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Post by Dimitri on Dec 18, 2016 4:42:42 GMT -5
You woke up.
That seems to be the first thing you remember, fog slowly clearing from your mind as you enter into a world of sound, rumbling stone and shouting voices. Or perhaps just one voice, actually. Opening your eyes to the light of a unremembered world, you find yourself looking into what seems those of a warrior. A dark haired young man stands in front of you, clad in the clothes of an adventurer and wearing a worried expression. As your consciousness continues to expand, you realize his gloved hands are currently on your shoulders and being used to shake you awake. And you also realize that the sound of stone moving is all around you. Before you can say anything, he speaks.
"Oh! Thank stars, you've woken up. I was worried I'd have to leave you."
The young man helps you up to your feet as you hold a steadying hand to your head and try to shake the remaining cobwebs out. You, yourself, don't look like much special, just wearing the ordinary clothing choice of a simple tunic and boots. At least...it seems sensible. You can't quite remember how ordinary that might be, though from the look of the leather and cloth-clad warrior in front of you you realize this must be some fantasy setting.
...Fantasy.
Where did that thought come from?
Putting that aside, you decide to ask the question that most presses on your mind.
"W..Where are we?"
"We're in the middle of a collapsing ruin, you idiot, and we've both got to get out of here."
"..Right."
"Right. Well. Don't waste time, just follow me. And what's your name, anyways?"
...What is your name?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2016 7:54:33 GMT -5
Sol Swordguy, an ironic name for a young lady such as yourself but what can be done about being the daughter of the late Hart Swordguy, hero of the blade.
Actually better lie and say you're somebody else. Be Zelda or something.
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Post by Planetbox on Dec 18, 2016 9:10:49 GMT -5
Your name is Sarah or something I dunno.
Follow him the only sensible way you can: by handstand moonwalking.
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Post by Asphoxia on Dec 18, 2016 9:17:56 GMT -5
Your name is Ayano Tateyama. You will get out of the collapsing ruins and look for your siblings.
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Post by emperortoad on Dec 18, 2016 11:03:49 GMT -5
Your name is Sarah or something I dunno. Follow him the only sensible way you can: by handstand moonwalking. do that, but ur name is Sarah Mc Toad |
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Post by Koopario on Dec 18, 2016 12:17:41 GMT -5
Serena Aurhart, master of interpretive dance. Proceed to show off your interpretive dance skills as you perform a jaunty routine out the door and OH GOD okay may want to skip that step I think that rock almost fell on you mid-dance.
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Post by Dimitri on Dec 18, 2016 16:41:32 GMT -5
As this adventurer asks your name, a number of possibilities runs through your mind. Did it start with a J? An L? An S? And despite all the halfway remembered names that run through your mind, one possibility jumps out at you immediately. "Sol Swordguy." But... That's a terrible name, and you're pretty sure you're no hero. Zelda, then? No, that's even worse...
Ayano? No, that doesn't sound right either. Besides, Tateyama doesn't even sound like a real last name.
Sarah? Scott? Elizabell? No, no, nothing clicks.
...But then there was one.
"Aurhart."
Solya Aurhart.
That sounds about right, and so this is what you decide to use.
"Solya. Nice name. Nikolas, good to meet you and all that, now let's get going."
Taking your hand, Nikolas pulls you along a stonewalled path through this ruin following a path it seems like he knows perfectly. As you go along, you can't help but notice the walls shaking. Likely the source of the sound of rumbling stone, though the wooden supports set throughout are holding the walls in place for now. Looking around as you move, you notice detailed carvings of animals along the walls, and odd balls of light along the ceiling illuminating the room. And speaking of the ceiling, it soon opens out into a larger chamber containing two more people.
"Nikolas, there you are! And who's this?"
The man who spoke is a rather sturdy fellow, looking like he'd be more in home in a classroom or office than adventuring, though there's a strength in his eyes that tells you that you shouldn't underestimate him. The main source of his out of place look is the fact that he's wearing a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and dress pants.
Since you're too busy staring, Nikolas answers for you.
"Some kid I found out cold in another room. Ms. Aurhart, evidently."
A woman's voice sounds to the side of the tweed wonder, the other person in the room.
"Who cares what her name is? If she can fight, she can help us all get out."
Taking a closer look, it seems the final addition to this adventuring party is your quintessential rogue, complete with item pouch, dagger, and multiple sorts of throwing weapons, although one missing the cloak. She's crouching by a door, seemingly trying to get it open.
The tweed wonder chuckles, giving you a thoughtful look.
"Don't be rude, Tetra. But she has a point. Tell me Ms. Aurhart, can you fight?"
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Post by Planetbox on Dec 18, 2016 17:12:55 GMT -5
Prove you can fight by challenging him to a duel.
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Post by Asphoxia on Dec 18, 2016 18:26:04 GMT -5
Fight via weaponized song.
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Post by OshaliteX2 on Dec 18, 2016 20:02:23 GMT -5
Prove you can fight by challenging him to a duel. Seconded |
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Post by Dimitri on Dec 19, 2016 9:06:56 GMT -5
A strange idea comes over you, to try fighting using weaponized music, but if you were ever musical you've forgotten how to be. So instead, probably against your better sense, you raise your fists and drop into what you imagine is a fighting crouch.
"You bet I can fight. Take me on, old man."
The tweed wonder watches this with humor in his eyes and a quiet chuckle, not even honoring your challenge with a playing blow. Instead, he just sticks his hands in his coat pockets and rocks on his heels.
"Old man? I'm not that old yet, Miss Aurhart. But if you can really fight, you're with us for now, and that means I should introduce myself. Th' name's Alaster, at your service."
"That's great, I'm sure you're having great fun teasing the new person, but we need to get going Alaster."
Tetra speaks up from the door, which she's now managed to force open. Nikolas walks through immediately with little more than a nod to her, and Alaster follows him with the simple direction for you to "Stick with us. Don't wander off."
As you ready to follow through the door as well you're stopped by Tetra, who's lingered at the back. She unhooks her dagger from her belt and hands it to you with an acid stare.
"Use that on any of us and I know several dozen poisons, most of which are extremely painful."
And with that charitable warning, she heads off and leaves you to follow.
<('u'< >'u')> <('u'< >'u')> <('u'< >'u')> <('u'< /)//(\ <('u'< >'u')> <('u'< >'u')> <('u'< >'u')> <('u'< >'u')>
You've been running along these corridors for a few minutes now, Tetra leading the group through some twists and turns along a path that she seems to know instinctively, now being the one leading the group along. Down the other turns and corridors left untravelled you can hear the sounds of traps triggering and falling, and if any monsters show up Nikolas and Alaster easily down them while the group moves. Every once in a while you even get to slash at one to finish it off. It turns out the tweed wonder uses his fists to fight, which at least explains why he seemed so amused by your attempt at a fisticuffs stance.
And then... The path opens out into an inner cortyard of sorts, grass and plantlife along the ground and the ceiling sloping directly into what appears to be sky. It's slightly cloudy today, it seems. And in the middle, a pair of large, mossy stones.
Alaster raises a finger to his lips in a warning for the group to be quiet, but as soon as you've all stepped foot on the grass something changes. Those stones unfold, turning from grassy boulders into rock sentinels as you watch, and the revealed golems both begin plodding towards you with fists raised. Needless to say, the group draws their weapons.
Nikolas, next to you, kindly gives you a bit of advice.
"Don't worry about breaking the dagger, golems like these things are always brittle from age and the magic used. Just focus on structural damage."
------
Alaster: 45/50
Tetra: 31/40
Nikolas: 33/45
>>Solya: 35/35
Rock Golem A: 25/25
Rock Golem B: 25/25
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Post by Planetbox on Dec 19, 2016 10:54:09 GMT -5
Attack the golem's legs like they do in those old movies.
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Post by OshaliteX2 on Dec 19, 2016 17:31:25 GMT -5
Don't get hit.
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Post by Dimitri on Dec 20, 2016 8:58:38 GMT -5
A battle starts off quickly, though the rest of the party is far less offput by it than you are. Immediately. Alaster rushes in and the tweed wonder engages one of the golems in a short trade of fists, Goliath fighting a slightly taller Goliath. You notice the Tweed Wonder's outline blurring as he moves, weaving around the golem's fists, almost like an afterimgage of where he had been the moment before, but as he delivers the old one-two to the golem for 7 damage your attention is drawn away from the seconds-long conflict. While Nikolas and Tetra have moved in to intercept the second golem, the rogue throwing a green-tipped knife at it from a distance and Nikolas aiming to land a slash on it, the golem itself may have decided to target the weakest member of the party.
That means you.
One single thought flashes through your mind like lightning: Don't get hit.
As the golem's fist comes at you, time almost seems to slow down. Immediately pushing yourself down and to the side to avoid the heavy block of stone from landing on your head, you instinctively lash out at it. The closes thing to your position halfway on the ground is the golem's leg, and so that's what you swing your dagger at. To your surprise, the rock feels less akin to marble and more to hardened sandstone. Certainly not easy to cut through, but you manage to chip a good gash in the leg. This attack and blow gives Nikolas the time to jump on top of the golem's now lowered fist and swing his sword at the head, all three of your efforts managing to deal a combined 11 damage to the golem.
And yet, before you have time to celebrate, you hear the sound of impact from the other side of the room and see the first golem having managed to land a 6 point blow on Alaster. Without a trace of hesitation, Nikolas leaps from his perch on this golem and takes a glancing swing at the first for 3 damage, enough to distract it from immediately attacking Alaster again.
And now there's just you, backed by the rogue as you may be, staring down a eight-foot golem.
Alaster: 39/50
Tetra: 31/40
Nikolas: 33/45
>>Solya: 35/35
Rock Golem A: 15/25
Rock Golem B: 14/25
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Post by Planetbox on Dec 20, 2016 9:29:35 GMT -5
Perform an epic combo attack.
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Post by Koopario on Dec 20, 2016 16:05:13 GMT -5
Take a better swing at this golem's legs, the better we do the quicker we can get the Tripstun ability.
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Post by OshaliteX2 on Dec 20, 2016 20:50:57 GMT -5
Keep not getting hit.
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Post by Dimitri on Dec 22, 2016 1:42:46 GMT -5
Facing down the golem with little aid aside from a dagger, your initial thought in this fight is quickly reinforced. Don't get hit. Getting hit is bad, and possible side effects of getting hit include death. You've heard death is very hazardous to your health, and you'd like to stay in as good of health as possible. That means avoiding things that may negatively impact your health, such as death. And to cut down on death, you should cut down on things like getting hit.
Flawless logic.
But still, you can't help but wonder just what to do. Perhaps you could try some kind of cool combo. Adventurers do that, right? Like, you could... You don't know. Adventuring clearly isn't your strong suit.
However, it seems, wandering off into thought is. The Golem swings its arm down in a crushing arc, and though you again feel your perception speed up you barely manage to avoid it. It brings across another swing from the other arm and, head a little more in the game, you step back to the side and swing your dagger at the golem's leg in hope of tripping it. And to your credit, the attack connects for 4 damage. But the golem seems wiser to your method of dodging these strikes and sweeps its arm upwards in the direction you moved to, knocking you off your feat and returning 4 damage of its own. It shifts to swing at you while you're down, but a small 5-point explosion to the back of the head throws it off enough for you to get back up to your feet. Point, Tetra.
On the other side of the battlefield, the golem that Nikolas leapt at easily took the weak hit and returned an attack to the warrior who quickly raised his sword to block, though the attack still pushed him back with 4 damage. Alaster immediately took the advantage to swing a 5 point blow back. And like that, a dual battle between the two of them and the golem kicked off just as it did for you and Tetra. Through a turn of blows, Alaster and Nikolas managed to collect together another 4 damage while focusing on avoiding being hit. And it was impressive how they did, Nikolas seeming to know where an attack would come from almost before it began and Alaster seeming to be in one spot one moment and in another the moment the golem attacked.
It occurs to you that these people might just be out of your league.
Alaster: 39/50
Tetra: 31/40
Nikolas: 29/45
>>Solya: 31/35
Rock Golem A: 6/25
Rock Golem B: 5/25
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Post by Planetbox on Dec 22, 2016 14:40:02 GMT -5
Run towards Golem B, slide between its legs, and then slice it from behind.
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Post by Treble Tech on Dec 22, 2016 14:46:46 GMT -5
Do a better job of not getting hit, and circle around to the back of your golem so you or Tetra can find an opening.
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Post by Dimitri on Dec 30, 2016 2:18:23 GMT -5
Don't get hit.
Don't get hit.
That's what you're trying to do, and what you decide you need to continue trying to do. Hopefully better than you have, because that really did hurt.
Still, there's a fight going on now, and you have to try helping as much as you can.
You're starting to get used to the feeling of your perception of time slowing down, this odd reactionary effect that makes it seem almost as though the world is moving through a thick liquid, or perhaps that your mind is speeding along quicker than your body and the rest of the outside reality can keep up with. Either thought is strange to you, you would perhaps say if you had time to consider them. Which you currently don't, as you're focused on the golem in front of you. And in this focus, you can see the golem beginning to crumble away at the edges of where it's been attacked, the stone dissolving into sand far too slowly for it to matter in this moment. Almost instinctively, you know that the creature can't take on much more damage.
All this takes place in a second as you get up from the ground, and your eyes flicker to meet Tetra's in what you imagine might be a moment of communication. Taking your dagger firmly in hand, you force your body to move towards the stone sentinel before veering to one side as a fist comes down at you. Circling to the back like this you swipe at the golem for a mere 2 points, but it gives Tetra the opening to throw a projectile star at the golem as it attempts to remain facing you and deal the last 3 damage. The golem stops, shudders for a moment, and with an audible crack the spell holding the last of the stone together crumbles under the stress of attack as the golem similarly crumbles into a pile of sand and rough gravel.
From the other side of the battlefield you hear the same crack, and the first golem disappears into rubble as Alaster stands over it with a few deep breaths and a fist resting in the air where it had connected moments before. A moment passes and, his breath caught again, the tweed wonder simply straightens up and brushes a little sand off his coat.
~Battle End!~
Alaster: 39/50
Tetra: 31/40
Nikolas: 29/45
>>Solya: 31/35
"Well, that was fun."
Nikolas gives Alaster a dry look, sheathing his sword and walking to the end of the enchanted courtyard opposite where you entered.
"Fun or not, we need to get moving. This place isn't going to hold up much longer."
He's right. Now that the breif period of fighting has subsided, your attention is again drawn to the noise of the collapsing structure around you, and the fact that the ceiling above you that looks like the sky is beginning to crack.
"You're right, let's move."
The tweed wonder leads the group, at considerable pace, out through the gate that stands at the other wall and through wide and better lit passages, all decorated with carved trees and glass fairy lights. All of this would be rather beautiful, if you weren't running for your life. And finally, after a shorter period this time in which the group went up and down several levels and things generally happened that were exciting to experience but would be terribly boring to write about, you've found yourself and the party leaving the temple and, with a wave of warm, relatively fresh air, exiting from out a massive stone tower set halfway into a desert hillside. Together, thinking independently but all choosing the same action, you stop to catch your collective breath a good fifty feet away and all watch as the tower shakes itself apart. The only evidence of a vast underground labyrinth, now a pile of chiseled and shaped stones.
Alaster laughs, pulling a golden compass out of one of his coat's many pockets and tossing it into the air, before catching it again in a manner many people generally consider to be "cool."
"Goodnight, great labyrinth."
"You say that like the place was actually impressive."
"Oh Tetra, you know it's not in how nice a place looks. It's in what you find inside."
Nikolas jabs his thumb towards you, despite looking uninterested in the general conversation.
"You mean like a civilian pickup?"
"Like a civilian pickup."
The tweed wonder steps over to you before you have much of a chance to respond to this, placing a firm hand on your shoulder.
"You did a good job fighting in there, Miss Aurhart. Almost like you've done this sort of thing before."
How are you supposed to respond to that?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2016 7:34:34 GMT -5
On the one hand, you've never done anything like this in your life. But on the other hand, you just toppled an ancient machina (with help).
The only course of action is to come clean that you're a newbie, but in a humblebragging kinda way.
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Post by Planetbox on Dec 30, 2016 11:55:45 GMT -5
Sneeze.
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Post by Asphoxia on Dec 31, 2016 18:58:25 GMT -5
Respond in Glyphic.
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Post by OshaliteX2 on Dec 31, 2016 20:50:27 GMT -5
Point at him while snapping and doing finger guns in a sly manner.
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Feed me lemons or feed me life!
