Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

You haven't seen anything yet!

Who, me?
Surely you're thinking of some other dog?
I'm just your everyday loveable dog....
With a cat sidekick!

Good night.


...More on topic to avoid being hit for chan behavior, Una may or may not be traumatized, but we almost certainly are.

....Relurk.
 
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Ok, now that things have calmed down a bit, I'll be piping in. Didn't want to write before since I would have only added to the clusterfuck. Missed the vote, so I have no right to comment on it but I'd like to point one thing out. First I'd like to say that I'm only trying to give my honest take on the situation and don't intend to insult or aggress anybody, if someone feels insulted, sorry in advance. If someone needs a reason: it's 2 AM here, I'm fucking tired and english isn't my first language so the finest nuances might escape me.

@Rukia, when you asked for feedback about the quest a while back I said that the situation we are in is frustrating, but you don't seem to have taken it seriously since you seem surprised by the rising tempers all around right now. So I'm going to try to expand on it since it seems my explanation was lacking.

To summarize our situation:
- We have limited knowledge about how our magic works, how to apply it for best effect on the field due to the lack of intel and our magic can potentially kill us.
- We are being given shitty intel.
- The briefing for that mission was extremely vague in what objectives were important.
- We have limited knowledge of the world and what is happening even though it has already been a few weeks since we joined the Clocktower.
- We do not have a group of NPCs who can support us at all times and serve as a safety net.
- Though the mechanics of the quest are detailed and complete, it isn't that easy to integrate them due to their vastness.

All those points put together create a great deal of tension and more often than not, frustration. We have almost no control on our situation beyond our levels and our plans and that isn't a comfortable situation for the players. I don't know if you have engineered it consciously or unconsciously, but the fact remains that you have created the premises for this situation with your narrative for better or for worse.

It isn't necessarily bad: that kind of stress allows to take more interest in the MC, when given a good resolution is gratifying to the player, but when it results in failures like here you need to be extremely careful in the crafting of the part of the story where the MC fails if you do not want to have tempers flaring to no end. It is a good way to keep the readers on their toes and having them really taking interest in the story, but in the end it is playing with a pressure cooker: if you do not handle it carefully, you'll get burnt. If we are in a situation where we will fail, I'd advise you to be extra careful about how it goes down.

I'd also advise to be careful about too much tension since it can become tiring for the players and burn them out in the long run.

I'm not a writer so I can't really give you advice in this situation, but since we are playing a CWMGQ quest, I'd like to point at an example of how it is done right in the hope that it could help: the FATAL GEAR 1 chapter of CWMGQ has always kinda awed me. In there the MC dies, but the first reactions of the players were to rate it funny and the general consensus was "oh well...", but the quest in itself is all along going at a high tension rate. I'm still surprised about how CW managed to magic those kind of reactions into existence and that chapter remains one of my favorites in the quest. I think it is maybe about how the preceding chapters of the quest paved the way for the players to realize that defeat and death weren't a matter of if, but of when, but I'm not sure. Or the fact that the players had the fact that death is a common occurrence hammered into them? Not sure.

Oh and:

[X].

On an unrelated subject, I'd like to add that I really hate those kind of votes with ".", "..", "..." or some such that either don't mean anything or whose meaning is important but isn't easily discerned, though that just my personal preferences.

And on that note, good night to all since I don't think I'll be up for much longer.
 
Ok, now that things have calmed down a bit, I'll be piping in. Didn't want to write before since I would have only added to the clusterfuck. Missed the vote, so I have no right to comment on it but I'd like to point one thing out. First I'd like to say that I'm only trying to give my honest take on the situation and don't intend to insult or aggress anybody, if someone feels insulted, sorry in advance. If someone needs a reason: it's 2 AM here, I'm fucking tired and english isn't my first language so the finest nuances might escape me.

@Rukia, when you asked for feedback about the quest a while back I said that the situation we are in is frustrating, but you don't seem to have taken it seriously since you seem surprised by the rising tempers all around right now. So I'm going to try to expand on it since it seems my explanation was lacking.

To summarize our situation:
- We have limited knowledge about how our magic works, how to apply it for best effect on the field due to the lack of intel and our magic can potentially kill us.
- We are being given shitty intel.
- The briefing for that mission was extremely vague in what objectives were important.
- We have limited knowledge of the world and what is happening even though it has already been a few weeks since we joined the Clocktower.
- We do not have a group of NPCs who can support us at all times and serve as a safety net.
- Though the mechanics of the quest are detailed and complete, it isn't that easy to integrate them due to their vastness.

All those points put together create a great deal of tension and more often than not, frustration. We have almost no control on our situation beyond our levels and our plans and that isn't a comfortable situation for the players. I don't know if you have engineered it consciously or unconsciously, but the fact remains that you have created the premises for this situation with your narrative for better or for worse.

It isn't necessarily bad: that kind of stress allows to take more interest in the MC, when given a good resolution is gratifying to the player, but when it results in failures like here you need to be extremely careful in the crafting of the part of the story where the MC fails if you do not want to have tempers flaring to no end. It is a good way to keep the readers on their toes and having them really taking interest in the story, but in the end it is playing with a pressure cooker: if you do not handle it carefully, you'll get burnt. If we are in a situation where we will fail, I'd advise you to be extra careful about how it goes down.

I'd also advise to be careful about too much tension since it can become tiring for the players and burn them out in the long run.

I'm not a writer so I can't really give you advice in this situation, but since we are playing a CWMGQ quest, I'd like to point at an example of how it is done right in the hope that it could help: the FATAL GEAR 1 chapter of CWMGQ has always kinda awed me. In there the MC dies, but the first reactions of the players were to rate it funny and the general consensus was "oh well...", but the quest in itself is all along going at a high tension rate. I'm still surprised about how CW managed to magic those kind of reactions into existence and that chapter remains one of my favorites in the quest. I think it is maybe about how the preceding chapters of the quest paved the way for the players to realize that defeat and death weren't a matter of if, but of when, but I'm not sure. Or the fact that the players had the fact that death is a common occurrence hammered into them? Not sure.

Oh and:

[X].

On an unrelated subject, I'd like to add that I really hate those kind of votes with ".", "..", "..." or some such that either don't mean anything or whose meaning is important but isn't easily discerned, though that just my personal preferences.

And on that note, good night to all since I don't think I'll be up for much longer.
Thank you for the honesty.
I wasn't aware that it was that bad, I thought people were maybe a little confused over some matters, but not this much. (I will clarify this soon, hopefully)

I was also amazed by how calmly people too near-death and literal death. Crystal is a much better writer than I am, but I try.
I was planning on having a cool-down arc, starting after this too, it was going a bit high-tempo for too long.

I won't use votes like that in the future, I was trying to make a heart-beat monitor and failed.
 
I'm not a writer so I can't really give you advice in this situation, but since we are playing a CWMGQ quest, I'd like to point at an example of how it is done right in the hope that it could help: the FATAL GEAR 1 chapter of CWMGQ has always kinda awed me. In there the MC dies, but the first reactions of the players were to rate it funny and the general consensus was "oh well...", but the quest in itself is all along going at a high tension rate.
To be fair, I believe that had a great deal to do with the players getting to "retry" immediately after. So really, that "death" wasn't ACTUALLY a setback of any sort; if it had been, I doubt people would be so calm about it.
 
Cyberswordsman made an excellent post earlier.

It makes good points I agree, does that mean you're going to follow that? If you aren't going to force Cerys to follow through plans to the letter without pause causing ridiculous situations like her going in to act as bait after being significantly injured, then my worries about having to micro-manage her with contingencies will significantly lessen.
 
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Your back hits the floor with a jarring thud, sending a wave of agony racing through your spine as your eyes snap open. You futilely try to gasp for air, getting nothing from your ravaged lungs. Before you can panic for more than a second, you feel a hand land on your chest and you can suddenly breath.

(Ignition Knight: 1 + 100 = 101)

You take several hacking coughs, spraying spittle and blood onto your chest, the Medic quickly grabs you by the arms and drags you back into the circle. Your team is standing over you protectively, twitching their aim from side to side as the medic concentrates on the bloody mess that is your chest. He reaches into the mess, pulling something straight with a sickening crunch, before you feel him starting to heal you again.

(Ignition Knight: 101 + 100 = 201)

You let out a relived breath as your injuries quickly fade, the sound of screeching echoing in your ears as the medic helps you up, healing you all the way. You can't stand on your own at first, but your strength rapidly returns to you, legs firming beneath you and grip tightening on the stub of your sword. You dismiss it and reform your armour, floating above the fight to get a better look. It is chaos, there are at least three Ghosts floating around freely, barely dodging shots as they coast through the walls and floor.

You quickly pick one out, using Halt to freeze it. Your team immediately takes the opportunity provided to them and throws as much magic downrange as they can.

(Pierce: +35 Base Damage, +8 Dice = 43 Total Damage
Fireball: +40 Base Damage, +6 Dice = 46 Total Damage
Icicle: +24 Base Damage, +10 Dice = 34 Total Damage

Pierce x 3 = 129 Total Damage
Fireball x 2 = 92 Total Damage
Icicle x 4 = 136 Total Damage

357 Total End Damage

Skull Wraith: +0 Base Resilience, +0 Dice, -100 Cannot Dodge = +100 Additional Damage

457 Final Damage

Intangibility: 50% Reduction

229 Final End Damage

Skull Wraith: 230 - 229 = 1

Ignition Knight: 201 + 100 = 301)


The Ghost just evaporates, there isn't anything left but charred ground. The medic doesn't fall behind either, still healing you, even as he has to stand on his tip-toes to reach your foot.

The two remaining ghosts react to your reappearance quickly, throwing out whatever spell they had that reeks of death. You quickly bend your barrier, forming a cone in-front of the spells and they quickly dissolve under the assault. You withdraw your barrier, straining slightly at having moved it in such as strange way. You immediately Halt the Ghost caught out in the open, the leader crying out it's location as the team turns as one.

(Pierce: +35 Base Damage, +7 Dice = 42 Total Damage
Fireball: +40 Base Damage, +4 Dice = 44 Total Damage
Icicle: +24 Base Damage, +12 Dice = 36 Total Damage

Pierce x 3 = 126 Total Damage
Fireball x 2 = 82 Total Damage
Icicle x 4 = 144 Total Damage

352 Total End Damage

Skull Wraith: +0 Base Resilience, +0 Dice, -100 Cannot Dodge = +100 Additional Damage

452 Final Damage

Intangibility: 50% Reduction

226 Final End Damage

Skull Wraith: 230 - 226 = 4)


This one dissolves just as fast as the last, but the remaining Ghost sinks underground faster than you can grab him. Your huddle grows closer as you float slightly higher off of the ground. Your eyes are peeled on the floor, magic primed and ready. When you catch the leader looking at you with wide eyes, you spin on the spot, throwing Halt before you even have a target. The ghost is caught halfway through the wall, arm outstretched in the same way the last one was, claws reaching for you.

You dash backwards, eyes wide as your mind flashes back to the agony you had experienced only brief moments before. Your team waits for you to move out of the firing range, which gives the ghost enough time to briefly struggle as you summon two spears of fire.

(Skull Wraith Bind Roll: 14/80)

You see it shake strangely, struggling futilely against your magic as you let a sharp grin cross your face. Get me once... You point your sword straight at it.

(Pierce: +35 Base Damage, +15 Dice = 50 Total Damage
Fireball: +40 Base Damage, +3 Dice = 43 Total Damage
Icicle: +24 Base Damage, +1 Dice = 25 Total Damage
Thermal Spear: +108 Base Damage, +18 Dice, +85 Spell Boost = 211 Total Damage

Pierce x 3 = 150 Total Damage
Fireball x 2 = 86 Total Damage
Icicle x 4 = 100 Total Damage
Thermal Spear x 2 = 422 Total Damage

758 Total End Damage

Skull Wraith: +0 Base Resilience, +0 Dice, -100 Cannot Dodge = +100 Additional Damage

858 Final Damage

Intangibility: 50% Reduction

429 Final End Damage

Skull Wraith: 230 - 429 = -199)


Never again.

The entire wall of the building vanishes, the sturdy brick disintegrating under under your combined assault.

You float back towards your team, the entire group slowly shuffling away from the walls with you in the centre. You float down low enough for the medic to get a grip on your leg, and you quickly feel your injuries healing, almost letting out a relieved sigh. You stay on high alert, warily looking around for anything as he does his work.

(Ignition Knight: 301 + 100 = 401)

You float there in silence, the only sound being the breathing of your team and the scuffing of their boots as they shift further and further away from the walls. When you reach as close towards the middle as you can, you stop, listening for anything.

(Ignition Knight: 401 + 100 = 500)

You stand there in silence for at least ten minutes, listening for the slightest twitch. You eventually start to relax slightly, muscles in your shoulders un-tensing as you hear nothing. Your team also starts relaxing slightly, but not completely. You stare around at the camp, wondering if it is clear, but not really wanting to stick your face in and get it torn off.

The leader glances up to you from his position, shuffling towards you slightly. "Ignition Knight, I think it would be for the best if we leave now. Hunting hiding Ghosts is an impossible task, we'll just assume we didn't get them all." You nod reluctantly as you glance around, unnerved by the utter silence surrounding you. You shuffle as a group towards the gate, keeping as far away from any walls as you can. When you close to the gate, everyone tenses, expecting an attack, but you pass through without issue.

When you were passed the gate, you all turned to face the camp, the medic watching your backs. You walked, or floated in your case, backwards as quickly as you could. You glance around, somewhat surprised by the lack of people showing up to investigate, considering you had set off a pretty big explosion into the air and vaporized a wall. Still, you all move back together until you are at least three hundred metres away from the perimeter wall. Then, you can finally relax.

You let out a long sigh of relief as you stretch, grimacing as you feel the dried blood on your skin flake against your armour. That was... You hold your arms to yourself as you think about what happened. You don't think that there are words that can adequately describe how painful it is to nearly be torn in half. You were thankful beyond words that the medic spell had numbed the pain, but you had no doubts that you would remember that for a long time.

You let out a long sigh as you move towards the van they had arrived in, you had thought it was a car from a distance. They allow you to take a space in the back, lying across a cot in the van. They insisted, and to be honest, you really weren't in the mood to argue with them, you could feel a slow ache start to spread along your middle, starting on one side. This is going to hurt like a motherfucker later isn't it? You hadn't realised you spoke aloud until the medic nodded at you and spoke. "The pain will come and go, there is no injury, but your body doesn't realise that. Sorry, I'm not good enough to alleviate that."

You let out a bright laugh, even though it hurts. "I couldn't care less if it hurts, you saved me from getting cut in half." Your smile is a little delirious, riding high on the last of your adrenaline rush, and reach over to shake his hand. Your arm is too shaky to grasp his easily, but he grabs your and shakes for you, giving you a warm smile as he does so.

You rest your head down on the cot, closing your eyes briefly as you shift slightly. Mmmmm, I'll just, rest. For a moment...

/LINE BREAK\​

When you open your eyes, you are in a very warm and comfy bed. It takes you a long minute to work out where you are, sleepily shifting your eyes around. Eventually, the iron-grip around your stomach informs you of where you are. Home, I'm home. You close your eyes again, not thinking about anything but how glad you are to have your sister in your arms again.

You fall back asleep to the gentle rhythm of your sisters breathing.

/LINE BREAK\​

When you wake next, Una is still bolted to you, but you have a new visitor. Morgan is sleeping on a chair she's brought into your room, looking distinctly uncomfortable as her neck is bent sideways. The moment you shift, she jolts upright and her eyes are fixed on you. You freeze as she leans forwards, before she throws herself on top of you, rudely waking Una with a Squawk. She squeezes you tightly, not letting you get out anything more than a strangled breath.

She doesn't say anything for the duration of the hug, releasing you and sitting back on the edge of the bed with a puffy face. Has she been crying? When you try to sit up, she immediately pushes you back down, gently, but firmly. "No, you are going to stay right there until I consider you better. Do you understand me?" You nod without thinking, resting back into the quilts as Una snuggles up to you again. "Good, good." She lets a small smile crawl onto her face as she hands you a mug of soup she has somehow kept warm. "I made this for you."

You nod with a smile, taking a long sip and being pleasantly surprised by how good it was. You hold your mug up to your face, taking another, smaller sip as you nod again. "It's good, thank you Morgan." Her face lights up at your words, and she sits back a little, looking pleased.

+300xp Killed 6 Skull Wraiths
+160xp Scrants

Abilities

Plate Armour
Level 6 -> 7
Base Resilience: 48 -> 63

Alpha and Omega
Level 2 -> 3
Base Damage: 8 -> 11
 
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Thank you for the honesty.
I wasn't aware that it was that bad, I thought people were maybe a little confused over some matters, but not this much. (I will clarify this soon, hopefully)

I was also amazed by how calmly people too near-death and literal death. Crystal is a much better writer than I am, but I try.
I was planning on having a cool-down arc, starting after this too, it was going a bit high-tempo for too long.

I won't use votes like that in the future, I was trying to make a heart-beat monitor and failed.

That's just my take on the situation, I'm sure someone else has another opinion. I enjoy the quest, but I have to admit that always having to juggle what we know and don't know, what we control and what we don't is tiring in the long run. Though I hope that communicating it has helped a bit. I'm sure it must be hard to always have to take into account how things are seen from the players' POV while being the QM and having all the knowledge of the quest available.

If my snip helped you then all the better. :)

To be fair, I believe that had a great deal to do with the players getting to "retry" immediately after. So really, that "death" wasn't ACTUALLY a setback of any sort; if it had been, I doubt people would be so calm about it.

What surprised is that there was no one who was salty as fuck even though they had all spent a long time crafting plans for it. Such a general reaction from the entirety of the player base in comparison to the discussion that took place remains impressive even if it was only caused by just the words "Try again".
 
You chose... correctly...

Also, I saw that Rukia ;)

Welp, we now have a boatload of EXP.

Im glad we won, and didnt lose anybody.

I would like it if we were more careful in the future though. Easy mode or not this is still a death world quest.
 
So yeah I do definitely think we should put levels into our durability skills if we plan to keep soloing. Also we should spend more time training HSC and Flight since those are our best dodging tools.

Also shields. It seems we can tear apart hostile spells before they reach us fairly easily but we should work on a way of blocking physical attacks too.

Aside from those, seems we good mostly?
 
Also shields. It seems we can tear apart hostile spells before they reach us fairly easily but we should work on a way of blocking physical attacks too.
Do we really need to have this argument again? Daiyu is our shield.

Sinarblood hit the nail on the head about what we need:
Thoughts on magic:

If there are two things I'd like to push through before the gate closes on quickly gaining new spells it would be:
 
Well...

That could have been a lot worse. We are still squishy as hell, so we need to keep that in mind. Nepgear, we are not. Also, no messing with conceptual magic. PERIOD. We should only get that stuff from the shop from now on, cause it will mess us up big time.

Remind me, why didn't we just level the damn place from range again? I didn't catch why.
 
Well...

That could have been a lot worse. We are still squishy as hell, so we need to keep that in mind. Nepgear, we are not. Also, no messing with conceptual magic. PERIOD. We should only get that stuff from the shop from now on, cause it will mess us up big time.

Remind me, why didn't we just level the damn place from range again? I didn't catch why.

Morgan was saying how she'd prefer if we didn't and our XP was halved (though that was fixed and won't be a problem anymore) the previous time we nuked a place.
 
Well...

That could have been a lot worse. We are still squishy as hell, so we need to keep that in mind. Nepgear, we are not. Also, no messing with conceptual magic. PERIOD. We should only get that stuff from the shop from now on, cause it will mess us up big time.

Remind me, why didn't we just level the damn place from range again? I didn't catch why.

Because we were asked to try and not do that.
 
so, did the people magic-bomb that place to shit yet?
Well...

That could have been a lot worse. We are still squishy as hell, so we need to keep that in mind. Nepgear, we are not. Also, no messing with conceptual magic. PERIOD. We should only get that stuff from the shop from now on, cause it will mess us up big time.

Remind me, why didn't we just level the damn place from range again? I didn't catch why.
we were asked not to, because it's a historical place and harder to cover up and stuff and things
 
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