Troubled Past PBEM 87 - The Giant Python

[Fabian Benavente]

Alright, thanks Gary for a little flashback.

See what's going on and let me what you want to do. We may have to go to go two rounds at
a time...

Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?

L8r,

Fabian
Troubled Past - An Eberron PBEM
http://www.geocities.com/cfbenave/Eberron/Eberron-Page2.htm

[Gary Burns]

Before I read the turn just let me say, "It's the crazy warforged's fault." :)

[kirs...@yahoo.com]

REF: Suddenly Mel's mind registered something that almost made the
changeling stop its crazy dancing. The disembodied voice rang loud in
his head. ~"Be gone old-one. Be gone back to the jungle. You shall
not feast tonight!"~ The rise of the man-snake seemed to have broken
the spell on some of the natives; a few of them were quickly
surrounding the abomination.

RPG: Mel almost wet himself as the stranger's thoughts intruded in
his mind even if he had known to expect something of the like, but
fortunately the shadows and his emancipated form and the wide-eyed look
of crazed zeal made it impossible for anyone to tell this by his face.

"Heretics!" Mel screeched in the natives' speech, spittle flying.
The half-formed wraths in the fog echoed him with their mournful wails.
"Idiots! Blasphemers! The ancestors are displeased! Angry! Full of
wrath! Hungry...! Hungry? I must think on this... how can a wrath
eat?" Mel stopped for a moment, a perplexed expression on his face,
and the ghostly chorus stilled as if sharing his puzzlement.

He glanced at the wooden branch in his hand, sniffed it, licked at a
patch of moss growing on it and then his face twisted into a malevolent
smile. A wrath manifested from the fog just behind him, leaned forward
to whisper into his ear. A sharp-eyed onlooker might notice that
particular wrath looked suspiciously like an old version of the
snake-priestess challenging Mel.

"Hungry! Hungry for your youthful spirits! Flee, young pups! Flee and
know the power of your ancestors! Embrace the old ways!" Mel threw up
his arms and the wraths howled in unison, a cacophony of sounds from
which half-understood phrases emerged.

"... lost... never understood... faith in the old... shame on...
remember the old... fear... young ones, know... embrace death..."

Mel shouted out words in the pure Dragonic tongue the natives had
butchered into a language of their own, and the spirits of the
ancestors rose, spread out and started moving towards the covering
villagers... and the few not-so covering warriors seeking comfort from
their priestess. The changeling wondered for a moment if he was
overdoing it, whether or not the arrow alone would have done the job...
but no. He hadn't had this much fun in months!

TAG: Everyone interested...

NRPG: Forming the illusion into a half-circle wall between the party
and the natives/snake and moving it slowly towards them. Sooner or
later they will come in contact with it unless they turn tail, and then
they'll be allowed a save... but remember that it's unlikely the
natives know what to expect. How *should* it feel to touch a wraith? If
they can't tell if it's realistic or not, that should translate to
a penalty to their saves.

-Jussi / Mel

[Les Anderson]

What's past the caves on the bottom of the map? Is it jungle or just
someplace we can't see? Can we circle around 'below' it?

--
Les

On 9/10/06, Fabian Benavente <fabian.b...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Les

[Gary Burns]

[ic]

"Ember," Belkar said, watching the chaos below. "Stay with Flask and carry on as you planned. Target whichever group you think is best. Then get both of you out of here. The rest of us will begin the retreat and catch up with Bryn."

 

Speaking of the halflling, Belkar turned to Lan. "If you are still in touch with her let her know what is going on. Let her know that we will meet her at the marker. Everyone else, lets go."

 

[ooc-Belkar will be open to other suggestions. However, he sees this as the opportunity for Bryn and the others to escape to complete the mission.]

 

[Fabian Benavente]

> What's past the caves on the bottom of the map? Is it jungle or just
> someplace we can't see? Can we circle around 'below' it?

It's jungle and you can 'circle below it'.

[Les Anderson]

[Belkar]

> Speaking of the halflling, Belkar turned to Lan. "If you are still in touch
> with her let her know what is going on. Let her know that we will meet her
> at the marker. Everyone else, lets go."

[Lan]
The kalashtar simply nodded and followed after the others as they
moved. ~Bryn, ignore Flask's spectacle with the spirits. We will meet
you back at the marker.~ His mental voice betrayed more than a hint of
irritation but Lan didn't address it or who he might be irritated by.
~Doing what you did took courage and skill. Thank you.~

He took his own advice and ignored what he was quickly coming to
regard as the antics of a charlatan who had to have the center of
attention on him even when he was trying to be stealthy. The shaman
subterfuge was unnecessary and dangerous; they would have been better
served with enraging the giant serpent and slipping away without
pulling attention in their direction.

Though Lan knew he was no mage he was quite familiar with spellcraft.
And twice now Flask had done little more than mutter words in Draconic
and make a few nonsense gestures. There was no denying the man's
ability, though, and Lan was sure he would have detected the usage of
psionic powers. So what was Flask up to?

These thoughts were what preoccupied his mind as he let his feet carry
him along behind Belkar and the rest of the group.

OOC: I'm assuming we'll just sweep wide around to the west/left side
of the map instead of going all the way down and around the caves
since we don't need to hook up with Bryn yet.

--
Les

[Tom Andry]

[Leif / new]

Leif tapped Ember on the shoulder, "I guess the time for subtly it over.
Give me a moment before you attack." Leif closed his eyes for a moment. A
look of intense concentration took over his visage but the humming that
usually accompanied his power was noticeably absent. Suddenly, a wall of
pure fire erupted around the natives surrounding them with intense heat.
Leif opened his eyes and nodded at his metallic friend. "Fire away."

[tag ember]

Ooc - Leif will use Energy Wall to surround whichever group John plans on
targeting. He can make an Wall in a 10 foot radius circle which does 2d6+2
w/in 10ft of the wall, 1d6+1 10-20ft, if they walk through the wall it does
an additional 2d6+2+5 (lvl). They can make a reflex save for half damage
(thought I don't see how that applies here). I can pick which side the wall
radiates damage - I'm partial to having it radiate in but if you all decide
otherwise, that is fine with me.

Tom Andry
Associate Editor
www.Audioholics.com
Over 1 million readers a month and growing!

Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?

L8r,

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[King, John]

I'll write something up tomorrow, but the gist of it is thus:
Ember will roll on the ground to position himself behind the illusion of the wraith. He will fire the manipulator so that it appears that the blast came from the wraith, not him positioned some 50? feet away (I'm not sure how much anyone will see anyways, apparently the fireball tracer pre-blast is about the size of a pea.

Then, depending on the carnage, and whether or not Ember decides to go crazy, he may or may not leave the scene. (Damn those warforged, you just never know!)

________________________________

[Angie Gignac]

[Bryn new]

Bryn watched with alarm as the native's ceremony became a chaotic mess. She'd asked for a distraction, not for complete anarchy. What good would the distraction do if all her friends were killed? At least it had served its purpose...none of the natives looked up to see the large owl fly away with its precious cargo.

Something in the firepit exploded, sending up a column of rushing hot air. Caught in the backdraft, the owl hooted as she struggled for control. What are they doing down there?! Clutching the knotted shirt tighter in her talons, Bryn winged her way around the conflagration and towards the path. There she hesitated--should she wait for the others, or go straight back to the marker? Lan had told her to meet them there, but she was afraid to go ahead alone. On the other hand, if the natives chased the ir'Valerians and she was with them, they could get the shard back.

Bryn decided to compromise by flying several hundred metres down the path. Finding a big tree with wide branches, she deposited her treasure safely in the crook, then settled down to wait for her friends to come by. She kept her eyes and ears open, just in case anybody or anything tried to relieve her of her burden. ~Is everybody okay?~ she thought in Lan's direction. ~I wait down the path. Afraid to go on alone.~

[tag Lan]

[Fabian Benavente]

When did the 'stealth mission'; turn into an 'attack mission'?

I thought you guys were doing fine up until now. Don't forget that Flask saw '40 natives'
and there are only about '20' visible now. The time to reconsider is now before I start
getting a picture in my mind of how the '40' natives are going to react.

[Les Anderson]

> I thought you guys were doing fine up until now. Don't forget that Flask saw '40 natives'
> and there are only about '20' visible now. The time to reconsider is now before I start
> getting a picture in my mind of how the '40' natives are going to react.

I agree. Taking on the entire village doesn't make much sense to me.
Bryn's out with nobody the wiser. Let's fade into the jungle and get
the hell out of there. They were distracted when the snake went crazy,
we don't need to illusion/fireball/firewall them. This all seems
unnecessarily provocative to me.

--
Les

[kirs...@yahoo.com]

No-one has died in a while, so we are getting cocky ;^)

Mel will gladly hightail it away the moment Lan reports Bryn has made
good her escape.

Besides, I couldn't miss a chance like this to play with illusions!

-Jussi

[Les Anderson]

Of course, now that I've said that Bryn will get noticed on her way
out of the cave, tracked back to the marker, and we'll get ambushed by
the entire village when we're not expecting it. ;)

--
Les

[King, John]

/sigh OK, no fireworks. Although I thought I remembered it being only about 30 natives. Blast 20, leaving 5 in the woods, 5 unaccounted for makes for a reasonable scenario. 15 unaccounted for changes things significantly. I'm not going to stir the hornets nest if I can't give it a good thwack/stomp/flambe and expect them all to be writhing around in pain. Since > 50% are not in the blast radius now, its far from optimal (I wish you had corrected me on this earlier!!)

So as to not completely blow Angie's post, I'll fire a warning shot into the rocks, thus bolstering Flask's illusion as dangerous but not necessarily merciless. Last thing we need is a vindictive tribe with a blood fued on our hands, eh?

I'll have to rework my post. Will try to get it out later.

________________________________

[King, John]

[ooc - OK, first off, sorry for the delay. I had pretty much geared up to write a simple declaration of war last night. Alas, when I read my inbox, I saw the light of reason and saw my previous direction was not to be (well, it was not going to be so simple). In the end, I'm glad there was a bit of debate about it, because I ended up having to justify Ember's actions quite a bit more and I think in the end it worked out for the better this way.

Unfortunately, it meant I had to doctor up a few posts. My humble apologies if anyone is displeased with the edits. I will gladly take re-edits if someone prefers their post to read in its original manner. Mostly, I just moved things around for flow, and changed Lan's references to following 'the others' to 'Belkar' since they are trekking it alone for the moment. I didn't include Angie's post in the attachment, but it would most logically follow some time at the end, after the fireworks have begun.

Oh, and one other thing. Due to the excessive use of italics by moi in this turn, I'm submitting it as a Word attachment instead to preserve its formatting. (Fabian - don't touch my formatting!) Poor Angie never got to see the director's cut of the first Valenar fight... Anyways, my apologies again, and I wish Bryn, Belkar, and Lan the best of luck on the rest of the ir'Valerian quest. Please ask Johan to swing by with the airship to pick up the rest of our bodies at a later date. /huggles]

[King, John]

and yes, mere seconds after sending it, I catch an error:

In Ember-new's second paragraph, please change "main" to "maim" (subtle but crucial difference.)

It should read thus:
Belkar turned to leave with Lan and then thought to pause. Turning back to the living construct, the human soldier added, "Also Ember, a reminder. A distraction is all we need, not a battle. If we can avoid drawing the ire of these people by refraining from bloodshed, I would prefer it. Bad enough that we're 'borrowing' their shard. If you must use force, opt to maim rather than kill. I'm sure you know that a wounded soldier occupies more enemy resources than a dead one."

________________________________

[Fabian Benavente]

Hey! So, like, where's the attachment?

L8r,

Fabian
Troubled Past - An Eberron PBEM
http://www.geocities.com/cfbenave/Eberron/Eberron-Page2.htm

[Les Anderson]

I got the attachment. It's weird that you didn't.

--
Les

--
Les

[Fabian Benavente]

I pulled off the website so I now have it.

Haven't read it yet (at work) but will do so tonight. Hopefully it's enough for me tomove
the game forward.

L8r,

Fabian
Troubled Past - An Eberron PBEM
http://www.geocities.com/cfbenave/Eberron/Eberron-Page2.htm

Fabian
http://www.geocities.com/izrador99/
Hope for the Children - A Midnight PBEM