HT Alias/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 Do.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 ...Thomas.Magann.........Whitney...........Scholar.Normal/Human..Ma 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 Animals: Corona [Eagle] Z'leyra, Tef'wo (Horse) Ben'dar, Cover Story Info: [HD- House member, F-Foreigner, N-native non house] Arawn aka Arawn as Teacher to daughter [F] Ben'dar aka Bu Da as Horse expert [F] Caladan aka Ca Lu as Guard/Archer [N] Chion aka Capt. Chu Mai as Sailor Trustee [HD] Farseeker aka Fu Sa as Guard [F] Fremea aka Lin Mong as Noble child [HD] [Disguised] Kell aka Swan as Trader [F] Kiet aka Kiet Sunan as Zhou's servant [F] Raban aka Toban Nu as Entertainer/Guard [F] Strie'bog aka Sun Zhu as Entertainer [N] Unali aka Tun Au as Zhou's wife [HD] Whitney aka Whitney as Herbalist/Tailor [F] Will aka Sun Tzu as hunt master [F] Z'leyra aka Kakita Junami as Healer [F] Zhou aka Zhou Wa as Baron Noble [HD] Game Web Site - http://www.funport.com/longshot/pbem Public posts/actions to pnpgm@abroere.xs4all.nl (mailing list) Private emails (not public actions) to longshot@cybermax.net Game Update #89 in sequence (file #715) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Admin Notes: None. ----------------------------------------------------------------- [Recap] From Raban: [Re: Actions] -------------- Whoops missed the Cc "I'm going to try and find some of that swarm. I want .... Will can show Kell where the ones he saw fell "I can create batons and enchant them with Whirlwinds a... Will thinks for a moment then... "Sounds good if we have a chance to arrange an ambush for them perhaps...." ----- OOC: As a possible plan if we were to use the wagon again to 'walk into' the next ambush then have several people waiting to ambush the ambushers. I could ride shotgun and then use Insubstantiability when they attack. From my observations the Vong or at least there bugs seem to respond to invisibility but not Insubstantiability. When Will was insubstantial I was having trouble getting them to notice me when I was trying to distract them from Arawn and Kell. Bottom line it would be good to have a plan. Although I still think that the best start to a plan would be to have Z' scout ahead and report back. ---------- Will has one more thing he wanted to check. After removing the head and being quite sure the Vong is dead he will cut the armor and see if it still self repairs or if it dies with its owner. GM: Ack. Making plans is great trust me. But even a simple talk in a pbem can take weeks of actual play. In a table game face to face you can make a plan of a entire battle with armies in an hour. But in a pbem plans take time. So unless you're a good leader and know what to do it is time consuming. I've just learned this over the years. From Unali: [Re: Actions] Unali: "No Kiet, you misunderstand me. I don't want to.... [She spins around, voice raised as if angered, pointing almost at random, stabbing in the air. Could be Kell, Whitney,Arawn, but also Z or Fremea. Then she seems to lose the anger, arms down and head slightly bowed.] "We should function as a team, focus our efforts on one group... "Now if everyone is patched up, I suggest we ride to the.... OOC: Agree with Alex that this looses some opportunities in using valuable time and magic, but I do have a Character to play. GM: Ack. From Arawn: [Re: Actions] Arriving too late to see to the Vong Arawn shakes his head slightly and tends to the medical needs of any who desire his aid (He'll use the Healer skill and refrain from using magic unless someone specifically asks him to cast the Healing spell. Healing Mist is also available if someone prefers that over Healer skill followed by Healing spell) before kneeling to study the Vong and it's symbiotes. He looks over not only weak points but also the general physiology, wishing he had time to study them in length. Unfortunately, now was not such a time. After Unali and Zhou are done speaking Arawn speaks up. "Perhaps it might be good to have a pair, perhaps Z'leyra... Icylius will gather some of the Vong insects, placing them in an empty flask. GM: Ack. Who is Icylius? Did you hire a slave at Shantou? :) ----------------------------------------------------------------- [New Stuff] [Julis 26th, 1634TH] [Location: Middle Katai Plains, Shantou Province] [ 20 Miles south of Shantou City ] [ Old Shantou Carnival Grounds ] [Time: 2:31:01pm - 2:34:10pm] Will sits back on the ground and glances to Kiet and then Unali as she goes to her horse. He glances to the dead Vong and shrugs. "if that was the plan I could have done that easy enough myself" Unali shifts in her saddle and looks to the south then nods. "We might as well patch up those who need it most. Strie'bog, Will? But if there are any Vong left, we should double check for any ambushes when we near the buildings. We are giving them time to prepare as well." Kiet slowly stands shocked by Unali's execution. Kiet is visibly having difficulty controlling himself after Unali's demonstration killing the captive Vong. Kiet would have liked to had a chance at learning the language, no matter what. That, coupled with a Vong illusion, would make a very stealthy disguise, indeed. And Kiet knows full well that he needs something to gain an advantage here. Kiet takes long quick strides to Unali's borrowed horse. He reaches up and grabs her arm. He speaks quietly but loud enough to be heard by others nearby. "Unali! Lead if you must, but please do so by telling people what you want them to do. If you want a scout, identify who the scout is to be and tell them what you want them to do! Otherwise you will continue to get this 'every man for himself' attitude and actions." Unali quickly replies, "No Kiet, you misunderstand me. I don't want to tell everybody what to do all the time. That we can each think and act on our own and all have different strengths, is what can make us strong. But if each of us goes off on his own, we are always outnumbered. We did not have a fight of us against them here. We had many fights, you against the lot, and you against too many and you." As she says this she spins her horse around, voice raised as if angered, pointing almost at random, stabbing in the air. Could be Kell, Whitney, Arawn, but also Z'leyra or Fremea. Then she seems to lose the anger, arms down and head slightly bowed. Unali pauses and then continues a bit more calm, "We should function as a team, focus our efforts on one group as far as possible. That way we can keep each others back safe and don't need to run or jump around to make sure nobody is bleeding to death. The Vong certainly know how to do that and coordinate their actions." Kiet just turns away in disgust and tends to the wagon horses. He places the ropes back onto the wagon and checks the condition of the wagon and horses to cover his anger. Will goes to his horse but then recalls he only has one sack and its filled with his gear. He recalls some spares were obtained for trash. He finds one on top of the wagon and gets one of his daggers out. Though he is a hunter he has no real hunting knife on him or his gear. He quickly sits and begins to saw with his dagger the Vong's head. Others become aghast and surprised. Since the Vong is dead little blood comes out but does soon quickly pool. It takes a great deal of strength and tension to get the process done. It takes some effort to break the neck and spine bones. Since this is only a dagger the damage to the blade becomes quite evident when the process is done. With the last slice of the dagger, he wishes he had a axe like Strie'bog's. He examines the dagger and finds it too damaged to even be effective as a fighting dagger anymore. Will quickly glances down the neck but sees nothing special and then places the head of the dead Vong in the sack. Others continue to stare at this and wonder why such a deed would be done. Kell watches Kiet confront Unali and glides toward the dead Vong that Will is working on. He bends down to examine closer glad that it is dead. Since he has been in this land he has had his arm damaged badly twice. These creatures are quite powerful beings. Standing up he quickly digs in his bag and pulls out a metal flask of 8 ounces of spices. He sighs and pours the aromatic spices onto the ground. He then bends down and collects the blood of the Vong. This is quite easy especially when Will begins to work on the Vong's head. The blood is thick and musky smelling more black than anything. He seals the metal flask and speaks out to those who care to listen. "This may come in handy in the future. Maybe not, but better safe. Now I need more spices and containers..." he trails off and stands up straight. Kell uses his mana sensing to find out all he can about the Vong and their gear. Next time, his Detection will work. As Kell places the metal flask in his bag he begins to expand his half-Elf senses. He then turns to stare at the Vong and his gear. He is amazed to see a trace of mana around the Vong on the grace that is very faint he has to concentrate 100% even not hearing others blocking out all other senses. How could the gods allow such creatures to exist without some mana touch to them? All life and even dead things have some form of mana life essence. This is very confusing to the half-Elf and what he has heard. These god-forsaken creatures seem to be total enemies of the gods to have no touch. not even their gear has any signature at all. Even the leather armor which has to be made from animals seems to be devoid of a mana signature. If anything this is how Shu's spell must've worked and how to detect hem the best way. Now if only one can train in such a skill to detect only the absence of mana and to avoid the instinctive nature of mana sensing. Arawn begins to inspect the dead Vong and wounded party members. As he approaches Kell, the half-elf raises a hand. "I'm fine. Tend to others that need it." Turning to the party, "Earth Strength has the nice side- effect of regeneration, and I can cast it on anyone who is injured that wants. It will heal you fully, as it did my arm." Looking at his arm, the sleeve in tatters yet again, he sighs. I really really need some armor there. He smiles to himself as he considers Raban using the spell and wonders what one of his fists could do under a earth strength spell. Kell glances around looking for those things he saw from the distance. He didn't get a close look at the swarm of bugs but figures them to be Vong creatures. "I'm going to try and find some of that swarm. I want to examine them, see if they can be turned on the Vong." Then he walks over to the barn and starts looking for them, asking Will and others for help to find the bug swarm. As Will works on the dead Vong he points with his head to the barn to direct Kell to the bugs. Kell finds the swarm of 30 odd bugs on the ground near the front ground barn door. All are dead and not moving at this time. He examines some and they are brown and black in color. They are the size of a thumb fingernail. Their shell is very tough and it takes a dagger to crush the shell. With basic human fingers it takes great force. They seem to have 68 legs and a softer underbelly. Their shell is oddly tough as if made that way. Their head is a bit pointed likely to make the point of impact a damaging one. Breaking open the bugs is easy and just shows very tiny organs. Not being a bug scholar, Kell has no clue what he is really looking at. Kell glances over to the Vong exposed armor on the body Will is working on. The armor seems to be dead. The staves lying around are rigid and none seem to be in snake form. If they are alive it is unclear. These things must be tied or attuned to the warrior they serve. Once the warrior dies they must suffer or die? Some of the warriors have a bone like dagger on their belts. From the briefing Zhou mentioned them to be called coufees or something like that. They appear to just be sharp blade dagger weapons but seem to have no feature of being alive or an animal. Kell glances to Kiet at the wagon who is still red faced and a bit blushed. it can't be the heat and he seems obviously upset. Standing over he dead Vong Will is working on he speaks. "I too wish we had a chance to learn from a living Vong. Before any major combat, the more we know the better." Farseeker sighs and crosses his arms impatient for a new fight. "Our history of interrogation is awful. We lost a good prisoner to a shadow beast. We lost men on a ship due to allies. We lost traitors in the sacred forest due to mistakes. It is as if the gods don't want us to learn stuff from them." Kell goes and finds his horse, giving it a calming pat on the forehead. He then mounts up and moves to the far left of the party to be a flanker. Kell speaks to the issue of surprise. "If there are any Vong they knew about us the moment that flier took off. Surprise is now their ally. If the Bug Swarm is shot at us, let me be the target. I can use either my Whirlwind or Heat to kill them off. Just don't stand next to me when I use them. Whirlwind worked well, had I not nearly had my arm cut off, I think it could wipe out a small group." Kell considers the future and speaks a bit low but enough to be heard. "I can create batons and enchant them with Whirlwinds and Heat. That is a nasty combination. Having several available would be good." Will thinks for a moment then... "Sounds good if we have a chance to arrange an ambush for them perhaps...." As Will slings the sack on top of the wagon, Zhou looks pale at the thought of riding with that thing. If guards find it the cover story won't matter. Will then turns and asks "So what happened to him?" Zhou recovers and says, "He tried some spell on that flying thing and it backfired it seems. He is blind now and not sure for how long." Will nods and moves back to the others. Of course that makes sense as their telepathic connection seemed to imply some of that but it fills in the gaps of knowledge Will was missing. "If we actually have a plan that would be good. I would think that it would be a good idea to have Z'leyva scout and at least look and see what's in the next building and then tell us. She could do that while we walk over there. So who's plan was it to rush out into the middle of an ambush since from my observation they were watching us the whole time." Some glance to Kell who looks suddenly busy at the comment and examines his armor. As the moment becomes a bit embasrrasing Arawn speaks up to draw attention to him. "Perhaps it might be good to have a pair, perhaps Z'leyra and one other, scout ahead of us as intangible spirits. That we have already been discovered is a given but having a layout of the buildings, enemies, and victims could prove handy, especially when offered telepathically. And in regards to the Vong, perhaps after any innocents have been rescued and the enemy has dwindled in number we can try to recover one. As has been mentioned, torture isn't likely to be effective, not that I relish the thought, and they are magically resistant but not immune. The Sidh have ways that the Zen'da shamans do not. Alfar and elf can commune empathetically and it might prove effective and, if not, then I would be willing to risk the backlash to enchant and compel cooperation to engage in conversation via Tongues. It is risky so will go with the group on this but, as I said, I am willing to do so, with proper preparation before hand." Will appearing stoic says "From what I can tell I have 11 little bruises all over my body... and they don't bother me much." Will recalls one other thing he wanted to try and grabs his good last dagger. he goes over to the headless Vong and cuts a part of the armor, one of its legs off. he stares a few seconds and finds nothing happen. It seems when it is dead there is no regeneration. While some minor healing treatment was done, just enough to stop bleeding and bandage wounds, no one does magical healing. It seems the party doesn't wish to heal at this time. Unali brings the group back into the present. "Now if everyone is patched up, I suggest we ride to the nearest building as a slightly dispersed group. No sense in presenting a single target. I don't think we can surprise them, but I am worried about ambushes and traps inside the building they can set up. Let's see when we get here. And Kiet, if you want to ride point, go ahead." ------------------------- [Time: 2:34:11pm] By now Z'leyra is visible but still insubstantial. Kell can feel and sense the earth strength and elemental pact spell end. Z'leyra recasts levitation in order to move forward in the few seconds before the party moves on. The long lasting insubstantial spell prevents casting of invisibility at this point. Zhou and Whitney have reboarded the wagon and wait inside. Will and Kiet take the wagon seat with Will taking shotgun as Kiet drives. Z'leyra levitates nearby and Fremea hovers near the wagon not over 10 feet above the ground. All others mount up on horses and prepare to move out. Unali is using Will's horse for now as it was borrowed since her horse is driving the wagon. Unali listens to Arawn and Will but looks south. As the wind blows hair across her eyes and face she brushes it aside. She seems really distracted and trying to restrain her emotions. It doesn't take being Arawn with his emotional empathy to notice that she is nervous, upset and distracted. Those who have known her for more than a year know she isn't quite herself as she is slightly in deep thought. Most know she isn't distracted as that isn't her style and distraction leads to death. But she of all those in this group seems the most to lose by this mission. If the Vong survive and take over the empire that could affect her family and friends as well as her homeland. After the discussion seems to die down, Unali figures it is time to move on. She raises a hand and gets the horse into motion to move south. Z'leyra leads the way levitating fast between the barn and the next building. The group this time as a full group moves south toward the stone and brick structure Z'leyra leads the way about 10 feet of the first horses and wagon. As she enters the building she doesn't wait for orders she quickly edges up to the wall and peeks inside. It is different now that she is visible she can't just zoom through the structure. As she does she finds a dark room and then ducks back outside. As she does the wagon pulls to a stop. [Time: 2:34:30pm] The building itself has some windows on the east side as well as a wooden door. With Ben'dar and others holding position with bows some dismount. Farseeker, Kell, Unali and Fremea slowly open the door after peering inside the windows. The windows show nothing but what appears to be an office. The door opens to a clean lobby like room. Using a controlled entry with Fremea using her senses to scan for traps the group begins to enter. Z'leyra also scans the area from her vantage point inside. [Time: 2:35:18pm] Soon the 100 foot by 100 foot structure is found to be empty. It is quickly learned there are offices here that likely served as the administration building for the carnival grounds. There are two small offices and one large outer lobby area. A storage room seems to have at one time held scrolls and papers for the carnival operations. The offices have windows on the west side of the building. But after a quick search no Vong is found in this building or any sign of their creatures either. Z'leyra becomes solid now and only her levitation spell remains but likely not for too long. As the group reforms up outside they scan south to the next set of three buildings. [Time: 2:35:30pm] As the group moves on Z'leyra lands softly to the ground as her levitation spell ends. The next building is 250 feet south of the administration building. This one is a bit smaller at 65 feet by 65 feet but is about 22 feet tall. It is as tall as the barn was. It is a bit squat and looks just like a actual home. The building is made of stone and from the north side of the building appears to have no windows. this is good in that if anyone is inside they can't see the party. The group moves slowly and cautiously forward with Z'leyra now walking as slow as the horses are moving. The party is now about 100 feet to the house and the area is quiet. Since Fremea is only 10 feet up she can't see if anyone is on the roof but from this angle it appears to be not the case. Only the noise of the wagon and horses are heard for several long moments. Then suddenly a howl is heard. This how more like a wolf howling at the moon is long and very pitchy. It seems to tap right into the core of your stomach and shake your very bones. The howl comes from the south building. As the party watch, from the east side where the door has to be stream out Vong warriors. Three warriors stand a few feet from the door and look north to the party. It is obvious there is no surprise here. The one in the center stands behind the other two and is holding some beast. The beast which looks like a large dog is black in color and stands about 3 feet high. The party is surprised to see it has 6 legs instead of four. It has a tail that whips about wildly. As the beast looks north it howls and stares at the party. It begins to lunge forward but the center Vong warrior holds it by a leash of some kind. It becomes clear there are Vong inside the building and likely more. How many is not known. If this is the family home for the carnival this must be where the family also must be. It appears to be two story. As the party get closer the beast lunges again but the center warrior drags it back into the house and the two warriors soon follow and it appears to be closing the door. This confuses the party as they know the Vong are brave to the point of over confidence. If they are going inside could they be less in number or planning something? [Time: 2:35:40pm] Actions? Comments? Next Update...Friday... GM: Should be enough for now. Group is 100 feet to the building and about 10-20 feet to the east side door and windows. If ride at full speed will take a good 10-15 seconds to get there by horse and wagon. The Vong are back inside the building none seem to be outside. GM: Spells still active - Active spells - No other spells active. Raban - Bless Whitney - Blindness [Failure] Z'leyra - Luck GM: Maps - * Carnival Grounds layout Scale - 1 Column - 200 feet /I\ North 1 Row - 200 feet Grounds shown below - 3300' x 1 2 3 4 5 6 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345 A __________ B | | Horse C | C | Corral F D | | ` E |___/____| Road F (Tent Area) ............. G [A]