A Second Chance (Reincarnation/Crossover)

[Tackyseven]

[X] Q&A with the baron. What do you want to ask? (check as many as you like)
- [X] The egg?
- [X] The underground bunker?
- [X] The shrine?
- [X] The attacks, and the request for help?

[X]Decide what to do with him when you have more information

 

[Pipeman]

[X] Ask all the questions.

Voting to kill him before we know what's going on is not that great an idea.
Might as well get some answers before making that call.

 

[minuseven]

[X] Q&A with the baron. What do you want to ask? (check as many as you like)
- [X] The egg?
- [X] The underground bunker?
- [X] The shrine?
- [X] The attacks, and the request for help?

[X]Decide what to do with him when you have more information

 

[Inara Seraph]

[X] Q&A with the baron.

The baron has no particular reason to answer your questions, but it won't hurt to try asking. You need something more to go on before you can figure out what your next move is. You're interrupted from your thoughts by the sounds of futile struggling. The baron has fallen over from his place on the wall from trying to get out of his restraints. With his arms and legs bound by your wire, he looks like a worm writhing on the ground.

You let out a small giggle as you continue watching him. "All done?" you ask, pulling him back up against the wall to face you. If looks could kill, you'd be a smear on the floor.

"So.." you begin, trying to think of how to frame your questions. "Why do you have a Rhyme Dragon egg?"

He continues glaring at you. "Because I needed one."

You hum thoughtfully, tapping your chin with a finger. "For what?"

The baron seems to wrestle with himself, agonizing over some kind of decision. What to tell you, probably. You can only hope he'll decide to be cooperative. "The shrine.. you've seen it, haven't you?"

You nod, gesturing for him to continue. "I discovered it down here. This whole place.. nobody ever knew it existed. Nobody except me."

He shudders involuntarily. "When I first gazed upon the altar, a vision of something great and terrible came before me. He told me to steal a Rhyme Dragon egg and bring it to the altar, then told me where to find it. I had no choice but to obey!" he says pleadingly.

You choose to ignore his theatrics, and continue down the line of questions you want to ask. "What happened to a man named Jacques? He tried breaking in down here."

A confused look adorns his face. "Who? Nobody's been down here. Nobody but me."

You sigh. You don't think he's lying. That makes another mystery you still don't have the answer to. You focus your attention back on the baron. "What is the purpose of the lodgings down here?"

He shrugs awkwardly from his constricted position. "I don't know what it was originally for. I wanted a place I could hide if things went wrong." he explains.

You smirk. "I can see how well that worked out for you." Sighing, you start pacing back and forth. "So.. you somehow manage to steal the egg from the nest. I'm assuming that the mother is behind the attacks."

"Yes! And think of all the people it's killed!" You halt and turn to glare at him to shut up him up. With the baron blissfully silent, you resume your pacing, and continue articulating your thought process out loud.

"She must know it was a human who stole it. But I don't think she knows it was you."

"Then that would make these attacks.. a warning? She continues destroying your 'nest' until you give her back the egg. Hmm.. I don't know. I can't really explain the dragon's behavior completely." You shrug it off. "So."

You address the baron. "You called for help, hoping they could drive the dragon off, yes? But you got me instead, so you gave up on that. And now you're just trying to finish invoking whatever deity with that egg as some kind of sacrifice."

"You have no idea what kind of power that spirit possesses! He'll destroy the whole town if we don't appease him!" he warns.

"I see." you reply simply.

You cross your legs and have a seat on the floor to process the most recent acquisitions of knowledge. According to the baron, there's some kind of air spirit residing nearby, and that shrine is dedicated to it. He also says the spirit will raze the town if the Rhyme Dragon doesn't.

What to do..

[ ] "I have another question."
- [ ] What? (Write-in.)
[ ] "Thank you for your time." Kill him.
[ ] "Wait here for me, okay?" Stuff him in the storage room.
[ ] Something else. (Write-in.)

The egg..

[ ] Offer up the egg to the air spirit.
[ ] Make your way to the site of the next attack to return the egg.
[ ] Something else. (Write-in.)

GMNote: I missed my chance to have him mistake you for a Rhyme Dragon masquerading as a human. I am sad.

 

[Pipeman]

Hm.
I'm not sure, if I believe, the spirit is actually capable of what it claims.
If it were capable of such direct force projection, it would probably have caused a lot more trouble before now.
It would probably have killed the mother by now as well.
Not to mention that being a heretic is bad, yo, and sets an unpleasant precedent for giving in to a blackmail attempt.

Right now, I'm in favour of killing the baron for being a heretic, consorting with spirits and endangering his village in doing so.
The whole heretic thing should give us enough justification for killing him and it would eliminate the possiblity that he comes after us.
Not to mention that we'd go further down the villain route, which is awesome.

Then I think we should give the egg back to the mother and either hope the spirit is bluffing or that we can convince the mother to deal with it somehow.
If the spirit isn't bluffing after all, it stands to reason that the mother is powerful enough to still give the spirit pause and, since the spirit may otherwise motivate additional attempts to steal her children, it would be in her best interest to do so.
The main issue here would be to get the idea of talking to her in the first place, because, unless we know that Rhyme Dragons are intelligent IC, we'll probably need to metagame a bit.

As for Wardes, I have know idea what's going on with him.


What to do..

[X] "Thank you for your time." Kill him.

The egg..

[X] Make your way to the site of the next attack to return the egg.

 

[Inara Seraph]

The main issue here would be to get the idea of talking to her in the first place, because, unless we know that Rhyme Dragons are intelligent IC, we'll probably need to metagame a bit.

Click to shrink...

Your trip has yielded some more information. According to Jacques, the creature is a Rhyme Dragon. Although, he never said that he saw it personally. You didn't come across that rumor when you went to town; it makes you really wonder just where Jacques heard that. If he's right, you have no hope of defeating one in combat. They're creatures of legend, thought to be extinct- dragons who can think and speak for themselves, that wield magic to rival the elves. You'd surely be crushed in a confrontation. On the other hand.. you can reason with an intelligent being- maybe you can resolve this without having to fight the creature.

Click to shrink...

You know.

As for Wardes, I have know idea what's going on with him.

Click to shrink...

And that's just how he likes it. 8)

 

[Pipeman]

Could it be that he just didn't want to admit that he stumbled into some runes and got knocked out by them, without even achieving anything, so he made a mage duel up?
Because otherwise I see no reason for him to add that inconsistency to his story.

 

[Biigoh]

Now I don't want to say spirits... but it was totes spirits. :3

 

[overmind]

[X] "Thank you for your time." Kill him.

The egg..

[X] Make your way to the site of the next attack to return the egg.

 

[Scope]

Jacques isn't actually Wardes! Jacques is the Rhyme Dragon!

[X] "Wait here for me, okay?" Stuff him in the storage room.
[X] Make your way to where you think the nest is.

 

[Tackyseven]

[X] "Wait here for me, okay?" Stuff him in the storage room.
[X] Make your way to where you think the nest is.

 

[minuseven]

[X] "Wait here for me, okay?" Stuff him in the storage room.
[X] Make your way to where you think the nest is.

 

[Inara Seraph]

[blockquote]Rolled 1d100 : 80, total 80[/blockquote]

 

[Tackyseven]

oh crap we might actually find the mother with that roll...

 

[Scope]

Yus!

 

[Inara Seraph]

Back up you go.

[X] "Wait here for me, okay?" Stuff him in the storage room.
[X] Make your way to where you think the nest is.

You reinforce your arm and punch the baron across his face. You're not really an expert on making people unconscious, but you figure blunt trauma should do the trick. Judging by his pained groans, however, it didn't work. It was definitely fun though. You might be a little bit of a sadist. "Hmm.." you ponder out loud.

"Oh, well." you say dismissively, shrugging. You drag him unceremoniously to the storage room, ignoring his feeble protests. He's pretty beat up. You don't think he'll be going anywhere soon, even if you didn't manage to knock him out. You dump out a barrel full of apples and shove the baron inside. "Wait here for me." you say with an angelic smile. He glowers at you in reply, and you stick your tongue out at him.

You dust yourself off as you exit the room. You're still exhausted from the battle, but you can push yourself to keep going. This isn't going to resolve itself, after all. You fill yourself with thoughts of a nice relaxing bath once you're done here. If nothing else, it distracts you from the fact that you're about to walk into a Rhyme Dragon's nest all by yourself.

You psyche yourself up for the trip. This is the final leg of your mission here, you can feel it. You're putting all your hopes on the dragon not being as vicious as the attacks might indicate. If you're lucky, it'll even be grateful that you returned its egg, but you know better than to plan for a best case scenario.

With the egg wrapped up in the blanket, you exit the mansion. You need speed, so you conjure up another tiger and hop on its back. The moonlight is your only illumination during this late hour, but it's enough. The wind whips against your face and fans your long hair out in the breeze. A smile forms on your lips as the tiger bounds across the open fields. This is truly the only way to travel.

Your destination is in the mountains. You assume the dragon lives in a cave somewhere, but you can't be sure. Its lair can't be that easy to find if it wants to remain hidden. As you get closer, the land starts tilting upward, and your speed slows on the ascent. You keep your eyes peeled for where the dragon might live and order your tiger to slow down a little bit, now that you're in the general area indicated by your map.

Your searching yields nothing. At least an hour has passed, and all you can see are craggy peaks. Just one pair of eyes isn't enough, you decide. You let your tiger dissolve into nothingness and conjure up three pigeons to scout for you, with orders to report back if they find a cave.

For your part, you abandon a cursory search and look more closely at everything. You run your hands over the rock wall while trying to spot any difference in scent. Any kind of clue at all would be helpful right now. You walk around the mountainous terrain for a while in an attempt to suss out the Rhyme Dragon's lair.

You're starting to get impatient. The area the lair could be in is way larger than the map would have you believe. You're saved from kicking a wall in frustration by the return of one of your pigeons tweeting excitedly. You look at it with interest. "Found something?" you ask rhetorically, letting the construct lead the way.

You have to go upward to follow after it, and it's starting to take a toll on you. You're physically drained right now. You can summon up a second wind if there's a crisis, but that's it.

The pigeon leads you to a place overlooking a valley between two of the highest mountains. The view is great, but you can't figure out where to go from here. You look imploringly at your guide. It does the pigeon equivalent of a shrug. You sigh, and let all your constructs dissolve. Did it just want to cheer you up or something?

You sit down cross-legged and place the egg in your lap. It's a very picturesque scene looking down from your high vantage point, with a pleasant smell of mountain spring water. You furrow your brow. Water? You haven't seen anything like that. Not to mention, you can't even feel a breeze up here. Maybe the pigeon was onto something after all. You decide to follow your nose.

That doesn't work either. If you retrace your steps backward from where the pigeon led you, the smell becomes weak, and it's at its strongest when you're overlooking the valley. What are you missing? How would a Rhyme Dragon hide its lair? There must be magic involved here somewhere.

You don't think the scent is leading you wrong. You close your eyes to block out any visual input from leading you astray. From the overlook, you lean over the cliff face. Yes, the smell is strong here. If you just move a little bit further, you can get a better idea.

You lean forward too far and tip forward over the ledge. You open your eyes in a panic. You're going to fall to your death..! But it doesn't happen. You place a foot cautiously in front of you, and it lands on solid air. Vertigo assaults your senses as you stare down into what is surely a lethal drop.

Don't think about it.. you tell yourself. It's impossible not to, but you at least manage to continue taking steps forward. You clench your eyes shut. An illusion.. it's all an illusion. You manage to start approaching something like a normal stride after you step a few paces. Finally, you feel comfortable enough to open your eyes, and you gasp.

You're inside an enormous cavern. There's a beautiful crystal blue lake in the center, with connected rivers leading off into other sections of the cave. There are a great deal of tunnels leading every which way as well. Looking back where you came from, you can see the mountainous terrain staring back at you. There's no trace of the valley or the cliff drop. It's like a weird one-way mirror.

You can feel movement from inside the egg. Does it know its mother is near? You look around nervously. Now would be a good time to decide what to do.

[ ] Place the egg on the floor and get out of here.
[ ] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.
[ ] Yell, try to catch the dragon's attention, then hand over the egg.
[ ] Something else. (Write-in.)

1-25: There's nothing here?
26-50: Hmm.. a clue?
51-75: A clue.. and another clue?
76-100: Found you, Mr. Entrance.

 

[Tackyseven]

[ ] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

I'll put my trust in the die.

 

[Bloodshifter]

[ ] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

 

[Pipeman]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

We have to make sure it receives the egg, actually stops the attacks and should probably tell it about the spirit when we meet it.
Considering the spirit was what caused all of this it might decide to deal with it for us.
In any case, shouting around is rarely a good idea.

 

[overmind]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

 

[minuseven]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

 

[Scope]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

Yus!

 

[Dinya]

Yeah, let's give the kid to the mass murderer! I am sure that she will help us in return and raise it well!

 

[Olive]

Yeah, let's give the kid to the mass murderer! I am sure that she will help us in return and raise it well!

Click to shrink...

>All those movies/TV shows/books about mothers going on crusades to find/rescue kidnapped children.
>This opinion.

Really?
[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

 

[Dinya]

>All those movies/TV shows/books about mothers going on crusades to find/rescue kidnapped children.
>This opinion.

Really?

Click to shrink...

Well, I guess that the lives of 18 commoners and the livelihoods of dozens more don't matter. They are just the appropriate target for a 'superior being' to express her worry upon. Not even take steps to solve her problems, mind - Express. Her. Discontentment.

You see, your motherhood issues entitle you to indiscriminately murder left and right, just because you lost a few pounds of your (well, 50% yours) unborn flesh.

It must be right, you see, because Olive read about it in his books and saw it on TV.
So he will use the good old 4chan greentext to point out the obvious amorality of not giving in to extortion and not giving mass murderers babies to raise in their own image.

It's obviously evil, you see.

 

[Pipeman]

Her motherhood issues don't entitle her to kill anyone.
But do you know what does?
Being a fucking Rhyme Dragon.

This is a grown up Rhyme Dragon.
They are commoners.
And I don't particularly care for playing a White Knight with morals that simply have no place in this setting, if you play it even slightly realistic.

We live in a decadent medieval country, where nobles give no shits about commoners, keep them opressed through their God-given magical might, as is their God-given duty, and spend most of their time trying to come up with ways they can get away with mudering other nobles and taking their stuff.

If giving the freakishly powerful dragon what it wants gets it to leave and maybe even help out a bit before doing so, then the commoners can shut up about their dead relatives and be thankful we even bothered to this much instead of sacrificing the egg for power and leaving them to die.

 

[Olive]

Well, I guess that the lives of 18 commoners and the livelihoods of dozens more don't matter. They are just the appropriate target for a 'superior being' to express her worry upon. Not even take steps to solve her problems, mind - Express. Her. Discontentment.

You see, your motherhood issues entitle you to indiscriminately murder left and right, just because you lost a few pounds of your (well, 50% yours) unborn flesh.

It must be right, you see, because Olive read about it in his books and saw it on TV.
So he will use the good old 4chan greentext to point out the obvious amorality of not giving in to extortion and not giving mass murderers babies to raise in their own image.

It's obviously evil, you see.

Click to shrink...

I apologise for coming across as snippy and 4chan-y, that was not my intention and I was very tired.

I was making a reference to the way cases such as the dragon's being dramatised so that it would be the "Good Guy" of the situation, and thus justified in it's actions. However that was unclear, and I'm sorry.

 

[drake_azathoth]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

 

[Inara Seraph]

[X] Step inside cautiously, hand the egg over when you spot the dragon.

Your eyes roam the insides of the picturesque cavern, lingering on the crystalline lake and spotting your own reflection. You tense up when your image distorts as the waters begin churning. You take an anxious step backward as the formerly still waters become even more disturbed. You can hear something coming, and an ominous chill runs down your spine.

Bursting out from the water is a fully grown Rhyme Dragon; her scales shine brilliantly from the moonlight seeping into the cavern. She must be at least twenty times your size- bigger than a house, even. Her fully unfurled wings cross half the cavern as she flaps them gently to fly through the air. She lands right in front of you with a loud thump and whatever spell had taken hold of you as you watched breaks. You start to lower the egg to the ground to show you're here to bring it back to her.

You don't get a chance. Some unseen force paralyzes your entire body. You're entirely at her mercy, and you can only stare fearfully at the dragon in front of you. Her sheer size makes you feel like an ant. She walks toward you on her hind legs, her large green eyes locked onto the egg frozen in your grasp.

She extends a claw and the egg wrests itself from your arms and floats over to her. It lands in her outstretched claw, and she emits what you think is a sound of satisfaction. She then places the egg on the ground gently. It starts glowing a bright azure color and you reflexively try to shield your eyes, but you're still paralyzed. Spots dot your vision, but you get a clear view of the shell cracking open and a tiny claw battering its way out.

"Kyuu!" You can hear a muffled sound coming from inside. It continues battering on its prison and more cracks form. The top pops off, and a miniature dragon's head pokes itself out. The rest of the shell falls off quickly after that, and then there's a baby Rhyme Dragon sitting in the remnants of its cage. Its eyes are shut, and it's whining loudly. "Kyuuu..." it cries, flailing it's arms about. The mother finally breaks her silent vigil to scoop up her baby lovingly. Then, she turns her gaze to you.

You feel a stab of fear. For a moment you have a crazy thought that she's going to feed you to the newly hatched dragon as a first meal. Instead, however, you hear a somewhat deep female voice reverberating loudly in your head.

"Let me see.." she says. You're sure it's the mother speaking to you.

You feel some kind of invasive pressure in your mind. It hurts, like needles being driven into your skull. A tear involuntarily trickles down your face. You just want it to stop. Please..

Your wish is granted when the pressure lifts abruptly. You hear the voice in your head again, and you feel the beginnings of a headache coming on in the aftermath of.. whatever she just did.

"What?! Impossible." she shouts disbelievingly.

You can feel her anger through the telepathic connection. She's radiating stone-cold fury right now. "I will end that miserable worm." You hope the 'worm' is not you. Actually, you'd like to just wash your hands of this whole thing any time now. It doesn't seem to be over for you just yet, though.

She takes the baby Rhyme Dragon in her arms to a faraway corner of the cavern and disappears from your sight for a minute. You're a little irritated that you're still stuck in place. Your nose itches something fierce right now. Moments later the mother lumbers out from where she came sans offspring. She must have deposited it in a safe place.

The force keeping you still fades and you exhale in relief, stretching your arms out and rolling your shoulders. No sooner than you finish, you're scooped up in a dragon's claw and thrown roughly onto her back. She spreads her wings wide and zooms out of the cavern through the air. You clutch at her scales, trying desperately not to fall off.

Emerging into the nighttime air, you start ascending higher toward the sky. The landscape spreads out below you majestically. You can see the town and the estate below you, small as an ant colony from way up here. The Rhyme Dragon is soaring even above the clouds now. The air is dangerously thin- it's really hard to breathe.

You close your eyes and try your best to endure the cold night. You have no idea where you're being taken. Minutes drag on and on. The sound of the wind is the only thing you can hear. You shiver on top of your perch. Does the lady Rhyme Dragon know people can't live this high up? The atmosphere feels like it's suffocating you.

Until it isn't. You open your eyes tentatively. The dragon has landed.. on a cloud. She bucks you off her back and you scream- surely, you're going to fall through? But you don't. You land on a poofy cloud. It feels solid, if a little springy. You can bounce a little on it, even.

You turn your attention to the rest of the place. Stone walls rise up from the cloud-floor to form a massive chamber. It's like a giant box, only with one of the sides poked out for a landing zone. There are torches lined on the walls keeping the place well-lit. There's an ornate throne resting on the rear wall. Sitting in it is a vaguely humanoid shape composed entirely of wind and crackling lightning. A crown rests on its head, and a pair of broken manacles are clasped around its arms. At its side is the baron, staring ahead into nothing and wielding a wand.

The mother's voice echoes in your head once again. "Deal with the puppet. I have a spirit to kill."

She roars a battle cry and lunges forward, her claws tracing fire and ice through the air. The raging tempest opposite her bellows an unseemly noise through the chamber. It's not a sound that humans can make.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" The two titans clash. You give them a wide berth and examine your opponent.

The baron faces you threateningly, but his gaze is vacant. The injuries he sustained in your prior fight are still there, but they aren't slowing him down. It's like he can't feel pain at all. His movements are also a bit stiff; it looks unnatural. He raises his wand and casts an air blade in your direction.

You roll to the left to avoid being cut in two, and straighten up hurriedly. You can hear the dragon and the spirit going at it in the background, but all your attention is focused on the baron. Likewise, his focus is entirely on you. You're not sure what's going on with him- the dragon called him a puppet- but he's your problem to deal with now.

You've had a little bit of time to recover from your earlier battle, but you're still not one-hundred percent. You've only enough willpower to manage a few Ice Spears or a single Plague Mist. Your prana reserves are still bountiful and are not running out any time soon. Physically, you aren't going to last in a prolonged engagement; you have a few bursts of strength or speed before your body will give out.

What do you do?

[ ] Stall for time, avoid the baron as much as possible.
[ ] Go all in, summon a pack of tigers and bum-rush the baron.
[ ] Be opportunistic, look for your chance to disable the baron with your decay.
[ ] Something more specific. (Write-in.)

So sorry for the long delay ;_;

I am really bad at updating in a timely fashion. I've just been short on time and inspiration lately.

edit; I put in some super general options if people aren't sure what they want to do.