Touhou Lair of the Undead Wizard ~ Tomb of Horrors - 2

Touhou Lair of the Undead Wizard ~ Tomb of Horrors (Thread 1) Anonymous 2013/04/23 (Tue) 22:08 No. 49459 ▼

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File 136675490595.jpg - (137.39KB, 637x824 , S1 Gw Tomb of Horrors.jpg)

Moved from >>/th/166920.

[x] Mima
[x] Yuuka
[x] Yukari
[x] Flandre
[x] Suwako

--

In the depths of his tomb, known as the Tomb of Honors, the dread demilich Acererak was in the midst of a grim and terrible magical experiment. His skull - all that remained of his body now - sat in front of an elaborate magical circle drawn on the wall in front of him. He would become one with the Plane of Negative Energy, and if his calculations were correct, this gate, and this ritual, had a chance of allowing him to do so.

Two pitiful souls who were to fuel this vile experiment, the last remnants of an intelligent adventuring party that had made it as far as his crypt, were in his left and right eye crystals. Their souls desperately pounded on the inside of these crystals as he whispered the words of power; and then, in a flash, the magic user and the cleric were gone, their souls forever wiped out of existence.

With that same flash, the magic circle opened into a portal into darkness. Negative energy washed over him - as soothing to his unnatural form as healing magic would be to a living human.

No, more so. Something was wrong.

Countless thoughts and analyses buzzed through the mind of the demilich Acererak as he sized up the situation. The experiment had failed - if all was according to plan, he should have become one with the plane by now. Worse, there was too much negative energy flooding this room for even his form to store, and if he didn't stop it quickly, his soul would swell up like a balloon and burst.

He spoke half a dozen words of command, reserved for use in such a dangerous situation as this. Potent wards and anti-magic fields sprouted up all around the room, holding back the flood of negative energy for the few minutes it took for the souls' energy to fade, and for the modified Gate to close.

But he had not erased that magical energy, nor had he truly forced it back. Unbeknownst to him, and thoroughly unpredictably, that wave of death force had been too much for his wards to neutralize; and, with nowhere in either plane to go, it had shot out like a geyser across the multiverse, crossing dimensional boundaries that were not meant to be tampered with.

--

In a greenhouse, attached to a mansion in the World of Dreams, flower sprouts were pushing up from clay pots. Only the sprouts, so far; but soon, they would become full-grown plants, ready to burst into bloom, for the gardener was no less than a youkai of flowers. She would plant them across Gensokyo.

Then something dreadfully cold rushed by her. She couldn't see it, but she felt it, as did her young flowers - in an instant, they were all withered and dying.

In a house on the border of another realm, a monster of unfathomable power wearing a purple nightgown and nightcap, was suddenly roused from sleep when a wave of death crashed against her border, and passed through, slightly weakened but unstopped.

By a shrine on the edge of Gensokyo, most of the negative energy was absorbed at once by a forgotten evil spirit; with its power, she manifested once more, and called her staff instantaneously to her hand. Curious. The rest of the geyser, what there was left of it after Yukari's barrier and Mima's revival, spread out to further parts of Gensokyo.

The energy flowed as far as a red mansion, the lair of two blood-drinking devils. The younger of these was in her bedroom under the mansion, very carefully coloring in a picture she had drawn of herself and her sister, when the energy wave reached her. She saw it. Not knowing what to make of it, she grabbed it in her hand, and was pulled away by it as it fell back.

Likewise, the energy flowed as far as a shrine on the mountaintop, home to a trouble-causing group of gods from the outside world. The most bored of these, who wore a hat like a frog, felt the energy wave approach, grabbed it, and like the vampire, vanished as it retreated.

Likewise, as it passed by them, the other three also caught hold of the wave. One to see where it was from and take more of its power; another, now properly clothed, to protect Gensokyo; the third, out of a righteous, unstoppable drive for vengeance. All passed out of Gensokyo and into another multiverse.

--

It was an overcast day; grey clouds filled the sky over the Tomb of Honors. On the north side of the flat-topped hill that the Tomb lay beneath, something strange occurred. A falling surge of energy deposited five strange travelers on the ground not far from each other, then retreated into the hill from whence it had come.

Suwako was the first up, and the only one to intrinsically know the directions and the lay of the land around them. Her inherent bond with the earth told her that the hill was marked with piles of rocks forming the shape of a skull - and that there was something very wrong inside that hill.

Yukari immediately started experimenting with her powers. She quickly found that her gaps wouldn't function - the infrastructure she needed for them to work only existed on Earth, not on Oerth - but that most of her powers were intact. If necessary, she could open a one-way gate to Gensokyo.

Mima immediately spotted Yuuka, and floated over towards her, smiling widely. "Yuuka! I haven't seen you since Makai! How have you been?"

Yuuka didn't return the smile. "I'd love to catch up with you," she replied coldly, "but someone in that direction," she pointed towards the cliff, "has withered a number of my flowers."

"You mean that negative energy surge," Mima said. "That was--"

"Pure, wanton destruction," Yuuka interrupted. "I'm going to find where it came from and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Mima floated backward. Yuuka was more than a little bit scary right now. But at the same time, Yukari came forward. "I also want to find the one responsible, since that pulse struck the barrier. Had it been more powerful, all of Gensokyo would have been endangered."

As they talked, Suwako listened to them, at a distance; but also noticed Flandre looking around confusedly. No, the vampire was more important, for now. "Hey, Flandre. That's your name, right?"

"Yeah," the vampire child replied.

"What's up? How'd you get here?" Suwako asked.

"There was a thing! And I couldn't see it and I grabbed it and I ended up here."

"That was that negative energy wave, huh. Yeah. Me too. Do you want to go home?" she asked.

"Not yet," Flandre said. "I haven't been outside much, and this place is weird."

"Me neither," Suwako said.

Yukari came up behind them. "Good, because we need your help," she said. "That negative energy wave came from under that hill," she pointed to the hill, "and you, more than anyone else, would know how to get into it."

Suwako examined the hill, then crouched and put her hands to the ground, focusing on the geology of the hill. Then, she rose up, and threw a ball of energy at the eroded cliff that formed the north side. Rock and sand collapsed, revealing part of an entryway.

"There's two more there, too," she said, and pointed at two locations in the wall. "But I can't tell what's inside. There's definitely a structure, but something's weird about it, and I can't tell you anything about the layout."

--

[ ] Try the first door.
[ ] Try the second door.
[ ] Try the third door.
[ ] Check all the doors before going in.
[ ] Blast off the entire cliff face to see if Suwako missed anything.
[ ] <write-in>

Write-ins will always be welcome.

--

>>/th/166995
I'm mostly lifting the design and structure from the AD&D version, and I will also cross-reference other versions of the Tomb if I have need. But the edition isn't terribly important, in this case. Game mechanics like skill checks and the AD&D Tomb of Horrors' real-time countdowns aren't as important as the things that they represent and model.

My philosophy for the story is more "challenging but fair".

>>/th/167011
This isn't a "how Touhous can die horribly" story. Characters will act intelligently and will not be killed as a result of factors outside of voter control. In any vote, at least one of the default options will not lead to death.
One example of a vote that would kill the party if it won is "[x] Go into the demon statue's mouth."

Anonymous 2013/04/23 (Tue) 22:42 No. 49460

...
If I recall correctly, two of those doors are trapped and lead nowhere. Depending on the version, the third is also trapped, but leads inside. I have no idea which is which, so I'll go for the paranoia strategy.

[x]Blast away the cliff until all three doors are clearly visible. Do not approach.
-[x]Kindly ask Flandre to remove the doors from a distance.
--[x]Once the obvious triggers are removed, have someone send a clone or other duplication ahead to check for remaining trap triggers. Thoroughly abuse the area until it is obvious that nothing remains to spring a trap.
---[x]If, after ten minutes abusing each entrance, the clone does not trigger a trap, it should enter where possible.

Anonymous 2013/04/23 (Tue) 23:42 No. 49461

>>49460

Good idea. Delicate probing is definitely the way to go here.

[x]Blast away the cliff until all three doors are clearly visible. Do not approach.
-[x]Kindly ask Flandre to remove the doors from a distance.
--[x]Once the obvious triggers are removed, have someone send a clone or other duplication ahead to check for remaining trap triggers. Thoroughly abuse the area until it is obvious that nothing remains to spring a trap.
---[x]If, after ten minutes abusing each entrance, the clone does not trigger a trap, it should enter where possible.

Now watch as the author foils our attempt to be cautious.

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 02:46 No. 49464

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 03:02 No. 49465

Since I already know some things of the tomb because I played it in 3.5 I will just act like I did that first time.

[x]Blast away the cliff until all three doors are clearly visible. Do not approach.

We glassed half the desert before going in, we were so scared. Thank god we had a warlock or we'd have run out of slots before entering.

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 06:04 No. 49469

[X] Future Yukari: Manipulate the border between past and present to give your past-self some hints!

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 06:07 No. 49470 ▼

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File 136678362194.gif - (65.16KB, 400x631 , tomb_of_horrors.gif)

[x]Blast away the cliff until all three doors are clearly visible. Do not approach.
-[x]Kindly ask Flandre to remove the doors from a distance.
--[x]Once the obvious triggers are removed, have someone send a clone or other duplication ahead to check for remaining trap triggers. Thoroughly abuse the area until it is obvious that nothing remains to spring a trap.
---[x]If, after ten minutes abusing each entrance, the clone does not trigger a trap, it should enter where possible.

--

Yuuka evaluated the cliffside and the partially exposed door carefully.

"Flandre," Yuuka said. "You have the power to destroy anything, is this not true?"

"Yeah," Flandre replied. "You know, everything has an 'eye'. If I squeeze that 'eye', it will go 'kaboom'."

"Well, then, do you see that cliff?" Yuuka asked, pointing her umbrella toward the crumbling cliff of sand and gravel.

"Yeah."

"Destroy it."

"'Kay."

Flandre put out her right hand, open, and then suddenly closed it into a fist. A flash of light could be seen from her hand, and at the same time, dozens of small explosions wracked the surface of the corroded cliff, blasting the sand and gravel from the surface and exposing the uncut stone face of the tomb.

The three entryways were revealed: open passageways, leading into darkness. Two were mundane, plain stone passages. The one on the right was full of spiderwebs, with a pair of oaken doors at the end; the one on the left, with a ceiling only half the height of the first one's, had what looked sort of like two doors at the far end. The third, central tunnel was most unusual, full of bright and brilliant frescoes unaffected by the degradations of time.

There was a rumbling from the door on the right. Moments after the explosion, the ceiling of that tunnel collapsed, burying its passage and leaving only the stone archway.

"Flandre," Yuuka said. "Would you mind clearing that as well?"

"Wait," Yukari interrupted. "That wasn't an ordinary collapse. Look at the center tunnel. It hasn't aged at all, but the other two have. That was a trap."

"And tombs with one trap are bound to have more," Mima said.

Flandre approached the tomb's left entrance, and entered the door. Mere moments after she did so, there was a rumbling sound, and a slab of rock began sliding into place behind her.

"Flandre, what are you--" Mima was cut off by an explosion produced by the slab. Next to her, Flandre's fist was clenched, pointing at the door. "What?"

"You said it was trapped, so I used Four of a Kind," she said, matter-of-factly. Another Flandre was poking at the rocks in the right tunnel, while the fourth walked straight ahead into the center passageway.

On the floor of the center passageway, there was a distinct red-tiled path about two feet wide which wandered down the hallway, and the Scarlet clone followed this. Not ten feet in, the floor suddenly gave way beneath her, she fell in, and there was a popping sound. The normal Flandre winced visibly. "Spikes," she said. Everyone floated into the air, save for Mima, who already had been, and Suwako. Flying was easy for them, and it would make pit traps like that one lose their bite.

"Also, the left tunnel is fake," she said. "The door opens, but it's just a rock face behind it." The two Flandres investigating the two side tunnels returned to the center, and examined it for a while. However, no additional traps were found, and soon enough, Flandre's clones faded out.

"That's a useful power," Mima said. "How long until it's recharged?"

"I dunno," Flandre replied. "I haven't really used it more than once in a day before."

So they proceeded into the tomb.

The first fresco on the right depicted two jackal-headed men; between them, and seemingly in their hands, was a bronze chest.

"There's a secret door there," Suwako said, as she pointed at a fresco just past the entrance, and in fact right above the pitfall the Flandre duplicate had fallen into, depicting an iron door; a pair of scaly, clawed hands were drawn gripping the bars of the small window in the door. As they went further in, she said, "Trap, trap, trap, trap," instinctively noting and avoiding several pit traps on the floor. "And there's some writing on the floor, but I can't read it," she concluded.

At the end of the passageway, the red path branched. One way led into blackness, in the mouth of a gigantic demon's face, full of nothing but blackness; the other, into a gray archway with a misty veil across it that obscured all vision.

--

[ ] Examine the bronze chest
[ ] Examine the secret door
[ ] Examine the writing on the floor
[ ] Examine the pit traps
[ ] Examine the arch of mist
[ ] Examine the demon's face

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 07:42 No. 49471

>>49470
[x] Examine the bronze chest
Jeez, 4 exceedingly intelligent and utterly overpowered casters, and one loli vampire. Going to need a liberal application of anti-magic doodads to make this a challange, OP.

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 08:40 No. 49472

[x] Examine the writing on the floor

Flan might not be able to read it but Yukari likely could.

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 14:34 No. 49476

[x] Examine the demon's face
Yeah, they're really OP

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 14:35 No. 49477

Now that we've got confirmation that there are traps, breaking out the bigger guns for trap-finding is justified.

As a side note, it was stated that in each update, there would be at least one option that won't kill someone. I'll interpret that to mean all but one option will kill everyone.

I haven't actually read this module, but as a neckbeard and killer dm, this is my analysis.

That chest in the fresco? Trapped. The jackal-headed statues, also in the fresco? Also trapped. The fresco itself? Trapped. The secret door? If that's not a trap, it's meant to lull us into a false sense of security for another trap. The arch of mist? It's a trap. The demon statue's mouth? This trap is so famous as to be a minor meme. The pit traps? Trapped.

If I were making this tomb, I'd hide the entrance in one of the pit traps, and fill all but one of them with projectile spikes. The one without the projectile spikes isn't the one with the entrance.

So, with that in mind.

[x]Begin carving tunnels into the floor at an angle, seeking to intersect with the bottom of the pit traps. If possible, use a clone to do this carving.
-[x]Once the traps are reached, we should destroy the spikes and the three feet of stone or other building material that bounds the pit.
--[x]After hopefully neutralizing any traps in the area, examine the bottom of the pit. Repeat the process for the remaining pits.
---[x]While this process is being carried out, the remaining group should remain on guard for any traps. If any trigger, the group should immediately evacuate the dungeon.

If we don't find anything through this, then we can start checking the other traps.

Anonymous 2013/04/24 (Wed) 14:59 No. 49478

[x] Examine the secret door

Everything else is such an obvious trap. Actually, this is too, but I say blast the door open and STAND BACK.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 01:02 No. 49483

[X] Yukari bends the border between visibility and secrecy to make the hidden traps apparent.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 02:24 No. 49488 ▼

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>>49483

Yukari isn't going to just "bend the border between X and Y" because when you think about it, that's some serious, uncertain shit she's dealing with. I would imagine that she would take a long time to think/plan before altering a universal constant, in any shape or form.

>>49477

Pic related. I'm going to be a good reader and give OP the benefit of the doubt that this isn't going to be a ridiculously frustrating wipe-fest. Lets test out the waters a bit before resorting to powergaming.

[X] Examine the writing on the floor

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 15:33 No. 49501

[x] Examine the explosive runes writing on the floor.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 22:13 No. 49503 ▼

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[x] Examine the writing on the floor

Yukari flew low, and carefully examined the writing on the floor. It was in an unfamiliar language. This didn't stop her. She focused her powers in ways unknowable to mortals, and reality bent within her own mind: the border between understanding and ignorance. Now, she could understand the words; and so, she began to slowly translate them.

"Acererak congratulates you on your powers of observation, so make of this whatever you wish, for you will be mine in the end no matter what," she said.

"What?" All eyes fell upon her.

She repeated the statement, then said, "It's part of a message on the ground. I guess Acererak is the one who built this place."

"Well," Yuuka asked. "Does the message say who this 'Acererak' is?"

"If I was asked," Mima said, "I'd say this place belongs to her."

"Or him," Suwako chimed in.

"Or him," Mima repeated.

"The second part's a poem," Yukari said. "Go back to the tormentor or through the arch, and the second great hall you'll discover. Shun green if you can, but night's good color is for those of great valor. If shades of red stand for blood, the wise will not need to sacrifice anything but a loop of magic metal; you're well along your march. Two pits along the way will be found to lead to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall. Give me a minute," Yukari finished, and went back to examining the floor.

"What the heck's that supposed to mean?" Mima asked.

"Green paths are wrong, but a dark path is for the courageous. What about that?" she asked, pointing to the demon's face. "It's green and black."

Suwako walked over to the face. While doing so, she pressed her hands together, and drew them apart; and between them, a bar of metal appeared as long as her armspan, about three feet. She swung it into the blackness, aiming for the floor. She hit nothing, and the bar was now only about one foot long. "It's the wrong way. Besides, it's too dark to be night's color," she said.

"Then we need to be careful about what dark path we walk into," Mima said.

"A loop of magic metal," Flandre said. "Like the Rings of Power! We're supposed to do something with a ring of power, where there's blood."

"A fortuitous fall," Yuuka said. "'Fortuitous' means 'lucky.' Some pits are part of the way forward. Suwako, where did you say those pit traps were?"

"There, there, there, there, there." Suwako pointed to five places, the first, fourth, and fifth of which lay directly on the mosaic path.

Yuuka went to each of these places in turn, and pushed them open. Each, of course, contained spikes. "Falling into any of these would not be fortuitous," she said.

Yukari finished reading. "These keys and those are most important of all, and beware of trembling hands and what will maul. If you find the false you find the true, and into the columned hall you'll come, and there the throne that's key and keyed. The iron men of visage grim do more than meets the viewer's eye. You've left and left and found my tomb, and now your soul will die. That's all there is here."

"Well, clearly this 'Acererak' is buried in here, and kills souls," Mima said. "So we're probably dealing with a big-time undead."

"The rest is probably useful later on," Yukari said. "I've committed it to memory."

[ ] Try the secret door.
[ ] Check out the arch of mist.
[ ] <write-in>

[ ] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Ignore it.
[ ] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.

--

>>49471
>>49476
Sufficient measures are already in place. While this group does have a lot of raw power, raw power alone isn't sufficient to navigate the Tomb of Horrors.
Worry not. This isn't going to be a cakewalk.

>>49477
Your version of this first room is a lot more deadly than the written one. Most TPKs that occur by this point result from jumping into the statue's mouth, since the false entrances aren't actually that likely to kill an entire party of appropriate-level characters.
This isn't going to be a cakewalk, but it's also not going to be, as >>49488 put it, a ridiculously frustrating wipefest.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 23:02 No. 49504

The writing was not composed entirely of sepia snake sigils? Acerack must be slipping...

I suppose that I'll lay off the paranoia for now.

[x]The bronze chest is obviously trapped. Investigate it.
-[x]Begin by removing all materials within five feet of the chest. Walls included.
--[x]Then, open it remotely.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 23:09 No. 49505

[x] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.
We should find some way to weaponise it.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 23:26 No. 49506

>>49505
>>49504
You may also select one of the first group of options, if you wish.

Anonymous 2013/04/25 (Thu) 23:57 No. 49507

[x] Try the secret door.
[x] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.

Solution? Throw the chest at the secret door hard enough to break it open. Both of them.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 00:03 No. 49508

>>49504 here.

In light of 49506, I'm appending the following to my vote.

That secret door may or may not have a monster of some description behind it.

[x]Try the secret door...
-[x]...with a master spark.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 05:48 No. 49517

>>49488
She does it all the time with her Spell Cards. Border between Life and Death, Border between Dreams and Reality, Border between Straightness and Curves, Border between Motion and Stillness, et cetera. Yukari's broken beyond belief when she's not constraining herself to the confines of a spell-card duel.

[x] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.
-[x] Use manipulation of the Border between Motion and Stillness to prevent the trap from activating.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 07:20 No. 49522

[x] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.
-[x] Use a clone and make sure noone else is in the room when you do.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 10:22 No. 49524

>>49517

If we use Yukari's powers too often, two things will probably happen: Yukari will get tired and sleepy, and Acererak will notice and prepare accordingly. And in the final battle, instead of casting fireballs, he will cast [border-manipulation resistant] fireballs.

[x] Throw the chest at the secret door hard enough to break them both open.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 12:31 No. 49525

>>49524
He has yet to state a limit on how often they could be used outside of Flan's possible once a day limit on 4 of a kind.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 13:44 No. 49526

[x] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 15:06 No. 49527

[x] Throw the chest at the secret door hard enough to break them both open.

Worth a try.

Anonymous 2013/04/26 (Fri) 22:37 No. 49528

[x] Throw the chest at the secret door hard enough to break them both open.

Haha that's my kinda vote.

Anonymous 2013/04/28 (Sun) 08:23 No. 49546

[X] Throw the chest at the secret door hard enough to break them both open.

Think like PC's. Which is to say, think outside the box.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 00:17 No. 49551 ▼

Image Source

File 136719466916.jpg - (178.50KB, 347x550 , ToHGraphic4m.jpg)

[x] Try the secret door.
[x] The bronze chest is probably trapped. Check it anyway.
[x] Throw the chest at the secret door hard enough to break them both open.

"Right," Yuuka said. "That arch is clearly a trap, so let's try that secret door," she said, as walked over to the bronze chest. "And I know just how to open it."

She grabbed hold of the chest, and pulled. The chest didn't budge.

So she pulled harder. The chest still didn't budge.

She pulled even harder.

The chest budged. There was a clicking sound, and the floor opened up beneath her, revealing a thirty-foot pit ending in spikes coated with glistening green liquid. She fell, but she held on to the chest.

Suwako floated into the air. "...I didn't see that one," she said, an uneasy expression on her face. "There's something very strange going on here."

Yuuka, however, was undeterred. She put her feet against the wall, and pulled on the chest with her entire body. There was a cracking sound, and the chest ripped out of the wall, pulling with it a noticeable amount of masonry and plaster, and revealing the mechanical system leading down from the chest which had set off the trap door.

Yuuka flew across the hall, but stopped herself before hitting the wall on the other side.

Mima raised one hand. "Yuuka, what are you doing...?"

But she was interrupted. Yuuka threw the chest across the room with incredible force, smashing it into the fresco of a barred door with a monster behind it, which Suwako had said concealed a true secret door. It was true; The fresco of a door crumbled, and the box punched through the door behind it, blowing it off of its hinges, then flew down through a short, dark hall and broke down another door behind that.

"Killing three birds with one stone," Yuuka said. She pulled out her umbrella, and a ball of light appeared on its tip. "Come on," she said, floating down the hallway, and the others followed her.

On the other side of the second door there was what looked like an barren storage room, occupied by nothing but a huge, winged, four-armed statue wearing a collar studded with blue quartz crystals. Besides the door they had come in through, there was a second door leading east just to the south of it, and another one leading south.

Of course, the party had little time to evaluate this before the statue jumped upon Yuuka. It knocked the umbrella from her hands, and it skidded across the floor as the gargoyle knocked her to the ground Even as she wrestled with one of its arms trying to pin her to the floor, it swung out at the rest of the party with its other three.

A pair of short swords appeared in Suwako's hands, and she slashed at one of the monster's when it came at her; Mima did the same with her staff, while the hand coming at Yukari and Flandre crashed instead into a rippling, transparent, four-cornered barrier. As Suwako landed, she automatically scanned the room: as far as she could tell, there were no secret doors or trapdoors in it.

"Flandre," Yukari asked. "Would you mind destroying that creature?"

"Can't," Flandre replied. "It'd hurt Yuuka."

"That's true," Yukari said. "And at this close range we'd have trouble blasting it with bullets without risking hitting each other."

Yuuka had by now pushed the gargoyle's hand away from her; and so the creature redoubled its efforts, using two of its arms to try to hold her down.

--

[ ] Mima: High-speed one-hit certain kill!
[ ] Suwako: Ground it, stab it, curse it!
[ ] Yukari: Blast it with a barrier!
[ ] Yuuka: Get your umbrella back and strike it down!
[ ] <write-in>

The options here are more suggestions. Any attack pattern you can think of could work.

--

>>49517
>>49525
Yukari does have limits to both her endurance and what kinds of effects she can pull off, particularly since she's not on Earth and therefore can't access her gap dimension.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 02:51 No. 49553

...I'll leave out the analysis this time, since we don't have all that much to look at aside from the creature. So, brutal and quick.

[x]Yukari: Separate Yuuka and the creature. Boundary of Close and Apart should work, or just Near and Far or Here and There.
-[x]Flandre: Once it is safe, break the creature.

As a backup if that fails or takes too long:

--[x]Flandre and Yuuka engage it in melee, while Yukari, Suwako, and Mima support with precision attacks and restraining techniques.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 03:20 No. 49555

>>49553
It's not a complicated thing thoguh if that creature can pin down Yuuka, its strength much be considerable.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 04:43 No. 49556

[x] Mima, cast Stone to Mud! Then Suwako, hose it down!
>"Can't," Flandre replied. "It'd hurt Yuuka."
What a good girl.
>"That's true," Yukari said.
DON'T PRETEND YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT ALREADY.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 07:42 No. 49558 ▼

Image Source

File 136722132369.jpg - (87.96KB, 400x418 , 85455.jpg)

[x] Mima is a powerful magician. Have her cast a targeted spell. Something like finger of death or even better, Charm Monster = we gain a new ally to set off traps aid us.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 07:46 No. 49560 ▼

Image Source

File 136722161263.png - (50.73KB, 200x232 , 1335_tc.png)

Also, Tomb of Horrors/Touhou CYOA

YES!

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 10:29 No. 49562

[x] Yuuka: Grab the jeweled collar and rip it off.
[x] Mima: Cast Charm Monster.

Anonymous 2013/04/29 (Mon) 18:00 No. 49564

[X]Write-in.
-[X]Suwako: immobilize its limbs. Use iron rings.
-[X]Yukari: help Yuuka get away from it. Don't bother using borders unless it threatens to break free.
-[X]Mima: make a call - is it worth your effort?
If yes: [X] take it over - dominate it, charm it, whatever.
If no: [X] "Flandre - Kyuutime!".

You know, brute power may not always be a solution, but it sure helps to keep it on hand.

At this rate, I'm pretty sure that there won't be a room left undemolished after our party passes through. Especially if Flandre eventually starts Kyuuing everything even remotely threatening just out of principle.

Speaking of which, does she have limits to her destructive powers, or is it an At Will ability?

And does Suwako's divine affinity for earth and metals extend to any effects related (like, say, Stoneshape), or is she limited to specific, discrete powers like conjuring those iron rings?

Also, Mima should seriously consider getting some 'detect magic' effects up and keeping them that way, preferably on the whole party.

49553 2013/04/29 (Mon) 18:30 No. 49565

Shifting my vote.

[X]Write-in.
-[X]Suwako: immobilize its limbs. Use iron rings.
-[X]Yukari: help Yuuka get away from it. Don't bother using borders unless it threatens to break free.
-[X]Mima: make a call - is it worth your effort?
If yes: [X] take it over - dominate it, charm it, whatever.
If no: [X] "Flandre - Kyuutime!".

Anonymous 2013/04/30 (Tue) 14:24 No. 49575

[X] Yuuka: Point-blank Master Spark.

Anonymous 2013/04/30 (Tue) 17:03 No. 49576

[x] Yuuka: Get your umbrella back and strike it down!

Simple but effective. No need for overkill.

Anonymous 2013/05/03 (Fri) 23:28 No. 49682 ▼

Image Source

File 136762370979.jpg - (119.26KB, 364x550 , ToHGraphic8.jpg)

"I have an idea," Mima said, then shouted, "Hey! Ugly!" and immediately began whispering an incantation.

The monster looked up. Mima's eyes flashed bright blue as she matched its gaze, and the creature's own eyes began to glow slightly red. But it didn't stop holding Yuuka to the ground/.

"Darn it!" Mima said.

"What was that?" Yukari asked.

"I charmed it, but it's too dumb to realize the rest of you are my friends!" Mima replied.

"You're doing it wrong!" Suwako shouted, as she drove one sword into the floor. Out from it radiated waves of earth energy, distorting the floor of the room into a thick, deep mud. Yuuka sank into it immediately, and the creature wasted little time getting stuck in the mud after her. Yet Suwako was able to stand on the mud as if it was solid ground. "That's how you stop a big, stupid monster."

"But Yuuka's in the mud too," Flandre said.

"Watch."

Suddenly Yuuka shot up from the mud underneath where her umbrella had fallen, radiating a faint blue aura, and grabbing that umbrella in the process. She rushed forward, and struck the creature such a mighty blow to the head with that umbrella that it immediately collapsed face-first into the mud.

"Not strong enough," she murmured, as her aura subsided. With the monster dealt, she examined her umbrella and ran a hand over it to check for damage; there was none. "It was a creature of brute force. How uncivilized."

Flandre floated over closer to her. "Hey," she said.

"Yes?" Yuuka replied.

"Your umbrella is really strong," Flandre said. "Why is that?"

"That," Yuuka said, "is because it's no ordinary umbrella. It's a conduit for, and a manifestation of, my power."

"What's your power?" Flandre asked.

"Manipulation of flowers," Yuuka replied, holding her umbrella before her. "Though it may close, this flower is the only one in all Gensokyo that will never wither."

While this was happening, Suwako had removed the collar from the creature's corpse, and was now wearing it like a sash. She manifested a super-thin sheet of metal on one wall, and examined herself in it to ensure that it was properly adjusted.

At this point, Mima floated in through a hidden panel in the south wall. "Seems like the south door's a dead end," she said, pointing to the door near that panel. "No treasure, no traps, no secret doors, no nothing. Who'd even build a dungeon like this?"

"A tomb, not a dungeon," Yukari corrected. "The lair of a powerful undead being."

"Hey, I'm a powerful undead being and I sure as hell didn't call Reimaden a tomb. Anyway," she opened the door to the east. Immediately, the room beyond, seemingly a dead end, was filled with ricocheting bolts of energy, although none of them passed into the room they were in. "Yikes!"

"Well," Yukari said. "It seems we are caught between a rock and a hard place. In one direction, an arch of mist, leading into the unknown. In the other, a dead-end room full of bullets too dense to be ours. Suwako, any secret doors in this room?"

Suwako shook her head. "Not in this room. Can't tell about that room. But on the other hand, I've got a sweet new sash," she said.

[ ] Try going through the bullet room.
[ ] Go back to the Arch of Mist.
[ ] <write-in>

--

>>49564
Unfortunately, Suwako's iron rings aren't bindings; they're more like giant chakrams. But she did immobilize the enemy.

>>49556
>>49558
>>49564
This story isn't using Vancian special attacks the way D&D does.
While Flandre can use her power whenever she wants, it's not truly "at-will" because it will tire her out eventually. More quickly with complicated and resilient materials, living things, magic, and magic-buffed things. Any character's powers in this story work the same: they can use them when called on, but will eventually get tired.

Suwako can generate a wide variety of effects. Her powers are deliberately vaguely defined, because it gives me and you greater flexibility in deciding what happens next.
Actually, all of this applies to the rest of the group as well.

If you want some character to set up a passive detection effect, vote for it! Like I've said, write-ins are always welcome, including ones parallel to the main vote.

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 00:45 No. 49690

Paranoid instincts calling for Suwako's new sash to be disintegrated aside, that went well.

Both paths are unknowns, but I feel that the hall of bullets will be the more easily managed of the options.

[x]What do you do when the bullets are too dense? You bomb.

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 01:15 No. 49696

I have a question: How does Mima's vitality work with being a evil spirit and all?

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 01:16 No. 49697

[x] Try going through the bullet room.
- [x] Bombs away!
>>49690
>curse god
>potentially cursed item
Yeah I think she'll be fine.

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 03:16 No. 49701

>>49690
problem is that "bombing" might wear everyone out faster. It's like you have no concept of endurance.

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 03:43 No. 49704

Simple solution to a problem of endurance. Rest.

We are not required to blast through the entire tomb in one run. If the party becomes too fatigued, it is always a possibility to retreat and recuperate, so long as we don't actually lose anyone.

Even if the Tomb resets every day, we still come out with a net gain due to gaining knowledge of the traps.

Therefore expending additional resources to prevent potential losses is in the majority of cases an efficient strategy.

That is, of course, unless the author is going to say something to the effect of "you can't recover any energy outside of Gensokyo".

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 11:18 No. 49721

[x] Go through the bullet room.
- [x] Use bombs if needed.

Anonymous 2013/05/04 (Sat) 13:15 No. 49722

[x] Try going through the bullet room.

Well, better the devil you can actually see. The question is, how to get through...

Maybe Suwako tears up some slabs of rock people can use as shields?

Anonymous 2013/05/05 (Sun) 07:51 No. 49743

[X] Bullet Room.
-[X] Let's show Acererak how a Spell Card Duel is done!~

Anonymous 2013/05/05 (Sun) 18:46 No. 49747

[X] Bullet Room.
-[X] Let's show Acererak how a Spell Card Duel is done!~
- [x] Use bombs if needed.

Because why not?

Anonymous 2013/05/05 (Sun) 23:36 No. 49749 ▼

Image Source

File 136779698827.jpg - (70.67KB, 291x464 , Arch.jpg)

I vote we avoid the arch of mist. I'm pretty sure it's a portal that sends you to one area of the dungeon, while all your clothes and equipment are sent to different area.

Anonymous 2013/05/06 (Mon) 03:51 No. 49767

[X] Bullet Room.
-[X] Let's show Acererak how a Spell Card Duel is done!~
- [x] Use bombs if needed.

Anonymous 2013/05/13 (Mon) 14:20 No. 49906

Is this story dead already?

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 01:26 No. 49912

>>49906
>10 days without an update
>dead
Heh. You'll learn.

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 01:57 No. 49913 ▼

Image Source

File 136849663656.jpg - (110.57KB, 400x311 , ToHGraphic10.jpg)

[x] Try going through the bullet room.
-[x] Bomb!

--

"Well, then," Mima said. "If you can't tell about that room, obviously there must be one there! Let's go!" With her staff in one hand, and catching the frog-hatted girl's arm in the other, she rushed forward towards the bullet room. "Orreries!" she shouted, and from the tip of her staff came forth four orbiting spheres, which flew into the room in front of her, catching up any and all bullets that crossed their boundary; and then stopped in the center of the room and whirled outward, wiping the room clean and embedding themselves in the walls.

"Hurry!" Mima said, dropping Suwako to the ground, as the others charged in after her. Suwako rushed to the south wall, pressed her hands against it, and pushed it down forcefully; it slid downward, into the ground. Beyond it was another room very similar to this one, again with countless bullets filling the room. "These things are doing a number on my barrier," Mima said. "Yuuka, can you take over?"

"Of course," Yuuka replied. "Flower Sign: 'The Reflowering of Gensokyo!'"

She rushed into the next room with her umbrella pointed forward; outward from the tip came a ring of light, and a blast of bullets, which formed into a shape like a sunflower. They, and the border, clashed with the other bullets, wiping them away; and the group hurried into the next room.

"Here!" Suwako said, running across the room to the south wall. Again she pressed her hands to it; this time, she rotated it. The wall spun around a central pivot; then clicked into place, and swung open. Ahead was a third identical room.

"Border Sign: 'Quadruple Barrier'!" Yukari shouted, as they rushed into this next room. Centered on her, but enclosing the entire party, appeared a pair of clear purple barriers, one cubic, the other octahedral, spinning rapidly in opposite directions.

Suwako was on the far wall in an instant. Like a frog's, her hands stuck to the wall; she pulled it upward and inward, and it swung open. They were through before it shut.

The path turned right, through a room as barren as the prior one, but three times as large. Suwako pointed to the wall at the far end, and they were moving towards it; again she pressed her hands to it, but this time, she lifted it up, and it slid.

Yukari's barriers faded. From behind her came Flandre, grinning for the first time in this whole adventure. "Forbidden Barrage: 'Counter Clock'!" she shouted. From her outstretched palm erupted something like a sea of flames, and a pair of great silver crosses appeared at her sides, and spun forward, clearing this room as well.

Suwako rushed to the wall on the right, to the very center. She pulled the wall towards that center; a hidden joint opened, and it was revealed as a pair of double doors, which slid towards the center and split the passage in two. Flandre immediately turned towards the next room. Another pair of crosses spun, one through each door, into that room, and the party followed.

Beyond was yet another barren room. Suwako rushed to the far wall again, pressed her hands to it, and slid it to the left as Flandre's second set of crosses began to fade.

Suwako put one foot into the next room, pointed to its left wall, and said, "Coded lock, Flandre, just blast it!"

Flandre obliged. Her hand clenched into a fist, and the door exploded into a thousand pieces. Before they had finished falling, the party charged relentlessly through. Not a second too soon, either, as Flandre's Counter Clock finally ended, and the room was once more filled with darts of force.

--

In the new room, they landed, and paused for a moment to catch their breaths, save for Mima, who had neither legs nor breath, and Flandre, who seemed quite excited, as she flew enthusiastically around the party. "Yeah! Let's do that again!" she said, flapping her wings excitedly.

"Let's not," Yukari said. Flandre didn't notice. "Mima, please don't rush into things like that again."

"Right..." Mima said sheepishly. "Hey, that thing you did. What was that? The power saving sign technique."

"A spellcard," Yukari said.

"A spellwhat?"

"You haven't heard of the spellcard system?" Suwako asked.

"Mima, where have you been these last ten years?" Yuuka followed.

"Out of power, sealed to the Hakurei Shrine," Mima replied. "Now what's a spellcard?"

"The spellcard system is a set of dueling rules put in place by Reimu, with aid from me and many of the other powerful denizens of Gensokyo," Yukari said. "Spellcards are, in essence, short magic contracts describing attack patterns of your choice, with elegant names. We can invoke a card's name when using its pattern. Doing so lessens the power of the effect enough that it won't kill even a human, but retains the rest of its effects, and also lessens its energy cost. But if you fight a human in a spellcard duel, you may absolutely not kill them."

"Reimu invented it after an incident with a vampire, and another one with a robot maid," Yuuka said. "So that youkai could go up against her without risking killing her in battle."

"I remember that vampire." Mima scowled. "Yeah, I sided with him. That's why I was sealed up, see."

Then Flandre was right in front of her, staring straight at her. "What vampire?"

"We'll tell you when you're older," Yukari said.

Flandre ignored her. "Hey Mima, will you play danmaku with me?"

"Sure, after we get back to Gensokyo," Mima said. "You'll have to help me with the rules, though. But for now...where are we?" She tapped her staff against the ground, and a ball of light glowed between its tines, illuminating the entire corridor.

This corridor ran from north to south, and was in many ways quite similar to the entrance passageway. Once more, the floor was made of mosaic-tiles. The walls and ceiling were decorated with strange glyphs of writing, as well as with images of animals, and of humanoid beings carrying great spheres of a variety of colors and sizes, at various heights. Near the north end, there were two doors on the west side. In addition, at the far south end of the hall, there was another archway like the one in the entrance hall, again filled with impermeable mist.

--

[ ] Examine the illustrations on the walls
[ ] Enter one of the doors
-[ ] The more north door
-[ ] The more south door
[ ] Examine the Magic Arch
[ ] Scan for secrets
-[ ] <write-in method of scan>

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 08:15 No. 49915

From what I remember, there's a misty arch that not only removes your equipment, but also reverses your alignment. Trying to go back through teleported you out of the tomb, still without your equipment. So lets not do anything with the Magic Arch.

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 09:27 No. 49916

[x] Examine the illustrations on the walls

Let's check for clues

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 09:47 No. 49917

[x] Examine the illustrations on the walls
Suwako need to loot a whip and a pistol at some point.

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 09:53 No. 49918

[x] Examine the illustrations on the walls
[x] Scan for secrets
- [x] Suwako: find the black orb, search around it, avoid the area near the green one.

Remember Acererak's poem? "Go back to the tormentor or through the arch, and the second great hall you'll discover. Shun green if you can, but night's good color is for those of great valor."

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 21:40 No. 49929

[x] Examine the illustrations on the walls

Hmmm... let's start by looking around.

Anonymous 2013/05/14 (Tue) 21:51 No. 49930

[x] Examine the illustrations on the walls
[x] Scan for secrets
- [x] Suwako: find the black orb, search around it, avoid the area near the green one.

I do wish to scan for secrets but I can't think of an original idea of how to. Seeing as this is the only other option I'll pick this.

Anonymous 2013/05/22 (Wed) 12:23 No. 50034

>>49918
How do we know he wasn't lying to us? After all, he was bragging about how we were all going to die, after all. Can we really trust the word of someone who's openly admitting to trying to kill us?

Anonymous 2013/05/23 (Thu) 02:02 No. 50054

>>50034
I think he'd be smart enough to turn any genre savvy adventurers on themselves. That and overconfident villains always reveal more than they should.

Anonymous 2013/06/12 (Wed) 14:06 No. 50558

So, is this thread dead already?

Anonymous 2013/07/09 (Tue) 02:29 No. 51578

>>50558
Sure looks that way.

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