>>5896190Rolls: 77, 29, 58
Write-In, decent, +10 to lowest roll
Proactive, Tertiary: 29+10, 39/Neutral, Pos/Neut [Out. Dam. x1.5] w/ Mobility [+5 to next rolls]
Reactive, Secondary: 58 -10 for GS, 48/Neutral, Pos/Neut [Inc. Dam. x.75] w/ Mobility [+5 to next rolls]
Mobility, Core: 77/Positive, Pos/Pos [Cross up to ~30m, +1 to table result for Proact and React, +5 to next rolls]
Overall: Positive
>>5896130You crouch in your battle stance, bone ‘greatsword’ at the ready near your shoulder. The monster’s eyes flicker between you and the hole behind you, perhaps 5 meters away. It’s not in great shape, between its chopped off leg, its distended torso and abdomen where Shrike was stuffed, and a gouge that goes straight to bone that you must’ve inflicted unintentionally when you blocked. The last wound in particular is streaming glowing neon blood onto the ground, where it mixes with the rainwater pouring from the ceiling and casts a shifting underlight on everything around it.
But you’re not in great shape either, and you’re willing to bet it can more than outlast you. You’re not sure what the death penalty is in this game, but you don’t want to find out within literally the first 5 minutes of logging on. So you back away, maintaining your readiness and keeping your eyes on the monster as you do so. It doesn’t follow you, instead it mimics your actions, backing away from the puddle of light from its blood and fading into the gloom of the meadow, behind a few curtains of water.
As soon as you lose track of it you turn and bolt for the hole. This is the first time you’ve traversed ground in your avatar, perhaps because of that or perhaps because of the fear of virtual death you cover the ground between you and the opening in a flash. Your body feels lighter than it should, or maybe you’re stronger than you should be, and a flying leap let’s you catch hold of a notch in the roots one-handed. The hole is a like a window to the sky, and you see the underside of a vast tree canopy as far above you as the top of a skyscraper would normally be. Glowing, fleshy flowers hang heavy from the underside of limbs every now and then, providing most of the illumination you’ve been using to see so far. The rest comes from glowing insects and lichens and mosses that festoon most surfaces or drift through the air. You absorb the view in an instant as you leverage yourself up and out of the hole with a quick series of hops and kicks, landing on a relatively flat expanse of wood maybe 60m across. Spikes just up from its surface every now and then.
