DragonRage

Samantha draws upon the full power of the Phoenix again, rising above the battlefield on wings of stellar fire. Gritting her teeth as her flesh burns under power no human is meant to channel, she fires her basic attack at Lancer. The blast of psychic fire leaves a trail of glass as it sears its way between Samantha's forehead and the Servant's, leaving flash spots in the eyes of everyone near and raising the ambient temperature to uncomfortably warm before it connects, the raw power released leaving an impressive crater even though only half the blast is even physical. [She spends 12 HP, and deals 22d6+22 damage.]

"...I'd almost forgotten how it felt," Mirri mutters distantly, "I have it. Once Soma is freed from whatever Frigus did to her, I should be able to remove her ability to use her powers temporarily. If her rational mind is not in control, her will should be weak. This should prevent her from resisting, based on experience. That said, we don't have anything like this back home. My Master didn't exactly cover using techniques you've barely started to learn, that most Jedi never even begin to master, on unstable bioweapons while they jack the body of somebody you don't want to kill."

"Bloody hell. Okay, okay, I'll have another go," Vitor touches the book again, wincing, but doesn't pull away. "It feels like Sauron doesn't have a direct connection to this thing. Thank God for that. It feels like when he first started studying wizardry and dark magic, he wrote down his successes and failures in this book. It's not intended as a spellbook, though you could use it as that. It's a lab journal. He eventually shelved it when he moved on to more powerful magic and left it behind when he relocated to the Dark Tower in Mordor, since he needed to travel light. This is an incredibly valuable repository of knowledge, but needless to say, you should be very careful with it. "For context, in this world Sauron is widely considered to be the archetypal dark lord. He's a fictional character here, but if you have that, then Middle Earth exists. He almost conquered it, covering the entire world in darkness and ruling it with an iron fist. His personal mystic code, the One Ring, was so powerful that just being near it for long enough could corrupt you to his cause, no matter how powerful you were or strong your will was. Over the course of the entire book series, three huge volumes, only four people successfully resist the Ring's influence. Sauron is bad news, but as far as I can tell this tome is just a lab notebook detailing his exploration of basic black magic. It should be safe to use. I'd recommend having a curse breaker take a look at it before you do anything else with it anyways. And a priest, if you can find one willing to give it back afterwards." __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "That is correct, My Lady," Solara informs Freya, taking a knee before her, "My sword is yours, your cause mine, until our debt to you is repaid, or... death... 'Or until death takes me' seems to have lost its usual meaning in this case. So I suppose I shall be serving until honor is satisfied. So mote be it!"

Mirri cocks her left arm like a gun, and then hoses the room down with her flamethrower to destroy any stray Aragami cells. Fire is a biohazard hunter's best friend. Once the room has been sterilized, she sits down in front of Soma's frozen form. "I can suppress her powers. Whether I will is another question. I've never successfully used this skill before. So if there's anything you can do to help me focus, or otherwise up my chances of pulling it off, consider this an open invitation." Mirri attempts to learn the skill Sever Force, spending her "Measure of Temperance" crafting reagent to improve her chances She also uses Meditate on the Lost to buff her synergy by 40% (the Force runs off synergy and essence). Sever Force should cut off the target's supernatural powers until they beat Mirri in an opposed essence check if performed correctly. Even if Mirri fails, she might be able to learn Sever Force's less powerful Dark Side counterpart, Force Drain, which reduces the potency of the target's supernatural powers and increases Mirri's own by an equivalent amount until the victim can beat her in an opposed essence check.

Mirri reaches out with the Force, and attempts to prevent Soma from dodging Kusuke or knocking him away with her telekinesis.

"Sithspit!" Mirri flicks her blaster over to stun and charges after Frigus. Hopefully her armor will keep her from being infected by whatever that is. She checks her seals and then rushes in. "Stand back, you two! My armor has class two biohazard seals. I'll try to stun her long enough for you to do whatever you were trying, Kusuke."

"You- You dare question my-" If this was a cartoon, steam would be boiling from Mirri's ears, but as it is not she just vibrates silently, clenching and unclenching her fists as she visibly wrestles with her temper. "You- You- Look you self-righteous little bareface," She explodes at Frigus, "Maybe on your world the Dark Side goes away when you wave your wrist-breaker and some rainbows at it, but it is NOT THAT BLOODY EASY EVERYWHERE! I- I can feel it whispering to me. Eating away at me. Every second of every day. How much easier it would be to just stop resisting. Do what would feel good, turn anyone who disagrees into a bloody smear across the bulkheads, claim the power I need, and wreak bloody vengeance from atop a mountain of corpses. I could do it. Fairly sure. It would be too. Slagging. Easy. "So don't talk to me about the Dark Side. You pretty clearly have no idea what you're talking about. You might have faced what others did with it, but if you think it's that easy you've never faced darkness within yourself. I need power. As fast as possible. Where I come from, I am so incredibly, horribly outclassed by those that would hunt me down... The Dark Side feeds on the fear, grows louder until it drowns out everything else. If I don't gain power elsewhere, I will take what it offers. Sithspit, I don't want to, now at least, but five years ago I'd have said I'd never touch it, and look where that got me. "And you! ...Belt guy! You want me to prove my honor, name your test and I'll-" Mirri's attention is finally attracted by Soma's implantation as it goes horribly wrong. "What the hells is that? It's eating her alive! They- They actually stick that in people? I- I was going to stick that in myself. ...Maybe I don't need power quite that much." Her hand drops to her lightsaber, "Do you think we could help her going in there? If that stuff eats people, we might just make it stronger if we try."

"Sure thing, I'll take a look at your book. But depending on what the mask does, I could probably be persuaded to look at more stuff for you. Maybe we set up a working relationship?" Vitor offers, "I like to study ancient relics, especially magical ones, and it seems like you do too. Maybe I help you with the real hard to identify ones, and in exchange, you give me first bid on the really cool finds?" He places his hand on the cover of the tome, but after only a second jerks back, complexion ashen. "W-wherever you got that, you should put it back," He informs her shakily, "No, throw it in a volcano. It's the only way to be sure! I know you're a badass demon binder, and I'm not trying to belittle your mysteries, but you don't want that shit! Oh God I can't believe I didn't think about that; if fictional universes are real, then so is he! Oh God please tell me you didn't pick up a gold ring on the same world. "Sauron. Why did it have to be Sauron?"

"Planeswalkers no longer have all but unlimited power? Oh, thank Serra," Solara affects a sigh of relief, "Then the end of my people will never be repeated. This is good." Her gaze pans over the Frost Brute, and Snow. "Thank you for your offer, sir," She tells Leo, "But I believe I would prefer to explore... alternative options. And most of my comrades would prefer to pass on. We decided that, should we ever be freed, I would shoulder the burden of repaying our debt to our savior. I was the loudest voice of opposition to our former leader Radiant; Urza carries the lion's share of the blame for our fate, but Radiant was not blameless. Of course, when I pledged so I believed we would never be free, but I will stand by my word. Besides, to serve our savior is no onerous task." ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "As I said, I'm definitely interested in taking a look at that mask," Vitor says, "Looks like there's a lot of history to it. For payment, well, I'm kind of an expert in identifying and ferreting out the secrets of ancient artifacts and magic items. If you've got anything you've had trouble identifying, I can definitely save you a lot of work."

"You? Train me? Ha! You're all weak," Mirri asserts, "No, that's not giving a few of you the honor you've earned. We're all weak. What have we done? Hacked up a couple boats? Butchered a few mindless beasts? Run like sniveling cowards from a lizard man? You would all die like nerfs to the slaughterhouse before any real threat, and I am not arrogant enough to claim I'd do much better. You want to know why I'm doing this? It isn't obvious? "As we are, but especially the rest of you, we're all going to die. Because you're weak, most of you lack any semblance of courage or willpower, and I'm just enough of a fool that I can't bring myself to leave you lot to your fate."

"As cowardly as you are, I have trouble seeing how you ever go outside," Mirri informs Arminius, "Life is short, death is certain. A coward lives a thousand deaths in the confines of his own head. The rest of us die but once." She heads off to the God Eater testing facility, ignoring any further attempts to talk her out of this.

"I'll take this God Eater test," Mirri volunteers, "More firepower is never a bad thing."

Taylor pulls out an Aether Ball, and holds it out to Kenshiro. He waits for the Morelull to press the activation stud himself, and once that happens, releases the mushroom Pokemon. Then he picks up the egg, places it gently into his backpack, and starts examining the new room the group finds itself in.

Mirri looks down at the scratched, chipped pigment covering her plates. "It has been a while since I got repainted," She admits, "And my cape gave up the ghost a few years ago. The base plates have to stay. I'm not updating to an inferior metal just because it looks better. But the rest? It's been a while. Even if this was still in style, it's taken a beating. No red or orange though. Those colors symbolize things that don't really fit me, and I'd rather not invite false assumptions the next time I meet my clansmen."

"I'm not getting paid to keep them alive," Mirri states coldly, but elaborates in a slightly warmer tone, "And more practically, the only way to keep them off the battlefield would be to take them down myself. I'll be making better hardware for them as soon as the proper facilities are available, I assure you. "And my armor comes off when you pry it from my corpse." There were harsher things she certainly wanted to say, but the last time she let her temper take charge someone who didn't deserve it at all suffered. REPRESS! REPRESS!

"You are a Planeswalker, my Lady," Solara reminds Marisa, definitely confused, "Your whim can sink continents, warp minds, and create new planes from the aether. The only way to defeat a Planeswalker is to enlist the help of another, and pray that your world survives the clash. You are immortal, eternal, and could doubtlessly destroy us all with ease." Freya reaches into the powerstone, and pulls another soul out. This one looks like the remains of a human knight. He thanks Freya profusely before dissolving into golden sparkles, headed for the afterlife at last. Stellio goes searching for the Weatherlight's armory or barracks. After searching through a lot of abandoned rooms he finds a metal-floored room with a chimney, an anvil, and a few worn tools laying around. It looks about as safe as a room for metalworking can be on a wooden ship. Contagion examines the Weatherlight's systems carefully, walking through the ship, and comes to the conclusion that in addition to the fuel line damage and the giant hole in the side, some jerk from the Talon group plugged a bunch of conduits in backwards to try to sabotage anyone who wanted to make it fly. Grumbling to himself, he decides to start things off by fixing the fuel lines; it's easy enough for someone of his training. Lucine pushes a button! And nothing explodes! In fact, nothing much at all seems to happen, except that the hole in the hull starts rapidly sealing itself. Soon, it is as good as new. And that is when the Weatherlight shudders, and pulls itself to hover just above the ground. A door opens near the prow, allowing a ramp to extend for easy loading and unloading. Presumably, everyone inside or on top except Lucine were thrown about by the sudden shift.

Mirri lands her ship and takes a few moments to banish her rage yet again. Then she climbs out, and noticing the new arrival, decides to clank over and investigate. "Another newcomer," She observes neutrally, "You don't look like you'll be much good in a fight. I am Mirri of clan Av."

"Ugh. Santa Maria, I need a break from that," Vitor mutters, taking his hand off the hull, "This thing's history is going to take forever to- Wait, ma'am, did you say you know what this ship is? And that you have magical artifacts for sale? I do believe I'm interested in a look at both. As far as payments go, I don't have a lot of money, but I do have a rather unique service I could provide: psychometry. I can divine the history of any item by touching it. How to use it, who's used it in the past, what it does, and what it's done. Surely a connoisseur of mystic codes such as yourself could find worthwhile uses for my talents?" ______________________________________________________ "Have I wronged you, Lady Planeswalker?" Solara asks Marisa uncertainly, "I do not believe we have met in the past, and if we had a mere Archangel would certainly not have been enough to inconvenience you. Please don't stick me back in there."

"Hey, I'm working on it," Vitor tells Sha'Tith, "Haven't you people been listening? This thing takes time, especially for something as old as this!" Aquila tries the whiskey. (Constitution check 17 v 14 success!). It tastes absolutely foul. It's clearly been sitting long enough to start dissolving the insides of the barrels and tastes strongly of wood and dust. It takes her a few minutes of theorycrafting and concentration, but eventually, Freya feels confident enough to reach an ethereal hand into the powerstone, grab something, and yank hard. There is a brief feeling of resistance, and then a spirit pops cleanly out of its imprisonment. Freed and standing tall, Solara is revealed as a towering, statuesque angel clad in flowing, pale robes over shining mail armor. Whatever her coloration was in life, it is subsumed by the ghostly, pale, yellow light that suffuses her spirit. The ghost goes to one knee at Freya's feet, tears leaking from her eyes. "After all these years, Serra has answered our prayers. With a necromancer, no less. Truly the goddess has a sense of humor. Thank you, Lady Necromancer, thank you."

"Perhaps," Amelie murmurs, "Safety is an illusion. Heroes always die. But the candle that burns the fastest, burns so bright. Perhaps watching that candle will be the answer I seek." Perhaps unsatisfied by the vague answer but still curious about the mana source she senses, Marisa heads deeper into the derelict. Aquila, meanwhile, goes cruising for booze. And he eventually finds some! The water barrels are doubtlessly spoilt or empty by now. The wine barrels are likely full of vinegar. But maybe the whiskey is still good...? As Leo completes his mana experiments, he has a sense of something watching him intently. Then, the derelict's core briefly glows brighter as some system draws power, before the entire hull briefly turns the silver-grey of the reflection mana he just discovered. The effect flicks on and off several times before fading, but the ship's hull stays shiny like a new mirror. A distinct sense of smug, apprehensive satisfaction fills the air, like a toddler looking for their father's approval after learning a difficult word. The hole in the hull seems to be healing slightly faster now. "I dunno," Vitor admits to Lucine, "My psychometry doesn't work fast, and this thing's been laying here a long, long time." Which is when Marisa walks in and falls silent in shock, having recognised the great artifact as a massive Powerstone, a Dominaran artifact used to power the creations of the infamous, genocidal anti-hero Urza Planeswalker in the distant past. The souls inside the crystal freeze upon hearing Freya's voice, stunned that someone has actually heard them. The screaming abruptly ceases, and there is a brief, swirling scuffle, before one of the spirits drives to the fore, the others falling back as best they can to give her room. Moving to press her face against the side of the crystal, the spirit reveals the visage of a beautiful, ethereal woman in shades of yellow and gold. "You hear our voices! You must listen! I am Solara, and I speak for all of us, the refugees of Serra's Realm. I know not how long we have been trapped here, but long ago the Planeswalker Urza sealed our home inside this stone to fuel his Skyship Weatherlight. The Realm of the Goddess was doomed no matter his actions, but he destroyed it without more than a token effort to evacuate. Do not trust the Planeswalker Urza, should you meet. And please, free us from our prison!" The spirit falls silent for a moment, and then continues. "...Should you be concerned for the ship's function, I assure you it does not depend on our presence in any way. Please help us, spirit-walker! We emplore you!"

Freya stomps down the corridors of the derelict, and is easily able to reach the engine room near the stern, where the powerstone rests. The huge crystal, easily the size of a large carriage, rests in a bed of complex machinery that seems to be drawing something from it. The softly glowing gem would be beautiful to anyone else, but Freya can see a swirling mess of tormented souls beating desperately against the sides of the artifact. They seem to have been compressed in there, millions upon millions of individual souls left somehow unharmed by being crammed into a space clearly far too small for them. Even worse, the magical energy being siphoned from the crystal clearly doesn't contain any souls or soul bits. (26 v 9) With careful examination, containing her rage for the moment, Freya is able to deduce that whoever created this crystal somehow packed it full of a substance with a high mana content, and compressed it to increase its density and power. Like an entire leyline, or maybe something bigger. And whoever was living on top of that magical energy source was trapped as well, the creator uncaring of the tragedy he'd caused. Freya doesn't even think it would be that difficult to set some or all of the souls free, but the previous owners were either unaware of their presence, or just didn't care enough to try.

"Possibly," Amelie tells Marisa. Somehow, despite her having apparently not moved, the huge knife is back in her hands, as she cleans the synthetic spidersilk off of the sharp blade. "They are certainly far more interesting than anything else that has happened recently." "Not much," Vitor tells Leo, "We kicked some Talon butt, and have been exploring this place. If you can do anything to figure out what it is and how to work it or fix it, go right ahead but be careful! I get the feeling it's ancient, and powerful, and might not take kindly to being messed with in a bad way. It's taking me a really long time to get a reading, though, because of how old it is. I think this thing might be from the Age of Gods!"

Taylor orders Kenshiro the Morelull to heal up with Moonlight, and has Jet the Meditite use Confusion on the Wailord, for lack of a better move.

Poof. The pipeline team is at the derelict, standing just outside the giant hole in the hull. Presumably by the magic of hiking. Leo makes his save to not lose a constitution point from exhaustion and poison side effects. Vitor successfully sets Lucine up with a mana tap to the derelict's power source, restoring her mana. Alan is able to join Ena at the helm of the derelict. Amelie mostly just watches the action, looking vaguely amused.

Name: Tor Svensen Age: 23 Gender: Male Appearance: A big, beefy, blonde Norwegian man with a bushy beard, Tor looks rather like he hunts caribou with his bare hands when he’s feeling hungry back home. In short, the exact opposite of the sort of person you’d expect to be running around with a portable tabletop strapped to his right arm, playing a children’s card game for the fate of the world. Nonetheless, that’s exactly what he does. To help in his quest, he wears a long, flared duster over his customary business-casual wear, a belt covered in deck boxes and dice pouches, and enough hair gel to give him those mission-critical anime hair spikes at all times. Background: Tor has harbored a love of the outdoors and of trading card games for as long as he can remember; he spent much of his youth in Norway in hobby shops and hiking the mountains above his home. After graduating college, he moved to work at the headquarters of Galactic Games, the creators of his game of choice. However, soon after the move, he discovered that he could cause the cards he played to come to life! And he wasn’t the only one who could. Tor soon found himself embroiled in a tournament with others who could bring cards to life, with the ultra-rare Omega Solar Flare as the prize. By defeating all comers, he won the card, preventing the nefarious Takahashi Yamada from using its power to hold the nations of the world hostage. Now, he looks for his next great adventure, while carefully keeping his rarest cards out of the hands of those who would misuse them. Preferred Location: Sendo City (Aethertide would also be fine) Preferred Quest(s): Knight-Errant, Seek and Destroy, Feng-Shui Preferred Modifier(s): Marked for Death (by Takahashi Yamada, who still wants that card), Form Shift, the Farce, the Jackass. Current Regalia: The Portable Tabletop – This forearm-mounted device comes with a flat surface covered in card slots, a mechanical deck shuffler/sorter, a dice rolling mechanism, and a life counter. The life counter will take hits for Tor, but if it’s reduced to 0 by attacks the Portable Tabletop will shut down for ten minutes, making it impossible for him to play cards. Tor’s deck is based around Nordic-themed space marines and their vehicles and hardware. It includes maneuver cards focused around healing and offensive buffs, and trap cards based around using the environment against attackers, all of which ties back to the central theme. Stats: Melee: 4. Tor is really big and strong for a human, and he knows how to throw a punch. Additionally, he can have his monster cards intercept and assault, and deploy trap cards. Trap cards lie in wait until an enemy trips their activation requirement, which is set when they're played. Then, the trap card punishes or counters whatever tripped it. Ranged: 7. Tor’s ranged capabilities are split roughly evenly between maneuver cards and monster cards. His monster cards do most of the fighting for him, and maneuver cards provide support and supplemental offense by enhancing his monsters and allies, or occasionally through directly attacking enemies. Mobility: 2. Tor isn’t more mobile than a normal human on his own, but he can call upon monster cards to provide a mount or vehicle for faster movement, flight, underwater travel, etc. Defense: 4. Tor doesn't have any ways to mitigate damage if he actually takes hits, and has to rely on healing maneuver cards in that case. Fortunately, he has some pretty good ones. However, he can have his monsters body-block incoming fire, or shield him with their own defenive abilities. Excel Hyper: 2 (Asteroid Field Ambush) Requiem: Tor’s requiem is simple. When he plays trading cards, he can cause the card’s effects to manifest in the real world. He mostly uses this with his personal deck of Space Vikings, but any trading cards can be used. Due to the rules of the game, he must only play one monster card, one maneuver card, and one trap card each round. Hypers: [3]: Until Folkvangr – Tor plays one of his signature cards, the maneuver ‘Until Folkvangr’, to ascend two of his monsters to Freyja’s halls, replacing them with a more powerful Einherjar monster. Only monsters who have seen battle may be ascended in this way. [4]: Shining Valkyrie Squad – Tor summons one of his ace monsters, the ‘Shining Valkyrie Squad’, a team of elite shieldmaidens equipped with laser battleaxes, particle shields, railguns, and hoverbikes. [5]: Assault Carrier Valhalla – Tor summons one of his ace monsters, the ‘Assault Carrier Valhalla’, a space battlecruiser equipped with powerful railguns, thick armor, particle shields, and a hanger full of Huginn-class interceptors and Muninn-class bombers. The carrier can produce one fighter each round. The Assault Carrier Valhalla is a unique hero card, and Tor can only have one active at any given time. [6]: Omega Solar Flare – Tor uses one of his signature cards, the maneuver ‘Omega Solar Flare’, and has one of his monsters go out in a blaze of glory. The monster is sacrificed to produce a huge blast of solar plasma capable of dealing devastating damage to multiple enemies. Omega Solar Flare’s power scales with the power of the monster sacrificed. [Excel]: Asteroid Field Ambush – Tor always keeps his signature trap card, ‘Asteroid Field Ambush’, in reserve. Asteroid Field Ambush activates if Tor or an ally would be defeated or slain by an attack, surrounding the attacker with asteroids from which three vehicle-type monsters charge in. The monsters intercept the incoming attack as best they can, and if any survive they immediately counterattack. This card can be activated from Tor’s hand. Notes: Tor is quite versatile and flexible; he can fill nearly any role in a team, offensive, defensive, or supportive thanks to the numerous applications of his cards. However, he's at his best as a sort of tactical defender. He can draw enemies into unfavorable positions and wear them down with trap cards and waves of expendable mooks, forcing them to more resources than his team is and thus lose a war of attrition. However, this does mean that if he doesn't get a chance to set up he's left vulnerable. Until Folkvangr is Tor's bread and butter special. Once he's got his army rolling, he can trade in his wimpy base monsters for a powerful fusion monster and start wrecking face with it. Straightforward, but powerful. The Shining Valkyrie Squad is noteworthy for requiring the least set-up of all his actions, and having a lot more mobility than Tor himself. They cover a lot of his weaknesses if he gets them out, and make a great target for Until Folkvangr and Omega Solar Flare The Assault Carrier Valhalla is Tor's biggest gun, his heavy hitter, the action he uses to close out fights. Its endless supply of fighters lets him spam mooks twice as fast, and the ship is both hard-hitting and tough to destroy. Plus, if worst comes to worst, he can always convert it into even more advantage by using Until Folkvangr or Omega Solar Flare on it. Omega Solar Flare is Tor's last resort card. It converts his hard-earned resources into raw damage, which can be useful, but will usually cripple him if enemies survive it or show up later. Asteroid Field Ambush is mostly used as a safety net. If all else fails, it'll keep him in the fight and give him a big burst of value against an opponent that has bashed through all his other defenses and teammates.