[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Zelphas]

Nope pokes at the Classical Zombie, a frisson of concentrated nothing pouring from his digit. The Classical Zombie... danced with oblivion, spinning it gently around, lifting it high in the air, and bowing in a courtly way before turning away, allowing the nothingness to fade back into what is real and true. While it was battered with the attacks it had taken already, the dance with nothing had left it untouched.

The same could not be said of the explosion of rage and plant life that flew out from Floral. Snapping flowers and flying nectar ripped into the Classical Zombie, taking away chunks of flesh and even bone from its form. Had it been living, it would be dead. And yet, somehow, throughout it all, nothing touched the top hat on the Classical Zombie's head.

At least, not yet.

Helios, floating over the city and catching his breath, would at least be able to tell that there was no panicked screaming, no shouts of "Zombie!" or "Terrible 90s stereotype!" filling the air. There are police sirens, but they seem to be heading towards their position, since broken windows in the Main Drag are still noticed.

Ariadne's netting of threads is slightly too uniform and spaced to be as effective as normal, warped by the siren song of the Zombies which is only now beginning to fade from her head; the physical cables are still real enough, though, and they spring quickly into place. The Classical Zombie, beset by plants on all sides, melting, breaking ,and yet still on its feet, reaches towards Nope, crushing through threads to get at the nonbeing-manipulator and bring him into one more deadly dance.

The Ballet Zombie spins away from the threads, leaping gracefully to Floral--and attempting to summarily eject her out of a window as well with a lunging kick.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Map.

Classical Zombie

Move Action: Dazed.

Standard Action: Use Tango on Nope. (1d20+14)[22] vs. DC 13 or (1d20+1)[14] On a hit, first Resistance of Ariadne's wall: (1d20+10)[29] vs. DC 25 Damage; if Breached or worse, then I need a Resistance DC 25 from Nope vs. Damage linked Weaken Resistance. Hit, but Ariadne's threads hold him back.

End of Turn: To save people waiting, I'll roll the SE now (DC 30): (1d20+8)[22] 1 Bruise & Dazed.

And the Homing: (1d20+10)[17] if a hit, Resistance (DC 30): (1d20+8)[10] ...Miss.

Ballet Zombie

Move Action: Shift to I18.

Standard Action: Use Grande Jete on Floral. (1d20+14)[29] On a hit, Resistance DC 25/20/20 vs. Multiattack Damage Linked Strength (to Launch Floral out of the window at I-L 33) Linked Progressive Weaken Defense. Hit, Full Multiattack; DC is 30/20/20.

All PCs are on turn.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily crossed her arms to take the Ballet Zombie's kick, her feet growing into roots to steady herself. It still hurt, but at this point? Lily's hands were still in the shape of the weird peashooters, her feet were roots, her hair was wilting, her skin dry. She no longer had the energy to keep shifting back to her fully human appearance; as she transformed herself more and more, she just left the changes as they were.

The kick hurt, but less than half a dozen other pains she had inflicted upon herself.

No time to worry about that. She had scultped her body back to humanoid form two pounds at a time; it would take far more pain than this to stop Lily Woods. She doggedly hurled herself into the fray, her wings beating to launch her bodily at her enemy.

She wasn't powerful enough. She knew it. It was too obvious now. For all her tricks and tactics, she didn't have the output to bring down even one of Apophis's zombies. The prideful part of her wanted to scream with the frustration of it, of having thrown everything she had at the monster and it not being enough.

Lily Woods didn't scream, she didn't falter, and she didn't stop. No acid this time, she just tried to full-on slam the Classical Zombie towards Nope, hoping to throw it off-balance and give the remover an opening to finish the thing off. Her right hand transformed from peashooter into a long vine that phytokinetically extended to her friends, golden grapes growing from it and then exploding into splashes of more curative nectar. And then the vine dropped limply to the ground, just trailing forgotten from the end of her wrist.

Spoiler

Show

Free: Reconfigure Flower Power. 5 points to Acidic Nectar (foregoing the ranks with Effect Bonus), 5 points to Petal Wings, 20 points to Healing Nectar, 10 points to Medicinal Nectar, 10 points to Floral Vines, Dynamic Choices to move the Shapeable Area to Healing.

Move: Dazed.

Standard: Charge Classical Zombie and Aid Nope, Defensive Attacking for 5, -2 for Exhausted, -2 for Charge, +5 for Teamwork, at (1d20+6)[16]. Lily, Nope, and Ariadne receive Restorative Healing. +2

Lily: (1d20+8)[20]. Heals the Bruise
Ariadne: (1d20+8)[9]. Since I didn't get to use it on Helios, I'll use that second reroll here.
Nope: (1d20+8)[25]. 15 RP

Current Status: (Dazed ends), Exhausted, DA +5. Recover used.

[Abracadangit]

We're running out of time, Kal thinks to herself. The team is starting to show signs of wear, and she's not sure how much more thread she can muster.

As she summons up some dwindling reserves of energy, Kal realizes that the time for ensnaring and entrapping is over.

The red thread takes on a cold gleam in the light as it snaps and lashes in wide circles around Kal, like steel wire.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Action: Dropping a Thread Lash Cloud, centered on CZ's square, M10. Selective means we don't have to worry about it hitting any pals.

Thread Lash Cloud against CZ: (1d0+10)[11]

[Ridai]

And again, very little of substance happens. And the removal is somehow danced away with. Nope just peers out from tiredly squinting eyes, a sigh-groan coming out of him. Jus' gotta. Jus' gotta keep poking 'n' get hit in the head, I guess.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

The procedure as every turn. Remove Hit Points with Remove Second Guessing, full AoA, the works
(1d20+13)[24]

[Dorni]

Helios grunted in satisfaction. His wards weren't back to 100% after his repair job, but they were close enough. With another effort of will he flew back the way he'd come, zipping through the crisp night air. It would have been invigorating if not for the imminent threat of zombies.

He arrived to find his friends still alive and fighting (for which he was thankful) as well as both zombies (for which he was less thankful). This time instead of weaving a healing magic, he reached for Fire. Blazing runes spun in front of him, releasing a torrent of blazing beams to pierce and burn the zombie.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Fly back to I4
Standard: Cast Sunbeam on Classic Zombie at (1d20+10)[16]. This is a Perception attack. On hit, DC 25+ vs SE Multiattack Damage.
EE: If CZ isn't down from that, cast Sunbeam again at (1d20+10)[18]

End of turn: Recover 1 Weaken.
Status: 1RP, -2 Defenses, fatigued next turn

[Zelphas]

The silence from the heroes is met by near silence from the speakers. Every once in a while, a squeak from a shifting chair can be heard, a cough, an indistinct muttered grumble, as though the audience is waiting for more to react to.

The Classical Zombie has ceased to resemble anything human at this point. Much of its flesh and bone has simply been deleted by continued bursts of Nope's power, or melted by Floral's acidic nectar, or sliced to ribbons by Ariadne's threads. Now, two knew holes are burned into its chest, still smoldering and smoking with Helios' runic spells anchoring the fire in place. And yet, through it all, there is that hat. Shiny silk, deep velvety black, with a ribbon of daring red from Ariadne's threading forming the band and trim around the crown. It sits untouached atop the ruinous, barely-holding together mass that is the Classical Zombie, mocking in its pristine condition. Even as the Classical Zombie turns ponderously to face Floral, it raises one no-longer-complete hand to steady the top hat in place before it strikes, its movements even more of a grotesque parody of true dance than they already were.

The Ballet Zombie, bizarre in its pristine movements, turns and twists through the air, aiming at Ariadne's heavy threading and the thread-weaver itself with one of its trademark kicks, heedless of the lashing threads already in the air as it closes to strike.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Classical Zombie

Move Action: Dazed.

Standard Action: Use Waltz on Floral. (1d20+12)[24] On a hit, Resistance DC 27/22/22 vs. Multiattack Damage linked Strength (grab only) Linked Dazed & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless. The Affliction is Physiological. Hit, no Multiattack.

End of Turn: 3 things. first, Thread Lash tries to hit him in Cloud Area: (1d20+10)[22] on a hit, Resistance (DC 25 + Multiattack Penetrating): (1d20+6)[21] Hit, no Multiattack. 1 Bruise.

Then, Helios' SE triggers. Resistance (DC 25, +5 for Perception): (1d20+10)[21] -1 from above. 1 Bruise.

And finally, Helios' SE triggers. Resistance (DC 25, +5 for Perception): (1d20+10)[26] -2 from above. 1 Bruise.

Ballet Zombie

Move Action: Shift to N12.

Standard Action: Grande Jete on Ariadne. (1d20+14)[17] On a hit, first Resistance (DC 25) for the wall of thread: (1d20+10)[15] If that is at least breached, Resistance DC 25/20/20 vs. Multiattack Damage Linked Strength (to Launch Ariadne towards Nope) Linked Progressive Weaken Defense. If Launched, Threadwork Wall Resistance around Nope (DC 25): (1d20+10)[11]; if that is Breached, Nope Resistance vs. DC 25. Breached; if Ariadne is Launched, the wall by Nope is Destroyed.

End of Turn: Thread Lash Cloud activates. (1d20+10)[22] On a hit, Resistance (DC 25 + Multiattack Penetrating): (1d20+9)[21] Miss.

All PCs are on turn.

[Dorni]

Helios darn near rolled his eyes. His sunbeams burned right through the zombies - and they just kept on fighting, new holes and all. He should have expected it. They were zombies, their bodies were just constructs. They didn't have any essential biology. That being said, any zombie conjured by the cult would have fallen apart under this beating long before now. Apophis was darn good, but his appreciation for the mad "god's" craft didn't curb his annoyance. "Sometimes the show can go on too long you know."

Then a curtain of flame rolled across the battle.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Nah
Standard: Cast Firestorm, hitting both zombies. On hit, DC 25/20 vs Damage and [Vulnerable/Defenseless] Affliction.

CZ: (1d20+10)[17]
BZ: (1d20+10)[24]

End of turn: SE triggers, recover 1 Weaken
Status: 1RP, -1 Defenses, fatigued

[Ridai]

Why are we here. Just to suffer.

Nope is hit in the head again, this time with Ariadne. He is really, really tired at this point, barely keeping his eyes open, and slurring his speech.

"Oh fr fsh sk yer ha's dum." And Nope just awkwardly flails his hand at the top hat to just kind of remove whatever.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

You know the drill

(1d20+13)[29]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily watched blankly as the Classical Zombie, having taken over a dozen superpowered body blows, been reduced practically to a skeleton and kept on trucking, collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut when Nope, very possibly entirely on accident, removed its hat from existence.

She wanted to be incredulous about that, but she was so tiiiireeeed...

Okay. Whatever. One down. One to go. Two. Still have to deal with the one presumably running amok in the city (or maybe not but Lily doesn't know that!) Two to go. They've got this.

Wait! Threads! She gets it! Need to make...what could she...right, obviously. Wow she actually had to think to figure that out.

So. Freaking. Tired.

Lily's stepped up to where the Ballet Zombie was facing Ariadne, and hair would suddenly start writhing, and then extending towards them, manipulated by her personal phytokinesis. That wasn't super precise, and under her own control her hair just kinda extended in in two pliable tendrils.

But Ariadne would notice, even though there was no apparent visible change, the moment it ceased to be hair and became cotton threads.

(The tendril that extended towards Ariadne, meanwhile, just kinda wrapped around her and melted into healing nectar.)

Spoiler

Show

Free: Reconfigure Flower Power. 10 points to Acidic Nectar, 20 points to Healing Nectar, 10 points to Medicinal Nectar, 10 points to Solar Nectar.

Move: Into M11.

Standard: Acidic Nectar Linked Healing Nectar. Use the attack part to Aid Ariadne's next attack, Defensive Attacking for 5, +5 for Teamwork, -2 for Exhausted, at (1d20+8)[9]. Ariadne receives Persistent Restorative Healing at (1d20+8)[25]. LOL no Aid bonus, but 15+5 for Persistent = 20 RP, enough to knock off 6 of her Weaken (or her Bruise plus three Weaken, whichever).

Current Status: Exhausted, DA +5. Recover used.

[Abracadangit]

Not missing a beat, Kal reinforces her cloud of whipping, whirling threads. So close to victory!

"Let us end this swiftly," she says, as she continues to weave.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Moving to M10.
Action: Re-upping Selective Thread Lash Cloud, centered on BZ (N12).
Thread Lash Cloud:(1d20+10)[27]

[Zelphas]

Helios' curtain of rolling fire cuts swiftly across the battlefield--and yet, somehow, despite all odds, the Classical Zombie is swifter. It places itself between the flames and the Ballet Zombie, a ghostly hint of its former unnatural grace appearing. The flames burn and batter its beaten form, charring more of its ragged finery into ash, but it--and its top hat, remain standing. The Classical Zombie unfolds its arms and stands a little bit taller, the eldritch flames burning in its single remaining, half-rotted eye.

And then Nope swipes at its top hat from behind, the silken creation vanishing with a pop like a soap bubble being struck.

The bones of the Classical Zombie do not even strike the floor. They are sand, red sand, mixed with ashes before the once-resilient creature finishes collapsing. The red ribbon of Ariadne's thread flutters down over the diminishing pile, twisting oddly. For a moment, Ariadne could swear that it took the form of a snake. For a moment, Nope sees a bloodred eye wink at him within the remains.

"In that, you and I agree," a voice says at Helios' left ear, carrying with it a breath of hot desert wind.

The Ballet Zombie is not quite quick enough to avoid Ariadne's threads, cutting strips from itself as the scarlet lines strike. It begins to move away, snarling itself in the threading even as it goes... and then freezes, stock still. It sags as the force that animated it simply shuts off, becoming a corpse in all aspects once more. And even as Ariadne within Kal's mind seizes the chance to tear her foe apart, the Ballet Zombie bursts with a sound like a poorly-played kazoo, erupting into streamers of red that form into sand and then simply vanish.

The sound of enthusiastic applause from a single pair of hands cuts through the air. Around the corner, beaming from ear to ear, walks Apophis, his hair and suit unruffled, his eyes red and gleaming. "A moment, please," the mad chaos being states, holding his hands far apart, his expression one of exaggerated seriousness. "We will certainly meet in battle, the way things are going. I might even lose, if it's entertaining enough. I have no intention of fighting you directly tonight, however, so before you get on with your heroics let me ask you this: do all of you..." His gaze takes in the half-transformed Floral, Nope reeling and spinning, Ariadne still holding herself back slightly from a phantom urge to dance, and Helios' healing cuts and bruises from his flight out the window, "want to fight with me... now?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Battle is over! For the moment, at least. Everyone take a Hero Point!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily was physically utterly exhausted. But as Apophis walked in, she forced her mind to set aside the frailties of her body. At this moment, she simply couldn't afford to be too tired to think.

Fighting with Apophis right now was out of the question. They still didn't know anything close to enough about his capabilities and weaknesses for it to be a winning move even had they been fresh. And while none of them were actually injured, that was mostly because of all the healing they had been doing. Lily didn't have enough left in her to maintain that volume of healing through another long battle, and Nope wasn't looking in much better shape than she was. (Well, okay, he was technically in better shape, given that her current shape could be best described as "mostly-wilted half-human-half-plant-monster", but he didn't look much less tired than she felt, anyway.)

But it probably wasn't a good idea to show any weakness or submission either. Even if you could take a guy who styled himself as a god of chaos at his word (protip: you can't) just because he didn't have any intention to fight them now didn't mean those intentions couldn't change.

Acting deliberately to provoke him seemed unwise. And he almost certainly understood the advantage he held in this moment. A display of bravado would only come off as pathetic.

The palatable options, as she saw it, were to either play along in hopes that an extended conversation might give them the opportunity to acquire information, or offer the minimum response that was unlikely to provoke him, in hopes that he'd get bored quickly and go away.

There was no reason to expect that Apophis would reveal much about himself, but that didn't mean there was nothing to learn here. Apophis presented as mad, but Lily's guess was that his actions were more deliberate than he let on. Just seeing how he acted and reacted in conversation would help them piece together some information about his personality, and that could be big game on the longer term. Even just seeing how cautiously he approached the conversation, how freely he spoke, could potentially reveal something about what sort of approaches they might be able to use against him in the future.

Come to think of it...the question, she supposed, really was just how cautiously he was approaching this conversation.

Lily had a guess. It wasn't based on any specific observation, any decisive evidence. She thought it was plausible, but not necessarily probable. But sometimes it paid off to acting with a certainty you didn't feel.

So in response to Apophis's question, Lily held her hands (well, her hand, since the other one was still just kinda dragging along the ground behind her as a limp vine) out in a non-threatening gesture, walked calmly up to Apophis and unless he (or someone else) did anything to stop her...waved her hand at his body.

If it passed through it, she would just raise an eyebrow at him.

If it didn't (or something stopped her) she would nod, walk back to where she had been standing before, and say, politely, "Not right this second, I don't think."

Spoiler

Show

LOL turn on ALL OF THE SENSES!

Olfactory Perception as Insight to Evaluate with Detect Emotions. (1d20+13)[29].

[Ridai]

Nope is just floating hunched slowly rotating, headache of the century and parts getting numb, covered in dirt and nectar and zombie things and sand and streamers, creating a visually noisy mess with his indistinct appearance. As the fight seems to have stopped, he just groans, briefly stretching back, hearing a pop from his sternum, before hunching back over.

Then that douchebag Apophis shows up and honestly Nope misses half of it but something something challenge, to which Nope responds with a long, partially gurgling groan.

"Donezowhaacemherfr. Yapla'sdum. Peaceou." Showing a haphazard sideways (relative to him) backwards peace sign and refusing to slurredly elaborate, Nope just pops out of existence, taking the others with him. If they want to go that is. Nope may very well appear only by himself, only then notice, groan again, press out something incoherent and go back for another attempt until it works.

[Abracadangit]

As Kal struggles to think of something suitably intimidating to fire back with, she can almost hear Ariadne shaking her head, as though shaking one's head was a sound to be heard.

"Tch, no. How can you weave the thread when you can barely stand up. Another time, another place."

Kal hates to agree with her, but she can't deny that part of the reason she's still on her feet is because a a thin matrix of thread is supporting her.

"If a god waits for his enemies to tire before challenging them, then he is a god of cowards," Kal hisses.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Switching array to Threadwork Sense, see if there's any info to be gained there.

[Dorni]

Helios floated opposite Apophis, stance wide with fire dancing over his palms, ready to be shaped into something hostile. But he made no move to form a spell.

His attention was locked on the false god. Truth be told, he wasn't so sure about that title anymore. Flint had been, well, confident in his own magical prowess. Sure, a month ago magic had been a fantasy and sure, he knew he had so much more to learn yet, but in the short time he'd had he was already working magic on a level comparable with the best the Suneaters had to offer. His magic came easily, each test and practice session revealing new elements and insights into their weaving. He'd come to think of himself as, well, pretty good with his magic.

One brush with his mystic senses revealed that if he was a bright student of magic beginning to learn the forms, Apophis had a graduate-level thesis. One written by a complete madman, but the line between madness and brilliance was often a venn diagram. The aether surrounding Apophis contained every magical element he'd identified so far and multiple that he had not, all mingled so tightly that he wasn't immediately sure how it even worked.

On some level, Flint had always assumed Frank Smith's claim of being the avatar of a lost god was nothing more than a convenient cover story for a magician drunk on his power. Now he had to question that assumption. Flint had expected that Apophis' command of his magics would exceed his own; even if he and Frank had the same aptitude for the craft, Frank had had more time to hone his. He'd made his debut as Apophis the day before the dome had gone up. Apophis was far beyond anything he'd expected, the difference wider than just a few extra weeks of practice. What exactly had Frank found out in that desert?

Wary though he was, Helios was still in fighting shape, but he could tell his companions were exhausted. Picking a fight right now was a bad idea. He didn't trust Apophis one bit - everything about him screamed that he was a snake - but he also hadn't simply attacked them from the shadows. He might be willing to talk. "Speak your pie-"

He winked out.

[Zelphas]

Apophis watches Floral's approach with the rapt attention of a relative watching a child's first steps, making no move to avoid or evade her. When she reaches out to him, her hand... passes straight through, without any true resistance. He responds to her raised eyebrow with one of his own, eyes growing wider behind Frank Smith's thick spectacles.

Spoiler: Floral

Show

While your hand passes through Apophis without any resistance, saying it passed through as though it was through thin air wouldn't be quite right. Above and below your hand as you wave it at Apophis is the sensation of something dry and slightly rounded, with many overlapping edges; or perhaps several somethings, all of them tiny and twisting in constant, slight motion. A few flickers of something slightly wet flit against your hand as it moves as well, tiny... forked... tongues tasting the intrusion as it goes by.

"Smart of you. Then--" In a blink, Apophis is alone in the room, with only the passed-out bodies of some of the Suneater Cult for company. He sighs, adjusting his spectacles and flicking an imaginary speck of dust off of his cuffs. "Should've seen that coming, I guess. How unfun of them."

Spoiler: Nope

Show

It really shouldn't bother you, of course; the nowhere time is your own, and so far you've never run into anything before. Even Apophis can't break through this time; he's frozen in place, staring up at some corner in the ceiling for some reason, and he hasn't moved. Still, you can't help sneaking glances at him repeatedly as you move the others, paranoia breaking through even your current exhaustion to make sure the self-proclaimed "mad god" isn't doing anything underhanded as you slip away. With the last of your team out of the high-rise, you stop for a moment, floating near the ceiling, and sweep the room one last time...

And meet Apophis' eyes. He was looking at right where you are in the relative time you would call "now", during the entire frozen bit of time when you were several other places.

It's probably a coincidence. He still doesn't do anything, after all, even as you leave.

Elsewhere in the Main Drag

The police sirens are audible now, as you appear on a deserted street in the Main Drag, as far as Nope can bring you from Apophis and his machinations... for tonight, at least. The office building you were in is visible to anyone even without good night-sight simply by the several broken windows on the fourth floor, which let candlelight out into the warm, dark August night. Surprisingly, there are no other sounds of danger--screams, or crashing noises, or impromptu dance battles with music that was written more than twenty years ago (which is always a bit of a surprise when you think about it). At the moment, the crisis seems to be over.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

With that, I think this Scene is over. Everyone take Three Downtime Actions!

Since you've pretty handily disrupted the lower levels of the Suneater Cult and gotten at least parts of the faces of several higher-up members, take a +5 to any Shadowing the Suneater Cult checks you make during this Downtime round.

[Ridai]

Returning from zero time, Nope stumbles and falls unceremoniously. Knees evidently not feeling like dealing with real-time gravity. So he slowly picks himself back up, until he is on his feet, if hunched over. Head's just a mess, hands shaking, legs still wobbly. Equilibrium's messy right now.

"Predb... he preb..." Big breath, speech hard. "pophis pred'cted whre i was wh'n i brough' you out. couldn' or didn' do an'thin' tho." Pause. "m' mom donna's th' yellow sca'ves lead'r." Pause. "hea' hurt. gon loo' f'r tellypor' cult'sts. wan' kno' if thos' still live." He seems generally miserable.

[Quellian-dyrae]

And they were gone. Lily sagged, partly with relief, partly with sheer exhaustion as the adrenaline that had carried her through the battle began rapidly fading away. She wanted nothing more than to just collapse into bed right then. She felt like she could sleep for a week.

Nope's words were hard to decipher, but Lily got the gist. Apophis predicting their destination she kinda wrote off as...not irrelevant quite, but not really something they could do anything about at the moment. That Nope's mother was among the cultists - one of the leaders in fact, and the very one that Lily had hit with her Crown of Thorns at that - was the more important information. "I..." Lily didn't...really know what to say to that, but the look of aggrieved sympathy she cast him kinda communicated her thoughts on the matter well enough. The others might notice a whiff of cinnamon pass through the room. Poor Remy...

She reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder, realized the arm she was reaching with was still kinda a vine, and aborted that effort. (Her other hand was the one she had waved through Apophis, she wasn't going to touch anyone with it without washing it off first.)

And he wasn't the only one. Lily was in something of an odd position now. She hadn't had the time to mention Helios's relatives to Nope and Ariadne earlier, because they had to make their move quickly. Her intent had been to tell them once they had defeated the cultists, so they could figure out how to approach the matter together. Apophis's interference had pretty much wrecked that plan. Helios was here now, and he deserved to know. But also, he had not revealed his identity to the group, and she didn't know him well enough to know whether he would want that fact to be known. Lily didn't like the idea of keeping the matter secret from Remy and Ariadne, but she also didn't like the idea of revealing it unilaterally without knowledge of Helios's wishes.

Lily felt the flinch in her brain, the impulse to push both the uncomfortable decision and the even-more-uncomfortable discussion off until later, to just go home and rest now, think it through fresh. She squashed it hard.

At the end of the day, she decided it was Helios's secret to tell or keep. With all three of the cultists in the wind, there wasn't a strong enough reason to tell the others immediately to override whatever Helios's wishes might be on the subject. She would advise him to tell the others, but she wouldn't force the issue.

"Um," she said, with a just unutterably weary sigh. "Helios, there's something I need to talk with you about. Um, I think it might be kinda personal though, so maybe alone?"

[Zelphas]

Retribution

September 1, 2018. The Dome has been over Forester's Bay for two months.

Helios, Ariadne, and Nope

The text message hits each of your phones just as the last of the light leaves the sky on this warm late summer evening. It is from Floral.

Spoiler: The Message

Show

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!

It is accompanied by a GPS pin, pointing to a small public park in the Residential Quarter. Those of you who followed up on what Lily told you about her name and location would know that it is only a few blocks from Lily's house.

Floral

Still shaking off the first sting, with the message safely sent, you face off against your attackers in the fading light. As the sun fades, the insectile eyes in front of you seem to glow brighter, igniting the darkness with their green-yellow glow. All of their eyes are on you, and the buzzing sound slowly begins to increase; the first attack did nothing, but they lack either the intelligence or the emotion to care. Their target, their purpose, is still before them.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Map.

Ariadne, Nope, and Helios: you will arrive either between Floral's turn and the Vespers' turn (if Floral is faster) or at the end of the round (if the Vespers are faster). If Nope uses Remove Travel Time and Helios uses Crossing the Sky, you can both take a Standard Action after your arrival; otherwise, it takes a double Move Action to arrive here.

Initiative (Nope, Helios, and Ariadne for after Round 1)

Floral: (1d20+8)[14]
Ariadne: (1d20+4)[11]
Nope: (1d20)[4]
Helios: (1d20)[4]

Vespers: (1d20+22)[38]

Vespers go first.

[Zelphas]

Round 1, Vespers

The first of the strange mix of bee, beehive, and woman brings back its claw-like hand, readying for another strike. As it prepares to act again, the bussing noises intensify from the hive to Lily's right. Suddenly, small, fat, fuzzy forms are rushing all over her. Instead of striking, however, they dig into her hair and around her skin, bearing off bits of pollen and whatever loose parts of bark-skin they can find.

To her left, the other beehive-creature sends out swarms as well, but as these bees land, they refuse to leave. More and more land on Floral, and she feels the temperature around her start to rise and the air begin to grow thick due to the press of so many bee bodies all over her.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Vesper 1

Actions already taken.

Vesper 2

Move Action: Nah.

Standard Action: Use Gather on Floral. (1d20+14)[23] On a hit, Resistance DC 20/20 vs. Cumulative Impaired & Vulnerable/Disabled & Stunned (with Secondary Effect) Linked Weaken Resistance. Hit

Vesper 3

Move Action: Nope.

Standard Action: Use Overheat on Floral. (1d20+10)[12] Hit or miss, Perception Penetrating Damage DC 29. The attack is Physiological, but the Penetrating is going to Pierce Immunity. +10 to Resistance, no Pierce Immunity.

Floral (and other PCs) are on turn.

[Ridai]

What could Nope possibly be doing on a Saturday eve- yeah okay he is stalking cultists, and searching museums. Again. The upside is that it seems the cultists (and Donna) that got disappeared in the fight were just relocated. At least he found traces of one or two. So that means his mom is still alive, which is... good? Worse, each cult faction has its own Doomsday Clock going. There is still no trace of Nora, two months after this whole mess started. Parents still evil. At least Uncle Bruno is still okay.

So as he is taking a break from combing through the same museums yet again, sitting on a bench, eating fried noodles takeout, minding his own business (his stomach's really rumbling right now), there's a ping. He is informed of an urgent case of bees. Aw heck. Jury still out whether this is an Egyptian plague or Manchineel shenanigans.

And thus, zero time is engaged, briskly floating towards the destination. Eating fried noodles on the go really isn't easy, especially in zero time where things like this become even trickier, and eventually he has to realize dinner has to wait, his belly's protestations ignored.

Appearing on scene, he is greeted by a fresh hell. "What the hell bees ugh!" the now indistinct figure says, putting down his folded closed takeaway. It's the good but gross part of RE7 all over again. Also definitely Manchineel.

Okay focus, focus. Remove the bees. Here. Also those on Floral. But not Floral. Just the bees! Just the bees!

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Nope does indeed arrive with Remove Travel Time, so I am assuming he switched array slots this turn, and set Remove Hit Points, Mass on his bigger array.

Move Arrive in AL16, put folded closed takeaway in AL15.

Free Get gross out by bee-ladies and bees.

Standard Use Remove Hit Points, Mass on all three Vespers. DC 25 Damage (Shapeable Area 2 [Limited [6"x6"x240' bendable line]], Penetrating [Pierce Resistance])
Attack vs V1 (1d20+10)[30] Crit?
Attack vs V2 (1d20+10)[12]
Attack vs V3 (1d20+10)[20]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily's head was an odd place to be, right at the moment.

On the one hand, bees. Lily was freaking terrified of bees and also deathly allergic to them. These two facts were not even slightly unrelated. And if the bees weren't giving her enough to panic about, the circumstances of their attack were more than sufficient. Let's review.

1. These weren't just ordinary bees, these were a Punishment designed by Manchineel. The only thing Lily was more afraid of than bees was Manchineel.
2. They were targeting Lily specifically. Manchineel was after her personally.
3. She was alone. There were three of the bee monsters. Each one was probably individually more powerful than she was.
4. ****.
5. They had attacked her as the sun went down. They did not give off a scent. Manchineel had a good enough sense of what she was capable of to prey on her weaknesses and exploit the limitations of her powers.
6. Manchineel had no reasonable way of knowing about her phobia, but probably had super-senses at least matching Lily's own, and so probably had been aware of her allergy from the moment they met. Any biological strengths or weaknesses that Lily possessed must be presumed known to Manchineel.
7. All of Lily's powers were fundamentally biological in nature.
8. ****!
9. They had been lying in wait near her home.
10. They had attacked her in civilian garb. She couldn't fight back without risking her secret identity.
11. No, screw that, they had been lying in wait near her home and had attacked her in civilian garb. Her secret identity was known to Manchineel and worthless as a defense. Manchineel could target her whenever she darn well pleased.
12. ****ing ****!

So, having received all that delightful data and all those wonderful updates over the course of the past approximately four seconds, it should come as no surprise that the Flower Girl in Lily's head was making a very high-pitched sound and basically blubbering that oh God oh God she didn't want to die.

...On the other hand, the bee-monster's ambush attack had accomplished precisely nothing. And the bees swarming her proved to cause little in the way of harm. They didn't exactly help with her panic any - she had to fight the urge to freeze entirely and just hope they would go away, which was her usual approach to a bee getting close to her - but from a superheroic standpoint, they hadn't actually accomplished all that much.

Floral was telling her to squash them like the bugs they were.

...Yeah, turned out, there was still a rather large difference between Lily Woods and the vision of Floral living in her head. The thought of fighting these things filled her with terror.

But then Nope arrived. Her friends had gotten her text! They could destroy these monsters! And she could...could...

Okay yeah if she were honest what she really wanted to do right now was run and hide behind Nope. But Lily was no mere Flower Girl either, and refused to succumb to helplessness. Let instinct guide reason. She wasn't wrong to seek safety. These things were dangerous.

They were also after her personally. She would be their primary target.

Lily didn't have to win this battle. She just had to survive it!

Nectar began seeping from her pores. She spat at the nearest bee-monster, more as a distraction than anything else - though of course, any creature intended to defeat Floral would have to know to avoid contact with anything that came from her body - and then flew past it, past Nope, and straight into the little pond, hoping that would help get the swarming bees off of her.

Spoiler

Show

Free: Reconfigure Flower Power. 5 points to Floral Acid (foregoing the effect boosting ranks), 5 points to Petal Wings, 20 points to Healing Nectar, 10 points to Medicinal Nectar, 10 points to Solar Nectar.

Standard: Aid let's say Helios's next attack on V1, Defensive Attacking for 5, -2 for Impaired, +5 for Teamwork, at (1d20+8)[20]. Lily gets Restorative Persistent Healing at (1d20+8)[23]. Priority is Vulnerable then Weaken then Impaired. +5 Aid, 13 RP +5 for Persistent is 18, removes Vulnerable.

Move: Into AD16, diving underwater, in case its worth a circumstance bonus on the recovery check or Resistance to the SE since, you know, being underwater isn't exactly helpful for swarming bees.

End of Turn: Resistance to remove Impaired+Vulnerable (-2 for Impaired, -3 for Weaken): (1d20+5)[23]. Recover a point of Resistance. Recovers, shoulda prioritized the Weaken!

Current Status: -2 Resistance (8/10 RP), +5 Defense this turn.

[Dorni]

Pick a Color

Helios released a tense breath and let the flames he held wink out. They were gone. Nope had carried them away. While he did have a certain curiosity about what Apophis could possibly want to discuss, he wasn't in a rush to tangle with him. Especially not now with half his allies barely on their feet yet. The tactical retreat was for the best.

He looked down at Floral when she approached him. And his stomach dropped when she asked to speak to him. He could guess what it was about. Between Floral's nose and Ariadne's strange semi-mystic sense he'd expected this conversation sooner or later, although his hope had been for later. Preferably after his family had left the cult. "Ok. We'll talk."

Retribution

Helios cut the flow of aether into the fire rune he'd been forming and watched one by one as the entire formation winked out. He'd been in the middle of another research session when his phone went off. Not at the hotel - Dante's mystic sense was nearly as sensitive has his own; he'd sense if Flint were working with so much of his power in the room next door. But one side benefit of everyone being trapped under the dome with supervillains on the loose is that there were plenty of abandoned spaces if you went looking for them. He glanced at the message expecting Dante or Sarah trying to get ahold of him.

One double-take later, Flint had transformed into the armored form of Helios and then wrapped that form in a veil to let him travel undetected. And then he flying through the sky towards a park.

It came into view in no time, and with it the bee monsters swarming Floral. The whole set-up seemed odd, but he could ask Floral about it in a second. For now, they needed to be contained. And for that, he wove a working of air to smash the nearest to the ground.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Free: set spells to Crossing the Sky
Move: To AJ20
Standard: Use Ranged Strength from Crossing the Sky to Grab V3. (1d20+10)[18]

[Zelphas]

Nope's arrival is announced by a white daylight brightness as the last light fled the sky--no, wait, that was just all the colors in the park inverting for a split second. As reality resolves, the bees in the air vanish... only to be immediately replaced by more bees, pouring out of the bee-like humanoids without a pause. The creature closest to where Floral was is also missing a large, irregular chunk of papery, curling skin, revealing more hexagonal columns of holes weeping thick, syrupy honey down one side of its featureless face. It doesn't seem to notice the attack much, other than that.

The creature twitches its head unnaturally to one side, causing Floral's acidic spit to pass through the new hole in its visage and splatter, sizzling, to the ground behind it. It raises a clawed hand, and bees pour out from it, filling the space just as Floral flies quickly away. The bees pursue Floral across the park at a slower pace, punching through Ariadne's quick weaving to strike at Floral.

With a silent whisper of wings, the Vesper drifts around Helios' burst of smashing air, keeping itself aloft with barely a wobble. Dozens of bees are smashed to the ground by the air blast, but it had many more. For a moment, the three bee-like creatures are still, glancing one to another with quick judders of their glowing eyes. Then the two unharmed Vespers begin moving. One simply raises its arms, a swarm flowing out of them to rush at Nope in a cloud of angry buzzing and tiny stingers glinting in the fading twilight. The second flies directly towards Ariadne, its left claw-hand extended in an oddly gentle gesture, as though it meant only to touch the thread-weaver's shoulder.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Map.

Vesper 1

Move Action: Dazed.

Standard Action: Use Swarm on Floral. (1d20+12)[32] On a hit, first Damage DC 27 +Multiattack on Ariadne's threads: (1d20+10)[19] DC becomes 37; destroyed.If that punctures, Resistance DC 27/22 vs. Multiattack Damage Linked Progressive Impaired/Stunned. Floral has a -2 on the Resistance check if it hits. Crit; DCs are 34/27.

Vesper 2

Move Action: Shift to AE13.

Standard Action: Use Swarm on Nope. (1d20+12)[14] On a hit, Resistance DC 27/22 vs. Multiattack Damage Linked Progressive Impaired/Stunned. Miss

Vesper 3

Move Action: Shift to AI22.

Standard Action: Use Touching Sting on Ariadne. (1d20+10)[19] On a hit, Resistance DC 29/24 vs. Penetrating Damage Linked Progressive Impaired/Stunned/Paralyzed. Miss

All PCs are on turn.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The swarm of bees blasted through Ariadne's shield and started stinging her all over. Lily froze up almost completely. She thought for sure she was going to die.

But no. Her body wasn't fully human anymore. The countless stings didn't run with blood, but with more faintly-golden nectar. The sun was down, but the past few days had given her time to recover from her battle against Apophis's zombies, and she had plenty of energy still stored up in her nectar.

She kept her mouth firmly closed. Not moving wasn't actually helping, but it didn't matter. She beat her wings to try to clear the bees out from around her a bit. Anything to get a bit of breathing room.

She raised a hand, peering blearily through the haze of bees and pain and water in her eyes that she would insist was from dunking herself into the water and definitely nothing else, and fired a thorn at one of the monsters. It wasn't well aimed, had little chance of presenting much threat, but it might at least provide a distraction.

The bulk of her efforts were on purging herself of the venom, healing the countless stings, and trying to drive the bees away.

Spoiler

Show

Move: Dazed.

Free: Reconfigure Flower Power. Basically the same as before but 5 ranks Floral Thorn instead of 5 ranks Floral Wings.

Standard: Aid Nope's next attack, Defensive Attacking for 5, +5 for Teamwork, -2 for Impaired, at (1d20+8)[10]. Floral gains Restorative Persistent Healing at (1d20+8)[20]. First two points will go to clearing out the Weaken, then priority is Impaired, then Bruise. If I roll below a natural 6 I'll use one of my two bonus Healing rerolls at (1d20+8)[21]. +2 to Nope. 10 RP to Floral. 2 finishes healing the Weaken and triggers Persistent for +5. 10 heals the Impaired. 3/10 to the Bruise.

If the Impaired isn't gone, Extra Effort to do it again, this time Aiding Ariadne: (1d20+8)[19] Aid, (1d20+8)[19] Healing.

End of turn: If the Impaired still isn't gone, long shot recovery chance (DC 27): (1d20+8)[18] since unless I'm rolling really far on the left side of the U-curve the Weaken will almost certainly be gone by now. (On the off chance it's not gone recover a point of Resistance I guess).

Current Status: 1 Bruise (3/10 RP), (Dazed ends), +5 Defense this turn.

[Ridai]

The momentary inversion of colors very briefly gave Nope pause, reflexively checking if the colors return to normal everywhere. Daily reminder of working with powers he barely understands.

An angry swarm of bees coming at him with menacing buzzing and glinting also gave him pause. Luckily, he was able to make those bees go away before they could perforate his everything, but these reflexive Removals are still damn scary. It is like the muscle memory version of approximate knowledge, hooked up to a reality eraser.

"Will you stop it!?" Nope calls over to the horrid bee-person-thing that sent even more bees at Floral (and is busy dodging Floral thorns, though honestly Nope misses that fact on account of Too Much Bee On Scene) and tries to shut that one down, since the other two at least momentarily seem more interested at sending horrors at the rest of the team. Less bee! Nope already had too much bee in his life to last him the whole year.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Free Switch to Remove Second Guessing and Remove Hit Points

Move Happen to walk-stumble a little to the side in the chaos of bees, moving from AL16 to AK17

Standard Attack Vesper 1 with Remove Hit Points. DC 25/20/20 Damage (Ranged), Linked Weaken Resistance, Linked Affliction (Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless/Incapacitated). Crit 16+
Attack vs Vesper 1 (with +2 Aid from Floral) (1d20+12)[15]

[Dorni]

Having had a moment to evaluate the situation, Helios frowned. His wind blast had swatted and crushed hundreds of bees yet hardly made a dent in the swarms. More just kept pouring out of the... beehive monsters? That raised a potentially interesting question - were they simply a beehive with a ton of bees living within, or were they somehow generating the bees?

Helios put that question aside for a more pressing one. They had to have been made by Manchineel, and they'd attacked Lily. Was this pure chance, or were they here to target Lily? And if so, did that mean Manchineel was aware of Lily? Creating a distraction and attacking somewhere else didn't seem like Manchineel to him, but it was still best to deal with them quickly.

Helios switched his working. Blazing red runes formed around him and he sent the whole area up in flames.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: to AH8
Standard: Cast Solar Flare, catching V2 and V3. On hit, DC 25/20 vs Damage & Affliction[Vulnerable / Defenseless]
V2: (1d20+10)[25]
V3: (1d20+10)[14]

[Abracadangit]

Kal's a little peeved that the odd bee creatures didn't even seem slowed by her shield around Floral, but she quickly shrugs it off and keeps spinning thread where she can.

One of them veers close, reaching for Kal with an eerie gentleness that makes her skin crawl. Kal holds up her index finger with a needle tied to it, looking almost like a glinting talon, and waggles it disapprovingly, in a chiding sort of way. Her movements cause lines of red thread to appear from nowhere and lunge at the creature, forcefully shoving its claw off to the side.

"Nice try," Kal says, enjoying herself a little. "Now, it is my turn."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Free Action: Switch Threadworks array to Dual Needle Weaving.
Action: Dropping a Thread Lash Selective Cloud centered on Ariadne, with Homing, Multiattack, and SE.
V3: (1d20+10)[26]

[Zelphas]

Floral's spiking thorn intersected with {REDACTED} in midair before flying straight and true, striking right in between the beehive-creature's eyes... and passing through its head without leaving a single mark, disappearing into the darkness mere moments later with the Vesper remaining completely untouched by either Floral's strike or Nope's power.

The burst of flames from Helios had a much more noticeable effect. The Vesper closest to him instantly catches fire, one arm going up in a massive plume of heat and light. Moving instantly, the Vesper reaches across with its other arm and severs its own limb; the burning limb falls towards the fountain, but is reduced to scraps of ash before it can even touch the water. The farther Vesper drifts jerkily to one side to avoid the flames, losing several strips of its hide to Ariadne's razor-sharp threading in the process.

The first Vesper, seeing the threads of Ariadne's weaving fall once more, is across the park in moments, one claw reaching up to grasp at Floral's cheek. The other two Vespers--one missing an arm, one with red threads winding around it--look between each other once more, then turn as one towards Helios and send a flood of bees his way, stinging, swarming, and plucking at his hair and clothes as if to tear away bits of skin and spirit them away to their living hives.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Map.

Vesper 1

Move Action: Shift to AE16.

Standard Action: Use Touching Sting on Floral. (1d20+10)[29] On a hit, Resistance DC 29/24 vs. Penetrating Damage Linked Progressive Impaired/Stunned/Paralyzed. Floral has a -2 on the Resistance save if it hits. Hit, no Penetrating.

Vesper 2

Move Action: Dazed.

Standard Action: Use Swarm on Helios. (1d20+12)[29] On a hit, Resistance DC 27/22 vs. Multiattack Damage Linked Progressive Impaired/Stunned. Hit, +2 Multiattack; DCs become 29/22.

Vesper 3

Move Action: Dazed.

Standard Action: Use Gather on Helios. (1d20+14)[15] On a hit, Resistance DC 20/20 vs. Cumulative Impaired & Vulnerable/Disabled & Stunned (with Secondary Effect) Linked Weaken Resistance. Miss.

All PCs are on turn.

[Ridai]

These things just get increasingly disgusting. Nope's not here for it. Too many body horror beeople. And they mostly just shrug off what he is doing, which doesn't help, which also leads to them ignoring him. So he stands there, awkwardly, trying to focus harder to make these things go away, dang it.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Standard Attack Vesper 1 with Remove Hit Points. DC 25/20/20 Damage (Ranged), Linked Weaken Resistance, Linked Affliction (Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless/Incapacitated). AoA -5/+5, Crit 16+
Attack vs Vesper 1 (1d20+15)[21]