Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 15/49, Status = Fine, +22 Resistance (Arcane Mirror,) Telepathy to 12 different people, Upkeep = 0

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 34/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 45/61, Status = Fine
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 49/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins

Aluwin: Fine
Jax: Fine
Caden: Fine

Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth)
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth)

Willem: Fine
Paul: Fine

Rolls

Spoiler

Perceptions!
Nal: 31
Mavra: 43
Uldric: 29
Caden: 28
Aluwin: 33
Jax: 37

Kormac: 37
Jenkins: 39

Willem: 44
Paul: 26

Hunter1: 36
Hunter2: 41
Hunter3: 42
Hunter4: 41
Hunter5: 41
Hunter6: 38
Hunter7: 49
Hunter8: 36
Hunter9: 48
Hunter10: 52

AMBUSH FUCKERS
You are made aware of it, but yon hunters who were STEALTHED will get to act first next round, rather than Nal and her derps.

"Uhhh.... Yeah, that's probably a good idea. You're heading to Avenshire? We know the way, but you might want to rethink that... The place crawls right now!" The more talkative of the two Blue Falcons, Willem, opted to say. The two men looked slightly confused when initially added to the psychic network, but quickly fell into step as part of the advance guard as the group started to move on again.

They hurried, urged on by their fear of more of those monsters, but after a few blocks the mage started looking for someplace to hole up for a little while, that they might recover their strength. They didn't get far, unfortunately. Naltaibur had just spotted a small squat building with the only sign outside of it that of a half-full bottle when a formless shape detached itself from the wall. "Ambush!" Willem shouted, a call repeated only a heartbeat later by Mavra as the group scrambled to form up, [Ambush! The lizards!]

Creature after creature detached from the walls, too numerous and indistinct to get a proper count, but at least six of them started closing in from all sides after the loud call from Willem. The closest were barely more than ten feet away from the group as they closed in on them from all around, and there was no guarantee that they'd even seen all of them. They had been in the middle of a street heading towards the t-intersection where the shop she'd spotted lay when the attack happened, and while it hadn't been a main alley it had been a wider street, giving them just enough room to fight comfortably.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

While grateful that their two new additions proved capable in more than just battle, Naltaibur mentally slapped herself for not making sure the newcomers understood the function of the psychic thought-sharing network that was going to give her such a headache tomorrow (provided she lived that long) when he proved he very definitely did not, by shouting out loud and letting them know they'd been seen. ['Remind me to instruct you on using this communication,'] she thought to the two, before sending out orders. ['Warriors, raise shields and form a ring around the mages! Let them come to us! Mages, do what you can - Willem, take center - I want you spotting for those past my magic, and ready in reserve!']

Naltaibur funneled the wavering strength left in her core, constructing for herself a lantern of arcane words in her mind - structure and control forming the housing, clarity and vision the panes. Into this, she poured more of her power as fuel, and set it alight with a thought. She raised it aloft, letting her lantern hover above her to spread it's light and banish the damnable lizard's obfuscation. To those not trained in magic, it might seem as if the masked woman merely lifted an arm, and the surroundings quickly grew brighter with a strange glow, whose source was unknown, and which cast no shadows.

Naltaibur wondered if her fled lizard was among their attackers - if it had found its fellows, and set an ambush for her. If it had, she hoped dearly it had only found more of its ilk, and not much worse...

Spoiler

Casting L3 Arcane: Eldritch Lantern (Utility)
[A bright light illuminates up to 20 feet around the caster. Creatures may not attempt to make stealth checks while within the radius of this spell, and illusions become transparent so long as the light is near them allowing them to be identified without any additional checks.]

BC check 1d20+34 vs 20

EP cost 4, Nal's total now 11Ithink.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 11/49, Status = Fine, +22 Resistance (Arcane Mirror,) Telepathy to 12 different people, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 7

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 26/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant, Dominate on hunter 4, Blessed X = 7
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 38/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 7
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 49/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 7

Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 7

Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 7
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 7

Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 7


Enemies!
Hunter1: detected, taken 24 damage
Hunter2: detected, taken 24 damage
Hunter3: detected, taken 24 damage
Hunter4: detected, dominated by Mavra
Hunter5: detected, taken 16 damage
Hunter6: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter7: detected
Hunter8: detected, taken 31 damage
Hunter9: detected, fleeing, taken 25 damage
Hunter10: detected, taken 31 damage

Rolls

Spoiler

Foooorgot Annabeth's Perception check, she got a 53. Wooops.

3 hunters were undetected, originally, but now Annabeth can see them I guess. Herp. So, regular initiative time!

Naltaibur casts Eldritch Lantern!
Casting: Success.
Things within 20 feet of Naltaibur are revealed!

Annabeth casts Bone Grinder at one of the hunters.
Casting: Success.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 1 + 4 + 7 + 2 = 14, 14 * 4 = 56, 56 - 10 = 46 damage.

Mavra uses Telepathy, Dominate! On hunter... 4 I guess.
Resistance: Mavra wins! Hunter 4 is dominated.

Uldric uses Blessing X = 7.

Yon soldiers form up and attack the hunters, each with 20 defensive fighting. Yon Blue Falcons do not have shields, but they do have Duelist.
Attacks: All hit.
Damage (Mercenaries, swords) : 2 + 6 + 15 - 10 = 13 damage per hit.
Damage (Mercenaries, shields) : 2 + 4 + 5 + 10 - 10 = 11 damage per hit.
Damage (Guardsmen, swords) : 1 + 2 + 15 + 12 - 10 = 20 damage per hit.
Damage (Guardsmen, shields) : 1 + 1 + 1 + 10 + 8 - 10 = 11 damage per hit.
Damage (Blue Falcons) : 3 + 6 + 15 + 2 - 10 = 16 damage per hit.

Jax attacks hunter 1, Caden attacks hunter 2, Aluwin attacks hunter 3, Willem attacks hunter 5, Paul attacks hunter 6, Kormac attacks hunter 8, and Jenkins attacks hunter 10. Hunter 6 dies.

Hunters 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 try to attack yon soldiers.
Attacks: All miss.

Hunters 3 and 10 try to get through the soldiers to get at the mages. The soldiers successfully block them.

Hunter 9 moves to flee.

Hunter 4 attacks hunter 9.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 9 + 3 + 23 - 10 = 25 damage.

Willem either didn't want to waste the concentration on issuing a mental reply, or didn't yet know how to, and o didn't respond to Naltaibur's mental statement. The early revelation of the hunters assaulting them allowed the soldiers just barely enough time to form up around Naltaibur, Annabeth, and Mavra while Uldric moved to join the line. Willem and Paul, the two blue falcon mercenaries, lacked shields to add to the wall, but seemed quite adept at wielding their longer blades in quick motions that warded back the alien beasts. Within moment, Naltaibur's light cast out around, and the camouflage of their foes faded as they moved into range of the pale light cast by her magical lantern.

While protected in the center, Annabeth sent out a bolt of energy at one of the aliens, causing one of its arms to twist into an unnatural angle with a sickening crack. Uldric, as he stood in the line nearby, raised his hammer and let out a wave of light, filling them with the same powerful sense of confidence that they had had in their last battle. Mavra, in turn, set her gaze upon one of the hunters and suddenly caused it to stop in its tracks, its camouflage fading as it swayed in place despite that all of its comrades continued their charge... Save one, which turned and started away, quickly leaving the radius of Naltaibur's magic and vanishing from sight again. That one Mavra glared after, and the demoness quickly directed the creature that she had apparently dominated to chase it down, which the creature did immediately while remaining in sight. Its claws wracked across the fleeing monster's back, briefly causing red lines to appear while a reptilian hiss sounded from where the impromptu melee was taking place.

The soldiers around them, in the meantime, exchange blows with the attacking aliens, rebuffing them with sword and shield and not taking a scratch while the aliens received cuts and bruises from the blows. Only one of them, the one with the broken arm, had fallen to the exchange of attacks, but nearly all of the aliens were wounded, and two of them were rebuffed as they tried to break through the line and get their claws onto the three women standing in the center of the group. The ambush was going against their attackers quickly, it seemed.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

They seemed to be handling the ambush well enough, but with another two of those monstrous beings supposedly near, Naltaibur was still worried that things would take an unwelcome turn for the worse. Unconfident in the small reserve of her arcane strength left, Naltaibur thought to use the opportunity to use the opportunity to steal away some of their attacker's soulstuff to restore her own. Her pool wasn't especially deep to begin with - strenuous exertion of her power was infrequently called for, healing the mild ailments of her cityfolk clientele.

Magical script gleamed - to her eyes, at least - as Naltaibur wrote the formulas for her spell, speaking the words aloud as she did so - audible clearly, as if her mask were not there. When the last glyph was written into the faintly shimmering writing, floating in the air before the mage, the script coiled itself around Naltaibur's free arm. Seeking the least injured of their foes, Naltaibur sent the script to coil out and around the things between herself and her chosen target, sending the other end of her stretching runes to burrow somewhere inside its skin, wrapping around the undisciplined equivalent of it's source of power, whereupon it funneled whatever it could back to the exhausted elf.

Spoiler

Casting Mana Leak because that's totally reliable and a good idea.

L5 Arcane; BC 1d20+34 vs target number 40

2d8+8 x4 damage; 1/3 of damage is also drained as EP.

Sweet merciful RNG please let me not cock up this cast.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 20/49, Status = Fine, +22 Resistance (Arcane Mirror,) Telepathy to 12 different people, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 7

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 18/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant, Dominate on hunter 4, Blessed X = 7
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 7
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 43/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 7

Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 7

Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 7
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 7

Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 7


Enemies!
Hunter1: detected, taken 41 damage
Hunter2: detected, taken 71 damage, dead
Hunter3: detected, taken 74 damage, dead
Hunter4: detected, dominated by Mavra
Hunter5: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter6: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter7: detected, taken 67 damage and lost 17 EP, dead
Hunter8: detected, taken 91 damage, dead
Hunter9: detected, taken 132 damage, dead
Hunter10: detected, taken 91 damage, dead

Grabber 1: 70 feet away, East
Grabber 2: 70 feet away, East
Grabber 3: 75 feet away, East
Grabber 4: 75 feet away, East
Grabber 5: 80 feet away, East
Grabber 6: 80 feet away, East
Grabber 7: 40 feet away, West
Grabber 8: 40 feet away, West
Grabber 9: 40 feet away, West
Grabber 10: 45 feet away, West
Grabber 11: 45 feet away, West
Grabber 12: 45 feet away, West
Grabber 13: 20 feet away, on the roofs to the North
Grabber 14: 20 feet away, on the roofs to the North
Grabber 15: 20 feet away, on the roofs to the North
Grabber 16: 30 feet away, on the roofs to the South
Grabber 17: 30 feet away, on the roofs to the South
Grabber 18: 30 feet away, on the roofs to the South

Rolls

Spoiler

Naltaibur casts Mana Leak at hunter 7.
Casting: Success.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 3 + 4 + 6 + 2 = 15, 15 * 4 = 60, 60 - 10 = 50 damage. Naltaibur drains 1/3 as much EP from hunter 7, 50/3 = 17 EP drained.

Annabeth casts Bone Grinder at hunter 3.
Casting: Success.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 3 + 3 + 7 + 2 = 15, 15 * 4 = 60, 60 - 10 = 50 damage, killing the hunter.

Mavra uses Mind Cutter X = 8 on hunter 9!
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 8 + 5 + 1 = 14, 14 * 8 = 112, 112 - 5 = 107 damage. Ouchies.

Uldric smashes hunter 5 in the face with hammer and shield.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage (Hammer) : 4 + 2 + 34 - 10 = 30 damage.
Damage (Shield) : 1 + 3 + 3 + 19 - 10 = 16 damage.

Yon soldiers continue fighting! Now without defenses cuz mopping up and Uldric's Blessing being active.
Attacks: All hit.
Damage (Mercenaries, swords) : 3 + 4 + 15 - 10 = 12 damage per hit.
Damage (Mercenaries, shields) : 1 + 3 + 1 + 10 - 10 = 5 damage per hit.
Damage (Guardsmen, swords) : 6 + 1 + 15 + 12 - 10 = 24 damage per hit.
Damage (Guardsmen, shields) : 5 + 1 + 5 + 10 + 8 - 10 = 19 damage per hit.
Damage (Blue Falcons) : 4 + 6 + 15 + 2 - 10 = 17 damage per hit.

Paul attacks hunter 10. Willem attacks hunter 8. Jax attacks hunter 1. Caden attacks hunter 2. Aluwin attacks hunter 7. Kormac attacks hunter 8. Jenkins attacks hunter 10.


Hunter 4 attacks hunter 2.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 8 + 9 + 23 - 10 = 30 damage.

Hunter 1 shouts and activates full defense while the soldiers all close in. Reinforcement roll: 98/100. I was all >:3

18 grabbers come pouring down the street. Something else responds... Something powerful.

Naltaibur's magic, targeted at the only hunter not to be wounded in the melee between the soldiers and the aliens, tore into its spirit rather than its body, nonetheless leaving it staggered as she absorbed some of its shredded essence to replenish her own nearly spent energies. Beside her, Annabeth and Mavra used their various abilities to great effect, the former killing one of the hunters who had tried to break through the melee to get at them with a spell that turned its bones into sharp splinters while Mavra cut the creature that had been trying to flee into a number of bloody chunks. Ulrdic held the center of the line while the rest of the men formed an organized wall against the invader lizards, and when Mavra's controlled hunter joined the fray from behind things really turned against their ambushers.

By the end of the melee, all but one of the creatures was lying dead or dying before them, and the last of them was backing towards a corner that offered no escape, wounded and swiping with its claws to keep the men and its mind controlled kin at bay. It paused briefly to let out a loud, ululating cry halfway between the hiss of an Amazonian crocodile and the roar of one of the feline beasts she'd imported from Eastern Crolia. There was no answering cry in response, but that sadly did not mean that the call had gone unheeded.

Over the roofs of the buildings on either side of the street on which they'd been ambushed came small groups of creatures, striding comfortably across the thatch and tile roofing on spindly legs while tentacles waved wildly around them, all of their limbs attached to a round central body made of the same pallid gray flesh as the majority of the alien's forces. Six in total appeared, three on each side and out of easy sight, more were quick to appear from down the street in both directions. On one side to the West, six started filing into the street, still far away but rushing closer with every passing second, and on the other in the direction they'd been heading the creatures came from both sways on the intersecting street, closer than those to the West but only just so. Six on each side, with eighteen in total counting the ones on the roofs, but if that wasn't bad enough a sudden sense of instinctive dread suddenly hit Naltaibur, a sensation that swept over everyone around her but those with magical talents in particular as some force began gathering power nearby.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

FUCKING LIZARDS.

Naltaibur hadn't thought much of the tide of those putrescent little tentacle-bearing sacks of flesh that responded to the sole remaining invader-lizard's alert, but it looked that something else had heeded it's call. The two Falcons had said there were two more of those giant tentacled bastards around... Naltaibur wasn't sure that the group could take one, given that it had taken all of them filling one with arrows last time and an immense ethereal slice by Mavra, and her demonesses' reserves were flagging worse than Naltaibur's own was right now. Given that they would also have to contend with a horde of distracting little vermin on top of that, Naltaibur decided that discretion would be the better part of valor, this time.

['We're leaving,'] she said with a thought. ['Our mission is too important, and this battle just became too risky. Mavra, those things coming will tear control of that thing away from us - see if you can kill or maim it so it can't chase us. We'll head through this building closest to us, but wait until I can hide our passage. The fog will be thick, so Anna, lead our way.']

The hand holding aloft the origin-less light permeating their vicinity lowered itself, and Naltaibur clenched it into a fist, snuffing out her lantern. She often worked with water spells in what used to be her everyday life; magically summoned water was clean, and was a simple and undemanding spell as well. So, while the spell she was about to use itself was not one she used regularly, Naltaibur was still very familiar with the basic tenets of the school it fell under. A short incantation later, and she held aloft not a lamp, but a roiling orb of cloudy grey mist, which soon exploded, obscuring them in thick mist.

['Go!']

Spoiler

Killing Eldritch Lantern, casting Rolling Mists.

L2 Water spell, Roiling Mists (Utility)
[Fills an area of up to 200 square feet with mists, causing all creatures within it to take a -20 penalty to their Perception.]

BC 24 vs Difficulty 10
Cost: 2 EP

Use it to screen our escape and whatnot.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 18/49, Status = Fine, +22 Resistance (Arcane Mirror,) Telepathy to 12 different people, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 7

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 11/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant, Blessed X = 7
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 7
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 36/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 7

Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 7

Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 7
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 7

Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 7
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 7


Enemies!
Hunter1: detected, taken 41 damage
Hunter2: detected, taken 71 damage, dead
Hunter3: detected, taken 74 damage, dead
Hunter4: detected, taken 65 damage, dead
Hunter5: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter6: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter7: detected, taken 67 damage and lost 17 EP, dead
Hunter8: detected, taken 91 damage, dead
Hunter9: detected, taken 132 damage, dead
Hunter10: detected, taken 91 damage, dead

Grabber 1: ???
Grabber 2: ???
Grabber 3: ???
Grabber 4: ???
Grabber 5: ???
Grabber 6: ???
Grabber 7: ???
Grabber 8: ???
Grabber 9: ???
Grabber 10: ???
Grabber 11: ???
Grabber 12: ???
Grabber 13: ???
Grabber 14: ???
Grabber 15: ???
Grabber 16: ???
Grabber 17: ???
Grabber 18: ???

Rolls

Spoiler

Naltaibur drops Eldritch Lantern and casts Rolling Mists.
Casting: Success.

Mavra uses Mind Cutter X = 7 on hunter 4.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 1 + 8 + 1 = 10, 10 * 7 = 70, 70 - 5 = 65 damage.

Perception (Grabbers) : ???
Perception (???) : ???

Annabeth has to blast open the door with a level 2 Force bolt.

[Alright,] Mavra replied quickly, while the rest of their embattled group gave nonverbal affirmatives. Dropping her lantern and conjuring a wave of fog, Naltaibur was soon barely able to see her own hand waved in front of her eyes. "This way!" Annabeth whispered harshly, needing to be heard to be followed as she pressed toward the building on their left. The tentacled creatures moved silently, and their own bootsteps left their foes impossible to hear, and when the crash followed by a curse was followed by a much louder crash as Annabeth had to blast open the locked portal.

They filtered through, the mists following them in thin wisps of ghostly white gas, into a grocers hall. The shelves were pristine, at least nearby, and it was a large enough building that they could all fit in the entrance hall with room to spare. Unfortunately, now they had no way of telling where their foes were, and couldn't yet determine whether her tactic had worked. They might find refuge among the shelves, but wandering as a group would make them easy to find, meaning that they could not hide effectively unless they split up.

"What now?" Willem grunted somewhat breathlessly, wiping dark blood from his sword onto a discarded sack meant for carrying the produce available on offer, and half the others turned to look to Naltaibur while Uldric, Mavra, and Annabeth all looked towards the door.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

The things... their pursuers, uniformly, had no eyes, but it was magic... she hoped enough of it had been dispersed into the cloud she'd created to scramble whatever freakish senses they had. The fog was proving a problem for them, however, and they didn't have time to stumble about - they really wanted to be long gone by the time another one of those things showed up, so as she as pushing them towards the back of the shop, she was also casting another spell, which would (hopefully) find them an alternate exit to quickly abscond through - or, barring an entrance, a window or somesuch.

It was a rather esoteric spell - dealing nothing of with her chosen specialty of the body, but neither with the direct manipulation of pure magic, either. She understood it rather like a swirling cloud of fireflies, which could hear her thoughts on where she wanted to go, and would swarm the area to figure the best way for her to go. The 'fireflies' were simple motes of spellpower, made to spill out over the area and find a path for her. Naltaibur would end up taking the lead, at least until they were out of there - the thread of 'fireflies' was hers, after all.

Spoiler

Casting Find (L3 Arcane) to Find the quickest and safest way away from this bullshit, out the back of the grocer's. Through a door, hopefully - if not, through a window.

I'm hoping the spell automatically redirects according to 'danger', since the spell is all like 'you can do that' and doesn't really mention specifically that I have to manually say 'nah fuck that route because of [xxx] try again', because 2scary.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 14/49, Status = Fine, Find to an escape route, Telepathy to 12 different people, Roiling Mists, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 2

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 11/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant, Blessed X = 2
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 2
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 36/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 2

Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 2

Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2

Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 2


Enemies!
Hunter1: detected, taken 41 damage
Hunter2: detected, taken 71 damage, dead
Hunter3: detected, taken 74 damage, dead
Hunter4: detected, taken 65 damage, dead
Hunter5: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter6: detected, taken 62 damage, dead
Hunter7: detected, taken 67 damage and lost 17 EP, dead
Hunter8: detected, taken 91 damage, dead
Hunter9: detected, taken 132 damage, dead
Hunter10: detected, taken 91 damage, dead

Grabber 1: ???
Grabber 2: ???
Grabber 3: ???
Grabber 4: ???
Grabber 5: ???
Grabber 6: ???
Grabber 7: ???
Grabber 8: ???
Grabber 9: ???
Grabber 10: ???
Grabber 11: ???
Grabber 12: ???
Grabber 13: ???
Grabber 14: ???
Grabber 15: ???
Grabber 16: ???
Grabber 17: ???
Grabber 18: ???

Rolls

Spoiler

Naltaibur casts Find to try and get an escape rout, giving up her Resistance buff.

But does she escape?

Releasing one defensive spell and enacted a bit of magic that would, in theory, allow her and her cohorts to escape. The added barrier around her and the mental network that she was the central nexus of was lost, but hopefully the guiding spell would allow them to get out without testing her willpower again. The guiding force was, briefly, confused, whether by her imprecise directions or by pure difficulty in fulfilling her request for a safe way out of the building, she couldn't tell.

The magic eventually directed her along a path, leading deeper into the fairly expansive store, and the others followed along after the elven physician without asking, even the soldiers they had just met. The path shifted this way and that, driving her to the right along the shelves, passing a corpse lying in a pool of dried blood. The body was that of an elf woman, of indeterminate age, with the throat torn out completely, and the others passed the grim reminder of what might happen to them with looks of silent disgust.

Noise filtered in from outside, motion, and just as they went into a small chamber off the main one, where only employees of the place might normally be allowed, and just as Mavra filtered in behind her there was a noise from the entrance. A loud, crashing noise, as if something had been knocked over by someone or something moving quickly. Through the passage, in the chamber, Naltaibur was led into the bathroom, the piece of imported Badarian technology that made for convenient removal of bodily waste into the sewers, and her spell... Was pointing her directly down into the bowl.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

A wave of frustration and anger that Naltaibur could not entirely muffle escaped over her mental threads to the others as she realized where her spell was leading. She could have sworn it took into account passibility for its user! Was it because of her vague instructions? Had she miscast the spell?

Bah, it was immaterial. [Mistake,] she thought. [Fixing. Let's go, quickly,] Judging by those crashes, the enemy had entered the building - a terrifying thought, but one she hoped meant they would be caught within the building as they made their escape. The crashes reminded her dreadfully of her first encounter with the tremendous beasts the invaders employed against them - one of those coupled with her weak strength at the moment and the presence of one, if not two of those tentacled things that wrested control of her lizard so easily away from her - which seemed to mean that her usual strategy would simply not be possible - led her to definitely not want to be trapped in a fight here.

The night elf re-set her destination, as they moved, bidding the spell to lead her simply to the building's door to the backalley, away from the store's front that was surely crawling with their enemy now. If it were locked, she signalled Anna to blow it open once more, checked only briefly before waving the shield-men forward.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 14/49, Status = Fine, Find to an escape route, Telepathy to 12 different people, Roiling Mists, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 2, 11/17 Resistance

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 11/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant, Blessed X = 2, 27/30 Resistance
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 2
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 36/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 2

Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 2, Grappled by Grabber 4, 10/15 Resistance
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 2, Grappled by Grabber 2, 6/15 Resistance
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 2

Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2, Grappled by Grabber 3, 8/15 Resistance
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2

Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 2


Enemies!

Grabber 1: Dead
Grabber 2: Grappling Jax
Grabber 3: Grappling Kormac
Grabber 4: Grappling Aluwin, taken 19 damage
Grabber 5: Dead
Grabber 6: waiting in line
Grabber 7: waiting in line
Grabber 8: waiting in line
Grabber 9: Dead

Grabber 10: ???
Grabber 11: ???
Grabber 12: ???
Grabber 13: ???
Grabber 14: ???
Grabber 15: ???
Grabber 16: ???
Grabber 17: ???
Grabber 18: ???

Rolls

Spoiler

Naltaibur redirects her Find spell, gets pointed to the back door. Aaaand they run into trouble.

Perception: Naltaibur and all of the soldiers except Willem and Paul fail. Those two, Mavra, Uldric, and Annabeth get to react.

Attacks: The five grabbers who can get into range all hit various people, with four more approaching behind them.
Naltaibur, Mavra, Aluwin, Jax, and Kormac are all grappled.
Resistance Damage (in the above order) : 6, 3, 5, 9, 7 resistance damage.

Willem attacks Grabber 4. Paul attacks Grabber 5. Both use Lightning Strikes.
Attacks: All three hit for Paul, Willem misses twice though.
Damage: 5 + 3 + 15 - 6 + 2 = 19 damage per hit, 19 total on Grabber 4 and 57 on Grabber 5, who dies.

Uldric smacks at Grabber 1.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage (Hammer) : 3 + 3 + 34 = 40 damage.
Damage (Shield) : 4 + 4 + 2 + 19 = 29 damage.
Grabber 1 falls!

Mavra is out of EP, so she does nothing right now.

Annabeth casts Bone Snap at one of the unengaged Grabbers.
Casting: Success.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 4 + 3 + 7 + 2 = 16, 16 * 3 = 48 damage on Grabber 9, killing it.

Filing out of the corner they'd trapped themselves in thanks to Naltaibur's spell, the night elf never making her intentions apparent to the ones she was leading around but letting her allies know her frustration at the failure of the spell that should have told her where she could go to get them somewhere safe, Naltaibur and her group found themselves once more in the grocer's with the enemy bearing down upon them. Heading as quickly as they could for the rear exit, they got about a quarter of the way there before Annabeth shouted a warning, and the aliens were upon them in full. Smoothly walking over the store shelves via their tendrils, five of the tentacle monsters that had ambushed them lunged into their midst, bringing down Mavra, Aluwin, Jax, Kormac, and Naltaibur herself all at once. Chaos erupted, panic spreading like a disease over the mental network maintained by the elven mage, quickly followed by lust as tendrils slipped into the weaker points of her protective gear and spread their aphrodisiac slime against her skin.

More lust spread as the others who had been brought down, nowhere near as protected as Naltaibur, were likewise afflicted with the aphrodisiac poison. The situation was quickly reduced from catastrophic to merely troubling, however, as those who had heeded the other mage's warning sprang into action. Paul lunged upon the slimy, featureless creature that had brought Naltaibur to the ground underneath it, stabbing it deep once, twice, and a third time before it suddenly went limp, and he quickly kicked it off of her and dragged her to her feet. Uldric brought his hammer to bear against the one that was already worming its tentacles into Mavra's clothes, smashing the top half of it into paste through a flimsy defense of waving tentacles with a single strike and then swatting the flailing thing away with a second blow from his shield. Willem was somewhat less successful in getting the squirming monster off of Aluwin, its tentacles spoiling several of the blows that he had aimed at it, but he persevered even as the man squirmed and Caden moved to assist in getting the thing away from his commander.

"More of them!" Annabeth called even as the Star Priestess unleashed a blast of warping energy from an outstretched hand against an unengaged beast, causing its body to liquefy in what would have been a fairly gruesome manner had it been a terrestrial creature, but in this case was merely disgusting. Three more of them were indeed perched on shelves, ready to launch themselves upon the hapless defenders of Therion, and judging by the noise coming from the rest of the store, even more would upon them all too soon.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Naltaibur stumbled back against a shelf as a fat slimy sack crash into her, half-blinded by the thing pressing against her mask. She felt it trying to squirm horribly towards her crotch through a tear in the front of her robe, and saw a wormlike tendril squirming in through the holes at the end of her mask's beak, towards her helpless face. Thankfully, someone rescued her - one of the Blue Falcons, she registered somewhat vaguely - but, caught by the horde, they were still in dire straits, and Naltaibur started working to hopefully salvage the situation before her grievous errors in judgement doomed them all.

As soon as she felt the invader clinging to her's grip start to weaken, and tentacles grow sluggish, Naltaibur started incanting a spell, and as soon as she was free, she searched the chaos for a target - there, the wounded one, pinning Aluwin - and hurled it at it, pillaging it for its energies, tearing up it's body violently in the process.

['Up! Get everyone up!']

Spoiler

Casting L3 Arcane spell: Energy Leech (Bolt) on the grabber on Aluwin
[Deals damage to a targets EP instead of its HP, but also deals damage as a spell one level lower. The caster regains an amount of EP equal to half of the damage dealt by this spell.]

BC 24 + 12 (focus) - 8 (resistance damage) vs DC 20
Mind: 34

Bolt damage formula: 2d4 + Mind/6 + 2 (focus)
Damage multiplier: x2

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 24/49, Status = Fine, Find to an escape route, Telepathy to 12 different people, Roiling Mists, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 2, 7/17 Resistance, Grappled by Skyray 1, Mouth Penetrated, Blinded

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 11/79, Status = Fine, Pregnant, Blessed X = 2, 27/30 Resistance
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 2
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 32/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 2, Grappled by Skyray 3, Mouth Penetrated, Blinded

Merc Stats w/ crossbows and swords, also duelist
Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 2, 10/15 Resistance
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 2, 6/15 Resistance
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 2

Therion Guard Stats
Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2, 8/15 Resistance
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2

Archer/Duelists
Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 2


Enemies!

Grabber 1: Dead
Grabber 2: Dead
Grabber 3: Dead
Grabber 4: Taken 19 damage, unconscious from EP damage
Grabber 5: Dead
Grabber 6: taken 19 damage
Grabber 7: taken 19 damage
Grabber 8: taken 19 damage
Grabber 9: Dead

Grabber 10: Up, taken 31 damage
Grabber 11: Up, taken 31 damage
Grabber 12: Up
Grabber 13: Up, taken 31 damage
Grabber 14: Up, taken 31 damage
Grabber 15: Up
Grabber 16: Up
Grabber 17: Up
Grabber 18: Up

Hunter: Dead

Skyray 1: Grappling Naltaibur, penetrating her mouth
Skyray 2: Trying to grab Mavra
Skyray 3: Grappling Annabeth, penetrating her mouth

Elder Lord

Rolls

Spoiler

Naltaibur casts Energy Leech at the grabber on Aluwin.
Casting: Success.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 4 + 2 + 6 + 2 = 14, 14 * 2 = 28 EP damage. Naltaibur gains 14 EP for a net gain of 10.

Mavra, not having enough EP to spend on any of these schmucks, just uses full defense.

Perception (Mavra) : Success.
Perception (Annabeth) : Success.
Because both succeeded, no one is caught by surprise when more monstahs show up.

Uldric tries to kill the one grappling Kormac.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage (Hammer) : 1 + 2 + 34 = 37 damage.
Damage (Shield) : 5 + 1 + 2 + 19 = 27 damage.
Grabber 3 is squished.

A hunter tries to attack Uldric.
Attack: Miss.

Willem attacks grabber 2.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage (Sword) : 6 + 4 + 15 + 12 = 37 damage.
Damage (Shield) : 2 + 5 + 4 + 10 + 8 = 27 damage.

Kormac attacks the hunter that just attacked Uldric.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage (Sword) : 5 + 3 + 15 + 12 - 10 = 25 damage.
Damage (Shield) : 5 + 4 + 4 + 10 + 8 - 10 = 21 damage.
Since it was already wounded, it drops.

Aluwin, Caden, and Jax attack grabbers 6, 7, and 8 respectively.
Attacks: All hit.
Damage: 3 + 1 + 15 + 2 = 21 damage to each.

Three Skyrays attack, targeting Mavra, Annabeth, and Naltaibur.
Attacks: Naltaibur is hit, Mavra dodges, Annabeth is hit.
Those skyrays roll to pen.
Grapple: Naltaibur's mouth has been penetrated even after I gave a hefty +10 bonus for her mask. Annabeth doesn't even have a chance.
Resistance Damage: 4.
Resistance Check vs Paralysis: Naltaibur and Annabeth both save.

Howe it works is that both are treated as if they were Blinded so long as they are penetrated, but Nal and Annabeth can both act normally despite being grappled. The Skyrays cannot put them into submission holds or otherwise inhibit them. However, no one can attack the things without also hitting the people they're attached to.

Grabbers 6-8 try to grab the dudes who chopped them.
Attacks: All three miss.

Annabeth tries to cast healing touch in order to kill the thing, using it to deal damage.
Casting: Failure.

A lightning bolt smashes through the ceiling, clipping Uldric, Kormac, Willem, and Jenkins.
Attacks: Uldric and Kormac get missed, Willem and Jenkins get hit.
Damage: 1 + 1 + 9 = 11, 11 * 4 = 44 damage. The damage is quartered for going through a building first, reducing it to 11, and then Uldric and Kormac take a quarter of that. In the end, after armor gets taken into account, no one takes any damage.

A hole opens up in the ceiling, and the other grabbers start coming through it.

Paul, switching to his bow, shoots at ye descending grabbers.
Attacks: 4 hits and a miss.
Damage: 7 + 4 + 6 + 10 + 8 - 4 = 31 damage per shot.

Naltaibur's mental command, combined with her quick blast of a spell that caused the coiling monstrosity on Aluwin to seize in on itself and collapse as she ripped its soul apart, had her group moving to regain their defenses against the encroaching aliens. Things seemed to turn around again, with the tentacled beasts dying to her, Uldric, and the soldiers until only the three left hanging on the sehlves were left. Uldric freed Jax, leaving the mercenaries she'd met at the church to engage them, slashing away their tendrils and stepping back and away before the rest could grab them, securing that flank at least. Mavra, in the midst of the melee, gritted her teeth and stood by Naltaibur. The mutant physician could practically feel the demon's desire to help, but at that point her energies were all but spent, and while she had used them almost freely before now she had no choice but to save the last of her strength in case they ran into further trouble.

[Behind you!] Annabeth shrieked psychically, and Uldric spun, bringing up the shield that he had just used to swat a tentacled beast off of Jax to protect him from the claws of one of the lizard creatures. Kormac leaped to the priest's defense, slamming against the heavyset reptilian beast and smashing it against a nearby shelf set against the wall and momentarily pinning it. Even enhanced by Annabeth's magic, the larger alien's weight would see it out of that pin in short order, and its flailing arms were already reaching around Kormac's shield towards his vulnerable flesh. Before any harm could befall the man, however, he slipped his sword along the edge of his shield and slid it into the aliens' body, piercing flesh and sliding between its ribs, before he viciously wrenched it free of the monster's flesh. The hunter flopped to the ground in a heap, bleeding its life's blood.

[More!] Annabeth again shrieked, and a trio of smaller grey creatures suddenly hurled themselves from the same direction that the swarming tentacle creatures. About the dize of a dinner plate not counting the extended bony limbs that looked eerily like fingers or the skin stretched between them that allowed the smaller monsters to extend their flight, and a long tail snaked behind them as they sailed through the air. Annabeth, Mavra, and Naltaibur were their targets, but only Mavra would be able to avoid the one jumping at her to any degree, swatting the creature away as it landed on her chest. The one that lunged at Annabeth hit her square in the face, and its bony limbs wrapped around her head immediately, lacing through her hair as its tail lashed out and coiled around her throat before she could wrench it away. The star priestess would let out a muffled scream of protest that was quickly muffled, and a moment later Naltaibur would find out why first hand as the one that had attacked her scrambled up her abdomen, having hit her in the belly, wrapped its tail around her throat.

Spindly, bony limbs reached into the crack between her mask and her suit, worming beneath it and forcing her mask up so that it could crawl beneath far more quickly than it had any right to. Soon enough it had her blinded just as badly as Annabeth, and even as more of the slime seeped into her skin, leaving her cocks hardening even more beneath her badly damaged suit and her natural sex starting to drip with arousal, it forced a thick tube between her lips that began to pour a thick, viscous liquid down her throat. Choking on it, Naltaibur felt the weak venom trying to cause her muscles to seize up already, but for the moment her body could handle it.

Were that the last of their woes, it likely would have just meant a bit more fighting before they could flee. Unfortunately, the aliens had more in store for them. A deafening crash suddenly thundered around them, and though Naltaibur couldn't see she definitely felt the building rock around her. The air was suddenly filled with static, small shocks went up Naltaibur's legs, and she felt her side pelted with debris in the direction that Uldric had been, but she was otherwise unaffected by the sudden explosion. She heard a few curses, and then Mavra stuttered; "Oh gods.... Thunderlord help us." Through the psychic link she still maintained, Naltaibur saw through her lover's eyes, saw the second of the floating horrors hovering over a hole it had blasted in a roof, and saw the tide of lesser tentacled beasts climbing down on their slimy limbs towards the beleaguered group. She saw one of the blue falcon soldiers put aside his sword to draw his bow, saw him send a volley of fire up at the oncoming creatures, but even as all but one of his five arrows hit their mark the shots only seemed to sink into the grey flesh, and the tide kept on coming. Soon enough they were hanging from the ceiling, and with the greater monster still hovering above and some of the lesser creatures already in their midst things were looking dire indeed.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

The lethal battle around her was only a blur briefly before some new and alarming brand of invader obscured it with it's grey underside, the thing viciously worming its way through her mask, shoving it off her face and making the straps of her protective mask wrench and pull at her hair. Shortly it forced some horrible appendage into her mouth, and she tasted some foul slime that it began excreting, making her muscles begin to feel heavy. A tremendous crash and their shared senses told her that this assault on her person was far from the least of her troubles, however, for through Mavra's eyes she beheld a second of those fearsome magical beasts. Her spellcasting ability in disarray, there was only one real option to her worried mind.

Through the split in her mind, Naltaibur sent a hurried command. ['If this fails, flee. Strength in numbers. Do what you can, and survive.']

Then, summoning up all but a few breaths of her power, Naltaibur lashed out a vicious, lethal tendril of thought, seeking the dreadful power she felt in her mage's senses. When she felt it, she wrapped around it and squeezed, her power rushing through her to burn her enemy's mind to cinders. Her power was fire, it was acid, it was lightning - it was everything lethal, and she poured it into the terror's mind, core, and soul, destroying all that she could.

The volume of power she was using was beyond her, and Naltaibur felt it sear her as it left her as she freed it to course out of her and destroy her enemy. Her insides burned, and Naltaibur felt the sticky warmth of blood cut a path down and out her nose. But if that thing was not killed swiftly, then their doom was practically assured.

Spoiler

Casting Mind Worm, option one.
1) The character pays 4 + X EP. One target creature within 50 feet of the character must win a Resistance check against DC 5X or be killed instantly. This effect erases their mind completely, turning them into a lifeless vegetable that cannot even feed itself. This damage cannot be repaired in any way, even by the character who used this power.

EP ceiling is 9.

Spending 23 EP and 7 HP, which should give me an X of 12, for a DC 60.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 38/45, PP = 53, EP = 1/49, Status = Low on EP, Find to an escape route, Telepathy to 12 different people, Roiling Mists, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 2, 15/17 Resistance, Aroused, Pregnant with Skyray Eggs (Mouth, 6)

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 0/79, Status = Unconscious, Pregnant, Blessed X = 2, 27/30 Resistance
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 2
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 32/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 2

Merc Stats w/ crossbows and swords, also duelist
Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 2, 10/15 Resistance
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 2, 6/15 Resistance
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 2

Therion Guard Stats, shield/sword
Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2, 8/15 Resistance
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2

Archer/Duelists
Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 2


Enemies!

Grabber 1: Dead
Grabber 2: Dead
Grabber 3: Dead
Grabber 4: Taken 19 damage, unconscious from EP damage
Grabber 5: Dead
Grabber 6: Dead
Grabber 7: Dead
Grabber 8: Dead
Grabber 9: Dead

Grabber 10: Dead
Grabber 11: Dead
Grabber 12: Dead
Grabber 13: Dead
Grabber 14: Dead
Grabber 15: Dead
Grabber 16: Dead
Grabber 17: Dead
Grabber 18: Dead

Hunter: Dead

Skyray 1: Dead
Skyray 2: Dead
Skyray 3: Dead

Elder Lord: Dead

Rolls

Spoiler

Naltaibur uses Mind Worm function 1, X = 12, forcing the elder lord to make a DC 60 Resistance check or be deded.
Resistance: 17 + 54 = 71, success. Poor poor Naltaibur.

Mavra uses Mind Cutter, X = 11, for the last of her EPs. Single target on the elder lord.
Attack: Hit, but only thanks to Uldric's Blessing.
Damage: 6 + 7 + 1 = 14, 14 * 11 = 154, 154 - 3 = 151 damage. ALMOST KILLS IT.

Paul, the last hope, aims his bow up and fires one shot. ONE SHOT. He needs an 11 or higher to hit.
Attack: And he rolls..... a 17. Hit.
Damage: More than 9.

DOWN HE GOES. Paul is now owed many many blowjobs. The other people, who were about to flee at Naltaibur's command, regroup and FIGHT ON.

Uldric splats grabber 6.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage: Enough.

Willem attacks grabber 7. I forgot he was a duelist and not a shield fighter last round.
Attacks: All three hit.
Damage: Enough.

Kormac attacks grabber 8.
Attacks: Both hit.
Damage: Enough.

Aluwin, Caden, and Jax attack grabbers 10, 11, and 13 respectively.
Attacks: All hit.
Damage: Enough to finish them.

Three Skyrays continue their attack, with the now helpless Mavra getting it in the face and Annabeth/Naltaibur getting egged. Annabeth will try to cast Lesser Healing Touch for damage in order to get rid of it first.
Casting: Success.
Grapple: 19 + 10 + 10 = 39 vs 34 = 10 + 24, success.
Damage: 2 + 1 + 8 + 2 = 13, 13 * 2 = 26 damage.
SUCCESS. She avoids eggs in her throat.

Resistance Damage: 5
Resistance Check vs Paralysis: Naltaibur succeeds and is not paralyzed.
I went ahead and rolled her grapple checks, since it will take about 2 more rounds for yon mooks to kill all of the grabbers and get to the face hugged women. She successfully unpenetrates herself next round, but then becomes Aroused, and fails to throw it off as it repens her. It gets another round of egg laying before someone helps get it off of her and kills it.
Eggs: 1d4+1 per round, totals to 6 after two rounds

It takes Uldric and the various soldiers two rounds of chopping that I don't feel like rolling for to kill all of the grabbers, at which point one kills the skyray that Naltaibur just
NOTICE CHECK TO SEE IF ANYONE SEES HER FACE.
Aluwin maybe sees. Maybe.

That leaves Annabeth puking all over the place, Mavra out cold with a facehugger still raping her face, and everyone else more or less alright. Naltaibur gains 5 corruption and 10 experience for surviving a day in Therion. At this point, as requested I'll end the combat-y portions of the thread.

Whatever response her companions might have to her command, quite possibly the last that she might deliver to them if her situation grew any more dire, was drowned out in the lash of agony that erupted in her skull as the elven physician called upon more psychic power than her mind could safely control at any one time. It left her energies spent and her head splitting, but despite the pain she guided the deadly wave of psychic energy towards its target. When she collided against the will of alien creature, however, Naltaibur found herself up against a mind unlike any that she had ever come upon before.

The float alien's intelligence was not only an entity in and of itself, but a part of a greater one, with thick metaphysical tendrils tying the immensely powerful mind to an even greater whole. No amount of power that she could ever hope to wield could have hoped to work on a being as powerful as this, the sheer weight of it's mind and spirit dwarfing her own magical power, but just like with the other invaders she found that it's body was an incredibly simple thing, little more than a piece of meat that the portion of the alien intelligence inhabiting it could control, and like the others it was possessed of programming rather than a true mind of its own, one that was clearly shaped rather than evolved. It was that programming that she could attack, that she could disrupt enough to leave its body dead so that its mind and spirit no longer had a conduit through which they could affect the physical world, and so she did.

Unfortunately, as much power as she had shunted into the psychic attack leveled against the floating monster, it wasn't enough to overwhelm the thing's will, not with even the mild magical defenses that it had enacted before coming to attack the cornered group. She felt her power failing, felt it being spent against the patient invader's stalwart defenses of the simplistic neurological patterns that allowed its body to function that saw her energies scattered before they ever reached it, and despite the fury and frustration that might rise at her failed attack there was nothing that she could do. Naltaibur simply had no more energy to throw at it.

As she felt her assault fail, however, there came another burst of potent psionic power from just beside her, a familiar, comforting presence standing at her side. [No,] Mavra said simply, [not today!] And then the demoness let loose her power, all that she had left, in another perfectly precise wave of concentrated force. The psychic blade tore through its target's flesh like a physical blade through wet paper, slicing clean through at an angle starting at the demoness from which it issued and ending at the alien's shoulder, but despite that a third of it practically sloshed off the monster simply refused to fall. Mavra, however, was no longer so stalwart. The demoness had expended the very last of her energies in her efforts to destroy the threat hovering above them, and her vision blackened and her mind went dark as Naltaibur watched her devastating attack fail.

As despair loomed and those around her prepared to break and scatter, no doubt to be picked off by the alien horde one by one, another vision flitted into her exhausted mind. Paul's vision, the archer concentrating with all his might on his target as he raised his bow and took aim, through the horde of lesser tentacled monstrosities crawling down through the ruined building towards them. One shaft was put to the string of his bow as he took careful aim, and then loosed through the maelstrom of gray flesh towards the butchered floating alien lord. Still recovering from the blow that Mavra had dealt it, the half-dead alien couldn't twist away in time, and the arrow sunk into its head just beneath where its chin would be. The sharpened steel tip pierced deep, and did with sheer physical power and precision what her desperate psychic attack had failed to do as it struck the monster's primitive brain. The floating thing collapsed through the hole it had blasted in the roof, landing a few feet from Naltaibur as nothing more than a carcass, and suddenly hope sung through Naltaibur's psychic network.

"Fight on!" Father Uldric cried, "fight on! We can win this! We will win this!" The mercenaries and soldiers who had been about to break rallied as one, divisions of loyalty broken against their common foe as they fought side by side against the remaining tentacle spawn which seemed completely oblivious to their leader's fall. With the main threat gone, however, Naltaibur found that she could no longer ignore the lesser alien that had attached itself to her face, even with the chorus of cutting and splattering flesh going on around her.

Unfortunately, that came a little bit too late. As her attention shifted, she felt the tube that had been forced down her throat going deeper still, choking her even further. Soft orbs already traveled down that fleshy appendage, and all too soon she felt one and then another leave the tube inside of her along with more of the poison that made her limbs feel like lead and both her natural and unnatural sex organs throb with need for attention. A quick bite on the thing stopped a third before it could get past her lips, but she found the tube too tough for her to bite through. Reaching up, she managed to wrench it away until its squirming member was pressed at her lips instead of going beyond them, her squeezed teeth ensuring that the egg that it had been preparing to lay inside of her fell to the ground instead of into her mouth. That didn't stop the skittering thing, however, as its grip on the sides of her head and on her throat both tightened to the point that she felt momentarily like she was about to faint from lack of air. The momentary lapse in strength let it force itself onto her face again all too soon, though not before she had seen Mavra on her back at her side, helpless as the one that had tried to grab her earlier settled comfortably onto the demon's face, and Annabeth off to the other side on hands and knees, her own attacker dead while the Star Priestess violently vomited onto its corpse and several of the eggs that it had apparently tried to force into her. Helpless to stop it at that point, Naltaibur felt orb after orb pass through her feebly clenched teeth through the appendage, and egg after egg landed down her throat.

Four more, to a total of six, were lain inside of her before she felt hands grabbing at the monster clamped to her face. The tail was pulled from around her neck despite its insistent squeezing, and its spider-like limbs were pulled away one by one until the men helping her managed to wrench the thing away from her completely. For several moments Caden and Jax had to wrestle with the flailing abomination before they hurled it aside, at which point Ulric simply crushed it under a blow from his warhammer, but as she quickly tried to adjust her mask to cover her face again Naltaibur found herself looking straight up a slightly bewildered looking Aluwin. How much the man saw before her mask was back in place was hard to say, but she definitely felt a degree of shock emanating from him over the still active psychic link.

Around them, all of the aliens were dead at their hands, save the one that she had drained for energy and the smaller one that was still attached to Mavra's face. Annabeth was still hunched over on hands and knees, dry heaving, but everyone else seemed not terribly worse for wear. The room was silent save for their collective heavy breathing, and the drip of spilled fluids from the dead, but... They had won. Naltaibur was exhausted, pained, and horny, but she wasn't going to have her soul ripped out by one of the invaders, not yet at least, and her group had made it through.... Mostly unscathed. Now she only had to deal with the messy aftermath.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

When the fight was over and Naltaibur found herself and her party miraculously not joining the throng of Therionian dead-and-gone, she knelt, collapsed, panting hard behind her mask on the floor. Had Aluwin seen her? He definitely had. How much could she play it off as muck and scrapes from the fight? Green and purple, green and purple... it wasn't too farfetched, she thought...

She wasn't sure if her brief moment of panic seeped over her mental web, but Naltaibur clamped down on it once she realized what she was thinking, and how irrelevant such anxieties were in the face of what they'd just survived, and what they now had to contend with before they could even recuperate. They were shaken and depleted, and the fight had been loud - they needed to leave, as quickly as they could.

Naltaibur tried to stand, but couldn't - her limbs felt like lead from the poison that thing had pumped down her throat, and when she breathed out, she felt the stuff sticking in her throat, like phlegm. She was queasy and bloated-feeling, with the eggs in her stomach, and the combination her heavy spell-usage and lack of rest had her on the verge of collapse, strained in body and spirit. In her mind, even her mental voice sounded weak. ["Collect what you can, we must leave..."]

She pointed at the spell-casting overlord among their opponent's bodies, instructing someone to plunge their sword into it's chest and carve out the core within. When she managed to finally pull herself together, Naltaibur hauled herself off the floor, and allowed the mist-spell and her magic-trail to dissipate.

The weakened elf began chanting a spell-incantation, once she'd gotten to her feet. It was very basic and eminently simple, but with her profoundly drained state, Naltaibur had to employ both her voice and her hands, writing magical script in the air, to cast it. She funneled power from the air surrounding her into her muscles, making them respond more ably to her commands - though they did not feel any less pained.

The elf repeated the spell on Paul, the Falcon who'd finished off their main adversary, and then crouched to collect her demoness, using her boosted strength to lift up the bigger, insensate Mavra off the floor and carry her pig-a-back. ['Let's go - get some few houses away to hide while we rest.']

Spoiler

Dropping Find and Roiling Mists

Casting L1 Body spell "Strength, Least" to Buff Body on me and the Big Damn Hero.

I'm assuming no casting check and stuff hopefully, and it should give +16 Body (6 {34/6} + 1 (Focus) + 1 (Physician) *2 (Healer))

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 38/45, PP = 53, EP = 1/49, Status = Low on EP, Telepathy to 12 different people, Upkeep = 0, Blessed X = 2, 15/17 Resistance, Aroused, Pregnant with Skyray Eggs (Mouth, 6), +16 Body (Least Strength)

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 0/79, Status = Unconscious, Pregnant, Blessed X = 2, 27/30 Resistance
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 33/61, Status = Fine, Blessing X = 2
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 32/55, Status = Fine, +24 Perception (Lesser Strength), buffs on Kormac and Jenkins, Blessed X = 2

Merc Stats w/ crossbows and swords, also duelist
Aluwin: Fine, Blessed X = 2, 10/15 Resistance
Jax: Fine, Blessed X = 2, 6/15 Resistance
Caden: Fine, Blessed X = 2

Therion Guard Stats, shield/sword
Kormac: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2, 8/15 Resistance
Jenkins: Fine, +24 Body (buff from Annabeth), Blessed X = 2

Archer/Duelists
Willem: Fine, Blessed X = 2
Paul: Fine, Blessed X = 2, +16 Body (Least Strength from Naltaibur)

Rolls

Spoiler

I'm going to assume that Naltaibur didn't try to bag the living grabber and instead let it get axed.

Naltaibur's Loot:
1 Greybrain
1 Chameleon Skin
21 Greyhearts unless the living grabber is spared, in which case it becomes 20

The soldiers quickly went about chopping up the dead aliens, retrieving stones and a single skin from the one lizardman that had attacked them in the wild melee. Even the smaller creatures who had attacked her, Mavra, and Annabeth seemed to possess the small grey stones in their bodies, and the creature that she had drained was still alive, though that would change quickly unless Naltaibur told Aluwin to not kill it so that she could take it as a specimen. Once the exhausted elf had used a bit of minor magic to give her the strength to move on and similarly enhanced Paul, she would be able to climb to her feet, but when she tried to lift Naltaibur Uldric would bring up a hand to stop her.

"You're exhausted. Let me," he said, stowing his hammer and shield and lifting the comatose demoness in a fireman's carry. They quickly gathered and sprang for the door, leaving the vast supply of grey gore to rot with the decaying foodstuffs in the dilapidated market. Escaping out into the street, the embattled group found it blessedly clear, and after a short while rushing down the street with as much haste as they could risk Annabeth picked out a building for them to hole up in for a while. It was a single story but fairly wide, squat and low to the ground but covering a relatively wide area, and when they entered it proved to be a bar. It had only two doors, a set of double doors in the back and a single locked door in the back, with some smaller rooms for storage that were empty and would serve as places to rest for some while others could stay in the main room and the kitchen connected to the other door to keep watch.

Mavra was set down in one such room, deposited gently onto a cot in a room with racks of wine, and then Uldric turned to Naltaibur and commandingly said; "You need to rest. Now."

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Naltaibur had neither the desire to keep that last creature alive, nor the presence of mind to order such were she so inclined. She did, however, refuse Uldric's help.

"No, father. You can fight, if we're attacked. I can... I can manage this. I will not slow us down." Naltaibur swallowed her misgivings, her mismanagement during that fight almost having gotten them all killed. They didn't have eyes! What use was her fog to have been? Had she just been desperate? That was no excuse - she had to be clear-headed. She wasn't a fighter, or a leader - if she and her's were to stand a chance, she had to use her craftiness about her.

Even as she mentally chastised herself, though, her thoughts were muddled with exhaustion. Her words as she refused Uldric's help were slurred, and her steps were off-balance. She kept to her feet, though, and though it left her sucking air, she kept up with the rest, until at last Annabeth found them a building.

She carefully turned and deposited her demoness when they were safe and in their room. She gave the beginnings of a weak protest at Uldric's command to rest... but it died partway out of her throat. Instead, she just nodded.

She slumped against a wall, her vision unfocusing as she let her concentration on her spells and her wakefulness slip. "F'ther... before I rest... you should know... whatever they put in Annabeth's mouth... I didn't spit up." Naltaibur slid to the ground, already out like a light,

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Spoiler

Naltaibur: HP = 45, PP = 53, EP = 49, Status = Fine, Paralyzed x6

NPC Stats
Mavra: HP = 63, PP = 54, EP = 56/79, Status = Pregnant, Paralyzed x16
Father Uldric: HP = 52/53, PP = 38, EP = 61, Status = Fine
Annabeth (Wizard Template) : HP = 35, PP = 50, EP = 0/55, Status = Helpless

Merc Stats w/ crossbows and swords, also duelist
Aluwin: Fine
Jax: Fine
Caden: Fine

Therion Guard Stats, shield/sword
Kormac: Fine
Jenkins: Fine

Archer/Duelists
Willem: Fine
Paul: Fine

(You may spend exp now.)

Uldric scowled furiously at Naltaibur for her stubborn insistence on carrying Mavra, but given their time restraint found no more time to argue. Lucky for them, they didn't encounter any further threats, and once safely inside Naltaibur would be able to slump against the wall. Her last sight before her vision faded was that of Uldric frowning down at her following her dire revelation.

When she woke up some unknown amount of time later, Naltaibur had a number of things that became quite noticeable one after another. Firstly, and unsurprisingly, her over-taxation of her abilities had given her a massive, agonizing headache. Secondly, most of her body ached from the strain of the last day as well, only adding to her discomfort. Fourthly, she'd been moved to a cot in one of the food storage rooms, and her mask had been removed and set aside. Finally, and most distressingly, she couldn't move. Her muscles could give at most a tiny budge, and her entire body was suffused with a tingling akin to a thousand pinpricks.

She'd been laid on her side, and as her eyes focused and proved able to look around, their focus coming in very slowly, she found a decidedly odd sight just above her. Annabeth was sitting on a crate, naked from the waste down and with her robe ripped open around the chest. Fresh cum was drooling from her plainly visible sex, her legs parted wide to make the lewd sight all the more readily apparent. The woman looked dazed and on the verge of passing out, her eyes empty like only one who's soul had been heavily drained could be, but there was enough presence left there that she was also extremely confused, and the source of her confusion was quickly obvious.

Mavra was lying on the ground right next to the box, sans her pants and sporting a cock that was coated in what could only be Annabeth's love honey, having apparently collapsed. The demoness was on her side, her face plastered with a mixture of fright, disgust, and horror, the source of which would become readily apparent to Naltaibur as her lover began to wretch and a wave of nausea passed over the paralyzed night elf. That nausea got worse and worse until even her paralyzed inner muscles could no longer resist it and she began to wretch weakly, an act that Mavra soon copied. It was the demoness who gave "birth" first, allowing Naltaibur to see what was in store for her as a long, fat, wormlike something forced its way out of her lover's mouth, quickly followed by nearly a foot of tail and an expulsion of bile. The worm unfurled as it came free, bony legs stretching out to grip the floor and pull it the rest of the way free, a smaller and slimier copy of the creature that had planted them in the demoness in the first place.

That preview was all she got before Naltaibur was treated to the same unpleasant experience, however, as the first of the eggs inside of her hatched and the alien inside began to worm it's way up her throat. She vomited up her first "child" all too soon, but it wasn't the last. Five more times she felt a monster crawling its way out of her, pulling itself somehow despite her body's reflexive efforts to keep it down, and then she was left weakly dry heaving for the next few minutes as the aliens she'd birthed began to grow right before her eyes, the sounds of Mavra still vomiting up the rest of hers the only sound in the room. First they grew in size, bone crackling as it expanded to fit the dimensions of their father, legs growing longer and torso widening and flattening. A pair of sacks attached by flaps of skin gradually deflated as it grew, most likely some kind of nutrient source that had likely been taken from the elf's own already badly worn body. Next the thin flaps of skin that had allowed the creatures to glide began to expand between it's fingerlike limbs, growing and then receding as muscles caused them to retract when not in use. Finally, the tail began to thicken and widen with what was left, growing strong enough to choke like Naltaibur remembered.

This all took place during the course of a few minutes in which the aliens were blessedly docile, but as they finished growing into their adult forms Naltaibur found her own wretched spawn slowly crawling toward her. Mavra's were heading not only for the still prone demoness, but for Annabeth, who had watched with horrified fascination but had managed to not pass out after Mavra had no doubt drained her dry. The door into the room was, for some reason, closed, leaving the three women alone with the small swarm of creatures that she and Mavra had just spat up, all of which were closing in on them with almost casual slowness. The venom still kept Naltaibur physically numb and utterly paralyzed, barely leaving her the strength to open and close her lips while leaving her awareness unaffected, and if the horror present in her demonic lover's eyes was any indication Mavra was suffering the same as one of her freshly birthed brood headed right back for her still half-open mouth.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Dr. Love, Dr. Death (GargantuaBlarg)

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

Naltaibur felt like shit. She felt like shit, and couldn't move. Her everything was sore... especially her head. The sensation was worse than the time she got dumped out of the blue while she was attending the Academy; that time, she'd soothed herself by locking herself in her dorm room with four bottles of Gods-Reach Triple Distilled, nine of the shoddy-quality magic-restorative 'practice potions' made by freshman that the Alchemy department sold to raise funds (she remembered that they tasted quite a lot like the mixer had held their herbs in his armpit while he waited the twenty-odd minutes it usually took the rest of the potion to boil up), and the incantation for a certain Force-school spell, written in Arcane Marks and spelled to warp to accommodate for how drunk and O'd out she was planning on getting.

Naltaibur didn't have much time to reminisce, however. She didn't even have much time to panic over the fact that her mask was missing and Annabeth was in the room with her, because that revelation came simultaneous with the fact that Annabeth was also naked and leaking semen. And her eyes were dead. And Mavra was collapsed on the floor - seemingly not of bliss, but something more alarming.

Naltaibur was mildly offended the demoness had jumped Annabeth instead of her... but then, the priestess did seem to be watching them, and would have stopped her otherwise had she not. The elf wasn't angry - she was a succubus, after all, and she'd known it would happen, though she'd failed to mention it before she collapsed herself. Uldric seemed to have known the demoness, after all; she'd assumed the priest knew how her feeding would work.

This would cause them problems in the future, though... the priestess already distrusted Mavra, she didn't imagine any group solidarity would come of this. Not to mention psychological trauma... or the ripple effects throughout the group.


Then, something started worming it's way out of Mavra's mouth.

Oh shit, the elf thought to herself. The nausea hit - she couldn't throw up on her back like this! Unable to move, she would probably drown in her own sick. But what was coming up... what was coming up wasn't vomit. It was crawling its way out of her. In what she was sure felt longer than it really was, it, and five more like it burst from her mouth... and far many more from Mavra's. Annabeth was insensate, and they both were poisoned unmoving - there were so many of them in the room, Naltaibur was sure her stomach would split if they worked her like the one yesterday did - literally split, open up inside her and poison the rest of her body with its contents and its acids.

Naltaibur shut out the pain of her physical body, gathered her mental control. She could move - barely, but she could. That meant she could talk, and that (hopefully) meant she could scream. She willed her lungs to breathe deep. She stretched open her lips. With all her will, she screamed.