Fate/Hollow Liner Identity

[Mistborn]

Currently I estimate that I have 137 days until biological systems failure. As is usual I believe that my Repair magecraft can change that as yesterday my estimate was 136 days, but it's always important to remember that what I'm doing isn't "true" healing. I am as always still dying, the only thing I can do is keep kicking the can down the road. Of course that's really true for everyone to a certain extent, we are all clocks slowly winding down and our ability to wind ourselves back up is always contingent and never guaranteed. This is a core principle of the Repair magecraft that I've developed, everything breaks and every fix is temporary.

Today I killed someone for the first time. The man was in a certain sense already dead, his death sentence handed down in absentia by the Philadelphia Compact. I do not disagree with their judgment in this case given I was under contract to help find the man so that sentence could be delivered. I did not even pull the trigger because of the mans crimes though as a noted in a previous entry I consider them heinous, but rather because I felt it was the only way to prevent him from claiming another victim.

Still I find that I feel worse than I expected. I thought I was prepared to do it, the Verhaal family gave me a gun two years ago and that was almost a formality given some of the spells I already knew were far more dangerous. The law such that it is was on may side, the action was nearly unimpeachable in terms of morality, the people who I was working alongside commended me for my decision. Yet I feel no pride, only a deep sense of melancholy.

Perhaps that melancholy is because of the ease of which I was able to kill Edelfeban Ashbore. He was by all accounts a talented battlemage, but I caught him by surprise when he was trying to blend into the general population. I shot him in the chest twice and then repeatedly in the head and he died before he had the chance to fully activate his circuits. My first reaction once I was sure he wasn't getting back up was "that was it?". Which might be why I feel discomfort being praised, I don't feel like I did anything praiseworthy.

I guess I've always known I have a talent for violence, it was one of the few things the Workshop left me with. It's the other side of my calling as a Repair mage. If you spend enough time fixing people you start to understand how fragile we are, and once you know that there can be no pride in your capacity to do harm. Killing someone is easiest thing, even a small child can do it by accident if the wrong tool is put in their hands.

Even someone like me who has trained to repair people will still find that their power to harm is greater than their power to help. The range at which I can kill is defined by the reach of my eyes, the range at which I can help is defined by the reach of my arms. If I had the choice I would like it to be the other way around, but that's the sad reality of things.
-personal journal of Nanashi Verhaal, entry dated October 17th​ 2003

Spoiler: Rules of the Final Grail War

Greetings. we are the Workshop. If you are reading this you have been selected by the False Grail to participate in what we have dubbed the "Final Grail War". If you are unfamiliar with the five Fuyuki Holy Grail War's the most recent of which concluded this February it may be wise to read up on them as many of the fundamental rules are similar. We at the Workshop have studied the Fuyuki Greater Grail and we believe that as things currently stand the Heaven's Feel ritual can not be completed as originally intended. Indeed despite five attempts the no Grail War thus far has had a true "winner".

We have over the past 10 years constructed our own imitation of the Greater Grail inside the Yellowstone Caldera. We fear that our version of the ritual is far less efficient and thus it is necessary for a larger number of Servants to be Summoned and then killed for the ritual to "fire" and at this time we do not know how many will be needed. We have dubbed our ritual the "Final Grail War" as we believe this version of the ritual will need only be conduced once, this is an experimental ritual that will either prove conclusively that the Heaven's Feel is unfeasible or illuminate a more workable method to replicate it's results.

While the traditional Holy Grail War is a fairly straight forward deathmatch between seven mages serving as Masters and their Servants the Final Grail War is slightly different.

One: the Masters compete as teams of up to seven each of which is formed and lead by a Prime Master
Two: a Prime Master is given the right to summon a Servant and receives three "core" command seals but also eighteen "extra" command spells
Three: a Prime Master may grant any Mage the ability to become a Master by transferring to them three of their extra command spells
Four: Though it is possible for a single Mage to receive command spells from multiple Prime Masters once a mage has summoned a Servant once they may not summon again even if another Prime Master grants them command spells.
Five: If all active servants belonging to a team are eliminated that team is disqualified and the teams Prime master loses all extra command spells.
Six: If the Prime Master is killed and they have team members remaining with active servants then their extra command seals will be transferred to a random member of their team who will be granted Prime Master privileges.
Seven: given the number of servants involved and the potential for disruption of public order or interference by outside parties and general volatility of the ritual, the Workshop has taken steps to avoid potential complications.
Eight: The first of these is that we have not only summoned a "Ruler" class servant to serve as an impartial overseer but we have also summoned three exceptionally powerful servants to both ensure that the Rulers judgments are enforced, but also to protect the ritual from outside interference as well as to ensure it's smooth completion.
Nine: with the aid of one of those servants we have prepared a "mirror world" in which the War may be conducted away from prying eyes. This area may be accessed by masters who are within the confines of Yellowstone National Park or from the city limits of Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, or Mexico City.
Ten: while certain allowances will be made for logistical difficulties all participating masters must enter the mirror world between 8 and 10 pm Mountain Daylight Time and once they have entered they many not leave until 7am.
Eleven: within the mirror world there is an "Altar" once the correct number of servants have been eliminated and seven Masters as well as at least one servant are present on the Altar those Mages and their remaining Servants are the winners of the Final Grail War, in theory the power gathered by the grail ought to be sufficient to grant the wishes of those individuals. If this proves not to be the case the Workshop apologizes for the inconvenience.

Spoiler: Profile: Nanashi Verhaal

Vinland Survey Group: Personnel File [Nanashi Verhaal]
Hair: Grey Eyes: Red
Height: 156cm Age: unknown (appears around 15, chronological age believed to be between 17 and 20)
Lineage: unknown Place of Birth: unknown
The birthplace and early life of Nanashi Verhaal is currently a subject ongoing investigation of our organization as per the request of the individual in question but we have been able to uncover very little of substances thus far. She appears to be of East Asian descent and genealogical data suggests that she mostly likely originated in Japan. Given the high quality of her circuits she likely the daughter or granddaughter of a major bloodline. However our ability to investigate further is currently being stymied by the unwillingness of several major Japanese families to share genealogical data with outside parties as well as the fact we are unable to give an exact age for Nanashi as she does not know when or where she was born.

Nanashi first came to the attention of the Philadelphia Compact and thus also our organization in 1998 when she was detected using magecraft to repair electronics for the owner of a small radio store in exchange for room and board. The Compact's Enforcers took her in for questioning during which she revealed that she had few if any memories before 1996 and that she had formerly been a human experimental subject of the Workshop. They had replaced her heart with an experimental mana generator called a Turbine Core and repeatedly wiped her memory to keep her compliant. Though she eventually found a way to escape by that point she had no idea where her home was or if she had any remaining relatives. Thus she was forced to fend for herself despite appearing to be around ten years old, indeed even her original name was lost to her and so she chose to adopt "Nanashi" as a pseudonym. Ultimately custody of Nanashi was granted to the Verhaal family who adopted her as a daughter. She would later reach out to our organization in hopes that our investigative branch could unravel the mystery of her origins, offering her services in lieu of payment.

Nanashi Verhaal is an extremely talented Mage especially when once considers that she has no family crest. Like many mages who have studied in the "American" Magecraft tradition she focuses on mastering extremely simple effects and learning to use those effects to accomplish as much as possible. Nanashi's primary focus of study is Reflection Magecraft known in some circles as "Mirror Air". Reflection magecraft allows one to create a mental copy of the information within a thing, on it's own Reflection is not a particularly useful tool as not only is the "Reflection" an imperfect copy but Reflection magecraft on it's own it grants no special ability to understand or use the acquired information. That said Reflection is an excellent "foundation block" on which to build other spells. Nanashi is highly skilled at using Magecraft to gather information about things within her visual range, indeed she can at a glance construct a "mental model" of a person and gain a surprising amount of insight about that persons abilities, history, and personality.

However her development as a mage has been heavily defined by the presence of the Turbine Core and the techniques she has been forced to master to prevent it from killing her. The Turbine Core is as previously noted a very powerful mana generator, however it seems to produce some kind of toxic byproduct currently not know to orthodox magecraft. In addition since the core has replaced her heart it can not be deactivated and due to how enmeshed it is with her circuits it can not be safely removed. Thus Nanashi must allow the core to operate and regularly use Magecraft to heal the damage being done to her body, according to her she is rarely more the a few months from complete organ failure.

That she has been able to survive in this state for at least eight years is a testament to how powerful a healer she is, though she prefers to call her magic "Repair Magecraft" rather than "Healing Magecraft" as her abilities work on objects even better than the do on living systems. Nanashi is most effective when treating complex or abstract kinds of harm and she is currently the Vinland Survey Group's first choice for treating poison, infections, radiation damage, and damage to magic circuits. She is however a somewhat indifferent battlefield medic as she is very slow at tissue regrowth. The continuous process destruction and repair that defines Nanashi's existence has had some rather drastic side effects including stunted growth and greying hair before the onset of puberty.

The Vinland Survey Group has high hopes for Nanashi Verhaal's future assuming that she as able to continue to avoid dying. She has already distinguished herself as a support Mage and has completed all tasks that have been assigned to her quickly and efficiently. Currently we hope that one of the members of the board of directors will be able to take her on as an apprentice in order to groom her for a leadership position. At this time her major weakness is poor communication skills a flaw we believe can be corrected with the right instructor.

Currently Nanashi Verhaal is serving as the representative for both the Verhaal family and the Vinland Survey Group in the "Final Grail War" that the Workshop has set into motion. Both our organization and the Philadelphia Compact have registered extreme misgivings about this ritual, however the Mages Association has decided to ignore our advice and chosen to allow it to proceed

Spoiler: Nanashi Verhaal: "Character Sheet"

Authors note: we're breaking from the typical Fate pattern here at bit by having a protagonist who is an established mage and thus can actually cast spells from the word go. In order for her to work at all as a quest protagonist, I feel like I ought to in fairly exacting define what spells Nanashi knows and what resources she has access to.

Current Lifespan: 149 days

Items:

Caster Archetype Card: given to you by the Verhaal family for use as a summoning catalyst. Did not produce the intended result.

Beretta M9: Can be enhanced to a certain extent with reinforcement, but don't expect it to do anything against servants.

Turbine Core: the damn thing has been lodged in her chest for at least eight years, it produces mana but also produces "something else", the short of it is that Nanashi doesn't have to worry all that much about mana reserves, though her mana capacity is only a bit higher than the average mage she can pretty much instantaneously "top herself off". That said it also slowly kills her and overusing it causes her to die even faster (hence why "lifespan" is Nanashi primary resource meter.)

Tracksuit: very comfortable, and good for hiding that fact that Nanashi is wearing body armor

Body armor: kevlar infused bodysuit with boron carbide plating over vital areas. Combined with reinforcement magic it can completely repel low caliber ammunition and turn hits from higher caliber weapons from "instant death" to "serious bruising and broken bones". Even with Reinforcement though the value of this kind of protection against servant attacks is pretty dubious.

Spell concepts known: Reflect, Analyze, Reinforce, Displace, Project
Spells known:

Repair Magecraft (Reflect + Analyze + Reinforce + Project + Origin: Repair) The magecraft that Nanashi has put the most effort towards mastering since she needs to use it on herself to prevent the Turbine Core from killing her. To understand this magecraft one must understand how Nanashi understands "Healing" and how she considers what she does a different thing.

"Healing Magecraft" according to Nanashi would logically take one of two forms. One would be Magecraft that accelerates the bodies natural capacity to repair itself, the other would be Magecraft that resets the body to a pristine or ideal condition. The first is insufficient for Nanashi purposes as she needs to repair damage to the body that the bodies systems can't fix, the second is beyond her capabilities. Instead her magecraft restores functionality to the body by introducing foreign elements into it. Essentially she fixes people by a combination of Reinforcing what still works and replacing what doesn't with Projected constructs.

In practice Nanashi is best at ultra-fine detail work and repairing damage to intangible parts of the body , physical trauma especially serious injuries require a long time for her to heal as this is an application of her magecraft that she is unpracticed with. In addition she need direct physical contact with the thing being repaired, her usual pattern is to put two fingers on the neck of the person she is "Repairing" as if she is checking their pulse.

Nanashi's technique also has a dark side. One is it draws no distinction between things that are "alive" or "dead" nor between "people" and "objects" which indicates a somewhat taboo mindset behind it's formula. Also it can be used to kill people fairly easily. Nanashi can shut people down hard if she can get her hands on them for an extended period of time. That's a big if though, especially against people who are better hand to hand combatants which is most of the Masters and pretty much every Servant baring potentially a few Casters. It is a potential option for a last ditch attack or as a way to put down someone with durability hax for good.

Construct Mental Model (Reflect + Analyze) creates a "mental model" of a person of object within line of sight. So long as that mental model is maintained the level of understanding the thing being replicated will increase. The there is no hard limit to the number of things that can be modeled but there are diminishing returns, each model created causes the existing models to provide less information. This spells is less effective when used on people, this is because people are complicated and a small amount of information that is "correct" can still lead to bad decisions.

Spatial Mirror (Analyze + Displace) allows one to displace ones "field of view" to another location up to about three kilometers. Nanashi is able to use this effect rapidly within her close proximity to simulate close range clairvoyance

Image Displacement (Reflect + Displace) allows an object to appear to be in a slightly different place than it actually is. This is effect can catch people off guard if the aren't expecting it, but it's of low value if the target is expecting it.

Mask of Mirrors (Reflect + Displace + Project) alters the appearance of an object, this spell essentially projects a layer of illusion over an object without actually changing the objects physical properties. This spell is good for disguises and it can also grant a limited form of invisibility to stationary things.

Spatial Displacement (Displace) this spell creates what is essentially a portal between two nearby areas of space that contain no solid objects. When fully mastered this makes one pretty much untouchable by attacks so long as one is able to see them coming. Nanashi has not fully mastered this spell. She is limited to an area the size of a playing card if she wants to cast the spell in under a minute, and using it to block or redirect an attack is a high risk tactic that requires some setup. That said what Nanashi can do with this spells is use it to makes attacks from an angle enemies are not expecting or attack from hiding without revealing her position.

Body Reinforcement (Analyze + Reinforce) this is an effect that most mages can do to some extent or another. Nanashi is pretty good at it, when using Reinforcement at full strength Nanashi is faster and stronger than most mages but her hand to hand skills are underdeveloped.

Spell interference (Reflect + Analyze + controlled flow of mana) If Nanashi is aware of a spell she can "hack" into it. Messing with a spell that currently being cast or maintained by a Mage or Servant is a unlikely to pay off but Nanashi is good at bypassing magical traps or bounded fields.

Mana Infusion (controlled flow of mana + Turbine Core)One of the intended functions of the Turbine Core is to allow it's host to serve as a "living Battery" for other mages. Nanashi doesn't need to jump through any weird hoops to give people her mana, only to make physical contact with the recipient or to have used repair magic on them recently.

Basic Mana Bullet (compression and acceleration of Mana), this is the ultra-stripped down combat spell that pretty much every American Mage knows. It's so simple it barely even magecraft, mana is compressed in such a way that when it uncompresses as much energy as possible is "lost" as waste heat. Then the mana is launched at the enemy as quickly as possible whereupon it either causes a close proximity explosion by super-heating the air or the bullet is able to penetrate the targets body and cause it to explode by flash-boiling internal fluids. The general rule for this spells is "speed, power, efficiency, pick one", Nanashi chooses to focus on option two. It takes three seconds for Nanashi to produce an effect better than a shot from her gun and her mana bullet reaches max charge in 17 seconds, which is a long time when servants are fighting.

Playing as Nanashi: the important thing to remember is that while Nanashi is quite the badass young lady her class is not "fighter" or even "battlemage". Given that her skills are mostly divination, illusion, and healing it's pretty clear that she is a "support class". Nanashi functions best as part of a team, keeping them in the game with her repair magic and arming them with the necessary information to prevail. Mana Bullet is a pretty cool spell but it has a long charge up time and a high mana cost so it needs to be used carefully. Also it needs to be stressed Nanashi's resource bar is a "lifespan" meter that is measured in days. She is in certain ways very fragile, handle her with care.

 

[Mistborn]

Morning, July 28, 2004. Fuyuki City

As Nanashi Verhaal surveys the Summoning circle laid out before the Fuyuki Greater Grail, she reflects on why she is here.

Nanashi has a simple mission. There is going to be another Grail war not even a year after the last one. To the surprise if her adoptive family was chosen as one of an unknown number of "Prime Masters" to lead a team of Masters and Servants to battle. Despite a deep interest in the Throne of Heroes, the Verhaal family has participated in zero of the last five grail wars because according to her sister Clarissa "we know enough to realize that this kind of thing never works as intended".

This "Final Grail War" is if anything worse than the ones that preceded it, even more servants are being summoned and the new greater grail was built on top of the Yellowstone Caldera. Which is basically asking to awaken whatever ancient evil is buried there and/or cause the supervolcano to erupt. The ritual must be stopped before things get even further out of control.

Nanashi knows why she was chosen as master despite having no wish for the Grail. The people behind this are the Workshop, a group of mages who kill people for money in order to fund their research. They took the heart from her chest a replaced it with a mystic code that would have killed her long ago if not for her talent for repair magic. In order to make her a more compliant tool her memories were stripped away not even leaving Nanashi her original name. If not for a lucky escape she would have lived and died as one of the Workshops disposable weapons.

That means, among other things that if the Workshop wants something Nanashi Verhaal will deny it to them if doing so is even remotely within her power.

The plan is simple, she have been given a catalyst that when utilized in proximity to the Fuyuki Greater grail ought to allow her to summon the strongest possible Caster Servant. Obviously that means Solomon, the King of Magecraft whose power ought to allow her to subvert the Grail Wars as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

As a Prime Master Nanashi has the ability to grant master status to up to six other mages, which flows into her second major objective. In Fuyuki city there are, according to the fils she was given four mages who have were participants in the 5th grail war. Which means they participated and survived one more grail war than Nanashi has and thus ought to be considered prime recruitment candidates.

Now is the critical moment, the first of many. Nanashi holds out the Caster Archetype Card and begins the incantation.

Ye first, O silver, O iron.

O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract.

Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Witch Yumina

Let the descending winds be as a wall.

Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve.

Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut.

Five perfections for each repetition.

And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead!

Set.

Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my fate rest in thy blade.

If thou submit to the call of the Holy Grail, and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond.

I make my oath here.

I am that person who is become the virtue of all Heaven.

I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades.

Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words, come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance-!
When the final word is spoken the circle flares brilliantly with the gathered magical energy. When Nanashi's eyes clear standing before her is...

Not the Servant she intended to summon. The appearance of a Servant can be substantially different than what would be expect from the time and place of their legend, but Nanashi is pretty sure King Solomon wasn't a pink haired girl with fox ears.

"I ask of you, are you my master?" The fox-eared girl give a winning smile to go along with her question.

Nanashi let's out a small inward sigh and remembers rule one of the holy grail war. No plan survives contact with the Throne of Heroes. Then she prepares to give her answer

[ ]yes
[ ]yes (sarcastic)
[ ]no
[ ]write in

 

[KreenWarrior]

[x]yes

Tamamo eh?

 

[Eternal_0bserver]

[X]yes

 

[HalfTangible]

[X] yes (sarcastic)

 

[Randino Treviani]

[X] Say the Name "Merlin" as if it were the foulest profanity ever uttered from human lips.

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

[x]yes

Mirror World, eh?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZGVS623lFw

(BTW, this OP was sung by Ash Ketchum/Satoshi's seiyuu)

 

[veekie]

[X] yes (sarcastic)

 

[Silor]

[X] Say the Name "Merlin" as if it were the foulest profanity ever uttered from human lips.

 

[Missing puzzle]

[X] Say the Name "Merlin" as if it were the foulest profanity ever uttered from human lips.

 

[Edgedancer]

[X]yes

One shouldn't sass a fox.

But yeah, Tamamo, neat. I'm going to withhold more in depth thoughts just in case it turns out to be a Tamamo variant, but it'd be an interesting team up between Nanashi's own skillset and the war set-up. Looks like it might be mirrors all the way down.

 

[Imperator]

[X] Say the Name "Merlin" as if it were the foulest profanity ever uttered from human lips.

 

[Mistborn]

[QM note: seems like we have a tie I'll split the difference]
[x]Say the Name "Merlin" as if it were the foulest profanity ever uttered from human lips.

For some reason Nanashi resolves to blame Merlin for her current predicament. Supposedly the Mage of Flowers can not be summoned as a heroic spirt on account of him being still alive and imprisoned in Avalon till the end of the world. In the event he appears before her regardless of that Nanashi resolves to deck him in the schnoz.

[x]yes

Nanashi give her answer. The question seems like an odd kind of formality, the two of them are the only people in the cavern. That simple affirmation seems to have brightened the Servant's already sunny disposition. The girl closes the distance in a flash, hovering just on the edge of Nanashi's personal space and studying her with focused intensity.

There is a long and somewhat awkward moment before the Servant nods approvingly.

"You're definitely someone who I can accept as my Master."

"That's nice to hear," Nanashi replies, "can I ask why?"

"You strike me as the someone that appears to be the cool beauty type on the outside but conceals a great deal of self doubt and a certain clumsiness in matters of the heart. In other words your exactly the sort of girl I enjoy as a pla- partner."

As it often does the use of a "heart" based metaphor causes Nanashi to freeze up. Nanashi decides that this conversation is rapidly going down a rabbit hole/fox hole best left unexplored and decides that the safer path to get to know her servant is to take a mental model of her. Casting this spell covertly is a relatively simple proposition, lesser practitioners of reflection magecraft often require mirrors to serve as a focus, the first step to true mastery of the spell is understanding that for all necessary purposes the human eye is a mirror. Once that is understood a reflection can be created of anything that is seen without any external manifestation.

[Caster class servant] Strength: D Endurance: D Agility: B Mana: A Luck: B Noble Phantasm: ? True name: Tamamo-no-Mae, presumably the fact that she has been summoned as a Caster means that she can not invoke the part of her legend where she turns into a giant fox monster. Or at least there is some factor relating to being summoned as a heroic spirt that serves to limit her power given that one of the most famous Kitsune is currently manifesting with only one tail. Given her comments it's likely that her "wish" for which she is summoned the has little to do with the Grail itself, rather she-

Caster rudely interrupts Nanashi's train of thought by flicking her forehead.

"Hey! Spells like that are no fair. How am I supposed to maintain my maidenly allure if you learn all my secrets on day one via cheaty magecraft?"

Nanashi dismisses the mental model and makes note that her Servant must have extremely acute mystical senses if she is able to detect a spell cast internally. This is unfortunately one of the pitfalls of summoning a Caster servant, they are better than you at magecraft. Not only that but it seems like her servant has an interest in her that is either romantic, predatory, or possibly both. The story of Tamamo-no-Mae is not one Nanashi has studied deeply. Her sister is the family legend buff so it might be a good idea to ask her for more information, preferably while Caster is out of earshot.

Nanashi sighs. "Well in the interest of mutual transparency I'm not after the Grail. If your going to fight alongside me that means our number one priority is bringing an end to the war with minimal casualties. That might require creating a scenario where no-one wins, or allowing others to achieve victory in our place. Is that going to be a problem?"

Caster smiles. "Oh, there's need to worry Master, I think my wish has already been granted. Anyway my keen foxy ears detect approaching footsteps, and I'm guessing that if you were expecting company you wouldn't have set up shop in a dreary place like this." Caster sniffs the air. "Two humans one male, one female, plus one female homunculus, both women have a large number of magic circuits and the man has slightly more than the average modern mage. All three smell strongly of smoke, likely due to recent proximity to a house fire."

Nanashi activates spatial mirror, in less than a second Shirou Emiya, Rin Tohsaka, and Illyasviel von Einzbern are viewed from multiple angles. Just like Caster indicated Emiya and Tohsaka both have smoke stains on their clothing. As a matter of due diligence Nanashi observes the area immediately outside the cave, and she notices the gunmen. Fifteen ordinary humans and someone she is almost certain is a battlemage. Given that they seem to have made no move against the locals, they're probably here for her.

Well if it's any consolation three of the four people Nanashi wanted to meet with are headed right in her direction. "No offence intended Caster, but I think today is going to be one of those days where nothing goes that way you want it to."

[ ]write in

 

[Edgedancer]

[X] Go meet them together with Caster and formally greet them.

I'll be honest, it's a bit hard to tell what exactly the vote is supposed to cover without much of a prompt, but the above should hopefully work.

 

[veekie]

[X] Go meet the trio together with Caster, greet and warn of inbound potential hostiles

 

[Energy]

[X] Go meet them together with Caster and formally greet them.

 

[Mistborn]

[x] Go meet them together with Caster and formally greet them.

"Those people ought to be potential allies Caster, but it looks like we have someone else preparing an ambush for me specifically. A someone else that's apparently give me more credit than I'm due as a Gunslinger and not quite enough credit as a mage."

"Oh I see now, shall I dispose of those annoyances?" Casters tone remains playful, but that's to be expected. She could likely overpower fifteen gunmen and a lesser battlemage without even having to cast a spell.

"That mage lost the fight the second I detected him, his ambush has already failed." Nanashi states this as if it were obvious. "Let's focus on making a good first impression."

A minute or so later Nanashi steps into view of the trio of mages her hands raised in a gesture of non-aggression, Caster trailing behind her.

"I have no intention of starting any violence here, can we talk."

Despite Nanashi's passivity there is a heavy sense of tension. All three former Masters recognize a Servant at first glance, thus they understand that even if Nanashi has taken every measure to disarm herself they are the ones at a disadvantage.

Rin Tohsaka breaks the silence. "Sure, let's talk about the disturbance in the local leylines that happened two days ago, the fact that parts Matou household are still on fire, and two of it's residents are still missing."

"That's all news to me, I got here yesterday and I've been working on preparing my summoning circle all morning. Given that you rushed straight here you're working on the assumption that those events are both related to the grail." Nanashi has one extremely unpleasant guess at what might have happened. The eighteen command spells on her arm throb, as if in answer to her unspoken question.

Shriou Emiya joins the conversation. "What other reason would someone have to go after that Matou family that for information relating to the grail. The family no longer has any circuits."

"Isn't that why they adopted the younger Tohsaka sister?" Nanashi asks completely unaware of the bombshell she just dropped.

Illya is the only one who doesn't flinch at Nanashi's words.

"How do you know that, and who are you anyway?" Rin Tohsaka asks, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"I'm Nanashi Verhaal, I'm here on behalf of both the Vinland Survey Group and the Verhaal family. As for how I know that. Not only is it a matter of public record, but for four the past five Grail wars the Verhaal family has hired local mages to observe the proceedings. As per our agreement with the three families," despite Nanashi best efforts a bit of secondhand irritation leaks into her voice. "An agreement that seems not to have survived to the fifth grail war given the person we hired this time around turned up dead with their heart pierced by a cursed weapon, and no one has given us a solid reason why. I feel like I can be forgiven for not declaring myself until I had a Servant at my back."

"A Servant whose summoning should not have been possible, the fifth war has been over for months and even if the sixth comes just as early it should be years away." Illya adds.

"That's why I'm here. Imagine if the worst people in the world decided to throw their own grail war and everyone came, that's what seems to be happening right now. We need discuss that at length but right now our exit is being blocked by fifteen armed men, plus one mage who has likely been trained as a living weapon."

Nanashi combines Mask of Mirrors with Spatial Mirror to create three "windows" that show the battlemage and several of the gunmen.

[ ]this looks like a job for Caster.
[ ]get your new allies involved.
[ ]handle this is situation the Verhaal way, think with portals.

 

[Edgedancer]

[X]this looks like a job for Caster.

Well, it doesn't seem like either Nanashi, or Caster considers them that much of a problem, so we might as well give Caster an opportunity to show off.

 

[veekie]

[X]handle this is situation the Verhaal way, think with portals.

Keep Servant abilities under wraps for as long as feasible

 

[Energy]

[X]handle this is situation the Verhaal way, think with portals.

 

[Lichzim]

[X]handle this is situation the Verhaal way, think with portals.

Great quest so far, keep up the great work. Also probably not the best idea to use our servant right now. The more we reveal about them to potential allies and potential enemies right now, the more difficult things will be.

 

[Imperator]

[X]handle this is situation the Verhaal way, think with portals.

 

[Jefardi]

[X]handle this is situation the Verhaal way, think with portals.

 

[Mistborn]

[x]handle this situation the Verhaal way, think with portals

Rin grimaces "Who would do something like this? Drafting that many ordinary people into this kind of battle goes against the fundamental rules of the Mages Association."

"I'd guess that mage belongs to an American organization. Recruiting an expendable hit squad from the local criminal element is part of the standard playbook for a lot of the New World branches of the Mages Association. They likely intend to mindwipe or kill any survivors to keep to the letter of the rules about secrecy. We're dealing with people who place no value on human life, I wish that narrowed it down further but unfortunately I can think of several groups that this could be." There is more resignation than anger in Nanashi's voice, this is an old story for her.

"Several groups." shock and anger colors Shirou's voice.

"I feel like this is a talk we should have after we've dealt with the armed men problem, they're not reacting to the fact that I've scryed so there's a fairly simple and painless solution so long as someone here has a spell that they're confident can incapacitate a mage with weak circuits."

Nanashi creates a small portal with Spatial displacement and then pokes her finger through it for demonstration.

"If I have time to observe a stationary target I can use this spell to ensure an attack spell appears without warning and strikes from their blindspot. But I'm not a battlemage, I only know one attack spell and it's one I'd rather not use. I prefer to avoid needless deaths or maimings even if the people in question intend to shoot me."

Shirou and Illya both turn their gaze towards Rin, meanwhile Caster raises her hand excitedly.

"Protecting this town is the responsibility of the Tohsaka heir," Rin says, "I'm not going to see anyone killed here if I can help it. Gandr should be able to take out a lesser mage in one hit if it's fully charged and it takes them by surprise"

"Stand down for now Caster," Nanashi sends through their link "it's best to keep a Servant's abilities hidden for a long as possible."

Caster makes a small "humph" but seems to see the logic.

"How long do you need to cast?" Nanashi asks Rin.

"Five seconds."

Nanashi gestures at the cavern wall. "Point your spell around there. I'll handle the aiming, just fire on my mark. If we take out the mage first we should be able to take down the other gunmen without them getting the opportunity to fire a shot."

As Nanashi speaks she begins her own spells taking a mental model of the battlemage and selecting the optimal distance and angle before beginning to cast Spatial Displacement.

"T-minus five... four... three... two... one...

fire!" The Gandr shot flies through to portal to strike the battlemage in the back of the head, he falls like a puppet with cut strings. Before he hits the ground Nanashi has begun selecting her next target.

"Mage is down, next shot is against an normal human adjust accordingly"

By the time the gunman become aware the are under fire three of their number are already down, they had take positions to ambush someone exiting the cavern of the greater grail but had apparently given no thought to the possibility of being attack from another direction. Faced with attacks that came from nowhere and could strike from every angle few even had the presence of mind to run. In less than three minutes every one of them was unconscious.

"That's the last of them," Nanashi says, "now we have another problem on our hands. This is the sort of incident that mandates a clean up squad from the mages association, and unfortunately there's bad blood between the Verhaal family and the people who handle that sort of thing in this district."

[ ] Have Rin call Makoto Shizuki and instruct her to avoid dropping your last name.
[ ] Try to arrange a "friendly chat" with that battle mage in order to figure out why you are being targeted,
[ ] Call your sister and ask for advice.

 

[veekie]

[X] Try to arrange a "friendly chat" with that battle mage in order to figure out why you are being targeted,