Altered Tundra

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

Warping from the deepest regions of the Tomb of Raithwall, the three of them were happy to be outside. Jaakuna didn’t mind the dustiness of the tomb, but boy was he happy to smell fresh air again. Just having something to fly up in made Jaakuna happy. However, as he looked out on the ground below, he was not happy, not in the very least. Jaakuna saw that the soldiers of Dalmasca were right there, waiting for them. An airship above known as the Valefor hovered over the clearing below. Jaakuna didn’t even think that airships aside from a choice few would be able to get past the Jagd of the Sansea, but it would seem that Jaakuna was wrong in that.

Looking around, Jaakuna didn’t see many options. They could fight through the forces and hope for a narrow escape or they could surrender. Jaakuna really didn’t know what there was else to do. He didn’t like the idea of being arrested, but he definitely didn’t want to risk fighting the troops of Dalmasca. He wanted to remain on their good side as Rabanastre was the only place that he could go to for sanctuary.

“So, what say you guys? Surrender or fight these clowns?” Who was he kidding, Jaakuna didn’t want to fight, but he had to ask.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

Jaakuna was in agreement with Nadeline. He definitely knew that using the Dawn Shard — or any defected Nethecite in general — would be hazardous to ones health and even worse, it could mean for great disaster. Perhaps Jaakuna was wrong to seek it out. He originally thought it would be gil upon gil, but he was wrong. Jaakuna just didn’t expect the Dawn Shard to be in the Tomb of Raithwall. This definitely was a crossroads for him.

Jaakuna put the Dawn Shard in his pocket. He seemed not to be affected by it, so he would keep it in his possession. Jaakuna clapped his hands. “O-kay, I think we should get out of here.” Jaakuna said as he went through the door, only to find a Way Stone right dab-middle of the room. As he went to it, no doubt that Emiri and Nadeline had followed him. He waited for the two ladies to get around the Way Stone so that the three of them can get the hell out of the tomb.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

They all were right in celebrating. Jaakuna gained the services of Belias, The Gigas, and well, it was a great feat by all three of them. Jaakuna even saw some growth in Emiri, and in himself. This victory was certainly something remarkable and they all just were jumping up and down. Granted, Jaakuna was brought in by force, but he eventually gave into the sensation of all of the excitement. He was just as happy as the other two were.

When the jumping and cheering and celebrating ended, everyone suddenly went quiet. Jaakuna also was quiet, surprisingly; he’s never quiet. Regardless, the attention of both of the girls went to the oddly shining stone in the statue. Jaakuna also was drawn to it. Could that be the treasure of the Dynast-King, Raithwall? Jaakuna pondered on that thought as Nadeline held it in her hand and approached Jaakuna about what it could be. Jaakuna looked at it — touched it, and took it from Nadeline. He knew what it was, but how?

”Holy shit, I don’t believe it!” Jaakuna said.

He knew what it was. Jaakuna just couldn’t believe that THIS was the treasure of the great Dynast-King. “Do you guys not know what this is?” Jaakuna asked them. “This is a piece of Nethecite known as the Dawn Shard.” Jaakuna said as he just couldn’t believe it. Of all places, it would be here. He remembers reading about it back when he was still living in Archades. Jaakuna doesn’t remember exactly what it did, but from his memory, Nethecite of legend usually lead to trouble. “I just can’t believe it.” Jaakuna said as he held it in his hand still. He seemed to not be affected by whatever effect that it seemed to be having on Emiri.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

After Jaakuna unleashed his attack upon the man-beast, he heard the cheering and whistling from the two ladies. Jaakuna had his own cheerleaders. He was just riveting in it and just wanted to savor each moment of it. The cheering did last for a few more seconds until they decided to jump at the chance to get the beast. As Jaakuna saw what they were doing to it, he was both amazed at what fluidity their movements had with each other, but also he found himself so into the actual attack they were doing. Jaakuna didn’t know how they could be so fluid in their movements, but as he saw they would eventually bring their weapons up for a united strike and a burst of magickal energy was released, taking the form of an X.

The blast from their united attack hit the beast, taking even more damage prior to the X attack. Jaakuna saw that the beast was kneeling down on one knee, using its lance weapon to hold it staying up. Jaakuna knew that this was his only chance to finally finish the beast off. Jaakuna went forward, standing in front of the beast. The beast itself started back at Jaakuna as if the two of them knew exactly was what going to happen. Though Jaakuna couldn’t explain it, he somehow knew that the beast was going to be defeated and in some way, the man-beast was asking Jaakuna to do it.

Shaking off that feeling, Jaakuna stood just three feet in front of the man-beast, and embraced the Myst within his body. Holding his two arms outward, hands facing the same direction that Jaakuna was looking at, and his fingers extended. The magickal prosperities of the Myst engulfed his arms, centering around his hands. The mist took the form of red and white fire. Jaakuna would bring his hands to the center of his body, fingers still extended. “Sea Of Flames!” He commanded as the Myst exploded. The form of a red and white fiery went towards the man-beast.

As the wave of red and white fire went towards the beast, it tried to fend it off by blocking it with its weapon — which was being held with it’s two big hands. The other hands were preparing an attack of its own known as Painflare, but even that couldn’t fend it off for long. Jaakuna was using as much of the Myst that his body would allow. IT would be a minute and a half until the man-beast’s defense started to give. First, his weapon snapped in two. Then, it happened — it was overtaken by the attack. The fire went through its body and it shattered into crystallized bits, only revealing a glyph of sorts.

“I-I-I did it.” Jaakuna couldn’t believe it.

As he was about to celebrate, Jaakuna was overtaken by a white light and brought to some dimension that was of only white void. “What is this?” Jaakuna said as he looked around for Emiri and Nadeline, but he couldn’t find him.

When he looked around, Jaakuna heard an eerie, deep voice. “You, who has defeated me in combat.” The voice said.

Jaakuna looked and saw the man-beast. “Back for round two, eh?” Jaakuna said grabbing Demonsbane, or at least he was about it.

“Fret not young warrior, I wish not to fight you a second time.” The voice spoke, “I am here to present my services. “ The voice said.

“Services? What do you mean?” JAakuna said conused.

The figure spoke. “You have proven your power to me. “ He said, walking to Jaakuna, kneeling and raising his weapon. “Like I did for the Dynast-King centuries ago, I offer you my power and strength. Your enemies are my enemies and by result, your allies will be my allies.” He spoke.

Jaakuna didn’t know what to say. “Does the one in front of me have a name?” Jaakuna asked without being as awkward as he felt at the moment.

“I am called Belias, The Gigas.” Belias spoke.

Jaakuna nodded. “I am honored, Belias.” Jaakuna said.

The white light faded and Jaakuna found himself back in the dusty Tomb of Raithwall. He looked around and Jaakuna felt stronger. He also felt weird, but stronger. He then looked back at Emiri and Nadeline. It would seem that seconds only passed to the several minutes it felt like in the white void where he was just at.

“Damn, that was trippy.” Jaakuna said scratching his head.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

Emiri took Jaakuna’s hand and she was up. She definitely was in a lot of disbelief, but Jaakuna didn’t know why. Did she use her ability? Jaakuna could guess all day long, but that wouldn’t do him any good. The fact of the matter was that the man-beast would soon get up and Jaakuna is definitely sure that the beast wasn’t too happy that Jaakuna was able to knock it down a few feet. Of course, nobody would be happy if they got knocked down and kicked on the side of the head. Regardless, Jaakuna knew that a strategy of sorts would be needed to get this beast down for good.

As Emiri brought up the idea of her and Nadeline distracting the beast while Jaakuna attacks when he finds the right opportunity, he agreed by nodding his head. He then would watch them go at the beast together in unison, even some of the things they would say would be as one. When they attacked, Jaakuna pulled out Demonsbane. He had thus put his two Blood Swords away. He wanted to test out his new toy and he noticed something about the ruins. He thought that it was odd that they were on there

I wonder.. Jaakuna thought as he was wondering if the sword acted differently to magick. He would soon find out as Jaakuna poured in his magickal power into the blade and he was right. The ruins on the sword started to glow. First, each respective color would glow that the color that they were, but then as Jaakuna influenced fire magick, the ruins began to glow more red and orange with hints of yellow thrown in there. White also was a color that was within the glow. Jaakuna smiled, and he would wait for the right moment to attack.

“There!” He said.

Jaakuna saw the perfect opportunity to attack when he saw that the beast’s attack was parried. He exploded towards the beast, his sword also exploding with fire magick. In his hand, Jaakuna was pretty much holding a sword of fire. He went forth, swinging upward, and the fire was released. In a matter of seconds, a vertical sickle of sorts was launched with shades of red, orange, yellow, and white all mixed in one. The amount of magick thrown into it could be described as Firaja. As it hit the beast straight on the front of its body, it was sent back about seven feet. It was groggy and beyond being able to tell where it was.

“Now’s your chance, ladies.” Jaakuna said as he was standing beside the ladies and staring the beast in the eyes, even if it wasn’t aware of where it was at.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

After getting healed by Nadeline, Jaakuna stood up. He might be healed, but he still felt some slight aching from the hit that the beast gave him. Jaakuna wanted to hold back just to be sure on what he should do next. He watched as Emiri went for her turn. Perhaps she would have better luck than he did.

As he watched, he saw that she didn’t as the man-beast had caught onto what Emiri was doing and he had laid her flat on her back and ass. Jaakuna just shook his head. It was truly a foolish move, but she had to try. Granted, it failed miserably, but it was at least an effort on her part and Jaakuna couldn’t bad mouth her for that. However, Nadeline made it clear and vocal that it was a foolish thing, even saying that it was a page out of Jaakuna’s book. He just turned back to her.

“Well, at least she’s doing something.” Jaakuna said defending not only Emiri but also himself, as it was a clear reference to how foolish he was when he attacked the man-beast.

Jaakuna looked at the Man-beast and he saw that he or it was heading towards Emiri and Jaakuna didn’t think. His emotions guided his actions. He launched in a running dash, his speed reaching impeccable rates. He leaped and his body went horizontal as he had dropkicked the man-beast on the side of the head, sending it tumbling for a few feet. Jaakuna didn’t know what came over him. Perhaps what is was, was a need to protect Emiri.

Jaakuna put out his hand to help Emiri up. “You alright?” JAakuna said as he helped her up. “You have to at least go in with a small idea of what you’re going to do or what just happened to you will happen again.” Jaakuna said. He was worried. It showed in his voice. His face even showed it as the expressions his face was making was worry off the yin-yang.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

Jaakuna was so happy that he had Demonsbane. To keep it out of the way for now, Jaakuna put it on a part on his back, crossing the Orochi Ninja Sword. It would at least be safe there, but Jaakuna just knew that more treasure awaited the further that he and the ladies went into the tomb, so he would follow them as they would walk through the door and into the presence of what it seemed to be a pedestal that they all encountered before they entered the Tomb.

Jaakuna stared it. “So, shall we ladies?” Jaakuna said.

He and the two ladies gathered around the Way Stone, as Jaakuna had heard Nadeline call it. Much like before, a bright light erupted and thus they were teleported deeper into the tomb. This time, it seemed that they were in a room of sorts. Jaakuna heard Nadeline say something about Scion of Darkness and it being the Protector of the Holy Realm. Jaakuna didn’t know what exactly that meant, but perhaps he was about to find out as he noticed the two pillars in the room erupting with fire as it came out of both of them. Jaakuna had a huge grin on his face. He didn’t know why he did, but it was there.

Looking further, there was a glyph, but beyond that it was much more. Jaakuna saw that the glyph then took the shame of a fire man-beast. Jaakuna didn’t know what it was, but he vaguely recognizes it from that book that Nadeline had shown him and Emiri back on the ship before they arrived at the Tomb of Raithwall. Jaakuna took out his two blood swords and prepared for what was to come.

Hearing what Nadeline said about it guarding something, Jaakuna knew what it was. “It’s the treasure of course. That’s all I need to fight this thing.” Jaakuna said as he ran straight for the beast standing in front of them. He rushed, hoping to get the first strike, but Jaakuna would be wrong in hoping that. The man-beast lunged at Jaakuna, aiming to impale him with his lance-thing. Jaakuna swerved to the right at the last minute, and he would go for a sweep with the blood sword in his left hand, but the man-beast would block Jaakuna with the its weapon. Jaakuna smirked, but then he used his other weapon to go for a horizontal sweep slash. The attack hit, but the skin of the beast was harder than Jaakuan realized. It barely made a cut. Jaakuna didn’t know what to do at this point and he was too late.

“OW!” JAakuna yelled as the beast used its other two arms to punch Jaakuna in the gut. Jaakuna was set backwards as he landed on the ground just about six feet in front of Emiri and Nadeline. “That hurt.” Jaakuna said as he held his abs. He didn’t have anything broken, but it still hurt like hell. Jaakuna got up knowing a different strategy would have to be used, but Jaakuna’s impulsive nature had to give it a shot. “So, yeah that didn’t work. Anyone have a different take on how to defeat this thing?” Jaakuna said as he saw the Man-Beast just stand there ready for what was to come next.

Are Co-GMs Useful?

Co-GMs, in my opinion, are really useful.

In large group RPs, such as Bleach or Naruto-based roleplays, there is a lot of ground to cover. You have the amount of people that will eventually join your rp and the amount of character sheets you will have to read. Then there's the fact that some people will get out of hand sometimes, so there's something that a co-gm could help with. There's a lot of little things that Co-gms could help with. Added to that, I think having someone to collaborate on ideas with is another great one, especially if you can't come up with some good plot twists and they do.

On the flip side of things, if you're in a small group rp, Co-gms can sometimes complicate things. If too many people are in on the grand scheme of things, like GM-wise, then there will be shit that will have to be explained or changed later on. Of course, I think having Co-gms just really depends on the type of rp and what the head-gm feels about the notion of having co-gms.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

He couldn’t see for the life of him and Jaakuna was beyond pissed. He wanted to see but being blinded pretty much put a dent in that notion, and cause he couldn’t see, Jaakuna couldn’t see what he heard and what he heard was a bunch of sounds. Some of these sounds sounded familiar, and Jaakuna heard the Demon Wall cry out in pain and then he heard crumbling of rock. He didn’t know what was going on, but within a minute, Nadeline said a word and he could see again. “I CAN SEE AGAIN!” He yelled in disbelief and happiness. He did so by lifting his arms up into the air and jumping up and down, not even caring what the ladies thought of him doing that.

When he looked towards the direction that he heard the crumbling of the Demon Wall from before, Jaakuna was amazed and shocked. The Demon Wall was dead. He didn’t do it and it would seem Emiri didn’t either. So, that would mean that Nadeline would be the only one who could had done it. Jaakuna just nodded his head up and down in approval. “Good, good.” He said acting all weird and funny.

When Jaakuna looked more in the direction of the now dead Demon Wall, he froze, repeating the same word. “Treasure.” It got louder and louder the more he said it. It got to the point where he didn’t even hear Emiri ask him if he was alright. Jaakuna raced down to the treasure that he saw. It was a sword, and not just any sword, one of the rarest ones out there. “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!” He shouted, holding the magnificent sword known as Demonsbane. “It’s Demonsbane.” JAakuna just held the sword up as he admired its design and the ruins all around the sword.

Jaakuna then looked back to the girls, and he ran over to them, sword in hand. “DO YOU LADIES KNOW WHAT THIS SWORD IS!?” He asked them in total joy and excitement. His green eyes gleamed like they never had before. “This is one of the rarest swords in all of Ivalice AND IT’S MINE! ALL MINE!!” Jaakuna was laughing and quite loudly. The sound and volume of his laugh was probably borderline evil laugh, but he was just so happy. He finally obtained Demonsbane.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

From when Jaakuna came back to the herd to wheen Nadeline and Emiri both used their own attacks, Jaakuna thought that they were doing fairly well against the Demon Wall. They were fending it off, dodging and blocking when they needed, and avoiding any unneeded injuries. Jaakuna thought there was nothing to worry about, even with the obvious time limit that they found themselves under. When the wall stopped, Jaakuna was with Nadeline. He had thought that they had won as well. However, he would soon realize that he was wrong.

Whatever sort of magick that the Demon Wall had used, it would seem that this certain spell casted a shadow over the three of them. Jaakuna could not see. All he saw was darkness. Try and try as he might, Jaakuna just couldn’t see. “Damn it!” Jaakuna said as he tried rubbing his eyes, but he still couldn’t see. “I can’t fucking see!” Jaakuna roared out. He wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t fight without sight. How was he going to figure this one out?

Jaakuna just stayed faced the same direction he was facing before he got blinded. He held his swords in a defensive position. “Does anyone have anything that can cure blindness? “ Jaakuna asked, not even knowing where the two ladies were at.