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

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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, 1 Luck spent


DeeCee watched Dracula run away, look around him at the wet, damaged room, and began putting it right. He didn't say anything, just started walking around fixing things, in an automatic sort of way rather than with any hustle or vigor.

Well, guess I'm not cut out for hero work, he thought to himself as he worked. Nothing I did had any impact on that battle at all. I guess Dracula wasn't far from the mark when he called me a clown. Whatever is going on here is way above my level, and I am more likely to get in the way than help if I continue, so I'll just do what I do best and fix what I can.
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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: No longer impaired.


"Come, we don't have time for this." Libra grabbed DC by the arm to prevent him from walking to the next broken case.
"You're mopping the floor while the tap's still running. What happened to being not too late to help prevent the damage this time?"

Libra started to float towards the door, backwards to make sure she was being followed.
"Also, your powers don't just so happen to be able to conjure a bunch of towels, can it? And a hairdryer? Not for me of course, my hair is naturally wavy. I just, uh-- Aeon expressed some concern about his do. Yeah."
She turned to Aeon before he could call her out. "Do you have a tracking spell or something similar? I don't like how sneaky scuba-bot was during the fight. Last thing I want next room is to get ambushed."
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, 1 Luck spent


DeeCee, upon request, touches Libra on the shoulder and dries her off, even does a mild styling of her hair because she allows it, but feeling something else 'broken' within her. Not sure how to address it, he quietly says to her, "Uhm, not to alarm, but when all this is over, I might be able to help you with whatever you have going on. When I touched you I felt something in you that I felt I could put right, but didn't because you didn't ask me to. I do not know what it is and am not going to ask."

After drying her, and Aeon if he asks, he goes back to fixing the broken things in the room in silence, deep in his own thoughts.
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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
Hair Status: safe


Libra raised a eyebrow to DeeCee's offer. "Put right? Drac barely touched me. He did the creepy red eyes thing but I shook that off. At least, I think I did. I won't go winter soldier on you guys, right?"
She raised the other eyebrow when she watched DeeCee going back to fixing things rather than following her to the next room. She exchanged glances with Aeon, then shrugged her shoulders. Every moment spend here was adding to Devil Ray's head start, she had to hurry.

Taking off at moderate speed so not to break even more glass, she flew off into the corridor Devil Ray disappeared in.
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 simply looks back and forth between Libra and DeeCee, utterly perplexed at their exchange. "Sigh DeeCee, I know what its like to seem to be on the sideline, hell, less than an hour ago I was tied up and helpless in some mad corpse magician's performance. But ultimately we're here to protect people from the horrors of villains LIKE medea, even if we sometimes fall down, we just need to get back up and move on. I'm not going to pretend I know you inside and out, I don't know why you do what you do in the first place, or hell WHAT you are, but if you ask me, id rather damn be on that magician's stage again a thousand times over if it means I'm doing something. " At that moment Aeon uses his gravitation magic to roar of the ground. "Hey wait for me!" Aeon yells at Libra before racing off to find the machine man along with her.

"Unfortunately my one spell that CAN scry like you asked to project my being and leaves me sitting like a statue, so we have to find them the old fasion way, he couldn't have gotten far." Say Aeon to Libra.
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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:


"Yeah, don't worry, I'm right here." Libra flew back through the hallway to meet up with Aeon, circling around him to not-so-humbly brag about how fast she was. "Definitely not split up." She said, repeating her own words.

"I overheard your pep-talk." She nodded towards the previous room, DeeCee now being out of sight (and hopefully earshot). "Looks like I still have things to learn about giving hero-speeches too. I didn't come over as harsh, did I? I thought a nudge and a joke would be enough to get him up again, but that might've felt dismissive in hindsight."
Libra paused for a moment. "It's just, you know, it feels like we've only been taking losses up until now. I don't know what happened in front of the house but the way you described it, it must've been a circus. I arrived way too late for it, and then came too late to prevent Sallah from getting stabbed too. And now we had to let Drac go because we couldn't stop him fast enough. I just want to, you know--"
Not being able to find the words, Libra started making frustrated grabbing motions in the air, trying to catch an invisible Devil Ray.
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 was alone with his thoughts as the two left the room.

Why do I do this? Because people with powers are usually careless and hurt people who do not have powers. Most folks just want to live their lives without having to worry about what sort of monster is coming out of the sewers, or aliens from the skies, or whatever new supervillain is trying to subjugate them and make their lives miserable. Villains want to hurt, heroes want to stop villains, but regular people just want to be left to live their lives in peace, which both of those tend to disrupt.

He got his own powers like some sort of cosmic lottery in which he never even bought a ticket. It wasn't because he was smart, or brave, or did anything heroic. Some strange guy asked him to do something creative and, because he could, he did so, and that was it. He woke up the next day and found out he was subconsciously manipulating reality around him in weird ways. He effectively banished himself to the wilds for months before he finally got this new power under control enough to be around people and not turn them into gerbils by accident. That train thing he managed to put back before anyone noticed. Maybe it was a trickster god, or maybe they got the wrong guy, or maybe he was just the lucky or unlucky soul. He had no idea. He always felt like a bit of a fraud, because inside he was still the same, ordinary guy who was just SUPER aware of what was going on around him and way tougher than he had ever been as a non-hero.

DeeCee always showed up after the battles were over because he doesn't like hurting people, even people who are hurting others. There were always heroes around, like those two, so he could just clean up after them, and help people without having to hurt anyone. Libra and Aeon don't seem to have problems hurting villains, and he can just clean up the mess. They can fight the villains.

... but what if they can't? There are just two of them, and Dracula and Devil Ray were dancing around all three of them. What was this Medea person? Drac and DR did not seem afraid of them, so they must not be much more powerful, but obviously had enough power and forethought to put together a group of villains to achieve their ends. If he didn't go with the heroes, they might be outnumbered, or get hurt. One of the first things DeeCee learned how to do was to make it so he couldn't die or get hurt easily, so at least he could be a really good meat shield.

Well, if he is doing this, he should probably not let them get too far ahead. Not sure if he can do anything helpful, but at least he can be supremely annoying. Not the most dashing of skills, but probably somewhat useful in the right situation.

Tracking people, huh? He can do that.


DeeCee concentrated and changed his shape into that of a large dire wolf (still wearing the helmet and safety vest, though, just to make it obvious who he is). He sniffed around the place to see if he could pick up the scent of Devil Ray, even after the flood, and then ran quickly after Aeon and Libra, trying to pick out the scent.

Also, he wouldn't have to talk as a wolf, also a plus.
Not sure what the stats on a dire wolf are, but I probably won't be doing combat as a wolf anyway. I just wanted the speed, senses and tracking ability. Also, the others can probably ride him, if needed.
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 gives a silent nod. "I know, the mechanical man, he must have left SOME trace of himself behind," Aeon says as he looks around for clues before turning around and furling his eye brows. "Why is there a wo- DeeCee? Well, that's a surprise indeed, although not the first surprise today" Aeon chuckles with a smirk going back to looking.
OOC wrote: Aeon is gonna roll perception for spotting anything that might note where the knock off manta ray has gone
Perception: 1D20+14 = [18]+14 = 32

If you deem that a perception check isn't the correct check and it needed to be an investigation check, Aeon will instead use a Hero point to gain "inspiration" on a way to track him.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

The corridor you're stepping into bears dark green wallpaper with a floral design, with mirrors spaced out every 10 feet or so. The floor is a plush carpet of an even darker color, with the ceiling a dark brown wood that glows in a way that produces a uniform light with no apparent shadows cast on the walls or floors that follows you, leaving each person in their own lit area, visible to the others, but the areas in between dark, with the only visible features the flash of the mirrors. To Libra's enhanced senses, the entire room glows slightly in the ultraviolet spectrum, and Aeon perceives ambient magic, slightly stronger around the mirrors. It's easy to see at first where the water washed through because the carpet is soaked, but as you proceed, you find that the carpet is rapidly drying, the water seemingly soaked down through the carpet. Still, between Aeon's sighting of muddy footprint outlines, and DeeCee's keen converted nose picking up twin scents of oil and marine decay, it's not hard to see where Devil Ray passed, at least for the first hundred meters. Then, there's a slight scorch mark in the hallway and a whiff of ozone to guide you.

As Aeon walks by the mirrors, he notices that the reflections are slightly off. Initially, they look like slight physical distortions, like carnival mirrors that are a little convex or concave. Eventually, he realizes that the timing is slightly off as well, and that occasionally, the reflections don't quite match colors properly. DeeCee's lupine eyes take a bit longer to pick up on the changes, particularly since the color spectrum as a wolf is more muted. Libra, for her part, first notices it when she passes a mirror and briefly, out of the corner of her eye, sees herself walking sans superhero outfit, the image switching to a more accurate reflection as soon as she looks squarely at it.

It's around this moment of revelation that the trail suddenly dead-ends beside a cracked and dark piece of glass on the wall that glitters with a shimmer of different colors. This is also when you come to a sudden realization that the walls, so uniform in appearance that you'd largely blocked them out of your head, have changed. Almost too subtly to notice, the details of this mirror-lined hallway have drifted into simpler and simpler forms until only the mirrors remain, held motionless in a white void. They still form a corridor, maybe 10 feet wide, but everything else—the walls, the floor, the ceiling—seem entirely absent as far ahead and behind as the eye can see, although in the direction you were going, maybe a 100 feet down, it looks like the corridor ends with a shimmer of coruscating color and light.
OOC wrote:To move things along, other than Aeon's check, I'm assuming routine Perception checks. With the walls gone, it is possible to fly or run past the mirrors, but it's merely a white void, and right about where you start losing sight of where the mirrors are, you will find that you're suddenly flying toward the corridor, apparently from the other side. There is still a noticeable floor, but the ceiling is gone, with the light coming from the void around you. Attempting to fly up results in the same situation of realizing that you're approaching the corridor again, but this time returning from the "ceiling" you attempted to bypass. Attempting to go back the way you came results in the traveling further down the corridor, but the hallway seems to slowly warp to bring you back closer to the rest of the group. Forward is the aforementioned coruscating shimmer.

Aeon, if you want, you can roll an Expertise (Magic) check to recognize an aspect of this reality. Others can suggest their own courses of action if they want to make a skill check, or simply move down the corridor.
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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:


Libra was taken aback when she thought she saw herself -Lily self- in the mirror.
Please be an illusion. She thought to herself as she turned around to check the other's reflections. It'd be bad if these mirrors started broadcasting their secret identities to each other.

Libra shook her head. The house had played games on them before, but this time they couldn't afford the distraction. She let Aeon and DeeCee lead her along the trail of Devil Ray, until it abruptly stopped.
"That's weird." She said. "You think he got into a fight?"
She flew over to the dark glass on the wall (or, well, what was left of the wall), tracing the cracks with her eyes. Just a moment ago they passed a scorch mark. Devil Ray had a blaster on his suit, didn't he?
Libra took a moment to admire the way light reflected of the curious piece before carefully stretching out her hand to touch it.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

The surface of the mirror is warm to the touch, oddly so. As Libra touches it, the color leaches from it, leaving dull glass, and for a moment, she has a sudden flash of imagery, of swimming through deep waters, first propelled, as by a jet erupting from her feet, and then sudden sinuosity as her bone crackle and bend, reshaping themselves to better suit the ocean's depth... and with a snap, Libra finds herself touching the glass, but with a faint taste of salt in her mouth, and a green scent in her nose which reminds her of a time her father took her to a sushi restaurant and she'd taken a bit of what she expected to be regular greens, but was apparently seaweed. And then, a moment, later, it's gone, except for a faint whisper in the back of her head, "Iä! Iä! ... fhtagn!" and then her brain skitters away from that thought and she remembers the whisper, but not the content of it.

Her hand is still on the mirror, but it feels dead to her, more dead than an inanimate object ought to.
OOC wrote:FWIW, only Libra would have seen the vision of herself. And the contact with the broken mirror is more flavor than anything else, although I may use it as an opportunity for a Complication if I feel that you could use the Hero Point.
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 follows the scent until it is obvious his quarry has left the area with no scent to track. He wordlessly transforms back into himself and looks around. Sees Aeon looking about and Libra messing with the broken mirror.

"I thought he said he was going to Medea," DeeCee asks after a moment. "I am guessing Medea is not here?"

DeeCee reaches down and touches the floor and attempts to 'create' a pattern of construction tape against the void walls, if there is any substance to them at all, just so they can see where the walls are.
If there are no walls, then his 'construction tape' will only be on the floor extending to the extent of his power, so that there is some feature to orient onto. He has no interest in this room and watches the actual heroes do their thing.
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 stares into the blank whiteness, and then at the mirrors before reaching out to one himself. "I don't like the look of this" Could this be some kind of another dimension within the house, they knew that the house was entirely malleable to a person's whims? Or worse, Was this a closed reality loop in which they were trapped, maybe each mirror was a form of parallel dimensions, maybe a room of potential realities, each with its own hues? "Think Aeon think!" He mutters to himself. Wracking his brain for an answer, it's on the tip of his tongue. "Well there's one advantage to all this, if we're confused about what "here" is, then it is potentially safe to say that the man we're hunting would also be confused.
OOC wrote: Aeon is gonna make the magic to see if he can think of anything.
Expertise (Magic): 1D20+14 = [14]+14 = 28
FuzzyBoots
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Re: [IC] [3E] The Neophyte Freedom City Experience - The Assault on the Nerian Nexus

Post by FuzzyBoots »

GM

Putting up the "tape", and letting it be affected by gravity, DeeCee quickly found that the "floor" definitely seemed solid, at least enough to bear weight, but the walls just weren't there, with items he sets up just falling. As what he builds pushes out, the oddest thing happens... he's always had precise control of his structures, but the dimensions are off, almost as if they were being drawn into existence with a shorter vanishing point. Moving resulted in parallax movement of the structure, but it was was like the lines of perspective curved inwards, causing the structures he built to be closer than intended once they were past the walls, but exponentially close... the further away they went, the less far they went.

Meanwhile, as Aeon surveyed the scene, bits of magical lore running through his head, the odd variation in the mirrors suddenly all slotted into place. These were not mundane mirrors... in fact, with a little relaxing of his third eye, he could see that all of the mirrors, except for the broken one, radiate strong magic. He'd not studied divination magic or clairvoyance in detail, past what he needed to see remotely, but he'd heard that magic mirrors, despite their appearing to act like televisions, often acted more like two halves of the same whole that existed in separate places, allowing one to bridge time and space by simply eliminating the distance between them. This space... this must be part of that in-between, and stumbled
into the Nerian Nexus’s "crawlspace" with all of the wiring... and the disturbing thought came to him that, with how long Eldritch had been dead, it was likely no one had been doing maintenance and parts of the system were likely starting to break down, which might explain the sudden absence of walls.
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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:


Libra quickly drew her hand back from the mirror after the weird vision. She really should've known better than to touch anything in this house.

"This place kind of creeps me out." She said, turning to Aeon and DeeCee. "I don't know much about magic, but this hallway isn't supposed to look like this, right? Let's move on before something bad happens."
Without waiting for confirmation, Libra started floating towards the shimmer at the end of the hallway. With Devil Ray's track abruptly stopping she had hoped the mirrors might've been some kind of portals, but with that theory debunked she wasn't so keen to find out what exactly made the villain disappear so suddenly.
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