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Dream of Alternus: Lament

Scene details

Setting: While the Star Chasers await the arrival of Daiby to Zerhem, a mysterious bard induces in them a strange dreamlike trance...

Log


 "How do I look?"
 Ivo, sitting up almost too straight, cranes his neck even as he asks to try to catch a glimpse of himself in the fogged mirror of one of Zerhem's most popular taverns. They did have to apologize to the proprietors about the Corinne Incident earlier, of course, but they've all been allowed back in. Though gavel-less, the Cosmopolitan seems nervous for an altogether different reason.
 "I can't believe Daiby's coming *here*."
 It seems that Governor Galvan here has taken a little too long tying up loose ends in Granse after their many adventures here and a certain snake-loving representative of the Cosmopolis reformer faction, eager to get the Cosmos Cup up and running, is being sent to retrieve him. Ivo has thus asked his friends to wait with him here, where he and Daiby have agreed to meet, for moral support while he tries to persuade her to not drag him back immediately.
 "How's my hair?"
 As Ivo reaches up to muss it yet further, already beyond salvation, the faint strums of a lute can be heard. A bard with long pale hair, clad in red and festooned with strange talismans, has ascended a stage and begun tuning his instrument. He would be hardly worth mentioning, just another tavern musician, save that he seems to be looking in the party's direction now with an odd little smile.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=15.
Comment: Noticing the minstrel. Difficulty due to environment.
Roll(s): 3. Total result is 3. This is a failure (by 12).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Argent rolls 1d20>=15.
Comment: Noticing the minstrel. Difficulty due to lack of social awareness that being watched by a minstrell might be unusual.
Roll(s): 8. Total result is 8. This is a failure (by 7).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Resisting the Urge to Troll Ivo while everyone is caring about some bard.
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 8).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=15.
Comment: Do I notice the Minstrel?!
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a failure (by 1).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 "Here wait, hold on."
 It is Anna to the rescue when Ivo musses up his hair. The princess, as a princess would, seems to be carrying a HAIR BRUSH, and she quickly runs it through Ivo's hair a few times.
 There is a brief progress bar, a repeated animation, and a cheery little tune playing as she does it, like in an old school GUST RPG. But after a moment the progress bar fills up and Anna's work is done.
 Ivo's hair has been salvaged as the princess settles back down into her seat and unequips her HAIR BRUSH. She looks to the bard briefly. Briefly. But passes it off as nothing. Bards are generally smiley people as far as she knows.


  There are many things against Reize. Amongst them is Ivo frantically begging for feedback on his looks in anticipation of an old friend's arrival. There is also the patrons of the tavern, that are all eyeing him suspiciously.

  "You and your friends aren't going to cause some crazy incident again, right?"

  "Of course not! Of cours--you look fine, Ivo--rse not!" The boy has large sweatdrops on his head, waving a hand frantically, while inching back to Ivo and the table. He takes the moment to flop against the table, arms splaying in front of him. He reaches for some block of cheese and shoves it in his mouth. Then he reaches for another block and places it over his shoulder.

  A rat quickly slips from underneath his scarf to take the cheese and then slips underneath to sneakily exit with 'The Godfather sends his regards' squeak. Vanish, no one knows its presence.

  Reize mutters, "...Ever since that day." A river of comical tears run along his face. He looks at Ivo, a large sweatbead forming. "... You definitely seem more on edge, Ivo."
 

Ivo is caring about his appearance. So Ruidosa surmises that Ivo is caring about how Diaby would care how he looks. So Ruidosa surmises there's ''feeling'' there. So Ruidosa, could tell Diaby about the incident...

You now. Where she caught Ivo and Anna...K..kissing...! BUT...

She surmises not too, and instead just occasionally glances at the stage, listens to the music and hums along as she watches the rat take the cheese and nods, matter of factly.

"Nothing weird is happening, this is great." she says.

"Also Ivo, you look fine. Don't worry about it."

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  "Your hair is now within acceptable parameters." Argent declares once Anna completes her work, followed by a pause to take a drink. Whatever she's drinking has an oddly bleachlike smell to it. And an awfully bleachlike look to it. It's bleach. She's drinking bleach. Hopefully nobody grabs her glass by accident.

  "Ah. Additionally, in the event that you require hair products in the future, please make use of the products we offer at the atelier. They are of high quality." she then goes on. Well, that's probably quite true if her own hair is anything to go by, right?


> GUST-Style Brushing Complete! Ivo's Hair gains 27 Quality.
> Trait Added: Highly Explosive. (It's GUST, after all.)

 "Th-thank you, Anna," Ivo says, faintly flushed as he looks to the blonde princess before averting his eyes, showing a bashfulness utterly uncharacteristic of him. He has more than one reason to be nervous now. And at least one of them is how his hair, perhaps because of too much product (foolishly not sourced from Atelier Laineth, as Argent suggests) applied earlier plus Anna's brushing now, gleams almost flammably. "I feel better."
 He doesn't really look like it.
 "I'm great! I'm doing great," he exclaims to Reize, very convincingly. "It's just, you know, Daiby has quite the presence. I'm not ready to go back to Cosmopolis yet, but it's hard to say no to her. She's never been outside the Spiring City, though." The thought of a plan seems to settle him down more than anything. "I think if I could intrigue her with the prospect of exploring Granse with *us* for a while longer, then... hm?"
 Ivo senses something. He furrows his brow. Then he sniffs.
 "Is that... bleach?"
 Meanwhile, the unnoticed bard strums his lute again, his gaze focusing specifically on Reize, smile broadening. Were anyone looking, it would be a rather unsettling expression. Not cruel, exactly, but neither kind.
 "Suffused in possibility as ever," he murmurs, voice resonant. "Such a treat. How could I resist... tugging on one of those strings?"
 The bard strums again, and the air seems to waver with the ripples of sound, distorting. Everyone's vision seems to slowly blur. They feel their movements slowing. And, before their very eyes, the color drains from the world, turning a sepia hue.
 "This," Ivo forces out the words, "is..."

 ...
  ...
   ...

 "...a sapient eidola!"

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLqmR9Fex0

 A ring of red candles surrounds them, hemmed in by shadow on all sides. Before them is an extraordinary carving of a stag almost triple the size of any natural one, its body pockmarked with holes as though ridden with termites. The crowned beetle they had captured, its wings shining with the sunlight gathered on its journey outdoors, burrows into one of those holes, and the eyes of the statue then begin to gleam.
 The little flames of the surrounding candles ripple and sway as though in a strong wind, though the party feels nothing. As though fed, their fire rises up impossibly until a curtain of flame surrounds them in all directions. The carving begins to crack and crumble, countless glittering beetles spiralling into the void above as though populating the night with stars. Wood fragments and falls like a molting shell and then, and only then, do our heroes feel a wave of force, an overwhelming pressure, pushing at them.

> KERNUNNOS, THE HORNED DEMIGOD has appeared.

 "Ah, my people." The stag's voice no longer booms, yet its deep and resonant voice echoes nonetheless. "How I yearn for you, as you once yearned. You who have passed my trials, though not of my people: have you come to strike me down again?" This eloquent presence is beyond even what they experienced in Verdios. Though its shrine has been long abandoned, its gathered power seems hardly diminished by the years. "Life offers me little, yet I must live. My people..."
 Kernunnos' dignified voice is riven with sorrow.
 "...someone must remember them."
 Ivo, blue cloak whipping in the torrent of forceful wind, grimaces and looks to his friends.
 "Argent!" he calls. "Do you have the Crown Jewel-- Argent?" Suddenly, despite the ongoing storm, Ivo looks absolutely befuddled. "Were you-- here? Wait, the Crown Jewel-- when did we-- what is--" He visibly reels, looking to the terrible stag eidola still gathering power, then looking in desperation to Reize. "Chief! The eidola's presence must be confusing us! This is dangerous! We can't just stand here...!"

> Challenge Kernunnos?

>> Yes
>> No


  With Ivo's situation taken care of, he smiles as he chews on his bread. However, off the corner of his eye, he looks over to see a very familiar face with a very familiar lute.

 Sweat runs around his brow.

 The time in Ihiya, that moment where the boy was to encounter him alone. He found himself in what felt like an out of body experience in a strange forest, dealing with a sleeping, lazing dragon. "....You--!"

 It is then that the vision blurs once more, that familiar feeling returning. As the color drains around them, the atmosphere becomes subdued. The color bearing the sepia color, his eyes widen as he finds himself...

  ... in a very familiar situation.

 They find themselves meeting with the familiar stag carving. Watching the eyes gleam and the carving release a form, that overwhelming presence takes over.

 He furrows his eyebrow as he draws out his boomerangs in a ready stance. He feels the urge to take the challenge.

>> Yes.

  "...We'll face him!"
 

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  "Yes. It is very palatable. If you desire your own, please state so to the barkeeper. While I am told it is an unusual request, it was accepted." Argent replies in the moments before the world shifts around them...and then falls right down onto her behind, her delicious drink suddenly gone. She was sitting, and now there's no seat underneath her! her silvery eyes blink slowly at her new surroundings, head tilted a little to the side in confusion.

  "You are incorrectly using the past tense. I am currently here." she says as she clambers to her feet. Shortly afterwards her athame is drawn, brandished a little uncertainly in the direction of Kernunnos. For her the situation is even more confusing than it is for those that experienced events in the first place!

Ruidosa La Crima giggles a little at Ivo's worry about wanting to be ready for the snake lady from earlier. she sighs a little and rolls her eyes. "Things will be fine, you worry too much about this." she says as she sighs.

Then the world becomes sepia and strange and suddenly...

They back in the forested area back at the forest shrine and there's Kernunnos, again- and she blinks a little, and buhs and blinks as she fumbles for her tome as Reize starts pressing 'Yes' for the group without consulting anyone else and she gives him a ''look'' as she flits her tome open to spells.

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 "Well, pretty boy," drawls a voice from behind Ivo, "time to see if you fight as well as you flirt."

 Tracking shot from over Ivo's shoulder, imagining a turn of the head he may or may not making to find a certain fox-haired alchemist pointing one of her dramatically gilded magical pistols at the stag eidola that was the center of society in the kingdom she helped rule a couple hundred years ago, no big. If anyone in the group meets her gaze, she gives a faint, wolf-like smile of acknowledgement.

 We got so many letters and Steam comments. 'Why wasn't Fox playable?' 'She was in so many scenes but no battles for some reason?' 'Who is she anyway, why are you trying to push the woke agenda girl character on us'. Regardless, it was clear that players wanted more. More combat! More magical guns! More wine aunts with improbably large titties! And you know what that means:

 PAID DLC PREVIEW TIME, BABY.

 So it looks like in whatever this... dream-like space is, Reize and the crew will have a little extra help. And if they want to KEEP the extra help, they should buy the season pass like good little consumer drones.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 Anna had nothing to do with making Ivo's hair explosive. That's an alchemical trait and the berserker princess has absolutely ZERO skill in alchemy.
 If he dies... He dies...
 "Smells like bleach." Anna replies to Ivo when he notices Argent's drink of choice, still not paying the bard much attention.
 It is a mistake that will be everyone's undoing as the minstrel reaches into the past and pulls on a thread connected to the party...
 Anna blinks, trying to clear the blur from her vision as the world turns sepia and...
 And she's brandishing her old woodcutters axe once again as Kernunnos challenges the party.
 Pause.
 "Wait... This..."
 That's not right. Was Argent present for this?
 Was... This in the past? No no, this is happening now. Whatever confusion there may be, Anna and the others are faced with an Eidola.
 This makes Anna mad.
 This makes her so mad.
 
 Blue-green eyes suddenly turn a bloodshot shade of red as the berserker princess begins the rapidly hyperventilate through gritted teeth, stomping one foot as she snarls and clutches her axe just a little too tightly to work herself into a rage.
 Meanwhile, Anna's player is rapidly throwing money at their screen for some reason.


 Ivo shakes his head vigorously before drawing Hauteclare, taking a blue elesphere from his cloak and loading it into the pommel. Some part of his mind is screaming at him that this is all wrong, that it's impossible that he'd know what the "Crown Jewel" is before encountering Kernunnos, that he hadn't devised the elespheres yet. But the fact is that Kernunnos is here, right now, as flames rage around them and winds batter. The most reasonable conclusion is that, as eidola are known to do, the manifestation of this Vaeltrandian demigod is distorting their memories and consciousness. He can't trust his intuitions about what's plausible or not right now, and so must set aside such concerns.
 Thus his grin back to Fox is untroubled, even cheerful. "That's a tall order," he quips. "I am so *very* good at flirting, after all." Having her spellguns and [CHARMS] at their side leaves him more heartened than ever, and he takes a steadying breath. "Don't worry, Argent," he says to the homunculus, reassuring himself by way of reassuring her. "Kernunnos might not be vulnerable against his own aspect of Creation, but maybe if you can attune to the wind or these flames--"
 Speak of the devil.
 "SO BE IT!"
 At Kernunnos's call, the very heavens seem to quake. But this is because the seeming stars are so many bright beetles dancing against the inky black above, only they and the ring of raging flames hemming them in illuminating this sealed place. As the eidola continues to gather power, tossing its antlered head, the winds rise up again and a rain of motes of light dart down. Upon Reize and Anna in front, horned beetles supercharged with Creation aether divebomb en masse, seeking to strike them with a welter of stinging sideswipes. Meanwhile, further back, Ruidosa, Ivo, Argent, and Fox must contend with the wind trying to push them back against the damaging flames that serve as the wall of this mystical arena.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Horned beetle divebomb check
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 1).

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Check to see if the wind pushes him back into the fire
Roll(s): 6. Total result is 6. This is a failure (by 2).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Resisting the wind itself!?
Roll(s): 1. Total result is 1. This is a failure (by 7).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Tanking beetles.
Roll(s): 8. Total result is 8. This is a failure (by 4).

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Fox rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Stop with the kill zones, Yoshi-P
Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 7).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Argent rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Do not get pushed into burny flames
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 10).

Ruidosa La Crima feels the quake as the ground shakes and she gets ready to cast a series of spells when-- the wind suddenly gusts out and sends her flying towards the flames. She tries to move against the wind, she's ''used'' to the wind, she ''flies'' in wind and---

She just can't. She gets flung through the air and flies by everyone quickly with a yelp as she gets flung into the flames being singed horribly by them. She doesn't like fire! Vampires don't like fire! ;_;

She quickly hurriedly pops out of the flames looking horribly upset and distressed as she fires off a series of dark energy bolts towards the eidola.


  Reize slowly turns his head towards Ruidosa, shuddering as a large sweatbead appears on his head. He can feel that look that she's giving him. Choosing to not look back for now, he keeps his eyes on the fight. He doesn't know why...

  Something urges him to fight. To fight.

  To fight.

  And the fight he shall get.

  Reize is gazing at the shuddering surroundings with the horned beetles spurred into battle. The imbued divebombing swarm is quickly noticed and the boy takes a leap and then he rolls his body forward to tuck underneath the swarm. Narrowly avoiding the divebomb, he takes his defensive fighting stance and sweeps his legs out to kick against the beetles, and then he looks up at Kernunnos to find a spot to hit.
 

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Sweeping Kick Chain
Roll(s): 6. Total result is 6. This is a failure (by 6).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 So busied as she is working herself into a fury, Anna... Doesn't... Dodge the oncoming creation-aspect beetles. They tear into the berserker princess, causing her to stagger back in shock and pain by several paces, arms coming up to shield her face and torso.
 But of course this just... Makes Anna ANGRIER.
 Bloody bruised she grits her teeth and bull-rushes the great stag Eidola, axe flashing in her grasp.
 It's pretty simple. She intends to just hit Kernunnos with her axe.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: C'mere! Lemme AXE you a question!
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 1).

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 Wind and beetles? That all you got, druid stag monster eidola challenge mode boss guy? For obvious reasons, Fox is perhaps more effectively forearmed knowledge-wise when it comes to fighting this particular foe. After all, live with a man's just-shy-of-fanatical state religion long enough and you get to understand their tactics.

 This is why, when the wind picks up heavily enough to shove actual adult humanoids back, she's ready for it, two shots from her paired magic pistols digging actual footholds into the ground like... well, a bit like tire grooves, angled slightly down, so her dug-in heels slam into the grooves rather than sending her shapely ass backwards into a wall of fire.

 She reaches into her jacket, producing a bullet with a swirling, bright blue, liquid-looking center, which she slots into one pistol before bringing her arm back and -- without looking -- fires it behind her, a streak of white-blue flying out from the muzzle to counteract some of the fiery arena's energy with its counterpart... and, ideally, give those who WERE pushed back by the wind a chance to get back in the fight with minimal harm.

 "Gods know how many hundreds of years and your tactics haven't changed, old man."

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Fox rolls 1d20>=5.
Comment: Representing a minimal chance of clipping Ivo's hair with a water bullet and ruining his carefully brushed hairdo.
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a success (by 9).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  Thinking on her feet, Argent's unusual body chemistry goes to work. The wind is picking up, but before it can blow so hard that she's thrown backwards her mouth moves, and...she spits, down onto her feet. Whatever that stuff is it seems like it's sticky, planting the homunculus firmly to the ground. Her head turns as Ruidosa is blown past her, her hand reaching out just a shade too slowly to catch the vampire. It's as Ruidosa makes her way out of the flames she blinks, looking from the wall of flames to Kernunnos and back again.

  "His strategy is not optimal. Given the ability to create these flames, why not simply create them on our current position? Furthermore, in their current location he requires an additional expenditure of resources in order to force our relocation." she says, her tone quite neutral despite the chiding words. "I believe it will be best for us to take advantage of his poor strategy. As such.." she trails off, her other hand that clutches the athame sweeping out towards the flames as she concentrates a moment upon them, attuning it to the element of wonderful, burning FIRE.


 Kernunnos's glowing staglike features betray no expression decipherable by mortals. But as Ruidosa's dark bolts splash against his great form, the ancient spirit seems to tremble, even flinch, the power of Destruction eating away at his very nature. Small bits of his body crumble and flake off, falling to the darkened ground like brittle bark. Though he moves like an animal now, the substance that composes him remains akin to the carved statue that had contained him up until now.
 Bending his four legs, he springs up with a great leap, gliding above Reize's kicks as the boy closes in, but unable to escape Anna's rending axe, which halfway cleaves off one of those legs, chips of his form flying and flashing as the power of Creation fades from them upon separation from Kernunnos.
 "Ohhwwooahhh--!"
 Ivo, staggering back alongside Ruidosa, nearly falls into the flames himself. Sliding, he just barely avoids falling into the flames entirely, but, his arms windmilling, he cannot avoid swaying into it for a moment. Promptly, the Highly Explosive trait of his product-doused hair activates, and his head bursts into flames.
 "Gahhhh!"
 Fortunately, just at that moment, Fox's water bullet zooms by, and rather than ruining Ivo's hair, it frankly saves him, dousing the flames as it pushes the ring of fire back to protect them from any further damage.
 "Wh... wh..." Ivo, eyes wide with panic, takes a moment to catch his breath before clearing his throat and, trying to gather his composure, looking to Fox. "What do you think of the wet look?"
 He has little more time for quips, however. Within a moment, Kernunnos is descending, slamming his hooves upon the floor, and a wave of white light pulses out like a ripple upon a pond, threatening to sear anyone it touches. Rearing back, he does this twice more, inflicting either pain or a jumping minigame on anyone who cannot fly to avoid this magical ground pounding.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Using blue elesphere to try to create ice platform for safety
Roll(s): 17. Total result is 17. This is a success (by 9).

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Fox rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: (Mega Man 8 voice) Jump. Jump.
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 5).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Argent rolls 1d20>=8.
Roll(s): 6. Total result is 6. This is a failure (by 2).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Elusive Ju--- Backflip out of the Pain Pool
Roll(s): 1. Total result is 1. This is a failure (by 11).

Ruidosa La Crima can see the incoming wave of light and she's just 'yeah, no thanks' and turns into a bat, flying up high suddenly to avoid the attack all together, as she squeaks madly transforming back into a humanoid form, and falling back to the ground after the attack has passed by.

She summons up a ball of dark energy as she mutters words, looking into her tome as she throws out the ball, and it starts crackling dark energy lightning around the area, specifically into the eidola, that is, mostly, as she huffs dramatically.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Avoidance?!
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 7).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  Her athame now properly attuned Argent is on the verge of stepping forward to make use of it...right as Kernunnos slams those hooves. As far back as she is she certainly has plenty of time to react! Or, so you'd think. Instead what actually happens is that the homunculus is so concerned with her attempt to attack that she doesn't even quite realize that Kernunnos is making one first.

  To her credit, she does make it over the first wave of light and the second before being struck by the third, the whiteness washing over her feet and searing them with the intensity of the light. "I am injured." she comments mildly, pausing to kick away a little piece of singed looking dress before stalking onwards towards Kernunnos.

  Despite her neutral expression and the lack of malice in her tone, somehow, you get the feeling she's annoyed. Those dresses don't come cheap, after all.


  He has little more time for quips, however. Within a moment, Kernunnos is descending, slamming his hooves upon the floor, and a wave of white light pulses out like a ripple upon a pond, threatening to sear anyone it touches. Rearing back, he does this twice more, inflicting either pain or a jumping minigame on anyone who cannot fly to avoid this magical ground pounding.

  Once the venerable presence of Kernunnos becomes more pronounced with the wooden statue shattering, the boy grits his teeth as his foot misses the swipe. However, Anna is prone to land a good hit in against the giant stag. He looks back towards the group.

  "Everyone okay?!?" He calls back, looking at Ruidosa, Ivo, and ... Fox? He realizes that she is present. The boy brightens, giving her a thumbs up. "Glad to have you aboard!"

  However, celebration ends abruptly as the stag descends. Upon the hooves slamming, the boy prepares to leap away from the sight of the light pulsing. However, he miscalculated his position as he takes a giant leap back.

  ~ Okay... I should be safe, let me land... ~

  The young boy lands right into the erupting flames, "Gaaaaah!!" He flails his arms and then he staggers back. "....Huh....?!" *PSSHEW!*

  No Reize.

  The boy falls off the ledge, only managing to catch the end of the ledge before certain doom falls.

  He'll have to figure out how to get back up.

 

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 Is she hexing herself to a future humiliating dice failure by taunting Kernunnos?! Fox wouldn't say so but the gods of narrative causality sure fucking would. Thankfully, she watched a YouTube video of this fight (like and subscribe) and is prepared for the waves of light, busting out both antique pistols and firing twice into the air, seemingly at nothing, but resulting in two 'stepping stones' of solidified air that are just enough for the ginger spellgunner to hop on them and into the air over the oncoming shockwave attacks.

 Thanks to the Monty Oum Combat Choreography Act of 2006, it is compulsory that any fighter using two guns who becomes airborne has to flip upside down and fire both of their guns rapidly at their enemy. Because we're a Union shop here at Star Chasers, Fox does exactly that.

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Fox rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: No, I haven't seen Dead Fantasy, why do you ask.
Roll(s): 7. Total result is 7. This is a failure (by 5).

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


A mobile stack of leather-wrapped trunks of new vintage, with one smaller one on top that actually has a few markings indicating that it was, once upon a time, used for travel - and with ANOTHER, curiously wicker-made box atop THAT, this one capped with some kind of strip of magitechnology that has no clear purpose on top - wheels into the tavern from the direction of the main entrance. "Coming through!" comes a small but churpy voice. "All ahead!" The stack of luggage pauses. A small Athu head peeps around the side.

Adorable eyes turn upwards.

"Mistress! I have no idea how to deal with that!" blubbers the sturdy Athuservant.

DAIBENZAITEN NO. SARASABATTAY AKA DAIBY sweeps inwards now, trailing silks and wearing dark travelling glasses, her hair pinned back and neatly and with a colorful wrap over it that probably cost enough to -- well, she's not THAT rich rich; it could stand a round of drinks.

Daiby looks over the brim of her sunglasses.

"The good news," Daiby says, walking over to open something in the topmost basket and reach inwards, "is that I don't, either, but I am QUITE sure that Ivo and his adorable friends are in there." She looks into the whatever-it-is, which seems to have an internal light, and finds several somethings. One something runs up her sleeve and she drops the other one, the smaller one, into the front of her blouse, before turning to call, "IiiiVO! Ivo are you in there?" while advancing forwards. Drawing on the glittering iridescent speed of the snub-nosed racer! Mostly so she can jump!

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 It's not exactly blood... But to see chips of the Eidola break off from her axe is spurring enough for the berserker princess. But the comes that wall of searing light. Anna...
 Jumps.
 Thankfully it is, in fact, high enough to evade the bright light as she comes back down in a somersault, axe held out as she spins... Like a buzzsaw.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Remember the bunny from Odin Sphere? ... Kinda like that.
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a success (by 2).


 Kernunnos looks as though he might rear up for one big final ground pound, but Ruidosa's dark lightning stops him in his hoof tracks, the eidola hunching over as the sizzling energy rips chunks of bark from his form. This leaves him wide open for Anna's sawing descent, which rips a line right down the giant stag spirit's broad flank, spraying sparks. Some beetles flutter free, as though they had still been nesting with him after his manifestation.
 "Guh...!"
 Ivo is gritting his teeth, balancing on a pillar of ice that quakes beneath him as the waves of light pass below, having activated Hauteclare's magitech fencing capabilities beneath himself defensively rather than at his adversary. But he manages to maintain his footing on the slippery surface and raises his weapon at last, only to double-take at the hilt and the sensor affixed to it.
 "The readings are increasing! Anna, Reize, get out of-- Reize?" The Cosmopolitan glances about. "Where did he--" He is then distracted by Fox's cool moves. Sorry, Reize.
 Meanwhile, Daiby, stepping into what seems at first like an ordinary if popular tavern in the humble but lively riverside city-state of Zerhem, finds herself and her athu companion suffused in blinding light that seems to pierce even through her dark glasses, before she begins to feel the heat of a raging fire, of which there was no evidence from the tavern's exterior.
 And then she will see it.
 An enormous stag-like creature at least three times that of any earthly beast, its eyes like gleaming jewels, his form like white carven wood exuding sunlight, is charging right towards her, or rather *flying*, soaring in her general direction toward the fire now somehow behind her, all as bullets fly about it, narrowly missing it due to its high speed.
 "Daiby!!"
 Someone is trying to grab and pull at her. It's Ivo, having descended from his pillar of ice, trying to hunker behind it and use it as a shield to protect both himself and her from the heat of the flames and the power of Creation that echoes in the wake of Kernunnos's passing.
 "Are you alright!?"
 While no one is injured on this first passing, Kernunnos will soon reappear from an entirely different angle, the ring of fire obscuring whence he will arrive. Like a blur, he charges through, trying to slam bodily into Anna before she can recover from her jump attack, and then charge a second time to try to smash Fox from the air, before the spirit at last skids to a halt.

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Anna rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: I know what I must do... +_+
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 8).

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Fox rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: FUN FACT: in Bayonetta 1, you have to unlock air dodging first.
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 8).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Death from Above - Sky Raider
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 1).

  • Character: Anna
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 Anna lands in a low crouch, axe held to her side in one hand as she braces...
 Kernunnos charges. She rises to meet him, tossing her weapon aside as the great stag rushes, she reaches-- Grabbing on to the Eidola by the antlers.
 For a moment. For a brief, glorious moment, she arrests Kernunnos' charge.
 But then her boots start to skid. Leaving trails and furrows in the ground-- before she's slammed. Smote aside to the ground and stunned.


  "Uggghh..." Reize laments, clinging onto the ledge as he tries not to fall into his death. He takes a deep breath as the burning sensation finally leaves him. He grimaces as he starts to pull himself up. Hearing the rapid sound of hoofs approaching, he quickly pushes himself off and he clings onto the next part of the wall on the opposite side.

 Wall jump!

 The boy starts kicking off, getting himself back up to the ledge and he rolls back into the 'battle arena' where they are dealing with Kernunnos. The ring of fire still prominent, the boy rolls himself past the flames and then he takes a giant leap into the air.

 As he takes to the air, he positions himself to where he sees Kernunnos from the above.

 His aether flowing around him, it erupts into flames as he soon takes a dive straight towards the stag. He extends a leg out, shooting forth with a diving kick straight at the eidola's face.

 "I'm not out!"
 

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


 Okay, sure, the spray-and-pray midair acrobatic maneuver didn't work out, but surely this just means Fox is due to land gracefully on her feet, throwing back her tawny hair and making a glorious quip about Kernunno's predictability, or the size of his antlers, or something equally sassy, the angered eidola's counterattack shearing mere millimeters by her seemingly unperturbed face before she launches a devastating counterattack. Right?

 Natalie Portman (looking increasingly worried): Right?

 [smash_homerun_bat.wav]

 Nope.

 It might take her a second to work her way back after that one, folks.

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Fox rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Second Wind proc?
Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 10).

  • Character: Fox
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


COMBATSYS: Fox has reached second wind!

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  Argent's eyes narrow a touch as Kernunnos makes his charges, crashing around the arena as he smashes into their members. Being untrained as a fighter she lacks the fancy footwork and speed that the others possess, making it tough for her to close the distance without getting smashed into pieces. What she does have going for her is that, well, Kernunnos seems much more inclined to ignore her in favour of more immediately dangerous members of the party!

  "Ah. Reize. Please ensure that you suffer the bulk of the attacks, in order to ensure that I am able to reduce the distance between us." she calls out as she breaks out into what for her is a sprint but for the more physically inclined party members would more accurately be described as a moderate run. That athame is glowing a bright, burning crimson as the aether it has attuned starts to react, the air around it already hotting up...

Ruidosa La Crima looks around frantically after he spells. "...Reizey...?" she asks. "REIZE!?" she calls out, looking for her partner. That's when Reize appears and she 'whews' and nods rapidly. "Good..." she mutters to herself, as she starts blasting the eidola with dark bolts of energy again, trying to avoid the charge, which she does, since she isn't the target!

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


Daiby's lips tighten up as she sees the great wooden stag flying in her general direction. Someone is calling to her - someone is calling her name - Ivo! And he's grabbing her and pulling her into the space behind it. Pressed against him for a moment, her sunglasses fall down to the ground, perhaps to be recovered - or LOST FOREVER. "I'm fine, dear! I'm fine, completely, I just was lost for a minute and then I had to use the charming and quaint public facilities and then of course wash my hands and face and -"

Daiby peeks. "I'm going to help them," she informs Ivo, before raising her right hand and curling her fingers in an entreating gesture. And then a peeking orange-and-brown head slides out into the hollow of her wrist... and she makes a fist. "Launch one! Launch two!" Daiby intones, as the snake stares ahead and--

BY THE SACRED BOND BETWEEN WOMAN AND SNAKE:

Two bursts of sort of vaguely snake-colored force erupt outwards towards the Kerunnos! They are vaguely homing, but would really shine in a big wide open space where they can bank and curve. Because they are...

THEY ARE...

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Daiby rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: SIDEWINDER MISSILES.
Roll(s): 8. Total result is 8. This is a failure (by 4).


 Ivo, huddled behind his rapidly melting alchemically-induced pillar of ice with his fortunately-fine senpai Daiby, peers around its corner to observe Kernunnos's raid boss style charge attacks only to witness two of his (admittedly many) favorite ladies being clobbered. "Anna!" he shouts in dismay. "Fox!!"
 She did not, alas, use the boost to get through.
 But just as it seems that Kernunnos might unleash another stomp wave while two of their party members are stunned and vulnerable, Reize, heroically, bursts from the fire and lands a flaming kick square on the eidola's snout, half of it caving away like rotten wood and blasting into splinters, the spirit staggered by the blow.
 "Fire," Ivo murmurs to himself, before his eyes light up, kindled from within and reflecting the flames without. "Everyone! I think, when he moves, the wind he forms shields him from the flames, but when he's still, he's actually vulnerable to them!"
 Seeing that Argent is already charging in, perhaps inadvisably, Ivo nearly fumbles in his haste to load a red elesphere into Hauteclare's pommel next, the longsword igniting as he swings it, detaching the blade to send it spinning forth. But he times it so that it will catch up to Argent, not so that it will strike as soon as possible, as though he is trying to give his allies the opportunity to coordinate with the impact of the spinning flaming blade.
 During this delay, Kernunnos, gemlike eyes agleam, summons his glowing beetles to his aid, reverting to an earlier attack pattern. The divebomb commences again, swifter and more dangerous for Reize and Argent who are closer, but a thinner stream of them still seeking to descend upon Ivo, Ruidosa, and Daiby. Ruidosa's dark blasts negate the Creation aether with which the beetles are suffused, protecting her, the attacks canceling each other out. But the cluster of beetles, small though they are, are radiant with a druidic power that deflects Daiby's serpentine force, sending them spinning just shy of Kernunnos himself and into the flames about them, before some of them start whipping by her, trying to magically singe her and her underclassman by proximity.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Defend with Hauteclare's hilt spark!
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 4).

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Argent rolls 1d20>=12.
Roll(s): 10. Total result is 10. This is a failure (by 2).

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Daiby rolls 1d20>=8.
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 5).

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


Or, "Defend with ice piller and/or Ivo"

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Riding the Stream of Beetles
Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 3).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Dare to be Stupid...
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 9).


Ruidosa La Crima blasts away at created beetles and fizzles them into nothing with her dark energy blasts. She frowns and throws up a dark energy shield aswell as she forms a bubble around her. She then closes her book and frowns heavily as she huffs and squints a little.

"I'm thinking about this too hard." she says as beetles continue flying at friends. She turns into a bat and then ZIPS at the eidola. She's trying to latch onto the beast, and try to just start sucking life essence away. Turning back into a humanoid on her thrust forward, trying to latch onto him and dig dark clawed fingers into the beast.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  Despite having already seen this trick earlier, Argent isn't /quite/ prepared for just how hard it is to defend against the numerous numerous little. The fire aether attuned with his athame scorches some of them and a hasty swat catches another, but that just isn't enough! Beetles collide with her here and there, one of the nasty little things managing to tangle itself in her long, long hair. Ew.

  Still, there's work to be done. Doing her best to ignore the buzzing insect trapped against her head she swings her athame out in a grand sweep, the fire aspected aether blooming out from it just as Ivo's own firey attack blade hits, their firepower mixing together into an even stronger blaze!


  Upon the kick's impact, the boy descends to the ground and lands on a knee. He bows his head and then he lifts up to gaze at Ruidosa with a smile and a thumbs up. He is looking a bit burnt, but he can survive. He turns his gaze towarrds Kernunnos and the others.

  "Oh... so we need to keep him still, then. How do we hold him in place?"

  Oh, and it looks like that Kernunnos is standing. That is where he starts to gleam.

  The beetles will fight in his stead.

  The young boy is ready for the creatures as they rush toards him. The boy runs forth, preparing to let himself get swept into the cluster of beetles. However, during the sprint, he is gathering the aether around him and he taps into it. He draws upon his Will as he leaps into the air. As the beetles dive bomb, the boy is pressing his feet against their form, drawing his aura to cancel out against their dangerous Creation-aspected aura.

  He feels the Will call upon him.

  This is his Trial. During his adventure, he had been dependent on Kernunnos. However, in this form, he is left to fight on his own. As he clutches his chest, he pushes off from the beetles and he calls out.

  "This is my will!"

  Boost(EX) Mode! Engage!

  A flash of aether erupts from his form, his body is glowing rapidly as rushes forward. However, he soon stops in place as he raises a hand into the sky.

  "Passion and fury, straight from the heart!"

  The tarot glimmers in his grasp as it shimmers. Multiple fire orbs light up around him, now clustered together as he calls out.

  "Ignition!"
 

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

Daiby rolls 1d20>=8.
Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 7).

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


"Darn it!" Daiby mumbles as her SIDEWINDER MISSILES fly off fruitlessly in the dream space and she is forced to cringe back behind the ice pillar, which probably means she is dragging draggables and squishing squishables against Ivo, just in case the situation can't be any worse. The Aether in the area is getting strange, and those swirling beetles...

She frowns thoughtfully at the snake in her sleeve, who seems to frown back, somehow, despite an immoble reptilian face.

"That makes sense," Daiby says to Ivo. "It DOES seem to be made of wood. Hold on a moment." Her clothing rustle-rustles, and she says, "hm" followed by "sirpetilli, where are you" followed by a laugh followed by -- "There we go! Alright!" A smaller, redder snake is briefly held up and then dropped down her sleeve. Daiby calls out, "This is only SOME fire but I hope it's going to help, everyone! I'm so pleased to meet you! I hope Ivo didn't tell you too many terrible things about"

THERMAL SIDEWINDER MISSILE -- the two snakes, united as one in the warmth of Daiby's care and nurturing them from egg through moult to this day, have their eyes gleam! They both wordlessly bare fangs at -God-! It produces another duo of those missiles, but this time they're quite distinctly fiery, with a smouldering, tropical-incense afterscent! They sweep encouragingly over Reize's head, as if in synchronicity with his own heart. Yes, Reize -- you now have two fans out there! And they are BOTH SNAKES!


 Kernunnos seems to have become aware of the oncoming flaming attack, powerful chest swelling as though to expel a great gust of wind to smother it all out, protecting himself just as Ivo has predicted. But nothing comes. Instead, he just shudders, and for the first time since his manifestation, his light begins to dim. As his four legs quake, and the light dims, it may be seen that Ruidosa, protected from his aura by her dark bubble shield, is draining his power away, as though she were eclipsing the sun.
 The eidola is wide open.
 And so is Ivo, unfortunately. "Gahh--!" With the blade of his sword otherwise occupied, the young man tries to gallantly fend off the divebombing beetles with the sparking control nodule on his hilt, shocking a few away, but he is simply overwhelmed, and not just by Daiby's alluring closeness (though mostly that). He collapses to his knees, doubling over and nearly dropping his hilt, but Hauteclare's blade does not waver from its course, already on target.
 As Reize ascends into the dark oblivion above, using the beetles' own aura as a platform, he calls upon his Will and unleashes his pendant's power, unchanged by the presence of any spirit within it, reflecting only his own drive. All at once, Ivo's magnified fire sword, Argent's aetheric projection, Daiby's thermal snake missiles, and Reize's Ignition combine as one in a furious conflagration, an all fire quadruple team-up, tearing into what remains of the massive stag's physical incarnation.
 The great form of the demigod cracks in twain, the flames eating away at the wood-like substance of which it is composed, and finally, beams of light shooting in all directions, it erupts in a terrible explosion, a flurry of glowing beetles scattering like stars in all directions. A monstrous roar echoes throughout the shrine. And then, at last, the light begins to fade.

> Kernunnos has been defeated. The party is victorious.

 The ring of flames subsides, and in its place returns the red candles, undisturbed, as though the battle had never been. The statue is gone but, there, in its place, is the faint white glowing outline of a stag, a far more modest size. It is kneeling on his forelegs, slumped, but slowly raises its head, only to find itself looking at Fox, who has somehow miraculously risen to her feet despite how forcefully she was struck, fiercely enough even to fell their berserker princess Anna.
 "...You..."
 Finally, at last, a flicker of recognition appears in those ghostly eyes. That deep sadness, with which Kernunnos had begin this battle, returns to his spectral eyes. But, even as the wispy remnants of his form fade, scattering into motes of light that rise to the darkness above, that sadness begins to seem tempered somehow.
 "...I had thought to preserve... the dreams of a people perished," he whispers. "But I see... the people endure. And... the dreams were a prison... not only for me."
 Kernunnos leaves only words.
 "Please... be free."
 And then he is gone...

  ...
  ...
   ...

 ...and the tavern returns.
 "Wh... whoa..."
 Ivo, brow streaked with sweat, is clutching at the table before him, his eyes wide as can be, staring at nothing. He jerks up, looking about.
 "Fox? Daiby...!?"
 The business in the tavern is as usual, just as they left it, and indeed, Daiby stands with her athu at the entrance to the tavern, which she has just stepped into. Brushing past her lightly goes a bard in red, lute in hand, hat low over his face, pale hair streaming behind him, the mere glimpse of his expression visible showing that he looks pleased as can be.


  After everything was said and done, Reize looks up at the impact and the onslaught of the attack, only to find that Kernunnos is now scattering. Those wispy remains break away, he frowns at the sadness at his face.

  ....What possessed him to fight?

  That dream fades away, now leaving the boy's mind back within the tavern. "Huh....?" He frantically looks around the surrounding tavern, "Where did he go?!" The boy soon catches the glimpse of the figure leaving...

  He didn't even get a chance to hand the bo---wait.

  Reize reaches into his satchel and realize that the book was gone. He had it earlier when he was in the tavern!
 

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


Daiby returns to the normal phase of reality. Where are her sunglasses? She cannot tell. Someone brushes against her and she says with sudden archness, "I BEG YOUR PA--"

And they're gone. She blinks several times at the departing figure in red, although she will receive a short idea of their appearance, which may be important for the Court Record later.

But for right now, she walks towards Ivo's adorable young friend. "Yes! So amazing~! Down low!" She proffers a hand to Reize, who may now have an opportunity to earn Social Link Points for little effort.

  • Character: Argent
  • 1 year, 7 months ago

  In comparison to the others, Argent's return to reality is rather more subdued. There's no shouting, are frantic looking around or anything like that. All she does is settle herself back into her seat and take a sip of her drink.

  Or at least she would if it wasn't for the fact that her hand instead closes around thin air, the cup that was there suddenly missing. The homunculus narrows her eyes ever so slightly.

  Hopefully for his sake, the minstrel didn't try and drink it.


  Of course, Reize is definitely going to take the opportunity to earn Social Link points! The boy extends his hand out to shake Daiby's hand with a cheerful smile, "Pleased to actually meet you~!"
 


 Ivo takes a deep breath, finally settling down a bit. Was that some sort of collective hallucination? Did he dream up being snuggled up against Daiby behind an ice pillar? Well, there are worse dreams to have, even if it didn't end ideally.
 "D-Daiby," he manages, flashing her a smile as she approaches his friends. It was some time ago that she saw Reize and Anna in their exhibition match outside Cosmopolis, after all, and she hadn't had much of an opportunity to meet them properly. "As you doubtless experienced," he continues after clearing his throat, "there are many strange phenomena we are in the midst of investigating! Why not join us? Once we determine the nature of the mystery that just occurred, along with the others that beset us, we can all venture back to Cosmopolis together."
 He beams, trying out his best winning smile.

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


Daiby's hand is taken by Reize and shaken firmly.

SOCIAL LINK CHANCE: B-RANK! (Achievement highlight: "Aces Low / Aces High")

She beams at her with a warm and bright smile even so. "Yes! I am terribly sorry if Ivo has complained your ear off about me. I am so excited to be - Yes!" This back to Ivo, who gets a Flirtatious Wink. "In theory I'm supposed to find you and roust you back but I'm well ahead of schedule, so it's not as if a little adventure ever hurt anyone, right?"

"Unless you died," Daiby muses. "That might hurt."


 "I was in danger of wasting away due to your absence," Ivo quips to Daiby, "but now that you're here, I'm sure to live!" Immensely relieved at how little his fellow aristocrat needs persuading, and delighted at the wink, he turns and smiles to Reize. "What do you think? Mind another party member, chief?"
 He didn't even know she could shoot snake missiles. But she's always had her own way of doing things, both in terms of her esoteric arts and just-- generally speaking.


  "The boy gives a smile at Daiby, brightening up. "Don't worry! He has been looking forward to seeing you again!" Reize glances back at Ivo, cracking a grin! "More the merrier, I'd say! She's welcome to join us!" He looks back at Daiby, "If you'd like!"
 

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 year, 7 months ago


"Definitely! Would you like to meet my friends?" Daiby tells Reize.

Reize will now learn Snake Facts, whether he likes it or not.

The Snake Raising mini-system will unlock soon.