Xaltwind

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Central Ruins, Royal Plaza

“Are you okay? Words require context to make sense, I’ll have you know. Who are you and how did you get here, anyway?”

The young horned girl was snapped out of her inner monologues by the voice of this other woman. It seemed these were either very committed roleplayers indeed, or something else was very, very wrong here. Although frusrrated - and now also slightly concerned, after the lizard had touched her - the young girl felt irritated that none of her own questions had been asnwered, but perhaps by playing along for a bit would open these people up to more 'meta' questions... She sighed.

"I guess you can't see my name either then. Haah, fine. I'm Serafaye, I was fighting Severanoxis, by myself, over in the Herculon Gorge just ... Moments? ago. As to how or why I'm here, I dunno. Suddenly I was up in that tower behind you, and I don't know why or how I got there." She stated, as plainly as possible. She looked around briefly, taking another once-over of the surrounding ruined cityscape.

Now of course, neither the Herculon Gorge nor Severanoxis the Elite Siege Hydra World Boss actually existed in Oublioth, so these names would mean nothing to those who heard them. Natrually, the names of the places in Oublioth didn't exist in Oubliette Online either, so such exchanges would be mutually unenlightening.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

While I have said, in the past, to use D&D as a reference-point for looking up appropriate spells for each tier of magic, please keep in mind that the world is still more based on, and akin too, an MMORPG, rather than a turn-based tabletop game. The only correlation between FOTO and D&D is that the spell-tiers of each magic-castig class is a good guideline for what level of powers a spell of X tier shoudl/could have.

The main issue isn't the way the additional chaos effects afflicts people, it's that some of them outright bypasses any need for consent or approval from a different player. Take the affliction that causes everyone in a set raidus around the caster to speak complete jibberish for example, if this effect occurs, every player within said distance would be forced, whetever they wanted to or not, to be unable to converse or interact verbally. Even if the other players didn't wish for this, they'd have no say in the matter, which is the main issue. Yes, you could remove some of the things that afflict other people besides the caster and target, but then you're also taking away a large part of the whole point with the character as well.

A beter idea would perhaps just be to ask everyone else in the RP if they're cool with roleplaying out the effects of Mercurio's spells, regardless of what or who they hit, when they do hit. But then, you'd need consent from everyone, not just the majority.

The issue witht he karma points is still that he can rack up a very large sum of points in very little time, even if e can only earn one within a set period of time. Given his character and backstoy, he also seems prone to misfortune, which will readily supply him with a constant influx of these points. Additionally, I have no way of keeping track of how many points he has PRIOR to joining the story, nor will I be able to constantly check in your CS just to check if there has been any edits to the number of points he's banked. Now if there was a hard-acp on how many points he could store, say 10 or so, that'd be more agreeable, but again, doing that will ultimately diminish the character's original concept.

I'm not opposed to the idea at all. It's unique enough (to me at least) that I can say I haven't seen a character quite like this before. However, I'm not certain the concept lends itself overly well to a more free-form RP, as opposed to a pen & paper tabletop with actual dice and note-keeping.

Also, while his reason for wanting to join the group may be to ivestigate Serafaye, there are some flaws with that concept.

1. He isn't present in the story, and Serafaye has already been released from her crystal prison. As such, there would be no way for him to reasonably figure out that she's an otherworlder.
2. While he may be interested in following her around, I'm not so sure she'd be overly happy to have an obsessive stalker constantly barraging her with questions.
3. Even if he may be pragmatic, his character is still described as rather unstable and outwardly unsettling, sort of like Cicero from Skyrim... Except less jester and more former-slave-now-turned-fortune teller... xD

But, hey, if everyone else in the roleplay is fine with, I suppose there's not really any issue. So, go ahead and let me know what you think, boys and girls. And remember. I don't care either way - is not an answer. I don't want a lazy shoulder-shrug, I want you to read the sheet and the character and let both me ad Wretch know if you're fine with his powers and abilities.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

@A Lowly Wretch
I've read through Mercurio's character sheet, as it is currently.

As it is, even if the history-section was complete, I'm afraid I couldn't accept the character. While I have no doubts you would roll fairly in the department of dice rolls, the main issue is that many of his effects are forced onto other characters, or appear to be auto-hits or otherwise unavoidable. This is always a big no-no for me when I do roleplays, as I'm a firm believer that (unless the GM tells you otherwise) you should always have the ability or option to determine the outcome of another player's inter/action towards your own character. Having effects and spells that force themselves onto others, without them having a say, isn't going to fly with me.

In addition, while he seems amusing on paper, I question the viability and likelihood of the other characters in the group picking up someone who seems so clearly deranged or mentally unstable. While I'm sure you could score sympathy-points for him with Serafaye and Yinha, pragmatists like Aretemisia, Locke and Kaze seem very unlikely to want to travel along someone who teeters to himself and talks to invisible friends or hallucinations. He also comes across as flippant and unreliable, which makes me wonder why he'd bother to stick around with a group of random people when he has no apparent goals or ideals that align with the rest of the group.

Finally, his ability to manipulate and store 'karma'' is sadly just way too overpowered. Being able to essentially stockpile "luck" or "good fortune" in exchange for misfortune, which could be basically anything 'bad', is a rather absurd power to have. Say he stubs his toe while walking. +1 Karma Point. Say he gets a bucket of water thrown at him. +1 Karma Point. Say a fly lands on his pie. +1 Karma Point. Say an enemy insults him before a battle, charges him even though there are other targets available, and delivers a blow that causes a shallow cut. +3 Karma Points. Essentially, it would be incredibly easy to break and abuse the system, and many of his spells and abilities that are linked to this power are also just as guilty of forcing their effectrs on others if they activate.

These are of course only my thoughts from reading your sheet as it is. If you feel I've made an unfair judgement, or misunderstood or otherwise failed to properly grasp your concept, please feel free to counter my concerns. I'm never going to just flatly forbid a character - unless they're broken as duck - and will always allow their creator to try and alleviate any issues I may have. :)

But, as for right this moment, Mercurio is not accepted.

Overlord: Momento Mori

You just focus on your exams, Tree. :)

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Central Ruins, Royal Plaza

"Eh?! H-hey! Don't just touch me!"

Wait... What? Touch? I could actually feel this lizard-bro touch me? Like, his scaley hand actually felt like it was on my forehead. That's... That's impossible! The game didn't have any kind of sensory simulation for touch and feel! That sorta stuff would be sci-fi tech! Wait, maybe that was me unconsciously touching myself? But I'm wearing the headset, so I couldn't... touch... my.. forehead...

The girl recoiled from the lizardman's touch. The only thing that the large reptilian man would have felt was soft and smooth skin, no raised or lower body temperature than any other healthy human. The horned girl, however, was now seemingly in a state of renewd, self-absorbed bewilderment, looking at both her hands infront of herself, as she slowly closed and opened them in what looked to be some sort of excersising motions... Or perhaps she was just making sure they could bend properly?

What gives? The HUD and hotbar's gone, I can't call or hail the Customer Support or GM channel. I can't open any tabs or menus, I can't see the other players' names and I can't force a logout! On top of that, now I can feel when somebody's avatar pokes me? Did... Did I fall asleep? Is this just some lucid dream? Come to think of it, a lot of stuff here don't add up, like this weird location and the overly detailed costumes and all the other guys are wearing. Even with the VR-high quality textures, their equipment just looks way too... Detailed and realistic...

The girl had stopped clenching and opening her hands by now, and was instead looking like she was deep in thought, contemplating something so deeply that her entire mind was consumed, rendering her largely oblivious to the world around her.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

@PigeonOfAstora
You alright there buddy? You've been awfully quite for a while. 'Cuz your last IC post was 9 days ago, which means you missed this week's deadline.

EDIT:

Two days behind deadline, with no contact, explantion or excuse via PM or in the OOC. Sad to say, but as of today, PigeonOfAstora and Ciel are henceforth no longer part of the active cast. Ciel will be turned into a minor NPC until such a time that he can be written out of the story.

Goblin Slayer: Newblood (CANCELLED)

As they passed by the fields of golden stalks of grain, the wagon eventually reached the point where it passed through an open, spacious fence-gate. Rolling slowly to a stop, the farmer stretched his arms into the air, let out a groaning sigh and then smacked his lips - as if he had been doing some kind of streineous chore or excersise all this time. The place they'd stopped at was a farm, no doubt about it. There was a barn, a silo, a farmhouse and even a chicken coup, with some brown and white chickens bumbling about carefreely, picking at the soil for seeds and worms.

"Well, here we be, youngsters. Welcome to my farm." The old fellow said, climbing down from his seat and onto the ground. Moving to undo the straps and reins to his poor old work-horse, the fellow didn't exactly seem to be in a rush to cough up the coins he was due, nor to usher his bodyguards away. Perhaps he was just being hospitable? Or perhaps he was trying to squeeze as many minutes out of their R time as he could. Regardless, once he was done with his mare and led the poor critter back to a hobbled-together stable, he returned to the adventurers.

At this point, Druid Girl had climbed out of the cart as well, busying herself with looking arond at the fields and farmlands around them, as well as raising an eyebrow at the questionable state of some of the structures here. It was clear this man was no carpenter, and that he took greater care of his crops and livestock than his own infrastructure. But, hey, as long as the ceiling didn't come crashing down on him in his sleep, who was she to judge?

"Well then, I reckon ya'll be wantin' your pay now, huh?" The farmer said as he walked up to them, one hand digging around in the pocket of his trousers and the other one being used to rub himself just under th nose... Druid Girl made extra sure to remember which hand and arm had been used for which task, as the last thing she wanted was to shake hands with a snot-covered hand.

Fishing out a small sack from his pants, the farmer opened it up, took a look inside it, then re-sealed it with a piece of string and tossed it over to the group. Druid Girl managed to catch the soaring money-bag with both hands, and let out a huff - couldn't he just have handed it over to them instead? She took it upon herself to open the bag and give the amount of a once-over, which seemed to annoy the farmer.

"Ain't trustin' I be payin' my dues?"
"No, it's not that, sir. I just want to make that you're paying the correct amount, not too little or too much."
"Hah! As if I'd be affordin' to give ya'll more than what was promised to be the price." The man said, spitting a globule of snot-fleghm onto the ground next to him. "In any case, lil' missy, that there be the right 'mount, down to the last copper."

Druid Girl didn't disbelieve or distrust the man, but she made sure to count the coins regardless. Once that was done, she attached the pouch to her little belt and nodded in confirmation to her allies.

"Well, despite things, it seems you got back home safe and sound." She then said to the farmer, who proceed to scratch his chin absentmindedly.
"Yup. Fine job ya'll did, protectin' me from all nothin' that which showed up." He replied, snarkily.
"Nothing showed up this time? What about that poor woman and her ruined wagon? If you'd been on the road ysterday like her, you migh-"
"But I wasn't." He said, eyes half-closed and a stoney, cold expression on his face. "Whoever that lady was, she musta been travellin' close to dusk or dawn, which any farmer worht his salt knows ain't the time to be on the roads. She took a gamble on gettin' home, she paid the price."
"How can you brush it off like that?" Druid Girl asked, obviously frustrated.
"Look, missy, out here, people dyin' ain't something new. Farmers, town watchmen, travllers and heck, even adventurers like yourselves. People wind up dead almost every day. You stop to weep for every last poor soul who bit the dust, ya ain't gonna be doin' nothing but crying all the time. What happened to that woman was a shame, but there ain't nothin' that can be done about it now."
"... You're wrong on that point."
".. Hm, whassat?"
"Because we're also here to kill the goblins in this area."
"Oh, so you thinkin' tehms were goblins that di her in? Well, even if they weren't the varmints who choked her to croak, gettin' rid of those pesky lil' gremlins sure would make the area a lot safer, no doubt."

The farmer then turned around on his heel, obviusly no longer interested in trading words. He waved them off as he walked away, a half-assed casual wave, telling them they were welcome to stay as long as they needed in order to prepare for their 'goblin hunt'. Druid Girl followed the old codger with her gaze as he walked away, until he disappeared into the barn on the far end of the farm. Letting out a sigh, she turned to Big Red and Steppe Archer.

"So... Do either of you need to prepare anything? According to what the farmer, as well as the Guild said, the goblin nest should be north-west from here. Somewhere in the woodlands just beyond here, if I recall." The caramel-skinned girl asked and said, waiting to see if her comrades were ready or not to depart.

She also turned to look at the chickens clucking as they perused around the grounds. Her eyes started to sparkle slightly, and a single drop of saliva tried to escape and drop from the corner of her mouth...

"... Roast chicken..." She said to herself, hungrily.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

There we go.
The update is small, in that it mostly focuses on our dear Serafaye, and not so much on the surrounding world, or you guys' characters. Sadly, this kind of update was needed in order to get the little dracokin involved. Hopefully, future updates will be more all-encompassing and offer you all more to respond and act on.

For now, it might be a good idea to ask the girl who just flashed her panties for all and everyone, questions of your own - or answer her questions. :)

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Central Ruins, Palace Tower

What's up with these guys?

The purple-haired and horned girl stared in a mixture of confusion and bewildered annoyance at the trio before her... Who were soon made into a quintet by the addition of a lizardman popping his head up from the side of the open tower-wall, and the suddenly belly-flopping elf... Wait... How'd she done that? Summons couldn't pick players up and levitate them? Was there some sort of glitch? Did the game wonk out after shut-down and things just broke down? No, that didn't make any sense at all - stuff didn't just go off the rails just because you shut down a server, in fac, if the servers were shut down, shouldn't everything have just frozen? Or at least kicked them out the login screen?

Also, what was with the way these guys talked? Calling people 'miss' and 'amiden'? Who did that? Well, those nerdy roleplayers might, but ... Oh, wait... Of course.... Of course the geeky types would be the last ones to stay online, to play out their silly little fantasy about the world's end or somehting. Great. They all seemed hardcore about it too, not even responding to the mention of the absent HUD or hotbar. Heck, maybe their settings had those things disabled so they could immerse themselves in their delusions... So gross.

Still, the sudden mention by the girl who was dressed considerably stylish than the rest of the mottley assembly had the horned girl confused. Bloodline-boosting? What was that? There wasn't any system like that in the game. Was it some kind of roleplay-centric term or something? And who or what were these Imperials? Furthemore, where exactly were they? Where'd the Herculon Gorge gone? So many questions and nobody willing to answer. Damnable kids and their make-believe-pretend games...

"I've got no idea what you're on about, hoss." The girl said, sighing and shadking her head while also shrugging her shoulders.

Moving her hand up to touch her temple, the young girl - who looked to be in her mid-teens - closed her lone, visible eye and spoke a strange sentence, at least strange to the locals.

"Shift Communication, Help Channel, Call GM." She said, with a staright and serious-enough expression. "Hello? Did something happen to the server-shutdown? I can't access my menus or see my HUD, and I've clipped through to some... Strange.. Unfamiliar area..." A brief pause. "Hello? Anyone there?" Her eye opened again, as her mouth curled into a slgiht frown.

"What gives? Not a single GM online?" She muttered in slight irritation. "Shift Communication, Customer Support Channel, Call Staff." She tried a different venue. "Hello? Anybody there? I've run into some issues here, can't access the main menu. Is the server still running?" Questions asked into the empty air, as if the girl expected some divine voice from above to speak from nowhere and everywhere and answer her inquiries. Obviously, no such reply came. Even more obvious was the apparent frustration this was bringing to the young lady as her slight frown turned into a scowl. "Seriously? No customer support staff either? You're not exactly pulling this whole thing off with any kind of class, guys. Jeez, if I'd known I get stuck in some buggy-ass limbo with unused assets and a buncha roleplaying chuunis I would've just logged off before the timer hit zero." She spoke, to nobody in particular, apparnetly not adverse to airing her inner thoughts to those around her.

Moving forward from the spot she had been standing on since her awakening, the young lass took to striding towards the open wall-section of the tower, where the others had congregated. As she drew to the edge of the crumbled and collapsed brickwork though, her eye went wide and her jaw dropped like it was being pulled down by very localized Jupeterian gravity. As she stood there, staring out at the ruined royal plaza of the Forgotten Ruins, the others could hear a strange, unsettling noise... like the girl was gargling and breathing and had had her toes stepped on, all at once. Her eye twitched, blinked and she seemed to slightly shudder as she stood there, taking in the unfamiliar sight.. Until...

"WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!?!"

With the loud outurst echoing and bouncing off the surrounding structures, the girl didn't even stop to hear any explanations or anything. Instead, she stepped off the ledge of the platform, into thin air. Like one of those saturday-morning cartoon characters who didn't realize there was no more ground under their feet but kept going anyway... Only to then fall comically down as the revelation of their situation struck them. Fortunately, for the young lady, rather than plummet to her unceremonious death she instead slowly descended downwards, as if the wind had grabbed hold under her arms and was gently lowering her down onto the ground below. Oddly enough, this was happening without the girl having many any effort to cast a spell, or even make a motion to do so. She was slow-falling, effortlessly.

Of course, even if she was going down at a slow and safe pace, the fact remained that she was still going downwards... And with her get-up as it was, her large, drape-like cloaked fluttered and billowed majestically... But the very miniscule skirt-like part of her dress also did this... And the girl didn't seem to aware of this issue herself, as the black-lace undergarments she was wearing was put on display for anyone watching her, or looking up from below, at the time of her descent.

Touching down on the ground with a light clicking of her shoes, the horned one looked around. Her mouth was shaped like a cute little 'o' and her amethyst-like eye stared in wonder as well as disbelief at the scenery around her. This place... Was not Oubliette Online... There was no area or location in the great VRMMO that looked like this. She knew. She had been and explored every part of that in-game world. This place didn't exist. It didn't.

...

...

..

But it did.

"Ho... Wh... Whe... You... So..." Having trouble finding the words ... Or any words, for that matter, the girl kept saying syllables for a while, before turning around and realizing that there were others down here too. Another fancy-dressed lady, and a dude in... What was that? A Circus Vanity Set? Gilded Court Jester's Apparel? No, it wasn't either.. It was... weird. Was it hacked, or perhaps custom, designs? Wait! There was a third person! An elf, on the ground... With his eyes closed... Looking a bit banged up... Had he used the sleep-command or something? In the middle of an unknown area like this? The heck was going on here? So many questions and ponderings and mysteries, the young-looking girl couldn't begin to know where or what to wrap her head around... And it was giving her a migraine.

Eventually though, she straightened her posture, took a deep breath, turned to face the two punks at the bottom of the tower, along with their horsey, and spoke. Arms folded infront of her stomach and her brow angled diagonally downwards in discontent.

"Okay, look. I know you guys're way into this whole roleplaying your characters thing, but could you please cut that out for a moment and just answer me?" She half-asked, half-demanded, half-requested. "Where are we? Does any of your systems or tabs work? And has there been any news or info dropped by the gamemasters, customer staff or devs?"

She awaited a full response.

---

North-East section of the Forgotten Ruins.

"By the gods! What was that light?"
"And... Why... Why did all the sounds of the world suddenly drown out, then return?"
"Was it a spell?"
"A curse?!"
"Ws this the work of the fallen sky-treasure?"
"You men! Stop squabbling like housewives! Keep pushing onwards! Once we secure the east gate, we'll march to the center of these ruins and find whatever force caused this ruckus!"
"Yes sir!"

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Also, this week's update is brought to you by Kung Fu Karl.