It is the year 2030, Opaque Incorporated, a corporate Concern run by Iconic Billionaire Mayhew Rogers, Has Built a technological Wonder. Opaque Island, its home to to 750'000 people and when complete will be able house 3 million people comfortably. You Dwell in the Metropolis of Opaque City. What are you?>Human, Natural>Human Variant, Technological (cyborg, clone, supersoldier etc.)>Human Variant, Magical (mage, cursed, enchanted etc. etc.) >Gargoyle, Natural (stone by day, flesh by night.)>Gargoyle Variant, Technological (Clone, Genetically engineered Gargoyle etc. etc.)>Other (Fey, Lycan Robot etc. etc.)
We're a human, technological Variant as you put it OP.Cyborg, result of an attack by terrorists. Artificial eyes hidden by skull mounted lenses that look like sun glasses, artificial arms and legs. Usually wear a black trenchcoat and a pair of black pants. We don't need shoes anymore.
rolled 5 = 5>>20281466Whoa, way too many choices.I'll just roll a d6 to decide which one.
>>20281466A mage and scholar.
We should be a mage. A scientist trying to work out how magic works...and realizing just how weird it is.
if it goes to other I'll just use the second roll.
>>20281466Technically unless it's a water feature it's called a Grotesque.That being said, Wizard/Mage.
rolled 4, 4 = 8You think we'd stop making that mistake at some point.
Other: Fey i sayfaefay feyDO DAT MAJJIC TING BABY!
We are Johnathan Swift, mage extraordinaire! Using the power of cunning witticisms given bodily form, we live a life of humorous battles of wit.Literal battles of wit!
>>20281466Fae, it ought to be interesting. Contracts and weird fucking magic up in this.
Okay I actually have a pretty good idea of what we're gonna do here. I like the scientist as mage Idea here lets roll up a science mage.The gargoyle I rolled up will come into play soon enoughYou are Nero Noctos, an Albino of average height and weight. You are studying magic for Opaque Inc. In an attempt to understand, and profit from the arcane.1 Necromancy (magic of life and death)2 Transmutation (magic of Change)3 Evocation (the magic of energy and the manipulation thereof)4 Summoning (the calling, binding, and controlling of spirits, demons and other otherworldly beings)5 Illusion (The magic of misdirection, fooling natural, magicical and technological senses falls under this category)6 Hexing (the magic of Curses, a complex and strange school that can have unpredictable effects)Lets see what type of magic Nero has studied
>>20281696Dice go in the email fied, not name field.
rolled 3, 2 = 5>>20281696twice in a row...? Really?anyways. lets see what schools of magic our mage scientist knows.
>>20281718Evocation and Transmutation? Looks like we have a pretty standard mage...not quite the Magus and his curses.
rolled 4, 6 = 10>>20281707I know that, amusingly enough I keep fucking it up. anyways.Okay We're studied in Transumatations and Evocation, so we're good at manipulating both matter and energy. Like most archetypal mages we have a staff, inscribed with runes to act as a mystical focus and to aid us in casting spells. Unlike most mages we keep a 45. Automatic pistol on our person "Just in case."Resently we came into possession of a stone statue resting on a stone pedestal inscribed with "Only when iron floats shall I awaken" She was brought in a handful of hours ago and the sun is beginining to set. Apparently she was recovered in Poland somewhere and was locked into an enormous iron cage.1 Mythical2 Avian3 Mamalian4 Reptilian5 Aquatic6 Demonic
>>20281786Eh, can't bitch about Energy and Matter.
Okay, reptillian demonic... uhThe Gargoyle (or Grotesque if we're feeling nitpicky) is siz feet in height. Her lower body consists of a single snake like tail. She has six arms. The Top pair of arms are wings with a 10 foot wingspan, and the other two are fairly standard human arms. She's somewhat well endowed in the bust department and appears to have a moderately attractive face (though her features are a tad sharp to be considered beautiful) and sports a set of ramlike horns as well as hiplength hair. If you didn't know better you'd almost think the statue was alive.
>>20281905When Iron floats...that seems simple enough. Boats are iron that floats. We should test to see what happens if we break this.
gonna call this right now: Opaque island is artificial and statue wakes up in 10...9...8
>>20281943Not taking that bet.
You've been running tests on the statue, mostly measuring it with scientific instruments and casting spells on it to determine its make up. You definately know its enchanted and that its covered in rust dust and various other trace elements but aside from that you're having a hard time pinning down any definite information. You've been able to determine that the statue has a curse on it, curses, to be fair, always have an exit placed in the spell. In this case making iron float in the vicinity of the statue seems to be the key to breaking the curse. You're pondering over setting up electromagnets when cracks begin to form in the skin of the statue.
>>20281971Excellent, make sure our instruments are set up and watching the change. Six feet tall seems kinda short if we're counting the tail as part of it.
>>20281971Continue examination. Discoveries require being willing to risk a little harm.
>>20281943[sucker bet.]There's an inhuman snarl and stone shards explode outwards you take a step back and shield your eyes, thankfully no sharp stones fly into your tender optics and the most pair you receive from this are cuts and scrapes on your exposed skin and the sharp pain in your tailbone when you trip on a piece of stone skin and land on your rump.The Statue clearly wasn't a statue. The Gargoyle is now fully alive, pointing at you with one of her eyes and making numerous demands. Well they sound like demands anyway, she's speaking complete nonsese. To be expected really, she's clearly been in suspended animation for a long time so she's probably speaking some ancient from of Polish. Upon further examination you can see that the snake-tail part of her body ena little below her lady parts and what would be thighs on a human are a sort of fleshy terminal point for the "human" part of her anatomy to become reptilian. Her breasts are very much human, even if they are candy red.
>>20282055>some ancient from of PolishWelp, no space adventures for this one.
two possibilities:1. love interest-or-2. nemesis.it would be interesting to have a parrallel to the eliza-goilath relationship.name her Esther
>>20282055Well, that's an inconvenient language. Get someone to translate and in the interim we ought to be able to manage with friendly hand signals, pantomime and google translate. Greet her, let her know that we don't understand her but we're working on that.
>>20282015[she was hunched when she was stone, she's taller now]She does not like you staring at her lady parts, and she lets you know it with a stream of incomprehensible harsh language. She's seven feet tall, probably superhumanly strong and glaring at you with amber eyes. Thankfully you managed to get her transformation on tape and security has this all on video. Your own analysis equipment is still scanning her and you have several special camera's filming bother her and you. She's finally stopped talking and now she's simply staring at you expectantly. You're wearing fairly standard scientist gear, button up shirt, black dresspants, laced sneakers, a lab coat. You also have your pistol in a shoulder holster and your magic staff.>you have a severely annoyed pre-industrial polish gargoyle on hand, she's stark naked, confused and unhappy. What would you like to do?
>>20282122Hand her the lab coat, if she's uncomfortable with being naked.
BEGIN THE UNNECESSARILY INTIMATE PROBING!
>>20282122Give her a labcoat, ours if we can't find another quickly, stay calm, stop staring at her tits.Say our name and point to ourself.
>>20282141This...and try to look sheepish. can we transmute ourselves?
You pull out the pens and various bits and bobs that you keep in your Lab Coat. Then you Uncermoniously hand it over to the gargoyle woman. She Glares at you with a questioning look after examining look. You shrug, pick at the sleeves of your shirt and shrug. She frowns, uses her claws to remove the sleeves and make a large enough hole in the sleeves for her wings and arms and pulls it on. She seems somewhat Mollified at Least. You move over to the Lab's Intercom whilst still keeping an eye on your guest and press the intercomm's communicate button. "I need a linguist in here. My test subject is a gargoyle, apparently she was under some manner of curse and now she's awake. I don't recognize the language but judging from all available evidence I think It's safe to assume she's speaking a pre-industrial form of Polish. Do not respond, just send me a Linguist who dosn't mind being near magical creatures, and who has experience with ancient eastern european languages." With that you return to your new project.
>>20282254Introduce ourself by name while pointing at ourself to make it obvious that that's what were doing. Then point at her with a questioning look in hopes of her giving her own. We won't be able to do much communication without a linguist but we can see how far we can get with charades and hand gestures.
You make a small bow and gesture at yourself. "Nero." Her eyes narrow and you frown, making the facial expression you've been making since you learned you shared your name with a infamous emperor. Somehow the Gargoyle woman seems to understand your facial expression and seems to look apologetic. Her face is human enough, even if she is some wierd multiarmed snake hybrid. You point to her and make a questioning look. She doesn't respond and looks a little nervous. She begins chewing on her lip and you notice she has fangs. Shrugging you point at her and say "Esther" it takes some gesturing and a lot of pantomime but you eventually get across that this is what you're going to call her. You can hear her belly rumbling and the more time passes the less she looks angry and the more she looks scared. So on top of being stranded in a strange place and Alone she's hungry.
>>20282329Well, do we have anything to eat nearby?
i forget, how did Goliath learn modern english?
>>20282222yeah we can transmute ourselves, nothing complex at the momnt though. We can make ourselves giant, or tiny, or we can change our integralk make up (turn ourselves into wood, metal etc. etc.) but we cant't change our biological structure much, so if we tried to make ourselves look like a gargoyle we'd look like a rubber forehead alien.
>>20282349>>20282351I assume we have a fridge with some snacks on hand, probably a microwave. The island also has several cafeterias and resteraunts so if we want GOOD food we can order it.Actually that's a minor plothole. Goliath never learned modern english. We can just assume it was a beneficial effect of his curse or somethjing I guess.
>>20282401Find some snacks, if we have meat that would probably be preferable but we'll take what we can get.Take a bite of it first before handing it to her to prove that it is food and that it's safe.
Esther Finally leaves the small Dias she and her Pedastal were placed on and begins exploring the room. She's poking and prodding things but after a few "DON'T DO THAT!"s she figured out that pressing buttons was a no no. For the moment she seems pretty engrossed in a National Geographic magazine that's been in the lab longer than you have.You meanwhile are searching your snack fridge. You don't have any jerky on hand but you do have some apples, oranges and grapes on hand. Just about anyone would know how to eat these. You share them with Esther and while she does let you sample some of the fruits to show they're safe she insists on a small ritual before eating. She makes the fairly typical gesture of prayer with one pair of hands and appears to be speaking Grace (or however the hell you refer to that prayer....) The other pair she keeps firmly clamped on your hands to keep you from eating since you had no idea what she was up to. Her prayer done she ebgins laying into the fruits with gusto.
It's somewhere around that point that an elderly englishman by the name of Gunter Shmidt arrives. Between his Efforts and your own you're able to Establish that Esther was a member of something called the "Red Drake Clan" Who were at war with "Merik the White" some manner of Wizard, and that she was Captured by Merik and Cursed, presumably to be a statue forever. You ask why Merik didn't just kill her and Esther expresses confusion over that fact herself. Apparently, she amanages to convey via Gunter, Merik was fond of what he called "Ironic Death." Esther was a promising and powerful warrior of her people so cursing her to be stone and keeping her for a decoration would have appealed to him.>well you can communicate with her, now what?
ask about herself. past, personality, skills, if she's free for coffee later...
>>20282668We should tell her the year, give her an estimate of how long she's stone. Let her know she's at a place called Opaque city and that the conditions of her curse stopped applying once we learned to make boats out of iron and steel.
Via Guther you Question Esther about herself, past and skills. She was, apparently the 3rd greatest warrior of the Red Drake Clan, and would like to know what happened to them. You respond that you don't know but will look into it. She's apparently a fine warrior, skilled with spear, cudgel and bow as well as an excellent pugilist. She wants to know what will happen now. That's a good question. She is your test subject, she never stopped being one come to think of it, she just stopped being a statue and started being a person. You could communicate with the research staff of Opaque Island and figure something out...or you could just speak to Mayhew Rogers, Being one of the only mages of the modern world has its perks, a six figure salary and the private phone number of the 7th richest man in the world is one of them.>you have to figure out what you're going to do with Esther, you can talk to the research staff, talk to the CEO or just make a decision and hope no one contradicts you.
>>20282798Before calling anybody else, we should simply ask her what she would like to do.
>>20282798Tell Esther that we have some serious clout and can probably arrange a lot for her. Ask her what she wants but note that we'd like to continue to learn more about her, her peoples and the nature of her curse and to help her adjust to the modern world.
Before dropping the bombshell that Esther's now part of an endangered species and that she's something 1200 years in the future (Her listed date of birth was "winter in the year of our lord 742") you decide to ask her what she would like to do with her life now. She responds that she would like to serve a worthy lord, protect Kin and Clan and find a worthy mate to settle down with. Well, she doesn't have the most unrealistic dreams you've ever heard but you're not certain if you'll be able to find her a member of her own kind to confide in much less breed with.>what would you like to do?
>>20282906>what would you like to do?Call our boss. We've made an important discovery, and I'm sure there's something in our contract that says we have to report it.Unless he's a dick, then we don't.
tell her that the best way to serve in the near future is to answer all questions and mabye be patient through a few tests, and then you'll see if you can get her a job in security, so she can do what she's good at
>>20282906Esther, please sit down for a second. What I'm going to tell you is going to be extremely unpleasant but if I don't tell you you're going to find out eventually and not be able to trust me.You've been stone for somewhere around 1200 years. I will do everything in my pretty significant power to help you acclimate to this new strange world and to look for any record or sign of your people. I'm sorry.
Mayhew Rogers can be a bit niave about how the world works at times but he's generally a good person so he could be trusted to give Esther fair treatment. He did go to a lot of trouble to make sure your friend Kain survived the terrorist attack that nearly sunk Opaque Island after all.You carefully and slowly explain the rise of science and the fall of magic. How gargoyles and other creatures faded into legend and how Esther is the last of her kind. You also explain that being one of maybe 30 professional Magi in existence you have a great deal of personal clout. The best way for Esther to serve now, you say, is to submit to tests, and questions and to learn about the modern world. If she cooperates and proves to be a sane, healthy person you'll try to get her a job in security on the Island since it seems to be what she would enjoy the most. Esther thinks this is a fine idea and submits to your authority, provided that your swear on your Lord's name that you'll do her no harm.
now is the perfect time to BEGIN THE UNNECESSARILY INTIMATE PROBING!
>>20283069I think we should wait on physically invasive tests, aside from maybe a blood draw.>>20283006I can swear it by my bosses name Mayhew Rogers if that's what you're asking. If you're talking in a more theological sense I suppose I could swear it to SCIENCE as I don't really follow any religious creed. You have my word, sworn to whatever you wish that I will do no harm to you.
[*how esther is one of the last of her kind eesh typo city.... MOVING ON!]You fish your cellphone out of your pocket, its prepaid, you're given a new one each day and you've devoted a part of your staff to note taking. With a single command word you can call up a phone number. You do that now and bring up Mayhew's Number.Within a minute You've got a groggy billionaire on the phone. "Yeah, Sorry Mister Rogers. I realize that it's gotta be something like 1:00 AM over there.""Quarter to 2 if my pocket watch is right.""Right like I said, sorry but that statue you sent me wasn't a statue. It was a cursed gargoyle.""How does that work out? Don't they turn to stone anyway?""Magic Coma, like sleeping beauty but with less date rape. She was cursed, all curses have a loophole, its the way the magic works. Hers was "When Iron Floats.""Huh, Artificial Island, hell a fishing boat could've broken that curse. Good thing we shipped her in by air right M'boy?"
where on a scale of pants-on-head to xanatos is our boss?
>>20283097Yeah, it's never the really improbable stuff. Man stops being selfish, or anything like that.
>>20283097Looks like.I need quarters for her, attached to mine, some competent tutors and historians to catch her up to speed and teach her modern language. I'll also want military instructors to teach her modern weapons, she ought to pick it up rather quickly.Some wizards really need a course in Law so they can word things better.
"Very Good Sir, She's Seven feet tall and look like something from a paint of hell. Seems like a decent enough Girl though. Look there's a lot we can Learn from her but I don't want some moron to just strap her to a table so-""Say No more. You're in Charge, I'll have a division with one of those snappy names that hubert likes so much drawn up. If we encounter a mythological being or any magic Hoodoo you're our go to guy. Should've don it sooner I guess. I'll make it official when I've had some time to sleep.""Thank you sir, have a good night.""You too Son."You can't help but wonder if he's all fatherly towards you out of general affection or if its a ploy to keep the World's leading magical researcher in transmutation and evocation under his thumb. Regardless you've secured Esther's safety, but if you don't want the researchers breathing down your neck you're going to have to get some physical samples from her within a week.
>>20283182We can always take the samples a bit later. We could, however, show her the facility. Depending how much people are still here at this time. Or show her a bit of the outside.
>>20283138>>20283139>>20283157On a scale of Pants on Head to Xanatos Mayhew is an Idealist who depends on Idealists and assumes his opponents will play by "the rules" David Xanatos would probably rip him a new one before Mayhew decided to cutloose. But he's a fairly religious man (who believes people have a right to be non-religious if they choose) so he prefers an old testament response once his ire has been raised, regardless of what the law is. Basically he's a nice guy untill you piss him off, then its corporate mercenaries and nightime raids.Okay so we're going to build her her own quarters, get her tutors for the various subjects we need to teach her, Language, law, 4ethics, Military trainers for fire arms and moden CQC.Sound about right?
>>20283182We should probably formally introduce ourself to Esther. Dr. Nero _____ PhD, magician, scientist and rather good cook.>>20283241Sounds about right. We should also politely ask for a blood sample but don't push if she's uncomfortable, we have time.
>>20283210No reason you couldn't show her THE WORLD OF TOMMORROW!You'd probably have some Security Personel follow you around out of general principle but if the company wizard is around it's generaly assumed whatever weirdness hat may be going on is kosher.We're going to need to get her a tailor.
Given her unique physiology, i'm guessing she'll perfer skirts to cover up anything... intimate>>20283069especially UNNECESSARILY INTIMATE you sick fuck
>>20283251>>20283273yes, and yes. Less machiavellian plans, more simple, straightforward "buy it if its for sale" corporate policy. Its 2031 so I figure all sorts of mystical shenanigans have occured, Demona turned the whole of manhatten to stone for fuck's sake, you can't tell me no one saw that and that it has become accepted fact at least in certain circles.The research boys are going to want a blood, hair, urine, stool, and spittle sample, as well as scales, horn, and skin samples. Very thourough these people
>>20283284Okay, tailor first. I'm sure the company has one who can keep his mouth shut.
Opaque island at the moment consists of a fairly standard metropolis which lies at the core of the island, a military base, an airport, and a dock with ship building facilities.The metropolis contains everything the workers and employees need, including your apartment building. You could probably take Esther down to the mall, you know there's a tailor's shop that makes suits. Where would you like to take Esther first?
>>20283400>>20283403yesh tailor sounds like logical course
>>20283357I'm sure they will, we'll get those to them within a week easily. >>20283403First a tailor, preferably one who caters towards non-human clients if they're around. Get one outfit to wear out, it doesn't have to be perfect it just has to fit. And have several more ordered to be sent to our place.Then take her out to dinner, show here the sights, all that jazz.
>Gargoyle Quest!Yay!>Not playing as a Gargoyle.Fuck you, /tg/.
Via Gunther You introduce yourself to Esther "I am Nero Noctos, I would Like to add doctor to that but I've been too busy working to earn that Scholarly Title. I am a Scientist, and, I suppose, a Wizard. You've Already met Gunther." Esther offers you her hand in a lady like gesture she picked up from...somewhere. Regardless you do the gentlemanly thing and kiss her wrist. She has of course intorduced herself to you, she does this again, calling herself "Warrior of Clan Red Drake." You explain that you're going to take her to a tailer. You can think of one at Least. Johan Kunnert, the same man who makes Kain's clothes, and clothes for many of the odder inhabitants of Opaque Island.Esther asks when the horse's will arrive and you begin to explain automobiles to her she's so confused by this you decide to just let her see the wonder of it for herself.Her body doesn't agree well with the confines of the company car that's brought for yourself and the guest so you just decide to ride there in the Truck you own
she dosen't seem to quite accept her name yet. be sure she understands the importance of names to our society. prevent any awkward social mix-ups before they start.
Esther seems to enjoy the ride in the truck, even if Gunter's efforts to explain automobile's confuse her. You decide to table the issue for a later date and let Gunter, and 4 or so security men in kevlar body armor armed with rifles follow the pair of you in your truck. An hour or so later you're in the heart of the Opaque Metropolis earning more than a few stares. Johan, to his credit is thrilled at the opprotuinity to work on such a unique client. He settles on Light blue cloth for Esther's skirt (about a foot or so of cloth if you're wondering.) and the same colour for the her shirt. It's a quick affair, nothing to dazzle the sense but he promises to have more lavish clothes later.If the company is buying why not?
>>20283620Put everything on the company card. Make it a priority order, if we're not footing the bill there's no reason to skimp.
[Esther can't even speak directly to anyone. You need a linguist trained in archaic eastern european languages just to give her the time of day.]That settled you decide to curtail on giving her a tour of the island. It may be a wonder of engineering but it'll be easier to appreciate it when Esther has a decent grasp of the english langaue. You've been looking into moving out of your apartment (first come first serve, yourneighbors are jealous of the veiw you have so they treat you like crap, rude, infuriating, but shot of calling down the wrath of mayhew there's nothing you can do and why bother when you can spite them by getting a penthouse in one of the new apartment buildings?)That being said there's a decision to be made. There are four buildings that are near enough to completion to your purposes, you're going to hijack one of them and turn it into housing for unusual people. one over looks the bay, one has a clear view of the airpor, one is close to the city and one is near the military base.
We can safely assume Johan's doing his best and that its all going on the bill of your new departmen, oh, and the Island's located in the Gulf of mexico incase you're wondering.
>>20283709Claim the bay house.
>>20283633Go for the city apartment
>>20283709I'm thinking the one over the bay, it's got the nicest view. Also for our annoying neighbors we could turn their door and frame into iron with transmutation, weld them together with fire from evocation and than transmute it to concrete. Just to fuck with them.
>>20283709City; start up the integration process into the modern world a little faster.
>>20283757Possible, and amusing but there's 30 people in the world who count as "wizards" and who are employed in the corporate sector. (so there's anywhere from 60 to 90 wizard level mages in the world at any point in time...) you could get away with it by running to the boss but why do that when you can spite them by getting the penthouse in a new office building?so we have one for the Bay, and one for the City, both have advantages. One gives you quick access to city services, the other gives you quick access to boats and other naval devices.
>>20283804Bay gets my vote
>>20283804Thinking the city would help us to start, but the boats might be useful later if we need to slog to the States. Still, a city view can be nice, and it's convenient. My vote goes to the city.
>>20283804Does Esther absolutely love swimming? If she does we probably want the bay, otherwise the city'll be the better choice. It's not like it's that hard to get to the beach.
rolled 19, 38 = 57First roll is for Bay, second roll is for city
>>20283906Looks like city it is then!Should be an interesting experience for Esther
You call up some of the City's movers and have them begin to collect your belongings from your apartment, you've decided to claim an office building for your Department, upon being informed that you have the full cooperation of Mayhew Rogers everyone falls in line to do as you say. Your belongings go from the aprtment complex to the office building and make their way up to the building's topfloor, floor 150. You have Esther brought to the building and explain that this is now her home. She thanks you sincerely and asks you who else lives there. You shrug and tell her honestly that its a new building and people will take up residence over time but for now its you and her. You spend the rest of the night supervising the installment of your belongings, buying, shipping, and installing furniture for esther in another room on floor 150 and performing various other duties. Eventually morning rolls around and you go to sleep. But when you awaken you find yourself presented with a whole new breed of strange.
You're given just enough time to throw on a shirt, some shoes, a pair of pants and to grab your pistol and staff. Then you're haulled off to the Island's Military base. There you're faced with a tall, taciturn man of red indian descent. "Mr. Noctos I'm John Creeping Cat. I work with the Department of Defense and we would like you to look at something." He hands you a styrofoam cup full of black coffee and you sip at the bitter brew as he brings you to a hangar. You follow in Mr. Cat's wake and get a look around yourself. Most of the soldiers look...spooked. This is an american military base, The nation is currently rooting out terrorists in the third world, not just the Middle east, but africa, russia, hell even the artic. Terror really has gone global. "What do you want to show me.?""It's best you see for yourself." You enter the hangar and the soldiers close the door behind you, they're staying outside. Whatever is in here scares them.
They're not hard to find, LEDs may have replaced filament lightbulbs but they work just as effectively. 40 soliers in varying states of terror, many trying to cover their eyes. You think they're in desert gear but you're not certain. Every single one of them has been turned to stone. "We're uncertain as to what happened here but we were hoping America's Leading Expert on Transmutation magic could give us an idea as to whether or not these men are dead or alive. The Paymaster's are tearing their hair out over this."It's a damn good question, you know this was magic but it's not a curse. You can tell curses just by looking at them its...a wizard thing. This is however is the work of something strange, something mythical. You move forward and poke and prod the stone soldiers, eventually you find what you're looking for, a beetle, turned to stone on the shoulder of a surprised looking woman. "Well I can't experiment on the soldiers."
>>20284106There might be a Medusa, joy. Ask where they were when they got stoned, how long its been, all those useful details.
"I can however experiment on any Flora or Fauna that were exposed to this effect. Get me some tools." Within an hour or so you have samples collected from the soldiers and brought to your Labrotory,>well you have samples, anything you'd like to do before you leave the base?
>>20284126Ask them where this happened.
>>20284126>>20284123Get all the details possible on the soldiers. Where they were deployed, if all of the soldiers were in the same place or not, how long ago this happened, what operation or mission they were on when this occurred, details on said mission. If any have long hair that has been stoned get a small sample, also get a sample of any fabric that we can easily get, be very careful not to hit anywhere that would be flesh.
Upon asking the Location of the men who were exposed to this effect, you stress its kind of important, the DoD man opens up to you. "These men were chasing after a Terror cell in The Balkans, I'm not allowed to be more exact than that. They were chasing after a Terror Cell called the Burning eye. They'd been using psy ops against the locals, faux satanic rituals, shoddy magic which only worked a fifth of the time. We didn't think we needed a Practitioner of Magic on this." He Gestures to the statues. "Then this happened. They've been like this a couple of days, taken out in a forest near a local township. We have no clue what did it."
>>20284180I'm afraid their haircuts are american combat length, which is to say buzzcut to an inch in length at most, you can however get some cloth from the stoned clothing. You can safely assume that samples of the cloth were taken.
>>20284200Was any local fauna in the area turned to stone, aside from my new best friend Mr. Beetle? Was any local flora such as nearby trees or other plants turned to stone? Were there any markings or magical circles in the immediate area?
>>20284268"No circles, no mystical markings of anykind. The soldiers appear to be the only ones effected. Though living creatures on them such as the beetle, or leaves attacthed to the boots via mud were effected. There's not much in the way of proof that caused this. We were hoping you could act as a sort of magical forensic investigator. And of course that you could cure these people. You've been known to turn yourself into "living stone" or "Living metal" perhaps you could reverse this process?"
yeah. sure. "Stone to flesh"> OH MY GAWD i have freakish boot-shaped hooves and horrific baggy skin in the general shape of my old uniform! and somehow, an ugly beetle tumor on my neck! whos respinsible for this?"Oopsie?"
>>20284315I can do the whole transmuting thing, but I don't know the exact mechanism behind the transformation of these guys. If I just turn them back into flesh willy they might die, or be fused irrevocably with their clothes, which will also turn to flesh. The chances are pretty good that I'll be able to work it out and reverse the process after I research it a bit and experiment some on the samples I have. Also any details you can give me on the Burning Eye would be nice, just in case those amateurs stumbled on something big.
>>20284392I meant if I turn them back to flesh willy nilly, not just flesh willy.
"Look I need to study this, carefully. If I just transmute these guys back to Flesh without fully comprehending what caused this they'll probably die, or wind up deformed and freakish." You're about to further extrapolate but John C.C. Stops you."I understand, test this as much as you need to but try to do it quickly. as far as their families are concerned these soldiers are MIA they need closure." You nod and turn to leave, whatever your opinions of the current president's policies these soldiers deserve your help.You make your way back to your lab and begin the experiments, its time learn what makes this magic tick.>roll 3d20 to begin studies of magical phenomena.
rolled 17 = 17>>202844581
rolled 11 = 11>>202844682
rolled 9 = 9>>202844723
rolled 8 = 8>>20284458Let's study this stuff.
You could of course come up with Magi-babble for the way the flesh-to-stone magic works (which you do and write down in a report) for the the sake of ease well use plain language. Whatever did this used a natural ability. This was not human magic, it is not however a permanent effect. Within a thousand years or so the stone curse would've worn off, however by then the victims would probably been shattered by vandals or natural disasters, or eroded by the elements. They would only have a chance at survival this way if they were displayed as art. However you have learned that you could unravel the effect, it would take you a year of constant effort to do so however using your current means.You do however know of a being that turns to stone at sunrise and turns to flesh at nightfall so maybe that avenue of approach holds promise.
>>20284560It looks like we're calling up our Gargoyle buddy.Also we should have some minion researchers look into Balkan folklore for anything that turns people to stone as well as information on any cults named the Burning Eye or anything similar to that.
The burning eye appear to be a two vbit death cult operating out of...well where ever there's death and murder. They've been skulking around warzones since hitler reigned over germany. After The Duece they they began popping up on the edges of the korean war, Vietnam, from there they began feeding off of, literally in some reports, apparently cannibalism is a part of their rites, the numerous attrocities that have occured since then. They have a heavy influence in africa and may or may not have had a direct hand in causing numerous ethnic conflicts. There's no ready evidence of mythic creatures in the balkans that turn peoplke to stone. Doesn't mean much, All Myths are True, very Little is accurate.
Having Nothing better to do you return to your Office Building and find Employees of Opaque Inc. dubbing it the Paranormal Research Division headquarters. You work your way past numerous busy body's construction workers and office drones and make your way up to the penthouse.>roll 3d20s to research Esther's stone to flesh to Stone abilities.
rolled 3 = 3>>20284704First.
rolled 16, 10, 18 = 44>>20284704Rollan.
rolled 10 = 10>>20284711Damn. Second.
rolled 1 = 1>>20284716And the third one.
Wow guys... dem rolls.
rolled 12, 13, 12 = 37>>20284755derp.
Ester has curled around a chrome eagle that juts from the side of the building making it very difficult to get a spell circle around her. You are able to get some readings on the low level magical energy her body produces but it doesn't tell you much. If you want to make an indepth study of her transformation you're going to have to get her to turn to stone, and awaken within a circle. Within the meantime you gain no small insight into Transmutation by studying some shards of Esther's stone skin. It won't help you turn Stone into flesh (in a useful way anyway....) It will however make turning flesh to stone on an unwilling opponent that much easier.>you have about 4 hours of daylight left, would you like to do anything with them?
>>20284810Yes, get some sleep. We should be around when/after Ester wakes up.
>>20284810We've tasked people to look into things for us, we've done the research we can for now, we have clothes ordered and so on.Order a pizza to arrive in about 4 hours, set our alarm for sundown and take a short nap.
>>20284810A little sleep before the night comes sounds like a good idea. >>20284836I like this idea of delayed pizza arrival.
First you have a pizza ordered, not dominos or pizza hut, you order from Danneli's an Italian resteraunt deep in the heart of the Metropolis. They have a pizza prepared, it has a crust that's an inch thick and freshly baked prepared, they blend mozzarella and swiss cheese together and lay that down in layers over onions, bellpeppers and muchrooms. the tomato sauce is heavily spice... In short it's gormet cooking, not fast food. 12 inches of well made food arrive with a smiling delivery man dressed in a tuxedo. You give him a generous tip and usher him out, you never even bother to pull on more than a pair of boxer shorts and he's too well trained to comment on that when he hands you the cardboard box that contains your dinner and Esther's breakfast. You get dressed, shave, brush your teeth and get ready to greet vaguely demonic Gargoyle woman.
Esther wakes up with her typical roar and another Linguist arrives, this one a 30ish american blond woman. You invite both of them into your Kitchen to eat, like last time Esther insists on saying grace befoe eating and then digs into her meal with Gusto.>well she's awake and you still need to take numerous samples, and theres the soldier issue, how do you want to handle this.
>>20284965Ask the translator for a translation of the prayer, see how close it resembles standard christian grace, if there are any interesting deviations from the norm.First finish eating, make small talk, tell her a bit about the city and the world.After we're done eating we get to go about the awkward business of informing her that we need samples of pretty much every bodily fluid she possesses as well as skin, horn and scale samples.
The Translator Tells you that its a fairly Standard version of the Christian grace, especially for Esther's time period, humble thanks for foor and a plea for forgiveness coupled with a prayer for protection from one's enemies.You begin the day by walking Esther through all the Modern wonders that you, and pretty much everyone else in the first world, take for granted. Electricity, running water, plumbing, television, radio, the internet, computers, printing presses. You spend a good hour or so going over the basics before Esther pleads a break, you can't blame her, its gotta be pretty heady stuff for someone from the 7th century.From there you explain your need for numerous samples from her body, she seems repulsed by the idea and finds it bizzare but you explain that its for medical purposes and that all humans can be asked to giv up samples of this sort (barring the scales and horns) when they are sick or for identification purposes if a crime is committed. This leads into a discussion aout disease-
and germ theory. Esther actually seems relieved. Apparently she enjoys taking hot baths and was worried about people thinking of her as a deviant for possessing such behaviour. (bathing was considered unhealthy during the period and cleanliness was unheard of. Apparently Esther's something of a neatfreak as far as the 7th century is concerned.) She consents to to giving away hair, blood and the other samples but demands that you give them away alongside her reasoning (correctly) that a wizard would not give away parts of his person, no matter how insignificant, to people he does not trust. You have medical personel brought in and the process is relatively quick and painless (though Esther is slightly freaked out by the phenomena of a hypodermic needle.) You then begin to discuss the fate of the American Soldiers and how Esther's unique night/day cycle activity could hold the key to curing them of their curse. She sharply questions your intentions.
[minor note, all mortal mages need a focus, a book, a wand, a staff etc. etc. to cast spells, deprive them off it and they're magicless]You firmly state that you have no intention of breaking off her horns or cutting her up for magical potion ingredients. You do however want to inscribe a circle on the floor that will study her, and the transformations she undergoes during her shift into stone and her shift into flesh. She looks nervous about the whole affair but agrees. Clearly she's superstitious and doesn't trust wizards but you HAVE fed her and at the moment you're basically sharing your chambers wih her (you'll have to get her he own rooms once she can speak english.)>Well short of collecting more stone skin (which you do) there's not much on the docket you can accomplish. Esther's a bit overwhelmed by....everything so maybe its best to take her away from the city and its mundane wonders for awhile.
>>20285160Esther, I may be a wizard, but that is secondary to me being a scientist. While I am considered a rather powerful mage, my goal is not more cosmic power it's to understand magic instead of just wielding it. I want to know why things work like they do, how to replicate them.I gave my word that I wouldn't hurt you or bring harm to you, I plan on keeping it. I think the beach would be a good place to take her, it ought to be quiet at this time and rather far removed from the technology.Have our translator come with and try to start teaching her English.
You tell Esther that oday you will visit tthe beach. She offers to Glide down from the building with each of you so you don't have to climb all the stairs. This is a generous offer, but you introduce her to the concept of elevators. Last time you were too busy inspecting the building as a whole and laying down wards to use the elevator. Esther seems to approve of the idea of an alternative to stairs but is mildly worried about the elevator cable snapping. You tell her that short of sabotage or extreme neglagence on the part of the building maintanence staff that its an unlikely possibility.On your ride over to the beach you explain just why you became a Wizard. A psychotic gargoyle turned much of New York to stone for a single night, many people were killed or disappeared. (you explain that new york is a major american city) and that as the 20th century became the 21st sightings of magical beings have become more and more common, as has the use of magical items to spread chaos and terror.
>>20285352Elevators falling isn't that big a danger. It's got between 4 and 8 cables, each one of which is capable of holding the car on its own, it has failsafe braking mechanisms and the cushion of air below it will significantly slow it down as well. They're pretty damn safe.
rolled 12, 7, 11 = 30>>20285390I never knew this. Dem 1 cable horror film drops from fucking hollywood lied to me.
Phenomenal Cosmic power is all well and good but you are after knowledge, both for your own personal gain and the good of others. Esther looks at you with an appraising eye but keep her opinion to herself. Upon arriving at the beach Esther strips naked and begins to wade into the ocean, lacking a swimsuit you and the translator join her. Apparently being nude in a strange space is enough to make Esther confused and angry but skinny dipping doesn't phase her. Your translator finds it all a tad odd but is encouraged by your own course of action and between the two of you you manage to teach Esther a handful of english words between all the swimming splashing and stumbling around on the far too picturesque beach.Morning must come however and you pack up and haul yourselves back to the Office for Paranormal Research and get Esther settled into her spell circle before thanking the translator for her services and sending her on her way. With Esther ready for dawn you decide to drift off to sleep.
>>20285390[yeah they're overengineered as fuck thses days. Absoluetly no reason for people to die in elevators these days short of sabotage or an explosive boobytrap]When you wake up in the morning you find a small crucifix in your pocket. It's expertly crafted and a bit morbid actually as it depicts all of Jesus Christs pain and anguish at being crucified, if you had to guess you'd say Esther made it from a piece of her stone skin, probably with a sharp kitchen knive as a carving device. Regardless it was a gift, and even if you're firmly agnostic there's no reason not to wear it. You get a bit of twine and tie it to the end of your staff.>You have until sundown to do as you please. The spellcircle is recording data on Esther's transformation from flesh into stone and the various process that occur inside of her during this. What would you like to do in the meantime? You have a lot to set up for Esther and you won't always be on Opaque Island, sometimes mayhew needs you to oversee some of his projects.
>>20285489I think we should continue to brood a bit about the soldier problem and then phone our boss about our new departement, what he wants us to do, how we are going to be financed, bureaucratical stuff.
>>20285489Read up on her culture.
>inb4 lets fuck the gargoyle
There are not notable references to the "Red drake clan" or to "Merik the wizard." But gargoyles reproduce by laying eggs, these eggs are often raised by the entire tribe and attempts to raise the eggs as a single parent, or with a dual parent system are viewed as selfish, gargoyles for some reason do not use names. A great emphasis is placed on protecting things, kin, clan, land, allies. This is about all you can safely say that all gargoyles share in general aside from a nated weakness to being shattered while stone. The soldiers to stone problem is difficult to solve and weighs heavily on your mind since only a mythical beast like a medusa or a basilisk or a cockatrice could have done something like this. That's what everything you know about magic tells you. The hour being somewhat less insane you cal up your boss and have a long conversation with him about the new office and what is expected of it, He replies that for starters he wants to see what use a gargoyle woman can be.
>>20285619lets fuck the gargoyle and get murdered by her for it
>>20285619[its daytime, what are we gonna do rub her cock against her stony cleavage until we climax?]It turns out mayhew has a variety of magical items in his collection and he'd never had a place to put them to be studied (that was your job of course, but for awhile there you just focused on magic in general, your treatise on turning gold into lead, or nickel into platinum has led to small time mages who specialize in producing valuable minerals from gabage) That's your job now,k your methodical, cautious nature has convincd him that magic can be safely studied if done in a patient and comprehensive manner. He'll be shipping in the items as soon as you bring this "soldier boy tragedy" to a conclusion "one way or the otha.">you have 5 hours of daylight left. What would you like to do?
>>20285696Maybe... Not right now though, we can seduce her while she's awake.It looks like we're going to shift to a rather nocturnal schedule.Call up our colleagues, try to find someone who specializes in magical beasts and mythology, who can get us more information on medusas, basilisks and cockatrices and any modern sightings thereof. We need to work out this little soldier mess. As for what use a gargoyle woman can be, excellent body guard for night operations, good view into the world of the past, the rest depends on her skillset and what she learns in the modern world.
>>20285696Prepare a romantic dinner. Sented candles and shit. Find out more about her (Her parent, her childhood, her being a warrior, ect.) Lets get her a gift as thanks for the cross. Something handmade preferably.
So far Opaque Island's offering of paranormal investigators is well... small. No one who specializes in mythical creatures as of yet. Whilst there have been sightings of dragons, thunderbirds and other such creatures no modern sightings of basilisks, medusae, and cockatrice have been recorded. Of course Medusae, Basilisks, and Cockatrice turn anyone who looks them in the eye to stone. (come to think of it supposedly there's an island of mythical beings out there, its an avenue worthy of approach but that's something to pick up later.)You briefly consider a romantic dinner but things like that lose their touch when you need an translator to whisper sweet nothings in your partner's ear. You instead decide to just have more gourmet food sent to your apartment by sundown and work on making a piece of jewlery for Esther.>roll 2d20 for Jewelry crafting
rolled 2, 1 = 3>>20285926Rolling.
rolled 3, 4 = 7>>20285926rollan
>>20285936Oh shit, We give her a turd on a string.
rolled 17, 19 = 36>>20285951Fail, now in 2d20
>>20285959The dice gods are indeed cruel.
>>20285959Don't suppose we can use this can we?
Using your Many (2) years of experience with Transmutations you turn some of the common metal pieces of silverware you have lying around into electrum, an aloy of silver and gold. Once this is done you use some tools you have on hand to melt the metal down and hammer it out on a small anvil you have explicitly for this purpase, by the time you're done you have two thick, simple bands of Electrum. Upon her Sunset Awakening you worldlessly present Esther with the gifts and she, surprised but seemingly pleased, accepts them. (she seems irked at first until she enters your personal living room and finds the anvil and metalsmithing equipment laid out, then she seems quite flattered.) From there the two of you dine on Fine chinese food and then you leave Esther in the care of about a half dozen linguists with the explicit orders to slowly, and kindly, teach her english. You then confront the spell circle.It has all the information you need and you absorb it into your staff as you always intended to.
>>20285959[highest of 3 rolls, that's mah rule. if you get 3 bad rolls you're fucked though]The staff itself is good american pine, crafted for you by a skilled carpenter. It started out as a simpled piece of wood, an inch and a half thick, 5 feet long and tipped with a pair of silver orbs. The staff now sports dozens of arcane formulas that orbit around it in small glowing clouds of information, ready to be summoned to legibility at your command. You take the staff, and all your accumulated knowledge with you to your lab and begin to study the internal processes of gargoyles and how they transform from stone, to flesh and back again, and what happens in between.
>>20286090What the staff say?
>>20286090>>20286174And more importantly, can it help us flesh-to-stone the soldiers?
>>20286197>>20286174Not to self, PAY ATTENTION. Amazingly enough I forgot to type "Roll 3d20s" for studyan knowledge.oh and the staff is basically your spell book, you use the magical equivelent of holograms to read all the stuff you've stored in it.
rolled 8, 19, 8 = 35Rollan for Magical Studies.
rolled 18, 18, 5 = 41>>20286226Rool
rolled 4, 4, 3 = 11rollan!
>>20286279w-wow!i'm an unlucky bastard
You spend hours pouring over the statistics pulled in by your staff, you always assumed that gargoyles transformed into solid stone during the day but this sin't the case, instead they become a biological factory of sorts, using heat and sunlight to generate the nutrients they need for flight, these they supplement by eating whilst out and about during the night.More importantly you learn the nature of the spell like abilities that gargoyles employ to do all of this. Using this knowledge you find a quick and easy way to turn the soldiers back into humans, their clothing will be destroyed in the process but they'll be fine.Interestingly enough you could also turn a person into a statue and then turn them into a gargoyle.>your high rolls have granted you the knowledge required to turn a human into a gargoyle, this requires you to turn them into stone first, and then that person must remain stone for a day before turning into a gargoyle. Youre uncertain if the effect is reversable.
1) Find Xanatos2) Ask for a job
>>20286337first let's get a nice payment for curing those soldiersthen let's start a secret and personal project about gargoyles, getting an eager test subject
>>20286287You should roll up a new character anon, luck is not a dump stat.>Casting the stone to flesh spell is a Major Spell and will require a phrased incantation. The spells in the show were spoken in latin because they were written in latin, like all major spells if it has a negative effect a loophole must be written in, but a positive or harmless spell requires no loopholes (like the spell of humility that keeps clothing from being destroyed when a gargoyle awakens from stone sleep, it dates back to roman times and still effects all gargoyles to this day) You being a speaker of english will of course recit the spell in english. Minor spells like lightning bolts or energy blasts require no spoken incantation, a snarl of rage to give it extra oomph doesn't hurt though.>its now daytime, you worked straight through the night what would like to do?
>>20286337Woah. Not bad. I think we call the military and tell em we have a solution for their stone problem. Then turn the soldiers back and question them about what happened.What does turning people into gargoyles mean? Do they grow wings or do they stay humans in form and potential that just turn to stone at day?
>>20286378Or, if we worked through the night we might want to get a few hours of sleep before that. We dont wanna fuck this up.
>>20286375Sleep first. Then call military to solve their problem. Work, get paid, do some research talking with soldiers.Then, again, we'll need a test subject to try the gargoyle transformation.
go on computer, and change password to Alone
>>20286434>>20286416>>20286378>>20286406>aloneokay that made me chuckle.yeah you might want to get some sleep before you try to turn 40 soldiers from statues into living human beings.A gargoyle while stone is basically a stone shell with fleshy organs inside, you'd know you killed one because there'd be blood EVERYWHERE after smashing that statue.It takes a day for a bestatued human to become a gargoyle because his internal organs are being modified, uponb braking from the stone shell a magical metamorphosis fueled by energy gained from his stone sleep takes over and transforms him into a gargoyle, stone by day, flesh by night, a standard gargoyle. You know how to turn a human into a gargoyle but you don't know how to turn a gargoyle into a human so at the moment the spell is irreversable. Studying shapeshifters is helpfulr with this sort of thing.
>>20286481Well, then do >>20286416
You head back to your penthouse and get some sleep, nothing of real note happens during this time. Esther has returned to her perch on the roof and there are some research notes (the island of "mythical" beings is called New Olypus and is home to descendents of the various monsters and "gods" of ancient times. Judging from the Journals of Goliath and his companions the place is NOT human friendly.) and updates on minor side projects you've had going but nothing important.You get dressed abd Call of John Creeping Cat and tell him you're ready to try and cure the soldiers of their condition. You've cast the odd fireball or lightning bolt in your day but never something like this. This is going to take every ounce of effort you can muster. Soon enough you find yourself in the containment hangar facing down the 40 soldiers with a camera crew and medics on standby. >roll 6d20 to be the wizard
rolled 6, 15, 4, 16, 13, 6 = 60>>20286633A Wizard did it!
rolled 7, 20, 16, 2, 8, 18 = 71>>20286633We don't have to get them all at once if it'll strain us too much or screw it up. Take it slowly, if we can only get 20 take 20 and do the rest tomorrow.
rolled 12, 12, 4, 4, 12, 15 = 59>>20286633
rolled 11, 20, 17, 2, 6, 12 = 68>>20286633Rooll
[minor note, the escape clause is for minor spell casters, trying to do major things, beings like puck or extremely powerful spellcasters don't have to do it. It saves energy if you throw in an escape clause. If you're target resists your efforts its that much harder to do...stuff to them. Statues can't resist your spell casting though.]You raise your staff high above your head in both hands and let every ounce of strength you possess flow into it. The Alchemical and Arcane formulae carved into its surface glow with a brilliant light and the wood shudders and smokes as the raw mystical power the staff was designed to channel and store roils within. You muster every ounce of willpower you have, focus on your goal and speak with a firm confidence. This will happen, you WILL IT. "As day become night, as water becomes steam, as a seed becomes a flower, Let Stone become flesh and let what was be once again!" With that you slam your staff into the floor of the hangar creating an explosive crescendo of energy-
that lashes outwards from you and slams into the group of soldiers. The Statues flasf, begin to vibrate and cracks form in them. Then the stone explodes. For a brief moment it seems you've failed, the soldiers are dead. Thankfully the smoke clears and the men and women appear admist the rubble of their former state. A medic pronounces them exhausted, Malnourished. and Dehydrated but that they be fine with some bedrest.John C.C. congratulates you on this feat of spell casting. You're so exhausted that all you can do is mumble at him. He has some coffee brought over and that manages to give you a little extra strength to see the next few hours through. He asks you if there's anything that can be done to make the soldiers immune to whatever did that... you tell him no, but a properly trained mage like yourself could easily resist such an effect now that you've studdied it in detail. The magic is one part transmutation and one part domination. Knowing that you'd be able to resist the magic of whatever did-
this. A normal human couldn't resist it, not without something to protect both mind and body from it and you don't know enough about enchanting to do something like that. You could train other mages to resist its effects though.John thanks you for your time and sends you home.You still have 5 hours to kill before sunset, the only thing you dislike about your new penthouse is the lack of balconies and other structural niceities, it was meant to be an office building after all, its just a glass and steel block.>what would you like to do for the next 5 hours.
>>20286793make food arrangement's, call a contractor to get to work on the lack of balconies and other structural niceties, problem, and look more in to magical creature sightings.
>>20286793I actually wanted to question the soldiers about what turned them to stone, but i guess we just need to wait for what the military is willing to tell us.Get something to eat, maybe get a bit more sleep, that was surely extremely tiring.
>>20286793How can we get in contact with other mages? Maybe we could work with a good enchanter to make talismans against petrifying
>>20286793Call our boss, tell him that the soldiers are fine and will be just fine after some rest and food, he can ship in our new toys whenever he wants.Find our slow cooker, set up a pile of potatoes, onions, stew beef or lamb, all that jazz, I think Esther would appreciate home made food and it'll be done in 5 or so hours.Have people dig more into magical creature sightings, if stuff like this becomes more common we'll want to know about it and have contingencies. Call a contractor to make our penthouse nicer, we could use a balcony and maybe a nice perch or pedestal for Esther if she wants one.Have a small snack ourself and take a nap until sunset. We have one screwy schedule.
>>20286843If it isn't clear by this I mean stew. Everybody loves stew.
>>20286826>>20286832>>20286836>>20286843your spell kind of exhausted both you and your test subjects, they weren't in a condition to question, and reasonablness aside John C.C. wouldn't let you question them, that's a military debriefing in the making.You would set up your slow cooker but your don't have any groceries or appliances installed yet, you resolve to have that taken care of get electricians and other professionals working on the issue immedietly. The balcony issue is something you're able to solve with some building materials, an architect, and a sledge hammer (to give your magic access to the inner parts of the buildings. It takes some heavy redesign but you eventually give the penthouse a large balcony that you could hole a small dinner party on (though I woulddn't put a piano on the thing) and put in magical glass window that can become intagible on command. You have Mayhew send the various trinkets of his collection of magical stuff sent to your new department, the lot of them should be
[stew is awesome.]here by next week.The crew are done with your new kitchen and bathroom just a few minutes before sundown and you pay them a bonus out of your own checkbook and send them on your way. Esther awakens from her perch on the roof and glides down to inspect the new balcony, you let her in through the magic window, and once the translator arrives you set them to work teaching her the spell. Eventually she gets the hang of it and the three of you sit down to eat dinner.>you have the night to yourself, now is a good time to discuss your plans for Esther with her and to try and figure out a good set up for her quarters and other such niceties.
>>20286920Explain to her that we are working for a rich man called Mayhew who is very interested in her and her capabilities. She might want to meet him face to face once she has learned enough english to discuss her own view of things. Hint that working for Mayhew may be the fastest way to find out what happened to her clan since he can mobilize a lot of financial clout.
>>20286920Start by thanking Esther for her invaluable help in helping with the stone soldier case, if it wasn't for her we may not have been able to reverse the spell.Ask Esther what she would like to do, at least after she's gotten a hang of the modern world, English and modern weapon systems. I would like for you to, at the very least, stay close or even share quarters with me. I'm not ordering this and this request isn't in any official capacity. But I sincerely enjoy your company and would like to get to know you better, spend more time with you. Ask if she'd like to meet our boss some time, he's interested in her capabilities, is rather wealthy and influential and would be the best chance of finding what happened to her people.
>>20286962Also ask her how she likes her current chamber and if she would like something more dignified.If she has any questions or suggestions she can come to us.
>>20286920Flirt shamelessly.
rolled 5 = 5>>20286987>Rolling for it
rolled 20 = 20>>20286994We should probably do better than that for our shameless flirting that is being relayed through a presumably thoroughly embarrassed translator.
>>20287008Thanks. Good thing its out of three.
>>20286987Don't flirt with a snake demon gargoyle that is in our care. We are classier than that. Veto
>>20287032Did you not see the 20?
>>20287032I disagree, some flirting could be called for. Nothing classless or crass of course, but some gentlemanly flirting that causes her to blush outrageously is perfectly acceptable.
[You can't flirt through a translator! feel free to do it once you can communicate with her via English. I don't care if your rolled a twenty, you can't turn gold to air, though can give her "signals" that you're attracted to her. Grins and glances mostly. Presumably these grins and glances are very flattering.]You make it clear to Esther that your are VERY thankful for her assitance with the stone soldier case, without her aid you might not have been able to help those soldiers. She makes it clear that she's glad she was able to be of some use, even if it was just by being a "guinea pig" as her translator puts it. You would ask her how she likes her quarters but she doesn't have any yet because the building is brand new, you make a mental note to install some appliances and furniture for her use. You do tell her about how you represent a VERY powerful man and that he's interested in her and her capabilities. She seems nervous when this is mentioned and you make coniliatory gestures. She can meet him when-
She is ready and until that day comes Mayhew will be more than happy to wait. >you have a snake-demon gargoyle woman on hand who has like...15 english words in her vocabulary hold on gimme a second.>Esther's English Vocabulary: Nonexistant>There you have a Vocabulary meter now. As long as that's low she's not gonna be able to communicate via english. You might want to spend the rest of the night putting a training program of sorts in place for her.
>>20287091I would like to ask her if she has heard of a cult of the Burning Eye or something similiar. Its a stretch, but if she knows that might simplify things.
>>20287076But we could do other things. Pouring her wine, pulling out here chair for her (If she uses chairs), ect.
>>20287091Yep. English course.
>>20287111we'll just assume we're doing stufflike that for here.Interestingly enough Esther has heard of the cult of the burning eye but doesn't know much. "Men who worship devils and bad spirits who eat the flesh of the dead and feast on the misery of honest hard working folk." Its the description you have of them now basically. Does give you an idea of how old the name and cannibalistic practices of the cult are though.So its established, set up a nightly tutoring session with as many linguists as possible, maybe an anthropologist or two to try and learn about ancient polish and gargoyle culture?
>>20287091Correction, we have a hot snake-demon gargoyle woman.Be as much of a gentleman as possible, while we're around her. Grins, glances, pouring wine, brushing against her hand with ours and letting it linger a tad longer than necessary. All the non-verbal stuff to show interest.We can't really educate her effectively on any other subject currently while she's still picking up English, so that's at the highest priority. So get a training program in place, as much immersion into the English language as possible.The stone state that they enter, are they still somewhat aware of their surroundings? If so we can do a small training regiment while she's like that.
>>20287150That seems like it'll work.>>20287152Addendum to the sleep learning plan, we should have some linguists put together audio files to play that covers the annoying work that just requires time and memorization. Learning basic words and definitions and stuff like that. Leave the complex bits that require tutelage for when she's awake.Obviously nix this plan if it won't work or it'll interfere overly much with her sleep.
>>20287152Man, i dont know why tg has to hit on everything female ever in quests, but ok, do it if you want.On a unrelated note, we should enforce research into the Cult of the Burning eye. Call up historians, anthropologists, balkan specialists, occult specialists, other magicians. Throw a bit of money around. They are definetly a threat, and if we find out more we can gift it to the military and improve the relations between them and our employer.
Sleep learning doesn't work on humans so it won't work on gargoyles. Gargoyles do dream during stone sleep but they're totally comatose and cannot wake up or exhibit any form of activity whilst asleep. so sleep learning won't work.An english immersion program, with some very patient teachers to give her some grasp of the written and spoken english language (appealing to her apparent piety might work) sounds like the course of action we want to take.
>>20287211she's pious correct? and since she speaks an old form of polish, im assuming she'd be catholic. we might be able to talk to her in Latin... no?
You set in motion some steps to get Esther taight english, you're going to have teachers shipped in from the mainland and in the meantime You're going to let the Linguists you have on the island take a shot at teaching her the english language. You meanwhile Tell Esther via translator that you look forward to your next meeting and excuse yourself.Lacking anything better to do you get out a laptop computer you had custom made for yourself and get your cell phone ready. Its time to research this burning eye group. They're definetly shaping up to be a major threat to the world, they use magic, being a leading researcher of magic its you're responsability to try and provide countermeasures against them.>roll 3d20s for research.
rolled 9, 20, 4 = 33>>20287300Rolling motherfucker!
>>20287282good eye, and good logic. Small problem she was apparently tutored by nuns at some point so she knows the basics of the religion but she was a peasant, a gargoyle peasant. She can recognize latin, and may even want to learn it but she can't speak it. (and she's illiterate on top of everything else....)But nice logic there Anon, I don't want to shot down good ideas, its just that her speaking latin doesn't suit her background.
rolled 20, 17, 8 = 45>>20287318We shall know everything!
rolled 16, 9, 12 = 37>>20287300Rolling to research the living hell out of these guys.They may not be the best magicians from what little we've seen so far, but they have the potential to be unpleasant and they seem to have a medusa/cockatrice/basalisk on their side.>>20287337Oh well, I guess we'll get her literate in English, teach her to read/write and then teach her Latin should she want to learn it.
You spend much of the night hunting down archeological records, news paper articles, conspiracy theories, fringe science articles, magicians message boards and every other obscure pice of info you can find. Throwing away the scurrious bullshit you come to several unpleasant conclusions. First, the Cult of the Burning eye may have origins in prehistory, their burning eye sigil has been spotted in cavepaintings and carbon dating proves that its no hoax.Second, they worship something called Zatchnell, a tentacled creature usually protrayed eating the dead, they make rituals to zatchnell and even the dryest, soberest sources point to rituals involving rape, necrophilia beastiality and cannibalism.third, no matter how good things get in one region the Burning eye is ready to move on to a new warzone. The burning eye are only in the balkans and africa because the regions experience such high levels of internal strife, they take advantage of this chaos to find the resources (read, live human beings-
many of them children.) to participate in and fuel their rituals.Foruth, They even have small groups in america, canada, europe and other areas in the first world. Though these appear to be devoted more to getting financial backing via orgies and rebellious dillitantes than anything else.>It is morning, what would you like to do?
>>20287434Get some sleep i suppose. Afterwards call the boss and tell him what we found out and that we healed the soldiers and ask him if we are authorized to share our discoveries about the burning eye with the military.
>>20287434Call up bossman. Pass on the info we got about these guys to him. Advise him to see about infiltrating the groups in the first world, that's where their funding and probably their major magicians is sourced. Tell Mayhew that we dislike these people and would quite like to see them no longer exist.
You get more sleep and after waking up in the afternoon and picking through the left overs of last night's dinner (note to self, pick up some groceries.) You Call up mayhew and spend an hour updating him on the burning eye situation in detail. He tells you to package your findings and send them to him physically when he finds out your search was digital he has you send the lot of your research to an IT division for verification. He'll call you if anything comes of itWith that done you're left with your building and most of the afternoon.>Department of paranormal research.>Number of rooms available, all of them, except the 150th floor, that contains nero's rooms and room for 4 more rooms.>149 floors are available for accomodation.>what would you like to do for the sun up portion of the day?
>>20287505Do we know someone that we would like to have in our paranormal department? Some occult experts or another magician we apprenticed with would help ease our workload and increase our output. Lure them with them moneyz.
>>20287505We need to start filling up our department.We need a goodly sized library full of books, tomes and so on. We need to start poaching researchers, scholars and so on from wherever we can, clear them through our boss if it might ruffle too many feathers.Some scientists to help in our research, preferably ones who study magic.Start looking into recruiting soldiers, fighters and mercenaries who have experience against paranormal threats, we'll want a good number of those on payroll. Set up a firing range in the basement for them.We'll want standard logistical staff, IT department, someone who goes and gets food for the building.
>>20287536even after the city of stone incident magic wasn't taken very seriously, the illuminati managed to manipulate public opinion for awhile but after a decade or two of manhattan getting saved from mystical shenanigans (not to mention the rest of the world) people have adjusted to the fact that magic exists. No teaches it though, you have to learn it yourself.You COULD take on apprentices and try to headhunt some magi from other corporations or get some paranormal investigators to join the department (think of what agent mulder would be like in the gargoyles universe!) Basically you have 3 types of people who can join the department.Security (guys who can help you in combat)Researchers( scientists, detectives, mages etc. etc.)and special characters like gargoyles, fey, powerful mages, immortals etc. etc. wierd people who can help you do things. You'll usually get these guys via quests.Keep in mind you still don't have quarters for Sexy gargo- Er, Esther and that you can only recruit for one gro
>>20287559All very good points, pick a group, and pick a room, or facility (or both, personal quarters aren't a big concern compared to say...a fireing range and you can do a small thing along with a big one.) At first you'll just be shuffling people around the island with pay upgrades and better working conditions but you're gonna be going places in your search for profitable magic and knowledge and stuff.
>>20287597>>20287580Excellent. I assume that the mundane things we need like IT, cleaning, secretaries, all that is going to get taken care of without us having to manage it, we've got Human Resources for that.Currently I think we should focus on scientists, mages, and scholars as the highest priorities with Scholars/Researchers/Bookworms as the highest among those. Focus on improving our knowledge base and building up a nice library of data to work with. We should also look into getting a few detectives who have worked on cases like this some time soon, people with experience in the nitty gritty side of magic.We want the mages from a wide range of disciplines though a slight focus on evocation and transmutation for apprentices might be called for. We'll help the others as much as possible but it's really outside our specialty. This can be over a decent period of time, much of it is going to be letting our boss and HR know what we're looking for and have them send people our way. Our efforts in the headhunting regard are going to be looking for exceptional talents and recruiting them ourself.
>>20287597Call the boss for some really good facility security, we dont need any fancy black ops yet, get them a safe room to coordinate security from somewhere on the ground floor of the building. Set up a security network throughout the whole building, cameras, pressure plates, infra red scanners, help out with some magical wards. Also don't forget to keep an eye on the buildings surroundings. We want shadowrun AAA level security.Next is logistics and IT. Those guys get the floors closest to the security room. Set up servers and a computer network, they can also help out organising the Hacker Security of our cameras and other Computers. For researchers see>>20287660
>>20287597Perhaps we can transfer our cyborg buddy Kain to work with us for a while.
>>20287660Alright so I think its safe to assume we want some reasearchers. You can just set up a "research department: by picking a handful of floors and having those given the relevant tech, on top of that you can roll a d20 to try and recruit a special character without losing your department (don't worry, interns, paperpushers, IT guys are assumed to be part of the whole package) but you're far more likely to get a useful one, even if you include a little character blurb like."John Johnson, Male, African american, 30 years old. Experienced beat cop who's had many encounters with the Manhattan clan of gargoyles. Has a minor friendship with a handful of the gargoyles and has had his fair share of weird encounters with the city's paranormal inhabitants. Decided to work fro Opaque Inc. Because his father's stance on revealing the existence of paranormal activities in manhattan stained his career by association and made advancement in the NYPD very difficult."Because its fun to see what people come up with
>>20287689Kain's basically Adam Jensen, explosive secondary weapon, stealth mods and super human speed and strength, immunity to electricity and poison gas and improved senses (scent, taste, sight) stuff like that. He's a security specialist for the island but might decide to work with you if you offer him incentive (you get a six figure paycheck and have the bossman's ear, you can get him stuff he wants) So which is it guys? Security or research? You can never have too much security.
rolled 15 = 15>>20287724Dr. Tom Murphy, PhD. 35 years old.Tom was a military brat who due to his parent's postings moved around the world a lot, he lived in everywhere from America, to scattered locations around Europe and some brief stints in Africa. Wherever he was he listened to the old people talking about the local folklore and grew rather enraptured. When he went to college he got a PhD in world mythology and folklore and has traveled much of the world gathering folklore and has a remarkably good memory for that sort of thing.
research, Got to know what your dealing with befre you can stop it!
rolled 15 = 15>>20287724For the research departement a special character:Julius Christopher Richards, Male, 36:A spectacled mage that has apprenticed together with Nero, though he is less powerful. His speciality is ritual Curse magic where he can substitute meticulous research and preparation for raw magical power. Sees Nero as a bit of a rival. A very good occult researcher, he has worked for some firms in the past where he has always played second or third fiddle compared to other mages. Searching for ultimate power.
>>20287785If it wasn't clear this is for research.>>20287760Possible incentives for Kain. He's got a lot of chrome in him but wouldn't he be interested in seeing if we can toss some magical stuff in as well. Combine his technological advancements with cutting edge magical additions to improve everything and add some new tricks. He also gets to work with new and interesting stuff, infiltrate strange places held by hidden cults.In addition he gets a corner office, presumably a pay raise and a damn nice room.
You have five levels of your tower set up and devote them solely to research, computers, communication, a library (digital and physical), archives for your soon to be extensive files, even a single level with high tech labratory equipment. In the end you've got what amounts to all the equipment in a decently funded criminal forensics lab, you of course are dedicated to researching magic and other realted subjects, so you have equipment dedicated towards that end. You've got a research division now and I'll pick out a special character for thi place next thread, minor note there were no mages to apprentice under when you and the various wizards began practicing magic. You all sort of picked it up on your own and now you're training the next generation. We can assume Chris Richards was a rival for aquisition of mystal knowledge rather than a fellow apprentice.anyways I'll archive this and see you guys either later this week or next week.
>>20287897Was cool man. See you around.
>>20287897See you then.
>>20287913>>20287910thread's up, be sure to vote it up. Thanks for a fun night anons. Have a good day!
