Personifying Existence IC

[drack]

The world was at peace and all was good. That's how it all always was when you look back on how things were before this most recent bad thing happened right? That's certainly how the great prophet Hes Mu Groil received the last prophecy of his life. The prophecy he spoke was precisely two words long, and right after delivering it he immediately died from the backlash of the associative cosmic forces at play, but it wasn't long before the fragments of his soul count be gathered from which to extract the whole picture.
https://rishsista.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/20130525-001653.jpg
That was how it all started, two simple words that didn't mean much of anything to anybody, but once the notion of planer destruction reached the right ears, everything was set into motion. astrologists, historians, even primordial existences and monsters who had glimpsed the essence of the universe through the sheer inherent might of their existence gathered to contemplate potential causes. It didn't take long for them to notice your approaching return to the world once they were all whiled up, and what else could cause such mayhem but beings such as you? Some had reservations about this idea, but that didn't stop an army from being raised.
http://fantasy-faction.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/WAR.jpg
Men from countless countries around the world had gathered in the endless planes about the canyon from which you were to emerge. Legions of humanoids gathered to take a stand. Banners of all colors and designs rippled through the valley like the twirling ribbons of a may pole or perhaps a million of them. They weren't the only ones though. Creatures of all shapes and forms gathered, solidly backing this humanoid army] Be they dragons, phoenixes, or even sea serpents, they rose to join the ranks of this army. Faeries and insects swarmed underfoot whilst the skies were painted with twining swirling flames , be they the anxious breaths of dragons, the moral boosting ceremonies of demons, or the occasional massive scale purification spells the priests of the unstained pit tossed out from time to time towards the canyon.
https://i.imgur.com/Exe4yr3.jpg
Still, it could not be said that the advocates of peace hadn't had any say at all. Camping int he middle of the canyon itself was the famed adventuring party Hallowed Dirge to act as an envoy of peace prior to any conflict... though some still argued that if they really meant for peace they might have chosen a less distastefully arrogant group with which to broach the topic of peace....


The party leader is standing in such a position that when you emerge the first thing you'll notice is his smug bratty little arrogant, yet still rather handsome and enviable face, and next notice the army behind him.

Yaaay, some background plot hints for ya guys.
1) no, you don't actually know the above yet, but I figured I'd give ya some context OOCly and you can find our easily enough with a DC 10 gather info in a town later, so figured I'd give it in story format.
2) I promised NPCs that can challenge and kill you... these aren't them... The party should be able o kick you in the shin or stop on your toe if they're lucky, but mostly the army is filled with read shirts to be thematically killed by those of you who swing that way. You're welcome :smallbiggrin:
3) No you can't cinimatically say they're all dead when you appear... Yes, you may teleport elsewhere as soon as you appear.
4) I expect full and completed characters before folks post in this thread. Make sure I have the final draft of everything.

[Anomander]

Voices echoed and spoke withing her mind. It was all the kept her sane, separated as she was from the proper worlds of existence. How the other urges managed to stay sane she didn't know. Though, frankly, they were all insane to begin with. Senseless destruction, bizarre moral orientations, undeath, death, lusts, souls, unreality - she shuddered.

Such beings had once been completely unknowable to her before the damnable Gatekeeper had struck. A few hundred thousand years of forced company had helped her to understand them, and she was all the more certain that they were insane.

She stretched her senses around.

Conflict ... was over 'there' for certain definitions of 'there'. Undeath ... over 'there'. As disgusting as it was, Gaia could almost sympathize with it - being separated from opportunities of undeath was probably as trying for it as it was for her.

She continued stretching her psychic muscles, searching out for the others. Long ago, they had all grown used to each others' presence and generally didn't bother trying to hide or separate themselves from each other too completely. Peace, Growth, Dreams - there, there, and there.

Spirits was typically residing over in the ... the ...

Where was Spirits? Was he hiding?

Diversion! Seek out where Spirits was lurking in this accursed sectioned off section of unreality barred reality!

Find him! Ignore him. He's too flaky. This could be fun! Track him down! Consume him! Go tweak his tail!

The voices largely settled on deciding to go find the Spirit urge and Gaia began scouring their little litter of reality. Demiplanes and the detritus of an eternity of bored Urges were scattered around. Gaia pounced on each little bit of creation, surging through and around it. Physical and mental gestalts acted as one and 'movement' wasn't a truly accurate way to describe her search, but it was as close as she bothered to work it out.

Nullity spent way too much time on trying to define it for her taste and - surprise, surprise - had decided that they were in a nullity of sorts. Whatever.

Gaia continued to search.

Other Urges noted her 'passage' and 'trailed along' or watched her or ignored her as was their wont.

Gaia began to feel a frission of excitement. Spirit had never been the greatest or most powerful of them, neither was the the most cunning or intelligent. Yet, she was failing to find him in this unreal version of Hide and Seek! Something different than normal to occupy another blink of reality!!

She scoured the entirety of their prison to no avail. Had he been consumed or destroyed by one of the others? There had been some massive battles in eons past, and more than a few Urges had been destroyed, but every being in their reality prison would have noted the conflict needed to destroy one of their members.

He must have found a new method of hiding or disguising himself!

Oh fun! Something new!

Instead of searching, Gaia began to follow his 'spore'. Nothing that any being from their previous reality would have recognized as a scent, but it served as an excellent analogue in this place.

Her 'nose' to the metaphorical 'ground', Gaia began tracing Spirit's movements for the last thousand years. He had flitted about, occasionally crossing other Urges' paths, even interacting with them at times. He'd visited one of his demiplanes quite a few times.

Gaia continued her trace, enjoyment growing. Something different!

Then in a 'corner' of their prison she found a new demiplane he had created relatively recently. She had searched through it before, but now, tracking Spirit's movements, something else was apparent. Though he was not there now, he had entered and exited this little creation of his many, many times over the last several millenia. A distinctly different pattern of behavior!

Gaia again entered the little demiplane and began to investigate more thoroughly.

Huh.

That was weird.

There were some very strange sections of this little plane.

Spirit's 'scent' was especially strong around one particular area, and Gaia nosed closer, 'sniffing' to gather every last bit of information.

There was a 'hole' in the demiplane!

Spirit had entered the 'hole' and hadn't yet returned!

Gaia 'nudged' at the entrance. Spirit and his inherent disregard for concepts of material size probably hadn't had any difficulty entering this little crack. Gaia, though, was a personification of the vastness and power of nature!

Gaia grumbled to herself as she forced changes on herself to allow herself to 'fit' into the little hole that Spirit had created. It was probably another nested reality within a reality - not an unknown concept, and a prefered reality of a few of their number.

Still, it was something different!

Morphing from one form to another was definitely a core part of her selfness, and water could wear away and air seep through nearly anything. Heat spread, light shined, acid ate away, electricity traveled along.

Gaia wormed her way through the strange 'hole' and soon the gathered presence of the other Urges 'behind' her began to fade.

The sense of reality slowly changed.

Gaia was surprised. It felt more real than anything else she had felt for an eternity. Even her own 'worlds' hadn't had this sense of familiar, long-absent "realness". If Spirit had figured out a trick to make something THIS real, no wonder he hadn't bothered to return! She would have to determine his methods of making this and make one herself!

She could almost feel the pulse of the long-denied inner planes of elements!

Spirit's scent was growing stronger, but simultaneously becoming more mixed with the scents of other things.

Gaia paused and 'flexed.' The 'hole' cracked and shifted around her. Floods of additional 'scents' assaulted her senses.

She breathed deeply. Hell. She actually breathed!

How many millions or billions of years had it been since she had actually breathed instead of mimicked breathing!?!

She was still in the intra dimensional 'hole' leading from Spirit's demiplane, but she began to suspect something.

Something that had eluded all of them for an eternity. Something their greatest minds and most powerful efforts had failed to find.

An escape from the accursed reality the Gatekeeper had banished them to!

The universe had changed immesurably, and she had long since forced herself to stop gazing on reality from inside their unreal prison. It had been driving her mad. It had driven others mad. Some had raged and destroyed themselves in their efforts to reach the tantalizing reality just an infinite distance from their current existence. Others had gone catatonic. Others had raged against others. And still others had finally turned away from the maddening, temping vista.

Still, she had continued to imagine what it would be like, stopping her own thoughts with ruthless brutality when they threatened to overwhelm her, but still imagining what it would be like after such a long absence.

With a surge of strength she bulled forward, the path cracking and crumbling under her frenzied efforts.

Reality.

Reality!

REALITY!

With every thrust of her titanic will, the sense of reality grew. Closer. Closer!

Earthquakes! There were actual earthquakes! Storms! Real storms! Wind and water! Waves! Plants! Growth!

All real!

As she came closer and closer to reality, the tunnel around her shook, stretched, and shredded. Surely reality was being affected! She was affecting reality! The real reality! No fevered fantasy or self-generated dream of reality, but actual Reality!

Gaia gave final lunge!

The wall of a deep canyon warped in directions whose names would explode the brains of purely four dimensional beings, shattering and flowing though mutlifractal dimensional vortexes across planar boundaries.

Gaia exploded back into reality.

Reality shuddered.

Millions of feet of all sorts trampled and clawed at the earth. Massive minotaur hooves crushed the blades of grass. Draconic claws ripped up the earth in huge furrows with their nervous flexing. Shod feet from scores of humanoid races marched in huge groups, some in formation and others as unordered mobs. Grass, bushes, weeds, and even trees would be ground into the dust. In hours, even the most verdant of ground would quickly be turned to dust or mud.

And yet.

The ground beneath their feet continued to be green with lush plant life.

Rhytrenstrai, snorted in minor annoyance as his claws were again tangled by a vine that had looped over them. This was the third time this day they had been caught in the vines. The other two times he had just flexed his claws, snapping the small vines. This time he loosed a small burst of flame that turned the annoying vines to blackened powder.

That would take care of that minor annoyance. He should not allow himself to be distracted. He was here as part of the flight of red dragons from the Sheol Cauldrons. The sense of amazement touched him again as he considered that he was gathered here with so many others who would have normally been prey and they were peacefully coexisting. Well, mostly peacefully. There were almost constant squabbles between lesser beings, but those with greater wisdom, such as himself, were keeping any such conflicts minor or brief. The greater dangers were upon them.

The millions of beings around him took his thoughts away from the minor annoyance of the vines, and they were quickly forgotten. An hour later he flicked his tail, breaking the vines that had grown over it.

Two hours later he puffed out a larger blast of fire, again crisping the grass that had completely replaced the blackened surface of a few hours before.

Four miles away, Hazeltrunk, a Treant druid, flexed his limbs. He hadn't felt this supple in a century. He hoped, for the millionth time with little true hope, that the plane would survive with minimal scarring. His home was less than a thousand miles away, and with the scale of the threats that a hundred thousand oracles had confirmed, his forests might as well be at ground zero.

Eight hundred feet below him, Buldor moved through the earth, tracelessly. His master, a geomancer, had him scouting. The earth shook and vibrated for a second, and he froze. Barely more than three feet tall, the elemental was nearly impossible to differentiate from the rock through which he traveled. The vibrations tickled. He conveyed his senses up to his master and continued on his way. Ten seconds later he paused in his travels as he moved through a spike of deep stone that somehow had been spiked up from hundreds of feet further down. Strange. Very unusual. Even more unusual? A diamond the size of a plum was contained in the stone.

Master would be pleased. Buldor flowed backwards to engulf the diamond. A flexing of his "fist" encircled the diamond and he began tugging it up through the stone, pushing aside the solid rock. Master would definitely want this. After being cleaned up, this diamond would be worth at least five thousand gold pieces! What wonderful luck!

Near the edge of the great chasm, several orks went sliding and screaming down into the depths to die as a section of the dirt under their feet suddenly sheered off and fell into the depths.

The other orks grunted, laughed, or ignored them as their stations demanded. It was just back luck.

-------------------

Gaia stretched as her senses finally escaped the last border of the accursed unreality borders which had for so long separated her from her natural habitat.

She had flowed into a longer, nearly snake-like form as she had surged forward, her many heads and tentacles merging together into a single mass along with the millions of creatures that formed her. Now, she drew herself together, the last remnants of her hivemind popping free from their dimensional prison and joining the primary mass of her body that now pulsed with the feel of the world around her.

Oh luxurious joy!

She whipped her tail about in ecstasy, smashing the sides of the cavern and sending blasts of stone fragments scouring the surrounding area.

A dozen heads whipped loose from where they had merged with her body and gouts of ice and flame blasted forth, filling the dim area with steam.

A vibration of magic touched the stone about her and a hundred tiny earthquakes lanced through the stone walls, spreading widely in tiny little spikes of disruption that traveled for miles.

A quick flex of her will stretched further and winds began to scour the sky above for miles about her. She didn't bother building them into hurricanes, but it still felt nice to use this ability - fifty, sixty, seventy, miles per hour. The winds were whipped into a frenzy of excitement to see her.

Oh it felt good to flex her will in the world. The worlds she had created herself back there had been poor imitations.

She once again opened her mind to the world, sensing everything with a mind for miles and miles about her.

Her tentacles shivered across her massive body. She had wondered if this would happen. Their return had surely been foreseen by any number of ways.

A burst of fear raced through her, suddenly. Were they gathered to re-seal her away?

Like hell!

Her tail lashed again, blasting the sides of the canyon with powerful blows that shattered stones a hundred feet away.

No, she had been locked away once. Never again.

Nothing here, really. I just wanted to put in a couple little things.

[greenpotato]

Raw growth was what she was, what she had been. Growth and expansion without limit or purpose.
To be sealed away, confided to a box and edged in was to be denied the very essence of what growth was.
Nevertheless she had focused inward, physical growth and improvement of herself, splitting and doubling her cells again and again, faster and faster in a boiling frenzy of
energy that searched and scraped for the smallest scrap of space to expand. She had evolved and swelled to fill every tiny molecule of space she could in her prison and slowly gone mad over the countless years of isolation.

But then...

Something strange, slow at first like a single drop before the storm, the prison began to bulge and stretch. Faster and faster until a thinning of the wall and finally a pop of pressure.
Escape, air, sky, space, so much room. Freedom! Growth!
And in her glee the mother, a great roiling glob of cells, hurls herself into the sky with some droplets falling below. She stretches her form out and flings herself at superluminal speed to the edge of the plane, but finds no edge! She hurls back across the sky cracking the air with her speed, land stretches so far in all direction and it teems with life. Such Joy!

The few droplets of flesh that remain sense the eyes of the gathered army. It has been so long, how have these pathetic creatures not evolved into more advanced forms. They still use legs and arms and two crude half blind eyes, wet crude eyes that stare now at Mother and her fellow captives.
So many here, and why? In an act of perfect imitation the globules grow and form into the commonest shape of the surrounding horde, humanoid, but more refined and elegant.
Animals usually relate better to their own kind.
https://img00.deviantart.net/7fbe/i/2017/131/a/3/portrait_practice__by_zeenchin-db8u0du.jpg

[Anomander]

Nature sees another of the beings appear and then suddenly disappear in a blur too fast to follow. Perhaps she should retreat as well. She has no interest in battling the assembled armies. But ... the power gathered here could be with the intent to seal her and the others away again! Never! Destroy them first!

As fast as the thoughts flickered through her mind, the other being was returned. It was Growth! Nature had some strong affinity for its views. Nature too grew, though certainly not in the unbridled way of Growth. They'd clashed several times back in that place with Growth's unrestrained nature, but for the most part they managed to coexist.

Growth formed itself into a humanoid shape.

It was meeting with the beings here?!?

Perhaps there was some wisdom in that, though Nature wasn't sure she could see it being worth the risk that this was another trap intended to seal them away again.

With a burst of psionic power the world slowed about her and sloughs of her component creatures fell off. Pops of magic exploded among them as they transformed themselves into various creatures using shapechanging magic. Earth elementals dove into the ground around her, air elementals soared into the sky, tiny "archons" and "devils" appeared and instantly teleported and plane shifted away.

Nature shuddered, and again, waves of tiny earthquakes shook the area. The winds above clashed and swirled, parts of the air calming and others speeding up according to her agitation.

She finally calmed her mind. She was a force of Nature, and if anyone tried to bind her away again they would regret it. She was on her guard this time. Not like before. She was widely spread at the moment and even if these beings tried something, she would be safe. Until then, she was not one of the personifications that sought out conflict, and so she would join with Growth's approach until it was shown pointless.

"You should be the one to approach them, I think, Growth. They're such strange beings that I couldn't even guess as to how to talk to them. They seem to like shiny gems, though, and do the strangest things trying to acquire them. Do you think these would help make them do whatever it is you want?"

As Nature spoke she flexed her magic and a dozen diamonds the size of a humanoid's head popped into existence and floated in the air.

Major Creation - based. They'll disappear in a few weeks. Nature doesn't really "get" humanoid motivations unless she particularly tries to think about them, and why would she bother doing that? But, she has seen them do crazy things trying to get shiny rocks. These are shiny rocks. Therefore mortals will like them.

The creatures were members of her hivemind separating from her primary body and going off to exist elsewhere so she can't be sealed away entirely. That was done during a psionic Acceleration just to hurry things along for the story.

[greenpotato]

Growth surveys the force with her humanoid body, a formed body so sublimely alien and perfect that the army arrayed before her are mesmerized by it's strange beauty.
Her eyes dart across the entire force, peering inside each creatures armor and skin, looking at the layers and structures beneath.
These creatures are all quite simple, mostly carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. No redundant organ systems, a vulnerable and semi exposed wet membrane gas transfer system but all of them seem to share the weakness of a single pump organ in the center of the chest, a small application of force to that point should cause total failure of all of these organisms systems. So weak.

Growth quickens her mind to a sliver of its potential and tenses to react, these flesh creatures don't offer any real threat, but they seem to think they do so it may be prudent to ready herself.

Nature, who grows so slowly and insists on patterns and balance to her growth, she is here too. Offering stones to these soft and misty flesh creatures. They are made of meat, wouldn't meat be a more appropriate gift? No, Growth will trust Nature, living things like this are one of Natures hobbies. "I Will"

With a flick of a toe Growth hurls herself to the van of the force and confronts the "heroes" who wait there, dropping the rocks at their feet. A small fraction more muscular tissue and more complex and ornate trinkets adorn these heroes but they are still as soft and vulnerable to growth as the rest of the observers.

"For you. Speak. Quickly." Growth snaps, having forgotten the rhythms of speech after so long imprisoned.


Set up a loop of 100 synchronicities.

Fascinate the army with beautiful freak (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?202238-3-5-Prc-DONE!-Peach-You-re-beautiful-it-s-true-!) unbearable beauty as a move action.
DC= lots.

[drack]

The assorted armies glance at the rocks with a mix of greed and caution, but for the most part they seem trapped between terror and hesitant resolve as their eyes take in your exotic and awe inspiring forms. So enraptured by the stunning strangitude of growth, many seem not to have even remembered to attack. The bold hero before you however is undaunted. Swaying his hips in a practiced, surely, and provocative way that might surely bring cheers from his admirers elsewhere, the party leader before you draws forth a shiny silver toothpick of a sword with a faint magical buzz about it, pointing it in your direction. That was not to say the hero was poorly equipped, for the sword was indeed an artifact, but only a minor artifact, and at a glance it could be dismissed as being of very little if any utility to even the servants of servants of beings such as you. Leveling this blade the hero replies in a confident and arrogant tone filled with the utmost confidence in both the army behind him and his own persona prowess against your awe inspiring might. "HA! Foolish old coots! You think you can come out here and destroy the world? HA! Not on my watch! I know what you're up to! Suddenly dropping gemstones first, next you'll offer us power beyond our wildest dreams, and then BAM!" The hero stomps his foot for emphasis. "You'll attack us from behind when our guard is down and go on to destroy the world! I know you're type, I've seen it all before! Don't think you can fool my brilliant and beautiful eyes so easily!" With that the hero adds a short mocking laugh while looking keenly at you to make sure you understand his enlightened and heroic words.

Listen check DC 30+~100,000 for distance

Discontented mutterings from a certain section at the back of the legion about how this army and that hero was a stupid plan.

[greenpotato]

This creature was waving some sort of weapon in defiance, it's limbs moving in long slow arks as its feeble chest worked so hard to push air out in a weak threat.
It seemed to refuse the diamonds that Nature had thought it would want.
Maybe Growth was right and meat would be a more suitable gift.

Growth opens her mouth and vomits forth a torrent of mixed animal organs and flesh at the heroes feet until it piles five feet high. A much better gift.

Now I should show him I am not a threat by a display of friendship.
Growth grins and lets out a hearty laugh "HA HA HA!"
Yes, that should do it

[NineOfSpades]

Eve had been waiting, with a patient focus, for an opportunity to interject. At a glance she knew it would come, this heroic figure was hitting every check-mark on the list. The kid seemed scrappy enough, and certainly had the right sort of sensibilities. Perhaps a bit to prideful, but then, he'd likely never seen the real challenges that a hero needed to iron out such deficiencies. Regardless, he was the sort who was likely to throw out the straight man lines that she could eat up like candy. Any moment now, he'd say something like 'We are here to defeat you' or 'good shall never yield.' Maybe a bit about friendship.

And well, when she saw an opportunity, Eve pounced on it.

A sensual laugh echoed through the canyon, its source unclear as the sound reverberated between the stone walls, building in volume. It was giddy and genuine, but laced with mockery that tainted the mirth, making the sound seem to drip through the air. Clouds, darker than could ever form naturally and moving with a swiftness that defied the winds, bloomed forth to cover the sun, casting a gray haze over the land. The laughter was joined by a wind that raced through the soldiers, threatening to knock them from there feet. The earth at the center of the battlefield groaned and began to boil like water, turning black as tar. Up from the depths of that cursed pit came a throne, upon which reclined Eve, her posture one of absolute relaxation, one leg draped comfortably over the other, resting her cheek upon a gauntlet clad fist. Her laughed died down, replaced with only a smirk that did nothing to conceal the malicious power which swirled just behind her burning red eyes. "Oh you sweet child.." she cooed. Her tone was soft, motherly, barely more than a whisper, but one which could clearly be heard without difficulty. "Were I to attack you, no, lets be serious...when I attack you, I assure you that your guard will be up and it will be from the front.".

There was no movement that preceeded it. No indication of action on her part. In one heartbeat, Eve was upon her throne. In the next, the distance between her and the noble hero had simply evaporated. She stood before the champion, her face so close to his that he could likely taste the miasmic laiden breath that she exhaled, as she stared him in his eyes. "Hmmm...yes, they are quite pretty, arn't they? I can see why you are proud of them"

She was behind him now, once again arriving there with little regard for concepts like 'distance' or 'motion'. "Now this, however..." His sword was in her hands, and she inspected the blade casually, running a finger along it's edge. She made a clicking sound with her tongue and shook her head with disapproval "It's a good enough effort, but I think we both know you could have done better. Still, I suppose I have been gone a while..."

Eve was back infront of the champion. She gave the weapon a casual toss, letting it sink into the earth at it's feet. "I need to gauge where we stand, so I want to you take your sword, and kill me with it, right now." She stood still, spreading her arms to her side, lowering her defenses entirely, a small grin on her face. "Come, and show me what Hero's this world has to offer"

[Anomander]

"Bah, Growth doesn't seem to understand mortals after all. Mortals like their food in displays with lots of sparkly stones, not all in a pile," Nature thought with scorn.

Nature began to prepare to step in - a collapse of the canyon walls or a windstorm sweeping the area - when another voice appeared throughout the area.

"Oh. It's going to make things interesting, since this mortal seems to be worried about backstabbing," she thought with a small groan.

Nature had managed to exist in that realm, barely, and the forced coexistence in the empty monstrosity of their prison had caused her to clash with others several times. She hadn't enjoyed it, but there was no avoiding it. This one, though ....

Before being locked away she had never bothered to pay attention to "morality". What did she care if Eve set up some threat that set the "good" mortals all aflutter? She didn't understand why it was some mortals were so caught up in what they called good and evil, but she'd noticed it seemed to be important to at least some of them, and Eve was ... well, she was on the side of "evil", and apparently really good at it, according to the reactions of the "good" mortals.

Sometimes Nature sent avalanches and the like into the disasters Eve stirred up - small reminders that as important as their wars were to the participants, they were still just dancing around in Nature's playground and she would play whether they were having their little moral spats or not. In their forced confinement with nothing but each other to keep themselves entertained and annoyed, Eve had been keeping herself entertained.

Earthquakes rippled through the ground again as she watched It speak and go through its familiar steps of tweaking yet another "good" creature's nose. It had done the same during their confinement with various levels of success.

"Eve, you are you and I am Nature. Don't draw me into your games. I have no interest in destroying their world. I am their world. If anything, I would protect it. What is it they want?"

Her multitude of heads weaved through the air in subtle agitation as further thoughts dawned on her.

The more she watched the mortals directly before her, the less worried she was about them in particular. Morality was just so weird. Its adherents had never been a threat before. Anyways, even if this mortal's boasts were sincere, ability was lacking. He was not a true threat to seal her away. It was also possible the true threats were setting these mortals forward as distractions.

But, Eve was excellent at drawing attention. Perhaps a moment to plan ahead was possible. Not Nature's usual behavior, but if these people really were gathered to try to seal them away, then she should learn a bit more about what their plans were.

There was very little that could be hidden from all of Nature. Dust, wind, scent, sound, heat, and more - it all was generated by mortal activity and the world stored it all in indelible traces if only one took time to LOOK.

She opened up her senses and drew in a great breath of ... everything. The trails of ants weeks old. The ripples of wind from hawks that had flown overhead a day ago. The vibrations of dragon footsteps ten thousand miles away. Sudden fluctuations of air from teleporting beings. The murmured voices of millions of beings spreading out for thousands of miles from here.

(Temporal Acceleration(30 apparent rnds)) * 10 actions/rnd * Hypercognition aided checks to determine the most powerful beings here and their aims in dealing with Bitchy Fickle Nature.

She's most worried about anyone particularly wanting to seal Nature away, though any ability to seal away beings similar to Nature is a matter of worry.

If you're worrying about rolls, I rolls 2 d20s for any checks like this and take which one I want. For 300 checks, there is a 53% chance of a natural 1 happening for both dice at the same time, and there would be roughly 30 natural 20s rolled. +10,000 modifier to checks.

Nines - I realize that I put actions into your character's backstory. I tried to leave it vague but still fitting what I understand of your character.
I can definitely remove those or redesign them as you wish. I was trying to envision being locked away in a confined area with Strife - I don't think there's a chance that there wouldn't be any strife happening. :smallbiggrin:

edit: and I am really, really sorry for messing up who your character is! Fixed! Hopefully with minimal changes. Let me know if anything really clashes with your character.

[Gunhaven]

Soldier A tumbled out of a blue portal that it had created within the background and quickly popped up to it's feet. A quick survey with it's heavily modified crossbow, if the odd assortment of pistons and gears could be called such, at the ready confirmed that it wasn't the first to find the old land once more. It took a couple tentative steps as it seemed to adjust it's twistcloth and the tubes that connected the various servos that helped it power it's maneuvers. Finally it seemed satisfied and called out in a far too cheerful voice "Soldier A reporting for duty, ma'am! Allow me to clean up this rabble a bit."

Everything went sideways in that split second as seemingly a swarm of the little steampunk powered gnomes spilled forth, most made of the eerily blue of incarnum, and then they promptly fled into the greater mass so that they could best even the battlefield for the approximate round that they existed. They only had one desire during their existence and that was to Equalize the Battlefield. For each enemy that they trapped within the maze, one of their own took their place and slowly the massive influx of henchmen began to flee the scene so that they wouldn't unfairly adjust the balance with their numbers. Ideally the rabble would be gone, as promised, and the others could better focus on the foes that are actually worth it.

So I'll use HALT THE HANDS for Time Stops, which won't actually be expanded because of Sublime Master.
I'll use Soul Release (Complete) for Clones so that they can best spread the next bits.
I'll use Quantum Gates or Rend Space to better spread through the battlefield.

Once real time happens again I'll use Equalize Battlefield and Even the Odds to target up to 10,000 opponents within 2200 feet of each of the copies with a DC 30 Maze effect (Caster Level 20), starting at the lowest HD and going up to 25HD. If each section has more than that then I'll be creating Similicrums of myself who use either movement option to move away from the hopefully diminished army.