Take a break and consult TZINACAN's secrets.
"So what can you tell me about these runes here? I'd rather not push my luck at this point."
Bit of magic too since I lost my cleaver/sword, 08 a5 full COMP.
[COMP: 8/2] Spell
You conjure up a dull metallic mace that clangs to the floor heavily.
Worlds align. Beasts coalesce.
Bound to inscriber's behest.
Agents of the Crown cull the forgotten as to sate their dark pacts.
Cloaked daggers, tempered with the blood of the innocent.
They know you are here. They are here to slay you.
Pass this threshold and what lies beyond shall manifest.
Devoid of empathy, devoid of mercy, devoid of humanity, yet in human guise still.
Look.
Listen.
Smell.
You'll be able to discern their amushes and formations with enough attention.
But look not too far, listen not too close, and smell not too deep, lest you lose your mind.
We have altered you to be resistent, and you may become more resistent still with time.
Your comrade here, however, is not so fortunate, and in any direct combat may very well be a liability.
These entities were never meant for a true warzone. In such confined spaces, explosives may work wonders.
You can see the shadows shift and waver in the hallways beyond the runes.
Keep following Beirus. Have Caladlebolg and necrotic missiles at the ready. Prepare my mind for any more attacks on my free will from IV.
Shoot the maelstrom ahead of us with my Bound weapon. Hope the Ladlemonger can take care of the one behind us, or the one in front if I don't destroy it. Keep heading down the hallway and towards the anomaly-causing object.
Eight rune masks detach from the walls and begin forming whirlwinds of icy shards and chipped concrete around themselves as you raise your weapon. Two range from half ruined walls you can see below due to the building being full of improbably large holes, while three approach from each side. You fire at one of the trio ahead.
[UTAR vs. SDEF: 6 vs 7] Beirus open fire with Bound Weapon
[UTAR vs. MDEF: 6 vs 4] The Ladlemonger tags in with Caladlebolg
Your hail of small arms fire pings off of the creature's whirling body of concrete and ice, the cyclone of debris slamming into your rounds, peturbing their trajectories enough to miss the masks within. You comrade jumps forward and swings with the ladle, unleashing a torrent of necrotic energy at the enemies.
The necrotic blast strikes all three and they are flung backward several meters by the impact, a good amount of their mass is now gone, having been rusted or crumbled by the decaying influence of the attack. They move back further and begin slowly growing once more.
"Oh crap this shit..."
Shut down alcubierre drive systems if it doesn't affect anything else. Jump backwards balancing on one leg and... shoot the thing some more. I suppose the vital part doesn't move within the thing too much.
[UTAR v SDEF: 6 v 6] [LTAR v MDEF: 6 v 7] You fire on it and it parries the blows with a flurry of sword strokes, your accuracy suffering due to the blaring warnings in the cockpit. It attempts to fire on you but you drop below it's sword strokes easily. Slap fight over other things begin occuring.
[1d100: 2] Alcubierre Drive Stability
Well, looking over Corsair's notes, if you rolled one lower than you did, you'd have ended the game. So uh,
congratulations, I guess?
It's... what?
It isn't shutting down.
Why? Why isn't it shutting down? What kind of incompetent buffoon designed this piece of shit? How the hell is it even still functioning well enough to fuck you right now? That's like, the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do! It gets damaged, it stops; those are the rules, and for good reason at that.
"> Warning!""> Acubierre Drive is now critical!""> Attempting rectification... rectification failed.""> Destabilization event imminent!""> Purging rear plating... rear plates purged.""> Ejecting capacitor...."Your frame lurches forwards, the weight shifting forwards.
"> Acubierre Drive stabilized.""> Acubierre Drive disabled."Whatever it just ejected was not a capacitor, not even close. Veiled in a shifting region of twisted space it sails in a peculiar trjaectory, randomly shifting and "skipping" back and forth like a broken video, its indistinct, vaguely spherical boundaries discharging with transient, spiralling tendrils of nothingness.
And then, something
happens. The veil compresses, deforming, the discharges hasten but without the tendrils, as if the "capacitor" was grasped by the hand of a wrathful god. The "skipping" intensifies, as if trying to escape, yet in the end, it fails.
It begins to shudder in midair, and, according to your enhanced vision, is about to be thrown straight back into the midst of the battle.
"I suppose you could call what we did... and what I assume he did after... that."
Hmm
Start with some magic testing:
"3d 72 -t"
Mess about with that in the safest way possible. I'll leave what that means up to you (I'm definitely going to die again)
Look around to see if there is anywhere the script-boundary looks less intense, or if there is a natural entrance over it, or hell if a lightpost happens to dangle over out of the heat-haze. Even look for nearby manhole covers, maybe I can sneak in underneath the security (something I should have considered last time).
If no such ways around make themselves apparent, try and find a pebble, or some other non-magically-summoned boring-something, and throw it at a 45 degree angle over the line of script, but thru the heat haze, be ready to duck behind cover if dangerous things happen, or if an alarm sounds. ALSO BE WARY OF LINES OF SIGHT TO THE TOPS oF THOSE DAmN BUILDINGS! Snipe me once shame on you, BUT SNIPE ME TWICE *eyetwitch*
======== < line of script
/ < direction of throw
/
@ < me
If nothing happens I may throw the crayon and see if it is triggered by magic things, next test after that being fleshy things of course 
There is a tree branch that lies over the line and it is quite odd. The point where it crosses the line is covered in the same runes circling the branch along with being present on the ground, like when line painters spray straight over bits of wood. Just to be sure, you snap a small branch off of a nearby tree and throw it across, and indeed, you find that the runes encircle it as it passes through before returning to normal.
[COMP: 9/-14] Spell
Your spell goes off, but nothing seems to happen.
"Hehhehehheeehhhhh... I have all the power! ALL OF IT!"
HEROIC LEVELING UP!
Exterior Spending:
+0 to Static Defense
+16 to Mobile Defense
+2 to Liminary Targeting
+2 to Unbound Targeting
Interior Spending:
+7 to Compatibility
+13 to Transcendance
Now then. James takes a rest. And eyes the blasted corpse, some distance away from it. If it moves, it gets gravity gunned. Once the explody kill zone disappears, James takes a look at it and sees about looting it.
So you sort of sit down, your lack of feet making it hard to remain standing, and wait. You wait, listening to the distant crackle of gunfire, the unearthly explosions, and the sonic booms. You wait, as buildings crumble in the distance, as battles rage too far to see, too close to ignore. The zone remains. Your vision indicates that your foe is either truly dead, or too busy evaluating its life choices to dare attack no matter what you do, however the killzone around it remains very much active.
Author
Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 177408 times)