Ephemeral Skies Chapitre I

[Disciple of Sakura]

Anatarei Crimsonthrone

"Oh, you know. Just screwing you, Gaz." Sheziera smiles sexily. "I had a good time, don't get me wrong. It's just that I didn't win enough from your game to my liking. Tell you what, I'll let you have the axe - I don't need it. But the bromide and silver? I'll borrow that for the moment." She disappears in a puff of black smoke, teleporting 50' out onto the street, and then moves as fast as her very fast legs will carry her back towards the White Falcon.

"You gods damn b***h!" Gaz screams as he tries to get up and grab you. Your teleporation removes you from his very forceful hands as you bamf into the middle of the street below, a rider on horseback having to swerve to avoid you. The street is bustling, as it's merely mid-day. It's probably a good 15-20 minute trek back to the White Falcon on foot.

Kristenna

Kristenna happily eats her pork. "This is fantastic, Fara. If I cooked, I'd have to ask you for the recipe. Maybe I will anyway--Artamo would like it." A shadow crosses her face for a moment, but she shakes it away. "So, what can you tell me about what's been going on in this town? Anything interesting or unusual lately?"

{Since I got no response to my previous post, figured I'd try again with a bit more substance.}

{Maybe I should start a bar fight, just for fun. icon_wink.gif }

"Oh, uh... thank you. It was something my mother taught me, but I played with it a little bit. As for interesting stuff... Well, we had some Consortium people in here a little while back. They came in on this really impressive airship called the Black Roc, which was at least twice as big as any other airship I've seen. They poked around town, asked some questions about the ruins in the hills, tried to get in and investigate them, but I think they didn't get anything out of it. They left not long after. And then, a day or two ago, we had these weird monsters come into town from the ruins. Nobody knows much about them, but they killed a few folks and did some damage before just vanishing. Someone was saying that he thinks maybe they're weak against light, but I don't know about that stuff. There's been some talk about what the Consortium guys did while they were rummaging around and maybe they caused the problem, but no one can get into the ruins to figure it out. Does your airship need a cook?"  

[Dallas Moonrain]

{I believe it's my turn, so I'll go ahead and post, but correct me if I'm wrong.}

Reed turns over his options in his mind and makes a face. His spells would be much better for a ship-to-ship combat and his big gun back up plan doesn't work against undead. Everything else is defensive. He's loathe to give up his defenses, but he needs something to do....Reed takes a moment to reflect, preparing new options for himself.

{Reed uses Adaptive Style to reassign his readied maneuvers, taking a full round action to do so.}  

[Disciple of Sakura]

{Yeah, it was Reed's turn. I've gotta get better at telling folks when their initiative comes up. As in, right now, it's Marionne's initiative. biggrin }  

[Emerald the Crow]

{Okay, so, since I've only got one last maneuver to get, I'll go ahead and assume that that's granted now. wink }
Marionne swung at the monster again, channeling her divine gifts to hurt it as much as possible.
{Going ahead and using Foe Hammer. + 12, since I believe we're flanking at this point.}  

[Emerald the Crow]

{Okay, my last attack hit and it was a lower total, so I'm going to go ahead and roll damage while I'm here... Here's base longsword damage. 1d8 + 4}  

[Emerald the Crow]

{1d6 cold + 2d6 Foe Hammer.

Okay. 19 damage total, I hope.}  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Marionne's sword strikes true to the beast, dealing a damaging blow. Unfortunately, he still stands, and now it falls to Buck to hopefully fell the monster.  

[Arc Vembris]

Buck lays into the creature with a heavy blade blow.
((Greatsword @26 vs AC))  

[Arc Vembris]

12 damage
With a growl of effort, Bucks hews the thing with a devastating strike.  

[jennibert]

Fara

"Oh, uh... thank you. It was something my mother taught me, but I played with it a little bit. As for interesting stuff... Well, we had some Consortium people in here a little while back. They came in on this really impressive airship called the Black Roc, which was at least twice as big as any other airship I've seen. They poked around town, asked some questions about the ruins in the hills, tried to get in and investigate them, but I think they didn't get anything out of it. They left not long after. And then, a day or two ago, we had these weird monsters come into town from the ruins. Nobody knows much about them, but they killed a few folks and did some damage before just vanishing. Someone was saying that he thinks maybe they're weak against light, but I don't know about that stuff. There's been some talk about what the Consortium guys did while they were rummaging around and maybe they caused the problem, but no one can get into the ruins to figure it out. Does your airship need a cook?"

"Oh gods yes," says Kristenna with feeling. "If I have to eat one more of Anafa's 'I just threw in stuff that sounded good' concoctions, or another burnt mess that Lyndie forgot about--flavored with oil no less--my stomach will have a rebellion. I can't really hire anyone of my own accord--not yet," she grins, "but I'll talk to the captain. I'll come back by once I have, or send word at least, and hopefully we'll be having palatable meals on board very soon."

Kristenna smiles at Fara again as she eats the last bite of her lunch, and then hops off her stool. "You'll hear from me soon. I'm Kristenna, and the ship's the White Falcon."

As she leaves, intending to look for the captain to talk him into hiring the girl, Kristenna commits the details Fara had told her about the monsters to memory and tries to connect them to anything she might have heard before.

{Kristenna will make the applicable knowledge check at +3. Doesn't matter what it is--she has no ranks in any knowledges and gets only her Int bonus regardless. She heads for the market. If she should pass Buck, Marionne, and Reed's fight, she'll immediately jump in to help, but I don't know if that's on her way or not.}  

[Disciple of Sakura]

Buck's blade further rends the creature's unliving flesh, but it still stands. Frustrated that it can no longer strike Buck as easily, the monster instead decides to aim for a different target. He slams his fist at Marionne's face.

{Attack and possible crit, +11 to hit on each.}  

[Dallas Moonrain]

{I believe it's my turn, but I'll ask a quick question before choosing Reed's actions: Is it possible for him to get into a flanking position? If so, he may slide into a different stance...}  

[Disciple of Sakura]

{Yeah, I'd say that you should be able to get into a flanking position.}  

[Dallas Moonrain]

{That's good...though less useful than I had intended, seeing as how it's undead and thus the sneak attack I could get from assassin's stance is worthless...}

With a sigh, Reed moves up towards the beast, careful to keep one of his shipmates on the opposite side of it from him to maximize his advantage. As he moves, his fists begin to flame as he swings at the monster.

{Reed activates burning blade to do d6+5 extra damage, and makes an attack with his unarmed strike. With the flanking bonus, that comes to a total of a 13. I assume that Reed thus misses wildly.}

Frustrated by his ineffectiveness, Reed thinks to himself that this is why he doesn't get into close combat in the first place.  

[Emerald the Crow]

{Okay. I don't have any particularly useful maneuvers right now, so I'll just go ahead and do something a bit more interesting...}

Marionne shifts to avoid hitting any of her companions, and takes a deep breath, blowing a freezing cloud at the monster.

{DC 17 Reflex for half. 4d6 cold damage. Here's hoping...}