[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

DARK FOREST

[voidhearts]

[You enter the village where Nessa was born. Darkness has completely taken over the sky, gashes running through both the ground and sky, casting everything in a sick, purple glow. The ground around you has been split open by the gashes, leaving a pit of black nothing below you - whatever you do, don't fall. The trees of the forest have become twisted and misshapen. Some have fallen to create makeshift bridges across the void. Many of them have lost all of their leaves and weep black and violet liquid on the ground.

You approach a large floating island. The temple is the only building that's left, and it's risen high into the air. The homes where Nessa's family used to live have been replaced by obsidian stone towers, four in total, each positioned at one corner of the island.

A huge dome-shaped barrier surrounds the Temple. Black tendrils of Void energy come from the Temple, ripping into the air and tearing away at reality itself. That's...probably where the Voidheart is. As you approach the temple, somebody floats out of it. No points for guessing, it's Esmau, who fixes a disdainful look down on all of you.

As Esmau floats high above the air, you feel Lilith's voice echoing through the forest.]

You have served your purpose.
All that awaits you now is the gift of death.
The darkness beyond your final days.

[You must defeat Nightmare of Esmau, Disciple of Lilith to avert the destruction of Nessa's Palace.

Esmau is inside the Temple, hidden behind an impregnable barrier. Besides that, she has proven to be invincible any time you have faced her. You must work together to bring down the barrier and find a way to make Esmau vulnerable.

Nell has joined you for the final battle. Once per round, you can call out to Nell and ask her for assistance. Nell can:
Gather intel on the battlefield that may help you figure out how to bring down Esmau's shields.
Heal one ally for a small amount with her Harmony Bolt.
Go Invisible with her Vanishing Step and use her Drop of Escape to make one other person on the team invisible. Nell cannot be attacked while Invisible.
Attack with her Void Snap and Hidden Blade. Hidden Blade's damage is significantly increased when Nell is Invisible.
Invoke her Heart's power with Shadow Stalker, allowing her to rain down attacks with her Void Daggers.
If Nell isn't commanded in some way, she'll decide on her own what to do.
Nell has only 50 HP. If her HP is reduced to zero, she'll be removed from battle temporarily.]

ROUND 1

[voidhearts]

BOSS ACTION

[voidhearts]

[Esmau raises her hand. A Void Crystal appears high in the air, above the temple and outside of the dome protecting it. The crystal pulses with energy. You feel tightness and pain in your chest as the pulses touch you. Negative memories of your own try to creep to the surface, along with negative memories of Esmau....disciplining you. Yelling at you. Berating you. Striking you. You quickly realize these are Nessa's memories.

After this round, all players will take 10 damage at the start of each round.]

REACTION

[voidhearts]

[React to the Boss Action.]

Re: REACTION

[velluminous]

[ inhaling sharply, her hand going to clench at her chest where the crystal pulses against the flesh and sinew of her body ]

...

[ i cannot stress enough how much of a battlemage Sprezzatura is not ]

[messianic]

[ Minato will never get to pretend like he's an average teen ever again with her after this--because in contrast, he's steady on his feet, squinting up at the Void Crystal, and Esmau. This... feels familiar, and he's been here before.

He reaches out to gently touch her elbow. ]

Steady, Sprezzatura-san. We can do this.

[velluminous]

[ gets a 10 on insight. . . well, Minato might be able to pretend. maybe.

he will feel the way she's tremoring slightly from adrenaline. ]

We have to do this.

[survivaltricks]

[sucks in a sharp breath and grits his teeth, and although his hackles are raising in response to this assault, he is staying steady. as one protag does!!]

Stupid--

[the people being mean in the memories, he means]

[velluminous]

Ignore them. [ quoth the woman who has never ignored anything, ever, in her life ] Insidious whispers only. Poison to your mind.

Re: REACTION

[voidhearts]

[Nell is looking down at the ground. She seems...pretty affected by the bad memories.]

....I might still be scared of you, but...

I'm...not gonna let you stop me from helping Nessa!

[cosplayed_out]

...I've suffered numerous attempts on my life from my sister. This is nothing.

[SO SHE SAYS, but inwardly it hurts]

DISCUSS

[voidhearts]

[Make a plan with your allies for what to do.]

Re: DISCUSS

[velluminous]

[ deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, painful breath. steady. don't look too high up, and most importantly, don't look... down.

if only she had Featherfall. ]

Shields first. I do not think tiny, small attacks will break this one in time.

[cosplayed_out]

....We need a battle plan. Let's evaluate our strengths and weaknesses to form a baseline.

As for myself, I will stay back and attack until I can summon reinforcements. After which, my sister will be much more effective than myself.

[... she sighs, guess she'll drop character.]

Mukuro here can attack ranged until I can trigger my ability to "summon Keebo." He attacks with more damage when paired with Junko Enoshima's attack, who I'll bring out when he's active.

In any case, I can also make the DPS more effective if the Tank has HP to spare.

If anyone really, really needs me to get access to their abilities, I'll do it, but only if we're about to suffer a TPK. Cospox is not comfortable, even if the rules are interpreting it as a mere minus 5 HP.

[survivaltricks]

[. . . who is this person he doesn't know her at all]

We need to take down that barrier first. right? None of us can do anything while it's still up there.

[looks over at Nell with one raised brow. HE KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF A NAVI]

[voidhearts]

[Oh gosh, I'm being looked at.]

Sh....she's definitely gonna try to keep us out as much as possible. I can look around and see if there's anything around here that might help us get through it. Just tell me what you want me to do.

Um.

..."T-Tanking" is like. When somebody takes damage so others don't have to, right?

I. I can't do that. I'm...

[She holds up an arm.]

[It's a NOODLE.]

[cosplayed_out]

This is cosplay. It's giving me access to her abilities as a mercenary who may have well have crawled out of a Metal Gear game.

[velluminous]

[ what is tank? what is dee-pee-ess? ]

I should not be in close combat unless it is absolutely necessary.

[messianic]

[ mmmmmm.... ]

I think I'm more support than anything this time around... Akira's right that we need to do something about that barrier as soon as possible.

And maybe the crystal, too, if we can.

PLAYER ACTION

[voidhearts]

[Make your own actions.]

NELL

[voidhearts]

[Nell is at 50 HP.
Nell is currently visible.
Nell's Invoke will be charged in 225 damage.

You can command Nell to Gather Intel, Heal, Go Invisible or Attack. If you do not command her, she will make her own decision.]

GATHER INTEL

[voidhearts]

[At Akira's command, Nell runs off to inspect the barrier, searching for weaknesses in it that they might be able to use to get into the Temple. She returns a few moments later, her head down. She looks disappointed.]

I...I'm sorry, b-but it's bad news.

The barrier is unbreakable. I couldn't find a single weakpoint on it. It must be powered directly by the Voidheart or something...we're going to have to find some other way to bring it down.

The only thing I could find is that I noticed that to attack us with that crystal, she had to cast it outside the barrier. So at the very least, I don't think there's a ton she can do to us either for now, besides use that crystal....

Re: PLAYER ACTION

[velluminous]

[ as soon as Nell's intel turns up that there's... really not a lot any of them can do to break the barrier, she's setting her jaw, tail flicking. ]

...Right.

[ Sprezzatura calls on Void Bolt and hurls two uses of it up, up, up... towards the crystal. just to see if it will even reach. ]

[cosplayed_out]

[Mukuro draws a cosplay weapon in the form of a handgun and fires a round at the crystal, which explodes with a loud report.]

...

[she then recoils at the sound and blast, holds her wrist, wincing, apparently stunned that her weapon actually worked like a weapon]

[voidhearts]

[Sprezzatura's Void Bolts strike the crystal repeatedly. Cracks start to appear in the purple crystal's surface. Then with a loud BANG, Tsumugi's weapon fires and strikes the crystal, shattering it into shards that fall into the abyss below. The pulses fade and the pain in everyone's chest slowly dulls away.]

[A violet aura surrounds Tsumugi. Some energy released by the crystal has been transferred to her. Tsumugi has gained Umbral Absorber.]