[x] Plan: Bait variant
-[x] Prepare by using Conundrum before beginning.
-[x] chase one of the "small" boars into the "flowers" or throw a stone into them.
-[x] kill the monster while they are distracted eating/killing the boar.
-[x] maybe Stygian Tempest can disperse the pollen? Try it if needed.
[X] [BONUS] -have Arcane Slash's Echo carry the weapon attack as well when layering the spell over it [2 Training Actions]
Adhoc vote count started by Naron on Jan 1, 2020 at 2:45 AM, finished with 24 posts and 8 votes.
[x] Plan: Bait variant
-[x] Prepare by using Conundrum before beginning.
-[x] chase one of the "small" boars into the "flowers" or throw a stone into them.
-[x] kill the monster while they are distracted eating/killing the boar.
-[x] maybe Stygian Tempest can disperse the pollen? Try it if needed.
[X] Just charge them and hope for the best
-[X] Try using hit-and-run with Aetheric Tide and Skill Negation. Should be fine as long as you don't linger in the sleep powder, right?
[X] Plan Hit and Run
-[X] Approach one of the Mimic Stalks at normal pace, then suddenly accelerate and rush past it
--[X] Cut off its tail and fling it away from yourself, the Mimic, and other mimics. If no pollen is released, return and kill the wounded Mimic.
-[X] If other mimics didn't aggro or emit pollen, repeat. If they did emit pollen, blow it away
[x] [BONUS] -Switch out Aetheric Tide during an attack, Multi-Slash's speed boost shorts out, but still allows to add one different weapon to the offensive string; any hits that would normally follow fall away (e.g. if the weapon switches after the first hit, there is no third) [1 Training Action]
[] Plan: Bait variant
-[] Prepare by using Conundrum before beginning.
-[] chase one of the "small" boars into the "flowers" or throw a stone into them.
-[] kill the monster while they are distracted eating/killing the boar.
-[] maybe Stygian Tempest can disperse the pollen? Try it if needed.
[] [BONUS] -have Arcane Slash's Echo carry the weapon attack as well when layering the spell over it [2 Training Actions]
This is actually an interesting riddle Lu gave you there. These Mimic Stalks are difficult to engage in melee because they win the moment you fall asleep; without any proper ranged measures, you find that you actually have to get creative. Not just in the way of where to step and how to parry, but rather how to approach the fight itself.
You consider trying a fast charge anyway, see if that gets the job done, but a moment of reason stops you from acting hastily. There are better options than slamming your head against the wall and hoping it breaks, metaphorically speaking. Even if, admittedly, you do that far too often anyway.
First of all, protection. "Conundrum." On your call, magic seeps from your palms and over your entire body.
(Conundrum: +1125 Base Boost, +894 dice = 2,019 Total Defense
Damage Block active, Damage Barrier active.)
Your eyes wander around over the various elements in your surroundings. Plants are not useful, no trees high enough to climb and leap down from. You have no idea what all those flowers and herbs do, so you are not going to try working with them either.
Instead however, your gaze comes to rest on the handful of boar-like critters; you ignore the fact their fur is an almost camouflaging green. It stands out to your sight well enough, seeing that it shines quite a bit brighter than the rest.
Thankfully, there is no leyline running right below; that would have thrown off your handy sense somewhat fierce. The nearest one runs by toward the horizon, further away from your temporary base.
Anyway, you have little critters there. You have ambush predators who are hopefully not too smart. It is a little sad that you have to use these pseudo-boars, but they are all you have at hand. Maybe you can make it so they do not get killed, that would be nice.
So you get to work, circling around the nearest one as your weapon forms in your hands, quickly turning into Aetheric Tide for your convenience. The boar watches you carefully and starts to retreat as you near; not fast, though. It confuses you a little, but then you remember that they never saw or smelled a human before; they can not tell how dangerous you are, just that you are taller than them. So this one gives space and watches you cautiously.
You slightly change direction so it backs further away into the direction you want, then walk directly toward it. The boar twitches and stops, grunting as it measures you up.
Standing straight, you are more than twice as tall as that critter and can stare down at it without any hesitation or fear, not to mention the shroud of active magic roiling around you. When you take another step, it turns tail and runs. Right at the nearest Mimic Stalk; it hops this way and that in its flight, but mostly remains on a straight path
You follow at a sedate pace, no need for speed right now; some of the other boars are watching you, but you pay them no mind. The one you singled out dashes forward on its stubby legs; it stops halfway toward the ambushers and turns around to see if you are following, then continues to dart away.
Now you speed up, weapon switching to Reaper's Will; you actually wanted to slap the boar's back to get it running, but that part worked out better than expected.
Due to you still maintaining some distance and despite your almost peak human running speed, the boar reaches the Mimic Stalk a good bit ahead of you. Then you see it, the flower belonging to the creature spitting out a swath of bluely tinted pollen; they quickly disperse over a comparably wide area, not losing their potency. Eight, maybe ten metres wide. So maybe five in all directions.
The boar stumbles forward as it enters that area a moment later; you can not see it clearly, but the pollen shift a little before the boar falls to the ground, fast asleep.
The pollen quickly lose their properties and fade away while the Mimic Stalk digs itself out. Now is your chance.
At first it does not seem to react to your approach as it taps the boar to make sure it is asleep, but then it whirls around at surprising speed and snaps for you, once you are in range.
(Razor Teeth: +400 Base Damage, +20 dice = 420 Total Damage
Attack Negated)
You do not even need to try with this one, it is a straight-forward attempt to tear into you with those nasty, sharp teeth. So you hop up and above the short lunge, landing with your right foot and slightly digging your heel into the creature's scaly hide. From there you make two steps and turn to the bulbous head and the exposed neck now in front of you. It ducks, probably to rear up and throw you off; too bad you are faster and slice at its neck
(Reaper's Will: +500 Base Damage, +532 dice, +2500 Superslayer = 3,532 Total Damage
Mimic Stalk: +350 Base Resilience, +96 dice, -100 Can Not See You, -6000 Off With His Head = 5,654 Extra Damage
9,186 Final End Damage
Mimic Stalk Health: 6000 - 9,186 = -3,186)
The blade easily slices through the creature's neck and it drops to the ground, head rolling forward until it comes to a stop on its teeth. You give it an experimental kick just like it did with the boar, to see if it budges, but that seems to have done it. A bit of wind makes your cape-like ribbons flutter, which probably makes for an impressive picture.
Going by the pleased expression on Lu's face, you did good.
Then your aura slips your grasp and makes the remaining boars flee; so much for that. You sigh and rein it back in, then start to think how to get the next one.
. . .
IDENTIFIED BREAK LINE . . .
She has you continue doing that kind of thing a few more times, though several Mimic Stalks actually tunnel away after noticing you dispatching their nearby kin. They apparently live in groups of three or four most of the time.
Either way, it takes the better part of two days to get enough for Lu to be happy. She already started eviscerating your first kills before the last were even beaten; according to her, while many parts of Mimic Stalks are inedible for various reasons, there is enough on each one to make for a sizable amount of meat.
By the time you are done fighting these critters, the provisions from the Fairies have run out in your final meal that evening. It does not matter though, seeing that Lu is already at work making more; you spend that evening setting up a larger space as a kind-of refrigerator that keeps the carcasses from spoiling; Lu already made something similar for the food, including a few berries she found by chance.
You have water from the river as well; just water, but it will do. You will get past this.
The next morning, after clearing your next idea for practice on the side with Lu, you make to begin training Voyage.
And you start... by meditating. Without the weird seating position, of course. Just a nice spot on the grass, shadowed by the forest nearby; Milidia's summer is warm.
Voyage has always eluded you before; you could never actually discern how it works from introspection, it just would not let you. It felt as if there was some kind of filter between your mind and that part of your magic, preventing you from looking at it properly and turning any expression you got from it into gibberish.
The methodic clacking of a reinforced stone knife hitting the chopping block is the last sound to slowly fade from your mind as you focus again. Maybe the second casting of your spell removed that filter, you reckon.
Alas, no such luck. It is still there.
You do not give up that easily, though; you keep looking for a while, only to strain what counts for eyes while in your own mind. That filter does not budge no matter what; which means you are not going to get through it... but maybe around? You never spent too much time on Voyage after finding out you can not discern it easily.
When you start to shift your perspective however, Lu shakes you out of your trance for lunch. She asks you about your progress and is not surprised when you have nothing to show yet.
Over lunch however, your friend casts a curious gaze at you. "There is something I wanted to ask you." She waits until you make a motion for her to go ahead; yet the questions your friend asks almost makes you choke on the chewy meat: "Why would you run from Gabriel? I have fought and killed Archangels before," she elaborates thoughtfully, "and even though you were cautioned against that kind of opponent, I never saw you so afraid of anything before. Not me, not the Imperial Golem, not Argus, no one."
Your chewing slows down as you consider. She is right and you do not feel like trying to make excuses; you are a bad liar anyway. So you swallow, both your food and the sudden lump in your throat, and shake your head. "I wouldn't dare. I can't and you mustn't even if you could win. It would change the timeline if Gabriel died."
Lu is quiet as the implications roll through her mind; you give her time to think and wait for a response. You get it a few seconds later, in form of a question: "She lived to your time?"
You nod. Prior discussions with your friend had you explain the problematic parts about time travel to her before, as well as the various media humanity has on the subject. She knows that changing the past is a big no in basically all of it.
Sadly, she also catches on that this was not all: "She is a captain of the First Host, the elite of the elite, at the time we met her. From what I recall, Gabriel is earning the credentials to take command of that Host entirely. With how scared of her you were... how far is she going to get?"
You can only avert your gaze there, suddenly no longer feeling hungry. You stood so close to certain death and yet still a part of you wished to fight while the rest screamed over it in terror. What do you tell her except the truth?
"I doubt there is a single person, be it in the Unified Light or Darkness, who doesn't know Grand Archangel Gabriel. She led the entire UL, not just Heaven's Host. We lost her a few years ago though, during the fall of Hope. She held the line when the UD overran Reluxus and sealed the Hyper Gate to prevent them from getting further into Elven territory."
Lu blinks at that, then shakes her head softly. "Sounds like her," she mutters. You ignore it and sigh heavily.
"I... I never thought I'd actually see her in person. Gabriel's Last Stand, they call what she did at Reluxus."
Your friend nods as she takes in the new information. Then she freezes and her eyes turn to back to you. "This war...." Oh. You never mentioned that. "...it keeps going for another five thousand years?"
You were not meaning to tell her that, but this one is on you, so you just nod. "Yep. We call it the Eternal War in our time. But don't ask me how it's going. I don't really keep up with the news." Not to mention that a good bit of it is likely propaganda to keep the populace calm.
"I see." It is rather clear your friend has to think about this for a while, so you force down the rest of your cooked meat and the few sweet berries, then get back to your meditations.
. . .
IDENTIFIED BREAK LINE . . .
Your breakthrough follows on the week's final day, toward the afternoon. You interspersed meditation with work on Arcane Slash, to force its echo to carry your weapon's attack without having to make another strike. It was more progress than you got on Voyage, which remained zilch until you found out just what this filter is.
When you do, you drop onto your back with a tired groan, the evening sun shining into your face. "Lu! I'm an idiot!"
Your friend does not even interrupt her work, being almost done turning the Mimic Stalks into rations. She eyes you curiously, then sighs when you shout your explanation: "That stupid filter is my own magic being an ass!"
Because that is what it is. Your most inherent magical property, the one which allows you to hold powers normally unseen in someone as inexperienced as you, or which are locked to specific Affinities. It has to constantly do something so Voyage actually retains its properties. Time Travel, who would have thought, is far more harshly restricted than anything else... bar one.
It took you a long while to actually look around again; then you began to notice minor distortions around those specific elements in your magic, the ones where your core property is at work You could still work with what you sensed there, though.
After that, you found a much bigger one when trying to look into that reality-bending thing you obtained right after the last leap through time again. The one connected to your parrying capacities.
The only reason you did not notice that earlier was because you were already looking at it before it got distorted. There, your core property also has to constantly do something in order to maintain this power. Something big.
Problem is, you can not say for sure what it is. Does it fake out reality? Does it emulate traits so ridiculous it warps stuff? Something else?
Either way, now you know what stops you from looking at Voyage more closely. The next task is to actually figure out how to find what lies beneath, then start to practice in earnest.
-------------
Food: 10 Completed Practice: 5 / 60
[] Plan for the week
-[] Action 1
-[] Action 2
-[] Action 3
Hunt small critters
(secures food for 3 days, auto-success)
Foraging
(secures food for 3 days, auto-success)
Hunt medium-sized critters
(secures food for 7 days, may turn into a combat encounter)
Hunt large beasts
(secures food for 14 days, combat encounter)
Hunt the biggest and baddest
(secures food for 30 days, boss encounter)
Practice
(adds between 2 and 3 days to the training counter; 7 days if all actions are this)
[] EXP-Plan
-[] Write-in what to buy
-[] Save it
=====
+300xp Killed 10 Mimic Stalks in Various Ways
+100xp Have To Get Creative
EXP gained: 400 Total EXP: 461
=====
Lu is not keeping any parts, so you only get the full sheet as a trophy:
Mimic Stalk
Stats
Health: 6,000
Base Damage: 400
Base Resilience: 350
Magic Modifier: 125
Digging
Level 2
-Mimic Stalks may burrow into the earth and dig at up to 10mph.
Ambush Sprung
-Attacking a sleeping target counts as a surprise attack; when doing the former or attacking an unsuspecting target from below, Mimic Stalks count as having Lethal Surprise.
Dangerous Wait
-Mimic Stalks may contort their bodies to devour prey up to ten times their own size and break them down into mana within hours, returning to their normal size. They can store up this mana to reconvert into nutrients, allowing to survive for months without hunting or catching prey.
Seismic Sense
-With a hide sensitive to tremors and waves, Mimic Stalks are capable of sensing movement within 100m of themselves while burrowed in the earth, and within 25m while at the open air.
Yep, measured in days. Each week takes 7 off the count.
Mimic Stalks were a simple introduction, true... mainly because Heidi counters their greatest strength, which is ambushes. That aside, I am not going to put in Medium critters when the players vote Large.
Yep, measured in days. Each week takes 7 off the count.
Mimic Stalks were a simple introduction, true... mainly because Heidi counters their greatest strength, which is ambushes. That aside, I am not going to put in Medium critters when the players vote Large.
Not at the moment, though it would likely become generic if people used it for other critters or made other things which dig.
Also yes, the level curve is the same as Flight.
Not at the moment, though it would likely become generic if people used it for other critters or made other things which dig.
Also yes, the level curve is the same as Flight.
[X] Plan for the week : Practice
-[X] Practice
-[X] Practice
-[X] Practice
Practice ? Practice.
I wonder if you'd have made us retry if the "CHAAAAAAARGE" plan had won, or if we would have to live with the shame (i somehow now have doubts that it would have succeeded)
I wonder if you'd have made us retry if the "CHAAAAAAARGE" plan had won, or if we would have to live with the shame (i somehow now have doubts that it would have succeeded)
As amusing as the first one is, failing would not have been a death; Lu stood right there, ready to intervene and give a rather embarassing scolding afterward.
Heidi stumbled across the worst case scenario for a MG's enemies:
Namely, time to train what she can do and an abundant source of convenient fodder to grind herself against for improvement. With a very good safety net to keep from dying horribly.
Heidi stumbled across the worst case scenario for a MG's enemies:
Namely, time to train what she can do and an abundant source of convenient fodder to grind herself against for improvement. With a very good safety net to keep from dying horribly.
(i somehow now have doubts that it would have succeeded)
