The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

[Shrike7]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

The Gemini let out a groan as she stepped through the portal, it's effects hitting her and making her slouch in the sand on the other end. "I don't think I like using that thing, it doesn't feel good." She complained in a nauseous tone one the two felines joined her, Verja earning a glare from the hulking woman from his apparent lack of Ill effects.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine

"Nonsense!" Verja said brightly while straightening his collar, "it's perfectly pleasant! I've done it dozens of times with no ill effects! You must just have week stomachs!" He glanced around at their surroundings and gave a thoughtful hum, but then glanced back at the massive dune behind them and gave a second hum. "It must be up this way! I set the coordinates to just outside the city!" he announced, and then started up the hill. Sure enough, when they followed they would find themselves looking over the short stone walls of a su-ku-ta city, its buildings shorter than those often found in a major city where space was often at a premium. Grey spires towered into the sky, seemingly made up of glistening flesh that was eerily similar to that of the invaders, but other than them there was not yet any sign of activity.

"So! Huldah!" Verja said allowed, standing on top of the sand dune in plain sight from the seemingly barren walls and speaking aloud without any apparent effort to control his volume, "do you feel anything? Anything at all?" The gemini didn't, or at least not anything out of the ordinary, and should she reveal that Verja would say; "Hrm... Well, that's a good sign, but we'll have to get closer!"

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Zahra glared at the old cat as well when he cheerfully announced that teleporting was actually no big deal, accusing the two of them of having weak stomachs. What an annoying guy he was... He took a moment to look around at the dunes they were surrounded by and indicated that they were facing the wrong way, the city was behind them over one of the massive dunes. He turned to walk up it, and the archer followed behind with only a minimum of grumbling. He turned out to be right, though of course it could always have been dumb luck; not far away was a relatively small-looking city, big enough to afford walls, but somewhat more spaced out than the average desert city. Zahra's fur stood on end a bit as she observed the towers that had sprung up in the doomed town, the glistening gray spires that looked almost like one of the invaders stretching up into the sky. What a creepy sight it was... It didn't help that Verja was just standing atop this huge dune, practically yelling at the two of them. Before Huldah could reply to him the catgirl would hiss "fucksake, geddown an' quiet!" Once he had indicated that they were going closer her tail would get just a hint bushy, and she would object "we're close'nuff awready. Summin spots us we're fucked!" This was much closer than she wanted to be to an alien city without any backup and, as far as she knew, only two combatants. Could he somehow teleport them back? That would be the only way any of this made sense, but then she didn't necessarily expect him to make sense by now.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

"Well if your portal didn't do it, maybe what I'm feeling is from them." Huldah commented, still swaying slightly as she climbed the dune to get closer to the old cat, though she crouched just before the crest of it thanks to Zahra's warning, peering at the distant city and the grey, fleshy spires jutting up within.

"We've snuck in and out of one just a little smaller than this, Zahra. No walls in that one, though. and we were both quiet..." She commented, giving a meaningful glance over to the older of the two felines.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine

"Oh don't be so dramatic!" Verja said with a frown when Zahra reprimanded him for being so obvious, though he would at least humor her by getting down behind the dune and lowering the volume of his voice. "We have to go inside, get close enough to one of the towers or one of the bigger aliens. Need to make sure you can't be mind controlled anymore!" he poked Huldah on the nose and then wiped off his finger on Zahra's sleeve.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

"It's diff'rent ta 'afta!" Zahra hissed, annoyed. Sure, she and Huldah had done crazier things than sneak into a town like this, but mostly because they had been desperate and needed to do that crazy thing. She barely flinched when the old cat wiped some of Huldah's aphrodisiac slime off onto the loose sleeve of her shirt, but what he said was really starting to grind on her. "Mind control ain't gonna matter if 'ey spot us an' blas' us!" she said, her tail still bushy behind her. "If we do 'is we gotta be quiet an' outta site. Ya ev'n gotta way out?"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

"Zahra has a point. Fighting our way in is a bad idea, we should come up with a plan." Huldah agreed, nodding. She let the other two work on it however, instead keeping an eye on the city itself, making sure nothing seemed to be coming their way.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine

"Of course!" Verja replied to Zahra's question cheerfully, "we'll teleport out.... Better keep away from those spellcasting ones though, they can block magic." Nothing seemed to be coming their way as yet, but as Huldah watched the wall she spotted movement, a hunter appearing from one of the tower doorways and wandering across the walkway.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

"They're patrolling, I think. Going to be hard to sneak in." Huldah said, pointing out the one on the tower for Zahra at least, she didn't know if their host could make it out that far.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Zahra peered into the distance as the crazy old magecat spoke, telling her that apparently they could teleport out just as they had teleported in. Was that why Sacrimony had stayed behind? Surely the mechanical dog couldn't run the machine though... She saw the hunter on the walls when Huldah pointed him out, and she frowned. "If we gotta sneak in we gotta watch. Be careful. Fin' a pattern 'ey come out by" she said, her tail swishing about nervously. "'ey prob'ly don't patrol alla time, we jus' gotta figure safe times." It was fairly standard procedure, at least on the raids she had done in the past. Stay alert, observe the pattern of the watch and guard, be prepared to strike when they were shorthanded or not watching...Though she didn't know how much time Verja wanted to allot to this particular mission.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine

"Ahhhh, fine, I suppose you two are the experts here," Verja said, and then settled in to let them watch, though not without fidgeting boredly and acting restless. The hunter would hover up on the wall, looking out across the desert for a few minutes, and then wandered off along the wall. Watching for an hour or so, they spotted only one other creature, one of the purple blobs of slime, which climbed over the edge of the wall and stuck to it for a few minutes before going back into the guard tower and not coming back out. The lack of regularity in the watch wasn't exactly surprising. The aliens rarely had much in the way of initial response to attacks upon their strongholds, the attack upon Verja's home having been the exception rather than the rule. It also made them unpredictable in their patrols, however, which could be very dangerous indeed.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

The crazy old mage was really starting to get on Zahra's nerves with his seeming impatience. It was like he couldn't sit still, could never sit still... She had more important things to worry about, though, so long as he didn't call attention to himself. That hunter that had come up on the walls looked outward for a while, watching but not discovering them apparently, and then walked away. The three of them (or, well, the two of them) watched for around an hour or so, and there was only one other creature that came to the walls, only staying for a handful of minutes. The patrols weren't regular and they weren't frequent, which was good and bad... It would have been nice if they worked on a schedule. "We jus' gotta go" she said after a while, "after a nex' patrol. Gotta go quick an' quiet." It wouldn't pay to sit around too much longer, though it didn't seem likely that there would be two patrols right in a row given how lax the aliens were being.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

"Yeah." Huldah said softly, settled into a nook she had made in the dune while they waited. Sand clung to her everywhere it touched, but she didn't seem to mind, used to the sensation for as long as she could remember. Once the next wandering 'patrol' had left, she got up, making sure the others were following as she made her way towards the town.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine

Verja silently rolled onto his front and waited after Zahra's announcement, his eagerness to get on with things readily apparent. They had to wait nearly half an hour for the next "patrol" to pass by the stretch of wall they were looking at, and when the slime had oozed away they hurried up to the wall. Verja waved his hand and created a lifting elevator of sand that bore them up to the top of the wall, and hopped over it quickly before ducking into cover and peering over the side. A single large tower of gray flesh shot up into the sky in the center of the deserted city, and otherwise there was little sign of the enemy besides what they'd already seen.

"Hrm... We'll have to get closer," Verja mused quietly, his tail swishing back and forth as he peered towards the tower. Many streets led towards it, some small and winding and some wide and straight, but the many buildings left ruined and crumbling by the assault that had wiped out its inhabitants had left a lot of cover for them to hide behind along the way. First, however, they had to figure out if they wanted to chance another use of Verja's magic or find some other way down to the ground.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

It was a relatively long time before the next patrol came by, perhaps half an hour or maybe a little more, but Zahra waited patiently, her eyes fixed on the enemy city while her ears remained perked and ready. She had long since gotten used to long periods of dullness, nothing that much bothered her anymore, and this was no time for impatience. When that next slime had made its way off the wall once more the group of three hurried quietly to it, crossing the open distance seemingly without drawing any attention, and once they were close enough to reach out and touch it the old cat used a bit of his magic, causing the sand beneath them to pack together and lift them up and onto it. Zahra scrambled behind a battlement, looking around nervously as her eyes darted from one end of the wall to the other, taking in the space in front of them in the city as well. That blasted tower... Verja wanted to get still closer to it. The archer shot him a look, but whispered "anytin' quiet ya'can do ta gettus down?" His previous magical trick wouldn't work in the opposite direction, and she didn't want to draw attention to them. If he didn't think he had a spell that would get them down without trouble, though, she would suggest the guardtower nearby. If the aliens were this lax in patrolling the walls, maybe they were also lax in staffing the tower, which would have a street-level exit for sure...

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Fine

Rolls

Spoiler

Perception: Zahra fails, Huldah succeeds..... Mostly :3

"Quiet? No," Verja replied, "it'd be pretty obvious I'm afraid... We'd be better off doing things the old fashioned way." With that said, he and Huldah would follow Zahra into the tower, heading down the spiraling stairs towards the ground floor.

The trio arrived at the bottom of the stairs and stepped out into the street, the ruins of the city splayed out before them, but as they did Huldah would spot something. With Verja seemingly oblivious, the gemini would spot the telltale shimmer of no less than three hunters vanishing into camouflage in various points around the street, something that Zahra would miss entirely. Two were off to the left, some thirty or forty feet from the doorway they had just come through on the other side of a main street coming from the gate, and the third was off on the right only twenty or so feet away, crouched beside a trash pile.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

"Hunters. I saw three, there and there." The gemini said quickly, pointing out where she had seen them, and gripping her club tightly. Soon as she saw that Zahra understood, she ran for where she had seen the pair of hunters, swinging wildly while she tried to spot them again.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

As far as Zahra knew the three of them had managed to get to the bottom of the stairs undetected, though apparently that wasn't the case. Huldah saw them before the catgirl did, apparently some of the lizardlike creatures the aliens employed, and of course by the time Zahra was alert to their danger they had cloaked themselves in invisibility. She gripped her bow, pulling an arrow quickly from the quiver, though she wasn't really prepared for the gemini's response... which was to run across the street swinging her club at the air. She did this sometimes. Sometimes it caused problems. The archer cursed under her breath as she notched her arrow, peering in the direction Huldah had pointed out, and then mumbled at Verja "ya better gotta plan'ta git us outta 'ere quick."

Spoiler

Ready an action to shoot the first hostile she sees. Of course I'm writing this from a place where I don't have internet access, so I can't look up my sheet right now to give you the numbers. :<

 

[Tassadar]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Spoiler

Zahra: HP = 60, PP = 44, EP = 41, Status = Fine, Grappled

Huldah: HP = 72, PP = 40, EP = 40, Status = Injured

Rolls

Spoiler

Attack: Hit.
Damage: 6 + 2 + 48 - 10 = 46 damage. Huldah does not quite kill a guy.

Perception (Zahra) : Failure.

A hunter that Huldah is aware of responds by trying to claw her face off.
Attack: Hit.
Damage: 8 + 1 + 23 - 6 = 26 damage.

The hunter she injured tries to flee.
Perception: Failure, Huldah no longer detects it.

A hunter that Zahra cannot detect tries to grapple her.
Attack: Automatic hit. Yon kitty is grappled.

Verjah casts a spell.
Casting: Success.

"Me!? This whole... Violence thing is your forte, not mine!" Verja said, and then snapped his fingers and simply... Vanished. Whatever curses Zahra might have for the old cat, she would have to mutter while frantically trying to see the hunters that Huldah was chasing, and the gemini would manage to clip at least one of them with her wildly flailing club. A low crunch sounded and the beast briefly became visible as it stumbled away, one overly long arm hanging limply as it hissed in pain.

Another quickly clawed at her, however, and the gemini's blood was spilled as the flesh of her belly was rent open. It was little more than a flesh wound, but the injured alien recloaked before Zahra could take her shot, and she lost track of it while the partially visible alien that had struck her began to circle as if to get behind her. Zahra, in the meantime, had her own problem as one of the creatures that she couldn't perceive snuck up on her and lunged just a moment too late for her to react. She was grabbed and slammed against the wall, her bow and the arrow she'd knocked dropping to the ground as she was pinned there, a leering alien visage momentarily appearing in front of her even as it remained largely camouflaged while manhandling the former slave, albeit not enough to hide its silhouette entirely.

 

[Tiffanian]

Re: The Workings of the Mad (Tiffanian and Shrike)

Zahra cursed indeed when that damned mage just snapped his fingers and disappeared, obviously missing the point of what she had said. She wasn't thinking about the fight, she was thinking about the exit strategy. Now that they had been spotted and were engaged, they needed to get out quickly before anything more dangerous than these hunters showed up. Not that they weren't plenty dangerous, of course. Huldah managed to smash one of them with her club, and it became visible for the catgirl... but she didn't have enough time to get a good aim on the creature before it disappeared again, and another slashed her friend in the stomach. She peered at the scene, trying to get a glimpse of one of the things, but of course she didn't notice the one that was sneaking up behind her. She found herself suddenly grabbed, a strong claw slapping the bow from her hands, and then it slammed her hard against the wall of a nearby building. She let out a grunt of pain, glaring at the creature as it chose to allow its face to appear, and quickly began to try and slip its grasp. This was the first time she had been in such a bad position in a long time, and she was really starting to curse Verja mentally for continuing this inane and dangerous experiment of his.

Spoiler

Grapple escape attempt: 1d20 + (48 + 3)