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

Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Nighthand » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:59 pm

Flashmail wrote: From: Nighthand
To: The Party
RE: Regroup


Now's the chance to regroup, we're about to go into the third and final wing of this place. Lambda Gated Folding Stare if you forgot and left or something. Hurry up though, the way should be fairly clear for you to rejoin us. I'll try to stall Sheena before she runs off without us.

Nighthand had the presence of mind to realize they were diving deep into danger, just about as always. This time they had the rare chance to call in what reinforcements they could. The path behind them was clear, for now, and nothing was immediately attacking them. Nothing should have filled in the path behind them, either.

So he sent out his call, and made his way back to the central room, the room they had overheard the conversation in. Only one door remained, and Sheena stood before it.

”Problem?”

”No… Just waiting as long as I can for you.” He voice was calm, controlled, and… unhappy. It frightened him.

”Appreciate it.”

Together in silence they waited for another few minutes, hoping more players would show up. No doubt they would need backup. Finally, Sheena’s internal timer called times up. She pushed open the already-unlocked door, and revealed a long descending staircase.

She started down it, taking the stairs one at a time for a while, then two then three, until Nighthand wondered just how she was able to keep from tumbling the rest of the way down. The end wasn’t even in sight. All it would take is a slippery stair and their most powerful fighter would make an ungainly entrance.

Down and down they went, until finally, they reached a flat open room. No door behind them, closing off the stairs. Just a door in front of them, a single step higher than the rest of the room.

The door opened easily and he stepped up into a circular room with thick walls, all made out of seemingly one piece of rock. It was cool, here, almost pleasantly so. Certainly after the heat of the upper levels.

There was a nothing in the room save a pedestal. It had on it three etchings and a long pole attached to it. The pole was horizontal and sticking out of a hole in the side of the pedestal at about waist height. It stretched out a good seven or eight feet, halfway to the outside wall of the cylinder.

The etchings were in the cardinal directions, assuming the door they walked in was south. The one to the west was a small oval, shaped like an egg. The one to the north was that of a bird, and the one to the east was a bone. On closer inspection, there was a small V pointed in the direction of the door.

A dead end? There had to be a puzzle here, something they needed to do to make it through.

OOC: The flashmail is geared to the people who were in the last thread, more specifically those who dropped out. If you weren’t part of it and still want to be in this thread, IM me and we can discuss it.

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

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Senna » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:20 am

Getting through and getting out as quickly as possible had always been the plan, but at every step it was going too slow, so very slow. If not for Sheena, who knew where their group would be now?

But luckily, they did have Sheena, and because of that they were making it through this mess of a compound in their quest to find Nall and get him out. Right now, they were moving as a group down a set of frightening stairs at an even more frightening pace. They weren’t going as fast as the aforementioned Sheena, who was all but flying down the stairs.

Whatever her connection with Nall, Senna decided she would never want to be between the two, or between Sheena and ANYTHING when she was on a mission.

The room at the bottom of the stairs presented the group another problem. One door, some strange carvings, a fairly simple puzzle. Dien was the first to get it, and soon was turning the room – yes, the room! It operated something like a giant treadmill, only instead of a single belt, the whole room moved with his steps. To the first item. The second item. The third item… when the door aligned with each of the glyphs on the pedestal they were shown…

Meadows. Each of them allowed slightly different meadows to be accessed. An oddity, to be sure, but no odder than a lot of what the group had encountered.

At the last door, the one matched to the carving of the bone, Senna made her way over to the opening and wandered out into the grass. The trip was a little wobbly. The movement of the room, after the stairs, after everything else, was leaving her feeling unbalanced. It was with a sigh of relief that she stepped out of the room, heedless of whatever else was going on.

Well, maybe heedless was the wrong word. She did hear, did pay attention. She just didn’t particularly care. If there was one thing the last two fields had taught her, it was that the group never moved forward without trying things.

She walked a few paces out into the field, scanning it. There was a pretty obvious limit. That might be worth exploring later, but for now she was feeling a somewhat urgent sense of adventure.

Hey,” she called. “Try shutting the door?
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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Lighteria
Well-Oiled Machine
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:59 am
Location: :noitacoL

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Lighteria » Sun Sep 21, 2008 5:11 pm

The rush that had been in Lighteria at the start of the trip is gone now. After the puzzles, the fighting and the stalls, whatever they were planning to do with Nall is probably already done. Though the group was all alive and by now perfectly alright, there's still a small sense of defeat. Even Sheena who was ready to rush past anything she found is slowing down enough to wait for reinforcements. The pause is good for a rest definitely, nothing smarter than waiting for full HP and SP before charging forward. Still, with too much downtime the twin blade's adrenaline quickly drains. He'd made an idiot of himself in front of Sheena already and it's become pretty clear that she needs a leash more than she needs a misguided rescuer. There's a moment during the break where Lighteria starts to consider going back to the hideout and giving up, but something about seeing it through to the end is appealing enough to make him stick it out. Of course, that doesn't prevent him from lapsing into his own head again.

I wonder if that lab guy is still alive... It was hard to tell with him ghosted like that. To think they used that thing on Nall... who do they think they are!? ...The gall of that man.... the absolute gall to call us murderers when they do far worse.
...Not that that excuses it.
...Damn it, we should be preventing needless deaths, not causing them. But what can we do? Do we have that luxury when we're like this? I don't know... I just don't know anymore. I don't think I can take a repeat of last time. My stomach feels ill just thinking about it and I don't think that even exists in game. I'll just... have to stay with them...if just to make sure I stop them...


Lighteria looks up from his thoughts to see that time is apparently up and Sheena has moved on. Lighteria hurries down the steps to catch up reaching the next room at about the time the group already starts to mess with it. The twin blade blinks a few times, taking in the room. It looks like a giant stone cylinder, almost like what they use to grind grain in a windmill. ...Almost. With the lever mechanism apparently figured out, the twin blade watches Senna heading out towards a.... meadow?

A meadow... Ooook, well we've seen stranger things I guess... Why on earth would this be here though? Is this really where they're keeping Nall?

“Hey,” She calls. “Try shutting the door?”

Lighteria shrugs once and walks towards the mechanism to oblige. He grips the lever and slowly turns the thing until the altar's pointer reaches the bird. As the stone grinds though, inside the meadow the door appears to only close for an instant and immediately open again. "The meadow again...?" The twin blade tilts his head in confusion, speaking quietly. He looks to Senna and then immediately back down to the symbols, scratching his head. "Did I turn it the wrong way?"


Nighthand edit: It's not really clear here, but: The meadows are not all the same; senna inside the bone meadow when the door is pointed at the bird meadow would not be visible. To her the door is never closed; time between when it closes and when it opens is "cut" from reality. for senna to be able to comment the door would have to be turned back to the bone.
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

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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 1

Post by Dien » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:23 am

(OOC: For the record, this happens before both Canti’s and Senna’s posts)

Decapitation is never a fun thing. Of course, there were perks to it. For instance, the fourteen seconds he experienced as a head without a body were probably the most interesting fourteen seconds of his existence, but with any luck he wouldn’t have to repeat it again. Granted, part of him wanted to repeat the experience to learn more about it, which stood in direct opposition to his natural instinct to not die, but what was one more instinct to learn how to overcome? Still, experiments in this realm would leave him entirely useless, so they would have to wait at least until they returned to the hideout with Nall safely in tow.

The air was horribly stale. While being a ghost provided respite from the unbearable heat of the field, the air quality took a sharp dive for downright awful. There was no scent to it, but it just tasted so stale: like being in an airplane at 35,000 feet. Granted, that particular taste was aided by the fact that when in an airplane, one is most likely surrounded by an entire horde of other people, so it has an almost subconscious claustrophobic effect of making the air more difficult to breathe on account of reactionary inflammation of the trachea in an almost asthmatic ordeal. Or in layman’s terms, everyone needs a little elbow room. Being dead, however, provided more than enough elbow room to spare, though the general lack of sensation in the body contributed to claustrophobia, but air was air was air.

It was only after Sheena had recovered the cape that they had decided to turn and head out, and even then it was only Nighthand who remembered the comrade who’d slain the squiddish puppeteer and decapitated himself in the process. Rip Maen was cast hastily as the party exited the room, returning Dien to the tastier (albeit hotter) air of the living realm. A quick check showed new levels he’d not had before, putting him up at level twenty eight. To think that hacked monsters gave EXP was astounding, but it wasn’t exactly like this was a new experience for him. After all, he had been slowly leveling since joining the group, and how else would he have gained levels but through experience in fighting monsters, unless it was some byproduct of Twilight working within his character data. Hell, Cait or Cobalt may have tweaked it so he would periodically receive more levels.

A flashmail from Nighthand indicated a short lull in the action – time spent best stocking up, according to the blademaster. He would need stronger armor to match his stronger level, but at the same time, he didn’t exactly have the time or patience to deal with the NPCs’ AI that would try to sell him stuff that he didn’t want. Hell, he didn’t even need to buy the best armor set, just the armors with useful spells that he didn’t already have. Quickly, he composed and fired off a flashmail to Cobalt.
From: Dien
To: Cobalt
Re: Levelled
Message:
Just reached level 28. Was level 25. Best armor to buy?
“I’ll be right back,” he said, fishing the desired Sprite Ocarina from his bag of infinite holding and letting its effect throw him back to the front entrance of the dungeon. He’d forgotten just how hot it was here, and while it was a refreshing departure from the dull, arid heat of the dungeon’s chambers, it was a bit too much for him to handle. Without another moment to spare, he opened up the gate dialogue and was pulled from the field and back to the hideout.

A flashmail and a few encounters with the NPCs later, and he was back at the gate, returning himself to Gated Folding Stare. Three spells were essential: Ap Vakz, Ap Do, and Rig Seam, and without hesitation he found himself once again at the doorway to his dreams. Only it wasn’t very much to his dreams, and was somehow left surprisingly open. No qualms there. Once again a fiery sword was pulled out to help him through the random pits of death, and he arrived at the main lobby just in time to find Sheena opening the door. All at once, memories came back to him of the doorway from his “recruitment” with Suraisu: the one that provided the descent into the ninth layer of Hell. A look was shot to Canti to see if it had triggered the same response, but regardless, the pack had started to move.

…just what was it with these hackers and their precious, impossibly steep, impossibly long staircases? I mean sure, it was a great way to wear opponents down, but for something like a communications hub that they’d have to access regularly? It just went against the laws of reason.

Fifteen to twenty minutes of mind- and leg-numbing descent later, and he’d caught up with Sheena, who’d come to a stop in a cavern that had been cleft from a single stone. Another thing to notice down here was how much fresher the air was. Not nearly hot in any way: if he had to guess, upper sixties with low humidity, like you’d find in a Canadian High Pressure system (which is only familiar to people in and relatively near the northeast). Still, that wasn’t to take his eyes from the center of the room.

A single pedestal stood up to about waist height, and on its top were four markings. Facing the door was a V of sorts, ninety degrees clockwise was something likely meant to resemble an egg, which was then followed by a bird, and then lastly by a bone. Despite obvious allusions to the life cycle of birds, the blademaster was entirely stumped as of what to do—that is, until he saw the pole at the back of the pedestal – lined up exactly with the bird. Given the perfectly circular construction of the room, it was only a matter of course that it would rotate. It was just a matter of pushing it.

Positioning himself counter-clockwise from the pole, he pushed on the pole, and something rather peculiar happened. It wasn’t the pedestal that had rotated, but the entire room. While it was the same effect, the fact that it had moved with such ease was plenty enough to throw the blademaster off. Even without the rest of his party in the room, that had to be tons of mass that he was pushing as though it were nothing. Physics denied his actions, but since when had the hackers decided to obey physics? It was a miracle in Dien’s mind that thus far there hadn’t been any more physics-breaking moments in their travels through The World.

Still, it was time to test this rig out. The target was the bone-room, which most likely meant that the bone would have to be facing the doorway in order for it to line up correctly. As he presumed, it did, and he had little trouble stopping it before getting his first glimpse of what lay beyond. Memories flooded back with the view—some good, others not so good—as his gaze fixed on the meadow beyond. Without so much as a sideward glance to the others, he proceeded through the door.

It was a field about the size of a baseball diamond, lined with thick forestry and covered with unattended-to grass that reached up to about his knees. Light green stocks bent slightly near their peaks, letting the flowers and seeds scatter to the wind as the case was. It was afternoon, so the sun was strong, despite the constant, light breeze that made the air almost brisk to walk through, making him wish that his cloak still had the arms attached. Still, with the glow starting to return to him, there was some shielding.

Passing through the center of the room revealed nothing particularly interesting about it, besides the crystal clear blue skies above that were lined by thin, white clouds in the uppermost layers of the atmosphere. The realism in this game still continued to amaze him, even in the face of impending doom. Dying here wouldn’t be so bad, he thought, his pace slowing as he neared the edge of the forest, maybe if things don’t work out and we lose to the Elite, they’ll grant me a last request of dying here.

The hell was he thinking? No Elite was going to kill them. Not now, not ever.

Feet stood still on the brim of the border of the field he’d just passed through, the undergrowth impossibly thick to get into, let alone try to move through. Even if somehow he were able to hone all of his energy into one solid, long strike through the undergrowth, he doubted it would do any good. Observation told him nothing of this particular field within the field – particularly that there was nothing resembling an egg. Granted, the doorway was of particular interest. A stone archway lined what he’d walked through. Despite his preliminary investigation, he hadn’t noticed it at all, and what was particularly interesting about it was that from the back, it was nothing more than an ordinary archway. Curious, but not enough to confuse him.

Stepping through it and turning yielded the doorway he’d wanted, and stepping back through that left him back in the Pivotal Room, pushing on the pedestal again to turn the room so that the door was facing the “bird” room. Examination revealed another meadow of much the same design as the last. No birds, and it was definitely a different meadow, but so far as he could tell, there wasn’t anything in this one that wasn’t in the last one. Turning the room to the egg room revealed the same, and he sighed.

Elemental connotations pointed to the rooms as being really rather Juk-oriented, so maybe something would happen if he were to activate Gan energies…

“Gan Zot!” From the middle of the egg field spires of earth shot skyward, dancing in their places and ravaging the ground for all of five seconds before retreating into the earth below, leaving absolutely nothing in their wake. There was nothing different about the room, nothing different about the meadow, and nothing different about Dien whatsoever. With another sigh he called to Nighthand, beckoning him to try turning the room while he was still in the meadow. He saw the man nod and take up his position on the rod. The doorway closed, revealing stone that slid horizontally across its arched surface for a split second.

Only for a moment did his mind tweak at what he saw. The doorway returned—as though it had gone full circle—just as soon as it was completely gone from view. Doubtless Nighthand and the others watching had the same brain-screwing reaction he’d had, but he had half expected this much. Tricks and gimmicks like this were common to movies, and with a clever coder, anything Hollywood could imagine up was possible in this realm. Hell, he’d already half figured out the steps they’d taken to create such an effect, and as of yet, he also knew exactly why it had been done this way:

No one could be trapped in these rooms.

With a sigh, he fell backwards, letting the grass cushion his fall slightly as the blue sky and high cirrus clouds came into view, brightly reflecting sunlight from their distant haze into his digital eyes. Damn, why did it half to be fake? Closing his eyes, he composed a flashmail and sent it so he could return to his cloud-gazing. It read:
From: Dien
To: Freedom Fighters (Lambda: Gated Folding Stare)
Re: More Findings…
Message:
The room moves, in case you missed the memo. The glyphs on the pedestal seem to reflect stages in the life of a bird, starting as an egg, growing into a bird, and then dieing and decaying into bones. Aligning the door with a glyph reveals a meadow – all three are roughly the same, give or take minor details. Spells, as of yet, have no effect on the field whatsoever besides wasting SP. The undergrowth in the forest is too thick to move through, and the doors are kinda trippy from the field side – especially if you try to move the room while someone’s still inside. Aside from that, the weather’s nice, albeit a bit cool compared to what we all seemed to get used to on floors above.

I can think of no further course of action to test the meadows besides having everyone file into the same one. The door won’t close behind us, but by the same token I don’t think anything can happen in these fields until the Pivotal Room is empty. It’s just a shot in the dark guess by me, though. I’ll be gazing at the clouds in the Egg Meadow – just come get me if you need me.
(OOC: Sorry for having trampled upon that, guys, but I did script that turning-the-room-while-someone’s-in-the-meadow thing with nights. If you’ve got an idea that requires Dien to leave the egg room, just come get him. He’ll comply with requests to leave, albeit begrudgingly)

Nighthand edit: the doors can in fact be closed. it's just whoever is inside a meadow when it's closed off doesn't experience the time spent within it. to them, inside, the door looks like it closes and immediately opens. to us outside it acts just as it would without someone in a meadow.
Image
Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

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

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Lord Canti » Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:41 pm

Canti: So, tell me again why I can't have this mystery item yet?

(This was a few moments after the untimely demise...)

Canti: I mean, you said it was ready.

(...of the weird glob upon the ceiling...)

Canti: What is it, anyway?

(...which Dien had managed to deal with while trussed up in a hangman's noose.)

I told you. It's a surprise. But I can't send it to you because you need to be in neutral territory first. And since you're on a rescue mission...

Canti: Right, right... I got it. Dammit...

Oh, don't pout. You'll get it soon enough, and you'll like it when you see it.

(Currently, the dark Twin Blade was still in the room in which they'd fought the puppet-creature that'd been capable of not only slamming him around and hanging Dien, but decking Nighthand and throttling Sheena. He was here while the others had left for two reasons. First, there was the fact that he wanted to speak to Reyome while others were not listening in. It would look awfully crazy or suspicious - "Oh hell, Canti's talking to the voices in his head." - for him to engage in that sort of conversation while people were looking. That being said, he hadn't been paying much attention, so if someone overheard...he didn't know. In any case, the other reason was that after getting re-oriented on things and looking around, he noticed that the Vegas Vindicator was sitting down precisely where he left it, everyone else having totally forgotten about it. Canti looked left, then right, as he whistled the Pink Panther Theme, and scooped up the evil scientist machine.)

Canti: Heh. No sense letting the thing go to waste.

(Snickering maniacally to himself, Canti took to his wings and flew off, toting the item extractor weapon along. Weighty though it was, he felt rather comfortable using his flight power to offset it, doing little swoops and spins here and there to regulate it. Getting the hang of carrying while flying, he felt confident that he could actually lift a person out of danger if need-be with this sort of practice. Granted, he was only a foot off of the ground right now, oweing the size of the rooms and corridors, but the principle was the same. He may as well be a thousand feet off of the ground for all the gravity-defiance going on. So, taking a smoke while he - and most importantly, Sheena - waited, he started to converse with Rey again while fiddling slightly with the evil gun, leaning against a wall. This time, though, he was silent while doing it.)

Canti: So, I've been thinking...I really don't like Nighthand as a leader.

You've told me this before. What about it?

Canti: Well, I know I trust Nall more, but I also know he only leads de facto, like if they need a second team and stuff. The fact is, he gets sent on errands even for all his power.

So...now you're thinking Nall isn't suited for leadership either?

Canti: No, it's not that. He'd probably do fine. I don't think he WANTS to lead is all. But...

But?

Canti: Alright, this is gonna sound a bit strange coming from me, but what would you say if I said I thought Sheena was much better a leader, even under pressure?

She's the Fist Fighter, right? The one that's been charging in impatiently?

Canti: Uh-huh. See, that's what I mean. I'm okay with that. I like rushing in. But the thing is, she's still doing it smart. She knows we have limited time, so she's beating the SHIT out of the opposition rather than waiting and sticking to patient tactics, and I know she's a great coordinator back at the hideout.

You're not suggesting what I THINK you're suggesting, are you?

Canti: I think I'm GOING to ask her to take charge, or see what she thinks. She seems to understand the idea of a team more, and I'd have to be blind to think she's doing this purely because Nall's capture is tactically unsound. If ANYTHING happened to the rest of us, I can see her drawing more concern than Nighthand, who only sees beating the Elites.

Kind of rough, don't you think?

Canti: Hey, I understand where he's coming from, 'cause I wanna beat the hell out of 'em too, but there's no point in doing it if he doesn't put us ALL getting out alive over their destruction.

(There was no reply for that, and no need. Time was soon up as Sheena decided to open up the last door and head in, the rest of them more or less filing in behind. Canti didn't even bother walking it. He hovered down the stairs like Jehuty descending Aumaan, his wings doing all the work instead of his feet. It didn't matter if he even hurried when Sheena hurried. He simply followed. This soon led them all to a stone room, smooth and round and cool, while...enacted a strange memory in Canti. There was a single pedestal in the room with funny drawings on it, and a pole the looked like a sort of lever-thingy. This didn't take a genius to figure out, though Dien WAS already working on it. Fact is, he'd definitely seen this in games before. This was the age-old rotating room that has been in medieval fantasies for the longest time. The door, put simply, was a movable portal to other rooms as indicated on the pedestal. While the others went messing with it first, Canti put down the gun, giving it some thought. He was leaving it out of the way, of course. Finally, the winged Twin Blade took his own stab at it. Starting with Egg, he turned the room that way and investigated, then went back and repeated the process with the other two, more or less trying to see if there was any sort of pattern to the rooms like Dien mentioned. All of them were relatively identical in size, shape, and content, though varying slightly in the details. So, maybe the grass was greener in Bird than Bone, or maybe Egg contained the Larch, but they were all decorum, not actual important things. They served as ground and walls and that's it. In which case, Canti had been going through them on the idea that it was just one tricky puzzle-lock and that he could find himself a new pathway by patterning his actions from Egg to Bird to Bone in that order and then returning south, to V, for a secret way out that they didn't know about for being focused on meadows. Canti, however, was mistaken in this belief.)

Canti: Dammit!

(And so, he had to regroup his thoughts on the matter. Let's see... There was...a whole lot of junk in that lab, stuff he didn't snatch or get broken by people dropping it. The whizzo evil chemistry set he picked up probably wasn't gonna help here, as all the labels on those things were meaningless numbers likely pertaining to an encoded monster attribute or proto-spell hence the explosions and ice and stuff. The rest of the items that the Vak Knight had been picking up were mostly junk, and he didn't think any of that would be associated here. Ugh... What a pain... Canti went to the Egg room to think, and then the room slid to shut the door behind him. Turning to look, he saw the door vanish for like...an instant, and then return to open the other way around. It was so quick, like barely any delay at all.)

Canti: Wait a minute...

(He did so, and noticed as what happened when someone did it again. And then, he went to Bird and then Bone to see if it was consistent. 'Shutting the door', apparently did so alright. Dien seemed to get that part wrong. Canti's black eyes saw it for what it was. While in the Bone room, he let out a laugh.)

Canti: Time really IS an illusion. I wonder if it's lunchtime...

(And then, he composed a Flash Mail.)

TO: The Party
FROM: Canti
SUBJECT: Did ya notice?

The doors close alright, but time is working funny in each one. As soon as you close it, practically no time has passed in the rooms as the rotator faces away from them. So, on the inside, the room opens up as soon as it closes without delay. I don't know what it means exactly, but I'm getting the impression that Dien's right in that way all have to get out of the rotating room. However, I think it somehow needs to be leaving all the three other doors closed, with it in the V position, before we can move on. Dunno how, of course, but is it's a trap, I'm keeping the Vegas Vindicator with me in case we need to code-wall to escape. (And I'm hoping really hard that it might work that way.)


(That being said, he left the Bone room to go and retrieve the wicked-looking gun before taking residency in that room again. If he was right, and he might be, this 'lock' required a combination with themselves as part of the key. Once done, they could find themselves moving forwards without a way back, and they had a monstrous freaky guy to handle. So yes, Canti wanted the Destructo-Ray with them when the shit hit the fan.)
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.

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Phoenix512 » Wed Sep 24, 2008 2:25 am

Phoenix was released from the doll’s wire but it took him awhile to get back up. Damn. What’s happening to me? Why does my body fail me at times? You should be fine. It might be the effects of your scars. Even you can’t hold up the pressures of constant battles. It looks like Sheena has defeated the puppetmaster. Good. I’m tired of facing with dolls and their puppeteers.

The blademaster finally got up and noticed that Sheena was already continuing on. She was right about one thing. We cannot waste anymore time. Let’s go, Suzaku. The bird gave a nod and began to head back the central room running or flying in Suzaku’s case. They returned back to the central room with Nighthand and Sheena waiting for others to come before moving on. It was surprising that Sheena could stand to wait that long. Phoenix guessed that it was her way of admitting that she needed us after all.

After waiting, they proceed to the final door and descended some stairs. Suzaku transformed back into a necklace as Phoenix walked down the stairs. Once walking down the stairs, Phoenix found a room with a cylinder in the room and nothing else. There was no other doorway except for the one that he entered into the room.

The cylinder if activated revealed that it allows a person to enter into a different room depending how many times you activated it. There were three choices when using the cylinder: egg, bird, and bone. It looked to Phoenix that they meant the life cycle of an average bird but had no clue how this would relate to their current problem.

Phoenix spent some time thinking about this as Senna, Lighteria, Canti, and Dien were trying to figure out the puzzle along with some flashmails from Dien and Canti. Canti suggested that someone should be in each of the four rooms which Phoenix realized that no one has stay in the bird room. Phoenix used the cylinder to move the door to the bird room. Once at the correct spot, the blademaster entered the room.

The bird room was a meadow like the others have said. Nothing special has occurred while being in this room. For now, Phoenix decided to laid down which Suzaku had appeared to him as a bird once again. Is it okay for you to relax like this? Didn’t you say that time is short?

I did, didn’t I? But until something happens, there isn’t much we can do. Besides, there will be some fighting in the end. Even a few minutes of rest will go in a long way towards the end. But I find it weird that the hackers have these meadows in a volcano. I guess they needed something a bit green. I guess you’re correct after all, Kazuma.

Flashmail

To: Everyone
From: Phoenix

I think someone is in at least one of the three rooms. Will someone turn the cylinder back to the entranceway of room?

End Flashmail


Phoenix and Suzaku continue to laid down in the meadows while waiting for something to happen.
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

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

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Nighthand » Thu Sep 25, 2008 4:55 am

The room was slowly making him dizzy, so Nighthand decided to step into one of the revealed meadows to settle his head and his thoughts. As it turned out, the egg room was the one chosen for his reverie.

A slight grinding sound came from behind him, and he turned to look at the doorway. It was little more than a rectangle of stone, a few inches thick. Beyond its slowly-closing view, Sheena was shoving at the pole, twisting the room about and studying it.

He watched as the door slid closed, and immediately started to open once again. Raising his good eyebrow, he called out to Sheena.

”Change your mind about locking me in here?”

She gave him an odd look and shook her head. ”Not exactly. You were in there for five minutes.” Nighthand narrowed his eye and stepped out of the meadow and back into the room, eying the door behind him warily. ”Do me a favor and turn this room to the staircase and then back, once I give you a signal.” The heavyblade nodded, and she stepped into the meadow he had so recently vacated.

Sheena held up her hand, the one with the wires she had briefly shown upstairs, and motioned as if she was placing something on a shelf. A moment later and she locked eyes with Nighthand, and nodded. He nodded back, and turned the room to the staircase. It was surprisingly easy to move. Some trick of gearing, no doubt. He noted that it was basically the outer wall, the floor, and a small ring of the pedestal that rotated. The main body, including the surface, of the central column remained fixed. It was counterintuitive how it worked. He looked down and, sure enough, a small strip of the floor was fixed. The matte gray of the stone made it hard to spot the seam, but it was there. A strip of the floor he could walk on to rotate the rest of the room.

A moment later and he pulled back, the door slowly lining up with the Egg room once more. Sheena looked at him from the doorway, and nodded to herself.
flashmail wrote:
From: Sheena
To: The party
RE: The meadows


The meadows are time-locked. When they’re closed off, they may as well not exist. Having someone in each of them won’t solve any of our puzzles, because the closed ones don’t change at all. I knew I had seen this brand of world-tweaking before. Time; it’s the fundament of Nall’s powers.
She stepped out of the meadow and moved to examine the pedestal. Nighthand too watched it, wondering if there were more invisible seams. Sheena’s following words confirmed that suspicion.

”There’s more to this pedestal than there looks… A lot of the energy from the meadows centers here!”

She crouched and started feeling around the base of the stone, and Nighthand slowly walked a circle around it. His hand brushed the top, tracing each of the symbols in turn. Egg… Bird… Bone… V…

Under his hand, the V shifted slightly to the side. Stopping in his tracks, he pushed it a bit more, and watched it turn. The V was slightly inset, compared to the other symbols. Just enough so that it could be turned to point at them.

”I think I found it.”


OOC:

To keep things straight.

Image

Picture the pole being connected to the outer wall, so that it turns the gap in the wall to line up with the four cardinal directions in their doorways.

If my post and my prior edits weren’t clear enough; when the meadows are closed, time inside them stops.

The V can be rotated; in fact, the entire center of the pedestal’s surface rotates. What this does, you’ll have to find out.

Questions, come to me, assuming things and being wrong could cause problems.

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Raquar » Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:23 am

The entire thing was a mess. He had been revived and had given a pair of gloves to Dien before shit hit the fan. Cords and limbs were flopping around everywhere and now there was talk of an invisible glob thing no less. He was grateful that he had given the gloves to his Blademaster comrade as his flashmail detailed what needed to be done. The boy himself couldn’t think of a whole lot to do, without gloves or the gun, but it wasn’t a wasted effort, as it wasn’t long before the remaining party members made jelly out of the invisible blob that was really running the show. And then it was time for a breather. People stayed people left, whatever suited each individual’s current whims, but not much time was wasted before Sheena lead them helter-skelter down the stairs of the third wing of the laboratory.

It was dark in the descending corridor, but he only stumbled twice on the way down. What he emerged into seemed like the inside of the lower floor of some sort of grain mill or something. There was a singular pedestal in the center of the gray concrete room. There was a singular wooden shaft protruding from the pedestal that could serve as a radius of the circular room they were in. That made maneuvering rather inconvenient as the boy has to either step over it, duck below it, or completely reverse direction if he wanted access to whatever was on the immediate other side of the thing. It didn’t take too long for Dien to figure out what the major point of the room was, the fact that the wooden shaft rotated the entirety of the room around. Through a series of explorations and flashmails it was determined that the three portals led to similar meadows, each with a basic set of subtle differences. It also seemed that the rooms were what the rest of the group called ‘Time-Locked.’ He had heard about it in various stories, where there was a room of sorts that would be sealed off somehow from normal reality, and while time would pass normally where the majority of the players were, however nothing would change at all for the player inside the meadow and any change would seem almost instantaneous.

There was some speculation about the possibility of needing somebody in each of the three rooms, but it was . . . one of the fearless leaders that came up with the solution. And that thought raised interesting questions. Was there a chain of command between Sheena, Raine, Nall, and Nighthand? Obviously Nall was the so called leader of the Freedom Fighters, and from the sound of it, there was no disputing his power, but it almost seemed to him like each of the individuals could head a section of the Freedom Fighters, and that in a sense, those four were the oval office, the democratic leadership of the Freedom Fighters. And quite honestly, he saw no fault in the leadership of those four. I mean sure they probably all had there personally faults, but Raine was extremely intelligent and caring, Sheena was evidently very powerful, and had the type of personality that seemed to draw people to her. Nighthand was Nighthand, and was a solid member of the group at least, and his leadership wasn’t in question by the boy in the slightest. And then there was the infamous Nall. He hadn’t actually met the individual, but with so much said about the man he couldn’t really doubt him. Either way, the chain of thought wasn’t doing anything for their immediate situation, so when Nighthand figured out what the point of the pedestal truly was, the Long Arm sidled by him with a mumbled excuse me.

Depressing the “V” slightly, he shifted it around so the point was pointing toward the bird. Then grasping the pedestal, he turned it so that the opening, or door rather, was in the same place as the bird meadow. The door flickered, and inside the meadow there was a small hut that appeared inside the room. Shrugging he stepped inside to see a rather average-aged man dressed decently, and poking at a small cooking fire. Taking a chance, the boy voiced a question.

”Hello sir. What are you doing out here on your own?”

"Wha? What the hell? I live here, why are you in my house?"

"Um. Actually sir that's a good question. I apologize for intruding without prior warning, but I just happened upon this house and thought something might reside inside that would make the next leg of our journey clear."

The gentleman eyed the weapon with an air of concern. "I don't have any money, if that's what you're on about. Barely got enough food for me, none to spare. Best off going to town."

With an uncomfortable quirk of his lips, he leaned his spear against the corner wall. "I'm sorry if I seem frightening sir. I'm not here for money or food. Rather, could you tell me perhaps where I am? Besides currently in your humble abode?"

"You're in the forest, what's it look like? You daft? Don't see why you're here anyways, there's a reason I live way out here. Shoo, scram, leave me be!"

With a slight frown, the boy placed a bag on the table as he spoke. "Sorry for intruding sir. Here, a little something for your trouble."

The man watched him deposit the money on the table and his eyes shifted back to the boy, but nothing further was said inclining the boy to break the silence. "Is there anything you need help with? I'm not entirely sure why but I think it in my best interest to prove to you that I'm a decent fellow and mean you no harm."

The reply was curt and short. "No, no, I don't need nothin, just leave me be!" He turned his back to the boy and began to rummage through ceramic articles looking for something. Deciding to heed the man’s request, the Long Arm returned to the main room and reported his findings to the crew.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Raquar
Subject: Moving on
Message: Okay so. You twist the “V” so the point points in the direction of the room you want to go to. You then move the opening so that it corresponds to the meadow and something will happen. I went into the Bird Meadow and came up on a small hut with an individual inside. A brief conversation yielded that he was in a forest, and that there is a town, so a guess would be that inside one of the other meadows is a town. He seemed rather disjointed so I would recommend not disturbing the man before. Let’s poke around the other two first and see what happens.
Last edited by Raquar on Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

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

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Lord Canti » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:28 am

(After waiting an amount of time - which was effectively no time at all for those in the rooms, Canti's patiences ended and he stepped out of the meadow he was in to go and try something else. However, as luck would have it, he was emerging a little after Raquar was more or less out of his dial-changed version of the Bird room. Putting down the extractor gun for the time being, he puzzled at whatever the guy was up to, and received his Flash Mail before he could ask him anything.)
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Raquar
Subject: Moving on
Message: Okay so. You twist the “V” so the point points in the direction of the room you want to go to. You then move the opening so that it corresponds to the meadow and something will happen. I went into the Bird Meadow and came up on a small hut with an individual inside. A brief conversation yielded that he was in a forest, and that there is a town, so a guess would be that inside one of the other meadows is a town. He seemed rather disjointed so I would recommend not disturbing the man before. Let’s poke around the other two first and see what happens.
Canti: Hmmmm...

(You can't really argue with a good plan, so...he didn't. Immediately acting on it, the winged Twin Blade set the dial for Bone, making sure the door was also aligned in that direction. Everything clicked into place and Canti turned to face it, finding...the same bloody meadow. Well, wait, no...there WAS a significant difference. In the middle was a very very large tree. And, as he entered the room, he could see that it was very dead as well. A quick examination would reveal that it was not dead by lightning bolt or petrification. It was simply a very large hunk of dead wood in this room. The Twin Blade spread his wings out and carefully flew around the tree, looking up and down its hugeness, checking the branches for contents or the actual trunk for markings. He would've found it funny if it maybe said "This space left intentionally blank." or "You came all this way to try and read a tree?" But no. No such luck on either of those endeavors. It was pretty much intent on being a large and nondescript dead tree with no specific value to him at this time. Canti hovered back, thinking aloud.)

Canti: Contents, no. Markings, no. Attacking it?

(Brandishing his knives, the Twin Blade struck the tree close to the bottom area, producing tell-tale thunk-thunk noises as he did so, leaving scratches. The tree was not simply there for background color or scenery. It could be effected. So saying, Canti suddenly got a wicked grin on his face as he looked around before shouting "Vak Rom!" at the tree and lighting the whole damn thing on fire. Now, THAT was an effect! He didn't know if it was a good one or not, but it DID something. The entire tree was now on fire and the Twin Blade waited to see if anything would happen. Would it break apart, would it get up and attack, would it scream? Canti stuck by the door and waited to see if burning this sucker down was useful at all. The underbrush and other trees began to catch on fire, though it didn't look like he was in any immediate danger. Of course, as soon as he thought it...)

*THUNK!*

Canti: Ow! Dammit!

(...Murphy's Law decided to chuck a piece of burning tree down at Canti, catching him in the shoulder with a quick gouge, though not serious. The Twin Blade decided to be more careful about this, though he was finding that the safest spot in the room to watch this was exactly where he was. The reason he was doing this? He was hoping that there was something in the tree, or that there was an effect he was achieving which would be of some use, like if the meadows were suppose to be changed somehow. The only problem was...this was taking a long ass time. The whole place burning down could take hours, which they clearly did not have. And Canti definitely didn't want to step out, because these time-locked rooms wouldn't do anything any faster for stepping away. Given that, he decided to give the flames a little pick-em-up, as he blasted short bursts of the explosive Darkness Flame up the trunk of the large tree. That...definitely had the effect in mind. He continued the process until he was out of SP, more or less enjoying this. Of course, after the SP ran out, Canti forgot to realize that his action would leave the tree to fall at HIM, since he did all of this from the doorway!)

Canti: Oh shit!

(No way was he taking the uber-juk damage this thing would dish out! Canti quickly flew and dodged out of the way to one side, not wanting to be stuck outside of the room for the time being, as the tree's massive self hit the wall and blocked him off from the outside World. He could get through it because only branches were in the way, but not without taking a fair amount of fire-damage, even for Canti. This would, therefore, be worse for anyone else. So, where were we? Burning forest: Check. Burning ground: Check. Burning tree blocking off entrance: Check. Everything appears to be in order, then. The hovering Twin Blade downs a Mage's Soul and attacks high on the Tree with Twin Dragons to use the leverage of the attack to knock the tree over. This manages it, though he'd still take some damage from leaving. Of course, it was not Canti's intention to leave yet. He had every intention of finishing this, so he continued to blast the tree's remains with Darkness Flame, emptying two more SP bars for a grand total consuming three Mage's Souls altogether. But finally...we have a shit-ton of smoking debris that is not really harmful to anyone at all. But after sifting through the remains for ANYTHING out of the ordinary, or seeing if ANYTHING of worth actually happened in here, he found that this was an annoying waste of his SP. There was nothing here. There was also no apparent effect outside the room when he left, except that he could feel the heat on his back. Well, that was a bust. But just to test a theory, Canti flipped the dial - and only the dial - away from the Bone room and then back to it. The burning room flickered back to a meadow briefly and then returned to exactly how it looked before with a dead tree in it, completely reset. Canti wandered in and decided to try a slightly-different approach.)

Canti: Juk Rom!

(This didn't do anything decidedly tree-like to the tree except damage it with a whirlwind, snapping off a few weaker branches. So much for that idea.)

Canti: Wait a minute... Dead tree, so... Rip Maen!

(No effect.)

Canti: Fuck.

(Okay, Canti was uhhh...stumped on this one, for now.)
TO: The Party
FROM: Canti
SUBJECT: Tree!

Okay, setting the dial to Bone reveals a perfectly ordinary meadow with a very large and very dead tree in it. Nothing special, just dead wood. Contains no items (certainly no jewel-encrusted egg) in the branches, has no special markings, and the only special attribute I WOULD give it is that it burns spectacularly...but that didn't help either. I burned it down straight to ashes and debris with no apparent luck of yielding anything useful. It acts...pretty much like a dead tree would in the real world. Also, Juk spells do not promote growth and Rip Maen did NOT resurrect it. So don't waste your SP on any of these unless you've got a plan. Moving the dial away and back resets the room completely back to normal.
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.

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Phoenix512 » Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:29 am

Phoenix quickly read Sheena’s flashmail and did a quick flip back up. Let’s go, Suzaku. Looks like our fun here is over. Being in here won’t help us. Suzaku flew next to Phoenix as they leave the bird room. He watched Sheena examining the pedestal which she managed to discover a hidden function of the “V”. From what Phoenix knew about Sheena, she has the ability to see the flow of code. It seems to be useful right now as these doors are working in a similar way that Nall’s time powers work. I wonder if these rooms are an experiment in duplicating Nall’s powers. But if that was the case, then why have this puzzle?

With this new discovery, Raquar was the first one to use it on the bird room. Instead of having a meadow, he found a small hut in a forest with a man. So far, the “V” does have an effect on the rooms but nothing in how to solve this puzzle. Canti was the next one which he discovered a dead tree and managed to crisp it before resetting the bone room. So there was one room left: the egg room.

Phoenix moved the “V” so it was pointing at the egg room. He entered the room and sees meadows again but with one big difference. There was a boulder about half the size of a garage that most of it was buried in the ground. Some of the grass near the boulder have been trampled on and look dead from the brown color. The blademaster attempted to move the boulder with all his strength but it was too entrenched in the ground to even bulge it.

So if you cannot move it, you must destroy it. Phoenix began to strike at the boulder with his new sword but it was fruitless as it just made scratches on the boulder. Hoping that an underground attack would have an effect on the boulder, he cast GiGan Zot on it. The rock spires surround the boulder and sit there until the duration ended with no disturbance to the ground. Then figuring that boulder may respond to wood spells, Phoenix used Juk Kruz on it but the spell did nothing to affect the boulder.

Phoenix wondered if the time effect was still in effect in the room. So he yells out to anyone to close the door which Nighthand did. After a minute later, once again that time does not pass for Phoenix in the egg room and the scratches on the boulder are gone. The blademaster has nothing else that he could do in the room so he decides to leave the room.

The blademaster addresses to everyone in the room as right now, nobody has reenter a room. “In the egg room, there was a boulder that cannot be moved or even break apart. From what I understand about what Raquar and Canti found, I think the rooms definitely relate from the symbols. The boulder could be the egg itself, the man is the bird, and the dead tree is the bone or death in this case. So it’s like a nature cycle. Wasteland turns into forests which they died off and begin anew. But how my reasoning can help us is what I don’t know?”

For now, Phoenix will lean on a wall as the others try their attempts to solve the puzzle.
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Raquar » Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:28 am

It seemed that Canti found a tree and Phoenix found a boulder but beyond that not much else worked. After flashmails from both detailing their experiences and that nothing had been really solved. After some consideration he decided to head into the room that was already set up, the egg meadow with the rock. Upon entering he saw exactly that, a rock. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary or special about the rock, so he approached it carefully. A hand extended to the surface of the boulder revealed that it seemed to be normal, it wasn’t abnormally smooth, round, or rough; it was simply a rock. It had its share of cracks and crags but exploring it yielded no evidence of something that would give him any clue about what to do next. However, the boulder was seemingly somewhat buried in the caked and dried earth. A quick probing with his toes proved that it was fairly tough.

But that didn’t mean he was dedicated enough. Switching weapons as too not sully the beautiful Archspear, the point of the Tranquil Lance sank barely into the ground before meeting suitable resistance to discourage digging. That was because it was hard however. A Rue Kruz served to soften the ground, and allowed the boy to dig slightly deeper and overturn a small amount of earth. The sogginess didn’t last long and soon the moisture was soon sucked out of the ground. If he was really going to do this it would take a while. And then a thought occurred to him. He didn’t want to slave away for the majority of the work and then have somebody reset the room on him. Grunting he composed a quick flashmail.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Raquar
Subject: Idea
Message: So. I have an idea in the boulder room, but it might take a while and having somebody reset the room on me would be a huge inconvenience, so for the time being if nobody minds, could I have some time in there alone? Thanks.
And with that he rolled up his sleeves and started to build a railroad. It was a very slow process. After every small upheaval of earth, an additional casting of Rue Kruz was needed as he attempted to dig farther and farther. It wasn’t long before sweat was pouring of his body and blisters had formed on his hands, and yet he remained dedicated to a cause that was less than just random wanton destruction. And then there were the times of a forced break, where he had drained his SP gauge empty and had to sit there and let it recharge. But at least all this labor was useful for something. Maybe it would make him physically stronger. Hopefully at least.

A couple hours went by of this menial labor before something happened. The ground seemed groan and give way slightly before the boulder rolled slightly. The boy had an instantaneous sense of joy at his success before it was replaced with a shattering pain that exploded through every nerve in his body. The rock had rolled right onto his legs. He let out a shriek of pain as he collapsed under the rock. There was no treasure or no clue under the rock like he had hoped, it was just a rock. And a big rock. And big rocks usually hurt when rolled onto extremities. Gasping slightly for breath and mostly from pain the boy composed another flashmail.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Raquar
Subject: Dire Circumstances
Message: So it seems my plan didn’t work. Would greatly appreciate a resetting of the room now. Thanks.
He supposed if shit got really bad he could always saw off his legs with a shard of a Health Drink vial and ask Raine to reattach them later.
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

User avatar
Lighteria
Well-Oiled Machine
Posts: 176
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:59 am
Location: :noitacoL

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Lighteria » Wed Oct 01, 2008 1:18 pm

Lighteria taps his foot, the efforts of his fellows starting to become either fruitless or self destructive. As is often the case when everyone else runs around testing, the twin blade retreats into this own head, either trying to think things through or spinning his cognitive wheels until his brain hurts.

Ok, so reading through this deluge of flashmails it's pretty clear of a few things. If the pointer isn't towards a door there's just a meadow out there. If it IS there's random crap that resets if we close the door... and that none of the meadows have a sign that says 'This way to Nall'. I imagine without the pointer at the door we came in, it's probably just a random meadow too now, so... that's actually kind of interesting. I wonder if anyone got Nighthand's flash mail and can't enter the room now. Of course, they'd send a flashmail in that case so I guess there's no real worry about locking someone out. I'm more concerned about how in the blue blazes we're going to get any further in here.

He glances back to the pedestal, listening to Phoenix's explanation.

All of this stuff relates to time. Nall's power. There's something we're missing here. If the rooms reset perfectly that's probably a good indication that solving this thing doesn't involve messing around with the objects in the rooms since it's pretty futile. That guy in the bird room is kind of bothering me though. Why on earth would they have an NPC sitting in a time locked room? Talking to him seems to be a dead end as Raquar made pretty clear after his attempts... Maybe it's just because that room is the directional continuation of the staircase we went down that makes me think it's where we have to progress, but I can't shake the feeling that it's worth focusing on for at least a little while.

With that in mind, the twin blade stands up and walks back to the center pedestal, looking it over with a thoughtful expression.

Merely turning it where we want to explore isn't doing much, there has to be some way to shake up the normal operations and get it to do something different. Hmm...

"Hey..." Lighteria says quietly, addressing the group in the room whilst pointedly ignoring Raquar's flashmail, not wanting to waste time. "Um.. you think maybe.. it works like a clock? Like... maybe if we turn it counterclockwise it'll affect the rooms in some way?" He suddenly snaps his fingers, speaking only slightly louder for effect though it's still a strain to even call it hushed. "Oh! H-have we turned the arrow away from a room w-while it's open? Did that change anything or d-did it just wait for the door to close before it r-reset?" He coughs a little, not really used to speaking two complete sentences aloud to a group. Still, the attempts are worth a shot and the twin blade wanted to them tried despite the fact he's too meek to do that himself.

((occ: ...hours?))
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

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...

Part 2

Post by Dien » Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:40 pm

Another range of flashmails rang into Dien’s ears as the door turned to face his meadow again. Evidently, it wasn’t an anti-abandonment mechanism after all, but a time distorting mechanism. Hell no, he thought, getting up and calling for whoever was rotating the room to hold on a minute for him to be able to get out of the room before being closed off again. While he had encountered parabolic time before, this wasn’t nearly the same. This was a temporal stasis field within the egg room, and he would have no part of it.

Fortunately, the doorman lingered the turning just long enough for him to take his leave. Relaxation was fine, but not while the entire rest of the team was moving in leaps and bounds towards a solution. For instance, Raquar’s conversation with the man in the bird room, Canti’s battle with the blazing branches, and Phoenix’ duel with the boulder all proved that while he was in time-lock, everyone else was discovering new things.

It still didn’t seem quite right to him, and after Phoenix’ speech, he decided that it would be his turn again to take the wheel, so to speak. Leaving the door facing the “Egg Field,” he depressed the V, turning it so that it faced the bird and watching intently. While Raquar had surmised that you needed to have the point aiming at the symbol for the room you wanted to enter, Dien had other ideas. The progression of time denoted that both he and Phoenix had noted was too clock-like for him to ignore, so perhaps manipulating it would change the fields somewhat. For instance, bone on Bone yielded a dead tree, so maybe egg on tree would yield a sapling. In either case, the V was depressed and turned clockwise one notch, all while the blademaster kept a keen eye on the door.

He was not disappointed.

As he’d expected, the room flickered in his sight, and just when he expected some grand new realization or visage in the room, what was left him was…the same thing. That can’t be right, he thought, stepping away from the pedestal with a look of puzzlement on his focused face. Taking a few steps inward, there were a few changes on the rock. Namely, markings had been inscribed on one of the larger flat surfaces, which was relatively accessible. Fine chisel-work, it would seem, and upon leaning in, they also seemed to resemble words. Well, it was more of a cryptic poem:

“Once told, repeated hence.
It circles, life.
Planted, grows.”

While he had absolutely no clue what it meant, the blademaster shrugged, writing the words in his mental notepad before scouring the rock for any other markings. After finding nothing for a few minutes wasted, he turned and returned to the pivotal room, depressing the V yet again and turning it to face the bone. Once again, the image in the doorway flickered, once again revealing the same meadow with the same rock and same trampled grass, but time had very clearly passed. Some of the more jagged edges of the boulder had been smoothened by the natural passage of time: wind, rain, and gravity taking their respective effects on the meadow and making it look older. By the same token, once he’d made his way inside, the etchings were very nearly gone. It was almost impossible to read now, and had he not known what it had said, he would have probably taken a lot more time to recognize it as words in English, let alone anything intelligible.

While tempted to try the other rooms for their temporal effects, he figured he’d leave that with the rest of the team. Canti was already the expert of the tree field, and Raquar would likely be the best candidate for dealing with the man in the bird room. So, as was typical of his explorations, it ended with a flashmail.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Dien
Re: Time control
Message:
So while Nighthand pointed out that the V in the pedestal turns, Raquar wasn’t entirely correct in his presumption that it needed to be pointing to the direction of the room you wanted to enter. While it shouldn’t be pointing back, it can actually be pointing in any one of the cardinal directions of the other rooms to give an effect. Essentially, it controls the point in time which is being viewed in that room, starting with the egg being the earliest time, the bird being somewhere in the middle, and the bone being the latest.

Having just examine the egg room under all three different times, it was clear that the rock was aging at a significant rate between egg and bird and between bird and bone. There was also an inscription on the rock which appeared in the bird time. Kinda cryptic if you ask me, and I don’t quite get it, but I think examination of the other rooms through the different times will yield a better understanding. It reads:

“Once told, repeated hence.
It circles, life.
Planted, grows.”

In total, there are nine different room-times we need to examine. Have fun while I sit against the wall and relax a bit. ^_^
EDIT: (OOC: Raq, I'm guessing that my resetting the room will leave you standing next to the rock. Or ghosted. You may want to ask Nights to that effect. If I'd known you were posting that, I would've scripted with you, too...)
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Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Raquar » Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:15 pm

Dien figured out exactly what they were supposed to do, which was helpful because in the process they rest the boulder room which made the gigantic heavy rock thing go back to its entrenched position and off his damn legs. With a quick Repth the boy hobbled out of this current meadow and back into the main room. He leaned against the wall to rest a bit as Dien ran frantically to and from the different times of the boulder room before sharing the boulder’s message with the rest of the group. That message pointed definitively at the Tree room. Since Dien was taking a break for the moment, the boy seized the opportunity to shift the dial toward the egg, and then lever the giant mechanism so the door was toward the right meadow.

Entering this meadow, something was definitely different. There was nothing there. At least no giant leafy thing sitting there as some unknown sentinel. Instead there was a patch of blank soil, presumably where the seed of the tree was planted. Deciding to forgo his mining expedition for the moment, the boy retreated back into the main room, having the dial facing the bird before moving back into the meadow. This time, the giant arbolist sentinel returned, however it had life this time around. Walking up to it resulted in just the sight of a normal tree. There was nothing about it, no niches or marks that might further lead him on his quest. So he went up. And this did absolutely nothing for him either. He became intimately acquainted with the branches and leaves of this giant tree. But that was useless. Exhaling a sigh of brief frustration the boy exited the room. Guess it was time to go talk to the man again. Except maybe in a different time.

Back in the central hub, the dial was shifted to egg, the door moved to the northern meadow and off he went. The hut was in better shape, it looked younger and stronger even, if such adjectives could be used to describe a building. Upon entrance he was greeted by a small child, perhaps six years in age. He was shouting something as he charged toward the Long Arm, but stopped after coming within close proximity of the Freedom Fighter. “You’re not mommy daddy!”

'I'm not. Do you know where they went?"

“Town!”

"Where is this town?"

The child hesitated for a moment, jamming its thumb into its mouth before spinning around and pointing upward in a flamboyant display of flair. “That way!”

"Did your parents walk there?"

"Yup! They went to the market!"

"The market? Were they going to bring back some food?"

"Uuuuummmmmmmm... Yes!"

"And they left you here by yourself? Do they do that often?"

The child stared at him blankly, unable to comprehend the question it seemed.

"Do you have a name kiddo?"

“Yup!”

"What is it?"

"Hehe... Guess!"

"Do I get any clues?"

"Nope!"

"Hmm. Okay. Maybe I can come back and play with you some other time. I have to go right now but it was nice to meet you. I'm Raquar."

"Bye byeee!"

It didn’t seem like much, but an idea had been gifted to him. That kid, and the older version of himself had both mentioned the town. And if the town was really upward, then perhaps there was a way to get there. He returned back to the hub and shifted the room to the tree meadow again, leaving the dial set at the egg. Returning back to the blank patch of soil, he scooped downward and began sifting through the earth looking frantically for something that might assist him. But there was nothing. Frustrated and almost stumped, he returned once again to the center room and set up the one room that had remained unvisited. The old bird meadow.

The boy’s third visitation to this meadow seemed dark and somewhat unpleasant. The hut now seemed despondent and abandoned, giant gaping holes in the roof and the entire foundation of the hut seemed to be sagging making it appear as nothing more than a ramshackle old mess. He noticed that there was a figure across the way watching the old hut. As the boy approached it was the figure of an older man, stooped with a pack across his back and a staff to help him walk.

“Where you the inhabitant of this hut good sir?”

He eyed the boy slowly, before carefully nodding. Each gesture seemed to be thought out and distinct, a sign of wisdom perhaps.

"What happened here? I've met you as a boy, as a young adult and now as and older gentleman although your probably don't remember me. Where are you headed to?"

"Passing. Nothing here for me."

"Was there anything here for you? Did your parents ever return from town?"

"What? Of course. They died in this house, as did theirs, as did theirs."

"I think I need to get to town but I don't know how. Is it still that direction?" He pointed upward as a young child had once done.

"It was never up. It's through the woods, that way." There was a brief chuckle as the man pointed across the direction of his house towards the forest. "That path."

"I see. And although I've met you before I never managed to chance your name. Is it still the same thing now?"

"I left my name when I left this place. They just call me old man now."

"Old man. Well it was nice to meet you. One final question though. What changed? You said your parents and their parents and so on all died in this house. Why not you?"

"They had children to follow them."

"Ah. Well good luck wherever your travels now take you. Thank you for your help."

The boy took this opportunity to compose a flashmail before heading recklessly off.
To: Nighthand
From: Raquar
Subject: Town
Message: I’ve know met all three variations of the man in the hut, and each time I have met with him has pushed me further along the belief that this town is where we should be heading. However, I’m not sure, so I’m going to try and push ahead and see if I can find something out. I’ll let you know anything important I can find out.
He nodded briefly once more at the old man before setting off down the path. It was only a few steps through the forest before he reached a vast entanglement of branches, leaves, vines and other things natural and leafy. But its message was clear. There was no passage this way. He wondered if that this path had been overrun because of its age, and perhaps it was also a reflection of the hut. Maybe the path would be in better shape at a time when it was regularly used, the same as the hut being in better shape. With such thought processes in mind, he returned to the room with the rest of the party, and changed the dial back to what he had dubbed the “life” setting. Having done so, he reentered the room revealing the hut that started to show the signs of age but was still in relatively good condition. However there was no path. No way to get to town. Feeling thwarted he returned back to the central room and slouched against the closest wall. He needed time to think.
To: Canti
From: Raquar
Subject: Fire
Message: If you turn the dial to bone and enter the bird meadow, you’ll see a run down hut, an old man, and across from the hut there is a path leading into the forest that supposedly leads to a town which I believe is our next destination. However after taking a few steps some rather dense undergrowth and other crap prevents any forward progress. If you’re still a little antsy, it might be worth considering to see if you could burn through any of that. I don’t know, just a thought.
((OOC: I am supposed to inform you that with the current progression of the puzzle fearless leader has deemed that we have done well enough to not warrant a GM posting detailing the direction we are supposed to head.))
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

Fuzzhead
Elevated Player
Posts: 37
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:27 am

Re: Time’s Up: The Race to Save Nall Continues!

Post by Fuzzhead » Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:05 am

Somehow or other, Silk had managed to get separated from the group during their battle with the fire elementals, and presently, he found himself wandering around an unknown field with little memory of precisely how he got there. The surroundings were fairly boring: rolling verdant hills spreading to infinity as far as the eye could see were dotted randomly by tall oak trees with wide-spreading leaves. Picking a direction at random, Silk set out in search of his fellow Freedom Fighters, hoping that they faired well without him. (As they should – he wasn’t exactly the MVP of their band of brothers.)

So it was after about an hour of single-minded striding in one direction when two sets of golden rings descended from the clear skies above, depositing one Longarm and one Twinblade. Startled, Silk flinched backwards and raised his fists warily; he was unsure of himself in the Lambda server, primarily because he was five levels below the recommended caliber – the only reason he was even allowed to be here was because he followed a more powerful party leader.

At first, the two fighters failed to notice him; meanwhile, Silk definitely noticed them. The Longarm was a tall blonde, standing at least six feet high with a lithe, athletic frame and long, shapely limbs. Dressed in a light blue skirt and a white-with-gold-trim, armored tank top, the Longarm completed her outfit with Greek-style sandals that laced around her ankles and calves to just below the knee. Finally, she possessed striking green eyes and full pink lips – one of the more beautiful characters the Fist Fighter had encountered, for sure.

And the Longarm’s companion was no less attractive: this female Twinblade was, if at all possible, even taller than the Longarm, although Silk suspected that her high black boots might have something to do with it. Black leggings wrapped around her trim thighs, hiding beneath a red and black skirt, and a stylish black leather vest covered her upper body. While Silk wasn’t opposed to the color black, he definitely thought it was a bit overdone, especially since the girl’s hair was jet-black as well, although it did serve to accentuate her exquisite pale skin and shining hazel eyes.

Silk was able to take all of this in and more before the pair noticed his presence at the foot of the hill upon which they stood, and upon seeing the Fist Fighter, they immediately strode down to where he stood.

“Hey squirt,” sneered the Longarm; Silk was five feet, nine inches, and it didn’t help that she stood on the higher part of a slight incline. “What’s a little guy like you doing out here in the Lambda Server?”

“Oh,” began Silk neutrally, “this and that…”

“Oh yeah?” said the Twinblade in an especially irritating way (who knew that such beautiful girls could be so rotten inside?). “Well why don’t you just mosey on out of here? This is our field now, and we don’t need a little squirt like you to swipe our Gott.”

In the span of ten seconds, these two girls had managed to completely reverse Silk’s mood from quiet anxiety to boiling rage. If there was anything that could tick him off instantly, it was bullying, especially when he was the victim. Unfortunately for him, they were both his superior by six and seven levels respectively; picking a fight was completely out of the question.

Unless…

“For your information, I simply got separated from my party and am on my way to meet them. We’ve been in this field for some time, but I won’t offer you the same slight,” spoke Silk evenly. “Now, I’ll give you this one chance to apologize for your rudeness, and we can go on our separate ways.”

The Twinblade burst out into outright laughter, while the Longarm grinned maliciously and leaned forward, which served to emphasize their difference in height. Once again, it didn’t help that she was standing on the higher part of the hill’s incline. “That’s big talk from such a little man.” The girl actually patted his head as if he were a small boy. Silk didn’t give them the satisfaction of an unseemly retaliation; he knew they would get their due soon enough. “Maybe I should teach you a lesson in manners for your betters!”

“You’ll regret saying that,” replied Silk. With that, he drew out the two items that, once combined with his hack, would make him twenty-five feet high and more than a match for his two oppressors.

Seeing that he was up to something, the Longarm leapt back and barked, “Dek Corv!” and the Twinblade followed suite. Paying neither of them any attention, Silk cast an Ap Corv on himself and put the two items to good use: in a moment he would tower over them both and they would leave him alone. A bright flash came over the field, emanating from Silk and blinding everyone in the vicinity for several long moments, including the instigator.

Fortunately, the Fist Fighter knew that this would occur and had covered his eyes so that he could regain his sight before the others… what he saw made his heart sink to the bottom of his soles.

“Oh fuck…”

Now, towering above him were two volatile females; thinking fast, Silk realized that somehow he must have made a mistake and... shrank himself to six inches high. The Fist Fighter was in the process of turning to run when the Longarm’s voice boomed from somewhere behind him: “Where’d he go? He just disappeared!”

The Twinblade, however, saw the truth of the matter. “You’re not going to believe this, Jill.” The diabolical mirth in her voice was impossible to miss, and Silk’s heart sank even deeper into the earth; he was in for a world of hilariously ironic hurt. The Fist Fighter heard a rush from behind and redoubled his speed, only to have a gigantic black booted foot come slamming down in front of him, knocking him backwards onto his back. From there, he was granted what would have been a voyeur’s dream if he had not already been discovered; as things stood presently, however, it was a nightmare. Reaching up into the sky on either side of his vision were the same pair of gorgeous legs belonging to the Twinblade who had accosted him not moments ago: except now they were much, much larger than life, and he was the size of perhaps a kitten or a squirrel.

“Wow, Tina, that is probably the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen!” the Longarm’s laughter really galled, but what could he do? Silk was helpless. “The little squirt is a tiny squirt now!”

Without warning, a gigantic hand reached down and lifted the Fist Fighter up between relatively powerful fingers. In an uncomfortably tight grip, Silk thrashed uselessly as he was brought from the grass up to the Twinblade’s face, where she could more closely examine her diminutive prey. “Look at him! At his size, we could really mess him up.”

“Yeah!” Now the girls were giggling continually at the Fist Fighter’s predicament. Bursts of laughter erupted from either of them almost nonstop, all at Silk’s expense. From his perspective, it looked like two billboard divas staring at him with undisguised malice. “What should we do to him first?”

“I know!” and suddenly, the Fist Fighter found himself traveling down towards Tina’s waist, where he eventually came to a stop. “Let’s spank him!” Held loosely in the Twinblade’s left hand, Silk was still held securely enough such that she could flick him in the butt without mercy; her index finger alone was sufficient for the job.

“Oh this is just the worst,” groaned the shrunken captive with a sigh through gritted teeth. Silk endured the pain gamely, and it wasn’t long before the giggling girls grew bored of spanking and moved on to something else.

“How about this?” the Fist Fighter soon found himself standing of his own power on the ground, a pair of tremendous boots and a pair of massive feet in sandals confronting him. “You’re free to go. Run along now.” Not quite believing what was being said to him, Silk looked askance up at the giantesses gazing down at him. Jill seemed annoyed when he didn’t immediately flee, while Tina just smiled the kind of smile that meant she knew something that you didn’t, something definitely at your expense.

Deciding that perhaps he should just take the chance if it was there, Silk started to run away. He had made it perhaps fifty yards (to him) when the unmistakable roar of pounding feet coming up behind him caused the Fist Fighter to realize the truth of the matter before it actually hit him. What hit him was Jill’s open-toed sandal, knocking him across the grass like a doll; the Longarm had kicked him!

Silk would have to endure this punishment until the spell wore off or until he died; once it was over, though, he would get the combination right and gain his vengeance on these two bitches. They were having a ball kicking the Fist Fighter around until, after a time, that too finally became old. So it came to pass that Silk lay crumpled beneath Jill’s sandal, barely conscious, staring up at two hateful yet undeniably beautiful faces.

“I think we’re just about finished with playing with you, dolly,” smiled the Longarm. “But before I squish you, I need you to tell me one thing.” Silk stared up in a daze, not really comprehending. “How’s the smell?”

Indeed, her toes and sandal smelt pretty bad, especially considering that he was in such close proximity at such a reduced size, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let this bitch know that she was succeeding in her ultimate goal of tormenting him. So he kept his mouth shut, much to the annoyance of both of them.

“Not gonna talk, eh?” frowned Jill. “Well then maybe this will get you to answer.” She removed her foot, only to bring it back to rest over Silk’s body – the difference was that this time she wasn’t wearing her sandal – it was a bare foot, and boy did it stink. “How about now?” asked Jill.

“Ha ha,” laughed Tina. “Give it to him!”

Still Silk kept his mouth shut. “Fine then…” Jill’s eyes narrowed. “I think I’m just gonna kill you.”

“You’re not killing anyone!” A new female voice came on the scene, this one owned by a beautiful brunette Fist Fighter wearing tight-fitting jean shorts, a fetching white blouse, and a pair of army boots. Oh yes, I totally hit the jackpot on girls today, thought Silk to himself. It was good that he could still joke about his situation… or maybe it was bad because it was the first signs of his encroaching insanity.

Jill’s foot lifted off of Silk as she turned to face the newcomer, a level thirty Fist Fighter. “Who do you think you are?” spat Tina, clearly irritated that their fun had been interrupted.

“I’m Samantha the Fist Fighter, and I won’t stand by as you hurt that poor squirrel.” Squirrel?! thought Silk indignantly. I want to be saved, but not by a total dunce! How could she mistake me for a squirrel? “I’m part of the PETA: “The World” Chapter, and I, a vegan, can’t abide by your cruel and unusual treatment of that small rodent.” Great, there goes my chances for dating this girl. A vegan? Are you kidding me?

Anyways, the ensuing fight was as hilariously short-lived as the person who had come to save him, and it soon came to be the case that Silk’s six inch self was under Jill’s foot again, while a severely beat-up Samantha found her own face being ground beneath Tina’s black boot. “You’re not a squirrel at all!” was the first thing the female Fist Fighter said, only piling on to Silk’s increasing dismay. He hated to see the poor girl in so much pain, but what could he do? At his height, he was good for little more than casting tiny fireballs.

And then the answer came to him like a bolt of lightning. Working quickly, Silk managed to wriggle his arm from beneath Jill’s toes, and fortunately for him, she completely failed to notice – she was too busy gloating over Samantha’s vulnerability.

Silk worked a few items into his hands even as he heard Jill’s voice booming overhead: “I’m going to pose the same question to you as I did to our little friend here…” Samantha only stared straight ahead, looking past the Fist Fighter as he furiously worked to create the combination that he had intended all along.

“Ap Corv,” he murmured, casting the spell on Samantha, and then he tossed the potion he had created with one hand straight down her throat. Once again, there was a blinding flash, and once again, everyone was blinded. There was a moment of chaos, but at least the pressure of Jill’s foot had gone: she must have tripped backwards.

Meanwhile, groping in blindness, Silk clung to the first thing his hand touched: a rope of some kind. After several more moments, Silk’s vision returned, even as the feeling of gigantic motion forced the Fist Fighter to clutch the rope ever-tighter. He was swung about wildly, and he felt the distinction sensation of vertigo that was only reinforced when his vision cleared: he was hundreds of feet (to him) above the ground, a height that positively dwarfed the height he had previously experienced in Jill’s tender grip.

Far below, Silk spotted Jill and Tina on the ground, clawing at their eyes ineffectually. “That little bastard… maybe he shrunk that brunette bitch too,” growled Jill, her voice tiny from so far up.

“That would be two little dolls to play with,” laughed Tina, suddenly quite happy instead of furious.

What neither of them knew was that Silk had definitely gotten it right this time. Even now he hung from the hair of a gigantic Samantha who presently was blinking rapidly in order to restore her vision; this served mainly to intensify her portrait of airheadedness. Swinging from strand to strand, Silk took up a position beside Samantha’s enormous ear and began to speak. “Don’t be alarmed, Samantha,” he began.

“Huh? What?”

“Samantha, listen to me,” continued Silk patiently (but not without much teeth grinding). “It’s the little guy that you worked so hard to save. I’m clinging to your hair right by your ear… I gave you a growth potion, so now you’re huge.”

“You did what?!” shrieked the female Fist Fighter, almost causing Silk to lose his grip. Her voice was positively ear-shattering. “I can’t afford to gain any weight! The PETA beauty pageant is next week!”

“No, no, no,” shouted Silk over the din. “You’re still beautifully proportioned – you’re just twenty-five feet tall now. Now you can give those animal haters what they deserve!” Nevermind that the “squirrel” they were torturing was actually just a very tiny man.

Although they couldn’t hear Silk’s side of the conversation, Jill and Tina were definitely not planning on sticking around, not with Samantha’s five times magnified voice booming overhead. They certainly had the presence of mind to know what it meant, and were already fleeing at top speed when Samantha made the proper revelations. “Oh!” It might’ve helped also that her vision came back at the same time.

With the fervor of a vegan animal-rights enthusiast, Samantha set about securing the pair of bullies, and it wasn’t long before she secured them in a somewhat unorthodox manner: she sat on them. In the next few minutes, Samantha and Silk got acquainted, and after a little discussion, they finally came up with an appropriate punishment for the girls.

By this time, Silk’s Gnome Bane had finally worn off, and he scurried down to where Jill and Tina’s heads poked out from beneath one gigantic behind. “It looks like the tables are turned,” informed the Fist Fighter merrily, his grinning face all smiles. “Now then, before we send you on your way, I need you tell me one thing.” The two girls’ eyes widened simultaneously, and their sullen silence suddenly turned to desperate pleading.

“No! Please don’t do that! No, anything but that! Please!”

“Oh, I’m ever so sorry girls, but the beans I ate for lunch really don’t agree with me,” Sam told them, trying her hardest to keep the laughter at bay. She twisted her head and neck to get a good luck at the pair even as she rested a hand by Silk. “I think you’ll want to be well out of the way, Mr. Silk, for when the fireworks start. How about a lift?”

“Why thank you, my dear,” said Silk, speaking with exaggerated nonchalance. “I think I’d like that very much.” He stepped onto the offered palm and was lifted onto Samantha’s shoulder, where he sat facing backwards so that he could drink in Tina and Jill’s expressions. “Have a nice day!” he called, waving and grinning ridiculously. This was just too much fun.

And then… well, I’m sure you can guess the rest.

No? You can’t?

Well, to say the least, one of Samantha’s more… gaseous… bodily functions resulted in Tina and Jill losing consciousness, making them quite easy to dispose of.

Some time later, Silk waved good-bye to the female Fist Fighter. Even though she was an air-headed, vegan, PETA member (of “The World” chapter – whoever heard of such a thing?), Silk decided that she was someone he would definitely want to hang out with on future occasions. Sure she might be a little slow, but perhaps that added to her overall likeability. Also, perhaps her love for animals transferred elsewhere – after all, she was a very nice girl – probably one of the nicest people Silk had ever met. Quite the opposite of Jill and Tina.

The pair had traveled quite the distance together, thanks mostly to Samantha’s tremendous size, although that wore off eventually. During that time, however, Silk rode perched upon the female Fist Fighter’s shoulder (with a full view of Sam’s cleavage!), and it was very pleasant indeed. The miles fell away beneath her long strides, but it finally came to pass that their proximity to Nighthand and the other Freedom Fighters was such that it was time to say good-bye. Silk didn’t know whether the cheery female Fist Fighter would be welcomed by dark types such as Zan, and Samantha said that she was searching for a particular item elsewhere on the field anyways (“I’m searching for the Poacher’s Gloves,” she explained. “If I have them, that means no one else is using them for no good!”).

So, with mutual promises to stay in touch, the pair separated, and Silk walked the remaining few hundred yards to where the Freedom Fighters were busy puzzling out an interesting set of rotating rooms, meadows, symbols, and other odds and ends.



Silk didn’t immediately see everyone else; they were about somewhere, he sensed, but what he did see was the strange symbols, rooms, etc. After a little experimentation, the Fist Fighter encountered an old man and a somewhat dilapidated hut.

A flashmail came in moments later, detailing a poem that Dien had found chiseled into a boulder. Deciding that perhaps asking a local about the poem (Silk couldn’t make any sense of it) was the best course of action, the Fist Fighter approached the old man and, after a little light conversation (Silk was a great conversationalist), was finally able to broach the subject of the poem.

“Once told, repeated hence.
It circles, life.
Planted, grows.”

Silk watched the man closely, hoping that the spark of recognition would alight in his eyes. Instead, however, the old man simply stared at him for two whole minutes, an insanely long amount of time, leading the Fist Fighter to believe the crotchety hermit was probably senile as well as arthritic.

“Make that up?” he responded infuriatingly.

“No, no… I just saw it on a boulder somewhere.” Extending the old man a hand, which he shook promptly, the Fist Fighter bid his farewells, adding, “I’ll probably stop by again soon. Take care.”

And then he strode off, thinking hard to himself.
Level 25 Fist Fighter
Boxing Gloves | Nny Scales | Dice Gloves | Iron Anklet | Time Headband

Skills: Ap Corv, Ap Torv, GiVak Don, Ap Torma, Ap Do, Repth, Kiwami, Double Mortal Scorcher

Wishlist:
1.) Rare Foot Armor
2.) FF Belief
3.) Any stat-altering items

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