[F28-PP-PT] Stranger the Fiction

[Raidou 1]

♫

The simplest of journeys can often lead to the unexpected. Time had a way of burying all history, leaving only those that survived it to remember what had happened. This hatchet lay buried for all trapped within the confines of these 4 digital walls, allowing those within to flourish and thrive. But there would always be those that refused to forget, or those that would unexpectedly walk through the dusts of time and awaken what slumbered within its confines. Sometimes its best to leave well enough alone, sometimes the truth is stranger then fiction.

The soft crunch of leaves under his feet as the slightly burned expanse would breathe at every step of his intrusion. Glyndebourne was under siege but two nights prior. The event spoke to activities that the nomad had long since abandoned for others to become beholden to the mantle. A stalwart defender with a rusted blade. Shops broken into, the streets themselves burned. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew the culprit and purely by necessity would he seek it out. Some drive within him. He trusted his companions, his allies to handle the affair but Raidou couldn't not offer a hand. Even if his intervention was much less involved, he could at least allow solace and repair.

The forest reeked of fire, of brimstone and the tinge of something acrid. It lay smoldering ever still against the recurring blackness to which the sunlight never touched. Where it always found scarlet hues, they had since grown black and that orange was not its standard fare. No the illusion broke to heat upon its very thresholds, as if some rogue elements had brought destruction to its mist. The man would stop, placing his right hand to the soil. A roughness and dryness that spoke as evidence to the betrayal. A glance to his index and thumb, a twist of them sees the charcoal broken up into pieces as it draws itself upon them. A stain that would remain long after such chaos. He'd raise, tracing the lines and finding the shapes of rings as they foretold what had occurred. A flash of green on his eye would hone his senses down as he played the part of investigator. Scanning the brush, his attentions jerk to a focal.

Eyes like predator in the dark, hungry for a kill or for vengeance. Yet it was not he who drew their hunger but another. The trap was sprung, yet not by the one caused it to be set. Instead, where they aimed a rabbit they had caught a lion. Metal on metal, a flash of sparks that threatened to set a fire again. A streak of color bounced harmlessly, allowing that streak of crimson on his back to flow gently. Around the spires long since burned, beneath a tapestry of flame and anguish. Marker on marker would slide into view, pulling knives and swords. Licking angrily at their next meal to the taste of vengeance. Yet they would not be sated.

A tap from his right wrist, like blood down the palm but thick like ink as it dripped to the earth. The film of red as hatred rose, untamed in its thick and suffocating drain. He'd reach for the glasses on his nose, taking them off and leaving behind this thick cable of black ichor that adhered itself like decay. It transitions and begins to stick itself to his body like syrup, pouring itself down his throat and into his eyes in a painful display of unity. Jagged teeth cascade of a soupy black mass, like spines before folding inward.

Death was on the menu.

---

<<Assisting System Engaged>>
Level: 34
Paragon: 69
Tier: 4

True Tier: 17
Final EXP reward: +5%

---

Activated:
Guild Rank 5 (+5% Final EXP reward)
Mega Slime Farm (+10% final EXP reward)
CS: Ill Omen in Red
CSA: [x1] Grand Mass Parry

---

Actual Block | Raidou | HP: 940/940 | EN: 132/132 | DMG: 11 | MIT:117 | ACC:2 | TAUNT | F-SPIRIT | EVA:4 | BH:52 | VAMP-D: 103 | VAMP-O: 155 | REC: 8 | BLI: 32/-20  | LD:6                                                                                                                            

Spoiler

Narrative Block | The Red Wanderer | HP: 1128/1128 | EN: 132/132 | DMG: 20 | MIT:521 | ACC:4 | TAUNT | F-SPIRIT | EVA:7 | BH:62 | VAMP-D: 124 | VAMP-O: 186 | REC: 8 | BLI: 32/-20  | LD:6 | CAIN (50) | Para-IM | FRZ-IM | BLI-IM | ENV-IM | BRN-IM | BLD-IM

---

Spoiler

Name: Raidou, The Red Wanderer
True Tier: 17
Level: 34
Paragon Level: 69
HP: 940/940
EN: 132/132

Stats:
Damage: 11
Mitigation: 117
Accuracy: 2
Evasion: 4
Battle Healing: 52
Loot Die: 6
TAUNT VAMP-D: 103 VAMP-O: 155
REC: 8
BLI: 32/-20 

Equipped Gear:
Weapon/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Ebon Star - Vanguard Revenant [T4/Demonic/Straight Sword]: V.O 2, Taunt, Blight 1
Armor/Trinket: 
  - Red Wanderer's Resolve - Sympathy [T1/Demonic/Cloth] 2 Evasion, 2 Vampiric Defensive
Shield/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Vision of Wisdom - Whisper [T4/Demonic/Trinket] Evasion 1, Recovery 2, Accuracy 1

Combat Mastery:
  - Combat Mastery: Mitigation R3

Combat Shift:
  - TECH Shift

Familiar Skill:
  - 

Custom Skill:
  - Ill Omen in Red

Skills:
  - Battle Healing R5
  - Charge
  - Cloth Armor R5
  - Energist
  - Fighting Spirit
  - Howl
  - Quick Change
  - Searching R5
  - Straight Sword R5

Extra Skills:
  - Survival
  - Parry
  - Forgotten King's Authority
  - Concentration
  - 
  - 
  - 

Inactive Extra Skills:
PhotosynthesizeBrawlerFrozen Hide
Addons:
  - Ferocity
  - Focused Howl
  - Nimble
  - Precision
  - Reveal
  - Stamina

Mods:
  - Athletics
  - Detect
  - Justified Riposte
  - Tracking
  - Vengeful Riposte

Inactive Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
  - Crippling Composition - Lullaby [Tierless/Rare/Debuff/Instant] Hypnosis 2 | [224055] x1
  - Teleport Crystal x1
  - Vocal Augmentation - Resonation [Tierless/Perfect/Support/Instant] +15% HP [160898][161641][161642][162018][162529] x1

Housing Buffs:
  - Basic Kitchen: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30.
  - Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
  - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
  - Attic (Storage): +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests
  - Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
  - Guest Room: Players can have one «Amenity» in a «Guest Room» and the «Amenity» cannot be recovered. Players are allowed to change which «Amenity» is in the «Guest Room». Multiple instances of the same «Amenity» do not stack. This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.
  - Master Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat
  - Master Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down)
  - Extended Workshop: +2 Crafting EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
  - Greenhouse: +2 Gathering EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to gathering attempts.
  - Dining Hall: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed. Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread.
  - Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post.

Guild Hall Buffs:
  - Trading Hall: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters and Rank 4 merchants/performers receive +1 crafting/identification attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters and Rank 5 merchants/performers receive +2 crafting/identification attempts per day.
  - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild Totem:
  - Tanos
Wedding Ring:

Crafting Profession:

Gathering Profession:

 

 

[Mari 1]

She was back at that clearing; the place her and Lancaster had doomed each other into a messy and heated passion fueled descent into mutually assured destruction. The pin that dropped and created ripples so large that neither could escape. Yet Mari…wouldn’t have it any other way. She had found something in the man that had changed her, forever, for the better.

A soft hand ran itself over the new flower buds that poked through scorched earth. Brushing away some of the ash to better allow the new growth to sprout. The patch would survive and flourish.

Mari stood and wiped her hands on her tattered scarf. Looking around. The same couldn’t be said about the surrounding area. The trees remained burnt, and the flames and licked up and over the clearing and had scorched the nearby area. Mari shook her head. There was no real way to control that flame. Not that she wanted to - but this was a beautiful area. It was a shame so much of it had been scorched.

Screams

Mari jerked her head upward - toward the scorched hillside. The clash of metal, the slide of blade against blade. Mari pulled out her weapon and equipped her satchel - filled with a few spheres. Just in case..just in case. Mari almost slipped on the wet dewy grass as she ran up the hillside - She had to dig her miasmatic halbard into the dirt to lift herself up. Not long now - she saw figures in the distance. A green cursor? And…Orange ones.

Shit.

Mari quickened her pace - even more so when she saw a familiar red coat. Raidou? Mari hadn’t seen him fight in…what felt like years. It had been years. The last time she had seen him fight was when they were both fledgings struggling against a Sand Shark. There was something different about him though. Strange black bubbles danced on his form and Mari’s first thought was the Gemini- but this was different. Somehow…

“RAi!” Her panicked shout managed to reach him as she slid in almost seamlessly to join him by his side. Immediately she had to block a sword with her polearm. What the fuck was he doing here? How did he get into this situation? She glanced over her shoulder at him, eyes widening as she saw the inky blackness leak into his eyes. “W-Whats happening to t-” She wasn’t able to finish, she had to duck-she used the blunt end of her weapon right in the mans sternum to push him back several feet. Doing her best to not land killing blows on another player. How many people were here?

It was difficult to tell. 

Another drew in close - ready to stab her with his Katana - but when her eyes met his flashed with recognition and he pulled away from her in shock. What? 

She used his distraction to her advantage, stepping in forward and using her head - ramming it up against the underside of his chin and twisting his blade out of his hand. She threw it several feet away, disarming him.

 

<<Assisting System Engaged>>
Final EXP reward: +5%

Mari | HP: 960/960 | EN: 134/134 | DMG: 21 | MIT:44 | ACC:4 | AA | EVA:4 | BH:53 | BLI: 32/-20 | ENV-O: 32 | PARA-V | LD:1

Activated:
Mega Slime Farm (+10% final EXP reward)

 

Spoiler

Name: Mari
True Tier: 11
Level: 34
Paragon Level: 70
HP: 960/960
EN: 134/134

Stats:
Damage: 21
Mitigation: 44
Accuracy: 4
Evasion: 4
Battle Healing: 53
Loot Die: 1
Stealth Rating: 5
AA BLI: 32/-20
ENV-O: 32
PARA-V

Equipped Gear:
Weapon/Armor/Trinket:
- Paralytic Contagion | T4 | Absolute ACC I | Paralytic Venom I | Envenom OFF I | Blight I
Armor/Trinket:
- Infernal Shadow-Redemption | T4 | EVA III | MIT I
Shield/Armor/Trinket:
- Glasses | T1 | ACC III

Combat Mastery:
- Combat Mastery: Damage R3

Combat Shift:
- AOE Shift

Familiar Skill:
- Rending Familiar

Custom Skill:
-

Skills:
- Battle Healing R5
- Charge
- Cloth Armor R5
- Energist
- Polearm R5

Extra Skills:
- Survival
- Hiding R5
- First Aid R3

Inactive Extra Skills:

Addons:
- Focus
- Nimble
- Precision
- Stamina

Mods:
- Athletics
- Night Vision
- Surpise Attack: Trickster
- Untraceable
- Vanish

Inactive Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:

Housing Buffs:
- Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
- Dining Room: Turn 2 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Lesser Feast. A Lesser Feast contains 4 portions of the food items sacrificed. Lesser Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread.
- Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
- Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
- Master Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat
- Master Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down)
- Ornate Fishing Pond: +2 Fishing EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to fishing attempts.
- Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post.

Guild Hall Buffs:

Scents of the Wild Totem:

Wedding Ring:

Crafting Profession:
- Alchemist[exp] R
Gathering Profession:
- Fishing[120exp] R2

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Mari

[Raidou 1]

The thickened black ichor suctioned to his skin, drawing itself along him like furthering death on a low tide. Surrounded by the hounds of man, wolves in the shape of people who to which they'd worn the pelts of sheep. Far too long it had gone on on table scraps, failed potions, and the like. It was eager for a feast that it had not had for far too long. The resonating shriek of a woman who had since escaped her own heartache, her own turmoil. An echo through a cavernous death trap it would echo for miles down those somber woods. "Mari?" It would hiss in a horrid twist, a layer of voices spoken in a possessed chorus. One was unmistakably Raidou, but within it in tandem was one that wasn't. "You need to leave!" he'd growl as she'd dance easily under an attack and send her aggressor rattling to the ground clutching his mouth. A chipped tooth, and a whole new sense of belittling. His katana bouncing limply at his side

"Now!" The man barked, the dark howl spoken as his gaze became hot and a violent red glowing as if a skill was active before his face is swallowed in that writhing black mass. An exhale, one of relief. As Mari would look upon him, her targeting would convey not man. No green cursor. But not an orange one either. A halberd slams into that glossed black skin, which hardens and jumps up the length toward the woman's hands. Clothes rip, hair pulled as sharpened spines extrude like bullets through her avatar. Instantly the PKer's body would go limp, impaled on those spikes. Teeth extend from the figures shoulder, that was once Raidou but now it would be hard to tell it was. The large mouth fit with shark like teeth emerges from its shoulder, snapping its jaws over the woman's head in one gut wrenching snap as her bones are broken like the skin of an apple. A wave of red mist would ooze out of the man, and even Mari would see her life begin to tick down slowly. The woman's battle healing would struggle to keep up, as trails of red would flow in thin tethers toward the creature at its nexus.

"Please, you don't need to see this." It would murmur, the conjoined voices state it like a prayer. His cursor stood proudly a stark red, denoting a monster of the game. The black blade on his back drawn by an array of sharpened claws masquerading as fingers, tightening like teeth on a constricting jaw.

 

[Mari 1]

"Mari?"

His voice didn’t sound right, it reverberated and layered over itself over and over and over again till it was nigh unrecognizable. 

"You need to leave!" 

 “Like hell I am.” Mari hissed as she grabbed the collar of the man who scrambled to pick up his Katana again - she used the momentum of his charge and  grabbed his collar - ramming his face into a tree - he slumped to his knees then fell face first into the dirt. Unconscious. Why did he recognize her and only start aiming for Raidou? There wasn’t something quite right about this situation. Everything screamed at her to run. Mari had never been afraid of Raidou. But words he told her a long time ago echoed in her head ‘you’re not the monster…I am.’

"Now!" 

No cursor? Mari had seen something like this before…from Freyd. Just what the hell is happening? What is going on? He seemed to jerk in pain before his body slumped, almost in relief. There was a slight glow from his eyes - tinged red like the blood that pumped hot and fast through her veins. This was dangerous.
 

"Please, you don't need to see this."

His body contorted, sick and twisted pops as the black ichor finally seemed to take its hold. A sickness dripped into his cursor staining it a deep, dark red. Something saved for savage NPCs, mobs, bosses, and the like. That can happen? He barely looked human anymore, large spikes protruded from his back , his signature red coat in tatters on the ground. Mari winced as in an instant one of the attackers had been impaled. Head crunched in giant dripping Maws. Another name on the monument. But would it say by Raidou? Or whatever he was now??  No wonder Baldur was worried about the sheer number of names 

“Raidou….” Mari whispered. Nothing but pained concern in her tone. The creature turned to her, blackened ichor and blood alike dripping from its maw. She held firm. Refusing to shift from her place.

Mari shook her head, coughing as she struggled, watching her life tick slowly down - then jump back up as her battle healing kicked in. “You’re my friend.” Mari hissed at him. But because it was dangerous…she wouldn’t leave her friend. Whatever this was…whatever he was going through - she’d keep by his side. Even if it was slowly chipping away at her health. She had crystals. She had healing. She’d not leave him. Even more so when he was like this.  Mari turned her back to him, showing just how much trust she had in him - even in his current state.

She counted the attacks. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Six in total if she counted the one hanging off the spikes.  They had formed a circle around both Raidou and Mari - cautious.

“Whadda we do? Byron never said anything ‘bout this shit!” Called one - a bald man who looked like he fought with a pair of large spiked knuckledusters. He jerked a thumb toward Mari. “An Her?”

“Just say the monster killed her.” Another said.

“What? Nah man, we cant lie.”

[Raidou 1]

A black cable races across the ground latching the unconscious ones ankle and ripping it into Raidou, that black blade tearing through it as its whisked up. Across the waist, its carved in twain and shatters like glass upon the branches and terrain. Mari was just as headstrong as always, the endless pain in the butt. In another age he would have forced her, afraid of his own control for fear of turning on her. Watching her health flash in and out, the blood red miasma tearing at her vitality like many more before it. The man flicks his screen open, choosing to trust her. Put his faith in her in ways he did not allot to nearly any. A hiss almost like a serpent as he'd exhale, inhuman. A flick of his hand would see a screen open up, but it would sputter and flicker distorting and inconsistent.

The prompt would appear on Mari's screen, and with it a darker secret of a hatchet long buried:

The moment its pressed, the damage to the woman would stop as the system recognizes her as an ally instead of a potential hostile. The names drawn to the side of her screen to portray her party members would list herself, and just beneath it ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ. With the leap of faith offered, he no longer needed to concern himself too much with if Mari would survive this. Instead, he bounds straight into the group like a feral monster. His left arm reaches out, growing in size and length slamming a large black wave of liquid like out of a firehose into the closest standing target sending them into one of those spires of wood and pinning them. It grips tight, the bladed fingers grasping and cutting into the burning oak and works like a wench to pull him into them. His weapon tears out the back of the tree, sending a spray of splinters and burying that blade up to the hilt into their chest. A tilt as he'd look down to bloodied lips, a clicking like predator over prey. The man was dying, and his fear tasted so sweet.

[Mari 1]

The creature was breathing heavily behind her, she could feel its hot acrid breath tickle the skin on the back of her neck and arms - tinged with a sort of prickling pain that continued to tick down her health. Mari blinked - seeing a warped screen pop up in front of her. She couldn’t read it. Text too jumbled. It reminded her of what happened on the 29th floor with the drinking quest. Confused. Mari reached out and clicked ‘Accept’ without much thought.

The moment she pressed the button the pain stopped. Her health stopped ticking down, and instead started to tick up as her battle healing chugged along in an attempt to keep up. “W-What?” It was a party invitation? The name was barely legible.  ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴  ⱠØⱤĐ.

What was that? Mari had never heard of such a name before. Who was it from? Her eyes kept scanning the area as she stood defensively in front of the creature that Raidou had become. No one?? So then… She shifted her gaze over her shoulder at the creature and caught a window in front of him closing. That was Raidou? Did this mean that Rai was this…faceless lord thing? Or was this just some sort of glitch in the games system. “What jus-”

Fwoosh

The creature bounds past her and straight into the group, Mari barely had a chance to keep up, her hand instinctively reached out and managed to grasp one of his spiked quills that protruded from his back. Mari used it to heft herself up - Wind belt against her face as he ran. His arms were stretched out, waves of pressurized black gushed into another player, sending him into a burnt tree. Mari winced hiding her face into the squirming black depths of his back as wood splintered.  “You’re killing him!” She screamed out in futility. “Rai!” A slight shake of whatever covered him to try and snap him out of it, but to no avail, whatever she managed to clasp slipped through her fingers to settle back onto his form. “Rai..!” 

A dagger was thrown, aimed at Mari’s chest. Raidou growled, a splitting and clicking hiss as red miasma fell from his lips- the spikes on his back wrapped around Mari defensively. She felt like she was being hit buy a truck- the woman tumbled off of Raidou’s beastly back with a pained scream, trying to tear it off.

Every time Mari tore a hunk of it off it’d slide back onto her. She panicked. This was too similar to what she experienced with the gemini. Her body grew hot - and she began to choke as the liquid trickled down her throat. She glanced over at Raidou and tried to call for help but no sound came out - her vision blurred as it trickled into her eyes.

An overwhelming sense of pain overtook her before her consciousness blacked out. Her body began to contort - twisting and snapping as limbs began to elongate - her legs and arms shifting as she stood slowly - standing almost several feet tall. Her eyes burned white - and her jaw practically dislodged as rows of sharp teeth formed. Her entire body bristled and bubbled with black - breaking apart with small cracks of orange as though she were nothing more than a pool of fire beneath.

Fingers grew to sharp points, and her hair shot out, long and down to the floor before her.

Her crystal shook and its surface cracked, breaking away to reveal an angry red. She stood, slightly stumped - her breathing in short shallow breaths.

Her name glitched.

₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ₭₦ł₲Ⱨ₮

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Mari