The City of the Specter, Atem's Palace

[metagame]

The corpse sinks to the floor
Even the brightest gold, even the sharpest blade
Becomes sand, becomes dust

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[metagame]

Mahaad takes this opportunity to attack Shalem..!

"Black Magic!"

The blast connects for Heavy Nuclear Damage (8)!

Mana can't figure out what's happening... and what Soujuurou did hurt... but she casts Matarunda on the group just in case.

At the moment, they're both confused on what the group is trying to accomplish. Mahaad has sustained heavy damage, and about ready to keel over. Mana is at half HP right now.

[beathollow]

( mafuyu's anxiety is spiking so, so badly. oh god.

shalem is frightening, and- she knows they have to fight the shadows, but... but right now they look like people. did the guards also look like people? ...

they have no credibility. but... )

I won't fight you.

( and her diplomacy/persuasion roll is a 16. )

[emptyself]

Please just let us finish the fight! We can handle Shalem by ourselves.

[ how? he doesn't know. but even as he attacks mana, it's a punch to the diaphragm (10) in hopes of simply knocking her out. ]

[finalmix]

[ character development means that even if his persuasion is almost there but not quite (17) joshua is also choosing not to attack for once. ]

[ so, while he's unapologetic about it: ] I did what I had to do. I wasn't about to risk getting all of us in that judgment room or whatever your guards were calling it before we even had a chance to talk to that Pharaoh of yours.

[ yes he knows atem's name, no he is Not using it ]

It was just unfortunate that they provoked us first.

[ something something ends justifies the means, all that jazz, ]

[emptyself]

YOU'RE NOT HELPING!

[ BRO HE IS SO CLOSE TO GOING TO FIGHT ON THE SIDE OF THE PRIESTS IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY ]

[moodwrecker]

That guy, [nodding angrily at Shalem] does not represent the rest of us.

[But she only rolled a 7 so lol.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ Sunrise is just...going to slowly put her hands up by her sides. She is not going to try talking because she knows she sucks at it, though whether this gesture is particularly convincing after she tried hitting Mana a couple of times earlier is a different matter (14). ]

[prozaic]

[That doesn't hurt, he tells himself. It doesn't. But no one's healed him (and why would they? they're perfectly justified) after Richard's blow and the previous other Nuclear spell from the two priests.

But you know what? He was trained to handle pain anyway. So he chooses the bigger threat right now, and swipes at Mana with a Giant Slice (20). He may be wobbling on his feet, but that doesn't mean he can't put all of his strength into his arms.]

[privatedomicile]

DUDE.

[emptyself]

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

[ledbythewind]

[YOU KNOW, HE WAS JUST ABOUT TO HEAL YOU BUT THEN YOU HAD TO GO AHEAD AND DO THAT!!!

Instead, he's just going to try to bring the hilt of his rapier down on the back of Shalem's head (17) because he's mad and he isn't going to take it anymore.

Nighty night, angy snek.]

[prozaic]

[He's down for the count. Someone kiss Richard, he saved everyone.

Maybe someone should catch him though... except he's heavy with all that muscle.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ I decided to roll for this and apparently dice decided Sunrise should be able to do it (17).

While there's nothing to be done about the fact that Sunrise is only 5'1", for someone so short she has a surprising degree of strength. She manages to silently catch Shalem from hitting the ground. ]

[privatedomicile]

[Shit, what does he even say. He looks ready to wrestle Shalem if needed, and lets out a small sigh before talking.]

Look, uh, sorry about those guards, yo, major bummer. Least they like, died in the line of duty or somethin', you can give 'em an ancient medal of honor. And they like, would want us to focus on doin' the right thing for the kingdom instead of beatin' each other up like a bunch of morons, yeah?

[That's a 12. Jesse is unfortunately doing a very bad job at acting like he's broken up about the death of some snake monster shadows.]

[pointzeropercent]

[Okay, it looks like they're going the diplomatic route, so he's going to pivot from healing to try something else.]

Hey, we don't necessarily need to fight here. It's better to save our strength for any future fights, yeah?

[And then he's going to hit Shalem with a Energy Shower to cure any Confuse/Fear/Despair/Rage/Brainwash. Will it cure self-inflicted things along the lines of those status effects? Who knows! But he's sure gonna try!]

[prozaic]

[Alas given the insanity is innate, it does nothing :pensive:

is there a spell to undo psychological effects of childhood trauma]

[metagame]

"Do you believe us to be blind and deaf? We saw you throw that pot at the guards and heard how you spoke to them. You and that snake. Any more lies and I'll have your tongue," Mahaad says.

Mana struggling to keep herself up now after Soujuurou punched her in the diaphragm and that critical hit. She lifts her wand to cast a spell, stops, then lowers it as Shalem goes down.

"How can we trust any of you to keep your word?"

She gestures to Haruka.

"Didn't you say violence is always the answer?"

Her wand points at Argenti next.

"And you called the guards fiends!"

Then looks at Joshua again.

"And you're the one who said you were all planning a coup against the Prince!"

She bites her lip.

"Did any of you even stop and think to help the servants escape? I know they're not real. We're not real either... But we still exist in this world because of him. Because some part of him still has hope that someone will save him."

[moodwrecker]

[Oh. Well, at least they know they aren't real?]

Then how are we supposed to help him? That's what we're trying to do here, even if we have no idea how.

[She got a 19+4 YOOOOO]

[ledbythewind]

I would hope that the fact we were willing to subdue one of our own companions would count for something.

[Will this 7+4 be effective? Time to find out!]

[emptyself]

I apologize for what my teammates have done! You're right. We should have done things differently from the start. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at this.

[ now that she's not attacking, soujuurou will also take steps back, hands raised and palms close to his chest to show that he doesn't mean harm. pacifism (14+4) go! ]

This is probably the doing of the God of Conflict. If we keep fighting like this, then it'll just become stronger. I trust that the both of you want the best for Atem and I want to help him because he helped me when I was also in a dark place. So please tell us what we should do so you can trust us. Please.

[privatedomicile]

Yo, that's what we've been trying to do from the beginning! Like half of us have been dealing with walkin' into other people's nightmares and gettin' kidnapped into personal hell––shit, a guy died because of this God of Conflict bitch!

Wait. Wait hold the phone. [Jesse looks down and thinks of something with his 15+4 roll.] ...if those villagers are blamin' him for what went wrong, don't that mean he blames himself? I think––we gotta help him get outta his own head.

So where the hell do we go to save him, magician girl!?

[pointzeropercent]

You know, half of us were alone with the Pharaoh already. We hung out in his library and read scrolls together. If we were planning a coup, wouldn't we have done something then?

[Logic go! 14+4!]

[metagame]

"You all should know the answer already. It's something you can show, but you can't see," Mana says.

Mahaad and Mana end the fight!

And for your troubles, Mana casts Mediarahan on almost the whole party. Except for Shalem. Shalem can eat shit and die for all she cares. She almost didn't cast it on Soujuurou too, but she can put aside that grudge for the greater good.

[privatedomicile]

Hold on, like the--the riddle!

[Jesse's eyes light up in recognition, but that quickly dims.]

I said the answer was "Balls."

posts this twenty years late but this needs to be real now

[finalmix]

[ joshua rolls his eyes in exasperation because honestly, has no one here heard of hyperbole and look, some situation calls for white lies and like, whatever joshua did worked in the end because they're here now, right?

... right? ]

Please. If I was actually planning a coup against your prince I would have killed him instead agreeing to play a game with him and losing to a game that was clearly rigged-- mmph!

[ because that's the point mafuyu probably slaps her hand over joshua's mouth so that he doesn't get himself into more trouble. ]