ZEITGEIST "Post-timeskip" Rush and Merton

[hirou]

You know those moments in the anime when you see the character after a long period of training off-screen, and now his powerlevel is over 9000 and he can do new stuff, but still with the same signature technique? I need a bit of that for the best orc-and-elf duo. My party didn't attack Liya Jierre in Pemberton's lair, giving Rush Munchausen and Merton Gonsala an ample time to upgrade their gimmicks. The intent is to get at least 3 shouts of "that's unfair" from players, how would you reach that? My rough ideas follow:

Rush upgraded his immovable rods on a fundamental level. Now they can be fixed not only in relation to the surrounding world, but also only with relation to each other. E.g. if he fixes them 15 feet apart from each other and then swings one of them around, the second one moves as well, effectively giving him incredible range of melee attacks. He also switched from a pair of rods to a dozen, which can be combined together in a variety of nunchaku-like conformations (screaming monk-like "hiiiiiiyaaaa!!!" on top of one's lungs is obligatory to control them). Switching from "loose" mode to "fixed" in a correct moment can completely immobilize a player with a triangle of immovable rods crushing their throat. Of course they are lined with golden wire to block teleportation in such case.

Merton realized that everything in this world is better with dinosaurs. Everyone heard of Bag of Tricks, which can produce small animals to amuse little kids, but few have heard of its higher level cousin, Bag of Tyrants, which releases quickly expanding giant reptiles of variable species. Each of various dinosaurs has "built-in" attack on release (triceratops tramples forward, pack of raptors tries to flank target, T-rex makes "bite and swallow" attempt etc), and Merton can still control them with his technomagical tuning fork on subsequent turns.

I don't actually expect to stop high-paragon party with just a pair of mobs, but these guys are my favorite scoundrels in campaign, so I'm giving them all the toys you and me can invent. The only actual limit is that the gimmick should be clear to the outside observer and be in rough compliance with general magical or other world paradigms, otherwise it wouldn't be fun to the players. I think of them as munchkin-like characters, who try to sneak in dubious builds with cheesy interactions between various game rules.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hurl three disposable rods that manifest a brief wall of force between them (useful for splitting the party, or as an interrupt to block an attack).

A gun that shoots immovable bullets. If you're bloodied after a hit, the bullet holds you in place and does wretched damage if you succeed the strength check to rip yourself free.

The tuning fork can instill instant vertiginous disorientation, letting Merton redirect an enemy area or burst as an interrupt.

If Rush leaves a rod in place, Merton can hit it and cause a sonic burst like chiming a bell.

Rush can link multiple rods together so if he moves one, the others keep the same alignment, generally violating laws of conservation of energy. This lets him sort of skyhook an enemy - hit a PC, lock them in place, then throw a separate rod , which flings the PC just as far as the rod moves.

And if multiple rods are so linked (perhaps identified by glowing slightly?), Merton can hit one and sonic blast from all of them.

Check out the nastiest t-rexes in adventure thirteen.

Each dinosaur had been fed an immovable rod, and trained to flop onto enemies when they're wounded. Then Rush can activate it and make the body immovable too.

A stegosaurus with immovable rod tail spikes, which snap off on impact. The old thagomizer.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Merton can do a cone shaped sonic blast which leaves a vibration on the targets which causes them to be swarmed by Miniature Flying Stealth Raptors (Crows and other birds). Or worse he can deliver a monks Quivering palm attack via sonic rays.

I like this idea while Rush in my game got dropped into a volcano ,, Merton is in prison probably in Ber so I can have him freed in Book 11 or later to come back and plague the pc's. There are a couple of other Ob agents who could come back as well for a reunion battle

 

[gideonpepys]

Rush and Merton are my favourite Zeitgeist NPCs. Coolest pairing ever.