[IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

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FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Libra

At the end off the corridor, there are multiple tall, glittering mirrors set in a semi-circle. These mirrors constantly shift places, blurring their positions. Gazing at the mirrors on either side reveals not Libra's reflections, but images from parallel worlds and timelines that roughly mimic the her own adventures, alternative versions of her, her family and allies, and their enemies, all reenacting her exploits. Most depict characters and events with minor alterations—costume changes, shuffles in roster, different background architecture. Others vary wildly, changing the heroes’ identities, setting their adventures against alien landscapes, or seeing worlds where their victories were instead defeats.

As Libra looks over the mirrors, an indistinct figure dashes from one mirror to the next, fleetingly visible among the glass before disappearing again, with a low murmur of ”Possibilities. SO. MANY. POSSIBILITIES" before its gone, leaving only the silent flickering of the mirrors, rapidly changing scenes.
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Scyblue
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Scyblue »

Libra
HP: 3
Status:


For a moment Libra was mesmerised by the visages of the mirror, until the mysterious figure dashed past her. She couldn't see whether it was Devil Ray or not, but it was clear he (she?) didn't belong here and certainly shouldn't be doing whatever he was doing right now.
"Someone else is here." Libra turned around to alert the others. "He's doing something with the mirrors, it can't be good."

She tried to pinpoint in what mirror the figure disappeared, but with the glass constantly shifting it seemed like an impossible task. For now she'd stand guard; next time he tried to jump through the hallway she'd be ready to stop him. The figure only appeared for a moment last time, but with her speed it should be possible.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Libra

Watching the constantly shifting mirrors, Libra once more sees the indistinct figure, almost like a shadow cast through stained glass windows, flit from one mirror to another, and, when it seemed most in the foreground, she lunges forward for it. As her fingers touch the mirror, for a moment she finds herself in a hallway of gleaming green jewel-like material, the colorful shadow expanded out into an arachnoid form, and tantalizingly more three-dimensional before it feels like someone grabs her gut from the inside and yanks her back, leaving blinking and breathing heavily in the hallway, the images still flickering before her. A ghostly chuckle arises from the mirror, from the figure briefly once more in the foreground.

"not So EASY now is IT?" it trills, flickering from one mirror to another before beginning to appear once more in the background, seemingly searching for something.
OOC wrote:Using your Athletics roll from the chat of 1D20+12 = [5]+12 = 17, you find yourself bounced out and Dazed (since we're not in combat, it's more of role-playing thing).
Phicksur
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Phicksur »

Name: DeeCee
HP: 2
Status: Uninjured, 0 Luck available


DeeCee walks up behind Libra where she was working with the mirrors. "What happened?" He looks at the mirrors, presumably seeing something of the figure moving through the mirrors.

"Shall I put my hands through all the mirrors at once?" DeeCee asks Libra. "It won't hurt me permanent-like; even if it takes my hands and arms off I can just grow them back. Maybe if I stabilize all the mirrors at once you can move into them?"
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Scyblue
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Scyblue »

Libra
HP: 3
Status: Dazed


Libra let herself drop backwards on the floor, wearily rubbing her eyes in an effort to understand what just happened. She missed the time where she could go after villains without having to deal with emerald shadow spiders.
"Who are you?" She responded to the taunt, clear from her voice that she still out of it. "Are you with Medea?"

She lifted herself up from the ground as DeeCee came walking into to the circle of mirrors.
"You could try, but I'm not sure." She responded. "It was like something pulled me back, but it didn't really grab onto me, it just--"
She made some vague hand gestures in an attempt to explain the gut-pull she experienced.
Blazichaos
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Blazichaos »

Name: Aeon
HP:4
Status: 0/2 luck


After staring into the mirrors for a long period, slowly bringing the information together, before seeing what happened to her and immediately floating over. "careful guys. I think this part of the 'house' is falling apart, windows into alternate realities which should've stayed behind the curtain, with eldritch dead no ones keeping all of this pocket realm maintained, this is what BEHIND the walls of the house, and it's starting to fall in disrepair." Aeon says trying to find the mysterious figure shifting, "Or, without eldritch to guard the boundaries of the pocket dimension, something decided to have free reign to tear it apart." Before turning around at yet more of the mirrors, "and quite frankly I don't think something getting into the 'wires and power' of reality is good for us"

Aeon then turns around to Libra, 'hmm, pulled out? Well, it COULD be because your 'this' realms Libra, the place might be breaking, but it still knows that you shouldn't be on that side of the multiverse, but if THAT the case, then what on god earth is that thing and how can it jump from place to place so easily? Were you able to see the thing Libra? What did it look like?"
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Scyblue
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Scyblue »

Libra
HP: 3
Status: Dazed


"I'm not sure." Libra responded to Aeon. "I only caught a glimpse; he looked a bit spider-esque. He was still as vague as that shadow on the wall right now, just more... 3D?"
A frown appeared on her face as she watched the figure wreak havoc inside the mirrors. Aeon's explanation of what exactly this room was didn't make her feel any better. They had to stop this somehow, but jumping in like she did earlier wouldn't end well.

"Do you have some kind of magic way to stabilise the mirrors? Otherwise we might have to resort to DeeCee's arm trick."
She turned to DeeCee. "Or perhaps you could conjure a net of sorts? If we can't get in, maybe we can force spider-guy out?"
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

As you speak, the colorful shadow flits across the mirrors, and finally settles into an inhumanly angular humanoid figure, too blurred to make out details, that stands in the center mirror. A hissing voice speaks slowly and deliberately, "We. Can. Help. Help. You. GET OUT. Help Us. Exit. As Well." Despite the slow and halting speech, it speaks in clear tones.
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Scyblue
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Scyblue »

Libra
HP: 3
Status: Dazed


"Help us? Do you know where the Eternity Atlas is? We need to reach it as soon as possible."
Libra looked back to Aeon and DeeCee with a puzzled face, silently querying what to do. It looked like they misread the situation, the figure wasn't just inside the mirrors, he was stuck. Then again, this being the Master Mage's house, it was probably locked up there for a good reason.
"How did you get inside these mirrors in the first place? Did someone lock you up?"
OOC wrote:If he responds to that last question, can I make an insight check to see if he's trustworthy?
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

The figure tilts its head as if in human confusion.
"Don't. Know. About Atlas. Trapped here. While. TRAVELING. Here. There. Then. Now. All." The outline goes fuzzy for a moment and when it speaks, its consonants are very well-defined, almost chewed out. "Trapped. Heinous. To my kind." It waves around it. "Single Mirror. Single time. Have. Studied. Your. Kind. For a long. Time. Planned to. Ask. Owner for. Help. Not here. Not. This. Time. And I. Have but. One. Time." It pauses, and when it continues, its voice is not chewing the consonants as hard.

"Am Glimpse. I can. Help. You. If you. Help. Me."
OOC wrote:Yes, an Insight check will work well here.
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Scyblue
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Scyblue »

Libra
HP: 3
Status: Dazed


Libra turned around to Aeon and DeeCee, mouthing I don't trust him before making a full circle and facing Glimpse again.

"You keep saying you can help us, but how exactly? You just said you know nothing about the Eternity Atlas or Medea. So why--" Libra stopped talking mid-sentence, her gaze drifting off into the white void beyond the mirrors. The three of them were standing at the end of the corridor now, and all she could see was whiteness. On all sides.
"Uhh... Let me check something real quick."
And with that she flew up, over the mirrors into the void, only to come right back to the place she started. She circled around over the hallway keeping her eyes peeled for something that might look like an exit, trying to fly back the way they came if she couldn't find anything.
OOC wrote:Just checking, but are we stuck here too?
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Libra

It takes a bit of time to traverse the void, but soon the truth becomes evident. It seems that they are trapped in some sort of looping environment. When Libra lands, Glimpse chuckles and speaks.
"Not. So Easy. Now. Is. It. You who. Are. Outside can. Perhaps. Choose. The. Right. Mirror. To a. Place where. You. Belong. I. Cannot. But if. You. Carry. Me. I can. Make. It. Right. Pluck. Any mirror. March Through. Any portal—Glimpse guide home.” These last words carry a wistful wheedle.
OOC wrote:Incidentally, you are no longer Dazed. It was a one-round thing.

Rather than trying to trust to Glimpse's help, it is possible to jump through with a good Athletics check to get an environment which exactly matches that of the bit of the Nerian Nexus that you departed.
Blazichaos
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Blazichaos »

Name: Aeon
HP: 4
Status: 0/2 luck


Aeon takes a long look at the figure, trying to figure out the intentions, simply listening to it as Libra ask questions and then silently thinking it over as Libra tries to find an exit.
OOC wrote: Aeon is gonna do the insight check to see if the... "thing" is lying
Insight check: 1D20+16 = [3]+16 = 19

Sadly not a very high roll
Phicksur
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by Phicksur »

Name: DeeCee
HP: 2
Status: Uninjured, 0 Luck available


DeeCee turns to Libra and Aeon. "We need to go through the mirror thing, right?" When Libra and Aeon give affirmatives, he inquires further, "And Aeon probably can't force his way through and we don't want to get separated, right?" Again, he waits on positive answers before saying, "I can get us all through at once, but it'll probably hurt me a little. Just climb into what I become."

With a moment of concentration, DeeCee transforms himself again. His feet become larger, more sticky, and eventually resemble treads more than feet. His body elongates to become around 10 feet long, and just wide enough to fit into the mirror. Eventually, his back becomes something like a two-seat cockpit in a very sturdy-looking land-based submarine.

The cockpit opens and a crackly voice from the radio says, "Well, let's get going." After Aeon and Libra climb into the cockpit, he closes it and begins slowly moving toward the mirror.

Upon contact with the mirror, it tries to shove DeeCee back, but his weight and super-sticky treads keep his base to the ground and he ends up just grinding against the surface: an unstoppable force and an immovable object. There were a few tense moments as the forces rock the DeeCee-vessel back and forth, until the mirror finally gives way and draws him and his occupants through the mirror.
Insight Check to see if he can be trusted, or has an ulterior motive.

Insight Check: 29

Shifting to Regeneration 10, Growth 12 (Limited to Strength & size), Immunity 5 (being involuntarily moved, Affects Others as well), Immunity 30 (Fortitude), Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2) and Feature 2 (cockpit with two seats)

In case an Athletics check is called for, he's just going to do a routine check, because he will take any possible damage and cannot be forced away, giving him a 22.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

As DeeCee transforms, Glimpse remains silent, observing, right up until DeeCee makes contact.
"What. Are you," is all that you hear before the nightmare begins. DeeCee finds himself and his passengers suddenly on the other side of the mirror, firmly and instantaneously on the other side, fixed into place, only to feel the yank of suddenly transitioning to the other side, frazzled, unable to move from where you are in contact with the mirror. An eternity of this happens, with a slideshow of Glimpse in various mirrors, observing your movement. And then, you hit the side that matches how the corridor looked before your transformation and lunge forward... partially, a few feet.

Unable to think clearly enough to disengage the treads, you find yourself partly on the other side, and partly in the hallway where you were before, unable to move once more as you flicker back and forth, a kaleidoscope of possible times and places cycling through your senses and a constant slamming back and forth in your gut as you feel yourself wrenched back and forth, the image of Glimpse now seemingly screaming and arched backwards. And then, after one or two eternities, you manage to push forward... another few feet... before the cycle begins anew. After what feels like several lifetimes, your brains fuzz out to maintain sanity, and when consciousness returns, you're standing in a green carpeted hallway much like the one you were in before you got trapped in the mirror crawlspace, a set of bronze doors about 30 feet down the hallway, currently ajar.

There's a roaring in your ears and your senses are all a bit muffled. The mirrors on either side of you have shattered into shimmering fragments that faintly glow in a multitude of colors to regular vision, and are nearly incandescent to Aeon's ability to sense magic.
OOC wrote:Since, as you've described, all you do is change the shape of your body, so I'm making some assumptions on how your tracks will work in terms of rooting you in place as you're transported back and forth.

Everyone gets another Hero Point for the situation. You will also be Impaired (-2 to checks) for the next encounter due to the aftereffects. Using Second Wind and a Hero Point during battle will rid you of it.
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