Oddestsey V: The Seven Lords

[Venice Queen]

Cyrus activates his cloaking device and stands with his sword pointed at the golden man, orbs menacingly orbiting him. "Golden Man. By order of the tournament arbiters, you are to stand down. You are under arrest for attempting to manipulate the tournament, mind control, tackiness, and for your plans to take over the city with an evil army powered by the castle." (Intimidate roll - 16)

In the event that he refuses, aim to immediately bombard the snake man at long range with his spirit orbs, and protect Tellu at close range with his sword.

[Alexjh]

BEAR IN MIND

The Birds are silent and their glances flick between Bear in Mind and the Sea Wizard for a moment before Lissa responds.

"I may not be your initial target but even if we were the last ones standing eventually it would come down to us. This is a last man standing tournament, and the way I see it, while I'm still a contestant on this stupid farce of a scheme it's not in my interest to replace one slain contestant with another.

Besides, the energies at the Castle have started acting strangely - it stands to reason that it has some system in place in the eventuality of this becoming a stalemate."

RICHFIELD
Oscar T. Osprey turns out to be a an Osprey dressed as a stereotypical 30s New York Reporter complete with waistcoat, pipe and hat with a PRESS card tucked into it. His photographer takes a few artful black and white shots of Richfield for the profile. There will apparently be nine questions in total for this profile (which will come in batches of 3). The first three are relative softballs -

- "Could you give us a little background into your life and world before you came to Melded?"

- "What core changes are you looking to introduce to the system?"

- "As things stand, which competitors do you feel would be initially most scrutinised by your proposals?"

VENGEANCE
Jackdaw looks a bit awkward as you turn round and Darksein is decidedly not there.

"He said he had to go and sort out some issues with his own minions. He believed as man of your skill would have this all under control anyway at this point"

Despite this setback, it's clear the rest of the villains are having some fun with billing things to the Golden Man. They are mostly independently wealthy anyway, so seem to largely be purchasing ridiculous items and services. A few that seem to amuse the group particularly include:

- Having Stately Golden Man Manor painted all over with Butter inside and out.
- Ordering the Golden Man an emergency airdrop of a 5 ton brick composed entirely of Justin Bieber Albums.
- Hiring the seediest Circus Money can buy to set up shop in his garden.
- Hiring a monster truck to crush his solid gold Ferrari.

When they've frittered away most of it, save a portion for Vengeance's own enjoyment should he so wish it, they await further plans.

TELLU AND CYRUS

Even as the Golden Man sees them and attempts to return to the helicopter, for utterly inexplicable reasons, a massive crate of Justin Bieber CDs drops from the sky and crushes the rear portion of the helicopter. The Golden Man is thrown backwards by the impact as Cyrus advances towards him, cloak billowing dramatically in the wind.

The Golden Man cowers and shouts to his associate to help, and the Snake Armed Man responds. Tellu and Edward quickly come to realise how this man for to be a top enforcer. Tellu attacks with a blast of vines but this man grabs them in the coil of his arms and swings her around violently, even as he barrels towards the Hobgoblin to snatch a sword in his snake-faced hands.

He is both skilled and very strong, and the prehensile nature of his arms means his sword movements are utterly different to a normal human fighter. A difficult foe indeed. But even with that he is still not equipped to handle being attacked on so many fronts; unable to defend against Cyrus' aura blasts and struggling to keep his balance as Tellu grabs at his legs with her plant powers.

But he gets in some solid blows and even as the two of them eventually manage to pin him against the side of the wrecked helicopter sword to his throat, they themselves are decidedly battered and bruised.

The Golden Man merely cowers and reels off a continuous reel of surrenders.

[Venice Queen]

"A valient effort," Cyrus says, panting from the effort as he re-absorbs his aura, "But for naught, unfortunately. now...sleep" he says, drawing the snake man's aura into him. Not enough to kill him, just enough to make him pass out, and feel weird for a few weeks probably.

[COMMUNICATOR MESSAGE: Police

"yo could you come pick up a couple of people who were trying to hijack the tournament and create an evil army to destroy the city? thanks"]

[StevenMcG]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd>&nbsp;</dd></dl><div>Jackdaw looks a bit awkward as you turn round and Darksein is decidedly not there.

"He said he had to go and sort out some issues with his own minions. He believed as man of your skill would have this all under control anyway at this point"[/quote]

"Hmm...

Very well. It shouldn't take too long to restore the speech box. It seems to be a relatively straightforward program he inserted. Then you can be on your merry way, m'dear, and we'll have no more of this nearly-killing-my-friends business, OK? OK."

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Quote:</dt><dd>&nbsp;</dd></dl><div>Despite this setback, it's clear the rest of the villains are having some fun with billing things to the Golden Man... When they've frittered away most of it, save a portion for Vengeance's own enjoyment should he so wish it, they await further plans.[/quote]

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think we can judge today to be an unqualified success&#33; You should all be very proud of yourselves&#33; Now let us away to the lair and revel in our gloatitude&#33; We still have much to do if we're to take over this sub-par Wonderland, so let us celebrate our triumphs when we can&#33; Thank you all and good partying&#33;

Oh and George? (Watch out for Darksein. No action yet. No serious surveillance. Just...be mindful for now.)"

[O-to-the-O-to-the-C says your next update might be a good time to pause the Prof's story for a bit, Alex, as I'll be in Spain all through next week. Good timing. :cool: ]

[That Kode Guy]

"Well," says Tellu, a little short on breath, but despite her hurts she can stand relatively well, "that went better than expected. Good work, Cyrus."

She feels like going back to the castle to relax again, but there's no time for that unfortunately.

Now, our next target...

[Alexjh]

VENGEANCE

(OOC: No problem&#33; A week long party on your spoils it is&#33;)

Vengeance scans through E.L.L.I.E's memory, but finds there are some big swathes of data that were irreparably corrupted by Darksein's viral attack. A lot of it appears to be fairly recent stuck connected to things that happened since the tournament though there are also segments of ancient history database missing. For some reason a few functions of hers are non-responsive too, including fortune-cookie text generator, baking tutorials, her anagram solver, currency converter, live top 10 singles chart and inbuilt interstellar phoneline.

Meanwhile, the rest of the villains get on with the kind of party that only megalomaniacal supervillains can throw with all the most expensive drink and wine and party games of spin the agoniser beam and pin the head on the zombie.

TELLU AND CYRUS
The Police arrive and take both the Golden Man and Snake-handed Man away to stand trial before the Kangaroo Court. They'll be in there for a good while.

Meanwhile officers scour the building for evidence as both Cyrus and Tellu recover from their fight downstairs. Given the circumstances, the police pretend not to notice the two badly mangled corpses you left on the floor below - this is city saving business and they are willing to defer dealing with that until the city is safe. Besides, it turns out that room that Cyrus had seem through the wall - filling with imprisoned sentient "toys".

After a while though the officers come and present them with a few findings, most is stuff they already knew, but a few tidbits stand out.

- The Golden Man was 90% sure that the final competitor was someone called Sikander.
- He had a second control watch/ring pairing made that would fit any competitor except the Giant.
- He had been working on a "magic bore" which would probably pierce through Lissa's defenses. It was essentially ready too - but the personal costs were very high.

[That Kode Guy]

Okay, enough is enough. Tellu is going straight after Sikander. She's had enough of this.

Using that, and the limited information she gained from before about Sikander, Tellu leaves the building to go find anything she can about this asshole. She briefly stays behind first, though, to hear if Cyrus has any ideas, and follows him if they sound good.

[MadBull]

"ok, ok...

now I am chatting with you, want some alliance of mages anyway?"

[Venice Queen]

"I'd like to see this control watch/ring combination destroyed if at all possible" Cyrus said to the police as he surveyed the findings [ooc if I'm able to just smash it right now, I'll just smash it right now :V]. "This magic bore could be of use to the arbiters in the event that Lissa goes completely rogue or something, if you wouldn't mind me taking it."

He begins to consider the possibilities of possibly unifying all of the competitors against the castle, and finding a way to disable whatever is forcing this competition to exist... that would, however, require knowing who everyone is...and getting them to agree on things...

He turns to Tellu. "It seems a decent idea to figure out who Sikander is. How exactly do you propose we find him?"

[Alexjh]

BEAR IN MIND

The birds continue to cheep

"I'm willing to help you out on the magical side of things in a general sense both in practical terms and research, but I'm not interested in making you a competitor unless you can get me out of the tournament".

TELLU AND CYRUS
Cyrus takes the control watch and destroys it - no more manipulation of competitors. They also hand over the magic bore - an odd intricately designed figure hugging shoulder length metal gauntlet.

One of the Policemen overhears you talking about Sikander and pauses before coming over to you.

"We've heard the name connected to a few crimes, but honestly we've struggled to come up with anything tangible. We do have a lead, but unfortunately it's... somewhere we don't have much jurisdiction. They might listen to arbiters though if you are lucky, or at least be willing to deal with you"

He hands you a strange key that looks like an iridescent rainbow coloured crystal and uploads a map to your communicators.

"Go through the door at this location and ask for directions Ooglox. But be cautious - be careful about anything you agree to."

[MadBull]

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Alexjh</dt><dd>Mar 22 2018, 07:06 PM</dd></dl><div>BEAR IN MIND

The birds continue to cheep

"I'm willing to help you out on the magical side of things in a general sense both in practical terms and research, but I'm not interested in making you a competitor unless you can get me out of the tournament".[/quote]I like birds.

"Well... my current plan was to remove someone out of the tournament by killing them... which of course is not how you want to leave it...

... unless we can think of a way to make the tournament believe you are dead?"

[That Kode Guy]

"Very well," says Tellu. "I've already had practice agreeing and disagreeing with shifty terms, so that won't be a surprise."

The Daimon voice disturbs her thoughts again.

And what if you get people like those earlier douchebags that start coming on to you?

Then I'll just have to remove them.

So. You're not as above killing as you said you were.

Th-threatening or implying rape on me is one thing I won't abide by at all&#33;&#33;&#33; I'm a delicate young woman&#33;&#33;&#33;

You're about as delicate as a chainsaw.

And you're about as welcome as anthrax.

Cute. So, you'll still kill if the situation presents itself.

.................yes.

Oh good. I think we can still be friends, then.

Oh don't give me that rubbish.

Tellu is unsure whether Cyrus can hear her thoughts (he does have that weird aura-like power, even if it doesn't make contact) so she clears her throat and speaks.

"I'd like to head off to that place," she remarks, "but we need the key to get in. So, if you have other business to attend to, I'll take the key and go there myself, and we can keep each other updated via communicator. Otherwise, let's go now, together, before anything else happens."

[Alexjh]

BEAR IN MIND

Lissa pauses for a moment before continuing her response.

"I... errr.... I've been studying and think there is a way to get a competitor out of it alive.... in theory at least. The details are fairly complicated but I think.... I think a device can be built that will trick the competition to reading someone as dead for long enough to eliminate them from the contest. There are two sizable catches though - firstly you'd have to either persuade someone to enter it or restrain them in it some other way.

The bigger problem though is there is a 1 in 4 chance it'll kill them... or me... for real... Though if we put multiple people in it at once we could guarantee that most would survive"

(OOC: Will wait a bit for a Cyrus post before updating Tellu)

[Cha0sFerret]

Scarlett somehow is getting the meaning behind the nonsense without understanding the nonsense. She'd question it, but there's something more important she's focused on now. The castle is causing more mischief, it seems.

At this point, it might be better to just remove the castle altogether.

[Communicator message to everyone:
Guys, we have a problem. If someone doesn't die soon, the castle's gonna summon something that's gonna cause more problems for us.]

Not sure how to proceed from here, Scarlett decides to go on a bit of a joyride around the outskirts of the city on her hoverboard-ring thing. Maybe she'll see something interesting along the way. At the very least, it'll give the other arbiters time to respond to her message.

[The Monsterworks]

The Being goes into lightspeed for just a moment and is almost instantly upon the escapees. "Not so fast," it announces, in its best 60s superhero imitation. Using the Force (rather clumsily), it decides to tear some machinery from where its bolted to the ground and hurl it against the door they're trying to escape through. The Being then decides to attack the intruders itself using similar tactics, sprinkling in use of its other abilities liberally and trying not to cause fatalities if it can avoid doing so.