Bluefire [IC][R-16]

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Although the comments against Reebus were warranted, he, himself, was irritated at the fact that all of the grunts of the guild seemed to have their own individual bones to pick with him.  He could only smirk at the thought.  Had they forgotten the fact that they had avoided that ambush in the first place, and had not been turned into slaves.  The fact that the NPC got ticked off was probably just a queue anyway.  It was a lose-lose situation, but Reebus had picked the best option.  He stomped the ship's deck before turning to his guildmates. 

 

"I don't care what you think of me to be honest.  I've never been fond of trash can's opinions either.  However ... DO. NOT. FORGET. I am second in command of this guild, and when it comes to strategy and power, I'm number one.  I am not Cass.  I don't have a bleeding heart."  With his cockiness off of his mind, for the moment, Reebus saw that Hzir's ship had decided to board them.  Pirates flooded the ship that they had occupied, as Reebus gave a slight wince.  "But when it comes to close combat, I'm right at the bottom...above Lich of course."  With that, he decided to cast a couple instances of "Sky Crack" towards the pirates.  

 

Some fell in one hit, but the heftier ads took more than one to go down.  In three casts, he had already taken out two pirates by himself.  The buffs from Lich had proven to be quite useful.  However, the horde was starting to overrun him, and as they got closer, and noticed who was doing the most damage, they automatically started to target him as a threat.  With three squishies and a funking idiot in the party, it would be hard to kite the mobs of enemies.  So in the meantime, Reebus started to run for his life, waiting for someone else to take the agro.  

 

"HEY!"  Reebus yelled to Flora, "ARE YOU GOING TO PROTECT YOUR PASSANGERS OR NYAT!?

[Dad]

Brando spat up a fit of laughter.  "You really are stupid aren't ye?" he said as he fell onto his ass again.  He plucked out a fist full of dynamite, as the enemy ship drew nearer.  " 'Doi I dun care whatcha think, but ya better know me rank!'  Ya see how that doesn't work together?"  Swaying, Brando stood up, with flint and steel in his opposite hand.  "Either ya do or ya don't care, Reebus.  And if ya don't care but ya made sure I knew yer rank, then ya must be over compensatin' fer somethin'.  Trust me," he said lighting the dynamite.  "This video game won't make yer pencil dick any bigger."

 

He rolled over to one of Flora's men, and shoved him outta the way.  "Move it, shrimp!" Brando said, as he pulled apart a bundle of dynamite into single sticks.  His best bet would be to not use an entire bundle at once, less he puncture the ship with a giant hole.  Then they would really be in deep water.  He charged head long into the enemy, lighting a single stick of dynamite at a time.  " 'Scuse me, pardon me!" he said, running into the enemy pirates.  "Here, hold this for me, will ya?  Thanks!" Brando said.  He casually passed off a stick of dynamite to an enemy pirate, as the fuse was nearing its end.  Then, Brando shoved the enemy so that their chest butted against a second enemy NPC, as the dynamite went off.  This nulled the explosion, but k.o.'d two of the pirates at once.

 

Brando stumbled a bit, still being debuffed at sea.  But he pressed forwards regardless.  "Oh Hziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir~" he sang angrily.  "Why don't ya come on over and let ol' Brando show ya a good time?  There's sure to be. . .explosive results," he taunted.  

 

But then, Brando was suddenly surrounded, with three enemy NPC's on all sides.  He merely chuckled as he stared up at them.  "Ready to die, Dwarf?"

 

Brando grinned from ear to ear.  "Sure mate.  That is of course, assuming you've got the hot foot ta catch me."

 

"What's--YOUR FOOT!" declared one of them, pointing to his ally.

 

Brando had sneakily ignited the foot of the enemy behind him with his flint and steel.  He ducked between their legs as they scrambled to grab him.  Taking aggro successfully, Brando ran circles around the pirates, plucking apart another stick of dynamite.  They chased Brando to the edge of the ferry, believing themselves to have him cornered.  "End o' da line, Dwarf!"  Brando prepared to run, but his sea sickness caught up to him once more, causing him to fall over in a blur.  But Brando had one last trick up his sleeve.  

 

He slipped his flintlock pistol from his pocket, and at point blank range, aimed it at one of the three enemy NPCs.  "Well, blow me down," he joked, before firing.  The bullet impacted the chest of the first NPC, and ricocheted through the head of the second.  The third merely looked at Brando, before drawing their blade with a nasty scowl.  "If it's how it ends, it's how it ends," Brando muttered, as his pistol fell out of his hand.  

[Ren✧]

After they had finished talking with their respective targets, the 5 guild members met outside The Drowned Maiden. Cass had forgotten how early in the day it was after stepping into the bar, the sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon and as she waited for everyone to rejoin the group she wondered how the other group was doing. She hoped they had reached Tafi'i by now. If they hadn't, they had likely run into trouble. Of course, there was no way to know for sure. 

 

Do'jhera was the last to walk out of the bar, his shoulders squared in a way that Cass had never seen before. He carried with him a key, no doubt the actual objective for going into the bar in the first place. Taking a moment to debrief, they each disseminated what they had learned. Individually, it seemed like a lot of the stories were rooted in local folklore and legend, but there seemed to be a thread of similarity tracing its way through all of the stories. It wasn't hard to piece together what the guild was likely to find on the other side of the door when they went in. 

 

Pulling up her H.U.D., Cass looked at the objectives for the quest. 

 

Active Quest:

House of the Dead

Current Objective:

• Enter The House of Nekyia.

• Kill all Undead inhabitants.

 

Apparently the game also thought the secret was out. They were quick on their way to walking into a haunted house. If Cass had been anywhere but Eden, she wouldn't have given a second thought to the mention of ghosts, but she had learned more than once that anything was possible in Bluefire. Ghosts were hardly any less impossible than magic. Besides, there was quite literally a member of their guild that only survived because of the ghosts in Eden. There was no doubt about it Cass' mind, whatever they were going to fight in that house was not of the living. 

 

"Let's get this over with."

 

The key turned in the lock with ease, not something one would expect from a house that had supposedly not been opened in years. It was almost as though the house was hungry for fresh blood. The door swung open on its hinges, a quiet squeal revealing that they could use some oil. The ominous darkness of the house was foreboding, but almost seemed to have a gravity that drew Cass in. Once all 5 of them had crossed the threshold the door to the house slammed shut. For a moment, they were trapped by the darkness of the house. Candlesticks throughout the room flickered to life, casting their orange glow about the house. 

 

The foyer was nondescript, as was the living room. Several pieces of furniture sat with large pieces of cloth draped over them and dust coated every surface. Aside from the self-lighting candles, Cass didn't find anything particularly eerie about the house. However, a small skull in the upper right corner of her display revealed that the protective settings normally active in Havens had been disabled when the guild had entered the house. They would need to be on their guard.

 

"Keep your guard up."

 

The guild had hardly taken a half dozen steps into the house before the temperature dropped a good ten degrees. Cass immediately stopped, holding up a hand to signal to the rest of the guild. In the hallway directly opposite them stood a man. Or rather, the silhouette of a man. A shiver went up Cass' spin as she noticed he wore a wide-brimmed hat. 

 

Cass froze for a moment. The specter did not move to attack them, he simply stood there. Then he let out a low laugh and disappeared. A soft breeze disturbed the candles in the room, drawing the attention of the guild to the center of the room where the bodies of a young man and woman lay dead, knives buried in their chests like secrets entrusted to the wrong people. Their bloodstained hands were pressed together, there was something almost tender about the gory scene.

 

However, with a vicious snapping sound each of their heads snapped to look at the guild. Their eyes were misty with a thousand yard stare and their lips curled with murderous intention. Their bodies began to shift. What were once the corpses of two young lovers became a ghoulish perversion of death. A horrible moaning growl escaped their throats before they lunged at the group of adventurers. 

 

---

 

[spoiler=OoC]

Greater Ghoul

"The physical manifestation of tortured spirits bound to a location, a ghoul of any kind is normally the result of some sort of curse. Ghouls are undead creatures and thus are unaffected by most debuff effects. They possess incredible strength and stamina; they are often underestimated due to their feeble appearance."

 

The Greater Ghouls do not have any specialized skills or ranged attacks, but they do not feel pain and have almost as much health as a Dzu-teh. They are fast and strong and there are a lot more than two of them in this house. Feel free to run into other rooms and describe them as you go. It has a kitchen of course, numerous bedrooms, an attic, and two bathrooms. They are all empty, save a few forgotten pieces of furniture, etc. If you want to insert a new a Greater Ghoul go ahead, the entrance should be similar to the above. They first appear as an image of how they died (so obviously above the two lovers that Saiba described in his posts). That said, it doesn't have to be as drawn out as the above. Use your own discretion. This house has also seen more murders and deaths than we discovered at the bar, so make up what you will and have fun with it. 

 

 

 

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 

"I don't care what you think of me to be honest. I've never been fond of trash can's opinions either. However ... DO. NOT. FORGET. I am second in command of this guild, and when it comes to strategy and power, I'm number one. I am not Cass. I don't have a bleeding heart." Lichiethro couldn't help but chuckle, although he wasn't wrong per say. There was something about Reebus trying to take charge that was amusing to him. "But when it comes to close combat, I'm right at the bottom...above Lich of course." Lich got out of his seat, a grin in his face. "Oh? You really think you got more power in you than me? Please, need I remind you that you'd barely be able to hurt a fly without my help. In fact..." He picked up his lantern from the table, noting the ever approaching boat of pirates out the window. With any luck, they'd finally be in range for Lichiethro to do something that wasn't buffing. "I'll show you."  He summoned a trio of ghosts around him.

 

The necromancer's first instinct was to get the aggro off of Reebus, who had struck a couple of them with lighting. This, however, proved not necessary as the cat laid off his casting and, more importantly, Boom charged forward. With all the aggro on Boom, Lichiethro followed behind the dwarf's trail of chaos, stepping over bodies that had fallen. He doubted he could bring up the skeletons from the bodies of those that had died - after all, this was still a video game with limitations. When he did eventually meet up with Boom, he found the dwarf with his back figuratively against the wall as one of the pirates prepared to finished him off. Raising his lantern, Lichiethro fired off two specters at the assailant, knocking the pirate over. "Cass would kill us if we let you die." He said as he walked over to the dwarf. "Why do you have to be so damn reckless?" He whistled as he looked around the ship, impressed by the havoc created. "I guess I can't really argue with results though." He let out a chuckle as he fired a dark bolt of energy at the pirate, who was starting to get up from the earlier attack. 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

 

 

Do'jhera hadn't noticed the way he was walking towards Cass and the others, but nevertheless, he held the key and handed it to Cass. "It was given to the bartender after his husband died..." he said, before beginning to explain what the bartender had told him. To his surprise, the others had similar information to relay, however each of their story sounded a bit different from each other...but there still was the overlying theme from them all.

 

Nevertheless, as the group left the tavern/bar, Do'jhera took a glance at his H.U.D., seeing it change something about the mission:

 

Active Quest:

House of the Dead

Current Objective:

• Enter The House of Nekyia.

• Kill all Undead inhabitants.

 

Oh well that's FANTASTIC! the Khepura thought with a small sigh. Seemed like they had their work cut out for them...least that was his thought prior to them unlocking the door to the House of Nekyia.

 

 

"Whaaaaaaaat the fuuuuuuck....?" Do'jhera mumbled, seeing what was before him and the guild. First the silhouette of a man with a wide-brimmed hat, and now bodies of a young man and woman that lay on the ground before them. It seemed like it was reminiscent of the information and story that Chloe had mentioned about. The two lovers...

 

However, he felt his fur standing up on end as he saw the two lovers as his H.U.D. confirmed their identities as Greater Ghouls. He watched them lunge at them with a horrifying roar.

 

"S-sheet! sheet!" Do'jhera exclaimed as he initiated his Dodge Roll skill, dodging the two ghouls as he crashed over near an old broken, forgotten couch which definitely allowed the Khepura for a soft landing so to say. He grumbled a bit, before looking at the two ghouls and saw them still trying to near Cass and the others. Well...might as well use what I have... he thought, before grabbing a few of the couch cushions and began to throw them at the ghouls, allowing for Cass and the others to move out of the way.

[bury the year]

Girasol

 

A pirate raised his cutlass towards Lich’s head, aiming with obvious menace to lop the necromancer’s head off. He was about to swing… and jerked backwards, falling over as a crimson hole sprouted on his forehead. “Pick up the slack, you fools!” Girasol shouted from one of the crow’s nests in which she had situated, panting as a gash on her leg weeped.

 

Rewind a bit. In the ensuing chaos of the pirates boarding, the sniper’s first order of business was instinctive: to scramble to higher ground. She had no intent of letting the altitude advantage pass her by. However, one of the raiders noticed her amidst the confusion, and nicked her hard in the meat of her calf from below with her cutlass. Girasol’s response was direct and uncouth: she raised the stock of Kybele over her head and slammed the butt into the pirate’s nose repeatedly, not letting up until the lady NPC was on the floor unconscious.

 

Her compatriots stared at Girasol, and in response the skinny faun let out a bloodcurdling growl unbefitting of her size and ran up the ladder like a woman possessed. When she reached the top, the sniper unsheathed Scalptaker from its place at her side and slashed through the ropes, sending another two pirates plummeting to the deck below. Only then was she able to breathe for a moment, the sudden burst of adrenaline leaving just as quickly.

 

And then she took over saving Lich’s hide when he didn’t even notice. Great. Turning to the other ship while her leg throbbed in pain, an idea lept into Girasol’s head. The pirate ship’s cannons were untended. What if…

 

Loading Kybele, she breathed in, muttered the invocation for Aim: Pyrotechnics, and squeezed off a single round down the cannon’s throat. It was too perfect, spiraling as if the hand of God itself had guided the bullet. And the cannon burst into tongues of fire and shrapnel, flickering in an iron-tinged explosion-

 

Yet the ship itself was unaffected. Not a single bit of the wood was licked by flame. Girasol frowned. Something was fishy.

 

“You all saw that, right?” Her comment was directed to the other Ithacans below. Hopefully they’d catch on.

[VCR_CAT]

Stacks4Daze

BGM:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITo1Nv44b80

 

Do'jhera had managed to get a spare key to the haunted house, and it wasn't long until the group had made its way inside. Once they passed the threshold of the door, it slammed shut like any other haunted house and the candles had blown out. Stacks yawned.

 

"Keep your guard up," Cass said, warning the party.

 

"Yeah yeah, don't need to tell me twice," Stacks sighed, drawing her sword. Most of her abilities were off the table, and even using her sword was a risk. But so long as she was careful not to hit the house itself, it should be fine.

 

In front of them, two bodies began to animate, standing in front of the group. Stacks glanced at her HUD to identify them as Greater Ghouls, and to see their level. Stacks hummed for a moment, contemplating their levels. While this would be good practice for Do'jhera and Chloe, they might in fact be too strong to just leave for those two to handle by themselves. Do'jhera started throwing pillows at one of them, distracting it for a moment. Stacks rolled her eyes. The other lunged in their direction, aiming for Cass. Stacks stepped forward with her shield and the Ghoul slammed against it, its claws scratching and screeching against the mythril surface. Stacks ground her teeth together in discomfort from the sound.

 

"Yeah, Cass unless you got some kinda real sick turn-undead skill hidin' up your dress or somethin', you might wanna stick with me," Stacks said lazily, swinging her blade widely into the Ghoul's stomach, forcing it to reel back from the fire damage. "Melethil, I dunno do whatya wanna do, just stick with someone that can kill stuff." The Ghoul made another advance and was met with the same fate; his attack screeching against Stacks's shield before being lazily swatted away by her sword again. "Chloe and Do'j, don't get yourselves killed in the house, 'kay? If you guys don't feel comfortable searching on your own then we might wanna stick together as a group." A third time the Ghoul made for an attack at Stacks, and this time she swept the sword low, hitting it in the legs and forcing it down to its knees. She planted her boot on its face and kicked it back on the ground. "Also, Mr. Ghost-Dude, if you're still listenin', this whole haunted-house deal is some pretty lame-ass sheet. C'mon man, you can do better than that." 

 

When it came to easier one-on-one scenarios, it was a pretty simple endeavor to fight enemies like these; simply guard, attack, guard, attack, repeat. While there was a lot of force behind each swing that Stacks gave the Ghoul, she almost made it look easy with the degree of practice she had with farming against single enemies like this. In one swift motion, Stacks lunged forward and drove her blade into the chest of the Ghoul as it lay on the ground, taking another chunk off its health. What annoyed her was how much these monsters could tank these hits; thankfully there were only two in the room. At this thought, the other took its attention towards Stacks as she pulled her sword from the Ghoul that lay on the ground, and took a swipe at her back. The attack connected and there was a long scratch along her armored back, turning to a cut that ran along the gaps in-between plates. The attack forced Stacks to stumble forward and grunt from the pain.

 

"Now that's just dirty. DO'J, I THOUGHT YOU HAD THIS GUY," Stacks raised her voice as she became more focused on taking on two enemies at once, focusing more on forcing the enemies back with strong attacks than dealing strict damage. The more distance they kept away from the Ghouls, the better. After successfully repelling the first, the weaker one had gotten up from the ground and leaped at Stacks. This time she saw it coming, and shifted her body to bring her blade across the Ghoul's own. Her sword cut clean through the Ghoul's body, cutting it in half diagonally from the shoulder down to the hip. One piece thudded against the wood floor loudly, while the other kept moving with its moment and landed right on Stacks, forcing her to stumble backwards again as the Ghoul's bodily debris burst into a cloud of guts and fluids against her armored body. "Gross! Goddammit, why'd they code them to smell so bad?! Gonna take a WEEK to get cleaned from that!"

[Saiba Aisu]

BGM

Fortunately, Chloé didn't have too long to dwell on Old Roving Tom's grisly tale. Within moments, she had regrouped with the other members of Ithaca outside of The Drowned Maiden, listening intently as they each shared the information they had gathered regarding The House of Neykia and the deathless horrors that awaited them inside. A soft but insistent pinging alerted the group to the fact that the objectives of their current mission had been updated as a result of their efforts.

 

Active Quest:

House of the Dead

Current Objective:

• Enter The House of Nekyia.

• Kill all Undead inhabitants.

 

Suddenly, the idea of crossing the sea in a ramshackle boat wasn't quite so frightening. Better dead at the bottom of the ocean than dead in a haunted house, right? Unfortunately, however, the rest of the guild didn't seem to share her feelings.

 

"Let's get this over with," Cass declared, taking charge of the situation with her usual no-nonsense attitude. Clearly, the idea of fighting off hordes of ghosts, zombies, and who knew what else wasn't enough to bother her.

 

The wooden door swung open with a faint squeal, revealing a shadowy entrance leading into the depths of the building. The House of Neykia seemed almost alive, bathed by the red light of setting sun, opening its mouth wide, hungry for new victims. Chloé was the last to cross the threshold, pulling her blue silk ribbon loose from her hair, her heart beating rather faster than usual. The door slammed shut behind her of its own accord, plunging the group into darkness before several candles came to life, illuminating the room with flickering light.

 

Things started happening fast. Very fast. A spectral silhouette appeared before them suddenly, its head crowned by a wide-brimmed hat, only to vanish and be replaced by two bloodstained corpses strewn across the floor in a macabre display, their hands pressed together in one final gesture.

 

A vow of undying, everlasting love. A vow so powerful, it would withstand the very trials of time...

 

"Vassar. Ilyena."

 

The girl murmured their names, feeling tears well in her eyes at the sight of the slain lovers. The two corpses snapped into motion as if in response, their sightless eyes latching onto them, their withered lips twisting into snarls as they transformed into undead creatures. Hunchbacked, slavering, and utterly hideous. Greater Ghouls. The ghastly apparitions leaped at the group with low moans, eager to tear them limb from limb. Chloé screamed—she couldn't help it—but Stacks reacted as smoothly as clockwork, putting her sword and shield to work as she singlehandedly rebuffed the pair.

 

"Chloé and Do'j, don't get yourselves killed in the house, 'kay? If you don't feel comfortable searching on your own then we might wanna stick together as a group," the Paladin suggested coolly, as if she made a regular habit out of fighting zombies.

 

"Y-yes, please, if you don't mind!" Chloé replied, taking a step to the side and brandishing her whip, trying to master herself. She couldn't afford to go pieces, not now! "Contract Summoning! Come forth, Heljä!!"

 

A crackling hum of magical energy, a burst of smoke, and Heljä stood at her mistress' side, her dark eyes flashing as she caught sight of the Greater Ghouls. The room they were currently in was fairly spacious, but who knew what the rest of the house was like? Something told her that the polar bear's massive bulk wasn't exactly suitable for fighting in cramped quarters like these. Better to stay together for now.

 

"Winter's Breath!!" Chloé commanded with a flourish, urging her mount to unleash a concentrated stream of ice breath at the monsters, hoping to freeze them solid.

[Ren✧]

"Oi! D'ya know 'ow 'xpensive those 're?" Hizir's voice rose above the clamor, the anger palpable. He had come above deck just in time to see Girasol cause one of his cannons to explode. All around him, chaos surged. His crew had quickly outmatched Flora's and they were in the process of dragging screaming hostages aboard their ship. The handicapped ferry sat dead in the water, its passengers helpless to the slave traders' whims as they swarmed the boat like ants to a carcass. If the Ithacans didn't pick up the pace soon, the battle would be over just as quickly as it had started. 

 

Hizir looked up at the sniper that had cost him the cannon. She was a clever faun. He hated clever fauns. From his belt he drew a gun with a comically large barrel. Any ordinary player using it would've found it nearly impossible to use such a weapon at the distance the two found each other, but he was no ordinary man. He was Hizir, the craftiest slave trader in all of Niska. He pulled the trigger and a translucent jell-like substance flew to the mast, sticking just a few meters below the crow's nest. A couple of second's later, the substance ignited, setting the wood ablaze. The sniper would not be a problem much longer. 

 

Flora fended off three attackers, her sword drawn and a feral snarl on her lips. She moved like water in between their clumsy slashes, but there were too many for her to properly go on the offensive. She parried and dodged, but each passing moment the noose seemed to be getting tighter around her neck and no amount of elegant swordplay would get her out of it. 

 

Meanwhile, below deck, Olena continued to deftly flip over her deck of tarot cards. The Lovers. The Devil. Justice. Her brow furrowed. She flipped over the next card. The Hanged Man. A sense of calm washed over her, whatever message she received from the cards seemed to satisfy her. She rose from the table. 

 

 

 

Cass gagged at the smell that spewed from the corpse of the Greater Ghoul. Its entrails lay in a butchered mess, decorating the space between its torso and lower half. No blood oozed from the wounds, but Stack's dismemberment of the creature had been messy enough without it. The immediate threat was not gone, however. The second ghoul raced towards the Ithacans; it's claws rattled against the floorboards like loose nails during a thunderstorm. A bellow escaped its mouth, it's jaw far too wide for any creature of the living. 

 

Heljä's icy breath didn't seem to scathe the creature. Frost began to coat its skin, but the tell-tale signs of the Frozen status affect, namely the slowing and eventually paralysis of the target, did not take its toll. The ghoul's health slowly dipped, but it advanced nonetheless. Its gruesome claws slashed at the Glacial Ice Bear. However, the attack almost appeared to be an afterthought in the undead creature's mind. It deftly leapt away from the larger target towards Melethil, its claws cleaving their way through the air towards the small elf. 

 

Cass threw a fist at the monster, the shockwave of the <Telekinetic Push> catching it as it tried to make quick work of the cleric. Slammed against the far wall, Cass took advantage of the extra time to prepare for one of her more powerful spells. Again, the ghoul was left unfazed by the invisible force that thrown it across the room and was ready to charge in moments. However, Cass needed only a moment to prepare. As it approached for a second time, she threw out her hand towards the monster and closed her fist. <Madness>. 

 

The Greater Ghoul stopped. Cass' mana dropped considerably. The ghoul raised it's knife-like claws but instead of driving them towards the awaiting guild members, it began to stab itself in the chest. Over and over. Again, there was no blood but the smell of something that was already long dead seeped out of the wounds. Cass held the spell for as long as she could. By the end of it, the ghoul had depleted so much of its health it only took a second <Telekinetic Push>, using a small bit of her stamina, to finish it off. 

 

Cass was slightly shaken by the scene, though she wouldn't show it. She hated to use that spell. Even if the NPCs were just bits of coding. The idea of twisting a creature's mind like that, to pervert it so much that it killed itself...it made Cass feel vile. 

 

"Be quicker next time Melethil." He normally was. He was typically one of the guild's best players, even if he did stammer on most of the time, but he had slipped up. In a game like Bluefire, one mistake could mean death. 

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Seeing his guildmates finally get the aggro off of him, Reebus couldn't help but have a thought cross his mind.  Maybe they weren't entirely useless.  However, the crew from the other ship was still overflowing onto the small ferry, dead in the water.  Reebus' lips curled, as he could only hiss in anger.  He conjured a fireball in his hand, and lobbed it at the other ship.  However, a before the ball could reach the ship, it dissipated into nothing, almost hitting a barrier of sorts.  This H'zir was not a lot of things, but he sure was crafty...a counter against casters on the seas.  

 

He looked across the deck, Lich, Brando, and Girasol all managing to handle there own.  Girasol even managed to score a direct hit on one of the ship's cannons.  Now the ferry wouldn't be taking as much fire as she was before.  Pirates were still hulling what seemed to be NPC's onto his ship.  If he were to get every last one of them, who would take them across the waters.  Reebus sneered, as he tried to think up a plan.  Fire spells were definitely a no-go on board the ship.  However, Lightning was fair game.  Reebus scanned the deck for the highest cluster of pirates.  He stopped when he found Flora in the midst of a sword fight against the ruffians.  However skilled she was, she would definitely give out due to the sheer numbers after her head.  Reebus held his staff horizontally, as the tip of his staff gathered with electricity.  If the captain were to go down in this fight, they would surely be left dead out here on the open sea.  

 

"I call upon the forces of wind and lightning alike!  Mix your forces together, and through me, destroy my enemies!  I call upon you, STORM!"  A large cloud began to gather above Flora and the band of pirates she faced against.  He could feel his mana drain, but since Lich was playing support, this would surely be worth the cost.  Lightning strikes began to rain down around the pirates, too many striking to be avoided.  The fact that the pirates held their cutlasses aloft in the air didn't help their cause either.  However, since Reebus' targeting system registered Flora as a friendly NPC, no lightning would strike her.  One after another, pirates began to fall.  However,  Reebus wasn't done, as he slowly moved the cloud across the deck, trying to catch the lot of pirates who were bringing captives aboard their own ship.  Using this spell for this long would surely prove to consume almost all of Reebus' mana, but it would prove worth in the stories he would tell after.  

[Yui]

---

The doors to the guild's new home had swung open, and inside was...

 

Loading, please wait...

 

You can't be serious. Haruka was still, her interface full of the floating green message. Melethil wouldn't have been able to move even if he wanted to. The world around him was moving, and he couldn't even tell what was happening. This was the dreaded enemy of any gamer, let alone healer. Lag. Something must have been going on in the real world. Haruka sounded bitter in her thoughts, like she was ready to kill whoever was to blame. Are they having a goddamn Netflix party out there!? Did they not consider the comatose girl that could very well die if she disconnects from this game!? Who hired these doctors!? Whenever I get out of here, I'm not letting them forget about this.

 

Then the loading notifications disappeared. Melethil was back to the "real" world. Even from his humble vantage point outside the house, he could tell quite a bit happened inside. Some guild members had taken a bit of damage, and the foulest stench crawled up into his nose. The elf felt ready to vomit. That would be no good however. Melethil instead gripped his trusty staff with one hand, covering up his mouth and nose as best he could with the other.

 

"Be quicker next time Melethil." That was Cass's voice. He didn't blame her. Death was no small matter in this game, and Melethil - generally the skillful healer - was nowhere to be seen for that fight. If it had been Haruka in their shoes, she'd probably yell at the missing healer.

 

"S-Sorry," Melethil nervously answered, stepping into the house and casting a Heal on the most injured group member. In the meantime, he tossed out Flash Heals to the others, and once his heal had been cast, he began to channel Calm Mind onto Cass. Whatever had happened, she used a fair bit of mana for it. "I don't know what happened just now. But, um, it won't happen again." It better well funking not.

---

[Dad]

Reebus magic gathered overhead, twisting into a malevolent lightning storm.  It sought out enemy NPCs and struck them down as if Zeus was suddenly available as downloadable content.  The enemies began to drop, one by one, and even Brando was admittedly impressed.  "That's more like it, cat."

 

Brando struggled to his feet, but was eventually able to stand.  They still had to be rid of Hzir, who's ship was able to be reached at last.  "Why m' I so reckless?" Brando asked, responding to Lich.  "Well.  Someone's gotta do it.  I'm goin' on ahead.  Hyaaaaaargh!" Brando said, charging forwards through the few remaining allies that Hzir had.  He shoved past one or two enemy pirates, and ducked between the legs of the third.  As a parting gift, he elbowed one of them in their testicles as he ducked beneath the pirate.  "Dwarf innovation, ya scurvy wretch," he taunted.

 

Brando reached the crossing point from Flora's ferry to Hzir's massive ship.  If he slipped, there was a good chance--no.  There was a two-hundred percent chance he would go under and drown, ending his life and Macy's.  He gulped audibly, but he made a slow, steady effort as he carefully moved over the gangplank.  "Oh Hzir!" he said aloud, trying to distract himself and the enemy all at once.  "I'm 'ere, my dear Hzir!"  Brando had reached the halfway point, thankfully not looking down so far.  "Uncle Brando's 'ere!  And I gots a present for ya!"  As Brando made his way at last to the opposite side of the gangplank, he steadied himself as he drew his flintlock pistol.  "Come on out n' show me whatcha got."

 

Behind his back, Brando held a single stick of dynamite at the ready.

[bury the year]

Girasol

 

Suddenly, all Girasol could smell was smoke.

 

As she watched Reebus finally break out the metaphorical big guns, downing pirates left and right with lightning, the mainmast became wreathed in flame in a blink of an eye. She gritted her teeth. Damn Hizir and his miserable business. Damn every last bit of it. The captain NPC had spotted her position atop the crow’s nest (well, it wasn’t like that would be difficult), and had hit the mast with a pyrotechnic jelly.

 

Coughing, she pulled Kybele back under her sniping cloak and looked around for an escape route. Unfortunately, her options were obviously curtailed. It was as much a feature as a flaw of crow’s nests that they only had one way down. The only ladder was the point of impact for the jelly, and it was currently inoperable.

 

“Damnit,” she muttered. No way was this going to be the end of Kim Sujin. To have her life go up in flames—literally, at that—was the sort of morbid hilarity she would appreciate later, but not when her life was actually on the line. Looking down over the railings, she saw Lich gathering himself after almost getting his head chopped off. An idea formed. A plan.

 

Girasol leaned down, clearing her lungs between coughes enough so she could yell down. “Lich, you’d better catch me.” She stopped for a second, considering her language. “I’ll haunt your ass if you don’t.”

 

She didn’t give him an opportunity to argue back, or even to consider alternatives. Girasol wrapped her cloak about herself, inhaled as though she was sucking up the last air in the world, and jumped.

 

The flames created by Hizir’s potshot licked at the cloak’s edges for far too long, but it was only a few moments before she fell through the contained inferno and into clean air. Towards the deck below.

 

However, the necromancer had listened to her dispassionate pleas and got into something resembling a fireman’s catch position - legs squared and arms apart. That didn’t stop Girasol from hitting him like a lead weight, though, and the pair went down limbs entangled.

 

She wasn’t going to tarry, though. Getting up without a second thought to helping Lich up, she readied the stock of Kybele to beat through any oncomers. “Now quick, let’s get ready to take a different ship out of here.” She looked up at the mainmast, now teetering precariously in the wind. It was about to fall, and Girasol knew that Flora’s ferry wasn’t going to survive too long without it.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

 

 

As quickly as they came, the two Greater Ghouls were taken care of. However, Do'jhera's H.U.D. showed something he wasn't exactly expecting.

 

Active Quest:

House of the Dead

Current Objective:

• Kill all Undead inhabitants (2/10)

 

"Two...out of ten...?" Do'jhera mumbled, before sighing as he stood up from the couch that he rolled into and stretched some. This meant that there were a total of eight ghouls left in the house. His first thought was, of course, to find a way to separate into groups of two for this. After all, eight ghouls that if they happened to be in pairs like these two, would definitely be able to be taken by four groups of two.

 

There was a sliiiiiiiight problem with that...

 

Me, Cass, Chloe, Stacks, and Melethil...that's...five. he thought, counting the number of those in the house from Ithaca. The group ratio was at least two complete groups and one going solo... This ain't a good plan...but, what else can we do? he thought, approaching the group as he rubbed the back of his neck.

 

"We got two....outta ten." Do'jhera began, before looking over at Cass. "There are probably eight left, providing this game isn't going to shaft us on more spawning. I got an idea of splitting up in groups of two...but we're about three short of being able to have two other complete groups of two. Soooo...what are you thinking?"

[Ren✧]

"There are probably eight left, providing this game isn't going to shaft us on more spawning. I got an idea of splitting up in groups of two...but we're about three short of being able to have two other complete groups of two. Soooo...what are you thinking?"

 

Cass looked at the mission details. The Khepura was right, however; the real problem was, they just didn't know where in the house the other ghouls were. If they knew, splitting up wouldn't be such a daunting idea. However, she now very much felt like if they split up she'd be the black person in every horror movie to get killed first. They couldn't just sit and wait. The game was undoubtedly more patient than they were. Do'jhera was right, they were going to have to split up. 

 

The Oracle took quick stock of the team and their skills. Melethil was the only one that could truly play support. Do'jhera was a DPS player. Stacks was a tank and their strongest player. Chloé couldn't do much by herself, perhaps a bit of control, but Heljä was another matter entirely. Like Stacks, the bear was a tank and a powerful beater as well. Unfortunately, her large size would make it difficult for her to get around the house. That left herself. A bit of a wild card. Which was just a nice way to say, a little to useless to actually have a niche role. 

 

"Melethil, Chloé, and Do'j," Cass addressed the three Ithacans, "you will cover the downstairs. Stacks and I will clear out the upstairs." Cass wasn't fond of the idea, but she had been doing a lot of things she wasn't comfortable with lately. She was hesitant to send both Do'jhera and Chloé, the guild's weakest members, off together but hopefully having Melethil with them would be enough support to save them should any problems arise. Plus, Cass figured Chloé was slightly more competent than she even realized herself, there was no way the bear could be doing all the work herself. 

 

After making sure they were all clear on their respective areas to cover, Cass began to climb the stairs. Per the layout she had studied when deciding whether or not to purchase this house, she knew the downstairs consisted of the living room, which they had already cleared, a kitchen, a dining room, a study, a wash room, and two bathrooms.The upstairs had 5 bedrooms and a small conjoining tower that led up a studio intended for stargazing. It would truly be such a nice guild house...if it were infested with undead corpses. Cass could feel the mana coursing through her body, or perhaps it was just adrenaline, either way, with each step, she felt like she was on fire. Stacks was just a step or two behind her. As they neared the top, Cass motioned for silence. She wasn't sure why, it wasn't as if they needed to be quiet. The entire house was practically alive with malicious intent, she was fairly certain that being quiet wasn't going to benefit them. Nevertheless, it made her feel better.

 

She neared one of the bedroom doors. Suddenly, the story of Jameson and Xander returned to her, reminding her that the ghouls had all been people...sort of, once upon a time. Cass made a vague gesture with her hand, again unsure of why she felt the need to be silent. She'd check out the room while Stacks went on ahead. Almost as if it sensed her intentions, the door to the bedroom swung open with a hollow creak. Cass tried not to appear afraid as she stepped inside the room. 

 

---

 

[spoiler=OoC]

So kind of like a mini GM post. Or like a personal post used to do GM things? idk. But hopefully this kind of gives everyone some more direction. If the schema to introduce a ghoul is too daunting, you can abandon it. Just have it jump out and attack, it's not that big of a deal. Sorry if I derailed things by being too controlling here y'all. If you are still struggling, please reach out. I tried to describe the layout of the house in this post. Feel free to go to any room. Have the ghoul attack. We gotta clear this mother out. 

 

 

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 

He heard the sound of gunfire, before a loud thud. Turning around, he saw one of the pirates limp on the floor; his cutlass dropped next to his hand. “Pick up the slack, you fools!” He chuckled as he watched the storm surge summoned by their resident shaman. "Maybe the cat's good for something afterall..." He shook his head, turning his attention back to Boom. "Why m' I so reckless?" The dwarf responded Lichiethro's question with one of his own. "Well. Someone's gotta do it. I'm goin' on ahead. Hyaaaaaargh!" Before the necromancer could say anything, the dangerous dwarf had already charged forward. He let out a sigh. "Damned dwarf. He better not die..."

“Lich, you’d better catch me.” His attention was shifted by Girasol, who seemed to be in quite a pickle herself. “I’ll haunt your ass if you don’t.” She seemed dead set on her plan, as she almost immediately jumped. Acting quickly, he darted his way towards where the sniper would land, preparing himself to catch the girl. "Why is everyone in this guild so damn reckless!?" He thought to himself as he got into position to catch her. Luckily, she fell from very high up, giving the necromancer enough time to prepare himself for landing. Unluckily, she fell from very high up, falling at an incredibly fast speed. Lich was immediately knocked over "Didn't I tell you a few days ago not to die on me?" He remarked as the girl swiftly got off of on top of him. He could feel his body aching in pain - luckily, this wasn't real, otherwise he'd probably have a broken rib. "Oh no, no! Don't you worry about me! I can get up juuuust fine by myself, thanks!" He angrily remarked as he slowly started picking himself up, gritting his teeth as his body seemed to scream. “Now quick, let’s get ready to take a different ship out of here.” He nodded, looking to where Girasol was looking. The mainmast had clearly seen better days. "Good plan." He remarked dryly, brushing off dust off of his cloak. He lifted his lantern, summoning a trio of specters around him. 

[VCR_CAT]

Stacks4Daze

BGM:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITo1Nv44b80

 

"Y-yes, please, if you don't mind!" Chloe was the most up-front about wanting to stay in a group, and Stacks sighed to suppress a giggle. To her, it was just amusing that anyone would find this haunted house actually scary. But at the same time, not every kid grew up with friends whose homes they could sneak over to and watch R-rated horror films well into the night. Good times. In the meantime, Cass was able to step in and take out the other ghoul, leaving them alone in the foyer of the home.

 

"Be quicker next time Melethil," Cass spoke out, and Stacks glanced over to see that Melethil had finally arrived.

 

"S-sorry, I don't know what happened just now. But, um, it won't happen again," Melethil stuttered as he got to work restoring Cass's mana.

 

"Well I can tell you what happened; you got sheet internets and you lagged," Stacks interjected nonchalantly, having not clued in entirely to the extent that Melethil was roleplaying just yet. Just then, they received a notification on their quest's progress: two out of ten ghouls defeated. "sheet, still got eight more of those funkers to go."

 

"There are probably eight left," Do'jhera began.

 

"Oh sheet, you don't say!" Stacks quipped.

 

"...providing this game isn't going to shaft us on more spawning. I got an idea of splitting up in groups of two...but we're about three short of being able to have two other complete groups of two. Soooo...what are you thinking?"

 

The group was quiet for a moment, Cass taking the minute to ponder their options. "Melethil, Chloé, and Do'j," Cass addressed the three Ithacans, "you will cover the downstairs. Stacks and I will clear out the upstairs."

 

Stacks shrugged. "Probably for the best. If you guys get into some deep sheet just make a big ol' ruckus and we'll come getya, or just send a PM or some biz. I dunno, whatever works best under stress."

 

With that, both she and Cass made their way up to the second floor. The developers pulled no punches in making as an authentic "Haunted House" experience as they could, from the way the floorboards creaked to the distant maniacal laughter or shrill screaming, Stacks just couldn't help but roll her eyes every other time. At the second landing there were only a couple of hallways with doors on either side.

 

"Well at least it's all closed, we can clear this SWAT-style," Stacks spoke out confidently, moving forward to the closest door she could find. "But there's only eight, so this should be easy peaz- sheet!"

 

When Stacks opened the first door, which would end up being a vanity room, there seemed to be a ghoul already leaning up against the door, practically exploding out as Stacks so much as creaked the door open. The ghoul launched Stacks to the floor and the two became a mass of limbs and armor as Stacks wrestled the ghoul off of her, lucky that a pile of decaying flesh was so light. Whirling up and back onto her feet, Stacks pinned the Ghoul onto the floor with her foot, slashing away at the arms as it tried to claw and get itself back up.

 

"Piece- Of- sheet- Ghost- I'll- Show- You!" Stacks cussed out between slashes and stabs, happy to be only going against one. Of course, despite its position, the Ghoul was a stronger foe and was able to finally shove Stacks off of itself, forcing her to stumble back and regain her balance. The Ghoul was nimble, however, and gave Stacks no opportunity to regain her composure before leaping forward once more with a foul scream. Normally Stacks would take the opportunity to get the Ghoul stuck in an attack loop and whittle away at its health, but she didn't have time to prepare for this and parried the move by reflex, dodging to the side and dragging her blade along its ribs and leg as it passed.

 

"This stupid quest is gonna take WAY too long," Stacks groaned, the Ghoul stumbling forward before turning around to make another attack.

 

 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

 

 

"Melethil, Chloé, and Do'j. You will cover the downstairs. Stacks and I will clear out the upstairs."

 

Do'jhera looked at the team he was put on now. Chloé and Melethil, while Stacks went with Cass. It made sense. The two stronger players working together in order to clear out the creatures at the top. While at the same time, making a team of the weaker players to take care of the downstairs here and also do their best to rack up experience for themselves.

 

"Probably for the best. If you guys get into some deep sheet just make a big ol' ruckus and we'll come getya, or just send a PM or some biz. I dunno, whatever works best under stress."

 

"U-Understood..." he said with a nod, watching Cass and Stacks heading up the stairs, leaving the three of them.

 

Luckily, they had Melethil on their side, so things would probably go a lot smoother than he would've originally thought. Well, providing that nothing would happen with him this time. Turning to look at Chloé and Melethil, Do'jhera smiled faintly and motioned.

 

"C'mon. Eight of these suckers left and this whole quest should be over." he said, heading forward down a hallway. Keyword there...is SHOULD...

 

In the process of his small thought, Do'jhera heard a small ruckus coming from upstairs, which he only assumed was Cass and Stacks getting a start on their attacking of the ghouls. His eyes drifted upwards towards the ceiling for a slight second, before them returning back down in front of him to see a ghoul running full force at him.

 

"HOLY-" the Khepura exclaimed, noticing that the hallway wasn't too big enough for him to Dodge Roll, and it was running at him way too quickly for him to unsheath his weapons. Without a second thought, Do'jhera struck at the ghoul unarmed, knowing the Khepura skill Claws would definitely be in effect. This plus Swift Strike was allowing him to back the ghoul up a bit, before deciding to back hand him into an open door, and rush past it.

 

"CHLOÉ! MELETHIL! Get his back!" Do'jhera shouted, immediately pulling out his swords, preparing to cast Duelist Fighting Spirit on himself for his next strike.

[Yui]

---

"We got two....outta ten. There are probably eight left, providing this game isn't going to shaft us on more spawning. I got an idea of splitting up in groups of two...but we're about three short of being able to have two other complete groups of two. Soooo...what are you thinking?"

 

"Melethil, Chloé, and Do'j, you will cover the downstairs. Stacks and I will clear out the upstairs."

 

"R, Roger that." Melethil didn't really care who to group up with. Only that the quest got done, though the player behind the elf would have preferred a more reliable teammate than Do'Jhera. The life of a healer player I guess. Just leave everything to me, as always.

 

Melethil followed when Do'Jhera signaled for him and Chloe to start clearing out the downstairs of the restless dead. There was noise upstairs. Probably Cass and Stacks clearing out the upstairs of ghouls. However, as the group's attention turned down from the ruckus upstairs, they found a ghoul right in front of them, heading for Do'Jhera. The Khepura was pretty good at getting it off his back on such short notice, and for good measure, Melethil put down a Holy Circle, positioned so that Do'Jhera was near the back edge of it, giving him room to push forward in a fight and still be in the healing zone. For good measure, Melethil also let off a Smite from his staff, targeting the ghoul.

 

"G-Go get 'em!"