Shadows of Sandfield RP Thread

James breathed in. He knew what he was going to have to do, these guards were better equipped and prepared, they clearly weren't going to let a mere flight of stairs take them out of the fight. He was going to need more force, and with that came the possibility that he might kill some of them. That possibility still wasn't one he could quite deal with right now. A life, however vile and base, was a thing of immense weight. He felt at that moment that it would be easier to carry the sun upon his back than shoulder such a massive loss. His will rapidly fading, James conjured a mass of brilliant white flame from the head of his new staff, launching it at the guards. He could only hope that, looking back, this bloodshed would be deemed worthwhile, if such a thing were even possible.

Edited by bobbitwormhobbitwyrm on May 8th 2023 at 1:18:45 PM

And So You Face The Despicable

Heather backed up half a step as Tom ordered to halt, swiftly noticing the approaching fight and nodding. She was ready to try out this new Totem as she noticed two things: Firstly the vibe of 'let's just flashbang them and run past' that had washed over the rest of her party and secondly that such bright light stun spells had just been sent out and she should probably cover her eyes. Pressing up against a wall, she waited for the light to pass, still holding the coin tight.

Pablo's spell launched into the midst of the guards, blinding them and preventing them from properly gauging what sort of countermeasure to try to employ - right at the same time James launched an inferno of force right into the prone militants. The fire clung to and scorched them head to toe, leaving each falling to the floor a screaming mass of bile and hate. Their thrashing slowing as the fire burned - and before long, it completely stopped. The fire still burnt on the bodies as Tom stood there rather awkwardly with his sword and shield readied.

Not even having charged a foot before James had obliterated the guards utterly. Even with how much he enjoyed the opportunity to avenge his mother on the Gibbs forces and Wagner in particular, something struck him as particularly horrifying about burning to death.

"...No chance to call for reinforcements. Let's keep going." He marched on past the burning militia men.

As they cleared the corridor, the Investigation Team would find themselves walking through a door into a large hexagonal internal chamber - a door on the opposite side. The room entirely seeming cold and sterile - to contrast against the heat lingering in the last room from James' spell.

The door leading to the dossier / the intelligence room was just on the other side of this chamber...

Yet as Tom started striding down the center of the room, both doors on either end of the area suddenly were covered by two rising sheets of metal. And just at the same time, there was a sound akin to metal sliding open, like a hangar door of some kind.

"Shit..." Tom murmured, "Looks like we were still expected."

Mina Parker

Oh my God, I can't air that.

Mina's internal thoughts recoiled from the faces of the burning men as she paused in her fiddling with the magical bird drones that she'd recovered from the previous room. As they entered the large hangar, she completed linking up the drones with the broadcasting rig that she was lugging around on her back, and without further ado, with her reporter's instincts telling her that there was about to be a huge, potentially morale-boosting confrontation coming, went on air shortly after.

"Greetings, Sandfield," she said, as she made sure the feeds from all the bird drones were being sent live. "I hope I haven't been keeping you waiting. This is a continuation of the previous special broadcast, from your one and only regular correspondent, Warning Glory. We are in the final stages of the assault upon the Gibbs Militia Base. We are one step away from achieving our goals here, yet there seems to be something lying in wait for us here. I'm joined by some new equipment that I've picked up from a storage room nearby. Say hello to my little friends!"

One of the feeds would pan around, showing the birds that were still operational orbiting Mina on standby, before zooming in on the opening hangar door.

"Now, I did promise you all a very special broadcast, and I plan on delivering," Mina continued, keeping the cameras rolling. "Whatever is behind that gate, you better believe that it will not stop the 317th from completing their mission. This is Warning Glory, showing everyone to their front row seat to the action—though I apologize if you only end up using the edge."

Perhaps there was a Totem-like effect to be found here, amidst the rubble and the flames they just passed. Heather was the protagonist—and so was every other person in their party—but what about the holder of the camera lurking just beyond the pale? They needed to promote the 317th to give hope and morale to the rest of Sandfield, and Mina would be the perfect one to do it.

As she hefted her shield, she hoped that the common neologism that the camera person never got hurt would hold true and bolster her ability to fight.

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 14th 2023 at 4:26:37 AM

Pablo closed his eyes at the spectacle in front of him, the screams and that smell... God, he so wishes to raid a brewery after this is done. Sleeping will be hard after all this.

A quick prayer and he was on the move again, looking at the place they entered, wondering how empty everything was, with everyone being gone, making him wonder if they will be able to grab their prize and run like hell.

... Aand he just jinxed them.

Me and my wandering mind... He raised his fists, getting ready for whatever appears.

"Odds that someone can smash through the door while the rest deals with this mess?" He asked, not really knowing what answer he expects. This won't be fun.

Edited by Blueace on May 10th 2023 at 9:14:41 AM

Trapped In An Impending Conflict

"Well this is a boss arena if I've ever seen one."

Heather quipped as the party wandered into this room that clearly served no purpose other than as an indoor combat space. Her remarks were of course immediately validated by the entrance and exit shutting and the sound of some other door elsewhere likely opening to unleash the boss fight.

"Oh hey, you're rolling? Should I bust out the coin now or should we wait for the big boss to drop into the room and roar all menacingly despite being something that does not normally howl?"

James broke out in a cold sweat at the charred corpses. He had hurt these men, had inflicted such pain upon them and taken their lives. For all his angst at thought of doing so, he had launched the spell from his staff near instinctively. Would killing become second nature to him?

"I'm so sorry." he whimpered under his breath. How could this be happening? It was like living a nightmare.

At the sound of the door sliding open, James held his spear at the ready, preparing to launch another spell at whatever was about to emerge. "You should get your totem out now Heather. We want to respond the instant that door opens."

Edited by bobbitwormhobbitwyrm on May 13th 2023 at 3:58:48 PM

"Well as I live and breath, if it isn't the rumored Investigation Team! ого!" A Russian accented voice spoke from every corner of the room at once, followed by a number of segments of the wall turning bright - shining like a TV screen. At once, a picture of a man seated in some sort of high tech chair displayed, a black haired Russian man with a pronounced goatee and icy blue eyes. He seemed to be rather heavy set, and his hair was tied back at the end. He, going by the view, seemed to be dressed in Russian military gear.

"O da, my name is Vlodislav Utgin, local commander for Mister Prigozhin. I figure that you deserve to know in order to give the name to Charon on your way down the river Styx."

As he spoke, there was a rumbling sound and Tom took a step back, giving a motion of caution to the others. It sounded like engines of some sort...

"Because we contribute ever so much, the lovely dame Gardner saw fit to give this weapon. And I am so glad to confirm I will slaughter you all with it, personally...from the control chair, of course."

And with that a 40 foot tall robotic monstrosity landed in front of the Investigation Team, the impact sending a shockwave outward. It was a heavily armored thing, a variety of missile launchers evident on one arm, right before the long, black drill that crackled with an odd yellow electric looking force. Its shoulder plates were armed with further artillery, and the other arm was equipped with a long silvery bayonet and several rifle-like barrels. Its head seemed shaped like a diver's helmet. The heavily armored body seemed to have a depression in the chest...

...which was quickly filled as the section of the wall showing Utgin flew off of the wall, levitating over and connecting to the depression on the chest. Utgin promptly cracked his knuckles and seemed to grip two spheres on the control chair and a strange mechanical helmet moved down, covering half his face.

The enormous mech moved one foot forward and the drill arm surged with power. The final obstacle had presented itself.

Edited by NickTheSwing on May 15th 2023 at 12:02:27 PM

Pablo glared at the man speaking to them, he was already done with this guy five seconds into the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah, go drink Uranium or steal from your boss or whatever" He said, "You know how dumb you look picking a fight with schoolkids? See how you look after you get your ice beaten"

But the words died with the noise and the fucking giant robot that dropped right in front of them!

Holy crap

He steeled himself, and sent a few curses Gardner's way. Taking a stance like a lineman, he charged forward, getting surrounded by a horned shell as he accelerates in a powerful tackle.

RHINO CHARGE.

Maybe he could get some pieces out of this thing if they win...

Mina Parker

"And just like that, a new challenger appears!" Mina narrated zestfully as the mech dropped, seemingly from the ceiling. It was hard to see how her shield was going to stand up to this Metal Gear, but a cameraperson never showed fear. That was the rule. "This is going to be a vigorous dust-up, folks, I can definitely tell! Hang on to your hats, because we're going in with Pablo being first to make a move. A never-before-seen move, in fact, now let's have a little bit of audience participation, shall we?"

"I think it's time to open up the comments section for the first time, dear listeners," she continued, dashing to capture the mech from a side angle, as if trying to do a glamor shot of the war machine as her bird cameras panned out. "So go ahead and call or text my frequency if you feel comfortable doing so, I have an additional surprise for you all! Don't be shy, every little bit helps, now show me how many of you are still out there and keeping the spirit of magic alive!"

Mina then modified the format that comments would show up in on the fly as she looked for a favorable angle. Instead of showing up chronologically on a tab that could be opened under the stream, the comments now scrolled horizontally across the video feed—and coincidentally, right across the main body of the mech in a rain of flat white text. Channeling her magic to the bird drones, she used the birds that were not recording to spray out the literally cutting words all over the mech.

Now suddenly diegetic in more ways than one, some of the comments in all-caps would manifest as a booming cacophony from one bird, while the other insults against the occupiers and invaders would spray against the hull of the mech like so many bullets. Every machine gun bullet used against Mina some time ago would be repaid, with a vengeance. Now with the results of Mina's attack about to be apparent, would her listeners kindly redouble their efforts and provide her with more typed ammunition, pretty please?

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 20th 2023 at 11:31:27 AM

The last time James had faced a giant mech, the only option available had been to run. At the time, the Thresher had seemed like a primordial god, destroying and unmaking as it pleased, something they stood about as much chance against as they did Cthulhu. This behemoth standing before him brought back those memories, but James was surprisingly unwavered. He was filled with fear, but those feelings did not seem to drown out his capacity for rational thought as they had before. He almost felt excitement, there was no time for thoughts of guilt, no time for thoughts of trepidation, they were just going to have to give it their all.

At the very least, the time they had spent in seclusion had given them the opportunity to hone their magic. Recalling the books of pyromancy he had poured over, James began an incantation, visualizing the heat from the room flowing towards the shoulder joint of the mech's gun-bearing arm.

"Spirits of fire and light, do not diffuse, do not dance about in meaningless eddies and whirls but rather converge to a single point. I command you in the name of the sun your father."

With any luck, this would make severing the thing far easier. He could only hope it would work.

Edited by bobbitwormhobbitwyrm on May 20th 2023 at 9:17:32 AM

Time To Fight, O Dragon Mine

"Alright, here goe-oh heck he's already here!"

Yes in fact Heather was just about to flip that coin when the big bad Russian appeared on the screens.

"Man, man are you listening to yourself? Kojima would have such—"

And then the mech accompanying the Russian dropped into the arena. Heather proceeded to make this sound like a laugh but with all the wind taken out of her leading to simply a drawn out wheeze.

"You. You. Damngods man, you have a Metal Gear and everything! Go on, opine on the exact political ideologies that drew you into Gardner's stupid crusade on a random town!"

And then Heather realized that oh right the fight started and she was as yet un-Totemed. Taking a few steps back, almost pressing herself to the wall, Heather retrieved the coin and held it in her hand.

"Glory, you rolling? Track the coin!"

She flips the coin in the air and both literally and metaphysically, the camera tracks the coin. For brief moments Heather is in all senses of the term offscreen as the coin glints at the apex of it's throw... And a grasp, taloned and scaled, swoops through the frame to claim it. Returning to a wide shot of the arena reveals the culprit: there is just straight up a dragon doing a circling flight around the edge of the arena right now. An almost archetypal, black-scaled, western dragon of a respectable size has somehow replaced Heather while she was offscreen and is immediately going to try and claw and bite at the shoulder joint of the drill-bearing arm of the mech.

With that the battle commenced!

Pablo landed the first hit of the conflict, crashing against the massive machine's center mass - but this didn't even push it back more than an inch. The machine in turn struck Pablo with its massive bayonet - his magical shield holding if only just against the huge blade, in the process Pablo would feel the wall of the room against his back, insulated by his magic somewhat...

And just as the monstrous machine began advancing, the birds would rain down on the mech a torrent of the animosity of the people of Sandfield. Going by the sheer volume and profane nature of a lot of the commentary-fire hitting the robot, it was clear that it wasn't just Tom - the people living in Sandfield despised Wagner in particular.

While it didn't do overly much damage, it prevented the machine from furthering its advance upon the form of Pablo - and distracting it from anything else before it swung a massive arm to disperse the fire. "Whether your people scream or cry, the De-Magicification of Sandfield proceeds—-!!"

A massive shimmering flaming spear rocketed forth and crashed against the gun-wielding arm, sending the whole thing almost off its balance. "Mudak!! Mudak!! I will not be mocked by children!"

And the massive mech was just as quickly as it righted itself caught by Heather, clawing and biting at the drill-bearing arm. Preventing it from going after Mina or Pablo as it instead focused on her. Caught in a grapple with her and her bite keeping it in one position, the Russian promptly aimed the gun right at Heather's midsection, "There was no mention of your abilities including this, but I will happily gut you all the same!" He then fired a trio of shots from the large gun - three blazing red bolts of force rippling out of the weapon in quick succession.

Tom, for his part, started looking for an angle to try to enter the fray, but as the struggle happened he found himself waiting at the middle of the arena. Dammit...I can't get in there with them thrashing around like that...

Mina Parker

"Keep it up, friends, we're getting there," Mina encouraged as the birds continued to pour out the verbal barrage. "Pablo lands the first hit, withstanding what looks like a heavy counterattack! Let's hope he can hold out while James launches his spell...he shoots, he scores! And here's to focusing on Heather, about to pull a magical girl transformation, or, should I say, a magical dragon transformation! Now look at her, what a magnificent form!"

"We're seeing unprecedented technique in that grapple, people," she continued excitedly as sweat poured from her forehead. "Now, keep that fire coming, I don't care how, just copy and paste the same words into the comments if you can't keep up. It's time for me to take action too!" As the birds sprayed words onto the mech and into its field of view, the stream of words lessening only somewhat as Mina diverted mana elsewhere, she leapt up to slam her concrete shield into the gun aimed at Heather's gut to hopefully try to knock it away in time. She started slowly, and then as the gun began to heat up, gradually built up more and more momentum, like a comet entering into Earth's atmosphere, until her steps thundered the last few meters, and she left the ground in an impossible, almost zero-gravity jump.

"SANDFIELD SMASH!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 28th 2023 at 7:46:48 AM

James was quite surprised to see Heather's form be replaced by that of a dragon. Truth be told, he hadn't previously taken her ideas about magic very seriously. Her previous totem had seemed little better to him than the weapons any mage could forge from mana. This coin though, was of an entirely different nature. That she had somehow been able to make such an object essentially through improvisation disturbed him somewhat. More and more Heather's power seemed orthogonal to the rest of them, whatever she was channeling, it was thoroughly distanced from magic as he understood it.

James continued his attack on the mech's bayonet arm, launching torrent after torrent of white flame, careful to avoid hitting Mina as she hurtled towards their opponent. Hopefully their assault would continue to whittle down this titan's defenses.

Pablo felt the clash and the trip to the wall, bouncing off and landing a bit clumsily, taking a moment to rebalance himself and get up once again.

"Did someone see the truck?" He grunted, before bolting out of the way to avoid getting crushed. He reviewed what he could use to crack this thing. He had more weapons to use for now, but he had to move quickly.

"Elephant Rumbling Hammer" He called, making a huge, heavy hammer resembling an elephant's head. He needed to take a good swing, even if hitting the walls would have some effect, he aimed to at least destabilize it.

This Fool Does Not Know The Half Of It

Mina's smash spared the dragon the worst of the burst fire but one shot did make impact. The roar that ensued was exactly as expected of the practically archetypal creature, the dragon pushing off its grapple and taking to wing again to reposition. This time it went for the back, finding a landing spot grabbing the ostensible shoulders of the mech and biting down on the same shoulder joint as before.

As Mina knocked the gun away from doing worse damage to Heather's draconic form, the Russian piloting the mech from afar cursed at the girl, "Loud and annoying children... bah, they just need more of a beating than they should've received at home!" He was however distracted by James first blasting his mech's bayonet arm away from trying to slash down at Mina's form, and then he was promptly nailed once in the chest by Pablo's giant elephant-shaped hammer...

...And then a second time by a full force swing from Tom's sword, the 317th soldier's strike actually knocking the whole mech backward a bit, and the pilot grunted, "Da...Lucky hit, lucky hit."

However as Heather darted in aiming for the same shoulder joint, instead she would receive a harsh welcome from a barrage of missiles aimed at her enlargened form - though she wasn't exactly the only one. The teens would find themselves having to deal with a rain of missiles coming in.

For his part, Tom jumped out of the way with a preternatural grace, the armored young man avoiding using his enhanced physical abilities and senses.

Mina Parker

"We have a serious case of denial here, folks," Mina said with a wink to the cameras. "Let's prove otherwise! We swallow the dice and make our own luck now! Screw the Gibbs Militia and screw those who would declare themselves overlords! Now keep telling him what for!" And as the missiles rained down, Mina directed the birds' barrage of text to intercept them in mid-air, since the cutting words seemed to be unable to harm the mech itself in a major way. Those that did reach her would be tanked by her huge tower shield, even if they did send her skidding backwards. In any case, she would regroup with the others and offer shelter under the canopy of her protection if any of them wanted it.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jun 8th 2023 at 2:03:49 AM

James leapt from his position to behind cover of the tower shield. Those missiles were an unknown quantity. It was possible they would be entirely thwarted by Mina's defenses, but they could equally well shatter them entirely. Thankfully his ally was already focused on intercepting the missiles, so he could continue to press the attack. He began to conjure a large orb of flame at the top of his spear. "Glorious Sun, light and life are outpouring's of your very existence. You shine upon this world eternally, supremely good and supremely powerful. I ask you to grant me an infinitesimal fraction of that grandeur. Render my enemy into ash."

Pablo barely managed to regain balance from the swing, he knew he needed more to make the next hit count, seeing as how the thing takes such a beating without slowing down.

"Sorry, beating kids doesn't work" He said "Your daddy probably beat you, and all that created was a big mouthed wuss who needs a gun to compensate for his lack of balls or anything resembling real manliness"

Spinning the hammer as fast as he could and charging it, he tossed it with all his strength. If he did this properly, the hammer will explode on impact. He needed a second to study the machine, if he wanted to make it really bend.

Ah, This May Be A Problem

Of all the things dragons were built to withstand in their drive, whether that be conquest or plunder or sheer predatory nature, a barrage of missiles at close range was not one of them. Which is the polite way of saying that yeah those missiles kind of caused a lot of damage to the dragon, enough to send it crashing away and onto the ground. There were wounds, obvious ones, but it did seem like barring any further damage this dragon was not going to die so easily.

But for the moment it was out of the fight, merely trying to get back on its feet with an oddly dejected expression (as much as can be divined on a reptile's facial structure).

While the missiles aimed at Heather did indeed cause heavy damage, the birds' barrage intercepted the missiles aimed at her and James - letting James blast the enormous machine backward, the torrent of white flame scorching the armor on the mech's arms as it went to defend itself - though this left it to be blown backward and to a knee by Pablo's exploding hammer spell - though it seemed the Russian piloting it from afar now saw something like a weakness to exploit.

"Seems to be your friend is having the problems - not used to her form! Let's add a few new holes to that dragon!" He then took aim with the guns on the bayonet arm and started firing bright red blasts of energy aimed to try and perforate Heather while she was recuperating.

Tom for his part didn't let it get to that point.

He rushed in and raised his shield, diverting the red beams from Heather with what looked like a glowing green beehive like barrier formed out from the shield as the magitech activated. He however had to dig his heels into the ground and really press against the force of the blasts coming in. As the barrier came down, he looked back at Heather and asked, "Can you stand...?"

However the Russian wasn't done with his attack yet - aiming at Pablo, James and Mina, he fired off a number of cone shaped clicking devices... which any military expert would identify as a number of powerful explosive grenades.

Mina Parker

As the grenades popped out, Mina's eyes widened. The world slowed down like when she was playing baseball, watching the ball hurtle towards her and her bat, and she knew what she had to do. No, not that, not summon a giant bat and whack the volatile explosive objects back at the mech. That was stupid and Mina likely couldn't send all of them back at once before they blew up in her face, even if it was a valid tactic for other magical attacks. No, instead Mina called down the most damaged birds, the ones she could most stand to sacrifice, to swoop down and snatch up the grenades.

She kept the camera trained on them, shooting a wide shot, before focusing on one of them as they were to try throwing them back at the mech, or dropping them near it. At this point, it didn't matter if the birds made it away, though Mina would certainly like to preserve as much of them as possible. Indeed, this was simply another symbolic act of revenge against the Gibbs Militia and their callous purges.

"The addresses on these packages are invalid!" Mina shouted in her best customer service voice. "I'm afraid it will have to be a RETURN TO SENDER!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jun 15th 2023 at 1:20:16 AM

Pablo had to move fast, seeing whatever shit coming his way, he ran through his arsenal in his mind.

"Peacock Gale Fan!" A big, elaborate fan appeared in his hands, he started swinging it as hard as he could, raising a powerful gust of wind. If he did this right, he might give the robot something back. But he didn't know whether he could get everything.

"Go help Heather" He said, trying to keep the wind going.