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 Dare you brave the second Yggdrasil Labyrinth? The second of the old school RPG series of Etrian Odyssey, first released in 2008, a year after the first game, is a tough as nails, minimalist dungeon crawler where you pick a party of five crazy classes and map the many floors of a labyrinth. The first game was a pretty mean experience that made sure you knew what you were doing, and was very rough around the edges. It was still a very satisfying, but basic experience, to see where the series began. EO2 has a lot of improvements, features an entirely new labyrinth and three more classes, it's a wilder, but improved sequel. Or at least, that's what I would've said back during the last LP of this game. It's been nearly SEVEN years since then and we've torn this game apart to see how it ticks. And folks, this game is a barely held together mess of hilariously bad class balancing, strange AI, various glitches, and overall poor coding constructs. You're unlikely to really notice much of it in a casual playthrough, and most of the worst bugs were fixed in the localization, but there's still so much to go over and it's a loving trip, lemme tell you. This will be a narrative SSLP with viewer submissions, and is very much intended to be a sequel to my SSLP of the first game, which I'll refer back to quite a lot, ESPECIALLY because the original guild will be joining us for this ride, to show off a few things here and there. This isn't exactly how it works in the game, you can link your guild through a password system, but it changes very little, so I'll be spicing it up a bit. Joining me for this second journey into madness will be Ragnar Homsar and Araxxor, big thanks to them both for helping me with a variety of things, these LPs take a lot of time to prep! We've seen these games already so spoilers are perfectly fine!  Part 1: Welcome to the Town of High Lagaard! Part 2: Finding Our Feet II Part 3: The Second And... Last? II Part 4: Dodging for Deer Life Part 5: Stalking Stalkers II Part 6: The Eyes Have Blindsides Part 7: Running From Raptors Part 8: Cheesing the First II   Part 9: Everything tastes like burning II Part 10: Foul Thorns Underfoot II Part 11: Three Day Fun Part 12: Revenge is a dish best served bullshit II Part 13: Down and Up Nine and Eight Part 14: Tenth Floor, Ten Doors Part 15: Hellion of an End   Part 16: cronch cronch cronch cronch cronch II Part 17: Slippery When Wet But Not In That Way II Part 18: A Small Loop Part 19: Talkative Lot  Common Passives Landsknecht Overview Survivalist Overview Protector Overview Dark Hunter Overview Medic Overview Alchemist Overview Troubadour Overview Ronin Overview Hexer Overview Gunner Overview War Magus Overview Beast Overview Araxxor's Jank Odyssey AI Oddities Loyalty EO1 Mechanic Corrections  BONUS Edda's Arrival Holly and Lavin: Sword or Axe?  By Huckebein on Discord, already the guild is resonating with peeps. Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Jun 5, 2023 |
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Mar 9, 2021 03:54
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Part 1: Welcome to the Town of High Lagaard! Now Begin Your Adventure!   Welcome one and all to my new LP. Yes, I can't believe it either, it's time for the only game Atlus ever made, Persona 5! Weird that they called the first Persona "Persona 5."  Eventually, the waves overtook even the last five islands... and the castle was all that remained.  Ah of course I'm only joking, if this really was Persona 5 this opening crawl would be an hour long and every character would comment on it seven times over. Etrian Odyssey II is... one hell of a loving game let me tell you. Developed pretty quickly after the modest success of the first game, this one also has a special place in my heart. It's not as hard as the last game but it's not as, shall we say, stable. It's unbalanced, ambitious and just a little bit buggy, and I love it so. Joining me again are the two cool peeps from the last game! Hi, I'm that lady, Ragnar Homsar (Rea), that needs to finish her EOU LP and paused an EON LP to do an LP of Fire Emblem: Midare Setsugekka. I haven't actually played much of EO2 itself, but I got into all of this nonsense because of the old EO2 LP, and my first LP was of the remake of this game, so this'll be interesting. We're back on this bullshit again, huh? Hi I'm Araxxor, I did an LP of this game previously. Can be checked out here. Also did some other EO related stuff, but eh, who cares about that? You're all here for EO2! Though we'll be calling back to EO1 a lot so you may want to read Cross's LP of it. Or not, up to you. Anyways, right off the bat there's already a big improvement from EO1. The font is now just using the default system font instead of the really hard to read EO1 custom font. Yeah that font wasn't received too well, so Atlus USA just opted to use the default system font from here on out. This game is certainly a ride, as it was basically very undercooked due to being rushed out the door. This resulted in issues. Several issues. Still the game is a pretty solid product despite being extremely rough around the edges. And any game text will be represented by the gallant Sir Narrate, they're very dedicated. If you were wondering, yes, if you wait long enough, Jack Frost Gunner, the closest we get to a mascot for this series, will walk into the town and the opening credits will start again. I'm sad that the title screens got less dynamic as the DS games went on (even if EO3's one is really pretty), and eventually just stopped with the 3DS games. Technically there's also the blonde Protector. Her design even got reused for a one of the portraits in EO4 and one of the few designs to get their own DLC portrait in one of the later entries. Legends say that the central city of Lagaard is home to Yggdrasil, gateway to the floating castle. The residents of that metropolis have discovered a labyrinthine dungeon within the legendary tree. High Lagaard's Duke is currently researching the Labyrinth to find the truth behind the floating castle. The castle and the Labyrinth drew adventurers to High Lagaard from far and wide... But none among them were able to master the Labyrinth and find the truth of the ancient legends. You are among the legions of explorers eager to penetrate the Labyrinth's mysteries. Your quest is to find the floating castle and make your fortune. The city of Laagard [sic] awaits! Hum de hum, come along you two, we'll be late for breakfast! And don't drop any of the food! Ah, hello there, please excuse us. Huff, huff, yes dear... Freakin slave driver... sigh... but so pretty... Land Spread Up North Wait is this the city of Lagaard in High Lagaard, or is this Central City, the capital of High Lagaard? We know in the remake the town is way larger than you really see due to the restaurant but- oh whatever. All around you as you step into the city of Lagaard is the bustle and chatter of the square. It seems that the city is full to bursting with explorers. Since you yourself came to make a name as an explorer, you should register at the Explorers Guild. 1,210... 1,211... hmm, I think I see Karin at the entrance, though she is upside down... and looks completely different. That's a new explorer, dear, and you're upside down. Better get some more hanging crunches in if you want to break your record! Ah~ Crabapple for the porridge~ the only food~ that Ro guy finds~ Have you, perchance, led another guild in some other town? If so, surely you have a password from those days as a memento of your adventures. Now is the time to speak up! If not, pay it no mind and head for the Guild. God, was one destroyed town and a native genocide not enough? Now the guild from EO1 can canonically erase another city off the map??? So for clearing the main game of EO1, you can get a password that you can then put into this game to give a few small benefits. And I mean small, the time it takes to input the drat password takes longer than the content of a password game. We'll be skipping this for now but I only needed to go like two minutes in to show off the differences, so everything past this update will be in a password game, unless I mention otherwise. But what are the benefits? What does the password bring over? Well don't get excited, what's actually used in this is the name of your guild and whether or not you got the Town Medal, story completion, or Town Crown, 100% completion, since we'll receive those at the start. It does bring over the names of your party, their level and their weapon, but those are completely unused, and also completely ignores their class, portrait or other equips, which would seem as important. If you think that's a little weird and underbaked... folks, this is only the loving beginning. This kinda thing would've worked better on the 3DS, where you can save extra data to system memory. Or if the DS had Stop n' Swop capability. EO4 did allow you to save extra data containing similar things to the EO1 password, I believe, but none of the later games actually used it. EOU also lets you save extra data for later games to import, and EO2U does actually use it! Your EOU characters and the skills they had on grimoire stones (the ones that had equivalents in EO2U) show up occasionally as NPCs you can trade grimoire stones with. Riveting. Even if you haven't played EO1, you can still opt to do a password game if you so wish. There are plenty of usable passwords floating online somewhere. Since passwords are only given out after beating the main game, the only real difference in passwords is "did they 100% the game or not?" and that's pretty much it. And if you're a European who imported the American version of the game, you'll be forced to do that since EU passwords are incompatible with NA copies of the game. (While EO1 did get released in Europe, EO2 and 3 did not.) The Ones Engraved in Legends  Nothing else to do but head for the Explorers Guild. Ah! Excuse me, I didn't see you there, new explorers are just too small these days, gahahaha! Try not to scare the newbies you lumbering oaf. They looked like they were starting a new guild, ah the memories. Yeah, I remember hating every second of it, sis. And yet here you are, ready for another round. Enough gawking at the weak, non-muscular people, Lavin and Ro should be back with breakfast. I hope it's not Crabapple porridge again...  I see... If you want to work as an explorer, you must first establish a guild. The Guild is a support network for explorers to help one another in the Labyrinth. Let's see... Today is the 1st of Emperor. Would you like to establish a guild? Earlier EO games apparently stated the possibility of you as a self-insert or whatnot being something you could do. Either that or you're the guild manager and whether you personally got your hands dirty or not was up to you.  Enter the desired name of your guild on this line. Since this Etrian Odyssey SSLP will have viewer submissions and votes, wow, shocker, we're gonna need a name for our guild. You have the option of keeping the guild name from before in a password game, but as you've seen, we'll be using those nine crazy crackers for a few interesting demonstrations, ehehehehehe. Oh yeah, the guild name from the password also carries over but it doesn't really matter as you can change it if you so wish. Well, that aside, it's time for you to induct explorers into your guild. There is nothing preventing you from registering yourself as a guild member, of course. But there is one rule you should know. Guilds in Lagaard are not allowed to exceed 30 members. 30 is a big step up from the 16 last game, it's like I can put two whole guilds in this. We'll register in a moment, as well as put the first party into a formation once submissions are done, but let's chat. I wonder if the increase from 16 to 30 was down to the dev team being able to justify the cost of getting larger SRAM on the cartridge, or just more efficient use of the space available. All registered explorers must be legitimate Lagaardian citizens. Only confirmed citizens have the Grand Duchy's permission to enter the Labyrinth. Don't worry... we don't inquire into your past. If you prefer, you can even use a fake name. Whether you're a foreign king in disguise or a wanted man on the lam... it makes no difference here, so long as you're willing to challenge the Labyrinth.  Landsknecht Overview There's 12 classes, up from 9, and we'll unlock the last one pretty early at least, so please submit for all of them! Ah poo poo we start with the Landy. So this was a pretty good class last game, dependable damage, switched between swords or axes depending on the situation and could take a few hits. Great all rounder. Unfortunately any class that was pretty good last game got hit many, many times with the nerf bat, while the mediocre to bad classes got buffed to gently caress, really making this game unbalanced to gently caress. This is an extremely unfortunate trend with EO2's class balance. It's super reactive and most classes from EO1 are now in the opposite extreme power wise. This also means that player experiences with this game can be very very uneven and differ vastly from player to player in the bad way. So forget most things you know about EO1's classes, cause several things about them no longer apply in this game. And that's the main issue with the Landy, they're much worse than before, don't do a lot of damage, their axe skills are mostly terrible and Ronin got super buffed, so if you want a frontline attacker, just use them instead. Now Landy does have some Chaser utility which takes a bit of party composition, but in the right circumstances they can return to their full glory. What a shame this class is so bad, I loved using them last game. Also Force Skills are a new mechanic, build up a meter, use the cool move. They're pretty slow to charge and they usually humiliate bosses if you grind them beforehand so it's not a great system. But the Landy's skill is... fine. Landsknecht occupies a weird design space for a series that is as focused on classes that specialize in useful things as EO. I've been working on and very off on an EO2U redesign hack for about 2 years now, and I just don't really know what to do with Landsknecht. Landsknects are your jack of all trades, master of none unit whose main upside is that they're easily slotted into most parties. At least, that's what they were in EO1. In EO2, they've been nerfed into the ground so hard that the Ronin basically takes up this role instead. I really wish I was joking, I try to be nice to classes and skills but the DS era of EO was really rough in terms of design. Just read the class overview for more details. If you really insist on using one, well listen to the game, stick em in the front line and hope they work out nicely. They can fit very nicely into elemental parties due to their unique Chaser mechanic, but that's about it. Their Force Skill is an alright nuke. Throw it out if you have it. Force skills are basically your new meter mechanic in this game. Instead of your skills getting a power boost every now and then, you get access to an innate super move you can break out. Very rarely. As the meter builds up super slowly. The general trend is that damage Force skills tend to be the weaker ones, while more supportive effects are either the stronger ones or outright broken. I'll go into more details later, but overall I'm not a fan of this mechanic.  Survivalist Overview Here comes the nerf bat! Survivalists were also fantastic last game, they could deal heavy damage and tank in the front, supported in the back and were just wonderful. Their STR got nearly HALVED in this game so they're now mostly support and mediocre ones at that. They can do pitiful damage, can barely inflict ailments and still have the amazing utility of letting an ally go first. Their Force Skill lies to you, it boosts evasion, not speed, which is actually much better. But that's all it does, so it's pretty bad in comparison. This is probably the worst class in the game but there's competition! Atlus evidently really struggled with finding a unique Thing for survivalists beyond "fast," since it took them until EO2U to design the class in a way that was fun to use beyond just dealing damage. Oh, Survivalists. This game was where they were at their peak and... let's not speak of what happened to them in EO2. Oh wait, this is that game. Sigh. Survivalists were your dedicated ranged attackers in 1. However due to poor balancing, they were even greater. They were basically a master of all, best damage, extremely good support capabilities, you name it. So while they deserved to be nerfed, Atlus took it too far and nerfed them into complete and utter uselessness. Their damage is poo poo. Their support... well they can manipulate turn order which is conceptually powerful but that's the only redeeming feature they have, otherwise the rest of their support kit is poo poo. And their defenses are also poo poo! Do not listen to the game. While you could have front line Survivalists in 1 due to their defenses being really good, that's no longer the case in this game! A front liner Survivalist will get pasted in seconds due to their nerfed defensive stats. Their Force Skill is probably the worst one in the entire game. It gives a sizeable evasion boost, but compared to all the other effects, it's really weak in comparison.  Protector Overview Thankfully this class is still good. Protectors got hit in their STR, but otherwise are amazing tanks with F. Guard, an actual Provoke, and the all important anti-elemental skills. They require a lot of investment that doesn't really show until late in the game, but you'll be glad you have one. They're not as necessary due to burst strategies and the like, and they're a bit useless outside of defending, but they're still very nice to have. Also Painless is one of the best Force Skills, guaranteed invulnerability and it can be done every other turn with Axcela IIs? Hell yes my dude. The return of the necessary evil. Oh finally, a class that didn't get nerfed to uselessness. Their defensive capabilities were rather questionable in 1, but they were pretty decent damage dealers for a support. But in this game, Protectors got some sizeable buffs in their defensive kits, at the cost of no longer really being able to contribute meaningful damage to a fight. However while they're good defensive supports, they're not a mandatory pick for a party, due to the game being much faster paced and placing more emphasis on offense rather than defense. So if you want to skimp out on a Protector, you can! Yes, even in the post-game. They have one of the best Force Skills in the game due to it granting invincibility for the current turn.  Dark Hunter Overview Now we get to one of the classes that was ridiculously buffed. Dark Hunters were pretty okay last game, mainly stuck to swords since binds weren't all that great and had some interesting skills to work with. In this game pretty much everything they did got massively buffed. Whips can be dependably used due to Dominate, they can remove pretty much every FOE from the field when they're below half health, they can counter any kind of damage even if the attack is nullified and oh yeah Dominate is the second best Force Skill in the game because NO enemy resists its effect, they will get fully bound, no question. It's kinda loving insane how good this class is now, but the fact it's only the second best class in the game says a lot about how busted some of these classes are. I'm of the opinion that EO2 Dark Hunter is incredibly badly designed, mostly because Dominate and Hexer are busted enough that the standard DH infliction skills almost feel like afterthoughts, but that's just me. AHAHAHAHA, now we get to the real power! Dark Hunters were okay offensive units in 1, but they are far stronger here! To the point where they are one of the best offensive units in their game thanks to their amazing counter skills. Several mechanics changes also skyrocketed Dark Hunters to the top. Ailment resistances aren't one stat anymore, so they can actually use a variety of disables now instead of only the best ones. Whips and Swords now share similar skills, which ended up making Whips the clear winner of the two since it inherited some skills that were previously locked off to it. Oh and they can completely shut down any enemy in the game with their Force Skill by completely binding them. Yeah they're really good.  Medic Overview Understandably Medics got the nerf bat, they were ridiculous last game, able to heal, defend the party, cure status and revive, and even smack some heads in. Their STR took a hit, so no more whacking, while Immunize got snapped, haha pop culture. Now they heal super loving well, and it's not that necessary to bring them, War Magus heals less but has more utility and burst strats and broken classes means turtling and surviving isn't that useful. Full on full heals, emergency Nectalls and their OH poo poo panic button of a Force Skill still make them a great class. But now they only do one thing. It's a really good one thing though! Hang on, don't worry, guys, I'll get my turn eventually with the incredibly dense steel my staves are apparently made out of. It's not a problem! In EO1, it was basically suicidal to go without a Medic since they had an amazing defensive buffs, along with being one of the strongest offensive units in the game. Yes, really. However they're not so much necessary in this game due to some rather severe (but deserved nerfs.) Unfortunately the nerfs also made them less flexible, which is a rather annoying trend with class design in the Komori directed games. The class is a healbot? Yeah they're staying a healbot, and any attempts to deviate will be slapped down. And same goes for classes that fall into other roles. They can heal and uh, basically do nothing else. They're really good at that job though, and their Force Skill is a great panic button for when things go wrong.  Alchemist Overview Alchemists haven't changed much, which is a small problem since they weren't that amazing last game, main draw being the only class that used the TEC stat, while that's definitely not the case in this game. What did change was the magic formula, as explained in the overview, meaning this class hits the ground loving running, nuking anything in its path, until the formula catches up to them and they then do mediocre damage in the postgame. Also they require A LOT of TP for their skills and get pretty outclassed by the Gunner in utility, as well as having useless physical elementals. Their Force Skill is a big ol' nuke, which is nice, but have some problems holding them back. Sadly, it takes Atlus until EO4 to learn how to balance a spellcaster in a way that doesn't have their damage drop off by endgame. And then they somehow unlearnt that lesson for EON. Which frustrates me, I always like using spellcaster classes. Your standard mage class. Not much to say about their incarnation in 1 but there were some rather big changes in 2. The magic formula got changed in an absolutely bizarre way which causes bizarre scaling issues. And prepare to be packing a ton of TP restoratives as their skills eat up far more TP in this game! While this class is powerful, they're also incredibly clunky to use since they have to stop to recharge several times during Labyrinth explorations. They can annihilate most big fights, but this game isn't just about those, there's still the Labyrinth to consider. Their Force Skill is a powerful nuke that can cheese earlygame bosses and FOEs. Unfortunately no matter which way you cut it, they become utter poo poo in the post-game due to some baffling internal math.  Troubadour Overview Another class that's pretty static is Troubadours, they mainly just laid down Bravery and could do whatever after that, maybe Relaxing for TP. In this game, well, they lay down Bravery and due to their nerfed STR they can't even contribute with chip damage. They lost Relaxing, which is the biggest difference, and some of their skills like Shelter and Health got buffed for the better, but uh yeah they're very similar. Their Force Skill would be pretty great, except the DEF aspect is bugged and doesn't do anything, while the ATK buff is the first to get wiped so can't be stacked with Bravery. A pretty lame one for a pretty lame, but still perfectly fine class. It's Foe Requiem, not Foe's Requiem, gently caress!!! That skill has been gone for almost two years now and that still irritates me! FOE Requiem. Your buffing class. In EO1 they were one of the most important classes in the game. They're far less so here. In fact in some cases they can be outright detrimental. They ate some nerfs from EO1 like losing their TP recovery skill, Relaxing, which is a huge nerf. And the loss of the Boost mechanic was a huge hit to Troubadour buffs since their buffs in this game were scaled around their level 10 skills from 1. Imbues also losing their damage boost was a huge nerf to that mechanic as well. Otherwise they mostly play the same way, lay down some buffs and uh... twiddle their thumbs since their chip damage is no longer meaningful since they are locked to buffing only. Like I said, a very annoying trend with the Komori directed EO games. Their Force Skill is a huge set of big buffs, which sounds great in theory. But they eat up all your buff slots, and bosses in this game get angry if you have too many buffs. Also 1/3rd of it is bugged. Fun. And once again, don't listen to the game. The Troubadour ate some nerfs to their defenses so like the Survivalist, they'll be vaporized on the front lines.  Ronin Overview God this class is ridiculous. Ronin were unlocked midway through last game and had to setup before doing much, only excelling in single target damage and usually didn't replace the Landy you'd used for most of the game. Also only Overhead was worth bothering with. In this game, every negative about the class is basically gone, except for Overhead being the best and most oppressive stance. Those stance skills became passives, they have great elemental crowd control, deal terrifying damage with Midareba ATK buff stacks, and the Landy got nerfed into irrelevance, so Ronin have no competition. It's insane how tweaked this class become, their main negative is, again, only the Overhead stance is worth using, and their Force Skill is mainly for big damage, the ID chance is pretty bleh. Ronin were still pretty busted in EOU—even if you throw Highlander and Gunner into consideration—and then just kinda went limp in EO2U, where Atlus seemingly forgot to adjust the damage their skills did as everyone else's went up. The EON incarnation's pretty interesting, at least! I won't deny that big numbers are always fun, but a class dominating the entire damage dealer space like Ronin does always eats at me, because I have brainworms. You wanted your jack of all trades front liner class you could fit into any party? Say no more, Ronin is here to fill that need! They were overly specialized in single target damage in 1, and had to waste a turn setting up. Along with being unlocked super late to the point they weren't an appealing class to use for most casual players. Here they come out swinging from the get-go since they no longer need to waste a turn setting up and can shred enemies with ease. They're also pretty beefy too thanks to certain passives. In short, they have completely obsoleted the Landsknecht with their mere presence. Their Force Skill is alright, an AOE attack with a chance of instant death. Throw it out whenever you have it I suppose.  Hexer Overview Here it is, the best class in the entire series. That might be a big statement considering all the other busted classes in this series, as well as how godawful the Hexer was last game. They were unlocked way too late, didn't do much against FOEs/Bosses and had their best utility be ATK reduction in the early game, where they couldn't be used. But yeah, all their skills got big buffs and they get the three best skills in the game, Torpor, Revenge and Dampen. Add in Poison, Scavenge, Frailty, maybe a bit of FEAR TREE, maybe some binds, all of this combined make an absolutely bullshit class that can deal ridiculous damage, neutralize crowds of enemies, and remove and replace resistances. Why they decided on all this, who knows, but even with its issues, their useless mastery skill, their low stats and their mediocre Force Skill, due to its randomness, it doesn't matter. If you want to crush the game's difficulty, this is the class for you. I really wish I could, like, do an interview with EO2's class designers, because the degree to which hexers are broken in this game is almost a legendary failure of balancing, in my opinion. I mean, the interview would mostly consist of "why did you feel Hexer needed this tool," but getting specific answers for each would be enlightening. I'd especially like to probe the reasoning behind Dampen, because there's hints in certain boss AI patterns that Atlus knew Dampen was way too good. This class is billed as a debuffer and inflicter but they are so so much more in this game! In 1 they were alright, but were massively held back by being unlocked way too late. So they ended up bad by virtue of being expired milk. Here they get their revenge on the concept of game design by having amazing debuffs, very strong forms of crowd control, and having the most powerful guaranteed damage skill in the entire game. No class in the series comes close to the sheer bullshit the Hexer sends out to every bit of game design in this product. Oh and their Force Skill is about as unreliable as it sounds.  Gunner Overview After all this nerfing and buffing we've reached our first new class. Gunners are great! They're slow as poo poo and pretty squishy, but they deal great elemental damage and fire off crazy crowd control, they're Survivalist 2! They can get risky and die in a single hit for the chance of beeeeeg damage and then can even bind, poorly, or heal ailments, potently, and are overall a pretty wonky class that somehow works pretty well. Their Force Skill can be a bit slow but guarantees a safe turn no matter what, incredibly potent with others like Painless and Dominate. drat this game is busted... Gunners' design has a lot of good ideas in it, just kind of let down by a failure to balance the numbers appropriately. Still a good and pretty fun class to use. Gunners are the first of the newbies boy do they make a good first impression! Not satisfied with Survivalists or Alchemists? Go with these bad shooters. They completely obsolete Survivalist as a ranged attacker due to their sheer offensive power, and come with elemental coverage to boot if you don't feel like inducing an addiction to Amritas in an Alchemist. They're pretty squishy, slow, and inaccurate, but a worthwhile party member all the same. They've also got the best offensive Force Skill in the game as Riot Gun induces a guaranteed stun, which can buy you a free turn. This class is great, it's my new favorite class amongst this cast after Atlus bored a Survivalist-shaped hole in my heart.  War Magus Overview Next new class is another wonky one that still works out great despite all the weirdness. War Magus have worse, but faster healing than a Medic, which isn't a massive downside, and can combo really well with ailments and binds to do some funky sword fun. They're a weird mix of skills that don't really do much together, but they are absolutely bigger than the sum of their parts, from great buffs to kicking enemies while they're down, to acceptable healing for most of the game, War Magus are a good class that does separate things well. Their Force Skill is pretty naff, it's not as good as the Medic's, and offers turtling strategies not used very much if you're able to use Force skills. I like War Magus, it's an interesting concept and implementation of a support with damage capabilities. I do think EO2U and EON both did the idea way better, though. War Magi are a jack of all trades master of none- wait what do you mean all the specialized versions of the roles got nerfed into the ground!? Um... Yeah. They end up being a master of all by default, but they sure don't feel like it with how weak their skills are. EO2's game balance, everyone! Their strength lies in their flexibility and that they do their roles better than the specialized classes because those classes got nerf hammered way too hard. Though you'll namely use them for buffing and healing. Not a super noteworthy class but it's hard to suggest better options because there aren't any. Such is the game that is EO2. Their Force Skill is an alright panic button coming with some defensive potential to boot. Fortunately unlike the other 2 "either-liners", this class can genuinely work on the front or back lines due to having actual defense stats.  Beast Overview Beasts are... bad? Like they're kind of a meme class that can actually work as an alright physical tank, but like I mention seven billion times in the overview, Loyalty is such a dangerous skill that it forces two paths, one with and one without. And it's not good in either role, being outclassed by the Protector or the myriad of crazy physical attackers. If Loyalty worked properly this class would've been a nice, anti-elemental lacking wall to the Protector, but it can either be a fine enough tank or the glassiest of cannons that dies a bit too easily due to various bugs. This class can work, you'll have the entire 2nd stratum to show your stuff, but drat it's a hard class to figure out. Their Force Skill is a nice heal, but not as much of an OH poo poo button as H. Touch. It's overall weird, this class is weird, please stop. Much like I wish we could do with Hexer, I wish we could probe the minds of the EO2 designers to find out why Beast is like this. The decisions behind it are as perplexing as whatever the reasoning could possibly be for why Dampen and Revenge are the way they are. EO2 Beast was so bad that everything beyond the absolute most basic idea of "damage-redirecting tank with some attack skills" was thrown out, and the class redesigned from scratch in EO2U. It's much better there! Beasts are the only unlockable class this game, but don't worry. They're unlocked pretty early on. Unfortunately what's behind the lock is very lacking. Due to some very hack job programming, then ended up being a bizarre auto tanker who is terrible at that jobs unless you specifically craft your party to accommodate for it. They're supposed to serve as an alternative to the Protector but they're not really great at it either due to lacking defensive abilities, or they die all the time because you took Loyalty. Unlike Protector they do have some decent offenses, but you can't use that to its full potential because it's locked behind Loyalty. At least the Force Skill is pretty useful, even if it's a weaker version of the Medic's. This class could have been good or even overpowered, but alas bad programming practices got in the way of that big time. And that's all 12, it's time to get our guild and start our brand new adventure in High Lagaard, I'm suuuuuuuper stoked!
Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Nov 3, 2022 |
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Mar 9, 2021 03:54
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Introducing Guild Nidhogg: Name: Holly by Mihoshi LP Beach Likes: Drinking, Fighting, Heavy Lifting Dislikes: Nobles, Liars, Slackers Description: Holly arrived in High Lagaard from a neighbouring highland country and is challenging the labarynth in exchange for amnesty from her crimes which if rumors are to be believed are long and varied, the only people who know for certain are the minister who accepted her application and Holly herself and attempts to ask her about it usually end with her angrilly yelling in a thick highlander accent followed by a punch in the face. Naturally these rumors are making it difficult to find a guild who will take her, despite her previous career as a Lumberjack giving her a great deal of raw power and her surprisingly high level of swordmanship which was revealed during an aptitude test and caused a great deal of confusion since Holly claims to have never used a sword before, which is a big issue since she is required to venture into the labarynth as part of her amnesty agreement... also she needs beer money.  Name: Logan by BlackPersona SA Forum Likes: Nature, new discoveries, FOEs (from a distance) Dislikes: His low pain tolerance, losing his glasses, FOEs (up close) Description: While Logan was born in a line of local hunters, he himself was never quite adept at the whole hunting thing. He was pretty great at anything that involved gathering, foraging, trap-making, you name it!... except for the part where he had to fire arrows at animals. He was never good at the whole "killing" part, all told, but he was very good at studying the habits of the local fauna. Before long, Logan's talent would become his sole interest; managing to make a small name for himself in Lagaard thanks to his numerous additions to the city's library on botany and zoology. Logan eventually decided his life goal would be to organize all his notes together and publish his very own codex full of the information of his home. Well, needless to say, once the grand duchy discovered the Labyrinth and opened it up to the public, Logan knew he had to go in there and finish his work. After all, there was bound to be more flora and fauna to record! Besides, adventurers only ever took one part of a monster back to the shop to sell; Logan could always salvage the rest for his own research! And his years of being a Survivalist would be more than helpful for any Guild, right? ...Unfortunately, all that time in the library with his nose between a piece of parchment and a pen meant his eyesight was pretty bad, meaning his poor combat skills from his youth didn't improve any. He's hoping that all the info he could provide will make up for it.  Name: Lily by TeeQueue SA Forum Likes: Fantasy stories, doing anything that feels like it could be in such a story Dislikes: Doors. They cannot be trusted. Description: There really isn't much that unusual about Lily. She was the third child of five in a loving family native to High Lagaard, and stories of the dungeon within the great tree were a regular event come bedtime. Eager to prove herself and not interested in taking up the family business of farming, she decided to become an adventurer in hopes of someday entering the dungeon and becoming the subject of a story herself. She's largely self-taught and lacking in real experience, but her dry enthusiasm gives her the air of someone far more competent. As for her issues with doors, her other siblings decided to help with her "adventurer training" by frequently deciding to hide just on the other side of them and sneak attack her, most commonly with a bucket full of water from overhead, a handful of flour, or both. A door represents the unknown, the possibility that anything could be on the other side, waiting to attack at any time.  Name: Sonia by Verant SA Forum Likes: Garlic, Stakes, Steaks, Inexplicable Bags of Money Dislikes: Bats, Candles Description: Sonia's come to Lagaard for business and pleasure - and her pleasure is the business of monster slaying. Coming from a long line of noble hunters and/or thieving sociopaths (depending on who you're asking), she's taking a break from getting hired by villages to slay whatever fearsome beast is lurking in the nearby woods/caves/dilapidated abandoned manor to try her hand at dungeoneering. The possibility of getting her hands on undiscovered treasures that she could use to retire early most certainly didn't play a factor, nor did the opportunity to show off her own take on her family's mastery of the whip. Although, knowing how this sort of thing tends to go, she's halfway expecting having to face some sort of dark lord before this adventure is completed - but she'll rise to the occasion nonetheless!  name: kathy by kyasarintsu discord likes: sleeping, sweets (adds chocolate to everything), "ugly cute" animals and monsters (like evil eye) dislikes: immodesty, uncleanliness, aggressive behavior description: constantly finds herself cleaning up other people's messes. typically complains quietly to herself but has the occasional angry outburst. always speaks in a mellow voice (always speaks in lowercase, even her name). is not afraid to bust skulls with a rod if she has to, even if it's a bad idea.  Name: Corinth by AweStriker LP Beach Class: Alchemist Likes: Logic, amulets, pasta, the ocean, quiet and supporting people Dislikes: Explosions, needless violence, misunderstandings Story: A tense, nervous old soldier that fought in a long-over war between his home country of Apen and Freibund to its north. As wars tend to be, it was a messy, traumatic affair that left Corinth rather shocked both over what he had done and what others had done to him. A passing stranger gave him advice that one of the most effective ways to get over your fear is to master whatever it is you are afraid of (in this case, explosions, being that Freibund had used no small number of bombs in various engagements), turned to combat alchemy and departed for the far North. While he's still a novice, he's slowly getting over his past, which he shares little of unless asked to. He is frequently on edge even without cause, and can be difficult to talk to since he is often on the defensive. However, knowing that an abundance of caution is often more of an asset than a detriment in a hostile environment can make half the difference.  Name: Juthro, by Prexot LP Beach Likes: knowing things, solving problems, explaining things, music, deepest lore, big words, learning new things (sometimes), happy endings Dislikes: standing still, explaining himself, hatred, death, finances Description: It can be hard talking to Juthro. You ask him a question and he'll answer you cryptically and go off on a tangent about something interesting but only marginally related, then you ask him another question and he'll reply with a blunt "Yes". He might take an immediate liking to you or he might openly regard you with suspicion. He can understand some abstract concepts perfectly without a second thought, and he can fail to grasp even a simple statement after you try to tell him several times. He isn't crazy. He just has his own way of thinking, and his own way of evaluating situations and responding to them accordingly that makes perfect sense to him, but he rarely feels like explaining it to anyone else. But he means no real harm to anyone, even his enemies, and he's usually an enthusiastic team player. Between his impressive skill for music with a plethora of different instruments and genres, and his interminable supply of scattered knowledge on nearly any topic, he's an asset to any group that he joins, as long as he can reined in from time to time. He never likes to talk about his own background. Perhaps he harbors some dark secrets that he will reveal only to the most trusted of comrades? (Spoiler alert: In actuality, he comes from a moderately well-off merchant family, but his complete inability to understand finance and trade drove him to search for his life's calling, which he found in music and adventuring. But where's the mystique in that?)  Name: Eleanore by yoshicookiezeus LP Beach Likes: Fighting, cheering people up, swimming, adventure novels Dislikes: Training, getting held back by voices of reason Description: While Eleanore would describe herself as a “self-taught prodigy with the blade”, the truth is that she has a vastly overinflated view of her own abilities. Her tendency to want to pick a fight with any Labyrinth denizens in sight no matter the circumstances got her old guild into trouble more than a few times, and she fairly quickly got thrown out of it after one incident where she woke up in the middle of the night, decided she absolutely had to go get revenge on that caterpillar the group had fled from earlier right now, and ran into the Labyrinth on her own, leading to the rest of the group finding her half dead a few steps into the first floor the next morning. Despite this, she stays relentlessly positive, and remains perfectly assured that she can defeat anything in her path. “I’m sure that last loss was just a fluke. Best out of three?”   Hart (and Sophia) by kvx687 SA Forum Likes: Kicking, stalking adventurers, walking around in small circles Dislikes: Not kicking people For most Ragelopes life is pretty simple: stake out a territory, patrol for intruders, and kick the tar out of any they find. Hart was no exception until an unfortunate run-in with a novice Hexer with a book full of ancient spells and not quite enough understanding to use them. One magical accident later and Hart found himself inside said hexer's body, haunted by a rather irritated ghost who quite wants her life back- something easier said than done, however. Some time later, having picked up a rudimentary understanding of hexing, the local language, and basic social niceties like pants and not kicking everyone they meet, the duo found themselves in Lagaard, chasing rumors of a mysterious grail said to cure all ills and stories of explorers transformed beyond recognition. It's the best shot Hart has of getting his old life back, and if nothing else joining a rookie guild will give him the chance to kick things again.  Name: Aleksandra (Aleks) by Blaziken386 SA Forum Likes: Almost anything that could be described as "fancy", "luxurious", or "elegant" (ie: champagne, tea sets, bespoke clothing, etc.), and has a secret guilty pleasure for sweets. Dislikes: Animals, the smell of cabbage, food that's gone cold, and hotel/inn blankets. Description: Something about the portraits for the Gunner class screams "russian" to me. I don't know why, I think it's the fuzzy hats. Which is why I'm doubling down on that and saying that she's from (the fantasy equivalent of) Russia. Feel free to embellish the accent as much as you'd like. In the past, her family was (purportedly) Nobility™, but that was several generations ago. Because of that, she idolizes that sort of lifestyle, even if she's not entirely familiar with what that lifestyle is supposed to be like. A wannabe ojou-sama, essentially.  Name: Alastor by marshmallow creep SA Forum Likes: Fine wine, genteel conversation, long necks Dislikes: Mirrors, garlic, spoil-sports Description: Alastor isn't actually a vampire, but that doesn't stop him; it's important to him that other people think he might be. He powders his face to affect a deathly pallor; he dyes his hair grey and speaks with an accent that no one can quite place but sounds menacing and upper class; never mind that he started his career as a clerk with too much time on his hands. He is quick to identify those who are easily gulled by his displays, and charms them either with his act or with his actual talents as a war magus in the field. Nothing would make him happier than to find that the dungeon has access to actual vampirism so he could stop pretending and become a real dark lord like he's only read in stories, but until then, he will play the part and be damned good at it.  Name: Rajah by SimplyUnknown1 SA Forum Likes: Good food, belly rubs, being told he's a pretty kitty, never ever being alone, snuggles, getting his fur brushed, big rubber balls Dislikes: Being alone, leafy vegetables, being told he's bad, getting his teeth cleaned, Description: People like baby animals, especially the exotic ones. So a baby white tiger with huge fangs made a perfect addition to Claymont's Traveling Petting Zoo. Rajah spent his first year of life being coddled and cuddled by various people who visited the petting zoo, as well as being lavishly spoiled with all the balls he could play with and long sessions of fur brushing. But time stops for no one, and Rajah eventually grew from a tiny and adorable tiger cub into a huge and scary tiger that people were scared to approach, let alone pet. Despite his sweet nature, Claymont viewed Rajah as a money-sink and so, like with other grown animals, dumped him in the Labyrinth the second he got the chance. He figured the enormous housecat would end up easy prey for the nearest deer or something. But surprisingly, Rajah managed to stay alive mostly by scavenging and reluctantly eating some of the edible plants found in the labyrinth. Eventually, he managed to reach the first floor and stumble into High Lagaard. Civilization! Of course, still being a large and deadly white tiger (though now a very dirty one), Rajah's presence tended to scare the majority of the citizens. The only ones who appeared to tolerate him were adventurers, who took to tossing the tiger scraps of food when he begged. Desperate for someone who wouldn't leave him, Rajah took to randomly following adventurer parties until they eventually left the region or perished in the labyrinth. Recently, he's been attached at the hip to the Guildmaster, who is desperate for someone, anyone to take him from her. He doesn't seem to realize how much she hates him, please, just give him pets. Rajah is a good kitty, really!  as our Loyalty Beast demonstrator, Fs in chat.Name: Loopy by MightyPretenders SA Forum Likes: Cuddles, exercise, eating whatever antagonizes her Dislikes: Scaring people away, jerks, thorny paths Description: A strangely friendly and goofy wild animal who appears to have self-domesticated - making exceptions when her overtures of friendship are met with extended hostility. It's unclear what her motives are, unless... there aren't very many wolves in the High Lagaard Yggdrasil, are there? In that case, it's probably because of loneliness, and seeing the labyrinth monsters as poor prospects for friendship. Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 03:55
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I should probably go back an re-read the first LP, because I'm pretty sure i never finished it. Anyways! Co-op Commentary LPs are great so I'm hypeCrosspeice posted:Alright, here's the big part, please submit for all 12 classes, even if your Beast submission won't be used to start with, they'll be used throughout the entire 2nd stratum to compensate! Please submit in this format: Portrait: 2 Name: Aleksandra Likes: Almost anything that could be described as "fancy", "luxurious", or "elegant" (ie: champagne, tea sets, bespoke clothing, etc.), and has a secret guilty pleasure for sweets. Dislikes: Animals, the smell of cabbage, food that's gone cold, and hotel/inn blankets. Description: Something about the portraits for the Gunner class screams "russian" to me. I don't know why, I think it's the fuzzy hats. Which is why I'm doubling down on that and saying that she's from (the fantasy equivalent of) Russia. Feel free to embellish the accent as much as you'd like. In the past, her family was (purportedly) Nobility™, but that was several generations ago. Because of that, she idolizes that sort of lifestyle, even if she's not entirely familiar with what that lifestyle is supposed to be like. A wannabe ojou-sama, essentially.
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Mar 9, 2021 05:47
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Geez, you're an LP machine. When's the last time you haven't been working on one? Hexer 4 Hart (and Sophia) Likes: Kicking, stalking adventurers, walking around in small circles Dislikes: Not kicking people For most Ragelopes life is pretty simple: stake out a territory, patrol for intruders, and kick the tar out of any they find. Hart was no exception until an unfortunate run-in with a novice Hexer with a book full of ancient spells and not quite enough understanding to use them. One magical accident later and Hart found himself inside said hexer's body, haunted by a rather irritated ghost who quite wants her life back- something easier said than done, however. Some time later, having picked up a rudimentary understanding of hexing, the local language, and basic social niceties like pants and not kicking everyone they meet, the duo found themselves in Lagaard, chasing rumors of a mysterious grail said to cure all ills and stories of explorers transformed beyond recognition. It's the best shot Hart has of getting his old life back, and if nothing else joining a rookie guild will give him the chance to kick things again. For guild name, I'm going with guild Plasma. Ghetsis feels like he would fit in with this game's villain.
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Mar 9, 2021 05:57
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Class: War Magus Portrait: 3 Name: Alastor Likes: Fine wine, genteel conversation, long necks Dislikes: Mirrors, garlic, spoil-sports Description: Alastor isn't actually a vampire, but that doesn't stop him; it's important to him that other people think he might be. He powders his face to affect a deathly pallor; he dyes his hair grey and speaks with an accent that no one can quite place but sounds menacing and upper class; never mind that he started his career as a clerk with too much time on his hands. He is quick to identify those who are easily gulled by his displays, and charms them either with his act or with his actual talents as a war magus in the field. Nothing would make him happier than to find that the dungeon has access to actual vampirism so he could stop pretending and become a real dark lord like he's only read in stories, but until then, he will play the part and be damned good at it. marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 06:14
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Class: Medic Portrait: 4 Name: Suika Likes: Drinks of all kinds, always non-alcoholic. Also patching up her group. Dislikes: Any kind of flying creature, no matter what species or context or genus. Description: There are a surprising number of cynical Medics out there, something Suika never quite got the memo on being. Explorers would often need the help of her talents, and so healed they would be. And not merely explorers, but everyone that had ails, no matter how small or large. An en pinched was a life wasted, as far as she was concerned. The only luxury she allowed herself was a wide range of experiences with non-alcoholic drinks, especially her favored and frequently used drinking canteen filled with something nobody else ever got a taste of and was never explained, but whatever it was, she sure enjoyed it. Turned out healing and treating indiscriminately and burning through your supplies at the expense of not only yourself, but other fellow Medics, can leave you looking a bit mad in their eyes. So she decided to give the prevention side of her job a try, and went off to join a newly founded guild and take on the Labyrinth with them. Conquering it would surely prevent explorer-related injuries from the Labyrinth when they were done there, after all.
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Mar 9, 2021 06:45
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Portrait: Ronin 4 Name: Jeff Likes: Fancy sword moves, posing dramatically Dislikes: Public speaking, squirrels, practicing the basics Description: Jeff (or rather, "near-inaudible muttering that sounds vaguely like Jeff") is a tiny, reedy nerd with a pot-metal sword who listened to too many heavily embellished stories from extremely drunk adventurers in pubs and got some weird ideas about what it meant to be an adventurer in the process. They're terribly shy normally, struggling to keep an audible volume for longer sentences, but their tendency towards loud, dramatic gestures helps make up for it. Telling them they have to learn how to do things like "properly hold a sword" to do the cool flashy stuff without nearly removing their foot in the process will make them very sad, but will probably prevent impromptu amputations. A Jeff that is desperately trying to not become Generic Town Guard #385 by being chuuni af.
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Mar 9, 2021 06:54
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Well, here we go again. Portrait: Beast 3 Name: Loopy Likes: Cuddles, exercise, eating whatever antagonizes her Dislikes: Scaring people away, jerks, thorny paths Description: A strangely friendly and goofy wild animal who appears to have self-domesticated - making exceptions when her overtures of friendship are met with extended hostility. It's unclear what her motives are, unless... there aren't very many wolves in the High Lagaard Yggdrasil, are there? In that case, it's probably because of loneliness, and seeing the labyrinth monsters as poor prospects for friendship. MightyPretenders fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 07:41
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Class: Landsknecht Portrait: 4 Name: T.J. Likes: Sharing tips and little secrets, being appreciated, eavesdropping Dislikes: Lies, littering, cellars Description: T.J. is a local, and knows the streets of Lagaard in and out (and over - there are not many rooftops she has not explored). Giving tours to all the new explorers has earned her a little gold, but watching all these adventurers seeking fame has awoken feelings of local pride in her. She's taught herself some swordplay by watching practicing adventurers, and what she lacks in formal training she makes up for in keen observation. Furthermore, she's picked up some useful knowledge about the Labyrinth from listening to explorers at the inn, so even if she's not entered it yet she'd be useful as a guide to a novice guild. Seeing a promising group of adventurers at the Explorers Guild, T.J. takes the opportunity to join their ranks and show that she, and the city as a whole, can discover the secrets of the Labyrinth as well as any out-of-towner. Edit: I'll offer Althing as the guild name. ajkalan fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 07:52
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Class: Protector Portrait: 4 Name: Lily Likes: Fantasy stories, doing anything that feels like it could be in such a story Dislikes: Doors. They cannot be trusted. Description: There really isn't much that unusual about Lily. She was the third child of five in a loving family native to High Lagaard, and stories of the dungeon within the great tree were a regular event come bedtime. Eager to prove herself and not interested in taking up the family business of farming, she decided to become an adventurer in hopes of someday entering the dungeon and becoming the subject of a story herself. She's largely self-taught and lacking in real experience, but her dry enthusiasm gives her the air of someone far more competent. As for her issues with doors, her other siblings decided to help with her "adventurer training" by frequently deciding to hide just on the other side of them and sneak attack her, most commonly with a bucket full of water from overhead, a handful of flour, or both. A door represents the unknown, the possibility that anything could be on the other side, waiting to attack at any time. As for a guild name, the first one that popped into my head is Alchemy. I have no reason for this, it just sounds neat.
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Mar 9, 2021 08:09
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Class: Dark Hunter Portrait: 2 Name: Sonia Likes: Garlic, Stakes, Steaks, Inexplicable Bags of Money Dislikes: Bats, Candles Description: Sonia's come to Lagaard for business and pleasure - and her pleasure is the business of monster slaying. Coming from a long line of noble hunters and/or thieving sociopaths (depending on who you're asking), she's taking a break from getting hired by villages to slay whatever fearsome beast is lurking in the nearby woods/caves/dilapidated abandoned manor to try her hand at dungeoneering. The possibility of getting her hands on undiscovered treasures that she could use to retire early most certainly didn't play a factor, nor did the opportunity to show off her own take on her family's mastery of the whip. Although, knowing how this sort of thing tends to go, she's halfway expecting having to face some sort of dark lord before this adventure is completed - but she'll rise to the occasion nonetheless! As for a guild name, how about Nidhogg?
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Mar 9, 2021 08:41
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Class/Portrait: Troubadour 1 Name: Adrian Likes: Innovation, unconventional solutions Dislikes: Hecklers Description: A talented young musician. Having mastered more traditional instruments, lyres, lutes, flutes, pipes, and whatnot, he quickly set about finding new and exciting ways to practice his art. Exotic instruments, however, tend to be quite expensive, and well, let's be blunt, his insistence on experimental music doesn't get him a lot of gigs. So when he overheard a group of adventurers bragging about the vast riches of the labyrinth, he set out to join a guild. His... uh, eclectic array of cobbled-together hybrid instruments and offbeat genres of music may not be "conventional" or "good", but there's no denying it gets results. And let's go with Phoenix for a guild name, why not.
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Mar 9, 2021 08:41
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Verant posted:As for a guild name, how about Nidhogg? Oh, I like this a lot. 
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Mar 9, 2021 09:26
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Name: Mona Class: Alchemist Portrait: 4 Likes: Medics, campfire food, merchants and traders, comfortable clothes Dislikes: Cats, reptiles, hexers, taking orders Story: Mona is a Medic! No, really. Wait, why are you putting on a gas mask? Mona as a kid wanted nothing more than to be a Medic. She excelled in school. She helped out at the local healer. She even carried around bandages to sell to the other kids. The problem? She just doesn't have the talent for chemistry. Every time she follows a recipe or spell for a healing potion or antidote or unguent it ends up exploding, becoming poisonous or otherwise dangerous. She's hoping some on the ground experience in the labyrinth will help her overcome her issues. Mona is pretty sure that her issues come from a Hexer hexing her when she annoyed one as a child, so she hates all Hexers. On the other hand, she greatly respects merchants and traders for their hustle and ability to make a buck. And if not, at least she can find some new ingredients for her famous rice dishes! Slaan fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Mar 10, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 13:48
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Alright, let's give this a shot. Class: Beast Portrait: 1, the White Tiger Name: Rajah Likes: Good food, belly rubs, being told he's a pretty kitty, never ever being alone, snuggles, getting his fur brushed, big rubber balls Dislikes: Being alone, leafy vegetables, being told he's bad, getting his teeth cleaned, Description: People like baby animals, especially the exotic ones. So a baby white tiger with huge fangs made a perfect addition to Claymont's Traveling Petting Zoo. Rajah spent his first year of life being coddled and cuddled by various people who visited the petting zoo, as well as being lavishly spoiled with all the balls he could play with and long sessions of fur brushing. But time stops for no one, and Rajah eventually grew from a tiny and adorable tiger cub into a huge and scary tiger that people were scared to approach, let alone pet. Despite his sweet nature, Claymont viewed Rajah as a money-sink and so, like with other grown animals, dumped him in the Labyrinth the second he got the chance. He figured the enormous housecat would end up easy prey for the nearest deer or something. But surprisingly, Rajah managed to stay alive mostly by scavenging and reluctantly eating some of the edible plants found in the labyrinth. Eventually, he managed to reach the first floor and stumble into High Lagaard. Civilization! Of course, still being a large and deadly white tiger (though now a very dirty one), Rajah's presence tended to scare the majority of the citizens. The only ones who appeared to tolerate him were adventurers, who took to tossing the tiger scraps of food when he begged. Desperate for someone who wouldn't leave him, Rajah took to randomly following adventurer parties until they eventually left the region or perished in the labyrinth. Recently, he's been attached at the hip to the Guildmaster, who is desperate for someone, anyone to take him from her. He doesn't seem to realize how much she hates him, please, just give him pets. Rajah is a good kitty, really! And I'll put in another vote for Nidhogg.
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Mar 9, 2021 14:20
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Portrait: war magus 4 Name: Marina Likes: umami flavors, bright colors, mom, shinies, swords explosions, girls Dislikes: fancy stuff, privileged rich people, alcohol, toxic masculinity, getting misgendered Description: freshly graduated from war magus college, and god was it boring. Always referred to by her last name or things like 'her father's child' or '-big sis-'s shadow', never just Marina, and she's sick of it! No more last name, no more family ties - just Marina! She wants to use her skills and see how far she can go and how strong she can get with just herself and friends she makes, swords and magic and explosions and stuff yeah!! Living life constantly overshadowed by a rich, loving, stifling family and an especially doting older sister, she wants to escape her noble heritage and make a name for herself and she can do it on her own mom! Imagine, when everything's done everyone will be talking about Marina! Yes!! Marina!! (Marina is trans but if you don't feel comfortable writing her that way, i'll understand) Marina says Nidhogg is fine!! clockwork chaos fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Mar 10, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 14:41
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Man, I really want to get back to EO. I loved IV and managed to do everything in the game, but the fact you needed to do Story Mode on both Untold games to unlock everything kinda made me left them behind and then I tried the demo of V and despite liking it never got the full game. I do tend to stop playing games I like for some reason... anyways, here's my entry: Class:Survivalist Portrait: 3 Name: Theodore Likes: Beautiful vistas, fame, woodcarving. Dislikes: Danger, effort, squirrels. Description: Claiming to be a renowed explorer and brilliant adventurer, Theodore's reputation amongst the people of High Lagaard quickly took a nose dive after multiple guilds kicked him out on grounds such as "unable to shoot things in front of his nose", "having the sense of direction of a blind sloth" and "running away at the slightest sign of danger". That said, despite never even reaching further than the first floor of the labyrinth, his uncanny ability to sniff out danger and the fact no team he's travelled with has ever been slaughtered by the horrors of Yggdrasil has made him an inside joke amongst explorers as the perfect member for new, inexperienced guilds to discover first hand the hardships of the dungeon; at Theodore's lament. And another vote for Nidhogg. Edit: changed name after realizing there's an 8 character limit for names too, duh. GiantRockFromSpace fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 15:05
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Add another Nidhogg vote for the guild name. Portrait: Survivalist 3 Name: Stitch Likes: Exploration, archaeology, pranks, drawing (and similar activities, such as painting) Dislikes: Scary things Description: Stitch was always that problematic child who refused to follow directions, but he's kind of gotten over that in more recent years. What's in the hand behind his back? Shhhhhh, that's just how he greets people. There's no buzzer button or anything on it, why would there be? But besides that, he's gotten curious about some places, such as this place called 'Etria' with a whole bunch of ruins at the bottom. Score! Time to head there and see what's there to learn about the past. Unfortunately, he took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and end up in some town with a big ol' tree that's probably got a ton of dangerous monsters in it .Unknown to him, Etria's tree also had monsters in it. Darn Albuquerque ruins everyone's directions. Hopefully the archery classes he took a few years ago for self defense don't fail him... Maybe he'll get some help from some other folks nearby?
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Mar 9, 2021 15:11
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Portrait: 1 Name: Hecate the Beast Likes: Belly rubs, catnip, affection, eating forest squirrels to keep the population down Dislikes: Forest Squirrels duping adventurers, hateful people, animal abusers Description: Hecate, being a saber toothed tiger of all things, one would expect a monstrous beast that enjoys ripping and tearing adventurers apart at speeds that would make even the local Ronin blush. Not so true with her. She was originally raised from a small kitten by a guild of adventurers as a sort of mascot for their group, fully domesticated by the time she could adventure with them and very affectionate and friendly with the local townies...even if she had a habit of using the local tavern as a sorta-kinda scratching post once she got bigger. Unfortunately those happy days ended when her group, having slowly adventuring through the first stratum, had a run in with one of the local forest squirrels...and one can expect with them, their only lifeline was taken from them right before their time of need of it. She had escaped from the FOE that tore through the rest of her guild, leaving her to fend for herself in the upper parts of the first strata...and fend she did, growing to full size before long and hunting down any squirrels she could find, less for sustenance and more for a deep ingrained hatred of the creatures that helped to kill her owners, she would hunt them down almost exclusively (though she did give the other monsters of the first strata a good deal of trouble if only to get a little variety in her diet) and do everything she could, if nothing else, to keep other guilds from sharing her guild's fate.
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Mar 9, 2021 19:39
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Class: Dark Hunter, portrait 2 Name: Gillian Likes: Solitude, fishing, philosophical debate on choice and sapience with a few close friends, cooking Dislikes: Expectations, romantic relationships, her father, spicy food, this god drat whip Description: Gillian was a fairly normal girl growing up - a little bit of a shut-in, but not terribly so. Then her god drat father gave her this god drat whip and everything went to hell. Insisting it was a family heirloom, her father presented her with a whip he claimed to be magical and told her it was her duty and destiny to battle the forces of evil with it. Of course, he presented it to her in an arcane ritual coinciding with a full lunar eclipse, so of course she ended up absorbing the power of that god drat whip and now any whip she touches becomes imbued with deadly power, cutting and restraining targets with ease - something she was quick to discover when her god drat father kept forcing her to train with whips. Now she's been kicked out of the house to go on "a brave and perilous journey to vanquish the evil in this world!" and is not to be welcomed back until she's proven herself a capable and righteous adventurer. Without the money or skills to travel far from High Lagaard, it seems the labyrinth is the only path forward for her. Is definitively and absolutely not a Belmont.
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Mar 10, 2021 03:59
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Portrait: Survivalist 3 Name: Logan Likes: Nature, new discoveries, FOEs (from a distance) Dislikes: His low pain tolerance, losing his glasses, FOEs (up close) Description: While Logan was born in a line of local hunters, he himself was never quite adept at the whole hunting thing. He was pretty great at anything that involved gathering, foraging, trap-making, you name it!... except for the part where he had to fire arrows at animals. He was never good at the whole "killing" part, all told, but he was very good at studying the habits of the local fauna. Before long, Logan's talent would become his sole interest; managing to make a small name for himself in Lagaard thanks to his numerous additions to the city's library on botany and zoology. Logan eventually decided his life goal would be to organize all his notes together and publish his very own codex full of the information of his home. Well, needless to say, once the grand duchy discovered the Labyrinth and opened it up to the public, Logan knew he had to go in there and finish his work. After all, there was bound to be more flora and fauna to record! Besides, adventurers only ever took one part of a monster back to the shop to sell; Logan could always salvage the rest for his own research! And his years of being a Survivalist would be more than helpful for any Guild, right? ...Unfortunately, all that time in the library with his nose between a piece of parchment and a pen meant his eyesight was pretty bad, meaning his poor combat skills from his youth didn't improve any. He's hoping that all the info he could provide will make up for it.
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Mar 10, 2021 05:37
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Jank Odyssey: Loyalty Welcome to the first installment of the many coding horrors that were in EO2. The game had a ridiculously small turnaround time from EO1 being released only 1 year and 1 month after the Japanese release period. To put it bluntly, it was basically rushed out the door hard, and it shows in several places. Not only were several balancing and design decisions questionable, the Japanese version of the game was infamously buggy to the point where localization had to clean up several of the bugs, and these changes got backported to Version 2 cartridges of this game back in Japan. Even then, localization and the Version 2 incarnation of the game didn't catch all of them. These kinds of updates are going to be focusing on the various glitches and coding horrors you can find in this particular entry. Let's start out with Loyalty, the skill that heavily brings down the Beast's usefulness and doesn't even work with most of their skills or even their stats. The reason Loyalty is utter shite is because it was lazily coded. You see, the EO1 and 2 engine handles redirecting damage in a loving bizarre way. Granted there weren't any way to forcibly redirect damage instances in EO1. When Loyalty activates, it converts the damage amount into a typeless damage attack which is then applied to the Beast. This is why Loyalty ignores the Beast's stats as the damage redirection kicks in after the enemy's attack is run through the damage formula, and it doesn't do it again for the Beast. The source of this attack then gets changed from "came from an enemy" to "comes from nothing" which is part of why it breaks several interactions. Nearly every single defensive skill is coded to work on enemy attacks only, however Loyalty converts it to recoil damage instead, which many defensives do not work on. So there's no "attack" to protect against, it's mechanically recoil damage, and the math doesn’t get redone to account for that. And even if say, the Anti skills did activate on Loyalty procs, they couldn't do anything because it's untyped damage. This why outside of Loyalty, true redirection skills did not exist in the first 2 games. It’s stupidly jank as gently caress. From EO3 onwards, damage redirection works exactly as you would expect. Changes the target who takes damage instead of doing that entire bizarre song and dance. Consider this the first of many many coding horrors in this game. I have such sights to show you. Araxxor fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Mar 10, 2021 |
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Mar 10, 2021 14:34
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Spaghetti code. My favorite.
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Mar 10, 2021 15:30
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So, mechanics-wise, the Beast is literally killing itself with Loyalty. Not only through throwing itself in front of so many attacks, but with essentially recoil damage. That...Wow.
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Mar 10, 2021 15:37
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That's the good old EO2 jank I'm familiar with. Its a good thing they gave the Beast their justice in EO2U. We're not on that version, though, so I expect many Beast deaths.
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Mar 10, 2021 17:16
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Looking at the break down for Landies it doesn't look like it's worth making one even as a joke. Unless that joke is "We trained him wrong."
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Mar 10, 2021 17:42
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Guild votes so far! Nidhogg: 6 Everything else: 1 I'll, uh, just call this here, thanks for playing! Submissions so far! Landy: 2 submissions Portrait: Landsknecht 4 Name: Holly by Mihoshi LP Beach Likes: Drinking, Fighting, Heavy Lifting Dislikes: Nobles, Liars, Slackers Description: Holly arrived in High Lagaard from a neighbouring highland country and is challenging the labarynth in exchange for amnesty from her crimes which if rumors are to be believed are long and varied, the only people who know for certain are the minister who accepted her application and Holly herself and attempts to ask her about it usually end with her angrilly yelling in a thick highlander accent followed by a punch in the face. Naturally these rumors are making it difficult to find a guild who will take her, despite her previous career as a Lumberjack giving her a great deal of raw power and her surprisingly high level of swordmanship which was revealed during an aptitude test and caused a great deal of confusion since Holly claims to have never used a sword before, which is a big issue since she is required to venture into the labarynth as part of her amnesty agreement... also she needs beer money. Class: Landsknecht Portrait: 4 Name: T.J. by ajkalan SA Forum Likes: Sharing tips and little secrets, being appreciated, eavesdropping Dislikes: Lies, littering, cellars Description: T.J. is a local, and knows the streets of Lagaard in and out (and over - there are not many rooftops she has not explored). Giving tours to all the new explorers has earned her a little gold, but watching all these adventurers seeking fame has awoken feelings of local pride in her. She's taught herself some swordplay by watching practicing adventurers, and what she lacks in formal training she makes up for in keen observation. Furthermore, she's picked up some useful knowledge about the Labyrinth from listening to explorers at the inn, so even if she's not entered it yet she'd be useful as a guide to a novice guild. Seeing a promising group of adventurers at the Explorers Guild, T.J. takes the opportunity to join their ranks and show that she, and the city as a whole, can discover the secrets of the Labyrinth as well as any out-of-towner. Protector: 2 submissions Protector 4 (Pink-haired one) Name: Cecily Rindel by Alfa/Polaris LP Beach Likes: Meeting new friends and poking them into improving themselves, taunting and clowning on enemies, intense dedication to work and rest (though she has hobbies like playing games and journaling, she also just loves sleep), surprising people, gossiping Dislikes: Pedantry, self-righteousness or putting oneself down, blind dedication to honesty or law, confrontational people (especially publically and/or needling into other people's business), glorification of sacrifice Description: Cecily's a wanderer who's seen way more death than anyone as young as she should, having left her home in the outskirts of unrestored badlands as a late teen after woefully inadequate training and service for her country (such as it was). She's certainly not the gentle and timid person she once was, but she refuses to decide whether the change was "good" or "bad" — it simply is, and she likes herself (and the possibilities of new countries) just fine, thank you very much. Unfulfilling odd jobs and friendships that went sour (admittedly not helped by her rough conduct) led her to High Lagaard, where she's very eager for a second chance at keeping others safe, making and keeping new friends, and having a drat fine time of it all. Cecily doesn't open up too quickly, but she's still usually warm and perhaps too familiar and jokey. She can tone it down when people seem legitimately upset or uncomfortable and she gets quite severe (sometimes with a white-hot wit) in situations or subjects she dislikes. Feel free to throw in ~s aplenty, but not constantly, yeah~? Class: Protector Portrait: 4 Name: Lily by TeeQueue SA Forums Likes: Fantasy stories, doing anything that feels like it could be in such a story Dislikes: Doors. They cannot be trusted. Description: There really isn't much that unusual about Lily. She was the third child of five in a loving family native to High Lagaard, and stories of the dungeon within the great tree were a regular event come bedtime. Eager to prove herself and not interested in taking up the family business of farming, she decided to become an adventurer in hopes of someday entering the dungeon and becoming the subject of a story herself. She's largely self-taught and lacking in real experience, but her dry enthusiasm gives her the air of someone far more competent. As for her issues with doors, her other siblings decided to help with her "adventurer training" by frequently deciding to hide just on the other side of them and sneak attack her, most commonly with a bucket full of water from overhead, a handful of flour, or both. A door represents the unknown, the possibility that anything could be on the other side, waiting to attack at any time. Survivalist: 3 submissions Class:Survivalist Portrait: 3 Name: Alexander by GiantRockFromSpace SA Forums Likes: Beautiful vistas, fame, woodcarving. Dislikes: Danger, effort, squirrels. Description: Claiming to be a renowed explorer and brilliant adventurer, Alexander's reputation amongst the people of High Lagaard quickly took a nose dive after multiple guilds kicked him out on grounds such as "unable to shoot things in front of his nose", "having the sense of direction of a blind sloth" and "running away at the slightest sign of danger". That said, despite never even reaching further than the first floor of the labyrinth, his uncanny ability to sniff out danger and the fact no team he's travelled with has ever been slaughtered by the horrors of Yggdrasil has made him an inside joke amongst explorers as the perfect member for new, inexperienced guilds to discover first hand the hardships of the dungeon; at Alexander's lament. Portrait: Survivalist 3 Name: Stitch by Toyotasomi no Miko SA Forums Likes: Exploration, archaeology, pranks, drawing (and similar activities, such as painting) Dislikes: Scary things Description: Stitch was always that problematic child who refused to follow directions, but he's kind of gotten over that in more recent years. What's in the hand behind his back? Shhhhhh, that's just how he greets people. There's no buzzer button or anything on it, why would there be? But besides that, he's gotten curious about some places, such as this place called 'Etria' with a whole bunch of ruins at the bottom. Score! Time to head there and see what's there to learn about the past. Unfortunately, he took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and end up in some town with a big ol' tree that's probably got a ton of dangerous monsters in it .Unknown to him, Etria's tree also had monsters in it. Darn Albuquerque ruins everyone's directions. Hopefully the archery classes he took a few years ago for self defense don't fail him... Maybe he'll get some help from some other folks nearby? Portrait: Survivalist 3 Name: Logan by BlackPersona SA Forum Likes: Nature, new discoveries, FOEs (from a distance) Dislikes: His low pain tolerance, losing his glasses, FOEs (up close) Description: While Logan was born in a line of local hunters, he himself was never quite adept at the whole hunting thing. He was pretty great at anything that involved gathering, foraging, trap-making, you name it!... except for the part where he had to fire arrows at animals. He was never good at the whole "killing" part, all told, but he was very good at studying the habits of the local fauna. Before long, Logan's talent would become his sole interest; managing to make a small name for himself in Lagaard thanks to his numerous additions to the city's library on botany and zoology. Logan eventually decided his life goal would be to organize all his notes together and publish his very own codex full of the information of his home. Well, needless to say, once the grand duchy discovered the Labyrinth and opened it up to the public, Logan knew he had to go in there and finish his work. After all, there was bound to be more flora and fauna to record! Besides, adventurers only ever took one part of a monster back to the shop to sell; Logan could always salvage the rest for his own research! And his years of being a Survivalist would be more than helpful for any Guild, right? ...Unfortunately, all that time in the library with his nose between a piece of parchment and a pen meant his eyesight was pretty bad, meaning his poor combat skills from his youth didn't improve any. He's hoping that all the info he could provide will make up for it. Dark Hunter: 3 submissions Port: Dark Hunter 3rd portrait (white hair one) Name: Alexander (or just Alex) by blitz Discord Likes: Insects, high-energy/spicy food, and the stars. Dislikes: Thunderstorms, the indescribable fear of being watched when you're alone, deep waters, falling flat on his rear end as he slips. Description: Alexander, the poor boy, likes rushing headlong into most things due to slight stubbornness. As they say, "The end justifies the means", and their means is being unafraid to try new things. (Alex goes by he/they pronouns as well, if you're willing to include it.) Class: Dark Hunter Portrait: 2 Name: Sonia by Verant Likes: Garlic, Stakes, Steaks, Inexplicable Bags of Money Dislikes: Bats, Candles Description: Sonia's come to Lagaard for business and pleasure - and her pleasure is the business of monster slaying. Coming from a long line of noble hunters and/or thieving sociopaths (depending on who you're asking), she's taking a break from getting hired by villages to slay whatever fearsome beast is lurking in the nearby woods/caves/dilapidated abandoned manor to try her hand at dungeoneering. The possibility of getting her hands on undiscovered treasures that she could use to retire early most certainly didn't play a factor, nor did the opportunity to show off her own take on her family's mastery of the whip. Although, knowing how this sort of thing tends to go, she's halfway expecting having to face some sort of dark lord before this adventure is completed - but she'll rise to the occasion nonetheless! Class: Dark Hunter, portrait 2 Name: Gillian by theshim SA Thread Likes: Solitude, fishing, philosophical debate on choice and sapience with a few close friends, cooking Dislikes: Expectations, romantic relationships, her father, spicy food, this god drat whip Description: Gillian was a fairly normal girl growing up - a little bit of a shut-in, but not terribly so. Then her god drat father gave her this god drat whip and everything went to hell. Insisting it was a family heirloom, her father presented her with a whip he claimed to be magical and told her it was her duty and destiny to battle the forces of evil with it. Of course, he presented it to her in an arcane ritual coinciding with a full lunar eclipse, so of course she ended up absorbing the power of that god drat whip and now any whip she touches becomes imbued with deadly power, cutting and restraining targets with ease - something she was quick to discover when her god drat father kept forcing her to train with whips. Now she's been kicked out of the house to go on "a brave and perilous journey to vanquish the evil in this world!" and is not to be welcomed back until she's proven herself a capable and righteous adventurer. Without the money or skills to travel far from High Lagaard, it seems the labyrinth is the only path forward for her. Is definitively and absolutely not a Belmont. Medic: 2 submissions Class: Medic Portrait: 4 Name: Suika by BraveLittleToaster SA Forum Likes: Drinks of all kinds, always non-alcoholic. Also patching up her group. Dislikes: Any kind of flying creature, no matter what species or context or genus. Description: There are a surprising number of cynical Medics out there, something Suika never quite got the memo on being. Explorers would often need the help of her talents, and so healed they would be. And not merely explorers, but everyone that had ails, no matter how small or large. An en pinched was a life wasted, as far as she was concerned. The only luxury she allowed herself was a wide range of experiences with non-alcoholic drinks, especially her favored and frequently used drinking canteen filled with something nobody else ever got a taste of and was never explained, but whatever it was, she sure enjoyed it. Turned out healing and treating indiscriminately and burning through your supplies at the expense of not only yourself, but other fellow Medics, can leave you looking a bit mad in their eyes. So she decided to give the prevention side of her job a try, and went off to join a newly founded guild and take on the Labyrinth with them. Conquering it would surely prevent explorer-related injuries from the Labyrinth when they were done there, after all. name: kathy by kyasarintsu Discord medic 4 likes: sleeping, sweets (adds chocolate to everything), "ugly cute" animals and monsters (like evil eye) dislikes: immodesty, uncleanliness, aggressive behavior description: constantly finds herself cleaning up other people's messes. typically complains quietly to herself but has the occasional angry outburst. always speaks in a mellow voice (always speaks in lowercase, even her name). is not afraid to bust skulls with a rod if she has to, even if it's a bad idea. Alchemist: 1 submission Name: Mona by Slaan SA Forums Class: Alchemist Portrait: 4 Likes: Medics, campfire food, merchants and traders, comfortable clothes Dislikes: Cats, reptiles, hexers, taking orders Story: Mona is a Medic! No, really. Wait, why are you putting on a gas mask? Mona as a kid wanted nothing more than to be a Medic. She excelled in school. She helped out at the local healer. She even carried around bandages to sell to the other kids. The problem? She just doesn't have the talent for chemistry. Every time she follows a recipe or spell for a healing potion or antidote or unguent it ends up exploding, becoming poisonous or otherwise dangerous. She's hoping some on the ground experience in the labyrinth will help her overcome her issues. And if not, at least she can find some new ingredients for her famous rice dishes! Troubadour: 1 submission Class/Portrait: Troubadour 1 Name: Adrian by Jade Rider SA Forums Likes: Innovation, unconventional solutions Dislikes: Hecklers Description: A talented young musician. Having mastered more traditional instruments, lyres, lutes, flutes, pipes, and whatnot, he quickly set about finding new and exciting ways to practice his art. Exotic instruments, however, tend to be quite expensive, and well, let's be blunt, his insistence on experimental music doesn't get him a lot of gigs. So when he overheard a group of adventurers bragging about the vast riches of the labyrinth, he set out to join a guild. His... uh, eclectic array of cobbled-together hybrid instruments and offbeat genres of music may not be "conventional" or "good", but there's no denying it gets results. Ronin: 2 submissions Portrait: Ronin 4 Name: Jeff by Like Clockwork SA Forum Likes: Fancy sword moves, posing dramatically Dislikes: Public speaking, squirrels, practicing the basics Description: Jeff (or rather, "near-inaudible muttering that sounds vaguely like Jeff") is a tiny, reedy nerd with a pot-metal sword who listened to too many heavily embellished stories from extremely drunk adventurers in pubs and got some weird ideas about what it meant to be an adventurer in the process. They're terribly shy normally, struggling to keep an audible volume for longer sentences, but their tendency towards loud, dramatic gestures helps make up for it. Telling them they have to learn how to do things like "properly hold a sword" to do the cool flashy stuff without nearly removing their foot in the process will make them very sad, but will probably prevent impromptu amputations. A Jeff that is desperately trying to not become Generic Town Guard #385 by being chuuni af. Class: Ronin, portrait 4 Name: Eleanore by yoshicookiezeus LP Beach Likes: Fighting, cheering people up, swimming, adventure novels Dislikes: Training, getting held back by voices of reason Description: While Eleanore would describe herself as a “self-taught prodigy with the blade”, the truth is that she has a vastly overinflated view of her own abilities. Her tendency to want to pick a fight with any Labyrinth denizens in sight no matter the circumstances got her old guild into trouble more than a few times, and she fairly quickly got thrown out of it after one incident where she woke up in the middle of the night, decided she absolutely had to go get revenge on that caterpillar the group had fled from earlier right now, and ran into the Labyrinth on her own, leading to the rest of the group finding her half dead a few steps into the first floor the next morning. Despite this, she stays relentlessly positive, and remains perfectly assured that she can defeat anything in her path. “I’m sure that last loss was just a fluke. Best out of three?” Hexer: 2 submissions Portrait: Hexer 3 Name: Harold by RandomKesaranPasaran LP Beach Likes: Tea (most flavors at any rate), soft music, cleanliness, solitude, reading (primarily horror and mystery novels) Dislikes: Vulgarity, pettiness, heavy manual labor, mud, intimacy in general Description: A down-on-his-luck insignificant son of a rather large noble family who was thrown out for being a general disappointment after one too many attempts at arranged marriage fell apart. He's actually not that bad a person once you get to know him; his manners are impeccable and he treats everyone fairly, he's just antisocial to a fault and only really got into this adventuring thing because it seemed better than starving at the time. Plus the hexer arts had a certain appeal to someone like him, even if the customary outfit is a little odd. Hexer 4 Hart (and Sophia) by kvx687 SA Forum Likes: Kicking, stalking adventurers, walking around in small circles Dislikes: Not kicking people For most Ragelopes life is pretty simple: stake out a territory, patrol for intruders, and kick the tar out of any they find. Hart was no exception until an unfortunate run-in with a novice Hexer with a book full of ancient spells and not quite enough understanding to use them. One magical accident later and Hart found himself inside said hexer's body, haunted by a rather irritated ghost who quite wants her life back- something easier said than done, however. Some time later, having picked up a rudimentary understanding of hexing, the local language, and basic social niceties like pants and not kicking everyone they meet, the duo found themselves in Lagaard, chasing rumors of a mysterious grail said to cure all ills and stories of explorers transformed beyond recognition. It's the best shot Hart has of getting his old life back, and if nothing else joining a rookie guild will give him the chance to kick things again. Gunner: 2 submissions Portrait: Gunner 4 Name: Ava, Female by Erisin LP Beach Likes: Cleanliness, Science, Seafood, Cats Dislikes: Blood, Loud Noises, Being Touched Description: Ava's a doctor looking towards innovative new ways to heal allies from long range - surgery and being up there with all the blood and guys just doesn't sit right with her. She's meticulous in her studies and However, this squeamishness comes secondary to her intellectual curiosity, and she seeks to enter the labyrinth in order to collect more monster materials that could lead to new medical inventions. Her research into ballistic medicine delivery also led to some new experimental types of weaponry, and while she'd never release those to the public, she's not exactly averse to using it to meet her own goals either. Class: Gunner is new, so we've gotta have one of those, yeah? Portrait: 2 Name: Aleksandra by Blaziken386 SA Forum Likes: Almost anything that could be described as "fancy", "luxurious", or "elegant" (ie: champagne, tea sets, bespoke clothing, etc.), and has a secret guilty pleasure for sweets. Dislikes: Animals, the smell of cabbage, food that's gone cold, and hotel/inn blankets. Description: Something about the portraits for the Gunner class screams "russian" to me. I don't know why, I think it's the fuzzy hats. Which is why I'm doubling down on that and saying that she's from (the fantasy equivalent of) Russia. Feel free to embellish the accent as much as you'd like. In the past, her family was (purportedly) Nobility™, but that was several generations ago. Because of that, she idolizes that sort of lifestyle, even if she's not entirely familiar with what that lifestyle is supposed to be like. A wannabe ojou-sama, essentially. War Magus: 3 submissions Portrait: War Magus, 2 Name: Rosaria by Angel LP Beach Likes: Rose-petal tea, the scent of mud after it rains, sewing dolls and clothes, big words, people who get upset about big words, and dolls. Dislikes: Scrubbing mud off her boots after the rain, running out of materials, people who get upset about big words, and fire. Description: A humble witch from what can charitably be considered a village just a few hills and valleys off High Lagaard's edge, Rosaria's witchcraft is her *hobby*. Her craft is sewing cloth dolls, as well as any sort of other items made of felt, silk, wool, or any other such material she may have on hand. Most of her creations end up enchanted in one way or another for fun, typically animated and given rudimentary life, and in fact High Lagaard has a few hidden cloth dolls in every place, as they tend to run off. She considers this them moving out, though there are a few that always stick around, waiting in her pockets or her large bag of sewing materials and implements. Rosaria is a very humble person, not really one for amassing wealth or attention; aside from sewing, reading big books and learning magic, the only thing that she'll really chase is a new, esoteric tea to try. Class: War Magus Portrait: 3 Name: Alastor by marhsmallow creep SA Forum Likes: Fine wine, genteel conversation, long necks Dislikes: Mirrors, garlic, spoil-sports Description: Alastor isn't actually a vampire, but that doesn't stop him; it's important to him that other people think he might be. He powders his face to affect a deathly pallor; he dyes his hair grey and speaks with an accent that no one can quite place but sounds menacing and upper class; never mind that he started his career as a clerk with too much time on his hands. He is quick to identify those who are easily gulled by his displays, and charms them either with his act or with his actual talents as a war magus in the field. Nothing would make him happier than to find that the dungeon has access to actual vampirism so he could stop pretending and become a real dark lord like he's only read in stories, but until then, he will play the part and be damned good at it. Portrait: war magus 4 Name: Marina by clockwork chaos SA Forums Likes: umami flavors, bright colors, mom, swearing, explosions, girls Dislikes: fancy stuff, privileged rich people, alcohol, toxic masculinity, getting misgendered Description: freshly graduated from war magus college, and god was it boring. She just wants to use her skills and see how strong she can get, explosions and magic and stuff yeah!! Overshadowed by a rich, loving, stifling family and doting older sister, she wants to make a name for herself and she can do it on her own mom! (Marina is trans but if you don't feel comfortable writing her that way, i'll understand) Beast: 5 submissions Class - Beast Portrait - 1 Name - "Patch" by SilDre LP Beach Likes - Mushrooms, lounging, chin-scratches Dislikes - hard work, solitude, bells Description - When the elders of lagaard were children, there was an explorer so rude and lazy that they could never find a guild to keep them. They once enraged a hexer of great renown, amd were abandoned in the labyrinth. Shortly thereafter, they stumbles across a patch of the juiciest-looking mushrooms they haf ever seen. They ate their fill, but soon found themselves dizzy. They stopped for a nap in a moonlit clearing, and awoke in a savage, inhuman form. For years they wandered the labyrinth, trying to find a way to fix their condition; but they have long since decided that it is probably a lost cause. All the time alone has made them rethink their ways, but their vices are hard to give up even after all these years. Class - Beast Portrait - 3 Name - worms (no caps) by ant Discord Likes - eating good, killing monsters Hates - everyone else in the guild, acting defensively Description - A dumb wolf that can talk that's overly critical of others. Text is stylistically written without caps or punctuation. Is only on a guild because they're bored and they have nothing better to do. Only contributes to fights with Rampage and refuses to do anything else, even if it means constantly dying due to Loyalty. Will never learn. Portrait: Beast 3 Name: Loopy by MightyPretenders SA Forum Likes: Cuddles, exercise, eating whatever antagonizes her Dislikes: Scaring people away, jerks, thorny paths Description: A strangely friendly and goofy wild animal who appears to have self-domesticated - making exceptions when her overtures of friendship are met with extended hostility. It's unclear what her motives are, unless... there aren't very many wolves in the High Lagaard Yggdrasil, are there? In that case, it's probably because of loneliness, and seeing the labyrinth monsters as poor prospects for friendship. Class: Beast Portrait: 1, the White Tiger Name: Rajah by SimplyUnknown1 SA Forums Likes: Good food, belly rubs, being told he's a pretty kitty, never ever being alone, snuggles, getting his fur brushed, big rubber balls Dislikes: Being alone, leafy vegetables, being told he's bad, getting his teeth cleaned, Description: People like baby animals, especially the exotic ones. So a baby white tiger with huge fangs made a perfect addition to Claymont's Traveling Petting Zoo. Rajah spent his first year of life being coddled and cuddled by various people who visited the petting zoo, as well as being lavishly spoiled with all the balls he could play with and long sessions of fur brushing. But time stops for no one, and Rajah eventually grew from a tiny and adorable tiger cub into a huge and scary tiger that people were scared to approach, let alone pet. Despite his sweet nature, Claymont viewed Rajah as a money-sink and so, like with other grown animals, dumped him in the Labyrinth the second he got the chance. He figured the enormous housecat would end up easy prey for the nearest deer or something. But surprisingly, Rajah managed to stay alive mostly by scavenging and reluctantly eating some of the edible plants found in the labyrinth. Eventually, he managed to reach the first floor and stumble into High Lagaard. Civilization! Of course, still being a large and deadly white tiger (though now a very dirty one), Rajah's presence tended to scare the majority of the citizens. The only ones who appeared to tolerate him were adventurers, who took to tossing the tiger scraps of food when he begged. Desperate for someone who wouldn't leave him, Rajah took to randomly following adventurer parties until they eventually left the region or perished in the labyrinth. Recently, he's been attached at the hip to the Guildmaster, who is desperate for someone, anyone to take him from her. He doesn't seem to realize how much she hates him, please, just give him pets. Rajah is a good kitty, really! Portrait: 1 Name: Hecate the Beast by Kemix SA Forum Likes: Belly rubs, catnip, affection, eating forest squirrels to keep the population down Dislikes: Forest Squirrels duping adventurers, hateful people, animal abusers Description: Hecate, being a saber toothed tiger of all things, one would expect a monstrous beast that enjoys ripping and tearing adventurers apart at speeds that would make even the local Ronin blush. Not so true with her. She was originally raised from a small kitten by a guild of adventurers as a sort of mascot for their group, fully domesticated by the time she could adventure with them and very affectionate and friendly with the local townies...even if she had a habit of using the local tavern as a sorta-kinda scratching post once she got bigger. Unfortunately those happy days ended when her group, having slowly adventuring through the first stratum, had a run in with one of the local forest squirrels...and one can expect with them, their only lifeline was taken from them right before their time of need of it. She had escaped from the FOE that tore through the rest of her guild, leaving her to fend for herself in the upper parts of the first strata...and fend she did, growing to full size before long and hunting down any squirrels she could find, less for sustenance and more for a deep ingrained hatred of the creatures that helped to kill her owners, she would hunt them down almost exclusively (though she did give the other monsters of the first strata a good deal of trouble if only to get a little variety in her diet) and do everything she could, if nothing else, to keep other guilds from sharing her guild's fate.
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Mar 10, 2021 22:34
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Pretty sure I have everyone, you have around 24 hours to submit something, make sure Alchemist and Troubadour don't get a free pass! Feel free to edit your submissions, I'll be copying from the posts at the end to ensure I have everyone still. Congrats to everyone who really wants to submit for Beast, I've decided one of you might show up along with the winning Beast to show off Loyalty on occasion. Was probably gonna do this anyway...
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Mar 10, 2021 22:36
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One thing Crosspiece, I changed the name of my submission since I realized it went over the character limit, just in case you missed it.
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Mar 10, 2021 22:40
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Class/Portrait: Troubador 1 Name: Kristina Likes: (Most) performing arts, instruments you can play while dancing, junk food, novels, knickknacks and antiques Dislikes: The opera, catacombs, simps Description: Back when she was a teenager, Kristina used to actually be something of a big name in her homeland's high art scene, the ballerina urchin with incredible elegance. As she got older, however, the strictness of the lifestyle and the constant eyes on her gave her a certain pressure to evolve and break out, working on combining performing music with her dance. That ended... well, she got quite a lot of positive press, but the specifics of The Opera Incident and the constant badgering of suitors for the young star resulted in Kristina robbing the opera house and fleeing the country. Finally having money of her own and no expectations hanging over her head, Kristina adopted a new name and decided to dedicate herself to trying new things and experiences. She can engage with the arts on her own terms, collect things that interest her, eat all the sweets she wants... and if she explores this labyrinth, an interesting new challenge in and of itself, then she can probably avoid anyone who might have tried to follow her.
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Mar 11, 2021 00:01
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Portrait: Gunner 1 Name: Luis Cortez Almira (though he goes by Cortez, ftr.) Likes: Fishing, good vibes (whatever that means,) the solitude of a nice sunset, collecting bar stories from drunkards Dislikes: Overly pushy bureaucrats, heat waves, invasive species, chocolate before 4 pm (there's a deep meaning behind it). Description: A few years back, in a territory somewhere to the west of High Lagaard, three siblings had an equal claim to the throne when their father, the king, mysteriously died. The nobles supported one—the merchantry, another—and a dedicated group of peasants, the third. A bloody civil war broke out, sending this nameless territory into chaos. However, though the nobles and merchantry were far richer than the peasantry, they had one advantage—the lay of the land. People began to tell tales of one sniper in particular, a simple fisherman who took up his rifle and disappeared into the wilderness, picking off invading forces to the nearby village. Such a terror was this Hero of Almira that the peasantry as a whole began to fall behind the third sibling, and an uprising against the upper-class in the name of true egalitarianism began. Through this overwhelming force, this bloody civil war ended mere months after it began, and the dispute ended. However, when the new king—the one remaining noble, who would soon get to work improving the territory such that something of this nature would never occur again—called for the hero on whose back the war had been resolved, they found his previous home abandoned with a simple note that stated that he was going to go find somewhere to fish. Of course, you'd never hear any of this from Cortez, who's a man of few words who's been wandering about the countryside for some time now, stopping in fishing holes across the landscape and then packing back up. He has a good memory, and his quiet demeanor means he serves as a sounding board for many a wayward soul's bar stories, which he seems to have a head like a steel trap for. He's also rather concerned about whether a situation 'vibes', whatever that means—it's some sort of intricate scale for how much a situation lets him think that pretty much only makes sense to him, considering that he's been in the midst of a warzone and casually continued thinking to himself about a formation of birds he'd seen the other day, but fishing over at a lake a bit to the south with no sound at all really got to him. If you asked him why he was trying to climb the tree, he'd probably just say 'might be a nice lake up there' or something. He's not a huntsman by trade, exactly, but those scant few who've seen him at work with his gun know he's more than capable of handling himself in the wilderness, so all of the monsters up there probably don't even register as an occupational hazard. People oftentimes take all of this to mean that he's an antisocial weirdo, but this isn't quite true. He's perfectly fine with socializing. He's a perfectly harmless, benign weirdo who happens to be a crack shot and unsettlingly good at blending into places. Bohemian, if you will. Really living la vie boheme.
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Mar 11, 2021 06:02
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Name: Trishula Portrait: Alchemist 4 Likes: Coffee with extra cream, her pet cat Dew, Triangles Dislikes: Coffee with extra sugar, BIRDS  , CirclesDescription: Raised in a family of scholars, the discovery of knowledge came as naturally as breathing to her. Many myths were proven or debunked, many mysteries solved in due time. Yet years of research into the tales of the floating castle could not answer this question that haunted her. To solve the mystery, Trishula vowed to find the castle no matter what it took. She just had to know the truth. Did the ancients have their tea with sandwiches or biscuits?
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Mar 11, 2021 07:13
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Oh hey, I can actually get on the ground floor for one of these Etrian Odyssey LPs that has entertained me for years? Nice! Let's see... Class: Troubadour Portrait: 2 Name: Fiara Likes: most animals, when plans "follow the script", the thrill of the stage Dislikes: disorganization, her own innate talent for improv, Furyhorns Description: Fiara was an actor and playwright for an up-and-coming Lagaardian acting troupe, that saw moderate success until the day the troupe's leader decided to set their next stage in the early layers of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, "To spice things up and add an edge of danger for thrill!" Surprisingly, the troupe adapted better than they had any right to, owing to the athletics required for their performances. However, the opening day of this new performance would be met with tragedy, when the climax act, a heroic battle against some Hedgehogs, was interrupted by a sudden appearance of a Furyhorn, the FOE's Step attack sowing confusing across the actors. Fiara only vaguely remembers the events, only coming to lucidity right at the end as the sole survivor of the fight with the small audience miraculously unharmed. Cobbling together a swift ending for the play before hastening the crowd back to town, Fiara was left with shattered hopes and the corpses of her fellows. After burying her comrades, Fiara ended up drifting aimlessly for a while before deciding that joining a Guild and exploring the Labyrinth would be the sole path she could pursue in an attempt to find a modicum of closure, a grimmer part of her believing that the worst that could happen would be following her troupe's fate in the place they fell. Two goals she seeks to fulfill are to use the experiences from exploration to pen a final magnum opus play as a memoir to her troupe, and to discover what sort of curse seems to have replaced all of her armor props for her famed "Crusade Climax Scenes™" with tissue paper... Fiara usually maintains a bright, peppy stage persona fitting her outward appearance, but lurking just below surface level is a sarcastic, jaded perfectionist who is usually dealing with her latest case of writer's block. NyoroEevee fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Mar 11, 2021 |
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Mar 11, 2021 13:08
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Submissions are closed! 33 total submissions what the heck! Landy: 2 submissions Portrait: Landsknecht 4 Name: Holly by Mihoshi LP Beach Likes: Drinking, Fighting, Heavy Lifting Dislikes: Nobles, Liars, Slackers Description: Holly arrived in High Lagaard from a neighbouring highland country and is challenging the labarynth in exchange for amnesty from her crimes which if rumors are to be believed are long and varied, the only people who know for certain are the minister who accepted her application and Holly herself and attempts to ask her about it usually end with her angrilly yelling in a thick highlander accent followed by a punch in the face. Naturally these rumors are making it difficult to find a guild who will take her, despite her previous career as a Lumberjack giving her a great deal of raw power and her surprisingly high level of swordmanship which was revealed during an aptitude test and caused a great deal of confusion since Holly claims to have never used a sword before, which is a big issue since she is required to venture into the labarynth as part of her amnesty agreement... also she needs beer money. Class: Landsknecht Portrait: 4 Name: T.J. by ajkalan SA Forum Likes: Sharing tips and little secrets, being appreciated, eavesdropping Dislikes: Lies, littering, cellars Description: T.J. is a local, and knows the streets of Lagaard in and out (and over - there are not many rooftops she has not explored). Giving tours to all the new explorers has earned her a little gold, but watching all these adventurers seeking fame has awoken feelings of local pride in her. She's taught herself some swordplay by watching practicing adventurers, and what she lacks in formal training she makes up for in keen observation. Furthermore, she's picked up some useful knowledge about the Labyrinth from listening to explorers at the inn, so even if she's not entered it yet she'd be useful as a guide to a novice guild. Seeing a promising group of adventurers at the Explorers Guild, T.J. takes the opportunity to join their ranks and show that she, and the city as a whole, can discover the secrets of the Labyrinth as well as any out-of-towner. Protector: 2 submissions Protector 4 (Pink-haired one) Name: Cecily Rindel by Alfa/Polaris LP Beach Likes: Meeting new friends and poking them into improving themselves, taunting and clowning on enemies, intense dedication to work and rest (though she has hobbies like playing games and journaling, she also just loves sleep), surprising people, gossiping Dislikes: Pedantry, self-righteousness or putting oneself down, blind dedication to honesty or law, confrontational people (especially publically and/or needling into other people's business), glorification of sacrifice Description: Cecily's a wanderer who's seen way more death than anyone as young as she should, having left her home in the outskirts of unrestored badlands as a late teen after woefully inadequate training and service for her country (such as it was). She's certainly not the gentle and timid person she once was, but she refuses to decide whether the change was "good" or "bad" — it simply is, and she likes herself (and the possibilities of new countries) just fine, thank you very much. Unfulfilling odd jobs and friendships that went sour (admittedly not helped by her rough conduct) led her to High Lagaard, where she's very eager for a second chance at keeping others safe, making and keeping new friends, and having a drat fine time of it all. Cecily doesn't open up too quickly, but she's still usually warm and perhaps too familiar and jokey. She can tone it down when people seem legitimately upset or uncomfortable and she gets quite severe (sometimes with a white-hot wit) in situations or subjects she dislikes. Feel free to throw in ~s aplenty, but not constantly, yeah~? Class: Protector Portrait: 4 Name: Lily by TeeQueue SA Forum Likes: Fantasy stories, doing anything that feels like it could be in such a story Dislikes: Doors. They cannot be trusted. Description: There really isn't much that unusual about Lily. She was the third child of five in a loving family native to High Lagaard, and stories of the dungeon within the great tree were a regular event come bedtime. Eager to prove herself and not interested in taking up the family business of farming, she decided to become an adventurer in hopes of someday entering the dungeon and becoming the subject of a story herself. She's largely self-taught and lacking in real experience, but her dry enthusiasm gives her the air of someone far more competent. As for her issues with doors, her other siblings decided to help with her "adventurer training" by frequently deciding to hide just on the other side of them and sneak attack her, most commonly with a bucket full of water from overhead, a handful of flour, or both. A door represents the unknown, the possibility that anything could be on the other side, waiting to attack at any time. Survivalist: 3 submissions Class:Survivalist Portrait: 3 Name: Theodore by GiantRockFromSpace SA Forum Likes: Beautiful vistas, fame, woodcarving. Dislikes: Danger, effort, squirrels. Description: Claiming to be a renowed explorer and brilliant adventurer, Theodore's reputation amongst the people of High Lagaard quickly took a nose dive after multiple guilds kicked him out on grounds such as "unable to shoot things in front of his nose", "having the sense of direction of a blind sloth" and "running away at the slightest sign of danger". That said, despite never even reaching further than the first floor of the labyrinth, his uncanny ability to sniff out danger and the fact no team he's travelled with has ever been slaughtered by the horrors of Yggdrasil has made him an inside joke amongst explorers as the perfect member for new, inexperienced guilds to discover first hand the hardships of the dungeon; at Theodore's lament. Portrait: Survivalist 3 Name: Stitch by Toyotasomi no Miko SA Forum Likes: Exploration, archaeology, pranks, drawing (and similar activities, such as painting) Dislikes: Scary things Description: Stitch was always that problematic child who refused to follow directions, but he's kind of gotten over that in more recent years. What's in the hand behind his back? Shhhhhh, that's just how he greets people. There's no buzzer button or anything on it, why would there be? But besides that, he's gotten curious about some places, such as this place called 'Etria' with a whole bunch of ruins at the bottom. Score! Time to head there and see what's there to learn about the past. Unfortunately, he took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and end up in some town with a big ol' tree that's probably got a ton of dangerous monsters in it .Unknown to him, Etria's tree also had monsters in it. Darn Albuquerque ruins everyone's directions. Hopefully the archery classes he took a few years ago for self defense don't fail him... Maybe he'll get some help from some other folks nearby? Portrait: Survivalist 3 Name: Logan by BlackPersona SA Forum Likes: Nature, new discoveries, FOEs (from a distance) Dislikes: His low pain tolerance, losing his glasses, FOEs (up close) Description: While Logan was born in a line of local hunters, he himself was never quite adept at the whole hunting thing. He was pretty great at anything that involved gathering, foraging, trap-making, you name it!... except for the part where he had to fire arrows at animals. He was never good at the whole "killing" part, all told, but he was very good at studying the habits of the local fauna. Before long, Logan's talent would become his sole interest; managing to make a small name for himself in Lagaard thanks to his numerous additions to the city's library on botany and zoology. Logan eventually decided his life goal would be to organize all his notes together and publish his very own codex full of the information of his home. Well, needless to say, once the grand duchy discovered the Labyrinth and opened it up to the public, Logan knew he had to go in there and finish his work. After all, there was bound to be more flora and fauna to record! Besides, adventurers only ever took one part of a monster back to the shop to sell; Logan could always salvage the rest for his own research! And his years of being a Survivalist would be more than helpful for any Guild, right? ...Unfortunately, all that time in the library with his nose between a piece of parchment and a pen meant his eyesight was pretty bad, meaning his poor combat skills from his youth didn't improve any. He's hoping that all the info he could provide will make up for it. Dark Hunter: 3 submissions Port: Dark Hunter 3rd portrait (white hair one) Name: Alexander (or just Alex) by blitz Discord Likes: Insects, high-energy/spicy food, and the stars. Dislikes: Thunderstorms, the indescribable fear of being watched when you're alone, deep waters, falling flat on his rear end as he slips. Description: The inexplicable need to visit a new area brought Alexander to High Laggard, and he's pretty open about it. The poor boy likes rushing headlong into most things due to slight stubbornness; As they say, "The end justifies the means", and their means is being unafraid to try new things. (Alex goes by he/they pronouns as well, if you're willing to include it.) Class: Dark Hunter Portrait: 2 Name: Sonia by Verant SA Forum Likes: Garlic, Stakes, Steaks, Inexplicable Bags of Money Dislikes: Bats, Candles Description: Sonia's come to Lagaard for business and pleasure - and her pleasure is the business of monster slaying. Coming from a long line of noble hunters and/or thieving sociopaths (depending on who you're asking), she's taking a break from getting hired by villages to slay whatever fearsome beast is lurking in the nearby woods/caves/dilapidated abandoned manor to try her hand at dungeoneering. The possibility of getting her hands on undiscovered treasures that she could use to retire early most certainly didn't play a factor, nor did the opportunity to show off her own take on her family's mastery of the whip. Although, knowing how this sort of thing tends to go, she's halfway expecting having to face some sort of dark lord before this adventure is completed - but she'll rise to the occasion nonetheless! Class: Dark Hunter, portrait 2 Name: Gillian by theshim SA Forum Likes: Solitude, fishing, philosophical debate on choice and sapience with a few close friends, cooking Dislikes: Expectations, romantic relationships, her father, spicy food, this god drat whip Description: Gillian was a fairly normal girl growing up - a little bit of a shut-in, but not terribly so. Then her god drat father gave her this god drat whip and everything went to hell. Insisting it was a family heirloom, her father presented her with a whip he claimed to be magical and told her it was her duty and destiny to battle the forces of evil with it. Of course, he presented it to her in an arcane ritual coinciding with a full lunar eclipse, so of course she ended up absorbing the power of that god drat whip and now any whip she touches becomes imbued with deadly power, cutting and restraining targets with ease - something she was quick to discover when her god drat father kept forcing her to train with whips. Now she's been kicked out of the house to go on "a brave and perilous journey to vanquish the evil in this world!" and is not to be welcomed back until she's proven herself a capable and righteous adventurer. Without the money or skills to travel far from High Lagaard, it seems the labyrinth is the only path forward for her. Is definitively and absolutely not a Belmont. Medic: 2 submissions Class: Medic Portrait: 4 Name: Suika by BraveLittleToaster SA Forum Likes: Drinks of all kinds, always non-alcoholic. Also patching up her group. Dislikes: Any kind of flying creature, no matter what species or context or genus. Description: There are a surprising number of cynical Medics out there, something Suika never quite got the memo on being. Explorers would often need the help of her talents, and so healed they would be. And not merely explorers, but everyone that had ails, no matter how small or large. An en pinched was a life wasted, as far as she was concerned. The only luxury she allowed herself was a wide range of experiences with non-alcoholic drinks, especially her favored and frequently used drinking canteen filled with something nobody else ever got a taste of and was never explained, but whatever it was, she sure enjoyed it. Turned out healing and treating indiscriminately and burning through your supplies at the expense of not only yourself, but other fellow Medics, can leave you looking a bit mad in their eyes. So she decided to give the prevention side of her job a try, and went off to join a newly founded guild and take on the Labyrinth with them. Conquering it would surely prevent explorer-related injuries from the Labyrinth when they were done there, after all. name: kathy by kyasarintsu Discord medic 4 likes: sleeping, sweets (adds chocolate to everything), "ugly cute" animals and monsters (like evil eye) dislikes: immodesty, uncleanliness, aggressive behavior description: constantly finds herself cleaning up other people's messes. typically complains quietly to herself but has the occasional angry outburst. always speaks in a mellow voice (always speaks in lowercase, even her name). is not afraid to bust skulls with a rod if she has to, even if it's a bad idea. Alchemist: 3 submissions Name: Mona Class: Alchemist by Slaan SA Forum Portrait: 4 Likes: Medics, campfire food, merchants and traders, comfortable clothes Dislikes: Cats, reptiles, hexers, taking orders Story: Mona is a Medic! No, really. Wait, why are you putting on a gas mask? Mona as a kid wanted nothing more than to be a Medic. She excelled in school. She helped out at the local healer. She even carried around bandages to sell to the other kids. The problem? She just doesn't have the talent for chemistry. Every time she follows a recipe or spell for a healing potion or antidote or unguent it ends up exploding, becoming poisonous or otherwise dangerous. She's hoping some on the ground experience in the labyrinth will help her overcome her issues. Mona is pretty sure that her issues come from a Hexer hexing her when she annoyed one as a child, so she hates all Hexers. On the other hand, she greatly respects merchants and traders for their hustle and ability to make a buck. And if not, at least she can find some new ingredients for her famous rice dishes! Name: Trishula by Level Seven SA Forum Portrait: Alchemist 4 Likes: Coffee with extra cream, her pet cat Dew, Triangles Dislikes: Coffee with extra sugar, BIRDS , Circles Description: Raised in a family of scholars, the discovery of knowledge came as naturally as breathing to her. Many myths were proven or debunked, many mysteries solved in due time. Yet years of research into the tales of the floating castle could not answer this question that haunted her. To solve the mystery, Trishula vowed to find the castle no matter what it took. She just had to know the truth. Did the ancients have their tea with sandwiches or biscuits? Name: Corinth by AweStriker LP Beach Class: Alchemist Portrait: 1 Likes: Logic, amulets, pasta, the ocean, quiet and supporting people Dislikes: Explosions, needless violence, misunderstandings Story: A tense, nervous old soldier that fought in a long-over war between his home country of Apen and Freibund to its north. As wars tend to be, it was a messy, traumatic affair that left Corinth rather shocked both over what he had done and what others had done to him. A passing stranger gave him advice that one of the most effective ways to get over your fear is to master whatever it is you are afraid of (in this case, explosions, being that Freibund had used no small number of bombs in various engagements), turned to combat alchemy and departed for the far North. While he's still a novice, he's slowly getting over his past, which he shares little of unless asked to. He is frequently on edge even without cause, and can be difficult to talk to since he is often on the defensive. However, knowing that an abundance of caution is often more of an asset than a detriment in a hostile environment can make half the difference. Troubadour: 4 submissions Class/Portrait: Troubadour 1 Name: Adrian by Jade Rider SA Forum Likes: Innovation, unconventional solutions Dislikes: Hecklers Description: A talented young musician. Having mastered more traditional instruments, lyres, lutes, flutes, pipes, and whatnot, he quickly set about finding new and exciting ways to practice his art. Exotic instruments, however, tend to be quite expensive, and well, let's be blunt, his insistence on experimental music doesn't get him a lot of gigs. So when he overheard a group of adventurers bragging about the vast riches of the labyrinth, he set out to join a guild. His... uh, eclectic array of cobbled-together hybrid instruments and offbeat genres of music may not be "conventional" or "good", but there's no denying it gets results. Class/Portrait: Troubador 1 Name: Kristina by Jadecore SA Forum Likes: (Most) performing arts, instruments you can play while dancing, junk food, novels, knickknacks and antiques Dislikes: The opera, catacombs, simps Description: Back when she was a teenager, Kristina used to actually be something of a big name in her homeland's high art scene, the ballerina urchin with incredible elegance. As she got older, however, the strictness of the lifestyle and the constant eyes on her gave her a certain pressure to evolve and break out, working on combining performing music with her dance. That ended... well, she got quite a lot of positive press, but the specifics of The Opera Incident and the constant badgering of suitors for the young star resulted in Kristina robbing the opera house and fleeing the country. Finally having money of her own and no expectations hanging over her head, Kristina adopted a new name and decided to dedicate herself to trying new things and experiences. She can engage with the arts on her own terms, collect things that interest her, eat all the sweets she wants... and if she explores this labyrinth, an interesting new challenge in and of itself, then she can probably avoid anyone who might have tried to follow her. Portrait: Troubador 1 Name: Juthro, Male by Prexot LP Beach Likes: knowing things, solving problems, explaining things, music, deepest lore, big words, learning new things (sometimes), happy endings Dislikes: standing still, explaining himself, hatred, death, finances Description: It can be hard talking to Juthro. You ask him a question and he'll answer you cryptically and go off on a tangent about something interesting but only marginally related, then you ask him another question and he'll reply with a blunt "Yes". He might take an immediate liking to you or he might openly regard you with suspicion. He can understand some abstract concepts perfectly without a second thought, and he can fail to grasp even a simple statement after you try to tell him several times. He isn't crazy. He just has his own way of thinking, and his own way of evaluating situations and responding to them accordingly that makes perfect sense to him, but he rarely feels like explaining it to anyone else. But he means no real harm to anyone, even his enemies, and he's usually an enthusiastic team player. Between his impressive skill for music with a plethora of different instruments and genres, and his interminable supply of scattered knowledge on nearly any topic, he's an asset to any group that he joins, as long as he can reined in from time to time. He never likes to talk about his own background. Perhaps he harbors some dark secrets that he will reveal only to the most trusted of comrades? (Spoiler alert: In actuality, he comes from a moderately well-off merchant family, but his complete inability to understand finance and trade drove him to search for his life's calling, which he found in music and adventuring. But where's the mystique in that?) Class: Troubadour Portrait: 2 Name: Fiara by NyoroEevee SA Forum Likes: most animals, when plans "follow the script", the thrill of the stage Dislikes: disorganization, her own innate talent for improv, Furyhorns Description: Fiara was an actor and playwright for an up-and-coming Lagaardian acting troupe, that saw moderate success until the day the troupe's leader decided to set their next stage in the early layers of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, "To spice things up and add an edge of danger for thrill!" Surprisingly, the troupe adapted better than they had any right to, owing to the athletics required for their performances. However, the opening day of this new performance would be met with tragedy, when the climax act, a heroic battle against some Hedgehogs, was interrupted by a sudden appearance of a Furyhorn, the FOE's Step attack sowing confusing across the actors. Fiara only vaguely remembers the events, only coming to lucidity right at the end as the sole survivor of the fight with the small audience miraculously unharmed. Cobbling together a swift ending for the play before hastening the crowd back to town, Fiara was left with shattered hopes and the corpses of her fellows. After burying her comrades, Fiara ended up drifting aimlessly for a while before deciding that joining a Guild and exploring the Labyrinth would be the sole path she could pursue in an attempt to find a modicum of closure, a grimmer part of her believing that the worst that could happen would be following her troupe's fate in the place they fell. Two goals she seeks to fulfill are to use the experiences from exploration to pen a final magnum opus play as a memoir to her troupe, and to discover what sort of curse seems to have replaced all of her armor props for her famed "Crusade Climax Scenes™" with tissue paper... Fiara usually maintains a bright, peppy stage persona fitting her outward appearance, but lurking just below surface level is a sarcastic, jaded perfectionist who is usually dealing with her latest case of writer's block. Ronin: 2 submissions Portrait: Ronin 4 Name: Jeff by Like Clockwork SA Forum Likes: Fancy sword moves, posing dramatically Dislikes: Public speaking, squirrels, practicing the basics Description: Jeff (or rather, "near-inaudible muttering that sounds vaguely like Jeff") is a tiny, reedy nerd with a pot-metal sword who listened to too many heavily embellished stories from extremely drunk adventurers in pubs and got some weird ideas about what it meant to be an adventurer in the process. They're terribly shy normally, struggling to keep an audible volume for longer sentences, but their tendency towards loud, dramatic gestures helps make up for it. Telling them they have to learn how to do things like "properly hold a sword" to do the cool flashy stuff without nearly removing their foot in the process will make them very sad, but will probably prevent impromptu amputations. A Jeff that is desperately trying to not become Generic Town Guard #385 by being chuuni af. Class: Ronin, portrait 4 Name: Eleanore by yoshicookiezeus LP Beach Likes: Fighting, cheering people up, swimming, adventure novels Dislikes: Training, getting held back by voices of reason Description: While Eleanore would describe herself as a “self-taught prodigy with the blade”, the truth is that she has a vastly overinflated view of her own abilities. Her tendency to want to pick a fight with any Labyrinth denizens in sight no matter the circumstances got her old guild into trouble more than a few times, and she fairly quickly got thrown out of it after one incident where she woke up in the middle of the night, decided she absolutely had to go get revenge on that caterpillar the group had fled from earlier right now, and ran into the Labyrinth on her own, leading to the rest of the group finding her half dead a few steps into the first floor the next morning. Despite this, she stays relentlessly positive, and remains perfectly assured that she can defeat anything in her path. “I’m sure that last loss was just a fluke. Best out of three?” Hexer: 2 submissions Portrait: Hexer 3 Name: Harold by RandomKesaranPasaran LP Beach Likes: Tea (most flavors at any rate), soft music, cleanliness, solitude, reading (primarily horror and mystery novels) Dislikes: Vulgarity, pettiness, heavy manual labor, mud, intimacy in general Description: A down-on-his-luck insignificant son of a rather large noble family who was thrown out for being a general disappointment after one too many attempts at arranged marriage fell apart. He's actually not that bad a person once you get to know him; his manners are impeccable and he treats everyone fairly, he's just antisocial to a fault and only really got into this adventuring thing because it seemed better than starving at the time. Plus the hexer arts had a certain appeal to someone like him, even if the customary outfit is a little odd. Hexer 4 Hart (and Sophia) by kvx687 SA Forum Likes: Kicking, stalking adventurers, walking around in small circles Dislikes: Not kicking people For most Ragelopes life is pretty simple: stake out a territory, patrol for intruders, and kick the tar out of any they find. Hart was no exception until an unfortunate run-in with a novice Hexer with a book full of ancient spells and not quite enough understanding to use them. One magical accident later and Hart found himself inside said hexer's body, haunted by a rather irritated ghost who quite wants her life back- something easier said than done, however. Some time later, having picked up a rudimentary understanding of hexing, the local language, and basic social niceties like pants and not kicking everyone they meet, the duo found themselves in Lagaard, chasing rumors of a mysterious grail said to cure all ills and stories of explorers transformed beyond recognition. It's the best shot Hart has of getting his old life back, and if nothing else joining a rookie guild will give him the chance to kick things again. Gunner: 3 submissions Portrait: Gunner 4 Name: Ava, Female by Erisin LP Beach Likes: Cleanliness, Science, Seafood, Cats, Money Dislikes: Blood, Loud Noises, Being Touched, Sweets Description: Ava's a doctor looking towards innovative new ways to heal allies from long range - surgery and being up there with all the blood and guys just doesn't sit right with her. However, this squeamishness comes secondary to her intellectual curiosity, and she seeks to enter the labyrinth in order to collect more monster materials that could lead to new medical inventions. Her research into ballistic medicine delivery also led to some new experimental types of weaponry, and while she'd never release those to the public, she's not exactly averse to using it to meet her own goals either. Ava's defined by her meticulous nature and single track mind, and this can often lead to her being misunderstood, something she doesn't really bother to correct. She's not antisocial per se, she's just her and that's how she be. Class: Gunner is new, so we've gotta have one of those, yeah? Portrait: 2 Name: Aleksandra by Blaziken386 SA Forum Likes: Almost anything that could be described as "fancy", "luxurious", or "elegant" (ie: champagne, tea sets, bespoke clothing, etc.), and has a secret guilty pleasure for sweets. Dislikes: Animals, the smell of cabbage, food that's gone cold, and hotel/inn blankets. Description: Something about the portraits for the Gunner class screams "russian" to me. I don't know why, I think it's the fuzzy hats. Which is why I'm doubling down on that and saying that she's from (the fantasy equivalent of) Russia. Feel free to embellish the accent as much as you'd like. In the past, her family was (purportedly) Nobility™, but that was several generations ago. Because of that, she idolizes that sort of lifestyle, even if she's not entirely familiar with what that lifestyle is supposed to be like. A wannabe ojou-sama, essentially. Portrait: Gunner 1 Name: Luis Cortez Almira (though he goes by Cortez, ftr.) by Kinu Nishimura SA Forum Likes: Fishing, good vibes (whatever that means,) the solitude of a nice sunset, collecting bar stories from drunkards Dislikes: Overly pushy bureaucrats, heat waves, invasive species, chocolate before 4 pm (there's a deep meaning behind it). Description: A few years back, in a territory somewhere to the west of High Lagaard, three siblings had an equal claim to the throne when their father, the king, mysteriously died. The nobles supported one—the merchantry, another—and a dedicated group of peasants, the third. A bloody civil war broke out, sending this nameless territory into chaos. However, though the nobles and merchantry were far richer than the peasantry, they had one advantage—the lay of the land. People began to tell tales of one sniper in particular, a simple fisherman who took up his rifle and disappeared into the wilderness, picking off invading forces to the nearby village. Such a terror was this Hero of Almira that the peasantry as a whole began to fall behind the third sibling, and an uprising against the upper-class in the name of true egalitarianism began. Through this overwhelming force, this bloody civil war ended mere months after it began, and the dispute ended. However, when the new king—the one remaining noble, who would soon get to work improving the territory such that something of this nature would never occur again—called for the hero on whose back the war had been resolved, they found his previous home abandoned with a simple note that stated that he was going to go find somewhere to fish. Of course, you'd never hear any of this from Cortez, who's a man of few words who's been wandering about the countryside for some time now, stopping in fishing holes across the landscape and then packing back up. He has a good memory, and his quiet demeanor means he serves as a sounding board for many a wayward soul's bar stories, which he seems to have a head like a steel trap for. He's also rather concerned about whether a situation 'vibes', whatever that means—it's some sort of intricate scale for how much a situation lets him think that pretty much only makes sense to him, considering that he's been in the midst of a warzone and casually continued thinking to himself about a formation of birds he'd seen the other day, but fishing over at a lake a bit to the south with no sound at all really got to him. If you asked him why he was trying to climb the tree, he'd probably just say 'might be a nice lake up there' or something. He's not a huntsman by trade, exactly, but those scant few who've seen him at work with his gun know he's more than capable of handling himself in the wilderness, so all of the monsters up there probably don't even register as an occupational hazard. People oftentimes take all of this to mean that he's an antisocial weirdo, but this isn't quite true. He's perfectly fine with socializing. He's a perfectly harmless, benign weirdo who happens to be a crack shot and unsettlingly good at blending into places. Bohemian, if you will. Really living la vie boheme. War Magus: 3 submissions Portrait: War Magus, 2 Name: Rosaria by Angel LP Beach Likes: Rose-petal tea, the scent of mud after it rains, sewing dolls and clothes, big words, people who get upset about big words, and dolls. Dislikes: Scrubbing mud off her boots after the rain, running out of materials, people who get upset about big words, and fire. Description: A humble witch from what can charitably be considered a village just a few hills and valleys off High Lagaard's edge, Rosaria's witchcraft is her *hobby*. Her craft is sewing cloth dolls, as well as any sort of other items made of felt, silk, wool, or any other such material she may have on hand. Most of her creations end up enchanted in one way or another for fun, typically animated and given rudimentary life, and in fact High Lagaard has a few hidden cloth dolls in every place, as they tend to run off. She considers this them moving out, though there are a few that always stick around, waiting in her pockets or her large bag of sewing materials and implements. Rosaria is a very humble person, not really one for amassing wealth or attention; aside from sewing, reading big books and learning magic, the only thing that she'll really chase is a new, esoteric tea to try. Class: War Magus Portrait: 3 Name: Alastor by marshmallow creep SA Forum Likes: Fine wine, genteel conversation, long necks Dislikes: Mirrors, garlic, spoil-sports Description: Alastor isn't actually a vampire, but that doesn't stop him; it's important to him that other people think he might be. He powders his face to affect a deathly pallor; he dyes his hair grey and speaks with an accent that no one can quite place but sounds menacing and upper class; never mind that he started his career as a clerk with too much time on his hands. He is quick to identify those who are easily gulled by his displays, and charms them either with his act or with his actual talents as a war magus in the field. Nothing would make him happier than to find that the dungeon has access to actual vampirism so he could stop pretending and become a real dark lord like he's only read in stories, but until then, he will play the part and be damned good at it. Portrait: war magus 4 Name: Marina by clockwork chaos SA Forum Likes: umami flavors, bright colors, mom, shinies, swords explosions, girls Dislikes: fancy stuff, privileged rich people, alcohol, toxic masculinity, getting misgendered Description: freshly graduated from war magus college, and god was it boring. Always referred to by her last name or things like 'her father's child' or '-big sis-'s shadow', never just Marina, and she's sick of it! No more last name, no more family ties - just Marina! She wants to use her skills and see how far she can go and how strong she can get with just herself and friends she makes, swords and magic and explosions and stuff yeah!! Living life constantly overshadowed by a rich, loving, stifling family and an especially doting older sister, she wants to escape her noble heritage and make a name for herself and she can do it on her own mom! Imagine, when everything's done everyone will be talking about Marina! Yes!! Marina!! (Marina is trans but if you don't feel comfortable writing her that way, i'll understand) Beast: 5 submissions Class - Beast Portrait - 1 Name - "Patch" by SilDre LP Beach Likes - Mushrooms, lounging, chin-scratches Dislikes - hard work, solitude, bells Description - When the elders of lagaard were children, there was an explorer so rude and lazy that they could never find a guild to keep them. They once enraged a hexer of great renown, amd were abandoned in the labyrinth. Shortly thereafter, they stumbles across a patch of the juiciest-looking mushrooms they haf ever seen. They ate their fill, but soon found themselves dizzy. They stopped for a nap in a moonlit clearing, and awoke in a savage, inhuman form. For years they wandered the labyrinth, trying to find a way to fix their condition; but they have long since decided that it is probably a lost cause. All the time alone has made them rethink their ways, but their vices are hard to give up even after all these years. Class - Beast Portrait - 3 Name - worms (no caps) by ant Discord Likes - eating good, killing monsters Hates - everyone else in the guild, acting defensively Description - A dumb wolf that can talk that's overly critical of others. Text is stylistically written without caps or punctuation. Is only on a guild because they're bored and they have nothing better to do. Only contributes to fights with Rampage and refuses to do anything else, even if it means constantly dying due to Loyalty. Will never learn. Portrait: Beast 3 Name: Loopy by MightyPretenders SA Forum Likes: Cuddles, exercise, eating whatever antagonizes her Dislikes: Scaring people away, jerks, thorny paths Description: A strangely friendly and goofy wild animal who appears to have self-domesticated - making exceptions when her overtures of friendship are met with extended hostility. It's unclear what her motives are, unless... there aren't very many wolves in the High Lagaard Yggdrasil, are there? In that case, it's probably because of loneliness, and seeing the labyrinth monsters as poor prospects for friendship. Class: Beast Portrait: 1, the White Tiger Name: Rajah by SimplyUnknown1 SA Forum Likes: Good food, belly rubs, being told he's a pretty kitty, never ever being alone, snuggles, getting his fur brushed, big rubber balls Dislikes: Being alone, leafy vegetables, being told he's bad, getting his teeth cleaned, Description: People like baby animals, especially the exotic ones. So a baby white tiger with huge fangs made a perfect addition to Claymont's Traveling Petting Zoo. Rajah spent his first year of life being coddled and cuddled by various people who visited the petting zoo, as well as being lavishly spoiled with all the balls he could play with and long sessions of fur brushing. But time stops for no one, and Rajah eventually grew from a tiny and adorable tiger cub into a huge and scary tiger that people were scared to approach, let alone pet. Despite his sweet nature, Claymont viewed Rajah as a money-sink and so, like with other grown animals, dumped him in the Labyrinth the second he got the chance. He figured the enormous housecat would end up easy prey for the nearest deer or something. But surprisingly, Rajah managed to stay alive mostly by scavenging and reluctantly eating some of the edible plants found in the labyrinth. Eventually, he managed to reach the first floor and stumble into High Lagaard. Civilization! Of course, still being a large and deadly white tiger (though now a very dirty one), Rajah's presence tended to scare the majority of the citizens. The only ones who appeared to tolerate him were adventurers, who took to tossing the tiger scraps of food when he begged. Desperate for someone who wouldn't leave him, Rajah took to randomly following adventurer parties until they eventually left the region or perished in the labyrinth. Recently, he's been attached at the hip to the Guildmaster, who is desperate for someone, anyone to take him from her. He doesn't seem to realize how much she hates him, please, just give him pets. Rajah is a good kitty, really! Portrait: 1 Name: Hecate the Beast by Kemix SA Forum Likes: Belly rubs, catnip, affection, eating forest squirrels to keep the population down Dislikes: Forest Squirrels duping adventurers, hateful people, animal abusers Description: Hecate, being a saber toothed tiger of all things, one would expect a monstrous beast that enjoys ripping and tearing adventurers apart at speeds that would make even the local Ronin blush. Not so true with her. She was originally raised from a small kitten by a guild of adventurers as a sort of mascot for their group, fully domesticated by the time she could adventure with them and very affectionate and friendly with the local townies...even if she had a habit of using the local tavern as a sorta-kinda scratching post once she got bigger. Unfortunately those happy days ended when her group, having slowly adventuring through the first stratum, had a run in with one of the local forest squirrels...and one can expect with them, their only lifeline was taken from them right before their time of need of it. She had escaped from the FOE that tore through the rest of her guild, leaving her to fend for herself in the upper parts of the first strata...and fend she did, growing to full size before long and hunting down any squirrels she could find, less for sustenance and more for a deep ingrained hatred of the creatures that helped to kill her owners, she would hunt them down almost exclusively (though she did give the other monsters of the first strata a good deal of trouble if only to get a little variety in her diet) and do everything she could, if nothing else, to keep other guilds from sharing her guild's fate.
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Thank you everyone for submitting, drat 33 is a lot! This was really hard!!! I wanted to accept everyone so I didn't let anyone down, which is incredibly terrifying to me, but I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this guild! Introducing Guild Nidhogg: Name: Holly by Mihoshi LP Beach Likes: Drinking, Fighting, Heavy Lifting Dislikes: Nobles, Liars, Slackers Description: Holly arrived in High Lagaard from a neighbouring highland country and is challenging the labarynth in exchange for amnesty from her crimes which if rumors are to be believed are long and varied, the only people who know for certain are the minister who accepted her application and Holly herself and attempts to ask her about it usually end with her angrilly yelling in a thick highlander accent followed by a punch in the face. Naturally these rumors are making it difficult to find a guild who will take her, despite her previous career as a Lumberjack giving her a great deal of raw power and her surprisingly high level of swordmanship which was revealed during an aptitude test and caused a great deal of confusion since Holly claims to have never used a sword before, which is a big issue since she is required to venture into the labarynth as part of her amnesty agreement... also she needs beer money. Name: Logan by BlackPersona SA Forum Likes: Nature, new discoveries, FOEs (from a distance) Dislikes: His low pain tolerance, losing his glasses, FOEs (up close) Description: While Logan was born in a line of local hunters, he himself was never quite adept at the whole hunting thing. He was pretty great at anything that involved gathering, foraging, trap-making, you name it!... except for the part where he had to fire arrows at animals. He was never good at the whole "killing" part, all told, but he was very good at studying the habits of the local fauna. Before long, Logan's talent would become his sole interest; managing to make a small name for himself in Lagaard thanks to his numerous additions to the city's library on botany and zoology. Logan eventually decided his life goal would be to organize all his notes together and publish his very own codex full of the information of his home. Well, needless to say, once the grand duchy discovered the Labyrinth and opened it up to the public, Logan knew he had to go in there and finish his work. After all, there was bound to be more flora and fauna to record! Besides, adventurers only ever took one part of a monster back to the shop to sell; Logan could always salvage the rest for his own research! And his years of being a Survivalist would be more than helpful for any Guild, right? ...Unfortunately, all that time in the library with his nose between a piece of parchment and a pen meant his eyesight was pretty bad, meaning his poor combat skills from his youth didn't improve any. He's hoping that all the info he could provide will make up for it. Name: Lily by TeeQueue SA Forum Likes: Fantasy stories, doing anything that feels like it could be in such a story Dislikes: Doors. They cannot be trusted. Description: There really isn't much that unusual about Lily. She was the third child of five in a loving family native to High Lagaard, and stories of the dungeon within the great tree were a regular event come bedtime. Eager to prove herself and not interested in taking up the family business of farming, she decided to become an adventurer in hopes of someday entering the dungeon and becoming the subject of a story herself. She's largely self-taught and lacking in real experience, but her dry enthusiasm gives her the air of someone far more competent. As for her issues with doors, her other siblings decided to help with her "adventurer training" by frequently deciding to hide just on the other side of them and sneak attack her, most commonly with a bucket full of water from overhead, a handful of flour, or both. A door represents the unknown, the possibility that anything could be on the other side, waiting to attack at any time. Name: Sonia by Verant SA Forum Likes: Garlic, Stakes, Steaks, Inexplicable Bags of Money Dislikes: Bats, Candles Description: Sonia's come to Lagaard for business and pleasure - and her pleasure is the business of monster slaying. Coming from a long line of noble hunters and/or thieving sociopaths (depending on who you're asking), she's taking a break from getting hired by villages to slay whatever fearsome beast is lurking in the nearby woods/caves/dilapidated abandoned manor to try her hand at dungeoneering. The possibility of getting her hands on undiscovered treasures that she could use to retire early most certainly didn't play a factor, nor did the opportunity to show off her own take on her family's mastery of the whip. Although, knowing how this sort of thing tends to go, she's halfway expecting having to face some sort of dark lord before this adventure is completed - but she'll rise to the occasion nonetheless! name: kathy by kyasarintsu discord likes: sleeping, sweets (adds chocolate to everything), "ugly cute" animals and monsters (like evil eye) dislikes: immodesty, uncleanliness, aggressive behavior description: constantly finds herself cleaning up other people's messes. typically complains quietly to herself but has the occasional angry outburst. always speaks in a mellow voice (always speaks in lowercase, even her name). is not afraid to bust skulls with a rod if she has to, even if it's a bad idea. Name: Corinth by AweStriker LP Beach Class: Alchemist Likes: Logic, amulets, pasta, the ocean, quiet and supporting people Dislikes: Explosions, needless violence, misunderstandings Story: A tense, nervous old soldier that fought in a long-over war between his home country of Apen and Freibund to its north. As wars tend to be, it was a messy, traumatic affair that left Corinth rather shocked both over what he had done and what others had done to him. A passing stranger gave him advice that one of the most effective ways to get over your fear is to master whatever it is you are afraid of (in this case, explosions, being that Freibund had used no small number of bombs in various engagements), turned to combat alchemy and departed for the far North. While he's still a novice, he's slowly getting over his past, which he shares little of unless asked to. He is frequently on edge even without cause, and can be difficult to talk to since he is often on the defensive. However, knowing that an abundance of caution is often more of an asset than a detriment in a hostile environment can make half the difference. Name: Juthro, by Prexot LP Beach Likes: knowing things, solving problems, explaining things, music, deepest lore, big words, learning new things (sometimes), happy endings Dislikes: standing still, explaining himself, hatred, death, finances Description: It can be hard talking to Juthro. You ask him a question and he'll answer you cryptically and go off on a tangent about something interesting but only marginally related, then you ask him another question and he'll reply with a blunt "Yes". He might take an immediate liking to you or he might openly regard you with suspicion. He can understand some abstract concepts perfectly without a second thought, and he can fail to grasp even a simple statement after you try to tell him several times. He isn't crazy. He just has his own way of thinking, and his own way of evaluating situations and responding to them accordingly that makes perfect sense to him, but he rarely feels like explaining it to anyone else. But he means no real harm to anyone, even his enemies, and he's usually an enthusiastic team player. Between his impressive skill for music with a plethora of different instruments and genres, and his interminable supply of scattered knowledge on nearly any topic, he's an asset to any group that he joins, as long as he can reined in from time to time. He never likes to talk about his own background. Perhaps he harbors some dark secrets that he will reveal only to the most trusted of comrades? (Spoiler alert: In actuality, he comes from a moderately well-off merchant family, but his complete inability to understand finance and trade drove him to search for his life's calling, which he found in music and adventuring. But where's the mystique in that?) Name: Eleanore by yoshicookiezeus LP Beach Likes: Fighting, cheering people up, swimming, adventure novels Dislikes: Training, getting held back by voices of reason Description: While Eleanore would describe herself as a “self-taught prodigy with the blade”, the truth is that she has a vastly overinflated view of her own abilities. Her tendency to want to pick a fight with any Labyrinth denizens in sight no matter the circumstances got her old guild into trouble more than a few times, and she fairly quickly got thrown out of it after one incident where she woke up in the middle of the night, decided she absolutely had to go get revenge on that caterpillar the group had fled from earlier right now, and ran into the Labyrinth on her own, leading to the rest of the group finding her half dead a few steps into the first floor the next morning. Despite this, she stays relentlessly positive, and remains perfectly assured that she can defeat anything in her path. “I’m sure that last loss was just a fluke. Best out of three?” Hart (and Sophia) by kvx687 SA Forum Likes: Kicking, stalking adventurers, walking around in small circles Dislikes: Not kicking people For most Ragelopes life is pretty simple: stake out a territory, patrol for intruders, and kick the tar out of any they find. Hart was no exception until an unfortunate run-in with a novice Hexer with a book full of ancient spells and not quite enough understanding to use them. One magical accident later and Hart found himself inside said hexer's body, haunted by a rather irritated ghost who quite wants her life back- something easier said than done, however. Some time later, having picked up a rudimentary understanding of hexing, the local language, and basic social niceties like pants and not kicking everyone they meet, the duo found themselves in Lagaard, chasing rumors of a mysterious grail said to cure all ills and stories of explorers transformed beyond recognition. It's the best shot Hart has of getting his old life back, and if nothing else joining a rookie guild will give him the chance to kick things again. Name: Aleksandra (Aleks) by Blaziken386 SA Forum Likes: Almost anything that could be described as "fancy", "luxurious", or "elegant" (ie: champagne, tea sets, bespoke clothing, etc.), and has a secret guilty pleasure for sweets. Dislikes: Animals, the smell of cabbage, food that's gone cold, and hotel/inn blankets. Description: Something about the portraits for the Gunner class screams "russian" to me. I don't know why, I think it's the fuzzy hats. Which is why I'm doubling down on that and saying that she's from (the fantasy equivalent of) Russia. Feel free to embellish the accent as much as you'd like. In the past, her family was (purportedly) Nobility™, but that was several generations ago. Because of that, she idolizes that sort of lifestyle, even if she's not entirely familiar with what that lifestyle is supposed to be like. A wannabe ojou-sama, essentially. Name: Alastor by marshmallow creep SA Forum Likes: Fine wine, genteel conversation, long necks Dislikes: Mirrors, garlic, spoil-sports Description: Alastor isn't actually a vampire, but that doesn't stop him; it's important to him that other people think he might be. He powders his face to affect a deathly pallor; he dyes his hair grey and speaks with an accent that no one can quite place but sounds menacing and upper class; never mind that he started his career as a clerk with too much time on his hands. He is quick to identify those who are easily gulled by his displays, and charms them either with his act or with his actual talents as a war magus in the field. Nothing would make him happier than to find that the dungeon has access to actual vampirism so he could stop pretending and become a real dark lord like he's only read in stories, but until then, he will play the part and be damned good at it. Name: Rajah by SimplyUnknown1 SA Forum Likes: Good food, belly rubs, being told he's a pretty kitty, never ever being alone, snuggles, getting his fur brushed, big rubber balls Dislikes: Being alone, leafy vegetables, being told he's bad, getting his teeth cleaned, Description: People like baby animals, especially the exotic ones. So a baby white tiger with huge fangs made a perfect addition to Claymont's Traveling Petting Zoo. Rajah spent his first year of life being coddled and cuddled by various people who visited the petting zoo, as well as being lavishly spoiled with all the balls he could play with and long sessions of fur brushing. But time stops for no one, and Rajah eventually grew from a tiny and adorable tiger cub into a huge and scary tiger that people were scared to approach, let alone pet. Despite his sweet nature, Claymont viewed Rajah as a money-sink and so, like with other grown animals, dumped him in the Labyrinth the second he got the chance. He figured the enormous housecat would end up easy prey for the nearest deer or something. But surprisingly, Rajah managed to stay alive mostly by scavenging and reluctantly eating some of the edible plants found in the labyrinth. Eventually, he managed to reach the first floor and stumble into High Lagaard. Civilization! Of course, still being a large and deadly white tiger (though now a very dirty one), Rajah's presence tended to scare the majority of the citizens. The only ones who appeared to tolerate him were adventurers, who took to tossing the tiger scraps of food when he begged. Desperate for someone who wouldn't leave him, Rajah took to randomly following adventurer parties until they eventually left the region or perished in the labyrinth. Recently, he's been attached at the hip to the Guildmaster, who is desperate for someone, anyone to take him from her. He doesn't seem to realize how much she hates him, please, just give him pets. Rajah is a good kitty, really! as our Loyalty Beast demonstrator, Fs in chat.Name: Loopy by MightyPretenders SA Forum Likes: Cuddles, exercise, eating whatever antagonizes her Dislikes: Scaring people away, jerks, thorny paths Description: A strangely friendly and goofy wild animal who appears to have self-domesticated - making exceptions when her overtures of friendship are met with extended hostility. It's unclear what her motives are, unless... there aren't very many wolves in the High Lagaard Yggdrasil, are there? In that case, it's probably because of loneliness, and seeing the labyrinth monsters as poor prospects for friendship. And there we have it, guess I actually need to start playing the game now huh. Again this was really hard to choose and I loved every submission, really truly!
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Mar 12, 2021 01:55
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F to the Loyalty Beast indeed. A moment of silence, or several, for their impending future deaths. My commentary on the Beast writeup is finally up if you want another perspective on what the gently caress they're in for. Congrats to all who made it in though!
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Mar 12, 2021 02:11
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Wow, really wasn't expecting my submission to get picked considering Beast got the most submissions, I believe! Yay for Rajah! Looking forward to seeing what you do with Nidhogg, Cross! Good luck! And F for Loopy. Thank you for being our Loyalty demonstrator, and we apologize.
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Mar 12, 2021 02:32
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Glad that Logan got picked; I more or less salvaged him from another submission I made for another LP and liked him well enough that I wanted him to be a part of some adventure! ...Also, I do have to comment on how much of a double take I did when I saw the Hexer 4 portrait on a person who had the named "Sophia." Literally a letter off from my Hexer submission for the EO2U LP Ragnar Homsar did ages ago, and the same portrait to boot! Gave me a giggle 
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Mar 12, 2021 02:43
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Shame mine didn't get picked, but congrats to the ones who did. Either way, a fresh new EO2 LP should be nice to watch along with.
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Mar 12, 2021 02:49
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