wordcount: 1875 (+3) (+15) Bowser: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (216/130) Bowser Jr: Level 13 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (104/130) Kamek: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (83/130) Rika: Level 8 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/90) Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams, the Prison of Hope
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
After doing their coordinated strike vs the Caretaker, the troop regrouped, Jr and Bowser road killing bots while Kamek and Rika went overhead. Then they held up in a defensive position from which to shell the bots, and finally, once the eye opened up, gave it hell whenever it dared look their way.
With that and all the other’s contributions, it was only a matter of time till the inverted pyramid fell, and they had their victory. Well, after being exploded anyway. Fortunately Jr was there to patch them up, the prince parking his tank, popping up the cockpit, and joining the others in the bloody dirt to stretch his legs for a bit as he healed everyone up.
While he did that, and Kamek had another rest, Bowser and Rika did the rather standard post battle spirit crushing, which had some interesting results.
Items obtained: Magnetic Field Generator These modular generators use superconducting magnets and vast amounts of electricity to produce an easily expandable and powerful magnetic field Adaptive Control Unit An actuator hub capable of articulating attached machine parts with a high degree of reliability and accuracy Assembly Director System An extremely fast and precise computing system that can be programmed for the effective management of all sorts of networks Smart Plating A composite and computerized inner plating that allows for custom construction of machine and vehicular frameworks, such as supporting electronics on one side and powered armor on the other Phazyonite x180 This spiky purple mineral can be exchanged to various shops for cosmetic items in place of currency Vigorwasp A bug that collects and tightly compacts nutrients into an orb of pure goodness that it then carries back to its nest to feed its colony. If someone steals and consumes this orb, it provides a full heal
”Weird. It just straight up made a bug. A tasty looking bug” Bowser noted, rather confused by the appearance of the vigorwasp that lazily hoovered up from Rika’s hand. The ship girl, equally confused and curious, promptly poked it, causing it to disappear and heal all the damage the mimic shaped hat had done to her while she had been crushing the various small robots and specimen sprites.
”Huh. Ok then?” the shipgirl said as she took off the hat, mostly bemused but a little thankful that she wasn’t going to have to wait for Jr to come round again and heal her
The rest of the items consisted of a pile of crystals which were immediately stashed, and a bunch of metal computer things that neither of them had any idea what they were really for. Jr, once queried, was less stumped but after some speculating and poking ultimately marked the components down as something worth selling rather than using, and had Kamek shrink them down for transportation.
With that settled, and someone hopefully making use of the caretaker’s spirit (and if they didn’t the troop would transport it), it was time to set off. That, apparently, was going to be easier said than done, because not only was the dwarf’s exit strategy noisy as heck, but it also had a time limit on it as well.
”Yeeeesh. You guys should do something about your boss, they sound like a picnic's worth of jerk sandwiches when it comes to minion treatment” Bowser complained, wondering what kind of idiot would just leave valuable minions who could actually get the job done behind like that.
Either way, it wasn’t like they could unionize down here, so for the time being they had to put up with these shoddy business practices.
Things did not exactly start out great, with the machine that was going to lead them to their extraction point climbing its way right up a wall. Fortunately Kamek and Rika didn't have any kind of problem with this, floating and grappling respectively, while Bowser attached his super bell in order to cat climb on up and finally, while he had a rough start, also Jr managed to to take the same rout as Kanna after the platform was put up.
After that Jr pushed on ahead along with the plantpot, with the prince only unable to turn this into a race because he had no idea where they were going, and had to keep the pace set by the 4 legged Molly.
As for the rest, well, now that the wonder effect was over they were back to where they had been before. Kamek was once again rather low on mana, Rika simply spent when it came to ammo, and Bowser was left burning through his remaining stamina to haul his heavy body through the tunnels. Still, they were at this point old hands at dealing with the threats they were facing, and so no bug nor bot could stand in their way.
The only new threat was turned to paste as well, with jr unloading his metal attacker’s cannon into it before the rest of the Troop even managed to see the thing. Then soon after they were at the goal, a towering metal machine with a big ol drill at the base. It was sat next to a foggy area which the troop recognized as the place where they had first met Barnaby. There was little time to reminisce about their fallen comrade however, as there was the larger issue of: ”Wait I need to get in there?!”
Indeed, there was a particular lack of space in the riding compartment, which along with Bowser’s own bulk problem, also prompted Jr to ask ”Wait… how am I gonna fit the tank in there?”
”Not to worry young master, I have a little potion left in the bottle, so to speak” Kamek replied, before requesting ”so if you step out and give me a moment” and then once the prince had done so casting his spell, shrinking down the fearsome war machine down to the size of a toy tractor, which positively delighted the prince.
With that solved, and with Bowser stripping himself of all his extra size (and making sure to point his spikes at the wall rather than at anyone else (and ensuring his son was doing the same)) they all just barely managed to squeeze inside.
Then they were off. Until they weren't. Rather than rest and a drink on the space rig the dwarves were off to, the seekers ended up getting off early and exploring a very unpleasant looking place.
”Galeem really did just pick all the nicest places to build it’s new world out of, didn't it?” Kamek complained. At least with Rika and her tail lamp they didn’t have to rely just on just the candles, though it did make the Troop rather stand out among the seekers.
This got them a nice initial introduction to the threats of the area, namely a desiccated old man riding on a floating chair and armed with a long spear who floated up to say hello. Using his spear. Which he thrust at a now foot slogging again Jr.
The prince yelped in alarm, but managed to bring up his rune covered right arm with which he formed a crude shield to catch the spear thrust just in time. In response Rika, currently wearing her ammoless gauntlets on her back (she had not had the space in their cramped ride necessary to refill them with bullets or spit respectively), cleanly stepped around the side of her brother’s guard and thrust her own spear forwards in retaliation. The thin point neatly pierced through the bishop’s eye, and into his brain.
”The nicest places” Kamek reiterated his criticism as the area as the foe disintegrated, before suggesting ”Things look clearer up here, shall we go have a look over there before going down to wherever that thing came from?” as he pointed over at the warden’s office on the far side of the upper floor, a suggestion which he found general agreement for.
Upon entering it, they found that the room was in disarray, as if violently ransacked apart by a larger-than-normal creature via primarily blunt force, including the desk, where the damaged remains of a book lay. The book's cover has been scratched at, and leaving the only legible part of its title as 'Midsummer'
There was also a safe locked by a 4 digit combination lock, a set of oxidized bronze keys hanging from the wall and two potted whispering roots, one of them seemingly growing out of the floor due to its pot being broken in several places. When one of Kamek’s wisps (that they were using for extra light) floated close to one of those plants, it started to glow and hum ever so softly.
That wasn’t the only strange and mystical thing about the room, for a few dreamlike motes were also wafting through the air, looking in appearance like ethereal glowing dreamcatchers, and they seemed to be especially concentrated around the book, even more so than the plants which had similar styling. Kamek, naturally, was curious as to why, and proceed to flip the book open, only to find, after a bit of skim reading, that it seemed to be a novelization of a very long, somewhat comedic play about a marriage set in ancient times, including multiple subplots spanning several sets of lovers.
”How strange” the mage said to himself, unsure as to why this book was of interest to whatever minor magical force was wafting around the room. He proceed to close it after making that assessment, just in time for Jr to wander over to show him a 6 inch tall statue carved out of whispering root that he had found on the floor, one depicting a figure with a satyr-like body and a horse’s head.
”Hmmm, I think that is from the book? Odd. Perhaps the warden of this place carved it after reading this?” Kamek noted, to which the prince simply shrugged and declared that ”Well it's mine now” before stashing it in his duffle bag.
”That. Very well” Kamek sighed, it was no as if there was anyone around to complain that wasn’t going to try and kill them anyway, or so he assumed. After pocketing the book because he also could, and doing a quick test to see if he could get the trees to do anything more (he could not) they left the room, taking both the keys and the entire safe with them (again because they could).
Outside the two koopas found Bowser and Rika standing next to a cell door that had an air of significance about it. Soft light coming out from under there, orange-pink, similar to the motes around the whispering roots, and the sound of muttering (not uncommon in this palace as it would turn out) along with the intermittent (and more unusual) sound of something scraping on wood.
The king had clearly tried to punch the door open, giving he was nursing bruised knuckles, and he and Rika seemed to be in the midst of debating whether to use a torpedo to try and blast their way in when Kamek and Jr arrived to stop them.
”Let’s not draw any more attention to ourselves, shall we?l” he suggested, before Jr let them know that ”Besides, we have keys!”
Unfortunately, the keys they had found were bronze, not silver, and so they failed to open the singularly silver lock on the door they had found themselves before, resulting in the prince complaining ”Yeah, of course it couldn’t be that easy!” and giving the door a useless kick.
”Now now, these ones must open something” Kamek reassured him, before pointing out ”Plus there was a spot for another set of keys in the room, so maybe they are somewhere else in the facility”
”We should probably radio in and let people know about that, and stuff you found, then? Right?” Rika suggested, which the others agreed was wise.
They returned to the center of the chamber where they could see down the various levels, and while doing so Kamek took on the duty of informing people about the missing silver keys, the door that required them, the safe they needed a code for, and, lastly, about the bronze keys they had found.
Should any of the other heroes have waited for them to check out the office, the mage would supply them one of the keys then and there. Otherwise the mage was willing and able to coordinate sending a toady, his propeller hatted mini-me magic minions, down a floor or two to deliver a key to anyone who had started their own descent.
As a result of both their investigation of the top floor, and their subsequent organizing of key delivery, the troop would be quite a bit behind any front runners. No doubt those on ahead would have cleared several floors before they even got started.
Rayne saw the arrow coming just in time, the Knight Witch disappearing in a flash of light that began to race upwards, only for something unexpected (to her) to happen. The arrow somehow struck the light itself, and in an instant Rayne was back, clutching at her belly as the arrow tumbled down to the ground, having only been stopped from taking her life by her armor.
“Wha-” she began to ask, utterly confounded by what had happened. The arrow should have harmlessly passed right through her as she had blinked, and yet it had somehow struck her. It was only by coincidence that she had split second decided to dodge up rather than forwards through it, and though she did not know it due to not having perfect knowledge of the arrow’s flight path, if she had done that she would no longer have a throat.
As she floated and tried to work out what had happened, the sniper shot again, but rather than dodge this time she flicked a spell card, using a single point of mana to create a shockwave that knocked the arrow out of the air. That gave her enough time to come to the conclusion that she couldn’t rely on the blinks to bypass shots anymore. She didn’t know why. But it was terrifying. Without that ability she’d likely be dead several dozen times over or more.
In the time she had been thinking and avoiding being sniped, the battlefield continued to develop, and into it had floated a creepy magic child who was unleashing lasers on several of the others.
A child.
Rayne wanted nothing to do with that, and as luck would have it she could not afford to get involved, because the sniper seemed to have it out for her. Another arrow came, but this time, knowing her newfound limitation, the Witch Knight dodged to the side, ensuring that her profile got out of the way of the shot as quickly as possible.
Then she started blinking in the shooter’s direction, moving unpredictably at diagonals. However this was, with the fixed distance of her jumps, not quite unpredictable enough as an arrow embedded itself in her hat right at the end of one of the blinks.
She cursed, and then bolted to the right, putting a building between herself and the sniper, and in doing so running right into one of the armored foes, this one sporting the classic sword and board combo. The warrior flicked a blade her way, only for her hand to flash and for Runedge to appear in it, blocking the sword. Her other hand instinctively formed a rune and pulsed a spread shot blast at him, only for the shots to slam into the herald’s shield.
They strained for a moment, blade on blade, before both had an idea, the warrior bashing their shield forwards, while Rayne reached out towards it, hand glowing. Mit and metal met, and the shield was engulfed in the same glow out of which Runedge had been summoned, which now swallowed up the shield. Eyes behind the mask widened as Rayne (after shaking her hand once with an “ouch”) reformed the spell rune and fired again, the shots now slamming into their unshielded knee, chest, and face, the last of which caused a blob of mana to pulse off.
The Raven herald went down hard even as Rayne burst up and away, not wanting to look at just how hard it had been exactly. She cleared the building’s roof and hovered there for a moment, panting, not wanting to think about the lives she had probably taken, just wanting to find her original target.
Right on cue, another arrow came at her, but this time she was prepared. In a flash the (rather beaten due to her own actions) shield of the warrior appeared in her hands with which she blocked this latest attempt on her life. Then she started to burst towards again, blinking straight ahead this time, body tilted so she could fit her entire figure behind the shield as she rammed straight for where the shots had come from.
She could see them now, a hooded figure in a gray cloak, and once she closed the distance she pivoted, bringing up her free hand up and unleashing spread shot blasts even as she kept the shield up to cover the rest of her body.
Only for the magic bullet enhancing weapon she had equipped to time out, leaving her back with just her basic projectiles.
That’s what she got for being overzealous with equipping it as soon as she had the mana for it rather than when she specifically needed it.
Galaxor soon left his new holy temple before giving instructions to Maxima and her tribe to make sure they don’t cut into the tree’s roots…’lest they’ll attract the wrath of a different divine being. His destination? A place where he felt hundreds, if not more, goblins all at once and where Jaxx’s essence can be felt from.
Appearing above the giant river, Galaxor’s majestic form cast a large shadow over the goblins, who, out of a sense of fear and maybe recognizing their creator, went on their knees.
“Ha! HA! HA! Cute little goblins! You don’t need to fear me, I’ve created you. I am your creator, if I wanted you gone…I wouldn’t have made you. Ha! HA HA! Gods, you sure are cute on your knees. Isn’t there at least ONE of you standing up to me? One of you trying to show me who’s the big bad goblin, defender of his kind? A HERO?! ” shouted Galaxor with his usual happy but challenging tone.
Responding to his challenge, one goblin stood up. One goblin that was 2 metres tall and had grey skin. He pointed a hand at Galaxor and shouted at him…something as he charged Galaxor, who has since landed.
“Oh’ my. Jaxx! There you are and you’re attacking me? You remind me of myself a bit, y’know? HAHAHA! Little one, I shall only use my little finger on you. ” continued Galaxor as he easily evaded every single one of Jaxx's clumsy blows. As Jaxx became more and more winded, Galaxor decided to end the match. Lifting his little finger, he very gently tapped Jaxx’s chest sending him flying.
The goblin skipped like a stone across the waters of the river, and then began sinking down into it as the goblins wailed in dismay, and the Daffotales chattered, relaying this tale all along the river bank.
Then after a moment the goblin suddenly re-surfaced, and seemed to be standing atop the water. In actuality he was standing atop the back of a sea-turtle-goblin that had bailed him out, stoking its inner fire of helpfulness in the process, but only those close to him could see that. To the others it appeared to be a miracle. .
The goblins around were amazed, letting out cheers for Jaxx and Galaxor for saving Jaxx. Even if Jaxx lost the fight, he had the guts to do it and in Galaxor's eyes it was enough.
"Good fight, little one. You haven't backed down for 1 second! Very impressive but you lack a lot of skills. Like, a lot, a lot. You definitely need to train more but I guess you've earned something from me. First of all, here. " shouted Galaxor as he waved his hand and taught Jaxx the language of the Goblins. Nothing requiring even a smidgen of divine power, just a simple download of information.
But Jaxx wasn't done. He jumped from atop the turtle back on the shore and screamed at the top of his lungs:
"I'm not done! For what you've made me to, I'll take you down! No matter what!"
Galaxor lifted an eyebrow at him and let out a laugh that shook the ground and pinned down the goblins that were closer to him.
"You want to fight, little Jaxx? Very well. No magic, no divine power, no tricks. " said Galaxor when he finally managed to stop laughing.
At that, Galaxor's form shrunk and changed to match Jaxx’s. His muscles retracted, his aura diminished, everything that would scream "DIVINE!" was gone for a mortal at least.
Not that Jaxx cared, he started throwing blows at Galaxor. One by one, they'd be defected and he'd be hit back with the exact same strength that Jaxx put behind them. It was clear for everyone around that Galaxor, even reducing his powers to a mere mortal, would be the winner.
"It isn't about divine power. This is only pure skill. I'm using the same strength that he does, same speed, everything is mortal levels. Everything but my experience and skill. I've trained longer and I became stronger than anyone else. Even when I was a mortal I worked my way up and now I'm a God and so can you…if you train hard enough. I give you my word as a divine being. " said Galaxor while fighting without any interruption. For him this was nothing more than friendly sparring but for Jaxx…Jaxx took it more seriously. One could clearly see that Jaxx was giving it his all and that he was slowly improving as he was fighting.
For less than a nanosecond, Galaxor became distracted and felt something. But it was enough for Jaxx to strike him with a glancing blow. Closer than any other hit before. One could see Jaxx's pride when he managed to touch the God of Heroes and then the pain in his body, as Galaxor shook his head at Jaxx's pride that had no skill to match it.
"Very well. " it's all that Galaxor said. His Heroic Aspect awakened. The goblins around cowered in fear as every survival instinct they had screamed RUN. Even Jaxx, in his hatred, noticed it.
Galaxor caught both of Jaxx's arms and broke them and as Jaxx screamed, Galaxor lifted Jaxx in the air by the throat, looked him square in the eyes and uttered one word. "Yield."
But Jaxx didn't, instead closing to strike at Galaxor with his feet. Kick, kick, kick…kic…ki…k…… "Yield. "
To the right, in the distance, sand exploded into the air in a line travelling along the outskirts of the river land, only for the twin showers of sand to turn into one blast as whatever was kicking it all up pulled a sharp turn straight towards them. The source, a wheel, came flying through the air, landing in the clearing the god and mortal had been fighting in, before it began to rapidly circle them.
As the wheel spun donuts around the pair, the pointy hatted goblin running like a madwoman inside the wheel pointed a finger at Galaxor and demanded he “put the guy down right now, miser!”
The Heroic Aspect of Galaxor didn't care about the sand exploding, nor the shockwave it made. For THA Galaxor, it was background noise.
He felt the divine essence around him and spared the divine a glance with one eye before returning to Jaxx.
"Yield. Now. " he said once more.
To which Jaxx eventually nodded and uttered a weak "yield…"
The moment the words were uttered, Jaxx’s arms and bruises healed but he fell unconscious on the ground.
Returning to his usual self, Galaxor turned to the other divine and offered her a bow as he returned to his size, his muscles bulging, smile wide and mesmerising.
"Ha! Ha! HA!! Greetings O Muse of mine. I thought I felt you earlier. Let me introduce myself, I am Galaxor! The God Of Heroes, The Hero Maker, Divine Artisan of Heroes, Celestial Forger of Legendary Champions, Master of Heroic Destinies, Architect of Heroism and Valor, Weaver of Epic Tales, Cosmic Mentor of Heroic Prodigies, The Legendary Enabler of Greatness, Creator of Champions, The Mythweaver, The Cosmic Patron of Heroic Aspirations, The Celestial Architect of Legendary Deeds" and this was a duel, no harm done. "
“Jeez that’s quite a mouthful” the small goblin goddess said, still spinning around, before deciding “I’ma call you Gax instead” before furrowing her brow furrowed as she rolled her mind back to the start of his words and repeated “muse?” right before shifting form.
Galaxor put a hand on his chest as if struck in the heart. "Gax? No, no, no! Gaxi. That's what maidens would call me. " said Galaxor before laughing it off.
He turned towards the goblins as Asheel told him off and looked at them inquisitively before turning back to Asheel.
"Yes, Muse. We haven't been properly introduced but I needed inspiration for my goblins and I gazed upon your form, one of them at least. I think it was…the youngest one and you’ve reminded me of something I forgot, a different life from before I raised myself to become the God of Heroes. I knew right then and there, I had to do something ‘lest I forget that memory again and I gave life to the goblins, all shaped like you with a bit of a personal spin. ”
“Gaxi huh? Call me a Maiden then because that’s a cute name” the goblin said with a mischievous grin, only to be cut off by and with a “No!”
In the blink of an eye, the wheel was replaced by a crystal sphere that slid to a halt, from within which a middle aged goblin woman, also wearing a pointy hat, glowered at him.
“We are Asheel, and you? You have something to answer for!” she declared from within her spherical chariot, before flicking a hand and causing sand swept skulls to spill out of the entrance of the orb to pile between them. “You really think I'll believe you’d do no harm when this is the care you have for your creations. Cast into the desert to die?! Created to suffer and perish if not for my helping hand?”
“I’ve got to answer? I don’t answer to anyone, my muse but I’ll set your record straight. I wouldn’t purposely kill any of my creations in a duel unless they’d agree with it. Any of the goblins around will agree to the fact that I’ve met Jaxx in battle as a mortal, not a divine being. I haven’t used anything divine. Just my skill. How else would he learn? How else would a hero grow to be a hero if not met with a stronger foe than they are? Jaxx here choosed the best foe he could, myself. His creator. If he wishes to defeat me, he’ll have to train and train until he becomes stronger than me…as for the others? Cast into the desert to die? What do you mean? Jaxx here was able to survive even without your help. He fought his fear and met the crystal creature, he knew he stood no chance against it…so, he befriended it. Quite…heroic I’d say. All the other ones could’ve done that. Any hero worth their salt will tell you that without struggle, they would’ve never become a true hero. The strong would’ve survived anywhere I would’ve thrown them, even in the ocean if they had the drive to do it. Also, they weren’t all in the desert. I threw them everywhere on the planet. If too many of them would’ve died, I would’ve saved them myself. Yet…I didn’t. That was by design, not a flaw. ” said Galaxor, his voice weirdly calm. Collected.
“Rather neatly leaving out the part where I pulled him out of the desert I see” the goblin noted “If you were the only god, he would still be dead, perseverance or no”
“Is this what passes for gods beyond the cycle?“ she then asked, before listing off his failings with the tone of a disappointed mother “Deceitful, irresponsibly from passing the care of your creations off on to others, and a complete lack of foresight when it comes to seeing the consequences of your actions. Given you’re not the only one to dump mortals in the desert it seems so” and then shaking her head at this sad state of affairs.
Galaxor looked hurt initially before shaking his head. “Maybe, just maybe you’ve got a point. I should thank you for saving the ones that would’ve died. The struggle they went through will forge them into greater heroes. ” replied Galaxor, suddenly calmer than before, all while bowing slightly to the goblin god.
“And yes, you’ve pulled Jaxx out of the desert but I’m sure you’ve seen that he wasn’t far from habitable lands. Lands which needed a hero to be. But I think I can see your point. To a degree. You don’t grasp the concept of heroism, out of no fault of your own. I’m sure I don’t understand your cycle any better. To make up for it, if you wish to guide the goblins here to the underground, they’ll have everything they need. Food, a leader our their own kind, shelter, protection from the elements and knowledge. ”
“Don’t mind her, she just doesn’t know how to let go” Asheel’s third form took over to say, the old goblin leaning casually on her spiky wheeled vehicle, before adding “Everything has to end, even your foolishness”
“And that just means something new can begin. It’s not like they're gone after all” the Maker who had named herself Maiden added, before pointing at a skull in the pile and then at a 3 day old goblin one in the arms of his mother and saying “see he’s over there now. Same soul, new turn of the cycle”
“And yet what a waste of the first” The Maintainer broke back in again to say “What can he learn from his past life? Nothing other than what it feels like to die of dehydration”
“He knows it can always be worse, and that we have made sure that death is nothing to fear” the Breaker insisted, before the Maiden quietly pointed out that “Or will. We still need to teach them how to actually get in touch with the past”
“This … is getting off topic” the Maintainer insisted, before getting back to the point “you want to take them underground? Why? Is this river not a lovely thing? A perfect place for living”
“Well it is getting a bit overcrowded,” one of the Daffotales interjected, before asking “What? It is!” When every creature with green skin looked at it with frank amazement that it had enough ego to butt into a conversation between gods.
“It does… have a point” the Maintainer admitted “The beastfolk someone else also dumped everywhere have doubled the population and some of them are a bit … rowdy”
“So tell me more about this underground” she conceded, before adding caveats “is it safe? Is there space, food and water enough for all the goblins you would invite there? Is there adequate transportation in and out of this underground?” not at all trusting him to have thought this through.
Galaxor took a seat as the 3 aspects of the divine discussed between themselves. He summoned something in his right hand and eat with his left, from time to time. That something was invisible to the mortals.
"Beast folk? Is that what I saw down the river? Those sound interesting, must pay'em a visit but that's for later. But how are they rowdy? Have they attacked anyone? Killed goblins? If so…I think we have a task for Mr. Jaxx here. Anyways. Now. What was that? Underground. It's very safe, hidden from view, deep underground. Last I went there, they slowly started to dig upwards. I've created them an artefact that provides them air, one that gives them food and one that holds knowledge. They bring things to it and it shows them different usages of what they've brought it. Think of it like a recipe book. Transportation to the surface is, as I said, in progress by the goblins themselves. Again, this is by design. Above them, stands the Khodex and that big tree. If these goblins leave here now, they'll reach the underground exactly when the surface will be reached. Unless you're going to offer them a lift, of course. " said Galaxor, the jumble of words coming out of his mouth.
“Oh yeah, there’s some bad seeds among them for sure-” the Daffotale once again spoke up to reply to the question regarding the beastfolk “-and among the goblins too, sure, but the most bestial of the beast folk ones are way more capable of being a nuisance, if what I’ve been told is true. I heard of this one that’s called ‘Maw Who Slew In Salvation.’ Spooky title right? And then there’s the Fisher King, The Talons which Crave Prey, Birbarus the Dreadful, The Stalker of Scale and Tooth, Death Roller and-”
At that point the goblin goddess started to speak over the plant to summarise that “Yes, It seems there are a number of folk who have learned rather … poor lessons from the desert. To sadly be expected when the only edible thing around is other people”
“She wanted to handle each and every one of them herself, the coddler” the Breaker mocked the Maintainer's apparent position on that matter, before stating “but there’s power to be gained from breaking an impactful pattern like the regular spilling of blood, and the mortals deserve to claim that for themselves”
“And power in forming one too” the Maiden agreed “like a string of heroic victories against the odds! That sounds like a cool one”
“Yes, well, helping the mortals help themselves would be a boon to them I’m sure, should they wish to receive it” the Maintainer conceded, only to push back against his cave idea by pointing out a few flaws “as for your little cave, well I’m quite concerned by the apparent singular points of failure it has. A single artefact breaking, being stolen, or what have you, and the whole place turns into a death trap”
The Breaker shrugged at this fate, but the Maiden was interested, saying that “Well maybe we can make it more self sustaining? Add some cycles down there that can keep themselves running? You’d need some kinda power source like the sun. Only better than the sun, coz it's kinda a single point of failure too right? Same with the source of this river”
“I suppose” the Maintainer conceded again, before getting down to the crux of the issue, namly “you’ll have a hard time convincing them to go with you however, given your previous performance” she gestured to the pile of skulls that was still sitting between them, a reminder of both god’s position in the goblin’s eyes. Perhaps she should have not been quite so confident in her own higher standing in their eyes however, given the Daffotale was still listing off the nicknames of infamous beastfolk that she had delivered into their midst.
Galaxor only laughed as the three Asheels talked between themselves and to him.
“Let’s split your bits, shall we? First of all. Heroic victories is what I’m all about. Victory against all odds. That’s what Jaxx here was trying to achieve after all. Defeat me in single combat because I dropped him into the desert and he had to survive…by any means necessary. If these beastfolk cause issues, I’m sure Jaxx here will rise to the task and he’ll even get a boon from me if he does…to help me in his journey. ” said Galaxor as he raised 1 finger in the air.
“Second of all. There is no chance of failure. I’ve got something hidden in there as well. If something would happen, I’d know and I’ve got a plan for their food…soon. Just need to gather some more power to do so. You could say…I’m in the process of learning some new things. As for a power source, they’ve got magma, lots of it. Go and see if you don’t believe me. As soon as they learn how to use it, they’ll be very well off. ” as he raised another finger in the air.
“And last but not the least, I don’t need to convince anyone to do anything. They can do however they wish. They can stay here, go to the place where the Goblin Queen will rise from or they can go to the goblin states in the south east. It’s absolutely up to them. They can do whatever they want. It’ll be a journey either way. Here they’ll have to face the beastfolk, in the goblin states they’ll have to fight each other and the Goblin Underground? They’ll have to face Maxima. No matter what they choose, it’ll be a heroic journey. The weakest of them will either die or become strong. The strongest of them will become stronger, heroic. ”
“The little dears can’t exactly choose travel somewhere that isn’t accessible yet now can they?” the Breaker sardonically pointed out before the Maiden was more fixated on the fact that “The world was full of spinning hot goop?” which she thought was “So cool!” after which the Maintainer got back on topic and said “And even for these ‘goblin states’, whatever they are, it's quite a trek I imagine, especially for those further away from the sea”
“Oh, we’ve heard some stuff about them coming along the grapevine. They have this metal called copper they get by melting rocks! Neat isn’t it?” The fearless Daffotale broke off its recounting of the world's many villains to interject again, this time about tales that had come up from where the rivers flowed into the goblin states.
“That’s lovely dear” the Maintainer said dismissively before pausing and then actually addressing the flowers ”wait, what else do they have? Something to help people travel long distances perhaps?” to which the plant replied “yeah! They have these little things called boat for travelling on rivers”
“Fascinating” the Maintainer replied, before turning back to Galaxor and saying “Well that might solve that problem, if you give them some time to interrogate the flowers for all this information they’ve apparently been picking up. Enough time for these diggers to breach the surface I suppose”
“You’re misunderstanding me, I think. They can choose to travel to the Goblin Underground and by the time they reach it they will have reached the surface. How they get that isn’t my problem. They can find ways for themselves. For example, as your flowers have noticed, others have invented boats to travel up and down the river. If one is persistent enough, any problem that comes their way will be resolved. Creative thinking, strength of will, the power of their internal cycle if you want to call it like that. It is up to them. They’re free to do whatever they want, that’s why I created them after all. Heroes will rise wherever they are good, bad or somewhere in the middle or they can choose to stay here and do what they’re doing. They can do whatever they can and want. I threw them all over Galbar, a thing that I can understand that might’ve caused them pain, so that they’re everywhere and do something with this world. Others have created slaves tied only to their worship or to follow their commands or creatures with a specific purpose in mind. I didn’t. But, feel free to see for yourself. Come to the underground, see how the other goblins live. We can go as soon as I give Jaxx here, a gift for having the guts to face me in battle. ”
“You have been rather talking around each other, so how about we break that cycle and move on dearies” the Breaker suggested, to which the Maiden agreed “Yeah, I wanna see new stuff”
“Fine fine, gift away” the Maintainer conceded with a wave of her hand, before being replaced by the Breaker who cackled and joked that “she’s sulking”
“HA! HA! HA! You figured out what I was doing! HA! HA! Well played, Maintainer of the Breaking Maidens. Very well. Jaxx! Wake up! ” laughed Galaxor with a hand on his belly before turning to Jaxx, who stood up almost immediately. Something inside him stirred as his creator spoke to him.
Jaxx stood up and while initially prepared a punch to throw at Galaxor, stopped when he realised he wasn’t alone this time. The other divine. The goblin divine. She was present too. He stopped his plan and turned towards the lady.
“My saviour. I thank you for saving my life. ” said Jaxx with as much courtesy he could muster.
“You’ve got the wrong one of us deary” the Breaker, replied, before telling Jaxx that “You’ll have to wait till she’s not in a huff to tell her that yourself, looks like”
“Now, now. Jaxx, I understand you wish to defeat me. It’s a fine goal and one couldn’t find a better enemy but you’ve got to train a long time to reach my level and you’ll need to go many quests. You’re angry at me because you had to kill your tribe to survive, well, now there are others that are killing goblins. Many, many goblins and not because they don’t have any choice. I offer you this deal. Go on this quest, save your fellow goblins and if you win, I’ll offer you a rematch on equal footing. ”
Conflicted initially, Jaxx eventually nodded. He wished to save his kin and he wished to kill Galaxor and if doing quests for him are the only way for that to happen, then that’s what he’ll do.
“I agree to your terms. I shall save my kin and we will have our rematch. It’ll be to your death. ”
Galaxor laughed at the sudden seriosity of Jaxx then turned serious himself too. His aura blaring with power, pushing the goblins around to the ground, pinning them there.
“Ok. Sounds like a challenge. ” the Heroic Aspect of Galaxor said before the aura was reduced in size and the cheerful Galaxor “came” back.
“I shall offer you two blessings to help you in your quest. Be smart and use them. First, you’ll receive the hero's senses. They will act as an early danger system. If something’s coming your way, you’ll know about it a few seconds before.
You will, as well, receive the ability to sense if others that are part of your quest are near to you and their general direction. Use it to guide you wherever you need to go. These two are not making you a true hero. You’ll earn that yourself. ” said Galaxor as a wisp of divine power flew from him to Jaxx. As the wisp connected to Jaxx, his eyes turned a bright yellow. Soon he’d find out that his eyes will never change colours again, they’ll always be bright yellow and they’ll always shine in the dark.
Afterwards, Jaxx gathered whatever weapon he could find and went where his senses told him. Somehow he knew just where to go.
“Apologies it took so long, Maintainer of the Breaking Maidens. Business is concluded. Let us go. Permit me to teleport us. ” said Galaxor as he teleported both of them to the goblin underground.
“You really have an endless amount of breath, don’t you deary. Asheel will do just fine” the Breaker told him (not that it helped), before letting the Maiden take over again so she could get a look at all the new things there were to see down here.
While not much time passed since he was there last, it already looked different than before. There were many different stone tablets with information they gathered from the Smilegma written down, goblins were walking in every direction trying to write as much as they could about their closed-up world. Some were mining and talking with a goblin which wrote everything they could about the miners and their techniques. There was a very audible murmur of voices, of knowledge being shared all around the cave. Different types of furniture could be seen in the cave and clear delimited areas with built walls were made in the cave. It started to look more like a city than a cave.
As soon as the two divines appeared, it seemed like the whole cave just stopped. Maxima quickly stood up from her chair, goblins making her space to approach the two divines.
“Greeting creator and divine guest. We are greatly honoured to receive you in our home! Creator, we’ve followed your indication and have started learning new things, everything we know is being written down and the tablets have been stored into a newly dug out room. Smilegma called it a “library design”. We’ve stored everything there neatly on shelves. Progress is slow going more down unfortunately, the rocks seem harder to break than before and the tools of our miners are breaking faster than we can repair them. ” said Maxima with a bow.
“Thank you, Maxima. You’re following up on my plans, you’re learning more things. I appreciate it. Well, Maintainer of the Breaking Maidens. This is the Goblin Underground and that’s Maxima. The Queen. ”
“Super neat place you’ve got down here Gaxi” The Maiden, who had stepped out of her wheel and darted out to read the entirety of the library in the time it had taken for Maxima to give her status update, and particularly fixating on one rather new discovery that she found very funny as she read the tale bout them.
“ooo and glowing ‘spooky’ rocks. I want some!” she declared before in a flash she had returned to her wheel, sped off, and then returned with one which she looked rather more contemplative than entertained. She eyed the glowing rock. Polished it on her dress.Then bite it lightly.
“Hmmm. Tough. Super tough” she noted, before biting clean through it and then examining the two halves, the exposed cores of which revealed the entire thing to be a luminous diamond of some kind “buuuuut also kinda easy to cut. I mean not for you lot with the tech you got, but still. Hmmm”
She then proceeded to ‘peel’ one half of the diamond like an onion using her teeth, cutting it until she had fully exposed its shimmering centre. She examined her work for a moment, before sticking it into her mouth again, and chomping away. As she did she moved over to the goblin’s primitive copper forge, and made herself a disk of heated metal. She stuck the rim into her mouth as well, and began affixing a series of razor sharp thin slices of diamond onto the outside, till she had formed a circular saw with a diamond blade.
“And there, all done” she declared as she spun the saw around on one finger, before approaching the other uncut half of the diamond and telling them to “now watch this” before using her new saw to first cut that diamond, and then split it into more blade fragments.
“And just like that, you can make more of these without my help, and a bunch of other stuff with diamond tips too. Like drills. Trust me you wanna make those, it'll be great” she told them as she set down the blade next to the shards, and then gestured to offer both to the queen.
Galaxor continued talking with Maxima about what other events happened since he was last there, learning about Tunni and Ralk, the new tribe that joined and brought glowing diamonds with them. Lots of events.
Nonetheless, as he talked with Maxima, his senses were trained on Asheel. He noticed how she left to go to the library and potentially read everything inside and then she brought with her…the glowing diamond. Galaxor excused himself from Maxima and watched with great interest what Asheel was making.
A blade. A saw. Knowledge of tools above any others created in this world. Now that was interesting. Galaxor quietly motioned to Maxima to take the blade and the shards which she did, slowly, carefully and still managed to cut herself slightly.
“My, my. You’ve sure evolved my goblins quite a lot with diamond technology. This will propel their civilization a lot forward. Especially with the Smilegma now having access to diamonds and unlocking new technologies for them. Maintainer of Breaking Maiden, if I’m not mistaken, I’d say you like my people and…maybe changed your mind about this place, am I correct? ” said Galaxor with a laugh and a large smile.
“You know, I owe you a favour now. Tell me, what do you wish for? Maybe a hero? Someone to spread your ways? I’d take that, trust me, my heroes…they’re a bit different than your usual hero. Or maybe you require an upgrade to your wheel. ”
“Hey now I was always a fan” the Maiden insisted, before pointing out that “I mean you already gave me a hero to root for buuuuuut if you still wanna trick out my ride I ain’t gonna say no now am I?” the little goblin replied, stepping out of her wheel and gesturing to it “so tell, me, what did ya have in mind?”
“Do the others agree with the pimping of your ride? I’m more than happy to leave it as a favour for later but if they don’t have any issue…Do you wish your ride to sense danger to mortals, seeing that you like saving them? Maybe you want it to be able to inspire mortals to do heroic acts if they’re in the vicinity or maybe…I’ll leave you Jaxx. How does that sound? I’ll forever remove him from my plans. I still promised him a fight if he manages to save those goblins but after that, I’ll leave him alone forever. How does that sound? ”
“Deal” the Maintainer popped back in to accept that final offer, before leaving again almost immediately, being briefly replaced by a cackling Breaker who was very amused by that theft, and then finally cycling back to the Maiden again who threw her arms up in frustration, before sighing and huffy also agreeing to that with a “fine”
"Perfect! He's all yours. Make sure to let him know next time you meet him. Ha! HA! Haha! He'll hate me SO much more! He'll be a worthy adversary. I'm sure! Now, ladies, I think it's time for me to leave. The Goblin Underground has a lot of work to do ahead of them and not sure if you've noticed…but they're all staring at us. Godly presence and all that.
So, I wish you goodbye and thank you. It was truly a pleasure! " said Galaxor, turning on his charm and winking at, hopefully, the Maiden.
The Maiden was indeed there to be winked at, and she flushed just a little as a result, before nodding and swiftly agreeing “right up gotta be off things to do adventures to watch! See ya!” before hopping back into her wheel and spinning it around on the spot before vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Galaxor goes to visit the river lands, and runs into Jaxx. The little goblin tries to fight his creator but is naturally no match. Asheel shows up to try and put a stop to this one sided bout, but the god was merely humouring Jaxx and lets the defeated goblin go.
Asheel’s Maker personality is then rather crucial of Galaxor, what with her having had to save many of his creations from death by desert. The stone wall of personality that is Galaxor takes this all in his stride, and eventually convinces Jaxx to go after various fullblood beast folk trouble makers, and Asheel to come assist the goblins he has in his cave.
During this talk a Daffoflower keeps interjecting, and in doing so reveals them to be quite the convenient information transmission network, informing the riverfolk both of the goblin city state’s technology, and of the aforementioned trouble makers.
Then the Maker, now going by the Maiden due to some earlier flirting, goes with Galaxor to the underground. She snoops a bunch to learn about all the new things they are doing, finds the glowing rocks from the quest post after reading the goblin’s rendition of the tale, and discovers they are actually glowing diamonds. She turns one into a diamond edged saw blade, and then demonstrates how they can use it to make other diamond edged tools, including, importantly, additional sawblades.
Galaxor offers the Maiden a boon for this gift, but the Maintainer swoops in and steals said boon, getting the god to promise to stop harassing poor Jaxx.
Then they both go their separate ways.
Galaxor Available MP - 2 -1 MP + 1MP domain boost: Blessed Jaxx with the hero sense, Jaxx will now have a few seconds of "danger sense" before being attacked or so (Think Spiderman) + blessed Jaxx with the heroic questing sense, he'll know the general direction when people are in danger and can follow it to reach them. End MP - 1 Asheel Available MP - 5 1 mp, boosted by wheel, to make a diamond tipped copper saw blade (1), and to then teach the goblins of the underground how to make more diamond tools using that blade, most importantly including additional blades (bonus) End MP - 4
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway)
The conversation rolled back and forth between the group, and while they grasped at several threads there was little that was conclusive. They knew who had killed the person impersonating Lili’s father, and that they had stolen something of import, but no idea why or what it was that they had been espionage about, or where the culprit had run off to. They knew the name of some fresh faction, but not really what their aims and objectives where, other than control over the city (again).
If there was one place that might have answers however, it was apparently Arahabaki, the brain of the city not just in terms of control but also memory. Given that they needed to go past it anyway to get to the guardian, it was an obvious choice for their next destination. Her suggestion on how to get there hadn’t quite been to steal cars, but she admitted that that was more subtle to use the hatchbacks than using the open topped machines she had in storage. Then there was the matter of the suggestion about a portal.
”I can put one down there, yes, but this bunker you’ll be in is a bit of a ways away from any of the other openings I have at the moment” she agreed with a caveat after thinking about it, before filling them in about the 5 she had, which were all rather awkwardly clustered around Seiran and the City of glass, baring the S.O.U. Building, before shrugging and conceding that ”It all depends how urgent getting back down turns out to be” as to whether not being close to one would be a problem or not.
It wasn’t as if they where in any shape to actually hit the Guardian right now, tired and split up as they were, so unless they were forced to go back tonight, Minda was more than happy to wait till the time was right.
The time for getting down there the first time however was right right now, and so rather than burn any more time, once they were somewhat rested, not to mention watered and fed, which the princess made sure to do once she’d had her fill of conversation, they got going.
A short ride later, and then a bit of a walk, and they were at their first hurdle, namely the front door of the imposing monument to ego that was the Shinra building. The front was crawling with human soldiers, though interestingly those in light and dark hues did not seem to like each other very much. Midna wondered who they actually served for a moment, before putting that aside and focusing on getting past.
Fortunately for her, that wasn’t much of an issue. The roving searchlights were a risk, certainly, but as long as she was not in a shadow when they banished it she’d be fine, and could just skip right past them. Ironically whatever advanced tech was letting the troops themselves operate without personal light sources like flashlights removed any erratic light sources that could have thrown her off. So the predictable sweeps were the only issues she faced.
As a result of this relative ease of infiltration, the princess was more or less on hand to assist the others however she could, be it minor distractions via knocking on/tossing objects or simply providing information/a look out. Better to have your shadow check round a corner for a guard than risk being spotted doing it yourself after all.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
Though there were a few close calls, both from the Caretaker’s own attacks and each other’s, the team made rather swift work of the first phase, popping shut the vents, and popping open the eyes. At this stage Jr’s tractor tank really shone, as he drifted his heavy vehicle around to the right side and then got to unload the triple cannon right into the big glowing weak spot.
Rather than try and keep up, Rika and Bowser ended up mainly radioing in which eye was open whenever one closed, giving the prince all the info he needed to bring the pain.
With how (relatively) painless the first phase had been it was somewhat unsurprising that things really started to ramp up from there. Swarms of bots were their first issue, but the Troop had faced these before, and knew how they worked. Between Rika’s electro swarms and Bowser’s fire breath the shredders didn’t stand a chance, while the patrol bots were a bit tougher due to their narrow bodies, and so Rika ended up using all of her rifle ammo as part of trying to pick them off.
The turrets should have been threatening, but being stationary targets made them incredibly vulnerable to Bowser’s slow moving but heavy hitting fireballs. Indeed the only reason why a turret wouldn't get destroyed by the great balls of fire would be because someone else blasted them before the slow moving shots arrived
Those were threats they could handle. The phase bombs? Not so much.
”Huh, what’s it doing now?” was Bowser’s first question. His second was ”Huh what’s that noise behind me?”. His third was demanding to know ”HOW IS THAT FAIR?!” after being exploded for the first time.
He wasn’t really in any state to ask any more questions after the second destination, which was why he was ever so glad when Jr pulled up next to him and radioed in for him to ”Grab on Pap!”. The king did so as best he could, magically reducing his own size as much as he could to reduce the load he’d put on it, before the metal attacker revved its tractor tires and rumbled away, keeping on the move well enough that the bombs weren't a threat any more.
Of course, Jr couldn't exactly line up a shot while zooming around, but Bowser could, the King launching fireballs, shells, and spike missiles from the back his new ride as they raced around the cavern double dash style, though his self inflicted size down greatly reduced the power of these attacks.
Rika meanwhile had a much more straightforward solution, and it was, as it often was since she got it, her ”grappling hook!” That was what the ship girl called out as she shot it at Overhard while stabbing her spear into the ground with her other hand to use as an anchor point.
Her hook clutched onto the dwarf, and promptly dragged him away from his impending detonation and towards the spear anchored ship girl. ”It’s ok, I have you” she told him reassuringly, only for a shadow to loom over them as she tried to help him up.
”Shields!” she cried out to summon up two strikers, her knight and cloyster, which together blocked the striking tentacle arm, giving her enough time to get Overhard moving. She didn’t stop there however, summoning her ”Ichor Queen!” and ordering it to ”Execute that thing!”
The titanic Vespikan queen obliged at once, heaving her equally massive cleaver over head and then slamming it down onto the ‘neck’ of the arm, namely right where the claw ended and the limb began.
While it did that, the engineer and ship girl booked it, expecting more bombs, only for Nadia to deal enough damage to the caretaker to end its second phase, and, as a result, the phase bomb barrage.
”Oh, is it over?” Rika asked, and then when that seemed to be the case, declaring ”Good. Those things were the worst!”
It was a statement she made just in time for things to get, well, worse. But then also better. First a swarm of metal (instead of the usual chitin) came their way, which would have been about the same kind of threat as the glyphids were it not for the minigun walkers among them.
Well, that and the fact that the bombs had scattered them all over, and left them unable to take a moment to resupply on resources, be it health for Bowser, or Sp and ammo for Rika.
Fortunately the latter problem was suddenly alleviated by the appearance of a second Metal attacker, this one piloted by a potted plant and a rabbit rather than infectious growths, who used some combination of plants to make things funky.
As the Wonder effect took place, Jr was one of the first to notice the effect that would solve the ammo issue, as the dials on his own metal attacker’s empty rocket supply suddenly display a single rocket in stock instead of none.
”Huh, just one? Weak but i’ll take it” he commented before thumbing the trigger and blasting a hotrod before it could blast someone in turn- only for the ammo counter to not go down. A moment later Jr shouted in everyone’s ear ”infinite ammo! We’ve got infinite ammo cheats! Let it fly, blast em all! at the same time as the metal attacker started vomiting rockets out the back which flew up and then crashed down into his foes indiscriminately, the prince simply holding the fire button down and letting the machine auto target his foes.
Rika also massively benefited from this. Having also spent all her strikers (she’d used the war cleric to heal Overhard), she’d been down to just her spear and gauntlets vs the very heavily armored targets, and it had not been going well. Now she simply held down the triggers, rifle blazing bullets at whatever distant targets she pleased while her grizco blaster splattered anything that got near, repeatedly going into all out assault mode and unleashing rapid fire triple shot doom without any fear of it running dry like it had in the last fight. She also got use of her rather situational torpedo bays, jumping over bore holes and dropping the explosive charges inside to collapse them with timed detonations.
Things got even better when happened to step on one of the flowers that had showered down, which caused her to regenerate SP, and let her start adding her rigging guns and electro swarms to the mix. However the person who really benefited from those flowers did so when Jr’s metal attacker ran over one of said plants.
”Do that again, if you could young master, I just got a mana boost!” Kamek told his jr chauffeur, and the prince had little problem obliging, power sliding over a few more as he rained down hell.
Soon enough the Mage was back in the game, and together all three riders (Bowser was still holding on) came up with a quick plan. The tank was suddenly enveloped in a shimmering shield that protected it from the bot swarms physical attacks, and then skidded to a halt as the hatch popped open, and Kamek wooshed out of it. Right after he did, Bowser leapt down off of the back and into view of his son, who cast ”Benediction!” on him to fully heal his dad in an instant.
The moment after he was cured of all wounds, the King slapped the hatch shut, and the tank sped away to continue its rocket rampage. Now fully healed and sporting fresh vines to boot, the King charged into the fray under his own power, re-enlarging himself as he rampaged forwards on all fours, firing off unlimited spike missiles from his back as he smashed into the robot ranks. With his new tusks he sent several of them flying right into that barrage, while his vine tendrils lashed out, zapping foes that did not get trampled or gored in is charge. Naturally they struck back, but with the way he tore through them, his new vampire charm kept restoring his hp, and causing fresh waves of vines to sprout from his back to boot.
Up above an energized Kamek called out ”here’s a little something I cooked up while you were fighting,” as he chanel his power, forming a magic circle just over his shoulder, which then unleashed a shower of cosmic rays. The multicolored beam spread out as they flew, striking a several meter wide area on the opposite side of the battlefield, engulfing a swarm of bots in its blast zone. Then the beam swept to the side, gradually wiping clean an area as it fried anything that failed to get out of the way.
Magical beams (Cia/Tigran Sorceress): Kamek can form floating magic circles that, after a brief charge, fire out an energy beam at a targeted location for a few seconds. He has two options for this.
The first is to create up to 4 small ones that only have a 10 meter range but can be individually targeted at their own foe/location. Should these dark purple streams cross they will cause an explosion at the point of overlap and then fizzle out. Deals dark magic damage.
The other is to form a single large magic circle and from it to unleash a cosmic spray: a wide multi-coloured beam of cosmic energies that deals an equal mix of physical, blight, frost, fire, light/holy and electric damage to anyone struck by part of the spray. The cosmic particles spread out as they fly, starting as a 1 meter beam that increases in diameter by an additional meter for every 5 traveled. The damage potential of the beam spreads out as the partials do.
Once firing, the beams can only be adjusted by making slow sweeping movements and they are, naturally, rather mana intensive to keep running.
It took a lot of mana to unleash that devastation, but all Kamek had to do once he was spent was swoop through the skies to catch falling flowers to regenerate his supplies. Doing so brought him close to one of the entrance holes still spilling out bots. To deal with that he formed 4 smaller circles, all of which fired out lasers that converged somewhere within the tunnel, causing an explosion at that point which collapsed it atop an unfortunate Smallfry.
While this all helped keep down the bot population, it wasn’t really doing anything to the caretaker itself. Fortunately, they did have a plan, and part of their splitting up and cutting down bots was met to cut through bots as well. Under Jr’s directions the troop spread out to the 4 corners of the cave, and then radioed in that they were ready.
Once they where, Bowser reached into his pocket, pulled out a C-Foam Tripmine and tossed it like a discus, masterfully aiming his throw so that it landed directly under the caretaker, at which point Rika sniped it with a rifle round, setting it off. The mine detonated, filling the area around, and above it with globules of freezing, weblike C-Foam that engulfed the caretaker and brought it to a complete stop.
”Take it down!” Jr commanded when the inverted pyramid paused, and on cue the 4 troop members each targeted a vent with as much firepower as they could muster.
The prince’s own metal attacker unleashed a hail of cannon fire, along with a stream of missiles that pounded his vent, while around him his Primid and Chef Bro strikers used super scopes and hurled pans to add to their prince’s firepower.
Kamek got close and created another cosmic spray, the close range meaning it hit a much narrower area, namely that of the vent, allowing all of its multi element damage to be pumped right into that smaller target.
Rika fired everything she had, rifle, spear base cannons and rigging guns all blasting, while behind her her Vespikan Queen striker charged and then unleashed a lightning bolt over her head at their chosen vent.
Finally, Bowser had preemptively used shell smash to increase his offensive capabilities at the cost of his defensive ones, and now unleashed all his power, fury spike torpedoes, explosive shells and a flash cannon beam laser all blasting out while Marie Korbel unleashed a bombardment of skulls.
If that didn't bring the hurt to the caretaker, nothing would. That said, it also took all of them away from bot killing at once, along with anyone else who also took advantage of the situation, and so the 4 of them had to immediately switch back to that rather than being able to follow up on their icy assisted strike.
Rayne’s technique might have worked out on the smallfry, but unfortunately for her, that wasn’t close to the upper limit of what the Raven Heralds had in their ranks. In hindsight it rather made sense, who would send their most dangerous forces to chase after children after all.
In a similar vein, they didn’t send anything specific after Ryne either, which made her rethink her approach more. People were in danger, and was she really contributing? Not really. Not enough.
Someone might die due to her holding back, she realized as Sanae came under fire from a hail of magic. Not only that, but could she really even do anything about the armored figures guarding the ones attacking her without using more power?
Almost certainly not.
Thus a decision she despised was made, even if it one she knew the other Witches had had to make in the past, and so moved to help once more, steeling herself against what she had to do. The short woman blinked forwards to join Saria in standing (or rather in her case floating) ahead of Sanae, pausing just long enough to tell her “I’m with you” before blinking forwards to engage the foes between them and the mage who might well be the Herald’s leader.
At first she raised a hand, which shook slightly, and formed a floating glyph that looked a bit like a two pronged arrowhead with a hollow circular base. She focused the power of the link, forming a sphere of amber magic about the size of a bowling ball in the center of the glyph, which was then immediately launched forwards at her foe.
She missed her first shot due to the shaking.
In response she grabbed the wrist of her firing hand, breathed, and then fired again, and again, and again.
The bolts she shot lacked both range and fire rate, but they hit decently hard, even if, despite her new conviction, she wasn’t aiming for what she thought would be kill shots and was instead shooting for limbs, hands, anything that she thought would more likely maim than kill. Nomatter what she hit however, every few shots would cause a blue orb to pop off of the impact site, after which it would float in the air, ready to be collected.
Mana.
The source of most of her actual power.
If her foes had considered her a lesser target till then, her next actions might well change that.
Having been hovering out of melee range and shooting, interspersed with blinks to evade spells, the Knight Witch now lived up to the first half of her title, chain blinking forwards suddenly, and putting herself between two of the shining armored warriors. A hand flicked, briefly holding a spell card made from the memory of a mighty machine, and then suddenly two bright blue semi translucent spiked wrecking balls large as she was hammered out from either side of her. They raced forwards, smashing aside anything in their path before halting at the end of two chains that attached them to her.
A breath after reaching the ends of their tethers the spectral weapons vanished, and the Knight Witch darted towards the closest patch of floating mana orbs she had driven the armored warrior away from, before immediately using that mana to use the card she had just drawn. Rather than have an immediate effect, it instead meant that when Rayne next turned her glyph on something, be it mage or warrior, the magic bullet that formed was a vivid purple, and when it was unleashed is split into three, giving the Witch Knight a powerful spread shot.
Which was going to make not taking a life harder, if she hadn’t already done so with the shots or spikeballs.
There are goblins on the river side. Asheel made them a cool painting cave, then went back to finding goblins.
“What! Why! How! Why do the other gods keep doing this!?” the exasperated Maintainer threw up her hands and demanded to know, further scaring the assortment of humanoid creatures she had come across in the desert. Those that were not already boiling in their thick fur scattered into the desert, fleeing the furious goddess and causing her to snap out of her rage when she saw the consequences of it.
“No wait, come back! I didn’t mean to scare you! Please don’t run, you'll get hurt! You’ll die out there” she called after them desperately, and though some slowed, others just kept running.
Then all of them started running again when the motherly figure and her great crystal orb were replaced by a wizened form sat astride a machine of blades and death, one which immediately started cackling at the Maintainer's misfortune.
“EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE It never ends! It never ends! This is your curse, you stagnant goat! You care too much, and look where’s got you! Endless labor!” The Breaker mocked the third that had been keeping her from taking control, only for her to lose it as well just as soon as she had gotten it, and for the Maker to take over again.
Still, she was in agreement with her oldest self , complaining that “This is so booooooring! It’s time for something new! The cave was cool, let's go do more stuff like that!” only for the Maintainer to snap back in control.
“No! Someone has to do this, and that person has to be me!” she insisted, but the others were still having none of it
“Come on now dearie, we’ve been at this for ages. I think we deserve a break ehehehehe” the Breaker joked, while the Maker agreed with by saying “Yeah, let it be someone else’s problem!”
“No no no we have to- I have to …” the Maintainer insisted, before slowing in her speech, thinking for a moment and then realizing that “we can make it something else’s task” which got a “huh?” From the Breaker but an “ooooooh!” from the Maker before she clapped her hands and declared “one self sustaining solution coming right up!”
A nameless figure stumbled through the desert, fleeing from the strange shifting thing that was screaming at itself. The figure had no idea what it was, or who it was, all it knew was it had to run, to flee. Then, in its haste, it tripped.
It went tumbling down a sand dune, sand making an absolute mess of its shimmering black feathers as it fell, before its pointed beak got stuck in the sand. It struggled, grasped the ground with all four sets of talons and then heaved with all its might, freeing itself from the sand.
It shook itself, trying to get the grains out of its feathers and nostrils to little avail, before wondering if maybe it should have listened to whatever that screaming pointy headed creature was. This desert thing was not nice.
Then it heard a rumbling, and turned to find the source, only to see a massive wall of chitin coming straight at it. Or rather rolling, though the distinction was rather lost as it cried out in alarm and started to try and run again.
It was fruitless however, as all legs pale in comparison to the all mighty wheel.
The roly-poly of a woodlouse the size of a van bore down on the poor bird beast person, but rather than squish him it opened up its curled up body just enough that the gap rolled over its target, rather than its body. It didn’t leave its target behind however, and instead lots of little legs pulled the bird-person up into the center of its body.
The rather dizzy bird person only barely felt the bug stop spinning, and then was carefully inserted into some kind of translucent cylinder that the bug was wrapped around. As it was dropped in, the bird landed atop a creature who had long red hair, rounded ears, a moderate stature and with skin pale as the sands down to the waist, at which point the rest of its body was that of a red and black banded snake.
The two screamed at each other, struggled and scrambled to either side of the cylinder, from which they stared at each other for a few moments, both panting hard. They hadn’t come out of the struggle evenly however, and the now bleeding from claw wounds snake person shied away from the bird when it tried to communicate. So instead the bird sighed and looked away, only to gasp at what it saw.
Through the glass like exterior of the cylinder it could see the desert flying by as the bug that had captured them rotated around the glass, somehow keeping them completely level as it used its own body as a wheel. They were climbing an embankment of some kind, and from up there the bird could see more of them. So many more. A few were chasing after other humanoid creatures, but most were simply blazing forth into the desert, looking as if they might fill the world with their bodies.
Then their own bug turned, racing down the embankment and careening towards a half dozen green figures. They barely even tried to run, and soon enough they too had been scooped up and deposited inside the cylinder. The bird waved at them too, but the green things seemed too exhausted, dehydrated, or both too much else but lay there in defeat.
That was until they stopped rolling again a little while later, and a stream of little soft globs rained down atop them, stirring the goblins into wakefulness. One reached out a shaking hand and promptly shoved the foreign object into its mouth, chewing it with grim determination. Then it paused. Then its eyes lit up. It chewed barely enough to soften the orb up, swallowed, and then eagerly grabbed for another one, and then a third, before finally pausing its feasting, and passing the fourth to a fellow green thing.
Curious, the bird, who had left the goblin pile well alone after one weakly hissed at it when he’d poked them, reached for one of the orbs itself, only to have their hand slapped by the green thing who had eaten. Very weakly slapped.
The bird was shocked rather than hurt. Sat there for a few more moments, thinking, and then tried again. A hand tried to slap it away once more, but the bird was bigger and stronger and still full of the energy it had been created with, so it simply ignored the feeble attempt at violence and took what it wanted.
That rather set the tone for the rest of the journey. Having found that it could, the full blooded bird folk with its larger size, feathered armor, and sharp beak and talons came to dominate the other occupants, snake person included. It hoarded the lion’s share of the food orbs, leaving only a few for the others. They in turn stuck together, the snake joining the goblin tribe mainly because they had to share space with each other as the bird took over ⅔ of the chamber so it could control the food supply.
Then, out of the blue, the journey ended.
Sand was replaced by wetlands and, at their heart, a shimmering river of crystal blue waters that gave life to all around it.
The giant rolling bug promptly dumped them out onto the ground here, proceeded to devour several trees, and then rolled off into the desert again. It was not the only one to do so. Even as the people started around in wonderment, they saw other giant bugs rolling in to drop off people.
A lot of people.
Then all of a sudden all eyes went to the bird for a moment, then back to the open space before the goblins and snake-folk all collectively ran (or slithered) away from it, wanting to be as far away from the bully as possible.
It watched them go with disinterest, and though in time it would come to desire that power again, for now it instead approached the banks, and stared down into the waters, finally seeing its own face.
A thin beak, dark eyes, pointed ears and radiant black and dark blue feathers stared back at it, and then the kingfisher heeded the call of the waters, diving into their cool embrace. On instinct it snatched its head forwards, catching something in its beak, and then rising up to the water’s surface, wiggling juvenile carp in its beak.
The act of fishing fed some hunger it had not known it had had, bringing about a satisfaction that beat even that of the one brought by the taste of swallowing its catch.
Life, it decided, was good, and surely it had all been made for the king fisher’s benefit. Thus bloomed to fruition a deep seated ego, and only woe for those upon whom it was inflicted could follow.
The Maintainer freaks out again, this time about how there are a whole load more people stuck out in the desert now. The Breaker and Maker break back out again from under her control, mocking her and demanding they do something new respectively. They argue, and eventually Asheel realizes that she is a god, and can just, you know, make things to do this desert rescue job for her.
So she does.
Thus the roly-polies are born, giant woodlice the size of vans or small busses that can defy physics and roll around a central biocrystal axel they are able to make. These roly-polies then roll out, capturing goblins and beast folk alike, depositing them in the axles, and then transporting them to the riverside.
One such bug captures a kingfisher, a snake, and a bunch of goblins. While being transported the kingfisher becomes a petty tyrant thanks to its full blood physique giving it all sorts of advantages. Then when they arrive all the others run off rather than be stuck under its rule any more. It doesn’t really care though, and instead goes fishing, fueling its inner fire in the process.
Then we leave it as it fully develops a superiority complex that will likely have predictable consequences for the increasingly overcrowded riverbanks.
6mp start
1 mp to create roly-polies (and 2 bonus mp provided by wheels and cycles): these potentially massive woodlouse bugs move around by rolling around bio-crystal axles of their own creation. The largest ones can transport people inside their hollow axles, and keep them fed using unfertilized eggs, while the smaller ones have the potential to act as self powering wheels for all sorts of contraptions if tamed. Initially tasked with saving people trapped in the desert, the following generations will be unguided, though still naturally dispositioned towards being helpful.
Asheel freaked out about sloth dying, made a triple form monowheel bike, zoomed about, found some goblins and then her Maintainer/Mother personality took the wheel to transport those goblins, and a load of other ones, to the new mega river that circles the world
It was quite the picturesque scene: goblins, recently saved from the desert, danced and played along the riverbanks they had been brought to, saved by its sweet hydration and lush plant life that covered its banks.
Admittedly it hadn’t all been sunshine and roses. Turns out drinking lots and then eating loads of random green things after having been close to dying of thirst had some ironic and unpleasant consequences on the digestive system. Plus they didn’t really know how to swim. Also the plants kept sassing them.
Still, for every group running headlong into tragedy there were ones who were having the time of their lives. Admittedly their lives had mostly consisted of gradually dying in a desert before that, and still, the river lands they had been dropped off in were beautiful. Clear blue waters filled with shimmering fish ran slowly but steadily by, flanked by wide zones of wetlands full of all sorts of pretty plants.
Those close to the central sea had it even better, because they could climb up the hills and cliffs surrounding the divot in the earth, and look down into it to see the seas, islands and, most glorious of all, the giant tree that defied all logic.
One particular group of goblins sat atop one of these picturesque cliffs, a pile of fruits, leaves, sticks, roots and other plant things resting on the bear rock which they were periodically munching on as they argued casually. Them and a Daffotale growing in a clod of mud that one of the goblins had adopted.
“Iz a big tree, just very far away. Bigger than anything else in world!” one goblin who considered themselves master of perspective insisted.
“Nonsense. Shangshi La has huge waterfalls I’ll have you know. They must be way bigger to be able to fill the river!” the Daffodate sat in another goblin’s lap insisted.
“Yeah, but you never saw em, did you? Meanwhile I saw a big big hill in the desert. Spent whole time there trying to walking around it! That must be bigger. You can see past that tree” a second goblin insisted, pointing vaguely at an island behind the tree.
“Desert make walking slow, bet could walk nice and fast down there” insisted a third, only for the first to needle them with “Wot, you can walk on water now?”
“Ya know what mean, dummy” they retorted, only for a fourth to derail the question by asking “Wonder what it tastes like” which got them all musing on that very important question.
“Trees blech. Hard. Plus you just scrape teeth on it and get nuffin” one posited at last which got several nods, only for another to retort “But the leafy things, maybe they good? Gotta be huuuuuge. Eat one all day”
“Then have to climb up all the way there. Fall and you go splat. I know, I seen it in desert” another said, which got several shudders, and a few confused looks from the ones lucky enough to have not witnessed a messy death yet.
“Splat how? How can goblin go splat?” one of those innocent ones asked, to which the one who had brought it up responded by demonstrating, which they did by picking up a mushy fruit and then tossing it off the cliff they were all hanging about on top of. The fruit fell down down down, and then promptly went splat down below.
“Like that. But with more red. Creepy kinda dark red, not like the flowers that are red. Bad red” she insisted, which caused one to point up and ask “dat red?” as he pointed up at the way the southern sky
“I… Yeah… Like dat…” the goblin agreed hesitantly, rather unnerved by what the sky was doing.
“Is dat bad? Did goblin go splat in sky?” the one who had asked about splatting asked again
“I dunno… but don’t like it” the splat explainer replied, before glancing at their flower companion and asking “is that place where water come from”
“I suppose. But That’s on the other side of the world though, and that certainly doesn’t look like water” the Daffotale replied, the plant tilting its flower to one side as it tried to figure out what was going on, before in straightened up all of a sudden was it realized “oh no wait is that getting closer!?”
That question rebooted the perspective argument up for a few moments before the rain was spotted hitting the south side of the crater, and by that point it was too late. The blood rain swept across the inhabited equator within moments, splattered down from on high causing the goblins to panic and flee in all directions. Some kept panicking till the rain ended, or worse, met their untimely end as a result of their panic. Some realized the rain didn’t hurt and stopped, and some of those happened to turn their maws up to the sky and drink it in, giving them their first taste for the stuff. Those that did so in the desert bought themselves more time to be rescued.
The goblins on the hill however, found their way to a cool cave they had found earlier, rushing inside and out of the bloody rain, each and every one soaked in red. The only one saved from this was the daffotale, who’s beautiful delicate form had been shielded by its bearer’s own body.
After they’d caught their breath, the brave among them then turned around to take a look at what they had been caught in, marvling in the awesome supernatural terror of it.
One of them leaned against the entrance of the cavern with one hand, and then happened to look at the spot after she pulled it away.
“Huh. Look. Hand on wall!” she called out, which freaked several out till they saw what she meant: namely that there was now a bloody handprint on the wall. Specifically “my hand!” the goblin marveled as she hovered it over the mark.
“Me try me try!” another insisted, before they slapped a hand against the wall, leaving more of a splotch than a hand, causing them to go “awww” in disappointment
“Maybe slow like” a third said as he more gently pressed a blood soaked hand to the wall, then pulled it back, revealing the first bit of intentional art the goblins had ever seen (made by mortal hands anyway).
This got several oos from the other goblins, except the first who insisted “me discover it, not him!” before slapping the wall a few times for emphasis. Then she had a look at the splats and made a few more, wiping her hand on her blood covered body and deliberately adding a few more splats before stepping back and revealing her “big tree!” made out of handprints.
That got even more ooo’s and then everyone wanted to have a go, resulting in a flurry of art that left the goblins so distracted that they didn’t even notice that the rain was gone till one of them ran out of blood and went to get more.
“Oh! It over!” the goblin called out to the others excitedly, before realizing that that meant “aw, no more blood for making wall shapes”
“Maybe pools?” Another suggested, which got them all excited again, goblins spilling out of the cave and then returning to it with fresh handfuls of blood, only for them all to get a proper look at what they had made in the light of day post blood rain.
A lot of it was just hands and nature, but several had made attempts to record other things, such as painting themselves or, in one big collaborative section, painting the goddess who had saved them, a goblin surrounded by a ring appearing before lots of smaller goblins.
“Oh, is that supposed to be me?” asked a voice from behind the goblins, causing them all to spin around and behold a figure wearing a wide brimmed pointed hat. Behind her were a collection of other goblins, their bodies still dusted with the sands of the desert, and behind that, parked on the river itself, the great crystal sphere that had brought them all here.
There was a little moment of stunned silence caused by the sudden appearance of the Maintainer in their midst lingered on for just enough time to get awkward, at which point one finally spoke up and confirmed that “yeah!” it was meant to be her, before the goblin asked, a little hesitantly “um, do you like it?”
“Oh I just love it my dears!” the goddess proclaimed with clear and genuine delight “such creativity, taking something that must have scared you so much and turning it into something beautiful,” before clarifying that “and I don’t just mean the part depicting me, naturally. It's all quite wonderful”
She swept into the cave to make a show of taking a proper look at everything, which left the goblins who had been huddled behind her exposed. They shied away from their fellows because they were, well, covered in blood while these goblins had clearly managed to avoid the storm inside.
Of all people it was the Daffotale who broke the silence with a call of “Hello hello! Welcome to the river-lands of the great Tuuni!” before it added apologetically “I swear it’s a lot nicer looking when its not drenched in blood”
Indeed, the lands were absolutely coated in it, and the river presently ran red, with all the blood that had fallen into it here and upstream.
“Not to worry, I’m sure that it will be cleaned up in no time” the Daffotale insisted.
“Yeah. Hope so. Blood is stinky, but there’s water and plant things to eat. Much better than desert” one of the blood covered goblins said, before offering to show the others about, and to get some grub in them.
Most eagerly agreed, but a few stayed behind, and asked about how they’d made the walls.
The remaining cave painters eagerly explained, but then lamented that “once blood is all gone, or dry, then no more painting”
“Maybe use own blood?” another suggested, which got mixed responses, along with one pointing out that “Not much space left either”
“Well, the blood will wear off in time unfortunately” the goddess told them as she stepped into their conversation “so there will be space then but ah, it would be a shame to lose it all. A real shame” before she gave a “hmmm” of a thought.
She held that thought for a moment, and then snapped her fingers as she had an “idea!” before she lightly tapped the cave wall. In an instant, it grew and grew, forming a great cathedral sized dome of stone, which then lit up as the walls began to softly glow.
The paintings that had been made were still there, but had been moved up to just above the height the goblins could reach, freeing up space below. If they looked closely at those paintings, they could see that they were slowly moving, rising up towards the ceiling. This caused one painting to bump into another due to the shape of the dome, causing both to disappear, much to the alarm of the painters, only for the Maintainer to quickly point out that they had re-appeared elsewhere on the dome.
“There we go, now there is space to paint more pictures, and the ones that have been made will cycle in and out of existence in such a way that everything gets a turn to reappear again and again and again” she told them getting many ooo’s and aaaahs of amazement from the goblins.
“Now then, as fun as this has been, I really should be off. There are still goblins to save out there, though i do hope all that blood has bought me some more time” she said before telling them “you all play nice now, and I look forwards to seeing what you end up filling this place with” and then stepping out the room in a flash, leaving the goblins to marvel at their gift for a few moments.
Then they all ran outside to get more blood to do even more painting.
Some goblins hang out on a hill overlooking the central seat. They chatter about this and that thanks to Asheel teaching them how to talk, only to be interrupted by the blood rain. They flee for the safety of a nearby cave, and within invent cave painting (using blood). One of the things they paint is the Maintainer rescuing them from the desert, which catches the goddess' eye as she is delivering more goblins to the area.
She appears, praises their work, and then does the goodly equivalent of pining it to the fridge by making a holy site dedicated to the preservation of the art, as well as providing space to add even more art to the site’s collection.
Then she runs off to go save more gobbos, of which there will be quite a few more still alive thanks to the blood rain providing both fluid and nutrients
1mp for Asheel to teach the goblins about gods, and how to communicate with them (and by extension, each other) 1mp for a cycle based holy site, the cave of painted memories: a large dome like chamber in the eastern cliffs surrounding the central sea. Lit bly glowing walls, the chamber will cause paintings to rise up from the painting spot at the base of its walls, and then swirl the artwork around its dome, paintings fading in and out of existence in such a way that all the art gets its time to shine. The holy site is maintained by the addition of new art, and will be lost to entropy as all things do should additions cease to be made to it.
While Fae could have been embarrassed about being the only one to take Sinmara up on her challenge, he simply decided not to be (one of the many advantages of shoving metal into your brain in his opinion) and returned the titanic woman’s pre-offered bump, before he then proceeded to idly file his nails using a tendril sourced laser as he waited for the others to board.
“I do hope this wasn't a preemptive demonstration of your inability to keep up, Marissa” he needled the woman dressed in a school uniform who clearly hadn’t yet overcome her childish fear of childishness, before more productively suggesting that “Perhaps you’d be willing disavow that first impression at some time during the trip? We really should use the time we have to get an actual understanding of each other’s capabilities, don’t you think?”
That could come later however, as the cyborg first decided to have a little look around the ship, taking it all in, and digitizing it all for later use. It simply wouldn’t do to get caught flat footed if they came under attack after all, and knowing where everything was on the vessel was a part of that. Plus it was simply interesting to get a close look at such a titanic war machine, and the man had to be shooed out of several sections he was not really meant to be in after he had strode confidently into them, casually bypassing any security in the process.
After being explicitly ordered to stay out of restricted areas, (and replying with an ever so casual “Well now, why didn’t you say so?”) the man instead sought to track down the most suitable area to create an impromptu combat arena (be it any actual training space the ship might have, or simply a palace where they were least likely to blow up the engine or the ammo stores) and then sent out holographic copies of himself to find the others and offer an invitation to his little impromptu fight club.
Said invitation would involve the doppelganger giving a theatrical bow, and requesting the come show him their “flesh and mettle”
While they did that, the doctor proceed to build himself a weapon, in this case was a Sea Wasp Personnel Disabler system, which looked a bit like a rectangular multi missile launcher if instead of 4 missiles it contained dozens of taser darts capable of being fired and then back reeled in, for use in any sparring matches.
He also constructed a number of holographic training dummies as well, should sparring matches not be of interest (or, worse, he get no interest at all)
Due to needing to make a fair few, these were wireframe humanoids rather than anything particularly life-like. The ones produced could be split into artful dodgers armed with rapiers, regular soldiers armed with rifles, and hovering mages who tossed illusory spells, though he was also open to taking requests. The dummies were not able to hit or be hit, even if he was capable of making those, and so they were more like mobile practice targets armed with laser tag weapons that would tell their opponent when they had been hit. Given that any ones he made capable of physical interaction wouldn’t last very long, that was more than acceptable.
All in all, he hoped this would prove a fun little distraction, as well as a way to learn a bit more about his comrade’s capabilities prior to them facing any real danger.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
It was a pretty casual trip back all things considered, as the practice dummy like monsters patrolling their fields were still about doing their thing, and presumably keeping the local bug population nice and low as a result. Plus this time there was no dwarven thievery to enrage them.
In contrast, it seemed like their area had been more straightforward than whatever weirdness was vaguely alluded to via puns by Miss Fortune regarding their team’s trip when they caught up, that was for sure.
”I got a tank!” was jr’s main input to explain what had happened to them, as if him having to pop open the hatch of it to tell them this didn’t make that obvious in and of itself. Although in his defense, the Kuebiko could be easily mistaken for a tractor, if not for the massive triple barrel gun on the front.
”His majesty also fought a giant pig, with my enlarging help, so I am afraid I will be sitting this next bout out from in here” Kamek, who was also in said tank, informed them in a very tired tone.
”I punched it right in the snout! That sure showed it who’s boss!” the King confirmed, ever so proud of this apparently.
”Also there was, uh, bugs and stuff I guess. And robots. But you probably had those too?” Rika concluded the summary of what they had been doing rather less bombastically ”Which we should probably handle the spirits of before we fight this triangle thing, right?”
That got some confirming nods from the rest of the troop, except for Bowser who decided that ”Seeing as the big pig was pretty tough, I think I’ll fuse with it. Get my own big tusks or more root powers or something” for which he borrowed the Snaktivator from Kamek to do, while Rike as usual borrowed the mimic shaped hat from their reisdent bug queen to do some crushing.
Notable spirit consumed: Kingtusk (mouth) The front of the host's face has elongated into more of a snout, with a flat, piglike nose. Two large, upward-curved tusks extend from the cheeks right at the corners of the mouth, an extremely tough blend of enamel-layered dentine and wood. Their points aren't that sharp but can cause huge damage when driven into a target with strength. The host's hair is also a little more rootlike in texture, and he has a better sense of smell. This spirit confers the power King's Charge, giving the host armor and a damage boost when charging on all fours. This charge can either trample over enemies or end with a powerful tusk flip that can launch even very heavy enemies overhead and behind the user, where they usually land on their backs. This spirit also confers the weakness Part Softness. The host takes much more damage than usual if hit in the head, and his tusks can actually break if hit enough by enemies. He must receive an amount of healing equal to or greater 50% or more of his max HP in order to reform a tusk.
Refined Metal x2 What kind of metal is this? It's not exactly clear. But what is clear is its abundant value. It's not just worth a lot of currency; it itself can be used as currency. It's ideal material for crafting, highest-quality, and can be used as a substitute for any one metal when making weapons, all of which are guaranteed to be high quality and high durability
Mack FL1-R 'Stinger' A small flying corebot that functions as an expedition assistant. Similar to Deep Rock's Bosco drone, it can help out by carrying things or providing light. Thanks to its core, it's self-sustaining, but its energy will be lost and eventually depleted if it takes damage. It has a small rifle in its rear, but low caliber rounds and low stability mean it can be little more than a distraction under normal circumstances. Most importantly, it can kind of be worn like a miner's cap
Machine Turret A high-impact slow firing weapon system that's best used on a stationary mount, but can be awkwardly carried by those of enough strength (that are also not too big to use it). It has a limited pool of ammunition of 150 rounds, but can be resupplied
Charm of the Vampire A charm that boosts the damage of bite attacks and confers a 30% heal for every 13 enemies killed. The person who equips it gains a little fang and a V-shaped hairline
C-Foam Tripmine x2 A very powerful tripmine that, when triggered, will spew globules of freezing, weblike C-Foam in an area of 5 to 7 meters. C-foam will entrap and immobilize any enemy caught in its radius, including bosses, for 5 to 7 seconds. It can be shot to detonate prematurely. It can also be used as a sealant in order to reinforce doors, walls, etc against attack Power Stone A huge, glittering crystal in the classic shape, the size of beach ball. They're very light, and if a bearer is hit too hard, it'll fly right out of the bearer's inventory and soar a distance away. If someone obtains three, that fighter can take on a unique super form for a limited time with a changed appearance and powered-up moves with unlimited usage, though when it runs out two will go flying in different directions while one is destroyed. This one is alien-blood green
”So. How do I look?” Bowser asked after the fusion, which caused the others to trade a few glances and for Kamek to offer that ”The tusks look, ah, very regal, sire. Like a second set of horns” while clearly avoiding talking about the obvious, namely that ”You've got a pig snout. It looks a little silly”
”What?!” the King balked, before booping his own snoot and then groaning as he confirmed what Rika had told him
”I’m sure the fusion will come in handy though, that great beast was quite devastating on the charge after all” Kamek quickly pointed out, before admitting ”Though perhaps not against such a large stationary target like that one” referring, of course, to the pyramid.
Somehow that was only the first half of the warping of Bowser’s face that went down, as he foolishly forgot the danger of pedestal items and proceeded to poke the bat floating on one. Admittedly, it could have been worse, because the resulting v shaped hairline and extra pointy tooth didn’t actually do much other than add a few strands to the front of the King’s locs, while the tooth mostly blended in with all the other sharp ones.
The other items consisted of some valuable looking metal, which got shrunken and stashed, along with the giant alien green diamond. Bowser held onto the mine, peering at some very small instructional text scribbled under much larger warning text, and while Rika attached the helmet bot on top of one of her gauntlet ‘heads’, intending to use it as a replacement for her destroyed scout plane.
They got use of the turret by physically strapping it onto Bower’s shell via metal bands made with Jr’s Ferromancy. Mounted atop one of his existing turrets, and with the trigger controlled by a vine, it would give him quite the boost in long ranged fire power. Given that the king wasn’t exactly the best marksman however, the main form of help it would be providing would be adding to the volume he could output.
With all that out of the way, they were ready to go, just in time for Overhard to give them a heads up as to what was going on.
”Alright, see you guys on the other side” Jr said as he hopped into the tractor tank, and snapped shut the hatch, before revving up the machine, raring and ready to go. Rika meanwhile finished filling her grizco blaster’s primer tank with her own saliva and slotted the cylinder onto it, while Bower just cracked his knuckles and got ready to throw down.
Just as explained, the caretaker’s first mode of defense was its big mechanical tentacles, which immediately started blasting at them. Rika and Jr both got moving, the ship girl using her shot slowing vision to evade fire while Jr backed up the metal attacker while spraying retaliatory fire back at their foe.
Bowser wasn’t nearly as evasive, and so he was very thankful for Primrose’s defense buff, and some overhealing provide vines Jr had provided before taking command of his tank. That and his little mecha mit shield let him withstand the initial barrage, but none of those were much help when the tentacle decided to slam forwards to try and skewer him with its four pronged tip.
Fortunately, he’d just had a bit of practice with something just like this, and so instead of being gored by the 4 prongs the king just barely managed to grab a pair of them in his claws.Monster and machin struggled against each other till the king got a good grip, and then pulled and pulled, till the mechanical limb was ripped from it’s socket, flailing on the ground for a few seconds till it went still.
”That the best you’ve got?!” the king, just a bit out of breath, taunted, just in time to find himself facing down giant walls of energy that someone had forgotten to mention where going to be an issue.
As the king scrambled to run out of the way of the blasts, and Jr had to do some of the best driving of his life to weave between them while avoiding running any one over, Rika handled them with far more ease.
This was mainly because she could go over them, the ship girl dodging the first, and then squeezing her feather fall rune to launch herself clear over the top of the seconds. The tiny wings on the back of her rigging gave her just enough thrust to help her buzz over the wave as it slipped under her, after which she took a leaf out of Miss Fortune’s book, and also went for a mount of the machine.
Her grappling hook shot out, attached, and then pulled her atop it, where she proceeded to scramble over to a different vent from the one the cat girl was clawing up. Once over there, she promptly gave it five barrels of fun, hammering 4 disruption gobs and several rapid fire blasts of electric goop into it, really gumming up the works, and debuffing the machine’s damage output by 20% for 30 seconds in the process.
Rather than simply flee with her glowing cotton tail between her legs when the shredders came however, she instead left them a parting gift, dumping out a shocker swarm from her hangers, and also summoning her cloister striker. The very tough shellfish didn’t have to worry too much about the cutting attacks of the shredder bots, particularly when it proceeded to summon a whirlpool around itself. The resulting swirling vortex spun the drones around, either tearing them apart, smashing them into the cloister’s shell, or leaving them soaked through and thus extra vulnerable to the electric swarm Rika had left behind.
As that dance of elements played out, the ship girl grappled too one of the tentacles, and used it to swing across the electrically charged platform below, only avoiding being blasted to bits by friendly fire due to her shot slowing sunglasses and her little wings giving her just enough extra air controle to weave between them.
”Rika!” came a panicked buzz in her ear as she landed, coming from one of the sources of that near friendly fire accident, which proceeded to tell her to ”Call in that you’re going to do that next time!”
Over in his tractor tank Jr got a sheepish ”Sorry” and ”will do” from Rika, before focusing back on the fight. The vehicle he was in certainty was fun, wheezing around at impressive speeds, turning practically on a dime, and laying out a whole heap of fire power, but the Prince was getting a bit frustrated at his lack of options.
Options that the blinking red ammo and fuel reserves constantly reminded him that they had been wasted by the ”Dumb plants!” that had infested it.
Still, when he did manage to stop power sliding across the dirt and got to line up a shot, the triple barrel cannons laid waste to anything in front of them. He just wished things would stop moving and stay in his line of fire.
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