BATTLE REPORT: Character: Gourdbrain Opponent: Knifey Vampire Gal Location: Scarlet Devil Mansion Level: 2 (12) HP: 10 Turn: x Spellcard: x Report: "I'd swear this place should be nowhere near this big." The mansion looked abandoned, but something screwy was going on. He entered only to find way more corridors than the mansion should fit inside. The first few room he bothered to check was picked clean by some looters long time ago, and nature had done her best reclaiming the whole place. He returned to the main hall, deciding whether to check the top level or the underground. For some reason, underground path was less dusty than the alternative. "Should've asked around about this place. I wonder why does this place give me chills?" His fingers unconsciously trailed across his chest, where a series of uniform stabbing scar rested. He may return eventually but for some reason significant scars always remain. Even without memories, his body remembers. "...perhaps I've been here before after all?" @yuzuki
BATTLE REPORT: Character: Rose Opponent: Pumpkin Thing @A5G_Reaper Location: Scarlet Devil Mansion Level: 2 (9) HP: 10 Turn: x Spellcard: x Report: Ever since Rose picked up a human baby after encountering that pair of exorcists, honestly she had been befuddled. What do you do with a baby? And furthermore, since it's human? Rose furrowed her brow as she paced around in circles. In the end, she hadn't killed it. In the past, she wouldn't have even hesitated, but this time she had picked up the little creature and cradled it in her arms. Even though she stank of blood at the time back at Myouren Temple, the baby had been quiet. That had surprised her. Originally, she was planning on snapping its neck, but she had frozen when the baby reached out with its little arms and said: "Gaga! Huhaga! Bah!" It had a stupidly happy look on its face. Rose had a pained look before she turned her gazed away. "Such a stupid baby. Doesn't it know that it's parents are dead?" She muttered, not directed at anyone in particular. + + + In the end, the scarlet-eyed vampire had brought the human baby home with her. To the Scarlet Devil Mansion. + + + It was at this moment that she pushed the front doors open as she walked inside. She stopped abruptly in her steps barely a few feet into the vestibule. The human baby that she held in her arms was peacefully asleep. Rose's eyes instantly snapped to the trail of disturbed dust that meandered around the first floor of the mansion. It was subtle, but you could say that Rose left this mansion uncleaned and mostly ruined for a reason -- any visitor was bound to churn up dust that had settled for years and years. Furthermore, this intruder ventured through the halls with a distinct gait that she certainly knew wasn't her own. Rose never strolled that far into the atrium, and she never walked so close to that other window. These dust trails belonged to somebody else. A stranger was here. But the greater question was whether they were friend or foe.
BATTLE REPORT: Character: Gourdbrain Opponent: Going-to-cook-a-baby Coriette @yuzuki Location: Scarlet Devil Mansion Level: 3 (23) HP: 10 Turn: x Spellcard: x Report: "It burns." The man looked at his left hand. One of the branded rune was heating up, an unusually smooth pattern that hurt his head whenever he tried to think about it. It's not something that he could make use of until then, but what was the significance? It's been heating up since he entered... Then, abruptly, he turned around. He's halfway down the stairs to the basement, but someone just came. He could tell, from the faint whiff of blood and the creak of the front door. Heightened senses that developed from many years spent watching over the sprawling jungle of Kadania "Once a Woodswraith, always a Woodswraith." He strode back up to the main hall, coming face-to-face with a young girl with a baby in her arms. She's the source of blood, but it's not her own. From her confident gait, she's not a victim of some massacre. Then she had some degree of strength to kill people close up. Kill her, drain her essence He blinked several times. That's a weird thought to have. She's not hostile... yet. Wait and see for now. He stopped across the hall, sufficient distance for evasion but not debilitatingly so if he had to cross it later. He waited, his shield ready and hiding his flintlock but leaving the blade strapped on his back.
BATTLE REPORT: Character: Gourdy Opponent: nada Location: Eientei Level: 3(25) HP: 10 Turn: x Spellcard: x Report: Misfortune came in many ways. This particular gourd-shaped one, for instance, decided it at complete random by looking at lights of inhabited places from afar and picking the most attention grabbing nearby. In which case, it was a mansion in the bamboo forest where he rise before. He navigated closer. There was some sort of festival going on, seems to be related to the moon with a lot of mochi pounding. But if there's one jarring thing to the whole festice atmosphere, it would be the stake in the middle of the courtyard surrounded by dried branches. Something was tied to the stake and the rabbit-eared people pointed and whispered at it. It was a scarecrow dressed in black. The scarecrow had a maliciously grinning carved gourd as head. "...no freaking way." Yes freaking way. The rabbit people eventually gathered, with great relish watching the scarecrow burn at stake. Normal people would try to stay away when seeing a representative of themselves getting burned, but the man was not normal. "Say, what's the significance of that?" He had to descend and poke a random person, asking about the whole burning scarecrow thing. The random rabbit lady turned at him, but curiosity morphed into shock and then anger at the sight of the gourd. She took a step back, as if not wanting to stay near him at all. "What the-?! That's a terribly distasteful prank! Get rid of that thing!" "...que?" A ring devoid of people rapidly formed around him, the surrounding rabbits were all pissed off for some reason. A kid even tossed a stone, but it missed by a bit. The stalemate didn't last long, an eldery rabbit shoved through the crowd to investigate the disturbance. They seemed to respect him enough not to complain at that. "What's going on here?! Where is your manner-" he reached the forefront and froze wide-eyed at the rather confused man, his whole being trembled heavily. "You... but you're vanquished!" He turned rapidly toward the crowd, which now realized that something's wrong. His expression grew grimmer by the second until he waved them away. "You fools! RUN! Warriors, hold him off!" He then shot a blast of magic at the gourd-wearing man, prompting a panic to spread among the crowd. They dispersed in all directions even as the more able-bodied rabbits gathered, joining the sudden assault. "But I'm just asking... oh well." "So be it." He abruptly shot off to the side, missing most of the incoming projectiles flying his way. The few he couldn't dodge hit his shield, which shook but held firm. Then he spun in the slight lull, multiple knives tossed in rapid succession at the rabbit warriors. He didn't wait to see whether they hit and shot off to the sky where a barrage of magic projectiles followed his trail. For a moment it turned into long-ranged combat, where the rabbits tried to shoot him down and he returned the favor with knives and lead. He came out worse with how evasive the rabbits were on that distance, but he's only delaying for them to spread out. Then he dove onto an isolated group, where their allies nees time to reach. He maneuvered across their fire, taking a few hit to close the distance, and finally reached the melee. A shield ram the forefront rabbit while his blade flashed to the side, caving the first's chest and decapitating the second. Like a rabid fox he savagely tear through the group of six, then flew away before reinforcement arrive. Back up in the air, he sized up his injuries. Definitely bruised in a dozen places. Some cut here and there. Nothing big. But his magic was running out. He couldn't keep it up for long. "Who thought I'll need to fight a small army here? The branding doesn't like getting degraded, but no choice in this matter." He could've escaped, but it's a matter of principle. "Bend Time." Everything slowed. The previously speesing projectiles now lazily floated forward, but his own movement wasn't affected. At the same time, his daily magic burned at an alarming rate alongside the branding, which emitted smoke and stench of burnt flesh. Like a wraith, he flitted forward unopposed. The old rabbit from earlier, probably the leader, was the core of their fighting force. The man circled once, beheading the fifteen-ish most senior fighters surrounding the leader, and plunged his blade through the chest. Just in time for his magic endes. The rabbit warriors would only saw him blurs toward their eldest, then suddenly the warriora nearby lost their head while their leader received a fatal case of opened chest. "You're a Guardian, if I may predict. You'll do just fine." The man draw out his blade just as fountains of blood blossomed from the leader and the beheaded fellows. He surveyed the pale-faced and shocked defenders remaining, unpertubed by the crimson shower slowly drenching him. "The rest of you, come." A few did. They died. Then the rest broke and ran. ***** The man knelt by the dead leader, carving out a punctured heart from the chest. The organ firmly in hand, he strolled through the now deserted courtyard and into the mansion. There were paintings. Mainly of five different women, two of them rabbits, in many situations. The black-haired and white-haired were depicted fighting fiercely in many occassions. The third seemed to be an alchemist of some kind. Then the two rabbits, one looking rather young while the other was still a child. The largest painting had them facing an entity that practically drip with evil vibe. Black metallic armor with what seems like spikes jutting out of its back, with flowing and tattered cape billowing into all direction, a massive hunk of dark red slab that may be a sword on the right hand, a strangely plain bident on the left, then a third arm made out of shadow grew on the right side wielding a strangely symmetrical triangular blade. The carved gourd that made its head was grinning devilishly, with crimson glow coming out of the eyeholes. The man skipped through the painting room. The central hall had some kind of altar with deceased tablets, five of them, and burnt out incenses in the censer. He stopped in front of the altar and dropped the heart with a sopping thud. "The defilement is complete. I offer an expunged heart as a tribute." A pulse of cold wind burst out of the altar, extinguishing all torches inside and near the mansion. Then the heart melted into pool of black sludge, and from within floated a single skull. It's adorned with crimson candles, which burned in equally bloody flame. A familiar darkness encompassed the altar, the room, and the whole mansion. Once it receded the place was remodeled in a similar manner to the first Sanctuary, utterly pitch black. And now, the darkness hold dominion. Black as death. I claim this Sanctuary for the Order."