UnendingEmpire

Deep Ground Online

Look above you ERode.

EDIT: Fucking christ, how fast do you guys type? D:
But yeah, HP cost for skills - if you want them - are fine.

Deep Ground Online

After a brief discussion, Windel and I figured out that there will be no such mana system, since keeping track of how much mana you have - especially when it's constantly regenerating and we never listed mana costs for spells - would be way too much effort for very little reward. All that will be restricting your spells is their cast times and cooldowns. That said, don't go casting a million spells at once; we'll be watching.
Dammit, I got ninja'd when I finally got to sound all official and stuff.

Also, due to the dissolution of the mana system, the following perks have been changed, and their updated versions can be found below, as well as in the main "Specs & Perks" post on the first page:

Healer

Level 4
Wisdom: Cooldown time for all spells reduced by 25%

Wizard

Level 5
Attuned: Cooldown time for all spells reduced by 25%

Level 6
Enlightenment: Casting time for all spells reduced by 25%

Deep Ground Online

There may or may not be an update to the Wizard perks after we figure this out, depending on where it goes.
In the meantime, please enjoy the following.

Aika

Appearance (Real Life):

Height: 5'8"

Weight: ~130 pounds

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Blue

Name: Aika Sato

Age: 14

History: Aika was born thanatophobic, meaning that from the very beginning, she was afraid of dying. You know what kind of people specialize in knowing what kills people? Doctors and horror novelists...more specifically, Aika's doctor mother and horror novelist father. Her mother being an excellent doctor who had a natural knack for human biology, and her father being an equally-natural horror novelist who has yet to write a story that won't send chills to places you didn't even know you had, Aika had no problem discovering more and more things that could kill her, which developed into phobias.

By age five, she was afraid of the general things that kill folks. Old age, disease, fire, and so forth. By ten, she'd built up quite the repitiore of phobias. By thirteen, there was nothing that couldn't scare her in the right (wrong?) light. Sure, Mr. and Mrs. Sato were nervous about leaving somebody as nigh-panphobic as Aika to live in the school dorms while they worked on sorting out a recent rough patch, but Purple Crown offered, so...

Then she logged into Deep Ground for the first time. It. Was. Awesome. Even if she died in-game, she didn't really die. For the first couple months, Aika recklessly did stupid things in-game, dying over and over. When thrilling herself silly in-game got old, she put her attention toward leveling up her avatar and winning battles. She wanted to be a successful person when she was done here, and the only way to do that was by being good at a video game.

So she made some pretty good progress last year, reaching level 5 and joining up with the Sweepers as a means of supplementing her in-game income. As for the now, her main goal is to win as many fights as she can, so that she can land a top-rate future. She'll probably have some slack from last year to pick up, with a win/loss ratio of 3/10, three kills, and 52 deaths.

Personality: For somebody who claims to be fearless, Aika sure is afraid of an awful lot of things. It would probably be faster to list the things she's not afraid of, especially when a lot of her phobias are - as is the actual definition for phobias - completely irrational. Because she's so easily spooked, Aika seems very skittish at first glance...because, y'know...she is. You could legitimately scare her off just by saying "good morning" wrong.

However, for a girl just an inch from being diagnosed with panphobia (fear of absolutely everything), Akia is pretty brave. As long as she's only a little scared, she can and will take life head-on. However, one good jump is all it takes to stop her in her tracks and leave her panicking until she's had some time to get as calm as she'll ever get. Because she's aware of how easily frightened she is, Aika often takes time to measure in advance what she's doing, and when she'll do it.

She is friendly, though. Assuming you didn't scare her away, Aika will prove to be surprisingly upbeat for someone constantly living in fear of many stupid things (including stupidity itself), especially since fear-driven delusions are commonplace for her. On that note, it should be noted that her greatest fear is of dying, which branched out and created her countless other phobias.

That could explain why she's never scared of anything in Deep Ground. Indeed, people who met Void Reaper/Aika first could swear that the other was a different person, and that they weren't one and the same. When in Deep Ground, Void Reaper is merciless, reckless, and relentless. Everything that would terrify her offline becomes a new thrill to seek out. Maybe because of it, Aika plays the game quite a bit. Her log time suggests that most, if not all, of her spare time goes into this game.

Appearance (Avatar):
dat chainsaw scythe tho

Avatar Class: Assassin (Hitman Spec)

Avatar Title: Void Reaper

Avatar Level (Initial): 5

Avatar Guild: None, but is affiliated with the Sweepers

Avatar Abilities:

Perks

Vicious Strikes: Melee damage increased by 20%

Trapper: Enables the use of traps for Sniper and Hitman specs. Shinobi specs will instead have their traps doubled in power.

Skills

Spin Attack: Exactly what it sounds like. Reaper just does a spin attack with a slightly higher damage than her normal hits.

Chain Strike: This one's not quite what it sounds like. Reaper's signature move in which she puts the "chainsaw" in "chainsaw scythe" by revving it up and taking a whack at the enemy. Very high damage output, but 1-minute cooldown and very wide window of opportunity for a counterattack if she misses.

Pendulum Leap: A non-damaging skill with a 10-second cooldown. Using her weapon as a launching pole, Reaper launches herself upwards, reaching a peak height of 50 feet. She can also launch a single ally along with her using this skill.

Roarin' Ripper: Named after the name she gave her weapon, this is Reaper's go-to ranged skill, in which she revs up the chainsaw scythe to a much greater extent than in Chain Strike, using the flames that come from the muffler and skull as a conical projectile. 1-minute cooldown, during which time she can't use other skills in which she revs up the engine.

Skull Bash: A very short-ranged melee skill where Reaper hits the enemy with the skull of the scythe, as opposed to the blade. Deals armor-ignoring damage, with a 20-second cooldown.

Other: Just for the record, purple is the greatest color on the planet.

Of her 52 deaths, only 12 were in battle.

Deep Ground Online

Meanwhile, I may or may not be preparing a solo player. Today I found a weapon that is beautiful beyond words.

Deep Ground Online

Finally got my post up =w= Ariel's gonna be fun to RP; I can already tell

Deep Ground Online

"Calm down, Ariel!"

"How the hell can I stay calm at a time like this!?" Needless to say, the Red King - much to the dismay of the altogether forgettable student and guildmate standing near her outside the school building - was far from calm. She was furious. She'd already knocked out three other Harleys who tried to calm her down, and the pudgy blonde guy behind her could have easily been next. "The Black King picked now of all times to come back," Ariel ranted on, bordering on screaming. At least she had no problems going unnoticed. "Why!? We were this close, THIS CLOSE to launching our plans, and now we have a whole new obstacle to take into account!"

"Ariel, please take your medicine. We wouldn't want you--"

"YOU AREN'T MY DOCTOR! I plan better when I'm riled up, so shut up and stand...aside..." For all of five seconds or so, the Red King finally stopped screaming at her subordinate. In all fairness, she should have taken her medicine; it was to keep her level-headed and stop her other personalities from taking the reins. Without it, she was a highly volatile bomb with a very short fuse, and after she finally explodes, it takes some time to put the pieces back together. Or, without using stupid metaphors, when Ariel gets riled up, her other personalities tag in. Her expression was blank to nonexistent, and during the brief switching-out process it almost looked as though she'd died or something. But sure enough, afterwards, her head perked back up, very much alive again.

"Who are you?"

"Alex, of course. What's new around campus?"

---

“Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely.”

"Any and all, huh?" Just as well. Fiona O'Connor had yet to find a guild that suited her tastes. Joining one seemed to have its perks anyway, so may as well be one of the first members of the Ebon Strykers. Maybe that would be the guild for her. The Blue King's guild seemed to enjoy killing a little too much for Fiona's taste, she didn't feel like donating skills and weapons just to serve under the White King, and she certainly wasn't going to help the Red King out. That bitch was crazy. The others just didn't stand out to her, at least not to an extent where she'd want to serve their guild.

And so, Fiona let her mind go through the steps to hook back up to the World Interface, loading up Deep Ground once again.

LOADING...50%
80%
100%

Welcome back, War Dog

Stretching her left arm - having it back online was one of Fiona's favorite things about this game - Fiona turned her attention in the direction of the Black King's part of town. No doubt that was where Fiona War Dog would have to go. Doing a mental checklist of her weapons, she went in that direction. Any guild was better than no guild.

Elementals: Void Assault

I'm gonna have to either drop this or swap Morgan out for some other character. I'm getting a lot of things with her, but in character isn't one of them :(

Deep Ground Online

You also need to consider that he outranks me here, so if he uncharacteristically goes "YOU SHALL KEEP THE NAME YOU CHOSE BEFORE!!!!" there's nothing I can do ^_^;

Deep Ground Online

Windel will have to do that, since I can't edit his posts :P

Deep Ground Online

Ryonara said I'd figure I could just have Smitten Kitten take Limitless Knowledge at level 9 and Supreme Summoner before that, so she can get up to four undead minions and her befriended ally, or two demons and her befriended ally, or two undead, one demon, and he befriended ally. Aside from making mon's from the various enemies she'll face, she's be a blaster mage who would use her Sticky Debuff and bomb the hell out of her opponents with her explosive runes.

The "four undead or two demons" thing was just a clarification of things. The exact effects of Supreme Summoner is that it doubles your summon limit, and since you're not really summoning anything...

EDIT: I think I get what you're saying now. Moral of the story: don't (co-)GM while watching a comedy anime where even when you know the show, you don't really know what's going on.