nashira_ooc | July II Event Results

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july ii event results
EPISODE 6: Game Over or New Game+? Dive into the Dark Ocean!
July 25 - July 31
TIMELINE
7/25-7/31 Go Fish
7/25-7/29 Lab Cleanup
7/26 Investigate: The Wonder Junction Two-Day Video Game Rental
7/27-7/29 Mystery Plot
7/30 Showdown: Ludoreticula
7/31 Recon: The Dark Ocean

Go Fish Natalia Cynthia Hope Maya Mutsumi Mabel Kalim	Lab Cleanup Natalia Cynthia Harley Jamil Dirk Maya Mortis Kalim Mabel	Mystery Plot Harley Kalim Cynthia Natalia
Investigate: The Wonder Junction Two-Day Video Game Rental Hope Mabel	Recon: The Dark Ocean Reese Dirk	Showdown: Ludoreticula Maya Jamil Mortis

go fish
Natalia - 4
Cynthia - 11
Hope - 1
Maya - 14
Mutsumi - 6
Mabel - 9
Kalim - 18
+1 SP to Natalia, Cynthia, Hope, Maya, Mutsumi, Mabel & Kalim
Nautis thought that catching goldfish would be a pretty easy way to jumpstart the Aquarium population, but by the end of the week, the Nova Knights have only collected four goldfish, and that's because Kalim caught two. Don't feel too bad, guys, those carnival games are really hard! Nautis is certain that all of the small children walking away with bags of goldfish are merely benefiting from the nebulous phenomenon that is "beginner's luck", and that it's not some kind of skill issue when it comes to maneuvering those fragile little nets.

lab cleanup
Natalia - 7
Cynthia - 16
Harley - 19
Jamil - 23
Dirk - 5
Maya - 14
Mortis - 5
Kalim - 17
Mabel - 19
+1 SP to Natalia, Cynthia, Harley, Jamil, Dirk, Maya, Mortis, Kalim & Mabel
Well, this was a mixed bag! Jamil did in fact manage to wrap most of the team in bubble wrap, but while the lab is mostly tidy now, some equipment was damaged and so were some people. Maomao has to attend to what she deems an embarrassing number of mostly minor injuries, but she's pretty transparently unhappy about it because this gets in the way of some unarticulated grand plan to do weird xenobotany experiments in the privacy of the hideout.

investigate: the wonder junction two-day video game rental
TEAM: Hope & Mabel
Roll 1: Locate the pocket dimension where the energy was being stored - SUCCEED
Roll 2: Stay Cool and avoid raising suspicion - SUCCEED
Using their dowsing machines — what else! — Hope and Mabel are able to figure out how to access the pocket dimension where the enemy is hoarding the harvested energy. It works pretty much identically to the pocket dimensions guarded by monsters at the karaoke joint and the salon & spa in previous months, and Hope and Mabel have no trouble identifying where to apply some magical force to open up magic subspace. Nautis is also able to analyze some data the dowsing machines collected and she reports that whatever is going on here, it seems to be made up of a combination of Glamour and Dream domain magic.

And since they're both cool kids who love video games, they totally avoid raising any suspicion with the one employee on duty. A genuine enthusiasm for the subject matter probably helps. They rent two recently released video games for the Nova Knights to try out:
⭐︎ Gentleman Thief Escape: The Seven of Hearts is a platformer for the Prism Plug-N-Play, the latest in the classic Gentleman Thief Escape series starring the titular gentleman thief as he makes his way in and out of ludicrous heists to the astonishment of all. This game sees the return of the very popular local co-op mode from two games ago.
⭐︎ Shinebow All-Star Grand Prix is an all-new multiplayer racing game for the FortuneCore that met with explosive popularity, partly due to the fact that all of the playable characters are from various Shinebow Arts properties — not just video games, but a host of characters from beloved Shinebow book and TV series, films, and controversial concept albums are playable in All-Star Grand Prix.
+3 SP to Hope & Mabel
NOTE: This was originally 2 SP but it was the only 2 SP mission this month and I felt like that was unfair. So now it's 3 SP.

recon: the dark ocean
TEAM: Dirk & Reese
Roll 1: Locate the Constellation - SUCCEED
Roll 2: Avoid detection - FAIL
Dirk and Reese will find themselves teleported into the cargo bay of some kind of facility that seems largely empty, though it won't take much exploring to discover that they're on a starship. That's right, the Harbingers' lair is hovering in Earth's orbit! Signs of habitation are sparse in most parts of the ship and it's clear that it's being run by a skeleton crew, which makes stealthing around a bit easier. They manage to stay undetected long enough to find out that the Constellation is being held in the ship's engine room in some kind of magical stasis chamber. And that is about as far as they get before they're discovered.

Before they can leave the engine room, they run afoul of Mistiluxia, a Harbinger whose presence and magic both had yet to be felt until this point, but it becomes immediately evident that she commands great power behind an unassuming smile. It turns out that the engine room also serves as an ingress into the Abyss, which makes it quite trivial for Mistiluxia to send them there. Dirk and Reese are trapped in the Abyss just the same as Hope and Maya were just two months ago.

There was actually a secret third roll they could have made to recover the Constellation if the first two rolls succeeded. But they failed, so it didn't happen. Bummer!
+5 SP to Dirk & Reese
The SP for this mission has been increased from 3 to 5 on account of Dirk and Reese being sent to the Abyss.

mystery plot a
TEAM: Harley & Kalim
Roll 1: Beat the game - FAIL
Roll 2: Escape the game world unscathed - FAIL
Harley and Kalim take a crack at playing Gentleman Thief Escape: The Seven of Hearts together, but to the horror and surprise of all, when they boot up the game and start playing, they're sucked right into the game! It turns out that this was the Harbingers' plan all along: the energy harvesting plot was a decoy intended to lure the Nova Knights into renting games. For the average human being, the magic effect of the game cartridges is limited to draining their life force a little bit at a time, but if the game detects Nova Knight magic, it traps the players in a pocket dimension inside the game, presumably containing them for pickup by one of the Harbingers. It explains why Shellustria suddenly decided to dispose with all the subtlety he's been cultivating lately.

Fortunately, Nautis is able to reach them inside the game world, and she tells them if they can beat the game, they should be able to get out on their own using their magic. Tragically, Harley and Kalim neither beat the game, nor do they escape the game world very easily. Gentleman Thief Escape proves to be a challenging platformer game for the both of them, and eventually they run out of lives and are at risk of being trapped in the game...but Nautis is able to tear a hole in the pocket dimension to get them out. While they're both alive and physically unharmed, Nautis having to extract them from the game world by brute magical force is a lot more taxing on them then if they had been able to break out themselves. The mission leaves them magically exhausted and emotionally depleted — Harley and Kalim are now in eclipse and will need the help of their friends to come out of it. See this page for more information on eclipse.

While the trap may not have been successful in its entirety, Shellustria is still able to learn a good deal about Harley and Kalim's magic from their time inside the game. Wuh-oh!

For the purposes of this thread, the game is vaguely Metroidvania-shaped, featuring levels with lots of pitfalls, power-ups, and enemies, but beyond that it can have whatever mechanics makes the mission failure the most fun.
NOTE: This can take place in the hideout or at somebody's home; whatever makes the most sense and fun and jives with the secret identity situation.
+5 SP to Harley & Kalim
The SP for this mission has been increased from 3 to 5 on account of Harley and Kalim going into eclipse.

mystery plot b
TEAM: Cynthia & Natalia
Roll 1: Beat the game - SUCCEED
Roll 2: Escape the game world unscathed - SUCCEED
Cynthia and Natalia take a crack at playing Shinebow All-Stars Grand Prix together, but to the horror and surprise of all, when they boot up the game and start playing, they're sucked right into the game! It turns out that this was the Harbingers' plan all along: the energy harvesting plot was a decoy intended to lure the Nova Knights into renting games. For the average human being, the magic effect of the game cartridges is limited to draining their life force a little bit at a time, but if the game detects Nova Knight magic, it traps the players in a pocket dimension inside the game, presumably containing them for pickup by one of the Harbingers. It explains why Shellustria suddenly decided to dispose with all the subtlety he's been cultivating lately.

It's a high stakes and intense experience, but fortunately, Natalia and Cynthia's combined experience, skill, and perhaps a little luck sees them through to the finish line on the final stage. When they win the last race, the game awards them a power-up that allows them to punch through the pocket dimension and return to the real world. They escape safely and unscathed, hurray!!

For the purposes of this thread, they can be racing different cars or they can both be in the same car or some secret third thing, as long as it's still a racing game. Mechanically, it can resemble Mario Kart or Gran Turismo or anything in between. I will also accept Crazy Taxi.
NOTE: This can take place in the hideout or at somebody's home; whatever makes the most sense and fun and jives with the secret identity situation.
+3 SP to Cynthia & Natalia

showdown: ludoreticula
TEAM: Maya, Jamil & Mutsumi
Roll 1: Defeat Ludoreticula - SUCCEED
Roll 2: Recover the stolen energy - FAIL
Once Maya, Jamil, and Mutsumi break into the pocket dimension, they'll come face-to-face with its guardian Ludoreticula, who immediately seals the hole they came through. She's not trapped in here with you...you're trapped in here with her!

It turns out that this, too, was a trap for the Nova Knights! Shellustria really was being obvious on purpose. Ludoreticula's job isn't to protect the energy, it's to take the Nova Knights hostage — and she successfully engages them for long enough that the energy is sent back to the Harbingers before the Nova Knights have a chance to recover it.

Fortunately, the battle against Ludoreticula is victorious! Thanks to their teamwork and the successful investigation from Hope and Mabel, they defeat Ludoreticula and tear their way out of the pocket dimension before it implodes in on itself.

Ludoreticula's body is largely made up of a writing mass of cables in a vaguely humanoid shape, with gamepads for hands and feet and a screen for a face. The trick to defeating Ludoreticula is to stun her and input a secret code on one of her controller limbs to reveal her secret weak spot. The Star Suite power Dance of Light would make quick work of her once she's defeated as well as heal some of their own injuries.
+3 SP to Maya, Jamil & Mutsumi

summary/aftermath

The gang is only able to scrounge up a handful of goldfish for the Aquarium, but tidying efforts in the Lab are paying off, even if Maomao isn't personally happy about it. Don't take it personally; Maomao isn't personally happy about a lot of things when it comes to the Nova Knights.

Mabel and Hope successfully finesse their investigation at the The Wonder Junction Two-Day Video Game Rental and return with information and two freshly rented games to play: Gentleman Thief Escape: The Seven of Hearts and Shinebow All-Stars Grand Prix. The Nova Knights who play them, however, fall directly into the Harbingers' trap and are quickly sucked into the game and have to beat the game to escape! Natalia and Cynthia make it to the finish line in Grand Prix, but Harley and Kalim nearly find themselves trapped in Gentleman Thief Escape...thankfully, Nautis is able to pull them out by brute magical force, but it leaves both Harley and Kalim magically depleted and in eclipse.

Maya, Mutsumi, and Jamil return to the The Wonder Junction Two-Day Video Game Rental to rid the place of its Abyssal influence and recover the stolen energy, but it turns out that this, too, is a trap for the Nova Knights! The monster Ludoreticula is here to take the Nova Knights hostage on behalf of the Harbingers, but the three of them come out of the battle victorious, even if the Harbingers get away with all that harvested energy. Better yet, the shop stays open after it's been cleansed of the Abyss's presence! There's still a lazy college student manning the shop at all times, but it seems to be a different student from before.

Meanwhile, Nautis warps Dirk and Reese to the Harbingers' lair, which they quickly discover is actually a starship in Earth's orbit. They locate the Constellation the Three Sisters in the ship's engine room, but before they can do anything more than transmit that data to Nautis, they're discovered by the Harbinger Mistiluxia, who whisks them off to the Abyss. Sure hope the last thing you said to either of them was something nice!

ABOUT BEING TRAPPED IN THE ABYSS: Dirk and Reese will be absent from the Chalra City goings on of the first in-game week of August I, nor will they be eligible to sign up for missions for August I. Rather, they will be automatically signed up for an escape mission (which will grant SP).

Dirk and Reese won't be able to make contact with any of the other Nova Knights until they've either been rescued or escaped — not the real Nova Knights, anyway. Just like before, the Abyss can conjure apparitions of other Nova Knights to torment them. They can brave the horrors together, though!

The details of what Dirk and Reese experience in the Abyss will be included in the August I Game Update.

+4 SP	Hope Jamil
+5 SP	Natalia Cynthia Reese Maya Mutsumi/Mortis Mabel
+6 SP	Dirk Harley
+7 SP	Kalim

Please comment if you have any questions! The event log will have a top level for each limited mission, and if you're curious, here are the rolls for this event. All rolls are d20 unless noted otherwise, and the skill ratings of 1-4 are converted into modifiers of -1 to 2. Other modifiers such as the headcount for each mission, combat type, and eclipse are added to the total modifier.

Don't forget to take down your new SP! As of this post, event SP is immediately granted and you can go hit up the rewards page if you so choose.

July II Event Results

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