Londinium Under Fire - Sarum

[Neko Hiro]

An Assassin never lets their target know where they are, when they strike. An Assassin strikes without the slightest trail left behind. Even when using large explosives, the Assassin is covered by the smoke! The perfect Assassin is now in Sarum, hiding until the smoke dies down. Always afraid of those finding out his identity, he conceals himself in the most clever of disguises. The enemies are baffled! They cannot solve this mystery!!!

Marco chuckles to himself, as he thinks about how his mission was the most successful. How his missions was the most perfect, and that he will be able to get what he wants now. A dopey smile forms on his face, dreaming about the Assassin he will become, despite the fact that he is a Guardian. One this mission goes over, and once he gets back to the Sarum HQ, he will definitely be in the clear! He'll be dual wielding daggers before long, and slicing open opponents long before they even realize he's there. His giggling becoming more and more present as he thought about this longer, the more he forgot that he was trying to be undercover. Eventually, though, he snapped out of his delusion, and started to look around the town.

Marco was hiding behind a few crates, clad in bulky armor and a giant sword on his back, which stuck up higher than the crates he hid behind. Taking a look around the crate, Marco ducked and rolled to the other side, which he made it just short of, so all that could be heard was the sound of metal cluttering against the ground. Heads turned in his direction as he lay in the middle of the alleyway, looking directly at him. Trying to sell it off, Marco stood back up, and crept-walked to the other side. "Another successful roll to safety." Marco muttered, giggling to himself once more. As he continued making his way down the other back alley, he put his hand to his ear, to begin speaking to his superiors.

"This is Marco!" He shouted into the telepathic link. "Mission is complete! I have arrived in Sarum town, and am awaiting further orders!" A moment of silence, and then a sigh from the other side, Marco received a response.

"That's great, Marco. Now, get back to HQ in the Sarum Wilderness." The begrudging voice spoke, a grunt after having said this. But, it continued. "Also, there's reports of people having seen you ride your horse to Sarum, so a number of Adventurers and curious people have followed you there. Be careful, but they don't know where you are right now. Just, don't do anything stupid to let them know."

"ROGER!" Marco screamed once again, walking into the town plaza. "Nobody will know about my involvement with the bombings in London! Totally a secret! After all, I'm to be the Greatest Assassin! Keeping secrets is what I do most!" Triumphantly, Marco put his hands onto his hips, and hummed loudly down the street, unaware of the Adventurers that had gathered in the plaza, just meters from him.

Marco: Level 25 Adventurer.
Age: 22
Height: 6'3
Weight: 215 lbs
Guardian - 25/Cavalier - 11/Blacksmith - 20
FC: Broskander.

[Shuwen]

Words: 475

Shuwen was in between quests, and was visiting Sarum in order to restock, having run low on supplies. Due to being a leveled chef and non-reliance on appropriately leveled weapons, he was somewhat more self-sufficient then the average player, but still needed to buy things in town every so often. The monk was only vaguely aware of the bombings in Londanium, having heard about it second hand via telepathy from a friend who was currently there. He hadn’t gotten the news that a suspicious person who may have been connected to the bombings had shown up there, nor did he know there was a group of adventurers assembled to apprehend him merely a short distance away. He did, however, clearly hear everything the loud Guardian had said during his telepathy conversation. Most notably, he heard the part about him being involved with the bombings in London.

The Guardian in question had a… distinct appearance. He was the same age as Shuwen, but appeared to be several years older due to him being about a foot taller then the monk, having notably more facial hair, and blockier, weathered features. He was also much better built then Shu, his overall appearance very fitting for a guardian. However, that didn’t make his actions any less suspicious. The rolling and sneaking, the Monk probably would have just ignored; there were plenty of oddballs trapped in the game with him, and normally he would have just assumed the man was entertaining himself, but what he’d said was waaaaaay to suspicious for him to not look into.

As he was unaware of the operation underway to bring the guy into custody, he decided to take the simplest course of action he was aware of; approach the suspicious man in question and ask him about it. So he calmly walked up behind the red haired Guardian and tapped him on the shoulder. “Um, e-e-excuse me.” The Monk began. “C-could you tell me about w-what you were talking about just now?” Unfortunately, despite his attempts to remedy the problem, he wasn’t so good at speaking to others that he could suddenly talk to a stranger without getting somewhat nervous, so he ended up stuttering a little. “Y-you kind of said something really interesting just now. Something about being the world’s greatest assassin, I think.” While he really wanted to ask about the part before that, the bit where he was involved with the London bombings, he figured it was pretty unlikely he’d get any answers if he asked the man about it directly, best to lead him in to it. At least, that was what he hoped. He wasn’t really all that good at doing this sort of thing, so unless the man was really stupid, he probably wouldn’t have much luck. But who knew? He might get lucky and learn something interesting.

[Spades]

Hp-100% Mp-98%     Ever since the explosions went off the city has been in on edge, Spade himself was not in the most jolly of moods. This morning when the first one went off at the eastern side of the city he saw the several orbs of small blue glowing balls appear darting towards the east, followed immediately by the similar forms of the guards appearing and presenting their booming voice “Please evacuate this area and report to the nearest courthouse, will anyone able to assist in escorting all civilians towards safety!” a few moments later there was an explosion on the northern side followed immediately by the southern and eastern sides. More glowing blue balls rushed to the directions of the explosions and now the crowds in the inner city started to panic and talk among themselves, from experience Spade knew that this would dive in to chaos and rioting so he looked to the nearest low level adventurer and said “What are you waiting for? Direct them to the somewhere before things get worse.” Spade then gulped down the remaining liquid in his drink and continued to watch the people rush to get to wherever they considered safe. While he was looking at the low level proudly directing the people he had seen a very bulky guardian watching the the entire situation unfold, this caught the attention of the monk with a multiple of reasons. For starters, the barrels are much too small to fully hide the armor and the bulk of the adventurer, secondly he was watching the area that many others were resting at with a look of glee.     The werecat rose from his table and walked out of sight of the alleyway the man was hiding behind, standing around the corner of the alleyway entrance just to see if he was able to deduce what he was doing. Was not that difficult since the man yelled out both his name and his mission, the man then began walking towards the plaza and yelled out very vital information and most surprising he yelled out that he was going to be an assassin. This threw off Spade’s train of thought as the man for one thing was wearing armor far to bulky for someone of the lighter class to wear, and most important of all he was in no way able to reduce the noise he produced! Sometime after he said this a very small man with dark blue hair approached the man and asked him about the bombings, Spade is unsure about whether the man would willingly give up info without proper incentive. Spade stood walked on a path that would place him walking behind the very short man looking Marco directly in his eyes he said in a aggressive tone, “While that is all good and such I’m a bit more interested in that you admitted something very interesting, how about you tell us about being involved in this bombing; and please don’t try to lie, it just makes your situation worse.” As he was finishing up his threat Spade engaged his Iron Body to help bring home that whatever he was planning was killed right there. Word Count: [529] made by kiwii at btn!

[Darko Lipowitz]

Darko was busy compiling his thoughts about the different creatures that he had engaged within a library when an explosion nearby the library rocked him out of his train of thoughts. When he went out of the library, all kinds of havoc reigned, but within this chaos, it would be easy to distinguish who were the Landers and who were the Adventurers in the group. The former tended to run shrieking and panicking, while the latter were more alert and started to either put out the fire or chase the one who made the explosion. When Darko started to investigate about the bombing that happened near the library from where he originated, he found out that the bombing was neither a small-scale one, nor an isolated incident. One said that gunpowder is involved in the making of the bomb, which would make it easy for those bombers, whoever they were, to make a large-scale bombing somewhere else. Another said that he have seen numerous explosions from every place in Londinium while he was chilling himself out from a tall building. Still another told Darko about the shouts coming from the culprit of the bombing, amidst the explosions. It was something about "resurrections" and "tributes", if he was not mistaken. As he went over that idea, he shuddered, wondering what kind of beast should be resurrected in relation with the bombings, and what would be the tributes in order to summon this kind of beast. He then decided that in order for him to know, he should chase the person who instigated those bombings, and from the directions given by several persons on the way, he decided that the culprit was going to Sarum on horseback, and also to give chase to this person, periodically using Blink on rough terrains and whenever his mana regenerated fully as he followed the culprit to Sarum.

When he had finally arrived within the city, he sought for someone who might have seen a man on horseback galloping with a furious pace, or evidences of hard-stomping hooves on the streets. But  he found no signs of anything. Dejected, he planned to return to the city square of Sarum when he heard a loud voice coming from his southwest.

"This is Marco! Mission is complete! I have arrived in Sarum town, and am awaiting further orders!"

When he heard the voice, Darko thought that something was odd. That man had just arrived here in Sarum, and was telling about a mission completed, and would stand by for another set of orders. He had some doubts about the person, and so he started to move quietly to where the voice originated. Maybe from the loudness of his voice he would learn something more, and the person was definitely making a mistake in not toningdown his voice, even though somebody might be hearing it from the same distance as Darko. And the following communication confirmed everything for him.

"ROGER! Nobody will know about my involvement with the bombings in London! Totally a secret! After all, I'm to be the Greatest Assassin! Keeping secrets is what I do most!"

Darko facepalmed himself when he heard the outburst, and his legs gained more power as he ran towards the direction of the voice. "Yeah, you'll be the greatest assassin. You're going to be the Greatest Idiotic Assassin of all."  he thought to himself as he ran. He would never permit that person to escape, now that he was convinced that he was involved with the bombings in Londinium. When he had finally moved to the town square, he saw two people crowding another person as they walked. He quickly followed them, the hood of his coat turned up, moving towards the back of the hulking figure, and facing the other person who he remembered was Shuwen, the monk from the unfortunate hunting of the Nepents, whose back was occupied by the werecat from his guild, Spades. He then drew the sword from behind his back, and then prodded the hulking figure with it. He then muttered, "And don't you dare escape, or else you would suffer in extreme pain." His stern tone did not quite match his youthful timbre of voice, but that should convey his information on his mind better.

Turnout: 711
Costume: Unforgiven Enmity by 黒 (left hand), Starter Wand(right hand), Hidden Ace by 黒(Quick Swap left hand), Apprentice Grimoire(Quick Swap right hand), Twilight of Chaos(cloth armor), Magic Student’s Cloak(accessory), Fledgling Arm-wraps of Concealed Lightning(accessory), Leg-wraps of Ethereality(accessory), Satchel Bag(accessory)
Quote: The Londinium Sacrificial Bombings; HP 100%, MP 100%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Spades. Neko Hiro

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Deleted]

The petite sorceress had only recently returned to the familiar streets of Londinium, a place she had spent almost the entire first year of her time. Since her decision to leave the sanctity of the city, Artemisia had spent a large portion of her time traveling and exploring what this world had to offer. Her adventures had been been fruitful, bringing with her return a much more experienced and powerful self. She glanced around the lively streets as she walked, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she recalled many memories in the town. Today she had some business to attend to in the center of the city, specifically within the walls of Parliament Building. Her confident footsteps brought her ever closer to the building and before long it was within her sight. Hopefully, her errand would be completed quickly and she could stop in for a visit at the old cafe she used to call home.

The tip of her small foot touched against the first stone step to reach the building doors, her eyes and mind focused on what she needed to do. As she lifted her other foot to move up the stairs, a rumble shook the frame of the building, sending a small shock wave around the area. Right after, a loud boom invaded her ears. Startled, the small blonde fox ears on her head folded back, trying to block out some of the noise. Artemisia stumbled backwards and barely managed to keep herself standing. There were several more blasts after the one nearest to her followed by a moment of heavy silence and then panic. A puff of black smoke twisted towards the sky near her and she could see several more rising nearby. The building was standing but she backed away from it regardless.

Her green eyes scanned the area, her lips tight and serious... all she could hear was the beating of hurried feet on the street, the cries of the scared, and the general buzz of confusion as Adventurers and Landers alike rushed by her stationary form. Her own thoughts were swirling as she attempted to process what had happened. Clearly some sort of explosions had happened in the city... but how, why? With there being multiple incidents within such a short frame of time, she had a feeling it had been planned and organized, as if someone or someones were specifically targeting Londinium.

"Oof!" A rush of breath escaped her as a small form collided with her own. The blonde Adventurer looked down to see two small children, the intense look of thought quickly disappearing from her features. One, a young girl who had been the one to run into her, was shaking and staring at the ground. The other, which she assumed must have been the girls slightly older brother, was anxiously looking around, his eyes going from Artemisia, to his sister, to something in the distance. He was barely keeping himself together from the looks of it. "It's okay..." The sorceress knelt down onto the ground in front of the girl. Now at eye level, she could see the girl had tears spilling out of her light blue eyes. Artemisia placed her hands on the girls shoulder and tilted her head to the side to get a better view, a reassuring smile on her face. "You're okay," She repeated and moved one hand to gently brush a tear off the girls cheek. The child sniffled and looked up at her. Artemisia smiled down at her. "See? It's not scary at all," She pat the girl on the head and glanced at the boy. "Can you tell me if you saw anything at all?" As she spoke a single, long blonde tail curled up from behind Artemisia and wrapped around the girl, encompassing the child in a warm sense of security and pulling her into the sorceress side.

"Thank you, that's very helpful..." Artemisia spoke quietly after listening to the boys story. Apparently there had been some people milling about not long before the explosions. He and his sister had been playing not far from here and had heard them talking about it. The last bit of information had been the most helpful - he had seen a large man on horseback bolting away. The little boy looked up at her, clearly worried. "Don't worry, I'm really strong!" The blonde woman laughed and smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Now, hurry home. Don't take any detours, okay?" She stood and unwrapped the girl from her tail. Her tears had long since dried. The boy nodded and grabbed his sisters hand. With one last look over his shoulder at Artemisia, they rushed off. "Now, then..."

When she reached the gates of Londinium, as if to confirm the reports of the two children, a group of people were discussing the events. They had indeed seen a figure leaving and the general belief was that he had headed in the direction of Sarum. She loved this town and anyone who dared to mess with it or the people who called it home might as well have directly picked a fight with her. Artemisia took off in the direction of Sarum.

...

The news of the attacks, as she had nothing else to call them at this point, had arrived before her and she could almost feel the tense atmosphere swirling about. Artemisia toggled on her Hearing Aptitude skill, her ears twitching as she took in the little bits of information here and there. The vertically challenged fox tail moved quietly through the streets until she reached the main plaza. Once there, a booming voice rang out around her and demanded her attention (as well as anyone else nearby). The tone was so overly confident and loud that it was almost too much to bear with her increased hearing. Artemisia grimaced and look towards the source of the boisterous noise. There she saw a large man with ridiculous sized muscles and red hair. He fit the description she had been given and had heard the others whispering about.

She wasn't prepared to engage the man directly with as little information as she had so instead she took a slightly more roundabout approach and sought out a higher vantage point. She didn't have any particular skills or training in being sneaky or stealthly so she somehow doubted she was as smooth about it as she liked to believe but nevertheless, Artemisia had found her way up onto the rooftops. The breeze was stronger here and her long blonde twin tails flittered in the wind, swirling around her small frame.

By some amount of luck, she had positioned herself well. Directly below her was Muscle Man and four others. She recognized the one, a monk who called himself Shuwen, from a previous adventure of hers. The other three boys (or men in some cases) were unknowns to her. Questions, demands, and accusations were already flying about from each of them in turn. From the sounds of it, most of them were aware of the events in Londinium, same as she was. The idea of dropping down into the party in what she could only imagine as the coolest entrance ever was appealing but perhaps not the best move. Keeping her Hearing Aptitude active, Artemisia remained perched on the ledge of the roof, listening and watching. When the time was right, she would dazzle them with her presence.

---

Notes: If you're wondering how she got there so quickly, the answer is [magic]. Artemisia's speech color is #a6a9f8
Words: 1242
Tags: Neko Hiro, Shuwen, Spades, Eniko, Darko Lipowitz

[Neko Hiro]

Music for this post.::3

Oh? They think that they can just come in and inquire against the Greatest Lawyer in the world!? Well, I may have a few things to respond to! One of which being...

"OBJECTION!" Marco shouted, to the gathering of people around him. Little known fact: Marco actually used to be a lawyer in the other world, so he knows his way around a few legal arguments. He continued, striking a powerful pose to everybody who had arrived. "Deciding to attack a man for what he said, without having read his Miranda Rights first, is a violation of the Miranda Rights themselves." Pulling a crate over from the other side, Marco slammed his hands onto it. "Furthermore, none of you are officers, and therefore are not qualified to read my Miranda Rights, let alone arrest me. Clearly, a contradiction to your claim!" Marco triumphantly called out, holding up a few pieces of paper, and brushing his hand up against them.

"These papers are blank, and have nothing to do with the case!" He admitted, powerfully, before slamming his hands onto the crate once again. "Now, back onto the case at hand! Since you are trying to claim that I am a culprit for something that happened in a place that is quite a long way from here, and still think that I could have walked all the way there and then back to here. How is that possible, for a man wearing bulky armor, such as myself, to travel between there and here, in such a short time frame?"

A contradiction already formed: The Adventurers did it, too, so it isn't without reason that he could do it as well. Not to mention, he's a cavalier, and he could just very easily call about his horse, and ride away without too much trouble. But, the number of people here, who have already seen his face, would also be able to recognize him, should they ever cross paths again. Obviously something he didn't want to have happen. So, he decided to play it cool from here, and just see how far he could get with the whole Lawyer thing.

"Now, explain to me this, those who accuse me." Marco continued. "Why are none of you proclaiming that they are involved with the trouble on Londinium? It could very much be that one of you is hiding among the others, trying to pin the blame on somebody else!" Marco very quickly pointed up and to the roof of a nearby building, at the girl who was hiding up there. "Perhaps it could be her! The girl hiding up atop the roof! For what reason does she hide? Why would she need to conceal herself in a shroud, if she is innocent!?" Marco laughed aloud, triumphantly, tilting himself back, but too far back. Losing his balance, Marco fell onto his back, and suddenly, a soft whirring could be heard from him. His eyes widened, as the device he had been given had turned on.

The device itself was called a Level Nullification Device, or a Lind for short. What it does is it lowers everybody's levels to a specified number, and lowers their stats along with it, in a rather wide range. However, normally, this would effect the one who uses the device in the first place. Unbeknownst to the Adventurers, though, Marco had also been given another device, which would nullify the effects of the Lind. This other object, placed securely on Marco's inner armor, was already active from the moment he left the HQ. Having this ace up his sleeve actually hindered him at the moment.

The fact that his level didn't drop would be more than enough of a reason for the others to suddenly attack Marco, which he very quickly realized, and began to visibly sweat. Swiftly regaining his composure, Marco stood back up, struck his pose, and laughed again. "Case closed!" He shouted quickly, before summoning his horse, climbing onto it, and began to charge off into the distance. "I'll see you all in court!" He shouted, as he began to run. But, the streets were narrow, and had many turns, so the horse was rather slow. Still sweating, Marco tried to guide the horse.

[PARTY DEBUFF: LEVELS AUTOMATICALLY SET TO 20]

Information Gathered:
 - Marco used to be a Lawyer, and the papers mean nothing.
 - Lind (Level Nullification Device): Object used by this organization to deal with multiple pursuers.

 - Marco holds a device that nullifies the effects of a Lind.
 - Marco switches personalities, based on situations.

[Shuwen]

Words: 851

Sadly, Shuwen’s attempt to subtly extract information from the Guardian was over before it even began. Before Marco even had a chance to reply, several other adventurers came from who knew where and started taking direct action. One muscular Werecat named Spades started questioning him aggressively, using the Iron Skin skill in an attempt to make himelf look more intimidating. A blue haired assassin that Shuwen remembered running into at the Coconia festival. He seemed to be really anxious or upset, because he immediately started yelling at the red-haired Guardian, going on about how he attacked people and what it was like to die and all that. Honestly, Shuwen thought he was overdoing it. Though the only info he had on the bombings was what he’d heard second hand, they didn’t seem to be particularly damaging; a small number of injuries and no deaths. Property damage was annoying, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. Shuwen was more interested in his reasons for doing so, and if he was planning to do more in the future. However, Eniko didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders. I hope he dosen’t lose his head and do something stupid. From his lack of composure, he was expecting him to attack Marco any second. Meanwhile, a familiar looking Sorcerer drew a sword and poked him with it. There was another Sorcerer he was familiar with present,Darko Lipowitz but she’d placed herself out of sight, so he wasn’t aware of that yet.

Honestly, Shuwen thought their attempts to intimidate the man were rather silly. They were within Sarum’s city limits, so any violent action would probably just be met with an intervention by the Royal Guard, and considering how sturdy Marco’s build and class seemed to be, anything less then that probably wouldn’t have much effect on him. The Monk sighed. Whatever happened would depend on how Marco reacted. At the moment, they were essentially at a stalemate. There were far too many of them for Marco do fend off, but they couldn’t really do anything to the Guardian where they currently were, and it didn’t seem likely they’d be able to get much information out of him.

Marco… apparently tried to bluff his way out. He attempted to intimidate them by referencing rules and regulations that the adventurer was overstepping. The Monk sighed. They weren’t on Earth, so the laws of their previous World weren’t really being enforced anymore. They’d been getting by using the Lander’s legal codes, and sticking with basic human decency, though there had been some issues with that. At that point, he pretty much tuned out what the Guardian was saying. He did have a few points, but the weren’t really solid ones; he could have easily gotten to here from London using a mount; if he was a cavalier or carried a mount whistle, that would explain that rather neatly. As for the person on the roof, Shuwen did a quick double take when he realized @sugarygiggles was crouching on a nearby rooftop looking down at them. That said, it was pretty unlikely she was doing anything other then what the other adventurers were doing, so he wasn’t really concerned about it.

Finally, Marco got to the end of his spiel and accidentally activated something hidden in his armor. Shuwen frowned as the numbers representing the levels of himself and those around him began to drop. He has a way of reducing people's levels? That's certainly news. Apparently without an excuse to justify or explain what had happened, Marco made a break for it, summoning his horse, confirming his earlier thoughts about Marco having a mount. Well that makes things easier. Now, we just need to keep from losing him, and hope the other adventurers don’t do anything stupid. Once they left the city limits, they’d be free to pvp him. As long as he didn’t get too far from them, it was unlikely he’d be able to get away in time, so the biggest issue was that one of the other adventurers would lose their heads and take a potshot at him prematurely, and summon the Royal Guard. He probably ought to have mentioned that, for those who hadn’t realized that, but he suspected the ones that didn’t already know simply wouldn’t listen to him.

Assuming no one intercepted the Guardian or himself, the Monk would take off after him, trying to make the most of the winding city streets by turning in advance and making the smallest turns needed to minimize the amount of distance he needed to travel. As he was of a warrior class, wearing the lightest armor possible, he’d probably ended up at or at least very near the front of the group of adventurers chasing after the rogue guardian. He would have liked to use Wyvern kick to close the distance; even if he couldn't use it on Marco yet, he could at least use it to cover ground faster, but the lack of a straight open road prevented him from doing so. At least it seemed to be hindering Marco just as much.

[Deleted]

Soon after her arrival on the scene, the burly man seemed to decide enough was enough and he wouldn't stand for the random accusations of her fellow Adventurers any longer. His voice boomed causing her head to ring from the sheer volume of it - even without the enhanced hearing she would have been able to hear his statements clearly. As his monologue continued, she couldn't help but imagine a cheesy crime show theme playing behind him. The entire thing was ridiculous from his speech to his actions. Clearly, he thought he was quite remarkable in every way. The fox tail couldn't quite decide if she thought the man was interesting or utterly idiotic... though perhaps his bizzarity was what made him intriguing?

He continued to spin his tale, attempting to throw doubts into the minds of his pursuers by calling into question a few minuscule and easily explained discrepancies. A grin flashed across her face when he smacked the blank papers with such confidence... nothing but a tool to boggle the minds of the easily confused. Any amusement melted off her young face when his attention was turned onto her. He jabbed his finger in her direction, alerting the others to her presence while attempting to pass the blame onto her at the same time. Artemisia couldn't help but stick her tongue out, her cheeks puffing up in a pout, at the man as he called her out. Despite the outwardly playful reaction, her green eyes narrowed and looked the man over once more. She had to give him some credit for noticing her and so fluidly pulling his lawyer-esque nonsense out of no where. Perhaps he wasn't as stupid and unaware as he seemed. Nevertheless, he wouldn't get anywhere by making her his scapegoat, she hadn't been the one proudly puffing out her chest and declaring to have been involved with the bombings only moments before. If nothing else, certainly Shuwen would vouch for her from his previous interactions with her.

Clearly amused with his own storytelling capabilities, the red haired man threw his head back in a hearty laugh, tipping his large frame back. He continued to guffaw at his attempt to introduce multiple red herrings to the situation, leaning himself much too far back to be stable. Despite his effort to seem crafty and intelligent, he was obviously ignorant to the laws of gravity. With a dull and ungraceful thud, Mr. Muscles toppled over onto his back. Somehow in the fall, something was triggered, filling the air with a quiet whirring noise. If it were to be described in history books later, there would be nothing else to say except it was the moment of moments of sheer dumb luck.

Physically, Artemisia felt unchanged but a quick look at her display bar in the upper corner of her vision told her that the situation had entirely changed. Somehow, with some method she was not aware of, this man had lowered her level and stats to the equivalent of level twenty. She scanned the group below - judging by their expressions they too were facing the same adjustment she was. In the brief moment of confusion, Muscle Man took his chance and summoned his mount. With a face palm worthy 'final line', he climbed up onto his horse and took off at a not-exactly-breakneck speed down the street. Her fox tail flicked behind her in irritation - she couldn't attack him here and risk calling the guard. Hopefully the others gathered below her had enough foresight to realize this as well. The only two choices were to follow him or let him go... and the second one might as not have even been an option.

Her first thought was to hitch a ride with the man. Being as she was above him, she had the perfect positioning to launch herself off the roof and, if timed properly, land right on the back of the horse. He wouldn't have any choice but to continue going because if he stopped, there were several others nearby ready to corner him again. The action wouldn't trigger the Royal Guard but with her reduced stats, she also had no guarantee she could pull off such a flashy maneuver. It would be a gamble with the odds weighted in favor of her missing and face-planting it on the street in front of everyone. It wasn't a risk worth taking. Before her target had gone too far, Artemisia took off after him, her over sized hair and tail whipping behind her as she ran. At this point, her best bet would be to remain on higher ground for as long as possible, using the less crowded roofs to keep pace with the Cavalier. She wasn't going to let him get out of her sight and as soon as he was clear of the Royal Guards range, he could be sure a fireball was coming right at his face.

---
Notes: Well my original plan didn't work out after talking it over with Hiro so for now I'm just gonna have Artemisia follow on the roof. Sorry if this post doesn't make any sense, I wrote most of it at 6 AM yesterday and then finished it at 5 AM today XD UPDATE: Last paragraph was added to to explain what Artemisia's original plan was and what she ended up going with instead. Hiro and I agreed to roll a 20 sided die to see if Artemisia would be able to make the jump and unfortunately luck was not in my favor and the roll wasn't high enough.
Words: 821
Tags: Neko Hiro, Shuwen, Spades, Darko Lipowitz

[Spades]

DON'T GET IN MY WAY!     Almost as soon as Spade finished his threat multiple people shown up from wherever they came from a questioned the man. Spade was very confident that with these many people on a single man’s case he would have no choice but to confess his involvement., to his surprise something in the man’s eye light up and he then began to spout a bunch of legal crap. Spade slapped his forehead with his palm in annoyance, he really hated the type of person to talk themselves out of being guilty even though they were clearly the ones that did the act in the first place, he then toned out the man’s words not really wanting to listen to them as long as he tries to use any type of law to his advantage. Spade stared at the man growing more irritated as he continued to spit garbage out of his mouth, at this point Spade was about to cause this man great harm in as little time as possible. He deactivated Iron Body and then turned on his Heated Combat, his hands feeling great heat, he was about to take a fighting stance when the man suddenly fell backwards. The strangest thing happened afterwards, Spade’s hands immediately cooled down. Confused Spade began looking at his status bar to see if he was silenced but he was normal, he continued looking until he saw that his level had been reduced to 20. At this point Spade had developed a great hatred for the man, when he was about to step forward and deal the first blow, Marco summoned a horse and bolted down the street, Spade growled loudly the moment he saw the man mount the horse. He has had experiences with horse riders and this time was no different when it came to how easy they annoyed him. As soon as the man took off Spade was following at full sprint with nothing in mind but to bring the corrupted guardian to his knees! Word Count: [333] Tags: Neko Hiro, Shuwen, Darko Lipowitz, @sugarygiggles OOC Note: Short I know but I can't get a good flow for RP atm made by kiwii at btn!

[Darko Lipowitz]

As the bravo started to act like a lawyer and babbled about not being read his Miranda Rights, Darko felt that he wanted to facepalm himself. But since he did not want this suspect to vanish from his sight, he did not do as such and continued on listening to the babble, visibly irritated, hoping that he could infer something more about that person. But as he inferred from the words from this person from start until end, he was a complete idiot, unlike the lawyer persona he had dared to emulate, and Darko sincerely thought he would make a terrible lawyer back in his world. As the bravo continued on “arguing his case”, Darko was put off by this person’s lack of thought processes, or the absence of such. He had met a lot of adventurers in his travels, and he was irritated with the idiocy of some of them. Never would he have thought of meeting this kind of person, who might be the most idiotic person he had ever met. If Darko was him, he would have escaped without a trace even if his movement was slow. Never to mention that he was prattling very senselessly, his arguments were unquestionably foolish. First off, they were not police officers, and so they never needed to mention the Miranda Declaration, if there were such law in this land, for he had known there was neither a constitution nor a Magna Carta in this blasted land. Second off, even if they could arrest this person here and now due to the virtue of a citizens’ arrest, they could not even lay a finger on him because if they do, the Royal Guard would immediately come in and beat them up. If he could think, there should be one way to escape them, since they could not attack him within the city gates of Sarum. But if he was provoked, he might forget it momentarily and attack one of them. That was what Darko had planned, to make things easier for him to deal with this person before him and extract vital information from him. The thought about a resurrection and a tribute to something made Darko interested in what secret hidden within the bombings. For all that he knew, it might be a way to return to his home back in the world that he came from, to say the words that he needed to say to his parents, and he would do just about anything to do that. Only this thought kept him going and moving forward, but in pretence and with lack of motivation.

When the prattle of the idiotic bravo was completed, a boisterous laugh was generated from his mouth, and Darko was irritated more. Was he laughing at himself, or was he laughing at them? But since he was remembering to keep his cool while in the presence of this idiot, he forbore, knowing that with careful prodding, he would ruin himself. The bravo continued laughing until he fell off of where he was sitting on. But as soon as his back landed on the ground, a whirring sound made Darko’s eyes widen in surprise. But it was not about the noise, but because of the effect of something that made the noise. He noticed that his level was considerably lowered, and the current outfit that he was wearing became heavier in feeling until something popped out on his vision. He knew that would happen, since the outfit; a monochrome set that resembled a uniform from some school; also served as his armour, and since he was currently only Level 20, he could not equip it. The problem that this person was still Level 25, and he would be in for a disadvantage if he would engage him here and now. And so he changed his armour to another one of Level 12, and his outfit changed to the normal outfit that he always wore back then: a cloth corset, baggy short trousers, and leather boots with rugged soles, all of a black colour. Although this was far less protective than his former armour, it would not matter in a level deficit. The only way for him to survive fight with this person was to dodge everything that the man could throw at him. But for now, he should find a way to lure the bravo towards the outside of the city for them to engage him in a battle. This phenomenon greatly interested him, and he would not let this person escape after the level drop happened to him.

Fortunately the bravo never thought of the escape option that Darko was thinking, and set off on a horse away from them. Now the problem is how he could lure this person outside the city so that they would have the power to attack him. But then this thought came to him when he looked at the stats of his armour. He thought that it might expend a lot of mana, but if this paid off, he would just lay back a little from casting spells when they would engage this person.

After every other person gave chase to the bravo on horseback, he would seal the road by casting the Barrier Spikes spell. He then would check out from afar in what direction the bravo was heading, while casting Barrier Spikes on every available path from his point of view. He would continue to use the spell as such, leaving the bravo imprisoned within one part of the city. He then would use the Barrier Spikes to decrease the breathing space of the bravo, leaving only one path for him to escape to the outside of the city. That way the adventurer head count would be complete when they would face this person, since they would be needing all the help that they could have on this situation, now that their levels were lowered to below the bravo’s level.

Turnout: 992
Costume: Unforgiven Enmity by 黒 (left hand), Starter Wand(right hand), Hidden Ace by 黒(Quick Swap left hand), Apprentice Grimoire(Quick Swap right hand), Stone Black Hide Leather Armor(cloth armor), Magic Student’s Cloak(accessory), Fledgling Arm-wraps of Concealed Lightning(accessory), Satchel Bag(accessory)
Quote: The Londinium Sacrificial Bombings; HP 100%, MP 100%
Dramatis Personae: Darko Lipowitz, Shuwen, Spades. Neko Hiro,@runerawaker, @sugarygiggles

coded by benetnasch of ET

[Neko Hiro]

Hmm. Is that your final answer? Is this what you wanted to choose in life? IS THE PRICE RIGHT!? LET'S FIND OUT!

Marco, the World's Greatest Up-And-Coming Game Show Host, found himself in a bit of a pickle. As he began to ride away, he noticed that he was very quickly being followed! The adventurers that were tailing him seemed to be able to keep up just well enough, to the point of causing him to have to worry a bit! With his escape route having been perfectly planned out, he memorized where he was supposed to go, how, and when. Every turn, every slip, every little tidbit of information he had on his route home was already laid out before him in his mind, and he had no way of getting lost now! There wasn't a single problem with this mission, and he would be able to get back to the Sarum HQ without any bit of a problem from here!

At least, that was the idea. Instead, one of the adventurers had begun to cast Barrier Spikes, to block off his own path! Just like every other game show in the world, there's always a catch, isn't there? All of a sudden, this Host became a contestant! Luckily enough, though, he was more than an avid contestant on game shows, as he had been a contestant at least never in his life! Suffice it to say, he's capable of completing any problem that forges his way. Bring on the wheels! Bring on the word puzzles! Bring out the expensive items that one would need to guess the price of! Bring out Vanna White! Wait, this isn't Wheel of Fortune. This is Elder Tale. Not a game show. Whoopsie.

"Hmm!" Marco announced, putting his hand up to his ear, calling to his HQ correspondent. "This is Marco! I am being kept from my hasty escape, due to the castings of another player within the city! I will be able to leave soon, but we are presently set back!"

"Dammit, Marco! I told you to keep a low profile!" The voice shouted back. "Just... Just get moving!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Marco replied, turning his head back to the paths as they were blocked off. Which path would be the right one? He would be kept on a wild goose chase for a little while longer, and eventually, after a while, he'd be able to get out. Not yet, though.


Basically, this post is short because of the Barrier Spikes. Marco is unable to get out within this turn, and will be able to leave next round. Keep in mind, every decision influences the thread!

[Shuwen]

Words: 352

Marco attempted to make an escape, making a line that sounded like something a game show host would say. Oh make up your mind already! Shuwen thought in annoyance. He wanted to say it allowed, but needed to manage his breathing in order to keep himself from getting tired, so he didn’t waste the air. That guy’s definitely getting a talking-to once we catch up with him though. Had he been an acrobat, he probably could have just used the rooftops to negate the disadvantage of the terrain. @sugarygiggles seemed to have tried something like that; that was the most likely reason she was up there in the first place, but he highly doubted she’d changed to the acrobat subclass since they’d partied up for the Temple of Tides quest.

At that point, there wasn’t much they could do until they reached the city limits. Fortunately, that assumption didn’t hold true for all of them. Darko Lipowitz used what the Monk assumed was a sorcerer skill to erect a wall of stalagmites between Marco and his most direct path of escape, slowing him down somewhat. Just don’t overdo it and trap him. Shuwen thought in Darko’s general direction.

At one point during the chase, he saw the Guardian putting his hand up to his ear, an indication he was having a telepathy conversation. So who’s he talking to anyways? The Monk toggled on Hearing Aptitude in order to eavesdrop on the conversation. Too bad he could only hear Marco’s half of the conversation, and it wasn’t particularly informative. The only useful things he picked up was that he seemed to be talking to a superior, or at least someone he was reporting his status to, and whoever it was, it was mostly female. He mentally filed away that information for later, though he doubted it would be of much use. Once the short conversation was over, he toggled the skill back off and continued the chase. The other monk, Spades, was more or less keeping pace with him, so they'd probably have little trouble running the guardian down once they left the city.

[Deleted]

Artemisia sucked in a deep breath, her eyes constantly darting from the ground below her to back in front of her. The last thing she wanted to do was lose focus and trip over something. The wolf hair and werecat were also pursuing the man but the last one present, another Sorcerer, seemed determined to herd Marco in a specific direction. The blonde girl growled in irritation as she watched the scene. Barrier spikes were appearing in various places, blocking off different paths. You're just wasting your mana! She wanted to yell out and make him stop. The guy they were chasing was obviously headed in a specific direction already. Just let him get out of the city and then we'll out number him! As she continued her mental lashing of the other Sorcerer, Artemisia found herself with a problem of her own.

She skid to a stop just in time to keep from slipping right off the edge of the roof she was on. The gap between the building she was on and the next one was too wide to make without some sort of skill. Apparently nothing was going her way today. Her fox tail whipped behind her as she considered her options. She didn't want to let the others get too far ahead of her so, without any other choices, Artemisia jumped down off the roof into the alley below. She did her best to soften the landing, her knees bending to absorb the shock, but she still saw a small bit of her health slip away from the impact. She had landed just in front of the other Adventurers chasing Marco. Brushing off the minor fall damage, she stood and took off again to keep pace.

"Shuwen!" She called out to the Monk she vaguely knew, "Thanks for joining me for this lovely jog through Sarum. I was just hoping I'd have a workout partner," She laughed lightly and flashed him a smile, running in stride beside him. "So..." Her eyes turned back to the Cavalier not far ahead before turning the topic more serious, "I was in Londinium just before this, it was attacked. I don't know exactly by who or why but I think this guy is involved," Her blonde pigtails fanned out behind her as she continued to run. "I'm guessing you guys here are chasing him for the same reason?" She quickly looked at the other two present, although she didn't know their names, before turning back to face forward. "We can't attack him inside the city, so just keep on him for now. The very second he's outside the range to call the Royal Guards..." Her eyes narrowed, "We'll get him." Her tone was sharp.

---
Notes: Not my best, but hopefully the next round we can finally catch up to Marco haha
Words: 454
Tags: Neko Hiro, Shuwen, Spades, Darko Lipowitz

[Spades]

Hp-100% Mp-97% Spade was slowly catching up to Marco bit by bit thanks to the having to navigate many turns and narrow alleyways and some type of barricade showing up at some of the paths thankfully making the man stop for a split second to change direction, Spade was focusing on the man’s back as he was sprinting through the turns. There were several times when the monk could almost get within arm reach of the man but then they turned in to a straight away long enough for it to pick up speed and dash out of his reach, right after Marco would slow down and turn, slowing himself down and Spade would get closer again. This repeated for who knows how long until a flash of yellow came down from his sight, this sudden break in his concentration caused Spade to trip over and stumble pretty badly; Marco was speeding off and had turned the corner before Spade could even get within 5 feet of the back of the horse. He recovered a couple seconds later saw that he lost sight of Marco and slammed his fist on a wall in anger, he was back on his feet but he needed some time to get to his full speed, he turned while running down a straight away to see that there was a blond fox tail behind him talking to a blue haired monk. Spade was still heated at Marco so unfortunately Spade thought many rude things about the new appearance as he was running away, as he turned to continue chasing heard that she was actually having a casual conversation while running. He yelled out in surprise as he almost ran in to a barricade when he was not paying attention, he had to act quickly so he jumped high in the air and aimed his next move at the man riding away on a horse, the system propelled him forward while he was holding the form of a flying kick. Of course the attack did not land but he was able to catch up to Marco and he even used the momentum to get to his full sprint once more, this seemed to work better than he expected since for a second he was head to head with Marco before the horse’s natural speed overcame Spade’s surprise burst of it. It pulled ahead once more and Spade was sprinting to catch up with the horse and rider in a fit of constant anger. Word Counter:[415] Tags: Neko Hiro, Shuwen, Darko Lipowitz, @sugarygiggles made by kiwii at btn!

[Neko Hiro]

Well, well, well! The great escapist, Marco, was finally reaching the end of the area city! With his head held high, he could see the gate that lead outside. He charged the horse forward with a powerful whip of the reigns, and passed through the city's gates. Letting out a hearty laugh, Marco looked behind himself, and taunted those who were chasing after him. "A Valiant try, my enemies! However, Marco, the Great Escapist, is making his exit as hastily as he can! Try to catch me if you can now!" Having passed beyond the point where combat would initiate a response from the Royal Guards, Marco just needed to get moving. But, there was a bit of a hangup here.

A large caravan of merchants and traders were heading into the town at the same time, causing Marco to be caught up in the oncoming traffic. As best as he could, Marco tried to weave his way through the rush, but to no avail. He found himself being swept up in the crowd, and forced to stay in the same place for just a moment. If Marco was intelligent, which of course he was, he could have just as easily hopped off his horse and started running, as going by horseback would only keep him in the same spot. Instead, he kept on his horse, as haughty and cocky as ever, keeping a wry smile on his face. His horse would be too fast for them to catch up to him! At least, once this congested flow of people cleared up...

---

You now have the option to cut off his escape by circling around to the end of the train of merchants and traders, or attempt to initiate combat amid the traffic. To stave off any worries: You will not lose sight of Marco, as he is pretty obvious to be seen from all angles. He is on top of his horse, so losing him is not possible. Any other stratagems employed are also welcomed.

Apologies for the length in between the posts here.

[Shuwen]

Words: 552

They were nearing the gate. It seemed like the chase was close to it send, one way or another. We’d better get organized before the rough stuff starts. Clenching his teeth slightly, he sent friend invites to the other pursuers; Spades, and Darko Lipowitz. @sugarygiggles had been added to his friend list since the Temple of Tides, so there wasn't a need to add her a second time It wasn’t his preferred party, regardless whether you were referring to fighting types or personalities. He didn’t get along with Darko, and too many of them shared the same classes, but all things considered, they probably didn’t need more than that to bring down a single Guardian. I guess I’ll just have to hope no other enemies show up before we’re done. Of course, he had no way of even knowing if anyone would accept his invitations. Darko seemed to get off on his lone wolf routine, while Spades seemed impulsive and not really able to work in a group. Artemisia was better, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to deal with her if she decided to start teasing him again. Well, maybe a liiiittle teasing wouldn’t be so bad. He thought, before mentally smacking himself for thinking that.

As Marco got closer to the gate, Shuwen began to panic, just a little bit. Now would be a great time to slow him down. He thought, feeling more than a little tense, but it seemed that Darko had fallen behind somewhat and wasn’t going to take the time to use his magic again to do so. For a moment, it seemed like Marco was going to get away clean, but then they got lucky. A convoy of merchants or whatever tried to get in through the city’s gate just as Marco was trying to leave, forcing him to swim against the figurative tide. The Monk was somewhat puzzled why he didn’t just go offroad in order to escape, but he decided not to complain. If at least two people had accepted his invitations, he’d send them a quick telepathy message to the others. <Spades, you and I should try to get ahead and on either side of him. Artemisia, Darko, keep behind him and try to immobilize him as soon as the crowd disperses. Remember not to kill him, though his horse is fair game if he tries to put up a fight.> He figured that if they could at least roughly encircle him, they could probably cut off any reasonable chance Marco had of escaping. If he tried to bull through, Spades and/or himself could start attacking his horse with melee skills, while if he tried to turn back, Artemisia and Darko could blow him back with magic skills. Either way, they’d probably have the advantage. Shuwen fought his way out of the crowd by stepping just off the road, and moved around to the position he’d set for himself; ahead of Marco and to the right, just off road. Hopefully, Spades would take a similar position on the opposite side, while the two Sorcerers stood behind him. Of course, there was also a chance they would completely ignore him and do whatever they felt like; Shuwen had a history of people ignoring him, be it his orders or advice; he didn’t really think he had any of their respect, and two of them had uncooperative attitudes, but he thought it was worth a try.

[Deleted]

Somehow, everything she had said had gone more or less entirely ignored and her question had gone unanswered. Perhaps she would be better off taking the solo route on this and separate herself from this group? With an irritated sigh, Artemisia pushed off the ground to give herself a little more speed, slightly pulling ahead of the rest of the group of Adventurers chasing Marco. Up ahead she could see the edge of the town limits, the invisible barrier she needed to cross to be able to unleash her magic on the cavalier. Whether he surrendered himself or she had to bring him down forcefully, he was going to answer her questions and be held accountable for what had happened.

Just a few more steps... Just as they crossed the boundary, a group of merchants entering the city popped up in front of them, seemingly unaware of the recent happenings in Londinium, blocking the pathway out. Marco, who seemed to be a bit stubborn in his ways, charged right into the group on his horse. The blonde sorceress was swept up into the crowd as well but pushed forward, her eyes never straying from Marco's back. He was a bit obvious but she didn't want to risk losing him if he tried to pull something. A small sound in her ear indicated someone was contacting her via the telepathy system. Immediately after the voice of Shuwen filled her mind. Despite not acknowledging that she has spoken to him a moment before, he was now attempting to direct the upcoming battle. She didn't dismiss his suggestion but there wasn't much to say about it either - of course a sorceress would stick to the back and out of the direct line of fire.

There wasn't much she could do offensively until they were through the caravan so, for now, she toggled on her skill Spellwalk, which would allowed her to react faster and on the go. Despite her anger at what had happened, there was nothing to be gained from possibly getting all of these people caught up in the mess by tossing out fireballs. Instead, she chose to hopefully set up a bit of a trap for Marco. Well, a trap was probably giving it too much credit. Either way, she hoped it would trip him up enough. Once activated, the spell took only a few seconds to cast. She had chosen to use Barrier Spike and, if it went as planned, not far up ahead, hopefully just beyond the caravan, a small wall had appeared. She was hoping Marco would stumble upon it so suddenly that he wouldn't have time to jump over it and instead topple right into it.

--
Notes: That's all I've got, sorry. If it doesn't make sense, let me know. I wasn't super into this post so I can't promise it makes any sense at all lol
Words: 450
Tags: Neko Hiro, Shuwen, Spades, Darko Lipowitz