Anima Eidolon
Episode Two
"Summons"
Final Fantasy RPG
Episode two of the Final Fantasy RPG opens with the introduction of a new character. When the first episode was run, three other players were not able to join that night. This time, the summoner Ho-ku, a Taru taru, was present for the fun.
The story opens with Ho-ku recalling his earlier years at Dharma Island, where he met the young Akami struggling to learn to summon. Her attempts kept failing, which led Ho-ku to try and befriend her to at least cheer her up. Fast foward to the current time, Ho-ku watched as an invasion struck the city of Ogino. From the window where he stayed, he saw a group rushing into what looked like a secret passage way down a fountain and without a second thought, Ho-ku launched himself into the air to follow them inside. As he silently dropped to the ground behind the strangers, he watched as they were trained upon with guns by what seemed to be the city guard. They accused the group of having hurt General Cid, whom Ho-ku recognized to be a key member of the city's security force. And demanded they surrender their weapons and march down the passageway. As Ho-ku followed suit, not wanting to cause any trouble, the others stared at him strangely, wondering where he had come from.
Elsewhere, Meugle prayed for someone to call out his name. Safe in the Save Point, his existence was pretty much nullified as well until someone took him out of it. As if in response to his prayers, a voice called out his name, and a hand emerged from the light. Meugle exited the Save Point to see Morris waiting for him. He commented the Fencer for wisely leaping into the Save Point when Bahamut charged for him. "Those things are tough enough to kill even senior warriors. Good thing a Thief like you knew how to escape and fight another day." Meugle opted not to correct Morris in his misconception that the Fencer was a Thief. As Morris told him about the airship that was enroute to "pull out" Morris and his friends from the war-torn city, Meugle realized deep down he cared for his friends and told Morris he had to go back for them. Impressed at the moogle's kindness, Morris decided to stay as well. "We Moogles best stick together." But as they followed down below to the tunnels, Meugle misread the sounds the others were making, and ends up leading Morris to the opposite direction of where they should go.
NPCs:
Christof
Hume (Class unrevealed)
Weapon of Choice: (Unrevealed)
Personality: Quiet and focused, Christof seems to be a high-ranking person in Ogino. He, however, defers to the woman when it comes to decisions.
Magda
Hume (Class unrevealed)
Weapon of Choice: (Unrevealed)
Personality: Assertive and sassy, Magda commands the troops of Ogino without fear. Her roles in Ogino might be larger than the players expect. Sadly, none of them were well-versed enough of the land to recognize her.
The group finds themselves in a camp in one of the central sewer junctions. A woman and a man question them, asking if they had any affiliations with the invading enemy force. Though the group answer honestly, the two still seem uncertain and leave them to wait in their makeshift prison. Devoid of their weapons, Akami recognizes Ho-ku and suggests to the others to scare him enough that he uses his Summon abilities to call a monster to help them. Ho-ku, terrified as the Ronso Verden threatens to eat him, cold fast and stays calm at first. A few failed attempts to scale the walls bring Akami to call out suggestions. One uses his immense strength to break the chains off his arms. The other tries Akami's suggestion to use Geomancy to make slipping off the manacles easier. Eventually two scale the wall and creep towards where their weapons have been stashed. But that's when the camp goes haywire as some attack seems to distract them all. Using it to their advantage, Ho-ku summons Valefor to emerges to fight while the others grab weapons. Valefor takes a number of soldiers down but dissipates... and Ho-ku realizes unless he becomes more focused and brave, his own summons will never be strong and courageous as well. He calls for Valefor again, and the Summon emerges with anger in its heart! It scours the area with a massive Energy Blast, quickly felling six soldiers with one attack.
Meugle and Morris find themselves peering at a hatch that blocks them from what looks like a massive treasury room. Down below, amid the hills of gold and treasures, soldiers that match the invading forces are gathering the loot. Around them, massive twelve foot tall automatons stand immobile. As Meugle and Morris unlatch the grid from their side, Morris opts to scout ahead, trusting on his advanced Mediator abilities. Impatient, Meugle drops down to follow, hoping to bluff his way through the room as well. He finds Morris talking to some soldiers about the events that had transpired, having smoothed talked them into thinking they were also on the soldier's side. But Meugle saw the soldiers throwing each other meaningful glances, which made Meugle suspect the soldiers were just playing along to set a trap for them both. As Meugle tries to consider an exit strategy, the soldiers ask Meugle to hold on to a glass case that contains a dagger that looks far too expensive and useful to be ignored. Meugle realizes the blade is not just any blade, but an Ultimate Weapon, and deeply considers whether or not it can be used. He learns some magical force seems to make it become extremely heavy, perhaps a kind of supernatural mechanic to keep it from being used by those not experienced enough. He hides in a wooden box, hoping to have a change to look things over in private. While inside the box, he opens the case and draws the dagger out of its slot. The dagger shines so bright it is almost blinding inside. Sounds of chaos tear outside and when Meugle peeks out, the chamber is in shambles, as the gigantic automatons had suddenly awoken from their magically imposed impairment.A woman from the solider's side calls for a truce, and the group opts to agree. With weapons laid down, the woman tells them General Cid had awakened and he has vouched for their trustworthiness. With the battle ended, the soldiers quickly tend to their injured. The woman apologizes for the confusion but does stress they were doing what they thought was best given Ogino is under assault by forces unknown. The group is given free bunks to stay in, and access to the stores if they need it, while the leaders discuss with General Cid on what is going on. Ho-ku, it seems, has nominally become part of the group.
NPCs:Mika
Taru Taru (Thief)
Weapon of Choice: (Unrevealed)
Personality: Brash and confident, Mika is clearly the leader among the two. He isn't as good as he thinks, however.
Boshi
Taru Taru (Class unrevealed)
Weapon of Choice: (Unrevealed)
Personality: Boshi clearly defers to Mika's decisions but her manner of dress and approach towards others suggests she is not a Thief like her brother.
And Meugle finds the treasury room in absolute chaos, with broken bodies of soldier scattered about. He sees Morris' cigar in the coins and realizes the other Moogle is hiding. Using their kupo to discuss an escape plan, Meugle tries to distract one of the automatons, and evades by darting through a doorway to escape, only to bump into two young taru-taru. Meugle first attempts to feign being part of the guests, but quickly realizes the two are thieves themselves. And when their escape is blocked by a new group of soldiers, Meugle is told to surrender and drop his sword.
Chaos all around Ogino. And somewhere far away, a figure in black robes is addressed by a younger figure. "It has begun, my grandfather." The old man in the black robes nods, and motions towards the statue of the Goddess Athena. "Perhaps this time, you will listen to me. And love me."
*
Ultimate Weapons
Every one who played Final Fantasy games knows the joy of finding an Ultimate Weapon. Part of the balance system used in the video games for Ultimate Weapons is having some kind of level minimum to use them. To represent that in the table top game, I described the object as being superheavy when wielded by someone who is not of sufficient level to use it. The object becomes far too heavy and too unusable until the minimum level is achieved.
And yes, just like in Final Fantasy 7, Ultimate Weapons will be what unlock one's Ultimate Limit Break.
Summons
The game allows Summoners to call for an Eidolon to fight for him for a number of turns. The Eidolon can be dispelled if it receives too much damage (as well as by other means). But unlike how it is done in the game, I opted to give Eidolons a stronger relationship with the Summoner (to separate them from the Callers), in that they can communicate with the Eidolons telepathically.
While this seems to add the advantage of communicating with them, I plan to also let this mean the Eidolons can get "fussy" as the Summoner might prefer one over others. And lastly, I plan to make it that the Eidolons are actually unique beings. As supported by the system (where only one unique Eidolon appears at a time), an Eidolon can "die" if it receives far too much damage even after it returns to fight after being unsummoned. To grasp it better, an Eidolon appears with 150% health based on the Summoner. Once enough damage is received, an Eidolon is unsummoned and dissipates. But if the Eidolon wishes to, it can allow the Summoner to summon it again to fight. This time, if the Eidolon takes enough damage to once again bring it to 0 hit points, however, it dies.
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