Brave World Online (IC)

[Mura-neechan]

There was a brilliant light filling Athram's eyes. As Damian felt tired eyes slowly open, as the massive stone alter felt cool on the hand which still rested upon it. The last moments of his party's first major field encounter left his head a bit fuzzy. It would take a bit, but the memories would return, sure enough. The way the world had suddenly turned grey, and a weird menu box had appeared as his body. Of course, the situation was unmistakable.

You have died.

- Resurrect at Ars Halra Temple (-2,500 Experience Points, Treasure Drop)
- Accept player Resurrection (-2,000 Experience Points, Death Penalty)
- Wait for help

Standard resurrection wasn't going to happen in combat, and it wasn't like the level 1 party had any items that would make an easier method, and as his team was being devoured by the Dire Boar area boss, nobody was going to be able to save them. The party would eventually completely fall, as their bodies dispersed. Still, the feeling of dispersing and returning back together again upon the Ars Halra Temple would be a feeling that was difficult to even register properly, leaving his body numb for a time as he climbed off the alter. There wasn't anything much of note here, as Artham would find four simple objects. A small vendor selling Minor Healing Crystals for 10 COL, which would be useful if he hadn't lost all his COL upon reviving at the Temple.

Next to that was the small chest, acting as his personal storage, the only place one could keep treasures safe for certain. Naturally, it was empty. Across from both of them was a sturdy looking man, wearing the temple robes, next to a small workstation. Repairing starter gear was free of charge, and only a fool wouldn't use the service. Directly across from the alter was a single wooden door, one hand upon the handle would instantly transfer him from the private instance where all players's resurrected to the Party Chamber.

Inside Party Chamber #512, Athram would find he was the last to successfully revive and get out of the personal room, as the other four were already waiting for him. The six doors each poor their character names and level, with the final door displaying itself as the exit.

Longinus, Level 1
Kara Deeay, Level 1
Athram, Level 1
Lavinia, Level 1
Arthouros, Level 1
Ars Halra Temple Entrance

While the group had run into an unexpected area boss, they'd done well enough, each still maintaining 5,000 Experience Points, placing them half way to Level 2, and their respective skills seemed to be increasing at an easy enough pace. Naturally, the party chambers would be the same for each of the five, though only Athram would seem to be disoriented at all from their first death. Before they'd have a chance to great the last member of the party, an Event Siren would play.

Event Notice. Players Level 1 - 5, completing to Fidial Forest (Dungeon) will earn double rewards if it is done within the next 4 hours. (2 Day Cycles).

[Ilorin Lorati]

"Guys. Guys. Game is hard, yea?" Kara grinned into the small glowing orb that followed her around as she stepped out of the respawn room and walked over to the repair station. She spoke into that thing more than she spoke to the rest of the party, at least out of combat - during fights, however, she was nothing but professional - shouting off alerts and warnings like it was second nature to her.

She quickly finished with her repairs and sat down on a bench in the lobby, opening up the interface and going to what appeared to be an old-style chat screen that scrolled nearly too quickly for anyone to read off of it. A look would show that it was mostly people laughing at the her expense, but it seemed that she managed to pick a few questions out of the crowd.

"I wouldn't really call it pain, no. Stick your thumb hard into your arm and that's a bit like what it feels like in this game."
"No, there's no action-bars or anything. The system seems to guide your movements a bit, but it's entirely based on your own movements."
"I'm not checking that."


She looked like she was going to answer a few more questions, until the alarm sounded. Making a face up at the camera, Kara closed down the menu and commented, "I guess since they can't hold our hands in combat, they have to lead us around with a carrot. Then again, isn't that what MMOs have been since the outset?"

Now obviously addressing the party, the robed archer stood up while she spoke. "I think we just got in a bit over our heads; we probably could do a dungeon with this comp."

[Metroid33]

Lavinia walked over to Kara and looked head on at the glowing orb giving a quick smile and a wave. "Well then, how about we go and check out that forest?" Lavinia says moving to the center of the room to address everyone in the party. "By the way Kara are you going to be talking to them all the time while we are out of Combat?" She said leaning toward the archer with a quizzical look on her face.

[Ilorin Lorati]

That was a legitimately difficult question to answer. Most of the time she was able to speak freely to the people watching her, because her voice wasn't directly tied into a VR system like this. Everything she said being able to be heard by the people around was sure to get annoying before long, and she didn't want to upset them but discussion and interactivity was what made streamers their money. "...I'll try and keep it to a minimum." Looking up at the camera, she gave an apologetic look and told them as well: "It's a brand new world, and we're going to have to learn its rules. Sorry guys."

[DoctorFaust]

Shane walks out of the ressurection chamber, stretching and patting at his arms and legs. "Hey, Kara!" he calls. "You're the one who's been recording since the damn raid started, maybe you can tell me when it went to ****." He waves at the floating orb, and puts on a pantomime grin. "As long as one of you guys didn't distract our ranged while we were in the middle of a boss battle."

[Grim ranger]

Rolling his shoulders, the pale-haired figure of Athram slowly rose up from the altar, wincing somewhat. The pain wasn't probably what one would actually feel when being gored by a boss they had just fallen prey to, but it was nevertheless a stinging reminder of the fact that they were still new to the game. Well, they and everyone else: it was unlikely anyone had gotten much farther from them yet, apart from the most die-hard players. One'd have to be a genuine swordmaster instead of merely talented amateur to rush too far ahead in this game.

Going on to get his equipment repaired, the knightly figure walked to the wooden door, taking the handle to transfer himself to the Party Chamber. Right, it was about time to iron out the kinks in the strategy... And it seemed an event suitable for that was just about to begin too.

"Sorry I am late guys... Whoah, dying in this game is something else" he noted with a small, awkward chuckle, his fingers scratching the back of his neck in awkward gesture. "Think we should take on that Event? I mean, we could have done better before, but also worse... And the double rewards sound nice..."

Giving Kara's floating orb a funny look, he nodded to each of the party members in turn.

[DoctorFaust]

"Sure as hell need to do something to make up the XP and cash from a TPK," Shane grunts. "Hopefully it'll go better than this one did."

[Grim ranger]

"Hey, we were doing well until the damn thing's attack pattern changed completely. Threw me out of my game completely at least" Athram grumbled. "I know that eventually it should be awesome to have both solid defensive and offensive styles, but right now I am hardly optimized... I'll need to find myself a backup weapon for the shield style. But another tank WOULD have helped, I am not denying that."

[Ilorin Lorati]

"A second tank would have been overkill; really, the only problem we had is that nobody expected a boar to be smarter than us." She laughed, and continued. "I'm pretty sure we're all used to MMOs having dedicated healers. Learn to play more defensively, use disengages and keep the opponents off of the back-line and we should be fine."

With a wave of her hand, the woman moved the camera just over her right shoulder, where it floated silently just out of her peripheral vision. "I'm not going to turn down double rewards, especially not when double could mean a whole level worth of XP."

[DoctorFaust]

"Only having one tank meant that Lavinia, me, and... ****, the other guy, what's his name? Empty? Enter Name Here? We kept drawing aggro. Not saying you did a bad job, Athram, though. ****, if anything, you were pretty much solely responsible for us not wiping sooner. But us frontliners were taking a lot more damage than we should've, and we had to dedicate a lot of our time to keeping mobs off of you," Shane says, pointing at Kara. "Which meant that we couldn't do our jobs with the monster we were actually trying to fight. Something that having a second tank prob'ly would've fixed."

[Metroid33]

"Arthouros calm down. There's nothing that can be done now about that fight. All we can do now is work on our team dynamic."

[DoctorFaust]

"Alright, yeah, I'm getting a little worked up. In my defense, I've been playing on a lotta permadeath servers recently. But, what, are you suggesting we can overcome the aggro and armor systems hardcoded into the game using... the power of friendship?"

[Ilorin Lorati]

Kara's soft laughter broke out into a full-on fit of them at Arthouros's comment. Taking a few moments to calm down, she finally managed to squeeze out "Yea- that sounds like what she's saying. And she's right, too. She may be getting a bit ahead of herself to say we're going to be playing together for long, but there's a reason why teams practice with each other. Chemistry may be half of teamwork, but hard work is the rest."

[Tempestfury]

‘Well... there goes that...’ Arcantos mused to himself with a sigh, looking at the respawn screen in front of him. It was a rather bitter taste, to have his story cut off so soon... the legacy of [ ] destroyed before he even got to his second level. Hell, the legacy destroyed before he could even CREATE a legacy... especially with how careful he had been with his cash, making sure he had an excess of potions so he wouldn’t die... yes, it was rather bitter.

Because of this, Arcantos was a little slow to respawn to the others, having to take a deep breath to calm himself, and think over the situation. Wondering if it could be salvaged at all... maybe... maybe he could said that the oath to never be defeated began due to an embarrassing total party wipe and level 1? That... that could work... that could quite possibly work. Through, perhaps thinking on a different story, a different legacy to make could be good, just in case... maybe this [ ] isn’t a perfect gamer, but instead someone who takes on difficult challenges and never gives up trying to accomplish them? He chose the Small Blade after all, which was the most difficult fighting style from the looks of things. Yeah... yeah that could possible work...

With these two ideas in mind, Arcantos finally respawned, emerging from the room after making sure his basic gear was completely repaired... through he paused afterwards, feeling a little awkward as he wasn’t entirely sure how to join the conversation.

[Q'telun]

John stretches his arms above his head and cracks his elbows before walking through into the party chamber. "Nothing quite like that first wipe in an MMO, am I right? Who's down for double rewards?"

[Ilorin Lorati]

"First wipe, one of many, many more to come. I sure as hell am ready for double rewards; just stay on your toes, I can't imagine this'll be easier than the boar." With that, the woman made her way towards the door, stepping through it and out into the larger world once more.

[Q'telun]

The armor plated man shrugs and follows after with a wide grin. Nothing really compares to exploring a brand new world after all.

[Metroid33]

"Alrighty then let's go make up for what we just lost." Lavinia says with a wide grin on her face as she moves toward the door to follow the others.

[Grim ranger]

"Oh, even if there will no doubt still be wipes, I have hope for us guys: who knows, we might even end up as strongest guild in the game" Athram notes with optimistic smile, holding his greatsword over his shoulder. "So once more into the breach, yeah?"

[Q'telun]

"Where angels fear to tread."

[DoctorFaust]

Shane grunts and rolls his shoulders. "The mind is it's own place, blah blah blah. Let's go kick some teeth in."

[Ilorin Lorati]

Kara snickered and added her own with "One more. 'Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?' "

[Mura-neechan]

Ars Halra - City of of Heroes
Iota Server

The towering city of Ars Halra was simply a dominating presence. Pristine, untouched by the waves of monsters outside the walls. The dawning sun filled the area with a gentle light, as the party walked through it. The setup of the city was of a simple design. The Temple was located as the most northern building, with the market district located on an elevated platform in the center of the city, as larger buildings surrounded the district, mostly as a decorative presence, outside of the Guild Hall to the south of the city, the Blade Academy to the West, and the residential district to the east, most notably bearing the Halra Halls, a large building which offered inn rooms for rent, as opposed to expensive player housing.

Each of the four corners of the city also held a massive gate, which was the only way in or out of the city. Four NPC guards stood watch over each, all of which appeared to be Level 15 soldiers. As Fidial Forest was towards the east, the party would find the South-East gate the most inviting to take, as dozens of other players were also heading out, each on their own path, carving through various monsters on their way to the dungeon. As such, there would not be much in the way of field monsters to farm, before reaching the actual dungeon. Still, if they were on the prowl for any such thing, it wasn't impossible to find some spawns that had not been abused by passing players, it would only take time.

In either case, the Dungeon Entrance was unmistakable, as the plains would slowly grow more and more wooded, until a massive flurry of trees stood before them, with a single small path being the only was inside. Even looking in, it was clearly quite dark in the dungeon, and as soon as a party of players ran into the forest, they would completely vanish, not even their cries of excitement could be heard.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Kara kept pace with the rest of the party, seeming to gravitate towards the front - an unlikely position for an archer to be taking, but at the moment a hardly dangerous one because of the lack of mobs around. During quiet times she would talk into the camera, but as promised and alluded to earlier, she wouldn't give her viewers priority over the rest of the party, moving the camera out of her way and talking with them while there was conversation going on.

"Oh good, it's Instanced. No waiting for spawns, no competition, just sweet sweet loot. Let's hope this dual tank strat you all want is all it's cracked up to be."

[DoctorFaust]

Shane grunts and draws his swords. "Hope it is. But how d'you know the thing's instanced?"

[Ilorin Lorati]

"Because the alternative is that everyone is dying when they cross through the entrance. I don't think this game has any zone load barriers with the exception of the respawn rooms."

[Q'telun]

"Plus, even if they were dying we'd see their corpses, or monsters that had been drawn here by other players. And with a reward like double experience we should be seeing people if this was open."

[Grim ranger]

Hefting his large blade over his shoulder, Athram nodded. "Well, all the better that we won't have to compete with other raiders for the loot. Here's to hoping the extra challenge won't be too much for us: it'd be sad to not even get to the boss this time around."

[Metroid33]

"Yeah but don't forget there could always be seamless integration with another parties version of the dungeon, create some potential PvP situations." Lavinia said adding in her two cents on the matter.

[Mura-neechan]

As the party would slip away into the dungeon, they quickly found their sense of the world shift. As they emerged from the other side of the darkness. Deep within a dense forest, the only lights within the place were the streams of fireflies flowing throughout the area, severely limiting anyone's field of view. A still pond lay behind the group as they found trees almost completely enclosing them. One great path was open before them, and the footsteps of other adventurers, as well as flicking sources of light could be noticed ahead. However, as the group looked around, they'd find two other paths stretched out from the sides, much narrower, and without the sounds of other swordsmen clamoring down.

In a moment, Longinus would find his hands suddenly heavy, as a hefty lantern would materialize in them, the flame sparking the moment it was held and producing a 60 foot sphere of light. It would only seem to function while it was being held by one of the five, turning dark the moment it left their hands. It was fairly hefty, but tougher sort could comfortably carry it with a single hand. (Strength Requirement: 12)




http://i.imgur.com/wKlZUJr.png

[Ilorin Lorati]

Kara looked around the small sphere of light that the lantern made, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. "This is going to be a pain in the ass. Can you all still see?" Opening up her menu immediately, she checked chat to make sure that was the case. As expected, they should see the sphere but nothing beyond it - the camera had the same sight quality as its operator. With that out of the way, she went to examining what she could among the small area the lantern let her; dungeons usually had some hint as to what the encounters were going to be like.

Since it was a forest dungeon, she expected some beasts and plant-type monsters. Fire would be useful, but no one was high enough level for that yet. "In darkness like this, I think we should keep near the walls if we can, and have the tanks flanking on our front and rear. Any objections?"




Perception: [roll0]
Hints as to more specific types of dungeon, anything useful near the entrance.

Systems: [roll1]
More in-depth on what encounters this type of dungeon typically has.

[Q'telun]

Longinus lifts the lantern above his head, shield held at the ready. "I've got no problem taking front or rear, but we might want to reconsider that formation when we get to the wider corridor. And I can see just fine, yeah."

[Grim ranger]

Judging their surroundings carefully, Athram shifts uneasily as he spins his greatsword in slow circles about himself. "The one holding the lantern should be in the middle of the party: if we lose sight of the rear, ambush is more than likely, and I am willing to bet that thing will hinder fighting somewhat."

[roll0] (Perception)

[roll1] (Knowledge: Geography)

Just in case either of those checks would reveal any useful insight regarding the dungeon

[DoctorFaust]

Shane glances down the smaller corridors, shifting his grip on his swords. "Yeah, I'd say make the lantern guy stand in the middle. Can't be me, though. Need both hands to fight right."

[Ilorin Lorati]

As Kara looks around the entry chamber, she goes a bit more in depth in regards to how the dungeons work, looking back and forth between the area and the chat screen that's in front of her still, a mild look of concern on her face. It doesn't look like she's reading from the screen, so there's likely something else going on. "Dungeons in this game are a bit different than what you expect from a normal MMO. Dungeon difficulty covers a range of levels, but instead of it just being built for a level range they're built with multiple paths that handle different difficulty levels.

"Fidal Forest, for example, is built for levels 2-7, which means that there will be a level 2 path, then a level 7 path, and one of more paths in between. Personally, since we're still level 1 I'd recommend the level 2 path, but we may be able to take something a bit more difficult if we're wary."

"Chat is saying that the big path straight ahead is where all the higher level people are going, so that's probably not the low level path... and they're offering advice on what to do as per usual. I'm not sure where the lower level path is, though."

Quickly, she types something into the chat screen to try and tell them the sound appears to be bugged out, asking one of the moderators to contact the house and check up on it. Finally, she closes the screen; there's no point in keeping it open like that.

"If I remember correctly, we're mostly looking at dire animals and orcs, with a couple random surprises that depend on which way we go."

[Q'telun]

John pulls a face at the mention of the chat. "Oh right, you're streaming. Well, my vote would have been for straight ahead, but since we know whats there already, why don't we try going to the left?"

[Grim ranger]

Considering, Athram looks at the rest of the party uncertainly. "Well, I have a heavy shield without back-up weapon anyhow, so I can carry the lantern if nobody else is able: I'd normally be using this," he remarks, sheathing his greatsword across his back "but it'd also leave me unable to carry the lantern. Considering how close we are to the City of Heroes, we are probably not going to see really evil enemies, but given the location we can likely expect Fae enemies of some sort."

[Metroid33]

"Well as the only one in the party who is specked out for one handed without a shield I could take the lantern, literally my left hand is doing nothing at the moment." Lavinia says, chiming into the chat.

[Q'telun]

Longinus opens up his inventory, and offers the lantern to Lavinia in a trade.

[Grim ranger]

"This works. Onwards then, and let's get that XP and loot" Athram says with a chuckle, pulling his greatsword out of it's sheath again and nodding to the rest. "I can take a hit and give one back, so I think it's the best if I go first, yeah? If everyone is on board with that, let's get to it!"

[Mura-neechan]

As they group would follow the western path, they'd find it bending northwest a bit after a while, but for quite some time, it had seemed to have been simply a long 'hall' within the dungeon. However, as they made it around the bend, Longinus would barely manage to evade a rush of emerald flames which roared to life spontaneously from his back. It completely enveloped the path behind them, leaving no trace of a way to return. It seemed that choosing a different path was out of the question now, though the excitement would only quickly build from there. As the group continued on, they'd find another group which had already entered battle. And it was going quite poorly.

The path opened out into a larger clearing, and the howls of Wargs rang through it, as they sped all about the room. Two girls who had been in the fray were clearly down, their bodies lifeless and gray. A shame, they seemed to have designed their characters as rather lively looking twins. The Warg which had finished them seemed to be fairly damaged, but it simply howled as it raced to flank the rest of the failing party. A teenage boy, carrying the lantern and a single blade seemed to be trying to defend another girl who seemed to have lost her weapon, who's HP bar was almost nonexistent, as yet one more boy, a bit older was up ahead with a rapier and engaging a pair of the monsters by himself. The lantern wielding boy groaned in annoyance.

"You suck so very much, Dex. If you are going to aggro everything, at least start protecting the others!"

"Tanks aren't required in a game like this, if you maintain a certain level of skill~ We can revive them after, anyways, right?"



Warg (Level 4 | Anti-Unit Type)



http://i.imgur.com/iGwL2yU.png

Full Image (http://i.imgur.com/iGwL2yU.png)

[Q'telun]

"Athram, you wanna help those two fight the warg? Arthourous, Kara, Lavinia, wounded one, then get the twins on their feet. I'll go help the hero that think's he's all that. When you kill them, help get the ones that are left. Ready?" Longinus grins and sets his shield for a charge. "Looks like we're getting here in the nick of time. What does that make us?"

[DoctorFaust]

"Big damn heroes!" Shane roars. "Athram, I'm coming out on your left." He darts forwards for several seconds, and then clears the last ten feet between the Warg and himself in an enormous bound that leaves him with his sword thrust out.

Left 4, up 1, lunge strike. Spending 1 AGL, 2 TP.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Ilorin Lorati]

"Big damn heroes - if you stop standing there and help." Kara says in concert with Shane and grins at Longinus and pulls her equipped bow, moving into the room in preparation to enter melee.



1 up-left, 3 left. By the wall.

[Grim ranger]

"Big damn heroes we are!" Athram declares with a chuckle, holding his greatsword extended by his side as he rushes at the Warg, joining the fight beside two surprised players. Bringing his weapon up, he makes a heavy overhead swing at the Warg while grinning to the pair. "Mind if I cut in?"

Moving 2 up-left and 3 up before striking Warg 1. Adding letters and numbers to the grid could help a lot, though it might be a lot of work.

[roll0] (Attack)
[roll1] (Damage)

Did 2-handers have the rule of counting additional damage from Str modifier 1,5-times as well? If yes, just add 2 to the damage.

[Q'telun]

"Aint we just." Longinus starts to move, a juggernaut of steel and pain.


Up-Left 2, Left 4

[Metroid33]

"Well there goes the element of surprise in a way." Lavinia says to herself as all the others charge in with there loudest battle cries. She then moves over closer to the wounded warg.

Just like most of the party I will be moving up 2 left 4

[Mura-neechan]

As the party would rush towards the wargs, the swordsman would fling their bodies at them. Arthouros would tear into the Warg, though it was for minimal damage, it did allow him to face off on the beast. Athram would find himself in much better luck, as his massive blade screamed downwards, making a massive gash of pixels throughout the warg, as the green bar above it whittled away about 10% more.

http://i.imgur.com/EhlvBRm.png

Full Image (http://i.imgur.com/EhlvBRm.png)


((All Players, roll Initiative.))

[Metroid33]

[roll0]

"Arthouros, coming on your right!" Lavinia yells out moving in on Arthouros's right and then swinging around to the other side of the warg. Then once she's on the other side of it she quickly stabs into it.

Moving up in a diagonal to the left once and then running around to the other side of the warg.Then going to make a single attack at the thing.

To hit [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

[Ilorin Lorati]

[roll0]

As Lavinia moves out of the way, Kara ducks up into her place and then sidesteps to get a better view of the Warg attacking the stranger. Pulling a handful of arrows out of her quiver, she knocks two on her bow at the same time, letting them off before knocking a third and letting it go as well.

At the same time Kara's camera swings around, quickly scanning the rest of the battlefield before fixating on the trio that she fired into.


Using Twin arrow on Warg 2, then using a point of Agility to follow up with a third attack action.

TA1: [roll1]
TA2: [roll2]
Attack: [roll3]

Dmg1: [roll4]
Dmg2: [roll5]
Dmg3: [roll6]

TP: 5/7
AP: 6/7

[DoctorFaust]

Initiative: [roll0]

"Right, acknowledged!" Shane calls. As she passes behind him, he lashes out twice with both swords, hoping for more solid strikes this time around.

Attack 1:[roll1]
Attack 2:[roll2]
Damage 1:[roll3]
Damage 2:[roll4]

What's the roll for the AGL point I used, again?

[Q'telun]

[roll0]


Longinus continues picking up speed as he moves towards the player engaging two Wargs on his own, and slams into one with his spear extended.


Up-Left x4
Up x2

Up x1

Spend an Action point to stab the furry bastard in the flank, and 5 TP to start a Rapid Thrust chain.

[Grim ranger]

[roll0] (Initiative)

"I got it here! Keep the rest away from this fight, these two have taken too much of a beating to handle any more" Athram yells to his teammates before trying to get the Warg's attention by sending a heavy thrust it's way, his two-handed blade lancing towards the creature's side.

Attacking and remaining still.

[roll1] (Attack)
[roll2] (Damage)