"Hello my dears," says the Black Queen, smiling. "How are you today?"

"Not too good," you respond. "Mostly because of your 'King' here threatening our lives."

She raises an eyebrow and sighs. "I'm sorry. I ordered King to bring you here, but I'm afraid that he can get a bit overzealous sometimes. I think it has something to do with the fire and all. Apologize to them, King," she says, waving her hand in his direction.

King winces, then speaks. "I am greatly sorry for my earlier actions," he says. "I will not do it again."

"Very good King," says the Black Queen. "You do have to take a firm hand with them sometimes," she says, "lest they get out of control. You have experience with one of them, right? Can you even imagine the consequences?"

You are about to say something when she cuts you off. "Now, I heard from a little birdie that the three of you managed to take down an entire file of pawns. That is quite impressive, I must say, but I think that it would be for the best if we came to an agreement, don't you think? It would be much better if you were to use your strength against the more lawless parts of the city, for the good us all. Don't you think?"

"Uh-" you begin, but she cuts you off again. "So, I propose that the three of you join my Queendom as Knights." She furrows her eyebrows at Joana. "Or maybe Rooks," she says, with obvious distaste. "The point being, I can keep you fed, sheltered, and provided for, as long as you do your duty and fight for the Queendom. You saw those artifact creatures outside. We have food enough to feed almost everyone in Queens, and enough room in the dorms to keep them safe from the lawless banditry running around. What do you say?"

What /do/ you say?

>"Sure, that sounds fine."
>"No."
>Attack.
>Other

>>32873230
"Just what laws do you have in place in your Queendom? I'm not about to pledge myself to a tyrant."
It's our nature to be free. Anyway, asking what we get out of the deal comes later.

"So," you begin, "just what sorts of laws so you have in place in your Queendom? I'm not about to pledge myself to a tyrant."

She frowns. "Don't you see what is happening all around you? The moment that the general populace is given weaponry, they turn on one another, becoming no better than savages. These people need a guiding hand, one that will unite them to a single cause. One that can direct their aggression towards a common goal, under a common banner. And this is that organization."

"Then why did your men attack us?" says Joana, outraged. "And what was all that about taxes?"

Arthur frowns as well. "I must admit to the same question. If you so believe in uniting people and preventing infighting, why order your men to attack people who have done no harm and steal their artifacts?"

The Black Queen sighs. "Whether any people have done any harm isn't up to them to decide. Simply by being apart from my rule, and in possession of weaponry, they are doing much more harm than good. As for taking weaponry, my organization is currently still quite low in power, so why shouldn't we take weaponry from those who don't deserve it?" She seems genuinely confused by the question.

What will you do?

>Tell her that you aren't joining her organization.
>Explain to her why people aren't going to agree with her.
>Attack her.
>Other.

>Explain to her why people aren't going to agree with her.

>>32873547
>Ask her what her 'common goal' is.
>Explain to her why people aren't going to agree with her.

"And what exactly is this 'common goal' of yours," you ask, frowning.

"Why," she says, "the revival of civilization, of course! With all this chaos going around, civilization as a whole is broken, and only by uniting can it be fixed. People desire order, and they can have that, once they pledge themselves to me!"

You can already see where she's going, and you don't like it. "That isn't going to happen, Queenie. People might like some order, sure, but they aren't about to give up their basic freedom for it. Even more so when you're essentially forcing them into working for you."

The Black Queen narrows her eyes. "So that's how it's going to be then?" She sighs theatrically. "Well, I suppose there's no point in trying to convince you, if you won't even see basic logic. GUARDS!"

Instantly, the doors that the three of you entered through burst open, and through them come galloping several horses, primarily in grey, being ridden by men with several grey artifact weapons themselves. A smoky black horse enters riderless, and King winces before mounting it.

He smiles at you apologetically. "I really wish I could have met your humanoid artifact," he says, before wincing again, and hardening his eyes.

You glance around quickly. The room is fairly open, and but the only exits are the doors through which the riders just entered, a door on the opposite wall, past the Queen, and the windows that are situated high up on the walls. Your hoverboard sits near the horses, where King left it.

What will you do?

>Blast the horses with your lightning magic.
>Blast the horses with your wine bottle.
>Dash over to the hoverboard.
>Run for the opposite door.
>Other.

Rolled 8

>>32873885
"You're about to."
>Blast the horses with lightning magic

>>32873885
>Dash over to the hoverboard.
>"THIS IS WHAT I MEANT ABOUT BEING A TYRANT!"

>>32873885
>Dash over to the hoverboard.
>Try to do that beam thing with that wine bottle artifact

>Dash over to the hoverboard.

Roll 1d20 for Athletics.

Rolled 6

>>32874022
oh boy here we go

Rolled 5

>>32874022

Rolled 16

>>32874022

Rolled 8

>>32874022
Rolling just because

Well, lets hope the 16 gets picked because our dice are not nice otherwise.

16(roll) + 2(athletics) + 1(speedburst) = 19

"This is what I meant about you being a tyrant!" you yell as you lightningstep forwards directly onto your hoverboard. As you hit the board, it swings sideways from the momentum until the base is facing against the nearest wall. Then, you release all of the lightning you had been building into overloading the hoverboard, you jet forwards and grab both Joana and Arthur, one under each arm.

Pointing the wine bottle with one hand, you charge and fire it towards the horses. One rider goes down, however the other four riders are able to recover easily, already charging at you with their horses, each click of hooves releasing a plume of fire on the ground.

King is already closing the distance, his horse speedbursting the distance almost instantly. Luckily for you, Arthur manages to fire another jet of water from his sword, temporarily stunning King long enough for you to get out of the way of his charge.

You are rushing for the back door when you see that the Queen has gotten up out of her throne and is now staring you down. You suddenly notice that her gloves and heels are not the normal black of clothing, but rather the smoky black of an artifact. The Black Queen grins, and you can see the telltale buildup of lightning in her hands.

What do you do?

>Rush the front door, attacking the riders as you go.
>Rush the back door, and hope that you can avoid the Queen.
>Attack the Queen.
>Try for the windows.
>Other.

>Try for the windows.
We're outmanned and outgunned. Time to skedaddle.

>>32874289
>Rush the back door, grab Arthur's sword for a moment and drench the Queen.
Hopefully that'll prevent her from using those artifacts safely.

>>32874289
>Rush the back door, and hope that you can avoid the Queen.
>Try to make an EM field, don't let the Queen go on the offensive

>Rush the back door, and try to stop the Queen from attacking.

Roll 1d20.

Rolled 9

>>32874389

Rolled 16

>>32874389
Dey see me rollin'

Rolled 18

DICE GODS, DON'T LET ME DOWN

Rolled 7

>>32874389

18(roll) + 2(magic) = 20

"Arthur, I need to borrow your sword!" you cry, jetting the hoverboard towards the Black Queen.

"What? Well alright," he says, handing the sword to you. "I hope you know what you're doing."

You grit your teeth, determined. "I hope so too." Bringing the sword around to point at the Black Queen, you pulse power into the sword, causing it to glow.

The Queen grins, bringing her hands together like a finger gun. "It's a shame you didn't listen," she says. "You could have been a wonderful asset if you were a bit more obedient!"

"Humans aren't 'assets', Queenie," you retort. "They're people!" With that, the sword releases its' built up energy, firing out a glowing blue beam of supercharged water. The Queen in turn fires a bolt of pure lightning at you, and the two beams collide with a bright flash.

You take advantage of the flash to dodge past the Queen, guiding yourself by memory. By the time the flash clears, the drenched Queen turns to see the three of you opening the back door and riding out. "Catch them!" she yells at the riders.

Through the door you find the College hallways, and picking a random direction, you begin flying as fast as you can, pushing the board to the limit.

"Oh my god, she's crazy," says Joana, looking backwards to see if you're being pursued. "She's like every tyrannical villain ever! How can she not see how evil she's being?"

Arthur frowns. "Very few people deliberately choose to do evil things. Pretty much everyone who does evil deeds does so in a way that to them appears just."

"But… she didn't even listen when we explained why what she was doing is wrong!"

"That's probably because from her perspective, we're the evil ones," you say, grimacing. You pull yet another sharp turn down yet another hallway, but this time you can see an exit door in front of you.

Bursting through the door, you find yourself in the inner portion of the college. As you look around, however, you hear a crash as King bursts out from another door, his horse crackling with electricity.

The three of you turn to face him, and he in turn turns to face you. You can see exits both in front of and behind you, but the one in front would require getting past King.

What will you do?

>Turn and escape.
>Attack King with lightning.
>Attack King with the bottle.
>Other.

>>32874630
>Attack King with a Watersword
He sprays SUN all over the place? I say we extinguish it. Just don't waste any time on specifically dealing with him, he's here to slow us down.

>>32874630
>Attack King with a Watersword

>>32874621
>>32874630
http://vocaroo.com/i/s01MHeTub6hl

>>32874630
>Attack King with the sword
>"Think well on where your allegiance lies; I hope you don't make a choice you'll regret."

You swing the sword forwards, already charging the beam. King hesitates, then winces, before charging at you with lightningstep after lightningstep. You quickly fire the sword, the blue beam rushing towards King. He looks as though he's about to dodge, but suddenly for a second he stops, and is hit full on by the beam.

He falls backwards off of the horse and lays on the ground, his face turns to a grimace of pain. The residual lightning darts across his body. "Go," he croaks out, a silent plead in his eyes. "Run."

You frown, but do just that, turning and gliding away as fast as you can. You turn to look, but King doesn't pursue you, simply lying there.

"That was…" Joana hesitates. "I mean, that was pretty cool, but… what was going on with that King guy?"

"I don't know," you say, frowning. "I don't know."

The three of you are able to quickly glide to the nearest supermarket, encountering nobody along the way. The place is nearly empty, but between the three of you, you manage to find a couple of boxes of canned fruits in the storage room, some random food items lying around, as well as a partially crushed packaged cake under some rubble.

"Happy after-birthday," says Joana as she hands the cake to you, obviously still thinking about what happened with King.

You smile at the gesture, hugging her close and giving her a kiss. "Don't worry," you say. "If King is trapped there, we can save him."

Joana nods, and smiles a bit. "At least… at least now we know you aren't the only one, right? There could be loads of people like you, all over the place! And… and you could have a family on your own…"

"Jo," you say, looking her in the eye. "I'm not leaving you. Not for anything, alright? That's a promise."

Joana looks back into your eyes, and grins, pulling you into a full on kiss.

The three of you bag all of the things you gathered into plastic bags from the checkout counters, and climb back onto the hoverboard. Now, however, you are faced with the challenge of getting back to the apartment without running into more Black Pawns. What will you do?

>Rush down the streets as fast as you can.
>Skirt the area that the Black Queen controls.
>Climb a building, and go rooftop jumping.
>Other.

>>32875011
>Climb a building, and go rooftop jumping.

It gives us a good view of the area, and having the high ground should give us an advantage if someone starts coming after us.

>>32875011
>Climb a building, and go rooftop jumping.
With the hoverboard a fall wouldn't be that bad anyways.

>>32875011
>Climb a building, and go rooftop jumping.

>Climb a building, and go rooftop jumping.

Roll 1d20 for Athletics.

Rolled 1

>>32875126

Rolled 8

>>32875131
DICE GOOOODS

Rolled 14

>>32875126
Shit, ROLLING GOOD

Rolled 16

>>32875126
AutoDice Roll out!

14(roll) + 2(athletics) = 16

The three of you climb stairs up to the nearest building's roof, then begin hopping from roof to roof, using hard boosts of lightning to jump over gaps.

As you travel, you look down at the streets below. Black shirted Pawns sit in alleyways and buildings, but luckily none of them look up and notice you. You notice, however, that the amount of Pawns thins out considerably as you get further from the College, but are still present even around your apartment.

"Geez," says Joana, looking around, "they're like ants, getting everywhere."

"Yeah, and they're as annoying too," you quip, starting to feel extremely tired from all the electrical exertion.

Before long the three of you touch down at the roof to your apartment building. A few flights of stairs later, and you're back down to your floor, knocking on the Ponds' door.

Oddly enough, it's James that answers. "Oh, hey," he says, grinning. "You guys made it back alright!"

You hand him the hoverboard. "It worked great," you say, feeling as though you're about to collapse. "Hope we didn't break it too badly."

James looks it over, smiling. "Nah, it's fine. No worse than what Mel does whenever she tries using a computer."

"Don't tell them, you prat!" says Melissa from inside. "And ask them if they're alright!"

"Yeah," says James, looking over all of you. "Are you guys alright?" he asks, genuine concern in his voice.

You grin, knowing that whatever else, you have friends to support you through. "Not quite," you say, "but we're getting there."

END OF SESSION FIVE.

No questions tonight, sorry. Session six most likely Midnight PST again, check the Twitter for updates.

>>32875379
>no critfail
Come on, OP.

File: 1385518372557.gif (1.31 MB, 300x169)

1.31 MB GIF

>>32875379
Thank you for running, it was very fun.

>>32875379
just got home from work, thanks for the thread OP

>>32875415
just because its commonplace or even in some parts tradition does not mean its for the best of every quest anon