Zeitgeist Blue

Well, hope I can make it work. I'm pretty much adopting this practice from another forum roleplay game I'm in (two now actually) and it does speed up fights immensely, which means less slogging through weeks of fighting and more character stuff and story progression!

Here you go, Giz. Knowledge (Arcane Lore): 1d20+15 = 33 Initiative: 1d20-1 = 15

What do I have to roll to know more about the Giant Krampus? Like from where it came from or what it wants, backstory or anything else.

GM You move into the hut or you stand on the doorway. You try your hand at searching the hut or you give up to find the potion somewhere else. Whatever it is you choose to do, a minute passes before your ring suddenly goes off like a white flare. Your hand feels as if it had been seared off by the heat, and accompanying the pain images and scenes play out in your mind. They overpower your own senses with how real they feel, overlapping and blending until you can't tell the difference. The wind rushes past you as you run and leap on all fours, racing before your doom is completed, faster and faster while you sense it coming closer. You stare at the moon as your instinctively struggle against your bounds but you feel excited by the possibilities and anticipate the thought of freedom after all this time. You thumb the ceremonial knife in your hand, feel the cold iron of its tip, still sharp after all all these milennia, and you lift your journal to chant the ancient words as you stand over a bound Kayara. Your ring begins to cool down, only to flare up one more time. <Archaeologist Cassandra?> So tired and only standing through your own will, you stand over your body, which lies crumpled on the dirt, and you kneel down to pull the archaeologist up by the arm. <You're going to have to walk me on this. You must have been hit harder than you thought.> You hear that with your own ears, the scenes receeding as you blink with your own eyes. Cassandra Crow's eyes. You look up and you see the one constant in all the visions. The moon, hanging in the same position in the sky, yet seen from different eyes.

GM The village is quiet as you run, just the two of you. Isa had dismissed the others to go with the rest of the villagers. They had no use for this valley anymore, not with the threat of the Paruma hanging over their necks and the fire laying waste to the settlement. <Healer Anne would have taken all of her stock with her when she left,> Isa explains, keeping up with you. So you burst into Uncle Doji's hut, and you burst into a ramshackled room. Pots and pans upturned, the table's food and drink swept into the floor, shelves left hanging open. <Looks like they left in a hurry,> Isa comments from behind you. <Do you see the herbs here?> You haven't started yet but you have a sinking feeling that it is gone. (OOC: You can write looking for it but there ultimately isn't one here. I'll be writing a GM post and something happening when I can. Merry Christmas!)

Ohhh, thanks for telling me about that! But it's fine. Only thing I can think of that would be appropriate for that situation is to stun him more until he passes out. But even with a shift to +2 Damage, he would still make the save.

Got it! Want to do an IC post of Snakebite running there or will I just skip and set the scene?

Whew, guy's been going strong for 3 rounds now just jumping around. Kudos to him. I'm almost tempted to throw area attacks.

Okay, and edited.

Shifting Attack +2/Damage -2 Energy Vent: 1d20+13 - 2 = 30 Stun: Fortitude Saving Throw DC of 17.

Oh, I didn't know it was only shaken! I'll put out a quick edit then!

Nicole looked out the window and sees the quiet of a dark winter night. Her reflection stared back at her. Her eyes were tired, lips drooping down in defeat. They had been that way for a long time now. With a sigh, she lowered her head, eyes catching a stray spark coming from her hand and it only further serves to dampen her spirits. She knew it. She knew she was back again living her old memories as a young girl, someone who seemed like an entirely different person. It was so easy to drift into the past when one remembered everything, to choose the happy memories and push away the bad and tiring. She was young once, full of spirit and confidence and drive. But when your old and you find your dreams crushed again and again, it chips away at you. Never again she said at the twenty-ninth time her idea was ground into the ground. Never again when her husband left her when she turned all her energies into her craft. Never again as her father enacted his masterplan and escaped with her armour and wealth and siblings. What was it all for? For a one room apartment, barely heated in the cold months and sparsely furnished, as if no one truly lived here, or if one did then she was too far gone from reality to care. For a life where she knew the end and it was like this, to stay indoors every day and sit on her wheelchair, reliving times that were happier and fuller on promise. She was still so damn intelligent, but she couldn't think anymore, couldn't invent and innovate because she felt so tired to do so. And that was when they all left. Her friends and her family. All they really wanted from her was her mind and what came from that mind. Money, success, inventions and theories and new arcane lore. Bereft of that and she was merely a fixture in her one room apartment. The hand on her lap twitched, drawing sparks from the fingertips. She looked down at it and made it twitch again. And again. And again. She opened her eyes to the sight of her wards glowing hot red as they protected her from the worst of the assault. She could still see the mental image branded on her mind and it shook her, but defended like this, she was able to stomp forward into the room where three Claremont students fought their demon-possessed schoolmate. "Demon." She spat, her hand crackling with electricity. "Try something harder." And she swept her hand forward. The stored energy cracking free like a whip as it flew towards Sam.

Hey SC, so just say where you're going next in the IC or in here!

GM Isa shakes her head. <I can't claim to know you, explorer, but if you came to our aid then perhaps I should follow.> At that, you see her people carry whom they can and begin their trek to the direction where the rest of the villagers had fled. A man runs up to the both of you, turning to Isa with a crestfallen face. <And the ones who are dead, Isa?> He asks. <Four of us are gone. What will we do with them.> Isa's hands crunch into fists but to her credit she makes the decision fast. <Leave them. Our responsibility is to the living now.> She turns to you and her face is even more impassive, darker moods swirling beneath the surface. <Again, I can't claim to know what you dabble in. Herbs and ceremony. But you will have my arm.> She nods. <Lead on.> Behind her the fire grows as the wind picks up, stirring the ash and flames. It leaps from hut to hut as you speak and they burn like dry tinder. By tomorrow's dawn most of the village would have been reduced to dust, but you have bigger concerns. Where shall you go now? Where has the besst fled? Where has Neil gone? Are you safe or is this just a respite?

Well, rolled a 13 at the start. Used an HP to reroll and got a 17. An 18 by defaulting to 10. Will Save: 1d20+8 = 18 Edit: I suggest using the Collateral Damage Colplication for this as she involuntarily pulls the trigger while getting on the Fear.

Oh yeah. I'd do that if you want but it's pretty much a hassle doing it on the phone. And I want some modicum of OOC suspense and mystery!

16 villagers left. Roll Toughness against DC 24. Combat is done for now.

GM <Get it!> <We have it in the ropes now!> <Reggie, move to the left and take it from the sides!> The villagers corner it in like a wild animal but in a flash it was out from beneath the hut and before anyone could react it had brought down several villagers as it zigzagged between them. You hear the screams of surprise and pain, then it is upon you. It doesn't slash wildly with its claws but instead stabs a claw in a quick jab. Isa attempts to slash at it but misses the nimble beast. Then it is turns heel to run away, having created an opening to escape. Two villagers come in just as it passes by them, toting assault rifles each and they fire wildly in the direction of the Paruma. There is a yelp and it falters but there is no other indication it had been badly hurt. Isa steps to your side. <Are you hurt?> she asks before barking orders to the remaining villagers. <You, you, and you! Find the wounded and get them to Healer Anne! The rest, follow me to the others. It might just make a move for the undefended.> Then she turns back to you. <We've got to get back to the rest of the village. Protect them until we can run away from this cursed place.>

For this round, IC posts would be appreciated @angrydurf @Fox @Nick @Thevshi. Please dictate your PC's actions, roll for them, and write it in the IC. *** However, for the next round I'll be trying something new to speed up combat scenes. Give me a gist of your PCs actions and tactics for the upcoming fight. The more comprehensive, the better, and I'll roll and write it out in the IC. I'll stop again to ask for IC posts when a decision point happens or just if I feel some IC posts are warranted (after a GM post). For mook fights like this, round by round IC posts aren't needed anyway. *** To recap what you know: 1. You need to install the helmet inside the CPU to complete the repairs. 2. However, an outside malicious is going around wrecking havoc inside Ballios. 3. Now the representation of an automated defense system is trying to kill you. 4. There will soon be too many of them to fight. They're also being messed up by the outside malicious force.

I'll be editing my last post as well with the new set of PPs for a smoother flow. Here are the new edits. Salvo (2nd Set of Edits) Reduce Normal Identity Frequency from Very Common to Common Add Ultimate Skills (Craft (Electrical), Craft (Mechanical), Craft (Structural), Knowledge (Arcane Lore)) Edited, TA in other post

GM It doesn't give much time to react as it drops the man and swipes at you with its claws. But you lead it on as you dodge and weave, pulling it closer through its own momentum for a haymaker to the snout. But it leans to the side at the last second and your fist merely grazes the bone jutting out. Before it can use its greater strength and size, you grab on to its shoulders and heave yourself away, giving yourself more space from the beast. It glares at you with hate, raises its claws for another attempt, but it is interrupted as Isa and her small band of villagers rush it from behind. They brandish machetes and pistols and fire wildly at its direction. Several even hit the ground uncomfortably close to where you're standing. But it spins in the air, dodging them, and slips underneath a nearby hut just as Isa brings her machete down where it was a moment ago. Isa turns to you as the other villagers harrass it. She's breathing hard and like you seems to be fighting under the effect the Paruma is giving out. <Thanks for the assistance anyway. You gave me time to rally everyone together, but I sent Jarin and Dani to fetch the heavier guns. Hopefully those could do something to it, even pin it down.>

Villagers: 11 attacks. One hits. Doesn't do anything Isa: Runs to assist Snakebite. Misses. Paruma: Melee Attack: 23. Miss. Well, everyone's missing. *** Snakebite's turn. The Paruma is currently out of melee range and dodging gunfire. Isa and the villagers are around you.

GM It stalks forward as men and women run, the defenders already broken in just mere seconds. Its tongue lashes out into the air and its eyes contract, seeing its prey flee before him. But before it could bring down its fill of prey, Isas voice rings out among the commotion. She faces down the creature a few meters away, twirling her machete in the night as if it were a saber and her a hero in a movie. As the moonlight catches on the steel one could almost believe she was. <Stand and fight until everyone can escape! Defend your homes and families and push it back from where it came!> At her rallying cry, many halt their freelong run. Some run to congregate near Isa and stand as a group while many others turn and fire of their assortment of guns at the Paruma. As the firing resumes it immediately drops to all fours and weaves out of the way, leaping and sprinting through the huts so fast it was only a blur. Your own tranquilizer shot misses by a hair's breadth as it clambers up a thatched roof. Then it hisses in pain as a bullet lodges on its cheek. It halts its movement right before the man who shot it and rears itself on all fours before smashing the man on ground with a massive hand. And as the dirt settles, you see its reptillian eye swivel towards you. Before you can say anything it looms over you, close enough to swupe at you with its claws. The man's head is still grasped on its hand. Its tongue snakes out, tasting the air. <It has returned on a silver platter. What a stupid fool to want to die. Now she is too weak to keep me from the humans. Too weak from holding me back for days on end, but her efforts are all for naught. I shall feast tonight!>

22 villagers left Isa has entered the fight. Snakebite and the Paruma are in melee range. Your turn, SC.

Nicole lowered her hand and inched her way backwards as the Red Death posturized for the world and as Corinne was carried away at record speeds. These were the most annoying kinds of villains, Nicole had come to realize in her time as Salvo. Bombastic villains with a cause. But she hoped the Red Death's theatrics would let her slip away to where she could suit up. Corinne was getting farther away every second but she was confident she could find them if she had her sensors. "Now's the time, guys." Nicole hissed under her breath. "Use your powers and blast them!" Then she heard the sound of energy weapons and she tossed all sense of stealthiness and stepped on the gas, swinging her wheelchair around and away from the commotion. "Thursday, get your bat and start swinging!" She called out. If there was already shooting this early then the Red Death was looking for more than an audience. She was rearing to cause some damage and she and her schoolmates could stop them.