Life After the Apocalypse

The fatty has 360 HP. No way we can win this if we play by the rules.

So fuck the rules.

Grace rushes the archer and tries to grab her arm so she can’t nock or loose another arrow!

She is here to support Raquel—so whatever compelled her to run toward the bullies instead of the marker, Grace hopes her move will support this!"Raquel—I’m here for you, and I won’t leave you unless they kill me—but maybe we don’t need become killers to stop them! If their friend could grab an arm, why can’t we?"

She asks this even as she attempts to break the rules while simultaneously counting of the rules to help—because her character is a master of unarmed combat whereas the real Grace has never so much as slapped anyone who wasn’t a misquote!

Clara, now perched atop Isbjorn's shoulder, surveyed the battlefield. Her eyes widened as she witnessed Grace and Raquel charging into the fray. "Oh no, we're really doing this," she muttered, exchanging a similarly concerned glance with Isbjorn.

They couldn't simply outlast the enemies, that was clear. But like Grace, they probably could employ a more strategic approach. "We need to disarm their ranged attackers so our melee team can close in." 

With the archer taken care of by Grace, Clara's eyes settled on the pirate. She needed to act before the encroaching crowd of players swallowed them whole. The tiny catfolk shifted her weight, finding a more stable position on Isbjorn's shoulder. Then, she drew her pistol.

As the raging flood of pent up lowbies flooded into the Dead Zone, Wheeler had to stifle a laugh. It wasn't the unified front he was hoping for, but a riot was almost as good for putting pressure on the PK's. He just needed to figure out how to keep the mob moving in the right direction ... and make sure he didn't stumble into it himself. Just one more thing to juggle in the free-for-all.

Turn 1: part 2
>>>The Grand Melee continued spreading its madness. If it weren't for the Party Chat system, no one would be able to hear anything besides the clang and crunch of weapons v. armor and the sounds of offensive spells booming all around.
>>>Grace rounds past the enormous pirate to grapple with the archer, Serena, to his rear. Sliding in and reaching for the bow, Grace latches onto the Elf Assassin's arm.
>>>Distracted by the Bard circling behind him, the huge Pirate is jolted back by Calamity's pistol shot slamming into him. Seemingly in retaliation, Tabitha's lightning bolt slammed into her before arcing back towards some other target. It stung, dropping her HP Bar by 1/4 in a single hit.


>>>"BAD KITTY!" the Pirate chortled. Noticing Maximum and Brophy coming up on him fast, he flipped the Blunderbuss around to use it as a melee weapon to prepare for the coming assault.

>>> Racing towards the Pirate, Maximum and Brophy take the brunt of Tabitha's lightning magic. Up close, it doesn't seem to gave the same punch as at longer ranges but it still packed quite a hit! Neither warrior went down from the blast but neither of them could say it was an experience they'd willingly repeat.
>>> Seemingly in response, a fiery dart flew over the Guardian and Swashbuckler from behind, impacting on the giant spidery thing standing guard over the two black Catfolk. It clicked and clattered in rage but stood its ground in front of the Catfolk. At least, it seemed, the two had some magical backup.

>>>"Ah!" the Catfolk Sorcerer exclaimed a moment later. She cast her gaze out across the boiling battlefront. "Who turned out the light?? Don't you know Cats can see in the dark?!?"


Party 1

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
9	Atalanta	13	90		60
14	Calamity	13	100	-24	66
9	Fren	13	64		92	20
8	Grace	12	72		72
7	Isbjorn	12	60		90	30
13	Raquel	13	84		78	20

---

Party 2

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
14	Brophy	10	78	-24	50
6	Colin	10	70		50	10
12	Maximum	10	80	-19	40
6	Tabby Fatts	10	50		70	20
8	Wheeler	10	60		60

---

Party 3

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
7	Arga	13	72		90	10
15	BradL33	23	138		138	10
5	Guy	17	132	-34	84
8	Piphany	12	72		72
10	Tina	17	84		120	10

---

PK Party

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
11	Mr.Boaty	45	??	-51	??
10	Serena	47	??	-38	??
10	Tabitha	47	??	-38	??
12	VerminTude	45	??	-38	??

---

Summons

INIT	Name	LvL	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
15	Guardian Wolf	16	96		66
12	Gargant Tarantella	38	???	-20	???
6	Talon	12	48		72		[Flying]

Tabby put his head in one hand, his eyes squeezing tightly shut. Of course she could see through darkness. He could, after all. Part of him was tempted to just hop off of the rock and slink back into the city, and let the fracas burn itself out.

Then, a head poked above the crowd. A calico catfolk, one of the incoming adventurers. For a moment, he thought he made eye contact. He waved his staff up for a moment, trying to catch her attention, pointing back to the gate frantically. Things were already dire, and they were only going to get worse.

He couldn't stop the sorceress, but he could at least spread a little crowd control to try and let them disengage. He flicked through his menu again, calling up the same spell, but pointing his ire at the archer they seemed to be trying to... grapple?

As he tapped the floating button, he found himself once again compelled into the strange, almost cavorting dance on top of the crumbled stone, feeling the strange upwelling in him as his staff waved out another belch of purple miasma, which scudded over the heads of the combatants, aiming to cling in a dim cloud around Serena's head, hopefully signalling to the melee that it was time to properly cut and run... and hoping the sorceress was too occupied to deal with his annoyance, at least for the moment...

Max had reached the PK group, but the lightning blasted him, arching around his armor. "Blast, that hurts!!" the huge dwarf exclaimed as the arcing blast raced through him.

He had kind of expected to be respawning already, but here he was, so what could he do. Not much. He had taken a tank build for future raiding. Had he known he would be fighting in PvP for the real, he'd have a range attack build like those he was facing. Hitting them with his crap tutorial sword seemed like a waste and none of his skills mattered in PvP.

The girl, one of those coming into the city, had hurt them. She must be a damage build. He looked for her, raised his shield, and prepared to block anything that came their way.

To Raquel, "I'll keep them off you, give them hell."

Max went Guard, selecting Raquel and moving to intercept anything headed her way.

Fren casts Healing Forge as his action in turn 1, hoping he will assist his friends and damage the spider-crab.Then he will rush to the spider crab and attack again with Holy Hit and melee with his sword(Turn 2). "Damn, I hate griefers!"

Raquel looks at Grace, her anger turning to worry. Was she making the right choice in attacking these griefers? Would it be better to just run?

But then the hulking dwarf arrives at her side and moves to protect her. Determination returns to her face. "I may die trying, but I can't just let them get away with this!"

And if I can't protect myself, at least I can try to keep Grace safe! she thinks.

She turns back to the elven archer and attacks, aiming her blade at a vulnerable spot!

"Tsk, looks like the Assassin is aggro-locked..." Wheeler grumbled to himself. He diverted off from the main group a bit, jumping and grabbing ahold of a bit of rubble and clambering up to the top. If the Returners weren't going to move their butts, then his original plan of drawing aggro long enough for them to get to safety and casting When The Chips Are Down to cover their own escape was out the window. If he was going to make up the level difference, he needed more numbers to throw at the problem.

Max, I need some more of that bellowing swearing, people are eating that up. he tried sending over the Party Chat, digging through his inventory. He never thought he'd be using the anniversary gifts the devs had dropped in his inbox this way, but he needed to get the mob back on task ... and part of that was getting their attention. He pulled out a couple of sparklers and set them to the side, finding the big, fat red rocket marked with a spiral of yellow.

If Grace sill has a hold of Serena, she tries to pin the archer down!

"We don’t want to kill real people. Okay? Everyone here is trapped in a game, and who knows what’s happening to our real bodies while we’re attacking each other? Your actions could cause your victims to die in real life!"

She hopes to keep Serena still so the words might get through!Grace’s grip is surprisingly strong, but her position is awkward. She asks herself what she doesn’t just beat the girl up until she bursts into light. But then she asks herself why she played the game in the first place. I just wanted to…

"I just wanted to connect to a couple fans, Serena! They wanted me to do a concert in Elderscrollsville. I’m not a gamer girl.

"But I know the point of gaming is fun. Is what you’re doing fun? Because it’s torture to some of these people—they’re separated from their own spouses and children, or they’re battle addictions, or they just got out of a really painful breakup and DON’T FUCKING NEED YOUR LEVEL-MEASURING-CONTEST SHIT!!"

Clara tumbled, her vision momentarily blurred by the shock of the lightning strike. Luckily, Isbjorn caught her before she fell into the chaotic crowd that had now surged forward.

This was definitely not going well. She had one of the highest HP in their party, but three more hits and she'd be down. Her party members wouldn't even last that long. Raquel could deal significant damage with her assassination skill, but she was outnumbered, while others just weren't built to be damage dealers. A battle of attrition was not an option.

Among the crowd, she spotted a tabby cat, their eyes meeting for a moment. The tabby was frantically waving towards the gate. Clara understood the message, or at least she thought, but her party was still in the frontline. She couldn't abandon them.

If only there was a way to convince these randos around them to aggro on the enemies instead of fighting each other. The majority of them looked like newbies. How much did they know about the game, she wondered, because she just came up with a crazy lie.

The chaos was almost deafening. It'd be hard for her voice to be carried through. But maybe, just maybe, the same skill she used to get enemy's attention could be used to power her voice? What kind of scientist was she if she did not experiment anyway.

With that, she activated "Taunting Shout" on her UI, took a deep breath and bellowed: "THAT CATFOLK HAS A LEGENDARY STAFF FOR LEGACY PLAYERS! WHOEVER GETS IT CAN USE HER POWER TOO!"

Colin will direct Talon to distract Tabitha and charge toward her, sword raised.

He's fairly certain this will end with him being blasted into particles, but if he can get her to target him directly rather than multiples of the other fighters, he figures he'll still have at least bought them all some time to do something more useful.

"We're pretty sure there's no permadeath here, right? Right?" He calls out to the others as he closes in, realizes his words will probably be lost in the general clamor, and adds it into the wildly scrolling chat in all caps. He bets it hurts though!

He hustles across the open space, flinching at every nearby boom and shake of grown, loudly cursing the shortness of his unfamiliar stubby little dwarven legs.

>>>Wheeler and Calamity are taking the tactical move of trying to motivate the other 'Lowbies' into taking their Grande Melee closer to the PK Crew to press the advantage. Sometimes engineering an advantage can be accomplished by a single character with a single roll, sometimes it takes a team effort. Moving the crowd of combatants is definitely something that would take more than one person to do. This is a good way to introduce the Clock mechanic:



>>>Clocks are a player-facing mechanic; the characters, while aware of the 'MMO mechanics' of their existence, are unaware of this function.

>>>Wheeler started off the Clock by wanting to accomplish a goal and Calamity jumped in with the plan; any other player who wants to assist is welcome to jump in or use their turn in other ways, as you see fit.
>>>In order to join in on Wheeler's plan, your character would take the Objective Action, explain how your character is helping enact the plan and roll Attributes that would make sense for the action your character is attempting. Success against a target Difficulty Number fills in a segment of the Clock, inching the plan towards fruition. However, your opponents can also take the [Objective] Action to attempt to reverse the Clock, removing a segment if their own rolls are successful!



>>>I feel that flooding the Zone with extra fighting bodies, and the chaos they bring, would fall between the Minor and Major categories above, so I think a SIX Segment Clock is appropriate. I also feel that, for the sake of brevity since I've been slow in posting lately, that I'll handwave Wheeler & Calamity's rolls as successes and fill in the first two segments of the Clock. That leaves 4 Segments remaining for anyone to try & fill during Turn 3, should they survive choose to do so...


Colin: If you're attacking with the Arcane Blade, I'll need a [Dex]+[Insight] Attack Roll.

Wheeler: I think 3 IP would be sufficient for the Fireworks.

Turn 2:
>>>With the sudden burst of fireworks added to the flying boots of fire, ice, lightning and raw magic the Grand Melee descends further into absolute madness. Summoned beasts charging into the fray add to the growing surrealism and absolute mayhem. Isolated vignettes of the battle stick in the mind:
• A large woman clad in a Rhinoceros onesie wielding a battle axe calls forth a stone lion to join her in fighting.
• A cadre of Wolf-Fangs dressed like Roman soldiers phalanx up against a party of smack-talking Chibi elves.
• Waves of competing AoE attacks blast dozens of Adventurers into iridescent particles, throwing the survivors around like driftwood in heavy surf.

>>>At the far end of the approach to the city, the battle rages just as hard. Raquel pulls none of her punches, activating her Assassination ability on the PK's leader, staggering the Archer even as Grace grapples with her.
>>> "Jesus, Pete, can you do your damned job and get these people offa me!?!?" Serena yells as she yanks her arm up, but not out of Grace's grasp and fires her arrows awkwardly straight up into the air. The arrows streak back towards their targets with deadly intent.

>>>"Sure. Right onnit, Boss. Lemme clear the decks!" the oversized Pirate answered as he countered Brophy's blade slash with a swing from his enormous Blunderbuss.
>>>The Wolf-Fang Swashbuckler jabbed inward at the Pirate with a vicious thrust. One the Pirate countered with a mighty swing of his heavy musket and connected with the Wolf-Fang mid-leap. The blow burst the big Wolf-Fang into a cascade of rainbow light that illuminated the Pirate with menacing hue. ’Next!" he yelled triumphantly.

>>>The area was suddenly washed over with searing heat and blinding fire as Fren's Healing Forge spell rolled over the area as the Fox-Tail rushed the Gorgant Tarantella guarding the twin Catfolk magicians.
>>> "Look out!" the Druid yelled as the fire washed over him. "The parties are split up... That's damaging us!" Whether Fren could hear him or not over the roar of battle was a question he couldn't answer. Nonetheless, he set his branch-like staff high and cast Healing Wind to restore what HP he could.

>>> Meanwhile, Tina and the two Sorcerers, Arga and Isbjorn, execute an impromptu team-attack. Tina lands her Thorn Bind Hostage on the Gorgant Tarantella just before the two Sorcerers launch their own magical attacks of ice and fire. Both attacks hit the enormous spider-crab and spring Tina's Thorn Bind Hostage spell. The massive magical explosion rocks the spider-crab and throws the two Catfolk to the ground.
>>>In response, the two Catfolk launch their counter-attacks at Tina, Arga and Isborn. Tabitha targets Tina's Guardian, Guy, with a withering Lightning Nebula bringing him to his knees while Arga and Isbjorn catch the brunt of VerminTude's Magic Missiles.

---

>>>Back near the city gates, the crowd size begins to swell as news of the free-for-all has spread. Some are horrified by the brutal spectacle while others are purely entertained. A couple point out the appearance of the Royal Guard on the parapets above the city walls, watching impassively in their enormous suits of magical armor.

>>>"OhMyGosh!" the Catfolk bit her knuckles at the sight of it all. "Is this just how life is going to be here? Just fighting and dying?" Her softly muttered exasperation echoed the sentiments of a lot of others in the crowd.



Mob Clock: 2/6

Party 1

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
9	Atalanta	13	90		60
14	Calamity	13	100	-4	66
9	Fren	13	64		92	30
8	Grace	12	72		72
7	Isbjorn	12	60	-20	90	40
13	Raquel	13	84		78	50

---

Party 2

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
14	Brophy	10	78	-78	50		Dead*
6	Colin	10	70	-20	50	10
12	Maximum	10	80	-34	40
6	Tabby Fatts	10	50		70	40
8	Wheeler	10	60		60

---

Party 3

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
7	Arga	13	72	-20	90	20
15	BradL33	23	138	0	138	40
5	Guy	17	132	-64	84		Shaken
8	Piphany	12	72		72
10	Tina	17	84	0	120	30

---

PK Party

INIT	Name	Lvl	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
11	Mr.Boaty	45	??	-71	??
10	Serena	47	??	-116	??	-20
10	Tabitha	47	??	-48	??	-75
12	VerminTude	45	??	-48	??	-40

---

Summons

INIT	Name	LvL	HP	DMG	MP	Spent	Status
15	Guardian Wolf	16	96	0	66
12	Gargant Tarantella	38	???	-130	???
6	Talon	12	48		72		[Flying]

"No," Grace calls out, refusing to do any harm! "We can’t become the monsters! Help me hold these high-level psychos down! If everyone grabs a limb we can haul them across the marker and talk where the game won’t let us kill each other!"If anyone helps Grace move Serena, she’ll activate her Nimble Boots (-5 MP) to ensure she can keep her footing.

Damn. This was useless. He watched his spell glance off of the archer, almost without notice. A glance upward showed his bluish bar shockingly low for what he had accomplished.

He could have solved this in seconds if he had anything he could do.

But he could feel the tide start to turn. He'd been in a PvP scrum before, and he could tell there was heart there, there was will there.

He looked down at the rock he was standing on. He loomed over the crowd, just by necessity. And he hadn't been blasted to bits quite yet.

The shot was primed. The hammer was cocked. Someone just needed to pull the trigger.

Someone needed to call the shot.

"C.C!" He bellowed, waving his staff over his head. "Crowd Control! Chanters! Get the Griefers! Sorcs, Healers, Bind, Pacify, anyone who's taking pot shots! Lay it on thick! Mezz 'em till they can't see straight! LOCK! IT! DOWN!"

He accentuated the call to action with vociferous jabs with his staff, pointing out the targets of their ire. He let himself get swept up in the moment, his own sorrow and rage that had simmered for the past day burning his throat ragged as he shouted at the top of his lungs. It was all he could do...

Praying that none of the arrows the archer just loosed are aimed at him, Colin sees no alternative but to keep trudging forward. As the pirate busies himself with dispatching those who were a few steps faster, the dwarf slips through the momentary opening behind them to charge at Tabitha.

"Your raid ends here. Even if I fall, the city will triumph!" he shouts, feeling the moment calls for something--which only makes him feel really lame

Max watched Brophy get blasted, yelling into the main channel, he mocks the pirate "BASTARD, big scary pirate killed a lowbie." He flips the pirate an offensive hand gesture.

"If I could, I'd log into my old main and BEAT YOUR ASS punk. WE are not bugs, WE are the TIDAL WAVE. WE are the AVALANCHE. You might kill me, BUT I'LL BE BACK." Throwing his best Schwarzenegger.

"BOUNTY - The person who lands the killing blow on these jerks gets to keep the gear drops!!!!"

While yelling, he continues to guard the assassin Raquel hoping to keep her in the fight as long as possible.

The sorceress's lightning strike sent Isbjorn, and Clara along with him, stumbling backwards. Clara held her breath as she watched her friend's HP bar plummet by a third. "Isbjorn, stick close to Fren. He can heal and shield you." She then sent a message in party chat. "Everyone with ranged attacks, please try to disarm the enemies if you can. Don't waste your energy on wearing down their HP." The encroaching crowd would beat them up soon, anyway. Was there anything else she could do to accelerate the final showdown?

From her skill bar, she noticed her powder keg ability just went off cooldown. Fur fully bristled, she whispered under her breath. "Hmm, you've got darkvision, but let's see how well you can see through smoke."

With that, she launched another cloud of gunpowder at the two catfolks and their Gargant Tarantella, careful to avoid Grace, Raquel and the rest who were grappling with Serena a fair bit away.