- Location
- California
Unfortunately, I will be sticking with Plan based voting for training. Poptart is right, it makes my life easier. If you want your plan to win, you ned to convince people to concentrate votes. Believe me, I know the frustration you're feeling, I've been there in other quests. But it would be worse if I did by line, because then we'd end up with a mess no one likes.
- Location
- California
Hmm, interesting.One roll of d100, coming up!
Edit: in most cases I would welcome an average roll, but not when shenanigans are involved. Here's hoping it wasn't a weighted table of outcomes where higher/lower is better/worse.
Chapter 2.2
- Location
- California
-[X] Magic
--[X] Divination
-[X] Combat
--[X] Pistols
-[X] Socialize
--[X] Techno-Logic
I, Hunter thought to himself with ever increasing annoyance, will never play a card game again.
When he'd first asked Galileo for help training his divination, the man had gotten a far away look on his face, and told Hunter he'd find something. It had taken a day, but when he returned he was carrying with him a stack of ancient looking playing cards. They were written in some strange language he couldn't recognize, and were made of what seemed to be very thick parchment. They also radiated brilliantly against his rudimentary magical senses.
His task was simple enough on the face of it. He was to use divination magic to attempt to figure out what card Galileo was holding. It was a pretty simple trick, he'd used it himself to train his basic skills back home. But his own deck of playing cards hadn't resisted like this. After his third consecutive failure Galileo had taken pity on him and told him that the cards had been enchanted to resist divination magic.
Still, four hours after first starting, he'd yet to have even one success. He couldn't even guess, because he didn't know what symbols these strange cards carried. They were missing the familiar suits, instead carrying bizarre symbols and icons.
But he felt like he was getting somewhere this time. In his mind, he could feel the magic of his spell pulsing and forming to show him an image. It was like he was mentally pushing through fog, trying to find something. But there, in the distance, he could feel it. He focused on that feeling and followed it to where it lead. And then he broke through, the image as brilliant and clear in his mind's eye as if he were looking at it physically.
"Got it!"
"Oh?" Galileo perked up at that. The man had obviously become bored around the end of the first hour, but persevered in what could only have been some misguided desire to educate. But now he smiled. "So, what is it?"
"It's a seven pointed star." Hunter said with pride.
"Nope, its the pyramid."
"What? But I could see it."
For a second, Galileo looked at the card in his hand, then the cards in the discard pile next to him. He lifted the topmost card and looked at it.
"Interesting. It seems you are getting better. But your spell must have a flaw in it. You saw the last card, not the current one. Still, it's a sign that you are improving, you just have to keep at it. Here you go."
Galileo pushed the cards at him and stood up, groaning and stretching out his back. Then he turned and began to walk away.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I have some actual work to do Aegis. You've got the basics, just keep working at it until you can do it each time. Good luck."
His mentor walked off, leaving him sitting on the floor of the training room with a stack of cards. He sighed, then picked up the stack. If he was going to do this, he could at least do it somewhere comfortable, like his room, or the lounge.
He wandered upstairs sedately, idly flipping through the cards. They were pretty interesting, yellowed with age and still shining brightly with magic. He idly tried to study the spell upon them, but the enchantment resisted his attempts the same way it had his attempts to read the cards. Made sense, it was an anti-divination spell, and his senses were just a form of divination magic. Still, he did get something from it.
The enchantment was a piece of construct magic, as he'd expected. What he hadn't been expecting was the level of complexity of the spell. It seemed dizzyingly advanced, formed of intertwined layers of magic. Though he supposed that made sense as well. If the spell was as old as the cards on them, it would need to be a piece of masterwork magic for the spell to last this long.
He was lost deep and through and studying the cards in his hand when he walked into someone. Quite literally. Hunter stumbled back and the cards went flying out of his hands, spilling out onto the floor.
"Would you watch where you are going."
He looked over to see who he'd walked into and found Susan looking at him, he hands on her hips and a rather nasty glare on her face.
"Oh, sorry. I guess I was lost in thought."
"Obviously."
Hunter blushed lightly under her glare, then bent down and began to pick up the cards. Susan sighed lightly, then knelt down to help him, putting her tablet to the side. He looked over at it, and noticed the omnipresent lines of code where present, as they were anytime he got a glimpse of the thing. He wondered...
"Hey, Susan?"
She answered without looking at him, focused on picking up cards.
"Yes Aegis?"
"That code on your tablet, I've been wondering what it's for. The drone?"
Hunter had only seen the thing once, about a week after they had all arrived here. The thing was about the size of his head, all shining chrome and whirring rotors. He'd seen it while walking past her and Mechtronic studying it on the way to one of his training sessions. It had looked pretty impressive.
"Yes. I need to constantly update its capabilities."
"And?"
"And what?" She snapped.
"How is upgrading it going?"
"...Fine."
This was probably the longest conversation he'd ever had with the girl, and he found himself boldly pushing forward.
"So, what can it do? The drone I mean."
"It is capable of flight, remote surveillance, interfacing with any number of computer systems, and is equipped with a taser for combat purposes."
"That's pretty impressive. You've done good work with it."
"...thank you."
"So, what did you name it?"
"Name it?"
"Yeah. What, you mean it doesn't have a name?"
"It has a designation. Autonomous Hero platform 3."
"3?"
"The two that came before it were less fitting for my needs."
"Oh, well. You've to give it a name"
"Why?"
"Why? Well.. because. You just do."
She gave him an askance look from where she was picking up the last of the cards. With their work done the two stood up, Susan dusting off non-existing dirt from his knees.
"Well. I suppose I could think of something"
"Atta girl. You know, you're a lot nicer where you aren't pulling the Ice Queen act."
He smiled at her, and it took him a few seconds to realize his mistake. The glare was back on her face, but it was much worse, as if she was trying to set him on fire with her mind. Her hand, which had been stretching towards him to hand over the cards, opening and let them spill back over the floor. She lent down, picked up her tablet, and stomped off the way she came.
A few days later Hunter was standing in the armory off the main room. He hadn't been in here since the tour on the first day, and this was his first chance to get a proper look at the place. It was a decent sized room, with racks mounted onto the wall and placed on the floor. There were weapons and armor placed on these racks, each one secure behind a thick glass case locked with biometric lock, as the door to the room had been.
He was in here because he'd finally decided on what he would be using to fight crime. Magic was all well and good, but a Hero could often expect to have to enter combat that was far more physical and mundane than magic. And so their mentors had asked them all to select a weapon to fight with.
Beam Shot hadn't had to think about it. He'd already picked and constructed his weapon before coming here, a revolver modified to carry his plasma cartridges. Techno-Logic had picked a small collapsible baton, arguing that with her focus on drones she was unlikely to enter combat, and something small and concealable was more useful. Stone Flower had refused to take a weapon so far. Apparently her martial art did have training for weapons, but she had not progressed to them yet.
But now it was Hunter's turn. He'd thought about it quite hard, before deciding.
Behind him, Ironfire was laying a small selection of pistols on a desk. The room didn't have much in the way of firearms Hunter noted, just the small collection of pistols, a few rifles, and what looked like a strange rocket launcher.
Ironfire finished setting up the guns and beckoned Hunter over.
"Hunter," Ok, real name. That meant serious. "I know you made the choice to use a gun, but I wanted to make absolutely sure this is what you want to do."
Hunter opened his mouth to answer that he did, but Ironfire raised his hand to stop him.
"I ask because guns are not a traditional Superhero weapon. We don't use them because out of all the weapons in this room, they are the most likely to kill someone. Even using non-lethal rounds carry a danger. To say nothing of the risk to bystanders. Most heroes pick close range weapons because we can control what happens with the weapon better that way.
Guns are usually the weapon of choice for vigilantes. There are heroes who use them, but almost all of those who do are specialized heroes like Beam Shot. If you choose to use a gun, none of us will stop you. But it will change how people in our community look at you, how you get treated by people. Not greatly, but it will still affect things.
So, are you sure?"
Well, are you?
[] Use a gun
[] Use a different weapon
-[]Pick a weapon
Before anyone cries foul, I wrote this scene out when the idea to use a gun first came up. It has nothing to do with the closeness of the vote or people complaining about plan based voting. It's here because choosing to use a gun will change how other Superheroes see you.
Also, you guys missed the DC to get along with Techno-Logic by 4, it was 60. Sorry. :/
--[X] Divination
-[X] Combat
--[X] Pistols
-[X] Socialize
--[X] Techno-Logic
I, Hunter thought to himself with ever increasing annoyance, will never play a card game again.
When he'd first asked Galileo for help training his divination, the man had gotten a far away look on his face, and told Hunter he'd find something. It had taken a day, but when he returned he was carrying with him a stack of ancient looking playing cards. They were written in some strange language he couldn't recognize, and were made of what seemed to be very thick parchment. They also radiated brilliantly against his rudimentary magical senses.
His task was simple enough on the face of it. He was to use divination magic to attempt to figure out what card Galileo was holding. It was a pretty simple trick, he'd used it himself to train his basic skills back home. But his own deck of playing cards hadn't resisted like this. After his third consecutive failure Galileo had taken pity on him and told him that the cards had been enchanted to resist divination magic.
Still, four hours after first starting, he'd yet to have even one success. He couldn't even guess, because he didn't know what symbols these strange cards carried. They were missing the familiar suits, instead carrying bizarre symbols and icons.
But he felt like he was getting somewhere this time. In his mind, he could feel the magic of his spell pulsing and forming to show him an image. It was like he was mentally pushing through fog, trying to find something. But there, in the distance, he could feel it. He focused on that feeling and followed it to where it lead. And then he broke through, the image as brilliant and clear in his mind's eye as if he were looking at it physically.
"Got it!"
"Oh?" Galileo perked up at that. The man had obviously become bored around the end of the first hour, but persevered in what could only have been some misguided desire to educate. But now he smiled. "So, what is it?"
"It's a seven pointed star." Hunter said with pride.
"Nope, its the pyramid."
"What? But I could see it."
For a second, Galileo looked at the card in his hand, then the cards in the discard pile next to him. He lifted the topmost card and looked at it.
"Interesting. It seems you are getting better. But your spell must have a flaw in it. You saw the last card, not the current one. Still, it's a sign that you are improving, you just have to keep at it. Here you go."
Galileo pushed the cards at him and stood up, groaning and stretching out his back. Then he turned and began to walk away.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I have some actual work to do Aegis. You've got the basics, just keep working at it until you can do it each time. Good luck."
His mentor walked off, leaving him sitting on the floor of the training room with a stack of cards. He sighed, then picked up the stack. If he was going to do this, he could at least do it somewhere comfortable, like his room, or the lounge.
He wandered upstairs sedately, idly flipping through the cards. They were pretty interesting, yellowed with age and still shining brightly with magic. He idly tried to study the spell upon them, but the enchantment resisted his attempts the same way it had his attempts to read the cards. Made sense, it was an anti-divination spell, and his senses were just a form of divination magic. Still, he did get something from it.
The enchantment was a piece of construct magic, as he'd expected. What he hadn't been expecting was the level of complexity of the spell. It seemed dizzyingly advanced, formed of intertwined layers of magic. Though he supposed that made sense as well. If the spell was as old as the cards on them, it would need to be a piece of masterwork magic for the spell to last this long.
He was lost deep and through and studying the cards in his hand when he walked into someone. Quite literally. Hunter stumbled back and the cards went flying out of his hands, spilling out onto the floor.
"Would you watch where you are going."
He looked over to see who he'd walked into and found Susan looking at him, he hands on her hips and a rather nasty glare on her face.
"Oh, sorry. I guess I was lost in thought."
"Obviously."
Hunter blushed lightly under her glare, then bent down and began to pick up the cards. Susan sighed lightly, then knelt down to help him, putting her tablet to the side. He looked over at it, and noticed the omnipresent lines of code where present, as they were anytime he got a glimpse of the thing. He wondered...
"Hey, Susan?"
She answered without looking at him, focused on picking up cards.
"Yes Aegis?"
"That code on your tablet, I've been wondering what it's for. The drone?"
Hunter had only seen the thing once, about a week after they had all arrived here. The thing was about the size of his head, all shining chrome and whirring rotors. He'd seen it while walking past her and Mechtronic studying it on the way to one of his training sessions. It had looked pretty impressive.
"Yes. I need to constantly update its capabilities."
"And?"
"And what?" She snapped.
"How is upgrading it going?"
"...Fine."
This was probably the longest conversation he'd ever had with the girl, and he found himself boldly pushing forward.
"So, what can it do? The drone I mean."
"It is capable of flight, remote surveillance, interfacing with any number of computer systems, and is equipped with a taser for combat purposes."
"That's pretty impressive. You've done good work with it."
"...thank you."
"So, what did you name it?"
"Name it?"
"Yeah. What, you mean it doesn't have a name?"
"It has a designation. Autonomous Hero platform 3."
"3?"
"The two that came before it were less fitting for my needs."
"Oh, well. You've to give it a name"
"Why?"
"Why? Well.. because. You just do."
She gave him an askance look from where she was picking up the last of the cards. With their work done the two stood up, Susan dusting off non-existing dirt from his knees.
"Well. I suppose I could think of something"
"Atta girl. You know, you're a lot nicer where you aren't pulling the Ice Queen act."
He smiled at her, and it took him a few seconds to realize his mistake. The glare was back on her face, but it was much worse, as if she was trying to set him on fire with her mind. Her hand, which had been stretching towards him to hand over the cards, opening and let them spill back over the floor. She lent down, picked up her tablet, and stomped off the way she came.
----
A few days later Hunter was standing in the armory off the main room. He hadn't been in here since the tour on the first day, and this was his first chance to get a proper look at the place. It was a decent sized room, with racks mounted onto the wall and placed on the floor. There were weapons and armor placed on these racks, each one secure behind a thick glass case locked with biometric lock, as the door to the room had been.
He was in here because he'd finally decided on what he would be using to fight crime. Magic was all well and good, but a Hero could often expect to have to enter combat that was far more physical and mundane than magic. And so their mentors had asked them all to select a weapon to fight with.
Beam Shot hadn't had to think about it. He'd already picked and constructed his weapon before coming here, a revolver modified to carry his plasma cartridges. Techno-Logic had picked a small collapsible baton, arguing that with her focus on drones she was unlikely to enter combat, and something small and concealable was more useful. Stone Flower had refused to take a weapon so far. Apparently her martial art did have training for weapons, but she had not progressed to them yet.
But now it was Hunter's turn. He'd thought about it quite hard, before deciding.
Behind him, Ironfire was laying a small selection of pistols on a desk. The room didn't have much in the way of firearms Hunter noted, just the small collection of pistols, a few rifles, and what looked like a strange rocket launcher.
Ironfire finished setting up the guns and beckoned Hunter over.
"Hunter," Ok, real name. That meant serious. "I know you made the choice to use a gun, but I wanted to make absolutely sure this is what you want to do."
Hunter opened his mouth to answer that he did, but Ironfire raised his hand to stop him.
"I ask because guns are not a traditional Superhero weapon. We don't use them because out of all the weapons in this room, they are the most likely to kill someone. Even using non-lethal rounds carry a danger. To say nothing of the risk to bystanders. Most heroes pick close range weapons because we can control what happens with the weapon better that way.
Guns are usually the weapon of choice for vigilantes. There are heroes who use them, but almost all of those who do are specialized heroes like Beam Shot. If you choose to use a gun, none of us will stop you. But it will change how people in our community look at you, how you get treated by people. Not greatly, but it will still affect things.
So, are you sure?"
Well, are you?
[] Use a gun
[] Use a different weapon
-[]Pick a weapon
Before anyone cries foul, I wrote this scene out when the idea to use a gun first came up. It has nothing to do with the closeness of the vote or people complaining about plan based voting. It's here because choosing to use a gun will change how other Superheroes see you.
Also, you guys missed the DC to get along with Techno-Logic by 4, it was 60. Sorry. :/
Cybandeath
Lord Darkness, and Representative of Mad Science
- Location
- The United States of America
*cough* killing hero is best hero *cough*
anyhow
[X] Use a different weapon
-[X]Scythe and other bladed staff weapons
anyhow
[X] Use a different weapon
-[X]Scythe and other bladed staff weapons
- Location
- California
No Scythes. Something at least vaguely effective as a weapon please.
Cybandeath
Lord Darkness, and Representative of Mad Science
- Location
- The United States of America
you dont know scythes then they can be EXTREMELY effective weapon however its highly up their on hard weapons to use. the best I can really describe it is a combination in fighting style with MANY other different weapons. however there is also further capabilities that can be used much more easily with inhuman or supernatural ability.No Scythes. Something at least vaguely effective as a weapon please.
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- Location
- St. Petersburg
[X] Use a different weapon
-[X]Rocket Launcher
He has a point.
-[X]Rocket Launcher
He has a point.
She'll come around. Next time we get a chance, we should ask her about that name. I'm sure our conversation gave her a few ideas.
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- Location
- California
Very funny. But no.[X] Use a different weapon
-[X]Rocket Launcher
He has a point.
The only way a Scythe can make an effective weapon is if it is modified in such a way that it is no longer a scythe. Between the awkward angle of the blade, the thinness of the blade, and the fact that many have strangely curved hafts to make cutting grass easier, they make terrible weapons. Pick something else.
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Cybandeath
Lord Darkness, and Representative of Mad Science
- Location
- The United States of America
not the kind of scythe im talking about but okay
[X] Use a gun with lethal ammo
- Location
- California
What sort of Scythe are you talking about then?
No.
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- Pronouns
- They/He
[X] Use a different weapon
-[X] Quarterstaff
-[X] Quarterstaff
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Use a gun.
If we ever do, it's because shit's hit the fan. Beyond that, we're a mage, and a squishy one at that. We should not be in melee.
If we ever do, it's because shit's hit the fan. Beyond that, we're a mage, and a squishy one at that. We should not be in melee.
- Location
- California
You really aren't that squishy. Enhancement means that you and Stone Flower are the least squishy members of your team.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Really? From what's been posted so far I thought we were just baseline human.
Regardless, sticking with this. People underestimate what halberds, bardiches, and quarterstaves can do. I mean, the first two are bladed weapons, so they're obviously lethal-only, but blunt-force trauma from a quarterstaff is often underestimated. I fear that if we go quarterstaff we'll start freely bludgeoning people and then give Hunter PTSD from how many people he's inadvertently killed through intracranial hemorrhage. At least he'll respect a gun.
- Location
- California
Baseline human's aren't all that squishy, especially with top tier training and enhancement magic.
Usual superhero stuff applies here for bludgeoning weapons. As for bladed, there are pretty easy construct spells that dull blades if you want to go that route.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...so, melee weapons are through various means free of any risk of causing long-term damage unless it's desired, but pistols are quite possibly deadly even with less-than-lethal ammunition?
Sorry, that sounds salty. I'm not trying to be; just honestly seeking clarification and can't think of a better phrasing at the moment.
- Location
- California
It comes down to this. It is easier to control a melee weapon than a bullet in flight. You can hit harder or softer as needed, you can dull blades, and you can pull a strike. But there isn't much you can do with a bullet. Any spell that makes it less danergous makes it less useful, and even non-lethal rounds aren't perfect. Neither are melee weapons, but the risk is less.
But do remember, using a gun is still a perfectly valid option.