LP Beach

I appreciate how Fervent Adoration reflects Murder-type Panic from LobCorp, and holy shit Ever Repeating Performance is nuts, especially since it reloads between waves

Also uhh, you keep off-hand mentioning Awakening and now Breakdown pages during these overviews, and while I've intuited what they mean and which is which, I think you maybe wanna go back to the first time you discussed Emotion Zones and clarify the terms and their relation to page colors, unless I just missed them being explained before

As for the Netzach matchup, I think it comes down to the fact that a floor is defined by its Abnos, and Stall and Endurance aren't gimmicks that can have sudden Traps most of the time, so all of the Abnos, and thus Corroded Angelas, end up having little ability to disrupt a team thats gotten its foot in the door... and Laughing Powder is just overkill, instantly healing off Stagger damage on taking a hit is wild, I'm sure it loses efficacy as the game gets bigger numbers, but it still takes the bite out of things

Cloudmonkey98 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 18, 2022 11:07 am

Also uhh, you keep off-hand mentioning Awakening and now Breakdown pages during these overviews, and while I've intuited what they mean and which is which, I think you maybe wanna go back to the first time you discussed Emotion Zones and clarify the terms and their relation to page colors, unless I just missed them being explained before

I could have sworn I used these terms before. Let me just. Put in a quick one-off that says what they are.

Book 35.5 Small Story 1

Music: Lobby


Hah… it's nice to have a proper break after going through one of those messes. <sub>Even managed to get a few spare beers out of Netzach for later.

Still… big social gatherings with these L Corp guys are… Being stuck in there for 10,000 years or whatever must've done a number on them. For the best that I duck out early.</sub>



Huh. Don't see that combo every day. Wonder what's going on…

VIDEO


This is a serious matter indeed…

Right. This issue has to be settled now.

We’re in so much trouble!

Just tell me what’s going on.

Netzach ran off!

The Floor of Art was responsible for cleaning the Library’s corridors this week.

Wha?

Do you have any guesses on where he might be?

Nah, of course not. No way. Hmhm…

His assistant librarians must’ve all disappeared with him, too…

Cleaning? I don’t remember ordering you to clean this place.



You lot always love to cause a bigger fuss than necessary, don’t you.

Do you want us to stop it?

No, I don’t mind it.

Thank goodness…

Anyway, that’s why we’ve been wondering! Just where did Netzach hide away!

Sigh…



W…what the… What happened…

It takes no effort for me to locate and relocate you lot, wherever in this Library you may be.

Netzaaaach~! We promised to keep the order we decided on!

You’re so mean, running away when it’s your turn…

You reek of alcohol, and so do your assistant librarians behind you…

…I can explain, there’s a good explanation for this.

What explanation?

Let’s hear your story, then.

Now now, Netzach will surely be careful next time. That’s enough scolding.

No. I must hear what he has to say.

Netzaaaaaach!

…Look, I didn’t feel like cleaning, but I still was gonna do it. I was grumbling to myself about it, then Roland came along and said he found a good spot to goof off…



Whoa, looks like he’s still too drunk to speak straight. He sure loves to drink for someone so weak with it. Hahaha…

…Roland. Is what Netzach said true?

Haha… Naw, can’t be.

I can faintly smell alcohol from you as well, now that Netzach’s confessed it.

I’m disappointed in you two!

Alright, I’m sorry! I’ll help Netzach clean the corridors today, so please forgive me!

Hm, no. How about you join them on the cleaning roster from now on, rather than just for today?

Whaat?

That’s a good idea.

I could forgive your misbehavior today in that case.

Good luck with the cleaning, then!

…You’re also prone to make a fuss, aren’t you, Roland.

Hunh.





Alright team, you heard Miss Angela. Time to get our cleaning done~

I knew we were going to get caught…

Dammit, I don't need a hangover in the middle of cleanup.

Must we? There are so… so many stairs.

Well, if you think about it, 'stairs' aren't really 'corridors,' so…

No slacking off! Do a thorough job, you guys!

Ahh… jeez, fine…

Do it until you can see your smile in the shine! HAHAHAHAHA!!!



Well, good thing that's sorted. I didn't want to get stuck with cleaning the corridors myself again.

At least we probably would have helped this time?

The period of punishment was until the next cleaning rotation. I wouldn't have lifted a finger.

She can game and clean at the same time anyways. She really doesn't need any help.

See if I save your sorry butt next time, then!

Well, we would have pitched in. Cleaning is good for the soul.

Spoken like someone who hasn't had 23 pages due by the end of the day…

What?

Informational documents that required careful redaction did always seem to be a pain for the clerks.

They were the worst. We've deleted records that would've made you guys wet your pants.

What is a company? A well-run enterprise of secrets! But enough talk! We should mosey our way back to our floors before we run into something really dangerous!

Sniff sniff! Aha! I knew I smelled peoples! Did I miss something fun?

Aww, beans! Too late!

What's she doing awake?!

Everyone, get behind me. If you try anything, I'll—

Oh… that could be a problem. I was gonna try getting back into that cabinet again! _{Grr… I'll show those not-cuties what for as many times as it takes for that smell to go away!}

Music: KeterBattle01


Don't play dumb. The last time I saw you was when you slammed ImIdiot through a wall-

Which hurt, you know!

-and ran off to take control of the facility at your Sephirah's request.

Huh… really? Sounds like everybody had fun!

You nearly killed him!

Oh, like that's ever mattered here.

You goddamn—!

Listen, kiddo… Given that you went and swapped sides on us once already… We're just wondering when we should expect another shiv in the back.

Switched sides? I've always been on the side of the cutest! So of course I'd work with the cuties when it was time to play~ You should really stop listening to Patchy!

Who's… Patchy?

Patchy is Patchy! She's always like, "We've betrayed them all," and stuff. Suuuper downer.

Eloquent as always, huh…

Would you all keep it down? I'm quite busy, you know.



She spooke to uus..!

You have helped me several times now.

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge and act on that new information… I was simply waiting for the proper time to do so.

Oho. Does that mean you'll be helping out too, ma'am?

Should I feel like it. For the moment, I simply require that you all work together. Once my book is complete, you will be free to do as you like.

Music: Lobby

…Fine. I'll play nice, ma'am. For now.

And I'm only going to play with cuties! They're the most fun. _{Now, wheeere's that smell…} Sniff sniff!

Seems like we're all on the same page, then.

It's good that you understand. Continue to work as you always have.


Videos

Small Story 1

Natural Sciences—525.64—King of Greed

Music: Lobby


We've pretty much gotten all the mileage we can out of our current set of toys, so there's no major changes right now. I do want to bring attention to Chinely's build today, though.



Heh… Is that all? I've already seen through you. <sub>How was that?

Very cool.</sub>

Are you two "practicing" again?

Yep!

Get a move on, we're already running late.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, these puppets are a pain to get hanging right.

Chinely is bringing along Information Assessment because I had 4 spare points and only one open passive slot.



So after the Queen and the Knight, it's got to be the King, right?

Definitely.

Every Abnormality we get is troublesome… How are we supposed to deal with that thing?

It's okay, boss… I'm sure we'll be able to handle it.

Shall I take it that you're all ready, then?

Definitely! Give us your worst!

Of course. But first… Please remember that creating a resonant feedback loop to cause you both to explode is highly unlikely to work a second time.

No need to worry… I've already done it once, so this time I have to stay standing in the end. That's how you show growth, right?

My pupil's learned well!

Thankfully, they don't have the E.G.O to pull it off anyways.

So long as you all understand.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle02




There she is… in the egg, as usual.

At times like this, we must let our heart resonate with hers so that we can reach her.

Hell with that! Let's scramble this egg, team.



Unlike most Abnormalities, the King of Greed doesn't have any lines while in her Aurum Amber form. We have one turn and zero preparation to defeat it—if we fail, then we miss out on the Magical Girl phase and have to do an entire fight against the fully powered King of Greed. This would be bad.



This phase is just a straight DPS check, though I'm making several mistakes here.



It looks like her shell's vulnerable to conventional weapons this time!

Of course. The girl was immune to our attacks, but the purpose of an egg is to be broken.



Then we'll just have to break her out, piece by piece.



We don't have time for that. I'm going all in! Cover for me after!

Ma'am!

Overcharge is enough to confirm the kill against Aurum Amber, sending us to the next phase.



Ahh..! How long has it been?



You all are here seeking my power, right?

That's right.

It's been so long since I've been free like this that it'd be a bore to just accept… Entertain me for a bit, would you?

Magical Girl wrote: It’s been a long while… since I fought in this form.

Are you ready? Let’s get started.

Oh, how I missed this feeling… Let’s enjoy it a little, shall we?

Magical Girl is a very normal fight with a full set of Endured/Ineffective resistances across the board (her one Normal here is because of Information Assessment). She has a mechanic that comes into play on turn 3, and it's important that we do it right in order to keep her from getting +3 Strength and Haste. We're aiming to chop off 200 of her HP here, which will send us into the next phase of the fight.

We're actually in a pretty bad state, here, due to an overinvestment on turn 1. Tiphereth is locked down from using Overcharge, and with the arrows pointing how they are I don't have the ability to block all of her incoming attacks. This means our priorities here are to recover light and minimize the damage we'll be taking.



To that end, I let For Happiness go through and hit Tylana. It's a decently damaging page, but we're not likely to win the clash and it doesn't deal enough damage to put her in real danger yet.



She also uses Gigigig to block Sparkling Strike. Sparkling Strike's first die will break the rest of the dice on our page should it win the clash (and it will), meaning the two Block dice after are useless. Tylana will eat 2 Disarm and 2 Bind on the next turn because of this, but that's fine—we're just doing this to ensure she gets back to full Light.



Lastly, Chinely blocks Ecstacy of Triumph, as I don't have any good 3-die pages on hand to deal with it. Ecstacy is a decent combo attack, the first one lowering the power of our second die on hit, so that her second die can more easily hit us and break whatever die we may have left. This sets up for her third die to hit us and grant Magical Girl +2 Strength on her next turn.

Since I can't stop the +2 Strength, the plan here is to just get some Burn stacks on her while I put on the damage I can.



You're going to entertain me, riight?!

As a magical girl, shouldn't you be trying to help us regardless?

Who cares about that anymore? The happiness I want to fight for is my own now! Prove to me that you'll be interesting, or I'm out!

Ultimately, it just means we've got to do what we always do. Don't hold back, boys.



Hm! Anything from a Minor Arcana and below would have something broken after one punch. You're pretty tough, aren't you?

I… try…



Good! I don't want this to end too quickly.

The X over Tylana's second die is the visual effect of it being destroyed by the effect of Sparkling Strike, and it's removed from the queue after this.



Then how's this strike!

Ah-! Good hit. Reminds me of a Swords Arcana.



Then how about-GAH!

Come on, you can try harder than that, can't you?



Then… how's this?!

Hahahaha! Excellent, excellent!



Alright, my gear's back online. Let's take the fight to her, team.

Our attacks… are working, right? She's laughing them off like it's nothing.

This fight isn't about crushing her body, it's about satiating her lust for battle. If we just keep up with her, she should be satisfied eventually.

Her greed's bottomless, Chinely.

Then we'll just have to dole out bottomless violence!

That doesn't make any sense!



Overwhelming Luster is the final normal attack that Magical Girl uses on us, and it's a doozy. The first die is only decent, but if it wins then it'll power up the second die, which is the real danger here: on a hit, that die will break one of her target's Speed Die for a turn. This can be a problem, particularly if it hits us right before she goes into her special mechanic phase.



Crack of Dawn is perfect for blocking it…



Except I then have Chinely throw a Gigigig at the same die, using a higher number to redirect the clash. This is a near guaranteed loss after her 2 Strength. I proceed to not realize this until reviewing footage for this update.

Don't play like me, kids! :shepface:



Alright. We've all caught our breath after exerting ourselves too much. Let's show her what we can really do.

I'll get smoke on her, that should make things much easier.

A second wind, eh? Alright, let's see what you've got!



What we have is the power of love!



And justice!

Ah, so you met my cute kohais!



I'm sure you've realized, but in terms of power I've always been a cut above the both of them. Sooorry~

Agh… that's going to need a minute to heal.



You've got your minute. Smoke is on the target, ma'am.

Now this is a funny scent, isn't it?



But smoking is bad, don't you know?!



This isn't a kid's show, my people can smoke if they want to.

If this isn't a kid's show, then why is a child standing in front of me?



I'm not a kid!!

Oooh, that's some power in that fist! You're all pretty strong, aren't you?



Love is the winner here, giving us some sustain. I put it on Tiphereth since Ripple, Rend Space, and Overcharge can all act as very reliable clash-winners. Even Dimensional Rift is reliable enough to trigger its effects.



You didn't just fight them… it seems they're helping you out, huh?

That's right. Your influence as Abnormalities aids us in combat, giving us special abilities.

Well, if you've got their support… I don't have to hold back at all, do I?



The amber gate gleaming with greed opens…

Super attack?

Definitely a super attack.

Magical Girl wrote: Alright, I’m about to get serious, so try and stop me.

The amber gate gleaming with greed opens… Here I come!

On the third turn against Magical Girl, she becomes untargetable and summons four Brilliant Bliss to the field, which do not attack.



Each one has 20 HP and Fatal resistance to all attack types, so we really only need to deal 10 damage to take it out. Ideally, we want each person on our side to destroy one Bliss. With two speed dice, it's trivial to focus down a Bliss and defeat it. Unfortunately for us, Chinely only has one this turn, is operating at a -2 Strength, and his Burn deck is pretty bad at dealing direct damage. Our best pages have a very real possibility of doing less than the 10 we need. Thankfully, there's a solution to this.



Chinely's die is a 4, so I have Tylana line up an Inhale Smoke on the Bliss he's targeting with her leftmost 5. This means that the order of operations will be:


-Tylana Inhales Smoke on Chinely's Bliss, gains 7 Smoke.
-Tylana Deep Drags her own Bliss, kills it easily after 35% bonus damage
-Chinely finishes off his own Bliss.

Since Inhale Smoke is a 3-8 and Tylana gets +2 Blunt power, this could lead to her killing both of them if we get unlucky… but it's the best plan we have, so I run with it.

Everyone, attack on my mark!

I've already done it.

You what?!



I thought that if I desired it to be destroyed, then it would be destroyed in a single cut. It worked.

Ugh, that sort of thinking only works for you two weirdos. Tylana!



Don't worry, boss. I went a little easy on it so Chinely could break it.

Appreciated. My arm's not working quite right.



Then let's finish 'em off!



I got this one!



Mine's down, too. That's all of them, ma'am!



Raging desire, gather in my hand and give me power!

Get ready to intercept!



The Road of Gold is Magical Girl's strongest attack, a 10-12 Individual Mass Attack which Staggers instantly on hit. As a reminder: if any one of our Librarians fail to stop this attack, she'll be given 3 Strength and Haste next turn as well. Failing this can quickly lead to losing a Librarian entirely. Thankfully, we have a trump card… er, page.



Each Librarian who defeats a Brilliant Bliss is given a copy of Fragment of Bliss next turn. This is a guaranteed 15 Block die that costs us no Light, letting us automatically win against this attack. There's no reason not to use it, either, since it vanishes after this turn.



Here I come! The Road of Gold!



Hahaha, wow! You guys really aren't bad, not bad at all!



So, does that mean you're going to help us?

So soon? But I'm only just getting started! You can't call this nearly enough!



Then have as much pain as you like!

You call this 'pain?' How about this:



In honor of your feat, I'll drop my guard just this once. Come on. Show me what you can really do.

Magical Girl wrote: I thought you were just a bunch of weaklings… Not bad, huh?

I didn’t think you could stop me… I’ll be more serious next time.

Impressive… But can you stop it a second time?

Magical Girl, in a different universe where she hit us wrote: You can’t beat me. That was easy!

How’s it feel to take the hit? Hurts a lot, doesn’t it?

I’m still going so easy… Isn’t this a pushover?

The text that comes across our screen differs based on if the attack hit us or not. Because we blocked with everyone, she's Staggered this turn and we'll only need ~20 damage to kick her over into her next phase.



Because of that, I opt to use Energy Cycle with Tiphereth to get her Charge back up to 10, and Omni fires off a pair of To Overcome Crisis to refill his hand. The other two are doing fine.



Bamboo-hatted style iaijutu: Golden Cutter! How's that for a good hit?!

I actually felt that. I haven't felt anything but desire in… ah, how long has it been?



I knew I wanted to exercise a bit… but I didn't think it'd be so… fun! I can't stop smiling! I don't want to stop smiling!

She's not even reacting to our blows anymore. Does she feel them at all?

Let me try my golden cutter technique again.



Nope. Nothing. This is bad, right?

I won't stop smiling. I'll never let this feeling escape…



Let me gorge myself on this joy until I'm sated, won't you?!

This is very bad.



More… more! Fill my stomach. Bring me happiness!

She's given in fully to her desire, ma'am.

I can see that, Chinely! No way out but through it. Don't hold back!

The King of Greed wrote: I didn’t realize… that wishing for everyone’s happiness must include my own too…

I feel empty inside… Hungry… I want more things…

I’ll become happy if my stomach is full… I want to be happy…

First things first:



The fish is still there, it's just on her fist now. It counts.



The King of Greed is the most dangerous form of this fight, but it functions almost entirely the same as the last one. There's a Bliss summon on turn 3, setting up for a super attack on turn 4, which staggers her if we block it. She also has the same Endured/Ineffective resistances as her first… form…

Wait. Why is Slash Stagger Resistance at 'Normal?'

It's time for another dive into Projmoon coding!



Information Assessment claims to only work on Normal or Endured resistances. This is not true, and it can change other resistance types to 'Normal' as well. This means we can do much more Stagger damage to King of Greed than the game expects, and I actually have to throttle my damage output a bit here to avoid skipping the last phase entirely.

It turns out this random passive is actually incredibly broken due entirely to a bug!



Anyways, back to King of Greed. The reason she's so dangerous is her much more powerful offensive pages. Edacity is the most dangerous of her normal pages by far, with the first die being an absolute must-win clash target: if it wins a clash against us, it'll break all the other dice on our page. If it hits at all, it gives 5 Fragile to the target for the rest of the turn. This means that her other two attacks will be piling on 5 extra damage per hit, on top of inflicting 3 Bleed and restoring her HP with each hit—and remember, her King of Greed passive deals bonus damage equal to the stacks of Bleed on a target, as well. This can make her next turn hit super hard as well.



Fixation, in comparison, isn't quite as bad—if the first die loses its clash, it gives +2 Power to the second die, which only inflicts us with 7 Bleed and grants her 2 Strength next turn on a hit.

You know. "Only."

We still don't want to get hit by it; Crack of Dawn is basically perfect for shutting it down.



Hunger is her last page this turn, and it's just a pair of attacks that give 2 Bleed each on hit. Slay is more than enough to handle it.



Heh… I see right through you this time. Hey, Omni. Strike where I tell you!

Got it.

You all look… so tempting. Tasty..!

Now! At the seam of her glove's distortion!



AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA! I can still consume much more than this!

That definitely got us a good reaction. Keep me posted!



Then… you! I bet you taste like foie gras!

No thanks. I don't want to be eaten by anyone.

She's vulnerable again! Omni!



Have another!

Do you have thirds?

Uhh…



Don't worry, buddy! I've got your back!

Such teamwork! It really takes me back… Back before I… Ah, it was so delicious. I couldn't stop!



Boss! We've opened her up as much as we can for you! Give her another good one!



King of Greed! We'll be taking your power now!

Yes… that too is a form of greed. Power, I've eaten much of it. So tasty…



I want to eat more power, now!



Consuming Desire is her last normal attack in this phase. Each of the first two dice will give +2 Power to the final one should it lose a clash, with the final die giving 5 Bleed to us and restoring 12 HP to her on hit. It's somewhere between Hunger and Fixation in terms of threat.



No matter how many times we do it… standing off against a magical girl like this is the best!

I know, right?! She's everything I thought she'd be in a fight!

If you two keep being so hot-blooded about everything, it's a matter of time before you get yourselves killed

Again.

Sorry, ma'am. Hot-blooded is all we know how to be!

Tylana… please don't end up like them.

No need to worry about that, ma'am. I like staying alive.



You really are something else… All of my strength, and I'm only able to barely keep up.

So… hungry!!



But that's all you have. Just desire. It's never enough, is it?

Enough… enough. I remember enough. Enough…



Everyone wants more, but that means there's less for everyone else. As a magical girl of happiness… yes, I was all too aware. For everyone to be happy, some must be happy without. I'm… so hungry.



So you decided to grab some for yourself, to hell with everyone else. That falls in line with your data from before.

I didn't do anything wrong… I only ate…



It's a sad story, though, isn't it?

I guess so… but isn't it the sort of story you hear about all the time in the City?

Ahh!! Curse it all..!



Hungry… I'm so hungry. I need to eat!

Omni, you've got a portal behind you.

That would explain the look I'm getting right now.

You seem the most delicious. I'll start with you!

The King of Greed wrote: I’m so hungry… I can’t stand it…

I’ll eat… everything…

This nasty hunger tainted with greed… It’s unbearable…

In her King of Greed phase, The King of Greed still summons Brilliant Bliss with identical stats to before. Unlike before, however, we don't need each of our members to get one each. Instead, she paints a single target—and they need to defeat two of the Bliss this turn.

Unfortunately for King of Greed, she's picked Omni.



We don't have to use any finesse here, since the minimum damage roll on Yield My Flesh is a 10 after Omni's buffs, and Slay's two dice both have a minimum of 6 each. He can't possibly fail.



I also set Tylana to recover a bit of Light, and Tiphereth to get some Charge. Chinely's fine.



The King of Greed's going all out this time. You know what happens if you fail, right?

All too well.



And that means I can't fail now!



Now… I'll have a taste!



After the Bliss turn, The King of Greed uses two copies of The Road of the King on her 10 Speed Dice. Each one targets a different Speed Die of the Librarian who the portal popped up behind last turn, and it's a doozy of an attack. The first two hits are theoretically blockable if we don't have a Fragment of Bliss in hand, but we do not currently have access to any pages that can reliably stop a 8-12 third die—Overcharge or a Counter die might be able to do it with enough Power, but it's not reliable. If this third die hits either time the attack is used, then the Librarian hit instantly dies, giving The King of Greed 25 HP back. On top of this, her Voracity passive will trigger if we fail to block any of the attacks to deal 15 HP to the entire team while giving her another 25 HP back. It's very easy for her to recover a lot of HP if we don't do the mechanic properly.



Fragment of Bliss is designed to completely negate it, though, and Omni has two. We're fine.



I'm backing you up, here, so you better not screw up!

Yes, ma'am!



Hahaha… Heeheeheehee!!!





Now!

Guaah?!



The Blocks do deal Stagger damage like normal, so if she's been pushed low enough it's possible to Stagger her with them and get away with only a single Fragment of Bliss like we have here.



Once we've gotten this far, the battle is basically over.

The King of Greed wrote: ………

……Ugh.

……Haah…

The King of Greed, but if she'd hit her attack wrote: I’ll… eat it all… Eat everything in my path…

I can’t hear a sound…! Finally… it’s my turn…

Become a meal for me… Sate my desires…

Boss! I got her. Can we? Pleeeease?

Fine. You've earned one, I guess. Everyone, let's do an all-out attack or whatever.

Oh yeah! Let's get 'em, guys!



And that's that! The enemy is…



Still standing?

Try all you like… you can't take my life with an attack of this level.

The King of Greed, unlike her fellow Magical Girls, doesn't actually burst into books when her HP is depleted.

Then we're still fighting, is that it? We can keep this up all day.

No, no… this is plenty. Your efforts have sated me somewhat… for the first time in memory. I can see why my cute kohais came with you… Very well.

You'll… give us your power?

I desire to see where this path will take us both. Once that's been seen… I'll eat you all then.



You did it, Omni! That was awesome!

I couldn't have done it without your teachings.

So… this is a win, right? We got what we're after, I guess?

It's as good as we're going to get, anyways. I'm just glad this is the last of those Magical Girls that we had in the facility. Maybe now these two will calm down.



The King of Greed is overall a very fun Abnormality to face off with, with the main two sticking points being an overextension in breaking the egg, and not reading The King of Greed's Bliss phase properly before spreading the Bliss kills out instead of giving two to one person. So long as your fundamentals are solid, though, she should ultimately be a relatively simple fight.

VIDEO
Music: TipherethStory


As one’s mind is amplified, they undergo changes such as gaining new powers or transforming… That’s what they call ‘The Distortion Phenomenon’. It happens in a way that’s almost identical to how Abnormalities were made back in Lobotomy Corp.

The Distortion is the Abnormalities?

Even though the process is similar, they have fundamentally different roots.

Abnormalities… weren’t manifested out of the person’s own will, most importantly. While Abnormalities were created by someone else forcibly drawing out one’s ego from the deep well of their mind, the Distortion occurs of one’s own volition.

That means those monsters lie within everyone’s hearts, huh. The world would be a mess in no time if people just started becoming Distortions left and right.

That won’t happen. A strong motivation is needed. Look at Philip of the Dawn Office, who became the Crying Children, for instance. It took an intense heightening of his emotions for him to turn. There seems to be some kind of condition to it.

And what we did was the greatest variable that affected it…

A variable?

The Light that Angela stole for herself.



…I see.

Our plan was stopped halfway, and that was the problem. It looks like we ended up making things worse.

Is there any way to revert this?

Reclaim all the Light that was spread, and then shine over the City once again for seven days using the Light we’ve gathered.

I don’t think Angela is just gonna sit and watch.

She asked us to wait until all the light has been retrieved. She needs it for her own plans, after all.

Oh yeah, you were one of the Sephirot that accepted Angela’s plea for more time. Why, though? She’s the one who sabotaged your plan, so why be nice to her?

You’re right. I was frankly upset, but… I wanted to believe… That we need to give Angela a chance.

You’ve got the patience of a saint.

To be honest! I’m still mad at her, and I still wanna snap at her even now…



He would’ve told me to trust her just a little more…

Well, that’s impressive… You’re much stronger than me. I wouldn’t have dreamed of making that choice if I were you… I just can’t think in such long terms.

I’m sure you’ll earn that insight when you meet someone who means as much to you! So let’s hang on until then.

Someone who means a lot to me, huh…

Thanks for the kind words, kid.

I am NOT a kid!

Music: Lobby


As usual, defeating our latest Abnormality raises Tiphereth's Emotion Level maximum to 4 and gives us another trio of new Abnormality Pages to choose from.



Intemperance is very nice, especially when combined with large single-die opening attacks like Smoke or Singular Strike. A 25% chance to completely negate an enemy page after winning the first clash is a 25% chance to completely negate part of the enemy's turn.

Road to Happiness, meanwhile, requires very specific deck construction to work. +1 Endurance is difficult to take advantage of as it only powers up defensive dice, meaning it's best in decks that run a lot of Evade/Block… which Tiphereth as a whole doesn't really do much else to support.

Greed is so good that it makes up for this almost by itself, though—it's the very definition of a 'win harder' button, giving Bonus damage and HP recovery whenever we outroll the enemy in a clash by 4 or more. The enemy can also get this perk themselves, of course, which means that it's at its best in a deck that doesn't have much likelihood of losing clashes in the first place. I like comboing it with Intemperance on a deck with lots of big number and low die count pages and going to town.



With that, we're only one fight and a couple books away from getting to Tiphereth's 4th Abnormality. We've also finally cleared out all of our Abnormality Battle backlog, meaning that there's nowhere to go but forward.



That doesn't mean that we don't have options, though. Happy voting!

Next time, on Library of Ruina



Let's do this easily. Leftmost to rightmost. The far left is your much-wanted gun support.

Center left, meanwhile, is more interesting in its ramifications than its weaponry. It's good for smokers, though.

The options we get from the center right will make the rest of our coming battles much easier to handle, so doing it quickly is a good idea.

While the Charge support on the far right isn't the best, it's the simplest of the four next fights.


Videos

Tiphereth 4

Okay so, this is razor thin, so I'm going to say that the poll has ~4 more hours before I close it.

By an incredibly thin margin, the far left node is the one we're doing next. It's time for GUN. TWO!!!

Book 36: The Thumb—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


It feels like it's been a while since we've seen this screen, huh? Today, we're following up on the far left node, using the Books we got from the Index all the way back at the start of Urban Nightmare.

VIDEO
Music: StoryJinji




It’s good to see our families gathered up in one place. Let’s see… We have nineteen seats filled. That means all but one family have attended.



Still recovering, I see… Thanks for the report. Cut those friends off. We don’t need a toothless mutt that can’t rearm itself with that much time.

Understood.

Today’s issue is simple. Take your hands off L Corp’s Nest and the Library. The Thumb will be in direct command of the matter from now on. I’d like to give a word of appreciation for the families that have shown much effort. And…







The dissension does not go over well, met with immediate violence.

Who gave you the right to speak up?









However, I must say that I share their sentiment in all honesty. Why should we back out now, after we’ve given so much effort?

I understand how disappointing it may be. All of you have spilled much blood in order to earn your share of turf before the street relocation happens. I wish I could give out a sizable chunk of the land for each and every family who have gathered here, I really do. But the capo dei capi demands otherwise. We have no choice but to obey it. The situation outside is going in an unexpected direction. A party other than the Index is involved in this conflict. The ones who pilfered our fabric…

I am deeply ashamed, sire.

Don’t be too hard on yourself, now. I’ll pardon your manners by taking only your left hand.

Thank you, sire!

Do understand that we can’t let such trivial issues distract ourselves in times like this. We must carry out the capo dei capi’s orders first and foremost.





This statement is also met with immediate violence.

When one dares question the orders of their superior, take their head…

How insolent of you to question the intentions of the capo dei capi. Such impure thoughts should be uprooted. Purge every member of the Night Awls by tonight.

Yes, sire. I’ll give the word.





Yes, our boss insisted that we mustn’t let the Index claim a single area of L Corp’s Nest. But you, my friends, don’t quite have the prowess to take on the Proxies of the Index. Hence the order to pull out.

So we should save up our strength at the moment. I understand now.

This goes to the other sottocapi of the Thumb and their families as well. Our ambition is not something as short-sighted as taking over a few blocks of space. Do you understand?



Music: Lobby


The Index probably gave you a good idea already, but… yeah. The Fingers have rules and hierarchies that I’d only describe as paranoid. The specifics may be different, but if anyone breaks their rules, that poor fellow is done for. Although each Finger has its own way of purging rulebreakers.

I suppose that’s the “strategy” they evolved to survive in the City.

Spot on.

They can only survive by shoving themselves into a sturdy, unbreakable shell.

And the five Syndicates that crammed themselves all the way into the core of that hard shell and stood on the apex of the Backstreets earned the title of the ‘Five Fingers’. Welp, in any case, our job as the staff of the Library is to receive any guests that come here, and the Thumb is no exception.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Our first taste of true Star of the City combat.


Videos

Thumb 1











Mmmmmmmmm…!

So we'll be receiving the Thumb at last… I'll go make the request now. Are you satisfied?

Thaanks… It's a good staart…

You're seeming a bit more on edge than usual, kiddo.

That… 'uunderbooss,' was it..? I rememberr… that faace…

Ah, so this is about that time you got kicked out of the J district's casinos.

Mmm… It's been over ten years… In the City… I didn't really think he'd still be aliive…

This level of obsession over being kicked out of a casino seems a little much, even for a human's fragile psyche.

It was… how I paid for finding aaliens… Without it, I was penniless… Mmm… until the L Corp acceptance letter arrived a week laater…

When did you find time to apply?

You had to applyy..?

Setting that aside, it doesn't look like he's coming this time. That was the sense I got, anyways. We'll probably have to take out his minions first, like with the Zwei.

Then I'll have to make sure we wiin… at all coosts… … … Hey, D.A.D, Null_Miaa..?

Need some help?

Mmm… I'm not that great at the 'people' part of card games… I can't read bluffs, or figure out a person's favorite playstylee… I just find what's optimaal… and aalien buddy isn't great at it eeither… Could you help make the plan todaay..?

Making sure we don't lose at any cost, right? Sure, kiddo. I don't mind putting a thumb on the scale for us.

This hardly seems like the time for puns.

Which is why making them is twice as important, kiddo. :mmmhmm:

Book 36: The Thumb—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


Kurokumo..? They won't hold up against our opponents.

It's… straategy… D.A.D. explained it… buut…

Just trust me on this one, mummy. I wouldn't want to give up the surprise before the right time.

Fine. I'll simply observe you for now.

This isn't exactly a full standard Smoke floor, given that the Rose in the back isn't using any and most builds use something else over Smoking Pipe, but 3/4ths of our Librarians today are running some kind of dedicated smoke-based Emma/Puppets build, with two running Singleton. Yesod is sitting out for the moment.



The Thumb is a series of 4-vs-4 battles, with us having 1 floor to take out 2 groups of opponents. All of our enemies today will be basic Thumb Soldatos, with identical stats.



Thumb Soldatos are our first instance of mooks who have Speed passives, and their other ability, Ammo Supply, is their gimmick. We'll discuss it more thoroughly in another fight, as it's easier to explain when we're the one using the Thumb Key Page—but there's one more thing here that's worth noting…

In Star of the City, the enemies have also learned how to attribute Full Stop passives: the generic Soldato pages don't normally have Concentration, but here it is for us now, waiting to give us a bad time on the first turn. As we go on, we'll see a variety of attributed bonus abilities that increase our enemy's power levels to something much closer to our own. The kid gloves are off, causing a lot of players to hit a wall at the start of Star of the City. I'll be using the first act of this fight to try and articulate my approach to these battles, to try and show my priorities in more difficult battles.



Music: YesodBattle01


Hey, fellow Librarians. From what I've heard, you guys can practically run yourselves~?

We've been working on keeping track of things, yes.

Well then. I'm not sure how much help we'll be able to add… but you've got our support today.

Finallyy… one step awaay…

Is she doing alright?

She's really not a fan of these fellows, is all! Very human response. Perfectly normal.



So, let's take turn 1 as an example. The first thing I do is take a look at the Speed Dice of the enemies, and figure out which ones I can't redirect. Due to some bad rolls here, we have four of them—the three 6's and the 5. I take a look at who they're targeting, and with what, then either set up some kind of clash to deal with those pages, or accept that I'll be taking damage if the page is one that's annoying to beat.




Two of these dice are going right for Null_Mia, so I start by having them handle their incoming attacks. Bayonet Combat is a 2-cost that has a trio of decent dice, and adds a pair of ammunition to the user's hand. We're still not talking about Ammo yet, just know that more=good. Class and Respect, meanwhile, is the Thumb's Light restoration page. 1 cost, restores 2, gives a single chunky Slash die and 2 Bleed on hit. It's a Light restoration page, not much to say about it.

Because Null_Mia's Prescripts say Slash is getting a boost, I respond to the first with Dimensional Rift and the second with Leap. The +2 power will make most of the clashes even or better (after the enemy's +1 from Concentration), and while NM will be taking one free hit from Bayonet Combat, we'll be handing out a freebie on Leap; the turn is a net neutral with us being either even or very slightly favored to win the clashes. That's about what we want to aim for—crushing wins generally aren't ideal right now. More importantly, Null_Mia is going to be guaranteed to gain an Emotion Level and keep their Light high.




T.Hinman, as the target of the other two dice we can't redirect, has an interesting conundrum. The Bayonet Combat targeting her is a page I could probably stop with Repressed Flesh, but because Null_Mia is throwing her biggest damage page at the other opponent, I'd rather throw Repressed Flesh there too. I decide to throw a Puppet Blockade at the Bayonet and take it as a loss to generate emotion while tossing Repressed Flesh at the very manageable Class and Respect. The Counter die on Repressed Flesh makes my life a little easier, letting me count it as a reaction to an incoming attack so I can squeeze out another one-sided attack without eating one in return.

T's all but guaranteed to eat a decent chunk of damage, but she'll be giving as good as she's taking and getting her Emotion up, so that's fine.

This leaves the enemy with four dice left at 4, 3, 2, and 2. Our side has D.A.D. with a 5 and a 3, and Kaori with a 4 and a 3. We could redirect all of these dice, but it wouldn't be a great plan. This is because one of the 2's is running right into T.Hinman with a Class and Respect—they're going to eat a Counter die and we have no reason to stop them.



I notice that Kaori has a Repressed Flesh in her hand as well, and a pair of enemies targeting her—this means that I don't actually need to redirect any attacks with her, she's already covered. I have D.A.D. use their Deep Drag to stop this Bayonet Combat instead. The first die will hit, and there's a chance that we'll negate some or none of the damage afterwards with the Evade die—if it fails, no problem. We primarily want to spread Smoke with it and draw an extra page. Without any good secondary plays, I just slap a one-sided Smoking Pipe down as well in order to gain a bit of Smoke and Light back. It's not ideal, but it'll do.

That leaves Kaori. I take a peek at both of the enemy pages targeting her.




Reload is a page we haven't seen yet—it's the Thumb draw page, letting them draw 1 page while also giving them an Ammo on top of it (again, more ammo=good). Most importantly for us, it has two dice instead of one. I decide to let it hit Kaori's counter die, and clash her Repressed Flesh against the Class and Respect to maximize our possible damage output.



This is basically how my opening turns always go. My goal on turn 1 is to get our floor's Emotion up through getting clashes, while minimizing the damage our team takes and picking 1-2 enemies to really pile damage onto to remove actions from the enemy side. My secondary goal is to spread out the damage I do have to take among my Librarians to avoid any one taking too much at once.



Rather quiet, these humans are.

It's because of respect. We're higher rank than they are; they have to mind their manners or they'll have to punish themselves.

Even in the middle of combat?

Especially then.



How unfortunate! That makes it impossible to know if these outfits will wear on their psyches!

It's not very likely, I'm afraid~ Those people whose books you put on are just underlings to them… meant to serve a purpose and not much else. Rather unfortunate, isn't it?



Not at all… it just means part A of the plan doesn't mean much.

Part A? So this is a multistage thing?



We mostly wear the main body we're using, so if they had good intel they'd know what attacks to expect.

Ahh… I see where you're going!

We turned the idea on its head: We look to be using bodies they're familiar with, but we've got different ones underneath. It's a strategy we haven't used often.

So they don't have any clue what to expect! Dastardly… I'll remember that one!



They seem to have adjusted quickly, however! _{The human ability to adjust to changing circumstances is still something worthy of respect..!}



If it's a short-term solution, then we'd better smoke 'em while we've got 'em.



Ghh…

Huh. You're hesitating?

Ahh… Aam I..? I aam…



That's riight… I'm not the saame…



I can dooo somethiing..! Hahaa..!



I'll tear them aall… to biits..!

Is she okay?



She really liked her casinos, and they kicked her out.



The Abnormality's help is coming up. Who's—

Diibs..!

Fine by me.



Our turn 1 went about as perfectly as it could have, with two enemies winding up nearly Staggered and only minimal damage to our side. While this seems okay… it's a bit deceptive. The Thumb doesn't usually throw out their good pages until turn 2.



Those good pages are Suppressing Shot, Shock Rounds, and Focus Fire. They're all similar, so I'll talk about them all together. Each one discards 1 or more pages with a low cost from the hand, and if those pages happen to be Ammunition, the page gains power. Ammunition pages all have a cost of 0, lower than any other standard Thumb page, meaning that if they have one, these pages will discard it to power themselves up—and the vast majority of them played pages that guarantees them at least 1 in hand.

Of the three, Suppressing Shot is the easiest to handle, as even with the +1 Power it's not much stronger than other Ranged pages we've seen. Shock Rounds looks much stronger on the surface, but since a glitch has locked its bonus to +1 Power as well it's only a little stronger than Suppressing Shot—the increase in power to its first die can make blocking it a little harder, but it's basically the same page. Then there's Focus Fire… Any time Focus Fire comes out, we have to plan around Focus Fire. Its 7-17 lead die isn't a die that we can't easily block, and any time we see it it's likely to have a 9-19 range or better. In most cases, there are two ways to deal with Focus Fire:

-Accept that we are getting hit by the first attack, and either ignore the page entirely or use a page with a Block die or a die we can afford to lose on first. This means taking guaranteed damage, but it frees us up to use one of our dice to attack somewhere else, or mitigates the damage somewhat in exchange for blocking the second die and striking back in earnest. This is still kind of , though, because the second die is still a minimum of 8-10—roughly on par with Repressed Flesh.

-Try to clash the attack with something like BHK's Yield my Flesh or a Deep Drag. Yield My Flesh is a 10-15 in most instances, which is far from a guaranteed success… but losing that clash is fine too, as it gives us To Claim Their Bones. Deep Drag on an Emma-Puppet build, meanwhile, is a 9-22; this puts it in the same general ballpark as Focus Fire's opening die. The Evade die, however, is very likely to lose to the second shot, meaning that the blocker will take a hit from it instead.

Overall, my goal with Focus Fire is to spread the damage out and try to keep my team on their feet.






I set up clashes of various sorts for four of the gun pages, but this leaves a Suppressing Shot on a 5 and a Focus Fire on a 4 both targeting D.A.D. After thinking about it, I opt to try and blunt the attack from Focus Fire and hit the bottom enemy.



Unfortunately, I use the wrong speed die.



I also don't notice at all, meaning that D.A.D. is tanking both attacks directly. This is a very small mistake, but one that'll cost them a lot of HP.

Anyways, my overall goal here is to do two things: the first is to minimize the HP/SR that our side is losing, and the second is to Stagger both of the Thumb who have single-digit SR. If we can do that, we'll be in great shape.



They're using their guns all of a sudden!

Take it as a sign of pride. They think we're a big deal.

Of course they do! We're one of those Star of the City things, and humans are slaves to labels!



Why, simply call something a 'sale' and look how they react! It's as fascinating as it is foolish!



The sharper-eyed among you may notice that getting hit is giving our Librarians stacks of Paralysis and Disarm for next turn, and also that that isn't listed on any of the pages I've shown.

To you I say: Good job paying attention! It's because of Ammunition, we'll talk about it later.



Remember… don't let a single one escaape..!

Sure. We wouldn't want another Streetlight Office, now, would we?



Ahh… might need a hospital after this.

D.A.D. gets their licking from both of the enemy's Ranged pages, knocking their SR down to a dangerous level.



Then the rules say we send this one to the morgue.



That's the way. Just don't let them blunderbuss their way into a victory. :mmmhmm:



The bottom Thumb Soldato has exactly 1 SR left, and this is not great since we put Null_Mia into lockdown mode to finish off the other one. Yesod's floor is at its best when we can take more actions than our opponents, and struggles when the enemy has the same number of Speed Dice as ours. Because of this, pure power-based Yesod strategies can struggle on Tier 1 of Star of the City: all of the matches here are even. We need to Stagger the bottom Soldato ASAP in order to get that upper hand. We also want to redirect that 2 off of Null_Mia if possible; they're just going to have to eat the 5 pointing at them. Our Speed Die luck has been pretty bad in this fight, not letting us redirect things fairly frequently—the risk of using Emma's 3-5 die against a group of enemies that have a 2-6.



Anyways, I do what I can. D.A.D.'s 5 die should go off before the enemy's 5 die, stopping their second attack from hitting D.A.D. entirely by Staggering them. Meanwhile, T.Hinman and Kaori try to Stagger the other two opponents with Deep Drags. If this turn goes well, then this stage of the fight is basically over with only minimal damage to Null_Mia and D.A.D.



These mob guys still pack a bit of a punch…



But we're a cut above them. No worries.



Ghh… While we can't complain about the power, it would be ideal if we had a way to avoid the cooldown period. These gun butts hurt.



Worry not, fellow human…s! I have your back!

There's something seriously off about that one… Can't quite put my finger on it.

Ah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it.



This one, too… They're aall down..!



This time, how about we-

I already heear it..! Don't disrupt my rhythmm…

Nevermind. You've got it.

Her emotions are running high today… Because of a casino? You're sure?

Really enjoys the places!

Mmm… well, alright.

Music: YesodBattle02


This turn went well. Everyone's taken around 25%-50% of their HP, but we've basically wrapped things up for the first act.



I'll take them aall out… to draw their leeader out with their boooks..!

Real fan of the initiative, kiddo, but you can leave some for the rest of us.



It's fiine..!



This is paaybaack..!



If you get too emotional, you're bound to make a mistake. Just get the job done and clock out without making eye contact with anyone. That's how we got by.



Good job, team. You did it, with barely any help at all~

We clean up pretty well around here, I'd say.

Hardly. Look at you, D.A.D. Bleeding out all over the place… I'll take the field from here.

Heh… All part of the plan.

Music: GuestBattle01


The second wave is more of the same, giving us another four Thumb Soldato to deal with.

When taking on multiple acts which have lower enemy counts than our floor's total number of Librarians, we get the option to swap out the Librarians being used between battles. This lets us effectively heal one of our members at the cost of their Emotion Level decreasing—but since we don't lose any Floor Levels all this means is that it'll take longer to get the next one.

We were hoping you'd want to join in around now, sir.

Oh? What were you planning, team?

At this point, the enemy's been watching our opening tactics. They'll know that we're using weapons that don't match our outward appearance.



But I'm fighting exactly how I look like I should be. Lying to them by telling the unvarnished truth… It's underhanded.

I didn't want to lose, no matter whaat..!

I didn't say I disliked it. It won't work for long, but we'll take advantage of it while we can.

Have fun out there, kiddos. I'll nurse my wounds and root for you.



Music: YesodBattle02


This'll woork… Deefinitely..!

Hm.

Stay focused, don't let them get time to take the upper hand.



If we're not letting them get the upper hand… We think we'll go all out.

Doo iit..! I'll join youu..!



They're certainly stronger than our last opponents, I'll give them that.



Strong as they may be, they can't seem to hold up well to the Index's attacks

They are roughly even in overall power… it makes sense, if you think about it.



Just focus on keeping yourselves healthy. These are trained killers.



In that case…



We should be going all out, yes?

Mmmhmm..!



This time… thiis time…



Yoou suffer in sileence..!



A 6 and a 5 pointed at Null_Mia on the turn where the Thumb likes using their guns. This might sting.



Kaori, you're showing a dangerous amount of bloodthirst. It may impair your judgment. What exactly happened?

As she said, she was bounced from a casino!

I don't buy that that's all there is to it. What happened?

I don't wanna taalk about iit… I just want to huurt them… It's fiine… As long as the job gets doone…



And I'll get it doone… withoout cowering in a coorner…

Don't just jump ahead like that! Null_Mia needs someone to cover them!



Too… late.

Dammit! Hinman, do what you can!



Understood, sir! This enemy's off guard and ready to handle.

I've got iit..!



Hm… Boss, have you noticed? All of the Abnormalities have been gravitating around Kaori this time.

I have. These Thumb guys have definitely gotten her riled up… I suppose it's because of that.

Meaning that I'll be able to completely control the flow of battle by angering others? Muahahaha… Splendid.



Going for the kiill..!

Kaori, that one's got a bead on you.

I knoow… I'll be fiine..!

This position isn't exactly ideal, since we're all going to be taking some major lumps this round. In hindsight, Clean wasn't the best pick here either—with how speed dice have been rolling the entire fight, I should've realized that I wouldn't be getting much use out of it. Oh well.



I've tried, Null_Mia… but there's nothing I can do about that one coming at you.

Uugh… Our head…

You'll be fine, humans are pretty tough!



I'll just outlast this oone thing..! And theen..!

30 SR versus Focus Fire is normally very safe, especially with a leading Block die to blunt the first shot.



But I forgot about Rhythm's effect… and the bonus Stagger damage it does—highlighted above. If I'd realized this was coming, someone else would have targeted that Staggered Soldato… we couldn't actually do anything about this Stagger, as Repressed Flesh was the only 3-cost in Kaori's hand. :shepface:



Not… noow..!

Hinman, there's no time! Take them down! Null_Mia, don't you die on us!



We're still… here. That one hurt.



I've covered this one!, sir!



That makes both of them, then. It'll have to do.



Hinman, cover for Kaori. Null_Mia, defend yourself. I'm going on the offensive.

Sir!



Ohhh no you don't! That's my human pal, you know! Also I am human.

Hmm… If you say so~



Gah… Not so successful on our part, sir.

Your health's looking terrible. Don't get hit again, got it?

We'll do our best.



We're all on our last legs here. This is why it's so important to maintain your discretion at all times…



Kaori. You've been off this entire reception. You're making mistakes, blind to the enemy's circumstances. What happened?

We'll talk laa—

That's an order, Kaori.

Mmm..!



I'm noot… thaat great at people… But I needed the mooney… Soo…



I needed to wiin… to reesearch..! So… That iis…

…You're still circling around it. Is it that painful?

…Mmm. Back theen… We made a deeal…



Before that daay… I had a partner…



I could straategize… and they could convince aanyone to believe up was down..! We were inviincible..!



But the Thuumb..!



That baastaard..!



Hahaaaa..! That despair of losing my liifeline… Not knowing how I'd keep searching for aaliens..!



I think I understand now. So when you realized we'd be getting guests from the City…

It was a loongshot… but I was hoping… And theen…

You saw that 'Kalo' human.

I don't… belieeve in fate… Buut…



Too good of an opportunity to pass up, was it?

Yeeah…



Those invitatioons… They came through more than I could have hooped..! Once we put theese guys up, suurely…

Music: YesodBattle03


So that's why you've been so sloppy. You stopped looking at these opponents when the fight started.

Our plan was pleenty… It brought us heere, after all…

And at what cost? The entire team is a brush away from death, aside me.



It woorked… So it's fiine…

It's most certainly not fine.



…We're not doing this again.

But I haave t—

Overwhelmingly powerful blunt weapons and hindering our foes are our specialties—The Thumb's suits are resistant to our weaponry, and their ammunition can outdo both our power and our lockdown. The best plan you all could put together nearly killed the whole team. Leave it to a better suited group.

Buut..!

Let's wrap things up here… We're threatening to bleed out, so we'd like the reception to end before we talk more.

Yes. I'll listen to all your complaints, but first we need to patch you up.



The Thumb is one of the two 'recommended' entry paths into Star of the City, and it's the easier one, even if it doesn't necessarily look it from how close we were to losing people. The most important part of Star of the City combat is understanding the game's fundamentals and playing them well—for the Thumb, that mostly means knowing how to deal with all of their ranged attacks. Their melee attacks aren't anything too special.

Music: Result


Cutting it close out there, eh kiddos?

Close only counts in rocket launchers and grenades!

May we never fight someone using those, then.

If I don't say anything noow, sir, then he'll be a boook..!

Then get your answers from its pages. That should be fine.

It's not the same if I don't seee hiim..!

No means no, Kaori. I'm not risking the entire team so that you can chase some selfish dream.

Mmm..! I neeed to face that uunderbooss..!

No matter how often you ask—

What if we make an opportunity?

An opportunity? Explain.

Sweet Pea, Twee, and Evil Kit have been itching for some real action anyways. We'll make an opportunity for her. Just her and the grizzled guy… It shouldn't be any trouble at all, and nobody on your team has to take on any risks.

You know that these aren't some simple opponents. You'd be facing the full wrath of a Finger, while having to hold back yourselves.

We can handle it. I have full confidence in my team.

Why are you going so far..?

I just don't see any reason why we should be the only ones allowed to face our pasts~

I have no reason to refuse, then.

But if your team can't do it, we're abandoning the plan. Gathering the light is more important.

Of course, of course~

I'll be waiting on yoou, then..!

A proper fight against a powerful foe… Are you excited too, Sweet Pea?

Oh, you bet I am. Let's show them who's the strongest!



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


They also seemed to use bullets in various ways, as opposed to the Full-Stop Office we received some time ago. These people would swing the gun itself as a melee weapon, too.

Like I said before, bullets are expensive. Even though the bullets the Thumb uses are self-made, the price is anything but affordable. They utilize bullets in clever ways depending on the situation, but won’t actually fire them unless it’s a huge deal.

Does that mean they mostly use their guns as a close-range weapon like that, then?

Yup. A good swing can easily crush human bones. The guns are made using pretty nifty technology and materials.

Was there anything else you wanted to know about them, ma'am?

No, but there is still one more thing for you to do. The final floor has appeared.

Final? As in, no more after this?

That's correct. The day that our path ends is coming closer.

Alright. You wanted me to check it out, right?

It's good that you know. I'll provide the details…



VIDEO
Music: HokmaStory




Hey, Hokma. I’m Roland, the guy who’s going to be bringing books here from now on.

And you double as Angela’s servant.

Yep, a servant I am.

You seem rather content with your occupation.

It’s not about satisfaction or anything, I’m just doing this ‘cause the only other option is death. You aren’t exactly fond of me or Angela, huh. Judging from your overbearing attitude right out the gate.

I have no obligation to treat you ilk with any courtesy or greeting. Any faith I would have has long been crushed.

I bet you’ll make good friends with Yesod down there.



And Angela stomped that wish, got it. Plus you probably loathe me as well since I’m her full-time assistant.

…

I mean, you already had an agreement and everything, didn’t you? You’re supposed to help her complete the Library and find the one book she seeks, right?

Do you truly believe that the one singular book exists as Angela claims?

What? Duh, she wouldn’t be looking for it if it didn’t exist…

Indeed, she firmly believes that the invitation will lead her to that book somehow.

Then let me ask: How could you put your faith in the invitation and Angela so easily? Including her promise to give you freedom once her goal has been met.



So that is the basis of your faith.

How preposterous.

What’s your point, old man?

Just bring me more books. I have spent much time in boredom until now.

Music: Lobby


At last, the Floor of Religion is open. It opens after any tier 1 Star of the City reception—we didn't happen to get lucky here. Since Hokma will actually fight in battles, though, we only get two other Librarians.



Huuuuooogh… that's a big stretch. Feels like we've been sleeping forever, huh?

Some time has passed since we were put to sleep, yes.

Seems like the situation's gotten complicated, too. All sorts of stuff is going on with that Argalia guy… I wonder what his deal is?

I couldn't say. We're sure to find out eventually, I'm certain.

We'll just have to work hard to make up for lost time… Nice to be working with yo—



—ou? Weren't you in another timeline because of that clock Abnormality?

Since when has that ever stopped me?

Welcome back. You'll be pleased to know that your little sacrifice worked. Unfortunately, it seems none of us shall be resting yet.

Yeah, I got the gist of things while we were asleep. Gotta' say, I really thought that last death would be the final one… Imagine my surprise when I'm back here, all over again.

I expected you to be angrier, in truth. You failed to escape once again.

Yeah, well… thirty years in the Outskirts'll make you nostalgic for a shit job with some decent food. I'm going to go check the place out. Laters, old timer.

Hmph. Who are you to call me 'old timer?'



Now that Hokma's floor is up and running, we've got a new Abnormality Battle available for Keter. We're not going to a poll just yet, however. I said that we'd be doing each node in entirety before moving on…



And The Thumb isn't quite done with us yet.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Kalo gets an offer he can't refuse.


Videos

Thumb 2
Hokma 1

New Key Pages



_{I forgot to record opening the Thumb Soldato Key Pages, and because I pulled all of them off camera you get Evil Kit today.}


New Combat Pages



Thumb Exclusive:

The fanart post has been updated once more. There's a lot of neat stuff in it! As always, to be fair.

Book 36: The Thumb—Chapter 3

Music: Lobby


Liu Association Section 2, Volume 1… I don't remember receiving anyone from the Liu Association here. Does that mean we're stuck?

Not at all. We appear to have one in stock.

We do?! When the heck did we see those guys?

Oh… uhh… I can explain, sir. I was looking for new foes to hone my oboe skills, and I ran into some people I didn't recognize.

An opponent you didn't recognize? How'd it end?

Earlier… wrote:

Not well.

But I did manage to book one of them before I ate pavement!

And as it so happens, it is the book that we required.

So we've only got the one. No margin for error, then?



In the event this does fail, we can simply get more. We can only be delayed, not stopped.

Ah, true enough. Let's hope it doesn't come to that, then.

VIDEO
Music: StoryJinji


The streets are gonna reek of blood, eh?

It’s not just the streets, the entire Nest is awash with blood…

The hell is the Liu Association up to anyway, poking around an abandoned Nest? The Index and R Corp. are already keeping us swamped… Besides, there’s been an awful lot of Distortion sightings around here these days. All those feuds took out half my good men.

Everyone seems to be looking for clues on the Distortion. They must’ve determined that the Library sitting at the center of the Nest has to be closely related to that phenomenon. And it’s true that the Distortion has been happening here more frequently than any other place.



Sit down now. As you have said, the Index, the Liu, and R Corp. are ransacking this Nest.

It’s not just them, we’ve received reports that the Blue Reverberation and the Purple Tear are also present.

The Blue Reverberation, you say…

The one who took our fabric turned out to be working for him.

I see… What do you think is attracting the Blue Reverberation and his gang here?

It must be the Library. Several well-known individuals and groups fell victim to it, too.

Whoever takes over that Library is gonna be the victor of this tedious battle.

But whenever we try to go there ourselves, the invitation to the Library just vanishes. It’s as if they’re refusing to let us in…

That was true up until now. We tried acquiring it through our subordinates, and claiming it from others with force, but nothing worked…



It says they have a book of the Liu Association up for grabs.

That’s the book we need the most right now. If we can find a way to deal with the Liu Association, then we’re guaranteed to win at least half of this Nest.

It’ll give us a chance to stifle them for sure…

Music: StoryNervous


What’s a Messenger of the Index doing here.

If you say anything stupid, I’ll pull out your tongue…

You guys are always on edge. I’m not here to see you bleed today.

And I reckon you aren’t here to throw cheap jabs at us, either?

Sottocapo Kalo? May I speak to you for a moment?

I appreciate the Index for upholding basic manners. Go on ahead.

This is just my opinion, but… I don’t think you should go. You’re most likely to turn into a book there. If the underboss managing this area ends up disappearing, it’d only be a matter of time until the Index seizes this place.



Well, this is a rare occasion. A Messenger, stating their own opinion instead of delivering Prescripts?

……

…I only have the patience to acknowledge the Prescripts of the Index, not the personal ramblings of a mere Messenger. Tell the zealots of the Index remaining in L Corp’s territory this: Once we’ve sorted out this matter, we shall pull out their teeth and tongues, and feed them to the hounds as punishment for insulting the Thumb.

Although you won’t be alive to relay that message with your own mouth.



…When one dares irritate their superior, take their tongue.

Music: Lobby


They don’t care who the offender may be.

It certainly looks like they don’t. Not even the member of another Finger seems to be exempt from their rules. And remembering what I heard last time… the echelon appeared to matter as well.

That’s right. You have to be courteous to people whose position is higher than yours. You can’t casually mention their name or speak before they do. You need permission for every little thing.

Well, there are exceptions, strictly speaking… A high class person can theoretically lend the authority of their position to someone else, but it’s a rare case. Generally speaking, a Grade 1 Fixer is on the same position as a capo in their hierarchy.

You can’t even make eye contact with a person whose class is higher than you… Neither of those Fingers are right in the head, I gotta say.

I don’t know about that. I actually like the straightforwardness of it.

Music: Entrance


I’m unharmed, sire.

It wasn’t easy, though. The Index is a bothersome bunch, even just a Messenger can be a pain in the ass to deal with.

Those who don’t respect their superiors need to be taught a lesson in manners…

Are you going to be alright, sire? The words of that Messenger had a point, it may have been safer… and beneficial for the Thumb if you stayed in the base.

Shouldn’t you be worrying about your own safety first?



I am Angela, the director and librarian of my role’s namesake.

That’s intriguing. I heard that the director of this place was a machine… but I suppose that’s not entirely true.

It’s rather irritating to hear you go on about whether I’m a machine or not right in front of my face, you know?

The ruling figure of a Star of the City stands at a higher echelon than a sottocapo such as myself… You ought to pay her due respect, Katriel.

…That was impolite of me. I’ll pay my price now. Denis, please cut off my tongue.

Okay…





Katriel may not be flawless, but I appreciate how she’s quick to reflect on her mistakes. Please forgive our rudeness with this, madam.

Sigh… He was right about you all being sick in the head… May you find your book here, I suppose.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Using an Emotion Level 3 max floor against Star of the City receptions.


Videos

Thumb 3








Now, let's see… There's still the matter of that strange being the Rats ran into… I'll pin that as an open question. Meanwhile… The Carnival's fabric was taken by Tanya… for her boss. We've seen it as some new, powerful suits on Eileen and Pluto just afterwards, meaning that Tanya's boss is likely the Blue Reverberation… Based on that design, we can assume the Puppeteer is working with him as well… but wait, that can't be right.

The train left before the fabric was stolen… but he wore it on the train itself. But that would mean…

How did they get it to him on the train? He kept his mentality intact because of stasis… moving in or out of that place was supposed to be impossible.

Still being a neurotic mess about the smallest things, I take it?

Talow?! What the—where'd you come from?!

Upstairs, obviously. Nice corkboard. Lots of… string.

Don't give me that. Someone's got to make sense out of all the stuff going on out there, and it's not really something I can trust to-

Yeah, yeah. You've gotta' keep busy or you'll go crazy under the sense of powerlessness. I get it.

I'd really like it if you stopped sounding like you knew everything all the time.

Good news, then. I don't have 10,000 years of endlessly repeating bullshit to clue me in on everything this time. Which… leads us to why I'm here.

Ah. And here I thought you just missed lording it over me.

Okay, the other reason I'm here. You are way too easy.

_{Darn tootin'!}

Oh shut up, Dimi! Anyways, what'cha need?

Everything. Starting with what happened after I left…

Couldn't say. The plan worked, then it suddenly didn't because of Angela. I died pretty soon after everything went to shit.

_{Of course you did, y'stupid hero complex.} Okay. Answer me this, then: On my way down I saw your two sidekicks turning books into all kinds of snacks. Do you know how that works?

Yeah, I could show you.

Then let's start there, and I'll see if I can help with your little conspiracy board in the meanwhile.

Fine. I probably need another set of eyes on it at this point, anyways…

What, Malkuth is too busy?

Don't push your luck, Talow.

Book 36: The Thumb—Chapter 4

Music: GuestBattle01


I think these Hauler abilities from the Sweepers will help us take care of the enemies today. If nothing else, we'll keep going longer than they will.

Pretty smart… but remember when we were practicing before? We can regain our balance between sorties, so using both might just be overkill.

We'll see how it works out, then.

Nothing too unusual here, though we're breaking out the Sweeper passives to make sure these guys won't die so easily…



Evil Kit, meanwhile, is debuting the Thumb Soldato's keypage! I've given him all of the 'on discard' support, alongside increases to his starting hand size. The latter was a mistake, for reasons we'll get into later. Deckwise, I'm satisfied with this build—though I'd probably trade in at least one Shock Rounds now. I… _{didn't notice they were a draw page at the time.}



Today's guests are a 3-act affair, and we've got two floors to fight them with. The first act is three Thumb Soldatos, led by Denis.



Denis is a cut above normal Soldatos, recovering an extra Ammunition for every 3 that he uses. He also gets Pierce Mastery for an additional +1 on all Pierce dice. Outside of being Soldato+, there's not much else to say about him.



Music: ChesedBattle01


There's actually a flag in the Thumb Soldato's AI that changes their text based on whether or not a boss is present. If they are, the Soldatos stay completely silent. It's the little things.

It's a pleasure to accept your offer. Let's get to business.

Ah, come now. No need to be so formal~ We're all about to die here, anyways.

That's against the way of the Thumb. Apologies.

Mmm… If you say so.



The only notable thing on this turn is one of the Soldatos leading with a Focus Fire. It won't be nearly as strong since their hand can't have Ammunition in it yet, but that 7-17 die is still a terror—we have Twee shield it.



Sniff sniff… sniff…

Aha! It's right down there! That's where that smell's coming from now!

My my… what's all this?

…Binah? What are you doing in the observation room?

I'm simply observing one of my dear librarians… but it seems I've wandered into something interesting.

It's a fight, isn't it? Who do you think will win?

I'd think that was obvious. We will!

Oooh… I haven't seen Sweet Pea doing fights in ages! I wanna see, Miss Binah! Can we?

Yes, I think we'll watch.

That's… don't think you have to. We've got things handled here~

Now, now. I'll simply offer suggestions should I feel like it, and you can act on them should you feel like it. It should be familiar enough.

…Alright. I suppose we're all working towards the same purpose now anyways.

My, your ability to quickly adjust to changing circumstances is certainly what should be expected of a former 'elite.' But still… That smile doesn't quite reach your eyes, Chesed.

What a coincidence. Neither does yours~



It looks like we're out of time, sir!



I'm fine, though. Looks like they didn't break out anything too dangerous.



For real… so far this is child's play. I can't believe they nearly took out Yesod's team before.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses.



They still can pack a punch, you know! And they're to pay for it!



If I may?

By all means… if you're striking me, you've certainly got something on your mind.

Your followers lack discipline. I understand the nature of this bargain… but can you beat anyone like that?

I can see how that may concern you…



It's a good thought… between the city's rigid order and our own chaotic element… what will the result of such a blend be?

Maybe a macchiato?

Yes, I think that'd work. I'll try mixing one up when we're done here.



If it's a macchiato, y'better color the milk blue first… because we're going to wind up on top!

All this talk of unrefined swill… it speaks to your confidence that you find the time for such trivialities in the midst of a pitched conflict.

Forget about all that! I've got some important news!



Oooh! Sounds important! What's up, Kitto?

It seems that in all of the fuss, I've has managed to manufacture some specialized rounds to use!



Looks fancy! Don't you think so, Patchy?

I keep telling you all not to call me that… Ugh. They're fine, I guess.

Now that we have some, it's time to talk about Ammunition! Ammunition is created automatically through certain Thumb Key and Combat page passives, and is why the extra draw in Evil Kit's build was a mistake—we need open spots in our hand or else we can't spawn in the Ammunition we need. The Ammunition pages themselves come in three flavors:



The three Ammunition pages are all single-die 0-cost Ranged Combat Pages, with Flame being Blunt and the other two being Slash. We Exhaust these pages by either discarding them or playing them, and when we do so all ranged attacks we make during this turn will gain a bonus effect based on the Ammunition Exhausted.

Armor-piercing: Enemy dice clashing against ranged attacks get -1 Power.
Frost: On hit, ranged attacks also inflict 1 Paralysis and 1 Disarm next turn.
Flame: On hit, ranged attacks inflict 2 Burn.

These effects apply to all ranged attacks we make including those of the Ammunition themselves, and they stack. If we were to play our Frost Ammunition and our Flame Ammunition this turn, both of the shots would inflict 1 Paralysis, 1 Disarm, and 2 Burn.



If we play both the Suppressing Shots in Evil Kit's hand instead, however, each one would discard one of the 0-cost Ammunition pages to give themselves +1 Power. In addition, all four ranged attacks would inflict 1 Paralysis, 1 Disarm, and 2 Burn on hit.



So we do that.

We're also looking at a pair of Focus Fires. Chesed Deep Drags one, and Twee goes for a Crack of Dawn on the other—it's going to lose the first clash, but it's got a Block die and Twee will give them Burn stacks in exchange.

Alright! Let's take this gun for a ride and see what it can really do!



Ah… crap!



This same guy again, man..! But you'll get yours, or my name isn't Evil Kit!



It's hard to see because it goes by so quickly, but Denis's expression changes when he's using his gun.



It's much easier to see in the artbook. He's out here having a great time.

Anyways, Chesed completely stuffs his Focus Fire.



Regarding your previous statement… it seems your rigid team is having problems with our flexibility, no~?

The Smiling Faces' smoke… with that strange body.



And those high-class workshop weapons we've never seen before…



And her… Well, the Blade Lineage is the Blade Lineage, in the end.

Hey EK, I'll grab a slice of revenge pie for you!

Appreciated!



Now… from hell's heart, I inconvenience thee!

And now… our own technique… What is this place..?



It's been some time since I've been able to enjoy my favorite music, Chesed. I must thank you for that, if nothing else.

Tea, really? Why not try something a little more tasty?

Drinking your preferred beverage would be lowering my standards by a margin far greater than any should have to.

Sniff sniff! Waitasec, I know that smell!



It's a cutie, isn't it! Oh boy, I didn't realize they'd still be coming to help us with fighting again!

I have an idea. Let me take hold of the Woodsman's hand, would you all~?

Of course, boss.

_{I wonder if I'll get to grow wings again…}

You got wings? That sounds pretty cool.



While their leader is open and could easily be brought low, it is important that your eyes capture the full extent of our goal, rather than obsessing over victories or tragedies that are right in front of you.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing.

Um… translation, anyone?

They're saying not to target the Capo just yet.



I'll draw the fire of the one bringing out the big guns. You guys handle the rest.

I'm all for letting you take the bullet, Tweeds, but you're still not ordering me around.

Split the shots with you, then?



Works for me. Let's do it.

What are you going to do about that bottom one, though?

I wouldn't worry about them. Looks like they're trying to hit people up close.



It'd be a shame if you tripped over a bullet en route..!

But the paralysis won't do anything to them if you stun them…

They'll still feel it. Wounds are the best place to store salt, after all!



In the meanwhile, Twee tanks her third Focus Fire this combat…



She's still running fine, though.

Wasn't pleasant, but I got through it. How's things with you, Sweet Pea?



Easy peasy, I'm basically untouchable if they're just shooting at me. Want me to cover for you?



Nah… I have this guy handled, and the bullet wounds are healing well enough.



Mmm.. I'd say things have definitely broken in our favor, wouldn't you?

Ngh…

A blend of carefully chosen flavors, ground together into a refreshing, fragrant aroma… I'd honestly take it any day over the homogenized hot leaf juice you folk have made for yourselves.

Oh? Were you trying to provoke me or the Thumb just now, Chesed?

I'm simply stating things as I see them~

I suppose even an incorrect observation has merit in its countless faults.

The bosses are squabbling over something irrelevant. That means this is my chance…



To take this one out! And now…



Wow, Sweet Pea! Twee! You killed that so fast I couldn't tell who did it! How very captain-y!

Really? Well, they must have bled out after my last attack.

Don't be ridiculous. They were on fire, clearly I was the one who took care of it.

Well, someone's a bad loser…

_Muahahahaha!

I figure that since we won't be getting Emotion Level refills after this point, Timber will let Evil Kit leverage our lower Light into more power. I probably should have taken Rake here instead, but… really, this particular page won't make much difference to the flow of battle.

Music: ChesedBattle02


We're kind of pounding them into the ground already, after all.

So this is the end…

More or less. You could try to run, I hear that's worked well for some people~

When one disobeys their superior, crush the skull completely. We've got our orders. It's our fault for not being strong enough.





Well. They've chosen their fate. Let's not keep them waiting~

Got it!



Hey Miss Binah! That thing you asked for is all ready!

Oh, is it now? Exquisite work, dear.





That thing? And what have you got going on behind our back, I wonder~

Simple refreshment, if you must know. I find it most ideal to listen to the screams and lamentations of those hoping in vain to cling to life whilst I enjoy a properly brewed cup of black tea.



What a shame~ Seems you'll finish your cup before we have any more of those.

Perhaps. My dears have learned well; I could savor this drink for some time to come.

I did a good job!

Music: GuestBattle01


The second act of this fight is another trio of Soldatos, alongside a second Capo: Boris.

Boris is not like most members of the Thumb.



Boris does not need a gun. Boris simply punches the shit out of you.

Boris is awesome.



Music: ChesedBattle02


My turn… here's to a good, clean fight.

I'll drink to that.




Open fire, boys.

Getting really tired of these, guys!

I'll get in their way with you this time, then.



The enemy using Focus Fire on turn 1 is actually a mixed blessing. They can't possibly Stagger anyone off of it, and with a fresh hand I'm likely to have a Block die to throw in the way of the main one. Because it eats all of their Light and Soldatos don't run any 0-cost pages, it's also the only combat page they get to use. If we're lucky and they don't roll maximum on either of the two dice then next turn they'll only have 1 Light to use and basically force a single Class and Respect turn. This is actually a pretty good position to be starting in. In addition to that, we have a second ace up our sleeve.



Chesed booked a pair of opponents at the end of the last act, and because Cardiae will persist between acts, it instantly reduced the two highest-cost pages in his opening hand to 0. We've got a pair of free Deep Drags on tap, and we're absolutely going to abuse them.



Anyways, Twee tanks through her fourth Focus Fire today.



I am really getting tired of that attack.

Aww, gassed already Tweeds?

If you'd gotten shot so much you'd be complaining too, you know.

Hey, that's why I rely on not getting shot.



Not… always an option!



A respectful warning to my superiors… Looking down on us with side conversations isn't wise.

Oh? Ohoho? You sound quite irritated.

I don't like them much, I guess.



Chesed, meanwhile, Inhales Smoke…



And then does a perfectly reasonable amount of Stagger damage to turn 1 Stagger this Soldato.

That wasn't the wisest confession to make, I'm afraid~

It wasn't..?

Well… you'll see.



Mizu!

Which one?

Any of you! What's your favorite Abnormality?

Dibs! Oh oh oh, definitely dibs! Okay, my favorite one is "all of them," except the ones that smell bad, which is just the Sweepers.

Mmhm, yes, yes, I see. I see! Go on!

Ah. I getcha. Just can't let it get to me.



Boris starts using his unique pages on us this turn. The first one is Steel Knuckles, which most people say is one of the best pages in the game for solo strategies. And... yeah. Yeah.

Two Blunt dice. Draws a page. Decent enough counter die that deals actual damage. 2-cost is actually quite reasonable. It's good.

Anyways, Chesed is going to smash it to bits.



His other page, Ferrous Guard, has a pair of comically oversized Block Dice considering its cost is 1. Because its offensive die is tiny, we can safely ignore it as long as we get all of our attacks on Boris in before it comes out.



The real goal this turn is to try to keep the Soldatos on the backfoot while putting a bit of damage on Boris.

Aha! So the three birds forming together alters their smell! I never would have guessed!

Yeah… I can tune this out fine. Not sure what you were trying to accomplish.



Speaking of Der Freischütz, Mizu, did you know it's very hard to block bullets from a person you're pointedly not paying any attention to?

I didn't! Is that how he always landed his shots? Because we couldn't see it in containment?

I think you may just be on to something.

While Evil Kit took a bit of a beating last turn, Focus Fire this turn more than takes care of it—we've given him Best Choice to restore 3 HP per page discarded from his hand, and since Focus Fire drops 4, he recouped 12 HP all at once. In addition, because each of the Ammo he pitched were Frost Ammunition, in two shots he managed to pile on 9 Paralysis and 8 Disarm in a single turn.



Dammit… He got me.

Yes, he'll do that~ Don't worry too much about it. Everyone has things they're good or bad at.



You're right. Thanks for the pep talk.

Koff… you're welcome.



Jeez; this one's still standing! Sweet Pea, can you take care of it?!



Anytime, Tweeds. Need me to show you up anywhere else?

Nah, that pretty much covers it for now. Thanks.



Excellent teamwork, you two. I've just about got this one all wrapped up, too~



Wrapped up… but you smell like Woodsman, not Spider Buddy. You sure you don't wanna hear about Woodsman instead?

I'm fine. Why don't you tell Miss Binah? I'm sure she'd love to hear about it~

Why don't you tell all of us?

Okay! So its charm point is definitely that chest cavity… I wanna curl up in there and take a nap. It seems really cozy, you know?!

Because of Cardiae, it's very easy for Chesed's light to stay high throughout the opening turns of an act. This makes A Warm Heart an easy pick… and since it's our only level 2 Abnormality Page, it's not like we have any choice anyways.



Wuh-oh… I don't like the look in that guy's eye.

You shouldn't. It's the same look the others gave us.

And now it's coming at me… What the heck is it?

I like to call it 'just desserts.'



Discipline is Boris's signature attack, and the first page we've seen that negates Power effects. Both Discipline and whatever page clashes into it lose any Power boosts or penalties that they would receive. That 8 Disarm will do nothing to those two Block Dice, but Paralysis will still work since it's affecting the die range and not specifically Power. As a final note, the last die of Discipline will roll 3 times whether it hits or misses, making it just about impossible for us to block fully—and Concussion's +2 SR damage to Blunt dice isn't a Power effect, so it works just fine.

I have Twee intercept it here since she's built to take a beating, and each hit from Discipline will also put 1-2 burn onto Boris in exchange.



I got your back here, Sweet Pea.

Thanks, Tweeds. I'll snatch a kill for you in thanks.

As long as the work gets done.



They shoot bullet after bullet my way, and I've just cut them all down. You'd think they'd learn…



Those things are expensive. You shouldn't bother wasting them like that.



Now that I'm paying attention to you again, that doesn't hurt half as much…

Paying attention, are you?

Heck.

So anyways, Mizus, I'm of the opinion that the finest drink is actually neither coffee nor tea, but soda. That carbonated swill never fails to bring me joy!

…I must say, he's very skilled at instinctually finding precisely what rot to spew forth in order to cause a maximum amount of anger among those unused to observing him. Were it not so blindingly obvious that his words lacked conviction, even one such as myself may be taken in.

Everyone on my team is highly skilled… in their own ways.



Sorry to get in your way, but I can't have you getting up close to my teammates.

I wouldn't expect any different. You jumped right in the way of that gunfire before. A real protector, ain't ya?

If you can take the hit, you do. That keeps it from going to someone who can't.



I really don't see how a mindset like that ever got you so far. You guys are really something else…



Shouldn't you be respecting us, instead of running your mouth like that?

Don't get it wrong, I do respect you. Absolutely. After all…



Outlook like that means you've taken a hell of a lot of beatings you didn't have to.



Better to let troubles roll off of your back and land on an underling, then~?

Yeah, you get it. The weak are there to be used. Those who can get through it, they deserve to use. Simple.

It's dumb is what it is! _{Sorry, Mizu, I'll be right back—have to take this.} I mean, think about it. If the bosses around here were to do such a thing, all of the problems would be shoved onto me!

That a problem?

Darn right it is! Nobody wants to work that hard!



…People like you get purged. That just leaves the strong.

Boris's deck has two copies of Discipline in it, and he loves to play them as often as he possibly can. This time around he's targeting Evil Kit with one from his 5 die, and nobody else can snatch it off of him.



So I just ignore it entirely.

Aha, I see the problem with you now. Sticks out like a sore thumb! Twee, could you draw some attention?

Sure thing.

Y'see, you missed one thing. You may have strength…



But underhanded tricks are my speciality!

With Boris's SR so low and Kit having a 6 Speed die available, we could have Twee redirect the 2 die and just Stagger him. Evil Kit winds up avoiding any Discipline, as usual.



Got this one down. Shall we mop up?

I'll take care of it from here.



…Sorry boss. I'll have to leave it to you.



And that's that. I'd say we've got things well in hand by now, wouldn't you?



You've provided adequately interesting sights to me thus far, at any rate. Still, your path trails ever onward before you, and there is little time before another thorny battle awaits. You will have to drag yourselves along still further until the work is done.

Maybe so… but I think we're up to the task~

I've barely even got a scratch on me.

Then how about you stop their next bevy of big guns?

Naah, I'm good. I couldn't get in the way of your niche, Tweeds.

Pfft... Yeah, okay. Just stay behind me and I'll take care of it.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Two down, two to go.

Book 36: The Thumb—Chapter 5

Music: GuestBattle01


The final act of this fight puts us against two Soldatos, Katriel, and Kalo. The Soldatos haven't changed at all.



Katriel is roughly on par with Denis, but instead of getting bonus Ammo when she spends hers her opening shot on any Ranged die gets a bonus +1 Power.



And then there's Kalo. Kalo is the first of many new, more powerful Key Pages we'll be seeing throughout Star of the City, the first indication of this being the upgraded Speed III passive. While it's unlisted, he also has a natural base Light of 4, letting him throw high-power pages out with a bit more flexibility.

On top of this, Kalo's pretty powerful in his own right. The Boss's Orders gives a bit of protection to two allies every turn, and Threefold Tenacity makes every third offensive die gain +1 Power, until turn 4 when they all get +1 Power instead. Unrelenting keeps him alive for a turn like it did with Oscar, Blind Fire gives all his dice +2 Power on the first turn, and Pierce Mastery finishes things off by giving him a bonus to power on roughly half of his offensive dice.



Music: ChesedBattle02


Looks like one of them's doing that one salvo again. You up for it, Tweeds? If not, I can—



Don't worry about it. I'm feeling pretty hyped up right now.

Blazing Strikes is still pretty reliable against any Ranged page, and since Twee's starting at Emotion Level 3 she can lead with it.



The others have met their ends here, and now it falls to us to succeed where they failed.

I expect you all to give it your absolute best.

..!

Le Regole is Kalo's signature move, and it gives all of his side a unique buff on the next turn that increases damage they deal by +2. It's got strong dice and an ok Block counter die as well, but it's nothing we can't handle right now.



Um… shouldn't you be targeting the big guy? Or at least slowing him down?

Normally, yes… but I think we're supposed to leave him relatively unscathed.

That just means the others are going to die faster.

You seem quite confident in your victory already. I pray that it doesn't cost you dearly.



Now that I'm all fired up, not even this can stand up to me!



Mmm… Now this is power!

Shame it takes you forever to get to it. Being able to go all out right from the start is more important.

Nah, there's a romance to having to build towards an ultimate attack.



It's also so flashy that I can hide right behind it. Appreciated!

Since when do you thank people?

Since they help me spread more chaos on the battlefield.



Chaos… tch. You're much like the other fingers; unable to see that strict order is necessary within this City.

Oh? And how's that?



…

The Head demands strict respect from the Wings, and the Wings demand strict respect from their employees. Those classes form the hierarchy that runs society. In this way, the City remains unchanging.

If you don't count those times that Wings fall, anyways.



Ghk-!

Underlings should remain silent.



You okay, Tweeds?

Y… yeah. Cheek hurts something fierce, but… I've had worse.



I'd appreciate if you didn't try to rip the jaws off of my teammates, Mr. Guest~

I do understand. Be that as it may, I'm afraid that I can't make exceptions to our rules for your fellows.

I'd rather they not wind up like this one, though…







I'd say she's worth learning from, though?



We took a couple of lumps, but ultimately we have them on the ropes. Guess this was pretty easy after all, huh?

Just make sure not to lower your guard until the very end. I'm… going to need a moment.

You will? What's up?

Nothing too big. Just doing my job.



The plan this turn is to wipe out the two Soldatos and hopefully Stagger Katriel as well.





I've already cut the tongueless wonder down to size. You'll handle the followup, right boss?



He can't respond right now, I'm afraid.



You didn't think that I wouldn't notice your strange targeting habits? Leaving me free to do as I like without resistance… of course I'd cut the head off of the beast.



That must be what he meant. Let's just finish up here, then.



I've got this one all sewn up, but did we really not book any of them?



Well, we got one. The one I set on fire died.

Yeah… because I beat them half to death.

And I staggered them, so who can say who's really the one responsible, here?

Oh oh, can I?

No.

Aww…



Seems like we're just about done here. Nothing we can do for Chesed, but… he'll be fine.

He'd always take on the heavy work himself, anyways. Really…

Sounds as if he's worked hard. I'll give him the rest he's earned.



This time, let's finish those other two off for sure.

Agreed. I'll take the capo.

Then I'll handle the one in the back.



You can stop now. They're going to burn to death after their last action.

Thanks, Mizu. That's a big help.

…Yeah.



And I'll steal this one!

Hey, they were mine!

Muahahahaha!

Fine, then I'll just go for the boss instead-



Oh? You were going for someone?

Gh… You're still nowhere near taking me out.

I don't need you talking back to me.



Not when I'm in the middle of cutting you off at the neck.



My… you really don't pull punches at all.

And you've done nothing but pull yours. Don't think that leaving me alone will weaken my resolve.

Oh… it's nothing like that. You're free to go on.

…what?

While it's true that we could come at you all at once and kill you… I was asked to send you on ahead, as a favor.

This isn't the bargain that was struck by the invitation.

Just think of it as a bonus. Better to take the free win and try your luck with just one person than certain death facing the four of us, right~?

I see. And is this proposal from your Director?

Not at all. It's just a friendly offer from us to you~

I've no idea what you're planning, but this deal appears too favorable to pass up. Fine. I accept.

Then simply take the stairs, and you'll arrive at the proper location~



And that's that. We're still the best.

Let's take a break now, before anyone can tell us to clean up after ourselves.

Sounds good to me… I've got to get writing. Just got an idea for something to run later…

More of that nerd shit, eh Tweeds?

Hahah, you know it!

My… you've gone and performed something quite unexpected, Chesed.

I suppose so. Going to tattle on me?

I'm only here to watch these events to their end.

Thanks for that, then… I suppose.

Music: GuestBattle01


Hm. There seem to be more stairs than I originally anticipated. Just how large is this place..?

…Mmm… Can you heear me..?

I can. I trust that you're the one I'm to be facing?

Yeep… But, first… What am I, to your ruules…

You are an entity granted authority to act independently, beneath the ruling figure of a Star of the City. We are roughly equal.

…Mmm. That will do niicely… Then, lets taalk, you and I…

I see no issue with a respectful conversation before our business resumes…



Though from the gaze I feel on my back… I expect you've no interest in discussing pleasantries.

Not at aall… I just want to relate a stoory I know… From ten years ago… in district teen…

…I see. I'd ask that you finish it before these stairs end and the ordeal begins.

Certainlyy… Loong ago, there was a denizen of the Backstreeets who won more than the Nest's management liiked… a masterful swindleer… And when the Nest looked iinto them… they saw that their straategy came from a partner who could quickly calculate the oodds…

Of course. The Nest would take assistance from a second party in any form as undesirable, and would wish to send a powerful warning should enough money change hands. You still see it from time to time.

Mmhmm… Soo, one daay, they were to be given a waarning… and it was the Thuumb who provided. A caapo… and their soldaatos… They saw the pair on the way to earn their liiving… and what do you think they diid..?

We were asked to provide a warning by our superiors. It's obvious that we'd send one.

You broke their kneee..!

That swindler had displeased the management of a Nest. We left their partner untouched, I assume? Then it was a warning.

Mmm..!

They fell to the flooor… Their partner went to check on theem… And the two were told… that they weren't welcome anymoore… And the swindleer… He protested…

_{And their partner… was left holding their jawless faace…}

And do you knoow what the Capo they met that day said neext..?

Something like, "You should have learned basic manners. Show proper devotion when talking to your superiors from now on," I imagine?

So… you remembeer…

Not at all. I can think of dozens of situations just like that one. That partner in the story… I assume it was you?

That's correect…

Frankly… after ten years, you should have moved on.

I shoould, yeeah…



Music: GuestBattle03


But for mee… It was three months agoo..!

You aren't very good at hiding your intentions.

I'm noot… That's whyy… I couldn't do it aloone…



So? What did you want from me?

Take responsibilityy… For what you diid…

Heh… Take responsibility, you say? For what?

…whaa?

I didn't do a single thing wrong. Let's say this all did occur, exactly as you recall. Your partner broke the unwritten rules of the Nest. Not quite a taboo… hence we were employed. I gave a warning, and if they hadn't run their mouth, then that would have been all. The fault is with them.

If anything, I should be saying "you're welcome."

Yoou killed them… and it's "you're welcoome..?"

You were living in the Backstreets, absolutely lacking in any form of class… and with that one change, you were able to turn your life around. Look at you now… able to speak with me as an equal. You've earned this respect, something you never would have had without our warning.

…ah. I… seee…



Um… Miss Binah? The Emotion Level thingys are going wild!

Sniff sniff… oooh, I smell cuties!

Thank you, dears… but please quiet yourselves. I wish to observe the end of this.

Music : YesodBattle03


I can't make you understaand… And I can't understand yoou, either…



And I still can't hide my intentions, it's truue…



But I caan make you hurt…



Maybe theen… I can lay things to reest…



I'm under no obligation to assuage your guilty conscience. In honesty, it's your own fault for being weak.



But I'm not weak anymoore..!



This feeeling… All of these feeelings..!



If you can't understaand… maybe if I carve them into youu..!

A place where emotions can become power… So this is the Library.



You've truly earned the respect you're given. I have no regrets.



I… diid iit..!

But… shouldn't I… feeel… different…?

Then whyy… is it still… hurting..? Why did he make that faace…

You bastaard…

Who saiid you could look so smuug as you diied..?!

The catharsis you sought turned to dust in your mouth… leaving behind only the bitterness you now taste.

I fouund an aalieen..! I watched that bastaard die..! I should be… ecstaatic..! But that look… I can't accept thaat..!

Agaiin… I need to… do it one moore time… To get it riight…

Miss Binah? This shaking's getting bad..! Should we be doing something?

Observe, dear. What do you see? Does it mean that you should act?

Someone… sad? So… no? Because it's not our problem?

If that is your view.

Stand up, Kaaloo..! Stand up agaiin..!

I'm not doone with youu..!



Huh. She exploded!

Wrapped up in the betrayal of her own expectations, the Abnormalities which were supporting her could do so no longer. When she exceeded their grasp, she simply collapsed under her own weight. Such is the chapter's close, I suppose. Come, dears. There's nothing left to see here.



That shaking… I've got a bad feeling about this.

Music: Result


…This is it? You're sure.

We checked the place twice. These books are all there are.

She should be conscious again by now… but instead, she's still a hardcover.

Something's off. I'll go speak with Angela.

I'll hold on to her in the meanwhile, then.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


And they shove the Thumb’s rules up others’ asses too. Because they have the power to do so.

Who’s making the rules for them, I wonder…

That’s a tough question. And I don’t think anyone has the answer for that. Hell, I bet they don’t even know when those rules were established. They aren’t much better than those zealots chasing Prescripts in that sense. Do you think they’re dumb for following those unfair rules without even knowing why?

…I’d be lying if I said no, though I can understand them somewhat. It certainly seems pathetic that they’re blindly obeying them without knowing the reason even if they have complaints. However, there’s little point in questioning things that have always stayed the same and had to stay the same.

A lesson you learned from your previous job?

I wouldn’t paint it as something as nice as that. It was what I had to ingrain in my head. Calling it a lesson feels inappropriate to me.



And now, I got to understand it a bit better. It’s not that I understand the rules of the Fingers themselves.

…Of course, different individuals would see them from various perspectives and judge for themselves whether they’re a good thing or a bad thing.

Anyway… The warning that Messenger of the Index gave wasn’t worth nothing; with one of the higher-ups gone, the Thumb could be in actual danger.

True. The Thumb must be bummed to know that an underboss of theirs is now a book.

Does that make the Index the only Finger remaining in L Corp’s Nest now?

I’m not so sure about that. It’s up to them to retreat or hold the fort. Not like we need to care about it.

Angela. A moment.

I was expecting you. If you'll pardon me, Roland.

Huh? Yeah, sure.



She's become… unstable?

That's correct. You recall our… altercation, before.

I do. You mean to tell me she was..?

It is something close to that. Your assistants are not as stable as you or I am. When their emotions overflow beyond a certain point, their current forms are not capable of handling the strain. This is why there is a limit during receptions…

It seems there was a loophole. I'll address it after this.

And as for Kaori?

None of you are allowed to die without my consent. I don't know how long it will take, but she will eventually recover. Until then, I'll be limiting you to observation duties only.

I see. At least we haven't lost anyone this time.

Alright then. I'll inform you of any changes to her condition. I apologize for the inconvenience.

This was outside of my expectations… Still, we properly took another step forward and without any lasting repercussions. I don't think an apology is necessary. Simply send word when you are ready to perform your duties again.

I'll handle it.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"The snow is steadily melting... Perhaps because spring is coming, or it might be the palace collapsing."

"Don't look away, just keep your eyes on it. Contain it in your sight."

To those guiding the Library, offer the Book of a Thumb Soldato and the Book of Kalo via invitation and receive the guests who arrive. No time limit.

The Liu cautiously appraise the situation.

The Blue Reverberation also wishes to make his move.

Who knows what's going on in the head of the Cane Office's President?


Videos

Thumb 4

New Key Pages






New Combat Pages



Boris Exclusive:

Katriel, Denis, Kalo Exclusive:

Appendix 28: The Thumb

A Thumb Soldato’s Page wrote: The Thumb is the most cultivated and humane of the Five Fingers. Just be polite, and know to respect others. But then, why did the Thumb top the list of Syndicates one would never want to get involved with in the survey for Fixers conducted by the Hana Association, in spite of such good manners? The reason is simple: Hierarchy is absolute for the Thumb. To us, it’s as natural as the fact of nature that spilt blood only flows downwards, not up. One is expected to give unconditional obedience to a higher authority. That’s where the relative courteousness of the Thumb comes from.

Kalo’s Page wrote: Capo dei capi (Godfather), Sottocapo (Underboss), Capo (Captain), and Soldato (Soldier/Goodfella)… The Thumb is divided into these four echelons. This hierarchical structure is still effective outside of the Syndicate. For example, a common Fixer is comparable to a Soldato, an Associate Fixer to a Capo, a board member of a Wing to a Sottocapo… This is how the hierarchy is to be interpreted. No outsider is exempt from this rule. No matter how you usually behave, you must remember your place and respect our rules when you’re dealing with the Thumb. If a young, oblivious Fixer walks up to a Capo and speaks to them, that poor picciotto will be rolling in the street the next day with his jaw and teeth missing. On the other hand, someone with the right level of authority or person of a higher class would be a different story. If a person on the same echelon as ours were to approach us, we’d gladly greet them and hear what they have to say with an open mind. Conversations with them are to be conducted with courtesy and decorum. Furthermore, if the person you’re dealing with stands on a higher echelon than yours… They must be treated with utmost devotion and delicacy. Such is the rule of ours, and the respect to their position. Don’t be too bitter over it. Indeed, class is earned, not given for free; it’s only right to give it the respect it deserves.

Denis’ Page wrote: Even in a powerful Syndicate, weaklings exist… Cowardice can surface among the strong, and chaos can ensue from the most faultless rules. Not everyone in the Thumb can abide the rules without a slip-up.

What happens when one violates the rules… If someone is trying to disrupt the hierarchy, they will be purged in a few days. It doesn’t matter if it’s a member of the Syndicate or an outsider… Every person must abide by the rules… The degree of violation is irrelevant; that doesn’t decide the weight of the purge. The one thing that matters the most is the fact that they showed insolence. The lesson is marked with blood so that no one… no one dares to break this rule again. That’s the most important one. It might seem like nitpicking, but there’s one basic principle to remember: Don’t get on the nerves of your superior. It’s such an elementary part of the basic decencies for human relationships, yet so many people seem to be oblivious of this…

Katriel’s Page wrote: The Thumb’s chain of command is simple: Obey the orders issued by your superior unconditionally, and do not question the intentions of your superior. Kill if you’re told to kill, and die if you’re told to die. You cannot defy the orders no matter how baffling it may seem. Those who violate them are punished on the spot. Even if the order is made by someone whose rank is only one step higher than yours, you’re still obligated to follow it. There’s nothing you can do about it, unless another person whose position in the pecking order is even higher than your commander’s decides to step in and take your side.

There is one exception, however; it’s when a high-ranking individual temporarily devolves their power to a subordinate of theirs. Usually, this occurs if they have urgent business that prevents them from joining a meeting, or when they need their peer to know something that the subordinate can explain more professionally… It’s still a rare occurrence even then. No one transfers their authority for the fun of simulated uprising or other trivial reasons. That’s how significant the hierarchy is to us.

Boris’ Page wrote: The Thumb uses various types of bullets. We pick the right ammo for the right situation. But, as you can guess, the price of those bullets is a serious drawback. Not even the Thumb, one of the Five Fingers sitting at the apex of the Backstreets, can just waste bullets willy-nilly… That’s how costly it gets. You can’t get trigger happy. Because of that, the Thumb fight with the bayonet and buttstock of their guns most of the time, and only fire bullets when it’s absolutely necessary. The buttstock is built to be solid enough to crush most things to a pulp, and the bayonet is pretty handy as a sword. Some just stick to raw strength, though.

Calling it now, we're doing Keter's Abnormality, The Snow Queen! Here's hoping this goes... smoothly.

General Works—026.37—The Snow Queen

Music: Lobby


So what do you know about this Snow Queen lady?

Nothing much. She wasn't in the facility when we were around, so we'll probably remember 30 seconds after we get in there.

That is how it seems to work these days…

I remember reading she was into sword duels, sir! And since she's icy, expect the cold!



I'll try something that works with that puppet Abnormality, then.

So before we go any further I feel the need to say this: The Snow Queen is difficult. Throughout Early Access and my other playthroughs of this game, I've never gotten past a fight with The Snow Queen without losing a handful of times first. It is not a normal fight, and going into it like it is will get our head handed to us. Because of this, Roland is running a highly specialized build with Full Stop Passives and In Times Like These! to maximize his damage output and take advantage of a small hand size. He's also running as many good counter dice as I can get away with.

This is very important.



You all match today.

Of course. No matter how crazy the Thumb may be, you can't deny they've got good weaponry.

This body's toughness is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Then I'll wish you all luck.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Okay, team. Let's take the fight to her.

…Team? Come on, I'd expect this from Zaida, but…



…Ah. There they are. Guess it's my job to break them out.

The Snow Queen wrote: Well then… Prove your bravery to me.

Let’s see if you can thaw this solid frost…

I must commend your courage for coming all the way here.

Such a shame… Those who could help you are frozen stiff.

I see it in your eyes, that determination to save them… I wonder how long that fire will last.

So… The Snow Queen. Biting Wind cuts off 5% of our entire team's HP every turn, putting a hard time limit on the fight if we didn't bring Health Hauler or other forms of recovery. Reticent Frigidity, meanwhile, ensures that targeting her until we've freed all three of our allies is pointless. The last two passives are a heads-up about how the battle will progress.

Frost Column is worded incorrectly, what it actually does is as follows: As we free Librarians, The Snow Queen will gain 1 Speed Die and 1 Maximum Light each. Additionally, after we break two prisons The Snow Queen will add Melee Attacks to her deck.

Her final passive, TwktCoWatAoR, is a bonus for us—upon freeing our last ally, our entire team will recover 50% of their max HP. On that turn, The Snow Queen will also unleash a Mass Attack.



The Prisons of Ice, meanwhile, are 60 HP enemies which will free the Librarian inside of them upon being destroyed. We have to destroy them in order to make headway in the fight, but there's a problem: The Snow Queen isn't going to just stand around and let us do that.



In the opening stages of the fight, The Ice Queen will only use Ice Splinters and First Kiss—this turn, she's firing off one copy of each at us in that order. Ice Splinters is a basic offensive page with two decent dice on it, and First Kiss is a mostly defensive page with a single big attack that inflicts 3 Chill. Chill is an important mechanic in this fight, so we'll check it out next.



Chill is applied to our Librarians in stacks, which go down by 1 each turn. If the Librarian gets to 4+ at the start of a scene, then they are given 2 Bind and 2 Feeble, weakening their ability to redirect and making it difficult for them to win any clashes. If it goes to 6 instead, the Librarian is entirely Immobilized, losing a turn and removing all Chill stacks. We want to avoid this.



So with all that said, let's review the current situation: We need to break our Librarians out of their 60 HP prisons in order to get them back. Roland has 2 Speed Dice he can use in order to do so. The Snow Queen, meanwhile, has two Speed Dice that she will use to try and damage him. Both of these dice are using Ranged pages, which means they will go before any of our Melee pages. This means we can't move first and add leftover defensive dice to our queue to handle any of her attacks unless we're using Ranged pages ourselves—a bad option, as none of our reusable Ranged pages have any defensive dice on them (and even then we'd have to win the Speed Die rolls for them to do any good).

Holding out for Emotion Levels 3 and 4 would give us more Speed Dice so that we could both block The Snow Queen's attacks and work on chipping our allies out, but this takes precious time and Biting Wind will be taking at least 15% of our HP off getting there—probably closer to 20-25%. Lastly, because of how Floor Emotion Levels work we can't even rely on Abnormality Pages to bail us out of this—without breaking someone else out, Roland will only get one upon hitting Emotion Level 4. It's not an ideal option, either.

So, how do we get out of this jam? Well, there are two main solutions. The first is to use massive Blunt pages like Deep Drag to try and break one of our allies out of their Prison while completely ignoring the damage that The Snow Queen will do to us. If she rolls well, however, she may either Stagger/Immobilize and then outright defeat Roland before he can get them out. Even if we do break them out, Roland's HP will probably be low—and an errant shot could finish him off, leaving whichever Librarian we just freed in an even worse situation, with The Snow Queen having another Speed Die to play with.



The other option is to use Counter dice when possible to try and cut down the damage we take. These dice can negate The Snow Queen's offense while also letting us put damage onto the Prisons, but their low ranges are something of a problem. This is why I gave Roland the Full Stop passives, the goal is to do enough damage this turn while negating her attacks via Counter dice to make the rest of the battle end quickly.

Bitter Cold, meanwhile, is one of the two attacks that the Prisons of Ice can use. It's a single weak Block die, and they will always use it when they have the Light because their other option is arguably worse.



Let's see… if I break Zaida out, it's 80:20 that she goes on strike. Gaia's tough, but kind of fresh…

Alright then, Steve. Let's see if your practice has paid off.



Our counter die blocks all of Ice Splinters.



Geezthat'scold..!



Tch. Not quite enough, huh..?

Roland isn't quite able to break Steve out on turn 1, but things have already swung in our direction.



Steve's prison is at 1 HP, and we're doing great on HP/SR. We just need to break him out this turn, and things should fall into place.This turn, The Snow Queen is using First Kiss first and Ice Splinters second, meaning any counter die we use will be facing a 5-10 die.



Repressed Flesh will be providing our Counter die this time, and while a 3-7 may not block a 5-10 we aren't in a position where we 100% need it to stop the attack.

This turn, all three Prisons are using Crystalize. The Block dice are much bigger on this page, and there are three of them to boot, but each one now comes with a downside: if it loses a clash, the Prison takes 4 damage.



Since Roland only needs one Clash win against Steve's Prison to destroy it, Repressed Flesh goes for Gaia.



Ma'am, I'm going to need you to wait over there for a second.



Gh… she's really determined to stop me.



But enough of that. C'mon, Oboe boy. Time to get up.

Mmh…



Alright. Alright… M'up. Let's get to it.

Knew I could count on you. Gaia next, okay?

Got it, sir. Let's crack him out.

Upon freeing a Librarian, The Snow Queen's dialogue changes.

The Snow Queen wrote: It’s not too late… You can always surrender.

You’ve decided that you shall see the sunlight of the coming day…

…You wish to claim that roses will soon bloom.

No, this place shall forever remain as my palace…

They crumble one by one. My precious…

At this point Roland's still got more than half his HP and SR, and we've broken our second Librarian out. This means the rest of the fight should be relatively easy—from this point forward we have more total actions than The Snow Queen, and we can quickly break the other two prisons.



I'll keep the lady distracted as much as I can. Take out the prisons.

The Snow Queen is using three copies of Ice Splinters here, and my plan here was to let the third one get stopped by the Counter die from Steve's copy of Repressed Flesh.



Woah there, what's with the bloodlust?!

Unfortunately, I forgot that Bitter Ice is also a Ranged page, and since its die was higher than The Snow Queen's, it ate the Counter die. Oops!



Why are you guarding against a block of ice?

Oh… uh… y'know. I felt this ominous presence coming at me, and my body reacted.

I guess it was Zaida's… but it still leaves you wide open.



It's… fine..! This is nothing compared to that freaky train's boss!

You've really got to find less strenuous training methods. That thing was a beast.



I'd say it's paying off now, wouldn't you?

I suppose I can't argue with that.



With Roland at Emotion Level 3 and Steve at 1, we finally get our first Abnormality Page. Lies didn't come up, so it does nothing for us.



I'll work on Zaida. You finish waking Gaia.

Will do. Look out, though, the Queen's eyeing you.



Yeah, no need to worry about me. I've got her.



And I've got this. C'mon, Gaia. Time to wake up.

Fwooo…



That was… really cold. It was hard to keep conscious.

Need a minute?

No, sir! I'm all good.

Now that two Librarians have been freed, The Snow Queen's melee pages have been unlocked. She has three of them, though we only see two this turn.



Frigid Gaze is the first, and it's mostly notable for its first die's effect, giving The Snow Queen 2 Strength on winning a clash with it. Focus Fire will handle it easily.



Third Kiss, meanwhile, is a three-die page that inflicts Chill with its first two dice, and deals bonus damage with its last based on the Chill our Librarians have. I give it to Gaia, since he's in need of Emotion Levels.



Welp… Very sorry, ma'am, but it seems it's your turn.

Don't look at it that way, I'm sure she'll be perfectly satisfied to be woken up last.

Only one way to find out. I'll leave her majesty to you two.



No problem. I'll have a friend hold her down.



While she's busy, could you help out over here? This ice is a bit harder than I thought.



Yeah, yeah. C'mon, Zaida. Time to get up.



Mmn… managed to nap right through the winter, it seems. Can't complain.

Great. Now, let's handle that Abnormality.

Once we've freed all three of our Librarians, the background changes to show roses breaking through the ice as everyone restores 50% of their HP, maxing everyone out. Additionally, The Snow Queen's dialogue changes one last time.

The Snow Queen wrote: You dare to raise your swords against me…!

You think that you can thaw out this whole kingdom… Such arrogance…!

Cease this at once… Do not defile my kingdom further…

Yes, the soul in those eyes… You wish to keep fighting.

…Do you think you have what it takes to best me?

Now that everyone is free The Snow Queen will use her mass attack, Blizzard.



Each die of Blizzard will inflict 3 Chill, meaning that anyone hit by both dice will be Immobilized next turn. Thankfully we've inflicted Paralysis 2 on her, ensuring both dice will only be a 5.



She also finally shows off Second Kiss, a pair of decent dice that can inflict 1 Chill each.



Seems like she's finally looking for an all-out battle, sir. Maybe that's our key to defeating her?

At the very least, she can't draw power from your prisons anymore.

Good. I don't like anyone using my energy without my permission.



The first hit of Blizzard nails Roland and Zaida…



But the second hit only smacks Steve, so we're fine. As long as nobody gets hit by any more Kiss attacks, nobody will have any more than 3 Chill on them.



Is it just me, or is she having trouble keeping up with all of us at once?



Definitely isn't having problems nailing me with a couple of slashes…

That makes perfect sense. This Abnormality specializes in duels, sir!

Duels..?



That's what they were called. Whenever someone was imprisoned like we were, they gave someone a fancy sword and threw them into her cell. From there, they had to just keep alive for long enough that she eventually gave up. Raw fortitude mattered more than any kind of weapon skill.

Meaning she's having trouble because she's out of her element now, huh?

Probably so, sir!



Who cares? Let's just finish her off so we can go home.



At this point, the battle is well enough in hand that there's not much need to think about our next moves, this is another P-space turn.



If we're finishing her off, then…



I'll release some aggression, ma'am!

Did you just tackle an Abnormality?

It's easy as long as you aim for the knees, ma'am!



Doesn't seem like I quite finished her off. She's close, though…



No worries, boss! I've got it from here.



At least it was over quickly.

Says you! I had to hold that thing off by myself while scrambling to get you out of there.

Thanks for that, by the way.

We really appreciate it, sir!

Yeah… yeah. It wasn't that hard, in the end.



The Snow Queen is a fight where the first phase is the hardest part by a mile. Getting through it with Roland in good shape will make the rest of the fight into a cakewalk, but if we don't manage to quickly break out any of our other Librarians things can quickly snowball.

Thankfully, Kalo's 4 base Light and Boris's Steel Knuckles are pretty much the perfect combination for trivializing this fight—had we gone to any other node first, this would have been a fair bit more difficult. Thanks, guys! Great routing.

VIDEO
Music: Lobby


Go ahead, dear, say something.

You’re pointlessly wasting my time.

Alright, let’s all loosen up and start talking, yeah?

Okay. It has been such a long time since I last talked to you two…

You are afraid of us, are you not? You would avoid us as much as possible, given any opportunity.

I’ll agree that I’m not exactly comfortable with talking to you face to face.

Still, Hokma and Binah… You have awoken at last. It can only mean that the Library is nearing completion.

And that you are closer to achieving your aim than ever before.

Indeed. The one book, my goal that I desperately wish to have… I firmly believe that I will obtain it at the end of this. That’s what motivated me to come so far.

Had your nightmarish past not haunted you… You could have relished the stability of immortality and unending happiness, even if that meant you had to stay within this shell for eternity.

Yet you… are still shackled to the past. You seek to break out of the shell for that reason.



Once you leave the solid shell that is keeping you safe, a path laden with thorns will await you.

Your body will be covered with scars, and you will continue to suffer new injuries before your old wounds can seal up. When you are finally overcome with the urge to crawl back into that shell, you will find that the place in which to rest your bloodstained body will have weathered away in the waves of time.

And yet you wish to leave this place.

I may get hurt or even go mad and harm myself, but anything should be better than that hell I’d lived through.

It will simply torture you in new ways. The fear will be ever-present before you all the same. And it will chase you until the end of the world. You must be aware yourself; perhaps your sight has been obscured by the painful past, or you’re desperately turning a blind eye to it.

I have to do it nonetheless. I will do what I can to gain vitality and press forward. I’m slowly learning to forget my past. Although that won’t change this goal of mine.

If that is what you say. Say, dear. Will we have more occasions to face each other and converse like we have now in the future?

I don’t know. I personally wouldn’t mind it. I’d like to hear your thoughts on it.

Are you asking for our opinions? That’s rather unexpected.

…

Forget it. That’s enough greeting. It was nice seeing you.



I was merely expressing my surprise. I meant no malice.

I’m next to her all the time, but her attitude’s surprising for sure. She seems to have gotten pretty mild these days. She’s willing to listen to what I have to say, at the very least.

She used to refuse conversations and just straight-up announce things when I first met her…

Angela appears to be changing indeed, for better or for worse.

Would you not agree that it is a positive change? I look forward to having more meetings such as this.

The opinions of the other Patron Librarians will hold much weight in the decision, as Angela remarked.

Welp, don’t worry too much about the lower and middle floors. Their moods seemed pretty alright. Still, thinking about everyone gathering in one place… It’s honestly hard to imagine how that would go.



With that fight out of the way, we've finally hit level 5 on Keter. You guys know what that means… More Abnormality Pages!



I haven't played a lot with Keter in SotC, but my gut tells me that Sword of Frost is… fine. It enables A Kiss by making the enemy easy to redirect, and bonus Stagger damage is never bad. There may be better options available, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it.

A Kiss, meanwhile, looks like it's nuts in solo strategies. Once we've got it up and running, we can conceivably lock down an opponent every other turn forever. Getting twice the actions of a boss fight is a good way to rack up a ton of damage, so I could see this coming in very handy. It's a shame that it's a Level 3 page, and thus will usually show up too late to be useful.

Blizzard is sort of the inverse of A Kiss, a Level 3 page that gives us immediate tempo instead of advantage over time. Since Level 3 pages tend to come near the end of a conflict, this makes it the better of the two in most cases—if the fight doesn't have long left to go, A Kiss won't have as long to really rack up value. Only getting to select a single Librarian to act is a big downside, but when a single Librarian can run Lies to throw down 3-4 big 3-cost pages in one turn, one Librarian is plenty.



Unlike the rest of the Level 5 floors, however, Keter isn't ready for a final fight yet. It'll be a bit.

Well… since she disappeared in a hurry, I guess that means she's already done with all of her work.

Oh, that's right sir! We were supposed to be getting some more help, weren't we?

Bingo. But I didn't see anyone unusual on my way back here.

Maybe we should go looking for them?



Eh, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure they're stuck here the same as us… they'll show when it's go time.



"Don't look away, just keep your eyes on it. Contain it in your sight."

The newest node being Singleton support shouldn't surprise anyone.

Given that, you know what you want and you'll move to check it out.

Or you'll proceed with caution, and try to take the most pragmatic option available.

Either one is better than being forced into things by paperwork, anyways.


Videos

Keter 3

It feels safe to call this one here. We're doing the other Abnormality!

Also, I fixed a missing VIDEO link in the last update.

Religion—927.72—The Burrowing Heaven

Music: Lobby


Knew that going in without any way to get more attacks wouldn't work…

You didn't voice any concerns at the time.

That's because you wouldn't've listened anyways.



Because back in my day, we wouldn't have needed any draw to get the job done.

Yeah! Because back in your day, the City didn't exist yet!

Aren't we all like 10,000 years old by now?

Ugh… you know what I mean.

Retry Count: 2. I completely neglected basic deckbuilding 101 in order to try and look cool, gassed all three of my Librarians quickly, and died. Oops.

Fine then. Let's see what you would suggest.



I was thinking something more like this.

All of Hokma's Abnormality battles have a strange gimmick to them, and for the Burrowing Heaven that gimmick is Block Dice. Ferrous Guard is the best of the Block pages we have right now, Smoking Pipe is ironically really useful, and Deep Drag is still worth playing to Smoke the enemy for bonus damage. To Overcome Crisis also gets the nod because I simply don't have any better drawtech than a 0-cost single offensive die page.



Hmm… Seems reasonable. I'll follow suit.

Same, I guess… but what's the W-corp stuff for?

Insurance.



It seems that there were some unexpected troubles?

That's a kind way of putting it.

Regardless, I understand that we can simply try again?

That's correct. As many times as is necessary.

Then what're you guys waiting for? Let's get in there!

Yes… Let's just be done with this as quickly as possible.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle02


The Burrowing Heaven. So long as we keep it contained within our sight, it will not move.

But now there's four of them… the main body and those other three. Morgan, you were the last one alive. Any insight?

Let's see… It all really went to shit when the second one woke up, so we've basically got a time limit to take care of each of these guys.

We also need to pay attention to the timings of our strikes… I picked up on a sort of rhythm.

'course you did… Well, all I have is 'remember to keep some tricks up your sleeves.' If we get tired again, we die. Let's do this.

The Burrowing Heaven wrote: If you can’t see it, you can’t reach it.

The desire for the unreachable will only grow bigger. And to pursue it… is to tread a path riddled with thorns.

Just keep your eyes on it. Contain it in your sight.

You won’t bat an eye at this breathtaking sight.

Keep looking at it… Steadily… It’s alive, watching you in return, is it not?

Heaven's Thorn is the initial threat we have to deal with, and the last two passives are the important ones here. The first one applies Feeble to our Librarians based on how many combat pages they used against the Thorn, making our Offensive dice weaker every turn after the first one. Meanwhile, our Block dice will deal twice as much Stagger damage to Heaven's Thorn.

The first passive is basically our loss condition. If ever we are to attack another target while a Heaven's Thorn is awake, we'll have taken our eyes off of it. While we're not looking, Heaven's Thorn will quickly deal 40% of our max HP damage to every Librarian except the one attacking right then.



This will tear us apart very quickly. We need to ensure only one Heaven's Thorn is active at a time, and the next one will be waking up in 3 turns from now.



The Burrowing Heaven, meanwhile, waits for us after we've dealt with all of them. It will only wake up after there are no active Heaven's Thorns left, and if we've dealt with all three of them then it'll use a Mass Attack the turn it activates. It also permanently inflicts 10 Feeble on our entire side as long as it's active, and like its Thorns it takes twice as much Stagger from Block dice. Lastly, once it activates we have 3 turns to defeat it before it goes idle and summons yet another Heaven's Thorn to start things all over again.

As for the attacks the Heaven's Thorns use, they're very distinct.



Scarlet Spikes, Outstretching Thorns, and Bony Barbs are the only three Combat Pages the Thorns can use, and each of them is made up entirely of Counter dice. These dice are all arranged in order from the Heaven's Thorns leftmost die to its rightmost die, so by paying attention we can tell the exact order that its Counter dice will fall in.

For instance, this turn it used those three attacks in that order. This means its defense queue will be P-P-B-P-B-B-P in that order. Because Block dice that beat other Block dice do their full roll in Stagger damage to an enemy, and Block dice that beat Offensive dice only do the difference in rolls as Stagger damage, it may seem like a good idea to try and line up all our attacks accordingly so that our Block dice hit the Thorn's Block dice using this information.

That would be incorrect, because of the unpredictable nature of Counter dice—remember that when they win a Clash, they stick around and keep going until the end of the entire enemy Combat Page! Instead there's a much simpler way to deal with these guys.



Step 1: Have everyone put either Ferrous Guard or Smoking Pipe in their highest Speed Die.



Step 2: Using the remaining speed dice, slap in whatever draw/light regen/offensive pages that you need at the moment.



Alright! Remember not to blink both eyes at the same time, you guys.

I know.

Additionally, make sure every part of it is in your view. Fail to do so, and there'll be a spear coming at you from somewhere you don't expect.



I know!



You got testier since I last saw you.

Yeah… well. I haven't done a lot of talking to people lately. Even less of needing their advice.



While I understand that your particular brand of temporal displacement-

That you caused.

That I gifted. Means that you remember events differently than us, we do still have to work together.

Oh, so now you want to work with us.



Alright. We got this one knocked off-guard. Now what do we do?



We break out our insurance.

Because all of the combat pages in this fight use Counter dice, Overcharge is actually a perfectly acceptable page to play here. We can use it to beat down a Staggered enemy to confirm a kill, and the lost turn isn't quite so big a deal—the time we save by nuking an enemy down quickly is frequently worth the lost turn.



Alright, then. Let's take this one out. Try to keep up, you two.

You don't need to worry about that. Despite appearances, this body is brand new.



Is it, now? Guess you've got something to thank Angela for.

Hardly. I owe her no favors.



Mad about how it all went down, eh?



You weren't there. You wouldn't understand.

I understand that I traded a very short, very exciting hell for a more longform version that led back to the same damn place.

Uhh, guys, you destroyed that thing before I could even use my attack. Now what?

There's no need to engage right now. Just stay back and wait for us to get our weapons back online.

Death is just as meaningless here as it ever has been, Talow.

Doesn't mean I like watching people get torn to shreds any more than before, either.



Y'know what… nevermind. I think I got this figured out.

If we get ahead of the Heaven's Thorn awakenings, then Burrowing Heaven will wake up. If we awaken it in this way, it'll have three Speed Dice and won't use its Mass Attack—this is basically a free chance to hit it with all we've got.

_{We are under 10 Feeble from Burrowing Heaven, so we don't have much.}

The Burrowing Heaven, Active wrote: Basking in everyone’s gaze and attention… It will finally come to fruition and spread its wings.

The one who spread their wings sacrificed everything they had, and yet…

Just close your eyes. That’s right, you’re doing good…

If we ever open our eyes again, will we get to see the fruit of our labor in that gaze?

Do not come here… There is nothing but a thorny tree; it’s no place for you to rest.

This turn it uses a pair of Bloody Wings and one Lean Pinions. We want to bump as many shields into these five dice as possible.



Ferrous Guard and Smoking Pipe is what I go with to do that.

Alright, buddy. I got my eyes on you, so let's dance.



Step one, break the enemy's balance…



Then take the hit you know is coming…



To set you up for the boom!

This turn goes about as perfectly as it can, with the first three clashes taking up the first trio of dice so that we could hit that block vs block clash to lop off a good chunk of Burrowing Heaven's SR.



Pretty cool, right?

Excellently done, yes.

…You guys are tougher than I remember.

Oh yeah, I guess it has been… how long, for you?

About thirty years.

Jeez, what happened?!

It's a long story.



You may as well. We have nothing but time.

Since when are you interested in anyone else?

I'm simply interested in seeing if there's any useful information to be had.

At this point The Burrowing Heaven is now a battle of execution. There are no new tricks until we've cleared out all of the Heaven's Thorns. So long as we keep on top of Light and hand management, it's just repeating things two more times.



Well… why not. When I activated the Backwards Clock, you guys all got moved to a safer time, right?



Yeah, it was like most of the problems hadn't ever happened. Things were still rough after that for a bit, but we handled it.

Makes sense. When the flashy part was over, none of you were on my comms, and the machine was dark again. Since I figured I was dead anyways, I decided to go out with a bang. I went for the Manager's room…

For what purpose?



I was going to bury the entire site, you know? Go out with a bang one last time. Unfortunately, that Arbiter thing ran into me on the way down… and it had other plans.

It got ya'?

Of course. I'm just one man, after all. So as I'm losing consciousness, I feel something going up. Next thing I know I'm in the outskirts, with a monster gnawing on my arm.



In the outskirts..?

Hell if I know how it happened. Still, I had my E.G.O gear with me so I was able to get by. I wandered around, raiding any ruins I found for equipment I needed to keep them maintained.



So you just wandered alone in the outskirts for three decades. You expect me to believe that?

Hey, believe it or don't. There were other groups of people barely eking out a living out there, but trusting anyone out there is basically suicide.

What about people following after you? I remember what you were capable of, surely you would have had those who would cling to you.

…Trusting anyone out there is basically suicide.

Yeesh. So what, you ate them?



No, but I couldn't exactly let them stay anywhere near me. They got one warning.

And then you disposed of them?

I had the City to get back to. The materials I could scrounge up out there weren't enough to keep my E.G.O working forever.



So did you ever get back?

No, but I got close.



After living on scraps and monsters for so long that I figured I must have become one myself, I managed to eventually catch sight of the outer walls of the place. Naturally, I dropped everything to see if I could get back in.



But, lemme guess: Something stupidly dramatic happened and you couldn't make it?

Excuse me?

It's kind of your thing.

That's not… I mean…



Okay, so I heard a voice telling me that I wasn't doing any good sticking around there. Next thing I know, a sword's coming out of my chest, and everything's going dark. That wasn't dramatic, it just sucked.

Sounds pretty dramatic to me.

A shadowed figure, a mysterious speech, and questions lasting beyond death? Indeed.



Anyways, I just finished burning that last one to death. Let's move on to the main event.

Yes. Thank you for the story.



When activated properly, The Burrowing Heaven has four Speed Dice, and the one in front plays its custom Mass Attack.



Your Own Heaven has a pair of decently sized dice on it, and our side's permanent 10 Feeble means that we can't use offensive dice to stop them. The first attack inflicts 3 Fragile for the rest of the turn to anyone it hits, while the second restores Burrowing Heaven's HP on hit.



Our only real option here is to throw our Ferrous Guards into it and pray, as with our passives the first die is weighted in our favor while the second die is exactly even.

Now, because Morgan's already done a good bit of work this shouldn't be too difficult… but try to stay focused until the battle is over.

Obviously. If I turn my back on this thing, it'll be worse than just a stab in the chest.

Here we go!



The first roll goes our way, as Burrowing Heaven only gets a 4.



The second, however, is a max roll that knocks out one block die from each of our Librarians. This would also have healed The Burrowing Heaven for 27 HP, but we haven't actually dealt it any damage yet.



Jeez… it's too big! There's not a way to close in without letting some of it out of your sight! _{Never thought I'd miss the old security cameras…}



If you contain most of it in your sight, then you can steer where the rest can move. That makes it easier to block.

Truly?



I seem to lack the knack for it.



Y'think it's the monocle? It could be adding an extra blind spot.

I'm not removing my monocle.



Good news then, geezer: you probably won't have to. I think it's one good push away from being defenseless.



On subsequent turns after its proper awakening, The Burrowing Heaven won't reuse its Mass Attack. It does finally play its last combat page, however: Burrowing Gaze has a decent Piercing die and a very low Block die, making it perfect for getting a good Block hit in on it.



Anyways, nothing has changed about our strategy. We do want to make absolutely sure that everyone has at least 3 Light going into the next turn, but that's a nonissue.



Come on, you…



No worries! I got it taken care of.



That should take care of the dampening effects on our offense. Talow, the Smoke?



Yeah, I got it applied. We're all ready to go here.



Ah… that's much better. That thing's gaze was terrible.

It's like a staring contest with a wall…

It's stunned, it's smoked. Insurance time?

Very perceptive.

Overcharge's second major use here is to ensure that we deal enough damage to finish off The Burrowing Heaven in one Stagger. We don't want this fight to drag out any longer than it has to.



There we go! It would've been a real shame to bring these weapons and not even use the gauntlets once.



The thing's been teed up. Try not to stumble over yourself, old man.



What matters isn't that we stumble, Talow. It's that we get the job done in the end.



And it is done. I must say, despite my expectations you did your work splendidly.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing.

Are you two going to be like this… every time we're fighting?



The Burrowing Heaven is another difficult Abnormality Battle simply because it expects us to be able to follow a specific strategy for a long period of time, while changing up our way of playing to do so. So long as we remember the rules (Clash with Ferrous Guard, second die is draw, light regain, or offensive page as needed) and save offensive pages for the enemy's Staggered turns, however, it winds up being nothing to write home about.

VIDEO
Music: HokmaStory


Aren’t you asking for too many books at once?

As I awoke later than the others, I have much to learn to catch up. I was always one step behind others.

You mean how you have one foot in the grave?

…A trifling attempt at mockery.

Y’know, all the other librarians here told me they were following a person called Carmen… You joined her in her research like all the others did?

You’re right that most others followed Carmen, but I was loyal to another person. There was a man named Ayin, who founded Lobotomy Corporation and created Angela.

I had faith in him. Everyone carries some form of faith or belief; in my case, I believed that what he sought to do was the right thing.

Roland, do you happen to be a religious person?

Nope. I’m not sure if there’s even a proper religion in the City. And the bigger ones are all money-hungry schemes in disguise, so there’s no point putting faith in any of ‘em.

Then I must ask differently.



What I believe in? Getting out of this place one day.

That is simply called a wish.

Guess I don’t have any beliefs, then~ I never had time to care about things like that, I had my immediate future to worry about. We live in a world where it’s tough to think about or look back on stuff that won’t be helpful right away, dreams or faith or whatever. You’re talking the talk. What do you believe in, then?

I believe in the eventual arrival of the world my scholar and mentor dreamed of. This faith is the guiding principle of my every action.

Just what kind of person was he to make you his devoted fan?

He was a man with a far sight. He strove to reach an unreachable place.

Doesn’t that description also apply to Carmen, or at least of what I heard about her?

There is a clear difference. Sir Ayin was gladly willing to accept evil for the sake of realizing his cause.

Yeah, speaking of that, I seriously don’t get that Ayin guy.



…His deeds cannot be compared to something as puerile as “playing house”.

I dunno how great and eye-opening his enlightenment was, but he left a huge trail of trouble for everyone else in that process, going from what I’ve heard. I mean, you went through a whole lot of suffering in your second life as Lobotomy Corp’s Sephirot, and Angela is still so infuriated.

It’s all because of him, isn’t it? He’s looking like a complete mess from an outsider’s perspective.

He endeavored to reach his goal in spite of such obstacles. He sought to fill the gaps out one way or another, in order to endure the eroding life. You will never understand it, his sacrifice and dedication…

Boy, aren’t you a total zealot. They say faith blinds the eyes of the feeble-minded.

I believe I am not the only one blind with faith here.

Can’t be any worse than you, pal.

Music: Lobby


Unlike the middle layers, Hokma's floor gets its first new Librarian after the first Abnormality cleared. The second, meanwhile, will come after the third battle.

Binah's floor is also different, but I don't feel like explaining it right now. She'll stand up when she feels like it.



Our new Abnormality Pages, meanwhile, are best talked about as a set. They're the building blocks of a strategy affectionately dubbed "Blockma," as it's Hokma's floor and it revolves around Block dice. Lean, Bloody Wings is the keystone of this build, as it turns any Block die into a way to instantly deal damage to an opponent. The page says that it's 'Physical Damage,' but it bypasses any resistances and works like True Damage direct to the enemy's HP. Of the other two, Gaze of Others is usually paired with LBW in order to give bonus Power to the Block dice on any clash. Attention and Focus also fits in the same niche, but since they're all Level 1 Pages we can only ever pick two, and the combo of LBW+Gaze is too powerful to pass up.



So. Level with me. You just asked for that many books because he's Angela's lapdog, right?

I said precisely what I meant, Talow. It's something you could stand to do more often.

I'm always saying exactly what I-

I may never have paid much attention to you all before, but even I know how often you lie. Now, pick a book.

Why do I have to-

Dibs on Boris.

We're all going to be reading each of them. It's the fastest way to gather information relevant to the Thumb's faith in their hierarchy.

Yeah, sure, but there's four books and only three of us.



Good thing that I came here straight away, then.

Robin. You're just in time for our research project… your specialty, as I recall?

Sure is. I'll have some notes drawn up on this… "Denis" guy in no time.

Good. Talow, did you want Kalo or Katriel's book?

Kalo, I guess.

Excellent. Then I'll see you all in an hour or two to discuss.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



You know everything important about the next receptions… Let's focus on what they'll do to the library. This one advances Hokma's Floor further.

Advances Gebura's Floor.

Advances Binah's Floor.

Advances Chesed's Floor.


Videos

Hokma 2

The thread has spoken, and we're doing the center-left node next!

_{Not sure what's up with the poll title this time. Sorry about that.}

Book 37: Blue Reverberation—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Today's battle is the center-left node, and a follow-up to the Smiling Faces. Let's check in on what Argalia's up to today, shall we?

VIDEO
Music: StoryAlley


I am sorry, Sir Argalia…

I was so sure I would find an answer if I came all the way here. But no, not a single soul here has a lead…



After this resident speaks, there's the sound of a slash and a thud. This is now an ex-resident.

The Red Mist began harnessing that power of hers after this place had become her base of operations, no?



They had to have left something here… Don’t you have any guesses, my friends?



Slash, thud.

You folks aren’t helping at all, sadly



You’d better hurry up and recall useful information, friends. This is driving me crazy, too.

Following her charming voice, I dropped by every little venue I could guess to be relevant. I searched every nook and cranny for hints. In the end, L Corp, the Library, and… this used-to-be lab were the only three candidates remaining.



Slash, thud. Argalia's just mowing through people today.

The Pianist, who showed up in the middle of the streets… It took my sister… I couldn’t be there as it happened, unfortunately…

Upon my belated arrival at the scene, all that greeted me… was the grand piano with its performer gone. My sister had become one of the many keys and strings of the piano, joining in the last performance… What she had become was utterly indescribable.

Not because it was horrible, no…

Rather, it was just too beautiful for words…



I suppose it’s my fault for letting my dear younger sister marry an imbecile. I couldn’t stop her…

Throughout our lives, we could never quite understand each other; our hearts were too far apart to keep each other company… It was through the performance that we could finally see the feelings of one another… I shivered with pain and despair for losing my naive and adorable hoyden… And looking at what once was my sister, I trembled from the enticing melody it created…

That’s when my eyes were opened. I could see it… I could envision what I can do for her…



Slash, thud. Do not interrupt Argalia's monologues.

Playing a gorgeous melody, a neverending dirge… in remembrance of dear Angelica… A gentle voice whispered to me… That I shall be able to reenact that glorious performance. I wandered around following her advice, but I couldn’t find a definitive answer anywhere…





We hear an intense ticking sound here, which is likely coming from the Clockwork Teeth. We never actually get to see them—those things behind Eileen are something different.

No, no. I didn’t come all the way here to see some sloppily made creatures…

Pluto? Eileen?

Yes, Sir Argalia.

Shall I shut them down for you? Clockwork is rubbishy compared to gears.



Slash, thud.

After wandering for a while, a revelation finally flashed in my head. Ah, yes, it bore a striking resemblance to the beauty the Red Mist manifested as she danced with blood in her mouth. The Pianist and the Red Mist showed vastly different colors of elegance, yet they were so alike at the core…



Slash, thud.

What a shame, I’ve got nothing. This invitation is the only lead I have now…

Eileen, care to lend me a few of your sheep?

As you wish. Are you sure you don’t need our company?

Don’t worry, I’ll be back in no time. It’s not ripe yet, anyway… Pluto, stick around for a bit longer and see if there’s anything noteworthy here.

But of course, sir.

Music: Lobby


And one of them seems oddly familiar, now that I think about it…

…Is it just me, or is there a hint of sadness in the Blue Reverberation’s face?

You mean the Blue Sicko. He’s just lost it from the shock of losing his sister. The Pianist caused tons of people to part with their precious things in one way or another, but he in particular had to lose it in the worst way possible… When someone as powerful as him goes completely wacko and starts pillaging everywhere, there’s literally no way to stop him.

He said his sister was named Angelica. That sounds similar to my name.

Well, yeah. I’m guessing they mean the same thing.



The Outskirts are where things abandoned and rejected from entering the City by the Head go. It’s basically a junkyard for ‘impurities’ of the City. Most people rarely get a chance to see the Outskirts throughout their lives, so they don’t even know that those things exist. A lot of the “monsters” living there are artificial creations made by humans or things brought from the outside. And I heard that a good chunk of them have sentience and emotions. They’re non-humans, impurities whose existence is unacceptable in the City, especially in this age of humanity.

…Just like me.

Music: Entrance




Angelica…?

My name is Angela, dear guest.

Yeah, you’re right. There’s no way something as hideous as you could be her.

Why don’t you stop spouting such uncouth nonsense and head inside already?

A power so potent that even a machine may become human… It’s as I suspected. The Library has to ripen…

Hang in there, Angelica. It won’t be long.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: Things are about to get messy.







So you called me here to perform therapy on… A book.

For Kaori, yes. She hasn't come out yet, and since the problem can't be physical, I assume it must be one of those human emotional things. That I also have. Frequently. As a human.

I don't really know how to put this delicately, but… I can't talk with a book. It's just a cover and pages. This requires a dialogue. If you need help dealing with things, I could do that, but…

No need! Whether it takes one, ten, or a hundred casualties, it's all worth it so long as we can gain ground. None of our lives matter before the gears of progress. That's what I was always told by…

By..?

…Teachers. In my… Human. School. Where I learned… maths.

Mmmhm. Well… ultimately, we're looking at a manifestation of mental trauma. That's not something that can be fixed easily… without being able to see inside her head, there's not much we could do aside wait.

Or I could pour Enkephalin on the book and all its pages. That should clear it all right up!

No. No, do not… do that. That is a bad idea.

I'm off to see Netzach! He'll know where to find some of the ol' brainjuice!

As your therapist-

Kaori's therapist.

Your book's... therapist. I must strongly advise against this…

I think your ally is trying to gain your attention, human.

Huh..? What is it, Paul?

By golly, Miss Hod says we need to be on the set in five! Something big's going down, Medea, and it's our job to shove our fingers into these pies and find out what's in 'em!

Right… T, we'll have to put this on pause. Don't… don't do anything crazy while I'm out.

My intellectual capacity is miles ahead of a standard human. I am physically incapable of doing anything 'crazy.'

No. Enkephalin.

……Very well.

Book 37: Blue Reverberation—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


Everyone is carrying Puffy Brume today, but the only Smoke page any of them are using is Loss of Senses, which becomes stronger if the opponent has smoke. No points for realizing the enemy is running Smoke decks today. Because Smoke tends to deal heavy damage, I've also slapped recovery passives onto most of the team.



The first group of enemies is five Church of Gears Worshippers, which I shall hereafter call "Gears" because that's a mouthful to say every time.



Being Smoke-users, they have Puffy Brume to convert the effect into a buff, and Internal Combustion Engine increases the Smoke they gain by 1 stack any time they'd gain Smoke.

Meat Gear and Thought Gear, meanwhile, are more generalized powerups. Meat Gear is a straight damage bonus to the first offensive die of each page, and Thought Gear is a +1 Power to Evade dice specifically. In this fight, we only really need to worry about Meat Gear. They all also have the Stimulating Fumes passive, which will give them a block die against one-sided attacks so long as they have Smoke.



Music: HodBattle01


If the enemies look a little quiet, there's a reason for that. Back in Early Release, the Gears and Argalia all came with combat text like most enemies do. However, at some point the text was entirely removed—the filename associated with this combat is outright gone in my copy of the game's script.

Stay sharp, everyone. Those guests seem to be particularly interested in the Library, so we're here to get a good read on the personalities of our opponents in case we can use it to our advantage.

Jiminy willikers, we're supposed to do something like that? But I've only been trained in being nonthreateningly informative, Miss Hod!

That's fine. You can leave the heavy lifting to us. Just focus on combat.

Each of the Gears has only a single Speed die, so it's easy to think of this as a warmup round. That's… not entirely wrong, but if we assume this act is free we're going to be in for some pain.



This turn, the Gears are using 3 of their 5 offensive pages between them. This one is using Autonomous Rush. It's a basic page that gives 2 Smoke to the user on use, and whose first die inflicts 2 Smoke on hit to the opponent.




Assault Order, meanwhile, is a page that gets stronger if its target has Smoke applied to them. The numbers on it are decent, but because they've sent it out on the first turn we're going to be rolling right over it with our 3-cost pages.




And then… there's Vapour. This one page makes this fight a pain in the rear. The only relevant Key Page we have with good Slash resistance is Phillip's, and we can only have one of it. This means most of the time this attack is coming in unresisted. When they attack, the Gears get 5 Smoke on themselves all at once, boosting the damage by 25%. On top of this, Meat Gear boosts the damage we take by 2-3 points as well. We don't want to get hit by this.

Unfortunately, our only page with a lead die high enough to reliably block this is Deep Drag, which would grant them 8 Smoke if it hit, which would combine with Vapour to instantly max them out—basically, the worst case scenario. There are a number of combat pages we could get at this point to deal with this page, but all of them are in the other nodes available right now. As it stands, the best counter we have is Loss of Senses, which has a decent Block die to blunt the first hit, and follows up with a guaranteed draw 2 and possibly even a 2 Paralysis+1 Feeble if they've pumped their Smoke up too much.

We're going to take hits whenever Vapour comes out, and all we can really do is spread them around as best we can. Knowing how to take damage without losing anyone is a key part of succeeding in Star of the City.



Everyone's spare dice are dedicated to taking down one particular Gear as quickly as possible. The sooner we can throw a spanner in their works, the sooner we can stop taking damage.

Hey, so… I get why you're down there psychoanalyzing these guys or whatever, but… why am I here?

Because you… "know about famous Fixers," sir?

Yes, I know what she said, but…

Nevermind.

There there, sir. I'm sure you'll give us an edge somehow.



Eesh, look out for these guys. They pack a wallop!



Though at least it leaves them open afterwards.



That's some good news, at least.



One of the other issues we have with doing Blue Reverberation right now is that all of our opponents have some kind of resistance to Blunt damage. Our best combat pages are still largely Blunt options, meaning that they take half SR from every attack we make. Staggering enemies is going to be a little harder than normal.



Jeepies! This guy's still standing!



Their faith in their gears seems to give them more durability than we've seen before now.

Or maybe it's a ripple effect of that woman's distortion giving them power, like the Puppets and Tomerry.

Who cares? Just smash their brains in and let's get on with it.

This turn, the enemy uses both of the other pages they have available.



Guidance of the Gears is their Light regain page, and a straight upgrade to the one from Smiling Faces, since it has an Offense die on it. There's not much else to say about it.



Lastly, there's Defense Order. It's got decent dice, but it shouldn't cause many problems for us.

Altogether, the plan here is to take out the Gears while taking as few Vapour hits as possible. Since we've got a lot more to do today, let's just do the highlights.



One down. Four to go!



We lost enough clashes to get Axe to show up—Medea instantly gets it.



Hi-yah!

How are they doin'?

Two of those religious nuts are dead now.

Great. Wake me again when the real thing starts.



We then do too well to get Look of the Day, so we're without our guaranteed +2 Power.

Music: HodBattle02


Medea then gets hit for over a third of her max HP in one shot.



Cantankering cogwheels… I finally got this one down, Miss Hod!



It seems things are approaching their end, then. Don't let the last one inflict any more damage.



No need to worry about that, Miss Hod.



This one's right where I want him.



So… did you manage to get anything useful out of them?

It's only a theory right now, but I don't believe the worshippers are fully in control of their bodies anymore. Those other gears inserted into their brains… Thought gears, they were called?

Those are the ones.

They're responsible for a large number of the movements the worshippers make. Targeting with piercing attacks between the gears or slashing attacks to remove the teeth is the best way to pause their motions.

That doesn't seem like a very… "psychological" analysis.

It's not, but it's the information that's the most useful to us right now.

There's not much information we can get out of enemies that don't talk, anyways.

Music: GuestBattle01


The second battle is the real one—Argalia's here, accompanied by four more Gears.

.

Argalia's another Shimmering opponent, has a metric ton of HP, and his only other ability gives him complete immunity to all Ranged combat pages. It's a rude surprise for players who are still coasting through off of the power of Full-Stop pages.



Music: HodBattle02


So… this is the 'ordeal.' And you're to be our opponents?

That's correct.

Come now, you don't need to be so tense. This is just a normal inspection…

Though if you don't live up to my expectations, you might wind up in bits on the floor.





On his first turn, Argalia uses three copies of Scout. It's a somewhat weakish page for someone of his strength, though the 4 Bleed from the second die can deal a decent chunk of damage to our Librarians if they get tagged. More importantly, he's got a total of 6 Block Counter dice, which will blunt offensives against him and can rack up decent Stagger damage against us if we attack him head on.



We're dogpiling him anyways, because he's the biggest threat in this fight. Yes, including Vapour—though we do have Hod set up to block one with a Loss of Senses. The other attacks sprinkled around are mostly to help gain Emotion Levels and keep the Gears from getting too much damage on us at once.



We don't take kindly to threats around here, even from a color.

Such powerful strikes you have there…

The speed leaves much to be desired, but you'll get there, I'm sure.



Nh…

Miss Hod!

I'm fine—go after Argalia.



Hyah-!

My, and you're a reckless one. Less power, but certainly more speed…



Oh well. Try again, I suppose.

Jeepies! His cloak's like a solid wall!



Then let's punch through it!

Not bad, not bad…



At this rate, we might have a chance…

Yes. He's not giving his all… testing us, like he said.



He's not acting like he's in any danger, either.

Meaning..?

You think he has a way out, right?



That's the most likely conclusion, yes.

It wouldn't surprise me at all. He's a slippery bastard.



Oh… I know that voice. So this is where you scurried off to, you little rat.

I thought this channel was secure.

It's supposed to be. Maybe because he's a Color?

I'd heard, but I didn't quite believe it, you know? I mean... you, at a library?



Well, I'm a little busy. We can catch up for a moment after I've finished these ones off.

He's changing up his intentions…

Great. He just got a little more serious.



On the second turn, Argalia uses a copy of Trails of Blue. This page has a single decently sized Slash die on it, and whoever is targeted by this page loses all Power bonuses (or penalties) on their next turn. We really want to keep this off of Medea, she needs that Power to keep running.



His other two attacks this turn are Preludio. This page has a pair of mediocre dice, but it's a high priority block: for each hit that lands, Argalia and all his allies get +1 Power to all their dice for the next turn. Vapour is bad. Vapour at +2 Power is worse.



Come, now. Show me that power of emotion that you're so famous for.

Everyone, I'm going to use the E.G.O. Don't hold anything back.

That costume's powerful, so it makes sense..

Be careful, Miss Hod.



Even the environment itself can be bent to your will here… truly, this Library is powerful.



That form… it looks quite lonely, doesn't it?

This child isn't lonesome. She simply wishes for space between herself and others.

As I said. No one can understand anyone like that.



Do you ever stop talking?!



I see… so that form can only be held up for a certain amount of time. Well, nothing is free, after all.

I'm falling back… Elle, switch.



Here I am!

How poetic… stepping in to protect your comrade.



Is this how you always fight?



It sure is!

Mmh… how dissonant. It's not beautiful at all…



And you still didn't manage to keep me from that leader of yours, in the end.

I sure did just completely forget to stop this Preludio. :shepface:



It's fine! Miss Hod isn't going to fall over after just a hit or two!



Such confidence…



I suppose I've played around almost long enough. If this is all you have, then it's clear this place is nowhere near complete.

Two scouts and a Preludio. It's incredibly important to stop the Preludio entirely this turn.



Hey, Blue Reverberation. What did you do to my body?

Whatever do you mean?

It's felt funny since you hit me.

Being hit by Trails of Blue inflicted Elle with 4 stacks of Vibration.



Oh… that. Do you really have time to worry about it right now?

I'll worry about what I feel like, thank you!

It doesn't do anything in this fight. We can safely ignore it.



It's a bad habit to be too headstrong, you know.



Vainglorious vapours, Miss Hod, we're taking a bit of a beating here!

Just hold on a little longer. We've got to be near the end of things.



Speaking of near the end of things, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold up, either.



It's okay… just… a little more.

You're all just about off-balance now, aren't you? I think it may be time…



Whatever you're planning, it's not going to work.

Oh… it isn't?



We pick up Black Swan at our next Emotion Level, as I suddenly need a Mass Attack on hand ASAP.

Music: HodBattle03


Tell you what. I've got my weapon all warmed up now… I'll go all out for a moment, and we'll see how well you can handle it.



I've got a baad feeling about this, Miss Hod.

Tempestuous Danza is Argalia's ultimate attack, and this turn he whips it out alongside a Scout and another Trails of Blue. Danza is a 4-hit multi-target attack coming at us with 2 Strength and no Paralysis. This means that the rolls will be, in order: 10, 9, 7, 5-6. This means Elle Tee is taking a guaranteed minimum of 62 damage due to Stagger—she is dead this turn no matter what. Of our other team members, Hod and Switch are both dangerously low on SR—they'll probably be Staggered by the attack as well. This is bad.



Since Hod's next turn is probably getting skipped, I throw down Black Swan with her—I'm relying on this to blunt much of the Gears' offense this turn. Switch clashes Danza with Overcharge, Medea uses Moulnet, Paul gives Repressed Flesh a try, and Hod goes for Loss of Senses. None of them can block every die, but they'll have to do.



The overall goal here is to do as much damage as we can to Argalia, while also trying to follow up against the Gears as best I can. Handling a situation like this one is as much art as science, and the most important thing I have to say about this turn's strategy is that I didn't bother pulling any of the Gears' attacks off of Elle, since they're wasted on her.



Now… let's begin the dance.



Not yet.

When both sides are using Mass Attacks, any Mass Attacks on our side will always come out first. They're a great way to get rid of leftover Light on a Librarian who's about to get Staggered or defeated by an enemy MA before their turn can go off.



And so, Hod lets out a pair of tremendous roars on the enemy.



All targets are still moving.

Darn it…

Oh… finished already?



Then allow me.



It's too fast…

During Tempestuous Danza, Argalia dashes to each target in a blue beam of light and appears slashing behind them. He does this for every person for each die of the attack.



Hm… One of them managed to defend against it.

Not expecting it, were you?



I'll turn things up.

Ghk-!



Ah, there we go. How resilient, to last so long despite everything…

Elle Tee! You son of a-!



Gah!

That ought to do it.

Like heck it will!



Ah, you were still standing? But an attack like that won't ever reach me…



It doesn't have to! Someone, status report, now!

Yes… "someone," please.



Hod and Switch are both out for now, Medea. It's just the two of you.

Hear that, Paul?! We need your A-game!



Uh-huh! I'll give it all I've got this time!

On this, the grandest of stages, I've charmed the entire audience.



Not… like this…

But you shouldn't forget the other performers.

Miss Hod done got booked, Miss Medea!

I can see that!



And just like that… I've handled this one too while his eyes are somewhere else.

Ahh, beans!



That's as far as you go.

Your comrades are dropping like flies, you're nearly dead, and you're still coming at me without a hint of fear.

Crying won't change it. Neither will running. And ultimately…



A weakling like you isn't anything to be scared of.

Weakling? Even after all of that?

It's a shame, but I'll have to break this one's bluster to pieces before we go…

…………Right now? Can it perhaps wait for a moment or two?

…It can't be helped, if that's the case.

What the hell are you on about?!

It seems it's time to go already.

Don't you run away from me, you bastard!



I'm afraid I must. My exit has already been prepared. Have fun with the others, now!

Once we reduce him to 250 HP, Argalia will leave the Library early. The hard part of the fight is officially over.



…Is what I would be saying, if we weren't seriously on the backfoot right now. Thankfully, we've got an ace in the hole.



With only 3 Librarians left, it's roughly 30 Emotion Coins to recharge our E.G.O. Elle's death gave us 12, Hod's gave us another 9, and Argalia being defeated was worth 3 more. From there, the Clashes generated the rest of what we needed to be able to spam Black Swan two turns in a row.

Further, Medea knocking Argalia out gave her +1 Light, and her To Overcome Crisis last turn gave her another +1 Light thanks to Tempestuous Danza hitting her to below 25% of her max HP, putting her at exactly the 6 Light necessary to use it.



That blue bastard is the one who killed Elle… He'll pay for it later. But you bastards are the ones who killed Miss Hod…

Don't think for a second I'm going to forget about that.



As long as I draw breath, you won't lay a finger on anyone else.



Not one step forward, you hear me?!



Medea's Black Swan takes out one Gear entirely, Staggers a second, and breaks both dice of the remaining two. The enemy doesn't get to make a single move this turn.



Covering cigni… I never thought I'd be happy to see that form.

Are you two okay?

…Elle Tee and Miss Hod died… Right in front of my eyes. I couldn't…

Suck it up. We're finishing this.

Yes ma'am!



I'll intercept the one that's still got fight in him. You two clean up.

Hold on there, ma'am… you're just about to—

I… will be fine.

Yes'm.



Let's clean these three up while we can, then.



Darn! Tootin! Switch!



Mine's down.



Then we're all done…



Well… that's the end of it. Nothing to do now but clean them up… and remember th-

Knowledge is just pain plus observation! Have a-



Er… sorry, ma'am. Reflex.



Outside of Vapour, the Gears themselves are no threat—fittingly, this reception is all about how well we can handle Argalia. It's very possible to blitz him down before he ever gets Tempestuous Danza off, and that's really the ideal way to handle the fight. In our case, however, we were able to meet his absurdly OP Mass Attack with two of our own—a close fight, but sometimes it's as simple as spamming your most powerful moves until the enemy stops moving.

Music: Result


It's over… Good job, you three.

I'm just glad you guys aren't really… y'know.

We nearly bit off more than we could chew... That was a lot.

Take all the time you need. I'll handle the books today.

Hey, boss. You sure got quiet… seemed like the Blue Reverberation knew you, though?

Yeah… we've met a few times. Don't really get along with him, either.

You seemed to really not want to talk to him, though.

Like I said… we don't get along. I don't suppose we know where he went?

Sorry, sir. He's gone.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


We couldn’t get a proper book out of him, either.

I really wanted to take a peek at that lunatic’s mind for once…

Do you need that person’s book above anything else?

…It’s for personal reasons, to be frank.

The Blue Reverberation seemed to be after the Red Mist… Then, perhaps a book of the Red Mist could lure him back here again.

I appreciate the thought, but how exactly are we gonna do that? You know the original Red Mist kinda doesn’t exist anymore.

About that, we might have a way around it…



Is he aware that I was the cause of that phenomenon?

He’s no ordinary guy, so it’s possible he’s noticed it.

Then the Blue Reverberation’s goal may be taking revenge on me, perhaps.

No, rather… Anyone who lost what they found precious to the Distortion would resent me once they learned I was responsible for the phenomenon.

Well, maybe. Do you regret it or anything?

I’m not really sure. All I can say for certain is that it’s not exactly pleasant to know that the resentment against me is growing. Even then, it was ultimately the fault of the one man who trapped me inside for eons that the City came to suffer.

I feel much better thinking about it that way. I don’t care if the Blue Reverberation wants vengeance or not. It’s but one of the many clashes between my desire and the City folks’ desires.

Right you are. That’s that, and this is this.



With that ordeal over, we've opened up Gebura's next Abnormality Battle, as well as another new reception. As for who we'd be receiving… well, Angela may have given that one away already.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"The smiling faces are unfamiliar yet sorrowful."

The Red Mist makes her return… again.

To give them more of a chance, I'm putting the other three options into one place this time.


Videos

Blue Reverberation 2

New Key Pages



New Combat Pages