Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Isida Kep'Tukari" data-source="post: 4018232" data-attributes="member: 4441">Valerian's sonorous words die away and a chill mist appears and vanishes in an instant, leaving behind two blue, crystalline, faceted scorpions the size of large dogs, curls of white fog rising from their bodies.  Their claws clash and their whiplike tails lash as they turn to the nearest prey, that of the little vipers.  Their icy limbs skitter on the ground as they charge the nearest snakes, snatching them up in their claws and crushing them mercilously.  Curiously, as each snake is crushed, it dissolves into blue vapor, and leaves behind a snapped arrow...He calls out words in a harsh, deep-voiced tongue, and frigid blue flames are now dancing on his hands.  Thinking furiously about what this vapor creature might be: [sblock]You don't think it's a ghost, it's decidedly incorporeal, and doesn't look like any demon, devil, or celestial you've ever studied.  The stench of rot could indicate it might be an undead, but you've never come across an exact creature like this before.  It's possible it could be some kind of elemental, though of what element you're not sure.  There's also a slim possibility that it might be a living spell, one of those hideous abominations originally spawned during the last war, and now supposedly a fixture of the Mournland, or maybe, just maybe, a kind of construct of a sort.  As to how it got inside an ethereal maurader, it could be that the maurader was cursed or magically coherced to have the thing "ride" inside of it, like a demon possessing a creature, person, or thing.  If there's enough of the hide left, an examination might reveal "targeting" markings for magic rituals to induce such "riding."  [/sblock]Arrgha'n lashes out with his longsword, making a sweeping stroke upward that seems to go right through the middle of the vapor creature, to no apparent effect.Irthos uncovers beautiful dragonic wings, flashing in the remaining firelight around the camp, and dives right at the vapor creature.  His takeoff is beautiful, his form magnificent, but the fact that the vapor creature offers not the slightest resistance to his dive throws him off completely, and he twirls in mid-air after going straight through it, lungs choaked with a foul, rotting stench that seems to be closing off his air.The snakes surge forward, some of them going for Yatrax, Valerian, and Irthos as they are the ones on the furthest edges of the circle right now.  For some reason, they avoid Kurst who's almost as distant.  Three snap at Yatrax, two hitting, sinking their little fangs into her feet.  She gives a strangled scream in pain.  One hits Valerian, attaching to his ankle, and one tries to clamp onto the end of Irthos' wing.  Unfortunately for the viper, Irthos is too fast for the snake and whips his wings out of the way.Yatrax quickly finds what she was looking for in her backpack and comes up with a short stick and a tindertwig.  Striking the tindertwig and lighting the stick, thick green smoke begins to billow from it, and the snakes hiss in distate and begin to slither away from her.Oliver stands ready if the vapor creature moves, and Maavnod reaches up with its arms, trying to snatch and rend at it.  Most of its arms just pass right through it, but one of its blue, translucent girillon arms seems to slash right into its vapory substance, causing it to bleed gray light.Kurst lets more power gather at its hands and fly at the creature with a burst of purple and green, but his hands are shaking badly, and it flies off into the darkness.The vapor creature seems to scream, a high, piercing sound that drives right into the skull and seems as if it might crack it.  It seems to swell in size, writhing and pulsing, until it suddenly explodes soundlessly, the scream dying off and echoing into the night.  The vapor settles onto the camp in the form of indigo dust, coating everything.  The snakes suddenly revert to arrows, now relatively harmless, lying on the ground.  Yatrax and Valerian find that their snake bites look like arrow wounds.Irthos has a long, bad moment when his lungs don't seem to want to work, until they suddenly clear and let him breathe again.Faint moans from some wounded guards and shouts from the Blademark leaders begin to fill the ensuing silence...OOC: [sblock]Initiative: Valerian 22Ethereal Marauder 19 (dead)Arrgha'n 18Irthos 16SNAKES! 14 (lower Dex)Yatrax 9Oliver 8Maavnod 5Kurst 14 (moved because of held action)Vapor-thingy 2Valerian casts produce coldfire and directs the scorpians to attack with good effect.  Arrgha'n hits with a 24, to no apparent effect.  Irthos rolls a 1 on his attack.  The snakes hit two 19s on Yatrax, doing a total of 6 points of damage.  One hits Valerian with a 14 ('cause I don't think you're wearing your breastplate to bed) for 3 points of damage, and another misses Irthose with a 16 because he's an armored freak.  (And I mean that very kindly.)  Yatrax busts out a noxious smokestick and lights it, and the snakes in her immediate vicinity start to move away.  Oliver readies an action to attack.  Maavnod hits a 26, a 5, an 18, and a 17.  The 1st, 3rd, and 4th all hit, but only the first one seems to affect the creature in any way.  It can't really be grappled unfortunately, because it's incorporeal.  But he still does 7 points of damage with one of his girallon arms.  Kurst misses his touch attack with an 11.  The vapor creature screams and explodes, and the snakes turn back into arrows.  Combat over.  Good job people![/sblock]</blockquote>

Verification