Nue Quest 7 - Serpent Isle: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> Is he left- or right-handed?

>He seems to be right-handed.

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

>Hrm, would it be reasonable to conclude he's testing our agility?
>With that in mind, let's twist away from the sword, to the right, and try to get on the outside of the swing.

[Hello Purvis]

>Hrm, would it be reasonable to conclude he's testing our agility?
>With that in mind, let's twist away from the sword, to the right, and try to get on the outside of the swing.

>You don't know if it's reasonable in most senses of the word, but that may be what he's doing.
>You twist away to the right, barely moving out of the way of the weapon as it swings though the air. "Not bad," says Sir Kay, as he grabs the shield from his horse's saddle. "Now your focus is gone, you're distracted. The sword preys on your mind now! We must see if you have the will to back up your words. Fight with all your might, Houjuunue."
>He stabs his sword; a double-edges weapon akin to the broken sword, but slimmer and a bit longer, toward your torso!

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

Hrm...are we supposed to keep the broken sword in hand, Kilga?

[Kilgamayan]

I would try to deposit the blade but hang onto the handle. He expects us to fight back, it seems, but there's also a chance depositing the entire thing could weaken the sword's effect and ruin the trial, so I'd say one hand free is the best approach.

[UncertainJakutten]

>"Well if it's a fight you want..."
>Jump back, out of his sword's reach, and put the sword blade in our bag, then draw the trident with our now free hand

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well if it's a fight you want..."
>Jump back, out of his sword's reach, and put the sword blade in our bag, then draw the trident with our now free hand

>You jump back and put the blade back in your bag. Sir Kay's draws back his stab, moving closer as he does, and follows with another!

>_

[Kilgamayan]

Power's out here, and I don't know when it's coming back. Other people will need to step up in the meantime, it seems.

[Thaws]

Haven't posted in a Z-machine thread for ages :V I'm such a lurker.

>Hold trident vertically and parry his sword to the left while sidestepping to the right. Follow up with a kick to his left side, hoping he'd fall due to his momentum.

[DracoOmega]

>Hold trident vertically and parry his sword to the left while sidestepping to the right. Follow up with a kick to his left side, hoping he'd fall due to his momentum.

>Delay this a moment.
>What sort of armor is he wearing, and what coverage does it provide? Were there any parts unarmored?  From memory or immediate reaction, of course. Don't take actual time to stop and appraise him right this moment.

Not that I think this command sounds so bad in general, if he's really wearing plate armor, kicking it sounds mostly like a good way to hurt our foot.

[Hello Purvis]

>Hold trident vertically and parry his sword to the left while sidestepping to the right. Follow up with a kick to his left side, hoping he'd fall due to his momentum.

>He has not given you time to draw your trident before pressing his attack.

>Delay this a moment.
>What sort of armor is he wearing, and what coverage does it provide? Were there any parts unarmored?  From memory or immediate reaction, of course. Don't take actual time to stop and appraise him right this moment.

>Going from immediate recollection, you know his torso is covered, and you remember plates hanging down over his waist to guard his midsection and hips. You remember he had some armor over his legs and arms as well, and the gloves with plating over them. You've also seem him move pretty freely, so you imagine his joints are unarmored, and he probably has kind of gap around his waist and back.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Is he wearing a helmet of any kind?
>How much force of impact can we cause with our danmaku if we specifically pushed to maximize it?
>How much of an impediment would that broken hilt in our hand be to our danmaku usage?

[Hello Purvis]

>Is he wearing a helmet of any kind?
>How much force of impact can we cause with our danmaku if we specifically pushed to maximize it?
>How much of an impediment would that broken hilt in our hand be to our danmaku usage?

>He has no kind of headgear.
>In terms of raw force, not a whole lot. Danmaku is designed to be beautiful, not destructive. You suspect you could probably cut up that cloth he has draped over his armor, but that's about all you can really depend on.
>Having your hands full is no impediment; nor is having them unavailable. You're among the best; and you're the only person to whom you'd ever admit the among qualifier.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Leap back and to the side, away from the blow, using a short burst of low-level flight to aid in distance without necessarily making it too obvious that this is what we're doing
>As we move back, launch a burst of danmaku towards his face, with enough of a spread to cover some of the rest of his field of vision
>If this buys us enough of a moment, quickly draw the trident in our free hand

[Hello Purvis]

>Leap back and to the side, away from the blow, using a short burst of low-level flight to aid in distance without necessarily making it too obvious that this is what we're doing
>As we move back, launch a burst of danmaku towards his face, with enough of a spread to cover some of the rest of his field of vision
>If this buys us enough of a moment, quickly draw the trident in our free hand

>You make a flight-assisted leap away from him, avoiding his following attack.
>As you leap back, you send out a spread of danmaku toward his face. You hear him give a small cry, before he raises his shield to guard his head. Much of your attack strikes against the shield, scarring it a little but otherwise doing  no harm, while the rest flies past him harmlessly.
>You draw out your trident, as Sir Kay already starts to close in, leading with his shield and his sword drawn back.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How large is his shield? About how much coverage does it provide?

[Hello Purvis]

>How large is his shield? About how much coverage does it provide?

>It is a fairly large shield, roughly triangular in shape. It is a bit more than a foot wide at the top and extends about a yard downward, where it tapers to a rounded end. You imagine he could probably effectively guard his torso, face, or foreleg with it.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Are we capable of use a seed of non-identification to change the apparent form of something by throwing it at that object?
>How much time and concentration does it take to establish a reasonable illusion, if it didn't need to capture a specific likeness or pass very close scrutiny?
>Given that the illusion covers more than visual senses, can it also evoke specific tactile sensations? Could we make something seem to be on fire or at least red-hot, and produce a sensation of appropriate (or at least semi-appropriate) heat to the touch?

[Hello Purvis]

>Are we capable of use a seed of non-identification to change the apparent form of something by throwing it at that object?
>How much time and concentration does it take to establish a reasonable illusion, if it didn't need to capture a specific likeness or pass very close scrutiny?
>Given that the illusion covers more than visual senses, can it also evoke specific tactile sensations? Could we make something seem to be on fire or at least red-hot, and produce a sensation of appropriate (or at least semi-appropriate) heat to the touch?

>You've honestly never tried throwing one. You think it could work, if the seed could take hold properly.
>If you're just trying to make a general illusion, it would probably take only a few seconds to prepare the seed.
>You most certainly could. But the illusion would quickly break down if the object didn't also seem to be affected by the heat or the fire.

>_

[Thaws]

>How many seeds do we have?

>Do we have to prepare the seeds' effect beforehand, or can that be done after the seed is holding onto the object?

[Hello Purvis]

>How many seeds do we have?

>Do we have to prepare the seeds' effect beforehand, or can that be done after the seed is holding onto the object?

>You have one seed. It must be prepared beforehand.

>_

[Thaws]

That's pretty... inconvenient.

>Can our wings be used in combat? Like is the red parts hard enough to act as some kind of blade, or the blue tentacle-like wings can grab stuff?

[Hello Purvis]

>Can our wings be used in combat? Like is the red parts hard enough to act as some kind of blade, or the blue tentacle-like wings can grab stuff?

>Your wings are not immediately useful in combat; by default the edges on your bladed wings are fairly dull, which is nice as you don't cut yourself up while sleeping. You can kind of grab things between your blue wings, as you did with the umbrella earlier, but they are not prehensile enough to serve as individual appendages. Neither set of wings has much of a range of motion, mostly you can just flex and curl them a little, rather like your toes.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Launch a stream of danmaku towards his shielded face; force him to keep himself guarded. Also try to scatter enough outside the primary target so that they could catch his right side if he exposes himself in his strike.
>Let him close just a little and get ready to react to his attack.
>If he moves to slam us with the shield first, leap a little back and towards the side with his sword, giving us better access to his weapon and his more exposed side.
>If he attempts a slash, either before or after said shield attack, try to grab the sword blade between the tines on our trident.
>If a thrust, attempt a similar maneuver, while pushing the weapon away from us and shifting our body in the opposite direction.
>If the angle of attack doesn't give us a reasonable shot at doing either, at least attempt to parry the attempt.

[Hello Purvis]

>Launch a stream of danmaku towards his shielded face; force him to keep himself guarded. Also try to scatter enough outside the primary target so that they could catch his right side if he exposes himself in his strike.
>Let him close just a little and get ready to react to his attack.
>If he moves to slam us with the shield first, leap a little back and towards the side with his sword, giving us better access to his weapon and his more exposed side.
>If he attempts a slash, either before or after said shield attack, try to grab the sword blade between the tines on our trident.
>If a thrust, attempt a similar maneuver, while pushing the weapon away from us and shifting our body in the opposite direction.
>If the angle of attack doesn't give us a reasonable shot at doing either, at least attempt to parry the attempt.

>You fire some more danmaku, leaving some lingering more slowly to his sides outside of main stream. He lets his shield deal with the bulk of the attack as he closes in, keeping between the shots you've left lingering outside. He leads in with his shield, trying to bash it into you and forcing you back. He then follows through with a quick slash from above! You bring your trident up, and catch the blade between the tines. You have to angle the weapon upward to do so, against the downward force of his slash.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Angle our trident aside to shift the downward slash towards the same side of us as his shield, letting the sword's momentum lead the blow down while shifting our own body in the other direction.
>Quickly, with the trident still in the process of deflecting the slash, use a burst of flight to flip ourselves off the ground and launch a swift kick at his head.

[Hello Purvis]

>Angle our trident aside to shift the downward slash towards the same side of us as his shield, letting the sword's momentum lead the blow down while shifting our own body in the other direction.
>Quickly, with the trident still in the process of deflecting the slash, use a burst of flight to flip ourselves off the ground and launch a swift kick at his head.

>You guide his weapon toward his shield side, letting his momentum do the lion's share of the work. Unfortunately, he seems to anticipate this and draws back the blow a bit, keeping himself from losing his footing and keeping an eye on you.
>You leap from the ground, and Sir Kay takes that moment of slack to free his weapon. You try to kick at his head, and find him taking a step back from the attack.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Keep our height just a little elevated, and quickly shift our position to circle around past his right side towards his back, scattering a trail of danmaku at him as we move.
>Keep our trident angled downward and prepare to grab or deflect any blows towards us.
>If we manage to get behind him (ideally), or at least far enough from the shield and a frontal position (otherwise), thrust our trident towards his exposed neck. Make sure to stop the blow short of doing any real damage if we do actually land it.

[Hello Purvis]

>Keep our height just a little elevated, and quickly shift our position to circle around past his right side towards his back, scattering a trail of danmaku at him as we move.
>Keep our trident angled downward and prepare to grab or deflect any blows towards us.
>If we manage to get behind him (ideally), or at least far enough from the shield and a frontal position (otherwise), thrust our trident towards his exposed neck. Make sure to stop the blow short of doing any real damage if we do actually land it.

>You move to circle him, but he is able to move to face you easily. You scatter danmaku in your wake, as he raises his shield and dashes toward you!

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How much of a curvature can we readily give to our danmaku's path? Could we launch a spread such that they converged from different vectors, and not all frontally?
>What terrain obstacles are there in the nearby vicinity?