[closed] Mission: Don't Wake the Deity

[couldkillthedevil]

who: Akihiko Sanada, Nico di Angelo, Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Rin, Keith, Lyle Dylandy, Khisanth (Onyx), Jason Todd, Ava Orlova, Morgana, Takashi Shirogane, Yuffie Kisaragi, Chloe Decker, Lucifer Morningstar, Thor Odinson, Link
what: Mission: Don't Wake the Deity
when: Friday, July 28th - after the scouting party has returned and shared their information
where: The Abandoned City and surrounding woods
warnings: Violence, probable monster attacks, mind control/people being compelled, etc. Will add more warnings as needed.



[Taken from the June TDM, with some additions:]

Whether you've just arrived in the city or you've been here a while, and you have a sensitivity to the spiritual, magical, multidimensional, or anything else outside the realm of everyday normal, you've probably noticed a distinct uptick in weird feelings, strange nightmares, or daymares - hallucinations of scary things that are lurking just behind you.

You're not the only one who's noticed it.

There are rumors going around that the psychological and spiritual disturbances are due to the emergence or re-emergence of a deity. Some people say that it's something new that's come through the portal with the sharp increase in new arrivals recently, and others say it's simply an ancient spiritual presence or some ancient incorporeal monster that's been somehow awakened. Gramarye, the top-tier magic research center in Riverview Quarantine, has been studying anyone who's felt this presence, and have recently confirmed that whatever it is, it's being fed by all the extra energies and prayers and thoughts as the city's population increases. The one thing everyone agrees on is that, if the expanding community is feeding the entity, then the entity has got to go!

A scouting party recently travelled into the Abandoned City and forests outside the walls to search for leads or any other evidence of a way to solve the problem. After a day of searching, the team stumbled upon an abandoned temple. While it didn't seem like much, its exterior run-down and wood rotting amongst the centuries' old mulch and muck, it felt... unsettling. Alive, almost. One member of the party could feel a powerful presence emanating from it; realizing they were out of their depth, the team returned to the Quarantine to relay the information and obtain reinforcements.

Teams are now being assembled across the city to travel into the Abandoned City or the forests outside the walls and find this temple once more. The mission might be dangerous, though - there are the usual dangers of venturing out into the wilds, but this time, characters may also face booby traps, spectral or physical guardians, and if the entity itself gets awoken? Someone may have to kill it.

[So this log will be set up in 'stages'. The first few headers will be closed to each of the teams for initial travel meetings, camping, monster fights, etc. Feel free to post your own top-levels underneath and tag out, mingle, whatever you'd like. Headers for further 'stages' of the mission (such as once all the teams meet up at the temple/deity hideout) will also be posted so that teams can intermingle/have more CR.

Since there are so many people involved, consider this one big mingle thread in the vein of the TDMs. Here's a link to the google doc for those interested as well.]

Comments

no worries, same here ;; we're in this together!

[pulledpunches]

He quietly packs away another internal point of respect for his new acquaintance- it wasn't his place to pry into the implications of such a passing comment, but he certainly feels it's weight. You can get used to a lot of things, even if you don't necessarily want that skill.

"Oh! Um," There's a moment's pause before he shakes his head at himself- secrets back home didn't really matter where there wasn't a Dark Hour to keep secret, so he might as well give a proper explanation. "No they aren't, they're more like.. they were just black spirits made from human emotions." Not the most creative naming, huh, who was in charge of that?

"They all had different weaknesses, so you had to memorize who's Persona would be best-- er; basically those are the same thing as a shadow, but controlled by one person." Going from proper explanation to a mess of words pretty quick. "..Sorry, since we weren't supposed to talk about it I never developed a good elevator pitch." A sheepish grin as he seemingly has to force himself to stop digging a deeper hole with his words. He bites back the urge to respond with a question of his own; let the guy have a chance to process half of what you said, Aki.

o/

[alchemyfreak]

Ed had gotten used to Purg enough to consider it his home, now with Al here he was hoping to be able to do the same. If they came through this portal willingly, maybe it was for a reason. Maybe it was for a fresh start, or at least so he'd like to convince himself.

"Spirits made from human emotion..." That sounded difficult, it wasn't as straight forward as monsters so Akihiko might not have any real skill in self defense against the things out there. However, if they're up against a deity, someone with experience with spirits would definitely come in handy. Of course, there was always that healing skill he'd mentioned.

He blinks at the "elevator pitch" line, but brushes it aside with a wave of his hand. "So you control a Persona?" Honestly the idea that a person had to memorize who might be best in each situation like that sounded complicated. Ed's not even going to relate it to his own ability to set up these groups based on who had which skills before they headed out. Ed gives a nod as if understanding this, or at least accepting it. He's not expecting questions, but he also didn't mean to put the guy on the spot either, even if he did want to know what he was getting into letting him in on their trip.

[pulledpunches]

The tense line of his shoulders visibly relaxes a little when Ed seems to accept the far-fetched sounding explanation. "Yeah! Mine's called Polydeuces- he can summon lightning, but he's also why I'm able to help with healing." He makes a note to warn that Polydeuces could be frightening for any party members who aren't used to seeing Personas as they aren't exactly cute, but leaves it for now. Their presences are fleeting on a battlefield anyway, only materializing when it's time to make a move and evaporating as soon as they are no longer needed.

"It seems there's about a million and a half ways for "magic" to work, though. Do you have any exciting talents?" The airquotes were done literally, tone conversational. Akihiko didn't have a tactical reason to know, he was just legitimately curious and in a place where it seems more people than not have some sort of extraordinary ability, it doesn't seem too far reaching to assume.

[alchemyfreak]

Ed is nearing his sixth year away from home, sadly Shadows are hardly the weirdest thing he's ever heard of. He almost smirks when Akihiko visibly relaxes, but he contains it, listening to his explanation with interest. It was an interesting skillset, lightning power hardly went hand-in-hand with healing, but Edward wasn't going to question it.

There's a slight tension in Ed's posture at the question, Akihiko hadn't exactly compared alchemy to magic, and the way he worded it was innocent enough - but the mention of magic always made him a bit wary to get into any discussion about his skills. "I'm an alchemist. Back home, alchemy is the science of deconstructing and reconstructing matter. It's useful for making or repairing things." Sure, he's downplaying it, almost making it sound pointless in a battle unless you have the time to create weapons with it.

Without another word, Ed crouches to the ground and claps his hands together before touching them to the dirt there with a crackle of electric blue light. As he stands up, he pulls a spear along with him as if creating it out of thin air - although the ground is uneven where he'd used the materials to create the spear.

"Comes in handy."

[pulledpunches]

He picked up on the discomfort, but his initial worry was just that he'd overstepped and Ed wasn't open to discussing that part of him at all. Or perhaps he had more practical talents, and took Akihiko's question as dismissive? He didn't quite regard Personas and Shadows as magic either, since they just.. are sentient to an extent, but it's been a learning curve on how to explain them and the new skills he's learning exist. He's relieved when Edward answers, brow briefly raising in thought at the explanation.

There's no attempt to hide the wonder in his expression at the trick. He leans forward to look at the little depression that was left before following it up to the spear, almost reaching out to touch it as if to see if it's real before catching his hand. He grins as he straightens back up.

"Dang- doesn't that mean you can basically make anything with the right setup? That's incredible!" He shakes his head with a smile. "I'd love to hear the basics about how it works when we aren't about to go on an expedition." Akihiko didn't forget it was a science- he's sure any actual depth of understanding would take much longer than a chat to get, but damn if it wasn't cool.

DW has eaten this tag more times than I can count

[alchemyfreak]

“Basically,” He’s not going to downplay it. “Sure, when there’s time I can teach you about it.” Maybe get some ingredients and do a demonstration from scratch. “If you ever need anything fixed-” A gesture to indicate his creation of the spear, “It only takes a second. My brother and I are probably going to be opening a repair shop once we settle in.” Or, so he’d like anyway. At this point he doesn’t really think Al plans on sticking around.

"We should probably exchange network info anyway, in case we get split up during this little trip for some reason."