Previously...
No sooner had Bujilli and Leeja returned to witness the conclusion of negotiations between Idvard and the Grunters, than Shael burst into the room dragging along a reluctant prisoner, then the Unchild lunged across the table to viciously attack Idvard before disappearing...
Bortho struggled to stand. His front was badly scorched. The morningstar fell from his grip as he dropped back down in an empty chair, passed out, and sprawled forwards onto the table. Zutissa lay very, very still where she had crumpled to the floor, little trails of black smoke curled upwards from her badly scorched armor.
Idvard hovered at the head of the table staring down at the gory ruin of his own eye as it lay there in a pool of blood soaking into various papers, hastily scribbled notes and other such ephemera left in the wake of the now defunct negotiations. Blood flowed copiously down the Triloo's face, down his robe, dripping from his sleeve. He ignored the blood, forced himself to get past the pain; the Keep was vulnerable. There was too much to do. He looked at Bortho, Zutissa, the others in this room. He looked at Bujilli and he screamed. His entire body convulsed. He fell to the floor. Unconscious.
Leeja cast her Web spell, immobilizing the cuckoo-girl that had attacked Shael. Then she went to Idvard and tried to stop the bleeding.
Jumdrim entered the room. He scowled at Bujilli; "I've brought you a mirror..."
Two Fyters rolled an ornately carved, gilded and inlaid mirror locked behind heavy shutters into the room and took up position on either side of the thing.
"Here." He placed the key in Bujilli's hand then quickly went to his master's side.
"Idvard needs a healer. So does Bortho and Zutissa. Hurry!"
Jumdrim nodded then disappeared.
Bujilli brought the Synchronocitor into visibility with a twist of the wrist. The ancient device glowed deep violet as it came alive in his grip. Deep within his bones something shifted into place. Golden flames wreathed his hands, bled out over and around the shaft of the Synchronocitor, swirling into place all around the mechanism and in a moment of incredible clarity he knew what needed to be done.
He could see the lingering vestiges of the spell that the Unchild had used in her escape. He saw the traceries of vril-charged symbols, the fading echoes of her words of power. He stabbed the Synchronocitor into the shriveling nexus left behind in the wake of her transport. The dying spell shuddered and flared. He forced his way through the rapidly decaying aperture in a surge of violet sparks and golden ripples.
Someone was shrieking, a shrill and obnoxious sound. Bones clattered and beads clacked as someone moved past a curtain of sorts. He kicked his way past dirty cushions and pillows. The still-smoldering corpse of a Grunter glared at him as he stepped over it. This was Talzag's sleeping quarters.
"What have you done?" Yelled the old shamaness-sow.
"Something you would never have the guts to do--"
The Synchronocitor pulsed in his hands. He could still hear his friend screaming in agony, could still smell the blood. The shock of the Unchild's sudden betrayal was raw in his nerves. He had hoped things would be different.
"Sow Slayer? How?" The Unchild's eyes went wide with fear as it realized what sort of device it was facing. She dropped the crackling pink quartz blade she had intended to use in removing Talzag's head. The blade shattered as it struck the floor.
Bujilli knew what to do. His Counsel and the Synchronocitor were united now, integrated, as much a part of him as he was of them. He severed the link between the Unchild and her creator Talzag. Then he unraveled the spell that gave her life and form and identity.
Talzag struggled against the red-metal chains conjured by her renegade spawn as they sizzled and popped and sloughed away into so much fetid smoke.
The Unchild screamed as she unraveled into oblivion.
Talzag took up what was left of the pink quartz knife. She glared at Bujilli as the red chains fell away into vapor. She dropped the knife.
The Unchild was no more.
Only a foul mass of cancerous cells and blackening fluids remained.
"I had intended to help your people--"
"We didn't ask for your help; we don't want your help."
The Synchronocitor slipped back out of phase.
He drew out his hand-axe and the new scimitar.
"I regret that it had to end like this..."
Talzag spat in disgust just as her head left her shoulders.
He wished there could have been something better than pointless butchery.
It was a stupid waste.
Meanwhile...
Gudrun didn't like this place. The rocks were too red. The sand was too damned red. Even the lightning was red. And the way that dead mule stared at her with those lifeless eyes made her feel almost apologetic, as if she were guilty of something...
Gudrun didn't like this place. The rocks were too red. The sand was too damned red. Even the lightning was red. And the way that dead mule stared at her with those lifeless eyes made her feel almost apologetic, as if she were guilty of something...
Hedrard's amulet pulsed three times.
"Go to the mirror, boy."
Bujilli shook his head. He was soaked in blood, in sweat, in tears. All about him were strewn the bodies of dead Grunters.
He followed the trail of the dead back to their old camp. Maybe a few had escaped, maybe not; he was too tired to remember.
The camp-site was silent.
He stopped. Stared at Talzag's nest.
He did not want to go back in there.
But he knew he had better do just that.
Only a fool would leave behind spell-books, grimoires or other such things lying around for their enemies to carry off freely.
He felt like a fool for having tried to work with the Grunters.
He had actually believed that Talzag was being honest with him, that she would work with him.
Fool.
He rummaged around in her nest. Most of what was there wasn't worth his time. Crude fetishes, bone-mobiles, pouches of unsavory mixtures, bundles of grotesquely shriveled fingers taken from their enemies; the old sow's most valuable possessions seemed to be locked away in her brain. Perhaps she didn't want any upstart apprentices stealing her secrets. Then he found a green book. It was bound in some kind of supple, almost velvety hide. The cover was incised and inlaid with gold in curious jagged patterns that formed different shapes as the cover was tilted or moved. The lock was made from bone and it fell away at his touch. He cracked it open to scan the contents. Aklo. He snapped the thing closed, then he cut a piece from the cleanest section of the drapery walls and wrapped the book up in the fabric. He quickly stuffed the bundle into his larger loot-sack. It wasn't the sort of book to stand around in a place like this gawking at like some idiot.
He quickly inspected the most likely seeming places in Talzag's nest but found nothing else of any use to him.
If he took more time, examined things more carefully, he could probably find several useful things...but there wasn't time.
He'd opened the book. Even if he hadn't fully read the first glyph it had been exposed long enough to reverberate through the near aethyr. That sort of thing tended to attract the attention of things he just did not want to deal with right now.
So he headed back towards the fortified ramp-entrance to the Keep.
He was too tired to run, otherwise he would have.
Halfway up the ramp and feeling foolish for having let his uncle's bullshit superstitions get the better of him a large beetle more than three times his size landed right behind him. He nearly slipped, almost fell to his knee, but was able to keep going. It snapped its mandibles at him. Missed.
Bujilli ran for the entrance. It was barred. The portcullis was down and the doors behind that were latched shut. Airtight. No guards were in sight.
The beetle lunged for him...
What should Bujilli do next?
You Decide!
Synchronocitor Status: Recharging (roll 1d4).
What should he do now?
Roll for Initiative. (1d6 +1 for DEX bonus)
Then Bujilli has to decide whether to fight the big beetle-thing, or try to escape. If he is going to fight, should he cast a spell (which one do you suggest?), use his fighting wand, use his pistol, or hack the thing to pieces with his hand-axe & scimitar? If he should run away, I mean make a strategic withdrawal, then how would you recommend he go about that?
There is a base 25% chance that the guards notice something going on out there on the ramp-way. If someone rolls 25 or below on a D100 then help is on the way, but if you roll 75 or above then someone on watch duty is going to sit back and watch Bujilli fight the beetle-thing, possibly making bets with one of the other guards.
If there's going to be a fight, then five or six (or a few more) d20 rolls would be helpful.
We need another 1d6 roll to check for possible Wandering Monsters attracted to all the noise and ruckus from Bujilli's encounter with the big black beetle. A result of 1 means there's an encounter and a 6 means that there is an event or something like that. This beetle-thing was attracted to him because of the green book, so something else might be in the area, possibly drawn towards all the dead Grunters left lying around...
Leeja is in command of the Keep at the moment. Idvard is incapacitated by his injury, but a healer is available and doing the best that they can for him. Bortho and Zutissa both in a very bad way and need more help than the healer can provide. Shael is also in dire need of some help with her condition, but she has been able to move around a lot better than she could previously--there seems to be a lessening of the glassification effect, so maybe Shael is throwing off the curse...
A d12 will determine something very important, likewise a d4 will tell us how many hours the synchronocitor will need to recharge and yes, that's hours not days.
And that appears to be everything for now.
What should Bujilli do next?
You Decide!
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Where could Gudrun be I wonder..?
ReplyDeleteI rolled a 3, so with the modifier that's a 4.
Standing his ground might be a good bet for now, at least until he's been able to slow the creature, since it did catch him coming up and might catch him going back down. He's tired - better to work his brain. Where does it look vulnerable? Focusing on the legs might give him more time, including if he wants to run later or persuade, or just find another approach, and plenty of time if he can get enough of the legs, but mangling the mandibles might be safer, especially if that has a chance of driving it off too. Which one of those points looks the more vulnerable on this particular creature? Can Counsel give him a very quick scan or set of probabilities based on the available information, as he ducks and weaves?
For the guards noticing I rolled a 47. Bad luck, Bujilli, but maybe the fact it's in the lower half of the range means they'll take pity sooner than they would otherwise, or prove more amenable to reason...
For the trouble I rolled half a dozen d20s: 11, 7, 19, 5, 11, 3.
That leaves the d6, the d12 and d4.
We will be catching up with Gudrun and company soon, but over at my writing blog, most likely...at least until I wrap-up the revisions and corrections to the revised Zilgor's Repose.
DeleteA 4 isn't bad, especially since the bug also rolled a 4. Simultaneous action.
Yep, Bujilli is pretty wore-out and in need of some rest, healing and sleep. He took a few hits in the course of his rampage (reducing him to 9 hits remaining), so he is not ready for a prolonged fight right now.
Leg joints are always a good target when it comes to insects, just as it can be a good place to hit on larger mammals--wreck a major joint and you impair movement and reduce their ability to attack...though in the case of an insect there are a few more legs to deal with before it has a drastic an effect as it would have on a bipedal opponent. Mangling the thing's mandible would maybe dissuade it from attacking, reduce its effectiveness in terms of its bite, so that might be a good approach. Both appear like good options, though it would only take one good hit to mess up the mandibles, and multiple strikes to effectively injure the legs.
Counsel will be recording this encounter and Bujilli will be able to test out his options via virtual modeling later. Right now it will do what it can to suggest his best options for killing or incapacitating the critter.
47...ouch...they do not like the little guy, do they? Maybe one of them will reconsider once they see how things go with the beetle-thing.
Thanks for the d20 rolls. I will put them to good use...
Bujilli should deal with the beetle, and a quick Counsel consult for vulnerabilities is a good idea. I suggest casting Gestural Gobs (learned in Episode 96) to cover the spiracles on the beetle and suffocate it, or at least slow it down. His pistol might be a better option than his hand-axe and scimitar, to conserve his energy.
ReplyDeleteFor the Wandering Monster d6 roll I rolled a 4. For the Something Important d12 roll I rolled a 2. And for the Synchronocitor re-charge d4 roll I rolled a 1.
Since we're looking at potential combat I rolled some more d20s and got 16, 12, 18, 13, and 14.
Yep, we will see Counsel be a bit more useful going forward and it will suggest a few options much as you and Porky have pointed out. Bujilli just made a significant break-through in terms of his understanding and ability to use Counsel, so it will be more useful going forward...hopefully.
DeleteGestural Gobs might be a better option than whacking the thing with his scimitar. Cutting off its air-supply might drive it off quicker than chopping its legs out form under it would.
Another 4 huh? Guess he catches a break, for now. A 2 for the 'Something Important' roll...okay. The Synchronocitor will be recharged in one hour. It now recharges on an hourly, not a daily rate. Big change.
More d20s; thanks--I will alternate them with Porky's die-rolls, or maybe use one set for the beetle and the other for Bujilli...hmmm...Guess I'll roll to see which option to use...