FFRPG: Where Orpheus Failed (IC)

[aetherialDawn]

The quest complete, and so freedom secured, the five moogle champions were left with a conundrum of sorts; the Red Mage Kyn Esceron, having business of his own already, swiftly departs to make his own way. That leaves - for now - a mere four moogles, returned to a different tavern from the one they were so recently arrested in. The coldly composed Summoner Selene 'Alice', the faintly smiling Thief Mogswell, the jittery Gunner Maximus, and the almost sulking Dark Knight Kir.

The tale of adventure is worth a free round of drinks, and so with encouragement from the other taverngoers, the details come out in one form or another - and a few other details flow back. As it turns out, the trade town has been strangely lacking in adventurers recently, and so any such tale of excitement is eagerly received.

The Summary is as follows;
You all met in a jail cell, having been put there on various charges from the same tavern. You were then approached by a Bangaa merchant looking to hire some muscle on the cheap to fix a problem in his local potion manufactory; the machinery had gone completely haywire and made the whole place unfit to enter, let alone work in or profit from.
Entering, there was a brief skirmish with some of the malfunctioning machines; the battle was being won steadily until the intervention of Boreas's avatar through Alice's art finalized a crushing victory.
Progressing further inwards with the help of the map provided by the merchant, there was the backup magicite generator to power up. However, in solving the simple puzzle of starting it properly, a Lightning Imp - doubtless the original source of the malfunctions - became enraged and attacked. Between an unlucky knife-throw by Mogswell, and his own vulnerability to even the lesser Fiend's attacks, Kir became too wounded to continue fighting effectively at this point. Nevertheless, the imp proved to be exceptionally fragile - and so a powerful Blizzard by Kyn finished the battle in short order.
This left only two tasks; to restart the main generator, and clean up whatever mess the Imp had made of the factory. The first was not terribly dangerous; only moving metal rods through an electrified grid to arrange the magicite arrays properly again, after all. No trouble at all, in the end, and despite a lack of technical skill the generator started perfectly again.
The 'mess', however, proved to be rather more extreme - a pulsating nexus of toxic, demonic energies in the control room, flinging poisonous vapors and blinding muck throughout the room. By unleashing yet more magical assaults, however, the damage was unraveled by force, and the factory no longer made to produce toxins rather than potions.
...But I still wouldn't buy any potions made in the last couple of months, just in case.

For the other party members to-be;
As for the other three party members... Arrange yourselves as you wish. The White Mage, Selan, shall join later, but before major combat.

[ErwinBrodinger]

"And the imp's made of LIGHTNING, kupo! Lightning! So of course I can't just stab the little bugger, so I decide to throw my daggers..."
Mogswell paused to take a long draw from his drink to build up suspense for the other patrons. The story was too good to rush, and he was having fun.
"I was winding up for the throw, but my fingers must have been slick from the oil of the robots we took out earlier, kupo. And so-- hah-- so I let go and..."
The lean moogle was grinning maniacally at this point, trying hard to refrain from bursting out in laughter. "And I hit Kir right in the head!"
Mogswell took another swig as he reveled in the reactions to his comic misdeed.
"C'mon, Kir, cheer up, kupo. It's not like I was the one who knocked you out. And you made it out okay! I mean, at least you've still got your soul. That's more than I can say, kupo!"
Pausing thoughtfully after that statement, Mogswell reached up to his face and touched the sword-shaped scar running down from eyebrow to cheek.
"Ah. Perhaps I should mention. I don't have a soul, kupo. A devil took it and left me this scar. Anyway, more drinks!"

[LauWren]

Alice has been half-listening quietly through Mogswell's speech, but looks up from her drink at his last comment. He appears to be both serious and...not sober, but not drunk enough to confuse something like that.

The summoner blinks slowly at the soulless thief, then speaks calmly, in conscious contrast to his energy. "You seem surprisingly at ease with your soulless state. Why did the demon take it?"

[chrisknyfe]

Whenever the tavern maids weren't serving drinks to the short, fuzzy patrons seated around the table, Max was following along with Mogswell's tales of their dangerous adventure the day before. He grinned when Mogswell pointed into the air as he shouted "LIGHTNING, kupo!" He giggled in amusement when Mogswell recounted how Kir had been nearly knocked out of the battle by that stray throwing knife. But when a tavern maid came to bring them "more drinks," he saw opportunity for shameless flirtation.

He had long since learned to have his drink well in hand before propositioning the waitstaff.

"Thanks kupo! Say, are you into the cuddly, adventurous types?" Max was deliberately cheesy. He liked to make girls laugh, if nothing else.

"Silly rabbit, keeping you and your friends from burning this place down is enough adventure for me."

His face promptly flushed, unseen under his snowy fur. "Hey who are you callin' a rabbit, kup-hic!" Dang, and that was almost two whole sentences without inconvenient hiccups, he thought.

The tavern maid giggled as she cheerfully bounced back to the bar. Max hiccupped and turned back to his companions, just as Alice began speaking in a calm tone, suprisingly clear over the loud mirth surrounding the adventurers. He could tell by her suddenly attentive manner that serious adventuring business was about to take place.

"And more importantly, kupo," Maximus Telltale interjected between swigs of ale, "does this mean you get any [hic] cool superpowers? Or maybe..." He examined Mogswell for any physical signs that he was less than moogle. He put down his drink.

"Hmm, you're not a zombie, are you? My pistol is allergic to the undead, and I'd prefer not to see this town get infected too." After the virulent, destructive spread of the undead in his own hometown, Max was determined to make sure that the dead remained dead, and that the living did not... relapse. He set his best steely-eyed glare on Mogswell and placed his hand casually on his lap, near the holster of his new, shiny power pistol.

[ErwinBrodinger]

Not quite realizing what his definitely inebriated companion had said, Mogswell let out a short laugh. "Superpowers? Man, I wish! That would be coo... po."

It was at that moment that Mogswell noticed Maximus's hilariously awkward drunken glare and the noticeably less hilarious proximity between hand and holster. Well, he thought, I've never been shot before, but I'm sure it's not an enjoyable experience.

"I just want to make this clear: not a zombie, kupo. Definitely not undead, just... not quite alive? I'm not entirely sure how this works. White magic still works on me, just not as well, and I may or may not have a sense of morality, but that might just be me being a cold-hearted bastard, kupo. We may never know!"

Hoping that this calmed down his new... friend? Mogswell took a cautious swig from his cup.

[aetherialDawn]

Despite the current back-and-forth about souls being quite relevant, Kir stays quiet. He doesn't want to get involved in this.

The rest of the people around, however, are much more interested. Some of them have already broken off to argue about souls and demons and whatnot with all the knowledge that a random commoner can muster - and a lot of noise. The fistfights are being directed outside already, and the betting being collected by the barman - mostly, at this point, on whether two moogles are actually capable of starting a bar brawl. Odds say no, until someone shouts out that these moogles are the one who got arrested in another bar already...

Things are starting to get a bit complicated; everyone here is interested in adventurers, since there are no others in town for some reason, so passions are flaring easily.

[chrisknyfe]

"pppfftttHAHAHAHA! Hehehehe!" Max burst out in laughter. "Don' worr, I knew you not a sszombie [hic]!" He was barely able to sit upright in his chair, much less able to enunciate coherently, but his friendliness served to defuse some of the tension in the room.

He took a deep swig from his glass, emptying it. "Becusskyupo, you look faaar too healthy for a mog wid no pho... no ssssssho... SOUL! [hic!]" For some strange reason, the disorderly mog imagined a couple of purple bubbles hovering above his head, like some kind of symbol representing his inebriated status. Nah, I haven't had that much, he thought.

"How dib the [hic] demon GET yurrsoul in the [hic] first place?" He had to raise his voice to be heard over the sounds of clinking coins and excited cheers from the people around the four adventurers.

[ErwinBrodinger]

Before answering, Mogswell flagged down a passing tavern maid. "I think that one's had enough, kupo, and I've got the opposite problem," he said, winking.

"But how exactly my soul was stolen? I'm not entirely sure." Sighing heavily and trying his best to look thoughtful, he looked around at his companions before beginning.

"I was a young moogle, and I had just left my village to go... I have no idea where I was going, what I was going to do when I was there, kupo. About halfway between here and my village, I came across a tall figure, cloaked in both shadows and, well, a cloak, standing in the middle of a crossroad. He beckoned me closer, kupo, and I just walked up to him, despite my best judgment. He asked me my name, I responded, and then he took off his hood and smiled, and I could see he was a devil."

At this point, the bar maid returned with a drink, and Mogswell graciously accepted it and took a long draw.

"After that, all I remember is that he reached down, gently patted me on the head, and then grabbed my face, lifted me up into the air, and I passed out."

Mogswell said all this disturbingly nonchalantly, considering that he just said that the devil lifted him by the face.

"I woke up hours later, not knowing where I was, and I stumbled about half a mile until found I river. I bent down to take a drink, and saw I had a scar on my face. I felt empty inside, kupo, and I somehow knew my soul was gone, or at least marked in some way. I honestly have no idea why the devil did it, but he did."

[LauWren]

A beat or two of silence pass.

"And...?" Alice prompts to break the odd pause. "Are you apathetic to your lack of a soul? Do you plan to take it back?" She nods around the table. "Since we appear to be the only adventurers in the entire town, this would seem to be the time to mention such a thing." Alice taps the Fibonacci sequence on the side of her cup, mildly bored with the conversation so far.

[ErwinBrodinger]

Mogswell finished his drink, slamming down the mug with a satisfying thump before grinning wildly at Alice.

"You have NO idea how long I've been waiting for someone to ask that, kupo." Mogswell cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath.

"You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull the greatest heist ever, kupo. I'm going to steal my own soul back from hell."

Standing up, Mogswell positioned himself such that his cloak billowed slightly in the breeze coming in from the open door.

"With my blades I will pierce the aether and rend through the very fabric of reality. I'm going to break into hell and steal my soul from the demon who took it from me. And when I have my soul again, I'll see what else hell has to offer me."

Mogswell paused for a second, sat back down, and fidgeted nervously. "How was that, kupo? Too much? I've planned that bit for a while, but I've never been quite happy with the end." Mogswell grinned weakly, slowly regaining his confidence. "So, any of you guys want to break into hell with me, kupo?"

[LauWren]

Alice shrugs. "I agree the ending could use a bit of work. It's all reasonably good; it just doesn't quite tie up. And the billowing cloak bit was nicely dramatic, I admit." She twirls her dry cup off her finger--the bartender had slid it over to her as a hint--and tilts her head to one side. "I feel like you could do something with a 'what the hell' pun, if you so wished.

"Accompanying you does sound interesting." This is about the closest to a straight 'yes' the sober moogle is going to give without details. "Do you have a plan outlined yet?"

[aetherialDawn]

Kir slams his drink down. "No... Just... You expect to do all this with us? You need an army. You'd need... you'd need more armies than even exist. I don't care how perfect your plan is, I don't even want to be there when it fails. I'm out."

The Dark Knight, looking particularly emo, leaves, and is promptly lost in the chaos of barfighting that's been further pushed outside. A sort of critical mass has formed, with most of the eager fighters in the city ending up here because... well, that's where the fighting is. And so it continues.

[aetherialDawn]

Sharing information, the three remaining party members manage to come to an agreement over drinks; they'll see about securing the aid of the Summon Spirit Valefor by going underwater through the dangerous reefs out in the less-used parts of the bay.

But there will need to be equipment and preparation for such a journey, and that will require gil - and lots of it. Some side jobs, questing as it were, may be in order. But where to start?...

[ErwinBrodinger]

"Look, all I'm saying is we're going to need to travel underwater at some point, and we'll need to find a suitable vehicle, but I have no idea what to call an underwater vehicle, kupo. We've got boats for ON the water, and airships for ABOVE the water, but what about UNDER the water? Watership or waterboat are redundant, kupo, and underwatership doesn't have the right ring to it."

At this point, Mogswell knew that he wasn't contributing to the planning process at all, but the distinct lack of terminology for underwater transportation was really bothering him.

Mogswell began muttering to himself, "Maybe cut out a syllable by going with sea instead of water, but then it's underseaship, which sounds odd to me, kupo..." Trailing off into incoherent murmuring, Mogswell paused, slammed a fist onto the table, and shouted at a volume much louder than necessary, "UNDERSEABOAT!"

Noticing the disturbed stares from his companions, Mogswell coughed. "Uh, right, kupo. How are we going to get the money for this trip?"

[MoogleCid]

A somewhat tall, chocolate-furred moogle, having recently pushed his way through the brawl outside, takes note of the outburst, and moves over to that table. "Now, I couldn't help but overhear, but are any of you in need of something that'll take you under the sea? An under-sea-boat, if you will, kupo?" He steps back and bows rather dramatically.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Cid Lancaster, an inventor of sorts, and I haven't had a chance to really use that talent for quite a while, kupo. All I'll need is a rough idea of what you need it for, and how soon."

[LauWren]

Alice deadpans, What the hell. "Cid, was it? My name is Selene, though I generally go by Alice. If you have not had the chance to practice this skill, how are you sure that you could create such a thing?" She raises an eyebrow.* "And, perhaps more to the point, how specific a description would you need?" Because you don't generally get random crazy people who can answer that second one, anyway.

*((I checked; in several higher-quality pictures of moogles, there are discernible eyebrows (http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRV4zJWlVdMuiGlqTWZCiCtmOhVxFCA3 Vy954E03zHfLd_rmjSidw).))

[MoogleCid]

Cid turns to Alice and grins widely. "Glad you asked. You see, despite not having been in the business of inventing things on comission, I still frequently tinker in my spare time, so my engineering talents don't rust away."

"As for specifications," he adds, "Just tell me what features you'll need in it. I mean, some of them are obvious, like air supply, kupo. What you're using it for will help greatly in that regard. Of course, if you aren't satisfied with the results, I'm not obligating you to accept them, and I can use the parts for other projects, kupo."