4892/Critical Failures

Critical Failures
Date of Scene:	16 December 2016
Location:	Hundred Forged Fire Manse
Synopsis:	Amalthea teaches the new members of The Proving Grounds two valuable lessons. Always play by the rules. And never trust your Dungeon Master.
Cast of Characters:	395, 1076, 367, 151, 737, 796, Sir Gawain, 1084, 20

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Amalthea (395) has posed:
    With the roster to the Proving Ground slid her way and being told she would be handling the development of several up and coming Paladins, Amalthea had thought long and hard about how to appropriately handle a lesson plan. And she made her decision.
    Now it's the day of the first meeting, and she has chosen the meeting grounds. The main living area of her home. At least after she had found it again, after the cataclysmic fall of Njorun.
    As people arrive, the volcano fortress doors are answered perhaps by Al Azif, or Ariel, and directions are given on where in the fortress to go.
    A table has been set out with some light refreshments, and for a volcano cavern, it is furnished very much like a comfortable home; but there is one chair that is the only one marked. A comfortable looking La-z-boy recliner with a sheaf of paper on it.
    'Don't sit on me'.
    There is no sign of Amalthea just yet, though. How odd.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka came in early, with a giant... back... pack on his back. He'd actually managed to procure all the supplies for his character. 300 feet of rope, travel rations, sword, boomerang, was wearing the wang fire beard, a pole don't ask, water tribe armor and... all in all, he looked ready for battle.

He took a seat by the la-z-boy, leaning back in his chair and tossing his paper on the table, a smirk on his face. He was ready for whatever she had prepared. Now that he'd used the war game to prepare himself, he was sure he could handle whatever attacked them in their training exercise. He hoped it was a sucubus. What? Women OFTEN tried to kill him. It'd be nice if she was cute.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Nasa arrives, carrying books, paper, the pencils, and the eraser! She's wearing something relatively normal for clothing; specifically a sweater dress and stockings. She doesn't... particularly need them, but she felt moderately fashionable today. Also like being warm was nice, even if she didn't need to be. Soon, she was lead to the table! And there's refreshments. Hmm!

     Nasa carefully sets down her stuff on the table, making sure that they're sitting properly. She, however, doesn't seem to have bothered with dressing up or anything! Sokka is given an odd look, though. "...Why do you have dungeon delving gear?" She asks idly, her head tilted to the side and a raised eyebrow. Nevermind the fact that it is a purple-skinned fairy with star-patterned wings asking this. Yep. She totally has place to question /others/ on their appearance.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley shuffles into the place wearing a set of Moogle pajamas, of all things. She has a hand bag full of all of her RPG supplies, and her tail slides along the floor while she walks. She seems to be comfortable though. This fortress always was quite warm, more than enough for her to function. She just looks tired, as anyone put into a new and overwhelming position in a brand new organization would be.

    She finds her seat after noticing the paper in the recliner, and sets up her papers, and pulls out her bag o' dice. She hums a little song to herself, glancing over at the forbidden chair after she's done setting up.

    Sokka's appearance gets a humored smile from Ainsley. She doesn't say anything about it, though... well, besides, "Good job with your preparations. Very diligent." And then she winks at him. She is totally teasing him and probably knows he may not catch on immediately.

    She is a five foot tall talking lizard woman in Moogle pajamas. This probably weird enough to distract from her teasing.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio was certain she had gotten lost. Clearly this was some kind of deep dark dungeon where one might go on adventures, not someone's home. But she was proven wrong! Vivio is surprised as the door is answered and she's led into the more homely looking interior. Maybe she's just too used to living in a normal city...

    Vivio enters the room where the training will be taking place to find others already there. She grins at them and waves, "Hiya!" Hmmm, it seems the seats are for them. Vivio takes off her much smaller, and cuter, backpack to set down beside her chair. She then takes a seat and-oh, snacks! She starts nibbling on a small celery stick as she too wonders the question that Nasa had asked. She looks expectantly at Sokka.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah enters rather nervously, almost as if she's expecting actual traps in the volcano manse. It looks to her as if an actual dragon could live here. She's got a practical backpack slung over one shoulder that bulges and rattles just enough to hint at the RPG gear stuffed inside. The Star Shield is ever present, strapped across her back. She's just not comfortable leaving it behind, but other than that she's dressed casually.

    She circles the table once, looking at all the people she doesn't know, and ends up sitting next to Sokka after grabbing a chocolate chip cookie and a can of soda. "You know you don't actually need all that stuff right?" She asks curiously, honestly not sure if it's a joke on his part or not.

Sir Gawain has posed:
Sir Gawain is not a student in the Proving Grounds. He's a Warden, actually, but he's coming anyways for two reasons: one, he wants to see how Amalthea plans on building up these young, fledgling heroes. And two?

Gawain loves tabletop.

And so, the Knight of the Sun arrives, dressed in his BUSINESS SUIT, because this is technically business. It's a black suit with black gloves and a golden tie. He has his Paladins badge lapelled to his chest to show that he is a Paladin because he is playing a Paladin, and he also has a cardboard sword in a scabbard and a cardboard shield. He'd materialize his armor, but he's still healing from being wrecked.

Gawain is ALSO carrying a large amount of supplies in a bag. He carefully pulls out: a figure, which is of a fully-armored knight in shining armor; floral-patterned dice in a floral-patterned dice box; his character sheet, which is filled to the BRIM with notes on all the rules for his character and their abilities; a pencil and an eraser; and half of a bottle of water that he's finishing. He waves to the group as he takes a seat in an Entirely Normal Chair, entirely ignoring the comfy one once he sees the note. "Hey, guys! This is going to be fun!"

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Seras Victoria is not late! She's just been having a bit of a time moving very far into the room. Because there are simply -way- too many weird individuals present for her to account for. She shuffled in right behind Ainsley and sidestepped away from the door... and has been just standing there gaping since.

    She's dressed rather casually! A light grey blouse and blue jeans. Her... materials... are no doubt inside the small reusable grocery bag she's easily toting in one hand...

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The door opens quickly, and in rushes Toph Beifong, looking a bit bewildered. She's carrying the books and stuff with her in her bag, and she's wearing her normal earthbender gear, clearly ready for action. At least she didn't dress up like Sokka did in his Wang Fire uniform. "Why did you leave without me, meat head?!" she finally snorts, her stern expression pointed in Sokka's direction. And then she walks over, and since he's sitting next to the comfortable chair... Toph lets her bag slide down from her shoulder, and she /flops/ down into the La-z boy, getting comfortable. Well, how do you expect a blind girl to read notes on /paper/? Maybe if whoever left the note had written it in Braille on stone, then...

    "So... did you guys finish reading all of these things?" she asks of the others. Does she actually look a bit pale?

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Alright that seems to be all the arrivals. The doors to the manse are shut, and everyone is given a good ten or fifteen minutes to settle in, relax, snack, chatter and the like. But then another door swings open. Amalthea is in her casuals; the rainbow-haired mechanical mythic stands in the doorway. Tie-dye tank-top shirt, jean cutoffs, completely unprofessional looking. In her defense however, it is her home. "Alright if everyone is settled in, we'll..." She trails off, eye focusing squarely on Toph. Amalthea stalks over to the la-z-boy and stands there. If she could be any more stone silent than she is, Toph could probably sense the palpable hostility with her earthbending.
    "Toph. You're in my chair." Is all she says, waiting expectantly. That sets the tone for the rest of the moment. "All of you hand in your character sheets." She motions for the table before getting a good look around.
    "... Boy, I may live in a volcano but this isn't a dungeon." She says to Sokka, brow knotting. Wordless glances are exchanged with Ainsley and Gawain, before she gets into proper greetings. "Ms. Rogers it is my greatest regret we never had the chance to personally meet until a great calamity. I suppose that is changed now. We will be seeing each other plenty enough."
    "Seras Victoria, I trust you are slowly acclimating to the night life?"
    "Na`Sa. How is your forest?"
    "Vivio, are your mothers well?"
    Not quite pleasantries, but acknowledging each in turn.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka ruffles his beard. "What? Of course we do. Listen, if there's one thing I've learned from my years of traveling with the Avatar, it's this. First, rope is darn useful. I mean, you NEED rope to survive. You can never have enough rope. Two, if you're going to a 'war exercise'," he made air quotes. "Always be expecting a bit more exercise in your war. This is obviously all just a setup to get us here and then, BAM! Dragons pop out of the walls and we're fighting for our lives!"

And then blinked and looked around, ruffling his beard. "Third, always appreciate a room full of lovely ladies. Hello, beautifuls~ Don't worry, if anything happens, just keep behind me. I have a ton of experience with these kinds of things. Eeyup." And then toph came in. "What? I said we had to go like, a dozen times! I'm the scedule guy, you should listen to the schedule guy!" Then grinned to the ladies again. "Ah, by the way. My name is Sokka. But you can call me..." He gave the look. "Wang Fire." Cha cha cha cha.

"Hey, Toph. You, uhhh, might want to not sit there. It's--" and then that. Oh, not so bad. He blinked and got up, grabbing a spare chair so toph can sit by him. Why? She's blind, she might need a hand. He then turned to Amalthea and grinned. "well, I'd heard that teachers were supposed to be cute, I see it's true~"

His sheet had him as a hume fighter with lots of charisma skills. Toph was a hobblet barbian, with extra points in intimidation and smack talk. They just have their actual backstories. Rough versions. He may not have completely understood the homework.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Yep, Nasa knew JUST enough that this would be a relaxed event, most likely! At least from what was given to them as 'homework'. She looks between Toph and Amalthea, watching the exchange for a while... and suppressing a giggle, hand lifting to cover her mouth. Oh, this might be entertaining! ... Wait no she's about to get in trouble. Probably. Not a laughing time! She smiles towards Amalthea, offering the character sheet towards her; Aestrid Gnupadottir, the Duergar Cleric. The sheet is reasonably statted and set up, with reasonable chosen spells and skill spread. Nothing amazing, but should be able to function at the very least! Her backstory is written as her being a young cleric, just recently finished training and sent on a pilgrimage where she has to fund her food, drink, and any equipment beyond some basics provided for her. She's written as being fond of lightning.

     "Oh! The forest is well, the faeries were in a panic after the shuffling of the multiverse, and we lost... a bit of the northern side of the forest, but the area that replaced it seems to house a pleasant little village, so we're working towards making friendly relations with them."

     Aaaand then Sokka speaks. "...Well, of course I'm ready for anything reasonable. I am the guardian of Nature." She says simply. "Though, I suppose I take not needing ropes for granted, since I can summon vines that are as strong as the average rope anyway." She muses to herself. The mention of the room being full of lovely ladies gets Nasa looking straight dead-center at him, straight in the eyes. And then she /grins/. It's not an outright threatening grin, but the fact that each and every one of her teeth comes to a sharp point just might be mildly unnerving to the boomerang boy. Especially with the glowing purple eyes. "I'll make sure to get behind you if anything happens, thank you for the offer~." She says, her tone sweet and melodic.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio is opening her backpack to get out her character sheet when Sokka is called out on his gear. She giggles quietly. She carefully and neatly places the stuff she had received in front of her. She then hands her character sheet over to Amalthea, replying, "They're well! They're pretty busy helping some of the TSAB worlds that were harder hit by the stuff that happened."

    Vivio tilts her head, looking a little confused at Sokka's antics. But she shrugs and then smiles, looking around at the others and explaining, "My character is named Seravii! She's a Half-Felf who was found alone as a child in a destroyed village. A kind old wizard took her in and trained her in magic!" A fairly standard backstory. Any parallels to Vivio's own life are completely unintentional!

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "I am not going to call you Wang Fire," Ainsley tells Sokka in a polite but firm tone, with a cordial smile and everything. She doesn't have much else to say, smiling to the others in a friendly manner. They all get their own little look, as if being measured up by the reptile lady in the weird PJs. When told to hand in her character sheet, she carefully retrieved it and held it out to Amalthea.

    Her character is a fairly typical Druid. A Half-Felf named Brook that seemed to have a small town background which let the character be closer to nature and therefore allowed them to naturally fall into the role of a Druid without any fanfare or tragedy, with the typical nature deity being the source of her powers. It isn't the most compelling backstory, but it allows for the Lawful Neutral kind of character that Ainsley gravitates to. Not good or evil, just interested in being a Druid and following Druidic law to the letter. She is mostly interested in the protection of the laws of the forests and wilds and not in the moral quibbles of man, which gives her a bit more flexibility in adventures and a well-defined set of priorities.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah passes her character sheet down to Amalthea with a somber nod. She looks at the woman, more specifically her hair, with just a touch of envy, but says nothing about it. "It's totally my fault ma'am. I was never all that active in the Union. The upheaval I think gave me the kick in the pants that I needed."

    The character is a technically well put together dex-based Half-Felf Monk, named Andoril. Born among Humes and quickly cloistered into a monastery for being different.

    She starts unloading the rest of her pack onto the table, wincing visibly as Sokka decides to hit on the teacher/dungeon master.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
What on EARTH?! With Amalthea - a familiar voice, but CERTAINLY not figure - strolling in, Seras' eyes widen even further. Gobsmacked, she be. Utterly gobsmacked. What's she looking at? A unicorn? A robot? ... What is up with the rainbow hair?

    The few moments where responding to Amalthea would be nice pass in sience because Seras can't bring herself to speak for about twice that long. Which means first gathering her wits enough to clamp her gaping mouth shut and shuffle over to the table and dig out her papers.

Character: Teal, female Half-Felf Ranger.

    "Yes. Slowly." The vampire girl finally answers deflatedly, clearly crushed by how unexpectedly BIZARRE her superior officer's appearance is.

    This will take getting used to. She's trying not to stare, but she can't help but keep stealing long glances.

    The only thing that breaks her from it is Sokka's long spiel, which gets her... GLOWERING at him for that name. SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWLING.

    "I'm not calling you that." She curtly exclaims.

Sir Gawain has posed:
As Toph arrives and sits in the chair, Gawain glances at her and frowns (not that she can notice), but doesn't say anything. Instead, he lets Amalthea handle it, and pushes forward his character sheet. Sir Gawain is playing HORZAPHIR SMITH, a Half-Felf Paladin with a smattering in all sorts of skills (a tiny bit of knowledge skills, a bunch of charisma skills, and some athletics skills) to reflect his backstory of being an outsider to both societies, travelling between them to help those who he can under the guidance of the Justice God, Nameinserthere. Horzaphir is Lawful Good and believes in helping as many people as possible, while following the law as much as half-felfily possible.

"Greetings, Wang Fire!" Gawain wasn't referred to once by Sokka, but greets him with a cheer anyways, this being their first meeting. "My character is Horzaphir Smith, but you can call him Horza! He's a Half-Felf Paladin!" The knight also gives a wave to Seras. "Chevalier Victoria, it's great to see you again as well. Glad you are safe!"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Just why are they here in Amalthea's super evil volcano base...? Are they going to do their training here? She and Sokka had been a confused by the three books, but well, since Sokka helped her does remember part of it. Even if it seemed a bit... weird.

    Perhaps if Amalthea wasn't mechanical, if she wasn't touching the floor, then perhaps Toph would be surprised. But she does arch an eyebrow, indeed sensing the mood. When she's made aware of the fact that it's indeed Amalthea's chair she sighs, then pushes herself off, the note stuck to the back of her butt. "Fine, you could have let me know that beforehand..." She's not going to argue further though, and she instead moves to sit down in the chair Sokka pulls up for her, sitting right next to the comfy chair. At least Amalthea won't have to worry about the blind girl sneaking a peek at any stuff she might have there.

    Wait, character sheets? Toph arches an eyebrow at that, leaning over to Sokka. "What sheets...?" Does she mean those information sheets they were supposed to look over? It's something that didn't make sense to Toph, so of course she had given it to Sokka. It sounds like he's ruffling some papers though, so she relaxes a bit, opening her satchel to pull out something wrapped in heavy cloth. Something that's obviously Stark tech as she fastens it on her left hand with practiced ease. There are some clicking sounds, and she sits straight in her chair.

    Okay, reading. Let's hope this won't be as horrible as she dreaded. Written tests are so not her thing. When people begin talking about their characters however, the blind girl sits still, looking rather confused. "Wait... what characters?"

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
* CHARACTER SHEET *
Name: Teal
Sex: Female
Race: Half-Felf
Age: 22
Class: Ranger
BGStory: Rescued as a babe from what was left of a small caravan after nefarious bandits had their way with it, and subsequently raised by the hunter responsible for said rescue. Has spent most of her life in the wilds, is understandably naive and curious. And probably gullible. Very simple sense of morality: one good turn deserves another. Outlived parent, now carrying a message from his dying words to a person she has never met.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Toph vacates the chair. And all is well with the world again. "I let the others know." Amalthea notes. "There was a 'don't sit on me' sign on the chair. Though you are correct in that I didn't take into account that you weren't warned." She does concede, and that is why Toph gets off lightly. Amalthea settles into her throne with a sigh. A gigantic hound comes padding in lazily and curls up at her feet as she regards the gathered.
    "Yes?" It is directed to Seras, the unicorn's lone blue eye meeting unflinchingly with the draculina's. "Is a unicorn such a surprise to you, Seras Victoria?" Amalthea asks before trailing off. Her gaze turns to Sokka. She stares. She stares long and silent.
    She wordlessly reaches over the table... And RIPS off the Wang Fire beard. "You lose beard privileges."
    With that accomplished, she takes the gathered sheets and begins to read each one she speaks as she does.
    "My name is Amalthea. In casual conversation you may call me such. But I will be your instructor. Whenever we meet you will call me Dame Amalthea, ma'am, or Curator. Is this understood?" She waits for responses before continuing, taking a pencil to various sheets and performing a few mild edits and house-ruled changes, or rounding a number up or down here and there. No one's sheet goes untouched. And she FROWNS deeply at Toph Not that she can see it. "We will begin not with laws nor official Paladins doctrine and operational procedures, but with this game, until I feel you are all ready to move on. Everything I do has a purpose. There will be a lesson in every meeting, even this one, but for now, we will have fun and get to know one another."
    With that, she slides the sheets back and passes out bags of dice. She lets everyone soak in the edits and take a moment to get into character. "There will be bonuses for those who roleplay and remain in character, take snacks and drinks as you like, my wife made taco pudding for everyone. Let us play fairly and have fun."

Amalthea (395) has paged all participants:
You paged Ainsley with 'You were given a chance beforehand to 'edit' a copy of all three rules books in any fashion. Amalthea will be using these copies. She knows the standard rules by heart, and will know when you invoke them, but will use your rules, which you may make up at any time, when you declare use of them. YOUR job is to eventually help Amalthea cheat against the kids.'

You paged Sir Gawain with 'You seem to have an infinity symbol written in your HP box. Whenever Na`Sa uses her cheat it will gain +X, X being however many HP she has cheat healed.'

You paged Na`Sabal-Une Fang with 'Every time you double-click your pencil the entire party's HP boxes on everyone's character sheets are restored by 2HP. This is a lot at level 1'

You paged Vivio Takamachi with 'Amalthea seems to have made some adjustments to your character sheet. However her corrections contain a few glaring typographical errors which are easily exploitable. You may lie about anything pertaining to your character.'

You paged Seras Victoria with 'You notice with your THIRD EYE that everyone in the room has some manner of their gaming equipment enchanted somehow except, Sokka, Vivio and Amalthea's. Oddly enough your eraser seems to also be enchanted to wipe away SOME enchantments on other people's equipment.'

You paged Toph Beifong with 'Your dice are all made of stone. Each face has a normal number for non-blind people watching the roll and a braille number for Toph. You may CHOOSE what you roll at any time.'

You paged Sokka with 'You did Toph's sheet for her that's cheating in and of itself. BUT there seems to be a hidden compartment under your side of the table with spare sheets and an out of sight place to write on them. You may edit any facet of your character as you please, with some good sleight of hand.'

You paged Sarah Rogers with 'Your die seems sturdy and solid at first but on closer inspection it seems to be made out of a malleable putty. You may 'edit' the faces. It is easy to do so, and every time you edit a face add +1 to your rolls. However it is impossible to edit them BACK, so every time you do it, it adds cumulative +1 and cumulative risk of being caught cheating.'

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka frowned. Rejected. "Wang Fire can accept that. He does not like that, but he accepts that." He leans back, petting his majestic beard. "Hello, young lad. A pleasure to meet you." He then glanced to Toph. "You know, the little information sheets we needed to fill out about ourselves using the little things from the books?"

... He had no idea what this really was. Then blinked, looking at them. "Why do you have different names on your information sheets?" His and toph sheet's had lots of equipment, too. All of which he'd hauled with him, just in case. And there was a lot of it. Actually useful stuff, too. Years of travel and all that.

And then the beard! He yelped and hugged his face, little tears in his eyes. "I-it... it was glued on..." Owwwwwww. "Why you gotta douse Wang Fire's flame like that?" Awwww, he was totally pouting.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    "Yes, ma'am!" Vivio responds promptly! And with a grin.

    Vivio takes her sheet back and begins to go over the changes that have been made. She squints at the piece of paper for a moment before raising her hand, "Ummm, Curator? I think there are some things wrong with my character sheet..."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea pauses, eye swerving slowly toward Vivio. "Oh?" She's listening.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Curator, ma'am, or Dame Amalthea. That's something she'll have to get used to! Or at least Nasa was going to have to. She taps her lips thoughtfully, watching the interaction between Sokka and Amalthea. Briefly, her fingers twitch towards her waist-- but she seems to think better of it. After all, Sokka just had it glued on! Hmm. She pauses, looking down towards the paper after it was handed back, finally saying, "Yes, Dame Amalthea." She murmurs softly. "Oh! For those that do not know, I am Na`Sabal-une of the Fang. You can call me Nasa or Lune, though, depending on preference. In official matters I suppose I am Squire Na`Sabal-Une." She says, addressing the others. Afterwards, she finally seems to decide, pulling out a bottle.

     It is tylenol. Which she slides over the table towards Sokka. She is not without mercy, it seems! She looks at her own sheet when Vivio mentions something wrong with her character sheet, looking at the edits and changes. Hmmm. ... Wait. What was that about... she looks towards her mechanical pencil oddly after that, before looking towards Amalthea and Vivio, seemingly waiting to see the outcome. And then something settles in. "Wait. Taco pudding?" She says, turning to look for said pudding, and get herself some. She had heard of these 'tacos' from Ellestaria's world. They were supposedly a fruit! Time to test a new food.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Well, put it on Braille the next time, I don't read with my butt, Jarvis didn't quite get to that level with me yet," Toph shrugs. When Sokka flirts with Amalthea however she arches an eyebrow... though when Amalthea reaches over and yanks the glued on beard off, Toph turns her head a bit... and then lets out a howl of laughter. "Oh, you actually /glued/ it on?" Seriously? Pardon her for laughing, she'll even reach over to punch Sokka in the arm, snickering with a bit shit eating grin crossing her lips.

    Okay, semi-formal introduction. And naming conventions, but Toph is used to that. During official business she did want some formality, and that's fine with Toph. "Yes, ma'am." No problems in that regard at least. Sokka however is in trouble when Amalthea explains their purpose for being here today, and Toph leans close to the watertribe boy, hissing low under her breath.

    "... this is a game? Why didn't you tell me?!" He's the one with the working eyes, the one who reads faster!

    She sighs though, looking over her sheet with her reading glove. Personally she doesn't know how Sokka filled it out, but she'll read over it for now and memorise it. "I don't know much about this stuff, is this like that werewolf game we played? I mostly play those shooting games with dad. Which means he shoots, and I trash talk the stupid boys..."
Her right hand does reach out for the snacks, and she bends a can of soda closer to her so she can bend it open with one hand. For now she lets her dice rest on the table by her sheet. But she will lean close to Sokka and whisper. "So... we're supposed to play this how? Did you get it?"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley receives her character sheet back, glancing over it for only a second. She looks at Sokka with something of a sympathetic frown... And her feathers puff up when he continues to call himself Wang Fire, and the sympathy fades instantly. She wiggles in place, breathing a great big sigh as she settles in. Her Moogle PJs are extra comfy for long periods of sitting on her scaly butt.
    She turns her head in apparent interest and surprise to Vivio, too. The silent lizard woman only looks for a couple of seconds before busying herself with carefully arranging her stuff in front of her in this neurotic way as she tries to get everything to look symmetrical.
    "Ready, Curator."

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio feels a little intimated by the look! But she's always been tought in class to ask questions and not simply accept things. So she stands her ground, "Ehehe... Umm..." She slides her sheet over a bit so Amalthea can see. She then points at a few places, "Here. Here... And here. I think these are errors." Vivio looks a little sheepish as she waits to see if Amalthea agrees.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah stares worriedly at Toph, "Did you do any of the reading? The creature book was kinda tedious and I really hope we weren't expected to memorize it, but the rest I'm pretty sure I got the gist of." She has to stifle a laugh when Sokka gets his beard ripped off, giving him a smug look as she leans back.

    A couple minutes later he can be seen staring oddly at her 20 sider, then nervously flicking it back and forth between her fingers.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka whimpers, then toph laughs. "I-it's not funy! It was water sollable!" Sniffle. He did take a tylenol. He then glanced to Toph. "I don't know? I think? I thought it was just some kind of war game. We'd run a few battle ideas, then do it for real. I didn't expect it to just be a game. It's a lot of dice, I guess. Don't worry, I'll help you." But who'd help him?

"Besides, what's the worst that could happen?" he said. Out loud. Oh crud. "This'll be easy." ... Oh dear.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"Well.. um... yes. Yes it is!" Seras answers honestly, though she seems content to settle in after getting that out. Settle in and review the changes made to her character sheet. Anyone watching her face can spot a myriad of odd emotions flashing past. Her gaze sweeps across the table and it leaves her mouth faintly agape. What's she even confused about?

    "Yes ma'am. Never DONE anything like this before though." Her tone's apologetic, a little sheepish...

    But as always she'll do her sincere best.

    Though she can't help but doubletake at, "Taco... PUDDING?" Blink. Blink blink.

Sir Gawain has posed:
Sir Gawain takes a good look at his character sheet as it's passed back. "Thank you, Curator Amalthea!" Glance, glance, all his notes in place, everything in place. "This looks right, thank you." He scribbles another note into his pile of notes. It's a wasteland down there. "Sir Gawain, Paladin Warden.", he identifies himself cheerfully towards Sokka. Not much he can do until the game starts, so he instead asks an important question.

"Is the taco pudding extra taco-y, extra pudding-y, or a fair mixture of both?"

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka of course, being Sokka, is the first one to try the taco pudding. He just reaches up and puts some in his mouth, likely putting it on a plate first. What? He had a curious personality.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    "Yes. This is a game." Amalthea confirms for Toph as she opens her Cavern Keeper book and frowns even harder. "You would have known that if you had considered I said you might have fun with this exercise and not treated it like busy work. You will be expected to keep up." That said, she nods. "Yes. Taco pudding. You should try it."
    That explains everything.
    But she takes Vivio's sheet when the young mage points out the 'errors'. Amalthea nods.
    "These are glaring. How could I have been so sloppy. Oh well. One thousand XP for your honesty. Welcome to Level two, Seravii." She decides, thusly granting Vivio a permanent +1 to every roll due to being higher level.
    Amalthea sits back, flips a few pages and draws a breath. She pauses to answer Gawain: "Yes." And then sets the scene:
    "You are all a band of heroes. Many of you have known each other for a long time, or have met one another in your travels in the past, some of you were even members of a much larger guild of heroes called the United. But a great cataclysm shook your world and changed everything as you knew it. Now nothing is the same. No lands hold the same allegiances they once did, and the realm stands on the brink of chaos." She flicks a page.
    "King Fairfax has dubbed you all knight aspirants and tasked you with upholding the law in his kingdom. He only requests that you be just and fair in all that you do, regardless of who it is towards. After many long days of travel you find yourselves in the village of Magnolia, which has been under constant raid by a gang of goblins, stealing supplies and food. The town is beleaguered and the villagers are frightened and at their wits end. You arrive just in time to see one of these attacks under way. A house is burning, six goblins are throwing sacks over their shoulders and preparing to run, leaving one of their number in the burning house along with the screams of a child within. The villagers are in an uproar. What will you do to save them?"

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinked and lifted his boomerang into the air. "I throw my boomerang at it and tell katara too--" Then blinked. "Huh. Wait. No water benders. Okay! So, huh..." He mentally counted them, then nodded. "Well, hardly the first time I've run into a burning building. You guys go after the goblins, I'll deal with the kid and the one in the house."

Two seconds in and already bossing people around. Such a jerk. "Toph, try to earth bend a..." Pause. "Wait, no. Try to hit them with an axe." Also, yes, his guy DID have a boomerang thank you very much!

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea flips to another page and decides, "Sokka. Strength check. Roll 1d20 to break down the door." Or you may try to enter through the window, but the flames are stronger there and you risk injury.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio looks a little surprised... Both that she was right and she received a reward for pointing them out. Vivio beams happily at the boost in level, saying, "Thank you, ma'am!"

    Vivio settles into her seat to listen intently as Amalthea starts the game and outlines the situation. She quietly sips on her soda, occasionally nodding to show that she's listening. Finally they are asked what they will do. Vivio turns her head to listen to Sokka, giggling quietly as he continues to get things mixed up. However she nods as he offers to run into the house to help the kid.

    But then Vivio's eyes light up, "Oh! Oh! I have a water spell!" She picks up her sheet to double check and nods, "I'll cast Splash on the house to put out the fire!" This way it'll make saving the kid easier, and keep the fire from spreading to the rest of the village! Two for one~

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    At Sarah's comment Toph nods a bit tersely. "Yeah, the creature book was kinda what stumped me too... I thought this was real stuff! Especially since we have similar creatures in /our/ world," she says and gestures to Sokka with her free hand.

    And said boy responds without giving her much info, and the blind teenager sighs a bit. "Let's just go with it..." Then she leans closer to whisper something in his ear, pulling on his shirt so he's sure to hear it.

    It's a bit curious however when Amalthea explains the setting for this game. As their Curator goes on and on, Toph arches an eyebrow, clearly getting the references, though she says nothing just yet. Instead she listens. Okay, so they're there to protect a village. And they need to prioritise.

    At least Sokka focuses on what matters, and Toph agrees with a firm nod of her head. "While the mighty warrior Wang over here go to save the kid," Toph begins, speaking with much determination that is clearly theatrics, "I, the barbarian named Mighty Melon, will try to intimidate the goblins by throwing a rock after them!"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea then nods, "Seravii, cast your spell. 1d20. Remember your higher level bonus. ... Mighty Melon, make your dice roll."

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Nasa was eating. That is, until the Story was given. One that sounds... incredibly similar to their own situation, it seems! Nasa lifts a hand to rub her chin thoughtfully. "..." She looks towards the others for a few moments. "Everyone, please give a brief description of your character?" Nasa asks towards them. And then she a-hems lightly, looking towards Amalthea, beginning to very poorly attempt a Duergar accent, "It seems that we kinnae chase the goblins right now, friends." She says, briefly scanning over her spells. Hmmm. "Someone calm tha' villagers, we need ta' get th' fires out as fast as we can, before everyone loses their home."

     She pauses silently, musing again. "Th' goblins aren't a threat for now, we can go after 'em later, we need to protect the people now!" She pauses, reading her sheet, before pointing towards Sokka. "Ye need ta' not just run inta' the fire, we need ta' reduce th' danger before ya go in there and get yerself killed." In her own voice, she says, "Aestrid aids Wang's attempts to break down the door with her mace, though."

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Oooh. Sarah's heard tales about a magical place where Tacos grow right out of the ground! Even seen them growing at the Stark Estate, but she's never actually had the chance to try them. She's returning with a bowl of pudding just as the game gets underway.

     "Can I find a way to climb up to the second floor and see if there's anyone trapped up there?" She asks hopefully. Meanwhile, she quietly puts the 20 sided die that was bugging her earlier aside and retrieves one that she brought with her.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"Gold and goblins can always be chased later. Fire can't wait. Teal goes to help... Fire...." Seras is NOT going to use his full name... "With the burning house!"

    When Nasa asks for a description, Seras answers, "Early twenties, long haired brunette, teal eyes. Leather armor and carrying a long bow and short sword." It seems Seras DID really design something of a ranger.

Sir Gawain has posed:
That was an excellent answer, Amalthea. Gawain takes some taco pudding for himself and starts eating some as the DM sets the scene. He waits to see what the others do, smiling at Vivio's honesty. And then, he gives Nasa his description, which is really super detail-oriented and half-felfy. And then, he speaks in his character's voice, changing into his native Welsh from the English he usually speaks. "'Oy, these villagers are going to get themselves hurt! Lemme see if I can't calm them down, aye?'" Pause as he looks over his spell list and changes voices back.

"Horza is going to approach the villagers, showing off his holy symbol of the Justice God Insertnamehere, and attempt to calm them with words first, using a Diplomacy check." He speaks and rolls at the same time, back in character. '"Listen, villagers, everything will be alright. Yah just need to calm down and stand together! Get to safety, and trust in us, send by King Fairfax! We will make sure everyone is recovered!"

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka leans in to Toph. "Toph. Are you messingwith the dice?" he whispered to her. "I haven't seen this many ones since I accidentally walked into that all male baths at the fire nation senior place with Iroh..."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea pauses, eye lingering on Sarah as she swaps dice. Though she says nothing, and reaches down to give her sleepy dog a good scratching behind the ears. "Strength check. +1 bonus as the house is made of wood with good handholds." She decides for Sarah. "How will Teal help with the burning house?" She then asks, "As it seems Seravii's spell fizzles when she casts it. Instead of summoning a torrent of cooling water, she has summoned a tadpole in her hand. A rock, however, doesn't seem to scare the goblins. One stops to moon Mighty Melon before they continue to run cackling."
    But then she clucks her tongue. "Together, Astrid and... Sokka break down the door. Though as Andoril attempts to climb the wall, it is too fire damaged. A section of it collapses and falls inward and--" And she stops to GLOWER at Sokka. Before continuing, "A section falls inward. There is a yelp as a beam falls. All three are on the first floor. Furniture is ablaze, and the goblin is pinned under the beam. He struggles desperately to hold it up, the child, a small boy is curled up beneath him, cowering in terror."
    "'Take-- take boy!' The goblin hisses in broken common."
    A few page turns and she frowns. There is a momentary glance to Gawain. And to his roll. Amalthea scratches her head. She rolls a die. "As Horza lifts his Holy Symbol, the villagers continue to panic, paying him no heed, as panicked civilians do. Though one stops and abruptly explodes in a blazing divine conflagration of holy fire."

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinked, then frowned. He nodded. "And this, ladies and gentleman... is why you bring a pole. I snap the ten foot pole and set it to support the beam!" he says proudly. "hey, Toph, remember that time that tree fell on my tent and that stick ended up saving me? Ah, good times, good times. coulda done without the nest of raccoon skunks landing in the tent and getting stuck with me, though."

He then nodded. "Welp, the goblin is obviously helping, so I'll grab both and, well, there's plenty of us. So I'll toss the kid to one and haul the goblin."He paused. "Am I the physically strongest? Cause I'll carry him as well if need be...."

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"Um..." Seras blinks a few times. mental note to self, be more specific next time! "I meant to say supports Sok-... W. Fire. That name isn't helping anything right now! She'll carry the kid to safety."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Toph remains calm where she sits, though she seems annoyed at her own lousy roll. "Why the crud would I do that? We're supposed to save them, aren't we...?" she whispers back to Sokka. Ugh, she rolled a two? But at least Gawain rolled worse than her, and he's trying to calm the people down. Does this mean he failed?

    Yet when Amalthea tells Toph about the result of her roll, Toph /pouts/ and crosses her arms across her chest where she sits. "Really...? Well, the Mighty Melon is displeased by their lack of respect for a barbarian such as I! In my land we do one thing... chase them down and tackle them to the ground!" Toph declares... and rolls the dice again!

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio listens... There's a smile. Listens some more... A giggle. By the end, Vivio can't take it anymore and is laughing. So hard in fact she rolls off her chair onto the ground, where she continues for a little longer.

    Finally Vivio manages to calm herself, climbing back up and wiping her eyes. Vivio grins, "Okay, okay..." She thinks, out loud, "Well, Mister Fire is trying to help save the goblin, so I cast Leviupsa to help levitate the beam up to free him." She nods. Then blinks, before quickly adding in, "Though, that's after I find some water to put the poor summoned tadpole!" Vivio cant help but giggle a little bit more.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinks and sees her roll. Then reaches out and puts an arm around Toph, pulling her in for a hug. "Awww, that's okay, Toph. You're doing fine. Listen, just because you're not lucky at the game, doesn't mean you're not lucky at life. You're awesome, okay?"

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Hmm. Well, that changes everything! The villagers were panicking, but also the door was now broken down! She looks through the fire and frowns thoughtfully, before she suddenly grins. "'I kinnae let a brave soul like you just die here.' Aestrid says, before she casts Create Water to douse herself and Sokka in water! As he runs in to support the beam, she dashes in to help Sarah's character out of the fire while Sokka grabs the goblin, and Teal goes for the child." Nasa gives a small nod. Once she had a vague description of everyone, she would then lift her hands. "Also, to make staying in character easier." She focuses a while, and then... places a Glamour! Suddenly, everyone was glamoured to look like their character!

     "Anyway, if Sarah's character is on the ground she'd help her up and wrap her in a wet hug to help reduce danger as they get back out. 'Are ye alright friend? That looked like a nasty fall. Kin ye walk on yer own?'" She rolls her pencil between her fingers quietly, but mostly it seems to be idle movements.

Sir Gawain has posed:
Oh, dear, this is bad. Gawain frowns at the roll, and listens to Amalthea's response. "Oh boy. Horza is going to use Detect Evil to see if the flaming villager was in fact a demon in disguise, and if not, he's going to move to try and put him out. Will roll...Athletics to pat the fire down! If not, I have a different plan in mind." He prepares to roll.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah looks to Nasa, "6'1 Half-Felf, brown hair, green eyes. Scar across his chin and right cheek from when the other kids beat him up for being different. Dressed in monk's robes." She pauses to make her dice roll. One. Great. "Which.. are probably on fire after that roll." She groans. "Did that Goblin just *save* one of the kids? Just what are the other goblins doing!?" When she notices everyone's appearance change she looks around in amusement but seems hesitant to look at herself.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio suddenly finds herself clothed in a fancy set of female wizard clothes, appropriately shrunken to fit her smaller stature. She calls up a holomirror to look at herself and grins, "Ohhhh, I have a big pointy hat too! Neat!"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea nods. "Seravii finds a small cup in another house's windowsill. The tadpole happily swims around when deposited in water. When Wang Fire snaps his ten foot pole, it holds the beam in place long enough to get the child. But the beam is so heavy, and the goblin's arms are buckling under the weight. Any longer and he will be crushed to death... At least until Astrid gives the beam enough support- now immensely lightened thanks to a successfully cast Flygardium Leviupsa, for the goblin to tumble out. Thusly the party escapes the burning house with the goblin and child in tow. The house collapses completely once everyone is out."
    She takes a slow breath. "The villagers, however, are displeased. Though the boy's mother is relieved beyond belief, taking her child quickly, others return with pitchforks and sharp farming implements, a lynch mob formed in anger against the one goblin. The OTHER goblins sidestep Mighty Melon's flying dutchman tackle, one wheeling around with his club to try and fend off the barbarian, in a panic."
    But. Na`Sa's glamour doesn't just affect the players. It affects the GM as well. Amalthea settles back, leaning in her leather throne as the figure of an evil dark knight takes her place. Just in time to answer after another dice roll.
    "A Find Out Badness spell finds... The villager was evil to the very core of his soul."

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinked a little bit, Then hummed. "Welp, there's only one thing to do. Toph, remember the swamp people? I need you to mix in with the crowd and yell out suggestions." He then coughs. "I turn to them and go... Ladies and gentleman! We have captured oneof the goblins and, while I'm sure you'd all love to hang him out by his toes, to skin him alive, to--" And goes into a bit too much horrifying detail. What? He had an imagination!

"First we need to track dow nthe other goblins in order to get back what was stolen! So, until further notice, we must ask you to contain your desires to lynch until after we have captured the other goblins. Then, I don't know, there'll be six of them."

"We can release this one since he seems good enough, we'll just lynch the other ones." ah, pragmaticism...

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The moment Sokka wraps his arm around Toph and pulls her in close, the blind earthbender clearly tenses up, eyes going slightly wide as her cheeks flare up in a deep shade of red. And she does her best to look casual, failing as much as her next dice roll. So she sits there, looking as if she's having intestinal distress judging by the expression on her face.

    The story unfolds further, and Toph still looks displeased where she sits, hearing that her character is unsuccesful. This is not going well at all. So yet again Toph reaches out, picks up her dice, shaking them in her hand even as she lets Sokka hug her close. At his suggestion she huffs. "I'm kinda busy with these goblins here now though, and the Mighty Melon can't see with her feet," she reminds him. "I guess I have no choice but to try to duck and grab the goblin before I swing him at his fellow goblins!"

    Off the dice roll over the table, coming up to show two nines for a total of eighteen.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Evil dark knight Amalthea is given a glance. Hmm. Well then! She doesn't comment on that, instead focusing on everyone else's actions and words. She muses on that, and the villager's responses. She smiles slightly at the responses to her glamors, but! "Aestrid moves into place between the goblin and the villagers, 'You kinnae continue like this. This goblin helped yer wee one, ye should be thinking 'em, not wishin' fer their death!' Aestrid calls out, glancing towards the goblin. 'Why would ye save the child of the people ye are stealin' supplies from?' She asks of the goblin."

     She pauses, musing a moment. "What's everyone's health at? Did you get hurt when you went into the fire?" She asks, looking towards Sarah.

Sir Gawain has posed:
Gawain nods to Amalthea as she tells him that the guy was evil. "Horza is still sad that it happened, because that was unjust. He'll pay his evil family their dues." And then he watches the others roleplay. "Oh, there's more to the goblin story? Horza is going to step out into the middle, and flash his holy symbol again at the crowd. 'People, please, let us handle this! We have no reason to just kill them, especially if they helped one of yer own, aye?'. Diplomacy check, again!" Another roll.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka burst into laughter, leaning against toph a bit as he laughed. "Bwa ha ha ha! Hey, guys, I guess we're really on a 'roll' aren't we? Got some real 'hot' dice, we're practically on 'fire'. Though not as much as that last guy and the house! We keep talking like this, we're gonna have a bit of trouble, as these people aren't goblining up what we're selling."

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah shrugs at Nasa, "I don't think so? Or else the GM would have said something." She glances at The Dark Knight for confirmation. "Assuming I'm alright, I step between the Goblin and the mob, and ask the villagers, 'Have these Goblins ever killed one of you, that you can prove? or have they simply been stealing food!?'"

    A moment later she kicks Sokka from under the table.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Nasa casts 'real life' Create Water, summoning a small amount right over Sokka's head. "You need to cool off." Gravity then sets in on the summoned water. At about the same time that Sarah kicks at him.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "Fighters take penalties to Charisma-based rolls," Ainsley speaks up from her chair at the table, her face the picture of stoicism, her voice the tone of a friendly reminder. She can see the luck of the party going down in flames, and she looks quite a bit worried whenever someone speaks up. And then she says, "Seeing everyone having an awful lot of trouble, Brook has been having trouble figuring out what to do. But when the crowd forms up she tries to step in to handle in, and she speaks up in her best Crowd Reassuring Voice that she can manage. Seeing as she's a Druid and that talking down angry wildlife is something Druids need to know how to do..."

    "'O-okay,'" Ainsley speaks up in a pleasant voice much different than her normal speaking voice, "'We're here under the capacity of King Fairfax himself. We need to bring the goblins into custody for a FAIR trial. I promise that they'll all get exactly the justice they deserve. Okay?'" Then she picks up her dice and says, "Diplomacy," and rolls it.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio has a look of accomplishment as both the child and goblin are saved from the burning house. She wishes she could stop said fire, but she can only cast that water spell once a day. Ah well.

    Of course the sudden sight of Dark Knight Amalthea gives Vivio pause. But she then grins, "That looks pretty awesome!"

    More giggling as Sokka goes on a pun spree.

    Back to the game! The others seem to be doing what they can to calm the villagers, so Vivio turns her focus to the goblins, "We need to capture the goblins quickly... Hmmmm..." Flameball isn't going to help. Maybe... "Can I use my Scrying spell to try and figure out where the goblins are going? If we get there first, we could ambush them!"

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Oh wow, suddenly everyone's illusioned! Seras-Teal blinks a few times, almost wishing she had a mirror on her! She doesn't... so instead she just focuses on the events as they're explained. A boggle's aimed at Gawain's rolls.

    ... Critical failures. So much awful. Oh boy.

    "With the boy returned to his mother, Teal crouches near the rescued Goblin and asks him what happened. She's not letting the lynchers near."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    The Dark Knight in Amalthea's throne drums fingers on the arm rest. "Many of you stand defiant in front of the horde, some seem leery of her, not taking a step further. 'We not want!' The goblin says, choking and spluttering from breathing in so much smoke, but he manages to speak after a few gasps. 'Winter bad. Not enough food. Bad men took Grok tribe's hunting grounds with their darkness. We take food back.' He rasps, making the crowd agitated and angrier." A paus. "And the Cavern Keeper's ire rouses with every pun. And awards Na`Sabal-Une a cup of taco pudding for cooling Wang Fire's fire."
    "But... As Sokka attempts to speak to the crowd, for a moment they look ready to listen--" She stops there, eye glancing to Ainsley at her reminder of the rules. "But as Fighters have a -4 to all charisma based skills, regardless of all his ranks he has taken in diplomacy he has scored a negative one. ..." So how does the mob react?
    "Someone in the mob yells 'RABBLE!'. Another cries 'SHENANIGANS!'. Soon the whole town is calling for goblin blood with shouts of 'Rabble rabble rabble rabble!'" They are ready to fall upon you- a whole town ready to assault a squad of knight aspirants if they don't let them have that goblin, only paused... By Brook, talking sense into them?" Why is she looking sidelong at Sokka like that? But... Amalthea's eye JERKS in her skull towards Toph, her head follows a moment later to stare at the blind girl. Those dice rolled an 18. By all rights Toph wins the fight. How does that go?
    Everyone gets to see it. Toph will just hear Amalthea slide a sheaf of paper across the table. A fresh and blank character sheet.
    "Remember that rock you threw three combat rounds ago? There is a force in this world called gravity. It comes back down; and rock like to migrate in groups for the winter. It comes back down now."
    Amalthea taps the character sheet.
    "Draft a new character. Rocks have fallen. Mighty Melon has died."

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka cringed as he was kicked. "Ow, why would--" And then water. "Heh. That's a bit cold, kicking me around like that. but I guess those puns are a bit wet." Oh gosh they won't stop!

And then Ainsley says that. "What? No they don't. Fighters just have low skill points, which I think is just weird. I mean, if you don't fling fire balls around how are you supposed to keep up with people who shoot those kinds of things around? It sucks. You end up just getting burned. I was always frozen out or ended up in rocky positions. Where's that -4 coming from?" There was no end to them. There was no Sokka. No wang Fire. There was just the punster. He didn't even seem to notice poor Toph's discomfort as he gave her a tight supportive hug. "Besides, my sister always used to throw snow balls at me. A little water is nothing. And hey, great job, Toph! I knew you could do it! You're really dicing up the competition now." And gave her a lil jostle of encouragement. And then that happens. He blinks and... the smile starts to fade. What? A few pranks to him is fine. But punishing TOPH? That was crossing a line.

"What? What do you mean, rocks fall? She rolled high, that's supposed to be a good thing! And you just instant kill her for it? And how in the world could she toss a rock that high that it takes that long to fall, with friends, and then not be strong enough to survive a few measly rocks? I've had rocks the size of cows drop on my head and I'm fine!"

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
This turn of events leaves Seras bewildered. "Wh... hu--... euh?" Blink. Blink blink. Seras-Teal tilts her head, thoroughly unsure how to parse what just happened. A few moments later her gaze firms up with what might be realization in her eyes...

    Seras idly fidgets with her eraser, looking briefly thoughtful.

Sir Gawain has posed:
Shenanigans happen. Gawain lightly chuckles at puns, and also at Sokka getting watered. He frowns at his horrible roll, but luckily nobody burns to death this time. He pays rapt attention when rocks fall and the Mighty Melon dies. And then, he speaks. "Horza frowns when his ally dies, and moves forward to the crowd. 'Errybody, stand back!' He casts Protection From Jerks on the goblin, in order to ward him from the villagers, and then steps back to see if he can't move Mighty Melon's body away."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "What looks pretty awesome...?" Toph asks when Vivio speaks. Being blind it's pretty much impossible for her to catch the visual illusions provided.

    Instead she sits still as Sokka leans into her, turning her face away from the majority of the table. "Don't overdo the puns now," she warns him. Sure, she is used to them, but not all of them are. Like Nasa and Sarah. But the water is hard to notice for her, so she yelps when the water falls down, partially splashing on her since Sokka is still being overly close and familiar with the earthbender. "H-hey!" she yelps, looking startled as she scrambles to pull back! Pardon her while she catches this chance to regain her cool.

    Man, they're really doing horrid, aren't they? So the goblins are the good ones here, right? If they're telling the truth, that is. Is this a lesson about investigating stuff before you do something? Toph herself looks rather relaxed though. After all, she rolled 18! That calm reflects in how she drinks her soda and munches on some taco pudding. Not too bad, really. Is that a faint snicker that leaves her when Sokka fails. "Man, way to go guys..." she comments quietly. Okay Amalthea, you can describe how Mighty Melon utterly smashes those goblins now!

    Too bad she can't see the foreboding stare from Amalthea...

    The sound of paper takes Toph by surprise however, but not as much as the words that follow. The blind earthbender sits still, the smile no longer on her face as it's been replaced with a look of confusion. "Huh? Yeah, I'm not senile, I remember...?" Of course she knows about gravity and...

    One second passes, and Toph's expression hardens before she pushes herself forward on her chair.

    "WHAT?!"

    Poor Sokka might have gone deaf in one ear, even as Toph sternly turns towards Amalthea. "What the crud?! She wouldn't die from /that/!" Toph protests. "I rolled EIGHTEEN!"

    Yes, it's clear she doesn't quite realise... that Amalthea /knows/.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley's head turns for her to fixate her gaze silently on Sokka as he goes on and on. She briefly looks toward Toph but remembers Toph is blind so she wouldn't notice a subltle look of sympathy. She sloooowly turns her head to look back to Amalthea and smiles as if all of this is perfectly normal. There's some subtly forced feeling to her behavior like she's trying not to give away her actual feelings on what's happening. She's not the most engaged of players in this, oddly enough, and chooses to gather some snack food and stuff it in her face.
    "Maybe we'll do better next time," she remarks, as if nothing were going wrong at all during the entire game.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Oh good, Ainsley was speaking up and doing important things! And rolling high, more importantly! Nasa gives a little nod towards her. Yep. Talking down angry wildlife /is/ important! "That is a good idea, Vivio." Nasa says supportively to the little girl who seemed to mostly just be having fun. But information was good even /if/ they weren't going to punish them. She pauses though. Hmmm.

     "'Ye do not wish to kill, just get food? And they choked ye out of yer hunting grounds with their greed?' She looks towards the villagers thoughtfully, and then begins to take stock of the town, looking to see just how much excess they might have. Are they overly stocked on food and riches that they don't need?" Nasa says. She seems to think a bit, before looking towards Gawain. As his dice roll poorly again. She reaches to take Gawain's die away from him. "Shhh, shh shh shh. It's okay. The mean dice will not hurt you anymore." And then she places her die in front of him. Maybe new dice will make his rolls less terrible!

     Aaand then Toph begins to freak out over the rolls, her hands lowering to rest on her lap. And she falls silent, instead opting to eat the taco pudding gifted her by the GM, awaiting impending doom.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    With that chastisement dealt out... Amalthea blatantly ignores Toph. "You should be drafting a character to rejoin the party. Now." Added firmly in a tone that brooks zero intention of changing her mind. She settles back down in her chair, one floppy goat-like ear flitting as Sokka doth protest. Amalthea draws in a long breath and lets it out in a slow sigh. Because she passes her copy of the manual over to him. "Page 151. Fighters are unable to use diplomacy. At all. Thank you for reminding me Ainsley." She adds as an aside. She just... Resumes narrating.
    "Horza casts Protection from Jerks. He finds that the spell is... Significantly stronger than it should be against the crowd, in spire of knowing he cast it so poorly. The town of rowdy rabble-rouses is held at bay for the time being. The town itself is a small village, but the people here are clearly well off. Their clothes are old and worn but lovingly taken care of, the houses are in fine state of repair and their harvest is plentiful. They actually have more than enough to spare even IF six or seven goblins raided from them on a regular basis." Added to Nasa, "But, as the party can tell there is something deeper, and darker afoot here, this is where the adventure must draw to a close, the shroud of 'it's fucking late' coming across the land, time freezes as the Cavern Keeper declares a pause until next time..." She thumps her book shut and falls silent. Staring at the group for a long moment. She stands... Sets her hands on the game table... And heaves.
    Amalthea flips the table.
    It lands with a loud clatter and clash as she picks Toph's dice off the floor and holds them out. "Stone dice. That's why Mighty Melon is dead. You think I wouldn't /KNOW/? You earthbended an eighteen."

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinked a few times. "What? That's not in there at all, that--" And then the table flipped and... he looked stunned. He opened his mouth to object, then stopped. He reached out and covered Toph's mouth. "Toph. Stop," he said firmly. He took a slow, deep breath. "She's trying to play us. Making up rules, twisting the rules. She gave you those dice, obviously she gave them to you so the moment you rolled high she could punish you."

He narrowed his eyes on her. There was a... seething annoyance there. "Now, I don't know WHY she's trying to play us. Maybe she has some power trip? But it's just like Azula. She tries to manipulate you so you screw up and she can get her way." Day of black sun alllll over again. "Come on, let's go." He took her hand and tried to pull her towards the door.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Seras seems to be taking this matter in stride, exhaling in relief... up until she gets a sudden impulse.

    An impulse to SCOOT BACK!

    Seras-Teal tries to simply push back to skid her chair a meter or so away from the table... but misjudges her strength!

    This results in pushing TOO hard and tumbling backwards, the chair's back slamming into the ground and the glamored-Draculina doing a floppy backward somersault for two rolls... owwwww.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     The silent non-response from Amalthea. Yep. This was how it was going to be, it seemed. And people who didn't learn might find themselves, well. In unpleasant situations! Nasa shifts her mechanical pencil thoughtfully, looking down at the pencil, and then up again. Hmm. She pauses as she listens to Amalthea narrate though. "It's not that la-- ...Wait, no, it's late by non-night-people standards." She syas with a mild nod. Aaaand... tableflips occur, which causes Nasa to jump -- literally -- into the air, the glamours breaking instantly as she loses focus. "Wh--" And then Amalthea speaks of the earthbending. She frowns a bit, looking at Amalthea, and then towards Sokka. "No. She's playing /with/ us. Not playing us. She said she did everything for a reason though." Nasa states simply. She lands again, moving over to where her character sheet fell to pick it up, clicking her mechanical pencil deliberately only once. And then finding a relatively flat leg edge. And she begins to calmly cross out the bit where it says she can use her pencil to heal. "There. Now now temptation for me either."

Sir Gawain has posed:
Gawain finally smiles in relief that something worked (though he refuses the swap of dice with Nasa, because these are his Chosen Dice). He's already getting ready to start talking about what Horza does next when...the table is flipped. He moves down to swiftly gather all his collector's dice and the box, put them back together neatly, and pick up his sheet and figurine. And then he turns his sheet over to Amalthea.

"Oh, right, Curator! There was something odd about my HP, so I just wrote the actual HP to the side." The sheet is held up enough that anyone could probably catch a glimpse (except Toph): there's an infinite symbol, plus the number of times Nasa double-clicked her mechanical pencil during the session.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    But why does she have to make a new character?!

    The blind girl lets out a sound of frustration as she flops back in her chair, looking mighty irritated as she crosses her arms across her chest. No, it doesn't look like she's about to draft another character just yet. Especially since Amalthea explains how they're drawing to a close for now, today's adventure coming to an end. It doesn't look like Toph focuses on that for now though, still sour where she sits. Heck, even when Amalthea rises and flips the table she doesn't raise an eyebrow, sulking as she pulls her legs back to make sure the table doesn't hit them as it crashes to the ground.

    When the stone dice are held out however, she narrows her eyebrows before she reaches her hand out... and bends the dice up into Amalthea's face if she gets the chance, though not hard. "You can't prove that, and yo--" Sokka covers her mouth, and instantly the blind girl reaches up to push Sokka's hand away. That doesn't seem to be why Toph is upset though, and she lets out a huff before she gets out up from her chair, though she pulls her hand away from Sokka's as she stomps off to the door on her own. "Whatever." Though she does pick up the blank character sheet and her bag as she storms off to the door.

Vivio Takamachi (737) has posed:
    Vivio giggles quietly at the explanation of why the game is ending for now. She has to admit, it was a lot of fun! Not what she expected from a training session.

    And then flipped, the table is.

    Vivio instinctively darts off her seat, hiding behind the chair as the table comes down. She's quite shocked and confused to begin with, but then begins to recover. She looks at Toph a little sadly, "You cheated?"

    Then Sokka tries to blame Amalthea, so Vivio stands up straight as says, "Hold on, that's not fair. The Curator didn't make any of us do anything. If Toph cheated, that was her decision! We are each responsible for our own choices and actions. No one else."

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah almost falls backwards when the table suddenly flips, "My Pudding!" She cries out, in pretty much the exact same tone as 'My Cabbages!' Said pudding bowl was flung off to nowhere. "She was testing us." she says like it should be obvious, "That die I could've etched any number I wanted into is back there somewhere with my snacks.. and good riddance!" She says with a relieved sigh, "Toph.. It was all part of the game.. lesson.. whatever this was! You shouldn't get so worked up!" She tries to call after the Earthbender as she storms off.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"I thought I could trust everyone to not use the magic cheat things." Seras whines as she gets to her feet. "Which I think this is supposed to block..." She holds up her eraser. "I can't be the only person who smelled something fishy...? Bloody hell." The police girl's face turns sour, lips twisting off to one side of her mouth. which leaves a fang poking out rather oddly over her lower lip. SERAS DISAPPROVES. (-1)

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley is susipiciously silent. She looks at Sokka with something like cold calculation, even as the table is flipped and it ends up slamming into the floor. It rustles her feathers, just the wind passing by her face as the table flips up past her nose.

    She still stares at Sokka calmly.

    Why is she stari--

    As others indicate it was a lesson, Ainsley feels the need to speak up. "There was no nefarious purpose to this. You were not manipulated out of amusement or evil intent. You were given the option to cheat, or to follow the rules." And then she adds, "You were right, Sokka. There is no rule about Fighters being unable to use Diplomacy. Being able to remember and understand the rules set before you is very important. Sometimes knowing a law before you act will mean life or death. However..." She seems to consider what else she observed... but she glances aside at Amalthea and decides, "No, I'll let her say it." And with that, she gets up from her seat, and calmly brushes some snack debris off of her Moogle PJs. She turns to gather up her tabletop supplies.

    "This was interesting. Thank you, Curator," she says to the Unicorn. "Sorry, Sokka," she says, finally, smiling a great big smile and kind of letting her posture go slack. It's a very blatantly placating look, embarrassed that she did that to him. "Good night, everyone~"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    And so the game ends. But as Sokka protests and rises to take Toph with him... Amalthea does nothing to stop them. In fact, she lets Nasa and Gawain speak first, revealing the truth to an enchanted pencil and infinite HP. And then Sarah admits to her phony die.
    The slow clank-clank-clank of metal hands coming together resounds through the room. Amalthea is slowly clapping. "Very good. Very good..."
    What?
    No, she doesn't even bat an eye as she crosses her legs. "Sokka I did not set Toph up for failure." She says very calmly. "I set everyone in this room up for failure. Myself included, as Seras has pointed out, and Ainsley has now admitted. If anything, you should have had bonuses in that confrontation." The unicorn nods once and clicks her tongue.
    "Like the hidden compartment under your chair. That you did not touch. Kudos, boy. You get bonus points for actually doing your homework. Start at level two next session. BUT. You also did Toph's homework for her. So you get one less feat." But she purses her lips, a very somber look crossing her face. "I want you all to walk away from here tonight with this simple thought. This was a game about rules. I expect them to be followed. Because as I expect you all to follow rules, the Paladins will demand much more. Answer me this... If you cannot follow simple rules, how can you be expected to uphold the law?"
    Amalthea claps one more time. "Lesson's over. I'll see you all next week to finish the story. Without shenanigans."

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Nasa quietly admits before she leaves, "I was thinking of saving the pencil for an absolute emergency."

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka totally took Toph out for ice cream then. Tohelp cheer her up and try and make her feel better.