"Well, shit," Ajakstu exclaims. "Rake, away!"

Hoping that his companion heeds his command, Ajakstu closes his eyes tightly and tosses a flash bang left and right.

"Cover and close!" he yells as he curls into a ball with his hands over his ears.

OOC: No particular target, do I need to roll? Just tossing one on either direction in an attempt to continue the surprise/chaos/wonderful life we live.

Alyn wasn't expecting this. These owls were somehow manipulating the environment, but it wasn't psionics like what Alyn used, or "normal psychic powers" otherwise. Maybe he'd have to ask them more about what the Glistening was, although now was not the time.

Alyn closed his eyes and tried to gather his power - thankfully at the right time so as to not get blinded by Ajakstu's flash grenades, and decided to try something. This was risky, since he was still feeling a bit of the tail-end of that temporal feedback from earlier. But screw it. Because if this worked...it would be epic! If it failed...who knows.

22:18, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,1.  Weird/Scary.

So Alyn was trying to open a small portal near where his Mind Moths were, and he was going to psychically guide them in and warp them onto the battlefield to have a bandit buffet. But as you see he had the -1 penalty applied from before to his weird roll so what could have been a partial success actually failed.

But on the plus side...I get xp and the enjoyment of seeing what the GM cools up.

The Duke groans as he was now quite hurt from this landing. He starts to gather himself and crawling back onto his feet ignoring the fact he might crush one or tow of the raiders. There was a more pressing matter after all. Did the cooler survive the fall? And so the Duke starts to check the most important item of the group as his companions starts to lob flashbangs.

"Well, shit," Pesky says, echoing Ajak.  This is certainly not how this is supposed to go down.

He marvels for just a second at the feathers that appear, lowering them to the floor of the cavern, then snaps back.  "Well, shit," he repeats, jumping off of the feathered carrier as it nears the bottom.

Pesky dashes behind a huge rock, readying his rifle in one practiced motion.  Having seen Ajak toss multiple grenades, he hugs his back tightly to the stone, closes his eyes, and waits for the explosions.

Once the grenades go off, he dares a look around the corner, taking a quick assessment of the battlefield.

A portal opens up, and something comes out.

FWUMPH. The rush of air blows the feathers higher for a moment.

A large robot (about the size of The Duke) stands before you.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/image...624x351/p08wt3p7.jpg

Apparently Alyn has accidentally teleported in something from the storage facility upstairs. "SECURITY DETAIL 430404 ACTIVATED." Its head turns left and right briefly. "SECURITY COMPROMISED."

It attacks the nearest targets... Which is Alyn's group of adventurers.

The robot's razor-claw pops forward to snap at Alyn... or rather, Alyn's forcefield, which it bounces off.

The forcefield short-circuits, though. Oops. So long for now, protective field. Maybe you can be repaired later, with tools...

Meanwhile, The Duke finds the cooler. It's okay! Yay!

Meanwhile, the raiders look around and see... targets! A big robot and some humans! Yay! They rush forward, as the feathers slowly start to fall back down, barely beginning to obscure vision... Right now it's like being on a battlefield in a light-to-medium snowstorm, but visibility will become downright poor again soon...

Meanwhile, Ajakstu's flash-bangs go off.

The raiders curse and grunt and growl as they stagger around, trying to regain their senses...

The Duke sighs in relief as he safely puts the cooler back where it belongs and then there are all those feathers a robot and raiders trying to attack his friends. He bellows in anger and then the world goes white and his ears start to ring. The Duke gets angry and FOERS helps his friend to mark out all enemies even though the Duke is blinded the enemies are outlined in a nice red halo on his retina. The nearest raider finds himself launched at the robot and a second later the next follows and then the Duke is a whirlwind of death.

ooc Atrocity 11!!

10-12: Strong Atrocity: Charge any one strong opponent, or group of weak opponents, and destroy them. You don't even need to use any weapons (though you may). If your next move is an assault or atrocity, take +2 forward.

The Duke will attack anything that is not marked as friendly by FOERS so all  neutral parties are in danger.

Ajakstu moved to the nearest downed/dead raider and rifled him for whatever implement of destruction could be

18:40, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,3.  Find a weapon. Either insightful or Luck, bonus is the same

"Um...crap! That wasn't what I was hoping would happen!" Alyn exlaimed, followed by a surprised "yip" as his forcefield from his armor made an unnerving sizzling sound before the blue glow of the lines in his armor faded. The fucking robot shorted out his damned shield! Well, it had been sometime since it got maintained but...dang it!

He'd have to worry about that later. He had more pressing things to deal with. Especially since that little mishap with the robot seemed to help get the backlashed power "out of his system" suddenly. Almost like a nice fart or a long burp clearing the figurative pipes. But Alyn could suddenly FEEL the flow of power and energy in the world all at once for a moment in the area, and this time...he would unleash the hord!

"Well um...sorry guys! Try and stall the big robot thing for now. I'm summoning reinforcements. For real, this time!" he said as he suddenly sent a mental signal to his Mind Moths.

Oh Mothy-poos! It's dinner time! Courtesy of me. Leave my people and the owls alone, and stay away from the Duke and his rampage and the giant robot. But the bandits are yours to dine on as you please. Now come to daddy! his thoughts radiated to them as suddenly a small, but much more stable portal opened up between where the moths were and their current location so the moths could fly through and feast!

"Yo owls? And the rest of you...ignore the moths, please. Dukie? I think that giant robot might have parts we can use to modify our fridge but I'm sure...you may wanna check it out. In any way possible. As hands-on as possible."

23:34, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 10 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,5.  Weird.

Well if this failed again it would have been aweful! But I rolled a 10 this time. So let the feasting begin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6VLUeRBfig

Taking a look around the corner, Pesky is more confused than anything else.
Raiders flailing, blinded by the flashbangs, feathers everywhere and... Where did a fucking robot come from?

A portal opens, moths flying out of by the hundreds, maybe thousands, slowly obscuring his field of view even more.
He aims down sight, marking one of the blinded raiders as his target.  Without pause, he fires.

OOC: 11:46, Today: Pesky rolled 12 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,4.  Shooting raider through feathers and moths.

He looks for another quickly, eyeing the one nearest Alyn.  Using his mental link, he simply says "Duck. Now.".
He gives Alyn a second to react and fires again.

OOC: 11:49, Today: Pesky rolled 13 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,5.  Shoot raider nearest Alyn.

OOC: GM - Took two shots because my first roll rocked.  If that's not OK, please let me know and I can edit the post.

Suddenly, everything goes great.

The Duke launches himself at the big robot, using nearby blinded/deafened Raiders as weapons-- clubs, thrown missiles, etc. Whenever he tears off a jagged piece of armor or a piece of robot limb throwing sparks, he throws it at a Raider (or otherwise makes sure it falls on one of them).

Soon half the Raiders are down. There's still two stumbling (and blinking) near Alyn, though-- but not for long, as Pesky puts them down.

Then the mind-moths rush in and cover the heads of the remaining Raiders, who shout and whimper and fall to the ground.

This is bad food, complain the moths, but we will help you. You must repay us by keeping us safe from these birds. They are frightening. Well, they are moths, after all.

By the time the feathers have completely settled to the ground again, the violence is over.

The only thing that's unsatisfactory is when Ajakstu rushes to grab the weapon of the nearest raider and it's... a big board with nails driven through it all around on one end. Oh well, at least nothing bad happened. And it is weighted for Ajakstu so that it's easy to swing... A trophy of battle!

N'tk flutters down. "Thank yoouu foor helping toooo give the green ones what they wanted. They wanted vioolence and fear and terrible things. At least they died getting what they sooo craved. Doooo these... delicioous-loooooking moths serve yoooouu...?"

Alyn sent a mental message to the moths.

Ugh you guys are sooo bougie! You said you wanted to feed off of intelligent life, so I gave you a buffet. Sorry if it's Mcdonald's though and not Red Lobster. And yes, I'll protect you from the owls.

He turned and looked at the Owls, and spoke aloud.

"Yes owls, these moths are my mine so please know they are NOT on the menu for you today. If any of you eat them, then I'll eat you. Or feed you to Duke." Alyn said firmly as he looked at his moths a sec before turning back to the owls.

"Which would be really dumb, since I came down here to save you from slavery after all. And you guys are growing on me just like the moths are. I guess I have a thing for cute, winged predators. By the way...ta-da! You're free! Even if this is absolutely the weirdest, most surreal slave operation I've ever seen. But hey I'm going with it. Welcome to freedom, baby!"

"If the moths serve yoouu, we will not consuume them. What dooo yoouu need nooow toooo continuuue yoouur quest?"

"Thank you, owls. Both you and the moths are cute and I appreciate you not making me have to choose between you." he said cordially.

Alyn considered.

"Actually...I was wondering if you could tell me if there was any other intelligences down here besides you owls, my party, and my moths, and whatever remains of the bandits." Alyn said.

"I sensed a much more potent intelligence down here earlier. Something possibly even on my level or at least strong enough to pose a threat to even me and the Duke if we let our guard down. I also sensed it communicating with some other strong intelligence to the East of us, toward the mountains. And I highly suspect this communication at least has something tangentially to do with us and I need to know if these intelligences are friends, foes, or neutral. I've hesitated to reach out to them myself without first exploring this facility, since right now I'm blocking myself off so they cannot track me fully. But I'm fully aware that THEY are at least somewhat aware of us." he asked.

"I also could use repairs for my forcefield suit. If that's not something you can handle I will go ask the robots back in the base on our way back out."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:38, Fri 14 July 2023.

Once all the violence and slaughter is done and FOERS seems to negate the moths and owls as enemies the Duke slumps down on a pile of bodies and exclaims.

"I am hurt."

"Heal The Duke and point me towards the nearest pile of gems or objets d'art or such and I will be satisfied," Ajakstu says as he takes a few swings with his new weapon.

(Oooh. Roll Charming, Ajakstu.)

15:49, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 6 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,1.  Charming  . Unless the +1 carry over from Weirdness Magnet applies, in which case it is a 7. Whichever. The world is full of opportunities.

(I say this is Partial Success (so no new xp), but after this that +1 forward is gone.)

"Lun the Glistening dooes noot heal, as suuch, but we can help." N'tk hoots, and the other owls hooooot, and... something is teleported in front of The Duke. It's a medkit, probably from upstairs. Just press to bare flesh, and let a limited one-shot of healing begin.

(The Duke regains 1 health level.)

"As foor gemstoones, we..." N'tk glances at Alyn. "...Are yoouu suuure that that is what woouuld moost help yoouu noow...?"

"As a certain duck once said, consequences, shmonsequences, who cares as long as I'm rich," Ajakstu said with a strong, definitive, affirmative nod.

Alyn shook his head.

"I don't need gemstones. That's just Ajak being his usual opportunistic self. But I'm curious...do you believe something more than learning about the intelligences and maybe fixing my forcefield can help me now?" Alyn asked, a curious brow raised on one side of his face.

"I'm open to suggestions if you have something in mind."

The Duke nursing the remaining bruises after the medkit application mutters.

"I want a power armor! These things keep hurting me all the time!!"

A little frustrated with the selfish, petty requests, Pesky speaks.  More to the group than to N'tk.

"What about the Cloister?  Isn't that on the priority list somewhere?"

"We can give yoouu some infoormation aboouut the Clooister, if that is what is impoortant tooo yoouu... but it seems... yoouu may need toooo confer amongst yoouurselves foor a shoort time? Tooo come tooo agreement aboouut yoouur prioorities...?"

Alyn sighed and considered.

"Alright N'Tk, I'll say this then. If you're giving each of us a boon or something, then that's one thing. But if you're offering only 1 thing, then yes we'll take the information about the Cloisture instead." Alyn said.

"We may have misunderstood what was happening so I want to say that as clarification."

"And do that slip and slide thing again to put us at the gate of the Cloister," Ajakstu added in a stage whisper.