SONGEREIN OOC

The dreamscape is located well outside of Nightmare City, where a massive dome of fire marks its boundaries. It’s far enough away that it won’t impact whatever is going on in the city proper. Once characters enter, they’ll find themselves in the Grand Duchy of Rosaria. The dreamscape is even bigger on the inside, as characters will notice the moment that they step in and are transported to a wholeass country. Thankfully, we’re operating on video game mechanics in that magically, it doesn’t take long to traverse the area. What would normally be at least a few hours’ walk will only take a few minutes (unless, of course, you want it to take hours. It’s a dream, do what you want!).

Rosaria is a coastal country with a few ports. Go deeper and you’ll find marshlands, ancient architecture, Phoenix Gate, and, in the capitol, Rosalith, Rosalith Castle. The weather is pleasant, except for some weird looking dark clouds surrounding the castle and Phoenix Gate. Golly gee I wonder what could be going on in those two places.

He’s from a Final Fantasy game, crystals are going to be involved somehow. In this case, large clusters of crystals can be found throughout the landscape. Pairs of characters will find themselves drawn to particular clusters, depending on whatever weighs the most on their heart. Depending on the outcome of character introspection, these crystals will either be purified or contaminated. It is possible to contaminate a crystal on purpose or by accident. Characters who like to do evil stuff, this is your chance! The more contaminated crystals there are, the stronger Noctshua becomes. The more purified crystals, the weaker he becomes. I’ll be keeping tabs on these threads, so Joshua will be affected in real time. (e.g., A tells B “I love you!” as part of a crystal thread, the “I love you!” will echo through his mind and lower his buffs as well as temporarily distract him; corrupted crystals will do the opposite).

Look, I may be cringe, but I am free.

There are four types of crystals:

• Power
  Focus: Ambition and influence.
  Reflection: Characters see themselves offered unlimited power and must think together about what they would do and how it would impact them as people. They must confront who they would become with power, potentially leading to purification or corruption based on their self-reflection. (Remember the saying, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”? That applies here.)


• Love
  Focus: Relationships (romantic or platonic).
  Reflection: Characters explore their past and current relationships. Want to confess your love to someone? Now is the time to do it! This crystal always purifies regardless of the characters’ actions (so if someone denies that love confession, the crystal doesn’t care), thanks to the inherent positivity in love.


• Fulfillment
  Focus: Personal desires and ambitions.
  Reflection: Characters delve into their deepest desires and what they want most. If the character's desire is positive, the crystal purifies. If negative, it corrupts. There can be an overlap here with the Love crystal, but if you’re looking for a way to distinguish between the two, think of Fulfillment as “I would like love in the future” where Love would be “I need to tell this person how I feel about them now” (whether romantic or platonic).


• Secrets
  Focus: Hidden truths and deceptions.
  Reflection: Characters confront the secrets they keep from others. Depending on whether characters choose to reveal or conceal their secrets, the crystal can purify or corrupt. Notably, the secret will appear in the crystal as a (literal) reflection, but only the person holding the secret can see it.

The shortest section! Joshua will create two corrupted egis (smaller versions of an eikon that are formed from their essence) called Caladrius and Adarna.

Caladrius: heals, is more of a defensive bird, defeat/purification will reduce Joshua’s rolls by 3
Adarna: attacks, is more of an offensive bird, breathes fire and can turn people into stone, defeat/purification will reduce Joshua’s rolls by 3

Any fights with these two are completely player controlled. Feel free to have them act however you’d like.

I’ll have art for them by the time the log goes up.

You probably guessed it already, but this is where those who signed up for it be fighting Phoenix.

And yes, this means…

KAIJU BATTLES

• Come up with your own! Legally distinct Godzilla, anyone?


• I can assign a Final Fantasy summon to have your character turn into.*


• If your character has the ability to summon a giant monster of their own, they can use them instead

How Dice Rolls Work in an Online Text-Based RP
It turns out there’s a lot of fine-tuning and balancing you have to do! I did my best to keep the rules simple but effective and efficient while making the experience feel like a video game. If any clarification is needed, I’m happy to provide it.

• The battle mechanics are the same for both Phoenix and Noctshua.



• We can roll in Discord (game chat or in private), put our results in the comment headers, or share our rolls through Plurk or PM. I’m flexible and ready to work with whatever you’re most comfortable.



• Options for dice rolling include: Calculator.net, Roll a Die, or you can use Google’s built-in dice roller by… Googling dice roller.



• All rolls will be based on the honor system. Seriously, I’m not about to leap down from your ceiling and watch you.
  
  In case you’re worried about any cheesing on my end, full transparency: as much as I want to give everyone a challenge (and I will; see Joshua’s starting advantages), I also want Good to Prevail… and for my knuckleheads to get dunked on.



• We’ll have a few comments before each fight to set things up. I’ll declare Battle Start when it’s time to fight fight fight.

• Each player rolls a 20-sided die (d20)


• The higher roll wins the round. The responding player writes their character either winning or losing that exchange, and then ‘retaliates’ with a new roll for the other player to counter against. (like playing volleyball or tennis)


• If the rolls are tied, it’s a stalemate, and the receiving player will describe their half of the exchange appropriately. The retaliation roll continues as usual.


• Action rolls can also be used to try and emotionally appeal to Noctshua instead of fighting him (in which case, I’ll call for a roll whenever it feels like there’s a ‘natural’ moment where he can be persuaded).


• Other factors will come into play; this is just the basic idea

• The player who gets the higher number with their Action Roll is the winner of that ‘round’.


• Damage will be decided via either a 4-sided die (d4) for fights against Noctshua or a 10-sided die (d10) for fights against Phoenix.


• The losing player rolls the d4 or d10 so they can write how their character is impacted.


• Players will have advantages (outlined below) that you can add onto your Action and Damage Rolls. Everyone who’s sent me a conclusion in Part One or interacted with Joshua over the past year will have advantages they can add to their rolls. Basically, the more involved you’ve been, the stronger you’ll be against him/Phoenix.



Hit Points (HP)



• Each player starts with a set amount of HP as described below:
  
  Noctshua:
  

  Starts all of his battles with 40 HP.
  
  Those fighting against him can start with a range between 20 to 30 HP depending on the character’s abilities. I leave that up to player discretion (seriously, it’s based on whatever you think feels right/how tense you want the fight to be; I’m cool with anything).

  
  
  Phoenix:
  
  

  The Phoenix has 75 HP (because big). Anyone fighting against Phoenix will also have 75 HP (because also big).



• Noctshua and Phoenix won’t have any damage advantages against other characters, so you don’t have to worry about adding anything to your damage rolls. I’m trying to make it as easy as possible for y’all…!


Examples of how a round can go (complete with images!)
(NOTE: all the extra numbers and such are assuming we're not rolling in private communication)

[SUCCESSFUL ATTACK]


[UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK]



Cinematic Clashes



• Initiating a Cinematic Clash
  

  
  

  A player can initiate a Cinematic Clash at any point during their turn.

  
  

  Each player can use up to 2 combined instances of a Cinematic Evasion or a Cinematic Strike per battle.



• Cinematic Evasion and Cinematic Strike
  

  Cinematic Evasion: Allows a player to avoid an attack entirely if they win the Cinematic Clash. A successful Cinematic Evasion will also heal the player 5 HP.

  
  

  Cinematic Strike: Allows a player to deal double damage if they win the Cinematic Clash.



• Cinematic Clash Process
  

  Declaration: The initiating player declares they are starting a Cinematic Clash and whether it’s an Evasion or a Strike.

  
  

  Rolls: The rolls are pretty much the same as normal, except the d20 is rolled 5 times. The defending player does the same.

  
  

  Results: The player who wins at least 3 out of the 5 rolls wins the Cinematic Clash and the loser writes the impact as usual.

  
  

  In the event of a tie, we keep going until there is no more tie.



• Outcomes of a Cinematic Clash
  

  Cinematic Evasion: If the initiating player wins, they evade the next attack entirely and heal 5 HP. If they lose, the normal turn sequence continues.

  
  

  Cinematic Strike:If the initiating player wins, their attack deals double damage. If they lose, the normal turn sequence continues.

  
  

  In other words, there’s no penalty for an unsuccessful Cinematic Clash outside of ‘wasting’ one of your two chances.




• Examples of a Successful and Unsuccessful Cinematic Clash (complete with images!)
  (NOTE: all the extra numbers and such are assuming we're not rolling in private communication
  
  [SUCCESSFUL]
  


[UNSUCCESSFUL] Player A initiates a Cinematic Strike against Noctshua.


Advantages/Buffs
We're almost there, folks! I’ll make advantages and disadvantages as short and simple as possible.

Advantages for Noctshua:


• Noctshua will start off with +10 to each of his Action Rolls. That means that every roll of a d20 I make for him will have 10 added to it.


• Every time crystals are purified, egis are beat up, and Phoenix is defeated, this number will go down—including into the negatives, which will give him a disadvantage.



Purified crystal: -1
Contaminated crystal: + 2 (this is bad, you want negative numbers! Unless you're sabotaging on purpose.)
Defeated egi: -3
Defeated Phoenix: -5 (per round where Phoenix loses)



Advantages for Everyone else:



• All advantages will be added to ALL of your rolls. All of them. Every single one. Yes, even that one.


• These advantages will also work on Phoenix. Note that Phoenix does not have any advantages of his own.


• Remember, use this list for when you make your d20 rolls only. I’ll take care of adding these advantages when calculating damage against Noctshua/Phoenix.
  Advantage List:
  

  Character has trained with Joshua in the past: +2 (if you’re unsure, check with me)
  Participation in Investigation: + 2 (on top of any perks/buffs I’ve sent you already)
  Participation in Intermission: + 1
  “Happy” journal found: + 1 (for everyone. Yes, even you.)
  ETA Solutions found during Intermission: +1
  

  
  



That should be it for battle mechanics! If needed, I can adjust them and I'm open to any feedback. We still have a few days before the log is due to go up, so changes are easy to make.

• It turns out that Local Prince Fire Chicken, Joshua Rosfield, has mysteriously vanished following a massive kaiju battle between two Dragons, Charizilla, and Burning Bird (guess which one he was)


• Those close to him will know that he keeps meticulous records in his journals—this could be a good starting point for where he could be/what is going on (or maybe some information that can come in handy for some stuff later on in the plot HMMM)


• The more people (close to him or not!) that are involved in the investigation process, the more information everyone will get for Part Two of the plot. I’ll provide all the text and/or information you’ll need to read, all you have to do is let me know what your characters conclude afterwards, either by sharing a thread or handwaving it (no matter what their conclusion is, we’ll make it work).


• I'll need the conclusions by July 16th. It's okay if your thread (if you choose to have one) isn't finished by that time. I'll just need to know what your characters come up with so I can adjust accordingly!


• Investigation isn’t limited to reading journals/texts. There will be clues around where the battle took place, as well as other places, if your character is more hands on.


• You can sign up to investigate either solo or in pairs/small groups (3 max, please!), just remember that you’ll have to find a way to share the info your characters gather with each other.


• If there is an interest for it, I’ll set up a log post where characters can meet up to discuss their findings or where you can make an infodump comment about what your character plans on contributing. Please tell me if this is something you’d like me to put together! (Totally cool with whatever majority decides, just let me know definitively!)


• In the event that there is no log, or if you cannot participate in it for any reason, there will be a form in the comments of this post to fill out with the results of your characters' investigations.

• The appearance of these massive creatures, particularly the crater caused by the landing of one small skyscraper sized Phoenix, has raised some concern for the (literal) impact on local wildlife.


• Rumors are buzzing around Orkili about screams heard at night near some of the caves, and there are calls for someone to look into it.


• Maybe related to the above, a small section of Orkili has been experiencing localized blackouts, as if the nostilium is being siphoned elsewhere.


• A volunteer at the Archives can be overheard grumbling about how some jerk borrowed 16 books at once and hasn’t returned them yet. Yeah, there’s an emergency going on, but it’s been like two months. Seriously, dude?


• None of these piquing your interest? No probs. Send me a message or respond to the Questions/Comments thread and we’ll come up with a custom prompt.

As the mod notes say, Joshua will be reappearing in Reverein at the start of the event! However, something will be noticeably off about him.

• It could be related to some rumors about a strange figure that's been spotted wandering aimlessly throughout the streets the past couple of nights. (It is. It is absolutely related to that. It's literally him, but your characters won't figure that out until y’all find him so humor me.)


• With the Absolute State Joshua will be found in, and some associated implications with it, he'll need to be brought to the Nightmare City.


• You do not need to sign up for interaction during the event


• I’ll have a toplevel set up and ready to go for anyone interested in this leg of the player plot, along with a bit of a teaser for what’s going to lead us into Part Two


• At the start of this toplevel, and also in a separate post that I'll put up before Part Two is slated to begin, I'll provide a "State of the Realm" style update on what has been uncovered for ease of access to anyone joining in later or for those who'd like a summary.

So! Details here are going to be pretty sparse so we can keep some sense of intrigue and suspense… and also because what characters uncover during the first two portions of the plot will impact the setup for Part Two!

Here is what I can/will say:

• If your character has any secrets, romantic/platonic feelings, evil/mean hijinks, or introspective deep dives you’d like to get out of their system, Part Two will provide an opportunity for it! Characters who complete these threads will also receive perks, and impact how the final fights go. Even if they do something evil.


• Do you enjoy writing fight threads? Well, you’ll have a few different options, up to and including two different flavors of kaiju battle. One that will be completely up to you as a player (small kaiju), and another where you and I will have to roll some dice (large kaiju).


• We’ll also have to roll dice for anyone fighting the Final Boss


• To anyone who’s played/watched Final Fantasy XVI, I have two words: Cinematic Clashes


• To anyone who hasn’t played/watched Final Fantasy XVI, I present: Cinematic Clashes


• To anyone who hasn’t played/watched Final Fantasy XVI and is actively trying to avoid spoilers PLEASE DO NOT CLICK THE ABOVE LINK (thumbnail technically has a spoiler, but there's no context; the first two minutes is stuff you see in the demo and the first minute should be safe, but don’t say I didn’t warn you; also this is your obligatory blood/violence warning including an incident involving a dog (he’s fine))


• BASICALLY, if you want your character to have the chance to either a) reach some closure and/or b) do something really badass and/or show off how strong they are, Part Two is for you.

1) Any threads involving the character closure segment will need to be done in pairs or small groups (no more than 3, again!). You can also sign up your character for a random pairing with another. I have a contingency plan in case we have an odd character out. Unlimited slots
2) Large Kaiju fi—it’s Phoenix. Okay? You’ll be fighting Phoenix. Big surprise, I know. (the small, player led kaiju fight is a surprise, tho). Limited Slots
3) Final Boss. Limited Slots