You stand in the middle of a living room (an ironic moniker considering the two corpses lying inside) dessicated by flame. A week and a bit ago you suffered a grievous injury at the hands of a hobo and your own tumultuous magical awakening, requiring the implementation of some sort of magical parasite, a symbiote, to facilitate your rapid recovery. The symbiote somehow converted the aether you radiated as a mage into biological energy, something more than simple ATP or anything easily explained by science, and brought about your prodigious recovery. Not more than three hours after you woke up you were already back on the beat, investigating an arson with some wide reaching implications.

“Think about it Ritter,” you say, speaking to your fellow Enforcement division agent and gesturing around the scorched ruins of the row home. “These guys are - were - dealers aligned with Limited Liability. LL wouldn’t let anyone kill one of their protected dealers like this without some major retaliation. And this right after the dealers in Lower East starting acting out of their control? LL had a hand in this, I guarantee it.”

Agent Ritter, a massive quarter orc with small black eyes, chews a bit on his thumb, the gesture at odds with his rough, crag-like appearance. “But that’s still just a civil war. Between Limited Liability and their dealers.”

Ritter nods. He’s not stupid, just a little slow on the uptake. It’s more like he just needs a bit more of a push to think outside of his preconceived notions. Probably wouldn’t be such a problem for a normal cop, but when you’re trying to enforce the law on literal faeries creative thinking is a lot more important. “And outside of the dealers we haven’t heard anything telling us LL is losing control.”

“Exactly,” you reply, pacing around the skeleton of a couch, your feet leaving prints in the soot, “So the dealers must have outside backing. It makes sense too, all of them acting out at once, and only in one LL district. Even if the local office was slipping, the dealers wouldn’t starting acting out all at the same time.”

“And you think it’s TK15.”

This is less a question and more of a statement. You look over at Ritter, who is regarding you with a serious expression. You chew the inside of your cheek. “I mean, I’ve got nothing conclusive, but a lot of things are lining up to suggest that.”

Ritter nods, expression grim. “Alright Jensen. It’s an interesting theory you got. But we got nothing solid to back it up.”

>”Well, I’m not asking you take it to a court of law.” [Defensive]
>”So? Do you have a better idea?” [Accusatory]
>”That’s why we investigate, dumbass.” [Teasing]
>write in

>>39330364
>>”That’s why we investigate, dumbass.” [Teasing]

>>39330364
>>”That’s why we investigate, dumbass.” [Teasing]

>>39330364
>”That’s why we investigate, dumbass.” [Teasing]

>>39330364
>”That’s why we investigate, dumbass.” [Teasing]

>>39330364
>That's why we investigate dumbass. Teasing

Well. That's a consensus.

>>39330828
Looks like Jenson is a cop bro.

So, I'm a little confused about Reinhardt. Did he ever kill that elf druid? What happened with that?

>>39331086
I believe we let her go. We extracted as much info as we could from her and gave her a one way ticket in a freighter to Ireland.

“That’s why we investigate dumbass,” you reply, a light smile taking the edge off the words. “You can’t deny that this is the best explanation for recent events.”

Ritter sighs and rubs the back of his head. “I don’t have any better ideas, but it won’t be pretty if TK15 and LL really are about to go to war with each other.”

You shrug nonchalantly. “Well, liking it or not won’t change anything. LL and TK15 are either going to war or they’re not. I’d prefer to be ahead of the 8 ball if they are.”

Ritter grunts. “Fine, fine,” he turns around and begins walking out of the row home, stepping over piles of scorched rubble. “So, where are we going to get a lead?”

You follow his footsteps on the sound assumption that if the floor was strong enough to hold Ritter, it would definitely be strong enough to hold you. “Dunno… wait for a drug bust? Tell the cops to be on the lookout for some new product?”

Ritter grunts neutrally as he pulls out a fob and unlock his car. You hop lightly into the passenger seat while Ritter settles like a boulder into the driver's seat, rocking the entire car with his sheer mass. Just as he’s situated, both of your cellphones buzz.

You pull yours out, not even bothering to check the ID. “Jensen here. What’s going down?”

A slow female voice answers you, speaking with a calm urgency. “Agents Jensen and Ritter. There is a seven two three in your area, please respond.”

You both watch the in car GPS light up with directions to another row home about twelve blocks away. Ritter silently flicks a switch on the dash and the sirens go off, muted through the car walls. Lights turn green as he passes through the neighborhood. Not that they really needed to considering the lack of traffic.

A seven two three. There are dozens upon dozens of codes for crime involving magic. Unlike a police code, the EnRA response code also included fine granulations of severity when it came to violations. A seven two three was level three magical battery. Levels two and one magical battery required an entire SWAT squad and small army respectively. Level three was as bad as it got for your common agent. You mentally flip through registered mages in the Lower East. There aren’t many. And certainly none so powerful to cause a seven two three.

>”On our way command.”
>”What’s the situation?”
>write in

>>39331213
>”On our way command.”
>”What’s the situation?”

>>39331213
>>”On our way command.”
>>”What’s the situation?”

>>39331213
>”On our way command.”
>”What’s the situation?”

-----
>There aren’t many. And certainly none so powerful to cause a seven two three.

Shit, this means Pix is most likely involved welp time to go take care of a druggie mage on a magic high probably warping an entire block into his Magical Realm.

>>39331213
>>”On our way command.”
>>”What’s the situation?”

“On our way command,” you reply, pausing before asking, “What’s the situation?”

“A routine drug bust by the SPD went out of control,” the calm voice replies, “Officers Danielson and Lucco of the SPD were responding to a noise complaint against the residency 2323 Linden Street when an individual inside the house assaulted them with an aetheric attack.”

“How are the officers?”

“Unknown. We only heard of the attack because the spell triggered the Overweb and we managed to intercept Officer Lucco’s attempt to call it in.”

You grit your teeth. Not looking good. “Known mages in the area?”

“None on registry. The residency is home to one Ken Malone, petty criminal. No known magical connections.”

What the hell. People don’t just toss around spells powerful enough to trigger the Overweb, one of many magical networks over most major American cities created for EnRA by the Aethralion, for petty criminals. And people who can toss around spells that powerful aren’t petty criminals either. It takes some big time spellweaving to trigger the Overweb, mostly as a consideration to the privacy of wizards who might live under it.

Ritter slows to a halt, the residency in question around the corner. It’s not hard to see why. The burning wreck of an automobile is lying on the road ahead of you, the roof of the car bent in as if crushed by a giant’s club. You and Ritter exit the car cautiously, taking car to shut your doors as softly as possible. Ritter pulls out his sidearm, and you do the same.

The house where the call came in is around the corner and down a few. There are narrow alleys between some of the rowhomes you could approach through, not very noticeable but there’s a risk that whoever is spell slinging might see you before you can reach him. You could also just stick to the road, where there’s a little more cover to approach, but where whoever is doing this is probably looking.

>How do you approach?

>>39331679
Road, stick to cover
Try to see if we can locate the officers that came

>>39331679
Take the narrow alley ways, we want the element of surprise on a mage.

>>39331679
If there's anyone coming in from the front, we should go through the alleys since they will pull enough attention for us to sneak in.

Alternatively, have Ritter drop us off a little ways away and have him go through the front while we go through the alleys.

>>39331679
We could split up, and Ritter is more noticeable than us what with him being made of huge.

He goes by the street, taking cover and not approaching too fast, even if he gets noticed we can still get the jump on the mage.

>>39331679
backing this:
>>39331888

You glance over at Ritter. The large agent nods and begins to move forward, along the street. Both you and he made the same tactical assessment. A pincer maneuver was probably safest, and as the bigger guy, the relative inconspicuity of the alleyway was less likely to do him any good. You hurry along the long driveway that ran behind the line of row houses opposite the 2323, taking care not to step in the shards of glass that litter the cracked cement or kick the overturned garbage cans.

It’s times like these that make you appreciate a homeowner's association.

Eventually you reach the alleyway slightly past 2323, allowing you and Ritter to attack anyone out there from two angles. You move forward, feet padding against the cement, sounding like dull drum beats despite your best efforts to move quietly. You press yourself against the hard brick wall and glance out, to the street.

Several cars are burning, including one police cruiser. Two bodies lie on the ground, the one closest to 2323’s door scorched until unrecognizable the other, office Lucco you presume, is lying on the ground near his burning cruiser, red splotches on the back of his shirt.

Ken Malone is standing in the middle of the street, howling with mad, rancid laughter. You don’t know what concerns you more, the hand full of flame or the military grade assault rifle in his right.

Within you, something stirs. A need, not so dissimilar from thirst or hunger, tugs at your mind gently, more of a request. But it wasn’t a need for food or drink.

A moment before you realize it.

Aether.

>Plan of Attack

Amber Jensen Status

Hit Points: 18/18
Limb Status: All good
Concussion Status: All good
Aether Points: 20/20
Weapon: semi automatic

Powers:
>Unknown (2 AeP per round)
>Unknown (3 AeP upon activation)
>Unknown (1 AeP per round)

>>39332130
Ken is a latent mage and he took a shot load of Pix?

>>39332130
>Activate 2 and 1 AeP Abilities
>Rush for Cover out of sight of Ken Malone
>Aim wepon
>Cap him in both knees

>>39332130
>Unknown (1 AeP per round)
Let's get a vantage point for a good shot and radio what we now know to Ritter.

>>39332130
Wait for Ritter to get into position before activating the unknown 2 AeP per round power. After that, open fire at Ken.

>>39332130
>>39332240
>>39332245
I'll add the bit about cover and aiming as well. Any disabling shot would be good, I dont think we should just kill this guy.
>>39332280
I agree we should wait for Ritter.

Okay, so activate 2 AeP power, and take some shots at him? Where would you guys like to seek cover after that's done?

I'll need maybe four rolls of 3d10.

Rolled 6, 6, 2 = 14 (3d10)

>>39332365

Rolled 2, 10, 10 = 22 (3d10)

>>39332365
Somewhere not flammable.

Rolled 9, 4, 9 = 22 (3d10)

>>39332365
Seek cover inside his house, perhaps?

Rolled 6, 9, 2 = 17 (3d10)

>>39332365
Do it

>>39332365
>>39332419
I second taking cover in Ken's house.

>>39332130
>military grade assault rifle
so many things wrong with this phrase

You lie back in wait until Ritter contacts you, his voice speaking softly through your earphone. “I’m in position, Jensen.”

“Ditto,” you reply. The mics and earphones used by EnRA agents are specially hardened against the deleterious effects magic has on electronics, but even so there’s still some static. Whoever this bastard is, he’s got a lot of aetheric muscle to throw around.

Also an assault rifle. Let’s not forget that.

“We need to take him down.”

Ritter grunts in agreement. “I’m bigger. He’ll notice me first. I’ll draw fire, moving to the wreck at the intersection. I need you to bring him down before he can destroy my cover.”

You acknowledge the plan and return your hand to your gun, clutching it with both hands.

“What the hell, you saved my ass once before.”

You feed a little bit aether into the need, not nothing, but not feeding it fully. You feel a glow of satisfaction. Then the world changes.

Colors brighter, more vivid. Shadows still there, but concealing less. The smell of day old vomit in the alleyway masked under the stench of burning fuel and plastic from the street outside. A slight breeze blows through the alley, almost too light for you to feel.

A crack, and a bullet whistles by yards away and down the street. Ritter aiming at the ground, but only slightly. The laughter turns into a triumphant snarl and you can hear the air burn.

You pull out of cover and into the light, gun raised and at the ready. Malone is facing away from you, down the street at your partner. An orb of flame pulses as it surges down the street. Ken is screaming with mad triumph, too loud to notice you. You raise your gun into the firing position and squeeze off one, then two, then three shots, the casings floating through the air. You never noticed the action of your semi. Not really anyway.

It’s a still target at close range. Obviously they all hit. You aim for non-lethal areas, intending to bring the perp down without killing him. You partially succeed. At not killing him anyway. Malone spins around, teeth bared in a snarl as he raises his left hand again. You swallow and leap clear of the fireball’s trajectory, rolling behind the burned remains of the police cruiser. You’d really like to get out of dodge, maybe back into Ken’s house where the brick walls will hopefully do a bit more to stop bullets and balls. Cars don’t stop military grade assault rifle rounds and you’d like to get clear before he slid in a new clip and reloaded.

>Plan of Attack

Amber Jensen Status

Hit Points: 18/18
Limb Status: All good
Concussion Status: All good
Aether Points: 20/20
Weapon: semi automatic

Powers:
>Predation (2 AeP per round): Grants a plus one (+1) modifier to Acuity and Agility
>Unknown (3 AeP upon activation)
>Unknown (1 AeP per round)

>>39332902
>Use Predation and The 1 AeP ability
>Sprint for the cover of Ken's home
>Shoot him in the ass

>>39332902
>Unknown (1AeP per round)
Start shooting him in the stomach.

>>39332902
>Unknown (3 AeP upon activation)

I cast Ultima

>>39332902
Wait for Ritter to fire at Ken before activating the 1 AeP ability and then retreating to the house.

>>39332902
>Aether Points: 20/20
err..

>Unknown (3 AeP upon activation)
Hit him while he's reloading as we move to the house.

>>39333089
>Aether Points: 20/20
err..

oops

>>39333089
>>39333050
I have a weird feeling that the 3AeP is a healing thing. Also, if you use Predation, it'll help with getting to cover.

>>39332902
Keep Predation on, and try out the 1 AeP one, see what it does.

Prioritize getting to cover over shooting him again, Ritter should be nailing him in the back soon.

Okay, so keep Predation running, use 1 AeP ability, try to get into Ken's house while Ritter distracts him?

I'll need 4 rolls of 3d10.

Also, did you play DAQ before, or is this the first quest of mine that you've read?

Rolled 4, 5, 5 = 14 (3d10)

>>39333236
Former DAQ player.

Rolled 8, 2, 7 = 17 (3d10)

>>39333236
Here we go

Rolled 2, 7, 7 = 16 (3d10)

>>39333236
Also a former DAQ player.

Rolled 6, 8, 5 = 19 (3d10)

>>39333236

Rolled 3, 4, 9 = 16 (3d10)

>>39333236
former DAQ

>>39333236
first quest of yours

>>39332902
>clip
I thought you were better than that.

>>39333236
Spent most of my time on DAQ in the archives, only caught a handful of live threads and was deeply crushed when it died

>>39333568
So was forklift-chan but she's with her aenpai now

>>39333586
I laughed like an idiot during that whole sequence

File: 1400820447831.jpg (2.05 MB, 4000x3000)

2.05 MB JPG

>>39333560
only for you anon.

>>39333631
for you

The house shudders as a massive fireball strikes it. Glass blows out, or in you suppose, from a nearby window, glinting as it slices through the air and your hand. You wince in pain and look down at the injury just in time to see it steaming. You watch with detached fascination as the small cut seals with nary a single line of scar tissue to show for it’s presence. Pride radiates in the back of your mind.

“Well, okay,” you grunt, shifting to sit next to the window, “Good job.”

Just as you’re in position, Malone stops his incoherent noise making and returns to screeching the english language. “Ya’ll motherfuckers are DEAD! I am fucking god BITCH! I will burn you away with righteous flames motherfucker!”

His ranting is punctuated by a series of extremely violent coughs. The coughing fit extends way longer than anyone is comfortable with. Once he’s done you’re halfway tempted to ask if he’s okay. You don’t though, because less than a second later he’s back to tossing fireballs around, punctuated by the rattling of rifle fire. Judging from the lack of bullets whizzing through the air on your end, he seems to be focussing on the much larger and more intimidating Ritter.

>Plan of Attack

Amber Jensen Status

Hit Points: 18/18
Limb Status: All good
Concussion Status: All good
Aether Points: 15/20
Weapon: semi automatic

Powers:
>Predation (2 AeP per round): Grants a plus one (+1) modifier to Acuity and Agility
>Unknown (3 AeP upon activation)
>Regenerator (1 AeP per round): Heals 1 HP and 1 limb HP per round

>>39333868
Unload on him keep our active skills up and use our last one as an exclamation point.

Rolled 2, 6, 3 = 11 (3d10)

>>39333868
Disengage Regenerator and activate the final power! Let loose our Symbiotic wrath!

>>39333681
T-Thank you Vinny-Chan

>>39333868
Let's just shoot him. Can we do that? Can we shoot him? Like, several times?

>>39333868
Turn off Regen, take a second to line up a good shot, and fill him with more lead.

If it isn't enough lead to take him down, then try out the Activation power.

>>39333868
>>39333993
This sounds good

Sorry guys, had to go afk for a little bit! We'll be keeping up Predation, turning off Regeneration, shooting and trrying out numbah three ability once it's done.

Four rolls of 3d10.

Probably second to last or third to last update

Rolled 4, 8, 6 = 18 (3d10)

>>39334148

Rolled 4, 2, 7 = 13 (3d10)

>>39334148

Rolled 5, 3, 5 = 13 (3d10)

>>39334148

Rolled 4, 10, 5 = 19 (3d10)

>>39334148

Rolled 2, 4, 2 = 8 (3d10)

>>39334148
HWG

Frankly, this crazy bastard is too dangerous to let live. EnRA has a very clear policy when it comes to fuckwits who threaten to indelibly ruin the division between the extranormal world and the mundane. We put them down. You inhale deeply and pull out of cover, cutting off the little flow of aether required for the regeneration thing and merely using the sense enhancing ability. You line up the shot and pull the trigger three times in quick succession. The first shot lands true, blasting through Malone’s chest at a nasty diagonal. No way there isn’t a punctured lung somewhere in there. The next few shots go wide by a long margin, digging furrows into the neighbor’s lawn. Malone collapses onto the ground, twitching which is a damned sight better than tossing around massive fucking flame balls.

You wait a second before holstering your weapon and contacting Ritter. “You okay, you lug?”

Ritter coughs. “Probably inhaled more carcinogens than your average chain smoker but I’ll be fine.”

“The mage is down.”

“Yeah,” Ritter agrees. “I just don’t get it. A mage this powerful, the Aethralion would have known.”

“Yeah,” you agree. The Aethralion was the governing body for wizards and the de facto ruling body for most magically inclined humans. For a while, before the real exodus of the supernatural community into the mundane world, they kept the barrier between the two fairly sound. Now though they’ve been forced to work alongside government institutions like EnRA to keep the supernatural secret. The Aethralion usually keeps tabs on all the mages that don’t work for EnRA and similar organizations. “A spell slinger that strong should’ve got their attention long ago.”

“D’you think he just manifested his power,” asks Ritter. Ritter isn’t one for words longer than two syllables, but manifest is the official term for a mage awakening their powers for the first time.

“Nah,” you reply, speaking from more personal experience than you’re willing to admit. “Mages first manifesting their talents don’t usually manage such a big show for very long, or at all usually.”

“Ah,” grunts Ritter, “So you wanna help me with the body or what?”

>Help Ritter deal with mage
>Explore house Taking 3d10 rolls
>Write In

Rolled 4, 7, 5 = 16 (3d10)

>>39334813
>Explore house Taking 3d10 rolls
Remind him to double tap. We don't want something bad happening again.

Rolled 5, 1, 6 = 12 (3d10)

>>39334813
>Explore house Taking 3d10 rolls
Let's split up gang!

>>39334813
>>Help Ritter deal with mage

Gotta make sure this shit is dealt with.

Rolled 2, 3, 9 = 14 (3d10)

>>39334813
>Explore house Taking 3d10 rolls
Ritter's a big man, just tell him to call in an ambulance for the "mage" and restrain him while you see if there is anyone else in the house.

“Nah, I’m in the house already. May as well see if I can dig anything up.”

Ritter leaves you to it and you turn around, actually taking in the house. It’s about average for a home owned by a drug dealing single twenty to thirty something male. In that it is an utter trash heap. Unlike Kendall’s house, which was destroyed by flame, this one could probably use some to get the cleansing started. Piles of empty fast food containers dominate the kitchen, dirty clothes and empty bottles line the walls and coat the chairs. Seriously, you’re not squeamish or anything, but this is mad nasty. You walk around the row home, taking care not to touch anything. Compared to the Judicial system, EnRA usually plays a lot more fast and loose with the rules, mostly due to the fact that when someone can literally summon a doppelganger from the outer realms that contains all of their memories it’s kinda hard to hold convictions up to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. Naturally, the slope was more than a little slippery.

You step over yet another pile of debris and walk up the stairs. It doesn’t take long to find Malone’s bedroom and it takes even less time to find the probable cause of his magical outburst. You swallow as you look at the substance, a fine pinkish powder spilled out from a plastic wrapped brick, several lines of the stuff on an improvised table of a board propped up on plastic crates. You step into the room and look around. In the distance you can hear two loud cracks as Ritter makes sure Malone stays down. Aside from the improvised table, there is also an actual nightstand, with fat stacks of cash lying on top. Although you don’t get a good look at it, and there’s good odds a lot of those are singles, it’s still a lot of money. Easily a grand or two At the foot of the bed there is a crate, the top pried off with a bit of rusty rebar. You walk up to the crate and peer inside. There’s a shitload of ammo, several grenades, and a few more packages of the pinkish powder.

Oh, this definitely isn’t good.

>><<

Alright, I got a quiz tomorrow. That's all I wrote for tonight. How's the quest going for you guys so far? Is the dual MC thing working out?

>>39335283
Dual MC is interesting. Quest is alright if a little slow-going, although it will probably pick up as HABBENING begins.

Thanks for running, senpai~

>>39335283
I'm really enjoying the quest playing both sides is interesting and I think you are pulling it off really well
Thanks for running!

>>39335283
Quest is going good so far, if a bit slow. Dual MC has been fine, although at the moment Amber seems to be playing catch-up more than anything. It'll be interesting to see how things develop.

Thanks for running FG/UV

>>39335283
I like both MCs, I can't wait for things to get real. I feel like LLC is more fleshed out than EnRA. I personally like Reinhardt more, but that's cause I'm partial to professional criminals. When Jensen has more time I'm sure I'll like her more.

Thanks for running FG!

>>39335283
I just got home from work and caught up, thanks for the thread boss