((Are you fine with getting sent to assist the guys exploring the spaceship? Do you want to learn anything about that mission before you decide?))
Jack takes out a heart card and uses it on the beast to get it off him. While he's distracted, you kick him on his stupid face, once again sending him to the ground while you use the push to climb back to the platform. Through the open door, you can see Jack and the beast now under his control getting up and getting ready for another attack. More beasts are swarming around them.
((You mean that mission with the permadeath? Perhaps you can fill me in. On a totally unrelated note, we can create new characters, right?"))
♚The Doll Prince: Final Departure.♚
Napoleon gritted his teeth. That damn Jack just won't give up! It's like fighting against himself, only less magnificent and more drab. Oh well, the least he can do is to stall him.
Summoning two life-sized dolls to stall Jack and his thralled beast, Napoleon will close the door and proceed as intended.
((Yeah, you can make new characters whenever you stop using an old one.
The mission has the crew investigating a huge city-sized spaceship. They must gatherer info. They must reactivate the ship and bring it to Entity-friendly space if they can. For that reason they've been given a Seed that can reactivate the ship's main reactor. If they can't reactivate the ship then they should escape with as much info as they can gather about what happened there. If one of them dies, they need to bring back their Interface so they can be revived.
The spaceship called Maximus was in a pocket universe which is part of a larger network of pocket universes that are interconnected by stream Gates. Stream Gates can be opened by devices called stream Breakers. The entities believe there might be an Outsider ruling over that network, essentially a god-like being that is not part of the entities. However that network is also being colonized by the Light and the Dark, two groups of Entities. The spaceship was jointly built by the Light and Dark and was investigating a high energy anomaly when it disappeared. At first the entities thought it was destroyed when the high energy anomaly exploded. However they later got an automated distress signal from it, which originated from an unexplored pocket universe that was part of that same network.
The team arrived there in a ship called Phoenix accompanied by the Avatar of an entity called Icarus, to find the pocket universe full of a water-like liquid that messes with their abilities when they are in contact with it (some more than others). Their ship was attacked by an automated turret but they managed to disable it, though it was booby trapped by an unknown agent. They managed to enter the ship but they got attacked by an unknown person using jury rigged weapons and an exoskeleton. They managed to drive them away and made their way to the medical section to heal themselves. They saw signs of battle with unknown alien beings on their way there. They got there and healed themselves by then got attacked by the same creatures, which are apparently controlled by a crazy old man. They decided to make their way deeper into the medical section and take care of him.))
You roll well on initiative and manage to summon a doll to block the doorway. You then close the door and continue rising up. The beast throws your doll down and Jack opens the door again. However it looks like your platform has gone past a point of no return (or maybe the Queen has seen enough of your performance) so it keeps going. Jack fights but he quickly ends up dying a very gruesome death, having no hope of winning against the endless onslaught of monsters with his limited supply of cards.
Your platform keeps rising, going through the floor, through the casino floor that is now full of cheering guests, through the roof and higher still. Finally, after spending some time in the darkness, you reach another door. This one has no carvings on it. You open it to find yourself in a giant throne room. It feels cold, full of black and white marble. There are various decorative suits of armor around the room, some medieval, some more modern, some futuristic. The queen is lounging in her throne. A fair young girl with straight dark hair and green eyes. Her dress reminds you of the one the mannequin you stole the sword from was wearing. You can't read her expression, though you can tell she is watching you calmly.
Okay, slow down some, so that I'm making less noise. Find a nice corner that the point that's following me will have to go around, and silently hide there. So that when they round the corner to chase me, they'll be at the point of my rifle. Be sure to say "freeze".
You hide around a corner and point your rifle at the point where your ability tells you he will be. The moment he becomes visible, you yell "freeze" as loudly as you can (so you can be heard through the helmet) and thrust the rifle in his face. He responds by doing exactly that. You keep glancing at the large calibre handgun on his hand, which is currently pointing downwards. A direct hit from that would be bad. A glancing blow might be deflected by your armor, but even then it would probably hurt.
He looks a bit old, at least compared to you. Maybe in his 40s or at least approaching them. He's wearing a cheap-looking yet quite thick coat (which combined with his running has caused him to become a bit sweaty) and the cheap grey pants that most of the poor wear around here. His green eyes look alert and he isn't afraid to look deeply into yours. His hair is quite short and efficient, the sort of hairstyle preferred by divers and mercenaries. There's something about his face that's off, something that makes it wrong in some way. Maybe it's simply the way he can stay so calm despite running around and being one pull of the trigger away from having his head blown off.
"Hey there." he says with a smile, the rest of his body not moving at all.
"You know stealing is bad right? What's a nice girl like you doing with my rifle?"You can sense his two friends have reached the room you were in and are waiting outside with their weapons drawn.
((Sure why not))
"Japan, so, where the hell I'm I?"
"Ah, Japan, should had guessed." she says to herself.
She then gets up and shouts to the giant suit of armour.
"Hey, if you went shopping to Japan you could had at least brought me back a cute cat-boy instead of this guy.""Mine quest was for an honorable and capable knight, not for a lusty ruffian to quench thine vile urges." the suit of armour responds.
"Whatever. I can satisfy my urges on my own." she retorts as she sits back down.
"Hah!" the shadowman exclaims in amusement.
The bartender ignores him and addresses you instead.
"Anyway, where you are is in my tavern, Roger's tavern. (I'm Roger, by the way, nice to meet you.) This entire town is in what we call the Staging Area. A place where you wait to participate in challenges. That guy-" he says, pointing to the giant suit of armor
"brought you here to participate in the Games for Special People."
Campaign: Rebel Assault
Nikolai dramatically activates his ice sword and points it at the airship.
"Fire the ballista!" He yells as quietly as one can yell.
Watch the bolt as it flies towards the airship. If it's going off target, untsar it before it lands. Can't have a tsar bolt landing anywhere near the civilians or rescue group.
At your command the Artillery crew pulls the lever just as Lune removes his shield and crouches behind it. With a great *kthunk* the bolt flies off, the vibrations causing the Tsared crossbow to struggle against its supports. Moments after being launched the bolt flashes, the cracks on it glowing brightly. It flies through the air like a tracer round, allowing you to easily track its course. It looks like it's going to be on target. Then, moments before impact, several things happen at once.
The bolt emits a flash and explodes into several fragments. Each fragment trails behind it a stream of its alchemical contents, some of which condenses into a snow-like fallout but most of which solidifies into gigantic ice harpoons falling in a buckshot pattern. Then a moment before they reach the airship, the air around them distorts. The distortion spreads to their surroundings, twisting light until you can no longer make out the shape of the airship and the tower is a spiral line. A fraction of a second later the distortion reaches its breaking point, quite literally. The bolts tear their way through it and it snaps back into place, now with a dozen or so holes in it. Cracks quickly spread from the holes and parts of the distortion begin to fall off like pieces of a broken mirror, dissolving as they reach the ground.
Behind the now (again, quite literally) broken illusion you can see the airship as it actually is. Its sails and wings are unfolded and fluttering in the wind, meaning it's parked but could start moving at any moment. It looks like the illusion was shifting your view of the airship somewhat, for while it looked like it was aimed perfectly, your bolt was actually slightly off target. The ice bolts have hit mostly the front of the ship, damaging its hull and ripping its front sail and left wing.
Next to the airship there's the tower, the Spine as they call it. Without the illusion covering its top, you can make out twisting tendrils of Dark magic above it, glimpses of fiery light occasionally appearing inside them before they are pulled back into the darkness, drawn inside the tower by the Dark ritual.
Then there are the... beings at the top of the tower. You don't know how to describe them exactly, you can't even see them that well. In the darkness, you probably wouldn't had noticed them if it weren't for two things. The first was that they are huge, the largest being at least twice as high and three times as wide as a human. The second is that they started moving the moment your bolts hit. One of them appeared to dissolve into a shapeless twisted mass of lines and fall off the side of the tower, while the rest spread out to take its place.
You don't know what that thing that fell off the tower is, but you don't think it's dead. In fact, you get the feeling it's coming straight for you.
Theri trusted River like she trusted...anyone, for that matter. Given his size, he would be at least less conspicuous than anything else, although anyone that spots him would be curious at why such a cute creature would be indoors. Thus, he was the best person suited for the job.
River, I choose you!
Give the awesome buddy a lift, and he can do anything with it, like scout or even unlock the interior if he deems it safe. We communicate by telepathic link or mundane animal calls. Or cricket chirps--whichever insect that is sounding off present in the non-descript area.
She looked around after giving her close(st?) buddy a lift, and wondered what to do or where to hide if there was any patrols unmentioned in the area. The thought that people could just 'sense' magic as if it was inherent to you much like heat sensors much like anything else was quite much on her mind; hopefully objects in between could block these unfounded rumors.
You throw River's pokeball through the window You nod at River and then gently grab him and throw him up. Your throw is good and he easily manages to make his way through the window. As soon as he makes his way through the window, he starts transmiting images of what he sees, small pieces of his view that help you paint a picture of the inside of the warehouse. The inside is split in two sections, essentially two large rooms. The second floor is more or less a very large balcony held up by wooden supports, meant to be used to operate winches and levers that can be used to move heavy objects on the floor below.
The first floor has a few makeshift cages holding the imprisoned civilians and a few large heavy-looking boxes, probably leftovers of whatever goods the warehouse used to hold. They appear to be in a somewhat better state than the ones in the previous warehouse, but still not in the best of states. Guarding the prisoners are about a dozen soldiers, swords and bows at the ready, some of them with Air grenades on their belts.
There's also soldiers on the second floor, three of them, hiding behind wooden supports. River focuses on a soldier behind a pillar, a bow and arrow in his hands, whispering something to the people on the floor below. He's asking them to send someone to ask for help or at least for some orders and information. The others are arguing that if they call for help without reason they may be punished. The transmission cuts off for a couple of seconds. When it reappears, the soldier is saying he heard something and goes to check the window behind him. River stalks him, approaching him from behind. The transmission cuts off yet again. A moment later you watch with your own eyes as the soldier flies out of the window and lands on the street. Looks like River started taking them out. And he's not the only one who has started doing things.
There's a flash of light. Something like a shooting star falls from the sky, shattering the darkness around the tower and hitting the airship docked on it. Looks like Nikolai started shooting his artillery. You need to get these prisoners out of here as soon as possible.
Campaign: Party Crasher
Alayne, Accidentally Forgetting To Post For Several Days
"Whoo my me, that's quite the view! I really should be sharing it with somebody. If only there were a certain magical individual in sight. Hmm. I could cause a cheese commotion to lure Ventis out like the proverbial mouse. But I'm a princess, even if in disguise, and princesses are supposed to be able to act delicately and gracefully. Buuuuut if I'm to catch a wizard, I have to think like a wizard!"
Alan casts his mind back to a piece of advice lent to him by a true wizard long, long ago.
"Wizards like magic missiles. Missiles are technically a propulsion system. The propulsion system for this blimp is the bird heart thing, which is magic! That's where Ventis is, my logic is impeccable."
To the power core! Or somewhere where observing it is possible - if anyone questions me about why I'm wandering about where I shouldn't be, say I have a message from Lord Audrey for Ventis that needs to be delivered ASAP so if they have directions that would be nice.
You make your way deep into the ship, letting the flow of magic guide you to the Power Core. You keep following it until your progress is stopped by two armoured doors and the guards standing watch in front of them. You can feel the power behind those armored doors. It feels very tasty. The guards however look at you with suspicion. You don't think they'll let you in.
"What are you doing here? This is a restricted area."
"I need to get in there." you say, pointing at the armored doors.
"And what business does a servant have in the Power Core?"
"I need to deliver an urgent message to Mister Ventis. I was told he was using the Power Core. So will you let me in?""No. My orders are to let no one in." the guard says, remaining completely impassive.
"But Lord Audrey said my message-""Irrelevant. Nobody gets in the Power Core without authorization. That includes you. Now get out of here before I-" he says as he moves closer to you and tries to grab you.
"But you don't understand! It is very important that I see-" you continue trying to convince him while taking a few steps back.
"What's all this commotion? We're trying to work here, you know." a voice says from behind the door.
You notice a slit in the door has opened and there are now two blue eyes watching you from it. Before the guards can respond, the slit sides closed and the door unlocks.
"Wait! Sir!" one of the guards complains but it's already too late.
"What's going on out here? Who is this?" the old man says as he walks out, bringing the smell of ozone with him.
His clothing makes you think he's one of the mages from the college, though you haven't seen him before. Maybe a mercenary mage.
"Just some servant girl. Says she has a message for Master Ventis."
"A very urgent message from Lord Audrey." you correct him.
"And what is she doing here?""She was told Ventis was using the Power Core."
"Silly girl. Ventis is not drawing from the Power Core directly. He's using the Extension Cord on the bridge to prepare the second part of the demonstration.""Oh, how silly of me. I'll go get him right away. Thank you!" you say as politely as you can and turn around to walk away.
"Wait!" the mage orders you.
You freeze.
"You don't look like the usual servants. You are a servant, right?" he says, examining you closely. Does he know?
"Of course sir." you respond, remaining completely casual.
The mage remains thoughtful for a few seconds before his thoughtful frown turns into a smile.
"Oh, good! When you get back to the kitchen, tell them to bring some food here as well, some, er, you know, those little round bread things, with the cream and the sweet taste, what are they called...?""Doughnuts?""No, not that.""Sweetrolls?" one of the guards supplies helpfully.
"Sweetrolls! Yes! Thank you! If you could get me some Sweetrolls, I would be very happy. Now, go, silly girl.""Right away, sir."You make a polite bow fit for a princess and then prance away.
"What a silly girl." the mage comments.
"Yeah, Lord Audrey will hire any fool these days."
"Excuse me?""Sorry."
"Right. Thought so." the mage says as he goes back into the Power Core.
Maximus: Medical Section
Brian Hoss, Maximus
Try cooling the molten core.
Whatever is in there doesn't appreciate your attempt to interfere with it. There is a distorted scream and the core begins glowing more and more brightly. As its intensity becomes higher and higher, you feel something grabbing your vortex. You try to pull it away but by now it's too late. You feel it pulling the opening wider, trying to crawl through it. But the vortex is too unstable for that, this world is pushing it too much. The vortex can't take it. Under the stress of the two opposing forces, it explodes, sending fragments flying everywhere. Having your eye explode is not a very pleasent feeling, it makes your head sting, but it's not a debilitating pain. You know it will stop when your vortex eventually reforms and you stop being blind from one eye. But you also know it would be even worse if one of your fragments hit you. You dive behind cover, avoiding all of them.
The explosion throws white-hot stuff through everything. The burning matter doesn't appear to be cooling down. A few of the fragments have gone through the door, making a few holes in it.
: Power core 2 lost. System instability 80%. :
: Argh. You really are a nuisance. Do you know how long it took me to set that up? :<Svajoklis, Maximus>
"Well, we can either deal with fleshy blockade, molten blockade or angry eyeball brigade. Can either of you get through the fused door, or failing that, through the meat door? I don't fancy fighting the eyeballs in large numbers."
Follow Brian, do an ammo check.
I'll assume you picked up some ammo from the dead soldiers and have quite a lot. Otherwise you'd probably be out by now, and I don't like your chances fighting those things with your bare hands.
The quick reflexes your ability grants you allow you to escape the explosion and the ensuing shrapnel.
Kosak Durar:
There are smarter people to figure out how to get to whatever's making these things. Kosak, meanwhile, will be keeping the monsters off said smarter people. By extreme and rapid application of punches and kicks.
You stand guard near the door, ready to defend the room from these creatures. Those people are smart, they should be able to figure out what to do, right? As if to answer you, there's a scream from behind you and something explodes. Okay then.
The creatures are gathering behind the door of the opposite room. Looks like they're going to rush you any moment now. You count 4 of those things with the 4 arms and the big eye. There's also something that looks like a sphere with six proboscis-like appendages. From what you remember from the black box recordings of the dead soldiers, they use those appendages to propel themselves. They can also bring those appendages together to launch a ranged attack, some hot orb of stuff.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1140929 times)