Staging Area
"Hello again! I see you communicate via punches? I don't think I'll land like you, though."
A hang glider, obviously. Sail around and observe the staging area by air.
((What about an Entity Challenge? Shouldn't be awful long, and it'd be a nice mix of violence and character development from an entity, especially if we pick a wordier one like Drake. In fact, he'd probably be my first choice if Harry didn't mind missing out. Which of course brings up a question on how much, if any, "dibs" a player has on things relevant to their character's entity.))
It's just as you remember it. A slice of land between two cliffs, a small forested area with a river running through it and a small town in the middle. What you hadn't seen before is that beyond the part of the staging area you know is a large forest on one side and a large mountain range on the other, forming a sort of wall. There doesn't appear to be anything interesting nearby though. Even the large road that goes through the staging area's town leads nowhere, becoming a dirt road and then disappearing completely as it moves further away from it.
Oh, look, there's people on the road. Looks like two new guys, one of them with a Crow on his shoulder, the other one with a slight green glow.
Staging Area
"Roger D. Drake, at your service." the man says with a small bow.
The crow jumps on his shoulder as your group begins walking towards the town.
"I knew Alice once!" *caw* "She run and run and run and run. But could not get away! Always stayed the same."
The man continues speaking, responding to your question to the crow.
"People call him Nick, although that's not his real name. But, seeing as his real name can't be translated to English, I suppose it's as good a name as any."
"Anyway, do you believe in magic?"
"Do you believe in fairies?" *caw* the crow asks, flapping its wings slightly to maintain its balance.
"Shhh."
George answers the question, with uncertainty evident in his voice:
"Uh...no. Sorry Nick, I don't believe in fairies either."
George sighs, and continues speaking:
"But...I used to think aliens were nothing more than science fiction, and I was completely wrong on that. Let me guess, magic is real too? Am I going to run into Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny while I'm here? Wouldn't surprise me at this point..."
((Edit: I agree with Toaster. I also vote for an entity challenge mission. However, I would prefer it be related to Stellar. I'm curious of what's been going on with her trial.))
"No fairies? Fairies die. Clap your hands!" *caw* "Fairies are tasty. Better to be eaten!""Nah, no worries man. Just asking because it makes things easier. Tell a man who accepts magic that 'A wizard did it!' and it makes the explanation much more simpler, you know?"It's a small walk to the town, the first buildings appearing a minute or so after you begin your walk. It doesn't look inhabited though. It's like everyone suddenly disappeared from it, leaving everything orderly behind them, as if they expected to return from vacation a week later.
"Anyway, let's start with the simple things. You are currently in what is called 'The Staging Area'. And the Staging Area is like a pocket of reality created and maintained by two very powerful beings. And those two beings enforce certain rules here. One being, nobody may get hurt or die, physically or mentally, as long as they are here. I believe you experienced that during your fall from the waterfall?""On slippery rocks the human slipped. Much fun!" *caw*"Another thing is that you may attempt to change anything in here, as long as it doesn't violate the first rule. So, if you are thirsty, you may chose to wish for food and the two will work to grant you this request. If you are bored, you may chose to invert gravity. And so on."You continue following the main road, moving towards a central plaza. It has a fountain with a statue in its centre. There's also a man there, you think, as well as a few broken terracotta statues.
"Do you have any questions on the 'where' or should I move on to the 'why' part of your question?"
OOCAll right then, entity challenge it is. If there's anything particular you want to know, a question you want to ask or a vote you wish to cast, bold it so that I don't miss it.
There's a lot of entity challenges I like, but the one I like the most gameplay-wise is
Violet and
Nick, mostly because of the Conduit mechanic, because they are not too strong in direct attacks but instead rely on more fun tactics to win. Even though it requires a bit of extra notekeeping for me.
Of course, that's just the GM in me speaking about gameplay. If you're looking for exposition or an easy fight, you're probably better off choosing someone else.
((By the way, River is a valid Entity Challenge. And he only has a difficulty of six.))
Yeah, should probably remove that, since River is busy on the campaign. He can't magically reappear in the staging area. I could come up with some excuse for it like "an imperfect simulation based on data from S0" if people really want that fight, but eh. Besides, he has a fun fighting style and he might be able to win if he gets John first, but I think it would be a too easy fight.
But they can fight Darkstar instead. Although they'd probably fail since he's completely OP. Ron and John might be able to hold their own for a few minutes, if they're lucky and the others buy John some time to set up.
There's some entities that are missing from there, I think. If there's anyone you're interested in, ask and I'll give you the info.
My coloration is similar to that of red tailed foxes. orangish-brown body, white belly, black near the paws that fades into the same color as the body as you go up, white at the end of the tail, band of black low on the tail but white on the actual underside afterwards which isn't usually visible. white on the inside of the ears.
And @ checking if he's inside me I mean I'm suspicious that his attempt to eat me was a form of possession attempt, and that when he aborted it, he left himself inside me instead of me inside him, and that he might try to take over my mind/body at any time. I'm checking myself, my smell, my actions, my mind, to try to find any foreign influence. That's also why I used self-addressed telepathy, in an attempt to communicate with River in the case that he's sectioned himself off in a part of my mind. The trigger for my innate telepathy is the inability to speak, so he should have access to it assuming I'm correct even if he can't use comwire telepathy... assuming that the functionality for that wasn't rewired too, since the access to that is tied to my respawn mechanic as per my original design.
If Ike ended up putting me down to complete his actions, then I'll burn the last of my flame generation ability to change back to hybrid form. If he is still carrying me though, then I'd prefer to stay in his arms and stay in my current form.
If I'm in hybrid, then I'll go to the ruins of the shirt I had JUST gotten, and see if it's salvageable or I can find a replacement. If so, then I'll put it on.
((I think players specifically do *not* have dibs on things relating to their entity. There's an Entity-interaction story going on in the background, and people that want to investigate that are going to have to interact without limits with several different people's entities. For example I have an ongoing interaction with Charlie, who is someone else's entity. Mine's Stellar.))
Cool thanks, just curious.
About him being inside you, this reminds me of a past conversation. I bet Xan is going to start going 'giggity' again. EDIT: Or more appropriately, 'blubitty', since he is currently drowning in a bottle.
And yes, it's not like you have any ownership of your entities OOCly. If you want to request that others leave it for you, that's OK. If the others chose to not respect your request, that's OK too. There are no such rules in place.
IC, you are free to do whatever you want and get involved with the plot, the entities and RP as much as you want. Nobody is going to force you if you're just here for the missions.
((We've seen a lot of River lately... and I want to see Alan on his challenge to get him nice and wound up.
The crow is Charlie, right? He'd probably whip us down, though it'd be interesting to see his capabilities.))
Crow is Nick. Shadowman is Charlie.
Irrelevant: I just found one of the most ridiculous superpowers:
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