Haggered Appearances, part 9

Log Info

• Title: Haggered Appearances, Part 9
• Emitter: Whirlpool
• Characters: Braelnoir, Cryosanthia
• Place: The Borderlands near Alexandria - Augustus' house, then somewhere else
• Time: Thursday, December 31, 2020, 8:30 PM
• Summary: The Adventurers retreat from the Vrocks, heading to the control room. Edinaz, Baz da Ork and MAC-B1G hold the door closed on the demons while Braelnoir and Cryosanthia attempt to figure out the controls. They are the group's best hope, and they're not very good at it, resorting to randomly pulling levers and pushing random buttons and switches. All they accomplish is a sudden lurch of the house that throws everyone to their feet. Cautiously exploring outside the control room, they discover all the demons have been shredded by the house's response to their rough controls. They are safe, for the moment, but again lost somewhere in the planes.

Cryo calls randomly, "Vrocks are immune to electricity and poisons and resistant to acid, cold and fire, if that helps with your attack plans."

The *third* and final Vrock lands.

With a *crash* into the ground as well and a plume of green dust all around it, like the others.

It climbs over the shattered wall, clawing at the regrowing debris to break it away.

Running!

Running away.

The white lizard woman tears off down the hallway, carrying the unconscious girl, arms wrapped around her legs. She has a long stride and a bounce in her step, helped by her boots. Her tail is straight out behind her, no extraneous motion. Move forward, move it.

She gets to the steps, then it's down them, careful of the traps. Step daintily with your massive feet and toes, tip tip. Perhaps it's useful they weren't disarmed, if the Vrocks rush down, the acid might hurt them.

This leaves her facing the controls, which are no more clear than they were. "There's... a couple things I could read that might help, but it would take ten minutes. I've got an Identify spell, that could help too. I'm really hoping MAC Bee or Baz have some idea." Cryo pants.

"We could randomly pull levers again, but who knows what that would do."

Braelnoir is all set to cover the retreat as it gets going as her target sizzles and drips from the baptism she gave him, but, with the opening closing, she starts to hustle to the best of her bewearied capacity. She slips in ahead of Edi, with a dip of her chin and an effected posh sort of, "Most kind, sah!" There's a glance back wence they came and she does her own tally, "How we lookin?"

Edinaz turns and starts to run through the house, pacing Cryo and Braelnoir as they run. He starts off doing it to watch their back, but after a while, he's sucking wind. Rule One: Cardio. He arrives, does the briefest of headcounts, and slams the door shut, locking all the mechanisms, and putting his bulk against it as he looks for furniture to wedge against it.

Edinaz leans there, back to the door. "Fuck." Then, "Think we're all here."

...run you do, back up and down, slamming into walls as you desperately run through it, carrying Zaya and the shard of a dead god with you.

You burst into the control room

<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "sorry, casting the 3rd slot spell for the MCAE"
GAME: Cryosanthia casts Fly. Caster Level: 10 DC: 17

Cryo is in the control room. "Ah... ah.. um. I'm doing this! Magic Circle Against Evil and we can still get at the controls but they'll be around the edges."

The enemy has heard the plan too. Awesome. She grabs a seat and sets Zaya in it, as the spell needs an individual focus. Hopefully the girl won't get up and run away with the protection. Cryo moves her as close the the centre of the room as possible while leaving a quadrant of the circle to overlap the controls.

It won't keep them out, oh well. Everyone can line up on either side of the room in a murdery version of murder ball then.

She casts with both hands, tracing lines of what looks like a more elaborate version of her Protection from Evil. It's not a spell she knows, but once again her clothing helps her cheat. She wears Mnemonic Vestments in the form of a fetching corset that lets her pretend she's a real wizard with a spell book. Even if the spells are on scrolls she looked over this morning. Line after line, she stretches the magic barrier out ten feet around Zaya, tracing a large circle then completes it. Lights sparkle along her scales, the eldrich geometry glows, and they are protected.

For now.

Braelnoir is up for a good, friendly bloodbath now and then. she takes up post to cover the entrance while her sister handles the good hoodoo. She gently pats her bandolier to feel what's still got inventory and then regrasps the hilt of the scythe. There's a glance at the others, the damsel, then, "Whatta we got?"

"Individual things, Haste, Blink, Phantom Steed, Expeditious Retreat. Splitting up we're even easier targets. There's no where to run to that wouldn't be moving the problem and getting civilians killed before help shows up." Cryo rattles off some of the scrolls she has, trying to think quickly and fighting down a desire to sing showtunes. "A couple, like the Circle, or Rope Trick will protect the group, buy us some time. I've got a reference book, it's... umm... I can't see when I'm reading it."

The whitescale pulls a mask out of her haversack. It looks like a cross between a domino-mask and a bound book. Pages are layed on each other in a glossy looking paper-mache with a nice brass studded border. There are no eye holes. You've made it to the Control Room and without a second to spare. The Vrocks will have a harder time navigating those rooms, to say nothing of the narrow stairway than you will.

Or did.

Still, Baz, Mac, and Edinaz are now doing their level best to hold the doors.

Braelnoir hmmmm's softly, "Haste might be useful once th'shit starts." she muses.

The Merc glances to her fellows, considering the assets on order and tries to run the numbers, "A'ight, let's see what these damn controls do."

"Okay, yes. Let's see. We used these last time." Cryo sticks the mask in her belt for now. She'll have to do a lot of reading before it helps, and she isn't sure there's time. "Maybe the landing wasn't right. We left the door to the other plane open. Something here has to close that. Close the hole, deal with the Vrocks that are here, get home. I think, should be the plan."

The whitescale stares at symbols and levels and panels. "There must be some design sense, Maybe it needs two or three people steering it at once."

GAME: Cryosanthia rolls spellcraft: (16)+6: 22
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls knowledge/the planes: (11)+7: 18
GAME: Braelnoir rolls 1d20+3: (5)+3: 8 (Craft Artifice)
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "I can use Ancestor touched to let her roll again"
GAME: Braelnoir rolls 1d20+3: (11)+3: 14

Braelnoir moves back to the console while the others hold the door and she sweeps her eyes over the levers, switches and suchforth, though the finer details of Mojo tech are a bit beyond her grasp. She glances to her sister, looking frustrated, "This shit's beyond me...!"

Cryo also glances over her shoulder, checking the door. She stares, watches Braelnoir's frustration. She lays a cool hand on her shoulder, holding her other hand out with fingers splayed, "Breathe. They made it for soldiers. The controls are human sized, look, they aren't spaced right for my hand spread. Look again, and think what feels natural."

She's trying to be encouraging. She's feeling lost. Her ancestors would be lost too. Her foundling, yes, maybe the kobold could figure this out but the sith'mom is struggling.

It is absolutely beyond either of you. It's beyond even MAC, and they're a frigging artificer.

Still, pulling random levers got you this far, didn't it? There's a hum and the whole place starts ... *vibrating*. Shifting. It's like the building is screaming.

GAME: Cryosanthia rolls use magic device: (19)+10: 29

"Screaming, ah! Screaming is bad. It should be humming, ringing, the Music of the Spheres." Cryosanthia shouts, pulling random levers and buttons. Why couldn't it be an instrument, something percussive or with strings. She could work with that. Why aren't the controls more like sheet music.

She calls out desperately, "try to find something that goes 'Bop' or 'Whrrrrr!'" One never knows.

Braelnoir nods and takes a breath on Cryo's advice and she looks to the controls once more, "A'ight, mem'rize the layout right now...." She gives that a second or two and reaches out to yank one of the levers to her left as her sister moves in to help, "Twist that red thingie!"

She braces herself for the possible lurch of effect, then, "Think't worked?"

A red thingie is twisted. Buttons are pushed, dials twiddled, a few more levers pulled, "I don't know. There should be status lights somewhere. A nice bank of them that turn a pleasant colour when everything is correct." Cryo speculates, also bracing for lurches.

Braelnoir peers around quickly and ndos to herself. They didn't die. That's a plus, however the musing bit about happy lights gets Cryo an odd look, "Ya sure about that'r guessin'?" There's another look across the console, then she looks about the room for anything like a light.

GAME: Cryosanthia rolls perform/comedy: (14)+9: 23

"I don't know! Maybe they were masochists and a little iron fist punches them in the crotch when they get it right. It wouldn't feel worse than what we're doing now!" The whitescale answers.

...the building screams.

It *screams*, like something is tearing apart and crashing around out ther!

There's a briefly weightless sensation and then a *thunderous* crash, that jarts each of you severely. Sending you sprawling here and there. Then? Then everything is silent.

Cryo picks herself up off the floor. Landing on her back is the worst. Her horns tend to embed themselves, forcing her to squirm around on her tail to pry them out. It's also a swift path to a headache. "Ow." She says quietly, respecting the silence.

"Sorry," she pets the floor. She'd be a better houseguest, less likely to trash the place, if it had left some labels.

"Are they still out there?" She asks the trio holding the door. "Are we still in Alexandros?" That might need some exploring to answer.

"If we're lucky, maybe it will fix itself up right again." And hopefully, not be an ever-shifting maze.

Braelnoir doesn't eat the console this time.... because her bracer was in the way!

Brae groans slightly from where she lay on her back, rolling onto her side with a wet sniff. The Korite pushes herself up to get her feet under her, then spits blood off to the side, "W'llat sucked...."

She may be less likely for a return invitation. A look around as she gingerly probes her nose for damage as it trickles crimson anew, "Everyone alright?" she asks before moving to check on Zaya, "Don't hear'm beatin' on the walls." then a queer look to her sister, "Are ya talkin ta the house?"

"A little," Cryo says, sheepishly glancing back at Braelnoir, "It might be a golem, or like a magic sword, or a person trapped in it with Dark Tech."

Or simply Speaker instincts, which prefer asking about things over knowing them.

She's still vaguely conscious, if we're honest. Zaya is just not terribly with it, and is unsure what the hell is going on. She keeps covering her eyes with her hands.

Braelnoir gets a slightly sour look, "That ain't funny." she replies and shakes her head, then turns back to Zaya. She sighs, "Easy, luvvie, we're not licked, yet. Ya hurt anywhere?" Frown, a look to the doors as Cryo moves toward them and habitually takes up the scythe again, rising to her feet.

GAME: Cryosanthia casts Protection From Evil. Caster Level: 10 DC: 15
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls perception: (8)+6: 14

"It's not a joke. Something magically complex might have an intelligence in it." Cryo says, adjusting her clothes back to where they should be instead of bunched and rumpled. She slips her mask back into her Haversack, gets some extra clothing straps to hold it on, and adjusts her buckler and dagger.

She traces a spell again, her elaborating and archaic 'Protection from Evil', and it falls on her with a slight glow. After that, she listens carefully. The Vrocks weren't that quiet while they were trying to break in, hopefully they'll be just as noisy after the bump. Whatever the case, she hears little.

"Well, lets see if we made it."

GAME: Braelnoir rolls perception: (14)+8: 22

Braelnoir moves up behind Cryo, ready to yank her back at the first sign of hostility from outside, evident by the way she plants her feet, "Last place I's in with brains in't was the Godsdammed Corpse Wagon." she muses bitterly. She's told that story. It took some drinking to get her through it all.

The whitescale nods, she's kept that in mind. Cautiously she signals to the boys to let the door open enough she can see, and she's ready to stab anything that rushes through.

... opening the door reveals the the outside of the passage to the control room is absolutely *flooded* with demon bones, demon blood, and demon bits.

... seems the house rearranged violently while you were in there.

Good thing that didn't happen to you, right...?

Of course, that leaves the question: where are you now?