- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
As in, the Titan Worm would have had a perception check?
- Location
- UTC -6
Yes
You aren't heading into it's hunting grounds, so that particular encounter is avoided.
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
The Worm itself is arguably one of the best candidates to lure to the UD lines, assuming it doesn't nom our party in the surprise round. Pity we missed on that.
Also, rolls? Care to show them here?
Decim
On again, off again lurker.
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
Hello there, boys and girls. Here's another of my contributions to the omakes for Under the Open Sky. This is the first part, the "prologue". I just wanted to see Summit fight an Ancient Wyrm...
The Final Stone
Urist DelerTekkud was the last one left. Less than an hour ago, there were thirteen* dwarves of his generation still alive, serving their solemn duty in the overrun halls of their once proud Fortress of Boatshrieks. They were the first ones born into the glory of their newly elevated Fortress to fight and die, and yet when ten days later**, the warning drums of Too Deep had been sounded and their Overseer had been forced to evacuate after raising the alarm***, they failed. Armed with the Adamant Armaments, they were to be the first line of defense, but instead, they were the last remnants of their kind, and they refused to lay down and die...
Fully a third of them died in those tumultous hours, and half of survivors of disaster followed them since. And yet, their lives' work was nearing completion. Forced to run and hide, to scurry and misdirect, to stand as one against monsters and die alone to let others escape, they worked still to complete the work their predecessors started - and to rebuild their Fortress into something grander. Something that would truly grant them power to retake it from the monsters, and make the Fortress once again open to their Overseer.
There was but one last chamber that needed to be remade - and yet, a fiery abomination had taken residence inside, far greater and more terrible than mere beasts who had dared walk the hallways of their Fortress, its very voice bringing certain doom to the rightful owners of BoatShrieks, and its presence washing over them with the feeling of Evil.
Less than an hour before, the beasts and the abomination grew restless, and the beasts began to move closer to surface. Hoping against bitter experience, Urist DelerTekkud and its brothers-in-arms had moved closer to the chamber, and prepared to lay down their lives to rebuild it beyond its former glory, should the abomination leave.
And leave it did, following the scurrying of the beasts.
Ten brave warriors had laid aside their Adamant Armaments to take up tools of the builders, working at a feverish pace to complete the chamber's remodeling before the abomination returned, while the remaining trio followed the abomination, to see it delayed, redirected, or if all else failed, to force it to roar in fury to warn their brothers-in-arms that the abomination was coming back, even if doing so was deadly to their kind. Two thirds of the chamber were remade as the terrible Roar reached the ears of the ten brave warriors. Three of them grabbed their armaments at once, and ran out of the chamber to meet the abomination.
Three times did the Roar echo through the hallways, and three times did three dwarves take up arms and run out to meet it. Three more times did the Roar echo through the hallways, now closer and louder with every new proclamation of fury. Urist DelerTekkud now knew beyond a shred of doubt - he was the last one left, the final warrior of BoatShrieks, and its only hope for restoration. And as the heavy steps shaking the stones could be felt coming ever closer, so was his life's work coming to a close.
Pulling up the crystal the size of his torso, Urist DelerTekkud had twisted in place to insert it to its rightful place in the very center of the Chamber deep in the bowels of the Fortress. Though he felt the unbearable heat on his back, he ignored it to turn the crystal in the socket and connect it fully to the pedestal it was now resting on. With a final click the crystal slotted into place and began to glow, spreading the light through veins of precious metals, and bringing about the ripples reshaping the very stone they were moving through. As the wave of change had overtaken the chamber, Urist DelerTekkud had smiled, knowing that his life's work was done, and a new generation would be born still, armed with the impregnable Dwemer Armaments.
Then the Roar of the Destroyer had echoed through the chamber, resonating and reflecting wildly. And Urist DelerTekkud knew no more.
LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED
The monsters of BoatShrieks had been riled up successfully, and lured in the direction of the Unified Darkness strongpoints. The nigh-invincible nature of the Crimson's hound had served the team well, and a solitary Balrog bursting through a half-collapsed tunnel had been swiftly dealt with by Summit, before it could so much as utter a single sound. Twice did the team nearly get caught up in the traps of the Fortress, clearly created by minds as demented as they were brilliant (who makes magma rain traps anyway???), but Wiccan's surprisingly attentive absent-mindedness had deposited the team safely within her world, to be returned back with Summit's power a minute later, in a safer location. The mission was on track, the Hound had returned to Crimson's side, and the team was almost ready to leave through the main gate, when four things happened all at once.
A ripple of changes ran through the walls of the entire Fortress, overcoming the group in a blink of an eye and (as Summit watched with her Panoply) continuing outwards. Dozens of waves of (Evil) magic had pulsed from many locations within the Fortress, one far more potent and vile than others. And as that vilest pulse of cessation, of the primal command of ceasing to exist, had washed over the team, Primary Wiccan began to babble.
"The Avatar of the End has appeared! The Herald of the End approaches!.."
Throughout this, Summit has felt this wave of cessation cling to her own magic, eroding and suppressing her in many different ways - making it utterly impossible to empower her Panoply beyond what its very structure could convey, though luckily not preventing its shifting. Eroding her defenses with some fell power, making her far more vulnerable to stronger attacks, to stronger beings, than she was before. And, she noted, shutting down her ability to reach through her Panoply and apply a measure of fixing her body, as she did against the Toxic Horror.
An unspeakably vile beam of energy (Chaos | Corruption | Evil | Darkness | Epic) Summit could only term the Ultimate Evil bloomed right above their backs, coming from behind and slightly below where they were, brushing aside the gate, the massive wall, and what seemed like half of the entire mountaintop it hit even as it missed the Magical Girls, obliterating Crimson's Hound in the process. Primary Wiccan had stopped babbling momentarily, dust and gravel in her mouth, before addressing Anna:
"The Herald has chosen us as Prey and will not stop until we End. We must flee this world and never return, lest he follow us to base! He is too focused to distract, and too strong to let him close there!" Wiccan looked at Summit with widened eyes and wildly dilated pupils. Summit stared at her, also watching both the origin of the beam and her other teammate. Crimson Hood's flesh was bubbling and twisting as her Hound's did before, visibly subjecting her to pain so agonizing Crimson was rendered insensate. Making a split-second decision, Summit turned to face the entrance, giving her answer.
"Grab Crimson and shift away. I'll have to delay it, and lead it to the enemy, or it can turn to our base anyway." Simultaneously, Summit contacted the base to ask for suggestions, and launched herself at the entrance. Her panoply writhed, shifting itself into the same configuration that spelled that solitary Balrog's swift doom, a part of her recognizing the lesser pulses of Evil for what they truly were and preparing herself accordingly.
OMAKE END
The Final Stone
Urist DelerTekkud was the last one left. Less than an hour ago, there were thirteen* dwarves of his generation still alive, serving their solemn duty in the overrun halls of their once proud Fortress of Boatshrieks. They were the first ones born into the glory of their newly elevated Fortress to fight and die, and yet when ten days later**, the warning drums of Too Deep had been sounded and their Overseer had been forced to evacuate after raising the alarm***, they failed. Armed with the Adamant Armaments, they were to be the first line of defense, but instead, they were the last remnants of their kind, and they refused to lay down and die...
Fully a third of them died in those tumultous hours, and half of survivors of disaster followed them since. And yet, their lives' work was nearing completion. Forced to run and hide, to scurry and misdirect, to stand as one against monsters and die alone to let others escape, they worked still to complete the work their predecessors started - and to rebuild their Fortress into something grander. Something that would truly grant them power to retake it from the monsters, and make the Fortress once again open to their Overseer.
There was but one last chamber that needed to be remade - and yet, a fiery abomination had taken residence inside, far greater and more terrible than mere beasts who had dared walk the hallways of their Fortress, its very voice bringing certain doom to the rightful owners of BoatShrieks, and its presence washing over them with the feeling of Evil.
Less than an hour before, the beasts and the abomination grew restless, and the beasts began to move closer to surface. Hoping against bitter experience, Urist DelerTekkud and its brothers-in-arms had moved closer to the chamber, and prepared to lay down their lives to rebuild it beyond its former glory, should the abomination leave.
And leave it did, following the scurrying of the beasts.
Ten brave warriors had laid aside their Adamant Armaments to take up tools of the builders, working at a feverish pace to complete the chamber's remodeling before the abomination returned, while the remaining trio followed the abomination, to see it delayed, redirected, or if all else failed, to force it to roar in fury to warn their brothers-in-arms that the abomination was coming back, even if doing so was deadly to their kind. Two thirds of the chamber were remade as the terrible Roar reached the ears of the ten brave warriors. Three of them grabbed their armaments at once, and ran out of the chamber to meet the abomination.
Three times did the Roar echo through the hallways, and three times did three dwarves take up arms and run out to meet it. Three more times did the Roar echo through the hallways, now closer and louder with every new proclamation of fury. Urist DelerTekkud now knew beyond a shred of doubt - he was the last one left, the final warrior of BoatShrieks, and its only hope for restoration. And as the heavy steps shaking the stones could be felt coming ever closer, so was his life's work coming to a close.
Pulling up the crystal the size of his torso, Urist DelerTekkud had twisted in place to insert it to its rightful place in the very center of the Chamber deep in the bowels of the Fortress. Though he felt the unbearable heat on his back, he ignored it to turn the crystal in the socket and connect it fully to the pedestal it was now resting on. With a final click the crystal slotted into place and began to glow, spreading the light through veins of precious metals, and bringing about the ripples reshaping the very stone they were moving through. As the wave of change had overtaken the chamber, Urist DelerTekkud had smiled, knowing that his life's work was done, and a new generation would be born still, armed with the impregnable Dwemer Armaments.
Then the Roar of the Destroyer had echoed through the chamber, resonating and reflecting wildly. And Urist DelerTekkud knew no more.
LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED
The monsters of BoatShrieks had been riled up successfully, and lured in the direction of the Unified Darkness strongpoints. The nigh-invincible nature of the Crimson's hound had served the team well, and a solitary Balrog bursting through a half-collapsed tunnel had been swiftly dealt with by Summit, before it could so much as utter a single sound. Twice did the team nearly get caught up in the traps of the Fortress, clearly created by minds as demented as they were brilliant (who makes magma rain traps anyway???), but Wiccan's surprisingly attentive absent-mindedness had deposited the team safely within her world, to be returned back with Summit's power a minute later, in a safer location. The mission was on track, the Hound had returned to Crimson's side, and the team was almost ready to leave through the main gate, when four things happened all at once.
A ripple of changes ran through the walls of the entire Fortress, overcoming the group in a blink of an eye and (as Summit watched with her Panoply) continuing outwards. Dozens of waves of (Evil) magic had pulsed from many locations within the Fortress, one far more potent and vile than others. And as that vilest pulse of cessation, of the primal command of ceasing to exist, had washed over the team, Primary Wiccan began to babble.
"The Avatar of the End has appeared! The Herald of the End approaches!.."
Throughout this, Summit has felt this wave of cessation cling to her own magic, eroding and suppressing her in many different ways - making it utterly impossible to empower her Panoply beyond what its very structure could convey, though luckily not preventing its shifting. Eroding her defenses with some fell power, making her far more vulnerable to stronger attacks, to stronger beings, than she was before. And, she noted, shutting down her ability to reach through her Panoply and apply a measure of fixing her body, as she did against the Toxic Horror.
!!!
Then the time slowed, and the instincts shrieked at Summit to move, to not be where she was now. Feeling her only salvation at the very edge of her range, she launched a grappling claw to grab Crimson, locked a few additional ones on Wiccan, then pulled herself and the both of them through Elsewhere as far ahead as she could, pulling them towards and into the ground right as the vile presence flared.An unspeakably vile beam of energy (Chaos | Corruption | Evil | Darkness | Epic) Summit could only term the Ultimate Evil bloomed right above their backs, coming from behind and slightly below where they were, brushing aside the gate, the massive wall, and what seemed like half of the entire mountaintop it hit even as it missed the Magical Girls, obliterating Crimson's Hound in the process. Primary Wiccan had stopped babbling momentarily, dust and gravel in her mouth, before addressing Anna:
"The Herald has chosen us as Prey and will not stop until we End. We must flee this world and never return, lest he follow us to base! He is too focused to distract, and too strong to let him close there!" Wiccan looked at Summit with widened eyes and wildly dilated pupils. Summit stared at her, also watching both the origin of the beam and her other teammate. Crimson Hood's flesh was bubbling and twisting as her Hound's did before, visibly subjecting her to pain so agonizing Crimson was rendered insensate. Making a split-second decision, Summit turned to face the entrance, giving her answer.
"Grab Crimson and shift away. I'll have to delay it, and lead it to the enemy, or it can turn to our base anyway." Simultaneously, Summit contacted the base to ask for suggestions, and launched herself at the entrance. Her panoply writhed, shifting itself into the same configuration that spelled that solitary Balrog's swift doom, a part of her recognizing the lesser pulses of Evil for what they truly were and preparing herself accordingly.
OMAKE END
"Urist DelerTekkud" is a genuine Dorf Name. Apparently, "Urist" (Dw. Dagger) is an accepted generic Dorf name roughly equal to "John" or "Ivan", popularized by the tale "One Dwarf Against The World". I found it appropriate. "DelerTekkud" (Dw. SteelPick) is a disingenious surname I've chosen to fit the role I've given the Dorf. The language can be found here.
The following is a "prologue" for the omake where Summit has to fight an Ancient Wyrm. Specifically, an answer to how it came to be possible.
*Dice Roll: 40, divide by 2, min.3 - 40/hour is the spawn rate of Dorf Warriors in Level 4 Fortress. Rolled 26.
**The timeline mostly checks out. Summit has spent some 5-6 days on Millidia (has it really been this quick?)
***That's what Urist and other Dorfs believed. Let them.
I've been meaning to get back to the previous one...
Anyway, what happens here is that Summit, Crimson and Wiccan do rile up the inhabitants of BoatShrieks, and a group of fluke dorf survivors (well, not quite fluke - they had Skilled in addition to their typical stats, and graduated to Inhuman Skill since) uses this opportunity to finish the remodelling of the Fortress to bring it up to level 5. Dwemer Armaments grant additional 2 APT, Smash instead of Crush, SuperSlayer, and immunity to attacks that have Slayer. In theory, Dorf Warriors were indeed born in that last moment. And also, Too Deep had triggered, bringing about 30 Balrogs and an Ancient Wyrm. Let's see how Summit's faring.
Summit pushing Crimson Hood out of the way of attack will be played as a form of non-lethal attack to express the fact Summit is moving with extreme haste in order to save Crimson, and cannot affort to be gentle. Expect the Multi Slash and the other damage increasing abilities Suppressed, a 25% damage reduction for "unusual form", a 50% damage reduction for "not meant to harm" additional 10% damage for "don't have time to be gentle", halving Crimson's Base Resilience via "holyshitwhatthefuck" surprise, and lowering it by further 10% for "this is going to bruise". You can find Crimson Hood's stat list I'm using here. Under the Open Sky (CWMGQ Spinoff) | Page 29
(Desperate Save: 1400 Base Damage, dice suppressed, -350 unusual form, -700 not meant to harm, +140 don't have time to be gentle = 490 Total Damage
Crimson Hood: 375 Base Resilience, +159 dice, -187 holyshitwhatthefuck, -37 this is going to bruise = 310 Damage Reduction
180 Final End Damage
Crimson Hood: 1000 - 180 = 820 Health)
The rest of the battle will have me rolling for Balrog appearances (1d5, -3 modifier, +1 per turn where no Balrogs appear, the result is the number of Balrogs up till all 30 come, and lowering the modifier by 1 per Balrog appeared), Balrogs using Roar of the Destroyer (starting on the turn AFTER they appear, 1d10, result is below 1, +1 to threshold per turn), and Summit's Wave Force successfully shutting down the Perpetual Caster via Grand Dispel of Wave Force (the chances are 120% (Wave Force Level, add 100% for Grand Dispel), -59% (Ultimate Evil level 99, Epic difficulty check bonus of 20, and divided by 2 via To Defy The Gods as adjusted by Avatar of the End)). The purpose of the chances is that if it doesn't happen, the spell will be auto-cast first thing next turn, locking Summit into using Wave Force to negate it. Luckily, Grand Dispel prevents more instances of the spell to come about after negation. And once Perpetual Caster has been negated successfully, the dragon stops casting its spell altogether.
P.S. This omake had been on my hard drive for more than half a year, my apologies for not having it at its shiniest.
The following is a "prologue" for the omake where Summit has to fight an Ancient Wyrm. Specifically, an answer to how it came to be possible.
*Dice Roll: 40, divide by 2, min.3 - 40/hour is the spawn rate of Dorf Warriors in Level 4 Fortress. Rolled 26.
**The timeline mostly checks out. Summit has spent some 5-6 days on Millidia (has it really been this quick?)
***That's what Urist and other Dorfs believed. Let them.
I've been meaning to get back to the previous one...
Anyway, what happens here is that Summit, Crimson and Wiccan do rile up the inhabitants of BoatShrieks, and a group of fluke dorf survivors (well, not quite fluke - they had Skilled in addition to their typical stats, and graduated to Inhuman Skill since) uses this opportunity to finish the remodelling of the Fortress to bring it up to level 5. Dwemer Armaments grant additional 2 APT, Smash instead of Crush, SuperSlayer, and immunity to attacks that have Slayer. In theory, Dorf Warriors were indeed born in that last moment. And also, Too Deep had triggered, bringing about 30 Balrogs and an Ancient Wyrm. Let's see how Summit's faring.
Summit pushing Crimson Hood out of the way of attack will be played as a form of non-lethal attack to express the fact Summit is moving with extreme haste in order to save Crimson, and cannot affort to be gentle. Expect the Multi Slash and the other damage increasing abilities Suppressed, a 25% damage reduction for "unusual form", a 50% damage reduction for "not meant to harm" additional 10% damage for "don't have time to be gentle", halving Crimson's Base Resilience via "holyshitwhatthefuck" surprise, and lowering it by further 10% for "this is going to bruise". You can find Crimson Hood's stat list I'm using here. Under the Open Sky (CWMGQ Spinoff) | Page 29
(Desperate Save: 1400 Base Damage, dice suppressed, -350 unusual form, -700 not meant to harm, +140 don't have time to be gentle = 490 Total Damage
Crimson Hood: 375 Base Resilience, +159 dice, -187 holyshitwhatthefuck, -37 this is going to bruise = 310 Damage Reduction
180 Final End Damage
Crimson Hood: 1000 - 180 = 820 Health)
The rest of the battle will have me rolling for Balrog appearances (1d5, -3 modifier, +1 per turn where no Balrogs appear, the result is the number of Balrogs up till all 30 come, and lowering the modifier by 1 per Balrog appeared), Balrogs using Roar of the Destroyer (starting on the turn AFTER they appear, 1d10, result is below 1, +1 to threshold per turn), and Summit's Wave Force successfully shutting down the Perpetual Caster via Grand Dispel of Wave Force (the chances are 120% (Wave Force Level, add 100% for Grand Dispel), -59% (Ultimate Evil level 99, Epic difficulty check bonus of 20, and divided by 2 via To Defy The Gods as adjusted by Avatar of the End)). The purpose of the chances is that if it doesn't happen, the spell will be auto-cast first thing next turn, locking Summit into using Wave Force to negate it. Luckily, Grand Dispel prevents more instances of the spell to come about after negation. And once Perpetual Caster has been negated successfully, the dragon stops casting its spell altogether.
P.S. This omake had been on my hard drive for more than half a year, my apologies for not having it at its shiniest.
- (Happy Fun Stuff) Ancient Wyrm
Where my Gnomes?!
- Stats
- Weapon
- Spells
- Abilities
Last edited:
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
And the second part, the battle itself. Turned out to be very risky, but not very picturesque.
Herald of the End
Knowing that every second counts, Summit accelerates rapidly to full speed while diving into the mouth of the tunnel made by the vile beam of Ultimate Evil, hoping to catch off-guard the source of the fell power. Tunnels exposed by the blast are noted and discarded, lacking anything approaching the same level of danger. And yet, even the full speed of Summit's rush is insufficient, and the enemy to launches a second beam straightat her. With a wordless scream she launches the orange lightning of Wave Force directly in front of her, relying on the residual power it's leaving behind to protect herself from the destructive energies of the incoming attack.
The next moment Summit is assaulted by the huge monster (Chaos | Corruption | Battle | Evil | Darkness | Epic) in a barrage of claw swipes, tail swings, wing buffets and jaw snaps that tax her skills greatly to deflect or evade. Several times Summit is seemingly presented with what seems like an opportunity to retaliate at the monster, before being forced forced to feint and cockscrew in order to deflect strikes closing in with overwhelming and unstoppable power.
The unrelenting assault continues for several seconds, leaving her no breathing room after she has to evade the twin blasts of fell power coming one after the other.
Feeling the horrific power she is far too familiar with spike again, Summit launches (!!!) a spark of Wave Force straight into the stream of un-light in the creature's mouth. This forces the dragon to sputter, the gathering flares of power abating. Angered, it twists to land a claw strike, but Summit glides along the paw's length before striking it at the joint with a twist and a spin:
(Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +280 Spinning Momentum, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 26640 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +280 Spinning Momentum, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 26640 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +280 Spinning Momentum, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 26640 Total damage
79920 Unified Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 10000 Base Resilience, +41594 Dice, -1000 Joint Strike = 50594 Damage Reduction
29326 Total End Damage
Huge Enemy Negated by Heavy Caliber!
29326 Final End Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 450'000 - 29'326 = 420'674 Health)
The strike barely forces the Ancient Wyrm to stumble, before retaliating with a snap of its teeth, a wing buffet, another swipe from the same paw and a second bite attempt. For the first time, even the immensely empowered Panoply is barely enough to withstand the assault Summit is met with, and yet even pressed she takes advantage of an opportunity to land a strike as she is dodging the tail swipe.
(Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 25800 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 25800 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 25800 Total damage
77400 Unified Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 10000 Base Resilience, +33452 Dice, +10000 Flexible Appendage = 53452 Damage Reduction
23948 Total End Damage
Huge Enemy Negated by Heavy Caliber!
23948 Final End Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 420'674 - 23'948 = 396'726 Health)
Furious at this strike, the Wyrm turns its head to lash out at the flying pest, before attempting to toss her away with a wing, just as the fell power begins to concentrate in the glowing eyeholes of its skull.
Having noticed the effect previously, Summit once more launches her Wave Force and forces the fell power in the draconic abomination's eyeholes to disperse in the wake of her spell.
And her incandescent-white Panoply cleaves through the Balrog that showed up at the mouth of the tunnel she entered the hall through. Summit rushes back to the Wyrm and dives below its belly on her way to the second Balrog. Its demise is as swift and certain as the first one's. Knowing that she is almost out of time, Summit pivots in the air to bring herself to aim at the wyrm's head.
Agitated spacetime left in the wake of the orange lightning once more forces the monstrous creature's unholy power to disperse - but this time, Summit notes that not only did it force the spikes of energy to abate, but also somewhat weakens the shroud of power surrounding it. Pushing herself off of the dragon's snout as it tries to bite her, Summit launches herself at the balrog emerging from the entrance leading deeper into BoatShrieks.
Furious, the draconic abomination launches a string of unstoppable strikes forcing Summit to frantically dance at the edge of utter demise, hemmed in back to the surface-directed tunnel's entrance. Focused on the wyrm's attacks, Summit is unable to react in time to evade a fiery paw landing a strike on her from the tunnel and throwing her back at the Wyrm.
(Balrog's Hand: 6500 Base Damage, +850 Dice, -1625 Unarmed, -1625 Glancing Hit, +400 Epic Power = 4500 Total Damage
Avatar of Evil triggers! 5850 Total Damage
To Defy The Gods triggers! 2925 Total Damage
Summit: 1000 Base resilience, Dice Nullified, +292 Reactive Field, +1000 Immense Speed Gap, -400 Hostile Epic Effect, +100 Resistant to Darkness Effects = 1992 Damage Reduction
1933 Total End Damage
Ceaseless Warrior 30%
1353 Final End Damage
Summit: 14500-1353=13147 Health)
Despite the Balrog's strike, Summit reorients herself in time to launch a wave of agitated spacetime at the Ancient Wyrm once more, finally dispersing the shroud of power the beast had been using to swiftly gather energy to blast her with. The most immediate peril dealt with momentarily, Summit dispatches the last balrog present and takes a moment to reassess the situation.
The chamber, once full of masterful stonework covering the walls and the columns, is now filled with rubble left in the wake of Wyrm's rampage and three - now four - piles of cooling embers. The Balrogs' Evil presence, while still cloying the air, has abated for the moment, betraying their absence in the immediate vicinity. Ancient Wyrm's own pervading promise of ENDING everything it touches, is still going strong, yet with the shroud of lingering power dealt with, the Wyrm's blasts are - temporarily - taken care of. Seemingly effortlessly deflecting yet another of the dragon's strikes, Summit spots the mark left by her previous strikes and angles her movement accordingly.
LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED
"What'd I miss?" Crimson Hood croaked, feeling the writhing of her flesh abate as the Hound separated itself from her, before lifting her up almost gently.
"I should not have doubted the power of the chosen one," was the Primary Wiccan's reply. "Come, see for yourself."
Supported by her Hound, Crimson Hood spared a moment to glance at her surroundings. Somewhat surprisingly, what she saw was a tranquil glade. Turning her head further, she spotted Primary Wiccan, kneeling on the flat outcropping by the center of the glade. Crimson closed the distance, noticing a small pool of water in the middle of the outcropping.
"Why hasn't Summit retreated?" Crimson asked, with Primary Wiccan pointing to the surface of the pool. Crimson got to the other girl's side and glanced into the pool, all questions getting caught in her throat. Below the surface of the water, still despite the gentle wind in the glade, Summit could be seen hacking off a front paw of a colossal draconic skeleton, launching orange lightning straight into the abomination's snapping jaws, then blurring along its elongated neck, several swift strikes collapsing the dragon's spine into fragments in her wake. The monstrosity collapses as the magic previously animating it is finally expended.
"She had no time to retreat, but needed no help to thrive. We can return now that the Herald of the End has been vanquished in single combat. Delusional Illusion" Wiccan stated simply but unhelpfully, shifting herself and her companions back to Millidia.
"I can never figure out which world you refer to when you cast it," Crimson muttered and shook her head, "But it doesn't answer my question. What the hell destroyed my Hound, what the hell was that skeletal dragon, and what was that with the pool - that's new, too."
"That Wyrm was the one that destroyed your Hound, by blasting the tunnel straight to the surface with its power," Primary Wiccan began to explain, pointing to the tunnel in question. As Crimson looked at it, a streak of incandescent-white light darted out of where the gates were, before shifting to orange light and descending to hover by the magical girls. Pausing her explanation, Primary Wiccan greeted their last teammate:
"Welcome back and congratulations, chosen one. We have seen your victory through the scrying pool."
Hearing her words, Summit nods and contacts the command to inform them of the situation. Shortly afterwards, she delivers the orders to her teammates.
Herald of the End
Fact of the matter, Ancient Wyrm is the kind of enemy that can and will one-shot Summit if it's presented with an opportunity. He's also tough, but not insurmountable. To remove most of the tedium, I've truncated the attack breakdowns.
The entire battle was scripted with several assumptions and events:
1) Perpetual Caster does not stop triggering until the battle ends (well, 9 full turns, but the battle didn't even last this long), so every turn where a spell with this is cast, results in a net number of spellcasting actions incremented. Eventually culminating in a huge barrage obliterating just about everything. Additionally, it usually activates at the beginning of the character's turn.
2) While Wave Force does have Grand Dispel, it has a chance of removing a single instance of Perpetual Caster - this decision was made due to the fact it's a Super Ability that needs to be dealt with. Anyway, the base chance of working is 100%, minus half of Perpetual Caster spell level, added half of Grand Dispel spell level, and the result rounded down to the closest whole number. In this case, 100%-49%+10%=61% of negation, applied separately to each instance of Perpetual Caster spell already cast. I was surprised it took so long to proc.
3) Ancient Wyrm's spell is a one-hit-kill for Summit, and is significantly overpowered - so the decision was made to model Wave Force that is used to cancel a Perpetual Caster-borne spell cannot also be used to damage Ancient Wyrm. It's huge, it's overpowered, and Wave Force is not an AOE usually - so this limitation made sense.
4) Moving on, Ancient Wyrm's 9 normal attacks are also one-hit-kills for Summit, and have an even chance of gaining Unstoppable and Overwhelm. I don't think anyone wants Summit to die, so ensuring she is caught by neither is necessary. She uses her Inhuman Skill to negate normal attacks.
5) Which isn't to say it's easy. Due to added difficulty of deflecting a huge Wyrm's Unstoppable attacks, each Unstoppable basic attack of its adds a "virtual" extra cost of 1 APT.
6) With Summit's 26 APT due to maxed Ceaseless Warrior stacks, she has more than enough attacks to fully negate Wyrm's offensive subject to two limitations. First - as the Dragon has 9 APT, Summit has roughly 3 APT per its one attack. Due to point 5, an Unstoppable attack costs a "virtual" 1 APT to deal with properly beyond the 2 APT cost of Inhuman Skill, and so there's no opening to retaliate if such an attack is made. Second - if there's too many Unstoppable attacks in a given turn, Summit does not get any openings to strike at the Wyrm. Or someone else, for that matter.
7) Speaking of "someone else", there were 30 Balrogs spawned in that single Too Deep trigger. They come to help Ancient Wyrm out, randomly. I rolled a 5-sided RNG generator, and used and adjustable scale of spawning. On the first turn, the roll gets a "-3" modifier to its final result. If there were no Balrogs spawned, the modifier increases by 1 ("-3" becomes "-2"), and if there were Balrogs spawned, the modifier decreases by the number of Balrogs ("-2" becomes "-4" if 2 Balrogs were spawned that turn).
8) Balrogs are surprisingly combat-proficient, enough to use Intercept (False) against Summit's own attacks. However, since they and their weapons have Darkness while Summit has Darkslayer, I have soft-ruled that upon losing their Quasi-Intercept, their weapon got cleaved through and their damage reduction string got a penalty for that.
9) Balrogs can and will cast Roar of the Destroyer - I've rolled a 10-sided RNG generator, and they cast it if it rolled LOWER than the number of turns they were active (rolled 1 on turn 2, rolled 1 or 2 on turn 3, etc.)
HOWEVER: Even with all of the above implemented, the battle lasted barely more than a minute. While I have faithfully allowed the Ancient Wyrm gain two instances of Perpetual Caster, that managed to last longer than I expected - this did not help. While the end results of combined dice rolls of Ancient Wyrm and Balrogs granted him a total of 4 Balrog reinforcements, coming in pairs on two consecutive turns and one of them managing to survive into the second turn of its life - this did not help. Once the Balrogs and the spells were dealt with, Ancient Wyrm followed swiftly.
And that is why the last couple of turns were written from a changed POV.
EDIT:Shiki can kill Servants, discuss
Despite my showing Summit being victorious, she would have died to three consecutive blasts of enemy spell, followed by eight melee attacks, due to lacking necessary APT to survive. She only won because the Wyrm attacked her the moment it appeared (didn't ramp up on softer targets), and because she was able to close the distance swiftly. In a more balanced match-up, she dies. She needs, at a minimum, to learn long-range Wave Force variant, in order to be able to shut down enemy spell blasts, hopefully before they launch more than two of those her way. More APT, and better Dodge variant, would also supplement how well she can weather the Wyrm's assault.
1) Perpetual Caster does not stop triggering until the battle ends (well, 9 full turns, but the battle didn't even last this long), so every turn where a spell with this is cast, results in a net number of spellcasting actions incremented. Eventually culminating in a huge barrage obliterating just about everything. Additionally, it usually activates at the beginning of the character's turn.
2) While Wave Force does have Grand Dispel, it has a chance of removing a single instance of Perpetual Caster - this decision was made due to the fact it's a Super Ability that needs to be dealt with. Anyway, the base chance of working is 100%, minus half of Perpetual Caster spell level, added half of Grand Dispel spell level, and the result rounded down to the closest whole number. In this case, 100%-49%+10%=61% of negation, applied separately to each instance of Perpetual Caster spell already cast. I was surprised it took so long to proc.
3) Ancient Wyrm's spell is a one-hit-kill for Summit, and is significantly overpowered - so the decision was made to model Wave Force that is used to cancel a Perpetual Caster-borne spell cannot also be used to damage Ancient Wyrm. It's huge, it's overpowered, and Wave Force is not an AOE usually - so this limitation made sense.
4) Moving on, Ancient Wyrm's 9 normal attacks are also one-hit-kills for Summit, and have an even chance of gaining Unstoppable and Overwhelm. I don't think anyone wants Summit to die, so ensuring she is caught by neither is necessary. She uses her Inhuman Skill to negate normal attacks.
5) Which isn't to say it's easy. Due to added difficulty of deflecting a huge Wyrm's Unstoppable attacks, each Unstoppable basic attack of its adds a "virtual" extra cost of 1 APT.
6) With Summit's 26 APT due to maxed Ceaseless Warrior stacks, she has more than enough attacks to fully negate Wyrm's offensive subject to two limitations. First - as the Dragon has 9 APT, Summit has roughly 3 APT per its one attack. Due to point 5, an Unstoppable attack costs a "virtual" 1 APT to deal with properly beyond the 2 APT cost of Inhuman Skill, and so there's no opening to retaliate if such an attack is made. Second - if there's too many Unstoppable attacks in a given turn, Summit does not get any openings to strike at the Wyrm. Or someone else, for that matter.
7) Speaking of "someone else", there were 30 Balrogs spawned in that single Too Deep trigger. They come to help Ancient Wyrm out, randomly. I rolled a 5-sided RNG generator, and used and adjustable scale of spawning. On the first turn, the roll gets a "-3" modifier to its final result. If there were no Balrogs spawned, the modifier increases by 1 ("-3" becomes "-2"), and if there were Balrogs spawned, the modifier decreases by the number of Balrogs ("-2" becomes "-4" if 2 Balrogs were spawned that turn).
8) Balrogs are surprisingly combat-proficient, enough to use Intercept (False) against Summit's own attacks. However, since they and their weapons have Darkness while Summit has Darkslayer, I have soft-ruled that upon losing their Quasi-Intercept, their weapon got cleaved through and their damage reduction string got a penalty for that.
9) Balrogs can and will cast Roar of the Destroyer - I've rolled a 10-sided RNG generator, and they cast it if it rolled LOWER than the number of turns they were active (rolled 1 on turn 2, rolled 1 or 2 on turn 3, etc.)
HOWEVER: Even with all of the above implemented, the battle lasted barely more than a minute. While I have faithfully allowed the Ancient Wyrm gain two instances of Perpetual Caster, that managed to last longer than I expected - this did not help. While the end results of combined dice rolls of Ancient Wyrm and Balrogs granted him a total of 4 Balrog reinforcements, coming in pairs on two consecutive turns and one of them managing to survive into the second turn of its life - this did not help. Once the Balrogs and the spells were dealt with, Ancient Wyrm followed swiftly.
And that is why the last couple of turns were written from a changed POV.
EDIT:
Despite my showing Summit being victorious, she would have died to three consecutive blasts of enemy spell, followed by eight melee attacks, due to lacking necessary APT to survive. She only won because the Wyrm attacked her the moment it appeared (didn't ramp up on softer targets), and because she was able to close the distance swiftly. In a more balanced match-up, she dies. She needs, at a minimum, to learn long-range Wave Force variant, in order to be able to shut down enemy spell blasts, hopefully before they launch more than two of those her way. More APT, and better Dodge variant, would also supplement how well she can weather the Wyrm's assault.
Perpetual Caster negation failed, Perpetual Caster negation failed
No Balrogs appear (Mod: -3, -2 next turn)
SPELL-N-YYY-N-Y-NN
This is a breakdown of the Wyrm's action sequence, with SPELL being its spell, "N" being an attack without Overwhelm and Unstoppable, and "Y" being an attack that did roll higher than 50% of its MM roll, Auto Max Charge notwithstanding.
Turn notes: The action technically starts on Turn 0, but with Summit's speed of 170 mph (~272 kph, ~75 m/s) I figured she could use a bit more action.
No Balrogs appear (Mod: -3, -2 next turn)
SPELL-N-YYY-N-Y-NN
This is a breakdown of the Wyrm's action sequence, with SPELL being its spell, "N" being an attack without Overwhelm and Unstoppable, and "Y" being an attack that did roll higher than 50% of its MM roll, Auto Max Charge notwithstanding.
Turn notes: The action technically starts on Turn 0, but with Summit's speed of 170 mph (~272 kph, ~75 m/s) I figured she could use a bit more action.
Knowing that every second counts, Summit accelerates rapidly to full speed while diving into the mouth of the tunnel made by the vile beam of Ultimate Evil, hoping to catch off-guard the source of the fell power. Tunnels exposed by the blast are noted and discarded, lacking anything approaching the same level of danger. And yet, even the full speed of Summit's rush is insufficient, and the enemy to launches a second beam straightat her. With a wordless scream she launches the orange lightning of Wave Force directly in front of her, relying on the residual power it's leaving behind to protect herself from the destructive energies of the incoming attack.
OUT OF THE WAY!!!
And yet, her instincts screaming at her to dodge, she pushes herself to the very limits, barely clearing the exit of the tunnel to dodge sharply to the side, before a yet another beam of fell power obliterates her, once again burning through the solid rock as it passes.The next moment Summit is assaulted by the huge monster (Chaos | Corruption | Battle | Evil | Darkness | Epic) in a barrage of claw swipes, tail swings, wing buffets and jaw snaps that tax her skills greatly to deflect or evade. Several times Summit is seemingly presented with what seems like an opportunity to retaliate at the monster, before being forced forced to feint and cockscrew in order to deflect strikes closing in with overwhelming and unstoppable power.
The unrelenting assault continues for several seconds, leaving her no breathing room after she has to evade the twin blasts of fell power coming one after the other.
Perpetual Caster negation failed, Perpetual Caster negation failed
No Balrogs appear (Mod: -2, -1 next turn)
N-YY-N-Y-N-YY-N
No Balrogs appear (Mod: -2, -1 next turn)
N-YY-N-Y-N-YY-N
Feeling the horrific power she is far too familiar with spike again, Summit launches (!!!) a spark of Wave Force straight into the stream of un-light in the creature's mouth. This forces the dragon to sputter, the gathering flares of power abating. Angered, it twists to land a claw strike, but Summit glides along the paw's length before striking it at the joint with a twist and a spin:
(Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +280 Spinning Momentum, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 26640 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +280 Spinning Momentum, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 26640 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +280 Spinning Momentum, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 26640 Total damage
79920 Unified Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 10000 Base Resilience, +41594 Dice, -1000 Joint Strike = 50594 Damage Reduction
29326 Total End Damage
Huge Enemy Negated by Heavy Caliber!
29326 Final End Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 450'000 - 29'326 = 420'674 Health)
The strike barely forces the Ancient Wyrm to stumble, before retaliating with a snap of its teeth, a wing buffet, another swipe from the same paw and a second bite attempt. For the first time, even the immensely empowered Panoply is barely enough to withstand the assault Summit is met with, and yet even pressed she takes advantage of an opportunity to land a strike as she is dodging the tail swipe.
(Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 25800 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 25800 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 25800 Total damage
77400 Unified Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 10000 Base Resilience, +33452 Dice, +10000 Flexible Appendage = 53452 Damage Reduction
23948 Total End Damage
Huge Enemy Negated by Heavy Caliber!
23948 Final End Damage
Ancient Wyrm: 420'674 - 23'948 = 396'726 Health)
Furious at this strike, the Wyrm turns its head to lash out at the flying pest, before attempting to toss her away with a wing, just as the fell power begins to concentrate in the glowing eyeholes of its skull.
Perpetual Caster negation failed, Perpetual Caster negation failed
2x Balrogs appear (28/30 Reserve) (Mod: -1, -3 next turn)
YY-NNNN-YNY
2x Balrogs appear (28/30 Reserve) (Mod: -1, -3 next turn)
YY-NNNN-YNY
Having noticed the effect previously, Summit once more launches her Wave Force and forces the fell power in the draconic abomination's eyeholes to disperse in the wake of her spell.
HIS LOOKS CAN KILL
Summit passes by the monster's head, deflecting two swift snaps of the wyrm's jaws. At the same time she spots two glimpses of (Fire, Evil, Darkness, Epic) entering the cavern from opposite sides. Recognizing the Balrogs for what they truly are, Summit rushes to confront the fiery titans, her instincts blaring in alarm she didn't feel before.(Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +700 Ramming Speed, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 27900 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +700 Ramming Speed, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 27900 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +700 Ramming Speed, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 27900 Total damage
83700 Unified Damage
Quasi-Intercept!
Hell Blade: 6500 Base Damage, +13000 Dice, +3250 Juggernaut, -650 Weak to Darkslayer, +400 Epic Power = 22500 Total Damage
61200 Difference, Darkslayer Panoply Wins
Darkslayer Panoply: 61200 Intercept Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery = 61400 Total Damage
Balrog: 4000 Base Resilience, +13000 Dice, -800 Weapon Cleaved Right Through = 16200 Damage reduction
45200 Total End Damage
Huge Size Negated by Heavy Caliber
45200 Final End Damage
Balrog: 45'000-45'200 = -200 Health)
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +700 Ramming Speed, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 27900 Total damage
Darkslayer Panoply: 1400 Base Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery, +700 Ramming Speed, +7000 Darkslayer, x3 CRUSH = 27900 Total damage
83700 Unified Damage
Quasi-Intercept!
Hell Blade: 6500 Base Damage, +13000 Dice, +3250 Juggernaut, -650 Weak to Darkslayer, +400 Epic Power = 22500 Total Damage
61200 Difference, Darkslayer Panoply Wins
Darkslayer Panoply: 61200 Intercept Damage, Dice Nullified, +200 Light of Discovery = 61400 Total Damage
Balrog: 4000 Base Resilience, +13000 Dice, -800 Weapon Cleaved Right Through = 16200 Damage reduction
45200 Total End Damage
Huge Size Negated by Heavy Caliber
45200 Final End Damage
Balrog: 45'000-45'200 = -200 Health)
And her incandescent-white Panoply cleaves through the Balrog that showed up at the mouth of the tunnel she entered the hall through. Summit rushes back to the Wyrm and dives below its belly on her way to the second Balrog. Its demise is as swift and certain as the first one's. Knowing that she is almost out of time, Summit pivots in the air to bring herself to aim at the wyrm's head.
Perpetual Caster negation failed, Perpetual Caster negation successful
2x Balrogs appear (Reserve 26/30)(Modifier -3, Modifier next turn -5)
NY-NN-YYYYY
2x Balrogs appear (Reserve 26/30)(Modifier -3, Modifier next turn -5)
NY-NN-YYYYY
Agitated spacetime left in the wake of the orange lightning once more forces the monstrous creature's unholy power to disperse - but this time, Summit notes that not only did it force the spikes of energy to abate, but also somewhat weakens the shroud of power surrounding it. Pushing herself off of the dragon's snout as it tries to bite her, Summit launches herself at the balrog emerging from the entrance leading deeper into BoatShrieks.
Furious, the draconic abomination launches a string of unstoppable strikes forcing Summit to frantically dance at the edge of utter demise, hemmed in back to the surface-directed tunnel's entrance. Focused on the wyrm's attacks, Summit is unable to react in time to evade a fiery paw landing a strike on her from the tunnel and throwing her back at the Wyrm.
(Balrog's Hand: 6500 Base Damage, +850 Dice, -1625 Unarmed, -1625 Glancing Hit, +400 Epic Power = 4500 Total Damage
Avatar of Evil triggers! 5850 Total Damage
To Defy The Gods triggers! 2925 Total Damage
Summit: 1000 Base resilience, Dice Nullified, +292 Reactive Field, +1000 Immense Speed Gap, -400 Hostile Epic Effect, +100 Resistant to Darkness Effects = 1992 Damage Reduction
1933 Total End Damage
Ceaseless Warrior 30%
1353 Final End Damage
Summit: 14500-1353=13147 Health)
Perpetual Caster negation successful
No Balrogs appear (-5 mod, -4 next turn)(reserve 26)
YNY-YNY-NNY
No Balrogs appear (-5 mod, -4 next turn)(reserve 26)
YNY-YNY-NNY
Despite the Balrog's strike, Summit reorients herself in time to launch a wave of agitated spacetime at the Ancient Wyrm once more, finally dispersing the shroud of power the beast had been using to swiftly gather energy to blast her with. The most immediate peril dealt with momentarily, Summit dispatches the last balrog present and takes a moment to reassess the situation.
The chamber, once full of masterful stonework covering the walls and the columns, is now filled with rubble left in the wake of Wyrm's rampage and three - now four - piles of cooling embers. The Balrogs' Evil presence, while still cloying the air, has abated for the moment, betraying their absence in the immediate vicinity. Ancient Wyrm's own pervading promise of ENDING everything it touches, is still going strong, yet with the shroud of lingering power dealt with, the Wyrm's blasts are - temporarily - taken care of. Seemingly effortlessly deflecting yet another of the dragon's strikes, Summit spots the mark left by her previous strikes and angles her movement accordingly.
LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED
"What'd I miss?" Crimson Hood croaked, feeling the writhing of her flesh abate as the Hound separated itself from her, before lifting her up almost gently.
"I should not have doubted the power of the chosen one," was the Primary Wiccan's reply. "Come, see for yourself."
Supported by her Hound, Crimson Hood spared a moment to glance at her surroundings. Somewhat surprisingly, what she saw was a tranquil glade. Turning her head further, she spotted Primary Wiccan, kneeling on the flat outcropping by the center of the glade. Crimson closed the distance, noticing a small pool of water in the middle of the outcropping.
"Why hasn't Summit retreated?" Crimson asked, with Primary Wiccan pointing to the surface of the pool. Crimson got to the other girl's side and glanced into the pool, all questions getting caught in her throat. Below the surface of the water, still despite the gentle wind in the glade, Summit could be seen hacking off a front paw of a colossal draconic skeleton, launching orange lightning straight into the abomination's snapping jaws, then blurring along its elongated neck, several swift strikes collapsing the dragon's spine into fragments in her wake. The monstrosity collapses as the magic previously animating it is finally expended.
"She had no time to retreat, but needed no help to thrive. We can return now that the Herald of the End has been vanquished in single combat. Delusional Illusion" Wiccan stated simply but unhelpfully, shifting herself and her companions back to Millidia.
"I can never figure out which world you refer to when you cast it," Crimson muttered and shook her head, "But it doesn't answer my question. What the hell destroyed my Hound, what the hell was that skeletal dragon, and what was that with the pool - that's new, too."
"That Wyrm was the one that destroyed your Hound, by blasting the tunnel straight to the surface with its power," Primary Wiccan began to explain, pointing to the tunnel in question. As Crimson looked at it, a streak of incandescent-white light darted out of where the gates were, before shifting to orange light and descending to hover by the magical girls. Pausing her explanation, Primary Wiccan greeted their last teammate:
"Welcome back and congratulations, chosen one. We have seen your victory through the scrying pool."
Hearing her words, Summit nods and contacts the command to inform them of the situation. Shortly afterwards, she delivers the orders to her teammates.
Last edited:
- Location
- Earth
1400-350-700+140 is 490, not 840.
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
You can blame the lack of obvious speed-based traits on Ancient Wyrm. Without having anything like stated flight speed, or High Speed Combat, I went with the assumptions that:
1) Ancient Wyrm's speed and reaction time is enough, no matter what opponent it faces. It cannot be surprised by speed and it can pursuit just about anyone.
2) Ancient Wyrm's relative speed to another being is roughly determined by the difference in their Attacks Per Turn trait. If its APT value is greater, it can usually land a hit on its victim.
In this case, Summit's souped up APT value of 26, just shy of triple the value of Ancient Wyrm's own, was the decisive factor in more ways than once - when combined with her Inhuman Skill and her years of life-or-death battles. She was literally one of the few beings we were ever shown to have what amounts to soft counter to its base attacks, and even that wouldn't have been enough without also having Wave Force hard counter to shut down the Ultimate Evil. Without it, Summit would have died by Turn 3, when her 26 APT would have been insufficient to dodge three consecutive blasts of Ultimate Evil (-12 APT, 14 remaining) then parry the 8 attacks it would have launched at her (-14 APT, 1 attack comes through).
Metaphorically, Summit had the perfect storm of a combination of traits to have a chance in that battle, and I only allowed her this much because the battle was underground in the first place (no aerial combat and jockeying for mobility and placement), and because I considered Ancient Wyrm to be prideful enough to refuse to retreat, or relocate to a more favorable location (it could have - the tunnel it burned into the rock would have been sufficiently large).
Frankly, had that Ancient Wyrm decided to warm up just a little bit (read - didn't aggro Summit right off the bat without charging up Ultimate Evil for a few turns), it would have been the end of this quest. Since I doubt Summit will ever be a realistic first victim of an Ancient Wyrm, as opposed to all the other denizens of BoatShrieks and local UL/UD forces once it breaches surface, Summit would be incinerated while attempting to come close, or torn to shreds otherwise...
For Summit to be a more reliable counter on an Ancient Wyrm, we need at a minimum to purchase the long-range version of Wave Force to throw at the Ancient Wyrm, and hope it didn't launch more than one or two beams in our direction before we got the spell off. Pushing her effective APT to 36 would also help (Weapon 40, Ceaseless Warrior 30), because in the air she gets to keep but half of her attacks IIRC.
Last edited:
Crossworlds 16.9
- Location
- UTC -6
After flipping through Overseer's notebook you arrange your Panoply in front of you to visualize the route. The precision that you can get out of your weapon is new to you, a lattice of thin strands hovers above your hand with the walls, floors, and your planned route softly glowing to stand out. After looking it over for a moment you expand it outward so your companions can see it without having to stop flying.
"This should lead us through the open parts of the fortress so we can take advantage of flight. It also lets us fall back in several directions if we run into something dangerous. And it's direct to the largest chasm opening, ideal for leading things we rile up out this door." you say.
Crimson Hood frowns, "Your path would lead us right into the teeth of any traps, and it guarantees we will be spotted."
"Being spotted is the point…" Primary Wiccan interjects.
Crimson's hound lets out a deep laugh from where it's sniffing around the entrance.
"Dwarves would have honeycombed the area with tunnels, we can sneak in through a narrow tunnel and look around before anything knows we're there." Crimson waves her sword around with a grin.
"I'd prefer to keep flying, wouldn't you?" you counter.
Crimson Hood looks over to Primary Wiccan, who nods. "Fine. Your way it is. Since you have the fancy map why don't you stay in the lead."
"Right, this way."
As you fly towards an arrow slit you are followed by the pair of Magical Girls. The hound runs to the main gates and oozes through the gap to get inside. It gives you an odd sense that it wanted to get out of your sight for a bit.
Once close enough you push on the space in the arrow slit. It's tall enough already, just needs to be wider, which makes it much simpler to manage. Expanding a gap in two dimensions is tricky to keep balanced. A quick flourish puts a weight on your magic and makes your new passageway look a little like a peephole distorting light.
You fly through, for a moment as you move the ends seem to move away from you, as if you were in a long tunnel, and then you're through. Your eyes adjust to the dim hallway, but it quickly goes dark once the arrow slits stop.
Primary Wiccan meanders for a bit, then Crimson Hood shakes her sword a bit to goad her on. The image of them grows as they approach, shrinks for a moment as they pass through, and pops back to normal.
"Already so dark." Wiccan says.
"I can generate light if needed." you mention.
"No need for that." Wiccan lifts a hand from her broom, "Mirage!"
All the dark areas are suddenly lit up as if by a soft pinkish light. Wait, not quite, you see the picture of what the areas would look like if they were lighted imposed where it's otherwise too dark to see.
"I'd prefer to be able to see."
"You can see, this is a pretty handy effect. It even highlights friends who have the same effect." Hood says quickly, "And even if you have some sort of super sense around light consider that I don't want to be seen by your light."
A part of you wants to argue. You have a keen sense for danger and can see from the back of your head. Another part wants to get things moving and avoid butting heads with Hood, she does have a point about stealth.
You start on the task of getting deeper. "Hey, not so fast…" Primary Wiccan shouts as she flies after you.
With formation taken care of you adjust speed to match Wiccan's preferred speed. First you need to get to the entrance hall, which only takes a moment. Everything here still looks orderly, there are some crane-like assemblies that roll in grooves on the floor all in a row and a few partially filled carts with logs on them. The floor slopes gently towards the main gate, until a metallic pipe disgorged volcanic rock to block the gate from ever opening. There's probably a drain that was blocked as well, otherwise water would pool under the gate.
How does a system meant to pump lava around keep working? The pipes don't appear to have any magic in-- Right, you're not really seeing in the darkness. Also in things you aren't seeing is where Crimson Hood's hound might be.
"Where's the dog?"
"He's close, he always is." Crimson sighs, "Probably waiting to jump out at us when you least expect it."
Primary Wiccan drifts off course for a bit before zipping to follow you again.
You pass three openings as you go further down, all relatively small. The closest one looked like a weapons stockpile, but was empty. Next is a room with a handful war machines parts, all wooden you notice as you fly by. Past that is a chamber with burned piles atop hewn stone woodworking stations.
"Where did all the wood come from? The mountainside is barren." you wonder aloud.
"The dwarves must have gathered it all." Wiccan answers cheerfully.
Hood makes a 'don't know' gesture.
The relatively untouched part ends abruptly once you reach an underground plaza with pillars and statues. A few of the statues have scorched marks in front of them and more than a few misshapen skeletons litter the ground. The ceiling lowers and the statues get bigger as you press through. There's a path of smashed statues that you follow.
Up until a statue lunges at your group. You swerve by grabbing onto a nearby stone arm and accelerate. Hood reacts to yank Wiccan's broom around before the latter even realizes something has happened. A pair of arrows fires from the mouth of a lion statue and miss all involved by striking the ground.
Then the thing titters tauntingly at your trio.
"What are you waiting for! Go find traps for us!"
"Not so loud…" Wiccan mutters, having been right in front of Hood's shouting.
Crimson's Hound changes shape into an enormous... centipede is the closest fit, but with arms and wings where no centipede has limbs. Everything about his form, which shifts as he moves, is a sin against vision and reason. The horrific mass barrels through the last couple rows of statues, laughing as he goes. This sets off a few more rigged arrows and a spray of burning oil.
Fire has never looked so beautiful.
You hover in place for a moment, "You were worried about me getting spotted?"
"Yes." Hood hisses out.
"Not so loud please." Wiccan pleads.
"Sorry, he's always a headache for me. Could you, uh, at least go back to having your head uncovered? I feel better looking at a human face."
Oh, you hadn't even noticed that you had drawn your Panoply to cover yourself. You push it back to a more harness like shape.
The hound backtracks over its trail of destruction, then flattens itself as it get closer and shifts into its standing wolf form, "Traps located and dealt with, taskmaster."
Everyone looks to you after a brief pause.
"There should be a ramp past the statues. We'll fly down to avoid traps and then follow a water channel that will lead into a series of waterfalls in underground plazas."
"We're right behind you." Hood says.
The ceiling raises as you make it through the statue garden. The ramp you were aiming for has been covered with sheets of shiny metal. Which is a little nerve-wracking, every dent or offset could conceal a trap. And it's not just you, Wiccan or Hood could bear the brunt of it.
You slow down a bit to fly carefully, avoiding all the edges. Hound has assumed a form with three sets of dragonfly wings and is hovering neatly behind Hood and Wiccan, who are charting a steady course on a flying broom.
All of you reach the end without incident, and in silence.
The channel that was supposed to hold a stream of clear water is overflowing with a barely-moving murky fluid. It smells like decaying leaves and ashes. You drift backward to get closer to Hood and Wiccan.
"There must be some damage. That channel should feed into decorative waterfalls. We'll have to go around." you whisper.
"I noticed." Wiccan whispers back with a flat tone. Hood raises an eyebrow at you.
Checking the map suggests you'll reach a central stockpile if you turn left at the next hallway. You start flying at a somewhat faster pace, the smoothed stone feeling much less worrying than the metal plates.
The worry comes back once you see what's left of the stockpile chamber. With friends.
Huge chunks of the floor and ceiling are gone, rubble is scattered about, and there are four armored and partially melted corpses piled in a corner. The missing ceiling and floor curve away and look almost organic in shape. A low hum shakes the cavern.
Something takes a deep breath in the upper tunnel. Everyone freezes. Except for the dragonfly/hound, who wings over and sniffs at the opening.
"It leads to outside." it says in a voice like falling gravel. "Just some wind."
Hood makes a shush gesture with her sword hand, the hound laughs softly. Primary Wiccan drifts to look down the hole in the floor.
You point a direction at the far side of the room and start flying there. The rest of your group follows. Hood keeps scanning around as you go. A few switchbacks through broad tunnels gets you to a shaft to fly down. One marked as waste disposal, which you momentarily hope the others aren't annoyed about.
The shaft ends short, leaving you hovering about 60 meters above the ground. You're at one lobe of a vast oval chamber, the roof has been torn down leaving a patchwork appearance and strewing rubble everywhere. The other lobe is about where you expected the chasm entrance to be.
A Titan Worm is coiled up on the side of the room, dead thankfully. A cold mist drifts off a log impaling one of its eyes. Scattered webbing hangs far to your left, made from strings as thick as a baby's arm. And heat rises off a large winged humanoid that's amassed a pile of metallic items as a crude throne (Fire, Evil, Darkness, Epic). A trio that looks like the reclining Balrog, but not glowing with their own heat, guard the chasm entrance.
You need to plan, and to do that you need to get somewhere that places your group out of sight.
No shortage of that with all the rubble. A smooth flight to break line of sight will get you there in seconds.
As you move you spot a glimpse of a figure that was hidden behind the Balrog's wings (Murder, Air, Conquest). Something familiar…
"If your strength is so insignificant than continuing to treat with you is pointless. We ask nothing from you besides-" a booming voice drifts off mid sentence.
You whisper for Hood and Wiccan to hear, "A demon I've fought before is here. The skin around his mouth is missing and he gets stronger if you attack him."
"How did you beat him?" Wiccan looks right at you.
"I hid…" you answer.
"You disturbed me to speak, why do you not speak?" the Balrog, for that is the only thing that could talk with such volume and pitch, demanded.
"Apologies, mighty Aer. I have just become aware that an enemy has arrived. I will deal with them."
"Do so."
Hood leaps off the broom, "Wiccan, find somewhere you can stay out of trouble. Toothy, Summit, murderface time."
You hear a mass of wings approaching.
----
Who did you cast Guardian Touch on beforehand?
[X] [Buff] Primary Wiccan
[X] [Buff] Crimson Hood
[X] [Buff] The Hound-monster-thing
----
Status of Forces
Summit: Unharmed
Crimson Hood: Unharmed, eager for battle
Primary Wiccan: Unharmed, seeking cover, rather lucid
Nightmare of Crimson: Unharmed, in a flying form
Val-Kroppi: ???? Health, active
Aer (Balrog): Assumed Hostile, contemptuous
Guard Balrogs (x3): Assumed Hostile, rushing towards you in a staggered line
Giant Spiders (x4 at least…): Assumed Hungry, waiting on ceiling
Radio Comms are down with Milidia, but can still be used to talk to Hood if you're separated for some reason.
----
[X] Battle Plan?
You have the impression that Hood can take care of herself. And Wiccan to a lesser extent.
----
+20 EXP Led an expedition through a ruined fortress
+5 EXP You know this jackass…
+5 EXP Found useful intel
2461 + 30 = 2491 EXP
[X] [EXP] EXP Plan?
"This should lead us through the open parts of the fortress so we can take advantage of flight. It also lets us fall back in several directions if we run into something dangerous. And it's direct to the largest chasm opening, ideal for leading things we rile up out this door." you say.
Crimson Hood frowns, "Your path would lead us right into the teeth of any traps, and it guarantees we will be spotted."
"Being spotted is the point…" Primary Wiccan interjects.
Crimson's hound lets out a deep laugh from where it's sniffing around the entrance.
"Dwarves would have honeycombed the area with tunnels, we can sneak in through a narrow tunnel and look around before anything knows we're there." Crimson waves her sword around with a grin.
"I'd prefer to keep flying, wouldn't you?" you counter.
Crimson Hood looks over to Primary Wiccan, who nods. "Fine. Your way it is. Since you have the fancy map why don't you stay in the lead."
"Right, this way."
As you fly towards an arrow slit you are followed by the pair of Magical Girls. The hound runs to the main gates and oozes through the gap to get inside. It gives you an odd sense that it wanted to get out of your sight for a bit.
Once close enough you push on the space in the arrow slit. It's tall enough already, just needs to be wider, which makes it much simpler to manage. Expanding a gap in two dimensions is tricky to keep balanced. A quick flourish puts a weight on your magic and makes your new passageway look a little like a peephole distorting light.
You fly through, for a moment as you move the ends seem to move away from you, as if you were in a long tunnel, and then you're through. Your eyes adjust to the dim hallway, but it quickly goes dark once the arrow slits stop.
Primary Wiccan meanders for a bit, then Crimson Hood shakes her sword a bit to goad her on. The image of them grows as they approach, shrinks for a moment as they pass through, and pops back to normal.
"Already so dark." Wiccan says.
"I can generate light if needed." you mention.
"No need for that." Wiccan lifts a hand from her broom, "Mirage!"
All the dark areas are suddenly lit up as if by a soft pinkish light. Wait, not quite, you see the picture of what the areas would look like if they were lighted imposed where it's otherwise too dark to see.
"I'd prefer to be able to see."
"You can see, this is a pretty handy effect. It even highlights friends who have the same effect." Hood says quickly, "And even if you have some sort of super sense around light consider that I don't want to be seen by your light."
A part of you wants to argue. You have a keen sense for danger and can see from the back of your head. Another part wants to get things moving and avoid butting heads with Hood, she does have a point about stealth.
You start on the task of getting deeper. "Hey, not so fast…" Primary Wiccan shouts as she flies after you.
With formation taken care of you adjust speed to match Wiccan's preferred speed. First you need to get to the entrance hall, which only takes a moment. Everything here still looks orderly, there are some crane-like assemblies that roll in grooves on the floor all in a row and a few partially filled carts with logs on them. The floor slopes gently towards the main gate, until a metallic pipe disgorged volcanic rock to block the gate from ever opening. There's probably a drain that was blocked as well, otherwise water would pool under the gate.
How does a system meant to pump lava around keep working? The pipes don't appear to have any magic in-- Right, you're not really seeing in the darkness. Also in things you aren't seeing is where Crimson Hood's hound might be.
"Where's the dog?"
"He's close, he always is." Crimson sighs, "Probably waiting to jump out at us when you least expect it."
Primary Wiccan drifts off course for a bit before zipping to follow you again.
You pass three openings as you go further down, all relatively small. The closest one looked like a weapons stockpile, but was empty. Next is a room with a handful war machines parts, all wooden you notice as you fly by. Past that is a chamber with burned piles atop hewn stone woodworking stations.
"Where did all the wood come from? The mountainside is barren." you wonder aloud.
"The dwarves must have gathered it all." Wiccan answers cheerfully.
Hood makes a 'don't know' gesture.
The relatively untouched part ends abruptly once you reach an underground plaza with pillars and statues. A few of the statues have scorched marks in front of them and more than a few misshapen skeletons litter the ground. The ceiling lowers and the statues get bigger as you press through. There's a path of smashed statues that you follow.
Up until a statue lunges at your group. You swerve by grabbing onto a nearby stone arm and accelerate. Hood reacts to yank Wiccan's broom around before the latter even realizes something has happened. A pair of arrows fires from the mouth of a lion statue and miss all involved by striking the ground.
Then the thing titters tauntingly at your trio.
"What are you waiting for! Go find traps for us!"
"Not so loud…" Wiccan mutters, having been right in front of Hood's shouting.
Crimson's Hound changes shape into an enormous... centipede is the closest fit, but with arms and wings where no centipede has limbs. Everything about his form, which shifts as he moves, is a sin against vision and reason. The horrific mass barrels through the last couple rows of statues, laughing as he goes. This sets off a few more rigged arrows and a spray of burning oil.
Fire has never looked so beautiful.
You hover in place for a moment, "You were worried about me getting spotted?"
"Yes." Hood hisses out.
"Not so loud please." Wiccan pleads.
"Sorry, he's always a headache for me. Could you, uh, at least go back to having your head uncovered? I feel better looking at a human face."
Oh, you hadn't even noticed that you had drawn your Panoply to cover yourself. You push it back to a more harness like shape.
The hound backtracks over its trail of destruction, then flattens itself as it get closer and shifts into its standing wolf form, "Traps located and dealt with, taskmaster."
Everyone looks to you after a brief pause.
"There should be a ramp past the statues. We'll fly down to avoid traps and then follow a water channel that will lead into a series of waterfalls in underground plazas."
"We're right behind you." Hood says.
The ceiling raises as you make it through the statue garden. The ramp you were aiming for has been covered with sheets of shiny metal. Which is a little nerve-wracking, every dent or offset could conceal a trap. And it's not just you, Wiccan or Hood could bear the brunt of it.
You slow down a bit to fly carefully, avoiding all the edges. Hound has assumed a form with three sets of dragonfly wings and is hovering neatly behind Hood and Wiccan, who are charting a steady course on a flying broom.
All of you reach the end without incident, and in silence.
The channel that was supposed to hold a stream of clear water is overflowing with a barely-moving murky fluid. It smells like decaying leaves and ashes. You drift backward to get closer to Hood and Wiccan.
"There must be some damage. That channel should feed into decorative waterfalls. We'll have to go around." you whisper.
"I noticed." Wiccan whispers back with a flat tone. Hood raises an eyebrow at you.
Checking the map suggests you'll reach a central stockpile if you turn left at the next hallway. You start flying at a somewhat faster pace, the smoothed stone feeling much less worrying than the metal plates.
The worry comes back once you see what's left of the stockpile chamber. With friends.
Huge chunks of the floor and ceiling are gone, rubble is scattered about, and there are four armored and partially melted corpses piled in a corner. The missing ceiling and floor curve away and look almost organic in shape. A low hum shakes the cavern.
Something takes a deep breath in the upper tunnel. Everyone freezes. Except for the dragonfly/hound, who wings over and sniffs at the opening.
"It leads to outside." it says in a voice like falling gravel. "Just some wind."
Hood makes a shush gesture with her sword hand, the hound laughs softly. Primary Wiccan drifts to look down the hole in the floor.
You point a direction at the far side of the room and start flying there. The rest of your group follows. Hood keeps scanning around as you go. A few switchbacks through broad tunnels gets you to a shaft to fly down. One marked as waste disposal, which you momentarily hope the others aren't annoyed about.
The shaft ends short, leaving you hovering about 60 meters above the ground. You're at one lobe of a vast oval chamber, the roof has been torn down leaving a patchwork appearance and strewing rubble everywhere. The other lobe is about where you expected the chasm entrance to be.
A Titan Worm is coiled up on the side of the room, dead thankfully. A cold mist drifts off a log impaling one of its eyes. Scattered webbing hangs far to your left, made from strings as thick as a baby's arm. And heat rises off a large winged humanoid that's amassed a pile of metallic items as a crude throne (Fire, Evil, Darkness, Epic). A trio that looks like the reclining Balrog, but not glowing with their own heat, guard the chasm entrance.
You need to plan, and to do that you need to get somewhere that places your group out of sight.
No shortage of that with all the rubble. A smooth flight to break line of sight will get you there in seconds.
As you move you spot a glimpse of a figure that was hidden behind the Balrog's wings (Murder, Air, Conquest). Something familiar…
"If your strength is so insignificant than continuing to treat with you is pointless. We ask nothing from you besides-" a booming voice drifts off mid sentence.
You whisper for Hood and Wiccan to hear, "A demon I've fought before is here. The skin around his mouth is missing and he gets stronger if you attack him."
"How did you beat him?" Wiccan looks right at you.
"I hid…" you answer.
"You disturbed me to speak, why do you not speak?" the Balrog, for that is the only thing that could talk with such volume and pitch, demanded.
"Apologies, mighty Aer. I have just become aware that an enemy has arrived. I will deal with them."
"Do so."
Hood leaps off the broom, "Wiccan, find somewhere you can stay out of trouble. Toothy, Summit, murderface time."
You hear a mass of wings approaching.
----
Who did you cast Guardian Touch on beforehand?
[X] [Buff] Primary Wiccan
[X] [Buff] Crimson Hood
----
Status of Forces
Summit: Unharmed
Crimson Hood: Unharmed, eager for battle
Primary Wiccan: Unharmed, seeking cover, rather lucid
Nightmare of Crimson: Unharmed, in a flying form
Val-Kroppi: ???? Health, active
Aer (Balrog): Assumed Hostile, contemptuous
Guard Balrogs (x3): Assumed Hostile, rushing towards you in a staggered line
Giant Spiders (x4 at least…): Assumed Hungry, waiting on ceiling
Radio Comms are down with Milidia, but can still be used to talk to Hood if you're separated for some reason.
----
[X] Battle Plan?
You have the impression that Hood can take care of herself. And Wiccan to a lesser extent.
----
+20 EXP Led an expedition through a ruined fortress
+5 EXP You know this jackass…
+5 EXP Found useful intel
2461 + 30 = 2491 EXP
[X] [EXP] EXP Plan?
Last edited:
- Location
- UTC -6
You want sheets? I got sheets.
- (Unified Light) Magical Girl Primary Wiccan
-
Erica Braun
- Stats
- Weapon
- Spells
- Abilities
- (Independent) Magical Girl Crimson Hood
-
Daphne Grimm
- Stats
- Weapon
- Spells
- Abilities
- (Barely Controlled) Nightmare of Crimson
-
The Big Bad Wolf
- Stats
- Weapon
- Spells
- Abilities
- (United Darkness) Val-Kroppi
-
Val-Kroppi
- Stats
- Weapon
- Spells
- Abilities
- (Happy Fun Stuff) Balrog
-
Wanna hug?
- Stats
- Weapon
- Spells
- Abilities
Last edited:
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Wow, Hood is weirdly aggressive today. Did she miss breakfast?
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
[X] [Buff] Crimson Hood
I think Wiccan can hide.
[X] [Exp] Save it
Something like this maybe?
Or perhaps teleport to bypass the balrogs, instead of shooting the demon first. Just teleport, challenge and fight.
Val-Kroppi seems to be a battle maniac, I doubt a challenge will be refused. With our options (1600*9=14400) we probably can one-shot him barring any complications. His own attacks (2100-2800 Juggernaut Vampire) are potent, but aren't immediately deadly.
Also, didn't catch it at first, but Val-Kroppi is in murder form.
I think Wiccan can hide.
[X] [Exp] Save it
old crappy plan said:
Something like this maybe?
Or perhaps teleport to bypass the balrogs, instead of shooting the demon first. Just teleport, challenge and fight.
Val-Kroppi seems to be a battle maniac, I doubt a challenge will be refused. With our options (1600*9=14400) we probably can one-shot him barring any complications. His own attacks (2100-2800 Juggernaut Vampire) are potent, but aren't immediately deadly.
Also, didn't catch it at first, but Val-Kroppi is in murder form.
Last edited:
- Location
- UTC -6
Hood thinks Summit is crazy and also has a weapon that looks a little like Bigsy. She had to get out of bed with ~2 hours of sleep, so she's not at her best in any case.
In melee, I think its better to actually Intercept his attacks. Pretty easy for us to overpower him in melee, and he shouldn't be able to transform into a swarm of birds to avoid the Intercept damage.
handful of machine
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
It's actually a suboptimal plan all around. I've been planning to revise it. As is, I'm now expecting that the murder of Val-Kroppi is going to come over us and engage us in short order, before the guard Balrogs come close enough to engage. I'm also expecting it to be able to, well, peck everyone within the murder for at least half damage it has, like we can try and do the same with our spatial manipulation.
Also, IIRC kelllogo is seeking to eventually cycle out the intercepts.
Things we know or can guess about Val-Kroppi:
1) He gets stronger if we attack him.
2) He can transform into a murder of black birds, and is using said ability to come at us
3) His flavor text and his Conquest affinity imply he is the kind to respond positively to challenges of battle
That said, we aren't exactly doing what Dwarven Overseer suggested. Namely, make it so that the territory the local monsters are holding is no longer suitable to be held as territory.
I am probably going to switch to massed ranged attacks and cave in the entire chamber via Multi Shot, Ray, Danmaku and Collateral Damage if hostilities continue.
Two more questions for @kelllogo or @LostDeviljho as likely people to answer:
1) When Primary Wiccan banished the hound, Summit noted there weren't any overt signs of it, not even twisted space. Does it mean Halting the area has no effect on Delusional Illusion?
---It will probably affect whether I'll be adding Halting to the plan or not. Currently, there is no Halting.
2) Would one of guard Balrogs suffice for the purposes of fullfilling prerequisite for Tear The Gods From Their Heights? Or do we need to kill Aer for that.
---It will probably affect whether I specify cutting Aer's head off.
[X] [Buff] Crimson Hood
[X] [Exp] Save it
[X] Plan Challenge
-[X] Tell Wiccan to hide for now, and keep an eye on surroundings. Keep an eye on her if you can. Her Notice-Me-Not will help keep her hidden.
-[X] Tell Toothy to distract the guard Balrogs, and Crimson to stay back for now, you have a plan.
-[X] Keep an eye on the spiders, you don't need them making problems.
-[X] Challenge Val-Kroppi into personal combat. Switch panoply to Multi Slash, Crush, Collateral Damage and Anti-Air.
--[X] Try and imply this is a form of champion combat, to hopefully make Balrogs less likely to engage you.
--[X] Should Val-Kroppi engage you in melee, indulge him. Use your skill to negate one or two of his attacks, then cut him down.
--[X] Should Val-Kroppi ignore you and keep flying, blast him out of the air. Anti-Air has been known to penetrate forms of airborne defenses, and collateral damage is suitable for flak.
-[X] Deal with Val-Kroppi swiftly, then call out to "Mighty Aer" if he is willing to treat with you.
--[X] Switch to Darkslayer, Crush, Multi Slash and Heavy Caliber, to imply you are powerful enough to deal with him. If he continues hostilities, blast the nearest Balrog in the face with Wave Force and start cutting off heads.
--[X] If he agrees to speak to you, convince him to launch an attack at the Unified Darkness.
Changed a few things around, like using Anti-Air to try and deal with Val-Kroppi's murder-of-birds form. Still a crappy plan.
Edit: Also added Wave Force goodness to prevent wipe.
Last edited:
I don't remember anything about this, and even if he is, that's no reason to avoid using it.
Especially considering that the demon's APT is high enough that we can't use Inhuman Skill against all of his attacks each turn until we build up quite a few Ceaseless Warrior stacks.
Intercepting one of his attacks only uses one action while negating his attacks uses two actions.
Considering that his weapon is a Glaive, it seems like he can approach us in swarm form but can't actually use his regular attacks unless he leaves swarm form.
Using lots of AOE and multihit is definitely the right way to go if he stays in swarm of birds form though.
I was thinking something like Intercept + Multi-Slash + Collateral Damage + Danmaku. If he melees us outside of swarm form use an Intercept, and if he doesn't leave swarm form hit all the birds simultaneously with ranged attacks.
I do have one other silly idea though.
@kelllogo
Does Summit remember how many birds are in the flock?
- Location
- UTC -6
Low hundreds. He likes to spread out a bit, still tends to stay clumped though.
1) Summit wasn't able to stop Primary Wiccan, or even get an understanding of what she was doing. World Sphere is kind of a big deal. "You cannot grasp the true form" sort of deal for Summit's powers right now.
2) ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼ (Hint: Summit hasn't actually "seen" the guard balrogs. just an image via Wiccan's darkvision effect.)
Ahh, so a gigantic flock.
If it was a flock of like 15 birds I wanted to wait for the flock to swarm us and then cast a leveled up Aggressive Absorption
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
So uh.
What's the plan for after we've removed our anti-shout meatshield?
Grand Dispel is good.