the first. The first figure is an olive-skinned woman with thick dark green hair that seems to be moving in the wind. She has a white and light green snake around her neck. You then realize that the dark green hair writhing in the wind isn't hair, but green snakes.

The child-like figure is just that, a child. She has short black hair combed to the side with a white with black stripe pin holding it parted in place. She wears a small sleeveless black dress that goes to her thighs, with shiny black dress shoes. Her bare arms and shoulders do not look like flesh even though her face and legs do - they look as if they were constructed from metal.

The two speak to each other briefly, then the little girl levitates into the air, and slowly flies off to your left, away from you. The stranger with the snake hair then looks at the crowd of ghouls, and begins to sing. As she does so, the ghouls suddenly become aware of themselves, look around, and each one trudges off in different locations. Two ghouls head of in your direction. Unlike the slow and sluggish ghouls you defeated just now, these ghouls seem to be brimming with energy.


As the yuan-ti exited the unsightly tavern, she twisted her neck to make it feel better, causing her snakes to squirm from her sudden head movement. "Well, it looks like it's time to earn our keep. Samantha, start your search. Alert me immediately if you find the pair." The little girl nodded once. "Yes", she said solemnly, her voice a bit hollow for a regular girl. She hovered up into the air, then the next second she was gone, flying off to fulfill her mission.

After the child had left, Juliana sighed and brought her hands together to crack her knuckles. Next, she cleared her through and sang the song of devils. With its infernal pitch, the ghouls 'awoke', and began to stir. With her commands clearly woven into the song, the ghouls quickly knew what to do, and began their search, splitting off to look through the town.

After everyone was dispatched, she stopped her song. She mused at how she had gotten stuck with this job. Why, of all places, had Kormus sent her here?? Her master was always the cryptic one, but this one was far out of left field. Summoning herself and Samantha at the same time surely was odd, but to this little town? And so suddenly, too. She had enough time to release the miasma that swept through the town, but she barely had enough time to gather all of the new ghouls and speed up their undeath with the rod he gave her. With that, she had to leave those few victims stuck in their homes, fully paralyzed until the gasses took their full and deadly effect. She simply didn't have the time.

Juliana held the black rod that Kormus had given her. It was the cause of all of this, and its power greatly outweighed her own. Just to be safe, she held the rod to her head, and a snake coiled around it. She let go, and the snake pulled the item into the writhing mass of snakes, and it dissapeared. Right below the mass of snakes was a golden circlet. It had a strange black and white emblem on it.

Content with a smooth mission ahead of her, she did what she always did to cheer her up from this depressing town, she would drink her favorite poison - alcohol. She was immune to all poisons, which made the liquor all the more enjoyable for her. Petting her snake, she brought her close as the boa wrapped around to look at her master. "Come Nala, let's retire inside." And so, the two retreated inside.

Not a word, Innsmouth, Dunwich echoes through the caverns of his mind. The ghouls before were dangerous enough, but from what he had just seen, his work was cut out for him. He would need some sort of advantage, and in a town where his primary resource was dramatically reduced to zero, his chances were measured in decimals.

And yet...

There was the shell of a girl, cast off to the floor like a ragdoll. Dunwich knew damned well Innsmouth wouldn't find anything of importance in a baker's cabinet. He just needed his charge to be distracted long enough for him to try something, anything that would give them an edge.

This was an act of desperation, but at least he would finally have his answer: what do the undead taste like?

Innsmouth was silent. Best to not anger master again.

Their skin tastes like leather, and their dusty remains leave your tongue incredibly dry. You gain no nourishment or abilities from it.

Grimacing from the flat blandness, Dunwich spits out the few chunks he could while shaking his head. Not as horrible as I'd imagined, but we're definitely on our own, as we are. Oh what a test we shall put to Father's design, my son.

Feeling the painful churning in the pit of his being, Dunwich shakes off the hunger pangs, carefully opening the window to a more serviceable level. Follow me with camouflage, he calls mentally to Innsmouth, keeping his transparency intact as he leans outside. Confident that he was clear before jumping to the ground, Dunwich utilizes the link to his brethren to hone in on Beast. And stay silent.

Perception

Dice Roll: 1d20-2z
d20 Results: 6 (Total = 4)

Athletics

Dice Roll: 1d20+2z
d20 Results: 16 (Total = 18)

Stealth

Dice Roll: 1d20z
d20 Results: 14