pawnstorm | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is hardly anything. [Seriously she frequently patrolled a station the size of a freaking planet. Not all of it, no, but no inconsiderable amount. This airship is nothing compared to the Destroyers of the fleet, even.]

[She tries to suppress a sneer of distaste at the name. It sounded tainted and strange. From a civilian standpoint, yes, it made sense, but Phasma's been dealing with Troopers for so long she has to resist the urge to catelog it, add a number to it, make it make sense. ]

Lola. [It doesn't feel right on her tongue.] I am Captain Phasma.

[And she is perfectly aware the rank doesn't carry and official weight here, but at the very least it is a warning to people that She Knows What She's Doing. That, at least, is her hope.]

I guess if you're used to this sort of thing.

*Lola's parents did pretty well, she had more than a few vacations out of the country. But this was a flying cruise ship. It was really beyond her imagination... okay that's not true, she did wonder what it would be like if a cruise ship could fly. This just happened to be better.*

...It is nice to meet you, Captain. I take you you're used to traveling on no notice to do important works for the state?

*Lola sounds a lot unsure as she says it, Phasma's way she said her name definitely made her feel like there was something wrong with it. Which is insane, her name suits her perfectly!*

It is my duty to ensure the First Order secures control, even in the most remote corners of the galaxy. [Which included Jakku. Sure, the First Order was new, still growing in size and scope, but they'd done well enough already with Starkiller Base, and taking out the Senate that stood in their way.]

I am to assume you are not familiar with such practices?

[So far everything about Lola screams civilian to Phasma, and she's had precious little experience with them. Not in any civil consideration, at least.]

My world hasn't even managed to get to our nearest planet. Let alone deal in galactic order.

*There was also a lot of political stuff she gleamed from social media about how bad the world was at internal conflicts. But this was hardly the time or place for that. She was suitably impressed by Phasma, if that counts for anything.*

Mm. Sounds like a backwater. [Sadly the feeling isn't exactly mutual. They arrive at the Training Room and Phasma leads them in. She's already trained once today, but she's not above another session, especially if it means assessing another Hero.]

What do you specialize in?

I guess it is, if you're used to whole galaxies.

*Not that home felt like it, Toronto was a big bustling place. But Lola couldn't really wrap her head around stars and galaxies so she figured that made her a backwater.*

I don't know, I didn't really think I was special enough to be a here. I'm really athletic and energetic?

*Lola's not quite impressive, she's small and flighty... all she has going for her is when she started stretching she's clearly athletic. Beyond her range of motion, and leg muscles, not much to write home about.*

[Phasma certainly wouldn't have chosen her for the FN Stormtrooper program, and she wonders about the futility of her training attempts now, but she had to admit the situation left little alternative. At the very least the girl doesn't seem the lazy type, so there's that in her favor. Phasma begins warming up as well.]

Hm. Reconnaissance. At least, if you'd ended up under my command that's where I would have put you. [A tiny moot point that she would have done so expecting her to fail.]

[As for Phasma's build, she's very nearly a human tank. While she's a pretty standard unaltered non-Force sensitive everyday human, she's got a size on her and a decent cut of muscles that means business, and she knows how to stretch and move her body to warm up each cluster and tendon.]

Oh.

*She has no idea what that word means, but it sounded important. Not... really important. But not pointless. Lola watched how carefully Phasma stretched, quickly noting a few of the movements were better stretches than what she was doing. Lola very easily switches motions and perfectly matches what Phasma's doing.*

Did you have a large command?

*It wasn't exactly hard for Lola to guess that Phasma was large and in charge. Not the same sort of authority Lola's met in her life, but she could tell the feeling of someone used to leading.*

[Okay, this girl's adaptable. That's good to know.]

I did. i had numerous units under my command and many more that I was in the process of training.

How much training did you go through, to get where you are?

A lifetime.

[Start young, devote your life to it, that's how the First Order works.]

You must really have wanted to do this.

*Quickest logical path, right? A lifetime of work means a lifetime of determination.*

I am in the best place to do the most to help galaxy. That is all I strive for.

[if by helping the galaxy means taking out five important and densely populated central planets and moons]

intro ♚ april

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject