Into the shadows (RPG)

[Megar]

Mega points his buster in the general direction of the MDA guards, shrugging. "If we all go in we can take them easily. It's better to get rid of them now before they can ruin everything for us later."

[Harmless]

"I dunno. We thought they were with you and that other guy. I mean... maybe we should go grab them before we take on the MDA, just in case."

[TheMMMification]

"But how could they be with me?" Burt asks. "You guys accidentally left me behind in that village by the valley. You know, the one we entered after fighting that dragon. I tried to catch up, but I got completely lost and had to wander around the woods for god knows how long. Hannah and Aiden were never with me while I was in the forest."

[1018peter]

"Thought that you would have remembered the nasty Machine Gun badge. Oh well, if you're so eager, let's charge in. Our objective would be...eliminating all the damned guards." Arma decided to trust the others on this one.

[Zunar]

"Welp, if you guys are actually doing this, suppose I might as well. It'd be better for me to assist than to try escaping on my own." Zunar readies his bow.

[Harmless]

"Actually... let's grab Hannah and Aiden before we take them on."

[Megar]

"As long as we come right back here so they can't get in our way later." Mega shrugs once again, clearly not actually caring what course is taken here.

[Magnen]

clearly not actually caring what course is taken here.

majority of the party in a nutshell

[JSlayerXero]

[Daisy, the plot-baker]

"Yeesh, what a wimp..."
"Anyway sure, why not."

"Okay then! One moment." Marina walks off for a bit. She comes back wearing a scarf that matches your own. She takes the tray of cookies and dumps the rest of it into her own scarf. "I'm ready. Let's go!" Marina walks over to the door. She opens it to a bunch of MDA soldiers. "Yes officer, what's the issue?"

They point their weapons at her. "You're coming with us."

"Okay!" Marina is rather energetic. You can smell she's nervous, but she's really good at playing against that anyway. You go with her to the square with the statue. You also see rest of the party is gathered around it for some reason.

[Now, even Daisy joins this viewpoint! Huzzah!] ♪♫

"Yeah, and these enemies are just grunts." Frederick shrugs his shoulders, giving a look of disappointment to Arma. "I kill fools like these on a daily basis! Why, even Zunar got a kill on one of them! Easy!"

"I'm not worried about the MDA soldiers. I just took on a whole team of them, and I was barely hurt." Burt says as the minor gunshot wound on his chest and the small difficulty he has with moving his arms indicates that he is quite a bit more than barely hurt. "What I'm worried about is where Hannah and Aiden went. Where did you guys last see them?"

Mega points his buster in the general direction of the MDA guards, shrugging. "If we all go in we can take them easily. It's better to get rid of them now before they can ruin everything for us later."

"I dunno," Frederick says, "We thought they were with you and that other guy. I mean... maybe we should go grab them before we take on the MDA, just in case."

"But how could they be with me?" Burt asks. "You guys accidentally left me behind in that village by the valley. You know, the one we entered after fighting that dragon. I tried to catch up, but I got completely lost and had to wander around the woods for god knows how long. Hannah and Aiden were never with me while I was in the forest."

"Thought that you would have remembered the nasty Machine Gun badge. Oh well, if you're so eager, let's charge in. Our objective would be...eliminating all the damned guards." Arma decided to trust the others on this one.

"Welp, if you guys are actually doing this, suppose I might as well. It'd be better for me to assist than to try escaping on my own." Zunar readies his bow.

"Actually... let's grab Hannah and Aiden before we take them on," Frederick adds.

"As long as we come right back here so they can't get in our way later." Mega shrugs once again, clearly not actually caring what course is taken here.

While you were all discussing totally important tactics underneath this statue, the MDA have shuffled around a whole ton. Suddenly, they spring from behind trees and buildings. They have you surrounded. Off to the north, you see a blue-haired girl and Daisy, also surrounded, walking in your direction. They don't seem to notice Daisy, though.

"You see these guys? Show us where the crystal is and they may live yet," one of the MDA soldiers says to the girl. Daisy can pick up her nervous smell. She seems to be in thought about something.

You hear a number of them shouting at the main grouping guys, "We have you surrounded! Do not move!" Daisy seems to remain invisible at the moment.

---WARNING---
 INITIATING COMBAT MODE 

♪♫

........D.E...........
........EME...........
......................
.....E..........E.....
....TTE..EEEE..ETT....
...ETT.E......E.TTE...
....E....AR......E....
.....E...WHFB...E.....
....E....ZSS.....E....
....E.....SS....E.....
.....E...........E....
....E...........E.....
...ETTE........ETTE...
....TT.E.EEEE.E.TT....
.....E..........E.....
......................
......................
......................

M = Marina
D = Daisy     H = Dennis A = Arma B = Burt
F = Frederick Z = Zunar  R = Mega W = Wind
S = Zafira Blue Statue   T = Tree
E = MDA Enemy

You are surrounded. I forget what rules Nan established about movement, but assume you can only move horizontally and vertically. However, targeting adjacent tiles refers to any of the 8 tiles next to you, including diagonals. On the one hand, you ARE surrounded; on another hand, your fate may be decided by a third party; on yet ANOTHER hand, it's your turn and thus you have first strike.

Edit: Players all move simultaneously. For now, the Movement Phase happens all at once where you all move around and/or use movements. You can also just do nothing during the Movement Phase. Once everybody is done, the turn moves tot he Combat Phase. The Combat Phase lets you use Combat Skills... or just do nothing. Doing nothing is always an option. Also, you can still Improvise if you really feel like it. Just be aware that is, as always, up to my discretion when it comes to whether you succeed or not.

[Sorry about the ASCII map. I'm currently trying to figure out how I would improve upon this. I don't have Nan's production value to work off of right now, so unfortunately I'm just going to have to work with what I know. At least this one has one character mapped to one tile instead of a vague idea of where anything is.]

[If I can get some confirmation on whether KABOOM is going to continue playing or not, it would be helpful. If not then I'll bot him. I vaguely remember him suggesting he'll drop out but I forget.]

[I wonder: did nobody take the hint from these guys nodding toward that statue that you were being surrounded? I'm not about to outright state tactical info like that to you guys and let you meta-game an edge, but I tried to hint at it. That said, if it's not a skill then talking is a free action during combat. Make good use of it.]

[1018peter]

[It felt out of character for Arma to just suddenly notice the guards' change in behavior and suggest that the statue might be somewhat suspicious.]

"Isn't that Daisy?" Arma exclaimed. "I'll create a clear path for us to rendezvous with her...watch this!"

Arma steps forward and causes a small quake at the guards in front of him.


(Up -> Right -> Quake)