Homebrew system thread II, part 2

[Kaelan]

Now the tray is safely down outside, dirt returns to retrieve the pack full of herbs, followed by a second trip to retrieve all of the said packs former contents along with his weapons. Once this is complete he will head over to the tower if the sounds of battle are still ringing.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

As Dale starts to bring the enchanted sword down, a thought comes to him; this is too easy, the last thing I was expecting was for it to actually believe me-maybe it really was caught between two powers between trying to control the circle and free itself and fend the attackers off? Maybe it really does have that little energy and effort to spare?

The blow connects and sends it reeling back against the stanchion, it looks as if it's shrunk slightly, looks older and tarnished. Finishing it?


Outside, putting it down- not without nearly tipping it, could have been disastrous but wasn't. The pack? What about the plant- Fifi's still in there. Don't leave her behind unless you really do want to re-enact the day of the triffids.

'There's not much of this lot has a worthwhile use to be honest.' Aburon says, looking at it all. 'Some yes, but most of it'll have to be disposed of safely, not even fire, more like forge temperatures, hotter if possible. I think the fungi might be the most valuable bit. Ready to blow things up? Good, come on then.'

[Simon_Jester]

As they head back to handle the demolitions (assuming Alfred and Dale finish off the last skeleton quickly, which seems likely), Larric says "being rid of the hell-brew, I can handle. It might take a while, though. First things first."

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred goes in, swinging his maul like a golf club at the skeleton's hip.

(OOC: Would you say this is any good?)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

As he swings it occurs to Alfred that this is indeed a shade too easy; thing should be putting up more of a fight than this. What exactly was it trying to cast earlier? Maul smashes into the thing's hip, does the same dust, mist, reform smaller; it looks less intelligent somehow, as if it's not all entirely there.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Uh-oh. Is the skeleton-wizard 'not all there' because it's dying, or because it's escaping?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

That's a good question. As you're running into the tower, you can try to answer it- although gods know how because Larric hardly really has any of the skills that might give him a grasp of what's going on; but as a leap of logic, it works.

It's outnumbered and doesn't stand much of a chance in a physical fight- might against people who were seriously impeded by the magic, but you were prepared, and lucky. This is the best chance it's had to be free in more than four hundred years, and although riding an exploding ritual circle may be pretty desperate as plans go, it is desperate.

It's (probably) trying to leave it's body behind, become a purely spiritual undead, and somehow ride the shockwave of the detonating circle. Not blowing this place up isn't really an option, though. Ideas?

[Fiji_Fury]

"Too easy," mutters Dale, spinning to look at the ritual circle. "Sir Alfred, stay your hand! Something is amiss here."

Dale is examining the currents of the circle and seeing if the spirit within the skeleton cast an illusion or something. (Perhaps he notices the same thing as Larric? Evaluate Roll = 5 - success. Perception Roll = 18 - fail; big fail. Tactics = 4 - success. Legends and Lore = 9 - success... let's see what story he cobbles together...)

"It's leaving it's body, and trying to merge with the currents in the circle. This is an attempt to escape its limits and overwhelm us. We need to destroy the body and destroy this place before it gathers too much non-corporeal power."

[Simon_Jester]

Larric trots into the room, crossbow in one hand and demolition charge set down just outside the tower door.

"You- ahg!" he recoils from the twitching skeleton.

"Does... need a long stick..."

He's thinking of trying to slide the bomb into the circle on a stick, but there may not be anything long enough to avoid walking on it, since it's pretty big. Nothing handy, I presume?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Twelve and a half foot diameter, and an attack roll for every round you spend in there (Alfred and Dale were very lucky.) Aburon has a staff with an axe blade on it, and he's looking at the circle, looking at the staff, looking at the tablet. Thinking, bugger.

'You think you've got problems? Mine has to go underneath.' he says, and in other circumstances that could be so much more disturbing. Hands Larric the staff. There's a funny look in his eye, more so as he calls across to Dale, 'Yes, go with that.'

[Simon_Jester]

[Since Larric's going for the first charge]

The circle's energies are a swirl of elemental energy- flame and thunder and frost. Larric waits for the right timing. Air magic is his affinity, he's judging the vibrations-and-waves aspect, looking for patterns in the stress and a moment when that will be the threat he confronts and overmatches. He takes the time to shield himself, wrap himself in ionization paths to channel power down and away instead of into his person, then steps out.

He'd thought of using the axehead to shuffleboard the thing into position, but he's not sure it'll work- sliding the thing across nine circles of runes just might set it off instead of being safer. Balancing the charge on the axehead and extending it before himself would be a job for a better-coordinated man.

I would THINK a combat round is long enough to step forward five or six feet, put the rune-bomb down, and back up; it'd almost have to be, since that's roughly equivalent physically to, say, "lunge and stab nearby crossbowman" or a similar action.

[Kaelan]

Dirt retrieve's fifi and the pack. Once safe, he heads back for a final run for the rest of his equipment.

OOC
I'll leave it up to ECR to say when Dirt's back in, so as not to interrupt the flow in the tower. I will still be reading the posts until I'm called to jump back in again.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Dale's given his advice; what's the rest of the party doing about it?

Dirt can tell there's a lot of kabooming going on in the tower, can choose to pop in when he likes; wouldn't expose Fifi to it though, improbable things might happen.

Larric's stepping in to place the thing does not go well- the tides of air are clear, he's protected against that, but all the others? battered by kinetic impacts and warped out of shape by transformational magic, animalised and made herbaceous- many things pluck and prod at him. Put the thing down recoil back out of the circle.

Pleasant surprise to realise that most of it washed over, stung and tickled and scraped but didn't bite deep; the only thing significantly wrong is that he appears to be slightly on fire. (Graze, one point wound, no specific area. Burns. Salvable, but stings intensely.)

'Why do you think I gave you the staff?' Aburon says, taking it back.

First charge is placed. What are Alfred and Dale doing?

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale will finish off the skeleton. After the last time he's going to switch things up a little though.

1) Haul the skeleton toward himself with Motion. 2) Bring sword up and around, making hard contact.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric grits his teeth and pats at the smoldering patches on his coat. "Got afraid of the wrong thing, made the wrong plan... you're up next, to wreck this place we need the third charge right away. I'll get on it."

Casts about for something to put a rune-bomb on. He would really rather not sacrifice his slate-book, he's sentimental about it. That leaves a few bits of paper he didn't use up sketching runes in the First Age fortress (come to think of it, one of the runes he did sketch might make a worthwhile centerpiece in its own right, but not without further study). But...

"Paper- not sturdy. Got any of that birchbark left?" Stuff has more the consistency of stiff cardboard, better for this job but Larric hasn't got any on hand. It's probably that or try to sketch on fabric, doable with a pencil but not great. Leather wrappings, stray bits of wood... Larric looks through his possessions trying to Scrounge the most suitable surface for a single-stage charge. Since all he's trying to blow up is the ironwork with this one, and said ironwork will probably be weakened by the effects of the other strikes, one stage ought to do the job hopefully if he pushes enough mana into it.

OOC:

I partly misunderstood the nature of the circle- was thinking in terms of attacks by varying modes of magic sequentially rather than simultaneously, which would allow good timing to make specialized protection effective.

But then, Larric made his mistake on the basis of naivete or excessive faith in an insufficiently complete defense mechanism, letting a slight excess of physical courage carry him into a situation motivated by his deep personal paranoia about unwanted explosions. Probably in character.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'We might not need it; two could be enough at this rate,' Aburon suggests to Larric.

Dale doesn't get far with Motion- too many contradictory effects in the air, he stepped out of the circle didn't he? The skeleton's fingers are twitching a lot, but not to defend itself; limited by how well it can dodge by the chains, anyway. The sword swipes through the thing's backbone, it falls in two pieces, the faint glow goes out of it's eyes. Should be it dead. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

The druid's leaning against the wall of the chamber; there's a crunching-tinkling-sizzling noise from below the circle, 'Mine's in place. Fleeing time.'

[Panzersharkcat]

He gives it one last smack to make sure it's dead. If it is, he makes ready to amscray out of there.

[Simon_Jester]

Reply to Aburon's first remark:

"You think so? Well, better safe than sorry." The alchemist makes a start at a third charge anyway, in the time Aburon's at work.

When Aburon finishes, Larric catches the druid's second remark, says "All right, I suppose we can try another shot after if we have to," and leaves his work (presumably) part-finished. Scoops up the partly completed rune-charge, the crossbow and any other impedimenta he might have left, and trots for the exit, hissing between his teeth at the way the movement pulls at his burns. Owie.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Just to clarify, Dale didn't get the motion magic to work, but hit the thing anyway. The skeleton does crumble to dust and thick white mist; the wire-work, almost steel flilgree, strung arcoss the roof of the chamber starts more than amking up for it, twitching and thrashing.

Is anybody doing something supremely daft like hanging around when the circle blows to see if it gives them superpowers or suchlike, or are you all taking the sane road and preferring to run and probably live?

[Panzersharkcat]

Nope. He's going to amscray.

[Fiji_Fury]

Oooohh... possibility of becoming a HULK? I will... run like hell.

[Kaelan]

Everything set and ready dirt trundles over in time to see the boom and dust start to settle, followed by what appears to be a mass exodus from the tower. As he already has super-intelligence (with regards to ogres) he's content to meet with the rest of the group outside.

[Simon_Jester]

I already said Larric was trotting out the door, and since he's the one holding the detonator, I'm preeety sure he's getting out of there before the thing blows up.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Everybody's out then? Nobody trying to break Colin's record of most multiply dead character- which belonged to a berserker who tried attacking the cardinal points of a much tamer ritual circle than this, from the inside? Oh, good. (Puts handful of twenty or so d20 away.)

Once at the first safe distance, the druid turns to look back at it, holds up his thumb and squints a bit- his familiar does the same with a wing- 'Right, this bit you get to watch, Larric- do the honours.'

Presumably something suitably impressive is said- and the trigger activated.

Kuquanese weather isn't massively terrible, as the general run of things goes. Hotter in the summer and colder in the winter than is really optimal for a human, and the storms of last winter were bad- gale- driven showers of sleet are never a highlight of most people's lives.

On the other hand, there's hardly ever the hot equivalent, a searing hurricane that bids fair to strip the cooked flesh from your bones and leave a small pile of charred fragments lodged in the teeth of the howling monster that is the wind. You know exactly what that would be like, now.

Edges of blast and turbulence waves lap out of the mound, searing the soil, setting the grass shaking, burning; flares of grey, granite light, bright enough to shine through yards of soil, half- blind you.

'See why I said we wouldn't need the third one? That's it out of control, unbound- now to finish it. This you don't want to stare at, in fact hide behind something solid, I'm not sure how much of the hilltop is going to go.'

Anybody doing anything before the second kabooming?

[Simon_Jester]

Larric's trigger is, unfortunately, not very impressive: "Close," and the surge that does just that to a circuit of runes. Sort of like Korolev launching rockets with unceremonious key-turns instead of big dramatic countdowns.



The kaboom is sufficient to make up for that, I hope.

"Right." He glances around. First question, are the toxic chemical supplies behind something sturdy? Might be best to quickly move them off Dirt's shield and prop the shield up OVER them, he does not want falling debris damaging the bottles. If that can be done before Aburon precipitates events, he'll try to arrange it.

Then, of course, find cover.