Ciaran

D&D Fifth Edition: Land of the Old Curse

@Cao the Exiled Not right now, sorry. 8 players is more than enough. Still, if anyone does decide to leave, I might consider you.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

@Ruler Inc Yeah, works for me. Probably my fault honestly, I've been real slow posting recently due to tiredness.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

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St. Mercer Hospital
_{@Ruler Inc}

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Paige's initial reaction to Lynette's response was one of anger. She was no mind-reader, but she could tell from Lynette's tone of voice what motivated her not to go to these people's aid: fear. And whatever was going on, people were fighting, and the wrong side might be winning. Either of them might be enough to change that, and it would be selfish to let people suffer the same thing that you fear, especially if that fear is the reason you leave them be. Plus, Lynette clearly doubted both of their capabilities. Of course, she could speak for herself, but while logic stated that Lynette was right; Paige was not a useful fighter, the fact that she now had an Abstraction, and one that could help, bolstered her bravery considerably. So, in a brief moment after Lynette told her that they shouldn't go to help, Paige's face twitched in anger, for a fraction of a second moving towards a furious expression before logic took hold and she accepted that though she may not like the truth, it was the truth. Makes more sense to live fleeing than die fighting.

But that still left the pair with a problem: if not that way, they still had to go somewhere. And all they'd established so far was to avoid one particular direction. The others were still fair game, and none in particular seemed any more appealing than the rest. The only advice Paige could find from logic was to pick a direction that didn't sound dangerous, and walk that way.

The sounds of fighting had stopped. Someone was dead. Bad guy, good guy... there was no way to tell. All she knew was that the fighting was over.

"Which direction do you suggest, then?" Paige asked Lynette. "I've never been here before, thankfully, though I've only been in town a few weeks. I don't know where our clothes might be, I don't even know where the front door is." She didn't say it out loud, but it occurred to Paige that she might not have just been in town for a few weeks, any more. She had no idea how long she'd been unconscious - she made a mental note to find out the date as soon as possible.

All-Verse: The Initiative

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Eodyth breathed deeply, slowly, gripping her two weapons firmly, but not forcefully. Through the circular opening ahead of her, she could see flashing white lights like gunfire in front of the night sky, and a huge structure which was barely visible, a silhouette, black on black. An immense sound was audible, too: screams and roars. Those screams and roars were not born out of aggression, but excitement. Thousands and thousands of them, above her and to sides and straight ahead, as well. She steeled herself for a moment longer, before walking powerfully up the slight incline of the darkened tunnel, into the great space outside.

She was in a circular arena. The flashing lights were cameras, they were fireworks, they were screens, and they were the bolts of lightning just a few dozen meters above the top of the circular stands, which themselves were colossal. Above, just outside the dome of calm, blue energy where the border of Order was visible, there was Chaos. Lightning, fire, and energy. All the elements reacting in myriad and unpredictable ways.

It was impossible to see anything clearly. The lights were too bright, but each was gone a moment later, so Eodyth's eyes could never adjust. Instead, everything was too dark except for the handful of instants when it was too bright. It was disorienting.

The crowd saw her entering, and slowly, they grew quiet in anticipation. This was not her first battle, though she wondered if it would be her last. Once, she had been a great hero, someone who fought in order to protect her homeland, her people, and her honour. Her homeland was now a ruin, her people were now scattered, and her honour was now in question. Now, she fought for things as common and worthless as money. But there was little fighting to be done. Were she not to fight for money, she would not have the opportunity to fight at all. And fighting was all she knew.

One thing was for sure: she needed a cause.

Perhaps Eodyth would give up arena fighting, perhaps not. At the end of the day, she was in that arena right now, and she would soon have to defend herself. Her opponent was now visible - a man, in that strange mix of traditional garb and modern gadgetry typical of a Hisogawan street samurai. Of course, no street samurai would ever stoop so low as to fight in an arena, not when their bosses had work for them - clearly, he had either defected and managed to escape punishment, or had never been a street samurai in the first place, instead simply expropriating their famous appearance and fighting style. It didn't really matter which this one was - either had the capacity to be dangerous.

In a flash, he was on her, cybernetically-enhanced arms driving his two-handed sword with impressive power - for a human. Eodyth deflected his rising attack with Neskin, knocking it off course enough that the downwards strike that would have followed was out of reach, and so instead he twirled the blade around into a guard position and prepared to defend against an attack from Eodyth.

Though the samurai was not as strong as Eodyth, the difference was small. He was also faster; she'd been right to take him seriously.

He was still waiting for Eodyth's attack. She was happy to oblige. She swung Irasjon around in a wide arc, hoping to bludgeon him with the handle of the weapon close to its tip. He swayed back easily, wasting no energy blocking an attack he didn't need to. However, he did not account for the fact that Eodyth did not have to dedicate herself fully to the swing, as most would with that kind of attack. Her strength let her stop the spear mid-swing regardless of its momentum. She caught him off-guard in that moment and thrust with the spear, stepping in to increase her power. The short movement of the attack denied it significant speed and therefore power, so it could not pierce his armour, but the force knocked him off his feet and onto his back.

Eodyth then rushed in to finish the samurai with a blow to the head from Neskin, but - astonishingly - he discarded his own blade and caught Eodyth's as it swung down towards him. He twisted, and before Eodyth knew what was happening, her knees had been taken out from under her, her weapons were five feet away, and she was lying on her stomach with punches raining down on the back of her head. Karate gimmicks. Perhaps the most frustrating thing in the history of human combat, but you can't argue with results.

It was at this moment the samurai remembered he was fighting a god, and what that entailed. Firstly, his punches weren't affecting Eodyth all that much. Secondly, he wouldn't be able to keep her pinned for long. She got her arms under her and started pushing, literally performing a push-up with him on her back. After a moment he was off, and Eodyth rapidly got to her feet, retrieving her weapons, and then her crown, which had rolled off during the grapple. His sword had also fallen this way, so she had intended to throw it back to him, so she could kill him fairly, when she turned to see him drawing a sawn-off shotgun from a compartment hidden in his mechanical left arm. Before she could react, she heard a gunshot, glimpsed for the tiniest fraction of a second a lethal shot directed at her head, and then there was blue light, taking her somewhere... else.

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Eodyth fell into the chamber, weapons clattering to the ground, gasping for breath as she realised she wasn't dead.

"So who's with me?" she heard someone say. It was a good, simple phrase, perfect for inspiring a group of people into action. She'd used it in speeches herself, on a few occasions.

It sounded awfully like what Eodyth had just been thinking she needed a few minutes ago; a cause to fight for. She was still shocked from her near-death experience, but her actual injuries were very lacking, so she simply said, between deep, heavy breaths "Alright, who... do I need to kill... where... and when?"

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

@Ruler Inc Oh, okay. I just saw "redacted" and feared the worst about what might have been redacted.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

Do I want to know what that said before?

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

St. Mercer Hospital
_{@Ruler Inc}

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Briefly after leaving her room, aiming to investigate the scream, Paige encountered Lynette, another of the girls from among the Awakened. Paige knew about as much about Lynette as Lynette did about Paige - meaning very little. She did remember Lynette's assistance in the farmhouse, and subsequently the garage, where the Reids lived. The very first stage of this little adventure that had taken place after a psychopath had tried to murder her. Anyway, she trailing off, losing focus.

"Yeah, I've been worse," Paige replied. She looked down at her plastic leg, painfully visible in the hospital gown. "I've, er- I've had worse experiences in hospitals before. So I'd suggest we get out of here as soon as possible, but I don't know where the exist is, and since each direction is only as good as the others-" she turned and faced the direction the scream had come from. "-I suggest we see who needs help over this way."

Thuds and crashes were now audible from the same direction as the scream. It sounded like a battle. Paige didn't intend to leave Lynette behind, especially without waiting for her input - in the brief time they'd had together, Lynette had come across to Paige as a very intelligent, composed person - but time seemed to be of the essence. If Lynette had a different plan, Paige wanted to hear it now. She would already be slowed down just by her own walking pace. She didn't want to waste time over-thinking the course of action, or she might not have the choice.

D&D Fifth Edition: Land of the Old Curse

@CDT0925 I will check over your character first, but once you get the go-ahead from me, then you can post. Also make sure you read up on the IC first, obviously. Plenty of people will have seen the attack in the square, since it was preceded by a hanging, so it would make sense if your character had seen that, linking them to the others that way. Otherwise, most of them are in a tavern right now, and as D&D players tend to learn quickly, you can meet anyone in a tavern.

As a side note I'd prefer it if you played a female character, just because we've got 6 male to 1 female right now. If you're not comfortable with that, though, that's absolutely fine.

discord.gg/Ypsx6B Here is a link to our Discord (expires in 24 hours).

D&D Fifth Edition: Land of the Old Curse

Now that business seemed to be concluded and all danger had been dealt with, for now, Lillith gathered a handful of guardsmen and set them about clearing the square of bodies. It was messy, menial labour that was below her paygrade, but those that had died deserved proper treatment and the guards wouldn't do it without being told. Once they got to work, she returned to the Reave's manor and began setting about her business, which involved gathering the money for the reward, drafting a speech for Reave Bosko in response to the attack, and a handful of other administrative tasks which were delegated to her. She would be busy in her office for several hours.

D&D Fifth Edition: Land of the Old Curse

@CDT0925 This is listed as full, but a player left since then, so sure. As long as you're okay with this being a fairly slow-moving game (as that's how it has been and probably will continue to be in the future).