Chevaleresse

did you guys not read the part where the castle was clearly in disrepair and crumbling before your eyes

Eh. Rin is alright but I don't feel particularly compelled to grab her. Waiting to see what Babylon and/or the mysterious December event brings. (GIVE HONNOJI 2)

Hiroki dully shook her head, indicating she didn't mind Magna's proposition. What on earth is she? That felt like. . . no, it couldn't be bone, but that sound. . .! Her increasing distress wasn't helped by the screeching sounds, so she simply did her best to continue to avoid attracting attention, reaching one hand up to her chin to adjust a setting on the voice changer; she didn't want it picking up her breathing.

The Hellfire Knight looked at the extended hand much as one might look at a pit viper preparing to strike, though of course this response was largely hidden by the cloak and stoop. It would be really weird to not accept the handshake, but I look weird already, and. . . ugh! Her hand darted forward, seizing Magna's roughly and abruptly, and cranking it up and down once before what she was feeling clicked. The electronic voice resulted in a blast of static assaulting the hearing of those in the immediate vicinity as her hand moved backward just as quickly as it had extended, and one could almost feel the shock in the unseen gaze of the one beneath the hood.

Gabriel had spent the last few days prodding about as best he could at the various academic gatherings, trying to ascertain who the important people in attendance were. Who the likeliest target would be, what their schedule would be like. Trying to track them and get a feel for their routine much as an assassin would, though this was significantly harder on the defensive. Of course, he'd also made some more personal inquiries - nothing as straightforward as the confession to Lerodoch, of course, but inquries nonetheless - into the knowledge of those attending. He'd also tried to imply that anyone with suspicions should go to him or the other team members with them as indirectly as possible, though once again that was mostly a shot in the dark. The half-elf assumed that it couldn't do more harm than good; it might alert the assassin to the presence of a counter force, but that could possibly delay the killing or prevent it entirely if they lost their nerve. Currently, he sat with a group of students positioned near the stage, keeping up appearances as best he could while trying to scan the crowd for anything or anyone that looked off.

>(My character is going to try and make it to the the castle from earlier). y tho

"It is. . . strange. I suppose it's possible we were gathered here, but that raises the question of why." It was a conundrum, indeed. It's not as if the concept of fighters being gathered from across the planes was a foreign one to her - though this seemed to be decidedly different from her usual experience, what with the kinds of magic being thrown around and such. Different worlds. . . More people that she would have to prove herself against. And she'd been so close to the top already. Why now? A small part of her was glad that she was wearing a disguise that obfuscated her expressions and mannerisms - it hid her growing consternation. She almost didn't notice the question. "A-an alliance? That may be a good idea, at least for now."

you're in but link me to teh sheet so i can add you

"Hellfire Knight, as I said. Favored champion of the Fourth God and the fourthmost in Favor in the seven planes - except the gods." She noted the woman(?)'s name for later; Magna. It was worth remembering. She didn't actually believe they'd ever end up fighting, but stranger things had already happened to her today; who knew what was coming next? For the same reasons that she filed the name away, she wasn't particularly forthcoming about herself; the less people knew about her until she was able to return and win the tournament, the better. . .

The figure visibly stiffened at the word "cutie." The cowl turned to face Magna before the owner replied in their artificially modified voice. "I am not sociable. Or cute." The voice changer did a good job of hiding the sudden spike of anxiousness. One wouldn't normally call a cloaked figure with a robotic voice cute, so did this individual have some way to pierce her disguise? She supposed it wasn't entirely improbable given the last few moments, but that didn't exactly comfort her. . .

The chest, somewhat improbably, pops open. It contains a map of the area.

Eon would note that the barren rock seems to be transitioning to some kind of ruins, with the bluish tone fading into crumbling grays and dark browns, as well as that broken clockwork becoming more frequent. Off in the distance, over the cliffs, one can see the tops of houses; it's hard to tell, but they don't appear to be in disrepair. Oh, and there's also that bright orange and yellow chest over there. Was that there the whole time?

Having introduced themselves, the Hellfire Knight started to sidle toward one edge of the clearing. The imperative to tell people nothing of their actual capabilities remained strong - and they weren't exactly one for large groups in the first place. They contemplated taking a seat, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort and potential of drawing attention.

feel free to do so, though at that point you might want to separate that from the stats section

"I am the Hellfire Knight," the cloaked figure answers, looking around a bit at the strange sights. Was that a dragon? And that. . . woman? over there. So many strange people. . . She'd meant to speak with Kagari a bit more; other than the obvious "having the same exact name as someone from a different world" bit, the part where she'd suddenly become an idol reminded her of a conversation she'd never had the opportunity to finish with another person from her home world.

ragnar where's the updated version of your sheet, i can't find it

As the group moved through the winding passage, it opened up a few times and then choked off once again, each change in size rather abrupt. The sounds of fighting ebbed and died off as they traveled, fading to silence as they came to another, wider opening in the passage. The group encountered another bizarre mixture of people(?), who appeared to be in a similar state to their own. Visrii, It that Embraces, Alexandria, Jesse, Venus, Eon, Kurosawa, and Halley are now in! They've just finished fending off an array of shadowy creatures; some similar to the Shadow Beasts the first had just fought, albeit weaker individually and closer to animals than humanoids, and a few different types of strange creatures with a black heart symbol with an "X" through it emblazoned on them somewhere, except for the smallest, which seemed to be pure shadow.

IT ISNT A CAVE THAT WAS A TYPO THERE IS NOTHING IN IT PLEASE MOVE FORWARD BEFORE I GET HOME

N O T H I N G

you saw nothing n o t h i n g

its not a cave lol, its open to the sky

Heo doesn't seem to be in danger of dying immediately - particularly now that he's had some magical first-aid. He wakes up slowly, standing and grumbling under his breath about the injury while he clutches the place where it had been located. It seems he'll need some more attention to be at full fighting strength. He waves Edmond's attentions off in a rather irritable fashion. When Pluck checks the corpses, he mysteriously finds a few green and blue gemstones - of a somewhat depressingly common variety, sadly - and an empty glass bottle with a stopper. Pluck obtained Glass Bottle! Pluck obtained 12 Rupees. The Hellfire Knight stomped over to where their discarded shoes and and cloak laid - to be fair, it didn't look like that bulky, robotic chassis was capable of movement that was a whole lot more graceful than that when it was grounded - and bent over slightly. The clawlike left hand reached down, draping the cloak over the metal plating before it seemed to collapse inward on itself. The figure stepped into the discarded shoes as quickly as possible, nearly losing their balance in their hurry. "That went well," the artificial voice grated. "It was w- strange fighting as part of a team." Anyone standing near the passage entrance could hear the distantly echoing sounds of more fighting.

Bridgett fires a pair of magic bolts shaped like arrows into Shadow Beast D for a total of [14] damage. Theodore sets up resonance with all the existing Shadow Beasts for [1] damage, and will continue to resonate for [2] more turns. Shadow Beast A lunges at Heo, slamming into him and stunning him for [5] damage. Hikari casts a spell on Hiroki, boosting her power for 3 turns. Shadow Beast B slashes at the wounded Heo for [10] damage, and he collapses into unconsciousness, severely wounded! Edmond Welds Shadow Beast D for [0] damage. It will take [10] extra damage on the next hit. Sachi guards the fallen Heo from further harm. Another odd "shoop"ing sound sounds as Shadow Beasts D and F fuse into one more monster. Shadow Monster B replaces Shadow Beast D in the init order. Kagari changes into the kind of wildly impractical outfit one would only find on a person who thought it was a good idea to sing instead of fighting in combat. Solomon drops some more tomes on the newly formed Shadow Monster for [15] damage. Jade fires at the same monster [97] for [6] damage. Aurora mends Heo's wounds. It doesn't seem to rouse him, though; he's pretty badly hurt. Katsuo yells and smashes his mace into the first Shadow Monster for [7] damage. The Shadow Monster seems to wisen up slightly, raking a large claw at Magna for [11] damage. The Hellfire Knight nods at the suggestion. "Yeah, my auxiliary guns were overheated before! Eat this!" The figure releases another burst of hot plasma for [9] damage to every enemy on the field! The first Shadow Monster collapses. It rises once again as Magna resurrects it, bringing it under her control. Her other minion strikes at the other Shadow Beast for [11] damage, knocking it over, where it lay unmoving. Snow's icy strikes bite into the final remaining foe. It screeches once, but a ragged, and less nerve-strikingly shrill sound, before it finally ceases moving. A bit after the beasts die, the strange pillars that had fallen from the sky fade away, and with them the barriers they'd erected. The path forward is open, though it's long and winding, snaking upwards through the rock.

I guess Heo is being dropped, so that just leaves Katsuo.