Kal the Guardian

Oh dear. So apparently I've been reading the Desecration Taboo wrong this entire time. I thought I had just misread the new version, but it turns out the old version is the same.

I was under the assumption that if an Aspect has finished his 5th Grand Wish step and he Desecrates someone new, they get a stage 5 Kraata. That's even what is approved this game with Caedast's profile:

13 hours ago, EmperorWhenua said:

As an Aspect of advanced station and progress, he has a Kraata power of the 6th level. His power is in Quick Healing, which causes him to immediately recover from any serious wounds or injuries, as well as heal other beings by touch with some effort. He can also still desecrate followers, gifting a Kraata ability at the 5th level to his whim in exchange for a favor. Furthermore, he possesses the following taboos:

But in going over the Desecration Taboo, it says "In return, the you transform the heartlight into any one first stage Kraata of the 42 known kraata powers and grafts it to the target."

And I can't find anything that says otherwise or gives an exception.

If an Aspect that has finished his 5th Grand Wish step Desecrates someone new, will they receive a stage 1 Kraata?

Player Characters

Name: Sorilax
Breed: Aspect of Makuta
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Sorilax stands about Toa height, being ever so slightly taller. His armor is various splotches of tan and brown to camouflage himself in the desert. His arms are more tubular and like tentacles, having several dozen lesser joints instead of three major arm joints like a normal Toa. These arms hang down to just above his ankles. He does have normal hands on the end of them.

Sorilax holds himself straight and serious. He tends to pause to think before replying, often rubbing his chin. His optics are golden yellow and despite being fake, dance like the sun.

Background/Occupation: Ever since his creation, Sorilax knew he wasn’t like most of his brethren. Instead of casting aside or ignoring what little Light they had, Sorilax grabbed onto it, clutching it desperately. He sees focusing on his Light as the morally right thing to do. And now with the arrival of the Metru-Nuians, he has a moral code to better adapt his own. Unity, Duty, Destiny.

He seeks to follow Light no matter the cost to himself.

The call of discovery compels him almost as much as his Light. If anything, he needs to unlock the secrets of his species so he can guard them jealously from others of his kind. The Aspects aren’t exactly the best of beings to control the kind of power that comes from a seventh stage Kraata. He has unfortunately realized that he can’t keep secret Taboos, and instead wishes to learn as many as possible to know what his brethren might be up to.

When it comes to Zakaz, Sorilax knows all too well that conflict is inevitable. So despite not training for battle except for where he had to fight the mutated Rahi of the swamp, he has successfully saved up to purchase his own ARC from Cravious to better deal with those who would interrupt his examinations while out and about the island.
 

Flaws: Psychological Issues: He tends to take too long to think things over. This is also a side effect of his love of studying and contemplating things.

When it comes to fighting, Sorilax has avoided it as much as he can. As such, his instincts in battle aren’t exactly the wisest or fastest, with Sorilax often overthinking his opponent’s moves. But this isn’t to say he hasn’t fought before, this is Zakaz after all.

Due to his love of knowledge, Sorilax reveals far too much in his conversations than other beings would naturally enjoy in normal conversations. This isn’t to say the information isn’t helpful, just that he digs down into exacting details to the detriment of the listener’s attention span.

Physical Limitation: Exists as a sentient green gas and requires either a suit of armor or a willing host to take solid form. When in a gaseous form he cannot physically interact with his environment.

Desynced File: this character may only use the breed quirks listed on their profile while they retain this flaw.

Fused Form: this aspect's inherent gaseous form is physically fused to the Kraata Two's Rahkshi armor and is unable to leave.

Powers: Element: Light (Formerly Shadow)

As with most things he’s encountered, Sorilax has studied his previous element extensively, experimenting with both the limits of his power and of his gaseous body. As a result, he has a great control over mundane tasks of Shadow, often creating Toa-like arms to more easily interact with objects he is studying or even creating temporary cups and containers which he leaves out for hours. Unbeknownst to him, his level of delicate control actually outpaces quite a few of the many inhabitants of Zakaz, even if his level of raw power does not.

Much of the skill of his previous element has translated to his new element, the areas where this is strongest is hardlight and drawing Light around himself, which with Light, renders him invisible.

Kraata Power: Silence

Stage 1 - Able to move and tunnel in complete silence.

Stage 2 - Projects an aura of silence that can disorientate or terrify an enemy.

Stage 3 - Can drain all sound from any object or creature with which it is in contact.

Stage 4 - Has the ability to absorb all sound in a small area at will.

Stage 5 - Can radiate aura of silence over an entire village.

Stage 6 - Aura of silence is powerful enough to temporarily deafen a Toa Nuva.

Breed Quirk: Aspects have a Grand Wish and can perform the Rites of Desecration (see the Expansion on Taboo), but they cannot form kaita or access kanohi powers. They require either a suit of armor or a willing host to take solid form. They can acquire and use taboos.
 

Equipment: Weapons: Two large knives that he can channel his element through.

A Midak Skyblaster that he guards jealousy from his fellow Aspects of Makuta.nHe found it in the last week while skirting around the wreckage of the crashed head, not ready to interact with the inhabitants from the GSR yet. It was in a pile of broken shelving units and gun racks, basically pristine. The multiple small dents that are on it don't affect the inner mechanisms. And Sorilax is absolutely fascinated with how it is powered by light.

Equipment: A large backpack to conceal his Midak blaster. Scrolls on various topics of the island. Ink. Quill pens. Flower crown from Vhisola. Shadow lizard from one of his experiments. It has the insignia of a level one Kraata on it's head and spines down its back. It can shadow travel short distances and likes Sorilax.

Illuminated Great Mask of Fate gives him Life Kraata powers of Stage 5. His chosen secondary element is Psionics. The mask is a transparent pearlescent cream and white that glows faintly in the dark (though the glowing can mentally be turned on and off). Currently not wearing.

Has Stage 5 Unbound Kraata of Quick Healing, Life, Dodge, Adaption, Shapeshifting, and Density Control.

Rhotuka Heater Shield from Knichou: 

Knichou reached out to the side with his left arm, the ghostlike form of a small shield shimmering into existence as his Kanohi glowed. It had the distinctive rounded triangular shape of a heater shield, however in the center was a circular mechanism for launching Rhotuka. Around this depression in the shield was a golden engraving that depicted blasts of flames and light emanating from the corona of a star, as if the launcher's mechanism itself was eclipsing the sun to provide balance and clarity. Running through the entire depth of the shield in the center of the circular launcher was a crystal, shaped to focus light outwards into tighter beams, something that Knichou figured a light elemental might want to do from time to time.

Pulling his arm back towards himself, Knichou used his right hand to remove the shield from his forearm. Tendrils of liquid metal stretched between the Fe-Toa's armor and the back of the shield for a moment before easily snapping back to both objects. It was immediately clear the ex-Ghost's signature technology had been implemented to provide a hassle-free way to attach and detach the shield to and from any part of Sorilax's body, with the nanites reconfiguring into a perfect seal to lock the shield in place as long as the user wished it to.

Far Shore Rewards:

+1 Psychological Flaw of your choosing and a pair of Echo Forks - The Echo Forks are a pair of tine-like tools carried by the Ko-Matoran Kazi. When slammed together, they produce a devastating supersonic shockwave that will destroy any objects in its path, or deafen and force down any opponents who get caught in the blast. He received these weapons from Karzahni.

 Great Kanohi Mask of Water Breathing (kaukau) (swapped for Great Mask of Fate in the Air Suva)

A Vial of Visorak "Hordika" Venom. A creature who is injected with the full vial of venom transforms into a hordika variant.

An elemental longbow of Ice. Its arrows are conjured icicles, and it functions like an elemental weapon. This elemental longbow allows you to shape ice into the form of conjured icicle arrows and loose them great distances. Where the arrows land then you may create small ice effects (walls, ramps, bursts, etc). This weapon also gives off a constant frost to anything it touches. (It was the blue of glaciers beyond cold, a color he knew far too well now. Above that blue was intricate detailing of pure white, not dirtied in the slightest. As it moved through the air, it let off frozen vapor, as if a living being were breathing in the cold.)

Taboo Rite: Infected Kanohi Affinity. This Taboo allows Sorilax to wear and use infected kanohi masks. (see a future PM for further details regarding symbol, stanza, and official rules text)

Noble Mask of Shielding (Hau)

Former Current Body:

Fully possessed his Rahkshi Three, then remotely possessed his Rahkshi One. He has his Heater Shield, Echo Forks, Ice Longbow, empty backpack, and Rahkshi Staff of Fragmentation. He currently has access to the Element of Light and Stage 4 Kraata powers of Silence, Chain Lightning, Dodge, Teleportation, and Quick Healing.

Current Body:

Stuck in his Rahkshi’s Two’s armor. He has Kas’ Firework Shotgun, Ice Longbow, and a Rahkshi Staff of Teleportation. He has access to Stage 6 powers of Fragmentation and Life.

Ascension Perks:

1: Telepathic audio communication with an individual desecrated follower currently on the same plane of existence. 

2: Kraata power stage 3, see through the eyes of their desecrated on the same plane of existence. (Follower's Kraata are now at power stage 2)

3: Kraata power stage 4, remotely possess their desecrated through shadow puppetry. (Follower’s Kraata are now at power stage 3)

4: Kraata power stage 5, teleport to one of their desecrated’s shadows. (Follower's Kraata are now at power stage 4)

5: Kraata power stage 6, teleport their desecrated to their shadow. (Follower's Kraata are now at power stage 5)

Suva Affiliation:

Air Suva.

Swapped Great Mask of Water Breathing for Great Mask of Fate.

Grand Wish: 

What: Sorilax seeks to be able to control the metaphysical power that creates and sustains all life in the universe.

Why: So that all the newly created sentient beings of the world get to start with the same amount of Moral Light. Sorilax doesn’t wish to bend minds to his whim but wants to respect individuality. Hence, he wouldn’t touch the sentient beings that still live, but all new life would be created morally equal.

Basically Sorilax wants the universe to be a better place. He doesn’t want anyone created under the restrictions he was as an Aspect, where he constantly thinks things he wishes he didn’t.

1. Desecrate a follower with the alternative poem.

2. Discover a way to use Rahi Heartlights for the Desecration Rites.

3.  Uncover a rite to transition from a being of Shadow to Light. Meditate in a holy temple to become a light-based entity.

4. Discover how to create life where there was nothing.

5. Discover the ways the GSR created life and expanded its consciousness.
 

The only beings that know of Sorilax's Grand Wish:

Sala, Viltia, the NPCs of Le-Metru Nuva, Vhisola, Sidra

Taboos:

Rahkshi Creation

Sorilax Specific Changes: Once an Aspect of Light, Sorilax’s Rahkshi would be more open to helping out others instead of running from or attacking them. Instead of being naturally destructive and dangerous without orders, they would be peaceful, congregate together, and seek to protect themselves and others in an imitation of Toa. They would remain territorial, just against threats.

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

Sala, Vhisola, Sidra, Knichou

Rahkshi:

Kraata Creation

Sorilax Specific Changes: Once becoming a being of Light, Sorilax’s Infection would become Illumination. Sorilax's Kraata would be able to physically touch a mask and Illuminate it. The mask becomes a transparent pearlescent cream and white that glows slightly in the dark (though the glow in the dark feature can be mentally turned off).

Sorilax’s Kraata variation of Shadow becomes Life.

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

Sala

Elemental Alteration

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

Sala, Sidra

Infected Mask Attunement

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

Viltia

Infectious Kraata Extraction

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

Viltia

 

Repose

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

None

Taboo of Gluttonous Desecration

Beings who know Sorilax knows this:

Viltia, Mahrika

Taboo of Tethered Bonds

 

Viltia has transformed. New profile here.

 

Name: Forgemaster Viltia
Breed: Toa
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Deep Jungle Green armor with Violet Blue under armor. Lighter Jungle Green Eyes. Average Toa height. Armor is cracked and damaged all over her body. That damage is filled in with glowing silver, and from that silver grows tethers.
Background/Occupation: A Matoran on the Northern Continent for most of her life, her village was captured and enslaved by Skakdi under orders from the League. The Skakdi treated her and her fellow villagers with disdain, anger, and abuse. Often they would kill someone just to keep productivity up.

They were being transferred to begin rebuilding Le-Metru when the giant robot broke apart and sent them all falling to an unknown island. For the past week, still enslaved, their Skakdi captors drug them through the fringes of the marshes, looking for a place to set up a new home. Native Skakdi showed up and sought to loot all they could, allowing a chance for Viltia and her friends to escape.

Since then she became a Toa, learned how to use her element, learned how to use her mask, fought the Grand Untethered, got bitten by a special Untethered, befriended a Tahtorak, learned how to forge Kanoka, learned how to craft Kanohi, healed a Vuata Maca Tree, and forged a Great Disc.
 

Flaws: Hates Skakdi and would even break the Toa code to kill them.

Not a trained fighter, she wouldn’t last long against those trained for war.
 

Powers: the Green

Based on my own breakdown of elemental powers, Create, Control, Observe, Absorb, she is the strongest with Observe, and weakest with Absorb.

Mask - Rahi Control - Allows its user to control one or more Rahi simultaneously. Although it can be used on insects, it is not as effective on them as other kinds of Rahi. The mask's power does not work on intelligent Rahi like Krahka and Keetongu.

Also has on her: “Lesser” Legendary Mask of Growth, Great Mask of Quick Travel, Great Mask of Flight, Great Mask of Time Duplication.

Breed Quirks: An innate understanding of plant attributes such as poison.

Kraata: Stage 3 Kraata of Fire Resistance. Stage 3 Kraata of Life. Stage 3 Kraata of Density Control. Stage 3 Kraata of Shapeshifting.

Fire Resistance

Stage 1. Cold and clammy surface provides protection from heat.

Stage 2. Can burrow imperviously through the hot rock of Ta-Wahi.

Stage 3. Able to survive short dips in the lava stream.

Life

Stage 1. The body’s healing factor is as fast as is naturally possible.

Stage 2. Can sense all life in the area and instinctively know what type it is, regardless of what plane of existence it resides on.

Stage 3. Rahi (Insects as well for all mentions of Rahi. Rahi does not include rite-born “Rahi” (Kaiju)) sense your connection to Life and refuse to attack you unless they are Infected, attacked by you, or under someone else’s power. Can create and mentally control one duplicate miniature Rahi that is half the size of the original. One must touch the Rahi one wishes to duplicate.

Density Control

Stage 1. Can briefly increase density to resist physical blows.

Stage 2. Can focus density to a hardness of solid protodermis, becoming almost impervious to harm.

Stage 3. Can decrease density for enhanced speed and agility.

Shapeshifting

Stage 1. Can wriggle free of all but the strongest of grasps.

Stage 2. Has the ability to slither through the smallest passages.

Stage 3. Can flatten or stretch itself to several times its original size.

Equipment: Weapons: Lewa style Axe/Laser Crossbow combination

Rahkshi Staff of Hunger, Stage 4.

Great Disc of Teleportation

Equipment: Satchel with crude compass inside.

A belt with pouches on the four cardinal directions. The pouches are somewhat rigid and are designed to hold masks, even when upside down, yet have enough give for Viltia to be able to take out and put in masks.

Has created a GM approved Great Kanohi of Removes Poison: Removes any poison or toxin from a body or object. Can also purify any substance of its impurities. Or alternatively only purify to a certain level if the user chooses to do so. This doesn't affect mutations. When using the mask to remove impurities, the mask absorbs them into itself, eventually causing the mask to break and become unusable.

Has created a GM approved "Lesser" Legendary Kanohi of Growth: The user may choose to grow proportionate to normal anatomy up to a total height of 120 feet. Physical power increases to that of a wearer of the great mask of Strength.

Two faux-Exsidian canisters to hold enough EP for one Kraata creation each.

1 Vuata Maca Crystal.

In one hand, Viltia now held a key of the same design as Whisper's, but its symbol was different: it bore the design of a hammer striking an anvil.

Taboos:

Tethered Bonds

Suva Affiliation:

Air Suva.

Currently has deposited:

Great Masks of Growth, 
Great Mask of Truth
Great Mask of Shielding
Great Mask of Water Breathing
Great Mask of Levitation
Great Mask of Speed
Great Mask of Strength
Great Mask of X-Ray Vision
Great Mask of Concealment
Great Mask of Translation
Great Mask of Illusion
Great Mask of Mind Control
Great Mask of Night Vision
Great Mask of Telekinesis
Great Mask of Fate (Sorilax swapped this mask with the Great Mask of Water Breathing he got as a Far Shore reward)
Great Mask of Flight
Great Mask of Summoning
Great Mask of Detection
Great Mask of Accuracy
Great Mask of Sonar
Great Mask of Stealth
Great Mask of Silence
Great Mask of Repulsion
Great Mask of Shrink
Great Mask of Removes Poison
Great Mask of Quick Travel
Great Mask of Regeneration

Normal Crystal (Swapped with Vuata Maca Crystal)

Forge Suva:

Air Suva
 

 

Cravious has transformed. New Profile here.

 

Name: Cravious
Breed: Skakdi
Faction: Aspects of Makuta/Himself
Brief Description: Deep Blue and White Skakdi with Bright Green eyes. Half a head taller than the average Skakdi.
Background/Occupation: Cravious is one of the leading technological minds of the Skakdi, especially so since Avak’s death. He has a firm grasp on elemental dampeners, mechs, and vehicles. He has intricate knowledge of how to make fake bodies. Most notably the realistically functioning body of the Aspect Sorilax, who Cravious has outfitted with a moving face, full joint functions, working eyes, and even a valve system so the Aspect can “smell” through the nose.

His attempts at A.I. are rudimentary at best and cause him much frustration.

Except for fake bodies, Cravious’ style is not compact, using pipes, hoses, pistons, and gears to achieve things normally reserved for electricity or simpler solutions. That’s not to say he can’t have compact designs or use electricity, but he prefers not to.

Cravious is fairly young, being only 341 years old. However the organic protodermis muscle on his face seems “gaunt and tight”.

He has several "businesses" with differing names that are all basically just creating or repairing mechanical objects or the storage of said mechanical objects and money. Most are run out of his Cube and/or in the Rig (formerly).

Flaws: His selfishness is astounding and he weighs everything through what he can get out of it.

Cravious lost his left foot in a machining accident. He now has a purely robotic replacement as he has yet to naturally regrow the muscle lost and as such his footing reaction time is a fraction slower than normal, causing him to sometimes stumble and catch his foot on things.

Update: After getting his Stage 3 Kraata of Quick Healing, his foot has been healed.

Powers: Element - Lightning

Mask - None - Partial Breed Quirk: Lacks the mental discipline required to use a mask of power.

Breed Quirks: Vision Power: X-ray and Telescopic Vision (Like Avak)

Secondary Skakdi Power: The Improbable Machine. Cravious can use this power during construction of technology to create what he intends, even if the normal necessary ingredients aren’t available. Any missing ingredients or components must be replaced with something of equal size or larger. An example being Cravious wanting to craft a gun, but he is missing a barrel. He could use a wrench the same size as a normal barrel would be, attaching it not necessarily in the same place as the barrel would go, and the gun would somehow be able to activate and fire.

When working with a design, %75 must remain original parts and only %25 can be “replaced”. When creating outside of designs, the number of parts required increases based upon how complex of a technological concept is trying to be created. For example, a gear would be fairly easy to bypass, but flight would require massive amounts of extra parts and special components.

Other Breed Quirks: Can only use the Elemental power of Lightning in conjunction with other Skakdi or through use of a tool.

Cannot absorb food like a normal being, must chew and ingest food.

Kraata 1: Mind Reading Stage 5 - Whira

-Instinctive empathic ability prevents easy capture.

-Has the ability to detect and seek out nearby creatures for infection.

-Can evade any trap that a nearby pursuer is thinking about.

-Able to anticipate and instantly avoid attacks.

-Able to read and understand the thoughts of nearby creatures.

Kraata 2: Quick Healing Stage 5 - Whira

-Can enter a hibernation state during which minor injuries quickly heal.

-Rapidly heals mild injuries while awake.

-Quickly heals from any minor or moderate injury.

-Has the ability to repair any but the most serious injury.

-Immediately heals from any serious injury.

 

Equipment: Weapons: 

Normally he just carries his Seismic Pickaxe and a Zamor Launcher with him. The Zamor Spheres are of his own creation and contain his Lightning within them.

Various other weapons are for sale in his Cube and at the Rig.

Preceptor's Haktann’s Lava Launcher/Energy Claw thing and Zamor Launcher.

Credence's Water Harpoon Hacksaw Blade

Equipment:

A massive duffel bag that can strap to his back.

An enormous assortment of tools and parts.

Welding mask.

A pair of hands that he can exchange out for his own. This alternative pair is for finesse work and provides more accuracy when creating small details at the cost of overall structural durability.

A briefcase that is able to absorb Cravious’ Lightning energy in order for it to be powered. Inside it can hold up to four Heartlights or Heartlight Keys at a time.

Credence's surgical tools.

 

Cravious' ACR

Name of ACR: Debt Collector

ACR’s Faction/Homebase: Zakazian/Cube

Pilot of ACR: Cravious

Type of Heartlight: Skakdi of Ice

Physical Description: Debt Collector is a hulking mech built primarily for power and protection. It stands almost two Skakdi tall. It is painted bone white, with the names of those whose debts it’s collected written in black fine lettering starting from its legs on up.

Onboard Weapons Systems:

Jagged spiked gauntlets that are designed to slice and puncture ACR armor. (Weakness: only reach as far as the arms do)

Shoulder mounted Cordak Blaster (Weakness, can’t be fired up close due to splash damage)

Land and Submersible Vehicle Profile

 

Cravious' Vehicle

Name: Cube

Owner: Cravious

Description: Cube is a home, store, workshop, and vehicle all in one. It is a giant protosteel cube. Cube is large enough to hold three vehicle ACRs or five normal sized mech ACRs at one time. This is in addition to several rows of weapon racks and shelves, a room for Cravious, five hammocks, Cravious’ weapon vault, equipment vault, and money vault, a Heartlight storage cabinet, a cold storage room, a current projects room, stations for driving, observation, and manning the guns, and Cube’s core room in the exact center of the cube shaped vehicle.

It has several doors and balconies on the sides and hatches on the top and bottom.

Cube has six legs that can walk it along in difficult terrain or it can switch to treads. Underwater six propellers extend, one from each side of the cube.

Has Levitation and Weight Increase Kanoka built into the hull, allowing it to fly. Has a propulsion engine to move while airborne.

The outer protosteel armor is attached to an elemental dampener, though it is weakened to half of its effectiveness due to the size of Cube. Two elemental dampeners on at once doesn’t seem to overlap or make the effect grow stronger, so it only has the one.

Weapons: Four Cordak Blasters with auto-reloading mechanisms attached at the four corners of the top of the cube itself. They are controlled remotely using cameras installed into them.

Crew:

3 NPC Skakdi-Xa

Voracious, Water, Level 1 Quick Healing, Fellow male engineer that’s in it for the money.

Preceptor, Fire, Level 1 Elasticity, Old male and teacher of martial arts.

Sagacious, Lightning, Level 1 Density Control, Female that runs the businesses Cravious owns.

Asperity, Gravity, Level 1 Limited Invulnerability, Female Security that guards the more expensive and exclusive items.

Clash, Air, Level 1 Slow, Male Security that is always getting into fist fights with Cravious for fun.

Speed: Slightly faster than a running Skakdi

Underwater Capabilities: Currently: Can't embark on extended deep sea voyages. Can't resist crush depth. Oxygen system installed. Several Outside cameras. Reinforced glass windows with protosteel shutters. Buoyancy systems installed.
 

Minion Characters:

All Vision Powers taken from this list.

Name: Clash
Breed: Skakdi-Xa
Faction: Cravious
Brief Description: Green. Strong.
Role: Crew
Flaw: Not very smart.
Powers: Heat Vision
Slow Stage 1. Extremely slow, but difficult to dislodge and highly resistant to physical harm.
Ability to chew food as opposed to absorbing it. Air, accessed through the consensual sharing of power with another skakdi through physical contact.
Equipment: Three-Bladed Scissor. Zamor Launcher.

Name: Sagacious
Breed: Skakdi-Xa
Faction: Cravious
Brief Description: Blue and White. Lithe.
Role: Crew
Flaw: Too detail orientated, taking far longer to do things perfectly.
Powers: Future Sight
Density Control Stage 1. Can briefly increase density to resist physical blows.
Ability to chew food as opposed to absorbing it. Lightning, accessed through the consensual sharing of power with another skakdi through physical contact.
Equipment: Ice Gun except for Lightning. Zamor Launcher.

Name: Asperity
Breed: Skakdi-Xa
Faction: Cravious
Brief Description: Purple and Black. Lithe
Role: Crew
Flaw: Exudes creepy. Severely limiting social interaction.
Powers: Thermal Imaging/Infrared Vision (Like Reidak)
Limited Invulnerability Stage 1. Has a tough hide that makes it difficult to injure.
Ability to chew food as opposed to absorbing it. Gravity, accessed through the consensual sharing of power with another skakdi through physical contact.
Equipment: Belt that lets her use her element. Buzz Saw. Zamor Launcher.

Transformed

Name: Voracious
Breed: Skakdi-Xa
Faction: Cravious/Riggers
Brief Description: Blue. Average.
Role: Crew
Flaw: If given the opportunity, will take large sums of money to betray anyone.
Powers: Laser Vision
Quick Healing Stage 1. Can enter a hibernation state during which minor injuries quickly heal.
Ability to chew food as opposed to absorbing it. Water, accessed through the consensual sharing of power with another skakdi through physical contact.
Equipment: Water Harpoon. Zamor Launcher.

Deceased

Name: Preceptor
Breed: Skakdi-Xa
Faction: Cravious
Brief Description: Red. Scarred.
Role: Crew
Flaw: Taught Cravious “Skakdi” arts (martial arts), but refuses to fight.
Powers: Spellbinder Vision
Elasticity Stage 1. Has a stretchy, flexible body that is highly resistant to harm.
Ability to chew food as opposed to absorbing it. Fire, accessed through the consensual sharing of power with another skakdi through physical contact.
Equipment: Haktann’s Lava Launcher/Energy Claw thing. Zamor Launcher.

Name: Torch
Breed: Turaga
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Red. In perfect health.
Role: Quest Giver
Flaw: Irrationally angry at the League.
Powers: Fire
Mask of Communication
Great resistance to heat and flame.

Kraata: Heat Vision, Sleep, Vacuum, all at Stage 5.
Infected Mask: Quick Healing Stage 5. Chose Iron as secondary element.
Equipment: Silver staff with an engraved flame on top. Kanoka.

Name: Wing
Breed: Toa
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Green. Elongated arms and legs. Many small barbs that extend from body.
Role: Guard
Flaw: Tries not to show any emotion.
Powers: Air
Mask of Sonar
Extremely athletic and nimble.

Kraata: Accuracy, Life, Rahi Control, Insect Control, all at Stage 5.
Infected Mask: Adaptation Stage 5. Chose Gravity as secondary element.
Equipment: Staff of Erasing. Kanoka.

Name: Spark
Breed: Vortixx
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Green Armor.
Role: Quest Giver
Flaw: Too inviting of anyone.
Powers: Vortixx are able to understand how most machinery functions just by looking at it.
Mask of Telekinesis
Their affinity for technology has earned Vortixx a cultural reputation of being technomancers, capable of whipping up strange machines from piles of e-waste.

Kraata: Weather Control, Electricity, Magnetism, Gravity, all at Stage 5.
Infected Mask: Density Control Stage 5.
Equipment: Tools for creating complex machines. Kanoka.

Name: Beruv
Breed: Matoran
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Red and Black.
Role: Quest Giver
Flaw: Workaholic
Powers: Fire (Inactive)
(Inactive)
Great resistance to heat and flame.
Equipment: Tools for creating Kanoka and Kanohi. Kanoka.

Name: Circuit
Breed: Vortixx
Faction: Refugees
Brief Description: Black.
Role: Quest Giver
Flaw: Hates low tolerances and prefers to work on elegant, refined things.
Powers: Vortixx are able to understand how most machinery functions just by looking at it.
Mask of Night Vision
Their affinity for technology has earned Vortixx a cultural reputation of being technomancers, capable of whipping up strange machines from piles of e-waste.
Equipment: Tools for creating complex machines. Kanoka.
 

Settlement

Name: Le-Metru Nuva

Classification: Refugee Village

Location: On the Northwestern fringes of the Fau Swamp. Located 125 ft. up, hidden in the vast canopy layer of the giant swamp trees.

Population: 41

27 Matoran

Named or Mentioned PC and NPC Inhabitants:

PC - Sorilax - Tan and Brown Aspect of Makuta

PC - Sala - Orange and White Matoran of Plasma

PC - Viltia - Dark Green and Violet Blue Toa of the Green

PC - Sidra - Emerald member of Taxadox’s Species

---------

Affiliations:

PC - Apex - Rahi-Nui Aspect

PC - Morangad - Tiokaha

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Torch - Male Red colored Turaga of Fire - Noble Kanohi Rau - Angry, especially towards the League, but cares deeply for his village and especially the Matoran under his care. Was a mask maker when he was a Matoran. Is more caring and less angry now that he is a Turaga

Wing - Female Light Green colored Toa of Air - Extremely confident, sometimes as a detriment to the situation. Leader of the Guard. Strongest with Elemental Control.

Match - Male Red and Yellow Matoran of Fire - Former mask maker with a focus on small, intricate details in Metru Nui. Tends to remain silent. Talks a lot with Spark about machines.

Beruv - Female Black and Red Matoran of Fire - Former mask maker in Viltia’s Village. Focuses on work too much.

Spark - Male Green Armored Vortixx - Kanohi Matatu - Has been shown to know how to assemble electrical wiring and machines. Energetic and upbeat.

Circuit - Female Vortixx - Kanohi Ruru - Has a defined pallet of sophisticated machinery. Has knowledge of Kanohi Machines.

1 Matoran whose Rhotuka power is a lesser form of the Green

1 Female Matoran whose Rhotuka power is Healing. Part of Viltia’s group.

Male Vortixx - Kanohi - Mask of Scavenging

Female Higher Class Steltian - Kanohi - Kaukau

1 Male Zyglak

1 Hydraxon’s Species - Kanohi - Mask of Sensory Aptitude

2 Male Lariska’s Species - Kanohi - Mask of Rebounding - Mask of Levitation

2 Slave Class Steltians - One works the elevator

1 Mimic’s Species 

Deceased: 19

16 Matoran

1 Lower Class Steltian

1 Higher Class Steltian

1 Vortixx

Description: The village currently consists of many huts and large flat platforms. Roofs cover everything, from bridges to platforms to huts, so that you never might be hit by acid rain. Only the animal pens are partially uncovered. Various bridges connect everything, being mostly stationary wooden bridges at this point. The huts are made up of cut wood and some scavenged scrap protodermis and metal. Roofing is made out of acid resistant bark and acid resistant armor from a giant centipede.

Everything is generally slotted into place, held together by wooden pins and gravity. Rare is the usage of metal in the construction except when it comes to cooking or anything that requires fire to function. The village is purposely integrated with several trees and tree branches to be as natural as possible.

Beneath the village is a clearing. In the center of that clearing is a pond of clean water, created where the sinkhole was that trapped the Grand Untethered.

The village sits 125 feet up in the canopy layer of the massive banyan trees.

One of the huts is much larger than the others and is meant as a social gathering place, both for bartering and for politics. It is painted a deep yellow.

Some of the huts are cabins that house enough beds for six beings.

Some of the huts are dedicated to professions.

Many of the huts are for individual housing.

Several of the large platforms are nestled in thick branches and covered in a thick layer of pure soil and grass. A couple are for Rahi, specifically Colony Drones and trained giant birds. The other grass covered platforms are deeper and grow all sorts of plants that Viltia has knowledge of.

1 crude elevator that uses what cable they scavenged. It is one of two ways up into the village other than climbing the trees.

1 moderate elevator with a metallic protodermis cable created by the village. It is one of two ways up into the village other than climbing the trees.

2 wooden poles reach above the canopy. Atop them rest solar panels with acid resistant armor able to close over them to protect from acid rain. Electrical cables run down the poles with  metal coverings to protect them.

A couple dozen guard posts are located in the surrounding trees, giving guards a place to stand, sit, and have a place to set things down.

A small distance away from the village on the swamp floor sits a large hut that covers a mine. Next to it sits a mud brick building housing two forges and Kanoka, Kanohi, and machinery making equipment.

Several Colony Drones are spread around evenly as an added layer of protection for the village.

Apex (PC) has marked her scent around the village, discouraging Rahi and giant Insects from wandering near.

Le-Metru Nuva was the location of the battle with the Grand Untethered. Sidra, with Uraborask, Vitlia, and the NPC’s help, defeated it.

Equipment: 

3 LeviCarts (Levitation Minecart)

2 Solar panels

2 Forges

Kanoka and Kanohi crafting equipment

Kanoka up to level 8

Great Mask of X-Ray Vision used for mining

Kanohi Machine of Great Mask of Removes Poison for forging Kanoka

2 Kanohi Machine Teleportation backpacks

Machining tools

Rewards from the Grand Untethered:

3 Kanoka Disks (your choice) of power level 6
2 Zamor Launchers, heavily battered. With a little fixing up they should be good as new.
15 cans of heavily processed meat. The expiration date was from several decades ago. The outside of the cans are covered in swamp water. What could possibly go wrong?
A Vahki Staff of Erasing
A Rahkshi Staff of Hunger - Level 4
A Seismic Pickaxe that can slice through almost anything. It seems to have a hard time cutting through any sort of cheese.
A lute. Out of tune, rusty, and filled with swamp water.
A surfboard
3 sealed canisters of defiled Energetic Protodermis, collected from the sink hole where the Grand Untethered was defeated. Each canister contains enough EP to be used for one taboo.
A rusty panini press
Several dozen toa teeth
A poorly designed Mobile Nektann Drone that refuses to do any task but sweep floors. Former Scout Nektann model that stands at knee height for a Toa.

1 Kanoka was given to Morangad (PC)

Spark fixed up the Zamor Launchers and Viltia has made Madu Cabolo to be used with them. With the one they already had, the village now has 3 Zamor Launchers.

The 15 cans of meat are being stored in the mine to keep them cool in case of an emergency food crisis.

Wing carries the Staff of Erasing.

Viltia now has the Staff of Hunger

Sidra was given the Seismic Pickaxe.

The Zyglak took the lute, surfboard, and panini press.

The protodermis was put into 3 Faux-Exsidian canisters and given to Apex.

Viltia has the Toa teeth displayed in an open wooden box as a memorial for everyone who died on the island.

The Nektann drone sweeps the many bridges, huts, and platforms of the village.

Needs: 

Edible Domesticated Rahi

Long term protection from wandering Skakdi-Xa and Mesi

Long term protection from the now partially defiled EP filled waters of the swamp.

Electronic scrap

Produces: 

Lumber

Yellow Dye

Dark Brown Ink

Iron

Crude Protodermis Ore

Lightstones

Heatstones

Kanoka and Toa Discs levels 1-8

Powerless, Noble Kanohi, and Great Kanohi

Metallic Protodermis

Edible food from the swamp

Rarer ores as provided for with the mask of X-Ray Vision

Vuata Maca Tree:

A 1-2 minute walk to the southeast from Le-Metru Nuva is a healed Vuata Maca Tree. The Vuata Maca Tree produces:

Energy rich fruit that can provide energy for machinery and the Matoran themselves (As food). Energy rich fruit that has above average healing capabilities compared to other food. The ability to be able to siphon energy directly from the tree itself.

The Vuata Maca tree is able to produce Vuata Maca Crystals. Only one can be formed at a time. If taken from the tree, another one will grow if a special GM approved quest is completed.
 

So, for example, say I want to turn Circuit into a MC. What Role would she have? Circuit is part of the Le-Metru Nuva guard, but she works on Kanohi machines for Viltia in her spare time. Would I make her a Guard or a Producer? Would I have to make a choice between the two and stick to that?

And why does the Minion Character Roles section talk about only three roles to choose from, Crew, Fighter, and Quest Giver, when in the profile provided below, we are to choose from four roles, Crew, Guard, Producer, and Quest Giver?

Let's make this last leg of the journey an absolute blast!

Well, this is it. The end of a truly great game. A fantastic game with awesome mechanics that I still can't figure out how UN managed to mesh them all together so perfectly. This is the most I've ever put myself into a RPG here on BZPower and it's been an absolute blast to write for. You all have been super fun to write and interact with. Thank you all for a truly amazing experience. It's sad to see it go. Let's make the most of the final installment!

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

A second Viltia appeared before her. Viltia jumped in surprise, even though it was her doing. She lost concentration on the mask and the second Viltia disappeared from view. She gathered herself and stood. That was exactly the point of the mask. She should have been ready for that. She activated it again, focusing only enough to create one being.

A second Viltia appeared before her. This Viltia looked at her in surprise, mouth hung open, “Is that the mask of Time Duplication?! It doesn’t create duplicates, but pulls you through time? That’s crazy!”

Viltia thought of the earlier word on her arm, “Yeah, it is. Anyway, I want to test something out. Can we figure out if we can send messages back?”

The second Viltia shrugged, “Yeah, sure. I’m not sure what else I could do with you already here.” She pulled out her book and wrote a note: This is from the future.

Viltia released her focus on the mask, sending herself back into the past. She pulled out her book, turning to the page the other had written on. It was blank, with no evidence of the message having been written. That was very disappointing, but also explained some things.

She created another her, this time putting a Kanoka in her satchel. When the other her left, the Kanoka was still there and fell to the ground. She quickly snatched it up with her tethers before it was able to strike the ground and activate.

She tried taking something from her past self, but it disappeared along with her past self. She had herself make a plant. It actually stayed, even when she went back to the past. That was interesting, so whatever the past hers did, it would remain, but whatever they brought with them would be removed.

After testing several other things, Viltia finally tried what she dreaded most and asked past her to see if injuries would remain. Past her thankfully understood the importance of finding that out and wrote This? on her own arm. Viltia rubbed her arm when she sent the past her back. Injuries remained. That could be a blessing and a curse. If she absolutely needed to know something from the future, she could send back a message. After all, the village had a healer. But that also meant this mask wasn’t exactly suited for combat.

Viltia thought about that. Well, maybe it could be used for combat, but it was a huge risk. What would even happen if a past her died? She shuddered at the thought. Okay, she didn’t want to think about that at all.

Next she tried pulling herself from specific spots in time. It… kind of worked. There was a huge level of inconsistency, but yet enough consistency that hinted that maybe pulling from a specific time was a skill based thing.

Well, she could figure things out later. The sun was still up, but she was completely exhausted. She input the mask of Time Duplication into the Suva and went to bed early. She ended up sleeping those extra hours. She needed them after how hard she had worked on her latest mask.

She awoke fully refreshed and eventually found herself back where her passion lay, before the forge with a future Great Disc in hand. She spent the day trying to make the Great Disc, almost every attempt better than the last. The practice she had gotten from merging the disc of Time Duplication helped her out a lot, but not enough. The future Great Disc was on another level of difficulty entirely.

In fact, she worked the whole day and half the next before she even came close to finishing it.

During the last attempt a calm came over her and she almost watched herself move, her arms almost fluid, flowing as they stirred, caught, and placed. The disc was so finely stirred by the end that it glinted as if polished. She dunked it in water, hardening it. Viltia laid it on the most even surface they had. Praying to Mata-Nui that this attempt was the one. She had gotten this far twice before, but never with a disc this well stirred.

The wait for it to settle and fully cool felt like an eternity. When it was finally time, Viltia reverently picked it up. It felt a little bit like the Suva in her hands. She could tell it was warping space slightly, even in her hands. Its power was barely contained, ready to teleport anything and everything wherever it wished.

She slumped to the ground. Not even sure what to think. Was this how Sidra had felt? Tired from days on end of work, yet full of joy and an energy that compelled you to see what NUVA could be? She tried to think. Was there anything else she needed to do first?

She looked down at the Great Disc of Teleportation in her hands. She moved it, watching as just around it space seemed to warp. Maybe with this things power she could merge her Kanohi. It was worth a try before she potentially lost this Great Disc forever.

Viltia carefully put the Great Disc in her satchel.

She accessed the Suva with her mind, switching to Flight. A quick Teleport and accidental fall through the canopy later and she was back at the Air Suva. She pulled out her Great Disc and switched back to her Kanohi of Rahi Control. She tried to focus on both the Great Disc of Teleportation in her hand and the six Kanohi in the Suva. She then tried to mentally merge them, but instead of a wish like last time, this time she did it in much the same way that she was able to know what items in the Suva were or how she swapped out items in the Suva. She kind of commanded it, or input the wish like she would a Kanohi.

…

Viltia tried again.

…

Okay she had absolutely no clue what she was doing. It was time to go to the Admin. Perhaps she had been wrong about the Admin being biased before. Maybe the Admin couldn’t even help but to do it. Still, the Admin had been nice to her in giving her a ton of information and dealing with all of her many questions.

Yeah, the Admin had been mostly nice and even offered her a deal. She would take it. Surely nothing bad would happen because of it. The Admin was stuck in a Suva space, after all.

Viltia carefully put away her Great Disc, back into her satchel. She swapped for the mask of Flight, then flew up into the air, spotting the giant Nui-Rama hive Apex had helped her retrieve the Vuata Maca Crystal from. Without even needing to swap to Levitation to get her bearings, Viltia switched to her mask of Teleportation and teleported atop the hive, Nui-Rama thankfully recognizing her as under Apex’s protection.

She switched back to her mask of Rahi Control and descended through the canopy below, her tethers doing all the work as they grabbed branches and lowered her down. The ruins of the Grand Temple came into view, as did the entrance. Viltia walked inside, once more appreciating the electrical field feeling as she entered the Suva space.

Viltia smiled, “Admin, I’m back! I hope you’ve been doing well. I’m ready to take you up on your offer and learn how to merge Kanohi. Do you-” Viltia looked down at the inscription on her thigh where the mark that represented her tethers was, “Do you have any idea how I can teach you my knowledge? Because I have no clue.”

The young Toa stood in another space, time moving differently around her. She had accomplished much, and her hands and tethers reached for so much more in front of her. Ideas and possibilities floated around her head, all of them filtered through the protection of her friends and the connection she felt to Nektann. She thought she was forging her own Destiny. But Destiny was a fickle thing. It sat both inside of time and out. It was both pre-ordained and changed in the moment.

She didn’t know this. She didn’t care. As long as she had her friends and her flowers, she was content to explore and experience this world to the fullest. To reach out and embrace all Life, Death, and the Stars.
 

OOC: @Unreliable Narrator @Vezok's Friend @Eyru Added mask of Time Duplication to the Air Suva. Created Great Disc of Teleportation using Viltia's GM approved method.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Viltia finished up the finishing touches on another Great Kanohi of Teleportation. After the other masks she had made, this one was suddenly much easier. She doused it in water and set it aside. Once it was done, she would give it to Spark. Despite working on setting up a power grid from the Vuata Maca tree, he had still somehow managed to copy over the programming from the one motherboard to the second one, along with creating a second high powered laser and whatever kind of special sensor it needed to read distance. His two Teleportation Kanohi machine backpacks were ready to go as soon as Viltia finished making the second mask.

And… mission accomplished.

Now a hard choice lay before her. There were four discs set out. Teleport, Fate, and Summoning next to the failed Great Disc. She knew merging the three discs would help give her practice for the Great Disc, but she couldn’t help herself. She really wanted to try her hand at the Great Disc again.

Her emotions won out and she grabbed the failed Great Disc and a Kanoka mold. She heated it up, back into its liquid state. Then, armed with a protosteel mixer and scooper, she tried mixing again. Once more, as she mixed, globules of molten ore teleported around at random, sometimes up and away from the disc. With the scooper, this time she was prepared for that, left hand moving around almost as much as her right as she was forced to focus on two tasks at once as she retrieved bits of the molten Kanoka from the air.

But it was still too much. She wasn’t yet ready. It ended up hardened into a bubbly mess, though it was in better shape than last time. Still, it had been quite the workout. Viltia walked around the room stretching, not even noticing that she didn’t need to catch her breath like she had last time.

She cooled off the failed Great Disc and set it aside again. She then grabbed the mold for merging three discs and set it up, grabbing the three discs afterwards. Her breathing, smooth and even, was no longer bothered by the acrid smells of the forge, nor the heat that filled the room. Yes, her body could only take so much of the heat, since she wasn’t a Toa of Fire or Plasma, but her tolerance had grown, that was for sure.

The three discs melted down and Viltia began stirring them. Teleportation moved things around, Fate didn’t seem to do much of anything that she noticed, and Summoning moved things into it. Although Viltia found herself very surprised. Compared to the Great Disc, this was only extremely hard, not near impossible.

She was able to practice fighting off the lesser form of teleportation, purposely letting herself fail as the disc cooled so she could continue practicing. She even went to lunch and came back, recasting the disc for a third time. Her arms were already becoming used to the movements. Generally trained as they were for other things, they needed only slight tweaking to deal with Teleportation specifically.

Viltia tried for real to finish the disc on the fourth go round, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be. One her fifth try, she finally got it. As it settled, she checked on the Vuata Maca Tree. It was still doing great, producing an abundance of electricity with no signs of corruption or weakness.

Viltia had her dinner, then looked around for Circuit. She was on guard duty. Viltia eventually found her in a tree outpost. “How’s the Removes Poison machine coming along?”

Circuit’s optics scanned the canopy around her and the bits of swamp floor she could see below her, “Testing has been slow, but I understand the basics. It’s just a matter of tweaking. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out. Now get out of here. I have a village to protect.”

Viltia smiled and nodded, bidding the Vortixx goodbye.

Back in the mudbrick forging hut, Viltia couldn’t stop smiling. She had it, a level 8 Kanoka of Time Duplication, in her hands. She was holding it! She had it! It was so exciting.

She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. Okay, the mask of Truth had been super hard. That meant this mask was going to be her hardest one yet. She finished mentally preparing herself and got to work.

And the work, it was long and arduous. If she breathed wrong the mask would fracture, spilling its power and summoning past versions of itself for brief moments before sending them back into the past. It was very distracting, even for her.

She lost count of her attempts to craft the mask. And eventually, she gave up for the day, forced to go to bed. She woke up once at night, mind still focused on forging, even in her sleep. She managed to get back to sleep, but the next day she didn’t feel quite so rested.

Sitting up in bed, she unshuttered a lightstone, blinking at the light. Her optics lazily scanned her room and the plants. She had just slept, why did she feel so tired already? She noticed the Vuata Maca Fruit, mind focusing on it. Oh yeah, was the fruit edible?

The tree still seemed pure and the fruit whole. Perhaps it was.

One of Viltia’s tethers wrapped around the one she had noticed, bringing it close. She absorbed a small bit with her hands, testing the flavor. It was delicious! And her body suddenly felt much better. She waited a couple minutes, and upon feeling no ill effects, she absorbed the rest of it, her body almost feeling better than it normally did.

She rushed through her morning routine and started early on making the mask of Time Duplication. She didn’t even make a lesser mask to warm up. She jumped right into the thick of it. She failed often, but she failed fast, arms and hand moving with precision, trying to train themselves to become even better.

For hours she tried, breaks taken only to make sure she wouldn’t hurt herself by straining too hard for too long. For hours she failed, hammer ringing loudly, a melodic tune to her audio receptors. For hours she kept reforging and trying again, stoking the forge and adding fuel when it needed it.

Attempt after attempt piled up, each failure teaching her what real mask making was all about. How she had made her other masks was crude, rough. It was nothing compared to true craftsmanship. Things had to be within a certain tolerable limit, and those limits were strict and demanding.

Her spirits never faltered, her mind never lost focus. Her tools were extensions of her, just as her tethers were. Lunch came and went, but time was meaningless. Life was heat, metal, and friction. There was nothing and no one else.

After a long while, Viltia frowned, mind slightly confused. She wasn’t moving. She was just standing there. In her mind, she had still been hard at work, her whole being filled with mask making. But in reality she stood still, hands clasping a mask. She felt light headed and fell over, not letting go of the Kanohi.

Perhaps… perhaps she had allowed herself to focus a little too much. She couldn’t remember which attempt had been successful. How many times had she tried? She just had no clue.

She pulled the mask close as she lay on the ground. It had already settled. It was ready to be worn. She stared at it as it glistened with a special silver sheen in the light of the lightstone lamps. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was almost perfect. Every bevel, every edge, they all were made with the lightest of touches, the smoothest of transitions. Everything was even, smooth, and crisp. She hugged it, just letting herself bask in the moment.

The whole world of Kanohi lay before her as she now lay before the second forge. She put on the mask.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Wing was very very happy. She even smiled. Viltia saw this as a victory in its own right. Wing shifted in her ooze, obviously anxious to have Viltia get started. In her book, Viltia had written down what had mutated on Wing.

-Elongated tongue
-Slime from body
-Barbs from body
-Elongated limbs

Viltia activated the mask. With no mental command, it did nothing. Good. She focused on the tongue, seeking to undo the elongation and turn it back into a normal tongue. Nothing happened. Viltia frowned and tried again. She focused on the tongue and commanded it to mutate into a smaller version. It slowly shrunk under the power of the mask, successfully turning back to normal.

For the first time in a long time, Wing was able to fully close her mouth. She looked like she was going to get extremely emotional.

Viltia continued, focusing on the slime, commanding it to stop being produced. Nothing happened. Viltia scratched at her mask, thinking. She tried something else, commanding Wing’s body to stop producing and secreting slime.

The foul smelling smile fell off of Wing in large globules, indicating another success as Wing’s body stopped its slime production.

Wing stopped her there, “Actually… I think the other two things might just end up being beneficial, especially since we live in the air.” Wing said the last word with reverence.

Viltia knew how that felt. After becoming a Toa, her element had taken a very special place in her Heartlight. As for keeping the other mutations, that was up to Wing. Viltia shrugged, “If you want, we can always fix you up later.”

Wing rushed over and hugged her tightly, whispering a thank you. Viltia was surprised by the action, but quickly returned the hug. Wing held it for a moment longer then stepped back, “Don’t tell anyone I did that.”

Viltia held up her hands in mock surrender, smiling, “I won’t! And you’re welcome.”

The two parted ways and Viltia swapped masks, holding the Kanohi of Mutation in her hands. She didn’t like the power of this mask, though it could be beneficial, especially in the swamp. It could just as easily be used for harm. She wasn’t going to risk putting it in the Suva. If someone stole it and then used it against the village, she would be fully responsible.

Going over to her hut, Viltia climbed underneath it with her tethers, down to the large branch it sat on. Using her element, she put the mask of Mutation into the branch as if it were made of water. Then she pulled out her hand and hardened the bark and wood, making sure that it grew slightly to keep its strength and integrity.

With that done, she made her rounds around the village to make sure everything was safe and in tip top shape, then went back to work.

Viltia picked up the disc of Truth, optics glinting in the light of the forge and the lightstone lamps. She was so ready.

Hours later, she realized she had not been ready. It turned out that trying to shape a Kanohi out of disc that itself was made out of two already merged discs was the hardest thing she had done yet when it came to mask making.

Any little imperfection blossomed and grew, often ruining the mask before she had time to realize she had brought down her hammer wrong. Oh, she heated it up just a tad too much? The mask would droop and grow too thin or thick as it hardened.

Late into the night, on her fourteen attempt, she finally got it right. Only her nap earlier in the day had given her enough alertness and energy to finish it in one go. She stayed as the mask settled, watching to make sure it didn’t fail in the final moments. She sat down, staring at it, mind eventually moving on to other things, like Time Duplication, or the ocean and how the waves gently moved upon the shore. In and out. In and out...

Beruv awoke her with a touch to the shoulder. She chuckled, “I’ve certainly been there. Your mask looks ready. How about we try it out?”

Viltia blinked slowly, mind still rebooting. She was in the forging hut. What mask had she? Oh yeah! Viltia stood and picked up the mask of Truth, not even inspecting it, but swapping it for her own. The power was there in full. Viltia turned it on, “Okay, ready.”

Beruv thought for a moment, “Alright, Kanoka of Freeze are my favorite type of Kanoka.”

The Kanohi pinged the statement and Viltia knew it was a lie. She smiled, throwing her hands in the air, “It works!”

Beruv smiled too, “Great job, my apprentice. Alright, well you should sleep. I have a couple things here I still need to do.”

Viltia shook her head, losing the smile, “Nope. We both know that means another full night of work for you. Not happening, let’s both go to sleep.”

Beruv mulled over her rebuttals before sighing and accepting her fate.

Viltia switched out her mask, focusing on the Suva in her mind and inputting the Kanohi of Truth. Space once more warped around and claimed the mask, and a few moments later it was registered with the Suva.

Viltia yawned. She was so tired. In fact, she was so tired she forgot to ask Beruv what her actual favorite Kanoka was.

 

OOC: @Unreliable Narrator @Eyru @Vezok's Friend Added mask of Truth to the Air Suva.
 

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Viltia watched as Spark directed construction of an electrical pipeway up through the canopy, the source being the Vuata Maca tree. She had taken her walk, had a little something to eat, and then had taken a short nap. She was feeling much better now, though she had missed out on part of her work.

Spark sat on a board tied on the four corners to a rope that ran up even higher in the tree branches. He yelled up above whenever he needed to be moved.

For a moment, Viltia considered merging with him and using his knowledge to help him complete the task far easier with her help, but Sidra’s words kept her from making the offer. Maybe later, or with someone else. Or, well, hopefully many someones.

She moved away, back to her current calling. As she did, she pulled the Vuata Maca Crystal from her satchel. It glowed in the dark underbrush, and as she moved it, it seemed to cast sparkles everywhere. It could be the key to her figuring out Great Discs, but she wasn’t sure how to approach her experiments. Energized Protodermis could be very dangerous, and she didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. The village needed her, for several things. Protection, Kanoka, Kanohi, food, building materials, etc. She couldn’t willfully endanger her own life so recklessly. Everything needed to be thought through.

Maybe she could find a way to break down the crystal into its component parts, like melting it or something. Protodermis retained its power even when melted. Once hardened, if it was in the proper shape, the power would still be there, ready to be accessed. Hopefully the crystal was the same.

Once equipped to continue her work, Viltia grabbed the Kanoka of Mutation with the small fracture. She reforged it, this time successfully. As it settled, Viltia grabbed the Vuata Maca Crystal, placing it in a Kanoka mold and sliding it into the forge. After a couple minutes of it not melting, Viltia pushed two buttons. A second later, two thunks could be heard striking inside the forge as two low level Toa Disks of Fire erupted flames, greatly raising the temperature.

Viltia was forced back by the heat, her body not able to bear it. She watched from afar as the heat eventually died down, the crystal no worse for the wear. She frowned, scratching her mask. Just how hot did that thing need to be to melt?

She sighed. Time to try something else. She grabbed the crystal with her tongs and doused it in water. There was a strange sound like ice breaking, except deeper, and the water and steam came alive with electricity. Viltia jolted back, though only in shock at the event, not the electricity. She set the crystal back in the Kanoka mold, inspecting it. It didn’t look cracked or damaged in any way. It seemed completely fine.

Viltia tilted her head to one side, contemplating what just happened. Eventually she decided to just pick up the Vuata Maca Crystal. It was still warm, but not hot enough to burn. But it didn’t feel as solid, and now up close, it looked a little foggy, too. Viltia squeezed it and it cracked slightly under her grip, crackling with energy as it did, slightly shocking her, this time with electricity.

She set it back down in the Kanoka mold, laying it flat and grabbing her largest Kanohi hammer. With a well practiced swing, she struck the crystal in its center with perhaps a little more force than she meant. Instead of fragmenting, it powderized, settling into a fine dust that visibly had sparks of electricity run along its particles.

This… This was perfect! Exactly what she wanted!

It was a formable medium that could be mixed with the energized protodermis, potentially sealing it in the normal protodermis ore. And it still held power. It was perfect.

She grabbed the half made disc. She grabbed the faux-Exsidian container with the purified EP inside. She poured the crystal powder into a separate container. Heating the half made disc, she let it melt fully before removing it and stirring it. Once it seemed to be stirred well, she poured in the purified energized protodermis. It merged with the ore, just like it had last time. She quickly added in the powderized Vuata Maca Crystal.

The powder sent up a splash of sparks evenly over the whole disc, the powder particles fusing into the molten ore just as the EP had. Suddenly the ore started rapidly teleporting, with Viltia barely able to keep up. She stirred and stirred and stirred some more, trying to keep the mixture even. Once she even had to grab a globule from the air with her protosteel mixer, letting it slide off back into the Kanoka mold.

By the time it hardened, it was a bubbly mess, devoid of all power. Viltia stood there, arms at her sides, panting. Okay, it had worked. But making a Great Disc was going to take a lot of practice. She… wasn’t ready for that today.

Viltia dunked the powerless disc in water, cooling it. She set it off to the side in a special place no one else would touch. The energized protodermis remained a part of the metal, now hopefully fuzed forever. She was so proud that the Vuata Maca Crystal had worked. How crazy was that?

Whew!

She sat down, trying to catch her breath. She beamed, filled with Joy. Disc crafting gave her this incredible feeling. Not just of accomplishment, but of discovery. With how Kanoka could be formed on Zakaz, she might be able to do things no other forger back in their old universe had been able to do. That filled her with a desire to learn, to experiment. To reach forward and seize of Destiny of her choosing

After her breathing went back to normal she stood, stretching her limbs. She didn’t feel 100% right now, so perhaps the Great Disc could wait. Actually, yeah. Making the mask of Time Duplication might actually help her physically prepare to make a Great Disc.

But not quite yet. First the mask of Mutation to fix Wing, then maybe another mask of Teleportation for Spark, and then the mask of Truth. Only after that was all done would she be ready to make her crowning achievement. Well, crowning achievement until she successfully made a Great Disc. And if she could make one, then whenever, or maybe if, the Vuata Maca Tree made another crystal, she could make more.

A crazy idea filled her head. Could she make a mask out of a Great Disc? Her tethers wiggled a little bit in excitement. She absolutely had to try that.

No, focus. Mask of Mutation.

Viltia grabbed the level 8 Kanoka, bringing it up to temperature and beginning the shaping process. She didn’t realize it, since the change had been so drawn out, but her arms and their organic protodermis muscles had grown in response to all her training. Not just were they honed for forging skills, but had added strength and endurance as well. Gone were the days where she felt weak and exhausted after making her third Kanoka.

Once finished shaping the mask, Viltia grabbed a smaller hammer and a chisel to work on the features. As she did, she could tell something was off. The way she was making holes, how the chisel interacted with the protodermis, it wasn’t right. She wasn’t going to take any chances with Mutation, so she melted it down and reforged the disk, having to start making the mask from scratch. This time though, everything went smoothly and soon enough, she had a cooling Kanohi before her. It’s silver gleam told her of her success, but she would still have to try it on and make sure it hadn’t lost any power and had become a Noble mask. Wing would be very happy.
 

OOC: Viltia's Great Disc creation process approved by GMs.

 

 

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Irnakk’s Tooth (7, 10)

With - Whira, Tuaxxon

 

Well that’s just great. Now Whira sounded like she was in her right mind, but she was still talking with this Axxon loser. Cravious ground his large teeth and lowered his weapons. He didn’t like this. Not one bit. But perhaps that was Irnakk’s doing. He couldn’t be sure. The pit witches wouldn’t stop their cackling and it was getting really annoying and was stopping him from thinking straight.

He coughed. And this foul, acrid air wasn’t helping things either.

OOC: @~Xemnas~ @Eyru

 

IC: Hahvok - Za and Ja Krana of Ice - Independent

Location - Underground

With - Marrow, Providence, Zak-Yak, Takadox

 

Hahvok lowered his shields as the Rahi retreated. The mind called Marrow grabbed hands with the large arm mind. For what purpose he had no idea. Perhaps it was like how his Krana piloted his body?

His other body, Zal, still hid a ways away.
 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Burnmad @Nato the Traveler @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Viltia ran her hand along the level 8 Kanoka of Mutation. She couldn’t see it, but on its underside she could feel a small hairline fracture, smaller than the width of a flower petal. Now, if this were a normal disc, she could just leave it. The tiny fracture wasn’t a big enough flaw to be detrimental. The disc would only lose power faster the more it was used. But she was going to be using this to create a mask. And that meant any tiny problems could lead to the disc activating during the mask making process, and she couldn’t have that with a disk of Mutation. No way. She wouldn’t ever take that risk.

So the Toa of the Green, turned forger, set aside the disk. She could reforge it later. She really wanted to get to the disk of Truth, and then after that was turned into a mask, the disc of Time Duplication. If she was able to make that mask, nothing was out of reach. Not a legendary mask, nor a Great Disc.

Her finished mask of Growth sat off to one side, where she had left it the night before. Oh! She had forgotten about it. She swiped it from its resting place, giving it a good squeeze. It gave slightly, and it still had that silvery sheen. At this point she didn’t even need to test it. Still, better safe than sorry.

Moving to the clearing beneath the village, where there was now a pond where the pit had been made where the Grand Untethered had died, Viltia physically swapped her mask out for the mask of Growth, not using the Air Suva.

The power of the Kanohi sat in her mind waiting to be concentrated on. Viltia did so, and got the strangest feeling as her body slowly extended and thickened in proportion to itself as she grew in size. She stopped when her head touched the canopy, about 35 feet up in the air. She was no Tahtorak, but she looked at her giant body with fondness. It was nowhere near the feeling of Nektann letting her pilot his body, but it was still what she had been hoping for.

She flexed her fingers, actually somewhat used to how her bigger body meant slower reactions. At this size it wasn’t too noticeable at all, but still, back when she was a Matoran, she would have never thought about such a side effect. That her mind literally had more of her to send signals through, so her body in turn would end up moving at somewhat delayed speeds.

The canopy moved away from Viltia, somehow raising up even higher. Viltia looked up. Huh? She looked down. Oh. She was sinking in the mud of the clearing.

She deactivated the mask, shrinking back down to normal size and clambering up and out of the small pits she had made with her feet. She did her best to even them out, but really only ended up covering herself in mud. She sighed. This was one part of living in the Fau Swamp that wasn’t growing on her. She easily located a broken off stick and used it to wipe away as much mud and muck as she could.

As she did, she thought of that cleaning slug that had found her when she had first met Sidra and had mentioned to Apex. She pondered how she might encourage a couple of those slugs to live around Le-Metru Nuva. With their limit on clean water, those slugs might help keep everyone clean. Well, if the villagers were okay with giant slugs crawling over their bodies, that is.

Finishing up, Viltia swapped back to her mask of Rahi Control and held up the mask of Growth, mentally commanding the Suva to input the mask. Space warped around the mask and it was whisked away, the nice Suva voice mentally telling Viltia the mask of Growth had been successfully added to the registry. Once again, Viltia felt good when it declared her the creator of the Kanohi.

Now, on to some more fun! Viltia re-entered the forging hut and prepared to make the disc of Truth. She already had a level 8 Kanoka of Telepathy, and Beruv had made her a level 8 disc of Night Vision a couple days ago now. Viltia grabbed the discs and moved over the Kanoka merging mold. She also grabbed a pair of tinted goggles. When merging, discs of Night Vision could give off bright lights. And discs of Telepathy could send out mental white noise, causing distractions. Viltia had that one covered though, she was really good at focusing. Well, maybe a little too good sometimes. Okay, most of the time. She was working on it and was way better than she had been when she first become a Toa.

Earlier, Viltia had shoveled some more coal into the furnace, and placed a couple dried out logs on top of that. Now, they were turned into a pile of embers glowing brightly and emitting a great amount of heat. She didn’t even need to use the Toa Discs of Fire that were built into the forge to adjust it any. She placed her discs in the mold and pushed that into the forge, watching them heat up.

Merging already merged discs was a volatile experiment at best. The more the discs had already been merged, the harder it was to merge them again and the more the powers leaked out when doing the merging.

But this would be a great stepping stone for her to try to tackle Time Duplication. She knew that would be the toughest thing she would try yet.

Already a bright spot of light shown on the surface of the discs as they melted enough to start being mixed. Viltia started stirring, optics trying to avoid the sudden bright spots of light as she studied the liquid metal as the two discs became one. There was a sudden buzz in her head, like a far off Nui-Rama hive. After a while of this, it started to give her a headache. She did her best to push on, her goggles helping shield her optics from the bright and sudden lights from the forming disc.

Thanks to her Kanohi of Removes Poison, there weren’t any impurities to worry about, so she was easily able to tell when it was time to let it cool. As the disc settled into a solid form, the lights faded and so did the spurts of white noise. A slight headache remained, though.

When the disc was solid, Viltia picked it up, dousing it in water. Steam rushed up from the bucket, adding a little bit of humidity to the otherwise dry forging hut air. Properly put through the hardening process, Viltia set aside the disk, not even checking for the silver luster that showed whether or not she had been successful. She needed a break. Maybe a small bit of rest. She took off her protective gear and went for a walk.

OOC: @Vezok's Friend @Eyru @Unreliable Narrator Mask of Growth added to Air Suva.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Her arm healed after the healer’s Rhotuka did its work, Viltia spent most of the day combining level one Kanoka. The hours flew by as she toiled. Every so often Spark, Match, Torch, or someone else would come to grab a few tools or rare metals, but they would soon be gone again, barely blips on Viltia’s radar.

She stopped for lunch, and again for dinner. She even did a quick survey of the swamp, watching out for potential dangers. But soon enough she was back at the forge, billows pumping, smoke billowing, and arms moving.

Mutation had been a combination of Reconstruct at Random and Shadow. Truth, much to her chagrin, had been Night Vision and Telepathy. Why, though? Why? Sure, it kind of made sense, but now she doubted the logic behind most other masks.

Time Duplication, that one was going to be a doozy to merge at level 8. Level 1 discs had been hard enough to merge together. That one had ended up being Teleport, Fate, and Summoning. If it ended up working like she thought, then she had some very cross words for her future self about carving a word into her own arm. Or maybe she had done it to herself and future her wasn’t involved? She would find out when she made the mask.

But first, she would have to make the discs, to then merge together the discs, to then finally try her hands at the masks. For now, she was content to do her best at making a mask of Growth.

There was no disc merging involved, so theoretically, it should be just as easy to make as the masks of Teleportation and Removes Poison were. She grabbed a level 8 Kanoka of Growth from their growing stockpile. Beruv had been quite busy today helping Viltia fill out all the level 8 discs she would need for merging later. It was kind of crazy how many Kanoka could go into one mask.

Viltia slid the Kanoka of Growth into the forge, warming it to the point of malleability, but not melting in any way. It glowed a nice orange in the center. Removing it from the forge, Viltia grabbed her hammer and began to shape the mask. Sparks flew as protosteel met Kanoka, forcing it to yield under Viltia’s guidance. This was her fifth Great Mask. No, wait, she had made two Kanohi of Teleportation. Sixth Great Mask. And that didn’t count all the noble and powerless Kanohi she had practiced on to get to this point. Each time she successfully created a powered mask, her skill grew all the more. She didn’t notice it as her mind moved on to other tasks, but she ended up making her Kanohi of Growth in one try. That was quite the accomplishment.

There were no jagged edges or warped holes. It was even throughout, there were no weak points. The mask was smooth to the touch and had that slight silvery shimmer that showed it still held power. She set it down to settle and harden fully, stretching her limbs. She was getting pretty tired, but her mind was also excited for the next day.

That night Viltia dreamt of merging with Nektann, Sidra, Beruv, Torch, and well... everyone really. It was a nice dream, full of happy thoughts and unity. By the end of it, she merged with death and then reached out to embrace the stars.

The next day Viltia awoke especially cheerful. She had figured out all the combinations of Kanoka she had wanted to. Now she just had to make them and then their masks. She was getting closer to making a Great Disc from scratch, she could feel it.

After a small tussle with a wickedly grinning Metru Mantis, Viltia stood before the Vuata Maca tree, head tilted to one side as she looked in confusion at its trunk. Torch and Spark had had Viltia make a small clearing in the wall of trees, just big enough to squeeze through. Having a wall of bark and wood to protect such a precious and legendary tree was probably for the better, so they left it. It had kept them from finding it, and hopefully most other Rahi and insects as well. Viltia would close up the hole when they were done.

Wrapped around several branches was copper wiring which all funneled into a protective tubing. It was a non-invasive way to collect the energy the tree provided in abundance. There was still plenty of room to pick the fruit produced. And there was even space for the tree to grow. The tubing wasn’t fully set up, either, and the copper wiring currently didn’t lead anywhere.

But that wasn’t what Viltia was looking at. Much like when she had first found the tree, a Vuata Maca Crystal was embedded in the trunk instead of being merged with the tree. Viltia stepped forward, concerned. Was the swamp already trying to corrupt the tree again?

She hesitated, then reached out the crystal. Once again, her gentle touch dislodged the crystal, though this time she was ready to catch it. The place where the crystal was embedded didn’t leak any foul fluid, nor cause further damage. The tree’s bark merely closed over the gap, sealing without a trace of the hole, inside or out. She Observed the tree with her element. It… somehow was still whole and pure. It retained the same amount of energy. It was still just as alive and vibrant as before.

Viltia looked at the crystal. She had never heard of the Vuata Maca tree creating crystals before. Well, up until a few days ago, the tree itself had been a myth to her, so who knew what it could do. Maybe it was even the swamp causing a good mutation in it to make the crystals. She had no way of knowing.

She rolled the crystal around in her hands, feeling it hum with power. Hmmmm… If these were growable... They had helped heal the tree and they were legendary in their own right. Maybe she could use them somehow to make her Great Disc…

Huh. Maybe.

Viltia turned. First, she had three more masks to make.

OOC: Permission given by GMs to have the Vuata Maca tree produce its own crystals.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Viltia hung suspended from the trees, eyeing the semi-intelligent plants below her. There were pods and flowers and vines and barbs, all with a physiology that was far more like her own organic protodermis muscles than she cared to admit. The Rahi-eating plant amalgamation was forced to ignore her as she controlled it and subsequently studied it.

Everything that made it up was plant matter, yet it also was able to move about to an alarming degree. But if a plant, which was still just a plant, could be this intelligent, and vicious, then maybe she could make her own plant. Her own combination. One that could be used for good. Potentially to even guard the village.

Although if it ever was mutated by the swamp while she wasn’t in Le-Metru Nuva, there would need to be some kind of off switch for it. Maybe some kind of dependency that it couldn’t get anywhere else?

Her mind immediately moved to the forge. That was very unnatural for the swamp. Maybe she could create a plant that fed off the intense fires of the forge, so it would be limited to just being around the village and it couldn’t grow out of control. Something that could cover a large area and yet take up relatively small space.

Moss? Maybe. Or vines. That could work too. And both options would be unobtrusive.

Viltia shrugged to herself. It sounded like a fun challenge to overcome, but her mind wanted to be doing something else completely. Viltia Absorbed the Rahi-eating plants, leaving no trace of them. The village was safe from one more threat.

Completing her rounds, and using her mask to shoo off a couple dangerous looking Rahi, Viltia finally got back to her true passion at the moment. The door to the forging hut creaked on its metal hinges and a rush of air even warmer than the already humid swamp air met her. Beruv, as was usual, was already inside, working.

Viltia noticed the “motherboard”, as Circuit had called it, was gone, along with several of Spark’s tools. Not that he would notice today. She had already told Torch and Spark about the Vuata Maca tree and the power within it. They were figuring out the logistics of tapping into that power with Match and a few other electrically inclined beings from the village. And in a way that did not damage or hinder the tree in any way. She made sure of that. She wouldn’t forget Apex’s warnings.

Pulling out her book, she flipped to her page on potential mask combinations. She wanted to go straight into Kanohi crafting, or maybe figuring out how to make a Great Disc, but figured she needed to warm up first. Working with level one discs and figuring out combinations was an easy start. She smiled to herself. Not so long ago level one discs had been the hard ones. Now they were easy. Life sure was funny sometimes.

She went down her list of Mutation attempts, stopping as she got to the bottom. If Reconstruct at Random didn’t work with a Toa Disc of Shadow or Energy, then she was going to have to rethink what might be required. Potentially a third disc. But that would take a ton more work to figure out, so she hoped the last two possible combinations of two discs worked.

She moved to the next page, rolling her quill pen in her fingers as she moved her thoughts to a mask of Truth. Truth had evaded her for a while now. She figured it needed a disc of Telepathy, but no other logical combinations seemed to work. She had tried Mind Control, Detection, Translation, even Telekinesis. And that included combinations of three discs at once.

Still, Truth was still elusive. Viltia tapped the quill against her mask, idly looking about the room. Her optics rested on the Kanohi Machine for the mask of Removes Poison that Circuit was making. Without meaning to, she started thinking about the female Vahki and her mask of Night Vision. It was an interesting mask that Viltia had on her list of Kanohi to eventually make, but it wasn’t anything that stood out to her. It could illuminate things, reveal what the dark obscured.

Viltia squinted. No. That better not be it. She wrote down: Telepathy and Night Vision?

If that was it, so help her, that would change a lot of how she thought about masks. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If it was true, then yeah, she guessed technically it made sense. She shook her head at the thought. It better not be. She flipped the page.

Time Duplication. It seemed like an impossible task. Nothing had even come close to being the right power. She had discovered a couple new powers along the way, but it hadn’t given her too much joy. Her true objective still lay before her.

There were so many combinations crossed out she had needed to start a new page. Right now she was thinking Kindred, Illusion, and Telekinesis. Kindred to summon the powers of yourself. And then Illusion and Telekinesis to create a living duplicate.

She sure hoped this one wor- OW!

Viltia dropped her book, crying out as pain flared in her left arm. Beruv stopped what she was working on and worriedly came over, “What’s wrong?”

Viltia looked at her arm. Carved through her armor and into the more tender mechanical bits below was a one word question: This?

Wincing, she replied to Beruv, “I’m not sure. I… I really don’t know.” Viltia looked at her book on the ground, her subconscious mind making a leap in logic. “No…”

Viltia looked back at her arm as one of her tethers grabbed her book, returning it to her hands. She looked at her writing, then back to the arm, “I- No way. I… I think I did this.” Could it really be true. Could the “Time” in Time Duplication mean much more than what she had thought. Maybe “Duplication” was the dubious term, not “Time”.

Confusion filled Beruv’s voice, “What do you mean you think you did this? Wouldn’t you know that you wrote into your arm?”

Viltia wasn’t paying attention. Her mind was racing. If Time Duplication was pulling you through time, then that had to be some combination of Teleportation and something else. Maybe Summoning. Viltia wrote down her ideas.

And this mask was more complicated than she thought, surely there would be a third Kanoka that needed to be merged as well to boost the power even higher. But what would fit? Spirit? Maybe Fate? She wished she knew more mask powers!

She wrote down her guesses, turning to Beruv, “So I’m not sure, but I think Time Duplication pulls you through time, not actually making a Duplicate from scratch.”

Beruv didn’t look so sure, and was about to voice her opinions when Viltia quickly closed her book and put it and her quill pen and ink away. She went for the door, “I’ll be right back. I need to go get my weekly healing. Again.”

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Apex, Morangad, Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

 

Apex was in complete and utter awe, for the sight of something so pure and beautiful shining within this shadow and rot filled swamp was a miracle. Morangad stared in stoic admiration, glad to see something good grow within the swamp for the first time in centuries. But as the two of them looked on, amazed, Viltia examined the great tree.

The fruit of the Vuata Maca tree softly glowed in the dark. Viltia could feel the ones that were ripe with her element. She now saw it as her job to never let this tree get corrupted again. And part of that was making sure fruit never rotted on the branch. She plucked five of them, her tethers holding three of them and her hands the other two. They were odd, almost perfectly round. They reminded her of large pearls. She couldn’t feel it through her hands, but through her senses of the Green, she could tell these fruits held energy in them as well.

She thought about eating one right away, but she didn’t want any adverse effects to stop her from trying to make a Great Disc tonight. She really wanted to try that as soon as possible.

But before Viltia could head off, Apex’ words caught her attention, “Toa Viltia...What is it are you doing with the bounty of the Vuata Maca?”

Viltia turned, slightly shocked. She had forgotten about Apex and Morangad being there, “All the healthiest trees need their fruit to be plucked off at the proper time, their branches to be pruned to encourage further growth. I could feel these five pieces of fruit have reached their limit of growth. I don’t want the tree to waste it’s precious energy, plus the legends say they have amazing healing qualities and even produce energy of their own. Do you think they shouldn’t be plucked? Am I going to hurt the tree?”

Apex contemplated Viltia’s words, as although the Toa has done so much in the balance of nature, a fear still gripped her mind. A fear of abuse. “N...No. I do not believe there is any fear in plucking the fruits. I simply just…” Apex paused in her words, unsure how best to express her concern. “…I know your village has done well to stay in balance with nature. But I fear what may happen if your village begins to abuse and break said balance. I do not think your village will grow to be a greater threat than the Skakdi, but it is a concern I still hold. As the island’s guardian.”

Viltia nodded, mulling over Apex’s words. She had already been thinking about tapping the tree’s power. But, if the tree had energy to spare, and they didn’t take too much, then that certainly wouldn’t be breaking the balance. Viltia scratched at her mask. But if she ever was forced away from the village for a while, she couldn’t be sure the balance wouldn’t be broken. Apex’s words spoke to her love of the swamp, to her love of nature. To her love of all life. All death. And the stars.

“Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. I don’t hold absolute power here and so can’t make any rules to preserve the swamp on my own. And as much as we are keeping the balance now, I too fear the day when we go too far without realizing it and start destroying the very thing protecting us.”

Viltia’s optics filled with determination, “But as long as I’m here, I will do my best to use nature first, machine second. Already the village is mostly made of wood and bark, fashioned to be an extension of the trees instead of simply tacked onto them. I’ve grown many new plants that fit naturally into the ecosystem. I’ve even been trying, and mostly failing, to remove the especially mutated plants and replace them. The obvious exception to all this being the forging hut, which I’m sure you’ve smelled. The only way to make Kanoka to defend ourselves is through artificial means, unfortunately. We really need to figure out a way to diffuse the smog created by the furnaces. It’s only a little bit now, but if more refugees join us, I fear the impact our growth may have.

“Do you have any suggestions on how to keep the balance on the side of nature? Are there certain Rahi we should incorporate into the village to take the place of artificial things? I was personally thinking about the giant slugs that clean the giant insects of this place.”

Apex was...Truly unsure on what sort of advice she could offer. Though her knowledge of the Fau Swamp was nigh-imparrelled (except for the scholar Sorilax, but his knowledge wasn’t based on practicality). When the Matorans of old existed, Apex interacted with them little, and knew even less than little. Apex knew nothing of civilization and its inventions nor how to deal with them other than to sunder them into rubble, which wasn’t an option here. 

“I...I don’t know. Your tools of civilization are ones that I am unfamiliar with, and as such, any advice I could offer would most likely mean little. But...I trust you Viltia, Toa of the Green. In the times of old, when the Matoran used to live all across this island, we might’ve been at best wary of each other, or at worst, would have hunted each other. But times have changed since then, and I am learning to adapt.”

“I have grown to trust you and your judgement, for not only have you restored the Vuata Maca and help cleanse the Nui-Rama of their own corruption, but if it wasn’t for you when the beast...Nektann...Came, then truly the Fau Swamp would have been torn asunder by its wrath. You are truly a guardian of nature like myself and Morangad, and so I trust you to continue your duty, Toa.” As Apex said the last word, a smile spread across the Aspect’s face, one truly genuine and sincere, joy and kinship glimmering in her eyes.

Viltia couldn’t help but to smile in return, despite Apex’s grin, which, while genuine, bared far too many jagged teeth. Apex was no manipulative monster like Sorilax had warned about other Aspects. Viltia felt vindicated for the only doubt she held about Sorilax’s teachings. Apex was good, full of the fury of nature scorned, but rightfully so. And if they respected nature, so too would Apex respect them. “Thank you. It means a lot to me. I will do my best to keep nature in my Heartlight, and in the core tenets of this village. ...Hey, is there anything I can do for you? I was about to try out an experiment, but I could maybe get something for you before I go?”

“No, no Viltia, I do not require anything. But, I would like to inform you of the deal I have arranged with Kuini-Rama. Your village, Le-Metru Nuva, has now been granted amnesty. The hive shall no longer attack you, and will defend your village if they are nearby and recognize the danger...Though, they may come bidding for a tithe, but I am sure the Colony Drones that congregate at the base of your village shall be sufficient payment. In addition, the queen has been informed that any and all Skakdi found within the swamp are to be treated as threats to the hive, further protecting the swamp and by extension your village.”

Viltia excited burst over and she laughed in joy, “That’s great! Thank you!” She moved to hug the Aspect, then thought of Sidra’s advice and stopped herself. But being protected from Skakdi as well was too good of news and she threw her arms around the giant Rahi-Nui, her tethers plucking the two Vuata Maca fruit from her hands without her even having to think about it. “Thank you so much! Being safe from Skakdi means quite a lot to me. Thank you.” Her voice was filled with emotion. Joy most of all.

As Viltia lunged towards Apex to wrap her arms around the Aspect in embrace, Apex momentarily braced for whatever attack she expected, but settled once Viltia got her arms around her. This...Was a new feeling for Apex, as she had never experienced anything remotely similar to a hug, and didn’t even know what a hug exactly was. But, feeling the sheer amount of joy that her words apparently filled Viltia, Apex at least placed one of her front claws over Viltia’s shoulder. The hug was even more awkward for Apex, as with Viltia this close, the Kraata worm that was still located within her mouth sensed the mask on the Toa’s face, and was fighting to get at it, with Apex having to lock her jaw to keep the thing from escaping.

Stepping away, having to more-or-less break out of Viltia’s tight embrace, Apex nodded towards the Toa of the Green before mumbling through barred teeth, “I wish you well Viltia. Morangad, come, we have more work to do.” And like that, the two figures left, entering the vast denseness of the Fau Swamp once more, to continue on their mutual goal of growth...And vengeance.

Viltia was sad to see them go, connecting to the plant life of the swamp. She Observed the Green, feeling as the pair brushed past ferns and walked through spore clouds in their journey. Eventually, they were even out of her advanced “sight”. She hoped to see them again soon. Then she remembered what she was in the middle of. She rushed back to the village, mind still occupied with Apex’s generosity. Maybe she would even be able to ride one of the Nui-Rama. That would be so cool if she could.

She wasn’t sure where to put the Vuata Maca fruit, since they would need to figure out if it actually was healthy or not, so she put it in her personal hut. She took a small moment to revitalize the plants she had growing in wooden carved pots around her hut. Normally she would have just watered them, but water was still scarce in Le-Metru Nuva, so she just used her power to keep them alive every so often.

As she went to leave, feet softly stepping on the floorboards, she paused, placing a hand on her small wooden box of Toa teeth. Her thoughts momentarily went out to their plight, and the potential plight of all species on this island. The Skakdi of this island were vicious and harsh, destroying much and taking the rest. And most Aspects only helped them, benefitting from the loss of life.

Maybe, just maybe, she could make a Great Disc. If she could, then perhaps she might be able to protect more than just her village. Maybe she could even help Nektann in his plight, ridding Barius from this world and reuniting him and Miserix. Maybe she could even help Sorilax protect all life in the universe.

Viltia exited her hut. It was time to find out.

She made her way down to the forging hut, passing noiselessly through the giant banyan branches, taking a shortcut only she could take. Entering the hut, she noticed Circuit was gone, but that made sense, it was time to sleep, after all. But there was no way Viltia could sleep right now. She was full of energy both from being zapped by the Vuata Maca tree and mostly by the possibilities that energized protodermis offered.

Viltia grabbed the mask of Removes Poison from the Kanohi machine Circuit was making. She swapped it for her own, quickly moving to the Kanoka storage area. She slowly reached out to the EP canister, then paused. Maybe she should be wearing protective gear first.

The Toa of the Green practically threw on her heavy gloves and heavier apron. Both had seen their fair share of spilled ore and rogue impurities and were weathered accordingly. Viltia grabbed one of the canisters of defiled EP, moving over to the forge. She wondered what her next move should be. Should she pour it into a mold and hope it solidified in heat? Somehow she doubted that. More than likely it would destroy the mold and maybe even the forge as well.

Huh. Well the beach had been containing it alright. Or so it seemed. But how? Was it the sand? No, somehow she doubted that. Maybe it was how the ocean had diluted it? Yeah… That could be. Perhaps she could do the same thing.

Viltia grabbed four chunks of protodermis ore, holding them up to a lightstone. The subtle hue variations were hard to tell apart from one another, but were ever so important. Two of the silver hunks were slightly more black, whereas the other two were slightly blue.

She weighed them in her hand. One seemed rather light, probably full of impurities or air pockets. She exchanged it for a similar looking but heavier one. Then she placed them in a protosteel bowl and slid them into the forge. She watched as they melted, small pockets of air and gas escaping as they lost their form and became liquid. There didn’t seem to be any other metals inside, so this batch was good to go, she could filter them and then start mixing.

Viltia moved to run the liquids through the normal filters, but then pondered if she should. The more pure the protodermis ore, the higher the power of the disk. But if she removed all impurities, the disk wouldn’t have a Metru-designation, as slight impurities caused the difference in flight powers.

Well, Viltia didn’t actually know if Great Discs even had Metru-designations. Maybe they didn’t and that made them even more special, and potentially out of reach from others trying to make their own.

She would try it out and see.

Activating the mask, the impurities dissolved from the liquid ore before her, scrubbed clean of all impurities in only a few seconds. The process was so much easier than using the normal filters. She moved the liquid to a Kanoka mold and started mixing the two liquids, forcing them to merge with one another. When they were well mixed up, but not completely merged, Viltia opened the EP canister.

She took a deep breath. Time to test if her theory was correct. She focused on her mask as much as she could, trying to mentally strip away the defiling of the energized protodermis. The silver crackling liquid, tinged with shadowy strands of corruption, slowly cleared, becoming pure.

Viltia’s mouth hung open in surprise and she looked around the hut, hoping to share the moment with someone. There wasn’t anyone there with her. Oh, right. She had sent Beruv to bed, and everyone else was probably asleep too.

No matter, she had been right! Viltia moved the canister over to the mold, pouring in the now purified energized protodermis. The EP attached itself to the normal protodermis ore, merging with it without her even needing to stir it. Suddenly the ore started to bubble, bits of it teleporting straight up before falling back into the Kanoka mold.

Viltia quickly went back to stirring, trying to mix everything evenly. The teleportation slowed down, but continued. Viltia’s mind raced. This was uncharted territory. What should she do? There were no impurities to purge, which is what normally caused problems while Kanoka forging. But the ore didn’t seem to care as it teleported itself around the mold.

Maybe she should heat it up again? Everything she saw implied that she didn’t need to, but she wasn’t sure what else to do. She moved to insert the mold into the forge and suddenly the energized protodermis bubbled up from the ore, separating again. Viltia grabbed the faux-Exsidian canister, quickly pouring back in the EP before it could destroy her mold. She set down the normal protodermis ore, letting the two differently hued ores un-merge and harden into a powerless disc.

She sat down on her tethers as they formed a cushy chair beneath her. She calmed her breathing, which she hadn’t realized had gotten out of control. That had been intense. Like, really intense. For a few moments, she became one with the swamp, letting her stress ease away. Then they came back to herself.

For some reason it hadn’t worked. Why? Everything had been purged of all impurities. The energized protodermis had even successfully merged with the normal protodermis ore. But apparently not fully. Maybe she needed some kind of bonding agent? Something to seal the EP in and fluidly merge it into every part.

Viltia scratched her mask, spending a good half hour trying to think of things she could do. The hardest part was how dangerous energized protodermis was. She didn’t want to leave anything up to chance and take unnecessary risks. That narrowed down a lot of possibilities.

She yawned, the exertions of the day finally catching up with her. She could figure this stuff out later. She still had other masks she still needed to make. Maybe she would learn all she needed to by making that mask of Time Duplication.

Before she left the forging hut, Viltia purified the second canister of defiled EP. There was no need to take any chances now that she knew the mask of Removes Poison worked. She hid both canisters to keep others from potentially killing themselves. Viltia doubted that would happen, since everyone who used the forging hut was pretty responsible, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

As she moved to her bed, an intelligence entered her range of elemental Observation. She focused on it, feeling an unnatural and insatiable hunger. It was those creepy Rahi-eating pitcher-like plants. For some reason, they had these crazy growth spurts every so often and migrated around.

But they couldn’t grow all the way to the village overnight. She could take care of it tomorrow in the light of day. Well, okay, the heavily shadowed through the canopy light of day.

Viltia curled up on her bed, her now completely healed tethers snugly wrapping around her.
 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Burnmad Permission to have the Great Kanohi of Removes Poison purify defiled EP given by GMs.

Also, grab me some peanut butter and bread, we have another jam post!

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Defiled Energized Protodermis Lake, then Le-Metru Nuva

With - Apex, Morangad

 

Viltia hovered in the near-night sky, a softly glowing, writhing star. Her tethers swirled around her in a pattern just for her. Scanning the island below her, her optics spotted the giant robot head. It was so weird to see, even weirder to think about. So she decided not to.

Torch had said the poisoned lake had spread out from the cracks in the giant head, so she picked out a random spot on the beach, teleporting with nary a sound once the Suva cooldown was finished. One second she was high above the island, then the next her atoms and energy lost locality, almost immediately being drawn back together, this time upon a sandy beach.

The sand itself was blackened, as if it was being tainted by what it had to hold. Viltia didn’t really like the thought of even touching the sand, so she backed up a few steps. Grabbing the two faux-Exsidian canisters, Viltia grew a small tree in the sand, its roots weaving down to keep it steady. Its branches grabbed the canisters and it slowly extended its reach towards the poisoned lake.

Carefully, Viltia dipped the canisters into the lake, filling them as much as she thought was safe before retrieving them. She let them air dry even though the poisoned energized protodermis didn’t seem to wick to the canisters. Securing the lids, she put them back into her satchel, making sure it was tightly closed.

She slowly flew back into the air, optics now eyeing down the Fau Swamp. A couple quick teleports later and she was back home. Viltia noticed that Apex and Morangad had both also arrived, though she informed the two that she had some final business before they could leave for the tree. She stood below the ancient trees, the spores filling her lungs actually kind of welcoming. It felt weird to breathe clean air. That reminded her, actually, her weekly healing was coming up. She didn’t want to get any of the Fau Swamp diseases. And with how she ran around, no doubt she had several. Not to mention her injuries from the Nui-Rama hive.

Viltia opened her satchel with care. The defiled energized protodermis was still contained. Good.

She wanted to try to make a Great Disc as soon as possible, but she realized she had other things to take care of first, like healing the Vuata Maca tree. Or figuring out how to make masks of Mutation, Truth, and Time Duplication. If she could figure out Time Duplication, she knew anything was on the table. Anything she set her mind to could possibly be achieved with enough hard work and smarts.

Though the sun still hadn’t fully set, beneath the thick and lush canopy, night had already fallen. Viltia moved through sensing the plants around her. She recognized every twist in the vines, every knob on each tree. They were all ingrained into her mind through the weeks she had spent sensing them, almost always connected to them in one way or another. So she was able to use them as markers, going and getting healed first, then walking to the forging hut as if she could perfectly see where she was going.

Beruv was inside working, of course. Viltia went over to her, “Hey, it’s time to get some rest. Work can wait for tomorrow.”

Beruv rubbed her optics, smearing more grime onto her face than she cleaned off, “Well, I’m almost done making the stencils. Just the last few numbers and then I can go to bed.”

Viltia crossed her arms and made a not very convincing stern face, “Nope. Nah uh! You need to sleep! Go! Shoo! You can finish tomorrow. Your body deserves to rest, even if you don’t think so.”

Beruv frowned, “Well maybe right after I-”

Viltia interrupted her, snatching off her friend’s gloves, her tethers taking off Beruv’s heavy duty apron, “Nope nope nope! You’re out of her, forgemaster. My job is keeping the villagers safe, and that includes from themselves. Go get some sleep. Don’t make me go find a village elder to order you to do it.”

Beruv sighed, giving up and allowing herself to be pushed to the door. Viltia escorted her to the elevator and wished her a good night as it rose up to the village in the canopy. Then Viltia returned to the forging hut, only this time realizing Circuit was working on an odd machine that hadn’t been there before. The female Vortixx spoke up upon Viltia’s return, “I wish my species had that kind of work ethic. Devoted solely to the work for the work’s sake. This village is a breath of fresh air.” She coughed as a particularly nasty smell rose from the forge’s burning coal and embers, “Well, mostly.”

Viltia walked over to her, inspecting the machine she was making. It was sturdy, though not protosteel due to how difficult that was to make. It was rectangular, with a pad the size of a Kanoka on the bottom off to one side. Another side held an on/off switch and then two dials. With it being open, Viltia saw that above the circular pad was a fake Toa face, the Great Kanohi of Removes Poison already on it. The Toa face, the pad, switch, and both dials all had insulated wires running to an empty box.

In Circuit’s hands she held what looked to be some kind of computer doodad. Viltia didn’t really know about high tech stuff. Getting dragged as a slave to Le-Metru had really opened up her eyes to how low-tech her village had been.

She replied, “Beruv works too hard, but yeah, I agree. I enjoy the devotion to work Matoran have. It’s weird how it’s changed for me now as a Toa. I’m too busy with like thirty different things so that I don’t have time to focus on just one job anymore, even if I would want to.

“How are things coming?”

Circuit held up the computer thing, taking off the telescopic lense she had on, “Well unfortunately I had to create the motherboard from scratch, which means using rare metals and borrowing Spark’s tools when he isn’t looking. And time, it means time. It also means I can’t guarantee how long it might last, or how hardy it will be. And we’ll see if I can even manage to get some spare juice from the solar panels to power my iStone to start programming the protocols.”

Viltia remembered the Vuata Maca Crystal she had retrieved from the Nui-Rama hive. She had forgotten about it momentarily because of her caution and then excitement about the energized protodermis. “Well I’ll try to get us more power. I think I might have a way.”

Circuit looked intrigued, but when Viltia just scratched her mask in thought and didn’t continue, Circuit shrugged and went back to work. Viltia pondered her predicament. She had so much she wanted to do. What should she do first?

Hmmmm…

Well, it was probably safest to not carry around defiled energized protodermis. Viltia went over to where they kept the Kanoka that weren’t for village defense. She cautiously undid her satchel and took out the faux-Exsidian containers, setting them out of the way, partially hidden.

Viltia stood up, metaphorical weight suddenly lifted off of her. She hadn’t realized the burden of carrying around something that dangerous. She felt… lighter, kind of.

Her tethers picked her up and set her by the door, where both Apex and Morangad waited to join her on her journey. Without a thought, she pulled out the Vuata Maca Crystal, the crystal pulsing in her hand, wishing for its contained energy to be set free. The swamp outside was dark, rife with danger, but Apex’ presence warded the party from any Rahi assault. The trip was short, but took quite long. Even this close to the village, one could be attacked and killed before the guard knew about it.

Thankfully, the swamp was calm. Well, calm was a relative term. There was a cacophony of sound as frogs croaked, insects sang, night predators roared, and fights broke out around them. One could hear massive Electric Bugs buzzing in the background as they slowly wandered through the dark, their blue glow casting eerie shadows. But these things were normal to the swamp and now were no cause for major concern.

Vilia, Apex, and Morangad made it to the Vuata Maca tree without an issue, with Viltia gingerly alighting on the ground, her silver glowing tethers drifting long behind her as if she were some kind of space seaweed queen. Viltia’s tendrils fanned out and trailed behind her as she walked up to the tree, Apex and Morangad gazing from a distance, the crystal glowing in her hand like its own star in the night. She reached out, arm extended. There was a flash of light, a spreading of energy through the tree, and a surge of power through the ground.

For a moment, the tree glowed silver like her tethers, shining brighter and brighter to the point where Viltia almost had to look away, while Apex was forced to cower away from the light’s intensity. The tree grew, standing straighter, the branches elongated, their ends growing fruit at a rapid rate. The murky, blackish brown tar spewed forth like a geyser as it was cleansed from the tree. Then the light slowly faded. The tree was dark, with only its fruit softly glowing a slight green white. But now the tree itself hummed. None of them could hear it, but they all could feel it.

Viltia placed a hand onto the moss of the bark. A small spark leapt to her hand as it neared, but it wasn’t a painful jolt, more like one that invigorated her. She tried again to feel the tree with her element, but she still couldn’t fully get a grasp on it. It was a tree, fully alive, yet also something more. Something she couldn’t replicate or change with just her element. But the corruption was gone. The Vuata Maca tree had been fully cleansed!
 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Burnmad Viltia post with a slight side of jam with Sparticus and Burnmad. The Vuata Maca tree has been restored! Quest complete!

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Irnakk’s Tooth (7, 10)

With - Whira, Tuaxxon

 

What… was happening right now? Why was Whira answering this guy? Had she lost it? Had Irnakk torn open her mind?

And this other weirdo with the weird titles, what was his deal? Cravious didn’t have a clue what was going on, and he hated that. It grated at him like knowing Yumiwak had the technology to fly and he hadn’t been able to steal the knowledge yet.

But then Whira began to speak knowledge that lined up with the carvings on the walls. Had the red light of the murals not driven her mad, but given her knowledge? Potentially.

He didn’t like the talk of a willing sacrifice. In his world, no one was ever willing. Doubly so when it came to dying.

Cravious spent a few moments considering shooting Whira with his Zamor Launcher to clear her mind, but decided against it. This Axxon fellow seemed ready to spill out juicy details. Perhaps the titan might even show them where this “Forge of the Heartsflame” was.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~ @Eyru

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Irnakk’s Tooth (7, 10)

With - Whira, Tuaxxon

 

Red lit the chamber, filling Cravious with apprehension. Did Irnakk disapprove of their meddling? Was the laughter of the pit witches louder? Were they coming for him?

Whira reached out her hand, as if possessed by the glowing inscriptions. Cravious slowly grabbed his Zamor Launcher, mind racing with horrible potentialities. He hoped that his Lightning might be enough to daze her and get her out of Irnakk’s reach, should she really be losing it.

But something else caught his attention. Another mind entered the range of his Kraata power. He felt it- No, it was two minds. Or… well, they were on top of each other. One, yet two. Or, well, there might even be three. He was confused. His power kept alternating what it was telling him. He wished for a moment that it was stronger, but it would have to do for now.

Whira was frozen, why he knew not, but the new being, no, a titan of a being, arrived at the chamber. It didn’t look like Irnakk, nor one of his minions. Even as the light of the carvings faded, Cravious turned his Zamor Launcher to the new arrival, casually grabbing his Seismic Pickaxe as well. He held his Zamor Launcher with nonchalance, only his forearm lifted at the elbow, but it was still pointed Axxon’s way.

He glanced at Whira, then spoke to the new arrival from across the cavern, “Maybe we have. Maybe we haven’t. Name’s Cravious. What brings you here?”

 

OOC: @~Xemnas~ @Eyru

 

IC: Hahvok - Za and Ja Krana of Ice - Independent

Location - Underground

With - Marrow, Providence, Zak-Yak, Takadox

 

Hahvok, with his short legs (both pairs of them), had been in the rear of the group. He had felt the minds of many small Rahi as they walked, including the false wall one. It swallowed up Tall Blue, which didn’t really concern him much. The mind called Marrow was the only one he was actually concerned about. That mind could lead him to others that might be able to tell him his purpose.

But now the wall Rahi was blocking his path. The small him, Zal, scampered back down the tunnel, moving to safety. As a general rule, all Rahi avoided Krana, but Hahvok didn’t know that. So he raised his shields. A thin layer of frost grew upon them, slowly building up in small hexagonal chunks, then twin beams of white, mixed with different layers of cold blues, shot forth, aiming to freeze the creature over, cleanse it fully, then allow Hahvok to continue forward, following the mind called Marrow.
 

OOC: @Nato the Traveler @Sparticus147 @Burnmad @Unreliable Narrator

 

Sorry these took me so long. Thanks for waiting.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Grand Temple Ruins, Outside

With - Apex

 

Viltia nodded, “Okay, I think I can help with that. I’ll meet you at the top.”

Her tethers suddenly extended, pulling her up and into the trees. After a minute or so of climbing, she broke through the top of the canopy, the Nui-Rama hive still towering up even higher. Viltia waited for a lull in the giant insects as they entered and exited and teleported to the top, tethers reaching out and finding purchase on the hive.

She could feel the hum of the hive as the Nui-Rama buzzed inside. If she didn’t like insects, this would be rather scary.

Viltia pulled out her mask of Rahi Control, slipping off her mask of Teleportation. She secured it and made sure everything else was bound tight before trying to find a nook where passing Nui-Rama might not see her while she waited for Apex to join her.
 

OOC: @Sparticus147

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Grand Temple Ruins, Outside

With - Apex

 

Viltia tried and failed to motion with her hands what she was looking for, “It’s a crystal, one that holds a lot of electrical power. Maybe. Potentially another form of power. Also maybe. I really don’t know the details, other than that it holds a lot of potential within it. I need it to heal a tree that I can’t seem to fix with my element. With how this swamp mutates things, I don’t want the Nui-Rama to hurt themselves by mutating even more or potentially even growing more dangerous to Le-Metru Nuva.”

Viltia looked up at the hive. By the angle of the sun striking the large conical construction, it was getting close to dipping behind the giant robot head. They should do this quickly.

“Honestly I haven’t really thought about how to get it other than having this mask of Teleportation. But… that might not really work inside the hive, since I have no idea what the inside of a Nui-Rama hive would even look like. I was hoping to find a smaller entrance near the bottom and that they had dropped the crystal nearby.”

Viltia looked back to Apex, “But hey, don’t Aspects control Shadow? We can use that to hide ourselves. Or do you have a different plan in mind?”

 

OOC: @Sparticus147

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Grand Temple Ruins

With - Apex

 

Apex, a heretic? What did that even mean? Was that like a faith thing? Why would a computer mind talk like that? Well, up until recently, she hadn’t known about computers, so she guessed maybe they always talked like that when they had voices. But still, Viltia didn’t like the Administrator talking down on her friend like that. Yes, Apex was an Aspect and she should be careful when dealing with her, but she kind of trusted Apex anyway. Apex had only been good to the village. Well, so far.

Viltia had been in the far left room when the Administrator had changed the rooms, and it both made her kind of sick and also excited to watch as the rooms were manipulated and moved. So cool.

The room opened up into a long corridor. There were some strange writings and a staircase, but what drew her attention was the hexagonal room. She completely forgot about the wind pipes as she sidestepped the dead Skakdi. She was slightly happy they had been killed, but more so she wished she could have merged with them. Well, a dead Skakdi was statistically more morally good than a live one, so that was a plus.

Viltia ran her hand along the Kanoka receiver in the NUVA room. It bore the numbers 589. A Great Disc of Teleportation. This was the same type of lock that Sidra had been looking to open. She was sure of it. A smile slowly covered her face. She had a new objective and several ideas on how to achieve it.

The Admin then went on to speak of Mata-Nui as if he were a normal being. Well, the Admin used those strange terms Viltia didn’t much care for again, but she felt like she could guess that they meant Mata-Nui had been normal once. That boggled her mind. It not only assumed he was real, but that he had once been just like her. Viltia looked at Apex. Or... maybe not exactly like herself.

But, how did she get his mark? She hadn’t run into him that she could remember. And she was pretty sure she would remember meeting Mata-Nui. Weird.

The Admin’s offer of an exchange of knowledge was once more tainted by how it talked about Apex. Viltia wanted to know how to merge masks, but not from something that seemed so biased. She was content to know it was merely possible. She could figure it out on her own.

Before she could respond to the Admin, Apex stole away her attention. She nodded to the Aspect, “Yeah, let’s go. I think that’s more important right now.”

Viltia turned from Apex and responded to the Administrator, “Thank you for your help, knowledge, and offer, but I do need to keep moving. Perhaps we can talk later.” Or perhaps Viltia could figure out how to merge her own masks and make her own Suva space without this weird, what did Spark call it? An AI? Without a weird, maybe biased AI running the place. “Thank you again, Admin. I do plan to be back.”

And then Viltia left the Grand Temple Ruins, the buzz of the Nui-Rama hive loud after having been in another space. She felt a little sad as she left the Suva space, the stars once more feeling impossibly out of reach of her embrace, but she had things to do, a village to protect. She looked up at the Nui-Rama hive, waiting for Apex.
 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Unreliable Narrator Not exactly my best post. There's a lot I've skimmed over or ignored, but I have a lot to do with Viltia before the next game and needed to get out ASAP.

Also, I'm still super busy IRL. I know I still need to post as Cravious and Hahvok.

Beautiful words, Sparticus. 

As for myself, it has brought me such joy to play SKR with all of you. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Grand Temple Ruins

With - Apex

 

Viltia now felt safe enough to wander the halls of this place, this Suva! She beamed as she explored each of the rooms as the Administrator spoke. This was so cool! The rooms were all confusing and mismanaged, kind of like the space of the Suva was messed up.

Once the Administrator stopped talking, Viltia spoke up, “Administrator isn’t much of a name. It’s more like a title. What is your actual name? Not your rank. I told you my name. It’s only nice to return the favor. Especially since you aren’t just input, output. None of my friends call me the Gardener or the Forger. I don’t want to be rude to you.”

A beetle on the wall buzzed at her. It was so cute!

“Can you tell me how to merge Kanohi? Or can you not actually give out information like that? I would understand if you can’t.”

Viltia rubbed the symbol on her thigh where the largest filled in wound was as the Administrator talked of it. The symbol for her tethers was there, “Whose mark do I bear? Because I don’t really remember getting this symbol.”

She slowly moved back to the main room. She was momentarily distracted as she wished she could remember everything that had happened when the large undead thing had attacked. Viltia shook her head and walked back past Apex to explore another room for a second time, deciding to think about things later.

The rooms really were off kilter. The pipes were arraigned all wrong, and the space part of the Suva was even showing. Being here really was giving her a ton of great ideas. If this place was possible, she absolutely had to make one for herself and her village.

“And just so you know, your rooms are all messed up. Can you please rearrange them? If you have control over the Suva space, that is. I’d like to see what these pipes are supposed to do.”

 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Unreliable Narrator

Thank you! 

IC: Sorilax - Aspect of Light and Silence - Aspects of Makuta

Location - Kini-Nui (7, 10)

With - NPC Nuju

 

Nuju completely ignored his request, just like the Matoran had silently refused to offer any evidence to support his own claims. Suspicion rose within Sorilax. Nuju was starting to sound like some of the Aspects he knew back on the Kumu Islets, full of secret intentions and misdirection. His inherent trust in the Matoran shriveled and died slightly, like a malnourished tree frog.

But that was all the more reason to go find Sala. Sorilax pulled his twin knives. He normally only used them on aggressive Rahi, but perhaps now he would have to fight something a little more dangerous to keep Sala safe.

For half a second, he wished he had had the opportunity to create Rahkshi to help him here. The next he climbed the steps and entered the shimmering portal, swallowed whole like falling into a completely still lake. There one moment, gone the next, his stride never faltering and causing nary a ripple.
 

OOC: @Unreliable Narrator @Vezok's Friend @Eyru Sorilax has entered the Far Shore alone.

IC: Saybo - Toa of Water - Aurax

Location - The Coliseum (4, 9), Private Workshop

With - (Great Being) Aurax

 

Saybo plucked the Cordak Blaster from the air. He emptied the gun, inspecting the ammunition. Slightly dusty, but nothing to stop them from functioning. He didn’t much like carrying explosives on himself, but Aurax had chosen this weapon for him, so it was perfectly what he needed in this scenario.

He spun the barrels. It was well greased and spun without a problem. Saybo aimed it at the far wall and pulled the trigger a dozen odd times. Loud clicks filled the air as the empty gun was fired blank. Every firing pin was functioning. This Cordak Blaster had been well maintained, if now it was a little dusty.

The Toa of Water grabbed several cases of ammunition for it, clipping it on the sides and back of his waist within easy reach. Then he flicked a droplet to the side of the room. He wished he didn’t need to put his mask back on so soon. There would be practically no rush to it.

He grabbed his Miru, dangling from the chain around his neck, and placed it on his face. Power filled him and he was once more connected to his element fully. His organic protodermis muscles grew in strength and a sense of pure clarity filled his mind. But the process was too recent in his memory and there were no deeper feelings, simply more of his emotionless state.

Saybo expanded the droplet of water to about the size of his chest. It sat clinging to the wall, ready for Aurax to throw plasma at it to create a steam smokescreen should they need it.

Then Saybo went to the only other exit in the workshop, calling the maintenance elevator with a press of a button. He left a droplet of water on the door, still small, and backed off, aiming his Cordak Blaster with both hands at the entrance. If anything other than an empty elevator or Vahki arrived, they would be met with a split second decision and then possibly rockets.

Unfortunately, his focus couldn’t remain in solely one place as he was constantly checking up on Aurax and the other entrance. And of course he made sure to astutely listen to all his Great Being had to say in case there was a command for him in there.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~ @Eyru

 

IC: Sorilax - Aspect of Light and Silence - Aspects of Makuta

Location - Kini-Nui (7, 10)

With - NPC Nuju

 

As Sidra and someone who seemed to be her friend, or at least acquaintance, walked away towards the bunkers, Sorilax finally finished processing what Nuju had said. He moved close to the Matoran, worry on his features and in his soul.

He had tried to mentally talk with Sala and couldn’t. He couldn’t even feel his mental connection to the Matoran. The spot in his mind was still there, but it was empty like a gaping void. Sala truly wasn’t on the same plane of existence as he was.

Why? Why had Sala felt compelled to do something so dangerous? Especially alone. Sorilax didn’t know enough about Matoran and their feelings to know for sure. All he knew was that he needed to go and try to help his friend. Sala had helped him so much with his Grand Wish already. Together they would help all Life.

He would find Sala and bring him back safely. His mind was made up.

Sorilax spoke with Nuju, concern clearly evident in his voice, “I cannot believe Sala would traverse the Far Shore alone. I continually realize Aspects and their minds are not like any other species. There is still so much to learn from my friend and fellow chronicler.” He paused, then continued, “Tell me, Nuju, though you offer no evidence of the Far Shore’s properties and functions, can you at least offer knowledge to help empower myself to search for the Makoki stone?” Sorilax figured if he found the Makoki stone, then that might just be the place where he could find Sala. “Secret or hidden knowledge of timelines or universes unseen from this plane. Taboos, techniques, or otherwise?”

 

OOC: @Unreliable Narrator

 

IC: Hahvok - Za and Ja Krana of Ice - Independent

Location - Underground

With - Marrow, Providence, Zak-Yak, Takadox

 

Slowly light was returning through the glowing, needing to be cleansed plants. Marrow and Tall Blue talked with each other as everyone went ever deeper. Hahvok plodded along, both of his pairs of short legs doing their best to keep up with the others.

He kept a constant lookout for more thoughts to enter his range, indicating other minds were near. Hopefully someone down here would be able to tell him his purpose.
 

OOC: @Nato the Traveler @Sparticus147 @Burnmad @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Grand Temple Ruins

With - Apex

 

Apex responded with slight hesitation, “It has been...Good. Why is it that I find you here, Toa of Green?" As Apex spoke, a weird colored slug slithered along Apex' form.

Viltia opened her mouth to mention the slug, but Apex seemed really compatible with nature, so she thought better of it, instead she replied, “I’m here for the Nui-Rama hive. They stole something that could hurt them or maybe even others. I need to get it back. It’s a crystal about so big.” Viltia motioned with her hands.

Suddenly a voice spoke from nowhere and yet everywhere. It came from the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. Viltia’s whole body jerked in surprise, head flying about, looking for the source.

“Identify your--”

“You. You have returned.”

But when Apex responded as if the voice were to be ignored, and also seeking entrance to the Nui-Rama hive, Viltia relaxed.

"Yes, I have returned and I do not have any business with you, so unless you know of a way into the hive built into this temple, I would prefer your silence."

The voice responded, “I do not speak of your return, Apex."

Viltia looked around, but there was no one else besides her and Apex. What was even happening? Well, weird stuff always happened in the Fau Swamp. You had to learn to roll with it. Viltia looked to the ceiling and replied to the voice, “If you mean me, I’ve never actually been here. Uh… well I guess that I can remember. My name’s Viltia, what’s yours?”

Viltia’s curiosity took over and she couldn’t stop herself from continuing, “Soooo... are you this whole building, or are you hiding somewhere? Hey wait! This place feels like that Suva I found. Are you some... like, computer voice thing that responds to inputs and outputs? Hey, if that’s true, do you know how to merge Kanohi? I couldn’t figure it out on my first go, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard about it in legends. I’m thinking the Suva is the way to go, I’m just not sure how yet.”

 

OOC: @Sparticus147  @Unreliable Narrator Will try to respond with my other characters tomorrow.