<ROUND 320>

Hex celebrates wiping out the entirety of the Tabletopian military! Marron is also there to celebrate, though she seems the slightest bit confused.

MARRON: Yeah!
MARRON: ...W-Wait, is Tabletopia really that small a place for us to have done that?
MARRON: I-I don't know! I've never been there!
MARRON: We totally kicked their gorillas, though.

Elsewhere, Hexagon hands Acacia 50 Credits. Y'know. For her service in the NPC Assignments tab. Her eyes narrow, and her mouth parts. Disgust radiates throughout her entire being. While she's taken the credits... she's not delivering! Scam.

ACACIA: Y-You... actually want to die?
ACACIA: I knew there were some degenerates among your party, b-but this is just...
ACACIA: Hold on a sec. Just let me... mentally process this.

As of just now, Acacia no longer has the desire to punt IKEA into the goddamn sun. There are more pressing matters. While Acacia screams internally, Hexagon seeks out the Sleuth. Can he do a puzzle for him? He shrugs. The Sleuth takes off to the Rosen Catacombs, where he will surely accomplish his task. Surely. No amount of weird puzzle gorilla has ever slowed him down.

Next, Hex engages in a variety of cleanup. First, he encourages R-8733 to obtain the rocket launcher. It will be amazing. And he doesn't even need to give it back. This not only levels up his Attack stat to T5, but it changes his Basic Attack!

R-8733: This is... the single most beautiful device I've ever laid my eyes on.
R-8733: ...That I didn't personally make, anyway.
R-8733: Thank you. I'll make great use of this, just you see!

Immediately, R-8733 begins spamming firework rockets into the air. The sky lights up with plumes of pink, red, and yellow. Did he already have these prepared? Anyway, with R-8733 satiated, he's now able to take the trio, and... lock them up within Rosie-

R-8733: Oh, you know we have a prison over at those catacombs, right?
R-8733: It's probably safe enough there!

...the Rosen Catacombs, as it's far easier to keep track of all the prisoners if they're in one place. Then, as his last act of cleanup, he pokes Omorika. What's the source of that crater over there? She gives it a good two second stare, before shrugging.

OMORIKA: ...I am completely unsure.
OMORIKA: Perhaps the Tabletopian's breaching bombs are far more sophisticated than anyone could've ever imagined.
OMORIKA: I suppose that under one definition, "removing an area from space" is considered to be "breaching".
OMORIKA: But isn't that completely excessive? Why spend the resources to create something that can do... that, when one could allocate them to anything else?

OMORIKA: ...A bomb would've worked just fine.
OMORIKA: Though, maybe they're simply flexing their teleportation technology on us.
OMORIKA: Perhaps it was a form of teleportation, what they just did? That would make a moderate amount of sense.

Finally, Hexagon decides to take off into the sky, surveilling the area around the House. Far off in the distance, he can see the mountain that the Fell God is contained in. Though it appears to slowly be fragmenting, there's no signs of the beast emerging quite yet. They're probably good to sleep the night before it appears. Pacing demands it!

---

Star does a tiny respec-cy thing! 12 DEF is transmuted into Opening Act and Fervent Emotion. A powerful combination, probably!

Meanwhile, the Reflector decides to take a trip to the Rosen Catacombs, the most popular shopping district on Sussui! They arrive at the Smith's station, offering to buy the chestplate they have on sale. The Smith, waking from their slumber, simply hands the breastplate to them.

SMITH: TAKE IT.
SMITH: YOU WILL NEED IT MORE THAN I DO. MORE THAN ANYONE DOES.
SMITH: THE TIME THE OLD GUARD HAS FEARED IS APPROACHING.
SMITH: MAY THIS HELP YOU IN YOUR FIGHT.

Ancient Breastplate obtained! It's only Tier 1, though. Its design is also incredibly archaic, but... perhaps there's something to be gleaned from this obsolete design? Those runes in particular seem rather useful- Butterfly counter-curse sort of stuff? One can't help but feel they've seen symbols like these on the Sanctified Rounds and other similar items...

Finally, miss "Lilac" decides to pay a visit to Chi. Should she even pretend to be a Rebel anymore? And, uh... she had to set fire to that building! Really!

CHI: You... really don't need to pretend anymore.
CHI: Believe me, it would've been far easier for me if you didn't pretend to be a Rebellion commander.
CHI: The fact that people believed you too... it reflects badly on me.
CHI: I-I just... really screwed things up with the troops there, didn't I?

CHI: Enough about that, though.
CHI: I guess what you did was ultimately for the better, but... surely, there was a better way to do things?
CHI: If I recall, your ultimate objective was breaching the communications hub.
CHI: Couldn't you... just stealthily infiltrate the building?
CHI: Some of our troops have prototype cloaking devices. Perhaps you could've made use of something similar and just... slipped in?
CHI: I don't know...
CHI: Really, even now, the fiasco there gives me a headache...
CHI: And, if you didn't blow up the Mechonis, we could've made use of them during our upcoming raid of the Sphere.

Chi plants her forehead against the nearest wall. Bonk.

CHI: W-We had training for dealing w-with incursions like this, t-too!
CHI: A-And nobody c-caught on? D-Did we forget to report these t-things to anyone?
CHI: aaaa-

While Chi laments the lack of alcohol in her system, the Sleuth is paid 50 Credits to walk a few feet over to a downed Hijack, and scan them. Pocket change well earned!

>Codex Updated!

---

Adria throws a Tabletopian soldier out a window. Omorika witnesses the soldier land a foot away from her. Wordlessly, she conjures a pair of wooden Seekers, which grab the soldier and deposit them somewhere in the far off woods. They'll be fine, probably. Wordlessly, Omorika launches a pillar of wood from below herself, flinging herself through the window Adria threw the man through. She lands with a clop from her clogs.

OMORIKA: Miss Adria, there has to be a better way to dispose of our enemies than through the window.
OMORIKA: ...That being said though, if there are any more Tabletopians in that Mechonis, I would also like to throw them through a window.
OMORIKA: It would be... cathartic.

...The Mechonis is empty. Darn. Adria then promptly falls out of her Fluxblood Gundam, which crashes back through the roof as it returns to the skies. She's the slightest bit completely hungover. Omorika can recognize the stench of the candy corn liquor.

OMORIKA: ...Ah, poor thing.
OMORIKA: Fortunately for you, I am more than experienced with dealing with hangovers for... reasons I'm sure you can infer.
OMORIKA: Allow me to help you to bed.

Omorika carries Adria down a flight of stairs, before depositing her on the smaller of the two couches in the house's expansion. She then throws a blanket over the spacefaring scientist before deciding to also get blackout drunk on alcohol. Or she would, were she not a responsible adult who was about to raid the Sphere tomorrow. But maybe just one drink, y'know?

Elsewhere, Hannah decides to taunt IKEA. How might she kill him? Firebombs sound good, don't they?

IKEA: A-FIREBOMB-SOUNDS-ACCEPTABLE
IKEA: WHY-DON'T-YOU-DO-IT
IKEA: TAKE-MATTERS-INTO-YOUR-OWN-HANDS
IKEA: END-IT

...More than anything, it seems that Sophia's increasingly intense smug dancing is getting to him. Such BM is intolerable, and this man's been getting BM'd for the better part of a few months. A firebomb would be a blessing at this point.

Then, up in spaaaace, Adria and Mari pay a visit to the Robotics Lab. After another few minutes of geeking out over everything in the immediate area, the two get down to tacks made of brass. What to make? Adria rules out a few things. Black holes are probably a horrible idea, along with suicidal functionality. Chronotech though... that'd be cool to add! Mari's head bobs.

MARI: Yeah, figured you'd vouch for that.
MARI: Sure, why not? Let's go for it. You can teach me a few tricks ahead of schedule, can't you?
MARI: I'm thinking that we could add... something similar to what I did for your blazer?
MARI: Except, y'know. More sophisticated.

MARI: They are support drones, and I think they should stick to that. Maybe we can like, accelerate away negative status effects, or something?
MARI: Or just like, accelerate statuses in general.
MARI: Maybe like, we like, "condense time" to increase the power of a status effect at the expense of its duration?
MARI: Can we do that? I wanna do that.

Condensing time sounds exceptionally dangerous. Also, Adria mentions that crafting this entire station took about three whole years. Ten with time dilation.

MARI: Huh, wow.
MARI: I rarely have the attention span to stay on a project for more than a few months on the other hand.
MARI: There's just so many cool things I wanna do, y'know? And not nearly enough time.
MARI: But I guess you've solved the whole "time" issue, haven't you?

She grins, just a little. Perhaps there is enough time after all.

---

Destiny upgrades to Elder Scrolls 2! Taking 4 Fourth Coffin Nails, a blob of Creationmeld, 3 Creation Meteorites, 5 Nanite Compounds, and 5 Arkalloy, she creates a blade that can part the stars. Or uh, two of them, I think? Yeah. It also receives a few assorted buffs. Neato.

---

Bauhaus decides to respec yet again. Their instability cranks up to 9, putting them one step away from collapsing into a black hole. Or from turning into the Chaos Butterfly. One of the two? I don't know. Point is, they're getting close to the threshold where I can shunt a number in order to cause them to uptick to 1,000 points of entropy, and that'll probably end the world or something.

/respec actually pending since there's an error uh oh

---

Auth decides to resuscitate a few Tabletopians. Resuscitate. A good word. Ten outta ten. While there's few in the way of Tabletopians to rescue (given that most of them have fled the area), he's able to revive a few errant soldiers that weren't accounted. His Karma rises yet higher. He also spends a few moments trying to repair some damage to the house. Casting a healing spell on a wall, he's perhaps surprised to watch some of the damage undo itself, a new window growing into place. Okay.

He then clambers down the stairwell, approaching the resting Nana. Though she's not asleep yet, a certain weight hangs on her words.

NANA: O-Oh, hello!
NANA: I'm... okay. Thanks for checking up on me.

NANA: I-I'm... surprised we did it!
NANA: We fought against the Tabletopians, a-and... we won!
NANA: That's incredible, isn't it? I never thought that I, of all people, would end up fighting the Tabletopians... and come out on top!
NANA: A-Ah, my core's still racing! But I-I'm... also so tired...
NANA: G-Goodnight, Author...

There's an audible flop as Nana clocks out for the night, likely drooling into her pillow. She'll need all the energy she can get if she's going to fight the Sphere tomorrow. Everyone will.

---

Verdana wastes 50 Credits to get stepped on. Acacia's disgust meter rises even higher. Grimacing, she deploys a couple dozen Uniform Logs from the inventory, which swirl around her right leg. One log shifts to below her foot, which shoots her up into the air, above both Hex and Verdana.

ACACIA: W-Wait, y-you also...?
ACACIA: I... c-can't believe you actually...
ACACIA: F-FINE! IF YOU WANT IT, T-THEN HAVE IT!
ACACIA: F-FREAKS!

From her foot, a considerably larger wooden foot is conjured and flung down at the two of them. It rockets down towards the earth at mach 1, stomping the two of them a meter or six into the ground. The two of them emerge within the depths of the Everground, falling a short distance to the stony crags below. Surprisingly, they don't take any damage from this little stunt, besides suffering major brain hemorrhaging. Then again, it's likely they were having brain issues before Acacia stomped them into the ground.

In fact, let's commemorate this moment with an accomplishment, shall we? Free from Acacia.

VERDANA, HEX ACCOMPLISHMENT GET: Major Brain Hemorrhaging

Ah, also. Lato chats with a Secretary! Is there anything they can do to help? The creature shakes its head, before pointing up at the sky. Apparently, it must believe that the situation will be resolved by something up above. We can only hope so.

---

Marron and Asha get cozy in bed. To reward the seamstress for her efforts, Marron receives a congratulatory headpat. She can't help but smile and rub against Asha's hand as she receives such affection. And to top it all off, she receives some praise, too! Asha remarks she'll need to step up her game if she ever wants to beat the stunt Marron just pulled off.

MARRON: Well, knowing you, I bet you have some crazy plan to top me!
MARRON: And I won't even be mad, 'cuz I'll come up with a way to beat whatever it is you're going to plan!
MARRON: Eventually! I... haven't gotten that far yet!

The two of them then decide to spend a few moments tidying the room after the events of the battle, Marron throwing the smoldering wreckage of a Static Containment Unit out the window. As they work, Asha can't help but wonder- what will they do once the Sphere goes down? And when the universe is saved and all.

MARRON: U-Um, well...
MARRON: We could like... just settle down for a bit, maybe?
MARRON: I dunno where, but I just wanna have some quiet time with you, y'know?
MARRON: No Chaos, no Iti, no fighting for our lives every day...
MARRON: Just you, me, maybe Ette... and all the sweets we can eat!

Though she would likely elaborate, sleep begins to get the best of Marron as well. It'd be best to discuss this tomorrow though, wouldn't it? She bobs her head as she settles into bed

MARRON: Mmm, yeah...
MARRON: Goodnight, Toaster. See you tomorrow!
MARRON: zzzzzz

she sleep

---

Remiel pokes their stats with a stick! They change and morph somewhat. Oh, also. Some bookkeeping! Ahem:

- 50% did not include scaling. Fixed!
- Fixed the readout issues, probably.

---

With this, the day passes. Plants grow, and the world progresses...

...As the sun shines down upon the house upon this fateful day, clouds muffling the light and casting grey upon everything, Omorika calls a quick meeting. Bright and early, before any human being should reasonably be awake.

OMORIKA: ...So. With all the Glyphs in our possession, we will need to march upon the Citadel to actually access the Sphere.
OMORIKA: If we march upon Seatopolis and ascend the Citadel, there will we find the "Commune".
OMORIKA: If we perform a ritual with all four glyphs there, we will create a passageway that will lead directly to WARE.
OMORIKA: ...Give or take a few dozen meters.

OMORIKA: Please, take all the time you need to prepare.
OMORIKA: The end is upon us, and we can't be sure what WARE has in store for us.
OMORIKA: Perhaps you could take some time to enjoy our fair city, or tidy up some loose ends?
OMORIKA: The choice is yours.

Zone 6, the Eclipsed Citadel, is now open for exploration! Take to the streets of Seatopolis, ascend the Citadel itself, and make your way to the Sphere! This is the final stretch!

In addition... there are three battles that'll be opening up next round! In no particular order:
- The Droplet Duel, where it'll be a 4v4! Droplet's team consists entirely of Eliti-class foes. This will not be fair.
- The Yung Venuz Duel, the details of which are unclear. It'll probably be a 1v4? This will also not be fair.
- The Fell God Encounter, where the Fell God must be destroyed! This'll be a more standard battle, taking in the players that are not partaking in any of the duels.

We hope you enjoy the new zone, and all the adventures within!

Standing outside of Nana's door, Auth can hear how close Nana is to collapse.

AUTH: Of course I was going to check on you. It would be remiss of me not to.
AUTH: Truth be told, I kind of expected a fight like this to happen eventually. I had faith that we'd win easily, as we did of course, but even so I'm glad that we managed.
AUTH: You sound pretty tired - I'll let you rest. Goodnight, Nana. See you tomorrow morning.

---

With the opening of the new day, Auth flies over the Citadel. He's looking out over this riot that he had imagined might happen, but had hoped wouldn't. At least the rebels have taken over quickly, that minimises the damage done to people. He thinks. As he floats well over head, he sees a mob of Chairians beating up someone on the ground. Whether or not they deserve what happened to them, this circumstance is obviously wrong, so before anything else happens, Auth floats back down to the road and lands behind the group.

And turns on the light show. He's quite upset by this display of utter cowardice.

AUTH: What are you doing!? You should all be ashamed of yourselves!
AUTH: Are you blind? Stupid? You would bring a group of seven to gang up on someone already floored? That is an act utterly unbecoming of anybody worthy of respect, regardless of what your victim has done. No, I'm not interested, it doesn't matter - nobody deserves to get ganged up on like this, and for such a beating to continue regardless when the victim is obviously no longer capable of defending themselves!
AUTH: It is an act of profound moral turpitude, and all of you should be ashamed. Get out, go home, and think long and hard about what you've done and why on Earth you decided that this was anything in the same country of acceptable! You are a cluster of cowards for electing to act this way, and you should deeply reconsider your actions!

(Is there more to come? Perhaps!)

Assuming that this barrage is enough to shame the attackers into retreating, Auth crouches down and heals the woman who was just previously being pounded by the group.

AUTH: Are you alright? I healed as many injuries as I could.

---

Is there more to say? I don't know yet. We'll see - I can't think of anything right away.

THE DUELS BEGIN

Surveying the slightly damaged house, Star notices a certain triangular shopkeeper still calmly selling his wares out back. They descend onto the ground below and greet YV.

STAR: O white and green trader
STAR: I have arrived to purchase your radiation chair;

---

SYMPHONY HALL

The Scion leans in eagerly to listen to Hannah's story, causing the Warlock to gently push the smaller girl away. The Scion claps politely once Hannah's story is done.

THE WARLOCK: ye we've seen some shit lmao
THE WARLOCK: most of it is top secret unfortunately would love to gossip
THE SCION: Aww... But Flecty invited her here, right?
THE SCION: Can't we at least tell her about the--
THE WARLOCK: nope
THE WARLOCK: you want #2 on my case again girly?

The Scion sighs and lowers her voice a little.

THE SCION: Fine.
THE SCION: Can I... speak to her alone for a bit?
THE SCION: I promise I won't share any secrets.
THE WARLOCK: all yours

The Warlock snaps her fingers, causing her chair to levitate off the ground and across the hall. It lands with a soft thump, and she pulls out an old, battered tome from hammerspace and begins reading. The Scion crosses her legs nervously.

THE SCION: Hi. Um.
THE SCION: Sorry if this place is strange and I can't answer all of your questions, and you probably think we're kind of suspicious, and...
THE SCION: I'm rambling, aren't I...
THE SCION: I, just wanted to say. I know how you feel.

She rubs her temple exhaustedly.

THE SCION: Where I'm from... I was a weapon.
THE SCION: They would trigger my powers and use me to wipe out... armies, villages, whatever.
THE SCION: Most plaguebearers die after containing that much disease for long enough. But I... didn't.
THE SCION: I just kept accumulating new plagues, until, well...

The Scion stares at her hands.

THE SCION: I turned it all on those fuckers who did this to me.
THE SCION: If the Conductor hadn't found me, I would have killed a lot more people...
THE SCION: ...Some of whom probably wouldn't have deserved it as much as they did.
THE SCION: They're the only reason I can be in the same room as you without a special suit, hehe.
THE SCION: I, I guess I'm trying to say... Stick by those friends who stuck by you. Just like the Symphony did for me.

She looks up and meets Hannah's eyes, smiling.

THE SCION: And, you might not have met the "real" me on Sussui, but Fl- the Reflector knows me better than anyone.
THE SCION: If other-me likes you, then that's good enough for me.
THE SCION: I bet she's under a lot of stress right now, being with so many strangers... I'm glad she met someone she could talk to.
THE SCION: And if you really want to blow her mind... call her Aegra and see how she reacts.
THE WARLOCK: that sounds cute af, pls send me the vid hannah
THE SCION: You weren't supposed to be listening!
THE WARLOCK: i only caught the last line chill

((Note for Ire: because this post is long:tm:, the parts of this meant for you to process are Mari & Adria, Day Rolls Over (Adria), and Zone 6 (Hannah).))

Meanwhile, sometime in the middle of the night...

A certain conversation which was meant to occur like 3 turns ago or something finally occurs. ((Special thanks to Speed for helping!))



And with that, this Hannah heads to the Everground to sleep. First cave, sleeping bag and probably a "campfire" made of Auroracrystals or something. Not the comfiest, but the privacy helps her drift off to sleep...

Sophia dances near IKEA 'til she can't dance no more, heading to the Hat Tent to sleep. Oddly enough, she's alone in there tonight. It makes her a little sad, but Dorothy's probably sound asleep somewhere (she is, the entire battle didn't even wake her up). Sophia crawls into bet and goes to sleep herself.

Adria's unconscious on the couch. She is gonna need so much coffee tomorrow morning.

Michaela's whereabouts are unknown, but she's probably tracking the Fell God's movements from some mountain somewhere while hyped up on energy drinks or something.

And at long last the day rolls over for everyone on Sussui.

...
...
...

---

Adria & Mari in Space

Adria grins at Mari's suggestion, nodding.

ADRIA: Have I ever mentioned that I love the way you think?
ADRIA: Because I love the way you think! Let's do it!

Adria walks to one of the shelves and starts taking a couple of the necessary materials from them. Most of the components are shockingly small, some are on the top shelf and perhaps unsurprisingly don't require a stepladder (since Adria designed the station), and making sure she has everything needed. SHe brings everything over to one of the tables. There's pretty much everything a roboticist could ask for; materials for circuit boards, chips, small capacitors and resistors, you name it, it's all there. There's also wiring and some other stuff, but that's to be expected.

In another pile appears to be a completely unfamiliar set of tech; the chronotech stuff. While most of it appears similar to the electronic stuff, their composition is very clearly different. There's a small electricity-to-chronoenergy converter, several of the crystalline cables Adria mentioned earlier (and are shockingly flexible), and more materials for circuit boards which relate to chronoenergy, along with any other things required. The only thing that seems to be missing is an output method, which will likely take the form of a ray of something.

Adria picks up the converter. It's not very big, and has a couple connection areas.

ADRIA: You're familiar with how generators and converters function, yeah? Of course you are!
ADRIA: I don't believe I need to explain what this does; it converts electricity into chronoenergy, so you don't need to change your source of electricity!
ADRIA: In a way, it's a lot like a smaller version of our generator back in the city. Only, it doesn't exactly generate enough maximum strength for a barrier. Anyway.
ADRIA: Electrical power goes in... here-

Adria attaches a wire to one of the electrical sockets, and another to the other socket.

ADRIA: -and the chronoenergy comes out here!

Adria plugs in two of the crystalline cables to the other slots. To demonstrate that this device does, in fact, work as intended, Adria plugs in a small battery into the electrical side and a small slowdown field generator into the chronoenergy side. She starts it up.

ADRIA: Watch closely, now.

She takes out a small stone; it's hardly the size of a piece of gravel. She tosses it lightly through where the field is, and the pebble slows itself down as it passes through, and speeds up when it leaves.

ADRIA: While the tech behind the converter and even the field generator is complicated, just know that it's entirely possible to do small-scale things like what we're about to do.
ADRIA: Just need a little ingenuity, which I think this room is overflowing with already.

Adria unhooks the battery, and the slowdown field dissipates. Adria then unplugs the chronocables.

ADRIA: As mentioned prior, electricity and chronoenergy can coexist without one interfering with the other, unless made to do so, such as in the converter or a device which requires both. Sometimes we even use multiple of these converters for even further complexity. We can do a lot in a tiny space with it!

Mari might notice there's a tiny version of the converter for circuit boards among the various items. Which means that things can get extremely complex in a given circuit if desired.

ADRIA: Past that, there's a ton of standard configurations to make the chronotech do what you want. For instance...

Adria starts going on about various different combinations of circuitry, all the different devices that use them, demonstrations, and the like. Mari is very likely to gleam something from the entire thing and start making stuff with it. She shows off the inner workings of that small slowdown field, one that's the opposite, and importantly for this little experiment, how to combine the two in order to speed up one aspect while slowing down another, to make the afflicted feel the effects more severely at the expense of longevity. Adria uses the buzz from coffee as an example, drinking it, activating a device, and immediately going hyper for a moment before becoming particularly lethargic. She uses it again to intensify the lethargy, almost dozing off or collapsing, but just that short time later she's fine again.

After that, Adria starts showing off projection methods. Methods to actually direct the effect where you want it instead of just being a field. There's a disjointed field, a ray, a cone, physical storage even. Adria seems to suggest a ray + disjointed field combo for the drones. She demonstrates some of the wackier ones with the slowdown field and a couple more stones. They're great testing materials for this, huh?

Adria then starts explaining a couple of the odds and ends she didn't use in either of these devices, in the event that Mari finds some creative way to incorporate them. Throughout the entire thing, Adria also lets Mari play with the objects to help her learn what she's getting into.

With all the explaining done, and Mari started off on everything too complicated to write without making an entire 100 page essay on it, Adria stands back.

ADRIA: And that's the crash course done!
ADRIA: You should be prepped to do whatever you want with what's around here.
ADRIA: Though, if you need anything, just ask!~

And with that, Adria lets Mari do her thing, watching the young scientist eagerly as she works.

---

Symphony Hall

Hannah looks at where The (Real) Scion entered from. D'oh, of course, she should've expected that.

HANNAH: O-oh. Whoops, my bad.

She lets the two girls have their moment, noting the astral projection and its similarities to her method. At least she can take a bit of pride in knowing what to do before meeting her properly.

Once the Warlock introduces them, Hannah waves.

HANNAH: Hey.
HANNAH: I... gotta admit, it's a bit weird talking to the real deal when all you've known so far was just a reflection.
HANNAH: But regardless, nice to meetcha!

The topic of a "string of murders" comes up. Hannah looks at The Warlock with a hint of confusion and shrugs.

HANNAH: Well, I guess someone could call it that? Lemme explain.
HANNAH: Back on my home planet, my home island was invaded by these.. well, dumb, selfish brutes.

Hannah's shadow morphs into a hulking beast of a person; barrel-chested, skimpy legs, tree-width arms, a rectangle for a head, hunched forward. It's about the height of a Hannah and a half, and the width of Hannah's height.

It looks stupid. Which was absolutely Hannah's intent.

HANNAH: Now, lemme tell you, I despise them. Their ego was so overinflated you'd mistake them for balloons. And the stuff they did... well...
HANNAH: It... made my home go from the wonderful paradise it once was to this... thing, this... wasteland, almost immediately upon arrival. Their base of operations was made atop a geyser, all the while everyone else was left with broken houses, broken bones, tacky gold statues, ugly graffiti on the walls, just, ugh.
HANNAH: And, well, me being me, I started fighting them, and eventually killing them. Stupid easy to pick them out from a crowd, they're all the same. They were all in on the crime, so while I feel sympathy for the average soldiers, I feel zero sympathy for them even today.
HANNAH: Then came along this one girl from space, and eventually my new home.

Hannah's shadow morphs from the big brute into a much cuter and much more approachable form; that of Sophia.

HANNAH: Sophia. My then-then-not-then-now-friend.
HANNAH: She came in and completely ravaged their entire ranks and beat up their boss!
HANNAH: Sadly, past her lust for her time pieces to get back home, she was more than happy to let things play out down there. Maybe it coulda been a mutual agreement to hunt for them, but me being kinda an idiot at the time just left her.
HANNAH: ...I also pickpocketed her on the way out. Probably shouldn't've done that, but eh.
HANNAH: Anyway, I stuffed the remains of the boss in a jar, planned to sell it for a profit on the black market to pour salt in the wound, but got sidetracked by...

HANNAH: ...well, a mistake.

Hannah's shadow morphs back into its usual shape.

HANNAH: I won't go too in-depth on it, but... just know I became the thing I most hated for a bit. I still kick myself for that every now and again...
HANNAH: And, after that? I was back on my island, couldn't go anywhere, nothing to my name but a single timepiece given to me out of... pity, I guess. Nothing changed. I think they even got their boss back at one point.
HANNAH: And then for the next year until my now-bestie Dorothy came back for me, it was all a game of survival. Ducking away from anyone and everyone for what I'd done to them. And yeah, I did have to kill a lot to get by.
HANNAH: Though I think most everyone else was too scared to find me, maybe even approach me to some extent, so it was primarily just the same idiots as before.

Hannah doesn't seem too hung up about any of it, despite knowing that such a situation would be quite harrowing for anyone her age.

HANNAH: Aaaand here I am now, giving oversized parasites a case of poisoning directly to the heart, shredding an infamous worm to bits with copious applications of poison clouds, clobbering an abyssal nightmare creature and making a weapon out of it, and helping eat the rich and powerful.

Hannah stops for a moment, then smiles.

HANNAH: Bet you two got some pretty wild stories.

---

The Day Finally Rolls Over My God

As the morning rolls around, Adria... is still hung over. Pretty badly. She starts to get up-

ADRIA: nnnnhhhaaAA-

-and rolls off the couch, slamming straight into the hard wooden floor. She groans.

ADRIA: owwww... my heaaad...

She does manage to get up from that, though, using the couch to help pull herself up. To help get her bearings, she sits on the couch for a little while, leaning on the armreast.

ADRIA: strong alcohol and lengthen... never again. nnnnhhh...
ADRIA: what even happened last night... something, something, invasion, um...
ADRIA: ...i need coffee...

She probably didn't have nightmares last night, probably because she was completely blacked out. Otherwise she'd be completely freaking out right now.

Anyway, Adria finally gets up and wanders downstairs, straight to the nearest coffee machine, probably much to Omorika's dismay, while Dorothy snoozes away.

She brews herself one coffee for now, and she slowly drinks it, slowly feeling her energy recovering. She'll probably join the rest of the party later.

...

The post grows ever longer as Hannah finally wakes the hell up. Despite sleeping soundly, resting on a cave floor isn't exactly good for the body. But Hannah's used to it, waking up all groggy and such was all part of the deal for her.

She slowly sits upright, still very much half asleep. She loudly yawns and stretches.

HANNAH: Mmm... another day on this log...
HANNAH: Guess I oughta get ready, with the alcohol Addy drank last night, I probably oughta pick up the morning slack.

Hannah scoots back out of the sleeping bag a little bit, before suddenly noticing a note and a strange bracelet. Hannah puts her hand to her temple and just stares at the bracelet.

HANNAH: Nooo,.. don't tell me this is gonna be "Christmas" all over again...
HANNAH: ...Well, here we go again, I guess...

Hannah begrudgingly picks up the note.

"Two souls. Two souls of long forgotten warriors. Both imbued in this ring.
Take this bracelet and make it your own. When you are deemed ready, when you fully accept yourself, accept your goal, your purpose in life, allow your latent strength to bubble forth.
Aim for the stars, Hannah. And reach far beyond.
Our final wish."

...She blinks. What in the world? Hannah stares at the note in sheer disbelief.

HANNAH: T-that... can't be right? Why me?
HANNAH: And what's with the cryptic message?
HANNAH: This... this doesn't make any sense! Wh...

Hannah stops for a moment. She picks up the bracelet and examines it. One softly glowing orb in the very top, and glowing designs of dragons breathing fire towards it. The glow rhythmically pulsates between dim and slightly brighter, not enough to even cast a shadow or give anything away. She examines it closer, turning it and twisting it. Eversteel, and only Eversteel. But, different. She pulls out the Flux Detector, and sure enough, zero Flux. Huh. Must've been purged.

Which means the ring is sturdy as can be, without a hint of corrupt entropic power in it. She couldn't feel any power radiating from it, though there's clearly something of the sort in it. Perhaps because she was not attuned to the magic present in the ring?

Hannah was more or less stumped. Magic artifacts aren't really her strong suit, and it seems like the power's more than a little dulled thanks to the Thymefield anyway.

Cautiously, slowly, she slips it on her left wrist.

...Nothing happens, but the bracelet is perfectly tailored for her wrist. Despite the material it's made of, it's scarily lightweight, almost nonexistent. She can twist her wrist every which way without so much as a pull on the skin. Truly a mastercraft in design. But ultimately pretty unremarkable at the moment.

...It's a nice comfy accessory though. After looking at it on her wrist for a couple seconds,, Hannah warms up to it and smiles.

HANNAH: ...Feels pretty good. Looks nice, too.
HANNAH: Was half expecting it to fuse with my skin or whatever.
HANNAH: ...

...Hannah seems almost... enamored by it. For once in her life, she has something that's not a weapon or a poison or a murder or a pity time piece to her name.

HANNAH: Aw man, I never had one of these when I was little!
HANNAH: This is actually so cool!
HANNAH: I wonder if I-

She slaps herself before she can get too ahead of herself.

HANNAH: -No, focus, focus! Can't get all entranced now, I got stuff to do!

At that, Hannah rolls her sleeve down over the bracelet to cover it up. The soft glow may still give her away in a dark location, and she can't afford to get singled out as a supposed rich kid now and dogpiled for it.

She gets up out of the sleeping bag properly, grabs her weapon, eats something for breakfast, and then heads out of the caves, hopefully for one last time.

---

Dorothy and Sophia are sleeping in. The whereabouts of Michaela remain unknown.

---

Finally. Zone 6.

Contrary to what one might expect, Hannah takes the front entrance. She doesn't seem too impressed by the city. Actually, she pities the city as it mirrored her old home in terms of damage...

Regardless, she slips through the crack in the gate. The first thing she notices is the barracks under tension. But she's not entirely equipped to deal with that. Then she realizes something.

HANNAH: ...Wait a sec. Why aren't any Iti around?
HANNAH: ...Maybe WARE's building up for one last burst to wipe everyone out with.
HANNAH: ...Hope not, but more than likely is.
HANNAH: Maybe I should help keep watch.

Noticing an open area at (AH104), Hannah walks behind the wall. She does a little parkour up the nearby forest tiles and then the two walls using any loose bricks or the like. Once she's high enough, she jumps to the outer wall and takes up her position, holding a telescope, scanning the horizon for any threats, big or small.

Something's wrong. She feels it in her bones.

Smallest of notes: The "Prune" ability on Zahlia's trinket both doesn't list a base damage value and hasn't scaled with her STR. Base damage should probably also be put in it's Inventory copy.

---

Hexagon gets gorillaing murdered by Acacia. He gets thrown into the Everground, where he sits there for a couple of minutes before tapping a button on the Praetorian armor, activating the recall rune. In a flash of light, he re-materializes next to Acacia.
HEXAGON: IMPRESSIVE ATTACK. THOUGH I AM NOT SURE WHAT EXACTLY NECESSITATED UNLEASHING IT ON A ALLY. PRACTICE FOR WARE, PERHAPS.
Silently, he suffers major brain hemorrhaging, luckily slowed by his lack of a brain.

---

Foam probably gets reworked, or something. Hexagon cries.

---

Various Zones: Hexagon stands upright and stares into the distance. The day has ticked over. It is time for a time honored Spherebreaker tradition: Stealing absolutely every bit of value that can be pilfered from these zones. Activating the flight systems on the armor, Hexagon begins to zip through the zones, attempting to work on clearing out the extra consumables and zany items left around.

(apologies if this is Way Too Much harvesting- feel free to skip some of this or just delay it for future turns :u)

Zone 1: Hexagon develops a sudden, inexplicable, urge for fruit. He sets off on a EPIC QUEST to fulfill this urge. Perhaps we can call it Fruitquest 2022, he thinks, and do a complicated scheme in which someone's action is refreshes to collect all the fruit.
After further consideration, he decides against this plan for no reason.
- Moving down from the house and past the path to the Citadel, Hexagon takes a nice stroll through the Forest of Departure. The leftover nooses probably add to the aesthetic as he locates the Lumipod Tree at AQ32, and gets to harvest- Pulling out the Foamhammer and comedically whacking the tree repeatedly until it has deposited all of its fruit into a nice bucket. He then pours this into the inventory and thanks the tree for it's service, before continuing on to..
- The River Crossing! Hexagon regales the Cinderfruit Tree at AR42 with a long and exciting tale about the free dental insurance benefits one can receive from joining the Spherebreakers. Did you know, he tells the Cinderfruit, that if you join now, you could be the next lucky recipient of the Just Disgaea award? The Cinderfruit, being nonsentient burning fruit pods, are not impressed by his recruiting attempts. He punishes their ignorance by plucking them all mechanically and throwing them into the inventory. That'll show them.

Zone 2:
- Hexagon investigates the Holy Mollusk Resting Place. He stares into the sky and nods respectfully, to pay respects to the Mollusks who have ascended to a better place.
..he then quickly grabs whatever cool item they left behind, and stuffs it into the inventory. It's what Helix would've wanted.
- ..Hexagon then attempts to buy the Shopkeeper Drone. This is probably like, two zones late to do anything very beneficial, but we're REALLY rich and my completionist urges compel me.

Zone 3
- Flight Delta Hexagon touches down at The Replantation, where they repeat their whole recruitiation spiel at the Cinderfruit. When it inevitably refuses due to not having a brain, he shakes his robotic head in disapproval and shoves the Cinderfruit into the inventory to go think about what it's done. A audience member yells at him that he already did this joke in Zone 1 fruit collecting, but he throws a lawsuit at them.
- From there, he jets over to the Scale Yggdrasil, he drops down over at the purple poison fruit, and gives it a inquisitive stare before stepping a few feet back. Pointing a finger at it, he retrieves his trusty FISHING ROD from the inventory, and rapidly spam-casts lines at every toxic fruit, hooking them off the tree and throwing them into hammerspace. This continues until he's either harvested all the fruit, or until his fishing rod is damaged by the fruit's sludge, in which case he instantly applies medical aid to his trusty fishing tool. With those two fruits harvested, he finally turns and..
- ..trots into the Fireblast Encampment, waving at the Devout and Legionnaires. After a moment, he remembers that he's wearing the outfit of one of the Praetorians, and hastily deequips it just in case.
HEXAGON: HELLO. I AM HEXAGON, SPHEREBREAKER MEMBER. CURRENTLY SWEEPING OVER NEARBY LOCALES BEFORE THE ASSAULT ON THE SPHERE. DOES YOUR MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT REQUIRE ANY AID OR RESOURCES?

---

With his scouring of the local weaponized foodstuffs finally complete (for this turn), Hexagon turns from Zone 3 to look at the Sphere in the distance. Right. They've obtained access to the Citadel, now? Probably should go pay that a visit. His low-poly form collapses in on itself in a burst of light, and then proceeds to fold back in at the entrance to the Citadel, appearing in a flash of light. He ventures on into the city- and immediately spots the mob. That's.. probably bad. Jetting up into the air, he turns up his voice a couple notches, and addresses the massed Chairians from above.
HEXAGON: ATTENTION. CITADEL RESIDENTS. IT IS LIKELY OF INTEREST OF YOU TO KNOW THAT THE SPHEREBREAKERS HAVE ENTERED THE CITY, AND ARE CURRENTLY GEARING UP TO FULFILL THEIR NAME.
HEXAGON: I WOULD ADVISE RETURNING TO YOUR HOMES, OR AT LEAST FINDING SAFETY. DESPITE YOUR RAGE, IT IS UNLIKELY THAT YOUR ATTEMPTS TO BREACH THAT WALL WILL AMOUNT TO A SUCCESS. ADDITIONALLY, THERE MAY BE COMBAT OCCURRING IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE, AND WE WOULD PREFER TO MINIMIZE THE ODDS OF ACCIDENTAL CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.
HEXAGON: IT IS UNLIKELY WE WILL BE SEEING NO ITI TODAY, AND I DO NOT SEE THAT BEING PLEASANT.
After his monologue, he waves/signals at any people on watch at the spire.
HEXAGON: WE DO NOT WISH FOR COMBAT WITH THE FORCES STATIONED HERE. YOUR PLIGHT IS GREAT. YOUR CITY IS IN UPHEAVAL. WE ARE WILLING TO PROVIDE AID, AND DEFENSE IN THE CASE OF A ASSAULT FROM THE SPHERE'S INNARDS.

---

In the Rosen Catacombs, another clone of Hexagon walks up to the jail, and regards the Sleuth's work curiously. Clearly, this monochrome man has a good head on his shoulder. He's a real sleuth of these problems. A Issue Detective, if you would? Yes, that has a good ring to it. Hexagon ponders how he could help aid this man's puzzle solving attempts- And shrugging, opens up and jumps into the Jail cell to the top left of the Sleuth. Maybe this will do something.

Destiny picks up her rune communicator, having a message.

???: Good morning, Steyia.
DESTINY: Scalta... so, what is it.
SCALTA: Crya told me she promised a little exchange of sorts between us and the Chairians over here, and I think that is a wonderful opportunity to expand my library.
SCALTA: I have heard of a Cypress figure, supposed genius in the combination of magic and machine in this world. It is imperative I meet him, I must learn more.
DESTINY: You can’t save this for when the threat against our realm no longer exists?
SCALTA: As I said, imperative.
DESTINY: It’s always you and the damn library. Fine.

Destiny eventually encounters Cypress, who she quickly hands over the rune communicator to. Scalta is seen in the holographic image to be pulling out a magitech tablet, and sitting down on a chair.

SCALTA: I have been meaning to meet you ever since I’ve heard of you.
SCALTA: I am Scalta, Goddess of Knowledge and Justice. And of course, knowledge is everywhere. If I am to truly live up to my title, I must collect as much as I can. I have created a location named the Infinite Library for this purpose.
SCALTA: I am fascinated by the differences of magic between each realm, each dimension. There are an infinite amount of possibilities for its definition, and its workings.
SCALTA: Most interestingly, I have heard of your combining of mechanical science and the arcane arts. This is something I must learn more about. So, tell me, Cypress, how do the denizens of this realm harness magic? Where is the fuel for it? What is the fuel for it? How do you turn this mana from an energy, particle, whatever it be, into a resulting reaction?

--------------------

Crya notices how Aoki is looking rather down. She takes out a bowl, and uses 1 charge of Chocolate Goddess Ice Cream, filling the bowl up. Putting a spoon in it, she walks over to her, sits down on a freshly formed block of ice, and hands the bowl to her.

CRYA: I heard what happened. It's an unpleasant experience, and I can certainly understand how it feels for the first time. Take this bowl of ice cream, I've introduced some other Chairian friends to it. It's cold, its sweet, and its a nice treat! Should cheer you right up, Miss Aoki.

--------------------

In the meantime, Destiny buys the Stasis Projector. all T5 upgrades for Minor NPCs that don't have them yet are immediately bought.

Destiny crafts up some consumables!

DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY

---

It is a glorious morning. The sun is shining, there's probably some birds singing or whatever, et cetera et cetera. It seems Verdana hasn't gotten up yet, just taking some time on the couch to recover from... y'know, being kicked into the ground. EN's also sitting nearby.

"Whew, good thing I'm indestructible..."
"Yer kinda real fuckin' dumb, ya know tha'?"
"Yes."

It seems that the others have also left. Or, at least, Calibri and Lato have.

...

Blacklight is in the kitchen for some reason, wearing a hilariously pink and frilly apron, messing about with a large pot and one of those giant plastic spoons they use in kitchens. A quick glance over his should would reveal that he's cooking something up, as one would expect. And it's honestly not too bad.



He's been at it for a while, too, so it's probably almost done. Still, considering the number of people around...

"...That might not be enough. Hm..."

He can probably do up some more stuff if prompted, thankfully.

---

Where is Calibri? Over in Zone 6, exploring the area. He went to P53, specifically.

"Oh hey, hot dogs. Sure, I'll buy one. Hope there's no onion..."

Might as well.


Lato is also in the area, though she's got more important concerns on her mind, namely trying to decipher whatever events have lead up to the standoff at the barracks. She stands off to one side, silently analyzing the situation for some time, before speaking up.

"I sensed tensions in this area. May I ascertain as to the nature of whatever problems have arisen here?"

< ZONE 0 >
Bauhaus wakes up and goes out. Just as he steps out of the absence of a front door of the house, he stops and hums.

"I wonder how that sword princess is doing."

Taylor walks in and tosses him a Waterdrank. "I saw her go to that big church. You know the one, right?"

Bauhaus shakes his head. "I believe I do not."

"You'll know it when you see it."

Bauhaus starts walking off into the forest. "Thank you!"

"No problem!"

Taylor glances into the massive hole in the house. "I've always been curious about this place," he mutters. "Let me just invite myself, and..."

He slides in and other than the hole and the decapitated king, the place is actually kind of nice. He goes to the west side, and sees another knight, dressed like Bauhaus but with less stupid items, grabbing a pool cue and thrusting it like a rapier.

Taylor pulls the cue away. "Come on, Killiam. There's lots of valuable and magical stuff here."

The knight grabs the cue and puts it back on the table, with great force as to cause the other cues to roll. "We could get attacked again! I've just been practicing."

"They probably aren't. I heard about how bad their ship got wrecked."

"I guess they didn't need our help after all, then."
< BATTLE: VS DROPLET >
Sure enough, after many minutes of walking, he knows when he sees the Church of Helix. He enters the building, with its practically glowing beauty, and almost falls down into the massive hole in the floor.

On the other side he sees three mysterious figures and a rock, all clad in gray. One of them floats with a big hat on her eye-head. Bauhaus tosses the wooden rapier in his hands, and its guard unfurls into a pair of propellers which whirl to life. Quick, spinning life. Bauhaus tightens his grip on the hilt as not to cut off his own hand. He pulls his arm back, and with a strong, decisive thrust upwards, the propeller launches him above the hole and somewhere behind the group.

He lands, feet and free hand on the floor, no worse for wear.

"Sword princess! I must thank you for your assistance in our great battle against Spark. Why are you here?"

Once Droplet tells him what's happening, Bauhaus smiles from cheek to cheek.

"A duel? With the sword princess? I would be honored." He bows, sword in hand, and assumes a ready stance.
----
Bauhaus spawns at U13 and sprints to M15. He spawns two Missiles at L15 and L14.

Go to my next post! Ignore this one.

-------


Slight quality of life change to STB's passive.

WEAPON PASSIVE: Changing Stances. At the start of your turn, change to a new Stance that isn't your previous or current Stance. You can spend 9 MP and lock your MP regen to 0 for this round to change to one of these Stances instead. You can choose which Stance you start in. Passively, gain +1 Spell Slot.

Prevents the user from being locked into a situation where they can't use a stance when they need it, or requiring additional turns to clear the 'pool' and setup for later turns. Still punishes overuse of the same stances.

~~~

Minor toxin coating change: Burning -> Brainburn

Berg runs over to the Royalty? in Zone 6.

cA: That's ENOUGH.

cA: From your look, you two are members of the Rebellion, inciting the city's own people to tear the city apart. You think that what you are doing is meting out justice, I'm sure. But this is not justice.

cA: I do not know of what this lady's potential crimes are, but no one deserves this. Behaving in this way, you are no better than beasts, creatures with no higher thinking than following what their base instincts tell them to do. We must be better than that. I know that the slow wave of true justice is not what you want, and I understand the burning need for vengeance.

cA: But a nation reborn and founded in blood and violence... will become one ruled by blood and violence.

cA: Tell me, if you and this lady were to switch places, what would you call it? I'm sure you would say it would be an injustice, the strong imposing their will upon the weak through violence. What is separating that from this? Nothing, except which side is stronger in the moment.

cA: Is this what you want your new nation to stand for? Executions and brutality in the streets, excused with the label of "justice"? To take this city will result in casualties, yes, but if unnecessary death can be avoided, it should be. I have seen enough of war to know that killing this royal - right here, right now - will not bring peace or justice. It will only bring more death in turn.

cA: ...And if you still wish to turn your anger on someone, turn it to me. I can take it.

He turns to the pink-haired royal.

cA: ...I have read the situation correctly, yes?

<ROUND 321>
Auth dispels a mob! He descends from the heavens, a guardian angel parting the overcast clouds. He softly lands behind the group, yelling at them to disperse. Auth's radiant aura of good karma is enough to (gently) blowback the assaulting hordes, forcing them to disperse and return home to think about their actions. One of them- a rebel, stays behind. She's not intimidated in the slightest.

EVISCERATOR: Eh? You really think she's innocent?
EVISCERATOR: This delightful specimen attempted to flee the kingdom the moment things started to go south for her.
EVISCERATOR: Sakura Yedoensis, Spark's very own royal brat.
EVISCERATOR: The slayer of wine glasses, queen of partying, and perhaps the least surprisingly of all, a thief!

The Eviscerator throws a knife at the fallen carriage. A panel is knocked loose, and a colossal pile of Credits spills forth, along with a variety of other treasures. Royal artifacts, gold, silver, alcohol... it's amazing that this "Sakura" managed to fit everything into this 2x3 tile caravan.

EVISCERATOR: She stole this directly from the royal treasury. Then tried to flee to god knows where.
EVISCERATOR: During the people's constant struggles against the Iti, she did nothing as comrades died around her, instead resting in her ivory tower and doing sweet gorilla all.
EVISCERATOR: Actually, she did less than nothing! She diverted important rations from the front lines so she could hold another one of her "parties".
EVISCERATOR: And, as she's Spark's very own daughter, I'm sure she'd have no problem if everyone died. As long as she could keep living it up in paradise.
SAKURA: I-I...

With a flick of the wrist, the badly beaten Sakura recalls her Gaiameld naginata to her side. Pained groans accompany her as she slams the blade of her weapon into the ground, slowly and carefully picking herself up. Once she's standing, she levels her weapon towards the remaining Eviscerator.

SAKURA: I-I... a-am not my father.

The Eviscerator cracks a smile as she draws her own weapon.

EVISCERATOR: Really? Could've fooled me, princess.
SAKURA: H-How dare you... a-assault me and m-my honor?
SAKURA: I-I will... h-have your head...
EVISCERATOR: Very convincing. I can tell you barely even know how to hold that thing.
EVISCERATOR: If you want my head, come and take it!~

EVISCERATOR: But, I'm sure this wise and oh-so-caring Spherebreaker will come to your side.
EVISCERATOR: Typical royalty, getting others to solve their problems.
SAKURA: I d-don't need t-these murderers in order t-to... kick your gorilla.
EVISCERATOR: How bold of you, princess.

Ah. This isn't great. Probably break up the fight, but... perhaps this Sakura deserves whatever's about to happen to her?

---

Star attempts to purchase a chair. Meeting with the Venus-based rap god, YUNG VENUZ, they attempt to begin negotiations to obtain the fabled RADIATION CHAIR. YV blinks. They want the whole throne? All of it? Well, perhaps they can make a deal? Sure, he's no Bill Cipher, but it's a known fact that all triangles in the multiverse are good at making deals.

YUNG VENUZ: YOU WANT TO BUY MY THRONE?
YUNG VENUZ: THE THRONE IS NOT SIMPLY SOMETHING THAT CAN BE BOUGHT.
YUNG VENUZ: IT IS SOMETHING THAT MUST BE EARNED.
YUNG VENUZ: LONG AGO, I ACQUIRED THE NUCLEAR THRONE WITH MY GUNSLINGING SKILLZ.
YUNG VENUZ: IF YOU WISH TO CLAIM MY THRONE... THEN COME FORTH!

Yung Venuz slams a car down on the ground, and impales it with a screwdriver. The car promptly grows wings, and a portal appears just a few feet away from it.

YUNG VENUZ: COME, THEN! TRY YOUR HARDEST TO TAKE THE THRONE!
YUNG VENUZ: IF YOU CAN DEFEAT ME... THEN YOU, A WORTHY GUN GOD, CAN CLAIM THE THRONE!
YUNG VENUZ: LOSE, HOWEVER... AND I'LL TAKE ALL OF YOUR CREDITS, AND ADD THEM TO MY STACK!
YUNG VENUZ: HOW ABOUT IT?
CHAOS: yo, deal

Chaos and YV promptly shake on it. Did he have any stake in this deal...? Yung Venuz strides through the portal, entering his own domain. His crib. Running across a posh red carpet, he ascends stairs of stone to sit upon his rightful throne. Which, of course, immediately grows six menacing robotic spider legs, a multitude of cannons, and of course, nuclear fire. Yung Venuz, not to be outdone, unveils his own arsenal of equally lethal weapons.

YUNG VENUZ: SO, IT IS DECIDED!
YUNG VENUZ: SPHEREBREAKERS! CAN YOU EARN THE NUCLEAR THRONE?

YUNG VENUZ: FLASHYN!



You are accosted by...

YUNG VENUZ
The Venusian Gun / Rap God

PLAY - My Only Gun God (Boolus)

---

Mari and Adria continue their spacetrek! The two of them immediately get to work on upgrading Mari's drones, Mari running around and grabbing materials like she's a kid in a candy shop, except half the candy could kill her. But does she really care about the lethality of the candy? HELL NO. Science will not be deterred by risk of immediate, violent death! Adria collects a few curious odds and ends- mostly chronotechnology that Mari can't make heads or tails of. But, with a bit of help from Adria, things fall into place.

MARI: Ahhhh, yeah. I know how a generator works.
MARI: Gotta say, though. Converting one form of entirely new energy into simple electricity, or vise-versa? Kinda new.
MARI: Neat little device, though! Probably simplifies the whole creative process, doesn't it?

Mari watches intently as Adria enters full-on teacher mode, plugging this generator slash converter into a device that generates a small little slowdown field. Equipping a piece of gravel, Adria flicks it through the field. It enters bullet time as it nyooms through the field, accelerating once it leaves the zone once again.

MARI: Whoa, cool!
MARI: Wonder what'd happen if I stuck my face into it. Not that I'm gonna do that.
MARI: Yet.
MARI: Now, wonder what else we can do with this stuff?
MARI: I'd tinker with it myself first, but we're a bit short on time. Gotta save the universe and all.
MARI: I'll trade a bit of my wonder and curiosity for the good of the universe.

Adria gives Mari the full-on crash course, slamming her mind with dozens, hundreds of concepts. The inner workings of the slowdown field, the inverse of said machine, weird hybrid combinations, how to speed away a coffee high or crash. It's pure beauty. Mari's eyes sparkle. As Adria works, Mari begins to make her own sketches of how she might implement these concepts onto her drones. By the time Adria's finished, Mari's sketches are complete. Like a child wanting their drawing on the fridge, Mari shows it off to Adria.

Mari's pencilwork is certainly quite rough, but it gets the concept across well enough. A module to slot into her drones, connecting directly into the powergrid. It's a relatively simple design, converting power into chronoenergy and plugging it into a wide-area projection lens integrated into the optical system of the drone. This lens projects a highly-customizable field that can slow down or speed up targets. In addition, she was able to make use of acceleration properties to overcharge the shield projection capabilities of her drones, boosting their power considerably.

MARI: One thing I've always had issue with is simple output, y'know?
MARI: Balancing what you can do, with the restraints of heat, energy, processing time, or whatever.
MARI: But, accelerating the machinery itself... if the problem is heat or time, we can greatly boost the output with ease!
MARI: God knows the generator on this thing is too efficient, but it's paid off now! Futureproofing!
MARI: Love this stuff!

Mari hugs the module gently as if it was her firstborn child. After showing it to Adria to ensure that there's no issues, she slots it into her drone's design. This promptly upgrades her trait to Tier 3! She pats her drone on the "head" a few times as she turns her attention back to Adria.

MARI: Hell yeah! Thanks a bunch, Adria!
MARI: Who needs character development when you have SCIENCE?
MARI: ...Then again, maybe I've had a bit...
MARI: How about we celebrate this with... dunno, a bit of chill?
MARI: I have a nice lil' place back at our base on Sussui. I have consoles n' junk, as well as cushy beanbag chairs.
MARI: We can relax there tonight if you want. Play some games.
MARI: Interested? Unless there's anything else cool you wanna show me, that is.

...Meanwhile, roughly one day later, Adria wakes up. The ULTIMATE HANGOVER has destroyed her. Lengthening the state of her buffs has also given her the worlds most pounding hangover. She struggles downstairs, walking past a working Omorika to reach the coffee machine. She slowly sips from her cup as she gets some disapproving glares from Omorika.

OMORIKA: Oh dear. Did you get drunk the night before our march of the Sphere?
OMORIKA: How irresponsible. But I suppose it can't be helped.
OMORIKA: And, truth my told, a bit of alcohol would calm my nerves as well...
OMORIKA: Here. A little pick-me-up.

Omorika chants a few words to herself, casting Null Somnum on Adria. It's an injection of coffee straight into her veins, washing away the fatigue in record time. This just leaves Adria with the issue of the raging hangover.

OMORIKA: Take it easy.
OMORIKA: We'll need you at full strength if we're to succeed in our siege.

Finally, Hannah arrives at Seatopolis! She slips through the crack in the gate, taking notice to the incredible lack of Iti. Anywhere. No flying Iti attempting to soar over the walls, nothing digging through the ground, or trying to drill through the wall with their teeth. Looking at the Sphere looming in the distance, it hasn't fired a burst of Iti towards the earth in a hot minute. Cautiously, Hannah scales a wall, taking up position on the battlements. She scans the horizon for threats, and... still, nothing. One of the Rebels notices the girl taking watch, casually talking them up as if they weren't a renown killer.

RAILSNIPER: Scary, isn't it?
RAILSNIPER: I haven't seen any Iti attack the walls for at least a few hours.
RAILSNIPER: I've seen many of the buggers scamper by, but they weren't heading for the wall. Paid us no mind, even as we took potshots.
RAILSNIPER: Even the airborne Iti, the universe's constant pain in the gorilla, just flew over our heads without assaulting us.
RAILSNIPER: They're all heading in the general direction of the Sphere, far as we can tell.
RAILSNIPER: Something must have them real riled up. Know anything about that?

...Hannah's bones are very right. Something's horribly wrong.

---

Hexagon begins the grand harvest. He zips around the universe, grabbing a considerable number of things! Since he's doing a lot, I'll just list what he acquires in point-form format.

• x7 Lumipods
• x10 Cinderfruits
• x5 Gigistem

...In addition, from the site where the mollusks ascended, Hexagon located 3 RNG Manifestations! And, from buying the Shopkeeper Drone, he obtains... a Grey Pin? The rest of the drone drops lifelessly to the ground. No money is expended. Huh.

He also communicates with the team at Fireblast Encampment. Is there any resources they require? The devout there shakes their head, instead extending a vial of Godblossom Extract to him. Actually, they have a whole case. 5 vials of Godblossom Extract enter the inventory.

DEVOUT: Oh, no. We are completely fine at the moment, thanks to the aide your team provided earlier.
DEVOUT: Instead, we would like to repay you for your help. You're moving on the Sphere soon, yes?
DEVOUT: A vial of Godblossom Extract can only save one life. But if you were to use it during your crusade, perhaps you could save so much more?
DEVOUT: May Helix be with you, Spherebreaker!

Shortly after his trip to the field hopsital, Hexagon maneuvers his way directly to the Citadel. He addresses the Chairians from above, his voice echoing over the landscape. A Chairian down below writes him a noise complaint, firing it up to him via arrow. But nonetheless, his words are enough to disperse the crowd raging at the gates. He also convinces the Permafrost Robe at the front to lower their icy barrier. Access obtained!

Finally, Hex puts himself in jail. To the top-left most cell. He is now in jail, but he swears he hears the shifting of stones somewhere. Perhaps something has happened?

---

Cypress receives a phone call. Who is this Scalta, claiming to be the Goddess of Knowledge and Justice? He shrugs internally. Probably one of Destiny's friends? Probably wouldn't hurt to respond, though. He clears the cache on his throat, and begins to speak.

CYPRESS: Chairians; one organ. Or, primary organ. The Core.
CYPRESS: Tangent: core: misconception. Trees lack cores. Someone thought otherwise. Hence, the core.
CYPRESS: Tangent over.

CYPRESS: But anyway, magic. Origins contested, uncertain. However, believed theory.
CYPRESS: Far as known. Planet, special. High mana concentration. Mana, planet heart. Planet heart, unknown. Unable to reach. However, radiates mana. Permeates ground, atmosphere. Generates natural crystals. Recharges from sun. Through Yggdrasil. The World Tree.
CYPRESS: Chairians, from earth. Possess natural attunement. Woven into us. Mana itself. Draw from planet. Or, from Core.
CYPRESS: Tabletopians also earthen. Same abilities. Lesser potential. Different evolution.
CYPRESS: Mana, highly volatile. Easily transmutable. Simplest form: Arbormancy. Shift mana particles. Wood, mana particles.
CYPRESS: Mana, changes forms. Combust. Freeze. Many different methods. Present in air. Can harness, change. However, difficult. Exhausting. Takes training.
CYPRESS: Satisfactory? Or, more specifics?

If only it was anyone but Cypress talking about this. Writing like Cypress for extended periods of time is rather difficult. Next, Crya gives Aoki some ice cream based therapy. Blatantly the best form of therapy. While it doesn't seem to do much for her, it causes the game to remember that Time, the Healer, should have passed over. This naturally restores a large amount of her morale, the ice cream boosting the effect.

AOKI: Ah. It's delightfully sweet.
AOKI: I'm quite the fan of chocolate, but to have it in this form... incredible!
AOKI: Thank you for the gift, Crya. I will still require a bit more time to rest, but I will do my best to be of assistance soon enough.

As Aoki digs through her portion of iced cream, Destiny buys entirely far too many things at once. So many things in fact, that she just buys all of Bass's T5 upgrades instead. I want to finish this update today, thanks. She also crafts a few Metal Snares with 10 (0) Silkweed Bundles, an Electromagnet Cluster, 2 Shackled Chains, 10 (0) Durasteel Ingots, and 10 (0) Joltwire! 3 of these things fall into the inventory. They are Tier 4.

---

Verdana is at soup. He takes 5 Shredded Fish Chunks, 10 Spider Meat, 5 Gaiaroot Potatoes, a Hotpoint, a single Psychoid Leaf, and a Bucket of Salt Water to create some morning stew! The scent of morning dishes attracts a Marron from upstairs. She gives the stew a sniff. It's fine, but...

MARRON: Bleh. Meat.
MARRON: Here, I'll whip up something for myself. Something that'll also go nicely with the soup.

Marron grabs a baking tray, prepares some dough, and in a matter of minutes, a few dozen buns are baking in the oven. She bobbles idlily near the oven until it dings, before pulling it out and setting it on the table to cool. Bread Buns created! She helps herself to a bun, blowing on it before giving it a little nom.

MARRON: Thanks for cooking.
MARRON: I kinda wanna explore the city, so this saves me some time.

As soon as she arrived, she wanders off to Zone 6. She watches quietly as Lato pipes up, injecting herself into the standoff between Rebel forces and Chairian forces. What problems have arisen here?

REBEL: These hoarders refuse to give us access to the vital supplies stationed within this outpost!
REBEL: With the Sphere doing what its doing, we need all the armaments we can get to prepare for whatever it's planning!
LEGIONARY: And I'm saying that these guys don't have the authority to commandeer what's here!
LEGIONARY: Strutting in like they own the place, these damned rebels... who do they think they are?

While the strife continues, Calibri visits the Chaosdog stand, handing 100 Credits to Chaos to obtain a hot dog. Chaos pulls one out from beneath his stand, placing it on the table.

CHAOS: here u go sir
CHAOS: don'[t] all in one pla[c]e
CHAOS: bu[t] if you do, i[t] be[t][t]er be righ[t] here so i [c]an sell you ano[t]her one

Chaosdog obtained! This is potentially the best hot dog he's ever seen. Damn. It has fries with it and everything.

---

Bauhaus visits Droplet. When he arrives, she immediately raises her mic stand in an incredibly aggressive manner.

DROPLET: FINALLY. It's about time one of you punks got your gorilla here.
DROPLET: Now that I've assembled THE ULTIMATE TEAM, I can give you what you deserve.
DROPLET: While I'd love to just take you all on, I can't do that. But, a smaller scale would still be oh-so-satisfying.

DROPLET: Daikon, my Daikon... you took him away from me.
DROPLET: I can't bring him back. But I can sure as hell make you feel everything he did in his last moments.
DROPLET: Don't you worry, Spherebreakers. I'll make this slow and violent.
DROPLET: It's the very least you deserve, after all.

With that, her team leaps into the basement of the Church of Helix, cleaned up slightly to support a proper battle. Droplet. Reisz. Calypse. Yume. Three Eliti from three different zones, led by the Eliti lost in time. Things are about to get interesting down here!

- = S T R I F E ! = -

---

Bergilmir helps out Sakura. As the Author disperses the crowd, he's able to get some words to the fleeing attackers. The remaining rebel soldier however, is unconvinced.

EVISCERATOR: You absolutely sure she didn't deserve this?
EVISCERATOR: The plan wasn't to beat the gorilla out of her, at least not initially.
EVISCERATOR: gorilla tried to skewer someone the moment we confronted her.
EVISCERATOR: Guilty as charged, really.

EVISCERATOR: This doesn't even begin to cover her other crimes.
EVISCERATOR: Truly, what she deserves... is death.
SAKURA: Oh, you're o-one to talk, rebel scum!
SAKURA: Declaring war against your ruler... what were you thinking?
SAKURA: Burning gorilla and throwing a tantrum because you felt like it? You make me sick.
EVISCERATOR: Oh, so it's bad when we burn gorilla, but it's fine for your father to try and destroy the city because he lost his rule?
SAKURA: I-I did not say that! A-And don't bring that gorilla into t-this!
EVISCERATOR: Aw, what? Hate your daddy even though you sucked his wealth to live a life of decadence?
EVISCERATOR: Don't pretend that you're any better, damned parasite.

EVISCERATOR: And... whatever you are. Tall, icy fellow.
EVISCERATOR: Stay out of this. Unless you wanna clobber this pink gorilla. In which case, by all means. Get right into it.

Sakura grits her teeth. A battle is inevitable. Though, of note is one thing... a necklace dangles from her, a royal crest resting upon her chest. That seems important- think you could snag it? It's probably a plot-relevant item or something.

---

Meanwhile, somewhere to the south of the Old Pass... a beast emerges from a tomb of stone. Forcing its way through a near mile of solid rock, the Fell God's decayed maw gets its first taste of sunlight in millennia. Though punching through all that stone has desecrated its body, the Migi swarming throughout its system are more than capable of stitching it back together, replacing whatever is lost.

As it takes its first steps into the morning rays, a certain Scarlet scopes the area, sending a signal out towards the Spherebreakers. Maple barks into a communicator which she totally always had.

MAPLE: H-Hey! Bad news! The big ol' beaver guy you mentioned? He's here!
MAPLE: Battle stations, everyone! If he gets out, h-he might destroy the city! O-Or worse, somehow!
MAPLE: The people of this world are counting on us! Chairians, Tabletopians... everyone!
MAPLE: Let's do this, everyone!

The Fell God roars, its unending swarms of Migi spewing out in droplets of saliva, coating the land. Even in death, the Fell God yearns to destroy this world. Will our heroes be able to stop it in time...?



You are accosted by...

THE FELL GOD
Also Known as Grima

PLAY - Jhen Mohran (Monster Hunter 3)

---

<VS DROPLET, ROUND ONE>
Well. This is certainly an interesting duel-type encounter. All duel rules are in play, but you're facing off against a team that's very blatantly overpowered. But, can incredibly high numbers stand in the face of Tier 8 equipment? Perhaps we're about to find out! Also, as a tip... kill Droplet last. She'll get desperate if taken down, so be careful!

<YUNG VENUZ'S CRIB, ROUND ONE>
The Nuclear Throne is here, accompanied by Yung Venuz! While Venuz has perhaps some of the highest single-target damage seen in this game thus far, the Throne has some staggering AoE damage! Controlling both of them is key to winning this battle. In addition, the mere presence of the Nuclear Throne may cause you to mutate! This isn't a bad thing, though; making use of the mutations provided may be your best bet at killing the Throne in a timely manner! Just don't ruin yourself with radiation, alright?

<INFESTED MOUNTAIN, ROUND ONE>
The Fell God has... a lot of health. This is spread across a variety of parts, so bring some powerful Area of Effect attacks if you can! It'll also be summoning a wide variety of friends (or maybe just a wide amount of friends), so be sure you can deal with both swarms of Fell Beasts and swarms of Migi! Also be sure to keep your Poison under control- the Fell God enables poison stacking against the Spherebreakers, so bring some dispels if you can!

Infested Mountain

A Timeclone of Adria manifests as the call to action is sent for the Fell God. She frowns at the sight of the beast, not intimidated yet still wary.

ADRIA: Be careful. Aim for the exposed bits to weaken it.

Adria acts last. It doesn't conflict with Nidra so it can be before or after her.

Adria spawns in at (O19), moves to (P16), and casts Sands of Time's Stop ability on (O13), catching the Skull (immune), Right Eye, and Right Claw in the Stasis-inducing field.

Adria then summons the Exosuit with her item action, taking Timelock Railgun and Auxiliary Shielding. She immediately starts charging Overacceleration Round.

Additionally, some things are set up:
-Watching Over You: The Sleuth
-New Project: Splash, Raw Healing, Potency
Healing Bomb (19 MP). Restore (29-30) HP. Range 4-7. Splash 1.

---

Morning Coffee

Adria groans at the disapproval from Omo.

ADRIA: n-not... my proudest moment, no...
ADRIA: at least there weren't any nightmares last night...

When Omo casts Null Somnum on her, though, she jolts awake. Though at the same time she grips her head in pain (placing the coffee down on the lab counter next to her), gritting her teeth. She seems to be trying her best not to scream.

Unfortunately, the exhaustion was also dulling the pain.

ADRIA: Ghhrr, thrt hurts!

She slumps down onto the floor. After a few moments of recovering from the shock, though, she's able to speak properly.

ADRIA: ...Thanks. I... just need a few minutes.
ADRIA: I'm never trying that again, though. What in the world is the alcohol content of that stuff... and why did I think it was a good idea to multiply that by 4?

While this Adria needs a couple minutes and a few applications of Accelerate, the Timeclones seem fine still.

---

Mari

Adria, like a proud parent, beams at Mari's design.

ADRIA: Fantastic work! You're already well on your way!
ADRIA: Though, I suppose that's a given, hm?

Mari then thanks Adria for the help and mentions chill and games at her place back at base. Adria sees no problem with this.

ADRIA: Ah, you're quite welcome!
ADRIA: And sure! It's been a while since I got my hands on a controller!
ADRIA: also other me is blackout drunk right now so it doesn't really matter what we do, so time for fun
ADRIA: Anyway, let's head back. Here's hoping my own chill room is all sorted by tomorrow's end.

Once everyone's ready, Adria leads Mari back to the drop pod back in the main area. The cylindrical elevator thing from before. They enter it. After pressing a couple buttons, the door closes on them, sealing them inside. Fortunately, there's plenty of safety features in the pods, including several instances of shielding, gravity readjustment for persons within, cushy seats with seatbelts, fire extinguishers, and there's probably even more on the inside.

Adria sits in one of the seats and motions for Mari to get settled in one of the other ones. Once everyone's ready and Adria does a few final checkups, she launches the pod via her hardlight display.

ADRIA: Alright, we're gonna launch in about a minute.
ADRIA: We should land right next to home after whatever happened down there tonight.

And so the wait begins. The pod launches itself as the two feel a jolt, as if they were in a very fast moving elevator. Interestingly, the systems in there quickly account for this and sets them to a more comfortable "normal elevator" speed.

---

Morning on the Town

Hannah nods in response tot he Railsniper.

HANNAH: Don't have anything concrete, but...
HANNAH: Now that we got all the Glyphs, I think WARE's starting to go on the defensive, to hopefully slow us down.
HANNAH: Either that or he's about to send a huge wave over the city and wipe us all out with sheer numbers.
HANNAH: Or, worse, something none of us can even comprehend.
HANNAH: If there's anything I know of this universe we live in, peck's weird and anything can happen.

Hannah looks behind her. When she realizes what's happening on the ground level with the royal and the barracks, she facepalms.

HANNAH: Ugh, I swear to god, this is gonna give me a migraine...
HANNAH: Royals... sheesh. Pains in the neck.
HANNAH: And of course law enforcement enforcing a broken set of laws. Not quite as bad but come on.

HANNAH: ...Better see what I can do.

Hannah's shadow disconnects from her body and manifests behind her. It gracefully leaps off the wall and lands with a quiet roll. Noting that Lato has things covered nearby for now (and Hannah is close enough anyway), it travels to the Fancy Carriage.

It scoffs at the immense pile of credits next to her. But she doesn't take it. Instead, she immediately turns her attention to the Royal. Hannah's shadow is content with blocking the way out. It leans on the side of the toppled carriage, completely unthreatened.

HANNAH: Ugh, why am I not surprised.
HANNAH: Anyway, you two know what to do, if you need me just holler, yada yada.

It turns to the Eviscerator.

HANNAH: Oh, and miss whatsherface. This gal ain't getting out scot free. That'd be dumb. Probably won't be a death penalty. I've seen worse in terms of royalty.
HANNAH: Oh so much worse.
HANNAH: But, honestly, you're wasting your energy. Why not go help people instead of stooping to this board's level?
HANNAH: God knows people around here need it.
HANNAH: Actually, I wonder if there's anything worth passing out in this posh hunk of junk...

The shadow rips into the Carriage for anything that could be of value to people, besides credits and artifacts and such.

---

Symphony Hall

Hannah... nods in understanding at the top secret info bit.

HANNAH: Yeah, I get it. With the stuff out there you gotta be careful.
HANNAH: Sucks, but oh well.

Hannah then listens to the Scion ramble a bit. She giggles at the suspicious part.

HANNAH: Nah. You've all been pretty chill.
HANNAH: Anyway, continue.

Hannah listens to The Scion's tale. She's attentive throughout, and gives a sympathetic smile.

HANNAH: You've had it pretty rough too, huh?
HANNAH: Couldn't imagine the pain of all that. Sucks that you had that happen.

As The Scion finishes, Hannah closes her eyes for just a brief moment. Then opens them again and nods.

HANNAH: Yeah... I have no idea what would've happened if Dorothy hadn't come back.
HANNAH: Sweet girl, she is. Caring, supportive, fun, a hero as much as she denies that responsibility, and has magic on top of it all. Girl helped me out of so many dark spots even after all that. I just... don't know how to repay her for everything, other than sticking by her side.
HANNAH: Can't think of anything bad to say about her. And I wouldn't, even if there was something for some reason.

HANNAH: She's important to me, and I'd take every damn bullet I could for her.

Hannah smiles back on mention of Reflector!Scion.

HANNAH: Yeah, I'd say. It's been a relief for me too. Around anyone else save Dorothy and some of the others, it feels like I'm treading on eggshells for one reason or other.
HANNAH: Not easy.

Hannah snorts as she stifles a laugh at the last bit.

HANNAH: Hah, I'll keep that in mind!~

---

Hexagon edits his build a bit.
- Swap Cappa's Hat for Missile Commander.
- move 2 KP from STR to DEF
- Replace Spawn Point with Intimidation.
:hexagonmurder:

---

Humanitarian Supplies- Hexagon purchases 5 Panaceas from the Triangle Emporium. He also picks up 5 Stardew Potions.

---

Hexagon notes the slightly underequipped state of some of his allies- poking Acacia, Cypress and the Sleuth.
HEXAGON: AS A NOTE, YOUR ARMAMENTS ARE LIKELY SLIGHTLY UNDERPREPARED FOR THE CHALLENGE OF THE SPHERE. AND THE RADIATION TRIANGLE. AND THE DRAGON.
HEXAGON: IF YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC REQUESTS- THEY CAN BE ASSEMBLED OR PROCURED BEFORE THE BATTLE. IF YOU WISH TO DO IT YOURSELF, I WOULD RECOMMEND DOING IT SOON.
i could just craft the npc upgrade items sparked theorycrafted but that feels weird

---

HEXAGON: I LOVE WACKY PUZZLES AND WACKY PUZZLE ADVENTURES.

Hexagon goes on a long and complex adventure to escape his jail cell. He meets a variety of wacky characters, including the WHIMSICAL CLOWN, the ACE ATTORNEY, and the HOODED HEIR. Together, they defeat the big crime boss of the prison- the CRIMSON WARDEN. Finally obtaining a key to his cell after a long, 8000 page, adventure, Hexagon tearfully bids farewell to his teammates and leaves the cell. He then throws the key to the Sleuth, and adventures onward into the Northen Chapel Hall- Swiftly locating the Trapdoor and jumping down it.

---

In The Big City, Hexagon whispers to local small business owner Chaos that there is a unscrupulous merchant who is currently undermining the good word of capitalism by selling FAKE Gaiadiamond Dust and Godblossom Extract. Only Chaos is allowed to do that.

---

Battle: Undertale

Hexagon spawns in the Fell God, materializing at L21 and dropping a Mirror Image at M21. His missiles spawn in at K20 and K21, unless people take those spots to spawn on. He reminds the universe that Protowell Seeker exists, a lot.
He spends a Bonus Action Foam on Destiny when she spawns.

STATS / SPELLS

Star swaps Spirit Blade for Purify.

---

BATTLES - VS. DROPLET

Star spawns in with Sol Ultima in Lance mode, moves to O13, adds an Infinipizza to the temporary inventory with Infinidrop, and Guards.

---

BATTLES - YUNG VENUZ'S CRIB

Star spawns on I14 with Sol Ultima in Lance form and waits for Irongutta to cast Fury on them. Next, they fly to H7, cast Soaring Rush with Manafuelled4 (flying to H3 because of the +1 retreat from their trait), switch to Hammer form as a bonus action, and smack the Nuclear Throne, gaining +45% damage from Soaring Rush, +40% from their trait, +35% from Empowered, and +30% from Opening Act. They then eat an Infinipizza.

YV Turn Order (because shenanigans):
- Star spawns in
- Irongutta
- Star moves and acts
- Everyone else (post order)

---

SYMPHONY HALL

The Scion looks up at a clock on the wall, although it is like no clock Hannah has ever seen, containing no less than seven different hands pointing to various symbols.

THE SCION: Oh, sorry, we have a meeting soon!
THE WARLOCK: lol i 4got that was 2day
THE WARLOCK: listen i gotta go finish my report so tell number 2 i'm gonna be hella late
THE SCION: Again?
THE SCION: She's not going to like that, you know...
THE WARLOCK: yea yea if she wants me to submit paperwork on time she can summon the spirits + do it herself
THE WARLOCK: it was nice meeting u hannah bee tee dubs
THE WARLOCK: feel free to hang out here if sussui is exploding or whatever this place is very secure
THE WARLOCK: as the greatest wardsmith this side of fiction i should know

She winks, waves, and vanishes in a starry burst.

THE SCION: I should get going, too...
THE SCION: Is there anything I can do for you, before...?

Infested Mountain
Go last.
Enter at K19.
Set Prismatic Shield to Poison.
Move to F14.
Warp Ring to F11.
Last Dream the Left Wing.
Very Sheepy the Left Claw.
Retreat to F12.
Power Nap self.

The Mountains
Daskter spawns and quickly moves to (H20) to spawn a Beast: Mercenary to (I19)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b8l...#gid=1863574043

The mercenary starts firing against the Left Claw, stunning them.

settings:
Tactic = all-out
attack = crushing
Resist = 30% poison
Weakness = 20% crushing, 30% Air
Special = Here All Along.

DROPLET DUEL
Destiny spawns at U13, waits for Bauhaus's Fury, and moves to P15.

FELL GOD
Destiny spawns at K19 before rushing to K14 and using Stellar Assassin on the Left Eye, landing at K13, then retreating to I16.
------------------------

Destiny, meanwhile, decides to go up to Chloe for a request.

DESTINY: Greetings, I require some ITI IDOL BATHWATER for some Monster Energy I am making. Wait I meant ITI IDOL BATHWATER not ITI IDOL BATHWATER. Who is doing this to me? I demand to know. You know what, fine, ITI IDOL BATHWATER shall suffice, I'll make it work.
It better not be Shitpost Johnson...

Destiny proceeds to create some Monster Energy and a Rope.



The Rescue Rope is given to Ette, replacing the Author Plushie.

Putting the action here so Ire won't miss it.

< BATTLE: VS. DROPLET >
Bauhaus spawns at U11, moves to R12, casts Fury on Destiny (modified by Rapier), pays the 7 MP for Shared Rage, moves to P14, and retreats to O14.

< BATTLE: THE NUCLEAR THRONE >
Bauhaus spawns at I14, moves to I10, casts Watchful Eye on J8, and uses his Bonus Action taunt on Throne Guardian 1.

Slight quality of life change to STB's passive.

WEAPON PASSIVE: Changing Stances. At the start of your turn, change to a new Stance that isn't your previous or current Stance. You can spend 9 MP and lock your MP regen to 0 for this round to change to one of these Stances instead. You can choose which Stance you start in. Passively, gain +1 Spell Slot.

Prevents the user from being locked into a situation where they can't use a stance when they need it, or requiring additional turns to clear the 'pool' and setup for later turns. Still punishes overuse of the same stances.

Another small definition change to her trait: Counters apply Physblight in the following priority: Slash -> Pierce -> Blunt, based on what's legal to apply and the target already has.

Minor toxin coating change: Burning -> Brainburn


~~~

Asha joins the fight against YV in Guard Stance (counter type: Pierce)! Her hats are: Timestop, Ice, and Sprint.

She spawns at M14, moves to N9, and activates Sword Beam, followed by Toxin Coating (Brainburn). Then, she bonks the Throne, applying (Manaburn5, 2) with Always Watching for 5 MP. Next, she uses a Gigistem on the throne. Which seems dumb but she has her reasons! This activates Always Watching again, applying (Blind4, 2) for 5 MP! Finally, she uses the Ice Hat, dealing damage and applying (Slow1, 2) to Throne Guardian and Throne Statue.

Thanks to Soul Hauler, she'll get 6 MP back in total. Her trait doesn't proc this round due to dealing Unmoddable damage.


Also, she activates Thymebent.
"Bring it on, I eat triangles like you for breakfast!"

House

...I'm kind of bad at voices, huh. Lemme just figure out a little...

Alright, so. Verdy's in the kitchen now too, having joined Blacklight some way through things. Both of them share a brief glance in regards to the stew cooking thing.

"..."
"..."

They decide not to correct Marron. But she did happen to bring up something of note.

"...Should probably make something for the party vegans."
"Yeah, probably. Got anything?"
"Hmm..."




As for EN, she's gotten bored by this point and has wandered down to harvest all that sap from the SapTree, since that probably needs doing.

"..."

Since she's not entirely comfy with touching the sticky substance directly, she's doing it by... kinda just going at it with a Giant Spoon. Okay then.

---

Zone 6

"Huh. Cool."

Calibri's reaction is... kinda underwhelming at first. Though, he also wandered off to this zone without having anything to eat. And while he doesn't really feel hunger in the human way, he still decides it'd probably be a good idea to have something, at least...

nom

"...oh"

Given his last frame of reference for this kind of food was likely a carnival corn dog, this is a bit more of a step up than he was prepared for. He stands there for a while, partly to just let things sink in and partly to wonder if anyone else in the party would appreciate having some of those. Let's be real, the party has more than enough funds to spare at the rate of only 100 credits each. And they do have a pretty neat effect...

"You got about 3 more of those?"


Meanwhile, Lato is performing situation resolution calculations.

"Hm. I see."

She pulls a notepad out of hammerspace (no literally, her hammer form comes up and ejects it into her hands), then begins scribbling down some notes. Midway through, she abruptly points at the Rebel who spoke earlier, albeit not turning to face them.

"What supplies do you currently seek to acquire from the outpost?"

She waits for them to answer, jotting down whatever their reply is on the notepad, then turns her attention to the Legionnaire who spoke earlier, similarly not facing them.

"And which forms or representatives of authority do you currently recognize?"

---

Dropkick

Calibri spawns in the battle at U13, strolls his way to P14, and...

"Hm... Last moments... and time... I wonder..."

...He's distracted with thinking about something. But he also has to prepare for the fight, so he does do a bit of that.

-Loyalty: use on Bauhaus
-Focus Energy (bonus action): use on Destiny
-Protectorate: give to Star

---

Dual instance - triangle

Lato appears in the battle. Specifically... M14.

"...My presence has been requested by outside forces. Engaging in combat."

CONFIGURATION: Burst / Artillery / Skirmisher / Electric

With her weapon assembled, Lato then fires an artillery strike on K7. Having fired off the slowly-traveling shot and watching it fly through the air, Lato decides she should probably maneuver somewhere safer, and so retreats to O16.