Staging Area
"It's possible. But what if, after talking about it, we come to the conclusion that we can't help each other? You're back to being my enemy, and suddenly it's in your best interests to shoot me, right there."
"That is always a risk in agreements between strangers, yes. I can give you my word that damaging the suit would be really inconvenient for me and hurting little girls is not something I enjoy. "He sighs.
"So if it's a choice between shooting you and letting you go, then you can go. Take my gun if you're afraid."He smiles again.
"After all, you didn't shoot me even though you could. It's only polite that I return the favor, right?"He's being sickeningly nice, unreasonably so. You don't sense any intent from him other than staying where he is, but there's no way he doesn't have something planned. People aren't this nice, even crazy people aren't that nice. Then again, is there anything you can do other than shooting him?
((July rains here, heavy rain everyday! D:))
Cherish them because you'd hate to switch places with me here in the Lone Star State. Summer: When triple digits are synonymous with pain and suffering.
"Straight to the point, I see. But also attempting to be polite." she says to herself as she gets up and starts walking towards you, descending the few steps from her throne.
"Didn't introduce yourself. That could be considered a faux pas."
She pauses to stare at you, frowning for a second.
"But, like you said, we're both intelligent enough to know we need no introductions."
She turns to address one of the suits of armour standing next to her throne.
"I liked Jack, the so-called King of Card Games. He was determined. Calculating. Ruthless. He could lie without the slightest tell. But the number of situations he can be useful in is limited and his evolution does not offer many pathways. One of my Knights will have better use for him."
He then turns to address the suit of armour standing on the other side of her throne.
"I still haven't thoroughly tested the one you call Princess Maxine Powers, but I'm not impressed by what I see so far. She has potential for growth but I'm not sure she will survive long enough to achieve it."
She starts walking back towards the throne, turning her back to you. You notice the knife resting in a silver sheath on her belt, hidden behind her back.
"Unfortunately, a job has come up. As the most promising so far, I'll use this Doll Prince for it. It will make for a good final test."
Though she does not speak directly to you (or at least pretends not to), she has answered your questions in an indirect manner.
♚The Doll Prince: One Sided Conversation♚
Napoleon arched an eyebrow as the Queen talked to the armor sets. Though one would expect this from someone who appeared to be prepubescent, Napoleon begin to wonder whether Her Majesty has last all her gemstones upstairs. Here's hoping that she's not psychotic or anything like that.
However, regardless of whether the armor sets are actually responding to the Queen or not, Napoleon begin to wonder whether there were even more people like himself. More annoyingly, it seems that Jack is still... an active factor. Sure he has obviously been devoured by those rat things but it seems that he would be brought back to serve one of the Queen's Knights, not that Napoleon was worried. After all, he can always rub it in his face whenever he want.
However, all paled in comparison when the Queen spoke of him being the most promising of her subjects. His ego stroked, Napoleon grinned fiercely for a few moments when the Queen turned her back to him. Such things are inevitable, given who exactly she was testing after all. Of course, once he passed the final test, he would be expected to serve her in whatever capability she chooses.
However, for the Doll Prince, that will only be the beginning of his destiny.
Wait patiently for the Queen to send him off to this mission, whatever it is.
((I dunno, over here we're currently having a pretty tropical weather (heat with occasional strong winds and heavy rain) and I'd say hot rain is only marginally better compared to just heat.))
She sits back down on her throne and looks at you.
"Hm."She spends a few more seconds looking at you thoughtfully.
"Very well then." she declares and stands up again.
"You will be going to the domain of one of my competitors. Do try to keep your eyes open for anything useful and you will be rewarded."With that, she waves her arm. You blink and you are in an old-timey tavern.
"This..." she points to a shadowy humanoid being sitting at one of the tables, waving as if she is unsure of what to call it.
"...person will let you know more." she finally says, somewhat dismissively.
((Keep reading.))
"Get me away from her and I'll fight the gods themselves"
"Nyan, you don't like me?" the thing complains.
The shadowman flicks his hand and the thing is thrown into the shelf behind the counter, smashing a few bottles as it does so.
"Waah, you're so mean Charlie-kun, waaah." it continues in an exaggerated manner.
The shadowman ignores her and calls you to the table. You are joined by another person you hadn't noticed before. He has a strange appearance. He's waring flash red and gold clothes, his skin is a bit too white and he wears a crown on his head.
"Kokkaku, this is Napoleon. Napoleon, this is Kokkaku. You may call me Charlie, everybody else does. And, now that the introductions are out of the way, I'll get to the meat of things."He leans forward. Though his form is nothing but wispy shadows, you get the feeling he's looking at you.
"A while back, we sent some guys like you to find a ship that had gone missing. However it's been a while and we still have no communication from them. So the idea is we send you at their last known location, you find them, you help them do their job, you bring them back. We'll also give you a way to contact us in case things are going terribly. Sounds reasonable?"
Campaign: Rebel Assault
Take cover, and get clear of allies, I don't want to make them easy to spot when I start setting things on fire...
Then start setting things on fire. I need to begin the flame growth process immediately if I want to have enough to work with then the threats arrive, and having the physical flames in place should help reinforce me and make the cleansing process much easier when I get back to it.
Did I manage to performing the self-cleaning I needed last turn by the way? You'd mentioned that I was getting a bit contaminated...
You're as clean as you can be. Given that you were unable to sense any previous contamination, you can't be sure about whether or not any is left. With all that Dark magic flying around, it's hard to tell if the cold and dark feelings you're getting are caused by the Dark magic around you or any that could had made its way inside you. Then again, you feel like you are you, so it's probably fine.
You ask someone to bring you your sword some distance away from the artillery teams and make your way there yourself. That done, you start burning stuff and gathering fire. A moment later you are joined by about a dozen recruits carrying torches and splashing alcohol on anything that looks remotely flammable (except you and themselves, of course).
<Hey! I'm supposed to be the distraction!>"We know."
<Then what are you doing here?>"We're helping!"
<What the- Look, I can't be the distraction if the thing I'm distracting them from follows me around!>"Wha-?"
Before the conversation can continue, your voices are drowned out by the sound of artillery firing. One of the shots lands on the small slope you're hiding behind, blowing away a good chunk of it and sending glowing shrapnel raining down on the surrounding area.
"Screw you! Throw another boomer!" one of the soldiers responds, unconvinced by her threat.
Theri walked up to the soldier who spoke that and disarmed him (all the while getting the most utilitarian accessories available like MOAR GRENADES) and shoved it right in front of his face because I accidentally the Renegade reaction button while looking at them with the worst face of annoyance she had--this was moreso to the annoying ringing than anything else.
"'Screw you' and your face," she said in her best imitation of their-being-a-jerk. Then she mentioned the notion of surrender once again, all the while checking for magical blockers or pathways for alerting others.
And then Renegade points go up while I go down the Paragon path because hey bonus point with no consequence but intimidation
Secure the area and perimeter, disarm and ensure the soldiers are unable to attack back.
And then check on the captives while proceeding with the plan!
You'd say the explosion was enough to alert everyone to your presence here. They might have bigger problems to deal with now that Nikolai is firing artillery on them, but they'll probably send at least some troops this way.
Zechariah and the mages will aid Theri's attack.
Theri lets go of the piece of wood she's holding and slides down to the first floor, landing next to a cage with a panicked man who is currently laying in a fetal position. She starts making her way to the offending soldier. Said soldier is preparing to throw a grenade into the wall of darkness Zechariah has created to cover the entrance. However before she can reach him, the last standing Archer on the opposite side of the room manages to hit her. It's only a glancing blow so the arrow doesn't get through her armour but it manages to stun her momentarily. A soldier tries to take advantage of that and slashes at Theri with his sword. She manages to get out of the way, but just barely. The delay cost her time however. The soldier throws his grenade, it goes through the darkness and... nothing happens. That's because the grenade never reaches the other side of the doorway, getting trapped in Zechariah's shadows.
Meanwhile, River runs towards the archer. A soldier tries to slash him as he passes by him. He hits, but the slash is not too deep, River doesn't seem to even notice it. River reaches the archer, jumps on him and grabs his hand with his mouth, shaking it around and mangling it pretty badly.
At the same time, Zechariah watches as the mage's Ice Shards get stuck in the doorway. Hm. Looks like he made his shadow barrier a bit too thick.
Back to Theri, the soldier that threw the grenade sees her coming and draws his sword. He raises it for a strike, attacking just as Theri lunges at him. Theri gets below his slash and grabs his sword. The two struggle for a moment but Theri is clearly superior. She twists her body so that her back is turned to him and pulls his arm, using her body as a lever to flip him and throw him away, straight into the other soldier. She quickly runs towards them and kicks their weapons away from them. They soldier tries to get up again, so she makes sure he stays down with a couple of well-placed kicks.
She starts shouting about how stupid they are and how they should just surrender, but her voice is drowned out by the sound of thunder, falling again and again, one boom after the other in rapid succession. The cacophony of noise is accompanied by bright flashes of light coming through the windows. The enemy airship must be firing its artillery on Nikolai's position.
((Normally I'd continue with your actions until combat is over or something significant happens, but I'm going to pause here to give NAV a chance to react since his actions might affect yours.))
Trebuchet aimed directly at the tower.
Our recruits were ordered to bring extra torches, molotovs, fire arrows, etc to help Irene build up her fire faster. Make sure those are available to her.
Not really sure if the lightning cannon risks hitting our teammates or the hostage team. I know it's inaccurate but also direct fire, not sure if I have line of sight to the warehouse or how close the airship is to it.
...Anyway, if it doesn't risk hitting someone we don't want to hit: Tsar the cannon! shoot down that airship!
Your recruits go help light the area around Irine on fire.
The Lightning Cannon supposed to shoot in a somewhat straight line, so it should be safe, since the warehouse is not near the airship. On the other hand you don't know how it will react to you Tsaring it (or where exactly the airship will fall for that matter). But, if you think about it, the same is true for everything you Tsar, so shooting first and asking questions later is probably the best choice.
You focus your power on the Lightning Cannon. You aren't sure how much time you have so you don't manage to pour too much Tsariness into it. Still, it manages to get quite bigger. You flip the firing switch, leading to the Charging Circuit making contact with the Power Circuit which is itself in contact with the Power Stone, the simple flip kicking the entire magical machine into motion. Its internal components begin to glow a soft blue and vibrate as power is drawn from its power stone, emiting a soft hum. A moment later you notice a similar glow appearing on the lightning cannons of the airship. Damn.
You yell at the two recruits to run away and they obey. You don't run away. You focus on Tsaring your water armour while at the same time making sure the airship remains in the cannon's sights. The cannon's hum has turned into a cacophonous noise as the vibrating metal parts have started hitting each other. The glow is becoming uncomfortably bright and you are starting to feel some heat, even through the water armour. Why isn't it firing?
As you duck to check the firing circuit, the airship begins its barrage, the first shot landing a dozen metres away from you, causing the ground to vibrate. The charging circuit looks fine, but -another shot, this one closer, you hear the noise of rocks plinking against the lightning cannon- it's not disengaging. You flip the switch but nothing happens. You flip it on and off again but the only thing you notice is the noise of the enemy barrage hitting somewhere near Irine.
You can't worry about that right now. You follow the line from the switch -momentarily losing track of it as another shot causes you to lose your footing- until you see the point where it connects with the Power Stone circuit, squinting to shield your eyes from the glow. It looks like your Tsaring combined with the heat has caused the Charging Circuit to become stuck on the Power Circuit instead of disengaging automatically. It's going to keep drawing power until either the Power Stone is empty or that thing melts. Or the enemy hits you.
"DAMN YOU EXPLOSIVE OVERCLOCKING!"((Going to pause here to give you a chance to react. And yes, the Sovereignty's mages are as concerned with how safe their devices are as the ones of the Kingdom. Possibly less.))
Campaign: Party Crasher
Alan, Bastion of Confidence
Walk up to the door and *ahem* like I'm expecting to be let through. If they question me, repeat the same thing about how I have a message for Ventis, it's urgent y'see so I've gotta get by ya there, etc.
You get the same response as before: the guards are instructed to let nobody through without permission, no matter how much they plead. They threaten to throw you in the brig if you lollygag.
Maximus: Medical Section
Brian Hoss, Maximus
"We've got a path out now!"
Try to disorient an enemy or two.
You lean against the wall next to the door and send your eye to help the others. Keeping track of an enemy with the same thing you use to see said enemy is not easy. Especially when they're jumping around like a bunch of drunken monkeys. You really miss your other eye. When you had two you could use one eye to keep track of the other, it took some coordination but it was doable. Right now you keep trying to catch the things with your eye but they keep jumping away. Hopefully it's at least distracting them enough for the others to finish them off.
Kosak Durar:
"There's more where that came from!"
The four-armed abominations are going down. There's no guarantee that headshots will work on them, so go for some central-mass body-slams and punches.
You reorient yourself and attach yourself to the floor, adopting a ready stance. One of the abomination comes at you but you are faster. You grab its arms, swing it above you and slam it into one of the beds, breaking the bed and impaling the creature in the fragments. It's still alive but it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
While you're distracted, one of the abominations finds the opportunity to grab you from behind, wrapping two of its arms around your waist to anchor itself and using its other two arms to grab your arms and start pulling them. You don't get enough time to react. Before you know it, there is a stinging pain and one of your shoulders ends up dislocated. The pain and adrenaline give you enough strength to manage to free your arms from the creature's grip, however its other arms remain wrapped around your waist.
<Svajoklis, Maximus>
Keep on firing.
You fire on the creature that's going to attack Kosak but the shot just grazes it. You are unable to stop it before it latches on to him. You consider shooting it again, but doing so would risk hitting both of them.
You instead shoot on another creature getting ready to strike him, hitting it through the centre of mass and blowing a hole through it big enough to see the electronics inside it sparking.
The only creature left that currently poses any danger is the one on Kosak's back, although there are probably more deeper inside the Medical Section.
: I've reached the Medical Section. Those things are giving me trouble. I'll be there in a few seconds, just hold on.: Icarus communicates through your Interface.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1125126 times)