Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten coast]

"Great white tree? Thank you. I'll sure I can find something like tha-" The swordsman looks like he's ready to spin on his heels and merrily wander off into the dark night, but then the old man mentions this "old master". The swordsman stops and tenses, his brow furrowing.

"Waitwaitwait. Your daughter is going away? Who is this old master, and what use does he have for little girls?"

[bc56]

"Power needs responsibility. Otherwise become tyrant." Kothar's overthrown and killed at least one tyrant in his time. "Tyranny leads to pain and hurt. Do not forget the least of your kin." He nods and gestures emphatically. "The greatest king relies on poorest peasant."

[Morty]

[River Delta]

Curious. This sounds almost like the Immaculate teachings. Responsible use of power and avoidance of tyranny. Perhaps the fundamental truth of the Elemental Dragons pervades even this realm.

"It does become difficult to take care of the proper order of things here. All the people with power and not enough sense to use it properly. But we do what we can, don't we?"

[bc56]

"We do what we must. We may be the only who can," Kothar agrees. "Where you go next?" He grabs a bite of dried jerky from his backpack and tears into it.

[Recaiden]

So, recap!
Zoph powers straight through the compulsion and heads off down the stairs.
Selekhael takes a few minutes to shake off the compulsion and by the time she realizes what's going on Zoph has stomped off and our other two heroes have arrived!
Great!
That means Selekhael can just explain that the paladin left on his own and everything is just fine.
Right?
Speaking of just fine, Zoph is going quite down. With each step the narrow staircase is growing increasingly alien. The air feels thick, almost as if moving underwater. Rather than descending into darkness an otherworldly light permeates the air. Surfaces are encrusted with sponge-like material the color of bleached bone, the glassy air flowing from every pore. Strange iridescent bubbles drift, reflecting ten-thousand possibilities. Crimson fungal growth spreads like brambles oozing black fluid that fills the room with the heady scent of incense.
Then the stairs open up and there it is.
A wide, circular chamber, the stone fluted, smooth, and disquietingly organic. In the center is... a thing.

Something like arms, reaching. Grasping. Manipulating.
Something like mushrooms, consuming. Rotting. Decaying.
Something like wheels, turning. Grinding. Whirling.
Something like fish, flashing. Teeming. Swarming.

Zoph will be struck with the horrible realization that this thing is much larger than it appears. There's simply too much of it to see. This has to be it. The Saint. Or at least some fraction of it that exists in the perceptible world. It's asleep, though. Mercifully. Singing in its death-like slumber.
But if he could destroy this?
It's akin to a person hanging from a cliff by a single finger.
Stomp on the finger and they fall, their grip on the world shaken.

"He must have gone down there," Selekhael answers. "Careful. There's, uh, a trap on the entrance that makes you forget, uh, what you're doing." She heads down to hopefully stop Zoph from doing something stupid.

"What an interesting idea." Benedict pulls out a notebook and jots down the most important things he's learnt so far, or wants to investigate later, and heads through the doorway. He's relying on his natural curiosity to carry him through, here. Just because he's forgotten why he wants to go through the door, he knows himself well enough to think he'll be curious enough to go through the door anyway. And he's not too fussed about Zophiel, so near as he can tell forgetting every about the paladin doesn't really matter too much.

Hopefully the trap doesn't try to wipe his notes as well as his memory.

There's a flash of blue light from Anchor's eyes. You mostly can't see it, on account of the sunglasses. But it does happen.
It should be safe enough to record some memories here, in case anything happens.

Then she approaches, heading for the stairs.
Stops.
Looks around the room where this seal was. If someone wants this to go unremembered, maybe they should- Anchor's shadow is waving annoyedly at her. Oh, hmm, really?
She takes another step.
Stops.
Looks around the room where the seal was. Anchor's shadow steps up and nudges her towards the stairs again.
Right. Maybe not going along with the forgetfulness will be best.
Down the stairs.

[Morty]

[River Delta]

"I should probably return to Vigil and make my report." Calm Reed looks off into the distance. "But perhaps I could stay and try to teach the locals how to best deal with spirits and gods."

[bc56]

"I help." It's not a request. If Calm Reed decides to hang around and help the locals, so will Kothar. He'll hang around regardless, probably. He's got nothing else to do.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Let's start with Benny, shall we?

He approaches the seal and will immediately be struck by the compulsion.

Forget why you are here.

Turn and leave, there is nothing of interest in this place.

Whether he manages to shake it off or no, that remains to be seen. His notes, thankfully, remain intact.

Selekhael and Anchor, meanwhile, power through the effect and descend into the place where the Saint slumbers. They'll arrive just in time to see Zoph smacking the awful thing with his sword. The blade cleaves into the creature, spilling alien blood. And as soon as he pulls the blade back to strike again-

-the wound is gone.

As if the universe had forgotten that the Saint had been injured at all.

The assault does not go unanswered.

Reality shifts as the power to dictate what is and is not is focused upon the paladin.

The Saint attempts to cause Zoph to forget how to breath.

[bc56]

Selekhael sees the sleeping saint. She sees it attacking Zophiel. She kinda likes that guy. Her coral rings swing around to fire a barrage of bolts that target emotions and instincts, suppressing them. That should slow those attacks down, hopefully. "Quick! Take her down before she wakes up!"

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

"Beth. You?"

As they take the sides of the sandy court, Mr. Tacky excitedly introduces himself as Shin. On closer inspection, it looks he's actually a bit younger than Karasu and instinctively wants to impress her. On the other team, the balding man - known only as Rin's Dad - laughs and says something to the effect of this being more fair since now there's an adult on both teams. Rin groans with embarrassment at each word out of her dad's dumb mouth. Rin's other teammate just taps his foot and asks to get on with it already.

Rin's Dad undermines Rin's more serious strategy by jumping up to dunk an incoming ball with no setup. Shin displays that gently setting the ball is pretty much his entire comfort zone. Beth alternates between sliding two-handed saves and practicing her spikes based on her position and on what Karasu is doing. At some point it seems that Rin is only one actually keeping score.

The game is a decent warm-up and passes the time until the rowing team comes back and leaves a boat free.

[Workout Beach]

"Karasu." The teen replies, taking her spot and giving her name in response when Shin does. "Your gi's too bright."

And then it's playtime! Seeing as they're on the same team, Karasu focuses on supporting Beth with her plays, spikes and saves, aiming for maximum synergy with the rest of the team. Though it proves to be quite fun, she also is keeping score and playing to win.

When a boat is freed up, however, she calls Beth's attention to it between rounds. "Rowboat's free." She says, pointing to the free boat.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Workout Beach]

"Huh? Ahh, I could roll around in the sand..."

Between that and the competitive bickering on the other team's side, the volleyball conversation doesn't get much better than that. Luckily, we seem to be dealing with two masters of unspoken rapport here.

"Oh, sweet. That's our cue to go. See ya." Beth waves a quick goodbye to the v-ballers and joins Karasu to catch the previous rowers before they put their boat away.

The rowboat, being meant for a four-person team, is pretty lengthy and has some extra oars attached. "I've never actually been rowing except on a machine. How do we want to do this?"

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Benedict forgets why he's here, and finds himself at the top of the stairs with no idea what's at the bottom, holding a notebook. He glances at it, and goes down the stairs anyway. Every time he forgets, he glances at the notebook, and continues onward.

At the bottom, he frowns. He doesn't remember these people- he didn't care enough to learn names before he was hit with forgetful magic- and his notes only mention a mercenary with swords and a tiefling that has been absorbed and replaced by something else, as well as a witch with an independent shadow and a very good spear. And the Saint, which is linked to memory and noted to be an entity of power, though sleeping and quiescent. He's met saints before, though not of this calibre. He pulls out a glowing apple and bites into it, chewing the bare minimum and swallowing in great chunks. The glow transfers to Benedict, his skin wrinkling and sagging as the colour is bleached from his hair. As he eats, he sketches a symbol of black lines, larger and more intricate than the ones before. As he draws, the light suffusing his body from the apple fades, though it doesn't make him any younger. He's revealed to be a man in his sixties, with grey hair and a trembling hand- he draws slowly to try and fight it, and as soon as he's finished eating the apple, core and all, he clasps his hands together to steady the finger doing the drawing.

Forgotten Coast

"Are there boats, at least? Something that would let me go back to sea?" Frigate hopes so. He doesn't want to have to walk across the sea bed again, just to try and find an island with a proper port on it.

"It's an honour, Star. And a local custom. Be aware o' that, afore ye get us in somethin' too big to get out of." Frigate, ideally, won't get involved. It's not his business, and there's no boats involved. He quite likes the swordsman, and he'd hate to see Star of Hope killed for something pointless. They don't know yet what the Old Master does with girls, or if it's just girls, or indeed what he's master of. Might be he's going to teach her how to be a sailor, and she's going to sea soon. The sea can be dangerous- especially if Frigate is aboard your vessel.

[Hattish Thing]

[Forgotten coast]

The swordsman's words are scaring the little girl.

In response, the fisherman holds her tighter, glaring his way.

"It is a great honor," he retorts. "I do not question your ways!" It is clear that he is highly offended by his line of questioning. "It would do you well not to question mine!" The old man shakes his head before gesturing towards the construct. "Your creature is wise, listen to it.

He'll take a moment to respond to Frigate now. "Passage to the mainland has not been attempted in many years."

"The old master would know for certain."

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten coast]

The swordsman gives bemused looks to both Frigate and the old man. "I find it hard to question, when I know naught otherwise" , he says defensively. He falls silent for a while, pacing around, looking into the dark. "... I presume this Old Master is coming this way tonight?" , he asks after the old man has answered Frigate's question. "If my comrade's inquiries could be answered by them, should we not wait for them before we go?"

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Taking it down before it wakes up?
He was going to try that anyway.
Kind-of appreciative for the help, though.

Too bad Zophiel's not breathing, though. Luckily, you can go for a couple minutes without doing that, so it's not that big of a deal. Lots of fights don't even last nearly that long.

Zophiel stares at the lack of injury.
Honestly, he was expecting that. Things that have the power to undo injuries tend to use them. Whether it's healing magic, time manipulation, or - in this case - just changing reality. This case isn't that different from the former two, which he has experience fighting against...and, luckily, the power the gauntlets hold is pretty useful against those two situations. After all, if you can't stop something from healing itself, then you have no hope of stopping it. It's only natural that paladins would come up with a way to counter that sort of thing.

The gauntlets resonate with the dissonance between what was and what is. There was an injury. But it is not there. The time-devouring blackness peels off the paladin's hand and is attracted to that dissonance, moving towards where the injury was. It gnaws at the universe for forgetting that there was an injury there, and starts devouring everything in that same place, in order to make the same injury anew.

Zophiel moves an eighth of a circle around the Saint, and winds up a second attack with the same sword.
He swings.

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

"Yeah, bye. Good luck." Karasu says to the other v-ballers, then leaves with Beth.

Once they get to the rowboat, Karasu seems a little more excited, even though her stoic facial expression doesn't change too much. "I like rowing, it's fun." She and Natalie do go rowing from time to time.

She examines the four-seater, rubbing her chin. "Could wait for a two-seater to be free, could manage it like this, could use our powers. Got any?" There's another thing they could try, but Karasu'd rather not... not unless one of those people's her girlfriend. "... could invite someone else, too. Could call my girlfriend, if she's free."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Workout Beach]

A quick assessment of the situation reveals that no smaller boats are forthcoming. That this one is here is only for the generosity/convenience of the town's university rowing teams, who maintain a boathouse with a total of two fours and two eights.

"Powers?" Beth thinks for a second. "Nothing... applicable. I don't think the size or weight will be a problem, though. We can take off the extra, uh..." Paddles? Oars? Blades? Kinesthetic Propulsion Staves? "Rowing... poles?"

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Coast

"I be not a creature! And not his, I belong to myself! And the sea. My 'eart belongs to her, and always will." Frigate protests that description; he's a creation, not a creature. He gazes out across the sea with the last sentence.

"Oh? Why has passage not been attempted? Do there be a sea-beast? Pirates? Treacherous currents an' shifting sandbars?" Frigate's quite interested in this, since it's keeping him from the sea.

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

"Super-strength. Maybe size manipulation." Karasu concludes when Beth alludes to what her powers might be. "Oars, 'cause it's a rowboat. Yes, we can." She starts to do just as Beth says, taking off the extra oars and placing them in the boat if there's space. "Maybe I could make ink oars to help with rowing, but then I'd be doing most of the work." She says, alluding to her own powers.

"Should sit at the extreme ends." She gets into the boat and taking a deep breath, ready to have fun.

[Recaiden]

Anchor comes down to the bottom of the stairs.
And there it is. Something hard to see. Something that doesn't belong here.
A collection of meaningless symbols and impressions forced into this town.

Anchor's shadow strides over towards Zophiel where he's valiantly fighting the Saint.
She herself tightens her grip on the spear and runs towards the center of the room to drive the point in.
There are things she could say, but if they're trying not to wake the Saint - and for once, she agrees with Selekhael - better not aim for its attention.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Selekhael's assault is more crippling than one might expect.

This outsider is not awake. It is unaware. Every assault it turns and every counter-attack it launches is purely reflexive.

The id-insinuation doesn't halt the saint's defenses, but it does slow them. And our heroes need every advantage they can get.

For that attack Selekhael receives a retort of painful, psionic stacking. Should she be struck by the bolt in retaliation her senses will be overloaded with painful static and noise.

Benedict begins his spellwork, though what awfulness he'll call upon the world remains to be seen. As yet unthreatened by his, the Saint does not retaliate.

Zoph redoubles his attack, wounding the saint once again and raining blows anew. A new assault crashes toward the paladin, a wave of raw entropic power. Hopefully that doesn't destabilize his wards further.

As for Anchor... The saint, even sleeping as it is, seems dimly conscious of the threat the spear poses. Dozens of arms made of barnacle encrusted stone burst out of the floor, attempting to restrain her. A forest of limbs blocking her path to the saint. A hedge of fingers, all groping and grasping.

The saint itself, meanwhile, continues to simply sit there like a canker on reality. Unaware. Unfeeling.

[bc56]

Selekhael yowls loudly and begins pawing at her ears and eyes, trying to get the saint's nastiness out of them. It doesn't really work. She's quite unable to fight at the moment.

[Hattish Thing]

Forgotten Coast

The fisherman jumps somewhat at Frigate's protestations.

"My apologies," he blurts out, clutching his daughter ever closer. "Please, you are frightening her."

He continues after a short while, explaining everything in a hushed and quiet tone. "It is strictly forbidden. We do not question the wisdom of the old master." The man reaches for a band of prayer beads worn around his wrist, rubbing them as he speaks. "He whose perfect form is purged of the five blades." The old man glances back to the swordsman now. "Oh no, sir." He nods his head in respect. "The old master has not been seen in several hundred years. He dwells below, it is said, where the earth and ocean meet as one."

The fisherman strokes his daughter's shoulder fearfully. "There are caves, holy places - representative of the path to enlightenment. They must be traversed."

"My girl, little Okila, will walk the path when the sun rises."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Workout Beach]

"Ink oars?" Beth briefly imagines how that would even work. Would she have to, like, draw them in the air? Would the ink itself not dissolve in the water? "...yeah, no magic. Let's just hop in and do this!"

Just getting the boat across the water isn't a big deal on its own, but the fun part - racing through the winding course that the buoys suggest - promises to be pretty intense. The long oars provide quite a lot of resistance. As suspected, Beth can pull strokes easily, but not very steadily and not with perfect timing. "I think you're going to need to set the pace for us. I'll have to get used to accounting for depth on both sides... let me know if I'm pulling us too much one way or the other or something like that."

"So... you said your girlfriend lives around here?" Beth says between breaths while trying to line up for a starting position. "Do you two go to the same Ink Magic school?"

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

Karasu frowns a little at it being called magic, but says nothing. She's pretty much used to it at this point, having been in the Nexus for more than 3 years, now. However, Beth's certainly enthusiastic about rowing as well, and that is something she can appreciate.

The black girl can also pull her strokes easily and steadily, having had prior practice, as well as a sense of rhythm. "Will do."

"Never said that, she lives Inside." She corrects when Beth starts making conversation. Despite how she comes off, she doesn't mind the attempt. "I'm the one who lives around." Ink magic school? Another assumption and honest mistake that she corrects. "Ink manipulation's the power I was born with, not magic." Though, it is a functional magic system. "We're from different worlds, originally. She's a conjurer."

Based on the question Beth's asking, however, Karasu makes an assumption of her own. "You originally from the Nexus?"

She starts counting her strokes out loud in an effort to get them both to keep pace, stopping after a while and seeing how well Beth can keep up without the verbal counts.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Benedict pants and releases the magic built up in the sigil he has created. He's his true age, the apple is eaten and the glow is gone. The symbol flares and emits a beam of black towards the Saint. The first effect of the beam is a numbing magic, deadening nerves and lessening pain. Hopefully, this will keep it asleep despite the pain of what follows. Next, Benedict's magic tries to flay the Saint, removing the outer layer, and then peeling off the next layer, again and again until its very core lies exposed. Benedict can see everything, though the black symbol and beam are opaque to the others; this would not be a very efficient method of vivisection if it stopped Benedict from seeing what it revealed of the Saint's internal anatomy- if it even has such a thing.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

For her part, Beth notices that Karasu is pretty strong! That's not too surprising; she is a human, after all. She accepts Karasu's distinction between ink-based superpowers and what one can only assume is a form of wizardry with a nod and an, "Oh, okay."

"No, I've only been here for about... two years," Beth says, "barring some spooky revelation that Planet was part of Nexus all along or something."

Planet was quite a number of generations removed from Earth's racial geography. Karasu could infer that Beth must be mixed, with tightly-curled hair and a skin tone close to her own, but further speculation would be mostly academic.

The two approach the first turn in the course. From her spot on the fore end, Beth has followed Karasu's lead well enough to get some speed going, but at this point she still has to guess how one steers a rowboat. She puts in a series fast, splashing strokes on the outside of the turn, which seems basically correct, but she also instinctively leans into the turn, which just kind of throws off the boat's balance a little.

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten coast]

The swordsman's brow furrows as he listens to the old man's explanation, though he keeps his back turned and keeps peering into the darkness. Or so it might seem - if Frigate bothers to look, they might notice the swordsman's eyes are glazed, the man lost in deep thought.

The old man's words have brought into his mind a flood of disarrayed memories - of things he's done and places he's visited... maybe. The names and details are all somehow lost.

It takes him some time to get back to the present moment. "... not seen in hundreds of years? How do you know, then, that I'm not this old master?" , he quips, glancing over his shoulder. Then, with a sigh, he turns around and looks at Okila, the little girl, kneeling so his eyes will be level with hers.

"You know, when I was your age, I had no parents to look after me, and not a penny to my name. So I went to the gates of this great... fortress-city, you could call it, where nobles of the world lived. Pure souls, they called themselves. And I called out to pledge myself, body and soul, to their service. "

He smiles, but in the flickering light of the campfire, it probably looks menacing more than reassuring. "it was a great honor when they let me in. I never went back to the life I had before. But as you can see, I turned out just fine."

He stands up and turns towards Frigate. "Let's go." He nods towards the dark and starts walking. He holds his hand before him, palm facing up. "Path of Destruction: Crimson Flame Cannon." A spark of flame appears on his palm and grows into a blazing ball of fire, which he carries before him like a lantern as he looks for that great, white tree...

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Remember who still isn't breathing?
Yeah, Zophiel doesn't remember either.
A lack of oxygen fills his body with adrenaline, as bodies tend to do.


The wave of entropic power does the same thing to the paladin as what had happened upstairs earlier. Cracking, etc skin. Worse in some places than others. No point in healing it, he thinks, until the fight's over.

He looks over, and sees Anchor, and the forest of arms. Seeing the Saint trying to attack Anchor reminds Zophiel that there is actually a priority higher than making the Saint suffer and be destroyed. Congrats, Saint-person! You did the one thing that could make Zophiel stop attacking you!
He pulls his sword and steps around the Saint a little more, to get a good view of how it's attacking his daughter.

He winds up his sword, ready to throw it like a spear.
The cracks in his skin spread.
And then, he throws it to the middle of the swarm of arms.
Sure, the sword would hit several, but that's not the key thing. Instead, when the sword lands, the blackness (from his gauntlets) that was all along it bursts. The blackness shoots out like threads at all the nearby hands, piercing their palms or wrists like nails if it can, and pulling at them.

Hopefully, that helps.

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

"Oh?" Karasu is interested enough to ask for more information, considering she's been here for a bit longer and discovered the ties Raptor Island has to Thepes. "Sounds like there's an interesting story, there. Tell me." She says, expectantly.

Looking at Karasu, the only unnatural thing one can see on the surface is that the part of the eyes that should be white is black, and that her teeth are slightly pearlescent for some reason. She does notice Beth's appearance, wondering what mix she is.

"Don't lean to the side, you'll throw us off-balance." Karasu points out, then starts explaining how to steer, seemingly coming more to life. "I'll explain. So, you use the right oar to steer left, and the left to steer right, like so." So, to steer left, she uses the right oar whilst keeping the left oar still and in the water.