StormLord

"Well that can't be good. Mitsurugi, come'on." Spicy HG turned to face the new arrival before flying into another burst of speed and death. Spicy HG uses Coupling Attack with Mitsurugi on the Gashadokuro, they each get to use a weapon or action attack with no cooldown on it. They also both deal an extra 2d4 damage with the first hit of their attack. Spicy HG's attack is Rush Technique dealing 5 damage 4d4+4 times and an extra 2d4 damage with the first hit.

Theme: Jun slams into the Rope Marionette like a flaming truck and reduces it to splinters with 35 damage. The twine burns. The remaining Twine Marionette shifts its attention to Jun. Str save: 10 vs 11, Jun becomes entangled and gains 10% failure chance. Kusuke recalls, restoring himself to a wound-free state. Jun moves on, burning away a Wire Marinette with 39 damage. One Wire Marionette lunges at Jun, it hits for 4 damage while the other struggles against Az. Jun starts bleeding while Satomi and Az take 5 damage each. Flora continues to struggle a lot and achieve little. Satomi catches her breath for a minute(She gets a makeup turn at the start of next round). Jun obliterates another Wire Marionette with 37 more damage. Kusuke banks an action. The two remaining Rope Marionettes fire on Leo and Az for 5 and 4 damage respectively. Leo’s Winter Blade chills one of the Chain Marionettes for 4 damage. [6] The freeze doesn’t end up doing much. Kusuke tears into a Rope Marionette for 18 damage rendering it barely functional and holding on by threads. Az fires at one of the Chain Marionettes [48] and hits blasting chain links apart for 29 damage. The Chain Marionettes descend on Jun and Satomi dealing 6 and 7 damage respectively. Init: Status:

Antione Beaudreau:

Cell took a bit of a step back at Cicivexa's suggestion before shaking his "head" back and forth quickly. He waited a minute trying to puzzle out a response when Hiroki beat him too it, so instead he gave her an thumbs up and nodded several times in agreement.

Tim nods in understanding as he puts away the gold. "Well should you ever find anything of value in the future you wish to trade for gold, I'll have some waiting." He turned back to Lucine and gestured up towards the direction of the rest of the party. "The rest of the group is somewhere over that way, we should probably head back soon hmm?"

Theme: Uni spends her turn reloading her now smoking rifle. Bridgett glows some more and takes 16 damage. Hurstwic heals her, Nepgear, and 6D for 6 each and resolves. Perlita blasts 6D with healing energy and restores 40 HP. 6D’s crushing blow, swift strike, and support energy blasts rack up 25, 28, and 5 damage against his shield respectively. However Judge doesn’t look terribly slowed down, in fact he cackles at her attacks as Juggernaut kicks in and he ignores her Stun effect. Retaliation expires, 6D regens 8 HP. Gabriel spews nuclear hellfire in Judge’s general direction dealing 36 damage to Judge’s shield and causing him to burn. Barely visible under Judge’s helmet was a gleeful grin like that of a child in a candy store. “YOU’RE ALL DEAD NOW” Energy pulses from Judge’s left arm as he uses Pay-to-Win! Next round's actions may be a little pricey. Action Surge triggers! [76, hit]Judge swings his hammer and punts 6D into a nearby tree, dealing 45 damage and Stunning her. Nepgear notices Iowa preparing to attack and decides to help her with a bit of a boost, improving the damage of Iowa’s next attack by 25%. [1 vs 10, fail] Punch summons up a spike of wind and energy before slamming into Judge for 14 damage to his shield. Judge bleeds for 3 pure damage. Iowa’s guns rotate into position, shining with a faint purple energy, and fire with one round sailing into Judge for 46 damage against his shield. The round detonates for another 44 damage and breaks his shield. Atton hatches a cunning plan that boosts the Syn of Iowa and Perlita by 7 as well as reducing a cooldown of their choice by 1. Mira attaches a Magra grenade to Judge’s side, it’ll detonate for 8d8+12 damage next time Judge takes magic damage. Pay-to-Win: Actions targeting Judge this round have one(1) of the following additional costs: +2 rounds of cooldown, Deals 20% of MHP in backlash damage, Consumes a relative amount of personal resources, Init: Status:

Theme: Jun buffs her own speed, gaining 8 Dex. The Twine Marionettes both dive towards Satomi, trying to entangle her in their mass of strings. Str saves: 9 vs 11, 18 vs 16, She manages to break out of some of the lines and even pull out her shield, but becomes restricted by the rest. Kusuke banks his turn. The Wire Marionettes, almost dog-like beasts pounce at Jun, Satomi, and Az aiming for vital spots to scratch and tear at. Jun dodges, Satomi takes 2 damage and Az 3, they both start bleeding. Flora roars angrily, but isn’t able to actually achieve much. Satomi knocks and fires her arrow [19] only for a stray line to pull her aim at the last second and send it sailing off into the distance. Jun starts the blending full force with 38 damage to one of the Twine Marionettes and 8 damage to Flora. The twine around Flora’s torso seems to be burning. The Rope Marionettes aim their stage-prop bows and fire on Kusuke, Leo, and Satomi with surprising effectiveness. Kusuke and Leo each take 4 damage while arrows tink off Satomi’s armor. [53] Leo’s analyze spell reveals the monster to actually be an ensouled being who’s Psychic Shell is heavily tainted by the Despair element he found earlier and is bound by an extremely powerful Curse, magic on par with or stronger than Dysto’s. The Despair, which Soul doesn’t seem to have the will to purge itself of, is causing it to lash out, self perpetuating from the suffering of others and the host. Str check: 6 vs 6, Az reaches out and eventually manages to grab hold of one of the Wire Marionettes by the main movement lines, thus causing it to sort of dangle barely unable to reach him. The Chain Marionettes slowly clink and jingle to life, saying more slowly, but with more inertia than the others. They draw wooden swords and strike Kusuke for 10 and Leo for 9. Init: Status:

The party steps through the door into what seems to be some kind of old style theater, red velvet ropes line walkways and floral patterned paper covers the walls. It's dimly lit with rows of seats facing a stage on the far end of the room, the curtains of which are drawn closed. Some of the seats are damaged, crushed, charred, or smashed. Shadows of several...mostly humanoid figures hang from the ceiling far above the party. Tangled hopelessly in a knot of ropes, wire, chain, and twine run through hundreds, possibly thousands, of tiny metal hooks. As soon as the last party member crosses the threshold you all hear and inhuman roar from behind the curtains. The door slams closed as chains and rope bind it shut. Spotlights shift to point at the stage and the curtains begin slowly rolling back. Thrashing can be heard and felt from behind them and dust is knocked loose as the mass of knots shakes and sways. The curtains finally part and everyone sees it, a mass of shards of stained glass held together in the form of some monstrous beast. It hangs just above the floor wrapped in layers of rope, chain, wire, and twine that pin its limbs to its body and restrict movement. All of the lines binding the Witch run upward to the ceiling and into the mass of tangled knots above. Leo spots his golems, half broken and sitting at the back of the stage just as it struggles again. It twists and pulls trying to break free, only to tug on the bindings enough to cause most of the marionette figures to fall from their prisons and sway menacingly at the party, moving in an almost lifelike fashion to claw, bite, and strangle them. Init: Status:

Leo's force rod holds enough to the party to relax, then he starts pushing and pounding on the door trying to get it open. Kusuke of the future runs over to the winch and winds it up as far as he can then puts it in the locked position to relieve the remaining stress on the party outside. He then suddenly hears a pounding and realizes the door is barred, something he rectifies fairly easily. Kusuke of the past finds that his leg sweep is woefully underwhelming because this guy just...doesn't fall down for some reason. He does manage to dodge sword swipes and even knock the weapon away right in time for Az to come up behind him and....finish the job. Beyond lies a small courtyard with gravel paths and several small planted areas for decoration. On the opposite side is the entrance to the main keep, it's door left open a slight crack. Closer inspection reveals the plants to not be quite what they seem, flowers are made of stained glass or bloom into eyes, the grass turns and shifts like it's alive, and the trees are made of thousands of tiny bones fused together.

[84] Kusuke doesn't find any portal back, but he does manage to blink over the wall easy enough. Once over he's met with a uhh....person? It's difficult to tell really, their proportions are just a little off, they're wearing armor that almost looks like it's made of wood, well painted wood, but still wood, and their face is obscured by a sort of clinging darkness. They look surprised at first, before moving for the sword on their belt. They've got a menacing posture, but their movements are oddly stiff and just a little awkward. Behind them is a small gatehouse and a winch tied to the portcullis with a chain. Group Str check: 34 vs 32, Leo, Satomi, and Jun grab one side of the gate, Az grabs the other, and together they lift with all their might. Eventually they manage to get it lifted enough to pass through, but if any one person lets go for too long the whole thing is going to come slamming down. Especially if that person is Az.

[53] At first, nothing happens, but after several seconds the door behind the portcullis slowly creaks open just a hair. A single eye peaks through, covered in what looks like some kind of helmet. It bleats out something completely incomprehensible in a low, quiet voice before slamming the door shut.

Leo approaches the portcullis. It's dark, sturdy, and very much closed. It looks like it's made of banded iron with added spikes to dissuade invaders who attempt to ram it open. Behind it is a heavy door reinforced with what seems to be a thin layer of metal, to reduce the risk of fire. The walls are smooth with a slight trench at their base to make them seem even taller than they are. There are small machicolations on the underside of the battlements.

Spicy HG followed Lexiel outside to find the source of the sound only to stand there watching the show before the fight. "Show offs much? But you don't look so tough." She readied her glaive and flew into a burst of rapid movements. Spicy HG uses Rush Technique on a Red Imp, dealing 5 damage 4d4+4 times and ignoring the first three points of DR.

Cell's shoulders slumped forward and he shook his "head". It didn't seem to have worked in the slightest, so instead he found a roughly clear patch of dirt, a stick of some sort, and started crudely drawing, grumbling all the while. Eventually he stood back up pointed down at what he'd just made, the words "I NO BREATH" in haphazard shapes.

Theme: Uni stands fully and levels her rifle at Judge, she lets off a barrage attacking 17 times for 5 damage each. Atton’s pseudo-tank fires a burst of .50 cal at Judge, most of it bounce or dings dealing only 12 damage. Bridgett literally starts burning up from overdrawing power as she fires five bolts of magic at Judge, she deals 5 damage with each. She takes 13 points of backlash damage. Hurstwic ticks. Perlita’s wave of healing magic restores 40 HP to Nepgear. 6D self-repairs for 8 HP. She slams her blade into Judge’s ribs for 18 damage and her drone blasts him for another 4. Gabriel boosts Nepgear’s defenses. “Just POURING out of the woodwork to get a piece of me HUH!?” Judge slams his hammer into 6D again for another 31 damage. Nepgear sends a powerful wave of healing energy over Uni, restoring 30 HP. Punch plants her foot on Judge’s head, dealing 17 damage and knocking him dizzy. Iowa huffs and puffs and blows a giant cloud of smoke if Judge’s face, dealing 1 damage and reducing the damage of his next attack. Mira finds a nice weakpoint in Judge’s armor and clocks him for another 51 damage. Init: Status:

Jun's search doesn't amount to much other than that they aren't here anymore. Also the monsters are getting closer, it looks like that pack of eyes-on-legs has finally caught up. Leo's backpedaling causes him to immediately slam into a hard wall, shortly followed by being shoved forward be a body. The moment Kusuke pushes his hand through the wall he finds himself no longer where he was and instead practically on top of Leo, who stumbles forward and almost falls over. Theme: The area around Kusuke, Leo, and Az slowly comes into focus, appearing out of the blank void that was there moments before. A castle wall and gate stands before them, complete with portcullis. A large keep stands beyond with mind-boggling and surreal architecture like towers jutting out at near horizontal angles, doors that lead to nowhere, and upside down arches. From various window ledges, poles, and undersides hang ropes with roughly humanoid figures dangling by their necks, wrists, and/or ankles. No guards can be seen manning the walls anywhere, yet torches are lit. All around them is a perpetual dull-grey light of just before dawn in place of the choking fog from before. They can see empty green hills on all sides, save behind which is a winding road seemingly leading towards a fog shrouded city.

As Leo and Az step across the threshold where the city-scape stops and the winding road begins they feel a small amount of resistance, while it's easy enough to overcome when they look up they're in a completely different location. From the rest of the party's view Leo and Az walk towards the winding road and just flat out vanish without a trace.

Tim throws up his hands and takes a step back. "Alright, alright. I'm not going to take anything, but...." He reached into his cloak with both hands and pulled out two shining gold bricks. With the sudden addition of that much weight he had to take a second to find his balance again. "If you're interested, I'll give you these for a single diamond. If not I'm sure I'll find someone else to take these off my hands."

Tim nodded back. "Swamp you say? Wouldn't have happened to step in some red mud would you? Bah what am I saying, the locals have probably already harvested all the bogiron in the area." He reached up and pulled on his beard a little while thinking. "Oh well. You're a dragon right?" He turned to address Moss. "Wouldn't happen to have any gems on you would you? And do you like gold at all? We might just be able to make a trade."

Theme: As the party moves deeper into the city-scape Snow picks up more and more distant movements outside their view. Shadows start swiping just outside the groups vision, creatures with the same spider-like legs as before almost "dancing" as they glide across the ground just out of sight. Glowing eyes looking out from alleyways, some large, some small. Something swoops overhead knocking bits of dust and grit loose as it sung on freakishly long limbs. At one point you cross a street and someone shines a light down it revealing several thousand eyes on stubby legs waddling towards you. The stained glass windows get darker as you go. At first showing knights and pleasant white cats, but slowly changing, the faces of the knights are scratched out, the cat's eyes start to bleed and they gain a wicked grin, people dangling on strings somewhere between marionettes and nooses. Fear saves: Leo, Az, and Satomi are Shaken by the creepy happenings around them and suffer a -2 penalty on their ability saves/checks. As the party gets closer and closer to this "wall" they slowly gather a larger and larger entourage of glowing eyes following behind. Once they actually reach it they realize it's not a wall at all, quite the opposite actually. The city-scape suddenly ends and the fog pulls away on that side to reveal rolling green hills and a distant palace with a winding road connecting up to the road they happen to be standing on now.

Leo activates StoneHeart and with a loud pop and flash of light another portal appears where the last one had disappeared. Once inside the party is surrounded on all sides by foggy city-scape, save the glowing portal out behind them. Leo fails to locate his bird golem anywhere nearby, however Snow picks up on the SCP Golem's distress beacon some distance away. Movement in the area beyond their position is sparse, but the large "wall" several hundred yards out is still there, and the SCP Golems are beyond it. StoneHeart doesn't seem any more or less distressed about being in here than they were about being outside.

Primary Landing Bay: As Roy steps back into the base he's immediately assaulted by a near deafening pounding and grinding right outside the locker room area. Further into the hallway the door left to Bay A is now covered in dents from the other side, it's also where all the noise is coming from. Luckily the door he came from seems relatively untouched and even the bay beyond is mostly the same. As soon as he steps into the bay in fact he notices that neither Chelchis nor Morp are anywhere to be found. Robotic HW Assembly: The same computerized voice from at first before blares over the intercom. "Intruders detected in: Robotic Hardware Assembly. Security dispatched." The announcement was accompanied by several red flashing lights on the walls springing to life. Personnel Quarters: Wandering through the darkness the trio eventually spot a softly glowing light in the distance, as they approach the see just beyond it another set of bars separating this portion of sewer from the others. The light itself though is actually a lamp set above another maintenance door and only partially functional. The door is unlocked.

Cell hadn't had much to add after the fight, he simply put away his weapons and spent a little time examining the new toy he'd gotten. It wasn't until the conversation moved to needing to figure out a way to breath that he actually had something meaningful to add again. So he moved over to near where the two locals were standing and thought for a second, deciding the best course of action to express what he meant. It was at that moment of realization that he reached up, detached his head from his body(all but a single "string" of moss), threw it back and forth between his hands, and the reattached it. Then he just stood there, smiling like a maniac expecting them to know exactly when he meant.

Lucine would see Tim walk by not long after she poked her head out. He seemed to be looking for something, flipping loose rocks and looking in trees until he was right close and managed to see her. "Oh, I didn't expect to see anyone else out this far from the village, and I see you have a friend now? I was out looking for pieces of that crashed....ship-thing. You see they're extremely valuable."

"WHAT. THE FUCK." Owen shouts back at his teammates, he wasn't even that worried about the weird knight thing he was fighting. More what bizarre bullshit he was going to have to deal with next. Either way he had to focus entirely on not getting hit at this point. Owen uses the 2 to dodge and obliterates the first 1. He also wishes for Theurgia to stay put and quick teleporting around.