High Risk Quest #1: The Ghost Signal

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High Risk Quest #1: The Ghost Signal

Note: Here we go, gamers! The first High Risk Quest for Magisteria. These quests will serve as tiered mini-events which reveal crucial world lore, goings-on, and also tie into the metaplot and the large events. High Risk Quests will trade off in emphasis, meaning tech --> magic --> tech --> magic.

While this quest has seeds for the Tech Path Conflict, it should be noted that it's OTA and also that quite a bit of magic-specific locations/mini-events will open soon. The Magic Path Conflict is brewing in the background and will become more apparent soon, too, so keep one's eyes peeled.

Context & Recap

This quest takes place after The Coffee Shop Mingle, which features NPCs discoursing on the goings-on of High Rise Village. Players are encouraged to look at that.

In the first event, Training in High Rise Village, we learned about a mysterious intruder who infiltrated the Digital Flora Dome and the Neon Nest, two properties belonging to an android named Rosalind Vireo. PCs who restored the properties deciphered a mysterious phrase, "Symphony of Disruption..." Seems portentious! In the above coffee shop mingle, Rosalind speculates as to the possible culprit(s?).

Bling

See the plotting post: PCs can go all out with the cyber weapons on this one, in addition to whatever tech or magic they've learned, whatever canon abilities have returned, and Selena and Titan-7 can also be used as weapons (so to speak) or defenses/back-up. Feel free to write interactions with them or them stepping in however. Of course, the main route to success will be PCs supporting other PCs!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Standing on the walkway where Bishop was is a wirey black vaguely humanoid figure. It's body is, much like most of the hostile creatures, unusual though this certainly had some uniqueness to it's macabre figure. There's a loud screech as the enemy is revealed. It is not in pain, but certainly upset that it's been exposed.

Turning it's attention to Rhea'li, it lauched itself off the walkway and straight for the Miqo'te but Bishop was quick to intercept - crashing into it mid-air and stabbing it in the chest, though it seems to have done nothing. They clattered to the ground with Bishop launching himself at the intial fall as the creature skid across the ground and into a post and into a shadow. ]

Get behind me!

[ Multiple pointed tendrils shot out from the darkness which he skillfully parried, but at the same time it left him pinned there as he guarded Rhea'li. ]

[ While she knows that Gilgamesh's whole strategy with Synthesis is presenting an object they could both grab on to, she hadn't been expecting a stone tablet. It's exactly like something out of a museum, although she guesses to him it's just the normal form of inscribing information. She bites back a smart comment about the shittier form of tablets, and silently takes it, clasping her fingers over one side of it.

It takes a few seconds. She has to close her eyes and think about cooperating, about working together with someone that's just about the polar opposite of her. White-purple Bios flares in lines over her skin, rippling like a pool when it comes into contact with his golden glyphs.

First things first: they need to protect themselves. And just like that, a shield snaps into place in front of them, and the thing's howling is muted enough that Lucy can recover and stand up straight, breathing easier. One warped limp snaps forward, crashing against their shield, but it holds. ]

If we can get this thing back to Selena and Titan-7, they can-- I don't know, study them. Put them in jail. Whatever. I'd like to take a look at its code, too. See if I can figure out what caused it to corrupt like this.

[ Lucy's fingertips tighten on the tablet, stone scraping over her bodysuit's gloves. She wonders if Gilgamesh has ever been ordered around in his entire life. But this is tech, this is her specialty. Also, she's just kind of bossy. ]

Think of it like telepathy; we're going to look inside that thing's brain.

His eyes widen briefly before he dives to the side, rolling quickly back to his feet. He's glad he opted to wear only a suit of chainmail tonight. Not knowing what dangers the quest might present, some may have chosen to weigh themselves down. But William has decided that being light on his feet will benefit his style of fighting better.

It's a shame that his shield is looking to be a nuisance for this particular enemy though. How easily can it slice through metal, he wonders?

"Are you alright?!" he shouts without taking his eyes off their opponent.

Libra is fighting some of the smaller enemies, using his axe as a conduit for his magic. Anyone nearby can see it glowing with colors showing what element he's using at each time. When Emet-Selch goes to cast his big spell, Libra can feel the pull of Bios before it's released. He turns just in time to catch the slam of the claw on the floor.

That was impressive. He hadn't been talking himself up too much before.

But apparently it wasn't enough, as he watched the Grimm starting to stand again. He ran over, standing between Emet-Selch and the rising Grimm.

"How long would you need to do that again?"

He tries to straighten but, unexpectedly, his knees buckle. The bios maintaining his transformation releases and he returns to being a man before he hits the ground on all fours. Gritting his teeth, he shakes his head.

"I can't. That took everything I had. Without more aether, I cannot repeat the spell."

He reaches over and rests a hand on the other man's shoulder, channeling some of his healing magic into him. He may not be able to do whatever he did again, but Libra wanted him to be able to get away if he needed.

"Is there a way I can give you any of mine?" If he had any, that is. Sure, Emet-Selch had taught him about his magic, but he didn't know if things crossed between worlds.

Their opponent is fast but Rhea'li and his bursterfly are faster still; being light on his feet has been one of the few things that has kept him alive all these years.

"I'm fine," comes the calm reply, Rhea'li also watching their opponent.

Except... as it bursts forth from the shadows, the red ribbons loosely form the shape of a human woman, its face a white mask. And Rhea'li can't seem to take his eyes off the dark eyeholes of its mask, almost as if he were being hypnotised. But that's not right, is his mind not protected by Hydaelyn's blessing? Except he's wrong, and without thinking he takes a slow step towards the red ribboned woman, entranced, bursterfly fluttering in uncontrolled circles...

He exhales shakily. Their healing magicks enable him to stagger upright again but even as they're speaking the Grimm, too, is recovering.

"I daresay it would take everything you have," he replies roughly. "And I dare not repeat such a crippling spell if I cannot be sure of this thing's obliteration."

Who would have expected it to resurrect itself?! Emet-Selch grits his teeth as he makes a grab for Libra's wrist.

"I can take enough to buy you time to leave."

[ For his part, Gilgamesh would never dream of considering it unusual to mix ancient tablets with futuristic technology. Or any other ancient/futuristic mash-up in battle. This was second nature to the man, if anything.

His Tome of Truth was an artifact which would serve its function precisely in this particular battle; anachronism mattered not at all.

And Gilgamesh is pleased with the outcome: the shield. This could be described as the fruit of their cooperation, at present. ]

How is it that you are planning to accomplish this?

[ No, Gilgamesh had certainly not ever been ordered around, but he also did not interpret her words as any such. More like she seems to have an idea in mind, but he is not exactly certain of what.

Some kind of neural scan, from what he gathered? Perhaps this would be a chance for him to witness the technology from Lucy's world -- that which was quite likely to correspond much more closely to that which was of this world than anything Gilgamesh had encountered. but, it was only fair she have a chance to show off: he was always showing up and giving speeches, after all. ]

If you have some reasonable idea or method at such a moment, I shall support as necessary.

For a blessing, the creature isn't looking at William so be doesn't immediately realise something is wrong. He is just now raising his spear up, preparing to jab, when he notices movement out the corner of his eye.

"Rhea'li?"

The other youth is taking halting steps towards the creature. Their gaze is fixed on it. Perhaps it can only entrance one person at a time? William doen't stop to ponder; he averts his gaze and rushes over to Rhea'li.

"Sorry!" he yells as he raises a hand and slaps Rhea'li's cheek.

Edited 2024-08-25 01:19 (UTC)

The sudden sting of William's hand connecting to his cheek snaps him out of it. Wh-

The disorientation leaves him blinking rapidly but he recovers quickly as he quickly pieces together what happened. And he raises his rifle to shoot over William's shoulder at the ribbons zipping towards William's exposed back.

He can thank William later. More importantly, "Ware its gaze. Look not into its eyes!"

[ Lucy's reasonably certain she can pull Gilgamesh along for the ride. They're in the middle of Synthesis, after all, and that means they can do things they normally can't. Lucy's going to take full advantage of that, and full advantage of Gilgamesh's smarts, to take them both on a dive.

She looks over at him, eyes bright. ]

Just trust me. It'll be a little weird, but it'll help.

[ She's not going to risk doing a deep dive. They don't have the proper support equipment, and taking someone untrained into a deep dive for the first time is just asking for brain damage. Instead, Lucy engages her neuro-gear, and tugs Gilgamesh along for the ride. They remain standing where they are, but their vision overlays with a visual representation of the Fractured's code-- and it's beautiful. An elegant structure of shimmering rainbow colors, plagued on all sides by corrupting black cracks and rends.

With a neat flick of code, Lucy renders the Fractured immobile for now, though it's straining against her hold. ]

This is what its code looks like. [ She narrates, watching scrolls of code highlight as she glances at various parts of the structure. ] Whatever this corruption is, it's gotten deep.

"Water? Ah..." Huh. That probably would have been a good idea. Lucy-chan looks like she's dying for a drink, and that might be more literal than Musashi likes. She looks out to the end of the alley to the busy street outside. "Wait here a second." And like that, she's just gone, there one second, and then simply not, save for a small breeze that signifies how fast she must have taken off.

Distantly Lucy might hear someone cry "Hey, what the f—" and Musashi offering a quick thank you before the samurai Servant is back at her side, with a water bottle in her hand.

"Good thing it's a hot day, ne?" She asks, unscrewing the cap. "Lots of people were smarter than we were. Here, easy does it." She holds it up to Lucy's lips, tipping it forward so she can drink a little. Probably the less she moves the better right now.

Now that the Sentinel is good and focused on Mister Grumpypants, Musashi launches her own attack. Leaping off, she uses her momentum to propel herself up onto a nearby wall, then launching herself again a split-second later to attack and harry the Sentinel from above, twin katanas shining as she slashes at its head.

The first drink of water she takes is the best drink she's ever had. Better than a shot of vodka after a car chase across the city. Better than a chilled drink at 3am after waking up parched. The first sip galvanizes her, giving her enough strength to raise her hand to join Musashi's on the bottle, tipping it upward so she can gulp the water down.

Lucy makes it through half the bottle before she has to stop for breath. "Hopefully that guy you stole it from doesn't like his water laced with anything," she chuckles, hoarse. "Although some verve wouldn't be too bad right now."

She didn't bring her vape. Damn.

More slowly, she finishes off the rest of the bottle, and is feeling a lot steadier by the time she does.

"You really are an amazing fighter," she murmurs. Their hands still clasped around the bottle, she thinks the touch of her fingers against Musashi's must be unbearably hot. "And we make a pretty good team, right?"

He ducks down to allow Rhea'li a clearer shot, then pivots to immediately take on a guard stance again.

"Like a Gorgon or something, huh?" he mutters to himself. "This will be tricky..."

He wonders if a mirrored shield would be effective against something like this too-- but doesn't get much time to ponder before he has to dodge more lashing ribbons. He tries to swing his glaive down on the flat side of one as it whips past him and is gratified to see that it doesn't slice his own weapon in half. Just like a knife, it's the edges which are dangerous and not the blade itself.

But can he fight blind? Blood had trained him thoroughly in all sorts of situations - and that includes when one doesn't have the benefit of their sight. However, none of his opponents had been quite like this.

I need some way to control its movements so I can predict how to dodge. Or...I blind it as well!

"Rhea'li, I'm going to draw its attention and try and go straight for its eyes. Can you shoot the arms which come my way?"

One drink of water and Lucy-chan is already coming back to herself. It was a little embarrassing having to kind of mug someone for their water bottle, but it was worth it. But, she does make a mental note to remember this in the future.

Some victory verve to celebrate does sound appealing. Musashi smirks at her. "Oh yeah? Drinks are on me, then. What club you wanna hit first?" She won't insult Lucy-chan by suggesting they restrict their party to a single club.

Her fingers are hot, but Servants are tough, and Musashi wouldn't pull away for anything. Besides, there's something about the way Lucy is looking at her that makes it hard to focus on the heat. That and how close they currently are to each other.

"Well, I did promise you a show." She replies, giving Lucy a playful wink, and then nods. "We do. Those were some super-good openings you made for me. You really gave that robot some real hell, huh?" She's had capable comrades in the past; Iori and Saber, Samson, Ritsuka-chan and the rest of the Chaldea group during the periods she worked with them, and she's proud to add Lucy to that group as well. Especially since the others, most of them, are long gone now.

"Now, do you think you can stand up, or am I carrying you out of here?" She doesn't look like she'd be very put out by the latter option if it came to that. "There are better places for you to cool down than this alley."

[A skilled fighter. Rhea'li can trust in him.

Raising his rifle, he fires blasts of energy at the tendrils, driving them back from Bishop so the other man has space to go on the offense.]

I'll be fine. Get the main body.

[Rhea'li's bursterfly zips about, tracking the creature to where it's attempting to hide in shadow. Once again, the bursterfly shines a light to expose their assailant.]

"I can stand. Wouldn't mind a hand up, though."

Lucy has to lean heavily on said hand as she makes her best attempt at standing. She's familiar with this part: overexertion on deepdives means her legs feel like they can't take her weight, but with enough stubbornness, they can. She wouldn't be this bad off if she'd had a cooling suit and a physical line to port in through, but hey, emergencies are emergencies.

She's pretty sure Musashi gave the Fractured far worse hell than Lucy managed, but she did manage to snag some of its code. She'll be able to look over that later.

"I think ABYSS is my favorite so far," she muses, thinking back to the various clubs they've gone to. She's done her best to tour most of the clubs in the Entertainment District, from the tamer ones to the wilder ones. ABYSS is somewhere in the middle; freeflowing verve, the occasional throuple having sex against the wall, but in a classy way, you know. "Might have to recover for a few hours before we head there, though."

While she assaults the thing with rapid attacks, he lands powerful hits from the front. They're largely ineffectual, but Emet-Selch is good at making himself the centre of attention.

With his Sight, he focuses on trying to pinpoint a weak spot. He was never quite so good at it compared to his friend so he ends up wasting some precious seconds double-checking.

"I've got it!" he suddenly yells. "Girl, how do you fare?"

[ Trust is not something Gilgamesh gives without reason, but Lucy has shown herself resourceful in the face of adversity, and that in itself is reason.

He knows this woman from a futuristic world is in her element here, and... he is curious, if he must be honest. Curious about what she will do and what he will see and encounter. Thus Gilgamesh is pliant, unmoving, merely squinting ever-so-slightly as the brightly colored code cascades in front of his vision.

So this was ... a result of that neural technology which they had spoken of before... hm...

The only time Gilgamesh has contemplated a neural link with another entity has been within the context of a potential Master. But his only Master, at least in this summoning, has been Fujimaru Ritsuka. It's a strange thought, though -- how much Lucy seems to have that natural aura that he associates with... such a role. ]

Corruption...

[ The King of Heroes regards the blackened rainbow of code quite seriously, his vision taking it all in. ]

... did we not speak of that with regards to those creatures in the Agriculture District?

[ At the time, they had not been able to form any sort of conclusions due to lack of information. And that remains true insofar as Gilgamesh can only speculate what the source of this might be. But now he cannot help but wonder whether everything is connected. Those animals, these beings -- ]

Can this... this neural scan of yours preserve the code, that we may investigate it further at a better moment?

Although it has been quite some time since he last used a rifle, he's certain he can he can handle this. He raises his weapon, understanding without needing to be told the reason behind William's plan.

"Of course. You can count on me."

Indeed, Rhea'li has got William's back, shooting any arms that would pose a threat to his companion. His Bursterfly isn't armed in any way, but like a giant moth it can serve as a fast moving distraction. And indeed, when their opponent turns its gaze upon William, Rhea'li's Bursterfly swoops and lands on its face, wings flapping annoyingly at the creature. It's only once the creature attempts to rip the Bursterfly away from itself that the Bursterfly escapes into the air, leaving the way open for William to strike.

Yeah. But back then it was just a theory. This time, I'm pretty sure we're staring right at the evidence.

[ Because Lucy hadn't been able to get into the brains of those shadowed brains, not in the same way she can netrun. Here, she's far more in her element, guiding Gilgamesh through the code like stepping through a waterfall, letting the programming cascade over them so they can better see the corrupted parts.

It's like watching a corpse get eaten by maggots. There's so little of the original programming left; even if she managed to strip out the bad code, there'd be almost nothing left over. Just scraps of foundation, pieces of fundamental protocols. ]

Can do. I grabbed a little from another one I fought. Should be able to get a bit more from this one.

[ Lucy doubts she'll be able to grab all of it, but even a fraction would be useful to study the corruption. So she starts grabbing snapshots, copying the data into her cyberdeck. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees some of the corruption start... questing in their direction, oily tendrils of data reaching for them. ]

Can you deal with that?

William takes a deep breath and keeps his gaze slightly lowered. Not enough to be completely unaware of his surroundings - just hopefully enough to avoid being caught in their opponent's gaze.

He charges forward, shield slightly up, trusting in Rhea'li to shoot aside any arms lunging his way. He can hear mechanical fluttering from the Bursterfly and knows that it must be adding its own harassment to the fight.

Trust in your allies, he reminds himself, resisting the urge to flinch when some razor ribbons sheer a little too close to him.

In no time at all, he's before the mechanical creature.

He thrusts his glaive upwards.

There's an ear-splitting screech, like a scratchy digital record. William wrenches his glaive back and leaps away without checking to see if his aim is true. If it is, then they're safe. If it isn't, the last thing he wants to do is offer up a free target.

Hmph... can I?

[ Gilgamesh allows his tablet to vanish into the vault once more and folds his arms at his chest. He thinks that between Lucy's ongoing scanning and the efforts of their tech fauna in sustaining the barrier, matters should be sufficiently under control that its anchoring presence is no longer necessary. This interaction still counts as Synthesis, does it not? Gilgamesh can feel/see Lucy's white-purple winding like ethereal ribbons amongst/around/with his own golden Bios, the air shimmering with the output. It's quite the light display.

Expression rather nonchalant, Gilgamesh does not even move. He simply glances at the corruption, and the Bios near it flashes brighter -- rippling gold -- as though congealing. As soon as the corruption approaches, it is instantly repulsed. Flicked away, as though with barely an effort or thought. ]

Indeed, in my world, I was the incorruptible Servant. [ In one timeline, a version of Gilgamesh had even been drenched in the contents of the cursed Holy Grail, All the World's Evils. Though this would have turned another Servant to madness, an Alter, Gilgamesh had kept himself intact because of the nature of his force of will. ] Though I cannot say whether the corruption in this world is akin to that which I knew. Yet I can say no force has ever yet been able to distort an absolute being such as myself.

[ ... Of course, some might say this is just daring that it be tried, here. Even so, his Bios is like light itself, burning away at the darkness. ]

Have you almost finished?

Edited (typos ahoy) 2024-10-11 17:32 (UTC)

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High Risk Quest #1: The Ghost Signal

Context & Recap

Bling

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I blame savage for forgetting about this oops

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crusty as fuck, feel free to ignore!

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Augh I'm so sorry I took so long to reply

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all good!

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btw feel free to wrap this up if u wish. i know it's an older thread hahaha.