You are still William sparred with self-lighting firefighters, beat the shit out of the voices in your head, and now preparing to go back to university that descended into a multi-way gang fight.
>>6147523Thoughts drift between William’s head as his fork taps against his dinner plate to make a small clink sound as he thinks. Trying to think of Hellscream’s deeper motives as he watches the steam rise from the cooked chicken in front of him. The dining room is filled with light brown wood furnishes and several seats with curtains of red and black coating the walls. With a few maids standing at attention with their eyes closed and arms crossed over against their lower stomachs awaiting further commands. Taking a breath as William tries to sound out his question to his host to get more insight to this deal.“So shapechanging to get High Ring protection to avoid being jumped?”“No, none of my agents will help but at the very least my spell will make sure you don’t kneel over after a fireball or two punches.”“I am not that frail.”“Yes you are. You refuse to convert but with the spell’s magic it will give you health padding and a magic reserve to escape from a fight as level 10 or above mages will be running around the area.”“They have the mages for that?”“And some reserves as this is the first time in a while where they have an actual reason to throw down fights with other mages and excuse it as territory control rather than grudge matches. Which will also flare up fights to go even harder if they bring in level 20s too.”“Couldn’t I just use Prisma or Animus to hide behind as meatshields?”“Why would Animus help you out? And for Prisma after their week trial ended they will demand the same thing or more aggressive suggestions. Hell I assume the reason none of them hunted you down right now is that they are scrambling for control first before looking into their candidate.”“Any other side effects I might have to deal with the shapechange?”“It's a spell why wo-hmm, okay I forgot the spell only has an hour duration and can have a 50% failure chance if someone throws a tier 9 counterspell on you. So I have to… I can try to make an auto shapechange trigger when you get hit but you still would die from a surprise fireball.”“Why does everyone like that spell?”“It is a classic for a reason and well known. Another thing you can do is I cast the spell as soon as you enter Astra and you just have to stay inside the school for an hour and head out when attendance gets called.”“Sounds simple enough.”“These are mages they will not be simple.”-Refuse the spell and go into Astra with fighter level 5 and ranger level 3 and striker equipment-Accept the shapechange and go into Astra as level 8 sorcerer-Refuse the spell and speak to Rose for aid-Accept an at damage trigger shapechange spell, go into Astra as William-write in
Can Rose help us out here. I don't want to reject Hellscream without knowing Rose's options. We can't use our cards at school so we either have to hope rose has something or get that trigger spell.What's Hellscreams game here? What does this say politically or is she trying to cause a shift in Wills mind?We refused shapechange before for the animus deal but it's starting to look like we might be forced to do it due to pragmatism but how will that effect the character?
>>6147560Mmmmmmmmmm>Thank Hellscream for the concern but we should be okay we're good at hiding.We got prisma cloak and pass without trace we fine.
>>6148019If she asks for why...Tell her we are going to play Animus and Prisma off each other to protect our ass.
Rolled 12 (1d100)>>6147560William insight checking motive DC 50
>>6147560>>6148082You have no idea what is Hellscreams motive is also pick an option as I want to move to the next day.
>>6147525-Accept an at damage trigger shapechange spell, go into Astra as WilliamDamn these low insight checks. The problem with going with Rose is it brings up questions on how we did it. Also we'll still have to deal with Prisma with next to no backing. We can also use this to fight openly. The mage armor is still broken and our rebel gear isn't supposed to see use in public.My worry is two fold, how this may change the Mc and what Hellscream is using this to convey.
>>6148451>>6148019“Ugh, fine I will take the shapechange trigger spell for another safety net for tomorrow.”“Finally, it only took a small war and prodding to get you to accept it.” Adds Hellscream as she motions for a maid to fetch an item.“I thank you for the concern but I think I can manage. Can’t be too bad since I will mostly hide using the Prisma cloak.”“Faerie Fire and other workarounds do exist for invisibility, polymorphs, and general tankiness.”“They do?”“Of course. Everyone is a mage and will have their own counter to everyone else’s specialization with their own bag of tricks and gimmicks. So just keep your head down and avoid getting killed and kidnapped by anyone and save your spells for counterspells or misty steps”“Don’t you mean killed or kidnapped?” “They can skewer your heart and bring you back with revival spells. They just need a piece of you to recover but the pain will still be remembered.”“Okay so I should avoid spending too much time in Astra and get out as soon as possible to avoid all that bad shit.”“I do recommend that course of action.” States Hellscream as the maid returns back to present the spell safety net to William.Turning his head to see an item in the shape of a glass ruby with sparks of electricity zapping across the inside of its core. Red streaks painting the insides in a storm of light with fractures spread across its surface awaiting activation at the slightest damage. A small hand sized gem able to be stored on William’s body easily without looking too out of place or easily hidden inside a cloak for further security.-skip to next day-speak with hellscream(what about?)-sleep and start round 2 against Willow and Hayden-contact boss rose-contact muffin about repairs-attempt to seize knowledge(ask hellscream about one book lore topic from the study room)-write-in
>>6148843Also won't be here tomorrow as I will be visiting the family to praise the gobble gobble so I will be back on Friday.
>>6148843-attempt to seize knowledge(ask hellscream about one book lore topic from the study room)-speak with hellscream(what about?)-flirtHappy Thanksgiving!
>>6149172>support Happy Thanksgiving qm and Mac.
Rolled 3 (1d4)>>6149172>>61492651 -The Fey Courts and Dangers.2 -Astra University Graduation Career Brochure.3 -Demonology: Age of Dawn, Ruin, and Desperation.4 -World Geography
>>6149629“That is some fine craftsmanship in under an hour?”“Well two hours but thank you for the compliment.”“Only someone blind would not notice the personal touches added to the spell. A crimson hue cut with the utmost precision to have the smoothness of faces while still maintaining its structure to activate the spell on a hair trigger.”“The fracture lines look distasteful but triggerability was needed over form.”“Which still took skill to not break apart at every tap with the added lighting affect trapped inside. Looks like something made from a high quality jeweler.”“Aren’t you a flatterer? So what is the reason for this random praise?” Asks Hellscream with a small smile on her face as she sips her wine.“Well considering I am in the presence of my gracious host there is something I would like to know more about from your study.”“What would that be?”“What is with the Demonology book with three titles?”“Ugh, history of all things? Not even the fairy one?”“Well its important to learn about the history of my host since I barely know your name and class type.”“It's nothing special so I will try to get a quick summary out. So the dawn age of demons started around 350 thousand years ago more or less with the new gods rising up after the wars in heaven waged between the old gods and their favorite races.”“You have books from that time?”“No, as far as my family line can tell, all of history was lost when the old gods fought each other until their bodies were broken and their pet races scattered. That basically cleared the way for their children and new minor gods to branch into the void to carve their own slice of the world in their image and to reunify their chosen races to fix what was lost.”“Must have been a very big mess living in that time.”“Pretty much as entire cities were wiped out, continents shattered, and the magic leylines going out once from all the god level spells being tossed around. So about one hundred thousand years spent on endless wars as godly magic revived entire populations, counterspelled city wide rituals, banished armies, and erased oceans of blood. Made what should be small, short wars take centuries to break and one minute to fix.”“That long?”“It was very bad from what I could skim, forcing all the gods to have a much more depleted state from fighting for so long. Ended up causing something called soul burning where a soul is pushed across death and life so much that they started breaking from the stress and the war. Forced the entire old patheon into a ceasefire only because they pushed their bodies too hard and committed to a decisive battle that killed them all in a mutual brawl. So the god kids and new minor gods spent the next one hundred thousand years searching for their scattered populations across several dimensions and guide them into rebuilding.”part 1
>>6149784“Well at least the new gods learned from their mistakes from experiencing first hand the cost of god wars.”“Ha, nope. The old gods made the first war in heaven and the new gods wanted to avenge their parents so they started the second war in heaven also known as the age of ruin to the demons. They originally hoped a surprise attack would end the war faster.” Chuckles out Hellscream as she remembers the history lessons.“So it was a much worse time that almost broke the world?”“Nope. The new and minor gods were much weaker than the old gods and had less god magic to throw around making the war stall a lot longer as they could not fix all their mistakes. So they have to treasure their power and population as they didn’t have infinite retries to carry their inexperienced command leading mortals.”“A meatgrinder happened since no one was strong enough or confident enough to take a frontal battle?”“Pretty much until someone cracked necromancy and got a free army to help turn the tide and lead to the continent being shattered and allowing the current new nation of Ashyn to rise. Known as the age of Ash to the mages and the age of ruin for the demons still as the pantheon committed to one final battle before they started to run out of embers.”“You think they would have stopped before they were out of juice.”“Yeah? They are gods so they think very highly of themselves. So another truce but this time they aren’t dead so they can focus on rebuilding again and outlawed gods from walking on the planet again as two wars in heaven amounted to nothing and almost shattered the planet. Now the next one hundred thousand years they just guide their favorite mortal races to try and outcompete each other hoping their chosen species conquers the world under their name to earn the title of the overlord of the new pantheon.”“Wait, this is still the age of ruin and not desperation?”“Yup now without a god’s in person guidance all the races fell into infighting to lead their newly freed tribes in their personal vision which made civil wars a requirement to survive. For demons at least they attempted to expand their domains for more war material with their newly acquired free will from the lack of godly control. This eventually got them to invade the elven, kitsune, mage, and fairy lands which all retaliated hard as they all had a reason to unite their civil war factions against the other.”“So they were hungry and that is how they got to the desperation age?”“Wrong again. No, the other races got paladins while it was not godly intervention as they merely borrowed power; it was still enough to make the rest of the gods angry to direct their chosen races to exterminate the demons. Now without god tier revival spells and defenses it cut the demon population from a healthy three billion to two hundred thousand over another one hundred thousand years more or less."part 2
>>6149785“No wonder it was the age of desperation.”“Elves invented the green flu, mages leveled cities, kitsune could assassinate leaders easily, and paladins just lock demons down. Then at one point some kind of mushroom deleted the capital and forced the rest of the demons to take human forms to avoid extermination. Even then it was not enough so our god offered its name and power to be erased as long as his race gets spared.”“And the god just assumed they would honor the deal?”“It was that or watch his race get erased so it didn’t have much of a choice.”“What happened after?”“The age of ruin ended, the god is gone, and the demon race lost their true original forms. So they didn’t keep their word and no one knows if our god is dead, imprisoned, or worse.”“So what about now?”“Well we are now in the age of noon year 140,154 After Ash and so far the races are still vying for control demon numbers are higher than before but not too high to avoid triggering another crusade against us. Some minor wars and set backs with the other gods knocking Ashlyn down for a few centuries before everyone gets back up to do the same thing. It is like watching a clock at times.”“And this is the quick summary?”“There is a lot I had to skip from the spontaneous existence of fighter classes, necromancy, megaspells, leyline blackouts, and the horrors of the green flu.”-skip to next school day start-sleep and start round 2 against Willow and Hayden-last minute prep for the class wars(+write-in)part 3
>>6149786sleep and start round 2 against Willow and HaydenUh Mac we gotta body these guys. So we gotta get them to take us somewhere private for our fight. I say we lean into the polymorph spell. Turn into a giant ape ad grapple them then slam them into the ground until they stop moving.
>>6149799Three reasons why we shouldn't. Were going to school tomorrow so we need our health.Second they'll still be out for 2 days.Third we got a binding ritual to out them on leashes. Instead of fighting them we should just perform it.Am I wrong on any of these points QM?
>>61500091 yeah your need the health for tomorrows difficulty tweak2 yeah they can't do anything for two days as they scramble for recovery3 they will fight you hard on the leashes as they won't just let you lock them down you gotta keep beating them till they can't resist anymore
>>6149786-skip to next school day startOk ya we need to top off our health. We can always fight them the next day.
>>6150271>>6149799I will just go with the skip to next day as I want to start the difficulty tweak now.
>>6150949“Okay that is a lot of history in one lesson but I think its time to sleep. So I will see you after school if I survive.” Adds William as he gets up from his chair.“You better as I don’t want to waste more time picking out another candidate. I may have the a long lifespan but I can’t be in Astra forever.”“Sure, I won’t disappoint. Goodnight Hellscream.”“Night, William.” States Hellscream as she downs the rest of her wine as the maid begins cleaning up.Walking through the hallways as William goes through the motions of a quick shower as he jumps into his bed ready for the next day. Opening his eyes to a familiar classroom with Willow sitting on top of a desk with her desk crossed and a hand under her chin as she extends her hand forward. Becking William to come at her as she sits unmoving and silent on a teacher’s desk awaiting for violence to erupt.“Nah.”A look of confusion washes over Prisma’s face as William straightens his back and leans backward as his body falls to the ground as dark corners of his eyes cover his vision. Feeling the wind coil around his body as his legs jump from the sensation of vertigo overtaking him as he wakes up in his bed again. Immediately getting ready for the day ahead as his hands hold a slight tremor as he stashes away Prisma’s cloak into his jacket. His heart beats hard as he puts on Hellscream’s commissioned armor as the tingling of the glass ruby burns his pocket awaiting activation. Giving one more look into his phone to check that he still has everyones number in case he needed to call in anyone else for back up. With a sigh William makes his way to school walking, travelling by train, and hiking into the forest like he did before.Crawling along the forest canopy past brush, broken twigs, and dirt as William steadies his breath to avoid making the smallest of sounds. Spotting several mages rushing into the school as flashes of teleportation magic lit up the area as more mages rushed to Astra. Gone are the relaxed walks of last week only to be replaced by vicious glasses as they eye their rivals before breaking line of sight to join up with their own factions. Thoughts begin swirling around William’s head as he tries to decide how he will work through the class day. Trying to stay in the lower class levels and get out after attendance, link up with Holly or Lora for better meatshields, or break the ruby and hide within High Ring groups to cover his class requirement.-Sneak into a low tier class and get out as soon as attendance is taken. Possibly low level fights.-Link up with a faction leader for better meatshields but guaranteed highly dangerous fights.-Pop glass ruby and high inside High Ring classes. ? fights.-Phone a friend(+pick who)-write-in
>>6151089-Sneak into a low tier class and get out as soon as attendance is taken. Possibly low level fights.
>>6151089>none of the above>use prisma cloak and pass without trace.GG we can go where ever now.I say we go to a rune knight class. Try to watch their fighting styles and stuff. I want antimagic field.
I'm pretty sure we were told there are ways to see past those otherwise we woukdnt have to get shapechange.
Rolled 2 (1d2)>>6151297>>61512011 knight of rune2 snok low
Rolled 36 (1d100)>>6151201Enemy threat levels going to the class1-5 level 16 6-30 level 12 31-60 level 8 61-94 level 4 95-100 mass cass
Rolled 4, 4 = 8 (2d5)>>61515331 Prisma, 2 rune, 3 Coven, 4 Animus, 5 revelations
>>6151536Looking across the area as William spots a few ords making their way to the school with a look of dejection and fear in their faces as they drag their feet to class. Every single ords knowing how dangerous the fighting will be if they accidentally get caught up in a fight. William’s fingers tap against the ground as his thoughts roam over using the Prisma cloak to investigate the rune knights for a day before shaking his head. Not fully confident in hiding from the anti-magic faction and instead focusing on avoiding getting into a brawl. Getting up from the ground as he rushes toward one of the closests classes he can find as he passes through the doors. Seeing the once pristine gray hallways are now covered with scorch marks from jets of flames being spilled in all directions. Pools of dried blood staining the ground with drag marks lining the floor from people either dragging themselves to safety or thrown across the floor before splattering against a wall. Tiles and walls broken or cratered hard enough to leave body sized dents in marble and stone with long thin gouges scattered across the ground. With even pieces of skin, flesh, and a severed arm left behind on the battlefield and the occasional lump of meat just scattered across the ground that looked less of a clean cut and more of a pummeling. Already sounds of fireballs shake the ceiling as glass in the distance as cracks form on the ceiling from a heavy thud echoing in the floor above. Flinching at the strength, William quickly hugs the wall as other ords try to run toward the safety of a class to avoid a collapsed hallway. Steps echoing across the hallway as William feels the weight of his steps announcing his presence to the school as his eyes scan for any sudden surprise attacks with his ears straining to pick up any whistles of blades, stomps of a run, or the crackle of magic burning in the air. Pushing himself faster as he faces his shoulder into a door to avoid being caught out in the open hoping the mages will distract each other and ignore him. Stepping into a classroom as he keeps his head down to avoid eye contact with anyone as he picks a seat in the back as he feels multiple eyes boring into him. Gritting his teeth as he pushes down his panic to focus on taking his seat before looking up back to the class door title to know what specialty he walked into. Only for a hiss to escape from his mouth at seeing the Conjuration class with a class full of Animus students with a few ords hiding in the corners to avoid notice. part 1
>>6151574With William spotting a familiar wolf that once gutted him a week ago. Still wearing the same blue jacket and white shirt with the same look of contempt on his face as he casts a sending spell before staying in his seat as the teacher begins announcing the attendance and beginning the lecture. With the wolf getting up as multiple other Animus approach his area as William inspects each of his mage threats around him. Spotting the wolf moves a bit slower than what William remembers as his steps slag under his weight as if he is weaker or slowed. Noticing a rhino type with thick skin and a horn on his nose that looks like he can take a beating, eyes glance along on a snake type Animus coiling around the rhino for support. With a tiger and hyena student also pulling up the rear as they watch the windows and doors. “About time you showed up runt. The boss wants a report on what you have been able to gain from Prisma. If it's not good enough, or lacking then a punishment will be issued for future motivation.”-"I did not learn anything."-"They have a cafe they like to visit."-write-inpart 2
>>6151577-"They have a cafe they like to visit."Don't know if this is good info but at the same time they shouldnt be expecting much. It's only been a week and it's the sift week. Will probably has to explain that.
>>6151960Yes def narc on the Cafe.
