I wonder if Rule Breaker could break Hera's curse on Medea Lily? I think we get there before the entire Argonauts thing happens, but, yannow. If it comes up.
Rostam: "Thank god all this... fussing is over, for the day. Uppity Servants and hysterical women and... ugh. I didn't join Chaldea to be management. At least now I can retire to my quarters with a good book."
Nursery Rhyme said:
A Master-Servant relationship, you say? For us, it's a relationship between a book and its reader. Is anything other than that necessary?
... If Alfons were to summon Nursery Rhyme, would it base its powers on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?
Because frankly, that brings to mind a Caster that fights using a levitating Troll Club, and I don't know if my mind can handle something that awesome.
Rostam: "Thank god all this... fussing is over, for the day. Uppity Servants and hysterical women and... ugh. I didn't join Chaldea to be management. At least now I can retire to my quarters with a good book."
You run through your options. An unknown Archer, Rider or Berserker. Luvia would probably know more, but... well, Servants are sorted into standardized classes for a reason. They're creations of the Grail, forged within certain limits like dough cut by a template. It's possible to anticipate their abilities just from knowing their Class, aside from the details of their Noble Phantasm. It's an elegant enough system for categorizing individuals who defy categorization — certainly more practical than the Quintipartite Ghost Liner System, if less useful in a scholarly sense.
More important are your own resources. Luvia and Olga Marie are exhausted, and Marche is very sensibly staying out of the way. This makes the Servants your only assets — including yourself, which is an odd thought. The last fight made it clear that you're mainly useful as a bodyguard. That's unsurprising, given your Class, but even up against a gibbering savage the best you could do was pin him down for the real Servants to strike their blows.
Rider is far more versatile, but weakened by... the adverse circumstances of his summoning. You don't even know if he can use his Noble Phantasm. No, as it stands your "heavy hitter" is most certainly your Caster, the demigoddess Medea, whose propensity for knock-out blows has been very clearly demonstrated. You should have known that the magus would be your most potent asset.
Which poses an unfortunate problem — four of the seven Servants possess innate Magic Resistance. Medea was strong enough to power past Lancer's degraded Magic Resistance, but who knows what rank the other Knight Classes or the enemy Rider have? If their ability to dismiss magecraft is rooted in a curse or demonic heritage or some other classically "dark" magic, this awful blackening might even have strengthened it.
You'll have to take your chances with Saber, no way around it — but for the approach, Berserker is obviously your best bet. He'll have no immunity to Caster's magic, and his intelligence should have suffered the most from the combination of Mad Enhancement and the tainted Grail, making him easier for you and Rider to pin down for a heavenly bombardment.
"South seems like our best bet," you conclude. "A Berserker should be easier for me to guard against than a Servant with a fast mount or ranged attacks, and they'll be the most vulnerable to Caster's magecraft." You turn to her. There's not really any Clocktower protocol for respectfully addressing... a demigoddess princess capable of exploiting a thaumaturgical system lost to humanity for millennia, but you do your level best. "It seems we'll once more be pinning down a brute target for you."
She gives a half-hearted chuckle. "And it seems you are rapidly growing accustomed to your role, Shielder."
It still feels so wrong to your ears. Even after everything you've done and seen, the proof on your own body, you have to stop and think and remember what you've become. You are a (Demi-)Servant. You have a role and a duty, even as you harangue Rider for not performing his all that politely. At least he seems to know what he's doing, have enough skill to make up for his terrible parameters. You, you have above-average parameters and skills yet you feel as clumsy as a child. And his terrible parameters are probably your fault. If you're all going to survive, you're going to have to learn fast. You just take comfort in the fact that whoever Berserker is, their madness should make them easy pickings for a team of two-and-a-half Servants with a plan.
***
Two things make you regret your decision. One: the Berserker can talk.
"Oh look, brother! People to murder!"
"What luck! I was getting so bored. Even smashing skeletons with other skeletons grows tiresome eventually."
"The severed skulls remind me too much of Father. Shame."
"But now we have some delicious, untainted hearts to harvest!"
"Indeed, indeed! The sweetest morsels. Shall we see who extracts the most?"
"And when I win, I promise to be gracious."
Two: the Berserker is two people. Twin giants of literal obsidian that flexes like flesh, marred by the same scarlet veins of corruption you saw on Diarmuid. Wearing nothing but simple panther-pelt loincloths and jewellery, once gold and jade now blackened just like they are. In their dustbin-lid-sized fists they each carry a flat club edged in obsidian chips, sharp as any steel.
"Balls," says Luvia. "That's the Mayan Hero twins - Hunahpu and Xbalanque. You have to destroy a spiritual core utterly to kill them - even decapitation won't work. And their Noble Phantasm is a Reality Marble."
Class: Berserker
Master: The Greater Grail
True Names: The Maya Hero Twins Hunahpu & Xbalanque
Noble Phantasm: The Court Of Xibalba - A Warrior's Contest
Keyword: Bladed Club, Connection To The Moon/Sun?, Two Of Them!?
The Maya Hero Twins have been summoned as two Servants, yet they could almost be considered 'one' Heroic Spirit. So closely were they intertwined in their legend that to summon one without the other was simply impossible. Naturally, this skill leads to an intense upturn in mana upkeep. Additionally, since their legend relies so heavily on teamwork, each Berserker will experience a rank-down in all parameters when their other half is not materialized within a radius of 99 metres.
Mad Enhancement: C-->X
The unique skill of the Berserker class which makes up for their otherwise lacklustre base stats. Increases mana upkeep in exchange for increasing parameters. Due to their Blackening, The Hero Twins' rank in this skill has been sealed. Angra Mainyu's enhancements are far more potent.
Divinity: B-->X
The measure of a Heroic Spirit's relative divinity, obviously. While the Berserkers were of... technically... mortal parentage in life, their legend ended when they ascended to the heavens side-by-side on their own terms. There they became the sun and the moon. Because of this, they receive one-rank boosts in all parameters at the relevant times of day - Hunahpu at 6pm to 6am, Xbalanque from 6am to 6pm. Due to the nature of their Blackening, the Hero Twins' blessings from the sun and moon has been sealed.
Battle Continuation: A+
Hunahpu has had both his arm and head torn off in life, and in both cases he made a full recovery after having the severed body part smacked back on by his brother. Only the swift and precise destruction of a Hero Twin's spiritual core, or annihilating his Servant container completely will permanently kill either of the Twins. Due to the freakish regeneration of a Blackened Servant, the Hero Twins are nearly impossible to put down.
Subversive Activities: A-->C-
The talent for trickery, subterfuge and general underhanded tactics in combat and warfare. The Hero Twins' rank has been irrevocably lowered by being summoned in the Berserker class, and lowered further by Blackening.
Noble Phantasm(s):
The Court Of Xibalba - A Warrior's Contest: EX
A powerful and aberrant Noble Phantasm, unable to be conventionally ranked due to functioning as a Reality Marble. The Hero Twins must chant a six-line aria and offer up their blood in order to appease their gods enough to summon this internal world. Representing the time they spent in the underworld playing for their father's and their own honour, it transports anyone caught in its radius to a Xibalban Ōllamaliztli court. There the laws of Xibalba bind them. Ordinarily this manifests as a doubles game - an enemy Servant and their Master must play against Hunahpu and Xbalanque, while their own Master and any bystanders may watch from the stands with the shades of the dead. The rules are simple - get the ball through the other team's hoop, don't touch the ball with your hands, teams must be equal, no outsiders may interfere, and make no attempt to escape until the game is finished. All else is permitted. If any player should break these rules, or lose the game, the Xibalban Lords will have them executed with the certainty of a fate-altering curse. First to three wins.
"As Berserkers!?" you exclaim.
"Alfons chose well I suppose!"
"What!?"
"Focus, please," says Rider.
"Don't blame the boy. We are a distracting sight," says Hunahpu.
"Statuesque in many ways, one might say," says Xbalanque.
"But I see we aren't alone in this particular match. Finally decided to stop running, witch?" Hunahpu calls up to Medea.
"I should be astonished that there were two of you all along. But mostly I am simply glad I have the opportunity to kill you twice," the demigoddess says coldly.
"I think I am in love, brother," says Hunahpu.
"Don't play with your food, brother," says Xbalanque.
"Are you quite done yet?" Rider asks in a tone that should be long-suffering but falls a hair's breadth on the wrong side of chipper. "I can wait if your routine isn't finished."
At least the others took the hint, pulled back and hid. Olga Marie and Marche hiding in a burnt-out building, Luvia's watchful eye protecting them. Out of sight, out of mind for the Hero Twins. Just you, Rider, and Medea way up in the sky out of reach of anything the Twins can do. All you have to do is focus on shielding yourself and your Servant. Two on two with airborne magical artillery support straight out of the Age of the Gods. You can do this. You can win. You can-
Hunahpu seems to blur before your eyes. You blink and he's suddenly behind Rider, obsidian muscles bulging as he powers his bladed club into the nape of Rider's neck with both hands. The club connects audibly, A-rank Strength against E-rank Endurance. The highest end of the spectrum against the lowest. It's going to be carnage and there's nothing you can do but watch it take Rider's head off.
The obsidian blades shatter, the wood housing splintering to uselessness. Rider's head wobbles, then returns to its natural position. He turns it slightly. "Oh. So we've started?" The next instant there are seven spears protruding from Hunahpu's chest and back, so hot that the rent edges of his glassy 'skin' are glowing red.
"Rude," he says.
Rider grabs your arm and yanks so hard you're sure it would've left your socket were it not for your Endurance. You feel the other twin's bladed club slash down where you were just standing. You stumble forward, struggling to catch up, only to feel him spin you around. Leaving you facing Hunahpu, fist already rocketing towards you. You flinch, lifting your shield and bracing it with both hands as you await the terrible impact. The impact isn't quite so terrible as you imagined. You hear a crunch as, in the contest, Hunahpu's knuckles come off worse than your shield. Rider spins you out of the way again, lunging forward to pierce the Berserker in the eye. He claps his hand over the socket as boiling mud spews from his ruined face.
"You-"
"Βροχή από βέλη."
He leaps back as a thousand arrows of violet light streak down from the heavens, sparkling lines traced through the air as they home in on the unfortunate Berserker. Rider manages to rip two of his spears back out of him before he gets out of range, throwing them one after the other at Xbalanque. He bats them out of the way mid-charge, driving his elbow forward for a punishing strike. Rider curls a fist around the edge of your breastplate, behind the neck, and lifts you like a shield. Xbalanque's far more stable elbow strikes your shield, and this time it's you that loses. You and Rider go flying back, only your Servant's skill preventing the both of you from landing in a tangled heap.
"Why are you manhandling me!?" you splutter.
"It's working, isn't it?"
Xbalanque is in no mood to let you chat. He pursues, driving you ever-deeper into the forest of dead trees. No leaf cover at all to cast shadow. Just endless, gnarled, skeletal branches. Wood snapping like dry bones as Xbalanque bulls through it. Rider's dragging you, relying on his superior speed rather than bothering to let your molasses-slow behind keep up. Until all of a sudden he doesn't. He uses you like a shield yet again, dumping you right in front of the charging Berserker. You turn and duck, desperately holding your shield up in the hopes that the kneeling pose will help keep you stable. A two-handed hammerblow descends upon you, and your arms go numb. You feel yourself sink half an inch or so into the soil, but the impact seems to have shaken Xbalanque's club to splinters and rattled his bones besides. Stunned for just a moment. You feel Rider's gold-plated foot stamp down on your shoulder for a stepping-stone and see him drive a spear at Xbalanque's head. He dodges narrowly, taking it through the collarbone instead. Rider turns the jump into a flip, gracefully clearing Xbalanque's bulk. The spear thrust through his skeleton hinders Xbalanque rather significantly in turning quickly to combat the threat. When he does turn, he almost completely forgets about you. You see your chance. You grip your shield two-handed and you slam the rim into the back of Xbalanque's knee joint as hard as you possibly can. Before he has a chance to strike Rider, he shouts in surprise and falls to one knee.
Rider takes a step back, summons two spears, and drives them into Xbalanque. One in his heart. One in his brain. He drives them in so deeply that a full half their length protrudes out the other side. He steps back, as if to admire his handiwork. Yet still he lives, for just long enough to give a rueful smile.
"Damn that man... for spoiling the fun..."
He fades, melts into a puddle of black filth that sizzles in the earth and burns a scar into it. The spears fall unceremoniously to the ground. Rider doesn't retrieve them. He simply gives you a look. You respond with a long-suffering sigh, but approach all the same. He scoops you up like a sack of potatoes and takes off, sprinting at the speed of a car going full-tilt as he returns to the battlefield.
You return to find Hunahpu, blind in one eye and bleeding from a hundred cuts, still laughing uproariously and throwing everything he can find at Medea. He even tries leaping to reach her, but every time she simply flies higher to escape him. Even as you watch, the laughter fades. He looks up at the flying witch, shoulders slumping, and simply sighs.
"You spoiled something that could have been wonderful," he says.
Rider doesn't slow down at all. He leaps and strikes Hunahpu in the back with a flying dropkick. He lands hard but recovers easily. You shake and rattle around in his grip like a clockwork toy being thrown down a flight of stairs. Hunahpu lands face-first hard enough to leave a Hunahpu-sized crater, stunned by sheer surprise. He starts to lift his head out of the crater.
"I tired of you two the moment I saw you. Αιθήρ μάρμαρο." Medea points her staff, and a tiny marble of indigo light flies down. It seems so tiny and unassuming, a little pinprick of power. It touches the small of Hunahpu's back and you see why appearances can be deceiving. The compressed power flares and expands all at once, consuming Hunahpu utterly in an orb of roiling magic. When it finally clears, all that's left of that half of the Berserker twins is a perfectly circular blast crater. Medea sets down beside it, a grim smirk of satisfaction on her face. Rider mercifully sets you down as Olga Marie, Marche and Luvia catch up.
"That was... a lot quicker than I expected," Luvia says, brow furrowed in confusion.
"Perhaps Hargrave and Rider are simply becoming a more functional unit," Olga Marie suggests. You carefully fail to mention being used as a shield. The look Rider gives you lets you know that he knows. You suppress a scowl.
"I don't know, still... maybe there was something off about them?" Marche suggests.
Lavender light flares over the oily stain left by Hunahpu's passing as Medea analyzes it. "Hm. The one with the furry creature is right. It is as if the corruption within them had just begun to turn toxic to even them. Perhaps the master has finally decided that its playthings are of no use any more."
"Maybe this means a fight with Saber Alter will be unnecessary?" you suggest. Medea looks at you in a way that suggests that, were her eyes visible, they would be glinting.
"Unnecessary, perhaps. But we will fight her all the same. Unless you think it wise to camp in this toxic hellhole of a world until our opponent drops dead of her own accord?"
You wisely refrain from speaking again. Medea nods slightly, turning to look at the others. Luvia meets her gaze, pausing a moment before speaking.
"Well, I know where the entrance to the Grail-cavern is. No sense in wasting any more time. We have to go end this and get back to Chaldea, before anything else goes wrong."
***
The trip is long, and the path is dark. The tunnel is wet despite the scorched, baked heat of the world above. You hear a gentle, steady drip from the darkness as you move. The only light is from Rider. The gold of his armour and earrings, the flame-orange of the topaz in his chest, are like that of a small sun. The tunnel walls glisten in the light, shaped by some kind of drained underground river perhaps. Was the cavern once an underground lake, drained and left hollow in order to house the Greater Grail? Maybe you could find the answer in a book. Presuming you ever get the chance to read one again.
The lighting slowly changes. Rider's armour is 'drowned out' by a stronger source. A source that towers over you all as the group exits the tunnel and enters the cavern proper. An immense dome of stone, hewed out by nature, existing in secret beneath Ryuudou Temple. The Greater Grail would scrape the sky were it in the open air. Perhaps it once roiled with power, its contents writhing as the corruption begged to be born. Now it lies still, dormant. 'Hatched'. What draws your attention is the golden gleam at its base. A Lesser Grail, the gold cup sought after in so many myths. The anomalous Grail that drew Chaldea to this time. You see, too, its guardian.
"So. More have come. I had thought my watch would be neverending." Saber Alter strides forward, descending the mound atop which the Grails sit, and standing on the lakebed. "I had thought this world was an abandoned husk. Where did you spring from? But such thoughts are idle and pointless. I have my duty, as you no doubt have yours. You come for the Grail that was give to us. I must stop you with all my power."
" 'Given to you'?" you ask. "Who-?"
"You will find no answers here." Saber Alter grasps her black sword and channels her power. Tainted mana swirls around it, overflowing the blade, turning it into an inverted cross of black and scarlet. "Only death. Excalibur..."
Class: Saber Alter
Master: Angra Mainyu
True Name: Arturia Pendragon
Keywords: Blackened, All The World's Evils
Arturia once possessed arguably the most powerful defences against magic imaginable due to her dragon blood. Now an avatar of All The World's Evils, it has been diluted.
Riding: B+-->X
Since her Blackening, Saber has found no use for this skill. Thus it has been sealed for efficiency.
Charisma: B-->E
Once, Arturia commanded such respect and loyalty that she was able to lead Britain back from the brink of destruction despite her seemingly humble origins and 'incorrect' gender. Corrupted by All The World's Evils, it has been diminished to the lowest limit. Though she could lead an army, it would suffer crippling morale troubles.
Instinct: A-->B
Once Arturia's instincts were so refined that they became an sixth sense practically capable of precognition. Dulled by the infinite hatred and suffering of Angra Mainyu inside her, it has degraded.
Mana Burst: A
The ability to store and expel mana for augmentative purposes, the source of her 'son's inherited ability. With the backing of All The World's Evils, she is now able to use it without limit. It can surround her entire body in an aura of black flames with but a thought, and by bathing her blade in it she can mimic her true Noble Phantasm by hurling the charge in 'blade beams'.
Noble Phantasm(s):
Excalibur Morgan - Hammer of the Vile King: A++
The 'sword that amplifies', the once-pure and holy Sword of Promised Victory has become tainted by Arturia's Blackening. Calling its name bathes it in tainted light, creating an immense and destructive beam that only increases in power the further it must travel to its target. Due to her effectively infinite mana granted by being Blackened, she is able to fire it without limit should she be inclined.
"SCATTER!" Luvia shouts at the top of her lungs. But it's too late for that. You know without being told. Even for the Servants, the real Servants, no one is getting away from Arturia with Excalibur Morgan already half-charged. The corrupted Sword of Promised Victory will obliterate you all unless something is done, something to halt it. There's only so many options. There's no guarantee that one is right. But it's better than nothing.
[ ] Order Rider to save the group with a Noble Phantasm.
[ ] Beg Medea to use all of her considerable power in defeating or shielding the group from Excalibur Morgan.
[ ] Order Luvia to use all the gems she brought with her as a barrier against Excalibur Morgan.
[ ] Block the blast. Use your own Noble Phantasm.
--[ ] Try to remember its true name. The knowledge has to be in there somewhere, right?
--[ ] Think of your family name. The Hargraves are masters of defence. You can build the fortress even Excalibur cannot break.
--[ ] Think of Chaldea, eleven years in the future. They all swore to lay down their lives against the end of the world. So will you.
Oh God Only Lord Camelot (Chaldea) can save us now like it did on the game
On the other no Cu beating Marche like a redheaded stepchild until she snaps and uses the shield
Ah what the hell at worst we get a Bad End
[X] Block the blast. Use your own Noble Phantasm.
--[X ] Think of Chaldea, eleven years in the future. They all swore to lay down their lives against the end of the world. So will you.
[X] Block the blast. Use your own Noble Phantasm.
--[X] Think of your family name. The Hargraves are masters of defence. You can build the fortress even Excalibur cannot break.
For the Fluffy, For the Toaster and for the End of the World.
Karna asks in a tone that should be long-suffering but falls a hair's breadth on the wrong side of chipper. "I can wait if your routine isn't finished."
The obsidian blades shatter, the wood housing splintering to uselessness. Rider's head wobbles, then returns to its natural position. He turns it slightly. "Oh. So we've started?" The next instant there are seven spears protruding from Hunahpu's chest and back, so hot that the rent edges of his glassy 'skin' are glowing red.
[X] Block the blast. Use your own Noble Phantasm.
--[X] Think of Chaldea, eleven years in the future. They all swore to lay down their lives against the end of the world. So will you.
[X] Block the blast. Use your own Noble Phantasm.
--[ ] Try to remember its true name. The knowledge has to be in there somewhere, right?
--[ ] Think of Chaldea, eleven years in the future. They all swore to lay down their lives against the end of the world. So will you.
--[ ] Think of your family name. The Hargraves are masters of defence. You can build the fortress even Excalibur cannot break.
So in order, these are Lord Camelot, Lord Chaldea, and... Lord Hargrave?
Well, everyone's got to have ambitions.
--[X] Think of your family name. The Hargraves are masters of defence. You can build the fortress even Excalibur cannot break.
[X] Block the blast. Use your own Noble Phantasm.
--[X] Think of Chaldea, eleven years in the future. They all swore to lay down their lives against the end of the world. So will you.
"We are cancelling the Apocalypse"
Damn straight.
(Demi)servant of the shield vs (Alter)servant of the sword.
A powerful and aberrant Noble Phantasm, unable to be conventionally ranked due to functioning as a Reality Marble. The Hero Twins must chant a six-line aria and offer up their blood in order to appease their gods enough to summon this internal world. Representing the time they spent in the underworld playing for their father's and their own honour, it transports anyone caught in its radius to a Xibalban Ōllamaliztli court. There the laws of Xibalba bind them. Ordinarily this manifests as a doubles game - an enemy Servant and their Master must play against Hunahpu and Xbalanque, while their own Master and any bystanders may watch from the stands with the shades of the dead. The rules are simple - get the ball through the other team's hoop, don't touch the ball with your hands, teams must be equal, no outsiders may interfere, and make no attempt to escape until the game is finished. All else is permitted. If any player should break these rules, or lose the game, the Xibalban Lords will have them executed with the certainty of a fate-altering curse. First to three wins.
Oh sweet mother of god that is horrifying. The sheer damage a ball of hard rubber can do to a body... And the ball used in this arena probably qualifies as a Phantasm all of it's own due to the significance the Aztecs gave the game. I would rather face off against a pissed off Saber Alter than this.
*reads rest of update*
Oh good.