[OOC] Symphony on High

[BrokenPromise]

@TaintedMushroom Yup, because we have EXP share on and we're one operation in.

[BrokenPromise]

@TaintedMushroom Just make those changes we talked about and Asher can blaze a trail to the CS tab.

[BrokenPromise]

THE ELEMENTAL NOTE BUFF IS LIVE!

The DoCS has already been updated to reflect the changes, but if you want a side by side breakdown, just click on the link above for the patch notes. Some of you may wish to change your notes up due to this.

I gave a decent write up on why the changes were made, and I won't repeat myself here. But I will say a few words on the direction the DoCS is moving in.

Arcane defense is kind of strong. Most of your opponents use magic based attacks of some kind and many espers only use arcane weaponry. At the same time, your primary foes are monsters, and they all have very low magical defenses. This does make it difficult to justify using stronger notes against monsters. This wasn't an issue in the last RP because everyone was locked to silver glamors and couldn't get very strong. But it's possible to cast S rank melodies now. It's just not always clear if it's necessary to do so. Even if some of you just like big numbers and will always use the strongest abilities at your disposal.

Moving forward, you're going to notice a lot of notes are going to start relying on factors other than magical resistance, especially when it comes to monsters. Arcane resistance is always going to reduce damage from spells, it's just not always going to be the deciding factor on weather an effect works or not.

And Blink/Transplace/Purify/Dispel are due for a rework, maybe next downtime.

Other than that, Operations should start again in 1-2 weeks. I'll probably have a poll up later today asking what everyone wants to participate in. Hopefully you have your collabs most the way done. If you've written with someone, you can start brainstorming Backups with them if you'd like.

[GOATPlumber]

Looks very interesting! I'll try to write up a sheet soon!

[BrokenPromise]

@GOATPlumber Holy canolie MR White, I'd live to have you. We've got a week or so before operations start, so it would be swell if you could cook something up before then.

Would you like a discord invite? And what were you planning on making?

[GOATPlumber]

@GOATPlumber Holy canolie MR White, I'd live to have you. We've got a week or so before operations start, so it would be swell if you could cook something up before then.

Would you like a discord invite? And what were you planning on making?

@BrokenPromise

a discord invite sounds good

[Vertigo]

Ok 'ere

Ciri, no not that Ciri, no not Siri either

The Whisper in the Dark

AGE:

20

SEX:

Female

APPEARANCE:

What Cirilla loses in stature, she makes up for in attitude — and heel height. She's a good five feet of spite and accessories, with just enough patience to do her makeup in the mornings, and none left over for the rest of the day. She's thin, barely escaping being sickly-so, doesn't exactly have a physique meant for physical labor. Which is why, if you ever do fight her, she'd appreciate if you dropped dead now rather than later, k? No? Okay, but don't tell her she didn't warn you, because she just fucking did.

👹

When transformed, the most striking change are the two bright pink horns protruding from her forehead. Her eyes also become much deeper in colour — all the better to throw death glares with. Mostly, though, she just gets a sweet new getup with just a little bit more of everything; more leather, more spikes, more saturation, more reasons for her mother to roll in her grave. (Good riddance).

Oh, and she grows an inch. Or two. Arguably. Don't worry, once she knocks you on your ass, she'll look plenty tall either way.

GRIMOIRE:

A heart-shaped hair clip.

INSTRUMENT:

KISS & MAKE UP: A black handgun with pink highlights. It fires peace offerings — or as the normies call them, bullets. They, too, are pink. There's a heart-shaped charm hanging from the trigger guard, reminiscent of her grimoire.
GRADE: Silver
KEYWORD: Handgun
DAMAGE TYPE: Physical
DAMAGE: B
SPEED: C
SENTINEL: E
SPECIAL: WE ARE BUT DUST AND SHADOW | Upon dealing a final blow to an enemy, calls forth a summon from their shadow. This shadow creature takes the appearance and physical characteristics of the fallen foe, but its prowess is determined the same way as a [Summon] cast, using the instrument's grade. This ability has a six second cooldown.

STYLE:

HELLSPAWN: Black meets pink hot enough to make your eyes bleed. If it doesn't, all the spikes will, when applied directly into your eye sockets.
GRADE: Bronze
PHYSICAL: D
ARCANE: D
CHAOS: E
SPECIAL: STREETSIDE DEVIL | Gives the user two brightly coloured horns. They're somewhat sharp, I guess. Not enough to be truly dangerous or anything, but don't like, get close enough to be headbutted? Because she will do it. Unprompted.

GENRE:

FRIENDS ON THE OTHER SIDE: A style all about making friends. Literally, making her own friends. If you're a monster and willing to work with her, you can be counted among that lot. If you're not, you'll be sent to the other side, fast, most likely without ever finding out what hit you. Ciri's a little camera shy that way.
GRADE: Gold
ELEMENT: Shadow
NOTES: [Obfuscate, Intangible] Damage X (6), Restrain (4), Blink (4), Minor Heal (2), Summon (4), Enhance (2), Powerful (0), Homing (2), Avoid (2), AoE (2), Bend (0), Construction (4)
SPECIAL: ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT | Ciri has a particular affinity for the shadows, and the beings called forth from them. She can enhance her minions in two ways. She can use both of these modifications only once per operation, and they cannot be applied on the same cast.
Deepen Shadow / a creature summoned by the user receives a +1 rank to all of its attributes.
Stretch Shadow / when summoning a creature, creates a replica of them without extra mana cost. Any notes that would buff the first creature upon casting will be half as effective on the second creature.

LEITMOTIF:

SO(ME)THING ON YOUR MIND: Allows the user to speak telepathically with a sentient creature whose presence she's aware of. The connection is two-way, enabling a back and forth conversation via transferred thoughts.
GRADE: Silver

PR:

n/a

BACKUP:

n/a

FACTION:

Maverick Alternative

TRIVIA:

In one way or another, monsters have always been part of Ciri's life, even before she knew they existed. Her parents worked in the field, her mother as an esper, father as an IT guy behind the former's operations. The two worked tirelessly to keep the city safe, and were well-respected by their peers. Or that's what Cirilla has since heard, anyway. If you ask her?

They fucking sucked.

In over their heads from the start, they were a prime target for monsters seeking to cultivate their misery crop, and before they realized it, they had become prey to the very things they were supposed to hunt. And young Ciri bore the brunt of it. It was, after all, easier to blame the wailing little shithead that had forced them to divert so much of their attention and time from their budding careers than to admit to being shit at their jobs, or something.

Luckily for Ciri, she made a friend early on. A friend no one believed existed at first — children did have wild imaginations, and regular humans, particularly such young ones, weren't supposed to be able to perceive monsters, let alone befriend them. Her friend was a large hound of some kind, big and fluffy and somehow able to fit into every shadow in her room all at once. Its where It lived, away from prying eyes and the light of the day.

Until one evening that Ciri cannot properly recall. She remembers her mother yelling, remembers her parents looking at her friend as if It was something bad, and then remembers them lunging for her, weapons in hand. She remembers she thought she would die, and that she didn't, because her friend was there. And then her parents were not.

Because It fucked them up.

For the next few years, Ciri grew up among monsters, though she couldn't really tell them apart from regular humans — yet apparently, there was supposed to be a huge gap between them and actual humans. Because, as it turns out, killing monsters was fair game, but apparently the opposite was not.

Ciri was eventually "rescued" from her "predicament" by GEMINI espers who, upon checking her information, realized she was related to one of their own. They handed Ciri her mother's old grimoire, which had since turned into a regular old hair clip, unresponsive to anyone's attempts to draw power from it. As a memento, they said, and brought her back to live among humans. They aided her in her daily tasks, trying to help her find a house she could call a home.

What they didn't realize was that she'd already had a home. And they'd burned it to the ground.

Assholes.

So when it turned out that in her hands her mother's hair clip turned into an active grimoire once more, it wasn't the GEMINI she joined, like her late parents had wished. It was their complete opposite; the Maverick Alternative.

It followed her. Because wherever she goes, It follows, like a shadow.

Good. After everything, she owes It her entire lifes's worth of hot mana meals. Thankfully, it's not like she's about to run out of misery anytime soon. The world's kinda shit like that.

banner

20 | Female | Maverick Alternative | So(ME)thing On Your Mind
Kiss & Make Up | Handgun | Physical | We Are But Dust and Shadow
Hellspawn | Streetside Devil
Friends on the Other Side | Shadow | Abyssus Abyssum Invocat
[Obfuscate, Intangible] Damage X (6), Restrain (4), Blink (4), Minor Heal (2), Summon (4), Enhance (2), Powerful (0), Homing (2), Avoid (2), AoE (2), Bend (0), Construction (4)

DAMAGE: B | SPEED: C | SENTINEL: E | 1000

PHYSICAL: D | ARCANE: D | CHAOS: E | 1000

[Ponn]

Wow, do my eyes deceive me?!

Do we really have our first ever Maverick Alternative PC?!

[BrokenPromise]

@Vertigo Cool character. I'm eager to see them in action, but there's just a few things we need to take care of first.

-Her Instrument special is too strong VS mobs. She could turn a mass of enemies into her personal army really quick, which is a bit beyond what a silver should do. Just tag a "One summon per 6 seconds" on there and it's fine.

Deepen shadows adds +1 to about 4 different stats, might as well just mention it ranks up everything to keep things simple.

Leitmotif needs a range so that it's not infinite. 150 feet-ish is fine. I just don't want her contacting people well outside the mission area. At silver anyway.

Ciri needs a PR. Even if it's just bronze, she does get some starting gear.

Make those changes and you'll have our first Maverick esper! Well, first player controlled one anyway.

[Vertigo]

For the Leitmotif, I did leave out a strict range intentionally, but tried to specifically limit it to the mission area with the "whose presence she's aware of" line. The idea was to be able to converse with enemy monsters and the Freelancer/GEMINI PCs without her revealing her position, so I wouldn't be stuck in a lonely dark corner rp-wise, ha. So in a battle taking place outside for example, if she knows someone is on top of a building because she saw someone casting from there, even if the building is 300 feet tall, she could talk to them. But not to a person sneaking up right behind her, since she's not aware of them, or someone so far away she wouldn't be aware of where exactly they went.

If that is too strong for Silver grade, though, I can slap on that numerical range too. Just wanted to specify that it was never meant to be infinite.

For the rest of the stuff, gotcha! Will make the edits a bit later today, have to run errands for a few hours.

[BrokenPromise]

@Vertigo I don't think there's going to be a ton of times where you'll need to communicate with someone 30 stories above you, but fair enough. So long as we're on the same page about using this special in the operation area we can leave it be. just lemme know when you've finished editing her sheet and then she can get summoned to the character tab.

Aaaaaand today is GM update day, so character sheet tryouts are closed until this operation ends. If anyone else is interested in joining, just come back in a few months once downtime starts again.

[Vertigo]

@Vertigo I don't think there's going to be a ton of times where you'll need to communicate with someone 30 stories above you, but fair enough. So long as we're on the same page about using this special in the operation area we can leave it be. just lemme know when you've finished editing her sheet and then she can get summoned to the character tab.

@BrokenPromise

I see you underestimate the amount of sunset brooding dark magical girls do atop skyscrapers.

Edited and yeeted into the char tab!

[BrokenPromise]

Hey hey people, GM update here.

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

― Theodore Roosevelt, gigachad

While operations are still going, the fighty part is over(?), so you can start working on your esper’s upgrades. Pyramid level up system, one silver becomes gold, can’t be a supplemental glamor, you’ve all done this before.Oh! But one change. I’m not going to force anyone to post their updates on the forum. You can send Majoraa or I a PM/DM and we’ll weigh in on it and get back to you with a yay or nay. That’s probably easiest for everyone. Of course I won’t stop anyone from slapping their updated glamors in the OOC. You do you, rockstar.

Speaking of supplemental glamorous, You guys can talk amongst yourselves and make a bronze glamor with an esper you feel your character connected with. I think I gave everyone the go ahead at the start of the operation, but there wasn’t much time to review anything. At least the nuns got theirs done on time. Anyway, we’re announcing it plenty early this time. So go use the power of friendship and stuff.

Also, some of the espers have performed well enough to upgrade their PR, but I’ll cover that once the operation officially ends. Along with patch notes, though there’s not a whole lot happening in that department.

Anywho, it’s going to be a few weeks before freetime officially starts, so feel free to have your espers do esper stuff. I’m not going to patronize you, I know you fellas know how to RP.

[Kero]

Noah Anderson

NAME:

Noah Anderson / The Walking Church

AGE:

23

SEX:

Female

APPEARANCE:

Regular Appearance

Esper Appearance

GRIMIORE:

A rosary Noah acquired recently at a local church. Golden and white, it’s a miniaturized version of the Instrument that Noah wields in her Esper form. Noah isn’t entirely sure how it formed or why it chose her, but she hopes to live up to whatever purpose it might have been given to her for. The colors of the rosary are extremely similar to the colors the church Noah found it in.

INSTRUMENT:

Five Pointed Cross

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

Five Pointed Cross

A strangely designed cross, it’s the weaponized version of the rosary Noah wears around her neck. The long end of the rosary becomes bladed after its transformation, allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon. However, its nature as a cross lends itself to spellcasting as well, functioning similar to a staff. She’s still working out how to use it effectively.
When ‘sheathed’, Noah’s Instrument changes its form to a white and gold blazing cross shaped flame and attaches itself to her back, easing transportation. In combat and when casting, the same flame suffuses itself with the cross and, depending on whether or not an ally or enemy is struck with either the blade or a spell, there are two possibilities. An ally shall be known as a virtuous soul, and an enemy shall be known as a sinner.
For those virtuous souls, when struck by blade or song, their good deeds shall surface past their skin, providing a slight illumination around them in a similar manner to what Noah's Style provides herself. Largely cosmetic. For those sinners, it shall be their sins that crawl out instead, weighing upon them and showcasing their misdeeds to all who look. Both effects last for six seconds before expiring.

Keywords: Spear
Damage Type: Arcane
Grade: Silver
Damage: C
Speed: D
Sentinel: C
Special: One Sin and a Hundred Good Deeds

“Cast your burdens upon the Lord and He will sustain you.”

Allies touched by the cross glow with a holy light. Enemies have their speed stat reduced by one. These effects last for six seconds.

STYLE:

Holy Shroud of the Unknown Saint

“I am the light of the world.”

The outfit that Noah dons during her transformation. It matches her rosary, with the heavily modified nun’s habit being predominantly white, and has gold highlights. If her family saw it, Noah was pretty sure they’d be furious that the habit had been changed to the extent it had been. Noah finds it a bit weird, but still likes it. She can’t help but feel safer whenever she’s wearing it.
As a result of the form her outfit takes and the location she gained her grimoire, upon transformation, Noah’s body becomes consecrated - or, designated as holy ground. The most visible effect of this status is the light white and gold glow that emanates from her transformed form, which can be suppressed at will.

Grade: Silver
Physical: E
Arcane: B
Chaos: C
Special: Consecrated Body

“Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

This special can nullify the effects of five E rank debuffs that target Noah per operation.

GENRE:

Faith of the Transient People

“Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Though her faith is small, especially in comparison to her family, Noah’s esper form is that of a holy woman. Noah’s voice has been afforded a similar status to her body, upon transformation. When Noah speaks normally in her Esper form, while her own voice is at the forefront, what sounds like a choir of something more can be heard simultaneously. Quiet, certainly quiet, but always audible.
When Noah casts a melody or otherwise begins actively channeling mana, this changes. The choir rises, and her own voice becomes nearly lost in the sea. Clearly present, but impossible to pin down. Following the rise of the choir, one voice in particular flies to the forefront, varying based on what sort of melody Noah chooses to sing.
Accompanying her words at all times are what appear to be church bells. Occasionally, other instruments become audible inside of her voice, such as a string instrument or an organ. Though it primarily takes on a supplementary role to her words, the volume of the instruments varies in the same manner as the choir.

Grade: Gold
Element: Light
Note: [Reveal (2), Purity (4)] {Damage (2), Damage X (6), Shield (4), Reflect (4), Magic Sense (4), Heal (6), Major Heal (18), Stabilize (0), Purify (6), Dispel (6), AoE (2), Full Extend (4)}
Special: To Be Heard By All

“My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him.”

The AoE note changes from causing an outwards radiating explosion to bursting into several full strength projectiles, one for each target in its radius, and hits each target individually. The AoE note’s range of five feet from the initial target is unchanged by this. Melodies that contain an AoE note receive a single rank up.

LEITMOTIF:

Grade: Bronze
Special: His Guidance

“This is the way, walk in it.”

During the use of mana in any context, Noah’s eyes visibly change. Their color shifts to reflect that same white and gold that normally appears from her mana, and words and symbols to appear inside her eyes if she is under the effect of a melody or is casting one. Her pupils are always replaced by a cross.

PR:

Grade: Bronze
Clip Light (20), 2x Disguise (60), Self Defense Weapon: Baton (20)
Special: The Clip Light's beam emits white and gold particles... for some reason.

BACKUP:

Grade: -
Special: -

FACTION:

Freelancer

TRIVIA:

Noah is a recent arrival to Pax Septimius. Originally born up in New England, and a recent college dropout, she’s flown down on her lonesome with a couple thousand to her name. She’s ditched her old phone entirely for a blank replacement, and left most of her old possessions behind.
Aside from getting situated in the room she rented out some time beforehand and picking up basic necessities… Noah’s been checking out the city like a regular tourist. Stress free for the first time in a long time, and without an urgent need to pick up a job quite yet, she figured it’d be for the best to just enjoy herself for a little bit.
Things changed a bit on her sixth day in the city, though. By coincidence, she happened upon a local church, and after some moments of hesitation and light encouragement from a local priest, went inside.
It would be that same church where Noah discovered the rosary that now hangs securely from her neck, and where her eyes were opened to a world hidden just in the background.
Though thrown incredibly off balance, Noah looks to this new side of the world with wonder… despite the many, many questions she’s now been left with. And hey, this freelancer business might end up as a decent job, too.

Noah's Stat Block

23 | Female | Freelancer | His Guidance
Five Pointed Cross | Spear | Arcane | One Sin and a Hundred Good Deeds
Holy Shroud of the Unknown Saint | Consecrated Body
Faith of the Transient People | Light | To Be Heard By All
[Reveal (2), Purity (4)] {Damage (2), Damage X (6), Shield (4), Reflect (4), Magic Sense (4), Heal (6), Major Heal (18), Stabilize (0), Purify (6), Dispel (6), AoE (2), Full Extend (4)}

DAMAGE: C | SPEED: D | SENTINEL: C | 1000

PHYSICAL: E | ARCANE: B | CHAOS: C | 1000

[BrokenPromise]

@Kero This was accepted months ago, and I'm too excited to look it over to see if you did a switcheroo on me. You didn't do a switcharoo on me, did you? Either way, have her take a pilgrimage to the character tab.

[ERode]

Witch Hunt
For monsters, exorcism and execution. For witches, prohibition and imprisonment.

Grade: Gold
Element: Light
Notes: [Reveal (2), Purity (4)] Mana Burn (6), Magic Sense (4), Blink (4), Dispel (6), Damage (2), Stabilize (0), Shield (4), Scatter (2), Full Extend (4), Restrain (4), Enhance (2), Quicken (0)
Special: SACRAMENT OF CENSURE - Mana Burn, when cast, counts as one Rank up. Additionally, rather than an additional 25 points of Mana burnt per Rank, an additional 50 points of Mana is burnt instead. Against Espers, Mana Burn seals the usage of a specific category of notes that Estelle chooses at the start of the operation, based off of the categories denoted within the Doctrine of Combat. Against Monsters, Mana Burn instead causes all the monster's stats to count as one rank lower.

[The World]

Honestly I don't know if this is too strong or not, I still have trouble grasping what is and isn't "Gold Rank" level. Of course let me know what needs changed and I'll get it done.

My Hider

In its newest evolution, the now-named Fenrir has warped on a magical level rather than the physical. The Instrument now siphons a small amount of mana from what it touches. The chain can take in one (1) point of mana per second from touching an esper or monster, and zero (0) from another Instrument. The sharp edge of the blade takes two (2) points of mana per second, or per slash if a cut takes less than a second, from an esper or monster and one (1) from an Instrument. The backside of the blade will siphon four (4) from an esper/monster and two (2) from an Instrument, at the same rate as the other side. The stolen mana recharges Marrie's pool, but not above its max.

GRADE: Gold
KEYWORD: Dagger
DAMAGE TYPE: Physical
DAMAGE: B
SPEED: C
SENTINEL: C
SPECIAL: Heavenly Chained Eater of God's Hand. Its blade is very good at reflecting light and the ring that is its pommel can spin freely. The chain that connects it to Marrie's finger and wrist can extract and extend very quickly. Now at Gold Rank, Apotheotic Predator absorbs mana from what it touches. Strikes and contact from the blade edge against another Instrument recover a paltry handful of mana, strikes against espers and monsters recover notably more. Using the protrusile blades on the opposite side doubles the rate it devours its foe with. The chain only recovers at half the rate of the blade edge.

[BrokenPromise]

Currently evaluating the newly submitted glamors. Will get back to you folks shortly.

Honestly I don't know if this is too strong or not, I still have trouble grasping what is and isn't "Gold Rank" level.

@The World

There's no real set limit for what Gold is, at least one that is easy to quantify. But my present idea is one can be:

A: A stronger and more versatile/less situational version of a silver.

B: Two silvers smashed together.

[BrokenPromise]

@ERode Keep the mana burn rank up, lose the 50 burn upgrade, and pick between esper note category suppression or monster stat debuff. Regardless of which you choose, jot down that it lasts six seconds.

@The World Try to keep your weapon details and special separate, please. The mana siphon upgrade is an interesting concept, but we'd like it to operate a bit more simply. How about hitting a target with the chain siphons 10 mana and hitting with the blade siphons 20? Then have a 50 mana cap per six seconds/post rotation and additional hits on the same target in this time frame do not activate the effect? Essentially mana earned in a round is based on targets hit rather than number of times a target has been hit.

[The World]

@BrokenPromise
Ah, sorry about that. I think I worded your changes correctly, but I'm not certain that I did? Let me know either way.

New Hider

SPECIAL: Heavenly Chained Eater of God's Hand. Now at Gold Rank, Apotheotic Predator siphons mana from what it hits in six second bursts. A strike by the chain will absorb ten mana, while the blade will absorb twenty instead. This ability works once per target during each six second time frame, and is only able to siphon fifty mana total within six seconds.