STATUS:
@SaltSight Game was Astlibra: Revision. Found it on sale bundled with another game I've been wanting so I gave it a shot and got like, straight indie JRPG of the early 2000s injected into my veins.
6 mos ago
Current
@SaltSight Game was Astlibra: Revision. Found it on sale bundled with another game I've been wanting so I gave it a shot and got like, straight indie JRPG of the early 2000s injected into my veins.
3
likes
6 mos ago
Hate that strange ennui that hits after 100%'ing a really, really good game. Good time was had, but man am I glad it can't mess my sleep schedule up anymore.
6
likes
2 yrs ago
Rich people blood sports is how the Oscar's should always have gone. As a hot blooded american man I cant sleep at night without witnessing violence of some kind.
3
likes
3 yrs ago
So true. Anyways, play Lancer!
3 yrs ago
Final Fantasy: Stranger in Paradise is the funniest shit I've ever seen while also not being a bad game. Just crack open some cold ones with the boys, blare Limp Bizket, and Kill Chaos.
Heh. Seeing people wonder whether this is going to be a steamroll power wank rp or a "The kobolds are the actual scariest things" rp.
Overall though, like I said, stats are mostly fiat. Things are strong, and things are weak, and we're somewhere on the beginning of being strong. Y'all shall see though.
Personality: Owing to the nature of her creation, Papillary has a simple personality somewhat affected by her juxtaposition to Graft. She is generally earnest and hardworking, if a bit of a ditz, but she takes immense satisfaction in seeing others come to ruin, particularly by their own hands. To that end she'll do her best to assist in others' downfalls, and she derives a very sadistic pleasure from others killing themselves by attacking her.
Notable Equipment: Papillary possesses a number of items that support her unique build, none of them very rare, but all helpful. One, the Razor's Edge, is a cursed dagger that increases damage dealt by skills, abilities, and spells but increases damage taken, both by 25%. She has a few rings and bands that increase her max HP, including Fragile Abundance, a harness worn under her vest, that decreases her physical and magical defense by 15% but boosts her max HP by the same amount. Her only rare item is Second Chance, which makes an OHKO attack leave her at 1 HP instead, which she got from Tabula.
Notable Skills: The lynchpin of Papillary's skillset, and arguably the only thing she has going for her, is the signature skill of the Karmic Priestess class: Karmic Retribution. When damage is dealt to her, she can spend SP to activate the skill and deal the full total damage value against her as true damage to whoever dealt the attack, ignoring most defenses. One other, sometimes overlooked skill is Tranquility, which provides steady percentage-based HP regen as long as she doesn't take any offensive action, which Karmic Retribution doesn't count as.
Creator Information: Brushen Penn created Papillary to capitalize on a a game mode in Yggdrasil commonly known as NvN, an NPC battle arena where players pitted their creations against one another, in order to try and cheese its high-end rewards. She created Papillary in order to abuse a little-known but hilariously cheap build and cheese as many matches as possible. In essence, she created a character with maximized HP and minimal defenses to purposefully take massive amounts of damage from enemies and then deal it back to them. Penn did not put much effort into the 'character' part of the character, though, going to such little effort as to name her after a disease her sister had at the time. However, a little over a week after Penn finished and started using her -to great effect-, a patch was released that straight-up banned the Karmic Priest/Priestess class from being used in NvN, and Papillary was thereafter never used again, instead left to rot in the Factory.
Due to her relatively low level, she does not pose as much of a threat to much higher-leveled entities, especially those with ways to get around her gimmick, but against lower-level or straightforward enemies or those she manages to take by surprise, she can be an effective nuke
Accepted! I mean, it'd be a bit awkward now since she's showed up IC and all. But I'd accept her even if that wasn't the case.
Name: Butterfly "Bone Daddy" Gender: Identifies as Male Age: 25 Appearance: Occupation: Skeletal Butler Progenitor Residence: Bone Butler Quarter Character Focus: Utility/Support, Minion Master, Resource Gathering
Butterfly's primary purpose is to create and produce an endless amount of low level undead. Thanks to a combined combination of his Skeleton Mage and Necromancer class, he can create up to 20 low tier undead a day. Additionally, he can create profane zones where undead will not be permanently destroyed as long as they have died within those zones, allowing for any undead to simply respawn in as shortly as one minute. When paired with allies with undead traits, Butterfly can assist them with various powerful enchantments and buffs focused around empowering their racial abilities and help weakening or outright nullifying their usual undead weaknesses.
Personality: Butterfly is a quiet but dutiful Cybernetic Skeleton Man. He has quite a high sense of justice, but also a great sense of duty. He takes advantage of his ability to go under people's attention in order to do what must be done, even if he gains nothing from it. Has a certain determination that borderlines mindless at times, and in order to keep himself sane he tries to pay attention to the interaction of those around him. Gives him a sense of self comparing himself to others. Notable Equipment: Cyber Skull - The item he's built around. The Cyber Skull is a unique item made only for Skeleton race characters that allow them to take on Automaton traits and abilities, but also their weaknesses as well. It comes with an unique ability called Synchronization, which allows him to grant any skeleton or automaton within a wide range of himself equal stats and abilities as his own, unless their own are superior. This allows even the low level and normally weak Skeleton Butlers to suddenly become deadly and competent warriors if they are near him.
Adamantine Skeleton - Butterfly's skeleton is plated with Adamantine alloy, granting him an incredible amount of defense and allowing his unarmed strikes to shatter stone and metal with ease. Weapons that aren't made of adamantine or high level magic enchantments will fail to harm him. However it also makes him incredibly heavy and susceptible to magic effects that target metals except rust or corrosion based effects.
Skeleton Butlers - While not possessions per say, Butterfly still feels somewhat responsible for all of the skeleton butlers under his command. As they are created via his magic and bones, he sees them as his children of sorts. Additionally thanks to being their direct creator, he always knows where they are, can command them from wherever he is at, and if he's willing to sacrifice them he can even teleport to any skeleton that he had created.
Creator Information: Butterfly's creator is M177013, or Meta for short. Meta was a heavy roleplayer in the chateau but was very melodramatic and had an annoying taste for super dark and depressive stories, claiming that anything that had too much happiness was just trash. He was the type of person who insists that flaws are the only important part of a character, and a character without a lot of flaws was practically a mary sue. This was a double-edge sword as Meta annoyed many of his fellows for his constant criticism, but it wasn't as if he couldn't carry his own weight either. His sharp eyes for weakness allowed even his rather suboptimal class to exploit faults of his enemies, and while he has plenty of loses under his belt Meta is also well known back in Yggdrasil for absolutely destroying various high level PvPers with his unaltered character. Butterfly himself was created as an afterthought by Meta, who only created Butterfly because Meta was asked to supply the Chateau with servants.
Total Level: 35 Class Levels: Necromancer (H) (10) Maid (B) (5) Cook (B) (5) Race Levels: Skeleton Mage (15)/Automaton (15) Alignment: Lawful Good
Description: 149 cm / Just below 4'11". Inner-iris heterochromia, amber and green. Blonde hair with sidelocks, v-bangs, a braid and being of waist-length. Looks like a young, short teen with a large bust, cute and pretty like a doll.
Occupation: Head of Chateau Air Force, Grinding Assistant, On-call Loot Transporter Residence: Chapter 5 of Chateau Gothika, Chamber of Imaginary Numbers (the COIN) Character Focus: Physical and Physical Elemental DPS, Hunter-Seeker, Search-and-Destroy, Close-quarters Combat
Isolde comes across as a stoic, cold-hearted and often-times very mechaanae individual. Prioritizing logic, reason and efficacy, she has no qualms about taking drastic measures or performing morally questionable deeds. She is willing to sacrifice even her own allies if it means accomplishing a given task or order. This being said, it's not that she enjoys, wants or likes doing so, it's simply how she was made. Obediant and dutiful, diligent and reliant on logical conclusion. She is not cruel or sadistic, taking no pleasure in the suffering of others, but she has no problem inflicting pain upon others either if needed, or commanded to do so.
Thus, due to the above, many would state that she's a cold, heartless machine with no feelings or will of her own. They, however, would be very mistaken, as Isolde has many, many quirks and much character to her. For one, she is incredibly stubborn, unwilling to accept failure or defeat - be it on a mission or simply while playing a game with someone, she will request do-overs and re-matches repeatedly, unwilling or unable to give up. She's also incredibly ignorant of anything and everything that doesn't have to do with battle, strategy or information-gathering. Having virtually no knowledge of things like love, friendship, tact, culture, ethics or much of anything else, she is prone to often asking very blunt and direct questions, which may or may not be uncomfortable or embarrassing for others to answer.
In addition, she has a huge sweet-tooth and will seek out sugary treats and eat them with quiet delight. She's also fiercely protective and selfish of these snacks, unwilling to share or let others have them. If her treats are taken without permission, she'll become an avatar of vengeance, seeking out the culprit to exact harsh punishment upon them - regardless of who they are. Isolde also appears to be very naive, taking most what people say or tell her at face-value, unable to distinguish things like sarcasm, jokes or lies. Due to this, she has amassed a large amount of faulty information which, at times, can be incredibly comedical to hear her speak with a straight, serious face.
Despite all this, Isolde still suffers from having a seemingly always calm and nearly monotone voice. The fact that her facial expression never really changes either makes it seem like she's just a talking, walking doll. She has limited body-language as well, causing her to appear even less 'alive' when spoken to. Still, the little automaton does her best to try and learn and fit in with her peers, at least while off the battlefield. Aware of her own inability to be properly expressive though, Isolde ofren takes to punctuating the start of any sentence with either what she is feeling or the intent of her comment, such as for example: "Relentless. I request a re-match." or "Enraged. You will be terminated for stealing my pudding."
Gawanfaeyr: The large claymore that Isolde wields. A very powerful sword, which is very large - and made to look even larger than normal due to Isolde's diminuitive stature. Forged from high-quality, light-weight and highly durable material, this is Isolde's favored weapon and the one she uses the most. As a heavy-duty sword it packs quite a punch and has a passive bonus against armored foes. In addition, the magic metals used in its creation allows it to strike incorporeal or ethereal beings without the use of any elemental or otherwise magical abilities. Despite its size, Isolde wields it with both ease and grace. Still, it isn't suited for thrusting attacks, and its usefulness in enclosed or tight spaces is very limited.
Crescent Moon Fang: A very long and edgy-looking dai-katana. While not as bulky or imposing as Gawanfaeyr, this weapon's long, slightly curved blade is almost the same length as the former. Again, due to Isolde's below-average height, it appears to be even longer. This weapon's main benefit is how easily it cuts through lightly armored foes, and the devestating Bleed-conditions it can inflict with just basic attacks. While not as imposing as the claymore, nor as good at taking out armored enemies, the Crescent Moon Fang is even faster to swing and slash with, as well as excels at taking down groups of weaker foes quickly. Also, due to its slimmer blade, it is far more easy to make precise strikes and cuts with, increasing the chance for critical hits or even vorpal strikes. Sadly, just like the Gawanfaeyr, it does not do well in tight or enclosed areas.
Ascalibur: A fancy-looking short sowrd, with gold embellished guard and pommel. The blade has a nice sheen to it, and small runic letters are carved along ithe length of the blade. This weapon, in YGGDRASIL, was an homage to both of the legendary swords Excalibur and Ascalon, with tis name being a fusion of them both. Although paling in comparison to such iconic weapons, it does boast some minor enchantments. It prevents self-regeneration when causing damage to creatures like lycanthropes or trolls, as well as doing extra damage against all reptilian species, such as Lizardmen, Snakefolk and even Dragons. This weapon is however mainly used as a side-arm and is almost never used, only seeing action when it's too cumbersome, confined or unnecessary to use Isolde's primary weaponry.
Cobaltite-weave Dress:: A beautiful and extravagant dress, made from cobaltite-weave. Having a deep blue and pristine white color-scheme, it's quite lovely. However, besides being fashionable and stylish, it also offers great protection due to the magic metal weave of which it was made. In fact, it offers greater protection than even a set of full platemail armor, but being no heavier in weight than a normal dress. In addition, cobaltite has both magic absorbing and dispersing properties, making spells that strike the dress less effective. Of course, this also means that beneficial or helpful spells are also less effective. Roughly, it reduces spell-effects by 10~15%, as long as the spells are not of 7th tier of above, in which case the absorption does not work.
Safeguard Sabatons: These fashionable boots are magiaclly enchanted to resist any kind of movement-restricting or stopping spells and abilities. They also negate movement penalties when walking across difficult terrain, such as slippery icy, muddy slopes, craggy rock or similar. In addition, while being considered light armor, they are just as strong and protective as a pair of fully plated boots. Note that they noyl have a high resistance to movement-hindrance skills, they don't grant complete immunity to them. They also deal quite a bit of damage if you kick someone with them...
Scarlet Maiden's Neckerchief: The red neckerchief Isolde wears is an item that grants an overall small bonus to both physical and magical defense. In addition, it's a deathblow-protection item, allowing the wearer to survive an attack that would either kill them instantly or reduce their HP to 0. Note, when it has saved the wearer once, its color fades to grey and it will need a full day (24 hours) to regain its power. When drained, it also loses the defensive bonuses it provides.
Frost Giant's Girdle: The girdle/belt that Isolde wears greatly increases her already impressive strength. In addition, it also grants her considerable resistance to Ice and Cold-elemental attacks. On top of that, it allows her to - once per hour - tsummon an absolutely enormous ice javelin which can be hucked at enemies for great frost damage. This ability does not stack, and there can only ever be one charge available. On the downside, the item does give her a small penalty to her Fire resistance.
Varied Wardrobe: Isolde has access to a very large and very varied collection of vanity costumes and outfits. From the casual attire she wears in one of the above pictures, to things like swimsuits, bunnysuits, mascot costumes, gym clothes and so on, it's safe to say that she has a very extensive wardrobe. These items, by themselves, do not offer any bonuses or perks - they're just things Ivonbraids gathered, or bought, to dress her up in. Some of the outfits were even donated, or made, by none other than Deka_Ribbon.
Isolde was created by the player Ivonbraids, aslo known as 'Iron Blades' and 'I want Braids'. He was a self-employed, 30~something fellow who surprising amount of free-time on his hands. He was however not a Sable Lord of Bandersnatch, but rather just a regular member. That being said, he was one of the more active and prominent figures of the guild, due to his activity and participation in both game-related events as well as roleplay. He was a friendly and jovial sort, willing to lend a hand or an ear when needed. He created Isolde some time after the launch of the 'Valykrie Downfall' update, for some reason being very enthused about the idea of creating an 'android'. While his skills as a programmer weren't the best, through sheer perserverence and will, he eventually finished his short but busty automaton, and was quite pleased with the results.
Isolde originally served as Ivonbraids' personal escort and bodyguard, as well as a pack-mule and distraction when needed. Still, he made sure to always keep her in good condition and was always meticulous and diligent in levelling her up, equipping her and making sure she grew and eveloped in a viable and useful fashion. Eventually, due to Isolde's success and prowess, as well as popularity with some guild members, Ivonbraids was asked to make her the Chapter Keeper of the 5th floor. Originally apprehensive, he eventualy agreed to the proposal, on the condition that he could still bring her along when he wanted.
Unfortunately, as the years went on, Ivonbraids became increasingly busy with whatver self-employed business he was running. He started being absent for days, then weeks and then months at length, only popping up occassionally. About four of five years before YGGDRASIL was shut down, he logged on to inform everyone that he was sadly going to be quitting the game - simply not having time for it anymore. He thus transfered all his belongings, equipment ande resources to the collective treasury of Bandersnatch as well as giving administrative access to Isolde to the Sable Lords. Some time after that though, one of these Sable Lords intended to redo and overhaul both Isolde and the 5th Chapter, thus putting them both into 'sleep'-mode. Unfortunately, said Sable Lord never actually got around to doing or carrying out any of their intended plans, and so both Isolde and the 5th Chapter were left in a perpetual state of deactivation...
A dark and gloomy place, the Chamber is fairly minimalistic in design. The ceiling/roof appears to be some kind of aurora borealis, although instead of pruple and violet, it shifts in color between various shades of blue only, and none of which are particularly bright or light. The walls are smooth black and cold to the touch, with random lines of runic letters, hieroglyps or greek numerals either trailing down, rising up or simply fading in and out, all aglow with dim azure light. The floor and ground is similarily made out of some black material, possibly stone. It appears to be tiled though, with dim blue light radiating from inbetween the tiles. Overall, black and blue are the dominant colors of the chamber.
In shape, it resembles a dome-like structure, and is fuctionally just one, big room. At the center of it all stands an elevated, large circular-shaped pillar - although it is a wee bit too short to actually be called that. Four wide staircases, one facing each cardinal direction, leads up to the flat top. On each diagonal, ibewtween the staircases , are long, slender and slightly bent spires - resembling fingers or claws that are slightly bent inwards and towards the center. On the tip of each of these 'fingers' are dark, floating orbs - roughly the size of a pumpkin - that glow with a faint, violet aura around them. Occasional, short arcs of violet energy, resembling lightning or electricity, surge from within the dark spheres.
On the actual elevated dais itself, there are three objects of interest. The first, and most noticeable, is the much larger and more ominous dark sphere, sitting atop a wide pedestal. Like its smaller brethren above on the fingers, it too is black and aglow with an eerie, dim violet light - however, it also seems to crack and pulse, like an egg when a chick is trying to escape from within. This orb is, by comparison, the size of a small car. The second object of note is a pristine silvery-white chaur or throne, with thick back and armrests. It seems to have been carved from either a single piece of stone or metal, and apart from a sapphire-colored cushion on the seat itself, it doesn't look particularly comfortable. The final object, and the most curious one, is the modern-looking mini fridge not far from the throne. Opening it will reveal a trove of various pastries, candies and other sugary snacks. The words Private Property! is scribbled on one side of the container, with very crude handwriting. Though it looks like a modern utensil, it is acutually just a regular chest with a vanity-skin bought from the cash shop.
Apart from this, the only other noteworthy part of the chamber are the lines of blue energy, running up and along the central elevated pillar's sides. Resembling power-lines or bloodvessels, random pulses of light race through them, only to vanish as they reach the ends. But apart form this, the chamber really holds nothing - no elaborate labyrinthean maze, no catwalks or precarious ledges, no great obstacles or obstructing structures. Simple, truly, is best.
Purpose:
The Chamber of Imaginary Numbers serve two very key roles. The firt is to act as a as supply depot, where loot, resources and material can be dropped off - into the giant black sphere. The orb will then redistribute these goods to the appropriate locations within the Chateau, acting as a teleportation or translocation, or even pipeline, for shipping materials around the guild hall. One need simply toss the items one wishes to relocate into the miniature-looking black hole and the device takes care of the rest, thanks to programming and setting parameters.
Likewise, its other function is to work as an acquisition station, capable of pulling materials, goods and items from the other floors into the Chamber. Naturally, to prevent accidents, pranks and/or potential attempted illegal borrowing, certain areas and items have been either restricted or removed altogether - such as pulling things from the Vault, or any sensitive and more delicate things, such as the chat-logs of the Library, or new items from the Factory or Forge. Basically, this function is to be used by the Bandersnatch players before they head out on raids, quests or to grind, to quickly and easily gather up whatever supplies they need for their trip, without having to visit the other floors to do so. In turn, it also serves as a quick and easy way to dump off your loot after you're done, without having to visit the different floors and sorting things out manually.
TThis is all that the Chamber of Imaginary Numbers really is, a large suuply depot, meant to be conveniant and easy to use for all the members of the guild.
Residents:
Isolde is the Chapter Keeper of the Chamber, and therefore its mistress. However, since she was often dragged off to join Ivonbraids' on his escapades, or any of the other members of Bandersnatch who wanted her along when they went out, she actually spent very little time in the Chapter itself. In order to keep the place safe and running, Ivonbraids created the ESPER Wings, a group of 10 rather high level NPCs - who resemble Isolde to a dangerous degree - to look after the place. While calling the 'high level they were still not close to any of the Chapter Keeprs, their levels were merely considerably higher than most of the fodder or minion-NPCs found throughpout the other floors and rest of the Chateau.
In addition to these ladies, Ivonbraids also added a small group of bronze and iron golems to patrol the area. Their main duty was to act as distractions and damage-spongers in case of intruders, while Isolde and the ESPER Wings were meant to actually do the attacking and repelling of enemies. They also served to pick up clutter and litter, take it to the big sphere and huck it in. So, in some way, they acted as the chamber's janitors.
ESPER Wings: Explore, Supply, Patrol, Engage, Retrieve - that is the meaning of the acronym. These automaton ladies, resembling Isolde in all ways except with white hair, no braid and wearing identical bodysuits and visors, were the primary caretakers of the chamber when their Keeper was out. However, unlike Isolde, they were not given any meaningful personalities, backstories or depth, and as such were and acted as mere 'dolls'. They were not given individuality or quirks to seperate or differentiate them, making it all but impossible to tell them apart unless you looked at their names. They were not, however, given equal attention in the levelling-department, ranging between the levels of 43~47, and their classes differ somewhat.
Their purpose was not merely to act as stand-in guardians though. Players out in the field could send a request, to have one of them fly over and carry any unwanted or excess baggage, loot or items back to the Chateau, to allow the player to keep on doing their thing. While the same could be done by going to a mailbox or using translocation magic or scrolls, not all players had access to the latter and doing the former meant you had to spend time going to a town, pay the fee and then go pick the shipment up, manually, yourself. By calling in one of ESPER Wings, you could just empty your bags into their iventory, and then return to your play while they zipped on back to the Chateau and delivered your cargo to the Great Sphere.
In terms of their classes and jobs, there are two clerics, two wizards, three gunners and three fighters. All of them wear the same, exact defensive equipment and each of the classes wield the same, identical weaponry as their fellow job-holders, meaning all the fighers have the same weapon, the gunners have the same gun, etc. Oh, and incase you were curious about the whole 'flying' thing, yes, the ESPER Wings, and isolde, can fly, thanks to magic cores installed in each of them - allowing them to manifest wings of translucent, azure-colored aether-energy from their backs. The ESPER Wings cannot maintain theirs as long as Isolde can, but their inherently high speed and decent mana regeneration - thanks to their cores - allowed them to quickly and easily fly out of, and then back to, the Chateau with relative ease and safety.
They were also sometimes used as scouts for raids or dungeoneering, or when the Chateau went to a new area and needed someone to recon the premises. As such, they technically became the Air Force of the Chateau.
Dormancy:
After Ivonbraids officially 'quit' YGGDRASIL, and transfered administrative control over to the Sable Lords of the guild, the COIN continued its operations for a time. However, at some point in time, one of the Lords - for whatever reason - decided that they wanted to renovate, reinvent, redo or just reimagine the chamber. As such, Isolde, the ESPER Wings and the rest of the facility was put into a dromant state, entering sleep-mode. The one responsible for this intended to do their renovations like this because it would cause the least interference, as well as avoid mucking things up with the functions they wished to keep. Sadly though, the person who did this never actually got around to carrying out their changes. Whether they lost interest, forgot about it or quit the game altogether, nobody will ever know - all that's left obvious, is the fact that the Chamber and its residents have remained dormant and inactive for four, close to five, years now.
Since the person responsible also put a password-protection on the dormant Chapter, attempts at reawakening it were all but impossible - únless you wanted to just spend endless hours trying to guess the correct password, which could be anything. And since nobody knew who had put up the password to begin with, there were no real clues or ideas on what it could possibly be. As such, the 5th Chapter, its residents and its functions were left alone, a museum which was rarely visited in the later years of the guild.
Trivia:
As an automaton, she is resistant to Holy/Light, Dark/Negative Energy and Earth elemental attacks by nature.
She is however very vulnerable to Electric-elemental attacks.
As an automaton, she is outright immune to Poison, Disease, Life-steal and Mental Effects such as Fear, Despair, Insanity, Rage, Mind-Control, Charm and etc.
She cannot swim. At all. If she enters deep water, she will sink like a rock.
She cannot be healed by food items or by HP potions. To recover health, Isolde needs to be healed by a direct Healing Spell, or by being repaired. Her passive HP regeneration is inferior to that of all living, biological creatures.
Any Food or Healing Items she ingests are converted into MP. As such, while she doesn't need to eat, she still can eat, much to the chagrin of all the sweets in the world.
She has a lot of faulty and/or questionable information, much of which was provided by Deka_Ribbon.
Approved! Go ahead and add her in as the 5th Chapter Keeper, Xalt.
And with the reveal of Xalt having a seperate thing, I'm officially lifting the single character rule. You are all now free to create additional character, with approval from me. Just, make sure you come with the concept before writing up a whole sheet, so that you don't put in a ton of effort only for me to ruin it.
Let me know if I missed anybody, or anybody wants something to happen for them in particular henceforth. Rodias' interaction is always open for people, since we can always just change the timeframe to have it fit.
Ashara's small scheme to ask a man upon the road the name of the village would reveal its name as Amberden, seeming more than happy to help a pretty lady in need. The different fellow would point at the largest one story building, saying: "Back in tha' day, the 'ol minemaster got made the mayor. Now, Mayor Kruger is in charge of the town an' mines. Speakin' of Kings though...must have come from far out if you haven't heard of High Queen Atlecia. She rules this country, but we give our taxes to Duke Larn. Careful usin' his name though...he's got ears everywhere. Bit paranoid," the helpful miner would say, welcoming Ashara to their happy country before he left. The woman she asked would hum, thinking of things around the village. Nothing much was around it seemed, save the mines, and the Ranger's outpost about ten miles east. The mines themselves were also called Amberden, since it seemed they mined out some kind of amber colored ore from there. It seemed the whole town cropped up because of it.
Mars was instructing a spearman on the proper grip on his spear before Ashara would show up. His eyes were no longer filled with suspicion at her questioning, but she could tell that he was a rather curt person just from his demeanor. "I don't really know why you're out here if you just started but...I did offer and all. No need to be humble on my account by the way. Just Mars'll do...come to think of it, I don't know your name," Mars would say. Once introductions were down however, he would open up once more.
"My advice to any beginner is to try and find easy jobs that pay well enough to get good gear. Anything involving gathering, escorting...anything but directly fighting monsters. Seen a lot of idiots die thinking that a Nightmare was just a horse but tougher, with their heads ripped clean off. Second uh...never let anybody know what you're capable of. Rookie Hunters are pretty common now a days. Sick losers who try and cull or scout talented adventurers. Either break 'em to get them to quit, or have them join their posse," Mars would explain. "Don't take jobs for nobles, by the way, unless you're sure you can complete them. Declining a job is easy but failing one for someone with power...lots of adventurers wind up in a hole. Its not all sunshine and gold pieces like the stories make it out to be. Its tough...but something in your eyes tells me that you're cut out for it. Like you were born strong."
"Maaaaaaaaaaaars!" a woman's voice would call out as Mars finished his brief explanation on novice advice, a Strawberry haired young woman would call out, her slight frame making her a rather strange sight for Ashara, given how beefy everyone around here seemed. Running up, she would tilt her head looking at Ashara, before smirking. "Find another protegee? This one's cute, Mars. You sure you're JUST picking people with talent?" she would ask, before Mars would smack her upside the head with a gloved hand.
"None of your business who I train, Corona. But no, she's an adventurer. More fight in her than a dozen of these pipsqueaks. Sorry about that," Mars would say, directing the apology to Ashara while Cornoa nursed the bump on the back of her head. "This is why you're still single, jackass..." she murmured, going over and stamping on the foot of his boot, to no effect since he was wearing steel toed boots. Mars didn't seem to care much, looking at her.
"Another ore delivery?
"Yup. Was wondering if you'd help me carry about eleven filled, one half to Dad's shop."
Mars paused to consider it for a moment, before looking to Ashara. "Actually...would you want to do it? Corona's father's the local blacksmith, so they need a lot of metal to repair tools and make new ones. That and they smelt it down to ingots for sale. Its decent pay for some honest work...though, I get if its not quite "adventurous" enough. Either way, I can't do it."
"Huh? Whyyyyy...? Are you still mad I brought up you're single?"
Mars would shake his head, pointing his thumb at his fledgling recruits. "These idiots are gonna need me, before they poke themselves in the eye. And I know your dad needs the ore there before the end of the day. Night time's my only free time."
Seeing that Mars was taken, Corona would clap her hands together and put them in front of her face, bowing to Ashara. "Pleaaaase help us then Miss? Like Mars said, we pay good for ore deliveries..."
Zouyu was fascinated by all the new species being found so quickly...most animals that he knew were the ones in the Pen, which numbered in just over a few hundred. But generally things in one area had one niche to them, and here it seemed like a whole melting pot of different animals and plants...but they all seemed super weak.
At the prospect of using the Share Senses skill however, Zouyu would beam, eyes sparkling innocently as he laid his pawwed hand atop Kaldorna's hand, the pink squishy pad feeling really soft to the touch before Zouyu's vision became that of Kaldorna's hawk. It was a bit disorienting, but thankfully the hawk wasn't hindered by Zouyu's peering. "This is cool!" Zouyu would say excitedly before the roaring beast came into sight. A mass of fur, meat, muscle, and ivory, four tasks broke through the face of a titanic pachyderm who's rage seemed to know no bounds. Its power was evident by its earth shaking steps, the height of the beast easily towering over the first floor of the Chateau. Ivory fur with streaks of black around the face masked the creature in the snow, and, upon seeing a collapsed weathered tree overgrown in moss, it would rip it from its roots by its trunk and begin consuming it. Upon eating, it would walk back towards the snowy northern plains, near where Kaldorna's hunters would have seen a party of Chuunitrixx's scouts go.
Pulling his paw back, Zouyu's eyes were sparkling. "Strong! Big! And fuzzy! I didn't know him too well, but I bet Lord Sun200 would have absolutely loved to have that thing in his pens! It looked like it could stomp this whole forest flat if it wanted! Zouyu exerted a childlike excitement, wanting nothing more than to go right over and capture the beast. "Should I fight it? Oh, but I can't tame animals easy...Nnrr...I wanna assert dominance..." the weretiger would say, shivering as he tried to think of what to do, before looking to Kaldorna. "Should we take it on? I think we can, at least in terms of numbers. Won't know how strong it is until we see, and all."
Rodias hadn't actually considered the necessity of spices in his assessment of the needs of the kitchen. he'd hardly done any cooking of his own, so the idea of any form of spice beyond the little packet that came with a cup of noodles was foreign to him. Looking at Flan's spice rack, his eyes went wide, as if he'd just gotten explained an advanced science and actually tried to think about it. "I see," Rodias would say, not really understanding. "I'll have to get Zouyu to begin growing spices then. There should be plenty of room for them in the garden," he would add, still wondering just how many spices one person could need.
Clearing his throat, Rodias' cape would curl up behind him, the edges of it tapping together just in front of his collarbone. "As for what I can have you do...if you ever need to experiment with new ingredients from this world...feel free to ask me. Even if something is poisonous, I'm more resistant to it than most," The Sable Lord would say, wanting to taste more of Flan's cuisine, even if it was in a roundabout way. But with his peace said Rodias would leave Flan to her own devices and to continue relaxing for the night.
When morning would come, Rodias would return to the forges, this time smartly wearing only his long sleeved shirt, the puffed sleeves making it easier for air to flow, and not melt the vampire in the several hundred degree heat of the forges. Approaching the Forge Master of the Third Chapter, Rodias would bow his head, hand over his heart. "Oz, I've come with a rather...odd request for you. I've come to realize that, unless I felt like terrorizing the lesser beasts of the pen, I've nothing comparable to a real opponent for a novice. I can't hope to slay a dragon after one day of swinging an axe, and all," The Sable Lord would speak, the heat of the forge causing him to sweat even without his full armor.
"As such, I was wondering if I might commission something a touch...complex, from you. A training partner, durable enough to withstand most attacks, and able to put up enough of a fight to make the training worthwhile." Usually, when a Sable Lord, or any other member of the guild desired to test their mettle or try out new weapons, they would spar with one another or Sun200's beasts. But now that he was alone, Rodias' only options were to ask one of his subordinates, or to go back to the Beast Pens. But dragging out high levels monsters and reliably having them go back to their cages was a problem, since now it wasn't as simple as them being lead about as friendly monsters until ordered to attack. Now they were living, breathing beings that if they knew their captors were weaker than them, could break out if Rodias failed to subdue them.
"In addition, I'd like you to make an accessory to lower my overall level. Or at least my attributes. Difficulty breeds growth, and all." With his requests made, the Sable Lord would add: "Oh, and make no mistake, I have something very worth your work to offer in exchange. One of Daz-Khaz_Mordu's personal treasures that might be useful to you."
With their prisoners secured, Gromgard and Mamoru would be free to venture further into the woods...after Penn and Shill had their fill of artistic vision, of course. The two goblins, in spite of their dire straits, seemed more than capable of fulfilling their calling as artists. Gromgard's visage in the moonlit forest would prove to be very striking indeed, to the point that Rodias would later insist upon hanging it in Gromgard's domain. No cultists seemed to remain, but Mamoru's scouting would fine a hexagonal ritual circle dug into the ground, the scorch marks indicative of some sort of magic surrounding it...along with the scorched remains of human organs.
But, Rodias had only instructed them to retrieve the two goblins. While the prisoners were a certain positive, Mamoru couldn't be certain if their lord would approve of further meddling. Information was the priority...but nothing could stop the maid if she chose to look on. That and it was a lovely night for a picnic...the two could take their time if they so chose.
The morning within the Archive was filled with Rodias frantically flipping through all records left within the guild after a certain member's departure, attempting to the best of his abilities to find the one who had previously been in possession of the master key to the now largely inactive 5th Chapter. Once a place used to distribute resources, it now was offline due to postponed "renovations" that kept it in an indefinite state of disuse. Now more than ever it needed to be back online, and in order to do it, Rodias had to find the asshat's password just to START rebooting it.
With a fair amount of documentation on that specific guild member in hand, Rodias would barge into Chapter 5 unopposed, seeing as Kath's floor itself aligned to allow him passage out. Rodias would ponder for hours on the existence of the elusive pass phrase, each tome he poured over containing so many mind numbing chat logs that eventually Rodias just burnt out, needing a break. For the time being, he would need to think on that particular guild member's interests, hobbies...and fetishes, all to just try and find out his stupid Chapter Recovery Password. It vexed him to no end how someone could be irresponsible enough to just up and quit after shutting a floor down with a password lock, but he figured that he could figure it out. Looking within the sleeping clear casket present within the central structure of the technologically futuristic Chapter, Rodias would eye the sleeping Keeper, wondering if it wouldn't just be faster to have Graft try and override protection.
Shaking his head, Rodias would return to his reading. He trusted Graft fully...but he needed to gain the trust of everyone. By doing a seemingly impossible task, recovering Chapter 5, Rodias intended to show that he was a worthy leader, one who can unite them.
Even if it meant typing in different variations of: "FUCKING PASSWORD", "password1" "adminpassword" "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789" about a thousand times a second. Having high agility was amazing, as his fingers glided across the digital screen present before the casket, each failed attempt being answered quickly with another. He'd crack this eventually...
...Once he stopped typing profanity to vent his frustrations.
@The Irish TreeRodias literally sent a naughty child back into Flan's kitchen. How could you be so CRUEL! This is the thanks she gets after working so hard in the kitchen! That mimic was behaving fine with the toast at the beginning but now she's on a feeding frenzy!
Flan:...Guess it's time my Butter Knife of Meat Cleaving got some use. Fufufu.
Rodias just assumed she'd go and ask for food like he did. Rodias' biggest mistake currently is assuming people think normally.
Just as a heads up, I'm going to be posting on Tuesday rather than Monday. Taking my dad out for his birthday, so that'll mean that the post won't quite be ready. But, it'll get done. Promise.
Steppe Archer's smile only brightened at the prospect of their job getting easier with the bright moons being out. It certainly made alleyways more inviting, with each hour passing only making each place a more unsafe place for darkness to dwell. She really did feel like they were doing great, even if this was just a single, well-lit night on the job. If she didn't feel like getting harassed by drunks on a bi-nightly basis was a turn-off, she might well have considered swapping careers...but adventures sounded a lot more fun than guard duty. Still, she wouldn't mind taking a job like this another time, if needed to.
As the time grew nearer for them to end their night off and head to bed, Steppe Archer would yawn and stretch, energy finally having hit its limits. "Yeah, we just...gotta get back to the garrison, get paid, and go to bed." she would say, starting to walk towards the center of town with her companions, then back north to the garrison. It was simple enough to get back, and, with the time limit having just been hit, it was a good time for the nomadic archer to finally bottom out on stamina.
Thankfully, nothing would happen as they entered, the archer stepping forward to say: "We patrolled around, and no trouble sir! We found a drunk, but...he found out that going home was a lot better than spending the night in a cell," she would say, extinguishing her torch and saluting.
Could we do a lil Collab between Mamoru and the cultist? I don’t imagine it should be long depending on how quickly Mamoru can convince the cultist to start talking.
ezio ac2
Lucid Dreaming
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