ERode

-FV-

"Please, Iphie," Tian-Gui laughed. "Karaoke's not about how good your singing is. It's just about the hype!"

Though between his own lung capacity, Jin-Sun's robot speakers, and Runa's mutant vocal cords, perhaps karaoke with the Final Five might be too much for a first time excursion after all. Oh well, there was always the New Years Party to drink copious amounts of alcohol in order to convince others that they're finally witnessing a drunk Tian-Gui. With Mason having sent the address to the rest of them and the time for their arrival set as well, Tian-Gui spent the rest of the day with his own preparations for the upcoming mission.

Namely, downloading his super sentai backlog onto his phone and prepping enough meals to last him two weeks. Who knew how long they'd be in Russia for, after all.

As the sun dipped into the horizon, the raven-haired man called up the others and took the scenic route down to DIHOW. The nightlife of Shanhu, replete with gondolas, personal flying devices, and drones, as well as the stream of more standard automobile lacing beneath or beside pedestrian bridges, created a dizzying display of lights that never quite got old for him. Sure, the air was about as bad as always, and the light pollution was terrible enough that the stars that one saw in Shanhu were a hoax that served as subliminal advertising for the megacorps, but the city of science and academia remained as lively as always. Perhaps even a bit livelier than usual; the Christmas fever was hitting, and Kyouko's new single was playing in more than just a few department stores. The newest member of the Final Five definitely looked to be getting places in terms of fame, wasn't she? By the time DIHOW came into view, Tian-Gui couldn't help but grin at the two-story high neon sign that featured a Kyouko Hiruma modelling for a youth fashion label.

Certainly was going to be just a little awkward, eating while in clear view of your own ad, hm? Made one wonder how Iphie felt about coming across Courtlandt Group's social media.

By the time the others had arrived and seating positions were figured out (Tian-Gui sat at the front end of the table to avoid taking up anyone else's elbow space) and the waitress came to take their order, the man already knew what he wanted. "I'll take your salmon steak combo set with Meyer sauce, extra veggies. Side order of your chicken tenders as well, no sauce, and your strawberry black forest waffle tower for dessert." A slight pause; he drummed his fingers against the table as he thought of it. "Oh, right, and is your collab with Perfect Gray Rainbow still on?"

Cacophony Concord

Perhaps there was some way to negotiate with these snake-people, or perhaps there was some way to finesse themselves into digging out more answers regarding the children. But before Sarasa could respond to either Raime or Amulak’s concerns and questions, Ames asserted his own position on the matter and quickly left the room, promptly ending any chance of coming to a deal.

“Well,” Sarasa breathed, her expression one carefully crafted to look disappointed and resigned. “I suppose we’ll just have to rely on Lugh then.”

The swordsman’s own answer was indistinct; by then, everyone else had left to follow after Ames, leaving behind the strange atmosphere of the estate.

Despite Ames’s reluctance to have anything at all to do with those snakes, however, the rest of the party’s demands still had to be felt. Raime was the most hesitant in switching gears, sharing concerns with Ames regarding the fate of the abducted children, but the two of them were out-voted by the more immediate gamer concerns that their other party members had. Klein, especially, looked ready to flat-out explode into a ball of musclebound violence at this point. Being the lowest member of the party and also possessing a competitive streak to match Amulak’s made the Mountain Man the most vocal proponent to essentially genociding the goat-headed men after all. Magpie and Amulak were both on board as well, eager for some action that wasn’t just slogging through these miserable, depressing caves. Cacophony Concord’s realism may have given them supernaturally capable bodies and literal magic powers, but even that wasn’t enough to stave off the boredom and tedium of just…walking down spooky caves.

So, as awkward as it was, the party soon found themselves encroaching upon the northern ruins, where the gyunin lived. Passing by the outer perimeter of skull-hoisting stakes, it became obvious why the gyunin made their territory known in such a barbaric fashion: there were no patrols at all. Of the twenty or so gyunin that could be observed from a distance, their society definitely appeared to be more of a disorganized orgy of violence and machoism rather than anything that could actually be considered a civilization. A great bonfire served as the center of their community, as a tree roasted away. Atop the smoking trunk, the largest gyunin of them all, a freakishly lanky specimen with white fur and curled horns, cannibalized the remains of another gyunin as it stomped its hooves about, braying out indecipherable commands.

Four other gyunin worked on the corpse of a massive bear, similar to the one that Ames and Magpie had seen being torn apart by the oni. Were these big bears seriously just fodder? It was sorta hard to imagine, but considering how the only bears they’ve seen were dead ones, it may really have been the case. Outside of those four gyunin-butchers, there were a few more sitting amongst the bones of distinctly humanoid beings, roasting meat or scraping fat off of hides. They chattered as well, the colossal rage apparently kept in check by having actual work to do. For the majority of the other goatheaded beefcakes, however, they seemed content to just mill about with no purpose, occasionally butting heads with such force that it sounded like a cymbal crash.

Yes, it seemed like savagery was the only deterrent the gyunin had to others encroaching upon them, and though it may be effective for the rational mortal beings of Gala…well, Immortals lived immortal lives of thrill-seeking and power-gaining. With almost such ease that it was baffling, the entire party managed to make their way behind a pile of dead, collapsed trees, the braying and bleating of their prey just on the other side.

If they engaged, it was definitely gonna be the sort of fight that they wouldn’t be able to run away from.

But surely, they wouldn’t get cold feet now?
_{@Shovel@Searat@Psyker Landshark@OwO@Yankee}

---

A dark chuckle rumbled out from Man-Joji’s throat, the man unflustered even with the Maneater Sickle pressed against his flesh. “Ari, Ari, Ari,” he intoned, a mirthless smile slicing his expression into two. “What did I say when this job first began? I won’t ask about how you do your business, and you won’t ask about how I do mine. Such a simple order. All you had to do was not think about it.”

A forked tongue flicked out.

“Ah, and I had hoped we could’ve had a lasting relationship.”

The merchant’s right eye glowed, intensifying into a brilliant beam. Ari pushed her sickle in, but with only the strength of one and a half men, she heard the crackling of scales instead. Not enough to pierce the iridescent scales that began coating Man-Joji’s skin, and not enough to force his eyes away from her.

Instinct alone, a twitch of her head, allowed Ari to dodge the beam of heat that singed her hair and seared a hole through the canvas of the carriage, before she bounded back off the carriage, her feet finding the gnarled roots of the claustrophobic grove. The mule, terrified by this turn of events, neighed out in distress, but was silenced with a swift strike of the thickly muscled appendage that sprouted out from where Man-Joji’s left arm had once been. His right ripped out from its sleeve as well, a mass of snake heads writhing out, while the merchant’s face elongated into a more reptilian form.

“It is a pity, to earn the ire of an immortal being,” Man-Joji said, towering over Ari. “But alas, you were the one to force my hand, child.”

Time dilated, every sense sharpened within the deep groves that he had lead her to, and with razor certainty, Ari knew.

Only one of them was coming out alive tonight.
_@GreenGoat

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Sure. Have a good one then.

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Where's the overlap in terms of actual abilities and personality? If the only issue is the nouns I used, I don't mind switching to something else. Could probably just slap down something like God of Plunder and Ruin instead.

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

The Fist of Calamity

As a divine being, Zandako was always larger than whatever he faced, his form growing to match mountain-sized golems and world-spanning serpents, sky-shrouding storm spirits and sky-splitting dragons. Even now, stripped of most of his divinity, he stands at the physical apex of humanity, 7’2 and boasting muscles that could crush rocks with a casual flex. An aura of virility and authority exudes from him effortlessly, and his body is unmarred by defect or injury, as if sculpted out of marble by a masterful artisan. But for all this, Zandako could not be considered handsome, neither as a god nor as a human. Just as easily as his expressions slip into saintly contemplation and heroic courage do they veer towards deviant obsession and barbarous perversion.

Zandako

_{God of Conquest and Domination}

Mythology

Ten thousand years ago, the mortal realm was populated with many gods, all with different designs, all with different ends. Few could be considered reasonable, and many could be considered destructive. The Goddess of Judgement, bound by a universal morality that no others could understand, discerned the black and white within the gray and slew her quarry with impunity. The God of the Sun, arrogant and apathetic upon their charred throne, would set nations ablaze with a flick of the wrist, mortal suffering naught but the crackling of tinder. The Goddess of Love and War, immolating with bipolar desires, warred for love and loved for war while mountains of corpses grew with every successive ceremony. In a time where the gods roamed and played amongst the specks of humanity, each one of them seeking ultimate rule, darker passions arose within those sundered lands and tainted the fledging deity known as Zandako.

Justice, Power, Love were meaningless to the God of Conquest and Domination, and no noble designs could be mythologized from his goal of taking what he wished: the chastity of a promised maiden, the wealth of an ancient order, the faith of another god’s people. At times saintly and at times dastardly, Zandako would betray anything and anyone for the sake of a whim in one breath, and then discard the object of his whimsical obsession in the next. He was a roaming disaster unchained, a calamity answering to none. With his fist, ruination visited civilization and monstrosity alike. With his grasp, all that was beautiful in the world was spoiled and shattered. Zandako was an audacious nightmare, a god who persisted in humanity’s zeitgeist through trauma rather than fear or adoration, and yet, there were still those that followed him.

The warlike coveted his might and committed atrocities in his name.

The weak coveted his destruction and prayed that he roamed upon their abusers.

The outsiders coveted his solitude and mirrored his cataclysmic pilgrimages.

And those who fell from a more intimate ruin…remembered him.

Years melted to decades, decades melted into centuries. Zandako continued his transient conquest, his vain dominance, leaving barren lands and smoldering ruin. And as his endless endurance began to see their end, as his unmatched body became more burden than blessing, the god looked behind him and surveyed his work. Not as warlord or general, but as a farmer who had tilled the fields and reaped his harvest, enjoying the fruits of civilization in their prime and sowing seeds for a more resilient future. And with a laugh that echoed around the world, the God of Plunder and Subjugation, of Conquest and Domination, of Change and Renewal, sat down and offered his neck to the ruination that would visit him soon.

His thoughts seeped away, and his memories colored his dreams.

But ten thousand years later, even the obsolescence of the gods was conquered by Zandako.

Abilities

Once, Zandako possessed strength and endurance unmatched, enormity and authority unequaled, and virility and appetite unrivalled. As a mere vestige of what he once was, however, such capabilities have been greatly diminished.

He is still a titan of physical ability, supremely strong and tough. His immense stamina fully recovers from sleep without being contingent on food and drink, and his body is incapable of being physically damaged: while Zandako’s life force can be decreased with successive physical attacks, his physical form will not change to reflect how close he is to death, giving him the bluff of invulnerability. It is a pathetic shadow of the true immortality that he once enjoyed, but when combined with his supernatural endurance, is enough to cause others to question the value in trying to break the unbreakable.

His divine domains of Conquest and Domination manifest itself in the ability for him to grasp what is physically impossible to do so and to treat it as a solid object, malleable and breakable with enough force involved. While Zandako finds it difficult to interact with the more abstract concepts that the Goddess of Commerce seals away with her contracts, his hands can tear easily at the arcane structures behind magic, grasp the physically distant as if they were right in front of him, and deliver punches that target the microscopic and the unknown. Put simply, Zandako can, with his fists, cure all manner of diseases and curses, or pull at the wind to force a fresh breeze to accompany him. But, naturally, the greater the scale he wishes to apply his divine grasp, the more exhausting the act of doing so, and some intangibles are simply too slippery to take in his hands currently.

Whether as a consequence of his divine domain, a side effect of his physical stature, or some instinctual terror engraved upon the souls of humanity from ten thousand years ago, mortals are more receptive towards his demands and desires, and less willing to challenge him or his opinions. As a purely passive effect that Zandako has no real control over, this varies in efficacy from individual to individual, but he makes up for the difference in efficacy by…just being himself.

Through his centuries of experience, Zandako’s also exceptionally talented under the sheets. Of course, though he may brag about his sexual escapades in general terms, he’s not the sort of man to kiss and tell. No real point, after all, when half of his fellow deities are totally disinterested and the other half have roughly the same appetite as himself.

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

@ActRaiserTheReturned
Basically, you want to look for a God that has a relatively restrictive domain. A God of Magic or a God of Souls would either be too broken or too weak for the setting, which is more like a sci-fi post-apocalypse. Think of the God of Fire, who embodies a very destructive and specific element: the manipulation of souls or the ability to freely cast/create magic absolutely shits on that, both in terms of destructive capability and in terms of versatility. Find yourself a more specific niche, one rooted in either an aspect of nature or a human activity, and try to build off that instead.

Also, Vita’s ostensibly an anime RPer, so they probably want anime aesthetics. That may help guide your thought process too.

And I’ll probably be joining as a Deity of Sex and DrugsPleasure and Intoxication, if I get to making a sheet.

Cacophony Concord

“More details?”

Sarasa tilted her head to the side slightly, as if there didn’t need to be more detail than what she had just shared. It was a simple matter of territory within this particular cavern in the Blasphemed Tunnels, after all, and since when did Immortals question anyone when it came to a simple request to kill things? Ames’s follow-up question clarified things though, and the frown that the buxom lady had on her face was the perfect combination of empathetic but helpless.

“Ah, we don’t receive much news of the surface from down below,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s certainly terrible news though, this matter with abducted children. And as for the details you’ve wished us to elaborate upon, Master One-Armed, I must confess that there isn’t all too much to it. Surely you have seen the depraved acts of the gyunin on your way here? We’ve done what we could to hold our own, but unfortunately, their numbers exceed ours, and so does their lust for brutality. Even the undead fake their deaths when those savages are in the proximity.”

She let out a dry chuckle.

“It’s doubtlessly ironic, that my den has fled the surface to avoid the warlike oni, only to find below their inbred brethren. Alas, such a plague of monstrosities ought to be uprooted entirely, and,” her eyes flickered towards the musclebound Klein, who was already itching for some real action, “I’m sure your party is wholly capable of that.”

Raime’s quick scan of the room didn’t manage to uncover any further details about the presence of children, other than what looked to be the remnants of a footprint near the entrance where he was at. It wasn’t the party’s and couldn’t have belonged to Lugh or the snake-people either, who were either barefoot, had no feet, or wore sandals. A quick comparison would indicate that the footprint must have belonged to an adult male…but what did it mean?
_{@Shovel@Searat@Psyker Landshark@OwO@Yankee}

---

As her vision blackened, then sharpened to supernatural sensitivity, Ari found her suspicions proven correct. With the glimpses of the cart that she could catch while swivelling her head from right to left, she could easily see the outlines of several blue-tinted forms within the space beneath the floor. They had to be small, smaller than a normal adult, in order to fit into such spaces, but why they didn’t move at all was something that she couldn’t answer immediately. Within fifty meters of her as well, there was only the thick yellow brilliance of flora, while right before her, glowing the crimson of the monsters, was the form of Man-Joji.

No real revelations were had, certainly, but it confirmed her suspicions and elucidate her prior observations. All the answers were essentially in her hands now. The only question was what she could do with them.

That wasn’t right.

Before any plans could be made, Ari saw it within the aurascape offered by Xu Fu. The hand of the shapeshifter reaching up and rising slowly towards her face. The precursor to an attack? Or a test to determine whether she had lied or not about her Nuclei’s power? Another crossroads, another choice.

And her mana continued to burn away.
_@GreenGoat

-FV-

Twenty-four hours, was it? Plenty of time to become perfectly rested then. Tian-Gui downed his tea with the finality of a man who could go for something more substantial, before turning to the others. "I've got a couple of other little things to deal with, but considering the circumstances...how 'bout we have dinner together tonight? With the whole gang n all." He grinned at Mason. "Including your grandkid. I'm sure we're not so broke after the Fort Five renovations that we can't afford delivery n all? And if we need a private venue..."

The young man jammed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a neatly folded piece of plastic, upon which was a QR code with a rainbow sheen.

"Actually got this discount to a karaoke place from a fan today. Place had pretty decent reviews online, so hey, might as well ring in the New Years with something fun, y'know?"

Though maybe the grandkid would've preferred to see the Final Five putting on one of those masked hero shows instead.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

^{@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist}

Inventory

Coinage: 8 Silver, 5 Copper

• The (shredded) clothing on his back.
• A fur cloak.
• Untanned boar skin.
• Leather Belt
• Knight's Shield
• Knight's Dagger
• Knight's Longsword
• Dwarf's Polearm
• Rope
• Some preserved food
  Enough for two people to last a few days.
• Roll of what seemed to be a mat of thick fur, likely for sleeping on
  Comfortable, but only one.
• A heavy looking fur/cloth blanket.
  Cozy, warm and heavy. Good for sleeping in colder climates.
• Communication horn
  Made from bone, hollow and likely used for communication.
• A small pot and a ladle
• Frozen canteen of water
• Map of the Under roads.
  A map detailing some routes used by the Dwarves and Shadow Elves to travel in their subterranean homes. Its not entirely complete, but it at least shows the routes to the two most notable settlements and several other places of note. Unless you travel off the paths, you probably won’t get lost.

But when Raezel glanced towards where Isidore had been, the Urutha girl wouldn't find him.

It had been amusing, if nothing else, listening to the natural audacity of the kid. If he had been the same age as her, her dismissive attitude towards the value of a sharp edge would be enough of an excuse to start throwing hands, but with his perspective and his inexperience with the world, it was enough to simply accept her words as the common sense of a child living in a magically-rich society. She hadn't seen what Sorcha and Railey were capable of, just as how he had yet to see what Rullphana was capable of. Time will tell, naturally, whether it was through sword or sorcery that the face of warfare was shaped.

Though no matter the fascinating nature of this one-sided discourse, Isidore remained aware of his surroundings. Raezel was heading for the outskirts of the market, and considering the time of day, the crowds were smaller than they were a few hours ago. Gloomhaven was no modern day city, after all, no city that never slept. It was a city with less distractions as well. No smartphones to cause one to look down, no neon advertisements pulling at your vision. There was no reason then, for a hooded Sirithen to make a beeline towards a very loud, very visible Raezel. Within the few seconds he had to make a decision, however, Isidore decided not to act yet.

Having her purse stolen would make it a teachable moment about the awareness one ought to have about their surroundings. Having her stabbed by a jilted lover would also be a teachable moment, a moment regarding the efficacy of a sharp edge in surprise attacks. Having nothing happen at all other than a bump would mean that his natural reaction would become an overreaction.

So the Sirithen man bumped into Raezel, then lied about being in a hurry. He left, she raged, and...

Idiot excuse.

...Isidore moved, his own steps mirroring the Sirithen's as they got closer and closer to the core of the market. Maintaining a distance of two meters, enough to speak but not enough to threaten, he said, "Don't run. Keep walking. Explain."

One could not yet know for certain, after all, whether the pickpocketing of a demon seed was the man's intention or just thievery gone wrong. And in polite society, Isidore would presume ignorance before guilt, stupidity before malice. Couldn't so well as get into real trouble on his first night in Gloomhaven, now could he?

Our Dying Wish - Play Corrupt-A-Wish, Get Superpowers in this Demon-Slaying RPG

I'll keep an eye in this.