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Marionette
Elevated Player
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 4:24 pm

therE iS morE thaN meetS thE eyE

Post by Marionette » Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:42 pm

Flashmail
To: Canti
RE: timinG
youR challengeS arE nothinG compareD tO thE resT. i'vE beeN watchinG yoU. I knoW alL therE iS. caN yoU finD yourselF? caN yoU finD mE? yoU shalL seE. shuT uP anD speaK. thE answeR iS noT herE.
whaT happenS wheN thE puppeT pullS thE stringS?

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
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Post by Zan » Fri Sep 22, 2006 3:32 am

The fight with the Blackest had raged on for far too long, even Zan's more tactical assaults and thought-through strategies doing little to bring the behemoth down. When it finally did fall, crumbling beneath the group’s assault, it did so with as much stubbornness as could be expected from a monster of its stature. A slip of a blade and a fade of inner fire and the Blackest Knight exploded in a wave of darkness and wind, doing little more than make Zan nauseas and his skin crawl. Okay, so that wasn't necessarily little, but compared to its confrontation with Nall...well, it was child's play. When the energy passed and the room was left with an eerie calm, an ominous still, Zan squashed the raging fire in his chest, taking away the metaphysical fuel of his will that kept the Garou in grasp of his personal Pattern, his character data. Spasmodic contraction by spasmodic contraction brought the Heavy Blade to humanity once more, a mild film of sweat slick over his skin. The collapse of his power base and his sudden normality, especially with battle having recently been waged, unleashed fatigue and deprivation on Zan without mercy. However, giving only a grunt to signal his discomfort, the Lycan followed at the tail end of the group out of the hell hole of Ani.

Placing the darkness emblem in its proper place once again slammed the archway to nothingness and left them with their next target. According to the list Zan had cooked up a small time back, Rai was next on the list. Canti seemed oddly disturbed at the threshold, a look of hesitation blatant on his expression and glazed in his eyes. What was that about? Opening up his sense of smell to the sway of the Beast, Zan gave a subtle whiff in the Twin Blade's general direction. A well of decay, entropy, and murder filtered from the man, causing the lycanthrope to hack and cough, turning his face into the sleeve of his black sleeved, dark-green-seamed trenchcoat. The hell? Canti could be a pain in the ass, but no way should a thing like that be ebbing from him. If it wasn't his character, his actions, that led to the...stench...then what? The only other possible explanation that the werewolf could conjure was that Ani had taken a special place in the Twin Blade's Pattern. Was this a sign of his Twilight infection at last? Deciding to question the kid at a later time, Zan continued on into the next archway, now desensitized to the looming pressure of runes along the tunnel's walls.

A short walk brought the group into the Rai room, static and sparking life rippling along the oddly composed walls. The heart of the room held a pillar of wrought-iron bars and spinning orbs, each of which connected to the pillar with a stream of lightning. Lofting a brow, no instant solution coming to mind, Zan waited for someone else to get broiled on what seemed like a suicidal enigma. Low and behold, Nall stepped up to the plate, doing something rather unexpected to one of the more translucent looking spheres. For a second, only a second, the orb exploded into blue shards with the impact of the Rue Crack. Had he really solved the puzzle so soon? A hail storm of electricity in the form of a level two Don spell said a simple 'no' to the Heavy Blade's question. Odder still, the Blademaster seemed to actually get struck (or close to it) by the attack. Hadn't he sensed it? Seen it coming? The fact that he obviously had not didn't do well to settle the off-balanced feel the room was already giving to the lycanthrope. Although the spinning objects did seem to be the focus of the puzzle, simple attacks wouldn't do the job. What was Zan missing? What obvious key was hidden beneath complexity?

When it struck him, Zan could do little more than laugh. Of course. Their would-be leader had attacked a blue orb with a Rue spell. Getting a closer look at the spheres revealed faint colors, one for each of the elements. Elemental puzzles hidden beneath an elemental series of rooms? Well weren't they clever. Attacking the orbs with an attack of the same element was going to do little more than have the things retaliate and regenerate. What seemed to be the solution, at least at the front of the Lycan's brain, was to strike them with assaults of opposing elemental alignments. Now was the time to give his vast inventory of swords a good look. Luckily for him, he had equipment with skills that could cover all but two of the elements they'd need (assuming his answer was the right one). Zan could do little more than hope for the best. Indulging in a rather deep, lengthy breath, the now-focused Heavy Blade tuned out the rest of the world and used his crystallized senses to watch the rotation of the colored spheres. Each rotation seemed slowed then, his perceptions amped with the rest of him.

Pulling his Horse Killer out from the ether, he waited until the ball Nall had initially struck came back around, putting both will and power into the next words that fell from his lips. Karin, a Level 2 Vak physical attack, struck the blue-glass object and (like Nall before him) sent it shattering into a number of pieces. Wondering if, perhaps, they had to be destroyed in a rapid succession, Zan immediately moved on to the brown-hued glass ball and called Hirameki to bring it to ruin. Whether or not the crackle and brew of stirring thunder was above his head or not was not in Zan's list of worries, choosing instead to be anxious about whether or not he struck the right orb with the right attack. The Light Giver, swapping quickly from his Horse Killer, felt a touch lighter in his hands, the massive blade culling a Rai Smash to collide with the black orb and send it into just as many pieces as the last two. To the others the werewolf would appear to be doing little more than standing still, his arms twitches of black and green movement and elemental explosions. Last, but not least, his Life Sword was pulled to his side. Getting used to the altered weight of the thing in his hands, he waited only a second or two before his regenerating SP brought him to full. The sword itself held the last of his elementally-oriented physical attacks and brought down that Gan Smash to sunder the green-glass sphere into as much nothingness as the rest of the objects.

If, perhaps, physical attacks of the opposite element were not the solution, Zan knew his time in the living realm would draw to a close. If he didn't die by the fall of lightning by some miracle, than surely he'd be physically incapable of little more than seizing twitches. Well, that was being pessimistic anyway. Another possible outcome came to mind in this window of only a few seconds; maybe physical attacks period wouldn't do the trick. Turning to the last elemental he could attack with, a Rue Zot, Zan hefted the magic to the red-glass ball and prayed for the best. Falling in upon himself, his own thoughts, the lycanthrope felt his attentions shift onto the problem that lay with in. Although a possible storm of pain and eventual death may be waiting for him above, it would be over almost as soon as it had started. The real long term threat lay in whatever was wrong with his data, the very thing that was keeping him from gaining the continued aid of his raven form. For one reason or another, his wolf felt no ill-effects from his degradation. What was the difference between the wolf and the raven, really? Besides the obvious answer of 'species, idiot,' there was the viruses they were held in. The wolf, his true Beast, lay within the realm of Twilight while the bird was hosted in the arms of the Plures Vultus Mortis.

Could that be the key?

----------------------
OOC: Alrighty, for those of you who hadn't found out, I didn't do the post because A) I had an agonizing tooth infection to the umpteenth degree and I can't post when I can barely think and B) I wasn't aware I was acting as the GM post. Had I known that sort of responsibility was on my shoulders, I would have posted. Mind you, I posted once last round like the rest of you, but I do apologize that this next round had to be started as late as it did. I couldn't exactly help it, but I know it would have been nice to get going a little faster.

That said, peace out.

Nighthand's Note: Yeah... Zan just got himself nuked on all turns. Whoever posts next can note that...

Zan's Note: Asshole ^
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
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Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

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Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Part 8

Post by Dien » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:32 am

To: Dien
From: Marionette
Re: Re: Re: control
Message:
speaK witH otherS. thiS iS noT alL. youR rabbiT holE iS burieD deeP. i'vE beeN watchinG yoU. caN yoU watcH mE? caN yoU finD mE? yoU shalL seE.
The return flashmail had been received just as the final boss collapsed under Canti’s blades, bursting in a wisp of darkness. As in the other rooms, the key began to glow and shot a burst of energy back to the central pillar. Walking back through the hallway proved to be a much easier task as the labor and fatigue were beginning to take a toll on the Freedom Fighters. Breathing seemed heavier all around, and movements more deliberate. It was almost like they were having to try harder just to live than before they’d come to the field, and Dien couldn’t really blame them. After all, wasn’t he the one who’d known this level of virtual reality only less than a year before the rest of them? Partaking in quests of this length was brutal, especially if they were in fields whose levels exceeded your own. That, and he was finding it that much harder to just walk.

Fatigue, he’d been told by a teacher before the summer, was just a mental condition: something in the mind that could be overcome until the body physically began to protest. Often, the boy had been able to surpass his own fatigue by tricking his mind into thinking that he wasn’t tired. However, there was that rare occasion when no matter what coaxing he did his body just wouldn’t give in, and this was proving to be one such occasion. Time was beginning to pass by at an erratic rate, and he knew that if he didn’t collapse here, that he’d be out for at least a few hours when they got back to the hideout. That is, if they all got back to the hideout.

There was actually one person among the group who wasn’t starting to show fatigue, and that was their newest addition: the longarm Senna. That makes sense, though, he thought, looking over to her as they continued toward the hallway. Wait, somehow his mind connected her to the mysterious character that had flashmailed them. He pulled the original up again, the piece of paper fabricating in front of him with one line added from before. So that was where the connection came from. Clear as the ink on the page, her name was inscribed in the newfound carbon-copy line.

“Huh,” he mused aloud, beginning the thought process to himself. That meant that she’d received the same flashmail as he had, but more importantly his mind had made the connection for him even before he’d seen that line on the page. It was strange: he’d been infected by the virus, and yet the flashmail system was still inscribing the information into his mind and onto his brain like it did before he’d been trapped. Wait, could that possibly be the link that Danielle needed to-

A sudden pang, and his mind seemed to reset itself. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember anything he’d thought within the last few moments was gone. What the hell was that?! he thought, staring down at the paper in his hands. A few seconds brought him back up to speed: Senna had received the same flashmail he had, and as they proceeded on to the next room, he walked up next to her, rubbing his head slightly to get rid of the dull pain that still lingered there from whatever the hell had just happened.

“So,” he said, taking a spot next to her, as they walked, “it said that you got the same flashmail I did from that ‘Marionette’ person. So, uh, what do you think it means?”

It’s odd... it makes me think of Eliott,” she said slowly. “But otherwise, I can’t see a pattern. Could be a warning... a dare... What do you think?” She glanced over at him.

“It's definitely weird," he replied, “I even took the liberty of sending a reply to the sender, to this 'Marionette' character. I half expected no answer, but it actually exists and is apparently intelligent enough to compose messages based on stimuli - so no spam bot.” He paused, turning his head and returning her glance, “it's strange: it actually told me to talk about it with everyone else, and that it's been watching us. It’s unnerving, to say the least.”

Senna frowned. “Watching? Perhaps it thinks it’s God; pulling the strings?” She smiled briefly then shook her head. “But how could it lead us? Unless it wants us to succeed: a trap?

“Possibly, but here's my theory,” the blademaster turned to face her fully, stopping in the midst of the glowing yellow runes, “all around us are sensors and triggers; things that we do that make other things happen. Just take these runes, for instance.” He walked over to one, keeping in mind the rest of the group's movement, “just our being here in this hallway has lit them up and prepared them to cast their respective spells. What if this is an AI encoded deep within the field that's a sort of security guard for the flashmail hub, or maybe even the hub itself?”

She stopped as well, tilting her head as she watched this mini-demonstration. “So the field could be watching,” She said. “Either way, why mail us? And did it mail anyone else?

Dien’s brow furrowed in thought. Had it mailed any of the others? When he got his message, it was fairly apparent that everyone else had also been interrupted by the ping, so he guessed that they had. “I’m not sure,” he finally said, beginning to move on, “it looked like everyone else got interrupted at the same time I was, so I can guess that they did get mail, but it looks like we’re in for another group chat.”

After facing what lies behind door number four?” She asked, the shadow of a smile on her face. “Sounds like a good idea.

Dien smiled at her remark, suddenly reminded of his previous trepidation at talking to her. Rather than let his shyness overtake him as it would have in the real world whenever talking to anyone of the opposite gender, he decided to act. “Oh, and I don't think we’ve been formally introduced yet,” he said, maybe a bit too randomly as he extended his hand, “I’m Dien, level fourteen blademaster and newcomer to the Freedom Fighters.”

She seemed a little surprised, then nodded and smiled, briefly, as she shook his hand. “Senna, level 18, new-ercomer, I guess; a pleasure.” She looked ahead briefly, then asked, “What do you think’ll show up next? Gets much tougher, there might be trouble.

“Pleasure’s mine,” he said, shaking her hand before looking ahead to the Rai room to answer her question, “to be honest, I have no idea what to expect, although if what I’ve seen of these hackers is true, they’ll probably throw a puzzle together soon involving the elements. It’s either that or we’re all strapped into electric chairs the instant our feet tread in there.” Of course he was kidding, but to be honest he'd just struck a new sense of fear in himself; especially after having seen how easily the Elites had overrun Mac Anu. That last scenario was probably too kind of a demonstration of what they could do to a room in a field like this. They'd been lucky to this point.

She was quiet for a few steps, then said, “Electric chairs? Would be different.” A breath, then she added, “Let’s get this over. Have that talk? I don't like spies, eh?” She grinned slightly and raised an eyebrow, but her eyes didn't look very amused.

“Indeed,” Dien nodded, finally stepping into the room. Admittedly, he did sigh a slight relief at having made it through the threshold without being electrocuted. However, what they found within was perplexing, and appeared to be a puzzle. A smirk crossed his lips, and he watched as Nall, and then Zan tried and failed at the elemental puzzle. First was an attack on the floating glass orb of the water element with a watery attack. This resulted in a MeRai Don. Then came several physical attacks on the glass orbs of opposite element. Five different attacks were made by Zan, resulting in five successive MeRai Dons and the ghosted form of the lycanthrope.

So, Dien thought after releasing a resurrect on his friend, we have two types of orbs floating there: iron and glass. Now, the goal is not to break them, but to strike them with enough elemental force to deactivate them. Any less than the proper amount might break them as well, and if they break then we get zapped. Right, it would probably be best to start with the iron orbs first, as iron is generally less fragile than glass. However, a spell alone might not provide enough force to turn off the power they’re using to protect this room’s key, so elemental skills are in order. Since Zan was fried for casting the opposite element on the glass, it’s safe to assume that the same element is in order as well. Now, where to start? I already have Glitter equipped with Rue Crack, so that leaves the blue iron orb as the first option. First, though, I’ll want to re-cast Rig Gaem so there’s less lag between casting of skills…

Without another thought, the blademaster had set his SP bar to a much more rapid recovery rate than before, and walked over to the blue iron orb. Raising his hand, the moisture from the air froze on his blade as his hand was pulled downward after it onto the sphere before him. A ping, and the static that held it in place ceased, letting it fall to the floor. Pinching his eyes slightly in expectance of a responsive spell, he was rather pleased when no such spell occurred. Switching then to Komura, he waited a moment for his SP to be replenished, and repeated the process on the red orb with a Vak Slash, followed by a Ani Slash to the blackish orb from Unicorn Blade, and then Gan Slash on the brownish iron orb from Soul Eater. All four shut off safely, and he smiled, turning then to the green glass orb. In an act of utter genius, he gathered yet more Gan energies about the blade and let it release it dual-stroked Gan Slash on the orb. In much the same manner as Zan had been, although slightly less in severity, the blademaster was struck from above by a bolt of lightning, resulting in his death.

“Well,” he said aloud, “same element on the glass: spells only, though. On the last iron one, use a Juk skill.” It was simple instruction, but as it stood he was a ghost with a headache who was beginning to lose coherence in more aspects of his body due to fatigue than he would’ve cared to admit.

(OOC: Well, I say that we need to get together and have an AIM chatroom once this is done to have our characters discuss the flashmails we got from Marionette)
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Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

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Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Sat Sep 23, 2006 1:26 pm

The battles were over, and as always seemed to happen, the aftermath felt tense, as though something else were just WAITING to happen, waiting for them to let down their guard so it could begin the whole fracas again.

But since nothing seemed likely to happen at the moment, and if it did she would have no choice but to react, she mentally phased out of the room, turning her attention to her Flashmail. Specifically, there was one odd e-mail from someone called Marionette.
Flashmail
RE: control
skeiN woveN oF severeD threadS. tangleD witH rusT anD blooD. finD, seeK, witnesS! youR enD iS youR beginninG iS youR enD. whO pullS youR stringS?
Skein woven of…” she said aloud as she tried to work it out. The message was frustrating. Why the reverse capitalization? Why send it at all? And the wording…

As they made their way back out into the main room, she mused over the words, knowing full well any conclusion she might come to would probably be wrong. Still, puzzling out the threads in written pieces was something she spent a lot of time doing in her current major. This wasn’t a work of fiction, however, but an actual message, or at least it seemed so. A friend of hers had once said (Perhaps quoting someone else – she never knew) that the major difference between reality and fiction is that fiction had to make sense. For all they knew, this could be some kid playing a game and had no meaning at all.

So the wording… assuming it wasn’t just put together for show, what would skein woven of severed threads mean? The group, obviously, but why that wording? Because the others were cut off, so to speak, from the real world? That they were trapped here? Their fighting might also explain the blood part, but not the rust. Mutter mutter. She was overthinking this but couldn’t seem to stop it. She loved and hated riddles. She always thought past the answer.

Your end is your beginning is your end. Here she thought of T.S. Eliott. It sounded like something that might be written in one of his poems. It reeked of futility. You’re only going to a place you’ve already been. You know the answer. You just don’t know you know it. A wasted effort choreographed by someone else.

Either you had no purpose, Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured,” she whispered. But what purpose did this message have? Why send it? Why give them a riddle? That was the real question. She thought an answer to that might be the difference, but it was unlikely to be found. In general, there were two reasons that made sense to her. Either this person considered itself the keeper of the strings, or it was trying to warn them that someone else had them by the nose. On the whole, she was leaning toward the second. Her whole basis for this? The sender’s name. A marionette was just a fancy word for a puppet to begin with. So someone else was in charge, if that line of thinking was correct. But who could be pulling their strings? Who was in a position to manipulate this entire group?

There was a brief sinking feeling as she looked over at Nall, this little group’s leader. But… no. She shook her head. That was dumb. He was clearly powerful enough not to be bothering with running the group through this trial. If he wanted something done, he could probably just DO it, like with that Blackest Knight. Besides, he seemed so… so into this.

Well, if it was a trap, she didn’t think the individual ordering of it was ordained, so perhaps the finale was. They came here on some information (all except her, who came here on a mistake). Could someone have fed them the information to funnel them through that door in the main room? If so, what lay on the other side would not be pleasant.

You’re overthinking this, she chided herself again.

The Ani room had closed and the Rai room was their new target. As they walked toward it, she was still deeply entrenched in her thoughts about this odd message – or more accurately, what it might be hinting at. It was a voice that pulled her out of the reverie.

"So, it said that you got the same flashmail I did from that 'Marionette' person. So, uh, what do you think it means?"

The voice wasn’t quite familiar, but a sidelong glance as they walked proved it had been the one Zan pointed out as Dien who had spoken. So Marionette wasn’t just on her mind. A quick check showed the message had been sent to them both. What, Marionette was too lazy to write individualized cryptic messages?

As she replied, she looked over at him, trying to solidify name with voice with face with clothing. She should have introduced herself before, she thought suddenly. She was NOT doing her part to be a team player here. She only seemed to talk with people when they approached her. She was so afraid of intruding… well, she would be an intruder until she got to know these people, right?

But now wasn’t the time to think about it. Dien said he’d actually replied to the message and gotten some more information – that it (She couldn’t bring herself to think of Marionette as either male or female) was watching them, which Dien called “unnerving.”

Unnerving? That seemed a good word for it. But if it was actually watching them, not just playing with them, not just sending messages from wherever… she frowned as that twisty, nervous feeling in her stomach intensified at the thought.

Dien’s thoughts on the possible identity were interesting – that it might be an AI embedded in the field, who was watching it through the traps they activated. While it wouldn’t necessarily change the root problem, except that if he was right it shouldn’t follow them beyond this field, it was an interesting theory and it made a frightening amount of sense if the thing was indeed “watching” them. It would also give them a place to start looking if things began getting odd.

Odd-er, she mentally amended.

As they continued, he also introduced himself more formally, and she returned the favor, slightly surprised. The worst part was she didn’t know why it surprised her. There wasn’t exactly a lack of friendly people in the world.

As the conversation ended and they reached the Rai room, Senna expected more of the same. What she had not anticipated was the set of ten spheres in two different materials holding a lazy parade around a pillar. As they entered the room, her steps slowed as she took in the sight. The came alive, spitting sparks toward the metal-laced walls and iron monolith in the center, around which they moved at a regular pace. The suddenness of it startled her, as did the sounds, heck the feeling of all the lightning in the air. It was like being in one of those zappy orbs one might see in a store like Spencer’s.

Dien, Zan and Nall all proceeded into the room, but Canti seemed a little hesitant. Remembering her earlier thought – she was just being foolish if she expected to make allies without putting out more of an effort herself, she walked over to him. They were down to five people. If something was bothering one of them it could spell trouble for all of them. Besides…. Thinking back, she felt pretty sure he’d saved their bacon in the last room, and went over to tell him so.

The conversation was short, and to Senna at least, a little surprising. She wasn’t aware her spells could affect people in her own group. In fact, they shouldn’t have, which was what kept her from apologizing. It seemed he’d discovered something interesting though. A strength and a weakness. How odd. It also seemed he’d received his own message from Marionette.

As they talked, Nall moved first, approaching the orbs, inspecting them, then drawing back and letting loose with a water-based attack. From where she stood near the wall (not TOO near – that was just asking for death) she couldn’t see what made him decide on that particular course. The reaction to it, though, was immediate and powerful. An immense, brilliant spell shot down upon the offender.

Senna winced back from the lightning that split the room and left a lingering feeling of electricity and the smell of ozone stronger than before. Her hair was literally trying to stand up from her head with it, and with all the ambient static that filled the air. That had looked… strong.

So, this room wanted to lead them a puzzle huh? Glancing over the group, she winced a little. Zan could likely take that shot, and so could she, but she wasn’t sure about the other two, especially Canti. They needed to work this out and quickly. Once they had it, there should conceivably be little danger, at least if this trap worked like all the others.

This seemed simple enough though. They could focus their attacks on one sphere, trying different kinds of attacks one at a time until they found the key. The best place to start would be that blue sphere. Since a Rue attack hadn’t done it any damage, the likely possibilities were threefold – a Rue spell, a Vak attack or a Vak spell. If she, Zan and Dien each tried one of these on the orb, they could either eliminate it and figure out the pattern, or all be alive and ready, after a healing spell or two, to take a second round to it. Of course, if she had a level three tornado spell… but no, those were unavailable. Sad. That might have been able to reach all corners and help figure out the puzzle once and for all.

But before she could suggest, or even move, there was a flurry of movement and what Senna could only describe as a spectacular light show. It was Zan on the move, his pattern impossible to accurately follow, at least for her. There were flashes of color, so she knew he’d used some elemental attacks – spells wouldn’t have mattered with the speed, since they cast in their own sweet time – but they were so blurred that even the color was a bit difficult to make out.

A series of lightning spells struck seconds after his motion stopped, their light so brilliant they burned afterimages into her eyes even with them closed. Even before she opened them again, she was searching her pockets for another resurrect. She carefully drew one out of one gauze sleeve and reoriented, but Dien was already there, resurrecting Zan, so she put it away again and approached the puzzle.

Now she could see the colors in the orbs, steel and glass. Interesting, she mused. As she watched, Dien approached and targeted one of the spheres with a skill. Then a second. On the second she saw the connection and stood back, letting him work. One, then another, then a third and a fourth. She thought she saw the pattern now, and began sorting through her weapons. As such, she missed what he’d done to call down the lightning on himself, but it was more or less guessable from what he said after he reformed as a ghost.

Well, same element on the glass: spells only, though. On the last iron one, use a Juk skill.

Nodding instead of vocalizing her understanding, Senna got that resurrect out again and used it on Dien. She then switched to her Sleipnir and walked up, timing her approach to the motion of the final steel sphere. Her weapon was rather lengthy, so she stood back a bit, to make sure its sweeping wouldn’t touch any but the orb she was targeting.

Juk Repulse.

She tried not to flinch away as she attacked. It was just lightning. It shouldn’t kill her even if one hit, right? Assuming she wasn’t fried, she would continue with two more spells – the only two which might be useful from her at the moment, as most of the spells on her equipment were power-ups or in one case at least likely too strong and large to hit only the sphere she aimed at. The first spell would be a Juk Kruz on the green glass sphere and the second would be a Rue Rom, cast a little to the side of the tower so it would catch the blue glass orb full-on but would be less likely to hit the others.

That’s all assuming she wasn’t fried of course. Luckily, it seemed there was no time limit on this either, and no monsters. Just a puzzle. And if her suspicions – no, the facts of the flashmails – were correct, it didn’t matter how long they took. There was no getting out before they were noticed. They’d likely already been noticed.

((OOC: Agreed))

Nighthand Edit: Senna's orbs turn off. Dien's were discussed beforehand so his reactions were correct. Also, I agree with the chat idea.
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
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14300 (1/23)

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Post by Lord Canti » Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:09 pm

*Bingly-Bingly-Beep!*

(As if he didn't have enough problems... The Marionette, whoever he or she was, sent back a reply to him, possibly just to aggravate him, but mostly he bet that it was to be ultra-confusing. Someof ot was a warning, saying that this shitpile he was in was just getting started. The rest was like a challenge. Canti knew two things for certain: One, Marionette was watching them go through this rat-maze. And two, he liked to play word games. There was something to all this crap, but it wasn't nearly as much on Canti's mind as this room. He was hanging about outside of it, looking inside. This room...)

"Hey. Nice, back there."

(Canti seemed to jump slightly in place. He'd been caught off guard, hadn't heard the footsteps coming even though some of the others had passed already. Looking back, trying to put a face to the words, he saw that it was Senna who was talking to him. The Twin Blade wasn't sure how to handle it, though. Not many people complimented him on stuff like that.)

Canti: Oh, yeah... Thanks...

(There was a slight pause in this uncomfortable stage where Canti felt he had to know something that had been bothering him, which had been continually bugging him and now only seemed to multiply with the latest developments. His viral change, this room, the problems of the recent past...)

Canti: Was that your lightning before?

"Might have been? Something wrong?"

Canti: Well...it's just that, back there...I found out I have alot of strength in darkness. I had nothing to fear from those riders at all.

(He was referring to the ease in which he had fought the Dark Riders, Dark Horses, and even - to a certain extent - the Blackest Knight. It had been so simple because much of their power didn't seem to hurt him more than a slight bit, easily recovered. However, there was this moment when he'd just been sittign there among some of the riders, unphased by their presence...and a Rai Rom attack had come out of nowhere...)

Canti: But when I got zapped...it was the worst thing I'd ever felt. And it kinda' reminded me of Suraisu...

(Senna appeared to be taken aback for a moment. Possibly, it was because he was telling her he had achieved some interesting elemental properties that enhanced his character's attributes, or maybe because it was clear that her actions had caused him pain. Yeah, that much Canti could be sure of. It involved a very loud explicative.)

"Sounds... well, good and bad. Who's Suraisu?"

(Good AND bad? Yeah, that was one way to put it. Like saying a nuclear bomb is an effective weapon of war...so much as you don't mind fallout radiation, the death of even the land's ability to support life, and the theoretical possibility of horrible Godzilla mutations. But other than that, everything was just peachy. Yeah...)

Canti: The short answer is that this is all his fault. Suraisu guided us to this tower for a special event...but he was really one of the hackers that we're up against.

"And he did this to you?"

Canti: Let's just say he made the other Elites aware of us - me, Dien, and Zhao. We were suppose to die, but Nall came in and stopped him. I don't know what happened to Suraisu...and that bothers me.

(The only thing is that what bothered him was NOT that Suraisu might still have been alive after the fight with Nall, but that he was dead after all they'd gone through. Canti had spoken with the man. True, he'd been a hacker, but the guy had been frank about his position and The World. He'd spoken of dark things and it seemed to the Twin Blade that the Rai Fighter had not been so totally convinced of where he stood in life. It seemed sort of fake when he turned on them, like it was not something he wanted to do. Canti had been meaning to ask Nall if he actually killed their former guide, but he never got around to it.)

"Oh... Did you get a message from a Marionette?"

(Canti gave her a look, confused and a bit surprised.)

Canti: You too? What is that guy going on about?

"No idea. Dien wanted to stop after this room. See if this might change how we approach things, I think."

Canti: What? Because some guy starts talking "choicE iS noT yourS. finisH youR higH roaD, convergE." and stuff? You think he's a spy for their side?

(He said the Marionette's lines in a mocking high-voiced tone to convey his annoyance for the guy.)

"I think... Eh. It sounds like, but why would a spy tell us it's spying?"

Canti: To make the puppets dance? I dunno. This guy's weird. He wants us to see if we can find him, or ourselves. What the hell does that mean?

(While he was talking, Senna toyed with her spear a bit, swapping it from one hand to the other and using it as a kind of prop, leaning on it. It was clear that this was all stuff that she had gone through herself with her own message.)

"I have no idea. I'd say it's crazy, but it seems too knowledgable. Not that that rules out craziness."

Canti: I know he's crazy. So...what? Are we actually gonna try finding this guy? I think he might've left some clues, but I'm no good at playing detective.

"We figure that out after this room. I think we might have lost the surprise."

Canti: Yeah...

(His eyes went downward in thought, wondering about the possibility. Was this Marionette one of the hackers? Not an Elite, but a lesser one acting as security guard? It would certainly fit this puzzle motif if a guy was hiding in the shadows, watching them all run around like ants over a piece of meat. When he found this guy, he was dead, just for talking to him like that. He looks into the room again, still uneasy, but in a better mood.)

Canti: Just don't zap me again, alright? I've got a bad feeling about this place.

(The answer he got was a nonverbal sound that might have been assent. Didn't matter, though, as things had been carrying on in the room before he even got inside. What had happened was this... The room was like one big Tesla Coil device. No enemies. Just a supernatural lightning machine that had iron and glass orbs that gave off a faint hue of certain familiar colors. Aha... Elemental puzzle. Zan had already been at work to try and discover the secret, trying many techniques at once in order to find a reasonable pattern. The result was hard to look at. Ever smell burnt werewolf? It ain't a pretty sight OR smell, burnt hair everywhere until he vanished and became a ghost. This whole room was a goddamn Pandora's Box with a combination lock. Get it wrong and evil be upon you. Get it right and maybe there's hope. Maybe. By the time Canti actually got into the room, Dien was already hard at work. After seeing Zan get zorched, he figured something out. He began to attack the iron orbs with attack skills of the same element, and made four of them go PING without reprisal. That extinguished them quickly. However, he failed on his next try and realized, as a ghost, what he'd done wrong. Senna struck the last iron orb with Juk Repulse and...)

*PING!*

(No lightning blast. Senna went on to cast Juk Kruz and Rue Rom on the green and blue glass orbs respectively. Since these were magic spells that have no give at all, there was nothing to shatter them. That left the glass orbs to extinguish their charge with a VWOMP. This, ironically, made all the thoughts in Canti's head light up.)

Canti: Oh, I get it now... Gan Zot!

(The answer was simple. Only three more magic spells were required now, and Canti went to take care of the next one, casting his earth element spell on the brown-glowing glass orb. That left two more, the red and the black. Flames...and darkness. Ironic...but there was a problem. He didn't have any magic spells with those elements. Well, wait a minute... He reached into his pocket and pulled out his inventory.)

Inventory______
...
...
Mage's Soul
...
Chaos Spell
Flame Blast
...
Snakey Cactus
...
_____________


Canti: Bingo...

(He pulled out the two spells, which he'd been holding onto for some time now and never got around to using until now, and casted them. Chaos Spell to the Ani-Orb, and Flame Blast to the Vak-Orb. This, in turn, would complete the puzzle as far as all the orbs were concerned. There was nothing left but to see what happened to the pillar. Of course, Canti suspected a trap, but he would have to take that oneas it came. If this place started getting nasty on him...it could be one helluva hurt.)



Nighthand's OOC:
Flame Blast and Chaos Spell seem to work. The orbs turn off... but then they shatter and nuke Canti. Sorry man, you're close, just not on the ball exactly.
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:48 pm

Please work. Please work. Please God work.

The lycanthrope prayed...and prayed and prayed and prayed...under a calm exterior as his blurred attacks ceased and he waited rather impatiently for the outcome. What should come, of course, but raining death and voltage so high it made him cold for the split second he was alive to feel it. Zan would have laughed, had he had the vocal cords needed for such a thing. Most would have been embarrassed, or at the very least humbled, but the Lycan had expected just as much to happen. He was being too quick to act, too irrational. Though most of the ignorant masses would assume his mind being split between man and beast most of the time would make him behave in such a fashion on a regular basis, that simply wasn't true. It had been 'back in the day,' but Zan had traveled one hell of a road to gain mastery over the thing that curled in wait in the cage of his ribs, hoping for another moment when the lycanthrope would let it break free. Yet...here he was, acting as he used to. There was a sense of rush beneath his skin, his mind making up excuses to simply hack and slash his way through the puzzles presented to them when (obviously) they needed a step further in thought.

Zan had very little time to 'enjoy' the sight of himself, pluming smog, before his mind was whisked away to the place of windowless rooms and shifting walls. Unlike the times before, the Lycan didn't use one of his swords as torches, choosing instead to skulk (professionally, thank you) and wallow. There was something about the place, wherever the place actually was, that brought out his negativity and sought to eat him whole with his own self-pitying indulgences. Sitting down against one of the mineral-composite walls lined in charred and flaking wallpaper, fully aware it could pull back from him at a moment's notice, he hugged his knees to his chest and tried to breathe. Think happy thoughts. Be Peter Pan. Fly the fuck out of here. Praying once more, though this time for salvation from himself and not some looming threat, Zan was stirred from his ritual with the familiar growl. Be it a monster that stalked the halls or simply the sound of the moving dimensions of the pitch-black fortress that held him, he wished it gone just the same. The sound of it echoed around him, coming from varying directions. Stalking him. Haunting him. Praying. On him.

Give in. Give up. Go home. Lick your wounds and salivate. Hush. Hush. Now's not the time for a kingdom's collapse. Rebuild the walls. Fortify your mind. Malfaes will be here when you get back.

Zan's eyes widened at the voice in his head, his voice, and at the small and subtle revelation given. That's where he was. That's what this place was. Malfaes. Atra, once upon a time, had wanted him to come to this place to destroy a file (like he knew how) called 'MG.dat.' Wolfsbane as a whole wanted him to get this done, or they'd kill her. Kill Lowen. Another theory fizzled to the front of his brain; is that why they weren't giving her food, water, or even human contact anymore? Was it his fault after all? Your fault. YOUR. FAULT. The voice, the alien and all-too-familiar octave of his own vocals clipping at his sanity. Was it just Malfaes's taint that was eating away at his mind, or was it the same thing that was chewing away at the raven? Using something he hadn't in a long, long time, Zan stared at his hands, willing his eyes to shift to a personal code-vision. The ones and zeroes that had once made up ninety-nine percent of who he was, with a singular two to represent Twilight's beginning advances, had been overrun by something entirely different. A third number, the third number, had imprinted itself over all but a lone number of zero's, one's, and two's. What could only be the Plures Vultus Mortis was pulling his Pattern into its maw number by number. So it was true (or, at least, highly probable): his secondary virus was acting as its name implies and slowly but surely killing him. Wonderful, just wonder--

An ever-expanding bubble of light and he was back in the electric field. Staggering, sure, but back. Glancing over at the falling hand of a friendly Blademaster, Dien, Zan didn't know at that moment whether he wanted to thank him and throttle him. That had been the most nauseating resurrecting he'd had the...pleasure...of experiencing. Deciding that attacking Dien would take far too much effort, he chose instead to focus on the work his teammates were attempting. Attack by attack, the Blademaster fell the iron orbs with triumph in the way he moved. The Heavy Blade had only ever seen Dien in combat and, although he was certainly one of the better combatants of the Freedom Fighters, Zan had never taken him to be much of a puzzle-solver. No, in fact, Dien seemed more the type to over-think and over-analyze a situation. Most hackers had that drawback. However, one by one (the last taken out by the newcomer, Senna) the iron orbs fell and disappeared. Dien was alive as soon as he was vanquished, the Long Arms reflexes stretching beyond the battlefield. Lifting his hood away from his face to rest at the back of his neck, Zan gave way to defiant steps towards that which had so ruthlessly banished him to Malfaes. With less spheres it, in turn, seemed a lot less threatening. Sure, the likelihood that MeRai Dons would fall from the ceiling was still there, but not for him.

The Heavy Blade was done with puzzle solving for a while. Until he found a way to fix the PVM, something he might actually want to talk to Danielle or Dien about, he'd want to steer clear of things that might spark his impatience once more. For now he'd simply worry himself over remaining level-headed in combat. No one wanted a berserking werewolf thrashing around when it really mattered. Sure, such a thing had won him some rather gorey corpses in the Ani field, but it had caused him to fail when confronted with a real threat. The thought alone of his quick and easy defeat at the hands of the Blackest made him grit in his teeth and clench open hands into closed fists with a creak of the leather that bound them. It was...so damn stupid. Sure, the Garou was a nine and a half foot tall statue of rippling muscle, but Zan was usually able to wield its power with just as much dexterity. A big target? An easy target? Not when that very same thing is suddenly behind you ripping out your spine. Dexterity required control, and that control wasn't entirely in his hands anymore. Perhaps, just perhaps, he needed to stay away from the Garou's sway and stay human as he was now. Canti, Dien and Senna, lower-leveled players and weaker in both stats and Twilight abilities, had proven that there was nothing to laugh at about the human form's ability to pull off the impossible. The Garou should have quintupled those odds in Zan's favor, but such a thing was of the past. For now. Shaking off the cloud of non-sensical thoughts, Zan composed himself enough to send a Flashmail.
Flashmail!
To: Dien
From: Zan

Everyone seems rather busy, and I apologize for my blatant lack of usefulness at the moment, but there is something I need to discuss with both Danielle and yourself. As Danielle had seen, I have two viruses in me. The secondary one, the PVM...it's at fault, it seems, for my steady degradation. It's a long shot that you'll be able to help such a guarded thing as my Pattern...and I realize that I already have you trying to free me from the game so I can save Lowen...but I do not know how long it will take for the PVM to absorb me completely and I cannot say what I will become when such a thing is complete. Please, if you can...

Help me.

Flashmail! Ended
Zan despised the last line, hated that he had to present himself with such a weak front, but he did so to the only person (other than Reinier) whom he trusted not to see him as weak because of it. The thought of becoming little more than a revenant was unnerving. Being trapped in his mind, as he had been during the initial stages with his Beast's outbursts, was a fate worse than death. The phrase certainly gets tossed around a lot, but one can't truly understand its meaning until confronted with the horrors of its truths. Gathering himself once again to think beyond the bad, he took the bits of Dien and Senna's conversation that he could remember and decided that, instead of standing around afraid of his own shadow, that he'd try and decipher his own e-mail from Marionette. Huh. Finish his high road? Converge? A yellow what? Not only was the format of the piss-ant's Flashmail annoying, but it was beyond cryptic. Unlike the others, who (as far as Zan could tell) were trying to decide what kind of threat this guy was, Zan attempted to take the words to heart. Though Marionette was more than likely just some Elite troll trying to make them dance to his (or hers?) strings, what if he was someone who had been tracking them...someone trying to help them.
Well, according to the flashmail, Zan had no choice. What was to come was to come. He'd simply have to follow the road presented him and, well, converge and assimilate with those challenges.
Flashmail!
To: Marionette
From: Zan

If you're not an Elite lackey and not some puppeteer trying to get us to put on a play for you, than maybe you're talking to us for less nefarious purposes. If that's true...

Tell me what I can do. Give me something to look for. I, in no way, plan to be your puppet, but if I can help and you know things we don't that will allow me to do that...it'd be much appreciated.

If, however, you are indeed what everyone else believes you to be, know that I'll be at the front lines of your own demise.

Flashmail! Ended
That done, Zan could only wait for the puzzle to be solved and the next step to be revealed.
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
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Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

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Marionette
Elevated Player
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Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 4:24 pm

threE pathS leaD tO thE answerS

Post by Marionette » Sat Sep 23, 2006 11:02 pm

Flashmail
To: Zan
RE: clueS

nothinG obviouS iS eveR truE. satisfactioN cannoT bE gaineD withouT efforT. youR clueS wilL comE. leT thiS bE aN introductioN tO yoU. oncE yoU alL speaK. I aM watchinG yoU. I dO noT comE iN piecE. speaK tO dieN. I knoW oF hiS battleS. I havE seeN hiS encounteR witH thE bladeS.

thiS iS noT A riddlE. thiS iS morE. I wilL noT bE cleaR. yoU arE oN thE fronT lineS, buT who'S lineS arE theY?

yoU musT thinK. finisH youR patH, speaK witH thE resT, theN yoU caN starT tO finD mE. therE iS onE yeT yoU neeD tO visiT.
whaT happenS wheN thE puppeT pullS thE stringS?

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Senna
Awakened Player
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Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:47 am

While she’d trusted Dien’s suggestion, it would be a lie to say Senna wasn’t surprised by not getting electrocuted as she targeted one, then another and another of the orbs. There was a hollow “clink” form each as it was struck, the timbre of the first different from the other two due to its different material.

Lacking spells in the remaining types, she stepped back as Canti stepped up. Gan Zot and there was another one of those things gone. While it wasn’t exactly harmless, this room seemed a lot easier than the last. Or course, that had more to do with Dien’s rapid working out of the puzzle these orbs were setting out for them, and for that she was grateful. But just as she was thinking that, lightning came down and fried yet another member of their group, Canti. Even if he were able to withstand one of those bolts – which his level and his conversation with her earlier suggested was not the case – two of them streaked down from the diminished electricity unsettling the air and found a target in him.

As the lightning faded, she winced. Again keeping in mind what he’d said earlier… Not good. Pulling out another resurrect (Only one left, she noted with some surprise. She’d never gone through this many resurrect potions in such a short time. A trip to a shop would be in order soon) she used it on Canti. Welcome back. Lovely. Given the nature of this room, she wasn’t sure he’d thank her for it.

Trying to force her mind off the thought, she instead looked at the two remaining orbs, spaced out fairly nicely. Canti had reminded her there was another way to call up spells, ones not on armor in her inventory. A quick scroll through her inventory (no pun intended) showed she had a pair of items which might finish this off. She pulled them out, hoping this would work. Canti’s spells had backfired, but they’d looked a little larger. Maybe they’d overlapped somehow. Well, here went nothing.

She invoked the first, a Fire Tempest and forced herself not to wince away as the spell wrapped around the orb. If something was going to happen, it would happen here.

But it didn’t, unless you counter the orb going dormant and leaving just one. Well, that worked well. Activating the second scroll, the final orb was obscured with the spell from the Night Blight.

As the spell coalesced, she felt another twinge of… well, it might best be considered unease. Nothing was actually wrong, nothing she could put her finger on, but she felt worried. Canti’s revelation about her spell hitting and harming him had started it. While she hadn’t disbelieved what Nall and Reinier had said at first, the reality of these people’s existence was getting more and more… well, real. Close. And from what Canti said, this wasn’t just something that happened, it was something that was done. That seemed creepy to her. And if it could happen to them, it could happen to her, right?

Well, if it did – and in her heart of hearts that didn’t actually feel like a reality – it was her own fault. She had been warned, right? She made the decision to come along, and at every step she made the decision to continue. Besides, she couldn’t deny it was… interesting being in this group. And it felt good, in a sort of convoluted way, to be part of something. To be DOING something. As to the rest? She tried not to think about it. There were always more immediate problems anymore.
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
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Nighthand
Master of Games
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Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:14 pm

The final orb fell to inactivity, and the cage of electricity that barred their way was soon discharged. It seemed as though their path would be clear... but this would not be so. It couldn't really be that simple, could it?

Suddenly, a massive discharge of electricty arced from the orbs to the cage. No, that wasn't right. It arced from the cage to the orbs. Something had given them more power... and changed their purpose.

Soon the orbs were zipping around the room, no longer heeding an orderly pattern. They weren't directing energy at the pillar, no, but they were making it quite hard to reach. The heavy Iron orbs moved slower, but with significantly more force; being struck by one while it was moving would be more than enough to send the player flying into a wall. The glassy orbs were much faster, but their impacts wouldn't be as dangerous; at least not in a blunt-weapon sense. They, upon striking a player, would shatter and shred them with razor-edged shards.

Nall saw all this, and quickly relayed the information to the group. Then he readied his blade and struck out against the nearest orb, another of the crystals. He wanted to test, for the group's benefit, if the counterattack was still in place.

The orb struck and shattered, blades of glass flying about the room. No rai spell came crashing down, but neither did the orb disappear. It quickly reformed, and immediately slammed into the blademaster. Only the man's high defense saved him from ruin.

"Be careful, these things are pretty painful. Ol Repth." he said, healing himself.

It was then, that he noticed something else. Something... inside of the orbs? Nall homed in on the blue-glowing iron orb. Something to test...

Rue Crack came sailing through the air, landing home in the blue iron orb. The sphere's surface melted away, leaving a small, ephemeral-looking cloud of energy. What the purpose of that energy was, Nall didn't have the chance to find out; the orb reformed around it and knocked him away.

Odd... he hadn't seen that bit of cloud before, in the glassy orb. But then, he hadn't used the proper skill on it...

Hopefull the others would figure out what to do, before these flying orbs tore them apart.


----------------
Same orb stats/colors as before. Only, now they don't shoot lightning, they just ram you. Hit it with the wrong thing and it doesn't expose the energy. Hit it with the right thing (as in the previous round) and it does. WHAT you do with those, I'm not going to tell you. ^_^ Next post next thursday. Keep up the good pace, and good job with the first phase.

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Senna
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Posts: 150
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Post by Senna » Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:52 pm

Well, she’d thought it seemed a lot easier in this room than the others and she was right, at first, thanks to Dien. That changed pretty quickly, however, as the dormant orbs decided to make a complete turnaround, abandoning the previous defensive strategy of zapping the crap out of anything that didn’t have the password and took a more proactive approach – winging around like bees on crack and trying to smash into anything that moved other than themselves. In this rather static (no pun intended) room, that left only the group of fighters, and she suspected that despite their own winging, those orbs weren’t looking to wing the group – they were looking for some good, solid direct hits and maybe to put a few more of them out of commission.

It was funny how when things changed like this, there was no longer even any major surprise in her. This game – this world – had enough surprises in it that most times when the vanquished enemy rose once more in a new form, it was accompanied only by a dull twist in the pit of her stomach, a sort of “here we go again” feeling and a mental skim over the listing of weapons and armor at her disposal, despite having done just that moments before in the first round with these spherical oddities. This time, the switch was a more common one for Senna, a switch to the Time Bracer as she crouched, trying to make herself a small target. If this was going to turn into a game of super-powered dodgeball, there was one spell she definitely wanted on her side.

Ap Do-uh.

This rather unconventional phrasing of the speed-up spell came as a result of one of the iron orbs crashing into her on the tail end of the cast. Her compact stance at the time just meant that instead of sending her flying, the glancing impact sent her rolling awkwardly across the ground. If this were dodgeball, she’d be out now. Luckily it wasn’t, so she was only on a good chunk less HP than before. She was fortunate, she realized, that it had only been a glancing blow.

As her unconventional mode of movement came to a pause, she got groggily to her feet and started putting her new speed to good use. This was far from the first time she’d used the spell. The others probably knew she had it. If they didn’t and wanted it, they could ask – the more the merrier as far as she was concerned. For her, it was time to be on the move. She downed a Health Drink and was running again. She briefly considered going for the tower and eventually penned a brief flashmail to the rest.
Should we try the tower?
Grabbing the item in the center might reset the entire room, or might make the attack orbs even worse. Conversely, removing it from its cage might calm the attack and allow the group to leave. Grabbing it could change the complexion of the entire attack, and there was no telling if it would be good or bad. She wasn’t about to do that to the rest of them without asking. However, they might not have a lot of time. Unlike before, the orbs no longer waited for a reason to attack. Quick discovery of the key would be more vital this time around. So… time to do a little trial and error until someone offered a better solution.

She oriented on the blue steel orb – this was a little easier now that for all intents and purposes, the world had slowed down a bit for her. Before they’d just been sort of blurs, their colors difficult to see and movements a bit tougher to follow. She ducked a glass orb that came in from one side and finally caught sight of her target. Switching weapons – the Lavaman Spear was the best choice for her next attempt – she set herself in the things path. Like an enraged bull, the steel orb made a turn and came for her, apparently designed to attack whatever was closest. Or maybe, like the bull she envisioned it as, the red aura of her weapon drew it. Of course, real bulls were colorblind and attracted by the movement more than the color.

Vak Repulse.

As always, there was no ridiculous shouting of the skill. That sort of display didn’t bother her, but it also didn’t FIT the laconic Long Arm. She spoke it in a low, flat tone which someone not immediately next to her might not even notice. The skill began to weave its wide, intricate trail, the red glow of it painting lines in the air. The orb was driving right in on her, on the skill, on the weapon. There was no question if the two would meet, only what the outcome would be when they DID meet.

The unfortunate part about that particular skill lay in its ability to affect not just one enemy but several in one area. For a Long Arm, that could be invaluable when combined with the long reach of the weapon, meaning that she could keep a number of enemies at bay with it for a time. The flip side of that lay in it not being the most precise of skills. Senna became reminded sharply (pun intended this time) of this aspect when her swinging spear hesitated on the far end of one of the sweeps, accompanied by the jagged sound of shattering glass. A breath later, the shards were hitting, slicing across her from the right. They moved fast and with a lack of precision that was made up by their number and the force with which they cut. It was as though each piece of glass had the force of the entire moving sphere behind it. One narrowly missed her right eye, and several sliced through the flimsy fabric of her sleeve, drawing line of red across her pale arm. As they passed, she thought she saw the faintest shade of green within. Figured, she thought. No luck.

The other orb, the one she’d actually been aiming at to begin with, finally came into contact with her swinging spear as the shards began their assault. (Finally? It hadn’t even been two seconds since she and it first squared off and the same swing had caught both the shattered glass orb and the steel one.) The contact of spear and steel sent reverberations up the haft and into her hands. Grimacing, she dropped, letting gravity carry her downward, just in case.

And it was a good just in case, as well. The sphere was given a moment’s hesitation from the impact, then swooped in at her, but she was moving and instead of slamming into her midsection, it cracked painfully into her shoulder, spinning her once more to the ground. This was embarrassing. She sure hoped no one was watching too close. On the bright side, she thought as she restored her critically low HP with another Health Drink and a Repth, at least she’d ticked off another possibility for how they turned these things off.

((OOC: So, no orbs deactivated yet))
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Post by Lord Canti » Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:44 pm

(You have no idea how freakin' disappointing it is to see something look like it's working...and then falter. You get your hopes up, as everything seems to be in the clear, and then...foom. The whole thing collapses and you're left with the empty feeling of defeat and failure. Well, that's not exactly the same case here, but it's close. In the case of Canti, he only gets the beginning of that let-down feeling, followed shortly after by a sudden and violent death. You could probably see the twin bolts of MeRai Don reflected in his black eyes shortly before catching in the chest as he jumped back to try and avoid. It didn't work. He'd delayed a fraction of a second too long to even hope for an escape while still under the Speedy Gonzales effect. So, the two bolts passed through him quickly, but for Canti, it was an eternity.)

Canti: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

(His body fell back, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. He was dead, the winged body burned black beyond any true recognition of its former dark self. Before, it just looked evil. Now, it looked overcooked. However, Canti's badly-abused form did not yet melt away, nor did his ghost emerge. The...shock...of the attack had been too much for him all at once. He was still a low level and not use to this shit. He wasn't getting up...)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(The crow with bloody wings had fallen, badly burned by the powerlines that had seemed to lash out from the devil's machine. Like from Zeus' mighty thunderbolt, it was struck down and would breathe no more. But among the other shadow people, as far as this state of mind was to perceive, there was another who was concerned. It was not the Wolf or the Eagle. It was not the Split-Down Man, who acted and abstained from acting in equal proportions. Nor was it the Poker-Face, who seemed level-headed and undisturbed on the surface of things. None of them could see the crow in quite the same light, so none of them could see that it was not recovering from the shock at all. The fox was merely a shadow herself, but she had been watching the crow for some time, seen the crow's pain from a unique view, and knew that this was the worst of all. Even the lightning god hadn't done this much damage, because he wasn't elementally weaker to it back then. Now...the fox stood by the crow's side, shouting...)

"Canti, get up! You have to fight it! Don't let your life go to waste!"

(He was hanging on by a thread. This was his first time being killed by his weakness and it was overwhelming him. Like his body in the hospital, he might become vegetable. The fox tried shouting at the others in the room, but naturally, they could not hear her. But then, the Poker-Face woman came and did try to help. The resurrection power seemed to draw the crow's attention, and much-relieved the fox...)


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(He awoke. He didn't remember much of what happened, really. The lightning had blasted him for some reason he couldn't figure out and everything after that was a blur. The Twin Blade had snapped to attention as a Resurrect was used on him.)

Canti: Senna...?

(Maybe she sympathized with this situation... Shaking his head, Canti stood as a soul with a dark hue to it, and then watched as his burnt-up body dissolved into a black puddle, soon reforming around him as his real body again, no longer a corpse but a proper two-legged walky-thing with opposable thumbs. He felt strange, though. Like a Coke bottle that's been shaken up. Something was going to explode soon. But regardless, he was back in his proper form and using a Mage's Soul so he could cast Repth on himself. Canti noticed that Senna was using a pair of spell scrolls to attack the other orbs, but...it was working! This led to one inevitable conclusion about all this.)

Canti: I need to learn Ap Raio...

(No, not that. The other thing. The thing about the spells. How in the hell had his spells failed when they were the right element? Why in the world would it do that? It makes no sense! Oh well... They were all inactive now. The puzzle was solved. Only...now, the cage was zapping the orbs and they started playing a whole new ballgame. Okay, orbgame, whatever. Seems they were all lethal destroyers now, ones that caused hell and havoc whether shattering or slamming. Nall's test of the things proved a point, though. They could be effected much the same way as before. However...)

"Be careful, these things are pretty painful. Ol Repth."

(The orbs were doing their business, of course, and Canti was just about recovered by now, as he'd been using Repth and allowing his SP to regenerate alternatively in the lull. He saw that Senna was trying to figure this business out, but in her attempt, she'd accidentally taken out a green glass orb along with a red orb, so she didn't even get to investigate the energy inside before getting hit by glass. That energy, though... It was a shapeless cloud of elemental force from each orb, iron or glass. Did that mean...? Canti shaped a theory as a brown iron orb and the green glass orb came his way. The Gan-Iron tried to drop onto him like a rolling stone. Indiana Jones again? Hell no! Canti jumped aside from that and casted Juk Kruz onto the Juk-Glass...)

Canti: ...leaving the fresh scent of pine!

(Actually, that one kind of whipped around him before reforming, as it was meant to do after only a short span of time. So yes, they were all clouds of elemental energy. That led to...hmmm... Canti ran along the outer edges of the room, looking for one orb in particular. He had a plan, or at least an idea. Aha! There it was... The Ani-Iron Orb, closely flanked by Rue-Glass and Vak-Iron. Well, one thing at a time, right? The Twin Blade ran in to that spot and kicked the Ani-Iron up to the ceiling. It was on its way to someone else, so he was able to do this without risking severe damage. Of course, the Rue-Glass tried to shatter and scatter right in front of him, but he was already running by the time the Ani-Iron was on its way back to attack him. He only received a few small cuts there. As for the Iron Orb of Darkness, he jumped over that as it slammed the ground and attacked it with Twin Darkness, alone and isolated. The iron 'skin' dissolved away, revealing a cloud of sickening darkness in its wake.)

Canti: Come 'ere, you!

(Wasting no time, the Twin Blade reached for the darkness itself, feeling his own heightened element hungering for that piece of evil. See, Canti's theory was this: What if they were suppose to dissolve these orbs and take in a charge from one and attack another? Since the orbs all responded to their elements, maybe you were suppose to attack the Glass Orbs while having messed around with an elemental charge from the Iron Orbs. Well, Canti was about to find out whether he liked it or not. If it turned out that the clouds were actually harmful when touched, at least he'd chosen an element that he could easily cope with.)

OOC: So...in the process of trying to figure out this cloud business with the dark iron orb, nothing really deactivated yet unless I stumbled upon something.
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:52 am

One by one the damn orbs fell, losing their electric link that bonded them to the wretched pillar. It seemed, oddly enough, that they could simply go up and claim what they had sought out in the first place. Zan knew by sheer experience in the Elites and their damn puzzles that it was never, never that easy. Unless it led into a trap...then it was just a hop, skip, and jump away. Any thoughts of possible booby-traps were removed when his suspicions were confirmed, the ten orbs coming to loft once more into the air of the Rai room. Now what? Now what were the things going to try and attach themselves to? Each other? The lycanthrope prayed for the end of agonizing puzzles, refusing to partake in them any further until his current...condition...was checked out and relieved. Hands crossing over his chest, the leather of his coat creaking as he did so, the Heavy Blade stood defiant before the spheres. Bring it on. Arrogant? Perhaps. No, it was, but it was also better than waiting in some anxious twitchy state while he waited for whatever doom they'd bring.

And bring doom they did.

The orbs were certainly trying to attach themselves to something, all right. The Freedom Fighters were the new static cling. Taking the Lord's name in vain, rather audibly, Zan jerked to the side in time to feel the air of one of the Gan orbs whip by him. His Instinct called to his muscles, removing the need to look behind him, sending him into a back flip before he could even process what he had done. The Vak orb, almost taunting in its glow, hissed by him with only an inch to spare before he came to land on his feet once more. Sadly, that would only last a moment, the lycanthrope jerking his body into a series of horizontal spins (one arm curled in front of him, the other behind) that gave him little room for error. A number of other orbs, their colors registering as little more than blurs as the world continued to swirl about him...or him about the world, however that worked. Landing in a push-up position, Zan kept his head down, Siberian Husky blue eyes staring out through the darkness of his leather hood. The hood. It was proving more a distraction than anything at the moment and, a thought later, it was gone.

Keeping to the floor, crawling rather army-like under the constant lashings from the orbs above him, the Heavy Blade tried to spot any safe zones. There had to be some. Somewhere. Anywhere. Come on. What he finally did come across, though in no way a safe zone, did seem a little less attractive to the presence of the vicious orbs. According to Nall's little demonstration, something that just now seemed to come to his thoughts through the rest of the chaos, he'd either get rammed or put through a medieval meat-grinder with these things. Opening up the floodgates of his senses, taking in the rush of stimuli they offered, Zan used both pin-point vision and the acuteness of his hearing to time the leap to his feet. The relieved smile that appeared in an upward spread along his lips after no immediate pain was cracked into a contortion of pain as one of the spheres rammed into his right Achiles heel, flipping him (legs first) backwards and up into the air. Rather than pace plant on what passed for ground in the Rai room, Zan landed on one hand and using the remaining momentum to twist one hundred and eighty degrees on his palm and vault back into where he had sought sanctuary in the first place.

Taking what could only be a few seconds to scan the room and the actions of his fellow Freedom Fighters, Zan checked for what worked and what did not. No one seemed to be solving the puzzle and, though he knew he'd regret it, the lycanthrope felt obligated to give it his own go. Senna and Canti, one by one, failed with their own attempted. Well, to be more positive, they gave him two ways that did jack squat. Always good to know, really. And what was even better is that, aside from some painful and seemingly spiteful charging after such attempts, the two didn't seem worse for the wear. Thanking whatever deity had spared him of another possible electrical backlash, Zan finally began to seek out his own prey. Which one...which one...oh, perhaps the Gan iron orb rocketing towards his face? That'd do. Following Nall's lead, Zan whipped out the Life Sword and used the skill it came so handily with; Gan Smash. As predicted, the orb crumbled into nothing more than a seemingly vulnerable cloud of the same energy with the fall of Zan's blade. With only a second or two before it reformed and sought vengeance, the Heavy Blade wracked his mind for an explanation.

Some overly-scienced and under-sexed man had once stated, through some sharp-sounding theory, that the simplest explanation was often the right one. If the same element opened it, then the most logical way to destroy it would be assaulting it with the element it despised. Drawing out his Horse Killer, Zan followed through with a Hirameki on to the meek gas and watched with a rather fulfilling satisfaction at the sight of its dispersion. Well, maybe that was bad. Maybe the poofing was something this particular orb did before it reformed and rearranged his face? Putting the Horse Killer back in his inventory, feeling significantly slowed down by the object right then, Zan waited for the retribution to come. Oddly enough, the orb remained vanquished and gave the lycanthrope the metaphorical ribbon of first discovery. Now, did he have any other opposite elements he could perform that with and take another of the swirling menaces out? The unspoken 'yes' formed as he scanned his inventory and subsequent skill possibilities, but even something without verbal annunciation was noisy compared to the sudden air in the room. The orbs weren't moving anymore.

Oh God.

Resisting the urge to push an anchor through his esophagus with a harsh swallow, the lycanthrope looked around with a fading hope that it wasn't his doing. Slowly pulling back, inch by inch, the spheres seemed to center their 'retreat' around him. He was their sun, their center of gravity....and the world was about to fucking collapse in upon itself. Zan had only a second to jump, a fruitless attempt at escape, before they came rushing in. The first to hit him cracked him across the face, breaking his jaw and culling a spatter of blood to fly from his lips like some slow-mo boxing punch. Woozy but conscious, the dazed lycanthrope attempted to correct his focus when the second one hit its target. Cracking him upside the right temple, it filled his vision with wicked white splotches and pumped his gut full of nausea. Had he actually been given the time, Zan wouldn't doubt that a rather violent bout of vomiting would have occurred followed by a short intermission of unconsciousness. Luckily(?) for him, the rest chose that time to join their friends and hit him in more places than he could put together. What he did know is that he was no longer ascending into the air, but whipping through it with the unpredictable jerks of his attacks. At last, mercy came and the pain ceased, dropping his graying corpse to the ground with a meaty thud and the sudden appearance of his ghost.

Arms crossing over his chest like they had before, Zan could think but one thing. Well. You know. Shit.

--------------------
OOC: Yup, found the solution. Simple really. Crack the orbs open with an elemental attack of their affiliation then attack the clouds with the opposite. Good news? You'll destroy one. Bad news? All the others converge on you. Ask Nighthand if you die. Chances are, you know, you will.

x.x
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

User avatar
Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:58 pm

Nall stood idly near the enterance, watching the fight take place. For all that he had acted beforehand, it was more to get them started than anything else. He could just as easily discovered the solution himself, or had Sheena analyze it and give him the solution... but then the group wouldn't learn to solve the problems themselves.

Still, it seemed they did well enough solving it. They had gotten past the point where taking too long would reactivate the spheres. In fact, it seemed as though their battle here was almost done. A good thing, actually; the sooner they got the chance to talk about Marionette, the better. That was bothering him... Who was it? He'd had a lot of time to learn the ins and outs of the hacker association, and Raine and Sheena had plenty of time themselves... for none of them to have heard of this player, and yet it still be enough of a threat to know where they were right now...

Flashmail!
From: Nighthand
To: Nall


How're you guys doing over there? This hub is really well guarded... we took the wrong path and had to fight something that you'd imagine Garaa's version of the Shinja would be. We're really hurting though... I don't think we can handle another false path.

Flashmail!
From: Nall
To: Nighthand


We're doing better than you are, seems like. This is a straight-forward dungeon, fairly typical, though the difficulty is increasing each room we complete. We can do it, probably, but it might be a bit harsh.

Flashmail!
From: Nighthand
To: Nall


I've taken a vote... I'm thinking we should join you. Nothing has been shown of this hub's guardian yet, just that automated snake. Whoever it is probably knows we're here, but I highly doubt we can handle another path right now. Is there any reason we couldn't come join your group? Mine had this funky thing where the path closed behind us, but seemed to be open when Tokki joined...

Flashmail!
From: Nall
To: Nighthand


You sound in need of help, so yeah, come join us. We can hit that hub immediately after this one. I'll have Sheena keep an eye on it, so if it moves or is locked or anything, we'll know where it goes. This is too important to let it slip away.


Nall nodded to himself. With luck, the other group would arrive as they were finishing the Rai-based room, in time for the discussion (had they gotten messages too?) Also, they would be much-needed reinforcements for the final two rooms; no doubt the most troublesome of them all.


------------ooc:
Alright, let's finish up this room and get back to the central room for the discussion. For my group, go ahead and read through this thread if you haven't already, so you know the layout of things, and gather in the central room to wait for the other group to emerge from the Rai room.

User avatar
Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Post by Dien » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:43 pm

The door opened wide, and for a brief moment snow and winter chill flooded inward, hectically touching everything they could get their icy fingers on before being cut off from the cold. The candle that had been left alight was extinguished with the rush of wind as two huddled figures poured into the small cabin. Outside, a storm raged, threatening to cover all that was in its path. Had the candle in the window not been lit, well, he didn’t want to think about that. How had it really come down to this in the first place? Two pairs of skis found a home next to the door. This wash was too deep and too thin for them to be any good.

“There’s no one here,” came the girl’s voice from across the room as Jack Frost’s reaching arm was finally cut off with the click of a latch on the door, “and no radio to speak of.” Jed pulled off his hat and gloves, letting them fall on the floor in front of him as he numbly fumbled to activate the one source of light they still had. Standard police issue, the Maglite had been a gift from his uncle only days before. All at once, his partner was visible again, her hat, gloves, and goggles also departed. Fog escaped out of both of their mouths in heavy pants as the wide beam of light scanned about the one-room cabin to reveal its contents. One wall had a fireplace, kindling, and firewood; the next had cabinets, a counter, and a pair of barstools; standard fare for a cabin of its kind.

Lila had already begun looking through the cabinets, finding blankets, medical supplies, a flare gun, and various foodstuffs. Her black hair fell to the middle of her back, sopped with sweat and melted snow while she set to work in taking some kind of inventory of what there was.

“Any matches?” The boy asked, his breathing beginning to slow to a more relaxed pace as the girl pointed directly to his right. He turned, finding the candle that had been extinguished with a small trail of smoke still rising off its wick. Right next to it a box adorned with a crude drawing of a burning stick sat with the word “WATERPROOF” emblazoned beneath it. He smiled, picking up the box and sliding it open. Within, a species of red-tipped sticks smiled in the light of his light. Quickly one was lit, and the candle that had been a beacon to them was once more alight.

“Well good,” came her reply as she walked over to him, “at least we won’t freeze to death.” Both smiled, and their eyes met for a moment. Only a moment, though, as the general discomfort of the situation echoed to each of them to look away.

“Y-yeah,” Jed finally commented, closing the box and carrying it with him toward the fireplace, “I’ll get a fire going; try and get it so we can’t still see our breath and all…”

__________

A massive crack erupted through the air, and the blademaster’s body was jerked to consciousness. Had he just dozed off? No, he couldn’t have, he would’ve been killed, right? That wasn’t right either, and as he watched the nine remaining orbs collected themselves and converged in some sadistic kruz spell to crush his body before he could even do anything at all. It didn’t take long for the ghost to appear over the broken remnant of his body, and Dien was the first to wrap his fingers around a resurrect and unleash its effects.

Right, he thought, watching the orbs continue their orbits around the room like Bohr’s atom, so what just happened? For the life of him, he couldn’t recall the most recent set of events that had brought the calamity upon Zan. Leaning to the right to let one of the glass orbs whiz by, he sighed, thinking back to Nall’s first attempt at the released balls: a cloud of elemental energy had been revealed inside the blue iron orb after a Rue Crack: rue energy. Think about it for a minute, he told himself, leaning to the left this time, would it make sense to have a person repeat the same skill twice in a row to beat one of the orbs? No, that wouldn’t make sense at all. Perhaps casting the elemental spell on the cloud would be the solution? That wouldn’t work either: a spell was required to melt the glass orbs to the cloud, so then what?

With sudden emphasis, the blademaster lunged forward, blood splattering out of a newfound tear in his shoulder. He winced, pushing himself up with the other arm and watching the injured one dangle uselessly at his side. Well crap, he thought, wordlessly activating the healing spell and sending the skin and tendons back to their respective places, these things hurt. It had been a critical hit, regardless of whether or not the words had risen above him, and it would have been fatal a few inches to the left. Wait, was it really that simple?

What if the requirement for killing these things was just nuking the cloud with an elemental critical? It would be best to play it safe in any case: spells for the glass clouds and skills for the iron ones but regardless, it was worth a shot. Hell, he could probably take another one of those hits if he got it wrong. His mind then reminded him of the fate of his friend: how Zan had been crushed so quickly. Dien didn’t want to have 8 cannonballs speeding at him from all different directions. Even before being infected it would have been considered too painful. Then again, it had to be done if they ever wanted to get on with the dungeon.

“Why me?” he asked, turning his gaze skyward towards the ceiling of the room that was so far away. It wasn’t that he expected any kind of an answer from it, or even whatever deity the question was actually posed toward: it was more just an expression of his wish to not have to go along with it. Well, the pain was inevitable, and with a sigh he decided to set his mind off it: more effort was needed to try and figure out the best way to deal as much damage as possible. The only thing that he needed to worry about as far as armor was concerned was which spells he’d have available; the resulting blow would be fatal no matter what he wore at this level. A quick check of his inventory revealed only two opposing elemental spells could be equipped at once: Gan Rom and Juk Rom in the form of a Heavenly Bead Tiara and Wristbands. Wait, Rom spells had multiple hits, didn’t they? If he got lucky, that meant he could take out both the glass Juk and the glass Gan orbs at once. Granted, the luck would be in how quickly the two elements cancelled each other out, but for a few moments they could coexist in the same spell area.

The next thing to figure out would be where the two target orbs were, and if their orbits led them close to one another at any point. It took a moment to actually find the two orbs, as their velocity prevented elemental discernment except at specific points. However, as Dien learned, they both followed orbit paths that crossed near the center. Perfect, he thought, equipping the desired armor and pausing a moment to solidify his will, this is gonna suck, especially if it only gets rid of one of them. With a sigh, he watched the crystalline green orb, waiting for that crucial moment when it crossed paths with the gan glass orb. Now!

“Juk Rom!” He shouted, and the elemental energies poured out of the orb. Now, the next one was going to have to be quick. The brown orb was already about to enter the storm of plant energies, and with the same enthusiasm he shouted again: “Gan Rom!” For a moment, the two spells spiraled about inside one another, and the plan was a success. First, the glass melted off each orb with the corresponding energy, and all at once the other seven orbs from around the room flew towards him. Excruciating pain lasted less than a second before his body appeared as a ghost once again. Dien smiled: knowing that Luck had finally decided to be a Lady with him.

The pain of the incident had subsided. With the quick passing of the second hand, each throbbing bruise was reduced to naught but a bad memory as the Ghost of Dien stood over where it had been just prior. The ex-elite blademaster stood across the room, having observed the whole thing, and Dien figured this would be as good a time for conversation as any.

“Hey Nall,” he said, his silent footsteps leaving him next to the man, “got a minute?”

All the time in The World.

“Good to know,” Dien replied, smirking at the oh-so-witty remark from the group's stronger blademaster, “so, I take it you also got a PM from that Marionette character?”

Yeah... odd, huh? We probably need to chat about it. I don't even know who it is.

“I have a couple ideas,” Dien returned, “but only based off what I’ve gotten in response to a flashmail I sent. Basically, it said that it’s been watching us for a while.” The player’s voice trailed off, as his mind raced through the possibilities. It would probably be better to discuss in a group, but this was still the most knowledgeable man around.

If he has, he started before we got to this field. Raine’s been monitoring it, and she hasn’t spotted anyone entering since we did, and no bugs to speak of...” His face was troubled for a moment, but it quickly passed. “I suppose you'd like a resurrect?

“That would be helpful, yes,” he said, “this is one particularly nasty challenge: even if we win, we still wind up dead.”

He pulled out the resurrect and activated it, bringing Dien to flesh once more. “There ya go. Still, the more that die, the less damage afterwards. The last few will be a cinch.

“All the more incentive to kill them quickly,” he said, turning to orient himself with the room and where each of the orbs was moving, “thanks.” It was interesting: the group’s leader didn’t seem too worried about this Marionette character, although the fact that Nall didn’t know who it was set something off inside Dien. No real fear besides immediate impending death following his next daring attempt, but as before the concept of a character beyond anyone’s knowledge or control was unnerving. Still, it was time for one more orb to be destroyed, and off-hand the blademaster knew his only other options were iron: Vak or Rue.

A Mage’s Soul was spent and with Glitter in his hand, the blademaster set to the task of taking down yet one more orb. A quick count revealed seven globes still racing ‘round the room, confirming that both the Gan and Juk glass orbs had been destroyed in his attack. Great, now for one more attack. One of the iron spheres had a blue glow about it: that was his target. It sped past the pedestal in the middle, arcing around as he began to run towards its path. A wide turn directed it towards the middle again, and Dien began to activate his sword, ice growing out of the hilt and covering the blade. This was the sword’s strong suit. All at once, the blademaster leapt in the air, and his SP poured into the weapon, driving it downward and into the orb.

A loud crack resounded about the room as the iron melted away, vanishing off the blue cloud that it had encased. The crystal that had encased his sword broke, flames instead licking across its surface as the identity changed. No longer was the sword in his hand Glitter: it was instead Komura. In two swift motions, the blade cut through the cloud, chopping it once and then twice to utterly decimate it. As expected, the six remaining orbs from about the room pummeled him, and all at once he was dead.
__________
OOC:

Orbs remaining:
Iron: Vak, Juk, Ani
Glass: Vak, Rue, Ani
Image
Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

User avatar
Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Sun Oct 08, 2006 1:46 am

Getting harder? Yes, these rooms were definitely getting harder. Here it wasn’t so much the difficulty of defeating the monsters themselves – in this case, the glass and metal orbs – but the insidiousness of the setup itself. Destroying any one orb would cause the others to come after you, and once killed, you wouldn’t have the SP to continue the fight, and this room required SP for spells and skills.

As she continued running, noting with no real surprise the lack of response to her question – another nail in the coffin, she thought grimly and tucked that away for future anti-motivation – Zan found the answer, just before going out in yet another blaze of pretty impressive glory – that guy was giving her interesting death tally a run for it’s money, though she suspected the sensation of dying for someone stuck here made that a less than amusing achievement.

She was again not at an angle where the faint color of the orb he’d assaulted was visible, so she was left to guess at what he’d done. A skill of one element, followed by a skill of its opposite on a steel orb. Either it was opposite same or same opposite, but she couldn’t be sure. Curse the crappy screen!

It would be a crapshoot, she decided, a 50-50. She’d just have to try it and see.

Of course, that was followed closely by the previously mentioned death, as all remaining orbs centered on Zan and made a beeline for him, giving the rest of them a moment’s reprieve. As the orbs centered on him, a thought rushed through her mind. Opposite same, same opposite – was it possible to make sure that didn’t matter? With all the orbs grouped in one place, a pair of well timed area-effect spells in opposite elements (Juk and Gan or Rue and Vak at least) might both open and dissipate two of the glass orbs at the same time, eliminating two more of the things and perhaps confusing them about where to go next.

But no – she tamped that down immediately. It wouldn’t work. No use in suggesting it. Until someone offered a better suggestion, best to just take out what she could, one at a time, and hope the supply of resurrects held out. Because everyone dying all the time seemed to be a viable strategy so far. That thought was met with mild internal amusement. She was being truculent and she knew it, but she was the outsider to their group, as nice as they were and as much as she was trying to pull her weight. She had that gut feeling that her ideas were not warranted or welcome. The others were figuring things out. Let them figure things out.

Dien went into things, resurrecting Zan then going into almost the same thing she’d thought about moments before, but he actually had the means to pull off alone, using twined rom spells in opposite elements to destroy a pair of the glass orbs. Meanwhile, speaking of resurrects, she was surprised to receive one from Canti. She offered a brief salute, then moved in to make her own strikes. That getting the orbs confused ideas still didn’t seem all that bad.

Senna circled around with her enhanced speed until she found the one she was seeking – the metal Vak orb. Which first, she thought. Which first? Which…

Ah heck. She swapped in her Lavaman Spear and wound up. “Vak Repulse.

The thing had been coming in at her, and with the length of the weapon, the contact the two made was a little jarring. Her hands tingled as she made the swap and brought its twin skill to bear on the little cloud of smoke. “Rue Doom

The orb departed this mortal coil, leaving her to breathe a sigh of relief. That was the last of her SP at the moment. Not completely the last, but the last that would be of use for a while. Luckily, every elemental spell she had was mirrored in her scroll collection. This was not, at the moment, a time to worry about it though. If recent history told her anything, it was that she was now going to become the orbs’ next favorite person. To stave that off for as long as possible, she was moving again, and had a health drink in hand. If she was lucky enough to get hit by a few then have a break long enough for her to use it, maybe death wasn’t a foregone conclusion. At the ready in her inventory were also Rue and Rai spells. Who knew, maybe someone would have the requisite opposites. She believed she’d used both Rai and Rue spells in previous rooms, so if someone needed those, they should already know she had them. Not that she expected to be needed. They were common spells.

Unfortunately, with the timing and her current tendency to look up, watching for orbs, she completely missed that Dien had died. Right now, she was just hoping to avoid said fate, to continue to hopefully aid the group.

OOC: Remaining orbs: Metal-Ani, Juk; Glass-Ani, Rue, Vak. Sorry I couldn’t cover more.
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)

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