World Tree MUSH

    The land of Baron is a prosperous one, albeit shrouded in a sense of forboding. The Redwings, Baron's aerial military force have just returned from what has been hailed as a successful mission, though many of the soldiers in town seem to be suffering some form of blow to their morale, anyway.
    There is, however, a job to be done. The king of Baron, has placed a call for able bodied adventurers and fighters, to come and aid one of his agents on a trip through the Mist Caves to deliver something to the village of Mist, just beyond the caverns to the north. Though a Dragoon had been present with that very same agent at the outset, several monster attacks amid several other issues resulted in getting separated.
    The meeting place however is the mouth of the caves at the foot of the mountains north of Baron, a yawning cavernous opening in the rock leading into the earth beyond.

    Shin is here! For better or for worse, that is a thing. He needs some spare cash. The reason why? 

    "Fucking holiday banners. Seriously, Thanksgiving, then a Christmas banner, A Guaranteed 5-star paid pull, then more story release banners." Shin scowls a bit and taps at his phone a few times as he sifts through his game and then grumbles, putting the phone into his pocket, "Need to get more Google Play cards." 

    Still, he is at the meeting place, at least! 

    "Hey hey. Wandering Sage of the Martial Arts, Shin Tokuyama. I am here to handle all your problems and punch faces in exchange for cash to feed my crippling Gacha addiction. What're we doin today?"

    One unlucky wanderer wasn't with the party to begin with. Halfway into the caves, now standing on a ledge with a clear view of the entrance, a blue-haired young woman stares down with disbelief at map she's drawn in one of her grimoires, as if it made no sense. Or perhaps as if the location of the entrance now made no sense.

    She opens her mouth to speak, but doesn't.

    Harley instead flips a page and begins writing. <<Hour 4. Still lost. I've managed to avoid the oversized porcupines that can launch their quills and the goblins for the most part. I could probably drop down and head back out with some rope but I'm worried my knot wouldn't hold. Finding the Summoners is harder than expected. Also I>> She stops writing.

    She peeks down at the entrance, finding refuge behind a rock from which she spies. People? Here? Oh please be nice people, she has rope and needs help badly.

    "A mercenary, hmm?" The hollow voice from within the helmet holds no real judgement in that choice, but it does mean that he's looking over Shin critically. Cecil, the Dark Knight, is tired right now. He's rested up enough after his journey that he can go on, but the bite marks on his shield are a hint as to how unpleasant the trip has been.

    "As for our task," he states. "The King has asked me to deliver a package to the people of Mist. With the increase in monster attacks, this has proven difficult, and I was asked to attend personally. Cecil Harvey, Dark Knight of Baron."

    A primitive-looking woman is sitting nearby, also waiting. She's been watching, and now that their escort has arrived, she finally rises to meet everyone. "Aloy," she introduces herself shortly. The primitive outfit is, at second glance, not that out of place. It's woven with metallic threads in places, and obviously well-made, if handmade.

    The spear on her back looks solid, too... but the bow and other items are the things that say she isn't a simple savage. That's a compound bow with complicated alignment, crafted with the knowledge that a simple spear-hunter wouldn't know. Not that she made it herself. Also the spearhead doesn't look like it's simple iron or even steel.

    "If that's all... doesn't sound so bad," she says, referring to the difficulty. She doesn't want to admit she needs the money. Apparently metal shards are not currency in other worlds! Also... "I've been tracking a couple of Scrappers into this area. They don't seem native, so I thought I should take them down or drive them off before one of the natives gets hurt."

    Just when it looks like everyone has gathered, there's another person arriving! Swooping down with a light breeze, a woman alights on the ground. Pitch black in both skin and the feathers of her large wings, she's dressed in an odd manner of elaborate cloths wrapped about her, to allow for the wings. She catches the tail end of introductions and tucks her wings back into place.

    "This must be the group I was told to meet," she surmises. "From Baron. I am Vivian, a spellcaster." Which explains why the lovely woman has no weapons but a knife!

    Aside from Harley already in the cave, it seems like everyone has arrived.
    The Mist Caves are aply named, though on setting foot inside. The caves are damp. but the drop in temperature results in a white mist hanging low in the air around ankle level, making footing a little unsure in plaes, and there are several rickety old bridges to cross before getting deeper into the cave.
    Aloy will notice famliar claw marks upon the wall, and even a few shredded machine parts, and from the looks of several dead monsters, there was apparently a fight here between the mechanical creatures she hunts and the local beast population, defending their territory. Mostly dead goblins now, or the occasional dead gigantic moth.
    It's crossing one of the bridges further in that the stillness of the cave is disrupted. A woman's voice, no louder than a whisper, but audible for all.
    "People of Baron, leave this place..."

    "... Baron?"
    Right, that's just south of the caves. That makes sense.
    Hold up. Dark Knight? Cecil Harvey?

    Harley frantically flips back several pages. There's a vague sketch and map of Baron, though the castle is predictably undetailed, and some hurried writing about military expansion and focus. Under the entry on the Red Wings the scholar finds mention of their captain. There's precious little information but sure enough Dark Knight is scribbled there.

    And so she frantically flips back several more pages.

    <<Dark Knights, as documented in Troia's library, are an uncommon sight these days, the lifestyle risking the warrior's life so much that few choose to practice it anymore. [...] None but trained Dark Knights can wield "Dark Blades" and yet greedy shopkeepers will still sell them to anyone with enough money to afford one. [...] It is said that they fuel their blows with their very life. According to tales from wars past, the current king of Baron is one.>>

    Well none of this is really useful, she thinks.
    Sounds pretty evil though! What kind of madman wields blades known to hurt their wielders and fuels his blows with his life?

    Harley decides she'll just keep moving and avoid notice from the potentially deadly party. This goes great for about five minutes.

    As the party crosses the bridge, on a ledge one level up from them, Harley slips on some lose rocks and makes quite a ruckus as she seeks to hide from the voice. Sadly her hiding spot is in plain sight to the rest of the party.

    There's only one thing she can think of telling the group led by a Dark Knight. "THAT WAS NOT ME, I WAS NOT THE ONE THREATENING YOU TO LEAVE." Ohgod ohgod ohgod why.

    "Not a mercenary! Freelance wandering sage!" Shin corrects Cecil as he slips his phone back into his pocket and dusts his hands off, "It is normal for sages, in their journeys of enlightenment, to earn enough to satisfy their needs, and I needs an SSR roll on the upcoming banner." Shin points out as his hands go into the pockets of his coat. 

    "Nice outfits, though. You guys should come to Comiket some time. People would really love to take some pictures with you." Shin snaps his fingers and makes fingerguns at various people, "Nice to meet you all, though! I'm ready to do this! Deliver this stuff!" 

    They walk forward a bit. And then meet a strange woman on a bridge threatening them! And another woman above them being an adorkable person. Shin looks around and then up at the woman, "I believe you're not a threat!" 

    He outstretches his arms a bit, "Jump down! I'll catch you! It's dangerous up there! If a boss fight starts, you could fall and hurt yourself!"

    Sighing, Aloy looks down at the remnants of the battle. The others are here, and she gives a simple nod to Vivian. 'Spellcaster' huh? She's not totally sure she buys into the magic stuff here, but that doesn't mean the woman is harmless. If she's confident enough to be here with just a knife, then she'll either be dead or competent. Besides, the wings are... different.

    Aloy kicks a small canister up into the air and snatches it in midair. "Looks like they were here. And put up a fight. Whatever lives here must be tough if it could damage a scrapper this much." She tucks the canister away and-

    A girl is shouting that she isn't the one warning them off. Aloy was frowning at the obvious intimidation, but now she's just staring at the girl. "What are you doing here?" She won't stop Shin from catching her, either.

    Cecil is still in a bad mood from his demotion and losing track of his best friend, so he is mostly brooding. He just greets the others with a nod, "Thank you for your aid." He's going to be polite, of course, but...

    Then the threat comes. He looks toward Aloy, "I imagine that isn't from your scrapper things? What do they look like? Should we worry?"

    Harley's appearance just makes him stop short. "I haven't met many summoners, but that one doesn't look like one." A reasonable guess. "What are you doing in this cave?"

SUMMARY[Cecil Harvey]>>> Asking Aloy about Scrappers, and asking Harley what she's doing here.

SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama]>>> Harley, jump into my arms, I will catch you.

    Vivian will naturally gravitate toward the back, where she can sta- er, support from the rear and out of harm's way. Some interest is given to Aloy's investigations, and she watches quietly at first.

    "Trying to warn us, or scare us away? I suppose it is up to our leader to make the call," Vivian says, regarding Cecil. Harley she isn't going to worry about yet, except to offer, "I can catch her if she slips out of your grasp."

    As the group pauses to figure out the source of the voice, catch Harley, and otherwise decide what to do next... The mists seem to shift. The temperature drops by several degrees as the chill fog swirls and gathers.
    "Turn back..." The voice warns again, clearly not Harley's voice, as the very mist itself takes on shape and form. Soon enough, a large dragon dominates the path, made out of the very mists itself, with fog licking from the corners of its jaws like white flames.
    People of Baron... You have been warned..." The dragon says, before drawing a breath- and unleashing it in a chill torrent.

SUMMARY[Rydia]>>> The Mist Dragon appears.

    "THANK YOU," Harley responds to Shin, as he says he believes her. Jump down, though? No that... that looks like a very bad idea. A very bad idea indeed. It's probably a better idea than screaming her answers down the ledge and attracting every last angry porcupine in the cave though.

    Harley stuffs her large book into her overstuffed bag and stares down at Shin. She adjusts her glasses and hesitates for several more moments.

    Cecil demanding answers makes her freeze in place. "I- I was- looking for the Summoners' village- t-that it, I am conducting research on s-some matters and..." Look, she knows better than to say she's investigating old legends and also ALIENS. People look at her like she's crazy. Also she... doesn't even know what the aliens are called. Or can do. Or have done. You huh, you have to start somewhere.

    Then there's a dragon.
    "I-Incredible! That must be an Eidolon! Oh I would like to speak to it so much and- and it is... attacking... oh, oh no."

    Harley leaps down into Shin and Vivian's catch without hesitation.

    Shin is pretty capable of catching Harley. He barely seems to strain as she jumps down into his arms and then he puts her down on the ground a few moments later, dusting off her shoulders and then propping her up and smiling, "There ya go. Safe and so-" 

    "DRAGON!" Shin points and then dives on top of her, pinning her under him as he takes the brund of the frost breath himself to protect the token woobie.

SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama]>>> Secret Service Shin

    Why is Harley so scared of him? Cecil was just asking a question! He doesn't seem to realize how demanding it made him sound. In any case, he doesn't seem to think Harley is lying, especially when she jabbers on about Eidolons. People had questions about the summoners, so that was a natural idea.

    Except the summon is attacking.

    "GET DOWN!" Cecil calls out in a sudden panic. He leaps forward, shield at the ready, but his defenses against magic are... pretty poor. The chill breath frosts his shield rapidly, and ice forms around his armor as it already begins to make crackling noises. That /can't/ be good for the guy inside that armor, and it makes it hard for him to actually whip his blade out for an attack. He isn't close enough to launch into his own offense yet, hoping that the others can do something. "While it's distracted, flank it!" No time to worry about /why/ just... fight for your life.

    Aloy is trying to explain, "Scrappers are dangerous to young and inexperienced hunters, or people without battle experience." She isn't worrying about Harley, hopping to a nearby rock. "Once you learn their tricks they aren't-"

    Except her explanation is getting cut short by a dragon attack. THAT is interesting. Not a machine, either! Also, breathing ice, an attack that has her diving to the side and rolling, but still leaves her boot frosted over and makes her stumble. Fortunately, she has other ways to attack than Cecil, and her bow is out to launch two arrows at the beast's neck while she is diving for cover.

    "Maybe Scrappers aren't what we should be worrying about," she comments, nocking a fire arrow for next time.

    The suddeness of the attack means that almost everyone gets taken by some of the chill breath. Even Vivian, who was loitering in the back, lets out a short cry as she's clipped. Launching into the air didn't help as much as she'd like, because the tight confines of the cavern limit her maneuverability and leave her shivering. "What manner of beast is this?" It isn't a panicked question though... she just doesn't know.

    What she can do is something that the Mist Dragon likely hasn't encountered yet, even if it exists in this world. One of the spells she has that doesn't immediately kill everything around her is cast with a soft whisper, hand outstretched while she alights off to one side. One of her arms is stiff and covered with frost, but she still tries to get the spell off. A spell to sap the magical energy of the Mist Dragon.

    Though everyone else might also get a faint uncomfortable feeling from the spell that tries to tear away the natural energies.

SUMMARY[Vivian]>>> Vivian injured but casts Rasp.

    Once the torrential wave of cold breath passes, the mist shifts again. Eerily, the beast does not roar, but fights on in utter silence. Claws lash out, its wail whips, it snorts more gusts of powerfully chill breath as it launches into an all out offensive. Occasionally it pauses, turning to the defense, shifting its form and spreading out into mist once again, forcing the group to choose the proper times to strike, or be met with empty air and a retaliatory blast of sub zero frost and icy storms.
    Made of mist or not, though, the beast is not impervious to harm. It flinches from the arrow that embeds in its neck, clawing it free and leaving a trail of mist flowing from the wound as it lunges for another attack faltering as Vivian's spell saps it of the mystical energies, making it sluggish and lethargic, opening the dragon to reprisal.

    The pattern is quickly evident, as Cecil gets another jolt of frost when he rushes in at the wrong time and tries to cut mist. That didn't work out. "Wait for it to solidify!" he calls out, though his allies seem sharp enough that this is probably something they already figured out.

    He's distracted by Harley though. "Are you all right?" He isn't sure if she's a noncombatant or not here! "Shin, get her to safety if you need to! Vivian- thanks."

    Because he can see it's slow, letting him rush in with a quick slash of his blade! Forget defense now, it's time to go offense with the full might of his sword!

    Harley status: under Shin.
    When Cecil asks if she's alright, she naturally points this out. "I am fine! There is a man on me but I am fine!" Shin is doing a great job shielding the scholar from the frost, so it works out. Vivian gets an answer, too.

    "It is an Eidolon! A-At least, I believe it is! A creature of magic bound and summoned by... w-well, a Summoner! They must think we are intruders here to harm their village!"

    Which, well. Cecil being a Dark Knight and all.
    It's a SAFE assumption to make these days.

    Noncombatant isn't quite right, but Harley will still contribute. From under Shin she shuffles into her bag and then hands him a sparkling blue potion. "Drink this, it will restore your health! A-And please get off me, that would be appreciated."

    That's an easy pattern, yes. Aloy narrows her eyes, tapping her Focus just to be sure... but since the Mist Dragon is not robotic, the amount of info she can gain is pretty basic. Nothing on elemental weaknesses or the like. Sigh. "The hard way, then," she muses. That is, she's going to guess. Cecil charging forward gives her the perfect opening.

    An acrobatic leap carries Aloy across a small gap, and in midair she manages to send three arrows in rapid succession toward her target. Arrows with larger, more unwieldy heads that explode into flames on contact, trying to set the sluggish dragon alight.

SUMMARY[Harley]>>> Potion @ Shin.

    Landing up higher, away from the others, Vivian also has room to practice her magic away from prying eyes. She's staring at the dragon, listening to Harley... "That explains why draining its Wird weakened it." Yet doing that again is dangerous, so Vivian chooses something else instead.

    The mist seems important for a /mist/ dragon, so once again that odd tugging at everyone's insides - not harmful, but definitely feeling /wrong/ - happens. The lichens and mushrooms around Vivian wither, probably out of sight of most in mid-combat, but it's enough for her to summon up a powerful gust of wind, trying to clear the air of mist.

    "NEAT! A potion." Shin says as he hops up onto his feet and off of Harley when she hands it to him. He chugs down the potion and shakes some frost off of himself as he stands up and turns back towards the dragon, "Fwah. That really helped! I'm feeling good again!" 

    Shin gives Cecil a thumbs up, "Don't worry about me, man. I got this." And then he points to the Eidolon. 

    "Dragon! How dare you threaten this fair woman! Whom I have dubbed 'Kinda Woobie Love Interest'!" Shin curls his hand and the knuckles crack, "I'll take you down with a single blow." 

    Ki gathers around the curled fist as Shin step-dashes forward right into punching range with the dragon. The glowing fist is thrust forward, "Ryusoken!" 

    The Ki discharges from his hand to ripple through the dragon and then erupt out the back in the form of a roaring dragon made of Ki that vanishes a moment later.

GAME> Shin Tokuyama spends an Edge for: Dramatic Finisher

    The dragon puts up a valiant fight. Against a smaller group of lesser skilled indivduals the battle may have had a different outcome. But it does not go down without trying its hardest to deter these invaders to the caves. Claws lash out, it puffs that chill breath, but it is of no use.
    Vivian's spellwork blows away much of the mists from the cave floor, giving the dragon almost no further chance to dissipate, and it all goes downhill for the Eidolon from there. Even as it is injured, it continues to fight in eerie silence, as fire arrows erupt against it with their conflagrating payload, and the Dark Knight lunges in with his life sapping sword. Shin's blow strikes, and everything seems to go still for a moment, as the dragon halts and goes still, the ki travelling through its body before blasting out from the other side.
    "Leave... This place..." The woman's voice can be heard one final time as the dragon dissipates into harmless mist and does not re-form, revealing the cave exit behind it, the sunlight filtering through the cave mouth, and the village beyond.

    Aloy staggers up, limping some from the fight and the damage to her foot and lower leg. Good thing it was warm, but that's going to need some time to warm up and heal. She shoulders her bow after making sure she can move without being attacked.

    "Someone is pretty set on keeping us out," she points out with some concern. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" She'll follow regardless. This isn't really her business so long as Cecil isn't planning on asking her to burn down the village or something evil like that.

    "N-No! No no no what did you DO?!" Harley suddenly says as she darts to her feet and rushes to the dying dragon. She grabs the empty potion via on the way!

    "I wished to speak with it and study it!"

    Nononono! Harley attempts to swipe some of the vanishing mist out of the air and into the vial, which she plugs back up the moment she can. (Arranged with GM! Success.)

    She inspects the vial of mist and sighs, disappointed.

    "This is terrible, absolutely awful!" She's too distracted to react to what Shin called her. "Now they will think we are enemies!" She doesn't know what happens when you kill an Eidolon, but that's a very fair guess too.

    "What do we do now? We must... yes, we must prepare an apology speech! Offerings of peace! You there, Dark Knight!" Where did her fear go? Actually it's right there.

    She freezes and doesn't follow up on ordering Cecil around.
    "I-I mean, sir, if you... would, please, listen. Surely you have a token of Baron on your person we can use to repair this ill?" She almost asks if he would part with his blade to mend the situation. She doesn't go that far.

    Unlike Aloy, Vivian's injury was to her arm... and one wing. She glides over to the others to account for the damage, landing gently nearby with a quiet, soft voice. "Unfortunate, but it did block our way. We should hurry and explain ourselves, at least."

    "Hwaaaaaah..." Shin exhales as he relaxes his hand and then flexes it. The knuckles are bleeding a bit, but he lets that happen and looks towards Harley, "It was in the way! And it tried to hurt you, Kinda Woobie Love Interest. I had to protect you from its ferocious grasp!" 

    Shin sighs a bit and then looks around, "Yeah, I'm starting to think these guys don't want the package you're delivering, bruh." He says to Cecil.

    Cecil shakes his head slowly. "That was impressive, by the way, but... you and Harley are right, that this approach fills me with unease. I worry for the King's decision, but perhaps he has a good reason for what he is doing. He has lead Baron well for so long, I don't know why he'd choose to stray now." The knight sheaths his sword and adjusts his shield, tapping at the battered metal with a sigh.

    "We do have an offering," he states. "The package itself. But I will deliver my own apology as well." Taking out the wrapped bundle, the Dark Knight reluctantly trudges toward the exit, after confirming everyone is all right. "Thank you for your help. With any luck they will allow us to rest here, rather than force us to go back or on to Kaipo. I apologize for the mess."

    Even though it really isn't his fault. Except it kinda is?

    The Knight trudges out of the cave, making his way toward the small village nearby. But he has barely reached the crest of the small hill overlooking the village when the bundle has stirred...

    And erupting from the hand carrying it, the 'package' releases a dozen twisting snakes of flame, the elementals roaring upward and then downward toward the village without warning.

    "WHAT?!" Cecil doesn't seem to have planned that, because it knocks him flat on his ass.

    "WOAH! DUDE!" Shin points at Cecil, "11th hour betrayal! NOT COOL!" Shin is scolding Cecil more than anything else, really. 

    "I mean, I guess technically I should have expected it when you came in looking like that, but I didn't wanna be all rude by stereotyping a knight for being a black knight, but I mean." He wobbles his hands back and forth, "It's statistically proven that black knights are more violent than white knights and more likely to betray you, so I guess." He wobbles his hands some more, "Some stereotypes are right. Black knights just aren't trustworthy." 

    "Way to validate stereotypes, jackass!" Shin shouts before starting to run towards the village to see if he can help anyone.

    "I know it was in the way! That does not mean we had to... that you had to... s-surely we could have subdued it!" Look, she's not a fighter. She doesn't get how much harder than is than she thinks.

    She follows along, when everyone opts to move on, although returns to protest at Shin. "Harley! My name is Harley!" She is blushing, though, so Shin still wins this round.

    Wait, Kaipo?

    She reaches for her big book and flips through it. There is a rough sketch of Kaipo and the desert around it. It just says <<only redeeming quality: not far from Damcyan, make note to visit there sometime, the prince is supposedly quite dashing>>.

    Oh, that hole in the desert. Right.

    On the bright side they finally reach Mist.
    It is not on fire.

    "W-WHAT?!" she echoes Cecil, turning to stare at him. "Why were there Bombs in your package?! ... how did someone fit so many of them inside there?! No, nevermind, there is no time to point fingers, we must... we must go help them!"

    Harley dashes after Shin, panicked. Also significantly slower, because Harley can't run that fast.

    Aloy frowns. Diplomacy always seems so complicated! She follows outside, readying her spear in case the Scrappers are still about. Can't be too careful. She is NOT expecting something to erupt from Cecil's package though!

    "What was THAT?!" Aloy calls out. She doesn't immediately accuse Cecil because he seems as surprised as anyone... not that she'll trust him completely. She'll give him a brief chance to reply before she is off dashing with the others, wishing she'd brought a mount or something. "Hurry! How many people live here?"

    Unlike the others, Vivian isn't entirely shocked. She stares at the impressive display, and then gives Cecil a mildly pitying look instead of anger. "Mmhm..." Sigh. Well, time to put her game face on. This is something she knew was coming, unlike the others.

    Leaping into the air, Vivian glides down toward the burning village, but is heading for a different spot than the others.

    In an instant, the village of Mist is up in flames. The Bombs are as relentless as they are without mercy. Buildings and people alike are lit aflame, and as the village becomes a charnel ground of death and destruction. Eventually the fiery elementals dissipate, but they flames they leave behind are very real and houses are burning to the ground while men, women, and children panic and flee. It's a small village. The population isn't very high, but the death toll will be vicious unless someone does something.
    Amid all the chaos and the roar of burning buildings, a small sobbing can be heard, just loud enough to trace to the source; a small girl crouched over a fallen woman, trying to shake the woman awake.
    "M-mom... Mom get up... You don't have to die just because your dragon did... Please get up!"
    She pleads and shakes, and shakes and pleads, but no amount of begging stirs the woman while Mist burns.

SUMMARY[Rydia]>>> Good news: A survivor. Bad news: That dragon was her mother's.

    Shin slowly comes to a stop and then pauses. He looks around the town at all the destruction. And then he sees the girl shaking the downed woman. 

    Shin's hand closes to a fist and he turns around, "You did this." He points at Cecil with a lot of anger in his eyes. Shin shrugs off his jacket, leaving it in the village behind him and then starting to undo the tie on the leisure suit and roll up his sleeves, "I fought that dragon for YOUR boss. And now I'm gonna kick YOUR ass." 

    Shin flickers from his position and then he's dashing towards Cecil. He's surprisingly fast for someone that seems so aloof. As he dashes in towards Cecil, he rotates his entire body around and throws it into his shoulder, "Tetsu-!" 

    That shoulder aims to collide with the center of Cecil's armor with a heavy hit of force that seems to reverberate throughout the entire set of armor, "-zanko!" Shin cries as he shoulder-checks Cecil with a martial arts move.

SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama]>>> Shin turns on Cecil (And arranged this with him) and takes a swing at him

    That is a lot of fire.
    And bodies.
    And... death.

    Harley holds her hand to her mouth, taking a few steps back. Her bravado to help others is gone in an instant, replaced by sickness and disgust. Maybe it's a good thing, she thinks, that she couldn't become a mage. These sights, she'd be exposed to them far more often.

    She has potions on her. Not enough for everyone, and potions won't get the dead up. They won't heal serious injuries, for that matter.

    Then to make things worse she hears Shin going after Cecil.
    Infighting, as if this wasn't bad enough.
    Then the cries of a little girl. The dragon died, so... the mother did? Summoners and Eidolons are linked? She'll update her notes, when she isn't about to throw up from the dizzying chaos around her.

    In the sea of problems and decisions to make, Harley manages to make none, managing only to stand still and look horrified while everything is objectively awful in every direction she looks, including back.

SUMMARY[Harley]>>> #everythingsucksforever

    "I didn't-" Cecil starts to say, but if there's one thing Cecil is really awesome at, it's... blaming himself. So he isn't protesting TOO hard. He picks himself up to head toward the village, picking up the pace as he sees the destruction the Bombs have wrought.

    Only to skid to a halt, catching that sight of Rydia and her mother just in time. Just in time for Shin to blame him, it seems. "I... I didn't mean..." Hey, he's still kind of in shock at his own betrayal! Good thing he saw Shin's power earlier, so he doesn't underestimate it. At the last minute he realizes the younger man is serious, and goes limp just in time to roll with the blow.

    Which means he flies across the lawn and slams into a burning building. Crashing through it, he stumbles to his feet. "You're right, but... we need to help who we can now. Can we talk about my punishment later? We could still save some people!"

    When Aloy sees the girl, she stares in shock. SHE helped do this? Even unaware, that- doesn't actually make her upset. It makes her angry instead. She clutches her spear more tightly, then tucks it back behind her, when she hears and sees what Shin is doing.

    "SHIN!" She shouts out. "Hasn't this girl seen enough of that? Help her!" She points to Cecil. "And you! Help the village! If you try to run I WILL find you," she threatens, before dropping to her knees in front of Rydia and her mother. "Let me help."

    She's not sure Rydia will allow her close, but she is going to reach for her medicine pouch. She's pretty sure the woman is beyond saving, but she can try... and perhaps ease the pain.

    Wood crackles and houses smolder. By not the shouts and screams of panic and death have died down and all that's left are the indignant shouts of blame upon Cecil, and a small girl's sobbing. For all she tries to wipe her eyes, all she does is smudge soot on her cheeks.
    Aloy is the first to approach, and the child looks up with pleading green eyes when the Nora girl approaches with medicine pouch in hand. But Aloy's assessment is correct, the woman is fading, and fast, barely even conscious, if she is at all.
    "S-someone... Killed mom's dragon in the caves." She says, "Now she's not getting up."
    There are some shellshocked villagers here and there for others to try and guide from the blaze, but it's a poor fraction of the village's initial population. But some are better than none, now that the Bombs have faded.

    "Tch." 

    After Shin sends Cecil through a building, he dusts off his shoulder at Cecil, "You better." He looks to Aloy, "I'm fine. Just pissed. I'll chill." That angry look doesn't leave his face and, all things told, it looks strangely out of place on someone who is always so laid back, not that most people here have ever met him before. 

    Instead, Shin goes to take his anger out in more productive ways. Any time he can hear people trapped in a burning building, he punches or kicks a door-sized hole in a wall to try to give as many of them an escape route as he can. Anything but face Rydia and admit he dealt the final blow to the dragon.

    The infighting is settled! And Shin decides to be productive by... punching some walls in. That is sure to help! Though it also finds Vivian, indirectly. A burning building partly collapses, giving a view through the heat haze of the black-winged, dark-skinned Swan Troupial helping a young man back up.

    Or wait... is she? The man seems to be struggling, and dropping a knife. Then... going limp, his body withering, skin drawing tight and skeletal. Gasping for air, he looks to be dying, while the frostbite and cold burns on Vivian's injured arm and wing are visibly healing.

    Shin /possibly/ saved the man's life though, because he isn't /quite/ dead when Vivian notices Shin saw her. Just... close to it. She drops him aside with a tsk, "You weren't supposed to see that. Did you find any survivors?"

GAME> Vivian spends an Edge for: Used to even the odds, IC excuse of draining life to be uninjured against injured heroes.

SUMMARY[Vivian]>>> Shin finds Vivian draining life. Vivian is now full health and suspiciously asking about survivors.

    The infighting seems to have stopped.
    The Dark Knight doesn't seem to be to blame... directly.

    Harley doesn't pick herself up so much as she has to move when a large chunk of flaming wood falls off a roof in her general direction. She doesn't have the strength Shin has, so she can't just dive into buildings to help people. She doesn't have magic or the means to revive the dead.

    The best she can do once she's actually back on her feet is to try finding still-conscious survivors and jam potions down their throats.

    She still looks like she belongs nowhere near this mess, she's liable to panic and make things worse.

    On the bright side she remains positively oblivious to the new mess that's just started. Silver lining.

    Wincing, Aloy tries to at least dull any pain, but... she's not really a medical practicioner. All she can do is basically first aid in cases like this. And what Rydia says... "I... I'm sorry," that's all she can say to that. Not much else TO say at this point. And that SHOULD be the end of it.

    Her Focus is on to assess the problems, and that's how she picks up the voice of Vivian, and spies what is happening. At first she isn't sure, but when she sees the man drop... she doesn't have nearly as clear a view as Shin does, so she stands up and grasps her spear. "Vivian?"

    Cecil knows better than to try to comfort the girl now. Aloy, for all of her brusqueness, is probably better at that. Also he's still rattled from the punch. "I will try to help." But what can a Dark Knight do against a burning village? Stab the flames? No, he's limited in what he can do.

    He ends up tromping up near Harley, bashing through doors to get to any injured if he can. At least he can help with that. He will also not know Vivian is a 'traitor' unless Shin shouts something, but it's likely that this will not remain secret for long.

    The houses are in terrible condition by now. It's all too east for Shin to punch clean through walls, and a strong, trained, knight liked Cecil can esily kick doors off their melting hinges, while Harley starts tending to the injured with potions.
    But there's nothing that can be done for the girl's mother. The woman suffers no visible physical injuries; no burns, no nothing, but she fades regardless, albeit eased thanks to Aloy. For a long moment, the girl is stunned to silence, still clutching her mother's hand in her own as the life leaves the woman. Then... Then her eyes slowly widen in dawning horror.
    Just who are these people? It's a question she asks herself as realization begins to fill in. The village is small enough that whenever visitors arrive it's usually known to the whole town within minutes. And here are these people now, with a Dark Knight of Baron among them.
    Green eyes look up, wide and wild with fear when she sees Vivian, even from a distance and a poor vantage point. The girl stands, and starts backing away.
    "... Stay away from me..."

    "How lucky for me. I was just feeling angry." Shin says as he flexes his hands and they light up with ki, "So I'm going to go ahead and whip your ass now." 

    "Protect the girl!" Shin shouts when Rydia backs away from Vivian that far away. He pops his neck and stares down Vivian and exhales, "BACK AWAY FROM HIM! Injured in here." 

    Shin charges forward towards Vivian. But she's back at full power and he's used up a lot of his energy hitting Cecil hard enough to throw him through a building, "Get over here!" 

    Shin leaps up and aims a spinning overhead axekick right towards where Vivian is standing.

    Uh oh, Rydia is panicking, and Vivian is apparently making Shin fight some more. Only this time, Shin seems to be on to something. Vivian is definitely up to something, and that weird feeling from earlier comes back to Aloy's mind. Maybe she should trust her instincts.

    "SHIN! Be careful!" This is probably something she's going to regret saying. Why? Not because it draws attention to her, but it might make Shin think she cares for him in a way she doesn't.

    Either way, she tumbles forward and comes up on her knees, bow unshouldered and already firing a Shock Arrow toward Vivian, trying to eloctrocute her enough to stun her. She is pretty sure Shin's right here, but disabling the woman seems like a better idea.

    She fails to think of Rydia as a problem now, which is likely to make things worse.

GAME> Harley spends an Edge for: Gil Toss x9999

    More infighting.
    Harley is distracted from the chaos by Shin's sudden attack on Vivian and ensuing shouting. Also Aloy seems to be trying to calm the girl down so that's good.

    "Why, why, why did I choose to go through the caves today instead of a week ago, I could've avoided all of this!" she laments, weakly.

    Shin had saved her life earlier, or at least shielded her. She had to repay that debt. Her hand dug into her bag, pulling a handful of golden coins out.

    "... sigh. This is a lot..."
    In terms of what she's carrying, it really isn't.
    But a lot of the gil on her is actually in slips and debts, not coins. Nobody can carry a hundred thousand gil in coin form after all. She'll have to find a place to exchange her slips, so as to refuel.

    "SHIN, DUCK!"
    He had introduced himself, so she knew his name! Also Aloy keeps shouting it, that helps.

    Harley hurls the handful of gil straight at Vivian.
    It's basically like a railgun.

    NOW what is going wrong? Cecil crashes through the remnants of a door with an injured and dying summoner, laying them on the grass nearby for Harley, and now he sees Vivian is out and about... and fighting with Shin and Aloy? That doesn't look good. Shin has a temper, so he doesn't think much of that other than maybe he should stop it, but Aloy seems like the sort to be more level-headed in this situation.

    "What is going on?!" His blade comes out, and Cecil is actually feeling pretty pissed now. He gets the idea when he sees the withered husk next to Vivian. It all clicks that maybe, just maybe, she's a bad guy.

    "RRRRRRGH!" The Dark Blade whips out, and Cecil steps in front of Harley after the gil shoots out like that. It's followed with a WAVE of darkness as he draws on his own life force, leaving him slumping forward and panting as the blast chews through the scenery toward the Black Swan.

    Vivian knew this might happen, and Shin is right to charge her. This has a good effect though... it keeps her attention OFF of Rydia, letting the girl do as she pleases. And Rydia's panic and rage is also pinging Vivian's Empath abilities, making her twitchy and prone to rash decisions. So when Shin comes after her and the others follow... Vivian takes them all on.

    Her way.

    Grass around her, already browning from the heat, blackens and withers in an expanding circle. Shin's axe kick comes down and blasts Vivian into pieces! Or... wait. It actually just shows that she's split into a half-dozen copies, and the force of the blow makes them all tumble away while one of the copies vanishes, dispersing into a puff of black smoke. Smoke-clones, apparently.

    Harley and Aloy's attacks are in synch. Vivian cries out in pain as the shock arrow hits near enough to give her a buzz, if not really incapacitate her, but several duplicates at once vanish under the storm of coins. Bloody furrows appear on all of the remaining ones, indicating that somewhere, the real Vivian was hit.

    The circle of dead grass widens and a burning bush goes up in flames suddenly as it turns from living wood into more flammable dead wood. Embers are blown about as Cecil's wave of darkness... is met with something else. It looks like Vivian was holding back against the dragon, quite a lot, because a sudden storm of wind erupts from the vicinity of the clones. Wind that tears furrows into the turf, and causes the edge of the house nearby to collapse as chunks of wood are /carved/ from it by numerous slices of magical wind hurled toward the rest of the group.

    "The King of Baron has decreed the Summoners of Mist are a threat," she says. "It is a sad event... but they must die."

    Once again they all turn on each other, only this time with a clear and definite actual aggressor amongst them. But that doesn't matter to the girl, she's still backing away, in stumbles and trips.
    "It was you..." She whispers, green eyes brimming with horror and fear. "All of you, you killed mom's dragon... You did this..." Her words are vicious and accusing as she picks herself up fully. Forgetting she's there, or thinking her not a threat is... A mistake.
    "... I hate you..."
    It's such a powerful word to come from a girl so young. 'Hate'. But she has every right to use it, her mother dead, her home burned to the ground. Everything she knew and loved now dead and gone.
    Fists clench, as she draws a breath. She does not dare go near the chaos of Vivian's battle with all the others, she maintains her distance, eyes flashing with a terrible glower for a girl so young as she takes this brief moment to etch all of their faces upon her heart before her voice rises, shrill and shrieking.
    "I HATE ALL OF YOU!"
    It's a cry of unfathomable anguish and rage. ... And somewhere... Deep below the earth, something hears her. Somewhere, something vast and terrible is ripped from its resting place, wrenched up to the surface of the world and called, here and now.
    The earth starts to shake. It starts as a tremor... And then a house collapses. It grows in intensity until the rumble of the ground itself overpowers the flames, and the ground SPLITS open.
    A massive hand reaches out from the groun, pulling the rest of a gargantuan body free from the earth's grasp. A man, massive and made of stone, emerges, leaping into the air with a snarling roar. Before he lands, his very impact worsening the intensity of the quake- splitting the ground and forming giant fissures in the earth in a sudden and monstrous earthquake with all the strength of a force of nature itself. Though it is brief... It is terrible.

GAME> Rydia spends an Edge for: I Summon Titan

    As Shin hits the ground, he immediately ducks and rolls, moving through the brown circle on the ground as a hail of coins sails over him, "Tch. You won't get away tha-" 

    As the earth under his feet shakes, Shin loses his footing and stumbles forward. There's an arc of electricity from Aloy's arrow that shocks him but good and sends him sprawling. He's struggling to get himself to his feet, but a house is falling on top of him a moment later from the force of the quake summoned by Rydia. 

    The debris accumulated on top of him stirs and shifts, eventually sliding to the side as a burnt and scorched Shin comes out. This mission had gone to hell way too quickly. Everything was in shambles at this point, the mission had made him an overt help to villains, and the martial artist is pretty badly banged up from Rydia's attack. 

    Shin wobbles on his feet, trying to figure out what to do next as he stares down Vivian. Somehow she still has most of his focus despite the giant stone man on the field. His only real words left for Rydia are a murmured, "Yeah, that seems fair on your part. Can't blame you."

SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama]>>> Badly injured and barely standing.

    Magic winds: 1, Harley: 0.
    Blasted back into flaming wreckage, saved largely by her reinforced coat, the scholar quickly gets away from the flames to avoid ending up like all that wood. And then, as if Vivian wasn't enough of an issue, Rydia becomes a big issue too.

    This is the worst day of her life, bar none.

    She considers, briefly, if the vial of mist might be useful. She quickly comes to the conclusion that any use of what is functionally bottled mother corpse won't help this situation one, tiny, bit.

    The quake throws her back onto the ground, not far behind Cecil, and this time she doesn't crawl back up so quickly. She's having trouble pulling herself up on all fours, so imagine on two legs.

    "I will write... a very strongly worded... letter of complaint to the king of Baron after this..." she does at least manage. It'd probably make more sense to find her way back to Troia and demand council with the Epopts.

    That confirms it. Vivian's definitely not a good person after all! And she seemed relatively nice, too. Aloy is unhappy about this, but a little preoccupied when the blast of wind knocks her away, blood spurting from one arm as the slicing winds carve into her partly. "AH!"

    That was a shock. She can still shoot, though, and a sharp, alloy-headed arrow is drawn back... just in time to see the Titan appear. "What in the...?" She has no idea what to do about that, and she is not going to stick around to find out more. She lets fly the arrow after Vivian, then turns about and calls to the others, "We'll destroy what's left of the village if we fight here!"

    A Darkness blast is hurled away by... powerful magic. And it's draining the life of the village! Cecil is knocked backward, and as the armored knight stands he hears Aloy's call. She's right. "We have to get her out of here!" And that means... running. He grasps for Harley's hand.

    "Come on, we can't fight here, she's right! Vivian is killing the village with her casting!" And not just the damage. Except, actually running proves to be difficult when an EARTHQUAKE is pitching the ground about, making him fall forward on his face. Nice going, o Dark Knight.

    The group has lucked out. Vivian is injured, but pretty confident she can take on those left... except that there is suddenly a TITAN called. With what that was, she would be risking a much more severe Retribution if she tried to counter with any magic of her own. This fight suddenly became much more difficult, and she's lost the element of surprise, and she's terrified.

    Why is she terrified? Probably because the rest of the village is, and concentrating on fleeing.

    "Tch..." Vivian's wings beat as she recovers her footing, woozily making a break for it by flying toward the mountains surrounding the village of Mist.

    The chaos... Is finally over.
    Titan's rampage sundered the earth, but ultimately people survived. The fires start to die out, leaving Mist a burned out husk of its former self, with only very few buildings still standing. But there are more survivors than there would have been otherwise.
    The great Eidolon of earth rumbles, descending back into the ground from whence he came, after leaving a wide fault line to scar the earth. But what of the girl?
    After burning so much energy practically ripping the Eidolon from its home beneath the earth, she lays, passed out on the grass, unmoving, but breathing.