In Service: A Science Fantasy Quest

"What was the order of events that led to your death?" Establishing that should make things go smoothly.

The glow in Baba's eyes grows stronger, the purple and blue light shining brighter and brighter. Some strands of white hair escape her shawl and begin floating, suspended by energy sparking across her body. The lightning arcing between her fingers and the metal spikes picks up in intensity as she speaks.

"I was hired by a strange man using a glamour to hide his face, a Human if my eyes weren't deceiving me." The voice that comes from Baba's mouth isn't her own. If you were to be honest, it was a bit unnerving. "I would later learn that he wasn't just any old Human from some backwater world, but a Cornerstone Human — the only Humans that are actually worth anything. Why the Smith decided to add them to Forged Existence I will never know."

Okay, it's clear that this guy didn't think too fondly of humanity.

One of the biggest mysteries of the age is the sheer prevalence of humanity across Forged Existence. Why does nearly every world out there have humans? Why is it that when humanity disappears from a world, so too does the world?

What is humanities' purpose and significance? It is said that the Forger loved humanity, loved us so much that the Creator used us as the baseline for the vast majority of sapient beings. But who is the Maker beyond the individual who made reality?

Questions like these haunt the thoughts of humanity's greatest philosophers, oftentimes driving them mad with desire to know the truth of the matter.

"And I was hired for my race's natural resistance to magic wards. Which is a bit of a funny thing for my kind as most wards are keyed towards organic or formerly organic beings. Meaning our geologic makeup allows for us to slip past with ease. They asked for a blood sample, which I freely gave. It is difficult for most magic to get a grip on us for the same reasons as our resistance to wards." Baba continues speaking in that strange, disconcerting manner.

"What a fool I was. They strapped me down as they drew my blood and proceeded to slowly, excruciatingly drain me dry. I don't know what happened after." The lightning calms down after that as the hair that was floating fell back down.

"What's your next question?" Baba asks. She sounds a little out of breath but at least it seems she's back to normal-ish.

You breathe in through clenched teeth. The air hisses on the exhale. "Did you notice anything strange or out of the usual about your last job?"

The scene starts up again, lightning sparking, hair floating, eyes glowing, the works.

"Encountering a Cornerstone Human is always a strange thing. You lot don't tend to get out much and when you do it always ends poorly for the place you decide to visit. Visiting Cornerstone Earth is an incredibly rare opportunity. The air here buzzes with a potential not seen on any other world save, perhaps, those on the very border with Cold Unreality."

"They asked me many questions about myself and my biology. I answered truthfully, of course. What were a bunch of Humans going to do with the information. Humans — even Cornerstone Humanity — are weak, pathetic creatures. I am eternally ashamed to be even tangentially related to Humanity."

Baba finishes speaking and returns to normal. "Next?" She sounds a bit more out of breath this time.

"Can I use the question later? Like, can we do this ritual again later and the brain won't decay?" You ask and Baba almost goes to do the spell again before clocking your statement. She adopts a pensive look on her face as she considers your words.

"I believe so, yes, I could layer a stasis spell into the head, keep the brain in tip-top shape." She shrugs. "I was planning on going out and gathering the rest of the body by myself, so it works out for me."

"Lets do that, then. If I need to ask another question later, then it'll work. How long do you think it'll take you to get the limbs?" You ask. You don't really think that it would be a good idea for you to go out onto the water. Not while the Draugr's curse is still on you at least.

"Hmm, a few days? Four–five? Lets go with five." She hmms and taps her chin as she releases the magic.

"Alright." You nod, already thinking about what you're going to do for five days.

~~~~~~~

GM's Note: I swear to God that I've forgotten something that should be on the options, but for the life of me I can't remember.

Also, as a side note, this has now the longest thing I have ever written. It easily beats out the minecraft fanfic I wrote in middle school. Actually, as a side-side note, do any of you remember the 'unofficial minecraft books' that came out years back? Those were funky to read, not gonna lie. Like actual, published minecraft fanfiction.

Voting will be called tomorrow at 5 PM CST.

Curses are a rather interesting subject, as far as magic goes. For one thing, they often seem to forgo the usual rules of magic — that everything has a price tag attached to it.

Curses seem to just passively exist, like they don't need any energy to fuel themselves. Curses also have an extremely broad range of effects ranging from causing someone to trip and embarrass themselves to literally forcing someone to stagnate and only grow weaker over time, never stronger.

There's such a broad range of their capabilities that they were given their own minor category of magical methods: Cursery. Cursery isn't only curses; it also contains any emotion-fueled magic. If your magic is fueled by emotions, then it's Cursery.

While emotion-based magics oftentimes can be used at any given time, proper curses can only be applied at significant moments in an individual's life. Furthermore, they also have to be negative moments in order to be a capital 'C' Curse. If it's a positive moment then you end up with a capital 'B' Blessing. Now, these things go hand in hand, a moment of true happiness can quickly turn into a moment of complete sorrow.

The story of Sleeping Beauty is an example of such a thing. The birth of a child is, oftentimes, a blessed thing — the child being heir and firstborn of a kingdom doubly or even triply so — however, the arrival of an uninvited guest can quickly sour the mood. This doesn't counteract the Blessings applied to the child, but it does allow for a Curse to be laid upon the youth's head alongside the Blessings.

As far as you can tell from your research, the curse laid upon you by the Draugr wasn't a capital 'C' Curse. It was just a normal curse fuelled by the hatred and jealousy Draugr have for the living.

Cursery, even proper Curses and Blessings, are disliked by Forged Existence because they break the rules. It's the same reason why super-scientists tend to go insane, to varying degrees of insanity. In order for Forged Existence to allow Cursery to work, there must be concessions made.

In Sleeping Beauty the Curse had two concessions. The first was the activator and the second was the breaker. Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on a spinning wheel and fell into a deep, death-like slumber. That was the activator, what caused the Curse to kick in.

When Prince Charming rescued her from Maleficent's Curse by utilizing True Love's Kiss he triggered the breaker. The breaker is the main concession, it's the thing that forces Curses and curses to stop working.

Breakers and activators can be the same thing. The vows one takes in marriage are an example of one. Upholding those vows allows you to keep the blessing or Blessing — depending on circumstances — but breaking them will force you to lose the blessing or Blessing.

You're pretty sure you know what the activator is for the Draugr's curse. As long as you don't go out onto water, the curse won't activate. The only problem is, you don't know what the breaker is.

However, it has to be mentioned in the curse's wording. So you have hints there. You just need to figure it out in order to break it.

As much as you might not like boats or traveling by water, it's still a useful tool to have in your toolbox.

(+3 to Mental Health)
(Gain a +10 bonus to Knowledge (Cursery) Rolls)

~~~~~~~

You crack your knuckles as you plop down in your lab chair. It's a rather comfortable white cushioned chair, if you do say so yourself. You had bought it from a yardsale that had been happening a few streets over from your apartment.

Your fingers wiggle as you grasp your tools of the day: a pencil sharpened to a fine point and a stack of crisp paper.

With a smile you reserve solely for moments like this, you set yourself to work.

Now then, time to answer the question of the hour: a way to guide yourself through places you're not familiar with.

Hours seem to pass by in a flash as you emerge from your super-science crafting fervor. Sitting on your desk is a single piece of crisp, eggshell white paper. Sitting on the floor around your desk, however, is the rest of the stack of paper you had prepared — crumpled up into small balls and tossed aside. The number two pencil you had also prepared is little more than a nub now. The pink eraser end rubbed away and the yellow paint is barely visible now.

But back to the important parts. Namely, the results. Your memories of the process are, as always, a bit of a rushed blurr. But, you do remember researching how the hell glasses lenses work.

The idea you came up with is a sort of HUD — a Heads Up Display — that you could overlay onto your glasses. The primary purpose it will have is to guide you through places you're not familiar with. With this, you won't get lost. As long as there's a connection to the internet for STEVE to pull up blueprints or to hack into the surveillance systems of wherever it is you're going, of course.

It's then that you notice something that you doodled in the margins of the paper.

You frown, sipping from a cup of coffee you don't remember brewing as you read it over.

If… if these calculations are correct… Then you think you could get a 33% increase in velocity from the Cutter Rounds just by slightly changing the angles of the axe-head!

However, it does come with some caveats. The Advanced-Cutter Round — as you've taken to calling the new model — while it hits harder and faster, allowing for far greater armor penetration, it is a great deal more inaccurate. You only barely got away with the inefficient design of the Cutter Round before, but with these new alterations… you're looking at an accuracy malus of at least 20%!

(Gain a new Idea:
-Pathfinder HUD: A basic Heads Up Display that shows you the path forwards as long as there's a connection to the internet and there are up to date blueprints or surveillance systems.)
(Gain a new Creation:
-Advanced-Cutter Rounds: Named for how the bullet 'cuts' through the air when fired. It acts as a hammer and chisel, breaking open armor. It moves much faster than the normal Cutter Round, but suffers from a decrease in accuracy. +4 AP to guns but -20 to hit.)

~~~~~~~

GM's Note: Alright, next update you'll talk to Pen. This is an opportunity to select something you wish to offer for his assistance.

[ ] More Bloodthirst Pills
[ ] Cutter Rounds
[ ] MSB-10
[ ] Write in
Also, I screwed up the wording for one of the options you selected (the Combining one), so I bumped the outcome of it to an Optimization as an apology.

Voting will be called tomorrow at 5 PM CST.

Entering the Bastard's Father is a bit different of an experience than last time. For one, it has customers.

Horribly out of place and out of time customers, but customers nonetheless.

A gaggle of medieval knights recline around the place, sipping from big wooden steins. You're not sure what they're drinking, but it's definitely not uniform.

"Lord Roger!" A laughing knight, a bright yellow sash marking his armor as his, claps the apparent 'Lord Roger' on the back. Metal clangs against metal as the laughing knight's gauntlet collides with Lord Roger's rounded pauldron. "You have to try this!" Yellow Sash places a pink liquid-filled martini in front of the drowsy-looking Lord Roger.

Lord Roger takes one look at it and then looks down at the drab brown alcohol filling his stein before he apparently comes to a decision. Curling a gauntlet around the glass stem of the glass, he tosses the crystal's contents — olive and all — down his gullet.

The anachronistic knights don't pay you much, if any, mind at all. They're simply too engrossed in consuming new types of alcohol to be bothered by a stranger.

The bartender — the same bald-eyebrowed and bushy-mustache bearing man as before — nods as you approach the door. You return the nod and the door swings open, revealing the stairs. Which you climb, of course.

Your knuckles rap thrice against the dragon head carved into the hardwood of Pen's office door. It doesn't take long for it to click and open, revealing Pen in all his glory.

"Ah, Miss Williams. I had been wondering when I would next see you. Please, have a seat." He invites you in with a slight bow and a sweeping gesture. You accept the invitation and sit down in the same chair you sat in the last time you were here.

The room is much the same as the last time you came. Above all else, the room gives off a feeling of being lived in. This is more than an office for Pen, this much is clear. There's far too many little touches of humanity for it to just be another place for him.

There are dozens of pictures on the walls. The vast majority are of Pen and dozens of other people in various different situations. However, the picture frame on Pen's desk is what draws your attention the most.

The most striking part of it is that it's not a picture, but instead a painting. A portrait of three people all staring out from the canvas. One is clearly a younger, happier looking Pen with a head full of long, brown, luxurious curls and a broad smile on his face. This younger Pen doesn't have any wrinkles adorning his skin and certainly doesn't have the deep crow's feet surrounding his steel gray eyes.

The other two you couldn't place. One is a pretty blonde woman with cunning, green eyes and mouth pressed into a thin smile. She seems to be around Pen in age. The third figure is much younger than the both of them, a young boy with black curly hair and a fierce smile on his mouth.

You notice that the younger Pen's got his arm around the woman's shoulder, a golden band visible on his hand.

A marriage gone bad? Whatever the case, it's probably not your place to pry.

Of course, you don't have to as Pen notices your gaze and decides to indulge you.

"Marriage is… interesting. Bonds two families together… as long as the vows are kept." He stares at the painting, sorrow reflected behind his eyes in a rare moment of him letting his guard down.

And then the wall is back up and he turns his steely gray eyes onto you. "What can I do for you, Miss Williams?"

"I want information." You say, not wasting any time. Pen leans back in his chair, elbows on the armrests and fingers templing together. "Anything you have on the break in at the Williams Mausoleum."

"The break in, hmm?" Pen purses his lips as he considers. "I have some information that could prove helpful to you, but do you have to offer in exchange?"

In response, you reach into your pocket and retrieve three bullets of varying sizes. You place them on the table, from tallest to smallest. "These are Cutter Rounds, a bullet of my own design."

Pen picks the tallest up with a pair of fingers. He examines it, turning it this way and that. His eyes linger on the axehead tip. "And what do these do?"

"Cutter Rounds are an armor-piercing round that I developed." You tap the axehead of the smallest. "They chop through armor and leave a deep, wedge-shaped wound in their wake. They're perfect for opening up weak points that you can then take advantage of."

He nods. "Interesting. But, wouldn't their odd shape cause them to lose accuracy? I find it hard to believe that a Cutter Round utilizes rifling properly."

You shrug. "Cutter Rounds use a form of gyromagnetic stabilization. As long as the barrel is long enough, the Cutter Round will hit its target. As long as the person shooting it isn't an awful shot." If the angles weren't messed with, of course. That's the main problem with the Advanced-Cutter Round, their angles are far too harsh for the gyromagnet stabilizers to keep it fully on track.

"Intriguing. How many do you have?"

"As many as I need, really." You respond by fishing out a few magazines for your pistol and slapping them onto the table. He takes them, sliding them under his desk. "Now then, the info?"

"They call themselves the 'Society of Everlasting Gentlemen', or just the Society." Pen begins explaining as he retrieves a photograph from under his desk. The photo is of a blue seal with a golden-yellow circle centered in the middle and surrounded by a dozen eight-pointed stars. "They are bit players — as far as these things go — with the goal of achieving everlasting youth."

"Not an easy thing, but not exactly as challenging as some make it out to be." You note from your own studies. Technically, you yourself could be considered to have a form of long-lasting youth thanks to some chemicals you ingested by accident. Those chemicals boosted your telomeres to higher levels and made it so that you'd be about fifty by the time you really began to show any signs of aging. The problem is, you have very little idea of how you managed to do that as you had been a toddler at the time.

"Easily replicable eternal youth." Pen clarifies as you 'ah' and nod in understanding. There are lots of ways of achieving immortality to varying degrees. Very, very few however are repeatable or replicable at all.

He next pulls out a map and lays it on the table. Colored push pins poke out of the map, marking locations of interest. The map itself seems to be of Illinois, the more rural parts at least. He points to a bright orange pin in the middle of a dark forest, the only one of its color on the map. "They have a facility here, in an old manor, heavily guarded. I don't know what it is they do there, or if it's even relevant to your situation. But it is a lead."

You note the location and consider your next options. Whatever this place is, it's likely heavily guarded.

…it might be time to bring in the rest of the Service. As much as you might hate to admit, you don't have the firepower necessary to raid a facility like that.

What do you do? (No matter what you pick, you will still be involved in a capacity where you can actually do stuff)
[ ] Call in the Service
[ ] Don't call in the Service
[ ] Offer Pen something more if he can get you intel on what sort of defenses the Society have there (Write in an offer)

~~~~~~~

GM's Note: I thought that my days of growing pains were long behind me. That my legs were done feeling the pain. That I had reached the limits of my height.

I was wrong

Voting will be called tomorrow at 5 PM CST.

The phone rings once before it's picked up and a familiar voice comes on over the line.

"This is Bristle." Senior Handler Laura Bristle answers the phone.

"Special Agent Williams here," you start off, holding your notes at the ready, "and I've got some real shit here."

"Oh?" That's got her attention.

"I've been doing an, uh, independent investigation on a certain thing and it's come to a head."

"An 'independent investigation', huh?" Bristle replies dryly. "Perhaps into something that really should've been brought to the Service's attention?" She sighs over the phone as you wince. "I'm not going to ask too many questions as long as you don't pull anything like this again, alright?"

Better soothe her at least a little bit. "Affirmative."

"Works for me." Laura sighs again, heavier this time. "So let's hear it. What are we looking at here?"

You take a drink of water, to wet your throat before launching into your prepared speech.

~~~~~~~

"How familiar are you with the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis?" You query the crowd of assembled Kill Team Troopers before you. This Kill Team is a different team than KT Captain Daniels', his squad is recovering from a fight with an eldritch horror that had emerged from the lake. The Captain of this team is a Forest Fire Elemental by the name of Woodsmoker, the burning embers of their wooden eyes meet yours as the gathered Troopers listen in.

"It's a rather dangerous book capable of, well, a lot of bullshit." A human with 'Ferguson' written on his armor's nameplate speaks up. "It's also been missing for, what, a hundred and thirty years?" The Combat Sorcerer pushes his glasses back up his spindly nose.

"Correct. But not entirely as the location of the book is known to us." You correct while avoiding the fact that the location wasn't known to the rest of the Service until now. "Or rather, it was known. Past tense, as it's been stolen."

"Stolen by who?" A man asks from the back, his grenadier's armor naming him as 'Adams'.

"A group called the 'Society of Everlasting Gentlemen', or just the Society. They have a lot of money and a lot of resources. We don't know much about them other than that they're not good people and that they have, or had, the book." You flick out a pointer and direct the Kill Team's attention to a descending board. "The mission is to raid a manor in rural Illinois containing a secret facility of the Society's. Primary objective is to secure the book if it is there. Your Secondary objective is to secure any information regarding the book that the Society may have learned. Any copies of the book's pages are to be destroyed by purified fire and the ashes are to be stored in holy water contained in consecrated barrels. Any questions?"

"What are we expecting to go up against and what are the rules of engagement?" A heavy weapons trooper speaks up.

"Good questions. But, unfortunately, we don't have any concrete information on OpFor's front. What is likely there are hired guns of the discrete kind. Outskirts are going to be lightly armed, their job is to deter any strays that wander too close. The facility guards themselves are going to be armed for containment procedures. Expect to see super-science creations as well as a magically resistant Chimera or Abomination. If things get dicey we could be going up against parasitic Demons or worse." You explain before moving onto the next question. "As for the rules of engagement… use your best judgment. If someone's shooting at you, put them down with prejudice. If they're cowering in fear, stun and restrain them. Don't go out of your way to save a prisoner if it means exposing yourself to undue risk, alright?"

The assembled KT Troopers nod, happy that they don't have to throw themselves in front of bullets meant for enemy eggheads.

"Any more questions?" You ask the crowd once more.

Do the Troopers have any more questions or shall you move onto the planning phase?
[ ] Yes, they do
-[ ] Write in (Standard questions rules, so all questions get asked)

[ ] No, they don't

~~~~~~~

GM's Note: Sorry that this is late, I slept in a bit. After the planning section is done I will edit the planning updates together for readability, so they're gonna probably be a bit short.

Voting will be called tomorrow at 5 PM CST as always. Thanks for reading!

You and the Kill Team — of which there are twelve agents — are gathered around a table with a rather crude drawing laid out on the table.

The facility that you're going to be raiding is made of four buildings. The largest is the main house — built in the shape of a large 'L' with three stories — which was converted into a laboratory of sorts. The second largest is a rectangular building with two stories that is used as an 'employee barracks'. The third largest is a garage, which pulls double duty as a storage area. The fourth and final is the security station, which also pulls double duty as a storage bay.

The Kill Team can be split into two teams of six each, which can be further split into four teams of three troopers each. They can also be split into three teams of four each as well.

There are five 'standard' Troopers — or 'S-Troopers' — which come with a rifle and a slew of other tools and weapons to use in combat or other situations. There are two magic Troopers — or 'M-Troopers' — which are trained in a variety of magic. The remaining five Troopers are the four grenadier Troopers — or 'G-Troopers' — who are armed with a display of heavy weapons and the single Captain, who is armed like an S-Trooper.

S-Troopers have assault rifles or carbines with several magazines stashed around their armor — enough to last through two low intensity firefights or one high intensity firefight. They often wear medium ballistic armor, though some are known to wear heavy or light on occasion. They carry a lot of equipment on them, from at least one of every basic grenade type to deployable cover to medifoam — a medical spray that seals up wounds with quickly hardening foam. Some take smaller consumables, such as MSB-10 and the like.

M-Troopers usually use assault rifles or carbines. Their armor tends towards light ballistic, though a rare few wear heavier sets. They carry lots of components on their armor, for spells and the like. M-Troopers typically specialize in combat Sorcery, with a smattering of Wizardry for flavor. They often have potions of various mixtures.

G-Troopers carry LMGs, usually carrying a grenade or rocket launcher as a secondary. They wear heavy armor, sometimes with minor exoskeletal enhancements. They carry explosives like you wouldn't believe.

These loadouts are subject to change based on an individual Trooper's preferences as well as their natural abilities. A Trooper with Super Strength is going to carry more things as well as heavier things. A Trooper with Super Speed or related might choose to wear a lighter loadout to make better use of that.


What is your plan? These plans are loose guidelines for what happens. If you want a more in depth plan then I ask that you write it in.

[ ] Slow and Steady
Advance slowly and carefully through the trees as a group. This is quiet, but very slow.

[ ] Shock and Awe
Hit them hard and hit them fast. Leave them in a state of shock and too rattled to put up any form of resistance. VERY loud but also very quick.

[ ] Write in

~~~~~~~

GM's Note: Short, I know, but it is what it is as writing a really dragged out planning scene holds little appeal to me.

Voting will be called tomorrow at 5 PM CST. If you need more time to plan, then the cut off can be extended further.

If you have any questions, I can answer them