General Information The large stone cavern with the tiled floor and large yellow smiley face is likely familiar to at least several trainees, and may even feature in a few nightmares from time to time. Welcome to Deathsweeper, the training course that may only be attempted via c-type golem, and often acts as a testing ground for the Life Division's more painful creations. Stealth and detecting imminent danger are vital for Death Hunters and anyone who has to spend extended amounts of time near Caelius. The Deathsweeper chamber is full of hidden traps that only the finest of survival instincts can survive unscathed.
If you fail: you get to once again relive the sensation of dying. Painfully and sometimes quite strangely.
If you win: you have survived stepping 5 tiles into the room. Anything further is purely for peen and bragging rights.
Mechanics roll 1 d10 check for hp loss and death decide whether or not to use your bonuses if you survive, repeat. roll list: the traps are ICly constantly changing, so feel free to get creative as to what exactly those traps are! -50% HP is off your full HP, so if you hit -50% twice, then you are 100% KO'd
01. horrible death 02. - 50% HP 03. live 04. live 05. - 50% HP 06. - 50% HP 07. horrible death 08. - 50% HP 09. live 10. horrible death
Bonus Mechanics This bonus is consumable. All participants get a flag, this flag will allow your character to notice something about the area they're stepping into. OOCly this means you can adjust your rolled number, up or down, by one point. Instinctive moves are used in the same manner as flags. These are stackable, so if you have 1 flag + 1 instinctive move, you can use them up in order to adjust your roll by two.
(If you roll a 1, you may not move your number down to 0, -1, or 10. And 10 cannot be adjusted to 1 or 11.)
Trainees: 1 flag Death Trainees: 1 flag + 1 instinctive move Hunters: 1 flag + 1 instinctive move Death Hunters: 1 flag + 2 instinctive moves
Ever since the incident with the zombies, Oliver had not had too much contact with others. Even though he was his usual self while going about his duties, the trainee was somewhat more jumpy. In the evening, when things were getting dark, he could almost fall under the category of excessively jumpy. But while he accepted the increased startle reflex, nightmares, and even the occasional tears as mere occupational hazards common to inexperienced hunters like himself, he was not keen to let his friends become aware of these difficulties.
So he was surprised when Lex sent him a text message, and had him find his way to a small room amidst the training courses... a room he didn't recognize, with several open pods waiting. Oliver did not like this, not in the slightest...
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:55 pm
Lex stood outside the pod chamber patiently tapping his foot to a rhythm caught in his head, knowing Oliver would come. The boy tended to heed the older man's call, which could prove dangerous to the both of them. When his younger lookalike arrived, Lex turned down the bravado. Oliver required a softer, gentle approach.
"Oliver." Lex stated, smiling quaintly. The boy was smart - he would know what was coming next. "I wanted someone to run the Death training course with me - I haven't done it myself; feels like I should." The older of the doppelgangers explained, gesturing to the pods.
Ami had told him about it. Constant death, obliteration after obliteration. Lex himself wasn't sure if he had the stomach for it, but he hoped Oliver could take it. Gentle counseling didn't work on the boy, but maybe a taste of shock therapy would inspire some courage.
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:33 pm
Oliver was like a skittish rabbit when he approached, even the soft and casual words could only lure him in, not set his mind at ease. "I-it looks like… uh… the p-pod room…"
The boy did not have many good memories of the pod room. His awakening hadn't been particularly delicate, apparently not many trainees had found themselves in the infirmary before the cove. Combined with his latent fears of being killed or podded for his cowardice and lack of strength, Oliver was already starting to look like he would prefer a different method of training. Like a nice jog, a nice, fast jog, back to his room to hide under the covers.
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:50 pm
"It sort of does, doesn't it?" Lex observed, looking around. A little eerie, definitely. "But, these pods won't have you sleeping for months on end. We're going to be put in golems to rn this course." He explained, careful to leave out any note that there was death and destruction fated for said golems. It was okay, they'd regenerate - and the real Hunters would be unharmed.
But, Oliver would probably still freak out regardless of a fake him or a real him being killed. Death was death, pain was pain. Best to avoid talking about the subjects to the kid unless necessary.
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:15 pm
It might have been easier on Lex if his pupil wasn't so bright, or so creative in his worries. Setting one of Oliver's fears to rest merely brought new ones to life.
"Golems like... uh...those ones...from the trials?" The boy's face was growing a little pale. Sometimes after a rough day he still had nightmares about that 'death' he had suffered once, even though it hadn't truly been his own body fighting for his life, it had felt so real.
Oliver shuddered, and as he looked over at the pods it was clear he was fighting another silent battle. Finally, looking a little like he was either going to throw up or pass out on the spot, he glanced over to Lex for direction. "What s-should I d-do?"
As afraid as he was, Oliver would follow instructions. There would be no forcibly shoving him into a pod today.
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:40 pm
Lex mildly blanched at the quickness Oliver had in switching from one fear to another, as well as his own memories of the trials. His death had been a quick one, though he didn't remember much of it. Just a lot of pain. What a foreshadowing of the rest of his life.
"Sort of. More advanced, though. No blowing up at the first touches of FEAR." Lex attempted to soothe away Oliver's fears in that regard. At least he was willing to listen to directions. "Just lay down in the pod. You'll be fine." He lied through his teeth. Oliver and he would die multiple times today.
The boy nodded, taking as much time as he could to collect his wits about him and climb into the pod. He lay down, hands shaking, and closed his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in a large cavern. He looked down at his hands, which were not his hands, it was just as bizarre now as it had been then.
Oliver took one step onto the tiled field and waited for the Lex-golem to arrive, looking around the cavern like a rabbit in a cage. There was a smiley face on one wall... did that mean it wasn't going to be that bad?
Lex slipped in to his own pod with a wary and weary exhale, clenching his jaw and fists. He hated pain, hated putting himself in harm's way. Why did he sign up for this in the first place? Heroism and an escape from a life of a controlling mother and whoring himself out to fill a love gap?
Sounded about right. His conscience was shifted over to the other golem, and he gave a little wave to Oliver's golem when it came into sight. He took a step forward, making note of the happy face. This were going to get grim, he thought before the tile underneath exploded into shrapnel and rend the golem to bits.
Oliver waved back, his golem-hand feeling normal despite the knowledge that it was not his hand at all. He even managed a little smile. It would be okay, Lex was with him after all. The older hunter wasn't going to let him get hurt...
And then suddenly the other golem exploded.
Oliver yelped loudly and flung himself backwards away from the shrapnel, and into the next tile. The soft twang noise was lost to his ears, but he quickly became aware of the result. His horror was compounded as three arrows struck his golem from behind, each one driving deeply into his back in successive thuds. Although it was not his own body that suffered, Oliver felt every sharp pain and nearly fell to his knees.
Lex had put himself right back into the golem and made poignantly sure to not step on the exploding tile while hoping the next one he stepped on wasn't some other death trap. A sigh of relief fluttered from his chest when he was safe.
Another sigh, this one much darker and belying his state of patience with the course when he heard the thuds. Oliver wasn't down, but... "Oliver, I know it hurts. Just keep pressing on."
Lex's words barely registered under all Oliver's panic, and for a second it looked like he would turn and bolt. He struggled to push down the fear, taking deep, shuddering breaths. He was going to die. He was going to die again, and get right back into another golem and die again.
He realized there could not be a better way of training.
There were several options ahead of him, but Oliver picked the tile directly in front of him. Somehow… nothing happened.
"Lex…?" He asked in a shaky voice. A thousand questions and concerns and fears pushed through his mind, yet that was the only thing that could leave his lips at that very moment.
Lex took a tentative step to the right, sighing in relief when nothing happened. So far, this run was much better. He looked to Oliver, question marks painted on his face. "Yes? Are you okay, Oliver?"
Lex was beginning to worry the exercise would overstimulate the teen and cause him to flee further away from facing his fears. Then they'd be back to Lex physically tossing Oliver into the ocean. Square 0.
This was the first time Oliver had seen a friend die. During the trials there had been lots of it, but at the same time, he hadn't known anyone else. They had been trying to kill him and that made the horror a little easier to rationalize.
He wanted to nod, and say yes he was okay, but he couldn't quite manage it. The three heavy-shafted arrows remained stuck in his golem body, but they didn't seem as important as making progress in this course.
Oliver took another step forward. Nothing exploded under his feet, nothing came flying through the air towards him, it seemed like he had found another safe tile.
Well... the boy seemed okay. Lex wasn't used to dying, it had only happened twice - and he got two versions of himself out of both those times. The scar that smeared across his chest tingled, a psychological feeling, never mental. He nodded to Oliver, taking another step forward and ending up with a very large battering ram cracking a few of the golem's ribs.
"Baise." He hissed, hodling to his side. At least it wasn't instantaneous death this time.
Oliver flinched visibly when Lex's step went awry, almost bolting. He didn't want to see another explosion, and was almost afraid to look over in case the other man had died again. But then he heard that curse, and knew he didn't have to.
With a terrified breath, the boy stepped onto the next tile.
