[F17] Obsidian Invasion

[Ronnel 0]

"Watch out, something else is coming!" Ronnel twisted out of the way as he shouted, hearing something rumbling in the earth beneath his feet. This event chain was getting insane - first the royals and the city being directly attacked, and now these bizarre portals up from the earth, and smelling like they'd come straight out of a pastor's rendition of the afterlife? He frowned as an urgent message flashed onto his screen, bright and blazing as it demanded attention. He skimmed the details rapidly, mumbling under his breath as he read. "Four united... strong wills... join hands - are you serious right now what kinda harmonious elements is this stuff." He snorted and closed the screen, fighting back a chuckle. That had been unexpected, and he wondered how exactly the devs were going to be figuring out if their wills were 'strong'. 

The dark haired man felt a light tremor roll down his spine but suppressed it as he spotted a group of three people standing near one of the portals. "Afternoon folks, nice ta meetcha - hope you've got room for one more on your dance cards." He held out his hands with a wry chuckle. "These things are trying to crawl out of the lowest depths, so let's send 'em back, yeah?" Truth be told, he did feel a bit awkward about having to clasp hands with total strangers but hey - it was for a good cause. Seeing this city fall into some kind of nightmarish landscape would not be good for everyone's morale. 

 

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133440
BD: 3
Group Members: @Ariel - The Crowned Lion @Dracul @Arabelle
Cumulative BD: 7 + 2 + 3
[personal portal count: 1/3]

Edited January 4, 2020 by Ronnel

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Awww he was starting to blush, that was cute... It took all her willpower not to pinch Dracul's cheeks as a girl with pink hair joined their group and offered to hold their hand. "The more the merrier right?" she added, recognizing the girl from not so long ago. She watched as Dracul was trying to maintain his normal 'nobleman' composure but to her trained  eye noticed the cracks. Before she could lose her cool from the church joke, her eyes wandered on the final piece for their friendship circle. She nodded to Ronnel's inquire and grab hold of his hand and ended the circle. The magic was supposed to start but the portal was still in between them, with a slight frown the blonde sage decides to break the silence that was starting to grow. "It's not going away, don't we need some 'Abracadabra' mumbo-jumbo?"

As if on cue, the portal vanished leaving the four of them standing there still holding hands. "I guess that worked?" she added, a little bit conflicted about the reason why it worked. "Progress right? let's move to the next one."

---

Objective: Close Portal
ID# 133442
BD: 8
Group Members: Ronnel, Arabelle, Dracul, Ariel,
Cumulative BD: 7 + 2 + 3 + 8 (20, Portal closed!!!)
[personal portal count: 1/3]

Edited January 4, 2020 by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[NIGHT 0]

No sooner than the town seeming like it had things under control did the next surprise catch them off guard. The calls for attention took NIGHT out of her dazed spell, as a rush of players scattered over to the fields, repelling the now approaching undead army. Right. She would've joined them had it not been for the fact that there were still people in need of aid within her vicinity, and her instincts were telling her to stay and protect, not get herself involved with some long-ranged fighters she had no chance of closing the gap between.

The tents were right there. All she had to do was holler for a retreat, and eight of the wounded approached her. If that was the best she could do for now, it would be enough. But where--

--A red bauble. Who is it?

Quote

To: NIGHT

There's an escape route through the castle dungeons. Be safe.

A part of her wished she hadn't checked her mail.

Quote

Objective: Escort Civilians to Safety
ID: 133453
LD: 8 (5, +3)
Progress: 1/3
[>> Castle Dungeons] --> [Tunnels] --> [Caves >>]

Edited January 4, 2020 by NIGHT

[Zandra 0]

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133458
BD: 8
Group Members: ???
Cumulative BD: 8

As the final skeleton had faded out and the field was cleared of ranged riders, Zandra fell to the ground, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and placed the back of her arm on them. She just laid there, catching her breath for a dozen seconds. When she removed it and looked at her energy and health meter here yes went wide. There was just a tiny, like three pixels, left on her energy bar. But what made her more frightened and panicked was the health-meter. For the first time in a long time, it wasn’t green, nor was it yellow. In her berserking, she had throwed away all thought of defence and just charged in, slaying as many boneis she could. She quickly ran back away from the battlefield when she spotted something on the ground, a tarlike pool or something. She looked around and saw two other groups standing around other spots, with their arms linked. So, do you need to do some kind of ceremony? Zandra stretched out her hands and shouted. ‘’Come here, anyone please!’’

Edited January 4, 2020 by Zandra

[Anise 0]

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133464
BD: 3
Group Members: @Zandra
Cumulative BD: 11

Anise sat in her cave on a rock, with her arms crossed and looking grumpy. ‘’Huh. Everyone think they sooo special. Going helping some noobish NPC defending a castle. Please, they just virtual nothings. You stupid heads going to risk your life for them?’’ she said to a man beside her. The man looked a bit scared, like he wanted to say something but was afraid to do it. ‘’Ehm, you know…’’ he started lowly. ‘’Now what! Talk so I hear you!’’. He took a breath and started in normal tone. ‘’You know that Zandra is up there? I just got a mail from someone that know I’m here that she is very wounded.’’ At first she just turned her head, looking like it was useless information. ‘’Hmmft, why should I care.’’ But it didn’t took long before her mask fell. ‘’Damnit Lingo. I kill you for making me leave the cave today.’’

Anise grabbed her sword and darted with full speed to the main settlement. ‘’Baka Zan, don’t risk yourself. You the only one I have.’’ She said lowly in a whisper. As they reached the settlement, Lingo suddenly turned right and disappeared among the houses. ‘’Cant care about that now.’’ She jumped into the portal and a few moments later she rushed out of the one at floor 17. It didn’t took long for her to spot Zandra. After, all, it was Anise that had made that iconic armor. Warmth filled her body when she saw that Zandra was still using it.

She was standing all alone with arms outstretched. ‘’Why does she..?’’ she started, but soon she saw other groups doing similar things, but they was together, not alone like Zandra. So Anise ran down, to her, grabbed one of her hands, looked at her. ‘’Hi Zandra, hope Im not to late.’’ After that she quickly looked away while her cheeks got a shadow of red on them.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Anise

[Basuke 0]

Only Basuke could nod off to sleep in the middle of a warzone. The thing that woke the boy up was the droning hum and ghoulish wails of an indescribable entity beside him -- one he pinned down as appearing to be a black hole. He yelped, cursing in his native language, before spotting a youthful lady approach the questionable pit on the floor, stretching out her arms towards it.

It. It kinda looked like she was T-Posing.

A snort from the boy, along with a childish grin. He sure didn't know what was going on at this point, but he was willing to find out. Standing up from his corner by the wall, hands in his pockets, he went over to the player named Zandra, and stretched out his own arms, looking down at the black goop for a moment before glancing at the woman. "What's this gonna do, anyway?"

Quote

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133465
BD: 3
Group Members: Zandra, Anise, Tsurei, Basuke
Cumulative BD: 8+3+3 = 14

Edited January 4, 2020 by Basuke

[Tsurei 0]

Safe to say that they got lost without much of a clue what has happening, the fires stopped, temporary walls have been set up and an announcement was made by a Queen or something, whatever the case, the quest only seemed to escalate from there, soon hordes of skeleton archers appeared, portals opened up and civilians were panicking left and right.

Deciding to leave the combat to the higher levelled players because you know, they’re too low levelled for 17^th floor shenanigans, they decided to help out with evacuating the civilians, mid way, Rei noticed a group of people holding out their arms towards a hole in the ground with an eerie red glow.

Were they a cult or something? They seemed to be players. Glancing around Rei noticed that others were doing the same and causing the portals to close, seriously? That’s it? Hold hands around a circle and the portal closes? Seems odd.

“Hey, you guys go on ahead!” Rei called out to his friends before running over, filling in the gap of the circle, "Hey! What's going on here?"

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133473
BD: 4
Group Members: Zandra, Anise, Basuke, Tsu-Rei
Cumulative BD: 8+3+3 +4 = 18 = Fail

Edited January 4, 2020 by Tsurei

[Skeleton 0]

Skeletons were attacking. Skeleton archers on skeleton horses. They just give Skeletons a bad name, running around killing people like that. Skeleton himself, the one on the side of the living, and of the people, hoped that no one would simply see his name and begin swinging at him. He had hoped the actual flesh he has over his bones would be more than enough of an indication that he was here to help.

Skeleton took a quick look around, unable to find any citizens in his immediate area he chose to move to a nearby portal that had begun to open up. The HUD updated with information telling Skeleton that he needed 3 more people. Wait what, I have to hold hands in a circle?

Skeleton had almost decided to turn away, but he was already there, he may as well push through and complete the objective instead of being a coward.

"Hey, is there anyone free to help close this thing?"

Objective: Close Portals

Group: Skeleton

Spoiler

ID# 133474

BD: 5

Total: 5

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Skeleton

[NIGHT 0]

From the castle dungeons she went, towards the tunnels. There was a hole in the wall, and NIGHT presumed that it wasn't exactly there before, though it was just a hunch from game sense. She ducked, squeezing herself through the gap, the sides of the walls pulling at the cloth between her armor. With her at the front of the pack, it meant that she would be the first to encounter danger -- and danger was most likely going to happen from the front, by the looks of it.

The tunnels were surprisingly larger than expected. NIGHT wondered if she should've invested in a glow stone for situations like these, putting it on her mental to-do list. A glance behind her, squinting in the dark, trying to keep a head count of the wounded following her. Looks like everyone was accounted for.

A look towards the time on her display. She'd have to try and remember how long this journey would take, for her own sake. NIGHT didn't want to get lost, after all.

Quote

Objective: Escort Civilians to Safety
ID: 133453
LD: 8 (5, +3)
Progress: 2/3
[>> Castle Dungeons] --> [Tunnels] --> [Caves >>]

Edited January 4, 2020 by NIGHT

[Andromeda 0]

Objective: Escort Civilians to Safety
ID: 133485
LD: 9 + 3(bonus) = 12
Progress: 1/3

An was starting to sweat. 

Didn't they say the main force was coming in three days? What to make of this, then? She couldn't jump to any other conclusion when the guards atop the rebuilt walls began to call out warnings. Already, the players who had slowed down to take a much-needed break when the fires died down were back in their constant motion once again, with a greater sense of urgency this time. It was weird and unexpected. On one hand, the part of her that drew from experience in the more straightforward type of tower defense games figured the main objective still remained: defend a town from a major invasion force that is coming in three days, and probably the smaller scouting forces sent forth. On the other hand, those portals on the ground looked too aggressive to be a part of the vanguard and maybe the enemy had been lulling them into a false sense of security all this time. 

She didn't know the answer. She didn't feel ready to face the worst case scenario. She silently reassured herself by reaching to brush her fingers against the Teleport Crystal that was inside a pouch strapped to her belt.

Players rushed off to defend the walls, but An moved further back into the town. The calling of one townsguard who passed her had drawn her attention. Leave the defending to the ones who were better at it... and get a special opportunity to take a personal look at the secret passages she had never once heard of! Gathering her own group of NPCs as instructed, she smiled brightly -- an assurance in the midst of the turmoil -- and introduced herself with haste.

"I'm An!" she chirped. "Um... I haven't personally been to the caves yet, but one of yours gave me a map. It'll be an adventure!"

The citizens all shared worried looks.

They were going to be fine.

Spoiler

RELEVANT STATS

• +3 LD from Dice of Blessing
  • Dice of Blessing -- T1 Perfect Trinket -- [x3] LD --  [reference] The modern adventurer's mark of providence or misfortune - depending on how much Lady Luck likes you. The trinket itself is an acrylic D20 painted brown with gold numbers and an attached chain that allows it to be clipped onto the user's clothing. When thrown, it often lands on '20'. 

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Andromeda

[Macradon 0]

Objective: Escort Civilians to Safety
ID: 133430
LD: 20+5=25
Progress: 2/3

The tunnels were crooked and not very well maintained, but it was all they had to safely evacuate the civilians, making them run through the battlefield would mean suicide for them, which was not their goal. He would try to guide them as best as he could, but the dim light of the underground tunnels was still difficult to navigate through, even with his holy blade. He tried his best with Belphegor in front, trying to sniff every way that could smell like the way out, but even with the cerberus’s help, it was still a very difficult task to complete. They would walk nearly aimlessly, but with the knight and the cerberus leading the pack, all .. 20? people were following Macradon’s directions, much more than he had anticipated, but it gave him a small ego and morale boost that this many people trusted him enough to follow him down here.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Macradon

[Dracul 0]

And as expected, it didn't take long before two more players joined our group. The first one was a beautiful girl with pink hair dressed in a dark outfit, a stark contrast to my own blue motif attire. She seemed fine with holding hands, even if it was for the sake of the quest, so he gladly obliged. Another person joined and as our hand holding circle closed, we were left in a somehow awkward silence. I was about to clear my throat to say something when I heard the girl behind me crack a joke. I let out a soft short laugh of relief as I can't really remember when it was the last time I went to church. If she were to be some king of fanatic, our future interactions would've proved... troublesome. 

The blonde next to me started spewing nonsense as nothing seemed to happen. "I don't even want to fathom that it worked because of that childish wordplay." I mutter in disbelief as I point towards another portal nearby. "Let's close that one next."

---

Objective: Close Portal
ID# 133526
BD: 6
Group Members:  @Arabelle,  @Ronnel , Ariel, Dracul
Cumulative BD: 6
[personal portal count: 1/3] 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Dracul

[Ronnel 0]

"Seems as fine a target as any other." Ronnel didn't voice the relief he felt when the portal closed. Good. Whatever was determining if their will was 'strong enough' didn't care about buried fears. Or maybe accounted for facing them instead. He doubted it was anything so deep as that though - the system couldn't read minds. "I wonder who or what is directing this whole shebang. It's a change from how things normally go, isn't it." Ronnel looked down as he felt the texture beneath one foot change and jerked his foot back, having unintentionally stepped on some of the tar-like material oozing from the portal. 

" Oh that is foul. Let's get this closed up right quick." He looked to the others and held out his hands. There was a moment as he suppressed a chuckle - unintentionally, they'd gotten an even mix of guys and girls closing these up, unless one of the others pulled back to work on something else. 

 

Objective: Closing the Portal! 

Link ID : 133528

BD Result: 6 

Group Members: @Dracul, @Arabelle, @Ariel - The Crowned Lion, Ronnel

Cumulative BD: 6+6 (12)

Portals closed personally 1/3

Edited January 4, 2020 by Ronnel

[Tsurei 0]

“Nothing seems to be happening, huh?” Rei mused, looking over at the portal, he sighs as he grabs hands with the two people nearby and makes the circle properly, honestly he has no idea on what needs to be done for the portal to close. What was the trigger?

Portals were all around them the exhausted players who were here before him had to deal with all the stuff from the first phase and now the second phase, for a while there he and his friends were just lost in the city with no idea where to go. He had to try and pull his weight here while he still could.

For now, he pretended it was like visiting the shrines during new years like he used to do back in the real world and he mentally just hoped for the portal to close, praying almost, closing his eyes and desperately hoping as hard as he could.

 

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133529
BD: 4
Group Members: @Zandra, @Anise, @Basuke, Tsu-Rei
Cumulative BD: 4

Edited January 4, 2020 by Tsurei

[Zandra 0]

So, it wasn’t enough to stand in a circle doing nothing. What did they needed to do? Zandra started looking at the other groups around that was closing portals left and right. Why couldn’t they do it? Think Zandra, think!

It must have been that they wasn’t prepared, Zandra had shouted and just some random people have ran up to her. Well, also Anise. What the heck did Anise do here?’’Anise? What are you doing here? You are the last person I thought would appear here, helping defending a town of NPC’s. This is totally out of your character.’’ She turned her face to the other side. ‘’To be honest, I have no idea what this will do. I just saw others doing it and by some way these thingies disappeared. Don’t know why this one don’t.’’ Then she turned to the fourth one. ‘’Hi. What it is that is going on? I don’t know, just doing what others do.’’ She finished off with a friendly smile.

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133531
BD: 7
Group Members: @Zandra, @Anise, @Basuke, @Tsurei
Cumulative BD: 11

Edited January 4, 2020 by Zandra

[Macradon 0]

Objective: Escort Civilians to Safety
ID: 133430
LD: 20
Progress: 3/3

As time went by, many of the civilians were losing hope, they felt like they were lost, that they didn’t know where they should go, they were right. Macradon tried to hide his panic by just walking with his instincts, not too sure of what was going on at the ground floor, how many portals were left and if more skeletal soldiers had arrived. He was unsure of himself, even if he had 20 people who followed him to their rescue. He would shake his head and turn towards the line of people that were following him, he scratched the back of his head and sighed as he was about to announce that he had no idea where they were and which direction they had to go in “Ahem! I have an announcement … I don-” he said and grabbed the attention until Belphegor howled a mighty howl, he had found something. The cerberus rushed out in the tunnel’s direction and Macradon would look over his shoulder, “I don’t think it’ll be long!” he said and waved his arm for every to run with him to the exit. As they arrived outside at the safe place, Macradon would do a quick tally and make sure everyone came with him, all 20. 

“Alright, well done everyone!” he said and made sure everyone was accepted and taken care of. 8 other people were already at the place, which meant that some had already been evacuating civilians. One of them seemed to be in a panic, a guard, not that civilian at all, he was wounded. “Excuse me, don’t wanna be rude … but aren’t you supposed to guard these people? Show them how good of a guard you are while I go in a get some more!” the knight said with a broad smile and rushed into the tunnels again “I know you can do it!” he said while disappearing into the tunnels.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Macradon

[Anise 0]

Anise wasn’t sure what reaction she would get from Zandra when she showed up. She was also not sure what kind of reaction she wanted Zandra to show when she arrived at the place where the citizen had to protect themselves against a approaching force with skeletions and magic. But either way, it wasn’t this. She got treated like she was just a kid. A kid that had misbehaved and needed to be punished. And all she wanted was to come and save or help her. And she immedaitly got shot down. Her face turned from skincoloured to red in just a few second. She grit her teeths. ‘’I came because… They said… I did.’’ She couldn’t say a proper sentence, why did she lost it now? It was just Zandra. Must have been because they was infront of other people. ‘’Just, shut up will ya.’’ She said turned her face away.

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133536
BD: 9
Group Members: @Zandra, @Anise, @Basuke, @Tsurei
Cumulative BD: 20

Edited January 4, 2020 by Anise

[Basuke 0]

Nothing, huh? Basuke's face scrunched up, as he looked back down on the portal. If anything, that just means he'll have to T-pose harder--!!

As stiff as he could be, he stretched himself, straining from the effort. Before he knew it, a boy beside him took his hand into his own, relaxed as could be and closed his eyes. He was surprised at the initiation, but also, what was he doing?

The boy watched as the few other people around the portal began to link their hands, and suddenly Basuke understood. Instead of tensing himself, he let go of his efforts, and with one long exhale, he closed his eyes. His thoughts-- let's not beat around the bush. He had nothing to think about. The wails and haunting screeches were all that filled the void between the group...

... And suddenly, with a high-pitched squeal, the portal closed right by their feet.

Quote

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133541
BD: 8
Group Members: Zandra, Anise, Tsurei, Basuke
Cumulative BD: 28 || The portal has been closed!

Edited January 4, 2020 by Basuke

[NIGHT 0]

She could see it -- a light at the end of the tunnel. Like, literally. There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

What had appeared as a faint glow in the distance suddenly became apparent; a gas lamp only recently lit, sitting upon a few crates of supplies. The cavern that the tunnel had lead up to was mostly empty, save for a few bats and the sounds of a wayward dripping of water. NIGHT blinked, taking a look around, before looking over to the civilians, checking to see if they were all still there.

Looks like it. One of them with messy, black hair and a thick headwrap pointed out towards an exit, their other arm wrapped in a white cast. "There! We can leave by that way!"

The rabble spoke up, curious about the outskirts of the cave they were in. Slowly, but surely, they began scattering over to the outside, leaving NIGHT alone in the cool, open space.

One group down. She wondered if there were more to escort out.

Quote

Objective: Escort Civilians to Safety
ID: 133453
LD: 8 (5, +3)
Progress: 3/3
[>> Castle Dungeons] --> [Tunnels] --> [Caves >>]

[Tsurei 0]

Rei winced when he heard the odd high-pitched sound, opening his eyes and he grinned when he saw the result, “It closed... Hell yes! One down, er…” he looked over his shoulder,

“...Several more to go,” he chuckled slightly, he then looked over at his apparent partners for the next few moments, with what was hopefully a small cooperative smile, “Let’s work together yeah?”

There seemed to be an incredibly evil looking lady, high up there in the levels, he didn’t want to get on her bad side, that’s for sure, then there was the young, red faced girl, she was sort of cute, like those nasty bad mouthed but good hearted girls at school, and the other guy seemed like one of the delinquents from high school, he probably wasn't all that bad either if he was going around doing this quest like this.

“Shall we?” he vaguely gestures to the other portals in sight,

walking along he tilts his head at them harmlessly “So... hey, name’s Rei, you guys? I’m just your usual noob from the 1st floor, accepted a quest and got my ass teleported up here, anyone know what’s going on with all this?"

Arriving at the next portal, looking down in the odd shaped pit with a glowing, swirling red light, it would be apt to call it an enemy portal to spawn monsters from, for the time being, it didn’t seem to be the case, lucky for him. He doubted he could take a single hit from a monster on the 17th floor and stay alive.

Whatever they did last time seemed to work, so he just went ahead and closed his eyes, thinking back to the shrines back home, he prayed.

Objective: Close Portal
ID: 133547
BD: 10
Group Members: @Zandra, @Anise, @Basuke, Tsu-Rei
Cumulative BD: 10
Portals Closed Personally: 1/3

Edited January 4, 2020 by Tsurei