Mu 2010/10/04(Mon)23:25 No. 238673 ID: cf68aa
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There are no trails around... It seems like he left the area...

Without it's owner supporting it the I Shop crumples into itself.

>>238671
-I Shop Owner
Nothing I can't handle stranger. Just a rowdy customer. I've taken this fight to Hurrikane mountains.

huh, says he is fine, just dealing with someone who didn't like the prices and got rowdy.

just start heading north. use a different stall later.

>>238673
@Mu&Teri: The I Shop owner is in the middle of a fight. He took it to the Hurrikane mountain range.
He said he can handle it, but I don't know for certain if that's the case. Sadly, there's not much we can do to help him.
We can worry about this later. Take a sample of the blood and start walking towards whatever port brought you to this continent.

>>238673
Well... nothing else to do until he's done. So, try to get a bead on any nearby items.

@I Shop
Well ok we won't bother you then... unless you'd be cool with us switch over to you for a bit. Bet seeing you in action would be awesome.

>>238673
...
Ah, screw it. I really want to see this.
Everybody: This is now a sneaking operation. NO TALKING!

[Switch to I Shop Owner]

I Shop Owner 2010/10/04(Mon)23:56 No. 238686 ID: cf68aa
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--------------------------------
>"You're quite..... powerful for a half demon.. You can mold darkness..... fairly well."

The I Shop Owner is fighting another dark shadowy man.
The Owner swings a blade made out of shadows at him and the other man seems to simply melt into the ground

"And you're quite strong for having no soul stranger"

>"I do.... to have a soul. It's just a little different...."

He snakes along the ground and swipes at the Owner. He jumps up and blasts the ground with a ball of energy.
When the dust clears the shadow man has already moved to a different spot.
He crawls along the ground and strikes again

Hmm.... none of my spells are working.
Soulless... Quite powerful.
Not sure if I can win..

Almost out of mana too. Can't let him see that.
If he crawls along the ground my best bet is to try to leave him without a ground to cling to.
But Greater Alter Land might be a bit above me in my current condition.

>>238686
@Max: The soul-less-people-things have made a move. They're attacking the I Shop owner. If you're still in central, head to the castle and tell them that they can see what kind of monster plans to invade via the dark world portals if they hurry head to the Hurrikane mountains. Tell them that if Rai or Norue go then they MIGHT stand a chance at defeating it.

>>238688
*might stand a chance of defeating it and saving the person it's trying to assassinate.

I Shop Owner 2010/10/05(Tue)00:21 No. 238692 ID: cf68aa
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>>238688
-Max
WHAT!? They're attacking now!? I need to tell the others! Oh man oh man this wasn't supposed to happen! Arcelo needs to know! I need to get permission to go back down! I need to do other things!!! AHHHHH!
---------------------------------
Out of mana....
Do or die now.

The Owner strikes again at the ground again then falls to the ground, completely out of energy.
The shadow man notices and rises from the ground.
Once he get's close enough the Owner leaps up and slashes him right in half.
The Shadow man falls to the ground and screams in pain

I win.. Might as well seal him within hell..

I Shop Owner 2010/10/05(Tue)00:21 No. 238693 ID: cf68aa
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Why did he attack me though?
And who sent him?

you may not like that we are in your head but trust us, RUN.

Stranger danger!

Fucking run the king of the dark world is right behind you!

@Maxine
I think this is just preparations, taking out people of power. The I Shop Owner won the fight but now the king opened a portal right behind him. We'll let you know how it goes...

>>238693
Intruder to the right. Just flee; they'd squash you like a bug even at your best.

You just fought one of the Dark World soldiers, or at least the shadow of one. Specifically it was The Creeper Lord, their weakest member.
They're planning on invading this world within the next 30 years or so, and intend to conquer it as a stepping stone to other worlds.
They probably targeted you because you count as infrastructure, although from what we know of their operations this was intended as a simple scouting action.

Yea, it's bad. Worse still, we believe that they've taken Cecil and Alexis captive.

Sorry for barging in on you like this, but you left blood behind at your tent which collapsed right before our host's eyes. We watch out for our friends.

I Shop Owner 2010/10/05(Tue)00:40 No. 238701 ID: cf68aa
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>>238694>>238696

What!?

The Owner tries to run but stumbles. With his mana and stamina depleted he doesn't even make it a few feet away before a Soul Stealer catches him.
The King of Darkworld, John, walks up to him

>"Avernis, the I Shop Owner. I underestimated your power. Maybe I should have come myself in the first place."

"John, long time no see."

>"Indeed. I'm afraid you must come with me."

"No can do st-John. I got a shop to run."

>"I'm afraid it'll have to close down. We can't have you selling things to our enemy now can we? You've helped the humans so much that without you they would crumble."

"John, you're making a mistake. If I went missing right now you may trigger something bigger then you can handle."

>"I'm aware. I want it to happen."

"You're a idiot."

>"And you are a bastard child."

"...... How's your daughter doing these days?"

>"! ........"

He tosses the I Shop Owner into the portal to the Dark World.

Strangers, if I leave this world you have a minute to grab whatever you want from my shop. Do so now before it dissolves. There's a latch on the floor leading to my stock.
I'll be fine strangers.

>>238700
@Maxine: This isn't the invasion, this is a scouting and targets-of-opportunity action. Take Gram and Su with you when you head back to Celestia; it's unorthodox, but we're attached to Gram (who is attached to Su) and we need to go with you in order to provide logistical and tactical information beyond your capacity. Beyond that, if that thing left any nasty surprises attached to your soul then we'll need to be there to relay the information in the event that you are unable to do so.

@MU: in the tent is a trap door, you have one minute to get as much stuff as you can, RUN!

>>238701
@Teri & Mu: "Strangers, if I leave this world you have a minute to grab whatever you want from my shop. Do so now before it dissolves. There's a latch on the floor leading to my stock.
I'll be fine strangers."

Grab EVERYTHING YOU CAN and start throwing it out the door!

@I Shop Owner: Message sent. What's your disappearance going to trigger? This is important.
Also, we'll stick with you as long as we can. We need information more than anything.

Dammit is there anything else we can do? How do we screw up their plans? What will happen with you gone? ...WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME, WE CAN FIND YOU!

@Mu & Teri
QUICKLY! GO TO WHERE THE SHOP STOOD AND CHECK THE GROUND FOR A LATCH! OPEN IT UP AND THERE IS THE I SHOPS STOCK, HE'S CAPTURED AND HE'S LETTING YOU LOOT IT YOU ONLY HAVE ONE MINUTE GO GO GO!

>>238704
@Maxine: I don't think you quite understand the severity of this. We need an angelic army to fight these things, but you have no idea what the scale of these creatures power really is.
The angels may need to be prepared to become fuel for a Dark Mana spell to obliterate the dark world they call home in the hopes that some of their elite forces will die.
Also, it would be great if you can get your god to do something about this, since a god might be able to go toe-to-toe with their king.

Yea, not kidding. That dark world exists because their king wills it so. We're looking at a potential M.E.L.E. here.

Mu 2010/10/05(Tue)00:59 No. 238710 ID: cf68aa
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>>238707
I can't just do things like that! I'm a low ranking angel dammit! GAH!
I'll see if I can talk to god okay!? I'm trying dammit! And I'm also seeing if I can bring someone more powerful with me down there.
---------------------------

The I Shop owner struggles weakly to free himself.
A small punch on the head from John knocks him out.
---------------------------------------
$!#%$@^%#&^*&&&^$^%$#$%^&*
???? You're back.
I went into the latch but it was already dissolving.
I managed to grab Phoenix Downs, Teleport Stones, 4 books in a odd language and a small glass sphere.

the books are probably magic books of some kind, can you get a good look at a page? we are pretty good at decoding things. also, NO idea what the orb is.

DAMMIT. Well, at least it's something. Better ration those things, it's all that's left. Get a better look at that stone.

@Gram
Just a heads up, don't waste the items you have left from the I shop, he's gone. The king of the dark world took him away. And for all we know he has Alex and Cecil too.

>>238710
Ok, great. Have Teri look these things over to see what she can identify. Your next stop is Cecil's place to regroup, since we just stumbled across the impending end of the world.

[Switch to Maxine]
Ok, so we can jump around between these two planes. Great.
The I Shop Owner - a powerful half-demon by the name of Avernis - was just defeated and captured. This is a major problem, since he's actually a rather nice person and has been supporting mortals and nudging them away from disaster from the shadows. He was also a key player in their infrastructure, and without him the game-changing power houses of the mortal forces are going to be crippled.

Oh, also, you should ask somebody about curing Dark Elf soul rot, and getting some leeway you can use to intimidate their king into promoting its use.

If you can get some face time with your god then we have a few things that need to be discussed.

Yea, we're overloading you, I know. Sadly we can't get more helpers without one of the gauntlets.

What the hell man I sleep for a couple hours and the supposedly most powerful man on the planet or one of them just up and gets captured?

What are we supposed to do about it? It's a matter of degrees of power. If

I shop > us, then Attackers > I shop, then Attackers > us by a fairly wide margin. That wasn't even a close fight, for goodness sakes, or they wouldn't even have had the capture option. They would have had to kill him. How the hell do you fight something that took down the most powerful person here?!


FUCK THE WAR WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN THIRTY YEARS FROM NOW

THAT LYING PRICK

wait, i think we need someone to get to the Hurrikane mountains and finish off the guy, he is currently own but not out. need to blast his symbol with a high power light spell. or seal it until you can.

>>238717
I know what we're supposed to do about it.

Collect all 10 of the main items, that's what. Then we shall have the power of a God.

>>238731

Garm: Find the ten Items.

Mu: Seek out your Master.

Tikka: We need her to find, or help find the Goldeon Dagger. I thought Cecil had it, but starburst sait it was lost?

Maxine: Continues as she is.


Gentlemen, we don't HAVE thirty years. This is the first act of war, and we must prepare for more. Therefore, we must gather all resources we can, and when the time comes, pull out all the stops... including the various spells Cecil isn't supposed to ever use.

>>238732
Lead a regiment of angels into the dark world.
Use their souls to power a Meteor shower.
Flee with whichever ones survive.

>>238805
... let's call that plan ZZZ.

Maxine 2010/10/05(Tue)19:52 No. 239068 ID: cf68aa
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>>238713
Gram
-What!? Oh god dammit... What the hell am I gonna do for Telestones?
-----------------------------
>>238714
"Arcelo please! We need more people on the earth right now! The Dark World is planning to destroy everything!"

>"The Oracle states that such a thing will not happen for 30 years. We will prepare for such an attack. Sending men in now will only speed up the problem as it will seem as if 'we' were making a move as well. also your request to see god has been denied. Sorry."

>>239068
Okay good, we can stop panicking, and get back to the item collecting business.

[switch to gram]

The Oracle can shove it! You and I and everyone in this goddamn gauntlet knows that future sight is about as reliable as badly edited camcorder videos. It's entirely likely the Dark World king has engineered it to appear that way to the Oracle.

He has already begun making moves against us. Doing anything but marshaling forces now is playing into his hands!

ouch. ask if you can at least get someone to assist you. also if you can get a note or something that says gram needs item 3 from temple it would be great.
[switch to gram]
looks like it's walking unless it's important.

>>239068
"What are you talking about? Did the Oracle happen to mention that THEY JUST ATTACKED AND TOOK-OUT VITAL MORTAL INFRASTRUCTURE?"

>>239089
Of course not, because the Oracle 1: can't see the present, most likely, and 2: the Dark King is limiting his actions to those things which the Oracle can't see until the final moment.

Maxine 2010/10/05(Tue)20:30 No. 239109 ID: cf68aa
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"What are you talking about? Did the Oracle happen to mention that THEY JUST ATTACKED AND TOOK-OUT VITAL MORTAL INFRASTRUCTURE?"

>"It is not our duty to interfere every single time something goes wrong. We attack only if he does, one life does not mean we should wantonly toss in everything we have."

He turns his back to her and walks away.

>"However if you feel that your presence is needed you may go, take a trainee with you as well. You have my blessings, may god be with you."

>>239109
A trainee?! Well, it's something. Let's get our kid and get back to Gram. He'll need all the help he can get.

>>239109
Facepalm.
"Did I forget to mention that their leader is the source of the soul-devouring monsters I was sent to investigate?"
So, how exactly would they do about keeping you from seeing god anyway? Is god always really busy, or is it that they dislike disturbing him?

man. grab the trainee, only hope now is that those items work amazingly. and having an angel should make convincing some people to hand it over without fighting easier. we'll see you later.

[switch to gram]
sigh, looks like heaven isn't gonna help. Maxine may be coming back down though. hopefully having an angel with you will make some people more likely to give the items to you without a fight.
@Mu and teri: shit, heaven says they wont help yet. sigh, just get you master mu, just take things one step at a time.

>>239115
Send the trainee to meet with Gram and touch his gauntlet. We'll direct them from there.
Meanwhile, you go to Cecil's house to get the other gauntlet then return here - do NOT put it on!

Maxine 2010/10/05(Tue)20:47 No. 239134 ID: cf68aa
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Find a trainee...
Problem is there's different kinds of trainees..
Healers, fighters, summoners.
And they all suck!

Sigh....

Well, at least it didn't go 'that' bad.

>>239134
Is that

Is that a dark world hole

turn around and be ready to go straight to god as fast as you can.

>>239134
Well, find one that specializes in Dark Mana, treating soul diseases, or rapid movement.

Soul Diseases because there's a soul-destroying disease that's killing one of our allies, rapid movement because we need somebody we can send around for things, and Dark Mana because our Plan Z involves sacrificing portions of many peoples souls to unleash a world-destroying apocalypse on the Dark World.
Oh, don't worry, we know at least one person who would be willing to cast the spell. The hard part is getting enough people together so that the caster can leave enough soul behind in each for the Dark Elves to heal them back.

>>239143
There's a black tear in the air behind you. If that's not supposed to be there then run straight for god. Ignore all guards, ignore all shouts, crash through all doors, and don't stop to help anybody you knock down. Just. Run.

Gram and Mu's Tale, End of Book 3 Maxine 2010/10/05(Tue)20:58 No. 239154 ID: cf68aa
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Run...?
She turns around and sees the rip in space.
Her eyes go wide and she flies off to see god.
The last thing she hears is a deep scratchy voice.

>"Well men.... Ready?

>>239154
FUCKING FUCK I TOLD YOU SO SO HARD IT HURTS

JUST FUCKING RUN TO THE BIG MAN!! MAYBE YELL THAT THEY ARE ATTACKING HERE FIRST!!