- Location
- USA
@TalonofAnathrax I've gone back and fixed the Threadmarks, any chance you can give Nevill a rundown on what's happening? I worry that if I do it my knowledge of what's important/not will leak through.
Next update should be done later tonight, sorry for being a little late.
Next update should be done later tonight, sorry for being a little late.
- Location
- France
@Nevill, basically we're fucked. We've been ordered to attack an insanely reinforced position that knows we're coming because Substracter is a dumb asshole.
Right now we're busy rebuilding our Posse, training our minions, and discreetly dealing with the Union while carrying out KEM assassinations. CCC has been making the plans, because I genuinely can't see a way forwards that doesn't end in our obvious death. It's gotta be possible somehow, but I just can't see it happen unless the Union really comes through and/or we find some great Ultra power combo. Both seem unlikely.
Right now we're busy rebuilding our Posse, training our minions, and discreetly dealing with the Union while carrying out KEM assassinations. CCC has been making the plans, because I genuinely can't see a way forwards that doesn't end in our obvious death. It's gotta be possible somehow, but I just can't see it happen unless the Union really comes through and/or we find some great Ultra power combo. Both seem unlikely.
Mission 2, Turn 11
- Location
- USA
Day 17:
Morning:
I was going to have to find a new way to contact my contacts. That was the long and short of it. There had to be a way that was clandestine, secure, and most importantly didn't fail to work half the time.
It was a petty thing to gripe about, all told. It wasn't like I'd been found out by Snitcher, or caught up in one of the Regime's frequent attempts to purge KEM sympathizers. It could be a lot worse.
But there was something about having a deadline, a literal deadline. In a little under two weeks, odds were I was going to die. It clarified things, parted the fog, so to speak.
It made me resent, violently, waiting for a contact in this dingy tavern and realizing that, once again, it wasn't going to happen.
No doubt there was good reason. No doubt he was detained by an Ultra to carry rocks, or warm a bed. It almost certainly wasn't my contact's fault.
But it wasn't going to happen again.
In fact, it wasn't going to happen this time.
I fixed my gaze on the door where he would appear, cleared my mind, and WILLED him to come walking through.
Nothing happened.
I broke into a chuckle and took a sip from my drink. At least I'd tried. Now I could scratch 'force people to keep appointments' off of the list of minor gifts I might not know I had.
Afternoon:
I hadn't done my recruitment speech nearly as often as old world politicians had been forced to, but I was beginning to get the slightest hint of their pain.
Hype up the crowd, check. Invoke Her name. Check. Force rules the world, call and repeat, check and check. Glory and Honor (whatever those might actually mean for any individual Ultra), check and check. Subtly imply people who don't join up are pussies, check. State it outright for those that subtle flies over the head of, sadly checked.
Something about the process almost forced a cynicism and contempt on me that I tried not to dwell on. I'd always striven to avoid looking down on the Ultras of the Regime. I hated them, sure, for their cruelty and their nihilism. I hated their actions, and the characters that allowed those actions to transpire.
But contempt was something else again. It bred the believe that I was something other, something better. It would, if I let it, cultivate a false sense of security.
And yet, it was so very hard to avoid it. My pitch, essentially, was 'come fight strangers. Half of you will die, and the other half will get to do it again in another month'. Absolutely no one who was doing a cost/benefit analysis would jump at this chance, and yet every time I did the speech people did.
What did they think they were getting out of it?
Some, if you somehow forced them to answer the question honestly, would prattle of glory, which was nothing but a chimera, the old people pleasing impulse rising up to kill its host. Some would talk about rising in the ranks, but I'd risen as far as one could in this gig, and I could see nothing here worth wanting. The most honest would probably admit that their lives were empty and meaningless, that the same boredom that drove them to the process now led them to kill for the thrill of it.
My antidote to the growing feeling of superiority was simple. I reminded myself that I had slaved and killed to become Warlord. The fools I was mocking were only making smaller copies of the decision that I'd made myself. Who was I to say that there weren't Regime antagonists among them, dreaming as I had of becoming Warlord and sabotaging our efforts?
I shook the dark musings aside as my speech came to its end and I went down to the Yard to shake hands and welcome my new cannon fodder. It was the least I could do, almost literally.
Eleven more Ultras joined up to strike as Phis. It was a start.
Evening:
"Erupter, this is Replayer and Owner," I told her. "Your new peers in my Posse, and the fellow architects of our glorious victory."
"Honored to meet you all," she said.
Replayer rolled her eyes, while Owner looked politely attentive.
"What we usually do in the evenings," I continued, "Is talk about how our tasks of the previous day went. Then I give the orders for the next day, and we rinse and repeat."
"Rinse?" she asked.
"Like…never mind," I said, "We do the same thing every day."
"I'll start," said Owner. "Training went just fine today. I'm starting to separate everyone out into squads, like we did last time."
I thought 'like we did last time', was a not particularly subtle way of reminding the others that she was the only one here with any experience, but let it go. Owner was no doubt feeling the pressure of Replayer's fairly obvious lack of respect for her. She'd be keen to make sure Erupter knew her as a valuable and competent Posse member.
"No trouble with disobedience?" I asked. "No problems with the newcomers?"
"Nope," she said. "I think that message may have finally gotten through, although, of course, we'll have to wait and see if the new people catch on as well."
"Message?" asked Erupter.
"Some of the Ultras in the warband," drawled Replayer, "Seem to feel like they don't have to respect Owner, just because-"
"And they've been taught otherwise," I interrupted, firmly. "I'm glad to hear that they are finally starting to internalize it."
I looked over at Replayer.
"How'd your task go?" I asked. "Any good Ultra potentials for the Posse?"
I called it a task for roughly the same reason that Owner had emphasized her experience, just trying to impress on Erupter the relative status of everyone around the table.
"Nope," she said.
I guess, technically, that was an answer, but it really wasn't what I was looking for.
"No new potentials?" I pressed, "Nothing at all?"
"It seemed like I was going about it all wrong," she said, "You know, rushing around chasing everyone, so I decided to be a bit smarter about it."
This should be great.
"I told folks that people who thought they were Posse material ought to come to me, told them what show I'd be at, figured I'd let the trash take itself out, you know?"
"And nobody came?" I asked.
"Pussies," she said.
I looked over to Erupter.
"How did your recruiting go?" I asked.
"I didn't start that yet," she said, forthrightly. "I was worried that I'd mess up something."
Ultra toughness protected me from headaches, of course, but I felt like I might be getting one regardless.
"Messing up something?" I asked. "What would you mess up?"
"Like, am I allowed to tell them the target?" she asked. "And am I supposed to be looking for Posse members too?"
"It's fine to tell them the target," I said. "And if you see a Posse member potential, then I absolutely want to know about it."
"Oh," she said, "Thanks for clearing that up, Warlord"
And God help me, she saluted, fist to temple.
I massage my temples for a long moment, fighting the phantom headache.
"And Warlord?" she asked.
I looked over at her.
"What is the target?"
Day 18
12 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Union List
Vower – 0/0/?, a woman who can enforce oathkeeping
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Nailer – ?/?/?, a woman who can merge objects and people into composites
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
16 Veteran Ultras, 27 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 6/10 (9 – 3 +0 -3 +2 +1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Erupter will take either an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Morning:
I was going to have to find a new way to contact my contacts. That was the long and short of it. There had to be a way that was clandestine, secure, and most importantly didn't fail to work half the time.
It was a petty thing to gripe about, all told. It wasn't like I'd been found out by Snitcher, or caught up in one of the Regime's frequent attempts to purge KEM sympathizers. It could be a lot worse.
But there was something about having a deadline, a literal deadline. In a little under two weeks, odds were I was going to die. It clarified things, parted the fog, so to speak.
It made me resent, violently, waiting for a contact in this dingy tavern and realizing that, once again, it wasn't going to happen.
No doubt there was good reason. No doubt he was detained by an Ultra to carry rocks, or warm a bed. It almost certainly wasn't my contact's fault.
But it wasn't going to happen again.
In fact, it wasn't going to happen this time.
I fixed my gaze on the door where he would appear, cleared my mind, and WILLED him to come walking through.
Nothing happened.
I broke into a chuckle and took a sip from my drink. At least I'd tried. Now I could scratch 'force people to keep appointments' off of the list of minor gifts I might not know I had.
Afternoon:
I hadn't done my recruitment speech nearly as often as old world politicians had been forced to, but I was beginning to get the slightest hint of their pain.
Hype up the crowd, check. Invoke Her name. Check. Force rules the world, call and repeat, check and check. Glory and Honor (whatever those might actually mean for any individual Ultra), check and check. Subtly imply people who don't join up are pussies, check. State it outright for those that subtle flies over the head of, sadly checked.
Something about the process almost forced a cynicism and contempt on me that I tried not to dwell on. I'd always striven to avoid looking down on the Ultras of the Regime. I hated them, sure, for their cruelty and their nihilism. I hated their actions, and the characters that allowed those actions to transpire.
But contempt was something else again. It bred the believe that I was something other, something better. It would, if I let it, cultivate a false sense of security.
And yet, it was so very hard to avoid it. My pitch, essentially, was 'come fight strangers. Half of you will die, and the other half will get to do it again in another month'. Absolutely no one who was doing a cost/benefit analysis would jump at this chance, and yet every time I did the speech people did.
What did they think they were getting out of it?
Some, if you somehow forced them to answer the question honestly, would prattle of glory, which was nothing but a chimera, the old people pleasing impulse rising up to kill its host. Some would talk about rising in the ranks, but I'd risen as far as one could in this gig, and I could see nothing here worth wanting. The most honest would probably admit that their lives were empty and meaningless, that the same boredom that drove them to the process now led them to kill for the thrill of it.
My antidote to the growing feeling of superiority was simple. I reminded myself that I had slaved and killed to become Warlord. The fools I was mocking were only making smaller copies of the decision that I'd made myself. Who was I to say that there weren't Regime antagonists among them, dreaming as I had of becoming Warlord and sabotaging our efforts?
I shook the dark musings aside as my speech came to its end and I went down to the Yard to shake hands and welcome my new cannon fodder. It was the least I could do, almost literally.
Eleven more Ultras joined up to strike as Phis. It was a start.
Evening:
"Erupter, this is Replayer and Owner," I told her. "Your new peers in my Posse, and the fellow architects of our glorious victory."
"Honored to meet you all," she said.
Replayer rolled her eyes, while Owner looked politely attentive.
"What we usually do in the evenings," I continued, "Is talk about how our tasks of the previous day went. Then I give the orders for the next day, and we rinse and repeat."
"Rinse?" she asked.
"Like…never mind," I said, "We do the same thing every day."
"I'll start," said Owner. "Training went just fine today. I'm starting to separate everyone out into squads, like we did last time."
I thought 'like we did last time', was a not particularly subtle way of reminding the others that she was the only one here with any experience, but let it go. Owner was no doubt feeling the pressure of Replayer's fairly obvious lack of respect for her. She'd be keen to make sure Erupter knew her as a valuable and competent Posse member.
"No trouble with disobedience?" I asked. "No problems with the newcomers?"
"Nope," she said. "I think that message may have finally gotten through, although, of course, we'll have to wait and see if the new people catch on as well."
"Message?" asked Erupter.
"Some of the Ultras in the warband," drawled Replayer, "Seem to feel like they don't have to respect Owner, just because-"
"And they've been taught otherwise," I interrupted, firmly. "I'm glad to hear that they are finally starting to internalize it."
I looked over at Replayer.
"How'd your task go?" I asked. "Any good Ultra potentials for the Posse?"
I called it a task for roughly the same reason that Owner had emphasized her experience, just trying to impress on Erupter the relative status of everyone around the table.
"Nope," she said.
I guess, technically, that was an answer, but it really wasn't what I was looking for.
"No new potentials?" I pressed, "Nothing at all?"
"It seemed like I was going about it all wrong," she said, "You know, rushing around chasing everyone, so I decided to be a bit smarter about it."
This should be great.
"I told folks that people who thought they were Posse material ought to come to me, told them what show I'd be at, figured I'd let the trash take itself out, you know?"
"And nobody came?" I asked.
"Pussies," she said.
I looked over to Erupter.
"How did your recruiting go?" I asked.
"I didn't start that yet," she said, forthrightly. "I was worried that I'd mess up something."
Ultra toughness protected me from headaches, of course, but I felt like I might be getting one regardless.
"Messing up something?" I asked. "What would you mess up?"
"Like, am I allowed to tell them the target?" she asked. "And am I supposed to be looking for Posse members too?"
"It's fine to tell them the target," I said. "And if you see a Posse member potential, then I absolutely want to know about it."
"Oh," she said, "Thanks for clearing that up, Warlord"
And God help me, she saluted, fist to temple.
I massage my temples for a long moment, fighting the phantom headache.
"And Warlord?" she asked.
I looked over at her.
"What is the target?"
Day 18
12 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Union List
Vower – 0/0/?, a woman who can enforce oathkeeping
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
16 Veteran Ultras, 27 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 6/10 (9 – 3 +0 -3 +2 +1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Erupter will take either an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Vower Tumult
- Location
- USA
Day 18: Morning
Vower wasn't terribly hard to track down, but she was a bitch to get to. I had to hike way outside of the Lair, out into the fringes of Gang territory.
It brought back memories, not entirely unpleasant, of my time before becoming Warlord. Of scrapping and scrounging, always desperate for a snatch of gossip or insight into a rival's gift. The desperate attention to scheduling, to timing that was never a part of the dreams, but there had been few things more important.
Vower hadn't been around back then, so she was a recent arrival. A few months at most. Given that fact, it was surprising how much name recognition she had. Nobody I stopped and asked just said 'who?', like they had with Erupter. Vower's service was a known quantity, like my healing or Blisser's clinic.
Her setup was on the fringes of the Dolls' territory, right up where it bordered with whatever gang was clockwise of them in the setup. I thought it was the Nightmares, but that seemed to have changed in the time I'd been away. The new crew marked it's turf with broken clocks. I amused myself trying to guess their name while I closed on Vower's hangout.
Vower, like Owner, had found opportunity within that most prosaic of Old World buildings, a gas station. One of the big front windows was actually still intact, or had been recently replaced, hinting at the esteem in which the gang leadership held their pet.
I stalked up, exuding the energy I liked to think of a 'Busy Warlord', nodding to the two Dolls outside. They weren't exactly a line, which saved me the trouble of cutting in front of them. I stomped between them and into the ruin without breaking stride.
Another Doll and an Ultra without an obvious gang insignia were waiting inside, along with a woman who was wearing a tee shirt that someone had written 'I'm Vower, ask me how' on it. They were talking as I entered, but broke up their conversation to stare the instant they noticed me.
"Who the-" asked the one with no tags, only to be interrupted by the obvious Doll.
"Warlord!" she exclaimed, eyes widening with startlement or alarm.
"I'm here for Vower," I told them.
The woman with the tee shirt smiled.
"I'm at the Warlord's disposal, of course," she said. "How may this humble servant best serve Her greater glory?"
Something about her manner put me on edge, she just seemed…slimy, somehow. Like an old world melodrama villain asking her sister to cosign a loan or something.
I extended a hand, actually a little glad about my reaction.
I'd worried, a little bit, that I might not be able to go through with another cold blooded killing, that I might hesitate. But something about Vower put my hair on end. I'd shed no tears for this woman.
She reached out, took hold of my hand, placing the tips on her fingers on my palms, in a light, effete kind of grip.
"What vow do you-ah!" she gasped, as I clamped down on her hand with a grip of steel.
"Vow?" I asked, letting my voice rise to just short of a yell. "Do you think that I'm here to vow?"
I cared nothing for what I was saying, and everything for the time it bought me. My gift was in her soul now, burrowing and clawing through her toughness and into her attributes.
She could feel it, I could tell, she opened her mouth to speak, but I clenched my hand around her fingers and twisted cruelly, cutting her attempt at a sentence off into a hiss of pain.
She had no 'living' on her list, but 'sentient' would do just as well. I tore it away and watched her collapse, forever mindless.
"No one makes me do anything I don't want to!" I proclaimed, rounding on the others.
Strangely enough, they weren't looking at me. Their gazes were all locked on Vower's crumpled form.
"Her will-" I started, when they lunged into simultaneous motion, at the very same time that the ones outside started shouting something.
The Doll swung a heavy fist at my head, an ugly telegraphed punch that I wasted little time in ducking under. The other threw her hands wide, as though to grab onto me, and I couldn't really fend her off while I was ducking, so I dropped back, almost tripping over Vower's mindless form.
"I'm the War-" I began, but there was no sign that they were listening. Their faces were locked into frozen grimaces of rage, and they hadn't paused for so much as an instant when their first attempt had failed.
Most likely they were Vowed to avenger her, I thought, the extra sentient attribute presumably driving my mind into overdrive.
I backed away form the Doll's roundhouse punches, moved in to grapple with the other. Hopefully my deathtouch would outmatch hers.
Our hands locked for a second, and here was a 'living' to steal. I yanked it right out of her, trusting in my toughness to keep me intact through whatever gift she had. Accustomed to the doubled senses as I was, I stepped around to the side of her, keeping her between me and the punching girl for the split second it took for her to die.
I realized my error an instant later, as the Doll's fist slammed through her comrade, through the space between us and deep into my chest. An incredible amount of pain seemed to overturn my world as my knees buckled and I toppled alongside the woman I'd just killed.
My mind, still in overdrive, was trying to figure out how deep her fist had gone, and exactly where. It had been off center, maybe halfway down the hand? 3-4 inches? Was that my heart? I'd definitely heard the shattering of ribs.
She loomed above me, hands moving without pause as she dropped to one knee, a hammer fist slamming down towards me.
I kicked convulsively, rolling myself closer towards her, sort of up onto the knee that she'd dropped down to, willing myself to have guessed right.
I had, she'd expected me to roll away, and her fist slammed into, and through, the floor where I would have been. I got a hand onto her bare midriff even as she pivoted to bring her other arm around to strike.
I couldn't take another essence, so I gave instead, slamming the new 'living' into her.
She winced for a second, frozen features finally showing a crack of emotion as her face closed up like a fist, doubled senses disorienting her.
I grabbed for my gun in her moment of confusion, swinging it desperately up towards her as she got a hold of herself.
I was saved by her continued need, or maybe desire, to do those heavy, cumbersome punches. Any other Ultra Strength 2 Ultra would have just kicked me or slapped me with the hand that was already beside me, but the Doll reared back and set up for another one of those haymakers, giving me just enough time to shove the gun in her general direction, pulling the trigger over and over.
It kicked out of my hand somewhere, in there, my wounds apparently weakening my grip strength, but I still hit her a few times.
She went down, over backwards thankfully, grabbing at her injuries and shrieking at the doubled pain.
I came back to my feet in a flash, my stolen 'sentience' still pushing my mind every step of the way.
My first thought, way late, was that these weren't others here for her services, these were guards Vowed to her purposes, and apparently that included avenging her.
My second thought was that the two outside had run off. I hadn't heard exactly what they were shouting, but it was entirely possible that they'd gone to gather reinforcements, who might well be similarly Vowed.
My third, holy shit, had I just assassinated the shadow ruler of outer Shington? How big a deal WAS Vower, actually?
Further thoughts were derailed by the necessity of staunching the flow of red stuff out of my chest. A single look sufficed to tell me that it was bad, a fist sized (literally) wounded midway up my torso on the right side, and that only my Ultra Toughness was keeping me mobile and active in the face of it.
I clapped a hand over it, then stole a shirt from one of the bodies and held it to the wound.
I needed to act. I needed to:
*******************************************
Crisis Update, only one choice this time. Please pick Blender's action from the following list:
Vower wasn't terribly hard to track down, but she was a bitch to get to. I had to hike way outside of the Lair, out into the fringes of Gang territory.
It brought back memories, not entirely unpleasant, of my time before becoming Warlord. Of scrapping and scrounging, always desperate for a snatch of gossip or insight into a rival's gift. The desperate attention to scheduling, to timing that was never a part of the dreams, but there had been few things more important.
Vower hadn't been around back then, so she was a recent arrival. A few months at most. Given that fact, it was surprising how much name recognition she had. Nobody I stopped and asked just said 'who?', like they had with Erupter. Vower's service was a known quantity, like my healing or Blisser's clinic.
Her setup was on the fringes of the Dolls' territory, right up where it bordered with whatever gang was clockwise of them in the setup. I thought it was the Nightmares, but that seemed to have changed in the time I'd been away. The new crew marked it's turf with broken clocks. I amused myself trying to guess their name while I closed on Vower's hangout.
Vower, like Owner, had found opportunity within that most prosaic of Old World buildings, a gas station. One of the big front windows was actually still intact, or had been recently replaced, hinting at the esteem in which the gang leadership held their pet.
I stalked up, exuding the energy I liked to think of a 'Busy Warlord', nodding to the two Dolls outside. They weren't exactly a line, which saved me the trouble of cutting in front of them. I stomped between them and into the ruin without breaking stride.
Another Doll and an Ultra without an obvious gang insignia were waiting inside, along with a woman who was wearing a tee shirt that someone had written 'I'm Vower, ask me how' on it. They were talking as I entered, but broke up their conversation to stare the instant they noticed me.
"Who the-" asked the one with no tags, only to be interrupted by the obvious Doll.
"Warlord!" she exclaimed, eyes widening with startlement or alarm.
"I'm here for Vower," I told them.
The woman with the tee shirt smiled.
"I'm at the Warlord's disposal, of course," she said. "How may this humble servant best serve Her greater glory?"
Something about her manner put me on edge, she just seemed…slimy, somehow. Like an old world melodrama villain asking her sister to cosign a loan or something.
I extended a hand, actually a little glad about my reaction.
I'd worried, a little bit, that I might not be able to go through with another cold blooded killing, that I might hesitate. But something about Vower put my hair on end. I'd shed no tears for this woman.
She reached out, took hold of my hand, placing the tips on her fingers on my palms, in a light, effete kind of grip.
"What vow do you-ah!" she gasped, as I clamped down on her hand with a grip of steel.
"Vow?" I asked, letting my voice rise to just short of a yell. "Do you think that I'm here to vow?"
I cared nothing for what I was saying, and everything for the time it bought me. My gift was in her soul now, burrowing and clawing through her toughness and into her attributes.
She could feel it, I could tell, she opened her mouth to speak, but I clenched my hand around her fingers and twisted cruelly, cutting her attempt at a sentence off into a hiss of pain.
She had no 'living' on her list, but 'sentient' would do just as well. I tore it away and watched her collapse, forever mindless.
"No one makes me do anything I don't want to!" I proclaimed, rounding on the others.
Strangely enough, they weren't looking at me. Their gazes were all locked on Vower's crumpled form.
"Her will-" I started, when they lunged into simultaneous motion, at the very same time that the ones outside started shouting something.
The Doll swung a heavy fist at my head, an ugly telegraphed punch that I wasted little time in ducking under. The other threw her hands wide, as though to grab onto me, and I couldn't really fend her off while I was ducking, so I dropped back, almost tripping over Vower's mindless form.
"I'm the War-" I began, but there was no sign that they were listening. Their faces were locked into frozen grimaces of rage, and they hadn't paused for so much as an instant when their first attempt had failed.
Most likely they were Vowed to avenger her, I thought, the extra sentient attribute presumably driving my mind into overdrive.
I backed away form the Doll's roundhouse punches, moved in to grapple with the other. Hopefully my deathtouch would outmatch hers.
Our hands locked for a second, and here was a 'living' to steal. I yanked it right out of her, trusting in my toughness to keep me intact through whatever gift she had. Accustomed to the doubled senses as I was, I stepped around to the side of her, keeping her between me and the punching girl for the split second it took for her to die.
I realized my error an instant later, as the Doll's fist slammed through her comrade, through the space between us and deep into my chest. An incredible amount of pain seemed to overturn my world as my knees buckled and I toppled alongside the woman I'd just killed.
My mind, still in overdrive, was trying to figure out how deep her fist had gone, and exactly where. It had been off center, maybe halfway down the hand? 3-4 inches? Was that my heart? I'd definitely heard the shattering of ribs.
She loomed above me, hands moving without pause as she dropped to one knee, a hammer fist slamming down towards me.
I kicked convulsively, rolling myself closer towards her, sort of up onto the knee that she'd dropped down to, willing myself to have guessed right.
I had, she'd expected me to roll away, and her fist slammed into, and through, the floor where I would have been. I got a hand onto her bare midriff even as she pivoted to bring her other arm around to strike.
I couldn't take another essence, so I gave instead, slamming the new 'living' into her.
She winced for a second, frozen features finally showing a crack of emotion as her face closed up like a fist, doubled senses disorienting her.
I grabbed for my gun in her moment of confusion, swinging it desperately up towards her as she got a hold of herself.
I was saved by her continued need, or maybe desire, to do those heavy, cumbersome punches. Any other Ultra Strength 2 Ultra would have just kicked me or slapped me with the hand that was already beside me, but the Doll reared back and set up for another one of those haymakers, giving me just enough time to shove the gun in her general direction, pulling the trigger over and over.
It kicked out of my hand somewhere, in there, my wounds apparently weakening my grip strength, but I still hit her a few times.
She went down, over backwards thankfully, grabbing at her injuries and shrieking at the doubled pain.
I came back to my feet in a flash, my stolen 'sentience' still pushing my mind every step of the way.
My first thought, way late, was that these weren't others here for her services, these were guards Vowed to her purposes, and apparently that included avenging her.
My second thought was that the two outside had run off. I hadn't heard exactly what they were shouting, but it was entirely possible that they'd gone to gather reinforcements, who might well be similarly Vowed.
My third, holy shit, had I just assassinated the shadow ruler of outer Shington? How big a deal WAS Vower, actually?
Further thoughts were derailed by the necessity of staunching the flow of red stuff out of my chest. A single look sufficed to tell me that it was bad, a fist sized (literally) wounded midway up my torso on the right side, and that only my Ultra Toughness was keeping me mobile and active in the face of it.
I clapped a hand over it, then stole a shirt from one of the bodies and held it to the wound.
I needed to act. I needed to:
*******************************************
Crisis Update, only one choice this time. Please pick Blender's action from the following list:
- Run straight back to inner Shington and my Warband, through the Doll's territory, trusting to speed to get me through before any more Avowed can mobilize
- Run straight away from Shington, going to ground in the countryside. I can try and hide out for the rest of the day, sneak back in another time once they give up.
- Go back to the Lair via a roundabout route, dipping into the broken clock gang's territory instead of the Doll's. Will take longer but maybe they won't be looking over here.
- Heal up before doing anything. I've got a serious injury and I need to get that seen to. I can probably heal this in a few hours. (If you choose this option, pick another for what Blender does once/if she finishes healing)
- Vower isn't dead, give her back her attribute and negotiate/take her hostage.
[X] Run straight back to inner Shington and my Warband, through the Doll's territory, trusting to speed to get me through before any more Avowed can mobilize
My logic would be that the Vowed appear to be acting under a mental compulsion. They aren't going to "give up", so that's option 2 out. Going into another gang's territory while injured, ones we have no contacts or allies with, is just putting blood in the water for sharks. Staying and healing is assuming time that I doubt is there, so that's out. And taking Vower as a hostage is a bad position to be in.
No, I think the best call is to head back to the Warband and face and retaliation with our own forces backing us up.
My logic would be that the Vowed appear to be acting under a mental compulsion. They aren't going to "give up", so that's option 2 out. Going into another gang's territory while injured, ones we have no contacts or allies with, is just putting blood in the water for sharks. Staying and healing is assuming time that I doubt is there, so that's out. And taking Vower as a hostage is a bad position to be in.
No, I think the best call is to head back to the Warband and face and retaliation with our own forces backing us up.
- Location
- France
That was an interesting twist, and I liked it.
[X] Go back to the Lair via a roundabout route, dipping into the broken clock gang's territory instead of the Doll's. Will take longer but maybe they won't be looking over here.
The Vowed don't seem too clever when compelled to fulfill their Vow, so the roundabout route seems good. Trying to outrun them directly seems foolish, as e don't have Ultra speed.
[X] Go back to the Lair via a roundabout route, dipping into the broken clock gang's territory instead of the Doll's. Will take longer but maybe they won't be looking over here.
The Vowed don't seem too clever when compelled to fulfill their Vow, so the roundabout route seems good. Trying to outrun them directly seems foolish, as e don't have Ultra speed.
Vower Tumult 2
- Location
- USA
Day 18 continued
Morning: Crisis
First things first. I shot Vower in the head a few times, the impact knocking it back and forth on her shoulders.
Probably hadn't killed her, no time to check. I'd been heading towards the door while I shot, and I paused for only a second to check for more guards.
None were in evidence, so I pushed out into the street, left hand clamped on my wound, right holding my gun. I dashed immediately down the way, hearing the shouts of the two guards in the distance.
I didn't retrace the path that I'd taken to get here, nor cut directly towards the warband's barracks. There was no way for a wounded person to outrun a pair of people who left a minute before her, so I had to assume that the Dolls would get the message before or right as I got to their headquarters.
If there was no downside for Vower to setting up these conditions, then I could be walking into a meat grinder in any confrontation with the bulk of a gang. There could be literally dozens of Ultras irresistibly compelled to avenge their master. There were some Ultras who could take on a mob of their lesser brethren, but I had never been one. Getting caught by a pack of the Avowed (the name I'd picked out for Vower's forces), would see me killed in short order.
I took a corner at a run, pushing through a shattered fence and over a pile of miscellaneous rubble. No one else was on the street, which would have been ominous if I hadn't already known the drill.
The gangs owned their areas, just about absolutely. When their hue and cry went up, anyone they saw was prey. This street might have been bustling a few seconds ago, but the instant the shouts had started the humans had fled.
I pushed onward, forcing myself to ignore the pain from my chest and the ever increasing wetness sliding down towards my waist. I pushed myself into a veritable sprint, legs pounding the turf with mad enthusiasm, vision narrowing to the next archway, the next crumbled barrier.
Despite my mad dash, my mind was completely clear, even distractingly so. The extra 'sentient' kept my thoughts flying at an incredible pace, making it hard to keep myself moving, hard to ignore the temptation to plop on down and think everything through.
I'd chosen the path through the Broken Clock's territory, or the 'Timekillerz' as their actual name turned out to be, for two simple reasons.
First off, Vower might not have her hooks in them. I didn't think it terribly likely, if I had her gift I would make it a point to spread my influence far and wide, but the possibility was there. Never underestimate Regime stupidity, and all that.
The other factor was that I doubted that EVERYONE would be controlled. If I was pursued by Dolls Avowed, as seemed entirely probable when I made the plan, then some of the Clocks would presumably see them charging into their territory, and they might well make enough of a commotion that I could slip away in the confusion.
Best I could do, anyway.
I didn't start as I heard the first signals going up all around me. I'd been prepared for this. Humans who lived in a gang's territory would have no choice at all, not if they wanted to live. Anyone running on the street now was an enemy, and the faster I was tracked down and taken care of the less angry the gang would be.
Every gang's calls were different. I didn't know why they bothered, however. They were basically calling out the name of the street that I was on. The only information that they needed to convey was where I was, and where I was headed. In a pinch 'over here' would have accomplished much the same thing.
The Dolls went with bird calls, for whatever reason, and so a great hooting and whistling rose up around me. I didn't pay it any heed, just raced on anyway. I'd heard that some people had tried, from time to time, to scare everyone into shutting up, but I didn't think there was any way to outfrighten a gang of Ultras in the minds of the people they tyrannized. Even if you were scarier than they were, they would always be closer.
I heard the first sound of pursuit as I hit the edge of the Clock's territory. Not footsteps, but collapsing buildings and tumbling walls. A glance over my shoulder gave me a glimpse of at least four Ultras, one of whom had just run straight through a building. They were maybe a couple hundred yards back, but I doubted I could keep that far ahead for long.
Terror gave me wings as I spilled through the archway and into the Clocks' territory. I turned immediately, then again the opposite way, heading deeper in by an indirect path.
Vower's gift bound the Dolls to kill me, sure, but I doubted it gave them any extra sense of where I was. If I could lose them for a few moments in an area where they didn't know the local calls, they might well bump into their rivals and lose track of me entirely.
Worth a shot, anyway.
The Clocks' territory apparently hadn't gotten the message that they needed to be off the streets yet, as I saw a trio of people without Sigils going briskly about their business. Perhaps they thought the ruckus from the Dolls side of the border was going to stay there.
I didn't bother to puzzle over it, well aware that my running energy was pretty close to giving out. Instead I kept running along this street, my attention wholly engaged with the alcoves and openings in the buildings along the way.
After a few more strides I saw one that looked promising, and I ducked quickly inside. It was a low crevice, leading into a room formed by walls collapsed upon one another, a dim triangular refuge.
I stepped immediately out of the door's view and collapsed against a wall, hyperventilating and clutching my wound. This was it. I needed a few minutes to breathe and rest before I went any further, far longer than it would take them to catch up.
If they didn't miss me in here, then I would have to fight them. As wounded as I was, it would be brief.
I prayed quietly that the humans hadn't seen me, or didn't understand the situation, or just hated the Dolls. I prayed that the Clocks had intercepted the enemy in force. I prayed for anything and everything to salvage the situation, my accelerated mind unable to do anything but continuously leap from one hypothetical to another.
All too soon I heard what I'd dreaded, the humans in the area calling out code.
No code phrases this time, simple "She went this way!" kind of calls, presumably because the pursuing Ultras weren't a part of their particular gang.
I dragged myself erect, leaning heavily against the wall. I didn't have any particular confidence in my ability to win this fight, but I wasn't going out on my knees. I'd try and pull an attribute from whoever touched me first, hope for something that was a game changer.
A few seconds passed before I realized that the calls were coming from another street, and then spreading yet further away.
I felt a warmth within me that my wound couldn't banish. The people of the Regime were shielding their healer. Every Monster, apparently, didn't include me just yet.
I sank back down onto the ground, listening to my pursuers' clamor as they passed by, a good dozen or more by this point. They followed the shouts down the street and through an opening, then presumably continued on after it.
It was tempting to stay here. To just sit down and rest for a few hours, let the gangs chase one another's tails through the streets. But I couldn't.
Every minute I hid from my enemy was another that Snitcher might decide to check in on me. The Warlord couldn't hide from her enemies in a hole.
I slipped back out onto the street a few minutes later, as recovered as I was going to be without spending some serious quality time with my healing gift.
This time I didn't run. I paced myself, putting foot in front of foot, stride after stride. I put my trust entirely in the people, forcing myself to believe that they wouldn't change their minds and pinpoint me for my pursuers.
It worked.
Step by step, the outer barrens of Shington faded away, becoming the more familiar inner wards. Step by step those inner wards grew ever more familiar, until I was approaching the Warband's barracks, where Owner would be training my followers.
I had the horrific thought that they might have gone out of the city to train maneuvers or something, but it was quickly banished. No profit in worrying about things I could do nothing about.
I forged ahead, continuing at my slow and steady pace, glancing nervously over my shoulder from time to time, listening for any sounds of pursuit.
None came. They were still off on their wild goose chase, or the gangs had crossed paths and were now trying to sort things out.
I couldn't know, and didn't care. All that mattered was that they'd missed their chance at me. I stepped across the threshold into the barracks, bursting through the main door that led to the lecture hall.
At least half the warband was here. I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief. I'd made it. Absent yet more complications I wasn't going to die today.
"Lecture over!" I shouted. "Get your asses outside and kill anyone who attacks!"
There was a tumult of curious questions that I ignored, stepping off to the side of the door and leaning back against it as though I was too cool to be bothered with the whole thing.
Leaning was better than standing, and miles better than walking. I made a mental note that I should do more leaning, and to investigate the nearly holy possibility of sitting as soon as the situation allowed.
Soarer was the first to stop in front of me, as the rest moved on by, it looked like she was about to ask me something.
There's a way of looking at someone that I consider to be 'the Regime stare', where you convey exactly how little you care for their existence and how readily you would slaughter them. I used it now.
She didn't finish her question, and instead, wisely, joined the rest in their scurry out the doors.
I took a beat inside, alone.
I hadn't intended for Owner to join the rest, but here we were. I hoped she'd be ok out there.
I pulled on my healing gift, just a bit, doing what I could for my wound. In just a minute I'd have to go out there and lead my forces to victory, but I could pause for as long as I could make Snitcher, and maybe Her by this point, think that I wasn't hiding.
To that end I dragged myself down to the lectern, where Owner had been going over the fundamentals of Ultra combat, and looked through her rather sparse materials. I thumbed a page or two aside, nodded approvingly and kind of grunted a bit, and all the while I kept my healing gift flowing.
This was going to suck. My forces should be superior to the gang members on a one for one basis, in that my gals were the people who'd left the gangs to enter the Yard, and those tended to be the strongest among their number.
But, on the other hand, the Dolls and Timekillerz each outnumbered my warband alone. Taken together they could probably mob us under, though at horrific casualties.
I wasn't terrified, because I just didn't find it to be plausible. I hadn't heard Vower's name a few months back when I was going up. There was no way that she'd had time, in the brief spring of her ascendance, to Vow every member of both gangs. She would have taken the leadership, sure, but they'd only have the backup who were down for both teaming up with their hated rivals and attacking the Warlord's forces, all with no warning or prep time.
Gang morale also wasn't the greatest. Even if they did show up in their full numbers, they'd probably break and run once the casualties got heavy, especially if the Avowed, the only ones who were enthusiastic about the whole fight, couldn't stop themselves from leading the way.
A clamor from outside, shouting and explosions, broke my concentration.
I turned away from the lectern and stalked back out towards what sounded like an ongoing battle, still clutching my wound and pouring on my healing gift.
When I got to the door I flung it open, but didn't step through immediately, instead peering out into the plaza and taking cover in the archway.
Ultras were slamming one another all over the opening, letting loose with the full fury of their gifts. I flinched back behind the doorframe as some kind of sonic thing went off, one of the Ultras who'd had her arm ripped off screaming like a banshee.
It seemed like we were winning, as far as I could tell, but of course we didn't exactly have a uniform, and the gang colors weren't incredibly clear in all the dust and the tumult.
"Get the traitors!" I shouted into the confusion, hoping Owner had found herself a pocket of safety. "Kill them all!"
I glimpsed a pocket of the enemy pushing forward, their way fronted by a Doll with striking read hair, and I threw myself out into the scrum.
I couldn't just stand back and command. If Snitcher was watching, then I had to be more than triumphant, I had to be dominant.
I charged forward, pushing through a pair of my own who were hanging back and lobbing their gifts at the enemy, then into the midst of the fight.
A pair of my Ultras were grabbing at the red haired Doll, but she'd avoided their arms and flung her hands around one of their heads, which was rapidly aging in her clutches.
I took advantage of the moment, stepping off to her side and slapping a hand onto the back of one of her hands, activating my primary gift in the second of contact.
She had no Ultra toughness to work through, and it was the matter of a bare moment to slam Vower's 'sentient' into her, afflicting her with the same runaway thoughts I'd been battling.
She pulled her hand away before I could steal another attribute off of her, but she seemed groggy, hesitant, in the half second I could observe before the other friendly Ultra caught up with her and bludgeoned her down into the ground.
I took a step back, eyes darting from left to right, trying to make sure no one else was rushing me. It looked like I had a moment.
There was still a knot of fighting behind where the red head had been charging, and another off to the other side. I drifted between the two, furiously pointing towards one and then the other, shouting inaudible commands.
The nearby knot of the enemy collapsed a minute or so later, our numerical advantage proving to be too much. My Ultras didn't waste any time celebrating the victory, instead running over to join the fight on the other side.
Maybe Owner's days of training was worth something after all.
The end came not long after that, as the numbers were simply too great for the remaining gang members. We took full command of the plaza within a few more minutes, the last of the enemy fleeing, broken and in full retreat.
"Listen up!" I shouted, taking immediate charge, before anyone else could take the chance.
Heads turned in my direction, a half ring quickly coming into being as my forces rallied to their leaders call.
"Everyone see to the wounded!" I continued. "Anyone who is dead, we need to know who that is. Anyone who is fucked up, we need to know how long till they get better. Watch for more enemies! I want people up on those buildings!"
I pointed at a few nearby structures.
"If I hadn't warned you we'd have been caught completely flat footed!" I went on, letting the momentum carry me along, "You need to understand that you are the Warband now! We are ALWAYS on war footing! Always ready! I never want to see us caught unprepared again!"
Heads were nodding, and people were scrambling to obey.
"Owner," I called, heart in my throat.
She moved out from behind a line of Ultras, the gun Builder'd made for her in her hands. She seemed unharmed.
"Yes Warlord?" she asked.
"Take care of the rest of this. I'm going to go brief Her."
People looked down at the dreaded pronoun, and no one questioned any further as I slunk off to dubious safety of the Lair.
Afternoon: Healing my wounds:
I'd blocked off this time to expand the Warband, and after the casualties that we'd taken this morning I needed to do so badly, but that would have to wait.
There was simply no way I could function as the Warlord in my current condition. My enemies would smell blood, and my allies would be disheartened by my damaged state. It would be suicidal to carry on with my previous plans.
Instead, I holed up in the Packer House and worked on healing my form.
I'd been hoping that the Avowed would act a lot more zombie like than they had. I'd even dared to imagine them being cut down without resistance by my allies, if their single minded focus on obeying their imperatives had not permitted them to pay attention to their attackers. That hadn't happened, which left a disturbing possibility.
There might be more of them out there, ones with more sophisticated Vows, or maybe just more room to interpret them. Her outside guards had ran off to raise the alarm while her inner ones had immediately tried to kill me, after all, so there was precedent for their obedience to take different forms.
I'd have to be careful, from here on out, for their efforts. My current thought was that they'd thought Vower was dead, and some kind of 'avenge her' vows had triggered, driving them to do something as suicidal as attacking a Warlord. All of that crew should have been cleared out, but the odds were pretty good that she wasn't actually dead.
I'd left her mindless and battered, splayed on the floor of her own office, but eventually someone would probably get around to checking on her. If she had another set of contingency people set aside for the possibility of her becoming incapacitated, then this might not be quite done.
They'd need my cooperation to restore her, which I wouldn't willingly give, but if their Vows didn't permit them to give up…
I sighed, pondering hostages taken and the like, as well as the Union's reaction. More stuff I'd have to keep an eye out for.
Somewhat surprisingly, the afternoon passed quietly, with no one coming by to demand an explanation or drag me off to Her. I finished healing my wound and got ready to head to the evening's meeting.
It was incredibly tempting to skip it, or postpone it by a day or something, but Her timetable wasn't going to waver. I still had to hit Phis, and that meant keeping my Posse working each and every day.
Evening: Debrief Posse:
"Training go alright?" I asked Owner, wryly.
She grinned a bit, looked away to hide a chuckle.
"I think they learned some things," she told me. "Definitely not a boring day."
"Did you two work together today?" asked Replayer. "I've had that thought a couple of times, that maybe the Warband needs to see us all as a unit. I dunno if the extra benefit would be worth losing out on us each doing things separately though."
"I could teach the Warband?" asked Erupter, surprise obvious in her voice, "But I haven't yet smote Her enemies myself."
"What's the damage?" I asked Owner.
"We lost 13," she told me. "Most of those are killed, a few crippled too bad to fight. It was a real shitshow."
"You don't have to tell me," I reminded her. "I was in the middle of it."
"What went down?" asked Erupter, frowning dubiously at us, clearly trying to imagine a training session that killed a dozen people.
"Gangs came at us," I told her shortly, "We slaughtered them."
"The gangs attacked the warband?" asked Replayer. "I've never heard of that happening before. Do we know why?"
"Vower sent them at me," I simplified, "I took her out for it. Hell of a fucking morning."
Erupter gave a lot whistle.
"Damn boss!" she said, "Your eagerness to take out Her enemies puts me to shame. I'll have to work harder at that shit! I didn't know we could use the Warband before the attack."
"I can," I cautioned her, "Your role is just to do what I tell you. How'd that go today, anyway?"
"Four recruits!" she said, proudly, "And I can vouch for every one of their smartness and honesty. They are great."
I sat in silence for a second.
"Are they," I asked, "Are they perhaps the women who previously formed your patrol?"
She nodded rapidly.
"I see," I said.
I didn't have the energy to fight about it, I turned to Replayer instead.
"Got any Posse prospects for me?" I asked.
"I did," she said, "But I'm kind of concerned you keep fucking killing them. If you just want me to find targets I wish you'd tell me, it'd be a lot less work."
"Ha ha," I said, drily.
"We have Battler, first up," she said. "Bitch tried to join up with the last Warlord for the Ar Harbour strike, didn't make the cut because she doesn't play well with others. Strong as shit though, and hardcore dedicated. She tried to chase the Warband out into the countryside, only came back when she got lost."
"What's her gift do?" I asked, warily.
"Ultra strength two, Ultra toughness one," she said. "Just basic fighting stuff, but you pare that with somebody who is absolutely ready for this shit, someone who lives and breathes to take down Her enemies."
"She sounds fantastic!" agreed Erupter, enthusiastically.
I thought she sounded a lot like another Smasher, but there was possibility there.
"Who else?" I asked.
"There's also Sniper," she said. "She can look through stuff with her gift, and has some kind of shooting attack that goes along with that."
"How do you mean?" I asked.
She made a circle with her finger and thumb, held it in front of her eye.
"When she does this she can see through things," she said, "Like she has another eye out in front her that is flying forward. I think she turns her hand to move it forward or backward."
"Is it just for aiming?" I asked, "Or can she use it for whatever she wants?"
It would be just like the Regime to have someone with an amazing spying gift and fixate on using it to shoot people.
"I don't know," she said, "But she has an eye beam gift, and she's mostly known for using it to target that at her enemies. She made it to the Lair without Ultra toughness, so she must be pretty smart."
"How?" I asked.
"Worked with the Knights, I think", she said, "Though my informants weren't clear on whether that was a thing that was still happening, or a one time deal in the past."
I reflected, not for the first time, that Replayer's people skills left a bit to be desired.
"All right," I said, "Any more?"
She shook her head.
Two prospects was a bit on the light side, but at least she didn't completely strike out this time. Really it was hard to care too much about it when I'd only narrowly escaped with my life.
But that had only been a stay of execution. I still had the looming deadline of the attack on Phis to prepare for. I forced myself to focus.
"Alright," I said, "Here's what we're going to do tomorrow…"
Day 19
11 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Battler – 2/0/1, straightforward combatant
Sniper – 0/0/0, X ray vision and eye beams
Union List
Vower – 0/0/?, a woman who can enforce oathkeeping
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Nailer – ?/?/?, a woman who can merge objects and people into composites
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
11 Veteran Ultras, 23 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 5/10 (Trauma Reset to 4+1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Erupter will take either an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Morning: Crisis
First things first. I shot Vower in the head a few times, the impact knocking it back and forth on her shoulders.
Probably hadn't killed her, no time to check. I'd been heading towards the door while I shot, and I paused for only a second to check for more guards.
None were in evidence, so I pushed out into the street, left hand clamped on my wound, right holding my gun. I dashed immediately down the way, hearing the shouts of the two guards in the distance.
I didn't retrace the path that I'd taken to get here, nor cut directly towards the warband's barracks. There was no way for a wounded person to outrun a pair of people who left a minute before her, so I had to assume that the Dolls would get the message before or right as I got to their headquarters.
If there was no downside for Vower to setting up these conditions, then I could be walking into a meat grinder in any confrontation with the bulk of a gang. There could be literally dozens of Ultras irresistibly compelled to avenge their master. There were some Ultras who could take on a mob of their lesser brethren, but I had never been one. Getting caught by a pack of the Avowed (the name I'd picked out for Vower's forces), would see me killed in short order.
I took a corner at a run, pushing through a shattered fence and over a pile of miscellaneous rubble. No one else was on the street, which would have been ominous if I hadn't already known the drill.
The gangs owned their areas, just about absolutely. When their hue and cry went up, anyone they saw was prey. This street might have been bustling a few seconds ago, but the instant the shouts had started the humans had fled.
I pushed onward, forcing myself to ignore the pain from my chest and the ever increasing wetness sliding down towards my waist. I pushed myself into a veritable sprint, legs pounding the turf with mad enthusiasm, vision narrowing to the next archway, the next crumbled barrier.
Despite my mad dash, my mind was completely clear, even distractingly so. The extra 'sentient' kept my thoughts flying at an incredible pace, making it hard to keep myself moving, hard to ignore the temptation to plop on down and think everything through.
I'd chosen the path through the Broken Clock's territory, or the 'Timekillerz' as their actual name turned out to be, for two simple reasons.
First off, Vower might not have her hooks in them. I didn't think it terribly likely, if I had her gift I would make it a point to spread my influence far and wide, but the possibility was there. Never underestimate Regime stupidity, and all that.
The other factor was that I doubted that EVERYONE would be controlled. If I was pursued by Dolls Avowed, as seemed entirely probable when I made the plan, then some of the Clocks would presumably see them charging into their territory, and they might well make enough of a commotion that I could slip away in the confusion.
Best I could do, anyway.
I didn't start as I heard the first signals going up all around me. I'd been prepared for this. Humans who lived in a gang's territory would have no choice at all, not if they wanted to live. Anyone running on the street now was an enemy, and the faster I was tracked down and taken care of the less angry the gang would be.
Every gang's calls were different. I didn't know why they bothered, however. They were basically calling out the name of the street that I was on. The only information that they needed to convey was where I was, and where I was headed. In a pinch 'over here' would have accomplished much the same thing.
The Dolls went with bird calls, for whatever reason, and so a great hooting and whistling rose up around me. I didn't pay it any heed, just raced on anyway. I'd heard that some people had tried, from time to time, to scare everyone into shutting up, but I didn't think there was any way to outfrighten a gang of Ultras in the minds of the people they tyrannized. Even if you were scarier than they were, they would always be closer.
I heard the first sound of pursuit as I hit the edge of the Clock's territory. Not footsteps, but collapsing buildings and tumbling walls. A glance over my shoulder gave me a glimpse of at least four Ultras, one of whom had just run straight through a building. They were maybe a couple hundred yards back, but I doubted I could keep that far ahead for long.
Terror gave me wings as I spilled through the archway and into the Clocks' territory. I turned immediately, then again the opposite way, heading deeper in by an indirect path.
Vower's gift bound the Dolls to kill me, sure, but I doubted it gave them any extra sense of where I was. If I could lose them for a few moments in an area where they didn't know the local calls, they might well bump into their rivals and lose track of me entirely.
Worth a shot, anyway.
The Clocks' territory apparently hadn't gotten the message that they needed to be off the streets yet, as I saw a trio of people without Sigils going briskly about their business. Perhaps they thought the ruckus from the Dolls side of the border was going to stay there.
I didn't bother to puzzle over it, well aware that my running energy was pretty close to giving out. Instead I kept running along this street, my attention wholly engaged with the alcoves and openings in the buildings along the way.
After a few more strides I saw one that looked promising, and I ducked quickly inside. It was a low crevice, leading into a room formed by walls collapsed upon one another, a dim triangular refuge.
I stepped immediately out of the door's view and collapsed against a wall, hyperventilating and clutching my wound. This was it. I needed a few minutes to breathe and rest before I went any further, far longer than it would take them to catch up.
If they didn't miss me in here, then I would have to fight them. As wounded as I was, it would be brief.
I prayed quietly that the humans hadn't seen me, or didn't understand the situation, or just hated the Dolls. I prayed that the Clocks had intercepted the enemy in force. I prayed for anything and everything to salvage the situation, my accelerated mind unable to do anything but continuously leap from one hypothetical to another.
All too soon I heard what I'd dreaded, the humans in the area calling out code.
No code phrases this time, simple "She went this way!" kind of calls, presumably because the pursuing Ultras weren't a part of their particular gang.
I dragged myself erect, leaning heavily against the wall. I didn't have any particular confidence in my ability to win this fight, but I wasn't going out on my knees. I'd try and pull an attribute from whoever touched me first, hope for something that was a game changer.
A few seconds passed before I realized that the calls were coming from another street, and then spreading yet further away.
I felt a warmth within me that my wound couldn't banish. The people of the Regime were shielding their healer. Every Monster, apparently, didn't include me just yet.
I sank back down onto the ground, listening to my pursuers' clamor as they passed by, a good dozen or more by this point. They followed the shouts down the street and through an opening, then presumably continued on after it.
It was tempting to stay here. To just sit down and rest for a few hours, let the gangs chase one another's tails through the streets. But I couldn't.
Every minute I hid from my enemy was another that Snitcher might decide to check in on me. The Warlord couldn't hide from her enemies in a hole.
I slipped back out onto the street a few minutes later, as recovered as I was going to be without spending some serious quality time with my healing gift.
This time I didn't run. I paced myself, putting foot in front of foot, stride after stride. I put my trust entirely in the people, forcing myself to believe that they wouldn't change their minds and pinpoint me for my pursuers.
It worked.
Step by step, the outer barrens of Shington faded away, becoming the more familiar inner wards. Step by step those inner wards grew ever more familiar, until I was approaching the Warband's barracks, where Owner would be training my followers.
I had the horrific thought that they might have gone out of the city to train maneuvers or something, but it was quickly banished. No profit in worrying about things I could do nothing about.
I forged ahead, continuing at my slow and steady pace, glancing nervously over my shoulder from time to time, listening for any sounds of pursuit.
None came. They were still off on their wild goose chase, or the gangs had crossed paths and were now trying to sort things out.
I couldn't know, and didn't care. All that mattered was that they'd missed their chance at me. I stepped across the threshold into the barracks, bursting through the main door that led to the lecture hall.
At least half the warband was here. I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief. I'd made it. Absent yet more complications I wasn't going to die today.
"Lecture over!" I shouted. "Get your asses outside and kill anyone who attacks!"
There was a tumult of curious questions that I ignored, stepping off to the side of the door and leaning back against it as though I was too cool to be bothered with the whole thing.
Leaning was better than standing, and miles better than walking. I made a mental note that I should do more leaning, and to investigate the nearly holy possibility of sitting as soon as the situation allowed.
Soarer was the first to stop in front of me, as the rest moved on by, it looked like she was about to ask me something.
There's a way of looking at someone that I consider to be 'the Regime stare', where you convey exactly how little you care for their existence and how readily you would slaughter them. I used it now.
She didn't finish her question, and instead, wisely, joined the rest in their scurry out the doors.
I took a beat inside, alone.
I hadn't intended for Owner to join the rest, but here we were. I hoped she'd be ok out there.
I pulled on my healing gift, just a bit, doing what I could for my wound. In just a minute I'd have to go out there and lead my forces to victory, but I could pause for as long as I could make Snitcher, and maybe Her by this point, think that I wasn't hiding.
To that end I dragged myself down to the lectern, where Owner had been going over the fundamentals of Ultra combat, and looked through her rather sparse materials. I thumbed a page or two aside, nodded approvingly and kind of grunted a bit, and all the while I kept my healing gift flowing.
This was going to suck. My forces should be superior to the gang members on a one for one basis, in that my gals were the people who'd left the gangs to enter the Yard, and those tended to be the strongest among their number.
But, on the other hand, the Dolls and Timekillerz each outnumbered my warband alone. Taken together they could probably mob us under, though at horrific casualties.
I wasn't terrified, because I just didn't find it to be plausible. I hadn't heard Vower's name a few months back when I was going up. There was no way that she'd had time, in the brief spring of her ascendance, to Vow every member of both gangs. She would have taken the leadership, sure, but they'd only have the backup who were down for both teaming up with their hated rivals and attacking the Warlord's forces, all with no warning or prep time.
Gang morale also wasn't the greatest. Even if they did show up in their full numbers, they'd probably break and run once the casualties got heavy, especially if the Avowed, the only ones who were enthusiastic about the whole fight, couldn't stop themselves from leading the way.
A clamor from outside, shouting and explosions, broke my concentration.
I turned away from the lectern and stalked back out towards what sounded like an ongoing battle, still clutching my wound and pouring on my healing gift.
When I got to the door I flung it open, but didn't step through immediately, instead peering out into the plaza and taking cover in the archway.
Ultras were slamming one another all over the opening, letting loose with the full fury of their gifts. I flinched back behind the doorframe as some kind of sonic thing went off, one of the Ultras who'd had her arm ripped off screaming like a banshee.
It seemed like we were winning, as far as I could tell, but of course we didn't exactly have a uniform, and the gang colors weren't incredibly clear in all the dust and the tumult.
"Get the traitors!" I shouted into the confusion, hoping Owner had found herself a pocket of safety. "Kill them all!"
I glimpsed a pocket of the enemy pushing forward, their way fronted by a Doll with striking read hair, and I threw myself out into the scrum.
I couldn't just stand back and command. If Snitcher was watching, then I had to be more than triumphant, I had to be dominant.
I charged forward, pushing through a pair of my own who were hanging back and lobbing their gifts at the enemy, then into the midst of the fight.
A pair of my Ultras were grabbing at the red haired Doll, but she'd avoided their arms and flung her hands around one of their heads, which was rapidly aging in her clutches.
I took advantage of the moment, stepping off to her side and slapping a hand onto the back of one of her hands, activating my primary gift in the second of contact.
She had no Ultra toughness to work through, and it was the matter of a bare moment to slam Vower's 'sentient' into her, afflicting her with the same runaway thoughts I'd been battling.
She pulled her hand away before I could steal another attribute off of her, but she seemed groggy, hesitant, in the half second I could observe before the other friendly Ultra caught up with her and bludgeoned her down into the ground.
I took a step back, eyes darting from left to right, trying to make sure no one else was rushing me. It looked like I had a moment.
There was still a knot of fighting behind where the red head had been charging, and another off to the other side. I drifted between the two, furiously pointing towards one and then the other, shouting inaudible commands.
The nearby knot of the enemy collapsed a minute or so later, our numerical advantage proving to be too much. My Ultras didn't waste any time celebrating the victory, instead running over to join the fight on the other side.
Maybe Owner's days of training was worth something after all.
The end came not long after that, as the numbers were simply too great for the remaining gang members. We took full command of the plaza within a few more minutes, the last of the enemy fleeing, broken and in full retreat.
"Listen up!" I shouted, taking immediate charge, before anyone else could take the chance.
Heads turned in my direction, a half ring quickly coming into being as my forces rallied to their leaders call.
"Everyone see to the wounded!" I continued. "Anyone who is dead, we need to know who that is. Anyone who is fucked up, we need to know how long till they get better. Watch for more enemies! I want people up on those buildings!"
I pointed at a few nearby structures.
"If I hadn't warned you we'd have been caught completely flat footed!" I went on, letting the momentum carry me along, "You need to understand that you are the Warband now! We are ALWAYS on war footing! Always ready! I never want to see us caught unprepared again!"
Heads were nodding, and people were scrambling to obey.
"Owner," I called, heart in my throat.
She moved out from behind a line of Ultras, the gun Builder'd made for her in her hands. She seemed unharmed.
"Yes Warlord?" she asked.
"Take care of the rest of this. I'm going to go brief Her."
People looked down at the dreaded pronoun, and no one questioned any further as I slunk off to dubious safety of the Lair.
Afternoon: Healing my wounds:
I'd blocked off this time to expand the Warband, and after the casualties that we'd taken this morning I needed to do so badly, but that would have to wait.
There was simply no way I could function as the Warlord in my current condition. My enemies would smell blood, and my allies would be disheartened by my damaged state. It would be suicidal to carry on with my previous plans.
Instead, I holed up in the Packer House and worked on healing my form.
I'd been hoping that the Avowed would act a lot more zombie like than they had. I'd even dared to imagine them being cut down without resistance by my allies, if their single minded focus on obeying their imperatives had not permitted them to pay attention to their attackers. That hadn't happened, which left a disturbing possibility.
There might be more of them out there, ones with more sophisticated Vows, or maybe just more room to interpret them. Her outside guards had ran off to raise the alarm while her inner ones had immediately tried to kill me, after all, so there was precedent for their obedience to take different forms.
I'd have to be careful, from here on out, for their efforts. My current thought was that they'd thought Vower was dead, and some kind of 'avenge her' vows had triggered, driving them to do something as suicidal as attacking a Warlord. All of that crew should have been cleared out, but the odds were pretty good that she wasn't actually dead.
I'd left her mindless and battered, splayed on the floor of her own office, but eventually someone would probably get around to checking on her. If she had another set of contingency people set aside for the possibility of her becoming incapacitated, then this might not be quite done.
They'd need my cooperation to restore her, which I wouldn't willingly give, but if their Vows didn't permit them to give up…
I sighed, pondering hostages taken and the like, as well as the Union's reaction. More stuff I'd have to keep an eye out for.
Somewhat surprisingly, the afternoon passed quietly, with no one coming by to demand an explanation or drag me off to Her. I finished healing my wound and got ready to head to the evening's meeting.
It was incredibly tempting to skip it, or postpone it by a day or something, but Her timetable wasn't going to waver. I still had to hit Phis, and that meant keeping my Posse working each and every day.
Evening: Debrief Posse:
"Training go alright?" I asked Owner, wryly.
She grinned a bit, looked away to hide a chuckle.
"I think they learned some things," she told me. "Definitely not a boring day."
"Did you two work together today?" asked Replayer. "I've had that thought a couple of times, that maybe the Warband needs to see us all as a unit. I dunno if the extra benefit would be worth losing out on us each doing things separately though."
"I could teach the Warband?" asked Erupter, surprise obvious in her voice, "But I haven't yet smote Her enemies myself."
"What's the damage?" I asked Owner.
"We lost 13," she told me. "Most of those are killed, a few crippled too bad to fight. It was a real shitshow."
"You don't have to tell me," I reminded her. "I was in the middle of it."
"What went down?" asked Erupter, frowning dubiously at us, clearly trying to imagine a training session that killed a dozen people.
"Gangs came at us," I told her shortly, "We slaughtered them."
"The gangs attacked the warband?" asked Replayer. "I've never heard of that happening before. Do we know why?"
"Vower sent them at me," I simplified, "I took her out for it. Hell of a fucking morning."
Erupter gave a lot whistle.
"Damn boss!" she said, "Your eagerness to take out Her enemies puts me to shame. I'll have to work harder at that shit! I didn't know we could use the Warband before the attack."
"I can," I cautioned her, "Your role is just to do what I tell you. How'd that go today, anyway?"
"Four recruits!" she said, proudly, "And I can vouch for every one of their smartness and honesty. They are great."
I sat in silence for a second.
"Are they," I asked, "Are they perhaps the women who previously formed your patrol?"
She nodded rapidly.
"I see," I said.
I didn't have the energy to fight about it, I turned to Replayer instead.
"Got any Posse prospects for me?" I asked.
"I did," she said, "But I'm kind of concerned you keep fucking killing them. If you just want me to find targets I wish you'd tell me, it'd be a lot less work."
"Ha ha," I said, drily.
"We have Battler, first up," she said. "Bitch tried to join up with the last Warlord for the Ar Harbour strike, didn't make the cut because she doesn't play well with others. Strong as shit though, and hardcore dedicated. She tried to chase the Warband out into the countryside, only came back when she got lost."
"What's her gift do?" I asked, warily.
"Ultra strength two, Ultra toughness one," she said. "Just basic fighting stuff, but you pare that with somebody who is absolutely ready for this shit, someone who lives and breathes to take down Her enemies."
"She sounds fantastic!" agreed Erupter, enthusiastically.
I thought she sounded a lot like another Smasher, but there was possibility there.
"Who else?" I asked.
"There's also Sniper," she said. "She can look through stuff with her gift, and has some kind of shooting attack that goes along with that."
"How do you mean?" I asked.
She made a circle with her finger and thumb, held it in front of her eye.
"When she does this she can see through things," she said, "Like she has another eye out in front her that is flying forward. I think she turns her hand to move it forward or backward."
"Is it just for aiming?" I asked, "Or can she use it for whatever she wants?"
It would be just like the Regime to have someone with an amazing spying gift and fixate on using it to shoot people.
"I don't know," she said, "But she has an eye beam gift, and she's mostly known for using it to target that at her enemies. She made it to the Lair without Ultra toughness, so she must be pretty smart."
"How?" I asked.
"Worked with the Knights, I think", she said, "Though my informants weren't clear on whether that was a thing that was still happening, or a one time deal in the past."
I reflected, not for the first time, that Replayer's people skills left a bit to be desired.
"All right," I said, "Any more?"
She shook her head.
Two prospects was a bit on the light side, but at least she didn't completely strike out this time. Really it was hard to care too much about it when I'd only narrowly escaped with my life.
But that had only been a stay of execution. I still had the looming deadline of the attack on Phis to prepare for. I forced myself to focus.
"Alright," I said, "Here's what we're going to do tomorrow…"
Day 19
11 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Battler – 2/0/1, straightforward combatant
Sniper – 0/0/0, X ray vision and eye beams
Union List
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
11 Veteran Ultras, 23 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 5/10 (Trauma Reset to 4+1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Erupter will take either an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Mission 2, Turn 12
- Location
- USA
Day 19:
Morning: Message to Union
Negotiation was a funny thing. There was an old saying that if a bank loaned you a lot of money (by your standards), they owned you. But if they loaned you a lot of money (by their standards), you owned them. It got at the core of the matter, which was how much each party had at stake.
The Union had invested in me, at this point. They'd communicated with me, and I'd delivered. If I survived, they had every reason to believe that I'd keep on crossing names off their list. They had no guarantee that my replacement would be similarly cooperative.
Which was all the long way round to say that I was pretty confident that they'd work with me a bit.
The time for my assault on Phis was growing ever closer. Factoring in the time delay in our communication, and it basically had to be now. I just didn't have the time to mess around with it anymore.
I had demands, and I wasn't sure it precisely followed their system, but whatever. They'd accommodate me, or they'd have to deal with my replacement.
What I wanted was, one, them not to target me or my posse for a month. Beyond that, I was looking for a briefing on Phis, and I'd also slipped in a request for a bunch of old credit cards with lots of money on them.
The handoff was old hat at this point. I went into the usual dirty dive, left the 'briefing' in the trash once I was done making my coded notes on it. At least this time I saw my contact in the crowd, so it wasn't another missed opportunity.
Afternoon: Visit Battler
Finding Battler was as simple as letting people know I was looking to get in touch with her. The word came back within a few hours, and we'd set up a meet in Owner's shop.
She had an arrogant, strutting energy. Short hair, freckles, and a leather jacket without any holes in it. She wore a golf visor for a Sigil, tilted at an angle. She was like a prototypical version of a Regime Ultra, like a mold they'd used to make the rest of us.
"Warlord," she said, taking up a position against a soda machine.
"Battler," I answered.
"I hear you want something from me?" she said.
"You gave my predecessor your advice," I said. "You didn't think she had Ar Harbour handled?"
She looked to one side and spat, then frowned for a second.
"Obviously not," she said, "And I'd been kind of worried that the problem might be bigger than just one Warlord."
"Problem?"
More frowning, she cracked her knuckles for a moment.
"I thought that maybe the stuff you have to do to get to be the Warlord, like, it isn't the sort of stuff you do once you have the gig, you know? So we were only ever gonna get shitty Warlords, or if we got a good one it'd just be good luck."
I set my estimation of her intelligence up a notch for her independently coming up with the idea of a structural problem.
"Yeah," I said, "I get you."
"But you took care of Ar Harbour," she said. "You got it done. And you didn't just get lucky."
"What do you think I did differently?" I asked.
"You got trucks," she said, "You got smoke machines. You got guns and trained your Ultras. You didn't just show up and expect everything to go your way. Some of the people I talked to said you knew the Ultras you'd be going up against, like what their gifts were and such."
"Scouting," I said. "It's a necessity, in my opinion."
"That's what I'm talking about," she said. "Most Warlords don't do much more than gather up their friends, live it up for a month, and then just hope that they have better gifts than whoever is out there."
"And you disapprove?"
"I want to see Her enemies crushed," she said. "I want us to win. Month after month. Year after year, come to that. I want to see a Warlord last in the job, genuinely put some fear into those cretins."
I let her wind up, just sat back and said nothing.
"You know we used to own everything?" she asked. "People act like it's normal that we fight and fight against these assholes, but it's fucking not. We used to have it all, and we are gonna have it all again."
And a notch down for my estimation of her knowledge of history.
"I like how you think," I told her, "And I think they were fools to ignore you."
"Were is the important word there," she said. "If I'd been working with them, I like to think they'd still be uh…"
She was looking for the concept for 'present tense', I thought.
"They'd still be around," she finished, a bit lamely.
"Well," I said, "If it isn't too selfish, I suppose I'm glad they fucked up."
"Planning on repeating their mistake?" she asked.
"We'll see," I told her.
We ended the interview on that note, and I stuck around for a bit, thinking about Battler.
Fairly smart, highly motivated, decent combatant. No real insight into exactly how evil she was, but Regime partisanship wasn't a great sign. Of course, I could hardly ignore my own situation for evidence that not everyone who loyal actually was.
A definite possibility.
Evening: Debrief Posse
"Erupter," I groaned, massaging my temples, "I thought we went over this."
"I know, I know," she said, hands out in front of her in a placating gesture. "I think I'd have been able to get people to sign up this time if it wasn't for all that shit that went down yesterday."
"We only have ten days!" I said, voice firm, "We don't have TIME for these excuses!"
"It's uncertainty boss! It's the uncertainty! They need to know if we are going after the Dolls or the Timekillerz, or maybe all the gangs?. People have friends and enemies in the gangs. Signing up to fight strangers is one thing, but the people who want to come on the warband after almost always the Ultras who DON'T want to do gang fights."
"Erupter," I told her, "I need Ultras in my warband. It's not a hard job. Go out there. Tell them to join up. Lead them to the base. Get it done."
"I'm sure the uncertainty will clear up soon enough," she said, "But I'll switch jobs with Owner if you want?"
"No switching jobs!" I yelled. I rarely raised my voice, but this was serious. "You just need to do what I tell you. Stop Fucking Up!"
She subsided into her chair, hurt and sulking.
I looked over to Owner, eyes maybe a little wider and more frenzied than they needed to be.
"Training went great boss!" she said. "After yesterday everyone was extremely attentive, borderline obsessed. That bit of business yesterday put the fear of Her into them."
"Anyone ask you about that?" I asked.
"Some people tried to kind of get at it indirectly," she said, "But nobody was brave enough to just come out and ask. You made a bit of an impression, I think, showing up all bloodied and stuff and saving us from a sneak attack."
I'd probably eventually have to come up with some kind of story for what that had all been about. Anything I heard from two posse members without a common mission was probably pretty important.
Finally, I looked at the last, empty chair at our usual table.
"Anyone know where Replayer is?" I asked.
Headshakes all around.
My first thought was that some Avowed had seized her, my second that maybe she was Avowed. But there were lots of other possibilities.
I grimaced, motioning for them to close in, then gave my orders for tomorrow's business.
Day 20
10 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Battler – 2/0/1, Straightforward Combatant
Sniper – 0/0/0, X ray vision and eye beams
Union List
Vower – 0/0/?, a woman who can enforce oathkeeping
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Nailer – ?/?/?, a woman who can merge objects and people into composites
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
11 Veteran Ultras, 23 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 4/10 (5 – 3 +2 -3 +2 +1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer is missing, no need to specify an action for her.
Erupter will take an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Morning: Message to Union
Negotiation was a funny thing. There was an old saying that if a bank loaned you a lot of money (by your standards), they owned you. But if they loaned you a lot of money (by their standards), you owned them. It got at the core of the matter, which was how much each party had at stake.
The Union had invested in me, at this point. They'd communicated with me, and I'd delivered. If I survived, they had every reason to believe that I'd keep on crossing names off their list. They had no guarantee that my replacement would be similarly cooperative.
Which was all the long way round to say that I was pretty confident that they'd work with me a bit.
The time for my assault on Phis was growing ever closer. Factoring in the time delay in our communication, and it basically had to be now. I just didn't have the time to mess around with it anymore.
I had demands, and I wasn't sure it precisely followed their system, but whatever. They'd accommodate me, or they'd have to deal with my replacement.
What I wanted was, one, them not to target me or my posse for a month. Beyond that, I was looking for a briefing on Phis, and I'd also slipped in a request for a bunch of old credit cards with lots of money on them.
The handoff was old hat at this point. I went into the usual dirty dive, left the 'briefing' in the trash once I was done making my coded notes on it. At least this time I saw my contact in the crowd, so it wasn't another missed opportunity.
Afternoon: Visit Battler
Finding Battler was as simple as letting people know I was looking to get in touch with her. The word came back within a few hours, and we'd set up a meet in Owner's shop.
She had an arrogant, strutting energy. Short hair, freckles, and a leather jacket without any holes in it. She wore a golf visor for a Sigil, tilted at an angle. She was like a prototypical version of a Regime Ultra, like a mold they'd used to make the rest of us.
"Warlord," she said, taking up a position against a soda machine.
"Battler," I answered.
"I hear you want something from me?" she said.
"You gave my predecessor your advice," I said. "You didn't think she had Ar Harbour handled?"
She looked to one side and spat, then frowned for a second.
"Obviously not," she said, "And I'd been kind of worried that the problem might be bigger than just one Warlord."
"Problem?"
More frowning, she cracked her knuckles for a moment.
"I thought that maybe the stuff you have to do to get to be the Warlord, like, it isn't the sort of stuff you do once you have the gig, you know? So we were only ever gonna get shitty Warlords, or if we got a good one it'd just be good luck."
I set my estimation of her intelligence up a notch for her independently coming up with the idea of a structural problem.
"Yeah," I said, "I get you."
"But you took care of Ar Harbour," she said. "You got it done. And you didn't just get lucky."
"What do you think I did differently?" I asked.
"You got trucks," she said, "You got smoke machines. You got guns and trained your Ultras. You didn't just show up and expect everything to go your way. Some of the people I talked to said you knew the Ultras you'd be going up against, like what their gifts were and such."
"Scouting," I said. "It's a necessity, in my opinion."
"That's what I'm talking about," she said. "Most Warlords don't do much more than gather up their friends, live it up for a month, and then just hope that they have better gifts than whoever is out there."
"And you disapprove?"
"I want to see Her enemies crushed," she said. "I want us to win. Month after month. Year after year, come to that. I want to see a Warlord last in the job, genuinely put some fear into those cretins."
I let her wind up, just sat back and said nothing.
"You know we used to own everything?" she asked. "People act like it's normal that we fight and fight against these assholes, but it's fucking not. We used to have it all, and we are gonna have it all again."
And a notch down for my estimation of her knowledge of history.
"I like how you think," I told her, "And I think they were fools to ignore you."
"Were is the important word there," she said. "If I'd been working with them, I like to think they'd still be uh…"
She was looking for the concept for 'present tense', I thought.
"They'd still be around," she finished, a bit lamely.
"Well," I said, "If it isn't too selfish, I suppose I'm glad they fucked up."
"Planning on repeating their mistake?" she asked.
"We'll see," I told her.
We ended the interview on that note, and I stuck around for a bit, thinking about Battler.
Fairly smart, highly motivated, decent combatant. No real insight into exactly how evil she was, but Regime partisanship wasn't a great sign. Of course, I could hardly ignore my own situation for evidence that not everyone who loyal actually was.
A definite possibility.
Evening: Debrief Posse
"Erupter," I groaned, massaging my temples, "I thought we went over this."
"I know, I know," she said, hands out in front of her in a placating gesture. "I think I'd have been able to get people to sign up this time if it wasn't for all that shit that went down yesterday."
"We only have ten days!" I said, voice firm, "We don't have TIME for these excuses!"
"It's uncertainty boss! It's the uncertainty! They need to know if we are going after the Dolls or the Timekillerz, or maybe all the gangs?. People have friends and enemies in the gangs. Signing up to fight strangers is one thing, but the people who want to come on the warband after almost always the Ultras who DON'T want to do gang fights."
"Erupter," I told her, "I need Ultras in my warband. It's not a hard job. Go out there. Tell them to join up. Lead them to the base. Get it done."
"I'm sure the uncertainty will clear up soon enough," she said, "But I'll switch jobs with Owner if you want?"
"No switching jobs!" I yelled. I rarely raised my voice, but this was serious. "You just need to do what I tell you. Stop Fucking Up!"
She subsided into her chair, hurt and sulking.
I looked over to Owner, eyes maybe a little wider and more frenzied than they needed to be.
"Training went great boss!" she said. "After yesterday everyone was extremely attentive, borderline obsessed. That bit of business yesterday put the fear of Her into them."
"Anyone ask you about that?" I asked.
"Some people tried to kind of get at it indirectly," she said, "But nobody was brave enough to just come out and ask. You made a bit of an impression, I think, showing up all bloodied and stuff and saving us from a sneak attack."
I'd probably eventually have to come up with some kind of story for what that had all been about. Anything I heard from two posse members without a common mission was probably pretty important.
Finally, I looked at the last, empty chair at our usual table.
"Anyone know where Replayer is?" I asked.
Headshakes all around.
My first thought was that some Avowed had seized her, my second that maybe she was Avowed. But there were lots of other possibilities.
I grimaced, motioning for them to close in, then gave my orders for tomorrow's business.
Day 20
10 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Battler – 2/0/1, Straightforward Combatant
Sniper – 0/0/0, X ray vision and eye beams
Union List
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
11 Veteran Ultras, 23 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 4/10 (5 – 3 +2 -3 +2 +1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer is missing, no need to specify an action for her.
Erupter will take an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Mission 2, Turn 13
- Location
- USA
Day 20:
Morning: Heal people
There was no way to know, of course, whether the people that I'd helped with my healing gift bore any relation to those who'd saved my life the day before yesterday.
I couldn't ask about it without risking Snitcher getting wise, and no one was going to thank me for much the same reason.
It kind of felt like it had been cause/effect, however. It reeked of 'just universe' kind of thinking, but I had a strong urge to believe that I'd been saved by the goodwill that I'd accumulated in my time of service, that the people who'd risked punishment by leading my pursuers away had been paying me back for risking punishment to heal them.
That line of thinking made me feel immediately guilty, as though I was now only doing to this to 'buy' more considerations from the populace, like an unspoken version of the Union's fucking favors list or some shit.
I knew that this wasn't true. I had no inkling, no idea whatsoever that the people in the gang territories were preparing to do that, and I would have had no complaints if they'd just kept their heads down.
It was true grace, a favor unlooked for in the darkest moments. But guilt is a funny thing.
It was a relief, then, to turn immediately back around and repay the favor. The decrepit and destitute of the Regime seemed like a personal affront today, and the work of my healing gift somehow holy, a returning of the world to its proper estate.
I'd long since resigned myself to the possibility of Snitcher discovering my morning activities, but for some reason the possibility hung particularly heavily over me this morning. It was a relief to reach the end of my queue without incident.
If I died on the Phis mission, or if She snuffed me out for some random breach of the Regime's fetish for Strong Man Makes Strong Choices, then at least I'd done this much good.
Afternoon: Find Replayer with Erupter's assistance
"Why would they lie to you?" Erupter asked, seemingly sincerely, "You're the Warlord!"
I kept my grin pasted on my face, before patiently reassuring my eager young assistant that it had been known to happen.
Each of my Posse members would have posed their own challenges as a bodyguard/henchman. Owner was a hothouse flower, unable to survive outside the Lair. She'd have added no extra intimidation factor, and in fact I'd have had to curtail my efforts in order to see to her protection. Replayer was a vicious hound, prone to resorting to violence at the slightest obstruction, and excessively skilled at surviving the problems she created thereby. I'd pictured Erupter as a happy medium of the two, and by and large she was.
But one thing I hadn't considered, going in, was to what degree she was a cloud cuckoo lander. Like, it was a strange thing to say about a ruthless totalitarian, but she was actively in denial about the world we inhabited.
"Ah," she said, tapping her nose on the side, "Spies from our enemies! You are so wise, Warlord, to anticipate their vile antics."
"Yes," I said, "That's it exactly."
We'd visited Replayer's home first off, and found, by questioning her consorts and body servants, that she'd left home that day the same as any other, taking clothes that made it clear she was heading out into the outskirts of the city.
From that point on we'd played a frustrating game of 'have you seen this woman' with an endless succession of bystanders, who largely lied to us for what I knew to be basic self interest and what Erupter would imagine to be nefarious foreign subversion.
Ultimately, thanks most likely to the goodwill the unpowered humans of Shington had towards one of their vanishingly few Ultra healers, I'd been pointed towards a sort of salvage yard at the edge of town. With Erupter in tow I'd headed out.
"Remember," I cautioned her, "Let me do all the talking. You just keep a watch out for the Union's agents in the gangs. If you see anyone in Dolls or Timekillerz colors, you let me know."
She nodded, and I headed in.
The scrapyard hadn't always been one. It looked like, at its core, we were looking at the remnants of a highway onramp, long collapsed. It had found a brief second life as a Knight outpost for a while, but been abandoned again at some point, their trappings left to decay slowly into ruins.
Nowadays it served as a kind of collection point, where salvagers would bring together the pickings of the old city and scrabble through them for the valuables.
Every eye was on our Sigils as we strutted inside, hands reaching to guns, people falling into the Posture. Everyone watched to see if more of my people would follow us through, to see if my war on the Gangs had somehow come to this little patch of nowhere.
I forced back the shame I felt when I saw fear on human faces. They didn't know, and they weren't acting any differently from how I'd act in their shoes.
We made a beeline for the Ultra in charge, a short woman with a fair complexion and an old paper crown for a sigil.
"Warlord!" she said, jumping up off a chair made out of stacked tires, "What you want?"
She had a bit of an accident I couldn't place, it was more like 'Wheh-schu-went'.
"I'm looking for someone," I told her.
"Yeah!" said Erupter.
"We find things here, not people," she said, eyes down and carefully not threatening.
"I know you do scavenging, I'm asking if someone came by here, should have been yesterday?"
"Yeah! Tell her!" said Erupter.
"Lots of people been here yesterday," she said, words coming fast and difficult to parse, "I dunno which was your someone."
"Replayer,"I told her.
"The bitch who killed Brody and Mari?"
"There was a fight?" I asked.
"Yeah!" hyped Erupter, "Fucking fight!"
The Ultra said something so fast I couldn't make it out. That accent was killing me.
"What?" I asked.
"Yes. She. Was. Here. She. Killed. People. She. Took. Things."
My first inclination was to go down the 'why did the fight start' rabbit hole, but I suspected the answer was just Replayer's basic temperament.
"What did she take?"
"You better tell us what she took!" chimed in Erupter.
I shot her an angry glare, gestured to our surroundings. She gave a cheerful nod and turned her attention away, watching for Avowed or subversives within the cringing pack of humans that surrounded us.
"Maps," said the Ultra, "And a few daggers. She…"
Her speech got fast again and I lost the thread.
"What?" I asked her.
"Maps. And. A. Few. Daggers. She. Wanted. People. Who. Had. Been. Outside. The. City. A. Lot."
Shit, I suddenly had an idea about where Replayer might be.
"Did she walk by?" I asked, "Or was she driving in a vehicle?"
We were out on the edge of the city. If she'd taken a vehicle from another cache she could have swung by here to handle her navigation issues.
"Car," said the Ultra.
That clinched it.
"Alright, thanks for your help." I told her.
"Yeah!"
Evening: Debrief
"So did you find her?" asked Owner.
I gestured around, as though to point out that Replayer still wasn't here, and remained sullenly silent. I was still fuming about this stupidity.
"We did!" said Erupter, "We found out where she got directions and we know where she left from."
"Left?" asked Owner.
"Replayer is on a scouting mission," I told her. "She's gathering info on Phis."
"I thought you meant-"
"I know," I said, gritting my teeth.
"Do you know when she's-"
"Nope!" I said, with a false brightness.
"Or that she isn't already…"
"Nope!" I repeated, a bit of a manic edge in my voice.
"Well," she said, "If she isn't familiar with the area, she might have only got there some time today. If she just hangs around on the outskirts and starts back later on…maybe she gets back tomorrow?"
"Or the day after," said Erupter, "If she infiltrates and does awesome spy stuff."
"Or never," I pointed out, "If they catch her and kill her."
I massaged my temples, trying to force myself back into composure. If being angry about something changed it then She would never have taken over.
"How'd the training go?" I asked.
"Alright," said Owner, looking away and then back again, "But we really need to address these gang war rumors."
"Is it that big of a deal?" I asked. "I haven't decided what we'll say yet."
"Yeah," she said, "The gossip in class was that the two gangs we fought last time are merging, and maybe joining up with another in a sort of protective alliance. People seem to think we are gunning for all the gangs."
"They are the ones who attacked us, though," I protested, thought not too forcefully. I was well aware of how easily a story could drift and lose meaning when it had to pass from person to person across Shington.
"Nobody knows that," she said, "nobody seems to know ANYTHING. If we don't put a narrative in place soon, there's no telling what they'll come to believe.
I gave up on the temple massage, this headache was here to stay. At least it couldn't last longer than ten more days.
Day 21
9 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Battler – 2/0/1, Straightforward Combatant
Sniper – 0/0/0, X ray vision and eye beams
Union List
Vower – 0/0/?, a woman who can enforce oathkeeping
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Nailer – ?/?/?, a woman who can merge objects and people into composites
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
11 Veteran Ultras, 23 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 9/10 (4 – 1 +6 -3 +2 +1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer is missing, no need to specify an action for her.
Erupter will take an afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Morning: Heal people
There was no way to know, of course, whether the people that I'd helped with my healing gift bore any relation to those who'd saved my life the day before yesterday.
I couldn't ask about it without risking Snitcher getting wise, and no one was going to thank me for much the same reason.
It kind of felt like it had been cause/effect, however. It reeked of 'just universe' kind of thinking, but I had a strong urge to believe that I'd been saved by the goodwill that I'd accumulated in my time of service, that the people who'd risked punishment by leading my pursuers away had been paying me back for risking punishment to heal them.
That line of thinking made me feel immediately guilty, as though I was now only doing to this to 'buy' more considerations from the populace, like an unspoken version of the Union's fucking favors list or some shit.
I knew that this wasn't true. I had no inkling, no idea whatsoever that the people in the gang territories were preparing to do that, and I would have had no complaints if they'd just kept their heads down.
It was true grace, a favor unlooked for in the darkest moments. But guilt is a funny thing.
It was a relief, then, to turn immediately back around and repay the favor. The decrepit and destitute of the Regime seemed like a personal affront today, and the work of my healing gift somehow holy, a returning of the world to its proper estate.
I'd long since resigned myself to the possibility of Snitcher discovering my morning activities, but for some reason the possibility hung particularly heavily over me this morning. It was a relief to reach the end of my queue without incident.
If I died on the Phis mission, or if She snuffed me out for some random breach of the Regime's fetish for Strong Man Makes Strong Choices, then at least I'd done this much good.
Afternoon: Find Replayer with Erupter's assistance
"Why would they lie to you?" Erupter asked, seemingly sincerely, "You're the Warlord!"
I kept my grin pasted on my face, before patiently reassuring my eager young assistant that it had been known to happen.
Each of my Posse members would have posed their own challenges as a bodyguard/henchman. Owner was a hothouse flower, unable to survive outside the Lair. She'd have added no extra intimidation factor, and in fact I'd have had to curtail my efforts in order to see to her protection. Replayer was a vicious hound, prone to resorting to violence at the slightest obstruction, and excessively skilled at surviving the problems she created thereby. I'd pictured Erupter as a happy medium of the two, and by and large she was.
But one thing I hadn't considered, going in, was to what degree she was a cloud cuckoo lander. Like, it was a strange thing to say about a ruthless totalitarian, but she was actively in denial about the world we inhabited.
"Ah," she said, tapping her nose on the side, "Spies from our enemies! You are so wise, Warlord, to anticipate their vile antics."
"Yes," I said, "That's it exactly."
We'd visited Replayer's home first off, and found, by questioning her consorts and body servants, that she'd left home that day the same as any other, taking clothes that made it clear she was heading out into the outskirts of the city.
From that point on we'd played a frustrating game of 'have you seen this woman' with an endless succession of bystanders, who largely lied to us for what I knew to be basic self interest and what Erupter would imagine to be nefarious foreign subversion.
Ultimately, thanks most likely to the goodwill the unpowered humans of Shington had towards one of their vanishingly few Ultra healers, I'd been pointed towards a sort of salvage yard at the edge of town. With Erupter in tow I'd headed out.
"Remember," I cautioned her, "Let me do all the talking. You just keep a watch out for the Union's agents in the gangs. If you see anyone in Dolls or Timekillerz colors, you let me know."
She nodded, and I headed in.
The scrapyard hadn't always been one. It looked like, at its core, we were looking at the remnants of a highway onramp, long collapsed. It had found a brief second life as a Knight outpost for a while, but been abandoned again at some point, their trappings left to decay slowly into ruins.
Nowadays it served as a kind of collection point, where salvagers would bring together the pickings of the old city and scrabble through them for the valuables.
Every eye was on our Sigils as we strutted inside, hands reaching to guns, people falling into the Posture. Everyone watched to see if more of my people would follow us through, to see if my war on the Gangs had somehow come to this little patch of nowhere.
I forced back the shame I felt when I saw fear on human faces. They didn't know, and they weren't acting any differently from how I'd act in their shoes.
We made a beeline for the Ultra in charge, a short woman with a fair complexion and an old paper crown for a sigil.
"Warlord!" she said, jumping up off a chair made out of stacked tires, "What you want?"
She had a bit of an accident I couldn't place, it was more like 'Wheh-schu-went'.
"I'm looking for someone," I told her.
"Yeah!" said Erupter.
"We find things here, not people," she said, eyes down and carefully not threatening.
"I know you do scavenging, I'm asking if someone came by here, should have been yesterday?"
"Yeah! Tell her!" said Erupter.
"Lots of people been here yesterday," she said, words coming fast and difficult to parse, "I dunno which was your someone."
"Replayer,"I told her.
"The bitch who killed Brody and Mari?"
"There was a fight?" I asked.
"Yeah!" hyped Erupter, "Fucking fight!"
The Ultra said something so fast I couldn't make it out. That accent was killing me.
"What?" I asked.
"Yes. She. Was. Here. She. Killed. People. She. Took. Things."
My first inclination was to go down the 'why did the fight start' rabbit hole, but I suspected the answer was just Replayer's basic temperament.
"What did she take?"
"You better tell us what she took!" chimed in Erupter.
I shot her an angry glare, gestured to our surroundings. She gave a cheerful nod and turned her attention away, watching for Avowed or subversives within the cringing pack of humans that surrounded us.
"Maps," said the Ultra, "And a few daggers. She…"
Her speech got fast again and I lost the thread.
"What?" I asked her.
"Maps. And. A. Few. Daggers. She. Wanted. People. Who. Had. Been. Outside. The. City. A. Lot."
Shit, I suddenly had an idea about where Replayer might be.
"Did she walk by?" I asked, "Or was she driving in a vehicle?"
We were out on the edge of the city. If she'd taken a vehicle from another cache she could have swung by here to handle her navigation issues.
"Car," said the Ultra.
That clinched it.
"Alright, thanks for your help." I told her.
"Yeah!"
Evening: Debrief
"So did you find her?" asked Owner.
I gestured around, as though to point out that Replayer still wasn't here, and remained sullenly silent. I was still fuming about this stupidity.
"We did!" said Erupter, "We found out where she got directions and we know where she left from."
"Left?" asked Owner.
"Replayer is on a scouting mission," I told her. "She's gathering info on Phis."
"I thought you meant-"
"I know," I said, gritting my teeth.
"Do you know when she's-"
"Nope!" I said, with a false brightness.
"Or that she isn't already…"
"Nope!" I repeated, a bit of a manic edge in my voice.
"Well," she said, "If she isn't familiar with the area, she might have only got there some time today. If she just hangs around on the outskirts and starts back later on…maybe she gets back tomorrow?"
"Or the day after," said Erupter, "If she infiltrates and does awesome spy stuff."
"Or never," I pointed out, "If they catch her and kill her."
I massaged my temples, trying to force myself back into composure. If being angry about something changed it then She would never have taken over.
"How'd the training go?" I asked.
"Alright," said Owner, looking away and then back again, "But we really need to address these gang war rumors."
"Is it that big of a deal?" I asked. "I haven't decided what we'll say yet."
"Yeah," she said, "The gossip in class was that the two gangs we fought last time are merging, and maybe joining up with another in a sort of protective alliance. People seem to think we are gunning for all the gangs."
"They are the ones who attacked us, though," I protested, thought not too forcefully. I was well aware of how easily a story could drift and lose meaning when it had to pass from person to person across Shington.
"Nobody knows that," she said, "nobody seems to know ANYTHING. If we don't put a narrative in place soon, there's no telling what they'll come to believe.
I gave up on the temple massage, this headache was here to stay. At least it couldn't last longer than ten more days.
Day 21
9 days until next battle
Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)
Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them
Shower – Adder's protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses
Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees
Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them
Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate
Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One
Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken
Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant
Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can 'swim' through solid surfaces
Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see
Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts
Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements
Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things
Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands
Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form's velocity by looking at them
Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness
Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects
Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like
Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots
Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority
Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer's flunky
Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed
Battler – 2/0/1, Straightforward Combatant
Sniper – 0/0/0, X ray vision and eye beams
Union List
Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication
Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people
Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent
Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight
Limiter – ?/?/? Makes 'rules', or 'shields', that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being 'used up' by target's attempts to take the banned action
Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch
Assets: (physical)
1 truck
1 sedan
Owner's Shington Store
Packer House
Fog Machines
Lasers (diverse)
Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)
Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1
Replayer — 1/2/0, she can 'step back in time' to undo damage that she takes
Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself
Warband:
11 Veteran Ultras, 23 Rookie (that is, haven't worked with me before) Ultras
Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.
Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.
Blender AP: 9/10 (4 – 1 +6 -3 +2 +1)
Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning
Available Actions:
Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)
Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a 'track them down and speak with them' based approach unless you specify otherwise)
Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)
Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I've placed it here for ease of use)
Posse Recruitment tree
Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)
Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)
Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)
Warband tree
Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)
Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)
Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)
VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)
Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender's motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)
Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)
Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)
Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)
Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)
Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2
Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure
Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard
Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10
Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)
Player Input:
Blender Morning Action
Blender Afternoon Action
Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender's direction.
Replayer is missing, no need to specify an action for her.
Erupter will take an afternoon action at Blender's direction.