25 HP MAX orange HP 25 EN MAX EN A bright flash of purple light and then... nothing, for a few seconds that felt like an eternity, Eldhi was overwhelmed by the creature's arcane blast. At such a short range, the white-haired Paladin was literally tossed away, her charred armored form tumbled a few times on the crystal-covered ground, sending broken pieces everywhere. "..." Laying on the shattered ground with a barely-conscious mind, it wouldn't take a status check for her to know her condition. Her avatar was on the verge of dying, just one more shot would finish her off. Fortunately, whether out of mercy, arrogance, or indifference, the floating creature left her alone. It moved on with its work instead as if nothing happened, picking up a gem that was near Eldhi's position when it first shrieked at her. Oh so that was why she spooked the damned thing. "Nkuh..." Gritting her teeth, Eldhi had to swallow her pride. She had lost the fight, no doubts about it and to continue would be suicidal. This wasn't worth it. However, one thing for sure, she was still very much a beginner in the game, she had to train more, learn more, and one day, she would be a Paladin worthy of bearing Tyl's banner. 86 roll #6 / 7 Roll Link
100 HP MAX HP 100 EN MAX EN Seeing her opportunity, Stelluna leaped at the creature, making one final attempt to strike the beast down. She missed, for the third time. It turned around to her, head tilting in curiosity. Stelluna stared back, and walked away. She was done. That was it. She could not keep going and failing to land even a single strike. There were better things to do like... hit something that could magically evade every strike she made. It was as if the universe itself was mocking her. Sighing in frustration, she started to make her to the nearest town. To rest after a long journey and forget all of... this. 63 Roll Link
25 HP MAX orange HP 25 EN MAX EN Nope, nope, nope! Time to abort! No matter what she threw at the pyramid thing, nothing seemed to have any effect. And it wasn't like it was getting tired of constantly blasting her with energy, but Ash definitely was. And also really close to dying. Which, you know, not quite an activity she was keen on repeating. Whatever those things were unearthing, they could keep! Ash's curiosity would remain unsatisfied but that was a small price to pay for keeping her life. A sharp blast sounded, signaling that the pyramid had fired another beam of energy at her. Now was her chance! Ash sprinted for an edge of the valley that wasn't as steep as the other walls, and scrambled up as quickly as she could. It was evidently not quick enough, as a sharp burning pain exploded across her back. Luckily, she stumbled upwards and rolled over the edge of the valley so that she was out of sight of the creature. No time to relax. Groaning, she pushed herself to her feet and quickly started walking away, this time keeping an eye out to make sure she didn't stray too close to any more of those creatures. No way was she getting involved in any of this again! 6 Roll Link
100 HP MAX HP100 EN MAX EN Luckily the thing did not attack her as she chanted; the few seconds of staying still were always a danger when fighting one by oneself. Even more luckily, the spell hit the thing, lances of light piercing it. The sound of metal screeching and being pierced echoed in the crystallised forest, making her wince at the unpleasant sound. Her ears plastered themselves even firmer to the base of her skull. The attack hit the monster. And it chipped away part of its health-bar. Sadly it was still nowhere near enough to defeat the enemy. Her successful hit and its high percentage of health assured that it would continue fighting her and not run away. Ilusa glanced at the thing and for a moment she had a feeling that those dead eyes were looking at her. It also could be possible. Still, it felt odd. It felt weird. It felt unpleasant. She much preferred normal undead, not this contraption that fused machine and a dead head of humanoid. “You’re a tough one, aren’t you…” The Felis murmured, almost hissing it out. The problem of being a dedicated healer was that the damage dealing spells were not seen as such high priority and their chants she knew only a little. And either way; most often they took time and the thing seemed disinclined to give her time to chant. IT was now throwing the arcane blasts around like confetti. The adventurer noticed that they were weaker than the first ones. “Loss of power in return for greater speed, huh?” She murmured avoiding another and another and another, a bit stumped how to attack it now. Her wand, crude as it was, held healing cantrips and not attacking ones. Ilusa decided to wait for her chance to counterattack. roll 70 (Roll) Easy Pickings
75 HP MAX HP75 EN MAX EN “Ugh! Ow!” Small the blasts might have been, but they were fast and even small things hurt. And they kept coming. As if the enemy was a tireless mob that did not know a thing called energy. It was not as if every blast hit her. But enough of them did to dig into her health. Thus she used her wand on herself to heal herself; quick and low-level healing. They were energy efficient to boot. Thus the long battle of attire started. Could the unknown mob which name consisted of exclamation marks and question marks keep up with Ilusa healing herself? Or could Ilusa outlast the mob and tire it down? The once beautiful part of the forest was showing signs of wear. Small scratches here and there in the crystalline structure. The sounds of arcane blasts hitting the trees echoed; sometimes depending on the crystal, the crystal would vibrate and change the sound, making it almost pleasant to hear. If eerie. Sometimes a sound of crystal creaking echoed. The nimble (in her own mind) Felis kept avoiding, or almost avoiding the blasts. Kept healing herself. And the enemy kept hitting. Few times she cast the instantly activating damage dealing skills. A single word and the enemy was hit. Whirling it continued to pelt her with the blasts. Time passed. Both combatants did not give in an inch. Ilusa kept healing herself, but even with the cantrips slowly her energy was being drained and her health is taking a hit too. But she was stubborn and refused to give in unless her life was at stake. Thus she continued the demented fight of endurance, grinning when the enemy health bar also was chipped away to three-fourths or when it whirred as if annoyed when she again healed herself. roll 45 (Roll) Easy Pickings
50 HP MAX HP50 EN MAX EN The game of cat and mouse continued. Who was a cat and who was a mouse was debateable, but the game continued. Ilusa hissed, healing yet another cut to her person caused by the arcane blasts, palm opening and closing glancing at the time from the menu. Problem was, the things blasts came less often but were stronger and she had to stop to heal herself few times. Barely avoiding other hits. Then the thing stopped, its arms whirring and she knew that it was chanting. Since it was so nice and kind to stop, she did so too, chanting her strongest offensive spell. Which, for a person who focused on healing was not much, but better something than nothing. It was also one of the few offensive spells she knew from memory, even with its long casting time. As she chanted, a magic circle appeared under the monster. It glowed with light, sigils turnings and then the correct configuration was set. This time, she finished first. From the clear sky, a pillar of light descended, hitting the monster and bathing the area in light. “Yes!” Of course even that did not steal enough of the life the thing had; but then again that was something she should have expected of a green coloured exclamation and question marks. The difference in their skill was vast, but she was still holding and she still had a chance to kill it! Her casting first also interrupted the thing its cast and it was dazed for few moments; which she capitalised on, casting all the quick spells that she could. That also meant that she actually opened her spell menu to look through some of the spells that she did not use often. She still had a chance, even if her life and energy were half-gone. roll 11 (Roll) Easy Pickings
50 HP MAX HP 50 EN MAX EN The blast that the being shot out of its mouth struck Rig squarely in the chest. He felt the arcane force push him into the glittering earth and then continue to push him along the ground. He felt like cheese being forced across a cheese grater. He rolled and rolled until he finally landed face first and skidded to a halt. There were stars dancing in his vision that he couldn't tell if they were more crystals laying around or that his head just took too many beatings just now. He lifted his head up gingerly and felt like his mouth had gone numb and dry. He shook the dreariness from his thoughts and realized that his mouth was full of dirt and crystal. He spit out the soggy earth over and over while he dusted off his cloths and listened to his bones creaking. He turned slowly and saw the machine-monster floating off in the distance. He stumbled forward about ten feet and picked up his hammer where it must have fallen. He popped his jaw back into place and felt the weight of the hammer in both hands. "Blimey," He said with a cruel grin. "Now I am a little irked." 49 Roll Link
25 HP MAX HP 25 EN MAX EN It had only taken a few moments of scampering about for her tragic life for the... whatever that thing was to tear at her unarmored hide and put a serious hurting on her, but thankfully the doors to the shelter had popped open long enough for her to run in, weeping and afraid. Healing her wounds, she trudged within the modest comforts of the shelter and got herself a room to stay in, using her hydromancy and some purchased firewood to fill and warm a nice bath for herself, scrubbing the dried blood and scorched skin from off of her body. Though the wounds had been healed beneath, the mess remained and was in need of tending. She curled up in her bed and sniffled afterwards, knowing it would be at least a day or two before she left the shelter... probably with some tough looking people to guide her back to Falderen, so that she couldn't be ambushed by those... things. 76 Roll Link
50 HP MAX HP 50 EN MAX EN After having taken a break again, the young faerin found herself writing quite a bit about the creature that guarded the great gem. She'd written a fair amount of poetry and prose, inspired and yet insatiably curious about its creation. With her last bout of energy for the day, she'd logged in just to see the crystalline structure once more...But it was going to kill her if she didn't stop trying. The guardians had mutated and grown stronger. She could feel their strength without getting close enough to touch them, a strange stench filling her nostrils and making her feel sick. "It's too much...I can't get any closer. Just the smell might kill me..." It was all in her head, most likely. She knew that. But, as her faithful slime jumped to lead her out, she found herself sighing beyond the abyss of despair. "I couldn't even get a look at it this time...Maybe I should just write about you instead, Drip. What d'ya say?" 11 (Roll) Easy Pickings
Conclusion Falling to the ground, the monstrous creature-contraption that Amane had felled crashed with the horrible shriek of twisting metal and grinding gears. A very mechanical cacophony filled the air, as the innards of the machine went wild, knocked loose and moving out of sequence. Its mouth moved in horrified gasps as several different chemicals began to leak from its mouth and nostrils. Some a bright green of obvious alchemical design, others the viscous black of low-quality crude oil drilled from the earth. The wildly kicking gyros and gears of the machine-thing began to produce sparks, igniting the oil into flames which rapidly consumed the metal-and-flesh body. All the while, the creature gave a gurgling cough to clear its mouth of the fluids, then broke into a heavy sob as its blind cataract-covered eyes looked about in fear. And then it was no more, its secrets consumed in flames as the delicate gears melted into slag and the spilled oil burned away the alchemical and mechanical evidence that could be used to learn from it. Hidden: Sound Effect The strange contraptions made their way from Crystallized Zalra not long after they had spontaneously appeared, hazarding the region for a brief span of days. Tales of them spread, the versions varying depending on who you asked. To mothers they were monsters which would carry away disobedient children that did not complete their chores, while to bandits they were the damned souls of those who had practiced evil magic and fused with jewels and rare metals, consumed to search out more wealth. No answer seemed particularly correct, but two things were certain: They had all disappeared into the frozen north, and answers as to what they were lay in that direction. They would doubtless come again, their cause unknown, their effect remaining to be seen. This thread is concluded
