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Post by pastels on May 3, 2019 8:35:01 GMT
I failed, she thought, both bitter and surprised, as her magic missed its mark—the whispered hooks glanced off the specter as though it were covered in scales, their enchantment fizzling in the wake of its relentless advent. Proserpina kept running, blind and deaf to everything save for the dull thump of her sandals against the cracked stone floor, and the blood pounding in her ears. She had to find cover—the spirit hit her as she turned to leave, and now her chest felt cold and her heart felt as though there were a thousand spikes… Why was the damnable creature following her, still!? Then the ghost raised its arm as they rounded the pillar, and Proserpina saw past her panic too late. A scream, first raw and jagged like a shard of glass, pierced through the room, before it trailed off into a garbled choke as the tiefling unceremoniously dropped to the ground. She left behind a faint outline of glitter and petals—her glamour dissipating, fast—and the lyre she had kept so close to her chest fell from her arms and tumbled away with a sharp, high-pitched twang. (Status: Proserpina's currently at a staggering -4 hp. Maximum HP is also reduced by 8, which brings her to 10 max. Will start noting DST fails/successes in my next post!) Your time to shine, moralhazardDeath Saving Throw: eRIfDxM51d201d20
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Post by moralhazard on May 3, 2019 13:22:33 GMT
Thea felt the gust of wind connect with Dhaunmyr just as he moved, and watched him flee the ghostly creature.
Proserpina had fled, and when Thea turned back to look the second creature was chasing her. They were mostly covered by the pillar - Thea couldn’t see what was happening - but she saw Proserpina fall, her lute tumbling from her hand, and the creature still on top of her.
Thea broke from the pillar, running along the wall. She needed to hit the creature, to pull it as far from Proserpina as possible. Fear turned to lightning in her veins.
Thea cried out the words of the spell and snapped her arm out at the monster still nearly on top of Pippa. Lighting arced from her hand towards the thing, her hair whirling about her head.
((Thea moves four squares right and casts Witch Bolt at S1!
Spell attack: 8vDD4aZw1d20+4 If successful, damage (lightning): 1d12
Thea has 1/4 first level spell slots, 2/3 second level spell slots, and 4/4 sorcery points remaining.))1d20+4·1d12
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Post by enchilada on May 3, 2019 18:17:28 GMT
gonna try to hit this ghosty man which. this will be fun.
pxol0L2U1d20+4 to hit
1d8+2 damage1d20+4·1d8+2
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Gigi
Approved
5 Cleric of Graves
Posts: 109
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Post by Gigi on May 4, 2019 22:28:16 GMT
Thum-ump
The dull tone rang in her ears as the fragile precipice of life and death gonged a heavy toll in her ears, strumming down to deafen her ears and shake her soul. For Gigi if felt like the room had been plunged into the depths of winter. Blues, blacks, and silver filtered her vision as the cold turned her perception of life grey scaled. She could feel her breath fog over, a frost of hoarfrost crept up her metal arm and ached into the point where it connected with living tissue. There was no sound from her feet slamming against the stone to reach her fallen alley. Her cigarette fell out of her mouth as she gritted her jaw tighter, landing to spark against the stone as the only orange thing in her vision.
Pippa was purple.
Or at least, her outline was purple.
Thum-um
Pippa's heart beat again, sending another shockwave of toll tones shuddering like its own ghostly hand down her spine. The shimmering outline of her spirit, soul, essence, or what-have-you was flickering like a specter above the body. The two were split, body turning cold on the floor with a ghostly foe above, and the spirit haze-pulsing like a purple heat mirage.
Her metal thumb rose to scratch at her nose, sparking the digit into the same shade of purple of Pippa's spirit. "Not today, Prosperina - Sahasrara." Gigi whispered between the gong of a third heart beat. A hint of the same purple that Gigi, and Gigi alone perceived due to her strange connection with death, lit up for everyone else to see at the base of her neck shining from underneath her leather jacket. Beneath it the crown chakra tattoo she had inked into her skin was glowing the same necromatic purple that was now igniting up her arm. As she whispered her statement towards the fallen tielfing she threw out her arm to send the motes of purple spellfire onto her from a good 15 feet or so away.
Thu-
The sound in her ears of someone teetering on the edge of life or death ended as the spellfire settled around and seeped into Pippa. The purple fire coated the body and the spirit, frozen in the veil of blue of Gigi's grave sight. No heart beat, but no death spasms either. A perfect balance of neither dying or living.
Gigi bit and sucked on her bottom lip in satisfaction, a jolt of adrenaline and almost a drug like high of seeing the blue greyscale that clouded her vision. This. This is where her best work could happen, managing and manipulating this strange in-between world of life and death. This is where she could prove herself as being someone good still. Her absolution. That she was someone worthwhile. Here. In this Moment.
((I'm taking some liberties here Pastels, if you don't like it at all whatsoever let me know and I'll edit <3. I think this interaction between dying Pippa and Gigi could be a very unique and interesting thing that spans only starting this post and finishing at the end of Gigi healing her in this 'death space' ))
Prosperina would sense or feel the strangest sensation. Just what? It would be... Personal. Gigi herself wouldn't feel how Pippa felt, but she knew what it felt like to her. A heated blanket wrapped around the shoulders during a snowstorm. The feel you get from smelling hot chocolate. The joy of staying up late on Yule with only a candle lighting the room. The feeling of being part of her family. Whatever feelings they might be, they would be enough to catch the spirit's interest in sticking around. Of not passing on. Of wanting to linger without turning into a shade or angsted spirit.
From within this spirit plane connection the purple outlined Pippa would be able to perceive Gigi, or at least - her spirit. Made out of life giving greens and necromatic purple (balance favoring the purple due to her False Life) the spiritual ink drawing like interpretation of the healer was the only thing sensed by the spirit. Oh... And the ghosts - but they were a dark bastard black-purple and seemed to be more preoccupied with the living than the near-death and death-walker.
"Sup Pippa!" Gigi's voice was the most friendly Pippa would have ever, ever heard out of her mouth. Gigi also looked as if she had both arms, no prosthetic to be seen, as well as lighter hair - though the color was impossible to tell due to just being made out of shades of green and purple. Gigi was also beaming, a sincere pleasant smile. She also looked to be several years younger. No longer a pre-teen but not a young adult either, and defiantly not the 30 something crotchety woman she was now.
"It's not your time yet, so let's do something about that, yeah? Give me a sec ta get over there, but don't worry. You're going to be okay. Your aren't going anywhere.... Not on my watch. You're safe. I promise."
The voice was Gigi's, no doubt about that. The tone was slightly distorted, most likely due to the fact their spirits were speaking and not really, actually, speaking with real words or vocal cords.
"Let see if I can't make some room for us to work better... Hold on." Gigi then, both spiritually and physically, held up her left arm -metal in the real world, normal in the spirit world- and flipped the bird towards the ghosts around them. In the physical world there wouldn't be any sort of indication that she was attempting to shove the undead away. But in the spiritual side of things? That same feeling of what made the spirit feel at home and human, what kept the soul in the body, would pulse out again. It felt great to Gigi and Pippa, but to the ghosts around them? The reminder of what they once were? It would burn like a douse of frigid ocean water.
Move: 30 feet towards Pippa. Follow Southeast diagonal for 20 feet, then right the remaining 10 so she is parallel with S1 and 4 squares to its left Action: Turn Undead - Wis DC 13 Bonus: Spare the Dying (a 30 feet cantrip for Clerics of the Grave)
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Post by Kai Wren on May 5, 2019 7:48:17 GMT
Turn Undead saves
S1: lu9qk7ua1d20 S2: 1d201d20·1d20
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Post by Kai Wren on May 5, 2019 8:23:14 GMT
As Gigi reached out to keep the soul of her fellow adventurer firmly anchored into this world, she definitely proved her credentials as a master over the balance of life and death. Not only did she stop Proserpina from passing on, but the wave of spiritual force which emanated from her caused both spirits to snap their attention right round to her, regardless of the threats that they had been dealing with. The one wreathed with lightning let out an unearthly wail, and then – disappeared through the floor. That was a disturbing reaction, because it told the group all manner of things, not least of which was the fact that there was a lower level to this tomb, and that the spectres could move between them at will. The other was not made to flee, but its twisted, skeletal features seemed almost to bunch up in hatred at the Cleric’s intervention. It screamed, too, but there was no noise which came with it; the monster was clinging on to this hateful plane of reality so barely that it did not have the strength to make noise any longer. With an air of malevolent rage, it surged towards Gigi, heedless of the dark elf it was turning its back to, desperate only to slice her soul from her body for the crime of invoking such divine power against it. And perhaps, if that were all, things would not be looking so dire for the adventurers. But, as had been pointed out, originally, there were four spectres in the tomb – and only two of them had chased the interlopers into the main chamber to continue battle. Where had the other two gone? ”OWWWWWWWWOAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!”The echoing cry was – animalistic? Certainly not human, and not quite the same unearthly noises which had emanated from the other spirits, either. This one, though, reverberated through the stones of the temple as an enormous elk of impossible proportions rose through the floor, directly in the middle of the still-gore-slick altar. The spiritual form was – bizarre. Where the guardian spirits were decayed and horrifying, this majestic creature retained the beauty it had in life. If anything, it was magnified in its undeath; shining with an eerie moonlight which accentuated its twenty-foot-tall frame. About its neck there was a collar, and again it threw its head back, giving its high-pitched squealing cry! (Okay, Dhaunmyr gets an attack of opportunity as the spirit moves to attack Gigi - we'll resolve that before the spirit attacks.) Elk Init: BfD3YsT91d20+31d20+3
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Post by enchilada on May 5, 2019 9:37:22 GMT
Dhaunmyr almost felt like it had connected, it was weird. Did it? Didn’t it? He couldn’t quite tell. Either way, it suddenly stopped really caring about what he was doing. He could just about feel that, and then it moved, so, while it was busy moving, he’d try just one more swing.
bDnaI4RT1d20+4 1d8+2 And for Eilistraee’s Grace, what the bloody — he almost had to cover his ears. What a dreadful noise. He turned his head, ah, yes, of course. There had been more, but only two were here. But... there had been two of these things, not a huge... whatever! It’s not like anything else could phase him at this point! Someone was actually freaking dead on the floor, or, he assumed she was. He knew nothing of magics that could be used to keep anyone alive, just how to take a deep breath and... Just. Keep. Trying.
Which was what he had done earlier, it was what he was going to do now, and, Eilistraee permitting, he at least would try to make sure that if anyone else decided to keel over and die, it wouldn’t be his fault. 1d20+4·1d8+2
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Post by Kai Wren on May 5, 2019 10:01:59 GMT
And as it closed on Gigi, the spirit simply... ceased to exist. There was a faint, chill breeze that passed through the space where she stood, but Dhaunmyr's opportunistic thrust was enough to sever what little link remained between it and the physical realm, removing it from existence - which, given the sudden appearance of another strange spirit creature was, probably for the best.
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Post by moralhazard on May 8, 2019 20:31:51 GMT
The spell hit; Thea could see it had connected with the spectral figure, although she couldn’t tell how much damage it was doing. She gritted her teeth, and held the spell, fully expecting the thing to come gliding towards her at any moment. It was all she could do – but out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gigi running towards Pippa, and breathed a sigh of relief. Fine; she would keep the creature out of the way for them, she would –
Abruptly, the spectral knight dropped through the floor and Thea’s spell cut off, the lightning fizzling into nothing. Her eyes went wide, and she glanced around, confused and uncertain. The second one seemed to have vanished into nothing; Thea hadn’t been able to follow the fight well enough to tell why. She stood against the back wall, blinking and –
The world’s worst noise burst from the center of the chamber. Thea cupped her hands over her ears, cringing, and stared in horror and surprise as an enormous, oddly beautiful elk emerged through the floor, making a noise that reminded Thea of nails on a chalkboard.
Stunned, surprised, and still faintly terrified, Thea hesitated nonetheless. The elk hadn’t actually attacked them; it didn’t seem right to hit it with a spell before it had. Thea moved forward, advancing to get a little closer to Pippa and Gigi, standing with a column between her and the elk.
Then, she would ready a spell, preparing to cast Shatter against the gigantic ghost elk if it attacked any of her fellow companions, and if she could target the elk without hurting anyone else. Heart pounding, Thea gripped her arcane focus and waited.
((Thea moves four squares down and Readies herself to use Shatter on the gigantic ghost elk if it makes an attack against any of her companions.
Thea has 1/4 first level spell slots, 2/3 second level spell slots, and 4/4 sorcery points remaining.))
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Post by enchilada on May 8, 2019 20:43:17 GMT
it was an odd compulsion, granted, but Dhaunmyr suddenly felt it. Try to appeal to the beast, as the animal it was. His morning star rested in his loop, and he held his arms down and out to his sides. It was still a big fucking elk, though, and clearly not... alive. But from the collar, perhaps it had at one point been tamed. If so, it would understand someone who did not want to hurt it, right? At the very least, it wouldn't consider him as a threat. At best, he might be able to determine some kind of intent, perhaps convince it that none of his friends or Gigi were threats, and it wouldn't get violent. But that was best case scenario. MolTvB931d20+21d20+2
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Gigi
Approved
5 Cleric of Graves
Posts: 109
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Post by Gigi on May 9, 2019 0:21:26 GMT
The near approaching angry movement of the other spirit didn't even register to Gigi. The adrenaline kept urging her forward, the chemical acting like horse blinders for her to not even twist her head the tiniest bit to look towards the source of the fog horn that had ripped through the room. Just because she didn't look though didn't mean she didn't hear it. The spectral sound was like nails on a chalkboard, her ghostly awareness hearing the message loud and clear. She didn't have time to determine though if the message was angry or happy, much less if it was a warning that would herald their success or demise. She had a job to do. Her sprint never ended, speed continuing from where she'd started running to keep moving across the room. She cleared the last 20 feet or so to where Pippa's body laid on the ground beyond the pillar, anchored to life by the necromatic spell fire she'd sent to keep the soul occupied and interested enough in staying on the material plane. Baseball sliding style to the body, using the rubber of her boots to slow her run she, without fan fare, put her metal hand on Pippa's forehead, skin hand right over her heart, and closed her eyes. Head bowed over the body, hair dangling to make a curtain to hide both faces from the rest of the room, giving a private audience to the words she would be speaking. In the strange sudo spirit world the younger Gigi followed the physical Gigi's actions; running towards Pippa and nesting down to match the same movements. Spirit Gigi however was on the opposite side, mirroring everything from the head bow, to the hair curtain, to the right hand here on the forehead and the left on the chest. As her spirit reached out to connect to Pippa, Gigi began receiving all sorts of information from the body below her, interpreted in her mind as runes and impressions that had various meanings. Results: Circulatory System Check: Current body temperature - 74.8, declining. Current heart rate - 0 bpm. Average heart rate: unknown. Blood Pressure - 0/0. Immune Systems Check: Most status normal. No illness detected. Unknown block on max wellness....Both entities then began to speak, sounding exactly the same: soft, hastenly spoken, yet with clear enunciation as even more information poured into her mind about the state of the body. For now? She ignored it for the most part, mentally waving it away as unimportant and insignificant... though bookmarking the strange reading of 'unknown block' for later consideration. As they chanted she began to glow a vibrant life giving green from each tattoo inked onto her body - light coming through the sleeves of her jacket and glowing over each hand. "I live in balance of life and death where one shall not overwhelm the other, for I am balance. Through my own victory over death I reverse the Ten of Swords and manipulate the mortality of this fleeing spirit by substituting my own will."The spirit rendition of the healer pulsed and transitioned from a deep, nearly black purple, the color of necromancy, into leaf green, over and over again as she chanted. The glow at her hands brightened then spread over Pippa's body, strands of light twisting to look like the same vines she had tattooed on her body, leaves blooming, flowers blossoming, to give life back into the stabilized body. In mere moments Pippa's body was fully covered with these light vines, leaves, and flowers. "Anahata."The final word to the chant pushed the hedge of life into the body, sinking in like water to soil. ((Pippa heals a fully maxed cure light wounds, 1d8+3, 11! But you only get 10 since you have a negative to your max HP right now )) Standard: Cure light wounds Move: 20 feet towards Pippa (square north of Pippa) Bonus: Passive medicine check of 15 to note something is blocking her max health?
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Post by Kai Wren on May 9, 2019 7:00:24 GMT
The Great Elk’s head swivelled to look upon Dhaunmyr, and for a moment, the pair shared a deep and spiritual connection. It wasn’t some common beast, this. As its eyes stared down into Dhaunmyr’s own, he felt as though the enormous creature were looking through his merely physical frame, and deeper, into the very heart of who and what he was. There was an intense sensation of being judged – and, all at once, of being found worthy.
The spiritual beast reared up on its hindquarters, and with one last bellowing cry, rose up into the air once again. It flew straight up, through the ceiling, and away, leaving the adventurers behind with no answers to any of the questions they might have had about its presence – apparently it just wanted to leave through the most direct route possible.
In the aftermath of the confusing and terrifying battle, the Professor peeked out from the entrance to the tomb, having run as far and as fast away as she could. Self-preservation apparently overcame her numb horror at the deaths of her fellows. There was a full, all-consuming silence in the wake of the Elk’s departure.
“I, think, that someone is messing with forces they don’t understand.” She said, quietly, from the doorway. “Is, everyone okay?”
(Gigi – you know that her HP have been reduced and that she’ll probably be okay if she gets a full night’s rest. Common hazard of undead that attack the soul rather than the body.)
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Post by moralhazard on May 9, 2019 12:54:47 GMT
Thea stood in numb silence, watching first in terror as the elk turned its attention to Dhaunmyr. She gripped her spell right, ready - she couldn’t stop it from attacking him, but if it did she would - she would -
The elk let out another bellow, then flew up and vanished through the ceiling. Thea stared, just - stared. Her legs went weak and watery, and she gripped the column for balance, all thoughts rushing from her head.
And then, as the Professor spoke, they came flooding back.
“Pippa!” Thea ran the remaining distance, dropping hard to the floor next to her friend. She looked at Gigi, eyes wide, all animosities and petty grievances forgotten. For now.
“She’s all right?” Thea asked. One hand went down to clasp Proserpina’s, giving it a gentle squeeze for a moment.
“Let’s get out of here,” Thea suggested, looking up and around at each of the others. “I - I’m not saying we should give up. Something is wrong here,” she nodded at the Professor, “and we might be the only ones who can stop it. I just - perhaps we could get some rest first?”
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Post by enchilada on May 9, 2019 19:00:32 GMT
“Uh.”
Dhaunmyr... had never felt like that before. Deep down, he regarded himself a selfish, weak, coward. He’d live a fake life and then he’d die. No one would remember him, and if they did, it wouldn’t be good, it would be derogatory, that half of Waterdeep had—
But that wasn’t what was said in the wordless exchange. Somehow. He’d been judged before, he was every day, and so intensely in the Underdark, but that wasn’t how it usually felt. The elk didn’t attempt to drag out flaw, or maybe it did, and saw nothing at all of badness. Or maybe, somehow, there was something in him that outweighed what was so terrible about his every feature. He wasn’t sure where it was hiding, in his pathetic chest. But he nodded, once, to himself.
The elk had decided, that, for some reason, he wasn’t utter garbage. He smiled, again to himself. There was pride in that. It was majestic, it was wonderful. That elk had more decency and grace than most people.
And then — Pippa.
Most darling Proserpina was down. But the medic had seen to her. Dhaunmyr didn’t doubt her skill, just her range of human emotion, and the likelihood that as a child, she cut up worms and hacked at people’s kittens.
“A rest, perhaps, is completely advisable.” He began, not quite ready to even move. He felt different. “Miss Prosperpina will need to recover, even if she is healed, I imagine she feels, emotionally, in need of rest.”
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Post by pastels on May 12, 2019 15:58:41 GMT
Whoever first said that death was glorious lied. It should have been obvious, really; most storytellers loved to embellish. All Proserpina felt like at the moment of unconsciousness was cold, falling, the shadows at the edges of her vision rising up to meet her… then nothing. No soft beacon of light, no plump cherubs puffing into oversized trumpets. Not even the ridiculously toned (and naked!) beauties holding overflowing cups of wine that that cleric of Sune promised. How disappointing. She would have settled for the one.
Then the world flickered and she was awake, somehow, in the middle of the darkest room she had ever seen. The night had the moon and stars. This? Only a pale light which came from an unknown source. Around her, blurry figures wavered in and out of sight, caught on the narrow edge of existence and disappearance. The shadows imparted a sense of wrongness, but her mind struggled to form thoughts. It felt as though she was pulling threads through unkempt wool. Why?
A voice called out from within the resounding darkness. The tiefling looked up, confused and distracted, until her eyes fell upon a faint outline. She squinted her eyes. That… looked familiar.
(Gold, enough for her plans for the month. Temple. Screams… Borrow it, protect yourself. Life, Death, Eternity—don’t like them downstairs—oh, and of course, just my luck that there would be four…)
The recognition had barely registered when a deep warmth flooded through her core and—at once, as though she was hit by an ocean wave—Proserpina felt homesick. It felt to her that as soon as she turned her head to look, she would see the roaring hearth in their home—see the hunched, lean frame of her younger brother, wrapped in furs (he had always been weak with the cold) and holding a cup of spiced wine, staring into the flames. She would hear the roaring winds outside and catch the electric scent of a raging storm in the air. Would she ever have a chance to see Alkandros again? Where was he? Gods, how she missed—
Pippa? Hearing that nickname brought everything back into focus; the tiefling stared at this unnervingly pleasant (and young!) Gigi, then down at her hands, which left trailing wisps of smoke in the air with each wayward twitch. What in the Nine Hells…? Her question was cut short by an ungodly wailing sound coming from another point in the darkness. Spirit Gigi breached the distance in the next span, an anchor of bright purplish light mixed with greens, and Proserpina…
Woke up.
The first thing she felt was a light pain on both sides of her temple, and a bone-deep fatigue which made the dust-covered floor seem comfortable enough for a nap. Proserpina cracked one eye open then another, readjusting to the light and colors (as much as could be had in an eons-old ruin, anyway) among the world of the living. The dream… Wait, was it a dream?
“Oh, did I miss all the fun?” The tiefling croaked out as she gingerly pushed herself off of the floor. “Sune’s flaming brows, I feel as though I drank my way through a wedding party… or three...” A small part of her savored the fact that at least two people were fussing over her well-being, but...
Proserpina stopped rocking her head against her palm then narrowed her eyes at Gigi, giving her a passing glance from head to toe. Huh. “I… could’ve sworn you looked different. Ah, ‘tis no matter,” she gestured and settled for smiling at the cleric, instead. Perhaps it was the nerves talking. “I thank you for your aid, miss Gigi.”
Ah, but there was talk of leaving already… Proserpina glanced up at her companions with a worried—and chagrined—look on her face. “Oh, please. Don’t hold back on my account…” her smile dimmed, but she continued, “although, I would appreciate a rest after that mess… Outside, then? I would not relish having the rest of my lovely soul scooped out by those creatures, again.”
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