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

They must be rather strange memories, to be stirred by all this refuse.

[ Bird crap, and bits of dead birds everywhere. Very pleasant. Still, Kojirou's not going to spend too much time dwelling on the matter. He'd rather make more bits of dead birds.

He knocks a gull out of the air, breaking its neck with a well-placed swing of his sword. It's not quite cutting right through it, but it will have to do. ]

You could just take all you can manage while I cover you, but if we're to reclaim this fortress from the wilderness I suspect we will have to get rid of all the birds anyway.

[ So y'know, matter of time. ]

[ His reply is only a thoughtful hum, because as quickly as they'd stirred up, they've scattered on the wind— he can scarcely recall what it had been. Strange was a good word to describe it, though. A glimpse of his life between "Gauche" and "Noir", the span of time where he had no name. ]

This is true; but there are others here to be paid. We can't take all the glory now, can we?

[ But they can try to take all the loot!! So he'll be shoveling useful-looking bits of material and scrap tech into the sack, occasionally stopping to bat at the stone-like birds or shoo away some of the smaller rats. Mostly, though, he's gunning for the metal. ]

Did you bring a sack as well?

[ His is filling up quite quickly, actually. ]

Really? I would have happily cleared out all the birds myself if time allowed.

[ He finds swinging his sword at birds to be relaxing. It's kind of his thing, and is good training, all things considered. ]

So I didn't bring a sack. But as long as we're ferrying materials back, one of us needs to have their hands free to fight these birds off, and I can't do that with a sack over my shoulder, can I?

[ And as if to prove his point, a very territorial bird dive bombs Noir, and Kojirou smacks it down with his sword. ]

[ This man was very logical, at least. And he seemed to enjoy fighting the birds, so Noir leaves him to it, trusting this man he's barely met to guard his back as he works alongside him. ]

I see. Do you have other jobs then, in this country? I've only just arrived and the customs are foreign to me. I wouldn't mind carrying your share as well if we had another, but I suppose we just have to make do with the one.

[ He'll share the income received, at least! This will be made easier when they return to the same room at the end and realize they live together. Noir makes an indignant little grunt when a particularly ferocious rat appears to guard the nest he's currently rustling around in, quick to draw his gun and fire before realizing what he's done.

...Ah. He just wasted another bullet. Kojirou takes down the bird coming after him and Noir's stunned for a moment, eyes wide when he'd heard the stone wings flapping only to turn and see it coming after him. ]

...Thank you, Kojirou.

A hero's work is never done. I wouldn't think of taking up another job, that sounds like it would get in the way of training and fighting.

[ Maybe if the war effort slows down, but Kojirou makes it clear what he places first. Not for anything like patriotism, that would be extremely silly for someone born on another world: Training and fighting for its own sake. ]

So there's nothing to thank me for. I would have done this anyway. If you want to repay the favour, just make sure not to drop anything or get any bird refuse on my clothes.

[ Apart from that, he's apparently incredibly easy to please. ]

You're very dedicated to your skills, then. That's good to see. [ He offers up a little smile as he continues to bag anything that seems to be of use, trying to be a little picky if they only have the one sack he'd brought. One last piece, and that should about do it— ] I'll do my best on both respects. Shall we head back?

[ "Unless you want to kill more birds" is the unspoken part of that question, something he wouldn't necessarily mind hanging around for. But he doesn't want the man to return alone through the mana-coated tunnels beneath the building, even if many heroes had cleared out a lot of the rats. ]

Let us be going. I will return to clear out more of the birds, but I can do that at any time.

[ Oh, he does want to kill more birds. But he puts his mission first, in what is perhaps a rarity. If it were completely up to Kojirou, they would have stayed up here on this tower until every single bird was dead or he'd achieved sword-nirvana, so it's for the best that he follow the directions of his current partner and long-term room mate.

For now. ]

intro ♚ april

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