Mysterious Fog [Mission]

[Holly Mason]

Working for the strange blonde woman was one of the worst things ever.  Holly vowed she wouldn't do it again after the last debacle, but as she was turning in her weekly junk something caught her eye.  There was a mystery, a dangerous mystery at that.  Considering little was known, the woman's usual vagueness didn't really piss her off that much.  If anything, it was likely the woman actually shared all she knew this time.  Further, if she sensed a big, dangerous shadow or something how could Holly say no to something like that?  It would be an adventure and likely an adventure with a good fight at the end.  An adventure that could possibly get her killed sure, but what was life without a little risk?  So, she decided to take the job, but this would definitely be the last one!

The town was just as spooky as described.  The fog was so thick she could barely see in front of her, forcing her to rely on her other senses.  If there was a big, powerful shadow in there she was sure she would sense it soon, but in the mean time she relied mostly on that sense and her sense of hearing to make her way through the eerie town.

It was too bad she had to come alone.  This would have been so much better with a group.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

After a bit of walking, you reach the village described to you in the mission briefing. Just as the woman said, the village seemed to be coated in an extremely dense fog.

You decide to make your way into the fog to see if you can locate the cause of this oddity. As you walk, you're only able to see a few feet in front of you. As such, walking proved to be difficult. Though, the further you get in, the better visibility becomes. Pretty soon, you reach what seems to be a "clearing." It's still quite foggy, but you're able to see a much greater distance than before.

After a bit of walking around, you take note of a few places that you can search initially. There's a small restaurant, a tiny school building, and a nursing clinic all within sight.

Before you can do anything besides take note of your surroundings, something terrifying appears.

The Reaper

• Death

Null: All


A rather large cloaked figure fires off a long-barreled pistol in the air as it notices you. It begins to make its way over! You sense that this enemy isn't something that you can fight. Your only option is to escape into one of the nearby buildings! Which one will you go into?

[ ] Restaurant

[ ] School

[ ] Clinic

[Holly Mason]

Holly was still surprised about how little she knew about this place despite living in the area for her entire life.  Even before the fog cleared it was pretty obvious that this really was just a small town that had the misfortune of of being where the outer circle would appear.  It was also eerily quiet, her footsteps being the only thing making any noise at all.  Eventually, she reached an area with no fog.  Her first instinct told her that she should actually be looking for the area with the densest fog, but thinking on it that would be around the perimeter.  Apparently, it got so thick that if more than one person came people couldn't even walk through it.  So, maybe what she was looking for was actually in the place with the least fog.  Well, it couldn't hurt to look around at least.

Before she could even make too many mental notes, she felt an overwhelmingly strong presence; a presence even stronger than that of those shadows that took a small army to take down, and just a moment later she heard a gunshot.  The bullet didn't hit her fortunately, but even before she decided to turn around and get a look at the presence, it was already obvious she couldn't fight it.  Holly's body began reacting before her mind could, and her legs started carrying her in the opposite direction of the shadow.  She wasn't able to note all the buildings she could get into, but she did very clearly see three.  The first was a restaurant.  It would likely have a reasonable amount of cover, but navigating it could slow her down.  The second was a school.  It would likely have long, open hallways for her to run through without much trouble, but if the shadow was using a gun that may not actually be helpful.  The third was a clinic, which would likely have the worst of both.  She figured all three of them were likely to have a backdoor, so that wasn't an issue at least.

Holly dismissed the clinic as an option quickly, and she would be damned if she ever let a school save her, so she quickly ran into the restaurant.  It was probably pointless to barricade the door, so she just ran through it as quickly as she could, vaulting over tables and chairs as necessary.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

You make your way through the restaurant, vaulting over several chairs and tables like a boss. You head through the back of the restaurant, finding the back exit. However, upon trying to open the door, you feel a strong presence preventing it from opening. It seems that you are stuck in here and you aren't sure if that strange creature is still coming. Thankfully, you notice some sort of trap door near one of the ovens. That looks to be your only way out. However, before you can go down, you're attacked by strange "shadows." They appear to be humanoid, carrying large cleavers. Well, this should be fun exercise.

Butcher

• Agidyne
• Brave Blade
• Spirit Drain

Absorb: Repel: Phys Null: Rs: Wk: None

Butcher

• Agidyne
• Brave Blade
• Spirit Drain

Absorb: Repel: Phys Null: Rs: Wk: None

[Holly Mason]

As she dashed into the building she could no longer sense the powerful shadow outside.  It was weird that she couldn't sense it at all on the way here too now that she thought about it.  How could it mask its presence like that?  She could definitely feel its strength when she looked at it, so why not now?  This was unsettling.  Not just that there were shadows that could hide her presence, but that she was dealing with one now and she had no idea where the fuck it was.  There was no time to think about it, all she could do right now is keep moving.  It didn't take too long for her to find the back door, and fortunately there were no signs of the shadow yet.  Unfortunately, it was stuck.  Normally she'd just have her persona blow through it, but there was something strange about the door.  It was a waste of time to try to break it down.  Another way out caught her eye instead.  A trapdoor.  Yes that would do.

Before Holly could reach it a pair of shadows stepped in front of her.  Well shit.  There was no time for this!  She had next to no offensive ability so her solo fights could take forever, and she had no idea where that big shadow was right now.  She took a deep breath.  This was not the time to panic.  They were shadows, and were therefore likely kind of stupid.  As much as she would like to just murder every shadow she came across, she knew it wasn't always possible.  This was one of those times.  Unfortunately, they were practically standing on the trapdoor itself, so she was going to have to get them to move around a bit, but the second they got off of it she was pretty sure her skills would slow them down enough that she could dash over to it.  If they chased her...well she'd worry about that when it came.

For now, Holly dashed behind one of the nearby counters and about half a second after she heard what sounded like two fireballs hit the back of the counters.  Her shadow senses were still off, so she used her ears to carefully listen for their footsteps.  Instead of footsteps, she heard a small crackle of fire.  Of course, this place was made of wood, this was probably the worst place to use a fire elemental spell and...was that smell gas?  They were using gas stoves here?  It was only a matter of time before this place blew.  Well, at least that would take care of the shadows right?  Holly took a deep breath.  She still couldn't escape.  The footsteps were moving more slowly than she would have liked and it sounded like there was going to be one shadow on each side of the counter.  She slowly lifted her hands so that her fingers were on top of the counter, and that she was ready to flip herself over it and make a mad dash to the trapdoor.

The  moment she saw one of them out of the corner of her eyes she immediately pulled herself onto the counter, narrowly avoiding their cleavers.  It looked they had swung them hard enough, likely with the aid of some supernatural physical ability, to get them stuck in the counter.  Once Holly was on her feet again, she called forth her own powers to weaken them.  One stack of Debilitate would have to do for now.  Without much thought, she pushed herself off the counter and towards the trapdoor.  The fire spread a bit more than she expected it would.  It looks like the wood in this place was old and dry; in other words, the perfect kind of fuel for fire.  Part of it had covered the trap door, but she couldn't let that stop her.  She had gotten hit in the face with so many fireballs that the idea of grabbing a door that was slightly on fire didn't even phase her anymore.  Her hand burned when she touched the metal handle, but without a moment's hesitation she tried as hard as she could to pull it open and dive through the opening.  The shadows were still a little ways back, so hopefully she would have enough time to get away.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

You drop down the trapdoor into a very strange, dungeon-like pathway. What the hell was this doing under a restaurant? And from the looks of things, the path diverged into a number of directions. It was almost as if there was a path leading to every single building in the town. Just what had been happening in this town prior to the lockdown?

Questions aside, you make your way down the hall into a large circular room. The room itself is extremely eerie with skulls and markings all over the ground and on the walls. Primitive torches are still alight down here, which seem to be the only source of light down here. But among all of that, you notice a strange relic on an altar all the way in the front. The altar itself is stained in a dried up red liquid, but the relic remains clean. More importantly, you sense a strong presence from the relic. Specifically, that it seems to be churning out the energy for the fog in the town! Destroying it might fix the town. However, before you can do that, you notice something stand up from behind the altar. A large humanoid shadow wielding a gigantic sword slowly makes its way towards you.

Triangle Face

• Agidyne
• Heaven's Blade
• Death's Chill

Absorb: Repel: Dark Null: Rs: Wk: Wind


After dealing with him, you should quickly take out that relic!

[Holly Mason]

There was definitely something going on here before...whatever happened to this city happened.  Tunnels like this don't just appear out of nowhere, and she knew it wasn't exactly easy to construct something like this from dealing with her parents' business.  Even if shadows didn't have to follow code or anything, there was still the problem of dealing with basements or any pipelines or cables that might exist among other things.  One wrong move could get the entire project noticed and spoil whatever they were trying to do.  It looked like these tunnels connected to every building here too.  Was this actually built by shadows or were they just using infrastructure that was already there?  It was pretty ominous regardless.

The place got even more ominous as she followed where all the pathways seemed to be meeting up.  It lead to a room that looked like it was ripped out of every bad occult movie ever.  Even though part of Holly knew that she really shouldn't be slowing down like this, her body didn't want to listen.  She approached the altar in the center slowly, with an unusual amount of caution coming from her.  There entire thing was suspicious, to put it lightly, and there was an immense amount of power in a strange relic on an altar.  Magic was a very strange thing.  She was sure that eventually everyone would figure out how all this worked, but for now she just had to guess.  The relic felt weird.  So far, her senses could only detect shadows.  Her senses were failing her here.  No amount of logic would be able to solve this, none of it made any sense at all!  Holly closed her eyes, for now she would just have to trust her instincts.  She called the card to her hand to summon her persona.  The relic looked fragile, so even her shitty attacks should do it.  The sound of the card shattering echoed throughout the room, but rather than the sound of the relic shattering, she heard a grunt.  Her eyes quickly flipped open and another humanoid shadow entered her sights.  It likely protected the relic from her last attack.  No matter, all she had to do was fire it off again!  Holly waited a moment, allowing it to get a little bit closer before casting her shitty attack.  With a small grin on her face, she made a small green circle appear over the relic, but the blast of wind didn't hit it.  Instead, it hit the shadow again, who wasn't near the altar itself.  It was like the stupid creature was a lightning rod or something.  Looks like she was actually going to have to fight this time.

Holly took a few steps back as the shadow continued moving slowly towards her.  As she was calling forth her persona again, the shadow conjured up its own attack and sent a fireball right to her chest.  Geez, what was with all these powerful shadows using fire all the time?  She coughed, but it was okay.  That was the strongest attack it would be able to get off.  Just a moment after she recovered from the attack colored rings appeared around the shadow.  Her attacks may not hit hard, but she could make anything completely useless at doing things to her.  She couldn't tell just how strong this shadow was because of her messed up senses, so it was probably best to treat it as a serious threat just in case.  That meant, two more rounds before she would attack further.

The shadow continued to move slowly towards her, though its movements were now slightly more awkward.  As long as it continued moving at this pace, it would not catch her as long as she continued moving away.  Considering this was a large, circular room, that would not be that difficult.  As she was getting ready to cast her next round of debuffs, the shadow sent another fireball flying towards her chest.  It was just as fast and precise as the last one.  Holly bit her lower lip, were debuffs just not effective on this shadow, or did it get lucky?  No, the debuff definitely worked.  The attack hurt, quite a bit actually, but it wasn't as strong as the last one.  There was nothing to worry about.  Holly continued moving around the room and fired off another stack of Debilitate.  The shadow cast again, and despite her best efforts, the fireball still hit her in the side.  Her walking was getting a little more haggard and slow.  She couldn't keep this up much longer without healing.  Now wasn't the time to worry about that, she had to trust her skills.  Last stack, then she had to hurry and finish this because her heal was simply not sufficient for this fight.

The shadow was moving awkwardly, but after all the damage it dealt to Holly it was finally starting to catch up to her.  It was just too difficult to run while this wounded.  She had some time before the shadow would catch up, especially if she kept limping around the place, but it had ranged attacks.  Two it seemed because this time it sent a blast of darkness at her.  It didn't hurt anymore than the fire, if anything it hurt less because of her final debuff, but she couldn't take much more of that.  Her breathing was heavy, but rather than frowning or even looking a little worried, she was grinning.  She sent a third wind strike at the shadow.  It was fortunate this one didn't nullify those kinds of attacks at least.

That's when the shadow's expression changed.  It was still serious and stone cold, but there was some obvious anger in the creature's eyes.  It started moving more quickly than before, closing the distance between them much sooner than expected.  It swung its sword, which had begun glowing a bright white, and once again, it hit her square in the chest like her debuff was doing nothing.  She didn't understand it at all, but right now she was bleeding too much to think too hard about it.  The sword just barely managed to miss her vitals, and it was at least a little bit dulled from her debuff, but god damn did it hurt.  Holly fell to her knees, but her grin didn't fade.  She fired off one more spell, but it still wasn't quite enough to finish off the shadow.  The shadow raised its sword again, but this time it finally managed to trip over itself and miss.  One final attack from Holly was enough to finish it off.

Finally.

Holly took a moment to heal most of her wounds, but she didn't want to be sitting around here too long.  It was only a matter of time before that big shadow showed up again.  Once she could at least walk normally without too much pain, she lifted her hand, pointed it towards the ceiling, and once again, called forth her persona to break that relic in half.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

With the relic destroyed, you sense the strange presence in the town begin to lift! After finding an exit, you make your way outside to find the fog completely gone. Seems you've completed your job! Well done!

Mission accomplished!

You received your reward: A tier 2 status weapon mod of choosing, tier 2 damage mod of choosing, and 2,000 FP.

[Holly Mason]

Once the relic was destroyed the atmosphere changed back to just about how anywhere in the outer circle was.  Holly scratched her head.  Now that she could think more clearly again, she wasn't quite sure what just happened.  The fog seemed like some kind of barrier, but not like any of the barriers she'd encountered so far.  Further, the barriers were connected to living shadows, this one was just connected to a...thing.  She wasn't even sure what to call it.  Holly collected whatever fragments of the relic she could to give to the mysterious blonde woman.  At the very least, perhaps it would let them know what was going on there.

The town was beyond saving at this point, but being able to stop future occurrences of something like this would be valuable.