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>>3395169
You shatter that peace by throwing the curtains aside, eliciting a chorus of groans from your apprentices. The sun reflects off of the massive horn trophy perched over the mantlepiece directly into the center of the room.

“Rise and shine!” you proclaim. “The sun's up, and so should you be.”

“Why are you like this?” Quinn mutters, throwing an arm over his eyes.

“Blame Ayren!” you reply perhaps a touch -too- energetically. “Up and at 'em. Quinn, once you're done with breakfast I need you to head out to the logger's camp and get an estimate for the lumber we need.”

He groans an affirmative reply, slowly extricating himself from the mesh hammock.

“Terra, you're on errands today. Check in with the foreman in the mine on the shipment I requested, then stop by the forge and see if Merich would be willing to assist with raising the struts and frame for the library extension.”

“'Kay,” she mutters, shoving the Salamander off the end of the bed with an errant kick. It releases a cloud of smoke, scurrying into the hearth to escape any further flying limbs.

“What about you, Osyki?” Quinn glances your way as he pulls a shirt over his head. “What's your plan for today?”

You put a hand to your chin. What is the plan today?

> Pursue one of Ayren's trials—enshrining a guardian or binding a land guardian.
> Today's the day: bring Elana to the first seal to unlock her latent power.
> Find Sylviannis and work on gathering materials for the Tyrant-slayer.
> Exploring! Fast-travel to Eluneia and push the borders of your map.
> Write-in.

–------------

You are Osyki, journeyman Totemist and first line of defense for your village against the rabid Behemoths wandering the land. Your master, the previous Totemist, fell in a battle against a terrible Behemoth, leaving the duty of defending your settlement to you. After a period of downtime reinforcing your village and expanding your workshop, you turn to the task at hand: progressing your skills as a Totemist.

[[Previous Threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=totem

> Primary Missions and Side-plots: https://pastebin.com/EJbaMKcg
>The Cast Thus Far: http://pastebin.com/VsJpEUx3
>Binder's Log / Misc Inventory: http://pastebin.com/XvvRSk4W
>Transformations and Unions: http://pastebin.com/0v9XMEv0

>Ask: ask.fm/DiarcaEXE
>Quest Twitter: @TotemistQuest ]]

>>3395174
>Exploring! Fast-travel to Eluneia and push the borders of your map.

>>3395174
>> Pursue one of Ayren's trials—enshrining a guardian or binding a land guardian.
Drat, I'm still working my way back through the archives. I'm trying to properly fill out the binder's log. Here's what I got so far:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nclxsghdlRE4di7cLT5UkRZhlhOSyXcDqxqvVzsVg6c/edit?usp=sharing

>>3395174
> Pursue one of Ayren's trials—enshrining a guardian or binding a land guardian.
Time to get back to work! Glad to see this quest again!

>>3395174
>Find Sylviannis and work on gathering materials for the Tyrant-slayer.
2019 shaping up to be a good year.

>>3395174
>> Find Sylviannis and work on gathering materials for the Tyrant-slayer.

> Today's the day: bring Elana to the first seal to unlock her latent power.
we did it
we summoned diarca

>>3395255
but at what cost?

>>3395235
> Pursue one of Ayren's trials—enshrining a guardian or binding a land guardian.
The hype is real.

>Back to the grind
>>3395191
>>3395194
>>3395290

>Get that wood
>>3395235
>>3395243

>I'm a wanderer
>>3395181

>Waifuquest 2019
>>3395255

Writing.

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You kick the toe of your boot against the cabinet, dislodging a clump of dirt. The view through the workshop window offers a glimpse of the village wall and the Slayers patrolling atop it.

“If I'm ever going to get you two back on track without throwing myself into the jaws of a Behemoth I need to keep popping open those drawers,” you tell Quinn. “I'm holding out hope that Ayren left the Vital Spark he used to initiate me in one of them.”

“You think?” Quinn scratches his chin thoughtfully, looking to the library's door. “Do those things ever, like, run out? Do they go bad?”

“Eventually,” you nod. Terra scrambles up onto the counter beside you, handing you an apple. You plant a hand on her mop of copper hair, ruffling it affectionately. “Hopefully this one's still kicking, though. Otherwise I've got an appointment to make the world's largest pair of scale boots.”

Quinn nods grimly. As he laces up his boots, he whistles sharply. Cirr descends from the rafters to perch on his shoulders.

“So what's the next big ticket item? You said you had two translated and waiting to be unlocked, right?”

You nod. “Enshrine a village guardian or Bind a Land Guardian.” You don't bother mentioning the Gates of Mu project—that one seems a little more long term, although with the scroll Zahn lent to you, you could certainly make a start on it.

“Is that all?” Quinn rolls his eyes. “Sure you don't need to do something a little easier like leveling the Ikrins or swimming across the ocean while you're at it?”

“I mean, we've got a couple drawers to go.” You roll a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “I've been toying with potential guardians for a while. Thought about getting an Avatar or snagging a Rock Turtle spirit—or maybe a drake?” You hum noncommittally. “Lots of options.”

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>>3395346

Terra holds up her Salamander, hands hooking under one of the six pairs of legs to thrust the glowing spirit into your face. “I think you should get somethin' friendly like this,” she says. “People gotta like the Guardian or they won't make offerings to it.” He squeezes the fire spirit tight to her chest. The spaces between its scales glow with an affectionate warmth.

Quinn shakes his head. “People will like the Guardian because it keeps them safe from things like that Magus splinter. It doesn't need to be cuddly.”

Terra sticks her tongue out at him. A moment later the Salamander mimics the motion, exhaling a cloud of soot.

“Enough.” You hold up a hand, forestalling whatever childish retaliation Quinn may have been winding up for. He slowly lowers his arms, looking put out. “I'll figure it out. You two had better get going. Errands aren't going to run themselves.”

“I guess,” Quinn says with a sigh. “You just be sure to get that spark soon. I signed up to be a Totemist, not an errand-boy. I could be doing that for Walther just fine.”

“At least I don't smell like the compost heap after the harvest festival,” you counter.

He's right, though—you need to focus your efforts. Your fingers curl around the Whirlpool Pearl hanging from your neck as you ponder your options. Where to begin?

> Focus on enshrining a guardian. You'll need to do some research on the process and make a decision on what you want watching over Grisoch.
> Focus on making a binding with a Land Guardian. Sylvia and the Mother are both on friendly terms with you, and a Celestial Binding with them would be a huge power boost.
> Focus on unlocking the Gates of Mu. While it's a longer-term project, it has the highest potential pay-off agnostic of whatever is in the drawers.
> Consult with Boand. What seems like the best option to her?
> Write-in

>>3395351
>> Consult with Boand. What seems like the best option to her?

>>3395351
>> Focus on making a binding with a Land Guardian. Sylvia and the Mother are both on friendly terms with you, and a Celestial Binding with them would be a huge power boost.
More likely to get favorable deals from spirits we are friendly with.

>>3395351
> Focus on enshrining a guardian. You'll need to do some research on the process and make a decision on what you want watching over Grisoch.

>>3395351
> Consult with Boand. What seems like the best option to her?

>>3395351
> Focus on making a binding with a Land Guardian. Sylvia and the Mother are both on friendly terms with you, and a Celestial Binding with them would be a huge power boost.

When I saw the picture in the catalog I thought it was a joke. Welcome back! I can hardly believe it

>>3395351
>Consult with Boand. What seems like the best option to her?

It's been forever but didn't we discuss making Cordia the guardian spirit? I feel like maybe we did and she turned down the offer but I really can't remember for sure.

>>3395455
Wasn't there an issue with her possibly going insane or berserk due to her origin? She was worried about that and turned it down.

Gods, there's so much to go back and brush up on

>>3395455
You did discuss the matter with Cordia. She is willing to take up the mantle if you think it's best, but she would prefer to stay with you in your travels.

> Check with your numbers gal
>>3395360
>>3395415
>>3395443

> Making deals and greasing palms
>>3395368
>>3395442

> If you build it they will come
>>3395387

Writing.

no way
NO FUCKING WAY
YOU'RE BACK!!!!

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As you so frequently do when feeling lost or in over your head, you reach out to Boand. The Whirlpool Pearl's nacre seems to spark with spiritual energy for a moment. The world blue-shifts around you, your apprentices moving as if through molasses as your perception of time slows to a crawl. A splash alerts you to her entrance. You turn to see a river snake out of your hearth, the glowing borders of the deluge tracing the perimeter of the workshop before pooling before you. A manicured hand emerges, followed shortly by Boand on a column of water.

“Is this entrance strictly necessary?” you glance up at her as she reclines on the fountain spray of springwater, examining her nails.

“Always,” she says. “And as if you're one to talk.” She flashes you a grin, slipping off of the column of water and landing on a pair of very human legs in the workshop beside you. “What's going on? Everything alright?”

You nod. “As alright as I've been for a while, actually. I wanted to get your opinion about my next heading.”

She wrinkles her nose. “I'd prefer these little consultations be in person, you know. I don't mind when you're abroad but you're three lightning-kicks from landing in my spring.”

“If I'm going to be trawling Ayren's library I don't want to have to towel off,” you counter. “I've been giving some thought to either enshrining a proper guardian for Grisoch or trying my hand at a pact with a Land Guardian. Which do you think is the better move for me?”

She leans against the counter beside you, flicking her waves of long blue hair over one shoulder. She's taken to wearing a simple seashell-based outfit when walking amongst the village, a decision that's been deeply divisive between the menfolk and their wives. She adjusts one of the straps of her skirt absentmindedly as she ruminates.

“The village needs a guardian,” she decides. “And you're not skilled enough with Celestial Bindings yet. If you tried to make a deal with Sylvia or swamp-tits,” she gestures vaguely southwardly, “you'd get taken for a ride. You just don't know enough of the lingo to write a proper contract. Even Sylvia's not going to hold your hand through a negotiation like that. You're honestly lucky I've got such a soft spot for you, or I'd have written some steeper stipulations into ours.”

>>3395581

You don't like the thought of the Mother of the Swamp having you at her beck and call. “Reasonable,” you agree. You take another bite of your apple, chewing thoughtfully. “Any thoughts on what to enshrine?”

“Most settlements I've heard about have some kind of animal as their guardian. The process of enshrining a spirit lends it a modicum of intelligence from the sheer surge of spiritual power it receives, so don't worry about it being a sparkling conversationalist like myself.” She snickers. “Just make sure the core concepts of the spirit align with what you want for the village. It's not just a matter of defense, right? The spiritual ley-lines of the area will shift to match the spirit you enshrine. So, for example, if I was the village's guardian everyone would slowly become more predisposed to being breathtakingly beautiful and shockingly intelligent.”

“And humble,” you add. “Don't forget humble.”

“Naturally,” she confirms. “Unfortunately I'm not really interested in getting bound up to a land-locked village, but I'm sure you can find someone that rates second-best.”

While Boand giggles incessantly to herself, you mull over your options.

> Use Saeri's ritual to locate a neutral or positive Avatar and enshrine that spirit.
> Travel into the Ikrins and find a tough, dependable rock turtle.
> Travel deep into the Ikrins and find a powerful, regal Drake.
> Convince one of your spirits to take up the mantle. (Who?)
>Write-in

>>3395585
>> Use Saeri's ritual to locate a neutral or positive Avatar and enshrine that spirit

Just gotta make sure it's the right kind

>>3395585
>> Travel deep into the Ikrins and find a powerful, regal Drake.
The ritual requires a sacrifice, though an Avatar would be nice.

If we do do the ritual, make sure to remember where the other arrows point for the future.

>>3395585
> Use Saeri's ritual to locate a neutral or positive Avatar and enshrine that spirit

>>3395585
>> Travel into the Ikrins and find a tough, dependable rock turtle.

>>3395585
>Use Saeri's ritual to locate a neutral or positive Avatar and enshrine that spirit.

>>3395585
>> Use Saeri's ritual to locate a neutral or positive Avatar and enshrine that spirit.

>>3395585
>> Use Saeri's ritual to locate a neutral or positive Avatar and enshrine that spirit.

> Time to sell some secrets
>>3395606
>>3395638
>>3395697
>>3395710
>>3395731

>Drake hunt
>>3395628

> Turtle Power
>>3395665

Writing.

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You snap your fingers. “Alright. No sense half-assing this. If Grisoch's going to be safe while I'm away I need something above the usual power curve to keep an eye on things while I'm away.”

Boand eyes you curiously, long lashes fluttering with sparks of cerulean power. “Oh? What did you have in mind?”

“Saeri gave me a ritual—the one I used to locate the Avatar of Hunger.” Your arm twinges as you think of the Eternal Maw's smoky quartzite form in your pack. “I know that none of the avatars around this region would really make suitable role models, but if I travel to Eluneia and perform the ritual on the plains there maybe I can find something—someone—worthy of watching over the village.”

“That's a lot to gamble. What if you don't find anything suitable?” Boand quirks a shaped aquamarine brow. “Doesn't that ritual require something of you?”

It's true—every divination requires a sacrifice of knowledge to the greater spirit of secrets and mysteries. Your last divination walled you from easily learning about the ocean and its inhabitants. However...

“It's worth the risk,” you decide, hammering a fist into your open palm.

“Huh?” Quinn glances over to you. “What is, Osyki?”

The world has snapped back into motion, Boand nowhere to be seen in the space between breaths. Perhaps she was distracted, or ran out of whatever pool of energy she uses to project herself? You're not really clear on how that process works. You pat Quinn on the shoulder as you pass him, headed for the door.

“Nothing. I'm heading out—traveling to Eluneia. Hopefully I'll be back before supper.”

Quinn offers you a lazy salute. “Whatever you say, boss. Be safe out there.”

If only.

You glance around the village-- the early morning hustle and bustle, the smell of baking bread and burning wood intermingling in the autumn air. The harvest festival is just around the corner. With any luck you'll have the guardian enshrined to receive an inaugural offering by then.

Forming a seal in the air, you tap into the totem leagues away, nestled in a disused closet inside your Eluneian guest home. The air peels back life the skin of an overripe fruit around you, and the gray fog of the Mists rush out to snatch you up.

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>>3395889
Your trek through the streets of Eluneia is short, made shorter by the perennial presence of Cloudwalker's Stride dwelling in your boots. Jagging between the streets in lines and columns of lighting you make your way from your guest home to the gate in only a few minutes. The guards have been briefed on your antics—no cries of alarm ring out from the sentries, no siege ballista are turned toward you—but they don't seem amused to see you bounding from rooftop to rooftop either. You'd think they would be used to this with the Hawk pulling this antics nightly.

Somesaulting through the open portcullis of the city's entrance, you find yourself on the Alastacian plains. In the distance, the silver-blue ribbon of Boand's new river winds its way across the sloping dales. You make a safe distance from the city—a mile, maybe two—before stopping to set up shop for your ritual. No need to make the guards any tenser.

A swipe of the Terra Disruptor turns a gently rolling slope into a flat dirt plane. You tamp down the earth as best you can with a few more downward swings of the elemental shovel, then set to work. Using the tip of your spear you sketch the interlocking arcane sigils and circles of the ritual into the soft loam.

Every great work requires sacrifice. Your divination is no different—you fish around in your pack until you retrieve the fuel that will allow you to contact the greater spirit of secrets and mystery. The book is titled:

> The Elemental Courts: A Primer
> Overwake's Treatise on the Gray Mists
> Stars, Skies, and the Web of Destiny
> The Riven Road: Beneath the Earth

> Roll 1d100

>>3395893
>The Riven Road: Beneath the Earth

Rolled 100 (1d100)

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>3395893
> The Elemental Courts: A Primer

>>3395896
Wot

>>3395896
Holy shit

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Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>3395893
>> Stars, Skies, and the Web of Destiny
Terra seems to do well in the courts, the mists have given us trouble, and we have a strong interest in Earth.


>>3395896
...well then

Rolled 87 (1d100)

>>3395893
> Overwake's Treatise on the Gray Mists
>>3395896
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

>>3395895
>>3395908
>>3395911
>>3395912
>4 votes, 4 options

>>3395912
>>3395914
I'll back The Riven Road if it comes to a tie.

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>>3395896
>>3395908
>>3395910
>>3395911
>>3395912
>>3395914

>>3395893
>The Riven Road: Beneath the Earth

>>3395911
We have a few earth based entities we can learn from I feel.

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>>3395896

did we just enter a pact with the god of secrets?

...Huh.

Looks like the consensus is to give up Riven Road.

Good to be back, y'all. Writing.

>>3395972
Good to gave you back pal

>>3395972
Diarca, I've been reading this quest for years, and I have had the good fortune to participate in a few threads. The story, the characters, the worldbuilding, the spirit mechanics, it's one of my absolute favorites in the archives. A number of quests over the years have gone on hiatus or vanished altogether, and of all of them, this is the one I had sincerely hoped would one day return.

I cannot express how amazed and happy I am to see this here today.

It is so very, very wonderful to have you back, and I can't wait to see what you have in store.

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>>3396135
I'm lucky to be in a position where I can return to keep telling this story with all of you. I'm excited to see where the road takes us.

The Riven Road. A book on the passageways that exist deep beneath the world's shell, where the Court of Earth holds sway. A voice in the back of your head wonders if sacrificing knowledge of things that lie deep beneath might come back to bite you at some point—first beneath the waves, and now knowledge of that which lurks beneath the ground. Still, if you need intel you can always pick the Iron General's braincase for horrors that lurk deep beneath the earth's crust. Surely, nothing about this ritual will prevent knowledge already held from being imparted unto you.

Right?

You wrap the book in cloth and bind the bundle into an oiled leather pack. You bury the package in the center of the ritual circle, then perch cross-legged atop the earthen mound. With Modi Magni's spear across your lap, you close your eyes and concentrate. Eyes closed tight, stiff postured, palms together in front of your chest., you breathe in deeply, turning the incantation over in your mind. You never did get a chance to translate it from whatever language the Iron General originally discovered itin, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Quicksilver light bleeds from your aura, painting the ritual markings in broad strokes of argent luminescence.

The air around you grows dim, the light of the mid-morning sun overhead made weak and faint by some unknown presence. The smell of old paper and aged leather, the sound of rustling pages and hushed whispers—a cavalcade of strange sensations overtake your perception as the world outside of the circle smears away, an oily blur of color shrouded by fog. Something paces the perimeter of the circle, its footfalls leaving taloned indentations in the loamy soil.

You proffer Modi Magni's spear, as you did once before a few weeks ago. The air grows charged as the presence takes note of your offering.

The ritual circle revolves beneath your feet, the interlocking circles turning like cogs in some vast machine. The indicating needles swing wildly as the essence of the incantation locks on to Modi Magni's essence, using like to search out like far and wide.

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>>3396201
> 100

The circle beneath your feet positively bristles with matches. Arrows of every shape and size explode from the wheel where you stand, a sunburst of knowledge erupting outward in every direction. Your eyes scan the needles as they sway wildly to and fro: Despair, Fury, Isolation, Vengeance. The majority of the signatures seem to be focused to the southwest. You recall someone telling you that the Twil, the border canyon between Eluneia and Asolaria, lies in that direction.

But there—there, shifting between the flood of pained avatars, darting between the like of the dormant maw simmering within your rucksack—you see it.

A pair of perfect candidates.

You sweep your arms to either side and the swarm of negative avatars split neatly around the twin beacons. One to the west, and one to the southwest: Hope and Faith.

Either could suit your needs. But which one to pursue? The remainder of your results buzz around you like hornets, each vying for your attention as it sweeps across the surface of the ritual plane.

> Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow.
> Head southwest into the Twil to find the Avatar of Faith. You can't imagine how much every spirit around the village will benefit from its presence.
> Look for another avatar in the swarm—maybe something like Fury could make for a suitable guardian.

>>3396213
> Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow.

>>3396213
>> Head southwest into the Twil to find the Avatar of Faith. You can't imagine how much every spirit around the village will benefit from its presence.
Whatever we choose make note of the direction of the other. We might be able to Bind it for personal use.

>>3396201
>The Riven Road. A book on the passageways that exist deep beneath the world's shell, where the Court of Earth holds sway. A voice in the back of your head wonders if sacrificing knowledge of things that lie deep beneath might come back to bite you at some point—first beneath the waves, and now knowledge of that which lurks beneath the ground. Still, if you need intel you can always pick the Iron General's braincase for horrors that lurk deep beneath the earth's crust. Surely, nothing about this ritual will prevent knowledge already held from being imparted unto you.
>Right?
...Well that doesn't seem good at all.
>>3396213
> Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow.
Too late now though. Also really good to have you back Diarca, though now I've gotta get back in the habit of checking twitter.

>>3396213
> Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow.

Trying very hard not to get overly happy about seeing this again. Nice to see you again Diarca.

>>3396239
But yeah I think the safest thing would be never doing this ritual again.

>>3396213
> Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow.

Every action that leads to greatness is made with hope - hope that the world can be made better than it already is. It is the light that banishes the darkness of despair, the last beacon remaining when all other lights go out, and the magic spark that transforms inevitable defeat into overwhelming victory.

>>3396239
It will probably come back to bite us later on. But well worth the nat 100 and the Avatar to follow.

>Hope

>>3396322
I mean, I guess we've gotta hope so.

Also I'm kind of unclear what the difference between hope and faith really is, beyond faith being given religious connotations.

>>3396213
> Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow.

Leave religion to the Elunians.

>>3396349
It's a difficult distinction. To me, Hope is wishing for something, while Faith is expecting something.

Not a useful distinction here, unfortunately.

>>3396349
hope seems a boost to survival, faith seems a boost to spirits

>>3396213
>Head west across the plains to find the Avatar of Hope. Grisoch will be built on a better tomorrow

So after getting this squared away, we should probably meet with Sylviannis both to negotiate the lumber deal and to get harp lessons, since it looks like the latter is time limited.

>>3396406
Have we touched the harp more than once since she gave it to us?

>>3396410
Can't remember, but the rainy season is almost up so we gotta get those lessons sooner rather than later.

>>3396410
Maybe once or twice, but it's also a good way to spend more time with Sylvia which is important since we want to foster a good relationship with her.

> The Fire of Man
>>3396219
>>3396239
>>3396259
>>3396314
>>3396337
>>3396362
>>3396381

> Livin on a prayer
>>3396234

Writing.

>>3396496
I gotta say, I'm really enjoying the vote consolidation summary, it's cute and funny. Though that makes you not doing so >>3395972 all the more chilling.

>>3396509
Honestly just me being flabbergasted that the first roll in three years was a straight crit.

Go ahead and make loadout suggestions while I'm writing this next post to save time.

>>3396541
Since we need to traverse a broad flat surface I kind of feel like crossing in style with the Auspicious Rest, but that might not be feasible since we don't have a chair nearby.

>>3396614
Aside from that, I kinda want to stick with the basics with Cloudwalker's Stride and Raptor Greaves, and I'm kind of leery of using the Emperor's Crown because we might give the wrong impression.

I forget, what do we know about the plains in terms of what's likely to try and kill us on the way?

>>3396541
Its just another incident of the diecebots dramatic timing.

>>3396541
It feels a little strange to be removing a good Avatar from the world. I wonder if a non-Feral binding would be possible. I don't think Avatars are intelligent enough for that, but we don't actually know.

Boots : Cloudwalker's Stride
Bow : Ravening Bolt
Armor: Gnome's Garb
Cloak: Edge of Dawn
Gloves :Twin Din
Mirror: Ripple
Mask : Moth's Second Face
Pants : Velociraptor Greaves
Rope : Shade Coil
Shirt : Tyrant's Tabard
Sword: [Siren's Heart]
Key : Static State
Fruit: [Basilisk]
Bracelet: [Control Rod]

Not all of these are required, they all have the potential to be useful. I tried to squeeze just about everything in somewhere.

We need to do more experiments with the Siren Heart and Basilisk. For such a potent Focuses, we know very few of their binds.

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You glance through the remaining two-dozen odd needles gyrating across the surface of the symbolic compass, but you know in your heart what the true choice is. From the moment you took up the mantle, picked up your spear, and threw yourself into that Rock Turtle nest, your entire occupation has been predicated on one ideal: hope. Hope for survival. Hope for another, a better tomorrow.

You whirl Modi Magni's spear through the air and tap the tip of the blade to the west-most needle. The world winds itself around you again like a coiling snake, the foggy border of the ritual dispelled as your choice is made.

West, then. Terra and Quinn are counting on you.

Even as the ritual fades, you still retain as sense of direction toward that distant star. You can see it in your mind's eye, a distant beacon sitting atop the horizon. Your shadow almost seems to be stretching toward it in the mid-morning light.

With Eluneia on your right you begin your journey across the Alastacian plains. You can see that a number of roads stretch outward from Eluneia, carving wide crescents through the hills and valleys. With each skyward bound, as the landscape below curves away from you, you can see the indication of further settlement on the horizon—outlying villages and towns clustered around Eluneia, perched atop hills behind heavy wooden pallisades not dissimilar to Grisoch's ringed defenses.

“How goes the search?” Boand's voice rings through the Whirlpool Pearl.

“Better than expected,” you mutter, turning your face against the wind to speak clearly into the sphere. “Got a fix on a likely candidate west of Eluneia. What do you know about the area?”

”West of the capital? Not much, unfortunately. I can make a few calls—a friend of mine inhabits a lake a little ways west of my stretch of the river there. I think there are some old ruins out that way?

Old ruins? You wrinkle your nose. The only ruins you've encountered have been evidence of the first civilization—the shrine below the mines and the strange flooded palace off the coast. You remember what Zahn said to you: 'This world is young.' How old could they be?

“Noted,” you mutter. “Get back to me when you get some details.”

>>3396814

> Current loadout:

Armor: Gnome's Garb
Boots: Cloudwalker Stride
Bow: Accretion Volley
Cloak: Edge of Dawn
Mask: Moth's Second Face
Mirror: Ripple
Pants: Velociraptor Greaves
Shirt: Tyrant's Tabard
Sword: Core Skewer
Key: Static State

As part of an ongoing systems revamp, Osyki will currently be limited to 10 concurrent bindings. That limit can be increased with training or artifacts.

Even with your superpowered leaping strides, the plains of Alasatcia are broad. An hour passes with little interruption as you hurtle over vales and valleys, spring between roads as settlements watch you from distant hilltops. You catch sight of a few packs moving in the distance—herd animals, or maybe some kind of plains wolves—but nothing seems willing or able to keep pace with you.

Near noon you can feel your destination growing closer. Your legs ache from the exertion of repeatedly leaping—even if the Stride stops your shins from exploding through your kneecaps with every jarring landing, it still takes effort to propel you body into the air. You can see a structure perched low and squat at the edge of a lake, crumbling at the edges but still largely intact. The lake itself is broad enough that you can barely see the far side from the ground. You wonder how far you are from the ocean here?

> Take a moment to rest and revamp your bindings.
> Proceed directly into the structure. No time to waste.
> Wait for Boand's info as you scout the lake and the surrounding area.
> Write-in

>>3396819
> Wait for Boand's info as you scout the lake and the surrounding area.

>>3396819
>10 limit
Ignore that earlier suggestion then.

>> Take a moment to rest and revamp your bindings.
Mostly looks fine, but drop Static State for Twin Din.

I know we normally look outlandish, but I wonder what people think we we wear these grotesque masks.

>>3396819
>Wait for Boand's info as you scout the lake and the surrounding area.

>>3396875
I'd say at least half of our masks aren't grotesque

>>3396819
>Wait for Boand's info as you scout the lake and the surrounding area.
I think this is fine for now.

>>3396819
>> Wait for Boand's info as you scout the lake and the surrounding area.

>>3396819
10 current bindings? Interesting. We've got 17 spirits total at the moment, so further training will definitely be required.

>>3396995
A couple, like the raptor and Ykree, have pretty limited use. There's been mention of permanently combining focuses, that might breath some life into some of the weaker foci.

> Check your six
>>3396858
>>3396920
>>3396956
>>3396966

> Mix n' match
>>3396875


Going to head to bed for now. I'll put up the next update in the morning and continue updating sporadically throughout the week so check back regularly. In the interim: would you prefer the Binder's log be reformatted to be grouped by host object, or stay grouped as it currently is by Focus?

>>3397110
>Binder's Log
By host is better for some things, by Focus is better for others. I'd prefer by host, but not if it's a ton of work on your part.

This is part of why I've been working on the Binder's Spreadsheet:
>>3395191
Let me know if anything is missing. I'm filling it in as I reread the quest, but I'm not all the way through yet.

>>3397110
Focus is just fine for now, thanks.

I've actually made something to help track things, it's a spreadsheet that organizes by both Focus and Host Object. I made it ages ago, and I'll update it to match any new bindings discovered. Hope you like it!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xCmLR_2s6qgDAUV-BsE_eaiVe3q6qoxaqztV8V3CKTw/edit#gid=0

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>>3397137
Well, at least if one of us gets hit by a bus we'll still have a spare.

Why do you have the Eternal Maw crossed out? I don't' remember anything happening to it, but it's been a while.

>>3397173
We tried upgrading the Eternal Maw with the trial that lets us make focuses stronger, but we failed the test and it became dormant. No idea yet if it can be saved or not, but for now, it's unusable.

>>3397137
Huh, I'm surprised by how many masks we've made since it's tied for second place with the sword.

>>3397189
Yup. I wanted to track how often each item has been used, as well as each focus, so we could see if anything has been overlooked or underutilized. If we get creative enough, we could come up with some real winners.

>>3397181
Now that you mention it, I do remember that.

Hey, if you highlight the top row, then go view>freeze>1 row, you can make the header stay visible when scrolling down.

>>3397225
I had no idea you could do that. Thanks for the tip, that's great!

>>3397210
Yeah, it's surprising how with certain spirits even simple things like a key or a waterskin can yield potent results.

Do we not want boands mask if we're about to negotiate a binding?

You approach the ruin on foot—that is to say, without the aid of Cloudwalker Stride—in order to better keep a low profile. As you move closer to the lakeside you note that the ground grows sodden and muddy, the treads of your tortoise-shell boots squelching audibly against the earth. The lake itself seems to be largely devoid of vegetation around its borders, perhaps indicative of a recent surge in the shoreline. It is the rainy season, after all, and the Alastacian plains aren’t so far from Grisoch that it’s unreasonable to assume they’ve been getting the same weather patterns.

The structure itself seems to be a largely stone edifice, though here and there you can see splintered wooden supports through gaps in the masonry. Unusual script curls across the pillars supporting the entryway, eroded in places to a smooth white-gray finish. The building only looks to be one floor vertically, the roof standing approximately sixteen feet off of the ground. Your internal tether to the ritual of location tells you that the avatar lies somewhere within and slightly below.

You wrap the chain of Ripple around your hand, holding the mirror aloft like a talisman. Your other hand slowly works the Core Skewer out of its scabbard. A faint heat shimmer plays around the edge of the onyx blade, and a forge-hearth glow lights the air immediately around it.
Boand’s voice rings out from the mirror, and you turn it to reveal her smiling visage within its depths. She informs you that her contact can meet you at the lakeside. You walk a wide circle around the entrance to the ruins until the mud rises to the ankles of your boots. Standing beside the waterline, you look out over the placid surface and wait.
A few minutes later the water at the lake’s edge balloons outward. You take a step back as a dome of aqueous fluid blossoms outward. A pair of beady black eyes regard you from the swollen bell of a massive mushroom-shaped spirit, tendrils of golden metal flexing at its circumference.

“Good day,” the spirit burbles. The horned dome of its head bobs once in the water, sending a splash scattering across your boots. “Boand sas Sylviannis informed me of your arrival. Welcome to Lake Thebit.”

>>3397907

You offer the strangely shaped spirit a bow in return. You’re surprised at how soft-spoken the massive creature is—perhaps a transplant from one of the Elemental Courts? “Good afternoon to you. I am the Totemist of Grisoch.” You tuck the Core Skewer into its scabbard, resting the heel of your palm atop its pommel. “What can you tell me about this structure? My sources tell me an Avatar lies within.”

The jelly dome bobs again, soaking your shoes as the waters surge their borders again. “A number of curiosities take residence in the Oubliette. As I understand it, the kingdom which once held this land before the Argent Lady first touched the soil used it as a dumping ground for inconveniences.” A tendril rises from the water, tipped with a gleaming silver spear. The entity gestures with it casually, as if it were an open palm. The blade splits with air with a faint whistling noise. “The doors opened only recently when a traveller from the east used a signet of some sort to part the defenses that once surrounded it.”

You glance toward the doors. “Has that traveller emerged from the structure since then?”

The spirit wiggles back and forth in what you assume is a negative. “Not to my knowledge. They wore a cloak of red and gold, and they seemed to know precisely where they were going. A number of strange fluctuations in the veil have occurred since they arrived.”

“And how long ago was that?”

“Just over a week ago, now.”

Interesting.

> Ask for more information about this traveller. Did he get a good look at them?
> Find out more about the civilization that built this structure. Does the spirit know what to expect in there?
> That’s good enough for now. Arm up and head inside.
> Write-in

>>3397909
>> Ask for more information about this traveller. Did he get a good look at them?
>> Find out more about the civilization that built this structure. Does the spirit know what to expect in there?

Exposition!

>>3397909
>Ask for more information about this traveller. Did he get a good look at them?

>>3397909
> Find out more about the civilization that built this structure. Does the spirit know what to expect in there?

>>3397909
> Ask for more information about this traveller. Did he get a good look at them?
> Find out more about the civilization that built this structure. Does the spirit know what to expect in there?

Hi Diarca!

>>3397909
>Ask permission to set up one of the fast travel beacons around here
Since this Oubliette sounds interesting and we might not clear it out on our first try.
>Ask him how he's been, if there's anything stirring up trouble in the area he'd appreciate help with?
I don't know, trouble here could spread elsewhere and I don't think it would hurt to be a good guest?

>>3397909
>Oubliette
a prison? I wonder if the Avatar is the warden or a prisoner.

>They wore a cloak of red and gold, and they seemed to know precisely where they were going.
we've met someone else near here that dresses and acts like that...

> Find out more about the civilization that built this structure. Does the spirit know what to expect in there?

>>3398344
Regarding the new binding limit, we should take another look at those fruit bindings. It might be a good way to get a little more mileage out of the underpowered foci, and if the pattern holds, when they go unusable for a day it won't really matter.

>>3398382
IIRC the fruit bindings cause elemental poisoning

This better not be April fool's prank

>>3398344
Honestly it kind of gives me Pandora's Box vibes, with an Avatar of Hope in a prison where things are meant to be forgotten.

>>3398387
I think the only downside is that it renders that binding unusable for 24 hours, the elemental poisoning was a whole different bag of fuck.

>>3398387
Na, the only fruit we've eaten was the Spirit Fruit Cordia.
>Imbues the consumer with a limited but potent surge of control over elemental earth. When the power fades, the Sealed Earth Sphere cannot be bound again for twenty-four hours.
Thread 64 was the test.
It likely harmonized well with our Earth bent, but we had the elemental corruption well before that.

File: Lake Spirit.png (2.33 MB, 1357x1920)

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You maintain eye contact with the spirit as best you can—his eyes are far enough apart that you can only reasonably look at one at a time. “What do you know about the people who built this place?”

“Oh, not a great deal, unfortunately.” The Lake Spirit swings a spear-tipped tendril through the air in a crude approximation of a shrug. “I only migrated here a scant handful of decades ago. I assume they were all dead and gone by that point, or else moved on to greener kelp beds. The veil did seem to fluctuate when that traveler dispelled the wards around the Oubliette, so they seemed to have some modicum of skill with will-working.”

The spirit further confides in you that not only did he not catch more than a glimpse of the traveler, he didn't care to invest much further in any investigation after them. “Biped concerns,” he tells you, “are among the most mundane, unimaginative problems one could possibly conceive of wrapping their tendrils up in. No offense meant, Totemist, but all the mortals of this area ever seem to care after is basic subsistence. No appreciation for true culture, you see?”

You don't, but you politely nod along with the aquatic creature's diatribe. Eventually he seems to tucker himself out, deflating slightly at the twin apexes on his crown.

“In any event, Totemist, will you need anything further?”

“No! No.” You amend yourself, trying not to sound too eager to go. “Thank you kindly for your wisdom. Pass on my regards to Boand when next you meet.”

The spirit bobs in the surf agreeably, watching you as you walk along the shoreline with all due haste -away- from that conversation and toward this 'Oubliette'.

The doors, you note as you approach the massive twinned stone edifice, are the only section of the structure that do not seem to have suffered the cruelties of time. The runes engraved into their face are as sharp and detailed as the day they were carved, gouged deep into the smooth gray-green rock without a hint of rounding or algae invading the corners. The light from the Alastacian plains seems to fail a few feet from the threshold, swallowed up by some inexorable darkness that wells from within.

It doesn't seem like an environment where hope could be fostered. Best you find this Avatar quickly.

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>>3399013
The antechamber stretches back a good deal further than you expected it to. The chamber is shaped as a pair of circles roughly mashed together, two elongated ovals intersecting along one of the tangential edges. The interior is surprisingly free of dust, though you note there are occasional motes of light that seem to wink through the air for fractions of a heartbeat.

The floor is smooth, paved stone. In the center of the first ovalline chamber there is a bas relief carved into the floor, a sigil or some declaration of purpose writ large in that same looping, cyclopean text. Lamps ring the interior walls of this circle, unlit and cold behind the crystal-glass panes.

A grand double-staircase dominates the majority of the back half of the chamber. Two sweeping crescents of stone steps flank the far edge of the relief in the floor, rising to an elevated balcony above you. You can see a number of crystal shards, rough chunks of blue-white gemstone, hovering in the air ponderously above the dias far above you. A few of them seems to reflect and refract off of one another, beams of light dancing to and fro through the nebulous dark.

At the apex of the steps, on the wall behind the balcony, another door looms ominously. The way is shut, a single slab of gray-green rock solidly refusing you entry to the deeper sanctum.

> Use a binding to investigate the area. (Which?)
> Attempt to discern the nature of these crystal shards.
> You're not going to be stymied by a prettied up boulder. Muscle your way through the door.
> Write-in

> Roll 1d100.

>>3399030
I think this might be Amal's time to shine and either combine him with Cordia's orb and the map for the Earth Sage's Tablet, or combine him with the journal for the Grimoire Potentiate, either one seems like it might be useful here, though we'd need to shuffle things around a bit?
>Cordia/Amal/Map: Earth Sage's Tablet. A configurable replica of the user's immediate surroundings cast in stone. Useful for searching out treasures of the earth and preventing ambush.
>Journal: Grimoire Potentiate: A small crystal panel framed in stylized book-cases of silver. Succinctly summarizes information from any written text viewed through its lens, no matter the language.

>>3399030
>> Attempt to discern the nature of these crystal shards.

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>3399030
> Use a binding to investigate the area. (Which?)
> Attempt to discern the nature of these crystal shards.

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>3399030
forgot the roll

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>3399063
>>3399030
We might want to swap out out Cloudwalker's Stride since we're gonna be in a relatively exposed space?

>>3399063
>>3399118
I think Seneschal Step, Grimoire Potentiate, maybe Aria Nymph, and Hunter Vision might be useful but we'd need to shuffle stuff around to manage our defenses.

>>3399118
I'll support this, but we'll likely need something that doesn't create much noise or such

>>3399151
Voting for aria nymph if we're going to be negotiating

>>3399030
>Use a binding to investigate the area. (Which?)
>> Attempt to discern the nature of these crystal shards.
>>3399159
Yeah I don't really get how people are able to manage the loadouts as well as they do. So...
>Grimoire Potentiate
>Seneschal Step
>Aria Nymph
>Paranoia Shard
>Gnome Guard
And I can't think of the others, it's tricky because we also don't want to accidentally collapse the dungeon on top of us by using AOE attacks
>>3396819
I just noticed you have us using Fourth twice, both Static State and Accretion Volley are using the control rod.

>>3399237
Maybe
>Stalker's Caress
for the bow could be good, and I guess
>Core Skewer
and
>Static State
could still work? I'm a bit iffy about Edge of Dawn but can't figure out an alternative.

>>3399201
Seconding. Also equip Despot's Delusion to help with negotiations. For the rest of our items, we should be prepared for combat, but we don't want to risk destroying the temple and bringing the roof down on our heads. For that reason, I think we should avoid Cloudwalker's Stride, because although thunder jumping is awesome, it's not good for keeping structures intact.

Here's what I think our loadout should be:

Weapons:
>Core Skewer
>Stalker's Caress
>Resonanta

Armor:
>Blessing Of The Elder Turtle
>Bulwark Aurum
>Bolide Bracers
>Golem Rising

Items:
>Grimoire Potentiate

>>3399413
I like the idea of Golem Rising, but I'm worried that it would actually really mess up the floors of a place and not place everything back where it should be, but I do agree that we should be more prepared for fighting maybe.

>>3399413
>>3399461
I'm also kind of worried that that Despot Delusion would send the wrong message to the Avatar of Hope, since I don't think intimidation is what we're going for?

So
>Core Skewer
>Stalker's Caress
>Resonanta
>Blessing of the Elder Turtle
>Bulwark Aurum
>Seneschal Step
>Atlas Pauldron
>Aria Nymph
>Grimoire Potentiate
>Static State
might work?

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> Break out a bind
>>3399085
>>3399063
>>3399237

> Check these shards
>>3399075
>>3399085

Writing. Please also vote on this loadout:
>>3399835

> [1] Use this loadout
> [2] Remain with the current loadout.

>>3399920
1

>>3399920
> [1] Use this loadout
Sure, why not.

>>3399920
>1
But that goes without saying because I didn't do it -just- for fun.

>>3399920
Welcome back Diarca, glad to see the ol' Summoning Circle still works.

>>3399013
A spirit of culture, I'd be curious to speak with him some more but now is not the time.

>>3397909
>>“The doors opened only recently when a traveller from the east used a signet of some sort to part the defenses that once surrounded it....They wore a cloak of red and gold, and they seemed to know precisely where they were going”

I forget, did our freeloader friend from the Moon Garden wear a cloak?

>>3399920
[1]

>>3399920
Also I feel like it would make sense to take another look at the front doors with the Grimoire when we get it set up, just to see if it says anything important?

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You glance around the static, leaden air of the Oubliette's antechamber. All of the clues are here—you can feel something on the tip of your tongue, darting around your third eye. A clue. A way forward. It's just not there yet.

Fortunately, you're not alone in these endeavors.

Were one to observe the crumbling ruin from the outside, they might be forgiven for mistaking the rapid flashes of light echoing from within for a series of staggered explosions.

“In my name—“

A flash of dazzling green.

“Link the world without—“

An eruption of anti-light, shadows crawling into the cracks scattered across the floor.

“I unite the spirit and the material.”

An actinic stab of ozone.

“Grant this conduit your blessing.”

A clap of thunder.

A moment of silence.

You stand, glowing in the wake of your own spiritual tidal wave. Your raiment sheds a soft light, a light breeze sweeping the stone-plated skirt of Bulwark Aurum around your ankles.

> Current Loadout:
Sword: Core Skewer
Bow: Stalker's Caress
Buckler: Resonanta
Armor: Blessing of the Elder Turtle
Pants: Bulwark Aurum
Boots: Seneschal Step
Cloak: Atlas Pauldron
Mask: Aria Nymph
Journal: Grimoire Potentiate

You hold the crystal slab containing Amal's spirit aloft, focusing it on the floor. Arcane runes swirl in parabolas of sacred geometry. Amal sorts through an era's worth of literary reference and codified linguistics in the span of moments it takes you to draw a single breath. Lines of light etch a summary of the text into the Grimoire, overlapping the runes on the floor in perfect synchronicity. Not a direct translation—only the gist.

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>>3400172

A declaration of warning for those who would step further within. The firstborn claim no responsibility for your safety past this point.

Fair enough. You don't name something “The Oubliette” to make it sound welcoming for visiting dignitaries.

You take a moment to steady yourself. Pushing the crystal bridge of Aria Nymph up your nose, you concentrate on wrenching open your third eye. Boand's soothing melody reflects through the fractal lattice of the mask's structure, lending invisible aid to your concentration. You can almost feel her manicured fingertips kneading into your temples, drawing forth the power within.

”There.”

> 91

The world floods with color around you—a prisonscape writ in luminous green. Flickering chains of spiritual power spring from the floating crystals overhead, knotted and braided through one another. Their points spear into equidistant markers around the seal underfoot and the door far above, linking the two inexorably with sympathetic power.

The crystals sparkling overhead pulse with a power at once familiar and wholly alien—a coruscating witchfire painted in shades of deep crimson and ivory swirls just beneath the surface. An eidolon's flame. Last you encountered it, it was searing flesh from bone in the depths of Azeo Sicros.

You imagine if what the Lake Spirit told you was accurate, some sort of seal or signet is needed to press in further legitimately. Unfortunately you're lacking in official paperwork—which isn't to say that you don't have a few badges of office to call your own. But which one to present?

> Your mask is proof of a Celestial Binding. Let Boand speak for you.
> Your spear is the mark of your Totemic power. Let none stand before you.
> The mirror-orb of Caethos' favor ought to reveal a way forward—or at least, around.
> Write-in

>>3400179
>> Your mask is proof of a Celestial Binding. Let Boand speak for you.

I fear letting Magni speak for us when we don't have something to murderize.

>>3400179
> Your mask is proof of a Celestial Binding. Let Boand speak for you.
Let's give it a shot to start with.

>>3400179
>> Your spear is the mark of your Totemic power. Let none stand before you.
From what I remember, a Feral Bind is Totemist only. I don't remember the rules for Celestial, but binds like ours to Amal or Terra to her Salamander weren't restricted.

>>3400143
>I forget, did our freeloader friend from the Moon Garden wear a cloak?
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/42146440/
>>42150267
Here she is. No cloak, but she was at "home", so that's not surprising.

>>3400179
> Your mask is proof of a Celestial Binding. Let Boand speak for you.

Wait, could this be our first proper dungeon crawl?

As this relates to our current sidequest, I figured I'd bring this up.
Thread 72:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/44791647/
>>44816095
>Your research yields a few potential fruits, though important links are still missing.

> Enshrining a spirit as a Guardian requires the approval of the present Land Guardian.

> A specially constructed vessel must be prepared to enshrine a guardian spirit.

> A guardian spirit's shrine must be maintained regularly to avoid spiritual corrosion.


How much of this has actually been done?
>>3400428
Depends on your definition, but I guess so in a classical sense.

😃

>>3400474
Shit, it seems like actually getting the chump to bind is one of the last steps, unless we already broached the subject with Sylviannis and just never got around to it?

Because while it's unlikely that she'll disapprove of this Avatar if we manage to nab it, it's also not impossible.

You don't imagine introducing a Greater Avatar of Wrath or—well, whatever the hell Caethos is—is going to get you a warm reception to the Oubliette's sanctum. It's not that you don't trust the mirror titan's winning charm. You just want to keep your options open.

You pluck the Aria Nymph from your mask, holding the crystal domino forward. You use the mask as a prism, splitting narrow beams of quicksilver energy from your aura and focusing them through the mask into the seal affixed to the floor. Rays of cerulean energy rake across the circular impression, searching and probing for a weakness. A lock to fit a key to.

As if from a great distance, you can hears Boand's voice begin to sing in hymnal tones.

The churning eidolon fire in the crystals surges as the Aria Nymph lives up to her name. Spools of celestial text unfurl from the eyeholes of the mask, spilling outward to wrap in tight spirals around the links that tie the sealing stones to the portal above. Piece by piece the walls around you crumble away. Long, thin lines of stone fall away to reveal pulsing, null-aspected crystal in dizzying geometric arrays across the walls, the ceiling, the stairs.

You narrow your gaze, fingers splaying out to dance across the strings of the great instrument that this room has become. Boand's gentle touch guides your motions as you send streamers tracing outward from your aura to overlap and overlay the spiritual circuit around you. The two of you move in concert, connected by the ethereal bridge of the soul.

When you were training with Ayren, he hammered the danger of the Totemist's art into your skull with steel and his own two fists. The unbridled fury of a Behemoth, the insidious corruption of elemental imbalance. The frailty, the mortality of man.

When it comes down to it, though, you're pretty sure things like this are what the job is all about.

One by one the crystals overhead align into orbit, a confluence of celestial activity played out in puppet-effigy by the rotating crystals spires. The walls hum with quiet energy. Hovering above the great seal your mask crackles with incandescent power.

You pluck it from the center of the maelstrom and replace it atop the bridge of your nose. Your essence ties itself to this place, and something audibly clicks.

The door at the top of the stairs swings open.

The door behind you slams shut.

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>>3400603
Dropped my trip.

> [[The Oubliette of the Firstborn]]

The world shifts into alignment to match the crystal planetoids above you, and you become aware all at once that you have stepped across the bounds of material reality and into the Mists.

When you ascend the radiant crystal-limned stairs and glance through the secondary threshold it helps to justify the spectacle.

The doorway opens up to overlook an abyss. The floor simply drops away, lit from below by a strange, eerie half-light painted in hues of violet and magenta. It's as if you've stepped out of the side of a mountain, looking out into a night sky lit by an otherworldly aurora. Dancing through the abyss are a swarm of stone platforms, a buzzing hornet's nest that fights to cohere into an ordered shape. As you look on walkways latch together with flares of shimmering light, pathways that tesselate together to form hallways. Stone constructs snap together into rooms, doors, staircases and ramps before your very eyes. Whatever process Boand guided you through seems to have prompted the Oubliette to reconfigure itself. But is it for your convenience, or to your detriment?

Narrow strips of stone have already begun to cohere into a pathway before you. If you wait for the mechanisms that power this place to spool up, you'll likely be able to explore the Oubliette as intended—walking amongst the stone edifices and exploring vaulted tunnels.

Or, you reason, you could hurl yourself into the abyss now, before the structures have a chance to box you in, and attempt to take the most direct route from outside the confines of the normal structure. You do lack Cloudwalker Stride—you'll need to rely largely on you own strength to propel you from floating platform to platform.

You bite your lip, weighing the options.

> Falling into that shimmering abyss is a death sentence at best. Allow the hallways to connect to the threshold and proceed into the tunnels.
> Leap out of the doorway before the hallways can connect and attempt to leap, crawl, and maneuver along the outside boundaries of the stone structure.
> Write-in

>>3400608
> Falling into that shimmering abyss is a death sentence at best. Allow the hallways to connect to the threshold and proceed into the tunnels.
Since we just got here and it hasn't tried to kill us yet, I don't really see a reason to immediately go off the trail.

>>3400608
> Falling into that shimmering abyss is a death sentence at best. Allow the hallways to connect to the threshold and proceed into the tunnels.

>>3400620
Agreed. Let's see what's in store for us, no need to sequence break just yet.

>>3400608
>> Falling into that shimmering abyss is a death sentence at best. Allow the hallways to connect to the threshold and proceed into the tunnels.

>>3400608
>> Falling into that shimmering abyss is a death sentence at best. Allow the hallways to connect to the threshold and proceed into the tunnels.

For once, patience wins out. With the added guarantee of Cloudwalker assisting your bounding strides you don’t fancy your chances hurtling over that half-lit chasm. Hanging back and watching from the doorway, you do gain the benefit of seeing the rough configuration of the structure’s layout; it looks like a three-tiered affair. The hallway that snakes out to connect to the threshold with a resounding -click- looks to be at the top of that arrangement. Unfortunately, with the way the hallways snake together in their constantly shifting dance that’s the extent of the intelligence you’re able to glean about the layout before your view is obscured.

As the hallway meant to grant you entry docks with the antechamber you can see the crystalline veins of energy bleed into the newly attached superstructure. Nodes of shimmering crystal flicker to life in the walls of the hallway, bleeding shifting half-light in shades of blue and gray. You draw the Core Skewer and raise Resonata to a ready position as you step foot into the Oubliette proper. You’re not quite sure what to expect out of a Firstborn structure.

“Boand,” you mutter quietly as you advance to the first bend in the passageway. “What do you know about the Firstborn?”

-”Precious little, unfortunately.”- she replies in the back of your mind. -”There are traces of civilizations before the current era scattered around Grisoch in the Ikrins and dotted across Alastacia, but they’re usually sealed up tight. You’d probably have better luck asking Zahn about them. If what you told me about him is true, he’s probably one of them.”-

A shame that you can’t pick the First’s brain as easily as you can Boand’s. Something to amend eventually, perhaps. You recall the story Hesheza wove for you on your first visit to Azeo Sicros. The founding of the pact. The first hunt. But how long ago…?

>>3401132

The hallway quickly splits into three wider passageways, each labeled with a burning rune of eidolon flame. A swipe with Amal’s Grimoire reveals the sigils to be ‘Cage’, ‘Disposal’, and perhaps most curiously, ‘Center’. You reference your internal compass, and find to your surprise and delight that the ritual from the material still holds firm here—you can feel the gentle pulse of Hope’s beacon below you. Unfortunately it doesn’t provide you with much more of a heading than ‘down’.

“Amal? Suggestions?”

The crystal slate at your hip buzzes audibly before disgorging a tiny replica of your pyramid companion. “I don’t imagine anything is going to be waiting for us in ‘Disposal’ that we’re keen to meet. Check the Cage, I’d say.”
You doubt if you’ll be that lucky, but heeding his words you head down the leftmost path.

The architecture shifts dramatically as you proceed down the branch. The gray-green stone is striated further with angular lines of light. The lamps of rough, unworked crystal are replaced by glowing circular nodes in the wall, spilling light in even intervals as the ceiling vaults high overhead. The hallways snakes left and slopes slightly downward, sets of three and five stairs interrupting the otherwise flawless path. Every so often one of those nodules is replaced by a transparent window, affording you a glance at the misty aurora outside.

Your third eye aches with the spiritual presence packed everpresent into every inch of masonry. The temptation is strong to allow your sixth sense to close, a moment of respite from the blinding energy around you.

The hallway terminates abruptly in a closed archway. The structure is less a doorway and more an aperture, a set of smooth stone crescents that overlap to bar your path. A fragment of the seal of the Firstborn is engraved into each shard in such a way that the closed aperture forms a seamless whole of the symbol.

> Tried and true. Use Aria Nymph to manipulate this door open, too.
> Try a stealthier tack. See if the door has some sort of mechanism to release.
> Whatever lives here is doubtless already aware of you. Use the Atlas Pauldrons and take a running charge at the door to hammer through to the other side.
>Write-in

>>3401142
>> Tried and true. Use Aria Nymph to manipulate this door open, too.
Might as well try the straightforward way first.

>>3401142
>> Try a stealthier tack. See if the door has some sort of mechanism to release.

No harm having a look before we try and open it. Maybe check for traps too

>>3401142
>> Tried and true. Use Aria Nymph to manipulate this door open, too.

This isn't immeaditly relevant, but when we do finally get the Tryant Killer together and go fight the thing, will we be able to take a focus and the spark, or only one?

>>3401142
>Try a stealthier tack. See if the door has some sort of mechanism to release.
Even if we don't learn how to open the door, we might learn something else at least

>>3401142
It's not like I like that you're back and questing or anything.

> Try a stealthier tack. See if the door has some sort of mechanism to release.

> Sneeky breeky
>>3401338
>>3401407
>>3401462

> Diplomancy
>>3401404
>>3401209

> Roll 1d100

Rolled 51 (1d100)

>>3401481

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>3401481

Rolled 76 (1d100)

>>3401481

A close examination of the Firstborn seal with the Grimoire reveals no discernable difference from the one inscribed in the antechamber floor. You run your fingers experimentally along the edge of the doorframe, searching for a catch or trigger to depress. The stone is smooth and unyielding, less cold than you expect it to be, and utterly devoid of any mechanical trigger. You narrow your eyes, scanning the plates of the aperture. You suppose any civilization adept enough to create a space within the Mists probably wouldn’t rely on a physical trigger, but there must be some kind of failsafe in cases of emergency. Maybe on the stone sigil itself…?

> 76 [vs. DC 80: Extremely Difficult. Failure.]

As your fingers graze the surface of the emblem itself, the doors shudder in response. You curse under your breath as the spiral of the door unfolds with a weighty grinding sound, lights flaring bright overhead. As the stone vanes retract you can see the room beyond in brief through the circular portal left behind—a tall room with a spiraling stone structure in the center, roughly rectangular and longer than it is wide. The walls are flanked by columns, and perched in between each pair of stone pillars…

The roar of oxygen greedily consumed fills your ears. You hurl yourself to one side as a screaming lance of bronze flame fills the space that your head just occupied. The plates of Bulwark Aurum flare beneath you, sending you skidding across the floor three inches above the surface of the hallway. You throw out a hand to steady yourself on the far wall, the crystal plate of Resonata humming gently from the impact—

The next projectile to fly through the door is a long blade of obsidian. It hurtles the gap so fast your eyes scarcely have time to register it before it rebounds wildly off of your armor. The blade itself shatters, but several razor shards embed themselves inches deep into the hexagonal plates of your armor. You flinch as the spray rebounds off of Aria Nymph, scratching and chipping at the crystal surface.

The eidolon—or so you assume, a faceless thing of black stone and roiling crimson energy—ducks its shoulders to step through the door. One of its arms ends in a jagged obsidian blade, the stone already snaking outward the replace the projectile it fired at you. The other limb is wreathed in hideously crackling fire. Talons dig into the stone underfoot as it squares its shoulders, readying itself to spring.

A glance past the automaton reveals two more foes loosing themselves from their plinths nestled between the pillars of the next room.

>>3401719
The eidolon leaps, but this time you are ready to meet it. The chitin edge of the Core Skewer flashes up as the obsidian terror leaps across the distance between you. The hooked spike at the forward pommel of your blade sends your foe’s stab lancing -past- your shoulder, rather than through it. It lands heavily, almost on top of you, and swings the limb wreathed in a metallic conflagration toward you.

Still off-balance, you cannot interpose the Skewer in time. Resonata comes up instead, and you concentrate to bring the Blessing of the Elder Turtle to bear. The latter proves a hair too slow, the spiritfire claw punching a hole straight through the nascent barrier before it can come to fruition with a resounding -CRACK-. Your buckler absorbs the brunt of the blow, ringing like a struck gong. The force of the blow drives you off of your feet, sending you careening down the hall you trod so carefully only a few moments ago. Bulwark Aurum’s power flares again before you hit the ground, turning a ruinous crash into a long slide on a cushion of air down the length of the stone path. Tongues of the eidolon’s flame dance along the arm of your armor, hissing and crackling malevolently as they blacken the turtle-shell armor by inches.

The eidolon advances, bringing the obsidian edge of its arm up to draw a bead on you. You roll backward, landing on your feet with your blade in hand. Quarters are tight in the hallway, barely wide enough to skirt the bulk of the automaton. If you could get past it into the room you would have more room to breathe—but another pair of foes to contend with besides. Your arm still aches with the force of the deflected blow, and you can feel points of obsidian digging into your ribs with every breath. Resonata’s power thrums through you, the power of a Plate Wurm spilling through your limbs.

The strips of glowing crystal in the walls wax with visceral crimson light. The eidolon fires another jagged obsidian lance.

> Write-in

>>3401722
>>3401722
Dammit, these are constructs. Core Skewer works best with organic enemies, it's way less effective against these things.

Thanks to Resonanta, though, we have some stored power at the moment. Dodge the spear and charge forward, using Seneschal's Step and Bulwark Aurum to move unpredictably, then start hacking away with Core Skewer. With the Atlas Pauldrons, we have way higher strength than normal, so our physical attacks should receive a boost in damage.

what are the odds we could switch something out quickly without getting beat up? Because while our defense seems alright, we dont have a good offense currently on to take these guys.
If We could Put the Siren into the gloves for Fist of the Mantle, we could use the strength from Atlas Pauldrons to grapple and punch them without worrying about the fire...

>>3401832
Actually, Scratch this, We'll just have to make due with what we have.
Lets use Boand's boost to our perception to look for a weakness in these thing's contruction, and use the increased mobility from Seneschal Step , Bulwark, and Resonata while parrying with the Core Skewer to manipulate them into a good position, or attacking each other if possible. When we get an opening, Eaither break off or catch one of those Obsidian blades to use, or use our strength to hit one of these fools with one of these other fools.

>>3401832
We're at 9/10 bindings. The only way I see binding as fast enough is if we only have to go through 1 binding, so one of the unbound foci to something currently unbound.
Fourth is open. We could go for The Empty Bottle, or a knife, amulet, bracelet, fruit, mirror, rope, crossbow, or whatever else we might have on us.

I think we want to chip at its legs or use boand to look for vulnerabilities as
>>3401877 said. With our pauldrons and the resonanta our next hit should have some serious welly behind it.

>>3401722
>>3401877
That sounds like a good plan, but man who knew that the defense mechanisms in this place were so trigger happy?

>>3402306
Also my bad for not giving more thought into anti construct bindings

Do my eyes deceive me? Diarca is back from the slumber once more?

>>3402657
he is summoned

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The Osyki of a handful of moments past would have taken that obsidian lance through the skull, bone and viscera splitting like an overripe fruit against the peerless edge of that stone blade. The splatter of his final moments would have coated the walls of this otherwise pristine mausoleum of the Firstborn, a messy tracework of viscera spelling an ignoble end to a long lineage of proud Totemistry in streamers of carmine and gray matter.

Fortunately, you are not that Osyki. Resonata hums at your wrist.

The lance misses you by inches. You pull the potential energy from the crystal disc, converting it into a burst of speed as you duck into an impossibly low splits. The Seneschal's Step allows you a feat of contortion that would snap tendons under ordinary circumstances. Your thighs hit the deck as the lance whistles past your crown, shattering into jagged shrapnel against the hallway floor behind you.

You're already on the move. Rolling out of your impromptu display of acrobatics, you engage Bulwark Aurum's air cushion and slide forward. The lead eidolon swipes at you with a flame-wreathed claw, but the Skewer flickers up in your grasp to bat it aside. You can see the chitin edge of your blade glow in response to the heat spilling across it—a shame that it's not one of a dozen other Siren binds that absorb and redirect heat. Still, sending the forty pound fist into the wall rather than your sternum is a trade you'll take any day. The crystal lenses of the Aria Nymph slide over your eyes to ward off the spray of stone chips as you analyze the eidolon's form for weakness.

The most obvious is the flickering core of witchfire at its chest, but you disregard that. Too obvious, too likely a feint to make you overextend yourself. No, better that you focus on the joints of the stone guardian—the waist where it pivots, the relatively thin shoulder and hip joints. The Atlas Pauldrons vent twin streamers of elemental energy as your arms swell with the strength of the earth.

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>>3403068
You kick Modi Magni's spear up from the ground where it has fallen, snatching the haft with your free hand and whirling it around to sink into the Eidolon's leg joint. The construct is half a second too fast, back-stepping in time to avoid the edge of Modi Magni's wrath. The speartip buries itself in the stone floor—you twist aside, the Cobra's power allowing you to bend your spine into a side-facing arch to avoid another lancing blow with an obsidian claw blade.

The last time you fought eidolons you had the advantage of overwhelming firepower. Maybe you need something to even the odds—though you've barely scratched the surface of this prison. Resonata deflects another wild swing from the witchfire claw, sparks of that malign energy burning gouges in the ceiling overhead. You're on the backfoot, reeling but upright, pairing the Skewer and your buckler's defense with the bone-defying maneuvers the Cobra's step affords you.

Behind the first eidolon, another steps into the hallway. The walkway isn't wide enough for both of them to engage you, but it's more than enough for the backline to bring a searing bolt of bronze fire to bear. As the bolt hurtles toward you, the first eidolon snakes low, attempting to lash under your guard.

> [1]
> Dodge over the automaton you're engaged with and get to the chamber beyond it. No need to pull a trump yet.
> Hold the line and attempt to whittle this eidolon down. They have a limited arc of fire in the hallway.
>Write-in

> [2]
> Engage a Union (Modi Magni/ Void Tap)
> Remain in your current state.

> [3]
> Roll 1d100

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>3403073
>Dodge over the automaton you're engaged with and get to the chamber beyong it. No need to pull a trump yet.

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>3403073
>> Dodge over the automaton you're engaged with and get to the chamber beyond it. No need to pull a trump yet.
> Remain in your current state.

Our offense is terrible at the moment, but we've got defense and agility in spades. We can't really take this thing as is. Even if we have to deal with it later, maybe we can buy ourselves enough time to get something with some punch bound.

Rolled 38 (1d100)

>>3403073
> Hold the line and attempt to whittle this eidolon down. They have a limited arc of fire in the hallway.
>Engage a union (Modi Magni)
I feel like these guys will probably keep chasing us, and even if our sword is mediocre, we've already got a lot of offense available with Magni.

>>3403093
>>3403106
>>3403109
Well that ain't good.

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>3403073

> Dodge over the automaton you're engaged with and get to the chamber beyond it. No need to pull a trump yet.

Switch out the Skewer inour main hand for Modi's Spear. It will probably be more effective as a weapon, and blocking with our shield will make us faster anyway.

>>3403073
>Dodge over the automaton you're engaged with and get to the chamber beyong it. No need to pull a trump yet.
>Engage a union (Modi Magni)

> Remain in your current state.

>>3403073
>Dodge over the automaton you're engaged with and get to the chamber beyong it. No need to pull a trump yet.
>Engage a union (Modi Magni)

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>>3403119
>>3403155

>>3403155
The Core Skewer is really good at defense, which will be better for the running we're about to do. When we go back on the offensive, he would likely do better, yes.

>>3403093
from my 100 down to a 9

damnit

> Up and over
>>3403093
>>3403106
>>3403155
>>3403161
>>3403172

> HOLD BROTHERS
>>3403109

===

> Pure as the driven snow
>>3403106
>>3403167

> Magni Modo
>>3403109
>>3403161
>>3403172

Writing.

>>3403200
I honestly can't believe you're back, I read this quest in high school and always hoped for it's return. Welcome back you glorious bastard

I'm gonna say it!

Boand cute!

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You're getting penned in, and fast. If the rear eidolons can fire over the one engaging you in melee, you're at a distinct disadvantage without room to maneuver. You bring the Core Skewer up to deflect another jabbing obsidian lance off to your left, chips of shrapnel pinging off of the heavy metal of the Atlas Pauldrons.

You need to get past this hallway. With the automaton filling the space before you horizontally, you've got no choice but to go vertical.

The disc of resonant crystal at your forearm goes still as you leech all of the remaining potential energy from Resonata.

Bulwark Aurum flares beneath you as you launch yourself forward, Modi's Spear braced beneath one arm in a vaulting charge. The eidolon brings its claws up defensively, shifting onto the backfoot in a boxer's guard as you whistle through the air toward it. Your spear isn't meant to strike home on the construct's body, though—you slam the blade of the spear into the ground and leverage your momentum, twisting up and over the black rock chassis of your foe in an acrobatic leap.

The roaring sound of another bolt of metallic flame echoes down the hallway as the rear eidolon launches an anti-aerial assault against you. No matter how you contort, you're not going to have room to dodge this one entirely—the blast is too wide, your arc of momentum too far gone. You plunge through the column of spiritflame, shielding your face with Resonata and conjuring a barrier with the Elder Turtle's power as best you can. The lance of heat batters both aside, and you land in a heap between the two constructs still smoldering.

The exposed flesh of your arms has begun to crack and blister from the heat, and the corridor is filled with the stench of burning hair. You dig Modi's spear into the ground again, this time leveraging yourself only as far as your feet. The eidolon behind you whips around, charging with lance and claw extended while the one occupying the doorway to the room before you lines up another shot.

“Modi,” you mutter, wincing as you bring Resonata to bear again. “A little help here?”

The sound of screeching metal on metal sweeps down the hallway, echoing as filaments of brass and quicksilver extrude from the haft of Modi Magni's spear. As the liquid metal winds its way into your open wounds, you can hear the hollow voice of your fiercest weapon drone dully in the back of your mind.

”Pitiful. Keep your guard up.”

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>>3404079
> [Modi Magni Union Level 1: Weaponsmaster]

Your offhand swings the Core Skewer around at a bone-crunching angle behind your head, a contortion only made possible by the power of the Emperor Cobra. Like a marionette's puppet your blade flashes out to lock against the edge of a whisper-thin stone sword, chitin blunting the honed rock edge in a clash of sparks. You don't see your enemy recoil behind you, but you can -feel- it on the air as it winds up for another swing. You don't stick around long enough to deflect it. You're already sprinting forward, gliding on Aurum's air cushion along the wall toward the sniping eidolon.

> 45

You expect the blast of withering heat from the beast, deflecting it with a wave of Resonata as one might swat an errant fly. The obsidian lance concealed just behind it, a projectile hidden in the flare of light produced by the fire blast, catches you by surprise. It punches through the Elder Turtle's armor and the bones in your shoulder in a swift motion. It passes cleanly through your body, impacting the wall in a spray of shards. You exclaim in pain, your voice backed by a steady whine of shrieking steel as you stumble to a halt in front of the automaton occupying the doorway.

“I thought you were supposed to be a -master- of combat,” you hiss as you whip Modi's spear around, smashing another coalescing blast of flame into the wall beside you. The eidolon retreats in jerky hopping motions, making space between the two of you as it retreats into the room at the hallway's terminus. You can see the third eidolon within climbing the walls, talons of stone raking gouges into the gray stone pillars.

”Like your master before you, the vessel is flawed. I cannot craft a masterpiece with broken tools. Perhaps if you indulged more of my power, you would find a more agreeable result.”

You duck low, leeching from Resonata to avoid a flying spear of obsidian from the eidolon behind you in the hallway. It clatters against the threshold, shattering into shard the length of your forearm. Two eidolons in the room before you, one in the hallway behind. You bite your lip.

>> [1] Combat
> Write-in

>> [2] Unions
> Activate Modi Magni Level 2: Body of War
> Activate Void Tap
> Neither

>>3404083
> Write-in
Bug out. We have a hole through our shoulder, we can't scratch these guys, and we haven't even reached the real fight. We need to buy some space to bind something that can hurt these guys. We can try the Stalker's Caress, but I doubt it has enough power to hurt them.
>> Neither

>>3404179
Agreed. We're in over our head and need to come up with a plan. These people took their security seriously.

>>3404186
>>3404179
I don't really have a good understanding of the layout, but didn't the doors close behind us as we entered? I'm bit really sure where we could run to that doesn't have more of these guys.

>>3404179
>>3404186
>>3404253
only way right now is forward or jumping down I believe, and I don't want to chance there being more Eidolons at the bottom.

Blitz forward and pass, but if that does actually get blocked, then sure, we try to descend as best we can

>>3404083
Get past them, we don't stand a chance against 3 at once

>>3404083
I do think we probably need another boost though, either more Magni or Void Tap so we can use the regen feature later. I don't remember if we've used both at once before, and this doesn't seem like a good time to practice so my instinct is
>Activate Modi Magni Level 2: Body of War
Just because I don't think our current parameters are enough to dodge these guys, and if we boost our strength just that much more, we might be able to break these guys apart by physically overwhelming them, since we already seem to be stronger.

>>3404186
>>3404179
We trapped mates, door be shut.

Is the door the came from still open? I think we could rush through there

>>3404267
Get past them where though? Like one is behind us in the hallway, and two are in front of us in the room we just entered, but we have no idea what else is in the room, like if there's another exit or we need to solve a puzzle first. Also who knows when these guys will stop spawning?

>>3404303
They sound similar to the guards at the Forge. If the pattern holds, they will regen on their plinth after a few days.

>>3404303
I mean I guess it's possible that these guys are programmed to not leave the "cage" segment so if we turn around and vault back over the one we already leaped over and ran, they might not chase us, but I don't like those odds.

>>3404324
I meant more that are these the only three guard robots or will we activate more and more the deeper we go, if deeper is something we can go since we have no idea what the structure of this place is, like if there's any potential cover or whatever.

>>3404337
>>3404344
Run back where? The door slammed shut behind us

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>>3404356
Here's what my understanding of the layout is, so at the start we could have retreated back to the antechamber or went down one of the other hallways to try to lose these guys or at least buy time to switch our bindings around, but instead we lept into this room so we'd have more room to maneuver and fight these guys. We have no idea what else is in this room besides two eidolons so the idea of running past them doesn't seem viable because we have no idea what else is in the room, whether there are any available exits at all, and if so, whether or not there's more eidolons there.

That's why I'm pretty sure we've gotta make the most of it and fight these guys.

>>3404290
>>3404083
So I don't know, >Activate Body of War
>Dash to the wall with the Eidolon on it, since Bullwark Aurum and Seneschal Step should let us outmaneuver it even better than on the ground
Maybe pick up that obsidian shard behind us first to see if Magni will upgrade it?

Diarca, have we ever used Void Tap and Magni at the same time before?

we don't need to flee out of the ruins, we just need to buy ourselves enough time to bind Fourth to something. Why is Thane in the bow and Fourth entirely unbound? If we can get enough time, I'd say swap thane out of the bow for fourth, but if we can only single bind the Bottle or the crossbow might suffice.

>>3404511
I'm not sure why we stopped binding static state, since that was on the list and we had already had it bound, though it isn't very useful at the moment.

I guess I was worried that this place would be a lot more decrepit than it turned out to be, and if we'd go wild we'd collapse it on top of ourselves. Judging by the eidolons though, that's not something to be concerned with so my bad.

>>3404511
>>3404534
Also if we do manage to gain some distance, Stalker's Caress could be useful if we aim for their cores since the invisible projectiles should hinder the Eidolons from being able to block and dodge, though I don't know if they have enough stopping power to pierce it.

>>3404404
This layout is correct. The room you've entered is a long rectangle with columns flanking either side. You can't see the far side of the chamber from here.

Consensus seems to be:
> Activate Body of War
> Enter the room and dodge to buy time to activate your tenth and final binding
> Bind Fourth's Control Rod into a focus.

If that's correct, please let me know which object you'd like to bind the Control Rod to.

>>3404678
Sounds fine.
>Binding option
Go with the Bolt Thrower. It's available, ranged, and doesn't require an unbinding. Unless we want to go really crazy and go for the Fruit

>>3404697
The problem is that we've never tested out that combination before, and while the result probably won't be a dud, we don't know what it would be.

>>3404404
Ah thanks anon
>>3404697
Agreed. If the bolt thrower is anything like the bow itll be destructive enough to injure one

>>3404678
I think maybe we should try the mace instead, or just use it in sync with Body of War, since I think blunt trauma to the joints might fuck these things up.

>>3404761
You are unfortunately not currently carrying a mace or other blunted weapon.

>>3404737
The only free bindables we know the result of for Fourth are The Empty Bottle and Static State. Static isn't really useful here. The Bottle might be with some careful finagling, but the Bolt Thrower is a safe bet.

>>3404767
ah well, then I guess we can try to use the bolt thrower. The alternatives are using the Bolide Bracers and hoping we can punch these things apart, or trying to make the Empty Bottle work against multiple targets.

I don't know, my confidence is really shot since it looks like this quest came back just for us to get ourselves killed.

>>3404773
Our gauntlets don't currently have anything in them
which allows for
>Gloves: Bolide Bracers. The mass of Osyki's fists is exponentially increased while these handwraps are worn, and his fists burn alight when swung. Their charge seems limited.
With that, Atlas Pauldrons, and Magni's buffs, our fists might be strong enough to be considered blunt weapons and to me these guys seem scarier at range than they do in close combat.

>>3404813
I'd missed that, but I'll still back the Bolt Thrower. With the Blessing and Resonanta, plus the mobility bindings, we can shrug off just about anything ranged. It's the close in guy that seems to be giving us the most trouble.

>>3404840
Really? To me the ranged attacks have fucked us up a lot more than melee, though the biggest threat of course is their teamwork.

>>3404697
>>3404737
Binding things with the fruit seems to fuse the spirit's power directly with ours. My best guess is that we'll become a living avatar of nothingness, a result both awesome and horrifying at the same time. It could either be the thing that saves us or a really terrible idea given the circumstances - or both.

>>3404874
Like I don't know, we've dodged and parryied every close range blow so far, but we've gotten hit by two ranged attacks and they were both pretty bad.

Seems like we're a little stymied. Let's do a runoff, then:

>1
Bolt thrower

>2
Gauntlets

>3
Fruit

And please roll me 1d100 for movin' and shakin'.

Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>3404972
>2

>>3404972
I am way too afraid to do that.

Rolled 55 (1d100)

>>3404972


>>3404985
oh god
oh fuck

>>3405001
You forgot to suggest a number

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>3404972
>2

>>3404972
Now I'm psyching myself out and thinking that maybe
>1
is the right answer, because even if the ranged attacks are more dangerous that doesn't mean that a melee weapon will help us?

>>3405010
Well, at least we're good for this round.

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>1


>>3404985
bro..........

>>3405041
Wait, are crit fails five and below or something?

>>3405016
Also since it looks like we might be deadlocked, and no one else is gonna vote, I'm gonna switch from 1 to 2.

>>3405049
I'm trying to look back and that doesn't seem to be the case? Like it's not in any of the pastebins, desuarchive or the ask.fm.

Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>3404972
>>1

>>3405080
>>3405146
Nevermind my vote change I guess?

...We should have done something easier to start with.

>>3405049
Na, I assume it was just a reaction to how close that came to giving us an even worse time. Mode Divider does increase the crit range by 1 though.

>>3405172
Or I don't fucking know, now I'm worried that Diarca just keeps rewriting the scene as things change.

>>3405182
The curse of the QM. Almost done.

>>3405187
You can close the vote if you don't want things shifting while you write. Just throw out a post saying so.

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Finally. Some room to maneuver. Resonata grows mute as you hurl yourself to one side, tucking and rolling as you hit the ground to take cover behind one of the floor-to-ceiling columns. A splitsecond later a hail of obsidian and flame punches through the white-teal afterimages of your movement. You don't even take a moment to breathe, leaping from pillar to pillar in an effort to keep your foe from finding an angle of fire on you. As you flit between pillars you can hear the eidolon on the wall above you scrabbling after you, talons sending a fine rain of stone chips plummeting with each darting movement.

“I'm not even scratching these things,” you mutter. “Do it. Juice me up.”

”Very well. Prepare yourself.

Your limbs seize and ache as the brass filaments wound 'round your muscles suddenly swell with eldritch might. Your skin splits in places to reveal churning cogs and gears ticking away beneath your skin. The world pitches to a crawl around you as your ears ring with a cacophony of shrieking steel, a discordant chorus of otherworldly fury that sings like liquid fire through your veins. You can feel the skin of your back stretch beneath the Elder Turtle's blessing, nascent wings curling and threading beneath your armor.

> [Modi Magni Union Level 2: Body of War. ]

The litany of unification rings out as the tables turn. You sheath the Core Skewer and cradle the newest item in your panoply.

> [[Binding Discovered: Ejecta Collider. A matte-black crossbow, more a crossbow-shaped hole in the world, with vanes of iridescent energy arcing from it. A built-in winch primes the empty chamber, which gathers particulate matter over several seconds into a small metallic projectile. The weapon fires with tremendous force.]]

The technology is fairly new to your grasp, but not to Modi Magni. Your limbs move without prompting, priming the weapon's mechanism and sliding around the nearest pillar. Dust and particulate begin to swarm into the tiny vacuum left behind in the groove a bolt would ordinarily slot into. You peek your head around the corner—

Your hand snaps out and -catches- the obsidian lance waiting for it. The climbing eidolon, now directly overhead, rears back in surprise as filaments of brass wind outward from the torn skin on your palm and envelop its weapon. The Atlas Pauldrons flare with verdant light as you drag the eidolon sideways, whipping it down off of the wall and slamming it into the earth with an earth-shattering -BANG-.

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>>3405453
Magni's spear, abandoned to the ground in your moment of pure instinct, sprouts tiny centipede-like filaments and scuttles up to secure itself to your back. The obsidian blade, shattered in the impact, is quickly retrofitted by Magni's touch into a wickedly curved blade of obsidian and brass, the edge gleaming with tiny tearing hooks. A roar of flame draws your attention to the eidolon that has been raining fire down on you for nearly two minutes now—rather than dive out of the way, you hook the curve of your new blade into the fallen Eidolon's leg joint and hurl him forward in reply.

The two projectiles meet with a shock wave of shattering force. The spider-climbing automaton withers under the heat of the projectile, down for a moment but not yet out of the fight. As the eidolon in the hallway barrels into the chamber you level your the Collider at it and squeeze the trigger.

> 81

The tiny projectile of iron leaves the weapon so fast even your enhanced perception cannot track it. By the time the air fills in the absence it has left behind with a roaring thunderclap the eidolon across the room has sprouted a melon-sized hole in its torso. The noise shakes streamers of stone dust from the roof, echoing across the chamber. You dig in your heels, enhanced muscles straining to resist the massive recoil of the weapon's blast. The string of the bolt-thrower smokes and dances with pinprick embers.

In the distance, you can hear Fourth humming quietly to himself.

“Holy shit.”

”I like this spirit.”

As the thrown wall-crawling eidolon begins to rise you hurl the curved blade in your hand like a boomerang. It twirls through the air, burying itself up to the hilt in the automaton's arm joint.

One down. One reeling—the flamethrower with a new aperture has not fallen quite yet.

One moving to engage.

> Keep to a distance. You have the advantage in speed and firepower now. Wait for the Collider to prime again.
> Move to engage. One on one, with Modi's strength, you can tear this thing apart in moments.
> Ayren always taught you to use your enviroment. Tear a pillar free and use it like a battering ram.
> Write-in

>>3405460
>> Ayren always taught you to use your enviroment. Tear a pillar free and use it like a battering ram.
Ramming speed ahead bois

>>3405460
>> Keep to a distance. You have the advantage in speed and firepower now. Wait for the Collider to prime again.
No need to tear the place apart yet, we still haven't found what we came here for.

>”I like this spirit.”
So do I, Modi, so do I.
Finally made it all the way through the archives. I totally forgotten about the Scale Tags and the platemail. We haven't actually used either of them for anything yet.

>>3405482
Oh, and we haven't even started looking for how to fix the Ethernal Maw. I know it's unpleasant, but it's also crazy powerful.

>>3405460
>Ayren always taught you to use your enviroment. Tear a pillar free and use it like a battering ram.
Judging by the weird way this oubliette rearranged itself, I'm pretty sure any architecture we see is just aesthetic and doesn't really have any bearing on structural integrity.
Also I want to smash this thing now before the one on the wall recovers.

>>3405460
> Move to engage. One on one, with Modi's strength, you can tear this thing apart in moments.

>>3405460
> Ayren always taught you to use your enviroment. Tear a pillar free and use it like a battering ram.
Make sure its not load bearing first

>>3405482
>>3405488
So much to do. We have lots of work ahead of us.

>>3405669
Hahaha yeah. There's a lot to do, and unfortunately we're currently all on our own which is partially why we're in this dungeon right now, because if we do the chores Ayren set out for us, maybe our cotemist and student can help us out without releasing an unspeakable evil.

>>3405669
Something else important. We last handed off the road agreement to the elders, who told us "come back tomorrow" I think the Workshop Recall Totem is still on cooldown, and the Eluneia one certainly is, but that is fairly important.

And last we heard from the General, the preliminary scouts had made it to the eventual resting place of Poinstar & it was about to exit the mountains (iirc), but nothing since.

>>3405683
If this doesn't get us the Spark, we're going to have to really lean into the Tyrant Hunt. The known drawers will take a ton of work each, and I have a terrible suspicion the Spark in the top drawer, as a way of saying "congrats, now you're ready to teach."

>>3405705
...Yeah that does seem like his style doesn't it?
Also there probably are a couple things that are much more urgent than this, but in all fairness I don't think we were expecting something this tricky and it's too late to back out now.

>>3405705
>Osyki returns to the hut, bloody and exhausted from this trial
>The drawer opens up, revealing... a coffee mug labeled '#1 Apprentice'
>Osyki's eye twitches
>"Ayren... would it have been... so hard for you... to leave me a letter saying what's in each drawer!?"

>>3405453
>>3405460
I love that the combination of Fourth and the Bolt Thrower is literally a fucking gun.

We should add reuniting him with the other pieces of himself to our itenerary, it probably won't bring doom to us all.