Well, getting near or inside the snake's mouth is kind of key to the 'grand' strategy. Out of character, it may appear a foolhardy undertaking, but Adrian is Overconfident. He is also Heroic and needs to save the Priest. He is also Vengeful and wants to kill the snake for its role in local calamities. And he's Loyal and will look out for Lazarus, who earned his friendship and respect by being the only one who entered into this dangerous but necessary enterprise willingly and without the need for any kind of coercion or guilt tripping. He won't put him into grave danger unless it's absolutely necessary, and nothing he wouldn't do himself.

Anyhow, I am home from work and am preparing to figure out how to get this snake. My posts are written, just waiting on a couple of questions below before I pull the metaphorical trigger.

From what I have looked at, the venom glands are near the side of the mouth. After several google image searches (that have rather creeped me the hell out), I think it might be possible to pierce the skin and rupture both the skin and the venom gland, poisoning the snake in one go and envenoming the weapon at the same time for further strikes. Of course, this is a tough snake, and chips.

Since distance is a bit of a question, I want to know if when he's leaning down to talk to the priest, Adrian might have access to make an attack at its head.

Out of curiosity, what would be the penalty for Lazarus to hit the blue thing (what does it look like?) between the serpent's horns?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:54, Tue 05 May 2015.

How far away is William from Adrian, by the way? I was originally under the impression that the detour would be just that and not a completely either/or fork in the road...

I think Pierce and Evans were heading for the poor girl being attacked by vampires...not sure how close that is to all this.

Oh, no, it's as sensible as any plan involving charging a giant snake monster...comparatively speaking, Omitetlcoatl hasn't done that much yet, though, just generally helped with Tez's plans, and did actually save at least Percy and Lazarus' lives when cleansing the house and sending away the cattle. Worth mentioning.

Yeah, a wounding stab in the outer edge of the soft palate would do the trick...you wouldn't have to deal with his Natural Armour there, either.

I reckon Adrian can sprint it from where he is now (still with the Drop, mind) within the round...jumping into Om's mouth whilst he's about to crack the priest's ribcage with his teeth would be Agility -3 and we'd be in Combat thereafter, or trying to stab them from the outside would be Fighting -6 (-4 'headshot' for aiming at something human-head-sized, -2 for working on memory).

Remember Om's big enough to be +2 to hit in general, too. Lazarus can reach out and touch the greenish flame over the serpent's forehead if he likes, it's just halo...might get him slightly high, I'm not sure.

The blue point nearby from earlier has become a blue line, being as it is a nascent portal (requiring a life taken in great pain to fully open, as Widow Bradshaw theorised)...Harry could probably reach it at a running jump, but until it's opened there's nothing to interact with.

@William: To put it simply, there's a hill, they're out of sight on top, you're five minutes' jog away from the bottom. It would have been less of a split had tactics been otherwise, but fear not! I'm sure you'll get your shot at something scaly soon enough, and probably not under a vow not to harm you/otherwise shackled as Omitetloatl is. If Evans is still away sick on Wednesday night I'll post for him.

?huh¿

Mayhaps the GM is referring to that Villainous Verbosity card.

In reply to Alouette (msg # 416):

Like his player, Adrian has clearly mixed up his serpentine villains with -coatl suffixes, so he is attributing the sins of the Tezcatl to Omitetl and believes that to be the case.

Alright, I think I have a plan. Stall a little with Harry to buy some time (and for fun), and then have Adrian make his move.

In reply to Charging Bear (msg # 417):

Now you just need a bow like Thusla Doom...

@Adrian - I was starting to wonder. The -coatl ("serpent") is something of a surname for the Brood, since they identify to each other by heat signature and word-names are pretty much just for human benefit, so they pick out a trait as identifier like a lot of native names e.g. Tezcatlcoatl = Mirror Serpent (associates/shares traits with with Smoking Mirror), Omitetlcoatl = Bone Serpent (natural necromancer) etc. You would surely know if Tez had arisen, though: that 'serpent as big as a hill' the cultist on Sarah's thread was speaking of has some Plans for the area.

I'd just handwave it/use of the card as Adrian consequently having it out for all snake-kin. My intent was just to point out that as ambitious priest-killing serpentine abominations go, Om is pretty personable and can be reasoned/bargained with.

He can probably guess what's in Harry's pocketses, though, so don't wager too high stakes on that...

I suppose he could bargain with Omi, but I don't know that he thinks it would be great to bargain with such an abomination. I know, that's quite rich coming from a Huckster, but he mostly takes from the manitous he deals with and there isn't much give in return. Cutting deals where they get something...from what he can tell that's what started this mess in the first place.

That and both he and I momentarily got our snakes crossed.



You know I was going to go for that eventually... With the Lazarus-as-hobbit reference I couldn't help myself.

That is all quite true, but the option's there, and since Harry's drawn him into a bit of sport anyway, there's potential for a win/loss wager along those lines.

Heh.

ecksdee...Adrian should probably hurry along a bit, though, 'cause whilst Omi is pretty distracted now, the scaly necromantic goof doesn't want to miss his ritual's window of efficacy.

Well ... yeah the dice roller hates me

Alright, I'll go ahead and have Adrian

In reply to Charging Bear (msg # 423):

It's because CB isn't being active for the dice roller to hate on...still, it might be worth holding back a white for use after a coloured chip in future, as that's often the roll that makes it.

eep...

In reply to Alouette (msg # 425):

Jakes got 4 more white chips just seemed silly to burn 5 chips

I'm having internet issues and have a nasty suspicion that this lovely headache/nausea combination I've got going is mostly likely a baby migraine since it's not responding to drugs and hydration, and indeed is getting rapidly worse...hopefully that's everyone unstuck now; I am going to tie a scarf over my eyes, lie on the floor and wish I was a rock for the rest of the evening. ta-ta!

I'm heading out for a week long vacation tonight so my posting will be limited, if any, until I get back. Feel free to puppet CB/Jake as needed.

In reply to Alouette (msg # 427):

Hope you feel better!

Aye - my migraines tend to last about 7-10 hours all told, and after a couple of hours I managed to fall asleep somehow. Has Lazarus got a dashing plan?

edit: he has!

The priest is indeed a Blessed, but I'm not sure what you mean and/or am being dense - are you looking for a Hunch on the bone restraints there?
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:09, Thu 07 May 2015.

Yeah, I'm looking for a Hunch on the bone restraints.

The question about the Priest is completely separate. Basically: Shouldn't he be on the initiative list?

He's not going to be running up and stabbing things till he's freed, but he could offer some helpful Jesus-Magic to help slay dragons.

I considered it, but I wasn't really sure what he could do from there...well, he can tell you a few things, I suppose, but he has to know people are there to boost them with plus Jesus...hmm. All right.

Hunch coming up.

A random RPOL question for anyone inclined to answer:

Below the text editing box in which we compose messages and posts there is a separate section labeled "Private to:" that features a series of checkboxes, allowing you to turn your post into a Private Message to send to a specific character....or one of dozens of NPCs. When you use this by checking a box, it (a) doesn't actually post to the thread (b) creates a private message and sends it to whoever you checked.

Does anyone ever intentionally use this?

I've used it several times on accident (to the chagrin of myself and others) but have never done it with anything resembling volition.

I'm also curious to hear if that is of any use to anyone ever - certainly I've never done it on purpose.

Nor I. At least, not that I can recall.

So, you guys remember the last thing that was needed to complete the ritual was a painful death...?

I do not actually remember that.