[Nexus] OOC 26: Handwavium half off!

[horngeek]

The quick and easy guide to RPing in the Nexus:

1: Read the guidelines to FFRP here.

2: Make a character, keeping the guidelines in mind.

3: Pick somewhere to begin RP! Trog's works well. So do the various organisations.
3a: Begin RPing there.

4: ???

5: PROFIT!

[Darklord Bright]

It'd pay to read the first post of this thread, and probably the FFRP Central first post as well - there's a lot of good and relevant links there. Make sure to read the first post in any NEXUS thread you want to participate in (each [Nexus] tagged thread is generally a different location, with posts typically containing specific sub-location tags like [Hospital] and such for easier following of separate scenes) and make sure to ask any questions here. Really, ask questions! If you don't know how stuff works after reading those OPs, it'll always pay to ask around.

[bladescape]

FINALLY done the Skirmish update.

Sorry once more for the amazingly long time that took. >.<

[Reinholdt]

Spoiler

Show

[Ilpholin and Cessie's Arena]

"Oh. Ok then."

Ilpholin's mind swiftly skims through her options. Cessie was looking away distracted. When dealing with mages, quck surprise attacks to subdue them swiftly were best and now might be her only opportunity. On the other hand, she could probably destroy that gem easily with some of her whip's features. Or at least disrupt it. But that won't guarantee her freedom from this fight. More importantly, it'd leave her free to attack. Cessie was nice and friends and all, but there was no guarantee she wouldn't take advantage of a moment of weakness on Ilpholin's part.

Ilpholin's whip strikes out lightning fast, coming in from the direction Cessie opposite from where she's currently looking. It's aimed to wrap around Cessie's legs and trip her while Ilpholin sends a taser like blast of electricity through the whip to disrupt any attempts at a counter. She's looking to subdue as swiftly and as painlessly as possible.

[Ilpholin and Cessie's Arena]

While the sorceress herself is distracted the magical ring she wears is activated as Ilpholin swings her whip against Cessie, creating a physical shield around her.

It's just enough to block the whip once and snap the mage back to attention before it collapses.
Well, this made her choice much easier.

Cessie will attempt to weave a force cage around the drow which will pretty much work as a highly increased gravitational pull if it succeeds, encumbering the drow to the point towards helplessness, or at least make it harder to move.
Basically she will quickly concentrate a large amount of invisible eldritch energy where Ilpholin is right now, taking in account her quick movements. If Ilpohlin quickly changes direction or speed she might be able to dodge it. But unless the drow have any kind of magical senses the only hints Cessie is casting a spell is that she seems to be focusing her gaze at the naked drow (something she wouldn't do under normal circumstances) and that the air around her might start to feel rather tense.

[Ilpholin and Cessie's Arena]

Sadly for Cessie, Ilpholin's had to deal with more than a few mages back home. Swift surprise attacks is one thing you learn. Staying on the move is the other. Of course, Ilpholin does this in pretty much every fight she's in, ever, that doesn't involve teetering ledges about lava.

Remember. Serpentine.
Kudos to those who catch the quote.

Anyways, Ilpholin starts to slow, before breaking free at the edge of the force cage. It throws her a bit, so her next attack's easier to dodge than usual. But she's aiming for a wider area, looking to bring the whip across Cessie's chest, with a slightly sharpened tip. Her goal is to make a shallow cut where the knockout poison gets in. Yay for poison. She used this against Raril once.

[Ilpholin and Cessie's Arena]

The mage doesn't actually need to dodge as a air elemental is summoned, attempting to block the whip with a wind wall as Cessie just moves away from Ilpholin.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

Ilpholin scowls as her whip is deflected. She hated mages so much sometimes. Always a pain.

She'd have to deal with that air elemental first. Or get around it. Hmmm...
Ilpholin starts spinning her whip in a rapid circle directly in front of her, a vibrating film forming in the middle as she advances more slowly.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

The air elemental stays back as Ilpholin approaches, pushing itself up in the air towards the gem as Cessie summons a earth elemental. She doesn't just summon it nearby, she summons it around herself as an armor. Of course this blocks sight and therefore spellcasting but the elemental can still control itself and starts to march towards Ilpholin.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

Great. Armor. It's like Cessie wanted to escalate things to lethal levels. Grr.

Well earthen armored Cessie is probably still slower than Air Elemental, so Ilpholin decides to take care of that first to try and keep her speed advantage.

Her spinning shield whip suddenly cracks to a point through the middle and sends a blast of energy at the air elemental, hoping it will be enough to disrupt the creature entirely. Could be, since the thing is made out of air.

Ilpholin starts backing away from the Cessie tank.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

The air elemental is dispatched by Ilpholin's force blast to Cessie's misfortune. The earth elemental doesn't seem to want to attack the drow however. Instead it stops right underneath the gem and shakes it's head, pointing up at the gem which the air elemental was trying to reach.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

Ilpholin frowns. A ruse to buy time? To stop Ilpholin from attacking? To misdirect Ilpholin? Probably. But the earth elemental was right under the gem. Maybe she could kill two birds with one stone.

Staying on the move, just in case, Ilpholin snaps out her whip at the chain, hoping to wrap around it, turn the whip super sharp, then retract the whip like a measuring tape and slice right through the thing, causing the gem to fall on Cessie tank. With a whole lot of luck it'll hit her head, knock her out, AND shatter. A win win!

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

The earth elemental was in fact prepared for her to do just that and as Ilpholin manages to snap the chain of, it catches the gem as it falls and crushes it between it's fits.

Team work!

A moment later the drow can hear Cessie's magically transported voice coming from the elemental. "Ilpholin, I'm sorry this mad woman called you here but she never explained what this was about. I'm pregnant with twins and Libra claims that if Harnel loses this barbaric challenge she will kill my children. Do you understand?" She asks in a grave joyless voice.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

"It's all in asking for the right thing. Make the fight interesting and fair enough, and Harnel will win. He'd be too driven to lose. Afterwards we can all pounce on her while she's weakened. Course, now we're going to have to put on a show."

"You never did give Harnel much credit." Ilpholin drops the whip shield and snakes out her whip, trying to go for a leg trip as she resumes moving again.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

The earth elemental blocks the whip with it's large hand, seemingly ready for it.

I can't risk losing them both Ilpholin! I can't! Not after already losing one husband, I just can't. I already lost Aegnor but the chance of losing Harnel and my children right now? I can't take that Ilpholin, I would go insane. I don't think we could defeat her here anyway. Just please surrender, I don't want to fight you. Cessie replies in a very tense voice, the earth elemental keeping a stoic silence.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

"Where do you think we LIVE Cessie? They're already are both at risk. You have no guarantee that all five of whomever you got will win. And you know what? Giving in to the 'I don't think we can win' cop-out is EXACTLY how monsters before this one got away with so much."

Ilpholin spins her whip in a mini-circle before snapping it, and sending a smaller force blast at Cessie than at the air elemental from before. But it allows her to repeat a few times, which is what she'll likely do. Need to break through that armor somehow without resorting to the razor sharp method.

[Ilpholin vs Cessie]

Then I'm sorry

As Ilpholin is attempting to blast through the armor the mage comes out at the other side of the earth elemental and is lift up into the air by another air elemental as the earth elemental goes right towards Ilpholin, attempting to block every blast aimed towards it.

She also forms a force shield around herself similar to the one her sister used before but much more powerful.

I quoted the relevant posts above. Had no issue with the discussion if you wish to skip over the coloured text.

But Shadowcaller, that encounter was very much unfun for me. Out of six attacks, they were pretty much all blocked or stopped entirely with no effect, and with you setting up even more defenses for doing more of that. The one thing Ilpholin managed to do, kill the air elemental, was reversed a little while later with another popping up just like that in a double action post. This is the type of combat I expect from newer players to the Nexus. And Ilpholin could have still won or lost either way (she is the only PC I have that I try to actively scale), but I did not want to continue because I felt I could not wrack my brain enough to change it from a head banging experience to an interesting one (the primary goal).

I have my suspicions that you had only one result in mind when doing this particular event, which would explain the above issue fairly thoroughly, because I know from experience you are a good player. I do not particularly like being pulled into those situations, particularly by the person scripting the events, without being warned ahead of time. If this is not the case, then there are other problems I won't delve into beyond what I have already mentioned.

But otherwise, I would appreciate if you warned me ahead of time for any future encounter like this.

[Shadowcaller]

I quoted the relevant posts above. Had no issue with the discussion if you wish to skip over the coloured text.

But Shadowcaller, that encounter was very much unfun for me. Out of six attacks, they were pretty much all blocked or stopped entirely with no effect, and with you setting up even more defenses for doing more of that. The one thing Ilpholin managed to do, kill the air elemental, was reversed a little while later with another popping up just like that in a double action post. This is the type of combat I expect from newer players to the Nexus. And Ilpholin could have still won or lost either way (she is the only PC I have that I try to actively scale), but I did not want to continue because I felt I could not wrack my brain enough to change it from a head banging experience to an interesting one (the primary goal).

I have my suspicions that you had only one result in mind when doing this particular event, which would explain the above issue fairly thoroughly, because I know from experience you are a good player. I do not particularly like being pulled into those situations, particularly by the person scripting the events, without being warned ahead of time. If this is not the case, then there are other problems I won't delve into beyond what I have already mentioned.

But otherwise, I would appreciate if you warned me ahead of time for any future encounter like this.

Okay... I guess I need to explain this one...

First of all Cessie was on the defensive, that's the IC reason at least.

OOC, I think I was partly emotionally effected by my own plot. I don't think I should have involved Cessie at all considering what was at stake.
By involving Cessie in this combat when her children and Harnel's lives were at stake I protect my character more then I really should have.

I think I convinced myself that as long as I weren't aggressive it would be okay, which it obviously wasn't.

As for being pulled into situations I was planning to warn you ahead of time but you weren't online on MSN. I considered PM you but I had already started writing the post so I guess I just didn't have the patience to wait, which of course was yet another mistake I made.

On the whole the biggest mistake was to my own character in my own plot like that considering what was at stake.
Thanks for the feedback anyway, I will try not to make the same mistake again.

[Reinholdt]

I don't usually mind being pulled into situations on a whole (more RP for me, yay!), just when they're going to go a certain way and I don't feel like being there affects anything.

So yeah, the issue here was probably Cessie's involvement more than anything.

That's not a bad thing for anyone to note about their characters and plots actually.
*takes note*

[Gullara]

Hrm... Consider this unrelated to the discussion and its own point. The first two attacks, I totally would have lolno'd them somehow if I were in a similar situation with a pregnant PC. >.> I sure hope those attacks were before Ilpholin knew Cessie was pregnant, because I imagine that poison and the electricity both would be lethal to an unorn baby.

[Reinholdt]

As far as I'm aware, it's too early to be showing, and no one had informed Ilpholin. Of course, this is the Nexus, so who knows exactly what would have happened to magical part dragon twins? They probably would've survived. The laws of reality sort of died back when plot cloning was invented.

But also on that point, I wouldn't throw pregnant PCs into gladiator thunderdome fights.

[ThirdEmperor]

Pregnant PCs should probably avoid fights to the death, just saying.

Sneaky drow ninjas!

[Artemis97]

Hm. I'll join, I suppose. It looks interesting, and I've been wanting to do an investigative plot for a while anyway.


So, which character would you prefer I use? I have a couple of shapeshifting vampires, any of seven Tieflings with abilities tied to their names (Despair, Sorrow, Fear, Torment, War, Weary, and Carrion), a shapeshifter that controls shadows, a normal human that works for the Inside City Militia, and I could use it to bring in a Velvet (from Neverwhere).

*Pokes Kerfuffle, Bergett and ZarethG to Inside Below*

Sorry, C'nor, but Murkus, Bill, and Wolfy beat you to it. I want to keep this plot small, and I was honestly worried that three people would be too much. I said 3 was my maximum and I'm sticking to it. If the plot expands or someone drops out, I'll let you know about it, though.

[Reinholdt]

And now for something completely different:

If Butler were to set Magtok up on a blind date, where should it be held?

[Zefir]

Somewhere where he can see the Moon and the text on it.^^

[Slii Arhem]

Well that could go either way. You could hold it in MaGLoG so he would be more comfortable (as comfortable as I've ever seen him get) or in normal GLoG so he would be on edge and also possibly beaten to death.

Or somewhere neutral like trog's or something.

[ThirdEmperor]

Remnant HQ?

[Lady Serpentine]

Oops. I missed Wolfbane's post, or I wouldn't have said anything. I get that the plot has a certain number of people that it can handle, and you've hit that.

I do have to wonder what it is about me and investigative plots, though. This is the second one that I've ended up missing.

*Goes off to get checked for curses*

[Reinholdt]

Somewhere where he can see the Moon and the text on it.^^

You are a cruel, cruel man.

[Gullara]

As far as I'm aware, it's too early to be showing, and no one had informed Ilpholin. Of course, this is the Nexus, so who knows exactly what would have happened to magical part dragon twins? They probably would've survived. The laws of reality sort of died back when plot cloning was invented.

But also on that point, I wouldn't throw pregnant PCs into gladiator thunderdome fights.

*cough* >.> Well, I was referring more to the attacks rather than the situation that prompted those attacks.

Also, I suppose I wouldn't just lolno said attacks. Not a good way to handle it. Talking to the person ooc would work much better.

[Lady Serpentine]

Bladescape, I can't be sure, but I think you missed Will and Harina in the Skirmish thing.

[Zefir]

You are a cruel, cruel man.

I'm not....

I'm just lonly and my chars seem to freez in plots.
Mr. C froze in Curator the scorpion on the bee thing ...

[Lady Serpentine]

I think we're waiting for FireFox in CURATOR, actually; The Alexandrian probably wants to post for all of us at once. So... *Pokes FireFox*

[Chezmarine]

Taps One Red, Three Blue, One Black and 2 Generic to Summon Bladeofoblivion to Halloween 2011.

[The Alexandrian]

Yeah...

If you don't want to allow for a character or the spawn inside of them to be damaged to an extent that might be nearly lethal, please don't throw them into situations where they may be damaged around my characters. Most of my characters won't be aggressive unless provoked. Most of my characters will also provide an option for retreat at the beginning of a battle. I don't have the time requisite to check all of the threads for the status of every single character being played in the Nexus. It should go without saying that one shouldn't toss their characters into a fight if they don't want them to risk being damaged, especially in a situation where even punching a character could result in the death of another character growing inside of him/her/it.

I'm more than willing to accommodate others who don't wish for a certain type of attack to be employed against their character (for example, I will never allow one of my characters to attempt to deploy an EMP against Magtok), but in a situation where a character is as delicate as one that is pregnant where any attack could have severe repercussions...

[Reinholdt]

I think the situation has been pretty handily resolved, and we should move on from that conversation.

So go post in Curator already.

[Gullara]

I'm not sure if you're still catching up, but *pokes Earl to Trog's*

[Zefir]

Earl i posted in inside for the school thing.

[Lady Serpentine]

*Pokes BR to Home*

[Earl of Purple]

Deadtime here, unfortunately. I should be able to type tomorrow, however.

BoO and TE, I still require you to post in the Swamp of Not-Quite-Sanity.

C'nor and Alexandrian, I think you've missed by post for the Underside Temple of Dalachrech.

I believe everywhere else I am receiving regular replies; thank you.

[UncleWolf]

@Horngeek: Have you decided on what to do about Remnant yet? The scenes that require your input are still on hold for the moment.

[bladescape]

Bladescape, I can't be sure, but I think you missed Will and Harina in the Skirmish thing.

I know I accounted for Will. He was attacking the skirmish groups retreat, and therefore was now in battle with Danish and the central attack group? I think I forgot Harina though.

[Zefir]

bladescape think you are needed in Murderer