Sutoratosu
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Pokemon Reborn Development Blog
Pokemon Rejuvenation Development Blog
Posts posted by Sutoratosu
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For her troubles, Lucille found herself hit with a searing blast that sent her flying backwards into the very circle of protection she'd erected, landing on her ass with just enough force to injure yet another part of her, before she tumbled head over heels and slowly rolled like that for several more feet...
Only to feel as a cat paw firmly planted itself on her back and stopped her from going any further; an average feline likely would've been bowled over by her momentum, but nay, not this one... for this cat's paw held the same might and resilience of the purest iron. Stoping her on a dime had been mere kitten's play, and Do was sure to drive home that fact, as he nonchalantly licked said paw afterward, glancing at his master. Two very familiar dragon whelps landed beside him, one of which looking unusually tired... probably because it was Astra who'd grabbed hold of the kitty by the scruff of his neck and ferried him out of the bus, once they'd heard the big ass tiger approaching.
Thanks? Lucille sent over their bond maybe there is something more to you. Maybe you've just been dicking with me this whole time... but if you have been, doesn't explain why or how my power could still work on you...
Like always however, she got jack squat in terms of a response suggesting actual, sapient awareness. Do simply mewed, continuing to clean himself as if the bloodbath around him wasn't happening. In all honesty Lucille didn't know how to take it- though part of her mind, the part that had resided in Do ever since she'd bound him, was more than a bit convinced that the peice of her own subconscious self she'd left inside him had been just as, if not more responsible, for the help as the Cat himself. Shaking her head, she sighed Well doesn't matter, that's one question that can wait....
You She turned her attention from Do to the Bond she shared with the green Whelp, Brachus Looks like this is your trial by fire, little guy. Let's see what you're made of. Inside of this circle, there's nothing to stop you from helping keep people alive as long as you can.
Moves:
I. Lucille (quite unceremoniously) enters the Sanctuary!
II. Lucille Swaps the Trump Sanctuary for her dragon Brachus! Brachus will remain inside the Sanctuary along with her!
(As a note, Swapping out sanctuary from her load out does not end or otherwise disrupt it's effect whatsoever)
III. Lucille will play the Healing Kazoo on whichever ally has the lowest health! Brachus will use his Restorative Breath on whichever Ally has the second lowest health (If no one else is injured, he will use it on the same target as lucille)
(Heal Kazoo restores [6d5]% Mhp on the target. Restorative Breath heals 1d6+Syn{5} HP on the target)
SpoilerLucille
10/28 HP
7/14 Bonds
Essence: 7
Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 7
Intelligence: 13
Resistance: 8
Strength: 0
Synergy: 0Relevant Perks
The 3rd Instance: [When Lucille casts a thaumaturgical Spell/Ritual, the numerical effects of said spell/ritual are boosted by 1.3x]
Beast Heart: [Lucille has a number of "Bonds" equal to her Essence*2. These "Bonds" can be expended to bind living, non-sapient beasts/monsters and turn them into companions under her control. Binding beasts requires Lucille to spend her action forming a Bond with them, at which point a number of bonds equal to ½ the Beast's Int will be expended, with a minimum requirement of 1. If Lucille doesn't have enough open Bonds available to satisfy this cost, the binding fails. The bonds expended on them will be restored to Lucille upon either the Creature being reduced to zero hp in battle and dying, or by her dismissing them, which may be done at any time as a free action. Bound Beasts who are dismissed will never turn hostile towards Lucille or her companions unless attacked after the fact. Bound Beasts have Stats and Actions identical to their normal counterparts, and act simultaneously with Lucille during her turns.]
Slots: 7/7
Actives (1)
Edge of Silence- Lucille utters an incantation, causing a harmonic resonance in Animus and producing a Wonder within the Physical Realm: Sound itself condenses and twists into a winding blade that seeks out and slices whatever has earned Lucille's Ire.
~Current Effects~ [Active. Thaumaturgical Spell. Launches 2 attacks that deal (1d3+Int) sonic damage each, these attacks ignore Damage Reductions, but Damage Immunities still apply. They may both be aimed either at the same, or different targets.] (boosted by Grand Thaumist Perk)
Passives (2)
Uncanny Senses- Lucille has spent her entire life missing her sight, but her taste, smell, touch, hearing, and other senses have all been amplified in order to compensate. Though she cannot see, she actually has a far greater situational awareness than most sighted people, and is more than capable of functioning effectively in dangerous situations...
[Passive Ability. The user gains +1 move in combat, making it so they always have a minimum of 2 moves rather than 1. This ability is not eligible for any upgrade.]
Walking Bestiary- Lucille has extensive knowledge of many beasts, from their habits, habitats, and physical traits. In battle she draws on her extensive knowledge to use her bound beasts to far greater effect, having them work together to cover each other's weaknesses and amplify their strengths.
[Passive Ability. Beasts who are bound to Lucille gain a 20% boost when dealing damage.]
Trumps
Tricks
Equipment (3)
Serpent Staff: It resembles a short, snakeskin-bound staff with a large reptilian eye set into the headpiece. The eye blinks every so often.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. Fires 4 bolts of green energy that deal 1d4 necrotic damage each, and restore that much HP to the user. If the user attempts to use this weapon while at 0 Int they are knocked unconscious and cannot act until their Int is equal to or above their starting total.]
Draco Vest: A small but incredibly durable vest. At a glance it appears to be ordinary fabric, but upon further examination it's actually made up of countless overlapped wyvern scales, which harden upon impact to protect the user from harm. It has several pockets which have some stretch to them, and are durable enough to hold even magma.
~Current Effect~ [Bound. Grants +6 Res while equipped. Able to carry extremely dangerous materials without risk.]Healing Kazoo: A Metal Kazoo painted a bright metallic color. The special root in it's paper vibrates with a healing tone.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. When used, restores (6d5)% of the target's Max HP.]
Beasts (1)
Bracchus
SpoilerBrachus
Sex: Male
Race: Draco Vitae ("Life Dragon")
-A Dragon Lucille created on accident while working on the splice technique and triggering an oversight. Colored a sterling Emerald, It has Breath resistant Scales, a Cross Shaped, red flap of skin on its back, and a thin tongue it uses to focus its breath weapon. Ironically though, Its breath heals those exposed to it rather than harms them, and it seems to be especially effective when used to heal other dragons…Stats
HP 20/20Essence: 5
Constitution: 5
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 5
Resistance: 5
Strength: 5
Synergy: 5Actions
Active
Feral Tactics- [deals 1d6+Dex damage. When fighting Rodents or Avians however, deals 2d6+Dex instead]Restorative Breath- The specimen opens Its mouth and exudes a breath filled with rejuvenating essence, healing wounds and soothing pains. It seems to be especially powerful when used on fellow Draconic entities [Heal 1d6+Syn Health. When used against fellow Dragons, heals 2d10+Syn Health instead.]
Passive
Hunting- [This unit gains a 10% bonus to their stats while tracking or using stealth, with a minimum boost of 1.]Dragon-proof doc- [The user has +10 RES against attacks from dragons, and +20 RES against attacks from friendly dragons.]
Tricks
Fly (Trick)- The user takes flight [The user is in the air, and all that entails.]
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"Locking oneself away, believing the outside world to either be foolish or doggedly determined to undermine them... and determined to become Liches... yes, yes, it sounds quite a bit like a madman of Nybeth's caliber..." He hefted his blade up, and with speed far quicker than might be expected of such a weighty weapon, flicked his wrist as he drew in a bit of mana from the air around them. The resultant shockwave of dark energy, which soared out over the desolate landscape for several dozen meters before it finally petered out, carried with it all the blood and gore that had once coated the knight's blade.
Blood and Gore belonging to the very man Freya was making her new minion. A brief, surging aura of black creeped up from his boots at the same time, crawling over his armor like an army of worms as it seemed to.... drink, lap up the blood spilled upon his armor...
and for just the briefest of moments, Freya likely would've heard a demented cackle echo faintly from Stellio's position... though the voice was obviously far deeper and... unnatural than any human could ever muster. Stellio didn't even acknowledge it, just sheathed his blade
"Only four however? How surprising, Necromancers in Valeria are...well, not common, but not nessacarily rare either. Or they used to be. Only Galgastan dared to actively support their research, but then again, that cannot be unexpected... Galgastan as a nation had much to answer for; everyone did, in that war...
regardless, I don't suppose you have heard of these other four by name then, have you? Surely if you're world is as adverse to the practice as my homeland was, then learning what you're doing now couldn't have been as easy as simply waltzing into any library and requesting materials.... someone had to have taught you."
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"It...It actually..." Lucille was rendered speechless for a few moments, as the beast had expertly countered the attempt she made. She could practically feel it's smugness, hidden beneath the torrent of raw, unbridled hunger that seemed to be the key driving instinct in it. "I almost don't believe it... these things, some of them could probably hold rational discussions on any sort of abstract subject, if they had the appropriate awareness to go along with the raw information processing ability."
What the hell are they, She pondered surely the animals here didn't just evolve to be like this... if they have, why are the humans still alive, these things aren't that far off from potentially acheiving sapience themselves, and well...
She recalled the images of the ruined city around them that even now, she could see through the eyes of her pets... who had taken it upon themselves to stay in the bus and watch from the windows, like good, sensible little beasts who could sense when they were much too far out of their league to survive.
Know what, maybe the humans here are actually on the way out, and just haven't been fully evicted yet.
It was just then however, when she began to hear footsteps in the distance. Monstrous steps, steps that even as faint as they were now, still sent small vibrations through the ground and coursing up lucille's body, along with a slight shiver running down her spine... at just what the hell in this world could be big enough to create such footfalls.
"Somethings coming this way!" Lucille shouted, loud enough for each and every last person in the area to hear it "Something BIG! I'll set up a circle, fall back to it if you're too injured to fight!"
Moves
I. Lucille casts Edge of Silence, splitting the 2 hits to target 2 separate Ogre Tails!
(Launches 2 attacks that deal [1d3+Int{13}]*1.3x Damage Each, Ignoring Damage Reductions such as from Res or Armor, but not Immunities)II. Lucille fills the empty slot in her loadout with the Trump "Sanctuary"
(Self explanatory...)
III. Lucille Casts Sanctuary! Allies may come and go as they please, Enemies are forbidden from entering! Lucille will not stand inside the circle's boundary upon creation!
(produces a protected space of shimmering light. Any entity standing within the boundaries of this area will have any hostile actions made against them nullified, but will also be unable to use any hostile actions themselves. This Circle lasts for [Int(13)/2](*1.3)--> 9 Turns, and requires an action in order to Enter or Leave it.)
SpoilerLucille
28/28 HP
7/14 Bonds
Essence: 7
Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 7
Intelligence: 13
Resistance: 8
Strength: 0
Synergy: 0Relevant Perks
The 3rd Instance: [When Lucille casts a thaumaturgical Spell/Ritual, the numerical effects of said spell/ritual are boosted by 1.3x]
Beast Heart: [Lucille has a number of "Bonds" equal to her Essence*2. These "Bonds" can be expended to bind living, non-sapient beasts/monsters and turn them into companions under her control. Binding beasts requires Lucille to spend her action forming a Bond with them, at which point a number of bonds equal to ½ the Beast's Int will be expended, with a minimum requirement of 1. If Lucille doesn't have enough open Bonds available to satisfy this cost, the binding fails. The bonds expended on them will be restored to Lucille upon either the Creature being reduced to zero hp in battle and dying, or by her dismissing them, which may be done at any time as a free action. Bound Beasts who are dismissed will never turn hostile towards Lucille or her companions unless attacked after the fact. Bound Beasts have Stats and Actions identical to their normal counterparts, and act simultaneously with Lucille during her turns.]
Slots: 7/7
Actives (1)
Edge of Silence- Lucille utters an incantation, causing a harmonic resonance in Animus and producing a Wonder within the Physical Realm: Sound itself condenses and twists into a winding blade that seeks out and slices whatever has earned Lucille's Ire.
~Current Effects~ [Active. Thaumaturgical Spell. Launches 2 attacks that deal (1d3+Int) sonic damage each, these attacks ignore Damage Reductions, but Damage Immunities still apply. They may both be aimed either at the same, or different targets.] (boosted by Grand Thaumist Perk)
Passives (2)
Uncanny Senses- Lucille has spent her entire life missing her sight, but her taste, smell, touch, hearing, and other senses have all been amplified in order to compensate. Though she cannot see, she actually has a far greater situational awareness than most sighted people, and is more than capable of functioning effectively in dangerous situations...
[Passive Ability. The user gains +1 move in combat, making it so they always have a minimum of 2 moves rather than 1. This ability is not eligible for any upgrade.]
Walking Bestiary- Lucille has extensive knowledge of many beasts, from their habits, habitats, and physical traits. In battle she draws on her extensive knowledge to use her bound beasts to far greater effect, having them work together to cover each other's weaknesses and amplify their strengths.
[Passive Ability. Beasts who are bound to Lucille gain a 20% boost when dealing damage.]
Trumps (1)
Sanctuary (Trump)- Lucille, through muscle memory and automatic writing, draws a runic circle on the ground, before triggering it's activation and causing a resonance in Animus, producing a Wonder within the Physical Realm: anyone standing within the boundaries of the circle is sheltered from hostility, but cannot make quarrels either while they remain inside.
[Thaumaturgical Ritual. Creates a Runic Diagram that produces a protected space of shimmering light. Any entity standing within the boundaries of this area will have any hostile actions made against them nullified, but will also be unable to use any hostile actions themselves. This Circle lasts for Int/2 Turns, and requires an action in order to Enter or Leave it. Lucille may specify upon it's creation whether she will be inside or outside of the boundary, as well as who she will allow to enter and leave the boundary; by default All allies are able to come and go as they wish unless explicitly deemed otherwise. Once per Encounter Cooldown.] (boosted by The 3rd Instance Perk)
Tricks
Equipment (3)
Serpent Staff: It resembles a short, snakeskin-bound staff with a large reptilian eye set into the headpiece. The eye blinks every so often.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. Fires 4 bolts of green energy that deal 1d4 necrotic damage each, and restore that much HP to the user. If the user attempts to use this weapon while at 0 Int they are knocked unconscious and cannot act until their Int is equal to or above their starting total.]
Draco Vest: A small but incredibly durable vest. At a glance it appears to be ordinary fabric, but upon further examination it's actually made up of countless overlapped wyvern scales, which harden upon impact to protect the user from harm. It has several pockets which have some stretch to them, and are durable enough to hold even magma.
~Current Effect~ [Bound. Grants +6 Res while equipped. Able to carry extremely dangerous materials without risk.]Healing Kazoo: A Metal Kazoo painted a bright metallic color. The special root in it's paper vibrates with a healing tone.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. When used, restores (6d5)% of the target's Max HP.]
Beasts
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Stellio had stood away from the others, as conversations of insane murderous machines, horrid beasts, and golem armies were had, though in truth he'd heard every word even if his attention was not directly on it.
What truly occupied him at the moment was the bursting, burning trail through the sky that the Rat Man streaked as he fled, and Stellio was almost certain he could hear the fool cackling like he'd lost every last marble he ever owned. He removed his helm, tracking the comet-like tail as it grew fainter and fainter over the horizon
"What in the goddamn...?" He shook his head, not entirely sure how the rat had managed to literally ride upon a wave of his detonations, but at the same time, not entirely in the mood to bother questioning it much. And quite the head is was, now that he'd shown his face for the first time since this had all began; a chiseled face, darkened by the countless hours it had spent under the sun, weathered and worn much like an old stature left out to the elements... except the scars and marks stellio bore where the results of past engagements and too many years of service to bother counting by his reckoning. His eyes were little more than twin pools of dark-- dreadfully dark --color that seemed to sap the very light from the air around him, so dark, there was practically no distinguishing between what was iris, and what was Iris. All of it was framed by unkempt, dark locks draping down to his shoulder blades.
Helm in the crock of one arm, stained with the spatter of crimson shed with his foeman, and filthy blade resting in the opposite hand, he took a moment to observe what was left of the killing field...
And it was just then when he noticed the girl behind him, poking over the butchered corpse he'd left in his wake. A very peculiar bear he'd helped slash up (for even now, he could spot the wounds he'd inflicted marring it's hide) was pushing the cart in the distance, like the mindless thrall it was. Given the... methods she'd cleared out the explosives during the battle, and the evidence staring him right in the face, it didn't take even a full few seconds before the Knight put two and two together.
"Hmph, yet another opportunistic necromancer, picking over the killing field in the hopes of using the recently deceased." Surprisingly however, his tone was not so much judgemental as it was... merely an astute observation, one so tired in delivery it sounded like it'd been made too many times to bother counting "Pray that you do not fall to the same insanity as the others I have encountered, girl. Mania seems to be a recurrent theme among those who toy with the dead, regardless what they claim their reasons to be."
-
Almost immediately, the Girl set her attentions on what seemed to be the strongest of the presences, the winged humanoids. Up so close now, the feeling she'd gotten earlier had only grown clearer, and she beyond any shadow of a doubt, these things were indeed like perverse colonies of ants; countless of small and insignificant individuals working in tandem to form a much greater whole. But just as with a colony of Ants, she could sense somewhere within it, a nexus, a control center, that dictated the efforts of the group through oh so subtle signals.
And it was that nexus she felt which she reached out to with pieces of her conscious mind, probing and scouring for footholds to take root in, that she might take advantage of the creature's lack of Sapience and install some of her own...
Moves
I. Lucille Binds one of the Chi-Yous, Using it to fill in her empty loadout slot!
(Against Non-Sapient Beasts/Monsters, expends a number of Lucille's Bonds equal to 1/2 the target's Int in order to turn them into companions under her control; Binding fails if Lucille doesn't have enough Bonds available to meet the requirement. 7/14 bonds remaining)
II. Lucille will cast Edge of Silence on one of the Fallen Zygotes!
(Launches 2 attacks dealing [1d3+Int{13}]*1.3x Damage Each, Ignoring Damage Reductions such as from Res or Armor, but not Immunities)
III. Lucille will Attack one of the Ogre Tails with her Serpent Staff!
(Fires 4 bolts of green energy that deal 1d4 necrotic damage each, and restore that much HP to the user)
Loadout/Stats
SpoilerLucille
28/28 HP
7/14 Bonds
Essence: 7
Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 7
Intelligence: 13
Resistance: 8
Strength: 0
Synergy: 0Relevant Perks
The 3rd Instance: [When Lucille casts a thaumaturgical Spell/Ritual, the numerical effects of said spell/ritual are boosted by 1.3x]
Beast Heart: [Lucille has a number of "Bonds" equal to her Essence*2. These "Bonds" can be expended to bind living, non-sapient beasts/monsters and turn them into companions under her control. Binding beasts requires Lucille to spend her action forming a Bond with them, at which point a number of bonds equal to ½ the Beast's Int will be expended, with a minimum requirement of 1. If Lucille doesn't have enough open Bonds available to satisfy this cost, the binding fails. The bonds expended on them will be restored to Lucille upon either the Creature being reduced to zero hp in battle and dying, or by her dismissing them, which may be done at any time as a free action. Bound Beasts who are dismissed will never turn hostile towards Lucille or her companions unless attacked after the fact. Bound Beasts have Stats and Actions identical to their normal counterparts, and act simultaneously with Lucille during her turns.]
Slots: 6/7
Actives (1)
Edge of Silence- Lucille utters an incantation, causing a harmonic resonance in Animus and producing a Wonder within the Physical Realm: Sound itself condenses and twists into a winding blade that seeks out and slices whatever has earned Lucille's Ire.
~Current Effects~ [Active. Thaumaturgical Spell. Launches 2 attacks that deal (1d3+Int) sonic damage each, these attacks ignore Damage Reductions, but Damage Immunities still apply. They may both be aimed either at the same, or different targets.] (boosted by Grand Thaumist Perk)
Passives (2)
Uncanny Senses- Lucille has spent her entire life missing her sight, but her taste, smell, touch, hearing, and other senses have all been amplified in order to compensate. Though she cannot see, she actually has a far greater situational awareness than most sighted people, and is more than capable of functioning effectively in dangerous situations...
[Passive Ability. The user gains +1 move in combat, making it so they always have a minimum of 2 moves rather than 1. This ability is not eligible for any upgrade.]
Walking Bestiary- Lucille has extensive knowledge of many beasts, from their habits, habitats, and physical traits. In battle she draws on her extensive knowledge to use her bound beasts to far greater effect, having them work together to cover each other's weaknesses and amplify their strengths.
[Passive Ability. Beasts who are bound to Lucille gain a 20% boost when dealing damage.]
Trumps
Tricks
Equipment (3)
Serpent Staff: It resembles a short, snakeskin-bound staff with a large reptilian eye set into the headpiece. The eye blinks every so often.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. Fires 4 bolts of green energy that deal 1d4 necrotic damage each, and restore that much HP to the user. If the user attempts to use this weapon while at 0 Int they are knocked unconscious and cannot act until their Int is equal to or above their starting total.]
Draco Vest: A small but incredibly durable vest. At a glance it appears to be ordinary fabric, but upon further examination it's actually made up of countless overlapped wyvern scales, which harden upon impact to protect the user from harm. It has several pockets which have some stretch to them, and are durable enough to hold even magma.
~Current Effect~ [Bound. Grants +6 Res while equipped. Able to carry extremely dangerous materials without risk.]Healing Kazoo: A Metal Kazoo painted a bright metallic color. The special root in it's paper vibrates with a healing tone.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. When used, restores (6d5)% of the target's Max HP.]
Beasts
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"That's going to be no use- oh forget it, what do I care..." Lucille mumbled as she staggered out of the bus after the others. She knew she was already too late as lilly's voice faded and the sound of leathery wing flaps replaced it. She rubbed her eyes, still groggy from the mere twenty or thirty minutes of sleep, at most, she'd managed to get before the damn shaking woke her. Already however, she'd taken stock of their surroundings, smelled the dust and musty rot and ruin that permeated the broken, desolate shapes and rough landscape that bounced back as she clicked her tongue a few times, noted how despite the smell, the air quality itself wasn't actually that bad...
and of course, she'd almost immediately picked up the ferocious roars over yonder. The dragons and the cat had exited the vehicle on her heels, and through all of them, she'd borne witness to the various, huge beasts hounding the two soldiers. In many ways, they reminded her of some of the predators she'd seen back home... yet
yet as she called upon the power of her bloodline, expanded her senses and lightly probed over them, there was something... unlike anything she'd experienced back home. Almost like there was a hivemind in effect? Colonies of some sort? Almost like Algae, or... well the closest she could describe to it animal wise would be ants... extremely organized, coordinated ants. Yet it didn't necessarily feel like the individual beasts themselves were hive minded to each other per say, no, the feeling... it was more internal.
"How...Bizarre..." The girl muttered, as she reached into her satchel and pulled out one of her staves, bringing it to full length "So much for sleep, but.... I'm not complaining, if I get the chance to study one of these things... whatever they are..."
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After she'd given Soma the Kit and let her work on it, Lucille had examined the resulting crystals after a heavy thud- sounding like something had hit flesh rather...painfully came from the other girl's direction. She was actually pretty surprised with the results, what with Soma managing to take the very small crystals she'd made and extropolating them until they were bigger than lucille's hands. She had wasted no time, going to work as she Shattered the Crystals down, just as she had with the junk spear, and once again sought to discard the property of "temporary" from their nature, and once she'd done so, she Manifested them back into physical form, though... well, it wasn't quite what she'd been hoping for:
Spoiler(26) The result is a single crystal as large as lucile is, it is a Cluster of spheres, melded together at various points like frozen soap bubbles.
Still though, at least they were permanent now. And it wasn't like she lacked a means to manually separate. Chanting as a blade of sound formed in her hands, she set about trying to carve the crystals into more manageable chunks, making sure to carve one up particularly small for her purposes, and yet again, it went awry:
Spoiler(6, 16) (49) Interestingly, she fails a few times to discover the crystals have some sort of strange sphereical fault lines, like the layers of an onion. She gains a Pile of Round Shards, 10 Hewn Spherical Crystals, and a single Tennis Ball Crystal
But not enough to declare the situation FUBAR. She'd still gotten what she needed, even if there had been hiccups, and that was all that really mattered in the end. she turned to soma once the cutting was done, nodding
"Thanks for your help. You can keep the growth kit and the refills if ya want by the way, I've gotten what I needed, plus there's plenty extra here," she gestured around at all the hewn spheres and the pile of shards, "Plus well.... you're probably better at growing them than I'd ever be, so it's for the best you hang onto it. Anyway, guess I'll take it from here, hopefully no one ends up dead"
She laughed, nervously, at the jest, but it quickly petered out like a pair of sails on a windless day. "Um yeh, thanks again..."
And with that, she had left Soma and wandered off to find somewhere quiet enough to focus, one of the seats towards the front of the bus. Sphere in one hand, conjured needle of sound in the other, her mind was practically ablaze as she spent who knows how long, sitting there, hands moving as if possessed, turning, rotating, adjusting the sphere as her fingers danced across its sleek surface, pure vibration etching countless lines and runic diagrams into it's face. Just as she had described to Soma, her purpose was simple, to figure out a way to store unneeded concepts for later, instead of discarding and thus destroying them:
SpoilerLucille Attempted to create the following:
Crystalline Concept Bank: A small, tenis ball sized crystal which has been engraved with various runic formulas, so small the naked eye can barely notice them. This item can be used to store loose concepts that are discarded during crafting, and upon the correct trigger word being spoke, it can also release a specified loose concept for use in crafting. Holds 5 Concepts Max, at base.
54 v 12! MASSIVE OVERKILL
Quality: MASSIVE OVERKILLRandom Bitz: 13! Moderate Negative Random Bitz Achieved --> MASSIVE OVERKILL
Since you rolled a nat 20, you get it as stated except it's got enough capacity for 8 concepts at once. No side effects apparent."It...worked?" She reviewed the work, passing her hands over the smooth ridges and grooves carved oh so painstakingly into it. It felt fine, felt perfectly fine, yet some part of her was screaming- positively, absolutely SCREAMING at her to look closer, to scry it immediately, some deep and primal part of her brain left over from the days before man was civilized, where instincts and reflex served to keep him alive rather than knowledge and reason, and though she thought it silly she should give in to such base inclinations...
SpoilerIt wouldn't go away. No matter how much she tried to ignore it. If anything, it only got louder, and louder, and louder, until she was practically drowning in mental warning signs, sirens blaring left and right, every thread of her being rebelling against the very idea of simply calling this done, of taking it at face value... and it was nigh overwhelming to her. There was only thing she'd experienced before in her life that reminded of it, for the voices were quite similiar, but... but it was impossible. They were gone, they had left her on her own almost as soon as she'd fled home, left her with the database and a few basic laws to abide by and then upped and went, never to talk or teach her again. So how, and why, were they're voices back now, why were the whispers so strong in her skull, as if something, or someone, was directly crying out?
Were they still here? Had they always been here, waiting, watching, pretending? but for what end, why? Why lie to her, saying they could no longer guide her and the the rest was her own responsibility? Why let her believe she was even more alone than any other time before?
Was she just being paranoid? Were they really here, were they really trying to warn her, to save her? Was she in danger, was she about to die, were all of them about to die and leave nothing behind but charred, battered corpses or worse to float in the void? Would it be quick, or would their fates prove even worse than death? What had she done here, how could she have been so foolish as to try this completely from scratch, surely, there was something wrong, some fatal flaw that would-
"SHUT UP, DAMN IT, I'LL DO IT!" She mentally shouted to herself, the rising tide of paranoia only grew bigger, but they easily drowned out her own voice in her head. Scrying was the only way to make it end, to shut up all the vocalizations screaming in warning, to shut up that stupid, animal part of her brain that valued survival and the worthless existence it brought above all else. And so reluctantly, she did... and lo and behold, it was then, and only then, that they began to quiet, giving her the focus she needed...
SpoilerLucille Scryed the Concept Bank twice, just to be sure...
Quality: 1 My dice are up to their usual tricks. Lucille recieves very thorough information suggesting the thing is exactly what it appears to be.
Quality: 13! Pretty solid. The orb remains exactly what it appears to be.
to figure out fuck all.
The voices- they're voices, the voices she could not possibly have mistaken for anything else -were gone. Not even a peep. All that surrounded Lucille was silence, eery silence, utter silence. Silence so deep and perverse, it filled her ears like wet sand and expanded until it filled every possible facet of her senses.... until the sounds of the real world began to fade back in. Her grip on the ethereal waned, until finally, it slipped altogether, and she let out a breath she did not even know she'd been holding, lungs burning, mind begging for air, a request she readily filled as she took a few panicked breaths.
Everything leading up to this... those voices had not been in this realm. She'd been scrying, searching this whole time as she'd worked, hoping that by doing so she could catch mistakes and make sure things went smoothly...
And of course, that had left her wide open for one of their signals. She didn't know why, or what they'd been warning her about, but that it was indeed a warning, that much she was certain of. There was no way the Mavens would've cut themselves off so abruptly if this truly had been a situation dire enough to make them all scream. And there was no way they could've hidden themselves inside her own head either, now that she had some rationality back- their presence was an unmistakable one, one unlike anything that had ever been, could ever be, or may one day be again....
And try as she might, she felt nothing of it. Even during the onslaught of noise, she'd felt nothing of it, the voices were theirs, but it had been hollow, empty. A vision of sorts, a premonition?... it had to be... either that, or she was going crazy. Maybe it had been indeed a caution about the object she'd just created, or perhaps the stupid, instinctual animal parts of her brain had merely twisted and misinterpreted it to fit the current situation. Either way she was absolutely certain- somehow, someway, wherever they had gone, her Mentors had tried to contact her, from somewhere, in some time.
And something had made them utterly terrified. And that in and of itself served to cause Lucille herself to shake just thinking of the possibilities. But even as she did so, she could feel herself beginning to nod off. How long had she been up, how much had she done since she last slept, how much energy had she expended weaving thaumic works left and right, working miracles and defying despotic eldritch gods in one dimension and then shattering and piecing back together all manners of objects in the next? How long had she even spent carving the circuits into the orb? Minutes, hours? Something felt wrong. So very, very wrong...
But the only thing both her body and mind cared for anymore was a break.
With the orb in hand, her focus on the sounds and sensations all around her going fuzzy with fatigue, she curled up on the seat, closed her eyes shut, and tried to let the exhaustion of the feats before all of this overtake her, lull her away.
But even as she did, some small part of her feared that sleeping would only open the door to much, much worse things than what she had just imagined.
Crafting End Results
SpoilerLucille receives the Following for her efforts:
-Crystalline Concept Bank: A small, tenis ball sized crystal which has been engraved with various runic formulas, so small the naked eye can barely notice them. This item can be used to store loose concepts that are discarded during crafting, and upon the correct trigger word being spoke, it can also release a specified loose concept for use in crafting. There appears to be nothing wrong it... Holds up to 8 Concepts Max, at base.
The Following items are added to the Communal Inventory:
Pile of Round Shards (x1): a Pile of round, crystaline shards created when Lucille hewed a massive block of crystal down to size.
Hewn Spherical Crystals (x10): a series of crystal spheres which Lucille separated from their fused form after fixing Soma's extrapolation effect on them to be permanent.
-
"Ya know what I did earlier when I messed with the things you altered and made them permanent?" Lucille began, pressing the kit into Soma's hands "basically, I've been thinking, how much more could I get done if I wasn't constantly tossing away old traits and concepts when I do that? What if I could store them for later? And well, that brings us to this- crystals are natural amplifiers for any thaumic spell, even when they're not attuned, so... If I made an orb or something out of one, did some work to get it ready, I could probably find a way to store loose traits inside of it, instead of throwing them away... like common trash.
But, well... I can't read, for obvious reasons, and even though that's not much of an issue since I have other ways to figure it out, It would still take a while to grow what I need for this without any boost. A long while... but looks like my hunch about you being able to help was right~"
Lucille gives Soma the Following:
Spoiler-Crystal Growth Kit: a chemistry kit containing all an inquisitive young mind needs to start growing their own crystals, including beakers, utensils, chemical packets, etc.
-Crystal Growth Kit Packets: a rather expensive box containing packets of chemicals to be used with the crystal growth kit. useful for when one runs out of the included supplies
-
Lucille sighed as she rose from her seat. Even after the blast from the kazoo, she could still feel a subtle throb behind the eyes; she hadn't been kidding about a break. Doing something, anything really, to get her mind off of the ordered insanity that was the glitched out lizard, would probably do her some good. Come to think of it, there was something she'd been meaning to do- something that could definitely help a lot of things in the long run... Crystals.
Specifically, the strange chemistry kit she had picked up back in the PRTs world, from Hobby Lobby. She'd been too preoccupied to even use it, up till now, but well... this was as good a time as any. Speaking of which, she set her beasts about searching for Soma, and once she finally did, she sauntered on over to the other girl, holding up the chemistry kit for her to see; though lucille herself couldn't read it for obvious reasons (and had to rely on scrying just to even know what it was, when she'd bought it), the cape doubtlessly would be able to
"Hey soma! You can make things more complex based on the underlying patterns, right? Well, what could you do with some that has nigh perfect repetition in it's structure, like say.... crystals? Would they just continue to grow as long as you exert your power on them?"
-
After the initial few seconds, confusion turned into cringe at the gods choice of a low level taunt, and just as quickly, cringe turned into annoyance, and annoyance turned into the seeds of cold fury....
"You first." It was the only thing the mechanic said, and the only warning Swag would've received, before Ragnarok came flying out across the field with a deafening, ear shattering boom behind it, it's oscillation frequency set high enough to make mince meat of heavy armor and carrying enough raw force behind it crush a lightly armored mech like it was absolutely nothing, all of it directed at the god of lust in a devastatingly fast streak of amber and crimson as the air itself ignited in it's wake, not unlike that of a meteorite.
Of all the gods who could've chosen to face him, it had to be this douche, didn't it? Of fucking course it had. At this point though, Solomon really couldn't bring himself to care any less than he tried; he hadn't had any real purpose in participating in this whole thing besides shits and giggles, a laissez faire attitude with the pathetic sub motivator of defying the meta at just about the highest practical level possible, since he'd already done it at each and every last one of the lower ones. Or so he'd thought. Tesla was the reason he'd gotten this far, Tesla was the reason he'd pushed so hard all these years, almost everything he'd achieved, he'd done it off of either the back of her own work, or using what she had once taught him.
He had suppressed his own power to the point of it might as well not existing, and relied completely on her memory to carry him. And that precise reason, that cowardice, that refusal to face his true self, was precisely the reason he had failed to stop her from leaving, the ultimate reason she vanished that day; had he not have held back, had he put it all on the line back then, perhaps things would be very different now. And yet, ironically, he had still ended up among the top, despite relying entirely on his sister's legacy. It was almost poetic really, the schematics she gave him after that defeat would serve as the very catalysts to giving him another chance to make it right, a chance to find her after he'd let her vanish to begin with.
But over the course of this tourney, over the course of the failed fights and near victories, one thing had become steadily clearer and clearer to him... one thing tesla herself had already told him long ago, something that even now after so much time came bubbling back to the surface... along with many, many other things
"If you want to change something, you have to rely on your own power. Don't just sit around expecting something or someone else to come in and save the day for you sully, the only heroes in this world are the ones who aren't afraid to be the change they want to see... that's something I had to learn the hard way"
"Your mother? HAHAHA! You want to know 'bout your mother, boi? She was a selfish, irresponsible whore who walked out on us before you were even old enough to walk. Let me tell you somethin', Sully, don't you ever, and I mean EVER let yourself fall for a pretty face and a honeyed words. I might have been fooled, but I'll be damned if any son of mine falls for the same smiling faces..."
But most of all... the message she had left him. The message she had left that finally gave him a reason, finally made him realize how fucking stupid he'd been all these years...
QuoteSully...look, I don't know whats going through your head right now, so I'll make this message quick: I know you. I've known you as long as I can remember. And I've watched every last match you've been in for this tourney... including this last one. I don't know what finally made you stop pushing it away and actually use that thing inside you again, but... look, what happened back then, it was ugly, and I've still got the scars from it, but I know damn well that wasn't the real you who did it to me, I know you would never do that to me... you're stronger than him sully, maybe you don't think so, maybe you've kept him locked up all these years because you're afraid of what you might do once he's out, but you ARE stronger, sully. The fact you went this long before letting him have completely free reign proves it- you can exist without him, but he can't say the same.
...Shit, I said I was gonna make it brief, and I go typing all this crap out... yeesh. Look, my point is, I'm... I ain't mad at you, for anything. I... want you to stop holding back sully, I want you to stop handicapping yourself just because you think you aren't strong enough to stop him, because that's total bullshit, I know it, and so should you. You're two parts of the same whole sully, you're the stronger half, but you're still just that, a half... and if you keep going like you have been, you're not doing anyone any favors. Stop fighting with only part of yourself, and stop running damn it, you're better than this, you could make Revenant your bitch if you really tried, and there isn't a god damn thing he can do about it.
So... do it. Show him just how worthless he is on his own, and he'll have no choice but to fall in line. I'm tired of seeing you fight with the kitty gloves on, just as much as I hated watching you give that asshole exactly what he wanted, and almost ended up dead for it. And once you've shown him, show the rest of these pissants what you can really do too. I Meant it when I said you better not lose this and make me look bad ;^)
Give em hell.
-Sasha Nevaro
Already, he could feel the adrenaline beginning to pump, his focus intensifying, all of it tinted a pretty shade of crimson with the subtle bloodlust just beneath the surface. It didn't matter if this was a god on the other end of the field, no more than the man's not-so-enticing offers mattered; he was done using Tesla as his crutch, just as much as he was done giving free reign to the demon lurking within, and there was no better time to unleash everything he'd been holding back, on his own terms...
than right here...
right now...
against this very douche bag.
And once this mess was over, he was going to use that same power to finally find Tesla...
-
"I presume those of you qualified to fix the pipe would be rather opposed to letting that desert rat blow your tools and materials to kingdom come, hence I will leave that to you..." almost as if on cue as he said that, another soldier popped up, this one armed with a rapidly firing fusil which he used to pepper the boy with the golem, the latter of whom now lay in a smoking pile on the ground thanks to the man who lay in pieces at stellio's feet. Already, Dark Mana gathered and focused itself into his blade, as he once more brought it to a ready "For, it seems yet another one has chosen to come out of hiding- TWAS A VERY DEAR MISTAKE, RAT!"
moves:
I. Stellio attacks the Talon Skirmisher with the Headsman! He spends 5 MP to convert his attack from melee to ranged! (IF the Talon Skirmisher is already dead, Stellio will use both his actions to push the Payload cart towards the pipe)
(Attack converted from Melee to Ranged. Deals {2d6+Str[11]} ranged Dark/Slashing Damage, has 30% chance to inflict "Dark Adverse" Status for 3 turns {Sufferer takes 1.25x more damage from dark based sources}. Stellio will gain +1 Str/Ess from either dealing or receiving damage)
II. Stellio attacks the Talon Skirmisher with the Headsman Again, again spending 5 MP to convert his attack from melee to ranged! (IF the talon Skirmisher dies due to Stellio's above attack, he will use this action to instead push the payload cart)
SpoilerStellio
28/28 HP20/30 MP -10=>10/30 MP
121/200 TP
Essence: 5 (+5 Ogre Boost)
Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 0
Intelligence: 5
Resistance: 8
Strength: 6 (+5 Ogre Boost)
Synergy: 0Relevant Perks
Mana Sphere: [Grants an "MP Meter" which is used to fuel magic actions. Max value equal to {20+Int*2} fills at a rate of {Int} per turn.]
Tactical Devestation: [Grants a "TP Gauge" which is used to activate special techniques. Max value 200; fills at a rate of {Damage Dealt/Received+Essence}]
Ogre of Whitewall: [Stellio gains +1 Strength & Essence every time he deals damage or is damaged. Caps at x2 Str/Ess]
Slots: 6/6
Actives
Fearful Impact- The user attacks with such ferocity that it strikes terror into the very hearts of their victim... [Cost 40 TP. Free Action. The user's next melee attack will inflict "Fear" status on the target, lowering their Main Offensive Stat and Their Res by the User's Essence for 2 turns.]
Passives
Years of Service- A veteran with decades of experience behind them knows their way around the killing field better than most... [Passive Ability. The user gains +1 move in combat, making it so they always have a minimum of 2 moves rather than 1. This ability is not eligible for any upgrade.]
Trumps
Grand Cross- A greatsword technique where the user strikes at the very fabric of reality with their blade, causing a massive bloom of lightning and pressure to engulf their unfortunate victim as a rift violently opens and closes just as quickly... [Consumes all currently available TP once activated. Cost 100 TP Minimum, and can only be activated while wielding a 2-handed sword. At base, deals (Str+Essence)*2 Crushing/Lightning damage on a single target, with a bonus (Str+Ess) damage added for every 25 points over 100 the TP gauge was at upon use.]
Tricks
Equipment
The Headsman- A single-edged, 2-handed sword used by executioners. Its broad, curved blade is well suited for parting heads from shoulders
Current Effects: [Deals 2d6+Str Dark/Slashing Damage. Has a 30% chance to inflict "Dark-Averse" Status on hit, lasting 3 turns; units suffering Dark-Averse take 1.25x more damage dark-based sources. By choosing to spend 5MP when they attack with this weapon, the user may channel mana through it in order to convert their attack from a melee one into a ranged one, which deals the same damage and has all of the same secondary effects as a normal strike.]
Ebony Plate- A suit of black-tinted, full plate armor forged from damasc steel. Highly Resistant to rust, and far more durable than common forms of steel. It almost seems to cut a menacing profile around it's wearer, with its spiked pauldrons and helm...
Current Effects: [Grants +5 Res]
Ring of the Mind- A small, baldur ring set with a cut and polished Krystalos stone. It shines a deep blue under low light, and serves to expand the mind of those who wear it...
Current Effects: [While Equipped, Increases MP Accumulation by (Int), and increases checks made by MP-fueled Actions by (½ Int).]
-
"Alright, yeh, I.... I definitely need a break...." Lucille said, after.... well, in all honesty, she couldn't even fully process all the twists and turns that last statement had taken. Apparently it was insane, and yet somehow it was also coherent enough to sit here and discuss it's nature in a nuanced and rational manner... but it did emphasize it was indeed crazy-
The headache was definitely getting worse. Lucille took out the kazoo and played a single note on it, before turning back to Nhevi. Already the throbbing pain was fading, but she wasn't eager to go immeidately inviting it back "Yeh, look, sorry, but, I think I'm at the end of my rope for now... you might wanna try talking to some of the...others though? I dunno, I just... need some time to process all of this, it's not everyday you meet a being who defies most of the things your people thought possible, even when they specialized in pushing and circumventing the boundaries of possible..."
-
"soooo... basically you're so broken that there's nothing separating your thoughts from direct outside influence," lucille muttered, trying to parse through the utter madness of this whole situation. Even by her own world's standards, this was beyond the pale, and that was certainly saying something, considering even Lucille herself would easily be considered beyond the pale and from what she could tell so far, out of the party she was the most qualified to decipher any of this... yet she was still barely able to even believe what was going on right in front of her
"and because there's nothing separating your thoughts, random information flows in and out of your head like water flowing through a sieve... It sounds fairly similar to what my people developed, except we protect and focus our efforts with explicit mental filters. How haven't you gone insane, if its always on for you and you presumably have no control on what or how much information comes in? I... I had that type of information flowing through my head, once, and it was both the greatest and the most terrifying feeling at the same time; the only thing that kept me from completely giving in and getting lost in the tide was because I had an objective the focus on...but you, you casually just drop things into what you say like it's no big deal, like dealing with it is nothing... though, I guess if you apparently can't die either, and given everything else I found, your very nature somehow protects you from going insane...."
She sighed, leaning back in her seat. By its very definition, none of this made any sense, and she felt the mystery irking her to no end. An entity like this who seemingly broke all laws, including those of rhyme or reason... in effect, it reminded her of thaumturgy, and what she had done to create the silverwood tree. Yet in causation, it was like night and day; Thaumturgy was highly focused and directed, always acting with a purpose, and it was not so much shattering the laws of reality outright, but instead merely using the primordial patterns of creation itself in order to temporarily alter, tweak, or circumvent the laws as one needed in order to create an effect...
This though... was truly madness. Laws not just being tweaked, but outright snapped over one's knee, and with no discernible predictability or rationality, and unlike thaumaturgy, what was going on here was an apparently constant process beyond the conscious control of the one it centered around. It was, in truth, the very antithesis to everything her people had practiced and believed in since time immemorial. It was the chaos to their order, it was the reckless abandon to their caution, the dementia to their enlightenment...
"I think I might go a bit crazy if I think about this anymore..." she finally said, shaking her head. Come to think of it, she did feel a minor ache beginning to sprout...nothing that would actively impede her, but it was a mild annoyance that was most definitely there.
-
"...." that description still sounded utterly horrible, in all honesty; especially for someone like Lucille. Being surrounded in deafening, unending noise, yes, that was quite the nice idea, why not go ahead and make it so she had literally no way to interpret the world at all? She'd already lacked sight, might as well go all the way with the cruelty of fate and render her deaf too- then she'd be truly helpless, and the Purists would be right in saying she was nothing but a drain on resources, a filthy, leeching Drek who needed to be killed for the good of all the actually able members of their society. Speaking of her blindness "Wait though, Where do you keep getting all this information about other people? I haven't argued with anyone about their ideas of "fixing" my eyes in at least years, and I definitely haven't brought that up to anyone here. Then there's also that thing you said to Calvera about her age or whatever. And after that you somehow knew that I can work with concepts and could figure this out... and you drop this information often enough and casually enough that there's no way you could be getting through a similar method I would. Is this related to how you're.... broken, somehow?"
-
"....I... how...what? Just WHAT!?" Lucille shook her head as some odd ruckus started and then the scent of raw meat filled her nostrils. All three of her pets looked at the pile of butchered cuts rather enticingly, but she kept all of them away from it- there was no telling what in the goddamn the meat this lizard had conjured was, where it had come from, nor if it was toxic like the Deathwyvern and the Serpent flesh had been...
"Forget about the meat for a minute," The girl said as harry approached, standing up from her seat and opening up her senses like one might open a third eye, casting aside physical reality as she peered into the void between the material and ethereal, seeking to fish out any hint of whatever the lizard was from the infinite sea of knowledge of good and evil "what we should be getting to the bottom of is how the hell she can do this at all... without giving off any type of signature that suggests it's magic in nature."
Lucille uses 1 charge to Scry Nhevi, intending to figure out what the hell is going on with her!
Spoiler(20) Among the members of the Party, Nhevi's Laws of Physics are broken beyond repair, but still enforced. Like a an engine made to run with broken parts, it never stops making loud noises, breaking further, and malfunctioning. It's as though a foundation holding up even thaumaturgy is cracked. Simple magic won't be a solution.
"...." The girl was... silent, sitting back down as she processed the readout. Her animals begin to siddle closer to the mystery meat, but before they could take a bite some part of lucille pulled on the bonds connecting them and pulled them back once more- the last thing she needed was to be treating all of them for potential food poisoning. After about a half a minute or two, she finally seemed to find a way to articulate her findings
"Shes... she breaks all the physical laws, just by her mere existence... but something about her still forces them act even in their broken states. It's like... some decimated machine, that keeps running even despite vital parts being damaged beyond repair, so it limps along, chugging miserably, pouring out smoke and making horribly noises, and even more parts of it breaking over time.... but it never ends, it never shuts down no matter how broken it becomes, it just keeps going, and going, in this... terrifying cycle... I don't even know how she can exist like this, but somehow she does. And I don't know if I, or anyone here can help her... the faults and cracks around her run so deep, I don't think anything even I have could do anything more than putting a bandage on a bullet wound..." a shake of her head, as if she were going to say more, before
"Where... where did you come from?" she asked, turning to Nhevi "What is your world like, are there.... more like you? How did you end up this way and survive? Is it.... painful?" she visibly shivered, as she asked the questions. It wasn't quite the same as with avada, but it most definitely reminded her of the same basic principle, being made broken and subjected to an endless cycle of further breaking, one that would not ever end on its own...
-
The burst of sound directed at her- seemingly a bizarre mix of the crackle of electricity overtoned by the crashing of the coastal tide -only served to further perplex lucille.
"Come again?" the girl asked, and not just as it realted to the static, but pretty much everything else the strange creature had just said "Um.... look whatever you are, are you sure you're okay? What's with all these weird pauses and stuttering and word fragments that keep popping in and out when you talk? And what was that weird noise you made just now? Did you... hit your head or something, before you got here?"
-
"Pathetic," the knight scowled as he took out the vial "I can't tell whether you were just practicing with a light breeze just now, or you truly did hope to avenge your comrades. Either way, it became quite obvious to me about half-way through the casting that you're nowhere near the hot shit you might've thought you were. Next time you sling a pissant spell like that my way, you'd better hope I die laughing at your ineffectualness."
Use Vuln
-
F16, Impale Journeyman C
-
"Um.... hi?" Lucille muttered as something called out to her from...the ceiling of all places. The cat looked up at it on her command, and she saw through his eyes only served to confuse her. How long had this thing been there? What even was it? Had she been so absorbed in her work she hadn't even noticed? Likely... its not like she hadn't gotten so engrossed in a project as to practically ignore anything not related to it, before. Before she could ask any of those questions though, yet another voice came over, this one more familiar, and it seemed the two of them had practically forgotten she was there.
"Just... how much of what I was doing did you see just now, out of curiosity?" she asked the lizard... purple, she didn't know what the hell it was.
-
The walk, if it could even be called that, towards the castle was a largely silent one. The world surged passed the warriors as they practically flew across the landscape, invisible and untouchable to all. The mists of this other realm parted and reformed behind them as they passed through it, and just as it did, so too did the obstacles of the physical world, entire facades vanishing and yielding before them, as if they did not exist to begin with... because in Ghost's domain, they truly did not exist.
It had taken some getting used to still, for some, but by now all of them had gotten rather adept at projecting their focus in a direction, and willing the ethereal forms that served as their bodies to move in it. Like phantoms and wraiths they traveled, concealed and protected by Ghost's power, and it was by that very same power that within mere minutes of intense focus on their destination, the party had completed a journey that on foot would've easily taken several times as long.
"That's far enough" Ghost ordered, her voice ringing out in the empty realm of her creation, yet completely inaudible to any on the physical plane. She turned and looked at each of those assembled on the team in turn, before glancing around at the cover provided by the hillside glade. The castle itself loomed in the distance, covered by some odd barrier still, just as the other team had mentioned "They've got sentries concealed in the brush, likely to intercept or keep tabs on anyone who attempts to approach."
To illustrate the point, she snapped her fingers, and nigh instantly said brush became a hazy blur that soon faded altogether, revealing the indeed dozens of foes prepared for an ambush. The woman cracked her knuckles in anticipation, and some of them might've noticed a peculiar, metallic clang in her fingers as she did so "There's far too many of them to turn this little trap around I'm afraid- neither capturing nor launching our own ambush will go well, when we have so comparatively few numbers... that leaves immediately driving them out of cover as our best option. I'm going to drop us back into physical reality, and give them a reason to think twice about staying near so much... flammable material. Be prepared to meet them as they emerge."
With that warning, she gave everyone approximately one minute to prepare, then finally announced that time was up. The hazy fog vanished, the ground once more felt solid under their feet, and all of them knew, the time was now. Ghost was taking in a breath the moment she released them, and in the next one she was issuing a mighty shout that sounded nigh like a dragon's keel. Flame erupted from her mouth as the resonance took hold, and the Mantra manifested, and she swept the stream of hellish heat over the brush immediately near them.
And like bats out of hell, enemy soldiers, skeletons, and black, humanoid abominations with many limbs alike came scrambling out of the burning hiding places to avoid being incinerated, only to find the party waiting for them, weapons drawn, and Ghost's gaze peircing through all of them with a crimson radiance that could've rivaled a sun. The albino spoke yet another word, and the fires which she had started died just as instantly as they'd begun, leaving nothing but smoldering, burnt trees and scorched earth...
"Our priority is clearing this area out, and seeing if anything has changed with the castle's situation." she ordered to the gang, glancing over her shoulder, "Stick together and watch each other's backs as we press forward. We should focus our offenses on the Officers and the Abominations they've brought first- if you cut off the heads, the rest of the serpent dies...and it's better to be safe than sorry, whatever in the gods names those things are. Once those targets are eliminated, we take advantage of the chaos and disarray the officers deaths will create among the ranks, and strike down the grunts and the skeletons while they struggle to adapt."
BATTLE BEGIN!
Theme
SpoilerInitiative
SpoilerGhost: 27
Victoria: 27
Aurora: 25
Officer B: 24
Mira: 19
Officer D: 17
Soldier Squad A: 16
Empi: 15
Soldier Squad B: 14
Lahmu A: 14
Bel Lahmu A: 14
DT Archer Squad B: 14
Walmond/Lambda: 13
Rampart: 10
Lahmu B: 9
Bel Lahmu B: 9
DT Archer Squad A: 9
Officer A: 9
Officer C: 7
Kino: 6
Navin: 6Castle
Status
SpoilerAllies
Ghost 54/54
Aurora 62/62
Walmond 51/51
Lambda 57/57
Rampart 57/57
Empi 62/62
Victoria 70/70
Mira 78/78
Kino 82/82
Navin 54/54Castle 1000/1000, Regens 30 HP each turn
Foes
Officer A, Fine
Officer B, Fine
Officer C, Fine
Officer D, Fine
Lahmu A, Fine
Lahmu B, Fine
Bel Lahmu A, Fine
Bel Lahmu B, Fine
Soldier Squad A (5) Fine
Soldier Squad B (5) Fine
Dragontooth Archer Squad A (5) Intact
Dragontooth Archer Squad B (5) Intact
Notes:
Spoiler-It is STRONGLY recommended you include relevant combat information, such as stats, what the action you are using does, any relevant perks that should be taken into account, etc., when you post your action. Doing so greatly increases the speed by which turns can be processed once all moves are in, as it eliminates the need to scour the master sheet or character sheets searching for needles in haystacks.
-
Lucille eventually returned to her previous spot, her beasts lazing about on the seat and the various materials used in her rituals scattered about. She sat there, muttering something to herself as she worked tirelessly; already, she had incscribed the Sigil of Alchemical Marriage and systematically taken it apart, peice by peice, almost like one would dismantle a gun or an engine of some sort, except it was all in writing, rather than in physical peices. The circles, lines, traingales and other assorted geeometry that made the circuitry which bound the Sigil's components together, the Runes which powered the circuits and caused the ritual to function in the first place, the basic equations which served to direct the effects of the runes, all of it was laid out haphazardly around her, like the scribblings of a mad, blind woman, hands tainted dark with charcoal.
And even now, still she wrote yet more. Of the four runes responsible for the Alchemical Marriage, Shatter, Duplex, Mulligan and Manifest, she'd begun to mix and match them with other runes pulled her memory, comparing the Thaumic circuit designs she mapped out to the original and either scraping it for a new one when the simulations she ran did not pan out, or adding atop it and trying to refine them, when she found designs that didn't immediately fail the first test.
If she could just find a structure the correct combination of both runes and their supporting circuitry, perhaps she could eventually find a way to fix it, for good and for all. Mavens knew that constantly relying on the Alchemical Marriage hadn't helped her in the least bit on that front, given well... how it had all ended up. Hence, it had been time to go back to the basics, to breakdown the sigil into its components, see just where and how things tended to wrong, test all their parts in their purest forms... if she knew precisely which component had been causing the random errors, and under what conditions it did so, perhaps she could refine the Sigil into something far greater than it had ever been before. What she occupied herself at the moment was simply a stepping down along that path, a project that was not directly related, but in it's pursuit she could still figure out quite a bit about the problem elements.
And eventually, she found a draft that she felt fairly certain could work...
"Come here, Do..." the cat obeyed, sauntering over and plopping down beside her. Lucille scribed the newly birthed Sigil on the floor, wrote the rune of Shatter beside it, and then pulled out the instrument. With a single utterance of the activation phrase, both spells flared to life, and she played a single note that nigh instantly fractured and split into its countless constituent traits, appearing like small, glittering shards that revolved in their own orbit like the rings of a planet... and then the sigil went to work, as she directed her focus on Do, preparing to work through the process of...
"IT....stopped? What?" she sat there, trying to comprehend the sudden cessation of the thaumic resonance, and to figure out what the hell it was that had just landed in her lap- it felt like... "Is this...a potted plant? What in the goddamn...how even...?" She had Do look at it. It was indeed a potted plant she held now, instead of the loose concepts of the healing resonance she'd deconstructed. Somehow, someway, instead of discarding the concepts she didn't want or need, the spell had gone and... jumped the gun entirely and done... something. Something she most definitely had not been intending- the healing resonance was supposed to be encoded into the Cat...not turn into... a common medicinal plant.
"oookay," she sighed, setting the pot to the side "Let's try this... again!"
She scribed a few more runes this time, namely that of Duplex and Mulligan, and again, she spoke the activation rune, and the diagrams flared to life. She took out something from her pocket, a tooth, and tossed it into the range of the Shatter rune along with another resonance from the kazoo. This time, as she reached in to work with the concepts, the ritual kept going, and slowly but surely, she felt as though it was becoming clear where the exact problem lay. In due time, she'd taken everything she did not want, and discarded it, watching as it vanished into the ether.
It was then she activated Mulligan, shifting and mixing the remainder together into coherrant order, before at long last, she turned to the sigil she'd created from scratch, again focused and prepared to work through the process of encoding, all the while taking notes in her mind of the signals her scry was picking up.
....
....
....
There was nothing at first. But as she tried to delve into the cats code, she found the whole thing flipped on itself; rather than altering Do's genes, it opened up editing on a template that up until that point, had not existed, spawned entirely in that moment. Lucille was tempted to stop at that point, searching with her senses for any outside interference, anything that could be forcing it to behave like this, but upon finding nothing, it what she was witnessing was directly related to the central root of the problem. Stopping would do nothing but impede her progress towards fixing it. And so she simply shrugged and pressed on- if she could not edit Do's genes, for whatever reason, then perhaps she could use this blank slate to draft a genome wholesale...
Which, after taking a few moments to call Astra over and Examine her, was precisely what she did. It was relatively easy to use her as a reference, simply tweaking certain parts here and there- namely Lucille took out the potential for Sapient thought, as well as condensed the projected lifespan down from the literal lifetimes upon lifetimes Astra herself would live... there was no telling what would come out of this, and she wanted neither something that could potentially challenge and work against her, nor something that would live longer than it had any right too, encase it proved to be a threat that could not immediately be bound or destroyed. Once it was done... she took a deep breath
"Here goes something..."
And pulled the metaphorical trigger.
The world around her vanished in bright light, there was the screech of a young predator, the flapping of leathery wings, and finally, the glow died back down to tolerable levels. Not that it had down a damn thing to lucille- there was no light conceivably so magnificently bright and commanding in it's utter majesty as to successively beckon those eyes, that they may develop pupils and actually work for once in the girl's life.
What sat in the sigil's place... was a young dragon. Emerlad, shimmering scales, bright red eyes that seemed to burn with vital essence, a red path shaped like a cross on it's back. It flitted out it's thin, forked tail as it tasted the air for the first time, and looked up at the girl who had just brought it into existence...edging closer. Astra was inbetween the younger Drake and her master in nigh an instant. Before lucille could even feel the impulsive reaction, the golden lizard was snarling at the new arrival, some amalgamation of black and vile temporal power welling up in her throat... the green drake backed up, caution in it's eyes as it examined the other creature. Then it took another stop towards Lucille, and Astra practically let her breath loose right then and there, before the girl established control over the situation
"Oh, just stop it, would you? He's no more a threat to me than you or Do could be." The dragon ignored her, spewing twisted temporal winds upon the other drake...
And much to her surprise, the other beast took it like a champ, practically unphased by the attack. But surprise soon gave way to a deep scowl which cut across her face, as she came down hard on the link between her and astra, cutting off the gold drake's attack before it could go on any longer. She didn't even know why she'd tried talking to her, instead of just using the bond in the first place... was she really so used to having no one that she would let emotion triumph over what she knew to by empirically correct, and begin to impose the desire for at least some non-hostile human contact onto these mere animals?
"Who am I kidding, I already fucking do it all the time... pathetic. They're just beasts, pets at this point... they can't talk back to me, they never talked back, and they never will... I really need to stop trying to have conversations with something thats just a bundle of raw emotions and hard-coded, instinctual reactions with no ability to transcend their natural programming"
Speaking of which, with a sigh, she reached out and probed the drakes mind, and upon finding that there was no potential for eventual sapient thought, just as she'd hoped, and that it had a mild enough disposition (unlike a certain... serpent she'd used earlier), she left a small peice of her own mind behind inside the creature, effectively binding it to her.
Lucille Binds the newly Life Dragon! She expends 3 bonds!
"Guess I'll call you Brachus..." and after a few more minutes, she'd corrected the issue that had led to the Dragon's birth in the first place...
Well no.
It was a lie to say she "fixed" it. Even if it hadn't been what she was anticipating, this was still quite the potnetially valuable discovery, and it would be a crime to simply erase it. No, instead, all Lucille did was scribe in a new function to the Sigil, while keeping it isolated from the wonderful error that led to this. She didn't even need to test it this time- the calculations all checked out. The sigil and all the runes she'd written over the past hour of working on it or so, disintegrated as she dropped out of her higher state of conscious and turned back to Brachus.
"Welp, from what I can tell, you don't seem to be suffering the effects of failure, everything feels fine... and you took that attack like it was nothing. Let me see you- wait... Damn it, I'm doing it again... actually, just fucking forget it, not like it even matters -show me your breath"
Brachus did just that, as she gave the order. A mint scented, vibrant plume of green energy bloomed forth from his mouth, spreading over her and making just about every bit of fatigue she'd begun to feel melt away. Just as she'd glimpsed during the final results of the ritual. She smirked, petting the little drake and scratching him under the chin, to which he cooed with content. Yes, this little one would be quite useful indeed.
"Just as expected... you've honestly turned out a lot better than I was hoping, too. Hmph, who knows, maybe I should make even more like you two, I seem to have knack for making miniature replicas of ancient death organisms that killed for no reason other than they could, breathed pure suffering, and shat hot misery wherever they went. You lot should be alright though, I made sure to leave out those horrible qualities..."
-
3 hours ago, Strider said:
"Lucille. I made something with the Galdur Salve, if you're interested. Retrovirus TGIWR-001, causes human blood cells themselves to exhibit the healing effect. I don't have a ton right now, but with more supplies, or a culture in which to grow it, I could make up a fair amount."
"Hang on a minute, I'll be right back" Lucille said to Soma, before she walked back to the med bay. And when she got there, she didn't bother asking Harry what it was, but instead silently reached out with a few higher senses and collected the information directly...
The look on her face was... difficult to ascertain, to say the least. She seemed neither impressed, nor excited, if anything, pensive perhaps the closest to describing her expression. As if she were thinking carefully about this situation...how to go about handling it.
"Oh...thats... this is great, Harry," She said, trying to smile, though it failed to reach her eyes. From his breathing and the subtle tone of his voice when he'd called her over, she figured he had probably worked quite hard on getting... a mutagen of even this strength together, from what materials he had "I'm sure it'll help out a lot of people. Um..."
Silence. That was all she could manage as she trailed off. So... this was what he'd meant earlier about his plan to try and... replicate the effects into some serum? She... couldn't help but have a great many mixed feelings about it, really. The "retrovirus" well.... the inbuilt spell of the Tree felt so utterly faint in it that Lucille could barely sense but a scant few traces now. As if only one very small part of all that made the species as significant as it was had been singled out for some reason, and made to try and replicate that significance on it's own, isolated from all the other parts, like a part of statement taken out of context.
She did not know why she felt the twinge of upset, somewhere deep inside. What else should she have expected, from someone who was not of her world, and knew nothing of the workings of the Thaum? Why had she been so expecting of him to make something rivaling the stories and visions of the days of old back home, when he was not from her home and would know nothing of such wonders? Why was she even this upset? it was her who had handed him Materials that were the indirect products of centuries of research and scholarly endeavor within the system of correspondences and sympathetic resonances her people had come to so heavily depend on, that their entire culture had run off of it once, and even now, their culture revolved around trying to reclaim what was lost. And it was her who hadn't really bothered to explain it's true significance, neither culturally, nor in the sheer potential of the processes that Chimeric organisms like a Galdur Tree, and hell, even her own self, functioned off of...
So why was she feeling herself getting into a twist, when he had simply taken things to their logical conclusion, based on what little she had explained to him? How could Harry have possibly known that replicating the effects of the Tree's inbuilt spell would not be as simple as just taking a small section of its DNA, and putting it into other organisms? How could she have expected him to have known that the spell was in fact subtly encoded across the entirety of the genome, not just isolated to one part, when even with as little as she'd explained, she'd not even bothered to mention that much to him?
How was she to bring up the fact that he had infact shot the overall potential of his derived creation in the foot here, by mistakenly believing there was one specific gene which caused the regen effect? Should she even do it? He seemed at least marginally proud of it, and it certainly like he'd been laboring for a while... and it's not like it was even his own fault, if anything it was hers and hers alone.
...
Her fault, and hers alone...
Suddenly the reason behind these mixed feelings suddenly became all too clear. She didn't know whether it was more selfish, or just plain pathetic, once she did. Or maybe it was a bit of both.
"Hmph... selfish and pathetic... yeah, that's probably pretty apt for me by now. Even when I tell you I'm sorry and promise I'll try and find another to accomplish what you wanted- I go and forget about it, then when I see someone else has gone and taken the things we tried to use and has applied his methods to help people, I go and get all upset just because it isn't perfect, or some stupid bullshit like that."
The forced smile on her face finally faded, as the thoughts flooded in. Though she still said nothing to Harry, just kept up with the internal self-realization of how utterly, disgustingly petty her reason was
"What right do I fucking have to stand here and look down on his work like this- harry's solution might be a far cry from the full potential the Galdur properties have, but at least his will actually work, and it won't fucking kill someone in the process... I couldn't even say that much back then, and I still can't say that much now. So I almost immediately get miffed because he's actually succeeded where I screwed up horribly, and instead of taking responsibility for what happened to you, I go and try to make my own damn self feel better, latch onto the one flaw I notice with what he's made, and try to go discrediting all the work he's put into it.
Just like a petty, selfish bitch who can't swallow the pride she has no right to to begin with. Who knows, Avada? If I'm really this bad, Maybe it was better we were only together for a day... something even worse might've happened to you, if you stuck around someone like me..."
"Well um..." she said, after a very long, and very awkard stretch of silence of her simply staring blankly in his general direction. "...just let me know if you need help with anything. I'm sure what you've made here will work just fine, if you find the tools to make more of it." With a short nod, she turned and started to walk back towards Soma.
And the seething storm of repulsion for how she'd initially reacted here only grew with every step she took.
-
The... first results of their experiments were interesting, in a way. Namely in that soma' extrapolation made the kazoo... bigger and expanded the effective range of it's healing resonance, but well... from the information Lucille sensed flooding in, chances are anyone who got healed with it prooooooobably wouldn't enjoy what would happen to them afterwards. Just a hunch. Luckily, it was only temporary, so.... they just needed to wait.
The next thing they tried was a bit different, Lucille had taken a sheet of scrap metal from the back and molded it into the rough shape of a spear, forming the following from the rather shabby, weathered metal:
SpoilerCrappy Scrap Spear: [Deals 1d6 + strength damage]
It wasn't pretty, nor was it impressive, but then again neither was the material she'd been working with... it was to be expected. Regardless, after getting it into shape, she had Soma use her powers again... this time the results were... well, they were interesting, and also a bit less hazardous to one's health compared to the heal kazoo's extrapolation:
SpoilerScrap Spear of Disarming: [Deals 2d8 + strength damage. Whenever it deals damage, roll 1d10. On a roll of 10, the target drops everything in their hands or equivalent appendages. On a roll of 1, the wielder does instead.]
"Well, better than the first shot," Lucille had said "lets see how this goes...."
And that was precisely what they'd done. Drawing a transfiguration rune, She dropped the spear in, moved a few concepts around until she found the traits provided by Soma's Extrapolation. Once she had, she went deeper, and found the underlying, fleeting nature of the added qualities, all hooked together by their inpermanency like a spider web. Snipping the trait away and tossing it was relatively easy, though.... there may have been a slight hiccup, as she was cleaning things up and putting it all back together in the right order.
SpoilerQuality: 9!
Random Bitz: 3! DOOOOOOMThe Temporary is removed. But a compulsion is added, when unequipping the spear for any reason, to hurl it at something. What it is hurled at is left to the wielder's choice, but it must be thrown as hard as possible.
She frowned a little as the information from the ritual's results poured in. She didn't pick up the spear, or do anything else with it really, just glanced over at soma as she gently nudged it with her foot towards the girl.
"So, good news and bad news," She began "Good news is, it worked. I managed to make your alterations on the spear permanent with the Transfiguration Circle... bad news though- it uh... kinda got a bit messed during the process... you can pick it up and use it just fine, but uh.... putting it away, like, taking it off your person entirely, weeeell... I seem to have accidentally added a trait of...compulsive throwing to it. You'll be able to leave it behind or put it away somewhere for storage, but... not without first chucking the thing as hard as you can. The impulse to do it can't really be controlled either, so.... at least the principle is sound? I guess? It's a better take away from all this than nothing..."
Final Product added to the communal inventory:
SpoilerScrap Spear of Disarming: [Deals 2d8 + strength damage. Whenever it deals damage, roll 1d10. On a roll of 10, the target drops everything in their hands or equivalent appendages. On a roll of 1, the wielder does instead. when unequipping the spear for any reason, the user must hurl it at something. What it is hurled at is left to the wielder's choice, but it must be thrown as hard as possible.]
-
"Ok then...uh, hang on" she checked around the pockets of her new vest, thinking of something she'd picked up recently that wouldn't become lethal but would still be useful and some would portable in a grown form. Before long she produced a kazoo... and for all the world, it looked like any other cheap kazoo one could find in a toy store. She handed to Soma
"Might as well start small. See if you can expand that to about the complexity of say... a standard flute. Yeh, a flute would be good. Baby Steps and all. Plus I can just make another one, if things go horribly wrong... maybe."
Lucille suggests Soma extrapolate the following gear to the complexity of a standard flute
SpoilerHealing Kazoo: A Metal Kazoo painted a bright metallic color. The special root in it's paper vibrates with a healing tone.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. When used, restores (6d5)% of the target's Max HP.]
Level 1: [When used, restore (3d5)% of the target's Health.]
Level 2: [Upgraded to 6d5% of the target's Health. Becomes Bound to lucille]
Welcome to the Apocalypse - Director's Cut IC
in General
Posted
Stellio had.... precious little to say, as Freya went to trouble of actively stuffing a butchered corpse inside the innards of yet another, larger corpse. Nothing except "Not even the Necromancers of Galgastan ever went to such... lengths just to recover a single corpse. Then again, corpses were not exactly in short supply, back in the isles..."
He let his gaze linger on the Girl for just a minute longer, before finally turning to look over the wares the strange woman had produced. One would think the knight would be a bit more perplexed at the sudden appearance of a stranger, but well... it was no stranger than anything he'd faced back home, nor since he'd been deposited into this group. By now most of the chaos and madness was rolling right off the chin like a couple of thrown pebbles pinging harmlessly off his armor.
"This Sun Tome, what precisely would you be willing to accept for it?" The Terror Knight asked "I've no idea how well it would work for another, but I can teach the basics of dark magic, and channeling mana in general. It seems to be as readily present here as it is in my own realm, at least."