Date sent: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 00:48:09 -0600 From: Travis Butler Subject: [UnS] The Passing of Moriya To: Alan Harnum , RPM - acct 3/5 , Ranma al'Thor , MercutioV@aol.com 11/20/01 Akemi pages, "You gonna be around very long? Drew wanted to talk to Beowulf." to you. You page, "Can do that... will need to break sometime to start laundry at the hotel's guest laundromat, but should be available for quick breaks. :)" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You wanna have that convo with Beowulf now, Drew?" to Shizumaru and you. Shizumaru pages, "If Travis is up for it." to Akemi and you. You page, "Like I told John, I'll have to break sometime to start laundry, but can run something short." to Akemi and Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "That works for me." to Akemi and you. Akemi pages, "Okay, both of you head into Skippy" to Shizumaru and you. Moriya OOCly says, "Okay, so I trump Beowulf, then." Beowulf takes the trump. "Hello, Moriya. What's up?" Moriya blinks, then smiles. "Ah. Wasn't sure I'd get through. You've finished with that fellow Mobius, then?" Beowulf nods. "And had a near-breakthrough by another Outsider, but fortunately a Logrus bomb sealed him out." Moriya says, "Er. Ah. Well, I'm glad it all turned out." He pauses. "I was wondering if you had a little time to help me on something. At least, I'd appreciate your advice." Beowulf says, "Certainly. I'd be happy to give advice; I was planning on trying to take out the battleship next, if Lucien hasn't done it by now, but if it's something time-critical I'd be happy to help you." Moriya nods. "Well. As you know...." He looks vaguely uncomfortable, but proceeds. "There are a few artifacts of power out there that I've been thinking of getting, for various reasons and possibilities. One of them is a Logrus jewel, apparently being held by a greater dragon of Chaos. To lure it out of its lair, though--since I don't want to fight it on its home turf--I'd need bait." Beowulf nods. "What did you have in mind?" Moriya says, "One thing that could serve as bait is a Logrusfoil that is currently residing in a museum in shadow. I'd like to procure it in a nonviolent manner, and you seem one of the more knowledgeable people when it comes to museums." Beowulf asks, "How long were you planning on using it?" Moriya hesitates. "Well, to be honest, I want to take it permanently. I'm not likely going to keep it, but eventually return it to the house of Chaos it belongs to. Where it should be. In other words, I'd be purchasing it, or trading something else for it." Beowulf nods slowly. "I see. What can you tell me about this museum?" Moriya shakes his head. "I don't know even that much, presently, another reason I wanted to call on you. Mitsune had the insight to remember that Panopticon University would be able to find which one it is, and your connections would be helpful in that." Beowulf nods. "Ah. I would need to know what the museum is like before I could suggest something to trade for the Logrusfoil... what information do you have at the moment?" Moriya chuckles nervously. "The one thing that I know is that it's in a shadow completely barred to Logrus. That's why it stood out to the Logrus when it told Jacqueline about this blade." Beowulf rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Which might make the Logrusfoil just an ordinary sword there? Hmmm." You page, "Would a shadow barred to Logrus make a Lfoil essentially just another sword?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Primal Blades work everywhere because they carry the power of their source inside them. However, you couldn't find such a blade with Logrus if it was in a Logrus barred shadow." to you. You page, "Ah." to Akemi. You page, "I'd probably need to check with my sources at Panopticon to see what they knew, then?" to Akemi. You page, "Probably should check in with them anyway and let them know Mobius is down. BTW, did I find any of the artifacts Mobius had stolen from the expedition teams?" to Akemi. Moriya shakes his head. "In the same way that a Pattern user with enough skill or time can reverse a bar on Pattern on a shadow he's in, I'm sure the Logrusfoil is still pretty powerful within that shadow." Moriya says, "So it might well be worth a lot still." Beowulf nods. "Yes, now that I think of it. In fact, it might be worth a bit more because of that." Moriya says, "Of course, the question is if the shadow it's in...well, whether or not its denizens know of the existence of shadow and such. If they're ignorant of the boundaries of their own universe, it would be pretty easy to convince them to let it go. If they're wise to the way of infinite shadow, though, it would take more doing." Beowulf nods. Akemi pages, "Pretty much everything he stole blew up in the palace" to you. Akemi pages, "Yep. You'd need to check with your sources" to you. You page, "Drat. :( Oh, well, they should at least be happy he won't be attacking them again." to Akemi. Beowulf says, "I'd probably need to check with my sources at Panopticon for any further information on the shadow, since it's not one I'm familiar with; I should go there anyway and let them know about Mobius, since he was attacking their expedition teams." Moriya nods. "When are you going? I'd like to head over with you then and get this plan rolling." Akemi pages, "Yep. A lot of the stuff, he'd already melted down or taken apart anyway." to you. You page, "What's left on cleaning up in Mobius' shadow? Hmm, if I'm going to keep it, we should probably give it a new name. :)" to Akemi. Beowulf thinks for a moment, trying to figure out how much clean-up he has to do in Mobius' wake. Akemi pages, "Well, properly cleaning up the shadow would probably take more time than you can really afford to invest right now, as it will likely take weeks to round up all of Mobius' henchmen, etc." to you. You page, "Hm. Would it be safe to leave most of it in the hands of the Mystery Men, now that he's gone? :)" to Akemi. You page, "Thinking mostly of dangerous stuff he might have left behind, like the artificial sun, that someone on an Amberite's level would be needed to deal with." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yep. Ahh, that's true. You might want to do something about the Artificial sun. Most of Mobius' other toys have all been blown up by Robosphinx landing on the Palace" to you. You page-pose, "The_Prof nods. Nothing much besides the sun?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Not that didn't blow up. And can find without searching the entire shadow. :)" to you. Beowulf says, "There's Mobius' artificial sun... which really needs to be disarmed with some care, since if it explodes it'll take out most of the Shadow. I think that's the major thing." Moriya says, "How long will that take? If you need help, I suppose I'm available." You page, "How long would it take to disarm the sun?" to Akemi. Beowulf asks, "OOC I suspect it wouldn't take very long to disarm the sun, and it's probably not something Moriya could help with, but I'm not sure -- John?" John says, "OOC Moriya could probably help with his sorcery, even though he's not an expert on high tech fusion devices :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Ahhh. :)" Beowulf asks, "OOC Want to pull Moriya through and fork briefly, then, and pick up in 10-15 minutes after I've started laundry?" John says, "OOC Sounds good" Moriya OOCly says, "I'll be grabbing Mitsune and Rimururu as well." John says, "OOC Righto." Beowulf nods. "You could probably help with the sun; hopefully it shouldn't take too long. Want me to pull you through?" Moriya says, "Ah. Sure thing. Would you mind if Mitsune and my mother came through as well?" Beowulf nods. "Not at all. I'm sure Lily would love to see her sister again, too." He smiles. "Are you ready now, or would you like a couple of minutes?" Moriya says, "Hold on a second; I'll get them now." Moriya maintains the trump and gets Mitsune and Rimururu, then has Beowulf pull everyone through. Beowulf bows in greetings. "Good to see you all again. The artificial sun is over this way..." Beowulf says, "OOC And fork here for a few moments? Anything we need to RP out about the sun? I admit I'd love to see the look on the three's faces when they see what the sun *is*... ^_^" John says, "OOC Okay, we pause." Beowulf says, "OOC back... will need to break again around 10." Moriya OOCly says, "I'll have to stop sooner, 'cos I need to do my shift turnover and all before heading home." Beowulf OOCly nods. The artificial sun turns out to be a huge sphere, hundreds of feet across, covered with tiny little jet holes from which its plasma would spill forth if it wasn't turned off. There's a large internal access hatch on one side. Beowulf thinks over the plans he saw in the library... what sounded like the best way to disarm it? And does Bey's 8 point scanner item pick up anything to be careful of when entering? The key thing is going to be shutting down all of the 530 microfusion reactors so that they can't be turned on, which is going to mean disconnecting them one by one from the central control device. With the sun shut down, getting inside is fairly easy. Beowulf nods. Any special tools or procedures needed to disconnect them? Beowulf says, "OOC Oh, and did anyone check out the ruins of the palace and make sure there weren't any shorts in the sun's controls? Might be worth turning on that jamming device we made up, just to be sure. From a safe distance. :)" The controls were basically blown to bits by Robosphinx You page, "Nothing left to send signals, then, just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly? :)" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Exactly." to you. Following your directions, your crew of people soon start snipping wires. Beowulf snips wires with the rest, keeping an eye out for how the thing's reacting to the shutdown. It's a long tedious job, but with the thing turned off and you having proper equipment to study the situation, it's not very hard. Several hours later, the sun has been disarmed, though you now need to find a good way to dispose of 530 microfusion reactors, any of which could blow up a city. Beowulf says, "OOC Anything I can think of that could use the power? Or anyone? Wasyuu, Lian, Fuy and Anno are the folks who come to mind." John says, "Lian or Wasyuu might put them to good use." Beowulf says, "OOC In fact, if they're tech-based, taking them to Amber would probably safely inert them until they're ready for other uses." John exclaims, "Yep!" Beowulf says, "OOC I would check with Lian first, but since Chris isn't on, probably just take them to a safe spot in Amber for the moment." John exclaims, "OOC Righto!" You page, "Probably Fuy or Misato would be a good caretaker, right? :) Or see if Uncle Tylor will let me store them in the vaults." to Akemi. Beowulf smiles at the others. "Thanks for all of your help. Off to Panopticon, or does anyone want to be dropped off somewhere else?" You page, "Think Lian could make use of some of the 530 microfusion reactors we just removed from Mobius' artificial sun? :)" to Aerianne. Aerianne pages, "Ohhhhh, I'm sure she could get -some- use out of them, though she could likely make her own as well. *wg*" to you. You page, "Heh." to Aerianne. Akemi pages, "You probably should ask Misato (or Makoto, since he's castellan). Or maybe Fuyutsuki, but he might forget he had them :)" to you. You page, "Probably ask Makoto, then. Though we don't need to RP it, especially if Drew's running short on time." to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods You page, "Was wondering if Keitaro would have heard about Begma yet... if he hasn't, I'd expect he'd want to head by Panopticon, as he's also studying to enter, ne?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Hmm. Keitaro hasn't heard about Begma yet. Op. word is yet. :)" to you. Shinobu and Keitaro say, "We'll tag along for now." You page, "Yup. Yet. " to Akemi. John says, "OOC And I assume Drew needs to pause for his shiftchange and stuff." Beowulf nods. "Let's go, then." Beowulf asks, "OOC Righto. Drew?" Moriya OOCly says, "Yep. Heading home now." Moriya OOCly says, "We going to do any more tonight? I'm fine either way, if Travis needs to rest or something." Beowulf says, "OOC Will need to check the dryer in about 10 minutes, but probably good to go until 11:30 or so." John says, "OOC Alrightie, I'm ready." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay." Beowulf trumps the group to Panopticon. Hmmm... only data we had so far is that it's in a Logrus-barred Shadow? Moriya OOCly says, "Yes. The fact that it's in a museum was a little more than what the Logrus was able to tell Jacqui." John says, "OOC Yep. Logrus-barred, in a museum." Beowulf turns to Shinobu. "I don't suppose you still have your mouse? We could always hit the Panopticon library and pull the same trick with one of their Shadow atlases that you did to find Mobius' construct." Beowulf says, "OOC We could probably use another mouse, but this one has sentimental value. ^_^" Shinobu pulls out the fortunetelling mouse. "Alright, we can give him a shot." The fortunetelling mouse soon proves to have a knack for finding books on cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Moriya looks at the mouse curiously, but says nothing. Shinobu sighs. "Looks like fortunetelling mice are too improbable in Panopticon." Beowulf shrugs. "Oh, well... it was worth a shot." Beowulf turns to Moriya. "In Mobius' shadow, she used Pattern to tweak the probabilities so that the 'fortunetelling mouse' actually gave real answers to our questions. Such as the construct's location." Moriya says, "Hm. Quite ingenious. Just not effective here, unfortunately." Keitaro says, "Well, I'd assume Panopticon probably has search engines and the like which could be similarly manipulated." Moriya tilts his head, and walks around a bit, to see if Pattern can give him a lead on 'the shadow where a true Logrusfoil resides in a museum'. Pattern gives you a direction to start walking. Beowulf nods. "The cataloging system here is quite extensive." He tweaks probabilities as he walks over to the nearest search terminal, so that 'books describing the shadows we want' pop to the top of teh search list. Moriya says, "Well, all else fails, I believe Pattern can track down where the Logrusfoil is. Assuming it isn't a trap laid for us." Moriya says, "First let's see what you can turn up here, though." Beowulf manipulates the catalog. The book '101 shadows to visit on a rainy day' pops up by itself. Beowulf goes to where it's supposed to be on the shelves, half expecting to find an empty spot where it should be. Beowulf says, "OOC AFK for a couple of minutes while I check the dryer." It proves to be written by a Mr. Kiat Rio-oh, who the author blurb indicates was from the shadow of Markane. The book is fairly long, devoting 6-8 pages to each of the shadows. And the GM pauses Beowulf OOCly returns. Beowulf skims the book, doing a first approximation winnowing for shadows barred to Logrus, or any other interesting characteristics. You page, "Oh, did you get the 'log' of the Mobius takedown all right?" to Aerianne. Looking through the book, you quickly find one of them, the Shadow of Partov. Partov is noted for its many museums, and the author notes that one of them had what he suspected was a Logrusblade or a shadow thereof. The shadow itself seemed to be barred to Logrus use, though not Trump or Broken Pattern, which he assumed was why no Chaosians had shown up. Aerianne pages, "Yup, got it and converted it jhust fine." to you. Beowulf nods, and shares the information with the others, then does a quick catalog search for books on Partov, tweaking probability again for best results. Further search reveals three other brief mentions, all of which note the Partovians are fanatical academics, who live in a no-magic, no-logrus shadow. They have thousands of museums, many of which are full of items of little use. (The world really doesn't need bellybutton lint museums.) Beowulf nods in interest... nothing particularly pointing to the location of the Logrusfoil? Next step... who on the faculty would have an area of expertise covering the shadow? None of the books pinpoint where in the shadow the Foil is, but if Pattern works to get in, you could probably shadow walk right ot the front door. Moriya OOCly says, "What does it say about the Partovian's knowledge of shadow and such?" You get the impression this shadow is so obscure, probably no one is going to know much about it. However, there are three professors who specialize in that region of shadow you could check with anyway. Beowulf asks, "OOC What other information do the books have on the shadow in general?" The Partovians are blissfully oblivious to the existence of shadow. Moriya OOCly says, "All righty." It's an early 21st century style world, full planet, normal science works there, fairly similiar to Shadow Earht except for the heavy academic inclination of the populace. Beowulf says, "OOC Any local customs we should be aware of, or attitudes they value that might be helpful in trading? Besides the fixation on museums? :)" The locals are human, the planet is fairly well balkanized, money economy, computer network communications. Think customs of academia; most people act as if they were university professors. Beowulf says, "OOC Might be helpful to get personal comments on the area from profs who've been in the region, then probably have to head there for a personal recon." John nods OOC. Going to make the rounds, then? Moriya lets Beowulf take the lead, as this is his home turf. Beowulf OOCly nods. And pass along the news about Mobius to the appropriate folks as he goes. You go talk to the professors. Two of them know nothing of it. Professor Z'chia however, tells you, "Oh yes, I've visited that shadow briefly. You have to be VERY careful. Otherwise, even asking for directions can spark off a five day long debate on how we can know that reality exists." Beowulf nods. "Sounds like a place folks here would enjoy," he comments, smiling a bit. "Some folks, anyway. The folks seem like pretty nice people?" Moriya OOCly says, "We still alive here?" John says, "OOC Sorry, got distracted by RL." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay." Beowulf OOCly nods... thought so... asked the prof what he thought of the people, aside from the arguing philosophy. :) He says, "They're decent enough folk, but fairly argumentative and fairly stubborn about their specialties." Moriya nods slowly, and finally speaks. "How would one best go about negotiating to acquire an item from them?" "Well, depends on the item, but usually money is acceptable." Moriya says, "Hmm, all right." Beowulf nods. "There's an item we suspect is in one of the museums there that we'd like to pick up... I was going to track down the museum first and see what else they collect before seeing what price or trade they might accept." He nods. "Yes. That would be a good idea. Depending on the historical significance, it may be difficult to convince them to sell, though." Beowulf says, "Exactly. Which is why finding something sufficiently attractive to trade to them is what I'm leaning towards, though that will depend on who exactly has it. " He nods. "Well, in shadow, most things can be found easily." Moriya says, "We can search specifically for 'the item that would be an acceptable trade for the Logrusfoil'." Beowulf says, "Indeed." Beowulf OOCly facepalms, as he'd been trying to keep 'Logrusfoil' out of the conversation. Moriya OOCly says, "Whoops. :>" Beowulf asks, "OOC Did prof Z'chia have any expeditions that were caught in Mobius' raids?" John says, "OOC Nope. He doesn't do Pre-Logrus work." Beowulf says, "OOC Oh, well; so much for giving him a reason to be personally grateful to us. ^_-;;" Beowulf sees if there's anything else Z'chia might know about the shadow, including the best/fastest way to get there, before bidding him farewell. Moriya OOCly says, "I'm thinking of walking the Pattern and teleporting there, actually. Want to make this happen quickly." Beowulf OOCly nods. That works too. John says, "OOC He says the easiest way to get there is to just shadow walk from Panopticon. It's about a week away, or a day by hellriding" Beowulf says, "OOC Oh, and any interesting comments from folks when they find what happens to Mobius? Bey's sure to apologize to folks who lost items when the palace was destroyed." John says, "OOC You get a lot of Thank yous from folk who had their projects wrecked." Beowulf OOCly nods. Always good to build up goodwill. :) Beowulf bids Z'chia farewell and wishes him well. Any other interesting news bubbling around Panopticon before we set off? Professor Amberson has completed what he claims will be a fully functional Abyss Diving Vessel. Most people are still wondering how he survived the first four being destroyed. Beowulf makes a note of the information for later reference, since he might find the abyss info useful going up against the battleship. Professor Idiane has announced he finally has conclusive proof the entire universe is just a big old hunk of pie. And Professor Harlane is rounding people up for the annual expedition to the Sidar Mill. Moriya OOCly says, "..." Beowulf OOCly groans. :) You page, "Would Bey know what the Sidar Mill is? :)" to Akemi. You page, "Aside from a bad pun? :)" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes. It's a place with an odd device which causes those who visit to relive their lives as if they were some of the other people on the expedition. A very strange experience." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Should we pause here?" John says, "OOC I assume we should pause here if Travis wants sleep." Beowulf says, "One of these days, it might be interesting to visit the Sidar Mill..." He turns to the others. "Essentially, the visitors get to relive the lives of one of the other people in the expedition." Moriya blinks. "Hm. Interesting." Beowulf OOCly nods... this seems like a pretty good breakpoint. Though we've probably got enough info for Drew to go on with this, if he doesn't want to wait for my next playing shot? Keitaro says, "That seems like a pretty potentially messy thing." Moriya OOCly says, "I'd like to have all the help I can get, actually. :) Although moreso for the dragon than acquiring the Logrusfoil, I suppose." Beowulf says, "I imagine it could be. It all depends on who you're going there with." Beowulf says, "OOC Ahhh. :) Dragon? o.o" Moriya OOCly says, "I definitely don't want to face a Chaos dragon with just myself, Rimururu, and Mitsune." Moriya OOCly says, "The thing guarding the Logrus jewel that's the eventual prize of this little quest." Beowulf says, "OOC Ah. I don't believe Bey's got the news about the dragon IC." Moriya OOCly says, "Um, yes, I mentioned the Logrus jewel and the dragon as a leadup to the Logrusfoil. Needing bait and all." Beowulf asks, "OOC Hmmm... since Chris is on, is Lian in sync enough for Bey to quickly trump her and offer her some microfusion engines?" Beowulf says, "OOC Oh... I must have skimmed past that part. See it now." John says, "OOC No, she's 3 days ahead of you" Beowulf says, "OOC Drat. :(" John says, "At this point in time, she was on Dragonback on her way to Cathuria" You page, "Want a few microfusion engines? I've only got about 530 to spare at the moment. :)" to Chris. Chris pages, "We can always use microfusion engines. I'm currently upgrading my Borg anyway." to you. You page, "Finished disassembling Mobius' artificial sun, wound up with 530 microfusion engines each capable of destroying a city. :)" to Chris. Chris pages, "Whee. Just the thing to use as tertiary power systems for the Black Moon. :)" to you. Moriya OOCly cuts logging here, then. You page, "Heh. :) Imagining 530 of them in one item tells you why we were so careful in our 'blow up construct' mission. :)" to Chris. Chris pages, "Ayup. That's planet go boom level." to you. You page, "Anope. That's *Shadow* go boom level." to Chris. You page, "Or at least the majority of it." to Chris. Moriya OOCly says, "Sunday's probably the best bet, though Thursday is a possibility." Chris pages, "Nah. Shadows are too big to go boom from that. A planet, though, or maybe half a system ... depends on how close together they are. Spread them out for max effect." to you. You page, "Well, John specifically said that if it exploded, it would take out most of the shadow." to Chris. Chris pages, "It depends on the shadow, I guess. If your shadow -is- just one planet ... if your shadow is a whole galaxy, though, I'd imagine it'll destroy a lot less." to you. You page, "Well, the relevant point is that it's big enough to take out most of everything worth anything there. :)" to Chris. Chris pages, "And now you have it all. ;)" to you. You page, "Well, sort of. :) Right now, they're stored safely in Amber, since tech doesn't work there. :)" to Chris. You page, "Was going to offer 'em to Lian first, Washu second... not sure who else uses lots of tech stuff." to Chris. Chris pages, "Lian is currently somewhat difficult to reach, due to being in Chaos." to you. You page, "John's already said you're too far ahead to contact now." to Chris. You page, "Wish I knew what you were doing ICly... while Moriya and I were at Panopticon, we heard about a professor who just finished developing what he claims is a working Abyss diving craft." to Chris. Chris pages, "Wah. I hope Moriya remembers that, as I will likely contact him to help deal with Hendrake's reluctance to free Shizu.:)" to you. You page, "Hopefully. Though when you talk to Bey, he'll probably mention it; he took a few notes, because his next project is going to be going after the battleship." to Chris. You page, "And Abyss stuff might be helpful going up against it, since it uses an Abyss engine." to Chris. You page, "Bey's helping Moriya track down that Logrusfoil at the moment." to Chris. Chris pages, "That's why I'm about to recruit some Hendrake kids to hunt down some Abyss Monks. Eat their brains for Abyss knowledge, and use them to power an Abyss engine. >)" to you. You page, "Um... right. o.o" to Chris. Chris pages, "See my doing. ;) I'm going to see if I can come up with a variation on certain spelljammer helms to use in the Abyss. (Powered by Abyss Monks can take on a whole new meaning there.)" to you. You page, "...yeesh." to Chris. Chris pages, "What? O:)" to you. You page, "I forsee much potential for disaster. o.o" to Chris. Chris pages, "There is always much potential for disaster. When has that ever stopped me? ;)" to you. You page, "Not often enough, apparently." to Chris. Chris pages, "Heh. Well, a lot of stuff depends on what I find out about the Abyss." to you. Chris pages, "And that in turn depends on me being able to convince my support staff to just maim them. Now THAT will be difficult." to you. You page, "Uh-huh." to Chris. You page, "Just remember, you'll have to worry about Abyss Pirates as well. Though if you're going to be capturing Monks, you could get their help; they hate the Monks, and vice versa. :)" to Chris. Chris pages, "Well, if there are any pirates around ... I'll likely need some valued cannonfodder/distraction/allies anyway." to you. 11/26/01 John says, "OOC Okay, let's rumble, Moriya and Beowulf. When last we played, y'all were at the library at Panopticon" Moriya OOCly says, "Yur." Beowulf OOCly nods. "Did some research on chaos dragons off-screen, as well... want me to summarize?" Moriya OOCly says, "Please." John says, "OOC Naah, hoard the info so you all die :)" Moriya OOCly beats John with a torpedo. Beowulf says, "OOC Remind me if I forget anything, John. ^_^ Basically, they have the following behavior cycle: 1. Hibernate/grow more powerful." Beowulf asks, "OOC 2. Go into 'feeding frenzy' raiding surroundings to get its energy levels back up. 3. Forage for its hoard. Was there a 4th, John?" Beowulf says, "OOC Safest time to go after one would be when it's in feeding frenzy, as it's less likely to be reacting intelligently." Moriya OOCly says, "If it's at that time we catch him, of course. We don't have much of a window of opportunity." Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf says, "OOC They tend to have at least some amount of control over their home shadow. All of them have some degree of Logrus powers, and very old/experienced ones can spit Primal Chaos... though they're very rare, and it's not terribly likely that we'll run into one." John says, "OOC 4 was a period of contemplation and magical/power experimentation." Beowulf says, "OOC Ah, right; that makes sense." Moriya OOCly says, "Anything else?" Beowulf says, "OOC Last thing I can remember is that they tend to have pretty eclectic hoards, with many odd and unique things, often with a fair amount of power." Akemi pages, "Also, that they often have 'control' of the shadow their hoard is in." to you. Moriya OOCly nods. You page, "Think I mentioned that they have some degree of control over their 'home' shadow." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "And that you can be fairly sure this isn't one of the most powerful dragons, because all the incredibly strong ones are well known." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Anything else before we go to the museum?" Beowulf says, "OOC Clarifications: They often have control of the shadow where their hoard is. And we can be pretty sure this isn't one of the *most* powerful chaos dragons, because the strongest are all well known." Moriya OOCly says, "Right." Beowulf says, "OOC Time to scout out the museum, I'd say." Moriya OOCly says, "Let's go, then." Moriya OOCly says, "Walk the Pattern and port there, to save time." Beowulf OOCly nods, and will walk the Pattern and trump everyone else through once he gets there. You page, "As it'd be logical for Bey to do it now, since he's got the highest Endurance. Hmmm, with what he's got now, how tired does he feel after a Patternwalk?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You are somewhat tired, but not debilitatingly so." to you. You page, "Ah, so." to Akemi. John asks, "OOC Okay, so the plan is to trump to Amber, Beo walks the Pattern, then teleports to the blade and trumps everyone else in?" Moriya OOCly says, "Well, I'd suggest to a place in the shadow where they wouldn't be noticed appearing, which is close to the museum." Beowulf says, "OOC Going to try teleporting to a safe spot in the shadow where the blade lies, not teleporting directly to the blade. ^_^" John says, "OOC Okay, so you're going to go to a safe spot in the shadow where the blade lies." Moriya OOCly says, "Yur." Beowulf OOCly nods. Safe, including 'won't be noticed.' :) John says, "OOC Okay, gimme the precise phrasing." Beowulf says, "OOC Teleporting to 'A safe spot in the shadow where the Logrusfoil we're looking for lies, where no one will notice himself or the others arriving." Beowulf asks, "OOC That sound OK?" John says, "OOC 'Tis fine with me." John asks, "OOC Okay, we going to go with that, then?" Moriya OOCly says, "Maybe name the shadow as well." Beowulf asks, "OOC Would that make much of a difference?" John says, "OOC saying 'The shadow where the Logrusfoil we're looking for lies' identifies the shadow pretty precisely" Moriya OOCly shrugs. Just me being paranoid. :) John says, "OOC It also covers things in case someone's already nicked it :)" Moriya OOCly says, "That's true. :P Okay, we'll try it." Beowulf walks the Pattern. Beowulf phrases his request. Beowulf goes poof. Beowulf, go into Skippy. You page, "Uh-oh. :)" to Akemi. You land next to a large pile of rocks in some very dry countryside. Fish frolic in a stream nearby, and the hot sun beats down on you. A few dozen feet away, a snake lies curled on a rock, sunning himself. Beowulf looks around to measure the surroundings, then checks his watch to see what's active here. Your watch begins to spin wildly. It indicates that 'Yrok sldiu sid!' Beowulf shuts the watch. Any sense of immediate danger? You sense no danger, since you aren't a rat, and therefore the snake has little interest in you. And the water means you can't die of thirst, not that you'll get thirsty too soon, though it is rather hot. Beowulf asks, "OOC Given that I made it, what's the most likely reason I can think of for the watch's malfunction?" Perhaps something is protecting the shadow from its scanning abilities. The watch continues to spew nonsense words on its screen. Beowulf says, "OOC Hmmm. It doesn't actually *scan*, it tries to use various powers to perform various functions. Like Trump for synching with Amber time, or magic to make the dial glow." Beowulf says, "OOC So it doesn't actively try and measure the surroundings; you deduce what they are by what works and doesn't work." Beowulf asks, "OOC So presumably the complete gibberish means something's actively jamming it?" Could be. Or it could be that the powers it depends on to be able to try to test powers are dysfunctional. Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Would that be conjuration, or magic in general?" Could be either. Beowulf asks, "OOC From what I know of Patternsight, are there any notable risks to using it?" The only risk is if the shadow is rigged to attack people who use it. You page, "Being as it's a new power for me... any notable cautions I was told about when I learned it?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Pretty much just that someone could rig a shadow to attack you if you used it. For the most part, unless you're trying ot pass as not Amberite, it's safe." to you. You page, "Righto. And from what I remember, didn't the description of the museum shadow say that magic as well as Logrus were blocked there?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes, it did" to you. Beowulf Patternsights the shadow to see what's active. Nothing works here except Broken Pattern and Pattern. Both work for getting in and out of the shadow only at a location that is somewhere you aren't at the moment, though you can do other things with them. As you concentrate, you hear the river starting to flow faster. Also, the shadow seems rather infused with Logrusy goodness, as if a Logrus wielder had heavily molded the shadow, then locked out all other logrus users. Beowulf relaxes his concentration and moves somewhat away from the river. The river begins to rise up, forming itself into a miles-long serpent. Beowulf says, "OOC Does the river slow down when I relax... oh. o.O" Your watch insists, "Cast in the Name of God, Ye Not Guilty." Beowulf asks, "OOC Any sense of threat from the serpent, or merely watchfulness?" You hear it bellow, "DEATH TO THE WHITE MAN!" Beowulf says, "OOC Uh-oh." Beowulf asks, "OOC Tactical evaluation of the situation?" It turns and glares at you. You estimate that you could be in serious trouble. A flamethrower would be very handy right now, or some way to fly. Beowulf asks, "OOC Does my link to the bag work?" If you flee across the desert, there's some chance that the sands of the desert might drink it right up. You try reaching into your bag and find only a normal, empty bag. Beowulf asks, "OOC Am I wearing enough clothing to do at least a limited parasail from the top of the pile of rocks, out into the desert?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Or would it be faster to run?" You page, "...wonderful idea to pattern teleport. x.x" to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Uh-oh. c.C" to you. You page, "Uh-huh." to Shizumaru. Ooh, what a funky idea. Hmm, given your skills and your mad Warfare, I will let you get away with that because it's such a cool idea. Beowulf runs up the rocks, tying-off appropriate clothing to make the best sail he can, and jumps off the pile to go parasailing out into the desert. Beowulf says, "OOC This probably is the kind of thing covered by Pulp Acrobatics, after all. :)" You begin to sail off across the desert as the snake chases after you. Then you begin to hear the sound of humvees in the distance as you continue sailing along. Beowulf asks, "OOC In which direction?" John asks, "OOC How high up do you want to try to get?" Off to your right. Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. In a desert, there'd be thermals to help him maintain altitude, right? Normally I'd go for a fair amount of altitude to increase gliding time, but it sounds here like staying low and hard to spot would be better. Or would a tactical analysis suggest something different?" John says, "OOC Tactical Analysis says to get high enough the Serpent can't reach you. " Beowulf OOCly nods; does it appear to be shrinking at all in the desert? It seems to be slowly shrinking. Beowulf asks, "OOC Right... is the whole area desert? Or would turning away from the humvee sound take me out to an area where the Serpent might last longer?" You see desert to the horizons. You think turning away from the Humvees won't help the Serpent any. Beowulf asks, "OOC Tactical skills think there's the possibility that I'm being herded into a trap?" You think that's a possibility, though it's rather unlikely your foes anticipated you'd take to the skies. Beowulf asks, "OOC Right... Sounds like my best option is to bank away from the humvees, then? Anything I can do in the air to make myself less visible?" Unfortunately, there's not much, as you can't really function in clouds very well when parasailing, so trying to ascend to the clouds would mess you up more than it helps. OOC PRobably your best bet is to bank away from the Humvees and keep going until you find somewhere worth landing or avoiding Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf banks away from the Humvees, staying away from the serpent, and does the best he can to stay hard-to-spot while he runs. Shizumaru has arrived. You page, "Well, it's interesting, as you'll probably see in a moment. o.o" to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Great. o.o;" to you. There is a blink, and next to Beowulf (who has turned his clothing into a parasail and is flying along desperately), Moriya, Mitsune, Keitaro, Lily, and Shinobu appear. You're hundreds of feet up in the air. A giant serpent made of water some forty miles long is chasing Beowulf over a desert. And a flock of dozens and dozens of humvees are coming towards Beo from another angle. He's trying to fly to keep both threats behind him. Gravity now asserts itself over the newcomers. Moriya changes into flying demonform and catches Keitaro, trusting the others to shapeshift accordingly. Beowulf says, "OOC ...oh, crap. ;_;" Beowulf asks, "OOC They close enough for me to shout at them?" Good thinking. Lily, Shinobu, and Mitsune all sprout wings (in fact, Mitsune goes to Angel Form) The Humvees begin firing rockets wildly. Beowulf asks, "OOC Can I use Mork or the whip to try and ward rockets away from those less warfare-skilled, and still fly?" You can try using the whip, though your effectiveness with it will be reduced. ATM, the humvees are such extreme range they aren't likely to have much luck. Beowulf says, "OOC Right." You can see the humvees drawing closer. One of them seems to be piloted by a tall lanky fellow in shades, wearing a shirt that says 'Humbug'. Another is driven by a...blonde...Asian woman in her early twenties, wearing a 'University of Queensland' shirt. Many others seem to be driven by Crocodile Dundee clones, although one seems to be driven by a tall, thin dark-haired woman in a ninja outfit. Beowulf shouts, "Everything's turned off but Pattern and Broken Pattern, and something seems to watch for them... this was set off when I tried using Patternsight." Lily frowns. "Delightful." Beowulf OOCly groans and thwaps the GM. Welcome to Continent XXX. :p You hear the sound of jet fighters in the distance. Moriya curses, and shifts Ilvig into energy rifle form, and tests it out against the incoming rockets from the humvees. The energy rifle fails. Moriya changes it into assault rifle form and tests that. Beowulf shouts, "The whole shadow reeks of Logrus, though, like it was molded by a powerful Logrus user who turned it off after himself!" You discover it works but is unable to make its own ammunition. but a Humvee explodes and burns from your careful shooting as you discover this. Lily tries calling up the Logrus with no success. Moriya asks, "Right. What do you suggest?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Well, since things seem to be shot to hell already... can I feel what direction the Pattern 'exit' from the shadow is in?" Yes, you have a directional fix to it. Perhaps by the whims of fate, you're even headed in the right direction. Moriya OOCly says, "Yay Good Stuff. o.o" You page, "Any of the humvee crew look familiar to Bey ICly? As I suspect who some of 'em are OOCly. :p ^_^" to Akemi. Beowulf asks, "OOC What direction are the jet fighters coming from?" Akemi pages, "They aren't IC familiar." to you. The Jet fighters are coming from the direction the Humvees are coming from. But much faster. Keitaro tests a trump card. "Had to be sure. I think we need to find somewhere less exposed, as we're sitting ducks up here." Beowulf says, "OOC All right... best tactical estimate? Right now, the best thing I can think of OOCly is run like heck for the shadow exit, unless my fighting skills suggest that we actually stand a chance of beating both groups of attackers. o.o" Moriya goes over to join Beowulf, and indicates for the others to gather closer. "Shinobu, can you use your Pattern abilities to try to turn on magic while we continue running?" Moriya OOCly says, "By the way, if I try feeling for a directional pull for the Logrusfoil (or the shadow that the Logrusfoil is in), do I get an indication?" You might actually be better off at this point trying to fly down and overwhelm the Humvee drivers, as up close and personal, you can put your Mad Fighting Skillz to use. While up here, you're going to be shelled, unable to retaliate, and then the jet fighters will bake you. Not that you'll be much safer from the fighters with the Humvees, but at least you'll be able to arm yourselves with ammo. You do get a fix on the foil, and it's off in another direction. Shinobu says, "I'll try." Moriya OOCly says, "What about the shadow?" Moriya nods. "Don't start yet, though." Then he looks at Beowulf. "Do we continue to run, or fight?" You sense you're in the correct shadow. Moriya OOCly says, "Right." Beowulf says, "Right now, it looks like we've got the whole danged Shadow on our case, and we'd have to fight through the entire thing to get to the foil... at a severe disadvantage." As you think, the jet fighters roar past you, unleashing the first flight of missiles. Moriya curses. "Try it, Shinobu!" You page, "Ack. Any other way I can think of to try and back off and start this thing over peacefully?" to Akemi. Shinobu says, "I'm trying! I'm trying!" Akemi pages, "You have a feeling the shadow has been rigged to kill Pattern Users, and that you probably are going to need to get out of the shadow or successfully mold it somehow." to you. The missiles subtly all realign to come at Shinobu. You page, "And molding it under these conditions is going to be Very Hard, right?" to Akemi. Moriya fires at the missiles, conserving ammo carefully. Akemi pages, "Yep" to you. Beowulf tries to knock the missiles away with the whip as best he can. Moriya blinks, and starts flying in a slightly different direction. "Keep it up, Shinobu! I'll try to split their attention!" He now starts trying to mold shadow as well, moving away from the others. Beowulf exclaims, "This place has been rigged to kill Pattern users! I think we need to get OUT and regroup!" With your mad skillz, you manage to block the first wave of missiles. The Jet fighters are now circling round for wave two, and you hear the sound of more of them approaching. Lily says, "Getting out's a little easier said than done!" You page, "Best way I can think of to retreat to the spot where we can exit?" to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Does it look like we're going to have to beat these people off in order to get past them all?" Akemi pages, "You need a fast vehicle. Otherwise, planes are going to keep coming at you." to you. You page, "Will doing the Pattern use and trying to split targets help?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It might, but it may just end up making the Pattern users more vulnerable." to you. It looks like the planes are going to keep coming until they run out of missiles or run out of you. You page, "Hmmm. How much Mad Skillz would it take to try and land on one of the fighters' cockpits and take it over, towing the rest along?" to Akemi. You page, "The rest of the group, that is." to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "What do I think of my chances to bust my way into one of the planes, take control of it, and use it?" Beowulf says, "OOC Same thing I just asked John. >.<" John says, "OOC THe planes move at a factor of somewhere around 200 times your speed. You can try, but you stand a good chance of being rammed by the plane, which would be REAL BAD" You page, "Would the humvees be enough faster to help in this situation?" to Akemi. You page, "Getting to the exit, not trying to take over a plane? ^_^" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "The humvees can't outrace the planes, but they're a lot faster than flying with wings." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. Better chance of busting up some humvees and taking their ammo to fight off the planes, then?" Beowulf OOCly tries to keep Snickers away from his dinner. John says, "OOC Yes, you think so." Beowulf says, "OOC And use the humvees to make our break, as they're faster than we are flying." Moriya OOCly says, "Will suggest the plan, then, and move to put it into motion." Beowulf OOCly nods, and gets ready to do the same. You dive down towards the humvees, dodging bullets desperately. Lily, Keitaro, and Mitsune all get clipped a time or two, while Moriya, Shinobu, and Beowulf have no trouble dodging bullets. You hear the roar of bombers in the distance as you plunge into the midst of the Humvees and proceed to beat the inhabitants into the ground. Is anyone going to try to block any incoming missiles while the others work on the Humvee drivers? Beowulf says, "OOC Yup, unless the others look like they need the help too badly." Moriya will, after grabbing some more ammo. Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm, at our level, how well should we be able to read each other's moves and coordinate our actions?" Moriya and Beowulf fend off more missiles. You can now see a flight of bombers approaching, Shinobu and the others finish off the Humvee drivers. And yet more fighters are coming. Beowulf asks, "OOC Any anti-aircraft weapons in the humvees, while we drive like hell for the exit?" Moriya says, "Beowulf, you and I will try to take out approaching planes. Grab al the rockets and such that we can. Someone else will have to drive us." Yes, there are some anti-aircraft weaponry. Beowulf nods, and does the best grab-and-go he can. Shinobu drive, perhaps? Moriya OOCly says, "I suggest taking at least two humvees." Beowulf says, "OOC Would multiply the targets, but also risk someone getting left behind." Beowulf asks, "OOC And do we have a fourth pattern user to drive the second humvee to the exit?" John says, "OOC People with Pattern: Shinobu, Moriya, Beowulf. People with Broken Pattern: Keitaro. People up a Creek: Lily, Mitsune" Beowulf asks, "OOC Six people would fit fine in a humvee... do I tactically think splitting the targets would be worth the additional risk?" John says, "OOC Well, it means that you can't all be crushed bya single bomb if you spread out enough in two" John says, "OOC On the other hand, it's easier to keep the missiles off your craft if you're all in one." Beowulf asks, "OOC And in some ways, it'd actually be easier to shoot away bombs than missiles, right?" Moriya OOCly says, "Hm. I think it'd be better to take our chances in one Humvee. Beowulf and Moriya working together to keep missiles and bombs off us should work well." Beowulf OOCly nods. Actually, you fear bombs are more likely to go off regardless of what you do. ^^;; John says, "OOC Basically, you have a trade off between better bomb defense if you split up, and better missile defense if you don't." Moriya OOCly says, "John, would our combined warfare be good enough to shoot bombs just as they drop from the bays, blowing up the bombers in such a way that the debris scatters around us harmlessly? :)" Moriya OOCly says, "Anyway, I have to pause now." Beowulf OOCly nods, and should hit the restroom himself. Long pause, or short? John says, "OOC Even with your mad warfare, you're going to have a hard time shooting a bomb before it gets too far away from the plane to destroy it; better in that case to shoot the bombers directly with what Anti-plane weapons you have." John says, "OOC Long, as I assume Drew goes home from work now." Beowulf says, "OOC Ay. Wans't sure if it was *that* time yet. o.o Right, then." You page, "...well, you did warn me, twice." to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods You page, "I just thought the chances of it being set to deliberately trap Pattern users were low enough that it was worth the risk to see what I was facing. o.O I'm trying to think if there was any way to get out of this otherwise." to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Crap. I was hoping for this to be a little easier. c.c" Beowulf says, "OOC Yah. o.o" Akemi pages, "You should have asked yourself why this logrus foil was still in this museum when you had such an easy time finding out about it." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "It's the right shadow, but they aren't argumentative academics." John says, "This is a left over plot thread from TAMD" You page, "...yup. o.o And Pattern-teleporting in there just made things worse." to Akemi. John says, "Except it never came up there." Beowulf OOCly nods. Ahhhh. Moriya OOCly says, "Oh." John says, "One of about two dozen things which never showed up in TAMD because no one did the right things or went the right places." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay, I'm off." Beowulf OOCly waits, nibbling his fingernails. You page, "Maybe I should have let Drew make the Pattern teleport. Though I wonder if he would have reacted any better than I did? " to Akemi. Akemi pages, "He would likely have made exactly the same mistakes, except that he couldn't have made the Parasail" to you. You page, "Oh, well. Now we just have to worry about how to get out of it, as I think it's pretty clear we won't be able to get it on this run." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It seems unlikely." to you. You page, "And it's an open question whether any of us involved in this run will be able to go back and try again, peacefully. Did the fellow at Panopticon say how he came to the shadow?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "He shadow walked in and ended up in a major city near the minor city the museum was in" to you. You page, "Hm. We'll have to talk to him afterwards and confirm, but it also sounds like he didn't use any Broken Pattern while he was here. o.o" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "He used it to get in and out, but that was about it." to you. You page, "Well, we'll have to see how well Drew and I can get out of it. I've been trying to think if things would have been better if I'd tried to make it out by myself then they are now." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It would probably just mean you'd get slaughtered by yourself. ^^;;" to you. Akemi pages, "As you'd be facing the same threats...alone." to you. You page, "Aieee. Oh, well... now I just have to worry about *everyone* getting slaughtered. " to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Okay, I'm back." Beowulf OOCly nods. John says, "OOC Okay, y'all need to decide whether to split into two vehicles or just one." Beowulf OOCly recaps... we're about to run off in one or two Humvees, running straight for the exit, doing evasive patterns as necessary. Beowulf asks, "OOC I'd probably suggest one... as it'd be easier to defend against missiles, and hopefully the bombers would be bigger and slower enough that we could shoot them out of the air. Sound reasonable tactically?" Moriya OOCly says, "Yes." John says, "OOC That seems reasonable tactically." Moriya OOCly says, "One of us concentrates on taking out missiles, the other concentrates on the bombers once they draw into rocket range." Beowulf OOCly nods. Shinobu driving, probably, as that's IIRC a WF skill and we probably want as good an evasion as we can get. Beowulf says, "OOC Any other thoughts come to mind? If not... probably time to see if we can make it." You begin racing along. Your driver drives madly, enabling you to avoid some missiles. Beowulf and Moriya begin shooting down missiles and sniping bombers with their anti-aircraft weaponry. More planes keep coming. Fortunately, y'all massively outskill these people. You race along for several hours. You're now running low on ammo and you're still in the damn desert, and the air force keeps throwing in planes to die. Beowulf says, "OOC Now the worry is what's waiting for us at the only possible exit. o.o" Beowulf asks, "OOC We seem to be making any progress at all towards the exit?" OOC Unfortunately, Pattern cannot tell you how close you are, just that you're going the right way. On the other hand, you loaded up the Humvee with lots of gas cans, so at least you're in no danger of running out of gas. Beowulf asks, "OOC What kind of cover has there been in the desert?" Not much. The occassional rock outcropping, and there's lots of gulleys, but mostly it's fairly flat rocky desert. Great for driving, crappy for hiding. It does look like off to your left, the ground may start to rise towards highlands which would offer more cover, but also take you off the straight line to the exit. Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Based on what I know about shadow molding, would it be possible and/or likely to mold the shadow so that Pattern would point you at a false exit, or lead you around in circles?" OOC Yes, it is quite possible. John says, "OOC It's also possible this shadow is the size of the earth and the exit is on another continent." Moriya OOCly says, "Can one of us hold off the attack, while the other tries to use Pattern to manipulate the Shadow?" Beowulf asks, "OOC One thought I had is whether Broken Pattern sets off the same kind of reaction as pure Pattern does. Has Keitaro tried leading us to the way out yet, or testing his BP abilities?" John says, "OOC There's a strong risk of a bomb or missile getting through if one of you tries using Pattern. Keitaro has not really tried using his Broken Pattern" John says, "OOC Since normally, Broken Pattern is not as good as the real thing, so he deferred to y'all." Moriya OOCly says, "Ask him to give it a try, see if it indicates anything." He tries and gets the same directional fix as the rest of you with Pattern. Beowulf asks, "OOC How about if he tries to mold the shadow so that we can simply 'exit peacefully'? As opposed to doing anything offensive against the Powers That Be here?" John says, "OOC You have no idea what that will do." John says, "OOC HE is, however, willing to try." Moriya OOCly says, "If that fails, I suggest that we go for the cover, and stop using Pattern, in order to shake our pursuers." Beowulf says, "OOC Sound good to you, Drew? The one loophole I'd worry about is 'exit peacefully', as that peaceful exit might lead to the heart of a sun or something." Moriya OOCly nods. Beowulf says, "OOC Exit peacefully and safely, say." Beowulf asks, "OOC Has the pursuit seemed to slacken at all when we refrain from using Pattern?" John says, "OOC Just a reminder...Broken Pattern does have a tendency to find the most dangerous routes." John says, "OOC Nothing but killing the people seems to make them slack off." Moriya OOCly says, "I think we're going to have to get out of range of them in order to shake the ones chasing us, and stop using Pattern so that they can't find us again." Beowulf OOCly nods. "Reminder definitely noted. The issue I was trying to think of is whether BP angered/stirred up the locals as much as pure Pattern did, and whether that'd offset the normal dangers of using BP." John says, "OOC Well, the BP guy you talked to had no trouble with the locals." John says, "OOC but he didn't use BP inside the shadow particularly, either." Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC From what we can see of the terrain and our running progress so far, is there much chance of being able to get out of range of them and hide in that terrain?" Moriya OOCly says, "Pause a moment." John says, "OOC It's rather hard to get out of range of jets. If you head for the highlands, you may be able to find some caves and other cover, but it'll take you off your track." Moriya OOCly says, "Ah, never mind." Moriya OOCly hmms. Beowulf says, "OOC Well, I'm pretty much fresh out of clever ideas at the moment, unless it turns out that BP isn't the problem Pattern is here." Moriya OOCly says, "Likewise." John says, "OOC Well, your best option from your tactical sense seems to be to make for the highlands, as you can hopefully get where you can't be bombed. As y'all can fight people on the ground a lot better than you can find endless parades of airplanes." Moriya OOCly nods. Beowulf OOCly nods. John says, "OOC Because soon, you're going to run out of ammo, and then you're likely going to be mowed down." Beowulf says, "OOC Let's make for the highlands, then." You make for the highlands, and manage to find some caves to take cover in. John says, "OOC And at this point, while you guys can hold out in the caves for a very long time, unless you come up with a good idea, I think you're stuck." John says, "OOC As I the GM am not sure of how you're going to get out of this, other than being rescued." Moriya OOCly says, "Frick." Beowulf OOCly hmms. Given that we have 8 pt. weapons, can we burrow through the rock at all in the direction of the exit? Moriya OOCly says, "It'll probably take forever." John says, "Yes. It's going to be damn slow, but yes." John says, "OOC You could spend some time going down deep, then slowly carving yourself a tunnel off to somewhere else, so that you could then hopefully head for the surface somewhere they won't expect you." Beowulf says, "OOC Hm. Given what we saw of the countryside as we came through, could we at least get far enough away from where we entered to... yah, something like that." John says, "OOC As it's very hard to find people who are deep underground at this tech level." John says, "OOC good thinking with the tunneling idea :)" Moriya OOCly says, "Can we also keep our sense of direction toward where the exit is without using Pattern while we dig?" John says, "OOC Not really." Moriya OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC How good is our sense of direction?" Beowulf says, "OOC As hopefully we could at least keep aimed in the right general vicinity. :)" John says, "OOC Good enough to keep digging in a straight line." Beowulf says, "OOC Better than nothing, I suppose. " Moriya OOCly says, "By the way, what's the timeflow here, relative to Amber?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Another thought... with my alchemical skills, is there anything that I could work with to soften up the rock and make digging go faster?" John says, "OOC The time flow is one to one, you were told. Yes, you can use your chemistry skills and juryrigging to whip up a crude chemical lab and make stuff which will speed things up somewhat." Beowulf asks, "OOC Every little bit helps. How about scrounging/kitbashing to make more effective digging tools out of what we've got?" You page, "Sigh... so much for peaceful intentions." to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Yeah." to you. OOC Okay. You can dig about ten miles a day. How many days do you want to invest in digging? Beowulf asks, "OOC From what we saw of the terrain, how far did the highlands stretch? IOW, what would moving 10 miles, 20 miles, etc. get us in the way of scenery change and/or good emergence locations?" John says, "OOC The highlands stretch for dozens of miles. You're probably going to want to dig at least 30-40 miles." Beowulf asks, "OOC Right... you want to go for 3 or 4 days, Drew?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Or more?" Moriya OOCly sighs. I didn't want to take this much bloody time, but that'll be what it takes, I guess. Moriya OOCly says, "On the other hand, I did tell Nanami, and she might be inclined to do something if she doesn't hear back from Moriya soon." Beowulf OOCly nods. "And it's possible someone else will notice and manage a rescue in that amount of time, but at least we'll be working on getting ourselves out if no one else does." Moriya OOCly says, "Exactly, I guess." John says, "OOC You think the more time you spend digging, the better off you'll be when you emerge as far as throwing off pursuit." Beowulf asks, "OOC How did you bring the rest of the crew with you, by the by? Trumped 'em to yourself and pattern teleported, or did you force a trump through to reach me?" John says, "OOC He p-teleported after trumping them to the center." Beowulf OOCly nods. Figured, but was still halfway hoping that he might have trumped. :) Beowulf asks, "OOC Any tactical feel for the best balance between spending time underground and speed getting us out?" Kuonji Ukyou says, "OOC: John must reboot." Beowulf OOCly nods. Spellvis falls asleep. Kuonji Ukyou says, "OOC: John says, basic trouble is that if you get spotted, you're back where you started, so you're better off digging a tunnel." Beowulf OOCly nods. Moriya OOCly says, "At least we were toward the back of the timeline when we started. Still on day 72 or so." Beowulf says, "OOC And hey... at least if it's on another continent, tunneling will get us under the ocean. ^_^ Of course, by that time the campaign will probably be over, so... ^^;;;;" Spellvis wakes up. John asks, "OOC Can someone grab out of their backscroll what exactly Moriya told Nanami?" Beowulf OOCly didn't see it. :( Moriya says, "Moriya says, "I'm all right, but there might be a problem." He quickly describes their plan, and what's happening with Beowulf. "I'm planning to walk the Pattern, trump our group into the center, and have us all teleport to where he is, in case he's in trouble."" Moriya says, "Nanami nods. "Alright. Good luck."" Moriya says, "Moriya says, "Thanks. Hopefully we won't need it. Just wanted to let you know in case we do, though."" Moriya says, "She nods. "A wise choice. Good luck, Moriya."" Moriya OOCly says, "Moriya would have told Nanami also what shadow they believed it to be in. Besides which, Moriya reviewed this briefly with Nanami before, when he told her about the Chaos dragon, and trying to lure it with the Logrusfoil." John now tries to decide how long Nanami would wait before worrying. Moriya OOCly points at his mega Good Stuff. o.o; John says, "OOC Yes, but Nanami does have some regards for your capabilities :)" Moriya OOCly whines. Beowulf OOCly shrugs and keeps plugging on as best he can. :) Good stuff or no. Moriya OOCly says, "Yeah, yeah. :>" Moriya OOCly says, "Well, we'd best dig for at least 3 days, then." John says, "OOC Hmm. I think Nanami would probably start to worry at around 4 days." Beowulf OOCly says, "I'd go for 4.... oh." John says, "OOC And that we'll need to stop with you guys still digging, because if one of the other PCs tries to contact you and fails, tha tmight motivate a rescue faster." Moriya OOCly grumbles. Beowulf OOCly nods and sighs. "Well, that's the way it goes." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay." John says, "OOC As it's that, or I have to cheat in some way to ensure no one comes looking for you before whatever point in time we stop you at." Moriya OOCly says, "Yeah, true." John says, "And it's probably best I not keep Travis up late since he has to work tomorrow anyway." Beowulf says, "OOC Although given what we went through so far, I'm a bit worried about what'll happen to anyone *else* who tries a rescue. o.o" Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC So where was our biggest screwup so far? The p-teleport, my patternsight, or what?" John says, "The Pattern Teleport. You'd have been in much better shape if you'd shadow walked here, gotten to the entry point, studied the shadow, and worked from there, instead of being somewhere that was safe, but only if you didn't use Pattern." Beowulf OOCly nods and sighs. Moriya OOCly sighs. John says, "OOC The really big mistake wasn't asking yourself why, if the shadow looked as easy to deal with as it did, somene else hadn't found this thing by now." John says, "I mean, the mistake was not asking yourself." John says, "Sending Beowulf ahead by himself instead of all of you trumping to the center and then riding out with him was another." John says, "As it would have caused no more exhaustion than what you tried to do, but as it stood, Moriya had to end up wearing himself down some in order to come after you." John says, "Setting a definite 'Come find me if I am gone beyond X days' would have been a good thing to tell Nanami." Beowulf nods. "I'd hoped going in peacefully and wanting to trade for it would defuse potential hostilities, but I wasn't counting on it being that hostile from the get-go." John says, "Still, you're doing better than Chris in his last venture. ^^;;;" Moriya says, "I imagine so." Beowulf says, "Um... right. " Moriya idles. You page, "And at least we're not *completely* stuck waiting for a rescue. :) Maybe it's not all that effective, but at least I feel like we're doing *something* to help ourselves." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yeah, the tunneling idea was really good." to you. You page, "Glad I did *something* right. :)" to Akemi. 12/02/01 Okay, you spend several days tunneling. Once you come to the surface, how are you going to go about finding your way out of here? You come up at what you think is the northern edge of the highlands. There's no particular evidence of anyone searching for you, so you assume your bluff with the blood creatures worked. Beowulf asks, "OOC What direction was our last PatternFix, before we went into the highlands?" Or else they've moved on to look elsewhere. Moriya OOCly says, "Disguise ourselves with shapeshifting, just to be sure." Beowulf OOCly nods. John says, "OOC Your last fix was northeast." John says, "OOC Keep in mind that only three of you have enough shapeshifting to disguise themselves, and noen of you have Shapeshift other." Moriya OOCly says, "Mitsune does." Moriya OOCly says, "Unless all those times she's shapeshifted me was some sort of GM brainfart. :)" John says, "OOC Mitsune has Shapeshifting magic." John says, "OOC But Magic doesn't work here." John says, "OOC WIthout it, she can't shift other people." Beowulf OOCly... oh. For some reason, I thought it was shapeshift other. Moriya OOCly says, "Huh. I thought she did." Beowulf OOCly hmmms, and sees what his alchemical and kitbashing skills can do to come up with a disguise kit. :) John says, "OOC Davros does, but he's not handy :)" You can whip up decent mundane disguises with your mad skillz, though. Beowulf grins slightly at the group. "Kinda wish we had a working camera here, but oh well." John says, "OOC Hmm, actually, we'd better move this to Skippy" Moriya OOCly says, "Oh, okay." Beowulf asks, "OOC All right... are we currently up high enough to get a decent view off to the northeast?" Looking northeast, you can see desert for a long ways which gradually seems to turn into dry grasslands. There's a dinky ass town that direction, near the fringe of the desert, perhaps some 30 miles away from you. Beowulf hmms and turns to the others, after looking northeast. "I'd suggest we head for that town. Call me crazy, but I doubt the only exit to this place is going to be in a completely deserted area." Moriya nods slowly. "If nothing else, we can get some supplies and try to find some information." You page, "Also, what's my tactical sense think of the idea that they might be waiting in ambush for us at the nearest exit?" to Akemi. You page, "Er, at the only exit?" to Akemi. Beowulf asks, "OOC Also, is there any kind of identifying information in the humvee?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Logbooks, vehicle registration papers, or the like?" Akemi pages, "You think that's probably pretty likely." to you. You were not able to take the Humvee down into the caverns with you. Beowulf says, "OOC Argh... wish you'd mentioned that earlier. Oh, well." John says, "OOC Dude, natural caverns are not the sort of place you can generally drive large military vehicles into. ^^;;;" Beowulf says, "OOC Hey, it's only about 10-12' across, and many caverns are bigger than that. :)" You take off across the desert after stocking up on water. Beowulf says, "I suspect they're probably going to be waiting in ambush for us at the only exit to the shadow, given that it is the only exit." You spend two days walking across the desert at night. What sort of story are you going to feed the locals? Beowulf says, "That means we'll have to be careful when we approach likely spots, but we might also be able to use that to help us find the place." Beowulf asks, "OOC That's what I wanted the ID info from the humvee for. :) Hmmm... could we tell anything in general from our brief encounter with the humvee brigade? Look like a university expedition, or anything like that?" Beowulf says, "OOC Probably some variation on lost in the desert -- we probably look ragged enough for that by now -- but trying to figure out how we would have gotten there." Moriya OOCly says, "Beg it off as something really embarassing that we'd rather not talk about." You page, "Hm. I would expect Bey's been in first contact situations before in his expeditions... what's he found that tends to work best? And what would his Savoir-Faire notable skill suggest?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You probably should pose as foreign tourists who got caught in the military hunt for the terrorists and lost your vehicles, wallets, etc." to you. Akemi pages, "As it's about the only plausible explanation for you wandering out of the desert with nothing but your clothing" to you. John says, "OOC From what you saw of the vehicle, you seem to have been attacked by the Canberran Army, whatever that is." Akemi pages, "And given the amount of damage done by the hunt for you, it's pretty plausible you were just poor trapped innocent bystanders." to you. Beowulf says, "We should probably try to pass ourselves off as foreign tourists who got caught in the battle and lost all our equipment --" Beowulf says, "--it's about the only plausible explanation, and given the amount of damage that happened in the hunt, well..." He looks a bit sheepish. Keitaro says, "We're going to need to think of a way to get money, as it's likely going to be hard to get around without any." Moriya says, "Unfortunately, using Pattern to uncover chests of gold may be hazardous to our health." Keitaro sighs. "I know. I hate to mug people, but..." Moriya says, "Perhaps there are some bounties on wild animals or something around." Moriya says, "This looks like ranching territory. If something's preying on livestock, they might offer rewards for taking predators down." Beowulf nods. "Right. I suspect we'll be running on charity for a while, or working our passages." Lily says, "Mitsune can always make us some predators to take down if she has to." Mitsune says, "I could always try posing as an Archangel and try to awe them with my divine aura." Keitaro says, "And of course, that worked so well the last time." Moriya says, "It's probably better not to attract attention like that, Mitsune." Mitsune says, "I suppose not." Beowulf nods to Lily. "That probably would work best... it's more plausible than finding valuable minerals in the desert, at least." He smiles a little. You head into the town, where with your superior psyches, you're able to get the locals to overlook any holes in your story. You're able to find out you're in the province of Darwin in the nation of Canberra, a huge island nation in the southern hemisphere of this planet, which Beowulf can identify as roughly similiar to Shadow Earth in geography. Apparently, there was a massive hunt recently for the notorious terrorist Beowulf ben Tenjou and his band of terrorists in the desert nearby; the government reported success in reducing him to a pile of ash. Beowulf OOCly facepalms. Moriya OOCly snickers. Though the hunt continues for other members of the Al-Ambar terrorist network. Beowulf shudders a bit at the thought. "What's the best way to avoid running into the terrorists? They've caused us enough trouble already." "They say you can recognize them by their bad hair and the foul smell they give off. And they like Pepsi and Mustard." Beowulf nods. "Where were they last seen? *Outside* of the battle we just got caught in?" The town is a small ranching town; a lot of the local labor got blown up in the recent fighting, so there's a lot of ranchhand jobs available. "Oh, they like to crash planes into buildings, so if you avoid large towns, you're generally safe. I understand it's rather like lemmings." Beowulf nods at the job listing. Anything a bit less, ah, permanent or more lucrative, as we're just trying to earn enough to get home? The town really isn't much of a place to find lucrative work, though if you work a bit, you can get enough money to pay someone to drive you to a larger town where your chances would be better. Beowulf OOCly nods. Well, I suppose it's better than dishwashing... John says, "OOC Trust me, I've done dishwashing. Being thrown from the top of the Empire State every day would be an improvement." Beowulf OOCly grins. You spend a while working as ranch hands, hunting predators, herding sheep, and generally 'enjoying' the rural lifestyle. Given your competences, they're all very, very sorry to see you all go. After a few weeks, you get a ride down to Darwin itself, a port city home to about a million people. Beowulf OOCly grins. Hey, at least we get to 'relax' for a while and work away our troubles... :) Moriya OOCly says, "Weeks? Hell. What's the timeflow here?" You've noted that the cultural stuff you were told about this shadow does seem to have been pretty accurate, except for leaving out the 'People with Pattern get hunted' thing. John says, "OOC You don't know what the timeflow is." Moriya OOCly says, "Boy, I hope it's considerably faster than Amber. -.-" John says, "OOC On the other hand, you'd have expected the universe to die by now if it wasn't at least somewhat faster." Moriya OOCly says, "That is true. c.c" Beowulf OOCly nods. Darwin is home to about a million people. With a little effort, you're easily able to find the black market and get fake identification. Beowulf asks, "OOC All right, then... where did the Panoptiocon professor mention he'd come in? Or did he give enough info about what he saw for us to deduce it?" John says, "OOC He said he arrived in a place called 'Cheyanne City' in the state of 'Cheyanne' in a country called 'The North American Confederation'" Moriya OOCly says, "And he had to depart from the same place?" John says, "OOC And he left from the same place." Moriya OOCly says, "Where did he say the Logrusfoil was?" Beowulf says, "OOC I don't think he mentioned the Logrusfoil, though I could be misremembering." John says, "OOC The Logrus Foil was in a town about forty miles west of it called 'Douglas City'" Moriya OOCly says, "Right." Moriya OOCly says, "Let's get to Cheyanne City, first." John says, "OOC Cheyanne City is in roughly the center of North America." Beowulf says, "OOC At least it's not New York City, though... I was halfway expecting to get sent there just as the planes slammed in. " John says, "OOC Okay, you're going to need more money in order to book a plane or a boat." Moriya OOCly says, "Let's go hit a casino." John asks, "OOC Going to try using Probability manipulation?" Beowulf OOCly nods. Hm, what's the local museum and university like? :) Moriya OOCly says, "No." Moriya OOCly says, "Good stuff and superior psyche/warfare." John says, "OOC Just going to try using your mad skillz, right :)" John says, "OOC The local university is very nice." Moriya OOCly says, "Win modest amounts, not enough to make them suspicious of us and get us onto a blacklist." John says, "OOC as the Provincial University Main Campus is in Darwin." Beowulf says, "OOC Yah, that would probably work. Just use those same mad skillz to keep it from being too obvious, since that'll get us kicked out... right." You go gamble. With your mad skillz, you're able to win a few thousand each, which is enough for travelling, but not so much it screams 'Cheating' Beowulf says, "OOC And so the academic 'who's got what skillz' test actually becomes useful. :)" John says, "OOC Heh :)" John asks, "OOC Anything you wanted to look up before you hop cross country?" Beowulf says, "OOC First off, what's the status of the hunt for Al-Ambra terrorists? :)" Beowulf asks, "OOC And does it seem like there's anyone actually directing the hunt?" Beowulf says, "OOC One figure directing the hunt, that is, so we have some idea who we're up against." Each country seems to have its own person in charge. In the NAC, it seems to be a man named 'Terry Allen', who is in charge of the war on the Al-Ambra terrorist network. Beowulf OOCly groans and decides to shoot John next time he sees him. :p The media seems to be hounding him because he isn't having very much luck, though. Beowulf says, "OOC Terry Allen is the KU football coach who just got fired, Drew. :p" Moriya OOCly says, "Ah." Beowulf asks, "OOC They hound him enough to get him to give out his plans?" Moriya OOCly says, "As I've been hearing, he kind of had it coming. :)" Allen has announced he plans to make Al-Ambra run extra laps if he catches them. Moriya OOCly says, "..." Beowulf OOCly just shakes his head. Most of his plans seem to consist of putting up posters of Al-Ambra members (who look like various members of the second generation) everywhere. Beowulf says, "OOC *Second* generation? Hmmm." You also notice the airports keep blaring, 'Warning, Passengers. If anyone has given you luggage with a small red gem attached, please toss it into the shafts marked 'Bomb disposal'" Beowulf OOCly groans again. Moriya OOCly snickers. A lot. You can see that no one born in the last forty years seems to be on these posters. No Vash, either, althoguh all the other members of his generation show up. Beowulf says, "OOC Sounds like I'm the only one they might stand a chance of looking for, then... *if* we can trust the posters." You can also see Shaft, Ramon, and Michelle on posters. GM now notes for clarification that he means 'Second Generation from Fuyutsuki', where Gendo is Gen 1 by himself. The media seems quite convinced that Beowulf has been killed. Along with some group of anonymous supporters. Beowulf says, "OOC Greeeaaaat. :)" Beowulf says, "OOC All right... from the info we've got available here, does it look like they've got any special focus on Cheyenne? Is NORAD still there? ^_^" The NAC seems to have 52 states, many of them larger than the US states, since most of Mexico and Canada are part of it. Quebec seems to have the special status of 'Nuclear Test Zone' Beowulf OOCly thwaps the GM. ^_^ Cheyanne City is roughly located where Kansas City is on Shadow Earth. NORAD is a fair distance away. Moriya OOCly cheers. There's no particular indication of any special guards in Cheyanne City. Beowulf OOCly nods. You page, "So the lfoil is in Lawrence? ^_^" to Akemi. And they seem blissfully oblivious to the existence of other universes. Akemi pages, "Yep" to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Did the Panopticon prof say where specifically within Cheyanne City the shadow gate is?" You page, "Trying to figure out whether we should go ahead and take a look at it, given the way that the heat seems to have eased, or whether we should just shoot for getting out." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Up to you." to you. He was blissfully unaware that you had to enter by a special route. He just shadow walked in there. Moriya OOCly says, "Using BP?" You page, "Well, a lot's going to depend on what we can read of the situation. :p How heavy do current security precautions look?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC Using Broken Pattern." Moriya OOCly says, "He didn't run into any sort of trouble when leaving the shadow with BP? And how long ago was his visit here?" Beowulf says, "OOC We should try walking out from the location of Zarda's, given its role as a nexus for Good Stuff. :)" He was there several years ago. Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. Given the nature of the trap, it was definitely in place by the time he swung through here." John says, "OOC He didn't have any trouble getting in or out." Moriya OOCly says, "So we'll try having Keitaro lead us out with BP once we arrive in Cheyanne City." Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC One other thing we should look at, I think -- who set this shadow up as a hiding place?" John says, "OOC A good question." Beowulf asks, "OOC It was apparently a fairly powerful Logrus user, from what I saw in the brief Patternsight. Asking Lily, could a Logrus user molding the shadow have chosen to turn off Pattern and BP?" John says, "Yes, they could." Beowulf says, "OOC So he deliberately chose to leave P and BP intact, but shut off everything else. I'm tempted to think it was either Anno or the unknown Logrus user who slipped those trumps into my deck, though I don't have any rational reason for thinking so. o.o" John says, "OOC IT's pretty obviously a trap for Pattern users. " Moriya OOCly says, "They left Pattern on in order to set off the trap. If it was shut off, exerting it would do nothing, and hence, no trap." John says, "OOC Well, yes :) It's on, you just can't get out with it." John says, "OOC Except at the right place." Beowulf OOCly nods. "For some reason, I was thinking of it more as a safe hiding place for the lfoil, not as a deliberate trap." Moriya OOCly says, "It's a pretty trapalicious trap, I'd say." Beowulf OOCly nods. You page, "So... at this point, do you still want to try for the lfoil?" to Shizumaru. You page, "Right now, I'm not sure if we're just being lulled into a false sense of security, or whether the pressure is really lifted." to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Yes, but first I want to exit, regroup, contact the family to tell them what we've found out about this place, then go back in. Perhaps see if we can grab someone who's better at molding shadow to fight what they've done to this place." to you. John asks, "OOC Anything else you want to look into?" Shizumaru pages, "As John said that a better way to have done this is to shadowwalk into the place, study it, and then proceed from there." to you. Autolyca has disconnected. You page, "Yah, I agree about what would have been best to do; the question is whether we've bollixed up things enough with this aborted attempt to leave open the possibility of a second attempt." to Shizumaru. You page, "But I'd agree, first thing is to get out of here safely." to Shizumaru. Beowulf asks, "OOC I forget, did you say whether there were any kind of travel restrictions going on?" John says, "OOC There are currently no travel restrictions, since they think they killed Beowulf ben Tenjou." Beowulf says, "OOC Unless they've got roadblocks set up, I'd guess the best way to get to Cheyanne City would be to drive, as there's no 'choke-points' for them to find us, like bus or airline terminals." You page, "Greeat, I'm a wanted criminal again. x.x" to Aerianne. John asks, "OOC Going to fly to the west coast of the NAC, then drive cross country?" In a page-pose to you, Aerianne patpapts. John says, "OOC As right now, you're on a continent with no land routes to the NAC :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Yup. :) Well, we could always swim... ^_^" John asks, "OOC Okay, anything else to check, or do we rhumba?" Beowulf says, "OOC I can't think of anything else. :)" You page, "'John says, "OOC There are currently no travel restrictions, since they think they killed Beowulf ben Tenjou."'" to Aerianne. Beowulf asks, "OOC Drew?" Moriya OOCly says, "I'm ready to go." Beowulf OOCly nods. Let's do it. Aerianne pages, "Wheee!" to you. You hop a plane to San Benedicto, then rent a car and drive several days across the NAC. You page, "I'll be interested in seeing your reaction when I send the log. :) Was holding off because there was a chance someone else would mount a rescue mission, and didn't want to prejudice things, but it's looking like we'll be able to get out on our own." to Aerianne. You reach the fine city of Cheyanne, where you then start trying to use Broken Pattern. Aerianne pages, "Heh. Have the two of you managed to succeed in your missions as it was? *wl*" to you. Beowulf OOCly ooops, he jumped ahead. o.o John asks, "OOC I'm sorry, did I miss something you wanted to do?" You page, "Nope. Right now we're shooting for getting out of the trap. o.o" to Aerianne. Aerianne pages, "Wheeeee." to you. Beowulf says, "OOC Wanted to watch out for waiting enemy forces when we arrived. o.o" John says, "OOC Righto." You keep an eye out, but no one seems to particularly notice your car going into the city any more than the tens of thousands of other cars on I-70. To your surprise, Broken Pattern seems to indicate you need to head west out of the city, in the direction of Douglas City. Beowulf says, "OOC Hokay. Well, it was logical that they'd wait for us at the exit point..." Moriya OOCly says, "Huh. Odd." Beowulf asks, "OOC Does the BP seem to stir up any unhealthy attention?" You don't seem to have attracted any unhealthy attention. Beowulf OOCly nods. Thank Ghu for Keitaro, it seems. o.o Now we just need to worry about the usual BP hazards. Beowulf says, "OOC Follow the yellow brick road, Drew? :)" You find yourself wending your way to Douglas City. When you reach Douglas City, however, BP indicates you need to go straight up. Which would seem to indicate the exit is somewhere up in the air over Douglas City. Beowulf says, "OOC Oh, great... cropdusters. :p" Moriya OOCly says, "Well, as long as we're already in Douglas City, let's go check out the Logrusfoil." Beowulf asks, "OOC Does Douglas County Airport have ultralights flying out of it in this universe?" Yes, it does. The man told you the foil was on display in the Dyche Museum. Beowulf OOCly hmms. Well, ultralights normally fly without licensing, so that way of getting caught is hopefully not an issue. :) Moriya OOCly says, "Let's just go tour the museum. Only take a look, don't display particular interest in the foil specifically, other than another exhibit in the museum." Beowulf OOCly tries to remember if Dyche is the natural history museum, and whether the lfoil might be next to Trigger. :) You go to see the museum. Oddly, it appears to be a Natural History Museum, not the sort of place you'd expect to find a Logrus Foil. Beowulf says, "OOC... Custer's cavalry saber. :p" You head inside the several story stone building, which is full of rocks, stuffed animals, fossils, and other interesting things. You wander around for a while, and eventually, come to a display with a stuffed horse named 'Trigger'. He apparently belonged to a 'General Custer'. Apparently, some other Custer Paraphenalia was here with Trigger, but has been moved to Watson Library for a special display of Custer related memorabilia and books. Beowulf uses his navigating academia skills to engage the tour guide in conversation, putting him at ease, asking him about the museum exhibits in general, etc. The Museum guide happily rambles on about how the horse and the Custer Memoriabilia was donated to the University, how it sparked a 3 year local civil war with Haskell Indian Nations University over its display, and how the war ended when both sides decided to burn Manhattan to the ground to relieve stress. Moriya moves closer to the others and murmurs, in Thari, "The eyes in that stuffed horse just moved." Mitsune whispers, "I could go over, put a hand on it, and see if it has a brain to invade." Beowulf whispers, "If it's any kind of guardian, it's probably very strong." Moriya whispers back, "Not now. Not while there are others around." Mitsune nods. The guide rambles on about how Custer thought his sword would let him fight the entire Sioux nation by himself, and thus he died horribly. Moriya asks the guide, "What sort of paraphenalia was there? Both what's being displayed here, and what was sent to Watson?" Moriya OOCly says, "Oh, strike that. :)" He says, "Well, we have Custer's uniform, his sabre, his bible, and a picture of some woman we've never been able to identify. She wasn't his wife, though." Moriya raises an eyebrow. "Was there something special about that sword that particularly made him think so?" He continues, "Well, it's a very strange weapon. It's made of some black metal that defies chemical analysis." Beowulf hmms, and tsks at that story. "Just goes to show you, eh? What kind of man was Custer? I know, we've heard the public stories, but I'd imagine you've heard a lot closer to the straight truth." "He was a demented, bigoted, egotistical freak with a streak of overconfidence the size of the Stony Mountains." Moriya scratches his head. "Interesting. Where is it right now? Here, or at Watson?" "But also a very lucky one, until he pushed his luck too far. Oh, the sword's with his uniform and the picture at Watson, up on the forth flour." Moriya nods. Then he thinks. "That picture of a woman--also at Watson?" Beowulf shakes his head, grinning a little. "Just the kind of man you want to have around, right? Any particular hobbies that he had? I suppose that kind of humanizes you a little." He nods. "Pretty much everything except Trigger went to Watson." He continues, "We didn't think it was worth moving him." Beowulf nods, sighing. "Poor horse." He says, "I understand Custer was into hairdressing." Moriya says, "I see. Thank you." Beowulf asks, "I hope you've at least got someone to keep him company?" Moriya pauses and frowns slightly. "Right. Hairdressing." The man says, "To keep who company?" Moriya says, "The horse. I'm afraid my cousin Beowulf here has an odd sense of humor." The man says, "Ahh. I'm sure Trigger isn't lonely here with all the other animals we have." Trigger says, "CHILDREN OF AMBER! NOW YOU MUST DIE!!!!!!" The museum man blinks. Beowulf OOCly facepalms. Beowulf OOCly was going to try and make it clear he was talking about stuffed animals needing company, but it's too late now. x.x You hear rustling noises, as if all the animals on display were coming to life. Whatcha going to do? Moriya says, "I think we need to evacuate this place. Quickly." Beowulf asks, "OOC What's the clearest path to the exit?" You page, "You had to use my name, didn't you? o.o " to Shizumaru. You hear noises that sound suspiciously like doors slamming themselves. If you want to head by the clearest route out, just tell me. :) Shizumaru pages, "Sorry." to you. Beowulf says, "OOC Actually, is the way to the tower clear? If we can make it to the top, we could try flying from there for the exit, as our cover seems to have been blown anyway." John says, "OOC You'd need to head out the front door, then circle round, as you don't know if there's a back door to the museum, or the route to it if there is one, though you could take the chance of going searching for one, or just use Pattern or BP to find the back door." Beowulf says, "OOC Not the Campanile, but the tower on the history museum. IIRC it's at least 4-5 stories tall." John says, "OOC Ahh, yes, you could try heading up there if you like." Beowulf says, "OOC Anything else look like a better option, given what's starting to wake up? It sounds like the closest place to take off from." John says, "OOC IF you are going to try flying up, it seems like a pretty reasonable plan. You might want to do something about Trigger, too :)" You page, "Is Trigger moving yet? :) If so, any kind of WF/strength read from him?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "He is starting to move, and you get the sense your warfare is superior, but he has a lot of strength" to you. You page, "Right... he far enough away to use the whip at the moment?" to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Pause." Beowulf asks, "OOC Homeward bound?" Akemi pages, "Yes, you could use the Whip for an attack." to you. You page, "All right... well, we have to wait for Drew to get back, anyway." to Akemi. You page, "I wish Drew hadn't gotten so specific with his questioning... though I'm not sure I did any better with my 'gosh-wow, what was this history like' attempt. o.o" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Actually, you chose a reasonably good line of questioning :)" to you. Akemi pages, "Drew's big mistake was calling you Beowulf :)" to you. Moriya OOCly says, "No, dad needed the computer." You page, "Ahhh. :)" to Akemi. Beowulf OOCly nods. Ready to re-start? Moriya OOCly says, "Yes." John asks, "OOC So, whatcha going to do about Trigger?" You page, "Head for the roof and try to fly to the exit sound like the best plan?" to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods You page, "After taking care of Trigger. :)" to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Cut his head off? I dunno. o.o" Beowulf OOCly says, "Try to knock him out, I think." John says, "Well, he looks like he's about to wrench himself loose from his stand and attack. :) " John asks, "OOC Right. Beo going for a knock out. Drew?" Moriya OOCly says, "Help him, I guess. Tell the others to act as well. Subdue, then escape." Beowulf lashes out at Trigger with the whip, calling to Moriya, "He's not as good with weapons as us, but he's very strong." Beowulf says, "OOC Using the whip while he's at a distance, going to Morkeleb if he gets too close for the whip, but try to keep out of trampling range." Beowulf nails him with the whip, then Moriya begins beating on him with the staff. Everyone else rushes Trigger, and you successfully pull him to the ground and pin his head so you can keep him from biting anyone (or breathing fire as he now demonstrates he can do). Meanwhile, more exhibit animals close in and start attacking people. You all take a few blows by the time you manage to knock out trigger and start running for the stairs up. As you start up the stairs, you now spot the pressure plates further up the stairs which probably indicate they're designed to be some sort of trap. Those of you who can fly could try carrying the others up the stairs, or you could look for another route. Beowulf says, "OOC Hm, can I lift and carry everyone in the party, or can they grab on? And is there something above the stairs that I could lash on with the whip and swing over the plates? :)" Moriya OOCly says, "Flying's easier, I think." John says, "OOC Yes, there is; you have several people who cna fly, which would likely be easier, though." Beowulf OOCly nods. Oh, well, at least it was an idea in character. ^_^ John says, "OOC Yep :)" Beowulf points out the plates to the others and asks the flying people to carry them over. Moriya OOCly says, "Actually, wait." Moriya OOCly says, "Why are we leaving Trigger alive?" John says, "OOC You can finish him off if you like :)" Moriya OOCly says, "This is why I'm reluctant to game while tired. Letting Beowulf's name slip, and then not realizing this until now." Beowulf OOCly "Um, did we? I was just using the whip while at range... though I think time is of the essence." Beowulf asks, "OOC How tired are you, Drew?" John says, "OOC Once he's down, you can kill him pretty easily." Moriya OOCly says, "Moderately." John says, "OOC Well, if you're too tired to game, just say so, as I don't want to run you into the ground or anything." Moriya OOCly says, "I'll keep going." Beowulf asks, "OOC If we can get out of this to the exit and out, want to pause there, then? Or when d'you want to call it a night?" John says, "OOC Righto." Moriya OOCly says, "I'll see how far I can go." Beowulf OOCly nods. Just don't punish yourself. :) John asks, "OOC Are you going to go ahead and finish off Trigger before you run, then?" Moriya OOCly says, "I think it's a good idea." You pause and shoot Trigger in the head. He dies, then you move on. Moriya OOCly says, "There's no real reason to keep him alive, unless we can capture him for interrogation later." Beowulf OOCly nods. Well, done now. Moriya OOCly says, "But as he's a large horse, and we're running...anyway." You fly up the stairs, fighting your way through endless attacks by the displays and past many, many nasty traps. You make your way up to the top of the tower. You can see waves of crazed students pouring out of buildings towards the museum, lead by platoons of crazed frat boys. Many building tops are opening up and cannon are emerging from the tops. A helicopter is taking off from the Military science building. Beowulf asks, "OOC ...aieee. x.x What's my estimate of the situation?" Flying upwards would make you a really fine target for thousands of people with rifles, anti-aircraft guns, etc. On this bright, sunny, cloudless day. Beowulf says, "OOC What's the best-looking route to stay under cover? Go back inside and try going through the steam tunnels? Though that doesn't solve the problem of how to get *up* to the exit." You think retreating inside and trying to flee into the steam tunnels might be best. As they are fairly defensible, although there's risk there's some way to flood them. John says, "Alternately, you could try breaking out of the museum, stealing motorcycles and trying to fight your way off-campus, out of town." John says, "Although fighting all the way out of town to lose yourself inthe countryside wouldn't be easy." Beowulf asks, "OOC What do the odds look like either way?" John says, "OOC The steam tunnels is probably safer, but also leaves you basically trapped. The motorcycles is a LOT riskier, but doesn't leave you in a place that could be flooded or collapsed on your heads." Moriya OOCly says, "Try the decoy trick again?" Beowulf says, "OOC How about using the steam tunnels to come out at some other part of campus and stealing vehicles there? KU Police might be a *bit* obvious..." John says, "OOC THat's another option. You could try sending decoys out in public, then slipping into the tunnels, crossing campus, and popping up somewhere else and stealing vehicles." Moriya OOCly says, "Other thing that occurs to me is that now would be an ideal time to try to take the foil." Beowulf says, "OOC Drew, we've currently got the entire town converging on us, plus whatever *other* safeguards they've got on the lfoil itself." Moriya OOCly says, "Drat." Beowulf says, "OOC Now is *not* a good time." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay, let's try the decoy thing again." John says, "OOC It would be risky, though a nice thing to have." Mitsune drains herself of a fair amount of blood and makes some quick duplicates, which she sends off to die gloriously, while you fight your way past more angry displays, including a dinosaur skeleton, down into the steam tunnels. Beowulf OOCly nods, and moves to get them out of the tunnels as quickly as possible into a safe area. Moriya OOCly says, "I'd also like to try to go back to Cheyanne City and see if Keitaro can force a shadowwalk out there, since getting pointed at that midair spot may be a trap as well." Beowulf says, "OOC IOW, go to the closest exit from the steam tunnels that would be safe." The steam tunnels soon turn out to be a nasty death trap of a place. Swinging blades, spears, hidden machine guns and worse. Beowulf says, "OOC Keitaro may have been suffering from typical BP ...argh. :P" It quickly becomes apparent that Mitsune, Keitaro, and Lily are going to be in trouble if you continue this way. You think if you surface now, you'll come up somewhere near the Carillion. Beowulf says, "OOC All right..." Beowulf OOCly pounds his brain looking for inspiration. Did it look like the mob could get to the Campanile easily from where they were? John says, "OOC Some of them could fire at it from the valley, but they'd have to run back up the slope. However, the Spencer did seem to be bristling with rifles from the windows. You'd have a head start on the big mob, though." Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Did it look like there were many cars parked on Memorial Drive? Enough to provide cover, at least?" John says, "OOC YEs, there's a pretty good number of cars. For that matter, you could steal one to use as your escape vehicle :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Yep, though Memorial Drive isn't the easiest place to get out of. :) This is actually one time when my OOC knowledge is better than the character knowledge. :) I'm almost tempted to take that winding back way past all the greek houses to 9th street, in hopes that the houses would be caught in the collateral damage. :) But I suspect the winding way would give them an opportunity to catch up... hmmm. Hang on." Beowulf says, "OOC Would WF let Bey drive that route at a much higher speed than normal shadowdwellers could manage? IOW, would it let Bey use his skillz to improve their situation? :)" John says, "OOC Yes, WF would let you drive you a lot faster more safely than us mundane shadow people can." Beowulf says, "OOC Can't think of anything better than stealing a car outside the Campanile myself, and making a run out of town. Which still leaves teh question of how to get to the exit, unfortunately, but hopefully it'll get us out of immediate danger." Moriya OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC Drew, it's 11:30 your time... how're you feeling?" Moriya OOCly says, "I'm fine. Waking up slightly." Beowulf OOCly nods. Good. :) John asks, "OOC Going to go with stealing a car, then trying to escape via the back roads, then?" You page, "I can't think of anything better OOC. Bey have any bad feelings or tactical misgivings?" to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Suppose so." Akemi pages, "Bey has the feeling that y'all are in big, big trouble again. The thought does come to mind that something is probably controlling this shadow, and finding and dealing with it might be a good idea." to you. You page, "Yup; this is beyond a static shadow molding. x.x" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "As otherwise, you may end up going down this road over and over, so to speak." to you. You page, "Dang it, we were *so close* to getting out, too... though if someone's controlling things actively, the one little slip might not have made much difference in the long run." to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods. You page, "Any ICly misgivings about the plan for getting out of immediate danger, anyway?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, there's probably going to be bombers showing up again soon, and they may well have spy satellites watching the University if the exit is around here." to you. You page, "Well, *if* we can get out of town safely... John pointed out that it's looking like there's someone actively controlling the shadow, and dealing with it would be a good idea. x.x" to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Yeah." to you. Akemi pages, "Unfortunately, unless the person controlling things happens to be on campus, you can't think of a better way to escape." to you. You page, "Right. Hm... best place I can think of to go to ground would be either heading down towards Baldwin, or northeast on the old county roads towards Topeka; both routes have a lot of cover." to Akemi. You page, "I'd bet they *are* on campus, since canons/steam tunnel death traps/etc. are not typical campus architecture. :) Unfortunately.." to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods. Northwest to Topeka. :) You page, "Ack. Right. :)" to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods. You'd rather not risk it while the Campus is up in arms? You page, "Anyway, I think they probably are on campus, but it also seems like the local situation is awfully... right." to Akemi. You page, "If I could go by real-life KU, I'd guess they were in Strong Hall. :)" to Akemi. Okay, done confabbing with Travis by page, I think. Or do you have anything else you need to ask me, Travis? Beowulf says, "OOC Might have." John asks, "OOC Okay, what you need to know?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Since our cover's pretty well blown, how dangerous does it seem like it'd be to use Pattern at the moment?" Beowulf says, "OOC Because if the controller is at Strong Hall, we're right close to it now... but going in there if it's not there would be a dangerous wild goose chase. But if we could quickly use Pattern to see if it is there..." John says, "OOC You think at this point, you're already screwed enough that using Pattern probably won't screw you more." You page, "Argh. Hope I'm not making a big mistake." to Akemi. John asks, "OOC Going to go ahead and do it?" Beowulf OOCly nods. Pattern indicates that the source of control of the shadow is off in the direction of Watson. Beowulf says, "OOC ...right. x.x Not going to make it through there right now, I think." John says, "OOC Well, you could probably make it in, but it wouldn't be easy." John says, "OOC And the less warfarey of you might suffer some injuries." Beowulf OOCly arghs, and is not sure he's thinking straight at the moment. :p John says, "OOC Well, while I would like to keep going, we can stop here to give you all a day to think if you want. " Beowulf says, "OOC What do you think, Drew? As I'm starting to fade, as far as coherent decision making goes." Moriya OOCly says, "WE'd best wait, then." Beowulf OOCly nods. Gomen, John; it's been a long day. Moriya OOCly says, "This is bloody frustrating." John says, "OOC That's fine. I'd much rather nothing bad happen because you feel too tired." John says, "OOC We can continue tomorrow." John says, "OOC When you're both rested and up to full capacity." Beowulf OOCly nods to Drew. "We were so close to gettting out... but if something is controlling stuff, we proably wouldn't have been able to get that final straw." John says, "OOC As there's a lot of potential for ugliness here, and I'd rather not chance anythign going wrong due to exhaustion." Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf says, "A lot oa lot." Kuonji Ukyou says, "Could be worse." Beowulf nods. "True. Someone could be dead by now." John says, "Yep." 12/03/01 You page, "I'm not liking the direction my thoughts are taking me, but I don't see much alternative, especially given the pretty pickle we're in." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "What direction are your thoughts taking you?" to you. You page, "Well, having something actively controlling that we're going to have to deal with changes a lot of things..." to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods. You page, "It makes it a lot less likely that we'll be able to escape and go to ground, I'm guessing, and it means our attempt coming back would probably be harder, since he'd know it was coming and have more time to prepare." to Akemi. You page, "Which suggests going after the controller right now would be the best plan... which I don't like the idea of, since it feels like we're already at a serious disadvantage." to Akemi. You page, "But I'm not sure I see much alternative." to Akemi. In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods. You page, "So right now I'm trying to think of how to keep folks from getting hurt, as much as possible. IIRC, Bey and Keitaro are the only ones who can't use shapeshifting to disguise themselves, and Keitaro's one of the flimsiest folks in the group, which makes him the prime target to be protected." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, Moriya can only turn into a tiger or a gargoyle. :)" to you. You page, "Ah, right, didn't know about that." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Neither of which exactly blends in well." to you. You page, "Though Moriya is probably in the best shape for survival, except possibly for Bey. :)" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, you, Shinobu, and Moriya are in the least trouble here, while Lily and Keitaro are in the most (Mitsune can take on forms where bullets bounce off)" to you. You page, "Right. I was thinking she should probably have her Form of Power ready. :) I thought Lily's shapeshifting would help her at least a little, though. o.o" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, it'll help, but her warfare, though better than any single individual here, is pretty crappy, and the powers she depends on don't work." to you. You page, "Yah. Not denying she's in bad shape, but I figured her shapeshifting would help her toughen up at least a little. And her demon form might help as well." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It'll help, but it can't compensate for the fact that she has only slightly over Amber warfare." to you. You page-pose, "The_Prof nods." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Now, you are up against mostly human warfare chuds. but enough of those can mow down even the mightiest Amberite." to you. You page-pose, "The_Prof nods again. It's not a good situation. :(" to Akemi. You page, "One thought I did have is seeing if we could capture someone and mind-control them to lead the chase in another direction... IIRC, pure psychic combat doesn't require a power if you can make eye contact. Though that might be an unnecessary complication." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes, you can do pure psychic contact by touch." to you. Moriya says, "Okay." John asks, "OOC We ready to rumble?" You page, "Ah, well. These are the kind of situations I hate most, probably because it feels like so much more is at stake online. o.o" to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "As ready as I'll ever be, I think." Akemi pages, "Well, there is a lot at stake. Your lives. Well, your IC lives :)" to you. Beowulf OOCly nods. You page, "IC lives, yup. :) I just don't remember getting so stressed out in live gaming. ^_^" to Akemi. John asks, "OOC Okay, last time, y'all had a plan of stealing a car and trying to break out for the country roads. Are we going to do with that, or have y'all thought of a different plan?" Beowulf says, "OOC Having someone controlling the shadow actively changes things, I think. Drew, want your take on this:" Moriya OOCly says, "One thing. If everyone who has Pattern uses it, including Keitaro and BP, independently at the same time, with Lily and Mitsune backing up the weaker psyches, do we still get Watson as where the control is coming from, from everyone?" John says, "OOC Yes, you do." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay." Beowulf says, "OOC If we're going to have to fight this guy to get out, trying to break out is probably just goign to give him more time to prepare and get set, unfortunately." Moriya OOCly says, "Yeah." Beowulf says, "OOC I don't like the situation and the odds, but I'm guessing they'd probably get worse if we break out and try to get back in." Moriya OOCly says, "The problem right now is that with the plug on powers, the only useful thing right now really is Warfare, and three of us aren't very warfare-adept." John says, "Yep. Any of Shinobu, Moriya, or Beowulf could whip all three of the rest of you by him or herself with weapons." Beowulf OOCly nods. Mitsune can go Form of Power, which will help, but Lily and Keitaro are going to be in trouble. Moriya OOCly says, "Mitsune and Lily can at least shapeshift themselves into very hard to hit targets, like insects. Keitaro's the problem, here." Beowulf OOCly nods. Pretty much what I figured. John says, "OOC Yep" Beowulf says, "OOC I can think of two ways to try and protect him -- leave him behind when we go on the attack, which I don't like at all, or else keep him protected in the center while we fight around him." Beowulf says, "OOC One good thing, at least -- he's got a tough and devoted bodyguard in Shinobu." Moriya OOCly says, "So do you want to go after the guy, or try to escape?" Beowulf says, "OOC If we're going to have to go after the guy to get out, I'm guessing now is probably our best chance. I don't like the thought, but I can't see much alternative." Moriya OOCly nods. Beowulf says, "OOC As if there's an active opponent, our chances of fooling them in an escape go well down, and so do our chances of getting back in to go after him." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. To Watson, then?" Beowulf asks, "OOC One other thing to consider -- what's our opponent going to be like. If he's controlling the shadow, he'd almost have to have Pattern or BP, right?" Beowulf asks, "OOC As they're the only active Powers?" John says, "You'd expect that, yep. Or some sort of item that controls the shadow." Moriya OOCly says, "Wait. John, you've said that a sufficiently advanced Logrus master can control a shadow remotely?" John says, "OOC YEs." John says, "OOC Stick a tendril into it, and mold it from a distance." Moriya OOCly says, "If that's what's happening here...man, I really hope there's something that we can actually do. -.-" You page, "I've been half-wondering if the lfoil itself might be controlling the shadow. Especially if it can be used as a remote. x.x" to Shizumaru. In a page-pose to you, Shizumaru nods. Beowulf OOCly nods. x.x You page, "The other thought I had, for some odd reason, is the woman's picture. o.o" to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Yeah." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Damn. Well, what else can we do?" Beowulf asks, "OOC If there is some item being used to mold/control the shadow, what could be done to stop it? Destroy the item?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Or if the item is being controlled by someone, could we all join together and try to pry his control away via psychic combat?" John says, "OOC IF it's an item, destroying it would be best. You could try psychic combat, but you'd all need to grab hold of it, since no powers allowing psychic contact at range are working here." Beowulf OOCly nods. I was thinking of what we could do if we couldn't destroy it, say if it's the lfoil itself. John says, "OOC Ahh, then you'd want to get it out of his grip and try to overwhelm his control of it." Moriya OOCly says, "Right." Beowulf asks, "OCO Hmmm. I'm guessing Lily, Keitaro and maybe Mitsune have the strongest psyches?" John says, "OOC Yes." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. I guess we should try gunning for Watson, then." Beowulf OOCly nods. John says, "OOC Okay, you have a couple of options:" John says, "OOC Come up and make a break straight for the front doors. Easiest way in, but probably also the way they most expect people to come in. Make a break for the doors under the stairs. Circle around to the west side and go in the side door. Or try to get all the way around it to the back doors." Beowulf asks, "OOC It's not going to be easy to get through to any of them, probably. I'd guess either the west side doors or the door under the stairs as a compromise between ease of getting to and what's waiting for us there. Or would my tactics suggest otherwise?" John says, "OOC The door under the stairs has the advantage of providing cover once you reach it." Aerianne pages, "*nod* I doubt she'd want to use 'em for Tharkhold takedown, actually... despite their space capability, they were part of the gorup that was apparently -led astray- by the Thakhold Construct, so best not to tempt fate." to you. Beowulf OOCly nods; that makes sense. Moriya OOCly says, "Hm. Can we steal a car, drive it at full speed up the stairs at full speed, bail out over the edge of the stairs and smash through the door beneath the stairs?" John says, "OOC HEh. Yes, you can do that :)" Beowulf says, "OOC I should have thought of that... it's Bey's kind of stunt. ^_^ Good thinking, Drew." Moriya OOCly says, "Basically, make the car a decoy to bust through the front door, while we get out at the last moment to get into the door below the stairs." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. Have Mitsune and Lily shapeshift into hard-to-hit targets, while the warfare types guard Keitaro." Beowulf asks, "OOC Wouldn't Mitsune do better in her Form of Power?" Moriya OOCly says, "Does Mitsune have her extra power in archangel form?" John says, "OOC Mitsune is bulletproof in Angel form." Moriya OOCly says, "Ah. All right, then." Moriya OOCly says, "Let's do it." Beowulf nods. John says, "OOC Righto. Who's goign to drive? :)" Moriya OOCly says, "Beowulf, as this is the pulp adventure type of thing to do." Beowulf says, "OOC Probably myself or Moriya... righto, I'll drive. :)" You page, "Hm, would Pulp Acrobatics figure into it? ^_^" to Akemi. You race out of the tunnel and up the slope towards the cars as the cannon open fire, and the rifle toting students open up on you. Then you manage to hotwire a car, though it gets shot up somewhat. Still, the car holds together long enough for you to race under heavy fire up the hill, across the street, and Beowulf is good enough to avoid being rammed by all the cars that try to crush you on Jayhawk Boulevard. You send the car towards the front doors, and then you leap out of the car, leaving it to crash into the front doors. You all dive down out of the car, rush under the stairs, and find yourself confronted by a huge green troll. Beowulf asks, "OOC Any obvious strengths or weaknesses it has, or just start beating on it?" John says, "OOC It has the 'I am a big strong troll, who fights moderately well' look to it." It is armed with a large woodaxe. Moriya OOCly says, "Go chainsaw on it together, I guess. Coordinate our attacks the way that our mad warfare enables us to." Beowulf says, "OOC Right... start in on it with Morkeleb if it's close enough, trying to stay out of hand-to-hand with it where it can bring its strength to bear." Moriya, Beowulf, and Shinobu go after the creature while Mitsune tries to watch over the entrance to the area. The creature is pretty strong, and it gets a few good whacks in, but you manage to hack it to bits. You then kick in the doors and find yourself in a twisty, bendy maze of cubicules, all alike. How do you want to navigate in here? Beowulf asks, "OOC How hard would it be to smash straight through the ceiling to move up to the next floor?" Moriya OOCly says, "Use Pattern in brief bursts to get directional fixes, perhaps?" John says, "OOC You don't know how sturdy the ceiling is, but you could have three of you hoist the other three up to start hacking through it." John says, "OOC You could use Pattern to navigate if you like." Moriya OOCly says, "My worry is that it'll trip the shadow trap enough to have the shelving start flying at us or something." John says, "OOC THat is a concern." Beowulf asks, "OOC I'm guessing the cubicle maze might be a trap... in which case, wouldn't the best thing to do be bashing out of it in another direction?" John says, "OOC Possibly. IT's also possible that it's intended to make you try to break out, and thus set stuff off on you. Or the wisest version--Follow the maze, land in traps, break out, land in traps." Beowulf says, "OOC Wisest version? o.o" John says, "OOC Well, wisest for the death trap builder." Moriya OOCly whines. Moriya OOCly says, "I'm sick of this quest." John says, "OOC Fair enough. Unfortunately, you jumped into it without being sure you could get back out, and now you're stuck in it. " Beowulf OOCly nods. "Well, we're in it now, and we've got to get through it." Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. Have Keitaro try using BP in short bursts to navigate." Beowulf asks, "OOC Compromise -- try going through the first bit of the maze and see if it's rearranging itself around us or leading us into traps, then try breaking through if either happens?" John says, "OOC That's certainly an option as well." Moriya OOCly says, "All right." John asks, "OOC Do you want Keitaro to navigate you as you do this?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Can he do it from his protected position in the center of the group?" Moriya OOCly says, "Let's first have him do it very quickly, get a feel for the general direction that we have to go in." John says, "OOC Yes, as he can get a fix, then point out the way to go at turns." Beowulf OOCly nods in agreement with Moriya. Keitaro concentrates and points off down one of the maze tunnels. John asks, "OOC How often do you want Keitaro to take fixes? Each intersection? Or will you try to steer in that general direction until you can't?" Moriya OOCly says, "Every three or so intersections?" John says, "OOC Righto." Beowulf OOCly nods. You start off through the maze. Almost immediately, guns start firing from cubicles, blades jut up through cracks in the tiled floor, and all sorts of hideous things erupt out of cubicles as you go by them. You fight off the first wave of creatures, then hit a wall; Keitaro takes another fix, and you head off down another passageway. The loud speakers begin to pipe an unpleasant hideous flauting into the airwaves. Beowulf says, "OOC One more trap, and I vote we bash... uh-oh. x.x" You page, "Crap. I was wondering if Annadil might have set this thing up..." to Shizumaru. Beowulf asks, "OOC Any feelings of mental assault?" John says, "OOC No feeling of mental assault, just awful music." John asks, "OOC Going to press on through the passages or try bashing through the ceiling or cubicle walls? Or something else?" Beowulf says, "OOC Well, anyway... I vote we try bashing through to the next story." Moriya OOCly says, "Through the ceiling." John asks, "OOC Okay, do you want to hoist one person up and have hm or her do it, or break into pairs and have the three people with either high strength or nasty weapons (Shinobu, Beo, Moriya) all hack at once?" John says, "OOC The latter leaves you more vulnerable to attack, but means you'll hack through a lot faster." Beowulf asks, "OOC I'd keep at least one good fighter on the ground... how well has Shinobu been handling herself agains tthe foes so far?" Moriya OOCly says, "Have two do it, while the third pair remains on guard" John says, "OOC SHe's been handling herself pretty well." John says, "OOC Her weapon's a lot less potent for cutting than you guys' weapons, so she might make a good ground guard." Beowulf says, "OOC Or since she's stronger, perhaps her and Bey hacking, Moriya on guard... oh, yah, that does make sense." John says, "OOC That also makes sense." John says, "OOC Because her Physical Strength is pretty huge." Moriya OOCly says, "Moriya and Shinobu can trade weapons, Moriya guards." You page, "Is the whip shapeshifted into jitte a good candidate for hacking?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC That works. Shinobu has a big ass two handed sword." Beowulf asks, "OOC Moriya's also got highest WF, so would he probably spot threats faster?" Akemi pages, "That will work." to you. John says, "OOC That too." Beowulf says, "OOC Since the whip is 8 pt. and should work for cutting in shifted form, probably lend that to Shinobu." John says, "OOC Moriya was going to lend his weapon to Shinobu. Which backed by her strength will be enough." Beowulf OOCly nods. Mitsune and Keitaro hoist up Beowulf and Shinobu, while a micro-Lily sits in Beowulf's shirt pocket, and Moriya stands guard. Hack. Hack. Hack. First you slice through flimsy ceiling funky stuff (you know those white panel things made out of weird alien substances you find in colleges), then hack into the more solid ceiling above it. It suddenly crumbles, and massive amounts of boiling water pours out. This is not fun for anyone involved. Beowulf scalds nicely, while Shinobu starts to burn and her shifting kicks in. Moriya, you have enough mad skillz to jump out of the spray of water 'afore it hits you if you so desire. Moriya tries to yank Keitaro out of the way of the water. Moriya OOCly says, "And then get out of the way myself." Mitsune leaps out, still carrying the now scaled Beowulf. Moriya leaps through, pushes Keitaro out; he and Shinobu fall down. Keitaro gets a little bit of scalding, but only enough to annoy. Moriya manages to avoid anything significant as well. Akemi pages, "You feel mildly woozy, as if perhaps there was contact poision in the water." to you. At this point, five slavering hounds without any skin and long razor=like tongues charge around a corner and come running towards y'all. Moriya OOCly says, "Is there still boiling water pouring out of the ceiling?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Argh. :p How badly are folks hurt?" You page, "Tactical analysis-are we still being set up for traps?" to Akemi. You page, "Shinobu burns? o.o Does it look like Logrus/Patternfire?" to Akemi. You page, "Argh, lag. :p" to Akemi. Beowulf OOCly lags like there's no tomorrow. x.x Beowulf OOCly lags and lags and lags... You page, "Ack. And since Lily is in my pocket, she probably got it... would it be worse for her given her smaller size?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC There's still boiling water coming down behind you." Akemi pages, "She has shapeshifting and could adapt to it fairly quickly, so you're worse than her, as your clothing protected her somewhat." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Feasible to grab Ilvig from Shinobu, change it into umbrella form, and deflect the water onto the dogs?" You page, "And same for Shinobu? How 'bout Keitaro?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC When I say 'burn', I don't mean 'on fire', I mean, as in flesh gets burns on it." Akemi pages, "Keitaro's not too badly hurt, as Moriya saved him in time. He just took mild annoyance wounds." to you. Beowulf says, "OOC Ah." John says, "OOC As it's boiling water, not flamey water." You page, "Any signs of poison, then? I'd almost think it's Logrus-charged water." to Akemi. John says, "OOC 'scald'. There's a good synonym." Akemi pages, "You think it may have some contact poison mixed in." to you. You page, "Ah, right. So, backing up, does this feel like being herded into more traps, or anything else I can determine of the tactical situation?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC ATM, Beowulf is worst hurt, followed by Shinobu and Lily, but their autoshifting kicked in and they're not as hurt as they would with without it. Keitaro and Moriya suffered only annoyance damage, Mitsune is basically fine and dandy." Akemi pages, "You think hacking through the ceiling will just drop more stuff on you." to you. Akemi pages, "Hacking through the walls might be an option." to you. You page, "Oh, and how long does it feel like I can last? I think I'm glad I took the endurance upgrade... o.o" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It looks like the hounds will try to push you back into the boiling water." to you. John says, "OOC To finally answer Drew's question, you think that's a viable option, except it's so crowded, you may deflect it onto your buddies too." You page, "So we're between the hounds and water?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC Situation is Hounds Group Water With cubicle style walls on either side of you." Moriya OOCly says, "Then tell everyone to retreat behind the water, trying to hold off the dogs, until we can get into position to do my idea more safely." Beowulf says, "OOC Can we? I was thinking the water pretty much blocked the passageway." John says, "OOC That would expose everyone to the water as they ran through it, but they can get through it quick enough it won't take anyone out." Moriya OOCly says, "Oh." John says, "OOC AS it's not a hugely wide wall of water." You page, "How bad am I starting to feel, besides woozy?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You're hurt, but you can keep going." to you. You page, "Right. How long does it feel like I can keep it up?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "If you don't take more injuries, likely long enough. You really don't want to do that too many more times, though." to you. Beowulf says, "I'm starting to feel a bit woozy; I think there was some kind of contact poison in the water." Moriya OOCly sighs. John asks, "OOC Do y'all want to charge the dogs or try the retreat through the water and let Moriya redirect it onto the dogs thing?" Beowulf says, "OOC Breaking through the ceiling would probably dump more stuff on us; the walls might work." Beowulf asks, "OOC How nasty do the dogs look?" Moriya OOCly says, "If there's @#$%ing poison in the water, then forget it." John says, "OOC They look fairly nasty, but you think you can beat them." John says, "OOC You could also try basically using them as springboards to get past them, but then you'd be running the maze with them chasing you. OTOH, it would put them between you and the water and you could try driving them into it." Moriya OOCly says, "Do that, then. Get over them, push them into the water." Beowulf OOCly nods... like they're trying to do to us, right. You all charge and vault over them. They are surprised by this tactic. Then Shinobu, Beowulf, and Moriya attack and drive them intot he water, where they scald horribly, get woozy, then die. You can hear the sounds of more dogs baying in various directions. Beowulf says, "OOC Right. Bash through the walls? o.o" You page, "I'm trying to think of a way to go outside the box on this trap, and I'm not coming up with one. x.x Especially since the first attempt failed miserably." to Akemi. Moriya OOCly says, "Stab the walls in a few places, and get out of the way to see what comes out." Akemi pages, "Without a map, you're gonna have a rough time of it." to you. You page, " Did Keitaro's BP attempts seem to do any good at all?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Also, you could try using Probability Manipulation to try to make the traps malfunction more often, though that risks bringing down Pattern related problems. Without a 'base sample' to compare to, you don't know." to you. You stab the wall. It explodes massively. With little room to dodge, you take a nasty beating, although with your mad skills you avoid taking the full force of it. There is, however, now a hole into one of the cubicles which would let you cut across to another 'hallway', once you deal with the eight armed ape which now charges out. You page, "How about Probability Manipulation to find an accurate library map along the hallways, since the real Watson has photocopied maps everywhere?" to Akemi. Beowulf says, "OOC The ape look hurt at all by the explosion? ;_;" Moriya OOCly says, "Beat the hell out of it, push it into the water too. Whatever." John says, "OOC Shaped charge, explodes yoru way not his." John says, "OOC You charge the ape and hack at it. It gets in a few blows, but y'all have mad skills and nasty weapons and hack it up." Akemi pages, "Oooh, slick idea. That'll work." to you. You page, "Does that seem reasonable?" to Akemi. You page, "Right. :)" to Akemi. You page, "Hopefully that's not a strong enough Pattern manip to draw problems; seems like it'd be fairly weak. :)" to Akemi. John asks, "OOC Do you want Keitaro to keep navigating with BP?" Akemi pages, "Okay, you gonna try that?" to you. You page, "Yah. And hope it is weak enough. " to Akemi. Beowulf does a bit of probability manipulation to find an accurate library map in the map-holders along the hallway. Good thinking. You pluck a stack map out of the map-holder. It's not a precise layout, but it seems to indicate what is in each floor in each of the four stacks: West Stack, East Stack, Center Stack, and Null-E stack. Each of the floors in each stack is labelled with things like 'Twisty, Bendy Maze of Cubicles All Alike' or 'Outsider Sciences' or '3d8 Sanity Loss'. You appear to be in the staff only area adjacent to West Stack. The Custer Display is on floor 1.5 of the Null-E Stack, which apparently is accessed using a special elevator from the top of West Stack (It runs from West Stack 5 down to Null-E 1, from whcih you can take stairs up to Null-E 1.5 Unfortunately, the map doesn't give detailed descriptions of the inner layout of each area, just roughly how they relate to each other and what's in them. Beowulf says, "OOC Argh. Well, at least we're close to the correct wing. x.x" Beowulf says, "OOC So it looks like fighting our way up to 5W, then crawling down the elevator shaft to Null-E? As I don't think I'd trust the elevators here to work right." John says, "OOC You think not trusting it is a good idea, and yes, it does look like that." Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. If we're lucky enough to catch the West elevator on the ground floor, we could disable it to keep it from smacking us and then crawl up the shaft? Sound safer than trying to fight our way up the stairs?" John says, "OOC Yes, you think it is safer, and you think you could disable it with your weapons pretty easily. " John says, "OOC As while you'll be really vulnerable in the shaft, it's a crapload faster than fighting your way up five stories." Beowulf asks, "OOC Right. What direction would the elevator be in from where we are?" Moriya OOCly says, "Enough of us can shapeshift to fly up while carrying those who can't shift. Leaving one of the flyers, preferably me or Shinobu, free to fight." John says, "OOC South of you. You're going to need to either find your way through the maze to one of the doors into the West Stack, or alternately, get to the wall, and try cutting through it." Beowulf OOCly nods to Drew. Beowulf asks, "OOC How far do we have to go to get out of the maze, does it look like?" John says, "The wall seems to be only fifty feet away to the south; you can't get a good view from here of where in that wall the doors are, unfortunately." John says, "OOC You could try navigating by your own fairly good direction senses, you could use BP to navigate, or you could go for Pattern." John says, "OOC OR you could hack your way to the southern wall and follow it, hacking through the other barriers. But this seems likely to set off more explosions." Beowulf asks, "OOC How high are the cubicle walls? Is it like typical cubicles in that there's at least 3-4 feet between them and the ceiling?" John says, "OOC There's that much space, yes, so you could try either climbing over the walls or climbing on them, though you'd be in a very vulnerable position." Beowulf says, "OOC Hmmm. I'd suggest we try navigating with our own directional senses for a bit and see if that sets off any traps... perhaps the traps we ran into were set off by BP." John asks, "OOC Righto! That good for you too, Moriya?" Moriya OOCly says, "Sure." Righto. You start making your way along. More traps go off, and more creatures attack you, wearing you down more, but it seems less than the # when Keitaro was guiding, although it seems to take you a lot longer. Finally, you bust through the door into the West stack, and start dodging angry, flesh-eating books about cannibalism. Beowulf asks, "OOC How worn down are we getting by this point? Still good to go for a while longer?" John says, "OOC Yep. You're not dead yet." John says, "OOC Though it's sucking pretty hard." Beowulf asks, "OOC Enough that we think we'll still be able to make it through the general attack level?" John says, "OOC At this point, you think turning back would be worse than pressing on, given how much damage you took already getting this far." Beowulf says, "OOC Right. Press on." Your luck seems to be in, and the Elevator is on the ground floor. Someone's going to need to be hoisted up through the roof hatch of the elevator so they can cut the cables, while someone else holds the doors open. Beowulf says, "OOC Probably whoever looks best able to take more damage for the roof hatch, while strongest other person holds the doors." Moriya OOCly says, "Why bother? Shred the roof, let it fall down in small pieces, clear access to the above shaft and cables." John says, "OOC That's also an option :)" Moriya OOCly says, "Having one person go up onto the roof through the narrow hatch door exposes him to a lot more danger." Moriya OOCly says, "Unless, of course, the roof is rigged to blow up or something. -.-" John says, "OOC Which as you've seen, is a possibility." Beowulf says, "OOC Assuming there aren't charges on the roof... then again, there could be charges on the hatch. :) How well could we shred the roof from a distance." Beowulf asks, "?" Beowulf says, "OOC Argh... 'distance?'" John says, "OOC IT would be very hard, as your shifting weapons are not able to make their own ammo here." John says, "OOC Otherwise, Beo could lie on the floor back a bit and shoot upwards through the doorway at the roof and shred it, ditto for Moriya." Beowulf says, "OOC Except for the whip in whip form, if there's enough room to swing it." John says, "OOC Hmm, thinking about a typical elevator, I don't think you could very effectively use the whip to bash it in, as you'd need more room to crack it." Beowulf OOCly nods... that make sense. Moriya OOCly says, "Cut out a ragged chunk of cinderblock, affix it to the end of the whip, make it a flail instead. Strike the roof with that." Beowulf says, "OOC Not sure the angle would be any better with a flail." John says, "OOC Ahh, I have an idea. Shinobu suggests Beowulf shoot the ceiling with his Grappling gun, then let her pull the ceiling loose." John says, "OOC Using her massive strength once the thing hooks into the ceiling." Beowulf OOCly nods... that works. Right. Beowulf shoots the ceiling, then Shinobu starts tugging on it. For a while, there's just metal straining noises, but then it gives with a great tear. It fails to explode. Witha little effort, you then widen the hole enough to climb up through it into the shaft. The shaft smells hideous, a nauseous mix of motor oil and other skanky smells. Akemi pages, "You think some of the smells you're smelling are flammable." to you. Beowulf sniffs. "Some of that smells flammable." He looks up -- anything look like it might set it off? Or perhaps set it off ourselves and let it burn itself out? You might want to set it off yourself and let it burn itself out. There's no obvious sign of a trigger for it, but it's pretty obviously a 'burn the people in the shaft' trap. Beowulf OOCly nods. Anything else look like it'll go up, judging from the strength of the smells -- would it come out the shaft enough to set off the books? John says, "OOC It may well explode a fair distance." John says, "OOC Especially since it seems to be starting to sink down out of the shaft." Beowulf asks, "OOC Right. Anything we can do to contain the damage?" John says, "OOC Get someone who can shift to fire retardant or who has a lot of damage resistance like Mitsune to set it off while the rest of you get to a safe distance." Moriya OOCly says, "Get some distance away, find an errant high-bounce ball that some student forgot in the stacks, light it on fire, and use our superior warfare to bounce it up the shaft." John says, "OOC That works. :)" You tweak probabilities, get a ball, ignite it,a nd toss it in while retreating to a safe distance and trying to hold off yet another wave, now of black acidic snakes, as you do so. Beowulf OOCly nods. Anything Bey can recognize with his alchemical skills that he could use to help as a fire retardant? :) Beowulf says, "OOC Ack. Too late, oh well." Sadly, you're in a place full of flammable books, which aren't much use for retarding fires. Beowulf asks, "OOC Do the waves of threats seem to be escalating in severity?" The whole floor starts going up in flames, but the shaft burns itself out after a little bit. John says, "OOC YEs." You now rush through the burning racks, and up the elevator shaft. Who is going to take the lead? John says, "OOC There's things to cling to on two of the four sides." John says, "OOC So two people can take point." Moriya OOCly says, "I think I should take the lead, while Shinobu is at the bottom. We're flying, remember?" Beowulf says, "OOC Of the flying folk, probably either Moriya or Shinobu... right." John says, "OOC Oh, right, yes )" Moriya OOCly says, "Mitsune and Lily carry Beowulf and Keitaro in the middle." Beowulf says, "OOC Perhaps Lily/Bey and Mitsune/Keitaro, so the stronger partner can protect the weaker, instead of the two weaker people together." Moriya OOCly says, "But prepare to cling to the ladders in case some sort of wind attack comes to try to force us down." Beowulf OOCly nods. You all start flying up the shaft. Creatures begin leaping out of the elevator door accessways as you rise, but fortunately, they can't come on very fast. Fighting in the cramped space is very not fun, and it's hard to fly fast in such crowded quarters. Taking more wounds, you fight your way to the top, then battle a three-headed dog that breathes fire at the top. Moriya is able to push it back enough for some of the rest of you to start coming out. Beowulf strikes at the dog as soon as he can without hitting anyone else. Beowulf plus Moriya beat down the dog, though they both get a bit more charred in the process. You then begin fighting your way through hoards of acid spitting humanoids, towards the elevator which provides access to the Null-E stack. Beowulf asks, "OOC How are we doing on the damage scale?" Bruised and battered, you reach the other end. As luck would have it, the elevator is up here on your floor. Moriya is starting to look really bad, and Shinobu's getting worn out. Beowulf's hurt, but seems able to take a lot of beating. Mitsune is in pretty good shape, Lily's taken some beating, and so has Keitaro. How do you propose to get the elevator out of your way so you can go down the shaft? Beowulf says, "OOC With our mad skillz, can we haul the elevator down by hand (hauling on the edges of the doors from outside) far enough to look at the roof of it? Perhaps manually hauling it might be safer than trying to cut cables and set off something else." John says, "OOC Yes, you can do that." Beowulf says, "OOC Probably have me take point next, since it seems I'm in the best shape to take damage right now." With a lot of effort, you manage to shove the elevator down enough to see onto the roof. You could either cut the cables and let it fall, or you could try slowly manually shoving it down the shaft using the climbing ladders on the walls for leverage. But that would be pretty slow. You page, "Time to start using Amberites' abilities, since we should have the strength to do things like haul elevators around that way. o.o" to Akemi. John says, "OOC Or you could do something else with it if you have madder Elevator manipulation skillz than your GM does." Moriya OOCly says, "Is it still functional? Could we get it to go to floor 1 (if our destination is at 1.5) by pushing the button and getting out before the doors close, then cut the cables when it stops?" Beowulf says, "OOC There look like there's anything on the roof that could be set off? I was thinking along the lines of standing on the roof and hauling the cables by hand, if we're strong enough to resist motors moving it... as Amberites, I'd think we had a good shot at it." John says, "OOC Yes, you could do that, Drew." John says, "OOC Yes, your trick would work,Beo, although it'll take some time." Beowulf says, "OOC Or anything else in the shaft? Since we're at the top, I'd guess we'd see any dripping stuff like in the other shaft, though we wouldn't see what's at the bottom." John says, "OOC There's nothing dripping down and this one smells just like an ordinary elevator shaft." Beowulf asks, "OOC Does it seem like damaging/breaking things is more likely to set off traps, from what we've gone through?" John says, "OOC Your experience is that damaging things seems to almost always set something off." You page, "I'd think the chances are very high that *something*'s trapped in the elevator, and if it's not in the top of the shaft... did we see anything else that looked like a trap?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You can't see 95% of the shaft because the elevator is in the way. There's no obvious traps up here above the Elevator at the top of the shaft." to you. Akemi pages, "Quite possibly you may end up lowering yourself into traps, as you go down." to you. You page, "" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You think Drew's plan is probably about as good as it's going to get, unless you want to invest a lot of time into carefully studying the shaft." to you. You page, "Would our chances be better working from above the elevator, then, since at least that would shield us some?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes, as probably the Elevator itself is rigged to kill people inside it anyway" to you. You page, "All right. Was thinking pulling cables by hand would be less likely to set off traps, since we wouldn't be damaging anything, but if I think Drew's plan is better..." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "If they're smart, they hyave things like radar and motion sensors to detect people in the shaft. And Drew's plan lets you get down faster. Also, you could send the elevator down, and wait to see if anything goes off as it goes by." to you. You page, "At least I hope we're pretty close to the end. x.x And that we're still in good enough shape to fight whatever's waiting for us at the end." to Akemi. You page, "Righto." to Akemi. Beowulf says, "OOC Righto, since Drew's plan will get us down faster... let's do that." John says, "OOC Okay. Going to Ride it down (faster, but doesn't let you see what you're getting into until you're in it) or let it descend, then fly after it (slower, but lets you keep watch for trouble more)" Beowulf asks, "OOC Given how much trouble we've run into, I'd prefer to watch for it more. Drew?" Moriya OOCly says, "Likewise." John says, "OOC Righto. The elevator descends. You can hear noises that sound suspiciously like poisonous gas was being pumped into the elevator. As it descends, you begin to hear a faint hum." Beowulf asks, "OOC From what direction? And does it sound like anything in particular humming, like electricity?" The elevator descends to the bottom floor, then explodes in a small fireball. And yes, you get the feeling that something involving lots of electricity is revving up in the walls of the shaft. Beowulf asks, "OOC Anything we could use to short the electricity away in a safe spot?" John says, "OOC Hmm. " Moriya OOCly says, "Metal bookcases, water lines, etc?" John says, "OOC You could see if there's boiling water in the ceiling here like there was elsewhere and let it flow down the shaft." Beowulf says, "OOC Metal tube chairs that we could use our strength to straighten out? Preferably not water lines." Beowulf says, "OOC I don't want to break things more than we have to, and Ghu knows what else might be in those water lines given the record so far." John says, "OOC THere are a lot of metal chairs you could toss down there, or you could rip the big metal bookracks apart." Beowulf says, "OOC Though I could be wrong." Beowulf asks, "OOC Either one look particularly better than the other, from what we can see?" John says, "OOC The chairs have the advantage that you don't have to damage them to get them in. However, the book racks are bigger and probably better able to get wedged into stuff and cause a short." Beowulf asks, "OOC If we simply straightened out the chairs into as long a line as possible, instead of tossing them down as-is?" Moriya OOCly says, "Grab a couple of chairs, bend them into a web of tubing that'll get wedged." John says, "OOC You can do that." Beowulf asks, "OOC Does it look like it'd work better than the alternatives?" John says, "OOC It's less likely to set off any traps in the process of setting up your shorting out of this trap, you think." Beowulf OOCly nods. Right, let's do that. You whip up the chairs, toss the chairs down. Massive amounts of electricity go jigy/jagy/zappy inside the elevator. Finally, they stop, and the lights go out, as the whole local grid must have burned out. Beowulf says, "OOC Wow. o.O Still, I suppose that might have some advantages, asn hopefully it's disabled other electrical traps." Beowulf says, "OOC How well can we see in the dark? I presume the shapeshifters can shift their eyes to see better..." Lily, Mitsune, and Shinobu quickly switch their eyes to infrared. The rest of you can't see anything at all, though you have keen Amberite hearing. Moriya OOCly says, "What's the likelihood that a security guard forgot his flashlight somewhere around here?" Beowulf says, "OOC Hmm. How much can be done with raw Psyche as far as mental communication? Specifically, if Lily could make enough mental contact to let me see through her eyes, and Mitsune with Moriya..." Beowulf says, "OOC Flashlight would also make a dandy target, though I suppose it's a last resort." Moriya OOCly says, "That's true." John says, "OOC IF they take you by the hands, they could let you see through their eyes, which will be a lot better than you just stumbling around. Or you could try prob. manip for a flashlight." Moriya OOCly says, "Let's try Travis' suggestion." Beowulf asks, "OOC Electricity going out would probably take out most detection devices, wouldn't it?" Lily takes Beowulf's hand, Shinobu for Keitaro, and Mitsune for Moriya. As you approach the shaft, you feel a brief breeze, then hear a crashing noise, as if something just dropped down inside the shaft. Something very large and metallic and heavy it sounds like. Fortunately, you weren't quite IN the shaft yet. You can see more creatures now approaching cautiously up here on level 5 through the darkness. John says, "OOC Hopefully, though if the designer is smart, the detection devices are on a different circuit with their own generator." Beowulf OOCly nods... figured. Still, I suppose there's some chance, and hopefully it'll hinder them a little. Heading down the shaft, it looks like the bottom of the shaft is blocked by a huge metal ball, probably intended to fall on people being electrified and finish them off. Beowulf says, "OOC What do the creatures look like? And... hm. Except for Keitaro and Shinobu, I'm thinking it might be better for Lily and Mitsune to shift to smaller forms that Bey and Moriya can carry, but still stay in touch contact with." John says, "OOC You can do that. Keep in mind they're heavy even when small, but you're both strong enough to handle that. The creatures look like deformed humanoids with long blades at the ends of their arms." Beowulf asks, "OOC Does it seem like it'll work better with us carrying them, instead of trying to stay holding hands while we're moving around (and the WF people likely to be fighting)? " John says, "OOC While going down the shaft, you may wish to have them full sized and using their flight. Once past it, you think carrying them will reduce the risk of losing your contact." Beowulf OOCly nods. Let's do it that way, then. John asks, "OOC Okay, how do you want to get the big ball blocking the bottom out of the way? Hack it up with your weapons? Or try to cut through the walls around it?" Beowulf says, "OOC How big is the ball? o.o I thought the place was on 1.5 floor, while the ball would have landed on 1 floor." John says, "OOC Once you go down the shaft, the creatures up on the fifth floor just gibber at you, as they're apparently not brave enough to climb down. The ball is large enough that you could expect to reach the 1.5 floor from the top of it, but there's no exit to the 1.5 floor from the shaft without cutting through the walls." Beowulf says, "OOC Or perhaps lower, given that there's some room below the car at teh bottom of the shaft." Beowulf says, "OOC Oh. Right." Beowulf OOCly forgot that part. Moriya OOCly says, "Oh, there isn't an elevator exit onto 1.5?" Moriya OOCly says, "We could force the door to the second floor open, then go down the stairs to 1.5." Beowulf says, "OOC Nope, now that I remember the map. You had to go down to floor 1 then up to floor 1.5." Moriya OOCly says, "Oh, can't go down from 2?" John says, "OOC Do you want to try cutting the ball? The wall? Or try something else? There's no exit onto 1.5. The stack map indicated you had to take this elevator all the way to the 1st floor, then go up a staircase inside Null-E. There are, in fact, no exits at all except fifth floor West Stack, and 1st Floor Null-#" John says, "OOC Though you could try slicing through the wall at Floor 2" Moriya OOCly says, "Crap." Beowulf asks, "OOC How wide is the ball compared to the doors?" John says, "OOC The ball is wider than the doorways. " John says, "OOC It pretty much fills almost the entire shaft except for really small spaces at the four corners, since it's a round ball in a square shaft." Moriya OOCly says, "Could we slice a passage into the walls such that the ball rolls out?" Beowulf says, "OOC How much wider? I'm thinking one possibility is for us to get on the other side of the ball and push so that it breaks through the doorway, though that'll depend on how much wider it is." John says, "OOC Yes, you could try and do that, faster than cutting the ball open." Moriya OOCly says, "And if there are explosions resulting, maybe the ball will absorb most of the shock." Beowulf says, "OOC And hopefully won't let out anything that might be inside the ball." John asks, "OOC Gonna go for that, then?" Moriya OOCly says, "So...let's cut the passageway slightly to weaken it, and then push the ball through?" John exclaims, "OOC Righto!" Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf asks, "OOC Put the two currently toughest characters on point... probably Bey, and who else?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Instead of cutting to weaken, though, could we just push on the doorway edges enough to bulge 'em out? Would that be less likely to set off traps?" John says, "OOC Mitsune is least hurt, and pretty strong." John says, "OOC You can try just pushing, but it means it would take longer to push the ball through than if it was cut." Beowulf asks, "OOC And the likelihood of setting something off?" John says, "OOC Just pushing is less likely to set anything off, you think." Beowulf says, "OOC I'd probably do it that way, then, unless it feels like there's serious time pressure." John says, "OOC Well, there's no immediate time pressure, but the more time, the more time your enemy has to flood troops to your vicinity" You page, "Not enough data... from what Bey can see of the situation, which looks like the better trade-off? Setting something off, or losing time?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You think that probably the electricity going out, likely destroyed any further traps in the shaft, so just hacking a path would be superior." to you. Akemi pages, "Cause y'all are real vulnerable to having UGLY stuff dropped on your head down the shaft." to you. You page, "Righto." to Akemi. You page, "And hopefully pushing the ball out ahead of us will stomp down a few enemies. :)" to Akemi. You page, "Or are you talking about cutting out onto 1.5 floor?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "I'm talking about cutting around the doorway to speed pushing the ball out." to you. You page, "Righto. Let's do that, then." to Akemi. Beowulf says, "OOC All right... let's go for saving time and cut the ball out." Mitsune and Beowulf hack around the top of the ball to weaken the doorway as best they can, then all of you put your Amberite strengths into pushing. As the doorway bulges, you hear the sound of thousands of insects coming down the shaft in a swarm. Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Can Bey twirl the whip fast enough to act as a fan blade, and shred/pulp the insects coming through it?" John says, "OOC Good idea. You might want to do that to help repel the horde while the others push the ball." Beowulf OOCly nods. Let's do that. Beowulf hacks up a lot of the insects, though some get through. The doorway finally shatters and the ball rolls out into the darkness. You see it roll out onto a catwalk over a seemingly bottomless abyss of books. It quickly rolls off the catwalk and plunges into the darkness. The catwalk stretches some hundred and fifty feet to a small landing, from which stairs rise up to the 1.5 floor. Beowulf OOCly shoots Mike. x.x Endless bookshelves line the very humid abyss, down out of sight of infravision. Okay, what's the plan? Beowulf asks, "OOC What's the ceiling look like? Things to grab with the whip and swing up the stairs with?" The catwalk is about 5 feet wide. Beowulf asks, "OOC The catwalk practically screams trap; anythign visisble that might be one?" The ceiling is about sixty feet up, and there's things you could grab with the whip and use to swing across. Your best guess is that probably the catwalk collapses at some point, dumping you into the abyss; alternately, it may just leave you exposed to gunfire, poison darts, etc. Moriya OOCly says, "Flying seems safer." Beowulf asks, "OOC Flying or swinging; which would be quicker?" John says, "OOC Swinging is quicker, but leaves you more vulnerable. Flying is a little slower, but safer." Moriya OOCly says, "Well, I'd expect that if something came up, we're skilled enough to switch from swinging to flying at a moment's notice." Beowulf OOCly nods. Any gun emplacements visible in the ceiling, and how much cover is there? Trying to cut down our exposure to fire as much as possible. There's trapdoors in the ceiling, and you can see panels along the walls which probably swing open to fire. John says, "OOC Yes, you are skilled enough to switch quickly." Beowulf asks, "OOC How about aiming to one side of a trapdoor, then swinging into it when it opens and get to the next floor that way? Or are teh trapdoors too small?" John says, "OOC You could try doing that; it looks like they're scaled to people." Beowulf asks, "OOC It look like a good choice, or just a way to get trapped?" John says, "OOC You'd anticipate they're probably intended to do things like drop bombs on people who fly, so it might not actually provide proper access to where you want to go." John says, "OOC You could try shooting your grapple gun and pulling one open to see what comes out if anything" Beowulf says, "OOC Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Other thought I had is that if there's room to drop something, there's got to be some space above the ceiling; question is whether it's connected enough to be able to make the passage to the stairwell by staying above the ceiling. I'm thinking suspended ceiling, here." John says, "OOC That's a possibility." Beowulf asks, "OOC Can we see enough to tell, or would yanking open a door be enough to tell?" John says, "OOC Yanking a door open wouldn't give you a very good look at this angle, as you wouldn't see very deep into it." John says, "OOC You'd need to get closer to one to get a better look." Beowulf says, "OOC Right." Beowulf OOCly tries to visualize the space... after all this, what looks like the best way to get across? John says, "Split into flying pairs. Head straight for the stairs as fast as you can, dodging everything you can while the carried people try to fend off anything that drops out of the trap doors and the flying people try to dodge the guns. Fly over the catwalk, which doesn't have as many trapdoors over it as the rest of the ceiling does." Beowulf OOCly nods in thanks... I was having no end of trouble trying to visualize the setting. x.x John says, "OOC Sorry, my descriptive prose isn't too great. ^^;;;" Beowulf says, "OOC No problem. :)" Beowulf asks, "OOC Do it that way, then, Drew?" Moriya OOCly says, "Yeah." Beowulf OOCly will hopefully also be able to fend off some of the gunshots with teh whip. o.o John asks, "OOC Okay, Going with Shinobu/Keitaro, Lily/Beo, Mitsune/Moriya still?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Probably makes sense, although can't Moriya fly on his own?" Trisha Lynn un-randomly noogies back. Moriya OOCly says, "I can't see without being in contact with Mitsune." Beowulf OOCly doh's. John says, "OOC Yep" Moriya OOCly says, "Not too happy about Shinobu and Keitaro. Shinobu's flying, and she's the one with warfare, not Keitaro." Beowulf asks, "OOC Right... those pairs probably sound the best. It's unfortunate that the flyers don't have better WF to dodge the guns, though. ;_; Perhaps if Bey and Moriya flew close enough to try and help cover Shinobu/Keitaro?" Moriya OOCly says, "Yeah." John says, "OOC You could fly close together, but that does tend to make your group a nicely clumped target" Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Actually, if we can borrow their eyesight, can they borrow some of our WF skills? Or does it work that way?" John says, "OOC THat requires a lot more time to set up than y'all have had." John says, "OOC as tranferring sensory data is easy, mindmelding to that point is a lot harder." Beowulf OOCly sighs. Righto. Moriya OOCly says, "Let's just fly. Moriya and Beowulf will try to help out Keitaro, but can't present too much of a large target by staying too close together." Beowulf OOCly nods. Do the best we can, at least. You begin to race across the chasm, each of the men being carried by one of the women. Guns open fire, and the trapdoors open and nasty creatures pop down, long gelatinous columns with many tentacles. You parry their attacks and the guns as best you can, though it's hard to stop it all. And then... Beowulf OOCLy winces. Here it comes... A wall EXPLODES outward in a shower af splinters. Through it, a Spanish broadsword held gatotsu-style in one hand, bursts a black-haired woman in a blue iberian dress, wings emerging from her back. She blasts across the room at dizzying speed, heading straight for Shinobu. Beowulf asks, "OOC Does she look at all familiar? o.o And I have a nasty suspicion about the sword... what's it look like?" You page, "Can I get any read on her warfare, and is anyone in a position to intercept her?" to Akemi. John says, "OOC She has curly black hair, moderately muscular figure. Not someone you know, but she seems to have a little bit of a resemblence to Drake." the sword is a Spanish broadsword of fine Toledo steel, with 'La Campeadora' written on it in scrollwork. You page, "Well, this is interesting. o.o" to Shizumaru. Akemi pages, "Either of you could intercept her, you hope. You'd guess she's inferior to you or Moriya in warfare, but not by a lot. And she looks rather strong." to you. Beowulf asks, "OOC Are we in a position to coordinate attacks against her, with our mad skillz?" Moriya OOCly says, "I'd prefer to make it to the landing before fighting." Moriya OOCly says, "As midair combat, when half the team is being carried by the other half, doesn't sound very appealing to me." John says, "OOC You can try, but you'll need to fly into the areas full of tentacle creatures in order to do an intercept. And yes, Moriya has a pretty good point." Beowulf asks, "OOC Granted... but does it look like Shinobu can make it to the landing without being skewered?" John says, "OOC You think Shinobu will not make it before the woman reaches and attacks her. " Beowulf asks, "OOC How about us yanking Shinobu away from her and down to the landing?" Moriya OOCly says, "Okay. Help Shinobu out, but fight defensively, trying to withdraw to the landing before starting to attack the woman actively." John says, "OOC Righto." Beowulf OOCly nods, doing our best to keep everyone alive and back to the landing. Moriya OOCly says, "Now, this is the landing with the stairs up to 1.5 that we're heading to, yes? Not the one we came from. Just to be sure." John says, "OOC Yes, this is the landing, not the Elevator, you're trying to get to." Beowulf asks, "OOC Oooh, nasty thought; does it look like the stairs could be cut, leaving the landing to fall?" John says, "OOC Yes." Beowulf OOCly arghs and bogs down trying to visualize everything again. John says, "OOC The landing is only basically large enough for two people at a time, so as you retreat onto it, you'll need to move some people up the stairs first before others land on it." Beowulf asks, "OOC Instead of going for the landing, how feasible would it be to go for the entrance to the 1.5th floor?" John says, "OOC The landing is at the base of the stairs which run up to the 1.5 floor" John says, "OOC basically, the catwalk goes up to the landing, from which the stairs run up." John asks, "OOC Or am I not understanding what you're asking?" Beowulf asks, "OOC I was wondering instead of flying to the landing/stairs to fight, since they could be cut off, how about flying straight to where the stairs go into the next floor? Or is that also too restrictive?" Beowulf says, "OOC And since it looks like the landing/stairs are going to be awfully small to fight on effectively anyway." John says, "OOC Ahh, yes, you could do that." John says, "OOC And all land on the stairs and go up it." Beowulf asks, "OOC Does it look like it'd be a much better choice?" John says, "OOC It'll save a little time, and you don't think it'll hurt." Beowulf OOCly nods. Drew? Moriya OOCly says, "I guess." John asks, "OOC Okay, going to work together on a fighting retreat to where the stairs vanish up through the ceiling, right?" John asks, "OOC Then pull out up the stairs?" Moriya OOCly says, "Yes." Beowulf OOCly nods. Best we can. You do your retreat as best you can. Your coordination isn't helped by the fact that two of the three flyers have crappy warfare and two of the three warfare people have to try to see things from their eyes. As it stands, Keitaro takes a nasty stab wound, and so does Lily. Do you want to try to fight her while standing on the stairs, or do you want to retreat up them? If you retreat up them, who will cover the retreat? Beowulf asks, "OOC What looks like the best course? And how hard would it be to take back off if we're in the middle of fighting her and somene cuts teh stairs?" La Campeadora Blumenthal asks, in between sword blows, "What's your opinion of the role of Jewish vizers in the early Taifa period of Al-Andalus?" John says, "OOC It wouldn't be too hard to take back off. You might be better off retreating up the stairs, so you can try to get to somwhere you aren't over a big abyss, so that you can fight more freely." Moriya OOCly says, "..." Beowulf OOCly groans and blows a raspberry in John's general direction. :p Beowulf says, "OOC Does the question make any kind of sense to Bey, given all the funky things he's seen in shadow? ^_^" Moriya OOCly says, "Shinobu should probably cover the retreat, since she's got Warfare and can see with her own eyes." John says, "OOC Yes, you could give a flawless answer with your Mad Skillz" Beowulf OOCly shakes his head and grins ruefully. As long as it doesn't leave him open, give the answer. :) Beowulf asks, "OOC Shinobu sound like the best choice?" John says, "OOC Yes, since she can actually SEE and is very strong and fights well." Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf says, "OOC Shinobu cover the retreat... what's La Campeadora have to say about the answer? :)" Righto. Beowulf nonplusses her by actually ANSWERING. While she's momentarily confused, you all make it to the stairs, and start getting everyone up it. She then rushes again, and gives Shinobu a nasty wound after parrying one of Shinobu's heavy blows. The rest of you retreat up the stairs. Beowulf asks, "OOC How bad is everyone looking at this point?" La Campeadora Blumenthal looks pleased, and says, "That's similar to the conclusions Mackay reaches in 'Minorities in Muslim Iberia,' although new evidence has come up to suggest that the role may have been less hostage and more neutral middleman." Then she impales Shinobu through the upper chest with her broadsword. "Have you read the Mackay?" Moriya OOCly sighs. Beowulf OOCly winces. Let's hope we can get out *soon*, as folks are starting to look really banged up. ;_; John says, "OOC At this point, Mitsune is least hurt, Moriya and Beowulf aren't looking very good, but Beo's got more going, Lily is roughed up, and Keitaro isn't looking very good." Beowulf asks, "OOC And Shinobu? How badly have those last two strokes hurt her?" Shinobu tries shifting her wounds shut as she fights. John says, "OOC SHe's looking pretty hurt; you need to get up the stairs to where all three of your fighters can try to engage her on stable ground." Beowulf asks, "OOC If Bey can give La Campeadora a good answer, do it while we try to get folks up as fast as possible. Does there look like anything Bey can throw out to distract her/divide her attention in return?" Beowulf says, "OOC I don't suppose she'd agree to a cease-fire while we discuss the issue? :)" John says, "OOC You could try posing her some difficult questions in Iberian history and hope she feels compelled to lecture, which you can do easily with your mad skillz as you retreat up the stairs." Beowulf says, "OOC Let's do it." You page, "...Bey is distracting the master swordswoman we're fighting by engaging in a discussion on Iberian history as we fight. o.o" to Chris. Chris pages, "..." to you. You page, "Given that she's modeled on the history professor Dr. Blumenthal that John's talked about a time or two... o.o" to Chris. Chris pages, "..." to you. You page, "Well, we *are* fighting in the middle of Watson Library... o.o" to Chris. Beowulf poses a stumper about the origins of the Taifa Kings and why Al-Andalus broke apart at that particular time, so soon after the triumphant period of Al-Mansur. La Campeadora Blumenthal tries to answer and cut Shinobu to ribbons at once, and as a result, doesn't do either as well as she might. Meanwhile, you all reach a large open room full of stomach height glass cases with tons of books about Custer open in them, and other memoriabilia. There's a large case, obviously locked, with holds a cavalry sabre with a black constantly changing blade. The hilt is made of ivory with a red pommel gem set in it. In a page-pose to you, Chris ...s some more. Beowulf OOCly groans again. Primal Chaos for Mommy? Beowulf asks, "OOC Anyone else appear in the room, or is La Campeadora it?" Blumenthal is about to emerge as Shinobu does her retreat. What's the plan? There's no one else hwere, but there's doors running off elsewhere and another staircase up to the second floor across the room, past the sword. Beowulf says, "OOC Bey'll probably try another stumper to try and distract her, while presumably Moriya and he can coordinate attacks." John asks, "OOC Okay, going to leave the sword for after you deal with Blumenthal?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Under the current conditions, how well could either Moriya or Bey hold off La Campeadora by themselves, while the other looks at the sword?" Beowulf says, "OOC I don't want to let La Campeadora run amok, but I also don't want the sword to go off while we're fighting her. x.x" John says, "OOC You think that Beo or Moriya plus Shinobu and Mitsune could hold her long enough for either Beo or Moriya to take a look at the sword." Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Bey and Lily, since hopefully she's familiar with most Logrus-y forms/manifestations/etc.?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Hmmmm. Another thought -- if the shadow has Logrus turned completely off, how much damage *could* Primal Chaos cause?" John says, "OOC Yes. You could use your Pattern Sight and she could helpyou Interpret." Beowulf OOCly winces. Given what happened with Patternsight the *last* time he used it... John says, "OOC Well, The problem is that whoever built this probably put in an exception if he intended to use PChaos bombs. OTOH, it will likely be a lot weaker than elsewhere." John says, "OOC Well, unfortunately, without PSight, you can't tell enough other than 'It's black and shifting shape'." Beowulf says, "OOC Yep. ;_;" John says, "OOC ANd Lily can't use her Logrus Sight." La Campeadora Blumenthal says, "I shall crush you as Abd al-Rahman III crushed Ib Hafsun the bandit king after he reverted to the Mozarab faith, which was a foolish thing for him to do really in Muslim Iberia, but he was a funny fellow. Sorry if I'm babbling, I've had the flu lately." You page, "Argh. Getting to the point where I'm doubting myself again. Though from that... hmmm." to Akemi. Beowulf says, "OOC Can Bey think of a suitably leading question to ask her that would get her to say something about the sword? :)" John says, "OOC Hmm. Well, if it was El Cid's sword... :) Give DM a second to think." John says, "OOC Ahh, yes, you could ask her how the blade compares to the legendary blades of Toledo :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Heh. Yup, with a reference about how much better Ib Hafsun might have done if he'd been able to use one. :)" John asks, "OOC Are you going to try asking her before you go check out the sword, then?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Hm. Would give me an excuse to go over and check it out, at least... ^_^ Is there anything I can see in the room around that would make me think differently?" You page, "As I'm still not seeing the situation very well, it feels like. ^^;;" to Akemi. John says, "OOC You can't see anything in the room which would convince you not to go over near the sword, except for your fear it might be a trap." Beowulf says, "OOC Ask her before going over to the sword, then." La Campeadora Blumenthal says, "It's definitely inferior. Look at the way the blade keeps wiggling around. And the cheap primal chaos bomb on the hilt is obviously a later addition, and detracts from the piece. In Granada, at the height of Al-Andalus, they had _much_ better primal chaos deathtraps." Akemi pages, "Basically, big ass room full of long chest-high cases; you know the ones the library uses. Staircase on the far side." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Ah. Well." Beowulf says, "OOC Figured. And probalby would have gone off if we psighted it, I'm guessing." John says, "OOC Could be; y7ou don't know." Moriya OOCly says, "Hm. Could we maneuver it so that we manage to fling La Campeadora toward the display case, then Patternsight to set off the bomb, while we run for cover?" You page, "Given my read of her so far, d'I think I could get away with something like 'Still, I imagine it would be effective enough if it were to go off. And I'm sure it can't be removed *that* easily.' to get her to reveal how to get it off? ^_^" to Akemi. Beowulf says, "OOC Hold on a minute..." John says, "OOC You think that you could certainly try to do that. It would be risky trying to grapple her, although you do outnumber her MASSIVELy." Akemi pages, "You think you could try. It can't _hurt_." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Not necessarily grapple, but, say, have the warfare gods trip her up with weapons while Mitsune boots her toward the display case." Beowulf nods thoughtfully. "Still, I imagine it would be effective enough if it were to go off. And I'm sure it can't be removed *that* easily. Not bad workmanship, actually." You page, "Remember how strong Primal Chaos For Mommy was? o.o I'd like to avoid setting it off at all, if we can, especially given how badly hurt we are. x.x" to Shizumaru. Shizumaru pages, "Yeah, I know." to you. John says, "OOC That could be done. Mitsune's pretty strong. " You page, "Hope I can trick her into revealing how to get it off... John said it couldn't *hurt*, anyway." to Shizumaru. John says, "OOC And she can take a wound or two from Blumenthal more than any of you can afford." In a page-pose to you, Shizumaru nods. Moriya OOCly says, "Well, let's hold off on that for now." La Campeadora Blumenthal says, "Oh, it would blow up quite well. Removing it, hmmm. You'd probably have to cut it off, or disarm it somehow. That's not really my field. Now die for the honor of Valencia." Moriya OOCly says, "At this point, I think we should just beat her down, then figure out what to do with the Foil. Don't kill her, in case that's one of the triggers for setting off the bomb." Beowulf OOCly ...'s. "Drat. Does it look like the group of us ought to be able to beat her down normally? I'm thinking that's the best idea, so we can try and disarm the p-chaos bomb without being fought at... yup." Beowulf says, "OOC Probably beat her down and tie her up if it looks like we can manage that; knocking her unconscious might also set it off." Beowulf OOCly feels like he's walking on the razor's edge... so close, on either side... John says, "OOC It's going to be an ugly fight, but you think you can win. There's some danger she may finish off Shinobu though." You page, "Well, if we can finish and pull this off, we'll definitely have a recovery to be proud of. o.o" to Shizumaru. John says, "OOC IF you weren't all so beat to hell, you think any one of you could take her, but she's fairly fresh and you're not." Beowulf asks, "OOC Any other tricks of teh setting we coudl use against her to help, as well as distracting her with more Iberian questions?" Moriya OOCly says, "Have Mitsune grapple her and invade her mind at the same time. Lily can back her up. Pull Shinobu back a little, if she's that beat up." John says, "OOC You could try knocking her onto the cases so they break and the glass cuts her up. " Beowulf asks, "OOC How strong does she look psychically?" Moriya OOCly says, "Doesn't matter. This is more a distraction ploy than trying to eat her brain actively." Beowulf says, "OOC And set off any traps in the cases? o.o" John says, "OOC Ideally set them off on her :)" Beowulf says, "OOC Heh. Ideally. o.o" John says, "OOC You need a psychic contact to judge psychic strength, but she doesn't look like the strong minded type" Beowulf asks, "OOC Which looks like it has a better shot, or how hard would it be to combine the two?" John says, "OOC Given you don't know what the cases will do for sure, you think Moriya's plan is better. It would be too risky to press her onto the cases while people are close enough to be grappling her." Beowulf OOCly nods, and wasn't too comfortable with her setting off traps in the cases anyway. o.o Righto. Shinobu pulls back, and Beowulf and Moriya engage her, then Mitsune goes misty, engulfs her, and reforms into a nine-tailed fox woman, grappling her, as Lily joins her in demon form, both of them beginning to invade her brain as Keitaro tries to stay back out of the way. She screams as her mind is invaded, and now she's being overwhelmed. You sense rather than see something very large, very hulking, and very determined enter the room. A booming voice rumbles one cryptic word: "CHALUPA." Beowulf says, "OOC Yo Quero Amber Meat. x.x" You glance back and see a massive, lumbering, bald ogre with no neck shambling rapidly towards you. In his eyes is a burning, ravenous, unquenchable hunger. "CHALUPA!" he bellows. You get the sinking feeling that, at least at the moment, you are the chalupa. Beowulf says, "OOC How tough/skilled does *this* thing look? ;_;" Moriya OOCly says, "This just isn't ending." Shinobu shouts, "Finish her off! Finish her off! I'll try to hold him..." And then her body shifts, growing taller and thinner, long pink hair flowing down her back. Beowulf says, "OOC ..." Moriya OOCly says, "...mindshift to Utena. I hope this works." Beowulf OOCly nods. x.x Beowulf asks, "OOC How much is La Blumenthal under control, and can one of us be spared to help Shinobu? Or at least could I toss her one of my weapons?" John says, "OOC You can toss Shinobu one of your weapons pretty easily. You just need a minute or two more to finish her off." Beowulf asks, "OOC Right. Probably toss her Morkeleb, since we're just trying to stun La Blumenthal anyway. Mindshifted to Utena, how good a shot do I think Shinobu has?" John says, "OOC You think that if she has near-Utena level skills, that with Morkeleb, she ought to make him regret he was ever born, as long as she doesn't let him grab her." Beowulf says, "OOC Right. Let's hope, then... toss her Morkeleb, try to get La Blumenthal finished as quickly as we can, then see if Shinobu needs help and how much." Utena snags it, then goes into the Dios Lunge. She flies across the intervening space in a mighty thrust, driving Dion back into the wall, then bringing the staff around to slap him about. Suddenly a shot rings out. Keitaro starts in surprise, looks down at the bullet hole in his chest, and falls to the ground. From the shadows, a bearded, old-testament prophet of a man steps forward, holding a smoking pistol. "Another slaver sent to his reward! This is free soil, ye men of the south! Amber shall be SMOTE by the Lord Annadil for holding his children in bondage! Bring the Revolution, Lord!" Meanwhile, you continue to beat down Blumenthal. Beowulf says, "Dion? x.x" Moriya OOCly says, "Dammit." Beowulf asks, "OOC Augh. How bad's Keitaro look?" Beowulf says, "OOC And is that John Brown? ;_;" Keitaro needs immediate medical attention. You think that if either Moriya or Beowulf breaks off, the remaining people can still finish off Blumenthal at this point, although you'd need to take one of the ladies with you to see with. Moriya OOCly says, "Beowulf and Lily go to see to Keitaro. Moriya and Mitsune finish off Blumenthal." Beowulf says, "OOC Bey with Lily, probably, as Mitsune's better at combat and helping the wf person with Blumentha...right" Beowulf asks, "OOC Can we tell what John Brown's abilities look like?" John Brown looks to have some warfare, and some strength, but not great strength, and probably high psyche being a crazed fanatic. You page, "At this point, I'm starting to guess that we'll keep getting cornered by fighter after fighter until we deal with whatever's molding the shadow. x.x Does that fit with a tactical analysis?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You have a feeling that's the case. You might want to try to lock onto him with Pattern and all get past these dudes and go for him. Although he likely doesn't have many high level guys left." to you. Akemi pages, "You think you might be able to disarm Brown with the whip." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Can't the shifters shift their body into something luminescent so the rest of us can see?" John says, "OOC ooh, good idea, I didn't think of that." They go luminescent, and everyone can see, which helps Moriya OOCly says, "Hell, have Mitsune turn into a pillar of flame to fight at this point." John says, "OOC Okay, we're going to have to pause, unfortunatley, as Travis is wearing out, and it's 130 AM here and he has to work in the morning, and while I hate to stop here, I don't want to have Travis collapse." Beowulf OOCly is to the point where he can't think very stright. x.x Would you mind breaking for the night? John says, "OOC And I know it's even later for you, Drew, though I guess it is your week off, so not as bad a thing." Moriya OOCly shrugs. John says, "OOC So we'll continue tomorrow." Beowulf OOCly nods. ;_; John asks, "OOC Is tomorrow night good for both of you?" Beowulf OOCly nods agian. Should bae able to. John says, "OOC Okay, we continue tomorrow night." John says, "OOC Which should finish this, unless infinite lag attacks." Beowulf OOCly noasd. x.x Beowulf OOCly waves out for sleep. ;_; John says, "OOC Okay. Get some sleep Travis." 12/04/01 John says, "OOC Okay, lemme sketch out the situation:" ATM-- Utena-Shinobu is beating up the unfortunate Dion. Keitaro is down on the ground, bleeding, with Lily near him. Close to her is Beowulf, and a little ways off is John Brown, who looks to be about to shoot at Beowulf and Lily. La Campeadora Blumenthal is on her last legs, and Moriya and Mitsune will finish her off really quickly. Your shifters are glowing to provide light. Across the room, near Dion and Utena-Shinobu, is the case that holds Custer's sword, which has a red gem in the pommel, which if La Campeadora can be trusted, is a primal Chaos bomb, though not nearly as good as the ones of old Andalus. Beowulf OOCly nods. Beowulf, I need an action from you. Moriya, you can stick with finishing off La Campeadora and finish her quickly, or you can leave her to Mitsune, which will take a bit longer, but is probably fairly guaranteed. Beowulf OOC nods. Presumably Lily can take care of treating Keitaro quickly; do I have a shot at disarming John Brown with the whip before he can fire? John says, "OOC Yes, you do. As you're rather good with that little trick." Moriya stays with helping Mitsune unless it looks like something else pops up to grab his attention. Beowulf OOCly nods. Avoiding eye contact, since IIRC last night you said he seemed to be pretty psyche-heavy. Could I draw the gun to me, or should I just settle for getting it out of his hands? John says, "OOC You can whip the gun to yourself pretty easily if you so desire." Beowulf says, "OOC Right. Hopefully it isn't trapped to go off at the touch of an Amberite. ^_^" Beowulf says, "OOC Settle just for getting it as far away from him as I can, first." Beowulf cracks his whip. The gun flies out of Brown's hands and far across the room, bouncing off a wall and sliding under one of the glass display cases. Lily begins treating Keitaro. Brown draws a second gun. Utena-Shinobu presses Dion towards the wall, and then he impales himself on Morkeleb, trying to thrust himself up it to get at her. As he does this, the wall breaks open, and a grey haired man in a suit, carrying a black sabre whose blade constantly shifts, erupts through the wall, coming right at Shinobu. He has a small adhesive label on his suit which reads, 'Hello, I'm Chancellor Hemingway'. Oddly, he's wearing a WWI style German mental helmet also. As this happens, La Campeadora goes limp in Mitsune's grasp under the hail of blows from Moriya and the crushing grip of Mitsune. Beowulf says, "OOC Well. The case was a trap all the way, it seems. x.x" John says, "OOC Yes." Moriya OOCly drums his fingers. John says, "OOC Actions from both of you." Beowulf asks, "OOC Anyone have a shot at intercepting Hemingway?" John says, "OOC You could try using your whip for a disarm. There's not enough time for anyone to interpose, though Moriya could move in on the man now that La Campeadora is out of it." John says, "OOC Alternately, you could also try grabbing and tossing one of the cases at him." Beowulf asks, "OOC How skilled does he look?" Moriya OOCly says, "Tell Mitsune to throw La Campeadora into Hemingway's path while I try to attack him." John says, "OOC He looks very scary good." Beowulf OOCly winces. How bad a shape am I in right now? We've still got Brown to worry about, and he could still hurt Lily or Keitaro fairly easily; could I take a bullet from him while trying to disarm Hemingway? Frito> Tobias puts on Salva Nos. John says, "OOC Brown may try and shoot past you while you're focused on Hemingway. You can take a bullet as long as it's not to a vital area, and you're sufficiently better than Brown that you don't think he'll succeed in a vital shot." Beowulf says, "OOC Right." You page, "Before I do this, any better tactical plan I can think of?" to Akemi. Moriya insults KU to Hemingway's face (or whatever university this is) as he attacks. Akemi pages, "If he has a Logrus foil, there's a fair chance that he may simply cut your whip." to you. Moriya OOCly says, "Second-rate school, poor research facilities, abominable cafeteria food, et cetera." Moriya OOCly says, "No wonder Dion's crazed for chalupas and so forth." Akemi pages, "You think that there's a good chance you may simply fail and someone will take a bullet for no good reason. OTOH, Shinobu is VERY hard up." to you. You page, "Hm. Could I coordinate with Moriya's attack to try and lash/pull at his legs, etc., to knock him down into Moriya?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Ahh, good thinking. Yes, you can try and do that, and that way there's much less risk of getting yoru whip cut" to you. Moriya exclaims, "And your football team could get beaten by a team of high school Powder Puff girls!" You page, "Right. And Lily's probably going to get hurt real bad if she takes the bullet, right?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yep" to you. You page, "Right. Try to shield them with my body while knocking Hemingway into Moriya's attack as described." to Akemi. You page, "Want me to pose it?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "I'm gonna need to pose all the results together." to you. You page, "Right." to Akemi. Moriya OOCly starts to twitch. Mitsune hurls La Campeadora like a football as Moriya charges at Hemingway, shouting infinite smack at the man. Hemingway snarls, but has too much intertia to change course. Utena-Shinobu spins Dion around to use as a bodyshield. Beowulf tries to shield Lily with his body, while cracking his whip at Hemingway's legs. Brown pumps bullets into Beowulf, happy to let him play bodyshield. As Moriya closes the distance, Hemingway thrusts his sword through Dion and into Utena-Shinobu's chest. Her blood ignites with black flame and she screams, toppling backwards. Dion screams and goes limp with Morkeleb still stuck through him. Then the whip hits Hemingway's legs and La Campeadora slams into him. As Moriya closes to sword range, Hemingway stumbles back towards the wall, trying to get La Campeadora's unconscious body off him, and get loose from the whip. Frito> Ivan the Mad is blasted off the face of the planet by the force of John's Philpose. Frito> Arawn drags Dan back down to Earth. Beowulf asks, "OOC Ayah. ;_; How bad a shape am I in now, and is Mitsune in position to take on Brown while I help either Shinobu or Moriya?" Akemi pages, "You can't take much more punishment like that." to you. Frito> Alan says, "Yikes. Must be a big battle. I remember the Philposes John was doing during the barge battle." Moriya OOCly says, "Throw the Chaos Destruction talisman on Shinobu with my mad skills while going to town on Hemingway." John says, "OOC Mitsune can move to engage Brown if you want to go try to help Shinobu or Moriya." Frito> Tobias says, "It is indeed a big battle." Frito> Arawn asks, "But is it a glorious battle, and is it a good day to die?" Beowulf asks, "OOC How bad a shape is Shinobu in? Is she gonna die if she doesn't get immediate attention, or do I have time to help against Brown or Hemingway? " John says, "OOC Shinobu needs help fast, as she's badly hurt and now burning from Primal Badness." Frito> Alan says, "It's never a good day to die." John says, "OOC You've got to hope that Chaos Destruction item works, or else there's a pretty good chance she's going to quickly die as her blood burns away." You page, "Can I think of any way to help her? Pattern Defense was helpful against the pblade for blood of chaos, will it help against logrusfire against patternblood?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You can try, but you're going to have to risk the fire igniting you too." to you. Akemi pages, "As you also have Blood of ORder" to you. You page-pose, "The_Prof cries. ;_; What's my most effective course of action seem to be?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You think that probably that item is going to fail because of no-magic, and the only way to save Shinobu is going to be to shove your hands in the fire, try to use Pattern Defense to snuff the flames, and risk your own life. The next most effective thing would be to join in attacking Hemingway, and hope Mitsune takes down Brown and that Lily finds a way to save Shinobu." to you. You page, "Right. Well, I got her into this, I'm responsible for her, so I suppose I'll have to risk my own life; perhaps Lily can back up my pattern defence with her psyche. o.o How well does Moriya look like he'll do against Hemingway?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Lily is going to need to finish saving Keitaro, as she's still bandaging him. ^^;;; You think Moriya can hold him a short time." to you. You page, "Right. Try to save Shinobu, and hope Moriya can hold him." to Akemi. Okay. Moriya charges in and begins attacking. At first, he has the advantage as Hemingway struggles to get loose from La Campeadora and the whip. He gets the whip off him when Moriya throws the talisman at Shinobu. Beowulf sprints across the room to Shinobu, then thrusts his hands into the flames. There is loud bang, and the fires go out, but now Beowulf's hands and arms are hideously burnt. He shakes wobbily. Lily finishes treating Keitaro, only to be gunned down by John Brown. She falls to the ground, and her body begins to shift and contort into some strange demonic shape. Mitsune screams loud enough to wake the dead, and seizes La Campeadora's sword. She charges at Brown, and as she charges, she grows tall and thin and red haired, moving into an impeccable fencing stance. Brown turns and shoots at her and misses. Moriya leaps about, taunting Hemingway about how KU football couldn't beat a bunch of five year olds. Hemingway begins to press him back as he fights defensively. Akemi pages, "You can only barely feel your arms. You feel like shit, and much more and you go blort." to you. You page, "At least Shinobu's not gonna die right away. ;_; How effective am I gonna be at the moment?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, you can still attack people with your legs. You can try using weapons, but your arms hurt so much, they won't work very well." to you. You page, "Hm. Can I lie on my back, grab the whip in my legs, and lash at Hemingway with it?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes, you can try that, as you have truly mad skills." to you. You page, "Anything better I can think of? At least this gives me some chance to use my superior WF instead of my strength." to Akemi. You page, "By the by, do I recognize who Mitsune shifted into? o.o" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You might want try to nail Brown, who is a lot less skilled than Hemingway, as that would then free up Mitsune to help attack Hemingway. Looks like Juri." to you. You page, "Juri... heh. Right, try and nail Brown." to Akemi. You page, "This is gonna be one for the books. x.x" to Akemi. You page, "Does it look like Lily just went Primal Form? o.o" to Akemi. Hemingway continues to press Moriya back as Moriya fights desperately. Beowulf grits his teeth and grabs the hilt of his whip with his feet, then goes onto his back. He then cracks the whip. His aim isn't so good, but it's good enough to nail John Brown, who stumbles, and then Juri-Mitsune rams La Campeadora's sword through Brown's left kidney. He spurts lots of blood. Demon-Lily, now turned into some sort of skinless winged tentacular cat thing runs off towards the stairs, howling cat yowlps. You page, "Does it look like Brown's out of it now, or would it be best to keep pressure on him to free up Mitsune?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "IT's going to take a little longer, so you probably should press your assault." to you. You page, "And would Mitsune have a chance to grab Morkeleb out of Dion's body, or does it look like La Campeadora's sword is good enough for fighting Hemingway?" to Akemi. You page, "Right, press the assault on Brown to try and get Mitsune freed up." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You think she could use both at once to good effect, as she seems to be displaying fairly mad skills right now." to you. You page, "Right... Any way I can get it to her while pressing Brown, or is it gonna have to wait until she's freed up?" to Akemi. Frito> Ivan the Mad braces for the next 12 line pose. Hemingway now makes a break for the stairs; Moriya shifts Ilvig to a whip, and snags Hemingway's legs enough to send Hemingway tumbling down the stairs instead of running down them. Meanwhile, Beowulf whips Brown again, and Juri-Mitsune brings her blade up through Brown's body with one hand, while shoving his gun aside with the other. Brown howls, pumps blood and dies messily. You page, "All right... can I hope to follow and do anything effective? Or at least get Mork or the whip to Mitsune?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You can get Morkeleb and/or the whip to Mitsune. I think you'd have a hard time doing much on the stairs or out on the catwalk without your arms working. Although you may have some idea I haven't come up with yet." to you. You page, "Argh. ;_; Would kicking things at Hemingway work as warfare? :)" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "He's going down the stairs, and out to the catwalk, where there isn't anything to kick, although you could kick things with warfare." to you. You page, "Is there much debris left in the room by the fight? I could shove it over to the stairway and kick it from up there, though it'd take a bit of time." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "The stairs connect to the landing perpendicular to the Catwalk. You can't see the catwalk from the top of the stairs." to you. You page, "Drat. ;_; I don't think my skills are *quite* mad enough to try whipping a ceilinghold and swinging down onto him, unfortunately. ;_;" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Not with your feet." to you. You page, "Argh. ;_; I could try throwing something with my teeth, I suppose, if I had anything to throw. Would it be reasonable to have some throwing knives in my clothing" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes." to you. Akemi pages, "You gonna run down and try that?" to you. You page, "...first get Morkeleb to Mitsune. Is there anything else useful I could do in the room?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, you could try doing something to/about Custer's sword." to you. You page, "The one in the case, you mean?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes." to you. Akemi pages, "Although whether you wanna mess with that is rather open to debate. There's also a buttload of Custer memoriabilia--books, papers, etc. And Dion's mangled corpse." to you. Moriya whips Hemingway repeatedly, trying to get the Logrusfoil away from him. Unfortunately, he isn't successful, because the staircase doesn't give enough open space for very effective whip use. But he does keep up with him pretty easily and administer a beating. Hemingway runs out onto the catwalk as Moriya reaches the bottom of the stairs. Mitsune-Juri takes John Brown's second gun, then heads for the stairs, sword in one hand, gun in the other, pausing to scoop up the other gun as she goes along as well. Beowulf gets Morkeleb with his feet and throws it to her, she tucks it through her belt on one side. You page, "Hm. I'm cudgeling my brain trying to think if there's anything significant about the sword besides the probable chaos bomb. Pattern is pretty much open to use right now, yes, given that I used it to squelch Shinobu's flames?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes." to you. Akemi pages, "You could try using probability manipulation on something." to you. You page, "Hm. Would the logrusfoil cancel out attempts to make the catwalk slippery under Hemingway?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "As far as you know, the Logrusfoil does not cancel out Pattern Use" to you. You page, "Tactically... how likely does it seem at this point that Hemingway is the actual controller of the shadow? Or does it seem like there's an item up here that might be doing it, as we speculated last night?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You could test this by using Pattern." to you. Akemi pages, "See which way it tells you the controller is" to you. You page, "How long would it take to do a quick Patternlock on the controller, and if it's the sword/chaos bomb, how likely would it be to set that off?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You don't think it would set off the bomb, and it would be fairly quick." to you. You page, "Right, do that." to Akemi. Moriya flies at Hemingway (gotta love demon form), who sprouts wings himself. Moriya shouts more smack at Hemingway, who looks pretty pissed. He tries to press Hemingway into the tentacular creatures and discovers they're apparently smart enough to ignore Hemingway. Some of them try to attack him, but he successfully fends them off. But now Hemingway manages to nick Moriya's left hand, and his blood begins to burn little black flames there. Mitsune-Juri runs down the stairs full tilt and reaches the bottom, sheathes her sword, then opens up at Hemingway with both pistols. He takes a bullet and begins to visibly shift. Akemi pages, "You sense the controller is down the stairs, which means it's almost certainly Hemingway or his Logrusfoil." to you. You page, "Damn. I was hoping it was something here I could smash." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Unfortunately, no. ^^;;;" to you. You page, "Damn it, setting off a primal chaos bomb in here -- even if it's on the enemy -- is one of the last thigns I want to do, given how beaten up everyone is. The other thought I had is that throwing something at Hemingway, unless he's waay out in the open, could be an invitation to the kind of shot-blocking Kenshin did with Moonshade. ;_; How good did his WF look compared to Moriya or Juri-shifted Mitsune?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You think Hemingway is slightly better than Juri-Mitsune, and somewhat better than Moriya." to you. You page, "And unfortunately, thatps probably not enough to avoid if he tries the blocking technique, I'm guessing." to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yep" to you. You page, "How liekly would it be for the tentacles to mistake Hemingway for the main enemy, and could that be a reasonable type of probability manip?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Hmm, Beo needs to get down the stairs before he can actually see well enough to try anything. ^^;;" to you. You page, "Right... if I could, would that be a reasonable manip?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes." to you. You page, "Do that, then -- head to the stairs where I can see well enough to do it, then do it." to Akemi. Mitsune-Juri now shoots one of the tentacle beasts, causing it to fall onto Hemingway. Moriya shifts Ilvig to Naginata form and tries to impale Hemingway. He does not succeed in impaling him, but Hemingway takes a hideous gash in his side, then gets hit by the tentacle beast, which Hemingway slices apart, leading to him taking another wound from Moriya. Beowulf now comes down the stairs to the landing. Mitsune-Juri drops the pistols and takes sword and Morkeleb and charges along the catwalk. Moriya's left hand is now in hideous agony as it burns. He tries to flick burning blood onto Hemingway, but doesn't have a lot of luck. You page, "Given new situation, is it likely enough that another tentacle beast would fall on hemingway to make that a reasonable probability manip?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes" to you. You page, "Right. Anything else in the area look like it'd be a better shot to manipulate?" to Akemi. Shizumaru pages, "What about Keitaro and Shinobu?" to you. You page, "I think they're still alive. Trying to get some probability manipulation done to help you out." to Shizumaru. Akemi pages, "Not ATM." to you. You page, "Ack... damn it, I assumed and probably shouldn't have -- did Shinobu/Keitaro still look alive when I left?" to Akemi. Shizumaru pages, "I just hope there isn't anything lingering up there still. :P You should bring them down onto the stairs, at least. Close at hand." to you. Akemi pages, "You didn't check." to you. You page-pose, "The_Prof cries again. ;_; After going through all that for them, I hope they are; would I at least have seen how Shinobu was doing after I put out the fires?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "She looked to be just barely alive." to you. Akemi pages, "You could try using Prob. Manip. to up their chances of living." to you. You page, "Could I probability manip to help them instead? And how well do M&M look like they're faring against Hemingway?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Well, Hemingway isn't looking too good." to you. You page, "Right. Drew pointed out I probably should have brought them down here with us, in case something happens upstairs. Can I manip to help them as I run back up to bring them down, or does bringing them down seem like a tactically smart thing to do?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It might be best you go cover them, although bringing them down risks Hemingway finishing them off." to you. Akemi pages, "Also, unless you kick them down the stairs, you can't move them with your arms fucked up" to you. You page, "Ah. Right... go up to cover them, then." to Akemi. Mike pages, "You win my 'bulldog tenaciousness' award. :)" to you. You page, "Thanks for the suggestion; you're right, I wasn't thinking. ;_; Going up to cover them now and try to help 'em with probability mainp." to Shizumaru. You page, "Thanks. " to Mike. You page, "Sometimes I think I get more 'never say die' the further backed up against the wall I get." to Mike. You page, "I thank Ghu I put an extra five points into Endurance on last upgrade." to Mike. You page, "Maniping to try and improve their chance of living." to Akemi. Frito> Ivan the Mad waits for another monster pose. Frito> Tobias exclaims, "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Frito> Alan wonders just what the hell these poor buggers got themselves into. Frito> Alan says, "Other than that it's taking a bloody long time to resolve, I have almost no idea what it is." Frito> Tobias says, "They're either gonna win all or lose all, it looks like." Frito> Alan says, "Oooh, one of those." Frito> Alan waves flags. "Go, go! Fight, fight! Gambatta ne! Gambatta ne!" Frito> Akari gibbers. You page, "I *was* gonna try throwing knives at him with my teeth, before remembering what Kenshin did when I tried a similar maneuver. x.x" to Mike. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "The current theme seems to be 'John and Travis and Droo page each other for 10 or 15 minutes with little details, then John spits out 10-20 lines of text describing a "many things happen at once" situation'. Repeat as needed. So far, needed is 2 nights. :)" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "And it's a different many things happen at once every philpose." Beowulf runs up the stairs, and gets there just in time to see a pair of rat-things creeping across the floor towards Shinobu and Keitaro. It looks like they're both still breathing and neither is pumping blood. Mitsune-Juri suddenly gets opened up on by all the gun emplacements, and starts dodging desperately, trying to parry and avoid the bullets, but she has fairly limited running space. She retreats towards the landing, trying to escape the bullets. But as she runs, she does manage to get a whack in at the back of Hemingway's head. Moriya attacks Hemingway strongly, trying to drive him back to the catwalk. Hemingway attacks Moriya ferociously. Hemingway takes multiple blows, and is now bleeding profusely. But he slashes up Moriya's chest, and tentacle beasts attack Moriya, hampering his actions. Moriya is now burning on his torso. He manages to slap his burning hand across Hemingway's chest, causing Hemingway's clothing to start to burn there, although the flames go out quickly, as t Frito> Alan says, "Yup, sounds like the barge battle all over again." He manages to slap his burning hand across Hemingway's chest, causing Hemingway's clothing to start to burn there, although the flames go out quickly, as the clothing has no Patterny Goodness in it. Frito> Ivan the Mad reels as 20 liner followed by a 5 liner go by in close succession. You page, "Right... Rat things look like I can stomp on 'em easily enough?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Yes." to you. You page, "Stomp on 'em, then." to Akemi. Frito> Alan says, "Good golly." Frito> Frito says, "This is gonna be one for the books, however it comes out. o.o" Frito> Tobias says, "I have to say, Travis, you are today's Human Shield." Frito> Frito nods ruefully. x.x Frito> Alan says, "Well, if you can endure it, Human Shield is a very useful role to play." Frito> Alan says, "Most of Motoko's injuries have occured because of playing Human Shield." You page, "Kick 'em, however best to take 'em out. Bastards. :P" to Akemi. Frito> Akari boggles slightly. Frito> Ivan the Mad switches his plans around. "150 Endurance, 15 shapeshifting to get shift wounds. That leaves me almost 40 points for powers and other attributes." Frito> Rand0m laughs! Frito> Frito heh's. Frito> Rand0m says, "actually, that's homer the barbarian king :)" Frito> Alan says, "I expect Nanami Minor will be Human Shield Girl in 3gen, as whichever design I use for her she will be able to soak up damage like a sponge. :)" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Hrm, if I spend all those 40 on the Vulcan Forge auction, maybe John'll let me have a conferred 16 point regeneration item." Hemingway now tries to retreat, but Moriya howls in rage and hurls himself at Hemingway, grappling him. As he does so, he shouts a curse upon Hemingway, cursing Hemingway with all the power of his blood. Hemingway seems almost physically struck. And then Moriya shoves Hemingway into the path of the firing guns. The bullets bounce off Hemingway, but Hemingway's body shields Moriya. Hemingway begins growing mouths and other unpleasant things where he's grappled, though he's also being burned by the flames. And Hemingway drops the logrusfoil, which begins to fall into the Abyss. Juri curses from the landing, then risks the bullets to charge towards him. Meanwhile, upstairs, Beowulf crushes the rat-creatures, saving Shinobu and Keitaro. Frito> Akio wonders what's happened to you poor, poor bastards. You page, "Can I see the lfoil dropping? If so, could a probability manip have a bullet ricochet or something zing it into Mitsune or Moriya's hands?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You're upstairs, unfortunately" to you. You page, "Damn. Do Shinobu and Keitaro look like they need more help to survive, or is there any general 'luck-wishing' manip I can do for M&M or against Harrison, without seeing him?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "They look like they will live. And you need to be able to see." to you. You page, "I have a headache. o.o Does there look like there's anything else that might attack 'em, and is bodyguarding them the best thing I can think of to do?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You think you're probalby better off guarding htem, as there isn't much you can do down below, although you can hear the guns firing, and you could use Prob. Manip. to make them malfunction." to you. You page, "Right... let's manip to make 'em malfunction while guarding." to Akemi. Moriya goes for the blade, as Juri races back out onto the bridge, dodging bullets desperately. He tries to cover himself as he drops down towards it. Up above, Beowulf concentrates and using Pattern, he causes the guns to malfunction and begin shooting each other. He tries to fend off Hemingway, who berserkly attacks him. He manages to get the Logrusfoil into his hand, but his left arm is blazing like a torch, and he's about one CM from passing out. Hemingway has turned his limbs into swords and is trying to slash away at Moriya more. When he sees Moriya has grabbed the foil, he starts to back up a bit. You page, "Moriya tries to fend off Hemingway? o.o ^_^" to Akemi. You page, "Are there any other Pattern tricks I can try, or am I going to need to concentrate on keeping the guns malfunctioning?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You need to focus on the guns." to you. Frito> Akari says, "I just want this to @#$%ing end. ;.;" Frito> Frito nods. x.x Frito> Rand0m waves pompoms. "Gambatteeeeeee!!!" Frito> Tobias says, "This is the ugliest fight I have seen in some time." Frito> Alan says, "Don't aim to end it, aim to win." Autolyca asks, "What's your company do?" Frito> Akio asks, "If Beowulf dies, can we have his stuff?" Frito> Alan says, "Particularly since if you lose, I suspect the whole business will drag out longer than it already has." Beowulf continues to concentrate on keeping the guns messed up. Moriya tosses the Logrusfoil from his left hand to his right. He then severs that left arm with Ilvig, then as the left arm drops, he kicks the arm up at Hemingway. He then drives Ilvig through the arm, pinning it to Hemingway. Hemingway boggles in utter, abject shock, as he never in 1 billion trillion years imagined anyone pulling this move on him. Then he screams in agony from the fire and the spear. Moriya now blacks out from the agony and falls burning into the Abyss. However, he instinctively hurls the logrusfoil as he passes out. It takes off Hemingway's ear and flies right into Mitsune-Juri's hands. As the burning Moriya falls, she stares for just a second, and then she howls in absolute fury, and leaps off the bridge at him. As she leaps, wings sprout from her back, and she comes right at Hemingway, nailing him in the back with the Logrusfoil. Hemingway coughs up blood. Then she drives him over to the wall and slash Frito> Alan thinks of how ugly some of the previous fights have gotten and just winces. "Ow." Frito> Frito says, "Um, no. If we lose, we *lose*." Frito> Akari exclaims, "Yes! My badass move succeeded!" As the burning Moriya falls, she stares for just a second, and then she howls in absolute fury, and leaps off the bridge at him. As she leaps, wings sprout from her back, and she comes right at Hemingway, nailing him in the back with the Logrusfoil. Hemingway coughs up blood. Then she drives him over to the wall and slashes at him in an utter berserkergang, shouting incoherently about Moriya and Cimbri and Mother and Annadil and how all the foes of Amber will die. Frito> Rand0m exclaims, "woohoo!" Frito> Rand0m cheers Droo on Frito> Alan exclaims, "Go Moriya!" Frito> Frito says, "And what a move. o.O" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "And badass it was." Frito> Alan exclaims, "Remember, WIN FOR THE SEX!" Frito> Akari says, "However...." Frito> Akari sighs. Frito> Akio asks, "This isn't going to be a doh moment, is it?" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Unclear." Frito> Akari says, "It is." Frito> Akari says, "I'm dead." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "It's looking doh, but it's not over yet." Frito> Rand0m says, "..." You page, "Did she catch you, or not? o.o I thought John said she leaped off the bridge at you, as if going to catch you." to Shizumaru. Frito> Rand0m says, "er, let's just hope moriya's in that land that jaqui has visited many times, that of 'and then it goes dark'" Shizumaru pages, "I can't survive my injuries." to you. Frito> Akari says, "No, I'm dead. Too badly injured." Frito> Rand0m bogg.es You page, "...crap. x.x Is it the burning? If Mitsune can back me up, I can try pattern defense on you..." to Shizumaru. Frito> Rand0m says, "er....." Shizumaru pages, "Tell John." to you. Frito> Alan says, "Ugh. Hopefully you can get healing in time." You page, "If burning is what's killing Drew, could I try putting him out with Pattern defense if Mitsune backs me up with her psyche?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "It's too late. ^^;;;" to you. Rod pages, "if you can get moriya to mystara in tme, just before he's FULLY dead (unless he's totally gone already) then you might be able to resurrect him...." to you. You page-pose, "The_Prof cries again. ;_; Damnit... could I have tried earlier with any shot at success?" to Akemi. Frito> Akio says, "This has just been the Month O' Death." You page, "Does it feel like the shadow control has been cracked?" to Akemi. For just a moment, Hemingway wrenches away from Juri-Mitsune. He shouts, "I'm taking you fuckers with me!" Then he punches a button on a remote control. Nothing happens. The camera zooms in, and we see he hit the 'Disarm all Traps, Send all Monsters back to Storage' reset button instead of the 'Trigger Primal Chaos' button. And then Juri-Mitsune cuts his head off. And then Juri-Mitsune plunges down into the Abyss and manages to grab Moriya's body. She brings it back up to the catwalk as it blazes away, then turns back into Mitsune and starts trying desperately to somehow put out the flames. It is, unfortunately, too late. Akemi pages, "Yes, it now cracks." to you. You page, "If he's still alive, can we trump him to Mystara? x.x" to Akemi. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Okay. It is... in fact... doh." Akemi pages, "He's dead, I'm afraid. He gets some last words, but that's it. ^^;;;" to you. Frito> Rand0m says, "shit." Moriya whispers, "I'm sorry, Mitsune. I love you. Take care of my mother, please. Please." Beowulf OOCly curses and curses. Nothing at all he can do. ;_; Frito> Akari sighs. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Well, as condolences, you went out with one of the coolest ass things I've seen in an RPG in a *long* *long* time." Frito> Rand0m says, "there will be other days, Droo" Mike pages, "Nothing you could do, and you saved the two people who John and I were 99% sure were dead men." to you. Frito> Frito nods and bows in respect. You page, "I suppose so. x.x" to Mike. Frito> Rand0m gives Droo a salud. You page, "Shinobu and Keitaro?" to Mike. Frito> Alan says, "Ugh. Sorry, Droo." Frito> Tobias says, "That was an incredible finisher move, yes." Mike pages, "Yup." to you. Frito> Akio says, "Yeesh. Yeah, Droo. Sorry." Frito> Akari now debates if he wants to bring out Kaede, or just sit back from the game and forget it. Frito> Akio asks, "Do you mean now now, or nextgen now?" Moriya breathes, "The Sword...is broken." Mitsune says, "Moriya, I love you. Don't die. Don't die. I love you. Yes, I'll take care of her. Moriya..." She pours down tears like a river. Frito> Akari says, "Now." Frito> Akio says, "Er... bit contrived." Beowulf asks, "OOC Can I hear any of this?" Frito> Akari says, "Yeah." Frito> Akio says, "'Well, Moriyas dead, but Mitsune has gone off into fasttime and had his kid, and now she's here, a day later, all grown up, for revenge.'" Frito> Rand0m says, "what? that's what backup characters are for. and Kaede is not moriya's son" Frito> Theresa asks, "Actually, hadn't you established Kaede was around as a child hood friend of yours?" Frito> Rand0m says, "unless I didn't remmeber droo's stuff right" Frito> Rand0m says, "EXACTLY :P" Frito> Akari says, "Kaede will hear and know about this. Yes." Frito> Akio says, "Oh, right." Frito> Akio says, "I thought Aklari." Frito> Theresa says, "I'd be happy to let you bring him in if you want." Frito> Rand0m says, "so it's not really contrived." Frito> Akio says, "AKARI." Frito> Akio says, "I mixed the two up." You page, "Can I? x.x" to Akemi. Frito> Ivan the Mad reminds Mitsune to get blood samples from moriya so Damasq can fuse them with hers to make the child they would have had. :) Frito> Akari says, "Well, if Mitsune survives everything else, I'll still be playing Akari, if a little tweaked." Akemi pages, "You can hear Mitsune screaming." to you. Mitsune cries. "Don't die. Don't die. There has to be something...oh Moriya, don't leave me. No, no..." Frito> Akio says, "Look on the bright siude, Drew. It is now aboslutly impossible for Kanako to be Moriya's daughter." Moriya whispers, "I'll always watch over you, my dear." Frito> Ivan the Mad snickers. Beowulf hears Mitsune's screams and stumbles over to the stairs, then looks at the scene in shock. "Damnit! Moriya, you can't..." He runs over to them, snarling as he sees the body of Hemingway. Frito> Akio says, "Unless he had the power to impregnate Motoko via kissing." Frito> Akari snorts. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Only Gideon has that power." Frito> Tobias says, "Gideon's Impregnating Gaze." Frito> Akari says, "Damn." You page, "Trying to figure out what I'd actually do ICly, whether I'd be able to recognize that he's a goner. ;_;" to Akemi and Shizumaru. Beowulf gets down to see if there's anythign at all he can do for Moriya. Frito> Alan says, "Yeah. I was expecting you guys might have to be rescued, but... :/" Beowulf says, "OOC Probab. manip as I go to keep nasty things away from the pair upstairs. ;_;" Frito> Rand0m exclaims, "unless Akari is one of a set of TWINS!" Frito> Rand0m asks, "ur?" Frito> Frito says, "It was an incredibly nasty situation to be in. x.x" Frito> Akio says, "Kanako as Aakri's twin sister wouldn't work, because I want the Motoko connection." Frito> Rand0m raises his fizz in a toast. "To Moriya, less of a tightass than his dad, got some with a piece of booty Shaft thought was smokin' hot, kicked much ass, rocked with the potato, and went down with, evidently, a flair." Frito> Frito says, "A *flare*. o.o" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Flair is nailing your opponent to the wall with your own arm and weapon." Frito> Alan says, "Ciao, Moriya. You'll be missed." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Even if Motoko wouldn't sleep with you." Frito> Alan says, "She was going to." Frito> Rand0m says, "motoko schmotoko, he got Mitsune." Frito> Rand0m says, "hell, I wanted Mitsune at the beginning :)" You page, "We going to do anything else? o.o" to Akemi. Frito> Tobias says, "He saved the party." Mitsune picks up his body, and carries him across the catwalk and up the stairs to lay him down with the others. And then crosses his hands over his chest, and just stares. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Yes, yes he did." Frito> Akio asks, "Beowulf is still alive, right?" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Mostly." Frito> Frito nods. "I think so, anyway." Frito> Alan says, "Saving the party is good." Frito> Akari asks, "John, which Logrusfoil is that?" Beowulf bows his head. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Hey... he died in possesion of a primal weapon." Beowulf says, "OOC Did I see anything of Lily down on the catwalk? ;_;" Frito> Akari says, "No. Mitsune had it when he died." Frito> Theresa says, "It's Trust, house Vanir's weapon." John says, "OOC Lily seems to have run off and vanished." Frito> Akari says, "So I didn't even have that." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "I'm sure that she put it in your hands as you died. :)" Frito> Alan asks, "Is Motoko going to possibly find out about this tonight?" Frito> Tobias says, "A good show from both PCs. Moriya saved the group, and Beowulf did the impossible twice." Frito> Theresa says, "Yes, possibly." Beowulf OOCly winces. The situation look stable enough to go looking for her with Pattern? Mitsune doesn't need *two* wounds like that... Mitsune spends a very, very long time hunched over Moriya, crying. Frito> Alan says, "Good. It helps to play these things out in the immediate aftermath. :/" John says, "OOC Yes, the situation is stable enough." Frito> Arawn says, "Whole lotta death going on ..." Frito> Akio says, "My response to this, on the heels of Lian, is 'God-motherfucking DAMN.'" Frito> Alan says, "The ranks are rather rapidly thinning, yes." Beowulf looks for Lily, tears trickling down his face, as he looks a hundred years older. Frito> Akio says, "Oh. Oh, dear." Frito> Akari says, "I'll bring out Kaede." Frito> Akio says, "I wonder how this affects Motoko's wholre relgious thing." Frito> Akari says, "Because you all will likely need his help." Frito> Akari says, "Yeah. The Sword is broken." Frito> Frito nods. Frito> Theresa has a backup plan. Sort of. ^^;;; Frito> Ivan the Mad asks, "Moonshade and Mitsune shifted to look like Moriya?" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "No, wait, that's *my* backup plan." Frito> Alan says, "I suppose Motoko and Davros will just have to do it on their own." Frito> Rand0m says, "that was the original plan" Frito> Rand0m says, "hey, if you insist in more than two, i'd gladly loan moonshade :)" Frito> Alan says, "Or possibly there's some kind of three-person version they can do with Mitsune, if she's willing." Frito> Rand0m says, "who knows, she might need the consolation" Frito> Arawn says, "I doubt Moonshade would be happy about that, Rod. 'You did WHAT?' 'I rented you out to Motoko. Got me a nice jewel for it.' 'GRRRRRR.'" Frito> Rand0m says, "hey. davros, mitsune, moonshade. one two three." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Actually, if Jacqui didn't need to draw the Pattern, Motoko, Davros, and Mitsune, and Jacqui, Thoric, Mutsumi." You seek through the place, and eventually, inside a closet, you find a small calico cat curled up asleep. You pick up Lily gently, and I assume carry her back to the others? Frito> Akari says, "I feel numb." Beowulf pets Lily gently, picks her up, and carries her back to the others. "Your sister needs you," he murmurs sadly, seeming to age a bit more. Frito> Arawn pats. "I know the feeling ... it will go away, after a few days." Frito> Theresa says, "I'm feeling pretty hollow myself." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Be proud. 2 3rd/4th gen PCs and their support took on a trap designed to take out 2nd-gen level folks, and nearly managed to pull it off." Frito> Frito nods. Frito> Theresa says, "If everyone had died, as nearly happened, I'd be curled up in a gibbering ball right now." Frito> Rand0m says, "optimally, we'd draw the new pattern while hel was mounting her invasion, but if we can put it off till a little later....." Frito> Alan wonders just what the hell this _was_. o.o Frito> Frito says, "Hollow, and guilty, like there was something I should have done." Mitsune turns to Lily-cat and kisses her forehead. Frito> Alan says, "I expect the feeling is much like the one I had after Juri let Brand out of the Abyss, and killed two relatives in one night." Frito> Akari asks, "John, to do true lightning attacks with elemental imprint, I'd need a mix of fire and air?" Frito> Theresa says, "Yes." Frito> Akari says, "Right." Frito> Rand0m says, "i asked already, yes, you'd have to be.... soot." Frito> Theresa says, "If you want them to be at full effectiveness." Frito> Alan says, "Which basically consisted of going back over every single little thing I did and kicking myself for not doing them slightly differently, as that could have made all the difference." Frito> Akari says, "Kaede will focus on air, but have enough fire to do that." Frito> Tobias says, "Well, Travis, you did the impossible twice. Three times wasn't in the cards." Frito> Akari says, "By the way, I'd like to skip a 'what went wrong' session, if you all don't mind." Frito> Alan says, "Hrm. I expect Motoko will at least be acquainted with him." Frito> Akari says, "If you want to have one, just tell me, and I'll pull my puppet out of whatever room you do it in." Frito> Akari says, "Motoko probably has met Kaede a few times, yes." Frito> Frito nods. "As you want it." Mitsune puts her hand to Lily's forehead and then Lily grows to human size and reverts to normal. Shizumaru updates his @doing: The Ended Frito> Frito says, "We could probably do it tomorrow night at KUGAR." Frito> Theresa says, "That makes sense." Lily opens her eyes. "What...what happened?" Frito> Akari says, "And tomorrow...I think I'll go to a club." Mitsune says very softly, "Hemingway is dead, but...but..." Then she begins to cry again. Frito> Akari says, "As I think I desperately need to do something different." Beowulf hugs Lily like his life (or at least his sanity) depends on it. "Moriya died, saving us all." He shudders. Frito> Akio says, "Gleeble." Beowulf gently disengages and puts Lily's arms around Mitsune, and adds his own arm if it seems like it'll help. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "3rd major Amberite to go in under 3 months of game time." Beowulf asks, "OOC ...control over the shadow's broken, now... can I haul everyone back to Amber?" Beowulf says, "OOC Or where is Rimruru living now? She probably needs to know first, I'm guessing." John says, "OOC She's at the Keep." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Oh man... Shizumaru... guilt trip from hell." John says, "OOC At this point, y'all can mold things enough to get out of the shadow, at which point aeris can get you home." Beowulf OOCly nods, and tries to think of the best way to notify her. ;_; Frito> Alan says, "There is going to be a whole lot of guilt going on." Frito> Akio says, "I won't imagine Touga will be all that happy either." As you begin molding the shadow so you can get out, to your surprise, you're approched bya group of five people. Frito> Rand0m says, "well, the first major one was really nothing you coulda prevented...." Frito> Rand0m says, "the second one was a toughie." Frito> Arawn says, "A lot of people will be extremely unhappy." Frito> Rand0m says, "thsi one... just.... ow." Beowulf frowns and looks warily at them. Frito> Akari says, "Well, I split my blessing between Mitsune and Rimururu. As a result, Rimururu can now attune to a DJ, John says, and get a Pattern imprint." Frito> Rand0m says, "I figure rimururu should take over the keep for the moment, till shizu comes back." Frito> Frito sighs. At least something good will come out of this. There's a matched set of large, stocky curly haired men, one black haired, one red-haired. There's a huge blonde woman and a fairly skinny brunette guy. There's a REALLY skinny dark haired, glasses wearing man, and there's a skinny, short, long haired girl with green hair. John says, "OOC Okay, that's SIX people, but..." Beowulf OOCly GROANS. Frito> Akari asks, "Who are these people?" You page, "...you bastard. ;_;" to Akemi and Mike. The really skinny man says, "Well, theoretically, we should kill you, but since you killed Hemingway, we're finally free to get out of this shithole." Frito> Frito says, "KUGAR." Frito> Rand0m asks, "what people?" Frito> Ivan the Mad beats John with a stick. "KUGAR, Droo." Frito> Akari says, "Ah." Frito> Rand0m asks, "oh, we getting an obsref?" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Yes." The man then says, "In fact, we're so grateful we can leave, if you have anyone who needs a good killing, we'd be happy to go take them down for you, though we'd like to get on it quickly, so we can get on with having lives." Frito> Frito looks at him, just barely managing to keep a snarl out of his voice. "And who are you?" Frito> Frito says, "Ack, mispuppet." Frito> Akari beats Travis with a torpedo. Beowulf looks at him, just barely managing to keep a snarl out of his voice. "And who are you?" Frito> Akio says, "You used a Blessing? Interesting. I wuld have thought Curse." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "He did that too." Frito> Akari says, "I used a blood curse on Hemingway before I died." Frito> Frito nods. Frito> Akari says, "And used the blessing when I did die." The man says, "We're the Border Patrol, so to speak. You can call us KUGAR. Old Annadil stuck us here, and we got stuck for the last forty years guarding this stupid death trap." Frito> Theresa says, "Moriya's massive Stuff Reserve came in handy" Frito> Akio says, "Not a bad use for... thirty or so points." Frito> Akari says, "I should have cursed him sooner, I think." Frito> Theresa says, "Yes, you should have." Frito> Akari says, "Oh well." Frito> Alan asks, "Hemingway?" Beowulf raises an eyebrow. "I see. To what purpose?" he asks. He looks a little less snarly, as he remembers how Annadil suckered a lot of people into nasty jobs. Frito> Akio asks, "The Blessing/Curse thing is still one-tenth of total number of character points, right?" Frito> Frito says, "The main villain of the piece." The man says, "We were supposed to keep would be rescuers out of the shadow, and whack anyone from Chaos who somehow got here." Frito> Alan says, "I'm guessing this isn't _The Old Man and the Sea_ Hemingway." Beowulf nods slowly. "And was he hoping to take out anyone in particular?" Frito> Alan says, "Although with Millard Fillmore running around, I can never be sure." Frito> Akari says, "KU Chancellor, apparently." Frito> Frito says, "Nope, KU Chancellor Hemingway." Frito> Frito says, "The final series of battles was fought out in Watson library." Frito> Rand0m says, "oh lord, The Library" Frito> Akari says, "Travis, you'd better return the Logrusfoil to House Vanir eventually. :)" Frito> Frito says, "Oh, I'm certainly planning to." Frito> Rand0m says, "eventually." Frito> Rand0m says, "quite frankly, it might come in handy vs. the invaders from Hel. perhaps return it after the climax" Frito> Frito says, "Probably right after we get back. Although I'd like to see if we can use it to win any goodwill towards getting Shiz released. It seems like the appropriate thing to do." Frito> Rand0m says, "oh, that's an even better idea" Frito> Rand0m says, "poit out that shizu's son died for this, you'll get a lot of points" Frito> Frito nods. Frito> Rand0m says, "if that doesn't shave off a few years, nothing will" Frito> Theresa says, "Mitsune sort of has the attitude that she'd rather choke on her own vomit than give House Vanir the Lfoil." Frito> Akari says, "Unfortunately, that's House Vanir's sword, not Hendrake's." Frito> Alan says, "Shizu's son didn't die doing anything for those keeping him imprisoned, though." Frito> Theresa says, "Though she would be willing to trade it to the King to try to get Shizumaru out." Frito> Akari says, "Mitsune should know that Moriya would want to give it back to Vanir. Especially as Vanir is friendly to Amber." He says, "As far as I know, Annadil set this trap up hoping to kill off Drake or Juri or Utena, way back before he vanished of the face of the Earth. Where is Annadil now, anyway?" Frito> Theresa says, "ATM, Mitsune is taking the attitude of 'Moriya died for this blade, and I don't want to give it away to some bunch of bozos who didn't do jack shit to get it back'" Beowulf says, "Shoved outside the Gate to the universe; out of commission, so far as anyone can tell. " Frito> Theresa says, "Eventually, once she calms down, she can probably be talked into it." Frito> Akari nods. Frito> Frito nods. OTOH, since getting Shiz out was one of Moriya's big goals, she should be amenable to that. Frito> Theresa says, "Yes. " Frito> Akari says, "Hm. Actually, I could play Akari as Shizumaru and Rimururu's child too, I suppose." Frito> Akari says, "In case something happens to Mitsune." Frito> Rand0m says, "that'd work fine." Frito> Rand0m says, "always leave yourself options" "Excellent," the man says. "He was a crazed bastard, but we couldn't disobey him. Anyway, got anyone you need whacked?" Beowulf taps his chin. "Well, there's the Abyss Demon from another universe who's about to take over *this* one, but that's going to be one heckuva job." Frito> Ivan the Mad laughs and laughs. The man says, "Piffle. Abyss Demons are pathetic. We'll whack her. What's her name?" Frito> Ivan the Mad laughs and laughs and laughs some more. Frito> Akio says, "Okay, Dan's gone bye-bye." Frito> Akari asks, "Uh, Dan?" Beowulf says, "Hel. She should be invading in..." OOC What's teh timeline on that now? o.o Frito> Ivan the Mad asks, "Travis is going to sic author inserts on Hel. How perfect is that?" Frito> Ivan the Mad exclaims, "They're vast 4th wall powers will defeat her with ease!" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Their, even." John says, "OOC You can tell them that it'll be on High Summer." Frito> Akari says, "Heh." Frito> Theresa says, "Sadly, they have no special 4th wall powers" Beowulf says, "Well, on High Summer. Still not sure of the exact time." Frito> Rand0m says, "aw, I want 4th wall powers :)" The man says, "Right. We're off, then. Where would you like her head delivered to?" Frito> Rand0m says, "I wanna listen to the soundtrack and fling pies at the peanut gallery ;)" Mitsune says, "Send it to Castle Amber." She hisses, "But let some dogs chew on it first." Beowulf nods, growling a bit himself. Frito> Arawn throws peanuts at Rod. "We could have some cats chew on it too," the other thin man says. Frito> Akari says, "Well, at least, Mitsune will never dump Moriya, or anything, either." The skinny woman says, "Oooh, my perky little kitties just love the taste of Abyss Demons!" Frito> Theresa says, "Mitsune wasn't very likely to dump you." Frito> Theresa says, "Unless you started abusing her or something, which wasn't likely. :)" Frito> Akari says, "Right." Frito> Alan wonders if she'll find someone else. Frito> Akio says, "dude, Motoko." Lily just stares at them as if this was all one big crack dream. Frito> Alan says, "I suppose so, eventually, as she's not the type to mourn forever." Frito> Ivan the Mad decides to switch to playing a guy for 3gen so he can mack on Mitsune. Frito> Akari says, "Perhaps by the thirdgen game." Frito> Alan says, "Motoko is about as likely to take up with Mitsune now as she is to take up with Kentaro." Frito> Arawn says, "Hmm ... Touga and Mitsune? :)" Frito> Alan says, "As even if Mitsune wanted to, it would just be too awkward and too painful and too guilt-inducing." Frito> Akari says, "Motoko and Mitsune would be like trampling on the memory of Moriya." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "They could heal the wounds in their heart left by the death of Moriya with sweet sapphic bliss." Frito> Akio says, "Oh, yeah, cause you know, once you've dated Moriya, you're not allowed to date Motoko." Frito> Alan says, "Well, not from my POV. But Motoko will feel that way, and Mitsune may; I'm not sure." Frito> Akari says, "I think after this, Mitsune is going to be much more driven to take the Logrus, as that's one of the things that Moriya encouraged her to do." The thinnest man says, "Right. We'll get you her head as soon as we can. Hemingway keeps the good booze in his office in Strong Hall, if you're wanting a drink. I hear it's hundreds of years old, though I only drink tea myself. Makes you big and strong like me." He pauses, disappointed you don't laugh. "Right. Well, we're out of here." And then they shadow walk out of the shadow. Beowulf manages to smile, just the tinyist bit, at that. Actually, it's a lot more like a grimace, but at least he's trying. "Good luck." Frito> Rand0m says, "what's she got now? flawed" Frito> Rand0m asks, "?" Frito> Akari says, "She doesn't have any primal power." Frito> Rand0m says, "she lead our expedition once o.O" Frito> Akari says, "That's her shapeshifting abilities." Frito> Rand0m says, "ah." Frito> Akari says, "I asked John before." Frito> Akio says, "She has Mad Shifting Skeelz." Frito> Ivan the Mad asks, "Hey, John? Do shapeshifters live effectively forever?" Frito> Theresa says, "Even shifters EVENTUALLY give out, but it's a damn long time." Beowulf looks around tiredly, trying to figure if they should do anything else, or just go home. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Long enough that odds are they'll bite it from some sort of disaster or injury before just wearing out." Mitsune says, "I don't suppose either of you can unleash apocalyptic destruction on this shadow, reducing it to nothing but a burnt out cinder?" Lily says, "I'm too tired to try." You page, "Do I have anything left?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "You could unleas the primal Chaos bomb on your way out if you want to blow the place up" to you. Frito> Akio says, "Mmm. John? The immortality granted by the Logrus is sort of sketchy, right? You might keep ticking over forever like Anno seems to do, or you might wear out after just a few centuries? I ask because Chaos seems to be much, much farther down the generational tree than AMber, and was wondering if that's because they die naturally sooner, or just get killed sooner." Frito> Theresa says, "They get killled" You page, "Since this isn't life-or-death now, I'm assuming we could do without killing ourselves? :p" to Akemi. Frito> Akio says, "Ah." Akemi pages, "Yep." to you. Frito> Ivan the Mad asks, "Chaos is also at least moderately older than Amber, isn't it?" Frito> Theresa says, "Chaos has a lot more experienced years than Amber, also." Beowulf says, "We can set off the Chaos bomb as we go. A pyre in his memory." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "(Canon it is, certainly. I'm less sure about TAMD)" Frito> Theresa says, "You have things like House Aesir, where 40 years pass for every Amber day" Mitsune says, "Good idea." She bends down and takes a little of Moriya's blood, then shapes it into a little hammer with wings. She says to it, "Once we're gone, attack that sword." Beowulf says, "OOC As my love for KU just makes me want to erase this warped version of it from the universe." Frito> Akio says, "TaMD chaos seems like while it may be older than AMber, it's only a marignal thing." Frito> Akio says, "At least, the impression I get." Frito> Theresa says, "It's not much older in real time. But there's so many fast time zones..." Frito> Akari says, "Someone feel free to update Moriya's page on the Wiki for me. I don't much feel like doing it." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "I'll do it." Frito> Akari says, "Thanks." Frito> Alan says, "I will when I have some idea of what's happened, unless--ahh, Dan will." And then you shadow walk out. Behind you, the hammer breaks the glass and Primal Chaos consumes Cheyanne University, a final funeral pyre for Moriya. Frito> Frito nods, probably better than I would have been able to. Frito> Akari says, "I'll have Kaede ready by Friday, I think. Definitely need to take a couple days off. Besides which, tomorrow is KUGAR." Frito> Frito nods. Right. Mitsune says to you, "I have to go tell Motoko. And you had best take Moriya's body to his mother, Rimururu." She shudders. "I can't face Rimururu yet. Though I will soon." John says, "OOC At this point, how much longer you wanna run, Travis? I'm good a while longer, but I don't know if you want to go on." Frito> Akari says, "I imagine Rimururu knows already that something's happened. She must have felt the blood blessing." Frito> Theresa says, "Yep" Beowulf nods soberly, tears running down his cheeks again. "I'm not sure I can face her, either... but I owe it to her. Good luck and all the Powers of Good speed you." Beowulf says, "OOC I can go for a little while longer. Best to try and take care of it now. ;_;" Frito> Akari finally cuts logging. Mitsune leans over and kisses Beowulf's cheek. "You saved Shinobu and Keitaro. You're a good man, Beowulf." She pauses. "Oh shit, we're going to have to tell Shinobu and Keitaro when they wake up and...dammit, I'd better take them with me so Motoko can bust out with her magic and heal them." She turns to Lily. "I love you, sis. Please don't die when I'm not looking." Frito> Akio says, "I would imagine the same thing might happen to Motoko that happened to Kanna." They embrace, and Lily says, "I love you, Mitsune. I always will. And I won't die." Beowulf looks like he's trying to remember how to smile again. "Yes... take care of them, Mitusne. And I'll do my best to keep Lily alive. Including my own life if necessary." Mitsune says, "I know. You've already shown that." She chokes back tears, then rigs some of the glass cases into a sort of platform that she puts Shinobu and Keitaro on. "I love both of you. See you soon." Then she grows a third arm and pulls out a trump card with it. Beowulf looks like he's not sure if he'll ever be able to remember again. He then tries to gather Moriya's body up in his arms, if he can manage it. Akemi pages, "Well, I'll note you saved Lily's life when you let Brown shoot you instead of her." to you. You page, "That's good, at least." to Akemi. Frito> Theresa asks, "You ready to rumble, Alan?" Akemi pages, "You also saved Shinobu and Keitaro's life multiple times." to you. Beowulf asks, "OOC Or does Mitsune have his body right now?" John says, "OOC He's still resting on the floor ATM." Frito> Alan asks, "Yup. Skippy?" Beowulf says, "OOC Can I manage to pick him up? I know it's going to hurt like the blazes, but it seems appropriate to him, like he deserves the pain." Frito> Ivan the Mad asks, "John, what's the Blade of Vanir's name?" Frito> Akari says, "Trust." John says, "OOC actually, Lily had better get him, as your arms are still hideously...oh shit, primal damage. You'd better go with Mitsune so Motoko can heal your arms." John says, "OOC As they'll take centuries to heal otherwise. ^^;;;" Beowulf says, "OOC Ayah. x.x Right." Lily picks up Moriya's body, cradling it gently. John says, "OOC Go out in the main room now." Beowulf OOCly nods. John says, "OOC Okay, ready, Alan? You're getting trumped at Alarsways." You page, "...what a place to arrive. o.O" to Akemi. Motoko pauses as she and Kodachi head to see Morgan. "Pardon me; a trump." She takes it. What you see is one of the most horrible sights of your life. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Man, that phrase is becoming much like 'Several things happen at once.'" Frito> Alan says, "Except this time it's actually going to be horrible." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Indeed." Frito> Alan says, "As the last time it was not actually very horrible at all." Mitsune is standing, holding a trump with a third arm sticking out of a hole in the side of her clothing, which is shot full of bulletholes and covered with blood. She looks like she's been crying a river. Over her head, she's holding a metal platform, on which Keitaro lies barely breathing with his own clothing stuck to him with his blood. Shinobu is horribly burned all over her chest and barely alive. Beowulf, stands next to her with hideously charred arms, and Lily, who wears torn, bloody clothing is next to him. Frito> Akio says, "Eiyah. o.O;" Frito> Ivan the Mad puts on some nicely melancholy Crash Test Dummies. Mitsune has a logrusfoil hanging from her belt, Morkeleb on her back, Ilvig crossed with it, and another sword on her left hip. In fact, she looks rather like a human armory, as she has two pistols tucked into her pockets as well. Frito> Tobias says, "'I come, dear friend from Hell tonight, across the rotting sea'" Motoko says, quietly, in a very calm voice, "Lady Kodachi, some of my relatives and friends need medical care very urgently. May I please bring them through?" And then you see the worst. Lily is holding the hideously charred body of Moriya. Your mind blanked it out on the first pass, but now it hangs before you like a nightmare. Frito> Akari asks, "Can we assign Canta Per Me as the song for this battle on the soundtrack?" Frito> Theresa says, "Yes, though I don't know what it is, I'm happy to take requests. ;_;" Frito> Alan says, "Shit. I guess what Motoko gave him wasn't enough to save him from that many wounds. :/" Frito> Akari says, "It's on the Noir OST. Check thekeep." Motoko lets out a small, quiet sound, like something's died inside her. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "The talisman was used to save Shinobu Minor, who would have died too, without it." Beowulf looks about 200 years older than you've ever seen him, tears runnign down his face. Frito> Akari says, "It's in /data/movies/Noir." Frito> Tobias says, "Nope, Dan." Frito> Frito says, "Unfortunately, it didn't, if I understood John correctly; no-magic" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Ah." Frito> Tobias says, "I played it for him, Drew." Frito> Akari says, "Right." Frito> Akari says, "Either that or Salva Nos." Frito> Alan says, "Hrm. I thought power words didn't obey the same rules as sorcery, since they were powered by the life-force of the user." Frito> Tobias says, "He actually has it; he just didn't recognize the name." Frito> Akari says, "Ah." Frito> Alan waits for Kodachi to respond. Frito> Theresa says, "You can block Power Words if you have the mad skills that the person who built the trap had." Frito> Alan says, "Yuck. I'm guessing this was an Annadil thing." Frito> Tobias says, "Salva Nos might work for the fight, and Canta Per Me for the return." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Actually, I had Melodie going through my head during the battle." Frito> Akari says, "Yep. Set up by Annadil." Lady Kodachi's eyes widen. "Of course, Motoko. Bring them through, and I will help you heal them." Motoko holds out her hands. "Come through," she says calmly. Mitsune reaches out and takes your hand and comes through. Lady Kodachi's eyes widen and she pales as she sees the extent of the damage. Motoko fans out a trump and gives it to Kodachi. "Please call Davros. We will need him. It is... it is very bad. Don't let Suu see." Kodachi nods and moves off down the hallway. Beowulf wobbles on his feet, looking barely conscious. Motoko says, softly, "Who is hurt the worst among you? Quickly. I only have so many spells." Motoko is very obviously trying not to look at Moriya's body. Beowulf says, "Shinobu or Keitaro. I can survive for now." Mitsune gently lowers the improvised metal stretcher to the ground. Mitsune points to Beowulf. "He had to thrust his arms into primal Fire." Mitsune says, "Although Shinobu as well." She struggles to not cry more. Beowulf snarls. "And Shinobu was burned byt he same primal Fire, and is barely breathing. Do it!" Motoko puts her hands on Shinobu and begins to recite lynchpins in a clear, calm voice. Beowulf looks briefly apologetic, as sorrow washes over his face again. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. But do Shinobu first. Please. I don't want these arms to be for nothing." Pale white light spreads out in slow-moving waves from her hands and begins to wash over Shinobu's body. Kodachi now returns with Davros who says, "What has..." And then he stares at all of you, and then at Moriya, whose chest is full of holes and whose left arm is completely gone. "No. No. It can't be...." His skin turns pale as he slowly walks over. "Who did this? _Who_ did this?" You can see the ring on his right hand is starting to crackle with electricity. Motoko says, "Davros, help Mitsune and Lily. I will heal Beowulf." She turns to Beowulf and reaches out her still-glowing hands towards his arms. Motoko says, "And Keitaro, too... they all need... they all need help..." Beowulf looks crushed by guilt. "He died killing the man who was in charge of this." He turns to Lady Kodachi. "It was set up by Annadil, many years ago." Frito> Akari says, "Man, I'm starting to get teary." Beowulf says, "OOC Ack. Strike that, turns to *Davros*. x.x" Davros takes a deep breath, then steps over to Mitsune. He raises his hand, and closes his eyes and whispers, touching her cheek with his hand. Fire erupts from the ring, and rushes over her, burning away the blood, and wiping away her wounds. Frito> Frito kicks himself, several times. Was there any information about this in Annadil's library? Mitsune begins to cry. "I was there. I should have done something. If I'd only not lost myself....dammit. Dammit." Motoko lays her hands on Beowulf's arms and the white glow begins to wash away the charring on his arms, leaving behind new pink flesh. Frito> Theresa says, "Nope, Annadil deliberately didn't leave any information on it to be found." Frito> Frito sighs. OK, I feel a little better. Motoko then turns to Keitaro and begins weaving a spell from scratch, moving calmly, methodically, and almost gracefully. Davros says, "I know you must have done your best, Mitsune." He clenches his fists for a moment, then makes them unclench, and steps over to Lily. He takes her hand, and releases his spell. The fire rushes over her, burning away her wounds as well. Frito> Tobias says, "Man, this don't seem real." Beowulf says, "It was a trap set by Annadil, around the LogrusFoil Moriya had heard about. He came to me for help tracking it down and trying to trade for it." Lady Kodachi now goes over to Mitsune and puts a hand on her shoulder. "I know what it is like to lose someone you love. Do not let it consume you." Motoko moves a hand over Keitaro's chest and the white waves wash over him. His breathing eases and the blood flakes away to dust. Mitsune says, "If he wasn't already dead, I'd kill that little piece of shit...if I ever get my hands on Annadil, I'm going to shove him face first through a fucking meat grinder, then burn his remains, and burn the fucking ashes." Frito> Arawn says, "Uh-oh ... Mitsune is channeling Gaby." Beowulf looks over at Mitsune in shared pain, before turning back to continue the report. Shinobu and Keitaro sleep peacefully, their chests rising and falling. Frito> Ivan the Mad exclaims, "And then invent a machine that burns things that are already burned, and burn the ashes of the ashes!" Frito> Frito says, "Uh-huh. o.o" Frito> Akari sighs, pours a glass of scotch, and toasts Moriya. Motoko asks Kodachi, softly, "Is there somewhere we may take them to rest? I am so sorry to impose like this." Lady Kodachi says, "I know. I know the feeling, Mitsune." She sighs. Frito> Alan says, "'Pour the unhappiness out / From your too bitter heart, / Which grieving will not sweeten. / Poison grows in this dark. / It is in the water of tears / Its black blooms rise. / The magnificent cause of being, / The imagination, the one reality / In this imagined world / Leaves you / With him for whom no phantasy moves, / And you are pierced by a death.'" Kodachi says, "Yes, we have..." She winces. "A lot of empty space these days." She quickly guides you down a hallway to a set of connected rooms. "I will go and get Hiko and Morgan. They will want...they need to know." Beowulf closes his eyes briefly in pain and memory, then follows along. Motoko says, "Thank you." She begins getting people into beds to rest, then finally turns to Lily and holds out her arms for Moriya's body. Beowulf sits on the edge of the bed, clearly pushing himself but not willing to rest until he can confess. Lily passes Moriya's body over to Motoko, then sits down in a chair and stares at the floor. Mitsune goes over and quietly casts a spell to fix the damage to Shinobu and Keitaro's clothing, then stares at them. Motoko holds Moriya in her arms for a moment, legs trembling, and then just sort of sinks down to the floor as though collapsing in slow motion, cradling his head against her shoulder. Frito> Akari says, "Damn. A lot of people are going to be very, very unhappy." Frito> Akari says, "I can't begin to imagine what Nanami is going to think." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "mmm. Just a few, just a little." Frito> Frito nods. "And all the perps either dead or beyond reach." Frito> Theresa says, "Nanami is going to...well...have a cow. ^^^;;;" Motoko whispers, "Oh, Moriya, Moriya, Moriya, my Sword, my Swords, how can you leave like this?" Davros now comes over and kneels by Motoko, wrapping his arms around her. "I can't believe it. It just...it can't be real." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "'Let's open the Gates of Revolution, drag his sorry ass out of there, and kill him so dead his ancestors die.'" Frito> Theresa laughs. Lily says softly, "I should call Mother, but if I try to tell her, I'm just going to crumple up in a ball and die." Frito> Akari says, "At least I left a fresh Patternghost." Frito> Theresa says, "This is true." Frito> Akio says, "Well, he lived fast and died young, but unfortunatly, the corpse is not all that good-looking." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "So Mitsune, in her guilt and rage induced insanity can build a blood creature from your remains and download the Patternghost into it, then breed with it." Motoko says, "If only... if only..." She begins to stroke her hands down Moriya's burned body, which start to glow white and restore the body to some appearance of decency, even if they can do nothing at all for the true loss. She looks up at Lily and says, "I will call her. Don't worry." Frito> Alan says, "Actually, that's what Motoko's doing right now, Merc." Beowulf nods slowly. "And I need to call his mother." Beowulf asks, "OOC Is Rimruru part of the standard trump deck now? Or has Aeris ever seen her?" Lily says, "She is my mother. I'm the eldest. It's my job. I just..." She shudders. John says, "OOC Aeris has, she can patch you through." Frito> Akari says, "Take the time to tell Shizumaru in person. Don't just drop him a note. Same with Atsuko." Lily pulls out a trump card and makes contact. Mitsune goes over and puts her hands on Lily's shoulders. Motoko says, "We will need to tell a lot of people." She holds Moriya's body very tightly and rocks back and forth on her heels in Davros's embrace. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "'Dear Atsuko, your grandson just bit the big one. Sorry. Love and kisses... -the crew.'" Beowulf's epression breaks for a moment, then he asks Aeris to patch him through to Rimruru. Frito> Akari ponders Kaede's entrance. You page, "Do I think she'd want to be here? At least she'd have the support of the people here." to Akemi. Frito> Arawn . o O ( 'My name is Kaede. You killed my friend. Prepare to die.' ) Frito> Akari says, "He'd probably come to the Keep first." Davros says softly, "We must carry on for him. But I don't want to have to carry on without him." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Almost too bad Hemingway died. That would have made the ideal way to introduce him." Frito> Akari says, "Yeah, I know." Akemi pages, "Yes, you think she'll want to come to his body" to you. Frito> Akari says, "Actually, Yuki would probably be coming along, as well." Motoko says, "There is no choice of whether or not to carry on." Akemi pages, "You trump her. She looks very nervous and confused. She sees you and says softly, "Someone has died, haven't they. Is it my husband or my son?"" to you. Frito> Akari says, "Considering that she was in love with him for a while." Motoko kisses Moriya's forehead and stands up, shakily, to carry his body towards an empty bed and lay him out. Davros nods. "I know. I know my love. Oh Serpent...I should have been there." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "And been just as useless as Lily." You page, "Beowulf looks much, much older than Rimruru's ever seen him, and his face crumples. "Your son." He looks like he's trying to say something more, but can't. Tears run down his face." to Akemi. Frito> Theresa says, "Well, yes." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Though I suppose he was probably stronger and tougher than her." Frito> Frito says, "Though Lily's psyche did come in handy once or twice." Frito> Tobias says, "That was the Shadow that ate powers users for breakfast." Akemi pages, "She begins to cry now. "I could feel...he gave me a blessing, but..." She holds out her hands. "Is he there? Bring me to him, please."" to you. Frito> Theresa says, "Yep. Jacqui/Motoko would have been utterly fucked. Especially Jacqui." You page, "Beowulf takes her hands. "Of course," he says, trying to put into his voice and expression the sorrow he can't manage to say. He takes her hands and pulls her through." to Akemi. Lily takes a deep breath and pulls Yumi through into the room. Yumi looks quite shaken. Motoko asks, "You should have been there. You should have been there." She puts Moriya down and rises up slowly, back to Davros. "What good is a Bride who allows her Sword to be broken? And why..." Her voice cracks. "Why didn't the Serpent protect him like He has protected me? Didn't He love him enough? Wasn't he good enough?" She begins to shake. "What's the good of any of it... what's the good of any of it at all?" Beowulf sits for a moment, his face crumpling, before pulling Rimruru through. Frito> Alan says, "Motoko at least has semi-decent Warfare and a fairly powerful weapon and some shapeshifting." Frito> Alan says, "Though Jacqui has a lot more shapeshifting than she does." Frito> Akari says, "And Fuyutsuki just put a mindshift cap on Jacqui to limit the mental damage she'd been taking from abusing the ability." Davros says, "I don't know, my love. I know he cannot watch everything everywhere. I fear he somehow passed beyond the Serpent's gaze." He stares at his ring. "I know he sees through my ring, but Moriya had no spikard with him...like if I had been there." He winces again. "Damnation." Frito> Tobias says, "The situation you guys were in was the sort of thing mindshifting was invented for." Beowulf levers himself off the bed and tries to lead Rimruru over to the body of her son. Lily says, "We passed into a shadow where the Logrus had no power. I fear it was beyond the sight of the Serpent indeed." Frito> Tobias says, "The 'I need to surpass my skills or we're all dead' kind." She clenches her fists. "I couldn't do hardly anything. It was awful." Frito> Frito nods. "Shinobu Mindshifting to Utena probably saved us all, and so did Mitsune shifting to Juri." You lead Rimururu over to Moriya. She leans down and kisses his forehead gently, then takes his one remaining hand. Beowulf says, "The Logrus had no power there. Magic and Trump had no power there. And using Pattern or Broken Pattern brought down deathtraps on you." She says, "I love you, my son. Wherever you have gone, know that." And then she begins to cry. Motoko steps quietly aside to let Rimururu by and just kind of stands there helplessly, looking lost. Mitsune says, "It was a stinking, filthy pit of evil. We went into it after this damn sword." She points to the Logrusfoil she is wearing. "The whole thing was...I'm glad we destroyed it." Frito> Akari asks, "What is Trust's special power, John?" Beowulf briefly snarls. "Burned to the ground, like the cesspit it was." Beowulf says, "I only wish the Primal Chaos bomb had been bigger." Frito> Theresa says, "Once you attune to it, people instinctively trust you. It's incredibly good for helping you to build alliances and friendships as a result. You can also detect if people are trust worthy. " Frito> Alan says, "i.e. Good Stuff boost as far as interaction goes." Frito> Akari nods. Frito> Akari says, "And a touch of what Justice can do." Davros stands with Motoko, an arm around her, looking very sad and shaken. Frito> Rand0m asks, "mm. what day is this?" Yumi now comes over to Moriya, and stands and stares at him quietly. Frito> Akari asks, "Probably around 75, I imagine?" Frito> Alan says, "Evening of 73, I believe, as that's where I think Motoko was." Frito> Akari says, "Or not." Frito> Theresa says, "Yep. It's evening of day 73, and soon will be day 74" Motoko says, quietly, "For a sword." She looks down at the floor, helplessly. "All for a sword--" Davros touches her and she actually flinches, shaking her head and nodding at Rimururu. She says something to Davros too quietly for anyone else to hear. Beowulf looks like he's finding a bit of strength to continue in his anger at himself. "I Pattern teleported in there, and my device for checking Powers was jammed. So I tried Patternsight, and set off a water-serpent from the river, 40 miles long." Frito> Alan says, "'It's the end of the world as we know it, and, frankly, gentlemen, I feel pretty damn shitty about it.'" Yumi now puts a hand on Rimururu's shoulder. Davros lets go of Motoko and goes over to Rimururu and says softly, "He has gone to the gentle embrace of the Serpent, to ride with the Unicorn in forests unknown. I know he loved you very much. I was his friend...his...his twin of the soul. I feel like part of me has died." Motoko says, "You do not need to tell this story now, Uncle." She goes and sits down beside Mitsune on the bed and just stares at the wall. Rimururu now turns and embraces Davros and cries on his shoulders. Motoko says, "There will be time later. There will be time." Beowulf looks distraught, but sighs and nods. "I should have done something better," he murmurs, sliding back against an empty bed. His expression is bleak. "I should have done something." Yumi now comes over to Beowulf. "From what Lily told me, you're the only thing which kept them all alive, for anyone to come back. You can never win every battle." Motoko says, "It is always a matter of what one should have done, or done better, but in the end, we must accept that we did what we did, that what is done is done. If it has not been enough, then all we can do is hope we will grow stronger." Beowulf looks up at Yumi. "Maybe not. But you never stop wanting to try." Lily comes over to Beowulf. "At least you got something done. I didn't do anything right." Motoko clenches a fist and stares at it. "Love is powerless by itself. Only strength can be relied upon." Beowulf manages a weak smile, and puts an arm around her. "You were my eyes, as Mitsune was... Moriya's." His expression crumples again, before he forcibly straightens it out. Mitsune says softly, "Love must guide our strength, as it guided me to kill Hemingway." Beowulf says, "You helped convince the people we ran into that we were escaped castaways. You kept me going. Don't ever think you did nothing to help." Mitsune says, "And without love, we can have no strength, only despair." She clenches her fists. "I should have picked someone I could handle...dammit." Rimururu continues to bawl as Davros holds her. Frito> Akari asks, "John, would you create and run Yuki alongside Kaede?" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "'nono, you did alright, it was me who sucked.' 'no, you were great, it was me who couldn't cut it.' 'no, me!'" Frito> Akari asks, "Or would you like for me to create her for you to run?" Frito> Theresa says, "Sure, I've seen enough of her in LB to actually know what she's like somewhat, though I still haven't seen all her moves." Frito> Akari says, "All right." Frito> Theresa says, "If you have any pages you can point me to, that would help." Beowulf turns to Mitsune. "You did your best, and a lot more than I would have imagined." Frito> Akari nods. Frito> Frito smiles ruefully at Dan. Motoko puts an arm around Mitsune, then cradles her head against her shoulder. "Love means nothing if we have not the strength to protect it," she says fiercely. "We might as well love dreams and mist if we're not strong enough to protect what we love." Beowulf looks very uncomfortable at this, but can't think of anything to say in return. Mitsune puts an arm around Motoko as well. "I wish I could have died instead of him. He had a purpose, and I'm just this idiot who couldn't even save the man she loves." Lily says, "All strength fails some time. As I found out." She stares at her hands. Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "'I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.'" Frito> Frito asks, "SiaSL?" Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Yup." Frito> Akari says, "Argh. Too much angst." Yumi now goes over to Rimururu and says, "I will talk to King Ishmael and ensure you a visit with Shizumaru so you can tell him. And I will see if we can do something to let him attend the funeral." Frito> Frito nods in agreement with Dan. Motoko kisses Mitsune's hair lightly and strokes her back. "Moriya loved you. He died to protect you, as you would have died to protect him. Only what we love is worth dying for, though it is always better that we live." Frito> Akari says, "I wanted to avoid that with Akari, but now, whether she's Mitsune's child or Shizumaru and Rimururu's child, that angle is going to be built in. Her father's dead/the brother she never knew is dead." Frito> Alan says, "Oh, neither of those require excessive angst if you don't want them to." Frito> Akari says, "I know, but it'll still be there." Frito> Theresa says, "After a hundred years, you could have adjusted." Frito> Akari says, "I guess." Beowulf says, "I think... we should see if there's some way to use this to earn Shizumaru's freedom." He glares at the LogrusFoil. "It's one thing Moriya wanted, above almost all else." Mitsune says, "You should have seen him. He was magnificent. He was magnificent." Mitsune nods. "If the King wants it to set Shizumaru free, I'll happily give it to him." Frito> Alan says, "My mother died five years ago, and I don't spend all my time constantly thinking about it. Adjusting to death and going through the process of mourning so you can go back to living a normal life is a part of being human." Mitsune says, "It's what Moriya would have wanted." Frito> Akio says, "Also, in game terms, tons of people in this family have lost siblings or never known them. The Elders, for example. Van.Shinji. Gil-Galad. Corey. Mara." Frito> Akari says, "Yeah." Frito> Rand0m says, "there'd be a lot less angst as moriya's sister." Davros talks quietly with Yumi and Rimururu. Motoko says, "I know... I know he would have been... he was always so brave." Frito> Akio says, "And lets not even talk about the Harad girls." Frito> Akari asks, "Rod, what's Jacqui's reaction going to be about this?" Frito> Rand0m says, "at first, disbelief, then even more doubt in teh unicorn than she currently has lingering right now, and finally when it all sinks in, massive guilt." Frito> Akari nods. Frito> Akari says, "Oh, boy." Beowulf nods slowly. "He carried us all, at the end, after I burned my arms to put out the primal fires in Shinobu." Frito> Rand0m says, "there's going to be some bitter commentary in the church of the unicorn late at night." Frito> Akari says, "Well, here's another tree to be planted in the Keep's courtyard." Lily says, "We would all have died without him." Frito> Alan says, "Motoko is kind of wanting to go to the Abyss and scream at the Serpent right now as well." Frito> Rand0m says, "shamber's one and only wooded park shall be renamed Moriya Park" Motoko whispers, "Why wasn't I there? Why wasn't I there? Why did I let him go away from me, when I knew that we were bound together?" Mitsune says, "I don't know, Motoko. I don't know." Motoko hangs her head and closes her eyes, falling silent. Frito> Akio says, "The Serpent doens't know everything. He's not all-powerful." Frito> Akio says, "Motoko is just going to have to rather graphically accept that." Frito> Rand0m says, "no, but at times like this, ESPECIALLY with characters who have PERSONALLY talked with their deities, it grates on the soul especially hard" Rimururu says, "I am going to go with Lady Yumi to see the King about seeing Shizumaru. Beowulf, can you ensure that Moriya is taken to Amber so that he can be prepared for burial?" Beowulf shakes himself out of his funk, then nods. "Yes. I owe him that, and more." Frito> Tobias says, "I'd personally have a hard time accepting either of the two as a deity." Frito> Rand0m says, "there is no anonymous entity to rage against. You've met your god. Did the handshake. And now you can't help but get that 'So where the hell were YOU?' feeling" Frito> Theresa says, "Yep." Motoko winces as though struck. Frito> Tobias says, "Really honking powerful and primal, but not gods." Frito> Rand0m says, "exactly" Frito> Akari says, "Hmm. If Ishmael refuses the foil, and Kaede arrives soon enough, would Mitsune give it to him to use? As he's going to be war-goddy." Frito> Akio says, "They seem like gods to me. Especially when matche dup against the Greek and ROman gods, etc." Frito> Alan says, "Only gods we've really got to shout at, I'm afraid." Frito> Akari says, "And Kaede would have no reason to give it up to Vanir, at least not any time soon." Frito> Akio says, "They're not gods in the ineffable, all-powerful Christian sense of the word." Beowulf says, "Motoko..." He sighs, wincing himself, and tries to think of a way to ask her along without rubbing it in. Frito> Alan says, "If someone cares to point Motoko to their boss, she'll gladly shout at them instead." Frito> Rand0m says, "no, but allegedly by their respected churches, they're suppoed to be the all knowing all powerful gods" Frito> Tobias says, "Well, they work as gods in the sense of the pre-afterlife sense." Rimururu says, "Thank you Beowulf." She turns to the rest of you. "Thank you, all of you, for ensuring that at least his body was recovered. I will want...to talk to all of you later." She comes over to Mitsune and embraces her, then kisses her cheek. "I know he loved you. And you loved him. We must talk later." She goes to Motoko and kisses her cheek as well. "You were always his best friend, Motoko. I will see you soon." Frito> Arawn points Motoko in the direction of the All-Powerful Biles. Beowulf says, "I'm sure... he would be glad to have you with him." Frito> Theresa says, "Sadly, the PCs can't get to my Universe." Frito> Frito says, "But the players can. " Motoko says, quietly, "Goodbye, Aunt. Take care. I will see you soon." Frito> Alan says, "The implication seems to be that they do so in the afterlife sense as well, Mike." Frito> Theresa says, "Mitsune is going to keep the sword for herself, or give it to the King to get Shizumaru out. As it's all she has left of him. Well, not counting Ilvig, which she is definitely going to want to find a good user for." Frito> Tobias says, "Hrm, now that's troublesome." Frito> Akari says, "Right." Frito> Theresa says, "After he died getting it, she couldn't bear to give it away." Frito> Tobias asks, "Fer ex, what happened to the afterlife folks in the Helverse, where Serpent and Unicorn are the butt-toys of Hel?" Frito> Alan says, "I suspect their souls are currently occupying the bodies of her undead armies, or have been devoured as snacks." Frito> Tobias asks, "And if someone axed the Unicorn, what would happen to its heaven?" Frito> Akari says, "Well, Kaede is going to need a sword. Trying to figure out how to do that." Rod has connected. Rod has disconnected. Frito> Tobias would have trouble worshipping a falible god. Frito> Theresa says, "Well, Kaede could have had some adventures and acquired a fairly nice sword." Frito> Akari says, "Of course. At least that." Frito> Rand0m says, "he could find one that does this lightining thing.... :)" Frito> Akari says, "Seiryuu would probably grant him one." Frito> Akari says, "I'm using air and fire elemental imprints to cover that, Rod." Frito> Alan says, "That's your particular POV then, Mike, but many people past and present don't." Frito> Rand0m says, "ahso" Frito> Akari says, "+4 damage, +4 spellbreaking, at least." Frito> Tobias says, "I suppose so. My own faith is just fairly integral with the notion of a sort of perfect good." Yumi and Rimururu then teleport away. Beowulf tries again. "Motoko... I'm sure he'd like to have you at his side." Motoko says, "His mother asked you, Uncle. Had she wanted me along, she would have asked me as well." Kanna OOCly decides the he needs must sleep. G'night. Ceitidh OOCly says, "Night." Beowulf says, "OOC Seeya, Phil." Davros sits down. "She may not have thought of it. I know I am not thinking clearly." Motoko says, "I wasn't there." Aerianne has disconnected. Beowulf opens his mouth, stops, then closes it again. "And you're not dead," he says softly. "And he's almost certainly happier that way." Motoko says, very tightly, "Had his mother wanted me to take his body back to Amber, she would have asked me. I was not there. You were. Please obey her wishes." Mitsune says, "I don't know whether to go with you, Beowulf, or stay here in Chaos so I can be here for Rimururu." She sighs. Frito> Alan says, "Those who don't believe in the existence of perfect good generally have to just make do with the highest good they can, which in this particular universe is the Unicorn and the Serpent. And the universe currently lacks any well-developed system of theology that reconciles the two of them into one whole, as aspects or reflections of some perfect good, some grand design, as you do for example in Hinduism." Lily says, "You should stay here with Motoko, Mitsune. I will go with Beowulf. We'd best take Shinobu and Keitaro with us, so we can bed them down until they recover." Frito> Alan says, "Although there are hints in that direction." Beowulf screws his face shut in pain, swallows, then sighs. "As you will, niece." Frito> Theresa says, "Well, I've thought of the Unicorn and the Serpent's reactions to this, so whenever people want ot kick them in thehead, I'll be ready." Frito> Akio says, "Also, in this universe it's pretty apparent that the Outsiders were inches away from total triumph before the Pattern and Logrus got created, and that the Unicorn and Serpent only live because they stay behind the massive fence Fuyutsuki and/or Anno built." Frito> Akio says, "Which puts a crimp in their divinity." Beowulf turns to Lily. "Yes. We'd... better take them." Frito> Akari sighs, and finds that he's created Kaede already. Frito> Akio says, "As near as I can see, the 'gods' of this universe are merely aspects of universal ideas, like Order and Chaos." Frito> Akari says, "It's a very...simple layout, but hey." Frito> Alan says, "God (OED definition) : superhuman being worshipped as having power over nature & human fortunes, deity." Frito> Theresa says, "Simplicity is often good :)" Beowulf turns back to Motoko, and bows deeply. "All the Good I can wish you, I do. Fare you well." Frito> Theresa says, "Email him to me if he's ready, and I'll go over him." Mitsune nods to Lily. Frito> Alan says, "That fits the Unicorn and the Serpent perfectly fine, and they do, indeed, serve as the avatars of the ideas that define the universe." Frito> Akio says, "Well, there you go." Motoko says, "Fare well, Uncle." Frito> Akio says, "ALthough by that definition, the Amberites and Chaosians are also gods." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "To most shadow dwellers, they are." Frito> Theresa says, "They're a lot further down the god food chain." Frito> Akio says, "Or could meet all the criteria simply by acquiring worshippers." Frito> Alan says, "For many people, gods are a matter of degree rather than transcendence." Frito> Akari says, "Sent." Frito> Theresa says, "But yes, Pattern and Logrus let you create and snuff entire universes. If that isn't godlike, I dunno what is. " Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "One of the nobles of Kenshi said something to the effect of 'if you're not a god, you're close enough for me', when Motoko told them she wasn't." Frito> Alan says, "It's only when you get into the idea of perfection that you start being able to draw clear lines between the divine and the merely supernatural." Beowulf sighs, gathers together with Lily, Shinobu, Keitaro, and Moriya's body, then stops. He concentrates for a moment, and conjures an appropriately stately bier for Moriya's body to rest on, then sets him on it. He then has Aeris trump them out. Frito> Alan asks, "...they're going to Amber, aren't they?" You page, "Yah, I'd better." to Akemi. Frito> Theresa says, "Oh, bloody fucking hell" Frito> Frito nods. Frito> Frito asks, "What?" Frito> Akari asks, "Er, what?" Frito> Theresa says, "They're gonna take Moriya's body into the middle of the rampage of the Horny Patternghosts" Frito> Rand0m says, "uh oh. i know." Frito> Alan asks, "The Amber that is currently filled with horny Patternghosts, and evacuated by the family?" Frito> Rand0m says, "ergh." Frito> Rand0m says, "I knew it" Frito> Theresa falls to the ground and cries like an infant Frito> Akari says, "..." Frito> Ivan the Mad says, "Oh man." Frito> Frito x.x ;_; o.o x.x ;_; Frito> Rand0m says, "oh, this is gonna get baaaaaad." Motoko comes over and stares down at Moriya's body for a moment, strokes some hair away from his forehead, and then steps back as they trump out. Frito> Akio laufhs hysterically. Frito> Arawn says, "This is going to be ugly." Frito> Rand0m says, "don't don't don't don't bring up moriya's patternghost" Frito> Akari asks, "Um. How about Aeris know about what's going on in Amber, and suggests that they shunt over to the Keep until it passes?" Frito> Frito says, "Well, we *are* probably going to trump to Yig first... o.o" Frito> Akio says, "Oh, man, this is goign to be great." Frito> Rand0m asks, "um, they can, er, like, rest in Arden maybe?" Frito> Alan says, "I think this is just about the definition of black comedy." Frito> Akari says, "Arden has the Wood Pattern. Not much help." Frito> Rand0m says, "oh damn." Frito> Ivan the Mad imagines Beowulf bitchslapping the Pattern and yelling 'CEASE THIS!' Frito> Frito says, "Well, I'm about fried and cutting for the night, so at least we can think of a way to finesse tis... o.o" Frito> Alan says, "...the Green Knight must be occupied ATM." Frito> Rand0m says, "mercifully, actually, the rampage shouldn't be that lo- oh damn, it took us a day to find fuyutsuki, nevermind." Frito> Rand0m exclaims, "stall! stall for time!" Frito> Rand0m exclaims, "oops! we left his arm somewhere, hold on!" Frito> Akari says, "Please, for the sake of Moriya's dignity, find a way around this. Bad enough that he's dead already." Frito> Frito nods. Yes. Please. Frito> Theresa says, "This is true. Aeris will know about it and will send them to the Keep where they can wait until Jacqui restores order." Frito> Akari says, "Thank you." Frito> Rand0m says, "there you go. good." Frito> Frito whew's. "Yes. Thank you." Frito> Theresa says, "Which is good, as...UGH" Frito> Rand0m says, ".... what ugh? don't tell me aeris is gonna feel itchy" Frito> Alan just stares at his screen in utter disbelief at the way things almost went, and manages to make himself not laugh through sheer force of will. Frito> Alan says, "Aeris, unlike Morgy and Vector and Gabby, is fortunately not built on a Pattern or Broken Pattern." Frito> Frito says, "She'd better not, she's based around a trump font and only 8 or so years old. o.o" Frito> Theresa says, "Yeah." Frito> Rand0m asks, "good. now what's this 'UGH' business?" Frito> Alan wonders what might have happened to Vector because of this. Frito> Theresa says, "Oh....oh...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Frito> Alan says, "'VECTOR NEEDS WOMEN! INSEMINATE! INSEMINATE!'" Frito> Arawn says, "John is sure making interesting noises tonight. o.o;" Frito> Akio says, "Oh dear lord." Frito> Rand0m says, "you know john's making me fear this is something worse than motoko's gang running into the sexathon" Frito> Frito says, "Waking up to his own self-awareness, in the middle of *that*? o.O" Frito> Akio imagines what will happen to gabby and Morgy abd Vector. Frito> Alan says, "Bride of Vectorstein." Frito> Alan says, "Well, Morgy probably won't change at all." Frito> Frito says, "And Kafuin's based around Elemental powers, which is also good. o.o" Frito> Arawn says, "He already is a perverted freak, after all." Frito> Akari says, "I don't think it's anything really bad, just...extremely, sickeningly inappropriate if they funeral party came to Amber in a time like that." Frito> Rand0m says, "he's freakin' the PGhosts of keiko, hiko and ramon already." Frito> Theresa says, "Fortunately, Morgy got shut down during the rampage" Frito> Arawn doesn't mind Keiko and Hiko ... but Mo/Ramon ... ew. Frito> Theresa says, "And had to reboot " Once everyone is gone, it is only Motoko, Davros and Mitsune left. Motoko gets up and begins to pace the room, slowly. "Lady Kodachi said she was going to get Aunt Hiko and Cousin Morgan," she says quietly. "It's taking a long time. I hope that everything is all right." You hear running feet, and then the door opens. Hiko is breathing hard. "I hate running," she mumbles, then says, "Is it...is it true?" Morgan stands behind her in the hallway. Motoko nods tiredly. "Yes." Frito> Akari says, "I should sleep, but I don't want to." Hiko slumps and steps inside. "Damnation." Frito> Frito waves out and collapses. "Seey... yah, Drew. I don't want to, but I need to. ;_; Seeya all later." Frito> Akari says, "Night." Frito> Alan says, "Night." Frito> Akari says, "I'm probably going to stay around little longer." Travis Butler tbutler@birch.net ...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.