L1 Trollslayer Fiona Jarnafeldt:
>Level 1 Agent: 4d6 base dice pool
>Strong: +2d6 on rolls for physical feats of strength, athleticism, and endurance.
>Attunement: +2d6 on rolls to track and detect aberrations, sense creatures in hiding, and commune via prayer and ritual with the natural and supernatural alike.
>Combat Keywords: Engage, Brave (1.5x, no defense attempt)
>Temporary Keywords: Miekkan Puhe (On any combat mass crit, mass crit on your next roll), Manifest (Automatically succeed an engagement roll) – Temporary keywords are lost upon use.
>Equipment: Pneumatic Axe (increased damage dealt), Composite Wood Breastplate
>Misc Items: Earpiece, Bodycam, x2 Bottle of Liquid Meals, Bottle of Water, 5 Zipties, Folding Knife
A cheery baker from Germany and daughter of a particularly renowned Groundskeeper and Hunter of Hunters, you have been plagued with fancies of having a child. After seeing some people you've known get into big trouble after having children out of their legal rights, you've become overwhelmed with fantasies of a future that couldn't be for a humble baker, but could yet be yours as a slayer of beasts that threaten civilization. On the loneliest nights when you lose focus and let your mind wander, you feel them. You hear them. They're in your head, begging to be let out. You need them to be real.

Rules
>This is a slower updating quest, updating once or twice daily. Votes last 16 hours after the poll is posted, while I will try to resolve rolls the same day and post a poll unless the update is particularly long.
>Rolls are done with dice pools, split among multiple voters. Successes and the degree of success/failure is determined by how many dice land on 5/6. Certain situations and conditions may affect this range.
>Base dice pool is 4d6. You get more dice as you level up, but also from role specializations, engagement options, and situational modifiers.
>Any roll with a probability of failure equal to 10% or less is considered Trivial and a guaranteed success. On trivial attack rolls, you are guaranteed at least one success, and not rolling any successes does not punish you.
>Enemies do not make rolls. They act, and you react. Successful rolls will avoid damage.
>Certain keywords will allow you to modify your combat behavior; for example, Brave, available only when a creature is directly engaging you, increases your dice pool by x1.5 rounded up at the cost of you making zero attempt to defend yourself in the case your target survives the attack.

A/n: I try to update weekdays at 8PM EST. 5PM just wasn't working for me.
And thank you everyone who has participated so far!

>>5845695
“Commence mission,” Nonoka says as she begins a formal recording. “See what you can find in this hospital. You're on company time, so if your leads were good enough to make an attempt, you better make sure you see everything through.”

“Understood,” replied L3 Eugen, the demure Swedish woman. “I am confident that we will find answers here in one form or another.”

Your fellow rookie from Ireland, L1 Fahy felt obligated to chime in. “Yeah, if we find it was actual replacements, we'll be checking out import manifests. I ain't lookin' forward to that.”

Sigrun was quick to correct. “If we find nothing, we find nothing. That is no excuse to convict someone on suspicion. Even worse, we don't want to mistakenly believe we fixed the problem.”

As Fahy acknowledged and dismissed his mentor's words, you and your mentor, L3 Kiikoinen, remained silent. Kiikoinen is mostly quiet and strictly business on the clock, so that's usual. You just have a lot on your mind right now. Mantras repeating in your head to preemptively justify what you might have to do.

Entering the lobby, the clerk boy immediately straightens himself upright. His shaky, battered accent emphasizes how much he does not want to get involved any further than necessary. “Hello! H-how may I help you today? Do you have a patient you need to see?”

“No, we need to talk with one of your doctors. Doctor Kallio,” Sigrun explained. “We caught one of his recently released patients conducting illegal activity in the stormdrains. We wanted to interview Dr. Kallio directly on matters relating to any comments the patient might have made during his stay here. Where he came from, how he got injured.” You keep your eyes from widening; lies flowed from her mouth as casual greetings. She was good at this.

“Ah. I... I will call him. Please be patient!”

File: Uptown Hospital.jpg (342 KB, 1920x1080)

342 KB JPG

Rolled 1, 1, 1, 1, 6, 2 = 12 (6d6)

>>5845706
After a phone call that was made particularly clear that your presence here was to interview him about a recently released patient, it only took a few moments for the man of honor to arrive. He's a fairly plain Finn, with black hair and the slightest hint of yellow in his skin. He looks worried, but he also looks like the kind of man whose face froze like that when he got the job. Dr. Kallio approaches with caution, and was willing to talk right there in the lobby, but Sigrun requested they speak in Kallio's office on the first floor.

The plan is as follows: Sigrun would speak with Kallio about effectively nothing for a good while before bringing up the machine shop receipts, at which point she will press him to see if he breaks or lashes out. Lalli would stand guard at the door in case things get violent. This leaves you and Fahy to investigate the first floor until Sigrun is done with Kallio, at which point they will join the investigation proper however many unsavory elements might be tipped off something is happening at that point. Other Stormwatch members involved in the mission are standing point at known exits to the building.

If there is something to find, it can't be too hard to find it. They're large machining tools in a hospital. Surely it's a matter of opening the right door.

While Fahy has received training for where one Savvy might look to hide things off the books, he is a rookie like you. You are on the other hand winging it from a couple days of critical thinking on the topic your mentor put you through, though taking a moment to Attune to what should be a plain, sterile environment should clue you in to the scent of freshly milled metals and heavy machinery.
Rolling for Fahy's Savvy check: 6d6.
Roll Savvy: Two anons, roll 2d6. Target successes unknown.

Oh! And the first thread for archival purposes: >>5806419
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5806419/

Rolled 3, 6 = 9 (2d6)

>>5845709
The nose knows.

Rolled 1, 4 = 5 (2d6)

>>5845709
Not very savvu

>>5845709
>>5845736
>>5845754
You and Fahy have together performed 3 successes. While Fahy was dedicated to looking for what rooms their cameras are pointed away from, you've also been keeping an ear out for trouble.
Roll Attunement: Two anons, roll 3d6. Target successes unknown.

Rolled 2, 6, 5 = 13 (3d6)

>>5845762

Rolled 4, 4, 6 = 14 (3d6)

>>5845762
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon?

>>5845781
>>5845790
>Fahy's Savvy Check: 1/6 rolls succeed
>Fiona's Savvy Check: 2/4 rolls succeed
>Fiona's Attune Check: 3/6 rolls succeed
I can't believe you've stolen this poor Irishman's luck. That was all he had.
Writing.

>Savvy: 3/3 Successes needed. Success!
>Attune: 3/2 Successes needed. Greater success!
Fahy's bloodhound nose is... less than helpful. He's checking mostly patient rooms, and being sure to look behind curtains just in case one of the beds is replaced with a machining lathe twelve feet from an actual living, breathing patient. He's being thorough, but thorough through all the places where those machines couldn't possibly be, in your opinion.

Hospitals have an air to them. That sort of latex smell. The taste of liberally applied cleaning product and the looming dread of cold bodies. You once walked through the special education section of your primary school, and there was an aura, the air there was so steeped in curses heaped upon their souls that you ran through the halls to get out of there as quick as socially acceptable. Hospitals are like that, but only a quarter as bad. You know that in this place there are many people suffering, and how it should feel walking through it.

Which is when you distinctly noticed that vacancy as you meandered away from Fahy's wild scampering.

No patients are in any of these rooms at the end of the hall. Not that they were all patient rooms; vacant rooms for medical procedures are over here. These were more obscured by natural wall due to the nature of the procedures. You hear there's a machine that uses a giant magnet to detect if there's something wrong with you, so you need to be outside the room before it's turned on. You imagine that would be the best possible place for another piece of large machinery. And, luck would have it, you find a room that has a sign on it demanding the removal of jewelery and prosthetics and other warnings. Locked, of course.

Making a mental note and looking around, you spot another suspicious room. Through the cracks of blinds, shelves, and upright beds barricading the window into a dark and seemingly empty patient room, you can see something peculiar. There's a couple of things on some hospital beds. There's nothing on in there, not even the lights, so it's hard to see. The only thing you spot other than the object itself is the oily gleam of plastic of one of the objects. Yet at the same time, you sense no miasma. There is a presence within this room, one you are antsy about disturbing, but the aura of death and suffering is thin here.

“Huh. What is that?” Sumika chimes in, her voice getting a little bit more crunchy as she approaches her screen to try and get a better look. “The parts are small, could fit in a box. That doesn't seem to be your mission objective, but... Huh.”

>>5845977
Regardless, the doors are locked, but hope is not lost. Kiikoinen spent a total of forty minutes over the weeks of training instructing you on the usage of lockpicks. You did it right once on a fluke and was kind of glad it was over. Checking your pockets, it seems you weren't provided with any. If anyone would have been equipped with it, it would have been a manhunter, and Sigrun's a bit occupied.

In the precious few minutes before whatever villainous elements lurk in this place of health and healing, you don't have too much time. You'd have to rely on Saemus' poor track record and lockpicking skills if you'd want those doors opened.

… If you don't want to throw caution to the wind and open that wooden door the old fashioned way, that is.

Select up to two options that aren't about the same door. Unless you choose perfectly opposite options, opening both doors will take longer...
>Get Fahy to open the MRI Scan Room lock.
>Get Fahy to open the patient room lock.
>Chop down the MRI Scan Room lock.
>Chop down the patient room lock.

>>5845980
>Chop down the MRI Scan Room lock.
>Get Fahy to open the patient room lock.

>>5845980
>Get Fahy to open the MRI Scan Room lock.
Mission objective first. We got a baby to earn damnit!

>>5845980
>Get Fahy to open the MRI Scan Room lock.

>>5845980
>>Get Fahy to open the MRI Scan Room lock.

>>5845980
>>Chop down the MRI Scan Room lock.

>>5845980
>Get Fahy to open the MRI Scan Room lock
>Chop down the patient room lock.

>>5845980
>>Chop down the MRI Scan Room lock.
>>Get Fahy to open the patient room lock.

>>5845980
>Chop down the MRI Scan Room lock.
>Get Fahy to open the patient room lock.

This turned into a real awkward vote.
>Total Voters: 8
>Singular Votes: jhv, RHI, X3T, rUS
>Double Vote: KtB, Jw7, cv7, 7Jd

>Chop MRI: KtB, rUS, cv7, 7Jd
>Chop Patient: Jw7
>Pick MRI: jhv, RHI, x3T, Jw7
>Pick Patient: KtB, 7Jd, cv7

>Investigate MRI: 8
>Patient: 4
Every single one of you wants to get in the MRI room, but disagree on how and if you should investigate the patient room at the same time. Thankfully, you are accompanied by experienced agents and an operator with as many angles of the scene as possible.

Writing.

God that took too long
You are hovering in front of the MRI room, considering your options. You really do not like Fahy's odds with a lockpick. He's been constantly fumbling every time you met him, and you have half a mind to get in the hard way... But maybe that's just because he keeps tackling these unrealistic challenges.

That's mainly what stops you from doing anything before Sumika chirps on the radio. “Fahy, come over to help Fiona. She's found something,” Nonoka calls over the radio. “An MRI facility in a mothballed section of the building, and not too far from the loading bay and freight elevator, either. There's also a barricaded room, but leave that for now. It's not the target.”

Fahy walks over and begins to speak, but cuts himself out before repeating while on the radio. “What's the kind of room it is got to do with anything? The machinery could be in any room that it could fit in.”

Sumika was quick to answer. “Expensive equipment can't afford to not be used when people need it. If there was an MRI over here and needed, there'd be patients near it. These rooms are empty. So there's no MRI in there, but there might be something else.”

The Irishman tries simply opening the door, like you hadn't tried it yet, before fishing out the pick from his bag. It's not a simple piece of pressed sheet metal like you had imagined a lockpick to be, it's a complex multitool of picks made in several different shapes and sizes, molded from keratin.

And, surprisingly, this task is trivial to him.

Maybe he's not a total jobber.

The room seems derelict, even as you hit the lights. Dusty and dirty. It looks like a small medical clinic in here. Sumika assures you that's how it's supposed to look on the plans, and that the area where it should be is behind a couple more doors. These, thankfully, are not locked, and you gain access to a room with windows looking into the area where a machine should be.

>>5847600
Sure enough, there wasn't an MRI machine here, but there isn't any other heavy machinery here either. Instead, there's a patch of cleared area that's a lot cleaner than the other rooms in this complex. An MRI was removed from this room, and recently.

“No luck, huh? This is to be expected,” Sumika said, tabbing into a spreadsheet on her screen. “The entry point of heavy machinery is the loading bay, where it could have been moved to the freight elevator to any floor if it wasn't kept here on the first floor. Looking at their patient logs, they report that there's people spread out across the building from floors 2 to 7... floors 8 and 9 would be where these logs say they would have it. They also reported a couple patients in that deserted section of the first floor, so who knows how the building is actually laid out.”

Fuck. You thought you had it. It's gonna take a bit more than that.

“If they're not keeping it anywhere near the loading bay, it seems like they're not looking to hand it off anytime soon,” Sumika observes. “My bet is it's on the top floor. You're still good on time, nothing's fishy on cams. You could check out that patient room – your call. You had a better view than I did.”

Sumika is perfectly right in her assessment. But there's a doubt that slips into your head. The two of you... rookies, up there by yourselves? The ground floor is fine, because Kiikoinen is a sprint down the hall away. If you were to get into something on the 9th floor, there's no help. You're on your own, you and Fahy. Of course, much of this plan relies on speed, finding things out before any illicit elements are mobilized. Gods.

>Trust the plan and head up to the top floor.
>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up.
>Verbalize your safety concern

>>5847614
>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up.

>>5847614
>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up.

>>5847614
>>Verbalize your safety concern

>>5847614
>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up.

>>5847614
>>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up

>>5847614
>>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up.

>>5847614
>Check out the barricaded patient room before heading up.

>>5847943
>>5847877
>>5847797
>>5847762
>>5847627
>>5847623
Yeah it seems quite unanimous.
Writing.

You brush aside your fears. Sigrun, Lalli, and Nonoka drafted the plan and were all L1 once so they must understand how you must be feeling and took that into account with their plan. At least, you hope they were; you'd be pissed if you missed a shortcut.

But that room is bothering you. You're not sure what you saw. Bags of machined product? Bodies?

A respectable institution won't mind you checking.

You show Fahy the patient room door and gesture to it. Fahy quietly unlocks the door, at which point you crack it open and immediately feel the weight of the massive amount of junk barricading the door. Cracking the door open, it'll be easy to toss stuff down and clear the way. Just loud, and time consuming.

Loud and time consuming is a bit worrying when you notice someone recovering from their stupor on a chair in the corner of the room that the window barricade formed a blind spot from. The unshaven slob is wearing a dingy jacket and casual clothes; certainly not an authorized security agent of any kind. There's no homeless people in this city, but looking like a squatter isn't a crime.

Violently, you kick parts of the barricade out of the way. The polished floor and wheels make it very easy for you to make a path for you to squeeze through and clear the door. Saemus hits the lights and follows right behind you, and the clattering of falling chairs and beds startles the man awake.

“Hah? Whah?” He mutters, his mind still dragging itself from the warm comfort of sleep.

Saemus gives his best attempt at Finnish. “Mind telling us what you're doing here all locked up in this room?” It's not great but you understand it, and the man seems to get the gist.

“Fiona, search the room. Saemus, cover the man,” Sumika orders.

The first thing that grabs your interest is this bag. It definitely looks person shaped, but you feel there's no heat coming from it. There is no death, yet you feel no life.

What in the hell is it?

Grabbing it to flip it over and find the drawstrings, it is a heavy metal object. A small smirk comes to your face thinking it is a part for some milling machine, but further gasping at the bag reveals that it's nowhere near the right shape to be anything industrial. Admitting defeat in your guess at what it could be, you yank open the opening of the bag and begin to pull it back.

File: ACDD INFORMAL.jpg (110 KB, 196x573)

110 KB JPG

>>5848773
It's a robot.

Holy shit, it's a fucking robot!

Freyja's tits, you see the Chicago Red Dog's logo on its shoulder! This is the machine the Red Dogs told you about in the bar!

What is it doing in a hospital wrapped up in a bag!?

Sumika is very confused. “What in the... what is that!?”

With the biggest grin on your face, you put your finger to your ear. “It's a Red Dog's drone, I think. I met those guys a couple days ago, told me all about it over drinks.”

“And... they didn't even bother telling me,” the operator sighed. “Departmentalization my ass.”

You feel the slightest vibration. Parts begin to heat up, electricity courses. The machine's lights flicker on. You step back as it begins to move, shredding through the bag with its strength but unable to get the momentum to snap the bindings holding its hands together. It tosses and turns like in restless sleep on the sterile mattress, before it acknowledges your presence, and its head locks directly at you and tracks you perfectly as you move.

File: FEED ME[sound=files.catbo(...).png (230 KB, 1080x822)

230 KB PNG

>>5848795
"BATTERY. LOW."

"I NEED FUEL."

"I."
"NEED."
"BLOOOOD."

… W-what?

Saemus shouts what must have been the most exotic Gaelic curse word on the planet, and the Finn lets out a well practiced “PERKELE!” as he scrambles to grab something from behind his chair.

"Jarnafeldt, don't let it get violent!"

>Restrain the machine; it's already hog-tied. (Strength check)
>It demands blood. You should give it blood. Kill the man in the room. (Engage the human)
>It can have your soifood. Offer a liquid meal.

>>5848814
>Restrain the machine; it's already hog-tied. (Strength check)

>>5848814
>It can have your soifood. Offer a liquid meal.

>>5848814
>>Restrain the machine; it's already hog-tied. (Strength check)

It's a hospital, there must be a blood bag somewhere hanging around on an IV or in the fridge... Tell sumika to ask someone to grab a bag from somewhere and bring it where you are

>>5848814
>Restrain the machine; it's already hog-tied. (Strength check)

>>5848814
>It demands blood. You should give it blood. Kill the man in the room. (Engage the human)
BLOOD FOR THE MACHINE GOD

>>5848814
>>Restrain the machine; it's already hog-tied. (Strength check)

>It demands blood. You should give it blood. Kill the man in the room.

>>5848814
>>It can have your soifood. Offer a liquid meal.

>>5848814
>Restrain the machine; it's already hog-tied. (Strength check)
Let's grab him a blood bag on the way out

Rolled 3, 3, 5, 3, 2 = 16 (5d6)

From various different factors, like taking care of a dog to having fucked my sleep schedule I don't think I can do much today, but come Monday I'll be sorted out

>>5848835
>>5848871
>>5848995
>>5849237
>>5849369
Curiosity will get you killed! The cat is out of the bag and whatever it's doing, it needs to stop, right now. The machine is easy to push around, but the danger comes from how much force it has behind rotating all of its parts once it actually is able to move. Pushing its bound arms to the bed has it try and coil up and swing all of its weight around. It's far tougher than pinning down an animal.

Saemus in the corner was enraptured by the sight of you wrestling a hog-tied vampiric death machine and only pulled out by the finnish war cry and the swinging of a pipe in the corner of his eye.

In your ear, you hear Sumika, absolutely livid, calling out on the radio and into the command room that there's this misplaced Red Dogs machine that wants blood for fuel and is currently trying to find it. You hear confusion and commotion in the background. Kiikoinen says he is on his way.

Though bound, this is a war machine of some sort. Roll Strength, 6d6, target 2.
From the wild commotion, Fahy is caught by surprise by this grunt and takes a slight disadvantage. Rolling to Engage, -1 disadvantage, 5d6t1.

>>5849767
Correction because I'm an underslept retard:
Two anons, roll 3d6.

Rolled 2, 6, 1, 2, 2, 5 = 18 (6d6)

>>5849767

Rolled 4, 3, 3 = 10 (3d6)

>>5849777
>>5849779
>>5849767

>>5849779
>>5849781
I will take the first three of the first roll, I'm sure you have no objections.

Rolled 1, 4, 3 = 8 (3d6)

>>5849777

>>5849785
I'm fine with that.

Rolled 5, 4, 1 = 10 (3d6)

>>5849767

>>5849785
Yo QM, did you beat Canto 5 of Limbus yet? Thoughts on all that?

>>5849767

Sorry about the lack of update Friday. I'll hop on earlier Monday to deal with your nigh-combat situation
>>5849845
It was cool. It's hard to really go in depth without going into actual spoilers, but the personal theme of directionless people latching onto someone else's causes because their idol is as passionate and charismatic as they themselves want to be and they want to emulate them, because that makes for being an interesting person. Funny enough, I had something to the tune of that in my notes for this quest, but for nothing you've seen so far. You'll have to stay tuned.

>>5852194
No worries QM.

>L1 Jarnafeldt: 1/2 Successes
>L1 Fahy: 1/1 Success

The machine is something built for combat, and it shows. Your hands struggle to find a firm place to get a grip of it, for each hold gives as it struggles to break free. There's one spot at a choice location that won't crush your hands or have it slip; the bindings themselves. Throwing yourself across it and fixing your arm straight outward gives you the best chance at making sure your grip doesn't fail because of positioning.

Then as it brings its arms down in its struggle, the bindings are tugged. The moment you realize holding it this way is helping it escape its bindings, you try and change the angle to pin it down, but then it slips loose completely.

Admitting defeat, you take a step back to get some space away from it, and get some words to Sumika. "It broke free! What do I do?"

Fahy is quick to banter. "Try helping a man out, whydontcha!?"

Turning to look, he's coming to blows with the man with his fists. It's far too close an encounter to draw his weapons.

"Kiikoinen is on the way," she assures calmly. "I'm sending your footage to some superiors."

A long slit on the underside of the machine's arm opens, and out flips a massive blade. It couldn't have been deployed while in its bindings because its arms were pressed together, but now that it is free, the robot is now freely able to slice its bindings. You roll over another bed behind you to create a physical obstacle between you and it.

>>5854325
The machine puts the blade away.

With a burst of speed, it steps around and darts toward the fisticuffs in the corner. Fahy had since disarmed the man, but it was still too much of a scuffle to declare him a winner. The machine shoves its arms between the two men and shoves them both aside, sending Fahy into the pile of shelves obscuring the window, and the man tumbling into his own chair.

You're not quite sure when you grabbed your axe, but you've moved to flank the machine, should worst come to worst. It holds the neck of the man that attacked Fahy.

"STORMWATCH AGENTS. LOCATION IS NOT AN UNDERCITY AS PREDICTED. STORMWATCH HQ TERMINATED CONNECTION. QUERY; ARE YOU PERFORMING MY EXTRACTION?"

It expects a response? After a moment you work up the courage for an answer. "No? We're on a different mission."

"ACKNOWLEDGED. REQUEST; CONTACT L4 ARSI HOTAKAINEN, RED DOGS MAJOR MICHAEL RILEY, AND/OR MISS KATRIINA JOUSTEN. ARRANGE EXTRACTION. EVEN CHARGED, IT IS ADVISABLE I AM NOT SEEN PUBLICLY."

Sumika audibly stands up to find someone in the office. The man is lifted into the air, kicking - but more like standing on - the robot's neck. Fahy sticks a head out the door to look for Kiikoinen.

"BATTERY STATE CRITICAL."

The machine casts a gaze over its shoulder at you.

"QUERY; WHO IS THIS MAN? HE IS NOT STORMWATCH. HE IS HOSTILE. REQUEST; GRANT PERMISSION FOR LETHAL FORCE."

>Keep the man alive for questioning, making the Red Dogs drone power down
>Let it drink blood, recharging the machine
>Have it take a finger, spiting but not killing the man

>>5854332
>Have it take a finger, spiting but not killing the man

>>5854332
>>Let it drink blood, recharging the machine

>>5854332
>Keep the man alive for questioning, making the Red Dogs drone power down
We don;t yet know if he deserves being tortured or 'drank' by a vampire robot.

>>5854332
>Have it take a finger, spiting but not killing the man

>>5854332
>>Keep the man alive for questioning, making the Red Dogs drone power down
Info is more important than torturing some poor schmuck.

>>5854332
>>Have it take a finger, spiting but not killing the man

>>5854332
>Have it take a finger, spiting but not killing the man

>>5854332
>Keep the man alive for questioning, making the Red Dogs drone power down

>>5854332
>Keep the man alive for questioning, making the Red Dogs drone power down

>>5854332
>Keep the man alive for questioning, making the Red Dogs drone power down

>>5854376
>>5854423
>>5854439
>>5854457
>>5854477
>>5854531
>>5854930
>>5855170
With a tie between sparing the man and taking his finger, I'd have called for a tiebreaker but >>5855572 seems to have that covered, late though his vote might have been.
Writing.

pardon me my brain was rotting with writer's block today
troubled mind

>>5856138
No worries, take a day off if you need it.

For a painful few seconds you consider how much this man is willing to disclose. How much would he comply after you feed this machine his finger? What if he doesn't really know much and was just tasked with watching over it? What if he's just, some random, unaffiliated drifter that so happened to choose this undercared for room as a place to rest?

You're grateful this man can only speak Finnish.

"No, stand down," you say. "If he knows anything about why you were in a bag that you don't know, we'd want to know." Saemus looks back to you, nodding. While he's got the time, he unsheathes his machetes.

The machine turns to you. "ACKNOWLEDGED," it says, marching past you and lowering the man on the floor. It then goes to slowly sit up against the bed you found it powered down on.

You imagine it only sprung to life thinking it could refuel itself freely. Lucky for this guy here, that's not how it ended up happening.

Sumika returns to her seat. "Jarnafeldt, the machine is pacified?" After a quick glance at the now suddenly powerless machine, you give a quick uhuh. "Well, I talked to someone, and sent an agent to retrieve it. It was apparently lost since early this morning, and they were about to send someone on a tracking mission through unsecured territory for it. They are glad to hear it - and, it's some pretty big names on the mission control there. I hope the name miss Jousten is familiar? Good on you, getting a good first impression."

Jousten? Oh, you heard about her at orientation! Katriina Jousten, the director of Stormwatch. She was a Level 5 Agent before being promoted to her position. Likes swans, apparently. Anybody with "swan" for a last name better like swans. You couldn't imagine what you'd do in her position, living like a baroness as she does. You'd be fine with just a penthouse like Lalli.

As for her attention, you just hope she doesn't have you babysit more bloodsucking machines - she seems to misplace those.

Fahy leads Kiikoinen into the room, surrounding the exhausted man on the ground. Your mentor takes a look at the machine and examines its construction.

Saemus steps closer, blades very much between the man and himself. "So, little guy," he says in his jarring Finnish. "What did you know about this machine?"

"I... not... not much..." he claims, fear building on his face. "They told me to watch over it. Said it was going to be... moved later."

The Irish man grins. "They?"

The smelly man lets out a gasp that sounds between a frustrated sigh and panicked yelp. He says no more.

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>>5857404
Fahy nods, and begins to speak in English. "Sumika, requesting this man be taken in for questioning. He's slept on concrete and cardboard for months, a warm bed and food should make him ready to answer."

You can hear Sumika's mood lighten. You'll admit, yours does, too. "Agreed. He can come back in the car L4 Hotakainen is arriving in. Tie him up. Kiikoinen, watch him, I'll send one of the backup agents in to handle him until help arrives. Fahy and Jarnafeldt, take an elevator up to where it's expected to be. Eugen, wrap up in there."

Kiikoinen sets down a liquid food bottle beside the machine and ties up the man with zipties.

Finding the elevator's easy enough, it's not very far from the freight elevator beside the garage. Taking a peek inside, the garage is also empty. While you wait for the elevator to arrive, Sumika gives you a sitrep.

"The 8th and 9th floors are not used for patients," she notes with a few audible mouse clicks on the other side. "The 8th floor is mostly meeting rooms; I don't have their meeting room schedules, so I have no clue if they have been used for meetings or something else. The 9th floor is the botanical gardens and a medicine lab."

"The meeting rooms seem to be the more likely candidates for storage, but if that's the case, it'll be hard to not get caught seeing it. But perhaps that's not an issue, since it's very much the fastest way in and out. If it's in the gardens, you'll become aware of it quickly and without attracting any attention, especially if it's operating. It's also easier to be conspicuous. Whichever you go, there's only one area on each floor I don't have camera access to. That's where the machines would be, if they're not outright hidden. I'll guide you to them."

Saemus looks over at you. "Want to start at the 9th?"

>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable.
>If it's somewhere on the 8th floor, all you gotta do is go in, find it, and get out.

>>5857427
>>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable.
Better place to test it out with more space, too, if that's what they're doing.

>>5857427
>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable.

>>5857452
+1

>>5857427
>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable.

>>5857427
>If it's somewhere on the 8th floor, all you gotta do is go in, find it, and get out.

>>5857427
>>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable.

>>5857427
>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable.

>>5857427
>>Start at the 9th floor gardens. Like they said, it's much more approachable

fucking ack, this week has not been nice. so much for healthy habits.
"Yeah," you say. He's been on the case.

Saemus watches the elevator floor number tick down. "Are there hospital workers on the cameras up there? Clearly hospital workers?"

"One chemist, currently leaving, two botanists, playing cards in a break room." Sumika answered, as the elevator doors opened and you step inside. Fahy punches the number 9, and the doors shut. "Cameras are not descriptive for our purposes. No visual inside the shed-structure."

By the time you reach the fourth floor, you remember to put the axe back in its holster, and Fahy looks at you a bit confused when the elevator stops at the fifth floor. He scurries to sheath his weapon when the door opens to a quickly startled nurse. She gets off at the next floor avoiding all eye contact.

"Eighth floor... someone just went into a room. No camera in that room, no good visual."

The doors open.

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>>5859518
The sterile air of the elevator is overrun with the smells of nature. The aroma of plants, dirt, fertilizer, mist-sprayed water set your heart at ease. Although this floor is but a warping of nature's true beauty to meet the needs of man, there's a sense of wholesomeness that you feel here that the interior Gardens of Stormwatch HQ does not have. Exotic plants from all over the world grow in little walled off groups, pruned to shape and size like a vineyard. Better to grow certain plants here, rather than waste a boat and fuel to import it. Most hospitals have these, even most villages have something like this. Besides rare plants used for medicines, there's racks and racks of fruits and vegetables to be eaten by patients, almost definitely gene modded but entirely for health reasons.

From what you've seen, this floor's design is similar to a hedge maze, walls of lattice and trees surround pillars and partition off the hospital floor by types of plants requiring more or less sunlight. Tall windows line the walls, save for two places; an overhead observation booth not far from the elevator, and the shack over in the far corner of the building. At noon, the sun doesn't reach far inside and is otherwise dimly lit with weak yellow bulbed lights at workbenches and strips of purple growlights along the floor.

"Do we introduce ourselves to the man in the camera room?" Fahy asks the operator.

After a click of the tongue, Nonoka responds. "You'll be out of here before he has the chance to call anybody, if he's in on it. If he's not, he'll only get uppity if you threaten the plantlife. If the machine is there, you have backup outside, so don't worry about anybody that doesn't get in your way. Just rush for the stairs, or an elevator if they're not an option."

With a nod, Fahy peers around a corner, and determines a path.

You follow, your ears open to the heartbeat of the caged flora.

Eyes do you no good in certain tenebrous corners...

L1 Fahy is going to proceed ahead down the quickest path to the shack. You are keeping a lookout for danger. Roll Attunement: Two anons, roll 3d6. Target successes unknown.

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>>5859637
>>5859641
>>5859642
Take your lumps like a man.

Rolled 2, 2, 1 = 5 (3d6)

>>5859522

>>5859646
Is that the guy who hates you from /qtg/?

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Rolled 5, 5, 6 = 16 (3d6)

>>5859522
Here's some actual dice, anon.

>>5859651
He voted once before. I don't think it's ill will, just someone really trying to not suffer an instakill or something. I've seen what happened in Trojan quest, I know people are afraid of Luck God Arengy. Dice won't kill you, your bad choices will.
>>5859654
>3 successes
radical

>>5859646
Here you go
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/7/79/Soldier_taunts09.wav

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>>5859651
>>5859654
>L1 Jarnafeldt: 3/3 Successes

The air is thick with overbearing scents and smells of myriad flowers and ferns. The sounds are the gentle hum of electric lights and the whirring of fans, the rustling of leaves. The sights are as you've seen before - dim, dark, and cluttered by countless plants of all shapes and sizes, save for the gracious lines of sight which play against you and your gaelic friend. Such environs make for poor perception, but there is one more thing to call upon. Kiikoinen did not teach you this, but your father.

You can sense the presence of something, by knowing that something else is missing. Take the breaking of the flow of wind. It's very subtle, your father said; most animals don't even realize that creatures change the flow of the air around them. But it's there. The presence of a man affects how chimes ring in the breeze, even if he's standing behind them. Though the finer subtleties of this art are beyond you, there were times where you felt him, not a sound or tremor, enter the room as you did something you shouldn't have, and you've always tried to get a grasp of it since.

For a place devoid of workers, this place feels busy. Not still like the woods in the winds, but lively. Making quick pace to the shack, it's almost a bit overwhelming to walk through looking for danger. Saemus has his ears open, but you get the sense he's looking to be reactive. Perhaps he has a sort of city-learned street smarts you don't get, keeping his head down and moving on.

A comfortingly warm air brushes to you down a path you turn to reach a threshold in the sections from a large fan up above, angled down above a lattice fence and shelves. The fence's archways flanked by trees with exotic flowers which rustle in the fan-cast wind. It feels nostalgic to hear the slight rustle as you approach the passage.

As you make your way through the threshold, the wind abates, certainly because of the wall that now stands between you and the fan.

But the tree on this side doesn't rustle the way the other one did.

You look, with a wide eyed aggressively inquisitive ogle, and your eyes catch underneath the yellow leaves, the gleam of glossy black bulbous lenses.

And as you put your hand on your axe, you hear from under the boughs a heavy metal ka-chunk.

Fahy, seems to have already leapt a good distance forward and turned back around with his machetes out.

"Contact!"

Use Keywords when engaging to change how you want to attack the target, if you want to do so. To refresh, your Keywords are Brave (1.5x dice to attack, but with zero attempt at defense), and Manifest (Automatically succeed - 1 use).
And a reminder: Your base attack dice are 4d6 against human targets.
>Engage in combat immediately <Brave, Manifest>
>Join up with Fahy and prepare to join him in attacks
>Back away from both Fahy and the person in the tree, setting one of you up to flank

>>5862375
>Back away from both Fahy and the person in the tree, setting one of you up to flank

>>5862375
>>Join up with Fahy and prepare to join him in attacks

>>5862375
>Back away from both Fahy and the person in the tree, setting one of you up to flank
Cut off avenues of escape!

>>5862438
+1

>>5862375
>>Back away from both Fahy and the person in the tree, setting one of you up to flank
also, radio in we have contact. Got to keep everyone in the loop of what's happening.

>>5862375
>Join up with Fahy and prepare to join him in attacks

>>5862375
>Back away from both Fahy and the person in the tree, setting one of you up to flank

>>5862375
>>Join up with Fahy and prepare to join him in attacks

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>>5862392
>>5862438
>>5862467
>>5862471
>>5862761
Fahy has the right idea to create distance. You're not sure what kind of weapon this person has, and you're not going to risk finding out to dispatch them this quickly.

You leap back, and the branches part. A hooded figure in a smooth gas mask lunges forward, sashes and scarves adorned with shabby rusty pins trailing behind them. On their wrist is some contraption that looks like a metal watch with a giant nail sticking out the front. You had begun to wonder what it did, but right when they nearly caught you, they sent a punch your way.

Po.

The heavy metal nail shot forward in a vulgar display of power, stopping only because the nail had slammed against the machine itself on the inside. Mere feet away from the spike of this thing as it went off, it felt like they had some sort of rabid mechanical dog snap at you in frenzy, and you could feel the air shuffle away as the nail lunged forward. Dragging the user along with it to wrestle to a halt, a trail of wispy white meekly shuffles out of the back end of the device. The power of this weapon is much for them to bear, but with a flick of the wrist, they retracted the stake back into its chamber.

Nonoka was quick to address your confusion. "Undercity militia spotted in the gardens. Weapon identified as a pneumatic stake driver. Not of Stormwatch make. Do not let that hit you, at any cost..."

The masked figure touches their free hand to a device hidden under a scarf. "Two uplanders, gardens," spits the woman behind the gas mask. Her accent is broken and feral. "Killing now."

Shit, she just called for reinforcements. While you do have confirmation that they have reverse engineered the stuff they stole, it's still the matter of seeing if the machine is up here. Stormwatch doesn't want more of these things in their hands. You don't, because you have to deal with them. Either way, you're eager to get out of here.

A new voice cracks into your earpiece. It's Sigrun. "I've made an executive decision in my conversation with Dr. Kallio. He will not be of consequence. I'm moving upstairs via a different elevator. Kiikoinen, I suggest you investigate the 8th floor." An affirmative grunt is the reply given before the line goes silent.

You look over at Fahy, who gets the gist of your repositioning. As he begins to dart up behind her, the Underdweller speaks again.

"Overdweller. You lost your edge. Now we too have your fangs."

With an arm reared back, she dashes forward once again.

L1 Fahy will have an advantage, but the Underdweller Militiawoman is attacking you, and you now have no choice but to engage.
One anon, roll to attack: 4d6 t1.

Rolled 3, 4, 5, 5 = 17 (4d6)

>>5863370
ROLLAN

Rolled 3, 1, 3, 4 = 11 (4d6)

>>5863370

Rolled 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 6, 4 = 33 (7d6)

>>5863383
>Success!
That pile bunker is a weapon ripped straight from the twisted mind of a lunatic metalworker, but your saving grace is that it's clunky and slow. You just have to take advantage of that.

The underdweller throws her fist at you, and you're able to easily brush it aside with the haft of your axe. The staple pneumatic pop precedes the heavy weapon plunging forward into empty air. As she staggers from the weapon's recoil, you swipe with your axe.

The blade finds purchase and dashes a slice across her chest, but the coat she's adorned herself in is made of thick and heavy materials. It seems like very old forest-firefighting bunker gear, adorned with esoteric symbols and covered with scarves and sashes, yet as you brought your axe through it, it feels immensely heavier than simply rubber and kevlar.

As she retracts the stake back into place, Fahy comes up behind her. Hard glass blades sliding against each other with vicious intent have their own iconic ring.

L1 Fahy is taking advantage of the opening you've given him. Rolling 7d6.

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>>5863443
Holy shit.

>>5863448
I guess Fahy proves his worth at last to us! We can't always steal the Irish's luck.

>>5863448
When your Rip Space becomes R.I.P. Space

>>5863370
>The heavy metal nail shot forward in a vulgar display of power
Heheh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOilfxhwxs

L1 Fahy: 5 Successes!

The Underdweller had adjusted her footing to get at you with another lunge, she began recoiling in pain. She staggered forward, and you stepped aside as Saemus continued to hound her, stab after stab, shank after shank with the crystalline sharp blade into her back and sides. The Underdweller swung her fist at him, but he had stopped his onslaught and prepared something else.

He pulled the first of two triggers on his machetes.

Fahy had set both his machetes to a side, and fanned them at her like tossing water from a bucket. A small pipe in the spine of the machete opened and a cloud of small copper flakes spilled and fluttered about in the air, spattering around and covering a large area.

As he followed up with a second flowing strike from a meter away, Fahy pulled the second trigger.

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A small but violent electric charge, fired from an exposed wire at the tip of the blade, was all that was needed to turn the whole cloud of dust into a massive ball of lightning. The chaotic swarm of levin cackles with such intensity that everything else seems to darken, if only for a moment.

The woman's coat seems to be resistant to most elements, but the massive crude steel pile bunker strapped to her wrist and hand was a huge vulnerability. Between the violent flashing, the seizing sensation crawling up her arm, and the fact she had been struggling to be on her feet when he had unleashed this, she easily collapsed, and Fahy only took a moment for his eyes to readjust before continuing his attack on the vulnerable enemy.

"Fahy seems to have this covered," Sumika comments in on the radio. "Jarnafeldt, investigate the metalworker's shack. Fahy, when their backup comes in, you want them on you. Sigrun will join you shortly."

While Fahy is capable, you're not sure if the right call is to leave him on his own. He is a rookie, like yourself. Even if Eugen is coming, you don't know how many are going to be hounding him after. And what if she gets one last hit in? But at the same time, if you leave now, you might not run into trouble, and you'll be able to get a visual confirmation on the machines, and then you can leave.

>Sumika has made the right call - Fahy is clearly capable of not getting killed by the time Sigrun shows up on his own.
>Help your fellow rookie out! You have no idea what these other guys might be equipped with, or how many there are.

Sorry this took so long, between distractions and attempting to draw something nice for once, there was considerable delay.

>>5864971
>Help your fellow rookie out! You have no idea what these other guys might be equipped with, or how many there are.

>>5864971
>>Help your fellow rookie out! You have no idea what these other guys might be equipped with, or how many there are

>>5864971
>Sumika has made the right call - Fahy is clearly capable of not getting killed by the time Sigrun shows up on his own.

>>5864971
>Help your fellow rookie out! You have no idea what these other guys might be equipped with, or how many there are.
That is what Kiikoinen chastised us for NOT doing last time, right?

>>5864971
>>Help your fellow rookie out! You have no idea what these other guys might be equipped with, or how many there are.

"Kiikoinen instructed me otherwise on my first day," you offer up a response. "Requesting to stay and support Fahy instead."

"That was against beasts, which he has not been trained to face with the level of expertise that you had," Sigrun answered on matter-of-factly. "And now, it is not Fahy going up against things he isn't prepared for. It's you. Please, hurry away and-"

"Permission granted," Sumika interrupted. "I have visual on four leaving a conference room and heading up the stairs. They don't seem to be similarly equipped. Just common blades. I was going to instruct Fahy to perform some evasive actions, however the two of you together might be up to the task of actually fighting them."

You hear their boots stomp their way up a stairwell not far from you.

"And even if you aren't, Sigrun will still rendezvous with you two. Let's see what you're made of, Fiona."

You can't help but imagine a wide grin across her pale face.

Fahy rises from his onslaught against the woman with the pilebunker, taking a much needed breath of respite. "Well if it ain't gonna be four a these, that's good fer me. You ready, miss?" You don't bother with a reply, because they're already coming.

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>>5865699
Four vagrants, much like the man watching over the Red Dogs machine, approach. They're armed with knives and long blades. They're quite clearly mad. The only thing they say as they begin to close in is a colorful word for "fucking foreigners" you hadn't heard before.

Your mind tunes out of the voices on the radio. It's getting real.

>Cover Fahy from the thugs while he makes makes a brave charge in. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 4d6 t3 - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)
>Take on two at a time alongside him (L1 Jarnafeldt: 4d6 t2 - L1 Fahy 6d6 t2)
>Rush around and through the garden to come at the vagrants where they least expect it (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2 - L1 Fahy 6d6 t3)
>Tear them to pieces together! (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave> - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)
If you don't like your odds with any option, you can choose to use Manifest in this vote.

>>5865703
>Tear them to pieces together! (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave> - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)

>>5865703
>Rush around and through the garden to come at the vagrants where they least expect it (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2 - L1 Fahy 6d6 t3)

>>5865703
>Tear them to pieces together! (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave> - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)

>>5865703
>Tear them to pieces together! (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave> - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)
With my axe!

>>5865703
>>Tear them to pieces together! (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave> - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)

>>5865703
>Tear them to pieces together! (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave> - L1 Fahy 8d6 t2 <Brave>)

>>5865703
>>Rush around and through the garden to come at the vagrants where they least expect it (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2 - L1 Fahy 6d6 t3)

Rolled 3, 4, 4, 2, 5, 5, 4, 2 = 29 (8d6)

>>5865705
>>5865719
>>5865725
>>5865752
>>5865781
Alright. Let's get some rolls:
Two anons, roll 3d6.

Rolled 1, 2, 5 = 8 (3d6)

>>5866552

Rolled 5, 5, 4 = 14 (3d6)

>>5866552

Rolled 5, 5, 3 = 13 (3d6)

>>5866552

>>5866556
>>5866561
Nice.
For my tardiness on my post today, I will update Saturday. See you nerds tomorrow.

>>5866612
>For my tardiness on my post today, I will update Saturday. See you nerds tomorrow.
Hmmmmmmmmm

>>5868126
I think he meant next week Saturday

>>5868128
But QM said "tomorrow".

>>5868137
He posted that from one week in the future

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My brain is full of fuck and my heart is full of shame. I have the update written out and just figured it'd be weird to post it this late in the weekend. Double update today.

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And the first update is right now.
>>5866552
>>5866556
>>5866561
"We both kill one of them, the numbers even out, yeah?" Fahy points out. That's reckless as hell, but trying to fight defensively against four people sounds even worse. You're grateful they don't understand English.

With a nod, you set your eyes on a vagrant off to the right, and take some steps toward them.

Your axe is a more potent weapon than Fahy's machetes. It's meant to hack apart trolls. It would kill these people outright. It should kill these people outright.

Right?

The man you picked takes a step back and puts his knife between himself and you. Without your breastplate, you'd be running right into it.

And then, a leap forward. A pivot on the foot, a twist of the lumbar. He barely has time to adjust his knife when you pull the trigger on your jet powered axe. It scrapes the underside of your arm, but you feel nothing but the tug on your clothes.

Before you know it, your axe is lodged in the man's collar. The vagrant weakly raises his arm to try and cut yours, but the knife falls from his hands. There's no time for relief, as a larger blade comes level toward your neck. Your axe, firmly stuck in your assailant's body, can't be brought to defend yourself, so you have to improvise. You throw your arm between the blade and your neck and grab for the man's blade, who pulls it back and steps away. That you feel. As he goes to make another swing at you, the axe is free, and a warding swipe slings the blood of his friend onto his face to make him keep his distance.

From the corner of your eye, you see Fahy having a much harder time of it. He sought to tear into one of them, but he didn't manage as well as he did against the underdweller with the pilebunker earlier. All he managed was to just cut up one of their arms, and trying to fend the two of those goons off is not going very well for him. The machetes aren't a weapon of overwhelming aggression like yours. Not without that lightning trick.

Speaking of which, Saemus seems to be preparing to sling out some more.

>Flank one of his aggressors, paying more attention for your own health this time. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2)
>Rush in and finish off the wounded man, leaving you still exposed to the man who attacked you. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 7d6 t2 <Brave>)
>Let Fahy zap those two and overpower the last of your half of the ambushers. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave>)
>Engage your opponent with special care this time, you don't want a serious wound. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 4d6t1)

>>5868586
>Let Fahy zap those two and overpower the last of your half of the ambushers. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave>)

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>>5868586
>Flank one of his aggressors, paying more attention for your own health this time. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2)
>>5868583
Yeah, I get it. Sometimes you lose track of time. No harm no foul though.

>>5868586
>Let Fahy zap those two and overpower the last of your half of the ambushers. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 6d6 t2 <Brave>)

>>5868586
>Flank one of his aggressors, paying more attention for your own health this time. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2)

>>5868586
>Flank one of his aggressors, paying more attention for your own health this time. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6 t2)

>>5868586
>Engage your opponent with special care this time, you don't want a serious wound. (L1 Jarnafeldt: 4d6t1)

Rolled 2, 1, 1, 6, 6, 4 = 20 (6d6)

Level-headed engagement
>>5868853
Zappity Zap Zap
>>5868600
>>5868672
Proper Flank
>>5868802
>>5868686
>>5868633

With you performing a flank, Fahy will have to hold back on the volt cloud, lest you get caught in it yourself. Instead, he will roll a standard engagement of his own to fend off his assailants. While a lethal blow against a man with their back turned to you would be nigh-trivial, the sword of the man you fended off is still seeking your neck, offering complication.
Rolling L1 Fahy's engagement, 6d6 t2.
Flanking gives you an additional die. One anon roll 3d6, and a second anon roll 2d6.

Rolled 1, 2, 3 = 6 (3d6)

>>5868939

Rolled 4, 1 = 5 (2d6)

>>5868939

>>5868952
>>5868968
Ouch. Dice pools are cruel in small quantities.
Writing.

>>5868952
>>5868968
>>5868979
Fahy lashes out against the man that stands between you and him. Brushing aside the man's blade and going for a jab with the other sends him on his back foot, letting Fahy step forward and come at the injured one with a scissor-like slash. the underdweller wasn't able to defend himself and caught two vicious cuts across the neck.

Seeing the last one so on the back foot, you step over to reach him but something is holding you back. A quick look down shows the man whose neck you chopped open has yet to leave the fight and has thrown his arm over your leg. You start violently skicking him off, and suddenly hear the man who cut you approach. On instinct you swing at him, but he hadn't gotten close enough yet. Seeing a moment of an opening, he takes a lunge at you.

Once again, you have to block with your arm. Kiikoinen taught you that your free arm is important in axe fighting against people, and you are quickly putting to use why. Once again you reach your left arm past his sword to grapple the hand that holds it, yet once again he pulls it away and sends a cut across you. You manage to pull your hand away before he can do any permanent disfigurement, and kick backward from the body holding you back and disengage entirely.

Words are in your ears but you can't focus on them. You look at your arm. The dark blue sleeve is tainted a styigan red. Your fingers still move.

You have been using your flesh as a shield overlong.

Better than your neck.

Sheisse.

Saemus has now pushed past his fallen enemy. Seeing your struggling, the Irishman rings his blades together to catch the attention of both of them. You don't think the underdweller that has the upper hand over you is going to lose track of how well he's doing carving you up, but your opponent realizes he's now top priority for someone else.

A distant, faint shuffle of metal gives way to a series of rapid and booming footfalls. The volume of which Sigrun's steps echo through the gardens is an expression of frustrations far deeper than the current moment's struggle. Help is on the way.

>Join Fahy in a joint strike against the underdwellers (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6t2)
>Commit to slaughtering this man with all your heart (L1 Jarnafeldt: 7d6t2)
>Run for the shack.
>Completely evacuate and head for the elevator out.

>>5868583
Don't worry about it. One more day is hardly the end of the world. Questing is a hobby, not a job.

>>5869193
>Commit to slaughtering this man with all your heart (L1 Jarnafeldt: 7d6t2)
Show we're a real go-getter! Earn that promotion!

>>5869193
>Join Fahy in a joint strike against the underdwellers (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6t2)

>>5869193
>>Commit to slaughtering this man with all your heart (L1 Jarnafeldt: 7d6t2)

>>5869193
>>Join Fahy in a joint strike against the underdwellers (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6t2)

>>5869193
>Join Fahy in a joint strike against the underdwellers (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6t2)

>>5869193
>Join Fahy in a joint strike against the underdwellers (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6t2)

>>5869193
>Join Fahy in a joint strike against the underdwellers (L1 Jarnafeldt: 5d6t2)

>a/n: Correction for the roll, actually: I had previously listed singular combat against these enemies to have a success threshold of 1 in >>5868586 . The threshold of 2 successes was been due to engaging multiple enemies. A 2v2 would not have that difficulty.
>>5869204
>>5869271
>>5869278
>>5869305
>>5869375
Come on, Fiona. This bloody arm, you've had it before. Don't lose yourself. Focus.

Fahy sees you're waiting for his action. Glad that you're far way enough to not get caught up in his actions, he sweeps his machetes toward the vagrants. From those pipes spill more plumes of copper confetti, and with a quick squeeze of that trigger, it becomes a ball of lightning.

These underdwellers do not have those rubber coats. Jolted by the electricity, they stiffen uncontrollably, if only for a brief moment.

A perfect chance to strike.

Because your more cautious approach gave Fahy the space he needed to use his Volt Machetes, his Volt Machetes have stunned them, granting an additional success to all attacks against them. Between their reduced numbers and their vulnerable state, success is trivial.
One anon, roll 3d6, and one anon roll 2d6.

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Rolled 4, 5, 5 = 14 (3d6)

>>5869744

Rolled 6, 4 = 10 (2d6)

>>5869744

>>5869748
>>5869764
Nice.

>>5869748
>>5869764
Ah dice gods, where was that luck before?
Writing.

>>5869802
It's called posting a Don as a ritual sacrifice.

>>5869806
Sacrificing to the Donhead has given you better rolls I think twice now. I'm worried about posting all the fan art of the source inspiration characters and either having to respot art between threads or raw text posts.

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>>5869744
The sparks were short lived, but the effect it had was not. The underdweller had his senses, but not his control, when he saw you rushing over, your axe bursting through the air toward his back. With the pneumatic po it smashed into his spine, and he froze. Yanking it out, you're not sure how you feel. Relieved? Glad? Nothing but adrenaline?

You want to watch him drop to the floor, but there's still one left, and he was having the same thought until you met eyes. He turned to run, and you caught his leg with your axe as he raised his leg over the body on the ground behind him. With an incomplete curse, he rolls onto the ground and yells in pain. Taking a ginger step over the now dead man, you're steeling yourself to finish the job.

"That's enough, Fiona," Sumika's voice startles you after finally tuning back into it. Your frightened jump must have been funny to see on the body cam. "Leave one of these alive for interrogation. They've started making weapons, and we need to know how many they've made."

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>>5870008
The pounding of boots lighten as they draw nearer. Looking over, the swedish manhunter looked to be handing out polite praises. "Good work, Fahy," says L3 Eugen before she looks at you with a level of frustration. "Jarnafeldt, it was our every intention to have Fahy evade combat until I arrived to assist. He'd have been able to pull use the stun function to slow them down until I arrived. You didn't have to get yourself hurt like this."

You'll admit, you hadn't seen the volt machetes stun function in action outside of a small demonstration clip they offered you when you chose your track. But you do know you made the right choice. "The woman with the stake driver had rubber gear. She wasn't stunned, just flashed at," you speak to justify. "It wouldn't have worked that easily if these guys had that stuff too."

Sigrun's brows furrowed. Her expression was calculating, not untrusting. "Rubber gear...? Hmm. That could... Ah, I will theorize later. Sumika, make a note for the After team to sanitize and bring me the equipment of these people. I will need a closer look at them."

Fahy's heavy breaths calm down as Sumika clattered away at the keyboard. "Did ya see any more of them? On the way up, I mean."

"I imagine there are more, and they are simply playing possum, as it were. A larger host of non-resisting elements, hoping to slink away if they keep their heads down long enough." Miss Eugen put her weapons away. "Given the resistance we've faced, it's quite clear these people were up to something. More resources will be used to secure this hospital. So long as we meet no resistance, it is of no concern to us."

Sigrun calmly instructed Fahy to investigate the target location while she administered rudimentary medical care to your arm. Proper care would have to wait until you return to HQ. You almost forgot there were people in this building trying to kill you.

>>5870010
But thankfully, that would not have to be very long. Your fellow rookie picked a lock into the suspected tool shed and, lo and behold, there it was. A small workshop centered around a lathe and mill, in a hospital greenroom of all places. Hand-cranked vices and presses were covered with whatever steel filings were not brushed into a small furnace to be smelted back into usable metal.

With Sigrun and Fahy leading the search, there weren't many clues, besides hand-scribed manuals forging certain weapons. Sigrun sounded very disappointed upon finding a list of weapons they had the capacity to create, and when you asked, she explains it's because it wasn't printed. Printers always watermark the faintest serial numbers onto every page they print to record the exact machine it came from, but because it was penned by hand, that's not an option.

If Sigrun hadn't thought of everything, you never could have imagined a printer could be a snitch. You're not sure if you should be impressed or concerned.

Kiikoinen cleared the floor below yours; the unsurveyed conference room was being used to hold a small "security" force, most of which came out to fight. The last few surrendered immediately. Though you waited for one of the groups that was serving as backup to arrive to secure the survivors, you only watched them tie up the one you let go before heading back down the elevator you came in from.

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>>5870020
Heading down the elevator, you pass by the room with that Red Dogs drone inside of it. The door is open, and looking inside, you see the drone that powered down is now back on, sitting peacefully and looking at a strange man. This Stormwatch agent, if that's what that band on his arm signifies, is equipped very differently from the typical breastplate you and your mentors wear. The pale haired man wears a cowl made of some large beast's fur, and underneath a sky blue shirt adorned with traditional folk patterns. As he goes to press buttons, tiny pouches filled with who knows what dangle from a belt across his chest. Though his exasperation is plain, he does not look dead inside like most Finns. He looks well versed in the esoteric, and perhaps he has found something good where others feel an empty void.

Seeing you peer in, he gives a quick, humble wave of the hand before returning his attention to the tablet.

"That's Arsi," Nonoka speaks up, still watching your cams even though the mission is complete. "He is handling the retrieval of the drone and that investigation. I am sure he will thank you later."

L4 Arsi Hotakainen. Someone beyond even Kiikoinen's experience. This man that very much looks like a far more ancient description of "Trollslayer" than the modern one. You'd be far more interested in striking up a conversation if your arm didn't hurt so much. Now that things are calm, you're starting to feel its burn. You'll have to introduce yourself another time.

The hospital workers stay far clear from you and all other Stormwatch agents as you make your way out of the uptown hospital, into a vehicle waiting outside, and eventually, back to the safety of Stormwatch HQ.

Mission complete.

>>5870023
Thanks for running! Merry Christmas!

>>5870023
Merry Christmas, QM! Was a blast. When's the next mission, do you figure?

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>>5870456
>>5870535
Oh, I'm not done with this thread. Not yet.

>>5870023
After a quick trip to one of the medical floors, you're told the injuries on your arm are mild and you will be able to perform missions in about a week so long as you don't go and make the injuries hard to heal. Light activities and limited exercise, you were recommended. Under a long sleeve shirt, the bandages are not very noticeable.

When that's done, Kiikoinen asks you to report on your mission. The usual small-time stuff doesn't necessitate the creation of logs: you'd have thousands of logs of people saying they saw a monster, saw it was a threat to society, and got rid of it. For larger missions, like this one, they sit people down in front of a computer with a microphone and explain what they did and why. You would need a lot of paper to hold all that.

Your report is a little... scuffed. Kiikoinen didn't allow you to redo anything when you make a mistake, so you had to correct yourself when you got the order of events wrong or forgot to mention something as you went along. But you were as truthful as you could manage to be and felt your actions were reasonable given your perspective of the situation, and your level of knowledge and expertise.

You're a bit anxious over the mistakes you made in the coherence of the report. Kiikoinen tells you that you did a good job today. Your sleep is still restless.

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>>5870552
The next day, you wake up and find a black envelope in your mailbox. The paper quality is too fine to be some common bill. Within is a letter in fine Finnish writing, clearly inked with a quill rather than a modern pen. Still grasping the vocabulary, interpreting the vernacular of the author requires a dictionary, but in time, you read the letter.

Hello, Fiona Jarnafeldt

It has come to my attention that you have in your own missions recovered a prototype machine which it was my duty and responsibility to oversee that had become misplaced. In this letter, I would offer my thanks.

I would not have placed any ill judgment upon you if you had taken rash actions in response. But with your careful hand and cautious mind, you took as good a course of action as any could have given your circumstances. It is great fortune that the machine had been found so quickly and with such little friction. A search and retrieval mission in unsecured territory was nearly authorized, but your operator Sumika reached out to tell our people what you had found. You have saved our resources and perhaps even a few lives.

The machine itself is the Red Dogs Automated Combat Drone "Dhampyr." After the losses to Lorppo some months ago, I decided that if there was a way to minimize the loss of human life and the efficacy of protecting the city of Helsinki - and others across the globe - from evils, then I have an obligation to do so.

It is by design that the machine can feed off most nutrient rich biological matter - such as fish and nutrient drinks - but events immediately preceding to its disappearance had placed a greater precedent on the need to defend itself, and it quickly convinced itself that sustenance could be achieved through its primary mission.

With the machine returned, I will have you know that it will undergo numerous changes, including an issue with its battery discharging at an unusual rate when powered off, and its behavioral attitude. I hope this answers any questions and alleviates any concerns you might have had on the subject.

In addition to my thanks, I have a proposal for you. As a patron of the sciences, there are other projects that I oversee. Much of these involve projects relevant to your line of work. After the ACDD incident, I am certain you would agree a more closely observed and human approach is necessary in our research and I would like you to join me in this regard. Know that you will not be a "lab rat" - I will be using this equipment alongside you. You may decline this offer if you are so inclined, but I will have you know I have this offer to your coworkers. Show my secretary this letter and we can arrange a discussion. With higher responsibilities come higher positions, I will remind you.

Lastly, I would like to thank you for putting your life on the line for the people of Helsinki. It would be our privilege to keep you here.

L5 Director Katriina Jousten

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>>5870565
An offer to help test out experimental "equipment"... After seeing that thing lash out yesterday, you'd want to be as far away as you could, but the way it's put, she's making it seem like taking her offer will get you promoted. You'll also get to meet her. It said she offered it to your coworkers... Did Fahy get it? Kiikoinen? Sumika? Sigrun would probably decline, being busy following leads.

You put the letter back in its fancy envelope and leave it on a nightstand. There's time to think about it later, and you definitely need to walk and stretch your legs before coming to any commitments like that.

While the reports are being made, what few captives taken are interrogated, and findings are put together, you have time to yourself! A week to heal mainly, but also for the next course of action to be plotted out.

Due to your injuries, you shouldn't take any training exercise or physically rigorous activity. Besides that, you have free reign. Getting injured isn't so bad when you're on a salary.

So, what to do?

Choose up to 3 options.
>Hang out with your group of coworkers, when they get a chance to.
>Hang out with Sumika. She's an interesting person you'd like to know better.
>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off.
>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
>Go hiking. You hate how claustrophobic this city is.
>Go to church. Thank the gods that made the raid go better than it could have.
>Write-in!

>>5870589
>Hang out with your group of coworkers, when they get a chance to
>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.

>>5870589
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
We have a lot to tell him!
>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off.
Those guys are a blast.
>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.
We CAN'T miss our on such a rare opportunity to advance.

>>5870589
>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.

>Go hiking. You hate how claustrophobic this city is.

I'm curious to know what outside the city is like.

>>5870589
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off.
>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.

>>5870589
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
>Hang out with your group of coworkers, when they get a chance to
>Go hiking. You hate how claustrophobic this city is.

>>5870589
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
>Go hiking. You hate how claustrophobic this city is.
>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off.

>>5870589
>>Hang out with your group of coworkers, when they get a chance to.
>>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off.
>>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.

>>5870589
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.
>Hang out with Sumika. She's an interesting person you'd like to know better.

>>5870589
>Write a letter to dad! It's been some time, and he should know you've been well.
>Hang out with the Red Dogs, you know where they're at, and tell them that their vampire robot nearly bit your arm off.
>Follow-up on Katriina's offer. If it's safe enough for the director of the Stormwatch is putting where money where her mouth is, it's safe enough for you too.

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With 8 votes you're sending dad a nice letter, followed by 6 a piece for formally accepting Katriina's research initiative and shooting the breeze with Red Dogs, the vote comes to a close. With your priorities sorted, I'll start writing. Don't expect an update tonight; I'll post tomorrow.

Oh, in the mean time, I'd like to know what you guys think of the quest so far.
I recognize dice are really stiff this early on, but that will change whenever your L2 promotion comes around and dice pool buffs and access to new equipment that the promotion comes with.

>>5871668
How much dow we get paid?

>>5871668
I don't mind the difficulty. As for the quest over all, I like ti quite a bit. The setting is really cool. It's not a style of future you see presented as dystopian very often. I'm also curious to learn how much of magic is really REAL versus folkloric or memetic.

Okay, correction. Family business, today and of course most of the weekend. I can't expect the same voter turnout on Monday either, so Tuesday is the day I'll have something I can post.
>>5871886
The pay for what you're asked to do is laughably low, but so is your cost of living due to your circumstances and the stagnant population not creating a demand. As a L1 Stormwatch agent, you make a salaried equivalent to $30k USD a year in the local Finnish Markka with living quarters and related medical services for free, given you live in a space equal to a room in Nakagin Capsule Tower, and all L1 agents share a kitchen and living areas. Promotions lead to hyperbolic growths in quality of life; you've seen the difference between your pod room and Kiikoinen's upscale apartment and Sumika's estate, all provided for by Stormwatch. All it would cost you is your loyalty.
>>5872457
>The setting is really cool. It's not a style of future you see presented as dystopian very often.
Thanks. It's fascinating to work out myself. I'm eager to show you more.
>I'm also curious to learn how much of magic is really REAL versus folkloric or memetic.
What I will say is that while I realize that humans and the city are the main pieces the story revolves around and some might be disappointed that Manhunter wasn't chosen for that reason, Trollslayers have their own mysteries to discover. You'll have to wait and see, but I do hope I don't disappoint. The anticipation is part of the fun.

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Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. My gut is aching, my brain is fried, all in all another day of human existence.

>>5871668
>>5871668
>>5871668
It's nice to get letters. In fact... Oh. You were supposed to send one a while ago, weren't you? Damn it. Whatever. Now's a good a time as ever to start.

You don't have regular access to a computer - most people don't, not for personal use. And mail across nations might take weeks to deliver, given trains only operate a couple days of the week, or have to be delivered on foot. If you wanted him to have something by now, you should have sent it before your first sortie.

You have a small amount of stationery, but enough to send a letter. After putting together your thoughts, you put pen to paper.

Greetings from Helsinki!

It's been a while, but I arrived a couple months ago, and finally remembered to send a letter! Sorry that it took me so long to get around to it. I have been very busy. With training at first, but then they started sending me on patrols. By the time I'm finished with most of them, I don't have much energy to do anything. This week I have time to myself, so I figured I should share some of that time with you.

Before you start worrying your head off, I've been doing fine. I've already had a few successful missions where I had to fight things! The organization is playing it very safe, I always have a higher level agent with me, there's someone watching my bodycam telling me what to do. I'm in safe hands Papa.

The Finns are a bashful folk. I think I have to pull them out of their little holes to get them to talk! But the Stormwatch is actually very multicultural. There's a man from Ireland, a really tall girl from Nippon, and I'm certain most of the new recruits come from elsewhere like myself, but I've yet to meet a fellow German!

There are also some Americans over here, from stormy Chicago. They're not part of Stormwatch, but me and my mentor, Kiikoinen, met them at the bar. They are obnoxious, but friendly. Rambunctious. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to tell you, but the stuff they work with is wild, so I'm eager to hear more if they'll tell me!

Thank you for helping me get this spot Papa. I miss home a lot, but I know there just wasn't the future I wanted waiting for me there. I think it just might be here. I'll figure out when it could be possible to visit! It might not be for months, but I'll let you know as soon as I can!

Love, Fiona

>>5875292
D'aww, good update. Also, glad you had (I think?) a fun Christmas!

>>5875294
We have so much leftover food it is unreal
>>5875292
While you're out sending the letter, you pass by a store that sells lottery tickets, and the drawing is in a couple days.

It suddenly occurs to you that you missed out on the last month's lottery.

FUCK.

You haven't missed a month of lottery since you were fifteen. Seventy months of back to back entries with no dice, but you always kept trying. Kiikoinen's been working you out of your mind if you dropped that ball. Maybe you don't need luck with this career path, but you may as well take your chances.

Once you pay to get your letter delivered (the postman assures it will be sent out of Helsinki by tomorrow), you go in and buy yourself a lottery ticket.

One anon, roll 5d10. If I roll the exact same sequence of dice at the drawing at the end of every ingame month, you win your golden ticket for the right to start a family through sheer luck. These odds are 1 in 10,000. Good luck!

A gentle smile comes to your face when you look at the ticket, your mind deep in the fantasy of little tiny fingers tugging at the paper alongside yours.

Rolled 4, 4, 2, 5, 4 = 19 (5d10)

>>5875334

Rolled 10, 4, 7, 9, 10 = 40 (5d10)

>>5875334
If we win is that quest over?

>>5875338
We'd still need to decide who to have a kid with, and earn money to provide for Jarnafeldt Junior.

>>5875338
Not if you want it to continue. It's not a monetary prize, so if you want to be poor, go ahead and quit to make the worst out of winning a lottery. To do the something for your child like what your father did for you, you still need to attain a L3 promotion. You need to make it, brah.

Family stuff today, taking longer than expected. No update tonight.

>>5875812
mistyped trip because phoneposting

Christmas might be over for you guys but god damn my family waited for the three wise men to be halfway home before scheduling big events. I don't have any vote to provide as I was going Letter > Jousten > Red Dogs, and I will be busy all day tomorrow, so here's what I got.
>>5875334
>>5875334
>>5875334
Carefully carrying your ticket back to your room with the carefulness and sanctity of actually holding a newborn child, the next important thing would be to get back to Jousten. With the letter in hand, you began the process of finding Katriina's secretary. Asking the receptionist by the front door, you become aware she has a couple separate offices, but you were directed to the one she uses for most visitors on the third floor.

This floor you arrived at evokes the sensation of walking into of a bank vault unauthorized. The elevator shaft, for this floor alone, was made out of glass and in the middle of the room, the contents of the elevator visible to all the guards clad in heavy composite armor, who are blocking off access down any hallway in pairs. You withdraw the black and gold envelope and show it off to help break the ice from their cold glares as you approach a receptionist.

"Hello," you sheepishly greet, handing her the letter. "I'm here to accept a... proposal, by Miss Jousten?"

The lady at the counter scans the letter in a matter of seconds. In another few she glances at some calendar on her desk. She speaks with a quick and well educated Finnish. "Thank you. I will let her know you are interested. Ms. Jousten's schedule is full for the next few days, and even then it is not a large time slot of which she is open. Come here in four days at 14:50, and I will escort you to her office downstairs where it would be most convenient for you to speak with her."

That's nice, but... Downstairs?"

"In the Undercroft. The equipment recycling section." She raises the letter. "This offer is for equipment trials."

Ah! Your weapons and armor are made and then recycled somewhere in the Stormwatch HQ. Keeping all that machinery up here next to sleeping quarters and office space would not be nice, you imagine, but... downstairs? This is the third floor. The only floors below you are the L4 offices and lobby. Below that is the Stormdrain itself... Oh, what does it matter? You'll see the place yourself in a few days time. "Thank you," you nod politely and head on over to the elevator to go return to your room; you've already done enough exercise for the day, any more activity so quickly might risk interrupting the healing process.

>>5876204
The next day, you had unexpected guests: A cordial visit from Sigrun and Saemus.

Sigrun had some words for you. As you laid in your bed with your cut up arm in bandages, she threatened to talk it off with her chastising. "This only happened because you couldn't listen," "running into a pack of enemies untrained is reckless behavior," "I hope you recover, but you deserved this." She can be a bitch when she's upset.

Saemus, on the other hand, has more than just words. He brought you a second pillow, and a pleasant word of thanks. "Oh, I walked right past the bitch, and hadn't a clue. I just give the credit where the credit's due."

Holding the big feathery pillow makes it hard to not smile. "Nice rhyme, can you pull that off Finnish yet?"

His tone shifts immediately. "You throw your arm in a wood chipper lookin' out for me, and then you turn around and sass me over-" The boy can't keep an annoyed face and starts laughing softly. "Ah, fuck you!"

The two didn't stay very long. You didn't get a chance to get much of a word in. If you imagine if you had went to them yourself, you'd have at least... asked for an update on the investigation. Like that girl with the turnout gear. Sigrun seemed to have suspicions which might have been mildly interesting. Instead, she came over to your house, you let her in, and she took the time to bark at you.

But now you have a second pillow. When sitting alone in your room for days with nothing but powdered liquid meals on hand and showers that get cold way too quickly, you now had something actually warm and soft to hug.

That's nice.

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>>5876208
Your healing has been going well. You've heard most severe wounds need weeks in the hospital; you've taken a bite or two defending your town, but the infection was worse than the wound itself. Given it's simply gashes across non-critical flesh, you just need to not get ahead of yourself and it'll be back to normal soon. And thankfully, going to this meeting should be nice low activity.

Returning to the secretary as scheduled, she has a strange guard standing beside her. He wears this odd armor made from full metal, black and gold. The rice farmer's hat made from blackened steel with a gold trim gives it a distinct oriental flair, besides some obvious similarities to a suit of armor you've seen displayed in Nonoka's manor. Besides the obvious swan on his pauldron, there are more runes like the one you saw on the L4 back at the hospital. This man is, somehow, slightly shorter than you, and standing too close would have his hat threaten to jab you in the eye.

He addresses you by nodding his head up and back. "Jarnafeldt," he speaks with a heavy accent. "Under Sumika's command?"

A friend of Sumika's-or at least, one of her fellows from her homeland. The tension melts slightly, and you hope a cheery attitude can help you be completely rid of it. "Yes, I am!"

"I see." He turns to the secretary and say's he'll handle you from here, before leading you down a hall to a separate elevator. You can't recall an elevator in this part of the building on other floors. Must be that this is the only one with basement access. Silently, he pushes a strange combination of buttons before hitting his destination, the door closes, and it begins to descend.

You were eager to strike up conversation, but he seems to start one first. "I apologize for what I'm wearing, but Katriina requested I provide an example of what her projects. This is - was a pneumatic suit... but more of a prototype... on a body of standard proportions, the jets do not give enough thrust where they are. Better for a weapon to be augmented in such a way."

That's frustrating to hear, as a jet powered fist sounded amazing in your heart and mind. For a second, you had thought this to be idle conversation, and almost let it go by, but then you caught on. "So Sumika was a perfect candidate?"

The man in the hat nodded. "Hai. Such a suit couldn't be made here; for all the tools we have, we still want for experts... it would have received modifications here, finishing touches... but it was fully functional besides. If you find it in your expeditions, it will look like this.."

Ding.

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>>5877563
From the moment the doors open, warm and soft lights flood the elevator's pale white interior. A dry, stuffy air rushes in. Stepping outside gives you quite a view; a vast room of hard brown stone and metal. The atmosphere is downright depressing, save for the lobby's primary fixture.

Along the ceiling, across a warped pane of glass, there's a depiction of the auroras in quite a different fashion than you're used to. On one end of the hologrpahic projection, you can see the Earth in front of the auroras. Silhouettes of birds pass behind the earth, departing with white wispy flame on their backs. They sail across the aurora, the stars, the milky way, and arrive at a glacial spire rising out of a cold icy sea. The birds continue past the spire, leaving behind their cargo, before traveling off the side of the glass pane.

Your modest study of Finnish folklore does inform you of what this is. It's a depiction of the Finnish process of proceeding to the afterlife; Seilulintu carry the souls of the dead along the Bird's Path, and toward Tuonela, where they rest undisturbed, frozen in ice until the end of time. Unlike Norse myth, where the rainbow road of the Bifrost leads Asgard where mortals may live in debauchery with their Gods, the end of the road for the Finns is an abyssal darkness that cuts all too close to the godless afterlife the Athiests of old believed awaited all of humanity.

The air might be stale, but it is not so congestingly sterile as the HQ's main building. This place is far more ancient.

The wide-hatted man leads you through without offering comment, patiently waiting as you examine the fixture of the Bird's Path and guides you to a guarded flight of stairs off to the side of a hall which reached deeper into the facility. As you reach the top, he has a wordless exchange with another secretary, who presses some button on her desk. You walk past.

With time, he opens an ornate door, and you enter an office.

A black haired woman is sitting at a desk on an old-fashioned phone, staring out a window at the back of her office. It is the best place in the entire facility to view the Bird's Path fixture. Adorning the walls are numerous items very distinctly not of Finnish origin. They're too far away and far too detailed for you to make any sense of them without a thorough examination.

She dismisses whoever was on the phone, and sets it down off the hook.

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>>5877563
YOU FUCKING FILTHY JIANNIGGERS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

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The chair spins around.

Her slight grin is not as reassuring as she must think it is. Her black hair and eyes highlight her snow white skin. Age has shown its mark upon her, despite some well done makeup and cared-for skin; she appears to be in her 40s. Her desk is empty save for the phone, a triple monitor computer on the side, a handful of papers. There's no picture frames in the room. None of her family or coworkers. It is just the Director and her work.

"Fiona," speaks the director of the Stormwatch. Her voice is clear and distinct; refined, yet stately. Most certainly not spineless like some you've heard here. "I see you didn't burn the letter. Good. Consider this your interview for this position."

The door shuts behind you.

Katriina Jousten leans back in her luxurious office chair, hands together. "In my search to make the lives of Stormwatch agents much safer, I've directed and grew the research and development department. It needs volunteers, in a part time, on-demand basis. The production rate of projects deemed worthy of trial are not enough to completely subsume your duties as a Trollslayer, nor would I want them to. You are still obligated to dispatch the filth that crawls under the streets of Helsinki. And I require that you must, for these trials need to be conducted by someone capable of using them. Someone who will not lose them to the hands of those that shouldn't have them. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Ms. Jousten."

"Good. You won't be coming down here, often... usually, you will simply be given trial equipment to use on your typical missions." Ms. Jousten's smile rises to a crease on one side. "Though I can imagine a few that will require monitored testing in controlled environments first. And, for more ambitious projects, I will be joining you on these sorties myself, as testing them would require more ambitious targets for a Level 1 such as yourself, even with the guiding hand of most Level 3 agents."

Okay... so you shouldn't expect any real change in schedule or departure from the coworkers you've grown accustomed to. The only thing that might be changing is, when assigned, your equipment will be something of a mystery box.

"Do you have any questions for me? I prefer to get these out of the way first. Avoid the obviously confidential topics. I am not telling you what you are going to be using until it is in your hands."

>"So what was the deal with the ACDD? Were you trying to make a robot vampire?"
>"This place is feels really old. What's the story with this place?"
>"Did anybody else I know follow up on this offer?"
>Write-in

>>5877641
HAG!
>"This place is feels really old. What's the story with this place?"

thanks for bearing with me the past week, I really thought Christmas would end at Christmas, but I'm now free. I'll be here, but as usual, next update will be Monday.

>>5877641
>"This place is feels really old. What's the story with this place?"

>>5877645
It happens. I hope it was a most happy holiday!

>>5877641
>>5877644
>>5877650
I should have clarified, but Jousten will be taking 3 questions, in case you limited your view to one question.

>>5877641
>"This place is feels really old. What's the story with this place?"
Of course you'd have Binah alongside the E.Y.E. lads. I'd post that classic image of Binah and the Mentor together, but I don't have it saved on here

>>5877641
>"So what was the deal with the ACDD? Were you trying to make a robot vampire?"
>"Did anybody else I know follow up on this offer?"

>>5877641
>"So what was the deal with the ACDD? Were you trying to make a robot vampire?"

>>5877645
Hey I found you a post worthy of your protag
>>>/v/662262783

>>5877641
>>"So what was the deal with the ACDD? Were you trying to make a robot vampire?"
>>"Did anybody else I know follow up on this offer?"

>>5877995
Soon, I hope.

>>5877641
>"So what was the deal with the ACDD? Were you trying to make a robot vampire?"
>"This place is feels really old. What's the story with this place?"

Alrighty, writing now because I am certainly not going to be in the state of mind, body, and soul to write with tomorrow's hangover.
>>5877995
I'm sure if Fiona had unrestricted internet access she might have wrote something like this. Fortunately, she does not.

>>5877644
>>5877650
>>5877657
>>5877681
>>5877995
Well, you have to ask. "This place down here is old... Really old. What is this place? It couldn't have always been a Stormwatch facility, could it?"

Ms. Jousten smirked. "This facility is ancient. Its original purpose is now irrelevant, but it's frankly quite humorous, so with you I will share the story. In the times before Calamity, there was an empire that laid claim to almost all of Europe by sheer influence and peer pressure. This corrupt and self-indulging union had financed and created a large facility that would allow living creatures to be frozen and preserved for centuries. One's flesh would be preserved, and if handled properly, your body would be able to be resuscitated with the help of these cryogenic chambers. They were successful in their work. Here we are, standing in it."

"But can you guess who we found sleeping within these cold pods for ages? Pigs. Dogs. Monkeys. Not a single human among the ranks." Katriina seemed to derive a healthy dose of schadenfreude as she regaled this tale. "No peasant, no king, had ever climbed into one of these chambers of salvation. They tested it to see if it would work, and then refused to use them. Blinded by godless nihilism and their own egos, they could not see their own doom. Instead, they marched themselves and their people into it willingly. They left nothing to the future but confused and mistreated animals."

She looked out the window at the Bird's Path. "Even the spelunkers who first found this place looking for things to steal found nothing of value which they could use. This facility has the privilege of being directly underneath Stormwatch Headquarters, it has the convenience of having plenty of useful space, and it has fortunately suffered a collapse in such a way that my predecessors and myself were able to fortify and expand upon it into a more vast development site. Though it is a monument to the squandered potential of the past, we're grateful to have found a use for it."

Glancing back at you, her smile seemed far from the grateful kind. She clearly enjoyed the prospect of running a lab in an ancient tomb.

>>5879597
"Would there be any other questions?" she asks.

You allow frustration to simmer, not boil. "Yes. The... drone told me that it was made by the Chicago Red Dogs? The one that drinks blood?"

Katriina nods. "We made a modification to their existing model, yes."

Politely, you grip your hands to avoid raising your voice. "Why does it drink blood? Why do we have a robot vampire?"

The topic was a little frustrating to Ms. Jousten as well. "To be blunt, it would not have needed blood if it had other biological matter calorically dense enough to have a net positive for processing. The bedsheets might have sufficed, if they were a little more nutritious. You could have fed it your liquid meal."

That doesn't change the fact it woke up screaming for blood, but good to know.

"But to answer your question, another confidential project made various breakthroughs, and it was quite difficult to measure its potential in a static environment provided down here in the Undercroft. Modifications were made to the Red Dog's Autonomous Combat Drone AI system, to have it seek out and consume biological matter." Ms. Jousten lets out a pained sigh as she goes on. "The design document explicitly stated its capacity to 'eat trolls' in order to maintain combat readiness, which had my approval. This development does not. Even if handled with explicit care, man eating machines is the kind of invention that died with the Calamity. I have discussed the matter personally to the development team. Given it is a learning AI, we are approaching this issue with rehabilitation and reeducation."

Reeducation? For a robot? It feels no pain, how is a slap on the wrist gonna teach it any manners?

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She steps back toward her desk. "Now, let us get into the real meat of this interview. I am going to ask questions. Ignore their oddity and answer honestly."

Eager to continue, you smile. "Okay!"

"Tell me, Fiona Jarnafeldt."

"What do you think of the city of Helsinki?"
>I like this city.
>I miss home.

"How do you feel about nature? The basket of bounty from which we sprung?"
>You talk to trees and the little creatures that make them their home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>We're humans, we left it behind. And it's a scary place anyway.

"Do you believe in magic?"
>Yes. Aberrations are the evil spirits of old returned.
>No. They're just mutated creatures.
>You have an open mind.

"You killed a man. How do you feel?"
>You survived, that's all.
>You have begun to foster some resentment for the underdwellers.
>You can see why your father has done work like this for over twenty years. It's thrilling.

Select one answer to each question, of course.

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>You have an open mind.
>You survived, that's all.

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You talk to trees and the little creatures that make them their home.
>You have an open mind.
>You survived, that's all.

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>No. They're just mutated creatures.
>You can see why your father has done work like this for over twenty years. It's thrilling.

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>Yes. Aberrations are the evil spirits of old returned.
>You have begun to foster some resentment for the underdwellers.

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>You have an open mind.
>You survived, that's all.

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>>5879640
Hey, here's a quest relevant pic for you. I STOLE it from /lcg/

>>5879638
>I like this city.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>No. They're just mutated creatures.
>You have begun to foster some resentment for the underdwellers.

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>Yes. Aberrations are the evil spirits of old returned.
>You have begun to foster some resentment for the underdwellers.

>>5879782
based

>>5879638
>I miss home.
>You feel a connection to it that is hard to articulate.
>Yes. Aberrations are the evil spirits of old returned.
>You survived, that's all.
Spirits are real, yo.

Alright, votes are tallied.
Writing.

"What do you think of the city of Helsinki?"

You try and think of something nice to say about Helsinki, but your mind's eye imagines the warmth of the sun and relief of the shade under the boughs that loomed over your little hamlet. The memories of the bars here, washed over by memories of lively wooden taverns. Though Helsinki has a lot more modern infrastructure, there's a certain quality this... facade lacks. You're not sure if you want to say all that to your boss' face, though. That might offend her.

"I'm still a bit homesick," you answer. "It's hard for me to think about here when I'm thinking about home so much."

"I understand, I cannot imagine you did much traveling before. With time I hope you grow accustomed." the director replied with what you imagine is an earnest tone. You shake your head to answer and she carries on. "But speaking of your home village, it was right next to an... ancient wood. For almost a thousand years it has grown without the interference of mankind. I hear some regions have an average height of up to eighty meters? Dangerous predators that were all but extinct in those days, returned or born again. Your father works there to keep the grounds free from poachers and other illicits. Do you have any strong feelings about nature?"

You miss it, mainly. This sterilized white-washed place is not it. No matter how many botanical gardens are on rooftops or inside buildings, it's not nature. It's a crude facsimile, a quota being met. But, this is your boss, of course. "It's cozy. I grew up around it, I had to deal with animals a lot, I liked exploring a bit, and, well... it's hard to put to words, but I have a good idea of what it's supposed to be like? One day when I was young, I just knew there was a bear in my backyard. I didn't hear it, I didn't see it. I just had this... instinct telling me there was a curious animal where it shouldn't be. And there it was. And the girl from the hospital. The one that attacked me in the garden area? I had a suspicion she was there, too. I hope that makes sense."

"Oh worry not," Katriina dismissed. "This is actually a commonly observed phenomenon for many trollslayers, though their descriptions of it vary. Higher ranking ones, I might add."

That's common? What? Among higher ranking trollslayers, too! That's a relief. "I'm glad to hear you don't think I'm crazy."

She immediately jumps ahead. "Have you been practicing the druidic arts?"

>>5880712
"W-what!? No!"

"Perhaps that question was too odd. Let me rephrase. You were provided a booklet during your training. The established school of aberration hunting has roots in ancient culture. I have personally familiarized myself with the esoterica of many cultures, near and far. With our current mastery of the chemical and biological sciences, I find Alchemy to be a fascinating, if novel, topic of study. There are those Trollslayers who trace this attunement to divine intervention, rather than simple instinctual awareness. Druidism refers to the spiritualism of the Gauls, which includes a part of Germany. The correct term for they who practice the Finnish arts is 'Noita.' So the better question would have been, do you believe in magic?"

That's... tough to say. You're not entirely sure one way or the other. The Hiisi certainly made its argument. It was far more than a simple progeny of a mutant. If it was deformed by radiation, then it most certainly then evolved to what it was today, but to have taken the same habits of its namesake? That's what lingers. "That the hiisi are so close now to what they were back then, I am surprised. Only... I haven't seen more than that. I've seen no noita or anything. So I would say I have an open mind on the subject."

Miss Jousten took a few notes. After a few moments of anxiety-filled silence, she speaks again. "I have one last question for you, Jarnafeldt."

"A-aha, go ahead!" You're eager to be out of here. The air is ominous.

"I know why you joined the Stormwatch."

There's an intensity in her eyes. She is serious. You feel a little child clutch the back of your seat.

"But if the world had placed your dream permanently out of your reach, for one reason or another... what would you do?"
>You would kill yourself.
>You would try and find a way to move on.
>You would reach further.

>>5880714
>You would reach further.

>>5880714
>>You would kill yourself.

>>5880714
>You would kill everyone.

>>5880714
>You would kill everyone.
Or create a child out of Fiona's own blood and flesh and magic bullshit. Or overcome being infertile by any means necessary. Or something else.

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Found it at the same place

>>5880714
>You would kill everyone.
KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL

>>5880864
>>5880875
>>5880908
We're... Going to tell this? To our boss?

>>5880714
>You would kill yourself.

>>5880913
Yes, and?

>>5880714
>Noita
Also a game with an extreme level of autism

>>5880714
>You would kill yourself.
Not my first pick, but I don't want to tell our boss we'd kill everyone so I'll vote for this.

The duality of a woman denied motherhood. Kill yourself or everyone else.

>>5880714
>>You would kill yourself.

>>5880714
>You would reach further.

>>5880714
>>5881251
>You would kill yourself.
Actually I'll change my vote to this.

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>>5880772
>>5880913
>>5881060
>>5881109
>>5881224
>>5881252
>the world wrongs you
>you hurt yourself

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>Reach Further: jhv
>Listen to the guy with the lightning: 5GV IdR RHI kZ4 cv7
>Lash Out: KtB I77 dRo
Fascinating results. An interesting development in the mindspace of this small German woman with an axe.
As an aside, Page 9, so I'll be wrapping this thread up soon. Catalog seems to imply I have about 8 days left, but who knows if a bunch of people will be starting new threads in short sequence of each other.
Writing.

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>>5881434

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If you couldn't...? But you could definitely get to Level 3! It seems simple enough, you have the stuff for it! If your own skills don't get you there, nepotism should! If you can't get anywhere here, like you're fired, you'd transfer back to Germany and have your father put in a word, as soon as he can. And even if that happens, there's always some other city! And the lottery!

"There's always a chance," you answer. "If I can't find it here, there's always somewhere else where I can find the way forward I need."

"Unless you are barren," the black swan replies, her tone as dry as burnt wood.

You zone out for a bit.

You imagine yourself in the middle of a valley, seeking to escape to someplace better. To do that, you will have to climb a mountain and walk beyond.

You abandon your home town. You learn a new language. You sign yourself on to kill criminals and unnatural monsters. You do. You spill blood, for months. Years, perhaps. Slowly earning more, preparing for greater, as you rise through the ranks. Walking further from the comfort you once knew. Climbing higher and higher up the mountain of success, in order to move past it and reach a promised land.

And then, at a precipice, you see that between you and where you always wanted to be, is a bottomless ravine. At first, you'd might think it'd simply be wide, but only from this high could you see that it was always surrounding you. There was no way you could go to go past it. You would have always been doomed.

There are yet higher peaks for you to reach... but to what end? There's something to be had in achievements, but you only ever wanted to be someplace else, that you'd now realize was forever beyond your reach.

The first thing that slips into your mind is the feeling of sinking your weapon into a living creature. But no. However much it would help you vent frustration, stacked bodies could never build a bridge long enough.

You'd might as well throw yourself in.

"Not that you are, of course. Your medical records suggest no such ailment."

The director's words make you realize the awful vision has been sinking its claws into you. You shake your head and snap back to reality.

Now comes the painful task of explaining this to her. You swallow your fear and say something. "I would not take it well. I'm not sure what I would do then, what I would do... instead. I am... goal-oriented. I-if I couldn't... have a family... I-I-"

"I understand completely," Katriina interjects. Her smile has been gone. "I did not take it well myself."

You politely wait for her to continue into some longer, enlightening monologue.

She doesn't.