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A dead end? Just a few steps further, Nero notices a wall of steel, gears, and threshing, churning metal, polished to such a fine sheen that it all moves almost silently. The cacophony of metal is a bit too sturdy to get a clear view through, though glimpses can be caught of the other side. Back the way they came, three distinct pops are heard in no particular rhythm echoing through the hallway.
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Jul 31, 2017 22:28
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| # ? May 7, 2024 20:13 |
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Nero Nero pauses, looks about for a bit then returns to the others to let them know what he found. Hopefully someone has come up with a plan.
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Jul 31, 2017 23:36
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Iggy From Nero's description, Iggy could only surmise it was some dwarven device. What it might be for, she could not begin to guess. "I think we should keep looking for the dwarves these things took. I am not willing to give them up for dead yet. The fact that these...creatures...are not consistently hostile gives me hope on that matter. A moment please. I will see if I can pick up the trail again." Survival: 1d20+6 = 25 Looking for tracks resembling the ones she saw earlier, that implied several people were carted off.
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Aug 1, 2017 00:48
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A dead end? The tracks are a mishmash of different foot types. Small feet, huge feet, spiky bits - it's hard to get a grasp of what exactly went on, but Iggy's sense of tracking can wrangle a few hypotheses. It appears as though a fight with some of the smaller machines took place before being stopped in its tracks by... something huge. Dried blood mixed with the dirt does not bode well.
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Aug 1, 2017 01:05
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Iggy Iggy pondered for a brief moment. Things were getting more and more complicated. "Something else is down here. Something very large, and seemingly not allied with our 'buggers'." She rose and began making her way down the tunnel, determined to find some answers. Hunting down this huge thing, whatever it may be.
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Aug 1, 2017 02:23
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Drumlin Drumlin finds himself sobering up sooner, and more unpleasantly, than he expected. "I'm worried..." he pauses to cover his mouth with his fist and burps, "...about those pops behind us. You think they set up some sort of trap? To catch us on return? To seal us from exiting?"
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Aug 1, 2017 22:55
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Iggy's Results From what she can tell, the largest set of footprints go directly to the wall of grinding, slashing metal in front of them. In fact, the tracks stop right in the middle of said wall. Drumlin's Results Even drunk, Drumlin's eyes were made for seeing in mines. There's a little bit of smoke and a weird smell coming from the way they came, but nowhere near enough to indicate that there was a fire set. Whatever made those pops, and the one that comes while he's ruminating, it didn't seem to be attempting to smoke them out.
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Aug 4, 2017 22:45
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Nero Nero watches as Iggy and Drumlin look about. It seems like they may have found something, but he knows not what. "Did you find anything? A way pass this? Whatever is causing that noise? Something else?"
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Aug 23, 2017 18:41
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Drumlin "I... have no idea. Do you smell that? It's like smoke, from the way we came. I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
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Aug 24, 2017 10:06
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In the torchlit black Soon, a more acrid, acidic scent begins to fill the air. The source of the smoke dies down, but walls of this particular mine shaft begin to... glisten? It's hard to tell in the relative darkness, with light playing tricks on the eyes, uncertainty adding form to the formless, and was that a tendril? That was definitely a tendril. The substance oozing its way down the walls of the corridor begins to make a larger form on the ceiling, a sickening mass that begins to grow, just as dark as the shadows surrounding it. Stuck between a blob and a hard place! Combat time!
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Aug 24, 2017 19:32
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Nero "Tsk, an Ooze. No wonder the walls are so clean." Nero walks along the wall and ceiling until he has a nice clear shot then the very darkness around him grows darker and more solid as he pulls forth a dagger of darkness and flings it with some skill into the ooze. Initiative 1d20+5: 25 Aether Barrage, attack roll 1d20+5 21 vs touch AC. Aether Barrage, damage roll 2d6 4 untyped damage.
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Aug 25, 2017 01:16
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Iggy Iggy warily turned away from the wall of gnashing metal. At Nero's question, she glanced briefly over her shoulder at the incredibly nasty looking trap. "It seems like-" She stopped as an unpleasant odor hit her nose. What was that? It didn't seem familiar. Nero was quicker on the uptake than she was, walking past and hurling a knife into the shadows. "Light up front!" She called out as she dropped into a fighting stance Assuming Outer Sphere Stance as a swift action. When wielding two weapons, deal +1d6 damage. She also takes a -2 penalty to AC. Leaping forward, she scanned for their foe. She wasn't sure her weapons could even harm something like this, but she'd give it her best shot. Maybe if that didn't work, she could just eat it? Initiative 1d20+5: 18 Two Weapon Fighting 1d20+5 (x2) = 12 on the first attack, 23 on the offhand. Damage 1d4+3+1d6 (x2) = 6 piercing damage on the first, 9 on the offhand (provided either of them hit). Shardix fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Aug 25, 2017 |
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Aug 25, 2017 01:58
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(Phone posting) DRUMLIN Initiative: 1d20+2 14 Figuring that his usual tricks would do little against an amorphous and probably mindless blob, Drumlin settles for giving one of the others some Guidance. Casting Guidance on whoever posts next. If no-one else but us three is left, it goes to Iggy.
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Aug 25, 2017 14:28
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Panic at the Mines Initiative! Nero, your quick action is accompanied by some quick thinking, courtesy of Drumlin's knowledge of the depths. You've seen enough weird oozes and barely-corporeal things to know that when you puncture or slash at one, they tend to really not care. In fact, they have a tendency to split! That is how these things reproduce, after all. If you choose, you can retract your action. A split second later, Iggy (who also rolled nicely for initiative!) comes to a similar realization. Since it's been a while, the narrative will reflect a quick pause. An unexpected spike of adrenaline does a lot of interesting things to an organic mind. The perception of time dilates, nerves firing in such rapid succession that it seems as if everything had ground to a halt. Stuck in a lurch, the strange goo that had been slurping its way toward the party almost seems to hang like a glob of pitch, old memories of dangerous stories coming to mind. Perhaps this thing was the reason why those little metal critters had been so desperate to fill in the holes left behind by the miners, or perhaps the very reason why they had been dragged away in the first place. Whatever the case, the smell of acid and rust fires fast amongst the synapses. Nero can tell right away that this thing is a Black Pudding. What that means, however, is a whole different matter.
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Aug 26, 2017 01:15
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Iggy As Iggy drove towards the puddle of slime, a dim recollection sparked in the back of her mind. She couldn't quite pull the thought to the fore, but it was enough to bring her to an immediate halt and wrench her claws away from the thing. The shadows had made it hard to determine, but now that she had gotten so close...the fact that this blob was pitch black was sending warning bells all up and down her nerves. Black was the color of death and Iggy was superstitious enough to heed those sorts of warnings. Hopping back a few paces, she crossed her arms defensively in front of her. "Can...can we just slip past? I know the beasts of the natural world, not the things that lurk below it." Going on Total Defense
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Aug 26, 2017 02:54
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Gnashing Steel and Sickening Fluids Though it's hard to see, Nero's slinging of shadow dissolves a small portion of the viscous blob into nothingness. Iggy, rightfully worried about the creature, withdraws, and right in time as the creature lurches past! Target? Number 3 out of my 4 possibilities - lucky you!  Drumlin totters out of the way, the smaller meal not as appealing to the creature as the shaft-spanning wall of metal behind them. Mindless hunger meets a proverbial meat grinder as a sickeningly acidic smell fills the chamber, the black pudding shredded into smaller pieces, its gunk slowing the wall of steel's motion to a crawl. Collapsing into a hunk, the device stops its normal motion before rising into a different form -  Partially coated in the acidic goo, the construct begins to slam itself into the walls of the mineshaft, using the walls and its own bulk to pound away at the piles of still-moving goop. Behind the fracas, glints of light reflect off of beams of pure steel piercing their way through the mineshaft. While there is a flurry of motion further on, no details can be made out. The black pudding ran smack dab into the Clockwork Golem's wall of gears, shredding it into 10 pieces - as minuscule as Nero's hit was, it was enough to prevent it from being 11! It's currently occupied/grappled with 3 of the 10 pieces, with the remainder scattering for whatever targets they can find.
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Aug 29, 2017 19:05
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Nero Nero takes in this change in situation. More enemies, but they should be weaker in general. Unleashing a barrage on a single enemy is no longer the best course. The enemy are close enough together, and none of his allies are in a dangerous position, so he could take them all out or at least weaken them further. But. The golem. He doesn't know if it will turn on them at the moment, but attacking it will increase that likelihood. And so it is better to avoid it, and the three oozes tackling it. So he reaches out and pure darkness fills an area approximately ten feet in radius engulfing seven of the oozes, and a bit of the wall. As the darkness recedes the oozes are the worse for wear. Aether Blast, damage roll 2d6+1 9 untyped damage, DC 14 Reflex save for half
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Aug 29, 2017 21:14
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Nero's Results It takes a moment to center a blast around those smaller, but still dangerous blobs, but with the void of emptiness itself washing over them, they soon appear weak and frail, their very surface tension on the verge of rupturing. Instead of lurching to their targets, they seem to get the bright idea to try and wobble together. More than 9/10ths of their HP gone in one blow has them staggered - squish 'em!
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Aug 29, 2017 23:56
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Drumlin "I really need to learn some blasting magic..." Drumlin mutters as he tries to pick off one of the blobs with his crossbow, hoping their weakened state will make them vulnerable. Crossbow vs. Ooze: 1d20+3 20 Crossbow damage: 1d8 4 He then steps back, trying to the fighting people between him and the blobs.
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Aug 30, 2017 17:43
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Iggy Iggy was hesitant to engage the oozes. It seemed they were doing a number on the golem, and she was nowhere near as strudy as it was. And she rather liked having fingers. She opted instead to fall back and cover Drumlin. "No fear, comrades! You're all too handsome to be eaten by pudding!" Swift action for Encouraging Roar, granting a +2 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls to all allies within 30 feet for one round. Iggy will hold her action, intending to use Aid Another to give Drumlin an AC boost if any ooze gets gutsy and tries to go for him in melee.
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Aug 31, 2017 01:08
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Sparks, acid, and dirt Normally, a crossbow bolt to a large blob of acid would be a less-than-effective idea, but in their current state, the target of Drumlin's attack unceremoniously pops, coating the bolt in acid as its integrity finally gives out. With a hunch and a sudden issuing of grinding gears from every joint and orifice, the golem dispatches the three untouched blobs on its carapace, the acid beginning to wear away at its facade. Working to purge the substance from its system, it's currently occupied as the remaining pieces attempt to fuse together. 4 out of 10 down, with the remainder trying to blob up!
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Aug 31, 2017 16:03
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Drumlin He probably should have done it earlier in the fight, but Drumlin decides to start summoning help. No sense in dying with a good spell still prepared. Casting Summon Monster I to summon a Celestial Eagle
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Sep 5, 2017 13:05
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| # ? May 7, 2024 20:13 |
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Urg - it sucks to have to shutter this, but there's simply too much happening at work lately for me to give it the attention it deserves. If you guys would like, I can provide all sorts of spoilers in Discord, or keep the hand hidden until I decide to run this again, if I get the time to do so. Another grand idea laid low by the woes of work!
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Sep 12, 2017 22:21
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