Odd Jobs or Die Quest
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life...
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life...
Odd Jobs or Die Quest
- Thread starter Kinni
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Prologue
Odd Jobs or Die Quest
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life sucks.
This is not a subjective. It's true that you grew up in a rather good state orphanage and was receiving adequate care and education, but that was the limit of your good luck, and the bad luck outweighted it by such a large margin that none of that ended up mattering.
And the bad luck you had could be summed up with the words on the laminated card you were holding:
Camila Varga, Sufferer of Amanaderis Syndrome
Yes, Amanaderis Syndrome, the disease that had been nicknamed "The Rich Person's Disease". It was incurable, but treatable, and as long as the treatment was kept up, the sufferer would not show any symptoms and was no different from an ordinary person.
The problem was, of course, the treatment. It was expensive. Extremely expensive. It took two million credits to pay for a single session, which would extend the life of the sufferer by a single year. To give a sense of scale, two million credits were enough to buy a lavish mansion.
Of course, there was no way the state would pay for that. You had been visited by several psychologists that tried to get you used to the idea of death, along with giving ideas about how to make the most out of the rest of your life.
But fuck that, you don't want to die.
So, your only option was to earn that much money every year. It would be impossible for any ordinary girl, but thankfully, you are not one.
Ever since you were small, you've always been:
[] A Natural Manipulator: You are a genius at acting, and have an easy time understanding people and their motivations, and even at your young age you already have several "contacts", people you can influence to a variety of degrees. Each one of them has different abilities and resources.
The Roleplayer path. This one won't use dice, and will have a more narrative style, focused on creating plans, executing them, and dealing with the consequences and unexpected events.
[] A Natural Mimic: You can look at a person doing something and imitate them perfectly. You've also always been curious and managed to learn a lot of useful skills. And now that you have more than adequate motivation, you're sure you can learn whatever you need.
The Skills path. It will focus on obtaining, training and using skills, each with their own applications. Also plenty of dice mechanics.
[] A Natural Builder: You understand technology. Using a few scraps you've been able to find at the orphanage, you've already built a few useful machines. With enough resources, it's hard to say what you would be unable to eventually create.
The Strategic path. It will focus on resource management, and every action the players can take will have transparent results. It will only have a few elements decided by dice.
Besides that, there is one more resource at your disposal: The card marking you as someone someone suffering from the disease.
Due to law, you could simply show that card at several places to avoid having to pay for services. Essentially, you didn't have to worry about having enough to eat or having a place to live on top of everything else.
Of course, with it in hand, you could also use the pity of other people to obtain small favors. It's annoying, but pride is a luxury you can't afford right now.
According to your prognostics, it will take one more year before your body begins to decay. Until the end of that year, you need to make enough money to pay for the first treatment session.
And even with your abilities, there is no way you could make enough while being limited to normal jobs. As such, your best option is:
[] The Mercenary Board: Internet to the rescue! The Mercenary Board is a place where people can put up requests which, if completed, they'll reward the person who did so. You can find pretty much any type of job here, but to get things that pay enough, you'll probably have to look for the shadiest jobs, that say things like "information about the job will be given only in person".
Positives: You can start immediately. You won't need to answer to anyone.
Negatives: You'll have no extra support and perhaps you'll need to 'convince' clients that actually paying you would be in their best interests.
[] Mr. Koros: One of the richest men in the country. He is well known for posting mercenary requests for all kinds of ridiculous missions. Not exactly illegal things, but stuff that very few mercenaries are willing to tackle despite the rewards being huge. He seems to be a very bored guy. You could perhaps convince him to hire you in a permanent manner.
Positives: A steady stream of high paying jobs. No need to compromise your morals too much.
Negatives: You'll need to catch his eye first, and every second counts. There is no way you're going to be able to avoid the spotlight.
[] The Criminal Element: In darkened streets, shady deals are made everyday. Desperate people work in extreme jobs because they have no other choice. You can offer your services for all kinds of illegal jobs until you can draw the attention of the crime bosses with their deep pockets.
Positives: Numerous ways to make money quickly. And it will be normal to conceal your identity
Negatives: You'll have to sacrifice your morals. It will be difficult to leave the criminal life.
And that's it. Now it was time to begin.
-0-
Setting Notes: Future world with low sci-fi and low supernatural elements. Space travel is common, and lifelike robots abound, but the world is still fundamentally the same place.
Author's Notes: And here I am with another Quest. I learned a bit from the previous ones and hope this will get people's attention. I just got my college diploma, so I have time and motivation to spare. Let's get cracking!
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life sucks.
This is not a subjective. It's true that you grew up in a rather good state orphanage and was receiving adequate care and education, but that was the limit of your good luck, and the bad luck outweighted it by such a large margin that none of that ended up mattering.
And the bad luck you had could be summed up with the words on the laminated card you were holding:
Camila Varga, Sufferer of Amanaderis Syndrome
Yes, Amanaderis Syndrome, the disease that had been nicknamed "The Rich Person's Disease". It was incurable, but treatable, and as long as the treatment was kept up, the sufferer would not show any symptoms and was no different from an ordinary person.
The problem was, of course, the treatment. It was expensive. Extremely expensive. It took two million credits to pay for a single session, which would extend the life of the sufferer by a single year. To give a sense of scale, two million credits were enough to buy a lavish mansion.
Of course, there was no way the state would pay for that. You had been visited by several psychologists that tried to get you used to the idea of death, along with giving ideas about how to make the most out of the rest of your life.
But fuck that, you don't want to die.
So, your only option was to earn that much money every year. It would be impossible for any ordinary girl, but thankfully, you are not one.
Ever since you were small, you've always been:
[] A Natural Manipulator: You are a genius at acting, and have an easy time understanding people and their motivations, and even at your young age you already have several "contacts", people you can influence to a variety of degrees. Each one of them has different abilities and resources.
The Roleplayer path. This one won't use dice, and will have a more narrative style, focused on creating plans, executing them, and dealing with the consequences and unexpected events.
[] A Natural Mimic: You can look at a person doing something and imitate them perfectly. You've also always been curious and managed to learn a lot of useful skills. And now that you have more than adequate motivation, you're sure you can learn whatever you need.
The Skills path. It will focus on obtaining, training and using skills, each with their own applications. Also plenty of dice mechanics.
[] A Natural Builder: You understand technology. Using a few scraps you've been able to find at the orphanage, you've already built a few useful machines. With enough resources, it's hard to say what you would be unable to eventually create.
The Strategic path. It will focus on resource management, and every action the players can take will have transparent results. It will only have a few elements decided by dice.
Besides that, there is one more resource at your disposal: The card marking you as someone someone suffering from the disease.
Due to law, you could simply show that card at several places to avoid having to pay for services. Essentially, you didn't have to worry about having enough to eat or having a place to live on top of everything else.
Of course, with it in hand, you could also use the pity of other people to obtain small favors. It's annoying, but pride is a luxury you can't afford right now.
According to your prognostics, it will take one more year before your body begins to decay. Until the end of that year, you need to make enough money to pay for the first treatment session.
And even with your abilities, there is no way you could make enough while being limited to normal jobs. As such, your best option is:
[] The Mercenary Board: Internet to the rescue! The Mercenary Board is a place where people can put up requests which, if completed, they'll reward the person who did so. You can find pretty much any type of job here, but to get things that pay enough, you'll probably have to look for the shadiest jobs, that say things like "information about the job will be given only in person".
Positives: You can start immediately. You won't need to answer to anyone.
Negatives: You'll have no extra support and perhaps you'll need to 'convince' clients that actually paying you would be in their best interests.
[] Mr. Koros: One of the richest men in the country. He is well known for posting mercenary requests for all kinds of ridiculous missions. Not exactly illegal things, but stuff that very few mercenaries are willing to tackle despite the rewards being huge. He seems to be a very bored guy. You could perhaps convince him to hire you in a permanent manner.
Positives: A steady stream of high paying jobs. No need to compromise your morals too much.
Negatives: You'll need to catch his eye first, and every second counts. There is no way you're going to be able to avoid the spotlight.
[] The Criminal Element: In darkened streets, shady deals are made everyday. Desperate people work in extreme jobs because they have no other choice. You can offer your services for all kinds of illegal jobs until you can draw the attention of the crime bosses with their deep pockets.
Positives: Numerous ways to make money quickly. And it will be normal to conceal your identity
Negatives: You'll have to sacrifice your morals. It will be difficult to leave the criminal life.
And that's it. Now it was time to begin.
-0-
Setting Notes: Future world with low sci-fi and low supernatural elements. Space travel is common, and lifelike robots abound, but the world is still fundamentally the same place.
Author's Notes: And here I am with another Quest. I learned a bit from the previous ones and hope this will get people's attention. I just got my college diploma, so I have time and motivation to spare. Let's get cracking!
[X] A Natural Builder: You understand technology. Using a few scraps you've been able to find at the orphanage, you've already built a few useful machines. With enough resources, it's hard to say what you would be unable to eventually create.
[X] Mr. Koros: One of the richest men in the country. He is well known for posting mercenary requests for all kinds of ridiculous missions. Not exactly illegal things, but stuff that very few mercenaries are willing to tackle despite the rewards being huge. He seems to be a very bored guy. You could perhaps convince him to hire you in a permanent manner.
Positives: A steady stream of high paying jobs. No need to compromise your morals too much.
Negatives: You'll need to catch his eye first, and every second counts. There is no way you're going to be able to avoid the spotlight.
[X] Mr. Koros: One of the richest men in the country. He is well known for posting mercenary requests for all kinds of ridiculous missions. Not exactly illegal things, but stuff that very few mercenaries are willing to tackle despite the rewards being huge. He seems to be a very bored guy. You could perhaps convince him to hire you in a permanent manner.
Positives: A steady stream of high paying jobs. No need to compromise your morals too much.
Negatives: You'll need to catch his eye first, and every second counts. There is no way you're going to be able to avoid the spotlight.
Look to the Left
Back from the Void
- Location
- OH CANADA!!!
[X] A Natural Manipulator
[X] The Criminal Element
Time to be the next Moriarty.
[X] The Criminal Element
Time to be the next Moriarty.
- Location
- Rochester, NY
[X] A Natural Mimic
[X] The Mercenary Board
[X] The Mercenary Board
NuclearConsensus
Herald of the Thorned One
- Location
- the Philippines
[X] A Natural Manipulator
[X] The Criminal Element
[X] The Criminal Element
- Location
- Who Knows
[X] A Natural Manipulator
[X] The Mercenary Board
All of the options seem pretty interesting, but I like character relationships. I'm cool with whichever secondary option wins.
[X] The Mercenary Board
All of the options seem pretty interesting, but I like character relationships. I'm cool with whichever secondary option wins.
[x] A Natural Manipulator
[x] The Mercenary Board
[x] The Mercenary Board
Character Sheet
Character Sheet:
Camila, 10 years old.
Current Money: 400 credits.
Contacts:
Roman Carlos: A woman who had an incurable illness and decided to use her time left to do all sorts of extreme sports and dangerous stunts. However, before she could die, a cure was found, and she lost direction in her life. She is modestly wealthy, and you're sure you could use your similarities in situation to get her to help you "live dangerously".
Yamata Daichiri: An ex-mercenary, now a family man who runs a candy store. You're friends with his youngest daughter, and his paternal instincts run strong. Since he knows what it is like to need to risk yourself for money, it's probable that you could convince him to set you up with sources for all kinds of items one wouldn't normally be able to buy, as well as contacts to perform certain services.
Excellen Yankovic: A former champion in sharpshooting, she has kept her skills sharp, even though it's been a while since she competed. You can tell that she is the kind who wants adventure and excitement and isn't getting that from her life. She could use her skills to aid your operations, and she'd probably accept unless it was something like killing people.
Loren Yarlan: One of your biggest inspirations. To pay off a huge debt that was tearing her family apart, she went into illegal fight clubs when she was only fourteen. Now she's eighteen, the debts are paid and she is very grateful to you for helping her parents deal with their personal issues. Now that you need help, she would be willing to even risk herself to do so. And a strong brawler would definitely be useful.
Arnaldo Gonzales: Taxist and part-time Escape Driver, Arnaldo is someone who only acts when there's something in it for him. However, his skills with all kinds of vehicles are almost miraculous, and you're sure you can think of ways you can make him benefit in your jobs, as well as convincing him of that.
Michelle Dipner: A hacker. She took the usual path of starting out as a criminal and ending up responsible for protecting systems against hackers. She has always remained on the frontline of hacking, and she explained several tricks (like just calling a phone and asking for passwords). Her through knowledge of systems and their weaknesses would be a great help as your tech support, but she can't get personally involved in anything illegal.
Victoria Unese: A medic. She is mostly a general practitioner but is also rather good at surgery. Her knowledge and skills about all kinds of medicines and mechanisms of the body could be useful, specially because she is rather loose-lipped when drunk and doesn't remember much of what she talked about.
Marcelo Ribeira: A merchant with ties to the underworld. He could provide you with a lot of things you wouldn't find easily, but most importantly, he was the guy in the known, and there weren't many things he couldn't figure out about. Getting him to help would involve convincing him that you would be able to repay him with information of your own later.
Theresa Anikka: A previously struggling actress, which you've managed to help by giving acting tips. She hasn't become amazingly famous, but she is still fairly well-known. Out of gratitude for your help, she should be willing to do a lot. She can disguise herself to not be recognized and act according to your instructions to deal with things it would be difficult to deal with as a child.
Shara Elera: She's... weird. You don't really know what exactly is the deal with her, but she seems to appear in all sorts of odd places and speak cryptically at you. You get the sense that she knows a lot of secrets, but wouldn't tell them to you outright, instead pointing you in some direction. It's unreliable, but it can't hurt to ask her sometimes.
Camila, 10 years old.
Current Money: 400 credits.
Contacts:
Roman Carlos: A woman who had an incurable illness and decided to use her time left to do all sorts of extreme sports and dangerous stunts. However, before she could die, a cure was found, and she lost direction in her life. She is modestly wealthy, and you're sure you could use your similarities in situation to get her to help you "live dangerously".
Yamata Daichiri: An ex-mercenary, now a family man who runs a candy store. You're friends with his youngest daughter, and his paternal instincts run strong. Since he knows what it is like to need to risk yourself for money, it's probable that you could convince him to set you up with sources for all kinds of items one wouldn't normally be able to buy, as well as contacts to perform certain services.
Excellen Yankovic: A former champion in sharpshooting, she has kept her skills sharp, even though it's been a while since she competed. You can tell that she is the kind who wants adventure and excitement and isn't getting that from her life. She could use her skills to aid your operations, and she'd probably accept unless it was something like killing people.
Loren Yarlan: One of your biggest inspirations. To pay off a huge debt that was tearing her family apart, she went into illegal fight clubs when she was only fourteen. Now she's eighteen, the debts are paid and she is very grateful to you for helping her parents deal with their personal issues. Now that you need help, she would be willing to even risk herself to do so. And a strong brawler would definitely be useful.
Arnaldo Gonzales: Taxist and part-time Escape Driver, Arnaldo is someone who only acts when there's something in it for him. However, his skills with all kinds of vehicles are almost miraculous, and you're sure you can think of ways you can make him benefit in your jobs, as well as convincing him of that.
Michelle Dipner: A hacker. She took the usual path of starting out as a criminal and ending up responsible for protecting systems against hackers. She has always remained on the frontline of hacking, and she explained several tricks (like just calling a phone and asking for passwords). Her through knowledge of systems and their weaknesses would be a great help as your tech support, but she can't get personally involved in anything illegal.
Victoria Unese: A medic. She is mostly a general practitioner but is also rather good at surgery. Her knowledge and skills about all kinds of medicines and mechanisms of the body could be useful, specially because she is rather loose-lipped when drunk and doesn't remember much of what she talked about.
Marcelo Ribeira: A merchant with ties to the underworld. He could provide you with a lot of things you wouldn't find easily, but most importantly, he was the guy in the known, and there weren't many things he couldn't figure out about. Getting him to help would involve convincing him that you would be able to repay him with information of your own later.
Theresa Anikka: A previously struggling actress, which you've managed to help by giving acting tips. She hasn't become amazingly famous, but she is still fairly well-known. Out of gratitude for your help, she should be willing to do a lot. She can disguise herself to not be recognized and act according to your instructions to deal with things it would be difficult to deal with as a child.
Shara Elera: She's... weird. You don't really know what exactly is the deal with her, but she seems to appear in all sorts of odd places and speak cryptically at you. You get the sense that she knows a lot of secrets, but wouldn't tell them to you outright, instead pointing you in some direction. It's unreliable, but it can't hurt to ask her sometimes.
Last edited:
Chapter 1
[X] A Natural Manipulator
[X] The Mercenary Board
Yeah. You really valued your independence, and you could deal with not having an actual support network, you'd just have to work harder and use your resources in a smart manner.
Booting up the computer of the hotel you were staying in, you got onto the internet and checked the Mercenary Board, looking for missions that would be good for your purposes.
There are many requests, really many, but you have some ways of whittling some of them down.
First, you remove from the list any requests that would require you to go off-world. While you can use your card to go anywhere in the planet easily using the teleportation system, going to another planet would cost money and time, two things you really don't have enough at the moment.
Second, you remove from the list every single job that requires previous experience or vouching from previous clients. Of course, that means most of the reasonable jobs go away, but you really weren't going to do anything reasonable, anyway.
Third, and the longest part of the process was going through the remaining requests to remove those of known trolls, and determining which of the other requests were likewise fake by going through profiles, making searches and all sorts of "fun" stuff.
It takes literal hours for you to get through everything, but eventually, you end up with five likely candidates:
[] A request that requires "subterfuge abilities and discretion", as well as signing a non-disclosure agreement. There was very little information included, but apparently the mission would only last for seven days, and the pay was 200 thousand credits.
[] A request to solve the mystery of the murder of a girl called Ariana Cello. The police had been baffled by the crime, and so the family had put up a reward of 150 thousand credits for the resolution of the case.
[] A request for a "discreet animal exterminator", to deal with an animal who was apparently living in the sewers. There was no information about what exactly the animal was, and the fact that the requester didn't choose to ask the official animal handlers meant that there was something shady about the situation, but the reward of 300 thousand credits was tempting.
[] An open bounty for the capture of industrial thief Greg Wilkins. Apparently he had stolen some really sensitive information from Leran Industries and they wanted to interrogate him about it. You would need to actually find a way to track him down, but the 100 thousands credits reward was good.
[] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
(Extra) [] Write-in if you want to make some pre-preparations and research, and how you will do that (which contacts to use).
-0-
A.N : So, it turns out that I didn't lose my power today... It's nice, but kinda weird.
[X] The Mercenary Board
Yeah. You really valued your independence, and you could deal with not having an actual support network, you'd just have to work harder and use your resources in a smart manner.
Booting up the computer of the hotel you were staying in, you got onto the internet and checked the Mercenary Board, looking for missions that would be good for your purposes.
There are many requests, really many, but you have some ways of whittling some of them down.
First, you remove from the list any requests that would require you to go off-world. While you can use your card to go anywhere in the planet easily using the teleportation system, going to another planet would cost money and time, two things you really don't have enough at the moment.
Second, you remove from the list every single job that requires previous experience or vouching from previous clients. Of course, that means most of the reasonable jobs go away, but you really weren't going to do anything reasonable, anyway.
Third, and the longest part of the process was going through the remaining requests to remove those of known trolls, and determining which of the other requests were likewise fake by going through profiles, making searches and all sorts of "fun" stuff.
It takes literal hours for you to get through everything, but eventually, you end up with five likely candidates:
[] A request that requires "subterfuge abilities and discretion", as well as signing a non-disclosure agreement. There was very little information included, but apparently the mission would only last for seven days, and the pay was 200 thousand credits.
[] A request to solve the mystery of the murder of a girl called Ariana Cello. The police had been baffled by the crime, and so the family had put up a reward of 150 thousand credits for the resolution of the case.
[] A request for a "discreet animal exterminator", to deal with an animal who was apparently living in the sewers. There was no information about what exactly the animal was, and the fact that the requester didn't choose to ask the official animal handlers meant that there was something shady about the situation, but the reward of 300 thousand credits was tempting.
[] An open bounty for the capture of industrial thief Greg Wilkins. Apparently he had stolen some really sensitive information from Leran Industries and they wanted to interrogate him about it. You would need to actually find a way to track him down, but the 100 thousands credits reward was good.
[] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
(Extra) [] Write-in if you want to make some pre-preparations and research, and how you will do that (which contacts to use).
-0-
A.N : So, it turns out that I didn't lose my power today... It's nice, but kinda weird.
Unseelie
(Verified True Fae)
- Location
- Tír fo Thuinn
[] A request that requires "subterfuge abilities and discretion", as well as signing a non-disclosure agreement. There was very little information included, but apparently the mission would only last for seven days, and the pay was 200 thousand credits.
Tempting.
[X] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
Even better.
Tempting.
[X] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
Even better.
[X] An open bounty for the capture of industrial thief Greg Wilkins. Apparently he had stolen some really sensitive information from Leran Industries and they wanted to interrogate him about it. You would need to actually find a way to track him down, but the 100 thousands credits reward was good.
- Location
- italy bologna
[X] A request for a "discreet animal exterminator", to deal with an animal who was apparently living in the sewers. There was no information about what exactly the animal was, and the fact that the requester didn't choose to ask the official animal handlers meant that there was something shady about the situation, but the reward of 300 thousand credits was tempting
...why not?
...why not?
- Location
- Who Knows
Love the shadiness
[X] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
[X] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
- Location
- Sweden
[X] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.