"Wait... I sense something."
Lisa forms her Astral Suit and draws her Greatsword. She prays to whatever Gods will listen to give her luck.[swift+move+move=full turn](archaeologist's luck activated, GS and Armor spikes on)
AC=18
Armor Check Penalty=-4
"Holy, mother of percoset! What did you just do Miss Lisa? Where did all that stuff come from, and why, um, why, um...wow, you are hot in that get up."
Lisa turns to Vanna. "Can I kick him now? Please?"
Addressing the group, "There's something above this building! I don't know what it is!"
Looking at the ceiling. "Just ignore him! Let's get outside." Vanna rushes outside while casting a spell to fortify her body.
Lisa starts for the bar's door.
When I am allowed to ACT, I will follow Miss Lisa, but I want to keep an eye on the little Gnome woman, and the Professor
To the bartender, "Yes, quite. One would imagine such a sophisticated device not to be something one would let out of their sight... I say, where is everyone rushing off to in such a state? Is the name familiar to you all?"
The professor grips his cane with both hands, following the crowd towards the door.
"Oh my..."
Elai heads outside with the others. If nothing is happening already when she gets outside she'll start establishing mindlinks with the other characters. in case they get separated.
"W-w-ait! What about me?!" Celes exclaims as everyone heads outside. She had nothing to offer to turn it off...but the sudden panic was enough for her to follow suit...although cautiously. She steps outside with the others.
Before Figit can reply to Lisa's plea, she transforms her armor and runs out the door. Seeing the Professor getting his cane ready, Figit swings her pack back on, draws her bow, cocks an arrow and starts to follow the group.
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You step outside and see two things. The first thing you see is a young pale skinned women in a black cloak running toward you.
What the frack? Who turned off the frackin' psion transmission jammer?? You allowed the Leather Goddesses to warp right in over Magnimar!. You safely assume this is Iridia.
After any words you exchange with Iridia you see the second thing, which is much more disturbing (). You turn around to see...
"Wait, Leather Goddesses? Does the Round Buckler have a special tonight or something? Figit asks incredibly confused.
"'ere ma'm, Put yer 'and on me shoulder 'n' I'll walk yer out ta where ever'one is." The small boy offers that least odd of the odd women.
You step outside and see two things. The first thing you see is a young pale skinned women in a black cloak running toward you.
What the frack? Who turned off the frackin' psion transmission jammer?? You allowed the Leather Goddesses to warp right in over Magnimar!. You safely assume this is Iridia.
After any words you exchange with Iridia you see the second thing, which is much more disturbing (). You turn around to see...
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...a massive floating platform-like space ship the size of a football stadium. Below it dangle myriad appendages like mechanical tentacles, which presently rip the roof clean off the Round Buckles.
The platform is covered completely by a glass bubble-dome. Under this dome, women sit pushing buttons on consoles and pulling levers on machinery and running around. On a catwalk above these women stands a thin blonde beauty dressed like Mrs. Jetson. Her arms are crossed as she supervises this "harvest."
Oh gadz! exclaims Iridia It's Arael Stardust herself...
The dangling tentacles begin reaching down and snatching up innocent Golarians from the Round Buckles, abducting them back up into the belly of the ship. People are screaming.
"What?! What could Lashunta possibly want with innocent Golarians?!" Lisa exclaims, half-questioning and half-utterly terrified. What was going on?! What had she done?!
The professor fumbles with his clattering pack as he watches the scene unfold. "Well! That's certainly... unexpected! And of all the days not to have properly prepared for an emergency... you there! Iridia was it? You seem to have some handle on what that... conveyance is all about. Exactly what purpose do those women have with these people... and do you suppose they'll take their time about it long enough for me to mix a few things together to help with a possible rescue?"
"What is that!" As she goes outside and turns around. Then it rips the roof off and starts grabbing people. "Wha.. How dare they! They need to be stopped!" Vanna shouts angrily. She spreads her arms and makes a large circular motion with them. Her eyes and hair gaining an orange glow and a flame conjures in her hands.
"WOAH. THAT'S HUGE!" The logistics of interplanetary travel of such a craft fills Figit's mind. These thoughts were whipped from her mind as the dingy bar's roof was ripped off. Anger filled her mind as her fabled aliens started to abduct people. While most of the people in the Rusted Buckles looked a bit shifty, they certainly didn't deserve this. However, she realized that attacking a giant floating vehicle capable of withstanding the vacuum of space without a plan would not be wise. "Everyone, lets get away and figure out how to hurt this thing."
"I don't think it has seen us yet. Start giving me ideas." Glaring at the craft the whole time while it does it's work. Looking for unarmored parts or something I might consider a weak point.
"It's a bit high up to see much from down here unassisted I'd wager," says the professor, withdrawing a spyglass for a better look while still trying to find a secure place to mix his reagents.
I look around for anything that could help us take the monstrosity down.
"Oh by Pharasma...," Celes exclaims as the display erupts before her. The sight of the animosity begins to take it's toll on her, and as stress builds up, she begins screaming in an foreign tongue.
(Assuming no one understands her, if they do i'll submit another rendition) She looks at the others a moment, trying to make out there words but doesn't quite grasp the language of common. She, instead, runs back into the building, in an effort to go find her belongings.
"We have to run, we can't fight that thing..." Elai looks panicked.
Professor Addermire doesn't put his spyglass down just yet, but does holler back to Celes-
Sure there are sights, uptown, bring people in from all over the world. You got the fountains, the Carfleigh Bridge, the Biss Tower, marvels of modern engineering, subtle and evocative architecture, yeah some Jacks go for that kind of thing. Then there’s always the beaches, the sunsets, the natural world can put on a show that’ll take your breath away, make your gal swoon, yeah you can always say that’s something to see.
But Jack, let me tell you this, you ain’t never seen nothing till you seen a whole city block floating over your head with arms ripping roofs off of buildings, that’s something you, or anybody, don’t see every day. And it was a thing I would be happy to not see ever again.
My gut told me to run, but I had a hunch I wasn’t going to outrun this thing, and then there were the dames.
Five of ‘em. That’s exactly five more dames than a guy like me can handle on a good day when the world isn’t coming to an end. But these dames were special. You couldn’t help but know it. These dizzy broads went in to action like a well oiled machine.
One thing was sure. They didn’t need me.
Over the screams and the cacophony of noise coming from the combination of the machine over our heads and the building coming down as the machine tore into it, I heard Vanna, the cool blond with the fire in her eyes, say
"I don't think it has seen us yet. Start giving me ideas."
Ideas? Yeah, I had ideas, get out of sight.
”Vanna,” I tried to get the doll's attention, while I looked around trying to keep track of everyone else, ”Can you do anything to protect somebody from fire? Pretty sure you can torch up the building, right. See, there’s got to be enough juice in this joint to light up the sky, and maybe that’s just the distraction we need, but I don’t see Celes, or Figit, and oh yeah, that Jack who passes himself off as a kid, don’t let him fool you. Guys got a rap sheet longer than my, well, it’s long. If you can set the building on fire, and protect someone from the flames, see about getting ready to do that.”
Now it ain’t like me to get the shakes, but suddenly I was worried about the halfdoll. Her quick thinking and sweet smile were stuck in my brain. I was falling for her, hard, like a fool.
I look around for Figit, my heart racing for some reason
”Hey! Short and Sweet, Figit, right. Can you and the Professor get close to that dizzy dame that showed up shouting something about that transmorgifier thingy, and see what she knows. Here, take this whistle.”
I would like her to take my Masterwork Signal Whistle, but if she doesn’t that’s okay with me. If she accepts the whistle…
”Keep it handy. I’m going back in the building to make sure Celes and the others are out and safe, when you see everyone is out of the building, give it a good hard blow.”
”Vanna! Give me ten seconds, alright, I’m going back to make sure the place is empty. When Figit gives the signal, light it up and let’s see if these sky people can handle a 190 proof cocktale.”
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Grey
Scientist Lisa
Vanna
Celes
Professor Quinto
Figit
Victor
Elai
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... you there! Iridia was it? You seem to have some handle on what that... conveyance is all about. Exactly what purpose do those women have with these people... and do you suppose they'll take their time about it long enough for me to mix a few things together to help with a possible rescue?"
Iridia: It's an Aballonian meat harvester. A most vile invention. But there is not time to explain just now. You must do something or these people will face a fate worse than death - on the experimentation tables of the LGOC: the Leather Godesses of Castrovel.
"Celes! Are you alright? Say Something, Doll!"
Figit accepts Victor's whistle, some what suprised at his courageous action. Just before he goes into the bar, she yells "Good luck, Tall Man!" While keeping an eye out for people leaving the building, Figit tries to calculate the amount of force an explosion Vanna could cause based on Victor's plan and if it would actually hurt the HUGE abduction machine.
As Victor speaks to her"I can only protect myself with fire, it would more than likely just burn any body else." Then he asks her to set the house on fire."There are still people in there!" He goes running inside. Vanna waits impatiently for Figit's whistle, not sure how else to take on this monster.
"Ma'm? I don't know about you, but now is about the time I start running & hiding..." the boy whispers as the enormous magical vessel continues to deal mercilessly with the others.
"Well, I didn't expect Victor of all people to have the guts," Lisa says, somewhat bemused despite the situation. But how could she help? Maybe if she contacted the people within the ship?
"Maybe we should just try and get their attention? Give the people inside time to escape?"
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LGOC Mind-talk: "Why are you taking innocent beings?"
On the catwalk, Arael Stardust looks around for who is mind-talking. Several of the other Lashunta's under the dome exchange glances.
Then Lisa gets a message back.
When you look at the dome again you see Arael Stardust staring directly at Lisa.
But the tentacles continue to abduct Golarionites.
Realizing that any fire Vanna could make would do nothing against the machine, Figit turns to her and states "Unless you can make a blast as hot as the sun, it won't do any good against that thing." Figit then asks the group "Has someone seen any weak points on this monstrosity?" Hopefully Victor is doing alright...
"Any ideas would be useful right now, what do you want me to do?"
Elai steps up beside Lisa.
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Victor:
Not resisting the tentacle, Victor finds himself lifted high, passed Celes, and into the belly of craft. You are then dropped into a padded room. The room is filled with other people from the bar. About half the people here are screaming. The other half is passed out. It doesn't take much intelligence to realize why: there are vents in the walls from which a bluish hazy gas is seeping into the room, filling it up like a dry ice cloud.
There are shackles on the walls.
High above you the ceiling is made of glass (the floor of the bubble-dome). Lashunta women stare down at you through the glass, licking their lips and talking to one another excitedly.
There is a submarine style pressure hatch here.
So much for her bag for combat. Celes was hoisted sooner than she could breathe. She felt herself lift off, a grunt sounding off her surprise. It wouldn't be long before instinct would kick in, whether it was effective or not really didn't matter as he tried to pur her hands on the tentacle, and let the power of Pharasma take over.