Last Redoubt

[appending_doom]

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Evil Demon Professor (1d20+9)[18]
Reason (1d20+7)[18]

[appending_doom]

The tentacle snakes around Reason, trying to entangle her.

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(1d20+4)[23]
Grapple (1d20+5)[14] vs (1d20-2)[2]

[appending_doom]

Reason struggles futilely against the pressure.

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(1d20-2)[1] vs (1d20+5)[24]

Note: Attacking grappling foes institutes a 50% chance of hitting either grappling creature.

[Sallera]

A loud snap echoes through the cavern as Niev rushes forward, grey phantasmal streamers of energy trailing from her limbs. To reinforce, for one cannot build without a foundation. The familiar mantra begins echoing through her mind, a counterpoint to her wild emotions, as she approaches the doctor with her hands spread to front and back in an unusual stance.

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That only applies to ranged attacks, though, aye?

At any rate, manifesting Animal Affinity (Strength) and moving into range.

[appending_doom]

ranged attack rolls hit one random target, yes.

[Fishy]

Moving with mechanical precision and the grace of the Path of Shadows, Dreamcatcher moves in to bludgeon the 'Professor' into submission as efficiently as possible.

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Slam Attack - (1d20)[4] Damage - (1d4+1)[4] Sneak Attack - (1d6)[6]

[appending_doom]

The Professor's eyes glow a terribly disconcerting shade of lime, and he unceremoniously throws Reason at Dreamcatcher before turning around and running down a tunnel.

@Niev

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Make a will save

@Dream

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Make a Dex check

[Sallera]

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Will: (1d20+5)[19]

[Sallera]

Niev glares at the Doctor as Reason flies past. To protect, for one cannot grow under constant assault. The mist trailing from her arms and legs briefly coalesces into a thin sheath of pale grey as she rushes forward, and tendrils of frost creep outward from her hands as she snatches at the fleeing 'gnome', grabbing his far arm and spinning both of them around as she attempts to pin him to a wall.

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Manifesting Adrenaline Rush for +2 insight to Str and Dex, and expending psionic focus for another untyped +2 to Str.
Touch attack: (1d20+6)[10]
Grapple: (1d20+6)[10]
Damage: (1d3+4)[7] nonlethal

[appending_doom]

Niev just barely gets a hand on the Professor's tentacle, which slides through her hand, leaving a viscous, disgusting slime behind.

[Fishy]

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Dex check: (1d20+1)[17]

[appending_doom]

Dreamcatched manages to keep from overbalancing when the female gnome hits him.

Niev seems unaffected by whatever effort the Professor (or whatever's crawled into his head) put into hurting her.

[Fishy]

Dreamcatcher helps Reason recover her balance with one hand, and points the other down the tunnel at the Professor's retreating form.

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Entangle, positioned with the Professor standing in the closest edge. (IE, he'll have to run through the whole thing to get away, and Niev isn't standing in it.)

[appending_doom]

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Lessee, Reflex...

(1d20+9)[20]

As the man-shaped thing stumbles into the webbing, a faint aura (lime, of course), surrounds him, and he slips through the strands without incident. He resumes his flight on the far end of the webs.

@both

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I'm trusting both of you know you can always ask to roll Spellcraft/Psicraft to identify powers or spells conjured.

[Sallera]

Mentally cursing as the doctor manages to somehow evade the spell completely at a full run, Niev stops herself from following with some effort as he vanishes into the darkness, lacking any way to pursue him effectively through the strands. "Damn it, damn it!" The faint mist in the air around her grows more pronounced as she returns to the others, and her fingers are noticeably chilled as she lays them on Reason, a rush of energy dissipating the fog as her built-up emotion finds an outlet in healing the gnome.

She takes a step back, faint tracers of energy still trailing from her limbs. "Alright. Whoever or whatever that was, chasing it's probably still the best way we've got of finding information on what happened to Mari. Unless... did you notice anything else, Seer?"

[Fishy]

Dreamcatcher shakes his head. "I saw... nothing conclusive. I don't believe it to be the Quori, but Kollos- or whatever he is now, appeared to be linked to something... else. I had thought it was a metaphorical link, but it appears to be something more tangible."

[Sallera]

Niev nods quickly, turning back to the tunnel. "Let's find out what, then. Can you wind up all that string again? If he still thinks we're right behind him, he might not be too careful in covering his trail. I hope so, anyway, since tracking someone down here otherwise isn't going to be easy."

[Fishy]

"I can," Dreamcatcher intones, and the tangled mess of beads slides skitters and scrapes across the cavern floor to rejoin his body. "But are we chasing him because it is our best hope of success, or because you are angry and afraid?"

[Sallera]

Niev stops suddenly, poised on the ball of one foot. "I... what?" Spinning back to Dreamcatcher before she can fall, she rocks back on her heels before regaining her balance with a frown. "I don't see what else... I mean, of course I'm afraid, Mari's gone without a sign, and that thing all but said he had something to do with it, didn't he? And we're in Khyber, and the pressure's been pushing its way through since this morning, and my head hurts, but Mari can't hear the song any more, wherever she is, so it must be much worse for her..." She looks up at Dreamcatcher helplessly. "What else can I do?"

[appending_doom]

"The wisest course of action would be to leave her to her fate," Reason says. "If there is a place more hopeless than the heart of Riedra, it is Khyber." At that, however, she gives them a wan smile. "But then again, if you plan to help us topple the Quori's empire, perhaps you need to be ready to fight hopeless battles."

[Fishy]

Dreamcatcher falls silent for a moment.

"I am sorry. I often err on the side of caution, and that is a kind of fear as well."

"I say we go after her- she is our only link to the realm of dreams, she is our friend, and there may yet be hope for her. The only truly hopeless battle is the one you refuse to fight."

[Sallera]

Niev closes her eyes, inclining her head with visible relief. "Thank you. I really do think... this is something we need to do."

When she opens her eyes again, the same smoky grey surrounding her limbs is visible in their depths. Calmer and focused, she turns back to the trail. "Let's follow as far as we can, then, and see what we learn."

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Manifesting Animal Affinity (Wisdom), wild-surging for the increased duration (five minutes).

Enervation: (1d10)[2]

[appending_doom]

At first it seems unlikely that there even is a trail to follow, here in the depths, and then Niev finds the first strand of slime, glowing faintly. When she finds another, about a hundred yards further down a tunnel, it seems that the chances of successfully finding the professor are not quite as low as they'd hoped.

@Both

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Niev make a Survival check.

Both of you make a Wisdom check.

[Sallera]

Padding softly down the tunnel, Niev starts the first time she spots the glowing slime in the distance, thinking the Doctor was waiting for them. Once she realizes what she's found, however, she quickens her pace, watching for more traces.

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Survival: (1d20+4)[16]
Wisdom: (1d20+4)[20]

[Fishy]

Dreamcatcher keeps up as best he can, pointing out glowing slime in the darkness as he spots it.

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Wisdom - (1d20+2)[17]
Survival: Aid Another - (1d20+2)[19]

[appending_doom]

As the trail continues along the maze-like tunnels, it strikes both followers that the doctor had previously left no trace of his passage, and you don't think he was wounded.

So perhaps...he intends for you to follow him.

@Niev

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Reason's reactions makes it likely he wasn't like this before, and that means something is controlling him somewhere. That makes his most likely destination a trap laid by this...creature.

[Sallera]

Niev slows her pace as the oddity of the trail strikes her, although she doesn't stop entirely, the inexorable pull of a possible reason for Mari's disappearance dragging her onward. "We're walking into a trap, aren't we? All these marks... if that tentacle wasn't retractable or something, it wouldn't have looked normal from the start. Whatever's got hold of Kollos's body... is waiting for us."

[Fishy]

"Ah, you didn't know?" Dreamcatcher continues undaunted, taking point if Niev is giving in to her nerves. "I have a policy on traps, and it has served me well for many years," he explains, working his hands in a complicated gesture that covers them in spectral blue flames.

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Casting Produce Flame, for dramatic effect and in case of ambush. And light source, I suppose.

[appending_doom]

The winding paths of the caves give way, slowly, to ones that have fewer and fewer branches off from them, as the small party is enclosed by a claustrophobic closing in of any escape, and they come, at last, to a branch of two paths, one liberally smeared with the viscous lime-green ooze, and the other relatively clear of any mark.

Your general surroundings

@Niev

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Niev is a kalashtar, right?

[Sallera]

"Run in and burn them to the ground? Sounds a fair idea," Niev allows, with a small grin. She snaps her fingers, and for a moment in the flickering torchlight, she appears to be composed solely of planes and angles, a sharp definition that seems somehow to be more correct than the reality. Turning to the ooze-covered path, she glances at Dreamcatcher.

"Straight to the heart of the matter, then?"

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I assume the Animal Affinity has worn off by now, but manifesting a wild-surged Vigor.
Enervation: (1d10)[1]

And yes, Niev is kalashtar.