Introductory Stratum - Forsaken Harbor

The forward guns open fire again.  When you look to the sky, you notice more of those monster-filled nuts are coming.

The door to the ship's interior swings open.  One of the experienced adventures, dressed in an outfit that can only be described as not enough, comes running out.  "Hey!  Come on, we aren't going to let the scouts have all the fun, are we!?" he yells, pulling a pair of knives from his crotch.  "Yeeeeeeaaaaaah!"  Someone wisely covers Mathilda's eyes.  Several rookies come running out behind him.

A young medic comes over to the party.  "You're all scouts, right?  Please hurry to the landing ships.  They're getting ready to launch.  Here, let me tend to your injuries..."  She hands Wolf a sweet drink to chug while she casts a few spells on the others.

       DEADLIFE          Terry
       HP: 60/60       HP: 56/58
       TP: 37/40       TP: 52/52

   Peri           Wolf          Mathilda
 HP: 56/56      HP: 58/58       HP: 58/58
 TP: 48/56      TP: 34/44       TP: 46/52

With the security team taking over on the deck, everyone heads belowdecks.  The rest of the scouts are assembled loading into several landing ships.  Everyone gets pushed apart in the shuffle.  There's 3 ships that are still open, each with 4 slots.  There's an experienced adventurer in the head of each of the ships.

An Earlian Protector in heavy plate with a sword and shield is at the head of one.  "We're going to find the source of those nuts and destroy it.  Courage, everyone!"

An Arken Hexer seems to be heading the next ship.  "The ship's cannons will cover us until we reach shore.  Risk level is... acceptable."

A Forest Folk Dancer waves at her from the last ship.  "Acceptable?  Ha!  Don't scare the kiddies, Sweetheart.  Stick with us and everything's going to be alright!"  She waves at the new arrivals and the few who aren't already loaded.  "Hurry along and find a space, dears!  Squeeze on in!"

Wolf finds himself surrounded by 3 unfamiliar faces.  Two are Celestrians.  One is dark-skinned female with black hair held by a crescent moon hairclip, while the male has pale skin and white hair.  The male's wearing pants and a cloak with a sun emblem, all in white and gold.  The female's in a sleeveless dress with high-heeled boots and elbow-length and fingerless gloves, all black and shining silver.  The last is a young Forest Folk girl with green hair that fades to red at the tips.  She's wearing a purple-and-black dress complete with a pretty bow.  She's barefoot, which further accentuates how short she is.  All 3 of them stare at Wolf with red, expectant eyes.  He is the most experienced, after all...

Others come up, looking to Peri, Terry, and Mathilda for guidance.  Apparently, they made quite an impression during that first skirmish.

(I'm assuming the others mentioned in that last post are just our second characters and not a group of people, but if not I can change this post.)

Peri gets on the ship with the dancer and lets out a sigh of relief before nearly jumping out of her skin at the sound of a voice coming from the chair behind her she could have sworn was empty.
"Pretty eventful trip, isn't it?"
After regaining her composure and turning around in her seat, she comes face to face with a ghastly looking Deep One slumped down in his chair nonchalantly reading a book.
"Yes, quite. I am Lady Peri of house Gren, and you are?"
"Finn. Not my real name, but you land dwellers don't have the right syllables for it anyways."
"I see... Pardon me, but what is that book you're reading?"
"It's a Necronomicon. Never hurts to brush up on my magic at a time like this."

An Earthian woman with average height and build approaches Terry.  She's got shoulder-length white hair and soft lavender eyes.  She's dressed in brown trousers and a white tank top that reveals her unnaturally pale skin.  Her right arm, bright red and ending in a claw, is hidden under a huge, metal gauntlet.

The one to approach DEADLIFE is short for a Celestrian.  She wears a short purple dress and a purple beret hidden under a grey cloak.  Her legs are covered by a set of grey leggings and a pair of pointed purple boots.  Her face is concealed by the cloak's hood, but her icy blue eyes seem to glow in its shadow and long, platinum-blonde hair occasionally pokes out from beneath.

Mathilda finds herself talking to a tall, muscular Deep One.  He's got green, tentacle-like hair that partially conceals an emerald on his forehead.  He crawls around on a yellow-scaled tail, covered in a brown loin cloth with a sword belt.  Matching fins jut out of his shoulder.  His chest, marked with green lines, is partially covered with a single sash.

The heavily armored Protector is a normal-looking Earthian, though a bit scrawnier than most of the knight-types.  He's got dark hair and eyes, and his heavy armor hides the rest of his body.  He takes at look at the four red-eyed rookies that climbed into his boat, his eyes finally settling on Wolf.  "Well met.  I suppose I can't truly call you all rookies anymore.  Still, fighting monsters is only part of adventuring, and not always the more dangerous aspect of the job.  Stick close by me once we reach shore, alright?  I'm Samuel, by the way.  Call me Sam.  Ah!  You've got enough supplies, right?  What?  You should have been provided with some...  Here, take these Medicas."  He hands out three potions for the group to share.


Medica: Use these items to recover a fixed amount of health in battle or on the field.

Turn priority: Who acts first during combat?  Action speed depends mostly on a character's Agility stat.  Wearing shoes or clothing-type armor increases a character's priority, while heavy armor slows them down.  Finally, different actions will have different priorities.  Powerful attacks tend to act last in the round.  Characters using buff, debuff, or healing skills usually find themselves acting much faster than normal.  Items have the highest priority - but a character with low agility or heavy armor still can't count on going first.


The Forest Folk dancer takes a look at the first two to join her group.  One's a cute, young Birdfolk, though she seems a bit high-strung.  The other's a Deep One.  A mature one, at that - he's got legs.  His fin-covered scales are green and his skin is chalky white, giving him a sickly appearance.  He's dressed in a set of black shorts and a black cloak.  The front of the cloak is held open by a ribcage-like set of bones.  He's got a set of pale blue tentacle-like hair on his head and an amethyst set on his forehead.

The dancer herself is tall and lithe, dressed in a purple, modified version of traditional Forest Folk attire.  Emerald hair cascades over her shoulders.  A sleeveless, midriff-baring top reveals her well-toned stomach.  Her skirt, made of layered feathers, flares out like wings and shows off her muscular legs.  She wears a pair of anklets decorated with jingling chimes that draw attention to her slender, bare feet.

The dancer laughs to herself.  A Forest Folk, a Birdfolk, and a Deep One.  The first three of the races discovered dwelling in the Yggdrasil labyrinths.  She finds herself quietly hoping a Vessel and a Sentinel will join...  She sidles up to the pair.  "Hello, there.  Looks like I'll be your guide today.  Don't worry, I'll take good care of you."  She slides them three Medicas.  "My name's Aria!  You may not believe it, but I'm a member of the Wardog Guild!  We're one of the oldest guilds in all of Kald, famous for mapping out the fourth stratum.  You see that Hexer in the other boat?  She's my partner.  The two of us were on a recruitment drive in the capital when everything happened.  Let's see...  My favorite foods are root vegetable stews and any type of cooked bird - no offence, Sweetie.  I like sappy romance novels, but also a good horror story every now and again.  I love bright, sunny days.  But even more than that I love dancing in the rain - especially if I can find a nice, open field just as the grounds starting to get soft and muddy.  The cool rain feels wonderful, and it's always a blast to look back at my footprints afterwards and imagine how I looked and how I can improve.  My biggest turn-off is people who take themselves too seriously and always have to look all mature and formal - even my partner wiggles her hips a bit when the mood strikes her!  And now that you know all you need to know about me, why don't you tell me a bit about yourselves, hm?"

Terry and Allure jump in with the Dancer and Peri and Finn, just in time to hear Aria introducing herself.  "Oh, new friends!  Hold that thought.  Here, I've got some presents for you, as well."  She hands them three Medicas.  "So, come on.  Tell me about yourselves."

The last four adventurers climb in with the hexer.  Her face and chest are an iridescent pink, eyes glowing the same color.  Her hair's a slightly lighter shade, splitting and reforming in a weave reminiscent of coral.  Her flanks, arms, and legs are dark purple, with several glowing orange button-shaped marks where the two disparate skin tones meet.  Fins spread from her shoulders and hips - it's unsurprising some people claim the Arken and Deep Ones are distant relatives.  Her upper body is covered in a royal blue cloak and she wears cloth shoes.  A large bell hangs from chains around her neck.  Shackles with broken chains adorn her wrists and ankles.

She looks across the four new arrivals, then nods towards some potions.  "Take them."  Mathilda and Galvin and DEADLIFE and Draxia are each given three Medicas.  The Hexer continues quietly.  "Zenia.  Guild Wardog.  Hexer."  It's a very soft-spoken and blunt introduction.  It's also pretty strange.  Arken are notoriously unlucky, something Hexers tend to rely on.  "We're leaving soon.  Introduce yourselves.  More importantly, make sure you share and confirm enemy status in your Codex."

Monstrous Codex: Enemy stats, drops, resistances, weaknesses, and skills are automatically recorded in the Status page after being defeated.  Some statistics can be temporarily viewed using the Analysis Burst Skill.

"Aw, don't worry!  We'll loosen her up soon enough.  No one can watch me dance without being moved to join in.  But, hey!  You said you like tea?" Aria asks.  "I simply adore a nice cup of tea!  Unfortunately, we really don't have time for you to go back for it...  Gotta save the ship, y'know?  As long as we do our job well enough, your tea set's gonna be just fine!  And they've confirmed there are survivors, no?  So have hope for your father!  Oh, we simply must sit down to share a cup once things calm down.  There are some truly excellent leaves that grow in the labyrinth that can be brewed into the most wonderfully fragrant teas!  Mandrake leaves are so sour, but they pair so very, very well with a pair of sweet teacakes.  Tiny Flowers can be brewed into a sweet tea that I positively adore with a wedge of orange. Then, there's an exceptionally rare leaf which comes from the Yggdrasil Bud.  It makes a tea with a rich, smoky aroma, full-bodied bitter flavor that puts the finest coffees to shame.  Ah, a cup of that alongside a fresh lemon cake - the thought alone is enough to bring a tear to my eye!"  Aria slides closer to Peri and whispers in her ear.  "Whenever I see the proud, dignified type, I can't help but try to make them let their hair down. So... would you like to try some of that rare tea later?  I should have enough left for a cup or two.  I'll share some with you if you'll share a dance with me!  And I'm not talking about the ballroom kind of dance - I mean the kick-your-shoes-off-and-shake-it kind!" She gives Peri's foot a playful kick. "You're already halfway there, so now we've just gotta put those hips to work! ...Lady Gren."

Aria presents her long, winding rant about tea and cake as the small landing ships launch.  She seems utterly oblivious to the fact they're in motion, even as tentacles burst out of the water all around them.  The Stormrider's cannons constantly hammer away at any monsters that approach the smaller craft.

Sam spends the trip standing over Alice, sword and shield at the ready as he balances in the rocking boat.  Zenia keeps her seat, eyes closed.  She seems nauseated.

The boats shudder as they reach land.  Aria blinks and looks around.  "Hm?  Oh, we're here already?  You'll have to give me your answer later."  She hops up and swings herself over the side of the boat.  She offers her hand to the rookies climbing onto the shore.

Zenia takes a deep breath and quietly mutters a prayer when they land.  Sam charges out with a war cry.  Fortunately, the beach seems to be safe.  The scouts clamber out of their ships, getting their first real look at the ruined city of Kald.  Cobblestone roads and alleys lead towards the center of town in a spiderweb-like pattern.  Several beautiful stone buildings line the empty streets.  Windows lie shattered in the streets, doors are broken open, roofs are collapsed...  It truly looks like a ghost town.

"Is everyone ready?" Sam asks his group.  "OK, here's what we're going to do."

Several yards away, Zenia is explaining to her group.  "Here are our objectives.  The Stormrider is unable to fire on the town if there are survivors.  We are to scout the area and locate the source of the monster seeds.  There's also the matter of locating survivors..."

Even further away, Aria's wrapping up her explanation.  "We just need to place some flares to show them where it's safe to shoot!  Of course, we could leave that to the other groups.  Zenia could do this with her eyes closed.  They saw survivors signalling from the lighthouse, right?  Maybe it'd be better for us to go check up on them, instead?  Hm."

As the scouts look around, they notice a few paths.  The seeds seem to be coming from somewhere near the center of town.  There's a major road directly ahead that should go straight there, but there's a large pile of rubble in the way.  Maybe it'd be possible to find a way through or over it, but you'd need a closer look to be sure.  There are other roads to the east and west, but you can't see the roads from here.  The lighthouse is visible on the docks, far down the beach to the east.

Sam, Aria, and Zenia all seem to be considering what to do.  You could probably sway them if you feel like speaking up...

Peri perks up a bit at the mention of survivors in the lighthouse.
"If your partner is able to handle placing the beacons as you say, why don't we check on the survivors in the lighthouse?"