A Secret in Merkabah pt6

A ship bay, somewhere in the belly of fallen Merkabah....

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Merek           A black-haired, dusky male with golden eyes.          59s  4h
Morgan          Short pixy like half elf with fair skin               5m   1h
Seldan          Ginger-blonde human in armor wearing Eluna's symbol.  11m  11h
Serene          Glacier meets granite meets strawberries.             37s  1h
Stegosaurus     Giant quadrupedal lizard with dark hide and white pla 1m   1h
Stirling        Powerfully built Arvek with enormous chrome gauntlets 1m   1h
Toha            A woman shaped contrivance of leather and steel, with 0s   2h
Whirlpool       I am stinky!                                          17s  1w

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Whirlpool's Generator(#2466I)

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Out <O>

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GAME: Toha rolls weapon6: (2)+14: 16
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-3: (7)+14+-3: 18
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-8: (4)+14+-8: 10

Toha, still enraged, brings Piriona around repeatedly, though it seems her fervent flailing is for naught as the weapon misses time, after time, after time.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 14.
     It is now Technician 1's turn! Seldan is next!

GAME: Stegosaurus rolls ref: (18)+13: 31

"Engage gravimetric protocols. You will submit for processing and repurposing as per Executive Order W-359." For it too, a black sphere begins to form at its fingertips, dischqarging energy towards Un'eth ... who manages to avoid it. It flies past them and moves to a position above. <kulthian>
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.

     Round Three - Init 13.
     It is now Seldan's turn! Technician 2 is next!

GAME: Seldan casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 16 DC: 20
GAME: Seldan rolls 1d20+16: (14)+16: 30

The sword isn't doing Seldan a lot of good right now, and that black orb, to one too long attuned to magical threats and troubles from painful experience, looks like something that needs to go away. That hit him once, and is a threat indeed.

He steps back away from the grappled thing and lowers his blade, instead tracing with his free hand several interlinked sigils. To those with knowledge of magic, it's a very weird and outdated technique, but he speaks a word to it, and the sigils burst into violet fire before him. Another shouted word, a word of negation, accompanies the slash through all four linked sigils. Instantly, they turn black as deepest night, a fire that is the reverse of bright, and seem to _pull_ the malevolent-looking orb to it. The two fuse, and both wink out.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 13.
     It is now Technician 2's turn! Stirling is next!

The orb within the sphere is continue to swirl, growing with intensity. 

The metal parts of the technician seem to brace itself against the orb, which seems to be under a certain kind of ... strain.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 13.
     It is now Stirling's turn! Serene is next!

GAME: Stirling activates his Titan Armor, gaining: +8 Str,+6 Dex
GAME: Stirling rolls ranged+1: (8)+18+1: 27
GAME: Stirling rolls 8d6+7 electric: (32)+7 electric: 39

Stirling racks the slide on his deathray and push another shells into position to once against strike one of the technicians with a bolt of blinding lightning with strikes with a crack. Though even as he does he moves in on the creature, clearly bent on finishing the job with his fists.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 10.
     It is now Serene's turn! Stegosaurus is next!

GAME: Serene spends ONE use of LAY ON HANDS.
GAME: Whirlpool damaged Toha for -72 points. 90 HP remaining.

With the two artificially animated technicians neatly handled, Serene turns her attention to the mission's motely crew to assess.. a moment later she is putting away her sword and reaching forward to invigorate Toha, keeping her in shape for the fight.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 9.
     It is now Stegosaurus' turn! Merek is next!

GAME: Stegosaurus rolls cmb: (7)+25: 32
GAME: Stegosaurus rolls 4d6+1d6 acid +9: (14)+(6 acid)+9: 29

The Stegasaurus manages to pin the technician and put the squeeze on it. It sizzles from her corrosive touch.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 8.
     It is now Merek's turn! Morgan is next!

GAME: Merek casts Magic Missile/Empower. Caster Level: 11 DC: 18
GAME: Merek rolls 11: (10)+11: 21

Merek sweeps along while he begins casting the spell of magic missile. He doesn't succeed with the spell protection upon that artifice.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Three - Init 6.
     It is now Morgan's turn! Toha is next!

GAME: Morgan casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 14 DC: 20
GAME: Morgan rolls 1d20+14+2: (12)+14+2: 28
GAME: Morgan rolls 5d4+5: (12)+5: 17

Morgan says something in the fae language and its very naughty words. And after that she makes a few motions and sends five blue bolts at the free "zombie; not destroying it sadly.

GAME: NEW ROUND!
     Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 18.
     It is now Toha's turn! Technician 1 is next!

GAME: Toha rolls weapon6: (14)+14: 28
GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+16: (9)+16: 25
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-3: (12)+16+-3: 25
GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+16: (10)+16: 26
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6-8: (1)+16+-8: 9 (EPIC FAIL)

Toha's firelike pupil reorients on the incorporated technician as the flow of battle shifts his position, and, with a rumbling growl, she brings Piriona across the unfortunate's face. After the sound impact, aided by the constrictive efforts of her reptilian colleague, is joined by a second toll as the weapon comes back around, sheering some more giblets away from sparking steel., though her last swing comes awfully close to the dino-shifted Sith rather than the Kulthian.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 14.
     It is now Technician 1's turn! Seldan is next!

"Engage swarm protocol." 

Concerningly, the metal bits on the remaining corpse ... dissolve. 

They dissolve into a swarm of horrible, silver worms that *flow* onto Un'eth, leaving the corpse behind for the moment ... 

...which seems to be regrowing. YTes, the metal parts are regrowing, even as teh horrible worms *burry into Un'eth's skin.*. <kulthian>

GAME: Stegosaurus rolls fort: (20)+20: 40 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 13.
     It is now Seldan's turn! Technician 2 is next!

GAME: Seldan casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 16 DC: 20
GAME: Seldan rolls 1d20+16: (10)+16: 26

Seldan lets out a very small breath, and turns his attention to the other one. That vortex in there is disconcerting, but his gaze remains steady on it. A gesture of focused negation, and the sphere winks out of existence, and he repeats the same spell he did before, with the same four sigils. This time, when he reverses the sigils and pulls the vortex towards them, it fights more, and takes seemingly a moment longer before the two fuse and wink out.

He lets out another breath.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 13.
     It is now Seldan's turn! Technician 2 is next!

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 13.
     It is now Stirling's turn! Serene is next!

GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (4)+12: 16

"Graviomettric annihilation protocols disabled. Switch to disintegration routines." 

One eye of the second technician goes from red to yellow and shoots a blazing beam that Seldan is able to narrowly dock. 

It leaves a giant hole in the wall behind him. The entire wall just ... vaporizes. <kulthian>

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 13.
     It is now Stirling's turn! Serene is next!

GAME: Stirling rolls ranged+1: (4)+18+1: 23
GAME: Stirling rolls 8d6+7 electric: (29)+7 electric: 36

Stirling eyes the swam of wriggling mechanical worms all around Stegasaurus "Get out of it and I can lay down some firepower to disperse it." he says matter of a fact as he zaps the other technician with his deathray before moving in to engage the artifice thing to keep it from casting too much of anything else.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 10.
     It is now Serene's turn! Stegosaurus is next!

GAME: Serene rolls 1d20+20+5+5-6+2: (10)+20+5+5+-6+2: 36
GAME: Serene rolls 1d8+5+5+12: (5)+5+5+12: 27

As Seldan's magic prison fades from the first of the technicians, Serene begins her advance upon it, drawing Promise as she gets within reach and continuing the motion into a crosswise slash, hoping the enchanted iron biting into it takes its attention.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 9.
     It is now Stegosaurus' turn! Merek is next!

Imagine the sight of a cat suddenly startled by an arriving bee or landed upon by an army of ants. Now scale this up and slow it down. One now has a fair image of a surprised Stegosaurus lurching as the flow of the 'disintegrated' swarm spreads over her scales. "What vile corruption is this?!"

Mechanical fleas?! Now -that- would be both abomination AND insult.

Stirling's talk of firepower is acknowledged and is also inspirational. Her eyes suddenly alight with the yellow-white of molten steel... and then the heat and light spread across her scales, even as the form beneath them alters and she rises upright in a roughly humanoid form; of searing flame. Which then steps from the swarm, or seeks to. If it wishes to cling to her? Fine, let them be smelt.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 8.
     It is now Merek's turn! Morgan is next!

GAME: Merek casts Fireball/Empower. Caster Level: 11 DC: 20
GAME: Merek rolls 11: (12)+11: 23
GAME: Merek rolls 10d6: (41): 41 +20(Empowered) 61

Merek lifts up both hands while he speaks to Un'eth, while she seems to be of course in the flame of her own magic. "I am going to blast you, Toha, you back up!" The man then begins drawing sigils along while he speaks, a flame appearing within the palm of the hand, which he uses a finger to guide with the magic. It strikes right into the creature and begins to blast into a flame. Anything still on the woman as far as a nanoswarm would be wiped away in the flame.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Four - Init 6.
     It is now Morgan's turn! Toha is next!

GAME: Morgan casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 14 DC: 21
GAME: Morgan rolls 1d20+14+2: (20)+14+2: 36
GAME: Morgan rolls ranged: (1)+10: 11 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Morgan rolls ranged: (16)+10: 26
GAME: Morgan rolls ranged: (3)+10: 13
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+9: (18)+9: 27
GAME: Sear-o-saurus rolls reflex: (3)+13: 16
GAME: Morgan rolls 8d6: (25): 25

Morgan looks to the one tech that was just free from the orb. "well my aim sucks." is all she mutters after a arcane word that sends three fire lances but only two hits and the other went way to wide.

GAME: NEW ROUND!
     Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 18.
     It is now Toha's turn! Technician 1 is next!

GAME: Toha rolls weapon6+4: (20)+16+4: 40 (THREAT)
GAME: Toha rolls weapon6+4: (5)+16+4: 25
GAME: Toha rolls 6d6+48: (18)+48: 66
GAME: Toha rolls 2d10: (16): 16

The raging construct doesn't recoil from the abonimation disintegrating into squirming shrapnel, nor so much from the Stegosaurus suddenly standing upright and self immolating in time for Merek's fireball to engulf her.

She is given a momentary pause, though, before the other technicion's existence draws her notice.

Whitefire roiling inside her, body spattered with silvery rivulets of quicksilver in the wake of her mended wounds, the firelight in her eyeslit pivots to lock on the new target and she turns to charge at it. Piriona, still in hammer mode, arches up behind her back as she closes the distance and arcs down to come up under the amalgamaton's chin, the tenderizing face of the Earthbreaker's bassy ring subsumed in a resounding peal of thunder, the blow casting giblets and sparks in an artless arc along the course of her followthrough.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 14.
     It is now Technician 1's turn! Seldan is next!

GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (2)+12: 14

"Engage disintegration protocol. Remove threat. You will be processed." 

Another beam flies by Seldan, and Serene as well. It manages to miss *both* of them, and it's a good thing it did. It leaves a smoking slagged crate in the ground. If that had hit, it would have been ... deeply painful. The tecnician's form had been reanimated as the metal swarm flowed off Un'eth, smote and burning, and caused them to resume function. It's up on its feet again, though considerably less ... together. <kulthian>

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 13.
     It is now Seldan's turn! Technician 2 is next!

GAME: Seldan attempts to casts Flame Strike.
GAME: Seldan rolls 1d100: (44): 44
GAME: Seldan rolls 15d6: (53): 53
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+13: (19)+13: 32

There are times and days when Seldan truly feels that he stands in the palm of Eluna's holy hand, and this day is one of them, as a second of those beams misses him entirely, and this time, he barely feels the urge to flatten himself to the floor like he did with the last one and its narrow miss. Instead, he turns his attention to the resurrecting technician, and this time, the symbol he draws with sweeping gestures is simple, sword held at his side and down. Eluna's symbol, crossed with the arcane symbol for primordial fire. This time, the incantation is as much prayer as command, and when he raises his free hand again, a pillar of fmale _crashes_ into the resurrecting thing, bathing where it stands in holy fire.

"Someday you're going to actually hit with us," complains a crotchety male voice within the sword.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 13.
     It is now Technician 2's turn! Stirling is next!

GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+23: (2)+23: 25
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+23: (10)+23: 33
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+18: (1)+18: 19 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 4d6+17: (17)+17: 34

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 13.
     It is now Stirling's turn! Serene is next!

GAME: Stirling rolls weapon29: (6)+25: 31
GAME: Stirling rolls weapon29: (17)+25: 42
GAME: Stirling rolls weapon29: (14)+25: 39
GAME: Stirling rolls weapon29: (13)+25: 38
GAME: Stirling rolls 2d6+12: (6)+12: 18
GAME: Stirling rolls 2d6+12: (6)+12: 18
GAME: Stirling rolls 2d6+12: (11)+12: 23
GAME: Stirling rolls 2d6+12: (10)+12: 22
GAME: Stirling rolls 1d10+16: (7)+16: 23

Stirling looks back at Uneth as she turns into an elemental and grins "Very clever." before turning back to the Technician he faces. "Enough of messing with power settings. Time for percusive maintenance." he says dropping his deathray and pulling his fist back to deliver a thunderous right hook with Tact. He quickly follows up with his left Titanfist, Grace. They are simple brawler's punches but empowered by the monstrous momentum of his Titanarmor that split skin, bone and steel all the same.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 10.
     It is now Serene's turn! Sear-o-saurus is next!

GAME: Serene rolls 1d20+20+5+5-6+2: (3)+20+5+5+-6+2: 29
GAME: Serene rolls 1d8+5+5+12: (3)+5+5+12: 25

When the animated technician before her is... deconstructed.. Serene turns away from it, dismissing it from mind as she sets her sights upon the other. She gets her bearings, then steps towards it and once more her blade bites into flesh and metal reanimated by artifice.

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 9.
     It is now Sear-o-saurus' turn! Merek is next!

GAME: Sear-o-saurus rolls weapon0: (19)+19: 38
GAME: Sear-o-saurus rolls 2d6+strength+2+1d6 acid: (12)+5+2+(5 acid): 24
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+13: (14)+13: 27

The flaming form formerly fraught by a film of fine fiendish fragments flails upon the (re)formed fixer with a fiery fist!

GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Five - Init 8.
     It is now Merek's turn! Morgan is next!

GAME: Merek casts Lightning Bolt/Empower. Caster Level: 11 DC: 20
GAME: Merek rolls 11: (9)+11: 20

Merek tries to fry the baddie with a Lightning Bolt, but it fizzles.

GAME: NEW ROUND!
     Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
     Round Six - Init 18.
     It is now Toha's turn! Technician 1 is next!

GAME: Toha rolls weapon6+4: (15)+16+4: 35
GAME: Toha rolls 2d6+16: (10)+16: 26

In the aftermath of glorious, beatsome rage, coupled with the aid of her fellows, the ruby mote of rage in Toha's eyeslit realigns on the newly reformed countenance of her original target. With singular focus, the raging Golem roars in with a fearsome overhead blow that plants the amalgamated being in the floor in a blossom of gristle and sparks.

With the lack of new enemies, the fire in her eye goes out, and there is a subtle sag of her frame before she rests the head of the Earthbreaker against the deck, stacking her hands upon the pommel, "Is. everyone alright?" she asks, wearily at first, though with incrementally more vigor on each syllable.

Merek looks to the place when all of the people seem to have dealt with the issue. The man nods a bit, while he speaks, "All looks clear," he then begins to check the wreckage and whatever he can find. Information, things to take back to study, "Where do you think they are keeping the Shard if that's even in the fortress?"

Sear-o-saurus's form cools and condenses, returning her to her original Sith-makar shape. For now. "This area is immense. We could spend weeks searching... unless one knows how a rumored shard of a fallen god would look?" She still favors the notion of collapsing all that remains in a pile of corrosion or slag... but, as she said, it is immense.

Sear-o-saurus ripples and alters, gaining or retaining humanoid form, yet growing a muscular tail as her body smooths over in fine ebon scales.

Griva Brassbringer. 

Where is she, anyway? She was here a moment ago... 

There's a soft word spoken and the dwarf reappears, gesturing behind her. 

"It did summon reinforcements," she says, swiftly, "We need to go! Quickly, down that way," she points the tunnel, "My force-wall will only last so long." She utters another magical word, replacing the invisiblity sphere over the lot of you. 

"There are a dozen more like them -- some of them, I recognized. Adventurers, like you, or at least they used to be."