Rain Harlow
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(Vol 5) Chapter 37: Echoes Resound
🕑 Added 2024-06-05 15:03:24 +0000 UTCSammy nodded thoughtfully to Azure’s musings about past lives. It was less likely that the System contrived different ‘eras’ because they knew the main point of worlds was their game, even if various other souls lived and died before, during, and after, never knowing jack shit about it.
Setting enrichment, I guess? Management of too many spawns? She was fairly certain the vast majority were actually strangers newly met, many likely with their own networks of connected lives that did not involve any of them. She was certain that the ‘multiverse’ was finite, not infinite, but it also seemed nearly incomprehensibly vast.
Lovie had talked about ‘Cycles’ in a mysterious way, as had the Fortuneteller, basically as if they didn’t know what happened between them.
The ‘death of all memory’... When the arrow was through my heart, the FT had teased that as our ultimate, current end, flickering out. Do we not know if there is a Cycle after? Is it possibly oblivion as Entropy wins?
It was certainly a disconcerting thought. Ordinarily, she might think such a thing impossible in a simulation, but the whole thing was borked and flawed, and the one making it worse as their collective enemy was Entropic with a capital E. Perhaps the micro-runs of worlds were part of a macro-run of the multiverse, and it too would eventually reset, but that didn’t seem guaranteed.
Welp. I have plenty to do without worrying about it. And plenty to worry about anyway. That fucking quest isn’t even complete! I suppose I can hope for The Farm being ‘safety’ and a final completion.
Before she stopped worrying and got back to getting shit done, she did want Azure’s input on something else she worried about. “So, Blueberry,” Sammy began, taking her lover’s hand and interlacing their fingers, “how should we regard trapping potential problem people in Mazes in the future?”
Azure met her eyes and shrugged. “It just depends on the circumstances. I know you are going to beat yourself up about this, but I think you did as well as can be expected with so many threads to deal with. It was a multitasking nightmare. As for that Beltrand fellow, it was logical to think he might’ve provided some critical intelligence and was worth keeping.”
“I can think of a few things I should’ve done. Talk to Ash about him, for instance. I bet she would have told me to execute him immediately.”
“That’s hindsight for you. I should’ve offered to fly the mirror… Admittedly, I didn’t think of it initially, but when the notion came to me, I was worried I’d crash it because I don’t really have your skill or reaction time. You saw how poorly I fared in battle.”
“You almost dodged it!”
Azure shook her head and sighed. “I will practice so I can confidently do it in the future. But will it ever be so critical again? Perhaps not. Again, that’s hindsight. We can only prepare so much.”
“Yeah… we had the saying on Earth, ‘Hindsight is twenty-twenty.’ ” To Azure just wrinkling her brow quizzically, Sammy explained, “Twenty-twenty is like, near perfect vision, which not everyone has without correction.”
“Ah, so that is to say, hindsight is very clear and in-focus, and reality as it happens is blurry and unclear. Yes, perfect.”
“Yep, exactly. Now then, um… Should I execute people more readily to avoid giant phantom hound attacks and so on? Very obviously trapping someone doesn’t exactly leave them without any ability to touch the world — not when they aren’t actually dead.”
“Samantha, I cannot say you should kill or not kill by default. You have to measure the situation when it happens.”
Sammy blew air through her cheeks. “The problem, Blueberry, is I dunno if I am equipped to make that decision unbiased.”
“I’m not following, Chestnut.”
“Apparently, it… feels good to have people trapped inside the Mazes. Bodily, specifically.” She met Azure’s eyes significantly and held them. “I can already feel a strange itch from Ash esca-... leaving. An urge for her to return. ”
Azure blinked a few times. “Oh.”
“Yeah…”
“Did you want to…” She hesitated, and Sammy knew enough of what she meant just from eye contact. Terrorize and torture. Feast on?!
“No! No, no, nothing harmful. I didn’t enjoy the situation with that fucknugget hunter guy at all. I prefer… well, I dunno how else to say it — to make their dreams come true. For them to be happy. Perhaps that is even why I was subconsciously providing that douchebag with what he expected.”
“I see. Yes. Yes, this… makes sense. I… recall something similar. Of the opposite intentions, of course.” Her eyes flittered around as she contemplated and perhaps tried to recollect. “You should not leave too much ‘hollow space’ at once. That dissatisfaction takes time to go away. If you were to house a dozen for days, then wanted to release at once… you might not be able to make yourself.”
“Holy shit,” Sammy said breathlessly. “Right, okay. I won’t do that.”
“And with spirits, the desire remains, but of much lower magnitude. Perhaps one-hundredth the intensity.”
“Alright… Blueberry, I cannot be trusted to decide what happens to Mazed prisoners. I think I need an impartial judge for this. You. You decide what happens to people.”
“Me?! I’m hardly qualified!”
“You absolutely are, knowing intimately so many unique things about all this. Knowing the mazes, knowing me, understanding people. And you are ruthless if you need to be. Besides, who else? Sorry, but no matter how I design them, Servitors are extensions of me. They exist to do my will. This specifically needs to not be about my desire.”
Azure’s mouth opened and closed, only nonverbal protest escaping as her eyes scatter-shotted around looking for an out. She failed to find one and finally sighed. “Fine. If it is one less stressor on you — if that’s true — then I will do it without complaint. But I will consult others if I have time to, just as you should before making important decisions.”
Sammy grinned as she squeezed Azure’s hand and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. “See? Already more responsible than me!”
Azure only grunted in her throat to this.
“Anyway,” Sammy continued nonplussed, “It’s time to get to some business! First things first, my staff upgrades…”
“I recommend Echostrike.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
“See for yourself, Queen Screamer. It suits you.” She smirked.
“Um, Excuse you!” Sammy gave Azure an admonishing glare while drawing up the item mod.
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Echostrike
Only available for blunt weapons. After activation, when this weapon strikes metal, stone, ceramics, or other hard, fragile materials, it creates a focused, directional amplification of the force as sound. This converts damage to (Sonic) but remains physical, generating a loud, drawn-out crack that echoes strangely.
This increases the Lethality Grade by 2 against such materials and ignores any natural Armor values. A Parry by an all-metal weapon automatically fails, both the weapon and wielder are dealt full-grade damage, and they must succeed at a special test or drop the weapon. A block from an all-metal shield similarly fails and is damaged. A partial-metal shield must have the metal struck for the Lethality Grade boost to trigger, but otherwise the block succeeds or partially succeeds as normal.
Red Noise: On a 24-hour cooldown (shared with White Noise), you may raise the weapon high and slam it into some sort of large, hard object on the ground (such as rocky earth or a fallen knight’s breastplate). This causes a burst of strange, echoing sounds of great variance, and tremendous vibrations in the air, all within a 40-meter radius, which persists for 30 seconds. This counts as a quasi-physical effect and cannot be dispelled.
All sound is amplified within, though to you it is a kind of synchronous music with your movements. You are under the effects of Haste while within and move 50% faster. Any sort of (Sonic) attack, explosion, shockwave, fireball, or the like is at +2 Lethality grade, and any area attack of this nature has the area doubled. The bonus weapon effects of Echostrike apply regardless of the struck material.
Others find their movement off and have a -2 Effective Level penalty to physical actions as a (Vibration) modifier. Unless they move slower (half movement), they are in danger of becoming disoriented against a comparison test of item level +4. If they fail, they fall down.
You may ‘bless’ others with immunity to the movement penalties by touching your weapon on either shoulder and speaking an appropriate blessing. This is permanent.
White Noise: On a 24-hour cooldown (shared with Red Noise), you may raise the weapon high and slam it into some sort of large, hard object on the ground (such as rocky earth or a fallen shield). This causes a thrumming, echoing sound to begin within a 40-meter radius, which persists for 1 minute. This counts as a quasi-physical effect and cannot be dispelled.
Everyone other than you within it faces a contest against an audio-based Hypnotize effect as the sound lulls them into an amazed stupor. This effect is equal to item level +4 and has a duration of 15 seconds. Targets will snap out of it upon being attacked (they defend at -2 Effective Levels if applicable) or upon vigorous shaking (or similar) by an ally.
Everyone counts as deaf within the radius due to continuous, even noise and vibration that cannot be changed, and all spells with somatic components are impossible. Command words cannot be spoken. All (Sonic) effects, explosions, shockwaves, common fireballs, and similar will fizzle, doing nothing. Various other types of magical effects are still possible, but those that partially rely on ‘explosive bursts’ will be at -2 Lethality Grade.
You may ‘bless’ others with immunity to the Hypnotize effect by touching your weapon on either shoulder and speaking an appropriate blessing. This is permanent.
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“Well, that has a lot of oomph, I guess ‘artifact’ grade doesn’t play around. White Noise can screw over a lot of wizards…”
“Most,” Azure replied. “The vast majority need to speak, and typical Silence countermeasures won’t even help with this. It may not be obvious they can’t speak immediately, either. It isn’t a typical effect. Meanwhile, any enemy Bard is completely useless.”
“On the other hand, it counters the weapon’s own damage, so I won’t be using it with White Noise. Not that I get into melee a lot lately. But Red Noise makes me want to. Big Lethality Grade boost, defensive penalties on the enemy, Haste to exploit on top of it.”
“The zone also has synergy with Bast’s specialties, who is also an offensive specialist. If you both conspire for an alpha strike, it will be extra potent.”
“Oh shit, I didn’t even think about that! I guess this will fit the bill for an offensive boost with everything considered, plus extra utility. Alright, I’m taking it!”
Not being in her Avatar, she needed to go to it, but this was something that needed doing anyway to get started south. So she materialized back to the natural world next to the big monument in the middle of the Eleks, with trees in every direction. She made her selection for Echostrike and then searched around for a big rock.
Sadly, there was nothing immediate, so she created her own phantom rock. She made it a nice boulder that reasonably simulated proper rockiness. Then she smacked it with the staff!
The sound was deafening and strange, like a giant bullwhip cracked in a canyon, echoing fiercely. The big rock nearly split in half as it took a huge network of spider-webbing cracks. It was certainly far better than she could do with her fist, and that would at the least damage her hand somewhat. The staff did not so much as jiggle. Any vibrations were generated out of it and rebounded rather than afflicting it.
“Nice.”
It wasn’t relevant, but it felt good to use a big purchase immediately. Shrugging it off, she formed a mirror, connected it to the nearest one south, and walked through, ready to get her valuable Samanthian real estate the hell out of Dominion territory.
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« (Vol 5) Chapter 36 | Table of Contents | (Vol 5) Chapter 38: Foolin' Around »
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Comments
Rain Harlow
Azure can play the bad cop real good. :P Thanks for the correction!
Rain Harlow
Thanks for the corrections! As written, I intended the blessings as not revocable. It's kinda like they're 'harmonized' and would have to 'un-harmonize' themselves.
Clinton Walsh
Her desire to keep them mazed has interesting implications! Great decision to give responsibility to Azure. And glad that she accepted said responsibility. Under the Red Noise description it should read (shared with White Noise). Right now Red Noise says it is shared with Red Noise which doesn't make sense.
Tejing
Echostrike is pretty cool. I do wonder if you can un-exempt someone from it, though. Probably won't be a relevant issue for Sammy, but I'm curious. Corrections: but it also seemed nearly incomprehensively vast. incomprehensively -> incomprehensibly Red Noise: On a 24-hour cooldown (shared with Red Noise), with Red Noise -> with White Noise The bonus weapon effects of Echostrike apply regardless of the stuck material. stuck -> struck
