Paridon: The Dark Metropolis (Ravenloft)

Torhan opens the coach as Ru hops off. Calahan leaps out of the carriage to get the space needed to use his bow.

"On the ground before I put you down where you stand!"

Ru slowly approaches, bow at the ready. Calahan nocks and arrow, ready to fire.

The gnome stands straight up. Calahan fires a shot, but it goes wide. Ru aims for the gnome's heart, ready for the attack or flight, as Calahan gets his next arrow ready.

The gnome reaches for his mask and takes it off. His face... rings. It appears as a blur, his head shaking so violently that no features are clear--a horrific rictus here, a weeping eye there... as if his head were nothing but a miasma of agony.

And there is this sound. As the gnome's head vibrates, a piercing peal fills the air, like an alarm, like a clock signifying an end, like a faraway trumpet and like the ringing in your ears. Ru and Calahan suddenly clutch their heads in pain.

[sblock=Ru]The sound takes Ru back to his days in the Strahd Street Irregulars. It is as if it was yesterday, traveling to Gis for his fateful meet. "You're a wise one. Not like the others." Ru's ears fill with ringing as the world shifts... he is in Ari's hideout, to report his failure--to Gis. Gis looks at Ru, grins, and morphs into the form of Ari. "Strahd boy in life, Strahd boy in death, Ru." Ru's vision crosses as it feels as if his whole head vibrates. Ari reaches out for him, his poison ring prepped for a lethal dosage...

Ru is Confused. Next round he will flee at top speed from the gnome. [/sblock]

[sblock=Calahan]For a moment, the sound of birds fill the air. The buildings are like trees, and there is no one around... but the birds coalesce into the sound of a violin, playing a single, long, melancholy note. Wolves in the distance howl as the player of the violin comes near. A friend? Is it Calahan himself? He plays a violin with an impossibly long bow. The crescendoing note is held steady as it takes residence in Calahan's mind--

--and the forest is gone. The ringing gnome remains. Calahan stops pulling his bow across his arrow and sets it back up...

Calahan is Confused. Next round he may act normally.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Darian]The disconcerting spectacle astounds Darian. What is this? What does it mean? How is this happening?

Pain, Darian. This is pain. There is truth in pain, Darian. Imagine the truths he holds.[/sblock]

[sblock=Torhan]Torhan looks outside, noticing the gnome stand. Suddenly, he recognizes him. That gnome, that mask... this is the one who was crawling on Edditomas' roof. [/sblock]

[sblock=Fr. Berman]Fr. Berman watches the sudden change to the entire situation, and quickly looks back to Alek, Kitten, and Marionette. They huddle. They are scared. Worried. [/sblock]
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad


Ru Brike, barbaric human monk

Ru's eyes glaze over as the ringing hits him. He clutches his bow with white knuckes, but instead of firing, suddenly turns and bolts away from the alley.
 

Darian steps off the carriage, humming a mournful dirge--softly at first, but growing louder as he gets closer to the gnome. He reaches beneath his cloak for his whip, his humming a rising crescendo. His eyes narrow as he approaches, and he rears his whip hand back.

Show me your truth...

ooc: Countersong, Perform +9
 

Torhan swears loudly as he recognizes the gnome, something of a shock coming from the holy warrior. He leaps from the carriage and rushes the gnome, drawing his greatsword as he does so. Upon closing, he stikes with sword, not wanting to give it a chance to escape.
 

I was wrong about one thing ... Lady, save and guide us.

Father Berman's dragon pistol is already in hand, so he gets out of the carriage and takes aim carefully at the belligerent bellhead, making sure he doesn't hit his fellow watchmen.

BANG!
 

Ru takes off like a shot, moving at speeds that even horses could barely achieve. He rushes out of the alleyway, eyes glazed, his own head shaking back and forth slightly. He barely recognizes the world around him, knowing that something must be close behind. But... the world continues to melt before his eyes, sounds filling his ears--flashes of light, pops and bells and shouts and horns all sounding, while bizarre faces and half-faces float by.

[sblock=Ru]Ru is Confused. Next round, he will babble incoherently.[/sblock]

A vulgar battle cry announces the paladin's arrival as he bursts out of the carriage. His face looks maddened, and the eldritch tone does nothing to help the matter. He rushes the fell gnome, greatsword drawn high. He grips the sword tightly and tries his best to ignore the sound, ignore the nosebleed Torhan just discovered. The swing is wild, frenzied. The gnome leans back to avoid the blow, landing in a crab position.

Calahan lets out a pained scream, grabs his head and kneels, fighting to gain some semblance of reality in the face of unbridled agony. He watches as the gnome stands back up--backwards. For some reason, the gnome stood back up so that he was standing on his hands... Or was he standing on his hands before? The question quickly recedes from everyone's mind, though, as he launches himself at Torhan. The paladin gets his sword up and uses it to push the gnome off, hard. Sparks fly as metal hits metal--Torhan's foe is apparently armored... but he was sure that the strike bypassed whatever defenses were up in front of it.

Fr. Berman waits just for this opening to fire without hitting Torhan. BANG! The shot also seems to glance off the gnome's shoulder with a clang. By his side, Darian sings a dirge... normally, such a song would be unwelcome, but it gives the policemen something else to hold on to instead of the gnome's incessant wail. Darian raises his whip and reaches out, grabbing hold of a leg (arm?) and crashing him into the ground.

Calahan fixes on the song, pushing the nonsense from his mind. Darian will be able to keep him safe in this time of insanity... and seizes the moment to sink two arrows into the gnome. The first skitters on the ground past him, but the second finds its target--and shatters.

Fr. Berman notes from his position that Tavish and the horse-masked driver have cowered, their hands full with just keeping their steeds under control. Tavish starts humming the dirge with Darian, just to keep the song in his head. Alek and his entourage still sit alone in the coach. Ru, on the other hand, is nowhere near here... Darian points out that he is now staggering through the clocktower square, far in the distance, barely able to comprehend the festival all around him...


Ru: 16/30
Torhan: 40/40
Calahan: 14/23
Fr. Berman: 26/30
Darian: 14/20
 

Calahan growls as he sees his arrow doing no damage...

"I am not beaten yet, you bastard!"

He will turn, look for a big stone or the like, and then throw it against the gnome's mask...
 

Darian continues his dirge while drawing a tanglefoot bag from his coat. He approaches the strange gnome closer still, and attempts to use the tanglefoot bag to bind up the thing for a few moments.

[sblock=ooc]I am currently out of town, and may or may not be able to post again before it is my turn next, so I'll go ahead and tell you what I have in mind now so that you can proceed without me if need be:

If Darian hits with the tanglefoot bag, the next round he will draw his +1 dagger and attack while the gnome's immobile. I have an image of Darian mounting the thing and slashing away with his dagger, the whole time humming his little ditty like a madman. It's pretty surreal the way I see it, but maybe that's just me.

If he doesn't hit with the tanglefoot bag, he'll just try to keep him occupied so that the others can get in a good attack here and there.[/sblock]
 
Last edited:

"Justice comes in many forms," grunts Torhan to the gnome, "Now feel its bite!" The paladin swings his greatsword in an overhand strike, channeling the power of good and law into the stroke.


Smite evil and 1 pt. power attack, +10 attack for 2d6+9 (crit 19-20)
If not evil, then +7 for 2d6+6 (crit 19-20)
 

Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top