[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img] [h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2631 (+3) (+15) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (288/120) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (173/120) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (165/120) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (96/80) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Under - Termite Kingdom Ruins [hider=warp locations] [s] Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach [/s] [/hider] [/center] The dramatic finish of the foe who had been crushing them, and then vanishing of her seemingly mortality wounded vanquisher, was slightly distracted from when Dazzle, Jr’s sea lion like Popplio, started glowing in his arms. This prompted a minor panic from the prince and confusion/concern from the rest of the troop save for Mimi who knew exactly what was going on, even if she herself had never and would never experience it. After a few seconds passed with no one pressing any anything resembling a B button the light burst off of the pokemon, and revealed his new [url=https://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/large/brionne.jpg]evolved form[/url]. The pokemon promptly informed them of his new form’s name with a cheerful “Brionne!” and then did a celebratory backflip. [color=SpringGreen]”I, huh, ok. I guess helping take down the queen wasp, uh, bee, was all the fighting experience you needed to evolve?”[/color] Jr said, just now remembering some more of his education about pokemon from a few days back regarding pokemon evolution, before admitting that [color=SpringGreen]”Feels kinda like cheating seeing as Barnabee did most of the work in the end though”[/color] which got a harumph from the pokemon. In saying that he brought their attention away from that brief distraction, and focused them back on the question of what had happened to their insectile guide. They got their sad answer only a few moments later as they followed a curious Nadia across a freshly formed bridge, into the mostly looted vault, and wherein they found the dead form of Barnabee’s queen, and the dissolving form of her protector. Jr attempted to cast Benediction upon the bee to heal him, but it was of no use: Barnabee’s life had already ended the moment he unleashed his final smash. The prince threw up his hands in exasperation at the futility of his act and then, unable to really process the spike of grief he was experiencing, stomped off in a huff. Rika followed him, having much the same issue as her brother in a much quieter fashion, leaving the elder Koopas to join Ms Fortune in her moment of silence. They all mostly got over the sadness when they realized there was also loot in the room, and when going to take a look at it, got a front row seat to Nadia’s surprise return to her original state. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Even the strikers? That’s even more powerful than Peach’s extraction”[/color] Kamek noted, before pulling out and preemptively offering Nadia the Snacktivator so she could personalize her refusion experience. It was an interesting (and slightly blinding with all the flashes resulting from each fusion thing to watch, but at the end the troop declined the use of the orb, having already mostly modified themselves to their liking thanks to peach’s power, with only Rika having taken on more fusions since then. What this did remind them of was the fact that they had quite the pile of spirits all stuffed away in bottles, and, as people were going to spend some time tinkering with fusions, or os it seemed, now seemed like as good a time as any to make use of them all before any of them faded away. [hider=Bowser] [url=https://i.imgur.com/UR6PlsX.png]Awoken Hollow[/url] (shell): the host’s shell has taken on a purple-pink stony texture, and their drugar arms and tentacruel tentacles have been replaced with prehensile vines that retain the abilities of the replaced limbs, as well as having their own. They gain the power Rejuvenation Cultivation: if healed during combat, excess healing will be used to fuel the growth of the vines that are rooted inside their shell. These vines can act as combat tentacles, or wrap around the user’s limbs to act as armor/external muscles. The vines will wither back to their base volume outside of combat. They gain the weakness Kindling Filled: the host’s vines are, naturally, rather flammable, and should they ignite they can act as wicks, drawing that fire back into the host’s shell, setting fire to the internals within. [/hider] [hider=Rika] Power: [url=https://coromon.wiki.gg/images/c/ca/109_Lampyre_A_front.gif]Dark Magic Lampyre[/url] (waist): The host’s rigging has taken on many of the aspects of the corrupted Lamyre. A small emblem/buckle style after its helmeted head sits at the waist, while the back sports 4 small orange wings and a large bunny tail like glowing orb sitting over her tailbone. The turrets have lost a barrel, while the remaining barrels have become thicker, and sport two orange spikes near the tips that together create a loose X shape. The cleaver sections of the hullblades have been removed, and instead two orange claws curve out the front of the metal plates. The metal of the rigging has become a darker hue, while the red parts on the sides have been replaced by a purple armor plate going over the top of the weapon. The host has become slightly more aggressive. The host has gained the power Disruption Cannons, which allows them to fire fist sized globs of dark magic from their rigging guns. When they strike, the globs release a small pulse of damaging dark magic, before sticking to the target and sapping some of their physical and magical strength until they are pulled/pried/shaken off. Each blob lasts for 30 seconds, and causes a 5% reduction each, for a maximum of 40%. The Disruption cannons take a large amount of a resource called SP to fire, which slowly regenerates on its own, but can also be actively regenerated by taking a few seconds to rest. It also infers the weakness: bright light, which prevents the user from disabling the glowing orb on the back of their rigging, making sneaking very difficult, and drawing additional attention to them in and out of combat. Striker: [url=https://i.imgur.com/vCw3bEw.png]Vespikan Ichor Queen[/url]: A towering wasp woman adorned in crimson robes and with red ribbons trailing from her antenna, armed with a single colossal clever blade who can be summoned (on a long cooldown) for a few second to either attack with her cleaver and venomous stinger, or to cast one of the one of a number of spells: Lightning Bolt: the queen channels electricity into her blade for a moment before thrusting it forwards, shooting out a powerful lighting bolt that can do heavy damage to a single target Pull from the grave: the queen kneels in prayer to her dark god for a moment before stabbing the ground with her sword. This causes a 5 meter patch of ground within 25 meters to manifest a flurry of earthen hands, which attempt to grab and drag any undead beings they can find back into the earth where they belong. Has no effect on any other kind of being or entity. Draining touch: the queen reaches out and touches the body of a target with her hand, and in so doing begins to drain a mundane human’s worth of vitality from them over the duration of the cast time, transferring it to her summoner. All of these spells take 2 seconds of channeling before they are cast. If the summoner is harmed (either directly or via feedback) the queen enters into a berserker rage, interrupting any spellcasting she was attempting to do as she blindly charges the culprit and tries to deliver a singular devastating cleaver strike to them, regardless of the desires of her summoner, or the feasibility of her reaching her target before her timer expires [/hider] [hider=Jr] [url=https://i.imgur.com/F5jejwj.png]Vespikan Ferromancer[/url] (arm): the host’s arm has become covered in an inflexible chitin in place of scales, onto/into which iron runes have been carved/tattooed. The hand is absolutely covered in these, making it appear almost entirely metallic. The host has gained the power Ferromancy: allowing them to magically create iron objects out of their hand and arm. All new metal begins its life in contact with the host’s runes, though it can still be manipulated for a few brief moments afterwards. This can be used to quickly create and launch small blades/shards/spikes, form weapons or shields, coat their arm in metal armor or spikes etc. It can also be used more slowly to make complex components or higher quality equipment, weld things together, create small defenses or structures, etc. They also gain the weakness Ventilate Heat: the metal inscriptions cause the arm to lose heat at a rapid rate. In environments that are not actively warm, the arm will feel unpleasantly cold and take more stamina to use than the uninscribed arm. Cold environments will make this worse, or be potentially dangerous. Insulation can prevent these issues, but will also reduce the effectiveness of any magic gained from the runes. Vespikan Charnel Berserkers (striker squad): a quartet of wasp-woman cultists with red ribbons streaming from their antennas who can attack using their massive ultra-greatswords and venomous stingers. They can also use the length of massive weapons defensively in a fashion akin to a spearwall to repel melee attackers. If the summoner is harmed (either directly or via feedback), the berzerkers all enter into the rage of their namesakes, charging the culprit in an attempt to deliver a singular devastating cleaver strike to them, regardless of the desires of their summoner or the feasibility of them reaching their target before their timer expires. [/hider] [hider=items gained] Manikins and common Vespikan: Air x2, death x3, and nature x4 gems: small crystals which can be expended to cast a spell of the corresponding magical class without expending mana/stamina. A handful of acorns x2: when planted, these acorns will each will rapidly grow into a trio of vineman, an amalgamation of vines and moss that attacks with its fists, for the duration of a battle. Vineman lacks any kind of vitals, making them quite difficult to take down, but are offensively pretty mediocre, being rather slow and only moderately competent/strong fist fighters. 150 gold Hoppers: 144 geo [url=https://i.imgur.com/GpJNd8d.jpg]Pogostick[/url] a bouncing mode of locomotion made for entertainment rather than practicality. Greater hopper: [url=https://i.imgur.com/9yRWdAg.png]mantreads:[/url] a set of sturdy combat boots which reduce hostile knockback by 75%, and increase air controle by 200%. In addition it will triple the amount of force they transfer any target they goomba stomp, while also prevent any fall damage/recoil from being taken should they pull off this maneuver. Milk snails: [url=https://i.imgur.com/p1jDzdj.png]frigid javelin[/url]: An ice forged throwing spear that, after striking, melts and reforms in its thrower’s hand. On hit it will ignite the struck foe with freezing flames that block passive hp regen (but not active regen like potions or spells) and deal 1 more javelin hits’ worth of damage over 2 seconds. [url=https://i.imgur.com/dlAmyia.png]Ice Lance[/url]: A long spear made from never melting ice. On hit it will ignite the struck foe with freezing flames that block passive hp regen (but not active regen like potions or spells) and deal another spear hit’s worth of damage over 0.5 seconds. A ring that lets the wearer cast Ice Spear for a small mana cost, shooting a icicle like spear of ice from the ring at a target. A ring that lets the wearer cast Coffin, which spawns a (fortunately empty) coffin out of the ring for a small mana cost. 15 gold Blood Blamish Snails: [url=https://i.imgur.com/7qWir7g.png]Bruise blue snelm (round)[/url]: a helmet made from giant snail shell that grants a reasonably large amount of protection, and also intimidates other snails, making them do less damage A [url=https://i.imgur.com/7qWir7g.png]Bruise blue snelm (pointed)[/url]: a helmet made from giant snail shell that grants a reasonably large amount of protection, and also intimidates other snails, making them do less damage A [url=https://i.imgur.com/EqM1dsm.png ]cooked lava eel[/url]: caught from a lava river using a rod oiled with snail slime, this spicy fish restores a moderate amount of hp when consumed 131 gold coins Dark Magic Lampyre: A [url=https://i.imgur.com/FqJd4AV.gif]golden spinner[/url]: a device that is very effective at capturing and taming monsters, and works exactly like a pokeball An [url=https://i.imgur.com/s704xfg.png]Unstable Tesla Coil[/url]: a lanturn sized accessory that, when equipped will send up to three beams of electricity to zap foes within 1.5 meters of the wearer for low but constant damage. Nearby minions will auto target foes struck by this electricity. It also can be used to attract metal ores from a small distance away. Vespikan drones: A [url=https://i.imgur.com/BYDq5Mo.jpg]Pungent Blood Cocktail[/url]: a throwing weapon that attracts the focus of carnivorous beasts for 10 seconds to its point of impact. A [url=https://i.imgur.com/pPthTFF.png]Double knife glyph[/url]: a small glyph that can be applied to the arm or hand as easily as a temporary tattoo, though is by no means as easy to remove. Allows the user to spend a small amount of mana to summon and toss [url=https://i.imgur.com/8paYCjn.gif] two gravity defying knives[/url]. The knives do relatively low damage, but are very accurate and inexpensive to cast, making them good for striking nimble foes, or for those with low mana pools. Inkulinati snail: [url=https://i.imgur.com/Gxu4KYA.png]Black Knight’s Sword[/url]: a Greatsword made of a dark metal and inscribed with holy script, which allows it to do 20% extra damage to demons (but 0% extra damage vs snails). Designed to take on large foes, it is also more capable of breaking the poise of an enemy, and in doing so knocking them off balance. Finally, the holder can briefly raise the sword in the name of the First Lord (a salute involving holding the hilt in front of their chest with the blade pointing straight up) to gain perseverance, a buff that grants 45% damage reduction for 4 seconds. [/hider] The result was a lovely pile of goodies which Kamek proceed to poke through, shooting ice spikes and spawning random coffins first before poking the other items a bit, and then finally requesting Sectonia take a look, both for appraisal, and to see if she (ore anyone else) was interested in anything in the pile. The others meanwhile experimented with their new powers. [color=FD0000]”So uh, I’ve got plants in me now?”[/color] Bowser said as he wriggled the vines that had replaced all the other limbs stashed in his shell about, not really seeing what was new about them yet, and he wouldn’t till he got hurt. Rika meanwhile had a rather obvious addition, in that she was now literally lighting up the room with her new tail light, which she spent a few moments chasing as she tried to get a look at it, the floating wings around it fluttering and throwing strobing shadows around the room. Once Kamek got her to stop with some gentle chastising, she proceed to instead blast one of the walls with her new blob firing guns, drawing a smiley face on the wall out of the projectiles, and enjoying how she didn’t need anything but short rests to regenerate her ability to fire them. That would let her stretch her remaining ammo refills a lot further. Finally Jr initially got annoyed at how cold his new arm was, till he instinctively formed a coating of iron over the top of his arm. That he found cool in the other way, before he had a brief moment of struggle to try and remove it, which he resolved by forming even more metal under the new armor which eventually caused it to burst off. After that he proceeded to tinker around with these metal forming powers, making caltrops, screws, knives, spears, and more, forming a small pile of iron items as a result, some of which Bowser borrowed to experiment with arming his new vine tentacles. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well I’m sure this has been very entertaining and informative”[/color] Kamek commented, pausing for a moment as he was interrupted by Rika’s new Ichor Queen striker blasting a metal target Jr had made with a lighting bolt before continuing [color=DeepSkyBlue]”But perhaps we should finish divvying up the items, and then work out where to go next?”[/color] [color=FD0000]”Oh, yeah, hmmm”[/color] Bowser hummed in response, before trying to think of a plan [color=Aqua]”Maybe we can ask some of the bees? They must know a bit about the stuff around their home, right? Threats and paths and stuff?”[/color] Rika suggested, thinking it would be pretty foolish to not know your surroundings. [color=SpringGreen]”Plus I bet they’ll be happy about us freeing them! Maybe they’ll throw us a celebration!”[/color] Jr suggested excitedly, to both of which Bowser nodded along, before adding [color=FD0000]”Maybe they’ll even make us a cake!”[/color] because that was what Mario got for his heroics he was pretty sure. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”That does sound like a plan”[/color] Kamek agreed, before asking the rest of the seekers if there were [color=DeepSkyBlue]”any objections or suggestions?”[/color]