Staging Area
((...Can someone remind me what I was doing?))
I sent you a PM with your upgrades. You can start with that. Otherwise you can assume you're with the others in the courtyard, waiting for the briefing to start.
*shrugs* "Something crazy and fun, I would imagine. You know how that guy is. Last report says he's probably still alive. Which is to say, we know the mission isn't a TPK yet and I know that guy is too damn lucky to die when there's people around he could torture. Still don't know what's taking them so long though. So take that how you will."
"Hah, no kidding. That guy's a laugh riot; I'd hate to see something bad happen to him." John paused a moment. "So... what exactly happens after the so-called final challenge?" Something told John that Rodger would be less evasive about the answer.
<Basically? You're thrown back where you came from, unless your entity has made special arrangements to transfer you somewhere else, but that's quite rare. That's almost all that the rules require of us.
Of course it rarely is as simple as that. The entity that chose you is very likely either in control of wherever you come from or has a vested interested in that place. And they know that if you survive your final challenge, they'll be leaving a pretty powerful individual in the middle of that place. You can bet your butt it won't be the last time you'll hear from them.
However being in a world influenced by them can also be a perk, since many tend to grant a wish or final request to those who complete their final challenge successfully. So if you've got something you really really want, you could get it. Please don't be so unimaginative as to say "money, power and sex", with powers like yours I bet you could get all three easily... assuming they don't lock you up somewhere to run tests on you.>"Yeah, you got that right. There is a very unstable situation at the moment that is unfolding very quickly. I'm going to need the best you Special People have to offer on this job. That means you and the suit, along with anyone else who's willing to help. If your entities agree, of course, but I get the feeling they will."
"But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Give me a moment and I'll start the briefing."
"I see. I'm in, sure, and I think Zero sounded committed. Sure, yeah. I'll go bother the others while you get together."
Noticing Saevus, John walked up to him and nodded his head. "Well played, Saevus. I thought you had me back there for a bit. I'm not sure what that goo was, but it was nasty."
Feeling the need to test his new abilities, John summoned a small recon drone.
You summon a small floating spherical arrangement of parts. It begins zipping around by using the twin fans at its equator, scanning things at random with a blue beam and emitting various beeping noises as a result. Charlie shoos it away like it's an annoying fly before it can get a good scan and it emits some displeased beeping noises as a result. From what you can tell, the number of beeps indicates danger or usefulness or magic or something like that, since it beeps more when it scans Saevus than it does when it scans that guy with the vortices than it does when it scans inanimate objects. Then there's also pitch and tempo which you have no idea what they mean. Maybe you should get an upgrade that lets you summon the manual as well.
"Would you be kind enough to direct me toward the courtyard, sir?"
Head to the courtyard.
"Yes. Go through the door."You follow his directions and end up in the courtyard along with the rest of the players. A drone immediately gets in your face and starts scanning you with a blue beam. That would probably be even more uncomfortable if you saw with your human eyes.
Constrict and crush him. Stab him. Shoot him. Maybe shove the spike in his mouth and blast his internals if he keeps trying to bite me. That endoskeleton is tough, so I don't need to hold back. Keep charging. Will myself to charge faster or blast harder, or to produce an RME that will help me out.
You attempt to constrict him but your already tenuous grip has slipped even more. Your anchors are not so much holding him as they are just getting in his way anymore. It might be for the best, if this had kept going you would have started to lose control of some of your anchors due to the extreme cold anyway.
You fire a barrage of energy blasts on him while trying to hit him in the mouth. You blast the flesh off his head and a good part of his back, but don't manage any devastating blows. At first he continues blindly attacking you, even after you blast his eyes off. He finally jumps away, trying to hit your core with his tail as he does so, but is blocked by your anchors, only managing to slice through one of them. He lands with his side facing you.
By now there's not much flesh on his head, it's nothing more than a glowing white-hot skull with only a bit of flesh showing inside his mouth through his teeth. Yet despite that, you get the feeling he is looking right at you. You can't see any weakpoints though, his head's vaguely pyramidal shape hides any joints you could hit while he is facing you. You can see that the heat has spread through most of his body by now as even the tip of his tail has started to glow a bright red. Yet the inside of his mouth is still dark, so that thing must have some interesting heat-conduction properties.
He stand there for a moment, looking at you. His tail slides against the snow, releasing a small cloud of steam due to the heat. And yet ice is still growing on him, replacing the missing flesh. His back actually appears to be cooling off, the glow fading. His angry half-growl breaths tell you this fight is probably not over yet. Still, he is no longer blindly attacking, so he might be taking you a bit more seriously now.
Your core glows brightly for a moment. The glow spreads to the field surrounding your core and escapes in the form of four orbs of light. They land and embed themselves on your anchors at random, forming egg-shaped protrusions made out of a fragile-looking glass-like substance.
((You can try to suppress your RMEs to charge faster.))
Campaign
Get the strongest bottle of the strongest drink in this establishment. Tsar it and pass it around.
"Ha ha! Drink up!"
Oh dear...
...
A bunch of dwarves are hammering your head and the sun is trying to burn your eyes through your eyelids. At least this bed is somewhat soft and someone has left you naked so your sweat does not feel that bad. You pull the covers tightly over your head to try and shield your eyes from the sun and noise coming from outside.
Well, if the first guy is going to sell his weapons in return for getting a ride with the nomads, what use does he have for the wagon? It'll only slow him down, I should think.
As for the third, maybe he can come along with us? He seems like a crafty sort and we're going to probably link up with the military at some point. Safety in numbers, says I.
Beyond that, sleep until morning to see the Head Waiter!
(("Head Waiter! I wish to make a complaint! There's a fly in my water! Flies in water are unacceptable! This basin is unacceptable! Unacceptable! UNACCEPTABLE!"))
You try to convince the first trader that he has no need for the wagon and so he should just give it away to you. The mention of "giving away" appears to elicit some sort of instinctive response out of him and he immediately says no and keeps saying no to any further arguments. Maybe you could somehow have him earn something out of it?
The third considers your offer for a moment before accepting. He says he'll get his business in order tomorrow and then join up with the rest.
((Assuming you have nothing to add)) you bid the traders farewell and wish them good luck. They seemed to have enjoyed meeting with you or at least drinking for free with you. One of them tells you that if you do make it in your crazy journey to Kodromota, you should talk to the Guildmaster, Skacren-Ett, show him a little stone figurine he hands to you and tell him he sent you. If the Denion Trading Guild still has any presence there, this should help curry some favour with them.
You get up and make your way to the bartender. On the way you notice Nikolai has created some horrid mug that menaces with spikes and the certainty of future hangovers. Your men are daring each other to drink it. You're certain this won't end badly for anyone involved so you continue on your way.
You ask the bartender if he has any rooms available. He says he does not, but he directs you to someone who might have something available. As you leave the inn, you are approached by a hooded man. He says he heard about your skills (no doubt thanks to your men talking around) and that he has a job to offer to you, if you are interested, but it would be best if you discussed away from anyone who could overhear. Do you wish to follow the shady man to an isolated place and listen to what he has to say?
"Hello friendo!"
A new friend! Greet him/her in the proper fashion, by running full-tilt towards them in excitement!
You run full speed towards the walking figure just as she rounds the corner. There's a momentary surprise in her eyes before she jumps out of the way, barely avoiding your charge. You're going too fast to stop and end up falling straight into the fields of reed-like plants, landing in the water with a loud splash. Luckily the water isn't too deep.
Paris, I've gotten confused about where the war is in relation to our travels, will we reach Nether Pass first?
Also, Irine should be able to sense bond-formers right now, right? did she detect Riverinside his soulsphere, and did she detect him when he left? what is her detection radius approximately?
The "war" (although Ike knows now it is more of an occupation, since it doesn't sound like there's much fighting going on) extends (again, based on what on Ike knows) to Kodromota and the surrounding villages and settlements. Assuming you don't draw too much attention, you could probably make it there unhindered, although the occupation will probably make it harder to move. I can MSPaint a quick map to show you more or less what's going on if it would help.
Well, assuming you spent some time putting River's soulsphere in various distances and trying to sense it, you'd figure out that you have to be pretty close to reliably sense anything, within grabbing distance, and even then it was easy to miss. It's not a very easy to describe feeling. Like a weight in your chest that is so light you can sort of feel it but aren't sure if you're just imagining it. Who knows? Maybe you
were just imagining it. Maybe you were just feeling his presence like you normally do when you're too close to the soulsphere. Or maybe you need to have some preexisting magical sense to be able to feel things like that. Or, didn't River say you had a part of him inside you as well? Maybe it was that part of you resonating you were feeling, nothing more. Or maybe bond-formers have to interact with you in a special way for you to gain that sense, maybe the interactions you've had with bond-formers so far were "wrong", in a way. Then again, he was in a soulsphere, so maybe that made things harder. Or maybe he was intentionally trying to hide, even then. Now that you think about it, you also felt something quite similar to how River feels when you were approaching that village where you fought that shadow monster, like you were being watched, which in retrospect makes sense since River was involved. So maybe the "trying to hide" theory has merit, since you were able to sense that from much further away? You have no idea. Maybe you just need to practice.
To sum up, you might be able to tell if River is nearby, if you concentrate or are lucky or maybe some other condition is met that you aren't certain about at the moment. You're not sure what the deal is with other bond-formers. You'll probably just have to wait until you come across one.
You didn't feel anything when he left. Well, no, that's a lie, you did feel his presence but there wasn't anything especially different this time compared to all the other times he was using his magic.
Gaaaah I thought this had been posted a day ago!
> Wave at the people in the distance (but be sure to secure and hide all items on person that seem pretty suspicious, like that soulstone. Move to a side, and have Irine resting on the shoulder opposite so that I block any vision to her face if-in-case-she's-awake.
> Quickly check in with San on details about the people. Examples include: Do you know them/are you familiar with them? Is there anything jogging your memory about their clothing? Could you tell me more about this area? Is it normal for people to pass through here?
You stand out of the way, carefully hide all items that could be considered weird or intimidating and then sit down in a non-threatening manner and await their arrival. As they get closer, you ask San about them.
"Could you tell me more about this area? Is it normal for people to pass through here?""I don't know much about this place. People pass through here often. It is the main road connecting the east and west sides of the kingdom. I don't think anybody lives nearby though. People just pass through here. I think it's because there are not many plants or animals or much water here. With so few stuff here people would not be able to live here together so they would just get lonely so nobody lives here. That's what I think, anyway."By now they are close enough that you can clearly make out their clothes and faces. And the same must be true for them. You can see the change in their behaviour as they realize what you are, their surprise followed by fear and then brief deliberation before they continue advancing, more wearily now, some of them holding small knives.
San scoots a bit closer to you.
"Are they going to attack us?""Don't worry San. They're just scared. They don't want to fight just like we don't want to fight."Your words manage to reassure him a bit but he remains close to you.
"Do you know these people?""No... I mean, I don't think so.""Are you sure? Maybe their clothes look familiar?"San squints, trying to make out every detail.
"No, I-"And then suddenly his face lights up.
"Wait, I know him!"Before you can stop him, San gets up and runs towards them, shouting
"Hey! Wait! It's OK! Don't be afraid!"One of the travellers stands in front holding his knife in front of him while the rest take a few steps back.
"Stay back! Stay back or I swear to Krolm I'll gut you! I'll do it!"San stops, shocked.
"I-It's me. Don't you remember? I was on my own and you helped me find the others?""Oh. You're- Yes, I remember. You're that boy. Erm...""San.""Yes, San. What are you doing here, boy?""Just traveling.""With her?""Don't worry. She's nice."He doesn't look convinced, but he lowers his knife.
"It's dangerous what you're doing.""No, I mean it, she's really nice, she-""Not her. Well, not only her. You shouldn't be going east. Things aren't good.""What do you mean?""People are being taken. They're enslaving everyone for the slightest offense, true or false.""Well... I'll just have to be careful then. I need to find my dad."With the situation being less tense now, San continues speaking with the man for a while, trying to get information that could tell him where his dad might be hiding while the man tries to convince San to abandon this quest and come with him.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1128899 times)