Does nobody want to, you know... say anything? You're all reverting to grind-mode even when you're not in grind-mode!
Lord help these players - they can't spend one turn speaking unless it's an angry yell at an opponent that they want dead!

Really, though. This is why I have to herd you all up like cattle by wielding the iron rod of PLOT.

And just so the second half of ya'll don't waste a turn talking, go ahead and screw around this turn - plot will happen in the next one.

More pun titles. Yay. And rolling.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Torrent (Gillian) (-)

"Well that was cool."
Raphael has a short conversation with Gabriel, who says that you're going to hunker down here for the rest of the night and shove off tomorrow morning.

Also, a voice in your head tells you in an eerie tone to "Give your money to Raphael". You take it seriously for about a second, then you hear some telepathic chuckling on the other end of the line. You have an urge to punch a certain someone in the stomach.




Ociamarru (Nikolai) (11)

You dive into the big crater left behind by the implosion that occurred, and begin digging around, shifting your arms into shoveling claws to be more effective. You pierce the dirt easily, and before you know it, you're practically swimming through the stuff. After a bit, one of your arms hits something rather large with a *clang*. You begin digging around it, and find that it is a large metal box. You excitedly grab it and drag it to the surface, where you throw it open.

Inside is a rather mystifying object. At first glance, it's a long metal cylinder... or rather a metal stick, about your thumb's length in diameter. But after picking it up, you realize it is hollow and folds in on itself, like a telescope, only without a lens. It has strange carvings along its retractable sides. They have a pattern that seems somehow familiar to you...

... the answer is on the edge of your brain when you hear a voice in your head that spookily says, "Your doom is at haaaaaaand..."




caekdaemon (Anderson) (-)

"Hurrah!" you shout, glad that the worm is finally dead. You step over to the edge of the crater you made (while Nikolai throws himself into it and starts bathing in the dirt for some reason) and observe your handiwork.

The crater... is... huge. Almost all that's present in it is dirt - the remains of the worm are few. In fact, you notice that the only remains you see are what you think are teeth, in the far edge of the crater. They must've been the only thing sturdy enough to withstand your implosion. The incline is steep below where you're standing, but it gradually fans out to be flatter nearer to the center.

You notice that Nikolai is resurfaced, this time holding something that looks like a box. He opens it, but he's standing over it and you can't see what's inside. Widdy, who is now floating close by, mumbles something about a presence, but you don't quite hear it, because a strange whisper echoes in your head, saying: "I am your conscieeeeeence... you should give all of your belongings to Raphaeeeellll..."

What.




CaveCricket (Raphael) (3)

Gillian briefly says, "Well that was cool," and then stands aside, waiting for someone else to comment. You decide to give your two cents.
"So, we need to be inconspicuous, and the best way to do that is figure out what's going down before we all barge in. I feel like I could best scout out this place without drawing any attention to myself, unless if any of you guys would rather volunteer."
There is a silence, and then everyone departs to various activities.
"Well, guess that settles it," Gabriel says. "We'll leave it to you. Seems like we should hunker down though... we still haven't really gotten a good night's sleep. We'll arrive at Lathos tomorrow, if we're not attacked again."

With that, you nod and get to practicing Telepathy.
... There's nobody here to communicate telepathically with, except for the others.

So you spend some time forcing random messages into people's heads. (See other players' moves for details) You don't feel like you really made progress though.




Tokochiro (Johni) (-)

Your arms recover.

You could've sworn that someone whispered, "I am a plaaaaaaaaant" in your ear, but you turn your head and there's nobody there.




Phd (John Adams) (2)

Your head doesn't get much better for the resting, but it's dulled down and you think it'll fade.
Until, that is, a very loud voice starts reverberating in your head, carrying on in singsong:
"ON THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO MEEEEE
ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE ROUNDS OF ARR-TEE-DEEEEEEEE"

It continues for several more verses.
You have no idea what's going on, but it's an unpleasant experience... thank the heavens that they run out of ideas after counting down to ninety-seven.

In all this annoyance, you don't get a chance to see what's going on in that crater.




NPCs

Gabriel (-)

Gabriel speaks to Raphael.
"Well, guess that settles it. We'll leave it to you. Seems like we should hunker down though... we still haven't really gotten a good night's sleep. We'll arrive at Lathos tomorrow, if we're not attacked again."




Terry (-)

Terry chills.



Locations
-N/A

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Events:

After everyone finishes screwing around, Gabriel re-makes the camp while Terry finds the horses who ran off, still attached to the carriage. And everybody finally gets a restful night...

~

The next morning is cloudy. It isn't raining, but the sun doesn't appear once in the sky. It's as if a grey sheet has been laid over the earth, blotting out almost all of the light.
It's dreadfully dreary, but the group sets out anyway, determined to get to Lathos and meet the king.

(One more Grind Roll, people. And as an early Christmas gift from me to you, it's gonna be an auto-epic-success. Better think about this one, eh?)

10's aplenty.
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Torrent (Gillian) (AUTO 10)

You send off your coinbugs to mess with Raphael, and they buzz dutifully around him for the rest of the day before running out of energy and dropping lifeless to the ground. That must be what happens when they get too far away from you for too long. Meh, you didn't really need them anyway. You begin finding it difficult to see your light orbs in the daylight, so you dismiss them as well.

Meanwhile, you try to form a shield of force around your person. After a few failed attempts that ended in short flights through the air, you manage to pull off the creation of a wall of force. It works by imbuing the very air around you with little packets of energy that go off on contact with fast-moving objects. You test it by throwing a stick into the air, then forming the shield, and you're happy to see that when the projectile gets within a few inches of your head, it hits an invisible wall with a blue firework-like effect and goes flying off. The only downside you find is that the shield can only take a few hits before it develops blind spots which have to be repaired. Other than that, you're sure it'll function VERY well in combat.




Ociamarru (Nikolai) (AUTO 10)

You mess around with your temporal control for a while until you manage to create a field of slowed time accompanied by a time-bubble moving at regular speed that surrounds your body. Everything around you slows down, but you can still maneuver. It's a bit tricky to pull off, but it works really well.

You also take a moment to compare the strange cylinder you found to your Repulsing Talisman. On close inspection, you see that the markings on the cylinder closely resemble those on the talisman. In fact, they seem to fit together right about... *click*.
With some sort of magnetic force, the two objects stick together. The cylinder moves of its own accord, expanding and shrinking several times as if in some kind of test. It finally contracts to its smallest size once more, and begins to hum softly.
Curious, you point it at the sky and make several hand movements. It doesn't do anything. A bit annoyed, you violently thrust your hand forward in the air. The resulting blast almost knocks you off your feet. You watch in awe as a beam of energy flies off into the distance.




caekdaemon (Anderson) (AUTO 10)

"Hey Raphael! I'll give you Widdy if you don't knock that out. And by give you Widdy, I mean I will shove the sword so deep into your chest I'll have to start swinging you around instead of a sword."
Widdy chuckles, but Raphael seems too busy swatting at some flying coins to respond to this. You roll your eyes and get to some training.

A few hours later, you're sweaty, exhausted, and ready to collapse. But you also notice that everything feels lighter. Funny how that works.




CaveCricket (Raphael) (AUTO 10)

After swatting at some annoying coins that are suddenly buzzing around you, you turn into a Peregrine Falcon (New Learned Transformation) and take to the air. From there, you send Anderson (Nikolai doesn't have a sword) a telepathic message telling him how awesome his sword is. Oddly, he doesn't directly respond to it, but seems to pull out his sword and admire it for a second. You realize that you somehow sent him some kind of subliminal message. That's interesting.




Tokochiro (Johni) (AUTO 10)

You have a swordfight with one of your clones, allowing yourself to take hits and regenerate repeatedly. After a few hours of this, you're exhausted, but you feel capable of handling any kind of pain.




Phd (John Adams) (AUTO 10)

You inspect the gun closely, curious about what it is. After messing around for a while, you manage to safely dismantle it... and what you find surprises you.

It's powered by a white gem - a Glyph.

This must have been the source of the white light you saw emanating from the inside, as well as what gives the gun so much power. To even think that a weapon could be powered by these things... it's incredible.
Instinctively, you touch the Glyph, but you get a weird vibe from it. It doesn't feel quite right... it feels... dumbed down. Nonetheless, the sense of raw power coming from within the little stone is overwhelming.

You're sitting there looking confused when Gabriel approaches and sees what you're holding. His eyes go wide.
"Is that a Glyph? The others have been using those to gain powers, but... shouldn't it have reacted to you by now?"
"Reacted?"
"Yeah. They usually get really bright and reach into your consciousness or something. At least, that's what I've heard."
"Well, it's not doing that."
"Hmm... so it was powering that gun, huh? Somebody must've done something to it.... From what I remember those guards talking about, there are more of those guns...
If that's so, this is pretty bad. They must've found a way to use the Glyphs to power weaponry.
... Do what you want with the Glyph. Maybe you can figure out how to use it some other way."

You put the gun back together for now. It's easy enough to take apart now that you know how.




NPCs

Gabriel (-)

Gabriel has a conversation with John Adams for a bit when he's not steering the cart.




Terry (-)





Locations
-N/A

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Events:

The sun is getting low in the sky, and a shadow appears in the distance. As it gets closer, the shape of a large fortress-like structure is discernible. Gabriel stops the horses.

"We're not getting any closer than this. We'll be spotted during the day."
So the party waits until nightfall.

When the sun finally sets completely, Gabriel nods to Raphael.
"If you're going to do some scouting, now's the time - go on ahead. We'll sneak over there as fast as we can."

I did mean Nikolai's sword, because of "Nikolai's Boundlessly Sharp, Unfaltering Longsword." Oh well.

"Alright, but be ready to retreat if anything go wrong."

> Turn into a Peregrine Falcon and take to the skies, keeping high so I don't draw any attention. Fly at a moderate pace towards the fort, using the wind currents to do my work for me (natural-looking flight for a natural-looking bird). Note where the gates are, patrol parties, guards, and things out of the ordinary.