The rear portions of the SSRS Kostroma have been cleared. The Boiler room draws near. Still that sound persists. Calling them.
706 replies and 64 files omitted.
Posey has been hit with a glob of crude oil. It is staining her posh white coat and red hair.
Over the course of the past 8 hours, the party has witnessed Posey getting shot, bitten, impaled, cut, clawed, bludgeoned, burned, electrocuted, crushed, and dissolved from the inside out, all without so much as batting an eye. None of those injuries has left Posey so visibly distraught as she is now. She looks at her coat, then at her mane, with an expression of abject horror, a thousand times as intense as when her tail was touched, her mouth gaped in a silent scream. The black oil stains her mane, but even the untouched parts seem to fade in color, and her coat looks... blotched?
Her eyes though, they burn with pure hatred, like hot coals, as bright as ever. Time itself seems to distort around her, the beast flat footed again, and Posey moves with blinding speed as she draws an arrow and pulses it with destructive ki and looses it just like she did the previous round.
Bone Bow
[1d20+7 = (8+7) = 15]
[1d10+4 = (1+4) = 5]
Iajutsu Focus
[1d20+9 = (14+9) = 23]
>>195521Bonus damage
[3d6 = 7]After loosing her hatred, Posey, on shaky legs, realizes that this unknown eldritch horror is too much for an innocent, delicate little mare like her to face, so she takes another move action to move 30 ft away from the monster, leaving the room if necessary.
She draws her polearm as part of the movement.
>>195520How big is this monster? Large? Huge?
>>195521Posey looks like one of those poor animals you see men in rubber suits pull off the beach after the Exxon Valdez spill. The oil has a nasty smell, midway between diesel fuel and the bitumen in asphalt. It's almost like lubricating oil. Zara Zama is also covered in lubricating oil, but not as much of it. And it isn't on her coat, but on her clothing. Also she's a zebra
The oil vibrates. The arrow simply penetrates, but it leaves reverberating waves. All the same, Posey can tell that penetration is perhaps not the oil's weakness.
>>195522I don't know that she could move that far, but with the engine next to her it isn't absurd for her to get out of reach, or try to.
>>195524Huge, if on the lower end
>>195508Rapid Shot: Kira may not have destructive ki powers to infuse in her arrows, but she has been practicing her markssnakeship for a much longer time. Even as she recoils in disgust from the prospect of being covered in even more oil, she draws three of her barbed arrows and lets them loose at the massive goo creature in rapid secession.
[1d20+9 = (19+9) = 28][1d8+5 = (2+5) = 7][1d20+9 = (4+9) = 13][1d8+5 = (4+5) = 9][1d20+4 = (12+4) = 16][1d8+5 = (5+5) = 10] >>195526The arrows hit into the back of the monster, make ripples, and are swallowed into its black, tar surface
>>195527Kira raises her head and lets out a frustrated "AAAAUUUUGH!"
"How do we hurt this thing!? Do we have ice powers to freeze it?"
>>195528Black Heel:
"Do
You have ice powers? Because I don't"
Starfire
"Should I use my spells?"
Stained Sand
racks gun >>195528>Do we have ice powersPosey opens her mouth as if to speak, but nothing comes out.
She slouches over and shudders, red-black blood slowly pouring from her nostrils. Her eyes are glassy.
>>195526"Shooting it seems to just tickle it. We need to cut off the source of the oil!">>195528To Posey:
"If we were out in an open field, we could just burn it. In here, we have to get creative.">>195529To Starfire
"What spells do you have?"He says all this while searching for another valve, or whatever feeds into the fuel bunker.
[1d20+4 = (18+4) = 22] >>195529Silver nods to Starfire. "Please do so, you beautiful creature. Just do not set it ablaze."
Mala:
Bang[1d20+5 = (7+5) = 12][2d10 = 12]>>195531Right there. Another plack
Starfire:
"Just uh... the most basic shooting it with magic"
>>195532"Sure"
he smiles, legs apart to stand upright
"What?"
>>195530I don't think I'd want to open my nostrils or even eyes if I were Posey right now
>>195533A what? I guess it will take until next turn for Cavaliere to interact with it.
>>195534A large plate opening for the bunker, where coal would have been removed in its previous function.
>>195533Silver continues nodding, eyes looking up and down the unicorn's body. He has to admit, even in this current, state, Starfire looks good.
Silver rushes forward with his sword, glowing blue in his magical grasp, the light reflecting off of the oil as he slashes at the oil creature's legs.
[1d20+12 = (8+12) = 20][2d6+8 = (3+8) = 11][1d20+7 = (9+7) = 16][2d6+8 = (11+8) = 19] >>195536The slash goes right through the oil, cutting off its leg, causing oil to fall to the ground. The creature vibrates, sending oil flying
It slams its head down and opens its oily mouth, "biting* at Silver
[1d20+9 = (4+9) = 13][2d6+7 = (6+7) = 13] >>195537Silver sidesteps the creature's maw at the last moment, though the splashing oil does cover him. At least he's matching with Zara now.
Posey almost certainly wishes she simply had her mane grabbed by a disabled pony that had just eaten cheetos
Posey takes a full round total defense action, followed by a 5 foot step.
She is visibly shaking. Her eyes have turned cloudy, and she looks much thinner and ganglier than she did an hour ago minutes ago, bony even. She looks.. tired? It seems as though something has shifted in her.
She mutters softly, seemingly to herself in pained whisper
"..I... I fought so hard... I worked so hard... I fought for so many years... I studied... I offered my everything... So many times I came so close to victory... To prove my worth... Only to have it all snatched away from me every time... When I was strong... they made me weak all over again... So many years... So many horrors... So much turmoil... I was so diligent... So dedicated... The struggle... it never stops...! H-how much longer do I have to suffer...?"
Her chest convulses, throbbing as if from an intense heartbeat, but not quite... Almost like something squirming under her skin and trying to escape. She clutches her chest with a shaky hoof, smearing more oil on her pristine chest fluff and a muffled foal-like cry gurgles up from her chest into the back of her throat, bubbles of blood seeping from the corners of her chattering mouth. The look of dread on her face is existential.
"... W-we came so far... Was it not meant to be?"
She bites her lower lip and her fangs sink in so that she bleeds
[1d4+3 = (3+3) = 6]
Turn over
>>195540*5 ft step away from the monster
>>195540Patient Pippette, hiding behind the engine, approaches Posey. She doesn't say anything, but she does lower her head and inspect Posey in curiosity. There isn't
entirely a safe location in the boiler room, but behind the engine is the closest bet.
>>195542Can Kira see if the creature is being maintained by any more leaking sources?
>>195542Posey eye twitches, but is otherwise unresponsive.
>>195545>>195544Kira calls out to Posey "POSEY! WE NEED HELP!" Deciding that attacking the thing is useless at the current moment, she goes to help Cavaliere with cutting off this thing's source of oil while Silver keeps it distracted.
>>195546Any more specific action?
>>195547>>195548Strength: Kira wraps her tail around the panel Cavaliere is indicating, and tries to squeeze it shut.
[1d20+3 = (16+3) = 19] >>195549Assisting:
[1d20 = 1]Any latch or way to close it mechanically?
>>195549SqueezeIt's like the opening of a train's boiler, opened with a lever. Kira's massive strength is able to force it shut
>>195550Cavaliere, however, slips
Is that his action?
>>195551Can I take another action?
>>195553After slipping his claw off the lid, he tries to use the lever to lock it shut.
>>195555Maybe not. Uh, he interposes himself between Kira and the creature while she holds it shut.
>>195557Power Attack: With a "RAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Silver shoulders his sword and brings it down diagonally on the oily creature, hoping to cleave it in two.
[1d20+6 = (10+6) = 16][2d6+20 = (4+20) = 24] I think it's the monster's turn?
>>195558Hit.
Silver cleaves into the thing's oily head, slicing the right portion off, with much of the head slowly falls to the ground, leaving part of a head, and part of a neck
From the thing's half jaw, and exposed neck hole, it vomits oil onto Silver
Roll Reflex save >>195561Silver moves, but not fast enough,. He is covered in thick, viscous oil. His hooves do not raise easily from teh ground
Posey's turn
>>195562Posey takes a Total Defense action. She drops her polearm and shakily levitates a comb to her mane. She takes a move action to move further away from the creature.
Her cloudy eyes dart across the room, unfocused. She mutters to herself incoherently, her legs trembling as the throbbing cyst within her chest continues to burble and cry.
With permission, I would like to roll an Arcana check to see if there is a way to defeat this creature.
>>195565One, that slashing, and especially severing does seem to have an effect. Second, that the petroleum monster is constantly refreshing itself from the sources of oil from the bunkers and valves, although a single bunker remains open, with three of four bunkers and valves closed.
>>195565And Posey's mane is just...
Honestly the consequences to Posey's mane and coat are a "go mad with the revelation" kind of insight. It is better to be ignorant and not think about it.
>>195567Posey's turn is over.
Or maybe she's lucid enough to direct her unseen servant to close the valves.
Will save (DC 15)
[1d20+7 = (1+7) = 8] >>195562Eugh. Silver's
definitely gonna need a bath after this.
Kira looks around for the last remaining bunker.
>>195569>>195567That is: can she see the last remaining bunker?
>>195568Posey accidentally touches a nasty feeling reed that is near her face. It feels almost like a marsh reed covered in mud, somehow hanging near her face. Except that she feels it tug against her head. It's not a piece of trash nor plant life to be burned. That's her mane.
>>195570Roll for sight or insight
>>195573flicks tongueKira sees it. It helps that the layout of the bunkers is symmetrical so you can kind of guess where it is
>>195574Strength: Kira slithers over to the hatch, and attempts to close it as well with her snek strength.
[1d20+3 = (16+3) = 19] >>195571Posey drops prone and begins to choke up her dissolving innards.
Her glassy eyes roll up into her head, one of them slightly sagging out of its socket, she gives one last shrieking gasp, and then she stops moving entirely.
Bluff
[1d20+15 = (1+15) = 16]I'm going to bed now.
>>195576Damnit, I can't even die properly.
>>195575Kira places her tail on it, and her forelegs, and she moves it, closing it.
Cavaliere's turn
>>195576Patient Pippette yells
"This one is dissolving! The uh, the oil is toxic!"
>>195578Are all the hatches closed now? Not that he has time to think.
>>195576He sprints over to Posey to assess her condition.
>>195580Yes.
>>195580She appears to be dying, vomiting out her organs and losing an eye. This seems to be caused by the oil.
>>195581He positions her to give her an unobstructed airway while he does what he can.
Heal check:
[1d20+3 = (11+3) = 14] >>195582Roll her onto her side.
That's a valiant effort, but I'm unsure her coat - let alone her mane - will ever recover
>>195583Can Silver still attack the creature, even in his current stuck position?
>>195585That's good. With the oil cut off from the creature, hopefully it is now killable. Silver slashes at it twice more, trying to carve off more oil from it's "hide".
[1d20+12 = (18+12) = 30][2d6+8 = (6+8) = 14][1d20+7 = (4+7) = 11][2d6+8 = (7+8) = 15] >>195582Posey is ice cold and catatonic.
>>195589It's GM's.
>>195588"Throw over a healing potion! We're losing her!" he shouts to the other side of the room.
Posey abruptly twitches and sniffles on the ground, her hooves shambling erratically in rigor mortis.
"..I.. I give up..! I cannot even fathom the point of living if I cannot be beautiful..!"
>>195594Kira blinks at the mare having her crisis in the middle of such a horrifying event. "...I mean, this is really nasty stuff, but you could just...wash it off? Haven't you ever gone into the wilderness and gotten dirty before?"
spends the whole week researching for evidence that the dead can recover lost hair.(Results mostly inconclusive, but so long as her mane is considered to be part of her body she should be able to regrow it through nonmagical necromantic healing..? Plus that myth about hair and nails still growing after death may apply. She doesn't know for sure though, because she has never let this situation happen before.)>>195596The mane crisis broke her heroic veneer and triggered her existential dread by forcing her to content with the horror of her torturous existence. The pain, the hunger, the cold, the emptiness, the madness, the longing, the hopelessness, the disappointment, the impossible standards, etc. Also she is unsure if she can regrow her mane or tail because she has never allowed them to be damaged before (hence why she was livid when her tail was pulled). It has been a rough century for her. Pls try to understand.
(I can make her go back to being a productive party member on the next round, I was just trying to engage with the horror, and tried to stop being too "heroic" or unresponsive to monster attacks)
>>195598Everyone has a breaking point
>>195599Same
>>195594Cavaliere shakes his head sadly.
"You should worry about your beauty once we're on the high seas. Let adrenaline carry you through for now." Whinny City prevented any advance yesterday, but I'm hoping for movement on Wednesday
I also got word that the schedule might clear up signficantly>>195598Eh? Just treat it like a wig, which uses hair that is donated, taken from clippings, or taken off cadavers, and replace the hair with someone else's. I mean, if she wishes to regrow the hair herself then sure, but I feel like there are easier waysPersonally, I really like the bunker oil to be the thing to break Posey from a thematic perspective, because bunker oil is a great representation of the unromantic, unflattering elements of industrialization and the machine age meeting with Posey's aristocratic sensibilities. It's like that time that Posey was dealing with resurrecting gnoll cultists, and found that the real villain was neoliberal capitalism. But that's just my take.
>>195594>>195596From the other side of Patient Pippette, near Posey, behind Silver, and to the side of teh engine, Stained Sands walks forward, submachine gun pointed at the petroleum monster.
"Miss Ring! Get over yourself! Sword! Stop being a poofter! The rest of you, hit it with what you've got.
With a loud
tap tap tap, he fires his submachine gun at the petroleum monster.
>>195601Is the monster visibly affected by the submachine gun?
>Damage Reduction (Ex or Su)A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Wounds heal immediately, or the weapon bounces off harmlessly (in either case, the opponent knows the attack was ineffective).
We should know which of our attacks work. So far we have done piercing (regular arrows) and slashing (sword).
D20 modern has the "ballistic" damage type for firearms, although most 3.5e guns deal piercing damage; this would be a good time to rule if we use D20 modern guns or 3.5e guns.
>>195601>Personally, I really like the bunker oil to be the thing to break Posey from a thematic perspective, because bunker oil is a great representation of the unromantic, unflattering elements of industrialization and the machine age meeting with Posey's aristocratic sensibilities. It's like that time that Posey was dealing with resurrecting gnoll cultists, and found that the real villain was neoliberal capitalism. But that's just my take.I had incorporated those exact themes into my ~4-5k character dramatic comeback speech, but then I accidentally deleted it, and now I am too demoralized to retype it...sobbing continues...Posey's biggest weakness as a necromancer is her vanity and romanticism. If she were not so concerned with appearance and glory, nothing would hold her back. She had her formative memories at the height of the Victorian Era too.
Also, there isn't very much Posey can do against constructs.
Who's turn is it?
>>195602The Petroleum Monster seems to let puncture type wounds pass through in a way that it does not for the slicing of Silver’s sword. The bullets are not perfectly ineffective, but are significantly less effective. So basically yes, there is damage reduction versus puncture damage that does not exist for at least some other types of damage
>>195603>lost 4k+ characters
Stop doing that. This is not the first or even the third time it’s happened to you. Periodically save your long posts.
https://youtu.be/9Deg7VrpHbM?si=aDF3ZxA7we_8JJE0 Given scheduling issues you’ve got some time anyways. It’s the monster’s turn
>>195596The Petroleum Monster, damaged as it is, kicks at Silver with it's other foreleg
[1d20+9 = (16+9) = 25][2d6+7 = (7+7) = 14] >>195609One wouldn't think that oil could be so...solid. But, as he's trapped there with his hooves glued to the floor from all of the black, sticky oil, he discovers exactly how solid it can be as he takes a very painful slam to his side that most certainly broke a rib or two. As he opens his mouth to gasp from the pain, some blood is forced from the impact to get coughed up.
Posey's turn
>>195610Poor Silverfluff...Silver feels one hell of a wallop.
Posey skips the grotesquely-long dramatic internal monologue that I accidentally deleted. It was something about her tragic backstory, and lamenting about how tired, cold, and hungry she always felt, how the sun burned her, how the sea rejected her even when she was still alive and how that made her question if she loved the world or hated it; how this world felt like it wasn't worth conquering anymore, so rotten and stained with oil as the Victorian era ended; and how after decades of servitude she might finally have a chance to be destroyed and return to the dark... She gave a last goodbye to her grafted cyst of a and said she was sorry for failing as a cradle and that they might not get revenge on life afterall, and the dead godling in her bloated barrel one last time before giving up. She gave a wistful thought about never being able to meet her Gloomy again, but for conceded that he may be better off without her... But then she remembered her visions, the prophecy of the world being brought to it's knees and the sinful dead clawing out of their graves to witness the glory of armageddon, her fate, her destiny. Whether she loved this world or hated it, she thought it was still worth fighting for, and she was definitely wasn't going to let some stupid alien whale take her dream from her. Then some monologue about how long she suffered training for this exact moment.
>.......
>........
>......... no.
>No, no, no, NO!
>Equestria is not yours to conquer!
>I will not relinquish it!
Not after everything I have done!
>Even if it is smeared with oil and defiled...
>This world belongs to me!
>I will never give it up, even if it lets me down
>My dream, my destiny!
>THIS DOES NOT END HERE!
>I WORKED SP HARD TO BE FREE!
>WHAT I HAVE DONE...!
>WHERE WHERE I HAVE BEEN...!
>HOW LONG I WAS THERE...!
>TO HET WHERE I AM NOW...!
Posey uses two lvl 1 slots to produce a lvl 2 slot with which she casts, Disguise Undead as she stands up, a careful eye might spot the tissue melting off of her face with exposed bone before she weaves the glammer into an image of glory. She appears perfectly clean, her pristine coat flawless. Her scarlet mane is spotless and glorious, waving in an invisible wind and sparkling with sanguine energy. Her bone armor has been replaced by an immaculate black dress woven from pure shadow, decorated with glittering gems and the images of dying stars. A white gold tiara rests on her head, and behind it a crimson halo that flashes in grandeur but produces no light. She places a manicured hoof onto the deck before looking up at the monster with renewed confidence, drawing her sword.
Turn over.
>>195611>>195612Wow! I really need to ask what her secret is after we're done with this thing, Kira thinks to herself, seeing the oil-free mare make her stand.
Spot: With her keep snek eyes, Kira tries to spot a physical weakness, or perhaps even a core to this creature through the thick black oil, that they might target for extra damage.
[1d20+8 = (12+8) = 20] >>195612WhinnyPatient Pipette, who along with Cavaliere very directly witnessed Posey's sudden cleaning, runs away terrified, actually taking her closer to the Petroleum Monster
>>195613Kira sees that it is made of oil and pretty consistent throughout
But severing limbs seems effective
>>195615I don't think that Posey was the creature Kira was trying to find the weakness of
>>195616If Kira still can, she takes her spear, and slashes at the creature's limbs with a "RAAAHHHHH" using her spear's tip.
[1d20+10 = (1+10) = 11][1d8+3 = (6+3) = 9] >>195618...something tells me Kira's about to have a bad day...
>>195618Kira finds that the oil is very sticky, nasty, and just generally unpleasant. It's almost gelling up on the cold floor, and it is sticking on Kira's scales. Her spear catches on something, probably the ground, and Kira is not able to make her full motion
>>195617Cavaliere's
>>195612Cavaliere looks at Posey quizzically but will have to wait to puzzle out what sorcery this is. He pulls out a dagger (good thing he brought it!) and slashes at one of the legs of the creature.
[1d20+4 = (3+4) = 7][1d4 = 4] >>195621Cavaliere presumably rushes to the Petroleum Monster and slashes at it. He doesn't quite get the movement right, and swings into the air.
>>195619Silver's turn
>>195622Standing hurt yet defiant, Silver raises his sword and attacks the creature with a pair of retaliatory swings, his sword cleaving the air in its wake.
[1d20+12 = (13+12) = 25][2d6+8 = (7+8) = 15][1d20+7 = (16+7) = 23][2d6+8 = (9+8) = 17] >>195623Silver cleaves into the oil, and another leg falls. It seems for a moment that the thing as a whole will fall over, but it manages to keep its balance - somehow
Maybe it doesn't? Because its partial head comes down onto Silver
[1d20+9 = (13+9) = 22][2d6+7 = (3+7) = 10] >>195624The head comes down
hard on Silver's back, fracturing even more bones and breaking some others. He feels lucky that he's somehow not paralyzed, because he can feel every bit of the truly immense pain.
>tfw none of my spells, feats or class features work on constructs
The only relevant spell I have cast on this adventure has been a glammer spell to cover up a mane-emergency...
Posey charges with her sword, flanking the monster
[1d20+9 = (20+9) = 29]
[1d8+8 = (6+8) = 14]
>>195625Poor Silverfluff...>>195626Posey, magically cleaned of her oil coverage somehow, is able to charge into action. She lopes past the Petroleum Monster, stepping into the goey oil and past the stuck and beaten Silver Sword. Drawing her sword, she slices it right into the "barrel" of the entity. It cuts, and the thing vibrates. For a moment it makes odd gurgling noises.
But it falls to the floor, collapsing as a pile of gelatin-like black oil that covers the floor. It seems to be dead.
>>195627Kira shakes herself, trying to shake off the oil. "Is...is it dead? Should we do something to make sure, you know, just in case it has regeneration?"