Vitcity

Nora

"Fuck, I don't know?" Alpha says. "I don't think a planetarium would have a skylight but it probably has some maintenance door for the... big... projector thing. Why?"

Nora

"I mean, there's probably a door up there, but you'll be on your own if anything happens," Alpha says.

"It'd probably be locked, but nothing a good few kicks won't fix," Tom says.

"Not like we're going to lose to a bunch of pawns, but it'll still take us some time to break through them."  Alpha shrugs.  "I dunno.  Maybe don't assume Alice is, uh... in her right mind and willing to listen.  She wouldn't normally, y'know... do this."  He gestures to everything and nothing in particular.  "You think you'll be able to knock some sense into her?  I don't even mean, like, emotionally.  If these giant chess things are what she's making then how strong is she right now?"

Nora

Alpha shrugs.  "Yeah, sure.  Just... whatever."  They draw their sword and start charging at the pawns.  He shoulder-tackles the closest pawn.  It shakes before settling again.

Tom hangs back a moment and pats you on the shoulder.  "Easy, Nora.  Yell at this bird of yours later, not that dumbass," he says quietly.  He joins in the charge, swinging his chain before smashing the same pawn.

Tia pulls back her spear and throws it into the air as it bursts into a rain of smaller arrows that rain down over the pieces, pinging off with almost no effect.  She grunts, annoyed.  "Oh, I've had enough of thissssss...!" she growls.

You summon a kraken, taking care to avoid any archers that might be riding these ones.  As you get closer and look through the fog, it looks like they're on their own.  The kraken unleashes a stream of water at the closest pawn.

"Hey, get ready to hit that one really hard!" Tom calls out, pointing to the middle pawn.

Nora

As Nora flies up and begins concentrating, Tom grunts. "That was supposed to be the signal, but I can stall, I think..." He swings his chain and whips the center pawn.

The kraken latches onto one of the pawns, which proceeds to slam into a wall and knock it back off. Another pawn starts to run at Tom, when Alpha jumps in the way and knocks its charge aside. The third pawn tries to leap at Tia.

Tia bursts in a flash of blue, reappearing as a half-snake easily its size. The pawn sends her skidding across the street as she hisses.

"OK, now's the time!" Tom yells up.

Nora

Tom binds two of the pawns together with a chain as you convert your kraken into boom. As the blast settles, one of the bound pawns is gone, and the other is cracked. The giant snake quickly coils herself around is, squeezing as it continues to make cracking sounds.

"Just break, asshole!" Alpha yells. He leaps into the air, springing off of Tia's coils to climb to the pawn's top. He plunges his sword down into its head. It crumbles beneath his strike, sending him and Tia toppling to the ground. The last pawn leaps into the air and drops down on Tom. It continues to sit on top of him.

Nora

Nora grows a large tail and swings herself around, driving it into the pawn while Tia does the same, flailing her lower half to smash the pawn in tandem. The pawn wiggles in place, nearly falling.

"Jeez, two of you with big-ass tails. I'd normally have some smart-ass... comment!" They grunt with effort as they charges with their shield out, knocking it the rest of the way.

Tom, partially slammed through the ground, grunts with pain. "Oh... Hi... Ow..."

The pawn allows itself to wobble before spiraling around rapidly, crashing into Tia, Nora, and Alpha.

Tia rears back and sinks her fangs into the pawn, leaving it crumbling as bright blue cracks form a spiderweb over its shell.

Obtained Prismatic Ore x1
Obtained Crystal Core x3

Alpha stoops down to give Tom a hand, prying him free. "That... really hurt," he grunts. "But I'll live."

"Good, because we still have work to finish up, y'know?" Alpha says. "Hey, this is probably going to be pretty rough. Since you guys are relying on Soul Keys, maybe take a sec to check your equipment, maybe do that crafting thing if you need it? Just in case this turns into a fight."

Tia shifts back into her humanoid form. "But I don't want to fight Alice," she says.

"Same, but we might not have a choice," Alpha points out.

"Better safe than sorry, I guess..." Tom groans.

Nora

"Yeah, you should have plenty from the scraps we gathered from those monsters," Tom says.  He takes out his key and starts holding materials up to it.

Tia does the same.  "You need 5 identical items to form a base, then you can add 3 more things, whatever you want, to modify it..."

Tom's key produces a new chain, this one with large spikes coming out of either end.  "Hell yeah," he says as he wraps the chain around one arm.

Spiky Chain (Physical +15, Hit +1, Lethality -3)

Tia produces a red lance with a vaguely fish shape, complete with ribs and a googly eye on the head.

Fishlance (Water Damage +10, Phys +6, Hit -3)

Tom's jacket takes on a new form, solid brown and rough.  It looks like it's been carved from stone.  The jacket is covered in shining, crystalline studs.  The boots look the same, with the studs taking the form of sharp spikes.  On the back, there's an image of an angry chicken wreathed in flames and leaping off the back.  His sunglasses are a bit shinier than before.

Rockabilly (Def +15, Evade -5, Fire Res +4, Water Res +4, Elec Res +4, Earth Res +4, Wind Res +4, Light Res -2, Dark Res -2)

Tia's bikini-looking toga changes into a short, crystalline dress, opaque enough to hide her form beneath.  Her sandals disappear, replaced with a pair of winged snakes coiled around like anklets, with a pair of bracelets made of snakes biting their tails to match.  A silver tiara in the shape of a laurel wreath appears on her forehead, complete with a half-mask on her lower face in the shape of a snake baring its fangs.

Serpent Princess (Fire Res +12, Water Res +12, Elec Res +12, Earth Res +12, Wind Res +12, Def +1, Evade +1 Light Res -10, Dark Res -10)

Alpha looks between the two of them, and nods approvingly.  "Not bad.  We good to go?"