That though occurs then suddenly the door to the kitchen splinters off it's hindges showing Lita in a fighting stance while wearing her frilly apron. Apparently she was cooking when the attack happened.

She looks around and seems to be confused.

"Michael, what is going on?"

Vex reappears in what shade she can find.
"He got too far away and escaped. But I got a few good bites in."

When you do check Snake, he is breathing.

I let out a sigh of relief, "Good, you're safe. I apologize, Black Dain was trying to ambush and kill me. I believe this is the second time he's underestimated my spirits, however.  But it made quite the mess. And we have the person he was possessing that we should look to treat his wounds."

I reach down and scratch Vex behind the ear,

"Vex did an amazing job, creating a number of illusions and giving him a good chase. But let's go see about treating Snake now, or I believe that's his name. This evening we are going to try and end Black Dain for good."

I'm going to separate Snake from his weapons (Which I assume are plentiful), but then start sending watermotes in to him to diagnose the injuries. Once I feel confident I know where all the injuries are I'll get the healing psuedo materia out and begin healing him.

Once he's conscious I'll greet him:
"Welcome back to us Snake, please relax I'm not going to harm you now that Black Dain is no longer possessing you. What do you remember? How did you get here?"

Vex seems to enjoy your praise and puffs out her crest

Snake has almost a ridiculous amount of weapons. It seems his only injury was inflicted by your dagger. You heal him but it is harder than normal.

After about 10 minutes Snake wakes up and his eye color is back to normal.
"... Snake?... That name does sound familiar.  Who is Black Dain? Where am I? I don't remember much... I was Fighting someone important... and then nothing..."

He seems confused.

I try to relax, and see whether I can feel a verser connection to Snake.

"If you are who I think you are, Snake is your codename given from a special counter terrorism group called FOXHOUND. You are in the city of San Miguel now however, and until just a few moments ago were possessed by a dark immortal by the name of Black Dain. He's an incorporeal spirit and difficult to deal with, but I finally have a weapon that can damage him, which is good because I suspect he's trying to end the flow of time and bring death to the universe. I can't tell you what happened in your past to bring you here..."

and this is the only part that changes if he's a verser, if he's not I obviously won't say it:
"...But I can tell you from experience some of what has happened to you. You have become a verser, with it you are granted a form of immortality... I don't recommend going and testing that too much though, dying hurts and you'll discorporate from your current universe and recorporate elsewhere. Oh, and as versers we don't age, something about what gets into us that causes us resists change like that. It's the reason we can't die. If we were to, something just decides nope, going to shunt you off to another universe instead."

Back to part that would be said whether he's a verser or not, "Oh, and my apologies on behalf of my manners, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Mike, this is the beautiful Lita, guardian of the Life Tree and all around exceptional person, and this is Vex, my shadow fury that is largely why I'm not dead and you're not still possessed."

He doesn't feel like a verser to you. Just a normal human.

OOC: Lita Guards the Solar Tree. I assume you would have said the correct name.


He listens to your explanation.
"All that does sound familiar about Foxhound. But all this sounds weird. Dark Immortal? Incorporeal Spirit? Shadow Fury?

Vex approachs him, gently headbutts him and rubs her head against him.

"You are good too. But you are a long way from home. Things are very different here."

Snake seems a bit stunned by that.
"th...The Fox just talked. And called me good. Do you have any idea what I do?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 14:34, Sat 03 Aug 2019.

OOC:Oops, yeah. Would use the correct term

I chuckle slightly, "Yes, things are very different here. Vex can talk quite well. I don't think she knows what you do, but I do and I agree with her call. You're a good man Snake. Sometimes good men have to do bad things, but it's hard to argue that one who saves the world isn't a good man in some way. Plus she has an excellent judge of character. Magic works here, and I think that's going to be the hardest thing for you to get used to. There aren't mechanical tricks that are letting us do these things, but real actual magic. Otherwise I would have had a lot more trouble getting you conscious.

I'm surprised though, at first I thought you were a verser like me, a being the gets shunted around between dimensions when we die. But you're not. Perhaps this place just summoned you do to great need, or Black Dain is working on breaking down the barrier between universes and has plucked you out of yours to try and kill me. If so I apologize, I'll make sure to end him before he can cause much more trouble.

But I need to start meditating and recharging my energy. I spent a fair amount in that fight, and I need to be in top shape tonight. Lita, would you be ok if repairing any damage from the fight waits till tomorrow?"

Snake listens and says
"... Where I come from. Magic isn't anything but old superstitions.
This is a lot to take in.  You said we where in San Miguel. I know of several cities with that name. But the architecture is throwing me off. Especially that tower there."

He gestures to the Spiral Tower. Which is actually two towers with a lot of connecting struts between them. It doesn't really have a Spiral design on it. So why do they call it the Spiral tower?

"... This Black Dain. What exactly Can he do?"


Lita says
"Yes. That is ok. Stopping Black Dain is more important."

"Black Dain can possess people, as you have experienced, and from there he is largely dangerous because of the combination of:
  *the difficulty to harm him since attacks mostly just injure the person he's possessing,
  *the power level of the people he chooses to possess which often tends to be quite formidable, yourself being an example. He tried possessing me before as well, actually succeeded for a brief period of time before the furies in my soul beat him away. I don't think he was expecting 5 souls to inhabit what he was trying to possess.
  *and finally, there is danger in the knowledge he has. He's an immortal, and I'm sure he has machinations in works. He's been breaking other immortals out of their prisons, but not far enough ahead of Leona, Selene, and I for them to get away. Everyone he's broken out we've put down and then purified out of existence.

It's that last part that has me worried. It's also why I've prioritized figuring out a way to deal with him permanently, which I now have. I'm uneasy with how much extra knowledge he has of the world that I do not. Some of which I suspect no mortal has knowledge of.

Actually speaking of knowledge, Lita, how much do you know about the Spiral Tower? Like what's it's purpose and why is it called the spiral tower? I haven't really thought of it much until Snake brought it up, there's just always so much to take care of."

Snake nods and listens to Lita

She says
"Sorry. I don't know much about it. It has been there since San Miguel was founded as far as it is recorded. No one could get to it since it is sealed by four wedges in each corner of the City. Not even Immortals could get in. It is said. That one tower is a Solar Tower and the other is a Dark Tower... What could be bad enough for both the Solar Children and the Dark Immortals to work together to seal it up? When they would normallybe bitter enemies."

As Lita mentions the four wedges, I sigh slightly, but continue listening. "I have a bad feeling. These wedges you are talking of, could they have been the seals that the immortals Black Dain has been freeing? I assumed he was trying to gather the immortals to end the world... he may have just been breaking the seals as something in his way, perhaps the immortals at one point wanted the proliferation of death but not the end of time... I think that's what they talked about at some point, the end of all things... I think they're growing bored of seeing the universe move at all, whether in life or death. I suppose this changes nothing, but ups the stakes. I need to finish preparing, and then go get the others to go to Spiral Tower. Please stay away from there both of you, I don't want Black Dain to try and possess either of you."

So I'm going to meditate to rest and recharge my motes, and as soon as I feel rested and motes are full I'm going to go get Leona, Selene, and Ringo.

<Aqua>"Are you all ready? I was attacked by Black Dain earlier, he tried to take me out by possessing a legendary mercenary who is new to this world. I drove him off though, the dagger seems to work to actually damage him. I don't want to waste time though and think we need to head to the spiral tower sooner rather than later.<Aqua>"

I'm planning to bring all of the weapons, but have all but the darkness dagger stored in my soul. I don't know which furies I may need to physically manifest so I don't want to leave any behind.

They nod and let you rest and gather the energy you need.

You go to Leona, Selene and Ringo with your weapons stored in your soul and ask your question.
Selene and Ringo nod. And Leona says
"That is not good. Is Lita and that Mercenary ok? We should be ready to go if they are ok."

I nod, "They're both ok, Lita was rushing to my defense as Black Dain escaped and I healed the mercenary, his name is Snake, of the injuries I caused. It's rather difficult to heal injuries done by this dagger, but I did it. Let's go end Black Dain before he can do more damage."

The others agree and you head off to the Spiral Tower. With Ringo and Selene putting on sunblock to protect themselves from the Sun.

You get there and find 3 doors. One to the Solar Tower, One to the Dark Tower and one to somewhere else.
Ringo suggests
"We should split into two teams of two to challenge the Towers. We do know that the Solar Tower will need someone aligned with the Sun and the Dark Tower Will need someone alignedwith Darkness. Michael, which teams do you think would be best to go through each Tower?"

"Hmm, I think it would be best to have both sides be able to handle both solar and darkness if need be. Let's have Selene and Leona take the darkness tower, and Ringo and I will take the solar tower."

Leona and Selene nod and head to the Dark Tower. Their door has the dark emblem on it and Selene touches it and glows with darkness for a moment and then the door opens up.

You and Ringo head to the Solar Tower and it has a Solar Emblem on the door. You do the obvious thing and channel some solar essence into the door and it opens up. You and Ringo both enter.

The interior is oddly technological like you come to expect from things from the Solar Civilization. The walls are a grey metallic material. and...?
Why are those black gelatinous things moving towards you? You see a metallic sphere floating in each of the four gelatinous things heading towards you.

"I wouldn't get in close contact with them Ringo, I've never seen that type of creature be friendly towards weapons and equipment."

And I'll draw my new Solar Pistol and begin taking aim and firing. I'm trying to conserve motes, so I'm only using the minimum number of motes to fire the pistol, repositioning to keep my distance and then firing again.

Ringo nods and draws his pistol.
You take aim at one. Ringo notes which one you are aiming at and aims at it as well. You fire and he fires a split second after you. And both solar shots slam into the slime and rupture it releasing acrid smoke. The processes repeats for the other two slimes. And then a door opens up on the other side of the room with stairs up.

"I haven't seem that particular color of slime before. But they are annoying if they get close."

OOC: You used 3 Solar motes to fire the gun 3 times. What mix of motes would you have coming into the tower?
You do note that you have a max of 70 now.

OOC: I'll do a split of 10 water, 10 fire, 10 air, 10 earth, 10 darkness, and 20 solar.  I'll be wearing hat and bracers artifact, which I'll subtract from my fire motes so there will only be 7 free there. How many motes does the solar gun take to attune? Or is it's cost handled through the firing instead?

Do the metallic spheres disappear or just drop when the slimes are killed? Can I see what they are better if they dropped?

"This is one thing my curiosity can be deprived on, I'm perfectly happy never finding out what they do if they get too close. Let's push on, and stay alert."

I'll enter the next room first, keeping an eye out for more monsters or Black Dain.

OOC: There is no cost to attune to the gun. But it does cost one Solar mote to fire each time.

So all you have attuned is the Red Jade Hat and Bracers.

Therefore you have 17 Solar, 10 Darkness, 7 Fire, 10 Water, 10 Wind and 10 Earth.
3 Fire Attuned
Max 70.


The spheres drop with a metallic clank when you rupture the slimes. You can see them clearly now. They are a black metal with screaming faces presses to the surface.

Ringo looks at them and comments.
"Those are made of Soulsteel. A Darkness aligned metal from the Land of the Dead. It is said to be made of the souls of humans."

Are you picking them up before you head up?

OOC: Does it require weapons to be attuned to store them in my soul? Wasn't sure if I'd have to attune any weapons I wanted to bring or just the ones I end up using. I definitely would want to bring the darkness dagger and Vadahf.

I look down at the weird metal and consider. It looks to be valuable and might be worthwhile to bring to Smith... But I'm not sure whether picking it up will be safe...

"It may be best to bring it to Smith then, if it's darkness aligned. From the sounds of it I definitely wouldn't want to try making any the way we made Oricalcum, but I may have need for it. Do you know of any stories of whether it's safe to touch? Perhaps I should see about wrapping it up"

Unless Ringo indicates it's incredibly dangerous to touch I'll get a cloth and wrap them up and pack them away before heading to the next room.

OOC: You can store weapons that you are not attuned with because of the connection between your Furies and them. But you can't use them instantly without attuning to them...Well you could but they would be awkward and heavy. Not the best thing for Fighting Immortals.


Ringo says
"The material itself should be ok to touch. But I would be more worried about any magic that is built into it. Soulsteel is equivalent in potency to Oricalcum as far as magical materials go."

You sense that they are just soulsteel without anything extra built in. You pick it up with your cloth and hear a faint moaning from the material.

You head up the stairs about 50 feet and find a door you open it and find a ledge that is about 10 feet wide to stand on. On the other side of the tower you see another ledge and door.

Ringo's eyebrow raises as if to say 'Really?'.

OOC: Gotcha, I'll attune the dagger as well then. I'm not sure we've covered yet how many motes the dagger takes to attune. I would attune that as well, would just reduce how many of each element I have available equally.

I look across the opening and say, "Do you have a convenient way to fly? I know Leona was able to still change into a bat even after she went through the solar piledriver. I think with some wind mote assistance I could clear the jump pretty easily."

I'm planning to augment my speed with wind motes, and then use a reduced version of what I would do to fly to just glide to the other side.

OOC: It takes 6 darkness motes to attune to the Dagger

He smirks and the transforms into a multitude of bats. Allowing him to fly over with ease.

You rush with the speed of the Wind and stay airborne unnaturally long. Like someone in a Wuxia film. You make it but it costs 7 of your wind motes.

There is a door here and you note hemispherical depressions. One on the door and one on the floor. They are about the size of the Soulsteel spheres you got.

Behind you a bridge of solidified sunlight forms that connects the ledges together.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:38, Thu 22 Aug 2019.

OOC: Ok, so the 8 for having the darkness blade attuned would bring me to:
17 Solar, 8 Darkness, 7 Fire, 8 Water, 8 Wind and 8 Earth and then the wuxia jump to:
17 Solar, 8 Darkness, 7 Fire, 8 Water, 1 Wind and 8 Earth.

I chuckle to myself as the bridge solidifies, "Well, that was likely a waste of motes, should have considered a bridge. Well nothing to do but press on for now."

I'll place the soulsteel sphere into the depressions and see what happens.

You put a soulsteel sphere in the depression in the door and it sinks in and locks. The door slides open in front of you and reveals stairs up.

You put a second soulsteel sphere in the depression on the ground and it sinks in and locks the sphere in place. But it doesn't seem to do anything.

Ringo comments
"This tower was designed to be climbed by a person in each tower. Maybe putting that sphere there opened a path for Leona and Selene."