dragonx99
Actually Satan
That right there sums up perfectly why the player thinking this is just a game is a very, very, bad thing.
Void Ascension (ZnT/GW)
- Thread starter HecateGW
- Start date
lifelink
Highschool Mew
- Location
- The Velvet Room
Or this could be passed off as a noble not caring about commoners and just doing their duty.dragonx99 said:
- Location
- Estonia
I wouldn't exactly call that murder, the robber was holding a young kid hostage and threatened to kill him, a real life cop would have been completely justified, even required to, in killing him before he gets to hurt the kid. It was the protagonists "Don't really care if the NPC kid gets killed" attitude about the hostage situation and enjoyment of killing that guy, that may come to hunt him later.Flere821 said:
lifelink
Highschool Mew
- Location
- The Velvet Room
I was thinking more on the people who hear the tale. Yes 'Setsuna' will have to play damage control when confronted with this info.Cody Fett said:
20
Chapter Three, Sidestory
Unknown Boy Snippet
------
As fast as he could run, he moved blindly in any direction away from the hooded crazy woman wearing the chest-revealing, black and green clothing.
While he had stopped screaming a few moments ago in favor of concentrating on his run, he could not help but go back to that terrifying moment.
"Go ahead. I don't care as long as I get the quest done," came the rather cold-sounding response to the grey-cloaked mans' threats.
In what the child would remember in his middle-aged years, he would look back to this moment and realize that he had experienced his own life flashing before his eyes. However, as he was only a child not older than ten years of age, he could not fully comprehend where all these strange and rapidly changing thoughts and memories were coming from.
In that moment, the young child remembered the most vivid memory of the tales from his family about the abuse and horrible treatment of nobles against everyone else and how they could escape the law with only a small fine to pay. Up until that moment, he had thought that such tales were only myths and meant to scare his other, younger siblings into obeying their parents. Now, he knew better as no non-noble would ever be caught wearing some clothing so finely crafted.
Just as he began to struggle in earnest against the hold of the filthy, smelling man, he heard the man start to say something when he saw only a blurry object move rapidly from the strange woman towards the man restraining him.
"BOOM. Headshot!"
In fight or flight mode, the boy made a very quick decision and chose the second of the two.
And now, here he was continuing his run from the very scary noblewoman.
It did not occur to him that the woman had not chased after him and had not ever attacked or threatened him directly, but as a child, he did not know any better.
And he would have continued his run had he not found himself lifted off the ground by the back of his favorite shirt. Once he had stopped and opened his eyes, he realized that he was looking into the face of a knight of the realm as the man was dressed in full regalia of a Tristain Knight. There was no chance he could escape from death this time as his shoulders drooped in resignation from knowing the reputation of the knights' fighting prowess and skills.
"Go 'head and finish it. Don't care anymore," he said in a defeated tone.
"Child. You were running in a panic I have only seen in the most frightened of new recruits. Tell me what has happened that made you so afraid," spoke the firm, but calm voice of the frowning knight.
"I don't care. Y-You're just like that d-d-devil woman," came a slightly more confident voice as he had not been skewered by the knight just yet.
"Devil woman? I assure you that no true knight in service of Tristain would ever willingly harm any loyal subject of Her Royal Majesty," the knight spoke assuringly as the man wiped the frown from his face and gave him a friendly smile.
And so the knight put him down and patted his shoulder in a friendly manner for a few seconds and kneeled down to look at him in the eye while continuing to give him a friendly smile.
"My name is Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, Captain of the Gryphon Knights. Upon my honor, you can tell me everything and I will see that you are safe from this 'devil woman' that has you so frightened."
And so, with his adrenaline having run its course, he told Captain Wardes everything he had seen and heard during the incident.
-------
Authors' Note: This scene takes place just after the boy has run away and has stopped screaming in order to conserve his breathing for his running.
This is just another change from the OTL and we shall see whether or not Reconquista will become a bit more interested in the affairs of Tristain much earlier.
Unknown Boy Snippet
------
As fast as he could run, he moved blindly in any direction away from the hooded crazy woman wearing the chest-revealing, black and green clothing.
While he had stopped screaming a few moments ago in favor of concentrating on his run, he could not help but go back to that terrifying moment.
"Go ahead. I don't care as long as I get the quest done," came the rather cold-sounding response to the grey-cloaked mans' threats.
In what the child would remember in his middle-aged years, he would look back to this moment and realize that he had experienced his own life flashing before his eyes. However, as he was only a child not older than ten years of age, he could not fully comprehend where all these strange and rapidly changing thoughts and memories were coming from.
In that moment, the young child remembered the most vivid memory of the tales from his family about the abuse and horrible treatment of nobles against everyone else and how they could escape the law with only a small fine to pay. Up until that moment, he had thought that such tales were only myths and meant to scare his other, younger siblings into obeying their parents. Now, he knew better as no non-noble would ever be caught wearing some clothing so finely crafted.
Just as he began to struggle in earnest against the hold of the filthy, smelling man, he heard the man start to say something when he saw only a blurry object move rapidly from the strange woman towards the man restraining him.
"BOOM. Headshot!"
In fight or flight mode, the boy made a very quick decision and chose the second of the two.
And now, here he was continuing his run from the very scary noblewoman.
It did not occur to him that the woman had not chased after him and had not ever attacked or threatened him directly, but as a child, he did not know any better.
And he would have continued his run had he not found himself lifted off the ground by the back of his favorite shirt. Once he had stopped and opened his eyes, he realized that he was looking into the face of a knight of the realm as the man was dressed in full regalia of a Tristain Knight. There was no chance he could escape from death this time as his shoulders drooped in resignation from knowing the reputation of the knights' fighting prowess and skills.
"Go 'head and finish it. Don't care anymore," he said in a defeated tone.
"Child. You were running in a panic I have only seen in the most frightened of new recruits. Tell me what has happened that made you so afraid," spoke the firm, but calm voice of the frowning knight.
"I don't care. Y-You're just like that d-d-devil woman," came a slightly more confident voice as he had not been skewered by the knight just yet.
"Devil woman? I assure you that no true knight in service of Tristain would ever willingly harm any loyal subject of Her Royal Majesty," the knight spoke assuringly as the man wiped the frown from his face and gave him a friendly smile.
And so the knight put him down and patted his shoulder in a friendly manner for a few seconds and kneeled down to look at him in the eye while continuing to give him a friendly smile.
"My name is Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, Captain of the Gryphon Knights. Upon my honor, you can tell me everything and I will see that you are safe from this 'devil woman' that has you so frightened."
And so, with his adrenaline having run its course, he told Captain Wardes everything he had seen and heard during the incident.
-------
Authors' Note: This scene takes place just after the boy has run away and has stopped screaming in order to conserve his breathing for his running.
This is just another change from the OTL and we shall see whether or not Reconquista will become a bit more interested in the affairs of Tristain much earlier.
Fair enough, I probably should have used a better word ^^; Either way, I was trying to say that killing would eventually come back to bite the player...Iron Roby said:
So, Wardes huh. This might throw a spanner into whatever Setsuna might have planned or will plan... I won't be surprised if the 'Disgruntled Foreigners' quest gets completely thrown off the rails because of Wardes ^^;
21
Chapter Three, Part Twelve: Sowing the Seeds
------
And so, Jessica and I traveled down the winding roads of the capital towards the tax collector as she led the conversation about her family and the business they had made in the Merchant District for the sake of helping those in need. As a side bonus, their business receieved much loyalty and income from the surrounding population due to their reputation for providing aid and having some of the best service and fanservice in Tristania.
"....and my dad runs the Charming Fairy Inn along with a lot of the other girls because he always has such a soft spot for the runaways."
"Interesting."
"Yup. You wouldn't believe just how many times dad could never turn away any of the street rats, especially the ones who come from those kind of homes. Even if he couldn't make some space or work, he would always recommend a trusted friend to help them get back on their feet."
"That's good to hear."
"Unfortunately, dad, er, how do I say this, tends to have a bit of eccentricity to him ever since mother died. The poor man went and became both a mom and dad to me because he felt so guilty that he couldn't have earned more to give mom the proper treatment."
"I hope by eccentric you don't mean harmful, do you? And I'm sorry for your loss."
"Oh no! He wouldn't harm anyone who didn't deserve to get theirs, it's just that, well, he tends to dress in womens' clothing as a way to cope, but the girls don't mind and neither do I. No need to apologize. She died when I was really young and dad has done his best to raise me and I turned out alright enough."
"Well, I suppose it could have been worse. At least, he's doing some good out of a bad situation."
"That's right. In the end, he's become a very nice person to all the ones who need the help, especially the lost ones. At first, they might be turned off by his dressing habits, but they warm up to him soon enough. They all do."
"Hmmm...."
"Oh, by the way, don't ask too many questions of the girls. Like I said, some of them come from the bad homes or had some bad run-ins with nobles and could care less to be reminded about what they ran away from."
"Got it. Not too many questions."
"Yup. You know, you're a pretty good listener. It's too bad we couldn't have met much earlier as I think that we could've been great friends!"
"Heh. Anyway, who is this collector you're giving you're money to?"
At that question, the normally excited Jessica slumped in posture and looked around as though she were afraid of something emerging from one of the sidestreets or alleys. Once clear, she took hold of Setsuna by the arm and led her to a somewhat secluded alley and began talking in hushed tones.
"Well. You remember how I talked about how dad accepts girls who run away from nobles?"
"Yes?"
"You see, some of those nobles really valued some of the girls who are now working for our inn and they were less than pleased when the girls refused to return. It got even worse when dad intervened and called in some of his favors with a few of his friends."
"I think I know where this is headed, but go on."
"It all started when Count Mott tried to retrieve one of his prized, commoner mistressess. Her name's Marie and don't tell her I told you her story."
"My lips are sealed."
"One day, the poor dear comes in with half her dress shredded from the waist down as though someone was about to force himself on her as there were signs of bruising beginning to form all along her arms, neck, and inner thighs. After some coaxing, dad was able to convince the weeping girl into one of the backrooms. Later that night, dad came out, but he wouldn't say a word except that he needed to contact one of his friends. I didn't need to be a genius to know that whenever dad calls in his friends, it's pretty serious and all."
"Definitely sounds bad."
"Yup. One of his friends was a lieutenant of the Manticore Knights who had pledged a debt of honor to dad for saving the life of one of his fellow knights when a Gallian spy had attempted to escape from jail. Long story short, the Gallian spy had some poisonous powder that was used in an attempted double suicide with himself and one of the Manticore Knights. Fortunately, dad happened to be in the area and had a home-made remedy that was able to hold the poison at bay long enough for a healer to be called in. The lieutenant on site immediately pledged an oath of gratitude to dad and the two became great friends over the years as a number of Manticore Knights visit our inn every few months."
"If the knights visit your inn every few months, why is it that you would have troubles with the nobles then?"
*sigh*"The problem is that the Manticore Knights are mostly made up of lesser noble families and Count Mott is a Palantine of the Royal Court. In other words, he's the final authority in the area outside of the Dukes and the Royal Family itself. But, Count Mott wasn't a stupid man, unlike the other nobles who had tried to retrieve their property in the past. You see, Count Mott secretly contacted the other nobles who had been rebuffed by dad. Can't really say what was said, but I know it was him because one of the dumb nobles said that he had been responsible for gathering them together."
"Sounds like a lot of trouble."
"You got it. So, one day, about half a dozen of the rebuffed nobles and about a company of men-at-arms arrive in force at the inn. Unfortunately for them, the Manticore Knights just so happened to arrive with about half their ranks in full armor. Ha ha, you should looked on the faces of those fat fools! And one of the idiot nobles, as they were running away, shouted that they had not heard the last of Count Mott and other such nonsense."
"The lieutenant immediately took dad aside and told him of the danger of crossing a Palantine of the Court and that he and his knights would not be able to do much if Count Mott pressed the issue. In turn, dad thanked him for his support and told the lieutenant not to worry too much as he did have some other connections. The lieutenant didn't press the issue, but said that he would do as much as he could on his end to keep any Royal Inquiries from being brought down on our inn."
"What's the name of the lietenant by the way?"
"Oh! I'm so sorry. His name is Jacques Poitier de Charney and he was one of the few nobles I can say I was very pleased to have met and known. Anyway, he says that he would do his best to head off any attention from our inn, but Count Mott had one last parting shot since his intimidation tactic didn't work and even backfired when mulitiple witnesses came forward with his name as the one shouted by one of the six fat fools who had run away. He ordered an audit of the finances of the Charming Fairy Inn."
"Sounds like a cheap shot."
*snort* "Count Mott couldn't find any fault with the finances of the inn nor could he find any back taxes owed to the Treasury, so he used his influence to convince the tax collector to pocket extra money from the Merchant District in order to get back at the inn."
"And how did you find out that he had used his influence?"
"Remember how I told you that dad was going to use some of his other connections? Well, that's where Matilda came in. She's a green-haired, non-noble, triangle earth mage who was able to eavesdrop on Count Mott and overheard the conversation between Count Mott and a few of the accountants who work at the treasury. Said something along the lines of how the accountants could get their rightful compensation by raising a little extra."
"But wouldn't the other members of the Merchant District raise a stink about this?"
"Normally they would and the Queen would listen. But, her husband passed away at the time and the Queen practically fell apart. End result was that Count Mott was able to silence the others at the Court by saying that they needed the extra funds in order to compensate for the Queen's lack of oversight and other lies. In the end, the other members of the Court hesitantly agreed because they had other worries to deal with that were much bigger than some non-noble merchants. And so, here we are with the tax collectors' office asking for triple the amount of the usual payment on the grounds of 'necessary taxation' for the purpose improving the nation and other crap."
"And in order to deal with this person, someone needs to silence the idiots doing this, I take it?"
*snort* "As if it would be so easy. If I hadn't said it before, I'll say it again. Thank you for bringing back the stolen money."
"My pleasure."
With the conversation over, Jessica and my character continued their walk towards the tax collectors' office in relative silence while I thought about how to deal with the accountant idiots and get myself some more achievements or maybe even level up my character.
On our arrival, I noted that the office looked more like a grandiose manor than anything else. When we entered, Jessica immediately traveled towards one of the side booths that was behind some iron bars.
"Here to pay for the Charming Fairy Inn," Jessica stated as she presented the bag of coins at the counter and waited with no expression on her face.
"Ah yes. Your little inn. I could always lower your rates if you let me have some fun with you or a few of your friends," the slimy, pale-faced accountant said as he leered at Jessicas' figure and then turned to look at my character, "Or you could offer me to have her for a night or three and you would only pay half the amount."
"As I said before, I am here to pay the taxes owed," Jessica said with a slightly strained tone as she struggled to keep her hands from slapping the man across from her.
"Are you sure? Maybe your silent friend could speak for herself?" said the accountant with narrowed eyes as he tried to inimidate Jessica, but only came off as desperate for some bedroom action.
"I am sure. And Gozen can speak for herself, but she is on duty right now as my bodyguard after I was nearly robbed. You wouldn't happen to know why three, supposedly jailed robbers somehow escaped from prison and decided to attack me specifically, would you?" Jessica responded with an even more strained tone of voice as she leaned on the counter and began to tug on her dress in order to show her assets.
"Are you accusing an upstanding member of the Royal Treasury of illegal activity," said the accountant with a somewhat distracted voice as he was a little busy staring at Jessica. Or rather her cleavage.
"Why of course not. I just wanted to make sure that poor maidens as myself would never be violated by such thugs," she said as she tugged on her dress a bit more, showing even more cleavage.
*gulp* "W-well, you see. There have been r-rumors."
"Yes," came the seductive reply.
"I-I can't say for c-certain, b-but there are some who say that the three Grey Fools were p-pardoned by a P-Palantine of the C-Court," whispered the accountant as he no longer even tried to restrain himself and openly stared at the display of flesh before him.
"Thank you so much. Now, won't you consider lowering the rates? Maybe to the original amount of a third" Jessica said as she laid it on really thick.
At that last part about rates, the accountant snapped out of his stupor.
"I'm sorry miss, but I can only accept what is the proper payment as I am an upstanding citizen of Tristan after all," he stated in an arrogant tone as he continued to sneak peeks at Jessica.
*sigh* "Very well. I guess I will never find it in my heart to ask you when you get off work so that I can relieve you of some of your problems," she regretfully said as she turned to the side with both of her hands on her face and blushing like an innocent girl.
*GULP* "W-well. I suppose paying only a third would be alright. But only ifyoumeetmetwohourslater," he rushed as he hurriedly filled out the paperwork and put away only a third of the coins and returned the rest at the implied offer of Jessica.
"Well then, I will meet you later big boy," Jessica teased as she let one of her hands gently stroke the mans' face.
As we left the treasury office, I could not help but ask, "Are you really going to, you know, let him have his way with you?"
*snort* "Of course not. I have standards after all and he is one of the newer workers there who hasn't learned the ways of the city girls. Unfortunately, when he finds out, he might give some trouble to the inn," she ended with a worried frown.
"I see. Well, let's get you back to your inn and safely away from this place," I said as I began to form some plans for dealing with this problem and finishing this quest.
The trip back to the Charming Fairy Inn was uneventful and Jessica made my character promise to visit sometime with offers of discoutned drinks and food.
After that, I had Setsuna move into one of the abandoned alleyways and change her costume into Grenth's Regalia. Unlike other armors, this costume had a full body armor and helmet that completely concealed the character. Perfect for my plans.
Once in the costume, I decided to leave on a different route for the treasury office and deal out some pain to those fools.
"Maybe I should try this out, Batman style or something similar," I cackled as I activated a few of the stances from the Warrior class and used the One with the Shadows enhancements to blend in with the shadows around the buildings as I traveled towards the Royal Treasury building as the sun had begun to set and provided multiple routes that did not encounter any light.
On my arrival, my navigator arrow pointed out the idiot who thought that he was actually going to get some.
"Damn it! I knew I should have charged that whore the same amount! Next time, you and your girls will pay with your bodies!"
"I don't think so," I said with a gravelly voice.
"Wha-," was all he got out as I hit him with a paralysis variant of the Shadow Step.
Another feature that had been added as part of One with the Shadows had been the ability to transport one person with me as I used Shadow Step and I did so to one of the abandoned buildings that I had spotted on my first time through the capital. The room I had in mind was about two floors beneath the surface of the building and appeared to have been one of those old wineries that had been abandoned.
"You, you can't do this. Do you know who I am?" came the false bravado of the man who was clearly trembling at the knees once he had regained control of his body.
My character stood before him, unmoving at about four meters away.
"If you don't let me go now, a dozen knights of the Manticore Order will burst through that door and rescue me because I am a very important p-person," he continued with a trembling voice.
"...." came my response.
"TALK, DAMN IT!" he shouted desperately as he began to sweat on his forehead.
"I do not expect you to talk, Mr. Fool. I expect you to die," while I ordered my character to begin a slow walk towards the man.
He backed away with wide eyes as his hands began to shake, "Stay back. I'm ordering you to stay b-back."
"Do you hear the voices too," as I quoted the Chaos Marines from the Dawn of War series and ordered Setsuna to stop.
"W-what?!"
"They tell me MAIM KILL BURN, MAIM KILL BURN."
"Just st-stop! I will confe-confess it all! I d-didn't mean to steal. I-I-I was just following or-orders because C-Count M-M-M-Mott said that we would be p-punished if we didn't follow his lead. H-Here. This is the note with his signature. Take it," he threw the note at my person as he held up his hands in surrender and got down on his knees, "Please, by the Founder. Mercy. I'm innocent!"
"There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty," I said in the coldest manner possible as I quoted Inquisitor Karamazov while I stored away the note into my inventory.
"What?! HEEEELLLPPP-gah!"
His cry for aid had been cut short as I pulled out a warhammer and bashed his head like the whack-a-mole game, but with bloodier results.
And inside his inventory I found some other incriminating, physical evidence of orders to take bribes, skim off some of the money for himself, and more signed documents from the person known as Count Mott.
"Now, I should go see Ludwig and see if he knows who Herwald is and the relation to Osmond," I said to myself as I activated One with the Shadows and, once arriving at the edge of the capital, changed Setsuna's costume back into the Shining Blade uniform.
------
Any feedback is welcome, especially the helpful kind!
Authors' Note: This is a bit longer than the usual, but I am hoping that I can jumpstart the interest of Reconquista, or at least parts of Reconquista, in the strange happenings in the capital and how the OTL is going to change drastically from here on out.
There will still be major events like the invasion from Albion and the invasion into Albion, but a lot of the timetable is now shifting with butterfly wings flapping around like crazy now.
ZnT/Guild Wars Crossover with PC-Controlled Assassin.
------
And so, Jessica and I traveled down the winding roads of the capital towards the tax collector as she led the conversation about her family and the business they had made in the Merchant District for the sake of helping those in need. As a side bonus, their business receieved much loyalty and income from the surrounding population due to their reputation for providing aid and having some of the best service and fanservice in Tristania.
"....and my dad runs the Charming Fairy Inn along with a lot of the other girls because he always has such a soft spot for the runaways."
"Interesting."
"Yup. You wouldn't believe just how many times dad could never turn away any of the street rats, especially the ones who come from those kind of homes. Even if he couldn't make some space or work, he would always recommend a trusted friend to help them get back on their feet."
"That's good to hear."
"Unfortunately, dad, er, how do I say this, tends to have a bit of eccentricity to him ever since mother died. The poor man went and became both a mom and dad to me because he felt so guilty that he couldn't have earned more to give mom the proper treatment."
"I hope by eccentric you don't mean harmful, do you? And I'm sorry for your loss."
"Oh no! He wouldn't harm anyone who didn't deserve to get theirs, it's just that, well, he tends to dress in womens' clothing as a way to cope, but the girls don't mind and neither do I. No need to apologize. She died when I was really young and dad has done his best to raise me and I turned out alright enough."
"Well, I suppose it could have been worse. At least, he's doing some good out of a bad situation."
"That's right. In the end, he's become a very nice person to all the ones who need the help, especially the lost ones. At first, they might be turned off by his dressing habits, but they warm up to him soon enough. They all do."
"Hmmm...."
"Oh, by the way, don't ask too many questions of the girls. Like I said, some of them come from the bad homes or had some bad run-ins with nobles and could care less to be reminded about what they ran away from."
"Got it. Not too many questions."
"Yup. You know, you're a pretty good listener. It's too bad we couldn't have met much earlier as I think that we could've been great friends!"
"Heh. Anyway, who is this collector you're giving you're money to?"
At that question, the normally excited Jessica slumped in posture and looked around as though she were afraid of something emerging from one of the sidestreets or alleys. Once clear, she took hold of Setsuna by the arm and led her to a somewhat secluded alley and began talking in hushed tones.
"Well. You remember how I talked about how dad accepts girls who run away from nobles?"
"Yes?"
"You see, some of those nobles really valued some of the girls who are now working for our inn and they were less than pleased when the girls refused to return. It got even worse when dad intervened and called in some of his favors with a few of his friends."
"I think I know where this is headed, but go on."
"It all started when Count Mott tried to retrieve one of his prized, commoner mistressess. Her name's Marie and don't tell her I told you her story."
"My lips are sealed."
"One day, the poor dear comes in with half her dress shredded from the waist down as though someone was about to force himself on her as there were signs of bruising beginning to form all along her arms, neck, and inner thighs. After some coaxing, dad was able to convince the weeping girl into one of the backrooms. Later that night, dad came out, but he wouldn't say a word except that he needed to contact one of his friends. I didn't need to be a genius to know that whenever dad calls in his friends, it's pretty serious and all."
"Definitely sounds bad."
"Yup. One of his friends was a lieutenant of the Manticore Knights who had pledged a debt of honor to dad for saving the life of one of his fellow knights when a Gallian spy had attempted to escape from jail. Long story short, the Gallian spy had some poisonous powder that was used in an attempted double suicide with himself and one of the Manticore Knights. Fortunately, dad happened to be in the area and had a home-made remedy that was able to hold the poison at bay long enough for a healer to be called in. The lieutenant on site immediately pledged an oath of gratitude to dad and the two became great friends over the years as a number of Manticore Knights visit our inn every few months."
"If the knights visit your inn every few months, why is it that you would have troubles with the nobles then?"
*sigh*"The problem is that the Manticore Knights are mostly made up of lesser noble families and Count Mott is a Palantine of the Royal Court. In other words, he's the final authority in the area outside of the Dukes and the Royal Family itself. But, Count Mott wasn't a stupid man, unlike the other nobles who had tried to retrieve their property in the past. You see, Count Mott secretly contacted the other nobles who had been rebuffed by dad. Can't really say what was said, but I know it was him because one of the dumb nobles said that he had been responsible for gathering them together."
"Sounds like a lot of trouble."
"You got it. So, one day, about half a dozen of the rebuffed nobles and about a company of men-at-arms arrive in force at the inn. Unfortunately for them, the Manticore Knights just so happened to arrive with about half their ranks in full armor. Ha ha, you should looked on the faces of those fat fools! And one of the idiot nobles, as they were running away, shouted that they had not heard the last of Count Mott and other such nonsense."
"The lieutenant immediately took dad aside and told him of the danger of crossing a Palantine of the Court and that he and his knights would not be able to do much if Count Mott pressed the issue. In turn, dad thanked him for his support and told the lieutenant not to worry too much as he did have some other connections. The lieutenant didn't press the issue, but said that he would do as much as he could on his end to keep any Royal Inquiries from being brought down on our inn."
"What's the name of the lietenant by the way?"
"Oh! I'm so sorry. His name is Jacques Poitier de Charney and he was one of the few nobles I can say I was very pleased to have met and known. Anyway, he says that he would do his best to head off any attention from our inn, but Count Mott had one last parting shot since his intimidation tactic didn't work and even backfired when mulitiple witnesses came forward with his name as the one shouted by one of the six fat fools who had run away. He ordered an audit of the finances of the Charming Fairy Inn."
"Sounds like a cheap shot."
*snort* "Count Mott couldn't find any fault with the finances of the inn nor could he find any back taxes owed to the Treasury, so he used his influence to convince the tax collector to pocket extra money from the Merchant District in order to get back at the inn."
"And how did you find out that he had used his influence?"
"Remember how I told you that dad was going to use some of his other connections? Well, that's where Matilda came in. She's a green-haired, non-noble, triangle earth mage who was able to eavesdrop on Count Mott and overheard the conversation between Count Mott and a few of the accountants who work at the treasury. Said something along the lines of how the accountants could get their rightful compensation by raising a little extra."
"But wouldn't the other members of the Merchant District raise a stink about this?"
"Normally they would and the Queen would listen. But, her husband passed away at the time and the Queen practically fell apart. End result was that Count Mott was able to silence the others at the Court by saying that they needed the extra funds in order to compensate for the Queen's lack of oversight and other lies. In the end, the other members of the Court hesitantly agreed because they had other worries to deal with that were much bigger than some non-noble merchants. And so, here we are with the tax collectors' office asking for triple the amount of the usual payment on the grounds of 'necessary taxation' for the purpose improving the nation and other crap."
"And in order to deal with this person, someone needs to silence the idiots doing this, I take it?"
*snort* "As if it would be so easy. If I hadn't said it before, I'll say it again. Thank you for bringing back the stolen money."
"My pleasure."
With the conversation over, Jessica and my character continued their walk towards the tax collectors' office in relative silence while I thought about how to deal with the accountant idiots and get myself some more achievements or maybe even level up my character.
On our arrival, I noted that the office looked more like a grandiose manor than anything else. When we entered, Jessica immediately traveled towards one of the side booths that was behind some iron bars.
"Here to pay for the Charming Fairy Inn," Jessica stated as she presented the bag of coins at the counter and waited with no expression on her face.
"Ah yes. Your little inn. I could always lower your rates if you let me have some fun with you or a few of your friends," the slimy, pale-faced accountant said as he leered at Jessicas' figure and then turned to look at my character, "Or you could offer me to have her for a night or three and you would only pay half the amount."
"As I said before, I am here to pay the taxes owed," Jessica said with a slightly strained tone as she struggled to keep her hands from slapping the man across from her.
"Are you sure? Maybe your silent friend could speak for herself?" said the accountant with narrowed eyes as he tried to inimidate Jessica, but only came off as desperate for some bedroom action.
"I am sure. And Gozen can speak for herself, but she is on duty right now as my bodyguard after I was nearly robbed. You wouldn't happen to know why three, supposedly jailed robbers somehow escaped from prison and decided to attack me specifically, would you?" Jessica responded with an even more strained tone of voice as she leaned on the counter and began to tug on her dress in order to show her assets.
"Are you accusing an upstanding member of the Royal Treasury of illegal activity," said the accountant with a somewhat distracted voice as he was a little busy staring at Jessica. Or rather her cleavage.
"Why of course not. I just wanted to make sure that poor maidens as myself would never be violated by such thugs," she said as she tugged on her dress a bit more, showing even more cleavage.
*gulp* "W-well, you see. There have been r-rumors."
"Yes," came the seductive reply.
"I-I can't say for c-certain, b-but there are some who say that the three Grey Fools were p-pardoned by a P-Palantine of the C-Court," whispered the accountant as he no longer even tried to restrain himself and openly stared at the display of flesh before him.
"Thank you so much. Now, won't you consider lowering the rates? Maybe to the original amount of a third" Jessica said as she laid it on really thick.
At that last part about rates, the accountant snapped out of his stupor.
"I'm sorry miss, but I can only accept what is the proper payment as I am an upstanding citizen of Tristan after all," he stated in an arrogant tone as he continued to sneak peeks at Jessica.
*sigh* "Very well. I guess I will never find it in my heart to ask you when you get off work so that I can relieve you of some of your problems," she regretfully said as she turned to the side with both of her hands on her face and blushing like an innocent girl.
*GULP* "W-well. I suppose paying only a third would be alright. But only ifyoumeetmetwohourslater," he rushed as he hurriedly filled out the paperwork and put away only a third of the coins and returned the rest at the implied offer of Jessica.
"Well then, I will meet you later big boy," Jessica teased as she let one of her hands gently stroke the mans' face.
As we left the treasury office, I could not help but ask, "Are you really going to, you know, let him have his way with you?"
*snort* "Of course not. I have standards after all and he is one of the newer workers there who hasn't learned the ways of the city girls. Unfortunately, when he finds out, he might give some trouble to the inn," she ended with a worried frown.
"I see. Well, let's get you back to your inn and safely away from this place," I said as I began to form some plans for dealing with this problem and finishing this quest.
The trip back to the Charming Fairy Inn was uneventful and Jessica made my character promise to visit sometime with offers of discoutned drinks and food.
After that, I had Setsuna move into one of the abandoned alleyways and change her costume into Grenth's Regalia. Unlike other armors, this costume had a full body armor and helmet that completely concealed the character. Perfect for my plans.
Once in the costume, I decided to leave on a different route for the treasury office and deal out some pain to those fools.
"Maybe I should try this out, Batman style or something similar," I cackled as I activated a few of the stances from the Warrior class and used the One with the Shadows enhancements to blend in with the shadows around the buildings as I traveled towards the Royal Treasury building as the sun had begun to set and provided multiple routes that did not encounter any light.
On my arrival, my navigator arrow pointed out the idiot who thought that he was actually going to get some.
"Damn it! I knew I should have charged that whore the same amount! Next time, you and your girls will pay with your bodies!"
"I don't think so," I said with a gravelly voice.
"Wha-," was all he got out as I hit him with a paralysis variant of the Shadow Step.
Another feature that had been added as part of One with the Shadows had been the ability to transport one person with me as I used Shadow Step and I did so to one of the abandoned buildings that I had spotted on my first time through the capital. The room I had in mind was about two floors beneath the surface of the building and appeared to have been one of those old wineries that had been abandoned.
"You, you can't do this. Do you know who I am?" came the false bravado of the man who was clearly trembling at the knees once he had regained control of his body.
My character stood before him, unmoving at about four meters away.
"If you don't let me go now, a dozen knights of the Manticore Order will burst through that door and rescue me because I am a very important p-person," he continued with a trembling voice.
"...." came my response.
"TALK, DAMN IT!" he shouted desperately as he began to sweat on his forehead.
"I do not expect you to talk, Mr. Fool. I expect you to die," while I ordered my character to begin a slow walk towards the man.
He backed away with wide eyes as his hands began to shake, "Stay back. I'm ordering you to stay b-back."
"Do you hear the voices too," as I quoted the Chaos Marines from the Dawn of War series and ordered Setsuna to stop.
"W-what?!"
"They tell me MAIM KILL BURN, MAIM KILL BURN."
"Just st-stop! I will confe-confess it all! I d-didn't mean to steal. I-I-I was just following or-orders because C-Count M-M-M-Mott said that we would be p-punished if we didn't follow his lead. H-Here. This is the note with his signature. Take it," he threw the note at my person as he held up his hands in surrender and got down on his knees, "Please, by the Founder. Mercy. I'm innocent!"
"There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty," I said in the coldest manner possible as I quoted Inquisitor Karamazov while I stored away the note into my inventory.
"What?! HEEEELLLPPP-gah!"
His cry for aid had been cut short as I pulled out a warhammer and bashed his head like the whack-a-mole game, but with bloodier results.
"YEESSS! Finally got myself to level 22 now. Guess that last quest gave a lot of XP. Now, let's see what you have in your inventory in what's left of your body. Nice blood physics by the way."
And inside his inventory I found some other incriminating, physical evidence of orders to take bribes, skim off some of the money for himself, and more signed documents from the person known as Count Mott.
"Now, I should go see Ludwig and see if he knows who Herwald is and the relation to Osmond," I said to myself as I activated One with the Shadows and, once arriving at the edge of the capital, changed Setsuna's costume back into the Shining Blade uniform.
------
Any feedback is welcome, especially the helpful kind!
Authors' Note: This is a bit longer than the usual, but I am hoping that I can jumpstart the interest of Reconquista, or at least parts of Reconquista, in the strange happenings in the capital and how the OTL is going to change drastically from here on out.
There will still be major events like the invasion from Albion and the invasion into Albion, but a lot of the timetable is now shifting with butterfly wings flapping around like crazy now.
ZnT/Guild Wars Crossover with PC-Controlled Assassin.
22
Yes it did come off as horrifying to me when I thought about just how frightened the poor accountant was when combined with the armor Setsuna was wearing, known as Grenth's Regalia, the female version to the left:koolerkid said:
And thank you for continuing to read.
Just trying to show how....shall we say, the player interacts by using a lot of references to games, pop culture, and so on, especially in combat or situations where violence is going to happen.RTM said:
If it really is jarring, then I might go back and change it.
Wardes will definitely be a pain in the butt as Setsuna and the player will have to play hot potato when certain events start to happen that force drastic actions.Flere821 said:
Might be something like that or some other bs excuse that can be made up on the fly if Wardes and whatever passes for law enforcement connects the dots.Vianca said:
But don't expect too many resources being dedicated to this cause after all, when the 'victim' was only a commoner.
So, who knows?
Good catch on the lover part as he specifically said only about Tristain citizens and all that.anthonyl6892 said:
I actually didn't think about Giovanni the pokemon master when I pulled that name from the list of Renaissance era Italian names. But good catch there.
I might come up with a side story sooner or later.
As for Louise, she might come up later on.
Thanks for the input.
She does come off as weird/insane and might lead to some of the characters thinking it might be a reason why Setsuna is not the heir to the throne because she is not Princess material and might have been a cast off, left to fend for herself, as the cause for her being raised by the Uncle Togo rather than residing inside the Canthan capital itself.Firethorn said:
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Definitely play damage control as there will be fallout, but not as fast as some may think because this was only a commoner boy.Lifelink said:
Then again, this is Captain Wardes who does have a measure of influence and might speed up any investigation, when he is not too busy when reports of mysterious disappearances start to pop up at the hands of a strange, black armored warrior.
That is the most likely bs reasoning she will use when/if confronted by this issue.Cody Fett said:
The player will definitely be affected once there is the realization that this is not just a game.dragonx99 said:
Could be. After all, the continent of Halkeginia have nobles who either abuse their power or genuinely believe in protecting the commoners as the Valliere family is one notable example.Lifelink said:
For the corrupt ones, only need to look at Count Mott who shall be dealt with in Setsuna's brand of justice.
This. Pretty much this.Iron Roby said:
If I didn't know any better, I could have sworn that you are reading my mind.
The fallout will really hit the player hard when it happens.LGear said:I'm very much awaiting the time when said incident catches up to him (or in case of Setsuna, her) by way of the revelation that it isn't JUST a game...
It will.Flere821 said:
Most likely after the massacre, I mean, the battle at Saxe-Gotha.
Rumor mill is generally considered to be the only force faster than the speed of light.Lifelink said:
Hope you enjoy what has been written so far.Firethorn said:
Oh he knows the title, 'Clumsy Bald Badass', but I did not capitalize it in order to keep with the flow of the player thinking rather than emphasizing the title.Iron Roby said:
But, if it really does not stand out enough, then I can always change it and capitalize that part.
As for the Kirche scene, I had intended to show that she is interested in flirting a little with some Tristain mage who actually has some kind of backbone, when compared to the other boys at the Academy.
But, again, if it does not fit, I can always re-work that scene.
You are ignoring content by this member.
Show ignored content
The Chaos Marine bit actually got me to listen to this whole video again.
LGear
Secret Society BLANKET
Been thinking for a while now... while we'd all like to see the moment when the realization that this isn't just a game dawns, I wonder how that would happen in a convincing manner, given that there's really no way to ascertain the "realism" of the ZnT setting behind the screen?
The beginning of this new chapter had too much dialogue IMO... sounds like a badly written MMORPG quest conversation, maybe spice it up with a bit more description or something? Like bystanders walking by, sneaking a gaze at a foreign noble they haven't see around here before, things like that?
The WH40k reference, it sound a bit forced to me, and completely out of nowhere, but I understand when roleplaying that'd be perfectly reasonable.
Just my two cents, this chapter was still pretty good
The WH40k reference, it sound a bit forced to me, and completely out of nowhere, but I understand when roleplaying that'd be perfectly reasonable.
Just my two cents, this chapter was still pretty good
Nice video.Observer said:
Thanks for sharing that bit.
Thanks.djibriel said:
I've been thinking that having Setsuna wear Grenth's regalia should act more like the darker aspects of WH40k, at least in the sayings.
Then again, everything does tend to be darker with WH40k.
You will see as the killings will play a role in that part once the player stops, well, playing.LGear said:
Number 2 is a bit warm on that aspect. Although, there might be some differences than what you described in the details, you're pretty close to what I had planned a few weeks ago.anthonyl6892 said:Thats a good point. The biggest problem is that as long as Setsuna is a character, and not a person, the player has no reason to expect that everyone in the game are in fact real people. On the top of my head i can think three ways that the player learns about the realism of the game.
1. is my .Hack idea from earlier, with the player taking control of Setsuna as a real person.
2. The Player can start to experence dreams of the game, were he plays from Setsuna's POV. At first he thinks that he has simply been playing to long and takes a break, but as time goes on the the dreams start to get more "real", pain and other emotions can be felt, the player starts to get creeped out until finally the player has a realization.
3. Zelretch comes out of nowhere and starts to troll HecateGW
A wizard did it
Pretty good guesses on the other ones and rather funny on the third guess, but much to my horror.
You will see how Derf reacts to my character and, by extension, the player when the time comes.Ghoohg said:
Once I get some reasonable amounts of free time, I will edit the first half of the story to add in some more variety as you said as now that I look at it, it does come off as rather tacky, boring, and just bad fiction.Flere821 said:The beginning of this new chapter had too much dialogue IMO... sounds like a badly written MMORPG quest conversation, maybe spice it up with a bit more description or something? Like bystanders walking by, sneaking a gaze at a foreign noble they haven't see around here before, things like that?
The WH40k reference, it sound a bit forced to me, and completely out of nowhere, but I understand when roleplaying that'd be perfectly reasonable.
Just my two cents, this chapter was still pretty good
As for the WH40k reference, that will likely be more of the trademark of Setsuna while she is wearing Grenth's Regalia, the black armor with the black helmet and black cape.
lifelink
Highschool Mew
- Location
- The Velvet Room
Okay the post above me has me thinking,
Won't the person playing Setsuna just stop playing Void Ascension altogether when he figures out that this is not in fact a game? He's already established that when he's not in playing the world stops for him.
Won't the person playing Setsuna just stop playing Void Ascension altogether when he figures out that this is not in fact a game? He's already established that when he's not in playing the world stops for him.
Rather than moral obligations, I'd think the controller of Setsuna (has it been stated Hecate is the player behind the character?) might want to keep going if just for closure. Assuming if just dropping the 'game' won't come back to haunt his dreams or gnaws at his mind endlessly for his past wrongs and not doing anything to try and fix it. IMO it's arguable what might happen.
- Location
- Estonia
Excellent new chapter, sadistically adding "joyfully killing a man begging for mercy" to the future trauma experience.
P.S. Holly Fuck, how do you multiquote so many people on this new system. Don't tell me you just open your first reply in preview, then copy paste other replies into it from another tab of the thread, write answers, then post the whole thing, like I do!?
And about the player taking over Setsuna's body, I don't know about that. Having the protagonist's only way to interfere with the story's world to be keyboard and a mouse controlling an avatar is what makes this story different from thousand other ZnT crosses and maintaining suspense with the protagonist's "real" life never being in danger, solely for having him worry about characters he has gotten to know in the "game", is an invigorating challenge to a writer.
It is could be seen as a partial parallel to the English Civil War (it happens in Albion), but not to the French Revolution and even the real Cromwell's rule was worse than the king's before him.
The protagonist is faced with a situation where he has to kill people or watch (or know that will happen if he leaves) how even more people, including the ones he has come to care for by this point, get killed.
Oh, but how do you know that you really do know better? Maybe I'm just reading the thought bubbles of your character?HecateGW said:This. Pretty much this.
If I didn't know any better, I could have sworn that you are reading my mind.
I thought that was the case, but I don't think that just speaking with a strength of character is enough to show some backbone. For a boy her age it might be enough, but for someone Colbert's age, something extra, like awesome fire magic skills and keeping cool in combat, would be required. You could still have her showing some amused interest, but nothing serious just yet.HecateGW said:
P.S. Holly Fuck, how do you multiquote so many people on this new system. Don't tell me you just open your first reply in preview, then copy paste other replies into it from another tab of the thread, write answers, then post the whole thing, like I do!?
You mean it perfectly fulfills it's intended purpose?RTM said:
"No reason"? I'm completely certain that the great reveal would come when "NPCs" start to react in a way that the player simply can't explain away with simple advanced AI algorithms any longer. It could be gradual, with a creeping "that is silly and impossible" denial period, punctuated with an event, either dramatic or a simple everyday one for irony, that makes any further doubt impossible. That is pretty much the only way the reveal could come to be, without using deus ex machina.anthonyl6892 said:
And about the player taking over Setsuna's body, I don't know about that. Having the protagonist's only way to interfere with the story's world to be keyboard and a mouse controlling an avatar is what makes this story different from thousand other ZnT crosses and maintaining suspense with the protagonist's "real" life never being in danger, solely for having him worry about characters he has gotten to know in the "game", is an invigorating challenge to a writer.
Reconquista is composed of nobles trying to conquer all the Brimiric nations to lead them to a fanatical suicidal crusade against elves who can slaughter human armies like a machine gun unprotected infantry. And all this is caused by the manipulations of an evil mastermind.anthonyl6892 said:
It is could be seen as a partial parallel to the English Civil War (it happens in Albion), but not to the French Revolution and even the real Cromwell's rule was worse than the king's before him.
The protagonist is faced with a situation where he has to kill people or watch (or know that will happen if he leaves) how even more people, including the ones he has come to care for by this point, get killed.
- Location
- Estonia
I wouldn't exactly call fighting for Aristocratic rule over Monarchic rule fighting for freedom, a group of oligarchs with a motivation to protect the privileges of their ruling class and not prosecute abusers like Mott, are worse for common people than a single king who can be motivated to protect and relay on the mass of commoners to keep the ambitious nobles under control. Albion didn't even have any analogue to the real life English Parliament of the era.anthonyl6892 said:I already know about the Reconquista part, but the idea that they were fightning for freedom still stands, until they invade of course. I thought French Rev because the people speak French and i got a bit confused. (Its late sue me.)
I didn't know that about the Cromwell rule though, I always thought his was slightly better then the kings.
I wonder what HecateGW's face will look like when he sees all of these posts.
And real life Cromwell ended up as one of the first modern military dictators, practically committed genocide in Scotland and Ireland, ordered inns and theaters to be shut down (enjoyment for enjoyment's sake was immoral for puritans of the time), banned most sports, established a black-white dressing code and banned Christmas. Coincidentally, soon after his death monarchy was quite peacefully restored in England for some reason.
And about HecateGW's reaction for all those posts, well I hope he doesn't actually try to answer to all of them this time.
Edit: Oh, you already went to sleep, well, good night for you to.
23
Chapter Three, Part Thirteen: Sowing the Seeds
------
Before I traveled towards the Merchant District and Ludwig, I made a last minute check of all the items I had taken from the dead tax collector while I was still inside. So, I stayed inside the edge of the forest boundary that led towards Tristania proper and began to read the summaries that were helpfully provided.
"Let's see. '50,000 gold pieces for the purpose of protecting the welfare of the commoners' and other such nonsense clutter all of these so-called reports that address this person known as Count Mott. I wonder if there is anything interesting," I spoke to myself as I checked the various signed documents, letters, and lists of accounts and receivables that had once belonged to the now deceased tax man.
"Your name was Connard? Ha, ha, ha!"
And I had a good chuckle for about half a minute as I began to remember some of my fuzzy French language lessons from so long ago.
"I can't believe your name was Connard! If I remember correctly, connard is the word for jerk or fool depending on the context. I almost pity you, you fool." *snigger*
Once my chuckling had come under control, I continued my search throughout the various notes of dear Connard and discovered something that required my immediate attention due to the possible danger toward my new ally and possible source of political backing and information broker.
"I see. So, you not only have a list of all the names of those in cooperation with Count Mott to overtax the Merchant District, especially the Charming Fairy Inn, you also have a plan to cause some accidents to befall some of the customers, especially the high-ranking ones sometime in the next few days," I said as I began to take note of the names as a new sign appeared on my screen.
I quickly switched my secondary character class from Warrior back into Ranger.
Meanwhile, I switched out of my inventory the hammer that was useful for mostly armored targets as it would not be the ideal weapon despite how effective it had been against Connard. So, I turned towards my trusted daggers that were especially useful in dealing out critical damage with the ability to target specific areas of the body thanks to the LHoG skill.
"Sorry fellas, but you're all going to have to go down the only way Setsuna knows best: with aggressive diplomacy," I stated with a more firm voice as I changed Setsunas' outfit once more from the Shining Blade uniform to the black, armored form of Grenth's Regalia.
"It's show time!"
And so, I began the my trip into the late afternoon hours as I activated One With The Shadows while I used my Shadow Step skills to reach my next victims.
While I traveled towards my destination, I could not help but bring up the character stats sheet and looking at what One With The Shadows did in order to remind myself the limitations of the enhancement:
The gathering of corrupt officials were located in one of the seedier areas of the capital and if they were to all disappear, then the blame could be placed on the crime-ridden area to be responsible for another round of victims who were foolish enough to come to this area, according to my new friend and information source, Jessica.
While taking into account their numbers, weapons, armor, and positioning, Setsuna was able to quietly move around the outside perimeter of the aggro circle that normally surrounded large groups or mobs of enemies on the radar system.
"Let's see here. There are quite a few of them in the center and a few of them appear to be armed with wands or wand-swords. Time to get a closer look, see the terrain, and eavesdrop," the player spoke as Setsuna began to walk closer without alerting any of the targets.
"Hmmm....all the windows in the area have been boarded up, no animals are around here, no bystanders needing to be silenced, the area of their meeting is pretty small, maybe fifteen by twelve meters in room if I am generous, and only three of them actually have any weapons visible on their persons. Now, how do I approach this?" I asked myself as I looked into my inventory and character stats to see if I could switch out some skills or get some items that could be of use in combat.
"Aha! I have the Scroll of the Lightbringer which gives three times the amount of experience gained for ten minutes. Should be pretty useful, but first I need to listen in just in case they give any quest of plot-important details," I muttered as I began to read the text bubbles from behind the wall that the enemy NPC's were located at.
"Jean! You know how unreliable Connard is! I say that we get rid of the fool because he thinks more with his dick than with his brain and he will tip off someone eventually whenever he starts to slobber all over himself after seeing a girl he likes!"
"I agree with Laurent. He has been keeping a very close eye on the Inn Keepers' daughter. Too close if I were to make my opinion known, not that my opinion is respected as it should be. He may act before we can position everyone."
"F#$k you, Olivier! We all know that you want the Inn Keepers' daughter just as much as Connard! Same with you Laurent!"
"Go f#$k a goat Andre! I may think with my dick at times, but at least I can be professional when the situation calls for it, unlike Connard!"
"I have had it with you fools! Either take Connard out or I will do it myself!"
"As if you would have the balls to try."
"You know what?!"
"What?!"
"Eat my FIST!!!"
And the arguing nearly turned into a brawl as my radar noted that one of the enemy NPC's had charged into another NPC and the rest of them started to group together in one big mess with the exception of three of their number.
A quick peek showed that the three who had their backs turned towards Setsuna were the only ones armed with anything that resembled weapons in a ready stance.
"No time like the present, I suppose," I said as I quickly reviewed all of my skills to make sure that I would not activate the wrong one in the middle of my first real fight.
Activating the Scroll of the Lightbringer, I began to form a quick plan that revolved around taking out the one titled as Corrupt Ringleader and his two sidekicks on his left and right who were named Child Lover and Serial Raper, respectively.
First, I began to maneuver around the perimeter of their little meeting that had turned into a brawl and began setting up a few traps around the escape routes that I planned to leave conveniently open for the faster runners to head towards, as I dealt with the slower ones.
Second, I place a few pieces of gold coins behind a few of the traps just to see if they would be opportunistic or dumb enough to try to get some gold while they escaped.
Finally, I changed my secondary profession to the Necromancer class and began to prep some of the skills I would need for scaring the living sh*t out of some of them, including Touch of Agony, Putrid Bile, and Signet of Agony, which all had some nice side effects that could turn the numbers of the mob against themselves, especially in close quarters.
Touch of Agony is in essence a touch skill that deals a decent amount of damage. But it's real power comes from its' ability to bypass any and all armor completely in favor of hurting the intended target directly.
Putrid Bile causes a slightly degeneration of health in the victim of this hex. However, if the victim dies while under the effects of this hex, then all of their fellow allies would suffer significant damage.
Signet of Agony is an area of effect spell that causes all of the nearby enemies to take damage in exchange that my character takes bleeding status.
As for my Assassin skills, only two in particular were really necessary to help me win against what appeared to be spellcasters and they were Dash and Shadow Form.
Dash allows the character to run fifty percent faster for three seconds and I only needed it for the beginning of the fight when I still had the element of surprise on my side.
Shadow Form was probably going to be the real shocker as this skill allows Setsuna to ignore all spells thrown at her for twenty seconds.
All in all, I was going to own these idiots.
Activating Dash stance and Shadow Form from my Assassin skill set, I entered the fight by taking out their leader with a quick strike for the throat as LHoG came into effect and time seemed to slow down slightly due to the effects of those handy runes displaying on the upper-left hand corner of my screen.
Running from behind, the Corrupt Ringleader went down with a gurgling sound as I turned towards the Child Lover and struck him three times where the heart would be as he turned towards the sound of his leaders' demise, as the unruly brawl in front of Setsuna had not yet become aware of the danger or heard the death of two of their number as the health points of Corrupt Ringleader and Child Lover signalled that they were both dead.
The Serial Raper began to lift his sword-wand in Setsunas' direction, but had his wand arm severed at the shoulder with a quick double strike of both daggers and a third strike into his temple and his health bar dropped to zero as his lifeless body fell like a puppet cut from its strings before he could even cry out.
Now, a few of the brawlers, named Corrupt Accountant #1 and Corrupt Accountant #2, on the outermost area of the mass of humans fighting, saw what was happening and began to warn their fellows of my presence.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!" I announced as I charged into the fray.
I immediately cast Putrid Bile on Corrupt Accountant #1 to the left and activated Throwing Dagger, aimed for the chest cavity, on Corrupt Accountant #2. Corrupt Accountant #1 stumbled backwards as the hex hit him with full force and I was able to see some green coloring arising from his veins around his face, neck and hands, while Corrupt Accountant #2 fell to one knee as he looked in shock at the dagger that was now firmly stuck in his sternum.
Once I had reached the mob itself, I activated Signet of Agony and I immediately saw that every one of them had stumbled, flailed about, or fallen on each other as they cried out in pain from the sheer amount of damage that had been inflicted on them from my AoE spell.
In order to make sure that I capitalized on my Putrid Bile, I Shadow Stepped to the position of the victim who was now starting to cough up green-colored blood and turned on Touch of Agony when I saw that he only a few health points left.
The result was rather messy.
Corrupt Accountant #1s' recently deceased body exploded in green gore that showered everyone, but myself and caused even more damage on the mob that was still recovering from the death of their three leaders and the suddenness and brutality of the attack.
"I am destruction incarnate!"
Some of their number had the acidic substance in their eyes and they were gnashing their teeth or whimpering in pain. Others had drawn out their wands and began to raise them while taking flanking positions against my character. However, due to LHoGs' time effect, the attempted flank ended in failure as I proceeded to use my Shadow Step skills liberally and they could never properly pinpoint Setsunas' location for a coordinated attack.
In short, I would appear behind a few Dumb Enforcers and strike once or twice in vital areas, Shadow Step to another location without staying, let out some maniacal laughter as the spells of their fellow Dumb Enforcers hit their comrades in their attempt to hit me, and Shadow Step behind another group of Dumb Enforcers without ever appearing near one of the three entrances as a lure of escape.
This went on for only ten seconds, but twenty of their number were already dead, seven were still suffering from various injuries or were in shock, and the rest had turned to run down the trap-filled alleyway.
"Sanity is for the weak!"
Four Dumb Enforcers saw the gold in the alleyway and tried to pick them up, but only fell into the traps that I had place earlier. One Dumb Enforcer died from the barbed spikes that lowered his health bar to zero. Two of the Dumb Enforcers stopped running as they furiously rubbed their eyes to get the dust and smoke out. The last Dumb Enforcer tried to run back towards me and received a Throwing Dagger into his skull for his efforts.
The other three Dumb Enforcers stopped and turned around in an attempt to surrender as they fell down on their faces and began to gibber incoherently.
Meanwhile, I had finished off the other seven on the ground with quick strikes to the throat on all of them to stop them from crying out too much and bringing more attention than necessary to this location. Once finished, I turned towards the last three in the alleyway.
"P-P-Please spare us mi-mi-milord!!!!" came the pleading from the rightmost of the three Dumb Enforcers
"And whyyy?" I stretched out as the three on the ground squirmed in place.
"B-B-Because w-w-we w-would work f-for y-you mi-milord," the unofficial speaker of the three said as Setsuna in her black armor approached the three and her helmet turned to face the talking one.
As soon as Setsunas' helmet had turned to the one on the right, the leftmost Dumb Enforcer snuck out his wand and attempted to cast a quick spell. At first, he let out a victorious cry of triumph which turned into a cry of despair as he saw that his spell had no effect due to Shadow Form.
"I-I'm sorry, milord! I didn't mean to ack-," the attacking Dumb Enforcer tried to apologize.
"Apology accepted, Captain Needa," I quoted Darth Vader as I activated Throwing Dagger once more and the dagger found its target in the Dumb Enforcers' mouth as he was talking and his health bar signalled zero.
The other two had raise their wands when I had attacked the one on the left and began to cast spells on Setsuna with no effect as Shadow Form was still active with a few seconds left.
"For the Dark Gods!" I cried as I Shadow Stepped behind the last two of my targets and stabbed them both in the back of their necks near C2 and C3 of the vertebrae with lethal effect.
Once the fighting had more or less finished, LHoG deactivated and I had Setsuna begin to raid the dead bodies of anything that might be useful.
The only thing worth storing in my inventory came from the Corrupt Ringleader which had a letter from some Judge that offered them a pardon if they could silence the Charming Fairy Inn and help Count Mott erode the connections of the Valliere family.
"This might be of some interest to Osmond or even Louise, since it involves her family," I spoke aloud to no one as I saved the game and exited to go to sleep.
------
Authors' Note: Sorry for the long wait as the weekend has been rather hectic. Seriously, I leave you guys alone for a weekend and there are sooooo many posts that I don't think I will be able to respond to just yet.
Anyway, I should be more or less back on track if I have enough free time in the coming days.
ZnT/Guild Wars Crossover with PC-Controlled Assassin.
------
Before I traveled towards the Merchant District and Ludwig, I made a last minute check of all the items I had taken from the dead tax collector while I was still inside. So, I stayed inside the edge of the forest boundary that led towards Tristania proper and began to read the summaries that were helpfully provided.
"Let's see. '50,000 gold pieces for the purpose of protecting the welfare of the commoners' and other such nonsense clutter all of these so-called reports that address this person known as Count Mott. I wonder if there is anything interesting," I spoke to myself as I checked the various signed documents, letters, and lists of accounts and receivables that had once belonged to the now deceased tax man.
"Your name was Connard? Ha, ha, ha!"
And I had a good chuckle for about half a minute as I began to remember some of my fuzzy French language lessons from so long ago.
"I can't believe your name was Connard! If I remember correctly, connard is the word for jerk or fool depending on the context. I almost pity you, you fool." *snigger*
Once my chuckling had come under control, I continued my search throughout the various notes of dear Connard and discovered something that required my immediate attention due to the possible danger toward my new ally and possible source of political backing and information broker.
"I see. So, you not only have a list of all the names of those in cooperation with Count Mott to overtax the Merchant District, especially the Charming Fairy Inn, you also have a plan to cause some accidents to befall some of the customers, especially the high-ranking ones sometime in the next few days," I said as I began to take note of the names as a new sign appeared on my screen.
"And according to the bottom of this page, you and your thirty-seven comrades were planning on having your way with the girls of the Charming Fairy Inn. *tsk, tsk* How cliche of a typical corrupt ring of government officials. Well, I can't have that happening as I do still need their help if they really do have all those connections. Guess this means Ludwig and his pals will just have to wait. Not like it's already tomorrow in game time anyway," I muttered as I saw that my navigator arrow was now pointing towards my next targets.
I quickly switched my secondary character class from Warrior back into Ranger.
Meanwhile, I switched out of my inventory the hammer that was useful for mostly armored targets as it would not be the ideal weapon despite how effective it had been against Connard. So, I turned towards my trusted daggers that were especially useful in dealing out critical damage with the ability to target specific areas of the body thanks to the LHoG skill.
"Sorry fellas, but you're all going to have to go down the only way Setsuna knows best: with aggressive diplomacy," I stated with a more firm voice as I changed Setsunas' outfit once more from the Shining Blade uniform to the black, armored form of Grenth's Regalia.
"It's show time!"
And so, I began the my trip into the late afternoon hours as I activated One With The Shadows while I used my Shadow Step skills to reach my next victims.
While I traveled towards my destination, I could not help but bring up the character stats sheet and looking at what One With The Shadows did in order to remind myself the limitations of the enhancement:
"Dun, dun, dun," I whistled quietly to the tune of Mission Impossible as I began to perform reconnaissance on the various targets. Fortunately for Setsuna, there was only one large gathering of the thirty-seven corrupt officials in the capital and she would not need to travel around too much to get all of them.
The gathering of corrupt officials were located in one of the seedier areas of the capital and if they were to all disappear, then the blame could be placed on the crime-ridden area to be responsible for another round of victims who were foolish enough to come to this area, according to my new friend and information source, Jessica.
While taking into account their numbers, weapons, armor, and positioning, Setsuna was able to quietly move around the outside perimeter of the aggro circle that normally surrounded large groups or mobs of enemies on the radar system.
"Let's see here. There are quite a few of them in the center and a few of them appear to be armed with wands or wand-swords. Time to get a closer look, see the terrain, and eavesdrop," the player spoke as Setsuna began to walk closer without alerting any of the targets.
"Hmmm....all the windows in the area have been boarded up, no animals are around here, no bystanders needing to be silenced, the area of their meeting is pretty small, maybe fifteen by twelve meters in room if I am generous, and only three of them actually have any weapons visible on their persons. Now, how do I approach this?" I asked myself as I looked into my inventory and character stats to see if I could switch out some skills or get some items that could be of use in combat.
"Aha! I have the Scroll of the Lightbringer which gives three times the amount of experience gained for ten minutes. Should be pretty useful, but first I need to listen in just in case they give any quest of plot-important details," I muttered as I began to read the text bubbles from behind the wall that the enemy NPC's were located at.
"Jean! You know how unreliable Connard is! I say that we get rid of the fool because he thinks more with his dick than with his brain and he will tip off someone eventually whenever he starts to slobber all over himself after seeing a girl he likes!"
"I agree with Laurent. He has been keeping a very close eye on the Inn Keepers' daughter. Too close if I were to make my opinion known, not that my opinion is respected as it should be. He may act before we can position everyone."
"F#$k you, Olivier! We all know that you want the Inn Keepers' daughter just as much as Connard! Same with you Laurent!"
"Go f#$k a goat Andre! I may think with my dick at times, but at least I can be professional when the situation calls for it, unlike Connard!"
"I have had it with you fools! Either take Connard out or I will do it myself!"
"As if you would have the balls to try."
"You know what?!"
"What?!"
"Eat my FIST!!!"
And the arguing nearly turned into a brawl as my radar noted that one of the enemy NPC's had charged into another NPC and the rest of them started to group together in one big mess with the exception of three of their number.
A quick peek showed that the three who had their backs turned towards Setsuna were the only ones armed with anything that resembled weapons in a ready stance.
"No time like the present, I suppose," I said as I quickly reviewed all of my skills to make sure that I would not activate the wrong one in the middle of my first real fight.
Activating the Scroll of the Lightbringer, I began to form a quick plan that revolved around taking out the one titled as Corrupt Ringleader and his two sidekicks on his left and right who were named Child Lover and Serial Raper, respectively.
First, I began to maneuver around the perimeter of their little meeting that had turned into a brawl and began setting up a few traps around the escape routes that I planned to leave conveniently open for the faster runners to head towards, as I dealt with the slower ones.
Second, I place a few pieces of gold coins behind a few of the traps just to see if they would be opportunistic or dumb enough to try to get some gold while they escaped.
Finally, I changed my secondary profession to the Necromancer class and began to prep some of the skills I would need for scaring the living sh*t out of some of them, including Touch of Agony, Putrid Bile, and Signet of Agony, which all had some nice side effects that could turn the numbers of the mob against themselves, especially in close quarters.
Touch of Agony is in essence a touch skill that deals a decent amount of damage. But it's real power comes from its' ability to bypass any and all armor completely in favor of hurting the intended target directly.
Putrid Bile causes a slightly degeneration of health in the victim of this hex. However, if the victim dies while under the effects of this hex, then all of their fellow allies would suffer significant damage.
Signet of Agony is an area of effect spell that causes all of the nearby enemies to take damage in exchange that my character takes bleeding status.
As for my Assassin skills, only two in particular were really necessary to help me win against what appeared to be spellcasters and they were Dash and Shadow Form.
Dash allows the character to run fifty percent faster for three seconds and I only needed it for the beginning of the fight when I still had the element of surprise on my side.
Shadow Form was probably going to be the real shocker as this skill allows Setsuna to ignore all spells thrown at her for twenty seconds.
All in all, I was going to own these idiots.
Activating Dash stance and Shadow Form from my Assassin skill set, I entered the fight by taking out their leader with a quick strike for the throat as LHoG came into effect and time seemed to slow down slightly due to the effects of those handy runes displaying on the upper-left hand corner of my screen.
Running from behind, the Corrupt Ringleader went down with a gurgling sound as I turned towards the Child Lover and struck him three times where the heart would be as he turned towards the sound of his leaders' demise, as the unruly brawl in front of Setsuna had not yet become aware of the danger or heard the death of two of their number as the health points of Corrupt Ringleader and Child Lover signalled that they were both dead.
The Serial Raper began to lift his sword-wand in Setsunas' direction, but had his wand arm severed at the shoulder with a quick double strike of both daggers and a third strike into his temple and his health bar dropped to zero as his lifeless body fell like a puppet cut from its strings before he could even cry out.
Now, a few of the brawlers, named Corrupt Accountant #1 and Corrupt Accountant #2, on the outermost area of the mass of humans fighting, saw what was happening and began to warn their fellows of my presence.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!" I announced as I charged into the fray.
I immediately cast Putrid Bile on Corrupt Accountant #1 to the left and activated Throwing Dagger, aimed for the chest cavity, on Corrupt Accountant #2. Corrupt Accountant #1 stumbled backwards as the hex hit him with full force and I was able to see some green coloring arising from his veins around his face, neck and hands, while Corrupt Accountant #2 fell to one knee as he looked in shock at the dagger that was now firmly stuck in his sternum.
Once I had reached the mob itself, I activated Signet of Agony and I immediately saw that every one of them had stumbled, flailed about, or fallen on each other as they cried out in pain from the sheer amount of damage that had been inflicted on them from my AoE spell.
In order to make sure that I capitalized on my Putrid Bile, I Shadow Stepped to the position of the victim who was now starting to cough up green-colored blood and turned on Touch of Agony when I saw that he only a few health points left.
The result was rather messy.
Corrupt Accountant #1s' recently deceased body exploded in green gore that showered everyone, but myself and caused even more damage on the mob that was still recovering from the death of their three leaders and the suddenness and brutality of the attack.
"I am destruction incarnate!"
Some of their number had the acidic substance in their eyes and they were gnashing their teeth or whimpering in pain. Others had drawn out their wands and began to raise them while taking flanking positions against my character. However, due to LHoGs' time effect, the attempted flank ended in failure as I proceeded to use my Shadow Step skills liberally and they could never properly pinpoint Setsunas' location for a coordinated attack.
In short, I would appear behind a few Dumb Enforcers and strike once or twice in vital areas, Shadow Step to another location without staying, let out some maniacal laughter as the spells of their fellow Dumb Enforcers hit their comrades in their attempt to hit me, and Shadow Step behind another group of Dumb Enforcers without ever appearing near one of the three entrances as a lure of escape.
This went on for only ten seconds, but twenty of their number were already dead, seven were still suffering from various injuries or were in shock, and the rest had turned to run down the trap-filled alleyway.
"Sanity is for the weak!"
Four Dumb Enforcers saw the gold in the alleyway and tried to pick them up, but only fell into the traps that I had place earlier. One Dumb Enforcer died from the barbed spikes that lowered his health bar to zero. Two of the Dumb Enforcers stopped running as they furiously rubbed their eyes to get the dust and smoke out. The last Dumb Enforcer tried to run back towards me and received a Throwing Dagger into his skull for his efforts.
The other three Dumb Enforcers stopped and turned around in an attempt to surrender as they fell down on their faces and began to gibber incoherently.
Meanwhile, I had finished off the other seven on the ground with quick strikes to the throat on all of them to stop them from crying out too much and bringing more attention than necessary to this location. Once finished, I turned towards the last three in the alleyway.
"P-P-Please spare us mi-mi-milord!!!!" came the pleading from the rightmost of the three Dumb Enforcers
"And whyyy?" I stretched out as the three on the ground squirmed in place.
"B-B-Because w-w-we w-would work f-for y-you mi-milord," the unofficial speaker of the three said as Setsuna in her black armor approached the three and her helmet turned to face the talking one.
As soon as Setsunas' helmet had turned to the one on the right, the leftmost Dumb Enforcer snuck out his wand and attempted to cast a quick spell. At first, he let out a victorious cry of triumph which turned into a cry of despair as he saw that his spell had no effect due to Shadow Form.
"I-I'm sorry, milord! I didn't mean to ack-," the attacking Dumb Enforcer tried to apologize.
"Apology accepted, Captain Needa," I quoted Darth Vader as I activated Throwing Dagger once more and the dagger found its target in the Dumb Enforcers' mouth as he was talking and his health bar signalled zero.
The other two had raise their wands when I had attacked the one on the left and began to cast spells on Setsuna with no effect as Shadow Form was still active with a few seconds left.
"For the Dark Gods!" I cried as I Shadow Stepped behind the last two of my targets and stabbed them both in the back of their necks near C2 and C3 of the vertebrae with lethal effect.
Once the fighting had more or less finished, LHoG deactivated and I had Setsuna begin to raid the dead bodies of anything that might be useful.
The only thing worth storing in my inventory came from the Corrupt Ringleader which had a letter from some Judge that offered them a pardon if they could silence the Charming Fairy Inn and help Count Mott erode the connections of the Valliere family.
"This might be of some interest to Osmond or even Louise, since it involves her family," I spoke aloud to no one as I saved the game and exited to go to sleep.
------
Authors' Note: Sorry for the long wait as the weekend has been rather hectic. Seriously, I leave you guys alone for a weekend and there are sooooo many posts that I don't think I will be able to respond to just yet.
Anyway, I should be more or less back on track if I have enough free time in the coming days.
ZnT/Guild Wars Crossover with PC-Controlled Assassin.
Well, having curbstomp battles on mooks is always fun (it's only named villains that get curbstomped with putting up a fight that kinda annoys me)
The WH40k references this time felt much more natural. Come to think of it, is Setsuna late for Ludwig's appointment taking this side-trip?
(it's only named villains that get curbstomped with putting up a fight that kinda annoys me)The WH40k references this time felt much more natural. Come to think of it, is Setsuna late for Ludwig's appointment taking this side-trip?
24
With the exception of the debate over the players' motivation for later on, I will try to answer all the other questions.
The motivation is something that I want to play around with in my head before I give a final answer either through replies or the story itself.
Agreed. Curbstomping mooks is always such fun.
As for Ludwig's appointment, not yet. Part Thirteen of Chapter Three takes place late in the day of when the deal was first made with Ludwig and tomorrow will likely involve the beginning of Chapter Four.
Sorry if I did not make that clear enough in the story. Will try to find some way to correct that.
Anyway thanks for reading.
I'm glad someone caught that part with the Judge, even if the player, and be extension, Setsuna does not realize the significance of said item just yet.
Stop reading my thought bubbles! Just kidding.
I just press reply on every post and it all gathers together in the reply to thread to answer multiple people. Not sure if that helps.
As for writing in this style, it definitely is a challenge I understood from the very beginning because it adds a certain element of detachment, yet a bit of freedom in the method of interacting with others due to the no direct danger to the physical well-being of the player.
Thank you for you constructive criticisms and various feedback. I really enjoy reading them and I hope that the story continues to hold your interest.
Yeah. Many gamers do tend to be absolute dicks while playing that, in real life, would get an asskicking or five for saying and doing things that are not nice.
Even I want to kick Setsuna in the rear for acting in some rather thoughtless manners that is typical of MMO players.
But don't worry, as the player will get hit hard with real life after the big reveal happens that Halkeginia is not just another generic, fantasy world to play in.
I mean, in the canon, how can Scarron get away with the enforcement of no hurting the girls, but flirting is allowed, in a time when human life does not yet have the same implied and explicit value as it does in our own 20th/21st century morality/ethical/legal frameworks.
He has to have known some people, I think, in order to get away with such enforcement, as just hugging them closely never really seemed to be enough of a reason for me as a deterrent.
Even if the Royal Court of Tristain itself gets involved, there are, as you said it yourself, dozens and even hundreds who would love to have tax collectors disappear. In a permanent way.
Evidence in this time period will be a lot like the Scotland Yard's hunt for Jack the Ripper and it is more of 'he said, she said' and all that entails rather than our modern use of DNA and technology.
Very true on the part that no noble would ever want to entertain the idea that a mage could be taken out by a commoner. Especially one who has a lot of friends in the Royal Court and the Royal military.
Besides, the current, larger picture of Tristain right now is one of quiet preparation as the Civil War in Albion is coming to a head and may end up spilling over into Tristain and one dead tax collector is the least of their worries as it stands right now.
As for FF.net, I don't have an account there right now. I might think about opening one up sooner or later provided that I have enough time and the site there is not riddled with any kind of viruses or anything like that.
The motivation is something that I want to play around with in my head before I give a final answer either through replies or the story itself.
Flere821 said:Well, having curbstomp battles on mooks is always fun
The WH40k references this time felt much more natural. Come to think of it, is Setsuna late for Ludwig's appointment taking this side-trip?
Agreed. Curbstomping mooks is always such fun.As for Ludwig's appointment, not yet. Part Thirteen of Chapter Three takes place late in the day of when the deal was first made with Ludwig and tomorrow will likely involve the beginning of Chapter Four.
Sorry if I did not make that clear enough in the story. Will try to find some way to correct that.
Anyway thanks for reading.
Thanks.Keter 682 said:Now it is really beginning to resemble a MMORPG, nice detail with the letter of the Judge which was in canon FoZ a High Level Traitor and Very Corrupt Officer in the crosshairs of Agnes and princess Henrietta, she will be very interested in that letter if she is made aware of it's existence
I'm glad someone caught that part with the Judge, even if the player, and be extension, Setsuna does not realize the significance of said item just yet.
Definitely sadistic on my part as the player is going to rack up many more kills as time goes on in an effort to 'grind' at the levels like any other good MMO or RPG player.Iron Roby said:Excellent new chapter, sadistically adding "joyfully killing a man begging for mercy" to the future trauma experience.
Oh, but how do you know that you really do know better? Maybe I'm just reading the thought bubbles of your character?
Stop reading my thought bubbles!
Just kidding. Will change that part as soon as I can come up with something to show her amusement in that scene.
I just press reply on every post and it all gathers together in the reply to thread to answer multiple people. Not sure if that helps.
It will get more and more difficult to explain away some of the actions and words of the other NPCs when no computer programming could possibly so advanced, even with the aid of some of the brightest minds in the world right now.
As for writing in this style, it definitely is a challenge I understood from the very beginning because it adds a certain element of detachment, yet a bit of freedom in the method of interacting with others due to the no direct danger to the physical well-being of the player.
Thank you for you constructive criticisms and various feedback. I really enjoy reading them and I hope that the story continues to hold your interest.
There will be a motivation, but I would rather not say just yet.Lifelink said:
LOL.KaPe said:This has to be first fic, where I want to see Wardes deal with main character and kick his ass. Wardes, of all people! I didn't think this would ever happen, but I guess I was wrong. If this was your goal - well done. If not... well, tough. There's just something about being too smug, treating everything like a joke, throwing random catch phrases and having fun without worrying about anything.
Doesn't even have to be Wardes, but "reality" catching up to MC and punching him in the face. The very moment where he'll say "Wait, I nearly murdered a kid while quoting W40K... What have I done?" (and that's ignoring everything else). Can't wait
Yeah. Many gamers do tend to be absolute dicks while playing that, in real life, would get an asskicking or five for saying and doing things that are not nice.
Even I want to kick Setsuna in the rear for acting in some rather thoughtless manners that is typical of MMO players.
But don't worry, as the player will get hit hard with real life after the big reveal happens that Halkeginia is not just another generic, fantasy world to play in.
Definitely has connections.Hazard said:
I mean, in the canon, how can Scarron get away with the enforcement of no hurting the girls, but flirting is allowed, in a time when human life does not yet have the same implied and explicit value as it does in our own 20th/21st century morality/ethical/legal frameworks.
He has to have known some people, I think, in order to get away with such enforcement, as just hugging them closely never really seemed to be enough of a reason for me as a deterrent.
No matter the time period, tax collectors tend to be the least favorite people of anyone.anthonyl6892 said:
Even if the Royal Court of Tristain itself gets involved, there are, as you said it yourself, dozens and even hundreds who would love to have tax collectors disappear. In a permanent way.
Evidence in this time period will be a lot like the Scotland Yard's hunt for Jack the Ripper and it is more of 'he said, she said' and all that entails rather than our modern use of DNA and technology.
Very true on the part that no noble would ever want to entertain the idea that a mage could be taken out by a commoner. Especially one who has a lot of friends in the Royal Court and the Royal military.
Killing the tax collector will just be brushed under the rug, as this tax collector has quite the reputation for thinking between his legs and most likely, many would think that he just went after the wrong person to fulfill his desires.Rushil said:
Besides, the current, larger picture of Tristain right now is one of quiet preparation as the Civil War in Albion is coming to a head and may end up spilling over into Tristain and one dead tax collector is the least of their worries as it stands right now.
As for FF.net, I don't have an account there right now. I might think about opening one up sooner or later provided that I have enough time and the site there is not riddled with any kind of viruses or anything like that.
There might be another sidestory or three coming along if I can just word the scene just right.KaPe said:Yeah, keep digging that hole, Setsuna. If it wasn't deep enough already, that last part will let you reach China in no time.
Though it does beg a question - what about actual law enforcers? Killing a single person, while still a crime, can be covered up - these things happen, after all. Slaughtering... what was it, 37 people? In a pretty gruesome way, too. It's rather optimistic to assume something like that would simply be ignored and "the blame could be placed on the crime-ridden area". Even if they all were "corrupt officials 1-37", it's still a lot of people. Doesn't this deserve another Wardes mini-chapter?
Also, at the rate things are going, you'd have to seriously power up the usual ZNT antagonists to present some actual threat - especially if she leveled up from that massacre. Or give them some GW anti-assassin mechanic... whatever that was, been ages since I played it.
Also, please note that not everyone was killed. This might come back to bite Setsuna in the butt for not being careful to take out everyone.
The usual ZnT antagonists will still be plenty of trouble for Setsuna due to some factors, like Void Haxx, ability to fly, taking away the prep time of the player to effectively engage in the assassin's greatest strength - the element of surprise, and so on.
Also, the assassin can be taken out easily by necromancers and in the ZnT world, high-level water mages can learn necromancy.