Xaltwind

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

@PigeonOfAstora
You alright there buddy? You've been awfully quite for a while. 'Cuz your last IC post was 9 days ago, which means you missed this week's deadline.

EDIT:

Two days behind deadline, with no contact, explantion or excuse via PM or in the OOC. Sad to say, but as of today, PigeonOfAstora and Ciel are henceforth no longer part of the active cast. Ciel will be turned into a minor NPC until such a time that he can be written out of the story.

Goblin Slayer: Newblood (CANCELLED)

As they passed by the fields of golden stalks of grain, the wagon eventually reached the point where it passed through an open, spacious fence-gate. Rolling slowly to a stop, the farmer stretched his arms into the air, let out a groaning sigh and then smacked his lips - as if he had been doing some kind of streineous chore or excersise all this time. The place they'd stopped at was a farm, no doubt about it. There was a barn, a silo, a farmhouse and even a chicken coup, with some brown and white chickens bumbling about carefreely, picking at the soil for seeds and worms.

"Well, here we be, youngsters. Welcome to my farm." The old fellow said, climbing down from his seat and onto the ground. Moving to undo the straps and reins to his poor old work-horse, the fellow didn't exactly seem to be in a rush to cough up the coins he was due, nor to usher his bodyguards away. Perhaps he was just being hospitable? Or perhaps he was trying to squeeze as many minutes out of their R time as he could. Regardless, once he was done with his mare and led the poor critter back to a hobbled-together stable, he returned to the adventurers.

At this point, Druid Girl had climbed out of the cart as well, busying herself with looking arond at the fields and farmlands around them, as well as raising an eyebrow at the questionable state of some of the structures here. It was clear this man was no carpenter, and that he took greater care of his crops and livestock than his own infrastructure. But, hey, as long as the ceiling didn't come crashing down on him in his sleep, who was she to judge?

"Well then, I reckon ya'll be wantin' your pay now, huh?" The farmer said as he walked up to them, one hand digging around in the pocket of his trousers and the other one being used to rub himself just under th nose... Druid Girl made extra sure to remember which hand and arm had been used for which task, as the last thing she wanted was to shake hands with a snot-covered hand.

Fishing out a small sack from his pants, the farmer opened it up, took a look inside it, then re-sealed it with a piece of string and tossed it over to the group. Druid Girl managed to catch the soaring money-bag with both hands, and let out a huff - couldn't he just have handed it over to them instead? She took it upon herself to open the bag and give the amount of a once-over, which seemed to annoy the farmer.

"Ain't trustin' I be payin' my dues?"
"No, it's not that, sir. I just want to make that you're paying the correct amount, not too little or too much."
"Hah! As if I'd be affordin' to give ya'll more than what was promised to be the price." The man said, spitting a globule of snot-fleghm onto the ground next to him. "In any case, lil' missy, that there be the right 'mount, down to the last copper."

Druid Girl didn't disbelieve or distrust the man, but she made sure to count the coins regardless. Once that was done, she attached the pouch to her little belt and nodded in confirmation to her allies.

"Well, despite things, it seems you got back home safe and sound." She then said to the farmer, who proceed to scratch his chin absentmindedly.
"Yup. Fine job ya'll did, protectin' me from all nothin' that which showed up." He replied, snarkily.
"Nothing showed up this time? What about that poor woman and her ruined wagon? If you'd been on the road ysterday like her, you migh-"
"But I wasn't." He said, eyes half-closed and a stoney, cold expression on his face. "Whoever that lady was, she musta been travellin' close to dusk or dawn, which any farmer worht his salt knows ain't the time to be on the roads. She took a gamble on gettin' home, she paid the price."
"How can you brush it off like that?" Druid Girl asked, obviously frustrated.
"Look, missy, out here, people dyin' ain't something new. Farmers, town watchmen, travllers and heck, even adventurers like yourselves. People wind up dead almost every day. You stop to weep for every last poor soul who bit the dust, ya ain't gonna be doin' nothing but crying all the time. What happened to that woman was a shame, but there ain't nothin' that can be done about it now."
"... You're wrong on that point."
".. Hm, whassat?"
"Because we're also here to kill the goblins in this area."
"Oh, so you thinkin' tehms were goblins that di her in? Well, even if they weren't the varmints who choked her to croak, gettin' rid of those pesky lil' gremlins sure would make the area a lot safer, no doubt."

The farmer then turned around on his heel, obviusly no longer interested in trading words. He waved them off as he walked away, a half-assed casual wave, telling them they were welcome to stay as long as they needed in order to prepare for their 'goblin hunt'. Druid Girl followed the old codger with her gaze as he walked away, until he disappeared into the barn on the far end of the farm. Letting out a sigh, she turned to Big Red and Steppe Archer.

"So... Do either of you need to prepare anything? According to what the farmer, as well as the Guild said, the goblin nest should be north-west from here. Somewhere in the woodlands just beyond here, if I recall." The caramel-skinned girl asked and said, waiting to see if her comrades were ready or not to depart.

She also turned to look at the chickens clucking as they perused around the grounds. Her eyes started to sparkle slightly, and a single drop of saliva tried to escape and drop from the corner of her mouth...

"... Roast chicken..." She said to herself, hungrily.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

There we go.
The update is small, in that it mostly focuses on our dear Serafaye, and not so much on the surrounding world, or you guys' characters. Sadly, this kind of update was needed in order to get the little dracokin involved. Hopefully, future updates will be more all-encompassing and offer you all more to respond and act on.

For now, it might be a good idea to ask the girl who just flashed her panties for all and everyone, questions of your own - or answer her questions. :)

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Central Ruins, Palace Tower

What's up with these guys?

The purple-haired and horned girl stared in a mixture of confusion and bewildered annoyance at the trio before her... Who were soon made into a quintet by the addition of a lizardman popping his head up from the side of the open tower-wall, and the suddenly belly-flopping elf... Wait... How'd she done that? Summons couldn't pick players up and levitate them? Was there some sort of glitch? Did the game wonk out after shut-down and things just broke down? No, that didn't make any sense at all - stuff didn't just go off the rails just because you shut down a server, in fac, if the servers were shut down, shouldn't everything have just frozen? Or at least kicked them out the login screen?

Also, what was with the way these guys talked? Calling people 'miss' and 'amiden'? Who did that? Well, those nerdy roleplayers might, but ... Oh, wait... Of course.... Of course the geeky types would be the last ones to stay online, to play out their silly little fantasy about the world's end or somehting. Great. They all seemed hardcore about it too, not even responding to the mention of the absent HUD or hotbar. Heck, maybe their settings had those things disabled so they could immerse themselves in their delusions... So gross.

Still, the sudden mention by the girl who was dressed considerably stylish than the rest of the mottley assembly had the horned girl confused. Bloodline-boosting? What was that? There wasn't any system like that in the game. Was it some kind of roleplay-centric term or something? And who or what were these Imperials? Furthemore, where exactly were they? Where'd the Herculon Gorge gone? So many questions and nobody willing to answer. Damnable kids and their make-believe-pretend games...

"I've got no idea what you're on about, hoss." The girl said, sighing and shadking her head while also shrugging her shoulders.

Moving her hand up to touch her temple, the young girl - who looked to be in her mid-teens - closed her lone, visible eye and spoke a strange sentence, at least strange to the locals.

"Shift Communication, Help Channel, Call GM." She said, with a staright and serious-enough expression. "Hello? Did something happen to the server-shutdown? I can't access my menus or see my HUD, and I've clipped through to some... Strange.. Unfamiliar area..." A brief pause. "Hello? Anyone there?" Her eye opened again, as her mouth curled into a slgiht frown.

"What gives? Not a single GM online?" She muttered in slight irritation. "Shift Communication, Customer Support Channel, Call Staff." She tried a different venue. "Hello? Anybody there? I've run into some issues here, can't access the main menu. Is the server still running?" Questions asked into the empty air, as if the girl expected some divine voice from above to speak from nowhere and everywhere and answer her inquiries. Obviously, no such reply came. Even more obvious was the apparent frustration this was bringing to the young lady as her slight frown turned into a scowl. "Seriously? No customer support staff either? You're not exactly pulling this whole thing off with any kind of class, guys. Jeez, if I'd known I get stuck in some buggy-ass limbo with unused assets and a buncha roleplaying chuunis I would've just logged off before the timer hit zero." She spoke, to nobody in particular, apparnetly not adverse to airing her inner thoughts to those around her.

Moving forward from the spot she had been standing on since her awakening, the young lass took to striding towards the open wall-section of the tower, where the others had congregated. As she drew to the edge of the crumbled and collapsed brickwork though, her eye went wide and her jaw dropped like it was being pulled down by very localized Jupeterian gravity. As she stood there, staring out at the ruined royal plaza of the Forgotten Ruins, the others could hear a strange, unsettling noise... like the girl was gargling and breathing and had had her toes stepped on, all at once. Her eye twitched, blinked and she seemed to slightly shudder as she stood there, taking in the unfamiliar sight.. Until...

"WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!?!"

With the loud outurst echoing and bouncing off the surrounding structures, the girl didn't even stop to hear any explanations or anything. Instead, she stepped off the ledge of the platform, into thin air. Like one of those saturday-morning cartoon characters who didn't realize there was no more ground under their feet but kept going anyway... Only to then fall comically down as the revelation of their situation struck them. Fortunately, for the young lady, rather than plummet to her unceremonious death she instead slowly descended downwards, as if the wind had grabbed hold under her arms and was gently lowering her down onto the ground below. Oddly enough, this was happening without the girl having many any effort to cast a spell, or even make a motion to do so. She was slow-falling, effortlessly.

Of course, even if she was going down at a slow and safe pace, the fact remained that she was still going downwards... And with her get-up as it was, her large, drape-like cloaked fluttered and billowed majestically... But the very miniscule skirt-like part of her dress also did this... And the girl didn't seem to aware of this issue herself, as the black-lace undergarments she was wearing was put on display for anyone watching her, or looking up from below, at the time of her descent.

Touching down on the ground with a light clicking of her shoes, the horned one looked around. Her mouth was shaped like a cute little 'o' and her amethyst-like eye stared in wonder as well as disbelief at the scenery around her. This place... Was not Oubliette Online... There was no area or location in the great VRMMO that looked like this. She knew. She had been and explored every part of that in-game world. This place didn't exist. It didn't.

...

...

..

But it did.

"Ho... Wh... Whe... You... So..." Having trouble finding the words ... Or any words, for that matter, the girl kept saying syllables for a while, before turning around and realizing that there were others down here too. Another fancy-dressed lady, and a dude in... What was that? A Circus Vanity Set? Gilded Court Jester's Apparel? No, it wasn't either.. It was... weird. Was it hacked, or perhaps custom, designs? Wait! There was a third person! An elf, on the ground... With his eyes closed... Looking a bit banged up... Had he used the sleep-command or something? In the middle of an unknown area like this? The heck was going on here? So many questions and ponderings and mysteries, the young-looking girl couldn't begin to know where or what to wrap her head around... And it was giving her a migraine.

Eventually though, she straightened her posture, took a deep breath, turned to face the two punks at the bottom of the tower, along with their horsey, and spoke. Arms folded infront of her stomach and her brow angled diagonally downwards in discontent.

"Okay, look. I know you guys're way into this whole roleplaying your characters thing, but could you please cut that out for a moment and just answer me?" She half-asked, half-demanded, half-requested. "Where are we? Does any of your systems or tabs work? And has there been any news or info dropped by the gamemasters, customer staff or devs?"

She awaited a full response.

---

North-East section of the Forgotten Ruins.

"By the gods! What was that light?"
"And... Why... Why did all the sounds of the world suddenly drown out, then return?"
"Was it a spell?"
"A curse?!"
"Ws this the work of the fallen sky-treasure?"
"You men! Stop squabbling like housewives! Keep pushing onwards! Once we secure the east gate, we'll march to the center of these ruins and find whatever force caused this ruckus!"
"Yes sir!"

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Also, this week's update is brought to you by Kung Fu Karl.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Although amusing to read, there's a slight error in your post, @Crusader Lord.

The fallen star, along with Cecilia, Ciel and Annabelle, aren't at the top of the tower. Rather, they're in a cavity/crevace roughly four storeys above ground - about half-way or so - up the tower.

If you want a visual representation:

Think of the tower like a large, cylindric roll-cake, standing on one end. About half-way up the length, somebody's taken a bite out of it. It's in this bite that the group of four (plus sneaky lizard) are now standing - not at the top.

I hope that helps clear up any misconceptiosn or misunderstandings that may have occurred due to me not explaining things well, or not describing them properly. There's no need to edit your post either, since I found the whole thing amusing, I just wanted to inform you about this for future posts.

Also, this week's update will be rather small, as there's likely going to be a lot of character-interactions/reactions. Please feel free to use the Collab Document on the first page of the OOC if you feel you need or want to. And let me know if you want a collab specifically with Serafaye as well.

There's roughly 9.5 hours left until the update deadline.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

HUMUNGOUS HUNGOLOMGHNONOLOUGHONGOUS

@OwO

...

...

... I see?

On a different note, I'm surprised nobody outside the tower noticed the birhgt light that burst from the cavity... or, y'know, the whole sound-eliminating blast that stretched for 500 ft in every direction... xD

But hey! Maybe ya'll were too distracted by high elf bazongas to notice all that. ^^;

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Forgotten Ruins, Palace Tower

"M-miss... Er... H-hello. Are you alright? Do you know where you are?"

These words were spoken by the hemomancer-spellblade before the horned girl. Said woman was also dressed in attire that made the youthful horned girl's attire seem modest. The purple-haired, newly freed and confused girl simply stared - first at this woman who had spoke, then her gaze trailed to look at the young man-boy, and the other woman of nobleblood in the room. The horned girl blinked, several times, as if trying to swat away the morning weariness of freshly awoken slumber out of her eyes... Before she let out a string of new, largely equally plethora of words.

"LIke hell I do! What the heck's this place anyway!? Where's Severanoxis?! Who the frack're you guys!? More importantly, how'd I even get here!?"

The girl was... Agitated... to say the least. Of course, in her eyes, she had only been blasted by the multi-elemental attack of the world-boss and one-of-a-kind siege hydra, Severanoxis, mere eye-blinks ago. So it would come as no surprise, for anyone who knew the full situation, that suddenly standing in the middle of a dark, crumbling tower with three strangers, as opposed to the open gorge with sand, sunlight and sheer cliffs around you, was a bit of a mildly disorienting experience. Sadly for our dear girl, Severanoxis was not a name familiar to the people of Oublioth - as it was a creature from a different world entirely. Regardless, the girl kept scanning her surroundings fervently, before adding - in a slightly less frantic tone.

"... Wait... Did the servers just shut down? Is this some sort of post-lobby for those who stayed online until the end? Are the devs here too? Wait, why can't I see my HUD or hotbar, or your names for that matter?" ... Obviously, to those without the knowledge of computer games and modern terminology, this would all sound rather much like, well, complete and utter mumbo-jumbo.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Locke the pervert...

"Locke saw the elf with the huge fat-sacks approach. Locke wasn't interested in the elf with the giant watermelons strapped to her chest at all. He was much more interested in the summon of the elf with the inflated balloons. He didn't care about the over-developed papaya-sporting elf at all."

I think we all know what Locke's really paying attention to... :3

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Simple, the Empire is gonna wanna kill all of you, and unlike Serafaye, you guys can very much die to large numbers of doods who're between 2 levels below you and 10 levels above you. As for Serafaye, pretty sure s/he doesn't feel like going with people who employ strong-arming tactics, on account of their "superior modern society morals". ;p