70 HP

MAX HP

93 EN

MAX EN

Earlier... Quinn was rather distracted, watching as the newbies of the group taking care of the zoo beasts on their own. Despite how silly Quinn can be, he was never one to abandon his teammates or to be uncooperative. Being the tank of the group gave him certain responsibilities that he can't even describe. With concerns for the newbies, Quinn watched as his teammates held their ground, expertly dispatching the zoo tycoon creatures one by one until they started retreating.

Being so distracted left his back wide open as a mountain tiger popped up behind him to say hello and came in for a hug. @Indra , who was clearly jealous of the tiger immediately tossed some kind of magical jewel thing at him, which he saw and aimed at with his bow. The shot came through and he was able to scare it enough that it ran away. It seemed @Indra's love for Quinn has chased away a love rival.

After the encounter that didn't manage to do much, but scare the wit out of them, the group continued to press forward. Once they were about halfway toward the enemy's fortress, Quinn looked behind them and started to walk backward with his arms behind his head. After a brief glance at his party members, he asked.

"Is everyone doing okay? No injuries or anythi-!!!???" before Quinn could finish his sentence a boulder crashed into him and nearly knock him off the side of the mountain had he not tumble out of the way after he was hit.

Then, a massive rumble came as boulders and rocks began to roll down, threatening to crush everything in their way.

"Oh fuuuuuuuu, run!!!"

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
14 + 15 = 29
[ Outpost Distance: 557/1000 ]​

 

100 HP

MAX HP

85 EN

MAX EN

The animals retreating gave time for Comet to take a deep breath, though despite this relief escaping she grinned in satisfaction. If the Green Team could hold off an ensemble of random attackers there was hope for the rest of the journey. She frowned in @Eileen Dover's direction. "You shouldn't have left us behind. I wasn't expecting someone like you to have such a weak spine. I should learn not to judge a book by its cover," Comet flipped her hair, and made her way past the blonde; though she feared, on the inside, that Eileen would no longer like her. Hopefully after everything was said and done they could make up. But Comet wasn't going to let someone run away while she did hard work. The perfect team sticks together. The perfect team will stick together. So the pink-haired woman, bubbling with a fear covered by an angry expression, spoke her mind before moving on as deemed necessary.

Despite being slightly winded, Comet carried on but not before flashing a thumbs up towards her teammates. A sickness in her stomach had settled that prevented words from making their way out of a nerve-ridden mouth. Not even a few minutes after the initial attack the mountain proved to have a few more tricks up its sleeve. One of those many tricks happened to be surprise boulders. One shouldn't go wide-eyed and freeze in place at the sight of boulders, but Comet did. Mainly because, if anything at all, rocks tumbling down should be the one danger most expected to occur while scaling a mountain. The pink-haired woman gaped at the way @Quinn barely make his way out of being hurdled to his death. As soon as he yelled for the group to run, her legs seemed to know exactly what to do. Meanwhile, her thoughts became a muddled mess.

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
42 + 10 = 52
[ Outpost Distance: 609/1000 ]​

 

60 HP

MAX HP

93 EN

MAX EN

Despite the intense, heated glare pinned on her back, Eileen had continued, ducking as needed. There was no space to dance, no time to focus on song. Whoever wanted to judge her could do as they wanted.

And at the end of it all, the animals retreated, leaving them to continue onwards with nary a peep.

She frowned at @Comet's back as the younger girl swept past her with some scathing words. Sure, Eileen didn't exactly go around stabbing things to death, but that wasn't her job, was it? Supports live so they can keep others alive. And they'd survived anyways. The kid seemed bent on misunderstanding her. Run away? How? By running uphill towards the enemy? Eileen snorted, shaking her head. It seemed that in spite of having a grown body, Comet was still childlike in mind: unreasonable and immature. A shame.

No time to dwell on that, though. It should've been the time for cheers and applause to their little ducklings on a job well done. No deaths! Not yet, at least! Eileen would've wiped a tear away had she had time to shed one.

The boulders came rolling down, interrupting theatrics before they had time to begin. Even with the warning shouts, the trembling and litter of small rocks smacking against them, Eileen found herself hissing in pain. Foot, meet boulder. Real tears sprung to life in her eyes. Even with the rough hide that made going barefoot bearable, it still hurt.

The only thing that jerked her out of her self-pity was the order Quinn shouted at them as he started to run. And a good order, it was.

She started to run, following him up the mountain.

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
17 + 20 = 37
[ Outpost Distance: 646 /1000 ]​

 

100 HP

MAX HP

85 EN

MAX EN

Relief settled in the form of a monotone sigh that escaped the blonde’s lips. Quinn was a dense hedgehog, but at least he had good instinct to make up for it. With the mountain tiger gone and the beasts retreating, Indra lowered her guard for the time being and strapped her mace back to her belt that also contained some utilities — magecrafters needed their reagents and tools. She glanced to the rest of the party members to see if everything was alright, turning on her heel and proceeding to advance. In her eyes, warnings and the like were not needed anymore because it should be assumed that things weren’t going to get any easier from now on.

“Annoyed. I wonder if the enemy will hold the advantage every quest I partake in. It happens very often; difference in mastery tiers, in numbers, terrain…” Using the index finger she scratched her chin looking upwards to the starry sky, “Thoughtful. It almost feels like a rigged game.” Internal monologue finished, her eyes focused back on reality, but her attentio nwas quickly snatched by something else — a small and dull stone. In the eyes of the uneducated, it was a normal stone, but to indra, it was a reagent. She reached down to pick it up.

“Lucky. Who would have thought that I’d find a piece of manatite in the middle of nowhe--” Her ahoge stood straight up as she heard a familiar voice almost swearing because of something. The blonde returned her gaze to the path ahead of them, and the boulders turned the boring scenery into a frightening one. Indra snuck the jewel in one of her pockets and dashed to reach the top, much like the others in the party.

"Afezeria oz manaf!" Indra chanted, and arcane mana coalesced in her weapon as a medium boulder made its way towards her. With her spell charged and mace ready, the weapon struck like a judgement hammer, exploding the boulder into many harmless rocks.

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
66 + 0 = 66
[ Outpost Distance: 712/1000 ]​

 

75 HP

MAX HP

88 EN

MAX EN

If it’s the tank’s job to keep the support alive, those whose job in turn to keep the rest of the team alive, pretty sure they’re failing at an accelerated rate in keeping those jobs right about now…even if the current encounters aren’t what you’d call orthodox.

With the animals retreating thanks to the systematic destruction of their ranks in the hands of a strangely well-coordinated party – they’re actually rather well-coordinated when actually doing whatever they can to tackle the current problem with their own individual approaches, go figure – Elmyra had been trying to compose herself. Perhaps even taking a couple of breathers to stop her bleeding eye.

…Unfortunately, it seems that the universe had been conspiring to pile miseries upon her at this point of time. If nothing else, it seems the roulette of life had been hell-bent on giving her lemons, and it’s up to her to make lemonades out of this.

What happened next was something that not a lot of people in the party would predict. The boulders rained down upon the ones still recovering from the animal attack, and without warning seemingly struck many of them rather clean.

Case in point, the tank of the group had managed to turn his back at exactly the same time as the boulders fell, and only managed to not fall off the ledge thanks to his own balance in the face of emergency. Upside of the current group’s location, the muse who had been going ahead out of the group to escape the animals had been perhaps the first to bear the brunt of the boulders, her body displaying the bruises to match.

As for Elmyra? Well…

When the boulders fell, Elmyra was – naturally, considering her vision’s somewhat blurred with red – too late to react. A piece of rock – a smaller one, thankfully, but it should still hurt – struck her square on her head, opening her wounds even more and no doubt shot a sharp jolt of pain over the herbalist’s body...but there was no cry of pain or anything like that. In fact, if you looked closely over her face you can make out the hint of a grin in the corner of her mouth.

At the ‘encouragement’ of their party tank – and seemingly de facto leader – the others have been hurrying up to climb the road leading upwards, Elmyra’s no exception. What would be rather unorthodox on her part however, is her…well, ‘methods’ if you want to call it that way. While the others have been trying to evade the boulders to the side or even challenge them with similar force of reaction, Elmyra pretty much goes straight to the direction where the boulders fell, as if challenging the shower of rocks to hit her.

…Funnily enough, her actions only served to keep her relatively safe from further boulder-rain. Go figure.

Rapid Advance (-10 HP, -5 EN)
Tracker / Roll
27 + 15 = 42
[ Outpost Distance: 754/1000 ]​

 

60 HP

MAX HP

90 EN

MAX EN

It was easier to predict the flow of the boulders after the initial shock wore off, and now that they'd lost the element of surprise, it didn't matter too much if Eileen cursed out their attackers here and there. She twirled around another rock on her battered feet and looked over at @Indra for a moment.

"Considering the shit we do, I'm not surprised they always have the upper hand. But that's half the fun of it, right?" she laughed, licking her lips.

"You go against somebody so strong they think they have it in the bag," She punched her fist into an open palm, "and then you knock them down a peg or five with their own damn arrogance."

They were getting closer to the top of the mountain, and though there'd been a few grazes here and there, they were all for the most part doing fairly well. Her energy hadn't dipped too low either. Apparently, the claims about energy-boosting outfits were actually true.

"If we actually get a moment of respite, I'll try to whip some of us back into full fighting shape. Until then?" she ducked under some flying stones from Indra's mace smash.

"Stay alive."

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
74 + 20 = 94
[ Outpost Distance: 848 /1000 ]
​

 

70 HP

MAX HP

88 EN

MAX EN

Amid the flying rocks attempting to crush them, Quinn did his best to use his mobility to dodge out of the way of falling boulders. However, he made sure to keep his teammates safe by guiding them through the storm of rocks and boulders.

While they ran toward their destination, Quinn provided some input based on his observation.

"So, I'm pretty sure we have been found out at this point so there's no need to hold back anymore. Should we just go right up to their front door and take it over? I think with my Phantasmia we can subdue them without having to kill everyone of them. Don't think we're going to be very stealthy for the rest of this mission..."

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
79 + 15 = 109
[ Outpost Distance: 957/1000 ]​

 

85 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

“Irritated. You do have a point.” She replied to @Eileen Dover as she blasted an incoming boulder with an arcanamancy orb. “However, I do get more enjoyment from proving my point rather than from knocking others down. Excited. I must admit, however, that I cannot wait to let them feel what it is like to be hit by something just as hard as a boulder.” Her ahoge stood straight as her eyes could make out the guards and the outpost in the distance. It shouldn’t take long for them to reach their destination. That single moment of distraction was all it took for one of the boulders meet with her mace in an awkward swing that made her arms feel sore as the boulder broke in many smaller rocks.

“Enraged. Truth be told, I just want this to end already.” Her gaze rested on @Quinn and his suggestions about their approach on dealing with the guards and the front door of the outpost. “Worried. It is a great way of doing this, but please don’t overexert yourself. We are going to be in great trouble if our only party member capable of tanking is knocked out somehow, especially by the lack of energy.” Indra looked back to Eileen, “We’ll be counting on you, miss. I assure you we will reach the outpost, and as you said, knock them down a plenty of pegs.” Her gaze returned forward, "Afezeria oz Manaf." energy coalsced in her weapon, mace ready to hit any other leftover boulders or any enemy in sight.

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
30 + 0 = 30
[ Outpost Distance: 987/1000 ]​

 

100 HP

MAX HP

88 EN

MAX EN

"The confidence will come," she called back, offering Comet a small smile. She appreciated the gesture, and the morale boost the woman's words provided. And deep down, she knew, despite the hardships, she would grow more confident. More useful too. And all in all, she was pretty excited about working to meet that goal.

There was more huffing and puffing than Magdalyn would care to admit as she continued her trudge. The relief that had come at the beasts' departure had been a welcome change of pace, and she wished that she could have stopped to enjoy it. It had fled with the few retreating tigers and wolves, when a volley of boulders had been launched their way. The urge to turn tail and run had been pretty overwhelming, and she figured she would be more successful staying ahead of a boulder than trying to dodge one. Indiana Jones that shit, she decided, and had nearly turned when she heard Quinn cry out. Their precious tank was struck, and hard, by one of the falling chunks of rock. He nearly toppled, but in a true Herculean feat, managed to right himself. RUN, he had commanded, but she found herself less inclined to do so down the hill.

She was in no real danger, her more logical side reminded her. All she risked was a virtual reality body, all things considered. Well, that and the budding relationships between herself and the members of her party. As a new player, trust and friendship were just as important as points and stats. If she fled now, she would sacrifice all of it, and for what? Some semblance of safety? The grunt she gave was mixed parts frustration and pain, for at the same time she made up her mind to push forward, a baseball-sized boulder struck her in the shin. Push forward, she decided, and maybe get some armor when we're done here.

Her palm was damp on her staff, and a thin layer of sweat glistened on her brow despite the chill. Her face was red and flushed, but fortunately, her voice remained fairly steady as she spoke.

"I was never especially good at stealth." They were nearly at the door now, and with her empty hand, she flashed Quinn a thumbs-up. "So let's let them know we're here."

@Quinn @Comet

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
80 + 0 = Total
[ Outpost Distance: 1067/1000 ]​

 

85 HP

MAX HP

80 EN

MAX EN

The group closed in on the destination with such ease Comet felt unstoppable. Her newfound cockiness got knocked out of her system right away by a lovely boulder to serve as a reminder that they were visitors on the mountain, not the other way around. Swift reflexes aided Comet in her survival; trembling arms and legs repositioned her lanky body before it could become trapped underneath the huge rock, tumbling down before colliding with the ground below. Saliva coated the inside of her mouth uncomfortably. The corners of her mouth curled downwards, as if in a new permanent position. A possible death so suddenly and so soon sent nerves clawing at her thoughts once more. Somewhere within, where negativity couldn't manage to reach, she credited a quick mind and strong - albeit awkward - limbs as her saviors.

Reaching the top, with few words both said aloud and managed, Comet took a moment to adjust her attire and wipe beads of sweat from her forehead. The pink-haired woman had a different idea in mind from the beginning. However, their advancements most definitely hadn't gone unseen by the outpost's occupants. Comet sighed and fell to a silent defeat to @Magdalyn's words. Sneaking by now seemed pointless, though she would remember to utilize any opportunity that involved doing so later on. With a shake of the head she erased the fate of the future to instead focus on the present. Fear, worry, dissatisfaction; the emotions were wrapped in a bundle stored for later use against herself rather than others. That way the mission could go on without much trouble other than random obstacles thrown in the wind heading in the direction of the Green Team.

"They already know. We should have the upper-hand, though," behind an expression and tone of seriousness, Comet's eyes softened. She wasn't completely prepared but had faith in her team. For now. "@Indra is right @Quinn. Take it easy on yourself. A Tank under control is better than a dead one," her words were spoken with a certain authority, as if she were the Tank and Quinn was not. Comet expected the team to perform to their best ability but smart thinking certainly trumped a reckless powerhouse doomed to burn out at some crucial point of the journey. Once more the pink-haired woman opened her mouth - ever so slightly - to speak. Quickly, she closed it and turned from the rest to continue with moving ahead. @Eileen Dover probably wouldn't expect some sort of witty remark as a form of "still cool?" quite yet. Regret and pride fused into a mixture of confusion.

@Elmyra Cressen

Rapid Advance
Tracker / Roll
24 + 10 = 34
[ Outpost Distance: 1101/1000 ]​

 

70 HP

MAX HP

88 EN

MAX EN

Being surrounded by enemies as they eyed the group's ill-gotten gains would have made anyone nervous, but rather he relieved himself of the gold, Quinn assumed a very serious face as he carted the gold into the mercenary leader's room. The gold that remained inside the delivery vehicle was half real and half fake, but he needed to make sure to appear as though they were all 100% real gold that the party was willing to part with in order to buy off the mercenary.

With his confidence, Quinn took on a salesman tone of voice as he looked at the Felis female right in the eyes.

"Look, Mercenary Lady, you clearly have an eye for business opportunity when they slap you in the face with a solid gold bar, right? Well, this here is a business venture and we just slapped you across the face with a bar of gold. All you have to do is leave the keep here you get all of the profit without losing a single soldier. Right guys?"

Quinn elbowed the person to his right, whomever it is.

He also grabbed onto @Indra 's arm, pulling her closer toward him as his face took on a rather serious expression. They were in serious danger. Should they fail the negotiation here, they will likely be killed, or worse, captured, and their mission will fail. Although he often treat Terrasphere like the game it was, the situation they were in was definitely one to be concerned about. He wasn't exactly sure why he even grabbed onto Indra, perhaps it was an instinctive response, either way, the tense negotiation continued.

With one of his hand behind his back, Quinn opened up the palm menu and started typing in the party chat as one of the guards inside the woman's headquarter approached the cart overflowing with gold coins and gold bars.

Quinn

Hey, @Indra @Comet @Elmyra Cressen @Eileen Dover @Magdalyn, keep those people from grabbing onto a fake gold, make sure they only grab the real gold, alright? My illusion isn't powerful enough to make it appear super real...

Persuade
Tracker / Roll
54+20=74
Persuasion: 74/420​

 

75 HP

MAX HP

88 EN

MAX EN

Truth to be told, Elmyra would rather avoid trying to be representing their own little group in anything resembling diplomacy. Her tendency to keep to herself is already bad enough, and she can’t even enhance her own capability of speech with anything else in her arsenal unless said conversation has something to do with alchemical process and whatnot…which is probably not what these bloodthirsty killers are looking for in a casual conversation, let alone a negotiation for life and death.

In fact, one listen at the leader’s – the feral-looking Felis woman – speaking pattern and she already knew that she’s stepping into the negotiation with a disadvantage. Instead of the intellectual, soft-spoken bookworm kind of sadist, she sounded like someone who prefer to kick your face in and then ask questions later. Doesn’t sound like she’d put more stock on reason as oppose to ‘things that would amuse her’, which is already Elmyra’s one tactic on conversation gone.

Quinn, however, decided that appealing to the beast-woman’s reason was the best course of action, and in a way he might’ve started the conversation on the right foot. It’s less reasonable assumption and more targeting the one mutual love that they might share with each other: gold. And indeed, obtaining significant gold without hard work in the first place might tempt even the most battle-hardened warriors…except perhaps the ones who seek blood in the first place.

Deciding to stay quiet while the others might chime in on Quinn’s points, she decided to keep an eye on suspicious movements in the part of the fort’s soldiers before a familiar ‘ping’ sound reached her ear. It was a message from their impromptu leader…who decided to warn them all on a last minute way that the gold on the wagon might not be as life-like in texture as he would like. Great. Definitely the kind of thing that you would reveal on a dramatic moment…

As one of the beast-guards tried and get close to the carted gold, Elmyra took a subtle few steps back in parallel to his movements. As he then raises his spear to poke the gold contained in it, Elmyra purposely chose that moment to lean on said gold cart, which resulted in the spear to hit deeper to stab the gold inside rather than just the illusionary surface.

“Watch it. You’ll damage the coins inside, and we don’t have anything else where these came from.” Feigning surprise, Elmyra rose up from her position at the same time as the beast-guard withdrew his spear with a neutral expression. She hoped that her words tempered the expectations of those mercenaries and discourage them from thinking that they can gain more by force…but she suspected that it was never about the gold anyway.

Persuade
Tracker / Roll
27 + 0 = 27
[ Persuasion: 101/420 ]​

 

100 HP

MAX HP

88 EN

MAX EN

The best thing that she could was hang back. What else was she do, considering her lack of experience? Quinn was using magic to give the illusion of having more money, a brilliant idea that she was completely incapable of helping out with. And truth be told, Magdalyn felt fear digging its talons in deeper with every passing moment. It was just a game, of course, but the smell of sweat, alcohol, and... was that blood?... were very real. The expectant look in the mercenary's eyes was real. The pelts that hung from the walls were real. Pelts, Mags mused, then stored that fact away for later. Could she use that? She was far from being a leader of anything at the moment, but maybe she could help with strategy. Coming up with plans to deal with various fictional scenarios had been a favorite past-time of hers.

The gears were turning even when she felt Quinn's elbow bury itself in her gut. Air whooshed past her lips as she gave a surprised inhale, but fortunately, she recovered quickly. It was easy enough to disguise the sound as eagerness, and besides, had she not done this every day for most of her life? Improvisation? Acting? Acting like she had all the answers while Googling it on her phone under her desk? Showmanship, she thought, and then beamed at the Felis woman.

"It's a pretty good deal," Mags agreed, nodding. "And I know I'd really like it if we could avoid further violence. The animals that we encountered climbing up here were so incredibly well trained, and I hated going up against them. Gotta respect a talented tamer."

She was either buttering the woman up, or shooting herself in the foot by bringing them up at all. Desperately, Mags hoped for the former.

@Quinn

Persuade
Tracker / Roll
76 + 0 = 76
Persuasion: 177/420​