Final Fantasy Infinity Redux

"Stop right there!"

"Why don't you make me?"

Hector dashed up and landed a solid blow to the stomach before throwing a right hook to the jaw, sending to soldier spinning. One Crystempactus later and the soldier was on his back, unconscious.

To say Croire wasn't particularly pleased with a soldier picking a fight was a bit of an understatement. ...Trying to reason with him was pointless.

"If you're standing against us, you've got a death wish, brat."

Clearly, the soldier didn't care as they moved in for an attack, causing Croire to quickly cast Blink to raise his chances of avoiding getting a hit....something which thankfully worked.

"..I-I don't think so...why don't you take a small nap..."

With the G-Soldier missing the White Mage and slashing through that after-image, Croire had already swapped to their Air Racket and gave it a powerful golf-like swing meaning the poor soldier ended up getting smacked by the weapon and the blast of energy at that came flying out of it.

It was at least enough to do the job for now.

edited 28th May '18 4:29:46 AM by TheRealWren

It wasn't long before the soldiers fell to the combined forces of the rebels and Strago and his allies.

Then, a young girl in a yellow dress wielding a triple-iron [1] demanded "Who are you people??" out of them.

"Easy, now! We are friends! We are rebels from the Gestahl Empire. We want to make an alliance with the Galbadian ones."

Before the girl could respond, a door opened, and the imperious-looking woman from before entered the room. "What is the meaning of this?" she demanded.

"In the name of all Galbadia, we have come to arrest the tyrannical President!" the girl snapped.

The woman smiled evilly. "Oh, you do? You'll have to pass by me first."

"So be it!" and she charged at her with her weapon.

[Players: What do you do? Do you interfere? Watch? Voice your opinions to Strago?]

edited 31st May '18 4:18:18 PM by Sijo

Marcia glances at Strago and frowns. Although the fight has just started, Marcia believes the victor will be the older lady. She clearly has more experience in combat over the girl who's using her staff.

The best course of action would be to step in and help. It's better to die together than get killed alone.

"I I think we should, um, help... We have to, um, make things fair for her."

Marcia flies towards the fight.

Strago was indecisive. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Impudent fool!" the older woman says.

Suddenly- a spear of ice comes out of her hand!

It strikes the younger girl in the shoulder, wounding her!

"OOH!"

-*What? Was that an Ice spell?* Strago silently gasps. "Beware! She's a Black Mage!" he warns the others, while casting a spell of his own: Mighty Guard!

The by-now familiar protective red-green glow washes over all of them!

edited 1st Jun '18 4:54:03 PM by Sijo

"...Do you honestly want to pick a fight...? ...Considering we've fought our w-way here...through all of these soldiers and Guards...along w-with us outnumbering you a-at least...five to one..." Croire nervously called out, taking a defensive stance, getting ready to throw out a Cure spell if need be.

"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!"

Hector rushes in, going straight for a Vulcan Fist.

[Vulcan Fist: Multiple strikes, each doing both physical and fire damage.]

For now, Marcia unsheathes her rapier. It would be best to save up her mixes for a big battle. With this in mind, Marcia uses her wings to close the distance between her and the woman. She goes for a set of rapid-fire stabs on the lady.

[[Battle music]] [1]]

"Someone heal that girl!" Strago shouts, pointing at the rebel who had faced the mysterious woman.

Meanwhile, the statuesque beauty just stood as the party attacked her!

POW POW POW! STAB STAB STAB!

-*She's- *still standing!?* Strago gasped.

Almost casually, she gestures, whispers *Dispel*, and-

Everyone's protective auras vanished!

"WHAT?" Strago was truly astonished by now. This was no common foe!

"Forest Owls! Retreat!" the wounded girl shouted. Her followers did as ordered, jumping out of the train windows.

"Everyone follow them!" Strago shouted to the party.

COMBAT OVER

[Players: you may describe how your characters fell out of the train. Nobody will get seriously hurt though.]

edited 3rd Jun '18 6:31:05 PM by Sijo

Just before Marcia fell out the train, she quickly threw a potion at the wounded girl. She didn't like leaving loose ends behind, ya see. With that said, Marcia rolls next to the others and pulls out a pair of potions. Despite the scrapes here and there, Marcia is a-okay.

"Any-anyone else need...need any healing?"

edited 3rd Jun '18 6:58:13 PM by josh6243

"I'm fine...I'm fine. A scratch or two but nothing major..."

Croire dusted off their robes and got to their feet. They hadn't expected such a...clumsy exit caused by simply tripping over a loose thread on that white and red attire and right off the train, thankfully far enough that they'd landed safely on proper ground rather than the rails. ...A hastily and panicked Protect spell had blunted most of the impact.

After a quick adjustment of their hood to hide most of their face and obscuring one of their emerald green eyes, the White Mage looked around.

"...I...I guess we better think of a back up plan..."

"O Of oof oof OOF oof OUCH oof!" Strago went as he tumbled over in his less-than-graceful landing on the forest ground beside the railroad. Luckily, his magic robe (and the Protection spell) reduced it to just a bunch of boo-boos.

CHOO CHOO! the train thundered past them. *Chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga chooo*... it soon disappeared in the distance.

"Ouch... everyone OK?" the Blue Mage asked.

The Forest Owls were all around them too, getting back to their feet.

The girl in the yellow dress brandished her triple-staff and said: "Again: who ARE you people?"

"Give us a moment to get back to our feet first, at least! The nerve of young people" Strago snorted.

"Ahem. My name is Strago, and I come from Thamasa. My friends and I were looking for you, to ask for your help against another tyrant- Emperor Gestahl, who is planning on going to war with Matheus. Make no mistake, such a war will spill over into Galbadia, and other nations as well. We have to stop it now."

"Wait. You think I represent the Owls?' the girls suddenly said. "Uh, no. My name is Selphie. I am a SEED. We were hired to help the Forest Owls kidnap President Delling. But, well, you saw how well that went. I guess the rumors of Edea being a Sorceress were true."

A Sorceress? Strago thought. He had heard the legend of a particularly powerful line of magic users who all happened to be female. But it was supposedly just a tale. Might it be true after all?

But that was of no importance right now. On the other hand, the SEEDs might be. They were mercenaries trained at special schools. They served anybody... who paid their prices. He did not much like the idea, but they could use their services.

"If we were to hire you, would you aid us against Gestahl?"

"Oh, sure. You'd need to talk to the staff first of course. And pay."

Money was the real issue.

"Hmm... give me a moment to discuss this with my friends."

Strago calls over the others, and explains all the facts. "So, what do you think? Do we hire the SEEDs? And, uh, any idea how to get the money? I suppose we can gamble at the Gold Chocobo, but that's not guaranteed; or we can plunder some ruins, but that's dangerous and time-consuming."

[Players: have your characters comment on the situation and options.]

One more boom came from the train.

"SHIIIIIIIIIII-Mmphh!"

Hector landed right next to the group with a mouthful of the ground. He spat it out eagerly and jumped up.

"Man, that chick packs a punch! What did I miss?"

"Well. We were...were about to g-get more, um, help..."

Marcia hands a potion to the others as she formulates a plan. Gambling would be a quick fix, but addiction can be deadly. Marcia decides that the ruins are better. Although many die in ruins, they can die together.

"We're going to the ruins to, um, get that money..."

Marcia pulls out her issue of Timber Maniacs and begins skimming it to find any articles regarding the existence of ruins.

"...Not too much...Marica e-essentially summed up it up. ...Considering I-i wouldn't exactly call myself lucky...s-so I guess checking out s-some ruins might be our best bet. S-Still, nothing w-wrong with a bit more exploring, w-we might find something to help take d-down that Emperor guy there."

Strago was thoughtful for a moment.

"Very well, dungeon crawling it is" he nodded.

He returns to Selphie and asks, "We have decided to hire your services, but we'll need to obtain enough gil first. Do you know of any ruins near here that could be raided?"

"Hmm... most ruins in the area have already been plundered" she said. "Unless you want to check out Tida." [1]

"Tida?"

"Yes, it was a village to the northeast of here. Many years ago, it was overtaken by a poisonous miasma flow [2]. Its said to be haunted by the undead remains of its inhabitants, so no one goes there."

"Well then. The more treasure for us to pick" he said, trying to sound unfazed.

"Good luck. I must return to my team now" the young SEED said.

And so they parted ways.

"I guess we walk now until we find this necropolis" the old mage said.

[Players: feel free to comment about this plan]

edited 8th Jun '18 4:06:46 PM by Sijo

So they were heading to Tida. From what Marcia heard from the conversation between Strago and Selphie, Tida was a town infested by zombies after the miasma overtook it. Marcia notes Croire after a moment and glances at them.

"Alright... The zombies a-are a thing, What are, um, their weaknesses??"

edited 8th Jun '18 5:48:18 PM by josh6243

Croire didn't seem terribly surprised. It seemed sort of logical that there'd be bandits, thieves and other adventurers like themselves who'd be exploring ruins and the like already.

Of course, when the mention of Undead was brought up, they nodded at Marcia.

"...Well...some people s-say White Magic, healing magic to be specific. I prefer casting Dia, p-personally...and I-I think someone told me that f-fire works on most, s-so...there's a f-few options...kind of d-depends on the Undead."

"Nice... I, uh, think I've g-got the fire part down. Will you, um, cover that holy part for us?''

edited 11th Jun '18 8:51:25 AM by josh6243

"I'll opt for knocking their heads clean off! I mean, that should work, right?"

"Heh...That, um, also works for me. How, um, are g-going to avoid their bites?"

"Indeed, those are all good methods of dealing with undead" Strago nodded. "And don't worry- if we use long-ranged attacks, we can avoid being infected. Just watch out for them".

And so, they continued their trek.

Eventually, they emerged from the forest- only to stumble into a land of yellow grass and blackened trees.

"...I think its this way..." the Mage stated flatly.

And indeed, after walking a little some, the town came into view.

The houses were still in surprisingly good shape, all things considered. But obviously weathered. Everything else was broken or rotten. The stinging smell of miasma still lingered in the air.

"OK, remember: stick together, and be ready for anything. We'll check each house, one at a time."

Strago could not help feel a little guilty, robbing the dead like this, even if it was for a good cause. It was not like taking treasure from a greedy monster.

Suddenly, glowing skeletons [1] emerge from the surrounding houses!

"Ambush!" Strago shouts. "Remember the plans!"

COMBAT BEGINS

ROUND ONE

[players, what do you do?]

edited 11th Jun '18 5:06:05 PM by Sijo

"Zombies!"

Marcia quickly backed away from the skeletons. In response, she mixed a leftover potion with a grenade to create a Molotov Cocktail. She lobbed the Molotov cocktail at the skeletons and hoped they would burn to death.

[[Mix: Molotov Cocktail. Fire Damage to all enemies.]]

edited 11th Jun '18 8:37:23 PM by josh6243

"Well...an Antidote o-or a Poisna spell will work fi-" Croire remarked before the spell-casting skeletons made themselves known. "T-These guys won't bite, so..."

Still, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious. And with this Undead, this was definitely something of their specialty to deal with as Croire focused before casting a spell.

"Dia!"

edited 13th Jun '18 9:21:07 PM by TheRealWren

Hector simply lunges towards one, going for two strong strikes: One to the ribs, one to the head.