37 - A Call To Arms

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Help the Heavens go after the cultists' compound
When: April 1
Where: A converted farm on the rural edge of the Tokyo metro area
Summary: Between Amaterasu's shinki observing the known cultists, and the work that the new gods and shinki have done, a rural property that might be the cultists' compound has been identified!






After months of investigation, Amaterasu's shinki still haven't found the rebel gods she's searching for -- but, with the help of the new gods and shinki, following the cult has revealed their rural meeting place! It was once a farm, but has recently been rebuilt into a compound with a big central building, heavy concrete walls and plenty of outdoor spaces for ritual magic. The new gods, and some of the old, have been asked to descend to the Near Shore and find out everything they can about this mystery compound.

High Walls

It's not just concrete that protects the compound. The walls are engraved with magical symbols, and any god or shinki who gets too close to them finds themselves feeling increasingly sick, weak and repelled from the structure. Even flying over won't work. There's only one exception: when the front gates are opened to allow cultists, or scheduled deliveries, a careful few gods or shinki can sneak through without being blocked by the spell. How will they get in? Shadow a cultist? Pretend to be a pizza delivery driver? Or will they risk alerting the cultists by trying to break down some other part of the wall?

Booby Traps

The problems don't end when they get inside the compound. Dozens of cultists seem to live here -- or maybe they're just visiting for the weekend? Either way, there's a lot of people inside, and while most of them overlook the presence of Far Shore beings, that doesn't mean there's no danger. Magical booby-traps and seals are dotted around the grounds and throughout the big, sprawling, two-story manor at the end of the driveway. Some of them blight any god or shinki who triggers them. Others glue their feet to the ground, or make them instantly noticeable to any passing cultist, or weaken them by draining their energy away.

The traps have clearly been made by several different people, and some of them have weird senses of humor! Almost any effect might be inflicted on the unwary characters who stumble across a booby-trap, although most of them won't cause serious injury or death, and the effects wear off within a few minutes to a few hours after either they get away from the trap, or someone else helps them by destroying it.

The First Fight

Not every human cultist in the compound is blind to the presence of gods and shinki -- and with all the traps being triggered, it's just a matter of time before they're caught. The first warning that the cultists know they're being invaded is the piercing sound of a bell. The second is the appearance of lashing ayakashi tentacles that rise up from the ground all throughout the manor house. As the humans flee, the tentacles will wrap around any gods or shinki they can catch, trying to drag them further into the house and down. Although they can be cut and destroyed, the main body of the creature is out of reach: it lurks far below, in the building's basement, gnashing a massive, serrated octopus beak that's ready to rip apart and devour any souls who can't struggle free of its grip in time. Follow the spectral tentacles down to the beast's lair, and slay it before it can kill all the invaders!

Please comment to the First Fight thread below if your characters are trying to rend the ayakashi. Each character can only be in ONE First Fight thread. RNG will be used to determine which fighters manage to strike the final blow, but RNG will only select a single thread; players are free to negotiate how the final blow happens within that thread.

The Second Fight

As the octopus ayakashi dissolves, finally free from the magical bondage that forced it to guard the cultists' compound, a mysterious door is revealed set into the far wall of the manor basement. A strange glow emanates from within. Enter... if you dare!

To participate in the second fight, please comment to the Second Fight thread below with the character(s) who will be participating in your thread. A top-level with further details will go up on February 7.

In Summary:

• Investigate a cult compound
• Watch out for traps
• Battle a giant octopus
• Uncover a mystery
• Have fun~

Questions? Leave us a question on the OOC Plotting Post and we'll do our best to answer ASAP.

Comments

[myblueskies]

High Walls

[Romeo knew that the reason the heavens had asked them lots of questions at the last training was to prepare them for a war, that's what Joss had said and so he wasn't too surprised when they were all asked to go and get information about the place where the bad cultists lived.

He doesn't really understand much about the cult or anything. Just that they wanted to hurt heaven but that they probably thought heaven was bad, just like Sotero had.

But now they were here and they had to get through, because going near the walls made you feel sick. Romeo watched the people going in and out, wondering how he could sneak through.]

People go in all the time so maybe we can just run through really fast!

Booby Traps

[So far so good! Once in Romeo did his best to be sneaky, the humans mostly couldn't see them but it was good to be quiet. Being small helped and so did being fast. He wasn't really sure what he was looking for! Where all these people cultists? What did cultists even look like? He had no idea but he kept his eye out for anything that looked bad.

Unfortunately even being sneaky didn't save him when he stood on a trap.] Ow! [He pulled his sleeve up to see what had hurt and stood staring confused at the blotches of blight on his arms. What was it? He poked it and blinked as the redness spread onto his finger.]

Battle One!: Closed to Elfnein

[When the bell started ringing Romeo jumped. They had been caught! That wasn't good and it got worse when a tentacle appeared right in front of him!] Elfnein! [He wasn't too far away from her, but now he ran towards where he had last seen her. If bad ayakashi were attacking they needed to stick together!]

Battle One: Around the battle OTA

[Romeo runs around as much as he can, he's a weasel and he's small but he can be very fast! Elfnein is right they are probably better helping everyone else fight and they know that when he is near people as his weasel they feel better. It helps them keep their spirits up when bad ayakashi try and ruin things.

So anyone who looks like they need help will get a weasel clambering up them, making them feel better.]

((OOC: This isn't really a fight thread but is happening during the battle for anyone who needs a moment to regroup and be bolstered. Power info.

Booby Traps

[trustheart]

Romeo!

[Chris hears his cry and comes running. Her eyes widen when she sees blight on him, and she hurries over to his side.]

Just sit tight! I have some blessed water! You're going to be okay!

Re: Booby Traps

[myblueskies]

Miss... Big sis! [Romeo grinned, glad to see her.] Careful I think it spreads if you touch it! [He doesn't want her to get hurt too! But he does as she says and stands still.]

[trustheart]

It's fine. I know not to touch any of it.

[She took out an uncorked the vial.]

Hold out your arm where you're blighted.

[myblueskies]

Good! Because it's bad! [And he doesn't want Chris being hurt whilst she is helping him. He held his arm out as he was told.]

[trustheart]

[Chris eyes it for a moment, and then takes the vial, pouring its contents out over Romeo's arm.]

There. That should do it.

high walls!

[gentilitea]

“We”? [ Jakob gives him the sternest glare possible. ]

There is no “we” in this. You aren’t going anywhere. [ Except Jakob’s not his god so he can’t actually enforce that, except through the power of Being an Adult™. ]

[myblueskies]

Why not mister Jakob? [Romeo looks genuinely surprised. The heavens had told them all had to come here to find out what was going on. Elfnein was here. Why would Romeo not be?]

[gentilitea]

Can you even fight? [ That look on Jakob’s face says otherwise. ] You do realize that you might only hold the others back.

[myblueskies]

I can sir! Mister D2 taught me. [He might hold people back? He hadn't really thought about that, he had wanted to come and help! He didn't think he would hold them back, he was strong and he could fight even if he was little!] I couldn't let Elfnein come on her own though! I'm her shinki so I'm s'posed to fight with her.

[gentilitea]

Well… [ He’s relenting a little. He knows better than to underestimate even the child shinki, but Romeo…he’d gotten a little attached. ]

I suppose it should be fine, so long as you never leave her side during the battle. [ It can’t be helped. It’s sometimes easy to forget that even the children are weapons.

With a huff, he adds: ]

I certainly hope it won’t come to that, however.

[alchemists]

[ Elfnein had a small pole arm to fight with, after a bunch of different figure out what weapon works best training with Zetta and c.o she figured that something half the size of her body was a good pick. ]

Romeo, can you transform now? I can attack if you give me a boost.

[myblueskies]

[Spears and polearms were definitely the weapon of choice for this temple of tinies. Romeo ran over to her and nodded.] Yes! You just got to call my name!

[He concentrated and drew up a borderline between them and the tentacle, so Elfnein wouldn't get hurt whilst calling him into vessel form.]

[alchemists]

Ringoki!

[ Elfnein held out her open arm for Romeo to climb onto after transforming that way Romeo wouldn't be on the ground open to attack. ]

[myblueskies]

[A flash of light and Romeo disappeared, appearing again a moment later perched on Elfnein's arm. He ran up it and onto her shoulder.] There's so many! We gotta stop them!

[alchemists]

We have to try and help out as best we can.

[ Now that Romeo was safely on her shoulder it was time to figure out where they should start attacking. ]

I'm going to try and figure out how to attack, are you going to be able to stay on my shoulder?

High Walls

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Speed doesn't make us any sneakier, you know. [Oi, here she is needing to play babysitter again. Not that she doesn't like his impulse, all this sneaking around gets real old real quick...] We gotta be careful.

[myblueskies]

But if we are fast they won't be able to catch us even if they do see us!

[He smiles at her but nods, seriously. They do have to be careful, this is really important. They have to do it right!] Do you got a plan miss Nia?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Sure they can. They can outflank us, or call for allies. And if we get seen anyone else in there is in trouble too.

We gotta go in quietly. Maybe if something else makes a scene...

[myblueskies]

That's true, if they know there are some of us in there they will start looking really hard and might find the others. [It's tricky and he think hard.] But if they make a scene won't they know to look hard for other people as well?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Yeah, so we gotta make it seem innocent. Something noisy but simple, maybe something they'll think is an animal?

Mmm, I could ask one of my Blades...

high walls

[artificialrose]

Well... I suppose that would be one way to do it.

[Garry himself doesn't exactly plan on infiltrating... One thing that had worried him during that training session with all the interviews was how there hadn't really been any mention made of medical attention. Every battle involves someone getting hurt, after all, and Garry has no idea how much damage might happen here... Whether their own number or one of the people in the cult.]

[That means getting a good idea of what he's dealing with, so he's here as well with a backpack full of basic first aid. It looks like a pretty well fortified place...]

But they might spot you running in, right?

[Mission: Scout has turned into Mission: Protect The Child]

[myblueskies]

They might do. [That might be bad though if he ran fast enough they might not catch him!

He was small but he was pretty fast and adults were often slow. Not all of them though, so it would be risky!] I don't think we can climb in though...

[artificialrose]

No... [Garry looks off to where he thinks he can see another group of people- definitely from the Far Shore, he has no doubt about that- move away from the wall.] I think there's some problem with it. I've seen at least a few different people try to move through, but they've had no luck.

Still, there has to be a, ah... sneakier way, right?

[myblueskies]

No it makes you feel all funny. [He looks along the wall and back to Garry, frowning while he thought. But a second later he smiled.] Like a secret passage!