Campaign: Rebel Assault
<It burrowed and will attack from underground! look out!>
I pull my flames back, forming an overhead plane of flame just a little over head-height, not impedeing our mobility but having flame available for quick-response the instant the creature surfaces. the MOMENT it comes out, I'm nailing it with fire. And I do suspect I'll be playing whack-a-mole more than once vs this thing.
to the sword: <I don't have physical defenses, nor a way to fly off the ground or make a elevated platform for us to stand on! Do you have a plan or suggestion?>
Edit: Get on Nik's shield!
<We can create defenses against physical attacks and dispel Dark magic if necessary, but we can't protect everyone here.>
<While it is below us, it has the advantage. You may be able to inconvenience it by covering the ground with fire, but it will simply retreat deeper and find another way to hurt you. However, it is unable to move quickly in this state. It might be best to simply run away. If it resurfaces, you can attack it directly. If it doesn't, you have time to lay some kind of trap for it.>"SHIELD!"
Take the first shield offered to me, slam it onto the ground and tsar it to make a large armoured platform for everyone to stand on.
"Get on!"
"Sword!"
Wield the first sword offered to me.
"I knew it wouldn't go down that easily. Give it more fire!"
Lune offers you his shield. You catch it with your one good hand and push it against the ground before pouring your energy into it. In your panic, perhaps you overdo it a bit. The thing expands until it looks more like the floor of a room, if floors were usually made out of woode, metal and leather. It shifts for a few seconds as it tries to settle its weight on the top of the slope, pushing dirt out of the way and causing you to struggle to keep your balance.
Already ready to dodge, all of the men manage to jump out of the way and on the shield before it crushes them, though the ones closest to you end up losing their balance and stumbling as they try to right themselves. Irine is not so lucky. The shield hits her as she tries to jump on it, slamming against her chest and pushing her back. She is thrown away, rolling a bit before coming to a stop. She tries to open her eyes but doing so makes her want to vomit. She tries to get up, moving her tail in confusion but is unable to maintain her balance and falls to her side, She can't really sense the world so she's unable to use the fire she's gathered but she manages prevent it from dissipating with some effort (not that she can see that, but she hopes). One of the more quick thinking men jumps down from the shield, grabs Irine and carries her back up to the shield.
Meanwhile, the creature continues slowly moving just below the surface. You can see the ground rise and fall as the countless roots worm their way through the ground, you can smell its rotten scent as it escapes through the shifting earth. As it makes its way below the enlarged shield, it scrapes and strikes against it, making it reverberate with a foul noise. It stays there for a few seconds, merely making noise. You aren't sure if it's investigating or merely trying to demoralize you, but it's not pleasent.
"The floor is lava and the air is fire." you mutter.
"Great."After a few seconds the creature's limbs rise out of the ground around the shield, quickly wrapping themselves around its edge. The men jump back in fear and swing their swords and torches, but you don't pay too much attention. The moment it wraps itself around the shield, you realize the attack is directed against you.
You knew you had at least some connection with the objects you Tsared, it's what allows you to un-Tsar them in the first place, however you hadn't really thought about it, certainly didn't think about it as something you owned. However that's exactly what you think about when you feel its attack. These connections are yours. And it's trying to steal one of them from you. Despite your surprise, you manage to hold on to it through sheer willpower.
"Strike it! Get it off!"The men chop the branches with their swords and stab them with their torches, cutting pieces off and pushing them away from the shield. The branches retreat back into the ground and you feel the attack fading. However the creature doesn't lose time. A few seconds later you feel one side of the shield start to rise, the monster pulling itself together and raising it like a giant car jack, threatening to flip you or push you down the slope. But by that point Irine has managed to regain her senses enough to be able to launch an attack against it. She stabs a stream of fire below the shield, causing the creature to let go of it and quickly retreat below ground. She can't see it but she gets the feeling she got a good chunk of it with that.
The shield rotates back and forth a bit as it resettles, then there is a terrible moment where it simply leans on one side, unmoving and then the earth below it gives way and it starts sliding downhill, rotating slightly. It only slides for a dozen metres before it is stopped by friction. You can no longer see the town from here, it's hidden behind the slope, but that's the least of your worries at the moment. What's more worrying is that a couple of men fell off the shield while it was moving around.
The monster wastes no time, its limbs blindly stabbing out of the earth to get them. One of them is stabbed through the leg, falling and screaming in pain. The branch wraps around his leg and starts pulling him into the ground. The other raises his sword to deflect a rising branch but it instead curls around the sword, trying to pull it away. He struggles for a second before another branch rises out of the earth, impaling him through the chest and raising him into the air. The men around you gasp and curse, some of them look away, too horrified by what they're seeing.
((I kept rolling since I think I got your intentions from your actions.))
Campaign: Party Crasher
Alayne, Really goes To Extra Lengths To Prepare A Surprise
Alan struts up to the door like a mildly incontinent peacock. "For your information, I am a solid 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419... out of 7. But that's not important, what's important is that I have an important message from the Princess. What princess, you say? I think you know what princess. Capital P Princess! She of the strange temperament and erratic behavior, our Sovereign's favored royal. She sent me with a really important message for Mage Ventis and she said that if I didn't get it to Ventis quickly then she'd know and appear suddenly to do the worst thing in the history of the infinite multiverse:
Bad improv comedy.
Now I don't know about you, but I'd rather not accidentally be responsible for this airship crashing because she commandeered all the staff to listen to her pretending to be other people she's telling knock knock jokes to. It's a short message anyhow, I'll be outta your helmet licketysplit."
Invoke my princess identity's authority and imply that Alayne is somehow watching over me (which I technically am, being her).
((Alayne is as sweet as a π))
The guard in the bridge stares at you through the slit.
The guard outside the bridge makes frantinc gestures to the one inside.
The guard inside the bridge makes the quivelant of a shrug with his eyes before closing the slit and unlocking the door.
You wink at the outside guard and make your way inside, the guard closing and locking the door behind you.
"Right, in and out, give your message quick, no touching anything, ya hear?" the guard instructs you as he escorts you through a small hallway, only a couple of metres long.
You nod placatingly as he pulls the inner door open.
The inside of the bridge is quite marvelous. You see, the cheapest airships have their bridge crew exposed to the winds, using their eyes to spot things and judge the best course. Most high-end airships, the ones with an armoured bridge, rely on a combination of spotters and periscopes to give their captains situational awareness. Some of the more expensive ones even have a small enchantment or two to give the navigator a clue about what's going on. An aquarium with water deforming in the shape of the surrounding terrain, self-drawing mini-maps, stuff like that. However, compared to this bridge, all others pale in comparison. Looks like what they said is true. It is a miracle, a wonder worthy of the artifacts the old masters used to make. You wouldn't be surprised if you found out it's actually powered by a powerful ancient artifact.
Through the open door is a wall of colourful fog. You pass through it and find yourself, for lack of a better description, floating amongst dark clouds. The fog seems to fall from the top of the room and form a dome over it, crawl against the walls and then acummulate on the bottom, obscuring the floor. As you and the guard walk the fog opens up around your feet, revealing a small path for you to walk on. As you look around you notice that the fog moves around constantly, as if blown by unseen wind currents. The movement brings different coloured fog to the fore which paints a picture of the outside world, allowing the crew to view their surroundings as if there were no walls between them and it. In fact, you can see better from here then from when you were standing outside. It manages to somehow provide illumination, the moon appearing bright in the sky.
The bridge crew and their workstations are arranged amphitheatrically, the fog making them look as if their floating in the air. The bottom row is taken up by two men with their hands reaching into a glowing workstation (mages, probably) flanked by two men with steering wheels on their workstations and maps arranged next to them (navigators, probably). Then there is a single mage flanked by two men with various levers and speaking tubes at their disposal. Then there is the captain, his hat and fancy suit a dead givaway. Finally there are two more crewmen at the top surrounded by periscopes and speaking tubes (spotters probably). There are probably other workstatiosn hidden behind the fog, you watch as the fog wall parts and a crewman moves through the room, making his way to the other side.
The captain looks towards you and the guard and makes an inquiring gesture.
"Captain Smith, Sir! This girl says she has an urgent message for Master Ventis!" the guard declares, his boredom disappearing in the face of authority.
Captain Smith makes a defferential gesture towards Ventis.
"What is it?" Ventis asks with irritation clear in his voice.
"I am connected with the Itano's flow, keeping a dozen ritch Lords from getting blown off their feet and plummeting to their death. This is a delicate process that cannot well afford any more interruptions!" he pronounces that last bit slowly, as if explaining something to a child or someone who has asked them a hundred times already.
"This girl says she has a message from Princess Alayne, sir." the guard says, cowering even more than when he was speaking to the Captain.
Ventis doesn't looks surprised by this, merely thoughtful.
"Maintain the bubble, I shan't be long." he says to the other two mages before turning to look at you.
"Hm. So what is this message?" he asks, watching you closely.
Maximus: Medical Section
<Svajoklis, Maximus>
"The monsters are a hazard, but ultimately not that important. We need to capture the guy ordering them about, he should know something about what happened here."
"Ah, of course, you're right! Defeat the villain so that he will tell us why he did it. That's a much better plan!"For a moment you think he might be mocking you, but there's such joy and genuine enthusiasm on his face that you're certain he's being serious.
"Icarus, can you tell any more precisely where he is now that you're closer?"
"His signal is coming from down the end of this hall, through the administration office and into the Head Doctor's personal lab. If he's not there, then he's probably got a wired connection from a nearby room."Icarus makes his way to the room with the cryostasis pods. He taps the screen of one of them, navigating the menu to check their status.
"They're still alive. And the batteries look OK. Even if we lose power they should be fine for a few days at the very least. Plenty of time for us to rescue them." He floats slightly higher, peeking into the pod.
"Still makes me wonder why they put them in there though. The logs say the pods were giving them a non-standard nano-treatment. Low-level molecular work by the looks of it..."He realigns his wings and makes his way to the other exit of the room.
"It's unlocked. There's..."He closes his eyes for a second, as if he's trying to catch a faint noise.
"There's three of the small ones with the many arms on the other side. And a large one."You're about to say something when there's a clatter of metal hiting metal. What can best be described as a coffin on wheels rolls into the room. The thing hisses and opens, releasing steam into the air. You get ready for a fight... and then a strange person comes out on shaky legs, wearing a crown and holding an old flip-phone.
"Uh... Phonecall for a mister Icarus?"Icarus picks up the phone, listens for a second and then hands it back to him.
"Glad to have you with us! Everyone, meet Napoleon, he's here to help!"((Had I mentioned that it's hard to find your link due to it being the same color as Charlie's words?))
"Nah, no weapons, you won't need them. Besides, I'm probably doing you a favor. I've seen you use a gun, you'd be more likely to harm yourself with your shooting. If you really must have more firepower, then there were guns on the Maximus, I'm sure you'll be able to find one there. But my advice is, focus on your abilities until you get some upgrades."
"However, don't think we'll be sending you there empty handed. You'll be given special clothes for environmental protection but the best thing is, you'll be getting an Interface."
A silvery shackle appears around your arm. One side has a small circular screen with a cyan tint. It's not tight enough to be uncomfortable but somehow it manages to be impossible to remove.
"This little thing will keep track of your location and what you do. It has a shard of S-Zero inside so it can understand you, answer simple queries and perform some simple tasks. Oh, and it will let us revive you if you die, so try not to lose it." he adds that last bit as if it's not really important.
"And no, there's nothing more about this mission. I suppose it's worth mentioning that the ship you'll be going to was built and operated in a joint effort between the Dark (my team) and the Light (a... let's say competing team) and that universe might be home to an Outsider, but that shouldn't concern you. You can ask your Interface to replay the briefing if you want to know more. I did a big presentation and everything."
♚The Doll Prince: Beam Me Up Charlie!♚
Ignoring Charlie's remark about his level of skill with firearms, Napoleon peered over the bracelet wrapped around his right arm. Personally, he'd prefer a nice, sharp and durable rapier to a pistol any day of the week and exploring the limits of his ability and pushing them seems like a better bet anyway. Based on what the shadow man said, the bracelet is useful for providing him with information and well as keeping track of his movements and actions, pretty much like a prisoner of sorts. Nevertheless, he'll deal with that later once he gets accustomed to this madness. Besides, this beats spending over two centuries trying to earn a living in a world that became less familiar to him with each passing decade.
When Charlie mentioned the environmental suits the both of them will wear, Napoleon hoped he will be able to wear them over his clothes. Otherwise, the magic that made him who he is today would simply morph them into his daily costume. The bit about the Light, the Dark, and the possible Outsider; however, intrigued him. Who are these entities? Are they deities or just some super-empowered mortal beings? Which team is the Queen a part of? What is truly special about this incident that two opposing teams would band together to send a ship through someone else's territory, only to mount a rescue mission to save said ship from whatever disaster that befell it? Perhaps this 'interface' will tell him more.
"I wonder if the Queen is a part of Team Light or Team Dark," Napoleon muttered to himself before turning back to Charlie. "Very well, Monseigneur Charlie, I'll help rescue and aid your adventurers."
Unsummoning the doll, he then continued. "So, what's the weather forecast for this mission? Will we be expecting calm seas or will we have to brave a hurricane?"
Onward to the mission!
((Ah, is it? Is this a browser issue? Because it looks fine on Firefox. FAKEEDIT: Oh, wait, you mean you're using the light skin, right? I've been using darkling for so long I almost forgot what the forums look without it.))
"Hah! Her? She's neither. She's the 'Queen' of the Silver, though we do have some... debates about the matter, to put it lightly. As for the weather... I guess you'll find out, won't you?" he adds with a laugh.
He snaps his fingers and shadowfire rises out of the ground, its flames surrounding you in a cage of darkness. A second later the flames recede and you find yourself in what could best be described as a padded coffin. Before you have time to panic, Charlie's head pokes through the wall.
"Ah! Almost forgot!"He tosses you a flip-phone.
"There's a kid named Icarus there. Be a dear and put him on, will you?"Roger also pokes her head through the wall and looks at Charlie.
"You should had told him to ask for last name Nass, first name Ama.""Eh, I liked my joke better.""No respect for the classics." Roger complains as Charlie drags him out.
And then you're off and for a few minutes there's nothing but tumbling around. Then there's nothing for a few more minutes, giving you some time to calm down. Just as you are starting to get bored, the thing unexpectedly throws you against a wall and starts tumbling again. You feel the clang of metal hitting upon metal and then the box begins vibrating on top of tumbling around. You're starting to think this is just another test or maybe just some sick torture when it finally stops and the lid opens.
You crawl out, eager to get as far away from the thing as possible. Outside you are greeted by four men in black unigorms that match yours. One is holding a shotgun and has a book dangling from his waist, one has a dark vortex floating above him, one is a stereotypical dwarf and one is a boy with golden rectangular metal plates floating behind him, forming wings.
This room is filled with large cylinders, a thin layer of frost clinging on them. Maybe some sort of freezer? You're so disoriented by the constant flipping around it takes you a few seconds to realize you're not feeling the pull of gravity.
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