[X] Plan Human Torch
-[X] We summon a vast shroud of flames, becoming a living comet of fire, hot enough to incinerate trees in seconds and turn ice to steam. We melt our way through the glacier wall like a well-strung arrow going through cheese.
-[X] If the spirit attempts to stop us with grinding glacier walls to crush our bones or gleaming icicle spears to impale us, we will rob them of their force with Standstill, and then vaporize them with vast gouts of flame. We are the eternal flame.
-[X] Try and reach out to the spirit and engage it in conversation as we progress. We're not here to hurt it or force it into anything, we just want to talk, but if it wants to start a fight, we'll win it.
0~0~0
Despite the melting ice dampening your flames, there's little they can do to extinguish your heat. Weak icicle-blasts sizzle away to steam as they make contact with the shroud of fire wrapping around your shoulders. Every steaming 'step' into that glacial wall leaves water-filled footprints in your wake.
"I'm not here to fight you!" You call into the glacial pass, not really expecting much in the way of a response. As expected, your only answer is a renewed wave of further strengthened hailstones. Are they strong enough to break through your shroud?
A sharp pain against your 'shoulder' tells you all you need to know as you actually start having to defend yourself. The warning shot was exactly that, a warning. Now, it's actually giving you some power.
You grin as a hand snaps out and the wall of hail stops mid-flight, like some great god decided to bring them to a standstill. A jet of crimson flame from your other hand reduces the attack to sizzling rock and bubbling water as steam rises from both.
"Come now," you casually shatter ice-wrapped stone with a sighing backhand—the few straggling attacks left of this wave, "did you really think that this was enough to drive me away?"
For the first time since entering, you get an actual answer. With a voice like cracking ice, the sword-spirit's words come from everywhere at once, "No, heathen harlot, I did not."
The moment the words reach your ears, the snow-swept 'ground' before you shudders and rumbles as ice breaches the surface. White and blue bones of frozen water spring to life with snow sword and icicle spear in hand. Hundreds of empty eye sockets glare with a false anger, a pitiful simulacrum of life and death. Compared to real draugar, these pathetic morsels are hardly even worth the title of foe.
'Allow me,' clearly, Blackhand agrees. He chuckles as limbs of tanned flesh and blackened bone manifest at the edge of your vision, 'It's been some time since I last fought anything, and I lack all but the dregs of my strength, so forgive me for any poor showings.'
Somehow, you get the feeling that you won't be seeing anything of the sort. Moments later, you're proven right as Blackhand enters the fray.
Ice shatters, bones snap, and skulls collapse inwards as Blackhand cuts down all before him. The only time you even actually see your grandfather is in the brief, fraction-of-a-second-long pauses wherever his flying fists make contact. One would actually have an easier time tracking him by the waste of his wake then by the movements of the man himself.
While his speed is impressive—no one would debate that fact—it isn't how quick he is that loosens jaws, it's the sheer efficiency with which he dispatches his foes that does. Not a step out of line, not a motion out of order, and not a single misplaced limb can be seen as makes his way through the horde.
No matter what he does, the rest of him is doing two or three or more things alongside it. While one hand crushes an ice-packed skull with nothing but the raw strength of his finger-tips, the other hand impales a skeleton on a discarded spear as a lashing kick cleaves through two spines at once—all while balancing on a single foot, which was already preparing to throw him at the next pack of foes.
By the end, there's nothing left but a short man with a pair of mismatched hands—and a raven's feast at his back.
If this is what Blackhand is capable of while running on what little strength still clings to his soul, then what was he capable of when he was alive? The thought brings a shudder to your shoulders, but you have little time to consider as the next assault flies free.
The scorched-snow—burnt so quickly that it didn't even have time to realize that it was supposed to melt—swiftly swallows the remains as the walls shudder and shake. A sharp crack rings out as the glacial sides to the meltwater-forged pass collapse inwards—directly on top of you!
Glaring towards the heavens, you refuse. Showing your palms the sky, you call upon the embers lurking in your soul.
An eruption of flame answers your beckons as a column of fire stretches from the ground to the sky. It shatters through ice, snow, and stone as it races ever-further-upwards in search of the spiritual heavens. Fragments of rubble rain down around you as mirrored smiles stretch across near-identical faces.
"Still feeling like fighting?" There's no answer to your smirking query, not even a token attack. Ha! Looks like you're getting to them.
With a final step, you cross the border between out and in and find yourself plunging into a blizzard. Snow-blind, you can't see your hand before your face even with your fire shroud at full burn.
'Sword'll be somewhere near the center, if my memories are correct,' Blackhand says from behind your eyes, having returned to your own soul, 'I'm starting to remember some facts of spiritual combat, so thank you for that.'
"No problem, Blackhand," you reply as you turn your attention to the storm.
0~0~0
(Tactics: 9+6) 15 Successes
Your intuition says that this blizzard is the final obstacle in your way. Not only does it blind your physical senses, but your spiritual ones can't discern anything with the sheer mass of spiritual snow obscuring everything.
Your fire shroud does little if anything to lessen the effects of the snow, which bears ill omen for the effectiveness of your other fire-based tricks. When combat shifts to soulscape, whoever is its master gains significant strength. While the raw power the Ice Sword can wield has increased, so too have your options. No longer restricted to a single path—that of entering the soulscape—you can now exercise that thinking meat of yours and come up with clever solutions to things.
It's a good thing that you're not running the risk of catching a death of cold, as you can't sense the exit anymore. Fortunately, you're still at the very edge of the soulscape, so you could simply cross back if so desired. You get the feeling that this will be your last opportunity to take it, as you'll swiftly lose what little sense of direction you have in the snowstorm.
The snowstorm doesn't cover the entirety of the soulscape, your intuition tells you that much. If there's anywhere that isn't, it'll be the very center—things have a way of working out like that, after all.
Only problem is, how will you find it?
[ ] Write in
0~0~0
AN: This was an interesting one to write, but I had a lot of fun doing it. Writing Blackhand's fighting style was especially fun.
15-minute moratorium and a potentially short vote, depending on how quickly you decide on things.
... I'm thinking we want to make use of Mire Ward or Gust as our method here, and apply a counterspin to the blizzard's rotation, disrupt the flow of wind and air to sound out our path forward.
... I'm thinking we want to make use of Mire Ward or Gust as our method here, and apply a counterspin to the blizzard's rotation, disrupt the flow of wind and air to sound out our path forward.
Mire Ward requires us to be stationary which seems like an issue here, but use of Sailwind in particular, plus Veto Motion if we start getting pushed off track, seems like the right direction to be thinking in, yeah.
Ooh, and use North-Knowing Trick to stay oriented properly too.
Even if this is all mostly translated to Spiritual Metaphor, it can't suddenly recontextualize everything, and if he's doing the History Reading stunt that was used on us, then adding a Trick we've never really had significant cause to use should flummox him.
[X] Plan Counterbreeze
-[X] Proceed forward, using a Semi-Halting Vortex to keep snow out of our eyes, Banish the Night to provide illumination, and North-Knowing Trick to help navigate, while using Sailwind to provide counter-breezes and Veto Motion to keep the wind from moving us as necessary.
Wow! We got to see Blackhand fight! And he's remembering spiritual combat! That's so cool!
Also huh, seems like we are getting a crash course on how to enter a soulscape and deal with a hostile spirit after all.
In terms of plans...
[X] Plan Counterbreeze
This looks good!
Veto Motion also lets us rob an enemy of movement, so it might work at stilling the wind as well? Also perhaps using uh, Banish the Night or our sunball would let us shine a beacon or flare, allowing us to see through the bizzard a bit better? But yeah, sold on the general concept here I think, it's exactly the sort of inventive use of abilities which the vote is asking us to find.
Veto Motion also lets us rob an enemy of movement, so it might work at stilling the wind as well? Also perhaps using uh, Banish the Night or our sunball would let us shine a beacon or flare, allowing us to see through the bizzard a bit better? But yeah, sold on the general concept here I think, it's exactly the inventive use of abilities other than "more fire" which the vote is asking us to find.
Veto Motion only works on us, per wording (though IAT can do the same to others at need). Other than that all that seems possible as necessary. I'll add using Banish The Night for light to the plan. EDIT: And added.
Veto Motion only works on us, per wording (though IAT can do the same to others at need). Other than that all that seems possible as necessary. I'll add using Banish The Night for light to the plan. EDIT: And added.
'I was 5'2". Not everyone gets a full foot of height... Or any, for that matter.
I have had to actually jump to hit people in the face before. It, uh, well, you should count yourself lucky with your height because, even if you do land the blow, it looks comical.'
While his speed is impressive—no one would debate that fact—it isn't how quick he is that loosens jaws, it's the sheer efficiency with which he dispatches his foes that does. Not a step out of line, not a motion out of order, and not a single misplaced limb can be seen as makes his way through the horde.
Hm... guess we could refiine our general fighting a bit, later? Letting one flow into the other easier?
Probably just a research dice for it first though.
Your intuition says that this blizzard is the final obstacle in your way. Not only does it blind your physical senses, but your spiritual ones can't discern anything with the sheer mass of spiritual snow obscuring everything.
hm... i wonder, could we doa territory/domain trick? nothing serious, just cover an area in our Orthstirr, kind of a foundation for other things to build off of, like the fire starter move from Stroker State?
Hmm, Blackhand was that short? So like, is odr just causing the body to grow to its maximum level, and if the body itself can't grow further, due to genetic factors, then nothing happens?
Hmm, Blackhand was that short? So like, is odr just causing the body to grow to its maximum level, and if the body itself can't grow further, due to genetic factors, then nothing happens?
It's probably narrative rather than biological. If your legend involves being short you stay short. Our legend probably involves us being notably shorter than Abjorn as our only real 'size factor', so we could grow...but only so far. Actually, by that metric I bet we can only grow more than we currently have if he does. That'd make sense to me.
