6647/FATE: There Might Be Giants

FATE: There Might Be Giants
Date of Scene:	20 June 2019
Location:	Vesper Bay, Eorzea
Synopsis:	Adventurers help the Scions of the Seventh Dawn put down a rampaging giant. Also, Haseo has a meeting with an Ascian. He doesn't like it.
Cast of Characters:	N'raha Tia, 7045, Inga, Tomoe, 7015, Rean Schwarzer, Staren

---

N'raha Tia has posed:
    FATE: There Might Be Giants
    TYPE: Notorious Monster
    Location: Western Thanalan - The Footfalls
    Threat Level: High

    Tonight's mission alert is actually coming from the Scions of the Seventh Dawn themselves, of all people. Something in the cave network north of Vesper Bay is up and active and has the people in a tizzy. Something about Giants, but those don't usually come to this part of Eorzea, right? Right?
    But there's no Aetheryte to get here, so most people will have to either hop a ride from Horizon or take the ferry from Limsa Lominsa. Weird that a town this size doesn't have warp access. Hmmm.

    For his part, N'Raha is posted up at a town gate just north of the city, a camp nearby buzzing with activity, and occasional spellfire as a pair of casters of some sort seem to be hurling spells down a freshly smashed cavern tunnel.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    EARLIER:

    You have received a party invite from Atoli.
    You have received a party invite from Atoli.
    You have received a party invite from Atoli.
    Short-Mail from Atoli: HASEO! Real giants! :)
    You have received a party invite from Atoli.
    Short-Mail from Atoli: Haseo come on! It's a notice from people who want help! I bet it gives a lot of experience. :)
    You have received a party invite from Atoli.

    NOW:

    It has probably taken a fair bit of time for Atoli (and her +1) to find the right way, especially if they had to stop several times on the way to deal with RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. But eventually she does arrive at the northern town gate, and immediatly runs for N'Raha upon recognizing him.

    "Hiiiiiii!!"
    She's pointedly staring at his ears and tail.
    "Oh gosh it's really true, look Haseo! A real cat person who isn't a game avatar! This place is really great!" Except the monsters, she could go without those.

Inga has posed:
Inga is standing nearby Raha, leaning on her staff as she wonders if she should offer to take a turn slinging fire around.

Nah, she'll save her energy. Likely she might need it.

The witch is dressed in a light weight long blue skirt and a white t-shirt, her Thor's hammer pendant around her neck and her pouch and knife hanging from the brown leather belt around her waist. There another, small pouch that contains her runes, and several talismans that look to have been carved rather obviously from human finger bones and the skulls of birds.

Despite what may be expected considering where she is from, Inga has never faced a giant before. Should be interesting. Provided no one gets smooshed.

Inga looks to N'Raha. "Do try not to get smooshed," she cautions, before looking to the newcomers. Inga blinks, then smiles. "Good day," she greets.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe did not expect a call from the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, that got her attention, and the Salamander was quick to arrive, she's hunted several giant monsters before in her time so she had a level of confidence given the sort of crews that turned out. Tomoe skipped the ferry and just took to the skies to reach here she'll come in for a landing near N'Raha and Atoli. Her wings will vanish as she lands and she looks to Atoli.

"Seems you are enjoying yourself Atoli, also Hello Inga, N'Raha I heard that there was a giant problem Got any intel for us?"

She also looks to Inga with a grin.

"Relax, N'Raha is someone I trust as much as my fellow Tanks in the Clearer Alliance and now the GU. If we have to play aggro ping pong I'll do so, if we lose someone then we have failed in our jobs as Tanks."

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     Party invite has timed out.
     Party invite has timed out.
     Haseo has accepted the party invite.
     Haseo is already in your party.
     Short-Mail from Haseo: Alright, alright! Stop with the invites already, I'm on my way.

     Haseo should really just learn how to say NO' to stunts like this, but the prospect of giants is pretty appealing. Big enemies /do/ tend to give lots of EXP, after all. And just like that, the 'Terror of Death' is roped along.

     Atoli points to the cat person, and Haseo just rolls his eyes.

     "Pffft. It's really not that big a deal. I've seen vampires and ghosts at this point."

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Meanwhile, Rean took the ferry from Limsa. The port city was bustling, and loud, but he was here to do a job. He heads north and arrives not long after Atoli and Haseo. "Nice to see you guys again." Rean says, giving everyone present a wave. He then pokes his head into the cave's opening, where there's people throwing spells and such deeper within. "Did they find it already,  or...?"

Staren has posed:
    So this is where the Scions of the Seventh Dawn are based. Staren steps off the ferry looking a bit like a miniature space marine. A year or so ago, he experimented with redesigning his power armor for more, well, power. The result was a bit bigger and bulkier, but allowed for significantly more strength and armor. In the end, though, Staren decided it was too niche for most exploration and combat and the extra weight just felt 'off' and stopped using it.

    Today, though: Giants and caves. More strength and protection is useful not only against their foes, but potentially for digging out of cave-ins. The caves can't be THAT narrow if giants are in them, after all.

    Staren arrives at the gate. "Hey. Long time no see. And good to see you again." The voice is familiar even if the armor isn't. Also, it has a tail and ear-covering bumps in the helmet, so it's clear who it is even though his face is covered.

    At Atoli's comment about N'Raha being a real cat person, Staren points out "Hey! I'm a real cat person! ...But I guess I was disguised when I met you, huh."

    Staren looks to N'Raha. "So, what do we know about giants in Eorzea?" he asks, as he lumbers towards the tunnel casters are throwing spells into.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    As the Party Gathers Up, Raha starts greeting people, staying close to Inga as he does so. Haseo and Atoli get a smile or two, though Atoli will probably have ALSO seen Elfs, Potatoes and Lizard People too, so. At least Raha appreciated the enthusiasm. He adjusts his tie, the smart green jacket and shirt he's wearing looking oddly formal, given the situation. "Come on, it's not far, you've got to see this mess.

    He nods his head towards the camp and The Breach, and leads the group. "It started this morning. Minfilia got a vision of something big and dark beating its way through the caverns, and well...

    The camp, as it were, is hastily thrown together under a towering, jagged spire of corrupted Crystal, the massive amber/black structure towering over the landscape. Another gift from the Calamity.
    In the camp, there stands another Catperson. Though in this case Cat-Lady is very appropriate. White haired and dusky skinned, the conjurer is busy tossing Aeros at big fat wobbly ghost potatoes that seem to be milling about the entrance to the cave, making a bother of themselves. The other young elf fellow, a glowing blue critter at his side chittering and hopping nervously. The cat lady speaks up first. "Raha, you brought help. Excellent. Pleasantries can wait for a bit, we've heard it stomping around farther in. Some of the Braves are in there working on clearing out any workers." She nods to Inga, at least and give her a smile.

    The young elf, however, seems to think it's very important to at least introduce himself. "Hello, I'm Auphinaud of the Scions. We'll have words with you all after this!"

    Raha sighs, and shakes his head, looking from Rean to Tomoe to Staren in his weird magitek armor. "Ready?"

Staren has posed:
    In they go! "Braves? Workers?" Staren echoes. "Pleased to meet you. Staren, Hand of the Concord." He replies to Alphinaud, then pulls the rifle off his back and answers Raha, "Yes, I'm ready."

Inga has posed:
Inga blinks again, then narrows her eyes slightly as if trying to decipher a foreign language. "I only understand about half of the words you said," she replies to Tomoe, but waves it off. She's sure she understands at least in the vaguest of terms. Tomoe and Raha are the 'get the big monster's attention so it doesn't smoosh those less able to handle it' club.

Shaking her head, she smiles to the newcomers who seem to also understand what Tomoe is talking about..."Vampires and ghosts too hmm? Met any witches yet?" she asks with a smile.

Then Staren arrives in his...space suit thingy and Inga's smile grows. Another friendly neighborhood catman! "Staren, glad to see you will be joining us."

Back to matters at hand, Inga follows Raha toward where Alphinaud and Y'shtola having been keeping things under control until the reinforcements arrived. She smiles and nods to them both. "Very well, we will speak later," she said. "I've brought more of that tea you liked," she mentions to Alphinaud.

Inga then nods to Raha. "One moment," she says, then pulls the knife from her belt and uses the sharp blade to slice into her arm. Each person in the group gets a blood-ward from Inga before they continue, a shimmering aura of crimson and gold. Like protect and regen combined.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    "Ghosts? Vampires? Oh! That's right, the one who was throwing the parties, right?" Atoli recalls, and still expects Haseo to come to the next one.

    "Yeah! Hiiii!" She replies to Rean, Tomoe and Staren, in no particular order but with a wide smile and a polite bow. Too bad N'Raha pushes this along so quickly, there's almost no time to say hi!

    With Staren and Y'shtola, that's THREE cat people!

    Too bad Atoli has more attention for the towering spire of very pretty crystal than she does for anything else. "Oh, look! That looks so pretty! Do you think we could get closer to that? Take a few pictures?"

    Oh, people are... more new people are cycling in.

    "I'm Atoli of Moon Tree! It's nice to meet you all."

    She looks at N'Raha and nods. "Sure, I'm ready!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe sees the group is gathering up quite nicely she take heed of the Scion though getting this isn't your typical deal with monsters job or it might lead to something more. She takes note of caster cat lady for a moment. 5R
"Glad to be here to help and we can talk after Auphinaud."

She notes with the Braves handling things they should be good to go to focus on the Giants.

"I'm ready here."

Out comes Tomoe's sword and board and she'll move to fall in front.

"Atoli? Inga, you'll be focusing on the healing right?"

She's admittedly curious to see how Haseo and Atoli work in a fight. She'll start moving ahead the moment N'Raha does and makes ready with her own abilities as she's expecting quite the fight.

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     "I'm not here to stick around and chat, I'm here to kill the monster and claim my prize. So can we skip the dialogue and get straight to the actual job already? "

     Haseo, being Haseo. Is pretty rude to Alphinaud. He just wants to kill monsters and get stronger, that's it. He's not interested in anything else at the moment.

     He kind of wishes he could just hit start or something and skip all the text, but real life doesn't work like that.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
As it turns out, the spellcasters are friends of Raha's, and they'd discuss something with all of them later.  "Got it." Rean says, drawing his sword. He then sighs at Haseo continuing to be Haseo. At least Inga's Crest / Earth Pulse combo thingy would serve some use.

Staren has posed:
    Staren turns to Haseo. "You can't just skip through all the dialogue, it's important. Unless your HUD is somehow generating a quest log based on the environment and telling you where to go and what the objective is, if so I want to study how it works."

N'raha Tia has posed:
    The white haired cat lady smiles and then helpfully wiggles her ears at Atoli, even as Raha pulls an ax the size of himself out of the aether and starts talking for the caverns. There's fighting inside, swords and shields and sporadic gunfire and a spell.

    Floating globs of goo start to burble out of the caves, flickering out into the dusk of the evening and slowly swarming the party. They let out ghostly wails and start letting out blasts of negative energy, sapping the strength of anyone foolish enough to stay close to them. That's got to be putting a damper on the efforts to get to the big thing that's making the louder noises in the cave.

    The little goobers seem very insistent on making it towards any spell casters in the group, and also Staren's weird magitek thing, they like that too. Lots of tasty energy there. Mmmmmm.

Staren has posed:
    "These aren't giants!" Staren protests as floating... goo... attacks and comes after him. He fires his laser rifle at it and keeps backing away, trying to stay out of range of the negative energy blasts. "Why is it after /me/?!"

Inga has posed:
Inga's gaze turns toward Haseo when he is rude. "Do not be disrespectful," she warns.

To Tomoe, she nods. "Mmm, I will handle that when it is needed," she assures her.

Inga stays close to Raha, as they are well practiced in working together by now. "Well, those are going to be annoying," she says, but begins by raising her staff, her voice beginning a musical incantation, balls of fire flying toward the floating goo, as it seems very intent on her.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    "Yeah! I'm not great at fighting, but I can handle the healing just fine!" Atoli answers Tomoe, nodding firmly. And then in concert with Inga, turns to Haseo to say: "Haseo! Be nice to new friends!"

    No, nevermind that, Atoli's being targetted already! By... that's not giants at all, Staren is right! That's just... disgusting slime!

    She, of course, seeks cover behind someone. Probably Haseo! Maybe Staren or Tomoe, if Haseo is already being EDGY and dashing ahead to FITE.

    "C-Cover me please, I'll buff us!"

    Atoli raises her staff, and spreads a blue-white light across the party. It's a very standard STR UP spell. Doesn't get better than that.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has no idea what these strange things are? She does see they are going for the back line though and she'll leap into action leaping into the thickest group of them and letting loose with a mixture of sword attack and shield slams.

"Hey you discount disco balls on me!"

She calls out She'll do her best to keep them tied up thankfully with not one but two healers today she's confident they can bust through the thing and get to the giant, Tomoe will move to cover Atoli for the moment trusting in N'Raah to keep Inga clear while she enjoys the buff she just got cast upon her. She'll try to press the attack on the goopy ghost thins even harder now.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
And then the freaky blob ghosts appear. He dashes in, swinging his sword at the ghost blobs's wings as they continue to chase after Staren and the others. Maybe he could slow their advance....or just get knocked to the ground by the energy waves. That happens too. "Agh...These things don't fuse together, right?" He asks.

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     "What? No. It doesn't work like that. Kind of wish it did, though."

Haseo answers Staren's question and purposely avoided responding to anyone who is up to his rudeness. Because at this point it's just kind of second nature for him to tune people out like this.

     When finally confronted with the so be 'giants', Haseo just sort of spits on the ground in annoyance "What a joke. Well, whatever I guess."

     It's a bit too late to turn back now, so he might as well contribute to cleaning up some small fry. Haseo reaches behind his waist with both hands, a blinding flash of yellow appearing as he pulls out a pair of daggers.

     Or at least, he holds them like daggers. They really don't look like anything a sane person would call a weapon. The 'blades' begin to vibrate, and Haseo dashes forward as he aims to cut down the strange goo-like ghost accosting Atoli.

     Because protecting the healer is important, you see. Not because he has any feelings for people in the slightest.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    And as the group quickly discovers, there's... not really much to these things at all, if you can land some good hit on them. Staren's laser rifle perforates one and... it sort of deflates like a balloon, all the aether let out of it at once.

    Though there's a little pang of feedback, at least for some people. Anyone who's either psychic or has seer-y oracle nonsense going on will get a brief flash of someone's life, each and every time one of the Gobys falls to a blade or spell or something. Raha even stops midswing on one to slap a hand over an eye, grunting. "Hnnnggggg hate fighting ashkiiiiinnnnnn..."
    From deeper in the cave, though, there's a roar. And stomping. And a crash. Three people in dusty blue and white armor who are not ghosts come edging back around a bend in the cave. The tallest one, a towering human carrying a sword and shield calls out. "Raha! Thought that was you. Bringing you... a FRIEND!" He cheers a bit, and then he and two lalafell break off contact and run through the ghosts to lead out-

    Oh. Yeah. That's a giant. The towering Thing is wearing a great burning headpiece, wielding a hammer that's larger than anyone in the party, even Staren's mechsuit, and flanked by grody looking bug-rock things that sort of shove past the ghosts and into the large clearing in front of the camp.
    Raha looks to Tomoe, shrugs, and then charges the Giant.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    It's a very good thing Atoli isn't a psychic, because she's not mentally equipped to deal with that sort of feedback! Phew, that's a bullet dodged right there. Sure is. Yep. Yeeeeeep.

    It's okay, her smile refuses to waver in any way, so she's totally fine. She's just clutching her staff a bit harder, don't worry about that.

    "O-Oh, there's the giant! Look Haseo, it's like a Field Boss!" The flames are pretty intimidating, though.

    Deep breath, Atoli. Gotta be useful. Gotta TRY.

    "Rue Kruz!"

    Her staff swings, and a jet of water lashes out of it, travelling along the ground in the form of a RED CIRCLE until it reaches the Giant. It then bursts into a pillar of magical water, trying to hurt it, while trying to put out that fiery hat! Or make it less scary, at least.

Staren has posed:
    Staren rolled nothing for psionics at chargen, so after puncturing the first one with a laser shot he goes on the offensive, agressively popping more, clueless to the effect on others. Well, until N'Raha physically reacts. "You okay there, man?"

    And then the boss is here! Or something. When the armored man says he's bringing 'a friend', Staren takes aim, waiting for something to come around the bend... and lets the giant have it with a three-pulse burst!

    When the adds come out, though... "I'll keep this one off you! Have it down in a moment, I hope..." He puts the rifle away and moves himself in between one of the giant rock-bugs and N'Raha.

Tomoe has posed:
The strange floating monsters are taken out and she looks over to N'Raha for a moment. Bringing you a friend? Oh god, Tomoe knows what that means, does she ver she looks back to Raha and then is charging right after him.

She will attempt to barrel into the giant that is inbound in a full-on rush aiming to strike with her blade as the impact point she'll pull around regardless of what happen and start making shots, for the giant's calves it's nasty but with how big it is? The Giant has to be stopped and she does wonder what did set the giants off from the fact he has combat kit, it's clear they are not mindless. She has no time to worry about it longer.

She's got allies and friends to keep safe so she can't focus on thinking, either way, the Giant's a threat and she doubts they will be able to end this peacefully.

Inga has posed:
The white haired woman looks toward Atoli. "Ah, you know the healing magics as well? Excellent. That will save me some blood," she comments. There's an awful lot of talk going on that she doesn't understand. It likely has something to do with 'video games' and so Inga will just let it go in through one ear and out the other.

Whenever she pops one of those ghosts she winces visibly and hesitates before being able to continue. The psychic feedback is something she is used to dealing with though, and it doesn't slow her down too long. "Yes, that is /quite/ inconvennient!" she agrees with Raha. She's almost glad when a giant comes charging toward them. What a day.

Inga remains toward the back and raises her staff, the runes along it's length lighting up with a hot blue glow before discharging a bolt of lightning aimed square at the charging giant's chest.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean is also not psychic, thought he also gets the 'sense' that something massive is coming...if the roar, and footsteps didn't already tip him off. Some people run by, including a man who was a giant in a more normal sense (though the two with him might've thought otherwise, they were so short.) And then the /actual/ giant showed up, swinging its axe and such. He dashes towards the cluster of rock creatures, aiming to hit them as he passes by them in a flurry of strikes.

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     "This many reinforcements is cheating. Heh, but then again... I'm not any better."

     Haseo stops dealing with the strange goo-like creatures, stowing away his weapons as he hunches over, a single hand grasping onto his face as if in pain.

     "Come on, /COME ON/! I'm... right here..."

Various red glyphs appear around the black clad rogue at this point, and the area surrounding him because unbelievable tense.

     "SKEITH!!!"

     A flash of light engulfs the Haseo, and the place where He once stood is replaced with a towering, lanky behemoth. It pauses for a bit, looking at its hands to affirm that it indeed IS, before bellowing out a roar.

     In a flash, it begins disappearing and reappearing across the battlefield, closing the distance between it and the giant before its right in front of the giant.

     Winding its arm back, it delivers an earth shattering punch directly into the monster's face in an attempt to send it reeling.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    Atoli's water blast slaps past the Giant, and into a pack of the angry rock bugs, knocking two of them over like turtles, their little slimy tentacle legs wiggling in the air, trying to find purchase. One of them scrunches up what substitutes for its face and explodes, sending shards of rock and metal into the area, peppering...
    Tomoe and Raha. The Catman doesn't have much of a shield to work with, being just an axe man, but as the shards tear into his jacket, there's a clicking noise under the fabric. Oh. Armored clothing. He side steps a SWIPE from that axe, and kicks the giant square in the gut, trying to open it up for other attacks.
    One two three come the laser blasts for Staren, peppering the giant and scorching at it's helmet and flesh. Whatever sort of face it's got under there is a twisted, horrible reflection of human. No sense trying to get a closer look.
    Raen's got the right of things though, as he steps in to start flicking the rock bugs in the face or other soft bits, sending the Coblyns scattering away from him like some steel dervish.

    Haseo, though, Summons himself .Oh. There's more than a little noise from the assembled Eorzeans at this trickery. Someone's getting a talking to after this. Not that anyone warned Haseo of 'don't act like an Allagan, friend'.
    Crier Briareos seems to take all of this as a challenge though, and a meaty hand comes up to catch at Haseo's fist, the punch wrenching at the giant's body, but giving him enough motion and leverage to- He swings back that hammer like a 100 tons of metal and prepares to STRIKE.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    "Yeah! I'm a Harvest Cleric, so it's my job to support people!" Atoli nods to Inga. Dang, the Giant is faster than expected though! She readies another spell and--

    Never fires it.

    That... tone. It's that TONE again.
    And then Haseo's...

    Atoli shakes her head. No, she can't see any of that. She's just a regular player! Regular players don't see that. It's okay.

    "Hold on, everyone!"

    When bugs explode and send shards of rock and metal everywhere, Atoli throws her staff up, shining a bright white light. It's a damage shield! It'll dampen the impacts from those rocks and let people focus on offensive counters more easily.

    Haseo gets a slightly stronger one in prepration for that TELEGRAPHED BOSS SWING.

Inga has posed:
"Harvest cleric? Which gods do you serve?" she asks, switching from throwing elemental based attacks back to her knife to draw a new wound, as the one she'd opened earlier to give everyone wards has already closed. She was just about ready to make with the healing magic, but it seems like Atoli has it covered and that perhaps she should focus on the slaying. "Impressive shield!" she calls to the girl.

As the blood is already flowing, she may as well use it. A flick of her knife and the blood from her wound flows straight from her veins to fly toward the giant in a focuses strike--aimed for the eye slit in it's helmet.

Now, blood in ones eyes is not fun. Blood that also seems to be /acid/ decidedly less so.

Tomoe has posed:
what the same hell is this Skeith thing that Haseo calls out and summons she stares for a moment distracted from fighting. Haseo has pulled some serious aggro from this giant and she's not sure if she can intercept him in time. Also, the tone she hears has left her unsettled there was something unnatural about it. As Atoli pops her own defence buff Tomoe does the same on Haseo popping a party-wide defence buff which should help with that, while she barrels into the giant again she's done what she can for Haseo and she has to worry about the party.

"We need to bring this guy down! FAST!"

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     Oh. It can fight back. Well, that's no real concern, he can just follow up with another punch- Wait, that's a giant axe coming his way. Well, shit. At least they're buffed?

     Skeith is sent flying back from the force of the giant's hit. Pieces of the creature's 'texture' and 'model' break off as well, causing the massive creature to produce a static flicker.

     He's not about to let himself fly back forever though. Placing its arms high above its head, it summons a staff-like object which it proceeds to slam into the ground to stop its acceleration.

It works, to an extent, though it runs dangerously close to flying directly into Atoli. Skeith pauses for a moment, its head drooping as it takes a moment to revert to how it was prior, before returning its attention back Crier Briareos.

     "D-Damn you! Now I'm mad!"

     Skeith pulls its 'staff' from the ground, a pink segmented blade now sprouting from the end to reveal that it was in fact, a scythe, before vanishing around the battlefield again.

     Haseo's method of attack this time is a bit more thought out, instead appearing behind the massive giant as it attempts to bring its scythe down on it.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Those rocks are done, Now to move onto the next group.

But first, Haseo (figuratively) explodes.  Rean looks away from the fight with the giant and returns his focus to slicing the heck out of the crystals.  Not the first time he's seen Haseo do /that,/ but it's just as unsettling as last time. At least he's not trying to murder a door this time.  He might've misjudged exactly /what/ that was though.

Staren has posed:
    Bugs explode! Hooray for Inga's ward! The situation rapidly gets more chaotic, and then... Haseo is gone, and this... thing is here. Staren turns and raises his arm at it reflexively, but then it charges the giant. Oh.

    Well, it seems that paying any attention to the bugs so that they could focus on the giant was a bad idea, the bugs just keep coming. Very well.

    Thrusters fire, wings manifest and buzz, and Staren takes to the air to get away from the bugs, and holds his hands out towards the giant. A half-dozen miniature anti-tank missiles launch from his forearms, airbursting neat the giant to try and pierce it with lances of high-energy physics.

    "Why is there even a giant here, anyway?!"

N'raha Tia has posed:
    POCKET SAND MEET ACID BLOOD! HOOAH! The Acid Blood, in fact, is not fun. Not in the slightest. It scorches at the Crier, and melts that helmet of his a little bit. OUCH.

    Tomoe pops her buff and does Atoli, Which is good because that MILLION TONZE SWING comes around and clips past both of the other tanks, and swats Haseo right in the digidata.

    The beast ROOOOAAAARS as Raha makes another move to kick at the damn thing in the knees, aiming to break its leg or snap it off or something. Anything to take this thing down a notch.

    Staren flies up and handles the coblyns, and it's Y'shtola that answers his question. "Monster and beastmen activity has been picking up and we're still trying to determine why. We have... our suspects though." There's a grim tone to that as she raises up her staff, and casts a wide area healing spell that washes over the party, keeping them upright.

    he giant wheels in place as Haseo LEAPS behind him, teleports and swipes at the thing with that giant scythe. And if there's one thing that critters around here don't handle well, it's hackers. I mean, people cheating themselves into things that they shouldn't be into HASEO. The swipe drops the giant to its knees, and it staggers around a bit, trying to find... something, anything to fight, to swing at.

Inga has posed:
So many healers about, and they don't even have to bleed for it. She almost feels put out! But she can still put her blood to good use. Her acid blood melts her helmet a bit, presenting an even better opening at his head. A spear through the face will generally bring down most things.

Inga draws more blood out of her wound, the liquid pooling in the air to form a long, thin spear, wickedly sharp and charged with anima. She waits and aims carefully, then with a flick her wrist sends the blood-spear flying to impale the giant through the face, if possible.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    Skeith almost rams into Atoli!
    She flinches, but luckily, Haseo stops his flight just in time. And then Atoli does her best to ignore that entirely. It's for the best.

    It sounds like Haseo wants to finish it off. Atoli takes the moment to look at Inga, wondering how best to say it. "U-Um, well... all the gods in The World are dead, except for Folset, the God of Law. But humans don't serve him, so... I guess none?"

    She seems apologetic.

    With another twirl of her staff, Atoli lets loose balls of white and green light, which seek out injured party members and restore a bit of their vitality. It's great for landing finishing blows when you're not injured anymore!

    Or maybe she's just trying to avoid stepping out of the back row. That Giant has entirely too mean a swing for her tastes.

Staren has posed:
    He's mine.

    ...Yeah, sure. A good chance to observe the combat capabilities of this thing Haseo can summon / turn into.

    Back to focusing on the coblins, Staren supposes. As with most of his armors, the heavy armor has a pair of particle beam cannons on the right arm, and Staren puts them to use, firing down at the rock-bugs and and then dropping out of the sky to put the armor's strength to work, landing heavily on a coblin and punching and kicking!

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     "That's it! That's it, that's it, that's it!"

     Haseo seems to be extremely pleased with itself, reveling in how the giant is now on its knees. Its attempt to retaliate are met with Skeith raising its scythe to block the assault, the weapon being knocked from its hand and sent flying into the battlefield. It's okay though, they don't need it anymore.

Grabbing on to Crier Briareos' face with one hand, Skeith raises the Giant slightly off the ground. Several large holographic panels erupt from around the arm that's currently gripping onto their face as the sound of something charging fills the air.

     "Heh."

     No real witty one liners, no complaining, Haseo just sneers before Skeith fires a pointblank DATA DRAIN directly into the giant's face.

     The monster probably feels a lot of things from the attack. A lot of negative things. Sleep, paralysis, poison, the whole works. They also probably feel something FORCEFULLY being removed from them, which all things considered is probably a lot more concerning.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    There's coblyn's being shot.
    Heals going out.
    A Blood Spear in the face.
    A raging catman chopping at the giant.

    But then someone decides to eat the giant's essence.

    Crier Briareos is spear'd, chopped'd and Beamed and a whole bunch of other things. He's already dead but hasn't figured it out yet.

    Haseo/Skeith vanishes for a moment.

Tomoe has posed:
The Giant has almost been handled and it looks like he's not giving up, Hasseo seems like he has a plan to finish the giant and will only say

"Just make it quick She will keep up on it and will move to act if Haseo doesn't finish the best off but it's clear she's standing there ready to go and is making sure he's interposed between the healers and the Giant.

"You'll meet more than a few gods in the Greek sense running about, hell I knows one whose as big of a gaming nerd as anyone from ALO or The World likely is."

Ah yes Arthur what could go wrong with pointing him at the world. She gets Staren is also watching what Haseo can do and Inga adds to finishing it off she seems ready for this to end one way or another.

Inga has posed:
"You are a cleric of...no one?" she asks. Very strange, but if all the gods are dead and only the god of law remains...well goodness, who could blame them? "I could tell you of my gods," she offers. "But not now."

"...What...is he doing?" she asks, watching Haseo, her eyes widening.

Then he vanishes?

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean continues to ignore Haskeith having fun beating the shit out of that giant. Nope, definitely not feeling awkward watching that, no sir. And then he vanishes. Was that supposed to happen?

N'raha Tia has posed:
    Haseo is glitching out. He can feel his data corrupting from the inside out, the drain wrenching at parts of him that he didn't even know existed, ruining him forever.
    Haseo floats in an endless wash of darkness, stars and lights flickering far in the distance, like he's drifting in the Void.

    Haseo is watching himself Drain the Giant, watching the rest of the party as if in slow motion. He can do nothing but watch.

    And right next to his ear, there's a calm, clear, strict woman's voice. "Tsk tsk. The Outworlders always surprising us. You were about to see something you're not supposed to see, Mr. Cheater." The source of the voice floats around in front of Haseo as he T-Poses. It's a woman, robed in black, wearing a mask shaped like a beast's face. "And we can't spoil the surprises just yet." She lightly traces a finger over Haseo's chin as he floats. "I do enjoy the Rules of your world, getting to seem them in a flicker like this. It reminds me that we realyl must get out more. See the Multiverse. Find our own friends. Bring our master closer."

    She looks over her shoulder, and as she does so, Haseo is simultaneously in both places at once, seeing himself seeing himself watching the party. The woman spins to look at the Haseo draining the giant. "Tell the Sharlayan minx that we're watching. And waiting."

    And then the link is severed, and severed severely enough that the fake-not fake second Naseo is snapped fully back into place with Actual Fake Haseo. And he can go right back to T-Posing and Dabbing on The Haters, logang 69 for life, dawg.

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     Haseo is brought back to his realm of existence after having an out of body experience, and almost immediately Skeith just disappears in a cloud of red particles.

     Visible beads of sweat roll down the Adept Rogue's forehead as he tries to process what the /fuck/ just happened. He's never gotten that sort of response from using Data Drain before.

     He just sort of falls on his ass and recites some of the things the masked person said.

     "Sharlayan minx? Watching and waiting? What the...hell?"

     He doesn't like this place much anymore.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    "Sure! And um... attacking the Giant?" She feigns at Inga, looking as Haseo uses a weird skill she hasn't seen before but then... vanishes? No, there he is again.

    Atoli hurries to his side, looking down with concern at him. "Haseo! Are you okay? You killed that Giant and then fell down. Do you need a heal?" Yes, she's going to make him ask.

    ^_^

    But it's taking every (digital) muscle in her body to resist healing him anyway, because she's that kind of person.

Staren has posed:
Haseo finishes the giant, well done! And then vanishes and is replaced by himself. Clearly that's just what happens when Haseo dismisses the effect, except nopw he's babbling.

    Staren walks over. "What are you talking about?"

N'raha Tia has posed:
    Raha, for his part, totally misses the bit where Haseo vanished, because he was busy beating the shit out of the Giant, which... true form these days... dissolves into a roiling ugly mass of black aether, and boils away in the dying light of the sun.

    And what's left behind is a icy jet black crystal, the size of a hand, that cracks and shatters when it hits the stony earth.

    The big monster gone, the Bogys and the Coblyns take the hint, and retreat back into the dark of the caves.

Inga has posed:
That was all very strange. Inga shakes her head and sheaths her knife, leaning on her staff to walk forward to be closer to the others. She checks everyone over for wounds, but the other healers seems to have taken care of anything serious.

She looks toward Haseo. "You went somewhere."

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
The giant vanished in a puff of black smoke, not unlike how monsters on Rean's world vanished on defeat. All the other creatures scuttled deeper into the cave, their leader gone. As for Haseo, well...That definitely didn't happen last time. Haseo reverted to normal, but he was babbling and sweating, like he'd just come out of a nightmare. Rean sheathed his sword and moved closer to where Haseo was.

"Yeah." He said, nodding. "Did something happen?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe makes sure they haven't lost anyone once that's certain sh seem to calm back down and she'll pause as the monster flee and she peers at Haseo.

"You okay man your speaking..." When Inga cuts in she takes notice. "Wait what happened then?"

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     "N-No. I'm fine. What the hell is this, twenty questions? Give me a moment, damnit."


Despite looking like he's seen a ghost, Haseo just kind of brushes everyone off. Having finally collected himself, Haseo pulls himself off the ground, taking a moment to dust off his pants and butt cape before continuing on.

     "I'm fine. Just got dragged off by some old hag that told me that I was about to peep at something I shouldn't of. Also something about a telling a Sharlayan minx that they're watching and waiting? Don't know what the hell a Sharlayan is, but if anyone here is one of those... Well, yeah. Anyway, I'm not about to do that again anytime soon. This place is stupid."

N'raha Tia has posed:
    'Sharlyan minx' gets said Sharlayan Minx to prick up her ears. Y'shtola slides over to the group, and kneels down next to Haseo, as Raha clears back and looks to Inga. A meaningful look.

    The Conjurer's voice is clear and crisp. "What did she look like? Was she in black robes wearing a mask?" There's no judgement in Shtola's voice, even as Auphinaud and Illberd seem to be having a moment as well.

    One of the Lalafell shuffles over to police up those broken shards, while the other seems to have found glow wands of some sort and has started waving them to clear out civilians from the area.

Inga has posed:
"Is he always this unpleasant?" she asks Atoli casually, indicating Haseo, obviously.

Inga sighs and meet's Raha's gaze, her lips thinning slightly. This means more trouble. Never a dull moment, certainly.

Atoli (7045) has posed:
    "Well... he's a bit distant, but deep down he's a really nice person! He'd definitely help someone in need, I've seen it myself!" Haseo's handling of Bo was quite exceptional.

    "It just takes a bit more digging to find the nice some days," she adds, beaming widely and laughing nervously.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
...Well, at least he was doing ok enough to still be blunt as usual. Kind of reminded him of Jusis but a million times more informal. Atoli's comment didn't really help the comparison. Not really sure what else to say, Rean asks, "So, what are those crystals it dropped? Is that Nohval, or something else?"

Haseo (7015) has posed:
     "Yeah. They were a real fashionista. Anyway, I'm done here. You got your answers and I got my kill. I'm getting the hell out before any more weird old women mess with me."

     Haseo makes a disgruntled noise at Atoli's mentioning of him being nice before trotting off. There's a touch of anger in his steps, but he seems to be slightly less livid than when he first arrived.

     Haseo has left the party.
    Short-Mail from Haseo:The giant was a complete joke LOL!!!

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks for a moment as she tilts her head a bit and her shrugs a bit. "We might need to use a mining machine but I think we could find it, Atoli."

She seems amused with this idea and will turn to the Raha for a moment and keep an eye on the crystals she's got a bad feeling about those things. Good, some of the local troops or adventures are keeping bystander clear of the darn things.

She seems fairly relaxed that now the fight is over.

"So there was something we were needed to be talked about?

Staren has posed:
    So Haseo was given some kinda weird vision where someone told off the new cat lady.

    Okay.

    "Yeah." He answers Inga. "He's a teenager."