The Queen's Legacy (Phase Two)

[craaazyisland]

[PLOT POST HERE. Read it!]

As quickly as it had begun, the Tyrant's rampage down in the City was over. He was last seen disappearing into the alleys around Religion Row, where any pursuers were thrown off in the maze of temples and shrines. It was probably better they leave him alone in any case... seeing what had happened to those who didn't.

It had been a few hours. The City was once again quiet, dotted by small areas of destruction and trails of blood where the Tyrant had brawled with crew members. The injured had been gathered and shipped to the Outsider's hotel until they could be moved to medical proper. And though the situation was not over, it was safe enough to go down, survey the damage and start cleaning up.

...Maybe.



A few blocks from the hotel, something was quietly growing in the darkness of a rubble pile.

Comments

[cityship]

The Progenitor virus mixed with the genes of a queen ant, actually, but thanks for asking.

Either the plant could actually see out of that creepy little eye or it had some other method of detecting movement, because it reached a pair of vines up in the air and began sweeping back and forth in a disturbingly accurate fashion, feeling for the prey that had come near it.

There was a loud rumbling sigh from the area of the plant. Did it actually just make noise?

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

"I'm not here to avenge anything," the wizard commented as he dropped down to hover just above the roof. "Can I still assemble?"

He lifted his hands, flexing the fingers momentarily. "No one is near that thing, correct?"

[metalwebhead.livejournal.com]

"Whatever it is, we're gonna need an equally stranger weed whacker to chop this baby down!" Spider-Man said, noting Marco's comments. Before he could answer Aibghailien, the web-slinger was forced to play keep away from the plant as its vines tried to feel them out.

Latching himself to a nearby wall, he finally spoke. "Right now, we need more assembling! Three against this big ugly thing isn't enough! As for anyone else? Nope, haven't seen 'em! Doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet!"

Man, I REALLY need a flamethrower here...! He thought.

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

"I'm a ranged fighter," Aibghalien shouted back as he shot up into the air. "I'll try to hold its attention while you guys work out a plan of engagement."

He snapped out a few words, made a pass as he snapped fingers in a spray of dust, then jabbed a finger at the plant. "Disintegrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disintegrate.htm)."

A thin green light ripped through the air to impact the plant in the center of its mass. Eat 40d6.

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

<No one else is near that thing,> Marco had answered. With his hawk eyes, he could see pretty clearly. <Speaking of which, why are we still near that thing?> But he didn't fly off. He was kinda wondering why he hadn't, though.

Aibghalien's spell distracted him for a moment - dude, that looked cool, why couldn't he have magic blasting powers? - but he kept a close eye on the plant, flying in circles above Aibghalien and Spider-Man. And Aibghalien was right; they needed a plan. <This thing's related to that Tyrant guy, right?> he said. <No way is this co-incidence. Can we use whatever they did to subdue him on Plantzilla?>

He peered at the base. <And that thing's gotta have roots: I'm betting in can't move from where it is. We need a way to keep our distance but still attack.>

[cityship]

The plant almost seemed to let out a squeal when it was hit by Aibghalien's spell, and a burst of viscous sap spilled out of the mark left-- which quickly began to heal up again almost instantly.

And now the plant was pissed. Attacking in full force now, it lifted up multiple vines and started lashing out with them, landing uncomfortably close to the people now hovering, flying and standing around it. With the size of those things, not to mention the razor barbs on the ends of them, you definitely don't want to get hit.

A yellowish dust starts wafting from the plant's center. Touching it or breathing it in causes a painful, itchy sensation, almost like mutant plant mace.

[metalwebhead.livejournal.com]

Spidey's Spider-Sense went out again as the creature went mad. With the thing on the rampage, it wasn't safe to stay in one place. Using a web-line to pull himself away, he landed on a pile of rubble grabbing a large steel girder that fell from the destruction.

"We need to hit it hard and fast!" Spidey shouted. "The thing's healing - maybe we can overload it and drop it! And don't get TOO close - whatever it's spewing my Spider-Sense isn't liking it!"

With that, he launched it at the plant, intending on smacking it with the many tons of steel.

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

One of the tentacles ricocheted off the mage armor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magearmor.htm) he religiously cast each morning for just this sort of occasion.

He quickly produced a glowing crystal from one pocket of his robes, tapped the power within it, and leveled a finger at the center of the plant. A massive gust of wind (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/gustofwind.htm) roared forth from him to smash into the dust. That ought to buy them some time.

"I think we're the only ones we can count on, here!" he called out to the other two as he scooted backwards in midair. "I think I can hit it faster than it can heal, but we need to coordinate! I'll drop area-of-effect spells with enough frontal exclusion so you don't get caught in them if you engage from this side!"

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

<Dude, no way am I going to deal that thing any real damage,> Marco warned. <In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bird. What am I going to do, peck it to death?> Mentally Marco went through his list of morphs - while he had a few that might make a dent in this thing, none of them could do it without getting too close; the osprey was at least fast enough to get out of the way of the vines. Right now, changing morphs wasn't a good idea.

Which really left one thing left for Marco do to: dodge in, fly circles around the tentacles and try to draw them away from the others. And man, just flying away was looking really appealing right now - but he couldn't be a coward in front of Spider-Man, could he?

He flew in, aiming to draw the vines away from Spidey, give him an decent opening, and stay the hell away from whatever mojo Aibghalien was throwing around.

<Come on Audrey II, chase the birdie...oh man, this is insane.>

[cityship]

The bait seemed to be working, as the chasing vines were now chasing after the bird. It seemed a tiny, delicious morsel and popping it into its mouth(?) would give it the energy to keep up this fight on multiple fronts.

Marco would have dozens of vines whipping and slashing around him, all trying to catch him. The others, however, would have a clear shot at the plant.

Nobody ever said plants were good strategists.

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

With the pressure off, Aibghalien took a deep breath, then began violating the laws of physics shamefully about every six seconds.

First: "Extended Lingering Flame!" He drew a line with a finger that summoned an immense gout of fire over the plant-creature, conforming to the dimensions he'd described to Marco earlier.

There's only one good way to overcome the fast-healing property, as Aibghalien well knew from experience: damage, and lots of it.

So while the flames lingered, he dumped his third-level spells in a rush. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Each casting produced a small seed of flame which shot forward to the heart of the conflagration, then detonated in a spectacular rush of flame. By the time the sixth fireball detonated, the lingering flames had faded as well, their energy exhausted.

Did it need more? Go on. Tell the wizard it needed more.