Rumbles - The RPG

[Nik Hasta]

OOC: Okay, here goes. Let's see if this works. Due to the internet in my area being as shoddy as all hell I'm might be able to be as hands-on as I'd like to be but dammit let's give it a try!

--- Rumbles - Tales of the Knights of Khazan - Act 1: "The Line is Dead,"

There were many problems that came up in the running of the Knights of Khazan, most obviously was that trying to get the Knights themselves to not argue in petty and childish fashions about just about anything was about as easy as herding cats, but the most pertinent was the sheer scale of their job. As the defenders of the stability of all reality, the area of their activities could be conceivably anywhere and anywhen which was hard enough on the Knights in the field but even harder on those who had to tell them where to go.

Communication was a big issue. Any standard communication device had to be compact, easily concealable, durable enough to survive any of the usual incredibly dangerous situations that Rumblers would find themselves in just on a daily basis, let alone on a mission. Furthermore it had to have enough processing power to allow the user to communicate with beings across multiple Universes and/or realities with no real external backup.

Cosmic Eagle, Ghost and T51R had collaborated to design such a device and, even with their combined intellects and access to the finest tools and materials that omniverse could offer, the resulting communications sounded like a badly tuned radio when transmitting from one Universe to another and often Rumblers could find themselves outside of signal range from Khazan, especially if time-travel had been involved.

Thus the Moderators had sanctioned the creation of the Network. It had been a grand undertaking - the construction of transmitters across 60,000 realities, barely a fraction of the Knight's stomping grounds. Each transmitter was unique to its home reality and they all used a variety of more unorthodox communication methods to send the signals to and from the main hub in the city of Khazan itself. Transmitter 17,894 for example required a goat to be sacrificed on it every leap year to make use of occult energies unique to its home environment, while Transmitter 45,600 required a biannual performance of Morris Dancing to be performed before it.

Why?

No one was exactly sure but it made for an entertaining gathering for the Knights ever two years and they made a party out of it.

As well as new traditions and effectiveness the improved communication brought forth another new aspect to the activities of the Knights.

Codes.

Now, along their usual personal effects, all Knights carried a small but very thick handbook listing all the codes that could be transmitted in any conceivable situation. A code 1156-967-43, for example, informed all Rumblers in Reality 1156 that an interstellar empire had attacked a world that Khazan had a vested interest in, a code 7543-000-0155 was Sharpandpointies announcing to Khazan City that he was heading out for a lunch and whether anyone wanted him to grab them a sandwich, the list was huge and extensive almost to a fault.

A code 2-1-1 was a rarity. Every Rumbler knew this one without having to check the book. It meant all Rumblers were to report back to Khazan immediately because of an multi-reality spanning threat.

Captain Nik Hasta was sitting at his desk in his cabin when he heard the call.

"All Knights, we have a 2-1-1! Report to the Hub immediately,"

Nik stood up, his ship, The Sea King shifting around him at high speed and he appeared on deck, at the helm. The city sized vessel was currently floating upon a vast and tumultuous sea of flames, many members of the crew pulling on ropes larger than them to allow the sails to take the most advantage of the thermal winds that moved them. Behind them flew an armada of much smaller metal ships, glowing red hot from the flames beneath them. The Sea King was being peppered with shots from enormous cannons, shots that were being deflected by other members of the crew to prevent major damage.

"Ferox," Nik said quietly, his second-in-command, a large man with a colossal axe strapped to his back, immediately appeared behind him, dropping from his position on one of the yardarms.

"Captain?" he said, throwing a perfunctory salute.

"We're changing course. We turn our sails to Khazan, it seems we have an emergency on our hands. Contact Siriel and Gladiaria, see if they require pick up,"

"Very good sir," said Ferox, relaying the orders to his subordinates by medium of shouting at them in a voice that drowned even the roar of the flames around them.

Nik casually caught a stray flaming cannonball and hurled it overboard and took the wheel of his ship. He brought her about and then, focussing intently, caused the firmament of reality to open in front of the prow. The ship seemed to stretch forward for an instant, the fabric of the world blurring like an oil painting in a hurricane before the ship vanished.

The crews of the metal ships cursed their misfortune and Grand Admiral Roltor swore vengeance on the Captain that had bested him in combat, seduced his wife and then had the audacity to save the Emperor of the Eternal Flame in his place.

In the gap between realities, Nik watched a thousand coloured points of light drifting by the ship. It had been a fair old while but he was heading back to Khazan.

[FistofIron]

"How could you do this to us? Answer me you sick bastard! Tell me why to did this FistofIron!" Said a warrior who have just returned home to his village only to find everyone slaughtered.

"Your village is quite famous for producing world renowned fighters. I thought killing you all would ease my boredom but, it seems I have no such luck." Said FistofIron the Assassin of the Knights.

The warrior couldn't believe what he had heard. The people of his once proud village slaughtered to ease a man's boredom. He wouldn't stand for it he had to have revenge. As the warrior took a stance to combat the assassin he suddently coughed up blood and died.

It turns out that while the warrior and FistofIron were conversing FistofIron ran over to him and pulled out his heart without seeming to have moved at all.

"This is all very disappointing" Said FistofIron as he threw away the heart.

As he was making his what out of the village he picked up his transmitter and saw code 2-1-1. "Oh yes now this is what I've been waiting for." Said Iron as he vanished into the night.

[Froggy]

Froggy slept in his hammock above the swamp when he heard the signal. the ladies fanning him in his sleep were suddenly hit by a burst of wind as he leapt off incredibly fast. "Sorry ladies can't stay got an emergency!" and jumped towards the sky Man hope tis isn't too bad. I was having a nice dream. seeing him hop through Khazan to the Hub was like watching an immense game of frogger, with him leaping over and rolling to the side of obects/people/monsters/other deities. When he arrived, a "COMPLETE!" noise came over the intercom as if he had finished a game level. "What's Hapnin cap'n?" he asked Nik

[Kill cujo]

"Code 2-1-1?"

The seemingly normal young man scratched his head, as he retrieved the map from his satchel, the entire map of Khazan.

"Yeah... this might be difficult."

[Guy1]

Guy was in a library, the largest in the universe, going through book after book trying to find something. A clue. A spell. Anything that could lead him to his real name. A large pile of books was behind him. He was reading through one with the titles of demon lords. No mention of him. He threw it in the pile. The communicator beeped. 2-1-1. Great. The Demon King, now known as simply Guy the half-breed of the Khazan Knights, picked up his sword and walked out of the library.

[moonknight11]

"An emergency? Yes, this sounds awesome. Time for the Khazan Defence Force to prove himself!" shouted the Youth triumphantly. Luckily he was in Khazan at the time so he only had to travel a couple of miles to get to HQ. He used the wind itself to fly and arrived before most of the others.

[Kill cujo]

"Alright Damien, prepare for liftoff!"

Rob took the time to fold the enormous map back up properly, and put it back in his satchel. A small snow white puppy popped up from the folds of his jacket, and barked.

"Yes Damien, the bees are coming out now."

The young man raised one arm to the sky, and a furious buzzing filled the air, as hundreds of thousands of bees flooded from the satchel, and lifted the boy airborne.

He arrived at HQ a tad late, but made a grand entrance, being carefully lowered back to his feet by his loyal minions.

"Rob, and Damien reporting for duty."

[Nik Hasta]

Contrary to the thoughts of those who think inter-reality travel impossible, there are many ways to reach the City of Khazan. As the central meeting point of all realities every pathway out of one reality eventually leads into it. The variety of ways that visitors have arrived by so far range to inter-dimensional portals and time-slips to simply walking and finding oneself there. Khazan exerts a huge pull on the fabric of the Omniverse, warping it around itself and allowing the forces of destiny to seek those that are pre-ordained to come through. If they are called, though they may not know it, they will arrive, one way or another.

Upon arriving through whichever means that served them, a being would look upon Khazan as a mountain, a mountain built of buildings overlooking an endless sea, stretching endlessly up towards the panoramic vista of stars that passes for a sky. No being, even those older than their own Universe, remembers or knows how the city came to be. The walls are always dramatically taller than the onlooker, regardless of how tall said onlooker may be, and the gates are always large enough to be imposing.

The difficulty in fitting an infinitely large city, one of endless dimensions in every direction, within finite walls is apparently resolved by areas of the city apparently ceasing to be if they are unobserved, folding down through their dimensions until they exist only as the tiniest of blemishes on the smallest of sub-atomic particles. This all occurs without damaging any of the property or beings that reside therein; a house or street could suddenly shrink down to near nothingness and the residents within the buildings would be totally unaware of the change.

This constant shifting and readjustment of matter gives the city a rippling characteristic that was quite hypnotic to observe, though the sight of architecture, physics and geography being put through the conceptual wringer all at once tends to give most travellers a tremendous sense of unease.

The city itself is centred upon the famous arena, the stage upon which combatants from all walks of reality would do battle for glory, entertainment or merely just to satisfy the curiosity of the Knights themselves. The arena could shift to any size or shape to accommodate any conceivable kind of battle. This shifting in dimensions only served to add to the mangling of conventional physics that city personified.

Overlooking the arena stands the fortress of the Knights themselves. The building is not so much a fortress per se but is more akin to a guild hall. It is a squat building, looking more like a cheap pub than a centre of an omniversal peace-keeping force. Due to naturally pugnacious nature of the Knights, the fortress was in a constant state of repair as it was routinely destroyed by arguments which swiftly accelerated into combat which swiftly led to things getting blown up.

Within the fortress, which was considerably larger on the inside than it was on the outside, were rooms for the Knights to sleep in should they require, an enormous canteen, the communication hub and, most importantly, the mission allocation centre. It was from here that the Knights were allocated missions based upon the constant incoming stream of data from the countless Universes that the Knights monitored.

And it was here that the Knights answering the 2-1-1 were currently converging.

[mailedbypostman1]

The Postman was just about to squeeze the trigger when the phone rang. Being highly trained, this caused him to jerk his rifle just a tad, nd the end result was that instead of sending a super high calibre bullet at Mach 40 into his target's brain he instead directed it directly into the unfortunate target's crotch.

As the man screamed and jerked on the ground floor and the alarms sounded, the Postman sighed and checked his phone. It was a 211.

"Guess I'll have to finish this quick then," he remarked to nobody in particular and pulled out his Canister rifle. A quick series of squeezes and the entire hotel lobby was filled with nerve gas. Swiftly and sleekly the Postman leaped off the skyscraper and landed at the sidewalk, smashing a large crater into it. Switching to his PlasmaThrower, he sprayed the lobby with the superheated gas, until the floor glowed like the Earth's core.

He then packed his rifle away and signalled for a taxi outside.

[Sharkerbob]

Sharkerbob sighed as he heard the beeping of his multidimensional communications device. Untangling himself from the coils of a few snake women, he fumbled through the mess on his floor until he found it.

"A 2-1-1?" he said. "Huh. That's bad, right?" The snake women just sleepily shrugged and continued to doze off. He tapped another button on his com-link. "Hey, Tami is that bad?"

"One of the worst," came the response. "I am already prepared. Shall I go ahead, or would you prefer to go together?"

"I'll meet you there," said Sharkerbob, slipping on his kilt of swords, and grabbing the Crowbar. "Just alert the top minions of the situation."

"The memo is already sent, sir," said Tami.

"Where would I be without you, Head Minion?"

"I shudder to think."

"Off we go then!"

Sharkerbob opened the door to his office, and with a shifting step, appeared out of a doorway in a random alley in Khazan. Walking down the alley to the main street, he met Tami at the corner. "Right then. Let's be off!"

[Kill cujo]

"Not much of a building eh Damien?"

Rob shifted the cute puppy from his jacket to his shoulder, as he strolled into the building he had been summoned to.

"Anybody home?"

[The MunchKING]

Codes.

Now, along their usual personal effects, all Knights carried a small but very thick handbook listing all the codes that could be transmitted in any conceivable situation. A code 1156-967-43, for example, informed all Rumblers in Reality 1156 that an interstellar empire had attacked a world that Khazan had a vested interest in, a code 7543-000-0155 was Sharpandpointies announcing to Khazan City that he was heading out for a lunch and whether anyone wanted him to grab them a sandwich, the list was huge and extensive almost to a fault.

A code 2-1-1 was a rarity. Every Rumbler knew this one without having to check the book. It meant all Rumblers were to report back to Khazan immediately because of an multi-reality spanning threat.

"A 2-1-1?? It's Thursday already?? I swear the only thing worse than Thursdays are Mondays. Man... Time was I was a 211 on a weekly basis. Now I gotta spend my time fighting the damn things."

Munchy grabbed his gear from around Castle Munch and warped to the Hub. "What's the problem THIS time?" He asked sarcastically.

[Kill cujo]

"A 2-1-1?? It's Thursday already?? I swear the only thing worse than Thursdays are Mondays. Man... Time was I was a 211 on a weekly basis. Now I gotta spend my time fighting the damn things."

Munchy grabbed his gear from around Castle Munch and warped to the Hub. "What's the problem THIS time?" He asked sarcastically.

"Whoa, neat trick."

Rob grinned at Munch just porting in like that, and Damien let out a bark, Rob hushed him with a biscuit. "It's not nice to bark at strangers."

He walked towards munch, and extended his hand in greeting.

"Robert Alistar, pleased to meet you, oh, and this is Damien."

[Froggy]

"serioiusly you guys I had the most awaesome dream. I caught the Human Fly and well...........it was great"

[Kill cujo]

"serioiusly you guys I had the most awaesome dream. I caught the Human Fly and well...........it was great"

"Hn?"

Rob turned his head slightly to gauge the stranger, before returning his gaze to Munch.