Update 9((Team based distribution wins the vote! XP will be divided equally among all surviving members of a party. That includes some NPC’s. For this battle your convoy killed 13 raiders & the UFO (but in the words of a famous dwarf, “that still only counts as one!”). So 14 total kills, at 3 XP a piece. 42XP divided by 7 party members. (I’m going to be generous and exclude Na Shugareth because he disappeared.) is 6 XP a person. 10XP is needed to level up. You’re over half way! Yay!))
((Extra heavy update today, lots of lore/plot showing up))
((waitlist goes in order btw))
Stuart
((I have absolutely no problem with the results of the roll, but getting kicked in the genitals, regardless of one's gender, HURTS. Good lord, the sheer amount of nerve endings 
))
"Can't say I'm sure of what war you's referring to, old timer. I'm real new round these parts. Crazy dame with a knife, yeah, THAT knife, and rocks where here nether regions shoulda been's the one responsible for my shoulder. Errggh. Goddamnit, that's my jabbing arm."
"How's about you old timer? Way you talk, sounds like you've seen your share of action."
Try to see if my left arm is at all functional.
“haw ha ha, A girl eh? They as crazy as ever out there, aint they? I had lass I knew in sky town sabotage a crawler I was workin on once. The engineers caught it in time, but they pulled the whole damn thing off the cliff to be safe. It was one of those big industrial ones too, half the size of a factory. They had the whole thing sitting over the city for three days on behalf of some jealous broad what was tryin a kill me. When they found out, they threw me out fast as they could. Between the company and the girl, I aint gone back there since. Haw ha ha. Crazy shit aint it? Still, whater ya doin chaseing girls in down here anyways? They stop the draft or something? Kid like you out a be out fightin an dyin on the front lines.”Stuarts eyes were starting to glaze in his utter lack of comprehension. Sky town, crawlers, a war? None of this made any sense to him. Just as he thought he couldn’t get any more confused, a creature completely obscured by bandages spoke up from a bed on the other side of him.
“It’s cause there never was any war you crazy bastard. Not for fifty years anyways. You’re just running your trap trying to impress some kid that probably just fell out of a rift this morning. There hasn’t ever been a walker bigger than a house, much less a “half a factory”. Don’t listen to this guy kid. He’s half crazy and all jerk. He’s just running his mouth cause nobody loves him.”“I’ll run your mouth you arrogant little prick”“Come over here old man! Id kick your ass and I can’t even see right now!"“I’ll do it you bastard. Give me that knife son. I’ll don’t care if he is blind, ill gut im like a fish.”“Oh, ya can’t do it yourself then? Got ta get the kid on your side huh?” “Come here you fucker!!” he bellows. The old man struggles to get out of bed at this point, but he collapses and the medical equipment he was tethered to comes crashing down on top of him.
The bandage creature bursts out laughing at the sound, and nurses come swarming to sedate the two.
In the chaos of obscenities that ensues Stuart bed is wheeled away by one of the nurses and he finds himself in a makeshift office in a corner of the tent. Swearing is still audible in the background, but the nurse talking to Stuart does her best to ignore it. She reads a patient sheet to Stuart.
“Name; Stuart
No last name provided.
Brought in with severe lacerations to the left arm, stab wounds in the shoulder, multiple fractures, loss of function at the left shoulder, a concussion, and severe contusions over the lower and upper body, and a black eye.
Treated using one vial of bone gel, two cans of bio-neutral patch flesh, half a liter of bacta. Given two full bags of O- blood, a mark VII steroid enhancer, and washed using soap and water.
Fortunately for you Mr. Stuart you have made a full recovery. I would suggest that you stop doing whatever it is you were doing though. You are marked with full recovery of function and muscle mass, however your body is exhausted from the healing process. I would recommend that you take it don’t take any strenuous action for the next few days and drink plenty of fluids.
We will be discharging you now; we can’t afford to keep patients here for the recovery period.”Stuart gets up on unsteady legs, finding himself already dressed. He is sore and tired and more than a little confused by the rapid sequence of events. He begins to wobble towards the exit of the tent, his new knife strapped to his leg.
“Sir? One more thing. You forgot your bill”“
My.. my bill?”
She hands you a slip of paper, and after reading it you have to sit back down again. You own 18,000,000 for services and supplies.
Lucky & Antonio((I like the name change, but when I was it on the list, I was super confused as to what game this was. As for the game itself, just keep doing what you're doing!))
Keep on chasing him.
Hey, stop! It won't hurt for long!
"Hey! Just kill the bastard humanely. Run him over like that and you're no better than the Raiders. Probably even worse, since they weren't trying to kill us just for the fun of it."
Look for shiny things from the safety of the pod.
(4+2=6)
Lucky find a whole bunch on shiny things from the safety of the pod. In fact, they are so shiny and so numerous that he can’t help but jump out of the pod and start scooping things up. He grabs some spare change that a raider was holding, a rather nice and compact looking bag, a bright shiny knife, a little gemstone thing (probably worth some money) and a whole bunch of other stuff. Eventually, he looks up long enough notice Antonio’s antics.
"Hey! Just kill the bastard humanely. Run him over like that and you're no better than the Raiders. Probably even worse, since they weren't trying to kill us just for the fun of it."Antonio seems to ignore him, and Lucky turns back to his task a little off put.
“The guy must be a psychopath or sumthin..” he mumbles to himself as he uses his knife to pry the gold filings out of a dead raiders mouth.
(You have gained an “efficient bag” (2 inventory slots, no stat encumbrance) a “small steel knife” and about 200$ worth of odds and ends)
Antonio cackles manically as the damaged APC catches up to the injured raider, and the thing gives out shortly after the extremely
sickening satisfying crunch. (You have gained the character trait “Sadistic”. If you had decided to abort your action, I would have given you the trait “Merciful”.
Teams of professional scavengers set about cannibalizing the various wrecks, and you ride back in the pod racer with Turner. Turner seems to have taken his own collection of bits and baubles as well, and they rattle around in the back of the pod racer.
“We won’t ever see the big wrecks again. If they go down close to the settlement, it’s considered public salvage. Still, we got the land ship through, and that had most of the stuff from our run. Most of the guys who died were actually mercenaries. That’s actually to our benefit, because it means we don’t have to pay them. I figure we owe you guys a share too. You weren’t actually on contract or anything, but ya fought with us, and that’s all that counts in my opinion. I figure you guys are the reason we survived too. They were expecting to outnumber us, but we just happened to have picked you guys up.” He flashes a grin at you.
“Lucky for us huh?”You spend the rest of the trip getting to know each other. Tucker seems like an easy going guy, if a little crass at times. To your surprise, it turns out he is not the owner of the caravan.
“I’m just good with a gun” he says.
“My sister Jessa is the one that’s got all that business stuff figured out. She aint my real sister to be honest. I was born here, and she came through a rift about 8 years ago. I guess you could say we kinda adopted her. I was only 14 at the time. She was a college student in her world. I’m not too clear on the idea, but it’s kind of like being a tinker, only more of the knowing stuff and less of the building stuff. She got the idea of owning a caravan stuck in her head one day, so I started running mercenary work and she started workin out trade deals, and we just finally got enough together to buy the land ship about four months back. I don’t know what we would of done had we lost the ship today. I’ll make sure that you guys get a share for that today.”He finally pulls in to a squat shack made from sheet metal and plywood. Despite the makeshift nature of the walls, the foundation is made of fresh looking concrete, and it boasts a professional looking wood floor on the inside. The land ship is docked in the back.
Inside you find Jessa looking much more comfortable behind a desk. Turner walks over and has a brief conversation with her before returning to the pair of you.
“So, were definitely going to get you a share, but we gotta catalogue everything we picked up and find out how much we actually made first. Then we can give you your portion of it. We should have it done by tomorrow afternoon if you could come back here then” At the door he presses a wad of coins into your hand.
“I aint supposed to, but I figure you need something to buy a hot meal and a bed for the night in the meantime. Just don’t tell Jess” He grins at you.
You both stand outside in the street, it is midnight. Luckey’s stomach growls.
"You wanna look into that hot meal he was talking about?" He asks his friend.
(You both gain 30$)
Nivian & Na Shugareth(Thought I had posted.)
"It is right for those of a noble stature to bear arms which befitteth royalty."
Nivian looks up and almost mistakes the remnant for her home. It would be foolish, however, to entertain this thought for much longer. Her home did not orbit any world with humans on it.
Nivian looks the stars and tries to identify the constellations of olde. She probably fails, but you never know.
Nivian looks to the sky as the land ship sails into the town. The shouts and noises of scavengers and all manner of creatures echo up over the sides of the ship. The star maps are one thing Nivian still knew well. They had been critical to her previous escape plans, back when she was still on the station. The night sky is vast and unusual here. The great wreck litters the sky, bits of ship still in motion in their orbits. Other oddities can be seen occasionally. A spot near the horizon looks to be oddly organic, but it would be impossible for an organic organism to exist at that scale. Disturbingly, there is not a single star in the sky. Many satellites and oddities, but not a single star to be seen. Where could a place like this exist?
“It does not, strictly speaking.”The dark humanoid beside her is speaking.
“This is not a universe like the ones we all have come from. When things fall into the rifts, the place between the universes, they come here. This is not a reality of its own, but simply a place of attraction. We all come to a stop here. It’s like the trap on a drain, or the filter in a car. It stops things that should not be here. That is the reason why it can all coexist. Creatures that exist under certain laws of reality would be destroyed were they to try to enter a universe that existed under different laws. Here, it can all co-exist. Magic, technology, science, psionics, all things that operate using different laws of reality, they all exist here. And much more. I see now, I understand. There is opportunity here, impossible opportunity. I see why I was sent here. One can escape the finality of time, if they understand how. My master is dead, but it means nothing here. Here, there is impossible opportunity. I must not fail him. I have much to do."Nivian, somewhat disturbed by these seemingly nonsensical revelations turns to look at him. The red eyes on his hands and throat were wide open. More eyes were beginning to open on his head and legs and chest and all over him. Nivian could sense something in him. The mind that had been present when she first met this creature nearly gone, something else had risen in him. It was an intelligence that made her cold and froze her mind. It felt like the thing she had seen in the rift, before she had lost consciousness. His head fell back limp, and a gash started to spread out from the base of his neck that looked eerily like a mouth.
A cold and strained voice echoed out from it, and she realized with a shock that it was the first time this creature had ever made noise, despite having been talking all day.
“GoOD bYE NiviAN” His strange starshard seemed to shine in his chest for a moment, and she felt the last of the original mind die. What this thing was now, she could not say. Then, he was gone. There was nothing left of him, as though he had never existed. She shivered from the cold of the night, though common sense told her that temperature could not affect the nanites. For the second time since she had arrived here, she felt strangely akin to the humans, fighting feelings that could not logically exist in a creature like her. What was this place? And what was it doing to them?
A while later, she felt the land ship come to a stop. She remembered getting up and talking to Jessa in a tiny building next to a tiny fire, agreeing to keep the rifle in exchange for payment for the mission, wandering out into the night. By the time the fog left her mind it was already midnight. Nivian stood in an unfamiliar part of town, neon signs advertized food and alcohol in the places around her. Humans and other things were moving thickly around her in the street. None of the people seemed to pay her any mind. She shivered again, this time she was sure it was from the temperature. What an odd sense to have developed. It would be a cold night.
Liktor BanefireHis name was Liktor Banefire. He had come to this world over a year ago by means he still did not completely understand. He was working as a mercenary, guarding the town during the night, until he could save enough that he could make off on his own adventures. He had seen the battle taking place outside the town as he was coming on shift, and now he stood watching the scavengers swarming over the wrecks. Nobody would be near the settlement with all this activity going on, it would be a slow shift.
He loved this world. He had not always though. When he first came here he had cursed and raved, furious that his righteous quest had been disturbed. Over time he had come to see it as a blessing. Though he had only good intentions, he had been shunned by the living in his old world. He was doomed by the nature of his existence to walk the night in constant conflict, attacked from all sides, caught in the middle between good and evil, day and night, alive and dead. It had been a miserable existence in hindsight. Here, in this place, he was accepted. He had been given a new chance at life (or… uh... unlife) and an opportunity to let old wounds and angers rest. It was a blessing.
He shouldered his long sword and began to lead his skeletal horse back towards the guard shack around midnight. His shift was over. He stood in line behind the other mercenaries at the office for his pay for the night. 50$, just like always.
“Hey, Liktor!” the captain called as he turned to go.
“This is going to half to be your last night. They want to change the garrison to be all marksmen now, so I can’t hire anybody without a gun anymore. I’m sorry to do this to you man, but I can still give you a severance package” he said, pressing another 100$ into his hands.
“Good luck to you, mate”
He sat in his flat, a tiny apartment on the second floor of the building. Today would be the day then; today he would start out for himself here. He just had to figure out where to go. He studied his map.
Inventory:
-Efficient bag
bag spot one - small steel knife
bag spot two - nothing
230$
Item:
4 leaf clover (+1 Luck)
Abilities:
Fortuitous coincidence –
Lucky is always in the right place at the right time.
Time of need –
When the odds are against Lucky, Lucky’s odds get better.
Traits:
Of interest to Gods – A Deity knows your name.
Of interest to Demons - A "Thing" knows your name.
6/10XP
Inventory:
-Ill fitting anti armor glove
-Big Ass Bowie Knife
- -18,000,000$
Item:
Horse hair gloves – Bonus to melee attacks when worn
Abilities:
Pugilism – bonus to unarmed strikes.
Iron will- Prevents one hit KO’s and allows for occasional rerolls in specific situations.
Traits:
-Scarred
6/10XP
Inventory:
-Souped-up assault rifle
Item:
-Excalibur (electro sword on demand)
Abilities:
Mist form –Disassociate form to bypass physical obstacles
Re Form – Change your base form, though this takes time & effort
Traits:
-None
6/10XP
Inventory:
-30$
Item:
Hidden blades (concealed melee weapon)
Abilities:
Blend – slip away into a crowd
Black Mark – You need to talk to someone who understands this world to learn more about this!
Traits:
-Sadistic
6/10XP
Inventory:
-map
- 150$
Item:
-skeletal horse
Abilities:
-Skeletal body- 50% chance for piercing weapons to miss, and takes less damage from slashing weapons but blunt weapons deal more damage.
-Telepathy - Without lungs or vocal cords it is difficult for skeletons to communicate. That is, it would be, if they didn't have telepathy!
Traits:
-none
((Since we were waiting so long for the update this time, I used some of that time to write out a bunch of notes for the game and draw a barely legible map. Everything on the map has some ideas behind it and you can theoretically visit all of it. There's also a whole bunch of places that aren't on the map because they are super secret special places. I have about 8 pages of notes just detailing the area your in right now, so everything should be really fleshed out. I got really caught up in the world building.
thats a good thing though right? ...right?))
Poll
4 (40%)
Author
Topic: Cosmic Crossroads - SubStandard Employment(Turn 10) (Read 14325 times)