Doing rolls for the update. I'll post soon if there are any that would meaningfully benefit from cookies.
EDIT: Jaffur continues to laugh at petty concepts such as "statistics" by acing yet another exhaustion check. I definitely need to give him a trait out of this, Vegeta wasn't this durable.
EDIT 2: You're actually holding your own passably well given the skill gap and the fact that you're on equal ground at the moment.
EDIT 3: Well, you're at least keeping him busy enough that he can't pull any more bullshit out to kill himself with.
His trait will be, "Never Tell Me The Odds" - If there is an incredibly unlikely beneficial outcome that misses by less than 5 (after all modifiers), Jaffur may reroll the die, using all the same modifiers. He will take the better of the two results.
Doing rolls for the update. I'll post soon if there are any that would meaningfully benefit from cookies.
EDIT: Jaffur continues to laugh at petty concepts such as "statistics" by acing yet another exhaustion check. I definitely need to give him a trait out of this, Vegeta wasn't this durable.
EDIT 2: You're actually holding your own passably well given the skill gap and the fact that you're on equal ground at the moment.
EDIT 3: Well, you're at least keeping him busy enough that he can't pull any more bullshit out to kill himself with.
EDIT 4: And at this point I can reveal no more without seriously spoiling your enjoyment of the update. I'll give you a hint, though: my wife is cackling.
His trait will be, "Never Tell Me The Odds" - If there is an incredibly unlikely beneficial outcome that misses by less than 5 (after all modifiers), Jaffur may reroll the die, using all the same modifiers. He will take the better of the two results.
I think I'll refine that a bit, but that is a good suggestion. Good enough, in fact, that I'll give you a cookie for it.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to how game-breaking cookies can be in sufficient quantities, this is the last cookie I'll give out until some of the existing supply is used.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to how game-breaking cookies can be in sufficient quantities, this is the last cookie I'll give out until some of the existing supply is used.
I feel it'd make more sense to limit the amount usable at once than the amount given out. Since the cookies are proprietary to individual questers, having more available is nice in case someone is offline or whatever, while by limiting the amount used on a given task or update or whatever, you prevent us from just showering a single problem in cookies to auto win.
I mean, it's your call, but I'm just raising the point for consideration.
I feel it'd make more sense to limit the amount usable at once than the amount given out. Since the cookies are proprietary to individual questers, having more available is nice in case someone is offline or whatever, while by limiting the amount used on a given task or update or whatever, you prevent us from just showering a single problem in cookies to auto win.
I mean, it's your call, but I'm just raising the point for consideration.
I'll consider that; I'm always open to refining my rules set. For now I'll yoke the supply, but I'll consider whether I should do that or limit their use.
Doing rolls for the update. I'll post soon if there are any that would meaningfully benefit from cookies.
EDIT: Jaffur continues to laugh at petty concepts such as "statistics" by acing yet another exhaustion check. I definitely need to give him a trait out of this, Vegeta wasn't this durable.
EDIT 2: You're actually holding your own passably well given the skill gap and the fact that you're on equal ground at the moment.
EDIT 3: Well, you're at least keeping him busy enough that he can't pull any more bullshit out to kill himself with.
EDIT 4: And at this point I can reveal no more without seriously spoiling your enjoyment of the update. I'll give you a hint, though: my wife is cackling.
[X] Head-to-head. You need to take him down fast, before he does serious damage to himself.
You Have To Create That Need...
You take a deep breath, gathering your strength. Your flare of temper is long-since gone, replaced by confusion and no small amount of concern. Jaffur is pushing himself to and past limits, and while that may be the point of this, he's not doing it by transforming. He's doing it by somehow pushing his power level up above what his body should be capable of. That can't be good, and with the Kaio-Ken before it and whatever his aura is doing, he's putting way more strain on his body than he should. He's going to hurt himself. You're not sure that you can beat him, but you need to try, before he does something regrettable.
[Trait gained: "Compassionate." Check Character Sheet for details.]
You lift up from the ground. "You're going to hurt yourself, doing that."
"I'm going to hurt you."
"Try."
The two of you scowl at each other, and then you both lunge.
BOOM
You zip back and forth across the Training Hall, and it swiftly becomes apparent that, unexplained power surge or not, Jaffur is feeling no better than before. He breathes heavily, his strikes wavering, his focus shot. He is reaching the end of his tether. The two of you are evenly matched, but bit by bit you manage to pull ahead.
"Won't let you win," he gasps , catching a pair of punches and drawing you into a grapple. You stare each other down, inches apart. "I won't. You'll give me everything you have. I won't let you do anything less."
"I am," you snarl. "I'm trying to keep you from hurting yourself, idiot!"
He begins to flare, pushing his power to the max, and you match him. Your screams meld together into a single, high-pitched roar.
The center of the Hall explodes with blue.
In the midst of that, he withdraws an arm and punches you in the stomach.
"Fight with everything you have," you hear, briefly before he smashes you into the ground. You snap into focus and teleport away into the air at the last moment.
"We're just sparring!" you say.
He turns to look at you. "We're Scions. Nothing is normal for us."
You say nothing, preparing another Kamehameha. He spits off to the side and prepares his Apocalypse Beam again.
You concentrate...
"Ka...me..."
His aura flares, his expression utterly focused on you.
"Ha...Me..."
vip
He stiffens and whirls as you use Instant Transmission to teleport directly behind him. Too late.
"HA!"
BOOM
Once the glow from the blast clears, you see him, laid out before you at the bottom of a crater centered on the two of you. He stirs, pushing himself to his feet with his good arm.
"How are you even firing that weird beam of yours with a broken arm?" you ask, eyeing the unhealthy-looking bulge in his forearm.
"Pain is nothing," he says, hauling himself up. "My arm can still move. It's just trying to warn me that something's wrong. Well, I'm warned." He flares his aura. "And I'm not done."
You probe him with your ki sense. "No, you are. I don't know how you pulled this surge off, but your power level's been dropping this whole time. You're at a lower level than what we started at."
He snarls. "I can still fight."
You cock your head, and flash forward.
He's only at 3 and a half million units. Even with his strange style, far too low to even watch you move. You slam your knee into his stomach, forcing him to his knees.
But he gets back up. [New trait developing: first willpower check passed]
"Just stay down," you plead, knocking him back, trying not to hurt him.
You dash forward and bear him backwards into the wall of the Hall, cracking the stone and burying him there. "I don't want to hurt you anymore! Stop it!"
"HRAH!"
[Third check passed]
The stone shatters, and Jaffur lands on his feet. "I...don't...surrender." He looks up at you. "No matter the odds."
[Trait revealed: "Never tell me the odds." Check Other Characters threadmark for details]
He sways on his feet. "You're not lying, are you?"
You blink. "Huh?"
"Your power," he says. "I can't sense energy as well as I've heard you can...but I'm pretty good. You weren't lying. You're not holding anything back." There's something empty in his voice.
You hesitate. "N- no. I'm not."
He nods, and immediately slumps to the ground.
"Twelve million," he said. "Next to me that's nothing. If I was at full power I would have destroyed you." He looks up, but his gaze is fixed solidly on the middle distance. "You can't challenge me."
You bristle. "I can do just fi-"
"If I were at full strength I would still have come after you with everything I had, and you would have been unconscious in seconds," he replies, giving you a flat stare. "You can't challenge me." He looks down and to the side. "Other than our fathers, nobody can."
Despite your lack of interest in fighting, your pride is stung. "Give me time, and I'll-"
"Nobody can challenge me."
He doesn't sound like he's talking to you anymore. And that seems very scary, somehow.
His eyes stare off into the distance. "Nobody can challenge me...and I can't get stronger. You have to need it to transform. You have to...have..." He stumbles. "There's nobody who will fight me hard enough to make me transform to save my life. I don't have any options. If I don't find somebody I'll never transform." His voice drops, and you barely hear what follows. What you hear, though, sends a chill through your blood. "And I'll never kill him." He looks back up at you. "Nobody can challenge me."
You take a step back at the look in his eyes.
"And I need to transform. I need..." He trails off, standing. "I need to transform."
[Trait Revealed: "You have to create that need." Check Other Characters for details]
Boom.
It isn't deafening, or cataclysmic. It does not shake the world, or your senses. But high overhead, storm clouds gather, and an arc of lightning flashes across their surface.
"The Clan needs a new Lord," he says, straightening as the first raindrops fall. "And I need to transform."
BOOM.
That storm sounds a lot closer now.
His aura comes unbound from that strange effect of his style, flaring normally, and doubling four times over.
"I don't have the luxury of waiting," he snarls. "I need to...I need..."
CRACK-A-BOOM.
"I need to be stronger!"
BANG.
The first bolts slams down a foot to his left, and he begins to scream.
"Haaa...hraaaaaaagh! RAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Lightning dances across the Hall in sheets. Sparks of electricity dance through Jaffur's aura, which flows faster and harder with each second. His hair lifts once, twice, flashing gold each time.
At first his hair stands as straight as the god Vegeta's did, going by the pictures of him that survive, and Jaffur seems like his ancestor reborn in flesh for an instant.
In the center of a storm of golden light, the Scion of Vegeta roars to the heavens, fists clenched. With a start, you watch as gold light dances over his broken arm, healing it completely. You had heard that the transformation restored those who achieved it, but this...
The storm begins to subside. Jaffur lowers his arms, and as the fury of power whipping up around his body subsides, his hair falls slightly. His bangs drift down over his forehead, and he looks more like your own Clan's namesake...if it weren't for the hardness in his gaze.
His head comes down. His eyes are closed as he takes his new measure. Then he looks up, his eyes opening and meeting yours. You sample his power in awe. Yes, he did just achieve the most powerful possible transformation. He's at a full 160 million units, base power and transformed energy alike restored to their maximum.
A few stray sparks dance through his aura before subsiding, the incredible storm of energy calming.
"Scion," he says. His fingers absently brush across the section of his gi where the Senzu Bean is sitting. "Thank you."
He is gone.
The world turns black.
* * *
[ ] Wake Up...
[ ] Dream Deeply...
You are gonna zenkai so hard from that hit.
For the aesthetics of the transformation, I borrowed some elements from Bardock's transformation from the second Bardock special. Thus, sparks. My headcanon is that they show up when a Saiyan at the power cap has their first transformation.
Enjoy!
New Trait!
Compassionate: Your first thought is often of helping others, and you find value and affirmation in making sure that the people around you are okay. Gain a small bonus to Medicine checks.
Welp. Can't see how things could've gone much worse for us, we failed to convince him, failed to help him, we're most likely going to be relegated to the side for being a weakling compared to Jaffur now that he's transformed, and we lost our senzu bean.
Welp. Can't see how things could've gone much worse for us, we failed to convince him, failed to help him, we're most likely going to be relegated to the side for being a weakling compared to Jaffur now that he's transformed, and we lost our senzu bean.
In all seriousness -- I try to make sure that this quest doesn't have an overabundance of failure states. While you technically failed every objective aside from winning the actual fight (he was down and out at the end and he knew it), those offered unique and powerful advantages.
For instance, Jaffur likes you now, and feels he owes you one (two, really, given the Senzu).
In all seriousness -- I try to make sure that this quest doesn't have an overabundance of failure states. While you technically failed every objective aside from winning the actual fight (he was down and out and the end and he knew it), those offered unique and powerful advantages.
For instance, Jaffur likes you now, and feels he owes you one (two, really, given the Senzu).
I love giving choices like this that have wide-ranging consequences but I have the perfect excuse to present in terms that are vague as f*ck.
I mean, neither is going to scuttle you or grant you apotheosis (which I recognize is not as unrealistic a goal as my lexicon would suggest in this universe), but they both imply very different things and I find it hilarious that I have absolutely no reason to share with you all or even hint what those things are.
