[Jean] Chapter 1: Summons

[Throndir]

Location: New World
Date: Year 4901 AC - Ardson 23rd - 24:31

"S͎̠̪̱̮̱͕͕H̖̯̙̲͞O͏͓̠̮̗W̶̛̲̗̯̠͔͜.̶̢̙̤̕ ̷̨̗̬͇͢T̷̼̳̖͕͖͍͕̀H͏̙̠Ę̸̻͕͎̠̫͖ͅ.͍ ̧͕͎W̭̳A̯̭͕̳͍̦ͅY̨̦̦͡.̸̷̼̦"

You thought you heard a voice? A deep rumbling voice. But the memory seemed to be fading. It was getting harder to recollect what it was. A moment later, you couldn't even remember what you thought you heard at all.

Another moment later, words flashed in your head scrolling as the words continued to fly by.

You have gained a new title『Summoned Hero』
You have gained『Quick Learner』
You have gained『Mana Sensitivity』
You have gained『Translate All』
You have gained『Personal Status』
You have gained『Weight Control』
You have gained a new title『The Heavy』
You have gained『Summon Tentacle』
You have gained a new title『Herald of the Old Ones』
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You leveled up.
You are now level 15. Spend your unallocated points.

And another moment after that, the words vanished.

You were on your back. You felt a cold floor against you. Opening your eyes you realized you were staring straight up at a ceiling. Various cracks running through it made you think wherever you were at seem old and not very well-maintained. A dim orange-ish glow surrounded you as well, coming from lit candles array against the walls at various intervals.

There was a light breeze. And suddenly you felt the sharp cold air. It was then that you realized you were completely soaked. But to make matters worse, what you saw in your peripheral vision was something like from a bad B-movie.

Tentacles.

Please roll Perception, use the stats on your character sheet. You can wait for the results of the Perception before responding or taking any other actions as well if you'd like. Describe specifically how you are using Perception, if you're laying still, standing up to look around, etc.

[pringerbeam]

     "Uah!"  Shouts Jean as he bolts up on to his feet.  Turning to look first at the tentacles and then around him, trying to get a bearing on his location.  "Wha?  Where am I?"  He grabs his chest, or at least tries to and instead thumps himself with the book held in his hand like a vice.  He lets his grip loosen on the book and looks up at his surroundings.  "Well... no Steve I guess so... upside."

Perception

Rolled 1d20+3 : 5 + 3, total 8

[Throndir]

When you bolted straight up on your feet. You noticed a circle of glowing runes around you, with you at the center. Other than that, there was at least 6 tentacles flopping around. And a girl standing just some distance away.

She had red hair, a red overcoat with frills covering a tighter-fit grey dress that accentuated her curves, and a staff with a large red crystal the very top. Her outfit looked out of place from anything you've ever seen. It was almost as if the girl was cosplaying some sort of character. If you were to guess, she looked younger than you, perhaps 18 or 20 at most.

Normally the sight would have made anyone gawk.

But instead the girl was screaming at the top of her lungs. Three of the six tentacles were intertwining themselves around the girls legs, reaching further upwards.

"No, no, no! S-stop! G-get off!" There were nearly tears in her eyes as she struggled vainly to get free.

[pringerbeam]

     Jean was surprised by the girl's appearance, she was like something out of the manga section of the library.  "Oh hey, sup.  I don't suppose you know what the hell is going on?"  He asked, still somewhat disoriented by his most recent memories.  He looked for the source of the tentacles and spun in place to get a look at the runic circle. "What is this supposed to be?"  He muses aloud as he reaches to touch the runes.  "Oh sorry, force of habit.  I talk to myself too much.  Too much time alone with the books.  Great and now I'm rambling."

[Throndir]

The girl was screaming, and as you asked the questions, she seemed to be more concerned about the tentacles that wrapped around her legs... and now arms.

"W-what do y-you mean 'Oh hey, sup'!" The girl cried out angrily, trying to pull her arm free, only for her other arm to be wrapped up by another tentacle. The other three tentacles which had been idle before, now made its way towards there. Tears continued to swell in her eyes. She yelped loudly then.

"N-no! Stop!"

Touching the runes themselves, nothing seemed to happen.

Magic Circle
Looking at the magical runes that circled where you were just moments before, you noticed that the glow steady became dimmer and dimmer, as if whatever it had done has already passed.

As for the tentacles that wrapped around her. It looked like the tentacles sprouted from the very ground itself. On closer examination, there was some purple light at the base of each tentacle when it connected to the ground. You noticed that they were arranged neatly around where the magic circle was that was now dimming. When you appeared in the room, all 6 of the tentacles surrounded you. For whatever reason though, the tentacles ignored you.

[pringerbeam]

     Jean watched as the runes faded away, looking at his fingers where they touched the circle as he crouched with his back to the girl.  "What the... what was that?"  He looked up from his fingers to the tentacles sprouting from the floor.  Wait...  "What... was..."  His brain was desperately trying to outrun a tortoise and failing.  "That...?"  One last mental sprint for the finish line and the situation hit Jean like a bucket of ice.  "AH!"  Leaps from his throat as he jumps backwards from where he crouched, flailing his arms and stumbling as he became tangled in the tentacles like a fish in a net, falling on the girl as he did so.

[Throndir]

The girl yelped. You found your hands on something warm and squishy. No, it wasn't the tentacles. In fact, when you had at first tripped on one of the tentacles when you realized what they were, the tentacles just seemed to happily guide you right into the girls bosom.

"H-how..." The girl was literally crying at this point. "Y-you're the h-hero right? H-how c-could you!"

When you made contact with one of the tentacles, you felt something like a static shock, and you somehow felt what the tentacles were feeling, almost as if they were an extension of your own senses. At the same time too, the tentacles stopped moving on their own as much, though, they still held on rather tightly to the girl who was now being held up in the air, with you unceremoniously dumped on top.

[pringerbeam]

     "I'm sorry, what?  Hero?  I'm pretty sure you're wrong there."  Jean tried to extricate himself from the girl.  "I don't even know who you are."  He paused for a moment after getting off the girl and standing up.  "Actually... Who are you?  Where am I?  This is definitely not Hawaii... Right?"  He looked at the book, still in his hand.  "Wait..."  He turned away from the girl again to start pacing along the perimeter of the now faded circle of runes.  "What..."  He was starting to remember what had happened after he had jumped off the ship.  "What happened?"  He continued to talk to himself and suddenly stopped in place, holding the book up to his face.  He turned the book over, looking at both sides of its cover, then opened the book to quickly flip through the pages.  He turned to the girl and held the book back up to her.  "Do you know what this is?  What these were?"  He points with the book to where the runes were before.  "What those ARE?"  He said then pointing to the tentacles sprouting from the floor.
     Jean began to remember the sensation of the tentacles as he made mention of them.  He reached out to the nearest one, as if trying to give it a high five.  At the same time, he thought about the tentacle reaching out to complete the action.  "There's no way..."  He mumbled to himself. 

Perception and Appraise checks to look over the book.  Not sure which might apply if at all so just throwing them both out.

Perception

Rolled 1d20+3 : 2 + 3, total 5

Appraise

Rolled 1d20+6 : 12 + 6, total 18

[Throndir]

"N-no... n-not there." The girl was close to giving up. The six tentacles had already entwined themselves around her. She didn't respond to any of your questions though, in fact, it looked as if the girl was in a daze.

Perception: 5, Appraise: 18
The outside of the book looked just the same as it always did. This book was incredibly valuable, at least, according to your old boss, but looking at it, you couldn't tell. However, inside was different. As you opened the pages to show-case the book to the girl, you happened to glance on words that you seemed to recognize. You swear they were a bunch of gibberish written in some ancient language, like Latin, before.

When you reached out to high five the tentacle, it actually responded and high-fived you back. It was a weird sensation, it felt as if you were controlling the tentacle and not at the same time. You willed it to give you a high-five, but you didn't quite control the exact movements of how it did so. But you were able to feel the sensation of both your own hand being hit, along with how it felt from the viewpoint of the tentacle.

The girl snapped from her daze-like state when she saw you high-fiving the tentacle.

"Y-you! Let me go! I thought tentacles out of no where had something to do with summoning a hero. A-and you're giving it a high-five! Let me go!" The girl demanded. With her clothing in disarray and in compromising positions, it was really hard to take her seriously.

[pringerbeam]

     "Holy shit did you see that?"  Jean exclaims as the tentacle responds.  "Wait... what did you mean that the tentacles are part of summoning a hero?  What are you, some kind of mage out of a video-game?"  The gears were starting to turn in the back of Jean's mind.  "Wait... ARE you a mage?"  He looked at the book in his hand and then up at the girl.  She was certainly dressed like she was straight out of a video-game and the events that had transpired on the cruise ship flashed in his mind.  "Hold on...  Summoning..."  He remembered the glowing light and...  The circle...  I was pulled into one circle... and came out in another...  They were different circles...  What happened in between...  He was having trouble remembering what had happened.  He knew that something vitally important had occurred in that passing... time?  "You... Did you make the circle?  Oh...  Wait a sec."  Just realizing that he might be able to get the girl out of her current predicament, he thought about the tentacles and willed them to withdraw from the girl.  He thought about the voice he heard on the cruise ship.  It didn't sound like her, but then who...  "What exactly did you mean by I'm the hero?  What's going on here? And where is here anyways?"  He looked around and tried to get a better understanding of where he was.

Knowledge (Engineering) to see if the room they are in is identifiable as any kind of architecture he remembers back from Earth

Rolled 1d20+7 : 4 + 7, total 11

[Throndir]

The moment you willed the tentacles to let go. All 6 of them started to slowly unravel themselves from the girl. The moment they were free, some of them drooped downwards, as if they were sad. The girl on the other hand, flushed with embarrassment, and her cheeks still red, began to tidy her clothing up. She visibly shuddered when she started taking care of her stockings and skirt.

You asked her a variety of questions, but her mind was still racing and flushed in embarassment.

"Y-you need to take responsibility, you hear that!" She yelled at you, her eyes closed as she clenched her fists tightly.

Knowledge (engineering): 11
This particular style of dungeon wasn't something you were completely familiar with. It wasn't anything you've seen on Earth at least. However, it did seem like it was made underground. There were plenty of Roman arches at the ceiling that told you that the place could potentially have a lot of weight sitting on top. One thing for certain though, wherever you were, it was ancient.

Eventually the girl managed to calm her elf. She patted both her cheeks with both of her hands as if trying to compose herself.

"First off, t-those... things! Don't let them touch me again!" She proceeded to mumble something under her breathe as she looked down and blushed fiercely.

Roll Perception if you wanted to hear, DC 15

"I'm not sure specifically about tentacles... But each hero is supposed to have some sort of amazing set of abilities. I wasn't 100% sure when I saw the tentacles, but with you being able to control it, that would make sense. And yes, I am a mage! That's not so rare though. Tentacles that pop up from the ground are probably rarer..." She shuddered, but then pointed at the magic circle.

"The magic circle and the runes here are old. Very very old. They're usually created on spots with a lot of spiritual energy. It takes awhile for them to gather, rarely is there enough to actually succeed on having the ritual work. I didn't make the magic circle, no. That knowledge is lost. And only a few mages know the ritual to use the magic circle. I just happen to be one of them." She then pointed towards you.

"And you're the hero, because of the fact that you were summoned here! I can prove it too. From what I remember reading you should be able to say 'Status', and you should see things about yourself? It wasn't very clear."

"As for where 'here' is... We are in the Idorian Magic Kingdom. We call our world Terremar. But nowadays, this 'world' we are in, is something we call the 'New World'. As for why you're here..."

With this she started to avoid your gaze.

"I wasn't actually supposed to summon you right now... But... it couldn't be helped." As if on cue, there was a loud crashing sound as if stone was being blasted apart coming from somewhere in the dungeon.

"Because of that."

[pringerbeam]

Perception to hear mumbling

Rolled 1d20+3 : 6 + 3, total 9

[pringerbeam]

     Jean tries to instruct the tentacles to coil underneath him so that he can sit on them like a stool as he listens to the girl.  He continues to idly stare at the cover of the book while he listens to her talk.  He is about to open the book to take another look at its contents when she mentions the 'Status' ability.  He lets the whisper of "Status" slip from his lips while she continues to talk, gaining his full attention when she talks about the kingdom they are in.  Terremar?  Doesn't sound like anything from any book I've read...  Maybe this is the real deal...  He sits bolt upright at the sound of the blast.  "Wait... That?  What's THAT supposed to be?"  He was starting to get a bad feeling about this mysterious 'That.'

[Throndir]

The 6 tentacles around you started to head towards you, then coiling, it started to form what you requested. But instead of a stool like you had thought, the tentacles instead formed into something that looked more akin to a throne. That is, if a throne could be made of coiled tentacles and suction cups. To your surprise, the chair was actually pretty comfortable.

The moment you said 《Status》 a menu appeared in your head. It was as if you could see a floating translucent screen in front of you.

Jean Valois
Herald of the Old Ones
Level 15

Condition: Healthy

HP: 43/43
MP: 22/28
STR: 18 +
DEX: 18 +
CON: 28 +
INT: 16 +
WIS: 10 +
CHA: 8 +
MAG: 18 +

Blessings: Quick Learner, Mana Sensitivity, Translate All, Personal Status, Weight Control, Summon Tentacle

You have 3 unspent ability points.

"THAT is well..." Before she could finish, another blast of rocks resounded in the halls. This time it was much closer. In fact, it came from a large boulder that had just hit one of the dungeon walls, and was careening straight towards the two of you. The girl yelped, as she started to jump away.

Roll Agility Saving Throw, then roll Initiative (Just a DEX Check)

[pringerbeam]

Agility Save

Rolled 1d20+8 : 18 + 8, total 26

Initiative

Rolled 1d20+4 : 17 + 4, total 21