Expendable

Rerun: Blackguards!

@Expendable Love it. Love the flavour, too. Just right for the setting, and for how I picture it'd be to glimpse into the Wardens mind. Write me a CS and you'll be accepted.

@Red Wizard

Hope to have a CS for you later today.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — Mosslit Cavern

---

"If it's rigged so a wire runs outside the chest, it's probably underneath," Jase sighs. "If it's rigged internally, then the holes in the wall are a fake - or whoever set this up was really paranoid."

There were so many ways to rig a trap.

"Best move back," the half-elf scowled, pulling his blade. standing to one side, he carefully slid his blade under the lid, then tried to lift the lid a fraction of an inch. For all they knew, it might not even be locked. And if they heard any noises, that would suggest there was some sort of mechanism.

---

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Rerun: Blackguards!

You've already got a vampire. Hmmm.

Okay, a chimera - bat-winged monkey with the usual assortment of sharp claws and teeth, poisonous dew claws, but this one can talk and take over the bodies of others.

Formerly employed by a witch <NAME WITHHELD> but kept the livery.

It tried taking over the Warden.
Its soul leapt out.
It knows rather than let it die, the Warden picked up its soul and put it back in its body - because it was still useful....
It still has nightmares from the few glimpses it saw. It would give a demon lord nightmares.

Worcestershire sauce?

Usually I just point to it.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

Jase smiled thinly, then pointed at the chest.

"So shoot an icicle at it," he said with a shrug at Vrelenor. "Something with some heft to it. If it's boobytrapped, we can see what it does."

If it was boobytrapped, setting it off from here might disarm it. If it didn't work, they'd have to take a chance.

And if it destroyed itself, that would tell them something, too.

He paused to stare at the other two. The knight Nyana, were they still human? Perhaps they stayed armored up simply because it was easier to move around. But why did Javal stay human while he became one of Santa's helpers? And what was the idea with the status panels?

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

Jase resisted the urge to respond in Spanish.

It was unfortunate that they didn't have anything to carry some water with them as they left their stony womb. (what else do you call a room that birthed you?) Jase used a rock to try and scrape the walls as they went, but it wasn't much success. And now they found a dimly lit alcove with a chest and weird holes in the wall.

"'Come into my parlor'," Jase intoned, frowning at the setup, "'Said the spider to the fly.'"

Still, the chest offered some hope that food or something else useful could be found inside, so he was loathe to bypass it.

"Unless someone knows how to make a light, I suggest we try gathering some of that moss in the last cave and bring it in here to see if we can find any tripwires. Or don't they have traps in isekais?" he intoned. He'd finally seen his status panel, but this idea that you'd die and be brought to a fantasy world just seem so much wish-fulfillment, like the guys who prepare for attacks from zombies.

Still, it was much more attractive than waiting around on a cloud for eternity.

Without tools, picking the lock wasn't an option, they'd have to force the chest open. And who knows what sort of trap whoever left this chest might have set to protect it?

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Hello

Greetings and salutations, welcome back and we hope you'll stay a while.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

Jase frowned. First robes guy complained about a lack of towels, he couldn't wait until robes needed toilet paper. But now he was calling himself a mage? Frosting the knob on the top of his staff was a neat trick, but right now he wanted something a lot stronger than shaved ice. Besides, he'd seen better tricks from street performers.

"Isekai'd?" he asked, wincing when he heard himself squeak instead of his normal deep rumble. He looked at the others gravely. "You were on the plane, too? All of you? From Tokyo to LA?"

"Well, I'm Jason, and I wasn't dressed like this on the plane," he said, balling up his fist and using his thumb to point at himself, "or looked like this, neither. Thought we all bought the farm, so what's this 'isekai' business? Why are we all here in this cave with the radioactive moss? Did we crash land at the Nevada Test Site or something? And why were you all staring off into space after you woke up, like you had an invisible television?"

He didn't normally talk this much in a year, but something strange was going on and he intended to find out just what it was! Not being dead was good, but why the crazy outfits and why were they in some cave?

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

There was a cool chill to the air as Jase stirred. A good sign, he thought - he could feel his skin, after the blistering wave of heat that flashed through the length of the cabin. His flesh must not have melted, despite what he felt.

His skin was dry - so he wasn't floating in a tank of saline. Nor did he feel like he was floating on air, another treatment for burn victims. No tubes running down his throat. While he heard an occasional "plop", it wasn't an electronic beep of an EKG machine. More like a drop hitting a still surface of water.

Jase's hand rubbed across the ground, feeling the grass. Was he lying on an airport island, a grassy spot between the runways? But why didn't he hear any sounds like airplanes taking off? No murmur of people, the swalk of radios, no rumbling of engines. So did he survive and land in someone's yard?

If so, why didn't he hurt?

Begrudgingly, he opened his eyes, then used his hands to push himself upright.

He was in a cave, lit by a faint light coming from the moss that grew around them. Nor was he alone, there were three others beside him, dressed oddly, like they were going to a renaissance fair.

He froze, raising his hand in front of him. His hand... looked young. No crepe skin, no callouses... He had some muscle, but his skin was soft. And so was his face, no roughness of stubble, it was as smooth as a baby's bottom.

And his clothes - this was not the suit he wore on the plane. He was wearing some sort of peasant shirt with a leather jerkin, a wide belt, short pants, and moccasins. A sheathed knife was hanging from his belt.

Another drop fell into the pool, Jase turning instinctively in its direction. Rising to his feet, he quietly walked to the water's edge, and stared down at a strange, youthful face.

"Oh my god," he swore, wincing at the soft and utterly unfamiliar young voice he heard, "I'm a girl...! No....!"

His hand plunged into his pants, and he sagged with relief. Still a man... but what was wrong with his ears? They curved upwards into a soft point, like that science officer from Star Trek. What was this, some sort of twisted LSD flashback from the drops his mom put into his bottle to settle him? Or was this some sort of twisted joke?

Cupping his hands, he put them into the water, then took a cautious sip. It was sweet and cold. Carefully, Jase rose to his feet, then crossed back to patch of grass where his companions still slept, and splashed his handful of water on their faces. "Wake up!"

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase

Name: Jason "Jase" Stone
Age: Biologic 19 / Mental: 63
Gender: Male
Race: Half-Elf
Appearance: This androgynous young man puts you in mind of a clever fox. He has round gray eyes that are like two silver coins. His thick, curly, dark hair is closed cropped. He has a graceful build. His skin is lightly tanned. He has nearly-nonexistent eyebrows, no beard (alopecia barbae), and narrow feet. His wardrobe is plain, and mostly dark colors.

Personality: Jase is reserved, his mind logical and organized, but he can be tactless - in his line of work, encounters with others tend to be very brief. Seldom seen without a book - they help occupy his mind while on stakeouts as it could be days before a target appears.

Tends to be suspicious of others, his mind constantly on tactical alert, quietly observing everything that takes place around him. It was better to plan, in his view, than to depend on capricious luck.

History:
Grew up in the suburbs, an only child with few friends. He did very well in school, then unexpectly vanished after graduation to join the Army. A psychological examination in boot camp suggested a bit of moral flexability, and he found himself being trained as a sniper. He was loaned out to the CIA for wetwork, but returned to the service after an executive order banned government agencies from peforming them.

After leaving the service, he got approached by the Organization for some free-lance work, it took him all over the world, provided a lot of free time, and paid very well. As far as the moral aspects, he sometimes describes it as, "If I show up at your door, odds are you did something to bring me there."

Eventually, he decided it was time to retire and communicated that to the Organization, who begged him to perform one last job before he left, and to show the ropes to a newcomer. She was young and brash, and had a few skills, but he suspected she might have gotten orders to kill him. They got the job done - but received an unexpected drone attack, which they narrowly escaped. The Organization claimed to be surprised, and they both boarded the fight home - only for the plane to explode in mid-flight.

Level: 1

Stats

• STR: 2
• DEX: 2
• MAG: 1
• DEF: 2
• RES: 2
• AGI: 2
• LCK: 1

Skills
Skill Name: Knife fighting
Skill Description: the effective ability to use and throw a knife in melee combat.
Other: He's very well-read.