Kintobor

"ZERO CORRECT COLOURS IN THE CORRECT SPOT. ZERO CORRECT COLOURS IN THE WRONG SPOT."

OOC: I believe Zaria and Abam/Maba got moved right by one square each, when they should be D2 and E2 respectively. Zaria winces as the dagger finds its way in between her armour. She pushes her foe back and regains her stance. The lack of blood in her mouth was a good initial sign. "Good shooting, Yelana. We are making progress. We need to deal with Abam. We could all attack individually, or we could attempt to rally. Soren, what are your thoughts on rallying Yelana?"

Dialing in red four times into the bomb's safety detonator code and pressing the button causes a static-laden voice to churn out of the device. "ZERO CORRECT COLOURS IN THE CORRECT SPOT. ZERO CORRECT COLOURS IN THE WRONG SPOT."

Yelana will fire at Abam.

"Thank you for at least giving me a chance." Hugo replies. "I know this doesn't mean much, but you have my gratitude for understanding. I didn't have much going for me before I came down here. The mischief means the world and stars to me. They're like family at this point." "Unless you want to go down into the trash compactor, I'd advise against it. I'll be heading on up. I'll wait for you in the basement. Uh, be careful arming that explosive, alright?" Hugo, having collected all the rats who now cling to his body like a fur coat, waves to the party as he makes his way back to the shaft to climb up the garbage heap. For handling the situation peacefully, the party gains a point of experience!

Persuasion Proficiency Check (DC 2): (4,6,6) Three Successes After Enson's attempt at a persuasive argument ends, Hugo nods his head, taking in the offer. "I... well, I suppose you're right. I can't stay down here, and I suppose neither can these guys. I guess I'll need to round them up and carry them out. It might take me a couple of minutes, but it shouldn't be too hard." Picking up a large, purple basket, Hugo begins to calm himself as he goes about collecting the cranium rats, placing them safely inside. "Well, if you'd like to talk with them, now's the time. I think with myself calming down, they're a little more docile." The rat being cradled in Hugo's arm looks about lazily. "They have shown me visions of the upstairsl, but nothing really interesting. Maybe they'll know a place, but I feel like they'd be best out of the way of anyone's inconvenience." "Is that the man the rats trapped under the cabinet? I guess I should maybe apologize to him..."

Zaria Defends Soren. "I have you covered. Stay within arms reach, I may need you to heal me if things go south."

I imagine it's an in-between look, but more so in that armies are likely comprised on a scale between lightly armoured ranged infantry to heavily armoured melee combatants. Anything between how the Rebel Alliance looks in Star Wars to the aesthetic of Nexo Knights or the Space Marines in Warhammer 40k. It sort of needs to cover a broad aesthetic, seeing as how we're playing a forum game with players who'll want to play a broad variety of characters. Zaria, as an example, was inspired partially by Warhammer 40k's Howling Banshees, which, for those not in the know, are one of the Eldar's melee specialist units. Warhammer 40k in general is kind of the standard I went to when I thought of how armies might look, as that is a game with armies ranging from generic army soldiers with laser guns, to nuns in battle armour who strap rocket launching-pipe organs to their tanks and carry reliquaries into battle. GATS needs to cover a wide range of looks to allow players to play both heavily armoured front line melee combatants, to back range snipers, and everything else you can think of in terms of archetypes. I figure this might sound a little bit like rambling, but I hope it made sense.

Religion Proficiency Check (DC: 3,5): (1,2,3,3,5) 1 Success Enson's attempts at calming the rats down through a low chant seems to not alleviate the situation. The rat's continue to project a feeling of tenseness and growing hostility as Hugo begins to breath heavily, his swaying returning. While Enson wasn't hurting the situation, it seemingly wasn't helping. Persuasion Proficiency Check (DC: 2): (1,4,6) 2 Successes "Well... I might be able to build something somewhere... the station is a pretty big place... I've been down here for so long though, I don't- I don't know exactly where to take the mischief and myself..." Valesia's words of support help Hugo calm down, but the heroes can tell he's still somewhat apprehensive about leaving. The rats emotional projections change from aggressive to protective.

OOC: Sure. Yelana will fire her rifle at Abam.

"Then my Varuth guide us to victory!" Zaria strikes Abam with her power khopesh, activating the Energy Cell.

Hugo frowns, looking guilty. "I am... aware of what happened upstairs. The rats are fairly territorial. They trust me, but they viewed him, the man they wedged under the bookshelf, as a hostile. I'm not saying this to make an excuse, merely to help explain the situation. These aren't domesticated cranium rats. They just happen to like me. More so than most, anyways. I don't know how they'll take to living in the basement. They'd more than likely prefer the ability to either forage, scavenge, or rummage through garbage, something this clogged chute offers two of the three of for them. I don't think they'd enjoy that. I-I don't think th-they would enjoy that..." As Valesia and Enson's argument grows, Hugo begins to sway on his feet, his breathing becoming heavy, his frown becoming a look of growing panic. A growing feeling of distress grows around the party, as visions of gnashing teeth and scrapping claws begin to creep into their minds. "This arguing... it's making me uncomfortable... please stop..." Aysu's question seems to snap Hugo out of his swaying for the time. "...well, cranium rats are fairly adaptable creatures... they could maybe be moved somewhere... but that's a lot of work..." Hugo seemingly needs further convincing.

"Couple of thoughts. If the stowaways want to fire their gun, they need to back up, away from my weapon. I am not letting that happen, not without a fight at least. We have these two locked into combat with me. We need to remove one of them, preferably Abam, as soon as possible, otherwise we run the risk of another rally next round. Part of me wants to invoke another ward, part of me wants to crack open this Energy Cell. Soren, if you want to move behind me, I can attempt to invoke a Searing Flare to cover your retreat. It's up to you."

Now I'm just picturing a Dragon Ball-esque fight, with both sides rallying into one combatant whose screaming at the top of their lungs, and that's the quest.

OOC: Does the Blind condition affect an opponents ability to swing at a target eligible for an Opportunistic Attack? Zaria's blade knocks back the stowaway's dagger as it swings for her stomach, a move she normally relegated for ranged fire. She grimaced at the lack of rifle fire behind her. "We need to remove Abam from the battlefield, now! I cannot take another hit like that lightly. Yelana, I need your help or I will fall."

Well, I personally envision Zaria's Warding Bond to be her deflecting powerful attacks with her sword, including bullets and projectiles. I personally have no issue with players flavouring their spell descriptions, but I can't speak for the folks who were a bit more involved in the rules.

"The nexus... oh, you were speaking to me." Hugo replies, shaking the rat in his arms as it lays back in content. "The rats allow me to project my inner voice onto others. Obviously, you couldn't respond since it's not the same as linking people with a psychic connection, but if the rats allow me to, I can project my voice into others telepathically. I'm not an expert on it or anything, and I've never really had to use it until now, but I think of it as a sign that the mischief has allowed me into their group... kind of like a parental figure, you know?" Hugo continues to bounce the rat in his arms like a baby as he begins to frown. "You're here to get rid of the cranium rats... aren't you?"

Current Sign Ups for Mission #4: Dude, Where's My Space Speeder? -Kirwin (karmajay) -Bers (Dutch Thriceman) -Yissam (CMP) -Merei Teo (Zepher) -Sign Ups Close on August 2nd-

Insight Proficiency Check (DC: 2 1): (1,1,1,2) 0 Successes Valesia cannot get a particularly good read on Hugo's emotional well being, other than he's flustered talking to other humans. Based on her knowledge of Cranium Rats, she knows that the creatures have never shown the ability to control other beings before with their psychic abilities, although whether Hugo's exposure to them for so long might have allowed the Rats to dominate him in some capacity, she's not entirely sure. Hugo takes the tag back and looks it over. "Huh. I didn't even know that I lost it. I've been moving up and down the chute with the rats on occasion, but... I've been a little afraid to go back outside. Into the hotel. Or... I guess it's not an adventurer's guild? Jeez, I've been down here longer than I thought. Why am I down here? Well... I guess part of me is kind of empathetic towards the mischief. Georgi told me that the garbage chute needed to be cleared, and so I took the bomb I was told would clear the chute and came down here. When I found that these rats were down here, and that they were scared... I couldn't just kill them. I've always had a fondness for animals, even as a kid. I daydreamed about what it would be like to own a zoo." Hugo picks up the rat at his feet and begins to cradle it, tickling its belly. "Part of me felt sorry for the little guys, but I didn't want to tell the foreman, because he'd just want them dead. So, I did the only thing I felt I could do. I hid. And since then, I've been down here with these little guys, to make sure they're safe."

There's a type of playstyle in LARP called backpacking, which has a spellcaster behind a martial character, usualy within arms reach. The spellcaster sticks to that martial character's back, like a backpack, and buffs them when need be. I think it could work here, especially with how Rally and Defend work. Yeah, I know enough about this system that the knife attack is kind of gross. Thankfully Zaria's now in striking range and at full health, so this should get good.

Well, that's kind of terrifying.

I would add a +1 next to the proficiency with brackets explaining where the benefit's coming from, but that's just me.

I believe it's from the Doctor Who set released a few years ago. That was a cute set, honestly. I still have the TARDIS built somewhere, and the Eleventh Doctor figure in one piece.

"I-I am Hugo. How did you know that? Has someone come looking for me?" Hugo asks. "Well, a mischief is what you call a group of rats. They're very social creatures, cranium rats even more so. They can be a nuisance, but they can be very sweet once you get to know them. Rats have quite a bit of personality to them." "Oh, no no, it's quite alright. I've just not had a reason to use names outside of calling my friends here by their nicknames. Well. I suppose we should discuss what you came down here to my home for. What's going on in the hotel? Have new owners bought the place? The rats showed me images of more people upstairs than usual."

"Wow, you guys talking all at once... it's got me a little flustered. It's been awhile since I physically talked to anyone." "Georgi? That's a name I haven't heard in awhile... Georgi was the foreman for the construction crew I worked for. We got hired to help with renovations to the Grand Ebria a little while back... must've been a few years ago by now?" "They're my friends. I guess you could say I'm a bit more than friends at this point with the cranium rats, though." The human reaches into his pockets and grabs a bit of bread, looking a little half eaten. He tears it into tiny pieces and watches as one of the rats darts around the adventurers and towards him, front arms outstretched towards the human and squeaking as he begins to give some to the rodent. "They consider me part of their mischief."