Event #002: Training in High Rise Village, Pt II

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Event Two: Wreckage Intensifies

Note: This event will double as a TDM! Characters are now up to 30-35% of canon powers. That's going by a metric of fairly OP characters. If one is unsure about whether a particular power would transfer to the game, feel free to ask a mod!

For new players/characters: the tech and magic from the first event can be acquired by working with fellow PCs! New players are encouraged to look at the previous event (tho this one will be a bit simpler), the coffee shop mingle, and, possibly, the High Risk Quest. It can now be assumed that techies have the tech from the High Risk Quest.

For in-game powers, techies and magic users who have been in the game for a while can fast-track some power transfer to the newbies. For the magic users, this is particularly true of those who helped take the runes of water/fire respectively. Tech users can handwave various abilities related to their implant or enhanced tech state. Both sides can use their Synthesis power creation hack. If new players have any questions about how to get involved, or if anyone has any questions about the event or world lore (it's a lot!), feel free to ask mod below.

*Characters who pursued the animal speech blessing on the TDM can go ahead and utilize that for this event!

I. Outside the Symbiotic Skyscraper

Rosalind: “Vile android woman,” huh? ... tho it does sound kinda bad-ass.

Well, we got a pretty big clue. They’re after technology that melds the biological and the artificial. Even the Otherworlders with their powers have to acknowledge that our city’s abilities in this domain are superlative.

Avenaticus: Presently, High Rise Village is being scoured. Disruption-centric technology is to be removed and disposed of.

The problem has been the pre-emptive location of such technology. Even after analyzing the scripts and building countermeasures, the digital signatures have changed. It is virus-like behavior – a modification from our friends, no doubt.

Rosalind: So put simply, we’re still vulnerable to sudden activations of disruptive technology. You guys should have the resources to put down this sort of thing by now, but we need to get focused on preventing such incidents in the first place. That’s what we’re going to be working on, going forwards.

II. The Symbiotic Skyscraper

This facility is run by another android, Avenaticus [above]. Its exact purpose is opaque to outsiders, except that research seems to occur here. The research involves the tech fauna. The level of weaponry attached to this particular group of tech fauna also stirs rumors of involvement/cooperation with the military.

Once again, another disruptive incident is in progress. Fortunately, Otherworlders now have the means to disable the disruption tech.

Today, Otherworlders are tasked with making their way through the skyscraper and finding the control nodes with the hostile technology so as to then disable them. The main obstacle is the tech fauna themselves

Tech Fauna: Chonkers Edition

Scanning the tech chonkers with the aXess Link will give names, usually combinations of animal names with letters and numbers. For example, one might be 12-XA Bear.

Boss-Tier Tech Chonkers

Bonus: WTF-its!

Objective: Get past the tech fauna and find the nodes causing the feral/disruptive behavior to disable them. It's fine to get rough with the tech fauna; assume they have pretty high mechanical regen.

[ Feel free to propose names for the fauna. Some might even become game canon names. Tbh, I just don't feel up to assigning them all names, but you guys can go wild. ]

III. Magic Training: Whisperwind Alley and Glimmergrove

Obstacles: Wind Colossi and Glimmergrove Creatures

Pictured: Tree spirits, wildlife spirits, great amphibians, Earth elementals, and Rose Whips.

All these creatures can be challenged directly. Some may be appeased in other ways than through combat, but all are applicable for PVE. As this is a training event, it's expected Otherworlders won't engage in fatal combat, but then, these are all pretty sturdy entities in any case.

Objective: Acquire the two runes!

Threaded | Flat

Lepidoperatives

Found In: High Rise Village and Aetherium District. If seen in Enchantech Assembly, report for removal.
Description: These began as accessories for personal devices, especially used for file transfer, data gathering, and monitoring. The lepidoperative was developed and sold for these purposes and became a trendy accessory for almost every inhabitant of the city. The nanites making up the lepidoperatives could be programmed with many functions and to have many patterns and shapes, often reconfigurable on the fly to follow the hot colours or personal preferences. Some kept their lepidoperatives shaped as scarabs. Others were butterflies or moths with complex and vibrant colours. Others even shaped theirs to look like miniature bats. The only difficulty came when owners of the lepidoperatives passed away.

Without the owners there to deactivate them and seen as an insignificant accessory, the lepidoperatives simply continued their programmed routines until the natural progression began to take place: errors occurred, buffers overflowed, memory filled, and bit by bit, the lepidoperatives forgot that they were accessories. As the lepidoperatives became accustomed to the wilds, more of the “accessory” versions were mysteriously reprogrammed and joined the now-feral swarms.

They’re considered harmless, especially as their diet is sunlight and they deal no harm to anyone. However, sensitive buildings often have pest control shields especially to prevent the lepidoperatives from reaching confidential information and accessing it without permission. A few lepidoperatives have been domesticated again, but these are by far the minority.
Friend-shaped/Not Friend-shaped: Unpredictable. They will not attack, but their intent is unknown.

Any event questions can go here!

[ it was hard to measure exactly how shady vs. how legit a facility like this might be. compared to what Gilgamesh and the others had just witnessed in those abandoned labs, the Symbiotic Skyscraper was rather tame.

well, Gilgamesh was an ancient hero-king, so he was not exactly likely to have a lot of opinions on the topic of animal experimentation in the name of technology. he viewed these tech fauna through the same lens as the creatures who had attacked Uruk. ]

Once again, the time comes to channel Bios and engage in battle, it would seem...

[ he's not put-upon. the world is weird, but Gilgamesh kind of lives for this shit on some level.

finding the nodes turns out to be pretty straightforward. it's getting to them that is a problem. the interior of the skyscraper is like a multi-planar, multi-dimensional zone where the creatures roam across their respective terrestrial domains.

is it a simulation or magic or technology... ? at least the dimensions of the place do feel like some kind of fake-out is at work. it's a skyscraper, after all. in theory. so the idea it encompasses a bunch of biomes would seem an absurdity on the face of it.

most of the time, at least, moving within the zones themselves proved to be pretty straightforward. one could be reasonably sure about the distance of the tech lifeforms (?). but there was this sense of being stalked/watched by them, ready to pounce, as one advanced. they were stirred up, like the birds from before... but obviously this was a worse situation. ]

Hmph... though whoever designed certain sides of this city certainly did create quite the set-up for such a problem.

[ which could be said of a lot of things here, really. ]

Edited 2024-08-21 18:07 (UTC)

✘ ⸻ symbiotic skyscrapers

[ The more missions like this that Lucy goes on, the more she starts to feel at home. Maine's crew had kept her busy the same way; getting a call in the middle of the night, or as the sun rose, telling her to get her ass down to some decrepit warehouse or fancy saferoom or rusting back alley. The difference is, she'd never been on the frontline for combat, that had always been Maine and Dorio's jobs, Rebecca's job, while she'd always stayed behind the scenes to do her netrunning work.

It's no different now. Unlike some, Lucy doesn't run into the skyscraper guns blazing. She doesn't even have a gun right now. No, she finds the first person that's willing to work with her and is more combat inclined, and she follows behind them.

Her cyberdeck neuro-gear is working a little better these days, and she's able to pull up a blueprint of the place, directing them with efficiency. They're lucky enough not to encounter any of the shit they were warned about, not for the first few floors at least, and Lucy directs them to what looks like a hotspot of wiring -- and pretty quickly finds a massive terminal that has a pretty good chance of being one of these nodes causing the bad behavior.

Lucy grabs a wheeled chair, plunks it down in front of the terminal, and gets to work, fingers flying over the keyboard.

And that's when she hears what can only be metal paws making an approach. ]

Keep an eye out. Something's coming.

Whisperwind Alley

Azem would enjoy this, he thinks to himself as he stares up at the bazaar and then glances at the ground below. The markets are so different here compared to what either of them are used to, although the hawkers' cries and heated bartering between vendor and customer remain much the same.

If you encounter him at the market, you may hear him engaging in a very lively (or intense) round of negotiation with someone over some fruit. Beneath the boisterous veneer of friendliness is a sharp haggler.

If you encounter him fighting the wind colossi...

"Get out of the way!"

A blast of wind strikes the ground, knocking the unwary off their feet. Emet-Selch takes the wind into the flame barrier surrounding him and uses it to fuel an even greater inferno, which he then directs towards the colossi.

Glimmergrove

This place is less friendly, but Emet-Selch is used to the dark. Maybe you're lost and stumbling about alone. Maybe you've run into one of the native flora/fauna and are in trouble. Only then does he somehow materialise out of the dark. Something slashes and whatever it is reels back with a screech of pain.

"What are you doing?!" he hisses. "Be more careful!"

Wildcard

I'm up for Emet acting as support for other, new characters who didn't get to do the first magic learning round. He's...difficult to work with, but hey, learning how to cooperate is part of the journey right?

(I'd also love for someone to drag him into helping the Tech users.)

Loopy Lepidoperatives

While there are greater concerns and conflicts brewing in the city, your average everyday Magisterian has their own problems to think about. Such as this one shopkeeper selling televisions and other electronics, who currently has a swarm of lepidoperatives of all shapes and sizes swarming her shopfront. The creatures -- buzzing and droning -- certainly attract some attention but hardly anyone can see the TV screens (playing brightly coloured cartoons) on display and more importantly, they bother anyone trying to enter.

"They just won't go away!" the shopkeeper bemoans loudly to Rhea'li, who is nodding as he listens. "Please, can you help me?"

Well... as Rhea'li observes, more of the mechanical creatures are joining the feral swarm (possibly attracted by the others?) and some of them are even spilling out onto the footpath next to the shop. If you're passing by, watch your head! Try not to get swooped by yet another lepidoperative flying in to join the others.

Wildcard
[ooc: Want to thread with Rhea'li but this isn't calling to you? Hit me up either in DMs/Discord/

jesii and we can discuss :3]

Edited 2024-08-22 17:21 (UTC)

1. The Symbiotic Skyscraper

William and his Bursterfly and far more in synch than they were at the Elysian Grove. While William acts as vanguard, his Bursterfly becomes a nuisance to those who crash upon his shield. He's a lot stronger than his meagre frame would suggest - not that this seems to startle the techfauna which defend the control nodes.

"This reminds me of the undead demons back home," he mutters to himself. With a mighty shove, he manages to unbalance his techbear opponent and drives his spear right through the head. If this had been a flesh and blood creature, he would have gone for the heart. But as he doesn't know which part of the body contains its control unit, blinding it is the next best thing.

"Mindless, acting on certain stimuli--" He sidesteps a blind swipe from the bear and stabs his spear into the shoulder joint. One of the arms now dangles uselessly. "--And easy to predict once you understand how they act."

The only problem is that these things seem to repair themselves quite frequently. William sighs as the arm he just disabled begins to reattach itself. He just wants to disable ONE of these creatures and examine it... He's destroyed all the rest so far.

2. Who's that Pokemon?

Not every techfauna is a generic wild animal though. William stares at the yellow thing that dashes past him sparking electricity. He could swear that its shape is familiar...

Despite his better judgement, he starts jogging after the thing. Inwardly, he's cry-laughing.

Don't tell me that there are capsule monsters here too!!

3. Wildcard

If you have another idea, feel free to message me and we can work something out.

Threaded | Flat

Tech Fauna: Chonkers Edition

Boss-Tier Tech Chonkers

Bonus: WTF-its!

Obstacles: Wind Colossi and Glimmergrove Creatures

Tech Fauna -- note: assume these are given out, like the Bursterflies

Questions

tech chonk

lucy kushinada | cyberpunk: edgerunners

Emet-Selch | Final Fantasy XIV | open (will match format)

Rhea'li Akhbala | Final Fantasy XIV | I'll match format!

William G Maryblood | The Faraway Paladin