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Randalor posted:Nope. Nopenopenopenopenopenopenopenope. I don't have any real expectations that something comes out of this, but don't forget, Śmiercią is keeping track. She knows when we've encountered a lord, and fully expects us to take all of their souls for her. We can't run away from every encounter forever, not with at least some kind of justification.
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May 18, 2023 17:24
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 20:47 |
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Voted vehemence, but think either that or hiding might be traps Hunter is *much* more in control of her gravity then we are of ours and both Vehemence and Darkness are aspects of the Tyrant. I don't know that we'd do well operating on her terms ....also not so sure of just going ham on this one
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May 19, 2023 02:22
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Well I've just caught up on about a year and a half and it's amazing how this just keeps getting better. Every Lord encounter has been amazing (Doubler is so goddamn creepy), the graphics are perfectly atmospheric, Kwiat has a noble steed, and I want the Tyrant Child and Red and Blue and Kwiat to have a happy ending so bad. Wait, I can vote now, oh god
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May 19, 2023 02:43
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Some of the best moments of this thread has been when we picked the objectively ridiculous options. Using murderous intent to protect the kobold camp was pretty incredible. I trust Black August to make the option of heading Hunter straight on entertaining too.
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May 19, 2023 02:56
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Dr_Gee posted:Voted vehemence, but think either that or hiding might be traps We’re not operating on her terms She’s operating on ours
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May 19, 2023 15:31
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VOTING CLOSED - You May Be First, But I WILL Be Last [Murderous Intent] [Lionheart] [Viable] Challenge Hunter, whatever comes of it. - 16 Use Vehemence to think some way out of this. [-16 HP + IQ Check 20] - 16 Vanish, at all costs. [PSI Clouding Check 16 + Darkness Check 16] - 11 LOADING...  ...LOADING
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May 19, 2023 19:50
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Been a while since we had a tie.
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May 19, 2023 20:00
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 yeah i can't wait to find out how THAT resolves.
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May 19, 2023 20:24
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Haha! Well.
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May 19, 2023 20:31
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Twobirds posted:Haha! Well. ...doubler?
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May 19, 2023 21:17
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uh-oh?
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May 19, 2023 22:07
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Regallion posted:...doubler? No no, just the two.
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May 19, 2023 22:29
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May 20, 2023 00:06
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Oh. Oh no!
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May 20, 2023 02:08
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Really bad timing to subtract 16 hp right away while deciding to face Hunter head on.
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May 20, 2023 04:33
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I am very excited to see how this plays out.
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May 20, 2023 04:40
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Heeereee weeee go! I guess we'll think/glitch up a way to beat Hunter? Also, we're going to be near dead, AGAIN =/
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May 21, 2023 00:18
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HP in the positives is just a glitch anyways, right?
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May 21, 2023 00:39
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Now that I've got wifi access since the voting closed, I've updated the archive with the vote result and loading screen, while removing the vote link. Edit: I'm visiting family, and my grandma's house doesn't have wifi. And of course my phone doesn't allow tethering.
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May 22, 2023 22:50
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FORTRESS MIDNIGHT dips to one mass black clawfoot in front of you, the blackmetal surface pattering in bassy thuds with every hurricane rainsplash. Within, Hunter leans forward inside the bloodred as sh- 「Vehemence」 [-16 HP = +4 to IQ] HP: [ 14 / 16 ] (Viable Vehement IQ - Oh. I thought of an attack. One that she can't withstand.) 16(+4) - [4]+[1]+[6] = 11 - Success [By 9].  "Do you remember?" Not Again posted:"Hm?" It's simple. You just need to hurt Hunter as badly as possible. You can't do this to her physically. Not yet. But you can do it psychically. You just need to let those mutant beige'd neurons sparkle with their blues, as they summon the silver and fungus rainbow. You explain it very neatly and cleanly inside of your viable thoughts: Hunter is too powerful to kill. She has to be primed for it. She has to be softened so she can crack. The way to do this is an immense psychic attack, one she can't resist easily. So you ask the Silver Mind, plainly, to overload your massively expanded thoughts with a complete reflection of Hunter's inner world. Then you ask the mushrooms to soak that reflection in rainbows, to increase the contrast of the traumatic wounds. Then you work the beige neurons into overtime, sorting with psychic algorithms to where the color contrast is highest. See? There. A thought-wound in the shape of AN ISLAND. Surrounded by hundreds of smaller wounds. That's the target? Easy easy. Your face makes no expression as blood seeps from your mouth and eyes, viable processes going lightspeed to secure your victory. Begin the attack. Reflect back the reflection, stimulate Hunter's neurons where it will hurt her the absolute worst. (Viable !ESP β - Torment Hunter.) 13 - [2]+[1]+[1] = 4 - Critical Success. You don't smile. You remain viable. Your ears ring from the screaming over the intercoms, passively noting your permanent hearing damage is notched up a little more. The enormous machine begins to rampage, thrashing about as if being grappled, smashing over dozens of trees and rolling on the ground with animal rage. You don't move, though the windy rains try to throw you down from your stone throne. You simply concentrate, eyes always following the mass shape as your immense psychic attack rains down relentless. The First Lord is begging, shouting something about not cutting the oil, nothing but a rotting old human ready to be murdered. You know she's in full relive of something, and if it wasn't for her evil machine her Tyrannical heart would surely have stopped by now. Minutes pass, and finally the result you sought comes- Hunter stops screaming, having fully lost her mind, passed out from the monstrous neuronal assault. A few seconds later the Old Owl activates in automation, folding up and launching into the sky with a tremendous wave of gravity blowing apart the watery trees. You don't move, tethered, waiting until your psychic link snaps apart from the distances being too vast. Carefully, you climb down the rocks and make your way through the blasted field. Thank you for cooperating, Hunter. You need to find Red, and you simply don't have the time to kill the First Lord just now. You softened her up for later. This way her death will be agony, and it will be fear. You get a little dull smile, climbing across the ruined clearing. Maybe you'll murder her after you gut Burner. You'll take Burner's corpse and smash it against the case, melting it open to claim the Moloch Buster. You'll sharpsnipe with its nuclear glorious, blasting the bird out of the sky as she screams with recall. That will be nice. That will be possible. You like hurting people. You like tormenting these horrible cult freaks. You like being so powerful that nothing can stop you. You like that maybe this means one day you could be greater than even the scythe... that maybe you will BE the scythe. But right now, you need to remain viable, so you gotta truck through the darkness to where Red's psychic beacon is pinging. Oh, is she on the move? Is she standing high upon a rainy rock, looking at where a black machines thunders up into the sky in escape? Good. You'll keep Red safe. You'll protect her. You'll kill everything that breathes before you let them take anything more away from you. You'll... oh. Here you are again.  The spring. You look around, understanding with viable recall that this is where you met Kaigen that first time, after you somehow escaped the MC&D containment center. You decide you need to sit down for a second to assess. HP: [ 14 / 16 ] FP: [ 14 / 15.▒ ] ANXIETY: [Still around 5% or so.] Acceptable. You're still viable. You know by the cast of your immense silver currents that no life threatens you in this surround. They were scared off by the screams of the First Lord, chased to darkness. So you begin you bound again; although you can't run and leap like with your monstrous strength, you can trick and slide so clean that the speed is more than made up for. You make it down to where Red is on ground, coming into a part of the spring where the forests open to a small plain that ends in a grassy beach before the raging rain river. Red is there, easy-seen through your third eye wide, hiding under a makeshift leaf-tarp where she keeps a small campfire going. You're overjoyed, but it comes out as a simple smile while you jog and begin an eerie call over the rains. Reeeeeeed! The hooded figure startles out from under the tarp, holding Ashtheft in defense. She calms only when she recognizes the warble of your deformed voice, having been caught off guard by how freakishly blase your tone has become. You stalk out of the dark with that lazy smile, waving with cheerful news- Red! You did it, just like she asked, you distracted the Sunburners. Also, don't worry- Hunter found you and was going to murder you, so you opened her brains and bit them so hard that she will scream every time she sees your shape, for the rest of her brief miserable doomed LIFE. So. What's for dinner? No time to lose. A brief rest is all you need, and you'll be ready to keep going.  The dryad mask-stares at you as you blandly recount your psychic savaging. Only the mushrooms catch the deep concern in her thoughts, and they don't share them with the fearful that is your beige-soak mind.
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May 27, 2023 16:02
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uh-huh, i think we took in a little hunter and that's not a good thing. Remind me to stop leveling tyranny, again.
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May 27, 2023 17:41
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Well. That was something. Let's hope that Hunter and Burner aren't too close?
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May 27, 2023 21:36
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Man, I kinda feel bad for Hunter now, especially when I think of some of the stories from Elise the Great in the healthcare stories thread, of elderly people being put through the inherent shittiness of an ICU stay or being resuscitated because some family member can't understand that sometimes, it's better to let them have however much morphine they want and go peacefully than to have another week of pain and misery. Wondering what Red's thinking, beyond how hosed up her little Moonlight is right now...
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May 27, 2023 21:40
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i feel like that image of burner is the clearest picture of almost anyone we've seen so far?
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May 27, 2023 22:15
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Captain Foo posted:i feel like that image of burner is the clearest picture of almost anyone we've seen so far? I think we had a pretty clear shot of Bleeder when we met him for the first time? But it cut off the bottom of his face.
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May 28, 2023 02:08
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As far as Lord art goes, you’ve seen Bleeder, Burner, Dancer, Hunter, and Doubler.
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May 28, 2023 02:12
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Regallion posted:uh-huh, i think we took in a little hunter and that's not a good thing. Remind me to stop leveling tyranny, again. Think it's just the [Viable] Murderous Intent talking. It'll probably be fine once Viable wears off.
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May 28, 2023 02:15
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I... I don't think I want us going with Murderous Intent anymore. Especially not when we have an IQ to think sadistic thoughts.
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May 28, 2023 03:08
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 [There it is again. Burner easily followed the Leave & Rejoin command. She had the springs set as the meet point, was there waiting as asked, and she even started a camp. Impeccable NPC Ally behavior. All of this on the back of a heart-threatening unlucky random encounter with Hunter, which was solved immediately by the insane fortune of a critical psychic attack. Too many status effects stacked to even make sense of how that had worked out, besides knowing it resolved with her immediately ending the battle in retreat. Was that her Flight mechanism? Had any onerunner seen that from her before?] [Whatever the reason, Hunter is now Hateful, but she wouldn't trouble this walk anymore. One which had to take a chance by allowing Burner to forge the road: when an Ally had knowledge of an area, you could set a goal point and then ask them to path the best way there. This could mean less random encounters, more positive events, and much faster travel times. In this case? Burner would of course have grandmastery of knowing the best ways in and out of her own Lorded Lands, with the best calculated risks. Just ask her to route the way back to her Megalith.] [12 miles to the next destination... with a departure of 9pm, which meant this was going to be a midnight walk. But with Burner, was that going to even be a problem? With a Lord buccaneering in such good health? It's ridiculous. May as well. The character is too drugged up and evened out to not take advantage of to get as far ahead as allowed. Every second now counts, when going down into the Nuclear.]  The Blue Book posted:It's foolish to be out past your bedtime. The world becomes markedly more dangerous during certain hours of the day and night, demarcated in blocks of threat probabilities. Below is a counting of each block of time and the risk of enemy encounters, as well as the chance of an event occurring, which could lead to benefits.
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May 29, 2023 06:36
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hm yes why would hunter ever be hateful after this situation, a true mystery, that.
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May 29, 2023 23:18
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Regallion posted:hm yes why would hunter ever be hateful after this situation, a true mystery, that.  Also, we are definitely going to extend this walk into the witching hour, aren't we?
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May 30, 2023 00:52
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quote:But with Burner, was that going to even be a problem? With a Lord buccaneering in such good health? thinking this will still be a problem yeah
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May 30, 2023 02:54
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 OST: Lordly Night You're moving so strangely now. You're completely smoothed out, a perfect beige homogeneity of your every all. It comes into your eyes with the creep of your plainest possible smile, the strongest show of affection you can manage. Oh, right. You have a crown midnight. You forgot after you chased Hunter away; you raise a bloodless fist to a storming Heaven. Prelude to victory. You sat for just a minute before you stood for ready. Let's go, Red! The Camp Champ is ready for a long hike. Although the dryad would love to sleep, she seems to agree with the haste; and maybe some of that is motivated by how nervous she is about your condition. She can smell the chemical compounds in your blood, their eerie mixture of many hues. The Lordly Parasite is undulating with mathematical precision, your blood completely cleaned out save for the tasty red core of that rubescent heat. You have no idea what you took at the blowout to end up like this, but you are content to be viable. The hurricane is calming, provoked by the sheer expulsion of gravity that the Old Owl had given off in escape. It tore open the rainy winds, and now there are incredible sky-skeins of raining raw midnight cut through with a thousand holes that reveal tremendous starlight. Clouds swirl and crash over the lands, and you can smell weird steams- it's so hard to see over the trees and across the darkness to see the exact shape of the Land Burner Lorded. Red advances on with sword and shield ready, the roaring winds throwing her robe and white belt into a wraithly frenzy. You join her with her shroud over you in full, blade dragged over the soaking grounds; the pebbly trees smell so amazing after such a fierce of rains. There are so many smells coming across the winds now, and your sharpened senses go wild with intake. Your utter beige saves you from sensory overload, as well as from babbling maniac to Red with excitement over how amazing it all smells; even the horrifying chemicals stinks. Your Counselor winds you down weird ways, as she often stops to pet a tree or poke a leaf, constantly studying her position against the throws of the branches. You hide down past long dark lakes, immense pools of mile-long body. You can both hear the sounds now, of legions upset by the horrors scratching the lands. Proximity to Burner's Lands, the horrible storm, Hunter's gravity, the Sunburner blowout: oh the lands, lands lands alive! A hundred howled madnesses from somewhere just out of view. Coming for you! But you're not afraid. You are utterly viable, and your Counselor is here. Event Log posted:Loathesome lakes. Do you recognize the bodies in their distant waters? Too fardark to see at this time of night. But the shores still stir, and a long long long arm with one thousand joints snapcracks a long roll up through the rainy eaves to come grab and drag one of you away. Red is already aware and ready with such an incredible force of nuclear rage... but then she remembers she can't cast so casually when this close to MEGALITH. Here she is without a petal to spare. What to do? Hold the shield of The Ones Like and heft the gifted sword of fire slown. White belt flapping with red cape in heroics.  (!Viable Tyranny - 5th Response) 13 [2]+[6]+[4] = 12 - Success. (!LORD - 5th Response) 14 [5]+[2]+[2] = 9 - Success! All-Out Attack (Double Attack) automatically successful! Simple. You attack first with the coordination only the Camp could teach you. The Camp... why does it feel like it lasted months on months? You move with Red as if it had been that long, as you thrash the jointed lake-limb once with full hate. [2d+1(x2) = 10 damage!] Red cracks the wood-edge blade as the limb snaps over to her. [5d = 19 damage!] You're already there in the middle of your second throw, smashing the limb back to her with another dozen shattered joints. [2d+1(x2) = 18 damage!] The ex-Sunburner rages with a second swing, limbs of nuclear-corded grass savaging the nightmare back for the final strike. [5d = 15 damage!] You leap with viable force, and sever with the placid madness of a third swing. [2d+1(x2) = 14 damage!] It's not enough to end it, no. But it is five sudden strikes so sharp and strong that it retreats with a horrible squelch of shattered floppy meat. You and Red pant a moment and carry on like nothing had happened. The road continues relentless in the all of night, as legions of insects being to mount their calls over the roaring rainwinds. You round the next bend, closing in on Red's goal, when the next evil comes for you at the near of midnight. Event Log posted:Again she stands with the ready of a Hero. No... no, it's not a Hero, who stands like that. There's something beyond that shadow-fable state of ruin; there's something terrible and real, something whose hidden name belongs to The Ones Like as she lifts the oil-dripping shield in defense holy of someone she cares for. The sword is held high with the intent of a Sign. They come down from sky, blown over the winds that clave open the clouds to bleed starlight. Nuclear leaves, plant life that was meant to burn away in the ultimate atomic heat of the Lorded arcade, but such was Red's nuclear necromancy that they could not die, and instead clustered everburning in a scathing blade that rides the wind.  But none of those happen. Before your viable thoughts can even finish assessing the options, Red has already leapt in front of you. 「The Oilstained Shield」 & 「The Fifth Lord」 [Auto-Block!] [-2 FP] (!LORD - Ashtheft) 14 [2]+[6]+[1] = 9 - Slaying! [SLAIN] Even with your neurons so beige-dull still, there is no resisting them coloring a warm bit of red in response to seeing your Counselor move. The shield goes up, and the immense flying river of burning leaves roars over the oily surface, setting it alight, while Red seems to throw her body language in a grand dancing skyward heave, exerting some control over the entity to drag it down into a fatal guillotine against the slay of the reddish-wood blade. There's a great awful darkness, and then the dryad seems to become very meek and worried as she turns maskward to the south with a long pause of quiet. She holds your shoulder in reassurance, while you continue the vague smile. Red takes a second to put up a hand while she scribbles with more uranium crayon on her rapidly-diminishing flash papers. You look at the message and little drawing and nod. You're as sharp a camper as can be, Counselor. 'AHEAD IS SANCTUM ALL OPEN FIELD DANGER MUST MOVE WITHOUT BEING SEEN BY TOWER OF LIGHT' The wind is screaming overhead as it rips open the sky to horizon with the sudden sight of the black sky beyond, glittering mad with a chaos of powerful stars. You look with a smoothed one-degree of awe and terror, relaxed as you listen to the skywinds of Hider's bitter crying. You nod and let Red take the lead, moving more quietly now as the forests start to speak of the hour Midnight. [12pm] Red explains it as you come near. The tower is a solar power source, a place of awful ritual and farseeing strength. Meant to cast visions out over the wilds, or using the forbidden art of Sunsight. One of the Matriarchs, the Solar Flare, founded much of her witchly arts through time in the glassy tower, and she was sure to be there now for a longcast of seeing. Your viable mind is working a mile a minute, and you take to two tasks as Red explains piece by piece. (!Viable DX - Stealth) 16 [5]+[3]+[2] = 10 - Success [By 6]. (!Viable PE - PSI Clouding ɑ) 16 [4]+[5]+[6] = 15 - Success [By 1]. (!Viable IQ - Think it through.) 16 [3]+[3]+[5] = 11 - Success [By 5]. HP: [ 14 / 16 ] FP: [ 13 / 15.▒ ] ANXIETY: [7%] You assume a monstrous crouch, mindful of how Ulthar treads the all of night. Silent and sullen, wraithly as you pocket blade and simply keep your arms limber and out to four-crawl with stealth. On top of that you cast your mindful of silver unsight, clouded from view, but flimsily so. You pull just a sheet out. You think it all through as Red communicates with you. See here? It's like this. The entire area marked off is an instant-see by the one commanding the tower. Open field, nakedly plain for the light to shine down upon.  So you can't go through that area. You're going to have to do a dangerous midnight circle-around... but the thing is, you're thinking. Too much, too fast, too beige. It's very simple logic you're following, when you tell Red that her plan is wrong. She stops you as you rest near the edge of the fields, and you're looking at her plainly as you explain; you showed face at the party. You moved on through. That means that they're going to expect someone to be walking around, and it's best if you show face again in a way that the Matriarch will be ready to be at ease with. Even if you're unseen, as long as she suspects a you and not a Red- that leaves Red to go around the long way, which means that you can leave and rejoin once again in a midnight rush hour as you try to pass with peace to where she wants to head after this checkpoint- which is through the swamps before finally into the long dark of the Lorded Land. Easy. You are absolutely viable enough to make this work. You already have, and you shoo Red as you begin your half-stealth drive down into the open grassy field, while the ex-Sunburner hurries herself the long way around. The problem is that your viable state makes you absolutely correct in your assessment, even if you have no real way of being ready for what waits beyond. You already know you wanted to make your clouding light, so you can still be sensed to some degree when passing by. It might be a chance for slay, after all; you've made no promises to Burner, and Red is the only one you'll spare. But importantly, Red has to get you past the final miles into Burner's lands, and this was going to be the most viable path with midnight now crushing down with starry suffocations.  The grassy field... it's so dense and alive with singing insects. Millionfold crying, so close to the lands of nuclear ends. You crush through wading, shroud repelling with its magics as you moving past cluttering hillwoods to get into view of the tower proper. Down here in the vale, the grasses are much richer and stained strange with more summery flowers among the foliage, calmer with swamps dominating the liquid bodies over the rivers of the north half. Sad colors dominate, hues of pale orange and sunset yellow, bitter fruits growing ripe on the solar-scorched soils. You watch the stars with the unblinking gaze, moving monstrous and murderous with intent hidden behind a facade of even-out placidity. See? Round this corner, there's the true open flat field. There displaced by time and dream is the Solar Retreat, the terrible tower of light that screams in the pure of night. It's a mighty glass structure of deceptive pyramidal, jutting irregular and without love for those who don't deserve the sweltering heat of its grassy innards. The greenhouse tower glass holds light, technological veins of solar black and rainbow rays, and they're collating in irregular ways like the thousandcast of what an eye takes in when flickering neurons. That cast of colorful pale rays is going to swing your way any second as you stand out in the open before the tower, and you need to decide what to do with that.
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Jun 6, 2023 07:18
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you do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES recognize the bodies in the water
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Jun 6, 2023 08:47
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As tempting as it is to keep going full psycho with murderous intent, I'm too scared by another Incident:tm:.
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Jun 6, 2023 09:30
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Regallion posted:you do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES recognize the bodies in the water Some aspect of the Tyrant Child probably does recognize the bodies in the water, and we need to make sure it doesn't take the reins.
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Jun 6, 2023 09:35
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I get the feeling if we don’t keep the Tyrant under control on this trip, we’re going to end up with a dead Burner.
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Jun 6, 2023 22:41
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jaclynhyde posted:I get the feeling if we don’t keep the Tyrant under control on this trip, we’re going to end up with a dead Burner. I don't think dead burner is optional. The question is really "Dead" or Dead, much likke with bleeder.
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Jun 6, 2023 22:56
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Regallion posted:I don't think dead burner is optional. I believe our Counselor can find a way out of this!!!
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Jun 7, 2023 02:42
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 20:47 |
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DOES THIS FOREST SAY DEAD BURNER STORAGE
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Jun 7, 2023 02:43
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