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The Stepchildren of Fate (Updated 6/3)
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<blockquote data-quote="htetickrt" data-source="post: 1694675" data-attributes="member: 16534"><p style="text-align: center">Vampire Smackdown: The Set-Up</p><p></p><p>Trella spins on the goblins trailing the group. “Find somewhere safe. This is going to get ugly. Uglier than you, even. And don’t get any ideas;” she adds as an afterthought, “It’s unwise to fool with Mother Nature.”</p><p></p><p>The little humanoids cower appropriately; Trella addresses the group. “We don’t want to engage in close quarters, so this’ll be from a distance as much as possible. That means Kai and Kyree go in blasting, and the rest of us act as support.”</p><p></p><p>Kyree nods grimly. “Consider them peppered. With, er, arrows that is. Not pepper.” The elf laments his lack of skill in turning a clever pre-battle phrase, and resolves to practice more in the future.</p><p></p><p>Quid looks at the cowed and demoralized slave hordes and sighs. “Where’s Dobi when you need him,” she mutters, “he’d be ready with an inspiring speech right about now.” Nevertheless, the priest does what she can, healing injured stone giants while entreating all to smash anything that comes their way. The stone giants are admirably enthused at the prospect; Thulk retreats to his other troops in order to “keep them in line.”</p><p></p><p>Kai gives a tiny sigh in the direction of the slaves before turning back to the business at hand. “I’m ready with a fireball,” she says simply. “All our wands of lightning won’t be much good in there.”</p><p></p><p>Quid casts daylight on a stone, and then draws her wand of searing light to complement it. Danek asks everyone, "Does anybody want to try being invisible to undead? It might not work, and probably won't on all undead, and you can't attack at all or everybody loses it at the same time. But if you might not do much anyway," she continues with less enunciation, "it could help." She looks at Lenara, Andy, Cerridwin and Buttercup in particular.</p><p></p><p>Cerridwin smiles and puffs out his chest a bit when Danek looks at him. Then he looks at Andy smarmily. Danek frowns.</p><p></p><p>Andy replies, "Heck, yeah! Hit me wit' some of dat undead shizzle."</p><p></p><p>Trella regards Andy with disgust. “Let’s finish up, people. The vampires aren’t getting any older.”</p><p></p><p>The remaining preparations are hastily concluded and Calla pulls open the nearby door on Trella’s signal. Mist and fire immediately flood the revealed space in roughly equal proportions, the former obscuring the effect of the latter, save for the plainly audible sound of pained squealing.</p><p></p><p>Khail pulls back his blade, ready to swing, but nothing emerges from the room. He starts forward, but is restrained by Calla’s hand on his leg. The halfling creeps forward without a word, poking ahead with her dagger. The paladin whispers urgently behind her, “No evil, but be careful.” Calla snorts.</p><p></p><p>A few second later she returns with a charred rat skewered on the end of her acidic blade. “I don’t think we caught anything bigger than this in there.”</p><p></p><p>Trella mutters, “Damn.” She ushers Calla, Kyree, and Andy forward to check out the room, earning her a loud gulp from Andy.</p><p></p><p>Peering through the mist, Kyree whispers back, “Dead rats, more dead rats, huge ugly tapestries showing murders and corpses, even more dead rats, some kind of ceremonial table, an elaborate web and the remains of another one and, oh yeah, dead rats.”</p><p></p><p>“I don’t like this. Kyree….” Trella never finishes her thought, as her words are drowned out by the horrified screams of a gaggle of goblinoids. Before she can rush over to see what is amiss, the misty room in which she stands abruptly grows dark and crowded. Four figures—two drow, two drider—materialize in front of the chamber’s sealed exits, and an obviously charmed pair of bugbears, including their noble leader Thulk, burst through the open one.</p><p></p><p>Kyree is unimpressed. Shrugging off a drider’s minor magic, the elf blasts it to oblivion with a quartet of enchanted arrows. “What use are all those legs now?” he mocks, regretting it as soon as the ill-formed taunt leaves his mouth. Quid’s cry of “Burn foul communist vermin, burn” draws him away from prolonged worry about his lack of witty repartee, however, and provides enough warning for him to jump out of the way of a poorly aimed ray of light.</p><p></p><p>Quid groans at her miss. “Can somebody try dispelling the anti-light effects? I think I almost hit Kyree.”</p><p></p><p>Kai mutters, “What’s good for the goose…” remembering times she was on the wrong end of a far less experienced Kyree’s arrows*. Nevertheless, the sorceress does as requested, allowing more light into the room. The additional illumination reveals a chaotic melee: stone giants and Buttercup face off against an increasing number of charmed bugbears; Khail leads half the group in a charge against the vampires; and the other half tries very hard not to be seen.</p><p></p><p>Focused on his art, Kyree is unaffected by the details of the engagement, and his next barrage turns the second drider to gas as easily as the first. Drawing courage from this, Andy breaks her invisibility and rushes to Buttercup’s aid. Danek sighs as hers vanishes as well, and she rushes to join Rhien in melee. Behind her Cerridwin surreptitiously greases the floor, but this is overshadowed by the spectacle of a door suddenly blocked by Trella’s curtain of fire.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the attempt at battlefield control goes for naught as the freed slaves make their appearance on the scene. Frightened beyond reason by what’s outside of the room, a column of bugbears and goblins charge through the doors, blindly looking for a way out in the midst of the mist. All they find is a greasy floor, however, causing the great majority of the goblinoids to begin helplessly sliding across the slick surface. Those that manage to avoid succumbing to the grease are bowled over by the sheer momentum of those behind them, leading to the issuance of a cone of sprawling goblinoids into the makeshift temple.</p><p></p><p>With no way to avoid them, the rear echelon of the party is swept up in the crush. Dodging and weaving, most avoid entanglement, but Lenara and Quid do lose their footing and get mixed up in the mayhem.</p><p></p><p>The cause of the stampede soon becomes known, as two fresh vampiric noble guards calmly ignore the grease as they enter the room. Finally finding success with a favored trick, one of the two shatters Buttercup’s mental defenses and takes control of the half-orc.</p><p></p><p>Oblivious to this, Andy nimbly hurdles prone figures to reach Thulk, executes a pretty handspring, and stabs out the bugbear’s life on the way down. The disturbed halfling curtseys awkwardly when done, but no one pays much attention.</p><p></p><p>Quid groans and throws a goblin off her. “One must never impede the workings of the market,” she grumbles, before incinerating an injured vampire with another ray of searing light. “For Capitalism!” she cries, after seeing her success. Then she has to duck out of the way of the stone giants, as they lay about themselves with abandon following the death of Thulk. Flying bugbear bodies zip by her head, tousling her blonde hair.</p><p></p><p>Lenara struggles to her feet nearby. “Hey, one of the vampires is retreating! We’re winning!” The goblins don’t seem to agree, and flood en masse past her toward the double doors on the northern end of the room. In their haste to throw it open and run screaming into the darkness, they nearly smash into a quartet of quth-maren. Not liking their chances against these, the remaining humanoids cower in the center of the room. Their attempt at looking nondescript elicits a groan from Trella.</p><p></p><p>“Just stay there!” the druid orders. “Shut up and keep out of the way!” The less experienced party members attempt to follow this advice as well, with varying degrees of success.</p><p></p><p>Kai scowls from the corner to which she fled after the ruckus. “Stupid useless goblins…. Down!” A pair of lightning bolts streaks over the diving humanoids, but does little to the resistant undead. “Great, fire and electricity. What next? Ah!”</p><p></p><p>Kai’s exclamation segues into a scream as the wild, burly drow female who just seconds earlier startled her by her sudden appearance now slices through the sorceress’ tender flesh with her greatsword. With her own blood now staining the stone floor, Kai looks in fear toward the quth-maren, but they maintain their posts, even as stone giants pound them with clubs.</p><p></p><p>The reason for these tactics becomes clear soon after, as four more vampiric drow warriors take up defensive positions behind them, apparently guarding the beautiful, if a bit feral looking, gaunt drow woman behind them. Yellowish-white hair provides a striking contrast to her deep black skin, and frames a snarl that reveals the unmistakable fangs of a vampire. Unlike the rapier-wielding noble guards, however, this one sports black elven-chain and a heavy mace that reeks of the unholy. Her accelerated movements make it clear that she is fully prepared for the battle to come, and the slight upturn of her lips indicate her pleasure at this. Kyree, whose sharp eyes note the symbol of Kiaransalee on a platinum chain tucked into the neck of her armor, shouts, “Priestess!”</p><p></p><p>Kai clutches at her injured stomach. “Really?” It is unclear, perhaps even to her, if this is said in sarcasm or fear.</p><p></p><p><em>Next: the fight gets ugly(-er).</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>*In the days of 2E, we used a fumble rule whereby melee characters tossed their weapons and ranged attacks struck someone else randomly. For some reason, that someone else was nearly always Kai when it came to Kyree’s arrows. This, as might be imagined, had a profound effect on their relationship.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="htetickrt, post: 1694675, member: 16534"] [CENTER]Vampire Smackdown: The Set-Up[/CENTER] Trella spins on the goblins trailing the group. “Find somewhere safe. This is going to get ugly. Uglier than you, even. And don’t get any ideas;” she adds as an afterthought, “It’s unwise to fool with Mother Nature.” The little humanoids cower appropriately; Trella addresses the group. “We don’t want to engage in close quarters, so this’ll be from a distance as much as possible. That means Kai and Kyree go in blasting, and the rest of us act as support.” Kyree nods grimly. “Consider them peppered. With, er, arrows that is. Not pepper.” The elf laments his lack of skill in turning a clever pre-battle phrase, and resolves to practice more in the future. Quid looks at the cowed and demoralized slave hordes and sighs. “Where’s Dobi when you need him,” she mutters, “he’d be ready with an inspiring speech right about now.” Nevertheless, the priest does what she can, healing injured stone giants while entreating all to smash anything that comes their way. The stone giants are admirably enthused at the prospect; Thulk retreats to his other troops in order to “keep them in line.” Kai gives a tiny sigh in the direction of the slaves before turning back to the business at hand. “I’m ready with a fireball,” she says simply. “All our wands of lightning won’t be much good in there.” Quid casts daylight on a stone, and then draws her wand of searing light to complement it. Danek asks everyone, "Does anybody want to try being invisible to undead? It might not work, and probably won't on all undead, and you can't attack at all or everybody loses it at the same time. But if you might not do much anyway," she continues with less enunciation, "it could help." She looks at Lenara, Andy, Cerridwin and Buttercup in particular. Cerridwin smiles and puffs out his chest a bit when Danek looks at him. Then he looks at Andy smarmily. Danek frowns. Andy replies, "Heck, yeah! Hit me wit' some of dat undead shizzle." Trella regards Andy with disgust. “Let’s finish up, people. The vampires aren’t getting any older.” The remaining preparations are hastily concluded and Calla pulls open the nearby door on Trella’s signal. Mist and fire immediately flood the revealed space in roughly equal proportions, the former obscuring the effect of the latter, save for the plainly audible sound of pained squealing. Khail pulls back his blade, ready to swing, but nothing emerges from the room. He starts forward, but is restrained by Calla’s hand on his leg. The halfling creeps forward without a word, poking ahead with her dagger. The paladin whispers urgently behind her, “No evil, but be careful.” Calla snorts. A few second later she returns with a charred rat skewered on the end of her acidic blade. “I don’t think we caught anything bigger than this in there.” Trella mutters, “Damn.” She ushers Calla, Kyree, and Andy forward to check out the room, earning her a loud gulp from Andy. Peering through the mist, Kyree whispers back, “Dead rats, more dead rats, huge ugly tapestries showing murders and corpses, even more dead rats, some kind of ceremonial table, an elaborate web and the remains of another one and, oh yeah, dead rats.” “I don’t like this. Kyree….” Trella never finishes her thought, as her words are drowned out by the horrified screams of a gaggle of goblinoids. Before she can rush over to see what is amiss, the misty room in which she stands abruptly grows dark and crowded. Four figures—two drow, two drider—materialize in front of the chamber’s sealed exits, and an obviously charmed pair of bugbears, including their noble leader Thulk, burst through the open one. Kyree is unimpressed. Shrugging off a drider’s minor magic, the elf blasts it to oblivion with a quartet of enchanted arrows. “What use are all those legs now?” he mocks, regretting it as soon as the ill-formed taunt leaves his mouth. Quid’s cry of “Burn foul communist vermin, burn” draws him away from prolonged worry about his lack of witty repartee, however, and provides enough warning for him to jump out of the way of a poorly aimed ray of light. Quid groans at her miss. “Can somebody try dispelling the anti-light effects? I think I almost hit Kyree.” Kai mutters, “What’s good for the goose…” remembering times she was on the wrong end of a far less experienced Kyree’s arrows*. Nevertheless, the sorceress does as requested, allowing more light into the room. The additional illumination reveals a chaotic melee: stone giants and Buttercup face off against an increasing number of charmed bugbears; Khail leads half the group in a charge against the vampires; and the other half tries very hard not to be seen. Focused on his art, Kyree is unaffected by the details of the engagement, and his next barrage turns the second drider to gas as easily as the first. Drawing courage from this, Andy breaks her invisibility and rushes to Buttercup’s aid. Danek sighs as hers vanishes as well, and she rushes to join Rhien in melee. Behind her Cerridwin surreptitiously greases the floor, but this is overshadowed by the spectacle of a door suddenly blocked by Trella’s curtain of fire. Unfortunately, the attempt at battlefield control goes for naught as the freed slaves make their appearance on the scene. Frightened beyond reason by what’s outside of the room, a column of bugbears and goblins charge through the doors, blindly looking for a way out in the midst of the mist. All they find is a greasy floor, however, causing the great majority of the goblinoids to begin helplessly sliding across the slick surface. Those that manage to avoid succumbing to the grease are bowled over by the sheer momentum of those behind them, leading to the issuance of a cone of sprawling goblinoids into the makeshift temple. With no way to avoid them, the rear echelon of the party is swept up in the crush. Dodging and weaving, most avoid entanglement, but Lenara and Quid do lose their footing and get mixed up in the mayhem. The cause of the stampede soon becomes known, as two fresh vampiric noble guards calmly ignore the grease as they enter the room. Finally finding success with a favored trick, one of the two shatters Buttercup’s mental defenses and takes control of the half-orc. Oblivious to this, Andy nimbly hurdles prone figures to reach Thulk, executes a pretty handspring, and stabs out the bugbear’s life on the way down. The disturbed halfling curtseys awkwardly when done, but no one pays much attention. Quid groans and throws a goblin off her. “One must never impede the workings of the market,” she grumbles, before incinerating an injured vampire with another ray of searing light. “For Capitalism!” she cries, after seeing her success. Then she has to duck out of the way of the stone giants, as they lay about themselves with abandon following the death of Thulk. Flying bugbear bodies zip by her head, tousling her blonde hair. Lenara struggles to her feet nearby. “Hey, one of the vampires is retreating! We’re winning!” The goblins don’t seem to agree, and flood en masse past her toward the double doors on the northern end of the room. In their haste to throw it open and run screaming into the darkness, they nearly smash into a quartet of quth-maren. Not liking their chances against these, the remaining humanoids cower in the center of the room. Their attempt at looking nondescript elicits a groan from Trella. “Just stay there!” the druid orders. “Shut up and keep out of the way!” The less experienced party members attempt to follow this advice as well, with varying degrees of success. Kai scowls from the corner to which she fled after the ruckus. “Stupid useless goblins…. Down!” A pair of lightning bolts streaks over the diving humanoids, but does little to the resistant undead. “Great, fire and electricity. What next? Ah!” Kai’s exclamation segues into a scream as the wild, burly drow female who just seconds earlier startled her by her sudden appearance now slices through the sorceress’ tender flesh with her greatsword. With her own blood now staining the stone floor, Kai looks in fear toward the quth-maren, but they maintain their posts, even as stone giants pound them with clubs. The reason for these tactics becomes clear soon after, as four more vampiric drow warriors take up defensive positions behind them, apparently guarding the beautiful, if a bit feral looking, gaunt drow woman behind them. Yellowish-white hair provides a striking contrast to her deep black skin, and frames a snarl that reveals the unmistakable fangs of a vampire. Unlike the rapier-wielding noble guards, however, this one sports black elven-chain and a heavy mace that reeks of the unholy. Her accelerated movements make it clear that she is fully prepared for the battle to come, and the slight upturn of her lips indicate her pleasure at this. Kyree, whose sharp eyes note the symbol of Kiaransalee on a platinum chain tucked into the neck of her armor, shouts, “Priestess!” Kai clutches at her injured stomach. “Really?” It is unclear, perhaps even to her, if this is said in sarcasm or fear. [I]Next: the fight gets ugly(-er). *In the days of 2E, we used a fumble rule whereby melee characters tossed their weapons and ranged attacks struck someone else randomly. For some reason, that someone else was nearly always Kai when it came to Kyree’s arrows. This, as might be imagined, had a profound effect on their relationship.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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