[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

ROUND 3

[voidhearts]

BOSS ACTION

[voidhearts]

...

[Esmau lets out a huff as she sees the attempt to remove the barrier fail. She raises her hand up, conjuring two more black holes and firing two more Void Blasts, this time at Sprezzatura and Tsumugi.]

REACTION

[voidhearts]

[Tsumugi and Sprezzatura can:
- Guard: Take guaranteed damage, but reduce incoming damage.
- Dodge: Attempt to dodge the attack, taking no damage.]

[Akira and Minato can:
- Intercept: Choose to intercept an attack targeting your ally.]

[Otherwise, react to the last round of action how you wish.]

Tsumugi

[cosplayed_out]

[Tsumugi defends]

Re: Tsumugi

[voidhearts]

[The Void Blast strikes Tsumugi and...

Before it touches her Ironheart defense, it touches the aura and the beam narrows...and narrows....and vanishes, absorbed into Tsumugi's body. The violet aura around her intensifies and a violet glow appears in her eyes.

Umbral Absorber has become Umbral Sight.

Tsumugi can see lines of Void energy coming from the barrier, leading towards....the outskirts of the village.]

Re: REACTION

[velluminous]

[ Dodge, using Thunderstep's Defense Bonus: "Can be cast in response to an attack on your opponent’s turn, increase the dodge bonus of yourself and/or up to one ally by +5 for that attack."

CRK-BOOOOM ]

Re: REACTION

[voidhearts]

[Roll to hit: 14
Roll 1d20-9: 17-9=8, miss.

Leaving a crackle of thunder in her wake, Sprezzatura successfully avoids the Void Blast.]

DISCUSS

[voidhearts]

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

[cosplayed_out]

I felt it react, but it seemed unaffected.

2/3

[cosplayed_out]

...!

3/3

[cosplayed_out]

There's some sort of Void energy coming from the outskirts of the village! Maybe it's connected to the barrier! We need to go there!

[velluminous]

[ reappearing a short ways away with a deafening BOOM ]

Wh... What? How do you know that?

[cosplayed_out]

When that attack hit me, it changed the ability I had before. I can see void energy now. I have... special eyes.

And there's void energy coming from the barrier toward the village outskirts.

[velluminous]

[ she looks briefly stunned, but then it's relief

We have to go now.

PLAYER ACTION

[voidhearts]

Re: PLAYER ACTION

[velluminous]

[ this round, Sprezzatura rewrites Magic Missile to Harmony and unloads three times on Esmau's barrier. does it still proc Node of Repurposing if the Missiles cannot actually reach their intended target? a scholar must experiment to find such things out.

as she hurls Missile after Missile, ] Miss Ikusaba, lead us to village!

Re: PLAYER ACTION

[velluminous]

[ IT PROCS

BACK TO FULL, BABY. I AM THE BEST WIZARD EVER. ]

—Hahahahaa!

[cosplayed_out]

[Tsumugi is inwardly celebrating that Sprezzatura called her Ikusaba, and follows the Umbral Sight to the outskirts.]

[voidhearts]

[Nell follows the group to the outskirts of the village. Tsumugi will recognize that the houses where Nessa's family used to live are gone, replaced by four large black towers.

Her eyes flash briefly when they fall upon the towers. She can see something on each of the towers. Faces. As it turns out...familiar faces! Each tower has a different one....

Tower 1:


Tower 2:


Tower 3:


Tower 4:
]

ROUND 4

[voidhearts]

BOSS ACTION

[voidhearts]

[Esmau growls, growing increasingly annoyed as they get away from the temple and head towards the outskirts....something about what they're doing sure seems to have annoyed her. She brings up both hands and fires four Void Blasts at all four of the explorers!]

REACTION

[voidhearts]

[All players can:
- Guard: Take guaranteed damage, but reduce incoming damage.
- Dodge: Attempt to dodge the attack, taking no damage.]

Re: REACTION

[cosplayed_out]

[Tsumugi will guard once again]

DISCUSS

[voidhearts]

PLAYER ACTION

[voidhearts]