Strange Aeons: The Thrushmoor Terror, Part 2 [IC]

[Blackhawk101]

The enlarged and battered monk looks like he is trying to say something to Vilma but no sound is heard.
Concerned, he presses the attack on the monster.

Spoiler: crunch

Show

Sw=enlarge
FAA= flurry with staff, risky strike
hit1 - (1d20+6)[19]
dam1 - (1d8+15)[16]
hit2 - (1d20+6)[21]
dam2 - (1d8+15)[22]

[lostsole31]

R10T15: The enlarged and battered monk looks like he is trying to say something to Vilma but no sound is heard. Concerned, he presses the attack on the monster. His first attack with the staff lands for 12 mod, while the second strikes even harder with the friar's desperation to save Vilma for 18 mod, enough for the thing and Vilma to fall to the ground.

R10T14: Vilma, you are prone and "held" by the unmoving monster. What do you do?

St. Dorn on deck, Flair in the hole ...

[silphael]

Vilma stands back, steps aside, and heals herself.

"Flair ! Gets over it !"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move action to stand up, the 5 foot step away, and standard action cure light wounds.

Cure - (1d8+4)[11]

[lostsole31]

R10T14: Vilma's body begins to knit its wounds (FH2). Vilma begins to stand, but Flair - who is still currently focused on her as an enemy - gives a weak front kick against her armor as she takes to her feet, steps aside, and heals herself with a spell for 11. She looks at him and shouts, "Flair! Get over it!"

R10T12: St. Dorn stands over the creature, and notes that power still surges through him, which is all he needs to understand. He strikes at the monster with all his might. The faint glow surrounding him and his weapon is gone and he says confidently, "It is dead," as he steps away from Flair.

R10T11: Flair, you are still confused. Assuming you could act normally, what do you do? You have an unloaded crossbow in hand.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Roll percentile and state your hopeful action as an if/then statement. DO NOT roll percentile in Discord and then try to play out an unfavorable result.

Winter on deck, Brother Jaume in the hole ...

[digiman619]

Flair's mental state was akin to a man an on a bucking bronco; desperately seeking balance and having a moment where the various forces acting on him reach equilibrium for a second. And in that second, he decides that the best course of action is to get away from anything that could trigger another dangerous reaction from him before he can get himself straight. Dropping his crossbow, he teleports himself away, moving back to the stairway and around the corner. denying himself a target to lash out at if he can't bring himself under control.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Free action: drop crossbow.
SA and MA: Teleport via genie's jaunt to the staircase and move around the corner so I can't see the rest of the party.

[lostsole31]

R10T11: Flair's mental state was akin to a man an on a bucking bronco; desperately seeking balance and having a moment where the various forces acting on him reach equilibrium for a second. He suddenly realizes that Vilma is not the enemy, and the overwhelming confusion has him babbling to himself incoherently.

R10T7: Winter stops her monologue and calls out, "Everyone, back away from Flair, and set up to dodge or block any incoming attack. I've seen this before in schizophrenics. He'll come around. He's just processing." She then steps away from Flair and into the hallway and gets ready to block with her claws if she must.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I.e., total defense.

End Round 10, Begin Round 11 ...

R11T15: Brother Jaume, do you remain large? If not, what square do you end in? What do you do?

Vilma on deck, St. Dorn in the hole ...

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume drops to normal size. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, apparently directed at Winter. He then readies himself.

Spoiler: crunch

Show

drop growth; ending up in the relative NW square.
Ready action to grapple Flair if he attacks in Range of BJ.

[lostsole31]

R11T15: Brother Jaume drops to normal size. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, apparently directed at Winter. He then readies himself.

R11T14: Vilma, Milani no longer favors you your divine favor drops, but you do FH2.

St. Dorn on deck, Flair in the hole ...

[digiman619]

Flair again tries to get a hold of himself long enough to drop his weapon and get away from his teammates.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Same plan as last time; drop weapon as free action, get back down the stairs and out of sight of my teammates.

[lostsole31]

R11T14: Vilma just stands ready in a defensive posture to block or ward anything Flair sends her way, but otherwise trying not to seem too aggressive in posture.

R11T12: St. Dorn likewise does the same, but doesn't move back.

R11T11: Flair again tries to get a hold of himself long enough to drop his weapon and get away from his teammates.

After maybe a minute or two of tension, it seems like this episode has ended.

Combat Ends!

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume looks like he is trying to speak to the group but no sounds are made. He makes some panicked arm motions.

[lostsole31]

From his arm motions, it seems like Brother Jaume is trying to gather everyone together in a clump.

"I think he is wanting to heal us by channeling the radiance," says St. Dorn, stepping closer to Brother Jaume. "Brother Jaume, is there some reason you can't speak?"

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume’s face flushes as he gestures at Dorn.

[lostsole31]

"Embarrassment," St. Dorn softly mutters in understanding, slowly nodding his head. He looks to the rest of the group. "Flair! Hurry back up here! Brother Jaume wants to heal us all. Winter, Brother Jaume is having trouble .... communicating. Speaking. That's why charades."

Once Flair gets back upstairs ...

Winter, who has the training nods quickly and says, "I think the horror of what we saw today ... or the culmination of horrors that the friar has faced ... has caused what we in mental health call a 'cognitive block.' Don't try to 'develop a physical language' through predetermined movements. It's normally speaking and writing, but it continues to any defined or formatted communication, so he couldn't even do sign language, as that is just 'writing in the air.'"

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume just shrugs dejectedly and clasps his holy symbol and silently prays for healing burst.

Spoiler: crunch

Show

SA: channel positive energy-healing
(2d6)[5]

[digiman619]

There is a pause for a good three seconds or so before Flair comes back up the staircase. To put it bluntly, he looks like crap. He's clearly just recovered from crying, and his demeanor is one of tired resignation. If he still had hair, you get the impression that it'd be a mess right now. Still, he took deep, calming breaths as he approaches. "Okay" he says simply before getting within range for the heal.

[lostsole31]

And with Flair, Brother Jaume lets out a burst of healing of moderate strength, but it seems to exhaust him. Brother Jaume gives out a large exhalation and in addition to his brainpan making it hard to string together rational thought, now there is a light-headed woozy quality to it all, while at the same time he feels "empty" somehow.

Winter looks at the horror and its reeking flesh. "What is ... was ... that thing?!"

[Blackhawk101]

BJ doesn’t spare the horrific creature a second glance as he makes his way back to the “camp” downstairs.

[digiman619]

Flair took another deep breath as he inspected the corpse. There would be time for dealing with his trauma later. Right now, they needed to know what this thing was and if there was any further danger this thing could cause.

[lostsole31]

Vilma, more of a scholar than she lets on, with a particular focus on known - or potential - enemies of the faith, can assist Flair in looking over the dead monster to learn more about it. It just so happens that both of them have read the same work (Lords of Sorrow) that detail an encounter with such a creature. The fact that it is believed to come from beyond the stars (or when splayed out looks like a mutant starfish) and its propensity for sucking blood had the author refer to it as a "star vampire." It doesn't appear to be made of quintessence, but definitely looks alien in appearance, leading the two to assume that this is not an outsider, but an aberration (and all that entails).

Flair and Vilma find these pores that contain exit points for hundreds of minuscule tendrils all about its body. They remember that the larger, less-prepared author of the work mentioned that "snake-like forms - like oversized cilia - spilte forthe to lap up Anderias' flesh-flowing bloode." [sic] They don't remember seeing this in use in battle, and none were extended beyond the body. After a brief discussion it is determined that despite the creatures' ability to cause bleeding wounds with its razor-sharp talons, there was so much positive energy being used to heal the bleeding that not enough blood must have fallen for those "flexible proboscises" to have gotten a worthwhile excess of falling blood. It appears these proboscises likely could extend 10' or so from the creature.

There are numerous ventrils about the body, which when studied don't appear to be intake for oxygen like mouth or gills, but something like multiple Jacobsen's organs. The creature likely had a powerful olfactory sense, and given its desire for blood, this may have been used to guide the aforementioned proboscises to fresh blood, and those bleeding freely.

Its overall structure is such that it was likely stronger, or at least on par with, Brother Jaume, but its lack of a skeletal structure or standard striated, longitudinal muscle means that pound-for-pound .... it is incredibly strong (as expected), but not as strong as it could be for its size ... and that is likely given its numerous orifices, sensory areas, etc.

[silphael]

Still wounded and weakened, Vilma shares the knowledge gathered with the others.

"It seems to be a... star vampire, or something like that."

[lostsole31]

Brother Jaume had gone downstairs, and Winter looks over Vilma. Shocked, Winter exclaims, "Esobok droppings, Vilma! How can you even stand! Listen, Brother Jaume was significantly wounded as well. How about we take a break downstairs, and I can include him in a few healing bursts?"

[digiman619]

Flair nods. "Yeah, this... this was an endeavor. Let's take a breather. I..." he pauses, "I could use a bit to get ahold of things."

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume finds a quiet spot to sit and pray silently, rocking back and forth.

[lostsole31]

With St. Dorn as the last man out, shutting the upstairs door to the rank mess on the other side, the party removes downstairs and gathers with/near Brother Jaume, cautiously gathering him into the dining room and shutting the door so as not to provide unnecessary healing for the prisoners.

Winter's first expression of positive energy ... again, which she does without showing Pharasma's symbol ... fully heals Flair. Two more bursts, and Brother Jaume has a very light wound. Vilma is now healed as well as her body can be, given the blood drain she suffered.

With a different spell, Winter is able to restore Vilma's overall blood supply, and therefore putting her at peak vitality.

Winter says, "I have plenty of clerical special powers available, but my clerical magic is depleted. I am more prepared with bardic magic now than a Pharasmin priest if we should go again after a break, including the ability to heal light wounds. How is everyone else?"

St. Dorn answers, "I've used a few simpler prayers, though a few simple prayers are much of what I have outside of special abilities granted me. But Torag so empowered me against that dread creature that I do not think he will answer my plea should I need to smite more evil. I would be willing to go again after a break, to break Evil's hold over this fane, but I cannot speak for anyone else."

Brother Jaume, Flair, and Vilma, what are your inputs as to what you have available and if you'd go again today or not?

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume gives Winter a grateful squeeze in response to the healing but just shakes his head and holds his throat. In response to the query he doesn’t respond. He sits back down in the main hall against the wall to pray.

[silphael]

Vilma smiles sadly.

"I still have a solid reserve of magic granted by Milani, and if we rest it will bring back the question of how do we feed the prisoners."

[digiman619]

Flair had been busy helping the wounded as well, making sure that they were all okay. Once he had been convinced that they were fine, he was able to pause long enough to answer her question. "I'm still in one piece. I could do more exploring today if I needed to." he says, though the weariness in his voice is very much apparent.

[lostsole31]

St. Dorn talks with Kris, to let her know what has happened so far.

Let's say you take an hour break .... everyone seems like they're willing to go. Brother Jaume, do you go along?

[lostsole31]

Winter looks to Brother Jaume. "Will you come with us? Touch this [left] hand if you will, touch this [right] hand if you want to stay behind."