Stiltzkin's Castle Exploration

[scriptrix]

Characters: Team Fairy Tail (Levy McGarden, Robin, Tsubomi Hanasaki, Ib, Cloud Strife, Morgan), Team Abyss (Luke fon Fabre, Tear Grants, Jade Curtiss, Guy Cecil, Anise Tatlin, Gaara, Selen), Team Nameless (Lydia Deetz, Bartender, Tazrenda, Gaius Van Belsar, K'pandolu Tohka, Olivier Armstrong), Team Discovery Channel (Allenby Beardsley, Yugi Mutou, Gregory, Jude Maverick, Bartz Klauser, Yuri Lowell)
Where: Stiltzkin's Castle
When: The month of June through July 4th at nebulous points in time - groups should bear in mind it takes 10-15 days to get there and back
Summary: Exploring a dungeon we won't have access to pretty soon
Warnings: Unknown!

((OOC: This is basically freeform exploration of the inside of Stiltzkin's Castle.  Each group will have its own subthread to roleplay exploring the castle.  Anything significant in the way of monsters to fight, treasure to loot, or information to find will be explained by the mods if any of the groups happen to look in the right places.  As for the mechanics of the Castle, physical attack power and Job levels are reversed inside - for example, White Mages will be as physically strong as the more combat-oriented Jobs.  As far as Job levels are concerned, it's essentially 12 months minus the amount you actually have in the Job.  So anyone at an Initial level would be considered to have the Job mastered, and everything in between - if you're 3 months in, treat your character as 9 months in.  Higher level techniques will be weaker than lower leveled ones.  All of this information has been made public to the characters venturing into the Castle, so assume that everyone on the expedition knows about that.  Any questions that aren't covered here should be directed to the mods.))

Comments

[melodiesmods]

[The scan reads that this chimera does not have any elemental weaknesses, and it should be highly resistant to physical attacks.]

[her_rose_is_red]

H-hang on! I have an idea!

[Ib takes a step back and casts Copies, creating illusory versions of each of her friends.]

Now it won't know who to attack.

[She hopes.]

[tacticallyminded]

Oh no!

[Robin lifts a hand up and falls on an old standby: in this case, Thunder. A bolt of lightning drops down, shooting towards the Chimera!]

[bag_has_snapped]

Robin!

[And Tsubomi joins in on the Thunder spam, though her Chocobo does the more sensible thing and try to pull Robin out of its reach.]

[melodiesmods]

[The chimera is unfettered by the copies and twists its head to aim its breath at the entire group.

When the Thunder spell hits, it staggers and stops its attack.]

[scriptrix]

[Levy winces sharply, expecting to be hit with another spell, when the monster abruptly stops. Opening her eyes, she blinks in confusion, but decides it's best to capitalize on the momentary distraction.]

I think we stunned it! Keep going! Capture it if you can - Ashe said the arena is still missing one of these!

[And in the spirit of continuing to beat the monster back, Levy flips open the book she uses with her Scholar Job, casting a Flare spell at the great beast. If her reasoning holds, even though it's resistant to elemental attacks, it should take full damage from a non-elemental attack like Flare even though it's still magic.]

[melodiesmods]

[The Flare attack is a lot stronger than expected, and it hits the other snake head, sending it flailing back as it hisses.

This angers the lion head, and it charges at the Hero closest to it head-on.]

[neverfirstclass]

[Cloud curses as the chimera suddenly appears. It was good that they were all on guard but he wasn't sure it could get much worse than one of these things. He'd heard stories about them.

But there wasn't any time to let himself be intimidated. He rushes forward to the front of the group while everyone is pulling into formation and the fight begins. He brings his shield up, swinging it to bash into the face of the oncoming lion head.]

SENTINEL!

[He locks eyes with the lion head of the monster, making it clear that it will be his target. He grips his sword tight in his other hand. Thanks to the way this castle works he can unleash this job's full power if he needs to, but defending the others is the priority and capturing it is second.]

[her_rose_is_red]

[She's a little miffed to see that the copies didn't work. Ib had actually thought that was clever. She really doesn't have any decent attacks in her arsenal right now. Well.... maybe that's not entirely true.

It's mostly a desire to be useful in this fight that has her pulling out a summon this early. And since the elemental attacks aren't working.... maybe this will..

Ib closes her eyes, calling to the eidolon.]


Choco-mog!

[tacticallyminded]

[Robin raises a hand, using Mad Scientist. There's a slate iron grey glow around Cloud -- giving him a buff to his defense!]

[melodiesmods]

[The chimera charges at Cloud, and with Robin's buff, it only manages to knock Cloud onto the floor.

Ib is still safe, and it will take another minute for the summoning ritual to complete.]

[bag_has_snapped]

[Tsubomi gasped as Cloud was struck down, though he was alright. She needed something to slow him down. Wait, idea!]

BLIZZARD!

[She'd use the ice spell on the Chimera, hoping to slow him down. Or at least put more hurt on him.]

[melodiesmods]

[The ice attack hits the chimera hard, and it staggers back in pain. Both snake heads are too hurt to attack anymore.]

[scriptrix]

It looks weak... I wonder if we can capture it now.

[Levy takes the equipment from the Arena from around her hip, stepping forward and attempting the capture. She's not entirely sure how it works, but it's probably some kind of magic. Still, it's worth a shot, so she holds it out and activates it in the way she was told, hoping to draw the monster in.]

[neverfirstclass]

[Cloud lands roughly, but thanks to everyone else he's able to get back to his feet unharmed. His eyes flit to the others to make sure they're okay as well. Satisfied with what he sees he moves into position to protect Levy in case something goes wrong.]

[melodiesmods]

[The chimera roars as it is pulled into the device. It's too weak to struggle against it, and Levy captures it successfully.]

[tacticallyminded]

Good work, everybody!

[Robin goes to check the chest. Maybe it left something there...?]

[melodiesmods]

[It's empty. This chest only housed a monster.]

[scriptrix]

Let's try the northeast next. They can't all be trapped with monsters.

[A baseless assertion, yes, but one she's making anyway. Levy cautiously heads over to try to open that chest.]

[tacticallyminded]

Good idea, Levy. They can't all be!

[...she hopes.]

[bag_has_snapped]

We've probably jinxed ourselves...

[neverfirstclass]

[Cloud doesn't say anything, but he certainly hopes that Tsubomi isn't right. He looks back at the chest they just got tricked by. All that work and not even a reward.

He turns back, ready to fight again if need be but if all the chests or even most of them are like this they might be in trouble.]

[her_rose_is_red]

Maybe there's a trick to it. Maybe most of them are traps and one has something good in it.

[Ib is very familiar with 'only one choice is right' kind of scenario.]

And we're supposed to figure out the right one.