Phoenix1

Heather gave Josef a kinda half-sympathetic, half-exasperated look when he asked her not to text his father about anything especially awesome he did. She didn't respond verbally, either to agree or argue. Heather did try to be sympathetic to Josef's dislike of the spotlight, but also his father was his biggest fan and would want to know. In this case Heather was fairly confident that it was worth doing, but she would at least give Josef the opportunity to do it himself first. Heather just grinned at votes came in for the wilderness trek. She was not even slightly surprised to be outvoted there. -- Once they were on the way and the town out of sight, Heather looked to the drone that was assigned to her and cheerily introduced herself to whoever might have been watching, giving the run-down on her background, her Blessing, why she had chosen to become a Knight, stuff like that. She wouldn't unilaterally do so for any of the others, but would offer to if they wanted to be introduced but didn't want to introduce themselves. If anybody took her up on the offer one might note that she also mentioned more about their skills and accomplishments, which she hadn't for herself (except for Josef, on the probably-off-chance that he wanted her to; her introduction of him would be as grounded as her own, and would not include the whole "confronted a demon at three years old" story). -- Hiking was boring, but that's what bards are for! As long as it didn't bother any of the others, Heather would be spending a lot of time on the trek singing songs, telling stories, and practicing with her illusions while she did it, weaving images of the characters she was describing and saying their lines in their voices - or at least, how she imagined them. When she described a locale, she'd craft an image of it, building it up gradually as she described each detail. She wouldn't dominate things if any of the others wanted to participate, she'd happily take turns, eagerly encourage anyone who wanted to sing along, and even suggest games of like taking turns creating a story a paragraph at a time and such. She'd also quiet down if any of the others were trying to talk about something. But she also wouldn't have a problem just keeping at it if nobody else wanted to join in. She didn't seem to have any trouble keeping up a steady stream of talking or singing even while hiking, although the illusions weren't necessarily continuous (illusions were pretty cheap in terms of Prana expenditures, but not quite free, especially given how new she was to her Blessing). She also chatted, probably kind mostly with Lily just because she didn't know her as well as the others she she had more things to ask about and talk about with her. She left hunting and foraging and such to those better suited for it, but was happy to cook when they camped. She wasn't particularly disappointed that nothing more exciting than Friendly Bear Encounter happened during the hike. It was no biggie, in the story version the whole thing would just get timeskipped anyway. -- "I think I'm gonna check in at the White Buck," Heather told the others once they were in the city. After her training at Fort Naoth she had the strength and endurance that carrying her pack around all day was well within her capabilities, but she'd still be happy to be able to just drop it off somewhere! "And then go exploring! Anyone who wants to join me is welcome!" She didn't figure it was imperative that they all stick together in town.

I'm counting 30 for skills, 13 for Wild Child, and 94 for powers after the fix to Wild Child, which looks like it totals 188 so you have an extra PP unless I miscounted somewhere.

A few weeks passed at Haven Academy, and the training missions didn't seem to be slowing down. If anything, they were becoming more common, to the point that Wulf, somewhat grumblingly, had to give up on sending out utterly overwhelming force any time she deployed students. I mean, don't get me wrong. It wasn't like anyone had been facing anything they couldn't handle. But it was changing to the point that even when you were taking your picks from the Mission Boards, you were getting actual fights. Well..."you" collectively as in the students of Haven. I'm not saying you guys personally actually faced anything over the past few weeks that would warrant rolling dice over, or anything. Investigation DC 20 or Expertise (Current Events) DC 25, Eidetic Memory applies You've been paying attention to the Mission Boards and while activity is still high it hasn't actually been growing. It's seeming to you like it's taking longer for Hunters to finish missions, or they're resting longer between them, or...something. In other words, the backlog is because some missions are staying on the board for longer than they usually would, rather than because new missions are coming in faster than they had been. Two degree success It seems to mostly be Seek and Destroy missions that are sticking around for longer. Anyway. Today you guys were being assigned missions again. I promise classes do actually happen in this school and you are in fact in classes more than on missions, it's just that they're not generally actually worth playing out on-screen. And these particular missions are actually on two different days but whatever, close enough. Team FLNS So hey, wild coincidence, remember that town you guys had airboated to that time? (I don't think I had ever actually named it back then, but it's called Leensvard). You were actually heading pretty near there! A hunter (lowercase h) had seen a couple Devil Grimm in the woods about a couple hours outside of town, and they had called in some Hunters (capital h) to deal with them; they weren't what would be considered dangerously close to the town for normal Grimm, but given the threat level of Devils, better safe than sorry. (Yeah Devil Grimm were more widely known these days, after the attack on Vale. Partially because you know people had seen video of the weird red Grimm and such, partially because in the aftermath of Vale "preventing a panic" wasn't really a practically achievable goal, and partially because thanks to you guys it was confirmed that Apex Idiom was up to his old tricks which meant Devil Grimm might start becoming more common.) The report indicated the hunter had only actually seen a couple of them, but couldn't positively confirm there weren't more on account of having taken one look at red Grimm and gotten the heck out of there. This was the main reason your team had been assigned to the mission. Your objective was to scout the area, locate the Devil Grimm, ascertain their number and type, and if you felt confident you could destroy them, do it, otherwise report back so a sufficient force could be fielded. Helpfully, Pyrrha had landed on a mission with SMIL today, so Sorena was free to assist. Huh Sorena had been there last time too. Double coincidence I guess. "I figure that'll up the odds you'll be able to just take them out outright," Wulf said. Nicoale The tone of voice she said it in, and the look she gave you when she said it, if you had certain context, might have conveyed that her true thoughts were probably more along the lines of, Knowing you lot you'll end up fighting them regardless of how many there actually turn out to be, so I may as well just accept that and send a newbie Maiden with you in case there happen to be a lot. So the five of you were down at the airdock to get an airship to take you. This was pretty routine although this time you were directed to a different...terminal? Sure I guess they're still terminals. To a different terminal than you were usually sent to. Slightly unusual but not unprecedented. Chapi or Insight DC 15 You notice that some of the staff in this terminal seem to recognize Chapi in particular. Like, plenty of people around the city recognize you guys in general, at this point, but she gets some like nods and smiles and such that seem more personally familiar rather than the general maybe-not-so-minor celebrity that all of you have received since the horde of dino-Grimm. Team RACL Your mission had been assigned on a somewhat-emergency basis. A raiding party of bandits - identified as members of the Garud Tribe, one of the three biggest bandit tribes in the kingdom - had been sighted heading for a logging town called Berdsrun, and no Huntsmen or Huntresses were in the area. It wasn't the entire tribe or anything, but the Garud tribe was big enough that even just one of their raiding parties could be a serious threat to a town that size, a dangerous opposition to a typical team of students, and...plausibly a halfway-decent challenge for Team RACL? It's a rough curve but it's the one we grade on here. Of course the day's Team Randomizer had landed Pyrrha with you, so that was pretty sad for them, but hey they're the ones who decided to be bandits so they deserve what they get am I right? This wasn't to say the town was totally safe and everything was going to be fine. Even taking the fastest airship available, it was a flight of several hours to Berdsrun. The bandits were in much slower vehicles - hauling wagons that could carry a lot of goods and could handle the rough roads that were about the best infrastructure got out away from the cities - but they were approaching from a much shorter distance. It was impossible to say whether you'd arrive first. But you'd find out shortly. The pilot reported ETA to destination was five minutes. Robin Your Semblance has been acting weird. Not weird like glitchy, like it had been with the vampires, but...weird. It's doing things it doesn't usually do. Normally it Warned you of danger. But three days ago it gave you a Warning that the latest Ninjas of Love volume had {arrived at the local comic store or been posted on-line as applicable, I've never quite been clear if Ninjas of Love is a comic or a fanfiction}. Yesterday it had Warned you that the cafeteria was going to be out of chocolate chip cookies. And as you drew closer to this town, it wasn't giving you any Warning about how dangerous these bandits might have been to you. Instead, for the first time in your life, it was giving you a Warning about somebody else. To be specific, it was Warning you that Rhys was going to be faced with an important choice. One option would cost him an opportunity that might be hard to get again. A second option would place him in substantial personal, but not mortal, danger. And a third option would place the village you were flying to defend in peril. Semblance Perception DC 30, cannot be Routined ...Oh wait actually sorry here's the Warning about the personal danger level. It's higher than you'd expect but not excessive. Definitely gonna be more to this than just a raising party of bandits, though. DC 35 You get a vision of people all in black plate armor, wielding enormous flaming greatswords, and marching under a black flag emblazoned with a red moon trailing what look like drops of blood rather than the moon's normal shards. DC 40 By hitting this DC you predict that there will be four Knights of the Bloody Moon among the enemy force (if you hadn't hit the DC/didn't hit it but are reading this anyway, this is the base number which I may choose to increase depending on certain circumstances).

Team FLNS Well that...explained it? The Fable brothers...didn't necessarily seem less confused and disoriented, as such, but on the other hand it's like...how could they really argue? After several moments during which several of them made aborted attempts to say something, before finally Farly said, "I mean...not gonna pretend it doesn't go over my head a bit, but yes, given those two options this one is definitely preferable. So...thank you. I apologize for our outburst, we thought...well, we didn't really know what to think, frankly." "So then, that really was Fen?" Fadi asked, still kinda trying to wrap his head around it. "I mean...she grew up, and then came back to...wait, but, how did you even manage to time travel? I mean I get with the box thing," he gestured at where Delores, uh, had been, evidently, and then did a double-take, because she was totally gone now you guys. "He mentioned Dr. Brown," Farid answered. "Must mean Haven's Science Professor, I've heard his Semblance is supposed to be time travel, although I didn't know it could actually do anything like this. ...But. Wait. It's been eight years? That doesn't add up. Fen would only be eighteen years old. You'd have to be second-year students. That was eight Nevermores!" "Um," Falk said. "Given our baby sister evidently just traveled through freaking time to literally snatch us from the jaws of death, perhaps instead of standing here wasting her teammates' time boggling and asking an endless series of questions we should go see her?" "Yeah," Fred agreed. "And again, you-" "Beaks," Faust said. "What?" "Literally snatched us from the beaks of death. Not the jaws." "Oh my gods really Faust are you-" "And again," Fred said, more firmly this time, and his brothers shut up. "You have our thanks. We aren't Huntsmen, but if there's ever anything we can do to repay you, please tell us." Nicoale Your scroll buzzes. Remember how you had to leave for work soon? Well, now it's soon. You can make it on time if you head out now, but if you want to check on Chapi first you'll probably end up a few minutes late (unless of course you get a "ride" from her, in which case you've got plenty of time.) Take another four Limit for your Working for Schnee Complication. -- Fen had to wait for a fair bit, but not too terribly long; mostly the wait could be attributed to travel time. But then they arrived, all twelve. There wasn't much room around just the one table, so they pulled two others and several chairs over, and gathered around. Their Auras had recovered enough that they were more-or-less fully healed, by this point. They...didn't really say anything at first. I mean, it was weird. They hadn't been separated from you for the past eight years. To their perspective, it hadn't even been an hour, but now you were eight years older. Your notes offered a distraction. They passed them out to who they were labeled for, read them. ...Several of them looked at you like you were wearing a clown suit or something. Although Faust said, "Was it Mores? I bet it was Mores. I hope you threw him off a cliff." Uh...he was possibly joking. Faust could be kinda a joker. Finally, Fred said, "So um. ...I guess we kinda disappeared on you for a bit there, huh? We're sorry about that, Fen." "In our defense, we got abducted by time travelers," Falk said. "And evidently we weren't allowed to go back or let you know we were okay or anything," Fabian added. "Seems kinda rude if you ask me, but evidently them's the rules," Fedir chimed in.

Okay yeah I was counting post-Limit but in retrospect it probably makes more sense to be based on the total dynamic points, so yep that should work!

Dynamic Points Only is Quirk 1 per full 5 PP, not a flat Quirk 4 (I'm guessing whoever you were looking at had a 20ish pointer), so Robin's should only be Quirk 1, increasing the enhancement cost to 5. However, Easily Removable discount rounds up, so Inugami would have a 14 point discount and its cost would be down to 19. I don't think Only When Deflected really flies as a Limit; it's not like Requires Movement where there's lots of very common ways to stop it, and also just mathematically the discount for the Limit pays for the cost of Deflect. It would work as a Quirk. I'd be cool with "Only if Deflect's natural roll beats attack roll" (it has to be the natural roll because Deflect's minimum would automatically beat any miss barring non-stacking bonuses).

Nicoale Your and Sorin's explanations do seem to be landing at least somewhat. Some of them had been building up more towards anger and that's diminishing now. There is still a lot of confusion, and they aren't quite entirely convinced, but not in a like "you need to make social checks to get them to believe you" way, they basically believe you're being honest, more in a "they don't really understand why that would be the case and are going to have additional questions about that" way. You don't get a sense that they're likely to do anything rash at the moment. ...They are also extremely confused about why Fen just took off there, and slightly concerned but not any more than that. It's obviously going to take some time and probably some direct interaction before they actually wrap their heads around the fact that she's their sister on an intuitive level. To what extent they look concerned they also look ashamed or guilty, probably because of what Chapi said.

Heather might have been just a tad disappointed that nobody in particular had come to see her off, except for the part where her best friends were all here with her! She did take a moment to go over to Dimitri though, and say, "Don't worry, Dimitri, I'll-" keep him safe? Hah, yeah, right. She'd be slightly surprised if the thought that Josef would have any trouble whatsoever had even entered his father's mind. "-make sure to text you whenever he does something especially awesome!" Sure the whole thing would be recorded but it wasn't like Dimiti could literally sit there watching the entire journey. Most of it was just gonna be like walking and stuff and he was a busy man! Heather took the little token as instructed. She went through her pack, and shrugged it on. Her heart started beating fast, and faster as Levont spoke. "Do you accept this charge?" "I do," Heather said firmly. "Then your First Trial begins now." And Heather swayed on her feet, and almost fell over. Something flashed through her mind, when Levont said those words, a sensation as ephemeral as it was powerful. No vision did she see, no whispered words or cryptic rhymes did she hear, although for just a moment she almost imagined that the other Pages were almost glowing. Or...maybe not so much radiating light themselves, as just being more brightly lit than the rest of their environment, as if somehow the first rays of the dawning sun had touched them specifically and nothing else, however little sense that seemed to make. Then it was over, nothing left but a memory...and an odd sense of certainty. They were going to do something. Something important. A story had begun, and one that would be retold through generations. ...Maybe there was something, to the idea that her narrations were predictions rather than alterations. She shook her head to clear it of the daze. She looked to Remy with a grin. "Okay then. Time to start the biggest quest of all!" Step 1: Logistics! Heck yeah! We are off to a rockin' start! "I think road has my vote," Heather said. One might think this was because she less used to the rigors of travel, and would prefer a more comfortable journey even if it took longer. This was not in fact the case; Gen and Remy were two of Heather's best friends after all! Plus being able to survive on her own was a skill Laurel had made sure she learned. She wasn't quite as outdoorsy as the two of them, but she wasn't some pampered city girl either. But taking the roads would take them through more settlements, and they might be able to help some people along the way.

OOC Oh also, everybody take 4 downtime actions. Team RACL "Hohoho! Knew he'd be fine!" Nick said gregariously when Rhys returned with Robin. "Still good to have it confirmed," Ben said, although yeah it hadn't exactly been the toughest prediction ever. I do want to point out that there is a difference between "No they wouldn't try to fight Robin one on one that would be stupid" and "Robin is in precisely zero danger whatsoever". Solstice remained the only member of the other teams in the class who was clear on the fact that RACL and FLNS did actually have limits, and while yes she would be Robin against a single vampire any day it was possible that there had been others, so she did look a touch relieved. Although when Robin said he didn't know who it was Solstice gave him a kinda concernedly curious look, because yeah Solstice was definitely intuitive enough to see right through his utter lack of a poker face. She didn't actually press him on it though, because if he didn't want to tell them presumably he had a reason for that. "Sounds like a plan to me," Solstice agreed to Lapis's suggestion. "Um, but, what do we do about...?" she kinda gestured at all the unconscious vampires. "I'll Scroll the cops, let them know we've got a bunch of minions for pickup but the leader escaped." "Tell them to bring a rope," Jack said, deadpan. "And thank you all, really," Ben said. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't-" "Flip!" Jack suddenly snapped. "What!?" Jack let out a heavy sigh. "This means RQKN is the best. Darn it." "Whu...?" "Because now they're the only team in class that hasn't been rescued by RACL and/or FLNS. Gods blast it. Mark me, there will be no living with Quora after this." "RQNT," Ben said. "I'm not taking it back, it's true!" "No...they're RQNT now, not RQKN." "Oh. Sure, whatever. Doesn't change the fact that Quora will never let any of us live it down." Team FLNS Chapi was many things but a linebacker wasn't really one of them, and four of the Fable brothers went rushing past her. They didn't like trample her or shove her aside or anything, but they basically blew past and maybe left her spinning in a Bunado for a couple seconds, because Remnant was the sort of world where that kind of thing could happen. Regardless they didn't actually go far, more-or-less halting cold when they got outside and saw, yeah, they weren't in the forest anymore. While they were trying to process that, Chapi dropped the bomb about the time travel. Which...yeah did sound maybe just a tad bit completely insane and also entirely outside of anything even resembling their frame of reference. I mean yes there had been some pretty weird things to happen on Remnant but that didn't mean they personally had encountered any of them. Again, they lived in a cabin in the woods. To be fair, once you got past that being completely impossible, it did kind of explain a few things. "Um...we don't have Scrolls," one of one of themFerdinand replied to Nicoale in a kinda dazed-sounding voice. Fen pressed a piece of paper into one of theirFred's hands and then took off. He read it, blinking, turned it over...stared at it for a few moments. Since you guys weren't doing much else to stop them, the rest of them stepped out of Delores. The one Fen had handed the note to passed it around wordlessly. Another one, the one who had called Chapi outFabian earlier, said, "I don't think they're lying." Fen had flown off. The one who she had originally handed the note to looked at Nicoale (through Delores's doorway if you guys stayed inside). "Look, you can't just-!" he began to say, angrily, but the more generally conciliatory oneFarly interrupted, "Fred." Fred kinda gritted his teeth but gave an incremental nod, and his brother continued, "Listen, we're grateful for the rescue. You all saved our lives. But...if what you're saying is true, if this is actually the future and we actually traveled through time...I mean, I don't understand what 'timey-wimey causality' means but...um..." "What he's trying to say," one of one of the othersFarid chimed in, "is that that still doesn't give you the right to just abduct us from our timeline and take us to yours. We're sorry about what happened to your Fen's brothers. But putting our Fen through the same thing isn't going to help, you know?" Their wounds were starting to diminish at this point, as they recovered enough Aura energy to start accelerating their natural healing again, although it would still take a bit even for Aura to heal some of the injuries they received. The one who had interrupted Fred spoke again. "Look, if there's something we can do to help her...I mean, we can meet her at the Mac and Ronalds. Or...where it used to be, I guess? But...then you have to bring us back to where we belong, okay?"

"You...can't feel anything?" Heather asked after Josef explained what had happened with his Blessing. There was concern in her voice and on her face. Pain sucked, but it sucked for a reason. And evidently it wasn't just pain he couldn't feel. Heather had never encountered a problem that was simultaneously so "do you need a hug?" while also being something a hug literally could not help with at all! "Well, um, you know, Blessing powers tend to be weakest when you first get them, right? So...maybe once yours develop you'll, like, outgrow the problem, or something?" she offered optimistically, if not very believably. (She knew that the Scouring and re-Blessing rituals and such were a thing but she wasn't sure about the logistics.) "I don't...think I have, like, touch illusions," she said, a little apologetically, not that illusions would actually be a practical solution here even if she did and even if they worked. Although thinking about it in those terms did make her realize, "It's just, um, tactile, right? Because nerves? I mean...you can still feel, like, emotions, right?"

"I mean...I dunno!" Heather answered Karl a bit defensively. "Narrating for reality seemed cooler...at least until I started thinking about it and realized I'm not sure it isn't mostly a placebo effect." When Gen said the power words were the best part she just kinda hand-shrugged. "Okay I guess maybe I buried the lede..." "My theory is the illusions are to make my stories more immersive. But, uh, yeah. It's pretty weird." -- "Gooot it," Heather said with a sage nod when Lily explained how her Tithe had worked, and what she'd been going for. That made more sense. "That's pretty cool, actually. The whole Knight of the People thing." -- Heather listened attentively to Levont's instructions, nodding a couple times. She...decided she wouldn't request a drone to oversee her training. She wasn't actually sure how much of a show she'd be able to put on. Once they were dismissed, she went to enjoy the celebration, eating and chatting and dancing and catching up with people from the village. She was a bit sad that they would be leaving again so soon, but not so much that it impeded her enjoyment of the celebration, or the time she had. -- She stayed up late and slept in late the next morning, as much just to enjoy the opportunity to do so (which had very much not existed at Fort Naoth) as because of the celebration. But once she was up and showered and had eaten...it was time to figure out how these powers worked. And for some of them it was easy enough. The power words were straightforward. The illusions were easy enough - having a photographic memory and a vivid imagination definitely helped with that. She quickly came to discover that the Blessing had made her...faster. Like, a lot faster, almost as fast as Gen had used to be. She had forgotten to check for physical enhancements despite how common they were, but that was super-cool. She was disappointed to find that she wasn't any stronger though. Oh well. Near the end of the first day, she figured out how to kind of imbue the light and sound her illusions could produce into her sword. She couldn't produce damaging intensities on her own, but focused through the crystalline structure of her Dragonsteel blade did seem to do the job. That was also really cool, because glowing swords were awesome. And yet, she couldn't really tell if any of her attempts at narration actually...did anything. The next day, she came up with a theory that maybe the narration needed the target to hear it. So she fell back into her old habits, going around town and helping people with various tasks. Now, she helped normally as well, since like, she wasn't actually sure her powers were doing much (the super-speed was super-useful here too). But while she worked, she narrated things for whoever she was working with, and when she finished she asked if it had seemed to do anything. And the results were...kinda maybe? Like perhaps the tasks were a bit easier than they would have expected, or they felt a little more focused. She had definitely kept it from being boring! How much of it was actual improvement and how much of it was just them trying to be encouraging she didn't really know. The problem, she thought, was that she was trying to narrate things that were too obviously already going to happen. These were day-to-day tasks in the village, utterly routine. There wasn't really any question that they'd be accomplished successfully. She needed something more uncertain, more random. Where the right narration at the right time could make a difference. And they were all supposed to be practicing with their powers, soo... On day three, Heather asked if any of her fellow Pages would be interested in sparring. If anybody took her up on it, it would turn out that fighting Heather was a little...weird. She spoke as she fought, mostly a sort of running description of what was happening, with occasional quips or dramatic pronouncements, seeming mainly like she was trying to hype herself up. Maybe it worked? She did seem to press a bit harder the longer a fight went on. It was hard to say if she was actually getting faster or stronger or better in any way, or just falling into more of a rhythm. She did seem to describe something happening - like blocking an attack, or one of her own striking home - slightly before it actually happened, but it didn't feel like there was any force, like, interfering with them when she did. And she didn't get it correctly every time. She'd start to wonder if maybe it wasn't so much that her words were changing what happened as predicting it...not necessarily reliably, but maybe yet better than chance. The really weird ones though were when she narrated something more out-there and it did seem to happen, like a stumble, or a move causing a pulled muscle, or something. Things like that were definitely happening more often than you'd expect from chance, after she described them, but it was still hard to say that she was actually doing anything to cause them, aside from maybe manipulating probabilities. Although there would be one point where someone landed a solid hit on her...only for their weapon to pass through her and her to say from three feet away "But it turned out it was only an illusion!" She got really excited when that happened, because she was almost positive she hadn't actually created that illusion before-hand. It was one of the only concrete indications she was able to get that her words were actually doing something, actually editing reality in some way. Regardless she uh...wouldn't actually manageShe's PL 3+1 and excepting Lily everyone else is 4, plus most of her best stuff is ally-support, so pound for pound she'd be at a fairly substantial disadvantage 1v1 against any of the other PCs. to win all that many of the spars, which would be kinda disappointing. She'd keep trying, though, as long as the others were willing to spar her. If they kept it going until the end of the week, then on the last day, the frustration at how finnicky her power was and how it seemed like she had turned out strictly weaker than some of the others, would spill out during one of the spars as an emotional illusion, intense enough to be distracting in combat and potentially even influence behavior. ...So, you know, that was cool.

Routine Insight (DC 20) 24 after Routine

Team FLNS Soo...remember how you guys responded when you were first introduced to this plan? After spending a year both A) dealing with all the nonsense you had dealt with and B) having Dr. Meritt Brown as your Science teacher? ...Yeah. They weren't gonna get it that easily. They lived in a cabin in the woods. ThreeFred ofFarly themFarid all started speaking simultaneously. "What are you even talking about!?" "I'm afraid I don't understand." "That doesn't make sense." The three of them kinda exchanged looks, and then the one who had said he didn't understandFarly continued, "Listen, um, we are grateful for the rescue. I..." he looked at Fen directly, "I'm not sure who you are. Or believe yourself to be. But you can't be our sister. You...look a lot like her, admittedly. But she's only ten years old. And right now she is alone, and terrified, and we need to make sure she's alright, okay? Then we can...figure all this out." "...That isn't a forest," said the one who had been staring at Fen previouslyFadi. "And I don't hear the booming...wait. Where have you taken us!?" The Fabel brothers started moving, practically simultaneously. Three of themFred, Francis, and Falk angling for the door, the others more moving to try to interfere with any attempts to block them. Mechanics I dunno that you particularly do now that you're safe at Haven, but if you want to try to keep them from reaching the door, you have to beat them in a Mobility check. They each receive +5 from Team Checks for this purpose. If you want to block more than one of them, you need to beat the highest result among the checks of the ones you wish to block by an additional degree per additional one blocked. (You can of course attempt to stop them by other means as well, if you like.) Fred Francis Falk Perception DC 30, cannot be Routined (technically an opposed check so if you beat it Routine they would roll) Fang is also trying to slip out in the confusion; if you beat this check you can also block him as above. He received Team Check bonuses to his Stealth, so his Mobility is unassisted. I rolled it off-line so the die tower doesn't spoiler my spoiler. 🙄 He got a natural 5, total 15. Team RACL Anya couldn't hear Robin now any more than she could after he had first disappeared. Her vibrational communication still reached him, though, so he had to be within a mile. Rhys (I'm assuming he's activating full Apollo's Senses, which with the Extended 2 drops the DC to 20) did, however, pick up Robin's familiar scent as he got outside. He was down on the first level, maybe some five-hundred yards or so away. He smelled physically exhausted but unharmed and at full Aura. "Um," Jack said at the suggestion to search the building, kinda just looking around the, you know, debris-filled kinda hollowed-out shell of a building with two collapsed floors that you guys had left in your wake (to be fair, the worst of it was really Nick's fault, although if your experience with FLNS is any indication you guys will probably get the blame credit for the structural damage anyway). "There was one door up there that we hadn't gone into, it might lead deeper in," Ben suggested, leaping up to what...remained of the top floor, and throwing open the door that had been opposite the entrance. "Looks like it's just an office." "Building searched!" Jack reported, smirking a bit, although then more seriously he said, "Here let me see what I can find." And then he turned and...walked face-first into one of the walls. "...Right. Aura." "Also that's how you got in trouble in the first place!" Robin The door wasn't locked, fortunately for local municipal maintenance crews, and it led outside. You were on the first level of Mistral and...you don't actually have the Mistral Local proficiency so that's about as much as you can peg about your location but that's okay because Mistral's easy to navigate! (Mistral's actually kinda complicated to navigate what with all the different levels, the swapping between indoor and outdoor sections of the cities, various stairwells and elevators that only travel between particular ranges of floors, entire neighborhoods sectioned off from each other by solid stone, and so on, but living at Haven Academy lets you replace all that with "just keep going up and you'll get home eventually!")

Team RACL Anya landed a hit to Vlad's shoulder, which when you were running at supernatural speeds while carrying a guy was not especially helpful, and Vlad...didn't quite over-balance, but it threw off his stride, although he kept his hold on Jack. ...Until Lapis made the comment about his clothes. "Really?" Vlad asked. "If you would like to discuss business once this little tussle is done with, my Scroll handle is @KillerCountChocula. Send me a qu-oh," he cut off as Lapis took advantage of his momentary distraction to yoink Jack free from his grasp. A moment later, Rhys delivered his warning and turned. Vlad did not pursue. "Well. Hopefully I can get a new suit out of this whole debacle, at least," he grumbled to himself consolingly, before wrapping his ludicrously long cape around himself and vanishing into shadow. By the time you guys got back to the hostel, the vampire spawn were all down (judging by the additional damage to the floor and the fact JNBS were all on one side of the room now it seems like they had Hunter'd their way out of the press and then Nick and Solstice had broken out the grenades). The dire wolves were still up and fighting but they would have had that well in hand even before you guys got back. Once you did? I mean, please. I'm not going to say they were down before Lapis and/or Solstice could finish waking Jack up, but he didn't actually get to take a combat action, so...yeah. Jack kinda blinkingly looked around, orienting himself. "Oh," he said, a bit sardonically. "You called in RACL. ...That was mean of you." Anya and Lapis may or may not have been a bit new to pick up on it still, but Rhys for sure would know that coming from Jack Bones that was basically equivalent to a "thank you, we owe you one". "Hohoho! And I will sleep like a baby!" "Are you okay?" Solstice asked him. Jack eyed her a moment. "Are you?" Solstice's general compassion and concern for others have been well established so I'm sure it's perfectly obvious to everybody that she was definitely not dodging that question at all when instead of answering it she suddenly looked around worriedly and asked, "Wait, where's Robin?" "One of the vampires did the same mist-grab-thing that they did to you. I had originally assumed he would also be down here. Since he wasn't...it seems likely the vampire responsible took him to some other location. If so...he might be facing it alone," Ben said grimly. ... "Aw that poor, doomed vampire!" "What an absolute idiot." "Well...no, one on one? Against Robin? That doesn't make sense. Their tactics had been really good before!" "Possibly it just dropped him in some chamber that is easy to access in gaseous form but not so easy for a corporeal being to exit? It would probably be wise to go look for him." (I'm not saying that the thoroughly-defeated gaseous-locked Chro was even then passing through the substructure close enough to get an earful of just how stupid he had been going for Robin like that. But I'm not saying that he wasn't, either.) OOC Battle over! Everybody take a Hero Point! Team FLNS As the battle began winding down and you guys started returning to Delores, several of the Fable brothers were speaking at once. "Well I guess we were lucky a team of veteran Hunters happened to be-" one of themFedir started saying as Fen reached the doorway (yeah you guys had just waltzed in and wiped out eight Nevermores like it wasn't no thing, they assumed you were veterans). "Fadi, Fang, go get Fen. Don't get too close until she-" another oneFred was directing a couple of the others. "Just hold still and let me apply the-" a thirdFeivel was telling the most-injured oneFabian, as he bandaged a deep cut in his side. "Wait...are you...why do you look like-" anotherFadi started to ask Fen, peering at her face. "How does this work? I mean I've seen transfor-" yet anotherFerdinand was more asking himself than anybody, as he stared wonderingly around the space-warped interior of Delores. ...And all of the talking stopped when Fen raised her weapon. The Fable brothers were badly hurt, Aura-broken, and obviously painfully outclassed here. But they weren't cowards. Weapons came out, held at ready guards, not in threatening stances, and two of themFred and Francis moved immediately to put themselves between the apparent threat and their brothers. "Woah woah woah!" one of the twoFred who had moved to the front (the same one who had been telling Fadi and Fang to go get Fen) shouted. "Please," one of the brothersFarly implored. "There is no need for hostility. You saved us." The tension...did seem to diminish a bit, as Chapi explained the plan. And sure, that sounded good to them, except... Well, they were on their guard now, no longer entirely sure you guys had purely positive intentions. And as it turned out, Fen didn't acquire her reading-people skills on sheer osmosis. "Wait, just wait a minute. What's going on here? What aren't you telling us?" the most-injured of the brothersFabian demanded. The others seemed to trust his instincts. Fortunately, Nicoale's authoritative statement (and probably more, the fact that it seemed like the Huntress with the sniper rifle was listening to her) kept them from trying anything aggressive. "Thank you!" the one who had tried to de-escalate things beforeFarly said. "Yes, our sister is out there. We have to get to her. She's scared. The Nevermores came...I think she awakened a Semblance. We need to-" Fen and Nicoale stepped on-board. The doors closed behind them. And since Dr. Brown would be making his own way home, that was everybody. VWORP! It wasn't super-obvious that any transport had taken place, from inside Delores. The frosted windows on her door didn't let through much detail. But it wasn't exactly difficult to notice the difference between the greenery of the forest, and the blue of the sky at the top of the mountain. You had made it back to the future. And it appeared the Fable brothers had all made it with you! "Wait..." the one who had been staring at FenFadi asked, "What just happened?" Whether they had wanted to or not. OOC Fen! Take a shiny new (well, old, but whatever) Relationship Complication! And then take a Hero Point from it, because yeah I would say complicated is the word to describe it.

The brother with the best relevant skill will roll against the various skill checks. I'm giving Fen a +5 circumstance bonus because a threat of violence after what you all just did is in fact highly credible. Fred Intimidation vs. Fen (DC 20) Fabian Insight vs. Chapi (DC 14) Francis Intimidation vs. Nicoale (DC 40 since ties go to higher bonus)