HT Aliaver/Player Character Name Type Status/Notes Sex -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- R1.John Haight...........Arawn.............Druid .Normal/Alfar Ma ??.Chris Wells...........Ben'dar...........Warrior.Normal/Human Ma R4.Tom Corckett..........Caladan...........Wizard Normal/Human Ma W2.Marcel Liberty........Chion.............Sailor..Normal/Human Ma W3.Ryan Torres...........Farseeker.........Warrior.Normal/Human Ma --.Tobie Bonahoom........Fremea............Sidh....Normal/Faerry Fe R2.Mark Murtha...........Kell..............Trader..Normal/Human..Ma R1.David Sanders.........Kiet.Sunan........Acrobat Normal/Human Ma R4.J H Hooten............Raban.Usherwood...Bard....Normal/Human..Ma W2.Robert Maxwell........Strie'bog.........Bard....Normal/Human..Ma W4.Wout Broere...........Unali.............Ninja...Normal/Human Fe R1 John.Stowman..........Will..............Hunter..Normal/Human..Ma R4.Alex Koponen..........Z'leyra...........Healer..Normal/Human Fe R1 NPC...................Zhou Kiwat........Noble...Normal/Human..Ma NPC...................Captain.Lin.......Warrior.Normal/Human..Ma Animals: Corona [Eagle] Z'leyra, Tef'wo (Horse) Ben'dar, Game Web Site - http:/nrgcomputers.com/pbem/ Public posts/actions to pnpgm@abroere.xs4all.nl (mailing list) Private emails (not public actions) to pnpgm@comcast.net Game Update #241 in sequence (file #1469) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Admin Notes: None. ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Recap] From Z'leyra: [Re: Actions] Z'leyra, pondering the thought that the gods might be trying to 'clue her in' decides that a slight delay in attempting to destroy the portal may be wise. Instead she casts Sending EL0 to attempt to contact the Brain and try to convince it to throw off the yoke of Vong servitude and help in defeating them. If needed she will follow up the Sending with a Communicate spell in order to speak the same language. GM: Ack. -------------------------------------------------------------- [New Stuff] [Augado 10th, 1634TH] [Location: Middle Katai Plains] [ Mountains west of Pamau] [Time: 2:59:07pm - Turn 4: Phase 2] Will turns back to the brain and decides his original plan should be investigated just as a backup. Once Z'leyra goes to destroy the portal he'll need to distract her from the Brain. She builds magical energy for the limited spells he can do. Fremea sees the first second of the Vong being trapped and raises her bow to fire again at the Vong. As the six arrows shoot from her bow the 6 impact on the event horizon of the Kotothi portal with a sheen of white as six of the magical arrows disintegrate. The true arrow penetrates and flies through the portal. But Fremea blinks her eye from the flash of light and notices the Vong are gone. In a literal blink of an eye the Vong are out of the sight. The arrow is seen faintly on the ground on a femur bone of some human. it seems the Vong are trapped somewhere in the Kotothi realms of the upper world. She knows the time dilation in the upper world is at times 1 middle world days to 40 upper world days. But it does depend on realm and the god. In the same of the few seconds she watches the portal the Vong scattered and moved on. In that time it might be 5-10 minutes have passed? Will casts his spell so he can levitate through the barrier and see if he doesn't die. Will's mass-less body slowly lifts up like a ghost. If he could gulp he would draw in a breath and hope for the best. There is so sudden threat of mental energy as he penetrates the invisible barrier. Will leivates a bit further into the mass of brain and goo. Who would have though he would be a brain healer. He isn't the smartest in the group but he is the one treating the brain! He has seen brains before in the woods on slaughtered animals. Even in battle when fighters take massive head wounds. But never in this graphic detail. he can't help but to lower himself into the mass of nerves and reddish flesh. He could stand from the bottom of the brain and his head would not penetrate the top. He could out stretch his arms and spin around in a sphere but never reach the sides. But to Will's untrained mind there is no central "kill here" spot. It all seems to be the same watermelon like material. Another barrel lifts off the ground in the north east corner of the cave and goes flying toward Z'leyra. It slams into her left side and shoulders splashing water and wood again all over her. This time though the damage is protected by her armor. Z'leyra decides that things can't get much worse in the situation. She can still get to the portal but realizes that the group may be right in some ways. She decides to change her plan to contact the brain like Alfar tried. OF course she would never admit that the druid might be right. His ego is big enough. But in order to make contact she has to touch the brain. This gives her something to consider as she has to get close through the barrier or just take a hold of those slimy tentacles even if it is just for a few seconds. She moves forward into a storm of tentacles that extend out through the barrier. She grabs one with both hands. Now she only has to cast the spell. Z'leyra tells the small group of those she contacted she has made contact with the brain. Raban turns around to head back to the group. It seems they are climbing the stairs and must've killed the Brain. But Raban is still worried as he can't spot the tiny one. Raban is the first to feel the tingle of the Battle Mind ebb away as the spell ends. Unali realizes the Battle Mind spell is over. At the same time Z'leyra tells her she is shaking hands with the Brain. She growls at no one wondering if the Battle Mind spell might have warned them that was a bad idea. She hesitates and wonders if she should rush down to physically stop Z'leyra. But she knows it would take a few seconds and the Healer might be dead by then. She has to talk to Lin first. Farseeker and Ben'dar haul Chion up the stairs more and Ben'dar begins to breath a bit harder from the strain. Arawn has no clue what Will and Z'leyra are exactly planning. But the last thing he knows from the Battle Mind spell is that both may be on a gray trail full of bloaters. Kell ensures Kiet is behind him as the acrobat needs some protection and climbs the stairs. Lin reaches the next level and finds the next cave entrance. He climbs back down and waits for the others. The living earth seems to make good pace with the party going up. Caladan reaches Lin and looks him closely. "Explain what is going on please. Kiet realizes that something is missing. As he considers this he is fuming wondering why isn't the so called high and might Elder isn't here doing clean up. Then he realizes that Chion has something to contact him. Kiet tries to recall what it was. That necklace thing? No. It was his staff. Then Kiet realizes that the staff wasn't on Chion's back sling holster. Kiet looks around the stairs but sees it no where. Kiet then realizes he must've lost it in the battle when he was knocked out. "Kell... Hold up. We're missing something." Kiet turns around not even waiting for his friend and heads back to where Chion was found. That staff needs to be there somewhere. It's time for Kiet to make his displeasure known to Ki'ama. He runs down the first flight of steps and runs toward the brain cave entrance. He skids to a halt and looks around. He realizes even the elemental is missing and he is the only one here. Great this makes him a sitting duck for the brain. But he isn't a threat so maybe he'll just be a very acrobatic tumbling duck. He glances over and notices a group of 10 tentacles seem to moving fiercely around the left side of the brain for some reason. He also notices a lump of wood at that area that was probably a barrel? but he sees no one there. Maybe the brain is just thirsty. Good maybe that will distract him from attacking him. Kiet glances around the area and to his left he notices a pound of sand. Peering a bit more closer he sees a piece of white sticking out one side and realizes it looks like a piece of wood. But the top hilt seems to be distinctive and soon realizes it is the Gnarish Staff. It is buried in a bit of sand from the earthquake. This likely explains how Kell and Unali missed it in passing. That or they just didn't care to stop to get it. The Brain does a quick SitRep in less than a eight of a second. From his genetic history of other ancestor Brains he knows that some long dead Commandos on some planet used talk like SitRep for a situation report. It seems only timely to use the same language in battle if this is a battle. To his mind this is still a one sided encounter. His brain can see the past and future in one seamless thread. Some would consider it probabilities rather than the future. But if one runs the calculations right there is certainty. The Brain determines the 3 big events around him. There is that small human in the entrance who is just standing there. But the Brain can easily penetrate his thoughts and realize he is no threat. Something about a missing item. Some item could not be a threat. So the brain ignores the human. But the two closer ones seem to have a higher threshold of harm. The one that is sensed but not sensed to be there through the absence of electromagnetism seems to move into him. The brain is baffled briefly by his mental shield not working but then realizes there no matter to block. The Brain can't seem to pinpoint the thoughts of the one-without= mass. It takes concentration almost a full quarter of a second for the Brain to reflect from the afterthoughts that from the human's brain. But this isn't enough him to consider the odds of a threat. Then the one that actually grabs his tentacles. Intrigues he could easily strangle the human. From the field of energy the Brain can determine this is the one that just cut off a couple of his tentacles moments ago. Why this human would now do this is a bit confusing. He could easily kill the human in a single thought but finds the threat to be less than 42%. Fascinating the brain waits for an eternity to find out what the one plans. The Brain can't read her mind so this seems a bit hard to pinpoint. --------------- [Time: 2:59:10pm - Turn 4: Phase 3] Z'leyra is amazed she isn't dead yet. But it is better not to tempt fate. She builds up energy to make contact with the Brain itself. The poltergeist figures the human is well protected. So decides to do a more active role. It extends it's ethereal tendrils to grasp the Gnarish staff on the ground some 30 feet away. It flings the debris and staff toward the Shaman read to bash the back of the skull. But as the staff twirls toward the Healer like some insane brute flashing a whip, a cloud of energy shoots from the Brain and slams into the staff in mid air. The energy flings the staff backward and to the ground deflecting it to the ground some 32 feet away toward the entrance. Z'leyra casts her Sending spell and as she does she realizes the Brian does have a high resistance. Maybe the Brain will consider this helpful? Maybe if she lowered her mental shield she could convey this peace to it. But as she casts the spell she realizes it can't be worse then flying barrels. But the second she finishes a buzzing sound is heard. Looking around she notices a swarm of 15-20 flying stinging insects swarm around her in a 2 foot radius. The bugs dive in and out stinging her doing 15 points of damage. she then realizes the spell must've failed very badly again. At that instant the 3 milliseconds after the female utters those strange words the Brain realizes a magic spell was cast upon him. The odds were it was a direct assault of some kind. Not able to perceive the thoughts of the human the Brain quickly determines to act. It is still intrigued but the sudden appearance of these bugs confuse it further. Tired of these games the Brain collects in the span of 4 tents of a second energy to act on. It then floods the area around the invisible human with this energy. Mot wishing to kill her just yet he is tired of the human like a fly is to a human. The Brain uses his mental strength to push the invisible human outward and away from the Brain. Quickly pushing and draining strength the human is locked in a electro- magnetic field that surrounds the human not allowing her to even flex her fingers. The tight field is seen faintly as a gray cloud but seem sot be all around her. With a great shove the Brain pushes the Shaman toward the cave entrance. The Brain pushes the human past the other human and toward the stairs. Quickly gaining speed the field pushes the human toward the edge of the steps and with a final shove pushes her over the side of the railing. As Z'leyra fails she realizes she still can't control her body as the field holds her in place. She quickly surmises that things have indeed gotten worse. Not only things are hitting her but a swarm of insects that look nasty are swarming around her. If that doesn't kill her then the lack of movement on impact on the ground might. But at least that's something to worry about for another few seconds as its a good 300 feet down. At least the lava that is on the ground now is not below but more to center of the ground. She might break all her bones but at leas she won't burn up. That is a good thing. All this to shake hands with a Brain! If she lives in the next minute maybe she can deck Arawn for trying to talk to it and giving her the idea. Now if only the field would collapse and she could simply levitate and balance. Fremea turns around knowing the Vong are days in the past or is that the future or is that now? Time stuff confuses her. She'll ask Arawn which it might be. She notices Raban flying back toward the stairs. the other flyer seems to be gone. Fremea heads back toward the stairs as well to catch up. She begins to hum to herself some odd song she heard in a bar. Raban flies back toward the stairs not even aware that the invisible silent Z'leyra is falling to the ground. The Giant flexes his iron hand and wonders if he could take down another one of himself if he was a double. Unali gets to the level where Lin is finally. She glances up to see the entrance of a cave one flight of stairs up. She looks to Lin for an explanation. Farseeker and Ben'dar haul the limp magician up to the same level as the others waiting for instruction and a break from the task. Kell turns around and sees Kiet dart away. Forgot something? The trader realizes that the acrobat is not one for running head first into a battle site. Kell grips his spears and runs as fast as he can to catch up. He will have to protect or help Kiet. Kell gives a mental command to the elemental slow and actually descend a bit. If they need to they will need to get the rock to act as a shield. Lin raises a hand and flexes as if to grab air, "It can be controlled." Caladan asks the obvious question. "How?" Back inside the brain cave Kiet is a bit dazed by the scene. First the Gnarish staff is buried. Then it suddenly lurches up and out toward the Brain. Then at the last instant it was deflected and thrown back his way. Is the brain that bored enough to play a game of rock bat? Some stupid kid game the kids on the island play with tree limbs and rocks. Trying to hit the rock toward others. But the thing did land even closer now to him. Could the Brain want him to get it? Kiet looks back but doesn't see Kell but decides he needs to get the staff. Kell will catch up he is sure. Running the 30 feet he kneels and grabs the staff in his hand. At least in this position if he is hit by a energy wave he'll not fall much. Now what to do with the staff? He seems to recall the sailor-wizard held it and concentrated. Looked a bit either constipated or worried as he closed his eyes. Did he speak or just think the words? Did it act on him or he act on it? Will notices Kiet now in the cave holding some staff. He is unsure what the one who does that smoke magic is doing. Maybe he will flame the Brain. Oh great. If the spell ends and he is lit up in a blaze he'll kill the acrobat. Will considers his options. He knows firing a spelled arrow outside the field will become solid. Could he drop some object to kill the brain? What could he do that large? His boots? His sword? Then he picks up a sudden burst of panic through the sending spell with Z'leyra. It seems she is falling toward the ground. The Brain's nerves ring with a new heat that pulses with what humans term exhaustion. Tossing that woman out the cave took a bit more than he planned. Under him the water trough is getting low and he needs a supply of water. Lucky Nom Amor gave details on the three big spells that could harm him. In the flash that was contact - a full 1,000th of a second he knew what the girl had plans or was going to do. Destroy the portal. That could not be allowed. He may need Vong reinforcements. He should have killed her there. But he needs to know the details of her allies and their plans. If he can break her mental shield further away from that physical contact he could gain that intelligence. But that will require the helmet to be off her head. It was a rash move he knows. He should've just bashed her head up against the ceiling. But the humans seem to call it a flight or flee reaction. Maybe he'll bring her back and just bash her helmet off. Then the Brain realizes the other human in the cave. His mind is open and reeking in thoughts. He doesn't need her anymore. The brain begins to concentrate on the human but in his weakened state it may take a bit of time. Maybe he should force the human to get him some water first. -------------------- [Time: 2:59:10pm - Turn 4: Phase 4 - Current/Next phase] Actions? Comments? Next Update....Friday? GM: A short update. That was a bit of fun as well. Raban could save Z'leyra but can't see her. Right now with the field she can't move. I had originally planned to do Will but he changed his plans so this Ace in the hole was changed to Z'leyra. :) Sorry. Will would've been a rock falling. Still will do 2 phases only until things resolve. Lin's info will trickle at 6 seconds each. Mana report not updated yet. Will do later. Its mainly the new spells cast. I'll give info on where all the folks are position wise at the bottom of the update. Anyone spot my tribute to Indy jones? :) GM: Kiet - Want to use the words you posted in your email or something else? :) For a change your not the center of the action. Will find that email again. Will - Let me know of any new actions. Z'leyra - There is a big reason for the failures. But now you are the falling star. Sorry a Diablo reference and I've playing it too much. GM: Spells active Will - Armor Transmutation, Mind Shield, Invisibility Insubstantialability* Raban - Bless (OCV), Fist of Battle Farseeker - Bless (OCV), Fist of Battle* Unali - Mind Shield, Sending Arawn - Bless (OCV) Fremea - Mind Shield, Sending, Multi-Arrow Z'leyra - Mind Shield, Sending, Invisibility, Levitate * = Soon to end (next update?]. I may NOT post this info unless I remember to do so. :) GM: Maps ---------------------------- Mount Side View - Scale - 1 Column = 15 feet 1 Row = 50 feet North=wall facing screen [Looking from one wall to the other wall. Toward North wall with back to south wall. Looking east/west.] 1 2 3 4 5 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 ____________________________________________________ I### Fake Vong ceiling ###IA I# #IB I# #IC I# #ID I# #IE I# #IFCave Cave 1-> `# #`G<-#4 I# #IH Cave 2-> `# Party -> #`I<-#5 I# Fremea->T Position-> #IJ Cave 3-> `# R #`K<-#6 I# Cave #6 World Brain -----/#IL I# #IM I# @ <-Portal (Kotohi) #IN Mount I#T T#IO Ground --?I#]A_A_A_A_A_A_A_A____......._______V__V__V__V__V[#IP I Y