We may want to try and glitch ourselves into the dream world finally, getting back people from that. Even if the glitcher finds that dangerous. I have completely forgetton if he thinks that's impossible.

But fuck it, we should do the impossible now. We should literally break every single system aw and rule in the book, maybe even make our own. Completely detach ourselves from the network ruleset that governs everything and reprogram ressurection back in.

If this is a computer thing, that means that we should partition this sanctuary and everyone in it, probably install a new OS.

Say goodbye to the Arbiter, give him a hug for luck. We should address our people, they all know how serious losing resurrection is but we should assure them that it doesn't mean we lost. Not by a long shot. If the System can delete abilities then nothing says we can't remake them. We've already done the unlikely and outright defeated at least two system brackets. Its not so dificult to imagine us going all the way to the top and saving everyone. In the meantime Ghost Talk will be given to select people who stay in the Sanctuary as well as Persistance to ensure that we will continue on as before. As for the more dangerous pursuits such as Chest Runs we will talk to Glitcher to ensure that no one will be lost permanently.

>>435623
Well it's simple really. We can still resurrect people via Ghost Talk/Form, but they can only live in safe zones. Any death from here on out reduces our *fighting* force. This just means we have to step up our planning and strategy for the war. Find more advantages, find more important targets to strike at, strengthen our troops so that death is less likely. This war isn't over, it's only just begun. And we will NOT lose.

Because of the swing in focus I think Alison should make a new armor set, one that looks like it's made for battle.

"I hope you enjoyed the vacation, we're back in the trenches. Chin up, we're not licked yet."

>>435627
Chest runs? Alison and Arbiter's brackets should be completely safe for chest runs. There is literally no one to stop their teams from taking chests now, unless another Administrator is taking over chest protection duties? We should find out, but very carefully. Like, send out a team with Alison so she can teleport everyone back if it turns out another bracket's Admin is monitoring chests in this bracket now. We should pick up chests one at a time to keep the risk as low as possible.

>>435630
Actually it may be best to clean out the "safe" brackets immediately, before the other admins realize this and pull together a counter force. They probably don't know how to take over some one else's bracket, as it never occurred to them as a situation.

Find Iso after you do whatever you do, and give each other a deep hug; You both could use the comfort of each other's company right now, and you've been neglecting the little guy.

Test if you can use Ghost Talk to manifest a ghost without its consent. Start with Hunter 2 and say you're so sorry you didn't get a chance to resurrect him, and that this is the best you can do now. Oh, and check if the ghosts got the same system-wide message you did.

>>435632
There's also the matter of the "power" being turned off to the bracket System-space, and how that might effect chest spawning. Could not do a thing to it; Could turn it off; Could make it slowly fade and stop. Also, the "power" being turned off could also be a preliminary step to the "dead" bracket being pruned. That means all the contestants in it should be evacuated sooner rather than later, and as many chest runs done in it as possible, if possible.

>>435635
>Hunter 2
Whoa now, he's got the system flag still. No bringing him here. The system probably doesn't know our exact location so let's keep it that way!

>>435638
Dang it, you're probably right. Alison will have to sleep to ask Hunter 2 if he feels his System connection has been severed, and even if he thinks so he should be ghost-resurrected in the stage bracket safe zone, just to be safe. For now resurrect a relatively friendly ghost that is known to have no System ties.

I'm wondering how Alison's bracket suddenly having no System administration will do to the Shopkeep in the bracket safe zones that were overseen by them. Will they sever from the System and be unlimited like Smuggler?

1/3 Suggestion 2012/07/24(Tue)01:02 No. 435644 ID: 814ded
File 134311697517.png - (10.83KB , 700x700 , sCS-245.png )

>Hug Arbiter

Alison will want to speak to the glitcher, but first will speak to her house.

>Talk to hunter 2
She won't chance a ghost-form in the corrupted sanctuary, but she can at least talk to him. She apologizes for not resurrecting him in time, and he says it is okay. And although he did respond, Alison could still tell that Ghost form does require consent.

2/3 Suggestion 2012/07/24(Tue)01:03 No. 435645 ID: 814ded
File 134311700987.png - (20.57KB , 700x700 , sCS-246.png )

A brief chat is held at her main hall, in which she says that dying only means they lose a bit of fighting force. She will still be able to use ghost talk, so death is still a weak principle. While resurrection is a hit, they're not out yet.

As expected, it's easy enough to keep everyone's spirits up. Most of them were already in a similar boat, afterall. The expressed dismay is that they spent long enough around here to get used to not having to worry about death, but they aren't crushed by its return. Especially not with ghost forms available.

3/3 Suggestion 2012/07/24(Tue)01:04 No. 435647 ID: 814ded
File 134311705049.png - (13.67KB , 700x700 , sCS-247.png )

>Hug Iso

Iso looked like he wanted to speak to Alison in private, and she planned on motioning him away anyway once she addressed everyone.

He says something, and Alison asks him to speak up. He says he wants to go on a date.

With Alison.

That is, when she isn't busy. He explains he's been trying to ask for awhile, but there never seems to be a good chance to bring it up.

>>435646
>Daaaaaaaaaaaates

Perhaps it's time to invest in some, er, equipment?

>>435647
Of course! Let's give our ideas to Corruptor and Glitcher then see if we have some spare time soon to spend with him. It'd only take a few hours, so it's not going to hurt us in the long run.

Specifically, I want to discuss making the time compressed even further or possibly going without that 1 hour of uncompressed time so that we're in a constant "War Cycle". Time is a precious resource we cannot afford to waste.

Secondly, we should investigate the dead System bases, and see if we can research their technology. Being able to use Projections or utilize their teleport tech would be extremely valuable. So would tracing their connection back to whoever is above Administration. If we can start performing raids deeper into the heart of the System we could win this war without the Sanctuary being discovered at all.

Thirdly, I think it is important that we get some idea of how Freeroam combat works. How is range calculated for abilities that use it? Does T3 Immunity still work to prevent ranged attacks? Can we use equipment to damage other players, or to protect against attacks? Does armor style make a difference in Freeroam? Does weapon style? Can we choose to do less damage than normal, just like in stages? There are so so many unknowns. All testing should be done with members that have no chance of OHKOing eachother, of course.

>>435651
Oh yeah, and I want to ask Smuggler how 1ups are sold- as in, it looks like he can't sell them right now. Why not? I'm sure some of our people have 1ups still, like Healer and Succubus, so Glitcher might be able to unlock 1ups just like other items.

Also worth considering is using Ghost Form to add to our workforce. They would be somewhat low quality workers due to not having upgrades but I'm sure there are tasks they can do that don't require a lot of skill or strength. It would be worth trying out a little bit just to see if we can banish ghosts at will or if they're permanent additions to the safe zone. Also worth testing is if they can just walk into areas that Corruptor makes not-safe. If that's the case then we can still use them for fighting, but only home defense.

Hug Iso a little tighter and whisper that you accept. Be a bit annoyed at yourself that even with all the working and fighting and planning, there was time that you two could have spent together, and you're sorry you didn't.

>>435650
Well, does Alison really have to personally go on the chest test run? She'll go to talk to Corrupter and Glitcher, but a team from her house can do the run just as well without her and report back. Actually, she should talk with Corrupter and the other house lords to put together only one test run team. This is so multiple teams aren't put at risk if the test run goes bad.

Say yes. The only things we need to do is to talk the Corrupter, talk to Glitcher and do a test run for chests. After that we can take a break from the war. As long as nothing else comes up of course.


Things we should discuss with the Corrupter:

Using persistence, white gloves and Boon Absorb to backup ghosts without killing the people involved. Also might be a good incentive for recruitment.

We are in System Space along with ALL the brackets. You can actually see everything with our observatory. We might be able to use this to stage additional raids.


Things to discuss with the Glitcher:

Salvaging defunct System Brackets, see what we can learn from them. If they are without 'power' can we restore it and convert it for our own use?


Panic Teleporters for people doing Chest runs to avoid death.

Modifying Ghost Talk to work in our personal Stages. Perhaps copying a Rest Areas ability to treat Ghosts as resurrected over to the stages will work. This will allow even the dead to do stage runs.

Recovering Resurrection as a Sanctuary Only ability \ boon. Can we remake it? Even if its local only. (No more battle resurrections but get them to the Sanctuary and they can live.)

Becoming Glitched. The Glitcher is only one person would someone helping him speed things up?

Things to discuss with Engineer:

A light filter for the Observatory to be able to see the new Sun which the System has given us.

The test chest run should include Alison, Mako, Recluse, Iso, Healer, and Scanner. Mainly because they are our toughest group.

>>435655
Actually, Engineer is probably the one to talk to about filters for the telescope. When you do talk to him, ask if shining what's coming out of the telescope onto a projection screen would help pick things out.

Oh, and there's also more bracket-space tendrils in the sky below the Sanctuary, so eventually an observatory will have to be built down there as well. Alison should bring that up with Corrupter, along with proposing moving the current observatory to the top of Corrupter's tower, for the best unobstructed view available.

Ah, and do ask Glitcher about if the entire Sanctuary could be moved about in space. Not teleporting it, like with moving your house to Smuggler's, but actually physically moving it around.

>>435659
If we CAN teleport the Sanctuary around we could use it to avoid the light trails and simply never get invaded, unless they somehow create a web of light trails taking up every available spot... or if we can't teleport very often, or if the teleport is random. Making the Sanctuary itself mobile would be nice regardless of how we do it though, I agree with you there.

>>435647
Of course!

Since this is the best time to think about it, get body upgrade with legs and become a lizard lady with nice hips! Equipment optional if you desire to take it slow! Really, just want to see if you like one form or the other and how nice you'd look with legs.

I see no reason to become a lizard...

>>435663
lizard lady is just her as she is now only with legs and a smaller tail instead of just a big snake tail.
Just screwing with appearances, wanna look different for the date and all, but can we really do another dress up doll with Allison that looks great with her snake half. Legs may look really flattering on her!

Go on the date, leave Alison as the Snake Queen.

Perhaps its time to become corrupted?

That may escalate things even further though.

>>435665
Actually, Alison should go to the date as a leggy lizard lady, if for no other reason than feeling what it's like to walk about on legs. Then perhaps for their next date Iso could take a form similar in size and type to Alison's, to see what it's like moving the way she does. If nothing else it would be a different experience for the both of them.

Infinite vetos on giving Alison legs. She is who she is, and she's not about to change for the hell of it.

Avoid becoming corrupted for now.

My only worry about going on a date is that Arbiter has been showing a lot of interest in / attention to Alison. He might be hurt and think we were leading him on. But there's no way to avoid that reveal.

You should test the summon ghost ability. Is there a limit on how many ghosts you can have out a time? Is there a CU cost? Once activated, are the ghosts passive to maintain, or do they require constant concentration?

Later, when you get a chance, you should also test if people with a shared ghost can use ghost talk to communicate at a distance, using the ghost as a relay.

Also- who's dead? I know we discussed having some people dead so we could resurrect them around the 10 person limit on the raid, but I'm not sure if we followed through. Did we trap any of our regulars?

Other exploits to discus:

We're pretty confident that the people running the system are inside, with us. But they have write access- they deleted a pointer or function and changed the rules of the game. Our number one priority should be getting glitcher that access. We can start deleting access to abilities or rules we don't like (rend, no absorb, no ghost...) or possibly restoring others, or writing new things from scratch.

Getting Glitcher to a collapsed system zone might help, as the base code might be exposed there.

We also need to bring in our system refuges and talk with them as soon as the cycle syncs up. Supervisor and Baron may know things. Supervisor, if she's good at what she does, could probably be used in house management somehow. She can work for Chief. Watcher should be offered a post in the observatory, obviously.

Glitcher needs to check if the administrater was right. Does Enforcer 7 Scholar have a ghost now?

Snakes don't have legs, what are you thinking. No legs. Also veto-ing being corrupted. I don't see a need for it at this time, and it may be detrimental in the long-term.

Speaking of detrimental in the long-term:
Love triangles.

Do we stop our cruel toying with Iso's heart now or shall we string him along a while longer?

Suggestion 2012/07/24(Tue)12:18 No. 435770 ID: 814ded
File 134315750791.png - (22.14KB , 700x700 , sCS-248.png )

Alison resurrected her regulars just in time, so all of her main party and then some is alive. As far as she can tell, there is no CU cost, limit, or concentration requirement for pulling ghosts out.

Only one person can be an active ghost at a time, but anyone who has a ghost copy of that person with ghost talk may communicate with them telepathically. With this, it is possible to use them as long range communicators.

>Legs
For now, she'd rather worry about different things than how she's going to look on any date. She does tell Iso that she'll accept, but first she has to go to the corruptor and glitcher.

She finds them at the usual place. She took a back entrance to the castle, as she didn't like the yelling and unrest in the common public areas.

>"Completely ruined!" The Corruptor says, mostly ignoring Alison other than a glance.

Technically, the Glitcher says, it's actually fixed.

>"You know what I mean! First resurrection, now our time?! You froze us before, but now you can't?"

Honestly, the Glitcher did not know how he managed it the first time. It was a low chance of success, and he thought he would die for sure. But now time is moving forward at a regular rate, and they only have a couple dozen hours till the next stage if he doesn't fix it up soon. For all anyone knows, they won't be able to stay in the sanctuary during the next stage either.

I'm afraid the date is going to have to wait... something came up.

The administrators could slow down time as well. And we do have at least two defunct System Brackets to play with as well as Administrator Keycards, maybe Glitcher could spoof the Stage 5 keycard to grant us access to our brackets administration. Perhaps we should take the Glitcher to that one. Also ask if a second Glitcher would help success.

The other things we wanted to discuss can wait. They were alll dependant on time lapses.

Definitely share the key-card--Glitcher might be able to put it to some use.

>>435770
I told you we should partition this sanctuary and seperate it completely from the systems rules or laws.

Us and Glitcher will obviously have to find the source of what programs the rules, get a copy for ourselves, and leave an execution in the programming for the bracket we're in and make our OWN ruleset.

If Glitcher has made this entire sanctuary and hid it from the system and already altered it state, we can do it on an even bigger level. There's already holes within the rulebook, sometimes people damage each other for more or less than what's supposed to happen, and hell that enforcer came back from the dead until the shopkeeper noticed it. If we can get the entire sanctuary into one of those holes of voided rules, we should be set.

Knock, or otherwise make your presence known. Corrupter's already in a bad mood, and being caught eavesdropping will only make it worse. We need to plan right now, and we can't afford to fight amoungst ourselves.

The time compression is down? That means we can bring over the refugees as soon as we're done this meeting.

>>435770
Shit, also fuck.

Well, um. We need to check to see if the light trails in the distance are moving at HUGE SPEED now that we're not time compressed. I mean, the admins were able to compress their time, right? This could mean we have mere minutes before they find us. If they are moving at normal speed then we can assume the System has turned off time compression entirely. This ALSO means we can go pick up the system members that we evacuated from the defeated base. Their knowledge of how the System works would be absolutely essential so having them here is a good idea.

With time lost, really the best thing we can do is prepare a fighting force to attack a system base when stage 6 comes around, so we can use the S6 card and not even have to research the system base to access their tech.

Also, wasn't the sanctuary around for more than one stage? Surely we'd know by now if it was in danger of vanishing after stage 5 ended...

This might work out in our favor, actually. If we can't freeze time then the System Brackets can't freeze it, either, which means we'll be able to focus on things that require going into normal time.

I doubt the Sanctuary's going to vanish when Stage 5 starts, though. That kind of stuff is controlled by Upper Management, and if they haven't done it yet then they either don't know where we are or don't plan on doing that unless the System brackets find us and petition to have us removed.

Be sure to tell them the observatory is finished, and that you've already gleamed some interesting information from it.

Corrupter, I know you didn't think this would be easy. Your resistance movement has carved out a stronghold on the edge of a knife blade. This entire zone has always been on the verge of disaster. If all they can do to attack us now is make us fight using the old rules, we should be ecstatic. We now know more about our enemy than we ever have before, and we know for certain they can be beaten. They are running scared, let's figure out how to capitalize on it before they ACTUALLY figure out how to fight us.

We can teleport to other system brackets, right? This is going to be important both for attacking other administrators, and possibly for getting our armies through to the next safe zone.

Suggestion 2012/07/24(Tue)13:56 No. 435811 ID: 814ded
File 134316336983.png - (63.94KB , 700x700 , sCS-249.png )

The Corruptor's attention is got when Alison feels it appropriate, and he gives her a wave with his wingflaps. There is no greeting otherwise, but she isn't unwelcome. She is sure to mention that her observatory is finished, and shares the information she saw with it. Corruptor explains further that he did expect such a thing to eventually happen, but nevertheless, it all seemed to go so smoothly for awhile.

>Partition this sanctuary from the others
Glitcher says that he would have liked to as soon as he realized this area was all system space, but he has no idea. He's only done modifications and exploitations, never made anything like that.

>Light trail movements in the new speed
They appear to be moving as normal, so if they are slowing their own time down, it does not have an effect on their light trail's searching ability.

>Hand glitcher the card
Glitcher thanks Alison. Arbiter also came by to give his own card. He can't promise much, but maybe a miracle will happen.

>Various methods of treating the sanctuary with special rules
Glitcher says that is proving extremely difficult. It used to be easy enough, they were never looking at what he was doing. But now it is as though this systemverse is actively correcting everything in the physical space, so anything he does is fixed immediately. It also makes it nervewracking to do much, as constantly making issues needing correcting may help the system pinpoint this location. It's more incentive to make that new space, but he has little idea on how to do it.

Corruptor says that Alison may want to head back to her safe zone. Other houses are fortifying their positions and preparing for a large fight, but Corruptor doesn't know if he wants Alison to participate. Glitcher will proceed to move the house to the auxiliary sanctuary, as that should work, but the Corruptor explains that Alison only has so many forces. She's been invaluable by means of testing rules, bringing the smuggler here, putting the Arbiter in a good mood and all that, but her strength isn't by raw numbers. If there was a house lord that was away during an attack here, Corruptor would wish it to be Alison. He isn't making her, however, he simply now is forced to think of the worst. In spite of everything, Glitcher can still teleport.

>>435811
That's good reasoning. We accept the offer to move, as we had planned before things got serious. Also I am very relieved that the light trails didn't speed up, but annoyed that Glitcher has been neutered. Ask him if there's anything in particular he's confident he can pull off with low risk- we don't want to push him, and with the light trails moving at normal speed we're not in a huge rush.

Oh, ask Corrupter how his corrupted troops did in the system base, and if he has any information about how the battle mechanics work in Freeroam. Specifically, range and manufactured equipment.

He's making us his backup plan. Suggest that you get the Corupters ghost before you go, offer your ghost to the Corrupter too of course. Then suggest they do the same for the other House Lords to get everyone in the same ghost line. If we are forced to run then we will have a way to back up people. It will ensure communication as well. You can use Ability absorb, and persistence to ensure everyone survives it. If hes not willing to do so ask for someone on his recursive train.

People to take with you, Iso, Mako, Scanner. Everyone else stays behind to help out.

Well, yeah, our strength is more in being clever and breaking the system than strength of numbers fighting. We'll gladly keep helping there.

...is there any chance Corrupter or Glitcher feels comfortable enough with us to share more information about how this place works? We have our suspicions, but we might be more useful at coming up with suggestions and exploits with hard data. I know how the two of you have felt about 'trade secrets' in the past, and we'll respect it if you still feel that way, but...

Bring up the idea of investigating the collapsed system space zones. It's possible the rules are more malleable, or the 'systemverse' is exposed and vulnerable to those in the know.

We should also bring up the idea of pulling in our newest batch of system refugees / defectors and seeing if they know anything useful. Baron or Supervisor are the best candidates, but even a teleporter operator could be invaluable.

And we should ask Glitcher to check Scholar's ghost or lack thereof.

I'm not sure if us bailing is good for Corruption though. There's bound be socal and politcal unrest with all the recent change and distress. Our house is going to be a target for some of that, since we stirred up much of the recent action. Us bailing or running will only serve to bolster certain animosity or divisions. It's one thing to look out for our own people, but we should put some effort towards holding together the larger alliance.

How did things go for the other 3 system space attacks? We liberated most of the facility, with only 1 enemy casualty, and none of our own. How did the others do? Were the same special rules in effect?

We're willing to move there and spend a lot of time outside of the main Sanctuary, but we still have a number of things to do that require at least coming by here. We need to see if our bracket's chests are still being guarded, we need to find out all of the rules regarding Freeroam combat if someone else hasn't already, and I want to head by one of the brackets that didn't light up and talk to the Administrator there to find out why they didn't join it with the others; those Administrators might even be contestants that found S. 5 keycards, which means they could answer questions we have about becoming an administrator. I'm sure there's even more stuff that we'll think of doing before the stage starts.

>>435814
Getting everyone's ghosts sounds good, thankfully we can still use persistence for that, and we should also get a number of Tier 2s in on it so that they can relay messages quickly via Ghost Talk. Can you use that to talk to people who are still alive as well?

Gonna have to find where the rulebook is stored then, and change it manually if we want to resurrect.
Finding the rulebook should be second priority for the resistance to preparing for a big fight. I wonder if corrupting the rulebook is possible, or even deleting it completely to allow everything would be wise.

Suggestion 2012/07/24(Tue)19:00 No. 435971 ID: 814ded
File 134318165806.png - (39.35KB , 700x700 , sCS-250.png )

>Ask for Corruptor's ghost, offer Alison's own
With the Corruptor's, well, corrupted state, he isn't sure that it is a good idea for them to intermingle. Alison will use persistence to get several Tier 2's and regular team member's each other's ghosts, as there is still plenty of CU to reasonably swap boons.

Alison does also mention testing a chest run, but the Corruptor says that the Arbiter is already going on one. He will be back in less than half an hour to report his findings, if any.

>Scholar's ghost
Alison can't sense one, and the Glitcher wouldn't know how to check more than he has. He has more important things at the moment.

>Other 3 system space attacks
Corruptor says that they went smoothly. Only Alison and Arbiter annihilated their brackets, but the others were able to go in, gain a few other abilities or boons, and come back out again.

>How Freeroam works
Right now, Corruptor is testing that. He will report it to Alison and everyone when he is done.

>Teleport to a system bracket that did not light up.
Glitcher says he can do that for Alison if she wants to investigate a dull trail. Will she?

First lets move the Mansion to the new safe zone and then gather the defectors to see what they can offer us. If the Baron can enable Alison's merchant and further abilities, boons and delimeters for her that will be something to do so before we go on another raid.

>gained a few other abilities or boons
Anything new showing up in the shop?

>Investigate dull system trail
Yes, but we've got a few things to do first. Like seeing if we can stabilize anything around here, and we should at least talk to our new system people before we go on another system raid.

Things to check up on with the system refugees:
-how many got out? Everyone? Hydra, Flute, Supervisor, Watcher, the enforcers, and teleporter operators?
-are any of them willing to work with us now? Willing to stand aside, and evacuate a dying space, are different from outright defecting.
-if we have a teleport operator(s) they may have useful skills or knowledge, especially to Glitcher. They also know how to sever a system creature's connection to the system.
-Watcher may be useful is setting up our *own* watch station. Or at least in manning the observatory. I'm sure he'd enjoy something new to watch.
-Baron, shop stuff. He may have access to new things to buy.
-Supervisor may have insider information. Most interestingly: how did she know that Enforcer 7 had been blacklisted? That suggests she has access to a system's communication network. She may also have useful skills as a manager/supervisor (obviously) we could use if we can subvert her.

>>435972
Safety first!

But yes let's check out those unlit areas

I hate to suggest it, but perhaps we should just wait for the heat to blow over. Play the brackets like normal, try to avoid dying. No chest runs. That way they'll experience what is known as a heisenbug, and any programmer would agree that is the fiercest weapon against system administrators in existence. They think we have the power to kill admins, so let's conveniently not have that power. If they ask we can claim that he staged the fight to try and scare them, because he did.

I'm actually hoping the dark trails are actually Administrators who are rebelling. They've failed in some way and are due for erasure and they see no point in furthering the goals of the System.

>>436003
The problem with trying to do brackets normally is we now have way more people loyal to us then there will be exits available, and we won't be able to resurrect cheat around those anymore. We'd have to resign ourselves to be Chief as he was before joining us- choosing to kill off our own to get through. Granted, we'd have the option to revive people as ghosts in the safe zones, but still. I'd rather not have to resort to that kind of play unless we had to.

>>436007
I think we should just leave Alison's followers at the auxiliary sanctuary, and have her go through the stages with a small 4 person team like normal.

>>436014
Thats the plan, first though we need to do everything in our power to help the Glitcher recover time lock.

>>436007
Basically that. So our most important priority is to make sure the Sanctuary will still be there when the stage starts.

>>436017
There is the matter of the other contestants for the level. Alison can't do anything about the ones that have entered the level already, but she can work to convince the rest to come join her house, or at least come to the Sanctuary. The rest... Well, they may "live" again as manifested ghosts, but that seems a shame when they could be wholly living. Sadly, forcing them to come to the Sanctuary by teleporting them against their will would cause even more problems, so it's all she can do.

>>436050
It may be best to just handle things as we have until now

Try to do the following:
Get multiple people through at once if possible
archive the ghosts of those we can't
Take people who are willing to the sanctuary.

The only problem with the last one being that not everyone will necessarily want to go into a position where they are by default against the system.

We should check up on the system entities who came with us after we beat the administrator. It would be a good idea to make sure they aren't connected to the system, and then offer either bringing them to the auxiliary sanctuary, or having them stay here as contestants.

>>436007
as I implied before, if we can get to other system brackets, we can get our armies through to the next zone by splitting them up into small teams and steamrolling the locals. It won't be the nicest plan, but the less nice house lords would probably do it in a second.

>>436105
Okay, that's more clever. Regrettably, we probably won't have a choice as to where we go if we get forced out of Corruption into the brackets, and we probably don't have enough time for Glitcher to build enough teleporters to split our group 80 different ways, or more (80 teleports gets us groups of 10, which judging by the last run we did, might be too big to get everyone alive through the last door). And that's not even taking all the other, bigger houses into consideration...

>>436105
Thats still a ways off of course, hopefully we won't have to resort to things like that.

1/2 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)10:30 No. 436139 ID: f09b71
File 134323742625.png - (73.71KB , 700x700 , sCS-251.png )

Alison lets the glitcher move her house's peninsula to the auxiliary, using what looks to be a string of connected teleporters.

>Anything new in the shop?
Only what has been at least seen, hence Summon Allies and T3 Armor is now available.

>How many system individuals got out?
Hunter 1 and 3, Supervisor, Baron, Judge Lord, and all 8 of the teleporter operators. They are in the legal safe zone of Alison's bracket. Alison will speak to them, since all of the timelines are going at normal speed anyway.

2/2 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)10:30 No. 436140 ID: f09b71
File 134323744059.png - (99.73KB , 700x700 , sCS-252.png )

The teleporter operators merely were able to operate teleports using intuition, inside of designated teleporter rooms. As far as hard knowledge is concerned, the Glitcher knows more. They also only acted as the messenger to getting the Scholar's severance; they did not sever him themselves.

Similarly, the Baron does not, as it turns out, have more stock for Alison. He merely decides what to sell at what stage, but Alison has already unlocked everything he could.

Alison asks if Watcher would wish to watch the observatory. The watcher says no. He doesn't actually like watching everything that much, he realizes. He only did that because it was that, or die.

The Supervisor doesn't mind her job though, and so she wouldn't mind working with Chief if it comes to it. She didn't have any more insider information, and was only spoken directly to from the Administrator.

None of them feel that they are linked to the system anymore after their bracket died out, and can be brought to the sanctuaries. Alison would feel more comfortable getting the Glitcher to check this himself, but he may not appreciate the distractions.

What happened to the administrative zone during previous stages? (And is it still there now, just without working light trails or special tiles?)

Ask the judge lord about the masks the judges wear.

Could the Shop Keep Baron at the very least enable Alison's Merchant ability? Also lets ask the Judge Lord if he can summon Judges without System support. That might be useful. If the Watcher doesn't want to watch is there anything in paticular he would like to do? This goes for all of them.

I say we take the risk and lead them to our sanctuary without bothering Glitcher.

Since we aren't going to get anything new now, lets go to a dark System Bracket. People to take Alison, Iso, Recluse, Mako, Scanner, Atlas, Strongarm, Healer, Bandit, Gaurdsman.

(Updates in daylight? This is my lucky day!)

What happened to the enforcers? They didn't want to come? Or we unable to?

Let's try some diplomacy. We're sorry for attacking them before, and not really giving them any choice but to defect from the system to survive. We'll gladly take any of them in that would like to work with us, and we'd be appreciate their help. But they're free to stay in the safe zone, or try and find another way back to the system, if that's what they want. No hard feelings.

Explain that you've lost access to resurrection, so you don't have a guaranteed safety net anymore, but you can still summon ghosts in safe zones, and you can give them persistence to absorb / back up anyone who would want it (regardless of if they want to join). Maybe bring out hunter 2 to see his buddies to demonstrate.

Introduce yourself to the judge Lord, as we never really got to talk to him before. We should ask about what his job was, and how the judges work. We never ran into any of them, are they just created on the spot as needed? What are the masks for?

>>436140
Glitcher can accept this much distraction, since linked system entities in a Sanctuary would be pretty much the worst thing ever.

>Could the Shop Keep Baron at the very least enable Alison's Merchant ability?
Does she still have that after the system forced us to reskill? I thought we might have lost it. But yeah, if we still have the ability, a front line shop for emergency reskilling on the fly, or allowing opponents to sell off no absorb to survive, could be useful.

We should ask if he has the power to de-authorize merchants, as well. That way we know if we have to be wary of others with his job in the future.

Hmmmmm, we should have the glitcher have an apprentice. That way allison has somebody to call on and the glitcher doesn't have many more distractions.

Yeah, a sub-Glitcher would be awesome. Know anyone who wants to risk their very existence and sanity on an hourly basis?

We still haven't talked to the glitched guy yet.

Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)11:46 No. 436164 ID: f09b71
File 134324201521.png - (9.69KB , 700x700 , sCS-253.png )

Baron explains that authorization supposedly took place prior to the beginning of the stages. While Alison still has Merchant, he won't be able to authorize it at this point. He does not know if there is a way to deauthorize it.

>Have glitcher apprentices
Alison decides that because of how bad it could be if system personnel were to go into the sanctuary, he can afford the distraction, but also to mention the possibility of an apprentice or two. Glitcher says he has already had 2 in the past. They lasted about a day, and he does not like to talk about it. He confirms that the system people here are disconnected.

>Judge Lord
Alison introduces herself. The Judge Lord gives a slight wave, and Alison asks what the masks are for, along with what his job entails. He simply deployed judges to various points of interest when deemed necessary. He can summon judges still, but not teleport them across brackets. The masks are a communication device, but he says he will not allow Alison to look at them. Or do anything with them.

>Offer them positions or not
Watcher says he'll stick around legal safe zones, and the Judge Lord and operators will do the same. Supervisor and Baron will go back with Alison. No enforcers came. Hunter 1 and 3 will go back with Alison as well. The ones who will go with Alison will also let her take a copy of their ghosts.

Respect the decisions of the people who wish to stay, and wish them luck.

Will the judge Lord still be deploying judges if we try for illegal chests in this bracket?

Watcher's staying? He's a blank slate lvl 1. We should offer a goodwill present of enough CU so he has a chance of surviving when the next stage starts up. He'll be massacred otherwise- he's way behind even the other non-cheating contestants.

Head home with the people coming home. Let's introduce them to Corruption and get them established, then on to the next problem.

Alright respect their wishes. Get the ghosts of those who consent, take those willing to come with you to your sanctuary and use Ghost Talk to re-unite Hunter 2 with everyone. Pity the Judge Lord isn't feeling more helpful but he doesn't really know us yet.

If the dark trail is hostile perhaps we can get a mask from there otherwise we'll have to diplomize him a bit. Communication across brackets would be hella useful. So lets go on a raid!

>>436164
Okay so, judges can communicate with eachother freely apparently. Possibly across brackets?

Hang on, the Judge Lord is here but no judges are? Where do judges come from?

>>436164

I'm puzzled now. Glitcher doesn't have protection against glitching. Yet everyone who stays around him gets glitched into oblivion. Yet he doesn't glitched into oblivion. Glitcher, you broke logic! D:<

>>436172
Well, he didn't specify if they were scared off of the attempt after a day, or if they were actually killed.

>you broke logic!
I think it's a matter of skill. Hence the whole driving metaphor a bit back. He doesn't die because he's a good driver. The accidents that happen around him... are people falling off the car. Or getting unavoidably run over. Or parts of the car flying off and exploding. Even the best driver in the world can't do much about that, short of pulling over and stopping. But he can't.

The most interesting piece of information is it's possible for him to take an apprentice. He's not one of a kind, theoretically. That's potentially a more useful route for us to consider one day than becoming corrupted. That's a long term consideration, though.

I support Alison becoming the Glitcher's Apprentice as I see that the best way of bypassing the system entirely... but we should first try to help with him without risking our very existence.

Hmm. Just throwing this out there, but Supervisor didn't sound terribly enthused. She shouldn't have to work as a supervisor for us if she doesn't want to. There's plenty of other ways people can help out (we've got thinkers and planners, organizers, craftspeople, management, fighters, and even a fledgling arts and entertainment department). She's free to explore other options now if she'd rather, we only suggested it because we thought she might be good at it. We have enough people that they can chose roles they're comfortable with.

Group Hug!

1/5 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)14:41 No. 436206 ID: f09b71
File 134325248084.png - (275.33KB , 700x700 , sCS-254.png )

>Where do judges come from?
The Judge lord doesn't know. Where has anyone here come from?

2/5 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)14:41 No. 436207 ID: f09b71
File 134325250702.png - (226.15KB , 700x700 , sCS-255.png )

>Supervisor isn't very enthusiastic about the job
She says that maybe she just isn't giddy with joy all the time. Management is fine with her.

3/5 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)14:42 No. 436208 ID: f09b71
File 134325252342.png - (454.52KB , 700x700 , sCS-256.png )

>Glitcher is breaking logic
He doesn't know. He should say something, though. The scary part. They were being assisted directly by the glitcher. As far as he could tell, they were doing a safe experiment, doing exactly what the glitcher was doing, doing exactly what the glitcher has done many times before. Except for them, it didn't turn out to be safe. The first time he thought it was a fluke. The second time, he figured that becoming an apprentice is a death sentence. Maybe real death. They might be alive somewhere else, as their corpses did eventually dissolve, but after what looked like being turned inside out in the most literal of manners, the glitcher doesn't think they would want to continue anyway. He didn't either, for awhile.

He's going to go back and try not to think about that anymore while working.

>Group hug
The system members didn't look like they wanted hugs. Glitcher looks like he could use one, but he gives the impression he would prefer to be left alone. Alison will restrain herself for now.

4/5 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)14:42 No. 436209 ID: f09b71
File 134325254760.png - (336.68KB , 700x700 , sCS-257.png )

>Give watcher CU
He says he actually has gotten some from the supervisor, but it is appreciated. He will probably spend it on arms so he can shrug as well, while thanking Alison.

5/5 Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)14:42 No. 436210 ID: f09b71
File 134325256150.png - (411.97KB , 700x700 , sCS-258.png )

The Arbiter comes shortly as well, to tell Alison that there are no chests. They just don't appear to spawn anymore. Ironic, but not even surprising anymore, that the system would spawn the very chests they would have to defend for being illegal.

Alison thinks that she is ready to raid a dead trail now, if she can't think of anything else other than who to bring.

>Shugs 5x combo
XD

Okay, let's put trying to follow in Glitcher's footsteps waaaay on the back burner for now. He doesn't understand what he's doing enough to replicate it in another person. There's something he's overlooked, or each person has to do it differently because of different internal pointers and identifiers, or something.

Before we head off, could we maybe just check on how the house is coming? How's construction and the craft teams doing? I'm also kind of curious to see what the arts and entertainment program actually looks like. We might not have another chance to see if things go badly for Corruption.

We also need to consider if we should do date first or mission first. I'm kind of leaning mission, myself.

We should send Administrater a mental complaint, that the enforcer doesn't seem to have gotten a ghost when we beat him as he claimed. We'll probably only get laughter and taunts in response, but there's a small chance he'll say something useful.

Hmm, I wonder about the re-visited stages... Does anyone know whether those disappear during the normal stages? We still might need a backup place to store all our extra people if the sanctuaries disappear like regular safe zones now.

I wonder what the chances of other corrupted sanctuaries are, and other Corrupters and Glitchers. This whole system thing is pretty big. Maybe other corrupted sanctuaries just prefer to stay out of the way and do safer stuff and this might be an aggressive one. No evidence so far, but, well hell there were like a billion safe zones stars a stage ago. One corrupter to rule them all? I don't think so.

And maybe certain people have a natural affinity for glitching. There's a pretty low chance of Glitcher being completely unique.

I still feel as though the Administrator is hiding something important. His loyalty to this system is very different and it's bugging the heck out of me. Why take pleasure from all this, is he mad?

>Supervisor's fine
Okay fine, she doesn't have to pursue a career in our army or glass crafting or explore her artistic side if she dun want to. :) Honestly, we could use good management- it's one of the skill sets we're lowest on. Alisson's more of an idealist leader, and Chief could use a hand with the logistics of it all. So I'm glad she feels that way.

>>436219
As I understand it, only the current stage ever exist, legally. When we go on chest runs, we're forcing (tricking?) the system into running / emulating illegal instances of the stages we've already cleared. Instances of these stages seem to be created and destroyed as necessary, we've never been able to actually revisit an exact previous stage. The computer just calls up a new instance / copy of it.

>>436220
We know there are at the very least other groups of rebel players (King). We don't know if any of them have manifested the same abilities as Corruptor or Glitcher. So far as we can tell, their specific alterations are rare- but as we don't know how rare, or how big the sample size really is, so it would be hard to make a reasonable guess if they have peers out there.

The Admin... I think it was a case of being in a position to know exactly how fucked up and futile things were that was getting to him. Hydra got plenty close to open despair in one conversation, caught between the system and a hard place. Admin had it worse, as he had greater info and responsibility. So his mental health suffered.

This is kind of why the idea of our own arts and entertainment was put forward a ways back- give people an outlet, hopefully maintain the groups mental health.

...wait, we went to visit the system refugees in the normal safe zone, right? I see the giant light trials in the background. Those didn't used to be visible there- we could only see them in Corruption and Smuggler's Sanctuary.

House is actually finished. The observatory was the last piece. Lets go on that mission, then ya the date. Pity about that party but I don't think we can waste that much time.

While we're doing all this people who want to should be scanning the skies for anything unusual, including the other Sanctuaries so we can make a star map.

If we can't think of anything else to help Glitcher and time begins to run out. (12 hours left.) I say we volunteer to be Glitchers Apprentice.

Suggestion 2012/07/25(Wed)19:39 No. 436281 ID: f09b71
File 134327034246.png - (316.69KB , 700x700 , sCS-259.png )

They were in the safe zone; the light trails instead of stars was another art error.

Alison's house is finished, although she hasn't had much time to really look it over. Entertainment and art is being made in some workshops, mostly in the form of some games and similar entertainment for personal use, but nothing major.

>Mention to the Administrator that Scholar doesn't seem to have gained a ghost.
He accepts a request to be brought out partially, in much of the same manner of how Ghost Talk would work in a stage. He answers that he can't know everything in such an unpredictable field!

Alison is thinking of taking herself, Iso, Recluse, Mako, Scanner, Atlas, Strongarm, Healer, Bandit, and Guardsman to a dead trail before doing anything like dates or offering to take a glitcher apprenticeship. Presumably, the glitcher's teleport will still only involve 10 people. Is this team alright?

>>436254
Too risky, and we'd probably wind up traumatizing the guy further.

Go ask your T3s who wants to come on a raaaaaid~

Bring less than ten people, in case there are people there who would like to get out.

Mmm, I think we should bring all ten, they do have teleporters after all.



But just in case take both the 15 man one (the timed teleport) and the 10 man one. If we do find defectors and the teleport is down we can give them that one to them before the timer runs out.

Hey, important test. Can you hug summoned ghosts?

Tell the Administrator it's okay if he didn't know everything. Ask him if he's feeling any better now. He seemed somewhat unstable and distressed when you last talked.

Also- before it seemed like time for your ghosts only passed while you were asleep with them. They kind of skipped ahead otherwise. With ghost talk, are your ghosts now experiencing time normally while you're awake?

The proposed team seems acceptable. Make sure everyone's cool going into unknown territory without resurrect though.

>Glithcer apprentice
Without new info, it is wildly reckless to risk Alisson that way. She's a leader holding people together- she can't take that big a personal risk with the odds as bad as they've been given. People depend on her. If it becomes less of a long shot (we learn something new, Glitcher discovers something, Alisson glitches herself...), or we become much more desperate, then we can chance it.

I just had a thought. Could the Glitcher move the Sanctuary into dreamspace? Its the only place we know of thats seperate from everything else.

>>436324

Hey I just had a thought. Dreamspace is supposed to be paused while you're not asleep. Did that get disabled along with the sanctuary's time stop?

1/2 Suggestion 2012/07/26(Thu)14:18 No. 436542 ID: f09b71
File 134333752511.png - (307.37KB , 700x700 , sCS-260.png )

>Can Alison hug summoned ghosts?
Thankfully, she can. She does not know if she likes the Administrator enough to hug him to confirm, however.

Alison asks the administrator if time is passing differently for him now, as normally ghosts would skip ahead. He tells her that he hasn't spent time dead before, but when he isn't summoned, it feels more like he is sleeping heavily. Not aware of anything and not dreaming, but when Alison wakes him up, he has a sense of how long has passed. After asking around more, Alison confirms that that is only a ghost talk boon working.

2/2 Suggestion 2012/07/26(Thu)14:19 No. 436545 ID: f09b71
File 134333756547.png - (17.82KB , 1181x700 , sCS-261.png )

Alison grabs 9 others, makes sure that they are all willing to go through the danger, and teleports into system space.

Lets visit the Watcher first, Just bring Mako and Scanner for now.

Well, he seems more stable and relaxed, I guess. Being dead's been good to him, so far.

Welp. Read the signs. What's different from the last system space area you visited? It looks identical from here, same number and orientation of light trails.

Suggestion 2012/07/26(Thu)14:30 No. 436553 ID: f09b71
File 134333824735.png - (80.97KB , 985x704 , sysD-2.png )

>Looks identical
It is identical, signs and all.

Except that when Alison goes to visit the watcher, there is no one there.

>>436553
Go to the administrator's room and flash your admin keycard.

...I don't suppose if you move over to the square the other watcher was standing on, that you can access the system's observation system?

If we can't operate the observer post, head deeper into the system, and check all three rooms, one by one, ending with admin. We'll try the card last.

Suggestion 2012/07/26(Thu)14:50 No. 436577 ID: f09b71
File 134333940746.png - (311.38KB , 847x550 , sysD-3.png )

>Head to the watcher's tile
It doesn't yield anything. The room must require special privileges specific to watchers.

Alison heads to the other rooms, ending with the Administrator's. There is no one on the way, and there is no Administrator at all.

We have access to an active Administration? With no administer? Umm oh wow get Glitcher here.

>>436579
I don't think there's anything special about the space itself. Explore the rest of the place, see if you can prove me wrong. Otherwise, bug out.

An active bracket with no Administrator? Maybe the Administrator's a contestant, and is down in one of the bracket's safe zones. Let's finish searching the place and then leave if we don't find anyone.

Okay, theoretically, this is an unactivated system wing. We could grant Alisson administrator privileges. Potentially use those powers to designate other people for the sub positions (watcher, etc) and get them access to those tools. This is potentially useful in a number of ways.

It's also potentially *dangerous*. If we connect to the system, we can be tracked. Potentially deleted at will. We could be killed, or Coerced into serving the system.

We should back off and consider our options. Possibly consult with the Admin, if he can be trusted. Ask him what he thinks will happen, or why this place is empty. Ask him what hold becoming an Admin it gives the system over you. I don't think we can make Glitcher an admin- I think the card specifically designated Alisson, like the 1-ups.

>>436580
Well we do have access to every job except for an administer right now. Maybe a few will be willing to work with Glitcher to decode the spaces if the space isn't enough alone.

>>436577
Fuck yes. This is where we use the cards we got! We found our victory in the jaws of defeat. We just need to get past the next stage, then we can snatch it. Notify Corruptor of this amazing breakthrough.

>>436582
We should use the Observatory to scope out the safe zones under its control. If there is a contestant with key-card then perhaps we can persuade them to give or sell us it.

Hmm. Thinking about it... this should be a closely guarded secret. If word of this gets around, Upper Management might find out and delete the place.

We should also have the teleporter to this base made permanent. The instant we reach Stage 6 we use the teleporter and activate the S6 card here. We might need Cake with us for that though.

Suggestion 2012/07/26(Thu)19:36 No. 436707 ID: f09b71
File 134335661407.png - (16.05KB , 700x700 , sCS-262.png )

Since nothing can be done with the current keycards, an exit is performed and there are no others on the way out. Alison gets Recluse to deliver the message to the Glitcher along with a request to make a more permanent teleporter to that bracket, or to tell Corruptor to pass that on to the glitcher.

Meanwhile, Alison heads back to take a look through the observatory at the dead trail she was at.

There is no one at all, not even in any of those safe zones. Engineer says that he can't imagine it was someone who did the same as Alison, as once Alison killed her administrator, the light trail turned limp and unpowered, unlike the one she was just at, which is simply unlit but otherwise powered.

So, perhaps the administrator for that area is still alive, and just moved errabody out?

There's nobody in the SAFE ZONES over there either?! It's a NULL BRACKET! Why? That is so weird!

Check the other unlit one(s) via the telescope.

A null bracket might have use. Things need to start counting from zero for a reason.

Perhaps it's a template. The native copy that the other brackets emulate (in which case messing with it could be massively productive). Or maybe it's a control group- unsullied by contestants. That would really confirm this whole process is some kind of experiment.

The entire bracket is empty? Wow. Check all of the dark trails to see if they're the same, and then send someone out to notify Corruptor of that. I'd prefer to make the report in person, but I have no idea what we could do with those right now and we have a date with Iso to take care of before we get distracted by something else.

Of course, we also promised a few people a party... maybe we should have a few people start preparing it before we leave for the date.

>>436718
Yes, lets get a few people who helped with preperation of our last party to start setting things in motion... send out invitations, prepare food, prepare the ballroom, pool and other places. They should also recruit musicians or people who want to play for the crowd. Provide a slush fund of a million CU to buy things like food.

People to invite should include the Corrupter, Swordsbane, Arbiter and any of his house who want to join, our entire house, the rescued defectors, including those in the safe zone. The people in our safe zone too. In can be part celebration of life and part recruitment effort.

While we go on the date those who are not preparing all should get some time off as well. Declare this a vacation / rest period for the entire house as thanks for supporting Alison in all this. Those who help prepare will get time off after the party and yes that includes Chief and whomever helps him.

>>436727
We should extend an invitation to the other houses and the independents, as well.

Hmmmm. Maybe they evacuated before anyone got there. Or since it is a different bracket she can't see anyone. Although the latter is highly unlikely.

I was thinking perhaps we could use those empty brackets to get everyone in our house through stage 5 alive, though having people go through a null bracket could be hazardous.

Alison 2012/07/30(Mon)07:39 No. 437514 ID: f09b71
File 134365916779.png - (15.96KB , 700x700 , sCS-263.png )

>Check the other unlit ones
There are 4 others that are readily viewable. 2 of them appear to have system members inside, and 2 more of them appear as empty as the one Alison went to.

While unsure of any significance to that, Alison gets the Chief to start putting the party in motion with preparations in invitations to the other houses and so forth. However, the Chief is sure to mention that things may be rushed as is, if the party is to be done during this cycle and the Glitcher is unable to freeze the time before stage 5 begins.

12hrs (or whatever we have left now) isn't really enough time to organize, set up and have a good party. Especially if the unknown deadline is hanging over people at the end. I say we wait till after the cycle shift- we've waited too long for this party to ruin it with a deadline and a cloud hanging over people's heads.

He has a point. Hmm, perhaps only a rest time declared then. If the next 24 hours really is going to be our last before stage 5 begins everyone NEEDS that break, at the very least to mentally prepare themselves. Chief included. Better to do it now since Glitcher is going to be working. Lets say the next eight hours.

Alison should inform Iso that they have a bit of time while nothing is going to happen so they can go on their date.

>>437514
Get the Stage 6 card from Corrupter, then visit one of the unlit but occupied system brackets and talk to the administrator there.

We are going to show them the Stage 6 card we have and tell them our bracket's administrator went rogue and had to be removed immediately, but apparently administrators can't be added once a pre-stage has started.

>>437518
Going to say nay to this.

Visiting them I can agree with, lying however is too easily found out especially since they can contact other administrators. However visiting an occupied dark trail can wait untill after that date.

It seems like a shame to delay the party but it looks like we may need to.

Should we investigate one of the darkened system bases, or- wait, how did Glitcher make a teleporter to an empty base in the first place? I thought he had to trace a Rend to do that.

You know what, we should be prepared in case we get forced into the brackets when the clock runs out and stage 6 starts.

Our house can, and will, curbstomp normal players, at least in combat (although we could still lose puzzles, and challenges where stats are irrelevant). If systems agents don't pop up to deal with (we don't know if they will or not) our biggest threat will be each other. Because there will be less spots than we have people.

Way back, we promised we wouldn't play like Chief. We wouldn't play favorites, and decide who lives and who dies. We'd go with volunteers, or draw lots if we had to. So we need a means of doing a lottery or random selection. Alisson needs dice, sticks, or a deck of cards or something in her special inventory.

...watch every one of Alisson's friends be ready to sacrifice themselves for her, though. =_= Although, realistically, so long as we keep one person with recursive ghost talk alive, we can continue. Alisson could even still lead as a ghost, if it came to that. :p Not that that's ideal or nuthin.

Actually, I just had another idea. You know what's worse than the system attacking us as illegal players while we try to do stage 6? Or being forced to kill off our own? There's a chance in stage 6 our bracket will merge with one of the other house's brackets (or more than one!). That'll be a pretty big disaster.

There is a few ways I see us getting through stage 5 without sacrificing our House to do so.

1) Forcefully take over other brackets within our system bracket. Drop off four man teams in an already occupied bracket have them enter that stage 5 and kill and absorb all the competition.

2) Use the null brackets to basically do the same thing, except minus killing the competition.

Both run the risk of something going wrong though since we have no idea what going through a bracket sans administration will do. This goes doubly for the completely empty null brackets. Which brings us to 3.


3) go to a completely different system bracket and basically do the same as 1. This runs the risk of encountering system enforcers and hunters though.


I vote for number 2

(...excuse my miscount. We're entering stage 5, not 6)

If we're forced out of Corruption, I don't expect we get to chose our destination.

Okay, I went back and looked at some numbers.

Stage 0: Entrants: ?? Exits: 4
Stage 1: Entrants: 20 Exits: 4
Stage 2: Entrants: 104 Exits: 10
Stage 3: Entrants: 400* Exits: 40
Stage 4: Entrants: ?? Exits: 4
Stage 5: Entrants: 20 Exits: 4 (*)

Stage 0 had an unknown # of entrants. Stage 3 was 400, but with variance. By stage 4, we didn't check the sign, and we were resurrection cheating by then anyways. Stage 5 has an awesome caveat though, I'd forgotten.

>The plaque next to the entrance also says that people who were in the last stage together may start in the next stage together as a team, though that is optional.

That means, if we can split our house into groups of 4 across many brakets, we don't have to fight ourselves! At all!

Problem is , with ~800 people, we need ~200 teleporters to different brackets. If we have 12hrs left, that means Glitcher has to produce one every 3.6 minutes, assuming he does nothing else. Not counting time it would take to organize teams, distribute teles, and beam out.

So... that plan kind of doesn't work.

Unless... we go to the empty system zone. And we use their teleporter to beam squads to different zones. Problem will be collecting them when the stage finishes, as they'll be scattered in different save zones with no return teles.

We have access to an empty system bracket with active teleporters. All we have to do is convince one of the rebel teleport controllers to help us. They might not have Glitchers knowledge but they have the ability to chance the coordinates of the teleporters at will.

I'd assume Glitcher could hack or run a system teleporter without an operator's help. But yeah, that's an option.

The bigger problem is the teleporters in the empty system area may be dead and non-functional, just like the watcher's post. Which means we need a way to activate the area, or we'll have to raid an active system area and hijack their teleporter.

Hey, we should ask our system escapees how their lives went. We know contestants start out as blobs in a room, and go strait to competition as soon as we enter a door. How'd it go for them? Did they start as blobs in a room, and have to compete to earn their posts? Was their any competition or selection process to get their jobs? Or were they just created in a job, CU and abilities assigned, given orders, and told to get to work?

We're tier three I think we will be fine in stage five...

>>437549
At this point we have more to worry about from the other houses. I'm sure some of their troops are in our bracket. There is sure to be competition for the exits...

>>437549
Only a small number of us are. But in any event, combat strength isn't our problem, logistics is.

>>437571
We learned from the rend-tracking and talking to the teleport operators that all contestants are marked to identify their home bracket, and that each of the houses come from separate brackets (with a few exceptions- Corrupter and Arbiter started in the same bracket, presumably with Gitcher. Independents could have been recruited, well, independently, or they could have splintered off from other houses. We don't know if Smuggler or any system people count as being from our bracket. Mongrel is the only confirmed contestant to have joined a faction outside his home bracket).

Furthermore, I think brackets only merge at the beginning or end of stages. So we don't have to worry about running into other house warriors mingled it- it'll be all of nothing.

Alison 2012/07/30(Mon)22:41 No. 437681 ID: f09b71
File 134371328768.png - (259.85KB , 700x700 , sCS-264.png )

Alison does agree that the remaining time is insufficient for a proper party, so she asks the Chief just to send out invitations, but the party itself should be held after stage 5, unless the glitcher manages to freeze.

>How did Glitcher make a teleporter to an empty base?
Although he did share more information with Alison than he usually is keen on, he is still evasive on his techniques, or in this case, whatever has changed.

>Ask system escapees how their lives went
Supervisor says they were allowed to use CU right away, although were told they would never need it. It was uncommon but not altogether rare to see someone like the watcher, who chose to simply stay as a blob. It was also uncommon for blobs, who didn't care to lift a finger to get a body, to care about their jobs enough to live. Otherwise, all system members were simply created, permissions and abilities assigned, and told what to do.

With that explained, Alison can either ask the glitcher to make a new teleporter to raid a new bracket in the hopes of finding something, or go on that date she promised Iso.

Date! Date! Date!

Let the universe burn if we can't have a little fun along the way!

>>437682

Let's do both. Make our request of Glitcher, and then let's give Iso his date before something bad happens and we never get to. It may take a while for Glitcher to finish the tele if he's busy with other things in the current crisis.

Suggestion for Glither: a failsafe if the houses get dumped into their home brackets. 4 people from each surviving is unacceptable. Could he build a dispersal teleporter? A one shot device that splits a large group of people into small groups, and then randomly tosses them into different brackets. You'd only need one for each house.

>>437681
Date with Iso.

>>437519
The administrators are told almost nothing by their superiors. We know this.
They were told they would never need CU and that it's impossible for players to visit system space. We know this too.
They have no way to determine if we are lying or not besides talking with each other, and the only information they have is what Admin said and that he died.
If our claim is that he went rogue then what he said becomes suspect, and his death shows that either they were lied to by their superiors or that they are being watched. Since the system brackets are pruned for best performance they know they are being watched.
The important bits about the claim, though, are the impossible things. Not even an administrator can create a keycard, so to an administrator Alison having one would be irrefutable proof that somebody over their head has involved themselves.
It's also supposed to be impossible for players to enter system space, and players aren't supposed to have T3.
About the only thing that's even dubious about the story is that Alison isn't tied to the system, for which the response is that she was selected from the contestants for promotion.

>>437681
If we're worrying about the date now, can we also worry about appearances?
Body suggestion: Your normal upper body with legs and tinier, manageable tail (mostly just for you to try out other modes of walking around and to see how you look with them)
Clothing Suggestion: Much like your current dress, but a lighter color and less sheen, no fishnets, and a major deep v-neck with straps going around your neck. You know the type, that extra formal and spicy shit ladies put on for fancy balls.

>>437688
It's all a moot point though

-the stage 6 pass won't work in the current stage 4 setup.
-the stage 6 pass is not keyed to Alison.
-we're almost certainly flagged and blacklisted. Now that the system knows there is an enemy, those kinds of bluffs will almost certainly fail.

>>437689
Again we should stay a naga. I see no reason to change.

As for clothes I say we save the armor slots for things that would help in a freeroam enviroment. Honestly our current outfit is very nice and it will match Iso's formal outfit as well. It's not like there IS any sort of high class restuarants out there. Indeed, we're going to have to dance in our own ballroom if thats what Iso is planning. Remember these people are mostly on a war footing.

>>437681
Date. Personally I'm leery of investigating one of the darkened, manned bases now that I think about it some more- visiting one might provoke them into searching for us. It might even be a trap. It's not like they can act against the system as they are, so it's not like we could get anything from a visit. If Corruptor wants to visit them he can send out a team of his own, I think.

>>437690
>-the stage 6 pass won't work in the current stage 4 setup.
This is pre-stage 5, and the response there is that they do all the system bracket pruning and administrative changes at the same time, which means it will next happen between the end of stage 5 and the start of pre-stage 6.

...which is how things are already done.

>-the stage 6 pass is not keyed to Alison.

Ah, but there is an important distinction here! It's also not keyed to anybody else, which means it's not stolen.
Keycards can only be created by somebody who out-ranks Administrators, so Alison having one that isn't stolen means that they must have been involved.

>-we're almost certainly flagged and blacklisted. Now that the system knows there is an enemy, those kinds of bluffs will almost certainly fail.

Flagged as what?
Blacklisted by who?
Glitcher hasn't said anything about such things, and the Administrator didn't mention it either.
All the evidence we have points to the only response here being Administrators banding together in a panic, not higher-level action. The administrators are left to fend for themselves, which is why I would expect this bluff to work.

Besides that? If the bluff fails we can still try to negotiate, and if that fails we can teleport out.

Or we could wait until pre-stage 6, take over as administrator of one of the empty system brackets, and try the bluff then, but at that point we're going to be in a far worse position to respond and we'll be delaying the collection of critical intel.

Something else occurred to me: the System could be disallowing all time compression to ensure that we have to go through the stages, and without resurrection we can't bypass hardlocked exit limits. If the Sanctuary poofs when the stage starts, they have successfully removed our numbers advantage.

>>437755
We ARE blacklisted from the shops. That is enough evidence to indicate Alison is a rebel.

>>437760
All shops? Or just shops in the bracket run by the Administrator we killed?
Unless I'm mistaken, we haven't looked into this at all.

Shopkeep remembers whomever he is interacting with at the time. Therefor he remembers we are blacklisted no matter which area we approach him at.

>>437773
We have never talked to a shopkeep in a different bracket. That is important.
Shopkeepers are under the authority of their Shop Baron, who is under the authority of their Administrator.
Alison being blacklisted for shopkeepers in her own bracket only tells us that Alison's Bracket's Administrator had her blacklisted for shopkeepers under his control.

Man, all this conclusion jumping.

You're doing plenty of conclusion jumping yourself.

From our experience with brackets merging each stage, and with corruption allies from other brackets, we've confirmed there are shopkeepers everywhere (we've seen them in the telescopes, too). He's global, not local. It's highly unlikely, to say the least, a foreign shopkeep won't recognize us.

The system has non-shopkeep blacklisting capacity. We've seen this. Illegal players are tagged in such a way that we're recognized in chest runs (even the chests know- and treat us differently). System deserters seem to be reported to their admins automatically, who then pass on the information.

Your plan relies on foreign system zones not communicating. But, the end of the last chapter provided pretty solid evidence they started talking after we killed admin. The central system knew it needed to take action- and it knew resurrection was our edge. The other system zones knew we were out there, and lit up and started looking for us. All that heavily suggests lines of communication are open. And given that we successfully attacked and killed a system zone? There's going to be warned of potential attacks / infiltrations. Heck, Baron, Supervisor, and Admin all warned us this would be so.

You're also ignoring all the testing we did with keycards. We know the cards don't work before their stage starts. We know card 6 is keyed to someone else (Cake, I think). We know the cards don't work for the wrong person. We we can't do anything with any of the three cards we have access to, right now.

Now that we're covered facts...

There's no reason we can't go on another system raid to hope to learn something, or to hijack the teleporter or something. But doing it just for keycard testing or an attempted bluff is silly, as we can be reasonably sure both will fail.

When we battled the System Bracket that very first time, the ShopKeep was sent by internal affairs... that was OUTSIDE the local system bracket, and yet ShopKeep still recognized us. Lying is pointless since we didn't just kill one administrator... we killed 2, and attacked another 2 brackets. Your forgetting we were working WITH the corrupter on this assault. Probably why so many System Brackets joined in. We proved we have the ability to attack MULTIPLE of them.

Actually, it just occured to me we should just our system people if they have any info about the next stage. Critically: is the 4 exit 4 one person exits (like the keys)? Or can we just drag all 800 across at once for fractional CU?

They probably won't know, but on the off chance we confirm the stage can let everyone through, we don't have to worry about teleporter or bracket shenanigans.

Alison 2012/07/31(Tue)13:48 No. 437852 ID: f09b71
File 134376771202.png - (19.04KB , 700x700 , sCS-265.png )

Alison decides not to worry too much about business, but also doesn't wish to spend the time or worry to test out new looks regardless of the sake of experimentation. She makes one more request to the glitcher to make a few teleporters to the remaining dark zones, then goes to Iso, who is found outside of Alison's room.

He explains that he has meant to ask Alison out for awhile now, but never found any good time to ask for it. Maybe he said that already, but he is constantly afraid that at any time, it may be too late to ask. He didn't like the constant danger that he and Alison first went through together, but at least it was a danger he understood more. He repeats though that Alison has his support either way.

He's brought some food to his room, since it may not be good to go out in public under recent circumstances. He apologizes, saying he isn't very good at this date thing.

>>437852
Kiss him!

...dating game time without actual dialog. That makes this a little trickier.

Reassure Iso so we can get past the awkward excuses bit. It's alright that he didn't make a move while you both constantly struggling to survive. And it doesn't matter if you're eating in or out, you're glad just to spend time with him.

It's not like you guys have existed long enough to have social norms about dating anyways.

"Iso, I think this might be the first date in this entire game-place-thing. Unless dating is a skill you can buy in the shop, the fact that you're trying means you're the best. And you'd be the best anyway because your so adorable and a good musician."

>>437854
>>437860
oh huh, I never noticed before that this place doesn't have actual dialog. Well, convert my post into something along those lines in this weird form of communication.

Are you guys actually speaking, or are you actually just understanding what a person wants to tell you. There's no actual sound going on or mouth flapping. Actually, I don't think I've seen a single person here actually open their mouth.

>>437862

No, they almost never open their mouths. It happens rarely, but only for the sake of expressions.

The odd speech- where we're informed of the content of what is told, instead of just saying it, is how the communication abilities parse information. The system people, Corrupter and Glitcher have figured out an alternate way of speaking though, with actual quotes.

Hmm. C and G weren't willing to explain that to us, but maybe one of our new system friends would, now. Be useful if the system ever decided it would be effective to mute us, or delete the communication abilities. Although we'd still have the hand sign battle language we developed.

>>437860
Then
>>437853

Dinner get. Hold off on kisses until you can assess the quality of the meal, then dispense as due.

Perhaps after the meal the both of you could play your instruments for each other. It has been a while since either of you have played for the joy of it.

>>437852
The Sanctuary might be a bit chaotic right now, but surely the safe zone is fine? Was there anywhere nice to go there? Lacking that we could take a walk around our castle.

Alison 2012/07/31(Tue)17:13 No. 437905 ID: f09b71
File 134377999302.png - (22.60KB , 700x700 , sCS-266.png )

>How is talking done?
It is feeling more and more like an abstract concept, but it works.

Alison says that he, as far as she can tell, is the only one to take anyone on a proper date, and therefore he is the best at it. He receives a kiss.

Meals are had, and it is excellent. And more time is funneled into playing their respective instruments by themselves, for themselves. Alison mentions that if he wanted, they could take a walk around their house, or perhaps try to find a nice spot in the safe zone. Iso says that it would be nice, but he's afraid that the outside world will get to Alison again, and the date would have to be put on hold. It's selfish, he admits, but he very much just wants to spend some alone time with Alison, and so she agrees to stay privately. Both of them end up reliving the feelings of the original safe zones in the later hours, when they would do this, having nothing better to do until the next stage arrives. In this circumstance, however, it isn't so bad.

Recluse knocks on the door after awhile, pardoning his intrusion. The glitcher says that he hasn't had time to make more teleporters. There is a lot for him to do, and doesn't think he will get around to Alison's request unless she honestly thinks that there is definitely something to be gotten out of it, rather than poking around hoping.

It really is just poking around to see what sticks, thank Recluse and rest with Iso some more. I can`t think of anything we can do in the safe zone \ sanctuaries unless people think its time to try to become Glitcher's Apprentice since otherwise it looks like we will be going through stage 5 soon.

Oh wait we can try and convince those people in our bracket to let us back up their ghosts via persistence \ boon aborb and white gloves.

Okay, no teleporter shenanigans, then. 5 hours isn't time to build enough, or to properly apprentice in anything.

Let's talk to our system people about stage 5, see if they have any inside info, in case we have to go in. Most importantly, if they know what kind of exit it'll use (the extra people divide CU kind, or the only n people kind).

Maybe ask them how they do the "talking" thing too, they might be more open than Corrupter or Glitcher were. They may not be, but if the system's really nasty, it'll eventually figure out communication is our biggest edge. A way around potential system muting would be nice.

We should decide in advance what means to use for tough decisions (agree on some kind of lottery). And we should decide where we wait for the clock to click over (Corruption, smuggler's sanctuary, the empty system bracket? Maybe some people at each?).

We should designate someone from our ghost pool to act as a messenger. If we go into the brackets, we'll be split up, and we may want to send messages to other people.

Also, it'd be nice if we could configure it so we get notified when people get reduced to ghosts, instead of having to check.

...hey crazy pointless fun idea. Fill the sky with ghosts. Summon all ~8000 at once, and let them float around for one last hurrah before everything goes to hell. We'll make our own starry sky.

>>437905
That's fine. Glitcher has done more than enough to help us indulge our curiosity. Until we receive word of new orders or something similarly important we will just wait and relax before the next stage.

Send word to Glitcher that you're fine with him not making teleporters; It was grasping at straws, anyway. Also send thanks for all the hard work he's done.

Perhaps using your musical abilities to sing the words instead of speaking them will let you talk like Corruptor does.

If you have the time for it, you should write a song together. A duet.

Alison 2012/08/01(Wed)12:15 No. 438104 ID: f09b71
File 134384854807.png - (189.78KB , 700x700 , sCS-267.png )

Alison takes a break from the date to communicate around a couple of times.

A messenger is sent to tell the Glitcher it is fine, and to thank him for all of his work. Alison will also consider a lottery system to decide on otherwise difficult decisions.

>Use persistence to make ghost backups
This is performed, and so just about every main team member now has Alison's ghost as well. This can be used for ghost messengers as well, should someone end up dying.

>Talk to the system people about things
As usual, they're in the dark almost as much as Alison. Their manner of talking came as naturally as Alison's, it didn't have to be learned like the corruptor may have needed.

>Fill the place with ghosts
Unfortunately for that, it has a 5 second cooldown per ghost, or one ghost per round in a stage.

Alison heads back to spend some more time with Iso, and it doesn't appear that there will be a whole lot of that after all before the next stage.

>Make a duet
Alison nor Iso know how to read sheet music, they only play with each other in the moment, by ear.

She can attempt to stay in her current location of the smuggler's sanctuary where her house has now been moved, or the corruptor's sanctuary, or let herself go into stage 5 as normal.

Time Skip to the end of the timer?

>lottery method, difficult decisions.
I'd say the default would be to see if there were any volunteers, followed by random lottery.

Pocket a deck of cards to draw from, or dice, or something. You said your crafts people had made game supplies, right?

>Let herself go into stage 5.
I dislike giving in outright, as this forces us to kill when we may not have to.

I say we split the difference between options. Send a 10 man squad to try hiding from the timer in the system empty space (they can tele out if it starts to disappear). A group in Corruption, and the rest in Smuggler's Sanctuary. Hopefully, if we are forced in, that at least spreads us between different brackets. There should be some of the tier 3s in each group.

I suppose Alison should stay with the home group, and watch the sky with the telescope. I bet we'll see something happen at the transition.

>>438104
>let herself go into stage 5 as normal.

Go through stage 5, along with Iso, and Mako at least. Maybe Scanner for the 4th.

>>438107
I agree. We found a keycard in the last stage, so we should enter this next one.

Plus, we are waaaaaay stronger than everyone else- we can ensure the stages end with as many people alive as possible, or at least those alive that deserve to be. If Mongrel enters the stage again, we should kill him rather than let him murder people again.

In fact, our number one priority would be to make sure Mongrel doesn't get in there and murder everyone.

>>438108

...we have a S7 keycard. We can't use that in the stage 5 brackets. We have to take it to a system zone, in stage 7.

We can get to stage 7 by going through the brackets, or riding outside, in Corruption. (From conversations with Arbiter- I think his faction has been riding outside the brackets since stage 3).

We may forced to kill everyone left behind in the safe zone, including the system people we rescued but did not recruit, it we go through the stage. We don't want to do the stage unless forced, there's absolutely no advantage to it. (Unless we're just collecting ghosts).

>>438110
I'm saying we might find something else in this stage. Plus, if there's another freeroam section, we can get more experience with how that works.

Alison 2012/08/01(Wed)17:32 No. 438224 ID: f09b71
File 134386757135.png - (22.22KB , 700x700 , sCS-268.png )

The date is wrapped up, another hug and kiss given, as Alison sorts out what to do.

Since the corruptor's sanctuary is already shown to stay through stages and merges, Alison will leave most of her house in that sanctuary.

She will also be tempted to leave 10 strong individuals inside of a system space to investigate what happens, but in case the worst happens, the Chief advises this not be done with what Alison considers her best.

For the stage itself, Alison is leaning on herself, plus only Iso, Mako and possibly Scanner, since she isn't sure if she should rely on the exit allowing overload on people leaving the stage.

>Stage 7
As far as anyone can tell, including glitcher and Corruptor, future stages don't exist until needed.

Ask for volunteers among your top tier 2s to stay in the null zone you've discovered. If they encounter system characters they should teleport out immediately unless they think they can win with no losses. You need to keep your tier 3s in the sanctuary in case its attacked while you run the stage.

As for the stage run, Alison, Mako, Iso and Scanner sounds fine.

We really need to get Scanner to Delim x 2 since she is so useful.

>the corruptor's sanctuary is already shown to stay through stages and merges
I thought the whole problem was we weren't sure if that was true anymore!

I still don't like the idea of doing the stage. In addition to having to kill the ~16 normal contestants, we'll have to take out watcher, the judge lord, and the teleport operators (unless they've escaped, somehow). There's also the risk that our presence in the brackets, or chest taking, is going to attract system countermeasures.

...I suppose if nothing else, it's a mission of mercy. We recover some ghosts.

If things get bad, and if we still have allies in corruption (ie, it doesn't get forcibly emptied) we could ghost-ask an outsider be sent to pick us up. We know they can appear in stages in progress.

Someone should be assigned to the observatory to watch the transition. I wanna know if we can see brackets, light trails, systems, etc merging or changing. (Stats don't matter, can be anyone from the house, really).

First action by Alison after the transition should be to use ghost talk to check in with other locations- see if corruption is okay, etc.

Of note is that the teleporter is only usable by Alison. If we leave people in a null bracket, they won't be able to get out on their own power. Personally I think anyone that does this should NOT be one of our stronger folks- some rank and file T2 peeps should be fine if we can get some volunteers.

Alison, Iso, Duelist, Scanner. We want to be in the field personally, Iso is necessary to bypass dangerous platforms, Duelist and Scanner are needed for fighting Judges or what have you, because I *know* the system is going to throw troops at us in the stages.

Wait a second. Why send ten to the System space? Just send one, and if they're still alive when the timer ticks over, they explore it and teleport back. If they encounter trouble, they 'port back. No sense in risking more than one on this. Ask for a volunteer for this mission.

A passive single member going to watch the administration activation as a diplomat wouldn't be a bad idea, in case the administration wants to negotiate with us. If we can win the hearts of the admins without actually defeating them, then we might be able to save more people from the stages, without setting off any alarms!

Sending a whole team to defeat the admins would just get us what we got last time, a limp light trail and critically nerfed abilities.

Any success getting that telescope filtered enough to view the source of the stage light trails? That telescope is really our ace in the hole since we can see without being in danger. Knowledge of what lies above I think is the key to protecting ourselves below.

1/2 Alison 2012/08/02(Thu)11:27 No. 438366 ID: f09b71
File 134393204734.png - (37.98KB , 700x700 , sCS-269.png )

>Only send 1 person to the system zone to investigate
Alison will do this instead of risking 10. Mouse volunteers, so the glitcher will at least make a teleporter for him, as that is something worthy of a test.

Alison doesn't like the idea of having to kill all the other contestants much, but if exits can't be overloaded, then she could only save 4 spots by not going. And by going, she can at least absorb their ghosts. She is willing to take the risks involved in saving everyone.

>Get a filter on the observatory
The engineer will work on it, and it will be ready near the beginning of the next cycle.

Alison lets the time go by until the stage comes, with herself, Iso, Mako and Scanner inside of the legal safe zone.

2/2 Alison 2012/08/02(Thu)11:31 No. 438371 ID: f09b71
File 134393228746.png - (311.51KB , 700x700 , s5-1.png )

Which does not take too long. Before the timer hits, all four enter the stage at the same time so that the may start together.

STAGE 5

Special rules enacted! No attacks are available! All standard items are disabled! Stage lockdown in effect, no inbound or outbound teleports by shopkeep or otherwise are possible!

From left to right, the signs read Puzzle, Arena, Freeroam. Scanner has no idea how an arena would work without attacks.

The large sign explains the overall rules of this stage.

Each section has 1 sigil. Three sigils are required to open the exit portal. When a person with 3 sigils exits, they may choose to bring the rest of their team with them, no matter where their teammates are. Teams are decided by who entered at the same time; new teams cannot be formed while in the stage.

Use a ghost to check if people were forced out of Corruption, or if it's fine.

>No in or out teleports of any kind!
Dang, no outsider rescue possible.

Only question is if it's more efficient to split up and go for multiple sigils at once, or to team up and do things together.

Splitting up would allow us to save more ghosts, assuming there are non-combat fatalities.

>>438371
An arena with no attacks? How does THAT work? This looks basically like Stage 4. I was expecting something more interesting, oh well.

Well, we're super-buff and we would like to make sure Mongrel or some other T3 dude isn't going murder-crazy in here so the Arena is tempting. Some field research in the Freeroam section would be useful... but Corruptor is doing his own research anyway.

>>438375
Well, they are currently testing whether their new security is working better, so no original experiments here...

So, we are now already a team?
Or only when we enter one section?

Why are we doing this again? I would suggest sticking together in one section... freeroam? or is the number per section limited?

It's reasonable to assume that since this stage specifically allowed teams to be formed that the challenges would call for teamwork; Best stick together. Head to the Arena first, since that's where it's most likely contestants are dying, so Alison can collect their ghosts.

If the exit can't be overloaded, then the best Alison can do is convince as many other contestants to be absorbed by her, so that they may live on as manifested ghosts. Pull out a ghost to show you have the ghost talk ability as a demonstration.

Since no inbound teleports by Shopkeepers are possible, let's hope any glitches that happen fall in our favor, since they can't pop in a fix it.

>>438372
Definitely check in with the Sanctuary using ghost talk before proceeding, if possible.

Hmm. Another thought. Does the no-tele apply to enforcer remote projection as well? Potentially we're free to grab chests without any risk.

>>438383
I'll accept that logic. Working together to beat puzzles is probably better than a 4-way split. But do we go as a group of 4, or 2-2?

Our biggest threat here (assuming our whole house didn't get dumped in) is the system people. I think there's exactly 8 of 'em. (Judge Lord, Watcher, Operator x6). That means they could have two teams going, and if they're cooperating they could clear faster than us. If the exits are locked to four, they'd need to sacrifice a team, but if the operators are distributed, like shopkeep, they might be willing to burn a few bodies.

My guess is the Arena is block pushing like stage 3 was, so the best body will win. Duelist should head there, Scanner should join Duelist. Puzzle depends on board control mostly, so Iso goes to there. Alison to free roam since that depends on outside the box thinking.

We really should have given Iso Double Movement so he could move and cast his abilities.

If two at a time are prefered we should have Alison and Iso to the puzzle while Scanner and Duelist head to the Arena instead.

Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)04:17 No. 440486 ID: f09b71
File 134442467161.png - (298.69KB , 770x571 , s5-2.png )

Alison decides it best to head with everyone at the same time, to the Arena to absorb as many ghosts as possible.

The only other team that shows up is 4 out of the 8 teleporter collective members, and what looks like the sigil in the center.

As far as Alison can tell, she, Duelist, Iso and Scanner are already a team, and there are still no attacks available.

Iso still has throw, right? Throw Alison to the sigil, or as close as possible

Alison, when the 3rd phase of the turn comes around, use ghost talk for long range communication. We need to check whether or not people were able to stay in the Corrupted sanctuary, or if they got kicked out. (Contact Arbiter, or Chief I guess).

Moving Iso to Alison and throwing seem reasonable.

There were 8 teleport operators? That means the system folks have enough people for 3 incomplete teams. If they're collaborating (either trying to break the exit limit, or sacrificing some for the survival of four) they're likely going to get 3 sigils before us.

Greet the teleport operators. Explain you're willing to try and squeeze additional people through the exit mechanism, or to absorb and preserve people otherwise (even if attacks aren't allowed, there's got to be a fatal mechanism or puzzle somewhere in the stage to use).

Out of curiosity, we should ask if they're all kind of the same person the way shopkeep is, or if they're different people who just happen to look the same.

What was the 3 boons the others choose? I notice they still have the absorb stuff on the wiki.

Alison forward. Everyone else towards Alison's current position. Mako protect Alison and Scanner. Scanner Scan.

Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)10:21 No. 440552 ID: f09b71
File 134444649649.png - (300.98KB , 770x571 , s5-3.png )

http://www.tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats updated

Since Alison has to stand still, waiting to be thrown one tile will be the equivelant if she just moved, and so she moves forward.

>Are the teleporters a collective like shopkeep
The teleporters are greeted and asked this. They say they are like the shopkeep, or at least were until they were disconnected.

She explains that she's willing to overload the exit, and the teleporters say that they're not going to mess with Alison. And by the lack of every contestant and other system members, neither is anyone else, allegedly removed attacks or not. Which, oddly, Alison doesn't see any manner of puzzle mechanism to kill with.

Iso asks where they'll go after they get the sigil, since it looks like this one is going to be gained without a single issue.

>Scan
Scanner says it looks like they're all at delimited Tier 2. Stronger than the shopkeep, but apparently not part of the system that could freely have 10 or 20 million CU. Scanner won't rant about their exact abilities, since they don't have anything threatening.

Huh wonder why they didn't teleport, would have been an easy win. Anyway, advance to the sigil, grab it and head to the puzzle area. We'll go to freeroam last.

Aw, sorry for the silliness. I couldn't remember the range was on throw, or see it in the wiki.

Hm. Not everyone kept retroactive. Should be fine though, as long as Alison has it, since it jumps across multiple generations regardless. Anyone who gets absorbed by anyone in our chain, and we still have access. I suppose it only matters now for anyone with ghost talk- so they get full access to everyone. (Who else has it now? Everyone who used to have resurrection?)

You know, if it comes to it, we may only get one ghost even from multiple operators. We never tested if we can collect portions of the collective characters individually, or if they merge.

In any event, thank them for their cooperation, we'll do our best to get them out.

Puzzle sounds good.

Oh, and Alison phone home. I'm starting to suspect everything is fine, or else someone would have shown up, but I'd like to be sure.

1/2 Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)11:47 No. 440569 ID: f09b71
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>Why didn't the teleports teleport?
They answer that as they say, they don't want to mess with Alison, so they move back.

Alison moves forward, grabbing the sigil.

>Phone home
No one has died thus far, so she has no current means of communication. Mouse must still be fine in his system bracket, as well as everyone in the sanctuaries.

2/2 Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)11:47 No. 440570 ID: f09b71
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3 turns are spent moving back to the lobby, and another turn to get to the puzzle section. Alison doesn't see any directions or rules posted, but her light trail does split off, so she can choose where to begin.

Um, if there are no attacks available in the arena... I suspect that the system did it to prevent being able to acquire ghosts. They're effectively forcing everyone in this bracket to either die permanently or pass through. The exit probably can't be overloaded.

Then again we have Create Platform/Create Light Trail. We can use that for assisted suicide. That would foil their plans.

>>440570
Go to 2. This looks like a rotating puzzle. Thinking about it... Iso can't cheat with create light trail on his own, since after making a light trail he'll rotate away from it.

>No one has died
Oh, well that's good, then. It's only been 8 turns, but out of hundreds of people, at least 1 casualty would be likely if they were dumped into the stages.

Still, Allison have thousands of non-resurrected ghosts in reserve. We were pretty picky about recruiting people to work in the house (ten and twenty percent of available ghosts, in two batches, I think). All communication requires is to summon one up, and ask them to pass a message to someone else with ghost talk. I'm pretty sure we confirmed ghosts can request and/or initiate conversations with ghost-talk capable hosts (see Admin).

If it's a matter of no one we trust is dead, well, then we really should have gone to sleep and recruited a messenger in advance. Put it on the to do list. Hmm. Who's dead that we know? Admin's not trustworthy enough. Maybe the dino-bird hunter would cooperate.

>Puzzle
I assume the arrows either dictate movement, move you an extra tile, or do circular rotations.

Not sure where to start, but Iso could be invaluable. We can just use create light trail to cut across if the radial paths are inconvenient to reach.

((Assuming the light trails connecting the rings don't move.))

Step 1) Everyone onto 3. That should put us on the inward light trail after rotating.
Step 2) Go inward.
Step 3) Iso create a light trail as far inward to the center as possible. Mako stay still. Alison and Scanner head to a platform that points the oposite direction of the one they are on. ((Left I believe))
Step 4) Mako and Iso heads inward while using float to ignore platform mechanics. Alison and Scanner head left again.
Step 5) Iso and Mako head to the inward platform, again using float. Alison and Scanner exit to the outer ring
Step 6) Mako and Iso claim the sigil. Alison and Scanner stay still.
Step 7) Iso and Mako head outwards. Alison and Scanner stay still
Step 8) Iso creates a light trail outward as close to possible to a platform that leads further out.
Step 9) Mako and Iso use that trail. Use float again to ignore platform mechanics.
Step 10) Go to the outermost ring.
Step 11) everyone leave.

1/3 Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)14:47 No. 440644 ID: f09b71
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>Thousands of ghosts
Or at least enough, Alison realizes, as Arbiter and Recluse would have them too. Unfortunately, ghosts can't initiate talks with people who have absorbed them, so Arbiter or Recluse or anyone wouldn't know that Alison ghost formed whoever she used it on. In retrospect, she feels silly for not designating someone for this scenario, even if she already did resurrect the most trustworthy of people. She'll do that if not a single person dies by next stage. Iso says everything is probably fine anyway, and that even if it wasn't, it probably wouldn't change what they're doing now.

>>440596
Everyone starts on tile 3, and when they land, the whole ring rotates 4 tiles.

2/3 Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)14:48 No. 440645 ID: f09b71
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The next turn, everyone moves in, and the second ring rotates another 4 tiles. Iso uses Create Light Trail to make a trail go inward, luckily able to do so after the platform is activated. With that, they are able to move again before the next platform activation, further trivializing this puzzle section with a tier that wasn't supposed to be gained.

3/3 Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)14:48 No. 440646 ID: f09b71
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In fact, it makes it as easy as the arena section, and a minimal amount of turns pass before they enter the lobby. The bottom area has appeared, to the exit portal, although they do not have all 3 sigils. The freeroam section would be the obvious choice, but Scanner says that it may be possible someone already has it and is at the exit platform, willing to share with Alison to overload the exit and make record time through this stage. Well, except for maybe the preliminary stages. She admits she is a bit nervous about the freeroam section, since that may be the most dangerous without attacks.

>>440646
Thinking about it... there may even be a System ambush there.

Let's check the exit first.

I kind of still want to see the freeroam section. Its kinda important we gain more experiance with that method of play. We have only seen in once before and that didn't last long.

If the freeroam is anywhere near as simple as the last one, or the other sections here, then 17 turns that have passed is more than enough time for someone to have grabbed the sigil. Especially since we saw only 4 people in the other two sections- everyone else (16 normal entrants + 6 more system refugees) must have either done freeroam, or skipped to the final area already.

Although, I'm not sure if the green light trails mark areas you've personally been to, or cleared areas. That freeroam is still blue might indicate the sigil's still in there.

>>440648
This whole area seems like a systems ambush. It's specifically designed so that overpowered stats don't matter. That takes away one of our big advantages. Luckily, we still have the potential of diplomacy and teamwork with the other entrants.

If you discover we can't overload the entrance, and you can't kill / absorb people though combat? You can do consensual kills with platform cancellation, so long as they hold still, and you do it in small batches so everyone gets absorbed.

You do have to remember the time-to-turn ratio is incredible compressed. 17 turns of platforms is just under 3 minutes real time. Depending on the complexity of the free-roam section everyone could have just escaped the starting point.

>>440646
Freeroam could be an ambush, but we have an advantage in that none of the system entities have had any sort of training in even platform combat strategies, let alone freeroam stuff. We're all strong enough that we can just break down walls with little effort to avoid being cornered, and Iso can probably make vertical platforms to act as indestructible barriers.

The important thing, though, is that the last freeroam area is where we found our keycard. I think we should at least see if there's anything hidden for us here as well.

By an extraordinary coincidence, Alison started the previous freeroam section on turn 17 as well. It took her 10 turns worth of time to break out of her initial room, meet up with Scanner, and discover Recluse had beat her to the key.

Even if the section is slightly longer or more complex than previously, I expect anyone trying to beat us to the sigil (no one may be trying, though).

I think we might as well check the exit, and then double back and do freeroam, either because it's necessary, or for the learning.

>>440573

>>destroy platform
>>not an attack

Hah, I like the way you think. What other ways can we absorb people when our attacks are disabled?

>>440665
Unless beating someone over the head with a chair or using our superior body stat to capture them and crush them to death with our tail in freeroam doesn't count as an attack? I don't think there are any.

>What other ways can we absorb people when our attacks are disabled?
There's several ways to pull off platform-death. Cancel platform, puzzle drops, and those murder switches we've seen outside a section or two.

Finished / locked out sections appear to decay gradually, not dropping platforms all at once (at least, that's what it looked like in the room where we left the Axeman to die), so one would be able to absorb people in one of those, provided you had a teleporter or outsider transport to escape.

Damaging puzzle elements, like the flame blocks, could be used for kills (although at current hp scales, they'd have to hit a lot harder, or it would take forever).

White glove duels have been shown to circumvent save zone protection, but "standard" items are explicitly disallowed here. (This implies a non-standard tier of items that could still work, including potentially a higher order of duel gloves).

It's unexplored, but we know in theory glitch kills should be possible. Weaponizing glitches in a predictable means that doesn't result in friendly fire might be difficult though, and its unknown if someone killed by a glitch is absorbable. For all we know, Corrupter and his forces already have weaponized glitches.

Alison 2012/08/08(Wed)17:27 No. 440707 ID: f09b71
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Alison decides to at least check out the exit first of all, before going to the freeroam section.

The gambler is there, who is first to greet Alison. He says he's gotten a freeroam sigil, if Alison would like to talk. He says that the blue guy, a copy it looks from the stage three person, acts as a duel initiator so that 2 teams can compete for the other's sigils.

>>440707
Sure, we'll talk. Ask him what was in the freeroam section.

...wait a minute. Is that the exit platform over there? Can't we just have Iso build a bridge to it?

>>440713
Let's gather everyone together before we try this, and overload the stage exit!

>Gambler
Wait, we left him here? Huh, I assumed he was in the Sanctuary. How'd he join another team if they were organized by the bracket they came from?

>>440713
If that doesn't work because it's too far, then we can just use a series of light trails and platforms to cross over.

Oh, sup Gamber. I forgot we left you in the brackets. By which I mean, Alison, greet him politely. We do want to talk.

Where's everyone else? There should be 20ish or so more people in this bracket right now. Wait math: 20normally, so 16 regular contestancs, the 4 of us, Gambler, Watcher, Judge Lord, Operator 8x = there should be 31 total (unless we left more people behind? Like Catblob?).

Is he teamed up with those two? I thought the sign you were only allowed to team with people you were in the previous stage with- and he came in with us, not them.

We would like to talk, and to try to overload the exit if possible. If not, we're willing to duel, absorb, and revive your ghosts in our safe zone. Explain the unfortunate nerfing of full resurrection to ghost-talk, but that for all intents and purposes it's the same in safe areas.

As usual, scan everyone, including Blue, just to be sure. It's unlikely, but blue may have some ability to remove created light trails and platforms to prevent cheating.

>>440713
Good idea. Tell the Gambler you might be able to overload this exit thanks to abilities gained.

First though we should see how these duels work and why is the Gambler is the only one here. Where are all the system characters?

Explain the light-trail bridge plan, and ask where everyone else is. Did they already fight?

Alison 2012/08/09(Thu)02:57 No. 440947 ID: f09b71
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>Exit platform is right there
Alison does see that! But at a close look, it is farther than first glance. It is still possible, but may take several turns. Alison explains this to the gambler.

>What was in the freeroam section?
A hallway of traps, lava jets, spike pits and all sorts of archaic means of killing. Not much more than that, Gambler says.

>Gambler's team
Gambler explains that it was all solo, these other guys just happened to be here as well.

Scanner is hypothesizing that perhaps not all of the zones are shared, perhaps each person gets an individual puzzle section, for instance. The arena though is almost certainly shared, and the Gambler says that the freeroam section at least is shared, at least with a few other people. Saw some system people get killed. Real nasty.

>Overload exit
Gambler figured, and knows Alison can be trusted. So the Gambler is willing to give Alison the sigil, no worries attached.

>traps, lava jets, spike pits capable of killing tier 2s.
Um, guys, I'm not too sure we want to do the freeroam section anymore. It's potentially an actual risk, and we're far enough behind now that it might be too late to rescue any ghosts. (Especially if the traps don't have a base damage, and instead remove percentages of hp, or just do instant death).

What we really wanted info on was freeroam combat, which we can't test here. If we really need details, we can just gambler to give us a fuller account later.

>Saw people get killed
Dang. Does Gambler have absorb? (I can't find any old scan data on him). If so, we have recursive access, otherwise they're gone.

Only question now is if we wait for stragglers, or if we go out looking for them ourselves.

We should go look for them ourselves. Probably going to have to help them out since they are new at this.

>>440947
>it is still possible, but may take several turns
Iso is incapable of creating a multiple-platform bridge on his own, unless I'm missing something.

Turn 1: create platform
Turn 2: create light trail
Turn 3: move to platform
Turn 4: create platform, first platform disappears and Iso drops.

Heck, he can't even make a bridge that uses ONE platform while also moving across it unless someone assists his movement with Lift or Throw. Which we don't have. He can make bridges and move across them if all he needs is a light trail. If we had Clarence with us, or anyone with Create Platform 3 or Create Light Trail 3 really, we'd be golden.

Thank Gambler for the sigil, and say that you hope he managed to absorb the system people. It would be a shame for them to have been lost to us. Hang on, they had loads of hp/armor. Traps must either be very damaging or do proportional damage.

>>440961
If we could substitute step 4 with recreate / renew the platform he's standing on (starting the timer over), it would work. Or create a new platform an inch below the old, so you drop to it when the first one blinks out. Otherwise, if nothing like that is allowed, you're right.

...I love it that Iso has gone from one of our weakest members to one of the most useful, and almost our default response for breaking things.

From the wiki you can create the light trail first. That solves that paticular problem of running out of time on the platform.

If the Baron \ Judge Lord does not have access to throw we can use teleport \ swap (Yay teleporters) to move Iso across without wasting a turn on movement.

Turn 1) Create Light trail 1.
Turn 2) Create platform 1. Everyone moves.
Turn 3) Swap with Iso. Iso Create light trail 2. Swapper rejoins group. 1st Line then disapears
Turn 4) Create Platform 2. Everyone moves.
Turn 5) Swap Iso, Iso Create Line, swapper rejoins group. Platform 1 disapears.

Rinse and Repeat.

Operation flying platform goooo

Okay, looking at the problem further, it looks like we'll need someone to help Iso with teleport shenanigans, and even then it'll probably only work if we can make the light trails first.

But the thing is, we're still looking at this using normal platform rules. The real question is, can we make the platforms so close together that we don't even need light trails, like in tiled areas?

>>441004
I don't really see the point in making tiles, its simply quicker to do flying platforms. Plus the movement and platform mechanics wouldn't be the same as System Space.

Now that we've established that we can cross the gap even without the sigils we should decide whether we want to try and help out everyone who might be stuck in free-roam.

My biggest fear of free roam is the described traps. They sound like traditional instant deaths (lava, spikes). Furthermore, survival would depend on dexterity and skill. Our party does not seem suited to that. Alison is really too big to be an effective dodger (although maybe she's big enough to catch both sides of a spike pit?). Duelist is similarly ill built for dodging, although he does fight with a rapier, so who knows. Scanner does have a normal human figure going for her, and Iso might have small 'bold evasion going for him, but we've never tested anyone in these kinds of circumstances.

It seems a big risk.

We could always ask what he saw of how the traps worked.

I have one way to assuage your fears. Everyone here still has at least two armor forms available to choose. We can pick some sort of flying \ jump armor, and maybe with a shield to block streams of fire \ lava.

Also stats translate very well in freeroam. Descending cielings \ closing walls can probably be held open by Mako with his tier 3 19 body. Alison can stuff nozzles with her diamond wire grade hair. She also has the equivelent of a two range rope which could probbly lift and deposit everyone across any pit you could name.

Consider this: the only lethal mechanisms we've seen or heard of so far is in the freeroam section. The system might've been counting on that as their main hope of finishing us off.

Two reasons we need to visit the free-roam section.

1) Another keycard might be found
2) The inexperianced System Characters might be trapped and fearful of moving further because of the very real threat of death.

Personally I'd rather go rescue them then sit on my duff waiting.

>>441012
>Trap defense armor forms
That's an interesting idea, but if I remember the rules right, you're only allowed to swap armor forms in safe zones and those floaty CU assigning places between rooms. Crafting a new form might bypass that restriction, though?

Alison 2012/08/09(Thu)14:55 No. 441040 ID: f09b71
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Alison is given the 3rd sigil, so Scanner says that they don't need to actually do the platforming.

It's just a matter if, after thinking about it thoroughly, she decides to go back to the freeroam section.

Free roam!

The bridge building was an emergency plan, if the exit didn't allow overload. It appears though that putting the 3 sigils in place creates a light trail, which then presumably disappears after 4 people cross. Since arbitrary numbers of people can move at the same time, even along the same light trail, it's logical to assume we can take everyone out at once if we get them all to this platform.

...I suppose we're going to be big damn heros and risk the freeroam, aren't we? -_- I'd rather wait, and I suspect it's too late to help, but whatever. We should at least leave one of our 4 here with the sigils in case we don't make it out.

It would be prudent to ask Gambler if he has any useful advice (besides, "don't go, stupid!"). How to spot the hidden traps would be useful.

Pop you head in at every stage, and say you're going to try to overload the exit, so come meet up.

First ask if the freeroam allows you to back out at the beginning before we run into any traps. If we can do that then I don't see any reason not to at least poke our head in. Asking for the layout of traps would also be useful.

At least ask Gambler about what he observed about the mechanics of the freeroam section first.

Alison 2012/08/09(Thu)19:04 No. 441104 ID: f09b71
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>Ask the gambler about the freeroam
There is no backing out immediately, first of all. Once you go in, you have to get to the finish line. Second off, every 3rd tile - actual floor tile - springs a trap. Seams in the walls will sometimes have string traps, or be secret entrances to skip ahead freely. Small holes in the walls are dart traps. Smaller bodies sound better in this case to avoid traps springing, except that some of the pittraps are too small for Alison or Duelist even if they do get sprung.

There is also limited visibility to other hallways for other players. The traps are the same, but rearranged, so the gambler says it wouldn't help to tell Alison his own precise layout.

Sounds like flying \ levitating armor would work the best. I bet float will work to avoid trap tiles as well though.

Everyone should get some sort of high-tech power armor. Mako with massive shields and Alison with monofiliment wire. Scanner should get something lightweight with an extensive scanning suite, able to pickup the smallest details. Iso should get a spider bot capable of ejecting various substances to coat the area to help or hinder. All four should fly.

...is there any connectivity between the hallways? Or if you get to end, can you go back down others? Are you close enough to the others to talk, or absorb?

Because if we can't get close enough to physically help people through traps, or verbally warn them what to avoid, or at the vary least get in absorption range, there's nothing we can do to help. We might as well wait for anyone who makes it through.

Also ask about the damage. Did the traps do a set amount, or was it scaled? Or did the freeroam use "real world" rules for damage and death? (...totally expecting "Gambler says he doesn't know! He didn't take any damage." though.)

I wonder if we can use create platform to just cover up pitfalls and trap triggers. Or if the people with float could just cheat their way through.

We could probably just trigger/test for traps with our hair. In any case it sounds like we should go in alone, because every player has their own hallway and we only need Alison to go in to check for any 'secret' items like keycards.

Gambler couldn't take in his entire team, right?

Gambler had no team, those people are just hanging around the exit.

I propose we chill here for more people to finish

Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)00:16 No. 441236 ID: f09b71
File 134458300042.png - (61.18KB , 700x700 , s5-19.png )

>Any connectivity between hallways
Only at the end, when they connect at the center where the sigil is. Was.

>Ask about damage
The gambler thinks it does a whole lot of damage.He didn't see a system guy who fell in lava do much better than some other sap. On the other hand, the system guys were able to run after injury a lot better than the limpy regular players. Gambler got his foot lopped off in an axe trap, but he was able to bounce along pretty easy, while another tier 1 guy got the same trap, and had to crawl. It actually kinda hurt, he thought. Not as bad as you'd think, but kind of like a nasty paper cut. The gambler shows his foot, but then remembers that that is pointless, since it healed again after he left the freeroam section, so it just looks like he's flirting badly with Alison. He's still only got 10 out of 20 HP, though. He thinks maybe he should've followed Alison a bit longer.

Oh, so you want Allison to get her tail lopped off while you follow along safely behind? Hmph!

I think going to the free-roam section is sounding like a TERRIBLE idea.

1/3 Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)01:43 No. 441318 ID: f09b71
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Scanner asks the blue character if the stage is possible to overload, and it says yes it is, asking who has permission to go through, once Alison's team makes it through. Alison says everyone, and Blue says that is acceptable. Everyone who comes by will be able to have a free trip out, so long as they make it to this area in the first place. People who already died, however, can't be saved.

>Freeroam sounds like a terrible, terrible place
Alison tells this to her friends. They all agree. It sounds horrific, and the Gambler gives his recommendation not to go unless she wants to see some nasty stuff.

2/3 Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)01:43 No. 441319 ID: f09b71
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Alison and friends proceed to get the fuck out of there.

3/3 Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)01:44 No. 441321 ID: f09b71
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She finds the four of them arriving in a near identical room to the one that transferred them from preliminary stage 3, to normal stage 1.

Read those papers on the wall, have everyone search the room etc.

read note, hug iso, loot everything.

Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)02:09 No. 441328 ID: f09b71
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Alison gets the other 3 to search through the cabinet and books while she reads the pamphlet, after giving Iso a swift hug. It is stage 6's information.

Stage 6
Safe Zone: 100 hour time limit.
Entrants: 10,000
Exits: 100

The rest of it appears to be a list that is only labeled as "recommended reading."
Survival books, combat books, books on trap making, and some more books on practical usage on easy construction and psychology.

Iso says that there are a few games in the cabinet this time as well, but mostly it is more books this time. The one he got caught his attention. It is called "The Invention of the CAI".

Read it read it read it now

Or take it with you to read in the Corrupted Sanctuary. If Glitcher gets the time thing working again then you'll have more time to process it.

>>441328
Sounds like down time. Try to sync up with other people and the Sanctuary via naptime or Ghost Talk. Try to find someone reasonably trustworthy to use as a full-time go-between.

Get people to explore / read books while you wait. Duelist might enjoy Combat, Scanner Psyhcology, and Iso... let's have him read about the CAI. We'll catch up with him when we finish and read along as well. Nothing quite like 2 people reading about a compound AI simultaneously...

I'm going to have the last laugh... it sounds like the next stage is going to be Free Roam.



>>441329
I second reading CAI now. Apparently we have lots of time before the stage even starts. Freeroam is going to take those people a while. If we finish reading the CAI book we should go on to the combat and psychology books.

Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)05:20 No. 441347 ID: f09b71
File 134460125208.png - (11.61KB , 700x700 , ssf6-3.png )

Iso begins reading the CAI book.

>Sync with others and the sanctuary
One change she noticed is that Mouse got killed. She ghost talks with him.

He explains that all of the system brackets started merging. Well, not all of them, but a huge amount. His vision went white, then dark. And here he is.

Alison figures that time must have skipped forward then, if a merge was already completed. Gambler is not dead, so perhaps he, and the others who exited, were moved to a different box like this. It must be lonely for him, although it would be terribly cramped if everyone went in this small room.

Doors to the main safe zone?

Can you check with the ghosts you share with people in the sanctuary if there are any messages for you?

Thank him for taking that risk. The sanctuary survived the merge so he will be able to spend time alive as long as it exists. Chief should be able to maintain ghost talk for him once they notice he is dead.

I wonder how the System characters handled the merge. Did they suddenly find themselves with duplicate job holders or did the system just delete everyone except the best.

Hey, blue can talk! That's new. And that "get the fuck out of there" picture is wonderful and hilarious.

>Entrants: 10,000
...if there's supposed to be 4 survivors per stage 5 bracket, then 2500 brackets were just merged. That means a ton of redundant system people just died. There's also a decent chance that your bracket just merged with that of one of the other house Lords.

When you get to the safe zone, wait a bit to see if anyone you know makes it out. You should offer to recruit them. Maybe gambler or any surviving system refuges, etc would rather bail on the brackets after that mess.

The safe zone is gonna be huge, and filled with people. I'd say you should hop to corruption and back in order to get some help exploring and talking to people, gathering information, etc. Succubus is good at this kind of thing, at least, but you'll need more than 1 person helping with a crowd that size!

>CAI book
AI means Artificial intelligence, Alison. If you're really living in a simulated or virtual world, that's what you are. And a compilation AI is an AI of many discrete voices- which seems relevant here, considering how many of you there are. You need to read that book, and take it with you.

Heck, take all the books with you, to add to your library.

>Mouse
Aw, yeah, apologize for getting him killed. Did the teleporter stop working when the merge started? Or was the process just too quick?

Also, this is a safe zone. If we don't plan to use him for communication, we can go ahead and make mouse a corporeal ghost.

Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)06:14 No. 441358 ID: f09b71
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Mouse says that there was just no time to use the teleporter. Recluse just found him, as well, and Alison can chat to him freely. Alison first thanks him and apologizes, but mouse says it's fine. He's probably more useful like this, and being dead just isn't being that dead. He just let Recluse know that Alison is fine, and Recluse says that he is fine, except that while the number of light trails diminished, the ones that are there are getting exceedingly close.

>Doors to the main safe zone
The Duelist looks at them, but they aren't at the safe zone yet.

Oh, haha, ghosts can be in two places at once, just like in dreams. Hope that's not too jarring for him.

Well, now we know to avoid system brackets when things are close to merge deadlines. There's no warning or time to get out.

We should read the trap book. If the system invades Corruption and it turns to a freeroam, those will be very useful.

Are the lines getting close to both Corruption and the Ancillary sanctuary, or just one?

Send someone to ask Glitcher if our teleport will still work- with all the merges, the bracket coordinates might be changed. We might need outsider pickup, and/or a new teleport.

Ask to get a team of interested people together to help scout and explore the new safe zone. With ~10,000 people, the place is gonna be huge, and there's going to be a lot of people to talk to.

When we're done using him as a communication relay, mouse gets the first tested ghost-hug.

Lets get to reading. And yes gather as many books as possible for transport to our library.

We should keep all the books to start making a library if we have the space, and might as well take a few board games to the sanctuary if we have extra inventory space afterward the books.

Have Recluse check to see if any of the darkened system zones are still empty. If one of them is empty now we can have Cake take it over.

>>441388
Checking for an empty zone is good (I think we can do it just with the observatory, actually). If there is one, we can commission a teleport being built for it. (Poor overworked Glitcher. He's overdue for some additional thanks, I think).

I think testing the card would be interesting enough we'd want to be along for that experiment, though. And we'd want to try talking Cake into it face to face, not via messengers.

1/2 Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)15:47 No. 441464 ID: f09b71
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While Iso reads, Alison fills as much of her inventory with books as she can, and teleports to the sanctuary to drop them off.

2/2 Alison 2012/08/10(Fri)15:47 No. 441465 ID: f09b71
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But there is nothing around her once she teleports.

Oh, um well look around. If there really is absolutely nothing try and teleport back.

Teleport back.

>>441465
Teleport to the other sanctuary?
Ghost Talk to get word to Corrupter or Glitcher so they can retrieve?

Who's alive out there?

>>441465
We don't even seem to be in system space. Try to get back to where you were before you drop.