nightjackburns-blog-blog

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

“Man, looks like you’ve had a rough day.  C’mon, lemme show you something.  Follow me.”

#brokenfantasystarter #ignore text #lets go do something positive in the death game!

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

The Serpent’s Strike (Job Mission)

The petite woman spoke fluently in English, her accent making her words sound almost melodic. “You’ve got a quest up ahead?  Huh.  Funny, so does Andir.  Want to team with us?  We could use a tank.”

“Uh...sure, sounds good,” Jack replied.  He smiled a little and added, “Just fair warning, I’m still learning the ropes. My name is NightJack.”

The ebon skinned elf white mage at her side smiled, waving it off.  “You’ll do fine.  I’ll keep you both upright with my healing spells,” she countered in a voice that was warm and velvety.  “I’m Andir.  And the little one is Mighty Kou.”

The other woman eyerolled as the three of them walked together.  “Kou is just fine.  The quest we are doing is for Andir’s job mission.  Unless they changed it, it should be an ambush on a group of pilgrims.  They have a guard, and the goal is to keep the guard alive.”

“It was kind of difficult before when I did it solo, but with Kou on melee DPS and you tanking, we should be alright.  The guard NPC will help a bit with damage too.”

Jack let the information roll around in his head a little.  While he’d never been teamed up with more than one person at this point, he was sure that the basics he’d picked up would work fine in this situation.  “This is the caravan east of the Caford Crossroads, right?  I’ve got a job mission there too.”

Andir curled a hand under her chin.  “Hmmm...I never tried pally, so I have no idea what the job missions are for that class.  Kou, did you--?”

“No.  Nobody out of our group made a paladin, as far as I am aware.  Guess we will have to try it firsthand and see what happens.”

The trio stuck to the road, avoiding any random encounters as they got to know each other a little better.  Jack, as usual, skirted the subject when they asked about his real life occupation.  As it turned out, his companions headed up a podcast group about gaming.  While he couldn’t necessarily relate to some of the things they were talking about, it was pleasant to hear them go back and forth.   It reminded him of the camaraderie he had once shared with his friends on the force.

Soon enough, they came across the caravan of devout pilgrims.  Carts were in disarray, some overturned and others broken to pieces.  Men worked on trying to set them aright, while the rest of the group tried to salvage their few belongings.  Andir excused herself a moment to go talk to the NPC that would grant her the job mission she needed to pick up her next skill, and Jack did the same.  He weaved his way through the disheveled mob, stopping now and then when he just couldn’t stop himself from helping one of the pilgrims.  Finally, he saw the person he needed.  She was a young girl, maybe a couple of years younger than Emeline.  She was thin as a rail, and her dingy white robes seemed to swallow her frame whole.  She locked eyes with Jack for just a split second, before she started shrinking in on herself.  Her eyes clouded over, becoming a milky white, her voice distant as she spoke...

“O Bringer of Light, be ye steadfast, The Serpent seeks to avenge the past. His servants slither through the night, So take care or You shall they smite.”

Jack stared at the quest acceptance screen a moment, then reached out to hit accept.  “Ma’am, if I could just ask you--”

The girl darted off into the crowd.  Kou’s voice called Jack back from following after her.  He shook his head a moment and joined the rest of his party.  Andir was looking up at the sky, where the sun had already set and the moon would soon be rising over the treeline.  “Okay so we don’t have much time.  As soon as the moon is over the trees, the gnolls will ambush the group.  The head priest will cast a shield over the pilgrims, leaving us plus the NPC guard to fight them off.  Jack, if you’ll keep them aggro’d on you, that will make it easier to keep the guard alive.  That means I can focus on keeping you alive.  Kou will focus on thinning the crowd out.”

Kou nodded.  “Wonderful plan, I love it.  So, did you get your job mission?  We can do that as soon as we are done with this one.”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure what it is I’m supposed to do.”  He recited the words.  As he reached the end, a possible meaning dawned on him.  “...hold on a sec, I think she’s talking about an ambush.”

An uneasy silence set in.

“You don’t think that they’ll come all at once, do you?” he asked, but the look on his companions’ faces was all the answer he needed.

The war cry from the trees rose all around them.  The party’s white mage went into damage control, and Jack was smart enough to listen.  “Okay, we do what we can to stick to the plan, but if things get too rough, let the guard die.”

“But if he dies, you won’t be able to--”

Kou stopped him.  “Forget about the NPC!  He will respawn.  We will not!”

There was no time to discuss the matter further as the gnolls descended on the group.  The pilgrims huddled beneath the protective spell cast by the priest, while the three of them plus the NPC guard moved to intercept.  The guard heeded his program....which was to charge straight into the fray.

“Fucking hell,” Andir muttered as part of the mob stopped to hack at the guard, while the rest sloppily streamed right past him.  “Jack, get their attention!”

He nodded and activated SHIELD DRUM, garnering attention from the group.  They came at him, machetes raised to attack.  He intercepted what he could with his shield, but with so much coming at him he couldn’t defend against it all.  His healthbar began to chip away as he hit the closest target with SHIELD SMASH, following up with DOUBLE SWIPE before it could recover from the stun.

“Switch!” Kou shouted from behind.  It was the only warning Jack got as the diminutive fighter sailed over him, connecting with a HIGH KICK that finished off his mob.  She didn’t pause, dropping another gnoll on its keister with a LEG SWEEP and finishing it off with a RENDERING PUNCH. Jack did his best not to ogle at the sight, and was nearly driven back on his ass when he got too distracted. Andir saved his ass, catching a gnoll in the chest with a MAGIC MISSILE.  One of her healing spells followed the attack, giving provocation and focusing too much attention on herself.  It was short lived though.  Jack reeled them right back in.

The fight seemed to go on forever, when in reality it was only a few short, chaotic minutes.  Jack fell to his knees as the last mob disappeared into pixels.  The two women he’d teamed up with took a seat as well, resting up after the ordeal.  They regarded one another...then started first one began to chuckle, then another. Maybe it was the adrenaline wearing off.  Maybe it was relief.  Maybe it was a little bit of both.  As the laughter died away, Jack looked to the pop up just beneath his loot screen.

Skill Acquired: BRICK WALL

#bfrpgskill1 #nightjack #solo #brokenfantasy rpg #npc crew

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

“I realized that the books I read and the shows and movies that I watched, and songs that I heard inspired me and helped me get through my life. It’s meaningful to me when something I’ve done is meaningful to someone else.” - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

#album #joseph gordon-levitt #neat quote

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

bryjanosrios:

“There’s a quest? I’m disgusted that is it. I quit. I think these things have a feud with werewolves. I quit.” 

“Yeah, it’s a quest for a gardener in Hynabrycg.  You get an herbal remedy as a quest reward, which is pretty handy.  It boosts your HP for 30 minutes.”

#c: El_Mariachi #nightjack #jack does all the quests #including apparently butterfly poop quests

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

“I”m with you there.  The dev who made those butterfly quests needs to be thrown in jail.  Then again, that’s probably the same dev that is responsible for this shit in the first place, so it’s guaranteed his ass is going to be put away for awhile...”

I’m getting tired of this hunting down groups of butterflies shit. 

#c: El_Mariachi #nightjack #werewolves against butterflies #wab is a weird acronym

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

“Well...want some company?  Solo’s all well and good, but things seem to go a lot quicker and a lot easier with a partner.”

Emeline laughed, her smile casting a glow to her skin that she hadn’t experienced since the start of this game. It felt good to be able to laugh again. “I can almost imagine it.” She reassured him, given that she knew exactly how much game experience Jack had. “I’ve been doing the same; just grinding away.” 

#c: taintedline #nightjack #jack every gamer knows that #can't say no to that face

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

Jack gestured to make his menu pop up. He navigated his way through to the skill list to look at it once more.

“Brick Wall.  Description says it’s supposed to boost my defense.”

"Or something."

"A familiar is an animal that a druid can control to help increase DPS. It actually gives us some offense instead of keeping us strictly in the realm of healers. What skill will you get when you complete it? Sometimes that helps you figure it out."

#c: taryn #nightjack #woops forgot to reply to this one #my bad

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

Feast of Crows (Solo)

“A mysterious curse has befallen our village.  There is a ritual that will cleanse and consecrate this space, banishing this dark spell, but there is but one ingredient I lack.  I require the tail feathers of the Grandfather Crow.  He nests in a copse of trees north of here.  Fetch these for me, and quickly, Paladin, for I fear we’ve not much time.”

Jack had spent most of the day in a foul mood.  Normally, he was even tempered, sweet, one of the easiest guys to get along with.  But after snapping at another low level player over a simple question, he had distanced himself from the people on his friends list (Emeline included) and stuck to solo quests.  In his mind, it was better to take it out on computer generated creatures than to lose his temper with the few people that mattered in the game.  It was like he had this raw nerve exposed, and everything seemed to aggravate it.  The later in the day it got, the worse his mood seemed to be.

He arrived at the cluster of trees north of the village.  The setting sun cast long shadows over the area.  The raucous call of crows above him confirmed he was in the right area to find this Grandfather Crow.  He looked up anticipating that the birds would begin their attack.  It didn’t happen though.  The stupid things just sat up there.  He growled, frustrated that the one time he would have welcomed a fight, the game AI didn’t want to provide it.

“Fine then.”  His canines lengthened into fangs as he activated SHIELD DRUM.  A few crows turned their beady eyes on Jack, then almost in unison swooped down on him.  He waded into the fight, following the simple stun and smash tactic that had stood him in good stead since the fire snail cave.  They didn’t fall as easily as the lower level creatures he had grown used to fighting.  The ebon feathered nuisances were fast, darting away from attacks with a swift turn of the wing, and had higher hitpoints.  He barely paid notice to it though, swept up in the moment and in the fight.  When the final crow disappeared in a flurry of pixels, his loot screen didn’t show the tail feathers needed for the damn quest.  None of the crows in that group was the one he sought.  He growled softly, then moved to the next group of crows, not paying a bit of attention to his health and stamina as he provoked them with SHIELD DRUM.  Frustration turned to anger as once again he was denied the tail feathers.  The rage bubbled over as he threw his sword.  He watched as it clattered against a tree.  The crow calls continued on above him as he had just a moment of clarity hit him.

“...why am I getting so worked up over this?”

He glanced up as the last rays of the setting sun disappeared, and it was then he found his answer.  “...oh.”

The shift, his first since joining the game, hit him in that glowing twilight.  He felt himself slipping away, swept up in the heat of what felt like a wild fire growing within him.  As sheer primal fury set in, everything became a huge blur...

The next thing Jack knew, he was curled up at the foot of a tree and dappled sunlight shown down on him.  His health bar was down by nearly 2/3.  His XP bar had filled beyond what he remembered actually slaying, and he had many more items in his inventory that he didn’t remember picking up.  Among those items were the tail feathers he had been sent to retrieve in the first place.  He groaned as he got to his feet and retrieved his discarded sword.  He stared at it for a moment, then slipped it into his scabbard and turned to head to the village.

He started to send a message to Emeline, then stopped himself.  He didn’t want her to worry anymore than she probably already was, given that her father’s whereabouts were still unknown.  Instead, he sent a tell to Taryn.

You whisper to Taryn: How many days do full moons last ingame?

#bfrpgsp1 #nightjack #solo #feast of crows #werewolf crunchings and munchings

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

"Immediately before meeting you?  Looking for a mining point out here.  Outside of the first day, I've been doing quests and whatever I can to level up.  Should've seen me the at first.  Looked like a complete idiot."

Emeline almost laughed at Jack’s explanation. Sometimes she forgot how little he knew about the world that she adored; it was humorous listening to him explain the reason behind his choices while she mentally compared his laidback choice with her own deeply-thought out decision. Unlike Jack, Emeline had spent ages debating which species would be the best choice and then which class would be strongest. 

"I’m a siren." Emeline finished for him, tugging at the insignia on her shirt so that it stood out a little more clearly. She glanced up at him as he swore, watching in confusion before she received the request. Then it all made sense. Within seconds she had selected yes and the proud banner blazed before her for a moment.

TAINTEDLINE and NIGHTJACK are now friends.

"Sometimes it’s almost easy to forget this is all a game." She sighed, casting her gaze around for a moment before setting it back on Jack again. "So what were you doing before we met?"

#c: taintedline #nightjack #short reply is short #derpderp

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

"Oh yeah?  Is that like a little pet or something?"

"I actually have no idea who to go to for my job mission...."

I’m one job mission away from getting my first familiar. That’s… actually kind of exciting.

#c: tarynn #nightjack #jack you noob

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

He grinned.  "So I guess that it's for that quest.  I'm gonna stick around to mine, but I can understand if you want to take off.  Mind if I add you to my friend list?"

"I can’t argue with that logic."

#c: thennil #nightjack #friend request

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

"The whole 'hard to kill' part of the description stood out when I was in the character select screen.  Which apparently is paying off, since I've figured out that being a paladin means taking a beating so others can do their spell casting and attacks."

Quietly, he was pretty proud that he was picking up on things quickly.  It was also probably a good thing he was learning quickly, otherwise he'd have been dead back at the fire snail cave.

He puzzled at the insignia Emeline wore for a moment.  "You picked....?"  Then another thought struck him.  "Shit.  Hang on, let me send this before I forget...."

NIGHTJACK has sent you a friend request. Accept? {Y/N}

Obviously Jack would have done something sensible like that but Emeline hadn’t even though to check the message board. She’d immediately rushed further into the game in search of her father, not even caring to communicate with the other players - NPC’s and PC’s alike. 

"Maybe he has." She offered half-heartedly. Truthfully, she already feared the worst. They’d been in the game so long already and she hadn’t seen a sign of him. There were only so many places he could go in the first floor. She felt better though, much better now that she had Jack here with her. "He’s got to be around here somewhere." She forced her smile on to her lips, shoving her feelings down as she usually did in the real world. "So werewolf? What made you chose that?"

#c: taintedline #nightjack #woot friend request

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

IRL: Jack Burns

Sterile.

Dinah Burns couldn't think of any other way to describe the way hospitals smelled.  She couldn't get the scent to leave her, that disinfected air nearly choking her.  Or it could have been the worry for her son playing into that.  It had been a week since Jack had become trapped in Death Incarnate.  It might as well have been a month.  He had told her about this Total Immersion game, and how his doctor had approved him short periods of game time.  It was supposed to help him deal with the side effects of his treatments.  He wasn't supposed to be in there this long!

Her baby boy looked so small in the hospital room.  The chemo had stolen some of his vitality, but with the added contraption on his head and the wires of various machines and IVs, it made him look even more drained.  She covered her mouth, suppressing a sob, giving his cold hand a squeeze.

"Baby, I don't know if you can hear me...but you keep fighting.  Keep fighting, and come back from this.  Do you hear me?  It's not your time."

#bfrpgsp2 #nightjack #bucking the system by starting with the second writing task first

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

"Your dad thought the Total Immersion thing might help deal with treatments.  Doctor approved playing for short periods.  I was supposed to meet up with you guys, but then everything happened and I couldn't find you. I left a message on the bulletin board at the starting town, hoped you guys would see it..."

He pulled back.

"We'll find him," he said reassuringly.  He wasn't just saying it as lip service.  He truly meant it.

Before she even had the chance to comprehend the situation, Emeline felt the older male’s arms wrap around her body and she just sunk into his grasp unable to believe that he was actually here in front of her. 

"What are you doing here?"She exclaimed in disbelief. She’d known that her father was in the game with her, heck the two of them had uplinked together, but she hadn’t known that Jack was here. Clinging to him now, she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he had somehow ended up here with her. 

She swallowed slightly as he mentioned her father, her glee at seeing the other draining instantly. “He came with me but-” She thought the rest of the sentence was fairly simple. During everything that had happened, she’d lost track of him. 

#c: taintedline #nightjack #play the game they said #it might help they said

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

"Maybe.  But seriously, we kicked the crap out of that ambush, finished out our quest, we have every right to act like 12 yr olds and fistbump in celebration."

Giving a large, overly and obviously fake dramatic sigh (negated from the smile on her face), Thennil reached out and returned the fistbump. 

"Sometimes I swear this game is turning us back into twelve year olds."

#c: thennil #nightjack #jack is 12 #its official #stop the presses

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

Jack crossed the short distance between them and pulled her into a tight hug.  "Oh my God, you're here."  He paused a moment as that sunk in.  "Oh my God, you're here."

It was a mix of relief and horror.  He finally knew the whereabouts of one of his friends.  But at the same time, finding out that Emeline (who was as close to a sister has he'd ever had in his life) was trapped inside Death Incarnate wasn't exactly a good thing either.

"Are you okay?  Your dad, is he...?"

Emeline spun on her heel, her gaze easily falling on the male behind her. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw him, her mouth opening a second before closing again. “Jack?”

#c: taintedline #nightjack #ignore rando woman #and rando penny

[nightjackburns-blog-blog]

Once the ambush was done, the XP and nuts delivered to both Thennil and Jack's inventory, the paladin reached out with a fist, holding it out for a return fistbump.

"Victory fistbump for kicking squirrel ass?"

"When we get out, I’ll probably be trying to attack the squirrels because of this." Oh how she now hated the squirrels, they were just so annoying. She was glad she had teamed up with NightJack for this because without, she’d have had to deal with too many effing squirrels today. And… She might’ve been a bit overwhelmed too, but that was something she’d rather not ponder over.

#c: thennil #nightjack #don't leave him hanging #gotta fistbump #do eet