[ gensokyo / at / blue ] [ th / eientei / forest / border / shrine / sdm / youkai / underground / others / shorts ] [ Story List ]
Settings Home 
[Return]
Archived Thread
A Wizard Is You - Thread 15 Demetrious  2011/03/08 (Tue) 18:20 No. 136072 ▼
Image Source
File 129960844322.jpg - (175.34KB, 960x720 , badass cirno.jpg)
badass cirno
Thread 12 >>132680
Thread 13 >>133878
Thread 14 >>134719


In which Cirno flips out with the realness.


[X] A combination of Grease and Glitterdust would likely leave a bunch of low level thugs debilitated for a while. Toss a few gold to the barkeep, collect your party, and make your exit.

“Get this!” You flick your hand in a sharp gesture. “Splendiferosity!”

With a PAMF! a cloud of glittery golden dust blooms about the crowd of pissed off farmers as they rise from their chairs. The effect is immediate; several of them stumble unsteadily and grope for the table.

Riku opts to grope for your face with his fist, flashing across the floor with impressive speed. The blow smashes into your jaw almost before you realize Riku’s moving. Someone else slaloms into you and your uniquely adversarial relationship with gravity is exercised once again as you slam into the floorboards.

A boot connects with your ear and the world goes wavy. There’s a big bearded man on top of you trying to twist his hands into your hair.

“I’M BLLLIND!” somebody screams nearby. “BLIIIIND!”

Beard guy is trying to slam your head into the floor, and unfortunately you neglected to put on your Gauntlets of Ho’ Slappin this morning. He’s stronger then you, but not quite as experienced. You squirm and twist in ways people who’ve only fought humanoids can never learn, and are on the verge of breaking free when somebody kicks you in the head again.

“Where’s your youkai bitches now, asshole!?” A blurry figure with Riku's voice is looming over you. There’s a flash of blue skirts and black shoes as someone leaps over you.

“EEEAH!” Cirno yells, slamming her fist into Riku’s crotch There’s a soft whuff from the lanky farmer and he stumbles backwards, away from the incensed fairy. Inspired, you manage to worm your leg between Beards. A sharp jerk of the knee improves the gene pool a little and gives you a chance to throw Beard off you. You stagger to your feet in time to see a third man charge towards Cirno, a heavy chair raised over his head. Cirno thrusts a hand at him, sending him flying ass-over-teakettle as an ice shard explodes on his chest.

Riku is standing a little ways away, clenching his teeth and sweating, but still fighting to rise to his full height. He’s a tough one, all right.

youkai bitches

Words of magic slip from your tongue as you lunge across the floor at Riku. His fists snap to a defensive posture with the speed of an experienced barroom brawler. Not that it’ll do him any good. As you enter his reach the farmer snaps a jab to your belly, which deflects harmlessly from the invisible forceplane from your Bracers of Armor. A follow-up left-hook smacks harmlessly into your blocking forearm.
bitches

A feral snarl rips from your lips as your right hand, made of living stone, smashes into Riku’s jaw. The hefty strength enhancement of the Fist of Stone spell tells, sending the farmer reeling. You keep on swinging, but Riku’s head jerks and bobs like a rooster. He blitzes, unleashing a flurry of blows. It’s rather ineffective against your magical armor, though a few stingers get through. You finally connect with your stone fist again, and this time Riku staggers back several feet.

bitches

You dart forward, raising your hand to smash Riku’s head like a rotten gourd when you hear Keine cry out. Reacting instinctively, you twist sideways just as somebody brings a club down on your shoulder, narrowly missing your skull. You can feel the next blow whistling towards your head, so you dive sideways. The WHUNK! of the club meeting the floor lends impetus to your mad dash for distance.

You leap for a nearby table, the patrons vacating their seats with alacrity as you approach. Your hands seize the back of a hefty wooden chair.

“LOOK OUT!” Cirno screams.

You spin, swinging the chair low and hard. Wooden legs bash into fleshy ones and sweep them out from under your assailant. His short club (a heavy bottle) goes flying. Peripheral vision catches a dash of brown garb, and you twist your entire body ‘round to swing the chair the other direction, all your pent-up fury powering the blow. The chair shatters as Riku’s headlong charge is abruptly redirected into the sticky wonders of the floor underneath the bar.

An earsplitting whistle sounds from somewhere near the door. That’s usually your cue to grab your drunkest friend and flee for the back door before the watchmen’s clubs add an exciting counterpoint to the debate. Instead, you turn and give Mr. Club’s head a taste of your boot, sneering with dark satisfaction.

“STOPPIT DUMMAHS!” Keine fairly roars. Your eardrums cringe before the might of her bellow. Looking up from Mr. Club, you see Keine standing unsteadily, one hand bracing on the table. “SHTOPPEET NAO! The slurred commands ring with authority.

“I’M STILL BLIIIIIIIIND!” one of the stricken farmers adds. A bamboo cup zips through the air, smacking the complainer in the gob. He yelps, clutching his mouth and sitting down. Keine sways unsteadily, trying to return her throwing hand to the table for support, but she can’t seem to find it.

“QUIET. TIME,” Keine slurs. “STHOP. PUNCHIN.”

You notice Cirno off to one side, sitting atop Beard man’s chest, one hand tangled in his hair, the other drawn back in a fist. She sheepishly releases his hair, letting his skull thunk the floorboards.

“Guhd. Guuuuh~” Keine mutters, and promptly joins the Trauma Trio on the floor.

“KEINE!” you shout. You rush towards your fallen benefactor –

- and go staggering back as a woman casually plants an elbow in your chest she walks by.

“Get lost,” she says dismissively, not even looking at you as she walks towards Keine. She’s got long white hair with ribbons in it, recycled red potato sacks for pants, and a date with your fist.

“HEY!” you roar, taking long strides towards the strange woman. She twirls gracefully, a ball of fire blossoming in her hand. “I said get loooAH!” she exclaims as you hoist her slender frame airborne by a handful of her blouse, your fist coming back for-

“STOP STOP STOP STOP” Cirno shrieks, rushing over. She grabs hold of your robe and the woman’s pants and begins hopping agitatedly. “STOP!”

“Put me down,” the white-haired girl commands, “or I’ll snap your wrist.” The painful pressure on your wrist from her iron grip supports the assertion.

“Get between me and Keine and I’ll stuff your flaming body into an otyugh den,” you snarl.

“Dummy!” Cirno declares. She leaps for your wrist, grabs it, then dangles mid-air, kicking uselessly. “Put Mokou doooown~”

Mokou? The name rings a bell, but you’re still too pissed-off to much care. Still, it’s hard to stay angry when you’ve got Cirno dangling from your wrist like a howler monkey. And even magically-enhanced strength has its limits. You slowly lower the woman to the floor and release her blouse, and she releases your wrist.

“M-Mokou?” one of the blind farmers ventures from the far wall.

“You’re Mokou?” you ask.

“No shit, Kotohime,” Mokou sighs. “And why are you so interested in Miss]/i] Kamishirasawa?

Either word hasn’t reached the bamboo forest yet, or you don’t look much the wizard minus a hat and plus a good scuffing.

She glances at the far wall. “And what’s with the bunch of blind dudes with glitter on ‘em?”
“I’m a friend.” You survey the destruction in the tavern, and the ten or so blind guys with glitter on ‘em. “You wanna get out of here before the watch arrives?”

Mokou concedes with a shrug, and together the three of you walk over to Keine. Mokou kneels and gently lifts the schoolteacher to an upright sitting position. “Keine? What’d you do?”

“Moh~KOOOU!” Keine wails, diving into her friends embrace. “I fuggid up I screwh’d all up so baaaahd~”

“Easy girl,” Mokou says softly. “Easy now. We’re going home.” Slipping an arm ‘round Keine’s shoulders and another under her knees, Mokou lifts the larger woman with no apparent effort. As your party heads for the back door, you take one last glance at the hastily evacuated tavern. A small group of witnesses is clustered by the front door and the cooks are peeking out from the kitchen door, but otherwise the only patrons remaining are the ones you immobilized.

As you stagger down the alley with Mokou leading the way, somebody hails you from the back doorway.

“Wizard!” Riku shouts, leaning against the doorframe. “This isn’t over, Wizard!”

Your trudging boots grind to a halt. Your head swivels slowly, bringing your piercing over-the-shoulder glare to bear on the battered farmer.

“[i]Heel,” you say with quiet malice.

Riku blinks, nonplussed.

A galloping pattapattapattta within the tavern echoes down the alleyway before the Chest explodes out the doorway and through Riku’s legs, sending him ass-first to the threshhold.

“Good chest!” you say with delight, patting it on the lid. “Best chunk of change I ever spent.”

********

You get Keine home without further incident, taking back alleys to escape the town center without undue attention. The schoolteacher is put to bed, Cirno goes hunting for victuals in the kitchen, and you sit on your bed in the main room, still jittery with adrenaline and feeling like punching things.

“Of all the scum-swilling meatwads in town, it had to be him,” you mutter. “Don’t they have fieldwork!?”

“They plant the fields closest to the forest together. Safety in numbers,” Mokou answers as she walks in from Keine’s room. “They were probably grabbing a late lunch.”

You grunt disinterestedly. “How’s Keine?”

“Who are you, why were you fighting a pack of farmers with Cirno helping you, and why is Keine drunk?”

“How’s Keine?”

“Drunk. Answer the question.”

“The skinny one hates me and had his buddies with him. Cirno’s my friend. Keine...”

-is drunk because you yelled at her and made her cry-

“You’ll have to ask her. She wasn’t at home, so I went looking for her.”

“The glitter? The box? Stop jerking me around. Talk.”

“I just had my head bounced off every hard surface in that tavern, and it hurts like hell,” you point out.

“Boo hoo. Explain yourself or you’ll hurt more.”

A wand appears in your hand as if conjured. “Think you can take me, sweetheart?”

“Where you wanna go, stud? There’s a stand down the street that makes a great knuckle sandw-”

“HEEEELP!” Cirno squeals from the kitchen. “IT’S GOT MEEEEEEE!”

You and Mokou freeze for a long second, then bolt as one for the door of the kitchen. With a hand on the doorframe you sling yourself around the corner, keeping your head low with your wand-hand at the ready.

Cirno has been devoured by the fell Breadbox, the roller-door pinning her torso in its wooden gullet by the waist. Legs kicking wildly as she tries to extricate herself, she continues wailing.

You lower your wand.

“Heh,” slips the first chuckle from your lips. “Hahahaha~” you continue, and then it’s too late. The laughter washes over you, involuntary, like a muscle spasm in your diaphragm instead of any conscious impulse. You collapse on the floor, laughing madly. Mokou herself is leaning against the doorframe and gigging madly.

“It’s not funny! Stoppit!” Cirno demands from within the breadbox. Mokou collects herself long enough to open the door and rescue Cirno from the cabinet’s maw, but you’re still helpless on the floor.

Eventually the gales subside, and you struggle upright with a stupid grin on your face.

Cirno blushes looks at the floor sheepishly, hearing the unasked question. She tucks her hands behind her back and kicks at the floor.

“I just wanted a bagel...”

Unbidden comes the memory of Cirno sitting astride Beard’s chest, fist raised for another blow.

a bagel

That sets you off again, laying you breathless over the counter for long minutes until your sides ache worse then your cranium does.

“Are you quite done?” Mokou asks at length, though the edge is gone from her voice.

“Yeah,” you say, reclining against the counter and wiping a few tears from your eyes. The adrenaline jitters are gone, and the tension with them.

“After you clean up, you’re going to the pharmacy,” Mokou instructs, digging around in a pants pocket. She counts out some cash and slaps it into your hand. “Tell the clerk you want something to sober people up; this ought to be enough.”

“What about medicine for him?” Cirno asks.

“His fight, his money,” Mokou says, and quits the room.

“Oh Keine, you know how to pick’em,” you mutter. You pocket Mokou’s money and take a deep breath, trying to think.



[ ] Go to the pharmacy personally, to buy time to think. There’s a lot of things going on in Gensyoko, immediate and impersonal, and you need to go over them all.

[ ] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.

[ ] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and identify that crap you’ve been lugging around for three days.

[ ] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
-- Or not; she’s about as diplomatic as you and doesn’t trust you much. Let Keine handle that when she recovers.
-- Or should you get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself?

[ ] Write-in?

--------------

This is an interlude; so don’t feel obliged to go for anything “plotty.” If there’s some bit of long-neglected business (like the identifying) I’m forgetting, avail yourself of the write-in, please. I’m probably forgetting half of ‘em.
CURRENT STATUS:  Demetrious  2011/03/08 (Tue) 18:35 No. 136075
STATUS UPDATE:

Your Inventory:

- belt of spell resistance (worn)
- Bracers of Armor +5 (Worn)
- A ring of Evasion (worn)
- A ring of Counter-spelling (worn) (empty)
- Gauntlets of Herculean Strength (+4 STR) (belatedly donned)

- Rod of Extend Spell (x2)
- Immovable Rod
- Greater rod of Maximize Spell
- Wand of Lightning Bolt (x50 charges)
- Several potions containing various buffing spells (unexamined, labeled)
- Over a dozen scrolls, filled with various low-level utility spells.
- Wand of Fireball (x49 charges)

- Gnomish Repeating Crossbow (Tacticool) (Unidentified)
- Dagger (unidentified)
- 4 vials (unidentified)
- Huge hunk of dragon meat (wrapped up)
- Fairy fiddle & bow
- Patchouli’s tome (basic elemental magic)
- Keine’s spoon
- Wizard Hat (in your magical pocket)

If I’m forgetting anything, please mention it. I do mean anything. Most of your money is in the Chest, and the rest loose in your magic pocket.

TRACKED SPELLS REMAINING:

9th:
--Foresight
8th:
-- Greater Planar Binding
7th:
-- Control Weather
-- Limited Wish
-- Delayed Blast Fireball
6th:
--Antimagic Field
-- Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion

ACTIVE SPELLS:

-- Detect Scrying
-- Mindblank
Behind the Scenes Demetrious  2011/03/08 (Tue) 18:55 No. 136079 ▼
Image Source
File 129961053553.jpg - (297.63KB, 1133x1000 , 1292804435486.jpg)
1292804435486
I prefer to show this stuff in the story, instead of exposit, but the last thread had some great discussion so I thought I'd comment.

It's true that even a tough farmer, descendant of people who thought settling in a monster-infested madhouse was a good idea, is no match for a 'named' youkai, or someone of the Wizard's level. In D&D such people are usually represented by "Non-Player Character" classes; which are inferior to player character classes. A farmer who regularly drives bugbears out of his fields might be a 5th level "Warrior," which is inferior to a 5th level Fighter (PC class.) Most of the farmers in the bar fall under that definition, but not Riku himself, or the other two that made their Will saves. In the dark months of winter, the sane stay inside, and the bold go hunting in the moonlit forests. Those that come back, year after year, are truly formidable folk.

As for the choices, there was no "right" one; each one affects things differently. The subtle enchantment option did nothing to discourage Riku's hostility, but did result in the least property damage, and made it clear to onlookers who the aggressor was. This improves your standing about town. (Which is useful, considering the beeline path of destruction wrought by your Chest didn't make any friends.) Buffing up before they jumped you would've let you mop the floor with them quite handily, instilling some respect in Riku but gaining no points with the villagers. Dribbling his crew across the floor with Telekinesis would've schooled Riku good, but at the cost of exacerbating bad rumors about how you wield power.

Consequences are fairly organic. This is why I like discussion; it means I'm doing my job as a writefag by providing story and options worth thinking about.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 19:13 No. 136080
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Let's not fall behind on this.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 19:16 No. 136081
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
-- [x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.

This will backfire horribly.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 19:18 No. 136082
>>136080
By the by, have you thought abotu disabling write ins? They seem to do more harm than good lately.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 19:26 No. 136083
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
-- [x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 19:53 No. 136085
[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 20:00 No. 136086
>>136081
Or not doing it could backfire horribly. If Keine gets her version of events in first... that would not be good.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 20:16 No. 136088
>If I’m forgetting anything, please mention it. I do mean anything.
Hm.... Does Wizardnon own any spellbooks(ones with DnD magic) apart from one borrowed by Patchouli?
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 20:34 No. 136089
>>136086
>Or not doing it could backfire horribly. If Keine gets her version of events in first... that would not be good.

Considering Keine has been crying over how SHE screwed up, I don't think it will that bad.
SystemFailureV3 !5TQkmktHkE 2011/03/08 (Tue) 20:50 No. 136091
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
--[x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 21:06 No. 136094
>>136093
That sounds so stupid I'm deleting it

>“This isn’t over, Wizard!”

[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Prevention is better than cure. I'd love to stick around Keine but we have to act quickly now
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 21:31 No. 136097
[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 21:56 No. 136099
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.

If Riku gets to Benson first it could be pretty bad.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 22:01 No. 136100
[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
-[X] Be prepared to cast Protection from Arrows. Y'know, just in case.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 22:35 No. 136105
>>136079
>As for the choices, there was no "right" one; each one affects things differently.
That's good planning and good writing. The results you described for the other options are all pretty much what I would've expected based on common sense. That's why I supported the Glitterdust write-in. It's flashy and not nearly subtle enough that anyone could accuse McWizard of enchanting people, but still totally harmless. No one could really accuse him of abusing his COSMIC POWER when all he used was what amounted to a magical flashbang. A bit of brawling could be sort of good for his reputation too; the average villager can relate to that more than beating people with magic.

Overall, I like the hybrid approach done here. It worked well, and the overall injuries were minimal. On the other hand, the damage to his reputation for using sparkly dust may be somewhat harder to heal...

[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
- [X] Quash any rumors of McWizard throwing fairy dust. IT'S MANLY ARCANE DUST, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FAIRIES.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 22:37 No. 136107
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
--[x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.

We need to clear things up, now. Use Sending to inform Benson that we might not be able to come talk to them today, if it is truly necessary.

But right now, Keine is the priority. She's a mess and, frankly, so is the Wizard (just less visibly) because of that row we had earlier. Whatever happens, keep our cool when talking to Mokou and DON'T LEER at her. Explain to Mokou the who, what, where, when, how.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 22:40 No. 136108
>-- Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
WHAT
I don't even-
why would he...
JESUS
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 22:50 No. 136109
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.

It won't take us long to get the medicine - even with our sidetrack to Benson. Keine is still pissed as a rat and won't be properly sobre without what we're getting so I don't think we need to worry about Mokou just yet.
Anonymous  2011/03/08 (Tue) 22:52 No. 136110
>>136108
We save this spell for later tonight when Riku confronts us in the dark with a band of his armed thugs. And then we teach him a lesson, oh yes.
ThySelf  2011/03/08 (Tue) 23:45 No. 136121
[X] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and identify that crap you’ve been lugging around for three days.

[X] Have your magic chest deliver a message (Either through magic or more mundian means). Also command it to avoid obstacles, but if attacked, to defend itself (Maybe 'eat' it's aggresors).
[X] if possible, check on duke (I want to his reaction to meeting the 'scarlet devil').
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 02:01 No. 136134
[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 02:06 No. 136135
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
--[x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.
--[x] Then spend whatever time left identifying a few things.

Let's make the most of our time.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 02:56 No. 136143
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Prevention is better than cure. I'd love to stick around Keine but we have to act quickly now
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 04:16 No. 136156
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 05:43 No. 136166
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
AND THEN spread around some gold for damages incurred, as originally planned before the "bitches" comment
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 05:55 No. 136167
>This is an interlude; so don’t feel obliged to go for anything “plotty.” If there’s some bit of long-neglected business (like the identifying) I’m forgetting, avail yourself of the write-in, please. I’m probably forgetting half of ‘em.

I think those words just fell on deft ears.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 05:59 No. 136168
>>136167
Unintentional but hilarious double meaning.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 06:05 No. 136171
>>136072
Could you define "plotty" please? Technically, everything in the story is plot.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 06:14 No. 136172
>>136171
>- Gnomish Repeating Crossbow (Tacticool) (Unidentified)
>- Dagger (unidentified)
>- 4 vials (unidentified)
These aren't plot. They're loot. Now that I've been reminded of their existence, I feel a burning desire to identify them as quickly as possible.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 06:56 No. 136179
[X] Cast Limited Wish to emulate Neutralize Poison and sober up Keine. It's a level 4 spell so it should work.

[X] Explain everything to Mokou, and apologize to Keine when she comes to.


Why use a limited wish for a mundane situation like this? Because we're a Wizard dammit, and it'll be a good way to persuade Mokou that we aren't a bad person. Plus it'll show how much we care about Keine.

Limited Wish only takes 500 XP anyway, which is like pennies to us.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:02 No. 136180
>>136172
Identify takes an hour a casting. That's like 8 hours.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:03 No. 136181
>>136171
I mean how people are hurrying over to the society place in spite of what the author said. It's kinda sad to think that folks would be quicker to rush off on a mission than to watch over Keine and learn about her from her best friend.

>>136179
Just no, have you forgotten the last time someone talked about frivolously using limited wish for the sole sake of romancing?
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:06 No. 136183
That begs an interesting question. I wonder if our author already knows the exact details of those items, or if they are still up in the air a bit.

If they are already fixed, we should probably learn their identities ASAP so that we might make use of them as needed. Otherwise, it may be possible to metagame a bit trying to either identify them as needed, hoping for excellent coincidences, or hold out for times when fortune seems to be smiling on us and try to use that luck.

Yes, I know I probably ruined all these options by bring light to the issue, but I'm still curious to know if the results had been decided when we obtained the items.

As for actions, I agree with >>136135
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:12 No. 136184
Going outside after that party sounds like a bad idea. At the very least, sending Cirno out, alone... nah.

Anyway, you've FINALLY tracked down Keine and then some new Hat bids you out on a fetch-quest? That's... that's really frustrating, but okay, whatever. Don't delegate the fetch-quest to the childish fairy. That's like three kinds of irresponsible.

[x] Go to pharmacy personally. Get your head on straight.

I advise against talking to Benson, or anyone else, really. He's gonna wanna talk about what's going on with Keine, and Zuul can barely handle talking to Duke about his FEELINGS, let alone some stranger.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:14 No. 136185
>>136180
We've got an hour right now. Perfect.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:23 No. 136188
>>136185
You can only identify one target per casting. Each casting is an hour. Identify is something you put aside days for.
Madine !qofA4gBgpw 2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:31 No. 136189
[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 07:37 No. 136191
>>136184
This Cirno isn't the jokish idiot she is in fanon. She may be naive and a bit childish but if McWizard asks her to do something (especially for Keine's sake), she'll do it well.

Also the Wizard might have reduced the casting time on his identify as the option doesn't make us choose just one.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 09:24 No. 136209
So I go away for a few days and come back to find that our Int score has dropped something like ten points.

D= Seriously people, what the hell? Glitterdust? Grease? Are we level five now? Its like asking them to pile into the melee and disrupt casting while making aid other checks to actually hit us.

We have spells, they are meant to be used. Solid Fog, Black Tentacles, Fear are all at 4th. What use is the ability to make the universe sit down and shut up if we get our heads drummed in in a bar fight like a mouthy bard?


[X] Go to the pharmacy personally, to buy time to think. There’s a lot of things going on in Gensyoko, immediate and impersonal, and you need to go over them all.

We have GOT to get some perspective. I think too many days on adrenaline high is severely taxing our judgment.

In other news, Demetrious: You said we started out with an 18 Int right? Shouldn't we have a 22 (4th, 8th, 12th, 16th stat increase) instead of a 21?
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 09:28 No. 136210
Why are we still wearing that Ring of Counterspelling? Do we not have a spare in our kit?
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 09:37 No. 136211
>>136209
The whole point to using such lowly spells was to show the village that we're the guy with powers that WON'T immediately use them to blast people to hell.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 09:46 No. 136213
HAHAHA! [x]CHAOS!
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 11:29 No. 136219
I just read this entire thing from start to here in 4 hours and oh my god this thing is awesome and I can't wait for moar.

Also, [X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 14:17 No. 136223
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 14:32 No. 136224
>>136181
If its just emulating a spell using Limited Wish is perfectly safe. Emulating a 4th level spell is perfectly within its powers as written, messing it up would be equivalent to having the DM go "rocks fall, everyone dies".
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 14:35 No. 136225
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
--[x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.
---[x]Identify your stuff, if there's time.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 15:52 No. 136227
>>136181
McWizard will be back with Keine in, what, 20-30 minutes? It won't take us long to fly down to the pharmacy, pick up some medicine, and just check things over with Benson. I don't even think we want to get into any serious discussions - a bit of reconnaissance would be fine. Finding out where Riku stands, how many people he has on his side, etc. Then off back to everyone else. Talking with Keine would be nice, but making sure we know what we're getting into (and not getting shot instead) is probably wiser.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 16:59 No. 136233
I'm interpreting this interlude as a time when every NPC not in our immediate vicinity is out on break. Lofforanrwenryrrrwharrgrrr, Benson, Alice, and Youmu's future killer are all gathered around the water cooler, discussing how the next plot arc makes no damn sense.

Assuming this is accurate...>>136225 sounds good.

[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
--[x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.
---[x]Identify your stuff, if there's time.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 20:07 No. 136244
>>136211
Hence, Solid Fog. And if they persist, then we get our pimp slap on as they struggle out of it.

Fear works too, being nonlethal, but may not project the image we're looking for. Do we have the nonlethal metamagic?
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 20:48 No. 136247
>>136244
Yeah, we blasted Sanae with a nonlethal, Explosive fireball.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 20:56 No. 136249
>>136224
>"rocks fall, everyone dies"
You don't need the DM to abort the story by killing everyone off when Anon is perfectly capable of TPK'ing themselves. Around here it's called "[x] LAKE".
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 23:16 No. 136252
>>136249
No, no - you missed the point Anon was making. Screwing with a limited wish's specifically allowed effects (i.e. effects that are 100% reliable and will not backfire by the rules) would be the equivalent of rocks falling. Because at that point the DM might as well just kill the characters off quickly without going the roundabout route.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 23:25 No. 136253
>>136252
The roundabout route is more fun to read about.
Anonymous  2011/03/09 (Wed) 23:40 No. 136254
>>136253
I hate people who thinks arbitrarily changing the rules so the MC loses/dies is awesome.

[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 00:02 No. 136256
Limited wish isn't "rocks fall, everybody dies." It's "rocks fall, Patchy dies."
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 00:07 No. 136257
>>136256
Frivolous Limited Wish use is "Demetrious gets pissed, then writes a scathing joke update"
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 00:10 No. 136258
>>136257
Yeah. And it was hilarious. He should do more of those.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 01:46 No. 136262
>>136258
I think he said he was doing just that in a thread on /words/(?) I forget.

Oh, and

>“I fuggid up I screwh’d all up so baaaahd~”

KEINEKEINEKEINEKEINEKEINE
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 03:26 No. 136264
>“Get between me and Keine and I’ll stuff your flaming body into an otyugh den,” you snarl.
LOL. Isn't Mokou both immune to fire and immortal?

[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 03:43 No. 136265
L.Wish is for emergencies only, as its the only way we have of replicating cleric spells that could potentially save someone's life. You're really going to be regretting casting it to dust a library (or something stupid like that) when we have someone dying in our arms and any cure spell would have saved them.

Besides 90% of the things we would even do with an L.Wish we could accomplish through creative use of other spells.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 03:48 No. 136266
>>136265
You're gaming this too much. Take it easy.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 04:40 No. 136267
Fuck waiting. Talk to Keine now.

Also, there's no need to spend gold at shady local apothecaries when you have a scroll that will do it for you. There might be a lot of room in the Wizard's trunk, but I don't want to end this story with 99 megalixirs.

[x] Use a scroll of Neutralize Poison or Lesser Restoration to detoxify Keine.
[x] If she doesn't want to talk it out just yet, get her up to speed on the current situation, then go find Benson. Together.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 06:31 No. 136275
>>136267
I doubt we've got Use Magic Device, dude, and without that we can't use Cleric scrolls.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 07:12 No. 136286
>>136275
what wizard worth his salt doesn't have at least one rank in UMD?
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 07:54 No. 136287
Gentlemen, our current spell list is shit tier.

I propose the following once we had a rest:

9th: Shapechange

8th: Polymorph Any Object, Mind Blank

7th: Greater Teleport, Forcecage (if we have the material, second Greater Teleport if we don't), Limited Wish

6th: True Seeing, Disintegrate, Antimagic Field, Summon Monster VI

5th: Cloudkill, Wall of Stone, Dominate Person, Telekinesis
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 08:08 No. 136288
>>136287
>cloudkill
>kill
>gensokyo spell card rules

Also, that Disintegrate should have the metamagic feat that turns it non-lethal applied.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 08:11 No. 136289
>>136288
that Disintegrate is mostly an utility spell. great for forced entry, disappearing large amounts of stuff and breaking borders.

cloudkill is useful against fairy swarms (and wouldn't be against spellcard rules since they don't really die). damn fairies.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 08:18 No. 136290
>>136289
it might offend Cirno, our adopted daughter/apprentice. I doubt a death caused by cloudkill is very pretty, even for a fairy.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 08:22 No. 136291
>>136290
whatever. Mirage Arcana, then. Probably the better spell, too.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 08:26 No. 136292
>>136247

Ohohohoho

MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

YOU! FIFTH LEVEL SPELL SLOTS! YES, YOU! NONLETHAL BLACK TENTACLES! LET THERE BE LOVE AND PEACE!
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 09:03 No. 136293
>>136288
>Also, that Disintegrate should have the metamagic feat that turns it non-lethal applied.

Subdual Substitution only works with spells that have an energy designator (sonic, fire, cold, etc.).

>>136287
>Shapechange

Because they have 1500 gp jade circlets laying around everywhere in Gensokyo.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 12:17 No. 136297
Also, if we find out that Mokou's immune to fire, I propose we test whether or not she possesses the Fire subtype as a part of one of Cirno's lessons.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 13:51 No. 136299
>>136293
Shapechange doesn't have a component - it has a focus. It would be stupid for McWizard to know a spell and not have the focus he needs to cast it on hand. I think we can safely assume he has a jade circlet in his chest or on his person.
Major Malfunction  2011/03/10 (Thu) 14:27 No. 136300
[ ] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 16:15 No. 136305
[x] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 16:46 No. 136307
>>136299

See >>123033

>You learned how to eschew most physical focuses for your spells a while ago, with the few you need attached to your wrist, kind of like a charm bracelet.

Given that Wiznon has the Eschew Materials feat (any material component under 10GP is unneeded) I assume that means his focuses are kept on a charm bracelet; I.E. hard to be parted from.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 17:00 No. 136310
>>136307
Eschew is 1 gp.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 20:47 No. 136320
See >>124917

Wizanon has already cast Shapechange in-game. That means he must have stashed away that jade circlet somewhere (probably as the bracelet itself).

in terms of crunch, the first thing any smart wizard does when they reach the second half of level 16 is to get their hands on one of these and wear it 24/7. and have a spare in their secret stash.
Anonymous  2011/03/10 (Thu) 23:27 No. 136336
[x] Send Cirno for the medicine; take an hour to rest and explain everything to Mokou.
--[x] Get her advice now, before Keine confronts you herself.
---[x]Identify your stuff, if there's time.
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 05:17 No. 136472 ▼
Image Source
File 129990703818.jpg - (140.30KB, 350x350 , angrypoke.jpg)
angrypoke
Obviously, go the pharmacy and talk with Benson won. Apologies for the sudden delay; the time I'd budgeted to write found me in a field with a carbine instead, then I had to bury coyote corpses (ffffucking coyotes.)

I will apologize with another joke update after the real one in the /words/ thread.

>spellbooks?

Yes, you have spellbooks, I might've neglected to mention that.

>>136183

Yes, I DO know what those items are! Have since the first thread, actually. Given the time difficulties of Identify I might just deal with it without a vote as soon as possible. There's been a few hints as to the dagger's status, for the astute.

>stats?

I made a mistake initially with the stats, and I recall I put the point I'd skipped into DEX, (I think.) The idea being that when Wizard levels up, anon will have at least two stats with modifiers that will get a +1 if they vote to boost that stat.
Demetrious  2011/03/12 (Sat) 05:17 No. 136473
>>136472

Dropped my name. Hoo boy.
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 08:45 No. 136482
>>136472
>Obviously, go the pharmacy and talk with Benson won.
Damn it, damn it, damn it...
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 18:31 No. 136512
>>136482
Don't worry, if anything happens I'm sure we can just throw some level 1 spells at the problem, get our ass kicked, and have a fucking fairy save our ass.
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 18:36 No. 136514
>>136512
If he'd cast Grease this wouldn't have happened.
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 21:25 No. 136523
>>136512
I think he's more worried about the whole thing being a wasted of time as opposed to trying to make things up with Keine. Demetrious said "This is just an interlude" but NO, folks had to go all plotton like. Kinda goes against the point of seeking Keine out if the main thing we do in this time is cover our ass about something.
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 22:36 No. 136532
>>136523
Keine is pissed as a rat and drunk off her arse; it would be very hard to make up with her as things stand. And that's why we're off to get some medicine _to help Keine_ Going to see Benson is just a five minute distraction to help us not get shot in our immediate futures.
Anonymous  2011/03/12 (Sat) 23:54 No. 136539
>>136532
and trying to get to know Mokou isn't a good idea? Have you even stepped outside a basement? Anyone that paid a bit attention to society learns that the best ally one has for maintaining a relationship with a girl is her best friend. If you're on the friend's badside, she'll try to break you two up covertly. In contrast if you're in the friend's good graces, the going'll be much easier. For someone as prone to making social fuck ups like McWizard, he could certainly use the help. One can hope making the trip oneself earns some points; otherwise in the course of covering his ass, stumbles in the making up process.
Anonymous  2011/03/13 (Sun) 01:09 No. 136543
>>136539
So you want to brush off Mokou's request, dump the responsibility on Cirno and try to get to know her without the benefit of Keine as a common friend (because she's out drunk) given McWizard's social skills?

Smooth plan. I can see nothing wrong with it.
Anonymous  2011/03/13 (Sun) 01:28 No. 136545
>>136532
Yeah, just five minutes, unless something unexpected happens on the way or at the shop. But what are the odds of that happening?
Anonymous  2011/03/13 (Sun) 02:24 No. 136554
>>136545
Given that Riku and most of his companions are having a nice chat with the village watch, and that Benson seems to want us on his side, rather small I suspect.
Anonymous  2011/03/13 (Sun) 02:45 No. 136558
>>136554
Sarcasm.
Something's going to happen. We'll run in to Akyuu, angry about the hole we put in her house. We'll run in to Aya, looking for that interview we owe her. We'll run in to some character that hasn't appeared yet, who's just noticed us now that our cover's thoroughly blown.
In real life, a brief errand will usually be just that, but this is fiction. Things happen.
Anonymous  2011/03/13 (Sun) 03:44 No. 136565
>>136539
It's rather hard to "get to know" someone who tells you rather directly to go on a fetch mission and expects you to be gone from her sight. Simply staying there would probably irritate her, and even more so when she considers how you would dump the responsibility of actually helping Keine on someone else without a second thought.
Anonymous  2011/03/13 (Sun) 04:20 No. 136570
>>136558
yep and it's a similar phenomenon that causes visitors to the SDM to get stuck there for the next week or so.
Anonymous  2011/03/14 (Mon) 12:25 No. 136737
>>136545
>>136565
>>136570
RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLE:
dice1d20. Rolls a 16, result, 1 colossal animated object(s), 1 Lawgiver(s) and an umbral blot.

...Apparently we've got to beat up the Yama while avoiding Rumia riding the Goliath Doll.
Shopping, Part 1/2 Demetrious  2011/03/16 (Wed) 08:07 No. 137006 ▼
Image Source
File 130026286248.jpg - (187.68KB, 450x800 , 8dd6b33c5b5dafc01d58c6d7095ea447.jpg)
8dd6b33c5b5dafc01d58c6d7095ea447
[X] Go to the pharmacy personally; swing by the clothiers and chat with Benson. The brawl is public knowledge by now; you should move quickly on the Society angle before Riku has a chance to complicate things further.


You shake your head violently, crushing your roiling emotions and fears with the iron will of a wizard with a mission. Singleminded concentration on a task isn’t just a macro-level questing trait for wizards; it’s the only thing that keeps men in your profession alive when an ogre’s trying to play golf with your balls. And right now the task is finding out if the Society is involved with the ghost attacks while you acquire crucial medication – which you’ll do without fretting over any schoolteachers like an idiot.

You’re a Wizard.

You get shit done.

Your stalwart mental discipline carries you out of the house, down the path, and past the schoolhouse, driven by your mission to hunt down medicine and buy the hell out of it. And once you do, you’re going to ram it down Keine’s gullet.

“So she can apologize for being a twit,” you grumble, trying to be angry. Hell, you are angry. “She started it, and then she wants to be all- all- AUGH!” You aim a kick at a nearby fencepost.

“HEY!” a deep voice roars from behind you. “YOU!”

You hunch your shoulders and walk faster.

“Your box thing destroyed my fence, you jerk!”

You pick it up to a dignified hustle.

“Yeah, it’s him! Call the Watch!”

Sandals slap the hard road loudly as they accelerate their pursuit. You reach a crossroads and quickly hook around a building corner. Sinking into an alley, you think frantically, then mutter a few words of magic.

A second later the aggrieved property owners appear – a big man wearing garden gloves and a short woman with a broken piece of picket fence in her hand. They brake hard, their haste evaporating as they goggle at you.

You let them work their way through the double take before languidly turning your gaze on them. The big man’s eyes study you from bottom to top; taking in the sandals, the loose shorts, the flower-print shirt, your stubbled chin and your huge sunglasses.

“Ssssup?” you greet them.

“Uh,” replies the big man. “Uh, there was a man wearing a long gray robe that just came through here, he was running... did you see him?”

“Woah,” you say airily.

“.... what?” the woman asks, looking around.

“Your aura is totally rad,” you tell her confidently.

“Uh.”

“And vibes.... man. You feel ‘em.”

“I do?”

“Totally. Your energy is totally in-tune. Like, I’ve got this pamphlet-”

That sends them scrambling. You turn and leisurely stroll away, biting your lip to suppress a grin. Disguise Self was definitely worth preparing this morning, and there’s nothing as unthreatening yet subtly disturbing as an ultrahippie.

Stopping a few passerby to ask where “ballin’ chems” might be purchased, you get directions to the local pharmacy. You mosey on downtown, watching the crowd part to admit your passage. Even by Gensyoko’s standards it seems your disguise is worth glancing at. The spell won’t mask your voice, so you keep an eye out for any hats you know.

And there’s one now; a little red tasseled one agitatedly hopping up and down in the middle of a large crowd gathered outside of the recently redecorated tavern. You can hear angry shouting from the center of the congregation – including Riku’s raspy baritone.

An unworthy impulse blossoms in your mind, and you let it impel you over to the edge of the crowd. Gently sliding into the periphery of the crowd, you sidle closer to the Hat.

Bingo. One nosy notepad-wielding tengu acquired.

“Dude... what’s jumpin?” you query mildly.

“A fight!” Aya says, not looking at you. “I can’t get over there for an interview, though!”

“Ain’t you, like, a bird? You can....” - you link your thumbs and let your hands wing away – “like, fly.”

“You just want to see my panties,” Aya says with the weariness of the long-suffering, still trying to see over the crowd. She’s nicely target-fixated. Perhaps you can pull this off.

“I kinda saw stuff,” you venture in tones of casual interest.

Aya’s head snaps around. “What!" Really? What happened!?”

“This... dude... with a robe. Yeah. And a pointy hat. He comes in... with this blue fairy, right? And I’m thinkin ‘wow, how much did I drink’ when he goes over to this chick with a fairy-shrine for a hat, dig?”

“I dig!” Aya confirms, scrawling in her notebook with furious haste. “And then!?”

“This cat they call Riku, he gets up and he’s like... YOU WILL DIE.”

“And?”

“And the hat dude, he’s like NO.... YOU WILL DIE. And Riku, his farmer crew is getting pumped, you know?” The dreamy wistfulness in your voice is apparently enough to disguise it, or perhaps it’s the lack of swearing.

“What were they pumping?” Aya asks, puzzled. Her single-minded focus is slipping, and that leaves more mind to focus on your disguise.

“Bad viiibes, girl. Baaad vibes,” you intone seriously. “And then, the guy in the bathrobe, and the little fairy, and the schoolteacher totally destroyed those dudes.”

“They killed them!?” Aya queries breathlessly.

“Naaah, just stomped ‘em good. Even the fairy. She just trashed ‘em...”

“Oh,” Aya says with disappointment. “So did they... wait. Fairy shrine? Her sharp red eyes suddenly flick up from her notepad, but you’ve already made good your escape, slinking into the crowd with a wicked chuckle. Slipping through the curious onlookers, you emerge from the other side of the pack and amble casually down the thoroughfare. You scan the wooden signs dangling over the street for the traditional mortar-and-pestle symbol of the apothecary.

An elegantly engraved E catches your eye, and you glance across the road.

”Eirin Yagokoro’s Reliable Remedies,” declares the sign, the proper name and business title bracketing a strange symbol on top and bottom. It looks like two snakes coiled ‘round a pole with wings at the top.

“Little Miss Immortality Potion,” you grumble, shoving the door open. A door bell dings politely as you enter. You glance at the sales counter, expecting another dress-clad bint with a stupid hat. You’re rather surprised to see a girl with a blazer, tie and –

“-bunny ears,” you say flatly.

She doesn’t seem to notice. She’s slouching on the countertop, staring blankly into space, left arm propping up her chin. Her right is secured in a sling.

“Hello? I’m looking for poison neutralizers-”

“Aisle three,” she replies automatically, not even looking at you.

With a mental shrug, you squeeze through the narrow aisles. Thin shelves heavily laden with neatly hand-labeled vials and jars constrict you on each side. Soon you find something labeled “Alcohol detoxifier.” Uncorking it, you take a quick sniff, then swirl the liquid around and hold the vial up against the shop’s skylight.

“Legit!” you say, recognizing the concoction. A standard remedy (and popular, for obvious reasons,) but generally hard to make and expensive, since it’s a variant of a rather potent anti-poison mix. You take it back to the counter.

“Here.” You lay the vial on the counter. “Have any healing stuff?”

“Scrapes and stuff, or serious?” the bunnygirl says distantly.

“Serious.”

“That’s behind the counter,” she says, slipping off the stool and turning to the shelves behind her. “How many?”

“Depends,” you say, counting the local currency Mokou gave you earlier and glancing at the sign listing prices. “Will you take gold coins?”

“What?” the bunnygirl says, finally looking directly at you. Red eyes with dark circles of exhaustion ‘round them widen with surprise.

“An illusion?”

“Uh... yes,” you admit.

“A magician... a new magician...” the clerk ponders. “A new male magician. Let me guess, you’re dodging Aya?”

“Indeed,” you confirm glumly. “Wait, what does gender have to do with it?”

“I imagine you’ll find out,” she says. “How much are those coins worth, anyway? I don’t have a scale here.”

Benson worked that out during your purchase yesterday, so you’re able to give her a figure with no guesswork. “Hope you’ve got enough in the till to make change.”

“Oh, these’ll spend well enough,” the clerk says, punching at the buttons of her register a bit awkwardly. You infer she’s right-handed. “This is a big village, but still a village, you know? There’s no official currency; we’ve got all sorts of coins knocking around.” She holds up one of the coins Mokou gave you. “These just happen to be the most numerous. They came from the outside world gods know how long ago.”

“Oh.” You stroke your chin thoughtfully. “How big would you say the total economy is? How much does the average family make?” Your mind starts considering the possible consequences of blowing too much gold in one place all at once in a small, closed economy.

“I don’t know much about that,” she says apologetically. “I don’t even work the shop very often, just drop things off. Most of our medicines are sold on-consignment at other shops. We keep specialty stuff here, so we don’t stay open for very long.”

“We?”

“Miss Yagokoro and the rest of her employees.” The clerk slips the alcohol detoxifier and three bottles labeled ‘Solution B2’ into a paper bag. She reaches for the till before you motion her to stop.

“Keep the change. It’s close enough, I think.”

“Oh, okay.” She rolls up the top of the bag and hands it to you. You take it, tucking it safely into your magical pocket.

“My name’s Udongein, by the way. Reisen Udongein.”

You introduce yourself in turn. “Nice to meet you, Miss Udongein. And thanks for the information.”

She smiles sadly and waves with her good hand. “Thanks for the distraction.”

Stepping onto the main street again, you make for the downtown square. Time to visit a certain portly tailor.

-----------

So late. Have a wall 'o text to compensate.
Demetrious  2011/03/16 (Wed) 08:12 No. 137008 ▼
Image Source
File 130026317485.jpg - (41.72KB, 640x472 , 1253820613183.jpg)
1253820613183
>>136737
>dice1d20. Rolls a 16, result, 1 colossal animated object(s), 1 Lawgiver(s) and an umbral blot.
>colossal animated object(s)

You do realize what you've done, right?
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 08:23 No. 137012
>>137008
I'm starting to feel a mixture of dread and gleeful anticipation.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 08:30 No. 137013
>>137008
You have spoken of things you don't want to encounter in front of the DM.

You gonna die, son.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 10:14 No. 137018
>>137008
>You do realize what you've done, right?
I've made everything better with absolutely no consequence we need to worry about, definitely.

Nothing could possibly go wrong at all, ever.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 10:31 No. 137020 ▼
Image Source
File 130027147918.jpg - (58.47KB, 576x432 , Cthulhu Hat - Large.jpg)
Cthulhu Hat - Large
You know, its not so much a jinx as it is a challenge to the DM. Your players are suddenly expecting something horrible, you either put up or shut up.

Then its time to break out the ol' improvising hat, whether or not that carefully crafting plot full of interesting story and drama called for a boss fight. T_T

So we'll get them. Oh yes we will. *cackles*
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 13:59 No. 137028
>She’s slouching on the countertop, staring blankly into space, left arm propping up her chin. Her right is secured in a sling.
>“Hello? I’m looking for poison neutralizers-”
>“Aisle three,” she replies automatically, not even looking at you.
Nobody's even gonna mention this? Reisen~
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 14:02 No. 137029 ▼
Image Source
File 130028416113.jpg - (30.60KB, 285x268 , Fig_ 4 simbols asclepius hermes medicina.jpg)
Fig_ 4 simbols asclepius hermes medicina
"bracketing a strange symbol on top and bottom. It looks like two snakes coiled ‘round a pole with wings at the top. "
Erin using Caduceus (symbol of commerce) erroneusly instead of Asclepius?
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 14:10 No. 137031
>>137029
Actually, quite a lot of medicine in my country uses it in that way too.
http://tinyurl.com/6ab63lj
Something wrong here? It spews out both pictures
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 14:11 No. 137032
>>137029
You know, I was asking myself what a Lunarian had to do with either Asklepios or Hermes (especially since, as either a xeno scum or pharmacist, she most likely never swore the Hippocratic Oath), nevermind the fact that both symbols are so confused these days most people mix them together.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 14:14 No. 137033
>>137031
Nevermind got it figured out.

http://tinyurl.com/5un6sjt
Wiki-confusion with caduceus
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 14:22 No. 137035
It's like "football" word wars.
Who cares that it is wrong use of Caduceus as a medical symbol in the United States.
Only way is USA way.
Demetrious  2011/03/16 (Wed) 17:15 No. 137040 ▼
Image Source
File 130029570734.jpg - (201.90KB, 1000x1084 , 1292243974848.jpg)
1292243974848
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus_as_a_symbol_of_medicine

>The caduceus, the traditional symbol of Hermes... The two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with commerce, eloquence, trickery and negotiation. Association of the caduceus with medicine can be traced to the Renaissance, where it was often associated with alchemy and wisdom.

>Hermes, messenger of the gods
>eloquence, trickery and negotiation
>alchemy and wisdom

Suffice it to say that my use of the caduceus outside Eirin's shop was no mistake.
Demetrious  2011/03/16 (Wed) 17:19 No. 137041 ▼
Image Source
File 130029599590.jpg - (91.08KB, 430x641 , 1290545249705.jpg)
1290545249705
>>137040

Oh, by the way, I'm delighted you picked up on it. I love my readers. My readers are awesome.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 18:00 No. 137044
>>137040
So the Middle-Age and Renaissance-era Hermetic Cult? Explains why I never heard of any Ancient texts supporting the modern use of the caduceus. I'm in Classical Studies, see, and even in Late Antiquity there was still a clear distinction between the caduceus of Hermes and the rod of Asklepios (appropriated by Apollo when he took on the aspect of God of Medicine/Medical Sciences).

Interesting trivia, nonetheless.

>>137041
Thank you kindly for the compliment.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 18:10 No. 137046
>>137018
Translation: I've just fucked things up for everyone.

Because let's face it "Nothing can go wrong" on TH-P translates to 90%+ of shit happening.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 18:27 No. 137049
>>137040
Yanagokoro-no-mikoto is direct analog of Hermes after all...
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 19:14 No. 137056
>You shake your head violently, crushing your roiling emotions and fears with the iron will of a wizard with a mission. Singleminded concentration on a task isn’t just a macro-level questing trait for wizards; it’s the only thing that keeps men in your profession alive when an ogre’s trying to play golf with your balls. And right now the task is finding out if the Society is involved with the ghost attacks while you acquire crucial medication – which you’ll do without fretting over any schoolteachers like an idiot.
Great. Just great. I don't like the sound of any of that.

>“So did they... wait. Fairy shrine?"
That's going to come back to haunt us. Count on it.
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 19:26 No. 137058
>>137056
>Your stalwart mental discipline carries you out of the house, down the path, and past the schoolhouse, driven by your mission to hunt down medicine and buy the hell out of it. And once you do, you’re going to ram it down Keine’s gullet. “So she can apologize for being a twit,” you grumble, trying to be angry.

Looks like his REAL WIZARDS DON'T CRY bravado lasted all of ten seconds. Wonder why.

KEINEKEINEKEINEKEINE
Anonymous  2011/03/16 (Wed) 20:42 No. 137068 ▼
Image Source
File 130030815147.jpg - (517.50KB, 700x701 , 5f2ad35e62ab0f01bb0f35b619274c12.jpg)
5f2ad35e62ab0f01bb0f35b619274c12
>She smiles sadly and waves with her good hand. “Thanks for the distraction.”

Oh fuck man...
Poor Reisen ;_;
We need to distract her more often, if you know what I mean.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 00:27 No. 137111
>>137068
PRESTIDIGITATION!
Madine !qofA4gBgpw 2011/03/17 (Thu) 03:00 No. 137135 ▼
Image Source
File 130033085599.jpg - (329.62KB, 667x1000 , raisen.jpg)
raisen
bunny ears > dumb hats
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 04:23 No. 137140
>She smiles sadly and waves with her good hand.
The fuck happened to the other hand? “Thanks for the distraction.”

Poor bunny. If only this wasn't already a Keine route...
Madine !qofA4gBgpw 2011/03/17 (Thu) 05:01 No. 137147
>>137140
>If only this wasn't already a Keine route...
Don't say things like that.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 05:03 No. 137148
>>137140
You could dump Keine. There's nothing preventing it, if you really want someone else.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 05:17 No. 137152
>>137148
That'd be a dick move at this point and I think the writer has made up his mind on things.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 05:36 No. 137158
>>137148
Nah. I like Keine's characterization too much in this to even think about voting that way.

Reisen just always gets the short end of the stick. Makes me wish I had at least a modicum of writing ability.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 05:54 No. 137161 ▼
Image Source
File 130034128860.jpg - (148.28KB, 600x775 , 4e949637807cd2ec0ec9a4a2ad789d70.jpg)
4e949637807cd2ec0ec9a4a2ad789d70
>>137111

Just saiyan'

>>137140

Keine Route myth has been around since YWUIG.

>>137148

>implying Keine hasnt already dumped MC

>>137158

Reisen Route was GO in Harker's story, but...

So why did we illusion-ize ourselves as Nemo, again?
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 06:34 No. 137171
>>137161
>implying that she has.

Seriously, guys Keine's been short changed in the past as well, for the similar reasons as Reisen's. Also Harker was thinking about allowing a Reisen and Keine route in his story before the site's general amount of faggotry started replusing him.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 11:04 No. 137190
>>137140

I think by "good hand" he means dominant hand. But who knows.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 12:02 No. 137194
>You infer she’s right-handed.
Is this unusual in gensokyo?
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 12:57 No. 137199
>>137148
Or we could go with a Harem Route. I'm always a fan of harems, personally.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 14:17 No. 137205
>>137140
>>137190
You miss the line where her other arm's in a sling?

Poor, poor Reisen. Ah, well, not much to be done. There'll always be animal abuse somewhere in this dark and dreary world. You can't save every single cute and cuddly creature you come across.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 15:29 No. 137211
>>137205
This man speaks the truth. We'll have to give up on Keine to go on the Reisen route.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 15:42 No. 137213
>>137211
Or we could go for a harem route and get them both. We'd probably want to get Keine onto a more level keel before trying, though.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 15:49 No. 137215
>>137158
It's really such a shame how pretty much any story going along a Reisen route is doomed for disaster in some way or another. And to think that SNOW END started it all.

I miss Desu's Persona story.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 16:41 No. 137220
>>137205
>You miss the line where her other arm's in a sling?
No. Just typed >>137140 after one too many drinks & with another in-hand. I don't remember hearing about her getting injured at any point so I was curious as to what caused it.
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 17:49 No. 137226
What about Cirno?
Anonymous  2011/03/17 (Thu) 18:09 No. 137233
>So why did we illusion-ize ourselves as Nemo, again?

Probably because there's two-dozen pissed off villagers with new holes in their backyard fences and/or houses looking for us. As well as the tavern owner. To say nothing of Akyuu. Disguise is good.
Anonymous  2011/03/18 (Fri) 00:58 No. 137301 ▼
Image Source
File 130040990757.jpg - (83.73KB, 450x450 , 8b12dbb4a44fdcaf0e7d574d8752f938.jpg)
8b12dbb4a44fdcaf0e7d574d8752f938
>>137215

>SNOW END started it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

You're 50 years too young.
Anonymous  2011/03/18 (Fri) 01:53 No. 137310
>>137301
inb4 BAAAWWWWWWWW

And with that out of the way, we can continue with this story.
Anonymous  2011/03/18 (Fri) 03:51 No. 137319
>>137215
Wait you're honestly saying that most Reisen route writers on this board are deliberately copying SNOW END?
Anonymous  2011/03/18 (Fri) 13:47 No. 137355
>>137171
>Also Harker was thinking about allowing a Reisen and Keine route in his story before the site's general amount of faggotry started replusing him.

Is that really what happened?

>>137215
>I miss Desu's Persona story.

Me too.

>>137319
>Wait you're honestly saying that most Reisen route writers on this board are deliberately copying SNOW END?

It set a precedent for Reisen routes is what he's saying.
Anonymous  2011/03/18 (Fri) 14:55 No. 137360
>>137215
> I miss Desu's Persona story.

There are a lot of stories that I wish would resume. That was one of them.
Major Malfunction  2011/03/18 (Fri) 17:31 No. 137372
>>137360
Did anyone archive it? and if so where?
Anonymous  2011/03/18 (Fri) 23:54 No. 137403
>>137372
It's in the story list archive, accessible through the appropriate link at the top or bottom of the page.
Shopping, Part 2/2 Demetrious  2011/03/19 (Sat) 06:43 No. 137430 ▼
Image Source
File 130051699675.jpg - (162.15KB, 1024x768 , 90ebd72a88daba10543741e90c752940.jpg)
90ebd72a88daba10543741e90c752940
You drift downtown.

The ultrahippie disguise is working better then you’d expected. Crowds part and children flee as your sandals tow you down the street, your head lazily drifting to and fro. Slow’n’easy is a novel experience, and you find yourself enjoying it.

Eventually you float past the dragon statue in the middle of town and through the front door of Benson’s clothier shop. A pretty teenage girl with a handful of hangars is rearranging trousers on a circular rack near the door.

“Be right with you,” she says absently.

“Dope, dawg,” you drawl, thoroughly in-character.

You sound sufficiently stoned to draw a direct glance, followed by a frank grimace. “You’re in the right store, buddy. If anybody needs a new outfit, it’s you.”

“There ya go with them baaad viiibes, man. Why don’tcha cut’em out? I need to see the big man.”

“You calling the proprietor fat, boyo?”

“Head honcho, big cheese, top dawg, boss-man, High Priest of Tailoring, dig?”

The girl’s visage undergoes a dynamic display of confused repulsion. “You’re a few bees short of a hive, aint’cha?”

That voice... You do a double take. A memory of a girl in a ‘ghillie suit’ brandishing a crossbow in the moonlight surfaces.

“Holy... it’s you,” you reply. “Didn’t recognize you without the rag-pile and war-paint getup on.”

“What!?” she replies, mystified. With a wave of your hand you dismiss the Disguise spell, and she leaps back a few feet with alarm as your appearance changes in a split second.

“YOU!” she cries. “DAD!”

“Yes, Nikki, you can use the Chen bat,” Benson’s weary voice calls from the store-room. “Mind the windows this time, will you?”

“No, it’s the wizard!”

The proprietor’s head pops over a dress rack on your left only a few moments later with disconcerting suddenness. “Welcome! We’re waiting for you!” He smiles brilliantly, bathing you in small-town shopkeeper charm.

“Who kicked your ass?” Nikki says.

“Nikki!” Benson scolds her.

“What!" He’s not a customer!”

“You need all the practice you can get, honey,” Benson sighs.

“She’s a born bouncer, not a store clerk,” you point out. Nikki brightens and pokes her father’s shoulder eagerly.

“See, I told you! Everybody says so~”

“Nikki, please,” Benson stresses. “The gentlemen and I have some business to discuss.”

“Like who kicked his ass?”

“Hey!” you huff. “You oughta see Riku.”

Stunned silence.

“YOU!?” Nikki and Benson exclaim together.

“It was you-”

“-they said Keine was-”

“-and Cirno too but-“

“Quiet!” you exclaim, throwing your hands in the air. The father and daughter fall silent. “I was looking for Keine. I found her in that tavern, and just as I was going to talk to her, Riku found me.”

“With a dozen of his buddies,” Nikki says. “So why didn’t you turn him into a frog or something?”

“Hatate came in earlier babbling about people’s eyes being melted or some such,” Benson says, looking at you.

“Just a little Glitterdust! Induces temporary blindness.” You sigh. “All it did to Riku was make him fabulous. It should’ve put him down, easy.”

Benson tilts his head at the door, sending Nikki running to turn the door sign over to “closed.” Beckoning to you, he leads you back to the sales counter.

“Riku... isn’t your average man,” Benson begins. “And neither are his friends.” From under the counter he produces a bottle of the local rice wine and two small glasses. “In fact, that’s the reason behind the unpleasantness last night.”

Benson fills the glasses, passing one to you. “Riku’s been hunting since he was a young man. Lots of people hunt, but usually on the edges of the fields or the fringes of the forest, near dawn. And never in the dark months. Most beasts are bolder in the darkness.”

“I take it Riku isn’t so conservative.”

“Quite,” Benson agrees, and downs his drink, refilling his glass immediately. “The adventurous sort.” Leaning against the polished countertop, he swirls his liquor pensively. “The village.. well, you said it yourself, last night. Tenuous. Very tenuous. There’s the safe center, here in the village itself. The ring of farms around that, a hazard zone after dark. And outside of that?”

“Death,” Nikki says from behind you. She leans against the counter next to her father.

“An island of civilization. A mere mortal only has two options in Gensokyo – cower from the danger, or challenge it head-on.”

“And since the village was founded by people who moved here looking for youkai tail to kick, well, you do the math,” Nikki says. “Not to mention the wealth to be had.”

You quirk an eyebrow at that. “Wealth?”

“Wealth,” Nikki confirms, her eyes bright. “Deep in the Forest of Magic are the rarest kind of mushrooms, worth more then gold to the right alchemist or magician. And other things... flying pebbles, rusty keys that open doors between worlds, honest politicians, balls of glass you can see the future in-”

“Rubbish!” Benson squawks with alarm. “That’s rubbish and you need to get it out of your head!”

“-it’s perfectly plausible!” Nikki objects. “The Forest is lousy with magic, of course crap like that’s gonna show up in there! They call it the Forest of Magic!”
You shrug. “She’s right, actually. Objects left in places like that do absorb ambient magic after a while. I had a tree talk to me last night.”

The shopkeeper’s head meets the smooth counter with a dunt.

“So Riku and his buddies go hunting in a forest teeming with kill-crazy youkai and treasure...” you muse. “Sounding mighty familiar... I don’t suppose they develop special techniques for fighting youkai?”

“They do!” Nikki continues. “They make a point of stalking them, to get better at it. They even call themselves Stalke-”

“THANK you honey why don’t you go clean something now thank you,” Benson fairly growls.

You smile at Nikki, completely ignoring her agitated father. “We call them Rangers where I come from. I’ve worked with a few. No surprise he shrugged off a party favor like Glitterdust, I suppose. But where does the hatred come in?”

Benson shrugs. “Riku keeps his own counsel on that. Most of his fellows don’t share his fervor, but still-”

“I get the picture.” You down your drink, and Benson refills the glass. “So. Let’s talk about the favors we were going to trade.”

“Yes... information.” The shopkeeper steeples his hands, looking more comfortable now that he’s on familiar ground again. “What exactly were you hoping for?”

“I’d like to see these artifacts from the Forest of Magic. In person. There’s a few spells I can cast that will reveal much I need to know.”

“That can be arranged,” Benson says, smiling. “For our part, we were hoping for some expert advice... on matters arcane.”

“... what?”

“We’ll discuss that later,” Benson says, guarded. “We’d also appreciate if you brought Keine with you.”

You immediately empty your glass. “Yush. That’s cool. Why?”

“I’m in the mood for a history lesson,” Benson says. Producing a notepad from behind the counter, he marks down some directions in neat, flowing script. Ripping the page off the pad with a flourish, he presents it to you.

“And you’re not upset that your buddy and I kicked each others asses around a tavern a half-hour earlier?” you ask, raising an eyebrow.

“It sounds like he was hassling Keine, and you took issue with it,” Benson says promptly. “Besides, Keine spoke for you in person, last night. Yoshi and I, we like Keine. And Yoshi and I speak for a lot of people.”

You pocket the note, and let Benson walk you to the door. “Remember – tonight, after moonrise,” he reminds you. “We’ll have a lot to talk about.” As you step over the threshold, Benson catches you by the arm and speaks low and fast: “And for gods sake, don’t encourage Nikki!”

*****

You manage to get back to Keine’s home without any further encounters. Cirno is fast asleep on your bed, the remains of a bagel in one hand. You sit carefully on the other end of the bed, then uncork one of the healing concoctions from Eirin’s pharmacy and take a slug. Your bruises are really smarting, and it’s not improving your mood any.

“You certainly took your time.”

You look up as Mokou walks in from Keine’s room. She shoves her hand into the paper pharmacy bag and pulls out the alcohol detox vial. “So you CAN read.”

“Sign language, too!” you reply, demonstrating.

The white-haired girl merely grits her teeth and takes the medicine back into Keine’s room. You hear Mokou’s coaxing voice over Keine’s sleepy mumbling for a few minutes, then Mokou comes back into the room.

“I got her to take it,” she says. “Shouldn’t take more then a few minutes to set her straight.” Mokou’s jaw tightens, and she flexes a hand, glaring at you. “Keine’s usually a lightweight, but this close to the full moon she can almost keep up with me. She got falling-down drunk deliberately.” Her red eyes narrow at you, and for some reason you’re reminded of the peculiar whistle of a Gnomish airship bomb descending. “Like somebody took her heart and hammered nails with it. Or used it to scrub the sink.”

“Mokou?” You clasp your hands and lean forward, forearms on your knees. “What in Baator are you babbling about?”

“YOU!” Mokou says, slapping her hand alongside her head in exasperation. “She opened up to you, and then this happens. What did you do?”


[ ] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

[ ] What’s with all the ‘FLYING WIZARD CRUSHES DELICATE LILY’ crap? I’ve known the girl for three days. We’re not dating. Can’t break a heart that was never given to you.

[ ] I have extensive notes on that topic. Look in the file folder labeled “none of your business.”
Karesh !KXp41Q0gcg 2011/03/19 (Sat) 06:54 No. 137435
Too late to be voting much of anything but I just thought I'd say:
Get out of here, STALKER.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 06:54 No. 137436
[ ] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

She doesn't realize the reason we came around is to apologize for our part in things though from the way Keine was sounding she thinks she was sorry about something.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 07:14 No. 137443
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 07:19 No. 137444
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 07:24 No. 137447
[┼] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

There is, if I'm remembering correctly, a prestige class called Deepwood Stalker that is pretty decent for some rangers and/or rogues.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 07:58 No. 137455
>>137447
there's also that Baldur's Gate 2 Ranger kit called Stalker.

More recently, if you take ambient magic to be analogous to radiation...
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 08:03 No. 137457
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 08:03 No. 137458
>>137436
This. Besides, both of them are to blame. Mokou is being partial, like a good friend should.

[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 09:04 No. 137471 ▼
Image Source
File 130052547833.jpg - (168.97KB, 866x1208 , satoribatteredAK.jpg)
satoribatteredAK
[X] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

While Demetreous might have been referencing obscure prestige classes, it's pretty STALKER-ry to go around hunting for artifacts in a strange, twisted world where strange phenomena and wild, mutated beasts would rip you into you to tear the flesh from your screaming body.

That, and of course the other humans who might lend you a hand, or just tear you apart in a hail of bullets.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 09:21 No. 137475
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 09:30 No. 137477
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 09:38 No. 137478
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 10:04 No. 137484
[X] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
- [X] Besides, what’s with all the ‘FLYING WIZARD CRUSHES DELICATE LILY’ crap? I’ve known the girl for three days. We’re not dating. Can’t break a heart that was never given to you.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 10:46 No. 137493
[X] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

[X] I have extensive notes on that topic. Look in the file folder labeled “none of your business.”
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 11:45 No. 137495
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.

And there, naysayers - nothing bad happened while we were out at all!
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 12:42 No. 137496
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 13:31 No. 137503
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.

This one is kinda obvious.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 13:55 No. 137505
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 14:06 No. 137507
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 14:08 No. 137508
I fucking hate it when NPCs take class levels! Fucking Riku!

[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 14:23 No. 137510 ▼
Image Source
File 130054462511.jpg - (13.83KB, 170x250 , chenrampage.jpg)
chenrampage
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.

>“Yes, Nikki, you can use the Chen bat,” Benson’s weary voice calls from the store-room. “Mind the windows this time, will you?”
I guess Chen causes all sorts of havoc in people's homes from time to time?
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 14:37 No. 137513
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 15:40 No. 137520
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 16:04 No. 137522
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
knowing him politely will still be rude as hell.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 16:20 No. 137523
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 16:29 No. 137524
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.

It's not like Mokou's headgear is normal either. A bunch of anti-fire charms tied on like ribbons, with more sewn onto her pants?
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 16:41 No. 137527
>>137510
canonically, she's a pest to the village.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 16:59 No. 137530 ▼
Image Source
File 130055396933.jpg - (411.06KB, 1000x850 , ff04bdfba709055107a3776b8c06bc04.jpg)
ff04bdfba709055107a3776b8c06bc04
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Are we swift with casting protect from element: fire?
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 17:16 No. 137534
>knowing him politely will still be rude as hell.
Charisma is wizard dump stat.
Major Malfunction  2011/03/19 (Sat) 18:50 No. 137540
[ ] What’s with all the ‘FLYING WIZARD CRUSHES DELICATE LILY’ crap? I’ve known the girl for three days. We’re not dating. Can’t break a heart that was never given to you.

Having been a bar tender for 15 years I can say this....DRUNK PEOPLE TALK ALOT ABOUT EVERYTHING... Keine may have possibly spouted off about us to Mokou in her daze.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 19:03 No. 137544
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
SystemFailureV3 !5TQkmktHkE 2011/03/19 (Sat) 19:26 No. 137545
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 20:07 No. 137548
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

Mentioning the hat thying is guaranteed to screw us with Mokou.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 21:03 No. 137555
Nikki is a cool girl. I like her.

> [ ] What’s with all the ‘FLYING WIZARD CRUSHES DELICATE LILY’ crap? I’ve known the girl for three days. We’re not dating. Can’t break a heart that was never given to you.
I'm sure, if we went for this, Keine will wake up during our explanation and take it as "we never liked her". Drama ensues.

[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 22:41 No. 137562
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 23:31 No. 137565
I like this story, but why are we even anxious about this at all? This is all because Keine had some random flip-out about her hat that honestly seemed kinda forced. Bitch be crazy. I would choose the "We've only known her three days" option, since its the fucking truth, but something seems off with the tone of it.

Seriously guys, just tell her about the hat, she'll probably understand how stupid it is.

[x] Just tell her what happened, it's not even a big deal.
Anonymous  2011/03/19 (Sat) 23:53 No. 137567
[X] TRY to explain about the hat, but the topic induces PYONTA!!! flashbacks.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 00:06 No. 137570
[x] Write in: "Tell me honestly, Moukou.Why is she so damn sensitive about the hat? I just don't understand."
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 00:43 No. 137577
>>137565
I wouldn't say the tone is off, since McWizard's been on edge about things and for someone who only has a faint idea getting up in his face. It'd worsen anyone's mood.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 00:57 No. 137579
>>137570
This. It would be a good way to understand why she overreacted, and the entire situation went bad.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 01:05 No. 137581
>>137579
that's assuming outside factors weren't involved, you know Remilia fate-haxing, ghosts, Koishi, etc.
Also Keine knows she over reacted, so she might explain better when she comes to.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 02:26 No. 137588
The argument, I believe, was never really about the hat, but more her insecurities hitting a breaking point. Her best shot at a relationship taking topological surveys of the local geography every chance he gets isn't doing her confidence any favors either.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 02:56 No. 137589
>>137588
Hard to tell, since when he started hanging around Keine and Cirno, his cases of ass stares has decreased I believe.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 03:04 No. 137590
Yeeeah but asking about the hat would be an excellent way to get a "wait what" out of Mokou. And then when she's off-balance, maybe start prodding her about jumping to conclusions so damn hard.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 05:44 No. 137622
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[x] POLITELY mention the hat thing.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 05:59 No. 137627
>>137588

They. Have. Only. Known. Each. Other. For. Three. Days.

I'm sorry, but there simply hasn't been enough time for Keine to become THAT involved to suddenly go "woe is me" over mr.wizard not being 100% faithful. An expectation which in and of itself is a stupid one considering that A) We stated we tend to leave asap and B) we aren't dating.

Its either about the hat (which is a bit stupid), or Keine is just THAT clingy (which is even more stupid), or it's something else (which we don't really have any hints of).

I love this story, but occasionally the characters act in completely unbelievable ways. This of course happens at times in stories, but in times like that we should respond by treating the characters as if they are being retarded. Because, you know, they are.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 06:11 No. 137628
>>137627
In CYOAs that often more than enough time to fall in love.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 06:14 No. 137629
>>137627
>3 days for romance to develop
Yeah, sounds about right. CYOAs usually have hilariously quick development on that front. Just suspend your disbelief.
Demetrious  2011/03/20 (Sun) 06:18 No. 137631 ▼
Image Source
File 130060189696.jpg - (27.99KB, 479x534 , son I am proud.jpg)
son I am proud
>>137627

>They. Have. Only. Known. Each. Other. For. Three. Days. I'm sorry, but there simply hasn't been enough time for Keine to become THAT involved to suddenly go "woe is me" over mr.wizard not being 100% faithful. An expectation which in and of itself is a stupid one considering that A) We stated we tend to leave asap and B) we aren't dating.

>we aren't dating.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 06:30 No. 137635
Since we aren't dating Keine, can we date Cirno?
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 06:35 No. 137636
>>137627


I worded that rather poorly. Meant to mention that, between the fact that the villagers are a bit scared of her even though they respect her, and the fact this is Gensokyo(where anyone strong enough to not get intimidated by her power is 99.9% likely to be female), she's not going to get all that many shots at this sort of thing. Understandable if she gets a bit upset over thinking she's blown a fairly rare opportunity.

And yeah, someone could very well be fiddling with her head behind the scenes, but there's no way of telling just yet. Thinking on it, the scryer from earlier may very well have been gunning for her the entire time, as once she's gone the village's defenses would be substantially more vulnerable.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 06:54 No. 137638
Of course, if the full moon's close, that may be setting her off a bit too.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 07:02 No. 137639
>>137627
>I love this story, but occasionally the characters act in completely unbelievable ways. This of course happens at times in stories, but in times like that we should respond by treating the characters as if they are being retarded. Because, you know, they are.

I think her problem is that she realized she made herself look like a total spaz in front of a bunch of important people it's important (to both her personally and her job) to impress. It's not that she's upset about the hat, it's that she's upset she's upset about the hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 07:57 No. 137644
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
-POLITELY

Though honestly, Aya is probably our culprit here. Have we actually read her rag? I forget. For all we know it could be chalk full of fairly interesting information.

We certainly know that she is at least a little discriminate in what she prints, what with the perfectly pictures being "too blurry" to see our face in the mass published version.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 08:22 No. 137645
[x] Write in: "Tell me honestly, Mokou.Why is she so damn sensitive about the hat? I just don't understand."
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 08:27 No. 137646
Write in: "Tell me honestly, Mokou.Why is she so damn sensitive about the hat? I just don't understand."
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 14:01 No. 137662
[x] What’s with all the ‘FLYING WIZARD CRUSHES DELICATE LILY’ crap? I’ve known the girl for three days. We’re not dating. Can’t break a heart that was never given to you.

One really must wonder.
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 15:08 No. 137663
[x] Write in: "Tell me honestly, Mokou.Why is she so damn sensitive about the hat? I just don't understand."
Anonymous  2011/03/20 (Sun) 17:47 No. 137665
[x] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.

This is a good point.
Forever Alone Demetrious  2011/03/21 (Mon) 06:43 No. 137734 ▼
Image Source
File 130068982539.jpg - (19.97KB, 510x510 , 1300220992658.jpg)
1300220992658
[X] How does she know anything about our relationship with Keine? We’ve been with her almost constantly. If Mokou was jumping any harder for those conclusions she’d probably smack the roof. Call her out on it.
[X] POLITELY mention the hat thing.



“Slow your roll, Mokie. You don’t know a thing about our relationship, outside of whatever drunken babbling Keine’s done in the past hour,” you assert. “She’s been with me almost constantly since I arrived here.”

“What about the night before last?” Mokou returns. “What were you doing then?”

Your recollection of the night before last goes hazy around the time you chased Cirno out the front door on a galloping magical chest.

“... stuff,” you mutter.

“And Keine?”

“She was visiting... oh.”

“Exactly. She told me all about you.”

Mokou’s fortuitous arrival at the tavern brawl suddenly clicks. “You were looking for me!”

“For Keine,” Mokou corrects you. “I came looking here first, and that weird spell you cast repeated your note. I almost put a hole in the wall when it started talking to me.” She sighs, and slumps against the wall. “I did want to meet you, too. I would’ve come sooner, but things in the bamboo forest and Eientei are... rather a mess right now.”

You’ve heard people use that phrase to describe a range of things, including demon invasions, so you opt to let that topic lie. “Well, what did Keine say about me?”

“What did you do to her?” Mokou repeats, refusing to be sidetracked.

“Nothing!” you object, hitting the mattress with your fist. Cirno stirs and mutters darkly in Sylvan. “She made a wisecrack about my hat, and I made a wisecrack about hers, and she-”

“You didn’t,” Mokou breathes.

“He did,” Cirno confirms, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Don’t you know she’s touchy about that?” Mokou cries.

“Of course!” you exclaim. “But we banter all the time, and she knows I’m touchy about MY hat, so I spoke without thinking....” you briefly relate the gist of the brief argument. Mokou’s stern expression subsides a bit as you sketch out the highlights.

“-so I don’t know what her problem is,” you finish. “She blew up on me over nothing! She didn’t have a logical leg to stand on!”

Mokou tilts her chin up, studying the fascinating new specimen of Homo Stupidus before her. “You called her pretty. Twice. She suddenly stops making sense – despite being a very smart woman – and you think it’s about logic?”

“Um,” you reply vacantly. “But..”

“You,” Mokou insists, “are an idiot.”

“... rubbish,” you growl, springing off the bed. “One, I’ve known her three full days, two, she’s a very proper woman, and three, I’m an abrasive asshole,” you say, ticking off the points on your fingers. “This doesn’t add up. Women don’t go goofy when I call them pretty a few times. Trust me, I’ve tried. The only place that happens is in the five-copper stories they sell on the news-stand right next to Weekly Weird Wonders’s latest feature on the amazing wombat-boy.”

Mokou shakes her head sadly, the iron slipping from her eyes. “Keine isn’t your ordinary woman. Hasn’t she talked about her life in the village?”

You nod. “The villagers can’t relate to her, nor can most youkai. She’s stuck between the magical and the mundane.”

Mokou sighs. “That’s not the half of it. I’m pretty much her only close friend in Gensokyo.”

“Wha?” you say, shocked. “But-”

Mokou shakes her head. “I’m human, myself. I’m also an immortal.”

Now where have we heard that before?

“Did you drink a certain potion?” you say, a familiar irritation swelling in your cranium.

“Yeah, the-”

“Immortality,” drops the weighty word from your lips. “The goal countless dark wizards have pursued with mad abandon. Kingdoms have been toppled, magical artifacts of hideous and awesome power created and destroyed, the very fabric of space-time torn asunder... all in hopeless pursuit of that most elusive of ends. Immortality.”

Silence.

“And you just... chugged a potion.”

“... so?” Mokou says. “What’s the big deal?”

One, two, three, four-

“His face is getting red!” Cirno observes, scooting away from you.

FIVE, SIX, SEVEN-

“IT. SHOULD. NOT. BE. THAT. EASY,” you manage to grind out.

“No,” Mokou whispers desolately. “No, it shouldn’t.”

Your frustration evaporates.

“Because you can’t get close to anyone,” Mokou continues somberly. Her eyes have slipped to the floor. “Youkai don’t even think like humans do, and humans come and go like... sunsets.” Her eyes rise to meet yours. “This isn’t about me,” she says sharply, slicing a hand through the air. “It’s about Keine. You can’t imagine how alone she is.”

You run the equation “beauty plus intelligence plus charm equals forever alone” through your head and reach a tentative conclusion of ‘bullshit.’

“Ask her,” Mokou says, seeing your dubious expression. “You’ll see.”

“Mokouuu~” Keine murmurs from the other room.

“Finally,” the schoolteacher’s friend replies. “Going to come out here, or do I have to drag you out?”

“Noooo~” Keine wails. “Oh, what time is it?”

The sound of the schoolteachers voice is electrifying, terrifying and exhilarating all at once. You feel:



[ ] Anger. We didn’t deserve that.
[ ] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
[ ] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 06:47 No. 137735
I need to think on this but...

>We should’ve talked to Mokou!

Damn straight, you fucking asses!
Demetrious  2011/03/21 (Mon) 06:53 No. 137736
For the curious, your earlier choice headed off some complications with the Society, at the cost of not having time to talk things out with Mokou fully. That's problematic now because a big element of why Keine reacted the way she did won't be discussed with Mokou until after you talk with Keine.

Unless an anon manages to point it out, that is.

Now >>137631 sees why I was proud of him. My readers are awesome.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:12 No. 137738
[♦] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:14 No. 137740
[x] Panic, wildly swinging between anger and guilt.

He doesn't deserve this, most of it is Keine's "fault" for being overly sensitive about relationships.
But Wizardnon is still an asshole, as he himself freely admits. If he had actually paid attention he would have picked up the hints that were obviously there and could have, maybe not avoided, but at least mitigated this situation.

Either way, he doesn't have time to sort this out anymore. So mainly time for Panic.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:14 No. 137741
>>137738
What times has the wizard stared at an ass other than Keine's?
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:18 No. 137743
[X] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:19 No. 137744
>>137741
Sanae's, for starter.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:20 No. 137745
[X]Nothing. You feel great need to become lich.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:25 No. 137748 ▼
Image Source
File 130069234584.jpg - (15.20KB, 288x288 , PANICPANICPANIC.jpg)
PANICPANICPANIC
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:27 No. 137750
>>137744
And let's not forget Yuyuko.
Hell, that entire conversation.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:39 No. 137755
[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
[x] You other brothas can't deny.
[x] That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and shakes that round thing in your face
[x] You get pumped.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:55 No. 137757
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!

I get the feeling it's something else...
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 07:59 No. 137758
[X] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:08 No. 137763
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:08 No. 137764
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:08 No. 137765
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:37 No. 137766
[X] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.

He has been kind of oblivious, and some of his actions are the kind of things you usually see in a serious relationship (say, for example, buying her a nice dress). I have to wonder, has he ever had romantic feelings for someone?

He's aware someone his age would have married and settled down, yet, according to Duke, he's always trying to find another reason to go off on an adventure. Add in nightmares about the deaths of his friends and well, it looks like he's worried about what will happen to someone who gets close to him. Damn it, this is the Hedgehog's Dilemma! He's cultivated the abrasive personality to ward people away.

Or maybe I'm grasping for straws. What time is it? 1:35 a.m.?!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:45 No. 137767
[X] BABY GOT BACK
[x] OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:48 No. 137768
[x]Cast Sleep on Keine. She'll feel better and hangover-free in a few hours.

[x]Talk with Mokotan.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 08:59 No. 137769 ▼
Image Source
File 130069794249.jpg - (66.69KB, 282x322 , 1269040315121.jpg)
1269040315121
>>137768
>Implying Keine has 4 or less HD.
>And she'd fail the save.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 09:08 No. 137770
>>137769
yeah, didn't check the spell description.

[x]Suggestion: "Go back to sleep, Keine."

[x]Talk with Mokotan.

fixed.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 09:32 No. 137771
>>137770
>>137768
If we use magic on Kienie now we'll look bad infront of Mokou. And knowing mokou so for we may need some fire resistence if we get her in an any worse mood.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 09:41 No. 137772
What's with this Mokou? She's so... so reasonable and nice. It's weirding me out, man.

[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 10:01 No. 137773
>>137770
We JUST HAD a giant hullabaloo with Duke about not running away!
(Write in, so feel free to ignore)
[X]Hat option
The hat isn't the issue here. But even if in your view the hat is darn silly (and you were never a hat appraisalist), having a silly hat doesn't mean it doesn't suit her! She looks great!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 10:30 No. 137774
[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
[x] You other brothas can't deny.
[x] That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and shakes that round thing in your face
[x] You get pumped.

>>137629
I'd actually go so far as to say that three days is plenty of time for an _adventurer_ to fall for a girl. Life is fleeting and constantly on the move - grab your companionship where you can (the dress, et al) so to speak...
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 11:13 No. 137777
[X]Be an actual human being with a full depth and range of emotions and feel all three at once!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 11:23 No. 137778
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 11:24 No. 137779
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 11:43 No. 137780
>>137771
Suggestion has great plausible deniability. Far as she knows Keine just went back to sleep on her own.

>>137773
It's not about running away. It's about being properly prepared for the next encounter. sun-tsu and all that.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 12:24 No. 137782
[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
and
[x]Regret. Regret. Regret. We should have seen the signs, we should have sought to talk instead of running forwards.

I hope Demetrious has not forgotten the write-ins previously written the last time we... "discussed" with Keine. We must be understood and understand.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 12:48 No. 137784
[X]Be an actual human being with a full depth and range of emotions and feel all three at once!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 13:32 No. 137788
[X]Be an actual human being with a full depth and range of emotions and feel all three at once!

Plus

[x]Regret. Regret. Regret. We should have seen the signs, we should have sought to talk instead of running forwards.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 13:43 No. 137790
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 14:02 No. 137794
[X] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 14:37 No. 137797
[x] >>137790
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 14:45 No. 137798
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 16:13 No. 137808
[X] Whimpy wizard to the max
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 17:10 No. 137830
[X] Be an actual human being with a full depth and range of emotions and feel all three at once!
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 17:14 No. 137831
Okay, wat.

=/ Write-in time.

[x]Unless I'm missing something here, we took down an elder dragon by ourselves. This is a task that usually involves a group of heroes/adventurers. We shouldn't have to use our gloves of wyvern choking because at the very least there should be a tank between us and them. But there wasn't.
-I think we get loneliness. Lets go in and maybe this will be awkward, but that doesn't mean we have to get angry, feel guilty, or panic about this.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 17:17 No. 137832
Shot in the dark, but part of her behavior could be attributed to the fact that the full moon's approaching. Heck, given by what Benson said about wanting a history lesson, it may even be tonight. And given the way she muffled Cirno when she tried to talk about it earlier in the story, it may well bring about a potentially embarrassing and/or dangerous mood/personality shift.

Sure, she told the Wizard about it, but there's a world of difference between being told and seeing it for yourself.

(I'll, uh, let someone else make the 'That time of the month' jokes)
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 17:29 No. 137835
[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 17:37 No. 137836
[X]Be an actual human being with a full depth and range of emotions and feel all three at once!

Nonetheless,

[x] Check Mokou's ass when she goes drag Keine out.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 18:29 No. 137844
[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 19:37 No. 137849
[ ] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 19:47 No. 137850
>>137832
possibly, but she was pretty calm until the hat matter was brought up.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 19:49 No. 137852
>>137837
> ;)

NO.
No. We don't do that sort of thing, here.
>>/gensokyo/6052
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 19:52 No. 137854
>>137852

Roger that cappy
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 19:55 No. 137856
[x] Apologise, explain that it was teasing that got out of hand, remark that you could care less about the hat, the woman who wears it is far more important

and

[x] Your eyes might wander, but you've got no reason to roam
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 20:16 No. 137860
[x]DON'T LEER at Mokou.
[X] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Previous panic option didn't ended as well as I thought, then again other options could ended in something worse.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 21:28 No. 137866
[x] Anger. We didn’t deserve that.

I agree with the wizard's summary of the equation as "bullshit."
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 22:51 No. 137879
[x] PANIC! We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!
this seems the most in-character and likely to be hilarious

>>137831
what the fuck does this mean?
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 23:28 No. 137887
[X]We need time to think! We should’ve talked to Mokou!

Without overdoing that "PANIC!" bit.
We are the Wizzard, we should be able to think clearly.
Anonymous  2011/03/21 (Mon) 23:39 No. 137889
>>137790
This is probably our best bet. Calm wins the day, and gains us points with Mokou. Anger gets us LITERALLY nowhere, and guilt isnt really in character. I could see Wizanon panicking, but there is nothing we can do about that now, so best to focus on the immediate issue. Wizanon is an adventurer, if he panicked every damn time something surprised him, he probably wouldnt still be alive.

Now, thinking about Keine. Okay, lets look at her from a nonpersonal perspective. First, she is pretty damn powerful, is not fully human, and by Mokou's admission, has only 1 real friend. Looking at her this way, she probably doesn't have much of a social life, and based on how old she is, has become resigned to that, never expecting anything more than her friendship with Mokou, and duties. Into her life comes Wizanon. Wizanon is powerful, can hold his own against the average resident of Gensokyo, and has complimented her. Several times. He also houses an great deal of trust in her (from her perspective). Probably the biggest thing Wizanon has done, is treat her like an equal, nothing more nothing less. Thats the sort of thing that creates bonds between people, especially when they have very few other bonds. He might not appear to be the nicest person, but he has proven that he is inherantly a decent guy, under that abrasive personality. I dare say, in the days since Wizanon has come by, she has had more fun than quite a while before, and that could play quite a part in her reaction to him. It is quite possible that Keine has become somewhat attracted to Wizanon, or sees him as someone she can trust implicitly, and feels betrayed.

Obviously the hat is important, so we should ask her flat out, why she's so touchy about it. It could be a family heirloom, a reminder of someone important or something that she cherishes above damn near everything else. If it is, we do owe her an apoligy, and should voice that.

Now of course, i could be a total idiot and overthinking this hugely, but hey! At least I tried.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 00:28 No. 137895
>>137889
I doubt this writer would pull such a stunt like making anon dig for the best solution.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 00:39 No. 137899
>>137895

quite. if past history is any indication, it'll just mean more hijinks between now and reconciliation.

Perhaps involving tentacles.
Demetrious  2011/03/22 (Tue) 00:49 No. 137900 ▼
Image Source
File 130075495341.jpg - (314.38KB, 700x756 , 1292044980152.jpg)
1292044980152
>>137889

DING DING DING!
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:00 No. 137902
x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:12 No. 137903
>>137738
Changing to:

[♦] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.

Anon? Making sense? My god.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:18 No. 137906
>>137899
But some of us don't want needless hijinks or morons who think they're write-in gods.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:31 No. 137908
[X] Guilt. We’re an asshole and we know it. Acknowledging it does not excuse it.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:41 No. 137909
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:43 No. 137910
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 01:43 No. 137911
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 02:29 No. 137915
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.

Finally a good write-in appears. Now if only Cirno would stop trying to ruin Keine's moment, she might convince him that there's a good reason to stop checking out other women's asses.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 02:35 No. 137916
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.

Though this might be a case of lost in culture differences. >_> People in D&Dland think nothing of passing magical items around to whoever needs them the most, especially in the party. They're probably a bit more stiff about personal property here.

And I find it no small amount of amusing that I'm the first one to catch that eldritch was spelled endritch in the above.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 02:54 No. 137919
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
best choice is best
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 03:22 No. 137921
>>137782
Changing to
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 03:46 No. 137931
[X]Be an actual human being with a full depth and range of emotions and feel all three at once!

And

[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.
(rest of that write in)

Just because we recognize that those feelings all lead to a negative outcome and (hopefully) have the strength to overcome them doesn't mean we don't still feel them. Only human, after all.
SystemFailureV3 !5TQkmktHkE 2011/03/22 (Tue) 03:53 No. 137935
Also changing vote to:

[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 04:01 No. 137940
>>137830 here

Changing my vote to >>137790
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 04:06 No. 137943
I don't think the author will accept it... Monkey See Monkey Doo Doo.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 04:32 No. 137952
>>137900
Well, damn.
Realmhopper !GGm7gCu8hs 2011/03/22 (Tue) 04:53 No. 137965
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an endritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 05:04 No. 137970
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 05:29 No. 137977
>>137952
Its an isolation thing if you think about it. Imagine never being able to make a single friend, because everyone is scared of you. As time goes on, you become resigned to the fate of loneliness. Then suddenly, out of literally nowhere, someone appears that doesn't care at all. He treats you like an equal, something that nobody has ever done before now, he jokes laughs, and has fun. Gradually you find yourself drawn in, and before you know it you are having more fun than you have had in years. It makes sense that she would be a bit more sensitive to what he says, and the hat might be a really important thing too.

I took psychology as my behavioral science credits. It might not have taught me everything about the human psyche, but it gave me enough to try and take apart a person's thought process. The better a character is written,(and the more consistently) the more accurately I can guess how they think. It was also a pretty fun class.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 06:12 No. 137990
Finally, anon is voting for something I can get behind.

[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid awesome hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 07:13 No. 138004
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.

>Tons of lengthy votes
Yeah, this section is going to suck to scroll through for people that read this down the road.
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 12:20 No. 138026 ▼
Image Source
File 13007964083.jpg - (265.90KB, 550x550 , 1272456708208.jpg)
1272456708208
Pah! Confronting your problems head-on is for warriors, paladins, and other flavors of meatshield.

[x] Blame everything -- both her actions and yours -- on Pyonta's influence.

This allows both of you to save face! (Also Cirno and Meiling can totally corroborate.)
Anonymous  2011/03/22 (Tue) 12:44 No. 138032
>>138004
Meh, if people are bothered by lengthy votes they can just hit search and look for Demetrious' name. Skipping from update to update is hardly taxing.
Anonymous  2011/03/23 (Wed) 00:53 No. 138082
>>137889
[X] What this guy said.
Anonymous  2011/03/23 (Wed) 17:20 No. 138136
[x]Guilt
Anonymous  2011/03/24 (Thu) 07:16 No. 138185
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.

Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
Panic? You smacked down an eldritch abomination barely hours ago!

[x] This is nothing, alright? This is nothing.
[x] You will be calm. You will not be defensive. You will be moderately apologetic, not because you feel guilt, but because that's just how man-woman shit works. And you will find out what the deal is with that stupid hat.
Anonymous  2011/03/24 (Thu) 10:19 No. 138200
[x] Enough of this angsty juvenile crap.
Anonymous  2011/03/25 (Fri) 05:53 No. 138231
>Anger? Anger is for the weak and the cowardly.
>Guilt? You've done nothing wrong.
I do not fucking believe this.
Anonymous  2011/03/25 (Fri) 05:58 No. 138234
>>138231
What? Stupid write-ins? Oh /th/'s been plagued by them lately, mostly by newfags who think they're god's gift to write ins. With any luck, Demetrious will ignore it or make something not shitty out of it.
Anonymous  2011/03/25 (Fri) 08:47 No. 138250
[x] Guilt. We’ve been staring at butts and we cannot lie.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 06:50 No. 138278
>>138234
That's not going to happen.

I just can't fathom this.
Anger is for the weak and cowardly? We've spent half the story angry. Are we weak and cowardly?
We've done nothing wrong? Forget the ogling, we're an asshole by our own admission. The wizard has literally said "I know I'm an asshole."
Am I reading the same story everyone else is? Am I not seeing something in this write-in? Am I missing something else altogether? Throw me a bone here, people.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 07:36 No. 138282
>>137900

Unfortunately its because of this post. Everyone took it as author's stamp of approval for the choice rather than the accurate description of Keine's situation.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 07:41 No. 138283
>>138278
Oh I say one of the two will happen as I know him rather well.

>>138282
They'd have done it anyways, newfags are newfags after all.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 07:49 No. 138284
>>138282
Beautiful.
Maybe people will prove me wrong and buy in to this discussion, thus making them rethink their votes. But wait, we're autosaging, so the majority of voters won't even see any of this.
Just fucking beautiful.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 07:54 No. 138285
My vote's still for "Go in there and make awkward small talk to the person with the crushing hangover and hope she brings it up first before we jump to conclusions." (What with the whole random new hat doing the talking and not Keine.) Though I think I phrased it poorly.

Someone else want to write that out as opposed to us suddenly becoming Suave McCool? Because honestly, if we're going to avoid that response we need to come to a consensus on something else.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 09:15 No. 138287
>>138283

> "Oh, they disagree with my point of view, they MUST be new and stupid"

Yeah, sorry, but you don't get to play that card. You can say you don't like an option. Thats fine. But you don't get to go around insulting people because you don't agree with their choice. The write in isn't all that bad, and if you think THAT is out of character, you obviously have not been paying attention. Our protagonist isn't exactly the most consistent of fellows with how anon has been controlling him.

I would go deeper into why the write in is a good (or even why it might not be so great), but honestly the write-in is pretty irrelevant. This isn't fucking 4chan, if you disagree with something, you don't need to put the other side into a box. You should be able to prove your point without that. Otherwise it just makes you look like a jerk who's butthurt that others could possibly think differently, and only serves to dilute your argument. I'm certain you're perfectly capable of not resorting to that stuff.

>>138278
As much of a bone I'll give you is this:
Just because someone is angry all the time doesn't mean they can't recognize that its not always a good thing. The wizard counts when angry for a reason. I'd say more, but really it shouldn't be that hard to see it from their point of view or vice versa, so maybe try a little harder? Or stop caring so much I guess?
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 09:35 No. 138288
>>138287
But around here most folks with overly wordy write-ins are newfags who read some story in the archives and start thinking they're write-in gods.

Especially how the trend didn't flare up again until recently, when there's a comfirmed newfag outbreak going on.

Also trying to outright cheat the system rarely works as something WILL go wrong, either intentionally or unintentionally on the author's end. Why do you think most people that been on the site don't bother with such write-ins? Because they hardly work.

All this effort is better spent on a story that has pure write ins due to clueless writer/writer fishing for attention/write-ins. You know as opposed to a story with a writer in firm control of things and has choices for a reason.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 12:35 No. 138292
>>138288

> "Pure write ins"

Oh man, I laughed. Good one. I mean, simple is better sometimes, sure, but sometimes simple is also stupid. Nothing wrong with making a write-in that explores a different route.

I seriously, really don't know what you mean by "cheat the system". All the write-in really says is to talk things out calmly. Thats it. How is that "cheating"? I think you just have a specific view for where this should go, and since the write in doesn't go there it is "cheating" and the people that went with it "newfags". Sorry man, but I've been here since day one, and I thought it was a serviceable write-in. Not perfect by any means, but honestly the "pure" choices were pretty one dimensional, and I can see (and do see) how someone would want to go a different route.

"Oh no, someone is trying to have our protagonist be capable of doing something other than expressing one single emotion for the entirety of the conversation, they must be a story hacker!"

Also, I'm really not sure who you think is fishing for attention on a board that is nearly entirely anonymous.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 16:38 No. 138300
>>138287
>The wizard counts when angry for a reason.
What?
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 17:30 No. 138302
[X] You are a terrible wizard. Evocation is the worst school. Stop acting like a sorcerer.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 17:38 No. 138303
>>138292
Simple write ins are generally the ones that do best, same goes with ones what work with existing options.

And if reacting calmly was normal, it'd be one of the options, it's not. And a bunch of morons are going to try it and if we're all lucky he'd work it in or ignore it at worse, he'd give us a troll update as a reward for the stupidity shown.
Anonymous  2011/03/26 (Sat) 23:53 No. 138310
>>138303

>And if reacting calmly was normal, it'd be one of the options, it's not.

Thus undermining the entire point of write-ins. Good job.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 00:38 No. 138311
>>138303
Without write-ins this wizard will be dead within a week. Because throwing around fireballs is for sorcerers, who have the spells to do it.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 05:47 No. 138319
>>138310
more often than not, any attempt at making 'overly perfect' write-ins backfires. It's better to learn this lesson now than later when a seemingly perfect write in, bandwagoned inflicts massive damage to the progress of a story.

>>138311
Are you calling the writer's ability to write into question? That's the worse kind of arrogance to have.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 09:51 No. 138334
>>138302

From someone who actually games as a Wizard, instead of doing fancy builds and arguing on forums, I can safely say you're wrong.

Every Wizard who has build himself around that Logic Ninja thread and actually ended up playing in a game of less than 7th level has had a moment where they go "Damn, I really wish I could actually hurt these guys rather than sitting here and watching the DM roll 15s all night long. Too bad I banned evocation because some random guy said it wasn't good." The school may not be as good as some of the other ones on a whole, but it remains the ability to throw around raw elemental force.

Wiznon may seem silly for memorizing the spell permanently, but think about the situations you're going to need that particular skill in. If you don't have the time or the ability to access your spell books, chances are you're in a situation where things need to die right quick.

Sometimes, there really is no better solution than blowing someone's face off.

Mo4r Fucking Dakka
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 13:59 No. 138339
>>138334
As a generalist, dakka is what wands are for.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 18:20 No. 138345
>>138319

See, the problem here is that you are speaking theoretically. Yes, keeping it simple is generally good, and writing overly perfect step by step write ins is generally ill advised. But that isn't what has occurred here. The write in is actually pretty simple and a logically sound reaction. It isn't perfect. It isn't engineered to be reliant an exact sequence of events. It isn't even specific in saying what we do. It is just a general attitude to go about the conversation with. I think the problem is that you disagree with the write-in on principle and the implications for the wizard's personality (which is fine), but are using situations that do not apply to it to argue against it (which is not fine).

Try this:
Instead of saying people who voted for it are newfags, and its a bad plan for tenuous theoretical reasons... just say you don't like it. No need to get insulting.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 18:56 No. 138346
>>138345
even despite there being an outbreak of particularly stupid write-ins in various stories as of late? Sure this is not so bad compared to them, but still...
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 19:31 No. 138347
>>138339
No, wands are a perfect way to waste money on an inferior product or time and experience on something that your DM is probably going to get irritated at and sunder.

And they can only store up to 4th level spells. Bleh.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 19:54 No. 138348
>And they can only store up to 4th level spells. Bleh.

In Epic level handbook there are wands(technically rods) with 9th level spells.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 20:06 No. 138351
>>138346

Keep in mind that just because you think something is stupid doesn't make it stupid. Sometimes other people have a different interpretation of how a write-in will turn out. Sometimes that view will be more correct than yours. Sometimes yours more correct than theirs. But that doesn't necessarily invalidate either or make them stupid. This is of course a sliding scale, since eventually it starts getting to be less interpretation and context, and more that something is just plain logically flawed. That is when something actually gets stupid.

This hasn't happened here (yet), so right now its all just opinions. Please respect their's. If you want to change people's minds, do so in a balanced way instead of saying "GOD THIS IS STUPID AND YOU ARE STUPID FOR THINKING THIS IS A GOOD IDEA". Because A) it just makes people think you are way into your own opinion and can't see past it, and B) it isn't even true. Raging about "newfags" just makes it look like you can't stand not having your way, rather than being superior.

Note that this applies to life in general, not just arguing about interactive fan fiction.

>>138339

As >>138347 said, wands are not always reliable. First, there's three ways to get them.

A) Make them yourself, which requires knowing the spell in the first place.
B) Find them (requires either luck, or the DM placing them. Both of which might not happen).
or C) DM puts them in shops, which may or not happen much based on the DM, and even if it does will cost ya some cash that might be better spent on stuff that gives more permanent effects.

The other issues with wants include issues related to caster level (an 18th level wizard is going to be able to cast a far, far better lightning bolt than a 3rd level wand of lightning bolts), the fact that spell selection is limited (4th level and lower), and finally the fact that wands can be taken away by a very wide range of situations, both magical and mundane. Wands have their uses, but relying on them is a good way to end up dead.

So yeah, there's nothing wrong with using up an otherwise mostly useless 3rd level slot for lightning bolt or fireball, or some-such, and delayed blast fireball has some very useful situational applications.
Anonymous  2011/03/27 (Sun) 20:51 No. 138356
>>138348

Rods are put to far better use with your Metamagic, and are quite literally the high level Wizard's best friend. All the other goodness that can be associated with 3/Day use of Metamagic, they remain one of the few practical ways to use Quicken. Not to mention they're the only way you're going to get off a spell of 6th level or higher Quick without going Epic. Most DMs won't let their PCs use anything from that book until they break 20.

Yes, a Greater Metamagic Rod of Quicken will set you back a staggered 170k gold, but nothing ruins someone's day like a quickened prismatic wall, dimensional lock, or two disintegrates in the same round.

Save perhaps the empowered, maximized disintegrate next round. (Normal Empower 32,500 or Normal Maximize 54,000 - 20th level Wizards buy Maximize and have a Lesser Quicken on hand to cast Truestrike. 360 Damage at a +20 Ranged Touch... ends fights. Just make sure they can't make that save!)
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 00:02 No. 138365
>>138347
>sunder
>wands
Maybe if your DM is a humongous faggot.
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 00:49 No. 138368
>>138365
Or if the DM is playing correctly and actually has NPCs use strategy beyond "lulz i attacks now".
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 03:54 No. 138378
>>138368
There is a shitton of strategies you can use beyond "I don't like what you're doing so I'll just destroy whatever I like because I don't have enough backbone to address the issue in a non passive-aggressive manner."

Sunder is fucking stupid and does nothing but hurt both sides of the DM screen.
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 06:02 No. 138384
>>138378

I'm going to assume you've just had some really bad experiences with this, because in reality, a wand getting sundered is both perfectly legitimate and a CREATIVE solution to the problem of "How do I deal with this character that has a powerful magic wand."

It sounds like you're saying the equivalent of a fighting game player saying "Throws are cheap, you're supposed to use regular attacks, and they're too good because I can't just block them. You shouldn't use throws, faggot."

If a spellcaster is dumb enough to take out a magic stick and try to use it while threatened by an opponent capable of breaking it or disarming him of it effectively, he is openly inviting catastrophe.

It's a part of the rules of the game. You must operate within those rules if the GM chooses to enforce them, and sundering is a core mechanic of the game. It's in the goddamn PhB for christ's sake.

Deal with it.
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 07:56 No. 138389
>>138384
>in reality, a wand getting sundered is both perfectly legitimate and a CREATIVE solution to the problem of "How do I deal with this character that has a powerful magic wand."
It's about as creative as a 20th level NPC Wizard teleporting into the presence of your party while invisible and using Disjunction to make all of your magical equipment go *pop* because the DM was idiotic enough to give the players something he thought was "broken" when he realizes that he didn't like handing whatever item he handed off to the players.
>It sounds like you're saying the equivalent of a fighting game player saying "Throws are cheap, you're supposed to use regular attacks, and they're too good because I can't just block them. You shouldn't use throws, faggot."
No, what I'm saying is "X character is cheap, because of Y reason and nobody really has fun when you use that character so knock it off."
>If a spellcaster is dumb enough to take out a magic stick and try to use it while threatened by an opponent capable of breaking it or disarming him of it effectively, he is openly inviting catastrophe.
If a non-spellcaster is dumb enough to take out a non-adamantine locked gauntleted weapon and try to use it while threatened by an opponent capable of breaking it or disarming him of it effectively, he is openly inviting catastrophe.
>It's a part of the rules of the game. You must operate within those rules if the GM chooses to enforce them, and sundering is a core mechanic of the game. It's in the goddamn PhB for christ's sake.
Infinite quarterstaff creation and drown healing exist by RAW, but you don't see people using them.
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 10:47 No. 138391
>>138389
1. Yes but why would the Wizard do such a thing?
2. Figure out how to beat said character.
3. Taking away a fighter's sword will in fact make him less dangerous. That's why combat tricks are good. For Everyone
4. You're going to have to explain those two, the phrases aren't familiar.

>>138365
No, actually, he's not. He crafts excellent story and doesn't try to screw the players. His NPCs and villains however, can and do all the bloody time. I've had plenty of gear broken, stolen, or just plain used against me and I've come out of those situations with a wild grin and a boatload of exp. Good times were had.
Anonymous  2011/03/28 (Mon) 19:27 No. 138406
>>138389

So you're basically saying NPCs doing stuff the PCs can and will do is cheap? You really don't get the point of DnD, do you? The NPCs are supposed to be assholes and not pull punches when it is appropriate for them to. That is what makes fights interesting. Sundering is probably the least cheap mechanic in the entire game. You want cheap? Try improved trip. Hope you like getting attacks of opportunity against you every single time you try to do anything after the first trip. Now that is a cheap mechanic. And you know what? It isn't even that cheap.

Clothy guy whips out a death stick right in front of you. Of course you're going to break that shit, or disarm it, or whatever other tricks you have. Would you rather the NPCs act like idiots and just sit there and go "lol here is my vanilla attack, every single round, making this the most boring fight ever".

This isn't even like someone playing a fighting game and using a tactic like throwing all the time. This is more like someone bitching because they keep using sweep attacks and you can't be bothered to crouch block.
Anonymous  2011/03/29 (Tue) 00:17 No. 138427
That I find funny is that this entire discussion is incredibly pointless. The merits of sundering wands aside, if a wizard is facing a legitimate and credible threat from an opponent capable of doing such a thing s/he's going to be buffed to the gills. Fighters don't sunder so well through displacement and mirror image.
Anonymous  2011/03/29 (Tue) 10:30 No. 138474 ▼
Image Source
File 130139460313.jpg - (120.45KB, 500x400 , Counterspell.jpg)
Counterspell
>>138427
You're kidding right? A 7th level fighter could disarm a 17th level wizard if he didn't know it was coming. A legitimate and credible threat is anyone who can use a rogue's counterspell when you're not looking.

Its the preferred way of dealing with casters.
Anonymous  2011/03/29 (Tue) 12:53 No. 138488
>>138474
>if he didn't know it was coming
A lot of things can do a lot of things when the target doesn't know it's coming.
>Its the preferred way of dealing with casters.
Could've sworn that was killing them in their sleep after they've exhausted most, if not all, of their spells.
Anonymous  2011/03/29 (Tue) 20:54 No. 138504
I CAST BUMP ON THIS DYING UN-UPDATED STORY.
THIS IS TOTALLY NOT NECROMANCY AND I AM NOT THE KING OF WORMS.
Anonymous  2011/03/30 (Wed) 02:46 No. 138520
>>138504

That might work if the story wasn't on autosage. Nice try though.
Anonymous  2011/03/30 (Wed) 03:21 No. 138526
I think the writer's busy with spring break.
Anonymous  2011/03/30 (Wed) 11:32 No. 138567
>>138546
>>_<

Please don't do that here.
Anonymous  2011/03/30 (Wed) 17:15 No. 138574
>>138488
Ah, now THAT is difficult. Most Wizards get so fucking paranoid that jumping them while they sleep is either difficult or dangerous. This runs from the classic Rope Trick with 8 hour duration to a particularly jumpy prick that I gamed with once who surrounded his campsite with Symbol spells and Explosive Runes. He wrote them on plaques in glowing ink, and carried them in his backpack.

>>138567
I don't know what you're talking about, you can't prove it, and nothing done at 3 AM can be held against persons who may or may not have done something.
Demetrious  2011/03/30 (Wed) 21:39 No. 138583
New Thread:

>>138582

Help keep THP running: donate!

Find us on Discord!

Join our own Matrix community!

Thread Watcher x—