The Untamed Wilds: Electric Skies

Weekly post: +5xp

Sl-iver-moon and the Minions
[sblock=Reaction] Hawkeye: 55+116(d100)-45(hinder)=126, Trollick: 58+76(d100)-20(hinder)=114,
Syd Vicious: 49+85(d100)-53(hinder)=81
Slivermoon: 60+92+96(d100)-25=223, Young Shapeshifter (lynx) 60+07(d100)-25=42, YS (lion) 60+43-25=78, YS (leopard) 60+09-25=44 [/sblock]

Speed of Action: Slivermoon, Hawkeye, Slivermoon, Trollick, Syd, lion, leopard, lynx, Hawkeye, Slivermoon, Trollick

you've been kidnapping bonded pets, and using them to build an army of whatever these things are

Click to expand...

At Hawkeye’s words Slivermoon bares her sharp teeth in rage. “Curse you, plodder (a derogatory term for giants). We’re just as natural as you are. The magic of the Way lines continues to bring amazing changes, even in us.” As she uses her first action to speak an amazing change indeed comes over her. White, spotted fur sprouts over her body and her head morphs into that of a snow leopard with her hands and feet becoming paws. “But we won’t go back to being pets!”

As soon as she finishes her declaration, Hawkeye aims his Ruger Phoenix at the lion’s foot and fires. The bullet tears a chunk off her ankle and the alley fills with the pained hiss of a cat. At the same time, he shapes the shadows around him to grant projectile defense.

[sblock=Hawkeye revolver attack]
Hawkeye: 55+86=141, lion: 60+34+25(called shot)=119 =6 damage
Body: 10-6=4, Speed of action 78-60=18, change of order [/sblock]

With quick agility Slivermoon leaps past her friends to attack Hawkeye with her gleaming metal claw gloves, seeking to avoid his armor as he did with the lion. The darker shadows do not seem to hinder her, but she misses a crease in his heavy armor and only punches one of the plates, doing no damage.
[sblock=Slivermoon claw attack]
Slivermoon: 60+67=127, Hawkeye: 58+63+25(called shot)=146, no damage [/sblock]

Trollick surges forward to engage the male leopard. He instinctively uses his magic to warp the shadows around him even as he realizes the extra darkness won’t have much effect on these werecats. His punch thumps solid into the wereleopard’s chest, eliciting a grin from the cat face until the Ionize magic begins to melt him from the inside. The cat screeches in utter pain but manages to stay on his feet as his fur falls out in clumps.

[sblock=Trollick unarmed strike]
Trollick: 63+76=139, leopard: 60+44=104, 1 damage
Leopard: soak 10-1=9
Trollick paranormal assault: 44+90+77=211, leopard: 60+62=122, 8 damage
Leopard: Body 10-8=2, Speed of action 44-80=0, change of order [/sblock]

In the cramped alley Syd Vicious is almost standing next to Slivermoon and stabs with his sabre as he opens up with his AK4700 at point blank range, carefully positioning his shots to avoid his comrades. His burst of bullets rips into her armor, but does not seem to penetrate.

[sblock=Syd Full Auto attack]
Syd: 49+65+25(extra weapon)+50(point blank)=189, Slivermoon 60+87=147, 12 damage
Slivermoon: Light armor 20-12=8 [/sblock]

With his companions reeling from their painful wounds, the werelynx leaps at Syd, his claw gloves reaching to tear his flesh. The claws scratch down his medium armor, failing to draw blood.

[sblock=Lynx claw attack]
Lynx: 60+81=141, Syd: 49+54=103, 7 damage
Syd: Medium armor soak 15-7=8 [/sblock]

Seeing this battle is going their way, Hawkeye levels his Ruger at Slivermoon and fires point blank. The bullet punches through her armor and her body and the weresnowleopard flops onto her back unconscious, bleeding onto the cement.

[sblock=Hawkeye revolver attack]
Hawkeye: 55+40(GM d100)+50(point blank)=145, Slivermoon: 60+21=81, 19 damage
Slivermoon: Light armor 8-19=-11, Body 10-11=-1, Mind 10-1=9 [/sblock]

The werelion cries out and falls to her knees, cradling Slivermoon’s head in her lap as the lion shifts back into what looks like a dark-skinned teenage girl.
“Please stop! We’re sorry, we give up.” Tears leak down her brown cheeks and her surrender seems genuine.

Combat is effectively over as you have dominated these naughty kitties into submission. State intentions.

Hawkeye is Merciful.

Hawkeye's eyes narrow into a stern glare, "We aren't the type of people who react well to being threatened, attacked, or ambushed. But we're also not murderers. I'm going to help you stabilize your friend, but if this is a trick, you won't get a second chance, got it?"

Hawkeye will holster his gun, and remove his right glove, so that he can lay his hand on Silvermoon. He will attempt to channel Way to accelerate her healing process.

While Hawkeye is healing Slivermoon, Syd will stand guard making sure there are no attacks made by any were-creature or random feline anywhere.

"Get over there, together, and keep your hands on top of your heads." Trollick herds the werecats into a group off to one side, making it easier for him and Syd to keep an eye on them.

"So who has managed to cause this change within you? Does some Bender have the talent to actually merge an animal with a person, or is this some abominable technology?"
[sblock=Negotiate]16 (mercantile) + 24 (clarity) + 73(d100) = 113[/sblock]
[sblock=BTW, Render Physical Aid, Hawkeye]Recover Time: 10 days * loss of Body / (target Health + target Confluence + 95)[/sblock]

Weekly post: 5xp

That's the Biz

The Young Shapeshifters all change into their human forms. Out of the two males the lynx becomes a Caucasian man with a beard striped the same way as his fur, and the leopard becomes Hispanic. They make no more threatening moves, and they cooperate with your directions.

In response to the question of their origins, the werelynx says, “We really were cats most of our lives, bonded pets as they said. Just as the Way lines changed your form and made it larger, so did the magic change us after time. We developed the ability to change into a human form. Being in the enclave around so many magicians probably sped up the process in us. Perhaps it is something that was dormant in our genes, passed down from many centuries ago when magic was last seen in the world.”

Around the corner of the skyscraper comes your employer and a tall Asian man with his hair in one long braid. PC seems perturbed, but at the shapeshifters, not you. The man holds his hands up to show he bears you no ill will. You are certain you have not seen this man before. Accompanying the stranger is a clowder of identical Siamese cats. Strangely enough they move around so much that you cannot get an accurate count of how many. The Siamese cats do not bother you or approach you and they remain silent other than the constant shuffle of their motion.

PC says to Slivermoon’s prone form, “Well I hope you’ve learned a lesson. Trying to hide in plain sight is just stupid. I had hoped you would come to your senses and tell me what happened,” she turns to the three of you and says, “But you have revealed the truth instead. Your job is complete. You may return to Shatterframe to find that all of you have been paid.”

The Asian man steps forward and says to the shapeshifters, “This change is not something to be hidden and feared. Let us return to the Enclave and celebrate.”

You depart as the magicians are embracing the shapeshifters and return to Shatterframe.

Gain 3000 credits

Shatterframe says, “Good job with the kitties. Clearwater sends her regards for not killing any of them. They were just trying to scare the truth out of them. So there’s shapeshifters now, huh? If it happened here it stands to reason it happened in other animal centric groups. The streets just got a little weirder. I still have these two other jobs."

First offer: I gave this job to someone else and now they’ve disappeared too. I upped the pay as per the mortal danger clause. Down on the coast in a place called Surfside Beach four regular people and two runners have disappeared. All of their equipment, supplies, clothes, and vehicles were found, just no people. I need you to investigate their disappearance. As per their choice by law, the families involved have elected to hire Freelancers instead of the HPD to solve this mystery, so don’t count on cooperation from law enforcement. -Pay: 3000 credits

Second offer: In Port Arthur there’s a man that needs to deliver a package and he’s decided to hire his own security, which is you three. Of course, I’ll be providing transportation to his destination in downtown, but you will have to accompany him through the skyscraper where he wants to go and hand deliver his goods. This job requires two things for full payment. 1. Customer can’t die 2. Package must be delivered where he wants it. -Pay: 3000 credits

Hawkeye's Two Cents

Hawkeye muses to himself, ~Hmmm. Ok, so not what I thought at first, but that's ok. Instead of magically manufactured monsters, they turned out to be mutants. And instead of being the source of an insidious plot, they merely turned out to be yearning for their freedom. I'll just have to make a mental note to be more open-minded in the future. I really would have regretted killing that girl, even if it would have been an honest mistake. I just wish people nowadays weren't so duplicitous; makes it hard to tell who the bad guys are, sometimes.~

Hawkeye scoffs, "I still say that Port Arthur is a dump. And the conditions of that job sound fishy to me. Let's take a trip to Surfside Beach. Whaddya say, fellas?"

"I'll get outvoted either way; so, I guess it's a beach run." Syd laments.

Waynan said:

"I'll get outvoted either way; so, I guess it's a beach run." Syd laments.

Click to expand...

"You sound like you're gettin' stuck with the short stick. I am still curious about the Port Arthur gig, but I guess we are headed way over to Surfside. I have never seen the ocean. I wonder if people can still get in it."

Trollick, who is still hoping to locate a reputable Mystic Walk-up, spends his downtime looking for a trinket to augment his natural strength. Additionally, he realizes that his mystic tuning has expanded so he takes some time on the roof of the skyscraper where Hawkeye lives, out of sight of others, to experiment.

During downtime, Hawkeye will ask Shatterframe if she knows where he can get a "Combo" headset; it should be both a VR set and a VLD set, in one, and it should be low-profile, like his current set (which looks like a pair of sunglasses.) It should also use the same base jack, so as to avoid surgery to install a new jack.

Hawkeye asks Shatterframe, "Does such a thing exist? If so, it's gotta be high-tech. What's the price tag like on something like that?"

Supplemental Post

he would like to find a mystic walk-up.

Click to expand...

Since the quality is excellent at Ranella’s Mystic Portables, you decide to go there again. This time instead of the usual security there is an old orc sitting on a stool. His warty face, wide ears, and uneven tusks seem genuine to an orc born, not the smooth fakes that people have implanted. He is broad and squat, perched on the stool at ease and is wearing a typical blue work uniform without insignia. At his bare feet are three large rats the size of small dogs, but they merely stare in curiosity, not menace, and stay by the orc’s stool. They are oddly silent as they stare and work their noses in the air.

The orc nods as you enter and says, “I saw you come in before. My name’s Zerusk, head artificer at Ranella’s. You’re not like the usual chubs that buy jewelry for good health. You’re actually using the magic. If you don’t want to bother with the machines you can give your orders to me directly. I can make custom pieces that are more mindful of moving with a purpose.”

You may list Zerusk of Ranella’s Mystic Portables as a business contact.

it should be both a VR set and a VLD set

Click to expand...

Shatterframe answers, "Yes you can have both, as I do. I can use my headset to control my car or link to the VR, but not both at once. Autopilot comes in handy for when I need to VR while I'm driving."