Trespassers V2: Tales of the Masks [IC]

[DragonRage]

A mysterious, grey capsule, twenty feet long and eight feet in diameter, appeared in the castle during the battle against Fake Gilgamesh.  After several science bros took a look at it, Edmond eventually translated the inscriptions around the rim of the device as autopilot instructions, and a plea for help, both in a computer language he’d never seen before.

 

He asked around, and Hiroki, Jade, Cicivexa, and Dackly volunteered to come and investigate.  Gozer followed Dackly into the pod, as he always does.  Edmond locked the coordinates in, the pod sealed itself shut, and the six occupants found themselves dozing off…

 

The next thing the group knew, the pod opened with a loud hiss, and hurled them out upon a beach of beautiful, white sand and clear, glassy water.  A lush, dripping jungle begins where the beach ends, and over the trees a huge, snow-topped mountain peak is barely visible.  But the assembled heroes could be forgiven for not focusing much on the excellent vacation destination they had found themselves in, for each of them was changed by their journey.

 

Where flesh once was, flesh remained, yet it was no longer alone.  Armored plates, mechanical components, just as responsive and sensitive as flesh alone yet far more resilient, covered the body of each of the six in gleaming armor and cybernetics.  Each of the six now sports a distinct color scheme they did not before, accenting their new armored bodies; Hiroki in shades of blue, Dackly a uniform green (she was green before, of course), Edmond in white and grey, Cicivexa in red and ultramarine, Jade in brown and tan (much like he was before), Captain Forgotten Realms in silver and blue, and Gozer in black and tan.

 

Their eyes glow brightly with their original color, from behind a sturdy, steel-grey mask, along with a sense of power not previously present…

 

Equipment Acquired:  Toa Heartlight (Untyped) – The ancient mechanisms of the Toa Canister have transformed you into a creature of Bionicle!  But without a source of elemental power, only some of its features have been unlocked.  Grants +2 damage reduction and +2 to a stat chosen when equipped.  Cannot be unequipped at this time.  Deals 5% of your MHP in nonlethal pure damage to you each round until you pass out.  Self-damage can be negated if you wear a Kanohi Mask of Power.

 

Equipment Acquired:  Matoran Kanohi Mask – This artifact allows beings of Bionicle to properly control and contain their powers.  Without one, even the mightiest Toa can be humbled.  Some masks can also grant special powers, but these do not.  They are enough to keep you alive and healthy, though.  Can be knocked off by a critical hit, requiring a round to recover and put back on.

 

The party’s old equipment seems to have been transformed into a version that their new bodies can use as comfortably as their old could, and given the same color scheme as their wielder.  This could use some investigating…

 

Or you could instead talk to pair of the small biomechanical beings staring up at you, the blue one in naked relief and the black one in suspicion.

 

“The Toa!  You’ve come!”  The blue one exclaims in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, “The legends were true!  We-  We’d almost started to think you might not…”

 

“They’re not the Toa, Halhi,” The black one pulls a strange contraption from his back and aims it in the party’s general direction, “That red one’s shorter than I am, and none of them look anything like the statues or carvings.  They’re probably some trick from the Makuta.  Mata Nui, the black and green ones look as much like Rahi beasts as people!”

 

“But they might be able to help.  They don’t have infected masks, Nuparu,” Halhi observes, though she does take a few steps back and place a hand on the machete sheathed at her waist.  “If we don’t take any chances, we’ll never beat the Makuta.  The Toa haven’t come.  Maybe…  Maybe it’s time for us to find our own heroes, instead of just waiting for them.”

 

“Take chances, huh?  Be our own heroes?  That’s what Hewkii said,” Nuparu growls wearily, clearly retreading familiar arguments, “You know where he is now?”

 

“Kitty chow for an infected Muaka,” Halhi rolls her eyes, glaring daggers into the other being’s skull.  “We all miss Hewkii, but he wouldn’t want us to just sit around waiting to die like he did!”

 

“Kitty chow for a-  Hey!”  The barrel of Nuparu’s weapon drifts away from the group as he turns to face Halhi.  It seems they could be at this for a while…

[Hal Henderics]

"Well, this is certainly odd, where did this armor come from?" Cap asks, looking to Gozer for answers.

"I do not know.  It is possible that this world's nature demanded a change in form?"

 

Dackly, meanwhile, is poking her head, covered in Mechanized Snakes instead of ordinary ones.

 

"Guess this makes me a... Pipe Snake!" She snorts to herself, laughing.

 

((+2 to Int))

[StormLord]

Cell stumbles forward out of the canister, he'd been occupied a little longer than the others marveling at the strange moving bits of metal that had appeared all over him until he finally decided the best way to figure out what color he actually was was to step out into the light.

 

Cell joins, albeit somewhat late.

[Unlurking Sentinel]

Cicivexa is visibly shocked by his transformation, even underneath the mask. "Navin wasn't kidding, then. The rules are different. I wouldn't be surprised if magic simply doesn't work."

 

"...Erm, excuse me.", he said before attempting to summon a Manaward barrier, with hopes to disprove his hypothesis. 

 

+2 INT

[DragonRage]

Cell would find his orb now occupying the back of a biomechanical creature's head, essentially identical in function to the body he had before except for the addition of the Kanohi mask and Heartlight.  Its armor appears to be colored silver.

 

Cicivexia should be somewhat relieved to find that while it takes a bit more effort than usual to call upon his Mana Ward, the defensive spell still responds to him.  It feels a bit different, but as long as it works, right?

[Strider]

They were different, affected by the pod somehow, and while the parts that Edmond found himself equipped with still worked well--perfectly in fact--he stumbled as he stood up. It was curious just how much it surprised him, given that he'd already grown used to wearing the power armor. Yet this was still off-putting and disorienting. To test his mobility and the integration of his own gear, Edmond lifts off the ground with the power armor, testing it's responsiveness in combination with the cybernetics.

 

"Alright, okay. That. . .works, I suppose. Hey Cell, Dackly, Gozer. You're new?" Edmond asked the small red one. "Excuse me if I'm wrong, there are just a lot of us now."

 

+2 Int

[StormLord]

Cell raises one arm and mechanically waves his hand back and fourth at Edmond before stopping, turning the Cicivexa and waving again.

The only expression on his "face" now is that of child-like glee at all of the awesome stuff surrounding them.

 

(Heartlight stat = Con)

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki was looking down at herself with a fair degree of alarm. She was used to being covered in armor, yes, but being in an insulated mech cockpit was a tad different from having your actual flesh replaced with mechanical parts. She took a step backwards or two, and gingerly touched a hand to her chest to confirm that what she was seeing was, in fact, the truth. The fighter had to suppress the urge to scream, instead just taking a deep breath. Different rules. Right. I'll probably be normal again when I leave. Right? At least the colors aren't too bad. She was tempted to call the Knight to at least conceal the issue of the transformation for the time being, but that would probably startle the people currently having an argument in front of them. 

 

Taking a step forward (which mostly just placed her right where she began,) she hesitantly spoke up toward the pair. "Who is um, the Makuta?" Best to get that out of the way first, since it sounded like an unfriendly figure at the very least.

 

(Heartlight Stat: SYN)

[Aurorix]

Jade looked and his now metal plated hands. "Did not sign-up to be part cyborg. Though I should have exepcted a strange capsule to do some weird shit. Hope I still have both kidneys." He then realized with all this metal on his hands it'll definitely affect his marksmanship. Reaching for his holster he realizes that his revolver had been altered too. His baby was tampered by that console, "Dammit! You can cover me in metal plating all you want but when you mess with Ace you've crossed the line!" Frustration and anger drenched his voice. However for some odd reason it felt just as natural in his metal hand as it did before all these weird changes. He better make sure he gets accustom to it when battle inevitably rears it's head. Calming down he steps away from the group and takes aim at a far away tree etching out from the jungle onto the beach, "Stand behind me, don't want any of you getting hurt. Just wanna see if Ace here still works." He takes aim at six different branches and fires a bullet at all of them with his altered revolver.

 

(Heartlight Stat: +2 Dex)

[DragonRage]

"Hey, if your weapon needs work, I might be able to help.  I'm good with machines," Nuparu offers, patting his much larger and cruder-looking gun, "Though it doesn't look like you need it."  Sure enough, Jade's shots are just as accurate as he remembers, and if anything, he was able to get them off a little faster than before.

 

"The Makuta?  He's the lord of lies, the spirit of evil, the master of the shadows!  He's laid us matoran under siege for as long as anyone can remember, using his infected masks to force rahi beasts to attack us and keeping sunlight from reaching our crops with his shadow powers.  It's said that after a thousand years the Toa, great heroes all, would come to save us from the Makuta, and they would be heralded by the stars.  But the stars converged a year ago, and the Turaga, our village elders, say a thousand years have passed," Halhi shares, "And the Toa never came.  Matoran are disappearing or dying a few every month, and if things keep going as they are we're not going to have enough people to make everything we need to live.  Some matoran thought that if our heroes weren't coming, it was up to us to take responsibility.  Takua went to look for the Toa.  Hewkii tried to organize a resistance against the infected Rahi.  They're both dead now.  You aren't Toa, but maybe you can help us?"

[StormLord]

Cell dramatically and obviously rubs his chin, squatting down and almost squinting.  He stops suddenly and gives the blue one a big thumbs up while standing again and nodding "yes" several times.

[Hal Henderics]

"Nope!" Dackly giggles.

"But we're the best darn fighty guys you'll ever see."

 

"Who needs Toa or whatever they're called when you've got people like us?" Cap says, buying into the hype as he flexes an arm.

 

"We may have talents which are useful in aiding you."

[Strider]

They all acted so optimistic, confident. Edmond was feeling very little of that, but it seemed a poor time to voice that. If their task were made easier by the natives having confidence in them, he couldn't very well go mentioning 'oh, let's be careful not to attempt an assassination this time without consulting one another, and be sure not to orchestrate acts of terror in a locale with a large number of civilians.' That'd be precisely the wrong move here.

 

"I think we can help. There's something to be said for helping yourselves though. You're going to need to organize, and help us help you."

[DragonRage]

Halhi and Nuparu engage in a short conversation consisting mostly of meaningful glances and hand gestures, before Halhi speaks up again.  "Well, the legends say that if all six Toa Stones are collected from their hiding places and brought to the great temple of Kini-Nui, the Toa would be called to the island.  We've tried doing that ourselves, but...  The stones' resting places are too dangerous for a matoran.  Only one has been retrieved so far, and Jaller almost died getting it.  He's not going to be keen to let it out of the vaults in Ta-koro without a very good reason."

 

"We can lead you to the general areas, I guess," Nuparu chimes in, "But once we get close, you'll have to do the rest.  Pick your poison; water, air, ice, rock, or earth.  Yes, I know calling it a 'rock stone' sounds stupid.  I didn't name the things.  At least it isn't a 'stone stone'."

[Unlurking Sentinel]

"Hmm..." Cicivexa crossed his arms as he ran over the options in his mind. 

 

"Coming from my experience, and from the names alone, Water and Air seem like the hardest." He didn't yet know what his party members were capable of, but these both sounded like they would require more specialized equipment, that he himself wasn't in possession of at the moment. "Could you elaborate on the difference between the Rock and Earth Stones' locations? Actually, knowing the circumstances of all of the stones' hiding places would be helpful."

[Hal Henderics]

"But... IS there a Stone Stone?"

 

"Don't you little dorks try to hide it from me, there's totally a Stone Stone, isn't there?  There's Earth and Rock already, so it's not like it can get MORE redundant." Dackly says, giving them a sour, suspicious look.

[DragonRage]

Nuparu considers Dackly's request, and then grabs a rock from the beach and hands it to her.  "Behold," He gestures grandly over it, "The fabled stone stone, sacred relic of my people, given to us long ago by the Great Spirit Mata Nui, hidden through obscurity until a great hero might come to awaken its power."  He doesn't do a very good job of selling his bullcrap.

 

"Well, according to the chronicles and legends, the water stone is located in an ancient, underwater temple just outside Naho Bay.  It's mostly protected by being too deep for a matoran to dive.  We can't hold our breath for long enough.  I don't know how Turaga Nokama put it there, but she says the method she used wouldn't work anymore," Halhi shares, "The air stone is said to be hidden deep in the jungles of Le-Wahi, under the tallest tree.  I don't know how it's defended.  Turaga Matau didn't do anything to deter seekers, so the Makuta probably did.  He doesn't want the stones found.  The ice stone is supposed to be somewhere on the peak of Mount Ihu," She points up to the tall mountain in the distance, "It's cold and snowy up there, and blizzards are frequent.  The fire stone is in Ta-koro under guard; the only challenge there will be convincing Captain Jaller that we should be allowed to have it.  Showing him the other five stones might do it.  The rock stone is hidden in a ruin in the Motara Desert, protected by deadly traps.  Turaga Onewa set a few of them, but he says servants of the Makuta put up more after he left it there.  I know how to get around his traps, but not the others.  The earth stone is in the ancient tunnels below the mines of Onu-Koro.  Nuparu could lead us there, but...  The oldest tunnels weren't safe before the Makuta started turning the beasts against us.  There's a lot of nasty, predatory things that live deep underground."

[Unlurking Sentinel]

"Now then, what do you all think we should do first? I propose we go for the Rock Stone first; I've braved a desert ruin or two before. However, I'm also willing to try the Earth and Air Stones." He was expecting the Air Stone to be at an altitude unreachable without flight, perhaps surrounded by an impassible storm, but the forest wasn't the worst spot for it, he supposed. Certainly easier to get to without an airship, at least. 

[Hal Henderics]

"I accept it with both grace and intense greed." She smirks, snatching it and tossing it up and down in her hand.  Dumb little dorks, handing over stones of sacred power.

 

"I am not certain that stone contains elemental power." Gozer claims.

 

"Well duh, you know these hokey relics need some kind of spiritual awakening or revelation or some junk to activate them."  She says.

 

("I think it's just a rock?") Cap whispers to Gozer.

 

("Very likely.")

 

"I believe we should seek the Earth Stone first.  I am an Earth Elemental.  It makes sense that I may be suited to rapidly obtain it."  Gozer says.

 

Gozer tests if he still has the ability to phase through earth.

[Aurorix]

Jade opens up the cylinder and dumps the empty shells into the sand. He begins to replace them with new bullets. "Well, at least I've still got it. Maybe this isn't so bad after all." Holstering away Ace, he turns back to the group, "That Air Stone sounds the easiest to find. It's underneath the tallest tree in a jungle right? How hard could that be? We should get it before the.. myscooter... reaches it first."

[Chevaleresse]

Hiroki was still trying to acclimate to the strangeness of the new world and her new body, so she'd stayed mostly quiet after her initial question. She did her best to pay attention to what the rest of the group was doing (save Dackly being evidently fooled into believing a mundane rock was an artifact of power, which was amusing but irrelevant) but was having a slight amount of trouble sorting things out. Still, after several moments of thought, she spoke up once more. "Maybe we, um, can use the air stone to get, um, the water stone? Making, um, air or something would help, I think."

[Strider]

"I should be able to scope out the tallest tree from the air, assuming someone didn't. . .decide to dig an 80 foot pit to plant their single tall tree in. I must ask though, will this Makuta know when we obtain any of the stones? Will he check the locations or anything? It'd be prudent to find first the stones which will give this being the least knowledge and warning of our presence and goals."

 

"If there are no considerations to be made that way, I would be fine with either the Earth or Air stone as our first goal."

[StormLord]

Cell shrugged sort of dismissively, it didn't seem like he cared which stone they went after first one way or another.

Instead he was busy going through his bags looking for something.

[Stalkerkain]

Yet again, Soryn found himself in another strange scenario. It hadn't been long before their group had managed to return to the their home in one piece, only to be thrown into another universe once more. Soryn was conflicted as to whether he should take this as a surprise, or to just give up and acclimate himself to these strange occurrences. It would seem that this time, their appearances had been altered. Though clad in various metals and colors, it appeared that a few of the group had been taken along as well. Soryn drew blood from his reservoir, and clad himself in blood in an attempt to morph his appearance, much like many other vampires do. Despite his efforts, it seemed that something was blocking the use of the spell.

"This is rather unsettling. I do hope that we are able to return, after we had so shortly gotten back from our last... adventure," he said wearily. "In any case, I concur that we should look for the earth stone. It seems that it is in the most tangible location of them all."

[DragonRage]

Soryn would find himself clad in red and silver.  When he attempts to draw blood from his reservoir, electricity comes instead, briefly coating him in a crackling energy field.  He supposes it makes sense that in a land populated entirely by mechanical beings, a vampire would be draining energy rather than blood, but it'll doubtlessly take some adjusting to.

------------------------------------------------------------

Gozer tests his earthwalking and finds that he can in fact travel through the ground in his new form.  However, his sense of the earth tells him that there's a layer of something deep underground that he cannot pass through this way.  It feels like both earth and not earth at the same time.  Still, as long as the Earth Stone is above this layer, Gozer should have no trouble earth walking to it if he can find out where it is.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"The earth stone wouldn't be a bad first choice," Nuparu chips in, "I'm from Onu-Koro, the underground village, and I used to work as a miner.  I know the tunnels pretty well, so I can get us close, as long as you guys are ready to help fight off any Rahi beasts, infected by the Makuta or otherwise, who take interest in us.  That far underground, there's no telling what sorts of nasty things might try to eat us."