The Artist joins in on the battle of the "Forest of Departure." Moving over to F19. I than use Mirror Image, spawning my copy to F20.

Originally posted on 2018-01-21 01:54:00

"So... let's see what we've got here."

Calibri takes a look around the nearby area for a few seconds. Trees. Forest stuff. Nothing too unusual here. After a few seconds, he shrugs. Verdana, currently standing with him, waits expectantly.

"...Well...?"
"Trees."
"That's not very helpful!"
"No kidding."

There's a flash of darkness, as per usual, then Calibri is gone, leaving Verdana temporarily alone. The albino doesn't seem entirely sure what to do, deciding to stand there and wait...

Meanwhile, back over at the River Crossing, Calibri appears in a similar darkness flash, standing a fairly respectful distance from Chloe with something of a cheesier grin than usual on his face.

"Well. Heh. That implied you weren't already helping earlier. If that's you when you're not trying, I can barely imagine what you'll be achieving now."

He winks. Clearly, he was aiming for more of a joking manner with Chloe this time around, if the earlier grin wasn't enough to give that away. His face then resets to the more normal smile, which to be honest would not be a serious expression for anyone else, but this is Calibri we're talking about.

"But, heh, seriously. It'll be great to have you with us. Welcome to team, uh... bunch-of-random-people-who-coincidentally-all-arrived-on-the-same-plan- actually, that's not going to work as a team name, got any better suggestions?"

---

Meanwhile, EN spawns into the Forest of Departure "battle" at G27 and runs off to G21.

"It's kinda dark out here... Y'all got a light?"
"Also, uh, where d'y'all get Iron Ingots from? Kinda gonna need a few of those if ah'm gonna make any better gear fer m'self anytime soon. Hell, titanium'd be better, but ah dunno 'bout workin' with that yet..."

Yeah. Craftpost ain't gonna happen this time, since I sort of need to be sure the resources will be there for me to actually use before doing it. Otherwise it's a bit of a waste. Unless, for whatever reason, descendants are allowed to bullshit crafting materials into existence, but I honestly doubt they'd be allowed to, otherwise this would be too easy.

Originally posted on 2018-01-21 16:41:00

<ROUND TWENTY-THREE>
JOE harvests the Soulblossoms from the Forest Crossroads; or at least, he harvests seven out of eight of them. He then harvests the seeds from the blossoms, and tosses them into his farm. It looks like he'll be getting more Soulblossoms soon. He then takes a few of the black vines and... well, it actually appears they're made of feathers. How curious! Of course, one does not simply plant flowers in feathers. Life doesn't work that way. 3 Feather Rope Coils obtained!

Monika then hacks a scanner via application of a Super Mario World cartridge. This unconventional method of hacking bypasses every sort of firewall that'd normally be in the way of the hack! She sends a load of information on WARE directly into the database. She gets a response rather fast through the Codex Monstrum. The Author's letter also gets a response.

Monika then obtains the ROMhacker accomplishment. Toast then welcomes Chloe into the party.

CHLOE: A-Actually?
CHLOE: T-Thank you! You won't regret this!

Chloe has officially joined the party!

...It now seems that Chloe has a question.

CHLOE: Oh, also... who's Marron?
CHLOE: After Nia's comment about your not-girlfriend, I can't help but wonder who she is! Is she nice? What's your relationship like? D-Does... does she mean a lot to you?
CHLOE: We're definitely going to get you two together though, don't worry!

She then follows Toast into the Woods of Departure.

CHLOE: A-Ah... You weren't kidding about the dark...
CHLOE: G-Good thing for flashlights, though!

She pulls out her phone, and a light begins to flood out of it.

CHLOE: This doesn't really help much, eheheheh...
CHLOE: Well, at least I won't bump into a dead body or anything with this on... right?
[small][small]CHLOE: hey guys logan paul here take a look at this dead person woo[/small][/small]

Simeon then bonds with the spiders at the Ashen Canopy a little. They do seem to notice what he wants through body language, and one of the spiders promptly heads over to the tree and carefully extracts a small chunk of Gold Ore, which it then carries to Simeon. 2 Gold Ingots obtained! Simeon then picks up an Illuminator, and walks into the darkness of the forest. Terry, Bergilmir, Mr. Krabs and Comet follow him. Brutishace then attempts some crafting... but I have literally no idea what he wants from the upgrade, so it fails! Nonetheless, Brutishace into's the woods. Yes; "into's".

Zedros then decides to get into the bottling trend, and bottle bottles three of the campfire crystals. By the time they're in the inventory, the bottles have vanished for some odd reasons. 3 Aurora Crystals obtained! Zedros then loots the diary in the Peaceful Riverbank's tent, and gives it a quick flipthrough.



There's no other entries...

Zedros then takes 4 Vines and 4 Green Sap from the environment, before attempting some fishing with the nearby fishing rod. He manages to pull up a Barkfin (as identified by the Scanner), but nothing else on his attempts. Odds are, the quality of one's fishing attempts will depend on the rod... and the rod you have here is a simple wooden rod. He then heads north of the Peaceful Riverbank...

What the hell. Something's been busy here, if the number of corpses was any indication. A shame too; this was a lovely looking lakeside area. What's concerning is that nest in the center of it all- what could be inside of it? What normally roosts there? Whatever it is, it certainly isn't there at the moment.

Boshi then decides to raid the contents of the zone. 2 Tents obtained. 9 Aurora Crystals obtained. Iti Feather obtained. Thyme Disk obtained. Fishing Rod obtained. The duo opt to not take the dock though, mainly because it's a little hard to remove...

Boshi and Hat Kid then obtain the Kleptomania accomplishment.

The two then decide to piece together a boat using the crate found on the dock, and they promptly jump in and sail to the east. The map loads a temporary area that has quite a few Iti and... a treasure chest! You can either creatively deal with them, or sail on and see what you can find! Only Boshi and Hat Kid may interact with this area. If their boat is sunk, they'll likely die a horrible death.

A few more people then enter the battle at the Forest of Departure, while Irongutta creates the Charging Vest, with 25% additional balancing! He too, then runs into certain maybe-pain, along with the Voice and the Artist. Calibri then comes along with Chloe as she departs into the woods.

CHLOE: H-Hey! I was trying my hardest back there!
CHLOE: I... I've never been in a fight to the death before. That's probably not a surprise, but hey. First time for everything.
CHLOE: My heart was racing... a-and I'm getting chills just thinking about it! Not the good kind, mind you.
CHLOE: Eheheheh...

She giggles.

CHLOE: Hey, it'll be great to work with you, too!
CHLOE: And...
CHLOE: U-Uh, I've never been the greatest with coming up with names- even for individual characters. You should probably ask somebody else for a team name.
CHLOE: I'd suggest something that's related to your goals, though. Or maybe something about our situation? I don't know.

She then actually heads off into the forest. What'll she see there? Probably some traumatizing gorilla that'll make her immediately regret hiking in there blindly.

<FOREST OF DEPARTURE, TURN TWO>
As you can see, there is a metric heckton of Iti on the map. Fortunately, most of them aren't actively going after you at the moment. Some of them appear to be occupied with the hanging Chairians. Not all of said hanging Chairians are dead, though; perhaps rescue attempts should be made? You don't NEED to, but hey; maybe it'd be a good idea? Gain some reputation or allies.

Maybe I'll end up implementing the "minor NPC" system. That'd be neat.

Originally posted on 2018-01-22 01:00:00

JOE goes off the find the author, Because the author gets a +3 to chairian history checks. He then asks what the traditional/ most respectful way to bury a chairian is.
Meanwhile, some Claw droid ROBOTS brand soldiers walk through their gate. the weapons Claw Droids have are "Huge Claws", and they run off a limited fuel source known as a "Strontium Engine", so they'll have a maximum of like 3 actions before we run out of claw drones to use. They proceed to scuttle to the set and start harvesting the thyme matter, crushing the hands as they reach out and throwing them into the inventory, then thrusting their claw into the liquid, closing it, putting the other claw beneath it so the matter doesn't drip, and throwing it in the inventory. and then, this repeats.

Originally posted on 2018-01-22 11:30:00

Auth wanders towards the Hanging Garden, and nearly throws up upon arrival. The first thing he notices, instead of the great tree in the center with the nest, are the smaller trees with a ton of bodies hanging from them. He clenches his fist, and walks towards the nest after noticing it in the middle of the lake. Taking care not to step on the black ropes, he takes the weapon (likely a crossbow) from inside it. Then, he waits. The bird-thing that did this shall arrive soon, now that he's there.

Originally posted on 2018-01-22 23:04:00

There is a burst of light, from the bulb, and the Javlyn is dazzled.

Simeon moves to F23, and launches another bulb bomb at C18. He then responds to Chloe.

"Hum. How about the Society For Saving Ire? SfSI for short."

There. Perfection.

Originally posted on 2018-01-23 03:33:00

"What the hell..."
Toast takes a atep back and stares up at the hanged Charian.
"...Who-?
She shakes her head, and notices the Iti below the Charian. Then, she offers a silent apology for what she's about to do.

Toast tosses a Dynamite Bundle at the Javlyn, finishing it off after the Shattering Bulb proc. She mutters something in her magic language, causing a tongue of flame to zigzag into the closer Seeker. It embeds itself there, sparking wildly.
i'm sorry charian, but you're better off cremated than left for dinner
(on the other hand, the charian technically isnt a foe for the targeting of ignite blood)
The wisp floats to J23 unleashes a burst of light northwards. Toast quickly gestures for Chloe to avert her eyes.

Toast realises she'd been holding her breath, and exhales.
"Sorry about that."
If the targeted Iti are all dead, she adds this, with a weak smile, "...Maybe I should have left some for you. (I've probably expended too much mana to do stuff for a while anyway, so I guess I can do my best to support you if you engage anything else that pops up.)"

She eventually responds to Chloe's questions about Marron.
"...I met Marron and her sister, Ette, about a month ago on our last adventure. She and I got pretty close through that experience, part of which was me bonking her with a chainsaw."
Her cheeks glow (not literally), recalling the memory fondly. She chuckles, before continuing more slowly,
"I...I guess I've never really had friends before, so I don't really know what it's supposed to feel like... but I've always felt a sort of warmth around her. It's... a new feeling for me. But yeah, I'd say we were... close. She means a lot to me.
She looks away, then realises that she's been talking a while.
"If you like, I could tell you about the adventure that a few of us went on. Maybe once we get out of this forest. Not sure when any more of them will appear.
...
As for the name thing, though, I was thinking 'Thymescapers'- it has a nice ring to it."

With the adrenaline rush generated by the explosion gone, Toast suddenly remembers something, and recoils a little. [small]okay thats enough banter we should probably move before it gets any darker[/small]

[This action generates a lot of SP, as well as 2 Metamagic.]

Originally posted on 2018-01-23 04:13:00

uh ire you accidentally my weapon statbuffs
it's supposed to be +2 res, -1 agi, not +1 int, +1 ski, -2 res
----
Terry looks around.

"Eh, I've seen worse.

I'm saying this as a Courier of the Dreaming World, pretty much a mindscape mailman, who has delivered to the most screwed-up of heads.

Speaking of messed up, I shot down a letter with a standby symbol watermark. It was folded into a paper airplane. That letter was the thing that made me notice this place's existence.

That was before my adventure into Roxxanne's mindscape, which taught me that everyone is broken in their own way and that we just need the right thing to fix us. Writerdude and Roxxy have been through some gorilla, man.

...and I realize I'm talking to myself again. And Matchmaker's readings of sappy YA novels have gotten to me again.

If I say something like all that stuff again, tell me where Chloe barfed, so the chances of us washing our pants with hurl don't go up."
----
Terry techs into Intellect. He starts pointing to the ground.

"One, two, three, four, five-"

He notices the Javlyn behind the Bulb Bomb.

"WHY WON'T YOU LET ME GO FAST"
----
Terry moves to G23.

Originally posted on 2018-01-23 12:16:00

miyuki_s: Right, no response it is then.
AsukaNinomiya: Let's just go craft more stuff before going in.
v4_flower: I guess...


Miyuki manifests five Arcane Alembics and an Alchemical Furnace. She places 4 Aurora Crystals into the Alchemical Furnace and bottles 32 Potentia, 32 Ignis and 32 Vitreus from the alembics into Warded Jars. She does the same to an Assassin's Kris or two, gathering 32 Telum, and a Nano Remedy, gaining 16 Victus, 16 Sano and 8 Cognitio.. She then sets up an infusion table and infuses a Circuit Board and two Wire Scraps into her armor along with 32 Telum, 32 Vitreus, 32 Potentia, 16 Victus and 16 Sano, creating...

Thaumoelectric Telum-Infused Body Armor.

This machine draws on local vis fields to give strength and health to the user. In other words, same thing as the standard Technical Armor, but with an additional +1 to STR and MHP.

Consumed:
4x Aurora Crystal
1x Circuit Board
2x Wire Scraps
1x Nano Remedy

Then Shizuki enters the Forest battle.

Originally posted on 2018-01-23 12:18:00

"(Well I figured this wouldn't be a joyride...)"
"(We can at least make this enjoyable though!)"
"(Hit it!)"

Boshi takes out 3 Sturdy Vines and a Uniform Log, and begins tying them together. Hat Kid also helps as much as she can, carving the log into a giant meat hook. It looked very similar to Roadhog's hook after it was carved out. They tie each of the vines together, with one end covered in the shavings of the log to create a grip, and the other holding the wooden hook. Upon closer inspection, Hat Kid seems to have carved H A T on the hook.

Hat Kid, being a platforming protag, swiftly jumps over to the southern side of the river and gets the jump on the Swirl there, launching it into the river with a well-placed Ice Hat usage, sending shockwaves around the area she landed in.

At the same time, Boshi throws the hook at the Swirl on the northern side of the river, holding onto the other end. Then, as if he was Roadhog, he hauls the Swirl into the river as well, leaving the Gorged to itself.

Hat Kid then flings herself to the north side, heading straight for the Gorged. She decides to toss a potion straight behind the Gorged. It was a large blue potion, completely unlike the tiny purple potions she usually makes. She then looks in a direction uncannily close to where the GM is, and... shows them a contract she had the Snatcher approve, which details the recipe for said blue potions. The potion knocks the Gorged into the river. Boshi then sprinkles a ton of table salt into the water.

Hat Kid then motions for Boshi to jump and stay suspended, and to bring the raft with him. As soon as he does so, she fires the Teslathrower into the water, electrifying everything within it as Boshi flutter-jumps continuously above the water with the raft. Yoshi's Island mechanics, everyone! Hat Kid doesn't stop until she was sure that every single Iti was dead. When she does stop, Boshi puts the raft under him, and lands.

Hat Kid then baps the Treasure Chest on its side with an Umbrella. If it turns out to be a Mimic, she decides that the best course of action would be to smack it into the river to let it drown. If it's not, however, she loots it or saves whoever's locked inside. If nobody's in the chest, they continue on east. Otherwise, they head back.

Originally posted on 2018-01-23 15:46:00

I move to G18 and investigate the tree movement.

cA: Emerald, you might be mighty, but you can not face all of those foes alone!

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 01:45:00

Destiny notices the Author walking to the Hanging Garden and walks in behind him. She notices all the dead bodies and gets a little case of the shivers.
Oh god this reminds me of the one poor girl who worked for us.
Once Author retrieves the weapon, she waits next to the Author.
I feel that something is going to come.

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 03:00:00

Comet scans Hound 1.

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 03:45:00

With Intellect up, Mr. Krabs has 2 GP that he'll burn on getting Sharp 1 and Manipulate 1. He'll move to M18 and give a good inspection on the shady spots towards the northeast. If any are still alive, Mr. Krabs will also swap to the Glitched Harp to give the 4th Seeker an elongated time spent dead.

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 04:23:00

OH HI

Teag casts Skeletal Toss on Hound 5, throwing it northeast as far as it can go. He then books it to I26.

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 06:28:00

Emerald shifts to F12 and promptly Shield Slams the Breaker ”Hell Yeah I can, dude”

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 11:10:00

The Man wonders why he didn't spawn in last turn, spawns in at D27 in the Forest of Departure, rolls over to D24, commits animal abuse on hound number the 5th, and retreats to F26.

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 21:24:00

Irongutta spots the hanging Chairian corpse, staring at it in astonishment. "Wonder if whatever did that did it fer sport or fer scarin' gits off. 'Spose it's probably a bit of both."

He then watches Chloe as she loses her lunch in the river. "You uh, gonna be alright lass?"

Irongutta moves to H22 and attacks Carrion 1! This attack is boosted by Unstoppable Force. (And I guess it takes place after EN's move? Yeah, let's go with that.)

Originally posted on 2018-01-24 21:47:00

I move to D18, casting Transfusion on Carrion 5, using 13 health, with the +5 bonus, adding in the 50% damage increase, dealing 27 damage to them, killing them. I then have my Clone move to C19, casting Roulette Crasher on the Seeker 3.

Originally posted on 2018-01-25 01:29:00

I feel a disturbance in the force. As if the voices of a thousand bulli memes were suddenly raised up… and silenced.

Huh? “Bulli” memes? What are those?

...Uh, when you’re older. We need to start up the good old messaging app again and hope that it works.


In case you didn't or couldn't read the messagelog, Monika moves to The Hanging Garden. Oh no.

Originally posted on 2018-01-25 04:15:00