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11. The Returners Entwined A) Have the Returners pay you a handsome sum for your service - that way, you can help out Mobliz. [2] B) You'll fight the Empire with Nalaal - if she swears her rebels will help you hunt a dragon. [7] C) Fight the Empire for the sake of glory, a challenge, and your continuing legend! [6] D) Say goodbye to Nalaal and Ziqiya. This was a fun diversion, but your place is on the Veldt. [1]    Nalaal doesn't hesitate.    You shake Nalaal's hand, interlocking your forearms, and vault the balustrade, landing on the deck of the ship. The boards creak under you, and you feel an energising certainty that you made the right call. New friendships, a little war with the Empire to set a pace...then onto a marathon test of your skills. The songs they write about this are going to be spectacular.    Aboardships, Ziqiya is much less talkative than in your hike across the Veldt. She watches the waves, her back stiff as a ramrod. Sometimes Nalaal talks to her in a quiet voice, and that seems to ease the tension out of her muscles. You are now Chayma Ludos.   The raft docks in the frost-wrapped bay of Narshe, and you and Banon work together to heave it up beneath the overhanging rushes, tie it down.  You stay behind Banon and Zekiye as they treat with the guards at Narshe. They recognise you by description: their hands are on their swordhilts.    You remember this spot - just. It's where you first met Jadate. Your head was buzzing, banged up by the recent contact with the Esper and by physical exhaustion. Moving through the tunnels beyond this point feels like moving through a half-remembered dream.   You have the foggiest possible memory of those brown uniforms, a jaunty teal ascot. Honestly, you assumed that part was a dream.      She proffers up a brown paper parcel, tied with climbing rope and a carabiner.  ...it's a pair of white canvas shoes. You touch them, and something under your skin resonates: you feel your heartbeat quicken. These are the Running Shoes. Whoever wears them has undispellable auto-haste, along with immunity to Slow and Stop. This is hugely useful, and easily the most powerful relic we currently have access to.     After weeks, you finally learn the name of the man who helped you escape from Narshe. His name is Arvis, and as Banon tells it, he's been working on swaying the Narshe elders around to open allegiance with the Returners for quite a while.   That moment of specific sympathy was baffling to you at the time, but now you think you understand. He saw the hunted look in your eyes. Maybe before you did, he understood that you wanted to get out of the trap you were in.  You're mid-meeting with the Narshe elders, and the mountain town's militia captains, when there's the sound of cheerful shouting - and there she is, just as if she was never carried away by the Lete River.   There's a moment of visible excitement - you think relief - and then Zekiye masters herself.  A look passes between the Figaro sisters - Zekiye muted, Nalaal surprised at her sister's reaction. Then the tension breaks.   She rubs a palm through her curly hair, and grins sheepishly.               Nalaal grins at her sister, who is clearly trying not to be baited into a good mood.       You are now Jadate Jhaum. Your ears always wiggle when someone is talking about you. You're demi-famous enough that this happens constantly, though, so you don't really pay any attention to it.   You didn't think it was possible, but Chayma's brow turns a chalkier shade of pale.  Her voice is slow and quiet, but her eyes are moving like a trapped animal's. [CHECK: Bravery & Friendship] Chayma searches for courage...    [The sum of Bravery & Friendship is lower than Chayma's Fear.] Chayma cannot face Kefka.  Her voice is steady, a slight variation in pitch the only hint of upset. It doesn't get past you for a second. The glitter of tears in her eyelashes is enough. Chayma's back is straight, and she's keeping her composure, but she's crying without gasps or sobs.  You give her a hug, and the two of you stay like that for a while. You are now Rekha Halfpenny.    You cough weakly. In your experience, it actually takes some diaphragm strength to produce a really convincingly ailing cough.   You stutter like a little kid. You consider putting on a lisp, but part of you knows Jadate's not that much of a mark.   You watch Jadate's dark eyes move through shock, concern, and into empathy.    You beam at her.  You are now Nalaal Xandros Figaro.      Chayma, arms crossed at the edge of the room, speaks up.    You see Ziqiya's face, normally wry and calculating, spasm in a slight and sudden fury.     Zekiye tilts her head at that. You haven't told Ziqiya about your little sister's experiments with magicite: you figure that kind of thing can wait until everyone's life isn't in imminent danger, because you're not sure how well that conversation will go. After the strategy meeting, you knock on Zekiye's door.    Kiye doesn't appear to be listening to you. She has her head down at the table, sketching possible formations. [CHECK: Anger] Zekiye attempts to express her feelings...  You drop silent.  She stands from her seat. She turns to look at you, and you see that, divorced from the necessary propriety of meeting with new allies, she is furious. Her round shoulders are tight as a wrapped bedroll.             [Zekiye's Anger is higher than her Compassion.] Zekiye pushes her sister away. Zekiye's Anger [2 > 3]  Snow falls over Narshe.  In the desert where Figaro Castle once stood, not far from the historic site of Leo's Folly, a detachment - magitek walkers, hunting dogs, augmented soldiers, common infantry - treads and trundles towards battle. Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to run the Narshe defense, culminating in the battle with Kefka, straight up. If Kefka wins, or if Imperial forces break through to the Esper, that'll be canonical. Narshe will fall, and the Empire will carry the day. Kefka's abilities, immunities and auto-status will be partially randomised. I don't know exactly what her capabilities will be ahead of time, although I can hazard a guess that she'll have powerful offensive magic. We can split into two groups. Chayma can't muster the courage to be in the group that leads the spearhead assault on Kefka, but she can fight in the rear guard. Rekha won't be fighting at all.  Who should lead the assault on Kefka? This is an open vote: specify your preferred party leader, and who they should take with them. If you have any ideas about battle strategy, I'll take that into consideration, too! Who should stay in the rear guard? This is less challenging, but it's still important. If the second group fails to hold the back line, the spearhead team will be easily encircled. Both teams need to succeed for the Returners to triumph! Android Blues fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Mar 30, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2022 20:44
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 08:54 |
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Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists. (good lord, those two Z names are hard to keep straight)
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Mar 30, 2022 21:27
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists. When Ziqiya's name came up a few updates ago, I at once laughed and was filled with fear. Then I remembered the plight of historical fiction authors who have to write books where four different people are called Rachel, and steeled myself. It was hard for me to keep track of at first too, but now that I've written it a million times, not so much. But it seeded the stuff about Zekiye being named after Ziqiya, so the caprice of the name list did something cool, ultimately!
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Mar 30, 2022 21:42
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists. Voting this.
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Mar 30, 2022 21:53
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists. Thirded. Tempting to put Nalaal with Zekiye, but it seems like the kind of poor tactical choice that can only lead to things exploding that aren't the thing we want exploding. While I'm at it, though, Nalaal: Keep trying to work things out with your sister. It'll be tough, for sure, but even if you have to start completely from scratch, it's something worth holding onto.
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Mar 30, 2022 22:33
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists. Voting this. Also, while we're at it... Rekha: Your handlers mentioned that Chayma lady several times; try and sneak a peek at her to see if you can figure out what the big deal is.
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Mar 30, 2022 23:32
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists. This sounds good to me too, but add Minna to the advance team. If everything goes well they should be doing most of the fighting, so they need a full party. And if Jadate did a bad job with the last song, she needs to see Minna in action up close so she can write a better one!
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Mar 30, 2022 23:39
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cackles My vote mattered! XD
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Mar 31, 2022 01:34
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cdyoung posted:cackles It did! Literally the tiebreaker!
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Mar 31, 2022 01:43
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W.T. Fits posted:Voting this. Also, while we're at it... Both the bandwagon vote and this discussion.
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Mar 31, 2022 12:49
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Let's see if I can't complicate this somewhat. Because while Minna's primary motivation might be getting help for a dragon hunt later, is she really going to languish in the back line of an important battle? MINNA: Insist on being on the frontlines.
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Mar 31, 2022 14:30
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Zekiye leading Nalaal and Minna on Front Chayma leading Jadate and Ziqiya on Rear Honestly the only thing I really wanna see here is the sisters on the front line because of this: Nalaal: Even if she hates you, you still love your sister. Her safety is priority above everything else, and perhaps if you prove that, you'll earn her forgiveness. Even if Kefka's about to win, see to it that Zekiye lives on. By force if you must.
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Mar 31, 2022 21:36
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As far as battle strategy goes, if Kefka will still mostly be a mage, it might be helpful that Zekiye and Minna can both cast Shell.
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Apr 1, 2022 12:58
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Ziqiya, Zekiye, and Jadate should take the fight to Kefka. Ziqiya is obvious, Jadate promised Chayma, and Zekiye has some anger to work out after Kefka assaulted her domain. That leaves Chayma, Minna, and Nalaal to guard the back. Chayma is obvious; Nalaal and Minna are here mostly because they have some things to sort out with Zekiye and Jadate respectively, and now really isn't the time to have them team up with their, uh, antagonists.
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Apr 2, 2022 06:53
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12. The SpearheadHaar_Dragon posted:Nalaal: Keep trying to work things out with your sister. It'll be tough, for sure, but even if you have to start completely from scratch, it's something worth holding onto.  Yeah. You'll try. Right now, though... It's not just that you think Zekiye needs space. It's also that you can't face it - that your little sister, who from the time she could walk spent every waking second in your footsteps, so vehemently resents you. The worst part is, you feel like the things she said might be true. So you wanted to understand the Sign of Alexander - so what? Weren't you just running away from father's death, really? And yet you left Zekiye there to stew in it, confident that she could clean up your abandoned throne. You childishly thought time would pause while you were away. But it didn't: your kid sister grew up, probably too fast. And you've learned...how to feel less anxious, more confident, how to channel light into a shield and a weapon. Great. Really useful. You'd trade it all to have your family back. W.T. Fits posted:Also, while we're at it...  Her room's pokier than yours, you think with surprise (and a frisson of satisfaction). Hey, you know this lady! After you did the demonstration at the Imperial Gala, a couple of soldiers hauled you up on stage to wave at the crowd, and there she was, looking sour as a cheated lemon. So that's Captain Ludos. When the soldiers in South Figaro spoke about her, they did so with a note of fear - you don't see why. Sure, she looks weird, with the chalky skin and the leathery gnarls poking through her hair, but she doesn't look like the curt and ruthless officer people gossiped about. In your estimation, she just looks sort of depressed. Maybe like she hasn't taken a bath in a few days. Well, isn't that typical? You take the rich lady out of the bonbon platter, and she turns into a sloppy mess. You're pretty sure she's some aristocrat's daughter. You know she's a mage, so maybe she got some half-rate prototype of your treatment, then a secondment into the military. You know Vector's nobility sometimes send one of their spare kids to go bark orders at the infantry for a few years.  Okay. Maybe not quite so useless.  Chayma looks at you with an expression that seems neither flattered nor flatterable.  You keep forgetting that your Vector accent, normally a completely unremarkable part of your existence, marks you out with a red thumbtack in the north.  You could tell she was about to say child, or kid, but then made a conscious effort not to patronise you. You're not sure whether to be annoyed that this makes the poor little urchin act harder, or obscurely pleased that she's giving you respect.   Her tone is easy and officer-ly enough that, despite everything, the modicum of basic training you received suggests gently that you should stand at attention. You dismiss this thought easily.  You muster your self-respect, frustrated that a part of you lurched forward like a hungry dog at the prospect of an authority figure treating you like a peer.   You see her stop and think of something. She clearly thinks fast: it's just a fraction of a second.    That gets your goat.   Captain Ludos looks to one side. You can't read her mood, which makes you even more twitchy.   She extends a hand. She clearly ate better than you growing up, so it has to travel a pretty long way down.  You shake it. Nothing good tends to happen after a handshake, in your experience - either it signals important people agreeing to do something unsavoury, or someone trying to grease the wheels for a scam - but you can't blow your cushy place with Jadate. Instead of anything crooked, she smiles at you.  She turns away, lifting her arms above her head, as if she's about to start a calisthenics routine.  Chayma searches her heart... Chayma feels empathy for Rekha. [Chayma's Compassion 1 > 2] Rekha's assumptions are challenged... [Rekha's Curiosity 0 > 1]   Ziqiya nods, her thumb beneath her bottom lip.    You straighten up, determined not to let your fear diminish you.     Nalaal looks between you and Zekiye, her mouth tightening for a second.  Zekiye nods, the movement shallow and brief.  ZCKaiser posted:Let's see if I can't complicate this somewhat. Because while Minna's primary motivation might be getting help for a dragon hunt later, is she really going to languish in the back line of an important battle?     Zekiye grits her teeth. Minna inserts herself into the spearhead team.  With the recent talk of vital statistics, maybe it's time to take a look at Chayma's attributes. 48 isn't her base Magic - the Barrier Ring we found in the abandoned tin mine adds 2 Magic while it's equipped, so her base is a (still absolutely wild) 46, two points higher than any character in baseline Final Fantasy 6. With the way Magic multiplies spell damage, every point counts. Chayma was kept as a ward of the Empire for a reason: the magic inside her is a shimmering jewel, a template for everything they hoped they could achieve.  We also slip the True Knight on Nalaal. This means she'll intercept physical attacks that target critically wounded allies - she's got a bigger HP pool than Chayma, and when she says she'll have her back, she means it.    The Narshe militia makes their stand in the crevasse out of the taiga, narrow and forbidding, that winds towards the town's main gate. It'll be uphill for the Imperials, and the weather isn't kind: snow will melt in cockpits and soak uniforms. You count these advantages in your head, knowing they don't account for much against the numbers. Between the militia fighters and the Returners supplementing their ranks, you have perhaps seventy people with swords, only some of whom know the terrain. Scouts and spyglasses indicate that the Imperial detachment is four hundred heads, and that its flanks are guarded by a set of gleaming magitek walkers. The shock troops will roll in first, and then the walkers will march forward, aiming to clean up the remnants of your broken line. You can't let that happen. Even as you're thinking this, a sentry calls the signal. The first line of attackers has been spotted, marching uphill through the tundra.   And there it is. An unbroken line of troopers comes roaring up the crevasse, their rebreathers affording them extra air against the uphill climb. They hit your line in tight squads, each trying to outnumber and section off Narshe's defenders. You know how this works: the goal is to turn the ranks of the defending line into a series of panicked huddles. You throw forward your hand, and you and Nalaal counter-charge from the hill path where you were crouched, crashing into the unguarded flank of the nearest Imperial squad just as they're enmeshed with the militia's line. If you were two ordinary militia members, this would be a brave and idiotic gesture. You'd rate your skills against a handful of these ground troops any day, though, and as for Nalaal -     Blades of light rain through Imperial formations, reducing them to a series of prone bodies in the snow. You can hear Nalaal's breathing, though, and it's erratic - the calm you witnessed on the Lete River isn't here. Many times the blue aura flares up around her, as if the holy work of Alexander is about to be done, only to collapse into a protective bubble at the last second. I was nervous here, and instead of the usual Stunners and Aura Bolts, I pulled an embarrassing number of Ruby Lights. Probably an accurate reflection of Nalaal's emotional state!   You spar your straight sword across your body: when one of the infantry tries to swing for you, you catch the slash in a neat ting of metal, and recoil it into a strike across her neck. This is Retort, the second SwordTech ability. Chayma's had access to it since the start of her adventure, but since the soldiers she's fighting make heavy use of physical attacks, it's the perfect time to deploy it. Retort puts the user into a counter-attack state. If they're hit by a physical attack before they act again, they'll counter with a devastating attack that ignores Magic Defense and deals unblockable non-elemental magic damage. Since these soldiers only have two targets to choose from, it's overwhelmingly likely that they'll trigger Retort almost every time Chayma uses it. You may remember, way early on, a mention of the fact that certain SwordTech abilities use Magic scaling, and that Chayma's Magic attribute might make those abilities mo fearsome than normal. In the base game at this level, Retort is likely to do about 750 damage. It's good, and it would still kill these soldiers outright - but later on its damage starts looking less impressive, which means it isn't always worth the risk of wasting a turn if there's a chance the counter won't be triggered. In Chayma's hands, with her Magic at 48, Retort does this much damage.  The magitek walkers march through the snow, a strange echo of what the Narshe militia must have seen when you and your makeshift unit broke through their gates some weeks ago. You dismiss that thought: time now to think of weaknesses and lateral approach, not useless shame.    The magitek walkers supplementing the elite units have ludicrous Defense - Nalaal normally swings for ~250, but against them her knife strokes fail to cut the armour. Lifting both hands and furrowing your brow, you manifest a roiling sphere of liquid poison inside the walker's cockpit. It splashes loose as you release it from the conjury, the walker's right leg burrowing a cocked hole in a snowdrift as the pilot fails to keep their hands on the controls. Your pulse seems to slow, in a limpid, relaxed way. You splay your fingers, and focus on the feeling - the twitching reflex of a spell waiting to be figured out. As you stare at the back of your hand, a turquoise glimmer starts just below your knuckles - then spreads out into an opalescent light, covering your fingers, your hand up to the forearm. It fades like the sunset, and one of the cuts along your arm is gone.  Every assessment Magitek Research did of your notional directionality, a term coined by Imperial scientists to describe the types of spells a mage can cast, said you were oriented towards magic associated with poison, violence and stealth. Healing magic is rare even among people who receive magicite infusion, and there was no expectation that you would ever be able to cast it. Has something in you changed? You think of confiding in Jadate, of the impatience you didn't feel at Rekha lying to you. Yes - you have changed. Perhaps the magic in your blood is not stone walls, but a river, following the banks you dig for it. It's a tempting thought.    Stunner's blades of holy light could clean up any of these encounters in a single stroke - but missing and getting Ruby Light means a round of HP attrition, something our heroes can't afford. A few Stunners come out in moments of thoughtless clarity. The rest of the time, Nalaal is fighting with a long, straight knife, her style simple but impressively direct.   The magitek walkers cast Shimsham, which halves the target's current HP, and while this means they're rarely fatal, it also means that every fight with them is a strain on resources. You repeat the miracle of healing magic until your hands are numb, and Nalaal shares with you Potions and Tonics from the satchel beneath her coat.      The battle winds on. You crash through squads of shock troopers, coming to the rescue of beleaguered Returners: in some places the line has nearly collapsed, but you're there to stop the (briefly) victorious Empire before they march through.         Nalaal's fur-lined jacket is torn at the hem, trailing green tatters. You make to catch her before she slumps into the snow...and glimmers of pleasant opalescence roll down your forearm, into her body, healing you as well. You see a bruise on her forehead and a shallow cut on her neck close up before you.  Nalaal shakes herself, and gets back on her feet, circling around to cover your back. You try to conjure another globe of poison - but your heart and lungs feel weak, and the magic flowing from your core doesn't reach your fingertips. Unbearably tired, you lift your straight sword, put the fatigue in a locked mental box, and cut loose their hydraulics in a few precise swings.    Poison is the best strategy for the magitek walkers, but Dispatch deals physical damage that ignores Defense - which makes it second best once Chayma's flat out of MP.    Another walker falls, breaking down over its own unhinging legs. Its pilot flees into the mist. You're almost on your knees; you can barely lift your sword. Its tip hovers just above the snow. Beside you, Nalaal is taking deep, slow breaths, her cheeks a tawny brown with the windchill.   Nalaal returned from the Veldt with a stock of Potions and Phoenix Down, having found a merchant at the hunter's port selling apothecarium in bulk - but without Chayma learning Cure, that stockpile would have vanished, and the rear guard might have collapsed. As it is, Chayma expended her entire stock of MP casting Cure and Poison, pushing herself to the brink to sustain the defense. Chayma and Nalaal share the camaraderie of a difficult battle... Chayma opened the path to friendship with Nalaal.  You are now Ziqiya of Mysidia. Ziqiya can equip spears, and has secured a Mithril Pike to replace her boot knife - but since the battle plan here involves everyone dealing ranged damage, she won't be using it much.  Minna slips on the Running Shoes. Auto-haste is really valuable, and she's one of the best candidates for it. You watch your troops (as you must by rights think of them) while they form up. Jadate's flighty good spirits are in little evidence as she's badgered about her pencraft.     Jadate makes a faux-astonished gesture, as if sunstruck.     Jadate's resistance collapses.      Minna beams at Jadate, completely without animus now that she's had her say.  Minna provides some constructive criticism... Minna opened the path to friendship with Jadate.  You traverse the snow with light steps, signalling to your cadre to move up between flurries of the blizzard. Your heart beats sure and steady in your chest.  You can see Kefka above a hillside crowned in white. She is hovering: flame curls around her and lashes over the approach, turning the fog to steam as it screams into the militia's defensive line. Muffled by the wind, you hear her high, timbreless laughter.   A soldier riding a falsedog behemoth, the Empire's failed attempt to breed the ferocity of the legendary Behemoth into a placid steed, springs at you from the snow. He signals with his pike, and from the hillside, frost-veined boulders roll towards you!   You cartwheel to the edge of the impact, working your fingers through the signs of levitation to lessen the weight of the boulders as they plummet. Minna catches the beast in a headlock, and from there it is smooth sailing.   Minna dives in, attempting to grapple...  ...but the Imperial mage sweeps away, levitating on a front of compelled wind. We had to try to Suplex Kefka, right? Sadly, she didn't reroll out of her base game Suplex immunity.  Jadate opens up with Clean Sweep...  ...but Kefka absorbs Water magic, and is healed for 297.  Kefka makes a beckoning motion with her hand...and as if compelled, Jadate steps forward, her eyes rolling back in her head. A rush of anima flows out of the bard's mouth, and she collapses into the snow as the swirling essence gathers in Kefka's palm, and sinks into her body, conforming to her aura. She lifts her cloaks in a theatrical flourish, laughing gaily. You feel sick. You know this technique: it's black magic, and it takes years of study to master. What chemist's treatment gave her command of this deadly art? How little wisdom, that she is gleeful when she uses it? It vellicates your very bones to know that this cruel mountebank has ransacked the Espers' gift.   You slip splayed hands into your jacket, and reveal a brace of shuriken - one by one, with perfect form, you hurl them overhand, leaving streamers of blood running from Kefka's leg, her belly, cutting through the courtly clothes she's worn into battle. You can see that the wounds sting her, but also that she's anaesthetised from the pain.  Each target throw is succeeded by a sidestep. You keep moving constantly, rolling your shoulders and minimising your profile to avoid Kefka's wild corona of artificial magic.  The snow swirls around Zekiye, and chunks of frozen earth tear up from the tundra, as she braces herself and lets her resentment flow loose upon Kefka.  It's been a while, but Rage is still very good. It's comparable in power to the Fire 2/Ice 2/Bolt 2 line, but non-elemental, unavoidable, and does full damage regardless of target count. At this point in the game, it's fantastic even against single targets.  Anger guides your voice, but you're honestly amazed by the level of magical power she has at her disposal. You've trained in the Mysidian birthright of black magic all your life, and the spells you can cast are focused and direct. You understand their weight and what might happen if they were invoked messily, without boundary or limitation. You've drilled the hand stations for slowing fog, for poison, for levitation, for thousands of hours over the course of your career. This woman casts spells as if she's improvising with magic - simply deciding she wants to do something, then manifesting bursts of heat or crystallising air in the direction of her malicious impulses. She sucked the life out of Jadate in a fit of pique.    With a shout of unfocused anger, Zekiye dives for Kefka, the corona of her own magic building and whorling around her. She uses Mimic and copies Minna's Pummel, her fist sinking into Kefka's midriff before a burst of concussive magic scatters the snow and knocks her away.   Jadate coughs, her breath restarting in a wheezy gasp.  You grab the collar of her cloak, pulling her limp body up. Rivulets of her blood, turning to clotted frost in the biting wind, stain your suit.   With your other hand, you thump the butt of your spear against the ground, and angle the point at her.     [CHECK: Anger] Ziqiya struggles to control her fury... You long to plunge the spear you secured from the Narshe armoury through her chest. But you will not. Prisoners of war are not slain. Even as you breathe through your nose, considering this weighty matter, the woman in your grip is grinning, an irresistible (to her exclusively) smile pulling at the edges of her windblown lips.  Ziqiya has a choice. A) You search your heart, but cannot bring yourself to care for dignity or the laws of war. Let the spear thrust forward. Kill Kefka. B) It would be a harsh irony indeed to take revenge by killing a helpless captive. Master yourself. You will not sully your hands this way.
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Apr 4, 2022 00:19
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Huge update this time! Seriously underestimated how much detail this segment would merit. Some notes to follow later!
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Apr 4, 2022 00:30
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Oh, that's a good update. Kill Kefka. She's admitted that the only reason she didn't kill her prisoners is because she had something much worse in mind.
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Apr 4, 2022 00:45
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A. Murder time fun time! Also dear lord Kefka is too dangerous to let live.
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Apr 4, 2022 01:14
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B: Don’t sink to that witch’s level. There’s still a world out there where honour and integrity have value. Side note, would it be possible to delineate the narrative writing from the technical writing? It threw me a bit to see a meta explanation of how the gameplay is going in-between the flavour stuff. Maybe in parentheses or italics, or something like that?
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Apr 4, 2022 01:24
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A just to see what Final Fantasy 6 looks like without Kefka (and test whether AB is mad enough to actually roll with this  )
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Apr 4, 2022 01:27
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Went back to see if the poisoning of the water supply was still there. It was. Ergo: She tried to poison literally every person in all of Mysidia. Hard to say if it'll take for a mage so powerful, but that's all the more reason to kill her and be done with it.
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Apr 4, 2022 01:42
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B. She's trying to bait you, which means she's clearly planning something. Don't fall for it; you're smarter than that. Better to keep her prisoner so that she can be interrogated, and then later used as a bargaining chip for the return of your wife and the other Mysidian prisoners of war.
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Apr 4, 2022 02:13
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Look. All I'm saying is that it's loving Kefka and I want to see what happens. A, kill that clown.
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Apr 4, 2022 03:51
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A I don't know if it'll stick but by God I want someone to at least take a shot at it.
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Apr 4, 2022 04:01
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Down with Kefka. A
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Apr 4, 2022 04:27
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I was disappointed as a child that this couldn't be done or even seriously tried at the banquet, let's give it a shot now. A
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Apr 4, 2022 05:34
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W.T. Fits posted:B. She's trying to bait you, which means she's clearly planning something. Don't fall for it; you're smarter than that. Better to keep her prisoner so that she can be interrogated, and then later used as a bargaining chip for the return of your wife and the other Mysidian prisoners of war. This. Also, stabbing Kefka only makes her hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate you. Then she starts redecorating and everything goes to hell. I think I misunderstood the plan. If I realized the rear guard was going to hunt down and wipe out every last minion, I probably would have voted to leave Minna with them. I was legitimately kind of worried there. But Chayma and Nalaal won in the end, and the only casualty was on the advance team, so I guess they didn't need Minna after all! Oh, speaking of which. Minna: Did you see what Zekiye did, there? She did your move. Someone who WASN'T the strongest woman in the world might feel threatened by this, but you know what it means, right? Training partner. (I'm sorry Zekiye)
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Apr 4, 2022 07:32
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Mildly Interesting posted:This. Also, stabbing Kefka only makes her hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate you. Then she starts redecorating and everything goes to hell. Oh, you were totally right to be worried! I'll get into this in the breakdown, but long story short, we got lucky with how Kefka's abilities and AI script rerolled. I was expecting both parts of the battle to be tough, but the Kefka fight was ostensibly the hot ticket. It just didn't shake out that way in the mix. From a strategy perspective, I was in fact so concerned about battling Kefka that I pushed the rear guard to their limit to try to limit the amount of encounters the forward team would have to fight. This fight can be brutal and if Kefka had rolled something like auto-haste or auto-protect, it would have gone to the wire.
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Apr 4, 2022 07:39
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As satisfying it would be to plunge the spear through the bitch's heart, regardless of what happens to you, you're not the only one here and with all her magic experiments and whatnot there's absolutely no guarantee that would even kill her and even if it did it would be just like Kefka to have magically rigged her body to, in the event of her death, cause a magical explosion that would level everything in a hundred kilometer radius. You don't like letting her live, but it might ironically be the safer option. B.
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Apr 4, 2022 10:03
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A. [palpatine]Do it.[/palpatine]
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Apr 4, 2022 17:55
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YggiDee posted:A I don't know if it'll stick but by God I want someone to at least take a shot at it. Same. A
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Apr 4, 2022 18:07
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B. A general does not murder a prisoner of war in cold blood. We don't have to become that which we oppose. Chayma: Check in with Jadate and Zekiye once the fighting has stopped to confirm their safety. The two of them took enormous risks to give you a chance at a different life, including fighting Kefka when you couldn't. This is a debt not easily repaid, and you know too well what Kefka can do. SageNytell fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Apr 4, 2022 |
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Apr 4, 2022 19:50
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B. This isn't right. Not as a moral matter, mind you, you would still be VERY MUCH the better woman if you killed Kefka here. But for someone you defeated, this feels so much like bait. If you try to strike her down now, she very well might have something terrible waiting for you, a personal parting gift before her escape. Stay on the defensive rather than opening yourself up for a counter.
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Apr 4, 2022 23:08
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Jadecore posted:B. This isn't right. Not as a moral matter, mind you, you would still be VERY MUCH the better woman if you killed Kefka here. But for someone you defeated, this feels so much like bait. If you try to strike her down now, she very well might have something terrible waiting for you, a personal parting gift before her escape. Stay on the defensive rather than opening yourself up for a counter.
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Apr 4, 2022 23:12
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Notes on Defending Narshe We got really lucky here: this is actually a much easier version of the Kefka fight. Kefka normally gets first strike, attacks for about 100, and then on the following turn has a 1/3 chance to cast Poison and a 2/3 chance to attack again. Her physicals are actually pretty serious, which is why I back rowed everyone. On rounds 3 and 4 in her AI script, she starts choosing from the more dangerous spells she knows. This is where Beyond Chaos was tolerant and gentle. Kefka rerolled Muddle into Imp, and Ice 2 into Ice Beam, and her AI script shuffled such that she didn't cast either - which is good news, because I was seriously unsure if we could recover from a full party Ice 2 or a big hitter (like Minna) getting muddled. Ice 2 on a single target is likely to be ~530 damage and a knockout - on the full party, about 220 each, enough to put everyone on the ropes. Muddle on anyone is rough because they stop dealing damage on a semi-permanent basis, and Muddle on Minna would have been a total disaster. Without either of those spells in play, and the RNG deciding that Kefka would cast Fire and Drain instead of Ice Beam and Imp, we had a relatively easy time of it. Thanks to Ziqiya, we were also able to pour on the damage fast enough that Kefka didn't have time to deploy her best magic - Ice Beam's less scary than Ice 2, but it's still probably a knockout on one character. Throw churns out huge damage if you have the resources to spare, and Shuriken are a relatively common drop from some of the enemies we faced on the road back to Narshe. (The soldiers Chayma and Nalaal fought off also drop Mithril Knives - you can see in the Throw menu that we have 11 of them. That means Ziqiya should have an ample supply of sharp things for the next few boss fights!) The rear guard, as you have seen, went through a real grinder. We used all our Tonics, most of our Potions, and ran Chayma out of MP. It ruled. Super fun, super tense, since I knew there were no retries and the outcome would affect the story. Chayma also has access to Slash and Quadra Slam now! This is because Beyond Chaos gives access to Blitz and SwordTech commands based on the highest level among all characters, rather than the level of the user. Chayma is three levels short of where she'd learn Quadra Slam normally, but because Ziqiya is level 15, she gets it automatically. Quadra Slam has Vigour scaling and a lower base power than Dispatch, which makes it a bit anemic on groups of enemies. On heavy single targets, it might be worth charging up. Slash is situational, but might have some use cases. Speaking of SwordTech, though - for those who were hoping for a SwordTech redemption arc, the showcase on Retort here is the first step! In base FF6, this is a cool ability that you forget about by midgame because Cyan's 25 Magic means it falls further and further behind. Thanks to the way a high Magic stat acts as an exponent for level to multiply damage, though, the more we progress through the game, the more steeply ludicrous Chayma's ripostes are gonna get. Right now she deals about 40% more damage with Retort than Cyan at an equivalent level, but that percentage is gonna get a lot roundier and healthier as she levels up. I'm excited to see how it plays out later in the game. SMaster777 posted:Honestly the only thing I really wanna see here is the sisters on the front line because of this: Nalaal didn't get a chance to act on this command - but I think it's cool to store commands like this for when they are appropriate. If her sister's life is ever in danger, she'll perform it. Android Blues fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Apr 5, 2022 |
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Apr 4, 2022 23:31
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13. The Vanishing Flute A) Her deeds merit it, and her words are venom. Kill Kefka. [9] B) You will not murder a surrendering captive. Control yourself. [7] [Ziqiya's Anger 2 > 3] [Ziqiya's Anger is higher than her Compassion.] Ziqiya's better nature cannot prevail. You seem to lose control of your body. You thrust the spear forwards -  - and into her heart. Her body, already limp and battered, spasms against you, and a dizzy look in glazing eyes is the last communication Kefka Palazzo shares with you.   Zekiye bites her lip. She alone makes no complaint. Your front is stained with blood. You feel suddenly sick; you reel away from the body, and its weight thumps against the snow, the pike a flagpole in its chest.  You've killed people before - dozens directly, and perhaps thousands as a result of orders you've given. This is part of a general's job. To kill a prisoner is not. If you were answering to any commander worth their salt - but that is no excuse. If she had been slain by a blow to the neck mere moments before the battle ended, you tell yourself - but no, this also does not suffice.  You speak in a dry voice. Cheers from far behind tell you that Kefka's forces are mid-route. Ziqiya feels immense shame... [Ziqiya's Fear 2 > 3] You are now Chayma Ludos.  You find out that Kefka is dead less than an hour later. Your stomach twists over itself, and an awful feeling runs through your legs, like the muscles are sinking out of your body. SageNytell posted:Chayma: Check in with Jadate and Zekiye once the fighting has stopped to confirm their safety. The two of them took enormous risks to give you a chance at a different life, including fighting Kefka when you couldn't. This is a debt not easily repaid, and you know too well what Kefka can do.  Jadate's voice is hoarse, as if she's been choked.   Zekiye looks away, a crease of worry touching her eyebrows.  She was horrible. She became horrible: or always was, you aren't sure. She was vile and you feared and dreaded her, and as well as this, you will never see her again.   You retreat into your room. The victory celebrations of the Narshe militia last into the night, and you are happy for them, really. The Returners want to toast you. You defer the honours to Jadate and Nalaal.  Morning comes. Your body's trained to rise at dawn and run through leg lifts and lunges, and it still does so, your mind mostly disengaged. Maybe the time's right. You gather everyone up - finding Jadate at the bedside of the sleeping Rekha Halfpenny, Minna performing her own morning athletics outside in the snow, and the others groggy in their quarters - and head to the cliffside, where the Narshe elders have had the frozen Esper hauled. The mines where it was unearthed are apparently in danger of collapse after its last outburst.  You'll have to be careful. You know your magic is part of what lets you open a pathway to its mind, through the ice and the years - and you think that after yesterday's discovery, you might understand your magic a fraction better now. There are a lot of candidates for Chayma's theme. The game's main theme is associated with her as the protagonist, as well as a few others. The music Beyond Chaos picked for this scene, though, is my personal favourite. It's a SNES cover of this NES deep cut, and it's super moody and pleasant.  The Esper is like a stag, but with gold scales laced through its fur, its mane a bosky green. Its neck is a sinuous arch, rolling and re-orienting as it speaks to you.    A corona of lightning begins to surround you, emanating from the Esper, dancing inches away from the crown of your head. This time you do not black out. Your awareness of your body seems to sink away, until you're just your thoughts, looking into the Esper's amber eyes.       You are now Jadate Jhaum. The vanishing flute begins to vibrate at your belt. Slowly, it lifts up from its strap, as if pulled by an invisible hand - and then snaps loose.  The wind whips up, and the gale itself begins to pipe air through the flute. It plays itself like you'd never play it: a proud and pompous arpeggio, the holes stoppered by the wind's restraint.  There's a hissing, fizzing sound, and then a bolt of lightning strikes the clifftop. It impacts directly where Chayma is standing, the ground charge turning the snow to steam and hurling you aside. You haul yourself up from the cliffside, panting, hair frizzed around your face. In the place where Chayma stood, there is not a body or a smoking pair of boots, but nothing at all. The vanishing flute hovers in the air, points west, and then drops chargeless to the bare earth.   The meeting ten minutes later is hurried and hectic. Moods are fractious: your voice is still cracked and weak from Kefka's black magic, but you take the lead anyway.   Nalaal crosses her arms behind her head, looking troubled.      Zekiye bites her lip. Emotional detachment seems to be a prerequisite for her to talk tactics. You think you get it - the kid has so many emotions that if she let them all run wild, she'd never get any admin done.            Her eyes go wide. Your heart instantly melts.  She shakes her head vehemently, and clings to your waist.  Your heartstrings twang. She seems well enough to travel, right? And you'll only be going places that are strictly civilised. Jidoor's nice, even. She could take in some culture.  Screw it. She could use someone who actually cares looking out for her.  Party select. Who should follow Jadate's hunch, and head to Zozo? Pick your preferred party leader, and the people they should bring with them. If Jadate is in the party, Rekha must accompany her.
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Apr 7, 2022 03:45
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everyone who is not the figaro sisters and ziqiya Those three need to talk, and what better way than to get trapped in a submarine together?
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Apr 7, 2022 04:07
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Leraika posted:everyone who is not the figaro sisters and ziqiya 
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Apr 7, 2022 04:47
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whoops airship not submarine, same sentiment
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Apr 7, 2022 04:57
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The phrase "subsonic zeppelin" implies the existence of supersonic zeppelins, which I am entirely in favor of so long as someone else is piloting them. Over the ocean, for preference. Jadate, Rehka, Minna
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Apr 7, 2022 05:09
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