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BOARDMASTER ([personal profile] boardmaster) wrote in [community profile] pawnstorm2016-04-09 04:30 am

intro ♚ april

WELCOME TO GRAUPERA



We’ve all had those dreams: you wake up on a table, to blurry, ominous images and the certainty that you are absolutely buck-naked in a room full of strangers. This is not quite it.

Instead, you come awake to the sun on your face. The soft burble of water nearby. The hustle and bustle of a busy street and the faint, fortifying smell of bread. You open your eyes and there’s no one there at your bedside, but there is what appears to be the end of the world happening just beyond your window.

There’s a crack in the world across the sky, the “sun” is the totally unnatural light spilling from that crack straight into your eyes, and someone’s left a neatly pressed and folded uniform at the foot of the bed that isn’t yours. Somewhere in the room, there’s a strange clatter like beads, the click of claws on the floor.

Something’s in here with you.

Also, you are naked.

ONE CAPABLANCA & AIRY
As much as Blanc’s capital welcomes its Heroes, new arrivals such as yourself won’t have much time to settle. Get dressed and pick up your weapon and Carrier, because sometime in the afternoon, all floor nannies and Carriers will broadcast an announcement by Commander Lisbrand. She delivers a brief greeting to their new members, but gets straight to the point: they will be headed for Capablanca and the open sea beyond, in order to restore the fortress of Graupera for battle with Noir looming on the horizon. All new Heroes are expected to report to the Airy at the Caissa aeroport on the 8th along with their seniors.

On the morning of the 11th, Airy alights on Graupera, an island about two hours away from Capablanca by ferry. From here, you can either help the navy with Graupera repairs or assist in Verdoni’s investigations and head for Capablanca proper. Heroes will be staying in the (in)famous Hotel Caruana: they say you can check in anytime you like, but you can never truly leave. Nobody will quite meet your eyes or tell you what it means.

Wherever you are, the Airy will remain parked at Graupera.

TWO GRAUPERA, CAPABLANCA SEA FORT
What was once a heavily fortified island rests a ways off the coast of Capablanca; it looks a little too much like one of the thunderclouds slowly swarming on the horizon. Graupera has seen many battles and withstood the ebb and flow of wars. Formerly the city’s first line of defense until it was abandoned after the Reclamation, its dilapidated condition is the current bane of the Blanc navy. Blanc needs to bring it back to its former glory before it can face a single warship, much less Noir’s fleet of magical cannons. Blanc’s government has no doubt Heroes will do a fine job at returning the fortress to its former glory!

A ♙ The great stone and iron wall facing the wide open ocean has seen better days and is full of holes overgrown with stubborn clinging vines; cannonballs used a lifetime ago litter the grounds. The vines are extremely thick and may tangle the careless beyond hope of escape, not to mention filled with a pungent sap that will seep into your clothes and hair for days. It makes a great adhesive, though? Conveniently, parts of the wall are strewn across the floor, so at least some of the cannon holes can be repaired with enough improvisation, desperation and a bit of spit. The rest need new material provided by our helpful Heroes in Option C. Furthermore, the lingering damage from a previous attack and old age have turned the floorboards weak and unstable. The wood creaks ominously beneath the mass of even a single average-sized person, so watch your step.

B ♟ You might want to get your weapon before you descend into the dank depths beneath the castle. Once you make it down the steep, slippery stairs, you’ll be meeting the gigantic, hostile rats that infest the castle cellar from top to bottom. It looks like magical residue from long-ago battles has seeped into both the foundation and its inhabitants. The cellars have become a huge warren filled with strange mana currents, and sometimes flooded with water. If you're going to start an extermination campaign, you may want to recall the magical residue: chopping off a rat’s head and limbs will barely slow it down. It will keep going for hours unless you either lop off all its limbs or pierce its heart.

If you manage to make it all the way up into the castle’s two intact towers (the other two are half-collapsed), the uppermost levels are utterly covered in bird crap. You’ll be encountering the kings of this castle: the unusually large, grey-feathered sea birds that have taken up residence here. Albatrosses, gulls, pelicans, even sand pipers: they all share nesting and pooping space here. The feathers of each bird seem to have taken on stone-like properties not unlike the castle’s walls. They’re extremely ferocious and protective of their nests, which are filled with all kinds of things: twigs, shiny things, coin money, Option C’s supplies, feathers of all kinds, and some completely ordinary tools that seem too small for human hands, and much older than anything else in the place save for the walls. If you look closely, you might be able to see a few baby rats scattered in amongst the eggs and the peeping chicks. They’re being fed, too.

You’re meant to be moving the birds out of the place, but you might have enough trouble just moving their offal.

C ♙ Don’t feel like dealing with pest control? No problem! Blanc will need materials for rebuilding and other supplies for the coming battle! Everyone knows how important it is for the fortress to remain standing, so Heroes will be provided with gadgets and weaponry that should make it difficult for enemies to penetrate the walls yet again. Word has spread that the Heroes are transporting valuable goods, though, so you might have to fend off the occasional hopeful man or annoying mouse (rat) who wishes to borrow much-needed material.

Of course, all this rebuilding will be for naught if you are not prepared to defend the stronghold! Ammunition such as cannonballs, bullets and arrows needs to be transported to Graupera en masse, pronto. Equally important essentials include first aid supplies and enough non-perishable food and water to last a small army (you) a month or two. You wouldn’t want to have to scavenge for rat meat.

No one knows just how long this battle is going to last.

THREE Training
It’s time for you landlubbers to learn how to swim! Commander Lisbrand won’t be tolerating any sinking stones on her task force. The upcoming battle will be fought on the sea so your instructor, one of Blanc’s many fine captains (when she isn’t intoxicated), will make every single individual who hesitates at the sight of the open ocean walk the plank. She’ll even give you a helpful kick if necessary! Once that’s over, she will show you how to steer a ship. However, wandering eyes that land anywhere on the inebriated captain’s assets will be swiftly and spectacularly dealt a large bottle of the harbor’s best swill right where it hurts.

Blanc has also provided training dummies dressed suspiciously like prominent figures of the Othellian underworld. Now might be a good time to branch out and learn about your affinities. Heroes who have recently been promoted in Rank might want to set some time aside for getting used to their new abilities, too. Power and responsibility come hand in hand, after all!

INFO Welcome!
Welcome to Crosscheck's April intro log! For any further questions, please see the FAQ or reach us at the Contact Us page. Have fun!
sakeplz: (Laughter Is Good For You)

2 - B

[personal profile] sakeplz 2016-04-10 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
[There can't possibly be anyone who would wander through this area humming to themselves as they try to just sort of...fit in tight spots. There are some problems with getting through here and that's the fact that he's big and that his sword is big. It can be really troublesome, you know! So he's grateful for areas that are a little bit more open.

Well until he sees someone trying to ride a rat like it's a horse. Putting a hand over his eyes like he's shielding them from the sun (which is stupid since there is no sun down here), he gives a giggle of delight. He's quite the vicious sword even if he doesn't look like.]


I don't think that's how you should ride those! You'll go smoosh-smash!

[Yes. This tall and elegant looking man just said that. Casually, he steps to the side and the bits of ceiling fall next to him instead of on him before he's just sort of skipping along stones to get closer. Wait, are his feet clean? Has he been using stones and such to do that?]

What a mess!

[He holds his hands out like he's holding reins.]

You hold them like this!

[Jirou...what.]
houndumb: (018)

[personal profile] houndumb 2016-04-10 10:24 am (UTC)(link)
Ugh...

[Somehow, even though he's on a thrashing rat and Jirou isn't, and even though he's close enough to the ceiling to present a more difficult moving target -- Nora managed to get clipped by the collapsing bits of ceiling anyway. Just his luck, huh?

It also means he really doesn't have time to spare to notice the elegance or inability to fit into tunnels his companion has on full display here.]

... You're talkin' too loud and I still can't hear you, but stop laughing! [Because that's the important thing here and what he should be focusing on. The rat, at this stage, has taken to ramming itself against the more-or-less intact side of the tunnel -- seemingly in an attempt to oust its rider through force.] If you're gonna stand there--

[It's really dubious wisdom already to be talking and rodeoing at the same time, but this time when Nora cuts himself off it's because the rat's somehow, finally, gotten the "reins" between its teeth (they're vines, actually).

If Jirou keeps blocking the tunnel with his bulk, he might get run over...]
sakeplz: (Battle Ready)

[personal profile] sakeplz 2016-04-10 10:30 am (UTC)(link)
That looks dangerous...

[He hums thoughtfully then shifts so he can actually get the sword out of the sheathe. It takes creativity but he manages it somehow. Which then leaves him ready as the thing comes running his way and...

He stabs through to the heart. How he misses the person riding it is a mystery but down the thing goes with Jiroutachi dancing out of the way last minute. Sorry did you want to keep that one as a ride? That's probably a bad idea, you know!]


Oh. Maybe I blocked the tunnel with it.

[Oops?]

I guess we have to move it. [Pause.] Do you want to? I'd hate to be sobered by this silly thing.
houndumb: (052)

[personal profile] houndumb 2016-04-11 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
What're yoouuuUUUUU...!!

[There's a certain thing that happens when you stop something dead while it has enough momentum going to break through a solid(?) stone wall. Thanks to Jirou, and thanks to the laws of physics, Nora kind of goes sailing over the rat's head and lands facefirst in a puddle.

On the bright side, that means the whole spray of blood thing that also happens when you stop something organic literally dead isn't a problem. Then again, maybe it would've been the preferable option -- Nora sits up sputtering and glowering already, barely registering anything but the tail end of Jirou's words.]

What was-- You-- I had that! I had that!! I could've taken it out if you hadn't interfered and-- [a pause, to spit gross water, probably in the ex-sword's direction] --and why're you going around stealing other people's prey! There's plenty more where that came from!

[His priorities are really in order here.]
sakeplz: (Appreciating Life)

[personal profile] sakeplz 2016-04-13 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
Hmmm...I wonder if there's another way around...

[Oh were you talking to him? He's not listening. He's busy using things popping up out of the water to walk on to keep his feet dry as he moves around the rat to go look for another path since this one is broooooooken. By his own doing but is that the point here?

Nope.

Jirou hums a little as he casually steps over rat tail.]


Aha! Another way!

[Seriously though. He's not listening to the guy yelling at him.]
houndumb: (028)

1/2

[personal profile] houndumb 2016-04-18 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
Hey! Listen to somebody when they're-- I said hey!!

[Ignoring Nora is the key to... making him stomp after you (splashing dubious water the whole way because he is nowhere near as classy as the drunk fashionable sword skipping along, are you sure you really thought this ignoring thing through) and yell even louder, just in case that'll help if he's talking to someone deaf, or just to make himself feel better.

It's probably the latter. As if he'd think of other people, especially when a rodent and a stranger wearing what amounts to dancing clothes have just soundly thrashed him and saved his ass, respectively. Honestly, they're about equal on the rage scale here.

The only reason he hasn't actually grabbed Jiroutachi to make him listen is thanks to the length of the blade he's carrying, which makes it much hard to maneuver around him in tunnels.]
houndumb: (067)

2/2

[personal profile] houndumb 2016-04-18 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
[But it also means that eventually Nora just literally goes to try and put his foot down on the trailing blade to halt his target's progress, because otherwise Jirou is probably going to sashay right through the convenient hole in the wall that he created and disappear into the ether.

And that's not acceptable, of course.]

I said, you can't expect to just steal somebody else's fight and leave!!
sakeplz: (Well I Have Ideas)

[personal profile] sakeplz 2016-04-22 12:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Doop doop...doop?

He pauses as he feels a little extra weight on his sheathe. Looking back he sees a foot there. Well that's a little dangerous! Jirou considers it a bit before slowly looking up the leg then the body then up to the face.

Huh! He seems quite upset! How about that!]


Well I suppose that means you've said it twice now.

[In other words...what's your point?]
houndumb: (002)

[personal profile] houndumb 2016-05-15 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
At least apologize or something! Or find me a better rat!!

[Yes, he is possibly more offended by being saved than anything else, actually. Nora keeps his foot on Jirou's poor weapon, just in case the latter gets the bright idea to try and sneak off again -- he doesn't seem the trustworthy sort despite his ability to take out a zombie rat in one blow.

Granted, it's pretty hard to gain Nora's trust in the first place. He also wiggles his leg a little for footing and emphasis, probably until the sword sheath gets caught somewhere between stones in the tunnel's floor. Hopefully that'll come out later.]
sakeplz: (Pretty Pretty Princess)

[personal profile] sakeplz 2016-05-17 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
Apologize or find you a better rat? No thank you.

[He gives his sword a twist to free it from the floor then gives it a pat like "there, there. the mean man won't step on you now."]

Have fun! Bye-bye!