The Eastern War
To Naclestial "Your ability to crawl back is amazing. Let's see your 2nd Phase"

Daskter moves in to the Fountain (L11) then they cast Elemental Singularity right on top of Naclestial.

The Rocketeer follows Daskter to (M10). They quickly drink a Mana Vial and prepare to Overclock. Double Elemental Splitshots on him.

If Naclestial survives:
The Conscript finish him off.

If not:
The Conscript takes a shot at Salt!Chloe.

The Conscript Leader heads to (L10) and unleash a First Strike upon Chime 2.

If the Conscript was murdered by Salt!Chloe.
The Conscript Leader calls in more Conscripts on (K9).

The new Conscript would finish off the Chime if they survive. If not, head to (K7) to take a shot at Predator 3.

BATTLE: WEST WING VENTILATION

Woodthorne moves to N8, feeling a strange flash of mental clarity on moving inside the zone of Lingua Francia. He then uses this inspiration to cast Tumbling Walls, targeting J14, M7, L12, and H12.

The Woodwisp then finds the thought of these creatures being covered in stones hilarious, and decides to follow suit. Laughing uncontrollably, he hurls a bit of earth to hit Fell Beast 2 square in the head.

BATTLES

If the Lamia is not dead by now, the Mirror Reflector moves to O10 and attacks it. Otherwise, they move to O13 and cast Suffocating Hatred centered on the remaining Predator (inflicting Taunt), just in case the extra damage is needed.

The Reflector almost assuredly cannot do anything more before the fight ends, so they take the turn to Meditate, I suppose.

It'll take more than a hit from that Predator to kill me!

Relying on Auth to restore Chloe's strength, Brutishace deems it time to focus on the main fight. Brutishace moves to H17 and casts Twin Jolts at the NaCelestial. Brutishace then notices another convenient cadaver, and uses the third Ohmnic's corpse to restore his own HP with Soul Siphon.

Yew's Mindscape:
Nidra goes downstairs and takes a look around.

Eastern Hub:
Power Nap Mari.
Go last.
Last Dream Salt!Chloe.

Uh... Poison pew pew Predator6. sure.

Auth waits for Nana, but looks a little concerned as she comes out in wet clothes, clearly having showered in them.

AUTH: Hey, uh, is... is that a good idea? I think we have spare outfits...
AUTH: You're not going to get sick or anything, right? Wearing soaked clothing makes humans more likely to get sick, I figure it's best to check.

Assuming the answer is "No, I'll be OK", Auth shrugs, and happily holds Nana's hand as the pair of them walk to the Endless Gardens. He also waves to Hemlock and Carrot on the way past.

AUTH: Alright, let's go and see Lutea. Do you think we have anything she might be interested in for apothecary?

After getting the response to that question, Auth casually walks over to Lutea, waving quietly.

AUTH: Morning, Lutea. How was your night?

---

In battle, Auth groans loudly at the Nacelesial's continued vitriol. He takes a deep breath...

AUTH: Please, for the love of god, shut up. Your grating voice is giving me a migraine.

Auth moves to H18, and proceeds to Purify the Nacelestial, and inverts the healing to damage. Should be plenty of damage applied.

<ROUND 245>

---

Venia continues her usual duties. With Gibbet, she decides to investigate how good Gibbet is on the offensive. She constructs three dummies- one in the shape of a Seeker, the second in the shape of a Chairian, and the final one being in the shape of an... uncarved wooden block. Not leaving Venia's head, Gibbet flaps his wings. A glitched noose manifests around the neck of the Seeker, and it's decapitated in a near instant, its neck violently crushed. The Chairian too, gets violently strangled by a noose, though this takes longer to crush and break the wood.

With the wooden block though, Gibbet flutters off of Venia's head, investigating the block. Landing on the ground, they then flap their wings with purpose. A shimmer of magenta ripples through his wings as a wave of psychic energy surges through the block. The block falls over, not taking much damage. With that out of the way, Gibbet takes flight and settles down on Venia's head once again. Once they're settled, they tweet out a message to Venia.

GIBBET: (want treat!)
GIBBET: (please!)

Elsewhere, in Yew's Mindscape, Venia does some investigative work.



Finally, Maria seeks out Marron! She finds the seamstress rather quickly, riding Cushion over to her. Maple follows Maria, keeping a lookout for any baddies. Toddling over to Marron, Maria greets her! She jumps back in fear, stumbling backwards away from the vents. Once she realizes the person that "jumped" her was Maria, her face begins to glow a gentle pink.

MARRON: O-Oh. Hey.
MARRON: Maria, right? No idea what you're doing here, but whatever.

Maria explains her situation: she needs to find a birthday present for Ette! Marron's face lights up.

MARRON: Running a secret mission for my sister, eh?
MARRON: I like it! I'll be sure to keep it a secret.
MARRON: As for what she'd like... it needs to be cute. She's all about cute stuff.
MARRON: She's like, super girly. Has to be cute, and probably has to be pink.
MARRON: Also, since she's only recently become human... maybe it should be an accessory, or something?
MARRON: Like, something cute to wear, that'd really make people go "wow".
MARRON: Y'know what I'm saying?

MARRON: ...Of course, she's probably nice enough that she'd be satisfied with anything.
MARRON: You could probably give her an apple and she'd really appreciate it.
MARRON: But you better get her something nice, okay? She deserves it!
MARRON: I can also help you if you want. I can probably make something custom for you.
MARRON: How about it?

Marron's quite serious about this- possibly as serious as Maria? Who even knows.

---

Boshi fires off missiles against the pirates! A single Thyme Missile is fired from Boshi's mouth towards the vessel, impacting it for (20) damage! The fires in the bottom of the ship then strike a powder barrel or something of that sort, causing a large explosion that wipes out part of the lower deck! The Iti vessel sinks into the ocean, the remaining pirates being dragged under and drowned. Victory!

Now, he'll need to find a way to plunder that shipwreck! Can Yoshi's breathe under water? Probably not. Know who also can't breathe underwater? Adria! FLAWLESS TRANSITION. Anyway, she sizes up the doorway- the gap's rather large, and would thus require a large set of doors. But what to make it out of?

TAEDA: Well, we don't need to make it out of Bronzewood, or anything heavy like that.
TAEDA: If we get a perception filter into place, Iti will be extremely unlikely to wander into it, or stage a raid on the building.
TAEDA: So we can just use some Refined Wood, I think.
CHLOE: Rodger that!

Chloe throws out 8 pieces of Refined Wood onto the floor, which Taeda morphs into doors. Although, they're not quite done yet.

CHLOE: Nicely done! I think we'll need to smith up some handles and braces, though.
CHLOE: Oh, the locking mechanism will also need to be made of metal, otherwise any old Chairian could probably break in at will!
TAEDA: W-Who would break into a place of god, though?
CHLOE: The Rose Cult, for one!
TAEDA: ...Fair enough.

While Chloe begins whacking out a few iron bars into things to help brace and reinforce the door, it seems that nobody's working on the locking mechanism. Perhaps Adria could step in? Finally, in the Sky Labs, Hannah sneaks into the Drone Bay just to the North of her. She then casts a Phase Shift on the keycard that the engineer has, and a small piece of Plasteel. The casting goes off without a hitch, but... the Engineer lurches forward ever so much. He flails around in a panic, looking down at his neck. He examines the piece of plasteel with great curiosity, before alerting the Devout and the Rifleman.

The two spring into action, immediately moving down to try and identify where the culprit is. Seems like Hannah's in a bit of a hard place now- while her hiding spot is fairly solid, there's no telling if- or when- she'll be found. On the other hand though, Level 2 Access Keycard obtained! Just try and make it out alive, okay?

---

Not!Echoss orders a car ram attack! A bunch of police cars fall into the ocean, over where the shipwreck of the Iti pirate ship is. Billions of taxpayer dollars are lost in the salty sea, which may or may not actually be a freshwater lake.

---

Nidra investigates downstairs in Yew's Mindscape.

---

Auth asks Nana if she'll get sick from being wet. She tilts her head a few degrees to the right, confused.

NANA: Huh? Humans can get sick from being wet?
NANA: That seems really weird! W-What do you guys do when it's raining, then?
NANA: B-But, at least for us Chairians, we actually benefit from the moisture.
NANA: I-I mean, maybe i-it's not really socially acceptable to walk around s-soaking wet still, but w-who will see us?
NANA: And I'll dry off o-on the way, so...
NANA: L-Let's go!

The two of them take a lovely stroll to the Endless Gardens, aksing Nana if she might have anything that's of interest to Lutea. She rummages around in the inventory, pulling out a Bouquet Dimension.

NANA: W-What's this!? It seems u-unnatural...
NANA: Although, I think she'd like it. She could probably find a use for it!
NANA: O-Of course, I'd like p-permission to gift it first! Just to be safe!

Should she get permission, she'll give it to Lutea when she can. The duo then walks over to the biodome. Taking notice of the approaching couple, Lutea runs over, giving Nana a hug.

LUTEA: S-Sis! Welcome back!
LUTEA: I-It's nice t-to see you, but... m-mind if I get some help with something?
NANA: H-Huh? Of course! W-What's the problem!
LUTEA: O-Over there! Look!

Off near the Terra Reviver, a Grey Bouquet is floating about. It really doesn't seem to be much of a threat at all, and is merely just floating about and enjoying the garden.

LUTEA: A-A big scary Iti showed up!
LUTEA: I-I don't know why it hasn't attacked us, b-but maybe it's planning something!
LUTEA: Please deal with it! I-I don't wanna explode!
NANA: W-We'll... w-we'll do our best, right Auth?
NANA: S-Scary...

...A Bouquet is probably a rather terrifying sight to most Chairians. Long-ranged siege Iti who throw explosives? What could possibly go wrong? It IS grey though, so probably not much?

---

<WESTERN WING VENTILATION, ROUND 6>
A flawless operation! And to think you did it without items, too! Anyway, you're now free to explore the area that the foes were once occupying. Maybe there's a couple of helpful things you could grab? You could also try investigating the windy barrier to the north. Maybe you can break through?

<EASTERN HUB, ROUND 5>
With a loud bang, the Naclestial explodes in the middle of its transformation into Salt Mari! Fiery, salty gas bellows around the room, lingering about for a few moments before drifting off towards the ceiling. As the party groups together to smite the remainder of the Iti in a one-sided strife, the Naclestial's gassy corpse begins to glow brilliantly! (Which isn't to say that the Naclestial is brilliant. Just the glow. He could only dream.)

The gas coalesces upon the dome of the glass roof, and melts a hole through the centerpoint. Now a beautiful ball of plasma, the Naclestial drifts off into the air. Nia looks up at the fleeing Eliti, and giggles.

NIA: Think we'll ever see him again? He was funny.
CHLOE: yeah
MARI: oh definitely

MARI: ...Wait, shouldn't we have finished him off?
CHLOE: I mean... he's not really a threat.
NIA: Plus, he was funny!
MARI: I mean, I guess.
MARI: Whatever.

With the battle done, the Chairian duo approaches the party, a lightly-injured Chi holding onto Cypress's shoulder for balance. Once they're near, Cypress bows his head.

CYPRESS: Spherebreakers. Thank you. Iti: eliminated. (From this section.)
CYPRESS: Now: a proposal.
CHI: ...A proposal?
CHI: Oh no no no. You know for a fact that we- that I- can't work with them! T-They could...

Chi leans over to Cypress's ear, whispering something into it. She covers her mouth to prevent potential lip-readers. Cypress responds by placing a finger over her mouth.

CYPRESS: Request: temporary alliance.
CYPRESS: Iti: southern wing. Impedes progress. Many in danger.
CYPRESS: Myself: insufficient. Yourselves: strong. Combined: unstoppable.
CYPRESS: Sky Labs: complex. Spherebreakers require guide. Myself: best guide.
CYPRESS: Please consider.

CYPRESS: Chi will help.
CHI: I... suppose I will.
CHI: Wherever Cypress goes, I may as well follow.
CHI: Even if it's... ill-advised.
CHI: I suppose it'll also allow me to heal Hersilia, like you asked earlier.
CHI: If you're willing to have us, we'll tag along-

Suddenly, the entirety of the labs shakes! The power fluctuates once again, the lights dying for a few moments.

CHI: What was that? Electrophorus again?
CYPRESS: No. Vibration direction: west.
CYPRESS: Likely from: chamber. Specifically: Weapon Testing.
CYPRESS: Currently blocked off. Occupant: Acacia Anerua.
CYPRESS: Subject: very angry. Leave alone.
CHI: ...She's not accepting the implant well, is she?
CHI: Poor thing.
CHI: Unless we get a really good reason to go there, I'd advise steering clear of there for now.
CHI: All of you.
CHI: The last thing she needs is to see... w-well, the Spherebreakers.
CHI: Understood?

There's a bit of an uneasy silence from the apple-bearing Chairian. But anyway- an alliance! Could be fun. Accept, and Cypress and Chi will follow you! They could both be quite useful in combat, so how about it?

((For the above update)).

Battle: Western Wing Ventilation

"Whew, glad I made it in time to save yer hide, Toast."

Irongutta then moves all the way down to K14 by using Momentum Slam! He crashes into Siren2. After his movement (and with the benefit of Unstoppable Force) he basic attacks Predator6!

ZONE 5

The Reflector runs through the room at lightning speeds, picking up the Gaiameld Ingots, samples, and mysterious prototype sword and depositing them all in the inventory. Then, stepping off to a corner so the scientist can't see them, they pull on a reflection of a certain Chairian and head back into the room.

"CYPRESS": Scientist. Please avoid alarm.
"CYPRESS": Spherebreakers: temporarily allied. Iti situation: volatile.
"CYPRESS": Describe recent events. Intel: mission critical.

If Hannah's stolen keycard is usable, "Cypress" uses it to open the scientist's holding cell, but stands in the entryway to make it clear he expects answers before the scientist leaves. (If it isn't usable until Hannah escapes... well, he's just going to have to wait.)

---

STATISTICS

The Reflector puts their newly acquired skill point into HP.

Post-battle

Hannah puts a point into MP for now. She then looks up at where the NaClestial escaped, and slowly begins to hysterically giggle. This laughing fit continues for a solid minute before she manages to calm herself down enough to speak. "Heheh... haaaah, sorry about that, all, got a little carried away. Aheh... *ahem*."

She lingers for a bit, then, while nobody was looking, she lips to the northern exhibit and lockpicks it open, seems they didn't manage to lockpick it during battle. She makes sure to do it as indiscreetly as possible.

In another corner of time, she inquires Nia about the Origin String Relic. "D'you think you could maybe upgrade this for me, somehow?"
If it would qualify for the Available Queries section, she purchases it if it's of reasonable cost. If not, she just does a normal upgrade to get it to the highest tier a single upgrade of it would permit.

(...I'm leaving this one up to you. God knows I'd make it busted in some way.)

---

Skylabs - Hannah

...Probably should have used a lighter material. Oh well, what's done is done... gotta make the best of a bad situation.

Hannah procures a pebble from nearby. She then waits for the appropriate timing when every Chairian is looking away from her, and flings the pebble down the shaft, hoping to draw attention away from where she entered.

Should it succeed, she waits for them to pass prior to coming out of hiding and smoothly sneaking out through the way she came. If not, she settles into her hiding spot deeper, ensuring she wouldn't be spotted as easily.

Meanwhile, Mirror!Hannah tilts her head as she watches Nidra and Venia do their thing, and discuss their journey in the mindscape. For one they were taking quite a while, and that was starting to get somewhat worrying. That, plus it didn't seem like it was going very smoothly, from Venia's wording of the situation.

She remains nearby, waiting to see if something bad ends up happening.

---

Recollection Lake - Boshi

With a job well done, Boshi yeets an anchor made of iron down to where the sunken ship is, hooks it, then sails it over to shallower water so he could better reach it.

---

Chapel - Adria

A locking mechanism... well, they could go for the basics; lock and key, deadbolt... though those wouldn't be all that effective for double doors of that size. Padlocks exist, but they're painfully easy to break through; even durasteel ones.

When she hears that there may be a somewhat powerful cult hanging about, that put magic out of the question; they may be capable of breaking any seals they could put on it.

...Though... perhaps a combination of the two? A magical durasteel padlock? Sounds good to her.

Using a Durasteel Ingot for the base of one of those round secure padlocks, as well as its internals, and slotting a part of an Electromagnet Cluster and Seer Crystal into it, using a little piece of Joltwire to connect things together, and the padlock itself is done, if heavy and electrically shielded. No grinders are getting through this bad boy without getting fried!

She also puts together a key from a Gaia Crystal and some Plasteel. After testing to make sure the lock opens and closes properly, and the bar discharges itself, Adria takes it outside.

From there she puts two thick pieces of Durasteel near the handles, and where the door opens up. She also goes ahead and fuses the lock to one side of the door to prevent any thieves from making off with it.

After ensuring the lock and door open and close properly, Adria returns to the two girls. "The lock's done! There shouldn't be a single metal grinder in the world that'd be able to break that open."
"...I-I'm exaggerating a little, but still."
"I'd've loved to put some hardlight shielding on the whole door... but what we have here will be fine, I think, since we don't have much that would allow it..."
"...That and it might end up being the teensiest bit excessive."

She rocks back and forth on her heels, wondering if much else in the construction department needs to be done.

Seeing as her girlfriend hadn't followed her in, Asha backs out of the vents to see what's up.
"Hey cutie, what's up?"
She notices the girl's rather worried expression.
"...Is everything okay?"

She also tosses her point in MP.

Not!Echoss pokes his head out of the inventory when Nana's trying to figure out if she can use the boquet dimensions.
"Yeah sure, you can use 'em. Only that one though, gotta save the rest for the end of the game."
His head pops back into the inventory and he's gone.


Pionobot nods at Cypress' proposal.
"Can't speak for the others but I don't see why not. We seem to be doing a lot of rescuing people from Iti anyways, so really it's just a net positive for us."

Eastern Hub

Venia nods at Cypress. "All sorts are welcome here. The only real disqualifier is being a total sociopath unable to follow orders, and that's happened exactly once. Anyone else is welcome. I've seriously considered having this rebel Zabuton member join the crew because he's not crazy. Hardly the worst decision we've made. I mean, my new girlfriend here was literally a deathtrap housing the god of the Rose Cult in her head when I found her-we sorted that out well before we arrived, though, and all for the better. I love my little snowflake♥️"

"...Oh, yes, Chi, your help is needed immediately, Hersilia's been poisoned, very badly. I'll take you right to her, if you don't mind."

Venia gestures for Chi to follow-she almost reflexively held out her hand. "I believe you may or may not be familiar with a certain sociopathic sentient bow? Name of Yew. Don't worry about her, we've got her on lock. Her toxins are proving difficult to remove. In case you're wondering, they were the one 'total sociopath' I mentioned. Ironically it wasn't the poisoning, they withheld key information. If you happen to know anything that'd be grand, but really Hersilia needs help now. I don't think it's fatal but I'm no expert and it was very extreme."

Venia pauses as she guides Hersilia. "Also, ah, yes, we do have a reason to go there. I mean, uh, to the west wing, where Acacia is, to see her. We actually have a method to heal Acacia's burn wounds! Tested, even, we're sure it works. Regrettably it is hideously expensive in its current form so no chance of mass production yet, though feel free to scan it as we work it to see if alternatives couldn't be made. If we could inform her in advance that'd be grand, not sure about that."

"Oh, and I've... Ah, got some other things to talk to you two about, but that's later, just a bit later, poisoning case first!"

---

Yewscape

In the real world (which Venia is still in, as the Golden Dream Ring only projects a mental copy), Venia's free hand nudges Nidra, hopefully getting her to notice her. "I think we ought to stick together unless we need to here. Back upstairs is where the Calm Mind Shard is at, but its' behind a locker. Woodmancy up a good crowbar and maybe we can break it open together."

Back in the Mindscape, Venia waits for Nidra, before nodding to her at the weapons locker and immediately helps Nidra force it open, possibly through the way outlined above.

If it works, Venia takes the Calm Mind Shard, no faffing about.

---

Gibbet

"Here you are," Venia says, holding out a Mighty Banana, taking note. "If it's not too much, do you think you can say why you did what you did to each target?"

---

Maria's super secret spy smission

Maria bounces up and down. "Oh oh oh, yeah yeah yeah! Yeah!" She shouts, clearly eager. "Let's make... Let's make a pretty scarf thingy, those are pretty and cool, right? And it'll be super-sparkly and super-fluffy!"

---

Skillpoints/Build

-5 RES, +6 MHP.

Venia feeds Hat two units of Ohmetal, reshuffling their stats to now give +2 MHP instead of +1 RES. This should boot Venia's MHP up to 54.

"Yeah! Yeah! I feel... So much more like I used to. More vigorous. Finally."

---

Stats and Equipment

Woodthorne allocates the newly-gained point to STR.

He then decides to update his wardrobe, replacing the Withered Shroud with something newer, less torn, and a bit easier to maneuver in. He puts in a request at Marron & Ette's Stitching Station for a new set of armor, the Pathfinder's Garb (Detailed in This Document under the items tab). He equips this new outfit in place of the Withered Shroud, and pays the 200 credits to create the item.

In addition, he replaces the Scouter with the Biometal helmet, choosing Slashing, Crushing, Electric, and Poison for the resistances.

(Also, I think Nature's Wrath is supposed to be Guardian3/Empowered2, the scaling is written as STR for the empowered and SPC for the guardian. Though those could be switched around as well I guess, as it's what's been used for the past few battles.)

The Sky Labs

Back at the Skylabs, Woodthorne decides to spend a bit of time walking around the Skylabs and grab a breath of fresh air after the commotion of fighting in a ventilation shaft. He crawls back out to the Southern Bay, gesturing for the woodwisp to follow (if she does, I'll figure out a name for her next update) and spots another injured rotting widow in what was once the Western Watchtower, seemingly missed in the commotion following the battle. He applies First Aid to it, and waits to make sure it recovers.

Woodthorne: You okay there? I'm really sorry that I missed you while tending to the other spiders...

Yewscape

Nidra stirs in her sleep, but in the mindscape, she heads back upstairs to the office. She uses Woodmancy to rip out part of the desk, turning it into a crowbar. She wedges it into the door of the weapons locker and prepares to force it open.

I swap weapons to the Invoker's Orbs, get rid of my Pop Pops, and put 12 points into STR.

Ah, victory.

Brutishace puts his free skill point into STR.

I really should do some crafting, since my gear is very behind... but that should come later.

Destiny looks up at the NaClestial as it escapes. She smirks for a moment.
The fool that thing is. We shall meet it again and slay it once and for all.

Destiny turns back to see Venia performing diplomacy. After Venia is done she decides to add some additional comments.
I would not personally be opposed to it. Trust has done us nothing but good so far.
Let providence assist you and the rest of us.

After that conversation, Destiny puts 1 point into MMP.

Auth laughs, faintly.

AUTH: It's less being wet and more the fact that it makes people cold, and while cold we're more susceptible to illness.
AUTH: While it's raining, we tend to take an item called an umbrella to keep the rain off. It's like a portable rain shelter.
AUTH: If you'll be okay drying off on the way, let's go.

Auth happily holds Nana's hand as they walk over. In regards to his idea for a gift, Nana points out the Bouquet Dimension. That's certainly an odd item... certainly an interesting item.

AUTH: Huh... sure. I don't see why not, I'm sure she'd be interested in it.

With Echoss' permission, Nana can give Lutea the bouquet.

AUTH: Hey, Lutea.
AUTH: Iti problems, huh? I think I can take care of it...

Upon seeing the grey iti, Auth smiles. This is a good thing.

AUTH: Good news, Lutea. So long as you don't try to attack that one, I don't think you're actually in any danger.
AUTH: I have a... friend, who's interested in Iti like that. There's certain Iti around the place that are significantly less hostile than normal Iti. I could explain what I know of discerning them, but it's not quite relevant right now.

Auth walks over to the Grey Iti, hands up, showing that he's unarmed.

AUTH: Not sure if you can understand me, but good morning if you can. Do you recognise this?

Auth shows the Grey Iti the Grey Card. When the Bouquet is in the Inventory, Auth nods.

AUTH: Problem solved. I'll... have someone deliver this, if I cannot in the near future.

Auth returns to Nana, Betula and Lutea, giving a thumbs-up.

AUTH: So besides that, how are you doing?

---

With the battle in the Skylabs resolved, Auth approaches Cypress and Chi. He can see Chi is injured.

AUTH: Here, let me take care of this.

Auth casts a heal on Chi, and with his powerful healing, she should be more than capable of standing on her own. Auth stands back to let the people more in charge handle discussion of an Alliance.