Matou Shinji and the Broken Chains (HP/FSN CYOA)

[Skull Leader]

Erm... Did I miss the detailed info on the champions, save for deceptive words of good old Slughorn? Cause everyone else seem to know a lot about the guys - while I still have no idea.

Ah, most of this knowledge is coming from people asking questions to Alf on IRC, and is not the kind of info that Shinji himself would really know for the most part. But I will try to sum things up for you. This is going off of my head and should be taken with a grain of salt as not everything is 100% certain or likely correct. That and Shinji does not know about a lot of this.

Ayaka - Japan Champion. We know her at this point.

Olu - African Champion. Not much more is known about him other than he seems to be able to manipulate earth and can make a quick sand attack. An aggressive leader that holds himself as the rising star now that Africa is the rising power due to the power vacuum caused by Dumbledore's death. In a lot of ways he is Shinji as a transfiguration master. With a tank like form, earth powers, but replace ofuda with wandless african magic.

Mishca - Russian Champion. Headstrong person that looks down at people who are not as militant as him, such as the more cerebral schools like France or Hogwarts. Feels that Shinji as a champion is an insult due to his age. His family was the family that ultimately kicked out Zouken from Russia. Family has sworn to end Zouken's bloodline. Possibly has Templar connections.

Lestrange - French Champion. We know her at this point.

Sondrol - Nordic Champion. We mostly know her at this point, but she is rather good with stealth, and hit run attacks. Tends to favor the potions in their vapor forms, or injecting them straight into the body.

Elesa - American Champion. We know her from her chapter. Beyond her ties with Ayaka, she has closely worked with Ramona in the past and has also worked with Ku'. Has been feeling out the others, collecting intel. She can not be killed and will survive easily an AK hit due to her Chosen of Gaia status.

Ka'aukai - The Fleet champion of the Pacific. We have seen his personality somewhat last year. But tends to be calm, and calculating. The water user of the bunch with spiritual abilites. After meeting Shinji last year, he asked around Japan about him, learning what info they knew about him as he was curious about the Japanese boy that went to Hogwarts. The Fleet has partial ties with the Illuminati as they both been working together to guard the sleeping Elder One deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Libatius - Brazilian Champion. I do not know that much on him other than he is rather good with potions even by the normal champions standard. Has a specialty with poisons. He tends to like other people that are as knowledgeable about potions as him. Knows the martial art of capoeira. He is not super tier champion, but not horrible also.

Parambir - Indian champion. Knows a bit about fighting with India style swords. He is considered to be at the bottom of all the champions with Shinji. He is not super good, and tends to have a similar wand fighting style as Hogwarts due to his school being an off shoot of Hogwarts. Not actually happy that he is considered to be from a back water school when the Shinji, the 14 year old is not even from Britain himself is champion to the 'elite' school. He is in over his head from what I can tell.

Ramona - The First Nations of Canada champion. She is anti-spiritual powerhouse with her spiritual attuned skill set, but is also a healer and not a warrior by nature. She is the investigator/researcher half to balance of Elesa's full agent in their field work since they have worked together before.

[Daiki]

Ayaka, Elesa and Lestrange we have seen some of what they can do.
Mischa uses transfiguration to turn dirt into bear familiars. Cast a barrier of steel too. Skilled at silent spells. Can enchant his armor also.
Olu has a scathing sandstorm which causes visual impairment (obviously) and turn you into mincemeat. Also tries to remove wands since not many people are his equal without one.
Ka'aukai has a form of animal empathy, can somewhat use spirit borrowing like Ramona and obviously stomps if there is a water body around.
Libatius is basically Snape, super good potions and skilled at dark arts. Also, unharmed martial arts apparently. Poisons too.
Sondrol has concealment better than Radu and which can fool Zelkova's detection. Very good in melee and potions.
Ramona anti-spirit, anti-magic, healing. She channels the lingering affinity of the landscape and can shapeshift (steps above animagi) according to it. Also borrows spirit abilities in the vicinity.
Parambir is the wild card without a particular specialty but good all rounder.

Also, don't forget they have their familiars too.

As for the tiers in term of battle capability it's something like this;

Elesa & Ayaka.
Lestrange & Ka'aukai.
Mischa & Olu.
Sondrol, Shinji & Ramona.


Don't know where Libatius nor Parambir sit exactly. Of course, these vary according to conditions and affinity.

[Skull Leader]

Don't know where Libatius nor Parambir sit exactly. Of course, these vary according to conditions and affinity.

Parambir is the bottom tier below Shinji's tier level. Essentially he is at George's combat level if George w/o the ring if he never receive the kick in the butt that was joining the Stonecutters. Basically the level of the best that Hogwarts could normally pump out. Not that he is not toothless or a pushover, just not abnormally 'special.'

Libatius is higher than Parambir, but maybe not quiet Shinji tier when its a question of pure combat. He might be magically better than Shinji even, in spells that is, but lacks the overall special skills that ranks Shinji up as Shinji has a lot of force multipliers with Ofuda and Fusion. In potions, he punches at Lestrange level.

As pointed out, anyone can punch at a higher tier level in the right conditions, or vice versa. Shinji punches higher when in fusion unless he is counter by an anti-sprite ability from say Ramona or Ku'. Sondrol punches harder when its not a matter of long drawn out full combat as she is basically the champion version of the Assassin class.

Not every champion has a familiar or an equivalent such as Lestrange's sword. The champions that come from the more sprite aware schools such as Ku' and Ramona are the ones with highest chance of having one than say Parambir or Libatius.

Not every champion has unlocked element based abilities or spells but they each have their own elements that play into their character and stats. Noteable elements include Lestrange having a strong ice element, thought Ramona has ice also but I think not as strong if I remember right. Olu and Mishca have earth, Ku' has, of course, water. Sondrol has air with I think a specialty of sonic.

But it's always good to remember that Shinja knows very little of this, and will not use this information when excuting our wishes.

[Cassius]

[x] Work with Ayaka/Lestrange
[X] Do not work with Mischa

Probably better to work with someone we know than a stranger

[X] Skip the Cooking Competition - ask Luna to help heal him

[alfheimwanderer]

As a gentle reminder, I am happy to answer questions, either in the thread or on IRC. Indeed, I welcome discussion!

Anyway, I am currently in Australia, so any questions are best taken in thread.

[alfheimwanderer]

I also want to point out for everyone voting Ramona that Shinji has barely interacted with her and has very little in character reason to choose her. He didn't sit or talk with her, didn't show much interest in her, and doesn't know her from before.

Please remember that information you get OOC is not applicable to IC choices.

Vote is up till Friday.

[Skull Leader]

You confirmed my thoughts I have been having over the last day or so on Ramona, Shinji has no reason to pick her unlike almost anyone else. At best, we could pick Elesa and hope that she picks Ramona herself for a team of Shinji-Elesa-Ramona, but that team sounds like overkill. Which is the same reason why I am shying away from picking Ayaka. It is somewhat hard to show teamwork and your own skills when one part of the team blows everyone out of the water and does not need them.

Let's just pick the person that Shinji knows well at this point and has worked with before.

Change vote to [X] Work with Lestrange.

[neophyte]

Okay then... I'd choose sempai

[x] Work with Ayaka

and I second Daiki's point that we shouldn't needlessly antagonize with Misha. Yeah, the guy has some prejudice against us based on our age (who doesn't?), but Zouken's sworn enemy is ultimately our natural ally. Doesn't 'Sum of all fears' refer to Clancy's joint us-soviet operation?

[x] Don't work with Parambir

And that's really shameful, but I'd rely on Luna's help. Again.

[x] Skip the Cooking Competition - ask Luna to help heal him

[Malgos]

Ayaka

Get healed by Luna.​

[skulkidcachi90]

Ayaka

Get healed by Luna.​

[Skull Leader]

and I second Daiki's point that we shouldn't needlessly antagonize with Misha. Yeah, the guy has some prejudice against us based on our age (who doesn't?), but Zouken's sworn enemy is ultimately our natural ally. Doesn't 'Sum of all fears' refer to Clancy's joint us-soviet operation?

Interesting reference from off in the right field. But I do want to point out the flaw in this thinking. Alf has already pointed out that the request to not work with someone is not shared to anyone other than the Potion committee for them to decide the teams for the event. Heck, if all the other champions wrote down that they did not want to work with Shinji (ouch) for the event, Shinji would still not be told of this unless the individual champions choose to inform Shinji of their picks.

There is no danger of making someone annoyed by saying we do not want to work with them. Now you might be able to make the case that having Shinji say he doesn't want to work with Mischa will effect how Shinji responds and treats Mischa. And that might lead to what you are thinking will happen. But its not because Mischa will find out directly.

Also Zouken's swore enemy at this point is Shinji. Its hard for Shinji to not be his own ally. Mischa's sworn enemy is the entire bloodline of Zouken, which Shinji is apart of, no matter what his current status with the family is. I doubt that we could ever swing Mischa towards not considering Shinji as his enemy but hey we can try I guess.

[Daiki]

The possibility to befriend him was there but Shinji's drunk approach made things difficult.

Not like it matters anyway considering what happens next.

[Haunter]

[X] Ayaka
[X] Do not work with Parambir
[X] Skip the Cooking Competition - ask Luna to help heal him

What do we lose, besides reputation and respect points, by skipping the Cooking Competition? And if we decide to skip the competition, doesn't that also mean the other Champions that we got drunk with may also end up skipping the competition?

[alfheimwanderer]

What do we lose, besides reputation and respect points, by skipping the Cooking Competition? And if we decide to skip the competition, doesn't that also mean the other Champions that we got drunk with may also end up skipping the competition?

Mostly just reputation and respect points. Almost all of these trials are optional, since they're just opportunities to demonstrate one's skill and by participating, assess the skill of other Champions.

And yes, it is quite possible some of the others might end up skipping the competition. All of the mini-competitions have been optional, in fact, and if they feel they have something more important to do, like treat a massive hangover/deal with nearly being poisoned/or talking privately to a representative from the Centre for Alchemical Studies, they are free to skip it.

What is not optional is the overnight survival exercise, which aside from the free for all combat exhibition which follows it, the one day of rest, and the party that night, will be the last of the preliminaries for the Champions.

[alfheimwanderer]

200: [x] Work with Ayaka; TIE - [X] Do not work with Mischa; [X] Do not work with Parambir
201: [X] Skip the Cooking Competition - ask Luna to help heal him

---

Choice 202: Based on each competitor's stated preferences and known abilities, the Committee has split the competitors into the following teams for the survival exercise:

Lestrange & Sondrol
Olu & Libatius
Ramona, Ka'aukai & Matou Shinji
Ayaka & Elesa
Parambir & Mischa

Each Champion is to report to the exit gate of the village by sundown, to join their partner(s), with each team being tasked with surviving the night, gathering ingredients, and brewing a potion, with each team to be scored as a single unit. Shinji is mindful that he does not know Ramona or Ka'aukai, having never worked with them before or really talked much with either of them, and that he has not exactly made a spectacular showing so far. After all, why would the Committee put him in a team of three unless they thought he was one of the weakest?

Still, he knows he is stronger than most would think, at least in combat, given his abilities with Fusion - which he took care not to reveal, even when it seemed he was falling to his doom the night before. With that in mind, how does he approach his new allies for the night? (choose one)

[ ] Confidently, ready to take charge, as this seems much like one of Snape's old Potion Challenges
[ ] Have an open mind - they may have secrets as well
[ ] Defer to his colleagues' judgement - no need to reveal any of his cards
[ ] (write-in)

203: And does he have any suggestions for how to approach the challenge as a whole? (choose one)

[ ] Be aggressive - try to disable at least one of the enemy teams
[ ] Be sneaky - try to go unnoticed, harvesting while everyone else bickers
[ ] Be defensive - fortify a base camp before going out to forage
[ ] Be vigilant - be ready to react to surprises
[ ] (write-in)

---

Oh yes, and I suppose I should mention a few things.

If Shinij had mixed Luna's (menstrual) blood with the ectoplasm of a ghost or sacred sake, he would have obtained the basic requirements for the ​Elixir of Transference. He would have learned this through taking the potion, and becoming the first man to experience just what bad period pain was like.

Adding Mapo Tofu to this potent mix would have amplified the experience, with him understanding how to create the Elixir of Agony, an aerosol-variant dual-purpose potion which can be used to free the drinker of pain - and instead, inflict any pain he was supposed to feel upon those who merely breathe in the fumes.

Mingling his blood, Luna's blood, and Felix Felicis would have allowed him to create something which lets the drinker experience all the sensations associated with the process of conception and childbirth, overwhelming someone with a powerful surge of pleasure, followed by the most excruciating pain one has ever felt in one's life.

I should also mention that Rin intends to go back to Japan to assemble a birthday box for Shinji, filled with some useful things, including the Azoth dagger made by her father, and a formal offer to adopt him into the Tohsaka family when they both come of age, if he so desires. After all, he has none of his own remaining, and it would certainly be one way for her to look out for him as he has looked out for her (and if he still wants her as a bride or a mistress, its not like they'd be blood related)...

[Daiki]

Haha, these potions man.

[x] Have an open mind - they may have secrets as well.

Working together is a good bet.

As for the second choice... I think a mix of stealth and defense might allow to push through the night. General awareness will also play a serious role.

So traps. Lots of them.

[Haunter]

[x] Have an open mind - they may have secrets as well.
[x] Be defensive - fortify a base camp before going out to forage

I was seriously caught off-guard when learning that Luna's blood actually was Luna's PERIOD blood (conveniently left out). Like, wtf, I thought it would be just normal blood from a cut or something.

Anyway, what would we have gotten if we mixed Shinji's blood and kodama bark without the Felix Felicis? Or Amazake and Sacred Sake? Does Mapo Tofu amplify the effects of every potion? And have we lost enough blood to have negative effects on us?

[Malgos]

Have and open mind.

Be aggressive.​

[Cassius]

[x] Have an open mind - they may have secrets as well

[Skull Leader]

So when the group picks Ayaka, we get Ramona...

Did we shoot too high by picking Ayaka that Kaiduka put the ax to it? It would have been a poor measure of teamwork, with then working together beforehand that assume he would have pushed against it. And there being no one on the potion board on the Britain side, due to Slughorn's press role, to press for Shinji to be considered strong enough to be on a smaller 'better' team, then the three man team.

Go team Druid. One that includes a ice, water and forest type. If there is any angry nature sprite that needs soothing or dealt with a more firm hand, this is the best team possible that does not contain a powerhouse champion.

I was seriously caught off-guard when learning that Luna's blood actually was Luna's PERIOD blood (conveniently left out). Like, wtf, I thought it would be just normal blood from a cut or something.

I admit to that same thinking but Luna has done this before. She used this blood source for her offering to gain her familiar, not that Shinji at the time understood that fact. Should have guess that the character that does things her own way and is named after the moon would use her monthly blood supply.

Choice 202: [X]Have an open mind - they may have secrets as well
Makes the most sense, as team requires people to work together for the good of the group. Teammates should not hide all of their abilities from each other. Now is a chance to get closer with them before the final event.

Choice 203: Not sure here. Aggressive option seemed to never be a good idea in the Snape challenges as others will seek revenge or punish you later for aggressiveness. Also Shinji darn well knows what his changes of taking out Ayaka is and he also knows the deadly force that Lestrange willing to use if people are aggressive against her, so there are only two teams that could even be targeted in Shinji's mind.

The other options I am fine with if they win but I have a hard time saying which will be better to pick. Stealth is a mix bag, depends on how well this group is at that skill. I suspect this group would rather good at keeping away from most of the others, to avoid issues then anything else, with their combined sensor abilities. Won't help against people like Sondrol, but still useful.

Question: Would the idea of having the team seek out an area that would better suit their overall abilities, say a water location such as a water fall or a island in a lake, to set up a better base camp to defend, fall under the defensive option choice or is that more of a write in at that point? I am not sure if one is free to where their camp will be or if its more like Snape's challenges that had a required area that was team's brewing area/base camp.