His hands twitching less now he is centred, Nyx continued to scans the graveyard - mapping out the potential shape of the invisible tree from it's effects. He imagined that the collapsed graves might be the work of roots, but he also scanned the heavens for signs of these mighty boughs. Suffice to say he was nervous, though his medatative state helped

PM sent to Kalista.

Everyone
The headstones are badly deteriorated, but they are carved and arranged in the old style. Some dates are visible, but they make no sense to anyone using a contemporary calendar. If the dates are numbered using the Golden Age calendar, these graves date back to the early Dark Age years soon after society collapsed in the Great Cataclysm. Ethan would recognize these dates as being only ten or twenty years after the last date he saw before falling into a rift.

Samuel, Ethan, Arulas, Doc, and Nix
To the naked eyes (those eyes not augmented with psychic or magic perception to see invisible things), there is no indication of the tree that Polkatain mentioned.

Arulas, Doc, & Nyx
The elves are purposefully studying the ground, so they will be the first to notice movement there. Dirt shifts around one grave in a corner, and a skeletal hand reaches out of it. Any action taken against this critter as it crawls out of the grave would require a successful Save vs Horror Factor.

Kalista, Polkatain, Ethan, and Samuel
From the middle of the graveyard, three translucent and shimmering figures take shape out of the darkness of the night. They look like hooded figures with clawed hands.

Everyone with 6th Sense
You now have a bad feeling about this.

OOC: My only reaction to this is. Ya Think! as comically as possible and I mean just that.

"Skeletons are rising or zombies or unholy undead demon spawn. This just went from bad to holy crap what are we doing oh yeah saving the world. Just glad they aren't vampires." Arulas jokes as he panics just a little luckily training kicks in as he attempts to squash it down.

thanks for reminding me

HORROR FACTORS
Soul Tree: 12
Protecting Wraiths: 16
animated dead: huh, none I guess

07:40, Today: Kalista rolled 14 using 1d20+5.  sv v HF.

It isn't the Tree that gets her, its the wraiths. They bring back memories of her childhood and cause her to freeze momentarily.

Going with loose initiative and (I forget the number) of attacks.

06:05, Today: Polkitain rolled 20 using 1d20+5.  Save vs Horror.

Polkitain doesn't see Kalista move and he himself takes courage from that. He puffs up trying to look larger.

"I don't think my poison will work on them."

Doc pauses motionless for a moment.

09:14, Today: Doc rolled 5 using 1d20+1.  save vs HF.(dammit)

Samuel is, of course, in his armor and he has his magic sword in his armored left hand and the energy rifle in his right hand. The world suddenly becomes brighter and he gets a good look around. He stands his ground as his mind works through the ridiculousness of the scene.

Atop his horse the colour fades from Nyx's already pale skin; his calm is shattered by the wispy forms of the wraiths gathering and his fingers begin to twitch once more

21:25, Today: Nyx rolled 14 using 1d20+1.  Save vs Horror.

"What do we do ?" Polkitain says.

So far, it seems that Polkatain is the only PC to fail no Save vs. Horror Factor roll. None of the monsters are close enough to cause much trouble yet. He gets to act instantly to the situation whereas everyone else pauses for two or three seconds.

The three wraiths solidify somewhat as they float towards the PCs. They still appear whispy, just less so than a breath earlier.


The figure in the corner is still crawling out of its grave.

Pausing for a few seconds, "....well doesn't this fracking day just get better and better. OK Cyber Princess, you wanted it....now we got it."

He indicates with his sword where the tree is.

Ethan watches as the floating phantoms begin to take shape and slowly drift towards him and his companions. "Odd," he thinks to himself, "Any rational person should be having some kind of fear response to seeing skeletons dig their way out of the ground, not to mention a group of what look like Ring Wraiths straight out of The Trilogy. Yet here I stand, calmly analyzing it in a detached way. Does that mean I've finally gone insane or just gotten used to this place?"

Not knowing what to do against whatever it is they are faced with, Ethan activates his personal force field. "I sure hope one of you know how to fight those things," he says, unslinging his rifle and gesturing at the oncoming skeletons and wraiths with it.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Fri 25 Nov 2016.

Polkitain puffs up more flapping his wings and lets out a roar.

"We are not afraid of you tree !" Polkitain tried to focus the horrors on him and maybe even help his friends overcome any fears they might have.

Freed by Polktain's roar, Nyx snarled himself and - one after another - reloaded his precious Remingtons with the speed loaders marked as silver. Done, he raised them both at the crawling horror and loosed a shot from each

20:25, Today: Nyx rolled 23,14 using 1d20+4,1d20+4.  Paired Attack - Crawling Dead.
20:25, Today: Nyx rolled 13,9 using 3d6,3d6.  Damage .

Nyx
As soon as the root-zombie gets to its feet, it's met by the thunder of gunfire from Nyx' revolvers. The bullets hit the thing clear in its throat. Bone shatters and flesh tears, and the cadaver's head rolls off. The thing collapses to the ground, moving no more.

Ethan
A flash of bright light fills his vision. Ethan looks down to find himself unharmed and his personal force field still intact. The medic has been struck by an Energy Bolt, a weak spell which was incapable of penetrating his MDC protection.

Everyone
Meanwhile, the three Guardian Wraiths fly fearlessly towards the party. Their claws are stretched out to inhuman lengths. One wraith shouts, "Unwelcome!" in accented American.

Initiatives Please
These wraiths have no bonuses to initiative, so everyone here stands a good chance of landing a first strike before they scratch at you.

"Be careful those ghostlike things are entities, puppets of the tree. They can turn insubstantial. They turn physical to physically attack, you should wait for that. When insubstantial they can use psychic or magic powers."

"The tree is physical just invisible. Anyone have flame ?"

Polkitain will try to protect his friends parrying physical attacks and letting them strike with their Psi Swords and other weapons.

Pausing to grin at the corpses tumbling head, Nyx let the wraiths close too fast and his reaction became one of pure reflex - blasting shot after shot of silver rounds at the insubstantial forms, though he tried to pay attention to Polk's admonition about them becoming substantial to strike

10:36, Today: Nyx rolled 12 using 1d20+1.  Initiative.

10:37, Today: Nyx rolled 13,11 using 1d20+4,1d20+4.  Paired Attack - Closest Guardian Wraith.
10:38, Today: Nyx rolled 11,13 using 3d6,3d6.  Damage.

10:37, Today: Nyx rolled 24,23 using 1d20+4,1d20+4.  Paired Attack - Closest Guardian Wraith. => UM20, Critical
10:38, Today: Nyx rolled 8,11 using 3d6,3d6.  Damage. => 8x2

(Not taken the failed Horror Factor into account, so the attacks below may not count?)

10:37, Today: Nyx rolled 12,16 using 1d20+4,1d20+4.  Paired Attack - Closest Guardian Wraith.
10:38, Today: Nyx rolled 10,14 using 3d6,3d6.  Damage.

10:38, Today: Nyx rolled 20,16 using 1d20+4,1d20+4.  Paired Attack - Closest Guardian Wraith.
10:38, Today: Nyx rolled 10,14 using 3d6,3d6.  Damage.

This message was last edited by the player at 12:30, Mon 28 Nov 2016.

Doc, regaining his senses, draws his silver plated(and loaded) revolvers and opens fire at the closest wraith thing.


10:35, Today: Doc rolled 18 using 5d6.  dmg gun 2.
10:35, Today: Doc rolled 13 using 5d6.  dmg gun 1.
10:34, Today: Doc rolled 23 using 1d20+5.  shoot(both guns)revolvers, silver.

“Well that wasn’t terribly nice of them,” Ethan thought in the aftermath of the sudden burst of electricity that had struck against his personal shield. He had no idea where the bolt had come from but since he couldn’t see the invisible tree, that pretty much narrowed down his possible targets. He took a knee and brought up his laser rifle. He lined up his sights on the wraith closest to him. The field medic took a breath but didn’t squeeze the trigger. Instead he waited, as Polk had said, for some sign the things had become tangible.

Here are the initiative ranks that I have collected thus far...
16 wraith A
13 wraith B
12 Nyx
11  wraith C
6 soul tree

The first guardian wraith reaches Kalista and strikes at her armor with powerful claw swipe. It does not become fully opaque when it attacks.
18 to strike is the final total. Kalista may still attempt to dodge of course, but even if she takes the hit, she only loses 7 points of MDC from her body armor.

The second wraith to reach a target barrels directly into Arulas, claws first. It seems to grow even taller as it draws near to a target. 23 to strike is the final total. Damage is 6 MDC to his body armor if he decides to take it. I was going to make this a tackle/body block sort of attack, but that was getting too complicated, so it's just a boring old claw strike.

Nyx points his guns at the third wraith, but he is slow to react to the horror that he is facing down. We can apply those very good rolls you already made when his initiative comes back up again.

The third wraith draws close to Polkatain. What shape is Polk taking right now, anyway? That is going to determine the monster's action here.

After this, I'll give everyone else the benefit of the doubt and assume that their initiative rolls are better than that of the tree.

Doc draws a bead on the third wraith and opens fire with his paired revolvers. Two large silver slugs tear through the wraith's quasi-solid body. The wraiths visibly slows large portions of its body are torn away.

Ethan found a target in the sights of his laser rifle. The wraith attacking Arulas was the closest. It remains slightly transparent and floating, but it was apparently solid enough to rake the cyberknight with claws.

Samuel, Polkatain, and Arulas, do you have any actions to declare before the soul tree takes its action?
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:48, Thu 01 Dec 2016.

07:34, Today: Kalista rolled 28 using 1d20+11.  initiative.

It was not until she was actually struck that Kalista's fog was lifted. She had fought such monsters before, these would fall before her as well. She let her rifle fall into an under slung position, held to her by it's MD Leather strap, and produced her shield and sword or psionic energy. They snapped up and glowed a bright blue. She did not bother with her typical issue of challenge, she simply struck, with all her might.

The weapon actually appeared in her hand as she made the attack, almost simultaneously, which is one of her best tricks. Most psi-swords take a full minute to create, but hers can be called into being in a fraction of a moment, which catches almost every opponent off guard.

07:40, Today: Kalista rolled 26 using 6d6.  sword damage.
07:40, Today: Kalista rolled 6 using 1d6.  x10 str damage.
total damage would be 86
07:40, Today: Kalista rolled 11 using 1d20+9.  Sword strike.

Perhaps she is driven by anger, or more likely a sense of urgency, but either way her visage is grim as she strikes the semi-corporal creature with an equally semi-corporal weapon. "Back to your grave, monster!"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:44, Wed 30 Nov 2016.

OOC I have +9 when drawing and using my pistols... and I forgot to roll... so I beat the tree anyway :)


Doc fires again at the wraith, "Undead, psychics, magic... why can't everyone just be a man and use a gun... damn."

07:54, Today: Doc rolled 16 using 5d6.  gun 2.
07:54, Today: Doc rolled 13 using 5d6.  gun 1.
07:54, Today: Doc rolled 22 using 1d20+5.  shooting again at my wraith.

Polkitain is in his natural shape dragon.
He is going to claw and parry this round trying to defend his friends from getting hit.


07:24, Today: Polkitain rolled 5 using 1d20+4.  Initiative check.
07:26, Today: Polkitain rolled 6 using 1d20+3.  Strike.
07:27, Today: Polkitain rolled 4 using 3d6.  Claw Damage.
07:27, Today: Polkitain rolled 9 using 1d20+4.  Parry.

  Arulas slams the Psi-Sword into the Wraith as it nears. Not once or twice but over and over again. Pieces of the Wraiths fall off and fall to the ground in a shower of ectoplasm and wispy gore.

I got a 25, 7, 21, and a 16 on my four attacks. Off to roll damage. 2 Actions held in reserve.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:10, Wed 30 Nov 2016.