It just wants to be popular!

2006-02-02T07:28:19Z

Get your own spectral analysis from Area 23^®

Arrival and general scene-settery

2006-01-31T03:50:38Z

((Continued from here.))

The dromite's home, tucked in a corner between worlds, was more of a burrow, really. Walls, floor, and ceiling were all tightly-packed dirt, with the odd worn and faded rug made with who-knew-what from who-knew-where. There was even a rug or two hung up on the walls of the main living area, whether for insulation or for some odd aesthetic (the same that wanted a structure with no corners), it was hard to say. Nearly everywhere was clutter--a desk in one corner was barely visible beneath a haphazard pile of maps and compasses and other unrecognizable tools of the dimension-hopper. Thingies and whatsits and all manner of multiversal junk hung from hooks and pegs and strung from the ceiling. But the area that was beginning to shimmer and twist in a very unnatural way was a decently cleared space quite a few feet square, almost certainly kept clean for this exact reason.

"--one!"

fwsht

And then they were there.

"-buncha rooms off the hall right here, keep 'em all set up case of emergencies and like. Sorry t'make ya move much with my ceilings low as is, but I ain't got those others locked in back of my head yet, an' it ain't safe to jump otherwise."

((The ceilings are a bit higher than you'd expect for someone its height, since it tends to make almost as much use of walls and ceilings as it does the floor. Still just low enough to be awkward. The rooms are in case of crises with travel clients, so the pallets and blanket-piles and what have you are widely varying in size, just as much as the sizes of multiversal travellers might vary.))

OOC: Further character notes

2006-01-30T21:36:19Z

About to trick this journal out proper, but first I think some freeform-style elaboration on what's in the user info needs to be put up. Partly cause the remaining DnD-isms will mean absolutely squat to some people, but also 'cause it matters for how things are being adapted to Nexus play anyway. :3 This entry will be added to memories, a section which I plan to maintain pretty well. I'm a firm believer in not losing track of good conversations, waha.

(Dromite next to what is essentially a human, to better show scale. Xolu's a bit shorter than this average, mind.)

First off, dromites are a funny little people. They are to the bigger, more badass thri-kreen (four-armed mantis warriors) what halflings are to DnD elves, in a way. Small, quick, and fond of tunnels, at any rate. They are totally physically asexual, and as such actually have no taboo against nudity. Unless they're going armored or otherwise clothed for some specific purpose, they usually only bother with a belt or harness for holding stuff, if that. The only dromites with gender are the Grand Queen and consorts, who spawn for their hive as communal insects generally do.

Dromites are divided into four castes: Fire, Ice, Voice, and Glimmer. Each of these has a particular affinity for a related element (Xolu, as a Glimmer-caste bug, is aligned with electricity) which grants a few minor natural psionic powers, some natural resistance to that element, and also influences personality traits to varying degrees. The Expanded Psionics Handbook describes Glimmer dromites as "always (moving) at high speed, rarely resting in their pursuit of life's tasks." I'd say that's fair and then some, wouldn't you? :3

They age roughly as humans do--they are middle-aged at 30, though they can live as long as 115 years.

As far as the feats go, the things that are not self-explanatory: "Mental Leap" is the use of pure psionic concentration to jump like woah, "Speed of Thought" means it runs as fast as a human despite its shorter legs (again, through a sort of psionic super-focus), and "Up the Walls" is another psionic trick that allows just what it sounds like, for very brief amounts of time.

Psionic powers:
-Burst: A few seconds of further enhanced speed.
-Catfall: What it sounds like. Landing on your feet with little or no harm from ridiculous heights.
-Chameleon: A massive boost to stealth--it's not true invisibility by a long shot, but it's nice.
-Dimension Swap: A teleportation power that immediately causes Xolu and a single person of its choosing to switch places. A strong-willed target has a good chance of resisting this effect, causing nothing to happen at all. I'm uncertain if the Nexus field would apply to this (though of course it'd still be up to the other person's mun, anyway).
-Sustenance: One use of this power prevents it from needing to eat or drink for 24 hours. It prefers food, but when you wander strange and sometimes hostile worlds for a living, this comes in handy. XD
-Wall Walker: What it sounds like. Usable for much longer stretches of time than "Up the Walls", but actually drains mental energy, so it's a trade-off.
-Escape Detection: Makes it very hard for psychic powers, crystal balls, what have you, to spy on it when in use.
-Exhalation of the Black Dragon: An acid attack against a single target. More often used on door locks/walls/window bars in an emergency.
-Psionic Plane Shift: Dimension-hopping.
-Psionic Teleport: Obvious, yes? :)
-Ubiquitous Vision: Allows a 360-degree sphere of vision. Disorienting for the first few moments of use and for a while after the power ends. Also makes it extremely vulnerable to sight-based attacks, like blinding flashes of light or what have you.

Psionic tattoos: These are essentially a psionic power sketched directly onto a person's skin. With a thought, the wearer can move them to a different spot or transfer them to another person. Tapping the tattoo activates it, after which it disappears. Xolu keeps its tattoos covered, to avoid getting them activated by accident. Most of them are powers it already knows, but paid to have drawn on in case a situation goes bad, it runs out of mental energy, and really needs one of those powers. "Body Adjustment", the only one of these powers Xolu does not know itself, is a minor self-healing power...it won't make massive wounds vanish, but it's good for averting impending death.

Misc: There's an elocator trick that allows walking, running, and all normal actions...while naturally hovering about one foot above the ground (or water, or lava, or spikes, etc). It is capable of going higher, but becomes unsteady and poorly balanced and generally clumsy and distracted. This can be activated and deactivated at will, and drains no mental energy. Other elocator powers basically all amount to "is all over the place in a fight, in ways that shouldn't be possible at all, ever."

Long story short, Xolu is not one of those DnD characters that can cut up a thousand ogres per round or face off against a dragon. It is, however, a super-mobile skill monkey that will get anywhere and everywhere and probably crush those ogres through an elaborate trap if it choses to fight them at all. If forced into a direct fight where it is not in a position to use its normal tactics, Xolu usually relies on its blade's enemy-teleporting power, though it is careful not to waste uses (only three times per day, and a strong-willed opponent has a good chance of resisting it).

Road to Everywhere

It just wants to be popular!

Arrival and general scene-settery

OOC: Further character notes