Lucidstuck II

He's not regenerating. Hit and run is clearly viable.

He's not regenerating. Hit and run is clearly viable.

He's faster than raziel. We got away cause he was tied up.

>Everyone: Reflect on and discuss how none of your non-combat abilities worked on this monster. Lucas wasn't able to pry any information out of it, or distract it with itself, Emily wasn't able to start a dialogue about potential redemption, and Derrick wasn't able to get a word in to utilize his fear abilities. Diplomacy can't always work, and all of you obviously need to grow stronger so situations like these don't get so dire. Brainstorm ways to grow, and strengthen your personal abilities.
>Lucia: Try not to make any snide remarks about how Emily abilities, and the rest of the group's plan of diplomacy wasn't working. You just came out of an experience where your powers weren't working, and it was terrifying and demoralizing for you. Think about how it felt to have Derrick as a positive influence to kickstart your growth and reunion with ira, and how you might be able to do the same for your friends.

>Derrick: sort out what goals you have to do in locad now that you're here. If there is nothing that needs immediate attention perhaps escorting uilos back to his realm would thoughtful

Everyone: Reflect on and discuss how none of your non-combat abilities worked on this monster. Lucas wasn't able to pry any information out of it, or distract it with itself, Emily wasn't able to start a dialogue about potential redemption, and Derrick wasn't able to get a word in to utilize his fear abilities. Diplomacy can't always work, and all of you obviously need to grow stronger so situations like these don't get so dire. Brainstorm ways to grow, and strengthen your personal abilities

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Derrick: So... Shall we discuss everyone's outlook on the situation?
Lucas: ......
Emily: ......
Lucia: Where was those hunters when we needed them??
Reggie: I did hear something spooky out there, maybe that guy had a trick up his meaty sleeve.
Derrick: Lucas?
Lucas: What can I say?
Derrick: Normally your ability to rile up monsters gets them in a way, but it didn't work how you thought.
Lucas: I really don't expect crazy to come around and play nice.
Lucas: The guy has a one track mind, violence and gore.
Lucas: No helping him.
Derrick: Emily? We all saw you try to calm him down.
Emily: Yeah...
Derrick: What do you think?
Emily: .... I had this topic come up in private with Lucia...
Emily: I feel so embarrassed...
Derrick: Please don't be, we're just using this time to come together and try to be better as a group.
Derrick: What are your thoughts and feelings about that encounter?
Emily: ... I guess I was sort of cocky when I easily convinced the other monster that was in Lucas' house.
Lucas: Ahh Goryuk, I remember.
Emily: Yes. I guess I thought this would be similar...
Emily: Just the idea that some monsters are too far gone... It makes me sad.
Emily: There isn't a scratch of humanity left to reach out for help.
Emily: Or there is and I haven't tried hard enough to reach them.
Emily: I want to know, but I'm scared I can't before someone gets hurt.
Derrick: What are your thoughts on fighting now?
Emily: I still don't think fighting is the way... At least for me.
Emily: I mean my skill set as a priestess... I'm built to take damage, I think the reason for that is to persist long enough to reach that tiny bit of humanity in them.
Piper: But that's not all, Emily!
Piper: Emily is also built for fighting.
Emily: Piper!
Piper: W-what? I didn't know it was a secret?
Lucia: You can fight??
Lucia: So what the heck then? If you can't convince them just beat their ass!
Emily: That's not my way...!
Emily: I'm treating them how I would want to be treated if I was in their position.
Emily: And if I had even a tiny bit of myself in these scary manifestations... I'd pray someone could reach me.
Emily: I wonder if it's the same for them.
Derrick: Okay.
Derrick: I think it's good that you have your way of doing things Emily.
Derrick: But... I feel like you need a stopping point, or you could wind up trying to teach a cat how to write code... in a manner of speech.
Lucia: Some of these things can't take reason. They just want to do what they do and that's it.
Lucia: You heard him, all he wants to do is run around and rip girls' guts out.
Lucia: Now you tell me that's worth saving.
Lucia: They could have been like that before but never acted on those thoughts.
Lucia: Some people are just straight up evil for no reason.
Lucia: If you want to look for hope in these things, fine.
Lucia: But I will call you out if I feel you're wasting your breath.
Emily: ... Okay.
Lucas: Can we talk about you now, dude? What was all that you were trying to do?
Derrick: .... Oh, heh...
Derrick: I was trying to be threatening, but...
Derrick: He cut me off before I could finish.
Lucas: Could try a little bit harder, like Emily and I were doing.
Derrick: I could have... But I decided the tone shifted so I just went for fighting.
Derrick: He did strike you after all.
Lucas: I appreciate you sticking up for me then.
Reggie: Talking wise, I don't think we should bother. He doesn't care.
Reggie: Fighting wise, he hits hard and he's fast. And he's got the meat shield as armour.
Reggie: Piper is very useful as she healed Lucas rather effectively. Ms. Sky blue can capitalize on that as well.
Emily: ... I do know how to heal but I have to concentrate.
Emily: It doesn't work when I'm distracted.
Reggie: Our little white fairy friend is quite the powerhouse come to think of it.
Reggie: With him and Lucas--
Azriel: Raven.
Reggie: Huh?
Azriel: I am no "fairy friend". I am a wraith.
Reggie: Oh, my bad.
Reggie: But I mean you have--
Azriel: I know. But make no mistake. These embers are wraith fire I constantly emit to keep my colossal power in check.
Azriel: Lest my form be consumed by my own might.
Reggie: Sounds pretty metal. >v>
Reggie: Anywaaaays, yeah. Lucas and the wraith can by the lead strikers while the others support.
Reggie: I especially liked what you did there Goth chick.
Lucia: Oh with Iris? She's quite helpful.
Lucia: I don't know if it's a he or she, but I'm going with what I feel most natural.
Lucia: When she gets tired she goes away, not sure how long it'll be until she's ready again.
Lucia: I also have the grimoire, I can summon past slain shadow monsters.
Reggie: OvO, Whaaat? And you were gunna tell us this, when?
Lucia: I suppose since we're talking about abilities, now's as good a time as any.
Reggie: I think... Now's not the time for practicing. At least not on that guy.
Reggie: If we're going to get far, we need you guys to have a good feel for what you can do.
Reggie: I feel like you're still on the basics and you've never bothered to get any further.
Reggie: I mean, fluffy has 23 hp. Wanna explain that one to me dude? -v-
Derrick: I uhh--
Reggie: And I'm no better!
Derrick: .....
Reggie: We can't help you if we're one shotted everytime a monster looks in our general direction.
Reggie: No use trying to beat him.
Lucas: What about me? I'm sorta stuck here.
Reggie: Nah, you comin' with us.
Reggie: Still got that chalk, dude?
Derrick: Yes, a lot actually.
Reggie: Good.
Derrick: Uilos you wanted to get out of here right?
Uilos: Yes please.
Derrick: Okay, I'll make a door to Lexii's. Is that ok Lucas?
Lucas: Sure.

Derrick spends one black creation fragment drawing a door to Lexii's fort.

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Uilos: Thanks a lot, Derrick.
Uilos: It'll probably be some time until I feel like coming here again.
Uilos: If your adventure continues in this land, then best of luck. I'll be sunbathing on the beaches of Detached Isle if you need me.
Derrick: Enjoy!

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Lucia: What's on our to-do list now?
Derrick: ..... I know we have to deal with the boss monsters of the realms in order to find keys.
Derrick: We should take them down one realm at a time.
Derrick: So we don't get distracted.
Derrick: Once we have all the keys... Uhh Reggie?
Reggie: Wha?
Derrick: What happens when we get them all?
Reggie: You can continue to the last stage. I can explain better once you've crossed that proverbial bridge.
Bambino: Might I remind you, Derrick.
Derrick: Huh?
Bambino: I have one fragment in my bag.
Bambino: For this land's boss monster.
Derrick: OH right!
Derrick: Also Zendo has softened up a lot, I wonder how close we are to getting his.
Derrick: Actually we're also on track to getting Lethos as well.
Derrick: What else?
Reggie: The sky dragons. Remember?
Derrick: Oh.... How will we get those?
Reggie: A step at a time I'm sure.
Emily: What about my Realm?
Derrick: We've been hanging out with Uilos a lot. He's kinda our friend now.
Derrick: Why hasn't he brought it up?
Reggie: Don't you remember on the mountain trip, dude?
Reggie: He didn't know what you were talking about so that means you haven't been doing his requests.
Derrick: I did one already.
Reggie: You gotta do a few. These monsters need to be wined and dined.
Reggie: Can't get it on the first date. ^v^
Derrick: Okay, Uilos... And who else?
Reggie: The Masked Lady, remember her?
Derrick: Vanity?
Reggie: Blast from the past, am I right?
Reggie: I suggest killing her, she's too weird.
Reggie: But to each their own.
Derrick: Is there another one?
Reggie: I don't think you've met them.
Reggie: Where do you want to start?

Derrick is trying to set the tracks towards a simple progression. If you are going to escape this nightmare you'll need clear and simple tasks to do rather than trying to make sense of the big picture.

1. All Lomam bosses (zendo, dragons, Lethos)
2. The rest of Loham bosses (Vanity, Uilos)
3. The rest of Locad bosses (Audrey, ???)

>1 It's the Realm you've made the most progress in, may as well complete it to get more experience before tackling the realms with more unknowns.

>2

Reasons:
-Uilios is probably the second easiest next to Ruu to go the peaceful route with and, well, it seems the kids could use a win after having to run away from two monsters in a row now.
-Vanity is weird, but we can deal with weird... at least she's not full-on psycho like Audrey seems to be.
-Which, Speaking-of... we are SO not ready for Audrey. Peaceful route or otherwise, i feel like Emily, Lucas and Derrick need to all sharpen their, Good-cop, Bad-cop, Scary-cop routine before tackling that ball of crazy... perhaps starting out with someone who's just a little weird like Vanity might work better.
-Picking the first option with the sky-dragons will lead us to a boss-fight we are probably very ill-equipped to deal with right now, as those things are old AF and probably have the least humanity left of all the boss monsters, a peceful resolution could be very difficult verging on the impossible right now.

One more thing to consider: Leveling Bambino or Reggie up, since Reggie is right in that they're pretty vulnerable right now.
I'm thinking Reggie even gets a bonus if he's the most leveled-up in the party, but that's a long way off at this point.

>1

>2: Uilos is already nearly befriended, and Lucas has a huge advantage against Vanity

>2
You could make a case for doing Lethos early, but Vanity can be a problem in the real world and I kinda want to try dealing with her whole stalking deal.

> Derrick: ask Reggie what he suggest would be the best path towards all of you leveling up at a more steady piece. He's the realm attendant after all, he must have experience.

Derrick: ask Reggie what he suggest would be the best path towards all of you leveling up at a more steady piece. He's the realm attendant after all, he must have experience

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Derrick: Reggie, what do you think we should do?
Reggie: ....
Reggie: Level my ass up. -v-
Derrick: What about the others? We should all be trying to level up, right?
Reggie: Nah.
Reggie: I'm only concerned about you and Goth chick.
Reggie: You gotta commit to how you wanna be.
Reggie: You seem to only want to make peace with monsters that don't look like they want to fight.
Reggie: And keep struggling to defeat the ones that do.
Reggie: If you ask me, you're gunna have to make some sacrifices.
Reggie: Some pipsqueaks got to go.
Derrick: ......
Reggie: You still got that vial of wyvern tears, right?
Derrick: Yeah.
Reggie: Welp, find yourself a pipsqueak, send it packing to the next dimension or whatever else is out there when you die here and upgrade my ass.
Reggie: Either that, or you accept that you don't really want to level up and focus on defense and running.
Reggie: That's what I think you should do.
Derrick: ... Let's start in Loham. I think we should pay Vanity a visit.
Reggie: Sure.

You regret to admit Reggie has a point, from all the encounters you recall, very rarely were you gung-ho about making a corpse. Even if you did a few times, there isn't enough souls to go around evenly unless you're looking for a bloodbath...

>Derrick: Remember that Vanity is a boss monster. Have Reggie read her stats, then decide how to proceed. You may want to find another monster and use ruu's tears to level up before fighting Vanity.

>Derrick: Vanity is after you, so you will need to be out in Loham by yourself to lure her out. You can call for the others once she reveals herself. See if Lucia can use Iris from a distance so you could hide her under your hat, and consider taking reggie as a sword so he won't count as an extra person.

Derrick: Remember that Vanity is a boss monster. Have Reggie read her stats, then decide how to proceed. You may want to find another monster and use ruu's tears to level up before fighting Vanity

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Emily: Do you know where we're looking?
Derrick: Vanity has her eye on me, if I venture alone it may draw her out.
Derrick: I'll have Reggie look at her stats to see if she's worth fighting.
Derrick: If I don't think we can handle her, we'll try and get another soul and level one of us up to give more of an edge.
Lucas: Good idea.

You are now Garreth, having just gone to sleep.

Or rather, awakened.

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Garreth: .....
Garreth: Skully?
Tinkerskull: ....Mmmm..
Tinkerskull: ...Hm?

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Garreth: What's going on?
Tinkerskull: -yaaaaawn-....
Tinkerskull: Nothing of interest, I'm afraid.
Tinkerskull: I was able to procure your equipment, sir!
Tinkerskull: What shall we do next?
Garreth: Hmm... I suppose regroup.
Garreth: Lucia is safe, so that's one fear avoided.
Garreth: Now if we can all make it to the next stage in the same fashion, we'll be golden.
Tinkerskull: Yes sir!

>Garry: Hey there, how are you doing? We've heard that Lucas has had different conjurations between different cycles. Have you also had different conjurations? What else can you tell us about this?

Garry: Hey there, how are you doing? We've heard that Lucas has had different conjurations between different cycles. Have you also had different conjurations? What else can you tell us about this?

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Garreth: Hello Observers, I'm doing fine.
Garreth: ...
Garreth: I have not had a different conjuration, from the several cycles I've been apart of.
Garreth: My role seems to stay the course with very minimal deviation.
Garreth: I believe that because Lucas is acting as Alice's agent his role is far more drastic, often doing things he would have never thought of doing before.
Garreth: That being the case, it would make sense for his conjuration to vary wildly from cycle to cycle.
Garreth: Though, everything that has happened is irrelevant I would say.
Garreth: Each iteration becomes the priority, as well as any lessons learned from the previous.
Garreth: To dwell on anything else could be distracting or even emotionally draining, as connections and relationships go down in flames.
Garreth: It's best to look and move forward, however possible.

You get dressed in your equipment, and quickly take a look at your inventory.

>Garry: Interesting. Thanks for the information. Anyways, you should go see if your fort materialized.

Garry: Interesting. Thanks for the information. Anyways, you should go see if your fort materialized

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Garreth: You're right, I did mention it's the thought that counts.
Garreth: Seems like now's a good time as any.
Tinkerskull: Fort, fort, fort!

You crawl under your dining table to find there's plenty of room!

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Tinkerskull: Whooooooooooa...!!!
Tinkerskull: Sir, look at all this space under the table!
Garreth: Yeah, this is pretty interesting.
Tinkerskull: An excellent hub for future strategic operations!

>Garry: Are those curtains solid? It looks like if you want to draw doors to other forts, they’ll have to be on the floor.

Garry: Are those curtains solid? It looks like if you want to draw doors to other forts, they’ll have to be on the floor



You investigate your drape-walls. Softly poking at them does cause them to fold and move. Definitely not solid.

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Garreth: Hmm...
Tinkerskull: What is it, Sir?
Garreth: There's no walls to the fort, not anything traditional.
Tinkerskull: You're right...
Tinkerskull: But we do have the floor. We can make trapdoors like in the other forts!
Garreth: ... That may be our only option.
Garreth: If I find a way to make something, that'll be what we do.

>Garry: Derrick and a few others should be on their way soon. Lucia has plenty of chalk if you'd like to link your fort up. By the way, we were wondering what you know, or what experiences you've had with Shadows.

Garry: Derrick and a few others should be on their way soon. Lucia has plenty of chalk if you'd like to link your fort up. By the way, we were wondering what you know, or what experiences you've had with Shadows

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Garreth: .... Shadows?
Garreth: Lucia had the ability to manipulate them.
Garreth: Or rather, darkness in general.
Garreth: Besides that I'm not sure what you are referring to.
Garreth: What do you think, Skully?
Tinkerskull: About shadows?
Garreth: Yes.
Tinkerskull: Aren't we under one right now?
Garreth: My thoughts exactly.
Garreth: Maybe you can explain further, it might help.

>It appears you do not. We mean a sort of "alter ego," or a deeper aspect of yourself, tied to parts of your abilities as guardians. From what we know, they're best accessed while alone, so you're properly able to self reflect and can be consulted to gain lucidity. Now seems like a good a time as any for you to begin accessing yours.

>How much do you understand psychology then?