Mascot & Magic

[ShieldCrown]

You are Do-Gi, a Starborn currently inhabiting the alchemically created homunculus body formed into the shape of a wolf pup with angelic wings. You have the ability to transform into a mighty War Form in order to fight alongside Champions, and the power to heal the living and resurrect the dead. Potent abilities granted to you for the sake of completing your mission, the retrieval of the Twelve Rings of The Accursed. Given that the last time they were used a literal apocalypse occurred that needed the most powerful and wisest of magical beings to counteract and contain the damage by sacrificing themselves in a massive ritual, you could see how this would be a fairly high priority task. Of course, you were just one eldritch mass of starlight and magical flame possessing an adorable meat suit, and couldn't exactly be everywhere and do everything.

That was where Champions came into play, humans with an Ember of Magic within them that Starborn like you could kindle using Sparks of Potential. This resulted in the Champion gaining access to a powerful transformation and magical abilities usually aligned to an element or theme. In the three days you've been on your mission, you have acquired three Champions. Kuuhaku Chinmoku, a girl who you had personally saved from a giant crow monster, while experiencing a side effect of your blessings that sent you into a fury when confronting the Accursed and their creations, the Dregs. She actually agreed to become a Champion without much hesitation at all, but you had still given her a chance to think about it after resurrecting the foster parents who were acting as her guardians. After that was the recruitment of Yoru Fushigi, a girl who you had found making a summoning circle, a very shoddy one at that, and who had been rather eager to take up your offer as well. She was a bit dramatic, though honestly compared to some of the folk you've interacted with back home she was actually tame by comparison. Finally there was Jihi Kagayaki, who you haven't really gotten to know all that well beyond that she's friends with Yoru and seems to be a very nice girl, altruistic you would say even.

Hmmm, you should consider recruiting some male Champions as well, at this rate people might get the wrong idea and think being a Champion is an exclusively female thing.

As for progress on your mission, well you know that the Rings are scattered across this island city that you've been sent to, and that they have formed their own pocket dimensions to protect themselves. You even had the location for around four of them! Truly, they picked the best Starborn for the job.

Oh, though you have hit a bit of a snag, given you were currently facing off against a monochromatic clown with a scythe who had just demonstrated their strength by backhanding a giant knight clad in mirror armor. So… yeah, you should maybe focus on that instead of going on a mental review of how you got to this point.

---

"We do have a plan, right!?" Yoru asked, keeping some throwing knives at the ready, while Jihi was still shaking like a leaf in the wind. Kuuhaku was the most calm, staying silent while keeping her gun trained on the 'clown from hell' with a knife made of the vantablack Void Matter in her off hand.

"Of course I have a plan!" You said while transitioning into your war form. "The scythe obviously has some sort of gimmick to it, and removing it will limit the thing's options. Kuuhaku, try to open up a Void Door and drop that wrecked car onto it's head, then we can use Jihi's illusions to keep them pinned down until Yoru can get a good shot at its shadow and paralyze them. Kuuhaku, once that's done, try to shove that scythe into your vault, that should put it out of the fight. Then we hit the thing until it's good and pulverized, preferably at range. I'll keep an eye on that Mirror Dreg Golem. Jihi, if an emergency comes up or these things pull something out of their assses, use your boost to respond. Yoru, steal their shadow when it looks like our enemies are on their last legs. Though… we could try capturing that clown, but don't take unnecessary risks."

…

Yoru and Jihi both glanced over at you, the Darkness Kunoichi and Light Priestess blinking. "Huh, that was fast-" Yoru was interrupted as Kuuhaku immediately followed your instructions and opened a Void Door under the wrecked car that was on the battlefield and used a second Void Door to drop it onto the clown's head. Unfortunately…

"[VIII-STRENGTH]." The scythe declared in a monotone voice that made your fur stand on end.

…No plan survives first contact with the enemy. A card depicting a lion and a maiden slid from the deck on the scythe and onto one of the three slots on the blade. The monochromatic jester then casually reached up and caught the falling wreckage with one hand.

"…Oh shi-"

And then proceeded to throw said wreckage at you and your group. The four of you scattered, with yourself taking to the sky with a flap of your wings and hard jump.

"Did the scythe just talk!?" Yoru asked in a panic.

"Stay focused, Kuuhaku with me! Jihi, cover us!" You shouted before swooping down as Kuuhaku rushed towards the clown, light bending around your bodies and being woven into images to confuse and hide your real position.

"[XVI-THE TOWER]." Once more the scythe announced and a card depicting a tower being struck with lightning took up the second slot in the blade. A burst of energy shot forth in all directions, shattering the illusions and even dispelling Kuuhaku's void matter knife and the cloud of darkness that Yoru had formed around herself to hide in. You even felt a sharp pain in your true Starborn essence and recognized what just happened. That was Chaos Magic, focused into an pulse to disrupt and unravel the magical energies used in shaping your Champion's abilities. One of the associations of The Tower Arcana is Chaos and Destruction…

"So that's your gimmick…" You said as she glared at the scythe and its wielder. Well, at least it wasn't Fate manipulation, that would have been problematic. Well, even more problematic. Then again, you haven't seen everything they could do…

"[XIX-THE SUN]." A third announcement played and the final card slot was filled. Suddenly a sphere of radiant plasma formed above the battlefield, one that around the size of a jeep probably. You say probably, because you had a split second before it was send hurtling towards you like a missile! You did your best to evade…

Spoiler: DODGE THE SUN!

Attack: 90

Evasion: 91

…And make it by the skin of your teeth! Hot hot hot hot! Way too hot! You had a few patches of fur and feathers that was slightly cooked now.

So, your plan has run into a significant complication. How should you proceed?

---

[] Retreat!

[] Gang up and hit them!

[] Write-In.

---

QM: For those just joining us, this is a game I s been trying to run for awhile on another site, but it was decided that I should move it here so it would actually run without it feeling like pulling teeth due to lack of apparent interest. Please stand by while I add some of the informational stuff.

 

[ShieldCrown]

Name: "Do-Gi"



[Spark Count: 5]



Powers

1. Starborn: You are a Starborn, your true self is a being of starlight and mystic flame born from the heart of the Sanctum Aetherius. You possess the power to nurture the Embers of Magic left behind in humans into full flames, turning them into Champions. You are sensitive to mystical energies and can detect those with the Embers from a distance.
2. Mascot Body: You have a small, cute body that acts as the vessel for your essence. While it doesn't need sustenance, consuming food is something it can do. If your Mascot Body is slain, your true essence will be exposed and left vulnerable.
3. Might of Titans: Your Mascot body can be transformed into a bigger and stronger version of itself, allowing you to fight alongside Champions. If defeated in this form, revert back into your default Mascot form.
4. Flames of the Phoenix: You possess the flames of life, allowing you to heal injuries and cure ailments such as disease and poison. If your Mascot body is killed, you will revive in an fiery explosion instead of being left vulnerable. You can also revive the recently deceased, though the pain of dying and psychological trauma is not removed.
5. Grudge of Aetherius: +10 to Combat when fighting Dregs and Accursed, -20 when trying to disengage from combat with Dregs and Accursed. Must roll to resist going berserk when detecting hidden Dregs.

Inventory:

1. Pandoran Vessel: A large pithos depicting demons being chained and fed to a giant skull. It is a sealing Magic item used to seal the Accursed and contain them until the ritual to erase them.

 

[ShieldCrown]

Spoiler: Kuuhaku Chinmoku

Outfit: Pale white armor over a vantablack undersuit, with a pale white hooded cloak with black interior and black triangles on the bottom edges of the cloak and the opening of the hood. A pale white smooth mask with two darkness filled eye holes.

Weapon: Void Spike Gun.

Core Magic: Void Matter Constructs.



Skills

• Evasion Proficiency: Add a +5 to attempts to Dodge Attacks

Magic Upgrades:

• Void Vault: Can open portals to void space where items can be placed for safekeeping and drawn out later. Time doesn't pass within the pocket space, so items do not age or decay. Can store Void Matter constructs indefinitely within the void space.
  • Void Door: Allows for use of the void space as a means of transport between locations by creating portals that link the locations together. Limited to one pair of portals at a time.
• Void Body: Kuuhaku gains immunity to disease and poison. She can also use Void Matter to heal herself.
  • Void Mind: Kuuhaku gains immunity to charm and fear. Kuuhaku is also immune to mind reading.
    • Void Heart: Kuuhaku can transform into a being composed of pure Void Matter, gaining enhanced physical abilities and limited shapeshifting. Immunity to Possession and Resistance to Spiritual Attacks.

Spoiler: Yoru Fushigi

Outfit: A ninja garb of fabric thar shifts between blue to black that changes based on light level, with a hood and face mask to conceal her identity. Has lots of hidden pockets.

Weapon: Throwing Knives

Core Magic: Shade Shroud



Skills

• Evasion Proficiency: Add a +5 to attempts to Dodge Attacks

Magic Upgrades

• Shadow Pin: By throwing a dagger or other sharp projectile into a target's shadow, paralyze them until either the projectile is destroyed/removed, or the shadow disappears.
  • Shadow Strike: The user can attack the target's shadow to deal half damage to the target, dealing injuries through it.
  • Shadow Thief: The user can choose to steal a pinned target's shadow from, halving their abilities and stats for 2 Turns. If slain in that state, they give an additional 5 Sparks to the killer.
• Deep Shroud: The user becomes engulfed in a cloud of shifting darkness that completely obscures their form, making it near impossible to see them past it. Allies near the cloud are partially obscured as well.
• Dark Body: The user moves faster and can see in the dark, and can easily be overlooked by others while in shaded places.
• (Special) A Shadow's Light: Yoru has a telepathic link with Jihi, and gets a boost to Magic when near Jihi. Certain limits are lifted. ???

Spoiler: Jihi Kagayaki

Outfit: An elaborate ivory priestly outfit, with gold trimming and sun imagery.



Weapon: Magical Lantern

Core Magic: Revealing Light



Magic Upgrades

• Light Ray: Shoot a single beam of Light at a target, not very powerful but is very accurate and fast.
• Light Weaver: The user can manipulate light to form visual illusions, creating images and words that aren't really there. These illusions are fragile and easy to break, and lack complexity.
  • Solid Weaver: By using Hard Light, the user's illusions are given more durability and can to a degree interact with the world as physical entities.
• Radiant Body: The user gains strength and durability while in light, and can move slightly faster as well.
  • Radiant Mind: Immune to Fear, Charm, and Telepathy. Enhanced Reflexes, and can Detect when someone is under Mind Control.
• (Special) One's Own Sun: A miniature orb of golden light will follow the Champion around while transformed, passively lighting an area around them in sunlight. It can fire off small beams of sunlight at enemies who attack the Champion. Alternatively, it can be consumed to supercharge one ability, and comes back in three turns.
• (Special) Dawn and Dusk: Jihi has a telepathic link with Yoru, and gets a boost to Magic when near Yoru. Certain limits are lifted. ???

 

[ShieldCrown]

Spoiler: The Accursed

The Accused are the shades of those who crafted the Twelve Rings of Creation in order to perform a ritual that would give them the power to be Gods Among Gods, however their infighting and greed for power instead lead to the Sundering. Over the years since the Starborn have been sent out to act as Mascots and form teams of champions, five out of the twelve Accursed have been consigned to Oblivion, their very being erased from the tapestry of existence itself. The Ultimate Death. Each Accursed wields immense power even in their diminished states and requires an entire team of champions to take down and seal away so that they could be destroyed properly later. Simply killing an Accursed through regular means will only scatter their essence where they will reform later somewhere else.


The Slain Accursed are:

[NAME ERASED], The Will-Breaker

[NAME ERASED], The Flesh Twister

[NAME ERASED], The Thorn Queen

[NAME ERASED], The Blood-Iron Tyrant

[NAME ERASED], The Fell Tempest


The Living Accused are:

Xazoth, The Dreadwyrm of Incineration

Gozzamas, Queen of The Frigid Deep

Kogmanith, The Ruin Maker

Jolmaroth, The Mistress of Ill-Wind

Thalvomon, Overlord of The Black Moon

Xazonul, Phoenix of The Pale Sun

[UNKNOWN], The Forgotten One.


Recommendation: Once a proper foothold is made, begin construction/request Sealing Vessels immediately. Slaying the Accursed takes priority over all other objectives.

Spoiler: Dregs

Minions of the Accursed, born of their corruptive essence. Little more than dark spirits on their own, they can possess people, animals, and objects in order to gain physical form and enact their dark master's will.

Dreg Beasts are the results of possessing animals, looking like larger and twisted parodies of the vessel the Dreg is using. Killing a Dreg Beast will not kill the vessel, as the Beast itself is more a projection around the vessel instead of an actually mutated body.

Dreg Golems are what happens if a Dreg possesses an item from something as small as a hand mirror to something large like an air plane. While slightly more intelligent than Beasts, Golems are effectively robots that lack a true mind of their own and focus on completing a set of objectives for the sake of the Accursed they serve.

Dreg Demons are both the weakest and the most dangerous form a Dreg can obtain. By possessing a human, a Dreg can either transform them immediately or instead choose to 'hibernate' inside the person. Those who are immediately transformed are little more powerful than the average adult mundane human and go down in a few good hits. However, those who choose to hibernate and wait attache themselves closer to their unsuspecting host's soul, feeding on it and growing stronger while the host steadily declines in health, both physically and mentally. Should a Dreg be allowed to finish hibernating, their host will die as their soul is consumed completely and the Dreg Demon takes over the body.

A Dreg Demon who has reached this point my transform into a form that reflects the soul they have consumed. If they possessed a racer then they will have a form based on speed and racing, while one that possessed a gardener would have plant powers. It is not known what would happen if a Dreg tried to possess someone with an Ember, as most Dregs seek to kill any Champion instead of using possession.

 

[ShieldCrown]

Hoseki City: A sprawling metropolis that covered the midsection of the artificial island of the same name, it is divided into five sections: North-West, North-East, South-East, South-West, and the Central Mega-Park. Kuuhaku, Yoru, and Jihi all live in South-East section of the city.

The Agricultural Land: This is the location where a number of greenhouses and farms are located that provide a solid source of food for the island. You know that six of the Rings your looking for are in this area, and you know the exact location of four! Too bad they're in some kind of pocket dimension…

The Noble District: This is where the rich people live from what you have learned, with mansions and villas and beach front property! Don't know a whole lot else.

The Palace District: Apparently this is where the actual "founding families" of the island are located. You also don't know a whole lot about this place.

East Hoseki Academy: It's a school, Kuuhaku and Yoru both have classes there, have a blue dragon statute out front facing towards the Central Park.

South Hoseki Academy: Another school, this is where Jihi goes. Has a vermilion bird statue, also faces the Central Park.

Central Park: Way too big, had a golden dragon statue in the center, which happens to also be the exact center of the island. Weird…

 

[ShieldCrown]

Okay, voting is open, ask any questions you want, and I'll answer as best I can.

 

[SpacePaladin]

Let's see, they can disrupt magic, have super strength and can fire super-heated blasts.
Meanwhile, we've got three barely trained teenagers.
Unfortunately, we suck at running away.

The clown isn't flying right?

[X] Write-In.
-[X] Open a portal underneath the clown's feat. Let's see what happens when something falls into a portal where the magic is screwy. Have the others focus on the golem.

 

[Mintart]

[X] Write-In.
-[X] You use the Pandoran Vessel to absorb the fire ball

 

[ShieldCrown]

The clown isn't flying right?

Click to shrink...

Nope, they are still ground bound.

Do-Gi is the only one who can fly consistently in the battlefield right now, but he's also a bit melee focused at the moment.

[X] Write-In.
-[X] You take out a Card Box which you conjure using flames to restrain the fire ball back into a card which you then pocket/absorb into yourself.

Click to shrink...

… That is not a thing you can do.

 

[Arcanestomper]

[X] Write-In.
-[X] Open a portal underneath the clown's feat. Let's see what happens when something falls into a portal where the magic is screwy. Have the others focus on the golem.

 

[Sonic0859]

[x] Write-In.
- [x] You take out a Card Box which you conjure using flames to restrain the fire ball back into a card which you then pocket/absorb into yourself.

 

[NaanContributor]

So, The Tower is by far the most OP thing here, just being able to instantly cancel out everyone else's ongoing magical effects in a self-centered AoE. That, plus Strength for close-range, plus The Sun for long-ranged attack, plus presumably being able to switch any of those out for other unknown abilities, makes this a pretty bullshit enemy. Though I think we can still handle it with some tweaks to the original plan, namely not relying on sustained magical effects (such as trying to trap it and/or the scythe in the Void) which it can just undo with The Tower, and not trying to fight something equipped with capital S Strength in melee.

[X] Write-In.
-[X] Mostly stick to the same plan, but with some adjustments. Focus exclusively on whittling it down with ranged attacks and avoid melee as long as it has Strength. Don't bother trying to seal the scythe in the Void Vault, instead Kuuhaku uses her Void Door to intercept further Sun attacks and redirect them to the enemy.

 

[Nigerian Duck]

Ha, doggy.
[X] Write-In.
-[X] Open a portal underneath the clown's feat. Let's see what happens when something falls into a portal where the magic is screwy. Have the others focus on the golem.

 

[Dial1119]

[X] Write-In.
-[X] Mostly stick to the same plan, but with some adjustments. Focus exclusively on whittling it down with ranged attacks and avoid melee as long as it has Strength. Don't bother trying to seal the scythe in the Void Vault, instead Kuuhaku uses her Void Door to intercept further Sun attacks and redirect them to the enemy.

 

[KreenWarrior]

[x] Write-in
-[x] Bait out the Sun attack and use a portal concealed in shadow to send it right back in the thing's face! It shouldn't be able to cancel it's own abilities as they work on different principles than the Champions!

This feels like something that might work in a magical girl anime. 🤷‍♀️