MelonHead

Arena Chat Thread

I hate shitty wifi.

What have I missed, where can I catch up on it, and do I need to virtually do everything for the ranked stuff this season? I suppose I still need to know whose actually participating and whatnot, or should we make it less seasonal, and just keep it global with a one month period off?

@Rilla

Dunno, I think a few people would like re-assurances they're 'part of the ranked' Arena.

You haven't missed all that much really, though you have been contacted to score some wins and losses in a few places.

The Black Mountain (open tournament)

@Chimera Alright looks like we're matched, best of luck.

Do you want to make the thread or should I? Considering our character skill-sets I'm not sure any particular arena will benefit either of us more than the other, so I'm not too worried if it's not randomized. (Though I would recommend it in future, it's usually best if all matches have a randomised arena chosen by the host)

The Black Mountain (open tournament)

Perhaps it's an intimidation tactic? He's hoping to eliminate the other contestants by scaring them off with the smell :D

@Drifting Pollen

It's worked in that it's killed all my desire to post in the shrine area, I'll just be jumping straight into the first round and by-passing it.

The Black Mountain (open tournament)

Sigurd Stoneheart

Identity

Full name: Sigurd Stoneheart

Name used: Sigurd (The dragon slayer in some rare cases)

Age: 32

Appearance:

The only notable deviation from the image being that his entire left arm and part of his shoulder is encased in stone.

Height: 6ft 4"

Weight: 98kg

Weapons

Steel Longsword, fairly average in terms of length and weight.

Scaled Shield, an ordinary iron rimmed wooden shield covered with the scaly hide of a dragon. The shield itself is nearly impervious to flame, and can ward off most forms of physical and magical attacks as it still withholds the magical qualities of the dragon. It is roughly 100 cm in diameter.

Throwing Axes: Sigurd carries two small steel tipped throwing axes attached to his belt on his right hip, which he can throw with impressive accuracy.

Armour: As well as his shield and stone arm he wears fur and leather boots, leather and iron leggings and iron plated leather armour. He has a steel pauldron on his right arm, his left fends for itself. He wears an odd full iron horned helm (unique to his homeland) which will hopefully prevent him getting his brains beaten out.

Physical Stats: Sigurd is, outside of his stone arm, fairly mortal, though impressive none-the-less. He has a near peak human physique, easily able to bench 200kg and sprint at up to 15mph for a sustained period. However, his body is still fallible to all the weaknesses of humanity. The Stone Curse in its infancy does provide him some small resistance to poisons and other debilitations beyond that of an ordinary human, but not significantly.

Abilities: Trained from a young age in the arts of war, he uses a perfected Viking style of combat, in which he utilizes his sword and shield in equal measure in both offensive and defensive styles. Basically, he catches the opponent’s weapon on either his shield or sword, depending on the angle of the strike, and lashes out with his free weapon. Either one can cause incredibly damage. If his shield is lost in combat his stone arm can be used in much the same way, the only disadvantage being that he loses the larger surface area of his shield, and projectiles can target his head or unprotected right side. The advantage is with some luck he could grab the opponent’s weapon and snap it in half.

The Stone Curse: Sigurd’s left arm is made of marble, to put things simply. However, the arm has a few magical qualities which account for his prowess.

It does not encumber him in the slightest, which means he can throw the arm around with all its strength at no disadvantage.

It has no issue with lactic acid build up, and is near impervious to conventional forms of damage. The marble itself is incredibly thick, making up the entire arm, and has been shown to slowly repair itself if scratched or cracked.

It dulls the effect of magic which targets Sigurd or the arm itself. In theory, he could reach into the void and effect otherwise intangible opponents such as ghosts with his left arm.

It can apply massive amounts of force; his left arm is roughly three times the strength of his right, allowing it to roughly curl 240kg.

Sigurd's Story (So Far): Sigurd was born in the far north of his homeland, dragons scoured the earth and his people could do nothing. He grew to impressive fame after his fabled slaying of a dragon, the first to do so. The act in which he killed the beast was also notable, he apparently dealt a paralysing blow with his left arm, and chopped straight through the creatures skull with a long sword. The tales were not believed, until his first public appearance revealed a startling and controversial trait, his left arm and shoulder were encased in stone. Living stone which did not hinder him in the slightest, yet allowed him to place ridiculous force into his blows, and remain unscathed in the process.

His fame grew as he slew a number of dragons on his travels, though he grew listless and weary of trekking through the north. In an encounter that by all accounts should have been his last he was thrown into the dimension of the Liason's tournament, the Way of the Warrior, where he was forced into combat with a number of dangerous individuals. Despite being obviously outclassed the warrior known as Sigurd performed well, before coming unstuck against an undead opponent with power beyond anything he had ever seen. When all his attacks failed him he was stabbed from behind and suffered a mortal blow, forcing him to leave the tournament in second place, his prize being his life.

After returning to his homeland with the knowledge of his tournament victories and losses he encountered a small dragon that embarrassingly forced him to flee battle for the first time, and after doing so resolved to pick up throwing axes and practice with them for any future encounters of the sort. Since then Sigurd has mostly wandered, the few remaining dragons in his homeland managing to evade his pursuit and cause untold devastation.

The Black Mountain (open tournament)

I think it might be a metaphor.

There's nothing stopping anyone killing him while he exposes himself by the by, I doubt even the monks would stop you.

When the Earth met the Sea

Now, one has to understand that Anna in her second life had never been particularly rational. Though she herself could have been considered a monster, she still retained the prejudices from her time as an ordinary woman and they emerged as her eyes fell upon the large clay Golem. At first, those beautiful features twisted in alarm and shock as she forgot for a moment that she was not the Anna she had been remembering. Then, as soon as they had come those emotions left her. The void had to be filled with something, and as was the case all too often she filled it with anger. Anger at having been made to feel weak and helpless in the face of the strange interloper. Rage that it had disturbed her mourning.

It had probably not gone unnoticed by the friendly Golem that she was not pleased to see him. His attempts to converse with her were met with similar hostility. Had he been able to just speak to her he might have been able to avoid the inevitable conflict. As it were, his inability to placate Anna could cost him, at the very least he may be forced to find another path to follow. Minor inconvenience perhaps, perhaps not.

Anna sized the Golem up with an interesting glance. It seemed to her to be a large man-like creature made of clay, which was a pretty accurate observation as those things go. What it was doing on her stretch of beach was uncertain, what was certain is that its presence was intolerable to the Wraith.

“Go away!” She yelled, her diminutive voice bolstered by some more ancient force, barely perceptible yet somehow with an affect not unlike the echoing of a mountain. She slowly submerged herself, floating as she was about ten meters out from the shore, leaving only her head exposed to glare at the Golem.

When the Earth met the Sea

Hmm, that's a somewhat lenient example there (T1 Rules and Guidelines) and the other doesn't really cover preps. I would argue prepping falls under the same realm of fighting being heavily frowned upon in introductions, because it gives whoever posts second a major advantage by being able to initiate the combat with the element of surprise -and- giving them a leg up on preparing attacks.

It's up to individual interpretation, but usually I would reserve introductions for story and descriptions, and launch into any prepping or fighting in the following round.

The Black Mountain (open tournament)

It's good that you caught the issue with the shields, I was probably going to mention it before we started.

When the Earth met the Sea

Alright, an introduction post is pretty important and both players have different roles (usually.)

Player one arrives first and posts first, they cannot (usually, unless agreed upon) see any sign of their opponent so as to give them free reign of where they start. In their post they tend to set the scene, describe landmarks etc. Most importantly they describe where their character is (roughly, usually this is cemented by the second poster's position and post) and what they're doing there. Then, you must try to inform any readers of how your character is equipped, some people are particularly strict on this and require everything to be mentioned otherwise it's considered void. This is pretty difficult when you have a very well equipped character, however, those sort of characters are also usually fairly tactically minded. So a trick I like to use is having my character mentally run through his more nitty-gritty equipment, while things like clothing and outward apparel I describe while describing the scene.

An example of this trick I saw (which I attempt to utilize) is to describe the scene and part of your character's apparel simultaneously, so as to not bore readers with a description of everything they are wearing in a list-like fashion. For example -

John stomped his way down the long dry road, his tough black boots kicking up dirt and dust that began to mar his otherwise fine looking jeans.

So, you have an important check-list in (any) introduction.

Describe the scene (as your character perceives it or not is up to you.)
Explain your presence.
Describe your character.
Describe your character's equipment.

The first poster has the lion's share of the work in describing the scene, consequently the second poster is responsible for initiating dialogue or at the very least bringing the characters into contact, as they start with knowledge of where the other player is. This doesn't necessarily mean literally walking up and talking though, if you wish to utilize stealth you may, but you may say something along the lines of your character spotting the opponent and moving closer.

Some rules and tips for introductions:

Combat can't be initiated in an introductory post.

'Prepping' an attack can't be initiated in introductions. (This is part of T1, which I believe you said you read up on.)

Forgetting important details in an introduction is a critical error and should be avoided if at all possible, or judges may rule against you.

Introducing the scene is an important role, don't take too many liberties with the environment however or you may be judged against. For example, planting yourself in the middle of an icy lake on the one platform available in miles is bad form. Someone used this against me in a tournament once, very cheap tactic.

Finally, have fun with it, an introduction can stretch way into the past if it helps explain your character's presence and can grant a greater gravitas to a fight.

When the Earth met the Sea

Hmm, I suck at describing scenes so it's not as long an introduction as I would usually make.

Would you like me to give you a run-through of the normal form for introductions etc? Your character is also one which requires very little introduction, but I can give you the gist of what you'd do if we had brought more 'equipped' characters.