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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!
couldntpullthetrigger: (Bow.jpg)

[personal profile] couldntpullthetrigger 2016-04-10 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well, the birds she wasn't exactly expecting to work all at once to come after her. Don't feathery things not tend to want to pick on things bigger than them? Well, the pelicans she can kind of expect. The smaller birds not so much - and she's always hated gulls.

The sand pipers, on the other hand, at least one of them ends up exploded into a cloud of feathers as the eagle plows through it, landing atop one of the ruined towers nearby, standing on the struggling, smaller bird's head and neck.

She supposes she's lucky there's another Hero around, however, as the birds bare back down on her - some more slow and dazed than others, and they start randomly diverting around her. She glances over her back just long enough to take stock of whomever is behind her, before turning back to the fore, nocking another arrow, and frowning.

... The randomness of this is making it hard to get a clear shot, though, and she wants to nail as many of the birds into her weapon's tailwind as she can.

Eventually she just takes the shot, and another handful of birds get blown violently backward - this time a good handful of them fall out of the sky, though she misses her initial target. And she isn't sure if it's because it veered, or because of whatever the other Hero is doing. (Or because she sucks and misses a lot; that's likely, too.)
]

Hey! Can we coordinate this a little better?
fadetoweiss: (❋ lily)

[personal profile] fadetoweiss 2016-04-10 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah! Certainly, I'll do my best! [ Helpful, helpful. His tone is cheery, if a bit flustered. This is a man who seems to be pretty used to monsters chasing him out of towers, to be honest; despite the (calculated) shake in his voice, he appears to be coping well.

He continues to wave his staff, flicking birds left and right, up and down, with the occasional exclamations of "oops!" - but though the movements are erratic, they're slower now, and there's moments where all the odd movement patterns line up just right to have an arrow go through them all.
]
couldntpullthetrigger: (pic#10154359)

[personal profile] couldntpullthetrigger 2016-04-12 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
[....

...

....

Yeah she totally doesn't notice any of this seems to be in any way on purpose. So, instead of making any observations, she hits... most... of the shots she puts into the nicely lined-up birds, but the luck of it is, with the tailwind of the arrows being as it is, she doesn't need 100% accuracy to have a dramatic effect. It still feels really chaotic, but at least she can put a dent in the numbers of the birds.
]

... Ugh, at least they're giving up or whatever...! [Just a bit more! Maybe! ... As long as they don't - oh no

they're flocking. Okay. Yukari might just take one step back as she watches the birds regroup.
]

... That's not good...
fadetoweiss: (❋ thorn-apple)

[personal profile] fadetoweiss 2016-04-12 08:12 am (UTC)(link)
[ Well, the time for randomised finesse is over, it seems. ] Oh my...that seems a little troublesome!

[ And while he's speaking, he's juggling his staff worriedly in his hands. He's been using relatively little mana to scatter the birds and to get them going where he wants them to go.

Now probably calls for a small application of force, though. Birds that the staff just happens to point at are suddenly slammed into the ground or thrown away, disrupting the flocking. He only needs a moment for the staff to work, after all.
]

Er, do you mind breaking them up? They must be quite easy to hit from here, surely? [ Radiating hopefulness. If worst comes to worst, he'll just grab her and drag her inside to think of a plan B. ]
couldntpullthetrigger: (pic#10154373)

[personal profile] couldntpullthetrigger 2016-04-13 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
... When'd birds get so good at working in groups like that? [This doesn't seem normal! Well, she's a little taken aback, but not too worried. They're just birds. How bad can it be? ... Alright, as they get closer, she might feel an even tighter knot in her stomach. She doesn't want this to hurt, and...

... Oh wait. Something is disrupting the birds. He might be right...
]

Yeah... the closer they are together, the more the wind should help, right? [She's... also hopeful, but in that slightly more desperate, less optimistic way... or is a little less good at hiding any worry - one or the other. She exhales, and looses another arrow, wincing a little because she can almost feel the sapping draw of energy of this one as it flies. It strikes true, leaving a hole in the middle of the still-advancing flock, like a hole punch in midair.]

... Are these birds like... smarter than normal birds, or...?

[Argus, from a different parapet, screeches a warning.]
fadetoweiss: (❋ mullein)

[personal profile] fadetoweiss 2016-04-13 12:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, they're birds. I suppose they're used to it! [ He's used to monsters working in groups, this happens all the time...

Well, that didn't work. Time to retreat. He kind of just grabs Yukari and tows her, apologising all the while, back down the stairs to get some kind of cover from the impending (and accelerating) flock.

Birds rush past in a wind that raises feathers and mess, a veritable tornado of debris. WHAT IS THIS...he's going to have to think of another plan.

Hmm. Targeting the eggs might be a good start. They're only monsters, after all. But it wouldn't mesh too well with the persona he's trying to present..decisions, decisions.
]
couldntpullthetrigger: (pic#10154395)

[personal profile] couldntpullthetrigger 2016-04-13 11:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[UNHAND HER - okay, so she might just kind of squawk as much as the rest of the birds as she's hauled back away and down into the tower again.

... She totally had that! They both did!
] H-hey, come on, we totally had that! They're just dumb birds, and my Carrier's still up there!

[Argus may be miffed later that Yukari said just dumb birds, because Argus is a bird, but regardless...]
fadetoweiss: (❋ lily)

[personal profile] fadetoweiss 2016-04-16 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ His archaeological escapades aside, he has his limits on cleanliness and being swarmed by a bunch of stone-skinned dirty birds for no tangible reward isn't his idea of fun. ]

Er, I'm not sure if we really 'had that', as you say...We might need to come up with another plan of attack. [ Like a hose. Gross, it smells so bad... ]
couldntpullthetrigger: (pic#10154359)

[personal profile] couldntpullthetrigger 2016-04-16 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
... They're just birds, other than being really dirty, what else can they do? [Okay, so maybe they didn't have that-have that, but they were close enough.] You got an idea for how to scatter 'em, then?