Shamitako

Prei casts her flaming Elemental Spears, preparing them to strike on her next instance of damage. Also she regenerates 4HP Tesla fires off a blast of energy, dealing 12 damage to Sparky2 Leon dashes across the battlefield, striking Sparky1 for 8 damage, Sparky2 for 5, and slashing into Waddle Doo for 7 Argent hesitates, causing him to lose 6 INIT Atton crashes into Waddle Doo with his banner, dealing 12 damage Waddle Doo retaliates with a beam of electrical sparks, dealing 7 damage to Atton Eon calls down stellar pain, striking both Waddle Dees for 5 damage and dealing 7 damage to Waddle Doo Victoria inflicts Paralysis on Waddle Doo Sparky1 hops up to Tesla and smashes into her with its body, dealing 0 damage and lowering her INIT by 3 Dimitri uses his fancy gel on his allies, healing everyone for 9 HP Waddle Dee1 waddles into Victoria, dealing 9 damage to her Waddle Dee2 nonchalantly walks up to Eon and touches him lightly, dealing 1 damage Argent channels a fiery beam into Sparky1, dealing 5 damage to it Hiroki bombards the Waddle Doo with powerful heat energy, dealing 10 damage to it Sparky2 clenches its body and unleashes a storm of electricity around itself. It strikes Prei, Leon, and Argent for 3 damage each and lowers their INITs by 3. It also engulfs Tesla, but she emerges unaffected Prei retaliates, dealing 3 damage to Sparky2. Her spears follow up, striking for 10 more and killing it Sparky2 turns into a yellow star and winks out of existence, leaving behind a small trophy in its likeness Location: 0. Battle, Turn 2 Initiative Party Status: Enemy Status:

Maze results: After spending a while in the maze lounge discussing their collecting failure, the group found themselves transported back to the original room, where they found Chronos resting in the exact spot they'd left it in. "Ah, you're back, I suppose that means it was too much for you." It said quietly, "Very well. I don't have much energy right now, so we can't get far, but I can get us close enough to another ruin that we'll be protected by its anchor." Instantly, the group found themselves out on the smoldering plains of the Plane of Wrath, another ruin just visible in the distance. But a ruin was not all that was a visible, they found themselves facing a few small, strange creatures. The enemies they had been brought here to push back. There were five of them, two blue things hopping with sparks, two balls waddling forward, and a single orb with a large black eye-thing walking forward with a silly gait. Also Chronos gives you an item which he says can only be used here but is useful and I totally didn't forget like I knew I would Location: 0. Battle Initiative: Party Status: Enemy Status:

K, so, I finally bothered to come look at this, sorry for taking so long Mouse and DG are accepted. I'll add all of the new characters to the OP when I introduce them

When you don't just win your lane, you legit get fed off it

The first of the group entered into the maze. But before anyone else could follow, a heavy stone slab fell into the doorway, sealing the group outside. In addition, all of the group's magic and electronics (notably excluding Chronos) shut down completely. The message was rather clear: The maze was to be traversed by a single person with no outside help of any kind. (OOC: Alright, maze is open. Bug me on Discord when you've got half an hour to an hour free and I'll run you through. Each player will get one attempt and will not be allowed to share the events of that attempt until either all players have finished or one player has been successful. I'll be keeping logs to post here after the puzzle is complete)

Chronos "Intel?" Chronos said, "No, I do not. But I can tell you that they tend to be equally as strange as Meta Knight here. And since the majority seem content to simply wait, we will wait." A short period of time, somewhere around fifteen minutes, passed uneventfully. The teleporter lit up, signaling it was active, and Chronos directed the group through it. This time, the area they were met with was not an empty ruin, but a room in a building. It wasn't a very large room, the singular entrance was directed towards a hallway which turned shortly after. Set into the floor was a grouping of tiles which seemed to form a map of some kind. Chronos seemed rather puzzled by the whole situation. "Hmm, there doesn't appear to be any writing or directions." It said, "This seems like it might be some kind of maze. Perhaps the instructions are hidden from me. As with before, if you do not wish to attempt this challenge then we can make an attempt to go elsewhere." Location: 1. Choose: Maze or Nah (OOC: Alright, let's make this quick, I'd like to move to the maze/encounter by the end of the day if possible)

Balance: Binding Chains now applies -2 Evasion to targets while bound. Reduced level to 3 (down from 4). Another Ultimate Weapon level reduced to 3 (down from 4). Syura now has the following special effect: At 1 HP, gain +1 Attack and Evasion.

Illusionists Suck Exile's first attack caused an explosion of fire, forcing her to duck back around the corner and Feardorcha to shield himself from the flames. Those Guys A chunk of the swarm broke off and intercepted Bellona's attack, as well as firing a warning barrage of lasers and bullets over her shoulder. They stayed, milling about in the air. The message was rather clear: Whoever Gypsy's help was, they didn't want interference. A small piece of plastic jettisoned itself from a launcher attached to Ansuz's wrist, flying out of the swarm. It struck the ground and there was a bright red glow followed by a blast of air, sending the swarm and Ansuz flying away from each other. Another piece of plastic, another flash of red, and Ansuz was gone. With their initial target gone, the swarm then turned and formed a circle around the group. Gypsy sighed, "He says he's coming to sort this out in person. Might be a little bit. Also don't attack the bees."

(OOC: Right, I apologize for the lack of structure. I'll write something up to help me be clearer next time about and hopefully it won't be as messy) Meta!Chronos "It's not what the answer is, attempting to find the solution at all is impossible for me." Chronos explained to Atton, "These puzzles are specifically constructed to keep me out. I am entirely incapable of even attempting to solve this, it's simply impossible for me. And before you ask, no, it's not that I'm not supposed to ever have the Access Dispel, I'm simply not supposed to have access to it without permission from a highly Favored resident of Tempest. These puzzles are an extra line of defense to ensure that only someone worthy of granting me access does so." The input password caused the box to collapse inwards on itself, disappearing to reveal another teleporter. The teleporter didn't seem to be on, but Chronos quickly explained that. "Good, that's through." It said, "It might take a while to power up, so if you'd like we could take a short moment to eradicate some of the pests while we wait. Or we can just wait for the chrge." Location: 0. Choose: Fight or Wait (OOC: If you have nothing more to add to the IC rationalization of the decision, notify me of your choice on Discord, I only need two or three posts actually in the thread)

Dear god this team wanted to lose. Luckily Swain and Morg are a pretty deadly combo

Team Illusionists Suck Cutting the floor and breaking the symbol on the floor still did nothing to deter the flaming bars. Exile began to think that maybe the symbols didn't matter now that the spell was active. Mega Star Cannon "Pfahahahahahahaha!" Blink burst into laughter, literally falling to the floor and rolling around, "Pf- You- Pfaha- That's the best fucking thing thing I've heard all month." Merlin rolled her eyes and said, "No, we are not lovers. And I would certainly not consider her my friend. Rival at best." "Heehee. Yes, riv- ha- rivals. That's a good word for it. Hahaha." Blink's legs wheeled in the air as she clutched her belly in laughter. It didn't seem like she intended to stop anytime soon. "Anyways," Merlin continued, trying to ignore Blink, "There's nothing wrong with collusion, it's mixing magic and mechs together into one that I've got an issue with. I have nothing against mechs themselves, maybe a little disdain for the fact that they're just straight up better than magic, but it's not like I have a vendetta against everyone who's ever used a mech. So when the gods started popping up, I figured it was a good idea to introduce myself and do my best to stay on good terms. If I'd stayed secret then they'd have found out eventually and I'd have to explain myself, they'd all be suspicious forever."

Those Guys The cannon suddenly turned and fired past the group, blowing a trench in the terrain. "Shut up!" Ansuz screamed, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He clutched the left side of his face and he shook his head back and forth in anger and confusion. Tears started streaming down his face. "A-Ansuz, it's alright." Charity mumbled, "We can still forgive you. No one is above forgiveness." Ansuz's movements froze and his eyes went from dark anguish to burning anger. "You think I would do all this for you?!" He screeched, "You think you're worth this mess?! None of you are worth this mess! I don't matter! You don't matter! Only the truth matters! Where is she? Where is she... WHERE IS SHE?! I did this for her. I wanted to show her. I will show her. You'll see! You'll all see! She'll accept me, you'll see!" The cannon turned and pointed directly at the group again, it was clear that Ansuz had every intention of incinerating them all. A mass of golden and black spheres smashed into Ansuz and his cannon, knocking them backwards. The cannon still fired, but its shot flew off into the horizon. Gypsy opened his eyes and gasped, "I got help." More cannon fire shot out into the sky as Ansuz desperately tried to fend off the swarm. But it was hopeless, they easily opened gaps in their mass to let the lasers pass through and then went to work peppering him with bullets and lasers. It quickly became apparent that Ansuz hadn't invested in any form of defense, an enemy close enough and evasive enough that he couldn't blast through them was going to make short work of him. Mega Star Cannon On the machine, Anemone found records for an experiment called "Tallow." It seemed the scientists had been attempting to force feed information on magic to this boy's brain as part of an experiment to create a passable mage in as short a period of time as possible. He was listed as number thirteen, meaning there were at least twelve others like him among the various experiments being performed on children. "We'll try to do things for the kids after we've figured out how much data they have on magic." Merlin said, "There's no way that kids has anything to do with magic, it's been two weeks, there's no way you could teach an unwilling child something like that in such a short time." Merlin then turned her attention to Ice. "Is there something wrong with me knowing Blink?" She asked defensively, "I know lots of people." "She's an immortal wi-i-i... Wizard" Blink told Ice, uncharacteristically tripping over her words, "You expect her to not know the Gods of the various Planes? Also we are not friends." Amelia then raised her hands and clapped them loudly, looking around the room as the clap resounded throughout. "What's with all the bottles?" She inquired, "Are they medicine?" "Yeah, all kinds of stuff." Merlin answered, "No clue what any of this sciency gibberish means though."