Cram Week [Player Plot]

[tiredcharmer]

Who: The Heroes of Light
When: January 15-22
Where: The Great McGard Library
What: The hunt for Alexander's Temple takes an unexpected turn into college cramming territory.
Warnings/Notes: The combat threads will go up as soon as the introduction as finished, as that should wrap up fairly quickly.

Comments

[tiredcharmer]

"Oh, wow. Terrifying. You hit as hard as a gnat," the Tantarian says, flipping over to the next page. Ice erupts from the papyrus and at Corrin, the [Blizzaga] dealing strong ice damage if it hits. "That insult doesn't even make any sense."

PAGE: 2

[legalcy]

"Healer!" Minimus shouts towards the back of the group and marches forth with a Mighty Blow in the chance that it would knock the book back and give the others an extra chance for the others to get into formation.

[tiredcharmer]

Minimus's spear and shield crash against the Tantarian, flipping a total of 4 PAGES. "Hey! Get out of my face, you bucket of bolts," it says, then a [Stonega] spell in the shape of a boulder launches out of the Tantarian and at Minimus. If it connects, it'll deal strong earth damage.

PAGE: 6

[chatwithdeath]

"Be patient..."

Because really, if they're going to go in and attack, they were going to get injured. And, frankly for her, it'd be nice to mitigate that at least somewhat. So, raising her staff, she casts Protect over the party.

Moogle Pin from Gilgamesh Event boosting Mag. Def.

[peace_through_empathy]

With Naomi's Protect working its magic, Megatron quickly decides on the tack he will take for this fight; as the group is large and there are other, more experienced healers present, he will focus on support. First thing's first. "Time for a book review." He mutters while secretly hoping that somewhere, somehow, Rodimus just grinned without knowing why.

Megatron's own tome flips to the correct page as he casts [Advanced Libra] on the Tantarian, gaining knowledge of its stats, strengths and weaknesses, and reducing its defense by [3%].

[tiredcharmer]

PHYSICAL POWER: C
MAGICAL POWER: S
ATTACK POTENCY: A
HEALING POTENCY: E
PHYSICAL DEFENSE: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
MAGICAL DEFENSE: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
SPEED: C
HP: 100%
PAGE: 6

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja snaps his fingers. He knows this. The Tantarian, a demon bound into a tome, creature of legend, ah... what else? He'd never paid much attention to Gaian mythology.
A subject he now sorely regretted ignoring.
Wait, arithmetic...? Surely not, it couldn't be that stupid, could it? Well, nothing for it. Now, to prepare. Kuja casts an experimental [Firaga].

[tiredcharmer]

"Watch the pages! Haha, just kidding. These babies are fireproof." Kuja's strong spell flips 5 PAGES in the Tantarian. At first, it seems that PAGE 11 has no effect. Then a storm of magical paper flies out from the book in a [Paper Storm], attacking the entire party for medium nonelemental damage.

Then a pink mist flows from the Tantarian, completely engulfing Kuja and laying him out for the next two turns (days IRL).

PAGE: 11

[neverbeamemory]

While all the other attacks and counters from the Tantarian are going out, Sephiroth prepares with [Enhanced Counter]; the whirlwind of magical papers caught him enough on the defensive to trigger the automatic weak sword combo in retaliation.

Not seeming to even take a breath afterward, Sephiroth immediately follows up with [Oblivion] combo; being one of the stronger skills in his Swordmaster arsenal. As soon as the combo is finished Sephiroth steps back from the attack, raising his katana across his body in a ready-defense for what the book might throw at him in reply.

[tiredcharmer]

Sephiroth's counter flips over the next two pages of the book. "Okay, I am going to stop this right now before we get into an infinite loop of spell-counter-spell-counter," the Tantarian says. A grey, angular tendril lashes out, piercing Sephiroth's chest... and turning him into a statue for one turn.

PAGE: 13

Tyzias gets out her pistol, aims, and fires another Judgment Piercer, ripping straight through the pages and into the heart of the Tantarian and turning one more page. "HEY! I told you to stop that!" it scolds, and red mist begins uncoiling out from Tyzias's forehead, slowly forming into a horrific, biomechanical monstrosity, as the book casts Dream Incantation.

PAGE: 14

DREAM IMPERIAL DRONE HAS JOINED THE FRAY!



Tyzias steps back, shocked, as the drone rockets into the air, massive cannons unfolding from its spiked shoulders. The drone rains a [Laser Barrage] down on the entire party, dealing medium fire damage to anybody who gets hit. Paralyzed by fear, Tyzias is hit dead-on by the drone's attack. She flies back, through the door the party emerged from and tumbling down the stairs.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

"Aw geez, really?" Back to Scholar it is. Patches casts Fae's Blessing to summon Eos; the fairy heals Corrin, since she was among the first to take damage. But now what? There's only so much healing Eos can do, and these attacks are just relentless! And what's with the crazy drone all of a sudden!?

'Keep you eyes on the pages, Patches!' Kisegawa interjects in the back of his mind. 'How are we supposed to see them if you're just cowering in the back?'

"Easy for you to say..." Patches grumbles under his breath, but makes it a point to watch how the pages are turning. There must be pattern in there somewhere, they just have to spot it!

[wind_in_my_ears]

It might not be much, but everyone seems to be getting pummeled out here! Klonoa takes a step back, and holds up the Wind Ring, letting it glow for a moment as healing light from Medica fills the entire party, doing some good towards negating all that hurt they've taken.

"Stay strong, everyone! We're going to beat this together!" He calls out.

It might not help as much with the magic being slung around, but at least his Inspiring Presence being there is helping to increase everyone's defense a little bit.

[songbird_slayer]

Madhuri grit her way through the barrage, and had precisely what she needed. As her eyes darkened to black, she raised a hand and directed a [Hellish Rebuke] of powerful fire damage toward the drone.

"If he's going to fly, I'm going after it." With that, she initiated a Job Change to Spellbinder. Give her just a moment.

[topgun_textiles]

"Shit- I'm gonna go get Ty!"

Kanji, in the meantime, pulled away from the encounter for now to go get their companion. If that hit wasn't gonna screw her up, a roll down the damn stairs would.

Besides, that creature... it seemed like she'd made it somehow, thanks to the book.

[tiredcharmer]

Madhuri's infernal fury impacts the drone, charring its carapace, but it seems far from finished. Tyzias, meanwhile, is lying unconscious at the bottom of the staircase. It looks like several bones are broken, and she's bleeding badly from the head in addition to the burns and lacerations.

[topgun_textiles]

"Oh, crap. H-hold on a sec." He put a hand to the frame of his iMog Glasses and initiated a job change to Paladin.

He'll spend the next 2 rounds focusing Cura on Tyzias.

[littlemhigan]

Castor was already a bit late to the party but it seemed to work in her favour as the other heroes threw themselves at the book with no significant effect save for them getting pummeled. And then that...thing.

She grits through the damage, feeling it keenly, but recovers quickly. She knows she can't reach it yet, so instead focuses on her inner energies and hums a mantra of Brotherhood - for the next FIVE TURNS, the whole party would get a 10% Damage Buff.

[bladeofconquest]

Corrin watches in alarm as Tyzias goes flying, but Kanji is quick to attend to her. With the healers doing their best to minimize the damage from the attacks, Corrin likewise switches to [Dark Knight]. Nohr Noble just isn't going to cut it.

Once her Dark Knight gear is in place, she charges a [Blood Weapon], using her own vitality to power her attacks. If the Tantarian thought she hit like a gnat before, it was going to be in for a rude awakening. Castor's buff helps tremendously in that regard.

The book's actions confuse her, though; it had been quick to retaliate against the initial salvo, but had done nothing when the healing had gone out; nor had it made any attempt to stop Kanji from going to Tyzias' aid. Why? What was the difference?

Then it hits her.

"Wait a second...it can't attack on its own!" Corrin exclaims. "It can only counter-attack!" Of course that probably wasn't true for the drone it had summoned, but was still a useful bit of information. "Ignore the book for now, let's clear that machine before it does too much damage!"

[peace_through_empathy]

Megatron is already bringing out his own Eos with a [Fae's Blessing] of his own, which turns her attention to Minimus, who took the Stonega near the start of the fight. The reading he got from the Advanced Libra is...troubling, especially the realization that despite all the attacks they've inflicted, they haven't actually hurt the Tantarian.

"We haven't succeeded in damaging the book at all." He states calmly, despite the difficulty of the opponent facing them; it pays to be cool and collected at all times, especially in an emergency. "All our attacks are doing are causing it to flip pages."

[pishirogane]

"... Then we should take this moment to recover. It seems to attack each time we flip pages."

And she doesn't know about everyone else, but she can't take too many hits at once. Taking out a Potion for herself, she took sips intermittently while considering the attacks. "It seems like stronger abilities turn more pages as well."

[wind_in_my_ears]

Kanji would get an ally in Klonoa, stepping up and holding his hand out to check on Tyzias. No patient of his is going to bleed on the floor!

"Tyzias, hold in there!" He shouts, letting the others take control of the situation. The full force of a max level white mage is brought to bear as healing light floods out from his glove and into her! Hopefully that will forestall the whole, y'know, dying thing.

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja staggers to his feet after a time, in pain, bleeding- he snarls. He's had quite enough of this. "In one. Day. I have been burned, lacerated, incinerated, thrown about, and mind-controlled- and I. Am. Done."

MELODY LEVEL 3
TRANCE

He glows, then, with crimson light as silver-white hair and fur bleeds into crimson- and, as he launches himself into the air, away from the fray, gathering magic from the world around him like a black hole draws in light-

"Just. Die."

The fury of [Ultima] rains down, not widespread destruction like it might usually be, but with the laser focus that could only be acheived with [Spellshape], bolts of azure flame guiding themselves unerringly towards two targets- Tantarian, and this red menace.

[tiredcharmer]

This time, the Tantarian doesn't have any pithy comment. "Oh shi--" is all it manages to choke out before the spell impacts. Kuja's Ultima completely obliterates the drone, reducing it to dream mist. The Tantarian is nearly thrown off the roof, and it flips a total of 40 pages.

"I. Gah. Mawp?" is mumbles as another boulder is launched out of its pages, a Stonega with practically drunken aim.

PAGE: 54
STATUS: OUCH

[whirluendo_of_puns]

"...Yeaaaahhh, I'd say more power means more pages, for sure. Wow." Sometimes Kuja can be really scary.

Okay, so they can turn more pages by hitting harder. So what? What are they supposed to do? 'Basic arithmetic, remember?' Uendo chimes in. Patches racks his brain while Eos heals Kuja. Numbers, numbers... Uhhh...

"Hey, wait a sec! Those stolen pages were 32, 128, and 256, right? Dontcha think there's something missing there?"

[tiredcharmer]

Tyzias, meanwhile, is slowly coaxed back to consciousness by the efforts of Klonoa and Kanji. Her eyes snap open, and she begins thrashing about wildly. It's obvious that she's... someplace else, mentally.