Time is monstrous and hateful
The whirling wheel
That advances heedlessly
Crushing all in its path
}ï{
11:57pm
@ Munashiino Shijima
Central Iwatodai - Naganaki Shrine
The streets around the shrine are sparsely crowded. Despite the late hour, there is still a crowd of pedestrians, people heading to the graveyard shift, people running home late from work, or simply people with nothing better to do but to loiter outside the nearby 24-hour convenience store.
It’s a rather idyllic scene, quite unlike other sections of the city that never quite stop bustling with activity no matter the hour. A part of the city that remains alive regardless of the hour, but without the reckless abandon that other parts of the city have given in to.
@ Erasmus James Lawrence
Central Iwatodai - Musubi Park
The park is quite deserted at this hour. Although you see the occasional policeman, there aren't very many people crossing it at this hour. Though the park is quite large so it might just be that this area in particular is not quite as crowded as the rest. Whatever the case might be, near your bench is a cleared area, the nearest tree line being quite far away. There is no one else in sight.
Still... you feel as if someone is watching you...
@ Alex Bailey
Central Iwatodai - Moving towards NW Iwatodai.
The walk through the city streets is quite monotonous. Everything is well illuminated around the streets surrounding Musubi Park as you head Northwest, passing by both houses and apartment buildings. The streets in this area are narrower than in other, more crowded, sections of the city, but you can still move comfortably as not many cars are around at this hour.
With a brisk pace and not many pedestrians on the side walk, you should be at your destination within scant minutes.
@ Justica Farrell
Northwest Iwatodai – Residential Area.
The area is pretty empty at this hour. Rare to see people outside their homes as midnight approaches. Most of the houses in this section of the city are western in style, with high walls set around them. The most interesting feature of the area is a nearby lot which has been fitted with a variety of slides, swings and other such playground pieces for the use of nearby families.
12:00am
The lights flicker and die.
The moon looks unnaturally large and a sickly yellow-green color.
The world is bathed in a similar hue.
The streets change, taking on a manic checkerboard pattern at random, senseless intervals while remaining mundane concrete and asphalt in other places.
Around you, certain buildings in the edge of your peripheral vision seem to grow and change, taking on physically impossible shapes and forms.
Splatters of blood and upright coffins bathed in a gloomy red glow appear everywhere.
You can feel them lurking, a menacing presence in the edge of your mind.
You feel a dreadful chill.
@ Munashiino Shijima
Central Iwatodai - Naganaki Shrine
As the real world shifts into The Dark Hour, all the people that were around you are turned into coffins. No one but you remains themselves as far as you can see.
Seemingly out of thin air, a scant few feet in front of you, a Shadow, like a monstrous serpent with teeth instead of fangs, materializes into existence. It immediately takes note of you, but seems wary to go near the shrine. It hisses menacingly, a sickening and revolting sound.
However, from around the corner of the street, an unchanged person peeks around a building wall fearfully. A person experiencing the Dark Hour for the first time?
The shadow quickly takes notice of them and proceeds to ignore you, slithering off towards the new arrival with the speed of an arrow loosened from a bow.
(Enemy = 1 medium Shadow.)
@ Erasmus James Lawrence
Central Iwatodai - Musubi Park
The Dark Hour descends. You can feel them nearby. That chill working itself up your spine is a dead give away. They're near. However, for whatever reason, they're not approaching. They seem to be keeping their distance from your position.
Looking around you, you notice that there are no coffins nearby and no other humans. There are no visible Shadows either, but you can feel them lurking nearby. There is absolutely no one else in sight.
But...
That feeling that someone is watching you still hasn't gone away.
Flitting among the trees in front of you, you notice what appears to be a blue butterfly...
@ Alex Bailey & Justica Farrell
Northwest Iwatodai.
As the Dark Hour descends, everything around you is momentarily silent. However, that is soon interrupted by a loud wailing noise coming from somewhere nearby. You hear a loud, terrified wail coming from somewhere nearby.
@ Guy Maxwell, Tsukuda Seitaro, Ethan Yen, & Nishimura Takuro.
Tatsumi Port Island – Outside of Paulownia Mall
The enormous mass of darkness and the smaller shadows shrug off fire without any effort. Pellinore has little difficulty cutting the smaller shadows down, as the gust of razor wind from Horus and the lightning from Barachiel cause some of the smaller to break down into foul smelling ichor that quickly disappears, leaving only a mask behind. That too soon crumbles and fade from existence.
The hulking mass, however, is still mostly intact. It seems to pulse frantically for a moment and then whips a particularly large arm in a wide arc even as it gibbers senselessly. A deluge of dark, bubbling ichor rains down on you, burning your skin where it touches you and forming a medium sized shadow where it lands on the ground.
It shambles forward at great speed, rapidly gaining on your position outside the mall.
(Great SPD required to dodge the ichor rain. If you're hit, you take damage fire damage and will burn for another turn. If you dodge, a medium shadow forms next to you. Next turn it will be in melee range.)
On the edge of your vision you can see various medium sized shadows ignoring the combat, preferring instead to head northwest towards the Moonlit Bridge. Some, however, remain on the edges or circle around, trying to surround the group. They're vaguely humanoid shaped, though their forms shift and change, like liquid in a flexible container. Smoke and embers dance in their mouths.
(2 Shadows are choosing to ignore combat and head NW. 3 Shadows are trying to surround you as they prepare to attack.)
(Enemies left = 1 huge Shadow, 5 medium Shadows. All small Shadows have been eliminated.)
@ Mouto Rensuro
South Iwatodai – Warehouses
As Ren runs off towards the waterfront, the barely visible Shadow on the roof takes notice of him. It begins pursuit, it's heavy leaps making deep crunching noises as it advances over the rooftops. Though you're able to keep ahead of it, you can feel it gaining distance slowly. Pretty soon it'll be right on top of you.
With a final grunt of exertion, you reach the unloading area of the warehouses. It's wide and mostly empty, aside from a few large containers on the far left side. There are a few coffins spread about and... one person looking quite terrified and bewildered.
CRUNCH!
On the rooftop above you, the Shadow leers down at you. It is vaguely humanoid, in that it has easily discernible pairs 0f arms and legs, but aside from that the similarities stop. It emits a noise that is part scream and part roar and jumps at you even as a sickly purple aura sprouts around it.
(Enemy present = 1 medium Shadows.)
@ Wolfram Abendroth
South Iwatodai – Shijima Park
The hooded person maintains the uncomfortable silence for a moment that seems to drag on forever. You can see him shift slightly, looking up at the sky, taking the strange moon into stock. He turns to face you and you can see into the hood. His features are dominated by teal tattoos arranged in lines that seem to glow and pulse with the rhythm of a beating heart. The face is that of a young Asian man, quite likely younger than you, but the eyes are a bright yellow. He looks at the dry erase board and then regards you intently for several seconds. His lips seem to curl into a small smile.
“Your soul does not smell normal,” he says and his eyes seem to shift into a bright red for the briefest of moments before returning to normal. He faces away and silently stands up.
“I feel like answering your question.”
He raises a gloved hand, as if trying to grasp the moon, and clenches it into a fist.
“I,” he says in a flippant tone, “am the strongest demon of Chaos. The end of the long road. Neither human, nor devil. I am the Demi-Fiend.”
He walks off without looking back, but you hear his voice carrying clearly.
“Stay away from the blue butterfly, kid. He doesn’t care one way or the other.”
And with that, he heads off towards the north without looking back.
The night feels somehow darker and you feel a dreadful chill.
They’re near.
No, that's wrong.
As if the "demon's" presence had been keeping them at bay, they rush forward from their hiding spot on the tree line behind you: two shadows, darker than the night, careering towards your position – a graceful feline form one second, a seething, formless blob the next. As they run they open their jaws and you can barely make out what appears to be steam rising out from them.
(Enemies approaching = 2 medium Shadows. They'll be in melee range next turn.)
Live and Learn, noob GM, Live and Learn.
This current pace is going too slow with my current work schedule. I feel it's unfair to have well over half of the players waiting so...
It's The Dark Hour for everyone now.
Have fun.
Originally Posted by Moczo
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