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Aabcehmu posted:
It also implies leaving red/burner behind and who the gently caress picks that, lmao?
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Jun 14, 2023 23:05
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Regallion posted:It also implies leaving red/burner behind and who the gently caress picks that, lmao? She could probably nuke the temple tbh
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Jun 14, 2023 23:07
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Captain Foo posted:She could probably nuke the temple tbh She doesn't have any of the petals with her but that might not stop her.
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Jun 14, 2023 23:09
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Doesn't she have the sealed Moloch Buster? These things sound like they can make it unsealed VERY quickly.
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Jun 14, 2023 23:21
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Lionheart is a terrible idea, because these things will notice us and it doesn’t help Red escape. Vampire speed is a bad idea, again, because they’re faster than us. Gravity waves won’t work on the flying ones and they’re faster than us. Cheeseburger magics plus Voorish sign is something that might work. It distracts them. They might start fighting each other, and if it’s tainted with bad juju, it might be like feeding them poison. It’ll only make the strongest ones even stronger, of course. But that’s a Later problem.
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Jun 14, 2023 23:53
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VOTING CLOSED - How To Juggle A Buggle Huggle [Lionheart] Run in to grab a treasure before running to Red. [x4 DX Check 16] - 14 [Vampire-Parasite] Increase your Speed to distract the bugs and let them chase you. [-12 HP] - 6 Use Dark Wave to blast the north path clear to Red. [-12 HP] - 2 LET THEM FEAST! [Vo̷orįsh Şig̴n͘ Check 16 + Cheeseburger Magics Check 18] - 11 [Viable] Run away immediately. Red can handle herself. - 0 LOADING...  ...LOADING
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Jun 15, 2023 00:28
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I am now very afraid.
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Jun 15, 2023 08:50
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 PRESSURE: [Viable. Ish.] Okay. First thing's first. There is still residual light. You spot Red and gesture quickly like Camper should- sine-wave hand motion directed at her, bang bang gun hand with the other at the bugs. Your face is blank before the danger of immediate mass evisceration. The dryad cultist stares out from behind her mask in the diamond dark. (Viable IQ - Figure the route and signal Red.) 16 [3]+[2]+[5] = 10 - Success. (Red's IQ - wha?) 14 [1]+[5]+[1] = 7 - Oh! No time to see if it worked. Got to juke. Your bones are quicksilver with beige, biology so so smoothed out to a truly awful average of clean superhuman. It's almost ultrahuman, which must feel even worse. All the same it's a wonder of motion you can realistically do, every part of you working cleanclock enough to produce short miracles. Here's how it breaks down- 1 is to skip over the pond to the stable ground on the other side, to start a quick-run mudslide to the nearest batch of goods you can lift. This also allows Red to do a trick of her own if she got your gesture. (Viable DX #1 - Trick the pond skip.) 16 [5]+[2]+[6] = 13 - Success. It's unsteady. You are superhuman, but this is ridiculous work. First a muddy midnight leap, and then a straight dash over grass and tangle and rock and slop up a long many yards to the glittering treasures reflecting your diamondshine skin. The insects are still dazzled by the lovely light... but you're moving and that pisses them off. Oh so so so MANY killer claws are clicky-clicking clack clack. Crab and lobster, scorpion and ant, a death-hold into poke-poke-poke-poke-poke-poke-poke-poke. And there are count viable about ten of them that could probably outpace over to you if they hadn't been dazzled by the diamond light. Eighty loving bug-hugs. Your body dancing ridiculous as the scythe waited impatiently for them to finish an hour later after the rage had managed to finally subside. So what is the cost of eighty hugs? You start to race, to glide the slide, using watermud to do a real trick dip-grab out of sight of most of the bugs for a precious second more to repeat the dazzle effect as the light dims to just glitter. Ace it. Think of the skateboard. (Viable DX #2 - Grab and slide.) 16 [6]+[4]+[5] = 15 - Success. God save. You're sloppy, and without this viable central nervous, you'd be flopped and stuck in the midnight mud. Oh, the sky is tinted and howling with those irregular starwinds. They HATE seeing you out doing daring this late. But you're viable, and you do the dare in full view by stealing a treasure from the temple. Each statue seems to have something viable for the taking, but you're only here for one on the go. Please throw the bag through the window for you to catch as you peel out while tossing a wad of $100s. Keep the change. No time to assess what it is. Just grab it and go. Now here comes the actual trick of this dip, a very messy longjump cross over more pond, to a lone chunk of stable land beyond. But before that comes, what came of Red's chance to make the way clear? Those glittering shell-scarred bugs with the massive one-two claws have roused much faster than the killers, and there's a very clear route out of here. The thing is, that you don't know even in your viability, is that Red has been reluctant to casually express Lordly power. But being a weak hero of bladeplay alone wasn't going to win, and her body would give before the assaults on the shield would end. So it's a sacrifice choice. She has to. The all of her awful strength, though it meant becoming beacon in the black. Otherwise they'd both be dead anyways, and it was her own-felt fault for having rushed terrified into the forbidden area of the wetland woods in order to escape the find of one of her Matriarchs during the separation. This power meant they'd find her again, their senses screaming like a maxed geiger counter. But gently caress it. She had Counselor duties that superseded all else. (Red - Hellfire) 19 [2]+[4]+[6] = 12 - Success! [20 HP spent = 20d+20 damage!] Red HP: 17 / 50 Red FP: 52 / 99 98 damage!! x4 Greater Claw Bugs killed.  She's going overkill because she's betting it all on her Champion Camper. She HAS to make sure these nasty natural born killers get the message for just a little longer. The Lord was already in her motions when you started the first leap, wrenching herself violently to call up the soul-scorching golden flames. They billow through the dread of the witching night, empowered by the hour, simply ashing clean away the insects and all the flora between them and where you have been just a moment before. The soulkill flames curve around the water and away from you during your slide-grab, alerting the entire temple of some terrible and unknown danger as they go on high alert. You need to make this jump. (Viable DX #3 - Do a longways sidejump.) 16 [3]+[6]+[6] = 15 - Success... God! Your leg almost gives. You've been going so hard and this stuff is awful in your body. But it's still peak viability, and you need to believe as you pocket your stolen goods and make it to the other side of death valley. The last trick of the body is going to be navigating the new hell of the scorched lands, leaping over small pits and making it to Red for an escape before the others catch on to your sparkle motion. A flume-plume of incredibly golden darkness clouds up into the sky, dead souls and life allowing it to rumble thunderously. Don't think. The beige is still drenching your biology. Go the last mile and make it to your Counselor. Imagine there's a spider chasing at your back. (Viable DX #4 - Wallhug and roll.) 16 [6]+[4]+[6] = 16 - Exact Success. You spontaneously vomit halfway to the wall. The smell and sensation pierces you and the hour terrifies you with the sky and you want to scream but just puke one short bit instead, and you stumble and then keep moving with a grace that you hate you will NEVER have without something Viable in your body. This is so awful. But then it's gone and you're stressing your central nervous to a limit that it's screaming at the muscles about. Such sloppy grace. You tumble and tuck a few times but never seem to lose momentum, and it ends with you falling into Red's arms with a single broken second of frightened cry and hiccup, before viability has you both acting with instinct that you both understood as survivors. You have to escape into the mad of night. You both have to get it right. There's going to be pursuit no matter what you do, but you can mitigate it if you both manage to make it smart. Come on. Prove you're loving worth something even if you're drugging a cheat to win. For one of the ONLY people it will ever matter for. (Viable DX #5 - Run over dangerous wet dark terrain with Red in hand without stopping.) 16 [6]+[5]+[1] = 12 - Success. (Viable HT - Manage your beige-bubble lungs and run with nonstop efficiency.) 16 [5]+[5]+[5] = 15 - Success. (Viable PE - Figure out which way is west in the total confusion.) 16 [6]+[5]+[1] = 12 - Success. (Left the Bug Temple with minimal pursuit.) You can't think about it. How bad this stresses your body and thoughts, with how far you keep pushing yourself and still almost loving up, even with this viability torturing your thoughts. It's all gone as you try to figure out your lungs in the stinking airs, while Red is dragged along, over small drops and quick climbs and roots and bugs and leaves and it's wet and you need to hang a left and put water between you and the stones and keep breathing right and keep moving right don't stop and bounce the gravity out over your mind. You're going to do it. You're smiling as you stumble and pant grossly. You manage to avoid the ponds and bogs while out in the night, until finally you go down such a long steep hill that Red finally shakes you to a stop, holding you as your steps remain in eerie lockstep viability. You calm with sword drawn while she looks up at the wind-worn sky. Then... there! Something explodes up above the treetops, not too far away. What was that awful flash of fiery white light? A magnesium burst, by chemical-sure. But now, something responds- over there, from the tower, there's a grand streak of discolored wriggling lights. Like snaking spotlights fighting each other to escape the world. Another response! Northern, casting terrible, a streak of sudden pure lightnings that wrench themselves out of the starry clouds. Red hastily digs out more paper and glowing crayon. She scribbles with amazing speed; although her handwriting is scrawly messy, it's still legible despite how tiny she writes it. You're still looking at the three plumes of brights as she presses the paper into your unsworded palm. You read the glowing letters in the watery windy dead of the witching hour. 'I USED POWER THEY SMELLED IT ARE COMING' 'SUBURBS NEAR GET PAST TO SW BIG FENCE' 'WILL FIND YOU THERE I NEED TO LOSE THEM' 'WILL TAKE A FEW DAYS SO WAIT UP FOR ME' 'MAP TO HELP' You feel something terrible in your heart, but you're still perfectly viable enough to understand what Red is telling you. Those plumes- Sunburners coming. Can't compromise the cover yet. She can't hide if you're on the line. But she can give you a cheat with a map of the territory, and a place with some time to get there. A part of you wonders abou-  It silently drifts up to the both of you, descending from the darkness of the dense-leaf trees. Red only has time to aim sword and shield in ready, as you hold her shoulder and step back with sword aimed out. Neither of you can be angry about the straggling catch-up. After all, it's: OST: The Witching Hour BOSS FIGHT LOG posted:
What a horrible sound. What incredible motion. You're running for your life, because your brain is pure with viable. Grim beige-blue in hue. It's telling you, yes, the horrible insect did move that fast, and Red did just save you from being minced in an instant. She can't do that again. She has to fight back with something horrible that will be like a signal flare, a Sunburner Special to light up the witch-houred night. You can't be around for that. Head start, just go, while the viable still keeps you in the show. Your knees are creaking as you force them to sprint, not looking behind you once, not when there's a flash to the sky and a great roar of combustion. Just run for it. (Viable HT - Despite terror, despite sleepless exhaustion, despite confusion, despite pain, run as fast and as far and as evenly as you can.) 16 [3]+[3]+[3] = 9 - True Viable Success. [VIABLE] 3+3+3. The most Viable of rolls. Perfectly even and probable. Thus, by Viable's exacting standards, this deserves the paradox of a tremendous excellence. Your bubbling lungs suddenly do something bizarre, as your tremendous biology aligns into a perfect chemical mix. Your breathing, blood rate, oxygen mix, speed of motion, all of it is doing something to hook the viable concoction right into your alchemically-treated lungs, fusing them into a critical mass of overdrive. You start to sprit, at maximum speed. Nonstop. No pause. You're breathing, gasping for air, but you find that something wonderful happens: you hit that very special point of a dash, where you're inhaling air like a storm, but you don't feel any fatigue yet: just the roar of the engine. You're at peak, all energy into the action. But then it just stays there. It never becomes chore or desperation. It's raw sprint, central nervous at its best. Acrobatic serenity. You're gasping in air, but every single breath is a relief and a plea to go even faster. Beige bubbles militantly line your thundering lungs, their shape deforming with magical precision as your mitochondria, high out of their minds, diligently supplies the Mana necessary to make such reactions possible.  Too many emotions, and they all cast away on the roaring hot winds of the terrible night. You're not going to be viable much longer at all. Rubescence will be with you a while longer thanks to the dreadful heat of your blood and the fires on the wind, but the beige will fade with the diamond in the dawn. Dawn, which you CANNOT be caught outside in! You're tearing screaming now, something ridiculous-furious with spit and snarls and constant massive leaps of body and glide to overcome gigantic distances while the viability of perfect lung function still works. Fire- on the wind. You can smell it, and the parasite in your heart stirs a little in worry. But it calms. It understands that the scalding hate in your blood will keep that pain out if it keeps its end of the deal. Honestly, it loves the constant flow of weird stuff you keep dumping into the ecosystem. It never thought it could think like this, but now it has and does. Oh, right. The gigantic bounce-house roar of the heart. Actually, speaking of, one thing it's learned to keep itself occupied is to survey the exact chemistries of your blood. It notices that the adrenal overload, diamond potency, and viable alchemical will all be thinning out soon. That means an ugly crash, going by the hormone calculus. But! See, that's the dirty thing, it's been getting savvy with how to regulate this sort of issue for the sake of sending emergency packets to go blow past the blood-brain barrier. Since that way it doesn't have to deal with as bad of a hangover, by way of which you don't have to. It's got a lot of this ruby stuff still processing, which means with some ace timing, it can wait out the passing of this bleak beige sedation, and then let the red rip roar to clean house from how bad-news the comedown is going to be. You're not paying attention to a word of this. All you know is that the parasite is doing a fantastic job of regulating your heart in this extreme extended sprint, as woodland gives way to crumbling hot pavement. You're entering something. You're about to be consumed by something. You're going hellish at twenty one viable miles an hour, and there's seven to cover between you and the come of the day. The Sun cannot be allowed to see you still awake when it rises. But you're calmed because of how evil the Viable injection is, working at its plain perfect peak of the true average accidentally achieved by your panic-breathing. Red... you know she's okay, but will she BE okay? As the beige leaves your blood and the diamond stars to darken, you can taste anxiety on your gums. Gotta get ahead of it. Find collapse. Stay viable a little little longer. Think. Think. (Viable IQ - What do I do for shelter.) 16 [3]+[5]+[4] = 12 - Success. ...there's fire on the wind. But there's clear delineations in the soil's eruptions of pavement and heat. Keep going, and maybe there will be structure to shelter in, just long enough for the collapse to take hold and then be survived. That makes sense. That's viable. Just have to find it. Skies growing strange in color through the cutting wounds of the skies. Hurry. Dawn. (Viable PE - Follow the land and the map to find something viable.) 16 [2]+[6]+[6] = 14 - Success. It happens again. You're so close to failure that your anxiety punches through like a spear and you cough up something chemical and terrible. You gasp on the ashen air and slow down, knowing you have just enough left in the tank to keep following on. You're bouncing back perfectly from the sudden understanding of how awful you are when not Viable, following your psychics and senses to eye out how the pavement forms up across the withering Rivergreen grasses. You get up on one hill, realizing you're going to have to crest quite a few to get up to the full view of what's making all that smoke. Weird how it's not flowing out away from Burner's lands... even when the winds blows back to the east, the gathering smoke that passes by doesn't budge. Not important. Ascend. For Red. Another mission. Another longhaul. She HAS to be by your side when you slay Lord! She has to know. That you really are the one. Camp Champ.  Hey. Hold on. There, set into the teetering top of the longsteep hill. Ash falling on the red sky winds, dawn coming to slay, your body teetering on the edge of collapse. But at hill's crown there is a weird treehouse, broken and abandoned, but set perfectly for you to catch some safe rest and look out into the horizon of where you must escape to. It's a quick clamber up to the structure, dim and dusty and reeking of burn-decay. You check inside, sword angled... but there's nothing but a great dark empty room with soot piles and nothing else. It's warm, lonely, and had a dark corner of shadow to hide in from any light that comes through the broken side. You can bear this shelter. Viable. You collapse to your knees and crawl around to angle yourself to see out the right side, while you get comfortable in your crinkly Sunburner suit, and assess the damages. Muscle/Nerves/Brains/Body/Ego/Psyche posted:Your VIABILITY is wearing off... PRESSURE: [For once, there can be a Viable release and come-down instead of a shattering.] Okay... good enough. Good enough. Dawn soon. Dawn. You need to just let it all force you to blackout, and then come what may. You take one look out at the overwhelming vista before you, the Lording of Burner's Land, before you fall over and stare at the map she drew you. Okay... yeah. Yes. You'll make sense of this tomorrow. But you're here. You survived. Red will survive. The next leg. The next overcome. You're ready to let your viability go, now. You're ready for the smallest dream.  [Red has provided a Full Reveal of the entire Au Feu Suburb area!] You'll wonder of where to wander on this little crayon scribble as you dream beigelessly. As you start to fade into chemical darkness, curled in the corner of the dead room, you turn the map paper over. There's words there. You whisper them back to yourself, before you drift into the hour of dawn. COUNSELOR RED BLACK CROWS CHAMP CHALLENGE PYROURBAN SURVIVAL COURSE GOAL: BEAT BURNER UP I BELIEVE - GOOD LUCK!
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Jun 17, 2023 06:55
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Lotta interesting options here. Voted for the surgeon thing, god we could use some extra healing ability and the theater as that seems more relevant to our interests than sewers.
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Jun 17, 2023 09:49
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We need food, and sewers are not known for their cuisine. Now to pick between the other options...
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Jun 17, 2023 10:05
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Actually to give my thoughts on each item: Ritual of Purging - i assume a new spell. I actually very strongly considered this, as it sounds like a way to lower either corruption, or shed unwanted status effects, but we are not a very good spellcaster yet. Black Treasure Map - as far as i'm concerned this is either a "reroll" or "Skip this choice to maybe get something better later", and like, nah. Summery Potion - unidentified consumable? no. Magogkolec - Okay, a check says "Kolec" is "Spike" in polish, so it would be Magog's spike, aka not anything we want. Airhell Shell - does not sounds useful at all, in fact it sounds like something that can cause a lot of problem for everyone in an area, us included. Caduceus Inverse - so uh, reverse...healing? Lets us hurt people with first aid? Pass. Door Chalk - oh that's a FUN one, if it's the thing that lets you draw doors to somewhere on any surface. The only reason i am not picking this one is that i think the surgeon item is better. Surgeon's Manteaux - sounds like something that boosts healing, if it lets us heal others - even better. Voted. Six Slaying Bullets - sounds cool, but we need a decent supply of normal bullets if we want to avoid wasting them. Hate-Hallowed - i have no idea what that is and tbh i don't want it for the same reasons as the airhell shell. Crumbling Fossil - i have no idea what benefit this could have. Trade good, maybe? Traveler's Plate - i am not sure what they mean by plate here, like a plate armor? A dinner plate? A small engraving? Either way, pass. Green Mana Gem - i have no idea what mana gems are for and we are not a spellcasting type, skip. Regallion fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jun 17, 2023 |
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Jun 17, 2023 13:50
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I voted for the Traveler's Plate. Best case scenario, it's something we can add to the black suit, and worst case it'll be trade bait.
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Jun 17, 2023 15:37
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The last time we were in a theater, it was horrifying. So of course, I voted for that.
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Jun 17, 2023 16:05
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I voted for Surgeon's Manteaux and the Fiery Theater, since healing (esp. healing other people as Regallion pointed out) seems very strong, and the Fiery Theater sounds both fun and like it might have some refreshments.
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Jun 17, 2023 17:10
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Let’s go downtown Also that was a heck of a writeup, very good
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Jun 18, 2023 16:06
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I love door chalk. No more trouble getting out next time we get stuck out of bounds!
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Jun 18, 2023 20:26
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VOTING CLOSED - Where The Summer Isn't Allowed To End Ritual of Purging - 2 Black Treasure Map - 8 Summery Potion - 0 Magogkolec - 2 Airhell Shell - 0 Caduceus Inverse - 2 Door Chalk - 7 Surgeon's Manteaux - 5 Six Slaying Bullets - 3 Hate-Hallowed - 0 Crumbling Fossil - 1 Traveler's Plate - 3 Green Mana Gem - 1 Stop off to get your bearings at the Fiery Theater. - 21 Wander out into the main streets to reach the center downtown of the Au Feu Suburbs. - 9 Sharp it south to the mountain-line and the Scorching Sewers. - 1 LOADING...  ...LOADING
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Jun 18, 2023 20:50
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Huh. Hope this theater trip goes better than the last one.
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Jun 18, 2023 21:07
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Arcanuse posted:Huh. Hope this theater trip goes better than the last one. I don't. 
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Jun 18, 2023 22:22
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I'll forever be curious about what a Voorish Sign + Burger roll of 6+6+6 would have looked like. Catastrophic failure + exact perfectly viable success
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Jun 20, 2023 06:35
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The Blue Book posted:[ALCHEMARIUM SERIES #43]
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Jun 21, 2023 06:38
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Yeah, remembering how we bragged to red about hurting hunter is not gonna be great, tho thankfully i don't think we did anything particularly reprehensible otherwise.
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Jun 21, 2023 07:32
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Well, it's good to know our out-of-nowhere bloodlust isn't a normal aspect of us, but a nasty psychological side-effect of the drug. And I just hope that when it works it's way out of our system, we remember how bloodthirsty it made us and that's enough to get us to stay away from it.
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Jun 21, 2023 12:17
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eeeeeh, i have a feeling we are gonna have a use for it, it's entirely too potent to ignore, especially for our skewed build. P sure it allowed us to actually do LESS murder than we'd otherwise have to, with the matriarch in the searchtower.
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Jun 21, 2023 12:40
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It has its uses, but it's also something that we should probably avoid using unless we absolutely have to. Hell, considering what was in our system before we were given it, I'd say it's even money on whether or not taking it while "clean" would have even more detrimental effects. Or maybe we can use the Silver and Shrooms to prepare mentally so we can stay "Us" before taking it next time.
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Jun 21, 2023 13:01
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I like that it's got the nickname Beigeout. I don't know why that tickles me so, but it does. 
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Jun 21, 2023 15:06
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I’m partial to Vilebull myself.
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Jun 21, 2023 23:03
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The shadows of distant flames dancing races over your sweating face. Eye half-sealed by goo wrench open in response, and then comes the scream. ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][60%] [You will never be viable again.] Gruesome vibration. The scream is stopped by the bile that comes up instead, as you pound a hand into the sooty floorboards. You roll and rip off your clothes, sweat having soaked the chemical suit so thoroughly it's stained your skin in bizarre orange patterns. Your skin, which you rip at with clumsy-strong fingers which bruise and gouge. It all feels so horrible. You step around the room as you keep half-screaming, tears pouring down sooted cheeks as you feel your muscles contract with constant confusion over the sudden return to strength. But it isn't your six-pack's subscription that bothers you, nor your garbage disposal. It's the central nervous, it's the compromised cranium, it's this disgusting crackling in every nerve and neuron that makes you contort. You stumble and slam into the gross hard floor, another spew of something beige and vile passing your cracked lips. You try to shout Red's name, but your voice fails over and over, until so many bubbles pop in your lungs that you cough up water. You sit and shiver, the sweat not stopping. Everything. It's all back to baseline. That ridiculous coherence and ease of motion is simply gone, and you suddenly feel that much more doomed by the scythe. You NEED more. What was that?! It was something the Sunburners gave you, wasn't it? You have to stop this feeling! You have to control yourself. You need to clench your fist and stand up screa- Lordly Parasite posted:It wakes up with the worst hangover ever, and it's taking it out on your valves. Squirming mad. You collapse and gasp for air, but then something SPARKS up inside that sends you shouting back to your feet, moving back and forth as you pound your chest. What the Hell is it doing?! Another five minutes of pacing, breathing, adrenaline rollercoaster, eyes glittering as you feel yourself slowly start to level out. You don't know what the hell is happening to your body, but you know it's got to be something to do with the Sunburner party and then meeting Red. Red! You have a few days, right? The note. You shakily pull it out of your suit, wincing from how dry your hands are as they scrape over the paper. God, you want to wear your suit, to feel its dark softness, but you have to keep up with the wine-made duds in order to keep up with Sunburner deceptions and assaults. Acheing, you stumble over to the hole in the side of the house, staring up out at the pitch-black sky of the Lorded Land. You can tell though. Only a few hours of sleep, the substances inside supplementing what's lost, which means it's... Dawn. THE THIRTIETH DAY HP: [ 16 / 30 ] [+4 HP] FP: [ 15 / 15.▒ ] ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][30%] [Still feeling lovely-tense.] You crouch again to spend a while burping and coughing up awful, still shaking from the terrible loss of that smoothed state. You want Red. You want your Counselor to hug you and tell you that you did a good job, and that you and Blue can go to the mess hall and you'll be good this time and you'll eat food instead of screaming in the corner. Standing up takes a hot minute, while you drag on the gross orangey suit and revile at the feeling of its cheap scratchy fabric on your dry and sensitive skin. Eugh. You got lots of little knicks and chemicals burns polka-dotting you. You have to stop your racing thoughts and focus up. You're suited and shrouded, everything now feeling comfortably warm. The air though; ovenlike. Are you really that retreated from the hate of fire? Your sword is dragged up and pack re-shouldered. You're a little ashamed to be so grateful to not have to lug that awful giant case around, and you pray it doesn't burden Red. She was awful eager to take it though, which makes sense: Burner clearly has the coolest toys in Hell's Arsenal, so a traitor getting hands on one must feel like immense insurance. Right. You gotta go. You want to lie down and cry more and feel terrible, but you're so anxious to keep ahead with Red that you can't stand to sleep more. While securing your pack, you suddenly jolt in recall of having grabbed something from that horrible bug-infested ruin. It feels cold and soft, making it easy to fish out of the bag. It's... huh. Uh? Wow. It's a thick roll of dense parchment, so dense it's plastic-like. It's pitch black glossy and heavy in the hands, wrapped with a little red ribbon. You yank it open and slap the parchment down with a loud slap, startling enough to pull your gun when the surface of the gloss-black starts to bleed out bright red and grays, squirming over the surface rapidly. You calm a little when you see it isn't casting a deathspell or trying to jump at you; it's forming a picture.  A map? Oh! Hold on. 「Magery」Hold on hold on hold on. You can feel your mitochondria sparking from little rays of colored Mana cutting over them as you look into the enchanted parchment. This is absolutely a map to treasure, treasure you intuitively know to be powerful. You stuff the thing away, knowing with magic accuracy that it's a map of somewhere you've been near before. You just need to figure out where.  But not now. You need to keep heading into Burner's lands, and you need to start truly building your intent. You can FEEL it now, Megalith, mighty, your senses attuned from having brought one down. You're close. God. Again. But Burner is so much more scary than Bleeder. Her cult is so so dangerous, and it's a miracle that Red's help has managed to trick them so far. If it wasn't for Red you'd be in agony trying to surmount this. But your Counselor needs you too! So you need to keep walking. No rush, but you can't lose your nerve. The grand heat that waits...  A minute later and you're out of the sooty cabin, unleashed up the hill to finally survey the far view. You're happy at least that your body is monstrously strong again. It makes it simple to scale the ashen trees, before you mount one just high-up enough to see the west and what waits beyond. Your mouth agapes. The sheer horrific beauty of it. The memories flooding back of what the war made possible. The smell on the wind, cinders kissing each cheek with a passion no living thing can muster. It's just miles of it. Fire, forever. Structures collapsing with the shriek of wood, metal, and stone buckling under combustion. Thousands upon thousands, their fires never abating. How is this possible? You look to a collapsed field or park, barely ash now, then look away to marvel at a falling tower. But then you look back to the field- it's regrown! Trees standing tall, their leaves just catching from the burnwind. What is this? It's mesmerizing. Like a liquid organism that can never die. Instinctively you pull Red's shroud tighter, your molten blood already fighting to adjust your temperature to withstand the winds. The winds! What is it doing to the smoke? Why are the skies of the other lands not constantly hazed by this everburn? Simple: it's all being pulled to a distant mountain beyond the burning buildings, swirling up steadily to densely cloud over the peak. You shake your head to end the dazzle. You must descend. Shivering arms clumsily scale you down the long dark hills, your central nervous still crying agony over the loss of such quicksilver. You managed to notice one place you want to go check out first in order to orient yourself to Red's map: it looked like some massive weird-shaped building that wasn't 100% on fire, which means it's probably special somehow. You'd cast your psychics out into that red void, but you're too scared of attracting attention, and frankly you're still much too cooked to want to rouse your brain for that effort. With the goal set you approach the outskirts, where the grass is scorched and withered pavement rules the earth. You go by your very first building within the reach of the fire's power, and stand on its dead lawn to look at it collapse.  The Dark posted:
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Jun 22, 2023 07:06
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Is it just me or does the map look like a rat
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Jun 22, 2023 07:33
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I was busy trying to remember where those little fjords are from. But I haven't looked at the Doubler maps yet...
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Jun 22, 2023 08:19
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 You come back aware, your head rested on the rough of your sword. God... you don't want to get up. Even in the middle of black sky Hell. But you have to. You have no choice. You'll never have a choice. You get up, and you walk. At first your steps are slow and unsure, the anxiety shaking your marrow with the recall of how deathly Bleeder's conquest was. But then you grip Red's shroud, and something darkens your eyes as you look up and out, striding with intent. You know it's possible to slay a Lord... and you will name Seven to your awful score. The blade is out, swept to the side before it slam-drags into the crumbly pavement. You march lonesome down the central road, buildings roaring with inferno on both sides. You walk past a mailbox that vomits ash, spitting more beige-colored gunk as the airs heat to hundreds of degrees. No. Stay calm. For Red. For your rep as the Camp Champ. ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][40%] [Red...] You pause and sniff once with emotional turmoil, so overwhelmed with gratitude that you have to bite your hand. Oh, thank you, flame. For evaporating your tears before anything can see them. You mustn't cry anymore. This is it! This is your second slay, your stay of scythe! The 5th Lord WILL fall, and no conflagration can stop you. Molten blood. Sunburner shroud. Chelating suit! You won't fear the siren's finality, the combustion's abuse. You'll stand so tall that not even the ultimate of The Bomb will stay your hand from slay- God save. You're a mile in now, and it's such gorgeous sensual chaos. Buildings forever burning, caught in an endless loop of regenerative panic; if they break focus for even a single second, the fire will take them forever. They can't allow it. Stone and steel, wood and glass, all clinging together to fight the maw red-bright.  The suburbs... suburbs. Burning Burning. Land Land Alive. [ OST: The Au Feu Suburbs ] Look at that. A manhole explodes into the sky as a column of fire roars out of the everburning sewers below. A house detonates like a bomb and blows itself into the streets when a gas tank finally achieves thermal overdrive. A garden starts a lovely show fireworks when a bunch of electrical light plugs all go bad and start to vomit thunders. A pool filled with tar that's just now catching fire. Strange power-pole structures either lashing or eating a different kind of energy source from the carnage surround. Massive pileups of vehicles of a dozen types, primitive to technomagical. A huge field caught up in a fiery whirlwind that never seems to slow down. Your lungs contract wild as you practice infinite breath-holding as you dance fast away from a huge overturned tank outpiling weird gas canisters. Sudden falls of heated debris, as five-story structures gives out across a whole block. All of this in the miles you walk to reach soon the half-burning structure you saw. Ashen embers roar past with scathe, fluttering up to the distant mountain cloud. Cacophony at all times, your ears ringing from the neverending of the loudest element. Your ruby veins are nearly lightshow in response to the incredible heat, and you're grateful the shroud protects your pack from igniting. Y-  AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  Event Log posted:While wandering down the streets of the redlit suburbs, you become a target for an incidental death missile- an empty burning car, speeding 99mph, is about to collide with you. React fast. Throw up your fist, and let the flow burn towards a point of singularity under sorcerous demand. God, your bones are stiff. That stuff they gave you w- (!Darkness - Gravity.) 20 [5]+[6]+[6] = 17 - CRITICAL FAILURE. [-5 HP] It's a lot of things. It's something within you resenting how weak your control over this force really is, done so messily and instinctively when it could be more. It's your body hurting brutally from the comedown, the stiffness, the slowness, the loss of clarity. It's the absence of attention from staring at so many dancing fires, bubbling lungs keeping in air where it'd otherwise choke you. So of course you adjust the car's gravity, but it happens exactly when it hits you instead of right before. Burning Car dealt (26d) 84 damage!! You're sent flying and bouncing across the pavement! HP: [ -76 / 30 ] [DEATHBLOW x2!] FP: [ 13 / 15.▒ ] ANXIETY: [ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][70%] [!!!!!!!] The burning car is sent lost into the sky by your gravity, horn screaming all the way. Your central nervous blinks a few times from all of your bones fracturing. (HT - Pass Out Risk!) 15 - [1]+[5]+[3] = 9 - Success! You vaguely realize you're flipping over the hot airs, before you smash down with tremendous velocity. (HT - Death's Door!) 15 - [4]+[1]+[6] = 11 - Success! You're still going, not for much longer. Scorching gravel driven into the wounds. You're bewildered as you feel yourself break apart, weirdly calm as you slam down again for a long roll. (HT - Death's Door!) 15 - [4]+[6]+[1] = 11 - Success! You have become tenacious, that's for sure. You can't afford this right now, but here it is, another catastrophe, another damnation. You've rolled into a gutter from which embers drift, body jerking from shattering. You slam an arm over and howl madly, wrenching the broken hand into a fist: you can't think like this.  (Tyrant Manifest) 20(-7) - [5]+[2]+[5] = 12 - Success. I may now be heavy with crown, but I'm not in any less pain. I heave and hack, forcing myself frantic to find equilibrium just far enough past shock, but before true pain, that I can think clearly enough to mitigate the worst of what's happened. Hyperventilate. Spit red-bubble blood. Then let that memory become reality. Remember when I first awoke? I'll hold my breath, just for fun...  (Bubbleblood II) 10(+3) [6]+[4]+[3] = 13 - Success [By 0]! [Healed For: 2d HP = 7 HP!] (Bubbleblood II) 10(+3) [4]+[2]+[3] = 9 - Success [By 4]! [Healed For: 2d+4 HP = 12 HP!] HP: [ -57 / 30 ] [Near Death!] FP: [ 9 / 15.▒ ] TYRANNY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][50%] Stablizing... blood howling as it seeps from marrow to stream, the horrible crush of my organs popping back out with the gross flood of soothing blue medicals. It's not enough, every part of me creaking with the screamed need of triage. But stabilized is the best I'm going to get; this does NOT allow me to slow down my walk. Thank God that Red will be a few days yet. I hold down the awful cry as I slowly stand up, holding onto a red-hot fence while I let the blood drip out of my suit. I shamble slowly, sword buckled to stop it from falling out of my creaking hands. I carry on like nothing happened, now much more aware while I punish myself for the gross lack of performance. Idiot. Weakling. ANY lapse and it's INSTANT death. The scythe clicking as it passes. I will still have five slays to make even with Burner dead! The rage at myself carries my body on, black intent twisting my face demonic while I use my sword for crutching. My body is pulped, and all the bubbleblooding did was force it all back into place while every single possible inch of me was deep-bruised swollen. Movement is nearly impossible, and a voice is begging me to lie down and rest just for today. I refuse. I will not. I force myself rigid. Even with tears welling in my lightless eyes. I conduct myself military. Even with bones beseeching the beg of limits. I gather my all and raise blood-clenched fist to the utter empty of Heaven above. I demand it of myself at any cost-  (WL - VICTORY) 20 [1]+[1]+[1] = 3 - HOLY INTERVENTION
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Jun 26, 2023 02:27
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 Lumes was sighing with relief, off on her own after the conflict had ended. Vernon was still gigantic, tree-tall in size, the power of her Valkyrie's runes and witchcraft allowing her to express her right as Matriarch of the Now she was escorting Burner, once a Counselor, always a Lord, down into the heart of her own Megalith for clear and esoteric reasons. She saw it, she had whispered when the Knight held her and she could reuse her burnt-out tongue. She saw the Sun the day that it was brought down. That it shined on someone and that grand light had cast a shadow. It fell over her heart and mind and she knew that she had to walk with them again to end her Megalith, whatever form that took. It wasn't a light or sane request, but Lumes knew what she had seen when they conquered Bleeder and let him run away. She knew what she had done, on the day they brought down the Sun. Burner was begging confessional before asylum, and so they'd help her make reach. They just had to fight their way through the first of Burner's own Landed power, the lead consisting of the four of them plus Cassandra and Vincent, who were both well-prepared to handle the everburning landscape. Burner herself was actually in reserve, since she knew they'd be set upon quickly once in the suburbs and could keep the pursuit confused. Cass seemed deeply taken with how the fires were speaking, whispering her wish that Burner were around to confirm her questions. Vincent was jumpy, especially after a gas main exploded, running to place black-ice shield between the jets and the unperturbed Emperor of Heaven. They were all on high alert, knowing that everywhere was a deathtrap. But even knowing that, Lumes gets distracted. Her ears shift as she swears she hears someone calling for her. Someone praying for victory.
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Jun 26, 2023 02:59
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Holy poo poo, that's some luck, nearly killed by a car because of a critical miss, and then a massive critical success.
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Jun 26, 2023 03:33
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The Blue Book posted:Dread many are the witches Subburner, those dryads of the Island who survived the full fall to the call of Life Eternal. Of they who study the disgusting of the physics-arts, these are maybe the most terrifying to anger.
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Jun 26, 2023 04:53
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wait, what? (!Darkness - Gravity.) 20 [5]+[6]+[6] = 17 - CRITICAL FAILURE. 17 < 20 should be a success by 3? I vaguely recall we had something that increased our roll windows for crits, but checking the character sheet, nothing comes up?
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Jun 26, 2023 07:49
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Black August posted:...almost all of which have Light as an element, which means x2 damage to the character in a fight... Wait, so light deals double damage to all player characters in hell end innately? Or just us because we have the darkness affinity? The character sheet isn't clear on this one.
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Jun 26, 2023 07:51
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Regallion posted:wait, what? I think a 17 or 18 is always a crit fail?
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Jun 26, 2023 08:19
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Ya, just like a 4 is a critical success and a 3 is a game-changing holy poo poo moment The last time we rolled a 3 we killed the sun in multiple dimensions
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Jun 26, 2023 13:01
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In regular GURPS (for whatever it's worth) 18 is always a crit failure, 17 is a crit failure if your base skill is less than 15, otherwise it's a normal failure. So I dunno.
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Jun 26, 2023 13:26
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OH gently caress YEAH ZEAL AND ARDOR!!!!!!!! That said: a whole lot sure is happening.
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Jun 26, 2023 16:42
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