Residence Medieval [private]

[Franny Stein]

“Figures.”

As the forest tapered into a thinner road between it, Franny considered that she was still quite lost. She had been following a party of adventurers since some ways back through the use of “Silent Move”, a skill she had found little use for until now. Betting on the 50-50 chance that the group might be heading more toward a town than deeper wilderness, she instead found herself before a mansion that was most certainly, probably, bad news. She considered calling out to them but quickly decided against it. Talking with them seemed like a pain.

Franny sat and watched them enter while considering her next move. She was out of leads. Resting her elbow on one raised knee she cradled her face in her hand and thought. The fog was thickening, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“A haunted house?”

Franny squinted her eyes, she could just barely make out a plaque located near the door, where an address might be.

“Mansion…well purple or something or other.”

Closing one eye, her head tilted to the right. Had players set this up? It was certainly possible, she considered. Her fellow prisoners had brought a remarkable change to the setting in a relatively short amount of the time. If food why not buildings? As the minutes passed she had brought herself no closer to figuring out the intent of the structure. If it was a haunted house, it was probably too hard to find. Ruling out the commercial aspect of the property, Franny was once again at a loss.

“Oh, the red guy. He might know.”

With her free hand, Franny lazily pawed at the UI controls trying to find her friend’s list. Within another three minutes she found her finger poking the name ‘Tyonis’. Opening his profile, there was a note that said ‘red guy’ which was mostly for her convenience. Passing quickly over the details, Franny left her finger hovering over the button to whisper. She wasn’t fond of whisper, like those people with hands-free phone headsets, this style of communication presented itself to her as hopelessly awkward and extremely funny looking. Franny looked to her left and right just to make sure no one was around to overhear her seemingly babbling to herself like a madwoman. Clicking her tongue she tapped the button while trying to sound as casual as possible to hide her very apparent discomfort with the system.

“Hey, you there?”

There was no way he wouldn’t be, so without waiting for his response she continued:

“So, yeah, there’s this purple mansion or other and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to check it out with me. I won’t lie, the place looks pretty fishy. Your kind of gig, Interested?”

Franny figured he would be, which was good, because afterwards she could certainly use a guide home. She didn’t mention that fact.

Sighing, Franny waited for the man’s response all the while failing to notice that she had been sitting on a rather comically large tombstone.

It would be a problem if Tyonis asked how to get there.

[Tyonis]

Power perceived is power achieved!

-Tyonis [Samurai]

Since his recent equipment upgrades, the Samurai had decided to perform combat-familiarization exercises, which involved slaughtering a wide variety of wildlife until he grew acclimated to the strengths and weaknesses of his newly acquired gear. The sword was crafted magnificently - honestly, he had not expected it to work, considering blades capable of piercing through plate armor were practically impossible to forge save for the greatest of medieval smiths. The term 'castle-forged steel' came to mind. Just as important were his armor and accessories. The cuirass was lighter than the Starter Plate and provided a greater central defense at the expense of leaving his arms unprotected. The change in weight and flexibility opened up a myriad of tactics previously unavailable to the Samurai, thus he had to adjust his fighting style. It now incorporated more evasive movements instead of relying primarily on defensive skills like Parry.

Tyonis' lips were locked in a grim line as he held his sword aloft, staring daggers at the feral wolf before him, the latest target of his training. He was about to finish off the weakened beast when he felt a familiar voice invade his mind, destroying his focus and sending him into blind stumble. The wolf did not fail to sense an opening and lunged for his throat. Tyonis managed to recover into a hard roll under the wolf as its claws sliced a few hairs off his scalp. The Samurai drove his sword into the beast's belly as they passed each other, gouging an immense hole through it. The monster landed in a crumpled, bleeding heap and made no effort to stand. With a sigh, Tyonis switched to a reverse grip and thrust the blade's tip through the wolf's skull, finishing it off.

'Sorry, some wolves here still think fox hunting's a sport,' he responded jovially, closing his eyes to focus on the stranger's voice. Telepathy was an ability he was unused too, but he had learned how to reply without verbal support since he would probably have to utilize telepathy during combat. Tyonis flipped through his Interface to identify who messaged him.

'Oh, Franny, the wannabe necromancer,' he ribbed warmly.

'Purple mansion?' He asked, puzzled. After a few moments he recalled something. 'It's probably some rare Halloween Event that randomly spawns out here in the Avon mountain range. I guess that means you're nearby.'

'Sure, I'll go.' He sent the Summoner a long-distance Party Invite. He was already in the area, so it didn't take Tyonis very long to find Franny. Once more, he followed his instincts and used the environment as a guide - the thickening, ominous fog was an easy trail to follow. He noticed his friend had picked a peculiar place to sit and pointed it out.

"Did you bury one of your skeletons?" He quipped, placing a hand on the tombstone. His gaze shifted from Franny to the mansion behind her and he whistled.

"A haunted house, huh? You know, I'm really bad at horror games." He gave Franny a sly, measuring look, her gothic theme and necromantic skillset obvious fit the atmosphere. With a teasing smirk and shrug, Tyonis marched past her. "Might as well jump right on in. Your just as curious as I am, aren't you?" He needlessly asked and with one swing of his arm, threw open the purple double doors.

Level: 21 HP: 90% MP: 75%

Status Effects: None

Skills Used: None

Word Count: 544

Notes: ...

Made by Zirnitra of Elder Tale

[Franny Stein]

“Yeah, yeah.”

Franny waved away the man’s good-natured teasing as if to clean the air.

“If your new swords’re as sharp as your tongue I don’t foresee any issues. Though if you’re going to be so gung ho, I’ll be at a loss as to what I should do with these Tyonis snacks I brought to bribe you with.”

She shot back.

As he moved to open the doors she jumped onto her feet and made way with a light jog to keep up in a way that was surprisingly typical of a child. Her new height in this world sometimes has a way of forcing her to appear less serious a person. If Franny was aware of these little changes in her demeanor, she didn’t seem to show it. At his shoulder and half a step back, Franny watched her friend push open the doors nonchalantly as if he owned the place. The doors creaked something awful, more like a coffin really, like those cheesy hammer horror films.

“Just make sure that the one we’re burying here isn’t you, eh?”

Walking past the red samurai, Franny surveyed the room which seemed to be meet with her fairly cinematic expectations of what a mansion parlor should be.
Taking her time in walking forward as if looking for something, the girl quickly spied as expected some mystic script left only a couple further steps in.

“Hope you brought your thinking cap,” she muttered over her shoulder.

Turning back to Tyonis with arms outward palms up, she gave a large shrug.

“It would appear we’ll be dealing with riddles.”

[Tyonis]

Power perceived is power achieved!

-Tyonis [Samurai]

"So you noticed my new upgrades." He said haughtily as he posed for her. "Yeah, let it all soak in." He advised with a grin as she strode past him and into the parlor. He trailed after her, a hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of his sword. Although they joked and teased, there was still the element of unknown danger. The threat of combat loomed over his thoughts as he surveyed the surroundings, falling in close step behind the white-haired mage.

The parlor was poorly lit but quite lavish in design. Whoever or whatever lived here did not lack in opulence. For a moment, he considered pocketing what trinkets he could and selling them to some Landers but decided against it. There might be some curse attached to everything. This was a Halloween Event, after all; it wouldn't be complete without some form of dark magic.

The most obvious thing was the glowing, purple seal at the top of the stairs. Above it floated some mystic script that would normally be unreadable to those without an appropriate Subclass. As Franny turned to him, shrugging in an overt manner, Tyonis shook his head and patted hers.

"You know, I thought mages were all booksmart." He quipped as he stepped past her.

There was a trio of floating pumpkin-shaped monsters at the foot of the stairs, all level 5. They didn't appear to agro him as he approached, but Tyonis didn't want to risk them attacking Franny, so he slew them all without the slightest break in stride. Even as he replaced his weapon, he pondered the mysterious words.

"Compress time? 133 hours..." he mulled it over a few times before reaching for a quill and parchment conveniently placed at the foot of the stairs.

"What about converting the hours to minutes or seconds? Wait, that makes a bigger number." He thought aloud.

He eyed his partner as he bent over to write an answer. "Summon a Skeleton or two, Franny." It was a command, not a request. "If this goes bad, we might be... penalized." He explained, his tone ominous. He pulled his sword an inch from its sheathe to ready it as he began writing:

'5 days and 13 hours.'

Level: 21 HP: 90% MP: 75%

Status Effects: None

Skills Used: None

Word Count: 544

Notes: ...

Made by Zirnitra of Elder Tale

[Franny Stein]

“I’ll let the head-patting slide in light of potentially present danger.”

Franny quipped, though frankly, she didn’t seem to mind. Somewhere deep down though she felt like she might lose something important if she didn’t resist such coddling and so erred on the side of caution.

As two skeletons crawled out of the ground before her moaning like boney seizure-patients in slow motion, however, Franny looked a little pale. Even so, she said nothing. One stood at ready like a sentry as the other made itself onto fours so she could sit on its back. She assumed a pose of confidence not unlike how she was on the tombstone, but really, she had no clue what to do. Even her little assertion of dominance on the makeshift skeleton bench was a means to condition herself to the creatures in her charge.

“I can hardly see how you need any aid on the combat side of things,” she said pointing at the pile of leftover monsters, “but I’m here for you anyhow.”

When nothing happened at Tyonis’ answer to the riddle, however, Franny cursed inwardly.

****ing Math…

With a sigh that seemed to be fast becoming a trademark, Franny said:

“The problem with riddles is that the writer’s state of mind is often a factor in the answer,” while putting on a bit of airs.

“So you can see how this is going to be problematic.” With a pause, Franny squinted at another line of mystic script she had not noticed before on entry.

Praise the Sun, Why do they always write that..?

“We might be over thinking it, anyhow, if I saw a clock somewhere, I would’ve suggested just turning the hands forward.”

Staying calm, she looked around the room again.

barrier, 133 hours, compressing time....seriously? what?

[Tyonis]

Power perceived is power achieved!

-Tyonis [Samurai]

As soon as Tyonis' attempt failed, a half-dozen level 5 Mini Jacks spawned. Luckily, they were all in striking distance. With a single sweep of his sword, the Samurai bisected all but one, which he left to Franny's Skeletal Minion. Since the Mini Jack and the Skeletal Minion were a bit closer in stats, the fight lasted longer. It eventually ended with Franny's skeleton being covered in what appeared to be pumpkin paste. Or innards. Tyonis wasn't entirely sure.

"Well, that was amusing." Tyonis declared in a clinical deadpan. It wasn't a complete lie, though. There was some measure of entertainment while watching monsters kill each other.

He briefly wondered if enjoying the sight made him a bad person.

At Franny's suggestion, Tyonis pointed at the large wall-mounted clock hanging over the entrance. Even with his height and reach, the Samurai could barely touch the clock's base. He cast a sideways glance at Franny, who remained seated like a queen on her makeshift throne and an idea popped into his head.

He took the second skeleton by the collarbone and dragged it to the door then forced it onto all fours. Shooting a smirk at the skeleton's master, Tyonis climbed on its back, using it as a human-sized footstool and began spinning the hands of the clock as fast as he could.

"I don't actually have to do this for all 133 hours do I?"

Level: 21 HP: 95% MP: 95%

Status Effects: None

Skills Used: None

Word Count: 237

Notes: ...

Made by Zirnitra of Elder Tale

[Franny Stein]

As Franny saw poor Tyonis taking the lion’s share of the work in testing her admittedly brilliant theory, the girl considered applying her guess more directly just for the heck of it.

It couldn’t hurt to try, she figured.

Hopping off the skeleton and ordering the thing into a kind of sports-style ready position to intercept what she figured would probably be yet another swarm of monsters at an incorrect answer, Franny wrote her guess into the magic field.

“!”

There was a low hum and rumble about the whole room as Franny hopped back like a cat subjected to water. She looked around in a slight panic as bells began to ring a chime that made for some kind of strange balance between congratulations and atmospheric horror. The barrier, she noticed was flickering and within seconds made itself like a TV and simply ‘fwipped’ off into nothingness.

Somehow, the two had succeeded, though Franny figured their long night was far from over.

“Well then, it looks like we’ll at least get a passing grade for this assignment…” she called out over to the red samurai.


Steeling herself, she started making her way for the stairs into the next zone. Stopping, she turned to wait for Tyonis.

“Shall we keep moving? We can let the skeletons take point.”