BrokenPromise

NHTD:ARPWAEHTD (Tower of Eternity)

@AriamisThe note about spell levels is mostly to manage expectations. "Summon volcano" will become "summon fissure." So long as your mages don't try to cast things like wish, you shouldn't have to worry about being told to make edits or having your spell backfire.

Looking forward to seeing the old peeps in action one more time.

In regards to post length, anything between one and six paragraphs is fine with me. You know how it is in the casual section.

NHTD:ARPWAEHTD (Tower of Eternity)

@AriamisPlaying as a group of characters that are bound by some common belief or goal is a great way to get some continuation between characters even as they are dying left and right.

The spell list is just an example of the power level allowed. You are free to make up your own so long as they stay in that range of power. As an example, you could cast a spell that fires a cone of your chosen elemental effect since that closely resembles what burning hands does. Even cone of cold could technically be cast so long as you understand it's going to be closer in terms of power to burning hands. On the other hand, a spell that violently explodes like fireball is not allowed, as that is a level 3 spell. Though something similar and weaker could be cast, even if it's not in the D&D list of spells. As a general rule spells are weaker than physical weapons, but offer utility and special effects that physical weapons can't match.

Improvised weaponry is acceptable. Prune back the witch queen's forces with what's available to you.

Kamakazi tactics, while not encouraged, are allowed in moderation. The resistance force does not have an unlimited stockpile of TNT, but the occasional boom is fine. I'm going to rule rocket propulsion as military tech however, so you'll need some other method to deliver the payload. Vehicles are allowed, be it a truck, motorcycle, or a mining cart converted to have truck wheels. Needless to say, I won't be rolling a dice to determine if he survives.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

“Am I a joke to you?”

— Rei Ishiko

Rei was a difficult person to read. She never let on much nor did she ever seem particularly strung out about anything. The only time her mysterious facade cracked was when she almost ate Suki’s cooking. How fortunate that Suki didn’t notice and she was able to leave without offending the cook.

Though in this particular situation, it was Rei that was at a loss as to what her club was trying to do. They had been presented with two anomalies, and all of them had decided to venture towards the pillar of light. The appeal of the light was not lost to her, of course. The miseria would head in that direction if they weren’t attacking pedestrians instead. But it didn’t seem like the detention club was that interested in slaying miseria. Most seemed to favor going to the light source itself. Even Nyxia, who was something of a miseria slaying enthusiast, had decided to hoof it to the light without even firing her gun once. This was someone who previously stood in place and nuked miseria by the dozens. Had Roche finally tamed her? Unlikely.

This was stranger than it was interesting, like that totally unnecessary character cameo.

With a huff, Rei jumped to a building and scaled all the way up to the roof. She was quite a bit stronger than a normal human, but still far below what a magical girl could achieve in terms of speed. The next building was separated by a small alleyway, and Rei was able to clear the jump. The next building came just after a two lane road, and would be impossible to jump. Rei decided to try it anyway.

She cleared a good distance, but impossible was impossible. She had reached the part of her jump where she had lost all horizontal movement and was plummeting straight down. She fell below the roofline in the blink of an eye.

…

…

…

”Did somebody call for a cat girl?”

— Willow

Willow came flying up with Rei on her arm and landed on the roof. Shortly afterwards, Rei let go of the cat girl and started running like she had just made the jump. Willow floated beside her.

”Rei!” Willow practically shrieked the words. ”If I hadn’t finished tying my shoes, you would have gone ker-splat!”

“I can transform, you know.” Rei had little difficulty speaking while she ran, despite the difficulty that might give lesser humans. “But it’s a hassle, so thanks. Though you’re hardly ever not looking at me.”

”Oh! Well…” Willow began to float backwards. ”That’s certainly a possibility, isn’t it? After all, my shoes have buckles, don’t they? I couldn’t tie my laces.”

“You wear slip-ons.”

Willow was a very unique magical girl. She could float, just like Evil Eye. She was a bit of a joker, just like Evil Eye. She could summon twisted creatures, just like Evil Eye. She also wore dark colored clothing accented by deep warm colors, just, like, Evil Eye. She even had a prestigious position in the club due to her being Rei’s fighting partner. Though as many parallels that could be drawn between Will of the Whisps and Evil Eye, they were different in several subtle yet outstanding ways. While Evil Eye was mysterious and plotting, Willow was nonsensical and spontaneous. Evil Eye’s mogall were good scouts, Willow’s twisted fairytales were expert killers. Evil Eye liked eyeballs, Willow was more into stringed instruments and bands. But the real core difference that made Willow so much better than Evil Eye in every way that mattered was that she was a cat girl. Her ears were very real and very much a part of her when she transformed.

”I wonder what made that light?” Willow wondered out loud.

“I already know.”

”Oh! Then please tell me!”

“You already know too. You were coming from that direction.”

”It was much too dark for my little kitty eyes to see anything! But I suppose we’ll see as soon as we get there.”

Willow got ready to help Rei jump the next gap.

"I live to feel pain! Unless it’s related to my heart!”

— Suki Oyama

It was worse than Oros feared.

It didn’t matter if there were miseria floating right in front of her face, or if Oros gave Acid Drop enough air time to pull off a quadruple axle (a move that is considered impossible for ice skaters) she refused to do anything that would spark joy. Acid Drop flew through the air like a rag doll and landed in Oros’s hands.

"Rainbow?”

Surely now, in her magical form, Tsubomi should have been at least a little more upbeat. But it wasn’t cutting the mustard this time. Even when the burst of light went off, all Oros could do was look into her partner’s eyes to see about finding a solution. But there was nothing to glean from the reflection in her eyes. Acid drop did not need to free herself, Oros got the hint instantly. She set her down.

It was clear that Acid Drop didn’t want to pal around.

With a sigh, Oros hung her head and slowly, gradually, skated behind Acid Drop as slowly as she could muster. Any faster and she’d run her over.

Battle Toyale — Christmas Rumble!

@Shinny Awesuuuuuuuuuuum!

So two questions:

With things starting to get frantic, it would help to have everyone's position on a map and maybe any "major" threats, like the orcs. Any chance you could implement something like that? I've had great luck just using google docs to set up a map as the BG and then designating non-static elements like players and enemies, but anything would work.

Kanohi Kama looks like a bionicle mask, which is probably a few sizes too big for Kuro. Is it possible to wear the mask non-conventionally, or does it shrink to its wearer's face?

Arena Chat Thread

@IAmTheIsland I'm in plenty of stuff right now, but maybe down the road I could see doing a duel.

What do you consider low-powered? Do you have a character you'd like to play?

NHTD:ARPWAEHTD (Tower of Eternity)

Tower of Eternity

^{Alternate Title: Nobody has to die: an RP where almost everyone has to die}

It only recently dawned on me that I forgot to make an interest check for this. If it seems like something you'd like to try, you can start posting or ask questions at the link below.

Main Thread

Arena Chat Thread

Pretty much what @Lith said, honestly.

I'm little more than a curious arena dabbler, but one of the things that always turned me off to arena years ago was all the drama. There were few if any matches that ended on amicable terms. Everything devolved into a flame war and nobody was ever happy regardless of who was judging. But while that kept me and new people like me from joining, I think what really killed the forum arena scene was just everything being moved to discord. I remember someone hosted some giant fighting competition and I was kind of interested in joining, but it turned out all the fights were happening on discord and I could barely keep up with the dizzying amount of discussion that was being had.

It's not dead though. I doubt the ongoing battle toyale is for everyone, but it still got players. Ultimately, I'm going to be more interested in that over the super cool battlebros from time eternal. I'm sure they were cool, but you need to think about the current era of arena RPers instead of those that have hung up their cape.

NHTD:ARPWAEHTD (Tower of Eternity)

If anyone has any questions, I can answer them. Otherwise, you can start posting as soon as you like.

Symphony on High

"Great joke! Have another!"

— Oros the Mad

Down one of Pax’s many alleyways sat one Oros the mad. Her legs were folded as if in meditation, but her eyes were cast on her blade. Who knew what she was looking at. Maybe, probably, she was catching up on all the things happening in Pax Septimus. But with so much at her disposal, she could look at anything. Even things transpiring in other realities.

One that caught her attention was a “battle toyale” in which all the participants were toys in a toy store. It seemed like some of them were not playing by the rules, but that didn’t inhibit Oros’s enjoyment of the free for all. If the contestants insisted on making friends in a free for all deathmatch, Oros figured that the patrons would naturally conspire against the cheaters, and their patron champions would position themselves into a pseudo second team. In the long run, there could only be one victor, but it was too early to tell if such a tactic would even work. If Oros was with the cheating party, she’d play them for fools and attack her own “team” in a critical moment. She wouldn’t even feel bad about it. But the real issue was that things moved so slowly. Weeks would pass by with no change in things, and it was hard to keep her attention with such slow developments. Worse was that it felt like that was starting to happen in Pax Septimus as well. It had only been a few days since the trains departed Pax or that epic fight with Binky, but Oros would swear to you it happened about three weeks ago. And she would also argue that the meeting between Asher and Maverick was still ongoing. Clearly a mad sort, that Oros character.

"Finally! Can we have round three now?" Her eyes widened. "Wait wait, something’s happened. It’s… He’s gay? Really!?" Oros sheathed her sword and placed her hands on her knees. After reflecting on this newly acquired knowledge, she began to laugh hysterically. "A coming out story on April First? now I’ve seen it all!"

“In a good mood, Oros?” Sharr approached the mad esper on foot. She was holding Faith’s hand, who was casting her eyes all over the place.

Oros cleared her throat before turning to the newly arrived. "Something like that. I expected you sooner. Where’s the mech?"

“I donated it to someone who needed it more. If you have any more questions you can look at your sword. But before you do that, how about you thank me for bringing Faith here?”

"Got a plus one huh?" Oros grinned at the adorkable woman. "What made you decide to bail with Aunt Sharr?"

She shrugged her shoulders. ”We got into the mech together to save everyone, which I thought was cool. But I realized how little I knew everyone present once it was over.“ She put a hand over her shoulder. ”I really liked everyone, but-“

"I know." Oros said with a laugh. "You liked Finn, platonically, but he didn’t care for you. You weren’t Betty or whatever object he decided to base his life around. Ashley was busy, and while Fritzi made good use of you, Binky took up all of her old responsibilities. You felt kind of useless, didn’t ya?"

Faith nodded. ”I haven’t met anyone else in the city. Maybe there’s someone else out there who feels the same way I do.“

”Doubt it. Honestly, I’m surprised they let the two of you go so easily."

“You have Binky to thank for that.” Sharr said with her typical smile. “They were all tired from the operation, and anyone who could have stopped me from leaving wasn’t in the condition to do so. it likely didn’t register that I had planned on taking the mech and all of its pilots with me. That, and you know how cagy the doctor can be. I doubt any of them fully understand how important I am.”

"Or Faith. " Oros added. "Though for different reasons." She stared off into the distance.

Faith tipped her head. ”Whatcha thinking about?”

"Other than the implication that future Finn is gay? I was just thinking about all the universes out there where it’s April first. It’s all pranks galore, but most of them suck. And then I realized that I’m sitting on the capacity to troll a god."

”A god?”

"Not really." Oros confessed. "But I figured it would be a great way to avoid ‘as you know Bob’ dialog and do a recap of some points that are going to be pretty important in a few seconds."

“But Faith doesn’t know much of what we’ve been up to anyway, so you could just explain it to her normally.”

"But that’s not cool. Hey Faith, you know how Penny is dead?"

It took Faith a moment to process what was being asked. ”The Iron Queen? She’s believed to be dead, yes. But no one knows who killed her.”

"Well you might think I did, if you’re a patron who’s been watching from the beginning. however…"

She drove Endless Eclipse into the chip.

"That’s the name of my sword, as executed here. Though you’ll notice it cuts off right here and it’s not explicitly stated that the chip was destroyed!"

Faith turned her head the other way. Likely a reaction to Oros making air quotes and “hyperlinks” with her fingers. ”Doesn’t it seem a little predictable? Nobody knows what happened to Penny, so any explanation is acceptable.”

"Huh, I guess that’s fair…" Oros groaned. "I thought you’d be easier to impress, but I’m not done yet! Check this out!"

Ah yes, Oros had made good on her promise and took her out of this world to meet a doctor that could ‘restore her old memories’ among other things.

"With further context extracted from a link that I misplaced, you’ll see that I took Sharr ‘off screen’ to meet with someone to restore her memories!"

”She needed to have her memories restored? Amnesia isn’t an uncommon plot device. I mean-”

"Hold up! I wasn’t done yet! The real magic comes later in this next part."

”Between what we were able to scrounge up from Penny, and what you plundered from Bob, I can probably start on something.” She placed a hand on the side of her head.

”Still out of it?”

”Yes, the incense our good doctor had me inhale is strong. I’ve had a mild headache, but it seems to be going away. Nothing to worry about.”

Oros leaned in towards Faith. "Is it all making sense yet? Because I found the link for that third quote and it contains the second one as well. What a deal!"

Again, Faith took her time to answer. ”...No? If you have Penny’s parts, doesn’t that mean she’s dead? But that runs counter to what you just told me?”

"Got that noodle of yours cooking good, don’t I?" Oros’s chest swelled with pride. "To be fair, you’d have to be some sort of multiversal entity to really get the implication." Oros shrugged. "But you can take this to mean we have an ally that works in incense and that Sharr has been hard at work with parts from a robot and a cyborg esper. Simple stuff." Oros stood up and dusted off her pants. "Speaking of, we finished it without you because you took too long. Wanna see the completed project?"

Faith looked to Sharr. When she nodded, Faith tightened her grip on her hand and nodded at the mad esper. Then they walked into an abandoned warehouse. Though as they followed Oros, their guide was swept off of her feet as something rushed past them. It was some sort of cyborg maid against a really ugly yellow background. She had Oros in a tight hug and was wearing the most blissful smile anyone had ever seen.

”You have returned, my love!” Penny had snatched up Oros from behind, allowing everyone to see how annoyed Oros looked while being oblivious to it herself.

"Yea? Like I was gone for ten seconds to ’read the paper.’ I even said I would be right back."

”Oh…” Her grip on Oros loosened a bit. ”I’m sorry, it’s just that we’re both wanted dead or alive, and every time you leave my sight it could be the last time I see you.”

"Truly touching stuff. You might be more gay than Finn is."

”I do not know who you speak of, but I am technically genderbent right now. So me being ‘gay’ is a matter of perspective. B-but aren’t you gay yourself?”

"Why are we talking about my sexuality?" Oros threw Penny’s arms off of herself and turned to look at her. "Will they/won’t they is the entire point of shit like this! Fuck! There are too many sexualities to keep track of and most of them are made up. I like holes! Okay, Penny? I like holes!"

”Why are you mad?”

"It’s my title! I ain’t gotta explain shit!" Oros grinned. "As funny as it is to see you act like a doting maid, I think we need to turn your confidence up and your clingyness down to its normal levels."

”Before you do that, can we make out behind some crates first?”

"If you’re offering..."

Faith bat her eyes at the spectacle that played out before her. ”...I don’t understand what just happened.”

Sharr sighed. ”Right, translating Oros speak for those with logical minds. Oros was the one to ‘slay’ Penny. Though rather than kill her, she just gravely wounded her. Penny’s esper form is that of a robot, so it was easy to render her inoperable without actually killing her. We could have melted down her parts, but I talked her out of it, which was the hardest part of this entire process. Bob, while not an esper, is a robot that was very obedient towards his creator. We scrounged up some of his parts and used them to rebuild Penny in a way that she was more, how shall we say, obedient. Also as part of the deal, some scientist used some incense sticks to bring back some of my memories from a past life, which has given me the ability to manipulate grimoires in ways no one else can.”

Faith pouted. ”Mind control sure is a popular trope around here.”

”Yes, there was that deal when Betty and Pac-A-Fist got turned into pseudo vampires, and of course the whole Binky thing. Technically, you were no different when you came down in the diver. It’s genuinely pretty difficult to take over someone’s mind, but humans make great catalysts for dark arts. Though what we’ve done to Penny isn’t quite mind control. If she wanted to, she could resist its effects. All we did was modify the reward center of her ‘brain.’ She feels better when displaying approved behaviors and worse when displaying bad ones. The ‘Bobinator’ as I call it was a necessary tool to getting the Iron Queen to negotiate with us, as she wouldn’t have given us the time of day otherwise. Oros had planned on destroying her, but it was my genius idea to make her an ally instead. Turns out having the hand run wild isn’t good for Penny either, and she more or less has the same enemies we do. That said, it's still a little unnerving to have her running around in her fully powered up body, so we needed to put some safeguards in place. I'm a little surprised she fired up the newest iteration of the Bobinator without me, but I guess she trusts my workmanship more than I do.”

”Her feelings for Oros aren't genuine?”

”Likely not.” Sharr giggled. ”I’m sure Oros tampered with the Bobinator to make her enjoy acting timid and affectionate. But she does enjoy it, so she performs them. Maybe the real her even likes it to some degree.”

”Why would Oros do something like that?”

Sharr sighed. ”The short answer is that it pleases her. Though it’s entirely possible that Penny reminds Oros of someone she’s encountered in another reality, and seeing Penny act like this is an extremely petty way of getting revenge on them.”

Faith, again, just batted her eyes like the total cinnamon bun she was. ”Oh.”

”It’s all coming together now, Faith. The hand is setting itself up to wipe out all of its enemies, as are the other factions. We’re in a rare position where we can see everyone’s hand for what it is. If everyone is going to make their move, then we should make sure we come to the table with something respectable.” Sharr turned to look at Faith. ”Was Oros right? Do you want to feel useful?”

”Oh yes! Definitely!”

”Is there something in your life that you want?”

”Yes!”

”Will you do anything to get it?”

Before blurting out an answer, Faith stopped to think. But as soon as Sharr started to turn away, she spoke up. ”Yes! As long as it doesn’t go against my beliefs.”

”Beliefs? Who do you believe in?”

”Everyone!”

”But who do you trust?” Faith was silent. ”Do you trust me?”

”Yes!”

”Then come, there is much to be done.”

NHTD:ARPWAEHTD (Tower of Eternity)

Character sheets are not nessisary, but feel free to write the contents of your character's tombstone here after they die.