Game: I, Modron "An Eye for an Eye"

Yarrdulence lifted Boxy, quite gently, onto the wagon. He paused for a moment to allow one of the butterflies to land on his outstretched finger then, as it flew off, patted the top of the cart, cracked his reigns, called “Hakbang Paiwas!”, and they were off.

The streets and alleys of the Clerk's Ward seemed to move by at an extreme rate. The slaad’s driving style was erratic and seemingly nonsensical, yet he always managed to avoid problem spots and (the canny-er modrons noted) was making excellent time.

During the ride, Yarrdulence inquired after Box-In-Bloom, questioning her strange colorful pets, her past, and her current plans [You can decide how much you wish to tell him about Eye and the modron liberation in yer next post]. In return, the tout volunteered a good deal of information about himself. Much of it was incomprehensible to the modron, descriptions of the Churning Chaos that would make even chaos beasts go ‘huh?’ But, he did confide that he had plans for promotion. The slaad hoped, some day, to either become a high-up blood in the Tout’s Guild or own his own Planewalking company, providing transportation services to Sigil and onwards. But currently the company was only him, his ponies Atho, Port, and Arem (and a fourth pony who was with the vet due to some upper respiratory ailment… his name was Dart) and Sigil was their domain.

[Got anymore questions on yer guide? Ask ‘em now.]

A few minutes later, the sky had just gotten dark and the carriage pulled up outside of a strange looking shop deep in the heart of the Lower Ward. The sign on the door marked it as “The Friendly Fiend”, one of the most famous trinket shops in the entire multiverse. The Lower Ward smog was unusually thin that day allowing the modrons to breath quite comfortably as they disembarked from the slaad’s tout carriage. Yarrdulence gazed down at the modrons from atop the carriage. “If you’d like me to wait here it’ll be 10gp,” he said with a toothy slaad grin, “I believe the little spiky one and I have a date with a gnome and some thread, would hate to have to cancel.”

The slaad made a face, giving Boxy an appraising eye. "Well, what if you don't come back at all? What if A'kin uses ya' as writing paper? Or you end up lost in Elysium? I'm left here holdin' the bag, waitin' for ya' to return. As much as I'd be saddened to see a pretty little Box like yourself get eaten by a Polite Purveyor of Paraphenalia, I could be ferrying a bevy of polite bariuar women all over the Cage during the first course. I hope you understand my predicament."

The slaad rubbed his chin. "How about four jink up front and another 1 every ten minutes?"

The modrons approached the door to The Friendly Fiend. The door itself was painted colorfully with a fanciful doorknocker. A wooden sign above the doorway announced the name of the establishment as did the free swinging sign above and to the right of the entryway. Box-In-Bloom placed her hand on the doorknob, and was about to open it when the door swung open of its own volition. The swinging door hit Boxy hard, knocking the modron to the ground and leaving her slightly stunned. The modrons all heard a loud yelp, a crash, and then darkness overtook them.

The modrons blinked as their eyes switched into extraspectrum mode.

They suddenly found themselves outside on top of a flat roofed building. The waning light of near darkfall Sigil had been replaced by eternal blackness of midnight. The moons (three in all) shone brightly, illuminating them in soft white light. Glancing around they discerned that they were in some large metropolis, a city that seemed to command the entire field of their vision.

In front of them a tiefling (identifiable by the rather long horns which spiraled around his temples) lay on the ground on his back. The tiefer groaned and sat up. “What in the Hells…,” the tiefer paused as he took stock of his surroundings, and then glanced passed the modrons. It clambered to its booted feet, its eyes wide, then turned and fled across the rooftop.

“Run!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, as he bounded over a seven foot gap and landed on a neighboring building.

((Reflex Save!))

((Nordom’s Ref=9))

The modrons spun, a fiery light gleaming in their eyes for a moment as the meteor (As big as a house!) streaked down out of the sky. The rooftop exploded with flame as the flaming rock collided with it.

Kilojoule and Sidrem tossed themselves from the building, the heat of the fire singing their metallic bodies as they landed, somewhat shakily, on the building beside it. Ki flipped easily, its enhanced reflexes carrying it out of the explosion with nary a scratch. Box-In-Bloom and Nordom also landed on the rooftop, both in a crumpled heap. Neither of the modrons had moved quickly enough, the explosion had singed them and tossed them bodily from the rooftop. Their bodies hit the roof with a loud metallic thud.

(KJ, Sid, - 1hp damage; N, BnB – 3hp damage)

The tiefling looked over the modrons for a moment and then drew a knife. Taking aim on Ki, he drew back his arm and then sent the knife flying at the monkly modron. Ki watched as the knife arced towards him, reflexively pulling to the side even as the knife missed him. There was a noise that sounded like “hurk” and a black garbed and masked figure fell from the building; the tiefling’s knife was embedded in its chest.

“I hope you rorty cubes can fight,” the tiefling said, drawing another knife, “this is about to get hairy.”

As if to confirm the tiefer’s statement, a dozen black-garbed and masked figures were suddenly standing at the perimeter of the rooftop. They all moved silently and in unison and drew long strangely curved blades. Things were about to get hairy.

(Initiative!)

(Oh, oops... yea, 1 damage for Ki too [Thought they got Evasion at 1]))

Bwahaha, barmy boxes!

The shadow-warrior targeted by Kilojoule’s acid sphere let out a loud gurgle as the magical ball of corrosion engulfs it. Its katana slips from its hands even as it falls to its knees and dissolves into the blackness of the night.

The ninja targeted by Boxy’s flare spell stops in its charge for a moment, but only just long enough to clear its eyes. Bringing its blade up, the ninja leapt into the air, cruel blade glinting in moonlight, when a streak of silver entered Boxy’s field of vision, a knife that hit the assassin dead in the chest. The assassin continued falling towards Boxy, but by the time it reached the modron it had become merely smoke and shadows.

The druidic modron turned to look at its savior and saw the tiefer still poised from the throw. The tiefer nodded once, before letting out loud yelp. Its body slumped to the ground, ragged breath coming from its lungs, a crossbow bolt sticking from its back.

But they had little time to think about this. The other ninjas rushed forward on the offensive. One scored a hit on Kilojoule, while the others seemed to miss in quite overly dramatic ways, their blades piercing the floor before being drawn back up.

Kilojoule takes 2 damage. There are two ninjas on Sidrem, one on Kilojoule, one on Boxy, three on Nordom, and three on Ki.

We missed Sidrem's turn... I dunno if Clue was saying She'd be out... but so we don't fall behind I'll resolve Sid's action now.

Sidrem lashed out with a precise thrust, piercing one of the shadow warriors on the end of its longsword. The ninja squirmed and then vanished with a puff of smoke.

Meanwhile, Box-In-Bloom's magical divination revealed the lay of the land to her. The entire landscape (sans the modrons and the tiefling) seemed to glow with magical energies of all schools and types. Her butterflies, mystically tied to her as they were, began to glow excitedly, siphoning off the barest bit of this magical energy - not enough to even dent the powerful magical field that Boxy could see with her magically enhanced sight.

(No room to flank-backstab. There's two ninjas for each of you and they've pushed the attack.)

(Your action for the last round is already in, Nord. The tiefling is down nd bleeding. We can, later, blame it on a faulty battle strategy matrix or some such thing. But its your turn again and there are three ninjas in melee range with you.)

Ki's blow sent one of his opponents flying off the roof in an exagerrated fashion.

The warriors, quickly seeing their number dwindling pushed the offensive once again. This time three of their blades sliced in, injuring Ki, Nordom, and Sidrem.

The black-painted modron lashed out immediately following the hit, "sticking" another of their opponents and returning it to the smoke from whence it came.

Kilojoule also deliverred a punishing blow, hitting his opponent with a painful sounding crack. As the smoke cleared, it became obvious that there were only six warriors left.

Ki takes 3 damage, Nordom takes 1, Sidrem takes 2

The energy from Boxy’s spell causes the frazzled butterflies to calm a little as their attention is drawn to the wand (like moths to a flame!). The tiefer’s breathing becomes less ragged as the healing energy washes over him and his bleeding stops. The tiefer’s eyes flit open just as a shadowy warrior leaps leaps towards them and threatens to bring its blade down on the healer and the tiefer in one powerful swing. The tiefer closed his eyes and, when the blow did not fall, opened them to watch as Ki uncurled its fist, black smoke pouring from the appendage, and glanced at another one of the ninjas meaningfully.[Nordom has missed his turn – its sad really.. I’ve been procrastinating too]

The crossbow wielding modron was unbalanced by the constant barrage, bringing his weapons up to parry his opponent’s deadly sharp blades. The other modrons also were easily able to parry the ninjas who, after having seen over half their number fall, had begun to seem somewhat worried by this battle into which they had embroiled themselves. A worry which was further punctuated as Sidrem “stuck” another of their ilk on his blade causing it to disintegrate in a puff of black smoke.