Gray Nightingale (Aiya) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
experiencepoints) wrote2016-04-24 11:17 pm
experiencepoints) wrote2016-04-24 11:17 pm
(no subject)
Neupos: Cottage
Regained: Day 219
Poltergeist, Full Metal Gambling
You stand at the base of tall, tall tower. Ruined and decaying, but imposing, as the sun stands high above you. The Tower of Unending Dawn, it was called, but it was abandoned over a thousand years ago, when Tyrfing, the God of War, was first beginning to be worshipped.
It was actually your mother who suggested your party run this dungeon, and you begin to see why. All around the tower, you can see the faint twisting fragments of old mana fields, ancient spells and wards. A strangle purple haze, twisting and broken etherial runes and circles... It looks like a mess. (Idly, you wonder if you can fix it.) But it's meant to be a challenging dungeon for your level, and your mother only found out about it through her connections, so you'll be the first inside besides the Scouts in a long time.
You glance around at your party. Yura, ever the cheerful leader, grins back at you, while Araj readies her bow.
"Are you ready?" She asks, and after noises of assent, you enter.
Inside is dim. Araj's elven eyes, and Yura's feilne ones, are suited to the darkness, but you have to make due with the light from the broken mana fields. You stumble and trip a few times, but one of them is always there to catch you. It's the stairs that worry you most, especially with your equipment this time involving high heels, but you manage and continue to ascend. It becomes a pattern of climbing the stairs, checking the floor for side rooms, navigating debris and fallen columns, and looting every treasure chest you can find.
(Some treasure chests contain equipment. You've already traded out the staff you came in for for one with golden light flowing through it, and Araj has traded her armor out for a leather that looks almost like stone... And leaves her midriff exposed. You're trying not to think about that part.)
Most fights you encounter are simple. Bats are annoying, with their Blood Suck special to drain your HP. Night Golems are pretty bad, their slow speed made up for by a strong defense and an attack that can nearly kill you in one shot. (The stone punch lifts you off your feet and sends you into a wall, and only Yura's quick casting saves you.) Still, Araj has the best armor, so she takes point, and you fight through.
At the sixth floor, you notice something strange. The door upwards is sealed, and the three of you have to stop to discuss.
"Should we go back?" Araj asks.
"Boo..." Yura pouts. "Aiya, can't you figure out a way to get us through?"
You laugh. Of course, it would come down to this. You inspect the wall, and notice the same broken mana fields around as you did before. You start to wonder if maybe....
"I think I can do it." You respond uncertainly. "But I might need some MPots afterwards."
"We've got plenty, don't worry!" Yura throws her arms around you. "I knew you could do it!"
"I haven't done it yet, please wait until I have..." You try not to focus on how her arms feel around you, and turn back to the wall to inspect the fields.
They're ancient and degraded, but they seemed to be wards of some kind... No, not just wards. There was power going to these, to assist in motion, and... You furrow your brow in thought, deciphering the meanings in the broken circles and fragmented runes. It seems to be a specialized version of Draw magic. The building itself drew magic power from the ground? That part of the spell seems intact, which is good, because that part is well beyond you. It seems like it's the channel and targeting in the magic circle that have been corrupted and lost through time... You can do that.
You place a hand on the wall and focus. You push your mana out, controlling it finely. Your Draw spell is much weaker, but if you use a variation in the wall, to guide the mana already being pulled out with nowhere to go, to the paths it's meant to go on... As for the target? "Up" is the best you can do for now.
It's good enough. The last of the wards crumble away, unable to endure the sudden rush of power, but the door creaks open. You progress.
But it's on the seventh floor when you discover why those wards were there. A Vampire flies out and attacks, sending Yura into the ceiling and letting her fall. (She lands on her feet, at least, ever the cat.)
Araj fires an arrow into the ceiling, and a rain of arrows descends from above, skewering the vampire. At the same time, you stand back, point your staff, and start hurling your best fire spells. But it's not enough, and the vampire is too strong, so all you can do is run.
The next few floors pass in a blur of motion. You're running, and the vampire is chasing. Araj is the most mobile, and uses it- When the vampire gets close, she's springing into the air, firing a hail of arrows while landing from a backflip. An arrow to the vampire's knees to lower its speed, a throat shot to stop its spells, and then she pulls back and releases an arrow coated in mana, an incredibly destructive shot.
You, on the other hand, can't cast while moving. You have to sprint, slide around, and find a few seconds' space where you can stand and cast. Fire 2 is no longer good enough- You're running, sliding to spin around, and taking advantage of Lightning's instant cast time to pepper it with small amounts of damage. Lightning stuns it occasionally, letting you build up a lead, and duck into side rooms to search for treasure- If you can find more MPotions for Yura, she can start using her healing magic offensively on the undead. But as it is, you need to conserve her MP most of all.
The three of you fight well together, and you fight on two fronts well- While Araj peppers the vampire with arrows, you map the area and keep the team moving. When another monster is encountered, you and Araj don't even have to glance at each other- A barrage of arrows and some chain-cast fire, and the enemies that gave you such trouble on the lower floors suddenly seem to go down like so much trash.
After another trade-off, wiping out more monsters while the vampire chases you, your eyes light up- There's a flash of light, and sparkles all around you as you level up. And suddenly, you understand a new spell. Without a word, you stop and turn around, and huge chunks of ice materialize around you. The vampire lunges, but... the ice pelts it with intense force, and it can't even drag itself forward.
That's all the three of you need. You keep it slowed down with ice, Araj uses trick shots to bounce arrows to hit the vampire in the back, and Yura begins to use her healing magic in full force, the healing burning the undead vampire more than your fire did. By the twelfth floor, it's defeated, and the three of you hug each other in excitement. (And, with another flash and series of sparkles, all three of you have leveled from that fight- Yura and Araj twice, even.)
The eighteenth floor, you find, has no monsters. Instead, all there is is a glowing crystal in the center of the room- A save point. The three of you rush for it to use it immensely, feeling a sense of relief as you save.
"Well, I'm pooped." Yura laughs.
"We've been in here all day... Shall we call it here for tonight?" Araj smiles in hope, clearly exhausted- You can't blame her, she was pulling her weight more than you were.
"I've got something in my inventory, hold on..." You rummage around, and a small cabin appears around the save point. With a cheer from Yura and a quiet sigh from Araj, the three of you head inside to sleep for the night.
(It's small, and there's a bathroom for the three of you to wash off the blood and grime from the battles- You were all starting to look pretty haggard from that run from the vampire. And it's so small all three of you have to share a room to sleep in. The other two don't mind- why would they?- but you're the one who ends up in the middle. And all three of you are exhausted, but they end up asleep instantly, while you lie on your back, not trusting yourself to lie on either side and end up staring at either of your friends. They're both beautiful, after all.
You wonder to yourself why you're suddenly so self-conscious of that. The way Araj looks when she's working on a project, that sparkle in her eyes and that quirk to her lips. Yura's boundless passion, and the way she projects her emotions constantly, open and honest. You don't know what suddenly changed.
(Yes you do. Yura kissed you, and now you can't chase these thoughts out.)
You push those thoughts out of your head, and then notice a feeling, a sudden pressure... Araj is cuddling against you. Her head lays on your shoulder, and you notice the smell of flowers. Before you can dwell on that, Yura's arms are around you too, with a low rumble from a purr in her sleep.
You're going to go absolutely insane at this rate.
But sleep mercifully takes you before too much longer.)
When the three of you wake up, you quickly eat something (you'd cooked and packed for everyone, of course) and head outside, and the cabin vanishes behind you. Neither of them comment on how tired you must look still...
The nineteenth floor, as expected, has the boss fight. A Night Witch, specifically- A type of monster that looks human, but is an otherdimensional construct formed of magic. (The leading theory was that they took the form of beautiful women to lure unsuspecting people to them, to try to take their souls. You suppose that would explain why their clothes are so.... barely even there.)
Still, you have nothing to worry about now, and in a way, the fight is even easier than the vampire was. This is the end, after all, so you don't have to worry about conserving your resources. Yura's magic can't do damage, because it's not undead, but you will make up for that yourself. You're determined- You've leveled up a few times, you're strong now, you're going to do as much damage as you can and win. They're relying on you, after all.
Araj uses her throat shot and knee shot to disable the Witch, while you throw out Ice 2 until it's been afflicted with Slow, and then change up to keep casting Fire 2 as often as you can. You're beginning to piece together a strategy, counting in your head with the cast times for your spells, beginning to cast the next spell as the last one is still leaving you. You mix in an occasional Ice2 with your fire, and Yura keeps your MP up.
The Witch falls easily enough, dissipating to dust with a horrifying shriek.
Almost on instinct now, you move to the wall, and like before, pull the mana up, connecting the work you did on previous floors to this one, and sending it up further. This is the last floor, so where will it go now? You’re not sure.
(Yura’s finished opening the treasure while you did that. She’s found 20,000 GP, an upgrade to her staff, and she waves you over to show the ‘robe’ she found. It covers less than your underwear, but… The stats are pretty good. Yura calls dibs while you still debate with yourself, though.)
The three of you ascend to the top. The sky is dark, stars dotting the heavens, and two crescent moons hang above. But a soft glow illuminates the roof regardless, so there’s no worry of tripping. You see a large basin in the center of the roof- In fact, the depression is so deep it must nearly take up a floor on its own, and so wide you can only walk around it single-file. But what’s going on? What’s the purpose…?
“Hey, Aiya, what is this?” Yura tugs on your shoulder.
“It looks like its purpose is to collect something… Maybe rainwater?” Araj suggests.
“No… Wait a minute.” Your mind kicks into overdrive. “If this is the top… And it is collecting something, then…”
“Aiya?” Yura stares at you as you mutter.
“I think I can….” You kneel down, placing a hand on the stone, then dragging it along, finding the thread of mana you sent up before. With a triumphant laugh, you pull it, and connect it into that basin, where golden runes begin to light up.
Green and golden light immediately streams out from the bottom of the basin, large threads of it all connecting, rising into the air and coalescing. More and more feeds into it and it grows. Soon, it dwarfs all three of you, a giant sun of green and gold floating high, bathing the world in light. You think the light must reach all the way to Delwight like this, but…
You can feel a stirring in your mind. Something you didn’t know before, but now is nestled in your head, a spell you have perfect understanding of like you’d read it from a spellbook. Flash, a spell to blind enemies in combat and control light outside of it…
“Guys! Aiya, Araj, look!” You’re interrupted from your reverie as Yura spins you both around, excitedly pointing outward over the edge of the tower, to…
The ocean. The ocean stretching out as far as the eye can see, bathed in the green-gold light of the tower you just lit.
“It’s beautiful…” The words slip out as you stare. The dark sky, the far-off ocean, the light from your back. It’s a beautiful scene, and you burn it into your mind. This was something amazing…
… But it doesn’t last. Soon, the glow begins to sputter and fade, and the runs crackle, growing dim. Your fixes weren’t strong enough, you realize, and the sheer flow of power through them must have broken the channels again. Still… You got to see something amazing, and you learned new spells. Overall, this was the best dungeon run you’ve ever had.
The lighthouse’s glow fades, but mere moments later, dawn begins to break over the horizon, and Yura suddenly sighs.
“Do we have to fight our way back down, too?”
You laugh, and pull a Teleport Stone from your inventory. Yura throws her arms around you again, and even Araj seems relieved.
Notes: For our new members! Araj and Yura are Nightingale’s best friends/part from home.
Yura is a Beast Tribe girl. She’s got dark skin, very fluffy white hair, yellow eyes with cat slits, and rounded feline ears and a feline tail with a fluffy tuft at the end. She’s a healer class, the party leader, and generally the cheerful upbeat one. (Aiya has a huge crush, but is convinced it’s impossible.)
Araj is an elf girl. About the same size as Aiya, light brown hair, green eyes, long pointy ears. Generally quiet and soft-spoken, likes machines, so very pretty. She’s an Archer, and capable of some crazy shots, as was seen here. (She has a crush on Aiya, but she doesn’t know it.)
The entire vampire fight is a five-floor long exciting chase scene. There’s constant movement, action, backflips, explosions, crazy shit happening constantly. They’re just casually doing impossible things, Araj can jump from the floor and kick off from the ceiling, Aiya and Yura just shrug off being punched into a wall by a stone golem, etc.
Also they’re in full RPG mode so you have an innate understanding of her stats and HP and MP and magic in this memory! And things like inventory. Where she can just drop a fucking cabin out of nowhere around the save point. Seriously, she was carrying around a literal house in there.
Also, that armor at the end that Yura called dibs on? Something like this.
Regained: Day 219
Poltergeist, Full Metal Gambling
You stand at the base of tall, tall tower. Ruined and decaying, but imposing, as the sun stands high above you. The Tower of Unending Dawn, it was called, but it was abandoned over a thousand years ago, when Tyrfing, the God of War, was first beginning to be worshipped.
It was actually your mother who suggested your party run this dungeon, and you begin to see why. All around the tower, you can see the faint twisting fragments of old mana fields, ancient spells and wards. A strangle purple haze, twisting and broken etherial runes and circles... It looks like a mess. (Idly, you wonder if you can fix it.) But it's meant to be a challenging dungeon for your level, and your mother only found out about it through her connections, so you'll be the first inside besides the Scouts in a long time.
You glance around at your party. Yura, ever the cheerful leader, grins back at you, while Araj readies her bow.
"Are you ready?" She asks, and after noises of assent, you enter.
Inside is dim. Araj's elven eyes, and Yura's feilne ones, are suited to the darkness, but you have to make due with the light from the broken mana fields. You stumble and trip a few times, but one of them is always there to catch you. It's the stairs that worry you most, especially with your equipment this time involving high heels, but you manage and continue to ascend. It becomes a pattern of climbing the stairs, checking the floor for side rooms, navigating debris and fallen columns, and looting every treasure chest you can find.
(Some treasure chests contain equipment. You've already traded out the staff you came in for for one with golden light flowing through it, and Araj has traded her armor out for a leather that looks almost like stone... And leaves her midriff exposed. You're trying not to think about that part.)
Most fights you encounter are simple. Bats are annoying, with their Blood Suck special to drain your HP. Night Golems are pretty bad, their slow speed made up for by a strong defense and an attack that can nearly kill you in one shot. (The stone punch lifts you off your feet and sends you into a wall, and only Yura's quick casting saves you.) Still, Araj has the best armor, so she takes point, and you fight through.
At the sixth floor, you notice something strange. The door upwards is sealed, and the three of you have to stop to discuss.
"Should we go back?" Araj asks.
"Boo..." Yura pouts. "Aiya, can't you figure out a way to get us through?"
You laugh. Of course, it would come down to this. You inspect the wall, and notice the same broken mana fields around as you did before. You start to wonder if maybe....
"I think I can do it." You respond uncertainly. "But I might need some MPots afterwards."
"We've got plenty, don't worry!" Yura throws her arms around you. "I knew you could do it!"
"I haven't done it yet, please wait until I have..." You try not to focus on how her arms feel around you, and turn back to the wall to inspect the fields.
They're ancient and degraded, but they seemed to be wards of some kind... No, not just wards. There was power going to these, to assist in motion, and... You furrow your brow in thought, deciphering the meanings in the broken circles and fragmented runes. It seems to be a specialized version of Draw magic. The building itself drew magic power from the ground? That part of the spell seems intact, which is good, because that part is well beyond you. It seems like it's the channel and targeting in the magic circle that have been corrupted and lost through time... You can do that.
You place a hand on the wall and focus. You push your mana out, controlling it finely. Your Draw spell is much weaker, but if you use a variation in the wall, to guide the mana already being pulled out with nowhere to go, to the paths it's meant to go on... As for the target? "Up" is the best you can do for now.
It's good enough. The last of the wards crumble away, unable to endure the sudden rush of power, but the door creaks open. You progress.
But it's on the seventh floor when you discover why those wards were there. A Vampire flies out and attacks, sending Yura into the ceiling and letting her fall. (She lands on her feet, at least, ever the cat.)
Araj fires an arrow into the ceiling, and a rain of arrows descends from above, skewering the vampire. At the same time, you stand back, point your staff, and start hurling your best fire spells. But it's not enough, and the vampire is too strong, so all you can do is run.
The next few floors pass in a blur of motion. You're running, and the vampire is chasing. Araj is the most mobile, and uses it- When the vampire gets close, she's springing into the air, firing a hail of arrows while landing from a backflip. An arrow to the vampire's knees to lower its speed, a throat shot to stop its spells, and then she pulls back and releases an arrow coated in mana, an incredibly destructive shot.
You, on the other hand, can't cast while moving. You have to sprint, slide around, and find a few seconds' space where you can stand and cast. Fire 2 is no longer good enough- You're running, sliding to spin around, and taking advantage of Lightning's instant cast time to pepper it with small amounts of damage. Lightning stuns it occasionally, letting you build up a lead, and duck into side rooms to search for treasure- If you can find more MPotions for Yura, she can start using her healing magic offensively on the undead. But as it is, you need to conserve her MP most of all.
The three of you fight well together, and you fight on two fronts well- While Araj peppers the vampire with arrows, you map the area and keep the team moving. When another monster is encountered, you and Araj don't even have to glance at each other- A barrage of arrows and some chain-cast fire, and the enemies that gave you such trouble on the lower floors suddenly seem to go down like so much trash.
After another trade-off, wiping out more monsters while the vampire chases you, your eyes light up- There's a flash of light, and sparkles all around you as you level up. And suddenly, you understand a new spell. Without a word, you stop and turn around, and huge chunks of ice materialize around you. The vampire lunges, but... the ice pelts it with intense force, and it can't even drag itself forward.
That's all the three of you need. You keep it slowed down with ice, Araj uses trick shots to bounce arrows to hit the vampire in the back, and Yura begins to use her healing magic in full force, the healing burning the undead vampire more than your fire did. By the twelfth floor, it's defeated, and the three of you hug each other in excitement. (And, with another flash and series of sparkles, all three of you have leveled from that fight- Yura and Araj twice, even.)
The eighteenth floor, you find, has no monsters. Instead, all there is is a glowing crystal in the center of the room- A save point. The three of you rush for it to use it immensely, feeling a sense of relief as you save.
"Well, I'm pooped." Yura laughs.
"We've been in here all day... Shall we call it here for tonight?" Araj smiles in hope, clearly exhausted- You can't blame her, she was pulling her weight more than you were.
"I've got something in my inventory, hold on..." You rummage around, and a small cabin appears around the save point. With a cheer from Yura and a quiet sigh from Araj, the three of you head inside to sleep for the night.
(It's small, and there's a bathroom for the three of you to wash off the blood and grime from the battles- You were all starting to look pretty haggard from that run from the vampire. And it's so small all three of you have to share a room to sleep in. The other two don't mind- why would they?- but you're the one who ends up in the middle. And all three of you are exhausted, but they end up asleep instantly, while you lie on your back, not trusting yourself to lie on either side and end up staring at either of your friends. They're both beautiful, after all.
You wonder to yourself why you're suddenly so self-conscious of that. The way Araj looks when she's working on a project, that sparkle in her eyes and that quirk to her lips. Yura's boundless passion, and the way she projects her emotions constantly, open and honest. You don't know what suddenly changed.
(Yes you do. Yura kissed you, and now you can't chase these thoughts out.)
You push those thoughts out of your head, and then notice a feeling, a sudden pressure... Araj is cuddling against you. Her head lays on your shoulder, and you notice the smell of flowers. Before you can dwell on that, Yura's arms are around you too, with a low rumble from a purr in her sleep.
You're going to go absolutely insane at this rate.
But sleep mercifully takes you before too much longer.)
When the three of you wake up, you quickly eat something (you'd cooked and packed for everyone, of course) and head outside, and the cabin vanishes behind you. Neither of them comment on how tired you must look still...
The nineteenth floor, as expected, has the boss fight. A Night Witch, specifically- A type of monster that looks human, but is an otherdimensional construct formed of magic. (The leading theory was that they took the form of beautiful women to lure unsuspecting people to them, to try to take their souls. You suppose that would explain why their clothes are so.... barely even there.)
Still, you have nothing to worry about now, and in a way, the fight is even easier than the vampire was. This is the end, after all, so you don't have to worry about conserving your resources. Yura's magic can't do damage, because it's not undead, but you will make up for that yourself. You're determined- You've leveled up a few times, you're strong now, you're going to do as much damage as you can and win. They're relying on you, after all.
Araj uses her throat shot and knee shot to disable the Witch, while you throw out Ice 2 until it's been afflicted with Slow, and then change up to keep casting Fire 2 as often as you can. You're beginning to piece together a strategy, counting in your head with the cast times for your spells, beginning to cast the next spell as the last one is still leaving you. You mix in an occasional Ice2 with your fire, and Yura keeps your MP up.
The Witch falls easily enough, dissipating to dust with a horrifying shriek.
Almost on instinct now, you move to the wall, and like before, pull the mana up, connecting the work you did on previous floors to this one, and sending it up further. This is the last floor, so where will it go now? You’re not sure.
(Yura’s finished opening the treasure while you did that. She’s found 20,000 GP, an upgrade to her staff, and she waves you over to show the ‘robe’ she found. It covers less than your underwear, but… The stats are pretty good. Yura calls dibs while you still debate with yourself, though.)
The three of you ascend to the top. The sky is dark, stars dotting the heavens, and two crescent moons hang above. But a soft glow illuminates the roof regardless, so there’s no worry of tripping. You see a large basin in the center of the roof- In fact, the depression is so deep it must nearly take up a floor on its own, and so wide you can only walk around it single-file. But what’s going on? What’s the purpose…?
“Hey, Aiya, what is this?” Yura tugs on your shoulder.
“It looks like its purpose is to collect something… Maybe rainwater?” Araj suggests.
“No… Wait a minute.” Your mind kicks into overdrive. “If this is the top… And it is collecting something, then…”
“Aiya?” Yura stares at you as you mutter.
“I think I can….” You kneel down, placing a hand on the stone, then dragging it along, finding the thread of mana you sent up before. With a triumphant laugh, you pull it, and connect it into that basin, where golden runes begin to light up.
Green and golden light immediately streams out from the bottom of the basin, large threads of it all connecting, rising into the air and coalescing. More and more feeds into it and it grows. Soon, it dwarfs all three of you, a giant sun of green and gold floating high, bathing the world in light. You think the light must reach all the way to Delwight like this, but…
You can feel a stirring in your mind. Something you didn’t know before, but now is nestled in your head, a spell you have perfect understanding of like you’d read it from a spellbook. Flash, a spell to blind enemies in combat and control light outside of it…
“Guys! Aiya, Araj, look!” You’re interrupted from your reverie as Yura spins you both around, excitedly pointing outward over the edge of the tower, to…
The ocean. The ocean stretching out as far as the eye can see, bathed in the green-gold light of the tower you just lit.
“It’s beautiful…” The words slip out as you stare. The dark sky, the far-off ocean, the light from your back. It’s a beautiful scene, and you burn it into your mind. This was something amazing…
… But it doesn’t last. Soon, the glow begins to sputter and fade, and the runs crackle, growing dim. Your fixes weren’t strong enough, you realize, and the sheer flow of power through them must have broken the channels again. Still… You got to see something amazing, and you learned new spells. Overall, this was the best dungeon run you’ve ever had.
The lighthouse’s glow fades, but mere moments later, dawn begins to break over the horizon, and Yura suddenly sighs.
“Do we have to fight our way back down, too?”
You laugh, and pull a Teleport Stone from your inventory. Yura throws her arms around you again, and even Araj seems relieved.
Notes: For our new members! Araj and Yura are Nightingale’s best friends/part from home.
Yura is a Beast Tribe girl. She’s got dark skin, very fluffy white hair, yellow eyes with cat slits, and rounded feline ears and a feline tail with a fluffy tuft at the end. She’s a healer class, the party leader, and generally the cheerful upbeat one. (Aiya has a huge crush, but is convinced it’s impossible.)
Araj is an elf girl. About the same size as Aiya, light brown hair, green eyes, long pointy ears. Generally quiet and soft-spoken, likes machines, so very pretty. She’s an Archer, and capable of some crazy shots, as was seen here. (She has a crush on Aiya, but she doesn’t know it.)
The entire vampire fight is a five-floor long exciting chase scene. There’s constant movement, action, backflips, explosions, crazy shit happening constantly. They’re just casually doing impossible things, Araj can jump from the floor and kick off from the ceiling, Aiya and Yura just shrug off being punched into a wall by a stone golem, etc.
Also they’re in full RPG mode so you have an innate understanding of her stats and HP and MP and magic in this memory! And things like inventory. Where she can just drop a fucking cabin out of nowhere around the save point. Seriously, she was carrying around a literal house in there.
Also, that armor at the end that Yura called dibs on? Something like this.
