in character 2. The Black Script (continued)

[Neopopulas]

Barbarian 2 | Hunter 1 | Soldier 0 | Mercenary 0 || Strength 2 | Agility 2 | Mind 0 | Appeal 0
Melee 2 | Ranged 0 | Defense 2 | Initiative 1 || Hero Points 3 / 5 | Lifeblood 14 / 14
Equipment: Battle harness (-1), Sword, Axes (2)
The Valgardian Blade: AttackAttack:drop(3d6,lowest,1)+4 | DamageDamage:drop(2d6,lowest,1)+2 || Twin Axes: AttackMelee: 2d6+4 | Thrown: 2d6+2 | DamageMelee: 1d6+2 | Thrown: 1d6+1

---

Asara rubs the top of Tikina "You did good kid, make sure you listen to Balathu"

"We should probably not wait too long" she starts up towards the corridor, working to get past the beast "That made a lot of noise.."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hero Points!

 

 

[roryb]

The heroes gathered themselves again and continued deeper into the darkness of the estate. Only one passage remained. After their brief respite, they followed this way. As they approached the terminus of the passage, an arch gaped before them. From it issued several alarming groans and beastly noises. Peering through the portal, the three found themselves at the top of a landing. A dismally lit and hair raising scene was laid out below them.

A circular sunken chamber of stone lay at the bottom of a climb. From high vaulted ceilings hung numerous devices of torture upon an elaborate but corroded series of winches, wicked hooks, and heavy chain. Various racks and slabs were stained by apparent blood. Burned candles and drawn circles marked the places where sorcerous rituals had transpired. Shacked and chained against the walls were three bare-chested men of apparent relative youth, but haggard appearance. Their eyes rolled up inside of sunken eye sockets. Their emaciated forms were scored with various lesions or wounds, and two of the three groaned in a sort of senseless stupor of ever-present agony. The place reeked of death and dread.

Against a different wall deeper in the chamber, a great dark beast of unknown nature yowled inside a mesh of iron bars barely large enough to contain its considerable form. Despite its claustrophobic confines, the famished and wild beast was further fettered by great shackles about its neck. Its yowl was one of torment. Although it was a dangerous befanged grotesquery, it was immured against its free nature.

Not far from the beast was the most impressive sight. Kneeling on a died rug of spun mouflon wool was a behemoth of a man — or, more accurately, not really a man. Clearly one of the famed blue nomads that wandered the wastes of Klaar, a sinewed and largely denuded giant meditated. Even larger lengths of blacked chain secured immense manacles about his thick wrists, and a collar of stout iron was clasped around his considerable neck. It seemed that the greatest restraints here were reserved for this giant. The lesser men strung up against the walls seemed near to death and unaware of the entrance of the three, while the giant stirred.

There appeared no other guardians or sentinels in this chamber of anguish.

Player Expendables

Asara	Tikina	Balathu
Hero Point: 4 Lifeblood: 14	Hero Point: 3 Lifeblood: 8	Arcane Points: 11 Hero Points: 5 Lifeblood: 10

 

OOC Notes

@Dybrar, you can retcon anything reasonable that Tiki might have done before thrusting you all into the next situation. The giant you see is none other than @Excior’s PC, Jouka the Wanderer

 

[Sir Lazeabout]

Lifeblood 10/10 Arcane Points 11/11 Hero Points 5/5

Balathu gives off something in between a snarl of rage and a moan of anguish. "By all the gods that ever were," he hisses. "It was to never again see a sight like this one that I gave up my home and heritage. But it seems that the past is not so easy to leave behind. Come. We must give what help we may." He starts looking around for a likely spot to make his descent down to the chamber of torment.

[Dybrar]

Tɪᴋɪɴᴀ ᴛʜᴇ Tʜɪᴇғ (sheet)Lifeblood: 8 / 8   Defence: 1          Hero Points: 3 She possessed a natural aversion to getting touched by others, or even just letting them close, but she gritted her teeth and suffered Balathu's (and Asara's) ministrations as calmly as she could manage. After murmuring her thanks to the sorcerer for the aid he had rendered, the thief skulked off to examine the carcase of their avian foe. At this point her sense of deeply ingrained practicality took over – she had felt a degree of pity for the beast when it was alive, but now that it was dead Tikina treated its remains with as little sentimentality as she would any other inanimate object. She scrutinised it quickly, looking for any readily harvestable body parts that might be valuable or serve as alchemical ingredients. There was, after all, no sense in letting anything go to waste. ~~~ Though the former slave had witnessed her share of inhumanities in the past, this grim and shadowy vista gave even her pause. Perching on her shoulder, Milord gave an unusually subdued caw, clearly just as unsettled by the chamber's aura of suffering and malevolence. She eyed, in particular, the bound, kneeling giant, who looked somewhat more vital than the three humans on the verge of an untimely death, as well as the yowling beast in its iron cage. The humans would have been easy to capture and smuggle into the manse, no doubt, but these two? The means that would have required challenged her imagination. “Um. Help like…?” she asked as she padded along the edge of the landing, inspecting it closely in preparation for the climb down. “Those men look pretty far gone. And if we get too close to that cage, uh, we might be gone.” Tikina peered again at the blue giant. “We might be able to do something for him, I suppose. I've never met any of his kind, but, um, they're not dangerous, right?”

OOC

Let me know if I need to make any kind of check to “loot” the dead mythunga!

[Neopopulas]

Barbarian 2 | Hunter 1 | Soldier 0 | Mercenary 0 || Strength 2 | Agility 2 | Mind 0 | Appeal 0
Melee 2 | Ranged 0 | Defense 2 | Initiative 1 || Hero Points 3 / 5 | Lifeblood 14 / 14
Equipment: Battle harness (-1), Sword, Axes (2)
The Valgardian Blade: AttackAttack:drop(3d6,lowest,1)+4 | DamageDamage:drop(2d6,lowest,1)+2 || Twin Axes: AttackMelee: 2d6+4 | Thrown: 2d6+2 | DamageMelee: 1d6+2 | Thrown: 1d6+1

---

"I must say .... this is not what i was expecting.. Not at all.. We should be overly careful at this point."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hero Points!

 

 

[roryb]

The three made their way down the climb from the landing. The walls were slick with moisture, and the odors became more rank with human refuse as they descended. The kneeling giant still seemed to take no notice of them.

However, as soon as Balathu stepped from the last stair to the floor below, there was a rumble of unseen machinery. Suddenly, great heavy doors of bronze slid free, slamming shut with an alarming reverberation around the various side passages, as well as the one from which they had just issued. They were trapped. Some of the manacled figures awoke from their stupor at the sound and screamed from horror rather than their throes of agony.

A second less clangorous sound reverberated. In the near-darkness, something pale slithered in the periphery of their right flank, and then their left. Balathu was the first to see one of these monsters of the First Age slither into a slim shaft of starlight. A pale-white bloated serpent of great size moved with astonishing speed toward the intruders. Most horrifyingly, where a serpent's diamond-shaped head should rightfully be, instead a fanged but nonetheless attractive human female head regarded the three hatefully with lambent slitted eyes.

Player Expendables

Asara	Tikina	Balathu
Hero Point: 4 Lifeblood: 14	Hero Point: 3 Lifeblood: 8	Arcane Points: 11 Hero Points: 5 Lifeblood: 10

 

OOC Notes

In case you're not following, @Excior, that blue guy kneeling on the rug is Jouka.

These are the dreaded Slorths of Lemuria, classed as Toughs (meaning that you must succeed on your initiative roll to beat them). There are currently FIVE such creatures. They seem to have been trained to ignore anything in manacles. Roll initiative. I'll be clear about marking order...even if you go out of order because of posting demands or mistake, we'll slot your character in the correct place.

Slorth

Strength 1, Agility 1, Mind 0, Appeal 0
Melee 2, Ranged -1, Initiative 0, Defense 1
Guardian 1, Slave 1
Attack: Bite +3, damage 1d3
Lifeblood 8 each

Traits:

Poisonous Bite (roll a strength-based task to avoid a powerful toxin that puts its victims to sleep in 2 turns)
Constriction (on a Mighty Success during a physical attack, a medium-sized or smaller victim is caught in its coils and must make a Tough (-2) strength- or agility- based task to escape. During construction, the victim suffers 1d3 points of Lifeblood damage)

 

[Neopopulas]

Barbarian 2 | Hunter 1 | Soldier 0 | Mercenary 0 || Strength 2 | Agility 2 | Mind 0 | Appeal 0
Melee 2 | Ranged 0 | Defense 2 | Initiative 1 || Hero Points 3 / 5 | Lifeblood 14 / 14
Equipment: Battle harness (-1), Sword, Axes (2)
The Valgardian Blade: AttackAttack:drop(3d6,lowest,1)+4 | DamageDamage:drop(2d6,lowest,1)+2 || Twin Axes: AttackMelee: 2d6+4 | Thrown: 2d6+2 | DamageMelee: 1d6+2 | Thrown: 1d6+1

---

At the sound, Asara grabs Tikina's arm in a death grib and hauls the shorter girl behind her, bringing her sword around in front "I think this is going to get.. very messy.. Tikana.. I'm going to back up towards the giant, and you're going to stay with me, and when we get close enough, you're going to try and free him.. We are going to need the help..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hero Points!

 

 

[Sir Lazeabout]

Lifeblood 10/10 Arcane Points 11/11 Hero Points 5/5

Balathu gives Tikina a grim look as they descend. "Every physician knows that there is always one last thing he can do for a patient, when all else has failed and nothing remains of life but pain," he says quietly. "If that is all we can do, then that is still what we..." He breaks off as the doors slam shut, and draws his sword, staying close to Asara as she retreats towards the bound figure.

Edited April 3 by Sir Lazeabout (see edit history)

[Excior]

The rumble of hidden machinery abruptly interrupted Jouka's reverie and communion with his gods. Great bronze doors slammed shut, their echoes reverberating throughout the complex. In the darkness, the blue giant's steel restraints clanked ominously. Just as he was about to speak, movement caught his eye. Turning, he saw the Slorth advancing upon the intruders.

"Watch out," he warned, "A Slorth advances on you. It is the guardian and tormentor of this room."

For the first time in a very long time, Jouka felt a surge of hope. Perhaps they were here to help him escape. Standing to his full height, towering over those in the room except for the Slorth, the skywatcher wrapped his arms around the great chains that held his arms. He looked toward the skies that were surely someplace above his head.

"Gods of the sky, hear my plea," he cried out, "Grant Jouka your servant the strength to burst my bounds and help those who have come to help me!"

 

 

---

OOC:

Not sure how this works but I would like to burn a FATE point to have the gods give him enough supernatural strength to help him burst the chains that bind him.

Edited April 2 by Excior (see edit history)

[Dybrar]

Tɪᴋɪɴᴀ ᴛʜᴇ Tʜɪᴇғ (sheet)Lifeblood: 8 / 8   Defence: 1          Hero Points: 3 She nodded at Balathu's words, their grim implication seeming to evoke only a hint of hesitance in her. “Aye. S'what I figured.” “Uhh. Alright,” Tikina mumbled a little while later when Asara laid hold of her, and outlined her intent. “I'll do what I can.”

 

[roryb]

The blue giant labored against his restraints. The muscles about his neck bulged. The heavy iron links groaned in protest against his alarming strength. However, there was perhaps something about those fetters that were cursed to sap the vitality from its captive. The heavy rings in the wall and floor that were set into stone that anchored the links shook, but held in place.

Hissing serpents crawled out from many corners, closing in on the tight formation of the three as they inched their way toward the giant. Their undulations and malevolent stares promised torment and death.

Player Expendables

Asara		Tikina		Balathu		Jouka
Hero Points	4	Hero Points	3	Hero Points	5	Hero Points	5
Lifeblood	14	Lifeblood	8	Lifeblood	10	Lifeblood	14
				Arcane Points	11	Fate Points	0

 

 

OOC Notes

Okay, we have an order established. This is currently turn 1.

1. Jouka (can still retcon spending a Hero Point to re-roll again in this same turn)
2. Balathu (full defense)
3. Tikina
4. Slorth
5. Asara

We are in position 3, but Jouka can still try to re-roll as mentioned. This post is not the NPC's turn yet, just an update to keep everyone on the same page. As mentioned, if Tikina uses her skills to pick the locks, there is no penalty.

Slorth

Strength 1, Agility 1, Mind 0, Appeal 0
Melee 2, Ranged -1, Initiative 0, Defense 1
Guardian 1, Slave 1
Attack: Bite +3, damage 1d3
Lifeblood 8 each

Traits:

• Poisonous Bite (roll a strength-based task to avoid a powerful toxin that puts its victims to sleep in 2 turns)
• Constriction (on a Mighty Success during a physical attack, a medium-sized or smaller victim is caught in its coils and must make a Tough (-2) strength- or agility- based task to escape. During construction, the victim suffers 1d3 points of Lifeblood damage)

 

[Dybrar]

Tɪᴋɪɴᴀ ᴛʜᴇ Tʜɪᴇғ (sheet)Lifeblood: 8 / 8   Defence: 1          Hero Points: 3 She watched the giant struggle in vain against his mighty chains. Clearly his captors had been prepared for, if not anticipated, the seizing of a being of his stature – which in turn suggested an alarming degree of premeditation behind their already fell deeds. The thief looked on for a few more heartbeats before sighing with resignation and producing a small leather case. She brushed past Asara, giving the warrior woman a look that quite unequivocally communicated the notion "you had better keep me safe if I am going to do this", then scurried over to the locks securing the giant's fetters. “Um. Hello,” she murmured as she brought her thieves' tools to bear. Occasionally, she sneaked a wary glance at the blue giant. “Please don't, ah, kill me when I've gotten you out of these.”

Mechanics

Picking a lock sounds like a job for Agility + Thief! And also for a bonus die courtesy of thieves' tools, while we are at it.

[roryb]

The heavy chains fell away as Tikina made quick work of the shackles about the giant's wrists and collar. Immediately, the blue nomad felt his much abated strength quickly returning. Nearby, the beast yowled and rattled against its bars.

Slithering monsters came at the foremost heroes standing in their way, darting in and out and hissing with malicious promise. They struck swiftly like giant cathgans. The two seasoned warriors could scarcely keep the monsters at bay.

Player Expendables

Asara		Tikina		Balathu		Jouka
Hero Points	4	Hero Points	3	Hero Points	5	Hero Points	5
Lifeblood	14	Lifeblood	8	Lifeblood	8	Lifeblood	14
				Arcane Points	11	Fate Points	0

 

 

OOC Notes

Still currently turn 1. We're up to the Slorth, then Asara. Beautiful job with Tikina! Two of the nasties attack Asara and Balathu each while the fifth holds back in anticipation of the situation with Tikina.

1. Jouka (can still retcon spending a Hero Point to re-roll again in this same turn)
2. Balathu (full defense)
3. Tikina
4. Slorth
5. Asara

Edit 1. After rolls, it looks like Asara was hit by both, but her battle harness abated the damage. A lucky roll for Balathu's second foe does 2 damage. He'll have to make a Strength-based task roll to avoid the poison.

Slorth

Strength 1, Agility 1, Mind 0, Appeal 0
Melee 2, Ranged -1, Initiative 0, Defense 1
Guardian 1, Slave 1
Attack: Bite +3, damage 1d3
Lifeblood 8 each

Traits:

• Poisonous Bite (roll a strength-based task to avoid a powerful toxin that puts its victims to sleep in 2 turns)
• Constriction (on a Mighty Success during a physical attack, a medium-sized or smaller victim is caught in its coils and must make a Tough (-2) strength- or agility- based task to escape. During construction, the victim suffers 1d3 points of Lifeblood damage)

 

Edited April 5 by roryb (see edit history)

[Neopopulas]

Barbarian 2 | Hunter 1 | Soldier 0 | Mercenary 0 || Strength 2 | Agility 2 | Mind 0 | Appeal 0
Melee 2 | Ranged 0 | Defense 2 | Initiative 1 || Hero Points 3 / 5 | Lifeblood 14 / 14
Equipment: Battle harness (-1), Sword, Axes (2)
The Valgardian Blade: AttackAttack:drop(3d6,lowest,1)+4 | DamageDamage:drop(2d6,lowest,1)+2 || Twin Axes: AttackMelee: 2d6+4 | Thrown: 2d6+2 | DamageMelee: 1d6+2 | Thrown: 1d6+1

---

Keeping herself betweek Tikina and the creatures wild also dodging their attacks was more problematic than she thought, she was not usually a defensive fighter. Proved moments later when the teeth of one of the strange monsters snags on the leather and chain of her harness, barely saving her flesh...

At the moment of the strike she moves in, under the head of the giant serpent and with a sweeping overhand blow slices up through its neck to near take off its head. Using her momentum she continues in to the second creature and drives her sword nearly to the hilt in its side

 

 

 

 

 

Hero Points!

With 1 defense the 14 would hit, and the 8 should (probably, maybe?) kill it. Either way, using a hero point to turn the success into a mighty success and roll again.

Second with a 10 should hit since it meets the DC i think and 5 damage won't kill it but its close.

 

[roryb]

Asara made quick work of the first monster. Its body lay split in two in a growing pool of ichor. The second was spurting green blood and hissing with rage. Balathu was set on his heels trying to fend his pair off.

Once the chains fell away from the giant, the fifth serpent sped his way too fast for either Asara or Balathu to pose an obstacle. The woman-headed viper struck while the great blue figure rose to full height. By some miracle of prowess, the giant danced out of the way of the thing before it could sink its fangs into his hide.

Player Expendables

Asara		Tikina		Balathu		Jouka
Hero Points	3	Hero Points	3	Hero Points	5	Hero Points	5
Lifeblood	14	Lifeblood	8	Lifeblood	8	Lifeblood	14
				Arcane Points	11	Fate Points	0

 

 

OOC Notes

This ends turn one with a delayed action from the fifth slorth against Jouka. Once Balathu makes his Strength task to save against poison, we’ll start turn 2 with the same order. It’s okay to go if you’re in the half before the slorth in any order (Jouka, Tikina, or Balathu).

1. Jouka
2. Balathu
3. Tikina
4. Slorth
5. Asara

Edit. Looks like the one attacking Jouka hit, but did no damage on account of his armor. No save needed.

Slorth

Strength 1, Agility 1, Mind 0, Appeal 0
Melee 2, Ranged -1, Initiative 0, Defense 1
Guardian 1, Slave 1
Attack: Bite +3, damage 1d3
Lifeblood 8 each

Traits:

• Poisonous Bite (roll a strength-based task to avoid a powerful toxin that puts its victims to sleep in 2 turns)
• Constriction (on a Mighty Success during a physical attack, a medium-sized or smaller victim is caught in its coils and must make a Tough (-2) strength- or agility- based task to escape. During construction, the victim suffers 1d3 points of Lifeblood damage)

 

Slorth1	Slorth2	Slorth3	Slorth4	Slorth5
Vs. Asara	Vs. Asara	Vs. Balathu	Vs. Balathu	Vs. Jouka
Dead	3 LB	8 LB	8 LB	8 LB

 

 

Edited April 7 by roryb (see edit history)