Black Zenith [Adventure / RPG / Chapter Three: Forgotten Whispers]

[chimericWilder]

Well dislodging rock from rock is no simple matter!

[Supernerd]

I'll have the wisp set up a couple traps in its current room then go down the passage that the elves? group did.

[BlazerC]

Daril shoots the last two Corshari. Jane casts Faerie Fire on the obvious target.

Mayor grabs the healthy Corshar and keeps him pinned, attempting to stop any counter attacks or dodges.

Bohw attaches another stick of explosives to an arrow and lights it on a long fuse, while muttering something to herself about making that pixie regret everything. She notes she's rapidly running low on bombs, though that might have something to do with a big explosive satchel earlier. Either way, Bohw looks in the direction Jane is casting her spell and readies up a shot, when Echo is lit up, Bohw plans to light her up even futher, with an explosive arrow to the chest.

[chimericWilder]

oh that was uh

supposed to count as an action

Whatever, Echo proceeds to try and take the punks down.

You dislodge several small rocks, then carefully watch as their new gravity sends them falling/flying into the air at an angle. Once they are where you want them, you end your Reverse Gravity spell, then hope that they actually hit those whom you wanted them to.

And they do so, hitting Daril, Mayor and one of the remaining corshar for 111 damage, each! You didnt quite manage to get loose any really huge rocks, to be honest... But atleast you managed to snipe them even from this range, right?

Then one of them casts a really annoying spell at you. Great.

I'll have the wisp set up a couple traps in its current room then go down the passage that the elves? group did.

You spend several turns trapping stuff, then proceed. After a while, you catch up to their fleeing group. Seems like they've stopped perform some more extensive first aid, and the elf is passing out healing (she seems to have recovered well enough, herself, too).

Daril shoots the last two Corshari. Jane casts Faerie Fire on the obvious target.

Mayor grabs the healthy Corshar and keeps him pinned, attempting to stop any counter attacks or dodges.

Bohw attaches another stick of explosives to an arrow and lights it on a long fuse, while muttering something to herself about making that pixie regret everything. She notes she's rapidly running low on bombs, though that might have something to do with a big explosive satchel earlier. Either way, Bohw looks in the direction Jane is casting her spell and readies up a shot, when Echo is lit up, Bohw plans to light her up even futher, with an explosive arrow to the chest.

Between Daril and Mayor, the last two corshar are slain aswell, resulting in another two clouds of evaporating shadow.

Jane casts her spell, and a strong light is illuminated someplace above... the cliff? Oh, she is standing up there. Well, atleast an outline, made apparent by the light surrounding it closely, is standing there - Echo herself is invisible it seems. She is particularly visible what with the shadow sun above turning everything a dull gray, so it is no problem for Bohw to find her target. She doesnt have a direct shot at her, though, because of a certain ledge being in the way, so instead Bohw arcs the arrow so that it comes down on Echo's position from above... At which point Bohw's dynamite goes boom, dealing 173 damage to Echo! (Roll 15+3)



Stats

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Thunderpaw: 361/750
Forcefield'd (2)
Drugged (??)
Fury Comet ready!
Vendetta Cd 1
Spectral Arrow ready!
Slowfall ready!

Daril: 288/750
Grit: 25%
Slacking
Bullet Time ready!
Cd 4

Bohw: 401/567
Mayor: 490/866
Sabotage Cd 5
Selfless ready!
Block Cd 3

Jane: 555/1050
Torn Asunder Cd 1
Mental Quake Cd 5

Takumi: 711/1050
Sadistic: +50
Flaming Legs ready!
Iron Mass Ready!

Echo: 1050/1050
Invisibility (1)
Faerie Fire: (6), -3 Defense
Reverse Gravity Cd 6
Slow Time Cd 1

Nos Reaper: 425/900
Kill Time: +7, -10
Calming Breath ready!
Overexcited ready!

Evergreen: 450/450
Ensnare Cd 4
Hallucinogenic Breeze ready!

---

Kraine: 3402/7500
Evasion ready!
Unending Corruption ready!
Shadowmist ready!
Out of Sight

---

Selphy: 1200/1200
Magic Eye (
Miracle Repair ready!
Judgement Calling ready!

Airship Prototype: 1000/1000
Fuel 0/50

[Psychout]

Echo, more than a little annoyed at the slight of hand the girls down there are playing, decides to show them real magic, and turns herself into some sort of liquid dirt thing and tunnels into the mountain and digs a little cave.

(I don't even know what I'm doing any more, but I want her to like, sink into the mountain.)

[Supernerd]

I'm thinking... I'll have the wisp just go right past that group. I'll cast a spell through it to release a powder which does not do anything as it does so. That should cause them to waste at least one turn trying to figure out what the heck happened. Given the opportunity I'll set traps ahead of them.

[BlazerC]

Mayor flexes his fingers and goes over to give Thunderpaw a bit of shaking.

Bohw draws back her bow for another shot, but once she sees Echo attempting to flee she withdraws the arrow and lowers her bow. While something that is quite high on her priorities right now is to chase down the spell-theif and fill her full of arrows, getting Kraine while he's away from all his friends is a much more profitable course of action, it's why they came here for in the first place. Besides, judging by Echo's actions, that little sneak should know not to mess with them for a little while.

She brushes aside some of her hair that had fallen across her face, before glancing over at Daril reloading his guns in the pause of the combat, and smiles.
"Come on, tall, dark and handsome, let's go get that Kraine."

Bohw motions to everyone to get going, keeps her weapon at the ready, but can't help but keep grinning like a child and boasting.
"You know, for a second there, I thought we might of been in a bit of trouble."

[MasterBlade]

(Nuu, let me go through my plot sequence )

[chimericWilder]

Dont worry you are drugged and Mayor automatically fails at waking you.

Besides, Jane has not removed her barrier so Mayor would have to spend several turns pounding on it to even get to you in the first place. *shrug*

[Dais]

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I never quite did add rules for the berserk burst thing. For reference, it gets +40% Effectivityyy

Of course, the tradeoff is that you are stuck at 0 Precision for the rest of the battle, so *shrug*

((Oh yeah, a while ago I noticed that I had forgotten to add the "after the burst everything resets" clause.
You also appear to still be allowing Str+Aff+Spd to increase further, though, so that's cool.))

Nos, having perhaps calmed down too much after his burst, walks lazily over to stand near Bohw. Slouched over like he's about to pass out, Nos just stares up at where the party found Echo. "Say, is that that dirty thief? Huh, fancy that. You guys gonna go catch her or something? Ahh, what's the rush?" He waggles his fingers in Echo's direction. After a second, little tendrils of dark energy make their way to Echo, and press against her in an attempt to hold her in place. Paralyzation spell, baby!

[chimericWilder]

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Would you rather everything reset or just get only one burst? Gotta get painful on the longer boss battles who have a ton of defense

[sjasogun]

'Takumi: Flash Kick yourself over to Kraine, dragging your feet across the ground to activate Flaming Legs in the process. You then proceed to give him a nice kick in the ribs.

[Dais]

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Mind you, I'm fine with it the way it is. Climbing up to 30+ affinity and getting even more powerful spells than Jane (albeit with all of Nos's quirks in the way) is just as appealing as getting a super-action every 5 turns or so.

I mean, I still don't know exactly how you 'weigh' stats (for lack of a more accurate term), but it seems like if a battle went into a real endurance test Nos would just get absurdly powerful. Say you have a 20 turn battle planned? He would have 45 strength and 40 affinity. Double every other caster besides Jane. I don't know if that's hax but it kind of sounds like it. And if it's not, what does it say about the other party members with much more reasonable stats? Unless having 0 precision is really, really debilitating and I've just been lucky so far.

Also? I just re-noticed that I DID include a reset effect- when Nos uses Calming Breath he resets. Heheh. So I guess as far as I'm concerned it's fine as it is.

[chimericWilder]

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Theres a list of how the stats work on the front page i think. Also, i would prooobably cap the bonus at something powerful but still reasonable, like +15 or so. And yes, you have been hella lucky so far. It should only get worse though, as things get more Defense

@Sjasogun
You still cannot actually see where Kraine went off to.

[sjasogun]

Woops, really? I iz zo zdubid.

Takumi: You're not about to do a victory dance. Not yet. Not until you have spilled copious amounts of that bastard Kraine's blood. You ignore the others and rush off into the woods to find him.

[chimericWilder]

Echo, more than a little annoyed at the slight of hand the girls down there are playing, decides to show them real magic, and turns herself into some sort of liquid dirt thing and tunnels into the mountain and digs a little cave.

(I don't even know what I'm doing any more, but I want her to like, sink into the mountain.)

Yea, you are definitely incredibly ambitious, spell-wise. This is a very complex spell.

Fortunately, you (Roll 17+3) just manage it. Your body turns to stone, then crumbles and becomes sand. However, pile of sand or no, you are still aware, and you are capable of moving about, though doing so is magically straining. You find a tiny crack in the mountain, which you funnel yourself into. You cant dig a cave though - recall that you only have one turn per turn and rock still is not particularly malleable.

Also you are still shining with Faerie Fire. They could probably find the crack you chose if they can somehow get on top of the cliff.

I'm thinking... I'll have the wisp just go right past that group. I'll cast a spell through it to release a powder which does not do anything as it does so. That should cause them to waste at least one turn trying to figure out what the heck happened. Given the opportunity I'll set traps ahead of them.

Releasing such a powder proves no problem (Roll 17+6), and while it does cause several of the bandits to recoil from it, the rest fire crossbow bolts and arrows at the wisp (wasting valuable ammunition, yay!). The elf, though, casts Dispel Magic! Why should she waste a turn casting Detect Magic, after all? The wisp defends itself, but it simply isnt powerful enough in comparison with the elf, and its magical integrity is considerably lowered! It does make it past the group, though, and they do not pursue.

Mayor flexes his fingers and goes over to give Thunderpaw a bit of shaking.

Bohw draws back her bow for another shot, but once she sees Echo attempting to flee she withdraws the arrow and lowers her bow. While something that is quite high on her priorities right now is to chase down the spell-theif and fill her full of arrows, getting Kraine while he's away from all his friends is a much more profitable course of action, it's why they came here for in the first place. Besides, judging by Echo's actions, that little sneak should know not to mess with them for a little while.

She brushes aside some of her hair that had fallen across her face, before glancing over at Daril reloading his guns in the pause of the combat, and smiles.
"Come on, tall, dark and handsome, let's go get that Kraine."

Bohw motions to everyone to get going, keeps her weapon at the ready, but can't help but keep grinning like a child and boasting.
"You know, for a second there, I thought we might of been in a bit of trouble."

Mayor performs an incredibly mayorial finger flex, involving lots of creaking steel and stuff. He then goes over to Thunderpaw and pounds on Jane's barrier. This brings him nowhere.

In reply to Bohw, Daril nods, "Damn straight. Its past time that bastard got what he deserves."

Nos, having perhaps calmed down too much after his burst, walks lazily over to stand near Bohw. Slouched over like he's about to pass out, Nos just stares up at where the party found Echo. "Say, is that that dirty thief? Huh, fancy that. You guys gonna go catch her or something? Ahh, what's the rush?" He waggles his fingers in Echo's direction. After a second, little tendrils of dark energy make their way to Echo, and press against her in an attempt to hold her in place. Paralyzation spell, baby!

You cast an excellent paralyzation spell, but then suddenly Echo is completely gone!

Gawdamnit. Well, t'was worth a shot, right?

Woops, really? I iz zo zdubid.

Takumi: You're not about to do a victory dance. Not yet. Not until you have spilled copious amounts of that bastard Kraine's blood. You ignore the others and rush off into the woods to find him.

Rushing into the woods is no problem, but Kraine is nowhere to be seen!

You get one of those feelings, as though you are being watched.




Stats

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Thunderpaw: 399/750
Forcefield'd (1)
Drugged (??)
Fury Comet ready!
Vendetta ready!
Spectral Arrow ready!
Slowfall ready!

Daril: 326/750
Slacking
Bullet Time ready!
Cd 3

Bohw: 429/567
Mayor: 533/866
Sabotage Cd 4
Selfless ready!
Block Cd 2

Jane: 608/1050
Torn Asunder Ready!
Mental Quake Cd 4

Takumi: 764/1050
Flaming Legs ready!
Iron Mass Ready!

Echo: 930/1050
Aspect of Sand (5)
Faerie Fire: (5), -3 Defense
Reverse Gravity Cd 5
Slow Time ready!

Nos Reaper: 470/900
Calming Breath ready!
Overexcited ready!

Evergreen: 450/450
Ensnare Cd 3
Hallucinogenic Breeze ready!

---

Kraine: 3402/7500
Evasion ready!
Unending Corruption ready!
Shadowmist ready!
Out of Sight

---

Selphy: 1200/1200
Magic Eye (7)
Miracle Repair ready!
Judgement Calling ready!

Airship Prototype: 1000/1000
Fuel 0/50

[Supernerd]

Magic eye is still in effect. What can I see through the wisp?

[MasterBlade]

(Can I haz dream-sequence update?)

[chimericWilder]

I was writing stuff all this time! Well, somewhat, i had something to research.

Magic eye is still in effect. What can I see through the wisp?

Another corridor, really. This place has lots of corridors, and they are really long.

You think you see something at the end of this one, though.

[Supernerd]

I'm thinking... Apply traps liberally to the wisps current location. And lets see if I can eavesdrop on the hostiles the wisp just passed while doing so.

[Psychout]

Echo should try and dig out a little hole, and next turn continue with the plotting.

[BlazerC]

Mayor gets a silent glare from Jane, in which the golem responds with one of his own silent glares. He just waits till the forcefield dissipates and lifts Thunderpaw over his shoulder, little guy can't hold his drink. Speaking of which, he also pockets the rest of the drugged wine, even if he doubts it's usefulness.

Bohw goes over to pick up her knife from the ground and then chases after Takumi, motioning everyone to follow.

[sjasogun]

Takumi: Keep on scouting the area for Kraine.

[Dais]

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Oh yeah, I forgot to say it before but I wasn't confused about what each stat does. I meant how they factor in to the formulas and stuff. Exactly how much damage does each point of Str add to your physical attacks and stuff like that. Wasn't asking for a straight answer either, just trying to acknowledge that I might be over or underestimating the value of each point in a stat.

It occurs to Nos that the thief is gone, and there are no more enemies to fight. The big guy was a chicken he isn't coming back, no sirree. So what now?

"Bored. So bored." Nos stretches, yawning. After staring up at the last place he saw Echo for a few seconds he just starts trying to tap-dance, still with a bored look on his face. He doesn't know how to tap dance.

[chimericWilder]

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Oh yeah, I forgot to say it before but I wasn't confused about what each stat does. I meant how they factor in to the formulas and stuff. Exactly how much damage does each point of Str add to your physical attacks and stuff like that. Wasn't asking for a straight answer either, just trying to acknowledge that I might be over or underestimating the value of each point in a stat.

Strenght, Speed, Affinity, Defense and Precision

0-1: -5
2-3: -4
4-5: -3
6-7: -2
8-9: -1
10-11: +0
12-13: +1
14-15: +2
16-17: +3
etc

The +# is the bonus you get to a diceroll. Say you roll a 10, and being Nos you have a bonus of +7, so your effective roll is 17. That then means that your damage is increased by a factor of 1.7 (or +70%), so with a Power of 125, you would then deal 213 damage.

It should be noted that the diceroll is often more important that whatever sick bonus you have, though. Rolls of 20 make you awesome in pretty much any situation, but having a bonus of 20 might not always do that. This is a cinematic thing though and i handle those case by case. The bonus does help though, so you might not trip flat on your face if you roll a 1 but have a high bonus.

So to put it simply, each 2 points in Strength, Speed or Affinity increases your damage by 10% when using an action related to one of those stats.