Inquisitor D

The Fell Bat becomes a familiar figure in red armor as Anikah falls to the raft-decks, blade held high. For now, she ignores the plaguebearers, her focus still on the rotting leviathan. As the Kraken starts to fall apart, she's charging forward, carving deep into its falling flesh to find the monster's heart. A deathblow is needed, as soon as they can manage it. "Fall!" OOC Just stabbin! I don't know if we're on combat time or not - if this is combat ish I'd spend Mettle to both double training and get an extra action to attack again. I'll roll those, but keep them separate - just playing it safe

"Hrm. We have company?" Even though the woman in the snappy black coat is dead to the world, her voice broadcasts loud and clear from a speaker in the table. Tonight ponders Spirit's form from the Matrix and physical realms alike, using the feed for a brief look. Could be the client. Could be another runner. Could be a passerby for all they know. She starts running a search, before turning to the information she's already found with a grin. "So, how do the two of you feel about crashing an Ares party once we're done here?" A visual of some guy in a suit appears on Bat's feed, the screen split between him and the face of Tonight's avatar, continuing the conversation as best she can. "This guy just showed up into town. Carl Bellweather; head of South-eastern Marketing. New little corp exec, climbing the ladder. He's got a yacht just moored up. I doubt I'm on the guestlist, but I can try and sweet talk the doorman. What corp guy doesn't want the chance to give an interview?" She's putting a mild mask of politeness on the briefing, just in case they're overheard. Since Cat has a feed up though, Tonight adds a little extra in unspoken text. [Guessing that's the job. No way to confirm, but we're close to the yacht. It's just a few docks distant from the cafe. Feel like it's probably what the client wants. Use the party as a distraction, get in there, grab something valuable?] In the Matrix, Tonight finishes making adjustments to the small panel resting on her virtual bag. Anyone observantly watching in the Matrix can see a sudden rush of Ares related adverts starting to broadcast across the cafe's area - pop ups on commlinks, vid-feeds interrupted, everything's got a nasty new little distraction to deal with. [Spam Zone coming online now by the way. If you want to watch something live while we wait for the client, let me know, I'll patch you through it.] Show this Gonna do a quick Matrix Perception on Spirit, then Search for info on him, then rolling to Jam Signals and generate some Noise. Until Tonight takes another Matrix Action, she's adding Noise equal to this success count onto any appropriate actions taken within 100 Meters

Lady Tonight permits herself a thin smile at the news story about the Ares Executive. It could be a coincidence, but the timing and location both lining up makes her hopeful. With one thought, her faithful camera-drone zooms toward the yacht's dock. Getting too close would be a major risk, but she can get some initial shots ready for the meeting. Now she's got a starting point, she can also dive for details on this Ares executive. He's probably not a local player, but someone that public usually leaves a data trail "Nyx! Cat!" The third woman to join the group calls out their names from the far end of the street, obviously surprised at what she's seeing. Once she reaches the doorway, she has to pause: a little out of breath. Running isn't Tonight's forte. Still, she manages to maintain a sense of style even now: wearing her regular coat and shades, and with a hefty looking bag slung over her shoulder. She looks between the two tougher looking women with a grin, raising a fist. "Heh. This is my kind of team! People are gonna figure I hired you both at this rate. Great to see you both." Now she's got her breath back, Tonight beckons to the doorway. "If you're okay, I'm gonna catch up on some business in VR. No pranks while I'm out! We can still talk via comm." It's the easiest way to show trust in people. At a meeting like this, it'd be pretty easy to get your pocket picked at best. Tonight shares a smile with both women. Unless anyone has any objections, she steps into the cafe, falling into a corner seat with a relieved sigh. In the Matrix space, an almost exact replica of Tonight materializes. It's time to see just what sort of setup this local area has. OOC Doing a few things. Listing it all here to make it a bit neater 1: Moving my cameradrone to the dock to get a better look at the yacht. It's sticking to a legally permissible distance and has a perception autosoft, .so she can review that footage later 2: Doing a Matrix search on the Ares Execuitve who owns this yacht for a name and more personal details. 3: Matrix Perception test to spot icons running silently in the area of the cafe

Anikah bows her head at the sight of the squirming monster. This is a creature that truly would welcome Nagash's mercy. Slaying such a being is certianly not what she envisioned when she left Shyish, but this feels right. She looks to her side, whistling as Ellania calls up wings of light - ready to go and try to slay the beast before the infection spreads. Magic and bladecraft - a combination worthy of the Gravelords. Anikah shares a smile with her aelven fellow blade. "Well then. Should we call this a race?" With a wink, the Vampire vaults over the deck's railing. Before she touches the water, a gigantic bat-creture the size of a man flies up, screeching in glee as it starts to cut through the air, making for the beast on muscle-bound wings. OOC So Anikah just turned into a Fell Bat thanks to her Bestial Form talent. She's now using its stats until she turns back, including its Fly (Fast). Aiming to change back atop the beast and start stabbing it! I'm hoping the beast's big enough she can do this without entering the Abyssal Nightmare AoE, but if not... well, it'll probably take her a sec to get there - we'll cross that when we get to it. Plus, she's got some toughness and is immune to Frightened - she can fight in the hazard if she has to.

Lady Tonight gets the call in the Matrix. She's standing on a virtual boat, surrounded by pillars of light that display moving datafeeds. She's been browsing the CarribNet for interesting stories, flicking through amateur trid recordings for something interesting to work with for her next show. It's not too encouraging. Terrible shots, uninteresting fights, vague objectives. Some days, you just get bad material. You just have to try and make it work. That's when, amidst the field of screens, a bird chirps. It's technically an alarm. A comm message from an unknown sender is... concerning. But Tonight's eyes narrow as she reads it over. A payday is a payday. Even a fraction of fifteen thousand nyuen would be useful. It's why she'd been looking into it as a sideline. She pulls up an image of the dockside. Not the ideal location for a meeting. Lots of spots to hide people, a fair distance to get away. She'd have preferred a nice public spot, hide in the crowd, but odds are good this is an outsider. UCAS folk have all sorts of strange ideas about how shadow business is supposed to work. The second message takes her aback, but only for a second. Tonight's digital self chuckles at the barn owl icon she'd assigned the Tir-born traveller. ["You too, huh Nyx?"] She watches in a side view as her camera drone starts buzzing its way towards the pier, ready for a preliminary scan. ["I'm about to start digging up detail on it. If you know anything, it'd really help. Nothing obvious to go with for now. But I can still make the meat meet after pulling that, and I'll send Badda-Boom ahead. If you're showing in person, least I can do is have your back."] The heavier combat drone starts to whir, slowly following its lighter cousin towards the pier. It'll hang back, not wanting to worry civilian traffic, but it's better to have it at a higher altitude ahead of time than right with her going through the streets. For now, Tonight turns her attention to a search bar. It's a guess, but if we're going to the docks, this is probably water work and the message mentions liberation. Any targets of note going to be on the waves tonight?If I can work out the target, I could maybe backwork to identify potential employers.

Anikah nods to the aelf, her face uncharacteristically dour. "I have to admit. I hoped for more. Dark One's Eyes, a little challenge would be nice. I didn't train for this kind of work." The blade is supposed to be an answer to something greater, a truth of the soul. It's not to be drawn until needed, and to be wielded with intent. She'd dreamed of worthy duels against mighty warriors when the old man first put it into her hand. Using her sword for something as simple as killing rats is... not immoral, it breaks no code, but it rankles at Anikah's heart just the same. She can't help but feel unclean after that. OOC Does 'Win a challenging duel' work as Anikah's first Short Term Goal? Feels like it makes sense and something she could feasibly get.

*waves* Still here. Reading Otherscape! Future City of Mist is weird

Anikah doesn't utter a word as the rats close in. This isn't her first time fighting in the dark, and the rats aren't that quick - she steps from side to side, swinging her blade down around her in wide arcs. This isn't the type of fight she likes. Brutal. Artless. But it's not a challenge. OOC Okay, Anikah's defence is Good, so that attack's going nowhere. Even if they do, she's got Armor 3. The invisibility is a problem but as things stand, landing a hit should be doable, and hitting should be enough. So she's going for Nightrat Swam 1 again, 3+S damage. Yeah, Focus only gets me one success, so less damage. But still hits. Four damage to Swarm 1, punching through that 2 toughness

I think that should be it for gear and stats. I'd like to expand my 'background' section on Tonight, but I'm not sure where best to go with it - the faux article format kinda hemmed me in. If you've got questions, I'm happy to add more detail, answer questions and the like. Otherwise... I guess I'll do a proper write up for the contacts, explain who they are and stuff, then try to think what else I can expand on smoothly.

Oh sure. TBH I was worrying that my concept, both character and lore wise, was kinda redundant... but I finished my sheet, I can finish transcribing it.

Well, better get started. Time to roll stats/take the array! ... EDIT: Yeah, I think that array... seems workable, no? Good enough. Pretty solid! Sheet coming ASAP. Late here EDIT 2: Ah, I mucked up the dice string. Sorry, pulled the wrong one. Attempt 2 should be correct! Rolling now!

"Well. Let's see this done" Anikah seems sombre as the fight begins, bowing her head for a moment of quiet contemplation. But it's just a moment. Once the door slams shut, the Vampire is right at the front of the fight, sword raised high. There's bloody business to be done. OOC Anikah is a simple soul. Go in, stab stab stab. If one of the rats is alone, she'll prioritize them to activate Duellist - otherwise she'll just take whoever. I have two ranks of Focus in WS, and am using a Greatsword. Immense Strikes brings this damage up to 3 + successes. Melee is good - if she can isolate a rat for a 1 vs 1, that rises to Great

That should be right, yes. There is some discussion about Intrinsic powers and costing Mega Attributes despite them normally not costing Quantum to activate, but Absorption's a reflexive 0 cost - bypasses all of that and keeps the activation/commitment low.. (As a note, if you're looking at options to broaden what you can do, I'd highlight Technique as worth a look. It's basically a way to do M&M style power arrays - giving you one power you can use in a bunch of ways, but pulling multiple tricks at once is tough.)

Not the GM, so don't take this as gospel, but trying to read the text... that's right, but there is a drawback to it. Devices hog Quantum. It's unclear if you have to spent quantum on Atunement. The wording of the text seems to imply you do, but the Atunement edge and atunement rules don't specify it... but the crafting rules do say 'to attune to a device, you commit quantum to it', but the costs are similar to the activation costs. In your example, you have to spend three points of quantum to activate the teleportation device, (Points equal to the rank, plus half the number you'd spend for all powers within the device) before you spend 2 quantum to actually teleport with it. The three 'activation Quantum' can't be recovered while you have the Teleport Device active. If attunement does have a cost, it's device rating. So that's another 2 quantum locked up. 5 of your pool is effectively gone so you have access to an extra power... but it's much cheaper to pick up this way than via regular methods, of course. And you can take device flaws to get more ranks of powers in there. (You can probably work stuff like enhancement into this, but that requires the core Trinity rules and... yeah, I can't make hide nor hare of them.

Whoo! Happy to be here! I'm not too worried about Kuroko, but I should flag she may need a second look - my rework of her background added some significant stuff from the first pass. But I agree that our socially awkward side is a fun possibility for this group. ;) With Kuroko, she actually has some social ability - but with her focus on Intimidation, it's very specific and not always useful. Being 'the scary one' isn't exactly something folk are always gonna like. ^^