Hero of the new era

the night comes quickly, but you are ready. this is your chance now, you need to discover information about the Warhawks, you need to find out how to bring them down. you have a plan. the Warhawks are no simple militia. they are a well-organized, well-equipped network, a black web of hate lying across Berlin and Germany at large. they are clearly a powerful and established organization, with well kept safehouses and armories, and trained forces. but you have seen such things in your adventures and dealt with them. they have their weaknesses.

an organization like the Warhawks is inherently a paradox. it is based on extreme hate, nationalism, and radicalism, but it is also well organized and disciplined. order of this kind can only be kept side by side with such hate by an equally radical obedience, and a rigid command structure. rigid, but brittle. like an arch held against gravity by it's keystone. remove it, and everything collapses. cut the snake's head, and the Hawks shall come crashing down.

Yeah, the Warhawks crashing down from the sky is a great pun, you giggle silently. you are more at ease now, back in your atmosphere. well, not a great choice of words considering why are you here at all, but you were never the best at social interaction. and you never liked it much either. you kept a small circle of close friends, and you could very well consider Anna one of them, but you rarely liked to have more than that. going shopping for the entire morning, chatting with the storekeepers and the people around? this might fit Anna's tastes, but no yours.

you had a nice pastime overall you guess, but you aren't used to that kind of things really. you grew up in a rough neighborhood in the largest city in the Orion system. your father was a soldier in the Valan navy and was killed when you were less than a year, and your mother had a hard time feeding you and your twin brother alone by herself. so you didn't go on many pastimes.

now this, this is something you know much better. you spent the last four years entering forbidden ruins, ancient temples, and palaces guarded by foreign cultures. you have some new assets, and a somewhat different. breathing the night air in and out, you slowly trail around the factory, searching for the best way in. it appears to be empty for the night, but watchful eyes watch. the sentinels try to stay hidden in their position, but they can just feel their minds. so you trail around the building, trying to stay far from their positions, teleporting from close roofs to high points in nearby complexes to the street near your target, searching while staying away from sight

stealthy alien vs watchful sentinels
Selar sneaks around the building
stealth vs perception: 4+8+2 vs 9+???, 12+???,7+???, 19+???. failure

finally, you find a small window that appears to be clear. it's small and covered in glass, but such barriers can't block you anymore. you call on your powers, turning to pure light and traveling on it's rays for a moment, rematerializing inside. the place is dark , dusty and dirty, not great working conditions. you can't see much in the dim light, but the floor seems to be made of rough concrete, with multiple films of rubber stretching over a counter with wheels at it's end, sometimes covered in heavy looking machines. the walls are dusty, and the whole area is covered in dirt, grease, and industrial waste. you wouldn't want to work in this primitive assembly line, and you have a hard time imagining the workers liking it much either. that's not what you are here for. you need to find the secret armory, and, based on the few presences you feel below you, there should be some way down to get to it.

something hidden is only something waiting to be found
perception check, DC 20. 3+4=9. failure.

you go through the area, but your search is futile. the dim light is hindering your search, and the factory is just too large.

you don't spend a long time searching when you are stopped by a few sentries leaving their pots. you make it to the window just in time to see a large truck starting, then a voice behind you startles you.

"This is your end, freak". turning around, you see a door opened in the floor, well-hidden beside one of the larger machines. so there it is. of course you discover it when the knowledge is made worthless by a half dozen thugs standing near it, carrying an assortment of rifles, grenade launchers, flamethrowers and… is this a machine gun?

not good. not good at all. you tense, getting ready to call your powers, but the man in the center, a well-built man, his stance showing his military training and his large machine gun shows he does not wish you well. currently, he seems to be wanting to talk. good. in such a situation, buying time is a good idea. "you are quite stupid to show up at our operational base, just a week after getting our most prized target out of our hand." he says. stupid people always boast before killing. that's why they are the ones ending up dead. "we were on high alert since then hoping you will show your blue skin. especially after you started hunting for our men. and here our sentries spot you. now I will hang your lovely blue skin on my wall, as I do with the other animals I kill. then I will take the human insect you are protecting and give her a fate befitting of her kind". you want to grit your teeth in anger, but you ignore him. you can teleport out of here, but you will end up getting nothing, and you will get stuck again. who knows when you will find another lead like this, and while you search they have time to try again to take Anna, and hurt many more innocents. no. there is still something to be gained here.

"let me introduce myself before, though, so you can tell the demons awaiting you in hell who sent you. I am Willhelm Streiphen, the second in command of the Warhawks, commander of our main operative base. and now I can add to my achievement catching the blue freak who disrupts our operation." you strain your head, but you can think of no way to get out of here without fighting. so be it. but you will do it smartly.

you back away toward the door, looking like a scared, caught prey. this makes Wilhelm grin. "don't even try running. two ofmy sentries are waiting with snipers, and two other are en route to the headquarters to report the fight. you are dead, whatever you may be". you have an urge to grin yourself, though you suppress it. this man is a wolf, thinking his prey is helpless. and not a smart wolf. if you wanted, you would already be gone. instead, you spring your own surprise.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sorry it took so long. the last week was really busy, and I was lucky if I could scrape half an hour to write. hopefully things will clear up in the next few days and I could hasten the pace a bit. I intended to include the battle in the update, but this is stretching too long and I need to sleep. so leaving you at a bit of a cliffhanger, and hopefully, I can finish the rest tomorrow.

please tell me your thoughts of the update and the story in general! I love some discussion and criticism!

you back away toward the door, looking like a scared, caught prey. this makes Wilhelm grin. "don't even try running. two ofmy sentries are waiting with snipers, and two other are en route to the headquarters to report the fight. you are dead, whatever you may be". you have an urge to grin yourself, though you suppress it. this man is a wolf, thinking his prey is helpless. and not a smart wolf. if you wanted, you would already be gone. instead, you spring your own surprise.

you answer his question.

"I am an alien from the Orion system who is about to kick your ass". you spurt out, straightening forward, your afraid posture revealed as a clever fighting stance as you spring forward turning your body around, lunging at the nearest militant. he certainly wasn't expecting this, not your quick answer nor your spring.

you attack before they can react, shedding your physical form to become pure light while blasting your surprised opponent to shreds, sacrificing aiming completely to create a massive blast, knocking him across the hall into one of the assembly lines from which he dangles unconscious

you must give it to em', those men are not easily shocked, because that's all the time you get before a hail of bullets hits you, a burst of flames tearing at your form before a hail of bullets shoots toward you, leaving trails of blazing light in the air.

magnesium rounds!. you realize, eyes widening, barely moving out of the way when you realize those things can hurt you in this form, head hurting from the pain of the flamethrowers burns. you dart away, flying behind a large machine to get a little breathing room. you need to reevaluate. you breathe 3 deep breathes, letting the light fill you and surge out, healing and rejuvenating. you don't get more than that, the machine sturdiness is already being put to the test by the attacks it takes, powerful flames heating the material and softening it enough for the magnesium bullets to eventually manage to cut small holes through it. time to move.

you launch back, going straight through the machine, your blade blazing in your hand. you fly straight at Wilhelm, but this is a feint, as you turn up and fly through the ceiling, channeling light behind you to creating a steel-hard wall, driving a wedge between your enemies, leaving the gun-wielding brutes apart from the more heavily armed men. you drive back down, but your wall shatters against the blows just as you get back through the ceilings, leaving you to narrowly avoid Wilhelm's burst of shots. you are not good enough with this trick it seems.

you try another strategy, creating a large brick of light and sending it at the two heavily armed enemies further from you, knocking them back to the assembly line. easily dodging the shots shot at you, you switch the assembly line switch with a flick of your wrist before they could move away from it, dragging them into heavy machinery made to package products, giving them some harsh blows, and leaving them incapacitated near a group of boxes.


you turn to the other three, sword raised and shining even stronger, starting your dazzle even as the brutes get ready to shoot again, this is enough for them. they run away in terror.

this does leave you with a choice. you have an entire secret base here, one currently without leadership. you could get in as you planned to do, take them down and get info. your stealth is out, so it will certainly be dangerous, but if you pull this off the benefits would be great. if you are quick

quick, because you have a couple of soldiers fleeing in terror, and a truck you already know was sent to alert the headquarters. both may very well bring reinforcements, if it gets the time. so either you raid the base and are gone, or you stop the truck before it gets to the headquarters.

there is a third option though. risky but it might be worth it. you could tail the truck to the headquarters, and try to infiltrate the place or attack it openly while they are launching reinforcements.


[]raid the base. you came here for a reason. just be sure to be quick about it.
[] stop the fleeing gunman and the truck. you got enough for this night, now make sure you leave no loose ends that will bring you down
[]tail the truck. this is your chance to end this.
[]write in


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
so this is the fight. you got real lucky with the rolls a few times, thrashing an elite force with just a few blows and smart tactics. it should have come out yesterday, but I was got too tired and fell asleep before I could finish it. so here it is today.

now you have to choose wether you try storming this base, stopping the truck and avoiding risks, or trying to follow it and strike the headquarters. you could also make a more complex or just different plan as a write in.

please tell me your thoughts of the update and the story in general! I love discussion and criticism!

vote closed

I have something of a big update about the quest, and my quest writing in general. I had a bit of a motivation fall with the quest, something that happened to me before, mainly when reaching a scene I have a lot of trouble and little motivation to write. So I reflected over it a bit, and I have decided on a few changes I need to make in order to maintain my writing more.

First, I will make sure not to get myself stuck on stuff I do not wish to write. when reaching such a scene (something that sometimes I get overt, but sometimes not, and it killed most of my quests) I will just let the scene go, summarising what is happening in a few paragraphs and continuing to other parts. I don't intend to skip every hard scene, but I will skip things that get me stuck and I have little interest in. I am sorry if I am skipping stuff you wished to read, but I think it is better than losing the whole quest and will make it much easier for me to write.

now, for this quest specifically, I am considering rebooting stuff and starting with a new hero. I love Selar's character, but I am not sure ifI have that much interest in her powers and origin. as I said, I like aliens less than other types of superheroes, and her powers turned out quite hard for me to write(though definitely cool). on the other hand, there is definitely potential with her if I can get through it, and I love many other aspects of the story(I loved the dynamics between Selar and Anna). so I am not sure if I will reboot stuff and find a hero I like writing more, but either way, I might be changing stuff both in Selar and in the way I write the story. I will also like to hear your thoughts about reboot vs reformation, possible changes and stuff you loved, what you would wish to see, etc. this will greatly help me make the decision.

this is not the end of the quest, either way. I have plenty more stuff in my mind, and those changes will make sure we get to them. it's a new beggining

I did some thinking, in regards to the continuation of the quest, and I think I am ready to go forward. I see margin both in continuing Selar's adventures, albeit with changes to her power, and I have decided to put it to vote to give readers say on how they want to this quest to continue as well. After this, you will also get to choose between continuing the larger plot based narrative and shifting to a more episodic focus

You can vote for either dropping Selar and creating a new hero, or continuing with Selar. This vote is very imactful, so I won't close until there are at least 5-6 votes. If too much time passes and there aren't enough votes, I will decide on my own, taking into accounts votes and arguments that were posted

Voting on a new means restarting the quest. The rest of the quest will be roughly the same, but the change of hero can considerably change some stuff. There will be a chargen vote, and you will have a chance to skip the arrival arc(or the parallel arc for superhuman origin, rising). you will bechoosing from a number of starting positions and starting arcs. Or you can play through it.

Keeping on with Selar will trigger a power morph vote. Selar powers will change considerably. Intangibility will either be tossed out of the window or getting modifiers that limit it. Then the combat role and starting will change greatly. You will have a chance to choose a new archetype, choosing from stuff like a paragon/powerhouse, a green lantern like combat controller, and a few others. You will also be able to select some of the powers you get, from a selection based on the archetype, choosing from stuff like regeneration, enchanced strength, create and multiple others. Selar will also be able to learn other uses of her powers, such as illusion and invisibility as well as some of the abilities of other archetypes, but that will be considered more advanced powers only becoming available with experience. I will thenrecreate Selar's sheet and we shall continue, though not exactly from the same place


[]new character
[]continue with Selar