Tenport Arena [Anyone]

Tierra made a face, fishing a small handful of items out of her leg pack. Everything she'd need for this last plan, which she was none too proud of. Granted, most of the crowd was probably getting to see more magic in this one fight than they'd see in the rest of their lifetimes, but she hated to use magic in something as simple as an arena fight. At this point in time, however, there was no use in sparing her dignity. Taking her wand away from moving the various weapons for a moment, she flicked the blue rune on Mathias' dagger over to herself; it sank into the cloth on her chest and vanished from sight.

She spun a charm filled with water around her left hand and held it against herself, "Melia," she spoke. There was the sound of a drop of water falling into a distant pool in her mind, and the exhaustion from the battle thus far washed away from her. Her wounds closed in healing and what blood she had lost from them was restored. There was no doubt in her mind that in a few short hours, she'd be feeling the effects of casting so many spells in such succession - she was supposed to give herself a few moments between one spell and the next to prevent strain on her body from all those energies swirling at once. She didn't even want to think about the morning after. 'But,' she thought to herself, 'if this is what dire combat is going to be like, I mustn't hold myself back for the thought of the pain to come, only my life matters now...' even in her internal monologue, she paused for a moment, 'this will be uncomfortable.' She gritted her teeth and prepared for what came next.

With a graceful movement of the teak wand in her hand, she picked herself up off the ground by the mesh of cords in her armor and flew toward Mathias in a wide arc, skirting well around Dark. Arriving beside her ally but not setting foot on the ground, she slipped the wand between the finger of her right hand and cast a pair of spells without pause between the two. First, she loosed a package of papers from her left hand and pushed them about the air - they flew out to her arm's length and hovered in the air, holding both Tierra and Mathias in the aegis circle. Then, she punched the palm of her left hand against Mathias, filling the air of the Tenport Arena with the pleasing scent of vanilla once more, and imbuing her champion with astral perfection once more. Her right hand stabbed quickly to the right, poking at one of the runes and she jerked her hand back, pulling herself away from both Mathias and the dark Kartaikian and up into the air by nearly twenty feet.

The magess shook her head, dizzy from the blur of actions she'd just put herself through, and righted the wand in her hand. Oh yes, it was very uncomfortable to suspend one's self by their armor in midair when the body itself was still earthbound, but Tierra felt it was better than the alternative. It would likely be tiring work, but the adventuress knew she could keep herself out of harm's way in this manner, and she could continue to direct the weapons she's borrowed from Ren. If she were in danger of being struck by a spell, she could simply direct herself away from the magic with the force of her terragaldr, and the aegis circle could provide her with a last line of defense against magic if it really came down to it. She would do her best to make sure it didn't, though.

Ren’s face hurt.

A lot.

He had already been smacked and scraped by that shield once. His skin was red and inflamed, some places near his brow and on his cheek bones had been broken open and bleeding even without the extra cut to go with them. It ached and throbbed with heat.

And then when Gray figured out his feign and jumped, he brought his shield around again on his face. The same side as before. So Ren went crashing down to the sand, more hot pain splicing through his head and face at the second assault on it. But he quickly tried to turn to see Gray coming…

Mathias smashed into Dark Kartaikian's force field, absorbing some of its energy. Kartaikian turned to face him as he shouted and prepared for one final blow. Right as Mathias' mace was about to crash into the force bubble, which would likely shatter it, Kartaikian retracted the energy field. Blackharrow's mace suddenly crashed into nothing but the thin air in front of him, and his built up momentum caused him to overbalance and fall flat on his face in the sand. Dark smirked as Mathias fell, and summoned up another force field, before the enchanted flail had a chance to attack him again.

Dark cursed as Tierra flew by, building up another aegis circle, blessing Mathias with another hale, and safely suspending herself twenty feet above the arena. He sheathed his sword and strung his bow, preparing to fire flaming arrows at the sorceress. Light Kartaikian was still dueling with the enchanted knives, but he had the upper hand it seemed. With a powerful slash from his sword, one of the knives shattered into several pieces. He hoped that all the pieces would not be individually enchanted, and turned his attention to the other knife.

Gray Kartaikian watched as his shield bash threw Ren to the ground. Gray's face remained blank as he approached, showing no emotion. It was time to finish this, before Ren could get back to his feet. Gray raised Essence in his right hand, sparks of green electricity arcing off it, and brought the blade down to meet Ren...

Tierra kept her eye on the dark Kartaikian for a moment, watching him pull a bow with a haled warrior standing beside him, and chuckled at the notion of being shot with an arrow while safe inside her ward. She glanced over at the light Kartaikian, where her attention to the knives had been lackadaisical until now. Her expression faltered for a moment when the man broke through and shattered one of the knives, and complained to herself about smiths who used low quality steel.

Shrugging, she raised one of the shattered fragments from the flying wreckage of the knife. It was smaller now, and sharp on all sides instead of just one. Then, deciding that a haled Mathias could handle just fine without his dagger, she flicked the blade on his right hip out of its sheath and flung it at Light, striking for a kidney while his back was turned. She felt that she could be confident about this blade, her smith's eye finding that the weapon was of much higher quality than the knives Light was already facing. Even if he managed to turn and face the approaching dagger, she would strike at his unaware side with one of the other blades, the knife or the knifeshard.

The magess glanced back over at Dark and admonished him in her mind for ignoring a haled man, but at the same time knew that he couldn't really know about the nature of the magic she'd been using, so she decided to let him off easy for his ignorance. The ball and chain didn't really need four runes if Dark was going to keep himself protected with the magic of his sword like that, so she addressed one of the runes on the chain and flicked it over to Dark's hauberk. It flew through the green barrier as though it weren't there. Then, she flicked her wrist to turn the hauberk into a randomly different orientation, and brought the tip of the wand up and then sharply back down, as a person might to crack a whip. Up one inch or so, and down two inches or so. On the other end of the magic, that should translate to about five or six feet up, and ten or twelve feet down. Of course, there was a problem. If Kartaikian was six feet in the air, there was something large and very hard in the way of a ten foot drop, no matter how forcefully she flung him downward. She did this only once, for now, then turned her attention back to the Whitey and the knife fight.

As Mathias' steps faultered, he realized he had leaned to far in his swing, and stumbled a bit. He quickly turned and regained his balance, but seeing that his ally was no longer in immediate danger, he backed off from the foe, who was newly shielded with his magic, and looked to see that his other ally looked to be in a sticky spot.

He quickly set his mace against his shoulder and drew his pistol. He knew the shots would take the Gray swordsman by surprise, as none of the others seemed to be paying attention to him at the time either. He fired the last two shots, sending two more lead balls toward the three-quarters rear perspective of the enemy. One was aimed at his right temple and one just near his side, beneath his raised arm. The pistol vanished into its holster, and Mathias instantly grabbed his mace again, rushing back into the fray.

He neared the enemy he had just shot, intent to smash into him with his shield as he had done a few times now. But instead, just as he came within range, he quickly juked to the side and brought his mace in an underhand swing toward his foe's knees. He then turned sharply, taking place at the dragon-boy's side, intent to doubleteam the Gray one while the others were busy.

Khaz and Rontu watched Ren get beat down by Gray. The Hylian gasped, jumping up from his seat, gasping, “H-he’s gonna kill Ren!”

Rontu rolled his gold eyes, reached up and jerked Khaz back down into the seat next to him. With his hands still on the Hylian’s shoulders and said next to his head in a calm but condescending tone,

“Khaz, use that simple mind of yours for once. Ren is in Tejison. You’ve seen Ren fight before. What does that tell you about what’s happening down there? Just watch. Ren is feigning.”

Khaz stared down with his dark blue eyes at the scene, and as surely as the drow had said it. Gray was being shot at by Mathias, bound to catch Syriax’s attention in someway. Not that Ren had needed it at all. But it helped make his plan a little easier to complete. Ren swiped around as the blade came toward him. He dropped Akane to clap his hands to the flats of Gray’s blade. The electricity did nothing to Ren at all. He was immune after all. With all the shooting, Ren’s swift movement, and his strength, he twisted and jerked the sword from his hands, and rolled away with it and then up to his feet, standing. He gripped the sword’s hilt in both hands tightly, determined not to release it with all his strength in Tejison.

Before the flying knife could hit him, Light Kartaikian fashioned a bright shield of viridescent light for himself. The force field kept the knives out, Mathias' newly thrown knife striking the magic barrier harmlessly. He then walked towards Dark Kartaikian and Mathias.

Dark Kartaikian realized before firing his bow that Tierra was still warded by her sorcery. His arrows would likely do no damage at all, and he returned his bow to its quiver. He began to consider what he could do to get her down from there and cease her witchery, and came to the simple conclusion that he couldn't. It wasn't in his capability; he would have to wait for her to come down by herself.

After he'd got his bow put away, but before drawing his sword, one of the magic runes from the enchanted flail flew past his barrier and into his armor. His shadow flickered behind him for a moment, whispering to him. Brace yourself was all it said, and suddenly Dark Kartaikian was pulled into the air by his hauberk. He cursed under his breath as he began to drop, not just falling but being pulled, down to the earth. The drop was only six feet, but the force of the downward pulling caused the barrier protecting him to shatter. The force field absorbed most of the energy from the fall, leaving Dark only slightly stunned as he got back to his feet.

Light quickly ran up to Dark, and Dark stepped into the protection of Light's force field, passing through the barrier as if it were made up only of light. Both of them within the same shield cost Kartaikian much less energy than maintaining multiple magical barriers, and he decided it was important to conserve energy. Together, Light and Dark approached the haled Mathias; their swords would be able to pass through the magical barrier, but nothing else would be able to come in.

Gray Kartaikian brought his sword down, but before it hit the shape-shifter caught the blade between his hands. At the same time, Gray heard gunshots coming from nearby, and brought out his shield to deflect the bullets. Ren wrenched away Gray's sword, leaving his own on the ground, and wielded the green blade with both hands. He turned his attention away from his stolen blade for a moment as the haled warrior rushed towards him. He picked up Nevisu's abandoned sword, using it to block Blackharrow's mace. The strengthened blow was enough to push Gray back, but Mathias stepped back to stand next to the dragon-man instead of following through with another strike.

He now took the time to focus his attention on Essence. The sword was his, and only his. It would not cooperate in the hands of anyone else. Essence was no mere blade, made of metal by human hands. It was a presence, a being with a mind of its own. Kartaikian willed the sword to come to his hands, and Essence wanted nothing less. Nevisu could grip the sword's hilt as tightly as he wanted, and never be able to overpower the will of Essence.

Ren couldn't even be sure of what had happened. Had the sword disappeared, only to reappear in Gray's hands? Had it phased out of the material world for a brief moment? Had it moved with such energy and such speed that no eye could see it? However it happened, it mattered not. The sword was again in Gray's right hand. In his left hand, he held Akane.

Behind Gray, Light and Dark approached. They walked up to Gray close enough that the bubble of green force surrounded them enveloped Gray as well, holding all three of them in its protection.

OoC: et cetera, I apologize, but I just cannot believe that any character short of an actual god (or perhaps demigod) could be so godly as you've played Kartaikian in the last several posts. With a character capable of magic, I can understand that a character could heal themselves of some portion of damage dealt to them, or that they could do battle with multiple specialized characters, or that they could feign skill beyond their years. I have a hard time believing that they could do all of these things at the same time. I have a harder time, still, believing that a person could summon the mental fortitude to concentrate and heal themselves after being shot through the chest and out the back, or that a human could withstand a sheerly physical beating from a human-form dragon attempting to kill them, or raise a metal shield in time to stop bullets on more than one occasion, or suffer from being shieldbashed or struck with a 10-15 pound steel mace as though these were nothing more than a harsh shove or poke in the shoulder. Or that a finite supply of energy can be instantly rejuvenated has fueled over half of these miracles with no end in sight, or that your character who is supposedly not an expert in magic can manipulate magic in a way that even messiahs of the craft may only dream about, or that the nature of his magic makes it immune to magical dispulsion.

I have personally been waiting to see your character suffer even a single wound the duration of which lasts beyond the length of two of your own posts. As far as I can tell, it hasn't happened yet. And with these things in mind, I find myself coming only to the conclusion that your character's superiority is directly related, whether consciously or not, to your pride or something like that. Case in point that all three of your characters are now encased in an invincible shield which they can attack from, and that nothing else could ever harm or permeate. I also find it hard to believe that a BA Councilor would knowingly approve a character who begins here with this kind of power.

So again, I apologize. Not only to you but to the thread's creator, but I find myself growing impatient, disappointed and frustrated with this impossible and godly character you've presented. If I am the only one who feels this way, I sincerely hope that the other participants of this thread point out my error.

OoC: *Sigh* Me too, even though I was the one who approved him. I got lazy, when I look at it now I should have asked you to be a lot more detailed and specific about your character's weaknesses and strengths and the designs of all the magic he wields. I admit, I approve a lot of characters, after a while I get a little lazy and didn't do my job correctly as an approver for the EH.

I don't care if he bests Ren as long as it's somewhat believable. Yet it hasn't been. You keep down playing the rest of the characters abilities so that your character always comes out on top. It's not believable or enjoyable at all.

OoC: Now wait just one minute here. First of all, Drammor, your character is the one suspended twenty feet in the air, therefore able to avoid all attacks and attack remotely via magically possessed weapons, and is encased in an invincible shield of magic no less powerful than Kartaikian's force field. Now I realize that I may be portraying Kartaikian as slightly overpowered here, but in some instances this is necessary for his survival. If he hadn't been able to lift his shield to block the bullets in time, he would be dead. Either that or I would have to pass the gunshots off as inaccurately aimed and say they all missed, but that would be unfair to Tribunal Power's character. Kartaikian's energy source of magic is far from infinite, and has already once had to be refueled (and will need to again before he performs any other significant acts of magic.) Also, his force field is far from invincible either; it's been broken once before, and would have been broken by Mathias earlier if Kartaikian hadn't retracted it (any significantly powerful blow can break it.) I fail to see how Kartaikian is manipulating magic "in a way that messiahs of the craft may only dream about." So far the extent of his magic has been healing, throwing fireballs, minor ice and electricity, and creating fields of solid force. This is nothing compared to blessing warriors with superhuman strength, possessing and manipulating multiple objects at once, and suspending oneself in midair (along with many of the other spells I've read about in Tierra's profile.) And from what I've seen, your own character hasn't sustained any wounds at all, let alone carrying one over the duration of two posts. Neither have either of the other characters, at least nothing significant. The way I see it, Kartaikian has no way of ever even touching your character, let alone does he stand a chance at besting her in the arena. If I'm portraying him as overly powered, it's only because he'd otherwise be dead by now; Kartaikian couldn't survive a gunshot to the head, or a crippling blow to the chest. I am doing my best to keep him afloat right now; several times I've felt that without some sort of creative solution Kartaikian would be out of the battle quite prematurely. Now I admit I may be going about this the wrong way, in retrospect, and will try to be more realistic, but I think you're over-exaggerating here. I'm only trying to match your character's power, not best it.

OoC: I can easily concede that my character has been doing things in an arena fight which are, frankly, unfair. She is not, however, not suffering for them. I keep a list of which components she has used during a thread, in an attempt at relative realism. She is also not meant to cast several spells in succession, and her behavior has begun to reflect her fatigue, such as using an evasive tactic by suspending herself in the air. Over the course of the thread, she's been kept at bay by thick smoke, kneed in the gut, shot with two arrows and cut on the leg. She has healed herself once to deal with the wounds thereof, but might not do so for herself again (which would be crippling to its recipient). She's prevented from casting new spells once a hale is in effect, or the hale will end. She may move only one sigil pair at a time, limiting the effective skill and reflex time of the attached objects and must keep her wand in hand or the entire effect will end abruptly. The aegis circle is not an invincible globe, but it is designed to keep out forces of human power or slightly greater, and will counter a single spell while simultaneously collapsing.

In regards to the prodigious ability of the character, I can reference the initial sentence of post #28, "When it came to magic, Kartaikian was no expert." and then later in that same post "Light's healing magic expertise would have the wound closed rather quickly...", popping up a forcefield to protect him from strong attacks, instantly healing himself of many lesser injuries, and the speed with which he operates the effects from the sword, and instantly collapsing an aegis circle. Now, farbeit from me to tell you your character cannot do these things, but it seems unlikely to me that he'd be so skilled in everything at the same time.

There are ways to take a hit without dying. You can be shot without keeling over, such as taking the bullet to a shoulder, leg or arm. I cannot speak for the health statuses of the other two characters. If the action does get too intense for a character, this doesn't have to be a 100-post long thread. It can be shorter than that, which I am comfortable with, and am sure the other two players are comfortable with.

OoC: She was kneed in the gut, shot with two arrows, and cut on the leg; but those wounds turned out to be insignificant and disappeared by the next post. "A thin line of blood trailed slowly down her leg from what little blade that had managed to break through her armor moments before, but it bothered her little." ; "As Tierra pulled the last arrow free from her body, she had found, to her relief, that most of the pain stemmed from the impact, and not from the actual wounds." And then that was the last time either of those wounds were even mentioned.

I'm only saying, don't complain that my character hasn't sustained any wounds when your character is the same in that respect. Right now your character is effectively untouchable, hovering twenty feet in the air and protected by her aegis circle; which is no less powerful than Kartaikian's force field. As for Kartaikian's magic expertise, that may have appeared somewhat contradictory. My point is that Kartaikian is not a master or expert in the form of magic he uses, most of his expertise is in his sword and bow skills. "Light's healing magic expertise" refers to the fact that Light is more skilled than Dark or Gray at healing magic (to the point that Dark cannot heal any but the most insignificant scratch.) He is hardly a "messiah at the craft" in any way.

As for Kartaikian's force field, it is no more powerful than Tierra's aegis circle, except maybe in the respect that it doesn't immediately collapse when a spell hits it. Any powerful blow can break the force field, and I've already expressed the fact that the force field is costing Kartaikian energy; to the point where he is using only one to protect all three forms instead of trying to sustain three force fields at once. You say that Kartaikian's energy supply seems infinite, but Tierra seems to be able to cast as many spells as she wants, with only the threat of a bad day tomorrow.

And as for Kartaikian collapsing your aegis circle, it's all in the nature of the sword. It can absorb the energies in a magical spell or barrier. Even so, you mentioned yourself that the aegis circle "will counter a single spell while simultaneously collapsing." Conceivably, that means I should be able to simply throw a fire spell or something at it and rid of it immediately.

In any way, my point is simply that my character is not expressing any more power than your own. I will take your complaints in mind and try to portray him more realistically, or at least as realistically something as unreal as magic can be portrayed.

Hey everyone, I got a second opinion from someone outside the situation.

Originally Posted by Ciroton

Well, Drammor already gave me synopsis of the situation. Sadly, I don't have nearly the time to read through everything you suggested, but what I understand is that Etc's character is using the bounderies placed upon him by his character's approver. As a result, he isn't wrong, but neither you or Drammor are wrong either.

To rectefy the situation, I suggest intigrating the 'common sense' policy. Namely, if it sounds like you're god-modding, even a little, do not include it in the post. Moreover, if someone post something that is unaimous (argh) amoung all participats as god-modding, then the party who wrote the post should change it to satisfy their demands.

Moreover, I also suggest Etc submit stormcloud for re-approval, since it is obvious more then one person is disatisfied (sp?) with his way of manipulating the restraints placed upon them.

Short Version; Don't god-mod, even a little. Confront someone who you all think is god-modding and tell them to fix it. Ask Etc to put stormcloud up for re-approval and ensure tighter restrictions are on them.

Keep in mind these suggestions are based on my limited view of the problem, but I hope it helps you nonetheless.

Anyone feel this is unfair?

OoC: Not in any way at all. However, since et cetera has lodged a complaint that my own character may be outside the scope of moderation, I shall be placing Tierra up for re-approval in an attempt to maintain fairness across the board.

OOC: I have unfortunately not been present for this, but I agree that god-moding has been a frustration so far. I do not deny that I have god-moded as well, so far, in the hopes of finding a point such as this where we can stop and say, "This is rediculous." To my knowledge, Drammor was in the same boat as I was; god-moding just to stay afloat in the fight. I don't know about Drammor, but I was not satisfied with losing a fight in three or four posts because I couldn't touch the enemy. If I had RPed as I typically do, I would have been dead very quickly against such an advantage. I understand that my character is particularly unimpressive, but there is a point where a character is far too powerful as well, and the only reason Mathias Blackharrow is still in the RP is because I believe Kartaikian to be such a character.

I agree with the decision of resubmission. If need be, as a result of my actions, I will do the same.

I'm not resubmitting Ren because he was made as he was supposed to be. A tank character, and he would never really kill anyone here, though I have to apologize and be understanding about his vicious head butt. That's just part of his personality to be very touchy about people reading his mind.

I have listed all his weaknesses as I believe he has. If he is still too much for normal characters, I just suggest that anyone who intends to battle with him be very thorough when reading his profile and understand that if they want the battle to last long they will need a character that is skilled enough to last against him. Though perhaps I should have been more considerate as well when coming to this thread with such a tanky character. Rontu probably would have been a fairer fight against Mathias (though it's more part of Ren's personality to enter an arena than Rontu's). So I should have been more considerate of Tribunal and the type of character he choose for this. Thus, I apologize.

And I don't think Mathias or Tierra need to be re-approved.

whatever. If you think Kartaikian needs to be re-approved then whatever. Go through the profile again and tell me whatever it is you apparently don't like.

I'm requesting that another councilor have a look at Stormcloud again, instead of myself. They will go through his profile and tell you if there needs to be some changes. I felt it would be better if someone other than myself did it this time.

Look, I'm sorry. I really don't want there to be hard feeling about this. I wanted to be as fair as possible. That's why I asked Ciroton's opinion on the matter because I wasn't sure if it was just because I was in the situation and couldn't see it as clearly.

OOC: I know I certainly don't want any hard feelings from this. Et Cetera, it's nothing personal at all, and I'm sorry this came to be. I realize the possiblity that it's just your writing style and not specifically that you were intentionally god-moding, but try to see things from our perspective. It's frustrating. I'm trying to be polite about it so that we can still RP in the future.

And Shrub, no worries at all about bringing Ren in to fight Mathias. If I was worried about him losing a fight, I wouldn't have made it an open invitation. I was well aware that Mathias would probably lose the fight in general, as there aren't many RPers who play regular humans. Admitting defeat in a realistic fashion, I think, is one of my strong points. When I'm screwed, I know it. Part of that comes from having experience in medieval combat. I know the situations I could and could not escape from in a stand-and-swing fight. A lot of times, that's my downfall. ><