Planes to Shape, Secrets to Keep... (Dromus)

[Kelleris]

Hrm. I've thought it over, and I'm going to zombify-NPC Narine until Isida returns from whence she, uh, went.

Narine:
Narine continues to make her way down the street with almost unseemly haste, and soon outpaces Adinal and Illira, who may be the new targets of the...

Invisible Boomers:
... who, it seems, are beginning to become dimly visible. Everyone on the other side of the sheets can make out a thrashing maelstrom of the creatures working its way haphazardly down the side of the Sheets, as though slowly sniffing out a trail. Their forms are indistinct, as though viewed through a fractured lens, and slide over and around each other. Each one appears to be made predominantly of a strange striated muscle tissue, bunched and knotted in surreal fashion. The whole effect of the nightmarish pack is of a flayed man's torn musculature, sliced raw and whipped into a frenzy of motion by an unseen stimulus. Occasionally, a pearlescent flash of teeth reminds you of the threat posed by the ravenous school of otherplanar entities.

You can attempt a Perception check as a move action to see if you can get a better look at what you face. Illira, you gain a +10 bonus on this check due to see invisibility. Otherwise, fighting the monsters will be difficult at best. (Essentially, they will all have concealment.) Incidentally, the animal contol squad is the closest target at the moment...

Okay, now the main group can go...

 

[DemonWolfZero]

Adinal squints at the slimy, muscly mass, then curses under his breath. He concentrates for a second, then staggers as a tiny chain of silver appears around his head and then vanishes into smoke. Regaining his footing, Adinal looks at the creatures again and grimaces.

"Ew."

DM: [sblock]I assume the fact that you provided a description of the Boomers means that we can all see them with no problem, it's just that whole Concealment thing that's gonna be an issue. Perception check to get a better look at the invisible boomers: 9. Crap, I hope that's good enough for Adinal to realize (ingame) that he's incapable of getting a bead on these things normally. If so, he will take a standard action to manifest Touchsight at cost of 5 pp. This drops me to 30 pp (assuming Adinal used the Charm routine instead of the Aver routine against the animal control guys earlier) and makes me exhausted.

Touchsight
Psychometabolism
Level: Psion/wilder 3
Display: Visual
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal; see text
Target: You
Duration: 1 min./level (D)
Power Points: 5
You generate a subtle telekinetic field of mental contact, allowing you to “feel” your surroundings even in total darkness or when your sight would otherwise be obscured by your physical environment. Your touchsight field emanates from you out to 60 feet. You ignore invisibility, darkness, and concealment, though you must have line of effect to a creature or an object to discern it. You do not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice creatures; you can detect and pinpoint all creatures within 60 feet. In many circumstances, comparing your regular senses to what you learn with touchsight is enough to tell you the difference between visible, invisible, hiding, and concealed creatures.
Augment: For every 2 additional power points you spend, the radius of your touchsight field increases by 10 feet.

Edit: I keep forgetting that other class ability of mine...aka Mathilde. Should I subconsciously yell for her? Would you rather do that yourself? NPC-ize her? So confused.[/sblock]

 

[Jolmo]

HP 24/56, RP 18/56, AC 20, Fort 10, Ref 13, Will 5.

Cagthail tries to make the jump through the window, back into the tavern.

DM:[sblock]Jump 17. If that's enough: Perception 27 to look around inside. The plan is to get through the tavern in the same direction as the crawlspace and get out through some window on that side, so the perception check is mostly for noticing anything that would prevent that. If nothing such is apparent, he'll use what's left of his movement to carry it out.[/sblock]

 

[Kelleris]

Adinal: [sblock] Extending his senses into the air around him, Adinal focuses on the thrashing pack before him. You can almost feel the slick oozing of the creatures' musculature as you try to get a bead on them. After a moment, you think you can tell how many there are; seven, maybe eight. They're very large, perhaps each the size of a large war horse, and made up of nothing more than muscle and a set of teeth that, disturbingly, splits their central eye right down the middle - bizarre physiology, to say the least. They are approaching slowly, and are about 50 feet away now, expending most of their energy tearing at some unseen thing and sniffing down the street towards you. The animal control people have drawn weapons heavier than their nets, but look absolutely terrified.

It's difficult to track the boomers - they slip below the level of your psionically enhanced senses like oil below the surface of turbulent water before reappearing again - but you are sure that they won't catch you off guard.

Exhausted, eh? Relying on allies or your silver tongue to get out of this one, rather than running like hell, then. I strongly recommend you post again and tell Illira to stand her ground or something after I give you the info from touchsight. Also, generally prefer a round's posts to not all be spoilered, even just an "Adinal concentrates intently before staggering a little from fatigue" would be fine.

You can send a subconscious message to Mathilde if you like, as a free action. No instructions or anything, but she'll know she's needed to rescue her pookums and can probably find you as well. Where did you stow her, though? [/sblock]

Cagthail: [sblock] Heaving yourself away from the mob, you manage to catch onto the window ledge and pull yourself in, landing prone inside the Sheets and staggering to your feet.

Looking around, you can see a strangely peaceful scene - it seems that everyone else is swarming the clogged balconies and stairwells trying to reach the bottom floow and escape. Across the way, you spot a tempting target - a long picture window looking out towards the Lighthouse. It's not of the variety that opens, however, so property damage is involved in that escape route.

From earlier, you also remember a rear exit. If you could improvise some way of clearing the surging crowd of patrons from the rear of the Sheets, you could take that way instead. Unfortunately, you doubt yelling "fire" will help much.

Alternatively, more clambering up would take you to the now-quiet roof, through one of various holes in the top deck of the Sheets created by the boomers. Once there, you would have a better view and, well, a really easy gravity-assisted trip to the street on the other side of the tavern. [/sblock]

 

[DemonWolfZero]

Breathing heavily, Adinal speaks to everyone through the mindlink. "Damn it all...I've worn myself out...unless someone wouldn't mind carrying me...we'll have to stand...and fight these things... I shall try...to enlist aid...from these fellows."

DM: [sblock]Subconscious call to Mathilde, she was left at the house provided by my Boss. Walking, it's about 10 minutes from the Sheets, and about 50 from the warehouse/bar we started in. What kind of checks would one have to make to rally the scared animal-keepers into providing some sort of help? If I was a little more neutral, I'd happily let the creatures take on the animal-keepers and run like a little girl.[/sblock]

 

[Mad Hatter]

HP-24/47; Stabilization pts= 80/225; Fort=5, Ref=5, Will=8

DM-[sblock] Balance: 14

Fort: 11[/sblock]

 

[Kelleris]

Adinal: [sblock] What kind of effect are you going for with the animal control squad? Do you just want them to buck up and discontinue soiling themselves, or do you want to take impromptu command of them? Both? Or something else? [/sblock]

Initiative:
Narine/Dros:20
Formerly Invisible Boomers: 20
Feiran and Terak: 19
Adinal: 19
Cagthail: 17
Ilmordan and Summoned Beasties: 16
Illira: 14
Mob Swarm: 12
Animal Control Squad: 3

Feiran: [sblock] Guess you didn't post anything else because of that 11 Fortitude save? Well, I want you to be able to take an action this round, so, go on, just give me a reason why Feiran'd have a +1 bonus to that save. Well? (I'm looking forward to this excuse. )[/sblock]

Ilmordan and Summoned Beasties:
Feiran: [sblock] As the mob batters you into submission, you catch a glimpse of a strange sight: Ilmordan, on his knees, with what appears to be blood dripping from the cowl of his robes. The thick liquid is wreathed in greenish energy, however, as though Ilmordan's very lifeblood were suffused with energy. Make a Perception check to determine if you can see anything else. [/sblock]

Everyone Else except Cagthail: [sblock] The boomers continue to make their slow but frenzied way down the street towards the animal control squad (and, past them towards you), but suddenly there are newcomers to the scene: four of the black-and-white striped hound monsters summoned by Ilmordan, who appear suddenly from thin air. Their bizarre elongated necks twist and coil, but the rows of slime-dripping fangs remain focused at your little group intently. In fact, each one seems to be fixated on one specific target: one stares at Narine, one at Adinal, one at Illira, and one is "gazing" up towards the second floor of the Sheets, presumably at Cagthail or Feiran. [/sblock]

Everyone except Feiran: [sblock] Oh, and everyone on this side of the street make Perception checks now. Cagthail, you can make two Perception checks, one as a reaction and an optional one as a move action that would let you get a better idea of what the commotion is in the Sheets and on the streets outside.[/sblock]

Illira is next.

 

[Mad Hatter]

HP-24/47; Stabilization pts= 80/225; Fort=5, Ref=5, Will=8

[sblock]You'd not be wrong on that call, Kell.
Perception:24
Are you still letting me do intrusive sense link instead of mindlink, which is what I wanted in the first place? It costs the same. As for the +1 on the Fort save, how's about we say I pushed the ability like they described in Quintessential Human? I can't remember the exact rules on that though.[/sblock]

Feiran surveys the area to see if she can find another exit. And once again attempts to establish an Antimagic Field by way of her touchstone ability.

OOC-I'll be out of town Wed-Sun

DM-[sblock] If Feiran can find another exit, then she will head towards it and activate the Velocitous Footgear, but only if she deems it viable. However, she might not do this if her perception check of Ilmordan is good. I.e I'm trusting you to npc me, Kell [/sblock]

 

[Kelleris]

Feiran: [sblock] You hear a very human-sounding rasping cough from Ilmordan, as he lies on the ground on his hands and knees. More bothersome is that the cough is interspersed with words and phrases that you're sure are magical, except that they hurt your ears too much for you to focus on them.

I'll let you push the ability, but you know there are penalties attached. I haven't got Quintessential Human with me, so I'll have to randomly apply said penalties at some later time, okay?

Which do you want to do, antimagic field or velocitous footgear? I'll decide if I have to, but wait until I need to. This thread's moving so slow that you may be able to take your turn yourself, proper like.

Side note: What's with all these 24s lately? Not you, I mean, just generally...[/sblock]

 

[Kelleris]

Someone? Anyone? Gonna do Illira's turn for her before too long...