Outnumbered (RP) Discussion Thread

We seriously need a discussion topic to work out all the kinks.

While we're here, I'd like to ask the capabilities of everyone present. What can your guys do? And how good are your guys at doing them?

Caite is primarily a bomber. She has a lot of bombs in her arsenal, but her personal favourite is the Irontech. She also has every single haze bomb sans the Haze line. Outside of bombs, Caite has a Mega Magnus she uses to pin her opponents down so that they won't escape her blast radius.

Caite is skilled at predicting enemy movements, catching their attention, and at keeping them occupied. Her ability at close-combat is atrocious though.

Opposite of Caite, is her brother Keep. A swordsman who uses dangerous, but high powered weapons such as Gran Faust and Fang of Vog (I'll explain why he didn't have this in the graveyard later).

Deapite his use of Heavy gear, Keep does a food job of being unnoticed. His fighting style consists of hit and run tactics, usually attacking key targets and annihilating them as fast as possible. Keep is also somewhat capable at handling explosives, but his aim is terrible. He couldn't shoot a Lumber, even if it was right in front of him.

Both Keep and Caite are Defenders, so neither of them are very strong at all. However, their ability at matching each other's pace is exceptional. Individually, they're weaker than the average Vanguard. But together, they can keep a full party of Vanguards on their toes.

EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but Keep uses a Heater Shield, while Caite uses a Slime Node Wall shield

Another good use for this would be for everyone to describe their characters here, kinda like an app, just to add some details.
Coryn and Nyroc are twins. Nyroc is bigger, more muscular than Coryn. He tends toward book smarts, not just brawn. He wears plate mail, and works mostly with heavy offense. Coryn is more street-smart. He tends to spin his spear in confusing and deadly patterns. (Good reference would be the peacock from Kung Fu Panda 2.) He wear full Wyvern Set.
Both are Vanguards, having earned their rank during the end of the Morai War. They joined late, but their devastating ability to think and act in perfect conjunction makes them extremely deadly together, They have fought beside each other to the extent that they don't even need to speak, their actions speak to each other enough.

Syber used to be a mercenary before the swarm took over, long ago he was recruited into a cult that enhanced his abilities as well as corrupting his mind until he was controlled by the cult leader. After the cult was put to an end, he regained his will and began serving along side a friend as a merc. He isn't heavyset but he is muscular. He wields a Gran Faust and an Obsidian Carbine, as well as an Argent Peacemaker that he kept from an adventure. He doesn't like to talk about his past or himself. He does know how to get the job done, he is a mercenary. He wears a Dread Skelly Helm and Snarbolax Coat and Shield.

Beck is Syber's longtime friend who is a little older, and a little less bulky. He is a little sly and has a bit of a mouth. Of course he can be as silent as the rock beside him. He serves as Syber's backup, wielding his Modified Spiralian Sniper Rifle, outfitted with a silencer and extra ammo. He also owns a Valiance and Dread Venom Striker for close combat. He wears a Nameless Hat and Snarbolax Coat, along with a Dread Skelly Shield.

Together the old friends know each others fighting style and synergize well.

Ahem. Well. Didn't know this post existed 'till now. Good thing I looked at the Treasure Vault instead of my "Live Threads" bookmark.

In the end, Strom followed Lyn's blood. Following Keep's blood would enable me to give some background on Strom himself, and open up the possibility of building up a force of Antagonist-types... But it would basically consist of Swarm-beings seeing as Strom himself is part-swarm. UNLESS there're people willing to conform to the swarm...
--
(Wait. That's a great idea. I'M A GENIUS.)
--
Oh well. Too late. Decision's already made.
Furthermore, I had originally planned on it being Lyn's blood. So... Initial writer's position, I guess.

Anyways. Seeing as I have this post here anyways, I may as well give some back-story on who Strom is, seeing as I didn't end up using Keep's pattern, and thus missed chances of developing a Bio.

Strom is a Knight from a small time past when Vanaduke's troops were still trotting around. He was killed during a raid on his "villaige", which was more of a small camp used by wanderers every so often. Strom himself was a wandering Poet and avid writer and reader, and his delving into the arts made him known to others as a fool who took the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword" far too literally.
The reason why he stopped in this particular camp was for two reasons:
- One, a deserted library used by the Owlites was nearby, and since it was sacked by the Black Kats just prior to his arrival, this would most likely be the last chance to make some documents "Mysteriously dissapear" to either be sold or read. Or both.
- Two, Strom developed feelings with one of the inhabitants of the village... A small Ash-tail named "Ritz", owned by the head of the encampment.

What, you thought he found a lover? Tough luck. I'm not that gushy, and neither is Strom.

Anyways. While his love of the arts may make him seem to be lacking in the physical area, when Strom was alive he was also a great practitioner of Fourishes and light-weaponry, including throwing knives. Sometimes delving into ancient art-museums was dangerous. Gotta be prepared.
The armor Strom wore while alive included scraps off of Almirian Armor, which included their gauntlets and shards of its larger Shoulder-guard, and a slimmed down version of Heavenly Iron Armor, which was polished to perfection and shone a bright silver. The cloth he wore was a pale grey, on the inside it had the composure of the finest owlite-robes. Quite comfortable. He wore a single-horned helmet (which was quite trendy back then), which was also thinned out for his ovular face, and colored the same as his armor.
Instead of a shield, Strom used scraps of many Almirian chestplates to fashion together an arm-bracer of sorts, this allowed him to wield a second weapon while having decent protection.
Strom was lithe and quite tall. Light on his feet, and perhaps even lighter on a scale. His power was admirable, considering his frame, and even the occasional wandering knight (which were probably escapees from the previously ended war between Almirians and a far-off land) had trouble contesting with him in an arm-wrestle over who would pay for drinks.

As I said earlier, Strom died during a raid on the camp. He had just come back from an exploration of the Owlite library, which had been found to have a hidden passage filled with dangerous traps. Strom had suffered a couple of injuries, namely to his abdomen and left arm, which left him at a disadvantage when he was attacked by 3 rogue wanderers, drunk off their power when they had found a sealed weapon, and supposedly discovered "the secrets of the core-dwellers". Drunken fools.
But with the burdens of treasure, literature, and wounds, Strom fell with a large wound in his chest by the previously mentioned "sealed weapon".

His last words were "But I haven't... Read these books yet..."

I'll write about his life as a phantom at a later time.

My most recent post is not meant to be rude in any way, It's just that... Well, I'm here.

@Liminori
Don't worry. I knew you were there. Totally. Yeah. No. Actually... How did you evade my knowledge of who's at camp? I even looked back on the posts, and saw you there posting, yet I forgot you were there. How? HOW?
ARE YOU A NINJA?!
Ahem. So. Anyways, I plan on making Strom attack soon, so I'm going to be laying out abilities he has, and a description of what his Phantom Form looks like, that way I don't have to describe him in combat, and people won't call me cheap for "making up moves".

Appearance: All in all, Strom hasn't changed in appearance from when he was alive, with the exception of a couple of things.

1. His color scheme: Strom has the color scheme of a regular phantom, but the aura around him is the regular Swarm Black-cube things instead of just Magenta-light.
2. Instead of having solidly formed "cloth areas" which are shown in regular armors, in Strom's case, the Heavenly Iron Armor, is replaced with simple formless-void-like areas with Magenta lines pulsing through it. Occasional magenta sparks ripple off of these areas.
3. Strom no longer carries weapons or shields. He uses his gauntlets, which have gained spiked finger-armor, and have increased size; he also has another weapon... But you'll find out what that is during combat. He also has Swarm Abilities, but I'll get more into that further down.
4. Strom has a large pink crystal located in the center of his chest, where he was stabbed all those eons ago. (Is this his weakness? Maaaaaybe.)
5. As mentioned within the first couple of actions I took with Strom, his helmet is filled with a black fog-type substance (and maybe something else...)

That's about it for appearances. All the rest, including his body type and what his armor will look like are in his Alive Descriptions.

Abilities: Strom gained some Swarm abilities when he was turned into a swarm-phantom instead of a regular old phantom. But he still has his Phantom abilities, and his prior strengths from when he was alive.

1. Phantom form: He can become a Phantom Orb to move around. You probably all know what that looks like. He cannot be harmed in this form, but can't go into it when there are Knights Nearby. Also, instead of appearing as just eyes, the Swarm's influence has caused an aura of black-cubes to radiate around Strom when he goes into this form.
2. Armor regeneration: Self explanatory. His armor can't be broken, but it can be retrained, if a knight has the power to hold the pieces back. So, if Strom sends a gauntlet at someone, and they manage to get a hold of it and "restrain" it, the gauntlet will be stuck with that knight until it breaks free. On that note...
3. Mobile Armor: Strom can use his Gauntlets and Leg Bracers as long range weapons, but only to a limit of about 5 meters, after that he cannot control them, and they will automatically start heading back to him. This means that if he sends one out at... Say... 50 miles per hour, it'll remain at that speed even out of the 5m, but decelerate on its own to make it back to him. Also, the parts don't have to re-connect in order to be moved again. This means that if he sends a gauntlet out 10m, when it makes it back to the 5m limit, he can move it about again without needing it to come back to his "body".
4. Swarm Eye: Not really a combat technique, the Swarm eye, which closely resembles a Swarm Turret, (the only difference being its size and function), was a trick he had picked up not long after he trained to handle the unbelievable itching that happens when his eyes are open. It allows him to see through the eye, as well as hear through it, so long as he has an eye closed. It goes one eye for one swarm eye, so he can only have 2 at one time, in which case he'd be blind to the area around him. With focus, Strom can generate a Swarm Eye to see locations far off, it has a max range of 3 miles, with less focus and sound being able to be taken from the eye the further it was, and the more concentration needed to maintain it the further it is generated. Because of this, Strom usually only uses the Swarm Eye out of combat in order to make reconnaissance. It could have its uses in combat, however. But not actual damage uses.
5. Swarm Wave: This move has the range of about 1.5 Gran Faust final-hits. It is a wave of Swarm energy (duh) that goes forward in a cone-formation, about 140 degrees, with 20 off of his left and right sides. That means it's gonna hit almost everything in front of him unless they step back quick enough. No damage affiliation. High Knockback. It takes about a second to prepare this move, but it can't be used a lot for the risk of Strom being completely consumed by the Swarm.
6. Swarm's Touch: Don't touch the swarm. Strom is the swarm. Try not to touch the Strom. Too much contact with Strom leads to Swarm spreading into the misfortune soul's armor and corrupting them. Losing contact with Strom while the effect is being put in place leads to a minimal amount of passive damage before wearing off. Sort of like catching on fire. But more pink. Contact includes keeping his armor from going back to him. Use other objects, like a pot or something, as a glove to avoid this. But most people don't have pot-hands, so you may have to deal with it. Also... Over time the Swarm may just reach through said pot and corrupt it as well.
7. Book of the Swarm: This is his hidden move, here's what it doe-- I mean... Uh... This is nothing. Nope. You'll find out later, if it gets to that point. But there's a reason he's been drawing in his book a lot, and it's not just because he likes drawing.

Other than that, Strom isn't as strong as someone build as... Say... Keep is. But he can use his Mobile Armor to pack quite a punch... Literally. If he gets a windup, the speed will outdo the power. Strom also has a good grip, due to his book-hunting days. Gotta keep those books safe from nosy people and bandits at all costs don't 'cha know. Strom is, as mentioned in his alive description, a light fighter by nature. And his mobility isn't to be underestimated.

Be prepared. Winter-- I mean Strom is coming.

Even Caina didn't notice Isphea hanging around the twins XD

I'm guessing Strom would attack the knights leaving to gain supplies. Divide and conquer?

Ȼħɇȼҟ ᵽøȿŧ føɍ ɏøưɍ anȿwɇɍ.

Also, I'll be gone for around 2 hours from the point this post will be put through. So if stuff happens and you're waiting for me to move... Just know that I'm not there. :T

I'm making a list of all characters and their owners, for convenience.

Sawhero
Nyroc
Coryn
The Hunter

Zhaver
Crona
Phlegethon
Anyone else from Caina

Liminori
Isphea
Shea

Satalia
Airiety
Shay (Black Kat)

Alpha-Charge
Valion
Phantom (Maskeraith)

Colray
Syber
Beck

Sonosuke
Grell

Flame-Shinobi
Lyn
Sarah

Ember-Break
Strom (Phantom)

Keepscaite
Keep
Caite
Eschaton (Maskeraith)
Greater the Doomgod (Drakon)

@Ember
To be fair, you ninja'd my post with yours.

Weeeeellllll, yeah- basically.
If nobody notices you, nor says anything about you, that will cause more people to ignore you, thus making you invisible in terms of... well, stuff.
I tried conversing with Coryn and Nyroc about 2 times already.
bahahaha, Maybe I am a ninja!

It's hard to use. Extremely HARD TO USE. It modifies things at a molecular level, it's suopposed to be nigh impossible to use without over a million tries and failures.

It's like trying to create a new chemical substance with 70000 unlabeled, indifferent chemicals as the base.

I don't really mind if things work that way, as I won't be using it. But it is kinda OP if you can just plop out items.

There's a way to make sure that the randomization process isn't too OP. But it'll take a while to get each item organised... but I'll put the way down just in case other people think it'll be a good idea.

1. Someone posts what they want to create ideally, and the materials planning to be used for it in this thread:
   At this point, characters should have a modest amount of materials, but if the RP goes on for a long time, we can't just say we have materials on us from who-knows-where. But that's in the future. They'll post the ideal result as an "Average" result. See what that would entail further below.
2. Sawhero decides if the item is too OP:
   We could also do majority voting... But this is just a primary step to make sure characters don't get TOO OP, and that people aren't generating High-end items from Ecto Drops and such. Sawhero could also give someone else the power to decide what items go in and what don't, just so long as the one put in charge isn't generating items for their character to use (or at least judging that one individual with someone else... In which case it gets confusing. Let's just go with Sawhero decides, Mm'kay?)
3. Different number ranges are generated for different results:
   Seeing as this machine is, as Keepscaite says, "Extremely HARD TO USE", the rates will probably go like this:
   • 1-70: Terrible result.
   • 71-80: Bad result.
   • 81-90: Average result.
   • 90-99: Good result
   • 100: OMGWTFBBQ RESULT
4. The results will be what Sawhero decides, or what the one who wanted to alchemize would be:
   I'll leave the decision as to who will be posting the description of the item to Sawhero.
   After generation the decision cannot be taken back, so if you ask for an Alchemization of a really OP weapon, and you get a Terrible and end up with some Gel Drops being generated... Tough luck. Also, this means that you shouldn't post jokingly something like "I wanna make a fork out of my Divine Avenger" in this thread.. No going back once it's said. Not tests, either.
5. Finally, the number value generated and result should be posted after the randomization.
   Why the number? Just to see how good/bad you got on a roll for all of us to laugh at. This would be done by the one generating, of course.

As an example, the procedure would go like this:
Ember-Break: I'd like to make a combination of Strom's Gauntlets, and 3'000 Gel Drops into a Party Hat.
Sawhero/Alchemy-roller: K den.
^ rolls with the number generator of their choice.
Sawhero/Alchemy-roller: The result was a perfect 100. Hax. The Party Hat was made as a perfect result. It fires lazers and blinds everyone permanently when used, due to its awesomness. How it gained the lazers is a mystery.
Ember-Break: Aww yisssssss.

Well, ultimately I don't mind if people make whatever they want. But at least, describe the EFFORT. I mean, most of us here are, well, knights. No engineers, technicians or weapon specialists.

I'd be cool with it if Flame-Shinobi had made Lyn (like I said on the story page) stand hours on end in front of the Alchemy machine, toiling and tinkering away until she finally managed to get what she wanted. Maybe even make a mistake and break the base weapon, fixing it up, and then finally finishing the end product.

Sawhero said it himself, he doesn't mind if our characters get ridiculously OP.

Alright, just a couple things to deal with. I'm a bit torn on the whole alchemy machine thing. How about, just run it by me here, and I'll try to be super-fair on what I allow. When I was talking about OP, it was more about characters than gear.

Also, I think I've come up with a good method for fights. I will hint that something is about to happen, and then will post the situation after everyone is prepared. (Although ambushes may occur.) I will describe the enemies, any weapons they may have, their positions, and the terrain. From there, I will loosely control them. Feel free to take slight control of the enemy (eg: Coryn slashed wildly at the wolver, slowly driving it back against the cliff, before slapping it upside the head with the flat of his sword) I may or may not cause some characters to become injured, but will always try to be fair unless you are annoying me or anyone else.

As I've mentioned previously, this is my first time GM'ing, so comment, criticism, advice is welcomed greatly. Also, if a situation comes up where I won't be on for more than a couple days, I will temporarily promote someone to watch over the RP.

If somebody does something that shouldn't happen due to controlling others, you could steer them back by posting a response completely denying what they assumed. Sort of like how Thinslayer, Feline-Grenadier, and Hexlash did in Immortal: dawn of time.

This is especially helpful when sorting out player versus player fights.

Other than that I'm ready to fight!

EDIT: I forgot, also for projectile weapons, its best to either have you the GM or the person being targeted to decide the outcome.

That's how I usually end up doing RP combat anyways.
I'll lead off with an "initiation" move, like a prepared strike. The amount of time given for the initiation will be different depending on the move. For example... Winding up Strom's gauntlet to the max 5m then back in front of him to the limit (moving a total of 10m) would take longer than, say, winding up 2m, then going to the max limit. But at the same time, the 5m Windup would result in a faster reaching to the maximum 5m in front of Strom. So Speed of the attack, as well as its power, increases the greater the windup.
Also, just as a note... It doesn't take long for Strom's windups. A full 5m windup takes the amount of time it would take for a caliber swipe.
In this way, characters will have to use premonition of where the attacks will hit, and how long 'till it will hit and guard/dodge accordingly.

There are cons to this RP-fight-style though. I may not touch all of them, but here are some that'll probably come to light early on:

1. First of all, if we're being realistic, characters can't see every single action that another player takes. So discerning what your character sees and is able to prepare for in combat is difficult unless you basically go "All-seeing-God-Mode" -- which is, of course, against courteous-combat.
2. Second, not everyone is equally talented at writing pre-moves or regular attacks in general. Whereas one person may write a paragraph depicting their character's battle stance and what move they'll make, another character may just write "He stands there in a guarded position.". There's not much to be done about situations like that but revise it for them, which some people don't like. There's really no way around this but to make an assumption on what the short sentence means though.
3. Like in 2, people could use very little description as to how they react to certain attacks. Once again, and example: Player1: "-spends 20 minutes building up an attack-, releases attack" Player2: "dodges." This is commonly called God-Modding, you, as the GM could stop this, but it's hard to get around it because that would mean that "Player2" would either need to have a second chance at reacting (which would take time. Not only for the player to realise they need to re-do it, but also for the response to be written out) or simply negate the response because it's so vague. Hopefully we don't have God-Modders in this RP.
4. People can grow attached to their characters and not want them to die at all costs. The hardest action needed to be taken in this combat is to let your character be hit if they can't avoid damage, and so most people just end up minimizing the amount of damage that they would take just to conserve the character. Final Example, I promise: Player1: "Jump attacks Player2's character, which is prone on the ground and severely wounded and immobile, in order to finish them off." Player2: "Summons their last ounce of willpower to roll to the side, getting slightly maimed on the shoulder."
   I can understand moving to the side with "willpower", but if the character is injured badly, willpower-movement is wishful thinking and prolonging the inevetable.

Wow I'm terrible. I keep giving away all my cards. But I don't want people to think I'm cheap, and I really want to reveal them... So I'm gonna hint at some more stuff Strom has.
Don't worry, I'm not changing anything I originally said -- well, I'm amending two things 'cause I worded 'em improperly originally and didn't want to make the whole post "new" for it. But that's it. Other than that there are some things I'd like to point out for you.

• 1st Amendment: Note that I said "he also has another weapon...". Well, actually he has 2, both will be revealed if certain things happen. I originally said "another" as in, "one" because the second isn't really a weapon type of thing... But now I've decided to call it a weapon 'cause it can be used in combat. S'yeah.
• 2nd Amendment: I specified on Gauntlets and Leg Bracers. Any bound thingy-mc-doohicky connected to Strom can be moved. Just clarifying.
• Two endings can come from defeating Strom. I'd tell you what they are, but... Well... That'd ruin the surprise. Both are activated differently. Both can be activated at once (key word can), but it'll be really hard to do that. Both involve the destruction of a specific area on Strom. It is possible to have neither ending occur. Also, although I call them endings, in reality they're results that happen after the battle ends. So it's not some fatal-weakness-trigger that opens up an instant-win.
• Strom has Two Stages. Going from Stage 1 to Stage 2 can be accellerated very quickly by triggering one of the endings, but it is not mandatory for him to be driven to stage 2.
• Stage 2 unlocks a new fighting style, especially if one of the two endings is triggered. But overall, it's not hugely different from stage 1.

It's simply like an alchemy machine, but quicker and can't be used to successfully create new gear very often. It has the chance to fail even if you know the recipe by heart. It also costs fire crystals... a very rare commodity.

I personally don't mind that happening, but that's all I'm willing to accept coming out of that forest. Especially given the lack of actual backstory planning for finding these things.
I say "these" because you already evolved your Seraphynx from a Glowing White tower in the middle of nowhere, and picked up the randomly-changed-from-an-Acheron "Swarmbane" which is also able to talk. Finding an Auto-Hammer somewhere, then hiding it in the forest seems like a stretch too.
There are ways that you could have introduced these things so they would make sense.
For example: Sarah (the Seraphynx) picked up the Acheron with her mouth to partially defend itself from enemies, but just ended up lugging it along. By the time Sara realized it would be nothing but dead weight, she had already gone deep into the forest. That's when she sensed something. Something... Light. Pure. She followed that sense, and came upon a mysterious white glowing tower. She approached steadily, until the Acheron was almost ripped out of her grasp -- or... Mouth. It floated over to the tower, where it fit into an odd slot on the side.
Curious about the new development, Sarah forgets her caution and moves closer to the tower, where she, too, is moved towards the power. Once she realises this, she frantically tries to float away, but to no avail. Once she touches the tower, a light envelops her and she finds "a metal halo above her and a gem adorning her forehead. Her tail was also at least twice as fluffy!" [entered from the original post]. After a bit of floating around and testing her new form, she hears a mysterious voice from the Acheron.

"Hey. Weird cat-thing. Take me out of this tower, it's uncomfortable"
----------
When returned, the Acheron should introduce itself as Swarmbane, not be named Swarmbane by a character. I could call a regular Brandish the Uber-Super-Mega-Chaos-Destroyer, but that won't give it any special abilities. It'll just be a brandish.

On the note of the Swarmbane itself...
I probably should have said something about the Swarmbane waaaaaay back, but I figured that if I'd spoken about it with a Swarm-affiliated character, it'd be seen as me trying to get rid of a potential weakness. It could still be seen as that, and to a point that accusation is correct, but it's not because it's a weakness that I want it to be re-inputted... It's because with the current implementation and introduction of the sword, it seems too convenient.
I'm gonna take some wild guesses as to the abilities of the Swarmbane real quick.
@Flame-Shinobi, tell me if I'm wrong in guessing them.

• Swarm Sense: Swarmbane talks, so it's highly likely that he'll end up being some sort of sacred-sword-type thing that will ruin any chances of ambush that a chaos affiliated creature will have. If you'd introduced Swarmbane properly, I wouldn't have minded this -- but it'd still be really annoying for something like that to pop up.
• Purified Touch: Chances are, the original concept of this weapon was to make it, well, Swarm's Bane. Meaning it'll either wipe off the Swarm entirely from what it touches, or at least cause a lot of damage to it. I don't mind the extra damage, but I sincerely hope it wasn't planned to be the first guess -- that it'd remove the swarm and possibly destroy it entirely. That's too OP.
• Some sort of anti-swarm shock-wave: This move probably wasn't intended in its creation, but I'm going to use my powers of premonition and give the situation on how it would be revealed:
  1. Swarm ambushes the scavengers in the party.
  2. Swarmbane says "Watch out" or something like that.
  3. A shock-wave of unknown size, either only enveloping Lyn, or the entire party, is let out for either a moment or a short time. "Successfully" blocking the surprise attack, damaging the weapon used to ambush, and being completely OP.
• Other abilities, like a beam ability or an extended blade-slash.

Note that these aren't suggestions. These are my legitimate guesses of what was going through your mind, @Flame-Shinobi, when you made Swarmbane. And if any of those were your plan, I'd recommend doing the following:

1. Re-write the finding of Swarmbane in a way that makes it less "convenient" and more realistic.
2. Explain them in detail so that the moves have limits, and you can't just pull more abilities out to make it convenient during combat -- much like I did with Strom.
3. Make certain abilities "locked" if the back-story requires Lyn to train with the sword. I'd recommend this, because otherwise it's the sword that's doing all the work; which is, once again, too convenient -- unless the Swarmbane can flat-out-posses its user, which would need to be explained.

As for the Auto-Hammer, which brought up my issue with the convenient-findings itself... Where did Lyn find it? Was she lugging it around with her this entire time? -- 'Cause I assume that thing's heavy. Was it in the camp? Right now I can only think it poofed into existence, and now it's being used.

I don't mean to sound harsh when I'm making these suggestions, but actions like power-ups and upgrade-station-discoveries need back-story. The Alchemy Machine was understandable because the camp was actually a Supply Pod from Skylark -- as seen in Sawhero's original post depicting the second camp. So when the Alchemy Machine was found, it was like an "oh, yeah, I can understand that being there." moment. That's the moment that should come with most things -- some can be more outlandish, but all of them need at least a small degree of logic in their discovery.
That's what I think, anyways.

Other than Strom hanging around and doing his own thing, there really isn't many more enemies. My two characters are Mercenaries, and they are viable to switch sides. That is, if they get something out of it. I don't know if Strom would play a part in this as he doesn't seem to be affiliated with the main Apocrea/swarm based in haven.

Our 'enemies' are an Apocrean (not clear?) cult. Syber is totally okay with working for a cult? Considering the fact that he was enslaved by one in the past, that's quite... something.

@Flame-Shinobi: Okay, I get that this is your first RP and all, but that's all the more reason to be careful. I want you to think before posting something, does your post overlap/contradict someone else's post? Are you directly/indirectly controlling the actions of another player's character (deciding plot points, reactions, etc)? And lastly, is everything in your post conveyed clearly?

Ok, swooping in with the all-powerful and of God-like GM to clear everything up. Lyn can keep the sword and stuff. A comet fell and destroyed the Auto-Hammer. Swarmbane can talk, provide information, and helps Lyn fight better. That sound good?
When I came up with this idea, I designed it to be very loosely based off of The Last of Us.(Great game by the way) If Swarmbane were to be like described above, it feels more fantasy than post-apocaplyptic.

Swarmbane has a few abilities.
1) firstly, Swarmbane does do more damage on the swarm, as would be expected in this name.
2) He has a calibur style charge (In sword form) that releases a ring of light that extends out for quite some time, but this puts Swarmbane's spirit to sleep making the sword just a normal blade with no special properties.
3) Swarmbane can talk, give advice, and force Lyn to move by controlling her armor, he can't do this while inert/asleep, doing this drains his energy
4) Every attack used by swarmbane drains it's energy, which can force him to go inert, especially at the worst of times
5) Swarmbane can morph into a valiance style gun or nitrnome style bomb at his own will, not at Lyn's command (NOTE: Attacks in either of these states will drain energy at an increased rate, Valiance at 2x rate, Nitronome at 3x rate) If Swarmbane get's stuck in either of these forms, he becomes completely useless, leaving Lyn virtually helpless.
6) Swarmbane is a jerk, if Lyn uses him improperly he will refuse to be drawn
7) Swarmbane will only kill the swarm, he will not allow Lyn to land a fatal blow on any other type of enemy
8) If Swarmbane is low on energy, he will force Lyn to sheath him, making it very rare for him to be out of energy and wielded as a sword
9) Swarmbane CAN be corrupted by the swarm well asleep, but as soon as he wakes up, any swarm on/in him is instantaneously destroyed
10) Sarah can"heal" Swarmbane to recharge him faster
11) If Lyn has no current control over her body, or no willpower to fight Swarmbane, he can swap places with Lyn. Putting him in the armor and her in the sword. As soon as Lyn has her soul/willpower back, she can force him out.
Addeed an 11 does he still sound OP

@Colray
Strom himself is unaffiliated with Apocrea and the Swarm. But due to the Swarm's influence, it's possible that Strom's consciousness could be given over to the Swarm if given enough time. The time taken for that to happen, however... Is probably long enough to outlast the RP, or at least Strom's life before he's (possibly) defeated.

@Sawhero
This RP'll have fantasy elements in it no matter what (It's based off of Spiral Knights, after all). Tweaking the behaviors of the enemies that're faced could make the land much more dangerous -- and if you make the characters much more powerless in comparison... The RP would give the effect of post-apocalyptic. For example: if all weapons contained some sort of Haven-Energy-Center, which they lost when the Swarm took control, it would make weapons much weaker. Or, as another example, the growing Swarm Influence could cause enemies to become rabid and unpredictable, possibly becoming parts of the Swarm themselves in moments of weakness.
If either of these scenarios are what you want to do, then make sure to make it so during the first wild-combat encounter -- or at least make it more prominent the further the knights get from their safe-havens.

@Flame-Shinobi
Sounds good. I was just a bit worried about it being too much of a convenient-add-on-from-out-of-nowhere/game-breaker. But as this is a "Rule-less" RP, most of my concern was registered towards its implementation. Why? Because if there was a tower capable of granting things, even if it's just the Evo cubes, it could be used later as a reason for the land to be under Caina control, and used as a plot-piece later.
I'm all for having OP moves and such (in modesty -- as in it can only have so many OP factors, and the attacks can't be game-breakers) so long as they have a proper reason for being as OP as they are. If something can make something OP, then there must be lore surrounding said "something" -- that way it can be used as lore for other scenarios and such.

Yeah, maybe I'll have Syber and Beck be working for the cult. Add some more antagonists.

I should probably explain Grell.

Grell was originally the leader of a group of Knights known as the 'Red Hawks'. Their weaponry is primarily energy based, meaning they don't require physical ammunition and can be recharged or reloaded using just the residual mist energy around them. Grell's weapons in particular are as follows:

*Claw Hand: A cybernetic arm equipped with an energy cannon and flamethrower, as well as doubling as his shield. Serves as his primary form of defense and secondary form of ranged offense.
*Hawk Blade: A large, triangle-shaped sword handcrafted into the shape of a hawk beak (when looked at from the flat side). Serves as his primary form of melee offense.
*Gigant Cannon: A massive, dual-headed energy cannon strapped usually to his back, loaded to fire missiles of varying purposes and can be used as a blunt weapon when recharging. Serves as his primary form of ranged offense and secondary melee attack.

All of these weapons he wields with exceptional skill, especially when using his blade and arm in tandem. Blood has been shed by each of these weapons more times than he'd like to remember. Being energy-based weapons, however, means the claw and cannon are more susceptible to Swarm corruption than the blade or other physical weapons.

But wait, what happened to the Red Hawks? It's pretty obvious what happened.

Lyn had just became a knight when the swarm attacked. Her parents torn to the ground in front of her very eyes. A Swarm like phantom smiled at her, cackling at her skinny form. Lyn's family was very poor, so she was always skinny and weak, never well fed. The phantom dissipated, and she ran. She ran and ran to the elevator to the clockworks an mashed the button. She stared unblinkingly at the wave of Swarm approaching her. The elevator descended just in time to get her safely away, and she began to cry.
Soon after delving into the clockworks, Lyn found a group of 3 vanguards, one in particular, named Mark, took a liking to her and taught her everything she knows. She enjoyed staying with him, and gazing at the night stars by his side. He lost an arm in a prior battle, and always died his hair a flagrant red to make her laugh (This is why she likes Grell, He reminds her of Mark). One day, the swarm caught up to them. The phantom came back and murdered all the vanguards, he stood with one foot on Marks corpse and laughed at Lyn, he then left. Lyn was forced to press on, with only Mark's nightblade, a simple nekclace, and her skills.

Lyn's powers:

1) Flip-dodge: Lyn does three flips backward in attempt to dodge any attacks.

2) Quick-thrust: Lyn does a quick jab forward with whatever she has equipped, doing double damage

3) Starstrike: Lyn doesn't know it, but her mother's necklace that she wears has the power to call down a comet of crystal and mist energy, crashing into the earth causing a massive explosion of damage. Lyn has no control over this skill.

@Flame-Shinobi
I'm not sure if it's been long enough for Lyn to have a backstory of that kind, 'cause it would mean that it's been around ~10 years since Haven was taken over depending on how old a "a child" is, and how old she is now. If you could specify how old she is, then it could possibly work. But training to be able to fight on her own (as she was introduced on her own) would probably take, at minimum, 5 years.
But that all depends on how long ago the Swarm invaded Haven, I guess. I had been under the impression that it was recent -- like a couple of months to a year prior to the start of the RP.
@Sawhero
Could you clarify what time you had in mind?

Also, I have a feeling Strom's gonna get mixed up in that hatred. But that's probably what's intended to happen. I guess that's something to look forward to.

Ember, if you don't mind me asking, what's on your combat playlist?

A whole bunch of stuff. I'd recommend searching up "Two Steps From Hell" -- it sounds like a brutal name... But it's an orchestra-type band that makes music for Movie-commercials and the like. In fact, most action movies end up using one of their soundtracks -- even if it's only for a short time in the movie/ commercial.

When I'm using Strom for combat, I find myself listening to Kingdom Hearts music though -- specifically the boss music.
While thinking of how I'd get Strom to fight, one specific enemy from that game came to mind, the "Guard Armor". So I guess that'd have something to do with it. The music is good regardless.

What's going on with the knights who went to the deconstruction zone?

Gotta wait for others.

Gotta sleep, too.

Decisions, decisions.

Alright, so I was planning about a year since Haven fell. That gives plenty of time for the majority of the knights to be infected.
Also, sorry for my irregular posting schedule. For me, the real world doesn't really give me many set times when I can, so I take 'em when I get 'em. At least for the Clockworks missions, feel free to repeatedly post about what you do, find, or encounter. Most of my posts down there will be "there's the elevator, let's keep going," or "Wild Gremlin appeared. Send out Argent Peacemaker?" (Don't worry that won't really be how I introduce battles)

If you've read my post #102 on the actual RP page...

Swarm Eyes being used as "signal towers" was part of their uses all along.
It's why I said " "body" " with quotation marks in the original description of the mobile armor, and why I said that the Swarm eye "could have its uses in combat," even if the eye itself doesn't have any "actual damage uses." The eye can't be used as a turret, and doesn't have any physical damages... But it can be used to create an artificial 5m radius, and be used to notice movements n' such.

I'm just saying it here 'cause I like having the satisfaction of revealing my own secrets after the secret is let out.

@Sawhero
Sounds good, that'd what I had thought.

@Flame-Shinobi
You're gonna have to change that back-story a bit then. Sorry 'bout that.

Due to a number of.... complicated reasons, I had to go and make an alt. I'll still post using my other account sometimes though.

Permission to be that supposed Acolyte mentioned earlier?

Just for future reference, this would probably be a good post for everyone to save.
Apocrean recruits are the lowest level. The don't have any special armor, and have not taken their first soul.
Apocrean initiates wear the Apocrean set, and have the Obsidian Edge.
After taking their tenth soul, they become Acolytes, receiveing the bomb and gun, and gaining the ability to call on Apocrean Harvesters.
Very rarely, the Apocrea will grant a knight the full powers of a Harvester.
Acolytes have the ability to summon obsidian, allowing them to create spikes, walls, or even replace damaged weapons. This power is limited in use, and takes days to recharge.

Syber could be a botched experiment in perfecting the transfer of Harvester powers to a knight, see The Winter Kingdom Thanks to Thinslayer for orchestrating a lot of it. and all who participated.

Short story he had turned into a monster and was locked away before he was freed from the power by Beck and some other knights.

Another example would be Midnight's Saboteur, who also had an Obsidian form in the same story. However the power came from different means.

Thank goodness I didn't have a character down there. I don't have a single clue what's going on. Could someone with any idea what's going on make a detailed post explaining it? Including all the characters that're down there and currently involved along with a short Bio?
I don't plan on making Strom go down there... But if he ends up surviving long enough to actually make it down there, or if he dies and I make another App to stay involved with the RP, it'd be good to know what's up.

@Keepscaite -- Or I suppose Almond-Riddle
I'll add translations for the recent post here, and put translations in the actual posts from now on using Italicized Bold words. I thought something like stuff not being able to be seen would happen eventually anyways -- but I like my custom letters too much to change over to bold ones or italicized ones. Or... Even Bold and Italicized ones during the original posts. Now I guess I'll end up usin' the third option regardless.
Anyways, Translation with Lines above & Below for ease of finding:
-----------------
Or, it would if Strom didn't do something about it.

"Well aren't we lively?" Strom mockingly says as he continues his dash towards Keep. He creates another Swarm Eye with his right eye (which had been opened) after his left one (the one that was controlling the now destroyed Swarm Eye) opens. ...
------------------
But the moment before Strom closes his right eye, he notices a knight approaching quickly from his side.

"More uninvited guests... How lovely."

With the last seconds of his right eye being opened, Strom takes the time to bring his left foot solidly down on the ground. ...
------------------
... comparable to a regular bullet. The impact will be the same as hitting a small canon-ball.

'Worst case scenario, the palm goes flying and doesn't come back for another 8 seconds... Best case scenario, it's enough to halt the hammer's swing entirely, and leave a moment for a counterattack.' As Strom thinks this, he primes the Pinky and Thumb at the maximum 5m to await a moment of weakness from the Hammer-weilding knight. ...

The Apocrean cult is a recurring group in the Treasure Vault as a whole. With Syber and Drace, that iteration was Psychnade's work on Two Paths the cult appears from the bottom of page 4 and on if I'm not mistaken.

The second time my characters interacted with the cult majorly is in Raigaizam's RP, The Winter Kingdom Syber didn't appear till page 4(again) and I like to have this story be Syber's Bio.

Beck is Syber's friend before all of that and even joined the cult once, under the alias of Slink.

For anyone who doesn't like to read(get out of the treasure vault). Syber was involved in an Apocrean Cult twice in his young life and the first time was when he met Drace. The second time he had an experiment done on him and infused him with a large amount of swarm power and transformed him into a hulking monster. With some help, Beck was able to rescue Syber from the power of the swarm and they both serve as Mercenaries. There is still a seed of Apocrea in Syber, enough that he can use, but far from corrupting as he's learned before.

Sorry about that, it's just that I'm starting to get really busy from now on. And my phone is registered to a different email, so I had to make a different account :p

Thanks for making the translations man. I ALSO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE. I AM SO GLAD I STAYED BEHIND.

PS. I'm starting to get really impatient with Caite. I have some seriously pimped out gear ready for her, but it's still going to take so loooong for her to get them done XD

I have detailed all of the stuff with my characters, however Sonosuke's characters are for him to explain.

I guess I could read that stuff while I wait for more responses on this RP. Since there's gonna be a 4 v Strom. Possibly 5 if you count Keep's pet.
I'm gonna have to think of something to keep Strom alive for a while... I want at least one of the 2 endings to come about.

Well, here I go.

Drace and Meteko were originally just regular ol' Clockwork gatherers along with their younger siblings. One day, Apocreans attack, "killing" Drace (really consuming and possessing her) and turning her into the Apocrean Disciple of Influence of their current Cult. Meteko went searching for her, leading to the events of 'Two Paths'. Eventually, the Cult is defeated, but Cult!Drace disappears before being brought back by one of their friend teams.

Fast Forward to the Swarm's initial attack on Haven. For some reason, Drace chose to keep the Obsidian gear she owned during her time as a cultist, despite them being badly damaged. When the Swarm attacked, the suit came to life, possessed by the same thing that controlled her in 'Two Paths', and offered her salvation. Initially refusing, she understood the Swarm was too dangerous for her to face alone or with Meteko's help. And here they are now.

I literally wrote all that off the top of my head for 5 minutes.

Alright, we should calm down on the posts until Sawhero says something.

Well, I guess if anything from previous RP's comes up and isn't understood, I'll be able to ask about it in this thread anyways, so I'm fine with just this much info. Thanks!

Coryn what are you doing?

This is how Battle Sprites work in my mind.

Three Battle Sprites, Drakon, Seraphynx, and Maskeraith. All three of them are capable of doing their abilities by utilizing nano machines. The difference is in how they utilize their nanomachines.

Drakon uses it's nano machines to produce, effect and manipulate energy. It's basic programming gives it the preset knowledge of controlling fire in all it's forms.

Seraphynx uses it's nano machine's to alter existing waves, be them mechanical, electromagnetic, or anything in between. It's basic programming gives it the preset knowledge of how to alter lightwaves and soundwaves. Barriers are created from soundwaves that are condensed and accelerated.

Maskeraith uses it's nano machines to produce chemicals that tamper with the environment and the enemy's capability to function. It's basic programming gives it the preset knowledge on how to produce poisons, acids, and highly reactive chemicals.

Due to the simplicity of the programming, Drakon's can produce nano machines faster than the other sprites. (Faster cooldown lol)

Each sprite comes with a low-intelligence Artificial Intelligence that allows it to think at the level of animals.

Eschaton though, is a special exception. She is a sprite who has been implanted with a very powerful Artificial Intelligence that grants her low-level sentience and learning capability.

The super AI is available from Kozma on the supply depot. But due to it's absurd price, the fact that few people have sprites at all, even fewer actually utilize them fully, and the poor reputation of how the super AI requires the knight to intensively train and educate the sprite for the first year, very few people actually have the super AI module.

And on a sidenote, even though Keep owns a translating module, he hardly uses it anymore. He can perfectly understand what she's saying based on tone and pitch alone.

Also, Keep is a poor bastard who used all his money on the AI. He has no more money to buy anything. Which is why he only has 2 usable weapons, and no Ultimate Evo Catalyst (Escha is stuck at level 90)

Unlike Escha, Caite's Doomgod also has the super AI. But unlike Keep, she got hers through less.... honorable means.

Escha's ability to produce Keep's 'ultra mode' drug is based on her ability to transcend her preset knowledge. She can make much more than acids, explosives, and invisible ink ;)

The same applies to Doomgod.

Fun fact, Escha and Doomgod mirror their owner's attitudes. Where Escha is optimistic and brave to Keep's pessimism and cowardice, Doomgod is shy and reserved to Caite's bold and outgoing.