Game: Blades of Git'riban : Primal State

Daraz continues up the pipe, trying to get as close to the ghaiks as possible and hopefully chase them upstairs. To the waiting ambush. He also keeps an ear out for the intellect devourer.

Init: 21

Listen: 10 (not a nat 1., whoo!)

Daraz relays the next part of the converstaion:

"The psion isn't leaving.

Are we disssscovered? I told you we should've bolted as sssoon as the Talker went down.

Ssss.

I'd like to go NOW, but you know thisss.

Thisss aura! Sssss. It may be a trap. One powerful psion to catch our attention while ssslayers surround usss.

Sshall we sssend the devourer into the sssewers and both head to the ssstreet?

Wait, let me sssee if the array can pick up any other aurasss in the area ...

While you're at it check if the Dreamer hasss ben active.

What, why?

I've got a bad feeling about thisss. The Talker didn't know hiss attackersss, we may be insside a larger move by the Eyess than we thought."

Ya'shenn curses mentally, with feeling, but does not send that over the mental link.

Fortunately, the Bloodstone's aura is probably overshadowing her own, something the psion is not ungrateful for at the moment. She falls 'silent,' not wanting to give the ghaik anything more to track her by.

Ya'shenn's crossbow is already drawn and loaded, but once at the intended ambush point, she keeps the weapon leveled on the pipe opening and settles in to wait.

While waiting, she checks that a certain item -- an inscribed bit of crystal -- is near to hand. Du'minh's auravision had never picked it up, for its power is psionic, not magical. Depending on the actions the ghaik chooses to take, the item might be useful.

Finally Ya'shenn mentally recites a prayer to the Liberator. It's doubtful whether the historical Liberator would have gotten along with her all that well, actually, but it would be hard to imagine Gith disapproving of the actions this group was about to take.

[OOC: Readied action: Shoot the first non-gith, which will probably but not necessarily be a mind flayer, that comes through the pipe opening.

It'd be easier to indicate the exact square where she'd be standing if this were a tabletop game, but I'm sure that Ya'shenn knows the standard movement speed and reach of a typical mind flayer (i.e., 30' and 5', respectively), and would do her best to maintain a healthy distance away. I'm not sure how far the tunnel extends before hitting a wall/corner, so I don't know exactly how much range she has to work with. If it's practical, she'd also attempt to position herself in such a way that it would be hard to target both herself and Du'minh with a single mind blast.]

Ar'dru watches the unflinching Lind with new-found respect as he stows his blade.
"Of course." Ar'dru replies as he extends his right arm and holds a claw over a vein, ready to open it once Lind has a vessel ready.

ooc- Linds surname isn't Hansu is it?
btw, good luck guys, GO TEAM!

Hearing the metallic screech -- but being fairly certain of its origin -- Ya'shenn decides to risk telepathically polling Vivec and Daraz, trying to determine their status. Even hard-of-hearing illithids would have heard that noise, anyway. The psion keeps the mental query low-key, not wanting to distract either of the two too badly if either of them is locked in a life-and-death struggle even now.

And if anything has gone awry, she and Du'minh might have to move in a hurry.

[OOC: Assuming here that (brief) telepathy is equivalent to talking, i.e., a free action.]

[Wasn't sure if it would be that or Lesser Mindlink. Missives work, tho'. :mrgreen: ]

The devourer comes as no surprise to the warrior, though the instantly increased feelings of disgust and revulsion swells up regardless. He braces himself as it bounces to attack and swings sideways, carrying momentum for a follow-up swing as he spins around.

“Its no brain for you to devour, monster, but you’ll have it in your belly soon enough!”

OOC: Power Attacks for -2/+4.

Crap rolls as always but at least there was no natural ones... on the d20s...

[Check below. Edit -- holy $#$#!]

Du’minh yanks his flail loose from the mess of splattered brain matter with an audible squishy sound, just in time to see and hear the glowing crystal roll out. Hearing Ya’shenn’s warning he instinctively looks for something to jump to cover behind while cursing aloud.

Split second hesitations arise as the Rish considers whether he could flail the crystal back into the pipe, just like the local sport of some backwater prime his band raided years back. Thankfully the telekinetic toss of Ya’shenn renders the idea irrelevant, and Du’minh raises his arm to shield his face from the impact of minor bits of crystal shard.

“Well done, sister. Now lets clean up.”

The warrior turns back to the pipe entrance while bringing up his psionic defence of visual distortion.

OOC:
Using concealing amorpha. Do we have a rough idea of distance to whoever threw the crystal?

Daraz persues as quickly as he can and replaces his sword with his crossbow and loads it as he moves in anticipation of something ahead of him.

Du’minh’s face contorts into a mask of pure vengeful hatred as the illithids jump out, and he grits as the ensuing mind blast rings through his head.

OOC: YES! NATURAL 20 IN YO' TENTACLED FACE! *High-fives Zim* :mrgreen:
These must be the Dice of Gith, those she used throughout the rebellion!

OOC: That is officially redonculus! Pass the dice for my attack roll.

[For the curious, it turns out Ya'shenn lost her readied action, since she had to use an action to toss the 'grenade.' I'm also assuming here that Du'minh is continuing to fight illithid #1 -- normally, since Ya'shenn is low on the initiative count, I'd wait and see how Du'minh is doing before posting.]

This time it is the psion's eyes that widen as -- against all expectation -- it is the Tamer, presumably 'Street,' who comes out of the pipe and strikes at Du'minh.

~[Obscure obscenity], we got the Tamer...

Her state of mind is not helped when the second illithid comes out as well.

And starts to run.

We cannot allow it to report to the House! Where were the other two? Were they dead already? I need to buy time.

Not wanting to risk hitting the Rish, Ya'shenn turns her aim to the second illithid (probably 'Portal'), invokes the aid of the Liberator under her breath, and fires.

As she fires, the woman rasps out insults at the fleeing ghaik, in the dialectical, sibilant Undercommon illithids themselves use, on the rare occasions they can be bothered to speak aloud to thralls.

"Why did the Elder Brain not devour you, weakling? You cower in holes and run like cattle! You are not worth the name of illithid! Stand and fight!"

[OOC: Fire at #2 and reload this round. Yes, she's taunting #2. Even illithids (at least according to their conversations in the Spelljammer novels) use 'cattle' to mean 'illithid food.' I also assume that Undercommon has some form of command tense that illithids use exclusively when speaking to thralls; she's using that. Despite what she said, remember what I said about her staying outside their standard move.]

[OOC #2: Sorry, Dunamin. :/ There's not all that much my 3.0 psion with 3 power points remaining can contribute materially to this situation. And yes, I'm kicking myself repeatedly right now for having picked this particular class, specialization, and build. What this party needs right now is a (second) person who can deal a lot of HP damage in a short amount of time, and Ya'shenn isn't that.]

[HEY! Who stuck me with Dunamin's dice??]