Ether Works' Altera (IC)

[Reapergod36]

Vara would grip the Wizard by the chin with her right hand, caressing it softly. "I could give you pleasure, but I’m afraid you would be destroyed... It seems you don't know enough about what you've summoned.." Vara said in a seductive tone. Then looking into the Wizard's eyes from a close distance; she tries to cast a spell that will make him an obedient slave. Her eyes would be more luminous as the spell was cast. She tried to keep the spell in safe boundaries, so that if it didn't work it wouldn't cause the man to explode into blood and guts. Such messes were fun, but not something you wish to clean up.

[napsii]

Third room... nothing. thought Severine, taking her first steps inside.

Nothing except the stink of body odor and eight greasy goblins, of course. The aqua-haired mage figured she wouldn't find anything glamorous behind these doors, but her thorough nature and experience with games demanded that she search each and every room -- a good item could hide anywhere. Her nose crinkled immediately, though, and she already had it figured there wasn't anything of value in here. The crude living quarters were an eyesore and the furniture looked like it had been pulled out of a dumpster. She cocked an eyebrow and sighed, suddenly unimpressed with Altera's attention to immersion. Certainly, there were worse places she'd experienced in her video games, but even a place like this became thirty times as offensive when she could actually taste the homely environment's aroma in her mouth. It was nothing like Emma's room: she kept her room spick and span. Actually, it was more like Dahlia's room: she was messy by nature, given that things tended to conveniently fall from their shelves or explode when she walked near. Trying to avoid eye contact with the goblins, she spun around, but was met with a distinct click. Out of instinct, she leapt back as the door shook. Confused, she blinked, but the sound of the fat goblin's voice from the other side of the door provided all of the clarification she needed.

"Oh, you little, damn..." the Destruction Mage's cheeks turned red with impudent rage.

As cool as it is that the AI is smart enough to do stuff like that, but I mean, fuck! she shouted internally, turning back to face the eight goblins with a look of irritation on her face. For a moment, she considered breaking down the door with a spell, but then she remembered there were about nineteen enemies on the the other side and she didn't want to smash her chances even worse. Defensively, her hands lit up with flame. Starting a fire in such a small room was a bad idea, but only if you didn't possess control over fire. The mage's eyes narrowed, the roaring orange-red flames in her hand reflecting in her pupils. This was like the time in sixth grade she got locked in the notoriously dirty janitor's closet at school and was stuck in there for two hours. When she got out, she wildly beat her abusers with a mop handle in a fit of rage, but ended up getting suspended. Except now, dirty mops and cleaning supplies had been substituted for goblins. She really did hate goblins: they were tiny, greasy, gross, annoying and only good as cannon fodder in most games. As far as she was concerned, they were just stepping stones to leveling up. So she had to fight all of them... fine! She'd light the entire room on fire and turn them all into little puddles of XP on the floor, and then she'd... what would she do? She supposed she'd have to figure that out later.

Already seeing the eight goblins as something she just wanted to tear apart, head to toe, she wasted not even a second pitching her blazing hands forward. As a mage would, she swept her arms dramatically in front of her, and the fires obeyed. Clearly intending to consume the entire room in a firestorm, a thick wall of the red-orange flame as high as the ceiling billowed into existence in front of Severine and swept out wildly before her, rushing toward the eight goblins.

I hate goblins so much. Seriously. she thought bitterly.

[Noosie]

Raji takes the potions from the merchant without a word, ignoring the now unimportant NPC in favor of shooting Greg a party invite as well. With a curt nod, the Dark Knight continues on her way, heading towards the city gates and sending one final invite to the Shield Kitty. Her responsible act for the day done, Riley whistles tunelessly and clanks off along the street, idly glancing at alleys to determine if anyone her level is in them. XP is a bit of a must-have, and some gankings might help nurse her now deflated cash-pouch back to health. And it wouldn't hurt to get a bit of a rep for PK'ing, hell, it might even help her get known enough for more rewarding quests.

Damn it feels good to be a Gankster.

[Icaelus]

What caught her attention immediately beyond all the stacks of food in the pantry was the lighting of the room itself. Lanterns, lit with some magical light that felt very similar to her own Faefire..yet..weaker. Melancholia soundlessly approached a lantern..the silence of the room only to be broken from the outside, a loud thud of a meaty fist on wood coupled with a grunted shout from that tub of lard of a goblin..
She dismissed the noise as pure annoyance from the head cook's part. Could've been anything. Might as well finish exploring the room and then check on Severine..
"She'll be fine..I mean, she's Sev."
Mel smiled to herself, confident in her friend's abilities to roast anything that crossed her.

There wasn't anything really noteworthy besides the lanterns, however. All of the food products on the shelves seemed like ordinary produce, nothing special about that. Just another normal pantry in a goblin's kitchen..
Mel sighed. She had been expecting a bit more than just this..still, there was that last bend in the room. Maybe there was something there, maybe not. She would be finding out shortly, anyway..
The Fae girl unhooked one of the other magical lanterns, giving it a curious once-over as she kept walking, approaching the bend..

[MiscChaos]

Getting the party invite from the Dark Knight, Raji apparently, Shima accepts it and shoots Greg and Dax one while she's at it. There's still nothing to do besides wait for everyone to get ready to go, so she still sits at the edge of town waiting.

[Grape Me]

Timth smiles and gives the nun a slight bow in response. "Thank you for all your help. I hope to be able to help the town in anyway I can." He then turned his attention to the door to make his way out, he didn't want to waste time on progressing and leveling up, he used up already a lot of time coming here. He would now head to the tavern to look for possible quests, although he knew most were only for level 6. If there would be none he would head into the woods and find some creatures to kill. Maybe he could fight some of the bandits for exp. He knew that they would be a higher level then him, and it would be a difficult fight, but if he could just win then the exp would come rolling in.

[daxtinator396]

Dax smiles finally as his dumb spell wears off,"Stone lion it is sir! 3 silver correct?" He asks with a grin as he fishes the coins out again and lays them on the counter of the man's stall and places his shield there as well so he could do what was needed. As he did so though he received a party invite from Shima and he grinned broader. Seems she wanted to keep in touch for the coming mission. He quickly accepted and sent her a message,"I'm picking up something in the market ward and I'll be on my way to you momentarily."

[Oroboros1337]

Outskirts of Rendle

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

With her disadvantaged situation, Salora could do nothing but dread while the brother prepares himself. He drops his pants, the billowing fabric easy to drop once the belt holding them up open. She could see that cock of his spring to life, already relatively taut from arousal and quite intimidating in size, hardly surprising considering he was allowed to set it how he wanted. Just when it seemed it couldn't get any more bad for her, the elf felt the blonde lean forward, once more those breasts pressing against her back, and then the soft touch of a tongue licking her elven ear. Her fingers drift down over Salora's belly again, reaching down to that hiked up skirt and her slit, to run her fingers over the elf's slit.

There was another shock of pleasure that shot through Salora's body when she felt her breasts being grabbed by the brother. His hands wrap around her ample mounds as best they can, lifting them to test their weight, enjoying them. "God damn this is fine work... I'm gonna have fun with these." He then, with his wicked and lusty grin, brings that erect cock forward and slides it up between her breasts. Wrapping them around his cock, he then draws his shaft up and down through her cleavage, fucking it for his pleasure. Much as she hates it, Salora cannot help but also feel good, her new sensitivity giving her no choice. While he fucks her chest, the potion merchant watches his new playmate closely, looking for the next time she's going to give him lip, eager to make sure he gives her something else to fill her mouth with.

Vara has no problems getting to such a close distance with her young wizard. In fact, he seems quite inclined to have her close. Her eyes lock on his and the enslavement spell is cast. (Rolled Charm, 1d8+0=1) The spell fails to function this time though, it seems turning him completely obsequious isn't in the cards this time. She'll have to settle for the charm she's already laid on him. Charm that he seems to be taking courage from, as well as her seductive tone. His fingers reach out now to trace along her hip, to enjoy the curve of her body while he shoots her a smile and says, "Oh, I'm tempted to try destruction, but why don't you tell me how I would be destroyed, and I'll think of a way that we can have a little pleasure without dying and ruining our chances for more."

The Rift

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

With Kayleesa acknowledging his concerns, the Commander gives a nod of respect for her lack of excessive pride. Then, to her questions, the lion haired commander tells her, "The Rift was torn open by our ancient enemy themselves. The rip itself hasn't seemed to grow since we set up camp, so it seems their minions cannot manipulate it. It has flooded troops since it has opened though, and thus we have not been able to penetrate the Rift, and have no idea how to seal it back up ourselves. Our camp here is vital as we are able to bottleneck the enemy forces, to hold them here with minimal troop investment ourselves and keep the countryside safe. We pin the demons here so they cannot flood everywhere."

Arcanos' Keep

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Severine prepares her fiery inferno as the goblins climb out of bed and then rush towards her. With the situation as desperate as it is, and goblins being as trash as they are, it becomes a race to the finish as to if she can finish her AoE damage spell fast enough, and if it has enough punch to actually destroy them.

(Combat! Severine rolls 1d8 for Cunning, +2 for Equipment, +1 for Elemental Mastery, 1d8+3=8 Goblins are attempting to overpower, 1d6 for Might, +3 for Close Quarters Combat, +7 for numbers, 1d6+10=12)

Her spell is finishing when the surprisingly fast goblin swarm pounces on the poor mage. The spell is just too ambitious for the time alotted and before she can finish, a goblin jumps up and litterally just clings onto her left arm, using it's whole body weight to throw her off balance, while another one shoulder checks her in the belly. She finds herself going down under their assault, falling backwards to the ground while goblins surround her, now beginning to kick and punch at her, her hit points steadily draining. Looks like this wis going to be the first defeat for Severine on Altera.

Melancholia finds the lantern easily detachable and examinable. It's metal work is bronze, large glass panes giving lots of area to shine light from. The fires inside seem more... tame than faefire. The unending burning is much the same, but it's more esoteric, less primal.

As she wanders around the bend, she finds heself face to face with.... more food. She certainly wouldn't be going hungry in this place. Wheels of cheese nearly as wide in diameter as she is tall. Slabs of cut beef and pork ribs smoked for preservation. Barrels of preserves. However, as she explores around this corner, she hears the sound of the door closing behind her again, and the "Sssshhh," of someone telling another to be quiet.

The Market Ward

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The potion merchant Raji is speaking with gives a slight frown as she dismisses him out of hand, but doesn't say a word of protest. Customer service seems to be key for him. He may feel she was rude, but he's an NPC, right? So who cares if his feelings were hurt? If you could even call them feelings.

When Raji wanders the alleys, she does come across one of her fellow player headed through the ward. Looks like he's a low level guy from the gear he's got, it's all starter level equipment. He's playing one of those Conan the Barbarian type characters with a huge axe over his shoulder.

Dax gets another nod from the shopkeeper, "Very well, I shall ensure your heraldry is applied, if I may just see your shield."

(Timth, Claire, apologies, ran out of time, gotta go to work. I'll get you two posted up tonight at.)

[Reapergod36]

Vara was only a bit surprised her spell didn't work. She was weakened in this world, it was a wonder she could walk. Vara however now saw the wizard was persistent with his perverted efforts, not deterred by destruction. "It would be painful and agonizing, to partake in it as a masochist is only a small comfort. If you try to lie with me, you will die." Vara said trying to distract from the question, she hadn't full thought the story through.

[Sortaix]

Salora had tried to do something, but she was at too much of a disadvantage. She had little choice but to accept her fate at this point, though she was still quite angry at the situation. She couldn't help but blush a little as the man dropped his pants and revealed his member. The size was larger than normal, but with a man getting to choose the size of his own cock, it wasn't a surprise. She was surprised, however at the blonde woman pressing her breasts into Saloras back even more, as she licked her pointed ear. Salora did a quick intake of breath, as she also felt the woman fingers rub across her sex.
Salora couldn't help but feel pleasurable feeling from her chest, that radiated throughout her body, as her assailant grabbed her breasts and began to feel them, as he inspected them. She was a little embarrassed at his compliment, though quickly faded as he placed his dick in between her breasts and began to fuck them. Salora was still angry at being used like this, and though she couldn't fight back, she at least wanted to do something.
"So, this is the only way you can get laid, huh? Tell me, is it because of your shitty personality, or is it because you are so horrible in bed? Cause if you the only you can get laid is to force a woman, you must be doing something horribly wrong."

[daxtinator396]

Dax nods his head and hands it to him,"Here you are sir. Much thanks for your service." Dax said with a smile and shot another message to Shima,"Alright should be there momentarily." After this he would be done and have something for people to see to remind them of his deeds! Soon his adventure would start in full swing.

[napsii]

"Oh, right... level two." groaned Severine, again cursing the life of a low-level.

Before she'd even conjured the wall of flame, she'd known this encounter wasn't going to end in her favor. The goblins eclipsed her attack in the nick of time, and the aqua-haired mage didn't even have the time to mutter a curse before they were all over her. Flames flashed in every which way, but as she tripped to the ground under the weight of one goblin, she knew she had barely scraped them. Unceremoniously, she tumbled backwards to the floor, feeling like an idiot even as she whacked her head against the hard tiles. Stars danced painfully before her eyes, but she could just barely make out the twin coronas of flame circling her hands winking out of existence just before the rest of the goblins came crashing down upon her. Like a lightning bolt, she realized she had lost at that instant. Her first reaction was hate, triple distilled and served in a crystal glass of double-hate. Losing was... something she despised. Emma Hayes had a list of things to hate, and every year she checked it twice, but the gravity of failure had always blown it out of the water. She hissed as goblin fists and feet collided with her body, the hit points ticking away by the millisecond. As it were, their savage strikes only made her ache sharply. There was no agony of bones breaking, cuts opening or skin shredding, but rather just a waterfall of noise that made her precious HP bar sink toward the negatives. It was in this that she began to hiss and yelp.

The physical pain wasn't awful, but the sensation of losing may as well have been a dagger into her cerebellum.

In their lives, some humans won awards for sports or for science, or made it big in business, or became a movie star. Emma Hayes, of course, had done none of those things. In the years of her existence, all she had to show for her existence was her kinship with her sister. Dahlia had always been smarter, tougher and more respected. At school, the students and the teachers adored her, and she had earned so many certificates and trophies that their family renovated a spare room to hold them all. And Emma had... nothing. Her grades had always been mediocre, she couldn't play sports to save her life, her friends were few -- if non-existent -- and without exception, she had failed at everything she had ever tried to do... except play video games. Even as the goblins beat the everloving shit out of her, Severine still managed a self-deprecating "huh". It sounded so pathetic, and yet she had always found success in playing video games. In the digital world, she won competitions and was respected for her talents. In video games, she was many things: a knight, a mage, the heroine or the villainess, a character in myth or even a being that made legends. Even if she couldn't program, hack or think up the next great idea, the computer was still her place, for games were the one thing she had been good at. And yet in the end, she was failing at that, too. Her one talent -- the one thing she thought she had sacrificed her grades and her few remaining friends to sharpen her skills with -- she had fucked up. Right now, she was getting her ass beat, and there was nothing she could do.

I'm such a failure... she realized. A foot collided with her gut and knocked the wind out of her.

This really hurt.

She coughed. Pain might have been dulled in Altera, but the numbness was starting to wear on her. As the beating proceeded, she started to lose sense of up and down in the dizzying frenzy. Even if it was possible to fight back, she wasn't even sure she could stand. And if this kept up, her HP bar would empty and she'd vanish from existence. But what could she do? There was no way she could fight back with her HP sinking into the negatives so fast and all of her spells being useless in such a one-sided situation. Of course, the words ended up coming out automatically:

"Ah, wait! Stop!" she called. It was hard not to notice the sudden shift in tone. The usual venom of callousness and cynicism had all but evaporated from her voice, which now seemed more... feminine? Perish the thought.

"Unnh... ngh... fine, I... give... up..." she mumbled out as her head sunk back to the floor, in an obvious daze.

[Inferi]

So, the Rift was something that seemed to be fairly perpetual, at least given the information that they had at the moment. That seemed logical, especially in a game where the progression of such an event was likely dependant on the progression of players in the game. There wasn’t any evidence to that, but it seemed like the course of events that most games took. In terms of what was happening in the game, though, Kayleesa could only surmise that, when someone reached a point where such an event would happen, it would have to be triggered by some kind of more powerful entity that would either remain in the portal or step through it on the advent of its widening. Regardless, it was not spreading now, and that was one of the things she had wanted to know.

When it came to actually going inside the Rift, and the lack of those excursions happening, Kayleesa couldn’t say she was surprised. A militant force like this did not usually do anything besides stand back and keep the enemies from overrunning everything in the vicinity, relying on people like herself to do the infiltration/invasion work. It was a pity that there was no knowledge of what was inside, but that was something she figured would have to found out firsthand, something that she had no intention of trying right now. The interior of a Rift was bound to be something that a level 1 wouldn’t survive for a single battle inside, so until she actually felt confident in her abilities Kay was going to just fight the enemies outside, or, failing that, just observe the situation.

“You’re doing a good job from what I can see.” Kayleesa told the commander with a small smile. It didn’t matter to her that this man was an NPC, a generation of a program that she was simply utilizing. No, everything in here was just as real, and he was as real as anyone on the outside, so praise for what seemed to be a good setup to her was more than appropriate. Having good relations with everyone was just something she did automatically, and a virtual world was no different from the actual world. The fact that people treated her with all the ways that they did in the real world was enough of an indication of that.

“I’m ready to go, if you can tell me where I need to be.” she continued, her smile fading into a more serious expression. While the commander had pointed out the pin on the map that signified where she would need to go, she wasn’t quite sure of the actual location. Even a simple direction would likely suffice, which was all she was looking for.

As she spoke, butterflies were beginning to form in her stomach. This was the first thing she had actually done that held any importance to the game, as well as the first bit of real combat that she was going to get into, so feelings of nervousness were only to be expected. Maybe after she had gone through this, they wouldn’t happen so often, but until then Kay wasn’t going to be going into battle with the most confidence that she could. At least it didn’t show on the outside, her ability to keep such feelings hidden still working decently.

[Icaelus]

The lantern clattered to the floor almost as soon as she had realized what the flame in the lantern was. It felt nearly the same as her Faefire, casting the same eerie blue glow as it..yet, it felt lifeless, in a sense. Like it had been tamed, harvested from some Fae and then put to use here..Mel shook her head. Her imagination was running wild..but her feelings couldn't be denied. She hated the flame..
"Just who created these flames..?"
Mel growled harshly. She hadn't felt this annoyed..maybe even angry since she had come into Altera.. Abandoning the fallen lantern, she continued deeper into the room, finally nearing the bend..and turning the corner.

Food, food and of course, more food. Melancholia suppressed a groan at her findings. Absolutely jack shit unless the world of Altera suffered a zombie crisis, in which then she would be glad to stay in this room till it all ended.
It's an oversized pantry. A larder. What did you expect besides food?
She chided herself for getting her hopes up, turning to leave the room. Better check in on Severine and see how she was doing, too..she was nearly around the corner and would've walked right into the open if she hadn't heard the door closing..and worse, voices.
Shit.
The Fae girl highly doubted that whatever creatures or people that had came in after her was going to be friendly..and here she was, trapped with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide..this was going to be one difficult encounter.

But even the cornered rat will bite the cat. Working out a quick plan of attack, Mel silently unhooked one of the lanterns off the wall. The goblins, she was guessing were probably about to turn the corner and walk right into her..so, why not preempt them?
Setting her own lantern down onto the floor, she clicked her fingers, Faeflame blazing to life in her slender palm. She whipped round the corner, hurling the lantern at the first enemy she saw, then slammed her two hands together, thrusting outwards at her would-be attackers. Faeflame ignited at her very fingertips, blasting forth into a blue flamethrower, seeking to scorch whatever it touched into ashes.

[MiscChaos]

Shima sends Dax a short message consisting of "Alright. We will still have to wait for Greg and Rajj to report in, however," just to let him know that she is paying attention to his messages. She wouldn't like to get the feeling of being ignored herself after all. Now more waiting. She is almost sick of waiting, one small annoyance away from trying to seek out Kayleesa or do the job herself or something similar.

[Oroboros1337]

Emerald Falls

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The tavern in Emerald Falls is named simply the Traveller's Rest. It's a rather smallish building with the ground floor perhaps able to accomodate 30 people if it got really crowded. At this point in the day though it was pretty vacant. The tavern is staffed by a woman with long dark hair, dressed much like most bar staff with a white blouse and red skirt, the skirt long enough to be quite modest but hanging tightly enough to show of some wonderful hips. She's flagged as having a quest available. Over by the fire, a man in his mid thirties dressed in armour is enjoying a warm cider by the fire and is marked with a quest marker. As well, there is the customary posting on the walls showing bounties in the area. The two most active are :

- Uller the Red, last seen in Nandaman Woods, 7 gold pieces, recommended level 7. He's got a rather wide face, and his hair and his beard have been allowed to grow profucely, giving him a man on the mountain kind of look.

- Cherry, last seen Nandaman Woods, 5 gold pieces for temporary reprieve, 15 for permanent, recommended level is 9. Her skin is darker, more like an arabian skin tone, and her hair is a leaf green.

The Gamboler's Ace (Claire starts here)

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Inn of the Gambler's Ace is open for business. On the ground floor, it has a central tavern room that has wooden tables spread about, solid and well worn chairs at them to sit upon, and a bar for those who care to sit at it and take their orders there. In the traditional manner, a dwarven bartender sits behind the bar on his stool, waiting to take orders while he whittles away at a stick. The serving staff is made up of a trio of rather shapely buxom wenches who glide through the room, taking orders and delivering drinks. People simply refer to them as the Blonde, the Red Head, and the Brunette. For those desiring a little more privacy, there are a few booths around the outside of the room with red velvet curtains that can be drawn over the entrances. Upstairs, the Inn has rooms for rent available to those players who haven't yet purchased housing, which is just about everyone.

The Gambler's Ace is usually a good place to find some good drinks and a good quest to go on. Today is no exception. Standing at the side of the room is a dark skinned man wearing arabian style heavy robes and holding an ale in his hand while he sips at it and surveys the room. He's marked as a quest giver for any players that check the interface. One of the walls of the Ace's drinking room has a series of posters stuck to it, each one holding a picture, a name, and a price, a set of bounties set by the city watch. Finally a middle aged man wearing hunting leathers is sitting at a seat by the fire, also marked as a quest giver.

It must have been a really late night for Claire, for when she comes downstairs from her room to the main bar area, it is past noon and most of the other adventurers have gone. In fact, the proprietress herself seems to be missing. The staff are keeping things going though.

Outskirts of Rendle

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The wizard gives a scowl at the demon woman when she gives him this reply, "Hey, I'm no massicyst, so don't worry about that. You didn't tell me why I'd die though, so you'd best explain that further, I can't think of how you can please me if you don't tell me that first." As the conjurer, and bound by her attraction, he definitely feels in control and that is making him bold in his suggestions. "Alright, let's think this through... Go ahead and take off your clothes, we can figure out how to make this work while you show me how sinfully sexy you are." That hand on Vara's hip slides down to take hold of her ass cheek now, giving it a squeeze while he talks to her.

For Salora, perhaps the only blessing of this situation was that the woman behind her could only use one hand, thanks to the way they bound her up. It's unnerving to think what she might be doing with two. With her ear being teased still by light flicks of teeth and the soft touch of her tongue, it was just an interesting addition to those fingers below, who now dove deeper into Salora's sex, probing her while she suffers the pleasure of having those ample tits fucked.

When Salora gets to the end of her verbal taunt, the man in front of her suddenly shifts tactics. He lets those breasts fall away from his rigid shaft, now covered with precum from his excitement, and plunges it up towards her gabbing mouth. Finding it open, he shoves his cock in there before she can get it closed. His shaft buries itself deep into her mouth, sinking in just in time as the cock twitches with pleasure and shudders. The potion merchant peaks, his cock spraying out now a huge stream of his cum, blasting the inside of her mouth with it in a huge torrent of seed. It's enough to fill her mouth and more, the only question of how much more becoming if she's prepared to swallow. If she does, she can probably manage to keep it to a small drip down her lip, if not, considerably more will be pouring from her mouth.

Arcanos' Keep

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Severine's acknowledgement of surrender seems to take the goblins by surprise. When she tells them she gives up, they pause, blink at each other, and seem stunned as to how to proceed. It seems this is far outside their usual routine. "We catch her... we keep her?" inquires one of the goblins of the others. The other says, "Maybe she tricks..." A third one says, "She try tricks, but we win again. Trophy. They think we kitchen slaves. We show her to show they wrong." The goblins then turn and look down at Severine again and fix her with broad, toothy grins. While they still insist on sitting on her arms to keep her from trying any spells, they do stop hitting her, letting her recover. Her health remains critically low, but at least the pain is fading very quickly.

From somewhere, one of the goblins turns up with a bed sheet and they set to work tying her arms above her head with the sheet, binding her hands above her head before they start to drag the aqua haired mage over towards one of the bunk beds. There, one of them climbs up to the top bunk and the goblins pull her arms up, lifting her up until the soles of her feet can barely touch the ground. There, they tie her to the top of the bed, hanging down from the top of the bed post while they try to figure out what to do from here.

This is when the goblins finally have their party crashed. There is a small glow of violet energy from the door to the bunk room. The lock clicks open. The glow and the sound are positively understated, but that understated nature makes them seem all the more important. The door then swings open, and indeed all the goblins turn to look at who it is that is entering. In comes a man perhaps in his thirties. He has a slim build and fine features befitting someone not of the working cast, perhaps a scholar, a bueraucrat, or as seems most likely, a wizard's apprentice. The man is dressed in robes of red, slashed through with black to add highlights. His hair stands in contrast to the robe, a pale blonde, nearly white. The way he carries himself speaks of confidence, master of his castle. The goblins freeze upon seeing him and this man's cool eyes sweep around the room, catching the whole fraccas mid event.

"I had heard there was a disturbance in the kitchens. I thought perhaps it best to see that nothing was amiss. Is there anything amiss?" His eyes sweep around the room, studying each goblin and weighing their worth. Those eyes sweep around until they catch sight of Severine tied to her bed post and then stop there, studying her.

"Not at all, Remus," says one of the goblins, a bit of a simper entering his voice. "Had nosey outsider, no problem at all. See, see? All under control. No worries, we clean up this mess."

The comment gets a thin smile from this Remus fellow, who hasn't yet taken his eyes off of the aqua haired mage. "Ah, is that the case then. Perhaps I should just leave you to this then."

Meanwhile, in the pantry....

Melancholia, in her pantry, takes a bold step and ambushes her stalkers. Her fingertips burst out with fire, and there are indeed three goblins on the other end of that assault.

(Combat! Mel has 1d6 Cunning, +1 for her Fae Magic skill, 1d6+1=4. The goblins, 1d6 for might, +3 for Close Quarters Combat, +2 for numbers, their kitchen knives carry no combat bonuses. 1d6+5=10. Goblin victory.)

With the goblins being so noisy, they are completely unable to take Mel by surprise. However, when she creeps to the right spot to leap out on them, the shadows cast by the fae by the lanterns in the pantry give away her ambush. When she springs out to ambush them, they leap for cover from her spells. Being a Fae certainly did give her access to some potent magical abilities. However, those magical abilities were sadly also somewhat a known quantity, since they belonged to her whole race. The goblin closest to her flame thrower of fae fire simply throws himself out of the way, foregoing any attack to simply keep himself alive. That said, he still gets a lick of faefire on the hem of his cooking clothes, panicking a bit while he brings his knife around to cut off the affected parts.

The other two goblins leap into action, not wanting to let the fae get off a second barrage. One splits off to the side, moving to flank her, while the other leaps up to cling to the second floor shelf. Then, somewhat flanking her, they both throw their bodyweights behind tackling the outnumbered girl to the ground. Strength was never her strong point. Mel finds herself then underneath both goblins while they stab at her with their knives, the dull, brief flashes of pain telling her she'd been stabbed before they faded without too much effect.

The Rift

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Commander gave a nod of acknowledgement to the angel knight, apparently receiving the compliment well but not exactly letting it go to his head. There indeed was a richness to the interactions here, NPCs having varied personalities, and remembering things that people had done already. Relationships with the NPCs could be quite important as time goes on. The Commander points to the place on the map again. "We'll need you here. The enemy seems to be harassing that flank with a unit of creatures riding some spiders. While they are content to not push a firm attack, they are harassing our units while seeming to set up some kind of elaborate web trap. Left unchecked, it could lock down that flank and let them concentrate their troops elsewhere, giving them the advantage of numbers. Link up with the 6th Division there, they'll act as your back up. Work with them to push the spider riders out." Looks like even though there are no other players there, there will be NPC soldiers. The scale of this battle is simply too large to not include soldiers as well, to make it feel appropriately epic.

(Shinma, Dax, you are free to do what you'd like now. If you wanted to find something to do while you wait for your travelling companions to join you, by all means. If you opt to go without them, fine. Also, feel free to chat with each other while you wait of course. Let me know if there is something I can do to keep you entertained.)

[Sortaix]

Salora was quite unnerved at the situation, though her body was reacting to it. The womans nibbles on her ear as well as her probing fingers now had Salora very damp, and getting hot. She was bright red with blush, though it turned to anger, when the man shoved his cock into her mouth and proceeded to unload his seed. She intended to hold it in her mouth, and spit it back at him, but it ended up being much more than she anticipated. She then tried to quickly choose whether it would be worse to wear this jerks spunk, or to swallow it. Her decision was made for her however, when the woman teasing her snatch hit a sensitive spot, that made Salora intake breath, which caused her to cough and sputter, forcing her to swallow the pervy potion salesman's seed to be able to breath again. She ended up swallowing all of his seed before she even realized what she did.

[Reapergod36]

Vara would glare as the whelp gripped her ass, "If you want to keep that hand, you can take your hand off my ass. I am going to continue wearing my outfit; you are going to bow down before me worm..." Vara said gripping the wizard's balls tightly and squeezing.

At least, Vara thought about doing it. She wanted to, but didn't bother with it. She still didn't know the extent of her powers in this mortal realm. She knew she was weak, and having that only to go by. She laid her forehead against his and attempted the slave spell again, looking into his eyes. If the spell worked, he would have free will, up until she gave him a command. But her mark would show up on his skin.

But as she thought about the mark it would leave. She stopped herself before she made good on her efforts. "Master, remove your hand from my butt." Vara took a pause after saying that. She had a master in her realm, the one who sent her here. He would not be happy about her calling someone else master... She then would speak again, "I am not going to take off my clothes, and I am not a sex toy." She gripped his wrist tightly, "Like I said, you have no idea what you've summoned." Vara would look for something to cover herself, a black or brown cloak perhaps. "I am alright with being coy, but you are not meant to lay with me wizard." Vara shifted away from the Wizard, looking away from him as well. Her tail slowly swayed back and forth...

[TheDaughterOfHades14]

Claire sighs and walks down the stairs. She walks up to the man seated by the fire. "So what quests are there today?" she asks the man. Claire looks around the tavern. She observes the scenery and the NPCs. "Interesting..." she says quietly. She looks at the trio of wenches. "Hm. Very interesting..." she says again quietly. She turns her head back to the man. "So, about the quests..." Claire says.

[Icaelus]

Melancholia cursed mentally as she realized her mistake. Goblins obviously weren't that smart, but they weren't dumb enough not to recognize a shadow cast by the person lying in wait for them. The goblin that would've been caught in her flamethrower had ample time to throw himself aside, the flames shaving by his clothes and setting the hem of the cloth on fire. With that kind of damage, Mel could only hope he got singed at best. The other two goblins were an entire different story. There was no magic flamethrower deterring them from rushing her. The goblins made use of the most basic tactic known to every low-leveled NPC against mages; rush in headfirst and tackle them down.
Melancholia grunted in pain as the goblins smashed bodily into her, pinning her down. A sharp flash of pain blinded her senses, alerting her that their knives were indeed very sharp and more than capable of stabbing through Fae flesh, as they had just so kindly demonstrated.

"Uaah!"
The fae girl cried out in pain as the cold metal entered and left her body in a matter of seconds. Goddamn it, Altera sure knew how to let it's player know that she was in some real trouble. Things weren't looking good. Struggling under the goblins' combined weight without much hope of shoving either of the filthy greenskins off, her options were quickly running out. What the heck could a mage do when she was pinned down?
That question blazed through her mind at a thousand miles a minute as she shifted her body just enough to move out the way of a dagger aimed for her hip. The metal brushed against her bare skin and the girl shivered. She had to get out from under these two dickbags to stand a single chance of fighting back. A desperate plan quickly formed in her distressed mind and a wicked smile crossed her lips as she remembered the basics of magic.
Magic and melee were quite similar in a fashion. As time had went back, many of the frail mages had resorted to casting their spells from a distance, in hopes of taking down their foes before they reached them. What they had forgotten was that magic was just as potent up close.

Her hands roared with Faeflame as Mel initiated her last ditch effort to get herself out of this bind, raising a flaming hand and shoving it where the sun don't shine. Mel groaned in disgust, trying to take away the thought of where her hand currently was as she shifted her other hand, grabbing a fistful of the other goblin's clothing. Concentrating with a deep breath, she ignited the Faefire in her hands as hot as she dared go.