Turn 20A: Yes! Yes!
-- Ruins Group --
Elenor:Elenor furrows his brow slightly. He can swear he just heard Maka's high-pitched voice screaming something in the lines of an unusual battlecry followed by what sounded like a pissed off bear. Aside from that, it also seems Ratherio is outside singing about him "hanging out with all the boys" and "young men". Which means that currently outside there are Ratherio, Maka and an angry grizzly bear which may harm both of them. The knight takes the only logical choice: entering the Center path and ignoring the mess outside. The wizards are capable of besting a bear, or at the very least they can run inside the Ruins and not get too maimed.
Center and examine the area before and after entering it.
(3) The corridor leading to the room is nondescript. So is the room itself. Round and with one locked door. This one has a code panel... four digits. Elenor, knowing his dungeons, guesses that entering a wrong code may have disastrous consequences. If the dungeon obeys the rules, the code should be somewhere around.
After unsuccessfully searching the rest of the room for any clue, he returns to the center hall and listens to the sounds of sheganians going on upstairs. Good, they may not interfere after all.
Maka:Magically cripple bear to establish dominance. Laugh while being chased by bear. Cease laughing if caught by bear.
(3) Ahem (dramatic throat clearing). Mwahahaha... "Psycho Shackles!" Now that should teach this bear not to... um. He still moves.
Damn it! He should be in pain from this! But seems like the pain won't be enough to finish him before he catches up to you!
Still, you run. Laughing, but breathlessly so.
Ratherio:"Hey bear, was your last name Lee and you parents call you Ug? 'Cause yo uuugly!" (BACONUS!)
After taunting the bear, he attempted to cast Costrus on it!
New spell: Baconus!
(6) Aw man. This bear has +5 resistance to taunts. And now he's chasing Maka, and you would rather not see her dead (kind of a novel feeling). So, how can you distract this bear... what does a bear like... Of course! Bacon is the solution. It always is. Thus, you apply to yourself, the ancient and powerful curse, Baconus!! This is delicious!
The bear comes round again, and he smells you... crap, he's getting faster, homing in on you like the wrath of the bacon god. Gotta run!! And the bear chases you around the ruins three times. Ratherio does his fourth lap, but the bear doesn't follow... as it turns out, he collapsed after the third, from the Psycho Shackles' pain. You're completely exhausted as well, so just a quick lifedrain to top you off...
Well. The bear might be dead now.
-- City Group --
Helskaya:See if I can split some shavings off one of the lumps of magic. Try eating one.
(5) Through careful application of a very sharp knife, Hel creates a magic shaving and eats it.
The following magic-induced trip was redacted because the author isn't nearly high enough to describe something like it, but it had the overarching, strong theme of an out-of-body experience. Hm... this could be a very useful hallucinogenic. Especially since the herb guy isn't selling the good herbs...
Apollo:"Umm. I got it, I guess. "
Apollo looks through the library for a book on potions of invisibilty or cloaking.
(6) Even though you search for the book - very thoroughly, even using the library's index system, but the books are not where they should be. Waaait a second... could it be...
A closer inspection reveals that, yes, indeed - the books about invisibility are invisible themselves. Talk about a mage's sense of humour. Unfortunately, this also means that you can barely read them, because... they are invisible. This includes the writing.
Sigh. You'd need a good librarian that can read invisible runes. Preferably an orang-utan. And you do not want to explore L-Space for that. This means... you shall need bananas. And someone who understands Orang-Utan. Or was there an easier way? Ten kilos of gunpowder and an apple shaving hat with limes on top? That's even more crazy.
Taren:Taren begins his objective of searching for the beggar's body!
He also examines his surroundings.
(1) Taren bends over the beggar's body. Those injuries are not suggesting a natural death. In fact, those symbols, written in blood...
His's train of thought is abruptly broken as someone hits him on the back of his head! (6) Only for the weapon to bounce off his helmet and back onto the offender. Taren, now with a colossal headache, twirls around to see his would-be murderer. As it turns out, it's two malicious-looking hooded subjects. One of them just has dropped his club. The other one is clenching a knife.
Beginners.
Remy:(5) Finally, you start reading the damn thing for real. The beginning is quite hard to understand, but once you do, everything seems to become substantially easier, and you learn what your weapon actually is capable of doing, and which spot to touch for which effect. Without doubt, the discovery of where the autobondage setting is located was the most important lesson. But you also learn of some reasonably efficient melee tactics, the range for which those things were inexplicably designed - but leafing through them, what this thing actually can do in melee is rather astounding. Feeling invigorated, you move on and... ugh. Who is supposed to understand that? Suddenly the author seems to assume you have years of experience using these things... what the hell is a Rapid Cancel? Praying for a hope spot, you skip through the rest... no dice... hey, what's this? Apparently, a quick reference about combat and maintenance of your Chain Revolvers, which you obviously pocket.
Got skill: Gunchucks User!
--
The characters exploring the ruins will get two turns for every one the others get, starting now (so the next time I update will be a mini-turn). The ruins aren't planned to be that large, but the intermission wasn't, either.
Character sheets.
Helskaya Arkut (lawastooshort)
Status: Whoa, that was awesome.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Pair of knives (one large, one small),
northern white bear jawbone on necklace, northern white bearskin.
Inventory: Wet stone, firestone, pot, spoon, three leather pouches varying in size, pestle and mortar, dried meat rations for several plus more days, filled waterskin, flour, Lesser Herbal Medicine, Lesser Blade Poison, Rusty Axe, random precious metal baubles, three lumps of crystallized magic, lesser diluted mana potion x2, potion of okay healing x2, stoneskin potion, 60 cp.
Skills: Herbal Medicine; Shamanic Magic; Knowledge (Legends of the North)
Spells:
Shining Shamanic Healing Finger!, Transform: Raging North Bear, Summon Water Elemental
Elenor Warsen (Caellath)
Status: Still hurts, somewhat.
Injuries: Small pains.
Equipment:
Masterwork Armor, Longsword, Crossbow,
Dragon Crest Shield, small well-crafted crossbow.
Inventory: Medical kit, small supplies bag, 0 cp, Potion of Lesser Healing, Painkiller Potion, Gibberish Paper, Map Shred, Rations Listing, some longbolt ammo.
Skills: Result-oriented swordsmanship, Dodger's Agility, Marksmanship, Medical care, Taunting.
Spells: None. He's notoriously unmagical.
Apollo Anderson (Spinal_Taper)
Status: Fucking mages.
Injuries: Some remainders of yesterday.
Equipment: Reinforced lab coat, cheap leather armor,
Dagger,
Rudimentary Rifle, Officer's Scimitar,
Inventory: Bullets, Gunpowder, various pouches and bags, Experimental Painkiller (?) Potion, 119 cp.
Skills: Alchemy: Chemistry, Alchemy: Potion brewing, Alchemic Magic: Rudimentary Enchantments (quantum amount +1), Metal Working (quantum amount +1).
Spells: Enchantment: Better wearability!
Taren Creyn (Tiruin)
Status: Blessed. Headache.
Injuries: Well-treated ones.
Equipment:
Broadsword, Crossbow, Longbolt ammunition (quantum amount -4), white cloak, grey tunic, belt, solid holey leather boots,
buckler.
Inventory: Whet stone, one filled waterskin, Cloth, lots of rations, ratman cloth, 118 cp.
Skills: White Magic: Healing, Anatomy, Swordsmanship, Marksmanship
Spells:
Menscur, Fogili, Nonsens, Mendia,
Leonic Cleanse,
Vi Vanita.
Ratherio Houston (borno)
Status: Out of breath.
Injuries: Those scratches might become scars.
Equipment: Purple robes of death!
TM, Wand of death!
TMStaff of death!
TMDagger of death!
TM Ring of death.
Inventory: 115 cp, Scrolls of:
Leaden,
Monovolt,
Lesser Silence,
Flare Arrow.
Skills: Black Magic: All of it, Agility
Spells:
Kortuch,
Leaden,
Costrus.
Remy Maelle (Remaelle)
Status: Okay, we're doing this. We're making this happen.
Injuries: The chest hurts every so often.
Equipment: A spirit talisman, knife, leather armour, traveling clothes, a backpack, Vintage pair of Chain Revolvers, buckler, 0 cp.
Inventory: Bedroll, rope, tinderbox, enough food to last a few days,
Debt notice,
officer's helmet, Contract.
Skills: Shamanistic Magic: Elementalism, Agility, Quick Reflexes, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Gunchucks Usage.
Spells:
MEGA BRAND Maka R'lyeh-Voile (IronyOwl)
Status: Warm.
Injuries: None.
Equipment:
Magical golden scepter, Very Frilly Dress, Backpack, Belt w/ pouches.
Inventory:
Surgeon's Kit, 105 cp, Book: Gene Engineering, Fleshgrafting and You.
Skills: Creating Servants, Alchemic Magic: Augmenting Living Stuff, Dodging, Black Magic: Curses.
Spells:
Psycho Shackles.