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[PP-PT-F14] Stakeholder Meeting of the Vampire Hunting Club

Morningstar

By Morningstar,
in Intermediate Floors

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Morningstar

Morningstar 0

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Star's list of incomplete quests grew smaller and smaller as the days rolled on. Rumors were plenty of fun, but he couldn't deny that the experience rewards for killing a quest boss were far higher. Lilith had been on his mind for a long time, but he had never gone through with it. It was a long quest, he had heard, and not always a safe one. A new straight sword leaned against his desk, coincidentally perfect for the fight. "Maybe it's time to make the trip after all," he muttered. He stood, collected his weapon, and peeked out of his main floor office. HQ was empty, he thought. Maybe there was a guild member or two downstairs, but nobody he felt comfortable bringing along. With a few quick motions, he drafted a couple of identical messages and sent them along to Wulfrin and Pinball.

ms: meet me in stonewall @ 2 if you're free. going vampire hunting.

 

iatZ7Yd.png | MORNINGSTAR
 | Lv. 68 >> P. 35, Lv. 33
 | Status: [ tryna ice skate uphill ]

 Notes:
 mega slime farm active. +10% exp. also don't know why statblock is BROKEN

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Pinball

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A message from Morningstar. Something he wouldn't have expected. Vampires? Pinball shot back a response: 

pb: k

Despite the response that could mean any number of things, Pinball was, in fact, off to Stonewall. If it was for the same quest that he was thinking of (and it should be, given there weren't many centered around vampires), he was in need of the Sword Art that was unlocked through it. He had a Tech Shift. And not only that; Pinball had zero mitigation, and needed to make sure he had a good amount of ways to take some HP back whenever he did take a hit. And he wouldn't have to worry about working as hard for it if Morningstar was there. It was mostly that last part. 

He approached, visible, and said nothing by way of greeting. 

*** 

Pinball: 860/860 HP | 122/122 EN | DMG: 20 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 4 | BH: 37 | LD: 6

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Wulfrin

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"'Sup," Wulfrin said as he seemed t materialize from the shadows of a nearby building. "So finally settled on going after Lillith have we? Perfect timing too. The Sword Art we can get at the end of this thing would be helpful in the raid."

Wulfrin was starting to look more and more like Freyd everyday. Ever since his rematch with his Gemini, the shadows seemed to be attracted to him. That compounded with the less than friendly appearance of his tattered and worn armor, The Fallen Angel Garb, and the constant icy mist that surrounded him from his blade, Icingdeath, made him look the part of the titular floor 6 mob that just about every player came face to face with. In his free time Wulfrin had been studying their habits and patterns, attempting to better understand them.  He pulled back the cowl of his armor to reveal his fiery red eyes and tossed brown hair. Wulfrin looked over at the orange player. Surprisingly it was the same one that had taken on the Shadow Dragon Matriarch with them.

"Good to see you again Pinball," Wulfrin said with a nod before returning his focus to the task at hand. "So we got a game plan for this Vampire hunt? I didn't exactly bring any garlic or stakes."

* * *

Damage 3 Consumed - Liquor of Light 
Mitigation 3 Consumed - bingsu
Accuracy 2 Consumed [Filled] - Creme Brulee
Evasion 2 Consumed - Smores
Protein 2 Consumed - breakfast fry
Toxic Venom 3 Consumed - Great Basilisk Oolong Tea
Field Rations 1 Consumed

Loot Die  Consumed - Gelato

Wulfrin | HP: 806/806 | EN: 106/106 | DMG: 26 | MIT:98 | ACC:8 | AA  | EVA:2 | BH:27 | REC: 8 | FRB: 40 | TXC-V: 32 | FRZ: 64 | LD:6         

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Morningstar

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Star wondered if Pin had walked or teleported. He was quite punctual, if the former. He must have been good at time management. "Hey," he waved lazily to the taciturn orange player. Wulfrin trailed over shortly after. Star liked that they weren't matching anymore. He did look a lot gloomier in black, though. The Freyd Effect, he imagined. "Game plan. Yeah."

Out came Daywalker, sleek and silver. "Little bit of holy; little bit of burn. Hit her a lot. Et cetera."

Without further adieu, they began the journey to the town's border. Star found himself distracted by a question that lingered on his mind. He regarded Pinball specifically. "Is it safe for you to be here unstealthed?" He didn't see any guards around, but would they be in trouble if one showed up?

They passed through the main gate, arriving at the quests starting location. There were no NPCs to talk to; instead, they were to observe a fight between a dark-haired woman and a group of red-cloaks. Morningstar led the party towards a man standing watch. "What's going on here?" He asked, although he was fully aware. He had done his research. 

"Lilith tested us again. She's retreated for now, but will return. She does a damn good job keeping us on the ropes." The captain returned his weapon to his sheath before casting an eye to his men. "She managed to get a couple of my men and a few of the local guards. I managed to chase her off, but she is near-immortal without a holy weapon." He pointed towards the distant South. "The only one I know of is within the Ashen Keep. However, I don't have men to spare to retrieve it. Stonewall won't lend me any assistance either."

"Yeah, we're down."

He raised a brow. "You'd be willing to delve into an old keep, battle whatever may be inside and claim the weapon? If you are capable of that, you might as well try your luck at killing Lilith then. Careful though, she is a tricky one."

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Pinball

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He let the two of them talk. He hadn't spoken to Wulfrin the first time they'd met, and Pinball didn't yet speak to him now, either. His eyes were on the settlement ahead of them. Pinball pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. Morningstar, suddenly curious, asked him if it was safe for him to be here, unstealthed. 

"Mm. No."

Pinball vanished. 

Shadows consumed him, and he was gone in an instant. Invisible, Pinball was free to roam safezones just like any other players would. Except nobody could see him, and he couldn't interact with anything, for fear of breaking stealth and getting jumped on and thrown out by the guards. Other than that, though, it was like any other player's experience. 

The train of thought amused him, and it was the icy faced killer's thoughts that kept him company as he walked alongside (but not together with) Wulfrin and Morningstar. 

*** 

Stealth: ID#233599 LD: 12+9 = 21 Stealth Rating

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Wulfrin

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“Feels like Barovia all over again,” Wulfrin shrugged as Morningstar went over the plan. “Let’s just hope Daybreaker can carry us to the end.”

Wulfrin watched the brief exchange between Morningstar and Pinball regarding their current situation. As Pin replied and basically disappeared in a puff of smoke, Wulfrin couldn’t help but let off a chuckle. For an orange player, Pin seemed very nonchalant about it. Wulfrin and Morningstar marched side by side up to the tail end of some ongoing conflict. Wulfrin would merely observe as Morningstar took the lead in the conversation. The mention of the weapon was interesting though. It may be buried deep in an old dusty keep and possibly heavily guarded, but if it could give them an extra edge, why not attempt to get it. 

“What can I say,” Wulfrin shrugged as the captain questioned their sanity. “We’re just a couple of crazy dudes that kill things. I’d say we’ve got a pretty decent chance of beating Lilith.”

Yup, Wulfrin thought to himself. Definitely Barovia only instead of a rich Vampire Lord, it’s a demented female vampire. At least the legendary sword side quest is still a thing. 

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Morningstar

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"Y'all got horses or something?"

"Horses? No. Take these," the captain pointed to a few insect-like brass contraptions.

"Oh. Okay."

Morningstar hesitantly climbed onto one of the mechanical creatures, looking over the various controls. It reminded him of the time he had to pilot an airship. There were dozens of unnamed buttons and levers; all that he recognized were the steering controls. He poked at the joysticks, but they didn't do anything. "How do I turn it on?" He called out.

"The big button on the left," the captain returned.

He pressed it and the vehicle came to life. Big bug eyes glowed bright amber, and the control panel lit up as well. "Cool."

When he had piloted the airship, he had crashed it into a harbor full of cargo ships and almost killed himself and his passenger. Maybe metal bugs were easier to control, though. "Okay..." he peered at his map. "Straight ahead, to the Ashen Keep."

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Pinball

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Pinball followed along, invisible. He watched and he listened. 

The guards didn't offer them horses, but offered them some weird bug-like mechanical invention to ride to the keep instead. Pinball frowned. Wasn't that swell? The only time he had ever driven something, it had been a ship, and he'd ended up destroying that one by crashing into an island. He wished that he could just walk, instead. But if Wulfrin and Morningstar were both taking them, Pinball would too, or he wouldn't be able to keep up. 

He waited until the others were mounted and leaving before activating his. Technically, it was theft -- not that it mattered, given the status of his cursor -- and the guards from behind him would shout indistinct things as he rode it out of the area after Wulfrin and Morningstar. He would have remained hidden, for what it was worth, but the mechanical hum of the machines they rode did not help in his efforts to remain inconspicuous. 

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Wulfrin

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"Great," Wulfrin grumbled slightly as he mounted his insect thing. "No horses and now we have to ride ugly bug things." Wulfrin sighed as he took the reigns. Carapace? Wulfrin couldn't really find a way to properly control the beast, so he was kind of just doing the best with the hand he was dealt. To be completely blunt though, he had zero experience in any type of equestrian skills, and it was on full display. He struggled to stay mounted the whole trip to the keep.

Once they did arrive, Wulfrin was very glad to dismount. The scene before them was a dire one. There were tattered bits of the titular red coats of the guards scattered amongst crumbling debris. The front entrance was pretty much completely in ruins, not that you could get to it. Wulfrin began to pace the exterior walls of the keep. If there was one thing he had learned form years of playing, and even running, RPGs, it was that ruined keeps always have a secret underground entrance. His intuition proved to be correct as he pushed a large section of collapsed roofing off of essentially the entrance to a root cellar. It was chanied closed, but simply holding the tip of Icingdeath to the lock caused it to freeze over. One swift strike with the pommel later, and the way forward was opened.

"Found our way in," Wulfrin called out to his group. "Any objection to me taking the lead?" 

He didn't wait for a response. Once Morningstar and Pinball had the cellar door in sight, Wulfrin pressed forward into the secret tunnel.

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Morningstar

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They found the Ashen Keep, only to find it reduced to rubble. Sticking out from piles of rock and abandoned weapons were bits of tattered red fabric. "Be our guest," Star answered, but Wulfrin was already far ahead. He led them down a winding hallway, and along the way, Star peeked into a cell-like niche. "Oh cool—it's a prison," he quipped. 

Too busy judging architecture, Star nearly bumped into Wulfrin, who had stopped abruptly in the middle of the corridor. "Gross," Star grimaced. A number of undead corpses stood in their path, with rusty mechanical constructs standing idly in the back. Star had run out of jokes to fling, and instead chose to dive into combat.

His straight sword ripped from its scabbard, cleaving through the closest of the four revenants. He severed its cloak, dropping red cloth to the floor, and immediately bounced on to the next enemy, slicing across its chest.

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Pinball

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Pinball followed in hiding, never very far behind. He was unfamiliar with the quest; he didn't know the steps to it, and was completely unaware of what dangers they'd need to face to complete it. But Morningstar, on the other hand, did seem to know what he was doing. He let him and Wulfrin lead the way and tried to ignore the sudden urge to stab one of them in the back. 

The Red Cloaked Revenants were... zombies? He wasn't sure. They almost reminded him of himself. They seemed very interested in the constructs placed conspicuously in the room, Pinball noted. Morningstar led the charge, rushing ahead and slashing through two of the four. Pinball didn't wait much longer. Materializing from the shadows, he soared through the air and let fly a hailstorm of daggers down on the group of mobs. One after the other, their rotten knees buckled, gripped by stun and an unfortunately large stew of status effects. 

Pinball hit the ground quietly and skipped a few feet backwards, his arms hidden beneath his cloak. 

*** 

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Wulfrin

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"Really going hard on the whole Gothic Horror tropes aren't we?" Wulfrin chuckled as they made their way through the winding corridor lined with cells. "I hope this weapon is worth it at least."

Wulfrin stopped dead in his tracks as he approached a massive pile of corpses clad in similar cloaks to the guards they had met back at the main settlement. Seeing the obvious undead ambush before them Wulfrin carefully took note of their surroundings, namely the large constructs that lined the prison walls. Wulfrin didn't know if they were functional, but he also wasn't keen to test them. Morningstar moved first as the corpses began to rise. There was quite the hoard before them and Star happened to miss two of the ones charging the duo.

Where'd Pinball go?

A question that was quickly answered as the rougish orange player appeared from the shadows unleashing a hailstorm of daggers upon the walking dead. With his targets stunned, Wulfrin was able to bounce between the four and trap them in a neat little AoE strike.

"Don't know if you've clocked them," Wulfrin remarked as he prepared for another round of attacks. "Probably best to keep the undead from getting to the constructs. Who knows if those things still function."

* * *

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Morningstar

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They were tanky for zombies. Morningstar flourished his blade, decapitating the closest revenant. He leveraged his momentum from the first attack to expedite the second. A barrage of strikes went into another revenant, cutting through its health bar like it was nothing.

From the dark came two more. With each red cloak they took down, another joined the fight as a replacement. The wave seemed endlessly repetitive. He darted forth again, bouncing from one enemy to the next, although not with enough force to kill either of the mobs. One more AoE from either of his teammates would finish the job, he thought. Without a word, he sunk back into the party, allowing for another to move in and fight.

"Yeah," Star agreed. "Zombies are enough for me. No robots, please."

The constructs stood idly in the back, awaiting instruction from the shadows. None of them stirred; something was required to bring them to life.

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Pinball

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Pinball flickered in and out of sight. Corporeal one moment, gone the next. He let the others fight for a moment. Took the second or two to catch his breath. Pinball had a penchant for hiding in plain sight, in and out of combat; riskier, probably, but it was something that he had grown used to over the years(?) he had spent trapped in the game. There was a comfort in its familiarity. In walking in that weird space between states of being. In walking in a world where he didn't exist. 

When Pinball reappeared, he'd buried a dagger in the backs of each of the zombies. He clicked his tongue. 

"My bad," he said, though he wasn't sure if either of them heard him over the Revenant's hissing and groaning. He should have just finished them off. They were being swarmed. He'd adjust going forward. The fight was going smoothly so far. 

*** 

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Wulfrin

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Wulfrin was in full crowd control mode. With extreme speed, while being assisted by the system via a sword art, Wulfrin dashed around the room landing a strike against the four zombie dudes that had entered the kill zone. Two of the already severely weakened zombies finally fell to his strikes, being quickly replaced by two more. One of the remaining two froze over into a statue that quickly thawed. Bothe of the remaining two found it incredibly difficult to move, as Pinball had basically denied them the courtesy. The sheer amount of effects being stacked on the poor bastards was slightly saddening.

"I think we're making progress?" Wulfrin called out to his companions.

Wulfrin returned to his starting point just be side Morningstar, blade prepared to strike once more.

"How many of these things you think we'll have to cut down?" Wulfrin jokingly asked. "They may be sponges for damage, but not near as bad as those damn slimes were."

* * *

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  • 2 weeks later...
Morningstar

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Morningstar was wondering the same thing. One after another, the revenants swarmed the party. The trio worked to keep them away from the mechanical constructs, but every time they cut one down, another would swiftly take its place.

He dodged the rotting fist of an undead red cloak, narrowly evading its (probably disease ridden) claws. Ducking low, he lunged. The impact was immense as his punch found its mark, directly in the belly of the same revenant. It stumbled back, gasping and groaning but continuing its enthralled assault on the blonde. He arced his sword wide, narrowly missing any lethal points of its body, but by sheer luck damaging the other creatures around them.

DoTs ticked down; a deadly concoction of bleed, blight, burn, and static. If he couldn't kill them, the status effects surely would. He kept his distance, waiting for either them or Pinball to finish the job.

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Pinball

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Morningstar didn't respond to Wulfrin's question. Pinball didn't either. 

His daggers did the talking for him. He didn't like being bunched up around Freyd and Morningstar. They were both swinging swords around, and he didn't want to get caught up with the horde, either. He was probably drawing aggro now, though. He had hit them all pretty hard. Pinball backed up. He weaved through the crowd trying to get some breathing room, give them some space, stay on the outside; if there was one thing that he was certain of, it was that he fought better on the back foot. 

Pinball exhaled. That was two more down. There were surely more to come. He once again eyed the machines lining the corridors. It was definitely a mechanic that could come up and bite them in the ass if they weren't careful. He didn't know that for sure -- he just felt it. It was intuition. He'd been playing the game for too long. 

*** 

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  • 2 months later...
Wulfrin

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"Right," Wulfrin said under his breath acknowledging that his question had gone unanswered. "Less talk more action." 

Two more Revenants took the place of those slain by Pinball. Unlike the remaining ones however, these had avoided the rogue's initial stunning sweep. This was a void Wulfrin could fill and proceeded to do so with precision. He made sure to group up the already stunned Revenants to not waste any damage. The four swiftly became clumped together as Wulfrin expertly corralled them with his Stunning Strike. They had become easy pickings for his companions as they awaited their lumps in the center of the room, far away from any of the constructs.

The HP bars slowly ticked down, the multitude of debuffs and effects that radiated from Pinball's blade leaving the two already injured Revenants with a simple sliver of a bar left. Wulfrin's survey revealed that the herd was thinning significantly and secretly hoped it wouldn't be too much longer. His energy bar was already down to almost half; if this fight were to go on much longer, he'd become a sitting duck.

* * *

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  • 1 month later...
Morningstar

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With one heavy sweep, Morningstar cut through the three of the four remaining revenants. Like some sort of terrible allergic reaction, they burst into flames at the touch of his Holy enhancement. The blackened husks barely had time to stagger before collapsing into embers, their unholy forms unable to resist the blade's power. A single mob remained in the wave--a mockery of life, inching slowly towards the mechanical constructs,  barely capable of movement at all.

"Never leave home without Reactin," Morningstar quipped, brushing ash off his coat. His sword hummed faintly in his grip, still hot from the explosive sword art.

The revenant shambled closer, but Morningstar did nothing. He had done his part and taken a hefty portion of the loot. Surely, he could have finished the last one himself, but what for? This wasn’t a test of endurance. Let the others clean up and share in the spoils.

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