Dragonwatch Pretty Cure [IC]

[NekoIncardine]

Dragonwatch Pretty Cure
Episode 1: Dragons Aren't On The Midterm! Pretty Cure takes flight!

Buzz!

Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong!

Caw-ka-Doodle-Dooo!

It's 6 AM in Arc's Cross, and for the students of Lady Lilandra Leeson's Adventuring Academics Academy For Ladies, that means one thing: Time to wake up and get going towards your first class! You've got two hours to get your turn in the shower, get dressed, get some breakfast from your dorm's mess hall, and get to class!

... Or, for statistically at least one of our four protagonists, it's time to sleep until 7:50. We know you magical girl types. Well, the school doesn't. None of you have been awakened to your magical destiny as Pretty Cure just yet. But no incidents have needed them yet, either.

Right now, all four of you are just ordinary-ish students of The Lawl, on your way to your morning classes.

For each of you, there are four questions to answer:
1) What's your morning ritual like?
2) Who are a couple people (besides the other PCs) you interact with on your way to class?
3) What is your first three-hour class this day? How do you interact with it? Does anyone end up forced to stand in the hall with buckets in their hand?
4) And finally: What brings you to the sport pitch in the middle of campus after class, when you have one hour until your next class?


Obviously, the last question's the most important, but the other three are going to set up some key details that'll come up later. If you want to have the DM add detail to your answer on any question, just ask, though we'll be running that scene in spoiler tags as a "Flashback" alongside the main thread.

Morcleon, your scene will come soon enough. :D

[Forrestfire]

By the time the school's bells are ringing, Mina's already up and preparing for the day. It always takes a few minutes to clear her mind and get ready for being a productively awake person, and today is no different. After showering, getting dressed in her white mage uniform, and grabbing a small breakfast, she returns to her room to get ready for her day. With a little under an hour left before classes start, Mina collects her bags of books and notes, then turns and opens the dorm-room's window, standing straight as she surveys the still-dark sky and clears her mind to focus on the math and knowledge that controls her magic.

"Seven spirits of sky, I invoke thee. Provide me with magic to grant rejuvenation. Nineteen spirits of night, I invoke thee. Bind thyselves to me such that I might retain power rather than release it. Five spirits of land, I c—ah crap I forgot to invoke them properly."

She pauses for a moment, collecting her thoughts, before continuing in a strong voice and glaring at a the ground immediately outside her first-story window.

"You there, five spirits of land! I call thee to my service for 23 hours and one second for the purpose of creating temporary bonds between myself and others... Yes, you. Now. Thank you."

With a slightly annoyed look on her face, Mina closes the window and heads out. On the way, she stops at the library, greeting the tired-looking librarian ("Good morning Lelafara, how's life?") and returning a few books, then promptly checking out four more and rushing to her class to not be late.

This morning's session of Healing Magic Theory 337 is fairly simple. Mina had read the chapter they were going over weeks ago, so mostly she spent the first part of the lecture just taking notes and sipping the cup of coffee she'd gotten on the way to class. Today there wasn't any practical work, because of the amount of danger involved in what they were learning, but there was a pile of practice homework assigned to complete before the next lab. After the class, Mina collects her notes and waves goodbye to the professor, before deciding on a whim to go study outside on the edges of the sports pitch today in the fairly lovely weather. Eimhir would be starting one of her armed dueling practices right about now, so she's studying alone under a tree near a building, occasionally shooing away invisible elemental spirits that get too close.


From PMs: 3 spell points spent on storing cures in Fount of Healing; the Skilled Magic Perform checks were two successes and one failure by 2, cutting the third cure's CL by 1. Overall, 48 points are now stored for later use.

The NPC librarian mentioned is this:
<NekoIncardine> Lelafara Lilil - Halfling librarian. Uses a custom flying broom with to easily deal with the high shelves. Cheery sort, but has knocked seniors unconcious with a single strike from the broom if they’ve been too loud in the library.

[5ColouredWalker]

Keohrosan's head barely shifts when the alarms go off, taking a moment to listen.
'Yep, they're in... I'm not rostered for half an hour.'
With but a yawn, Keohrosan goes back to her meditations, waiting for the tap on the door.
Trance ended, she looks to her bag of shapesand, and then begins making a set of gloves.

Ah, there's the tapping.
"On my way. I'm last right?"
"Yep. Was cool though, Lane was singing in hers."
"Oh, she better be praying I don't run out. Thank's Laura."

It's not, good. Her wrath would be stayed another day.

Quickly she breezed through the dining hall, grabbing a couple of pastries to go with her own endless supply of food, nibbling on the way to AC2001. Quickly sent off to their current projects Keoh looked for her supplies, they were supposed to have arrived yesterday.
"Finally!"
There it was, the wood, the treatments. It wasn't going to be for the classes 'Magnum Opus', that was the rest, but now she could get to work on the bow.

Taking it to her desk, she very quickly set to work, note book out with diagrams already drawn. Now that she could actually work, she left her bag of shapesand beside herself, open and unusued.
"Hey, could I-"
"Borrow away, return it when your done, I've shown you how."
There was barely a break in her humming.

Slightly annoyed with her crafting progress Keoh quickly gathers up the Shapesand she's lent out after class, returning her materials to storage before heading for the sport pitch, finding a quiter spot so she can meditate. Before too long, the bag of sand has become a large number of 'swaths' of sand, all loosely connected, which she begins putting over her uniform.
'If I'm going to work so hard to make it, then I'm going to learn how to wear it properly.'
And then, she begins going through her basic Kata. Though the sand armour is far from heavy and rather smooth, the extra bulk is rather distracting. Those in her self defence class would probably pick up which Kata's she's performing quickly and think her dedicated to overcoming her limitations... That'd be pretty far from the truth though.


*3/8 because it's only 3 hours, not 8. Any more crafting will change the days fraction.
[roll0]=13*12*3/8=.585gp of 360gp

Elvencraft from RotW pg 166
Thistledown suit from RotW pg 168
Silkswaths from Sandstorm pg 99

[Eurus]

Juliet wakes up as soon as the alarms ring, going from sound asleep to alive and kicking in seconds. She's a whirl of energy in the mornings, cleaning her room, running through the shower, and getting dressed like she's afraid sleep will catch back up to her if she doesn't outrun it.

On the way to the mess hall, she stops short at the sight of another girl leaning casually against the wall, chewing on a toothpick. The other students give her a wide berth, pretending not to notice her; an impressive feat, considering. There aren't many girls with bubblegum-pink hair in the academy, and not many shorter than Juliet, either, so the halfling girl is doubly recognizable.

"Hey, Jules. You been avoiding me?"

"Oh, Ashley... n-no, I've just... been busy, you know."

Juliet fails utterly to meet Ashley's gaze, proving herself a terrible liar. Ashley snorts.

"Yeah, sure. Well, we're hanging out tonight. You should come."

She really shouldn't. For one thing, her mom had pretty much forbidden it. On the other hand, it wasn't like anyone else was going out of their way to talk to Juliet these days. And with Ashley right there, she couldn't bring herself to refuse.

"...Yeah, maybe. It depends on how much homework I have. But I have to get going to class now. Sorry."

Juliet scurries off before Ashley can say anything else, taking refuge in her Monster Lore class. It's a welcome distraction, and she needs to check her notes anyway. There was a quiz on fiends today, and she couldn't remember if Farastus secreted acid, or adhesive.

The class goes by smoothly enough. She ends up paired with a bored-looking dwarf girl for the shocker lizard dissection, and her attempts to strike up a conversation mostly fall flat. Undeterred by the chilly reception -- friendship took perseverance, after all -- Juliet follows the girl after class, continuing to fill the silence with random facts about bulettes until the dwarf girl finally loses all semblance of patience and escapes under cover of a smoke bomb, leaving a bewildered Juliet standing alone in the field.

[The_Admiral]

The alarms went off as Claire buried her face deeper into her pillow, she did not want to wake up and as the alarms ended, she drifted right off back to sleep.

As she finally woke up naturally, she heard the bell tolling. Counting the number of rings, her eyes widened as she realised, "I'M LATE!" leaping to her feet to get dressed.

Sloppily throwing on her uniform, she burst out of her room, slice of bread in her mouth as she runs to class bursting into Advanced Weapon Theory just a bit late.

Panting, she is stared at by the teacher as she burst through the doors of the class.

------

The class ends and she finally drops the bucket she has been holding for hours, rubbing her sore arms, she makes her way to the mostly empty sports pitch, a great place to rest her arms after those gruelling three hours.


THe statistical inevitability falls to Claire it seems.

[NekoIncardine]

The sport pitch: Trees for shade, open space for katas, enough hiding places for the old smoke-bomb trick to actually work, and fresh air to ignore the pain in one's arms with. Claire, you should probably check that you don't have actual muscle tears.

Coincidentally, Claire, as you take your third deep breath, you take a mouthful of gunpowderlicious grey smoke rather than that nigh-delicious soothing fresh air. While you don't spot the source ((Unless you make a DC 19 search check)), there's a very bewildered, pigtailed girl to your left. Whoever used that bomb was likely getting away from her. At least they were polite enough to not use a stinkbomb...

Juliet, that girl is, if it wasn't obvious, you. You may want to drink some water or something to get the smoky taste out of your mouth. Only anime physics are keeping you from needing a second shower this morning.

Meanwhile, across the pitch, Mina starts hearing scraping noises to her side. They're a tiny bit annoying, and they're not one of the spirits. They're coming from that dark-skinned elf to your left, who is performing katas in some sort of armor... Wait, is that shapesand? Isn't that stuff crazy expensive? Neat for practice - though you wouldn't want to use it in serious battle against anyone who knew what it was, unless you trusted your will to be stronger than theirs. Eimhir told you about the stuff once.

Kehorosan, roll me a check you find relevant, or if you can't think of anything, a direct Strength or Dexterity check, to see how well you're doing - and how well you're making sure your sandstone pieces aren't tearing and damaging your uniform.

---

"The Lawl", they call it. A detestable place, though one with reasonably high rooftops appropriate for observing the school unnoticed.

All these would-be "heroes", learning skills that will be absolutely useless against what you're about to bring forth. It's just time for you to begin doing your job, right as the pitch in the center of campus is at its busiest.

That tree there - that one Claire's sitting under - looks perfect as a start point. Or perhaps the bin of various sport balls right next to Mina. Or - ooh, someone left a sword unattended right in the center of the field while talking to a classmate. Or maybe that armor that girl's wearing - it's scraps of shapesand, you can tell even from this far. Pity she wouldn't turn into a Drake with the armor, but...

You've got choices. Now, it's time to make your suitably dramatic entrance, and bring fear to this school.

[The_Admiral]

By her second deep breath, she was drifting off again, however her third filled her nostrils with gunsmoke, coughing her way back to wakefulness.

Sitting up, she coughs, slowly dragging her tired body to it's feet, and asking "Now, who here had the brilliant idea of disturbing my nap?" cracking her knuckles in irritation.

[Forrestfire]

Mina looks up for a moment to see the shapesand, thinking neat, before shooing away a group of spirits that had climbed into her textbooks and continuing reading the material listed for next month's lectures on the syllabus.

[Morcleon]

'Tch... look at these people. Too carefree. Too lazy. They don't know what's out there. They won't be prepared. But I guess that's what I'm here for. Time to do my job and spread fear across the city.' Lady Frostheart stands up from her hiding spot on the roof, sliding a card into the glowing dark bracer on her right arm. A grin creeps onto her face as she raises her arm and fires the summoning card at the tree Claire is sitting under.

A small spinning card flies through the air, imbedding itself into the tree right above Claire's head. Right as it strikes, an armored figure drops from the sky, landing with a loud thump a short distance away from the tree. Her armor is a dark violet laced with lines of black, and a large blade is held lightly in one hand. She glances around the area and laughs, a short, humorless sound. And then the tree shudders, warps, and transforms, a large Drake standing in its place.

You're free to look inside the Neko spoilers, just know that anything inside them is stuff your characters won't know. :smallsmile:

Also, I shall leave the description of the Drake to Neko. ^^

[5ColouredWalker]

People jumping around in oddly coloured plate.
Day to day occurence.

Tree warping into a trent wasn't... Except that wasn't a trent.

"Everyone get away from that tree thing!"

[NekoIncardine]

As the card strikes the tree and the armored figure lands, the students around you immediately start panicking and fleeing.

As the tree it hit begins to glow, some people stop, saying things along the line of "What is that?", before it began to grow, purple energy flowing around it... Until two branches swung down, directly at Claire and Mina!


1d8 bludgeoning damage, Reflex Save DC 13 negates by leaping clear. If you barely make it, the leaves graze you, but don't deal damage.


As the glow fades, the tree... Well, it's not really a treant you're seeing. Just the tree moving along its roots and swinging angrily at whatever is nearby, screaming "DRAKE!" every few swings.


Your orders are simple - don't kill anyone, but freak out and injure as many as possible. Every bit of negative emotion you can draw out of this is a step closer to your goal! Nonlethal or small amounts of lethal damage are preferable. You've got surprise round to hit a couple of fleeing students before everyone's initiative kicks into play.


Treants, as a general rule, have legs rather than just kind of rolling around on their roots. And have more than a one word vocabulary. That said, it's moving at a comparable rate to a typical Treant in terms of its branches, though it has a lot more of them. It seems to be prioritizing hitting fleeing students, and then only once or twice each before going on to the next.

The dark energy's most definitely not anything normal, either; it doesn't match with any energy type you've studied, not even Evil or Vile. Who knows what the counter is, yet...


Initiative time, ladies and gents! The tree's initiative is 15.
Mina and Claire, you're right within the tree's reach and will need to get out to cast any spells without provoking Attacks Of Opportunity.
Juliet, you're just past its reach. Kehorosan, about 40 feet away.

[Forrestfire]

Mina, engrossed in her book and distracted by her thoughts, doesn't notice the tree's change until its branch is almost upon her. One of her invisible spirits warns her just in time to jump out of the way and she listens, barely dodging the heavy branch. Her book was not as lucky, ending up smashed and some of its pages torn. Before she fully registers the situation, Mina's already not looking forward to bringing that back to the library.

A half-second later, what's happening does register, as she looks up at the flailing tree. Crapcrapcrapcrap what's going on? "Drake?" Is this some sort of event from the school?

Turning around and looking at the tree with a fearful glance, Mina frantically gathers her things, then turns to run.

My initiative is 10, so doing nothing yet. The plan is to use the Withdraw action to run away.

[The_Admiral]

She seemed to have gotten up just in time as the card landed in the drake's body, she leapt out of the way of its branches. As she was attacked, she didn't feel fear, she was too tired for that, she felt, irritation, at the creature and at the figure who she /KNEW/ was responsible for the tree, somehow.

She charged at the figure, punching would not do much to the tree, to a person however.


Using Charging Minotaur on Riko to get out of the reach, doesn't trigger any AoO because Manuvers are awesome, so opposed strength check. Also free bolstering voice? Free bolstering voice.

[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

[Morcleon]

As she lands in the chaos of the panicking students, the dark figure laughs, lashing out carelessly with her blade to strike two of the students. She turns to strike another, but then blinks in surprise as the angry girl bounces off of her armor. Growling menacingly, she spins around and stares at the brave fighter who had dared strike her. Raising her sword high in the air, she holds it there for a brief moment, then brings it down in a tremendous strike against her.

Surprise round:
Using Scything Strike to hit two adjacent students: [roll0]
Damage (with +0 str for damage): [roll1]

Actual round:
Using Rising Zenith Strike on Claire. Sense Motive check against Claire's AC: [roll2]
Damage (nonlethal because subconsciously still Riko): [roll3]

Readied Maneuvers:
Demoralizing Roar [GL]
Blade of Breaking
Red Zephyr's Strike [ST]
[S]Scything Strike [ST]
Rising Zenith Strike [ST]

[The_Admiral]

Blinded by general irritation and a good helping of rage, Claire stumbles backwards, blinking away the stars that have formed in her eyes as the breath is knocked out of her.

She steps back, her eyes clearer as she sizes up her opponent. Somehow, she recognised her, knew her as she got to her feet from the blow.


Fluff!

[NekoIncardine]

Kehorosan's shout starts causing everyone to move quickly - leaving a few to take significant hits from the armored figure.

Mina, your moment to gather things gives the Tree a second to glare at you; however, it focuses its strikes on other students for the moment, giving you time to withdraw for the moment....

Claire's charge in towards the armored figure is... Less successful than the figure's counterattack. Claire, you notice something unusual - as harsh as the hit is, it's with the flat of the blade, knocking you aside but not cutting into you. Why would the wielder do that? You don't recognize them from their strike style, but intuitively, you're pretty sure this has got to have something to do with that disappearance a month ago.

Lady Frostheart - you know exactly why you held back, and annoyingly, it has nothing to do with your orders. Your would-be attacker is familiar to you. Still, if she strikes again, it'll be only self defense if you knock her out, maybe rough her up extra-hard to draw out some additional despair.


To keep things moving, we're going to advance right to the next round. Order will be played loosely, but by rolls: Juliet, the Drake, Claire, Mina, Kehorosan, Lady Frostheart (the armored figure).

OOC request: All six fighters need to stay on the sports field. At the end of the round, something's going to happen that will soft-halt combat for a round.

[Eurus]

Juliet has just enough time to bounce between confusion at her sudden smoke-bombing and mortification when the short, angry girl near her calls her out on it when everything goes crazy. The first thing she notices is a blur of movement in her peripheral vision, fast enough to catch the attention of her lizard-brain. Before she can quite put together what she's looking at -- a girl in purple armor, holding a sword -- the tree starts moving, and screaming, and oh my god what even is that?

A flash of terror goes through her when she realizes that she's scant feet out of the tree's attack range, close enough to feel the wind whipped up by its flailing branches. Moving on instinct, feet tracing out the quick back-step she'd practiced so many times in PE class, she puts some distance between her and it while she tries to figure out what to do. She's barely aware of the girl with the sword, her attention dominated by the rampaging, howling tree-monster, and before she has time to second-guess herself, she's muttering the first words she can remember from Professor Treant's 1001 Useful Conjurations for Young Ladies, tapping what little magical spark she has to slick the ground underneath the monster with a thick layer of grey grease, hoping to at least slow it down.

Moving 30 feet away and spending one inspiration point to cast Grease under the drake, DC 14.

[Forrestfire]

As Mina sprints away from the tree, she looks over to see one of her fellow students charging at the new enemy, and then it registers that there actually is a new enemy. She's a student? Has to be a student. What's she doing?

A couple seconds later, she sees the other student's sword strike connect and stops running, realizing that whatever's going on is going to be over before she could find a teacher or official or even just a group of fighting-inclined students. Mina grimaces, then drops her bag of books at turns to start moving back towards the fight.

Fluff! Mina took the Withdraw action last round and ran out of the fight before using some of the last of her movement to get back closer. Probably ended up like 40-50 feet from the tree and 30-40ish feet from Morc and Kehorosan?

[The_Admiral]

Raising her fists, Claire shifted right back into battle, leaping into the air, she somersaults, delivering a kick aimed at her opponent's hand, attempting to knock that sword from her hand as she lands ready to deliver another strike.

Again she felt a pang of familiarity as she attacked, something was off.



Disarming strike
[roll0]

Disarm attempt
[roll1]

[roll2]

[5ColouredWalker]

'Magic trent-like thing, or it's creator. Let's got the later.'
Keohrosan starts stepping back, leting the shouting of others be the cry for assistance as she launches a blast of eldritch energy at the knight.


Moving up to 30ft back while remaining on the pitch.

Friendship Spear
Touch Attack: [roll0]
CritC: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2] Nonlethal
CritD: [roll3]

[Morcleon]

Blocking Claire's foot and grabbing onto it, Lady Frostheart pulls it down violently, using the force of the movement to flip herself over the girl. As she passes over, she barely dodges Keohrosan's arcane blast in midair before landing and letting her killing intent lance into Claire.

Raising her blade with an angry expression under her helmet, she brings it down on her target, still using the flat of her blade. 'Why?! Why now?'

Swift: Demoralizing Roar on Claire. DC 15 Will save or be shaken for 1 round.

Move: Using Acrobatic Gambit to move past Claire without provoking (success refreshes 4 maneuvers and gives Riko +1d6+4 damage on attacks against Claire for 1 round)
[roll0]

Standard: Using Rising Zenith Strike on Claire again (double damage)
Sense Motive check vs Claire AC: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2] + [roll3] nonlethal

Demoralizing Roar [GL]
Blade of Breaking
Red Zephyr's Strike [ST]
Scything Strike [ST]
[S]Rising Zenith Strike [ST]

[Forrestfire]

As Mina runs back towards the fight, she frantically tries to clear her mind and focus, pointing an open hand at Claire and saying "Thirty-one bound spirits of land, night, and sky, I invoke thee! Heed my call and rejuvenate my ally!"

Immediately, small flickers of black and green light spin around Claire, healing wounds near them and generally making her feel much better after the solid hits that landed. As they do so, Mina yells at the armored figure, "Who are you and what at the hell are you doing?!"

Okay technically I'm metagaming and using Invigorate to give you 5 temp HP because it was noted that the cure transformations were going to heal this time. Shh :smallwink:

[roll0] Perform check against DC 20. Every 2 below 20 on the check reduces the temp HP by 1.

Also, I'd like to restate my request for people to uncheck the "show your signature" box for IC posts, if it's something people don't mind doing.

[NekoIncardine]

As Juliet casts the Grease on the floor, the treant spins towards her - but slips and loses its position., not quite falling due to its unusual root-based stance, but not moving steadily either, keeping it from doing much for a few precious seconds.

You didn't roll your opposition on the Disarm check. :| I rolled for you this time, but please keep an eye out for player actions that'd force saves.

Claire's strike hits Frostheart's blade with enough force to stagger her slightly... But not enough to knock her sword from her hand, nor prevent the counterattack. While Claire isn't very affected by the figure's glare, but the following strike is enough to knock Claire to the ground... But Mina's quick spell-cast keeps her from falling unconscious entirely, though she is floored for a second, knocked back by the brutal strike.

As the Treant stands, though...

... A small, cutesy bird-like creature in red is suddenly in front of you, holding a red, dragon-themed wristwatch in one claw. "No time, trust me! Put this on, and shout 'Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure Takes Flight!' - it'll let you beat these two!"

The fact that this sounds entirely trustworthy's probably odd, but the bird seems too panicked to have time to lie.

... A small dog appears in front of you, a blue, dragon-themed wristwatch looped around one ear. "You won't be able to win against this power without the power of Pretty Cure! Put this on, and shout 'Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure Takes Flight!'"

The dog seems earnest and pure of intent.

... A small cat appears to your side, two dragon-themed wristwatches in its paws. It offers the orange one towards you, and says, "The passphrase is 'Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure Takes Flight!' - hurry up and use it so we can stop this!"

The cat's worried about something, but he's definitely aiming to help you.

... A small hamster lands on your head, and pretty much drops a blue, dragon-themed wristwatch onto your wirst. "Uh, crap. Okay, lock that, and say 'Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure Takes Flight!'"

He's too surprised to be lying.

... You hear a voice. "... Crap. She got to you already. Just... Hold onto this. You'll understand soon enough."

Roll me a will save, DC unknown. The effects will not be immediately obvious if you fail. You feel something drop into a pocket.


To be clear, each of you is only seeing what's in your box for the moment.
Per the established rules, everyone except Frostheart transform up! This is a free action. Transforming will restore you to full health and clear your nonlethal damage, giving you the chance to face Lady Frostheart on equal footing!

[The_Admiral]

Claire nods, she had nothing to loose, everything to gain, slipping the watch on, she shouts, "Dragonwatch Pretty Cure, Take flight!" struggling to her feet.

Claire's hands glow a faint yellow, the glow intensifying as they form into fists, her right foot sweeps back into a stable position, orange lines extended from the Dragonwatch all over her body as it flies off her wrist and breaks apart. Somehow as she got up, she felt, better, stronger.

The glowing pieces of the Dragonwatch cover her body, expanding over her chain shirt and completely covering it. The now glowing pieces of clothing begin to shrink, and change. Her hair gets larger and puffier, her leggings vanish transforming into a pair of bike shorts and her chain shirt morphing into a short sleeveless dress, the symbol on her Dragonwatch clearly visible on her chest.

The glowing light flies off revealing her costume to be in orange, except her newly styled hair.

"burning with passion! Cure Rampage!" she finishes, ready to fight again and somewhat bewildered as to what compelled her to say that.



Rolls because I'm impatient, may I use them in the actual combat round?

Swift Action: Imbue Jab
Standard Action: PAUNCH with Diamond Razor

[roll0]

[roll1]


Just got pointed out to me that this is an illegal action. ouch.

[Forrestfire]

"I..." What?

Mina had met and interacted with animal-like spirits before, but this one (or so she assumed, given its feel) was significantly more corporeal than most... And although trusting spirits and other magical beings is supposedly dangerous sometimes, this bird seems genuine enough. Mina hesitates for a second or so, but then looks back at the flailing tree, the armored student waving a sword around murderously, and the girl she'd healed just now, having shouted the phrase as well. Eimhir's gonna kill me for trusting this thing...

The white mage quickly takes the small watch from the bird and yells "Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure takes flight!" as she puts it on. She then bursts into flames with a surprised yelp, her clothes and hair ignited with a large amount of white and red fire that doesn't seem to give off any heat. The flames quickly grow and completely obscure her for several seconds, before flowing upwards all at once, revealing (to Mina's surprise) that her clothes have been completely changed; the healer's uniform is gone, replaced by a red and white dress and flowing pink cape (http://i.imgur.com/rboEez5.png). Her hair has also changed, going from blonde to an almost-shining white, the color of which actively flickers as if hiding a fire within.

Around her is a ring of crackling white fire, flickering with orange, red, and yellow like her hair is. It takes Mina a second or two to realize what exactly happened, at which point Claire is coming out of her transformation as well.

Mina's only response to this is a baffled look and equally baffled thoughts. What.

[5ColouredWalker]

With but a glance at the other transforming girls in the area, Keohrosan turns her gaze to the dog, presuming it some sort of fey offering a deal that isn't a trap, because right now it needs to not be.
"Normally I'm dealing with a horse. Perhaps you can tell me why a dog with a one sided deal when we're done."
Keohrosan takes the watch, putting it on.

"Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure takes flight!"
Feeling the energy gathering around her Keoh quickly applies what little control she can to it, the light instead of overwhelming guiding Keoh, light surging from her legs to a raised hand, armour dissolving into a riding dress before the light coalesces in her hand as a single oversized dart, the air around her shimmering as if she was surrounded by desert heat... Actually making her more comfortable thermally than she's been in a while.

"Head the tune, or stand to Cure Melody!"
'Why did, I say that? When did I start floating? Foe now, questions later!'
Cure Melody touches to the ground lightly, arm dropping down from sky as she descends into a fighting stance, oversized dart touching the ground, while a pair more form from it's shimmering path, taking their place around her arm.

[Eurus]

Juliet squeals embarrassingly as something warm and moving lands on her head. She almost flails it off, until it speaks, stopping her cold with surprise. Reflexively, she catches the watch it drops and looks at it, her terror temporarily suppressed by confused curiosity.

Before she can respond, flashes of light and sound attract her attention, and she looks up in time to see the other girls transforming spectacularly. Juliet's eyes widen like a kid in a candy store, and she looks back down at the watch with new respect.

"Dr... dragon watch Pretty Cure take flight?"

Despite her weak delivery, the line must be good enough, because the next thing she knows, the watch has slid itself onto her wrist and her vision is a field of blue light. A shower of glowing lights emerges from the watch as she raises it above her head and swirl around her, transforming her outfit as they pass into a short, elaborately frilly light blue dress. The blur of light and color is a tremendous rush, and she feels exhilarated, grinning and laughing despite herself as she pirouettes beneath the spinning lights and transforms. A beam of light coalesces into her hand, forming a gleaming opalescent wand with a clear, egg-sized gem on the end.

When it finally dies down, she's still giggling, looking down at the wand in amazement and confusion and then trying to look back up at the furry little thing on her head.

"I don't understand any of this... do I need a name?"

[NekoIncardine]

"That works!", the cat responds. "Your powers should be intuitive to you on some level! Go finish off that Drake, the armor is a big distraction!"

The cat then scampers off into a bush to hide from the thing it can't fight.

The bird shakes its head. "The catchphrase! Every Pretty Cure has a catchphrase! It's part of the tradition - look, it's not just about having the power to fight the Drakes, it's about inspiring hope to weaken their real objective! But don't worry about that, go stop it! I'll explain later!"

And then it's on the way to a nearby bush for cover...

The dog blinks at Kehorosan's first question, but then she's transforming and the dog barks appreciatedly. "Good! The Drake is the real problem here - as long as it's creating despair, we're in trouble!"

The dog quickly scoots to a nearby bush.

The hamster responds, "You should know the name and catchphrase! It's how Pretty Cure work! I'll take time to explain later, for now, you've got the power to actually fight that thing, so go do it!"

And then the hamster's hopped off Juliet's head and scooted off towards a bush that is already rustling...


We're not quite to the next combat round yet - that'll be right after Lady Frostheart's post, which her player assures me is imminent.

Your respective magical girl-side classes are now active, by the by!

[Morcleon]

Four shouts of "Dragonwatch! Pretty Cure takes flight!". Four transformations. One very surprised Lady Frostheart. She stares in shock at the now-transformed Claire and mutters under her breath, "...impossible..."

Slowly glancing around at the four Pretty Cure arrayed around her, Frostheart grimaces and hefts her sword up, sighing. "Looks like I'll just have to beat you all again..."

[The_Admiral]

"Nope," Claire retorts grinning as she punches Frostheart in the face, knocking her backwards furthur than she has ever knocked someone back before. Yet, the voice sounded familiar, like she had heard it before, loads of times.

She stares at her hand as Frostheart tumbles backwards, how did she do that, must have been the powers.


To Hit (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19508477&postcount=24)


Damage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19508554&postcount=57)

[5ColouredWalker]

"How about, beat us all in the first place!"
Gripping a dart, Keoh throws it towards the Drake, the other two darts following after.


Making a Move towards the Drake, bringing distance back to 40ft, where upon I curse my tiny range increment.
Attacking a square next to the Drake, so AC for this hit is 5. I'll try to minimise those caught in the 'blast' to just the Drake.
To hit: [roll0]

Area Damage: [roll1], DC 14 Reflex save halves.

[Forrestfire]

Catchphrase? Mina stares at the bird that just flew away, then at the drake and the other magical girls, still incredibly baffled. Her instincts are still telling her to run away and find help, but after a moment, she decides to act, continuing to move towards the fight. When she does so, she realizes how much heavier her new clothes are, weighing her down like an armor... And finally notices the cloud of white fire around her and stops abruptly, caught off-guard by the fact that this spirit of fire seems to have some sort of mental connection to her. It's... Equally confused, and... Purring? Purring and laughing. She has a cloud of fire that's purring at her. Why does she have a cloud of fire in the first place, this sucks.

And now it's sad. Note to self: connection is two-way.

After a couple seconds of this, Keoh's yell brings her back to her senses. Alright, fine. Let's see what fate's given me here.

Mina grimaces and points an open hand at the tree and trying to recall her grandfather's standard invocation. A moment later, she quietly yells "One spirit of fire, heed my call. Incinerate and annihilate; leave only ash!"

As her last word concludes, the curtain of flames around her splits, part of it rushing off at blinding speeds, tracing a line of light across the air as it assaults the tree as Mina watches with a look that's somehow simultaneously annoyance and awe.

Armaments are currently set up with Blazing Aegis as a heavy shield. Mina's actions are to move closer and then take a Swift action to buff her next attack with an Imbued [1] Demolitions blast [2] for +2d4 damage that ignores hardness.

Perform (Oratory) check to use Telekinesis and shoot fire: [roll0] thankfully doesn't have major consequences on a failure since I spent a feat upping the size my TK can carry.

Attack roll to hit the drake with Mina's device as a Bludgeon: [roll1], for [roll2] piercing and [roll3] damage that ignores hardness and is either untyped or fire; I'm not sure what element blasts are and couldn't find it on the wiki. If we can choose, it's fire.

[NekoIncardine]

Cure Rampage's first strike hits Lady Frostheart's armor cleanly, but doesn't get through it to damage her.

Cure Melody's blast, on the other hand, does its job, and the creature fails to evade the ensuing blast. Interestingly, though, the two nearby students don't seem to be affected at all!


Convenient property of Cure magic: Friendly Fire is, at least when it comes to innocents. Just watch out for nuking one another.

And then, there's the strike of the fire spirits around Mina, the flames shimmering... Looking like they were full of glitter or something, if anyone paid attention... And then slamming into the 'Treant'-thing, causing it to roar in pain...

... And charge directly towards Cure Melody, swinging a branch at speed! Attack roll 20 for 19 damage.


Three Cures moved, one Cure and one foe to go.

[Eurus]

Juliet doesn't have time to give the name thing any more thought, unfortunately. She's snapped back to more immediate concerns when one of the other Cures unleashes a spectacular blast of fire at the tree-monster. She flinches at the sudden light and heat, but the creature sounds hurt... which means they can fight it.

Psyching herself up, Juliet dramatically points her wand at the creature, with a spectacular result of exactly nothing happening.

"Uh... w-wait! How do I work this thing, anyway?!"

But the hamster is long gone by then, and Juliet is left frantically shaking her wand while the tree suddenly charges at one of the other Cures.

"Come on, you useless stick!"

She grabs the jewel, and feels it rotate a notch with an audible click. As if responding, the wand suddenly flashes with blinding red light, and Juliet reflexively hurls it away from her in a panic. The awkward-looking tool flies surprisingly true, spinning like a radiant boomerang as it soars toward the Drake before returning right back to her hand. The once-clear gem glitters like a ruby now, twinkling with light that seems to surround her.

Swift action: Illumination, Fairy Lights. +4 enhancement to Int for two rounds. (3 motes)

Full-round action: Assuming aspect: Breeze Fight!
--Time to Shine: Juliet automatically uses an illumination when she transforms. In this case, Ruby Shot, attacking the Drake. (3 motes)

[roll0] (3 BAB, +3 Dex, +2 Knowledge Devotion, +1 point-blank shot, +5 inspiration, -4 range)
[roll1] + [roll2] (3 dexterity, +2 knowledge devotion, +1 point-blank shot, +5 inspiration, +3d6 blast)

HP: 30/30
AC: 21, touch 13, flat-footed 18
Inspiration points: 7/9
Motes: 0/6
Aspect: Breeze Fight

[Morcleon]

Flying backward with a cry of surprise, Frostheart flips in the air, landing in a crouch. She stands up slowly, another blast of killing intent directed at Claire. She glances briefly at the drake before hefting her sword and readying herself.

Move: Stand up from prone.
Swift: Demoralizing Roar on Claire, DC 15 Will or be shaken.

[NekoIncardine]

As the boomerang strikes the Drake, it staggers visibly... But then roars, looking ready to charge Juliet. Seems like it's got some beefiness to it... But not a lot of intellect.

Lady Frostheart, unfortunately, has it a bit worse in some ways - certainly, she's not scaring the orange Pretty Cure much at all with presence alone.


New combat round begins! The Drake will make its post when I next have time...

[The_Admiral]

Claire raises an eyebrow at the roar as she moves away from Frostheart cautiously, she may not be scared in the slightest, but she is was not suicidal, she needed space to breath and room to manuver, room that simple rampaging would not provide.


Swift Action: ALL MAH MANUVERS
All motes to my Beserk weapon
Move action: walk
Standard action: Flourish
[roll0]
[roll1]


Completely forgot about that passage, gonna change my action.

[Eurus]

Juliet almost cheers as her attack hits home, and apparently with some force behind it. Her joy is cut short when the creature turns her way.

"Yay! I mean, oh no!"

Trying to appraise the situation, she settles on the Cure with the fire, who seems to be dealing with the monster, and calls out to the girl.

"Um, fire girl! Sorry, I don't know your name! This thing doesn't seem very smart, right? I'll try and keep its attention if you can hit it again!"

With that, she crouches defensively and yells at the Drake.

"Over here, you... ugly old tree, you."

The insult sounds weak even as she's making it, and she blushes, but prepares to dodge.

Swift action: Fairy Dance! +4 enhancement to dexterity for two rounds.

Standard action: Ready an action to move out of the way if it charges! If the Drake still manages to get an attack off somehow, I'll spend an inspiration point for +5 AC against that attack (so it'll be 28 AC total).

HP: 30/30
AC: 23, touch 15, flat-footed 18
Inspiration points: 7/9
Motes: 0/6
Aspect: Breeze Fight
Active effects: +4 Intelligence (1 round remaining), +4 Dexterity (2 rounds remaining)

[Forrestfire]

'Fire girl?' ARGH.

Mina starts moving towards Cure Melody after the tree's brutal charge against her, firmly half-shouting the same command as earlier.

"Thirty-one bound spirits of land, night, and sky, I invoke thee! Heed my call and rejuvenate my ally!"

In the back of her mind, she can feel the fire spirit she's found herself connected to drop in spirits, as flickers of green and black light dance around her classmate, healing wounds where they touch. "Are you okay?"

Mina seems to have ignored Juliet in the heat of the moment

Start of turn, 3 motes come back. Move action to get closer to the action a bit and provide a target.

Drawing 19 points of healing out of Mina's fount of healing and using them to heal Cure Melody.

Mina also spends 3 motes as a swift action to use her Fired Up! (http://pastebin.com/SPpJWfAi) illumination.

HP: 27/27
AC: 20, touch 9, flat-footed 20
Fount of Healing: 29/50
Motes: 0/6
Conditions: +4 Charisma for 2 rounds (including this one)

[5ColouredWalker]

Cure Melody is almost bowled over by the Drake's attack, but gets up quickly and cleanly, her face flushes with relief when Mina rushes over to heal her.
"I'm fine. Come on, we've got some gardening to do!"
Without another word, Melody steps back to the tree, away from anyone else as she stabs with her dart, using it like a short spear.


5ft step to move away from my companions while staying next to the Drake.

Hit: [roll0], Targeting the Drake
Damage: [roll1]

Additionally, everyone within my reach [Just the Drake], takes damage as my Darts spiral around me.
Damage: [roll2], Reflex 14 Halves

And finally, Swift action for Desert Shimer spending 3 Motes, Bringing my AC up to 16 for two turns.

[NekoIncardine]

The quick step away brought Cure Rampage the second to breathe and refocus for the next round of strikes...

Meanwhile, Juliet's taunt seemed to work, as the beast shouted "DRAAAAAKE" and started in, swinging wildly as she darted clear of its path and freeing Mina to heal Claire!

Finally, Cure Melody charged in... Only for the Drake to catch the dart in one branch, screeching only mildly at the pain...


You got the Drake to mess up and lose its turn... This time. Lady Frostheart might think to order it to focus one of you, though!

[The_Admiral]

"What? All you can do is roar now? Nice mask, stole it from the hockey team?" Claire asks grinning as she raised her fists, making a come at me motion to her.


I ready standard action Emerald Razor, Trigger, Frosty enters melee range, also half charge my Beserking weapon with motes. Also imbue with Jab.

[Eurus]

"Yeah! You're gonna have to be faster than that, tree!"

She slings the last word like it's supposed to be an insult, as she winds up for another wand-toss. Now that she's getting used to it, she has to admit, this is pretty amazing. She feels faster, lighter, stronger, and it's like everything's moving just a little bit slower to give her more time to think. And the dress is actually kind of cute.

This time, as she's preparing to hurl the wand, words jump into her head inexplicably. Rolling with it, she shouts dramatically.

"Breeeeeze.... Shot!"

Swift action: Fairy Lights, +4 int for two rounds
Standard action: Breeze Shot on the drake, attack with +3d6 damage.

[roll0] (3 BAB, +5 Dex, +1 mwk, +2 Knowledge Devotion, +1 point-blank shot, +5 inspiration, -2 range)
[roll1] + [roll2] (5 dexterity, +2 knowledge devotion, +1 point-blank shot, +5 inspiration, +3d6 blast)

HP: 30/30
AC: 23, touch 15, flat-footed 18
Inspiration points: 5/9
Motes: 0/6
Aspect: Breeze Fight
Active effects: +4 Intelligence (2 round remaining), +4 Dexterity (1 rounds remaining)

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh pulls the dart from the branch, spinning as she tries to get it into a better point.


Hit: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[roll2] to all in reach, DC 14 Reflex Halves

Using same surge as last time +1 AC, lasting two more rounds.

[Morcleon]

Glaring at the drake-tree, Frostheart takes a moment to glance around the battlefield. Ah, they had a healer. A good way to sow chaos and fear. She swept her hand down, pointing at Mina. 'Go, strike their healer. It should bother them enough.'

Turning her attention back to Claire, she smirked under her helmet. Trying to get some distance? That wouldn't work. With a swift leap, Frostheart dashes across the battlefield, striking at her target with a spinning slash.

Full-round: Charge attack on Claire, using Brave Gambit to refresh maneuvers and power attacking for -3/+6.
Attack roll: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]+[roll2] nonlethal

Maneuvers Readied
Demoralizing Roar [GL]
Blade of Breaking [ST]
Red Zephyr's Strike [ST]
Scything Strike [ST]
Rising Zenith Strike [ST]

[Forrestfire]

For a moment, Mina doesn't register that she's been made the primary target, then it hits her, as Frostheart hits Claire. She springs back into action, gesturing with an open hand towards Claire and pointing her other hand at the evil tree.

"Stop that! Seven spirits of light! Cure and counteract; heal my ally's wounds! One spirit of fire, ignite and annihilate!"

A thin beam of yellow and white flashes of light streaks towards Claire, healing some of her wounds where it touches her. Mina spares a moment to make sure that her magic's working, then staggers a bit, caught off-guard by a rush of 'happiness' from her fire as it snakes its way around the tree, flaring up brightly. The white mage starts to move closer to the Frostheart and Claire as it does so, distracted by the mental noise her new powers are making.


Start of turn, 3 motes come back. Move action to move to the side I guess, but it's mostly fluff since she's gonna stay in range of things.

Using a swift action to spend the 3 motes on Mina's Inner Fire (http://pastebin.com/MaMwVHxm) illumination, healing Claire for [roll0] damage and an equal amount of nonlethal damage if she's a willing target. If not, then it's a ranged touch attack: ([roll1]).


For her standard action, Mina will use Bludgeon and Dancing Weapon to whack the tree with her fire device, power attacking for -2/+2.

Perform check (irrelevant because of the feat to upgrade size liftable): [roll2]
Attack roll: [roll3] for [roll4] piercing damage.

If that misses, I would like to use my 1/encounter Temporal reroll of an attack on it.

HP: 27/27
AC: 20, touch 9, flat-footed 20
Fount of Healing: 29/50
Motes: 0/6
Conditions: +4 Charisma until the end of turn (factored into above things already)

EDIT: Also, it would be great if you guys (morcleon in particular) could click the checkbox to turn off your sig when posting in the IC thread. >_>

[NekoIncardine]

Claire's preparation gives her the chance to surprise Frostheart as she approaches...


Roll it, Admiral! Landing this attack is the only thing stopping Frostheart from knocking you right out, so if it fails...

... And as Frostheart orders the tree to move, the Breeze Shot strikes it and tips it, Keoh's strike toppling it entirely and Mina's flames are striking home clearer than they had previously. It's on the ropes - and those facing it seem to have an intuitive idea of just what to do now...


Anyone EXCEPT Claire may now use their finisher as a free action against the beast to end this thing's advance and return it to being a normal tree!

[The_Admiral]

As Frostheart charged, Claire winced as the sword hit her, biting away the pain, she grabs Frostheart's mask, lifting her into the air. As she does so, her hand glows with energy, she shouts, "GLEAMING HAND!" forcing all that energy into the mask.


rolls (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19548507&postcount=76)
Forgot to roll the extra damage.
[roll0]

I believe this is what's called a knockout blow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZpa9RF9aj4

Okay I got really confused. dammit, readied action was an illegal action, I will be using my rolls though because just editing the action description.

[5ColouredWalker]

F-F-F-Finish him!

'Throw and mark. Wait, who thought that? It's a Drake weren't they all- Let's try it.'

Stepping back, Keohrosan pulls her right side back, her right hand reaching to the air as her darts gather again, her left arm held forward and gathering energy, a mix of energies Eldritch and Radiant.
Suddenly, her right hand shoots forward, the darts striking to form a triangle on the tree, to be followed by a beam of mixed light as her arms clap together, stirking the drake with the sound of several discordant notes becoming a single melody.
As the beam fades, the area struck seems to be marked with a horse's hoofprint, with the space normally empty becoming a different outline, that of a dog, and within are the notes that were sounded.
"Uh... Yeah, that Melody, you might want to remember it." Suddenly, the wind seems to have gone out of Cure Melody's sails, her voice sounding confused instead of confident as she slowly stands up normally.

[NekoIncardine]

As Cure Melody casts her spell, the Drake freezes entirely - then, as the notes overtake it, it seems to begin to fade, shouting one last word, unlike those you have heard form it before - "ECHO!", it screams, before returning to where it had appeared suddenly, the tree reappearing where it was as if nothing had even happened....


So, Lady Frostheart? Might be time to scoot, before you get 5v1'd.

[Forrestfire]

Mina stares at the tree, her arm having been outstretched to direct another attack. After a few moments, she turns to look at the flames happily flitting around her, then at Lady Frostheart. Get of my face, fire spirit.

Mina glares and starts to run towards the presumably evil student, intent on tackler her to the ground. This isn't something Mina's particularly good at, but when the alternative is burning another human being to death, there aren't many other options.

Not sure whose turn it is, or if Frostheart has something special. This is basically fluff for moving within my own square until Mina's turn comes up.

[Morcleon]

Staring at the drake as it fell, Frostheart groaned internally. '...well. I guess I'd better make like a less doomed tree and leave...'

She smirked at Claire, stepping back gracefully and sheathing her sword with an exaggerated bow. And then, in a flash of snowflakes and a rush of cold air, she vanished.

She's doing the teleport thing with the boots to her predetermined escape location, probably a place in the Undercity that she's been to a lot. Not sure if it would count as Very Familiar or just Studied Carefully.

Teleport roll: [roll0]
5' step back, then teleports away.

Also, sorry for the long delay in posting. :smallredface:

[Forrestfire]

Mina stops abruptly as the enemy teleports away. Crap.

After a good five or six seconds of processing what all just happened, Mina turns towards the bush that the magical animal flew into, calling out annoyedly:

"Hey bird! We stopped the tree! Get out here and explain what the heck's going on!"

[5ColouredWalker]

"You got a bird? I got a dog."
Keoh dismisses her armor without a problem, but given that it's her normal armor it wouldn't have one. With blades being all that's left, she seems much calmer.
And then she begins trying to catch them, only to find they resist every effort to hold more than two at once, and they refuse to stay in her uniform's belt.
"Uh... I may need some help here to."

Keoh's voice sounds a little embarrassed as she looks around the field.

[The_Admiral]

Claire's power fades away as she winces, one word coming from her mouth as the pain hits her, "Owwwwwwww!" she says, holding her sides as she almost curls up in pain.

"...where's that cat?" she asks finally after adjusting to the pain, glancing at the remaining students.

[NekoIncardine]

A nearby bush rustles a couple times, before an animal - a red bird - pops out.

"Oh, hey! It's gone! Good, good. Sorry about that. We'd hoped to find you before they started attacking," he explained, followed by a black cat, yellow dog, and blue hamster. "They're... Not at all finished yet, but at least someone can fight them now!"

---

As you arrive, you immediately hear a voice - a very familiar voice.

"My servant, it seems you were less successful than you should have been. What happened?"

The tone of your Empress is one leaning slightly towards mock concern. Slightly.

[Forrestfire]

Mina looks around at the sports pitch, noting that no one other than the group is there.

"So... Uh... How do I turn back? I can turn my clothes back, ri—oh-"

The white mage is cut off as her outfit spontaneously compusts again, replaced by the white mage uniform she was wearing before. She breathes a sigh of relief. Thank god.

"Is... Everyone alright? I can heal you if you're not... And you-" She turns and glares at the bird, "-still need to tell us what all this is about"

[5ColouredWalker]

Seeing Mina's change, Keoh tries willing the darts gone, feeling them and more fade out of existence, but now she feels normal.
"Yes. What are we able to fight now? Because I personally wasn't planning on fighting for a few years just yet."

Keoh looks unharmed, merely a little shaken and annoyed, one might note her bouncing her left leg slightly as she continues looking around, almost like she's eager to be anywhere else.

[Morcleon]

As you arrive, you immediately hear a voice - a very familiar voice.

"My servant, it seems you were less successful than you should have been. What happened?"

The tone of your Empress is one leaning slightly towards mock concern. Slightly.


Frostheart sighed and sat down at the table, slipping off her helmet and stretching a little. "Four of them had Pretty Cure transformations. That was not something I was prepared for."

"...also there was someone there. Someone Kobayashi Riko knew. And someone that she cared about."

[The_Admiral]

".....Them? I'm guessing that it isn't just that girl behind this." she says, eyeing the small menagerie.

[NekoIncardine]

The dog looks towards Claire and nods. "Indeed, you're correct. They serve an 'Empress', and... That's all we know, for sure. No clue why they're doing this, how exactly, or any of that..."

The bird nods. "Thus why we need the Pretty Cure to come and save the day!"

---

"... Hrm. It seems I miscalculated my priorities. I had assumed that the remnants of Pure would be much more tentative in their moves. Four Pretty Cure right out the gate is... More than a little brazen. We shall have to prepare a larger attack, then."

The shadow-clad figure cast a single arm out. "Lady Frostheart, you shall have to figure out the ideal opportunity to create more fear and panic. Know that you created results that frankly were about as well as could be expected, given what happened. However, we will need better. Choose the next Drake more wisely. And beware - the Pretty Cure will seek to make you doubt the righteousness of our cause. Ignore them... And destroy them."

[Eurus]

Juliet lurks sheepishly in the back of the group as her outfit transforms back into the far more ordinary clothes she'd been wearing before this mess. She's a little sad to see the frilly dress go, but it's too fancy to just wear around anyway. Better to save it for monster-fighting.

"So... this is going to happen again? More monsters that we need to stop?"

[The_Admiral]

"I think that's what they're implying, who was that girl?" Claire asks as she drops onto the grass nursing her bruises.

[Forrestfire]

Mina looks at the bird incredulously. "Aren't there much more qualified people to do this job?"

[NekoIncardine]

The bird shakes its head. "The problem is, the beasts summoned by their cards are more or less immune to normal adventurers. Only the Pretty Cure can reliably best them, as far as we know. And the thing is, the Dragon Watches? Those only work for chosen matches. If you passed yours to another Cure, it wouldn't work for them - let alone anyone else."

[5ColouredWalker]

"So... Why us? Were we just close enough?"
Keoh seems somewhat stunned at the response, which cut off her nodding at Mina's question rather thoroughly.

[NekoIncardine]

The cat shook its head. "No. At any one time, there are at most five people who can become Pretty Cures in the world. Sometimes only three or four. Something always brings them close, and then the threat ends up there too. It's the way it's always been, as far as we know."

[Morcleon]

"Yes, your Majesty." Frostheart bowed her head down in agreement, taking a sip from her drink. Fidgeting with her sleeve, she sighed.

"I'll need a way to nullify their numerical advantage over me. Perhaps distracting with a danger to civilians?"

[Forrestfire]

Mina thinks for a few moments, then looks around again. "If you're telling the truth about all of this, then we need to tell someone in charge. If the four of us are the only ones who can stop a bunch of summoned monsters, then getting support to help us do that would be the best way to go about it."

"We're still students. I know I'm not ready for this. We can get the resources to help, though, if we try."

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh takes a moment to look shocked before Mina's statement makes her make a sound somewhere between a cough and a laugh.
"Humans really do coddle, if you didn't see we handled things just fine. However, we're the only people who can fight... What exactly?And, did you mean it, them coming to us? Could we, say, go elsewhere and have it follow us?"














Must have lost this in the tabs. Sorry.

[Eurus]

Juliet is silent, but anxious. Mina's objections were logical, but some little part of her was protesting. Getting to be the hero was awfully appealing.

[NekoIncardine]

"An appropriate solution. Also, we'll spare some smaller troubles for you to pile on them. I think a choice mercenary group would do nicely..."

---

The bird looks towards Mina, tilting its head as if to question her sanity. "First, would anyone honestly believe you? Never mind the dangers of your secret identity getting out - the Drake-callers would definitely try to target you the rest of the time. And on top of that, there's that whole rumor that the Dragonwatches become less powerful the more people know about the wielders, and... Look, you gotta keep this a secret as best you can, okay? We can explain more when you've got a private location to gather..."

[Forrestfire]

"People would believe us because it's fairly simple to prove the truth of our words, and we have these-" she gestures to the watch on her wrist, "-which can be identified in all likelihood. And if they can't, then that means that they're special enough to make people take us seriously just by being immune to the spell. And if the drake-callers are people who would summon an evil tree randomly to attack people, wouldn't we want them to target us specifically? As you said, we're the only ones who can fight them!"

"If the powers get weaker the more people know about them, then we tell as few people as possible, but we tell the important people. If this is as big a danger as you're saying, we're going to need help, and 'help' doesn't necessarily need to know why it's helping. This isn't something you can just toss on the shoulders of four random students! This is people setting monsters on the population that can't be fought without specific people, and if you're trying to keep that sort of thing secret, you're actively putting everyone in danger, and you're just as monstrous as them!"

Mina realizes she's escalated to shouting at the bird just after she finishes doing so, and catched herself with a slightly horrified look (mixed with anger at the bird).

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh numbly nods, seemingly thinking things over before responding with a quiet voice.
"I'd agree with you, but if I knew a human that could keep a secret I'd feel the urge trumpet their existence as one of the few, and those in power have a tendency to be less inclined to keep secrets if they think it could get them anything... But if you know someone?"

[Eurus]

Juliet flinches back as Mina yells, but finally speaks up tentatively.

"Just... calm down, okay? I know we're all freaked out right now, but don't... take it out on the bird. I'm Juliet, Juliet Sterling."

She takes a deep breath to try to calm herself, then launches into an explanation before anyone can interrupt.

"You're right, we should tell someone. But we have to be careful who we pick, and what we tell them. Someone needs to know that the city is in danger. They'll need to be ready with evacuations and medics, at least, and some kind of public explanation so that people don't panic as much. And if we can convince them not to engage the monsters themselves, it might save a lot of guards from getting hurt pointlessly. But we don't need to tell them about the watches, or who we really are. Just that we're here to help."

Nervously, Juliet glances around the field.

"In the meantime, should we go somewhere more private to talk about this?"

[Forrestfire]

Mina breathes for a moment, then calmly says "Doctor Wendy Bert. She's the subdean charge of the healing division. She's super-trustworthy, she knows who I am, and she can help us get to dean Johnathan Alemb. If we've got Wendy backing us, he'll listen. And he's an archmage, he'll have seen weird stuff like this before, and he'll know how best to organize people to support us if it is true that only we can fight the drakes."

[5ColouredWalker]

"You want to go to the Dean? I suppose it'd be less risky for us than the Mayor, but while an Archmage I think we should go for someone more... Prominent."

[Forrestfire]

"If the attacks will be centered around us, and we're at the school, then there is no one more prominent than a powerful wizard on his home turf. And he has the pull to get whatever other help he decides we need for this."

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh tilts her head slightly.
"So you expect us never to go out in public again?"

[Forrestfire]

Mina tilts her head as well, confused. "... What? No, that's not what I said at all."

She pauses for a moment. "... Actually maybe I did. What I meant to say is that we're much better off getting the support of the school's emergency response people, the guards when necessary, and powerful allies for when these drakes show up. We don't need to reveal ourselves to anyone but the important people, and then we can keep the 'secret identity' thing a secret, if it is true that people knowing about us makes us weaker. People helping to evacuate and support don't need to know who we are for real, just that we're there, we're fighting, and we're the only ones who can fight."

She pauses again. "And if it ends up with us revealed, then the answer isn't to hide, it's to live life normally and prepare for the next attack. That's now our job, right? Unless there's a way to fight these drakes without us, we have a responsibility, and a responsibility to do it right."

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh shifts uneasally, looking between the animals and Mina as if making up her mind.
"... Perhaps... Perhaps one or two of us lets him know, that way if something goes wrong with your plan, not all of us are... Weakened."

[Forrestfire]

Mina thinks for a moment. "... Good point. We should do this as soon as possible. Probably... Now. Does anyone want to volunteer to come with me?"

Mina looks across the sports pitch anxiously to see if people have shown up yet.

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh half roles her eyes at Mira's question. Only half because it's not entirely silly.
"I will of course. If I'm going to be treated like an adult in Human lands I should at least act like one most of the time... That, and I figure that there may be a small chance I could... 'Reinvent' myself if it came to it, though I wouldn't want to."

[Morcleon]

Frostheart perked up slightly, a small grin appearing on her face. "Oh? And which mercenary group would this be?"

[NekoIncardine]

"Allow me to determine that, dear. Just know that they will be handy when the time is right."

Gotta surprise the PCs somehow. :P

---

The bird looks, at minimum frustrated at Mina, but lets the conversation continue for a bit before stepping onto the ground. "There's a lot of problems with your logic... A big one being that the Pretty Cure work best, specifically, by being the negation of their foe. The foe operates by being fear incarnate - so by fighting it, you become hope incarnate. Protecting people's dreams, saving them from the beasts that take form - you get the idea. I guarantee you the Dean hasn't faced the Drakes or anything quite like their methods, and -- please name a meeting spot where we can gather in private and say it towards the bush."

It's rather obvious that the bird just completely and utterly changed gears, as he quickly flies into and hides in the bush - all three other animals have already hidden in it, just as people start showing up.


We'll want to move to the next meeting soon, where maybe a few actual answers can happen.

[Forrestfire]

Mina glares at the bird as it flies off. You.. Irresponsible, inane... Grah! Fine, then.

Mina looks at the bush and says flatly says "Doctor Wendy's office, over in the white magic building. She is the most trustworthy person I know, and at the very least she should be willing to give us privacy to discuss even if we don't explain to her. Alternatively, study room 208 in the South Library. I have it reserved."

The white mage then starts walking towards the first location she listed. "Come on, before more people show up."

Someone can drag Mina towards wherever we're going. Whatever works. She thinks that the bird is being a terrible emergency response provider, though :smalltongue:

[5ColouredWalker]

Keoh looks a little skeptical at getting access to the office so freely, but follows Mina without a word.

[Eurus]

Juliet sighs and follows Mina.

[The_Admiral]

Claire struggles to her feet curious and limping along as she follows slowly after Mina.

[NekoIncardine]

----

Doctor Wendy is out for the day when you get to her office, so the library it is, for now.

As the party arrives, the animals are already there. It's not clear how they snuck in unnoticed, but there they are...

Perhaps time for more questions?

[Forrestfire]

Mina, having cooled off significantly on the walk over from the vacant professor's office, somberly sits down at one of the chairs in the study room.

"Okay. So what's going on?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Keohrosan moves just to the side of the door, waiting for everyone to enter before closing the door and positioning herself in front of it.
"Perhaps it might be best for... You to explain everything you know. Saves on the guess work, unless we're required to learn by trial and error?"

[Forrestfire]

Mina makes an apprehensively annoyed face at that, thinking to herself Given what we already know, that's probably likely.

[The_Admiral]

"We have nothing on them? Bases? Location? Maybe how they get the monsters? Playing defence will just wear us down..."

Glancing at all the possible weird looks, "I do pay attention in class, sometimes."


Sorry, life has been ****ty, I screwed up my university entrance exams, resitting next year.

[Eurus]

Juliet paces anxiously, feeling Mina's ire and stress slowly rub off on her. And, increasingly, she's realizing how tired and hungry she is. It's making it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

"...I really should have eaten more at breakfast..."

[NekoIncardine]

Now that they've moved onto the table, you can see all four fairy animals clearly.

A red bird is in front, and has a little nametag saying "Lead" tied neatly over his breast. He's standing with an almost regal stance.

A yellow dog, wrapped around the other three so that its face is to the side, has a nametag saying "Tenor." She looks kinda tired, and based on the harness he's wearing, that might be from carrying the other three around campus.

The cat's odd, because she's a two-color calico, both orange and purple. Her name appears to be Alto, and she's also flopped onto the table. She doesn't look particularly tired, but she is positioned such that Mina, who happens to be seated the closest, could try to rub her belly... If she dares.


Mina, optional will save DC 12 to resist the urge to rub the cat's belly. You may choose to Just Succeed or Just Fail with justification, as this is a comedy save only. If you fail the save, roll a Reflex save, DC 15, just be aware it won't actually apply for a few posts.

Then there's the by far smallest of the four - a blue hamster with a tag saying his name is "Bass". Kehorosan, you actually spotted him leaping up onto the table... Which frankly should be impossible for any hamster you've ever seen before. He's got muscles, apparently.

It is Bass who chooses to speak, this time. "There's good news, and there's bad news, there. The bad news is, we don't know where their base is. The good news, is that we know how to find out. Sort of." He scratched his chin with a paw, before continuing, "The Pretty Cure's ultimate power is hope. Each time you beat one of their monsters and stop it from terrorizing the innocent, you inspired hope in those around you. The more that happens, the less effective their terrorizing methods become, the more desperate they get... Until, eventually, they're forced to reveal their base in a final ploy."

Lead thumps one wing against his nametag twice, before continuing, "In other words, our best defense is also our good offense. This wouldn't be the first world attacked by mysterious forces that that world and generation's specific Pretty Cure have stopped. Mind, the Pretty Cure have failed a few times... Those worlds end up locked in various forms of unending darkness, though at least one was then saved, decades later. Oh, uh, before you ask, this is our first rodeo. Fairies aren't supposed to ever work with more than one Pretty Cure team outside of a few really specific cases. It's actually kinda odd they sent four of us for this job, too. Last time that happened... Well, I'm allowed to say we won that world, and that it's a really, really, really good thing we did."


Anyone may roll a Knowledge: The Planes to see if you can make a guess which world Lead's talking about... But the DC's absurdly high.

[The_Admiral]

"....that sounds suspiciously formulaic, how do you know this will happen? I mean, we're taught our enemy won't fight the battle we want them to...."


I love the Maxims of an effective mercenary.