Prelude - Heaven and Hell

[Eanwulf]

[This merged thread is for veritas' and Muskrat's Prelude Finale]

Let's Merge veritas and Muskrat's Prelude into this one thread please.

Initiative

Thugs 20, Gang Leader 20, Pilgrim 10, Remnant 6

Names in bold have already acted this round or are incapable of acting this round.

[Muskrat]

Pilgrim leans forward, trying to peer through the barrier he has made. He may have turned Tough Luck's heart, but that doesn't mean his thugs won't try something stupid--he's leaving it up for now. From what he can tell, there's some sort of fire fight going on. If he can see well enough, he reaches out with the life-giving energies around him, to impose another field of light between the thugs and whatever's attacking them. Given who this crew is, the attacker might have good reason for what's doing, but Pilgrim wants to see if he can bring some peace to this situation.

Display

Force Construct between the thugs and whoever they're shooting at/ is shooting at them. If I can't see well enough to do that properly, I'll just delay my action until I can see what's going on.

As I read the rules, I can do this and maintain both the other Force Construct and Emotion Control at the same time.

[Eanwulf]

Action

[Notice check, DC ??, d20+8=24, Success!]

You can make out the feet and lower shins of the man furthest up the stairs. As such you can guesstimate where to put another wall to place it in front of him. Technically they should probably be allowed a Reflex save to avoid being trapped inside the confines of your barriers, but one can easily assume that they are more than willing to become trapped by something talking to their boss rather than be mauled by Remnant above.

Power-wise it essentially boils down to spending a Free action to maintain your Emotion Control over Tough Luck (love for Crystal's husband) and then a Standard action to refashion your Force Constructs. BTW Tough Luck has roughly one minute before he can try to Save again vs your previous Indifference effect. Should he fail, it would take him another 5 minutes before he can try to save again.

Your personal Force Field would be down for the reapplication of your Constructs, but seeing how you have a 1-foot stone wall's worth of protection between you and the gangstas, it hardly seems addressable.

Speaking of which, I need to address the way that I want Free Actions (powers) and Create Object's material strength to work in another thread.

** Muskrat **
Creeping his way to the laundry room entrance, Pilgrim leans forward and spots two sets of feet shuffling about further up the stairwell. Reaching down deep inside, the pious hero reaches out and paints the surrounding stairwell in front of them with divine radiance. The thugs guarding Tough Luck immediately begin to protest. "What the f- man!? We boxed in!" Some of the goons look like they might be ready to try and shoot their way out of the stairwell, whereas a couple of them seem to be intent on trying to climb up out of the rather confined space. Tough Luck however, merely turns his gaze towards Pilgrim and comments. "What the hell brutha!?" the man begins, "Why you box us in for? Surely "God" wouldn't want you to keep us caged in and helpless like this..."

** veritas **
His wound already healed, Remnant inches towards the men down in the stairwell. No sooner than he has taken a step or two forwards then a shimmering wall of golden light appears before him, warding the way ahead and preventing him from passing any further!

Initiative

Thugs 20, Gang Leader 20, Pilgrim 10, Remnant 6

Names in bold have already acted this round or are incapable of acting this round.

[veritas]

Remnant stops as the wall suddenly appears between him and his prey.
There's no way anything good is coming from those gangbangers sealing themselves off in the laundry room. This has to end before they hurt whoever they have trapped in there.
Familiar as he is with damaging auras, the fiery hero decides to test the barrier before him before attempting to break through.

Action

Touch the barrier carefully to see if it damages Remnant. If it's not painful, then attempt to bust through and punish some more gangsters

[Eanwulf]

OOC

It's a Force Construct so doesn't do damage to you. Sadly it's also Divine/Holy based so your Weakness vs Holy would make its Toughness rating 50% stronger when attempting to resist your attack.

[Melee attack, DC 5, d20+5=17, Hit!]

Breaking Objects
+10 damage punch = 25 DC Toughness save

1 foot wall = +9 Toughness adjusted, increased to +13 due to it being Holy

Using Auto Save rules this round as you are testing the waters so to speak.

23 Save result vs. 25 DC, Failure by 2 =Injured, -1 Toughness save

The wall is now +12 Toughness vs. your attacks

Despite its appearance, the mysterious barrier is solid. Though it does not seem to damage Remnant's hand, the mere touch of it disturbs him. The man's stomach starts to grow queasy. Nevertheless, the determined hero chooses to try and bust through the shimmering force field with all his might.

*WHAM!*

Remnant lands a powerful blow against the wall of shimmering light with his fist, but it does not break and sunder. The queasy feeling grows slightly stronger in the pit of his stomach and the hero wonders just what it is that he is up against.

Meanwhile, down below, Tough Luck continues to try and reason with Pilgrim, his mood growing more intolerant by the moment. "You got to let us out brutha!" the bald man tries to negotiate, "If that fool gets in upstairs, we're all done for down here!"

Equally as confused as their leader, Tough Luck's minions start to panic.

"Just shoot the f'n walls man. They can't be bulletproof!"

"Oh f- that man, what if the shots bounce back!? We'd blow our damned heads off!"

"Somebody give me a hand, maybe we can boost one of us up and climb our way out of here! T.C.!? See if you can reach the railing up there!"

OOC

Lucked out. Generic confusion round. These hoods ain't the brightest.

Initiative

Thugs 20, Gang Leader 20, Pilgrim 10, Remnant 6

Names in bold have already acted this round or are incapable of acting this round.

[veritas]

Remnant feels the wall give a little as his fist slams into it. The uneasy feeling in his stomach combined with the remembered fear of the children outside give him cause for increased urgency. Throwing caution to the wind, Remnant throws everything he has against the wall!

Action

Make sure Hellfire Aura is active, activate All-Out Attack and Power Attack at maximum values and attack the wall again. If it destroys the construct, then Remnant will use his move to close with the thugs.

OOC

Sorry to post out of order, but I won't have much time until this afternoon and didn't want you all to have to wait on me.

[Muskrat]

Pilgrim says, "I'm protecting you from whatever's up there. But I'd like to know what his beef is with you, to see if we can settle it peacefully. But I'll let you get some distance from him." Pilgrim creates a cylinder the gang members can flee down, but that will keep them away from Crystal. However, he leaves the far end boxed off--however, he leaves that far end invisible now, so the thugs think they can get away. Once he does that, he drops the force field nearest them, so they can flee into it. Once they're in, he plans to cap it shut and then let whoever's upstairs in.

Display

Round 1: Free Actions: Maintain emotional control and the second force construct.
Standard Action: Force Construct--I'm assuming I can set this up in a way to funnel them into it and away from Crystal.
Free Action: Drop the nearer force construct.

Round 2: Standard Action: Once the gangsters are in the new Force Construct, plug it's end and drop the Force Construct blocking Remnant.
Free Actions: Maintain emotion control.

I'm assuming this is doable.

[Eanwulf]

OOC

As long as you don't exceed your Area parameters you can essentially rearrange them each round as a Standard action. Whether or not the criminals go inside is another story. Also, you do not have the Precise Feat attached to your Force Construct power so shapes are rather crude and rudimentary.

Free Action to maintain Tough Luck's Love towards Crystal's husband. His Calm timer ticks down several more seconds.

Standard Action to refashion your Constructs. Yes this means poor Remnant will have to try bashing against a new one. See how the power can be quite cheat-able? Let them wear it down the reapply another LOL.

Here's a quick map of the initial setup once Pilgrim performs his action. Yes the blond is Crystal LOL. I just wanted to show what seems to fit the best method of your action's intent. Let them into the room but not around Crystal and yourself. Presume that the lower eastern end of the force wall is left completely Subtle. Bait if you will. And that you can easily lower the roof of the top down 5 ft. to allow entrance of Remnant, should the thugs enter the laundry room. Applying a section of wall to shield yourself as well. Such fun!

Map

Pilgrim tries to appeal to the gangstas' good side, should there be one to appeal to, and allows them the chance to enter the laundry room. Far from foolish, the hero concentrates his efforts on rebuilding his walls of radiance so that they might form a barrier between himself, the bad guys, and this strange newcomer so intent on breaking into the stairwell from up above. The thugs and their leader hardly have a chance to respond to Pilgrim's most gracious and unusual offer, for they suddenly hear the thunderous sounds of something hard and determined slamming against the barrier from above them!

Action

[Melee attack, DC 5, d20+5*=10, Hit!]
*+5 All Out Attack, -5 Power Attack

Breaking Objects

+10 damage punch = 25 DC Toughness save +5 DC for Power Attack = 30 DC Toughness save to Resist.

Bigger area being warded (nearly five 10x10 squares) now so going to the 1 inch rule of thickness for Pilgrim's wall.

1 inch wall = +6 Toughness, increased to +9 due to it being Holy

Using Auto Save rules this round as well.

19 Save result vs. 30 DC, Failure by 10+ = Disabled!

A “disabled” object is badly damaged. Disabled equipment and devices no longer function, while disabled barriers have holes punched through them, and other disabled objects may be bent, deformed, or otherwise damaged.

You shatter a nice size hole in the barrier, enough to expose your upper region (behind cover) and shoot at the thugs from. That is, IF Pilgrim doesn't reapply the barrier next round. I don't think he's going to though, given his original intention. Still however, some of the thugs may very well fire on you this upcoming round!

Yesss....cries Malphas' voice in Remnant's mind as he bashes through a chunk of the mystical barrier....You've broken through...Now kill them, kill them all!!!

Tough Luck and two of the thugs dash a hasty retreat into the laundry room, their outside counterparts shrieking wildly as they open up with gunfire. "It broke through!" one of the thugs shouts loudly just as he fires his gun. "Waste that mutha!" The other thug responds with a gunshot of his own and then with a heartfelt "Go on and get inside Boss, we'll protect you!" The two men maneuver about the stairwell and try their best to defeat their attacker, but it quickly becomes apparent that they are having no luck in doing so. Meanwhile, Tough Luck and his comrades hit the end of Pilgrim's enclosure and promptly begin to protest. "What the f- man! Why can't we go any further!?"

Action

Two gunshot attempts from some of the thugs. The others rush inside the laundry room along with Tough Luck.

[Heavy pistol attempts this time, DC 16*, d20+2=13, 9, Misses!]
*+4 Cover bonus, -5 All-out Attack penalty

[Both shots beat a DC 5 so struck the intervening barrier, it just makes sense.]

19 Damage vs. 16 Toughness save on barrier, Failures!

-2 Toughness to barrier's total strength

Initiative

Thugs 20, Gang Leader 20, Pilgrim 10, Remnant 6

Names in bold have already acted this round or are incapable of acting this round.

Map

[Muskrat]

Pilgrim says to Tough Luck, "Because this guy might have a legitimate beef with you. I want to find out what he has to say, just like I heard you out." Pilgrim rearranges the barrier of holy light to let the burning fellow down the stairs, but to keep the thugs protected. He calls out to Remnant, "Yo man, I'm not with these guys, but I want to have a word with you, see what you're deal is, if we can't settle this peacefully."

Display

Remnant looks kind of suave for a guy who's on fire. 8)

I guess I was visualizing the laundry room as being like my own with entrances/ exits on either end. Is there a way to rearrange the Force Construct to both let Remnant in and shield the thugs from him? If not, I guess Pilgrim can step forward into the staircase so he can try to talk to Remnant, though he wants to remain where he can also keep an eye on Crystal and keep her safe.

[veritas]

Remnant, hearing a reasonable voice call out above the chaos, stops momentarily.

"It's a long story, but in essence I came to check on a woman who was supposed to be here when the couple upstairs started shooting at me. Naturally, I assumed that the girl was in danger. I would know her condition before we continue the conversation."

Action

Remnant will ready an action to blast the men in front of him if either of them attempts to attack him.