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)

"Maybe," she replied. Her instincts did seem favorable towards the "enhancing" description anyway. "I...think I'm going to have to practice with them before I really understand how they work." -- While Heather applauded Lily with the same enthusiasm she had for the others, it might have been slightly distractedly, as she was admittedly trying to figure out if her narration had actually...done anything and realizing that she had no way of actually knowing that, because she had no idea what the speech would have looked like if she hadn't said a thing. ...She was starting to wonder if maybe her instincts were just pranking her, now. I can speak power words, she thought consolingly. They are very loud and make things go boom! -- The kinda, uh, minty-fresh solidified goo-writing was cool. She didn't...quite understand how all it worked but...wait. "Di-' she started to ask when Lily rejoined them, but kinda cut herself off. "You didn-" she tried again, but aside from getting two syllables further that attempt did not seem to meet with any more success than the first. "Wh-" came a third attempt, no more successful than the prior two at congealing into an actually coherent thought or question. How do you ask someone if they had brought a pack of chewing gum into the Crystal Pool and come back with bubblegum powers? ...Evidently, if you were Heather of Greenbrook anyway, you didn't. And that's the story of how Lily managed to be the only one of the new Pages that day whose Blessing had managed the truly impressive feat of leaving Heather completely speechless.

"I...huh. I don't...think so? Or like...maybe in principle but not in practice? It's...I'm not entirely clear on where the limits are, other than that they definitely exist. And that I can't conjure bananas." ... "I don't think it really...makes stuff happen. It's more subtle than that. Tweaks things so that something that already could happen now does happen. Uh...sometimes. Like, it's not really probability manipulation, I don't think, but it can make...people...luckier...? Wait, but how is that not probability manipulation?" The more she tried to explain it the more she kinda wondered if she was completely misinterpreting her instincts, or something. She felt that there was a power in her voice, an ability to change the world around her with her words. But maybe she was just taking the whole power word thing and building it up in her head to be bigger than it actually was? Like...the more she tried to talk about it the more it started to seem like she wasn't actually making anything happen differently. The fact that she still hadn't managed to come up with a way to show it off didn't exactly help... "...I can speak power words. They're really loud and make stuff go boom! I just didn't want to make anything here go boom, so I went with the illusions instead." That was an exciting power, right? -- "A-and badass! Slightly creepy but definitely also badass!" Heather reiterated, blushing a bit. She hadn't meant to like call him out on his Blessing or anything. Awkward. ...Of course, a few moments later he demonstrated that yep, it wasn't an arbitrarily conjured weapon of blood, but was evidently made from his own blood. How was that not creepy? Sometimes Heather felt like she didn't understand Karl at all...

Heather replied to Josef's taunt with a kinda wry grin. It wasn't that she was completely oblivious to Josef's relationship issues with his father. She just massively underestimated them. It's like...she knew that Josef was not, in fact, fond of the story of his three-year-old confrontation with a demon (even if she had some trouble understanding why, because it was a great story). And okay, over the years she could admit that Dimitri probably had given it more weight than it likely actually warranted, in considering some of the choices he made regarding his son. It's just...she mostly took it as a basically normal case of high parental expectations putting pressure on their child, which she could sympathize with, plus your typical "parent tells embarrassing stories about their child" type stuff (Heather didn't have any personal experience along any of these lines, of course, but the entire corpus of family-centric sitcoms couldn't possibly steer her wrong!) So she interpreted Josef's statement not as a hurtful taunt, but as sarcastic banter. Sure, his tone was serious, but Josef wasn't exactly the most sociable guy in the village. She'd known him for long enough to "know" he was kinda bad at sarcasm. -- Although to be fair, there were also times when ignoring Josef's tone could get one closer, rather than further, from the truth of what he was trying to express, and Heather took the compliment for what it was. She did notice he seemed a bit distracted, and wondered if he had seen the same sort of thing she had, but she didn't ask because talking about the Blessing process was taboo. And it...kinda made sense, if everyone experienced something like that. It was kinda weird but the idea of talking about it felt wrong to her. It seemed like it should be private. Thinking about it only made the feeling of melancholy stronger, and this was a happy day so they couldn't have that! She distracted herself by...well, first by listening to Gen's speech, but once he had gone for the Pool she replied, "Even more than it looks. I think the illusions are just kinda part of it, and not even a big part. I can say things and...kinda make them more likely to happen, sort of. I think. Like narrating for reality, almost. It's a little weird. And I had stage fright before but not after. I think it's actually kind of a super-storytelling power. The illusions are just there to help make my stories more immersive. Or something. Sooo...yeah! Pretty 'me' power." Which was...more-or-less what she was going for. Heather, like Laurel before her, bought into a theory - she wasn't really sure how common it was - that if you choose things like Tithes and your tattoo for having strong personal sentimental value, the Blessing would be something that was more "true to yourself". Which is why she had only brought her father's ring and her mother's book, and hadn't asked for anything from the Archives. So...score one for that theory, she supposed! ...Oh. Or it was because she had Tithed a book. That...that would also make sense, in retrospect. -- Okay yeah Heather could admit it she did look a bit uncomfortable when Gen used his speech to call out the people that had badmouthed his mother. Not that they didn't deserve it, but still. But he finished up with an encouragement to the kids so it didn't actually slow her applause down any. And then he got back and Heather couldn't help it, she cracked up. Gen, Eugenides, of all people, had gotten super-strength and super-speed. On top of his already existing super-strength and super-speed. Oh man the poor, helpless demons! He was literally running faster than sound! As a newly-Blessed Page! "That is just unfair in all the best ways!" she told him, still kinda giggling.

Heather did notice Karl's parents in the crowd...buuuut she also noticed how they were definitely more "in the crowd" than "part of the crowd". Part of her wanted to say to Karl, "Well, at least they're here!" Fortunately, Heather had by this point stuck her foot in her mouth with Josef often enough that she was able to recognize when a well-intended statement of support would probably not have the desired result, so she kept quiet. Although evidently those lessons, though well-learned, were somewhat selectively applied, because she couldn't help leaning over to say quietly to Josef, eyes dancing with amusement, "Your Dad's the best," with a little giggle. I mean come on, the guy had dressed up as a burning stick to show support for his son! How could you not love that? -- Heather cheered and applauded all the speeches of her fellow Recruits with her normal and expected levels of enthusiasm. Err...mostly. She could admit it, Karl's speech drew a kind of wide-eyed look of surprise from her, and when he finished her applause was maybe half a second slow and slightly more subdued. I mean, good on him for saying what was in his heart but...oh snap! -- Little surprise, her reactions to the power displays was similarly effervescent, after each new Page had rejoined the group. "Dude the fire thorns are wicked!" she told Josef excitedly. "Demons gonna get their faces wreecked~!" ... The look she gave Remy was one of flat astonishment. "You can fly!?" she said immediately. I mean okay sure hover but was she moving laterally while not touching the ground? Yes, yes she was. That was flying as far as Heather was concerned. "Jealous!" she said with a laugh, and though she was certainly at least half-joking, even that was actually a pretty big deal for her. Heather was one of those people who tended to be just honestly happy for the good fortune of others. Remy had a noble heritage, a full and supportive family, access to wealth and luxury, a (I'm guessing) huge house, and still got to enjoy the same sort of personal day-to-day freedom as Heather did at least on most days. And this was still the first time she had expressed any sense of jealousy towards her whatsoever. ... {Gushing about Gen and Lily's powers will be edited in here or possibly added to a future post!} ... And for the second time in a row Karl got the most muted reaction from Heather. "Sooo...yeah, blood spear's looks pretty badass!" she said, with a slightly nervous laugh. "Um...tad creepy, not gonna lie, but still! Badass!" She considered asking where the blood for it came from and decided she neither needed nor desired to know.

When Heather's turn comes, she takes to the stage with a touch of trepidation, her heart beating a bit fast and butterflies in her stomach. Waving to the crowd with her fellow Recruits arrayed around her was fine, but she wasn't actually super-used to being the individual focus of attention, and she was hit by a bout of stage fright. Fortunately, she had prepared her speech well in advance, so she took a deep, slightly shuddery breath, and said, "Five years ago, my sister stood here to give a speech. I remember watching it. I was sitting right there," she said, pointing at one of the chairs (in the front, if there were rows). "She began her speech saying she wanted to thank everyone, everyone in the village, for everything they had done for her, for us, growing up." "I can only echo her words. They say it takes a village to raise a child. This village raised two, when tragedy took our parents from us. Words cannot properly express my gratitude for everything everyone in this village has done for me. I would not have made it here without all of you, supporting me, encouraging me, teaching me. In a few minutes, I'll no longer be known as Heather Templeton, but as Heather of Greenbrook." "But I think, realistically, I always have been." "I don't think I could ever properly repay the kindness, support, and love I've been given by the people of this village, not with work and not with wealth. But I hope to do so with honor. I am not yet a Knight, but I hope to one day become one, and so I must act as one. A Knight never forsakes their sworn word. So I make this oath, not yet as a Knight but with all the sincerity of one, that I shall always honor the village that raised me with my words and my actions. I will not swear to bring Greenbrook the honor it deserves, for I do not know that such a lofty goal lies within my power to reach. But I shall ever strive to achieve it." "If I tried to give individual thanks to everyone who helped me get to where I am now, we would be here all day. But I do have to give thanks in particular to my big sister, Laurel, the Storybook Hero of Greenbrook. She was my hero long before she earned either her Blessing or her title. It was her choice to walk this path before me that encouraged me to walk it myself, and I will keep following in her footsteps until the day I catch up." "I'm coming Sis," she finished quietly, wiping a tear from her eye. -- Heather stood marveling at the Crystal Pool for almost two full minutes, awestruck by its beauty, trying to observe all the little plays of light and color, and failing entirely. There was just too much going on. It was beautiful, and unlike anything she had ever seen. Finally shaking herself free, she changed into her robe, placed her father's ring atop her mother's book and placed them gently into the liquid, and then stepped in herself. The experience of receiving a Blessing is typically gentle, soothing. But most Recruits weren't hydrophobic. She wasn't afraid as she stepped into the pool. In her head she expected it to be basically like a bath, which she didn't have any trouble with. But the steepness of the slope surprised her, and the tug of the crystalline fluid even moreso. She flashed back to her oldest living memory, sinking into the river, water filling her nose, her throat, her lungs. She panicked, flailing, but she had never been a strong swimmer, and the pull of the Pool was inexorable. She gasped and held her breath, plugging her nose with one hand, just before she slipped beneath the surface, continuing to kick and flail with her other hand. In her panic, she didn't notice that she felt no need to breathe at all, that her lungs weren't burning. She felt her consciousness start to drift away, mistaking it for the effects of lack of oxygen as blackness started swirling in her vision, and though her efforts only redoubled, her kicks grew weaker and weaker. She could not believe that after everything, the entire year of training at Fort Naoth, she wasn't going to ever become a Knight, wasn't going to become her sister's Squire, wasn't even going to face a single demon on the field of battle. Her oath broken before she could make even her first attempt to fulfill it. She would bring no honor to her village, she would be forever known as the Recruit who somehow managed to drown in a freaking Crystal Pool. This isn't how the story is supposed to go! was her last conscious thought, before the darkness claimed her. -- Heather awoke with a gasp, bolting upright. She was...alive. She was fine. ...Of course she was fine. She cracked up, laughing at herself. Laurel had told her a little bit about what it had been like to receive her Blessing, in sisterly confidence. She had warned her explicitly that she would be submerged but it would be fine, that she could breathe the liquid of the pool as if it were air. Heather had a photographic memory, but that didn't mean every event in her life was always available at front of mind. In her panic, she hadn't recalled Laurel's warning at all. (It did occur to her that there had been nothing in Laurel's description about...whatever that was. It had been so intense, so real. She kinda couldn't shake the feeling of melancholy it left in her heart.) Boy was she glad you were alone when you received your blessing. That would have been so embarrassing if anyone had seen it. "Indeed," came her sister's voice from behind her, as she picked herself up (marveling a bit as she did at the little illusory figures around her). "I vote we never speak of this again." "Laurel!" Heather cried in delighted surprise, launching herself at her sister in an All-Out Hug that in another universe might have rightfully been described as Robinesque, but for the lack of a tail to wag. "What are you doi- woah!" Her hug caught nothing but air as she passed straight through her sister's image and almost fell flat on her face, only her physical training from a year at Fort Naoth allowing her to catch her balance. "Laurel" turned to face her with one brow raised and a bemused grin on her face. "Obviously, I'm not here. I'm an illusion." "Right. Obviously." "So, come on!" Illaurel prompted. "Don't leave me hanging! What'd you get?" "Oh. Um...well, illusions, evidently!" "Yeah I can see that. Anything else?" "...Okay wait does that mean you're self-aware?" "No, it means you're subconsciously manipulating light and sound to create a realistic-to-your-expectations illusion of your sister, because you remember her telling you all about her new powers after she got her Blessing and deep down you wanted the same experience but she couldn't actually be here because she has Important Knight Duties to attend, but since your new powers are largely instinctual they responded to your desires with the closest approximation they could provide, i.e. me. So, let's hear it!" Because evidently illusions crafted from your own subconscious desires and expectations inherit your Insight and Expertise (Crystal Lore) skills, which...yeah that checks out. "Right. Um...you know it's a little odd. I like...I have this sense that I can say something and...make it happen? But...not really that. Like...make something that could happen happen. Like it wouldn't work if it was something like, um..." she held out one open hand. "And then she was holding, a banana!" she intoned. And poof a banana appeared in her hand. "Seems to work fine to me." "No, uh, wait. Wha- Oh! No, sorry, bad example. That's another illusion!" "You sure?" "It- Yes! I'm sure! Look it passes right through you!" she said, waving it through Laurel's body for emphasis. "Uhh, I'm an illusion. It would pass right through me either way." "No it, guhh-" she started looking around for something else to wave her not-actually-a-banana through. "I dunno sis, seems to me like you have a perfectly respectable banana-conjuring power there. May the demons tremble at their inevitable and hilarious slapstick falls!" "It's not a real banana, look it passes through my hand!" "Hmm. How does it taste?" "What?" "If it looks like a banana and tastes like a banana, I'mma go out on a limb and call it a banana." "But my hand goes through it how would I peel it?" "You are literally subconsciously producing a near-perfect illusory interaction with your sister, good enough that you already forgot I was an illusion once. If it's an illusory banana I'm pretty sure you can make it look like you're peeling it." "It...fine." Heather made the motions of peeling the fake intangible banana and though she couldn't actually feel it beneath her fingers to all visual appearances it peeled perfectly normally. With a sigh she took a bite out of it. The banana was still whole (albeit peeled) when she removed it from her mouth. "It doesn't taste like anything. I think I only get light and sound." "Light, sound, and emotion. You're not actually as happy to see me as you feel like you are, because you know I'm not actually your sister and you still wish it was her here. In fact, you're mostly still kinda sad about the vision you saw, but you're covering it up with false happiness. But I will concede that you lack the power to conjure bananas. Alas, my dreams of hilarious demonic pratfalls will go unfulfilled." "...I think I can actually make it more likely for demons to pratfall hilariously." "So it works kinda like my Blessing. Probability manipulation. Only you have to say it?" "Sssssort of, maybe? Only not really. It's not...changing odds, I don't think. It's changing real things, just kinda in a way that alters the odds? Like, if a demon is charging at me and I narrate them tripping and falling flat on their face, it's not that it makes them more likely to trip and fall in some arbitrary way, it's more like...can anybody actually prove that tree root wasn't slightly raised before I spoke. Or...something like that, maybe? Um..." She looked at one of the nearby ley crystals. "That crystal is loose," she narrated, before going over and pulling it effortlessly free. Although...a thought occurred, and she pulled on the crystal next to it. It, too, yielded to her grasp. It...maybe took a little more effort, possibly? She couldn't really tell. "I...think that worked?" Laurel just shrugged, taking her word for it. "You 'narrate' them, huh? So...your power is super-storytelling?" "...Oh man I think it actually is! THAT IS SO COOL!" "That is...literally the most 'you' power I have ever heard of." "I know, right? Oh man this is going to be great! I'll be the Narrator, and you can be the Protagonist! ...Kinda hard to show off though. Except maybe the illusions, I guess? Although...hmm. If the power is in my voice..." another instinct was kinda rising to the surface. She looked at a patch of ground near the pool and said, "Boom!" There was a thunderclap of sound like an explosion, which probably could have been heard even back at the stage, as a clod of dirt exploded from the ground. "Oo-ooh~. Now we're talking!" "Yeah we are! Ooh, wait, I can do light too right, because illusions? Do we have lasers!? Zap!" ...! ...? "No lasers. Just bananas." "Maybe an illusion of a laser?" "Oh right uhh...Zap!" Twin beams of intensely bright pink light shot from her eyes and where they struck the ground there was another explosive sound and flying clod of dirt. "HA! We have fake lasers! All of the special effects with none of the burnination! Let's be honest the special effects are really what you want from lasers in the first place, I'm sure there have never been any demons that are explicitly vulnerable to light-elemental attacks in the history of the world!" From the empty air, a female voice with a slightly posh accent narrated, "There actually were!" "...Okay, primary goal for the whole power-practicing bit is to stop subconsciously creating illusions before they do something embarrassing." "Seems smart." "Okay. I have to get back out there." She went over to where she had left her clothes, started untying the robe's sash, and said, "Uhh...go away! I have to change!" "I'm not actually- you know what, nevermind." The illusion of Laurel obligingly vanished. -- When Heather came back into view of the crowd, a flashy display of colorful fireworks exploded noisily around her! A few doves flew about her head! The sound of trumpets played a fanfare from thin air! "I got illusions!" she said cheerily as she took the stage again. She noticed idly...the butterflies were gone. She wasn't feeling any stage fright at all, anymore. Super-storyteller powers gooo! "And, um, other stuff! But it's kinda hard to show off though! But, uhh, um, oh! Hey, take it from me! Lily's speech is going to be great!" she narrated, giving the foreign recruit an encouraging thumbs-up. "WOOO!!!" Illusiory Laurel cheered from where she was now sitting in an illusory seat in the front row. "BEST BLESSING EVER!!" Heather had only herself to blame. It was exactly what she did five years ago after Laurel showed off her powers. "Haha, illusions! Super-fun!" she said as she made the illusory Laurel go away again and went back to her place among the new Pages. Training week could not possibly come fast enough. Mechanics Using Inspire Competence from Second Person Narration to...well technically Team Check Lily's Expertise (Oratory) not that we're actually making rolls for speeches but whatever she can do her speeching better! Forgoing the option to use Persuasion since her Expertise (Oratory) is only two points lower and the DC would increase by 10, but fortunately I wrote that as "may". Routine Expertise (Oratory) (DC equals Lily's rank, +5 for Teamwork, -2 for Impaired) Super story-telling powers goooo! Routine Deception (only because she has Skill Mastery) to not come off as embarrassed as she actually is (-2 for Impaired, -5 circumstance penalty)

Oh wait Heather has Eidetic Memory! +1d since the Impaired doesn't apply yet! Eidetic Memory bonus die for the Crystal Lore check Nailed it!

Lapis: Vlad Resistance (DC 21 after crit immunity, -2 for Impaired) Had to happen eventually. Note to self in future do not design challenges that can be won with a single successful check if you want them to be actual challenges. Jack retrieved!

Routine Perception (DC 15) And Expertise (Crystal Lore) DC 25, not Routining since I don't think Heather is in a state conducive to it at that point LOL that was a hard nope even before the Impaired

Anya: Vlad Resistance (DC 34/26 after Bruise and Weakness, -2 for Impaired) I'll just give the HP back. And against the Disarm Vlad Resistance Reroll Bruised and Dazed

Solstice Healing SE (Rhys, Anya, Lapis, Jack) Rhys gets 16+11 RP, Anya gets 16+11 RP, Lapis gets 11+11 RP, Jack...is hurt pretty bad, I guess. He gets 5 RP towards his Technical Stagger.