[alchefire]

A dark wind blew across the ruins of Madou Village bringing along with it small bits of Starvia. Thankfully not enough to cause any major issues. Aera, Dinah, Amitie, and Warle were currently following the map on the back of their letters. The four gals having been lead off the path and through a small forest that was nearby.

The party's travels had proven to be... uneventful. Although boring might be the better term. Who would have thought that a world constantly coated in a devastating virus would feel so... dull. Finally the group would come to the edge of a large cave the mouth of which lead downwards in a very steep slope. The walls were made from a strangely smooth, grey stone. Not a single imperfection dotting them. Suddenly the party entered into... the Edge of the Universe.

To call this place a void would be putting it lightly. The walls of the cave had totally vanished, leaving instead a myriad of strange purple clouds all swirling together as they were pulled further along the dark path they were already set on. Floating past them were several large stones made from the same material as the road. All of them somehow managing to avoid the girls and their road itself. After a few seconds a particularly large rock would float and sitting atop it was young man. With a small grunt he leaps off the rock and floats down the ground in front of the party. The grey haired gentleman clearing his throat before extending a hand in hello.

"Greetings, my name is Ex. It looks like you four got my letters. Glad someone came to help. I'd normally handle this myself but... I'd prefer to have some back up for this particular issue."

His gaze would wander over the party before suddenly landing on Amitie, a glimmer of recognition and hope flickering in his eyes. But he didn't say anything further for now at least.

[PolarStarQuote]

So, what happens when you put a muffin in the edge of the universe itself?

This.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---"

The idea that Warle had underestimated the contents of this journey was, an understatement, to put it lightly. Warle screamed as she looked back to see her exit vanishing, gulping as she turned back to see the silverhaired man. "W-w-w-what is this?! Ive seen the cosmos before but THIS ISNT WHATS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! I thought i was just gonna go pop puyo's and be back home, not TRAVELING THE UNIVERSE?!" Warle would say, as this random trip to the far out reaches of the cosmos had quite stirred the girl.

However, Warle eventually managed to calm down, looking at him with a stern gaze...

"No, No...Its fine. Arle can do this, so can i. Alright, Weirdo, Who do i gotta fireball to get outta here?"

[TheSpatialWeeg]

“Hrm...this way?”

Amitie stepped over some stones in a tiny river on her way to the location marked over the map she got with the mysterious letter. She hoped she wasn’t super late to meet up with everyone, since Raffina had fussed over her for some hours, making sure she was okay to go and was all prepared.

...A lot has changed in a couple of years time, didn’t it?

After an uneventful travel towards the ruined village (which never failed to give Amitie some chills, it remembered her of Primp Town for reasons she didn't know, and the thought of her homeland is disarray like that is scary), Amitie reached the destination marked on the map: a cave. “...Wait, is this it?” she asked herself, looking around the place and the map again. It looked like no one was waiting for her... “...Double check...triple check…” Amitie muttered to herself, as she checked the place another time...and then another.

With everything seemingly alright, Amitie created a tiny fireball and descended towards the cave…

...however, the second she did so, she was sent to somewhere else.

“Whoawhoawhawha what is this place??” Amitie questioned, looking around in confusion. That’s when she noticed Ex greeting her and the others. After taking a moment to calm down, she looked at the man intently as he spoke. Like as if something about that man was...familiar. She stared at him for a couple more seconds...

“...Oh, hi! I’m Amitie~!” She introduced herself, offering a handshake to the grey-haired man. “Nice to meet’cha!”

[Jade Callisto]

As the four girls traversed the barren wastelands of the world known as Li they would soon approach a cave with very smooth stone that had Aera on edge. Something was not right about this place and it had bothered her a little. As Amite threw a fireball down the cave to presumably light the way the would all soon find themselves in a cosmic void of some sort.

While all this was well and good their exit just vanished behind them. Aera and Dinah looked behind them to see this come to fruition as Aera would start to panic a little as their exit was now gone but Dinah just sat on top of one of the floating rocks as if she did not have a care in the world.

As Aera was panicking Dinah noticed another on one of the floating rocks. "Hey you there. Are you the one who gave us this mission?" Dinah would say in a not very polite tone of voice. Aera then looked up to see that indeed this was the person that left the girls in charge of this mission.

Aera slapped her cheeks to calm herself down and looked over to the man named Ex with a serious look on her face before smiling at him. "Yes my name is Aera and this is Dinah." she would say before pointing to Dinah that was sitting on another floating rock. "The pleasure is all yours." Dinah said in a snarky tone of voice.

"Don't mind her she's always like that." Aera said as she noticed Dinah getting down from the rock and was now floating in the air next to Aera. "So what do we do?" Aera would ask before looking over to her companion Dinah with a smile on her face.

---

Aera

HP: 170/170

SHIELD: 60/60

STATUS: None



Dinah

HP: 130/130

SHIELD: 35/35

STATUS: None

[alchefire]

Ex's expression didn't change at all, but the light in his eyes seemed to dim ever so slightly as Amitie didn't recognize him. The grey and white haired man clearing his throat a bit before beginning to speak again.

Since you're all here I'll go ahead and make this quick. You four are all standing at the Edge of the Universe. Why it got moved here of all places I have no idea... But it's my duty to make sure that the line between worlds doesn't collapse. Although Li makes that a bit complicated."

He scratches the back of his head for a few seconds as he says that. His eyes watching as a small rock floats by the party. The thing gingerly colliding with another stone midair and breaking apart. Causing several strange blob looking creatures to fall onto the pathway around them, they were Puyos! But something was off about them, they looked nothing like the ones that Amitie and Warle had seen before. Ex gingerly bending down to pick up a small, black one. His hand carefully stroking it's head as he continued talking.



But... I'm not gonna bore you all with the details. Recently a large hole in Space-Time appeared and through it a bunch of really strange looking puyos, like this one, started coming out. So I went to go close it but the second I started getting close, all of them started attacking me. So I started clearing them out, but each time one of them popped I saw some weird, purple energy float into the whole and make it grow...

He closes his eyes before putting the Puyo back on the ground. Ex turning around and starting to walk down the pathway, past the few puyos that had gathered, His footsteps echoing down the hollow void that surrounded them.

Now this is where you three come in, I need you all to distract them for me while I try and close the tear, but I need you to do it while popping them as little as possible. I'm worried about what else could be on the other side of that hole, and I'd rather it not get big enough for us to need to find out..."

Ex would fall silent for the most part as he lead them down the incredibly long path. The strange clouds that made up the void growing darker and darker as they traveled further into the Edge of the Universe. Until finally they were left in a nearly pitch black space. The lack of natural lighting not doing anything to hinder the party's vision as they stopped at a large circular area. Several small islands of rock having broken off the platform and begun orbiting the sizable mass. At the center of this platform was a large glowing crack that seemed to be apart of the air itself. An eerie purple light shining through it and illuminating the area around it.

PLOP! Out of the crack a small Red Puyo would fall. The thing landing on the ground with a small splat as it rolled forward revealing itself. Almost as if on cue several dozen Puyos leapt down from the nearby floating rocks, all of them landing on the platform and turning towards the party. Their eyes glowing a faint purple as they stared at Warle and the rest intently, none of them moving a single inch.



Ex would cast the party one final look as he turned back to the crack. "I'm ready when you all are."

(Alright, time for a mechanical breakdown. Whoo!

So... at the end of every round, Ex is gonna seal part of the hole, sounds good right? Well there's an issue there. How much of the hole he seals is dependant on three different factors. One is his own Charisma roll, he's gonna roll 1d10+Cha mod each turn and that'll be how much Percent he closes up that turn. Two is how many Puyos you distract. If you distract enough then he gets a bonus based on how well you all keep them off him (+1 for every 10)! Finally is how many Puyos you "Pop" All of the Puyos have an HP value of 1, take you rolling a 10 to hit them, and any left over damage goes towards hitting additional puyos, they're swarming pretty close together so you're gonna hit multiple guarenteed! But that's not inherently a good thing. For every 5 Puyos you take out, Ex gets a -1 to his roll that round as the energy they release starts making the hole open up again.

Every round, 25 Puyos will fill into the room, each of you can make a Charisma check to try and draw their attention towards you. How many you distract is based on how high you roll with 10 being the bare minumum you need to hit to distract 5 of them, every 2 above that gives you 5 extra Puyos that you distract peacefully!)

Current Puyos in the area: 50
Hole open: 100%

COMBAT(?) START!

[Warle, The Nightmare Arle]

"Wait, thats it? We just gotta distract some dumb puyo's? Hah! I thought this was gonna be a hard mission!" Warle would boast rather confidently, as she quickly whisked a finger in the air and declared. "...Sadly i dont have Bayoen. Thats a dumb spell that would be handy right now. But i got something better~!" Warle would say, Before shooting a Fire into the air for a little light display for the Puyo's.


glYymlN_p_1d20+2=16 (distraction roll)



"C'mere you delectably poppable puyo's,  stare at the pretty lights~!"1d20

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Amitie kept herself quiet and listened to Ex's explanation, as to how they were at the Edge of the Universe (that sounded so cool), his duty, and the predicament he was in. A hole in space-time had shown up and started placing those weird Puyo all over the place, and well, he asked them to distract the Puyos while he tries to close the hole.

"Distract them, huh?" Amitie took a moment to think about it...how could she distract those buggers without popping them? ...Aha! "I've got an idea! 'Scuse me~!" she said, moving to the numerous Puyo and gently grabbing...at least five of them, each of them different from the other. "Don't worry, you guys are gonna love this, trust me!" She reassured the Puyo she grabbed before settling them on the top of her hat, one after another. It's been a while since she did that little trick!

"Ta-da!" Amitie vocalized, showcasing the Puyo her true, ultimate skill: stacking up Puyos above her head to make a Puyo tower! To make the display more interesting, she did a couple of poses and moved around, keeping a close eye on the Puyo tower so that it didn't break formation and fell on the ground.

BcdjiYeSp_1d20+3 (Amitie's distraction roll!)

"Hey! Is there any other Puyo who'd like to join the tower?" Amitie asked. "If so, please try to be civil and make a line! Everyone will get a turn!" she reassured, winking and smiling at the colorful hedgehog-like blobs.

1d20+3

[Jade Callisto]

So they just needed to distract these puyo things? That seemed easy enough really. Sheathing her sword Aera then pondered what to do to distract them. She did not have many talents other than Smithing and Fighting. She tried to show off with a bit of a blade dance as she moved around with her sheathed sword in a fancy fashion. 

Aera's CHA Roll for Distraction: 

q4d1_qRDp_1d20



"Well hopefully they like my dance. I know I am not really that good though." Aera said with a sigh.

That probably did not do much but now it was Dinah's turn to try and distract the puyos. 
slightly annoyed at this idea Dinah would would show off her water magic in the form of making many bubbles into the air.

Dinah's CHA Roll for Distraction:

p_1d14+2

This would very likely draw the attention of these things and Dinah did her best to distract them under those circumstances.



"That's it you puyo things just look at the pretty bubbles." Dinah said as she made more of them.
1d20·1d14+2

[alchefire]

(Puyos Distracted this turn = 50/50, Ex gets a + 5 to his check this turn!)

(On top of that, since all of your rolls total up to distracting more than the number of Puyos that are in the area, you've unlocked a new mechanic for this encounter. Enraptured!

From now on, whenever you break through the total number of puyos that you need to distract. The number left over number is instead used to determine how many Puyos you've totally distracted. These Puyos are considered already distracted for the next round, meaning you all technically have a smaller number of Puyos to worry about distracting.)

Warle and Dinah's individual magic shows actually did pretty well to distract a good portion of the group. 20 or so Puyos all following after them in awe as they moved right past Aera. Seems they were too busy getting distracted by the more flashy displays of magic than her little sword dance.

Amitie, however, had managed to get an massive tower of 30 Puyos on her hat. All of them taking a ride with her for a good while. Their faces all gaining a rather happy expression. At least until about half of them finally leapt off the giant tower. The remaining 15 all jiggling playfully as they worked with Amitie to keep balanced. They seemed to be really fond of her!

Ex gave the girls a small thumbs up as they managed to get the entire group away from him before slowly starting to wave his arms and shouting...



"Alright!"

(Ex's attempt to close the Hole!
AHKZPnLTp_1d10+10 17% of the Hole has been closed!)

Suddenly a series of grey, almost translucent blocks appeared around Ex. The cubes swirling around him for a few moments before firing off towards the hole. Wedging themselves inside as they started to form what looked to be a wall over the crack. He managed to fit quite a few inside. At least before the tear began to glow and...

FWOOOOOOOSH! Suddenly, from the parts that weren't closed off, a wave of energy flared outwards. Causing several more of the strange Puyos to appear in the area. The wave washing over the entertained blobs. Causing a vast majority of them to start glowing, save the ones that had remained on Amitie's hat to enjoy the ride.

Almost immediately, they all locked their gazes directly onto the girls before them. However instead of fascination or enjoyment, they instead were filled with... anger? They all shuddered, their forms wobbling a bit before they all suddenly spit at once. A rain of thick, noxious smelling juice raining down on the girls. It was acid!

(The Puyos that were not enraptured this turn are all attacking you! Warle, Amitie, Aera, and Dinah. You all are going to have to make two DC12 Dex checks. With each failure resulting in taking 15% and being inflicted with -1 mod to your next distraction roll. That acid smells pretty bad, after all.)

(Also, with this new turn, 25 more Puyos have entered the area. You all are going to need to keep distracting them so Ex can keep focusing on closing the hole!)

Current Puyos in the area: 75
Puyos that are enraptured this turn: 15
Hole Open: 83/100%1d10+10

[Warle, The Nightmare Arle]

"Hah~! Cute as these Puyo's are, They sure are easy to distract~ Come on Lil' guys, Come on to Mama Warle and stare at me~ Leave the Creep-o in Suspenders Alone~"

Warle asked the Puyo's happily, as one hopped right up to her, and she giggled...Only to see it Reel back.

"U-uhm--"


hjJs3unup_1d20+1= 10 (fail)


p_1d20+1=8 (Fail!)



"WHHH--- PFFFT! PUH PUH PUH, GUUUH, I GOT IT IN MY MOOOOUTH!!" Warle cried out in panic as she hopped around in the sizzling rain, Flopping over and...Making a pretty Pitiful Distraction attempt as she wipes her tongue and rolls around to try and get this acidic puyo out of her hair.


p_1d20+2-2=3 (Distraction Roll....3.)

---

Warle

HP: 140/170

---

1d20·1d20·1d20

[Jade Callisto]

With the new Puyos entering the area Aera and Dinah both would notice that they were trying to attack them. So they would both attempt to dodge the foul smelling acid aimed right at them.

Dodge rolls for Aera:

NzEw15NRp_1d20+1

p_1d20+1



Aera gets full damage from the acid as it seeps into her blouse. "Hey I just washed that!" Aera would cry out in pain as she took 30% damage total from the acid and took a -2 to her distraction rolls.

Next Dinah would attempt to dodge.

Dodge rolls for Dinah:


p_1d20+2

p_1d20+2

Dinah got hit by one of the acid splashes but managed to dodge the last one. "Ew these things are really getting on my nerves." Dinah said as she took 15% damage and a -1 to her distraction rolls.

Aera would attempt to distract the puyos again with a little dance, this time dancing with her spear. Hopefully she did better this time.

CHA roll for Aera's Distraction:

p_1d20-2

Another poor performance due to the acid messing with her dance moves.

Dinah would give it a shot to conjure some more bubbles to distract the puyos, this time some that had shapes. "Okay you little puyo things, look at the pretty shapes."

CHA roll for Dinah's Distraction:

p_1d20+1

Both of their efforts in vain as they got really bad luck on their end. 

Dinah moves to heal Aera after the acid had hurt her quite a bit. 



"Here you go Aera, Aqua Healing!" 

CHA Roll for Aqua Healing on Aera:

p_1d15+1

Aera is healed for 10% damage! Now what would the two girls do after their failed distraction checks?

---

Aera

HP: 150/170

SHIELD: 60/60

STATUS: None


Dinah

HP: 115/130

SHIELD: 35/35

STATUS: None

Cooldowns: Aqua Healing 3 turns.1d20+1·1d20+1·1d20+2·1d20+2·1d20-2·1d20+1·1d15+1

[Amitie, Sorceress Trainee!]

"Yeah, yeah, that's right~! Everyone having fun?" Amitie giggled as she kept balancing the Puyos in her Puyo tower. Man, it has been a while since she did that! That was so fun! She kept putting on a show as Ex worked on fixing the hole, but then a weird energy wave brought in more Puyos and did...something the the ones that weren't hitching a ride in her head. They suddenly looked so angry and tried to spew acid on her.

k4Jo2dgpp_1d20+2
p_1d20+2 (Dodge checks!)

Surprisingly, Amitie showed herself to not only be nimble enough to move away for her acid, but she did so with a certain amount of grace one probably wouldn't expect from the girl. Maybe it was because she didn't want the Puyo tower in her head to crumble down. Seeing as everyone else wasn't doing so hot, Amitie had to to think of something else to grab attention...of course!

"When in doubt, use a flashy move! Alright, little guys, check this out~!" Amitie said, calling the attention of the Puyos as she charged a fire spell in one hand and a ball of energy in the other. She threw the energy ball first, then the fire second, the two spells converging in the air...

p_1d20+3 (Distraction roll!)

...and the combination exploded into a beautiful fireworks show, bright orange and green sparks shimmering in the air as they formed the image of a big Puyo that lingered for quite a while. Amitie herself looked quite amazed at what she did, even. "Wow...!"
1d20+2·1d20+2·1d20+3