Mytherra Online [IC]

[Ebon Dragon]

"Link Start!"
You are a point of vision in an infinite expanse of white. Before you floats a number of buttons.
Create New Character. The button provides resistance against your invisible hand. You are presented with a long list of mechanical options.
A figure appears in front of you. It's a digital reendition of yourself, although it may carry a few extra features, elongated ears, horns, a tail, that sort of thing. Along with it comes a list of sliders, labeled things like "Presets", "Body type", "Hairstyle" and so on.
Done.
Log in.
For a second, the white expanse disappears, replaced by featureless darkness.

You open your eyes. You are flying at high speed over a mountaneous landscape, following a narrow road as it winds itself down the mountainpass, it itself following a frozen stream. Plant-life is sparse, but a few pines litter the mountainside and small snow-drifts dot the area. It is not dark yet, but there is little light, as the sky is heavy with clouds. Light snow-fall obscures your vision as you zoom onwards. Down the road, a caravan comes into view. At this point, the road has departed the stream, and consists of a narrow plateu, steep slopes on either side. A voice speaks in your head as you draw near.
"You have been guarding this trade caravan all the way from Wyrmshead of the Dwarven Kingdom. The caravan brings trade goods for the city of Scales, and you are drawing near your destination. Coming down from the Cerrig pass, you will soon reach the village of Ayr for your first night under a real roof in weeks. From there, it is only two days to the town of Strand, which marks the end of the land-leg of the route, and the end of your own contract. Humble beginnings - but in the end, your quest will change the fate of all Mytherra!"
The route from the Dwarven Kingdom to the city of Scales is neither the shortest by land or by sea - but as rampant piracy based out of the untamed lands have long since put an end to all sea trade through the Cavan Bight, as Bragada has been overrun by the living dead, and as Iraxae and her minions lord over the Seven Gates of the Emperor's Highway, it is by far the safest one.

You open your eyes, for real this time. It's cold. The cold does not carry the accustomed sense of urgency to seek warmth; it has no effect on your own body temperature. The light snowfall has matured into a full-on blizzard, and visibility is reduced to ten meters or so. Lanterns have been lit on the wagons, providing a reference point besides the road itself. There are NPC's around, wrapped entirely in furs. Most of them are low and stout, but a few of them are tall and as regal as can be given the circumstances. There are other players too, although just a few of them, easily distinguished by their weapons, lack of bags and packages and inappropriate outfits.

http://s27.postimg.org/ylgxj2pw3/CAM00156.jpg

[Rokku]

Emma stands tall and straight, winter wind whipping her hair around her. There's a giddy grin plastered on her face as she draws her rapier and makes a few quick practice strikes.

"This is SO COOL! Everyone keep an eye out, low-visibility weather like this is almost always scripted into an ambush!"

[gremlin-pult]

Ripped out of his wide-eyed contemplation of the sights around him by the girls outburst, paxios reflexively pulls up his Scarf to cover his mouth and nose, then pulls up his hood and draws the longbow slung on his back. He looks over at the other players, cursing himself silently for obeying so easily, but ultimately decides to ignore it for now. In here he is not weak, and does not need to obey. But it takes some getting used to. He starts scanning the surroundings, and waits for something to happen.

[Khosan]

Werfer

In comparison to the others, Werfer barely reacted to the changes in the environment. To him, it was almost like another day at the office; searching for, reproducing and fixing bugs the hard way. If anything he was annoyed by the blizzard, not for the cold but for the fact that it obscured player vision and presented a relatively boring environment to start off in. At least the other players weren't other programmers for once.

"Ja, ja," Werfer speaks with a thick German accent, preparing his weapons as he does so, "Not mein first rodeo."

[stack]

John takes a moment to find his feet, the intro fly over somewhat unsettling his stomach. He takes a moment to look at his 'hands', flexing digital fingers on the ends of outstretched arms. Hope I didn't overdo it on the avatar. Don't want to get hours in and have to restart because I look stupid.

Satisfied with the feedback and responsiveness of basic motion, he draws the shield from his back in one smooth motion, his face betraying surprise at the ease with which it came. So surprised he almost dropped the impressively heavy and intimidatingly bladed device to the ground. Smooth. At least the weapon design isn't as over the top as some of the concept art. Hmm, maybe I should give this a try...

He hertz the shield in his right hand, looking for a likely target. "Let's see how this works.

He hurls the shield free, turning it into a disc of spinning death that shatters a sapling before ricocheting back to his hand, catching it with reflexes he never possessed. "Whoa, better than advertised. Hey, let's find a fight to try this stuff out properly!"

[jamieth]

Linda opened her eyes, feeling her heart beating fast and hard. It was... a challenge, for sure, to touch that "Done" button, to dare to log in looking like that. Her avatar, Lianda, looked almost like her... if she excersized ten times as much, went to beach daily, and forgot to change after the last beach trip. And in thefrozen wasteland, too... luckily, the game didn't simulate catching a cold. Hopefully.

Than again, that was what she decided to do from the beginning. Lianda was made to be all the things Linda herself never could. One of this things was, dashing and confident - and that was up to Linda to make her that wasy. The other thing was being agile and nimble... and for that, Linda would certgainly need an engine's help.

To test things out, she sat right on the snow - cold, for dure, but not wet - and leaned forward, spreading her legs... full 180 split, and without any effort. OK, so the engine was going to help, after all. Jumping back to her feet, she, in one swift motion, pulled tho curved daggers hanging on her waist and threw them into the air, then caught each one with the opposite hand and smiled. Oh yes, the engine was helping. "Let's slash some mosters!" she exclaimed, looking around.

[Ebon Dragon]

The general sentiment that the monster-bashing should commence immediately is met with mutters of harsh dwarvish from the NPC's. There's a loud crash of splintering wood up in the front of the caravan, and something indistinct but solid-looking is tumbling out over the left-hand edge, dissappearing down the mountainside. The front wagon starts sliding, but grinds to a pecarious halt, nearly half of it hanging over the edge. There's more loud dwarven swearing, and then a gruff, commanding voice calls out, "No-one's hurt! Guards, get up here, we have a situation. One at a time, there's not a lot of room."

That's certainly true enough. With the cart the way it is, one person can make it past easily enough, but getting the other carts past will be impossible without moving this one out of the way.

[gremlin-pult]

Paxios hides his surprise at the over-eagerness of the other players, and starts walking towards the front end of the caravan.

Might as well check it out, since the others are busy being hyperHe muses. He walks up cautiously, bow held ready in one hand, going over the abilities he got at character creation.

"Whats the problem?" He asks as he joins the NPC's in the front.

[stack]

John jogs over toward the problem. "If there is an ambush scripted I should be up front. I specc'd for tanking." He looks at the situation. "Rope, we get some rope and haul it back from the edge. I think there was some in the starting kit...yup, here it is." He produces a length of course rope from his pack.

[jamieth]

Lianda had no place in helping pulling the wagon back; some rather extreme choices Linda made when creating her resulted in the maiden of war being barely able to lift her backpack with one hand - but look at these damage figures!
Not that it could dissuade her from being on the front line of the potential ambush, of course. The girl dashed towards a wagon, jumped, bounced off the side and landed on the part of the roof that was still on the solid ground. High ground was advantage in battle, wasn't it?
Taking 10 on Acrobatics gives me 20; hopefully enough to get to the roof - or at least grab it and pull myself up.

[Rokku]

Emma approaches the front of the caravan, keeping a weather eye on the skies. If an ambush was coming, up was one of the more likely directions for it to come from in this terrain.

[gremlin-pult]

Paxios pulls his silk rope out of his backpack and throws it over to the rapier wielding woman, then nods towards the man with the shield "He's right about needing to pull the wagon up. you can use this rope if you need it, but i won't help unless its impossible without it" He says quietly. He looks around again, then takes a few steps away from the others and speaks again "If there really comes an ambush here, its probably gonna happen while we're busy, and focus on those pulling the wagon. I'm a ranged attacker, so i'll be no use if i get caught in the middle of a meleé"

[Khosan]

Werfer

"I'll get ze cargo off ze vagon," the pudgy one with the knives steps up and puts a hand on John's shoulder, "Just in case, ja? Vagon's not as important as vat it's carrying." Werfer offered a smile, though, in his head, he added that the cargo wasn't that important either. The loss of some NPC's trade goods in what he assumed to be a tutorial instance didn't bother him overly much. In any case, he grabs any crates, barrels or other containers within reach and moves them off the cart. "Besides, if zeir physics is modeled correctly, zis vill make it easier to get back up."

[Ebon Dragon]

"Good idea, Werfer." The leader is approached by another dwarf who says something, apparently important, and the leader nods gravely in response. "Seems it's more broke than I thought." He turns to adress you all. "The five of you run along down to Ayr and tell inkeeper Ceyn that Trader Norbar send you, and that we need him to send a wagon back up the..." He's interrupted by a loud, mad cackle as a number of indistinct shapes come rushing out of the darkness down the path, brandishing a variety of weapons and shields. Another cluster of cackles rise from above the path, and you can just make out more shapes standing just on the edge. Spears come flying down towards you, most of them going wide, but a few hitting home. Getting hit by a spear is much less painful than you'd think, just a slight twinge where the point bites into you.
http://i.imgbox.com/Coai9Z6j.jpg
Legend
Torm is represented by light green, Emma is dark blue, Paxios is brown, Werfer is yellow and Lianda is red.
Your enemies are represented by "G"'s.
The brown squares are wagons, if you want to move through a square which has road, but is predominantly filled by wagon, you have to squeeze past. The top of the wagon Lianda is standing on is five feet up from the ground, which makes jumping on to one from the path a DC 20 acrobatics check with a running start. If you jump onto the one hanging out over the edge I'll require a balance check to see if you tumble down the mountainside, taking the wagon with you. New check every round you don't spend a standard action standing still.
The green-colored area is mountainside, which is treated as difficult terrain.

The greyed out areas are steep slope, 8 feet tall. Climbing them (up or down) requires a dc 15 climb check, a free hand, and uses up ten feet of movement. If you're climbing you're denied your dex modifier to ac. You can jump
down with a dc 12 acrobatics check, failure leaves you prone at the square in front of the slope, and you take 1d6 nonlethal damage.
Jumping from the top of a wagon to the mountainside the enemies are standing on is a 3 foot vertical jump from an unsteady surface(DC 14, or 26 without a 10ft running start, which might be possible through a maneuver). The packages aren't designed for sure footing or supporting weight on top of them, and medium or heavy armor might make you break something and fall.
Paxios takes a flat-footed AC 15 hit from a javelin, which deals 9 damage.
Lianda takes a flat-footed AC 18 hit from a javelin, which deals 6 damage.

I run initiative in blocks, divided up by enemies. First block is Werfer Emma and Lianda, second block is your foes, third block is all of you, fourth block is your enemies, etc.

As such, Khosan, Jamieth, and Rokku, you're up!

[Rokku]

Emma whirls on one of the creatures threatening her with a spiked backfist, following up with a rapier thrust to the gut.

Armor Spikes [roll0] [roll1] Rapier [roll2] [roll3]

[jamieth]

Getting hit by a spear might not be that painful here, but... Lianda hissed, looking at the lifebar that was more than half-empty from only a single strike. Apparently, contrary to some stories she heard about other games, here, what looked closer to the bikini than proper armor... protected about as well as a bikini should. Well, I'm not going down without a blast!

With that thought, and the aid of the game's engine, the girl leaped forward. Back home, she had no chance of making it - let's be honest, back home, a world champion in athletics would probably had no chance of making it. Here, though? With a double somersault and a twist, she landed dead-on in her chosen spot... right between two nearest enemies. The next moment, her Starknives thrusted towards both.

Swift Action: Leaping Dragon to jump to C8. With Maneuver's bonus, I have auto-running start and +20 Acrobatics, so auto-make it. Might provoke, though, so here's Tumble rolls:
Against G in C9: [roll0]
Against G in D7: [roll1]

Full Action: Full Attack with TWF.
Against G in C9: MWK Starknife, [roll2] 14, Crit confirm [roll3], Damage [roll4]
Against G in D7: Starknife, [roll5] 9, Crit confirm [roll6], Damage [roll7]


HP 4/10
AC 16, FF 11, Touch 15

[Khosan]

Werfer

"Hm?" Werfer turns around, deigning to give the enemies his attention, "Ah." A pair of semi-transparent starknives appear in his grubby hands which then, very shortly thereafter, flew towards one of the nearby enemies.

Full Round Action: Full Attack enemy at D4

Attack 1 - [roll0], [roll1]
Attack 2 - [roll2], [roll3]

HP: 14/14
AC: 18

[Ebon Dragon]

As Lianda flies past, one of the beastmen awkwardly bashes at her with his shield, one hand still grasping for another throwing spear.

aoo vs lianda: [roll0] for [roll1]

[Ebon Dragon]

Emma makes short work of one of the opponents skewering the second, which males it Howl in anger. The slain houndcreature explodes in a shower of brightly coloured shards.
Up close, the enemies resemble a cross between Wild sofa and humans. Their skin is covered in short, spotted fur, their face end in a distinctly canine muzzle, and their eyes shine with mad rage, all of it combining with the cackling laughter for a pretty unsettling effect. These creatures are gnolls. Wretched beings, they are quite capable hunters and cunning ambushers, but rarely bother with even that effort, subsisting mainly on carrion. these humanoids bear the touch of Lilith, mother of demons. Her spawn are known to be corrupters of mortalkind, and it is likely that either these creatures or their ancestors were once dwarves or something of the like.

Werder and Lianda's attacks go wide. Lianda's foes manage to draw their weapons, and they lay into her. Emma's foe Jacks at her wildly, and Torm is subjected to a vigorious attempt to put a sword through him. Spears pepper Werfer in retalatory fire.
the gnoll in g5 is dead, Lianda is now in c8.Emma: to hit [roll0], [roll1] damage.
Torm: to hit [roll2], [roll3] damage.
Lianda: to hit [roll4], [roll5] damage,
to hit [roll6], [roll7] damage.

Werfer: to hit [roll8], [roll9] damage, conc. on a 1. [roll10],
to hit [roll11], [roll12] damage, conc. on a 1. [roll13],
to hit [roll14], [roll15] damage, conc. on a 1. [roll16].

All of you are up.

[jamieth]

Lianda hissed again as the second hit turned her hitbar to nothing. Still, apparently in this game that didn't immediately mean she was dead... she still had a chance. But for that, she needed an opening... a risk had to be taken. And should it fail... well, it was onlyu a game after all. She was quite fed up with being careful and sensible on the other side. Stepping aside, she twisted in place, cutting the... what was these things, anyway? shouldn't they have a namebars, or something? ... anyway, the creature that separated itself from the group.
The knives stroke true, and Lianda saw the creature collapsing... before her eyes went dark and her legs gave way. "What..." she whispered, berfore collapsing to the ground.


You are dying. Do you want to attempt to stabilize?
Five-foot step into B9
Standart Action: Swift Claws against the one in C9
Attack 1: MWK Starknife [roll0] Crit: [roll1] Damage: [roll2]
Attack 2: Starknife [roll3] Crit: [roll4] Damage: [roll5]
HP 0[/i] -1, [s]Staggered Dying
AC 16, FF 11, Touch 15

[gremlin-pult]

With a quick repositioning, Paxios relaxes into a slightly lower stance, sets his sights on one of the beasts on the ridge, and fires an arrow towards it. as soon as the arrow leaves the bowstring Paxios looks once more to the others, hoping that they can handle the situation.

Paxios enters the stance of piercing rays (+1d6 on all ranged attacks) as a swift action. he then attacks the enemy in D7.
D7: to hit [roll0], [roll1] damage
extra damage from stance [roll2], miss on 1. [roll3]
confirmation in case of crit [roll4]

[stack]

[roll0]

Initially distracted by his efforts to figure out roping the cart, John/Torm is brought into the moment by the dull thumps of blows deflected by his armor. Seeing another player take a nasty hit, he thinks for a moment, remembering that he had just the thing. Just have to hit one of them...let's see. He brings his bladed shield down in a heavy arc toward an adjacent foe. crusader's strike vs F4 [roll1]
damage [roll2]

heal [roll3]

[Rokku]

Emma turns on the remaining gnoll threatening her, issuing a spiked shin kick and a thrust of her rapier.

Rapier [roll0][roll1] Armor Spikes [roll2][roll3]

[Khosan]

Werfer

Humming at his lack of success, another pair of starknives manifest in his hands and are once again thrown at his chosen target. Emma's current predicament barely seemed to factor into the equation for him.

Full Round Action: Full attack, throwing both starknives at
Attack 1 - [roll0] ([roll1] missing on a 1), [roll2]
Attack 2 - [roll3] ([roll4] missing on a 1), [roll5]
HP: 14/14
AC: 18

[Ebon Dragon]

Lianda isolates and quickly dispatches her beastman, but collapses from the effort. Its partner seems to loose interest in her, and levels its spear at Paxios. Emma's rapier makes short work of her second opponent and it, too, exploded in a shower of colours. Werfer's phantom starknife finds its mark, and at this point there are only four opponents remaining.

They howl, throw their spears, and start making their way, carefully down the mountainside. The one attacking Torm seems frustrated with its lack of success, and sidesteps him to get at Emma.

Ranged vs Werfer, [roll0], [roll1]dmg, [roll2] miss on a 1
Ranged vs Paxios, [roll3], [roll4]dmg, [roll5] miss on a 1
Ranged vs Emma, [roll6], [roll7]dmg, [roll8] miss on a 1
Melee vs Emma, [roll9], [roll10]dmg
There are now gnolls in G5, F3, E2 and D3. Lianda lies bleeding out in B8.

[jamieth]

You are dying. Do you want to attempt to stabilize?
Linda reaches towards the button spelling "Yes".
Constitution check, with -1 for HP: [roll0]


You have stabilized. You can regain your consciousness in
60:00
Really? Linda was ready to strangle the designer who invented this game rule to death. Which was strange on its own, since Linda never even considered strangling someone to deat, even as a joke.


You have stabilized. You can regain your consciousness in
59:58

Stable
HP -1/10

[Rokku]

Emma staggers as her flesh is pierced and her health bar drops dangerously low. Catching herself on one knee, she readies her healing strike and thrusts low at the gnoll who cut her.

Attack [roll0] Damage [roll1] Healing [roll2]

[gremlin-pult]

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!"Paxios keeps mumbling this until it becomes akin to a mantra. He then sees the girl on the ridge fall, and the beasts coming around for the rest of them. with the distraction down, Paxios quickly forces back control over his breath, and studies the targets. He focuses at one beast just coming down the ridge. That one is the easiest to hit. But the others are in the way.... damn this is gonna be a hail mary" He breathes in deeply, and tries to account for the wind, before carefully choosing an arrow and drawing the bowstring back. As he lets out his breath, the arrow leaves the string, making a realistically impossible curve around the other players, towards the beastman.

First, I initiate the Horizon wind lancet (one ranged attack deals +1d6 damage. swift action), then I initiate the Curving ray shot (I make a perception roll vs. the enemys AC. If i succeed, any cover bonuses to AC are negated)
first, perception: [roll0]
second, to hit: [roll1], crit confirmation: [roll2]
damage from bow: [roll3]
extra damage from stance & boost: [roll4]
miss on 1 [roll5]

[stack]

Huh, harder than it looks. Good thing I picked more than one healing manuever. Now, think tactically. They can't defend all sides, move to its back. Torm steps behind one of the creatures and attempts to smash it down. little lost without a current map. Shouldn't matte too much. Moving to flank the nearest gnoll and using enduring crane strike

att [roll0] (assumes flank)
[roll1]

heal our downed member [roll2]

[Khosan]

Werfer

"I am beginning to kvewstion," Werfer pipes up as he lets another starknife fly, "What ze hell zeir designers vere sinking ven zey made zis!"

Full Round Action: Full Attack one of the enemies attacking Emma

Attack 1 - [roll0] ([roll1] miss on 1), [roll2]
Attack 2 - [roll3] ([roll4] miss on 1), [roll5]

HP: 14/14
AC: 18