AND AWAY WE GO!!!!

Kasii:
Everything snaps into sharp focus for you. Something horrible has happened to this man. He clearly has been altered in some way by some thing that has physically changed the composition of his body and is progressively increasing his physical density. He also appears to be emitting, or possibly losing control of gravitational forces that surround him. The small crater that he is in now makes perfect sense. He must weigh an incredible amount and coupled with random gravitational fields that apparently vary in intensity this person could be an extreme danger to White Lake just by moving the wrong way at the wrong time. His reactions to these pulses however, may offer some hope. He seems to be struggling with controlling the grav fields and if you could find a way to help him focus his energies maybe you could lessen the likelihood of a complete disaster whereas attacking would seem the riskier path as he could lose control completely or possibly worse… he might try to defend himself.


Polaria:
At the sound of your voice his head snaps in your direction. As much as they can his eyes seem to be searching for you...after a moment he relaxes and looks to be able see you now.

"...White Lake?....but..how?" he mutters as he looks down at the ground. He grabs at the loose earth his impact made and lets the dirt fall through his ashy gray fingers. He looks up at you again and starts to speak..

"My name --"..


"Callard Sebane" you BOTH hear coming from the crowd that has begun to grow circling around the 3 of you. The crowd has kept their distance at about 20-30 yards away, but out of the crowd comes walking three men. The first is an older man and on either side of him a pace behind are two younger men. They are all dressed in similar robes befitting an Aeon Priest Clave of the Beyond. Slung across the backs of the two younger Priests are what look like Numeneric energy emitting weapons. The older man in front is carrying a rectangular box that looks like it’s made of some sort of black synth like material. As they slowly continue to walk towards you the older Priest says.. "His name is Callard Sebane, and his arrival would herald the end of White Lake."






We will need Csinos' next move before this scene can continue. There is NO RUSH. I just wanted to let you all know before anything else happens. I'm also unsure of the PBP etiquette, so let me know if I'm supposed to be doing something different. Kalsii and Polaria certainly may post responses to this but I need to know what Csinos will be doing next in order to advance this particular scene beyond your reactions. Again, No rush. Just trying to communicate. I might be over explaining so I'm sorry for that too. I know I put 1 post per day, but sometimes I get excited and want to post all the time. :) THANK YOU!

Csinos:
Your peaceful sleep montage is interrupted by loud frantic banging on your door. Through the sliding composite panel you hear a muffled voice.."Csinos?....Csinos...Are you there? It’s Balda. Hervan sent me." You know Balda is a member of the Town Guard. One of the leaders in fact that works close with Deil on all matters of strategy in protecting the Town. Back when you would see Deil and Hervan together she would usually be at Deil’s side. It is very odd that she would be sent by Hervan especially as you just left him.

Please roll an Intellect roll for Perception.



Kalsii:
You have seen enough Numenera to know that these are fashioned artifacts. You can’t figure out at this point what their use is but surely they are weapons of some sort.

Polaria:
The two younger Priests pull these weapons out from behind them and train them on the man they called Callard Sebane. The older Priest seems to notice your unease and takes a hand off the box he his holding and extends it to you in a non threatening manner and says.."Please child, step aside. No doubt you’ve felt his power. Let us do our jobs here. No one will be hurt...least of all him." and with a smile he puts his hands back on the black box.


The two younger Priests flank out from behind the Older Priest training their now readied weapons on Callard. "..Least of all him" echoes in both your minds as the devices audibly power up and the crowd starts to back away collectively from this developing situation. At the sound of the weapons powering up Callard, from one knee, extends his hands to either side and a pulse of energy releases from him as you feel the ground begin to vibrate beneath your feet. The crowd feels it too as you hear audible gasps and a scream of surprise. There are some Guards now visible as well working their way through the receding commoners towards you.


Sorry for the slight delay. Had some family stuff. :)

-Kalsii and Polaria:
As if waiting for your eventual move out of the way the younger priests activate their devices and you witness from both weapons energy fields that fire out in a beam. When the beams come into contact with Callard he is immediately enveloped in an energy field of some sort that seems to hold him in some sort of stasis. He appears to still be able to move however as you clearly see very powerful bursts of energy coming from his body acting on the surrounding force field. One instance of which can actually be felt in the ground and air around you. It’s at this point where the Elder priest walks up to Callard and puts the black synth box on the ground next to him. He takes out a small metallic looking canister, removes one end and swabs some oily gelatin substance on two fingers and smears it on the black box. He steps back and the box begins to change form into some sort of liquid synth.

"Not to worry, everyone!" He says out loud with his hands raised. "You can all go back to your homes. We’ll see that Mr. Sebane is taken care of properly."

The material from the black box is shifting viscously and stretches and reaches slowly into the force field surrounding Callard. He starts to scream as it begins to coat and cover him from head to toe. As the black material reaches his head he makes eye contact with you, Polaria. His eyes are pleading, but he does not seem to be in any pain. As the the material covers him completely the younger Priests power down their devices and each one expels what looks to be built up pressure in the form of a greenish gas. The force field recedes from Callard who is now suspended in mid air covered in this black material. Pulses of gravity fields can be seen visibly acting on the black material from the inside. The strange pull you both felt intermittently on your bodies is completely gone. The Older priest sidles up next to you both..

"Please, relax. For now it’s over. We’ll take him to the Clave just outside of town. Hopefully keeping this area clear of his sphere of influence as it were." One of the younger Preists comes up and whispers something in his ear. "Ah, yes. We must be off. Thank you both for keeping his attention so we could do our jobs. Things could have gotten nasty if you two weren't there. It looks like you've saved the town again" With a smile he bows and the three of them slowly guide the floating capsulized Callard Sebane toward the Clave.



-Csinos:
As you get up and head toward the entrance out of the corner of your eye you notice that your back wall is rippling as if it was made of a recently disturbed liquid. This draws your attention and as you are looking at the wall you see movement out of the corner of your eye and a shadow disappear around the corner of your back room heading toward your bedroom….Ok, someones in your home, and Balda is banging again. "Csinos..open the door!"

Csinos:
GM Intrusion: You open the panel and Balda gives you a swift and powerful front kick to the middle of your chest. You sprawl backwards and immediately are caught and grabbed from behind. Balda enters, closes the panel behind her, sneers at you and says "This isn't your lucky night, Csinos." Then jabs her Spear into your shoulder dealing 4 points of Might damage. Your Armor rating with your Ice Armor up reduces this to 2 points.

If you wish. Please make a roll to try and escape the person holding you from behind or lose your next combat action. This can be a Might or Speed roll depending on how you’d like to try and escape. Your target number will be a roll of 6 or higher (Lvl 2 Diff.). If you hit it, please feel free to take an action immediately in the same post.

You receive 1xp for yourself and another 1xp you must give to either Kalsii or Polaria. You can do this now or wait until you all meet in game so it makes more sense.

Polaria watches the priest leave with Callard with an expression of anger and disgust. The scene clearly upset her. She meets Kalsii's gaze for a moment.

"That's no way for the priests to behave", she says, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Then Polaria turns, sheathing her sword. She goes back to the crater Callard created and kneels next to it, examining it more closely.

"What did they mean? The end of While Lake?"

"This isn't your lucky night, Csinos."

"It never is", Csinos says, as he throws an elbow back and tries to twist away from his captor.

continuing...

Twisting free he quickly flicks the ring on his middle finger exposing its needle. "Actually, it may not be yours either..." he says as he attempts to punch Balda with the ring to inject its contents.

---

The ring is level 5 poison cypher as described on Csinos' character sheet.

Kalsii and Polaria:
With nothing but the rustles and murmurs of the crowd returning to their homes after the Priests leave, you both are able to really concentrate on investigating this crater and the larger situation. What you are able to discern is the following: You remember the initial sight of him limping down the street. He faltered and fell to the ground which is what created the first tremor and larger of what you now see to be two crater-like deep impressions. The larger made from his body, and the smaller impression set inside the larger where his hand had fallen to the ground which almost threw you both off balance. The rest is just incredibly packed earth that looks like something fell from the sky. This is in line with Kalsii’s previous thoughts that this man has been altered in some way to increase his mass tremendously, and probably contributes to his limping gait as his condition may be getting worse. Which is also supported by his concentration trying to control some level of ability to manipulate gravity.

As you look further you also notice foot sized impressions in the earth leading up to the larger crater. It’s not hard to infer that these are his footfalls based on your assumption of his condition. The Footfall craterettes can be followed back through town and around a corner. This road, you both would know, eventually leads to the edge of town so clearly he came from that direction.


Csinos:
Your extra effort in this situation was well spent.
You break the hold on you and twist free. You hear her curse under her breath as she struggles to regain her hold to no avail. In one motion you throw your punch and it lands solid into Balda’s jaw. You feel the needle on the ring break the skin, and as she buckles from the punch her hand comes up to her face and she slumps to one knee falling back into the panel she just closed. She visibly begins to shake, and you hear an unsheathing from behind you as the other attacker advances on you.

(Balda takes 2 damage from punch + 5 from the poison. She is unable to act for 5 turns (cypher lvl).

Make a speed defense roll as the Female Town Guard moves to slash your face off of your face with her sword. She is wild eyed and looks way too eager to see what the inside of your head looks like. (Target roll: 9) You may then post your next action regardless of success or failure. If you roll a 1 make another speed defense roll as the free Intrusion will be a second attack from this crazed battle hardened Woman.