Introductory Stratum - Forsaken Harbor

Wolf says they should take the most direct path and see if they can get around the rubble.  "Sounds reasonable.  Maybe we'll get lucky.  Let's make sure the others are ready to go.  You've got the stuff you need for making maps, right?  I know the town pretty well - or I did, anyway.  We'll need to keep track of places that are blocked off."

Maps: Maps will appear under Maps.  They'll be automatically updated as you progress.  You won't really need them, but they might help you envision things.

Peri suggests their group check out the lighthouse and leave the others to work on the town itself.  "That's fine with me," Aria says.  Terry doesn't object.  "I love a nice walk on the beach.  We've got some fancy new toys that'll let us keep in touch with the other teams, so it'll be fine.  We'll even be able to share maps as we explore this place.  Super-handy!"  She takes out a small machine and starts talking into it.  "Hey, Zenia!  I'm taking these guys to the lighthouse, so take care of those nut things, alright?"

"Understood.  Commencing operation." Zenia answers through her own device.  She turns and looks at DEADLIFE and Mathilda.  Neither seem particularly concerned about which way they're going, so she turns back towards the town.  "Follow me."

Sam notices the two groups heading away.  "Whoa, hey!  Hang on, we need to-"

Zenia walks past him without breaking stride.  "We'll train them in the field."  As if on cue, there's a loud crashing noise as another ship splinters and sinks in the distance.  "Time is at a premium."



Blood, Mal

Zenia seems completely comfortable now that she's back on land, even surrounded by all this destruction.  You walk with Sam's group for a while, but when the path splits and Sam continues forward, Zenia turns to the east.  The next major road you come to is also blocked by debris, but there's an alleyway ahead that looks like it could bypass the debris on that first road.  Zenia quietly marches along before suddenly coming to a halt.  She turns towards a broken building along your path.

You follow her gaze and see that it's a ruined apothecary.  The large window in the front is town off its hinges, and the display window has a large hole in it.  There may be some useful supplies inside.  You could head in, maybe, or give Zenia a nudge and suggest you move on.

Field Events: The labyrinth is full of dangerous creatures and strange things - some more dangerous than the monsters.  Sometimes you'll need to make decisions about the things you find.


Kitty

Sam leads you forward into the town.  As the path splits to the east and west, you head forward while Zenia's group turns to the east.  When you get close to the rubble, you find that it's a large wall that caved in from a nearby building.  It's blocking the street pretty completely.  A small crevice is visible in the wall before you.  Perhaps a person may fit through...  However, it appears to be impassable from this side.

Shortcuts: You may find shortcuts to help you traverse the labyrinth more quickly.  However, most need to be 'activated' before they can be used.  Once they've been opened, any guild can use them from other side.

Sam investigates the wall  for only a moment.  "Ugh.  It'd take too long to clear this rubble out of the way, and we'd be in trouble if monsters decided to attack while we were climbing.  We should find another route."  But which way...?  Join up with Zenia's group, or split up and head west instead?  You could also sit around and hope her group opens the path for you.


Fuzz, X

The beach is annoyingly difficult to walk on as the sand keeps shifting underfoot. Aria doesn't seem right have much trouble with it, but things would be much easier fur anyone dressed in basically a bikini, running around barefoot, and not carrying all this equipment... Peri does notice her talons seem to be giving her an advantage over the others, but not so much it she can keep up with the heavily conditioned dancer. Aria sings quietly to herself, occasionally stopping to give the rest of you words of encouragement.

As you start to get close to the lighthouse, she suddenly stops and holds up a hand.  "Uh-oh.  We're not going to be able to get away from this!"  You look towards the shore, expecting to see monsters running at you from the town.  Instead, Aria points out to the ocean.  Three fish leap out of the water and prepare to attack.  They seem to be levitating.  Weird.  "Everyone, get in formation!  I'll back you up."  She produces a bow and arrow from... somewhere.  "I'm better with a sword, but small fry like these are a good opportunity for you all to practice!"  No, seriously, where did that come from?  She's not wearing enough to hide something like that.

...There's no time to think about that now! The monsters are attacking!

Random battles: They exist.

Fleeing: Each character can attempt to flee or fight individually - for example, 4 members could attempt to flee while the Medic uses healing skills.  Characters affected by Leg Bind can't flee.

Enemy Formation
Fanged Fish A      Fanged Fish B      Fanged Fish C

Allied Formation
  Finn                Terry              Allure
HP: 60/60           HP: 62/62           HP: 64/64
TP: 47/47           TP: 47/47           TP: 42/42

            Peri                Aria
         HP: 60/60           HP: 154/154
         TP: 60/60           TP: 110/110

"Hm..." Wolf thinks a moment.

"It might not be a bad idea to split from the other group and take the eastern path." Sol speaks up.

Luna continues. "Yes, when Sol and I explore ancient ruins, we can split up to cover more ground. Maybe if we take the other path we could find survivors or supplies."

Wolf nods and turns to Sam. "It seems we're headed that way then." Alice stays close to Wolf, holding onto him as she's been this whole time.

@mustardofdoom
Malefio

Blood, Mal

DEADLIFE and Draxia head into the apothecary.  There's probably monsters around, yeah, but who cares?  Loot.  When they head inside, Zenia seems to snap out of her reverie.  She wordlessly walks in behind them, dragging Mathilda and Galvin along.  Most of the shop is in tatters, and it looks like you aren't the first group to get the idea to comb it for useful items.  DEADLIFE notices a pouch tucked away in one corner.  Looks like everyone else missed it.  He carefully approaches it, wary of any ambush.  He plucks it, expecting something to jump out at any second... but nothing happens.  He reaches into the bag to see what spoils he's found... only to feel a sharp pain in his hand.

DEADLIFE took 10 damage!

He drops the bag and a giant rat crawls out.  Two more come running in from a back room.  Great...

Zenia takes point.  "Prepare for combat."

Enemy Formation
Tree Rat A     Tree Rat B      Tree Rat C

Allied Formation
DEADLIFE          Zenia          Galvin
HP: 64/64      HP: 147/147      HP: 52/52
TP: 53/53      TP: 146/146      TP: 41/41

        Draxia          Mathilda
       HP: 53/53        HP: 62/62
       TP: 64/64        TP: 47/47

Kitty

You point out it'll be more efficient to stay split up.

"You're right," Sam agrees.  "Zenia knows what she's doing.  I'm a bit worried about her rookies, though.  Heh, I'm just kidding."

You head back, then loop over to the east.  You take that road and find it goes quite a bit further towards the center of town, but it's got a large pile of rubble down the line.  You doubt you'll be able to get through that at all.  An alleyway splits to the east halfway down the road, and there's another hooking away to the west right at the rubble.

"Hm...?  Blood."  Sam points to the north.  There's a trail of dried blood leading that direction.  He bends down to examine some, then looks carefully up to the north.  "...This is fresher than it looks.  An ambush?  Maybe we should head east, instead.  Or... maybe we should go clear it out so no one else wanders into it."


Fuzz, X

Aria begins dancing an Attack Tango.  As Peri finishes loading a clip of Volt rounds, Aria takes Peri's free hand, wraps an arm around her hip, and dips her.  "Show them what you can do, Sweetheart!"  Peri feels a surge of power and notices Aria's holding her at a great angle to fire.  She unloads the clip into the center fish.  It seems like the attack was extremely effective.

Terry and Finn both leap at the same fish.  They have to dart out of each others' way as they strike from either side.  The ifsh counters by taking a bite out of Terry's arm.  Maybe it ignored Finn out of some sense of kinship.  Allure slashes the last fish.  The fish turns back with a sharp-fanged bite at Allure.  The last leaps past the others to bite at the one who shot it, but Aria twirls her out of the way.

Enemy Formation
Fanged Fish A      Fanged Fish B      Fanged Fish C
   HP: 35%            HP: 40%            HP: 65%

Allied Formation
  Finn                Terry              Allure
HP: 60/60           HP: 46/62           HP: 44/64
TP: 47/47           TP: 47/47           TP: 42/42

            Peri                Aria
         HP: 60/60           HP: 154/154
         TP: 56/60           TP: 103/110

"Someone might be in trouble." Follow the blood trail.

Malefio
@mustardofdoom

Once all the guilds are split up and players aren't relying on each other, I'll not be so pushy about people moving along. Since I'll be able to update people at their own rates. But until then, I'll probably start, like... having characters default to basic attacks after a day or so. Since the enemies here aren't particularly hard.