Llyarden

Tourna raised its spoon again as it saw Akimbold closing in, with an alarmed warble - only for Santokumaru to leap in the way and block the attacks! The little stewbot capered and whistled for a few moments, before turning its attention to the other kobolds. Maybe it had decided that it shouldn't be interfering in a duel between two masters of culinary martial arts...or maybe it had just decided that Akimbold was too scary for it. Either way, it scrabbled its way up to the platform where the kobolds were amassed, paused for a moment to grab a handful of the roasted nuts and marshmallows that were going around, chirruping happily - and then went whirling around just like some of the kobolds had been doing before, spoon at the ready - although it had the advantage that its shoulders could rotate the whole way around its body, so it didn't have to get dizzy. Somehow it seemed to end up mostly hitting the kobolds that hadn't given it food. (Somewhere in the back of its mind, Tourna considered the fact that the kobolds didn't really seem to be on the dragon's side either. Unfortunately that fact immediately got buried under six new ideas for stew.) Spoon Bonk on the Kobold Krew (WLP + WLP)

I definitely didn't think I'd already made one of these. Not at all.

As you emerge from the VTOL, you are...well, not exactly led through the town per se, there's no-one actually going ahead of you, but there's a pretty obvious path winding its way through the town, taking you past the town square - where you have all manner of foodstuffs and other assorted gifts thrust upon you with only a token consideration to whether or not said foodstuffs are actually portable - past Bill's - where you do not get foodstuffs thrust upon you, because Bill always says he has to make a living, but you do get some waves and a few raised flagons from the people who've started drinking already - past the town school - where you get probably the loudest and most excited cheers from the younger kids and somewhat quieter but probably more genuine cheers from those of your friends who aren't elsewhere along the route - and eventually through to the Crystal Pool. In bigger settlements, the Crystal Pool is housed in an extravagant building that would rival any noble's estate (and indeed many nobles use the Crystal Pool as a way to flaunt their wealth and status without risking accusations of being tasteless and excessive by decorating their own buildings, because who would ever question paying homage to such a symbol of Terat?), with 24/7 guards preventing anyone from sneaking in. Of course, the Crystal Pool in Demaya is practically a settlement all its own (not that anyone's ever seen it other than the royal family), probably bigger than the entirety of Greenbrook and with a literal army guarding it. Here, it is still sealed off from the outside, but only by a wooden fence, and it's only guarded when the town watch's patrol happens to take them past. The top of a gazebo that does its best to stave off rain, wind and the like can just about be seen from the outside. Normally not many people go near the Crystal Pool; even - or perhaps especially - in a village like this, such is the reverence the people of Terat hold for the Pools. Today, though, a large stage is set up pretty much directly on the path, with the great and the good of Greenbrook assembled on seats and Mayor Malencon standing by a lectern with a battered old wooden tombola machine. Normally the families of the new recruits get to sit on the stage as well, but Karl's parents evidently haven't taken up that opportunity, leaving two seats awkwardly and obviously empty - Dimitri isn't there either, but that's because he evidently only got here just before you guys did. Even over the general noise you hear a loud "JOSEF! DRAGONS GUIDE YOU!" and see a waving hand pop up from somewhere in the middle of the crowd...is he wearing clothes styled a little bit to look like a burning club? ...yeah, he totally is. Perception DC15 Oh hey Karl's parents are here! Very like Dimitri, they're kinda in the middle of the crowd; maybe they just didn't get here in time to get into their seats? DC20 ...oh, they're kinda trying to pretend you guys don't exist. Yeah maybe not then. It's a tradition in Greenbrook for soon-to-be novices to give little speeches before heading back to the Crystal Pool to receive their Blessing, and then show off their newfound power when they return. Originally the speeches were usually just used for people to thank their parents, guardians, teachers and anyone else, but in practice these days the speeches can basically be whatever because the real reason for the speech is for the Pool to be cleansed between recruits. Some particularly confident recruits even use them to announce what they're using as Tithes and what they want their Blessing to be, although for obvious reasons that's best done when you're using a reliable ritual. Judging from the slightly bewildered, deer-in-headlights look Lily gives as the six of you are shepherded up onto the stage to each wait your turn, the Baron had not actually told her about this particular tradition. Mayor Malencon rolls the tombola machine around a couple times, rummages in it, and produces a scrap of paper, holding it very close to his face so as to be able to read it (he refuses to wear his spectacles for public ceremonies because he thinks it makes him look old.) "Ahem-hem-hem! Josef Rossi." *** Once you each give your respective speeches, you are led by Archivist Levont through to the Crystal Pool. It's the first time any of you have ever been there, or even seen a Crystal Pool in person - it's illegal to take photographs or film a Crystal Pool (other than to report a new-sprung one to the authorities), and even during your training you were never shown the one in Fort Naoth. The closest you got was a few sketches that had been done over the years by various Knights, and a dummy Crystal Pool to teach you the ritual of the ceremony. Neither the sketches nor the stand-in 'pool' can really prepare you for it, though. The Crystal Pool is often described as being like liquid - that is, after all, where the name comes from - but it's clear even from a momentary glimpse that it's like no mundane liquid. Glittering in a hundred different colours it doesn't just flow or ripple, but dances, intricate, infinite fractal patterns forming across the surface, sometimes raising up a good foot in height or dropping just as far in depth - somehow never spilling a drop over the crude stones that were laid centuries ago to hold the Pool in place. Tiny motes of glimmering light flit around and above the pool like hundreds of insects, and they react to your arrival, spinning and whirling in apparent excitement. Weaving their way around the gazebo, and growing hither and yon across the unkempt grass around the Crystal Pool, are ley-crystals, pure and unadulterated. Gathering such is one of the privileges of becoming a Novice, though while you're allowed to use them to forge dragonsteel equipment to replace the generic stuff you were given by the Archives, you aren't allowed to sell them until you are officially Knighted. By the time each of you enters, Archivist Levont has left a ritually purified robe neatly folded on a tree stump (which is almost completely coated in a crystal sheen). Some Novices change back into their normal clothes before leaving the Crystal Pool's glade, others stay in their robes (especially if they're concerned about damaging their clothes with their new powers); there's no real requirement either way other than not leaving anything behind in the glade. The procedure is for you to change into the robe (okay technically you can also just wear nothing at all, but while it's not much different to a ritual robe from a mystical perspective, that option is even less common than people choosing to stay in their non-purified, mundane clothes), and then either cast your Tithes into the Crystal Pool or - more uncommonly - place them on a ley-crystal plant and allow them to be absorbed before entering yourself. The Blessing itself begins as soon as you fully submerge yourself. There are dozens of rumours about specific permutations resulting in better Blessings - should you throw the Tithes in as hard as you can, or just gently place them? Should you walk gently into the pool or dive in? And so on - but the official position of the Archives is that there's no difference. Once each of you touches the Crystal Pool, it takes hold of you. Not with any serious force - you could easily get free if you wanted to - but there's a definite physical pull trying to gently tow you into the centre of the Pool, and the more you submerge yourself, the stronger the pull gets. The Pool is much, much steeper than you might have thought from its appearance, and by the time you're barely halfway to the centre you could easily be fully submerged, though the Pool doesn't actually try to pull you under. If anything it keeps you afloat, and you have to actively submerge yourself to have anything above your neck go below the surface of the Pool. Once you do, though, you sink - incredibly fast, and somehow it feels like the Pool is a dozen, maybe a hundred times bigger than it was a moment earlier. You can still breathe just fine...although if you think about it carefully, you might come to realise that you simply aren't needing to breathe, oxygen being supplied to your body through some means far more ethereal than mere lungs. And then your consciousnesses drift away as the Blessing begins. The entire ceremony is swathed to some extent in secrecy, but the Blessing itself even more so. Nobody ever speaks about what they experience during the Blessing, so as little prepared as you were to see a Crystal Pool in person...the Blessing is a more unearthly experience still. Gen You see the Dragon War. It can be nothing else. A great dragon with jagged, dark grey scales being set upon by two other dragons, all three higher in the sky than any VTOL would ever travel, great rents being carved in its skin as it tries to defend itself before the scene suddenly changes in a flash of starlight and the injured dragon is now a good distance away from its attackers. But they don't pursue, it and instead turn on each other as the grey dragon turns and flies away. You could swear it was crying. You snap awake to find yourself lying on the top of the Crystal Pool, now a solid surface of deep grey with spikes going outwards as though you were the centre of some kind of earthquake. As you step back towards solid land, the crystal collapses back into its normal multicoloured, liquid form. Expertise (Crystal Lore) DC25, or (Knights) DC30 People pretty much never speak about what they experience in their Blessing. But you've actually managed to hear someone else talk about their Blessing, and a handful of second-hand rumours. And...okay, it's not exactly a massive amount of data...but you've never heard of anyone seeing anything so cohesive in a Blessing before. Never mind the Dragon Wars, a time that is nothing more than myth. OOC Due to the effect of ???'s Memoriam, you are considered Impaired for...technically speaking a day or two, practically speaking from a PbP perspective just the rest of this scene, should it matter. Heather You see the Dragon War. It can be nothing else. A great dragon with beautiful, pale scales is standing before a bigger dragon with red scales, between it and a town - or perhaps a city, lacking a proper sense of scale in comparison to the titanic dragons makes it hard to tell. You can't hear anything being said, but somehow you know, as easily as you could read an ordinary person's body language, that the pale dragon's demeanour is calming, soothing, in stark contrast to the aggressiveness of the red dragon - and suddenly the red dragon roars and leaps at the smaller dragon. And a lance of light flies down from the sky and smashes into the red dragon, crushing it to the ground, and as its life fades away, the pale dragon closes its eyes and lowers its head, almost like it's praying. You snap awake to find yourself lying on the top of the Crystal Pool, now a solid surface of glittering starlight, with a variety of (human) figures acting out fairytales you recognise from your childhood, somehow incredibly accurate but at the same time too vague to make out any features if you look too closely. As you step back towards solid land, the crystal collapses back into its normal multicoloured, liquid form. Expertise (Crystal Lore) DC25, or (Knights) DC30 People pretty much never speak about what they experience in their Blessing. But you've actually managed to hear someone else talk about their Blessing, and a handful of second-hand rumours. And...okay, it's not exactly a massive amount of data...but you've never heard of anyone seeing anything so cohesive in a Blessing before. Never mind the Dragon Wars, a time that is nothing more than myth. OOC Due to the effect of ???'s Memoriam, you are considered Impaired for...technically speaking a day or two, practically speaking from a PbP perspective just the rest of this scene, should it matter. Josef You see the Dragon War. It can be nothing else. Two dragons - one red, one green - fight in the sky, each wounding the other with claws, teeth, tails and blasts of prana - and then suddenly you feel more than see something in the distance, and a wave of magical energy approaches, almost blotting out the sky itself. The two dragons look at it, wide-eyed, and the green dragon turns and flees - but the red dragon, and your perspective of the scene, doesn't. As the magical wave hits, the red dragon contorts in pain, tossed to and fro by the storm - and then a shimmer of prana, or perhaps something more unearthly, flows down it, and its movement steadies and it starts to fly into the storm of magic...even as first its scales, and then its whole body, starts to warp and shift horrifically. You snap awake to find yourself lying on the top of the Crystal Pool, now a field of jagged ruby shards, with ruby-red vines and plants coiling almost to the height of the gazebo above you. They grab at you as you move, thorns running painlessly through your skin. As you step back towards solid land, the crystal collapses back into its normal multicoloured, liquid form. Expertise (Crystal Lore) DC25, or (Knights) DC30 People pretty much never speak about what they experience in their Blessing. But you've actually managed to hear someone else talk about their Blessing, and a handful of second-hand rumours. And...okay, it's not exactly a massive amount of data...but you've never heard of anyone seeing anything so cohesive in a Blessing before. Never mind the Dragon Wars, a time that is nothing more than myth. OOC Due to the effect of ???'s Memoriam, you are considered Impaired for...technically speaking a day or two, practically speaking from a PbP perspective just the rest of this scene, should it matter. Karl You see the Dragon War. It can be nothing else. A blue dragon, with horrific wounds that somehow you know, despite having never seen a dragon before, aren't survivable without help, forcing itself to swim through the ocean, leaving a trail of blood behind it. Tiny strings are threaded around it from almost-too-small-to-see humans, tied to hundreds, maybe thousands, of boats, and as the wind turns, the dying dragon lets itself slump - its weight almost pulling the closer ships underwater before a gust of wind catches the sails of the armada and the ropes grow taut enough to pull it back to the surface - and is slowly towed towards distant land. You snap back awake to find yourself lying on top of the crystal pool, a solid sheet of sapphire that seems to sometimes turn deep red if you look at it at the right angle, unnervingly warm and with occasional pulses running through it like a heartbeat. As you step back towards solid land, the crystal collapses back into its normal multicoloured, liquid form. Expertise (Crystal Lore) DC25, or (Knights) DC30 People pretty much never speak about what they experience in their Blessing. But you've actually managed to hear someone else talk about their Blessing, and a handful of second-hand rumours. And...okay, it's not exactly a massive amount of data...but you've never heard of anyone seeing anything so cohesive in a Blessing before. Never mind the Dragon Wars, a time that is nothing more than myth. OOC Due to the effect of ???'s Memoriam, you are considered Impaired for...technically speaking a day or two, practically speaking from a PbP perspective just the rest of this scene, should it matter. Remy You see the Dragon War. It can be nothing else. More than a dozen dragons - some dead, some dying - lie around something unlike anything you've ever seen before. It's not like any Demon you've ever heard of; it looks vaguely like a dragon, but a dragon made of storm and water and fire rather than anything physical - and easily a dozen times the size of any of the dragons there. As you watch, lashes of pure white whip out from its body seemingly at random and crash on the flanks of a trio of dragons - one grey, one pale pink, and one yellow - dealing them gruesome wounds as they shield a party of perhaps two dozen humans from the thing. The yellow dragon 'says' something - you can't hear what it says, but the grey dragon suddenly turns and tries to pounce on the yellow dragon, only to get swatted aside by the yellow dragon's tail as it charges right at the monster and disappears inside. Your perspective follows it, though you don't go inside the monster itself; you do, however, get close enough that can see the yellow dragon arcing and thrashing inside - and catch a glimpse of the pink dragon holding the grey dragon back from doing the same thing the yellow one had - before suddenly the whole thing implodes into beautiful, multifaceted light that erupts out and races off in all directions like a thousand bolts of rainbow lightning, leaving the yellow dragon - now almost unrecognisable due to its wounds - lifeless on the ground. You snap awake to find yourself lying on the top of the Crystal Pool, an elegant spiral of pale yellow like someone has compressed a tornado down to a flat surface, slowly turning beneath you. As you step back towards solid land, the crystal collapses back into its normal multicoloured, liquid form. Expertise (Crystal Lore) DC25, or (Knights) DC30 People pretty much never speak about what they experience in their Blessing. But you've actually managed to hear someone else talk about their Blessing, and a handful of second-hand rumours. And...okay, it's not exactly a massive amount of data...but you've never heard of anyone seeing anything so cohesive in a Blessing before. Never mind the Dragon Wars, a time that is nothing more than myth. OOC Due to the effect of ???'s Memoriam, you are considered Impaired for...technically speaking a day or two, practically speaking from a PbP perspective just the rest of this scene, should it matter. It's impossible to tell how long the Blessing ceremony takes - at least, to its participants. Those of you on the outside can tell that each of you spends about twenty minutes in the glade, which would translate roughly to about ten minutes in the Pool proper plus time to change, harvest the ley-crystals with the new strength your Blessing gives you (if Gen tries beforehand he discovers that as powerful as his Oleimian blood makes him, the ley-crystals don't yield to it any more than they would mundane human strength), and generally spend at least a minute or so figuring out the general basics of your powers - which are, fortunately, for the most part quite instinctual - before you return. OOC Obviously you don't all actually have your Blessing ceremony at the same time, but for convenience you can each RP your respective speeches and ceremonies can all be posted at once. In order, for reference, it goes Josef, Remy, Heather, Gen, Lily, and lastly Karl.

Sorin let out a sigh of relief as the Nevermores faded. "Well, that went pretty -" *fwip* "...and I'm in here now. Okay then." He paused for a moment in confusion as he saw Fen aiming above her brothers' heads with her rifle. Leaving aside the fact that your brothers have probably had plenty of weapons pointed at them for one day - he still needed to apologise for that, but that could come later - maybe we should check with Dr Brown and that weird egg thing before we leave that this has actually worked and we haven't destabilised time by leaving Dust-weapon damage all over the forest? He wasn't sure there was a...massive amount of point in actually trying to trick the Fables, especially since one of them had already recognised the present-day (or was it future?) Fen. But he wasn't going to start disagreeing about it right now.

Sorin hopped off Delores and flitted over to Nicoale with a beat of his golden wings, raising his shield in time to repel the feathers that were coming her way with a pulse of Wind Dust before landing on whatever the toughest-looking branches were. "Right, then. Let's...try...this." His golden Aura feathers vanished, the golden light flowing into his weapon like it was running down a plughole as, with his free hand, he activated one after another of his Dust reservoirs. Fire, Water, Electric, Hard Light...it all fused into a single ball of energy that seemed barely contained by Sorin's aura, not entirely unlike a form he'd used - and then he unleashed it, firing a single beam of brilliant light at the worse-damaged Nevermore before letting the recoil spin him into place to fire at the second. OOC Free: Reconfigure Tactical Combatant. 10 points to Blasting Gauntlet [Partial Physical Immunity when Interposing], 11 points to Cyan Feather, 10 points to Adaptability, 6 points to Harrying Follow-Up (forgoing Extra Condition), 11 points to Yellow Feather (forgoing SE and Reversible), 7 points to Project Aura [Range 7], 11 points to Steam Dust (forgoing Contagious and Reversible), 3 points to Shifting Blade [Dangerous 3] Free: Activate Adaptability (5). 1 point to create a variation of Harrying Follow-Up that targets Resistance instead of Attack. -5 points to add Limited (Full Action) to Cyan Feather. 3 points to add Penetrating [Limited: Full Action] to the variant Harrying Follow-Up. 6 points to add Penetrating [Limited: Full Action] to Yellow Feather. Move: Power up. Standard: Attack NM1, all-out attacking for 5, critting on a 17+. DC26+Penetrating/21+Penetrating/21+Penetrating vs Damage Linked Dazed+Impaired+Vulnerable/Stunned+Disabled+Defenceless/Incapacitated Linked Weaken Resistance. - Attack vs NM1 (+5 for AoA) Extra Effort: Do it again! But on NM2 this time. - Attack vs NM2 (+5 for AoA) Status: Partial Physical Immunity [Interpose Only], Bruised, -5 defence, Fatigued, Exhausted next round.

"You are quite welcome," Archivist Levont says to Heather, once he's stopped the drone recording. Other than that, though, he doesn't respond to any of your other comments (he does take note of Remy's surname, but he knew who was coming so it's not like it's a surprise.) "Yep, that's me," Lily nods, with an embarrassed little chuckle. "Recruit Lily Stria, at least for one more day. And, uh, you know...sorry for intruding on your village and all. I got, uh...let's say family problems." "And no, I've never been. Baron Gerente told me a little bit, but that's it." After a moment, she looks over to Karl. "Is, um...is he okay?" she asks, quietly. *** Something as minor as a recruit's wooziness, however, isn't enough to stop the regimented logistics of the Knights, and so once you've each received and confirmed your Tithes, you climb back aboard the VTOL and soar into the sky, landing at the Baron's estate late at night - nonetheless, and probably much to the anemic Karl's relief, you get a sizeable meal courtesy of the Baron, and spaces in the barracks to rest (which are, I mean, still just barracks, but are nonetheless a little better quality than what you'd been dealing with for the past year or thereabouts at Fort Naoth.) You only briefly see the Baron himself, when he arrives to see you off in the morning - and do a few last formalities around Lily undergoing the Blessing ritual at Greenbrook. You guys can't actually see out of the VTOL (it does have big doors that can slide open for combat landings and such, but they aren't open for journeys like this), so the only way you have of tracking your progress is a small map on a screen at one end of the VTOL's interior - and the occasional announcements from the pilot. "We'll be coming into land at Greenbrook shortly," crackles over the intercom. Of course, the VTOLs are combat vehicles. They can practically fall out of the sky to land if needed. In this case, though, the pilot banks the VTOL around in what is clearly a dramatic circle around the village before touching down so smoothly it's almost impossible to notice the landing. And then, after a dozen seconds or so (perhaps to allow you to make sure you're presentable for your arrival) the doors slide open, revealing a riot of colour and noise from the Blessing-day celebrations - and the cheers of the villagers greeting the five successful Recruits, an unprecedented number from such a small village. Thus, just before midday on Darkday of Star's Opal, almost a year since the five of you had left Greenbrook, you return home. OOC Sorry for speeding through things a little, once the game gets underway properly I'll be more willing to let side RP go on, but while we're still finding our feet I want to keep up momentum. I was going to write something about your families greeting you but, uh...as far as I can see none of you have family in the village except Karl, and his parents haven't shown.

Unsurprisingly Interposing for Nicoale. Resistance (DC27, +5 for Blasting Gauntlet, -1 for Bruise) Resist. Sorin finally remembered how to Interpose right.

Tourna let out a startled honk as it was bopped by the whirling spoon, although since it wouldn't have known what a spell was if one hit it in the face and its culinary techniques were ingrained in its very being, it didn't really suffer any additional effects beyond a dent to its metal body. And then a spell really did hit it in the face. Tourna chirruped in a mixture of excitement and nervousness it danced back and forth and tried to work out if the battered, illusory fake of itself was an ally or an enemy - and then warbled in alarm as the illusory Tourna swooped in at it, erupting in healing energies that fixed the battered dent on the little robot leaving it as good as new, all shiny and polished (but still graffiti'd in eldritch runes). Feeling refreshed and invigorated, it poked its head out above the bowl/boat once again and let out an angry whistle at Captain Akimbold. How rude of him to bonk it on the head with a spoon! So of course it immediately tried to bonk him on the head right back. Spoon Bop on Cap'n Akimbold (WLP + WLP; HR+6 physical)

Darkday of Star's Opal, 564 F.B. An otherwise unassuming day in mid-spring, it wouldn't be too inaccurate to describe Darkday of Star's Opal as one of the most hotly anticipated days in the year for the village of Greenbrook. Of course, Knight's Day is a national holiday and everyone watches the leynet broadcast from the royal palace, and certainly there's no day in the year where more respect is given. But Darkday of Star's Opal is the day each year when the teens of Greenbrook receive their Blessing. And it is a festival. The local school spends most of the week making decorations to put up around the town (although after an awkward incident a few years ago where they spelt someone's name wrong on the big banner and nobody noticed until it was too late, the decorations are no longer personalised to the prospective novices), and a lot of families have their own decorations to put up on their own houses and grounds, often passed down for multiple generations; it's often believed that such decorations will bring good luck to the Knights they celebrate, with the old inhabitants of the village looking down from the heavens. The town square is turned into a giant buffet of...varying quality, because almost everyone brings something, though pride of place is always given to the half-dozen households whose meals were voted the best last year. For those interested in more consistently good food, Bill's has a Blessing-day discount which rather counterintuitively runs the whole week of Star's Opal. Greenbrook is small enough that it actually doesn't have a formal landing pad for the VTOL that brings the soon-to-be-novices from Fort Naoth. Instead, you land in the Mayor's garden, which always undergoes frenetic maintenance over the preceding couple of days to make it look perfect (even if much of that perfection is then kinda ruined by the VTOL landing), and pass through the big gates that are constructed for precisely this purpose but kept shut and locked for the rest of the year, travelling the full length of the village in a meandering, hour-long parade to Greenbrook's Crystal Pool (by tradition, civilian centres of power are usually built on the other side of Teratian settlements to their Crystal Pools). You all know all of this, of course. You've all grown up in Greenbrook and seen the Blessing-day celebrations every year. But experiencing it from the other side is a little different. In the early hours of the morning of the Peaceday of Star's Amethyst, alongside the thousands of other recruits who had successfully passed the gruelling exams at Fort Naoth, you march from Fort Naoth through Lomorre to the airfield. The so-called March of the Novices (even though you aren't officially novices yet, merely recruits) is televised and broadcast, although not with sufficient fidelity that anyone could actually pick you out of the crowd, especially since you have to wear your dress uniforms - which, for recruits, are rather less extravagant than those you will wear later in your career, being simple, drab uniforms that could be mistaken for the combat uniforms of the kingdom's military forces but for the grey colour. Of course, even the extensive airfields at Lomorre and the high-speed ley-trains can't cater for recruits travelling to the myriad of Crystal Pools across the country all at once - and even if they could, the Grand Archives certainly couldn't produce thousands of carefully-selected, double- and triple-checked tithes in the space of a few hours. So, instead, the graduate recruits are given a timeslot to return to Lomorre's airfields (or train station for those whose destinations are in one of the other duchies, although you guys are leaving from Lomorre itself), where you will meet the Archivist who will be overseeing your Blessing ceremony, be given whatever tithes you requested from the Archives (of course, those of you with crystal tattoo templates have already applied those), and be flown to your destination. These timeslots were randomly chosen, but they don't change every year. Instead, with the passing of each ruler, the timeslots are re-randomised...except King Erasmus announced when he was crowned that since his father had not been declared dead, the slots would not be changed. So, for the past thirty-odd years, Greenbrook's novices have assembled to receive their tithes late on Waterday of Star's Opal. (You stop off at the barony of Colamar overnight, because the Knights are smart enough to know that everyone's going to be celebrating the Blessing and there's no sense doing that in the middle of the night even if the VTOLs could get from Lomorre to Greenbrook in one day.) When you each arrive at the VTOL (you were told which 'runway,' for lack of a better word, to go to) you are met by a middle-aged man dressed in the robes of a Royal Archivist, who gives you a short bow; even as recruits you guys are due a certain degree of respect, but obviously not nearly as much as a full Knight would warrant. "Greetings, recruit. I am Levont of the Archives." Without any further ado, he activates a camera drone - they're little spherical things that float on an internal crystek levitator - which bobs besides him as he climbs inside the VTOL and beckons you after him, closing the door so as to give you guys privacy from your fellows. (You can choose to stay outside the VTOL in public, but it's pretty common to keep the exact contents of your Tithe a secret from everyone except the archivists). "For the record -" he nods to the camera drone "- please state your name, then check and confirm aloud the contents of your Tithe." Your respective Tithes are held in small, ornate wooden chests, bound in iron - the same chests (ritually purified, of course) have been in use for centuries, albeit repaired and replaced as needed. Some rumours claim that if you get the chest that once held the Tithe of a successful Knight, the Crystal Pool will recognise it and grant you more power than normal (although since the chests are randomly picked, there's no way of actually making this happen short of illegal means like bribing the Archivists.) Levont isn't the only one by your VTOL, though. Aside from the other PCs if you arrive later, there's also one other recruit, who evidently got there before you guys. You've probably seen Lily around once or twice at Fort Naoth - you were all introduced to her when she was given permission by Baron Gerente to use the Greenbrook Crystal Pool, if nothing else - but you were never in the same training cadres or anything like that. She doesn't interrupt Levont's rote procedures, but she does give you a little wave or a mouthed 'hey' as you arrive. OOC And off we go! A couple of points just to avoid story wonkiness: - Yes, it's been a week and a half since the March of the Novices. You guys have been free to relax and enjoy Lomorre, continue training, or make last-minute adjustments to your choices for the Blessing, for that time, as suits your character. You didn't have to stay together, nor do you have to stay wearing your recruit uniform - although you do have to don it again to go to the airfield. (You will also probably find that many shops in Lomorre give you a discount if you're wearing it, because it's a big city and they can actually afford to do stuff like that.) - You are not currently allowed to use the 'of Greenbrook' title - that only occurs once you gain your Blessing. So your titles currently would simply be 'Recruit' followed by your full name. - You're welcome to make up other recruits you hung out with, formed rivalries with, whatever. Most likely none of them will ever show up IC, but you never know.

Tourna warbled nervously as it saw the oncoming flood, scampering as fast as its numerous legs would carry it (which was quite fast) into the bowl. It was supposed to be making stew, not being stew! (Or ramen, as the case may be.) Nonetheless, after a few moments clattering nervously at the bottom of the bowl/boat, the scent of food caught its attention and it poked its 'eyes' up on a periscope to examine the surroundings. After a moment, this was followed by its stew spoon on a telescoping tendril, and it started ladling the newly-arrived boiling water into its pot-body (which fortunately didn't actually affect the buoyancy of the boat all that much thanks to whatever inexplicable magic had gone into its construction), adding a random mix of ingredients...and also a few of the random things that were being thrown at them, edible or not...and mixing them up before scooping out a big scoop with a triumphant whistling that sounded very much like a 'ta-da!' and offering it to its fellow heroes. OOC Tourna activates Alchemy to create a potion, rolling 2 and 12. Target: 12 -> You and every ally present in the scene... Effect: 2 -> ...treats their Insight and Willpower as though they were one die size higher, to a maximum of d12, until the end of your next turn.

Time for another random potion! IP 9 -> 6 Alchemy d20s

Sorin's weapon turned into a giant, three-pronged talon and he basically caught the Nevermore's claw in his own makeshift one to stop it from closing around him, and used the momentum of the impact itself to launch himself towards Fen as the Nevermores came for her...only for suddenly the Nevermores to have already done their attacks a few seconds too early and nowhere near Fen. Dr Brown's Semblance was annoying to think about too much. Since there was no sense wasting the momentum, though, he pushed more Aura into his wings and sped up even further, flowing around the entire battlefield in a blaze of golden light - and trailing Fire and Plant Dust onto the Nevermores, which rapidly erupted into yet more vines as Sorin circled around and swooped to a halt to land atop Delores, hopefully this time close enough to Dr Brown that he could benefit from the weird deja-vu effect as well...or at least hopefully it would stop giving him a headache every time he saw it. It was bad enough in class! He would've said something encouraging, but since probably the one who needed the most encouragement was Fen and she wouldn't have heard him (and his Aura was recovering from pushing his Semblance that hard so he couldn't just write in the air either), he didn't bother. OOC Free: Reconfigure Tactical Combatant. 11 points to Green Feather, 4 points to Wings of Gold [Winged Aura Mobility 8; 120ft after Fatigued], 10 points to Blasting Gauntlet [Partial Physical Immunity when Interposing], 11 points to Cyan Feather, 22 points to Adaptability, 11 points to Battle Artistry Free: Dismiss and then reactivate Adaptability. -11 to remove Green Feather, +6 to add Affliction 11 [Immobilised/Stunned] (Limited Degree), +11 to add Shapeable Area 2 [Limited: Full Action] to Affliction, +2 to add another 4 ranks of Winged Aura Mobility (250ft after Fatigued), +2 to add Homing to Damage and Affliction, and...uh, let's say +1 to add Feature 1 (targets affected by the Affliction are coated in colourful flowers) Free: Mobility to increase speed to 500ft, can't fail. Move: Into melee with NM3, then around through all the Nevermores except 5 (well I guess I can pay 5 a quite literally flying visit and give it a lil boop, but nothing mechanical). Standard: Shapeable Area my way through all the Nevermores except 5. DC26+Penetrating/21 vs [Material/Energy (Fire)] Damage Linked [Material/Material (Wood)] Immobilised/Stunned Affliction. Both elements are Homing on a miss. Attack vs NM1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 Should hit 1 (with +2 Penetrating after Vulnerable from Dr Brown), 2 and 7 (with +2 Penetrating on its own merit). Move-By Action: Somewhere so that I'm actually in range of any future Deflects. I guess I'll just perch on Delores. I'm sure she won't mind. Status: Partial Physical Immunity [Interpose Only], Bruised.

Sorin Resistance vs Damage (DC27) Bruised. Sorin Resistance vs Weaken (DC22) Resist. Sorin Resistance vs Strength (DC22) Resist. Interposing for Fen. Sorin Resistance vs Damage (DC27, +5 for Partial Physical Immunity) Sorin stop rolling natural 1s on these Interposes. Bruised + Dazed after Bruise from above. Can't fail against the Weaken.

Not sure if these should be feature requests or bug reports. 1) Creating an inline dice through the WYSIWYG editor deletes everything between it and the last line break or inline roll. (For instance, if I put an inline die roll at the end of this line, everything going back to the 1) would be deleted) 2) When adding new dice, the source-editor-to-WYSIWYG parser strips out the mwinlinedice-showresults and mwinlinedice-showdetails part of the class, meaning that if you're doing stuff in the source editor, you have to manually reset every single die to show its details/results through the editor UI popup. This can be...tedious, if you have a lot of rolls. Not sure if this also happens if you edit a post that already has dice in it. I guess I can try that now. ...or not, I guess you can't do dice in this forum. Will try it in one of my games. EDIT: No, it's only new dice, extant ones seem to tolerate the parser fine (presumably because they instead have data-showdetails="true" and data-showresults="true" instead of additions to the class.

Ohh, I misread that big time then lol.

Since my IRL has vaguely stabilised, I figure I might start looking for a solo game trade. At this point I've got a wide variety of characters/settings to potentially use (or I can always make up something new) but my main request would be for my character(s) to be fairly powerful in mechanics terms, be that high level for PF, a high point value for GURPS, etc (and, by extension, for the game to have enough mechanics that it is actually possible to have a character who is more powerful.) In terms of systems I'm most familiar with with PF1e and M&M3e, but I'm vaguely familiar with GURPS, PTU, Shadowrun 5e, WoD, and a handful of others. Potentially open to learning a new system either to play or GM, but those are my preference. So...yeah. Anyone interested in a solo game trade?

You need a Descriptor Focus, but otherwise looks good.

Not sure where you're getting your power discount from. Blood Dominion (as effectively Immunity 5 after the Weakness rebate) would be - 2, Blood Clot -1, Irresistible 2 Damage 4 would be another -2, and none of the other powers are costly enough to receive the discount (except the dynamic array, but it doesn't get a discount on account of being a dynamic array.) So that would put your power costs at 1 + (5-2) + (4-1) + (12-2) + 2 + 1 + 4 + 15 = 39. Scratch that. I assume all the Cruor Techniques extras apply to Damage?

Just as a notation thing, Flaming Bash should have Extra Condition. While it isn't technically stated I would imagine that the free Charged that comes with Burst Area is keyed to Burst Area; I don't think you can kinda repurpose it to boost Unavoidable instead. Also, a couple points worth noting for Nerves of Thorn - first, my standard rules for Reaction powers are that they are either Sustained (and you can choose to turn the whole thing on or off on your turn, but it turns off if you get Stunned) or Permanent. I think Permanent would make more sense in this case? Second, if you have it active alongside Ember Burst, it will allow you to react to attacks at range, which feels like it might not fit thematically. Lastly, the power description saying he perceives any contact as an attack would suggest that it ought to trigger when an ally touches him, but currently that isn't the case. As with the range thing that might be intended but is probably worth noting.

Kinda struggling to work out your skill costs. Deception 12 = 10 at 1PP/4 ranks + 2 at 1PP/2 ranks = 3.5 points. Expertise 10 = 10 at 1PP/4 ranks = 2.5 points Insight 10 = 10 at 1PP/4 ranks = 2.5 points Investigation 5 = 5 at 1PP/4 ranks = 1.25 points. Mobility 5 = 5 at 1PP/4 ranks = 1.25 points. Perception 5 = 5 at 1PP/4 ranks = 1.25 points. Persuasion 12 = 10 at 1PP/4 ranks + 2 at 1PP/2 ranks = 3.5 points. Stealth 5 = 5 at 1PP/4 ranks = 1.25 points. 19 proficiencies + 8x5 expertise boosts - 10 base Expertise = 49 extra proficiencies = 8 points. 3.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 + 1.25 + 1. 25 + 1.25 + 3.5 + 1.25 + 8 = 25 Your powers seem to cost 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 23 = 32. On the other hand your advantages only seem to come to 13.

Sorin...okay, yeah, he'd underestimated Chapi. Don't get me wrong, he knew full well how fast she was, but he hadn't quite expected her to be able to blip Fen's entire family inside Delores almost before he'd finished his sentence - more because he'd expected them to, you know, not just let themselves get abducted at super-speed (I mean sure he'd tried to reassure them, but still). Then again he didn't really know exactly how her Semblance worked. Maybe it didn't care about things like that. Certainly three of the brothers coming straight back out of Delores and trying to continue fighting was a little more what he'd expected of them...although he had kinda hoped that Delores wouldn't let them do that. Maybe she wasn't allowed to trap people. He knocked the feathers coming his way aside with a sweep of his shield and leapt across the forest, golden feathers gleaming, to slash at the Nevermore that had attacked him, leaving a trail of Fire Dust down its side, before swooping back to the main battle in time to get himself between Fen and the oncoming Nevermore - almost putting himself in the way and not quite getting his shield in the way as well in time, but with another flare of golden light from his feathers he managed to twist in mid-air and stop the Grimm's beak cold before it soared away. His quick flight across the forest did bring him back in time to hear one of the brothers say something...and, I mean, sure, at first he thought Fadi meant the Fen who was from this moment in time, and...really it would've been pretty hard to convince him to just abandon her. Him apparently trying to protect the Fen from Sorin's time was...a bit more of a surprise, although not necessarily an unwelcome one. He ran his brush down his palette again as it collapsed back down to normal buckler size and slashed it through the air, sending an Aura-infused line of Plant Dust threading its way through the trees in a way that would've made Lapis proud (look Sorin might have mostly been trying to imitate the long-standing members of his team and RACL but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to take a few hints from Lapis as well) to try to wrap up the Nevemores - and specifically their wings. "Get back inside!" he called to the Fable brothers. "We got this!" He did still fire a shot of Hard Light Dust from his buckler at the Nevermore that had tried to peck Fen, because even time travel wasn't going to stop him being overprotective of his friends. OOC Free: Reconfigure Tactical Combatant. 11 points to Green Feather, 7 points to Project Aura [Range 7; 90ft], 6 points to Momentum Absorption, 10 points to Blasting Gauntlet [Partial Physical Immunity when Interposing], 11 points to Cyan Feather, 22 points to Adaptability, 2 points to Shifting Blade [Dangerous 2]. Free: Activate Adaptability. -11 to remove Green Feather, +11 to add Affliction 11 [Immobilised/Stunned/Paralysed], +11 to add Shapeable Area 2 [Limited: Full Action] to Affliction. Move: Charge Full Action. Standard: Attack NM2 with Affliction + Damage and send the Shapeable Area wiggling up through NM8, 1 and 4. DC21 Resistance vs Affliction on a hit for all four, plus DC26+Penetrating-Perception vs Damage for the NM2. Damage crits on 16+. NM1 (Area Affliction) NM2 (Perception Penetrating Damage Linked Area Affliction) NM4 (Area Affliction) NM8 (Area Affliction) Status: Partial Physical Immunity [Interpose Only], Fatigued.

DeflectCritically Deflected! Resistance (DC27+Multiattack, probably 29) Shield Slam Team Attack (+5 for Teamwork)+2 Interposing for Fen vs Huge Beak. Resistance vs Damage (DC29) Good job Sorin. Defensive Effort reroll. Resistance vs Weaken (DC24) Resistance Reroll Really, really resists.

Tourna chirruped in alarm as the kobolds started spewing fire, taking a few hasty steps (er, scuttles?) back. It hadn't made a stew that had caused its consumers to breathe fire before! Now if only it could remember what ingredients it had used in that... Before it could spend much time remembering, though, it watched the 'wizard' kobold belch horrifically at Santokumaru and the 'warrior' kobolds go whirling past with their sword, and finally figured out that actually the piled-up kobolds were enemies. And so, squeaking in annoyance that it had wasted a nice stew on its enemies, it scuttled forwards, raising its stew-stirring spoon menacingly, and tried to biff the bottom-most kobold on the wizard stack on the nose. It missed laughably...but somehow the staff seemed to shimmer with blue energies and trail afterimages that seemed much better-aimed... Attack (WLP + WLP; HR +6 Physical Damage)

"...I take it you two know each other?" Sorin asked, as Delores greeted Fen. Other than that, though, he just checked his weapon and shield before they were VWORP'd to the past and the doors opened to reveal carnage. He did spare Fen a glance, of course he did, but he was also fully aware that the most useful thing he could do to support her right now was to deal with the Nevermores and save her brothers. "If you can fire any of the weapons you have on the inside out the doors, it'd help!" he called to Delores, slipping out the door and taking to the treetops himself, flying straight past one of the Nevermores - and one of the Fables - and heading towards one of the further-away Nevermores. While he was mid-air from a particularly long jump, he drew his sword and...kinda scraped it against his buckler as it spun on its mount. One might have expected the metal on metal to produce sparks - instead, it produced glittering motes of Dust that were funneled down the blade by the Wilson's nanites and coalesced into the brush-tip of the weapon as he landed on the treetop besides three of Fen's brothers. "Uh, hey, this is going to be a bit confusing but we're on your side, promise!" So saying, and sounding a little like Robin - or at least, like Robin did on a normal day - he leapt again and swept his paintbrush through the air, sending Earth Dust cascading down to solidify into...basically a big hollow ball that formed around the three bird Faunus. Hopefully it was a sturdy tree they were on. Sorin himself landed on top of the rock sphere, shield expanded to full size, ready to intercept any incoming beaks or talons. The Dust palette was mostly concealed beneath the shield, but there was a small Dust launcher built into the hilt, so he rotated it around to the green segment and fired a spray of Plant Dust at the Nevermore, just to make sure its attention was on him. And if it went for the Earth Dust barrier, he had his weapon ready in his other hand to make sure the Nevermore regretted it, the tip thoroughly steeped in Fire Dust. OOC Free: Reconfigure Tactical Combatant. 13 points to Orange Feather, 11 points to Tower Shield, 11 points to Shield Slam, 11 points to Green Feather (forgoing the Reversible because it's not like I'm going to want to let the Nevermore out), 11 points to Red Feather, 5 points to Weapon Analysis, 1 point to Weapon Mimicry for the 'treat natural weapons as weapons' feature, 2 points to Pistol Shot and 4 points to Wings of Gold for Winged Aura Mobility 8. Free: Analyse the Nevermores' natural weapons. Expertise (Grimm) Free: Mobility to increase speed can't fail. Move: Into O18, or just above it. Standard: Create a barrier around F4-6, Deflect for said barrier, and attack the Nevermore with the Affliction. DC21 Resistance vs Physically Impaired+Dazed/Physically Disabled+Stunned/Transformed [traits to 0] Attack Move-by Action: Land on the barrier. EDIT: Free: Dismiss the barrier, because Sorin is smarter than his player is. XD Status: Fine, Reaction to deflected attacks on Barrier (SE Team Attack Only Damage 11).

"Unless I've misunderstood what Dr Brown said, we will have to do whatever it takes to bring them with us," Sorin said, quietly. "Or, more specifically, to stop them getting to Fen's past self." He left that thought somewhat unfinished as Dr Brown led them back around the building (somewhere Sorin had only been once before, and even then it hadn't really been deliberate - this was where he'd landed when Fen had yeeted him off the roof teaching him to fly) to...uh, a blue box that appeared out of nowhere? Yeah, Sorin was gonna be honest, even by Dr Brown's standards he was a little confused. But Chapi's sudden exclamation roused him from his bewilderment and he carefully followed her in. ...and then he came back out and kinda walked around the box before going back in. ...and then he came back out again and looked over to Nicoale. "...you know, on the one hand I kinda want to know what this looks like to your Semblance. But on the other I feel like it might give you a headache." (He did eventually go back into the box for real, of course, because as bizarre as this situation was they did still have a mission...even if there wasn't technically any time pressure right at this moment as far as he knew.)