Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	'Cool, humid air meets you on your exit. Scrub grasses turn lush and green. Trees are thick and riotously coloured. Flowering climbers cover every surface, the air filled with dreamlike haze and glittering pollen. The path is equal parts gravel and mud, and the sound of crooning animal calls echoes with haunting melody from the distance. Overture ~ Ancient Lake flashes across your HUD.'     'Only a short walk is needed to arrive at a particularly intact ruin of white stone topped with a black glass cube, covered in whorled geometric designs, which begins to float and rotate as you approach, red-gold light flowing through etchings down a central pillar and over a wide diamond foundation under the vines. Waycadence ~ Ancient Lake is added to your map. Phreak, with his teleport ability, can see that this is a Recall Node. A place that can be teleported to with an item (or his Trait), or touched directly to travel to any other one; likely there is one in Clef too.'     'See you again soon!'     It has been a few days. A necessary amount, all experts on the project from both sides insist, to comb over nearly a full subjective day's worth of data, document it, analyze it, and study the device activity records, perform risk assessment, and check for any remote firmware modifications or sympathetic curses somehow inflicted on them by connecting to Bladecraft. This is done in a very sophisticated Complex Crisis Processing Center in Aegis Astray for the Paladins, and in a garage full of hotshot punks and grizzled veteran supervisors for the Watch. Both processes turn up clean results.     Logging back in again is the same white void and colourful tunnel. Unexpectedly, you are, in fact, prompted to log in again, like any other game. Somehow it feels something more like 'accepting terms' or 'signing contract' than a security check to prevent account stealing. Without the realm of character creation, being dumped straight into your virtual avatar is slightly disorienting, but you can consciously feel the way that the differing parameters of senses, physique, and morphology, slide smoothly from one set to the other over the course of a few seconds, like your mind pouring from one container and filling another, from behind the eyes outward.     You're re-logged at the same Waycadence you left from. Last you recall, the time compression of the game you'd discovered by surprise had been a six to one ratio with real time. However, according to the game clock and fictional date, the time that has passed since your last log-in is one to three instead. Time has been slowed while you were away. Health, Clarity, and Stamina, have recovered to the maximum, and status effects have expired, but Vitals remain where they were. Those with tracking skills see the traces of a few more parties having passed this way in the last twelve hours. Those paying attention to the news have seen over six thousand deaths reported since last time.     Eryl's mailbox shows upwards of forty new messages, mostly regarding movements of players leaving Clef, fights (not to the death, at least) in Beachhead as it reaches overcapacity, checking in on his status, and asking about the Derivation Bridge after approximately three quarters of the parties brave enough to tackle it never returned.
Friz	Dirt: Hey boss, just wanted to let you know, looks like we're going through a river, and also we're upside down. Savvy: What? Grit: Oh, I hate this. Dirt: Yeah, we're also thirty feet long and under the ocean. Moxie: I think that is the sensory transition... I'll try to stabilize the sense of balance, at least. Savvy: Yeah, good luck...     Friz stumbles when she "hits the ground". After a little while steadying herself, she shakes her head clear. Dirt: Alright, all's normal, boss. Savvy: Thought so. Moxie: We need to go look into that additional stream of deaths... Grit: More will die, until we solve this. Dirt: In luck, there. I see traces. Looks...     "...like people came through here. More people forced out by the stagnation and overcrowding of Clef..." She stands from her kneeling position, scratching her face. She tries to adjust glasses that aren't there, then makes a weird "wuh" sort of sound. Moxie: Did that help, Dirt? Dirt: Gah! We don't have glasses! Moxie: Ahhh-- crap, sorry!     "Urgh. Why'd they... alright, let's figure this out." Where to now? They're near that ruin, right? And they never figured out that Ruin Boss. She wracks her brains for a minute, muttering out loud all the data she can recall... Savvy: Dirt, can you pull up all the data we've got about the ruin boss? Dirt: Gotcha, boss. One second...     Clutching her detective badge, she activates her DETECTIVE abilities. She starts to recall every inch of Derivation Bridge that she can, and to dedicate a broad analysis to the area. Mapping the layout, recalling the findings, and directly querying the system for sustained study, maybe even re-entering the place in a very limited investigatory way, is there some way to find a lead on the Ruin Boss -- or, at least, to conclusively disprove that the Ruin Boss will have a significant effect on their ability to change the local survival eco-system-nomy?
Ishirou	The relog causes some vertigo as Ishirou is trying to rebalance himself. Staggering for a brief moment upon relogging, he shakes his head and closes his eyes to let vertigo pass and then reopens. A new area to explore, which has him very interested. However, in the conversation, some things come up, and the remainder of the grim cost that is plaguing the people trapped in this game brings him back down. Suggestions go around, but Ishirou notices Friz working on trying to puzzel out the ruins boss. That's, actually, a good idea and Ishirou decides to help Friz with this by lending his own investigative insight. Using his own scanning abilities, analysis, and his own insight to try and help piece things together. Specifically, if there was a link between the boss and the 'forsaken' status effect in the room before, or if there were some sort of other connections to the room that was just a massive radioactive mess.
Tamamo	Tamamo hadn't been here for the previous session, but she's since caught up a little bit. At least, she's gotten herself set up, with Lilian's help. Her appearance, therefore, bears mentioning.     For the most part, it's not as if Tamamo couldn't look like this, but that she doesn't wish to that makes it less than common, and far less than constant. Her avatar looks much like she often does, though here she has only only one tail. The tip of that tail, along with the tips of her ears, are constantly aflame. Her overall appearance has been given a shift since she first set it in character creation, as did many others, in a way that bothered her -- though Lilian was the only one present to see her immediate reaction, as well as the only one she'd wish to see -- as her Inordinator Trait manifested as long and sharp, claw-like nails, and rather uncomfortably too many bestially sharp teeth. These are still less obvious than the Originator Trait's effect, permanently positioning a golden disk behind her head, etched with patterns of sun and clouds. It is a faintly shining halo, even where it has no light to catch, though it is, thankfully, much less than blinding. This makes it easy to miss the far more subtle band of light around one finger of her left hand.     Her equipment has also been picked out, and put to some very minor practice for the sake of smoothly catching up with the others. The limitations of the game being what they are, she does not have access to her usual artifact, the manifested Eightfold Blessings, here. And yet, she was able to equip a shield to a floating slot, positioning the metal circle near her, and leaving her left arm free. She looks rather pleased with her new sword, a jian-style blade at her left hip, where her hand can rest on the hilt. Her armor, such as it is, is someone's idea of heavy armor -- a combination of chain and plated protection, but its body coverage matches more closely with what would be expected of certain 21st century Korean games.     It's the stats that matter, after all. Or is it the fashion that matters? She's sure it's one of those.     Her hair's been done up in ribbons to achieve a high ponytail, though long sidelocks remain, her fringe necessarily messy or, rather, wavy, her hair ever trending more toward a flowing look than smoothly straight. It may be a bit more fiery than usual, though that could be the effect of the nearby flames giving such an impression.
Rita Ma	On materializing in the virtual world, the very first thing Rita does is touch her face, as if she were picking at something invisible. Whatever she's looking for, she doesn't find it. That reassures her, and she droops to sigh in relief.      A moment later, Friz pops into existence and stumbles, and Rita jolts to futilely try and catch her, only succeeding in landing a hand on her shoulder after the danger's passed. "Oh no! Are you alright, Ms. Friz?"      Rita's detective skills aren't particularly sharp, but after that incident she pokes around the various tracks anyway, trying to discern some kind of pattern. Then she notices Friz doing the same, and hovers nearby to try and find a decent moment to interject.      "Hey, Ms. Friz? Could you please look at the tracks going away from this point, too? I think that might lead us to the next town. The people there will definitely have more information for us, right?"
Friz	Friz unseasily nods. She sort of pats Rita's arm awkwardly. "All fine. Just a weird disorientation." She makes sure to link up with whatever Ishirou's skills can do. There's got to be some sort of Duet mechanic, right? That sounds correct-ish. It's later when she listens to the request from Rita during her investigations. Dirt: Rita on the horn for you, boss. Savvy: Yeah? ...Alright, yeah, look for those tracks. Moxie: You think they've been migrating already? Grit: That could be the hope that gets so many people killed. Savvy: No, that doesn't sound right to me... for some reason.     "I doubt that would have happened without a way bigger migration... but maybe. I'll check."
Kirishima	What was the password again? Kirishima takes a while longer to actually get back into the game, having made the safety-conscious decision to actually use a different password for once only to need extra time just to remember what the new one was. Once she's in, though, there's another bout of wasted time trying to reacclimate herself to her adjusted sense of everything and making sure she's not just getting too comfortable with it already. It's only when she hears everyone else mentioning their plans that she finally realizes how much time she may or may not be wasting doing that, getting mildly agitated right up until she sees the in-game clock. "I thought things were supposed to move faster in here. Or... I must've misheard?" She lets out a troubled noise, checking on her gear to see if any of her stuff or consumables happened to decay while Friz gets to work. "But... Yeah, if it's still long enough for people to have gotten forced out, then it's still too long." She lets out another uncomfortable noise. "I wonder how many of them were forced towards that Derivation Bridge, too." Kirishima comments, piggybacking off Rita's suggestion. "Or if that was just the next point to progress in this game and too many went in unprepared."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Phreak and Bercilak appear within a few seconds of each other.      "So this Waycadence is also a Recall Node," says the fixer, brushing his clockwork prosthetic through his dark hair and stifling a shiver. "I can bring us back here, or to any other one we've discovered. It costs me a little pocket change and XP." With a flat look leveled towards the rest of the party, "Which is a song, compared to what it'd cost you guys. So leave the fast travel to me unless your middle name is moneybags." He shifts anxiously in place.      "TAMAMO!" Bercilak bellows a greeting, eyes glowing brighter red. "I haven't seen you in forever." Extending a clawed gauntlet for a handshake, "Love the iron, sib. You know how to reach me if you're looking to scratch the finish on those bitches," he says amiably, pointing at her weapons. The armor goes unnoticed. % Bercilak - Notes: Woodsman Phreak - Chord: Scoundrel      The two assist in attempting to find the nearest point of civilization; Phreak by searching for other signs of Watch presence, Bercilak by searching for the tracks of mounted animals (as opposed to wild) along the roads or nearest equivalent beaten path.
Eryl Fairfax	Eryl had not been among the main force pressing through Derivation Bridge. He had reached out to those who contacted him to ask if there was anything pressing in the real world that needed attending to. If there were pets to feed, appointments to reschedule, friends to notify, that sort of thing. The persistent bookkeeping of names, addresses, preferences, and requirements along with the therapeutic approach required when reminding someone trapped in a game that the real world is moving on without them... well, it's very distracting from the life-or-death battles the game mandates.     And once he logs in again, sliding into this halo-headed machineman. He doesn't stumble, but it does take a few wiggles of his extremities to get used to the transition. Post log-in, he's met with a flood of emails, which he immediately sets about replying to with only the tiniest sigh. He's glad to hear that players are starting to move along, but the amount of deaths makes him frown. The dungeon is functioning as a bottleneck event, weeding out large amount of players.     His responses are long and detailed, breaking down what kind of place Derivation Bridge is. The enemies within and the weaknesses they observed. The tight quarters that made a large party more of a hindrance that a help. The overwhelmingly strong enemies. The dangerous hazards and curses. But also details of the items one can find within to advance, the valuable resources, the warp point at the end of it, and the fact that clearing it enabled logging out (hence his not replying).     His suggestion for the guild he's set up is that they go in in parties of four. Those focussed on resource gathering should only go in with dedicated combat parties. He also quickly asks his fellow Elites for any advice they'd like to offer. <J-IC-Scene> Phreak says, "Yeah, I got one for you, there, chief. There's a tunnel network under it that you can use to skip between sections. The monsters there are tougher, but it's faster if you know what you're looking for."     Eryl relays the existence of the tunnels, but underlines the fact that strong monsters are down there. He adds a personal note to this, saying that the existence of these tunnels implies that their route did not cover everything. As such, they might hold hidden dangers he cannot relay. <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Also, the way through to the boss has a room and a path before it that puts a anti-healing debuff on that's very similar to radiation. Similar enough that anti-radiation protection works to blunt it. There are things in the room that can reduce it's effect, and a device that can be 'repaired' to fix the leakage but it requires a lot of scrap and only lasts a few days." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I think Ms. Friz and Ms. Rook know exactly how many materials you need to repair the core, Mr. Faifax."     A textual description of the gathering points that supply the right kind of scrap is given. Going into the boss with such a severe debuff is likely the reason for a lot of those deaths after all. The fact that the repairs only last a short while is deeply troublesome too. He suggests that players work out a schedule for going in so that multiple people can take advantage of the first party repairing the leak. <J-IC-Scene> Phreak says, "One other thing. Some friends of mine gave me a map marker that's a little further down from here. So between that and the tracks, I'm thinking there's a settlement or at least something worth checking out."     Finally, he advises that there's likely a settlement right after the dungeon, so victorious players will have a place to rest, recuperate, and hopefully have the chance to log out in a safe place. And also that he made sure that anything anyone IRL that people needing handled got handled by the Paladins. Whether or not they believe him or still think he's a roleplayer is up to them.     It's a lot of people to reply to. Hopefully this games text editor has a copy-paste function so he's not writing out that explanation every time!
Tamamo	<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Try to find the next settlement, and make that radiation room safer so more people can get healing magic."     "Is it necessary to provide all the materials to repair the room at once? Can they not provide a little at a time, to maintain the..." Tamamo has to think about what the correct term is, going off this only by an after-the-fact description of what had happened, "durability timer? This would remove the danger of rushing through that stationary curse, no?"     Though she's not certain, she still makes the suggestion, "One may gather some of the required scrap before reaching the room, while it is still safe to do so, and spend this while within the room. Should this be done with organized regularity, it would only be when this place has been again abandoned that it would become unsafe. Am I mistaken?"     Bercilak bellows a greeting, eyes glowing brighter red.     "Oh, my. It is sir Bercilak -- of course, I had heard you would be here, and yet -- oh, you have... no, not broken, but allayed the curse you mentioned? Have I the right of it?" She moves the floating shield to the side through some mysteriously invisible method, and accepts his handshake. She is considerably shorter than him, both within and without of the game, and her presently worn combat heels don't add any inches that her usual footwear hadn't already. Her build isn't too much different, either, though perhaps just a little more warrior-like than one would have assumed from her usually worn robes. Whether this has any effect on stats... well, it probably doesn't.     "Oh, to be certain, I remain rather less than a knight. I have put some effort into learning some forms as would be useful to this place, and perhaps... ah, perhaps it would not be such a terrible thing, to find how a knight judges the extent of my present progress."
Lilian Rook	Putting together recorded data of Derivation Bridge is a bit of a task, given that the dungeon itself is big enough for a twelve person party to not feel unwieldy room to room, and for probably hundreds of people at once to be able to occupy without needing to come into contact with one another. The Elite group only explored a small section of it, sequence skipping by cheating at various gates and obstacles.     Still, the miniboss dropping materials that can be used to make equipment that provides resistance to the miserable death status is notable, as is the secret location of a later key. The respawns were relatively fast, meaning it would probably take triple digit players on-site around the clock to keep a consistent route through it clear.     The amount of salvage required to repair the housing on the Emanation Core was daunting, but could potentially be communally funded. The bottleneck would be the boss' respawn rate, given the exits sealed once it was defeated. There is a crafting recipe for blue iodine and marrow draughts, but they require materials from the dungeon itself, so their spawn points are more useful information.     The boss' attack patterns and stats are extremely valuable information in of themselves, but there was no indication of any relation to the negative status (except making survival harder), or a way to make it easier; only that it responded to the story prompt of 'Everse One'. It could theoretically be possible that a different kind of Iconic Character would have another reaction, but it's a total unknown.     The fully collected data could probably sell for a lot. Organizing a guild will still require the questline somewhere in Clef, a property somewhere, and a ton of money.
Eryl Fairfax	Once all those mails are sent, Eryl considers the data he's just freely disseminated. If collated, it would be incredibly valuable. Selling it would gather capital fast, and then perhaps the guild could become official. It's not clear what benefits that would have beyond "owning digital land" but... this game rewards trying new frontiers.     Follow-up emails are sent to those who chose crafting as their profession. He instructs them to craft blank books, and inscribe them with the dungeon walkthrough he provided and try putting them on the in-game market. Perhaps, if the dungeon was made more accessible to NPCs, they would do their own forays and it would slowly clear out and become safer? Worth a try anyway. He also advises that they make the books available for trade with other players, of course.     With that done, he finally sets about following those tracks down towards the map marker that Phreak obtained.
Lilian Rook	Lilian accidentally sort of mirrors Rita by touching the top of her head absently. Her lips twist in annoyed contemplation as she starts wondering if the things that shall not be named grew a tiny bit. "Remember what the system announcement said?" Lilian says to Kirishima. "'System clock has been updated with 'Retrocausal Timekeeping Functionality', thanks to 'Prime User One.' And that 'Virtual time compression will now be adjusted in real time, scaled to concurrent logins of Iconic and Potential Iconic characters, so as to maximize Primary Arc involvement.'"     Critical examination of traces with the right skill checks or Traits matches up with Eryl's mails. Over the in-game day since you cleared Derivation Bridge, hundreds more parties have trickled in, and if the rate is steady, close to eighty have actually made it.     The average size of the parties that comes through seems to be either very small or very large; either four to six 'naturals' for this kind of content, who prepared well and played expertly, or thirty to forty nobodies who have banded together and successfully spread the threat over such a large number of people that nobody could be easily overwhelmed and killed easily, probably by rotating groups and only flooding major encounters with large areas. It's hard to tell what the average party that failed was like.     Either way, according to the stats they can pool with Eryl, this roughly projects that ninety percent of the population is still in Clef, with three percent in Beachhead and seven percent already dead. There is still no information on the second exit from Beachhead, which seems meaningful, if not concerning.     Immersion's sake demands that Eryl write the information down in his starting journal item before being allowed to copy it into anything else. Honestly, it's more convenient than a clipboard function, if he thiks about it.     The traces very predictably follow the gravel paths, almost none bothering to fan out and explore outside them. The lake mist and glittering pollen creates a dreamy haze of mediocre visibility that would dissuade random bumbling for parties who have just recently depleted their supplies, and many who have probably lost someone. Most players who've been here had the same idea; seeking a new town to stay in, rather than the grandiose, overcrowded, and overpriced Holy City.
Ishirou	Well, not as world-changing as they thought, but the idea of keeping maintenance up on the room MIGHT provide a boon to people getting through that dungeon. Ishirou also considers the mechanism that needs repair and upkeep might be a sort of long con community 'work together' project, which seems to fit into the game itself. Ishirou also works with Eryl, going over any data that might have been forgotten or thought unimportant. That way he has a full data set to work with, and fewer surprises for the people who will eventually come through. Ishirou decides to move forward, wanting to see the next town and guessing that what might be there could theoretically help those still in Clef. Though why they move, he does area scans that are off the beaten path to try and see what sites are around them, if any. Fog doesn't reduce his vision!
Haseo	Logging back in is fairly easy. Haseo was expecting it to be harder somehow, as if his first time was a fluke, but it apparently wasn't. He really must be that good at computers, or maybe he's exceptionally cursed in his ability to get into messed up games.      After he's reoriented himself with the still frankly bizarre connecting sequence, Haseo quickly opens up his menu. Not because he's worried about anything being affected by the obvious time difference between the server's and the real world, but because he read up that a lot of 'modern' game design gives you XP buffs if you've logged out for a bit. If that's the case here, he definitely wants to take advantage of it.      "Using up XP to warp sounds like a pretty crappy deal. I'd rather just spend the gold rather than waste something that's a pain to grind."      Haseo throws a comment to Phreak as he continues to skim through his menus as he moves forward with the rest of the group.      "Well, I guess it's still pretty useful regardless. Hopefully you can't delevel in this game though, cause that'd kind of suck."
Kirishima	"That's right... After we cleared the last set of ruins." Kirishima nods slowly as it starts coming back to her, stroking her chin lightly after a few moments. "That certainly makes things convenient for us, then, if we don't have to worry quite as much about..." She pauses, then blanches slightly. "... As many people dying between sessions compared to if time was running that much faster." One more uncomfortable noise later, and she finally nods in agreement with the plan to check out the next town. "If we can identify the stronger fighters there, then that will make it that much easier to come up with a plan to start farming the previous dungeon. The more people we can outfit with gear that isn't complete garbage, the lower their mortality rates should be while we're away." Another pause. "We might even be able to draw on their ability to obtain materials for us to make progress and get them all out of here that much sooner. Snowball effects and all that. Like..." Kirishima taps her chin briefly, then snaps her fingers. "Like an idle game!"
Lilian Rook	"That's mine. Lilian Moneybags Rook." says Lilian, already rolling her eyes on reflex, to Phreak, before she suddenly seizes up for a moment. ". . . Now that I remember the game has its own currency, of which we all gained the same amount, I'd like to discover how to maximize that as soon as possible."     She gets in the way of Becilak by reflex once he starts being a hyperbro in Tamamo's direction. "Now you look here-" she begins, revving herself up, before she realizes he means the jian and shield. Then Tamamo brings up a rather important question.     "I'm interested in exploring that idea, at least. I didn't see at the time if the cost was based on a percentage of the shield's durability, but it's logical to assume. It is for repairing our gear, if you've noticed. The only issue is how lucrative it would be for a single party to camp that one medium-sized room and monopolize critical and financially valuable resources, not to mention access to that 'Composition of Breath' Sheet." Her faith in average people when trapped together remains impeccably abysmal. She stares thoughtfully into the distance, and the redshifted rings around her luminesce for several seconds, terminating when she blinks. "I'm correct. That's how it is. The lump sum we paid is to restore the entire bar."     She allows herself a tiny smile for Tamamo's sake. "It's worth taking advantage of. If we begin at level one and can still learn skills and gain traits, there's no point in not taking every single advantage we can." She opens up her status screen and fiddles around. "I wonder where that floating slot is . . ."     Meanwhile according to Bercilak's check, there are no mounted tracks. The logical assumption for Phreak is that mounts are a mechanic unlocked much later, and thus his ability to acquire one already will make him immediately stand out and provide a considerable advantage if abused in the sense of historical cavalry.
Rita Ma	While Friz wraps up the investigating, Rita bends down with her hands on her knees to scrutinize the same clues, as if hoping the pieces will magically fit together for her the same way they do for the detective. "I don't know about that, Ms. Friz. The cities are built by 'NPCs', right? I'm just looking for a place where more experienced players might gather, past the dungeon. I bet they could tell us a lot."      "Oh! Ms. Tamamo!" Rita straightens up and clasps her hands together in gushing amazement when addressed. Even if the flames and sharp teeth are simultaneously intimidating, 'terrifying older women with swords' is exactly in her comfort zone. "You look..."      She distantly remembers something, and swerves. "Your armor looks great! I love your sword, too! Did you really get Ms. Rook to teach you to use it? I'm a little jealous!"      Then, at the question posed, she looks off to the side and rubs her temple gingerly. "That would make sense, but I'm not sure about it. I don't remember if there was an option for 'upkeep'. But even if there were, that'd mean people would have to be in the dungeon all the time, right? The monsters respawn pretty fast, so I don't think that'd be safe."      When Lilian checks the top of her own head, Rita leans in and innocently asks: "Have you let Ms. Tamamo touch those yet, Ms. Rook?"      After all that's concluded, she heads down the foggy gravel path alongside Ishirou in hopes of locating the next settlement, assuming he must have some idea of where he's going. It takes her a little bit of jogging to catch up, but catch up she does.      "How have you been doing, Mr. Ishirou? I don't think we've really talked since all of the stuff with Ms. Rook's armor. You look like you're doing better, at least!"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak barks a laugh at Lilian, hand over his armored belly as he throws his head back. "Relax, horny," he says, pointing a clawed index at Lilian's head protrusion. "I don't roll like that. But yeah, Tamamo--" says Bercilak with a nod, before turning to observe the tracks with a clawed gauntlet stroking his chin. "Game gave me the option to..." His brow furrows slightly, and with his back turned to Tamamo, she won't be able to see the frown on his face. It does feel like a curse, sometimes. "Fix it," he says after a pause. Her agreement, however, has him looking over his shoulder with a wide grin. Offering Tamamo a thumbs up, "Hell yeah, sib!"      Both of the Rubi-Kans end up following the gravel path, with Phreak keeping his map up to guide towards (what he assumes is) the nearest settlement. Bercilak is a little less rigorous in keeping to it, however. Bercilak - Notes: Woodsman      Calling up his skill menu once again, the cronch of Bercilak's heavy boots in the gravel slows up. The admittedly distant cries of the animals heard through the fog have his attention. Some of them might be good eating, or better yet, able to be tamed. Mounts are rare and outright locked out for much of the playerbase (as he noticed by the preponderance of human tracks), and starting food is finite. Either of those would be a big help, what with time working against them even at its present, slowed pace.      The way he's beginning to meander off the path suggests he'll soon lose track of that very thing--time--to his own curiosity.      "It would, yeah," says Phreak, who isn't paying attention to Bercilak, but rather, to Haseo. "They've done a lot, from a design perspective, to kind of cut down on making this a second job. Know what I mean? Not in the sense that it's not work--I mean, some of the stuff you can do in this place takes way more effort than it would in some other game. More in the sense they don't want it to be... fuck, what's the word." He snaps the fingers of his organic hand in search of it. "Mundane. Yeah?"
Friz	Savvy: Alright, we've got the full data package. This... Grit: The people in Clef can know the lethality. Grit: They can be brave instead of being stupid. Grit: Take it to them. Grit: The Volunteers Department will bring them life.     Friz finishes scribbling in her notepad and shuts it. If there's some kind of data-inventory, she's stocked and ready. She doesn't plan on spending a large amount of time on this, though; instead, she plans on cross-referencing those psychological profiles and those connections Eryl made. She pulls up her friends list... "It won't last." "It'll be enough." She whispers. "Not with you gone so often." "The time-scale... it's making sure we don't lose our chances. I think it's siphoning something from Lilian Rook. For better or for worse. Can you just give me some gut-feel readings?" "Mmh. Might as well try to start with what's good."     She's going to follow the tracks that Rita advised her to investigate, displaying them for Rita. "Worth looking for. But we need something for Clef too. I'm going to have someone I know assess all the adventurous psych profiles (social honesty, trust, altruism), and find some people to start with. We need a volunteers department. Need to get the BCD going." Someone mentioned a Guild would be a good place to start. So she starts looking through her friends list, or making recommendations to Eryl Fairfax... and having Rogers recall his own subtle personal assessments of their natures, based on the interviews. She should hopefully be able to find a good half-dozen people to feed the info to over friends-list, and specifically rally a new guild, or sub-group of an existing guild, to attempt to start bringing potential people through the area generously, and with a little less risk.     By knowing all the risks, they should be able to increase the total number of travelling and profitable pilgrims who are well-equipped, while reducing the number of deaths. Hopefully a good start for the potential BVD. But it'll be even better if these tracks lead to somewhere that people can settle...
Lilian Rook	Sadly, Haseo gets no participation trophy, despite being a millennial. Absolute bullshit. No multiplier to speak of. "I presume they want to dissuade you from skipping around the game world without acknowledging its existence as much as possible." Lilian says to him. "It'd stunt your progression either way. The fact that it costs something is just calling that factor into focus; people tend to be abysmal at conceiving of the idea of opportunity cost."     She looks to Kirishima, and starts walking as Ishirou does. "You're talking about nine hundred thousand people still. Assuming half of them will avoid fighting at all costs and hope the other half leaves Clef on their own, you're still trying to funnel four hundred and fifty thousand through that dungeon."     "If that boss can be fought every twenty minutes or so, and you trained and organized enormous forty man parties, or seeded high level players amongst them, that'd still be over eleven thousand parties. Nearly four thousand hours like a conveyor belt. Half a year. There's simply no possible way to herd everyone along a narrow and well-explored route with no surprises."     'Relax, horny--'     'Have you let Ms. Tamamo touch--'     "Leave them out of this!" Lilian repeats, loudly, for the fifth time in total.     Eryl is drowned in a flurry of replies. At least most of them are glowing gratefulness. He won't know the results for a while, but it's a valiant experiment, and he has the support of about a hundred people; nearly his whole recent mailing list.     At least, the ones who aren't labelled offline.
Ishirou	Ishirou tilts his head to Rita when she catches up to him and smiles in her direction. Though the smile is tempered a little with what's going on in another world that concerns her. He puts that to the side, right now they should focus on this and not that. Though he feels that she should know, though understands that not telling her would keep her from doing something dangerous. "Oh, I've been doing alright! Trying to heal, yeah...I pushed myself very hard. Though I have been testing and perfecting a new armor that will work better for me in the long term!" He is pretty happy about that at least. "What about you? What have you been up to besides this mess? Oh! I almost forgot we need to set up a time for me to learn about how you cook."
Tamamo	As for where she'd like to go, Tamamo voices a list. "Most of all, I should wish to return to Clef, and prepare others, that we might reduce that procession of those who walk to their deaths. There is more to discover, as well, I am sure, such as this 'quest' that is necessary to create a guild, no? However, I shall not go there alone, for the sake of remaining safely together." Splitting the party is dangerous, among other things.     "Second, I should wish to see where this path leads, as every trail must lead to something, even if it is only 'a place to which others have gone.' We are certain to find something and, likely, to do so in short order. Ah, but I suggest this second only because it is easy."     Gesturing widely, "Third, the surroundings, through the haze. To explore is what this game encourages and rewards, no? To find what others have not, and to reward difficulty, or so I have heard. We shall find more of interest by doing so, I do expect, yet of this I still say 'third,' as I do wish to know where it is that others have gone, among those who bested the ruins."     'Oh! Ms. Tamamo! You look...'     "Oh, Ms. Rita." Tamamo's response is just on the calm side of 'cheerily bright,' which (surely by total coincidence) minimizes how many sharp teeth are involved in the exchange, though it cannot, somehow, hide them entirely, any more than she could find armor that would adequately hide the tips of her fingers. "Thank you for your words, though I am sure we shall find other items as we progress. That is the way of these games, yes? One ever finds something new, rather than relying upon the old. Oh, but perhaps it is different, here? I suppose that many things are."     She touches the sword hilt. "I can use it just barely adequately, perhaps. Ah, it is a different school I must emulate, given the size and balance of it, but Lilian is quite knowledgeable about such things, as well. In another time, there was not the iron to forge such... oh, but that is an old tale. Please pardon my rambling."     'The monsters respawn pretty fast, so I don't think that'd be safe.'     "It would be dangerous, of course," Tamamo says, "yet for those who are already present, they must face such danger, and to these, we might leave such a duty. The timer allows for... perhaps, if every six or eight hours, it were visited...?"     She looks to Eryl. "Grandmaster, perhaps you might make a count of some who would volunteer for such duties?" She expects he'll have a handle on how many parties could be involved. Tamamo doesn't mention the matter of people monopolizing the resources, since she doesn't have anything in mind for it.
Tamamo	<J-IC-Scene> Friz says, "If I can get a real Volunteers Department going, maybe in a new guild or something working for a guild that's already around, maybe we can have more organized groups run here, hit the miniboss, and then move to... wherever it was some of these traces were heading for."     "Ah, thank you, Ms. Friz." While Lilian is snapping at people for reasons of which Tamamo (only) appears to be blissfully ignorant, the foxy fighter affords Friz an unfortunately fangy smile.     'There's simply no possible way to herd everyone along a narrow and well-explored route with no surprises.'     "Now that this is called into focus, I find myself wondering whether there is not some other path available, and it has simply been missed in our present exploration. Ah, shall we add this to the list, though paths we think to tread and mists through which we wish to peer shall count for many an item, and the pages shall find themselves filled, ere long."     Those responses and thoughts all given, Tamamo slides on up to Lilian, taking one armored arm in her own. (Her arms, at least, seem well protected, though her pseudo-claws are left uncovered.) "But let us away, for now. And oh, though you are ever strong and well protected, now we see that I cannot fulfill that role of which I am most familiar. I shall appreciate that Ms. Rita fills, instead, the necessary position of 'a healer,'" wholly necessary, in Tamamo's opinion, "and one who protects by means of arts that span distances, "whilst I avail myself of this opportunity to attempt things of which I am yet unfamiliar, but in which I hope you shall, as foolish as it may be to do so, trust in my intent. By this I mean, if I cannot have your back, my Lilian, might you have mine? I shall put this shield to use, and in this, at least, you may be certain that I have had some practice."
Kirishima	That banter between Bercilak and Lilian about Tamamo, meanwhile, has Kirishima looking away to stifle a snicker. "N-now, now. I'm sure it's not like..." Oh no. Rita's getting into it, too, with that question about what Tamamo's been able to do. That, of all things, has Kirishima listening a little too closely for Lilian's answer, and chokes up briefly at that louder response. Once she gets her shit together, Kirishima gets her head back into the actual logistics of getting so many people geared up. "Right, the.. Damn, this would be so much easier dungeons were instanced. Then we wouldn't have that kind of bottleneck." She furrows her brow while movinga long with the group, jumping ahead every now and then to make sure they're not about to get ambushed by a sudden random encounter (or to just trip them herself beforehand). "So our best bet would still be figuring out some way to... Herd them some other way. Getting some to focus on that dungeon to funnel gear towards other groups that might be skilled enough to expand elsewhere, but then there's the matter of those people getting bored of doing that all day every day..." Kirishima's face scrunches up further, and it soon becomes clear from her dazed expression that she's getting into a type of thinking she isn't equipped for in the slightest. "Th-then maybe... Mmn. Maybe..." As she flounders, Tamamo comes to the rescue! "I wouldn't be too surprised if there were plenty of other paths we could have gone. Plenty of older MMOs have several viable directions to go in from the start so it's not just a number-based theme park with one real direction. The next town might even point us in those directions, too, which..." It's coming together in Kirishima's head! Finally. "If we can identify safer directions to go in, we could even point the volunteers there after enough of them have gotten geared up."
Haseo	"I guess? A lot of it seems like busy work to me still. I prefer monsters just dropping the equipment rather than the ten extra steps needed to make one piece of gear. You already grind for levels in these kind of games, don't need to introduce more grind with a completely different system just for the sake of it."      Of course, Haseo knows that in an ideal game system, the people who engage in the dumb crafting systems would sell their works to the people who don't want to and it would kind of be a self solving problem since the people grinding for levels would also be making money to buy it with. But that's a level of MMO economics that he doesn't really care about because it's freaking nerd crap and stupid and he really just plays games to waste his time and make others feel bad when he styles on them, so screw that.      "Yeah, that makes sense. Even The World made you delve dungeons to get warping items. Being able to teleport everywhere for free is just lazy game design."      Haseo agrees with Lilian as he closes his menu. Honestly shouldn't have expected anything, but it's still a bit disappointing. Still, no big deal. He's grinded enough without any EXP buffs before, so clearly it won't hurt if he does it again...      Haseo lets out a pained chuckle to himself as he holds his forehead. Yeah, no, it's going to hurt, but he knows he's the kind of idiot that will powerlevel anyway.
Friz	Savvy: She's got a point. We can't treadmill every player through this. Grit: We don't have to. Savvy: What? Grit: Figure it out. The plan will work. Solve how. Savvy: Uhhh... well...     "That's true." She starts speaking to Tamamo and Lilian as she walks, scribbling in the notebook. "But we don't need to treadmill this one spot forever. We just need it to be a springboard to develop more traits in more people, to spread people out of Clef... then they can work throughout the beachhead, exploring more, learning more... Right?" She tilts her head. "It's like planting a staple crop. It's like planting a staple crop, so that you can survive the winter, and plant more and better crops later. You do some for survival now, and you pick things up later. And things have to get easier, if we can start bringing back things from further ahead. It's like developing a frontier-sector colony, right?"     She rubs the back of her head sheepishly. "(Just, hopefully without the mortality rate...)" She mutters, softly.
Rita Ma	"I shall appreciate that Ms. Rita fills, instead, the necessary position of 'a healer'..."      Rita smiles a sunny, eyes-shut smile, papering over a little bit of anxiety. "I'm new to it, but I'll do my best, Ms. Tamamo! Did you have any advice about that? How to keep track of who needs help, or when to save it for? Having to pay so much attention to everyone else instead of just the enemies... it's kind of a lot."      "Please pardon my rambling."      "No, it's okay! You were around a long time ago, weren't you, Ms. Tamamo?" Her smile shifts from 'exultant' to 'reassuring'. "I still don't know much about history, so I'd love to hear about it sometime! I always thought stories about 'the way things used to be' were really nice."      Lilian tries to shut down the topic of antlers. Rita puts on a concerned frown. "I just think they're really cute, Ms. Rook. Shouldn't you be proud of them? You seemed happy after letting me touch them, too..."      ----      "Mmmm! I'm glad to hear it, Mr. Ishirou!" The fog is nice; atmospheric. Rita rarely seems as carefree in the real world as she does right now. "What changes are you making? The last armor was kind of fragile, wasn't it?" Oh, right. The fight on the beach. But even recalling that doesn't bring her down much.      "I've been doing pretty well! Making new friends has been nice. I've been helping Mr. Stanley- you were there for that, weren't you? Taking care of my aquariums, reading, learning new recipes..."      "Oh!" She straightens up and blinks. "You're right! I forgot all about us cooking together. What did you want me to teach you? I'm sure you could teach me a lot, too! I'm still getting used to using all the new ingredients that grow on land. Soy sauce is a lot better than using brine."
Lilian Rook	Wandering the path through the Ancient Lake, despite being identifiably similar to Beachhead, feels like a completely different experience. Certainly, the loss of thousands of players crowding every spawn and gathering point, clutching weapons and glowering at you as you pass, is a very transformative aspect all by itself, in that it lets you experience the game's environment at all. But even ignoring that, you could almost believe you had walked into a completely different game. Especially after the dark, claustrophobic, semi-metal halls of Derivation Bridge.     You can tell that the sun is still out, for the white tone of the haze that surrounds you, and the soft glitter of glinting gold pollen, but all it does is save you the trouble of carrying light; the world blanches and fades at a hundred feet, and disappears entirely at three, leaving your eyes with identical information to your auto-map. It feels humid, but the air is cool and the fog is a light touch on your skin, like moving forward through a breeze-blown silk curtain. The perfectly melodic sounds of chirping insects, crooning birds, rustling leaves, and strange, warbling animals, carry from far beyond your range of sight, leaving you almost unconsciously navigating by sound as much as anything else.     You're most aware of each other's positions by the crunch of the soft white gravel underfoot, more than anything else. It's most dense along the bared path that winds through the landscape of thick green grass, pink and red and violet leaves, pale climbing vines, and mirror-like water, looking like a silver sky of golden stars where it reflects the floral dust between dense groves.     And you're reminded, soon enough, what the lack of thousands of players means. Gathering spots, highlighted with the right senses or skill levels, are filled with exotic flowers, trees heavy with rainbow fruit, and shattered white boulders exposing subtly sparkling veins, their translucent white HUD pop-outs indicating fill values upwards of ninety percent. Metallic salvage is nearly non-existent now, replaced with broken chunks of what looks like black glass, similar to the Waycadence. And, of course, there are finally monsters in your way.     Individually, they're somewhat tougher than what you'd been fighting in the dungeon, but without the closed walls and carefully set-up arrangements, they're more like random encounters than deadly threats for this group. Arch-backed and pale-skinned quadrupeds, stretched and slender and seemingly eyeless, wade through the deep pools as would a hunting heron; the Fog Fishers are far faster in the water than a player character, and with hard-pointed stomps and snapping jaws. Amphibious fish, plated and bony like a prehistoric monster, rest on muddy shores like alligators, extremely durable and prone to vicious charges and grappling limbs with crushing bites, making the Cisocanths something to avoid rather than farm for anyone reasonably leveled.     Some sort of flightless bird, shaggy and dark-feathered, sprints away when approached, more like endemic life than a mob. Bercilak, wandering dangerously far, catches just barely a glimpse of a tall and paper white shade in the fog, four-legged and lamp-eyed. It flees at tremendous speed the instant his map blips its icon.
Lilian Rook	On the bookkeeping end, Friz's profiles are unfortunately not very promising. She hardly had anything close to the time to meet a meaningful fraction of anyone in Clef; her prospects are collections of random nobodies, for the most part. She has some promising profiles by criteria of looking for the neighbourly type who is taking things relatively in-stride, staying calm and taking care of a few people near them, but trusting them with anything remotely dangerous is a total gamble.     Lilian's response to her and Tamamo is quiet and distant, looking, for once, somewhat taken in by the environment. "The Traits do seem fairly powerful. And much more useful than simply grinding. It looks as if my stats barely went up fifteen percent from those three levels. But with all those complex requirements, how do you plan to mass-produce self-sufficient people? If we're really hoping to keep them alive, wouldn't having them stay in Clef be better?"     "For the rest-- yes, we'll have to examine Beachhead more. Even if there's a second dungeon of equivalence to Derivation Bridge as an exit, though, it'd still be outrageously cumbersome to simply filter players out into the world. I can't imagine someone who could plan all of this would plan that so poorly. Do we think there may be secret map areas? Or perhaps shortcuts later? Or might it simply be a far larger, more advanced affair, with greater throughput?"     Those with adequate extrasensory scanning ability will eventually see indicators appear through the fog up ahead. Signs that correspond to player characters, a bit beyond visual range, lined up in stationary rows. Any sort of terrain ping capable of carrying that far returns the dim silhouette of buildings near them.
Ishirou	Ishirou walks along with Rita, enjoying the...well calmness of the lake area. Sure there are monsters, and boy howdy they are terrible. He spends time actually trying to get a feel for them at long range. Not using weapons, but instead trying to use his ability to analyze them at a distance. Ishirou decides to keep his distance unless the group decides to face down the monsters. They're going to be a bit tougher, but he's sure they can take them with a coordinated effort. Just no reason to, at least so he thinks. "Ah...yeah," Ishirou admits, but well she did notice it in their fight. "Honestly, I was pushing it beyond its intended limits. So it needed a rework from the ground up, and making it more modular by offloading the components and instead making them attaching, did wonders." "Yeah, Stanley. That kid has it rough...I overheard his conversation with his guardian, and it's...not great," He says but when things turn to cook, "Honestly I'm not well versed in a lot of fish dishes, fish is a different beast to cook and prepare than beef, pork, or chicken," There is a pause, "And I wanted to chat with you about other things..." Oh hey..! Players and buildings? "I think I see the city coming up guys!"
Friz	Grit: Rook is right. Grit: This is a pilgrimage of death, as-is. Moxie: But they can't just *stay* in Clef. Dirt: Seemed real crowded. But wasn't there that teleport? Savvy: What? Dirt: Phreak found it earlier, boss. Bet'cha there's one in Clef. Savvy: Maybe we can...     "...Network them? Those Recall Nodes, I mean, like the one Phreak saw." Friz says. "Maybe that's how whoever started all this planned to make it possible to survive without..." She shifts her armor around uncomfortably. "So much risk. If they planned it at all... Either way, we need to start learning about the recall points. Soon."     Ishirou calls out. Something's coming up? The settlement? "Oh! We gotta go see about that!" She finishes up loading her gun, after yet another pitched encounter with a dangerous shore creature, and makes to join those heading into town. Maybe there's some way of connecting a Recall Point in there...?
Tamamo	"As to the advice for which you had asked, Ms. Rita, the most important method of which I make use is to see the danger before it occurred. I worry that this may not be so simple a skill to learn. Should one know which moments will be the most dangerous, one may may prepare healing and protection as a countermeasure, and thus, avoid wasteful effort." Tamamo answers, checking in that moment for how she feels the changing future. It's odd, within a place like this, just as it would be within any illusionary world.     "There may be some methods available to us for the fact that this is a game, in regards to maintaining an awareness of those nearby, and their present state and health. I am not certain of these, myself. Have any searched for such aids?" A party window with HP bars and debuff icons would definitely be handy, if it could be moved around as a HUD.     Faced with new enemies, and recalling the Discovery XP from the previous dungeon, Tamamo says, "Lilian, would you -- oh, what is the phrase -- cover my tail?" She's stepping forward to face them as the party finds its random encounters. At least one of each will give that boost, without needing to mention grinding. Besides, she wants to try it.     Stepping, unusually for her, right into the fog fisher's approach, the work of Tamamo's shield proves more than competent, its position adjusted at the direction of her free hand, and strikes from or against it seeming to connect with her own, decently-scored STR as if by some invisible limb. Its main advantage is in not needing to keep her body in any particular position. She has full freedom of movement, and can prepare a large wind-up with her jian-like straight blade for the moment after a shield strike unbalances it.     Unfortunate, then, that her swordwork isn't nearly as impressive. She can twirl and dance and thrust at fairly good speeds, but her reflexes are hardly there to a professional monster slayer's level, and there's all the sorts of wasted motion that someone with more experience in 'performance' would have. Being distractingly pretty isn't usually all that useful on a battlefield.
Kirishima	Friz raises some good key points for Kirishima to chew on. "A staple crop or a frontier colony... Right, that would be a lot more efficient than just making them mirror our path. If they're able to handle things themselves with good enough equipment, the rest should develop well enough that we don't need to hold their hands the entire way." She nods slowly in approval, still mulling over other potential ways to do that as she starts heading towards the Ancient Lake. She takes a moment to just marvel at the landscape and the distinct lack of shitloads of people despite being outside, giving her a chance to just climb a goddamn tree and try to do a sick backflip off of it. It's only thanks to her actual ability to do the normally that she just narrowly avoids eating shit doing the same in her body here. "This region is a lot more... This is what I was hoping to find in VR. Something... Not quite real, but just to see how far the technology's come." Kirishima does a bit of gathering from trees and flower patches along the way, mostly to see what other kinds of random stuff she can pick up without stopping too long in anyone spot before joining back up with the group. The random encounters with the local fauna, meanwhile, give Kirishima another chance to stretch her legs. Without the threat of walls and mid-bosses, she opts to experiment a little more with her crossbow sidearm. Instead of just plinking at the Fog Fishers from range, she actually uses her shots to see how they react to shots aimed at center mass versus shots to the sides versus shots from point blank. The city Ishirou IDs, though, has Kirishima's eyes lighting up. "We can find out what they've managed to learn between leaving Clef and coming out here, then. Maybe even... Find some people that could join us in securing some kind of safer route between these places and easing the load there."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak has seen perhaps the most dangerous thing he could have--exactly what he wanted to. His icon on the map blips farther and farther off the road, as he wanders into the pea soup. Bercilak: Chord - Cavalry      He slows up, searching through his inventory (and the surrounding foliage) for anything that this creature might want to eat. His approach is slow, betraying no apprehension in an effort to give the creature no cause for any of its own. "Hey, buddy," he says, with remarkable volume control given his usual. "I got something here for you. Take your time." Even if it bolts again, he retains that same calm tone, and the same even, patient approach. It's taking him dangerously further away from the party. "Damn," he notes quietly to himself. "Haven't done this in forever."      Meanwhile, Phreak brightens at Ishirou's mention of a nearby city. "Hell yeah," he says, lightly pumping a fist. Nodding along with Kirishima, "And vice-versa. The more info we spread around, the better everybody's chances are. All the boats rise, you know?" There's at least a little curiosity on his part, too, about whether the person who left the map marker for him in the first place might be camped out at this place, too.
Tamamo	Tamamo is quite easy to find in the fog, though sufficient distance makes it no better than the usual sort of fox-fire. Flames and light that shift and, occasionally, dance.     'Do we think there may be secret map areas? Or perhaps shortcuts later?'     "Oh, perhaps? I suppose we have no way of knowing such a thing, without seeking it out. I imagine that there are all manner of secrets. Ah, but a secret presented before thousands of souls shall, in all likelihood, not remain so secret for long. A single eye spots a door, and soon, all the crowd will wonder as to where it leads. We might spend overly long only in our searching, should we wish to do so."     'I think I see the city coming up guys!'     "Oh! Not just yet, please! I wish to find whether these fish are edible, as well!" It's going to take her some trouble, and likely need some help, to take one out.
Eryl Fairfax	Having compiled a book with Ishirou's help, Eryl has the time to enjoy the misty morning walks. That is, when they don't come under attack by enemy mobs. He mostly hangs back, using the tones underfoot as ammunition for his sling to fire them off with sharp cracks at eyes and other vulnerable areas.     He also stops now and again to look at the plentiful gathering points. Obtaining the fruit and picking the flowers, and even scraping at the exposed ore veins to see if his metallic body will translate into allowing him to obtain scrapings without tools.     Everything about them he can glean is also transcribed. A guide on the area would also be helpful to sell and pass around back in Clef. He's distracted, but not so distracted to miss out on the rows of people in the distance. "What are the lining up for?" he asks aloud, breaking into a jog to get a better view.
Haseo	Is Haseo going to be led like a good little player into deep waters to kill some mobs for EXP? He really feels like he should have more dignity than that, especially since the monsters probably aren't worth THAT much EXP. However, he's already admitted to himself on this trip that, yes, he is just that easy to lead. It's fine though, the quarter of an EXP bar at max he'll probably gain from this will definitely be worth it in the end.      At the very least, he doesn't have to fight the Fog Fishers in their terrain, opting to ominously float above the water instead as he uses his scythe to fight the creatures from a comfortable arm's length away.      Even with ways to help alleviate the annoying terrain, Haseo doesn't stray too far from the group. He could go deeper, but losing everyone else for a mediocre grind isn't worth it. He'd have to bring up a map or something to find them if that happened, and god forbid he'd have to do something as inconvenient as looking at something that wasn't the shiny graphics in front of him to glean additional useful information that'd save him a couple minutes of time.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Phreak makes a good partner for Haseo's tactic, burning through his own Clarity to hit him with a heal-over-time, topping him off in the event that one of the fish manages to get enough vertical clearance to nick Haseo. He does not, however, contribute in a damage sense.      "I'm low on ammo from the dungeon," explains Phreak. "Saving what I got until we get to someplace I can resupply, or until we meet something ugly enough to justify burning through it."
Lilian Rook	Enemy stats are sort of interesting, but not all that special. This area certainly expected that anyone heavily depleted by Derivation Bridge would have used the Waycadence to return to Clef immediately, but for the most part, they just seem to be tougher, take advantage of the first new terrain type, apparently suggest the existence of breath meters by the fish not having one, and have new items and materials.     The only important piece that really strikes Ishirou is that their stats have increased much faster than the party's for the same number of levels. He has unspent points consistent with a rate of growing four percent stronger per level, multiplicatively. The enemies appear to be accelerating on a curve of seven percent, roughly. That's not much of a gap right now, but even assuming the maximum level is a classical 100, it'll be an enormous chasm by endgame.     "I do wonder if players who've never been here would be able to teleport with the map data, I admit." Lilian says to Friz, thoughtfully. "Rather, I had been wondering if there would be a point. Even if we transported them out here, won't they simply be in far more danger? The surrounding monsters are stronger, and the economy is probably more advanced and expensive as well. What would they even do, as level one rookies, dropped further into the game?" When Tamamo asks a question pertaining to her tail, however, all Lilian says is "More than usual?" with a smirk.     Oddly, Tamamo can feel a small fraction of the impact on her shield, like she and it mutually repel, and thus soft magnetic pressure is applied to her center of gravity. Even with early equipment and lacking in skill levels, blocking like that appears to be fairly strong, and her shield and armour combined reduce incoming damage to fairly ignorable slices taken off her CL, and inconsequential chip to her HP where she has to block a few times in a row. The feedback of using the sword, against hard and soft flesh both, homogenized in an intuitive way rather than accurately modeling internal anatomy, is strangely instructive. Only a few short exchanges are needed for her to absorb the numerical assessment of her outgoing damage and start figuring out what works.     It's actually sort of spooky seeing Lilian shadowing her. Seeing that glint and light smear when she acts really puts into perspective how disorientingly understated her ability usually is with no tell and no frame lag. It's even a little ominous, the way giant murderfish stalking up through the long grass behind Tamamo are chopping into glowing slices and dispersed into bloody voxels, when it comes with the dramatic visual effect.     Kirishima's crossbow feels more practical to use on a regular basis than the jankcore firearms available. It's still slow, but easier to reload, the ammo stacks higher, and it's more accurate and with a flatter trajectory. The bolts don't deal quite as much damage, but they do respect hitting soft flanks over hard heads, and the damage numbers get larger and lim in faint red when she scores hits to where she might expect a heart or brain to be. The simplified weak points do seem to respect depth, like a geometric bound inside the monster, making the physical force and inertia of even a projectile very relevant.
Lilian Rook	Bercilak does not recognize anything useful in his surroundings for the task he has monofocused on already. The white shade flees every time he enters the hundred and fifty foot range; further, if he makes a lot of noise from getting chewed on by monsters along the way, or has to slosh through water, in his big clanky suit. It's entirely possible that this is a special rare creature that has hidden lore attached to it, rewarding players for game knowledge, or it could be part of a quest to hunt it. It feels way too important to just be a random monster.     Well, his bumbling is getting the group a lot of raw materials at least. Bones and leathers, some kind of aquatic-themed gland and meat cuts listed 'Cooking Ingredient' (which is to say, not edible on their own).     The experience rewards honestly aren't too bad. They're higher per monster than in the dungeon, probably to encourage exploring the outdoors and compensating for their looser groupings. Eryl is able to collect as much as his inventory can hold, though only shavings from the rocks, which appear to have some sort of alchemical use rather than physical craft use, mainly flashglass and mistite, but one red-named rare item gives him a single shaving of something called leygold.
Ishirou	"Huh..?" Ishirou says, turning back to see that Tamamo was engaged. Then others start fighting other things. Then Bercilak is chasing something. Ishirou sighs, scratching the side of his head, and shrugs. Well, no use crying over free experience. This also gives him time to complete his scans. "Huh...that's...something. There is a dramatic difference in stats based on the level between these mobs and us. We're roughly growing at four percent per level, and the monsters at about seven. Does anyone know the maximum level? Because if it's the standard then...max level is going to be a nightmare." Ishirou does, however, help. He stays on the outskirts of battle, and the moment a monster bounces off a shield or is staggered he dives in. His rapier leading the way. He aims to thrust repeatedly into a flurry of blows to try and pierce defenses, before flipping back to the sides of the fight again. This attack is followed up by a blast of energy, aiming to take advantage of his flurry for an immediate follow-up attack, while also leaving them open for someone else to chain off of his attack.
Kirishima	"The one about the... Rising tides, yeah." Kirishima affirms to Phreak with a quick nod, slowing down momentarily to check out the numbers once she realizes that the weak point system is more complex than initially expected with regards to actual depth of the shots. "Oh, that's interesting...! Hitting weak points might not just be limited to striking the surface. How far we can get inside might make a difference, too, like with heavier thrusts or..." She pauses. "Well, I guess that makes sense. I'm just surprised the system simulates it to that degree." There's certain to be more opportunities to test that out, but just as useful is the knowledge that the crossbow actually feels good to use. Even if it's not what she's used to, she does start trying to do little tricks with it like spinning it before shooting and walking more to pick up bolts that went way off in the wrong direction. Ishirou mentions the stat difference, and Kirishima strokes her chin. "If it's supposed to be an MMO, I'm guessing it could be anywhere from fifty to one hundred. That difference could be an issue, but I imagine it'd be narrowed once we start crafting better gear to narrow that gap or even blow right past it." She pauses again. "That would make enabling a proper economy to form even more important, then. Even if we blitz through as much of this as we can, we're going to have issues if there's not enough people or materials to make higher-level gear for us and everyone else down the line."
Lilian Rook	Running ahead and calling out is one way to get attention. Oddly, the 'draw distance' of the glimmering haze refuses to retreat for a little while of advancing, then brightens and pales all at once, and suddenly thins out over the space of a hundred feet.     It leaves you stumbling out of the thick fog into a sort of 'eye of a storm' feature, if the entirety of the storm were made of soft mist and quiet breezes. The open sky is anomalously visible here, atmospheric haze just enough to render it more white than blue and still sparkling with dust, otherwise, you can even feel the temperature warm several degrees, and see vaguely defined 'walls' of fog in a vast circle, the edge of which you've just breached.     As everyone had hoped, there is civilization here. If barely. A town basks in the sunlight, arranged in a thick crescent around the edge of what must be the Ancient Lake. Ruins, yet again similar to the Waycadence, have been built upon with local materials. Cherrywood-framed and white clay-sided buildings with red tiled roofs are set upon ornate foundations, covered in moss, gleaming with dew and partially covered in climbing flowers. Gravel streets interchange freely with wooden docks and piers, as well as stairs to second and third floors and rope bridges between them. Trees simply grow randomly in the crescent moon belt of architecture, with white obelisks set with floating black glass geometry still standing along main streets. The map transition flashes you Ancient Lake ~ Yono.     Disappointingly, there's no way this place is big enough to migrate players. It's a cute little rural village fit for maybe ten thousand at most. It has boats and fishing spots, inns and stores, paddies and stables, and signs of new construction, all tended to by NPCs (judging by their local colour clothing), but not an abundance of housing, and certainly nothing like the grandiose metropolis of Clef. What stands out more than the soft sounds of music being played somewhere, and a scent somewhat like green tea, is the cluster of small, overgrown, ruin-strewn islands in the center of the lake, and the enormous stone arch with a flickering, scarlet sliver of light, stretched between its top and bottom, easily ten times a human's height.     The NPCs --seemingly mostly fishermen and farmers-- don't react much to you, but the gaggle of players do. Some are in the nicer steel items from Clef, some have gear made of polished and cleansed 'rustblue' metal you now have in bulk, and a couple even have armour that must clearly have come from the Opaline Crusher, are lined up along the fences and garden walls and pier pillars leading into town. They're clearly armed, but evidently at rest, talking to each other and eating the first sign you've seen of in-game food that wasn't starting rations.     They assemble to attention immediately as they are approached, status windows rapidly winking into view, listing a slew of handles from the authentic to the memetic, and levels between eight and fourteen, and all sort of start talking over each other.
Lilian Rook	"Hey! New arrivals! That's number twenty today!" "Mid-sized party, huh? That's rare." "Whoa, look at their levels. How the hell?" "Well yeah, look how fucked up most of their bodies are! You think they went the other way in Beachhead? Found a ton of random Traits?" "Don't be a dickhead Brio. Changing things is the point of the game." "Get off my ass Harp; that's fine for a few hours a day, but if I'm stuck here, I'm staying human." "We're all human. And so are our new friends." "Yo, what about that one? Special character name, see it? A bunch of them have a first and last name too." "Probably roleplayers. They're not the first." "No, look! The weird mark!" "Well they're not with the GM or they wouldn't have come from the Bridge."     Eryl is finally directly approached at the vanguard, by a young man with dashing blonde bishounen looks and leather and half-plate gear that looks like it involved hunting the Fog Striders. He speaks with open friendliness, but keeps exactly enough distance that Eryl couldn't draw and hit him with a blade. "Hey! Welcome to the second town guys! You're some of the chosen, huh? You look pretty strong, so we're glad to have you! You didn't get any trouble on the road, right? Oh, and my name's--" He glances over his head, where the status bar says 'AgrippaDisDick'. "My real name is Jacob."
Tamamo	'More than usual?'     "Oh, but do I not more usually take the rear?" Tamamo asks with a smile, her sword swishing playfully, opposite hand on her hip, just before sighting another quarry.     She can't pay too much attention to Lilian's efforts behind her, for the several reasons of 'dumped COG and PER,' 'it's behind her and an opponent is in front,' and the slow and swift discoveries she's making about this new fighitng style. The flashy boss tell is enough, however, that she certainly catches it out the corner of her eye, as things go on.     But still, there are fish to fry -- or rather, to catch. If there are fish, and there are cooking skills (and Tamamo has confirmed that she has one), then the former must be necessary for the latter. Possibly not these particular fresh, but how could anyone know without trying? There is hardly anything within the sea that humanity has not attempted to catch and eat, and her culinary skills have all been learned from island-dwelling humans     With others willing to help, she attempts to shepherd, by means of distracting cuts from her sword and solid blows from her shield, one or more Cisocanths onto solid land, making them easier to strike, both for her and for Ishirou's rapier and Haseo's scythe. Her boosted DEX keeps her light enough on her feet to keep maneuvering after taking every one of those odd blows to her shield, but it takes careful aim around the armored portions, looking for soft flesh she can stab straight through, to deal significant damage. Better for someone else to take the lead in that, probably.     Watching her health go down a bit here and there, she calls out to Rita, "In most cases, such a circumstance as this, with every strong blow appropriately weathered, would call no need for support. In quiet moments, one may ensure that all of every person's fighting strength is restored. The question, then, is whether one believes a decidedly unquiet moment is to soon arrive. Will you save your strength, now? Or else, will you use some of it, so that another may lose not even the smallest amount of their own? Such are the decisions a healer makes, in journeys adventurous as our own."     'We're roughly growing at four percent per level, and the monsters at about seven.'     "Perhaps it is the gaining of 'traits' that is intended to make up this difference, as powerful as they have been mentioned to be." Though there's equipment, too.     When they've finished with that, it's time to inventory their most recent findings, and then to see those mentioned figures, and village, in the mist.
Ishirou	Ishirou, once the monsters are dispatched flicks his blade back into where it belongs with a slight flourish, and then walks along to the next town which wasn't so far off. "Huh, so I wonder what you need to even start crafting? Can you do it just anywhere, or do you need special locations?" The town's arrivals are rather...well friendly compared to what he expected. Comments about human versus not being human cause him to shake his head. "What is 'human' anyway? It's kind of a silly classification, to begin with." "Anyway, hi I'm with the Paladins. Ishirou isn't a role play name, we came in here to try and help save people."
Eryl Fairfax	"It's intended to remain a challenge at all time, I presume," Eryl says in response to Ishirou's observation. "This game is clearly intended to be a specific kind of power fantasy where you really have to work for it. No crushing under-levelled mobs for easy gain."     Tucking away all his gathered goods, he touches base with the crafters still in the starting zone, asking if anything he's discovered was necessary for any recipes they've learned but are unable to complete. Having a list of what the ingredient is good for alongside where it can be gathered would be incredible QoL (as the gamers call it).     When the village comes into view, and the gaggle of players come to approach them, Eryl bows in response to the friendly greeting. "Eryl Fairfax, Grandmaster of the Paladins. Feel free to not believe me, few back in Clef did. But this is an official investigation in tandem with efforts outside the game."     Friend requests are shot to them all. It's a little forward, but they approached first! "So, you made it through the Bridge. What did you all think of it? I assume you must be experienced gamers to be among the first to do so."
Tamamo	'We're all human. And so are our new friends.'     "Oh, well, most of us are, certainly." says Tamamo, the shine of her halo bright beneath the open sky.
Friz	Grit: These are hardier. More changed. Savvy: More like the kinds who we could recruit. Dirt: Look like they might have endured enough. Moxie: Well, they wanted to do this to begin with... Moxie:What's all that they're talking about? Dirt: Something about change. Looks like they're onto something. Savvy: We need to get to interviewing fast.     "Detective Friz, DVSD. I'm with the Paladins." She almost shows her badge on instinct, but the in-game badge... no, that isn't worth much. Instead she points a thumb towards Eryl Fairfax, as if he's her credentials. "We've been trying to investigate the deaths and 'kidnapping' associated with Bladecraft Online. I'm trying to get a record of what's going on around here, can any of you take an interview quickly? Maybe you two...?" Harp and Brio seem talkative! She's going to try to pin *someone* for an interview, and find an interesting answer to *one* of her questions... Grit: Let them know this is safe. "Could I get, uh, well, whatever you'd like noted as your names?" "Can you give me an idea of how you've felt the last few days?" "How long ago did you log into Blade Craft: Connect?" "How did you learn about the death-game situation?" Moxie: They've been doing a lot. We should know more... "What have you been doing since then?" "How are you feeling about fellow players?" "What do you think are good methods of survival?" "What sort of connections have you made?" Dirt: We need to know where to go next. "You've 'progressed' a lot. Are there any obstacles you know about that need to be removed?" "You mentioned 'the GM'. Do you mean the death-game's operator, or is there some sort of ex-game-master in town?" "You mentioned an alternative path at Beachhead. What is that?" "Do you plan to rest here, or do you want to continue?" Savvy: They mentioned change. The point is to change. "Have you or anyone else you know experienced anomalies in character creation?" "Have you seen distortions or anomalies in traits? What sort of advantages?" "Have you or anyone you know experienced PvP violence?" "Have you heard about 'Constructed Consesus', 'Collaborative-Argumentative mode', a 'Prime Conductor', or 'Iconic Characters'?" "Is there anything you'd like to note in my records?" "Is there something you would say to the outside world, if you could?"     Most answers to these questions don't need much recording (though all answers go into her little notepad), but at least one has to have a good and interesting answer!
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"This is fucked," says Bercilak. "No food for it nearby, takes off as soon as I get close==sooner, when THESE GUYS--" A vicious three-hit combo from Bercilak. The blade of his axe crosses down-up, his hands expertly moving across the haft to switch positions and bring it down in an earth-cracking overhead, timed just as the quadrupedal monster attacks. A hook-and-drag across misty underbrush, before Bercilak's boot punts it in the stomach. "...don't scare it even further off." Yeah, it's taken off again.     "I'm gonna need something special for you," says Bercilak, largely to himself, as the map marker blips away again. "But on God, you and me are gonna be best friends. You just don't know it yet. What was that shit Phreak and Ishirou were saying?" Something about a town. The Green Knight shrugs. Maybe someone there will know about it. It's bound to be more effective than just chasing it over and over. Besides, he doesn't even have a runspeed buff.     He is on the tail end of the party by a considerable margin, when he finally winds back out of the mist.     Phreak, then, is the member of the duo that ends up making introductions first. "How's it going there, guys. Most of this, I got offline, too," he says, flicking his pointed ears. "But I'm human enough, believe it or not--name's Phreak." An upwards point at his display name. "Hit me up with a friend request if you wanna share tips, yeah? I just rolled into town here, and I'm gonna try and catch up with somebody." 'Somebody' being whoever may have left those Watch symbols in Clef. Are there any here?     Bercilak, finally arriving, naturally takes the opportunity to gush about the cool, fucked up horse (?) he found wandering in the wilderness. Have any of these players seen it? Do they know if it's a part of any quests? Failing that, he's not above mashing Interact on every NPC he can find, in the hopes he can learn that much more about it.
Kirishima	There's people finally! Living people, too, and not an excessive mass of them! Trying not to think too hard about why there aren't too many people out here, Kirishima lets herself enjoy the sight of the town (and actually seeing the town, not just masses of people and questionable nametags) before turning to the players approaching the group of Elites coming into town. "Believe it or not..." Kirishima starts, then gestures at Ishirou as he explains their reasons for being here and looking as they do. "If we were, I doubt we'd be in any condition to stay in character considering the circumstances." Following Eryl's lead, Kirishima does a little bow of her own before reflexively holding two raised fingers in front of her mask just like a ninja would. Because she's a ninja. "Kirishima, also of the Paladins, also not human, but that's neither here nor there. How long have you all been here? How are you all doing on food and..." She pauses, turning away from 'Jacob' briefly after seeing his nametag and clearing her throat once while trying not to snort too much under her mask. "Have any of you run into bosses yet? Or ran from them, if they were too strong to handle?"
Haseo	"Thanks."      Haseo musters up a half hearted thanks to both Phreak and Tamamo. He definitely didn't need the help, but it's appreciated, he guesses? At least he knows they're people he can rely on, even if this Phreak guy really should just get a knife if ammo is going to be an issue. Then again, being a buffbot is valid too.      "I had a perfectly good avatar the game ported over for me before it decied to fuck it up, ain't my fault!"      When accused of looking like some sort of accident, Haseo gets slightly defensive. He pauses however, to take a closer look at his mismatched arm, flexing the hand and arm and bicep a bit before just putting on the largest shit eating grin.      "Honestly though, I think it suits me fine."      Done admiring his mid 2000's edgy aesthetic, Haseo moves on to the more important topic.      "Anyway, I'm going to assume the roleplayer thing is a crappy joke, so what's this about a GM now?"
Lilian Rook	After what is definitely starting to get obnoxiously close to flirty "True, but couldn't it be said that usually I'm techically all over you?" from Lilian to Tamamo, she takes in what Ishirou says more thoughtfully.     "Well, if it were additive, each level would matter less as we go on. It seems the purpose isn't a hyper-lethal early game and a smoother curve for those who can make it through the early levels. But that does mean . . . we'll have just shy of fifty times the base stat total at level one hundred, but the monsters would have jumped to just over eight hundred times." Did she did the math in her head? Maybe. "Or in that sense, sixteen times more powerful than a player. Random individual monsters seem to be weaker than a player character, so perhaps we can be more conservative than that, but boss monsters . . ."     "I certainly hope that Traits eventually become so strong. Equipment alone certainly can't make up for ninety four percent of the gap, even if we consider it a force multiplier." She sighs agreeingly to Eryl. "You're right. They really do not intend for it to be possible to simply chip your way through this fiasco with sheer time investment."     The cisocanths do, in fact, drop fillet items. It appears to be different meat for each edible monster, but one meat item each, which seems more or less fair. It's possible the endemic life could be hunted too; that may be an important application of stealth and projectiles.     Shockingly, the murmuring that ripples amongst the idle ranks at the entrance to Yono actually seems to be cautiously accepting of the Paladin claims. There can be heard tentative whispers of people putting two and two together and deciding that must be why they made it through the first dungeon so easily, with real life Elite combat experience. Most accept friend requests right away. Those listening can hear "Fucil and Elym said they were in the Watch, right?" "Think about it. There were ten million people. The GM probably figured out who was a big deal before cutting nine servers. If even one in a hundred thousand players were already Elite Forces, there'd be a hundred of them kicking. That's just math."     Jacob answers Eryl specifically. "Some of us are. A few guys here actually already had army jobs; VR combat games are pretty popular in that line of work apparently, and most of the players are from the Commonwealth. Some of us were just lucky. Or have good friends. Or . . . had, good friends." He shakes his head.     "I think it's going to be the hurdle for everyone for a while. It gave me a sense of . . . I guess 'pride'? Like, the creator wanted to be harsh, but was too serious to stoop down to the usual ways games are brutal. Like, a code of honour, or something? The kind of guy who wants to see an enemy at his best, or something. You got that feeling too, right? But it really seems like the game starts opening up after. We've seen three exits from this area. Two that aren't suicide."
Lilian Rook	Friz pins down the tweedle dum and tweedle dee routine between the most boringly brown-haired and lightly grizzled box art hero she's seen so far, and his companion, a woman who already has fingers turned to iridescent carapace, tiny flowering branches growing from her head like horns, and blue marks like shark gills down her neck and the corners of her jaw. Given one is a heavily armoured sword and shield fighter, and the other is basically half-dressed and carrying a glaive, they couldn't be more opposite.     "None of your business." "Ah, Clara Marks."     "Bored. Stressed. Tired of everyone's moaning. Trying to figure out where the good gear is hiding." "Oh, I've mostly been relaxing and fishing, so I'm fine!"     "Same time as everyone." "Yeah, duh?"     "Same as everyone." "The GM announcement on day one.     "We both booked it out of Clef ASAP. Read the writing on the wall. Was obvious what was going to happen in Beachhead." "Exploring. Carefully. I'm lucky that the friends I logged in with are all still alive. I don't know what I'd do without them."     "Pathetic." "Kind of, but it's not their fault."     "Small group, move light, stockpile gear, don't rush, run the second it gets bad. Obvious, right?" "Big groups! Like, two or three squads, and switch between them so everyone gets a chance to back off and recover! Blow items and ammo first to soften up enemies!"     "Just the guys here at Yono. We're just calling it a militia for now." "Yeah, we're gonna try and make a guild."     "I mean, the whole game?" "There's a river that's basically uncrossable that we think leads to the other area that's connected to Beachhead."     "There has to be one, right?" "We're just using that word for now. It's old MMO speak."     "Probably a shortcut. Open the doors behind us. Mercy mechanic, you feel me?" "More like 'door does not open from this side'."     "Well . . ." "About that . . ."     "No." "But we know a couple who have. Fucil and Elym in town here did."     "How should I know?" "They're all kind of anomalous aren't they? Ah, I did get water breathing, health and stamina regeneration in sunlight, and immunity to handling poisoned and radioactive material though! I'm crafting!"     "Yeah. That's why we have the militia here. Yono doesn't have coddle guards like Clef. We have to be our own safety. It was Jacob's idea." "A bunch of groups coming this way from the Bridge reported being . . . well, mugged, I guess? By two players. Their handles are Lavis and Vermilion. They were picking on groups that didn't just restock at Clef, but I'm still kind of worried about two guys beating whole parties like that. It's almost scarier they were able to force them to surrender than just killing them. Like, how do you leave someone on red health on purpose?"     "Nope. Well, the second." "Yeah, the GM announcement told us about them. That there were story roles that players were going to fill. And that some of them would help us, but some would be bad guys."     "I want the PvP assholes tried on criminal charges IRL, if you really are a Paladin." "Not really."     "We're doing our best. Be ready for us when we get out." "Don't leave my kitty cat with my mom. She's a bitch."
Tamamo	'Oh, I've mostly been relaxing and fishing, so I'm fine!'     "Oh, so there is fishing, as well, and not only monster fish?" Tamamo makes her way over to Clara Marks, absent-mindedly taking shuffling steps like she's still wearing a heavy robe and not 'heavy' armor.     "Oh, I am known as Tamamo-no-mae," and entirely forgetting about the extra-sharp teeth so displayed, she smiles. Sunnily, still. "A Paladin, as it happens. If you have been fishing, and crafting, then you have some space prepared, and the necessary knives, yes? I have acquired some ingredients along the way, but as for Clef, I had not the opportunity to go shopping. Might you share with me your kitchen?"
Lilian Rook	The other are received more generally by the mob, rapidly warming up to a reasonably large, well-equipped, competent, and confident group.     Phreak finds that this is, indeed, the place. He's actually not sure how they marked coordinates so precisely; he has a specific inn on his minimap overlaid with it too. Bercilak is told that the NPCs refer to it as 'the velvet ghost', and say it's some sort of protector slash watcher spirit of the forest, and that it's goal is to guard The Split in the center of the lake. They think it's probably some sort of organic quest tie-in, and suggest that he talk to the NPCs, uncomfortably remarking on how robust their conversational routines are.     Kirishima is assured that, here at least, food isn't an issue. The fishing spots are extremely fruitful for anyone with the skill, the flightless birds and small game can be hunted, and the trees bear tons of fruit; the NPCs sell staples for cheap since they're farmed locally, rather than imported like in Clef, which is, apparently, simulated in the market system. It'd actually be a very sustainable place to set up shop, but they're worried about what'll happen once players start really breaking through Derivation Bridge in large numbers; there's only a few hundred people here right now, and they don't want twenty thousand.     Nobody has gone as far as the next major dungeon yet. Ancient Lake is big enough that they're still learning what the new materials can be used for, picking up new quests to gear up as much as possible, and they've started organizing their first attempts at loosely professional parties. In terms of 'too tough to handle', it's mentioned that a few people have managed to get to the center of the lake, and two groups didn't return from The Split; the one that returned advised people that the area beyond (inside?) it is extremely high level and basically off-limits. Nobody knows if it's a dungeon or secret area or what; not everyone can even go through it; they say that the area name is gibberish, but begins with the map name Eversion ~.     Haseo is treated with slightly more decency than his edgy-ass is due. Everyone has colloquially settled on just calling that weird system announcement voice 'the GM'. It's not a popular belief that it could be automated, and people have reported it speaking to them in a personal way.
Ishirou	Ishirou looks impressed as he looks over at Lilian. "Wow, that's pretty amazing being able to calculate that. Not many people can just do that...and I have an advantage," Ishirou says with a bit of awe in his tone. Though he considers, "Well, maybe there are bane traits that will proc after killing so many of a type of enemy. Milestone achievements and the like might start to even out the curve. Equipment might make up any other gap there is." In fact... Ishirou spends time walking with Friz. Less talking and more taking time analyzing each person they talk to. The idea is to try to get a feeling for the types of traits they have and see if there was anything that could be discovered. If they can discover a trick or trait they haven't run into, then he could focus more time on that to try and analyze it. Though when the two 'thieves' gets his interest. If they were picked to be PCs with a higher power level and to fulfill a role, then they might have come into contact with the developers or worked for the company. Or even play testers. It's a lead!
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"Thanks, sib," says Bercilak, to each and every player that offers information, however small. All of them get fistbumps, too, and he shares a bit of combat knowledge with the ones who look like they could use it.      His next stopping point is the NPCs. If this thing is supposed to be guarding the Split, then it stands to reason that the ones closer to the lake might know more about it, assuming there are no hunters or trappers in town. If their conversational routines are robust, then Bercilak treats them as such--striking up conversation as he would with anyone else.     "Hey, how's it going? I'm the Green Knight. I got the forest inside of me--and I see a kindred spirit in the Velvet Ghost. You heard of it? One way or another, I want it on my side, as my steed and my friend. Anything you can tell me about it would be, like, super helpful."     Phreak, meanwhile, heads into the inn. "Yo," announces the fixer, with a wave of his hand. Word has probably spread within the Watch's cells by now of Bercilak's new friend, the space elf with the cracked SMGs and the frequently bad attitude. And if it hasn't, then his remark to whoever's tending the bar (he assumes there is one, if it's an inn in an MMO, and if not, he'll just ask front-of-house) "I'm looking for somebody new in town. They probably hang around this, and I imagine they're pretty helpful." He's happy to jog memory with a few pieces of in-game currency, if necessary, and accesses his inventory almost as second nature.
Eryl Fairfax	They believe him! That's a nice change of pace. Eryl is all smiles as they relay their experiences, but it falls when Jacob implies he's lost friends to the game. "I'm sorry. We'll find the people responsible, I swear it."     They're combat trained, along with experienced gamers? That would explain things. "Are you applying tradition combat tactics to the enemy mobs? Or is it simply the combat experience that's giving you the edge?"     He has an ear on Friz's interview at the same time, and the mention of a duo of player... well, not 'killers.' But one can make a case for leaving people stranded without their gear being manslaughter at the very least. "We'll look into it," he reassures the players.
Kirishima	Kirishima stares at Lilian blankly when she spits out all those numbers like it's nothing (apparently doing it all in her head, as far as she can tell). "That does sound like a much bigger gap than I would've guessed. If that's the case, then the traits really must be that much more important. I don't think gear would be /that/ much of a change, unless it's working on..." She furrows her brow. "... Extremely warped scaling? I mean, it wouldn't be the first game to have weapons outstrip leveling stats that much." She suggests in a slightly despairing tone, although it doesn't quite sound like she's despairing at the gulf so much as she seems to be thinking about games with awful equipment crafting systems. With some more info about the local stock/flow of supplies, Kirishima has one less thing to worry about for now. It's still a clear concern, though, once she remembers that there's likely to be more people filtering in from Clef, and then there's still the matter of the actual bosses in the surrounding area. "So a potential end or late-game area in The Split, and a... Gibberish name? Could that be a glitched region?" Kirishima asks aloud of her companions, then strokes her chin while furrowing her brow. "Unless it's intentionally garbled...? Like some kind of 'glitch in the system' sci-fi area in the middle of an otherwise fantasy-esque setting." She suggests while considering Friz's discoveries. "If it wants us to explore and engage with the game organically rather than finding an escape route or just breaking it, then... We might have to come back to that Eversion area later once we're really ready to... Break things as part of the story?"
Friz	Moxie: What can they be charged with? Dirt: Can't aim for manslaughter, but this could fall under 'accessory to murder'. Savvy: Doesn't the duress disqualify that? Dirt: Depends, boss. There's duress, but duress *for* murder? Grit: Crisis does not incite the urge to kill. Something else does. Savvy: Well, it's our job to find out why. Moxie: Maybe something is pushing them to do it? Savvy: Maybe they're just assholes. Grit: The system has designs upon them. Dirt: Proof of that? Grit: It came to me in a feeling. Dirt: Thanks, chief. Moxie: If we're going to take the pressure off Clef at all, we need to find a way to circle back around to that secondary path. Savvy: We need to figure out if we deal with Lavis and Vermilion first. Dirt: That a joke? What's 'detective' mean? Grit: The game can demand change. But only so far. Grit: We face the bandits of the bridge. Savvy: Guess so. Dirt: Hey, they're trying to start a guild. Boss, weren't you after that? Grit: No guarantee they share our goals. Moxie: They already have something driving their movement... Savvy: Well, no harm in trying.     "Alright. PvP types, I can probably get attention in terms of time for accessory to murder." Friz says, scrawling in her book. "(I mean, uh, not much... 'plea deal' sort of stuff happening.)" She shakes her head. "Anyway. This is a lot of excellent data. I really appreciate it! We're going to look into opening the mercy door and trying to deal with the muggers. You said you're working on some kind of volunteer militia?" She quickly tears off a sheet and starts writing more.     "Where I come from, we have De-- er, well, here it'd be just Volunteer Departments, anyway. I'm trying to get something like that set up. We're looking at thousands of deaths without it..." She marks her contact info, and starts noting down the structure of crisis-response volunteer departments. "It's almost like a militia, honestly, so I'm gonna take this to Jacob too. If you two don't mind, can I add you on my friends list, and we can see about that guild? I'd like to help keep up a spirit of volunteerism for that. If I can open the mercy door... well, I'd appreciate the help to make sure it gets used right."     "First, though... first I need to go deal with the Bridge Bandits. People don't just *do that* normally, not when life's on the line. They're risking *themselves* too, who knows when someone strong comes along and doesn't play softball like they do? I need to go see what they know, and if I can do that, I'd appreciate it if your militia could handle followup and holding." She plaintively shifts her own jacket. "Not like I have a brig to throw them into right now... So it'd be a big help."     She's resolved. Once this is wrapped up here, she's going to go examine the sites of some of the muggings for traces and evidence, to try to find the hideout of Lavis and Vermilion!
Lilian Rook	Unsurprisingly, Ishirou scans that every single PC in front of him has some of their Trait slots filled meaningfully. The assortment are generally random right now, and he sees a couple of repeats, as well as two people with Compositions. Brio and Harp even have the Traits-in-progress that Friz and Violet had discovered, though Brio seems to be the one who has exclusively slotted Inherent traits.     What he sees, even at low levels, is extremely diverse, from subtle stat bonuses, darkvision, and weak health regeneration, to natural armour, water breathing, vertical climbing, some kind of ESP, and some kind of brief selective intangibility. The stronger effects seem to come with downsides, and to some degree, are 'always on'. None of them really seem designed to go together as part of a set 'build'; which both means that some are dubiously useful to a given player, but that there are no brakes on the power of synergies at all.     Clara Marks, aka Harp, is initially overwhelmed by Tamamo's friendliness (and pointy smile), but then begins to gladly inform Tamamo of the routine. Fishing does have its own skill (and assorted 'minigame'), the prep tools can be carried portably for little weight and have their own quality grades. Cooking is a separate skill, geared towards providing the traditional long-lasting food buffs and greater Vital restoration, as well as simply being much more pleasing to eat than what the game lets you buy from a vendor; players are already offering high prices for PC-cooked food.     Some recipes are doable at a campfire and a basic stove set, but complicated and higher quality ones needing static kitchen space, which means designated community buildings or, better yet, guild or player housing, that can theoretically be upgraded. She is still using one of the former, but is happy to direct Tamamo to it. Fishing gear can be bought from the NPCs, and is reasonably cheap for a starter set.     Jacob continues to discuss with Eryl. "The army guys know what they're doing already. A lot of them are friends in their own unit, and it's mostly business as usual for them, or they're getting used to enemies that shoot back less. Us gamers are playing it classic style. One of those old-fashioned, event-run MMOs, before they gave people dungeon finders and town revives. Tough to say what group is doing better, other than the ones with both. Kinda feels like either kind of experience applies, I guess? One teaches the other pretty quick. You get combat experience and gamesense here."     Kirishima opining on the Split gets her an "I don't think so. It's like, runes. There's probably a cipher somewhere else in the game. A fictional language." and "I heard from the cathedral quest in Clef that that the whole 'Realm of Eversion' had some kind of hand in all the game backstory being full of fallen civs. Pattern recognition says it's an endgame event waiting to happen, or a prime enemy faction or something. I'd bet money."
Lilian Rook	The topic interleaves with that of the bandits. They're described as 'Lavis: Tall, male, unusually well-built, medium armour, sabre and dagger dual-wielding build. Vermilion: Slightly shorter, female, extremely long hair, ultra-light armour, two-handed odachi build. Former has stealth abilities, latter uses a kind of self-buffing Composition. Lavis is identifiable by a violet glow over the heart and some sort of crystallization happening to his right arm. Vermilion is identifiable by blackened hands 'like dye' and rings of red light in her eyes.' and, more pressingly, that the surviving group from the Split said that the latter was a Trait they saw someone unlock in the Eversion zone, before dying. Which implies the bandits have been there.     Nobody knows if they've been promoted to Iconic Characters, but they're clearly worried enough about their overall strength to have a round-the-clock guard up. Compared to the chaotic rabble packing Clef, the players here are happy to accept friend invites, having sparse lists themselves. They say that Yono appears to be the second step in the Clef-started 'official guild licensing' quest anyways, and that the players here are attached enough that they'd like to set up HQ here and keep a grip on the town via the game's built-in systems, to prevent it from being monopolized and abused.     Bercilak can only surmise that the NPCs have AI behind them. There's no way he'd be able to tell them apart from a player, if someone wanted to dress the same and roleplay really hard. They appear to speak a game-unique conlang, and have an immediate fondness for his woodsmanly aura. The Velvet Ghost is said to be able to be propitiated using an ancestral ritual involving the burning of wood clippings from a rare tree deep in the forest, the use of crushed pearl from the bottom of the lake, and a still-functional piece of 'black ruin', from the islands. This does, in fact, sound somewhat like a fetch quest with an open-ended second act. They don't know what kind of wishes the Ghost grants.     Phreak showing up to the inn is immediately flagged down before he has to look. A curly-haired blonde woman with an extremely large white wood and golden ivy-coloured rifle, and a white-haired boy with the stereotypical red eyes, and an equally enormous chopping sword, with a bright silver edge. The former's left hand is like a seethrough shape of blue sky studded with stars, which she uses to get his attention. The latter seems perpetually backlit by soft sunlight, completing their matched celestial theme. Their handles are Fucil and Elym, and they're both level sixteen already. The Watch eye has been carved into the table with a crafting knife.