((Paris: would it be permissible for me to prep a new character just in case Kosak meets a horrible permanent end?))
We could talk about it, bounce some ideas around and have me give you a rough estimate about how balanced they are, but processing, balancing and finalizing characters is not too easy or at least not as fun as coming up with new characters. I'd rather do it at the final second.
If you don't like him as a character or want to try something else, you can just "retire" him.
((Is there anyone active in team B?))
You are. If you don't want to continue on your own, you can always commit suicide.
Which reminds me, I should put DreamerGhost back in the Staging Area.
Team A, WMD
"Maybe. You got moonshine? The entities or whatever the fuck abducted me to take part in their games haven't given me any good hooch. And I suppose I have to ask, why did you take the girl? If you hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't be here. Hell, the Eleven of Diamonds seem to be powerful individually. You can even make your own place in a different dimension, or whatever this is. What did you need some random girl for? Does she have some untapped potential or something clichéd like in those moving pictures mah pa took me to see in the city? Or wait, is she actually the daughter of one of y'all and this is just some fucked up visitation rights shit, like with mah Uncle Clem?"
Talking, resting. How am I doing on energy?
Feeling slightly better.
"We have anything you might desire. And what we don't have, we can take.
The girl is one example of that. We wanted her. We took her.
Erinys thought she could turn her. Use her. Have fun 'playing' with her.
But that is not why we took her. She was part of a job. Easy and high paying. A way for us to get what we need. And that is all.
That fool that chased us barely slowed us down. But now things have changed.
It seems there has been some outside interference. What you are saying confirms it.
But it doesn't make a difference."
"So, you have gotten your answers boy. How about my answer? Will you join us?"
"I am going to need a few drinks after this."
Kosak looks back through the hole, trying to figure out what happened. If the giant is still coming after him, he takes a fighting stance and demonstrates his martial superiority over the giant. If the giant is also disposed of... Kosak tries to find a door he has not yet gone through, and goes through it if it is not too dangerous.
You really can't tell what is going on in there. Just looking inside makes your head hurt. You get away from the hole, close your eyes and rest upon a mostly intact wall, trying to stop the world from spinning. At least you don't hear much from in there, so you assume there's nothing there coming for you.
Once you feel like you can walk again, you head towards the door on the opposite end of the hallway. Opening it reveals the other side of the room you were just in, with the protective barrier in the middle further reinforced with some shutters to keep the light out. About half of the room seems to be missing, replaced by a hole showing only clouds.
The room has some workbenches in it, as well as some more or less standard sci-fi equipment. Tesla coil, Jacob's ladder, green glowing rock, bubbling pink vat, hamster in wheel, jetpack, microscope, protective goggles... Much of them seem to be connected to a rather unsafe looking power source of sorts, something that looks like a pole with a fireball at its top. Lightning comes out of the fireball, hitting some bits around it and causing them to spin.
The short man from before is currently in the process of trying to enter what looks like a literal giant tin can. It has 6 wheels arranged in a circle at its base. One of its arms looks like a can opener while the other is long and cylindrical with a rounded tip.
"Get out of here, you meddler! This is my room! And those are my machines!" he screams at your direction.
Team A
"I understand." Bryan turns to the strange woman, "Now you said that you could get us out of here. So, I think its time to go."
Follow instructions for getting
I'm assuming the end of that sentence is "out of here".
The woman remains curled up, holding her injured head.
"She shot my fucking leg. Ah. I can't hear-" she complains in between sniffs and moans.
Joanna takes a step closer to her and leans down.
"The way out! Now!" she shouts while touching the barrel of the gun to her bloodied temple.
"Argh! Fine! Fine. Just please don't let her shoot me again." she pleads you while hiding her head behind her arms.
Joanna takes a step back and the woman relaxes a bit and sits up, but doesn't look up.
"The circle should be there. Under the snow." she says, pointing at somewhere behind her.
"Can you-..."She lifts her head to look at you.
"Can you please help me walk there? Please? My leg hurts."
Storm Coming
<Hm. Well. Unless I've suddenly forgotten how to count, that's two votes for accepting surrender, one against and... one for surrendering, apparently. ... Whatever. I'll let the vote go on for another second, but unless something changes, I think it's time to call this one.>
<However, since the conditions for victory were 'the one who deals the killing blow is the victor', we need another way to decide that now. I think we'll make a quick vote between us on that. Unless there's any disagreement, I'll be shipping you back to the staging area now.
I mean, obviously John dealt the final blow and did some serious damage, but he lacked innovation and coordination with his teammates, making it through the match through sheer luck, power and the help of his teammates. If it wasn't for Saevus, Ron, Rune and Adam inadvertently protecting him and causing some serious damage themselves and Rune and George serving as a distraction, he would had been the first to go. Not to mention how much the others helped in draining Nick's strength and pinning him in place near the end. In the end it was very much a team effort, even though they didn't act like a team very much.><Sometimes all it takes is a desire to help each other and achieve a common goal.><Indeed. But that doesn't mean they couldn't had done more if they had focused on actually working together. This was supposed to be a quick and easy fight for them and they barely pulled through. Had Saevus' final attack missed or had they been a bit more unlucky the fight would had ended very differently.><Sometimes it doesn't matter how you win. Only that you win. Through skill, through luck, through trickery. A victory is a victory in the end.> <With that, you have my total agreement. Well, I suppose we can always give them something harder later. Perhaps something that will show them what real teamwork looks like.>((So, take some more time to vote while I process the new characters and get you your upgrades. Probably sometime during the weekend.))
Campaign
((Making this a bit short because I fell asleep halfway through writing the campaign part and I can't really think right now and make a good quality post.))
"He's a tower mage, and is why I'm keeping my distance. The tower in the capitol exploded a couple weeks ago, and the survivors formed a camp in the ruins. We got lost and needed directions, so Ike and I went to their camp to ask for help. Their sentries led us to Kassiver, said he was a local leader. He took us to an isolated corner of the camp, talked for a little while, then sucker-punched me with a paralysis spell, called me an upstart animal that needed to learn to respect its betters, had his guards restrain Ike, and tried to... Ike broke free and saved me. And now I don't know if I can trust any of the humans from around here. No matter how much I screamed, nobody came to help me. All they did was watch. What makes you different from them?"
"Hm. That is sad. But not unexpected." the man says quietly to himself.
"I am different. I can offer no physical proof of my intentions or my honesty. Nothing beyond my words and current actions." he shouts back at you.
"You may not be interested in my words, in my stories, so I will simply say this: I will give you the respect you deserve, both as guests and as people. I do not consider you equal to humans, for you are not. Each species is different. I've seen it for myself. You cannot treat them equally. But you can treat them with equal respect."
"So I promise I will treat you with the same good will, the same caution and the same respect I would treat any man, elf or beast that would come to my home. I will try my best to honour my word and do what I think is good. I am a warrior. A man of actions. I will not let fear stop me when there is something to be done."
"That is the best I can offer you."Ike smiles placidly as he nods his head in Irine's direction. "Ah, as I said, a mite unfriendly. Very nasty bit of business that was. Part of the reason why I felt the need to try and assuage fears of beast people a moment ago. Which she actually is not a representative of, I must add, at least not of the local variety you may be accustomed to. You would be surprised what a cornucopia of animal people you can find among the myriad strange realms of mysticality."
"More importantly, have you heard word of any strange creatures in the east? We are looking for one. I think River would be able to tell you more. Maybe the description will ring a few bells," he continues, looking at River. "Mind telling the general more about the dragon?"
"I understand. I am sorry that happened. Sounds like a very bad misunderstanding. But there is no need to worry about me. I've interacted with beastmen in the past. I know a thing or two about them. She might be different, but she is also similar. So I am ready to try to look at things from a different perspective."River growls something that is not very easy to hear, considering he is further from you than Irine and you are not sure about whether he actually said something or merely growled in a way that sounded like words. Whatever it was, it sounded negative.
"Dragon in the East... You mean the one at Dragon's Hole? Grazisti? I think that one hasn't been seen in years. Centuries even. Not that anybody has been foolish enough to go there and find out. Nobody that I've heard of, anyway. I suppose there's always the one fool trying to steal the dragon's hoard. ... That's not why you are looking for a dragon, right?"Alan says things, but mostly in the background while everyone else is speaking.
"Aw, but it was gonna be a gigantic corn and everything. Ah well, we've got plenty of food if you wanted already.
I don't know much about what's going on, just that we were here to do something or other but then we all kinda got sidetracked and no one told me again what we were gonna do. Did you say I was a chaos mage? That's pretty cool, reminds me of that Chaos Dunk I did earlier on the giant disco ball when I accidentally didn't kill those two guys. Hey, you said you have farm animals? Imma go see what they look like. Maybe pet them! Hopefully they don't bite."
Prance over to wherever the farm animals the guy mentioned are and look at them intently.
"Don't-" the man starts saying but you're already gone.
"Gah. Terrevieve!" he shouts back towards the building.
In response a rather peculiar person comes out of the building. Said person (who you assume is Terrevieve) has ears quite similar in size to Ike's, only unlike Ike's, Terrevieve's are a bit more oval, more pointy and pointing upwards. Terrevieve has very... what could be described as traditionally feminine features. Long black hair, tiny nose, clear skin, small thin figure, big eyes... All that's missing are giant breasts.
"Try to keep him from breaking anything important, will you? And try to keep your distance. He is dangerous." he continues.
Terrevieve nods and goes towards you, getting close while maintaining a safe distance, but in an oddly jovial way, with walking looking more like skipping.
You approach one of the wooden buildings and look inside.
There is a large number of small creatures inside. They look like woolly balls with two giant eyes and three spiky legs. Most of them are crowded around each other, standing on a small mound of dirt.
Some approach you curiously but keep their distance, looking at you curiously and making a sound that could best be described as "meep!"
"Why are you asking, if I may ask? Are you looking for that man? Is that why you are here from all the way... where is that place you came from, again? West? South, across the sea? Or from the North?"
"We're from very far away, far enough that those directions don't apply. Different worlds. I'm from the north in my world, but that's not the same north you know. We came here through a portal in the fire tower, and through a malfunctioning teleporter and rocky canyon with way too many zombies and tentacled parasites before that. We're a bit lost actually.
So what subjects did you study, general?
You probably already figured out that we're not just a group of bards. We're on a very very important quest, hunting down a traitorous monster to the east. Do you have any weapons or armour to trade or other way to help? We can pay you with things or information."
Talky talky.
"What do you mean? In terms of magic?"
"I am sorry. I can not help you with that. I have no weapons beyond what I need to defend myself and hunt." 
Please auto me because of multiple reasons my activity has dwindled in the recent days. Thank you.
Sure thing. Wish you the best.
Poll
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1140751 times)