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Rune Knight

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  1. What is the shadow of color? Any other might have hesitated, but Kyra knew the answer in her heart already: everything has a shadow. If touching Hell had felt like freezing cold, then touching this felt like becoming light. Her world was like the rays of a prism singing in glorious disharmony, and for a moment she was lost in the sensation, swimming in a sea of sheer impossibility!... And then like a shark, she was one with that sea. One moment a goblin was there - shield raised and ready to defend his mistress from whatever came her way - and the next he was gone. Only the gasping start of a scream alerted his fellow shieldbearers, but they were too late, a spurt of emerald green blood spraying like a geyser into the air and showering them in light sprinkles. The fog settled, and nothing was left.
  2. The goblins were already trying to scatter even before the mini-sun began to arc across the room, having seen Haezel's display and recognized in the primal parts of their minds what a lethal spellcaster looked like. As soon as the blazing fireball made contact with that prismatic gas, it mutated it into a vivid pink supernova of glittering gold and dazzling rainbow colors! A mushroom cloud rose high into the sky - followed by a few members of the crowd that had cheered for your demise unlucky enough to get caught in the blast - and a wave of force swept out from the epicenter, washing everyone in a blanket of warmth and dust. A wounded yip picked itself out from the noise, however: forced to dive and roll to put out the trippy kaleidoscope flames, the fluffy pink princess puppy couldn't help but cry out. The gray puppy's ears perked up at the sound, and seeing his ultimately unharmed yet emotionally damaged sister in pain turned to Haezel and barked like mad, tail raised and eyes narrowed. And then she felt it again: that sense of being watched, of a presence so supernatural and large that you could sense it like tiny warning bells in the back of your mind whenever it made even the smallest of movements. Snap! ...But empty air was all that greeted the old dog. Rising from his lunge, the 10-foot guardian turned and saw Haezel just off to the side, having narrowly escaped his massive bite. He returned to his mountain of dog beds, settling back down with a great old sigh only a creature as ancient as he could blow. Awake now, he simply watched the rest of battle, keeping an eye on what went next.
  3. In response to Haezel's reckless endangerment of the puppies, Grandpa Doggo reacts. He is a Hazard: an entity that can make attacks or otherwise threaten characters with damage, but which cannot be defeated by traditional combat. He has a skill rating of Great (+4) and a Weapon Rating of 1.
  4. When the dust cleared, the wreckage of the table that the goblins had called home lay sprawled and broken at an awkward angle against the floor. Not only was the coliseum more of a pie split up into pieces now, crumbling like ruins and sputtering out gas onto the floorboards, but behind it, a whole model village had become the after-image of a natural disaster, little homes with roofs caved in and debris sliding in a tiny avalanche down the slanted tabletop. Rising from the gas and debris, the last two riders shook it off: their mounts had been spry enough not to get harmed in the fall, landing on their feet with power and confidence. The soldiers-turned-shieldbearers rose clumsily from where they had tumbled down, and a sea of little green heads swam about as the audience ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.
  5. Deciding that it was safe to touch, Mel grazed his fingers through the cloud, causing a rush of painfully bright rainbow patterns to follow in his wake: his hand instantly felt warm, and an electric tingle crawled up his spine. The odor was a sickly sweet scent like how gourmet candies smelled right out of the oven, but just a little bit too sweet. A list of probable ingredients rattled off in his mind: the sac of a fire salamander, iron dust from a spell-struck lightning rod... This fog was volatile, but not only that: downright explosive. The tiniest spark would ignite a localized incendiary blast! A danger to melee combatants, but perfect for a ranged trickster like the author of this particularly spicy sauce. Glancing up at said author, he also spied a mask strapped to her belt. Makeshift filters and twine-tied canisters told him it's purpose: to help her hide beneath the fog if she so chose. And then a random question bubbled up to the surface: how would a Rakasa be affected by this gas? Well they were immune to fire, so in a sense they'd be lucky... but something told him they wouldn't feel lucky.
  6. BOOO-WOOAAAH! The deep bellow of a horn reverberated throughout the room, catching the ears of all the other goblins. Following the sound, the rider in pink struck a regal figure as she finished her clarion call. Skittering on the wooden surface beneath their feet, the three remaining goblin "soldiers" leapt, tripped and somersaulted off the edge of the windowsill, cackling (or screaming, in the case of the clumsy one) and embracing the thrill of their daredevil move. Taking hooks from off of their belts, they caught the string of a giant lute that was stretched between the table above and the floor below as a makeshift zipline, spinning once or twice on an axis as the centripetal force toyed with their bodies. They took that momentum and began to crawl up the string to where their mistress called. And at the same time, the lone rider facing off against Kyra and Haezel snapped the reins! The gray puppy took off running, followed not long after by his fluffy brother. One goblin knight was carried along as the two dogs hopped the giant fence, popped across the floor boards, then launched up to the top of the worktable all the way from the floor. Assembled there on the edge of the table for a moment, all the goblins and their mounts were definitely a more formidable force as a team. Their leader grinned down upon you all, hefting her heavy crossbow. Their work wasn't finished yet, though: nodding to each other, the goblins sprang into action! The gray rider headed off toward the back of the arena, and the pink rider began to gesticulate as she shouted nonsense to her peons around her. A few large, flat wooden objects were tossed out onto the arena; a blessing from the crowd. The goblin soldiers picked them up and found them to be large wooden shields. They looked to their mistress, who imitated raising a shield with her arm - which her newly annointed bodyguards aped rather quickly. A smooth mechanical clicking echoed out from the back of the arena; there, the other rider's mount was turning a mechanism that would have taken two or even three goblins to accomplish, and as he did, wooden poles began to rise from the coliseum floor, creating a forest of flimsy beams wherever one looked. And finally, the mistress herself snatched a tiny dagger from a bandolier around her chest, tossing it back casually with effortless finesse; the projectile struck a target on the wall above the mechanism the other rider was turning. A sinister hissing came up from below the floor; the source soon became apparent as a vibrant, glittering gas was released onto the coliseum. Mostly pink but swirling with psychedelic colors, the fumes never rose above waist height, ensuring that the audience still had a clear view of everything. "Ha-kah! Ha-kah! Ha-kah! Ha-kah!" One hundred voices chanted in unison, total nonsense spilling from their mouths as they foamed in excitement for the battle ahead! Things had escalated, and the crowd was very pleased… Meanwhile, someone was just waking up after all the commotion. Opening his eyes, he wasn't sure where he was for a moment: the half-darkness of his cell was only saved by the light pouring in from the criss-cross patterned portcullis gate on the other end of this small chamber. Everything was vibrating too: like an earthquake, but from above, shuddering echoes creaking in the wooden boards of the ceiling and shedding little trickles of dust. With a jolt, the young wizard realized where he was. His staff, his staff… where was his staff? Without it he was useless. A pang of dread stabbed at his heart when he didn't feel the familiar weight of his pack either… And then he saw it: a splash of teal among the myriad colors on the leader of the goblins who had captured him and brought him here. He watched as mount and rider climbed up onto the wooden poles above, carrying his things away with them. Ah yes, well… that would be an issue. OOC
  7. Oh hey, a Fate game! I've been waiting for one of these. I'll work on throwing in a character and see if I end up making the cut. My basic idea so far is that a rogue Class 4 or Class 5 AI managed to create it's own secret little human colony figuratively and literally off-Grid, and my character is a genetically engineered superhuman from that experiment. Of course, everything was destroyed when the Fire Nation attacked™️, and I'm on a quest for revenge against the megacorporation that did it. How do you feel about a character that has no integrated cyberware - not even the basic stuff for calls, etc.? I'm trying to evoke this almost druidic, separation between humans and technology vibe. My thought process is that most technological interactions could be handled with external/wearable technology, which has benefits as well as interesting drawbacks.
  8. All of the enemies have moved to Zone D. The goblin Mob isn't taking an action that involves a roll right now, but the Twin Puppy Rider and the Pretty Puppy Rider are both Creating Advantages. The Twin Puppy Rider is raising Vertical Pillars Everywhere up from the floor of the coliseum The Pretty Puppy Rider is spreading Alchemical Fog Hiding Certain Dangers all over the coliseum floor There isn't much to pose opposition to either of these rolls, so they are both at a difficulty of Average (+1).
  9. It was over in a flash of deadly colors: not only deep reds and searing oranges, but the blue of a fire's core and the blinding white of a blaze so intense that it consumed everything! For a moment, the rider froze. And then he slumped, sliding off his saddle into a heap on the ground. The rider's mount had been dazzled by Haezel's display, following her with his eyes even as his would-be master was dealt the final blow. He barked happily, nonplussed.
  10. Try as they might, the goblins didn't escape without casualties: as they stood stock still staring at the visage of this steel slasher, the top half of one little green soldier slid off of his bottom half at the waist, separating torso from legs with a thick wet thock!
  11. Ruff! The rider's fluffy mount bounced back and forth as it noticed Kyra, moving the rider just out of the way enough that her hail of knives wedged themselves with a toothless tink-tink-tink! into his cast-iron armor. Now up on the windowsill, Waldz wasn't having much luck either: his mighty swing cleaved through the school of goblins, but they all scurried and scattered like they usually did, ducking and passing through his legs or plastering themselves against the cold, dark window to narrowly avoid his axe. Back down in the playpen, Haezel began to play with fire, but neither rider nor mount was afraid; in fact, the latter barked incessantly at the pillars of flame as if warning away a threat. And that's when she heard it: the inquisitive grunt of a much larger, much older canine. Glancing back, she saw the flames reflected in the eyes of the great old dog - eyes as large as her own head, with their own flame burning behind the one that glinted in them now - and second-guessed herself. Should she really be trying to trap a puppy in a ring of fire? She wasn't trying to, but that would be the unintended effect. But by that point, rider and mount had already bounced away once again; the opportunity had come and passed. The goblins went back on the attack, and this time the battle shifted in their favor! Only pure instinct saved Kyra from the ambush bite of the dark gray twin, and the clang! clang! of iron on steel rang out across the battlefield as she ducked and parried the followup halberd assault of the rider. At the same time, a wave of petty sword strikes and wooden crossbow bolts washed over Waldz, sparking and bouncing uselessly off of his shiny metal skin. But wait… what was that sound? A lance of pain shot through Waldz, radiating from his chest. It was as if he had been stabbed in the heart, and soon enough he realized that wasn't very far from the truth: a crossbow bolt - a real crossbow bolt - stuck out of him, buried at the tip. And then he realized it was ticking. A jingle more fit for a jester accompanied a shining blast of gold-and-pink light! The light consumed Waldz's entire body like a mini-sun, casting shadows even all the way down to the floor where the others were fighting. Recovering quickly from the ringing in his ears and the bright white light in his eyes, the sound of the crowd cheering from the colosseum was the first thing he heard; he could almost feel, more than see, the wide, ear-splitting grin pointed at him from their garishly pink champion. …That grin faltered, however, when Waldz assessed the damage and - with one simple flex from his bulging muscles - caused the bolt to PING! and spin away, clattering to the windowsill floor. To any normal creature of flesh and bone, that goblin's trick would have been devastating and bloody, but for a tough Galvan warrior like Waldz, it was just that: a simple trick and nothing else. Sure, most of his lovely chrome had been painted over with pink and glitter, but the hole that had been bored into his metal skin hadn't quite gotten deep enough to taste flesh. It could be fixed later on with a bit of heating and shaping. Her grin now completely a frown, the rider scoffed and loaded another bolt with a mechanical click. OOC
  12. To a human, the kill was an unwelcome feeling, but to a wolf, second nature. The snap of bones between one's teeth; the warm blood trickling down as the heartbeat slowly faded away. Nothing was more satisfying. Ludwig, Child of War Salivating, Ludwig took a step toward the pile of hares you had made. He stopped himself, though, and lowered his head and ears. "Feasting rights go to the alpha, first." He remembered, deferring to Little Wolf. "Then to our Healer. We should bring these back to Senya anyway." "We'll eat well tonight, but I keep forgetting: which of us feasts after?" He glanced between himself and Amel. That was a good question, one worth pondering as you all picked up your prizes and strode back in the direction of the hill. Feasting rights were an important hierarchy for an alpha to balance: who would eat first? More importantly, who would eat last, if there wasn't enough? The alpha always ate first. Those were the rules. Then it was the Healers. Without them, the pack would die sooner of injury or illness. After that, Little Wolf's situation was… unique. On the one side there was Amel: a talented hunter, for sure, and without her there wouldn't be nearly as much game to divvy up in the first place. But she was not a wolf. Some alphas might consider her last simply for that. Then on the other side was Ludwig: what he lacked in some regards, he made up for in great potential. Little Wolf could almost imagine him in another 7 Moons: as big and strong as he was now, and if he lived up to his name, an invaluable member of the pack. Feasting rights was a mental exercise: an acceptance of the possibility of the worst possible outcome. If he had to choose, who would he let starve to death? …But Little Wolf was saved from those morbid thoughts by the familiar scent of old fur, herbs and flowers. Following his nose, he saw Senya up on the hill, regal in the moonlight. Senya Listens to Strange and Foreign Voices "Three cities; three hubs of human activity." Senya began, spinning a tale with her words as she tended to do sometimes. "We've heard their names whispered by the creatures of the forest. We'll never know what human names mean, but at least we can use them to remember." "To the west is "Victoria". Take a look: do you see those flashes in the distance? I can smell it in the wind, feel the tingle in my fur: a great storm will envelop Victoria, and not for a short time, either." "Victoria herself could shelter us from this maelstrom, but I sense a conflict within her: she is at war with herself. A war we will have to face, or to run from." It would be a difficult decision, if you chose to go west. You couldn't wait here any longer, but the prospect of a trek for days through rain-slicked mountains and rumbling thunder wasn't pretty either. Nothing Senya said here inspired confidence, though - it was ill omens all around. "To the north lies "Edmonton"." She continued. "In the dying embers of the sun, I glimpsed it: the oily glimmer of black blood, and the glint of great machines growling away." She glanced at Little Wolf. "They've done it again, my alpha: spilled the foul products of their machinations into the forest. Nothing like the Death Cloud, of course, but still quite sickly, and far more of it than we can possibly fathom." Humans: there was good and there was bad. The Death Cloud was when they were at their worst, but he couldn't forget other times, like when that one saved his brother's life many Cycles ago: at first his father had thought Adalwolf had been kidnapped, but when the young cub returned with a tale of becoming lost, injured, then nursed back to health everything was put right. Breaking out of his reverie, he focused back on the task at hand. If this "black blood" was anything like the Death Cloud, then it would be crawling with humans in the aftermath, with sickly and hungry animals too stubborn to leave their home. "And to the east, "Regina". A red wasteland stained with blood, unfamiliar dangers hiding in every crack and every crevice." They called it a "prairie" - you'd never heard the word until recently. "It may seem barren and empty at first, but the bones in the earth, they warn me: an unholy choir promising we'll meet the same fate if we follow in their footsteps." "Regina herself is… nothing like it, though." She cocked her head, confused. "You could see it even from afar: a lush green citadel bursting with gardens. Water, food, game - everything we could ever ask for." She shared a look with Little Wolf one more time. As old pack members, he knew what it meant without a word exchanged. Something about an oasis like that, made her fear it the worst.
  13. Now in the enemy phase, the other twin of the Twin Puppy Riders activates Twin Power! once more: Twin Power! Once per Conflict, bounce around excitedly to make an AoE attack against an entire Zone (this ability has been used). Once per Conflict, bide your time and strike at just the right moment to make an Attack with +2 WR. The stoic puppy targets Kyra for this attack; he spends the Boost that the twins earned for succeeding with style on their defense roll against Kyra's Attack, upgrading that +4 to a +6. The Toy Soldier Goblins earned a Boost for succeeding with style against Haezel's Attack, but they won't use it themselves; instead they'll roll Smite to CaA, attempting to distract Waldz with a passionate but ultimately harmless assault. With the Toy Soldier Goblins having succeeded in their CaA roll, the Pretty Puppy Rider has an arsenal of free invocations available to her: the Boost the goblin Mob saved for her, the Advantage they just created, and the 2 free invocations on the Showered in Sparkles and Adoration Advantage she created herself last turn. With all of this in mind, the Pretty Puppy Rider rolls to attack Waldz. With a tie, she spends all 4 of the free invocations available to her, bumping her result up to a +12 (an 8-shift hit).
  14. Haezel's spell was a display of power that these goblins beheld with envy and fear in equal measure; frozen in place, the light flickered in their eyes, and Haezel half expected them to reach out and touch it rather than flee in terror. And then… she struck! Her victim thanked his lucky stars that he'd kept his sword upright - though watching the cheap replica melt like an icicle in the summer sun wasn't particularly pleasant. The battle on the windowsill erupted into chaos, little green blots scurrying haphazardly in an unpredictable mess! Haezel would advance with another flowing strike, but her target would abandon everything and leap away so that he landed vulnerable on his belly; she would try to capitalize, but a hollering cacophony of clanging swords and crossbows going thwip! thwip! put her on the defensive just long enough for their brother to recover. clang-FWSHH! The sound of a perfectly-timed parry was always satisfying - even more so when her opponent realized that her counters would flash in a blaze of glory! She watched as the goblin sailed in an arc, punted off the windowsill on a long fall down to the floor below. Meanwhile, down in the playpen, the rider of the ash-gray puppy nursed his wounds and bided his time. The other rider, however, did something unexpected: he started scratching his fluffy puppy behind the ear. His steed enjoyed it immensely, and as the scratching moved to just the right spot, a rapid thumping vibrated in the massive floorboards at Waldz and Kyra's feet. "Rrawf!" The puppy sprang up like an alarm clock, every muscle tense. Something didn't feel right. The two adventurers couldn't help but look at each other for a moment. Oh no. What ensued was a playful chase of epic proportions: Kyra and Waldz split the moment the puppy started bouncing in their direction, and the adorable little monster went after Waldz first. They crashed through a wall of building blocks, causing a shower of dust and pointy wooden polygons to come cascading down! It wasn't the puppy that Waldz was running from: it was the goblin knight upon his back, halberd held at the ready to swing and slash as soon as he got within reach. He fought back the urge to sneeze as he leapt out of the cloud of dust created in the commotion, enjoying the rush of the wind as he climbed another structure to put some distance between them. And his plan worked: despite his pursuer colliding with pretty much anything he could to bring faux bridges and pseudo-towers tumbling down, the iron barbarian leapt and soared with ease, always one step ahead. Kyra, for her part, listened to the total demolition in the distance from her new hiding place: a scale model of a pirate ship, complete with sails to hoist and other exciting features. Comforted by the darkness down here in the upper deck, she had the time to assess what was going on else- Thump! Glancing through a porthole, on the other side of the fence that would have kept the child inside the playpen, Kyra spied a still-smoking body sprawled out on the floor. She looked up and traced the arc of motion back to Haezel still battling up on the windowsill. Glancing over to the other side of this massive place, Kyra couldn't tell much of what was going on up in the coliseum, but there had been a development: scintillating colors catching the light in a spectrum of pink and gold. Was that… glitter? Goblins: they'd take anything they could get. Then suddenly, she felt the ship lurch. "Woof!" On the outside of the ship, the goblin knight watched in satisfaction as his steed knocked over the model ship. He could almost imagine that shadowy rogue tumbling end over end, colliding with all kinds of painful toy crates and barrels. He couldn't wait to pop the decks apart - as they were designed to do - and see the damage for him- Wait… where did she go? From the inside of a pitch-black chamber, a dame on her own steed waited with anticipation. A thin crack of blinding light appeared from the floor in front of her, and slowly rose with the satisfying sound of gears clinking and clunking. A low roar slipped through the crack, evolving into a raucous clamor of cheering and whooping! "Ha-kaaah!" Her words didn't mean anything: they were just a guttural noise to invite the crowd, and that's exactly what it did! Charging out into the light, the fluffiest sandy-blonde puppy pranced around the arena, head held high, splattered in splashes of color from all across the rainbow. Atop her - hands raised high to exult in the crowd's adoration - was a goblin in gaudy, pink studded leather, bedazzled in jingling gold, silver and gems. BOOF! BOOF! BOOF! The fireworks triggered right on time: one hundred eyes sparkled in psychedelic pink and gold, enraptured for a moment in time only she could provide them. Approaching the edge of the giant worktable upon which this coliseum sat, the gobliness hefted her crossbow - a real one this time - and set her predatory gaze on the chaos below… OOC Total Round Summary: Waldz rolled Unity to CaA against the Twin Puppy Riders, succeeding with style and creating the Distracted Puppies Advantage with 2 free invocations Kyra rolled to Attack the Twin Puppy Riders; they tied, so Kyra spent 1 free invocation on Distracted Puppies to gain a +2 bonus and add sneak attack damage (+2 WR). In total, she dealt a 4-shift hit Haezel cast Blazing Blade, succeeding with style and creating the Blazing Blade Advantage with 2 free invocations; she then Attacked the Toy Soldier Goblins, ultimately landing a 1-shift hit The Toy Soldier Goblins rolled to Attack Haezel, but missed; Haezel activated Blazing Blade's retaliation ability in response, automatically dealing a 1-shift hit to the Mob The Twin Puppy Riders activated their Stunt, Twin Power!, which allowed them to make a special attack against both Kyra and Waldz at the same time; Waldz defended successfully, while Kyra suffered a 1-shift hit The Pretty Puppy Rider rolled Culture to CaA; after spending a Fate Point to Invoke her Vain Aspect to reroll, she succeeded with style, creating the Showered in Sparkles and Adoration Advantage with 2 free invocations All changes have been accounted for on the Game Sheet. It is now the Player Phase.
  15. Senya Listens to Strange and Foreign Voices Senya almost seemed to chuckle in the way a person might as they shared in the exuberance of rising action, but one couldn't be sure; she was good at hiding it. "Alpha?" She turned to Little Wolf. "Might I suggest letting this old she-wolf stay on the hill while you all go hunting?" "I know: it's best to keep our pack together as much as possible. But in our... situation, being spread thin means we've had to split up every so often. It's just that we have a rare opportunity." She nodded in the direction of the lights off in the distance: they shone like stars down here on Earth, a testament to the ingenuity of those inscrutable humans. "What we've heard on our travels up here is true: three cities south of the Territories, and these will be the only ones we'll see for awhile. Let me survey the land from this perch on high, while the sun still glints on their spires of steel and glass, and I'm sure I'll glean much." OOC Alright, it feels like a good time to start thinking about travel actions. :) It seems like one thing you're definitely going to start this Action Phase with is a roll to Hunt and sustain the Vigor Meter, so go ahead and have a Big Fat Rabbit Boost since I introduced the idea of such a thing into the story. What Senya is suggesting here is to have her take the Create an Advantage action with Puzzle, so that she can survey the Zones in front of you and find out as much information as she can. It's a unique opportunity here, since each of these Zones has a city on them. After that you might keep taking action in this Zone, or move to the next Zone and use the rest of your actions there. For now, though, let's focus on the hunt and the potential Create an Advantage action.
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